Part 151

"The hereditary succession was never abandoned. A recommendation to that effect was indeed made to the several State Societies, at the first General Meeting in Philadelphia. … But the proposition, unwillingly urged, was accepted in deprecatory terms by some, and by others it was totally rejected. … At the second General Meeting, it was resolved 'that the alterations could not take effect until they had been agreed to by all the State Societies.' They never were so agreed to, and consequently the original Institution remains in full force. Those Societies that accepted the proposed alterations unconditionally, of course perished with their own generation."

_A. Johnston, Some Accounts of the Society of the Cincinnati (Pennsylvania Historical Society Memoirs, volume 6, pages 51-53)._

"The claim to membership has latterly been determined not by strict primogeniture, but by a 'just elective preference, especially in the line of the first-born,' who has a moral but not an absolutely indisputable right; and membership has always been renewed by election. … Six only of the original thirteen states—Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina—are still [in 1873] represented at the General Meetings. The largest society, that of Massachusetts, consisting originally of 343 members, now [1873] numbers less than 80; that of New York, from 230 had in 1858 decreased to 73; the 268 of Pennsylvania to about 60; the 110 of New Jersey, in 1866, to 60; and the 131 of South Carolina was, in 1849, reduced to 71."

_F. S. Drake, Memorials of the Society of the Cincinnati of Massachusetts, page 37._

CINCO DE MAYO, Battle of (1862).

See MEXICO: A. D. 1861-1867.

CINE, The.

Kinsfolk of the head of the tribe, among the ancient Irish.

CINQ MARS, Conspiracy of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1641-1642.

CINQUE PORTS, The.

"Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, Romney, Hythe—this is the order in which the Cinque Ports were ranked in the times when they formed a flourishing and important confederation. Winchelsea and Rye were added to these five … soon after the Norman Conquest. … The new comers were officially known as 'the two Ancient Towns.' When therefore we wish to speak of this famous corporation with strict accuracy we say, 'The five Cinque Ports and two Ancient Towns.' The repetition of the number 'five' in this title probably never struck people so much as we might expect, since it very soon came to be merely a technical term, the French form of the word being pronounced, and very often spelt 'Synke' or 'Sinke,' just as if it was the English 'Sink.' … The difference between the Cinque Ports and the rest of the English coast towns is plainly indicated by mediæval custom, since they were generally spoken of collectively as 'The Ports.' … Most writers upon this subject … have been at pains to connect the Cinque Ports by some sort of direct descent with the five Roman stations and fortresses which, under the Comes Littoris Saxonici [see SAXON SHORE, COUNT OF], guarded the south-eastern shores of Britain."

_M. Burrows, The Cinque Ports, chapters 1-3._

"Our kings have thought them [the Cinque Ports] worthy a peculiar regard; and, in order to secure them against invasions, have granted them a particular form of government. They are under a keeper, who has the title of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (an officer first appointed by William the Conqueror), who has the authority of an admiral among them, and issues out writs in his own name. The privileges anciently annexed to these ports and their dependents were [among others]: An exemption from all taxes and tolls. … A power to punish foreigners, as well as natives, for theft. … A power to raise mounds or banks in any man's land against breaches of the sea. … To convert to their own use such goods as they found floating on the sea; those thrown out of ships in a storm; and those driven ashore when no wreck or ship was to be seen. To be a guild or fraternity, and to be allowed the franchises of court-leet and court-baron. A power to assemble and keep a portmote or parliament for the Cinque Ports. {472} … Their barons to have the privilege of supporting the canopy over the king's head at his coronation. In return for these privileges the Cinque Ports were required to fit out 57 ships, each manned with 21 men and a boy, with which they were to attend the king's service for 15 days at their own expense; but if the state of affairs required their assistance any longer they were to be paid by the crown. … As the term baron occurs continually throughout all the charters of the Ports, it may not be improper to inform our readers that it is of the same import as burgess or freeman. … The representatives of the Ports in parliament are to this day styled barons." The post of Warden of the Cinque Ports, "formerly considered of so much honour and consequence, is now converted into a patent sinecure place, for life, with a salary of £4,000 a year."

_History of the Boroughs of Great Britain; together with the Cinque Ports, volume 3._

The office of Warden of the Cinque Ports has been held during the present century by Mr. Pitt, the Earl of Liverpool, the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Dalhousie, Viscount Palmerston, and Earl Granville.

CINTRA, Convention of.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1808-1809 (AUGUST-JANUARY).

CIOMPI, Tumult of the.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1378-1427.

CIRCARS, OR SIRKARS, The northern.

See INDIA: A. D. 1758-1761.

CIRCASSIANS.

See CAUCASUS.

CIRCLES OF GERMANY, The.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1493-1519.

CIRCUMCELLIONES, The.

See DONATISTS.

CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE WORLD: A. D. 1519-1522. Magellan's voyage: the first in history.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1519-1524.

CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE WORLD: A. D. 1577-1580. Drake's voyage.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1572-1580.

CIRCUMNAVIGATION: End----------

CIRCUS, Factions of the Roman.

"The race, in its first institution [among the Romans], was a simple contest, of two chariots, whose drivers were distinguished by white and red liveries: two additional colours, a light green and a cerulian blue, were afterwards introduced; and as the races were repeated twenty-five times, one hundred chariots contributed in the same day to the pomp of the circus. The four factions soon acquired a legal establishment and a mysterious origin, and their fanciful colours were derived from the various appearances of nature in the four seasons of the year. … Another interpretation preferred the elements to the seasons, and the struggle of the green and blue was supposed to represent the conflict of the earth and sea. Their respective victories announced either a plentiful harvest or a prosperous navigation, and the hostility of the husbandmen and mariners was somewhat less absurd than the blind ardour of the Roman people, who devoted their lives and fortunes to the colour which they had espoused. … Constantinople adopted the follies, though not the virtues, of ancient Rome; and the same factions which had agitated the circus raged with redoubled fury in the hippodrome. Under the reign of Anastasius [A. D. 491-518] this popular frenzy was inflamed by religious zeal; and the greens, who had treacherously concealed stones and daggers under baskets of fruit, massacred, at a solemn festival, 3,000 of their blue adversaries. From the capital this pestilence was diffused into the provinces and cities of the East, and the sportive distinction of two colours produced two strong and irreconcilable factions, which shook the foundations of a feeble government. … A sedition, which almost laid Constantinople in ashes, was excited by the mutual hatred and momentary reconciliation of the two factions." This fearful tumult, which acquired the name of the Nika sedition, from the cry, "Nika" (vanquish), adopted by the rioters, broke out in connection with the celebration of the festival of the Ides of January, A. D. 532. For five days the city was given up to the mob and large districts in it were burned, including many churches and other stately edifices. The emperor Justinian would have abandoned his palace and throne, but for the heroic opposition of his consort, Theodora. On the sixth day, the imperial authority was re-established by the great soldier, Belisarius, after 30,000 citizens had been slain in the hippodrome and in the streets.

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 40. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717_

CIRCUS MAXIMUS AT ROME, The.

"The races and wild beast shows in the circi were among the most ancient and most favourite Roman amusements, and the buildings dedicated to these sports were numerous, and nearly equal in magnificence to the amphitheatres. The Circus Maximus, which was first provided with permanent seats for the spectators as early as the time of Tarquinius Priscus, was successively restored and ornamented by the republican government in 327 and 174 B. C. and by Julius Cæsar, Augustus, Claudius, Domitian and Trojan. The result was a building which, in dimensions and magnificence, rivalled the Coliseum, but has, unfortunately, proved far less durable, scarcely a vestige of it now being left."

_R. Burn, Rome and the Campagna, introduction and chapter 12._

See, also, FORUM BOARIUM.

CIRENCESTER, Origin of.

See CORINIUM.

CIRRHA.

See DELPHI.

CIRRHÆAN, OR KIRRHÆAN WAR, THE.

See ATHENS: B. C. 610-586, and DELPHI.

CIRTA.

An ancient Numidian city. The modern town of Constantina in Algeria is on its site.

See NUMIDIANS.

CISALPINE GAUL (GALLIA CISALPINA).

See ROME: B. C. 390-347.

CISALPINE REPUBLIC.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL); 1797 (MAY-OCTOBER); 1799 (APRIL-SEPTEMBER); and 1801-1803.

CISLEITHANIA.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867.

CISPADANE GAUL. Cisalpine Gaul south of the Padus, or Po.

See PADUS.

CISPADANE REPUBLIC, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL), and 1797 (MAY-OCTOBER).

CISSIA (KISSIA).

See ELAM.

{473}

CISTERCIAN ORDER. The Monastery of Citeaux.

"Harding was an Englishman who spent his boyhood in the monastery of Sherborne in Dorset, till he was seized with a passion for wandering and for study which led him first to Scotland, then to Gaul, and at last to Rome. It chanced that on his return thence, passing through the duchy of Burgundy, he stopped at the abbey of Molêmes. As he saw the ways and habits familiar to his childhood reproduced in those of the monks, the wanderer's heart yearned for the peaceful life which he had forsaken; he took the vows, and became a brother of the house. But when, with the zeal of a convert, he began to look more closely into his monastic obligations, he perceived that the practice of Molêmes, and indeed of most other monasteries, fell very far short of the strict rule of S. Benedict. He remonstrated with his brethren till they had no rest in their minds. At last after long and anxious debates in the chapter, the abbot determined to go to the root of the matter, and appointed two brethren, whose learning was equalled by their piety, to examine diligently the original rule and declare what they found in it. The result of their investigations justified Harding's reproaches and caused a schism in the convent. The majority refused to alter their accustomed ways; finding they were not to be reformed, the zealous minority, consisting of Robert the abbot, Harding himself (or Stephen as he was called in religion) and sixteen others equally 'stiff-necked in their holy obstinacy,' left Molêmes, and sought a new abode in the wilderness. The site which they chose—in the diocese of Chalon-sur-Saône, not far from Dijon—was no happy valley, no 'green retreat' such as the earlier Benedictine founders had been wont to select. It was a dismal swamp overgrown with brushwood, a forlorn, dreary, unhealthy spot, from whose marshy character the new house took its name of 'the Cistern'—Cistellum, commonly called Citeaux. There the little band set to work in 1098 to carry into practice their views of monastic duty. … Three-and-twenty daughter houses were brought to completion during his [Harding's] life-time. One of the earliest was Pontigny, founded in 1114, and destined in after-days to become inseparably associated with the name of another English saint. Next year there went forth another Cistercian colony, whose glory was soon to eclipse that of the mother-house itself. Its leader was a young monk called Bernard, and the place of its settlement was named Clairvaux. From Burgundy and Champagne the 'White Monks,' as the Cistercians were called from the colour of their habit, soon spread over France and Normandy. In 1128 they crossed the sea and made an entrance into their founder's native land."

_K. Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings, volume 1, chapter 1._

ALSO IN: _S. R. Maitland, The Dark Ages, 21._

CITEAUX, The Monastery of.

See CISTERCIAN ORDER.

CITIES, Chartered.

See COMMUNE; also BOROUGHS, and GUILDS.

CITIES, Free, of Italy.

See ITALY: A. D. 1056-1152, and after.

CITIES, Imperial and Free, of Germany

"The territorial disintegration of Germany [see GERMANY: 13TH CENTURY] had introduced a new and beneficial element into the national life, by allowing the rise and growth of the free cities. These were of two classes: those which stood in immediate connection with the Empire, and were practically independent republics; and those which, while owning some dependence upon spiritual or temporal princes, had yet conquered for themselves a large measure of self-government. The local distribution of the former, which is curiously unequal, depended upon the circumstances which attended the dissolution of the old tribal dukedoms. Wherever some powerful house was able to seize upon the inheritance, free cities were few: wherever the contrary was the case, they sprang up in abundance. In Swabia and on the Rhine there were more than a hundred: Franconia on the contrary counted only Nürnberg and five smaller cities: Westphalia, Dortmund and Herford: while in Bavaria, Regensburg stood alone. … The Imperial free cities … were self-governed, under constitutions in which the aristocratic and the democratic elements mingled in various proportions: they provided for their own defence: they were republics, in the midst of States where the personal will of the ruler counted for more and more. … In these cities the refined and luxurious civilization, to which the princes were indifferent, and on which the knights waged predatory war, found expression in the pursuit of letters and the cultivation of the arts of life. There, too, the Imperial feeling, which was elsewhere slowly dying out of the land, retained much of its force. The cities held, so to speak, directly of the Empire, to which they looked for protection against powerful and lawless neighbours, and they felt that their liberties and privileges were bound up with the maintenance of the general order. … In them, too, as we might naturally expect, religious life put on a freer aspect."

_C. Beard, Martin Luther and the Reformation, page 16._

"Prior to the peace of Luneville [1801], Germany possessed 133 free cities, called Reichstädte. A Reichstadt ('civitas imperii') was a town under the immediate authority of the Emperor, who was represented by an imperial official called a Vogt or Schultheis. The first mention of the term 'civitas imperii' (imperial city) occurs in an edict of the emperor Frederick II. [1214-1250], in which Lubeck was declared a 'civitas imperii' in perpetuity. In a later edict, of the year 1287, we find that King Rudolf termed the following places 'civitates regni' (royal cities), viz., Frankfort, Friedberg, Wetzlar, Oppenheim, Wesel, and Boppart. All these royal cities subsequently became imperial cities in consequence of the Kings of Germany being again raised to the dignity of Emperors. During the reign of Louis the Bavarian [1314-1347] Latin ceased to be the official language, and the imperial towns were designated in the vernacular 'Richstat.' In course of time the imperial towns acquired, either by purchase or conquest, their independence. Besides the Reichstädte, there were Freistädte, or free towns, the principal being Cologne, Basle, Mayence, Ratisbon, Spires, and Worms. The free towns appear to have enjoyed the following immunities:—1. They were exempt from the oath of allegiance to the Emperor. 2. They were not bound to furnish a contingent for any expedition beyond the Alps. 3. They were free from all imperial taxes and duties. 4. They could not be pledged. 5. They were distinguished from the imperial towns by not having the imperial eagle emblazoned on the municipal escutcheon." Subsequently "the free towns were placed on the same footing as the Reichstädt, and the term 'Freistadt,' or free town, was disused. The government of the imperial towns was in the hands of a military and civil governor. … On the imperial towns becoming independent, the administration of the town was entrusted to a college of from four to twenty-four persons, according to the population, and the members of this kind of town council were called either Rathsmann, Rathsfreund, or Rathsherr, which means councilman or adviser. {474} The town councillors appear to have selected one or more of their number as presidents, with the title of Rathsmeister, Burgermeister, or Stadtmeister. … Many of the imperial towns gained their autonomy either by purchase or force of arms. In like manner we find that others either lost their privileges or voluntarily became subjects of some burgrave or ecclesiastical prince, e. g., Cologne, Worms, and Spires placed themselves under the jurisdiction of their respective archbishops, whereas Altenburg, Chemnitz and Zwickau were seized by Frederick the Quarrelsome in his war with the Emperor; whilst others, like Hagenau, Colmar, Landau, and Strasburg, were annexed or torn from the German Empire. As the Imperial towns increased in wealth and power they extended the circle of their authority over the surrounding districts, and, in order to obtain a voice in the affairs of the empire, at length demanded that the country under their jurisdiction should be represented at the Reichstag (Imperial Diet). To accomplish this, they formed themselves into Bunds or confederations to assert their claims, and succeeded in forcing the Emperor and the princes to allow their representatives to take part in the deliberations of the Diet. The principal confederations brought into existence by the struggles going on in Germany were the Rhenish and Suabian Bunds, and the Hansa. [See HANSA TOWNS.] … At the Diet held at Augsburg in 1474, it appears that almost all the imperial towns were represented, and in 1648, on the peace of Westphalia, when their presence in the Diet was formally recognized, they were formed into a separate college. … By the peace of Luneville four of the imperial towns, viz., Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, Spires, and Worms, were ceded to France. In 1803, all the imperial towns lost their autonomy with the exception of the following six:—Augsburg, Nuremberg, Frankfort, Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen; and in 1806 the first three, and in 1810 the others, shared the same fate, but in 1815, on the fall of Napoleon, Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck, and Frankfort, recovered their freedom, and were admitted as members of the German Bund, which they continued to be up to the year 1866."

_W. J. Wyatt, History of Prussia, volume 2, pages 427-432._

"According to the German historians the period of the greatest splendour of these towns was during the 14th and 15th centuries. … In the 16th century they still enjoyed the same prosperity, but the period of their decay was come. The Thirty-Years War hastened their fall, and scarcely one of them escaped destruction and ruin during that period. Nevertheless, the treaty of Westphalia mentions them positively, and asserts their position as immediate states, that is to say, states which depended immediately upon the Emperor; but the neighbouring Sovereigns, on the one hand, and on the other the Emperor himself, the exercise of whose power, since the Thirty-Years War, was limited to the lesser vassals of the empire, restricted their sovereignty within narrower and narrower limits. In the 18th century, 51 of them were still in existence, they filled two benches at the diet, and had an independent vote there; but, in fact, they no longer exercised any influence upon the direction of general affairs. At home they were all heavily burthened with debts, partly because they continued to be charged for the Imperial taxes at a rate suited to their former splendour, and partly because their own administration was extremely bad. It is very remarkable that this bad administration seemed to be the result of some secret disease which was common to them all, whatever might be the form of their constitution. … Their population decreased, and distress prevailed in them. They were no longer the abodes of German civilization; the arts left them, and went to shine in the new towns created by the Sovereigns, and representing modern society. Trade forsook them—their ancient energy and patriotic vigour disappeared. Hamburg almost alone still remained a great centre of wealth and intelligence, but this was owing to causes quite peculiar to herself."

_A. de Tocqueville, State of Society in France before 1789, note C._

See, also, HANSA TOWNS.

Of the 48 Free Cities of the Empire remaining in 1803, 42 were then robbed of their franchises, under the exigencies of the Treaty of Luneville (see GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803). After the Peace of Pressburg only three survived, namely, Hamburg, Lubeck and Bremen (see GERMANY: A. D. 1805-1806). These were annexed to France by Napoleon in 1810.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1810 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

The Congress of Vienna, in 1815, restored freedom to them, and to Frankfort, likewise, and they became members of the Germanic Confederation then formed.

See VIENNA, THE CONGRESS of.

Lubeck gave up its privileges as a free city in 1866, joining the Prussian Customs Union. Hamburg and Bremen did the same in 1888, being absorbed in the Empire. This extinguished the last of the "free cities."

See GERMANY: A. D. 1888.

CITY.

See BOROUGH.

CITY OF THE VIOLET CROWN.

"Ancient poets called Athens 'The City of the Violet Crown,' with an unmistakable play upon the name of the Ionian stock to which it belonged, and which called to mind the Greek word for violet."

_G. Schömann, Antiquities of Greece: The State, part 3, chapter 3._

CITY REPUBLICS, Italian.

See ITALY: A. D. 1056-1152.

CIUDAD RODRIDGO: A. D. 1810-1812. Twice besieged and captured by the French and by the English.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1810-1812.

CIVES ROMANI AND PEREGRINI.