I. The intellect and depravity of the age.—II. Bracciolini as its exponent1.—III. Hunter's accurate description of him.—IV. Bracciolini gave way to the impulses of his age.—V. The Claudius, Nero and Tiberius of the Annals personifications of the Church of Rome in the fifteenth century.—VI. Schildius and his doubts.— VII. Bracciolini not covetous2 of martyrdom: communicates his fears to Niccoli.—VIII. The princes and great men in the Annals the princes and great men of the XVth century, not of the opening period of the Christian3 aera.—IX. Bracciolini, and not Tacitus, a disparager of persons in high places.
I. The fifteenth century was the most curious of all ages: it has never been properly depicted4, except on its darker side, indirectly5, in the Annals. It is usually regarded as an age of barbarism; it was not that; it must ever be memorable6 for splendour of genius and the promotion7 of letters. A proof of the esteem8 in which literary excellence9 was held is afforded by the conduct of the Sultan of Turkey, Mahomet II., who deemed a mere10 ode by Filelfo a sufficient ransom11 for that scholar's mother-in-law, Manfredina Doria, and her two daughters. Astronomers12 were treading for the first time in the right track after two thousand years, since the days of Pythagoras, as may be seen by the hypothesis of Domenico Maria, about the variability of the axis13 of the globe, and by the labours of Mueller, better known by the Latin name derived14 from his native town of Koenigsberg, Regiomontanus, who almost anticipated Copernicus in discovering the true system of the universe. Few before or since have so excelled in mathematics and mechanics as Peurbach. Divinity had a profound and subtle exponent in the mild and gentle Thomas à Kempis. The age nursed the man who first philosophized in politics, Machiavelli. Italy was ablaze15, like the galaxy16, with a countless17 number of brilliant lights that shone in classical lore18 and accomplishments19. Alberti shewed by his Gothic church dedicated20 to St. Francis (now the Cathedral at Rimini), that the genius of architecture was again abroad as much inspired as when Hermogenes reared the temple of Bacchus at Teos. Chaucer, the morning star of poetry in England, briefly21 preceded one greater, and even more learned, Rowley, whose few fragments recovered, as asserted by the sprightly22 boy-finder, Chatterton, in a chest in the muniment room of the church of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, reveal to us what we have unfortunately lost; his Battle of Hastings, though far away from the power and grandeur23 of the poetry, recalls, if not the tramp and march of the verse, attempts at the subdued24 tone, ease of manner, effect and picturesqueness25 of thoughts and figures, along with frequent, rich similes26 drawn27 from nature, which meet us at every turn in the Iliad, then newly brought to Europe, and with which the delighted poet had evidently saturated28 his astonished soul, a few of his expressions being close copies and some of his language a literal translation from Homer. [Endnote 251] All over Europe princes and nobles signalized themselves in martial29 achievements and the art of war: some revived memories of the mightiest30: the great hero of antiquity31, Cyrus, had not a history more obscured with fable32 than the great hero of the Tartars, Tamerlane; the tale of George Castriot, surnamed Scanderbeg, for his acts of valour and feats33 of strength, is as mythical34 as the tale of Ninus: Francis Sforza, Duke of Milan, could have stood by the side of Pausanias, having as signally defeated at Mont Olmo the great general Francis Piccinino as the King of Sparta crushed at Plataea the brilliant chief, Mardonius; the Hungarian sovereigns, John Corvinus Hunniades and his son Matthias occupied the ground that was held by the Theban princes, Pelopidas and Epaminondas; for the two Woiwodes of Transylvania kept their country free from the enslavement of the Turk, as the two Boeotarchs preserved Thebes in independence from the rule of the Lacedaemonians. Never did Athens produce a general superior to our own gallant36 and magnanimous Henry the Fifth:—
"quo justior alter Nec pictate fuit, nec bello major et armis."
Still the age, though distinguished37 for intellect and valour, was degraded by the most monstrous38 villainies that were ever perpetrated, and the most detestable characters who ever existed; and a becoming procreation of such an intellectual and depraved age was that revolting monster in letters,—the Annals.
The Muses39 were courted more than the Graces: talents were held in higher esteem than the virtues40. Men were unremitting, indiscriminate worshippers of money; they were not trained in the school of good morals; and when people, brought up without the pale of the precepts41 of probity42, are congenitally cursed with a greed for pelf43 and a legion of evil and rascally44 proclivities45, they become easily pervious to the promptings of all sorts of knavery46.
Profligacy47 was so wide-spread that it extended to men usually supposed to be most pious48 and exemplary in their lives: Bishops49, Archbishops, Cardinals52 and the Pope himself, though celibats and holders53 of ecclesiastical dignities, did not arrive at Delphi without touching54 at Cythera: indirect evidence is afforded of this by the treatises55 which physicians, shortly after the commencement of the next century, wrote on the disease then called "Morbus Gallicus," when Gaspard Torella wrote his for the purpose of benefiting the manners of the Bishop50 of Avranches, Ulrich von Hutten his as a safeguard for the perils56 that attended the habits of the Cardinal51 Archbishop of Mayence, and Peter Pintor his to warn that gay pope, Alexander VI., of the danger of his ways, the Spanish physician even expressing the kind hope (which may not have been fulfilled) that the Holy Father would be preserved "morbo foedo et occulto his temporibus affligente": there is direct evidence of this state of abandonment to vice57 on the part of consecrated58 men from Bracciolini, who, during his excursion to the Baths of Baden in 1416, gave an account of that favourite watering place of the fifteenth century, where abbots, monks59, friars and priests comported60 themselves with more licentiousness61 than the laity62, laid aside all thoughts of religion, and sometimes bathed with women, whose hair they decked with ribbons and wreaths of flowers: "hic quoque virgines Vestales, vel, ut verius loquar, Florales: hic abbates, monachi, fratres, sacerdotes majori licentia quam caeteri vivunt, et simul quandoque cum mulieribus lavantes, et sertis quoque comas63 ornantes, omni religione abjecta" (Ep. I. 1). Joanna II., Queen of Naples, when a Doctor of Laws of Florence was sent to her court on an embassy from his fellow- citizens, and, seeking a private interview, made a coarse declaration of love, could look with a pleasant smile upon him, and ask mildly "If that was also in his instructions?" At the wonderfully numerous assembly that attended at Constance on the 22nd of April, 1418, on the formal dismissal of the Ecumenical Council by the newly elected Pope, Otto Colonna, who took the name of Martin V., there were present no fewer (according to one account) than 1,500 courtezans, many of whom heaped up a great mass of money, one accumulating 800 gold sequins, equivalent now to a little fortune of ￡16,000, not so much, it appears, from among the 80,000 married laymen64, who were Emperors, Kings, Princes, Dukes, Counts and Knights65, bankers, shop-keepers, bakers66, tailors, barbers and merry-andrews, as from among the 18,000 celibats, who were the Pope, the prelates, the priests, the presbyters, the monks and the friars, grey, white and black.
II. As a notable informer in the Annals of the exact spirit of his age, Bracciolini necessarily places before his reader not a few pictures of the deterioration67 of moral principles in the aphrodisiac direction; his book reflects in the most vivid light the strange and very wonderful depravities of his period, some so huge as to deviate68 greatly out of the common course of nature. From time to time the historic and philosophic69 gravity of the last six books of the Annals suffers great eclipses by his leaving aside weighty affairs of State to descend70 into petty descriptions of the erratic71 conduct of Messalina, with her extravagant72 lewdness73 (XI. 26-8), Nero, with his abominable75 pollutions (XVI. 37), and that Emperor's mother, Agrippina, with her monstrous incest (XIV. 2). These matters, even if true of the ancient Romans in the first century of our aera, Tacitus, we may be certain, would have avoided as not coming within the scope of the historian's province, and as being altogether uncongenial to his sublime76 tone of elevated sentiments and high-minded refinement77. But anyone conversant78 with the writings and temper of Bracciolini will know well that such passages, instead of being in any way distasteful, would be altogether agreeable. To be convinced, one has only to glance at the collection of anecdotes79, styled "Facetiae," at the end of his works, which even a frequenter of the Judge and Jury Society would consider justly liable to objection, howbeit that a pious gentleman in holy orders who wrote a Life of Bracciolini, the Reverend William Shepherd, can find words of palliation for them as sprightly pleasantries. They show us Bracciolini in his merry mood; they give us a fresh glimpse into the fifteenth century; they may be considered the best jokes or Joe Millerisms of the fifteenth century, such as the one commencing "Homo è nostris rusticanus, et haud multum prudens" (Pog. Op. 423), the one that follows entitled "De Vidua accensa libidine cum paupere" (ibid); and that which begins "Adolescens nobilis et forma insignis" (p. 433).
The taste of Bracciolini which is shown by these "Facetiae," is still more forcibly exhibited in a letter to Becadelli of Bologna (Ep. II. 40), in which he gloats over a book of indecent epigrams which his friend had written; he describes it as a "work at once waggish80 and luxuriating in voluptuousness81," "opus et jocosum et plenum voluptatis," and as "a most sweet book," "liber est suavissimus." With respect to his own feelings on reading it, he observes, "that he was delighted beyond measure at the variety of the subjects and the elegance82 of the poetry; at the same time he wondered how things so improper83 and so obscene could be represented by his friend so gracefully84 and so neatly85, and" he was of opinion that "the many excessive obscenities were expressed in such a manner that they seemed not only to be depicted but to have been actually committed; for he could not help thinking that they must be considered as facts, and not as fictions merely for the sake of entertaining the reader":—"Delectatus sum, mehercule, varietate rerum et elegantia versuum: simulque admiratus sum res adeo impudicas, adeo ineptas tam venuste, tam composite a te dici, atque ita multa exprimi turpiuscula, ut non enarrari, sed agi videantur: neque ficta a te jocandi causa, ut existimo, sed acta aestimari possunt." Such was his extravagant commendation, and, consequently, his hearty86 approbation87 of a most unnatural88 production, "Hermaphroditus," which ultimately received the censure89 of the author himself, who was ashamed that he had written it, as shown in the following epigram preserved by Cardinal Quirini in his "Diatriba in Epistolas Francisci Barbari":—
"Hic faeces varias Veneris, moresque prophanos, Quos natura fugit, me docuisse pudet."
III. We shall now see how accurately90 a writer in the middle of the last century, the Reverend Thomas Hunter, in his "Observations on Tacitus" (p. 51), hit off the character of Bracciolini, all the while that he fancied he was venting91 objurgations on the staid old Roman: "If he is anywhere happy in his description, it is in the display of … luxury refined and high-flavoured … Never writer had a happier pen at describing wickedness … Were we to give room to suspicions … we should say that he might have been … a party in every lewd74 scene he represents."
Mr. Hunter proceeds: "Messalina's guilty amours with Silius are described with a gay and festive93 air, with that pride of voluptuousness, and feeling taste of pleasure, as show the writer well versed94 in court intrigue95. The description is too luscious96, and may lead to a perpetration of the crime, rather than an abhorrence97 of the criminals."
Only one fault is to be found with this criticism, which is both excellent and curious,—excellent, because remarkable98 for its simple truthfulness99,—curious, because it looks as if Hunter, who knew nothing about Bracciolini, had the eyes of a cat and could see in the dark;—the fault is that the writer applies the criticism to one eminently100 undeserving of its causticity;—because though we have quoted "If he is," Hunter wrote, "If Tacitus is"; now Tacitus never wrote any descriptions of the nature commented on by the Vicar of Wrexham; they are not to be found in any of the works that pass under his name except the Annals; there is this excuse to be found for Hunter, that, at the time when he wrote, he was compelled to take the majestic101 Roman Consul102 to be the author of the Annals; but though his criticism is not applicable in a single syllable103 to Tacitus, it is strictly104 applicable in every word to Bracciolini, whom he never dreamt of as the composer of the Annals.
IV. It matters not what a man may attempt in literature, what style he may adopt, or what old pattern imitate,—he cannot get away from the impulses of his own time, strive he ever so hard: the tone and colour of his work will be modified by actual history and current politics; his strongest impressions will be influenced by the deeds that are being transacted105 and the lives that are being passed around him; so that however wide, searching and vigorous may be his powers of observation, thought and intellect, he cannot liberate106 these from contemporary associations; any endeavour to do that must end in failure, ending, as it must, in artificial coldness and unemotional lifelessness. Bracciolini never made the attempt; he gave way to Nature, and never did his genius shine so brightly, and never was it more prolific107, than when dealing108 with the diversity required of it by the history embraced in the Annals.
V. I am now about to make some remarks which I am glad to say, will get for this book a place in the "Index Expurgatorius" in Rome; and which will do a great deal more than that,—considerably amaze the shade of Bracciolini (supposing that he has a shade), perhaps as much as M. Jourdain was astonished when told that he had been talking prose all his life.
Every student of the Annals, in order rightly to understand its meaning and properly to appreciate its greatness, should bear in mind that the Emperors who play a part in it, Claudius and Nero in the last six books, and Tiberius in the first six, are intended to be the representatives or personifications of the Church of Rome in the fifteenth century. Hence it is that Claudius, Nero and Tiberius are depicted as superhuman in monstrosities,—colossal in crime,—perpetrators of enormities that never yet met, and never will meet, in combination in any single man. Each is, in fact, a fiend, and not a human being. It was thus only that Bracciolini could show us in its true light the Church of Rome as it acted in his day. In the language of Wickliffe it was the "Synagogue of Satan." A mere trifle was it that reprobates109 in the form of bishops and priests ordained110, consecrated and sacrificed. See the Church at an Oecumenical Council; then it capped the climax111 of cruelty and crime; it resorted to demoniacal subterfuge112 to condemn113 good men as heretics and burn them alive, believing that death by fire would inflict114 the most exquisitely115 excruciating tortures; at the Council of Constance it sought to condemn Wickliffe, by making an inference from some of his principles that he propagated the doctrine,—"God is obliged to obey the Devil,"—nowhere to be found in the Trialogue, Dialogue, and all the other works, treatises, and opuscles or small pieces bearing the name of that honoured and most pious divine: it consigned116 to the flames those two intimate friends and associates, John Huss and Jerome of Prague, for holding just and virtuous117 views about the degradation118 of the priestly office, and for nobly and fearlessly inveighing119 against the corruptions120 of the pontifical121 court, the pomp and pride of prelates, and the dissipated habits and abuses of the clergy122.
When we read in the Annals of men, who, in spite of their nobility, innocence123 and virtues, were put to death by the sword of the executioner or the poisoned bowl, we must not think that we are reading of real Romans who thus actually suffered: the whole is a fabrication placing before us fictitious124 pictures, meant to be life-like, of what the DOMINATING POWER CAN DO IN SOCIETY: they are not pictures intended to show with truthfulness monstrosities positively125 done by Emperors of Rome in the first century: they are pictures that reflect with fidelity126 the atrocities127 that stained the Church of Rome in the beginning of the fifteenth century.
Those were the closing days of the ancient period of the most abominable of all the Inquisitions, that of Spain, before the establishment by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1481 of the modern Inquisition in the Iberian Peninsula: that terrible jurisdiction128 extended to everybody, dead as well as living, absent as well as present, princes and subjects, rich and poor,—all were liable alike on the bare suspicion of such an insignificant129 matter as heresy130, to corporal punishment, pecuniary131 fines, confiscation132 of property, and loss of life, by being burnt at the stake, or,—as occurred to Savonarola, towards the close of the century,—first strangled by the hangman, and then committed to the flames. Only the Nero of the last part of the Annals, or the Tiberius of the first six books of that work, can properly stand forth133, in his persecuting134 spirit, as the counterpart of the Dominican, John de Torquemada, who, in the performance of his duty, as the Inquisitor General in Spain, proceeded against upwards135 of 100,000 persons, 6,000 of whom he condemned136 to the flames.
VI. So far, then, from being surprised with Professor Schildius (Professor of History and Greek, and afterwards of Hebrew in the University of Bremen at the commencement of the seventeenth century), and induced to doubt with him, the veraciousness137 of the Annals, I should have been very much astonished indeed, and, certainly, called in question its fidelity as representing the spirit of the fifteenth century, if it had not recorded (to borrow the language of Schildius) "a number of the most honourable138 and innocent men, the prides and ornaments139 of the State, coming to an ignominious140 end, and for no other crime, forsooth, than that which we call treason-felony": "Quod si non omnium judiciis superior esset Cornelius Tacitus, laboraret Annalium fides, tot nobilissimos et innocuos viros, tot decora et ornamenta Civitatis, indignissimo fine cecidisse crederemus, idque non aliud hercle ob crimen, quam illum, quem diximus, obtentuin laesae majestatis" (Schildi Exercitationes in C. Taciti Annal: XV. p. 29). Substitute for "treason felony" "heresy," and we have the strictest truth with regard to the unutterable ferocity of the Church of Rome in the fifteenth century.
VII. Had any man then living been bold enough to tell the world of the Church of Rome's ferocity in primitive141 terms, he must have been particularly desirous of being roasted alive: had he even so represented it as to render himself comprehensible by the most quick-witted, he must still have had the martyr's liking142 for instruments of torture and the blazing faggot: Bracciolini, whom nature had not gifted with the taste of Huss and Jerome of Prague, was so conscious of the perilous143 position in which he placed himself by undertaking144 a composition of this description, that he communicated his alarm to Niccoli about the care he must take as to the expression of his views lest he should give offence to princes, in that memorable letter, from which I have already quoted, dated Rome, October 8, 1423, in which he indirectly informed his friend that he had commenced his forgery145 of the Annals, by confessing that he was engaged on a certain work (or, as he puts it, "certain tiny occupations" ("occupatiunculae quaedam") in the style of Lord Byron, who would speak meanly of any of his marvellous poems, Childe Harold or Manfred, as "a thing"). "Besides," said he, "there are certain tiny occupations in which I am engaged, which do not so much impede146 me in themselves, as the way in which I tarry over them; for it is necessary that I should be on my guard with respect to the inclinations147 of princes, that their susceptibilities be not offended, as they are much more ready to vent92 their rage than to extend their forgiveness if anything be done amiss";—he then ended by making an observation which we have already noticed to the effect that beginnings were always difficult, especially when an attempt was made to imitate the ancients: "Sunt praeterea occupatiuculae quaedam, in quibus versor, quae non tantum ipsae me impediunt, quantum earum expectatio. Oportet enim paratum esse etiam ad nutum, ne offiendatur religio principum, quorum148 indignatio promptior est, quam remissio, si quid omittatur. In quibusvis quoque rebus149 principia sunt ardua ac difficilia; ut quod antiquioribus in officio sit jucundum, promptum ac leve, mihi sit molestum, tardum, onerosum" (Ep. II. 5). Therefore, Bracciolini, in the most strained detortions from literal meaning,—in the darkest nimbus of far-fetched elaboration of mystical allegory, —placed before us the unparalleled cruelty of the Church of Rome in the tiger-like thirst for blood of the Tiberius and the Nero of the Annals.
VIII. In the same manner as we have in the Annals a true and life- like picture of the savage150 and ravenous151 fierceness of the Church of Rome in the fifteenth century, so we have the likenesses, drawn, too, with the spirit and vigour152 of life about them, of the persons who flourished at that period as Princes, Ministers, and their agents and servants, though the likenesses may have been reproduced with some partial poetical153 exaggeration with regard to the peculiar154 characters, vices155 and singular debasement of individuals: this, however, is very certain; people, then, were altogether abnormal. We have already seen how historians tell us that Cardinal Beaufort by his intrigues156 and those of the Queen of Henry IV. hastened the ruin and untimely fate of Humphry, Duke of Gloucester. Kings so troubled their subjects by their tyranny and excesses, they were deposed157, imprisoned158, or put to death: in England Richard II. was stripped of his kingdom; in Bohemia Wenceslaus was twice thrown into prison; in Germany, Frederick, Duke of Brunswick, was murdered only two days after he had been elected Emperor; and in France, Jean Sans Peur, Duke of Burgundy, had his life taken on the bridge of Montereau. In the East things fared even worse: sovereigns trampled159 on sovereigns: Tamerlane, the victor, treated with contumely the once proud conqueror160, the vanquished161 Bayazid, Sultan of Turkey, used his body as a footstool or ladder by which to mount his horse; forced him to lie on the ground while he fed and to pick up the crumbs162 that fell from his table, and finally shut him up in an iron cage, where he died of a broken heart: if these things be false, as they may be, or exaggerated, as unquestionably they were, yet they point to the spirit of the age, in the simple fact of their having been recounted, and in the still more remarkable fact of their having been believed.
There were no such emperors and persons in high places during the opening period of the Christian aera; or Tacitus in his "History" gives us a very wrong account of them; his views of them are, if not favourable163, lenient164 or apologetic: they do not seem to have had the vices and faults of most men; Tacitus has otherwise successfully thrown a veil over them. Were the whole truth known, it might be found that there is a shameful165 exaggeration of the vices of Roman Emperors: this looks most probable when we consider the significant reflections made about Princes in one of his miscellaneous productions, by the historian, David Hume,—not the David Hume, minor166, who, living a long time among the English, and becoming fascinated with their ways, manners, customs and civilization, mooted167 the union of England and Scotland, more than a hundred years before the great event came off, in that famous historical essay printed in London in 1605 and entitled "De unione Insulae Britanniae Tractatus;" nor David Hume minimus, who wrote the "History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus" but the David Hume, major, who wrote the "History of England"—that "there are, perhaps, and have been for two centuries nearly two hundred absolute princes, great and small in Europe; and allowing twenty years to each reign35, we may suppose that there have been in the whole two thousand monarchs168, or 'tyrants,' as the Greeks would have called them, yet of these there has not been one, not even Philip of Spain, so bad as Tiberius, Caligula, Nero or Domitian, who were four in twelve among the Roman Emperors." When we find David Hume thus putting the matter, in his Essay on "Civil Liberty," it makes us at once see how highly unlikely it is that all the badness of human nature should have been concentrated in a few individuals who lived at a particular period and in a particular country, those individuals being Emperors, that particular period the commencement of the Christian aera and that particular country ancient Rome. Somewhere or other there must have been a great deal of maligning169; nor is it difficult to discover who the maligner170 was as far as the characters in the Annals are concerned.
IX. No one will accuse Tacitus of disparaging171 Princes and persons in high places; but everybody will admit, who is acquainted with the productions of Bracciolini, that he speaks trumpet-tongued of their delinquencies. When in his Dialogue, "De Infelicitate Principum," an attempt is made by Cosmo de' Medici to uphold some of them as "worthy172 of all praise and commendation for their learning and estimable qualities," the passage follows, as the reply of Niccoli (already quoted), of the hypocrisy173 and rascality174 of all men, consequently, of the hypocrisy and rascality of kings, ministers and their agents and servants. Nay175, more: Cosmo de' Medici is made to express his astonishment176 at the spirit of detraction177 in Niccoli, but is not surprised as he lashes178 private individuals, to find him bitterly inveighing against princes, being ever ready and fluent in his abuse of the latter, even when they do no harm, and cannot be reproached for their lives: Cosmo de' Medici is, therefore, of opinion that exceptions ought to be made in their favour, and wants to know why Niccoli should be so strongly given to vituperate them:—"Tum, Cosmus, graviter ut assolet, "Facillime," inquit, "Nicolae, (qui mos tuus est), laberis ad detrahendum. Equidem minime miror, si quando es in privatos dicatior, cum in ipsos principes tam facile inveharis, et tamen nullius injuria, aut vitae contumelia facit, ut tam sis promptus, aut copiosus in eorum objurgationem. Novi nonnullos qui abs te excipi deberent ab reliquorum caterva viri docti, egregii, omnique laude et commendatione dignissimi. Unde mecum saepius cogitans addubitare cogor quaenam sit potissimum causa, cur in vituperando sis quam, &c." (Pog. Op. p. 394)
We who live in these days and know how exemplary, as a rule, for piety179 and excellent conduct, are Popes, Cardinals, Bishops and, in fact, the clergy in the Church of Rome, as well as the dignitaries and pastors180 in all the other ecclesiastical establishments of Europe, and who, at the same time, honour and admire crowned heads and princes, ministers and great men for their position and virtues, cannot realize to ourselves how there ever could have been such hatefully contemptible181 personages in the sovereign and loftiest places as are depicted in the Annals, page after page, nor can we bring ourselves to believe that there ever existed such a bevy182 of brilliant malefactors, except in the judgment183 and fancy of one who did not shine among the most amiable184 of mankind as he, certainly, shone among the most able.
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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covetous
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Christian
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depicted
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indirectly
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memorable
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promotion
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esteem
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excellence
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ransom
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astronomers
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axis
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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galaxy
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countless
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lore
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accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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20
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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21
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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22
sprightly
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| adj.愉快的，活泼的 | |
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23
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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25
picturesqueness
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26
similes
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| （使用like或as等词语的）明喻( simile的名词复数 ) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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28
saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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29
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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30
mightiest
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| adj.趾高气扬( mighty的最高级 )；巨大的；强有力的；浩瀚的 | |
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31
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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32
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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33
feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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34
mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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35
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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36
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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37
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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38
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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39
muses
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的第三人称单数 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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40
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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41
precepts
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| n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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42
probity
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| n.刚直；廉洁，正直 | |
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43
pelf
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| n.金钱；财物（轻蔑语） | |
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44
rascally
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| adj. 无赖的，恶棍的 adv. 无赖地，卑鄙地 | |
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45
proclivities
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| n.倾向，癖性( proclivity的名词复数 ) | |
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46
knavery
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| n.恶行，欺诈的行为 | |
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47
profligacy
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| n.放荡，不检点，肆意挥霍 | |
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48
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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49
bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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50
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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51
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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52
cardinals
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| 红衣主教( cardinal的名词复数 )； 红衣凤头鸟（见于北美，雄鸟为鲜红色）； 基数 | |
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53
holders
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| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
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54
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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55
treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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56
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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57
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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58
consecrated
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| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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59
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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60
comported
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| v.表现( comport的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
licentiousness
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| n.放肆，无法无天 | |
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62
laity
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| n.俗人；门外汉 | |
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63
comas
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| n.昏迷( coma的名词复数 ) | |
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64
laymen
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| 门外汉，外行人( layman的名词复数 )； 普通教徒（有别于神职人员） | |
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65
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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66
bakers
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| n.面包师( baker的名词复数 )；面包店；面包店店主；十三 | |
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67
deterioration
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| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
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68
deviate
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| v.(from)背离，偏离 | |
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69
philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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70
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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71
erratic
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| adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的 | |
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72
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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73
lewdness
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| n. 淫荡, 邪恶 | |
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74
lewd
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| adj.淫荡的 | |
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75
abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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76
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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77
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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78
conversant
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| adj.亲近的，有交情的，熟悉的 | |
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79
anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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80
waggish
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| adj.诙谐的，滑稽的 | |
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81
voluptuousness
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| n.风骚，体态丰满 | |
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82
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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83
improper
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| adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的 | |
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84
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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85
neatly
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|
| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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86
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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87
approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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88
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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89
censure
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| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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90
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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91
venting
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| 消除； 泄去； 排去； 通风 | |
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92
vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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93
festive
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| adj.欢宴的，节日的 | |
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94
versed
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| adj. 精通，熟练 | |
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95
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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96
luscious
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| adj.美味的；芬芳的；肉感的，引与性欲的 | |
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97
abhorrence
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| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
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98
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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99
truthfulness
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| n. 符合实际 | |
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100
eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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101
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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102
consul
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| n.领事；执政官 | |
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103
syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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104
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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105
transacted
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| v.办理（业务等）( transact的过去式和过去分词 )；交易，谈判 | |
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106
liberate
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| v.解放，使获得自由，释出，放出；vt.解放，使获自由 | |
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107
prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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108
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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109
reprobates
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| n.道德败坏的人，恶棍( reprobate的名词复数 ) | |
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110
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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111
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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112
subterfuge
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| n.诡计；藉口 | |
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113
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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114
inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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115
exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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116
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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117
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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118
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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119
inveighing
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| v.猛烈抨击，痛骂，谩骂( inveigh的现在分词 ) | |
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120
corruptions
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| n.堕落( corruption的名词复数 )；腐化；腐败；贿赂 | |
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121
pontifical
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| adj.自以为是的，武断的 | |
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122
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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123
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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124
fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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125
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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126
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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127
atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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128
jurisdiction
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| n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权 | |
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129
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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130
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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131
pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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132
confiscation
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| n. 没收, 充公, 征收 | |
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133
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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134
persecuting
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的现在分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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135
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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136
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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137
veraciousness
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| n.诚实 | |
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138
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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139
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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140
ignominious
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| adj.可鄙的，不光彩的，耻辱的 | |
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141
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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142
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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143
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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144
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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145
forgery
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| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
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146
impede
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，阻止 | |
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147
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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148
quorum
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| n.法定人数 | |
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149
rebus
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| n.谜,画谜 | |
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150
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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151
ravenous
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| adj.极饿的，贪婪的 | |
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152
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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153
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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154
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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155
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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156
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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157
deposed
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| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
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158
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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159
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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160
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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161
vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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162
crumbs
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| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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163
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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lenient
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| adj.宽大的，仁慈的 | |
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165
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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166
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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167
mooted
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| adj.未决定的，有争议的，有疑问的v.提出…供讨论( moot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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168
monarchs
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| 君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 ) | |
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169
maligning
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| vt.污蔑，诽谤（malign的现在分词形式） | |
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170
maligner
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| n.诽谤者，中伤者 | |
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171
disparaging
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| adj.轻蔑的，毁谤的v.轻视( disparage的现在分词 )；贬低；批评；非难 | |
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172
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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173
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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174
rascality
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| 流氓性，流氓集团 | |
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175
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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176
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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177
detraction
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| n.减损；诽谤 | |
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178
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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179
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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180
pastors
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| n.（基督教的）牧师( pastor的名词复数 ) | |
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181
contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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182
bevy
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| n.一群 | |
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183
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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184
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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