CHAPTER II.
THE SECOND VISITATION OF THE DISEASE.—1506.
“The times were rough and full of mutations and rare incidents.”—Bacon.
Sect. 1.—Mercenary Troops.
At the commencement of the sixteenth century, society was very differently constituted from what it was at the period when Henry the VIIth unfurled his banner for victory. The darkness of the middle ages had receded, as at the approach of a sun still hidden behind a cloud. The mind unconsciously expanded in the unwonted light of day—the whole earth was on the eve of renovation—new energies were to be called into action—events more stupendous had never occurred, nor had more creative ideas ever aroused the spirit of man. The invention of Gutenberg burst through the bonds of mental darkness, and gave to freedom of thought imperishable wings; unsuspected powers successively developed themselves; and, while in Western Europe an ardent desire arose boldly to overstep the ancient limits of human activity, the hopes of the more enlightened fell far short of the actual result of such unexpected events. The discovery of the New World, and the circumnavigation of Africa, laid the foundation for great improvements; yet the events in Central Europe, though less striking to contemporaries, were in their consequences, infinitely more important and beneficial. The establishment of civil order among all the nations of the West took place at this period, which forms so important a boundary between the middle ages and modern times. Regal power was fixed on a firm basis, and when the castles had fallen before the artillery of the princes and imperial cities, so that the petty feudal barons were compelled to swear obedience to the laws, an end was put to the incessant predatory feuds which had so long desolated Europe, and the establishment of internal peace was followed by the security of life and property—the first essential of refinement in manners and of the free development of human society.
This great result of a concatenation of circumstances was not, however, brought about without violent struggles and innovations, the effects of which were felt for centuries; but it was probably the establishment of standing armies which had the greatest influence on European civilization. They became indeed the pillars of civil order, but having proceeded immediately from the pernicious mercenary system, they long nourished the seeds of unrestrained depravity, and transmitted to later generations the corruptions of the middle ages. The Lansquenets[55] (Landsknechte) of the emperor, and the mercenaries of the kings of France and England, who, during the war, had joined the smaller branches of the standing army, were homeless adventurers from every country in Europe, and were allured, not by military ambition, but solely by the prospect of booty[56]. In whatever country the drum beat to arms, they flocked together like swarms of locusts—no one knew from whence—and defying the feeble restraints of military discipline, indulged, during the continuance of the war, in all the unbridled licence of a predatory life.
Hence the unbounded barbarity of their mode of warfare, which was restrained only by the individual exertions of more humane commanders. There was, however, a decided contrariety between this system and the moral condition of the people of Western Europe: a contrariety which was never entirely removed by the subsequent introduction of a more strict military discipline, and which has been done away only in modern times, by the establishment of regular armies on a system more congenial to the feelings of the people. Hence the consequences were the more pernicious, for when the armies were disbanded on the conclusion of peace, the Landsknechts dispersed in all directions, not to follow the plough again, or to resume their former occupations, but to pass their time in idleness and dissipation, if enriched by booty, and if reduced to poverty by intemperance and gambling, to infest the country as mendicants or robbers, till a new war again summoned them from their dishonourable mode of life[57]. Probably but very few were ever able to rise from such deep degradation, and many fell early victims to their vices[58], while the infection of their example brought fresh accessions from every town and village to the mercenary legions.