So Great Is
Their Disposition Towards This Common Violence, That They Scruple
Not To Claim As Their Hereditary Right, Those
Lands which are held
under lease, or at will, on condition of planting, or by any other
title, even although
Indemnity had been publicly secured on oath to
the tenant by the lord proprietor of the soil. Hence arise suits
and contentions, murders and conflagrations, and frequent
fratricides, increased, perhaps, by the ancient national custom of
brothers dividing their property amongst each other. Another heavy
grievance also prevails; the princes entrust the education of their
children to the care of the principal men of their country, each of
whom, after the death of his father, endeavours, by every possible
means, to exalt his own charge above his neighbours. From which
cause great disturbances have frequently arisen amongst brothers,
and terminated in the most cruel and unjust murders; and on which
account friendships are found to be more sincere between foster-
brothers, than between those who are connected by the natural ties
of brotherhood. It is also remarkable, that brothers shew more
affection to one another when dead, than when living; for they
persecute the living even unto death, but revenge the deceased with
all their power.
CHAPTER V
Their great exaction, and want of moderation
Where they find plenty, and can exercise their power, they levy the
most unjust exactions. Immoderate in their love of food and
intoxicating drink, they say with the Apostle, "We are instructed
both to abound, and to suffer need;" but do not add with him,
"becoming all things to all men, that I might by all means save
some." As in times of scarcity their abstinence and parsimony are
too severe, so, when seated at another man's table, after a long
fasting, (like wolves and eagles, who, like them, live by plunder,
and are rarely satisfied,) their appetite is immoderate. They are
therefore penurious in times of scarcity, and extravagant in times
of plenty; but no man, as in England, mortgages his property for
the gluttonous gratification of his own appetite. They wish,
however, that all people would join with them in their bad habits
and expenses; as the commission of crimes reduces to a level all
those who are concerned in the perpetration of them.
CHAPTER VI
Concerning the crime of incest, and the abuse of churches by
succession and participation
The crime of incest hath so much prevailed, not only among the
higher, but among the lower orders of this people, that, not having
the fear of God before their eyes, they are not ashamed of
intermarrying with their relations, even in the third degree of
consanguinity. They generally abuse these dispensations with a
view of appeasing those enmities which so often subsist between
them, because "their feet are swift to shed blood;" and from their
love of high descent, which they so ardently affect and covet, they
unite themselves to their own people, refusing to intermarry with
strangers, and arrogantly presuming on their own superiority of
blood and family. They do not engage in marriage, until they have
tried, by previous cohabitation, the disposition, and particularly
the fecundity, of the person with whom they are engaged. An
ancient custom also prevails of hiring girls from their parents at
a certain price, and a stipulated penalty, in case of relinquishing
their connection.
Their churches have almost as many parsons and sharers as there are
principal men in the parish. The sons, after the decease of their
fathers, succeed to the ecclesiastical benefices, not by election,
but by hereditary right possessing and polluting the sanctuary of
God. And if a prelate should by chance presume to appoint or
institute any other person, the people would certainly revenge the
injury upon the institutor and the instituted. With respect to
these two excesses of incest and succession, which took root
formerly in Armorica, and are not yet eradicated, Ildebert, bishop
of Le Mans, in one of his epistles, says, "that he was present with
a British priest at a council summoned with a view of putting an
end to the enormities of this nation:" hence it appears that these
vices have for a long time prevailed both in Britany and Britain.
The words of the Psalmist may not inaptly be applied to them; "They
are corrupt and become abominable in their doings, there is none
that doeth good, no, not one: they are all gone out of the way,
they are altogether become abominable," etc.
CHAPTER VII
Of their sins, and the consequent loss of Britain and of Troy
Moreover, through their sins, and particularly that detestable and
wicked vice of Sodom, as well as by divine vengeance, they lost
Britain as they formerly lost Troy. For we read in the Roman
history, that the emperor Constantine having resigned the city and
the Western empire to the blessed Sylvester and his successors,
with an intention of rebuilding Troy, and there establishing the
chief seat of the Eastern Empire, heard a voice, saying, "Dost thou
go to rebuild Sodom?" upon which, he altered his intention, turned
his ships and standards towards Byzantium, and there fixing his
seat of empire, gave his own propitious name to the city. The
British history informs us, that Mailgon, king of the Britons, and
many others, were addicted to this vice; that enormity, however,
had entirely ceased for so long a time, that the recollection of it
was nearly worn out. But since that, as if the time of repentance
was almost expired, and because the nation, by its warlike
successes and acquisition of territory, has in our times unusually
increased in population and strength, they boast in their turn, and
most confidently and unanimously affirm, that in a short time their
countrymen shall return to the island, and, according to the
prophecies of Merlin, the nation, and even the name, of foreigners,
shall be extinguished in the island, and the Britons shall exult
again in their ancient name and privileges. But to me it appears
far otherwise; for since
"Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis,
Nec facile est aequa commoda mente pati;"
And because
"Non habet unde suum paupertas pascat amorem, . . .
Divitiis alitur luxuriosus amor."
So that their abstinence from that vice, which in their prosperity
they could not resist, may be attributed more justly to their
poverty and state of exile than to their sense of virtue.
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