reprehensoris et objurgatoris sacri, ille profani detractoris et calumniatoris nomen retulit. Illi nimirum quos hortabantur nunc increpationibus deprimebant, nunc commendationibus erigebant, Giraldus habenas convitiis ita laxat, ut nullam laudis rationem habeat, ne Diogenis quidem monitis obtemperans jubentis ut vituperiis encomia semper immisceantur. Illi vero patrum illorum consortium deserenti etiam inter historicos locus non est, qui non magis gentium vitia, quam virtutes commemorant. Nec enim homines ita tenaciter malis adhærescunt, quin ab iis aliquando divulsi in virtutum quoque palestrâ se exerceant. Quare historici in gentium vitiis enarrandis justo diutius non immorantur, nec in earum laudibus, ac labibus exaggerendis omnem suam eloquentiam impendunt, sed eas tantum obiter potius innuunt quam inculcant. Secus ac Giraldus agit, cujus omnis industria in Hibernorum spurcitiis naviter exprimendis desudat, ne ullos illorum nævos legentium oculos subterfugeret, uno vel altero rariori verbo commendationem illorum leviter attingens. Quod in opere toto bis tantum ab illo præstitum esse memini. Tum nimirum cum inter commendationem et condemnationem Hibernici cleri fluctuans, tandem hac sententia orationem clauderet. "Sunt tamen nonnulli inter" Ecclesiasticos "optimi, et sine fermento sincerissimi."78 Et ibidem post longos logos de pravis potius quam probis Hibernorum moribus habitos, hæc verba profert: inter Hibernos, "Sic mali deterrimi sunt, ut nusquam pejores, ita bonis meliores non reperies."79 Ut de Atheniensibus dictum est, qui boni inter illos essent, eos optimos, ac præstantissimos; qui mali, pessimos ac longe deterrimos fuisse; mediocrem neminem. Quibus sententiis expendendis infra diutius immorabor. Hic tantum adverto Giraldum Pharisæis non absimilem esse Salvatorem nostrum in hæc verba collaudantibus :80 "Magister scimus quia verax es, et viam Dei in veritate doces, et non est tibi cura de aliquo: non enim respicis personam hominum." Quas laudes effundentibus non gratiam Christus, sed increpationem reposuit, hipocritas eos appellans, quod nullius illi commodi sed damni potius asserendi causa ejusmodi encomia protulerint. Humani quoque generis hostis,81 ait S. Hieronymus "verba sub dolo melle circumlinit, ut qui audit verborum dulcedinem, venena pectoris non formidet. Pacem 78 Topo. d. 3, c. 27. log. lib. 3, in Hierem. 79 Dion Petavius. oratione 8. 80 Math. 22. 8i Pro a profane detractor and calumniator. The former, in their endeavors to reform the guilty, alternately overwhelmed them with reproaches and cheered them with commendation. But Giraldus gives such unbridled license to his invective, that he allows them no credit, and will not listen even to the advice of Diogenes, that censure must be always mingled with praise. But in abandoning his place among those fathers, he is not admitted among the historians, who record the virtues as well as the vices of a people. No man can be so inveterately attached to vice, as not to break its chains occasionally and perform some virtuous actions. Historians, therefore, never dwell too long in depicting the vices of a nation; they do not spend all their eloquence in exaggerating its praise or its condemnation; they rather suggest, than expound, those topics. Giraldus proceeds in a manner entirely different. He devotes all his talents to a laborious detail of the faults of the Irish, that all may be exposed, and he never introduces more than two or three laudatory expressions. In his whole work, I do not remember, that he has praised the Irish more than twice. Once, where after some hesitation, whether he should praise or censure the Irish clergy, he closes their portrait with the following sentence: "Some of them, however, are excellent men, and entirely free from all leaven." In the same place, too, after a rambling dissertation on the immorality, not the good qualities, of the Irish, he says, "that as the bad amongst them are very bad, so the good are better than can be found in any quarter of the world." The same remark was made of the Athenians, that they knew no medium; if good, they were admirable and the best; but if bad, they were very bad and the worst in the world. I reserve for another occasion more detailed remarks on this subject. For the present, I will only remark that Giraldus resembles the Pharisees, who praised our Savior in the following strain: "Master, we know that thou art a true speaker, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man; for thou dost not regard the person of men." But Christ, so far from thanking them for their praise, reproached them, and called them hypocrites, because their object in praising Him was to injure, not to serve Him. The enemy of mankind, who, as St. Hieronymus observes, "craftily covers his suggestions with honey, that the person who hears the honied words may not be deterred from imbibing the poison pollicetur, ut graviora bella exerceat: ridet ut mordeat, manum offert, ut ex improviso simplicem interficiat." Pari prorsus ratione Giraldus convitiorum acervis rarissimè verum admiscet, ut hac frigidâ calumnia[294] rum ignem perfundens majores infamiæ Hibernis | ab illo congestæ flammas accenderet. Certe magna veritati vis inest, quæ odii cineribus obducta instar scintillæ nonnunquam erumpit, et calumnioso homini aliquando per imprudentiam excidit. Ut majus multo pondus habere videatur elogium quod veritas, quam vituperium quod malevolentia expressit. Historicorum consuetudinem in populorum fœcibus et encomiis expromendis rite Munsterus observavit, qui ubi plurium gentium maculas à me supra ex ipso productas exhibuit,82 earum quoque virtutes mox memoravit his verbis: "Hebræorum prudentia, Persarum stabilitas, Ægyptiorum solertia, Græcorum sapientia, Romanorum gravitas, Chaldeorum sagacitas, Assiriorum ingenium, Gallorum firmitas, Francorum fortitudo, Scotorum fidelitas, Hispanorum argutia, Britannorum hospitalitas, Normannorum communio." Similem prorsus rationem ineunt Joannes Boemus Aubanus de moribus gentium, ac reliqui Geographiæ, Cosmographiæque scriptores, qui suæ narrationi de fœdioribus nationum consuetudinibus mox præstantiores eorum ritus annectunt. Sanè Thomas Lansius homo extra fidei Orthodoxæ castra positus omnium penè gentium quas finibus suis Europa complectitur pluribus prolixis orationibus laudata,83 et illaudata instituta sedulò prosequitur. Qui omnes Hibernis in hoc minus æqui sunt, quod præclariores eorum mores plerumque sileant, sordidiores non segniter evulgent. Cujus rei non tam in ipsos culpa quàm .in Cambrensem conferenda est. In cujus calumniarum istarum primi propagatoris, aut scriptorum istas ex eo depromentium sententiam, nullâ veritatis excussione præmissâ, tanquam pedarii senatores manibus, pedibusque frequentes iverunt, instar gregis ovium, qui arietem quocumque præeuntem inconsideratè sequun tur. Sed quispiam fortassè patrocinium Giraldi suscipiens dicet: veritatem sic historiæ necessariam esse, ut illius vita ac fundamentum jure nuncupari debeat. Nam quemadmodum humanum corpus simul ac anima 82 Cosmog. lib. 2, c. 39. 83 Consultatio de principatu edita Tubingæ 1626. into his breast. He promises peace, only to excite more terrible wars; he laughs that he may bite; he presents his hand, that he may kill you unawares." In the same way Giraldus, though very rarely, mingles some truths among the mass of caluminious invective, that, by throwing in some slack on the fire of his malicious rage, he may excite a more devouring tempest against the character of the Irish. Such is the power of truth, that even when buried beneath the mouldering rubbish of calumny, it will yet burst forth like a flame, and escape from the lips even of the calumniator himself. For this reason a eulogy extorted by truth is of greater authority than a calumny suggested by malignity. The usual custom of historians in describing the virtues and vices of different nations has been observed by Munster. After giving the national vices of various nations, such as I have already cited, he then characterizes their virtues in the following terms: "The prudence of the Jew, the constancy of the Persian, the skill of the Egyptian, the wisdom of the Greek, the gravity of the Roman, the sagacity of the Chaldean, the genius of the Assyrian, the firmness of the Gaul, the bravery of the Frank, the fidelity of the Scot, the subtle wit of the Spaniard, the hospitality of the Briton, the sociableness of the Norman." John Boemus Auban and other authors of Geographies and Cosmographies, adopt the same course, for after describing the bad customs of any nation they always give an account of their good qualities. Thomas Lansius, a man not a member of the true church, describes in great detail the good and bad qualities of every nation in Europe. But in one respect writers are generally more unjust to Ireland than to any other country, because they generally omit altogether her good qualities, but take care to record her vices. But they are less to be blamed for this omission than Giraldus; like silent voters in the senate, or like the flock blindly following the ram, they take up without any examination the calumnies which they find in Cambrensis, the great father of lies, or in those other writers who had borrowed from him. may say, that truth When the soul de In defence of Giraldus, some person, perhaps, is the essential for history, its foundation, its life. parts, the human body becomes a lifeless corpse, so when truth, which discessit, examine cadaver efficitur, ita etiam historia, si à veritate (quæ illius vita, et anima est) deseratur protinus vel in commentum, vel in fabulam abibit. Recte quidem ista dicuntur; sed etiam historiæ scriptori præsertim sacerdoti charitas quoque necessaria est,84 "Quæ non cogitat malum, et congaudet veritati." Tam verum quam tritum est illud proverbium, affectus excæcat intellectum; quo fit ut historicus studio aliquo antè occupatus in scribendo animi sui affectioni plus æquo indulgens, non satis claro aspectu veritatem intueatur. Ut solent humani oculi colore aliquo infecti, vel per quid coloratum prospicientes rem visam eodem colore tinctam cernere, vel minus aut majus quam est aut etiam fractum quod integrum est, pro speculatoriorum vitrorum per quæ quis prospicit diversitate representare. Unde sæpius evenit ut historia ab authore charitate destituto, tanquam ex impuro fonte privati amoris effluens mutetur in amoris proprii commentum, fabulam, et aliorum calumniam. Certè maculis saltem aspergitur ut veritatis candor minus appareat. Clamabant olim filii prophetarum ad Elizæum gustato pulmento eis infuso, mors in olla vir Dei, quia nimirum unus ex pueris ejus inter herbas silvestres colocynthidas collegerat,85 et in ollam pulmenti conciderat, nesciens quid esset. Idem in Historicos meritò declamari potest, qui sine delectu rerum eventus quos fama vulgavit, instar herbarum silvestrium colocynthidas amararum narrationum in ollam historiæ concidunt et conjiciunt, quæ legentium mentibus nauseam amaritudine provocant. Invidiæ conspicilium ad res Hibernicas eminus prospiciendas mentis oculis proculdubiò Giraldus admovit, quæ non suam sed quam livior suggessit speciem præ se tulerunt, ut alienum illis narrando saporem addens, amaritudine multa suam historiam infecerit. Maledicta Giraldi si paulò accuratius perpendantur, Hibernis in laudem, non in labem cedunt. Sicut enim improborum, sic etiam [295] hostium vituperia | in laude ponuntur, qui cædibus, vastationibus, et incendiis per hosticum grassantur, à suis magnanimitatis, ab hoste crudelitatis titulum referunt. Sic "Simon patriæ delator, male loquebatur 83 Consultatio de principatu edita Tubingæ. 1626. 84 Corinth. 13. 85 4 Reg. 4. |