Part 208

"The annual general councils and special councils of Charles the Great did not long survive him, and neither his descendants nor their successors revived them. They were compelled, to be sure, both by custom and by policy to advise with the chief men of the kingdom before taking any important step or doing anything that depended for success on their consent and cooperation, but they varied the number of their counsellors and the time, place, and manner of consulting them to suit their own convenience. Great formal assemblies of counsellors summoned from all parts of the realm were termed Imperial Diets (Reichstage); small, or local, or informal assemblies of a similar kind were known as Court Diets (Hoftage). Princes and other royal vassals, margraves, palsgraves, Graves, barons, and even royal Dienstmannen were indiscriminately summoned, but the Diets were in no sense representative bodies until the Great Interregnum [see GERMANY: A. D. 1250-1272] when certain cities acquired such influence in public affairs that they were invited to send delegates. The first Diet in which they participated was held at Worms in February, 1255, by King William of Holland. Most of the cities of the Rhenish League were there represented, and they constituted an important factor of the assembly. The affairs of the church shared attention with temporal affairs in the Diets until the Popes succeeded in making good their claims to supremacy in spiritual matters. Thereafter they were altogether left to synods and church councils. … Imperial Diets and Court Diets continued to be held at irregular intervals, whenever and wherever it pleased the king to convene them, but Imperial Diets were usually held in Imperial cities. These were not such heterogenous assemblies as formerly, for few royal vassals, except princes, and no royal Dienstmannen whatever were now invited to attend. Graves and barons, and prelates who were not princes, continued to be summoned, but the number and influence of the Graves and barons in the Diets steadily waned. Imperial cities were for many years only occasionally asked to participate, that is to say, only when the king had especial need of their good offices, but in the latter half of the 14th century they began to be regularly summoned. {661} Imperial Diets were so frequently held during the Hussite War and thereafter, that it became pretty well settled what persons and what cities should take part in them, and only those persons and those cities that were entitled to take part in them were regarded as Estates of the realm. In the 15th century they developed into three chambers or colleges, viz., the College of Electors [see GERMANY: A. D. 1125-1152], the College of Princes, Graves, and Barons, usually called the Council of Princes of the Empire (Reichsfürstenrath), and the College of Imperial Cities. The Archbishop of Mentz presided in the College of Electors, and the Archbishop of Salzburg and the Duke of Austria presided alternately in the Council of Princes of the Empire. The office of presiding in the College of Imperial Cities devolved upon the Imperial city in which the Diet sat. The king and members of both the upper Colleges sometimes sent deputies to represent them, instead of attending in person. In 1474 the cities adopted a method of voting which resulted in a division of their College into two Benches, called the Rhenish Bench and the Swabian Bench, because the Rhenish cities were conspicuous members of the one, and the Swabian cities conspicuous members of the other. In the Council of Princes, at least, no regard was had to the number of votes cast, but only to the power and influence of the voters, whence a measure might pass the Diet by less than a majority of the votes present. Having passed, it was proclaimed as the law of the realm, upon receiving the king's assent, but was only effective law in so far as the members of the Diet, present or absent, assented to it. … Not a single Imperial Diet was summoned between 1613 and 1640. The king held a few Court Diets during that long interval, consisting either of the Electors alone, or of the Electors and such other Princes of the Empire as he chose to summon. The conditions of membership, and the manner of voting in the College of Electors and the College of Imperial Cities remained unchanged. … The cities long strove in vain to have their votes recognized as of equal weight with the others, but the two upper Colleges insisted on regarding them as summoned for consultation only, until the Peace of Westphalia settled the matter by declaring that 'a decisive vote (votum decisivum) shall belong to the Free Imperial Cities not less than to the rest of the Estates of the Empire.' Generally, but not always, the sense of each College was expressed by the majority of votes cast. The Peace of Westphalia provided that 'in religious matters and all other business, when the Estates cannot be considered one body (corpus), as also when the Catholic Estates and those of the Augsburg Confession go into two parts (in duas partes euntibus), a mere amicable agreement shall settle the differences without regard to majority of votes.' When the 'going into parts,' (itio in partes) took place each College deliberated in two bodies, the Corpus Catholicorum and the Corpus Evangelicorum. The king no longer attended the Imperial Diets in person, but sent commissioners instead, and it was now the common practice of members of both the upper Colleges to send deputies to represent them."

_S. E. Turner, Sketch of the Germanic Constitution, chapters 4, 5, and 6._

"The establishment of a permanent diet, attended, not by the electors in person, but by their representatives, is one of the most striking peculiarities of Leopold's reign" (Leopold I., 1657-1705). This came about rather accidentally than with intention, as a consequence of the unusual prolongation of the session of a general diet which Rudolph convoked at Ratisbon, soon after his accession to the throne. "'So many new and important objects … occurred in the course of the deliberations that the diet was unusually prolonged, and at last rendered perpetual, as it exists at present, and distinguishes the Germanic constitution as the only one of its kind—not only for a certain length of time, as was formerly, and as diets are generally held in other countries, where there are national states; but the diet of the Germanic empire was established by this event for ever. The diet acquired by this circumstance an entirely different form. So long as it was only of short duration, it was always expected that the emperor, as well as the electors, princes, counts and prelates, if not all, yet the greatest part of them, should attend in person. … It is true, it had long been customary at the diets of Germany, for the states to deliver their votes occasionally by means of plenipotentiaries; but it was then considered only as an exception, whereas it was now established as a general rule, that all the states should send their plenipotentiaries, and never appear themselves. … The whole diet, therefore, imperceptibly acquired the form of a congress, consisting solely of ministers, similar in a great degree to a congress where several powers send their envoys to treat of peace. In other respects, it may be compared to a congress held in the name of several states in perpetual alliance with each other, as in Switzerland, the United Provinces, and as somewhat of a similar nature exists at present in North America; but with this difference,—that in Germany the assembly is held under the authority of one common supreme head, and that the members do not appear merely as deputies, or representatives invested with full power by their principals, which is only the case with the imperial cities; but so that every member of the two superior colleges of the empire is himself an actual sovereign of a state, who permits his minister to deliver his vote in his name and only according to his prescription.'"

S. A. Dunham, History of the Germanic Empire, book 3, chapter 3 (volume 3)—(quoting Putter's Historical Development of the Germanic Constitution.)

Of the later Diet, of the Germanic Confederation, something may be learned under GERMANY: A. D. 1814-1820, and 1848 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

DIET: End----------

DIFFIDATION, The Right of.

See LANDFRIEDE.

DIGITI.

See FOOT, THE ROMAN.

DIJON, Battle at.

See BURGUNDIANS: A. D. 500.

DIJON, Origin of.

Dijon, the old capital of the Dukes of Burgundy, was originally a strong camp-city—an "urbs quadrata"—of the Romans, known as the Castrum Divionense. Its walls were 30 feet high, 15 feet thick, and strengthened with 33 towers.

_T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 4, chapter 9._

DILEMITES, The.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 815-945.

DIMETIA.

See BRITAIN: 6th CENTURY.

DINAN, Battle of (1597).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1593-1598.

{662}

DINANT, Destruction of.

In the 15th century, down to the year 1466, Dinant was a populous and thriving town. It was included in the little state of the prince-bishop of Liege, and was involved in the war of the Duke of Burgundy with Liege, which ruined both Liege and Dinant. "It was inhabited by a race of industrious artisans, preëminent for their skill in the manufacture of copper. The excellence of their workmanship is attested by existing specimens—organ-screens, baptismal fonts, and other ecclesiastical decorations. But the fame of Dinant had been chiefly spread by its production of more common and useful articles, especially of kitchen utensils,—'pots and pans and similar wares,'—which, under the name of 'Dinanderie,' were known to housewives throughout Europe." In the course of the war a party of rude young men from Dinant gave deep, unforgivable provocation to the Duke of Burgundy by caricaturing and questioning the paternity of his son, the count of Charolais, afterwards Duke Charles the Bold. To avenge this insult nothing less than the destruction of the whole city would satisfy the implacable and ferocious Burgundians. It was taken by the count of Charolais in August, 1466. His first proceeding was to sack the town, in the most thorough and deliberate manner. Then 800 of the more obnoxious citizens were tied together in pairs and drowned in the Meuse, while others were hanged. This accomplished, the surviving women, children and priests were expelled from the town and sent empty-handed to Liege, while the men were condemned to slavery, with the privilege of ransoming themselves at a heavy price, if they found anywhere the means. Finally, the torch was applied, Dinant was burned, and contractors were subsequently employed by the Duke for several months, to demolish the ruins and remove the very materials of which the city had been built.

_J. F. Kirk, History of Charles the Bold, book 1, chapters 8-9._

ALSO IN: _E. de Monstrelet (Johnes), Chronicles, book 3, chapters 138-139._

_Philip de Commines, Memoirs, book 2, chapter 1._

DINWIDDIE COURT HOUSE, Action at.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MARCH-APRIL: VIRGINIA).

DIOBOLY, The.

Pericles "was the proposer of the law [at Athens] which instituted the 'Dioboly,' or free gift of two obols to each poor citizen, to enable him to pay the entrance-money at the theatre during the Dionysia."

_C. W. C. Oman, History of Greece, page 271._

See ATHENS: B. C. 435-431.

DIOCESES OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

"The civil government of the empire was distributed [under Constantine and his successors] into thirteen great dioceses, each of which equalled the just measure of a powerful kingdom. The first of these dioceses was subject to the jurisdiction of the Count of the East. The place of Augustal Præfect of Egypt was no longer filled by a Roman knight, but the name was retained. … The eleven remaining dioceses—of Asiana, Pontica, and Thrace; of Macedonia, Dacia and Pannonia, or Western Illyricum; of Italy and Africa; of Gaul, Spain, and Britain—were governed by twelve vicars or vice-præfects."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 17. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717_

See PUÆTORIAN PRÆFECTS.

DIOCLETIAN, Roman Emperor.

See ROME: A. D. 284-305.

DIOCLETIAN: Abdication.

"The ceremony of his abdication was performed in a spacious plain about three miles from Nicomedia [May 1, A. D. 305]. The Emperor ascended a lofty throne, and, in a speech full of reason and dignity, declared his intention, both to the people and to the soldiers who were assembled on this extraordinary occasion. As soon as lie had divested himself of the purple, he withdrew from the gazing multitude, and, traversing the city in a covered chariot, proceeded without delay to the favourite retirement [Salona] which he had chosen in his native country of Dalmatia."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 13. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717_

See, also, SALONA.

DIOKLÉS, Laws of.

A code of laws framed at Syracuse, immediately after the Athenian siege, by a commission of ten citizens the chief of whom was one Dioklês. These laws were extinguished in a few years by the Dyonisian tyranny, but revived after a lapse of sixty years. The code is "also said to have been copied in various other Sicilian cities, and to have remained in force until the absorption of all Sicily under the dominion of the Romans."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 81._

DIONYSIA AT ATHENS.

"The four principal Attik Dionysiak festivals were (1) the Dionysia Mikra, the Lesser or Rural Dionysia; (2) the Dionysia Lenaia; (3) the Anthesteria; and (4) the Dionysia Megala, the Greater or City Dionysia. The Rural Dionysia, celebrated yearly in the month Posideon (December-January) throughout the various townships of Attike, was presided over by the demarch or mayor. The celebration occasioned a kind of rustic carnival, distinguished like almost all Bakchik festivals, by gross intemperance and licentiousness, and during which slaves enjoyed a temporary freedom, with licence to insult their superiors and behave in a boisterous and disorderly manner. It is brought vividly before us in the 'Acharnes' of Aristophanes. … The Anthesteria, or Feast of Flowers, celebrated yearly in the month Anthesterion (February-March), … lasted for three days, the first of which was called Pithoigia, or Tap-barrel-day, on which they opened the casks and tried the wine of the previous year. … The Dionysia Megala, the Greater or City Dionysia, celebrated yearly in the month Elaphebolion (March-April) was presided over by the Archon Eponymos, so-called because the year was registered in his name, and who was first of the nine. The order of the solemnities was as follows: I. The great public procession. II. The chorus of Youths. III. The Komos, or band of Dionysiak revellers, whose ritual is best illustrated in Milton's exquisite poem. IV. The representation of Comedy and Tragedy; for at Athenai the stage was religion and the theatre a temple. At the time of this great festival the capital was filled with rustics from the country townships, and strangers from all parts of Hellas and the outer world."

_R. Brown, The Great Dionysiak Myth, chapter 6._

DIONYSIAN TYRANNY AT SYRACUSE, The.

See SYRACUSE: B. C. 397-396, and 344.

DIPLAX, The.

See PEPLUM.

DIPYLUM, The.

See CERAMICUS OF ATHENS.

DIRECTORY, The French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER); (OCTOBER-DECEMBER); 1797 (SEPTEMBER).

{663}

DISINHERITED BARONS, The.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1332-1333.

DISRAELI-DERBY AND BEACONSFIELD MINISTRIES.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1851-1852: 1858-1859; 1868-1870: and 1873-1880.

DISRUPTION OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1843.

DISSENTERS, OR NONCONFORMISTS, English: First bodies organized. Persecutions under Charles II. and Anne. Removal of Disabilities.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1559-1566; 1662-1665: 1672-1673: 1711-1714; 1827-1828.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE SURPLUS, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1835-1837.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, The.

See WASHINGTON (CITY): A. D. 1791.

DIVAN, The.

See SUBLIME PORTE.

DIVODURUM.

The Gallic name of the city afterwards called Mediomatrici—now Metz.

DIVONA. Modern Cahors.

See CADURCI.

DIWANI.

See INDIA: A. D. 1757-1772.

DIX, General John A.: Message to New Orleans.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860-1861 (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY).

DJEM, OR JEM, Prince, The Story of.

See TURKS: A. D. 1481-1520.

DOAB, The English acquisition of the.

See INDIA: A. D. 1798-1805.

DOBRIN, Knights of the Order of the Brethren of.

See PRUSSIA: 13TH CENTURY.

DOBRUDJA, The.

The peninsula formed between the Danube, near its mouth, and the Black Sea.

DOBUNI, The. A tribe of ancient Britons who held a region between the two Avons.

See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.

DOCETISM.

"We note another phase of gnosticism in the doctrine so directly and warmly combated in the epistles of John: we refer to docetism—that is, the theory which refused to recognize the reality of the human body of Christ."

_E. Reuss, History of Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age, page 323._

DODONA.

See HELLAS.

DOGE.

See VENICE: A. D. 697-810.

DOGGER BANKS, Naval Battle of the (1781).

See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1746-1787.

DOKIMASIA.

"All magistrates [in ancient Athens] whether elected by cheirotonia or by lot, were compelled, before entering upon their office, to subject themselves to a Dokimasia, or scrutiny into their fitness for the post."

_G. F. Schöman, Antiquity of Greece: The State, part 3, chapter 3._

DÖLICHOCEPHALIC MEN.

A term used in ethnology, signifying "long-headed," as distinguishing one class of skulls among the remains of primitive men, from another class called brachycephalic, or "broad-headed."

DOLLINGER, Doctor, and the dogma of Papal Infallibility.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1869-1870.

DOLMENS.

See CROMLECHS.

DOMESDAY, OR DOOMSDAY BOOK.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1085-1086.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, The.

See HAYTI: A. D. 1804-1880.

DOMINICANS.

See MENDICANT ORDERS: also, INQUISITION: A. D. 1203-1525.

DOMINION OF CANADA.-DOMINION DAY.

See CANADA: A. D. 1867.

DOMINUS.

See IMPERATOR, FINAL SIGNIFICATION OF THE ROMAN TITLE.

DOMITIAN, Roman Emperor, A. D. 81-96.

DOMITZ, Battle of (1635).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1634-1639.

DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA.

See JOHN (DON) OF AUSTRIA.

DON PACIFICO AFFAIR, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1849-1850; and GREECE: A. D. 1846-1850.

DONALD BANE, King of Scotland, A. D. 1093-1098 (expelled during part of the period by Duncan II.)

DONATI, The.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1295-1300, and 1301-1313.

DONATION OF CONSTANTINE.

See PAPACY: A. D. 774 (?).

DONATION OF THE COUNTESS MATILDA.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1077-1102.

DONATIONS OF PEPIN AND CHARLEMAGNE.

See PAPACY: A. D. 755-774.

DONATISTS, The.

"The Donatist controversy was not one of doctrine, but of ecclesiastical discipline; the contested election for the archbishopric of Carthage. Two competitors, Cecilius and Donatus, had been concurrently elected while the church was yet in a depressed state, and Africa subject to the tyrant Maxentius [A. D. 306-312]. Scarcely had Constantine subdued that province, when the two rivals referred their dispute to him. Constantine, who still publicly professed paganism, but had shown himself very favourable to the Christians, instituted a careful examination of their respective claims, which lasted from the year 312 to 315, and finally decided in favour of Cecilius. Four hundred African bishops protested against this decision; from that time they were designated by the name of Donatists. … In compliance with an order of the emperor, solicited by Cecilius, the property of the Donatists was seized and transferred to the antagonist body of the clergy. They revenged themselves by pronouncing sentence of excommunication against all the rest of the Christian world. … Persecution on one side and fanaticism on the other were perpetuated through three centuries, up to the period of the extinction of Christianity in Africa. The wandering preachers of the Donatist faction had no other means of living than the alms of their flocks. … As might be expected, they outdid each other in extravagance, and soon gave in to the most frantic ravings: thousands of peasants, drunk with the effect of these exhortations, forsook their ploughs and fled to the deserts of Getulia. Their bishops, assuming the title of captains of the saints, put themselves at their head, and they rushed onward, carrying death and desolation into the adjacent provinces: they were distinguished by the name of Circumcelliones: Africa was devastated by their ravages."

_J. C. L. de Sismondi, Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 4._

ALSO IN: _P. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, volume 2, chapter 6._

DONAUWÖRTH: A. D. 1632. Taken by Gustavus Adolphus.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1631-1632.

DONAUWÖRTH: A. D. 1704. Taken by Marlborough.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1704.

DONAUWÖRTH: End----------

DONELSON, Fort, Capture of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY: KENTUCKY-TENNESSEE).

{664}

DONGAN CHARTER, The.

See NEW YORK (CITY): A. D. 1686.

DONUM.

See TALLAGE.

DONUS I., Pope, A. D. 676-678. Donus II., Pope, A. D. 974-975.

DONZELLO.

See DÂMOISEL.

DOOMS OF INE, The.

"These laws were republished by King Alfred as 'The Dooms of Ine' who [Ine] came to the throne in A. D. 688. In their first clause they claim to have been recorded by King Ine with the counsel and teaching of his father Cenred and of Hedde, his bishop (who was Bishop of Winchester from A. D. 676 to 705) and of Eorcenweld, his bishop (who obtained the see of London in 675); and so, if genuine, they seem to represent what was settled customary law in Wessex during the last half of the seventh century."

_F. Seebohm, English Village Community, chapter 4._

DOOMSDAY, OR DOMESDAY BOOK.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1085-1086.

DOORANEES, OR DURANEES, The

See INDIA: A. D. 1747-1761.

DORDRECHT, OR DORT, Synod of.

See DORT; also, NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1603-1619.

DORIA, Andrew, The deliverance of Genoa by.

See ITALY: A. D. 1527-1529.

DORIANS AND IONIANS, The.