FOOTNOTES:
[218] L’Homme au Masque de Fer, Mémoire Historique, par le Chevalier de Taulès, Ancien Consul-général en Syrie, Paris, 1825. Hammer, Histoire de l’Empire Ottoman depuis son Origine jusqu’à nos Jours, vol. xiii. p. 187. M. Ubicini, Lettres sur la Turquie, Paris, Dumaine, 1854, part ii. p. 256.
[219] Aubry de la Motraye, Voyage en Europe, Asie, et Afrique, La Haye, 1727, 2 vols. in folio, vol. i. p. 371. Didot’s Biographie Universelle, article “Avedick.”
[220] Instructions given to M. de Ferriol on his departure for Constantinople:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 33.
[221] And often abusing the ignorance of the Turks. “It is very sad,” writes Louis XIV. to Ferriol, February 15, 1707, “that the French bring themselves into discredit by their failures, and that the Turks set them the example of that good faith which they ought to observe in commerce.”—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 44. “There are no people in the world so easily deceived and who have been more deceived than the Turks. They are naturally simple and dull, and ready in believing. Thus it is customary for the Christians to impose upon them in a variety of ways and to play them many scandalous tricks.”—Chardin, Voyage en Perse et autres lieux de l’Orient, vol. i p. 17, Langlès’ edition.
[222] We may quote among these usages, the obligation imposed upon the ambassadors of making a superb present to the Grand Vizier, not only when they first arrived at Constantinople, but at every change of Grand Vizier, which happened very frequently. Some of these presents cost as much as nine thousand livres, a rather large sum at that period. They consisted especially of clocks, watches, and mirrors:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, Mémoires des Dépenses. “In one year,” writes Ferriol, “I have made four presents to four chief viziers, Daltahan, Ramy, Achmet, and Assat-Pacha, and to the whole of the households. It costs me more than 20,000 livres.” Despatch from Ferriol to the Count de Pontchartrain, of December 4, 1703:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey.
[223] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey I, Mémoires et Documents.
[224] The Caïmacan is a lieutenant of the Grand Vizier who remains at Constantinople and fills his place when he follows the Sultan to Adrianople.
[225] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey I, Mémoires et Documents.
[226] With a rich Pole, named Krazcinskí:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, supplement I.
[227] Correspondance de Ferriol.—Ibid.
[228] The ambassador was never married. This Madame de Ferriol, his brother’s wife, mixed in the best society of Paris, and enjoyed considerable influence with the high personages of the State. She was the sister of the famous Abbé de Tencin, Cardinal, Minister of State, and Archbishop of Lyons, and also of the celebrated nun, notorious for her debauchery, the mistress of Dubois and mother of d’Alembert, by the Chevalier Destouches:—Mémoires de Saint-Simon, vol. xi. p. 182. Chéruel’s edition. See also Vézelay, historical study by M. Aimé Chérest, vol. iii. p. 83.
[229] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, Mémoires et Documents, I.
[230] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Correspondence from Turkey, I.
[231] Chief of the Bostanji, the Sultan’s Guards.
[232] This at least is what was permitted to De Castagnères, Abbé de Châteauneuf, who informed Louis XIV. that he had been admitted into the Seraglio with his sword. But it was very short, and did not attract attention.
[233] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, Mémoires et Documents, I.
[234] Instructions given to M. de Ferriol, ambassador:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 33.
[235] This is the testimony which the Jesuits themselves have borne in several accounts; Father Monnier, Mémoires des Missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jésus, vol. iii. pp. 46-52; Father Fleuriau, État présent de l’Arménie, Paris, 1694. 12mo.
[236] Lettres sur la Turquie, by M. A. Ubicini, part 2, p. 252, Paris, Dumaine.
[237] Father Monnier, work already mentioned.
[238] Hammer, Histoire de l’Empire Ottoman. Ubicini, Lettres sur la Turquie. Archives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, Mémoires et Documents, 37.
[239] One day a stranger presented himself before the Grand Vizier, Raghib-Pasha, saying that Mahomet had appeared to him to invite him to turn Mussulman, and that he had come on purpose from Dantzic to be converted. “Here is a strange rascal,” said the Grand Vizier. “Mahomet has appeared to an infidel, when for more than seventy years I have been exact in the five prayers, and he has never done me such an honour!” And the stranger did not become a Mussulman. “I have heard it said several times by doctors of Mahometan law that, according to their religion, it was not permitted to them to protect one party against another in the dispute which sprang up between the Catholics and the heretics, because, as they said, they were both equally bad.” Manuscript Mémoire of 1771 on matters of religion:—Archives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 37.
[240] Relazione di quanto ha trattato il Vescovo di Sidonia nella sua Missione in Oriente, data alla Santità di N.S. Sisto V., alli 19 Aprile, 1587.
[241] See M. Dulaurier’s excellent work: Histoire, Dogmes, Traditions et Liturgie de l’Église Arménienne Orientale, Paris, Durand libraire, 1859. This book combats the generally received opinion that the Armenians have embraced monophysism, such as has been taught by Eutyches and his adherents, who recognized only the divine nature in Christ. Not only, in truth, have the Armenians always condemned Eutyches, whom their church excommunicates, but also they profess, like the Greek and Latin churches, the dogma of the two natures, the two wills, and the two operations in Jesus Christ.
[242] Borée, l’Arménie, p. 54; Serpos, Compendio storico sulla Nazione Armena, p. 204, Venice, 1786; M. Ubicini, Lettres sur la Turquie, part 2, p. 254.
[243] Unpublished letter from Ferriol to Father Fleuriau, of November 4, 1701:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 37.
[244] Letter from Ferriol to Father Fleuriau, already referred to, in which Father Braconnier’s own words are quoted.
[245] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Correspondence of Ferriol and Louis XIV., section Turkey.
[246] But only by its despatches. The court of Rome was very niggard of its money. “I pray your Majesty to have this account paid me,” wrote Ferriol to the King, October 17, 1705, “since I receive from the court of Rome only briefs and indulgences.”
[247] Unpublished letter of Ferriol to the Marquis de Torcy, Minister of Exterior Relations, April 5, 1704:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 40. We read in another despatch from Ferriol to the Cardinal de la Trémouille, Louis XIV.’s ambassador at Rome: “Most of the missionaries complain directly they find the least obstacle to their desires. Patience is a great virtue which they rarely practise, although very necessary for the proper cultivation of the Lord’s vineyard:”—Unpublished letter of Ferriol, March 5, 1709, Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 46.