[53] A copy of the deed is given in the Appendix.
[54] The monuments in Bousbecque Church show that after Busbecq’s death the Hespiels were in fairly good circumstances; one of them was burgomaster of the village. From this Monsieur Dalle concludes that Busbecq was not forgetful of his mother’s family.—Histoire de Bousbecque, chap. xxvii.
[55] See Motley’s Rise of the Dutch Republic, i. 6.
[56] ‘Guere loing de Messine sur la Lisse est le village de Commines, avec un bon chasteau, ou y ha une tres-belle et tres-noble librairie, rassemblee par George, Seigneur de Hallewin et de Commines, gentilhomme tres-docte, lequel entre ses autres œuvres plus dignes et louables entretenoit et carressoit continuellement gens doctes et vertueux.’—L. Guicciardini, Description de tout le Païs bas, page 311.
[57] An attempt is here made to give the views of Erasmus as they would present themselves to such a mind as George Halluin’s. The ideas are in a great measure adopted from Nisard’s Renaissance et Réforme, to which a little local colouring has been added, and are offered as an explanation of Busbecq’s neutrality with regard to the religious differences, which sent his countrymen into opposite camps.
[58] ‘Le moine est inquiet, furieux, au milieu de cette universelle renaissance des lettres et des arts; il baisse sa lourde paupière devant la lumière de l’antiquité resuscitée, comme un oiseau de nuit devant le jour.’—Nisard, Renaissance et Réforme, i. 55. ‘Le génie de l’antiquité chassant devant lui les épaisses ténèbres de l’ignorance.’—Renaissance et Réforme, i. 66.
[59] ‘Mais ce qui rendit surtout Érasme odieux aux moines ce fut son rôle littéraire, si brillant et si actif. Chose singulière, il excita peut-être plus de haines par ses paisibles travaux sur l’antiquité profane, que par ses critiques des mœurs et des institutions monacales, ses railleries contre l’étalage du culte extérieur, ses insinuations semi-hérétiques contre quelques dogmes consacrés même par les chrétiens d’une foi éclairée. A quoi cela tient-il? Est-ce que la science fait plus peur à l’ignorance que le doute à la foi? Est-ce que la foi des moines, extérieure, disciplinaire, pour ainsi dire, mais nullement profonde, était plus tolérante que leur ignorance? Enfin, y avait-il moins de péril pour eux dans le tumulte des dissensions religieuses, que dans l’éclatante lumière répandue par les lettres sur le monde moderne, rentré dans la grande voie de la tradition?’—Renaissance et Réforme, i. 63-4.
[60] Erasmus was by nature extremely timid, ‘animo pusillo,’ as he describes himself to Colet (Ep. xli.). When writing to George Halluin he seems delighted at his having translated the Ἐγκώμιον Μωρίας, but he was by no means willing to stand the odium which arose on the publication of his satire in French. He shifts the responsibility entirely on to his friend. No doubt he thought that the shoulders of the Seigneur of Comines were broader than his own. (See Ep. cclxxxiv. to Abbot Antony de Berges.) ‘Post hæec accepi a nonnullis, quod me vehementer commovit, te mihi nescio quid subirasci, opinor ob Moriam, quam vir clarissimus Georgius Haloinus, me dehortante ac deterrente, fecit Gallicam, hoc est, ex meâ suam fecit, additis detractis et mutatis quæ voluit.’ December 13, 1517.
[61] See Appendix. [Legitimation of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq.] The Patent is dated November 24, 1540. It is interesting to know that just before that date Charles had been making a progress throughout the neighbourhood of Bousbecque. He was at Ghent November 1, at Oudenarde on the 2nd, at Courtrai on the 3rd, at Tournai on the 5th, at Lille on the 7th, and at Ypres on the 9th. (Journal des Voyages de Charles Quint. Par J. de Vandenesse.) Probably Ogier’s father took advantage of the opportunity to procure from the Emperor the grant of Legitimation.
[62] One of the most remarkable applications of this theory is with regard to the military art. Busbecq wrote a treatise on the Art of Warfare against the Turks. In it he constantly quotes as his authorities the great captains of Greece and Rome; some may smile on reading his work, and imagine that the tactics of Cæsar and Alexander are out of place in the days of gunpowder and cannon balls, but the following passage will show how one of his countrymen successfully followed out the principle, which he may possibly have taken in the first instance from Busbecq’s work. ‘Lewis William of Nassau had felt that the old military art was dying out, and that there was nothing to take its place. He had revived in the swamps of Friesland the old manœuvres, the quickness of wheeling, the strengthening, without breaking the ranks or columns, by which the ancient Romans had performed so much excellent work in their day, and which seemed to have passed entirely into oblivion. Old colonels and ritt-masters, who had never heard of Leo the Thracian or the Macedonian phalanx, smiled and shrugged their shoulders ... but there came a day when they did not laugh, neither friends nor enemies.’—Motley, United Netherlands, iii. 4; see also United Netherlands, iv. 34.