both sides of the Nile, about two hundred and sixty miles south of Cairo. It was one hundred and forty stadia in circumference. Its remaining ruins still describe a circuit of twenty-seven miles. The splendor and power of this city, which could furnish 20,000 armed chariots from its vicinity, are to be estimated from the extent of the Egyptian conquests, adding continually to the riches of the metropolis, the magnificence of the edifices which adorned it, the luxuriousness of the individuals who inhabited it, the spoil taken thence by the Persians, and the gold and silver collected after the burning of the city. The principal part of the city lay on the east bank; on the west was the Memnonia and the Necropolis. The most ancient remains, extant at Thebes, are the great temple at Karnak, "the largest and most splendid ruin of which, perhaps, either ancient or modern times can boast." The grand hall measures 170 feet by 329, supported by a central avenue of twelve massive columns, 66 feet high (without the pedestal and abacus) and 12 in diameter; besides 122 of less gigantic dimensions, 41 feet 9 inches in height, and 27 feet 6 inches in circumference. The total length of the temple is 1180 feet. The earliest monarch, whose name exists on the monuments of Thebes is Osirtasen I., the contemporary of Joseph. Sculptures of the earlier Pharaohs have disappeared. In hieroglyphics Thebes is written Ap, Ape, or with the feminine article Tápé, the head, Thebes being the capital of the country.2 The date of the origin of Thebes is lost in remote antiquity. The destruction of it, as before remarked, to which Nahum refers, was probably effected by Tartan, Is. xx. It was again captured by Cambyses, 525 B. C. It was finally destroyed by Ptolemy Lathyrus, 81 B. C. Its site is now occupied by several villages. an Egyptian word, canal, fosse, canals of the Nile, the Nile. “The ‘sea,' referred to in this passage, is the river Nile, which, to the present day in Egypt, is named el-Bahr, the sea,' as its most common appellation.”—Robinson's Researches, I. p. 542. In Is. 19:5, is applied to the Euphrates, also Is. 27: 1. Jer. 51: 36. was her wall.

of sea, composed of sea, the Nile

that many suppose them to have been the propylaea of the temples,' and that this metaphorical expression rather implies a plurality than a definite number; were it not so, the reader might be surprised to learn that this 100-gated city was never enclosed by a wall,—a fact fully proved by the non-existence of the least vestige of it." Even on the supposition that portions of it have been destroyed by inundations, those parts which stood on the rocky and uninundated acclivity would have retained some traces of the former existence of a wall, had there been one. Wilkinson's Hand-book for Egypt, 1847, p. 388.

2 See Wilkinson's Hand-book, p. 388 seq.

1848.]

Notes on Verses 9-15 Ch. III.

575

: VERSE 9., Ethiopia, south of Egypt, a country greatly distinguished in ancient times, for its power, the warlike reputation of its people, etc. Is. 18: 2. is Lower Egypt;, the region immediately west of Lower Egypt, adjoining Lybia Proper, whose people were descendants from Ham, Gen. 10: 6, spoken of as forming part of the Egyptian army, Jer. 46: 9. 3, Lybia Proper, stretching as far as Numidia. That part of Thebes on the west of the Nile was called the Lybian suburb.

VERSE 10. The horrible barbarities of war as practised among the ancient nations are here referred to. In one of the historical subjects sculptured at Medeénet Háboo, among other trophies which are delineated, large heaps of hands are placed before the king, which an officer counts one by one, and another notes down their number on a scroll, each heap containing 3000. On another wall, the king, returning victorious to Egypt, proceeds slowly in his car, conducting in triumph the prisoners he has made, who walk beside and before it, three others being bound to the axle. See Hos. 14: 1. bonds, fetters, Seventy: peigoлédais.

VERSE 11. Thou, Nineveh, shalt suffer a fate like that of Thebes. Though now so celebrated, soon thou shalt be cast out and forgotten. , Fem. Part. Niph., hidden, covered in darkness. VERSE 12. Neither towers, monuments, or mighty armies will be any more defence to thee, than they were to Thebes. semble a fig-tree, from which hang precocious fruits. is lightly shaken, the figs readily drop.

They will reWhen the tree

VERSE 13. All courage will be lost. The men, once so daring in war, will become timid and faint-hearted like women. A similar comparison is found in Is. 19: 16, and Jer. 50: 37. "Gates of a land,” are the fauces, narrow passes, where an enemy can gain an entrance into a country, e. g. Thermopylae in Greece.

VERSE 14. Such being the danger, the enemy having already entered the country, the prophet ironically exhorts the Ninevites to prepare everything necessary to sustain a siege-ample provision of water, and also of brick for repairing the walls.

VERSE 15. Yet all will be fruitless. With fire and sword shalt thou be destroyed. then, adverb of time, i. e. ' when the enemy has besieged thee.' the feeder, a short, small locust; Jerome: “Attelabus, a small locust, between an unfledged and full grown locust, with slender wings, creeping rather than flying, ever leaping up, and consuming, in the place where it is produced, everything, even to the dust, for it cannot depart till its wings are grown." By na

is probably meant the locust in a still earlier stage of development, when its wings are just appearing, before it is able to fly.

VERSE 16. Though the number of those that trade with thee exceed the stars of heaven, they shall disappear, as the locust, when grown, spreads its wings and flies away.

VERSE 17. In the time of cold, in the night, before the rising of the sun, the locust lies in an apparently torpid state, but when warmed by the heat, spreads its wings and disappears. So with those on whom thou hast placed thy dependence. In the time of thine utmost need they will fail thee. princes, Dag. euphon., satrap, a general, leader among the Assyrians and Medes, perhaps an Assyrian or Median word, and to be explained from the languages cognate with the Sanscrit. Ges. compares with the modern Persian, prince or war-chief.", the belongs to the stem, § 86. 1. b.

VERSE 18. The utter impotence of the Assyrian leaders is pointed

out.

VERSE 19. Conclusion. the way is prepared for the which the prophet utters, in object, the report of thee.' calamities inflicted by thee, to rejoice in thy downfall?

Actum est de tc. By all which precedes, exulting cry. "Deadly is thy wound," unison with all others., Gen. of Who has not cause, on account of the

ARTICLE XI.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF JESUITS IN FRANCE.

[The following is a very condensed summary of the contents of the second chapter of Dr. Hermann Reuchlin's Geschichte von Port-Royal, or Der Kampf des Reformiten u. des Jesuitischen Katholicismus unter Louis XIII. u. XIV. Hamburgh, 1844,—an historical work of great and standard value.]

AT the time of the formation of the order of Jesuits, there was much in the condition of France to prompt them to make an early and strenuous effort to gain a sure footing in that kingdom. The Reformation was beginning there to raise its head boldly, and to manifest a spirit more hostile to whatever was akin to Catholicism than even in Germany or England. The Catholic State church too, was partially estranged from the communion of the true church. The Sorbonne,

1 See Credner and Maurer on Joel 1: 4, and Ges. Thesaurus, p. 597.

1848.1

Their First Attempts unsuccessful.

577

which for centuries had been the oracle of Christendom in the expression of theological doctrine, seemed on the threshold of treason. Everything was at stake, but also perhaps everything was to be gained, and the renown of the order and its merit in behalf of church and pope in case of success would be only so much the greater.

Already as early as 1540, the year in which Paul III. affixed the papal seal to the bull "Regimini," which has been called the Magna. Charta of the Order of Jesus, Ignatius is said to have sent a few of his disciples into France. They did not meet with a favorable reception; they were soon driven from Paris, where they had been obliged to live too much according to the original principle of the Order, by begging; and Francis I. commanded all the subjects of Charles V. to quit the kingdom. But as in the first times of Christianity, persecution served to spread further the doctrines of the gospel, like the tempest which scatters the seeds of a broken plant, so was this expulsion of these poor disciples of Loyola from Paris the first occasion for the settlement of the society at Louvain, where was first enkindled their contest with the Jansenists.

The Jesuits observed in different countries a different course of conduct, according to the national character and circumstances, and their own relation to the people. In the Spanish Provinces, they ventured to draw public attention to themselves by the most impressive means. In Palermo they represented, by a public procession, the power of death over all creatures. In the van of the procession was a large image of the Saviour in a coffin, with an escort of angels and men bearing the instruments of his tortures. Then followed lean and slender forms of knights upon pale horses, and then Death himself upon a black chariot drawn by black oxen, with Time as a driver. Death was a huge skeleton as high as the houses, a sickle of proportionate size in his hands with bow and arrows, and at his feet shovels and mattocks. Behind him, in fetters, was a long train of spectres, representing the different ranks of human life. Exhibitions of this kind, affecting the senses and feelings of great masses like visitants from another world, formed one source of the strength of the Jesuits in Spain, Italy, and Southern Germany; but not with such a retinue did they dare appear in France.

It was in the year 1545 that again some Jesuits, thirteen in number, entered Paris and took up their residence in the college of the Lombards, which had been founded in 1333 for the benefit of poor students from Italy. Here they remained for some time unnoticed. The first who rendered them any assistance and openly recommended them was William du Prat, then bishop of Clermont in Auvergne. VOL. V. No. 19.

49

A more powerful protector was found for them in Rome, the cardinal of Lorraine, brother of the well known duke of Guise, and both of them, next to Philip of Spain, the greatest champions of Catholicism. This cardinal induced the king, Henry II, in Jan. 1550, to issue letters patent by which the papal bulls given to the Jesuits were confirmed, and it was permitted them by means of alms and presents, to purchase a house in Paris, in which they might live according to their own rules. But when the Jesuits petitioned parliament to acknowledge and confirm this permission, the attorney general Bruslart, who was called by the parliamentary party the Cato of his age, was disinclined to do it, and their petition was returned ungranted. What especially moved parliament to this step against the Jesuits was the unconditional dependence of the society upon the pope, by reason of which, it was thought, the rights of the Gallican church would be endangered. Moreover, it was said, that the Jesuits in their origin had the purpose to preach the gospel in Turkey and in Morea, and parliament did not wish to put anything in the way of their manifesting their zeal in this manner for the Catholic faith. Even the prelates of the Gallican church expressed the same view; the Jesuits, they said, should seek such places as Rhodes and Crete, which were most favorable to their

purpose.

The right of parliament to register and thereby confirm whatever should have the force of law, was not altogether undisputed. Often the kings constrained the registry by their personal appearance, since it was maintained, that the king could not be contradicted in his presence. The Jesuits still hoped to carry their cause successfully against the parliament through the personal influence of some members of the court, and the parliament to maintain their position requested the opinion of the university and of the bishop (not then archbishop) of Paris, not doubting but that from both it would be in their favor. Eustace du Ballay, bishop of Paris, gave his sentence in the year 1554. Acknowledging the reverence and obedience which he owed to the pope and to the king,, he yet maintained that the bulls granted to the Jesuits contained several points which could not be tolerated in the Christian church. Among these, he reckons as one, that they appropriate to themselves exclusively the name of disciples of Jesus as if they alone were Christians; next, that since the society would support itself by begging, they made it more difficult for the other mendicant orders, especially in such ungodly times, to get their bread. But a still greater cause of offence is, that the Jesuits, even as pastors, could be disciplined only by their own order, whereby the authority of the bishop in whose diocese they might happen to be, would be set at nought,