When Leo had reached the age of fifteen or sixteen, his elder brother having died two years before, Basil and Eudocia sought him a wife, and we are at last so121 fortunate as to meet a really blameless Empress, and one whose title to her place in the calendar of the saints will not be disputed by the most irreverent historians of modern times. St Theophano has, moreover, been revealed to us more fully8 in recent years by the publication of ancient Greek manuscripts that were unknown in the days of Gibbon.20 That they enlarge her virtues10 and attenuate11 the vices13 of her husband is only what we should expect in Byzantine writers of the time, but they enable us to give a satisfactory portrait of an imperial saint and to set it in pleasant contrast to the figures of her contemporaries and successors. Theophano is a stray lily in a garden of roses.
The first wife of Leo was the very pretty and pious14 daughter of a distinguished15 noble of the city, Constantinus Martinacius. Her mother had died in her early years, but her education had proceeded on lines of the most orthodox piety16, and she had a genius for assimilating its ascetic17 prescriptions18. The piety of her father, however, did not prevent him from putting forward his fifteen-year-old daughter when, in the winter of 881–882, Basil and Eudocia sought a mate for Leo. The city and provinces were, as usual, scoured19 by the special matrimonial commissioners20, and Theophano was one of the dozen maids introduced into the great palace for inspection21. Eudocia, a good judge, reviewed them in the Magnaura palace, and selected Theophano and two others. Eudocia’s high birth probably gave her some advantage over the obscure Athenian girl and another rival who ran her close in the competition. She was exhibited to Basil, and he at once placed a ring on her young finger and ordered Leo to marry her. Much subsequent evil might have been avoided if the youth had been consulted. Either the excessive piety of122 Theophano was distasteful to him, or he had already set his mind on another lady. But Basil was never indulgent to Leo, whom he must have regarded as Michael’s son, and the children were married with all the splendid ceremony which the Emperor Constantine describes for us, and entered upon their duty of sustaining the dynasty.
The pious Theophano soon found that life in a court was not a mere22 monotonous23 round of ceremonies. The chief friend and adviser24 of Basil was a compatriot—that is to say, a Macedonian of Armenian origin (Armenian colonies having been transferred, on account of the Saracens, to Macedonia)—named Stylianus Zautzes, and Zautzes had a pretty and lively daughter named Zoe. It is probable that Leo had contracted a boyish love of Zoe before he was forced to marry the young saint, and he was not of a nature to sacrifice the rose to the lily. Not very long after the marriage Theophano complained to Basil, we learn from the life of Euthymius, that her husband was making love to Zoe. Leo naturally protests to the patriarch, and no doubt protested to Basil, that his admiration25 was Platonic26, but we shall see that he did not usually confine himself to that academic emotion. Basil believed the charge, caught Leo by the hair and flung him to the ground, and compelled Zoe to marry, out of hand, a man to whom she was more than indifferent. He was sowing a crop of tragedies.
Eudocia died about this time, and the young Theophano took her place in the rich ceremonial of the Court, walking in the endless processions and being borne in the golden litter, drawn27 by white horses, to the great church and the lesser28 shrines29 and palaces. Her new dignity cannot have lasted many months when a fresh and more furious storm broke upon her virtue9, and she bore herself admirably. The second most intimate friend and counsellor of Basil was the abbot Theodore, of Santabaris in Phrygia, a very enterprising and peculiar30 monk31. He was a master of magic and was regarded123 with the greatest awe32 by the Emperor. Leo ventured to urge on Basil that the man was an impostor and humbug33, and the chroniclers say that the abbot turned vindictively34 on Leo. No one was allowed to have weapons in the company of the Emperor, but Theodore persuaded Leo that, if he kept a knife concealed35 in his boot when he was hunting with Basil, he might be able in an emergency to render a service and disarm36 Basil’s anger. Leo hid a knife in his boot, and the monk promptly37 advised Basil to search the prince, as he feared conspiracy38.
So from the palace Leo passed to prison, or confinement39 in the Pearl palace, and Theophano went with her little daughter Eudocia to keep him company and impress on him the duty of resignation to the divine will. The chroniclers differ as to the length of the imprisonment40; some make it three months and others three years. As Zautzes and the Senators intervened and begged Basil to reconsider his verdict, I prefer to accept the shorter term. One of the chroniclers tells us that the most effective pleader for Leo was a parrot, kept in the palace, which someone taught to cry: “Poor Leo, poor Leo.” At all events, Zautzes, and the patriarch Photius, and numbers of the Senators, insisted that Leo was innocent; and he was set at liberty. He was now the obvious heir to the throne. Basil could not put him aside in favour of a younger son without admitting his irregular parentage, and it is not unlikely that the old Emperor had a regard for Theophano. For a few years, therefore, the young Empress continued to rule the great palace, to which Basil had made superb additions, and to practise the high virtues which her husband so little appreciated. Then (in March 886) Basil left his purple robes to Leo, and Leo and his wife and child to the care of Zautzes.
The first concern of Leo the Philosopher—who was no philosopher at all, though he was well read in the letters of the time—was to seek Abbot Theodore of Santabaris. The monk had prudently41 retired43 to a124 bishopric in remote Pontus before Leo came to the throne, but he was brought to Constantinople, deposed45, scourged46, and exiled to Athens, where his eyes were afterwards cut out. It was the punishment he had recommended Basil to inflict47 on Leo. As the patriarch Photius was believed to have been in league with the monk-magician, he also was deposed, and Leo’s younger brother, Stephen, was made archbishop. Leo’s four sisters had already been turned into nuns48 by the prudent42 Basil, and there remained only the second brother Alexander, who was content to await the hour for his own imperial debauch49.
Leo’s next care was to renew his pleasant relations with the fascinating Zoe, “the most beautiful woman of her age.” A few added years would have merely ripened50 her charms, and her father regarded with complacency her promotion51 to the place of imperial concubine, and continued to discharge his functions as commander of the foreign guards (het?riarch). To Theophano only was it a grave affliction to find the palace enlivened by the fiery53 and beautiful oriental. She endured the outrage54 for some years, patiently working at her embroidery55 for the altars and spending long hours in prayer, until her one child died, in the winter of 892–893, and she begged Leo to allow her to retire to a convent, leaving him free to marry. Leo was not unwilling56, but the patriarch Euthymius foolishly refused to consecrate57 her, and she languished58 for a few months longer in her uncongenial world.
The situation is illuminated59 by a passage in the chronicles which leads up to the first plot on Leo’s life. Some time in 891, apparently60, Leo and Zoe and Zautzes, with other members of their family, went to stay at the Damian palace in the suburbs, probably for a hunt. Theophano, the chronicler says, was not with them; she was “busy praying” in the Blachern? palace, to which she seems to have generally retired from the dissolute Court. For some entirely61 obscure reason Zoe’s brother125 and his friends concerted a plot against the life of Leo; we can hardly suppose that it was a case of outraged62 brothers wiping out the dishonour63 of their sister, seeing that Zautzes himself was a member of the house-party. Whatever the cause was, Zoe, who was sleeping with Leo, heard whispering in the garden without, and, creeping to the window, learned that her brother Tzantzes and others were about to murder Leo. These are the sober details given in the chronicles, but Byzantine history is so full of melodrama64 that we need not hesitate to accept them. She roused her lover, and they stole from the house and reached Constantinople. Leo suspected that Zautzes himself had been privy65 to the plot and was estranged66 from him for some months.
This seems to have been the position during the early years of Leo’s reign52: his wife “busy praying,” or mortifying67 her frail68 body, in the quieter palace at Blachern?, while Leo floated over the Sea of Marmora with Zoe in the great pleasure-galleys he had constructed, or wantoned in his various palaces. Theophano died in the seventh year of his reign—on 10th November 893 according to de Boor69’s calculations, though her festival is celebrated70 by the Greek Church on 16th December. The modern mind would be little impressed by an account of the miracles which her remains71 are said to have wrought72 after death, nor can one read without a certain amusement that, in the words of a later Emperor and most of the chroniclers, she deserved the aureole of sanctity by “her freedom from jealousy73 and her patient endurance of the contempt of Zoe.” The nobles of Constantinople would not be unwilling to see such virtues consecrated74 by the Church. There is, however, no doubt that the daughter of Constantinus Martinacius merited her place in the calendar of the Church, and she is one of the few blameless women to gratify the biographer of the Empresses.
From the saint we pass to the sinner; from “the lilies and languors of virtue” to the “roses and raptures75 of126 vice12.” In the following year Leo violated all decency76 by taking Zoe into the sacred palace. Her husband, the patrician77 Theodore Guniazitza, died so opportunely78 that it was inevitably79 believed that he had been poisoned; and, although the statement is no more than a rumour80, and one may hesitate to-day to admit that “an adulteress may easily become a poisoner,” it cannot be said to be improbable. Leo now approached the patriarch Euthymius on the question of marrying Zoe, and the prelate again blundered, in too narrow a zeal81 for his ideals, and sternly resisted. He was removed to a monastery82, and before the end of 894 Zoe was the legitimate83 Empress of the Roman world. It was, however, only to enjoy a few more hours of pleasure in the gilded84 palace. Her father died in the spring of 896, and Zoe followed him in the autumn or winter of the same year, having worn the crown for one year and eight months. For her the ecclesiastical chroniclers have no praise; they affirm that, when men came to lay her remains in her marble sarcophagus, the words “Miserable daughter of Babylon” were found to have been mysteriously carved on the stone. Beautiful, careless and sensual as she was, one may doubt if a single stone could be flung at her if Leo had been allowed to consult his own heart at the time of his first marriage.
Leo was now, in his thirtieth year, a widower85 for the second time, and he was little reconciled to that condition. Not only was his dissipated brother Alexander greedily waiting to occupy his throne, but an astrologer had assured Leo that he would yet have a son, and the message of the stars must be fulfilled. Third marriages, on the other hand, were subjected to grave ecclesiastical censure86, and for several years the Emperor did not venture to take the forbidden step. Indeed, when he did begin to speak of marriage, Zoe’s relatives and other disappointed courtiers took alarm and plotted against his life. Her nephew Basil had his hair oiled and fired, and all the survivors87 of the Zautzes family were driven from127 the city. The clearance88 made room for fresh courtiers, one of whom, a Saracen named Samonas, became the master of intrigue89 which we almost invariably find in the palace in each generation. One instance of his wit will suffice to make him known and to illustrate90 life at the Court. The commander Andronicus had taken alarm and fled to the Saracens. Leo had no wish to injure him, and he entrusted91 a message to that effect to a captive Saracen and bade him deliver it to Andronicus. In order to outwit Samonas, who did not wish the able officer to return and dispute his power, the message was ingeniously enclosed in a wax candle. Before he left Constantinople, however, Samonas told the Saracen that the candle contained a plot against his country, and it was never delivered to Andronicus.
At the beginning of 899 Leo braved the censures92 of the clergy93 and, apparently, sent out his commissioners in search of a bride. As a result he married, probably at Easter, a beautiful maiden94 from the Opsikian district—the region of Asia Minor95 nearest to Constantinople—named Eudocia. To his great mortification96, Eudocia gave birth to a boy, but both mother and child died immediately. The majority of Christian97 Emperors would have resigned themselves to this third disappointment, but it seems to have increased Leo’s determination. Most historians admit that it was not so much sensuality, which such a man as Leo could easily gratify, as the determination to have a son, which inspired Leo’s defiance98 of the Church; not impossibly he also had regard to the complaisance99 of the Western clergy in face of the conduct of the great Frankish monarchs100.
It is conjectured101 by de Boor that Eudocia died about Easter of the year 900, and before the end of that, or in the following, year Leo began to look for another spouse102. In place of the patriarch Euthymius, who had resisted his marriage to Zoe, he had appointed a certain Nicholas, an intimate friend of his in earlier years, and he expected the new prelate to be accommodating. Nicholas, however,128 violently opposed the idea of a fourth marriage, and a long and stormy struggle with the Church party followed. On one occasion a man attempted the life of the Emperor in a church, and Alexander and Nicholas were strongly suspected of treachery, but no torture could wring103 a confession104 from the assailant.
Leo took a first defiant105 step by again admitting a lady to the palace. Zoe Carbonopsina, as she was named, seems to have had a humble106 origin, since her son, the imperial historian, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, cannot devise any genealogy107 for her. Diligent108 research, however, finds that she was related to the famous abbot St Epiphanius, the admiral Himerius, and the patrician Nicholas, so that we must not imagine her as a flower transplanted by imperial commissioners from some rural garden. Her later career will confirm the impression she makes on her first entry into the pages of history as mistress of the Emperor. She was a woman of great vigour109 and faint scruples110: a less pleasant type of sinner than the Zoe who had preceded her in the halls of Daphne.
We do not know how long Zoe lived in the palace as Leo’s mistress, nor is it material to seek to determine. It is enough that in the course of the year 905 she promised to become a mother, and Leo renewed his effort to provide a legitimate heir to his throne. The confused and poorly written records of the time merely tantalize111 us with fragmentary or conflicting statements, and one must present a connected version of the accession to the throne of Zoe Carbonopsina with some hesitation112. Apparently (“Life of Euthymius”) the patriarch Nicholas was at first not unfriendly. He blessed the womb which gave promise of an heir, ordered prayers in the churches, and met Zoe without a blush in the palace. These candid113 details need a short explanation. A bitter feud114 had set in between the followers115 of the deposed patriarch Euthymius and the followers of Nicholas, so that an admirer of the former may be trusted129 to say even more than the truth in regard to Nicholas. Leo seems to have promised the clergy that he would put away Zoe as soon as she gave him an heir to the throne. But the biographer of Euthymius professes116 to throw another light on the situation. A rising took place in the provinces, and Leo secured a letter which proved that Nicholas was involved in it. It was in order to avoid the consequences of this treachery that he submitted to Leo.
A boy, the future Emperor and writer Constantine Porphyrogenitus, saw the light in the course of the year 905—a comet appearing in the heavens, in ominous117 conjunction, at the time—and in the beginning of 906 he was solemnly baptized by the patriarch, and had his uncle Alexander and some of the highest Senators as godfathers. The modern reader is amazed at the spirit which will permit the heads of Church and State to gather thus in their grandest robes about the cradle of an illegitimate child, yet resist, even to death, a fourth marriage which might supply a legitimate heir to the imperial house; but Byzantine life will exhibit singular features to the end of its history. The child was baptized, and the clergy trusted to hear no more of marriage. To their great anger Leo recalled Zoe to the palace, from which she had been temporarily removed, and found a priest to marry them. At the same time Zoe was made Augusta and Basilissa (Queen) of the Empire.
The clergy now assailed118 Leo with every invective119, and the patriarch forbade him to enter the church. One almost despairs of following the Constantinopolitans through their tangle120 of scruples and licences, but we find that Leo met the prelate by entering the church at a side door and sitting in a part, apparently, where the singers used to take refreshments121. He also sent a request that the Roman bishop44 and the three patriarchs of the East would pronounce upon the validity of his marriage. When they declared in his favour, and Nicholas still resisted, Samonas consulted his large faculty122 for intrigue;130 indeed, we may confidently trace the counsel of that wily courtier, a great friend of Zoe, in the whole procedure. Nicholas was invited to dine at the Bucoleon palace, on the shore of the Sea of Marmora. In the middle of the banquet he was again pressed to withdraw, and again refused; and the chamberlain’s servants dragged him down the stairs which led to the palace quay123 and shipped him to Asia. Euthymius now returned to the see, and, after a decent show of reluctance124, recognized the marriage of Zoe. Some of his admirers recount that he was directed in a vision to overrule the law of the Church; others tell us that Leo compelled him by threatening to enact125 a law that every citizen might have, if he pleased, three or four simultaneous wives. If we change the word “simultaneous” into “successive” we shall not be far from the truth.
The adventurous126 career of Zoe Carbonopsina now ran quietly for a few years. Her boy flourished, and was, about four years later, associated in the purple with his father. The only event to ruffle127 the even flow of her pleasant life in the palace was one of those deadly feuds128 of rival courtiers which were of constant occurrence in the great palace. Samonas had introduced into her service a handsome Paphlagonian named Constantine, and, about the year 911, was alarmed to perceive that this man was supplanting129 him in the royal favour. He denounced Constantine to Leo for improper130 conduct with the Empress. In another passage the chronicler has already described Constantine as a eunuch, and it is not the only occasion on which we find this strange charge against an Empress in the chronicles; it may be added that another writer marries Constantine to a cousin of Zoe. Leo, at all events, was convinced, and ordered that Constantine be shaved and put in a monastery. He repented131, however, and brought the eunuch back to the palace. In revenge Samonas drew up a libellous writing on the Emperor, and secretly put it in the church. There was great agitation132 in the palace, especially as an eclipse131 of the moon occurred at the height of the quarrel. Leo the Philosopher trembled and sent for a bishop who was better versed133 than he in astrology. On this occasion the reader of the stars proved correct. When Samonas intercepted134 him, and asked whether the darkening of the moon portended135 evil for him or for Leo, the bishop answered: “You.” In a few days he was betrayed, and he exchanged his hope of the throne for the obscurity of a monastery.
Leo died in the next year, commending his wife and child to the Senators, who swore tearful oaths to protect her and the boy from any misconduct on the part of his successor and younger brother Alexander. But Alexander met no opposition136 when, as soon as he had ascended137 the throne, he bade Zoe leave her child and quit the palace. Even the boy had a narrow escape, as Alexander ordered that he should be castrated, but his guardians138 happily lied to the Emperor and represented that Constantine was too delicate to live. All knew that the reign of Constantine would be short. Although only in his twenty-first year, he had ruined his constitution by vicious indulgence, and the life he led after mounting the throne was killing139 him. He perished miserably140 from intemperance141 within a year, leaving his young colleague to a Council of Regents, from which he had carefully excluded Zoe.
The imperial career of Zoe was, however, by no means closed. A regency was the opportunity of a Byzantine Empress, and Zoe had, no doubt, faithful servants about her boy in the palace. He was now seven years old, and he insisted that his mother must return to the palace. She at once took the lead in the administration, and, having the support of a group of experienced statesmen and several able commanders, she must have looked forward to a long and prosperous rule. At one moment it was gravely threatened with premature142 extinction143. One of the commanders in Asia Minor was invited by some of the disaffected144 nobles to seize the throne, and it132 seemed to the vigorous Constantine Ducas that the hour long ago promised to him by astrologers had come. He crossed the sea in the night, and had seized the anterior145 part of the palace before the guards were thoroughly146 roused. Then one of the regents flung himself upon the intruders with a troop of armed servants and sailors—there seems to have been treason among the guards—and Zoe presently learned that Ducas and, it is said, three thousand of the combatants lay in a lake of blood on the marble floor of the palace. A terrible vengeance147 purified Constantinople of those who were opposed to the rule of Zoe and her son. Women were shorn, boys castrated, and men hung on gallows148 along the Asiatic shore for all Constantinople to see.
During several years Zoe seems to have governed with vigour and judgment149, but since it is impossible to disentangle her share from that of her servants and counsellors, it would be inexpedient to enter into the prosy details of the administration. A personal note is sounded when we find, in a later page of one of the chronicles, that she was intimate with the admiral, and later Emperor, Romanus. Neither of the two can be regarded as very scrupulous150, but it is probable that Bishop Luidprand, who accuses her, is in this hastily retailing151 the gossip he picked up in Constantinople. A disappointed ambassador is apt to be a libeller.
The behaviour of Romanus in the crisis which, in the year 919, put an end to her reign does not encourage the idea of a liaison152. By dexterous153 diplomacy154 Zoe had obtained peace with the Saracens and then withdrawn155 all her forces from Asia, to make a concentrated attack upon the Bulgarians. It was admirable, if not very subtle, policy, since at that time the Saracens and Bulgarians were the upper and nether156 stones that threatened to grind the Eastern capital between them. Unhappily the jealousy of her two chief commanders betrayed and ruined her. A vast army was assembled at Constantinople, new arms and equipment were supplied, and133 advance pay was liberally given to the soldiers. The cross was borne at their head by the clergy, and, with a last entreaty157 that all would be faithful to their country, Zoe sent forth158 the great army which was to begin the restoration of the Empire. And in a few weeks the fleet returned with the news of complete and irreparable disaster. The admiral Romanus had, out of jealousy of the land commander, failed to transfer their northern allies across the Danube; the general of the troops, Leo Phocas, too eager for glory, had attacked without his allies and been utterly159 routed.
Zoe at once summoned a council and proposed that her alleged160 lover should lose his eyes for his failure to co-operate. Romanus had, however, a firm hold on the affection of the sailors, and it was judged inexpedient to attempt to displace him. But the position of Zoe was, through no fault of hers, terribly weakened, and a change of government was openly expected. Zoe’s chief hope lay in the fact that the two commanders, Leo Phocas and Romanus, could not share the power, yet neither was likely to suffer the other to occupy it, and for some time matters remained in suspense161. Then the experienced intriguers of the palace began to act, and the quarrel hastened to its climax162. Constantine, the favourite chamberlain, urged Zoe to build on Leo Phocas (who had married his sister) and take him into the Regency. A rival courtier, the young Emperor’s tutor, Theodore, then espoused163 the cause of Romanus, and secretly urged him to declare himself the protector of the boy. Zoe ordered Romanus to sail with the fleet to the Black Sea, and, when Romanus pleaded that the pay was in arrears164 and the sailors disaffected, the chamberlain himself rowed out to the commander’s vessel165 with the money. He did not return, and Zoe was soon alarmed to hear that the admiral had imprisoned166 him on the fleet.
The patriarch and Senators were summoned to the palace, and it was decided167 that their leaders should row out to the fleet and demand an explanation of Romanus.134 By this time the citizens were keenly interested in the quarrel. The fleet lay in sight of all on the Sea of Marmora, and the detention168 of the chief eunuch of the palace became known and seems to have pleased the people. When the patriarch and the heads of the Senate went down to the quay, they were stoned and forced to retire. Early the next morning Zoe went to the Bucoleon palace, where Constantine and his tutor lived, and demanded an explanation. Strong in the support of the admiral, whom he now induced to draw up the fleet in battle array opposite the Bucoleon palace, the tutor replied insolently169 that the time had come for Constantine to take the reins170; the eunuch Constantine, he said, had ruined the palace and Leo Phocas had wasted the army. Zoe saw that she had lost the battle. She submitted very quietly, except that when the aggressive tutor ordered her to quit the palace she appealed to her son, and was allowed to remain.
Little remains to be told of the fourth wife of Leo the Philosopher. She was for a time an idle spectator, in the palace, of the course of events. The patriarch Nicholas sternly challenged the admiral, and, when he disavowed the charge of treason, invited him ashore171 to clear himself. In the historic church by the lighthouse a number of the higher officials gathered to hear Romanus swear the “direst oaths” on the true cross that he would be loyal to the young Emperor, and the reconciliation172 was sealed by Constantine wedding the admiral’s daughter Helena in April (919), a month later. Leo Phocas had meantime retired to the provinces and raised an army. By the characteristically Byzantine device of sending a prostitute with a secret message among his troops, his force was weakened and his rebellion soon trodden out. Zoe now played her last and most desperate card, and attempted the life of Romanus. Some of the chroniclers give the charge as a rumour, but when her son observes that she was “detected” in an attempt to poison the food of Romanus, by means of135 one of his servants, we cannot hesitate to believe it. She was at once removed from the palace, forced to take the vows173 of religion, and ended her romantic life, at some unknown date, in the monastery of St Euphemia at Petrion.
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groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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adage
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| n.格言，古训 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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maternity
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| n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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pregnancy
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| n.怀孕，怀孕期 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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attenuate
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| v.使变小，使减弱 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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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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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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ascetic
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| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
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prescriptions
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| 药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划 | |
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scoured
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| 走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮 | |
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commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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platonic
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| adj.精神的；柏拉图（哲学）的 | |
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27
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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28
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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29
shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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30
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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31
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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32
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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33
humbug
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| n.花招，谎话，欺骗 | |
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34
vindictively
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| adv.恶毒地；报复地 | |
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35
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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36
disarm
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| v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和 | |
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37
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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38
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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39
confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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40
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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41
prudently
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| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
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42
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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43
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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44
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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45
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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46
scourged
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| 鞭打( scourge的过去式和过去分词 )； 惩罚，压迫 | |
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47
inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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48
nuns
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| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
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49
debauch
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| v.使堕落，放纵 | |
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50
ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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52
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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53
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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54
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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55
embroidery
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| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
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56
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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57
consecrate
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| v.使圣化，奉…为神圣；尊崇；奉献 | |
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58
languished
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| 长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐 | |
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59
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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60
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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61
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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62
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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63
dishonour
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|
| n./vt.拒付（支票、汇票、票据等）；vt.凌辱，使丢脸；n.不名誉，耻辱，不光彩 | |
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64
melodrama
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| n.音乐剧；情节剧 | |
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65
privy
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| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
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66
estranged
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| adj.疏远的，分离的 | |
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67
mortifying
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|
| adj.抑制的，苦修的v.使受辱( mortify的现在分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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68
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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69
boor
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| n.举止粗野的人；乡下佬 | |
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70
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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71
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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72
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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73
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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74
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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75
raptures
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| 极度欢喜( rapture的名词复数 ) | |
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76
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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77
patrician
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|
| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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78
opportunely
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| adv.恰好地，适时地 | |
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79
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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80
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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81
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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82
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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83
legitimate
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|
| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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84
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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85
widower
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| n.鳏夫 | |
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86
censure
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|
| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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87
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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88
clearance
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| n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理 | |
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89
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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90
illustrate
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|
| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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91
entrusted
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|
| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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92
censures
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| v.指责，非难，谴责( censure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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93
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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94
maiden
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|
| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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95
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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96
mortification
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|
| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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97
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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98
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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99
complaisance
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| n.彬彬有礼，殷勤，柔顺 | |
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100
monarchs
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| 君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 ) | |
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101
conjectured
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| 推测，猜测，猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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102
spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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103
wring
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| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
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104
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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105
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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106
humble
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|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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107
genealogy
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|
| n.家系，宗谱 | |
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108
diligent
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|
| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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109
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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110
scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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111
tantalize
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| vt.使干着急，逗弄 | |
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112
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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113
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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114
feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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115
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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116
professes
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| 声称( profess的第三人称单数 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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117
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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118
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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119
invective
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| n.痛骂，恶意抨击 | |
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120
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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121
refreshments
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| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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122
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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123
quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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124
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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125
enact
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| vt.制定(法律)；上演，扮演 | |
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126
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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127
ruffle
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| v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边 | |
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128
feuds
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| n.长期不和，世仇( feud的名词复数 ) | |
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129
supplanting
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| 把…排挤掉，取代( supplant的现在分词 ) | |
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130
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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131
repented
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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132
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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133
versed
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| adj. 精通，熟练 | |
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134
intercepted
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| 拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻 | |
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135
portended
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| v.预示( portend的过去式和过去分词 )；预兆；给…以警告；预告 | |
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136
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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137
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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138
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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139
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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140
miserably
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|
| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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141
intemperance
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| n.放纵 | |
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142
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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143
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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144
disaffected
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| adj.（政治上）不满的，叛离的 | |
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145
anterior
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| adj.较早的；在前的 | |
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146
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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147
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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148
gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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149
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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150
scrupulous
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| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
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151
retailing
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| n.零售业v.零售(retail的现在分词) | |
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152
liaison
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| n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通 | |
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153
dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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154
diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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155
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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156
nether
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|
| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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157
entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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158
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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159
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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160
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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161
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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162
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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163
espoused
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| v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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164
arrears
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| n.到期未付之债，拖欠的款项；待做的工作 | |
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165
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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166
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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167
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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168
detention
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| n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下 | |
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169
insolently
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| adv.自豪地，自傲地 | |
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170
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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171
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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172
reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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173
vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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