'transitory; recline thy beard and chin upon thy breast; turn thy eyes and thoughts towards the middle of thy belly, the region of the navel, and search the place of the heart, the seat of the soul. At first all will be dark and comfortless, but if you persevere, day and night, you will feel an ineffable joy; and no sooner has the soul discovered the place of the heart, 'than it is involved in a mystic and ethereal light.' The nature of this supposed light became the subject of a violent dispute, being regarded by the mystics as the essence of God himself, while Barlaam, as the representative of Western teaching, denounced that notion as heretical and blasphemous. In the more philosophical explanation of the later Quietism, operaa distinction was made between the essence' and the " 'tions' of God; to which latter category was referred the light of the mystics, in common with that of the transfiguration of our Lord on Mount Thabor. The details of the council held on this heresy in St. Sophia, under the presidency of the Emperor Cantacuzenus himself, would hardly repay the trouble of recital; but not the least interesting of the contrasts between the older and the later history of St. Sophia would be a comparison of these Christian discussions on Quietism with the proceedings of a Mahometan council which was held in St. Sophia, as a mosque under Murad IV., and of which Von Hammer has given an account in his most valuable notice of this great historical monument of Christian and Turkish Constantinople.*

Equally instructive might be a review of the military triumphs In the latter in which the name of the old cathedral figures. days of the empire they were infrequent enough, the last being that which followed the termination of the Pannonian war. But the reader will dwell with greater interest on a more recent military crisis, in which, under its new worship, the religious influences of St. Sophia have been used as an incentive to popular enthusiasm and a rallying-point for the loyalty of the soldiers of the Crescent. It was on occasion of the well-known coup-demain by which Sultan Mahmoud, in 1822, freed himself and his crown for ever from the military despotism of the Janissaries. The instrument employed to arouse the popular enthusiasm was the Sandjac-Sheriff, or Holy Standard, which is made, according to the tradition, of the nether garment of the Prophet, and is so sacred in the estimation of the people that it is forbidden to all but true believers to look upon it, nor is it subthe most solemn occasions. mitted even to their gaze except upon

* Constantinopel und der Bosporus, i. p. 353.

Having collected all the troops upon which reliance could be placed, the Sultan summoned a council, in which he proposed to raise the Sandjac Sheriff, as an appeal to the loyalty of all good Mussulmans. This was no sooner known in public, than crowds rushed from their houses in all quarters of the city to join the procession. Upon reaching St. Sophia, the mufti planted the sacred banner on the pulpit, and the Sultan pronounced an anathema against all who should refuse to range themselves beneath it. The Janissaries were then solemnly adjured to acknowledge their error, and to disperse. On their refusal, the Sultan proposed the question whether it was lawful to put down rebellious subjects by force, and on the Sheik's replying in the affirmative, demanded from him his fetva to slay, if resistance were offered. The fatal fetva was accorded; the bloody sequel of the history is known; and the impulse thus given from the St. Sophia of Justinian to the slaughter of the Janissaries, is a sort of historical retribution for the destruction of the older church in that ancient military insurrection-the Nika sedition-which forms, in some sense, a parallel for the scenes of turbulence so frequent in the Janissary rule.

There is another topic upon which we should gladly dwell— the influence upon church architecture which this great monument of the genius of Anthemius has exercised, in ancient and in modern times. The churches of the same name at Trebizond, at Kiev, at Thessalonica, and elsewhere, are servile reproductions of the church of Anthemius; and there is hardly a church of the Greek or Slavonic rite which does not embody some of the ideas of the great prototype of them all. What is really interesting for us is to compare its leading characteristics with those of the earlier as well of the later architecture of the West, and to estimate the degree of influence which each exerted upon the other. On this head we can but refer, although with some reservations, to the elaborate and magnificently illustrated work of MM. Texier and Pullan.

These and the other associations, ancient and modern, of St. Sophia, might supply matter for speculation almost inexhaustible. But it is time to draw to a close. We cannot, however, pass from the subject without expressing a hope that, in the increased facilities of access which the recent changes in the policy of the Porte have created, some scholar may find an inducement to take it up in a broad and comprehensive spirit-its history, its ceremonial, its art, and the numberless associations connected with each which it involves. The subject would repay, by innumerable and most interesting illustrations, the researches of a student thoroughly familiar with Byzantine history; and

however jealous the suspicion with which every such attempt is still watched by the bigotry of local officials, there is always now to be found in the influence of the representatives of the Western Powers with the higher departments of the government of the Porte, a means of counteracting that adverse spirit which, in former days, was sure to meet every effort at inquiry upon the very threshold.

'Worse than steel and flame, and ages slow

Is the dread sceptre and dominion dire

Of men who never felt the sacred glow

That thoughts of thee and thine on polished breasts bestow.'

ART. VII.-Mémoires inédits de Dumont de Bostaquet, Gentilhomme Normand, sur les temps qui ont précedé et suivi la Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes, et sur le Refuge et les Expéditions de Guillaume III. en Angleterre et en Irlande. Paris:

1864.

THIS

HIS is the autobiography of a French Huguenot who, having been forced to leave his country in consequence of the religious persecution which disgraced the reign of Louis XIV., became a soldier of William III., and, after playing an active part in the military scenes of the Revolution of 1688, at length ended his weary pilgrimage in the French colony of Portarlington, in Ireland. The record of his life and experiences passed into the hands of his youngest daughter; and through her, after a succession of descents, it has become the property of Charles Vignoles, sometime minister of the Huguenot church which still exists in the village of Portarlington, and now Dean of the cathedral of Kilkenny. By him the task of editing and publication was confided to Messrs. Read and Waddington, who judged correctly that an interesting book might be made out of the ancient manuscript, and have spared no pains in illustrating the text by learned notes and wellchosen references. The volume may be compared to a deposit

*

These gentlemen, although their names betoken an English origin and English connexions, are distinguished members of the French Protestant body. M. Read, as Secretary of the Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme en France, has rendered the greatest services to this branch of literature, and we hope ere long to revert at greater length to his labours. We are also indebted to these gentlemen for the publication of the curious inedited memoirs of Jean Rou, a Huguenot man of letters who escaped to Holland and England at the same period.

It

originally of little value, which, under the mellowing influences of time, turns into profitable and fertilising matter. is probable that the contemporaries of the author would have felt but little interest in his memoirs, for they abound in petty family details, touch the surface only of passing events, and afford no more information about the leading actors in the history of the period than was known to thousands of that generation. For the reader, however, of the present day they possess the attractions which belong to the genuine testimony of one who witnessed the incidents of a remarkable time; and a diligent student, as we think, will glean from them a number of facts that are not a little curious and instructive. Indeed, the historical value of this volume has been attested by two great masters to whom it was shown while as yet unpublished. M. Michelet has quoted largely from it in his work on the reign of Louis XIV., as illustrating with peculiar clearness the condition of the Huguenots of Normandy at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; and Lord Macaulay owes to it two or three of those striking and spirited touches that give life to his glowing descriptions.

The name of the author of this volume was Isaac Dumont, of Bostaquet, a fief held by knight-service, in the pleasant Pays de Caux, in Normandy. A genealogy which he compiled in exile apprises us that for many generations his family had belonged to the noblesse of the province, and had given good soldiers to the Bans of the kingdom and honoured magistrates to Rouen parliaments. Indeed, the pride of the gentilhomme breaks out in every chapter of his book, and shows how little the Huguenot creed had interfered with the aristocratic sentiments produced by ancient lineage and distinction. M. de Bostaquet enumerates with minute care the various possessions which at different times his ancestors held by noble tenures, and describes with all a herald's accuracy their additions, honours, achievements, and fortunes. Some, he tells us in an exulting tone, had followed William the Norman to Hastings; and in truth we find on his family tree the names of Beauchamp, De Tot, and Basqueville, well known among the soldiers of the Conquest. On the paternal mansion appeared the arms of D'Yvetot, noble before Hugues Capet;' of De Remond, 'sent by Francis the First to give the lie to Charles the Fifth ;' of De Manneville, known at the siege of Calais;' and the House of Dumont, we are informed, could boast not less than twelve quarterings, and was allied to most of the noblesse of Normandy.' It may be observed, however, that M. de Bostaquet, though proud of his patrician descent, does not even try to

6

disguise the fact that the blood of several plebeian families had mingled by marriage with his own; thus illustrating M. de Tocqueville's remark that the distinction between the noble and the roturier was less in the France of Louis XIV. than in the France of his great-great-grandson.

About the middle of the sixteenth century, as we gather from the names in their pedigree, the Dumont family became Huguenots, in common with many of the nobles of the province. The Geoffroys, the Pierres, the Remys, and the Guillaumes who had transmitted the honours of the house, give place to Isaacs, Abrahams, and Samuels, all, doubtless, men of the new doctrines. From the silence of their descendant, however, we may infer that they took little part in the busy and sanguinary war of religion, or in the violent revolutionary outbreak which in the reign of Louis XIII. was overcome by the policy of Richelieu. No Dumont figures among the chivalry who fought on the bloody plains of Arques, where Norman nobles perished by scores; and the name is not recorded among the Huguenot supporters of Rohan and Soubise, in their desperate struggle with the Great Cardinal. At this latter time, the chiefs of the house enjoyed high consideration and respect, not only among the neighbouring seigneurie, but also among the proud aristocracy who surrounded the throne of Anne of Austria, and of whom many of the most illustrious still adhered to the faith and ritual of Calvin. Some scions of the family, however, had been already attracted to Holland by the influence of a common Protestantism, had served in the armies of the States-General, and had become known to the Princes of Nassau. Isaac Dumont, the author of this volume, was born at Bostaquet, in 1632, three years after the genius of Richelieu had put an end to the sectarian troubles which had agitated France for several years by placing the Huguenots in the full enjoyment of complete civil and religious equality, while he had taken from them a number of privileges which had proved a source of peril to the monarchy.

The boy, born under these happy auspices, was educated as befitted a scion of the most accomplished aristocracy in Europe. From earliest youth he saw a great deal of the best society of Normandy and Picardy; and it is evident that his Huguenot birth was no obstacle to this intercourse. Having acquired the rudiments at a school at Rouen, he was sent at the age of fourteen to Saumur, one of the four national seats of learning which had been wisely left to the Huguenots as places of academic education. At this period, if we believe the testimony of the provincial synods, the foundation of Duplessis Morny