100 Documents That Changed the World Read online

  His bull, Ad Extirpanda, defined the circumstances and methods for torturing heretics to obtain the confessions that would furnish such evidence. The approach assumed that the guilty suspect always had to admit his or her own guilt and implicate others.

  Pope Innocent IV directed that his bull be entered into every city’s municipal statutes. The inquisitors themselves were not permitted to apply the torture, but they were expected to direct it, and the courts were vested with the full power of the Church. In exchange for carrying out the punishment, the state was entitled to a portion of the proceeds of the property that had been seized from the heretics. Defendants could be imprisoned for long periods as evidence against them was gathered, and every sort of painful punishment could be employed to extract the confessions, provided it did not cause loss of life or limb, was used only once, and the inquisitor considered the evidence virtually certain. For example, Number 26 of the 39 laws proclaimed:

  The head of state or ruler must force all the heretics whom he has in custody, provided he does so without killing them or breaking their arms or legs, as actual robbers and murderers of souls and thieves of the sacraments of God and Christian faith, to confess their errors and accuse other heretics whom they know, and specify their motives, and those whom they have seduced, and those who have lodged them and defended them, as thieves and robbers of material goods are made to accuse their accomplices and confess the crimes they have committed.

  Pope Innocent IV’s ‘Proclamation of the Laws and Regulations to be followed by Magistrates and Secular Officials against Heretics and their Accomplices and Protectors’ was issued on 15 May 1252, paving the way for several centuries of suffering.

  An illustration from a 1330s manuscript showing Pope Innocent IV sending a mission of Dominicans and Franciscans out to the Tartars.

  Pope Innocent IV’s papal bull gave him the authority to use torture to extract confessions from suspects. It granted state rulers the right to arrest and execute non-Catholic Christians. The bull made torture legal in the punishment of heretics for five-and-a-half centuries, until it was finally abolished by Pope Pius VII in 1816.

  A 1471 edition of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, complete with 15th-century handwritten annotations.

  Summa Theologica

  (1265–74)

  Thomas Aquinas is the greatest Catholic philosopher and theologian of the high Middle Ages and his masterpiece, Summa Theologica, offers what is perhaps the finest explanation of Christian faith, although he dies before completing it. The work is considered one of the most influential works of Western literature.

  Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) was born in Roccasecca, near Rome, and grew up in the great Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino. While studying at the University of Naples, he joined the controversial new Dominican order over the objections of his parents, who held him prisoner for a year in the family castle in a futile effort to dissuade him from becoming a Dominican priest. His brothers even hired a prostitute to seduce him, but that didn’t work either.

  After many years studying and teaching theology in Paris, Cologne, Rome, and other learning centres, the seasoned Dominican scholar in 1265 undertook the writing of the Summa Theologica. Originally intended as an instructional guide for moderate young theologians, Thomas’s collection of the main teachings of the Catholic Church turned into the definitive examination of Christian reasoning on all of the major matters confronting persons of faith.

  What is the proof for God’s existence and what is his nature? How was the world created? What is the way to God? And many other questions.

  Thomas’s judgement was sound and sober and his use of the Scriptures masterful. Thomas also educated his readers about more than the sacred doctrines of the Catholic Church. In the tradition of scholasticism, he drew from Muslim, Hebrew and pagan sources as well, citing works by Aristotle, Boethius, Plato, Maimonides, the Roman jurist Ulpian and other great thinkers, offering a universal interpretation of their ideas. ‘Law,’ he writes, is ‘an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community’ and ‘the human mind may perceive truth only through thinking, as is clear from Augustine.’

  The Summa is both a compendium and a manual of theology, the study of which he viewed as a science. His treatise summarizes the history of the cosmos and reveals the meaning of life, according to holy belief. ‘It is certain and evident to our senses,’ he writes,

  that in the world some things are in motion. Now whatever is moved is moved by another...If that by which it is moved be itself moved, then this also must needs be moved by another, and that by another again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover and, consequently, no other mover, seeing that subsequent movers move only inasmuch as they are moved by the first mover, as the staff moves only because it is moved by the hand. Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, moved by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.

  Although the last part remained unfinished at Thomas’s death in 1274, the document he left behind totalled 3,500 dense pages.

  He was canonized in 1323 as Saint Thomas Aquinas.

  This detail from The Demidoff Altarpiece (1476) shows Thomas Aquinas surrounded by symbols of his sacred learning.

  Hereford Mappa Mundi

  (1280–1300)

  Drawn on a large hide, the encyclopedic Hereford Mappa Mundi depicts the world as it appears to educated Europeans in the late 13th century, showing everything from geography and biblical lore to exotic animals, strange peoples from foreign lands and images from classical mythology – making it a mapped storehouse of medieval knowledge.

  On display in a new library adjoining England’s magnificent Hereford Cathedral is one of the world’s grandest visual documents – the Hereford Mappa Mundi, the largest medieval map. Measuring 163 by 132 centimetres, it consists of a single sheet of vellum stretched over an oak framework. The map portion is set in a circle. Most of the writing is in black ink, with a few additional colours – red for the Red Sea, blue or green for other waters, for example.

  The map is signed by ‘Richard of Haldingham and Lafford, prebend of Lafford in Lincoln Cathedral’, who was a cosmologist and cartographer in the region. Experts date its origin to somewhere between 1280 and 1300. Many scholars believe the document was originally intended as a decorative altarpiece, which may have been designed to educate the local congregation about the world in all of its glory and dangers as the parishioners knelt and prayed.

  Like other maps of its time, the Mundi’s geography conforms to Church doctrine, showing heaven as well as numerous key biblical sites, with Jerusalem placed at the centre of the world. Near the centre of the map, Babylon is shown as a multi-storied fortress city near the Tower of Babel. Above it, in gold letters, India appears as an exotic land with dragons, and above that is the glorious Garden of Eden.

  The British Isles appear larger in scale than their actual size. The depiction of the areas now called Asia, Africa and Europe, and some of their adjacent islands, also reflects the rudimentary state of knowledge in 13th-century England.

  In addition to showing 500 cities or towns, a sizeable number of the entries depict exotic peoples, animals and plants according to their heralded reputation. The aphrodisiac mandrake, for example, is featured with roots that resemble a human’s hair as many informed Englishmen believed in those days.

  The map includes more than 1,000 legends, listing the names of certain countries, rivers, cities and other natural features, along with images capturing their perceived essence. The descriptions are in Latin and the Norman dialect of old French.

  The map encapsulates how 13th-century scholars interpreted the world in religious as well as geographical terms, representing an early form of what today might be called a data map. A virtual map, enabling readers to study the document in depth, is available at Hereford Cathedral’s Mappa Mundi Exploration website.

  A detail of Mappa Mundi showing the Tower of Babel, Sodo
m and Gomorrah and the Red Sea.

  The Mappa Mundi’s detailed view of the world is contained within a 132-centimetre-diameter circle. The map reflects the outlook of the English church in the Middle Ages. Jerusalem is at the centre, with countries and oceans squeezed and stretched to fit into the map.

  An original 42-line Gutenberg Bible. Space was left at the start of new sections so that hand-drawn letters could be added in red or blue ink.

  Gutenberg Bible

  (1450s)

  Although the first inventions occurred much earlier in China and Korea, the genesis of modern printing by means of a printing press using metal movable type is rightly traced to Gutenberg’s publication of the Bible, which changed the nature of document production – and transformed the world.

  Woodblock printing was invented in China early in the sixth century when a carved board was inked and used to print multiple copies of a page. The Chinese also modified the method to create individual characters in the 1040s, although their use of such technology was limited by the requirement of having to create the thousands of individual characters needed for Chinese writing. Korea was the first country to adopt China’s woodblock printing and the first to devise metal movable type for individual characters, which was done to print the Buddhist document Jikji in 1377. But the complexities of Asian languages made the use of metal movable type better suited for publishing Western alphabetical languages.

  The great breakthrough occurred in the 1450s when a blacksmith and printer in Mainz, Germany named Johannes Gutenberg (1398–1468) spent four years perfecting new printing methods in order to produce an exquisite edition of the Vulgate, the fourth-century Latin-language version of the Bible.

  Working with a crew of at least 20 ink-stained assistants, Gutenberg developed his fine printing technology largely from scratch, experimenting with different inks, papers and processes until he had found the right one. Instead of traditional water-based inks, he chose oil-based ink of the highest quality and mastered its manufacture to the most exacting standards. The best paper was brought in from Italy. Through trial and error, he developed a special metal alloy that would melt at a low temperature but remain strong enough to withstand being squeezed in a press. He found just the right method to make individual letters by casting them in a specially created sand-cast mould, also devising ways to sort, store and maintain the type so it could be used repeatedly with good effect. His fonts were expertly designed and crafted with absolute precision, with 292 different blocks of type, including as many as six versions of the same letter, made to different widths to enable each to be squeezed to fit in a tight space if needed, down to the millimetre. His custom-made wooden printing press, modelled on a winepress, enabled the operator to print pages at a much faster rate than any woodblock press and the quality of the finished product was excellent.

  Notable for its regularity of ink impression, harmony of layout and other qualities, the 1,286-page Gutenberg Bible (also known as the ‘42-line Bible’, ‘Mazarin Bible’ or ‘B42’) was hailed as a masterpiece.

  Scholars today think that somewhere between 160 and 185 copies were printed, of which 48 have survived. The Gutenberg Bible had a profound effect on printing and fuelled an information revolution.

  The Korean Jikji, a book of Buddhist teachings, was first printed in 1377. It is the oldest extant book produced with movable metal type.

  Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks

  (1478–1519)

  For most of his later life, the quintessential Renaissance man keeps a daily record of his interests and ideas, abounding with careful illustrations and notes showing that he is far ahead of his time. That is why he furtively writes much of the text by means of his own secretive method – the ‘da Vinci code’.

  Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452–1519), the great Italian Renaissance polymath of all polymaths, possessed boundless creativity, ‘unquenchable curiosity’ and a ‘feverishly inventive imagination’. His mind burst with insights about infants in the womb, helicopters and submarines, the inner-workings of plants and endless other phenomena.

  As da Vinci did not want his ideas pilfered, he had to go to remarkable lengths not to offend the tyrannical hegemony of his day. Knowing that one move deemed threatening to those in power could dearly cost him, he tried to cover at least some of his tracks.

  While making extensive notes and drawings to record some of his current pursuits in art and natural philosophy, da Vinci often cloaked his observations by means of a unique backwards-lettered cursive script that he had designed to keep out thieves, inquisitors and other enemies. His peculiar form of ‘mirror handwriting’ may have been facilitated by his being left-handed, but it drove intruders crazy.

  The master would start fleshing out his ideas by making quick sketches on loose sheets of paper, sometimes utilizing miniature paper pads that he stored in his belt. He later would arrange the copious notes according to theme and file them in order in his notebooks.

  After da Vinci’s death, his longtime student and companion Francesco Melzi received 50 of the notebooks containing 13,000 pages and took them to Milan. Upon Melzi’s death, many of the documents eventually ended up getting sold off and some were lost. Many were bound. They became known as ‘The da Vinci Codex’ (a codex being a bound book made up of separate pages).

  Da Vinci’s notebooks later ended up in several of the world’s leading collections such as the Louvre, the British Library and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. The latter possesses the largest notebook, the wide-ranging Codex Atlanticus, consisting of 1,119 leaves that da Vinci compiled between 1478 and 1519. The only major one involving science that is privately owned, the Codex Leicester, was purchased by Bill Gates for $30.8 million in 1994. Written on 72 loose sheets of linen paper between 1506 and 1510 it deals mostly with hydrology.

  Besides providing clues about the mind that produced some of the world’s most treasured art masterpieces, the notebooks are the greatest remaining written representation of da Vinci’s genius across a wide range of disciplines.

  Above are da Vinci’s designs for a flying machine from the Codex Atlanticus. Below are his scientific notes from the Codex Leicester, also known as the Codex Hammer, which was bought by Bill Gates in 1994 for $30.8 million, making it the most expensive manuscript sold at auction.

  The document that ordered all Jews to leave Spain at once, under pain of death and without trial.

  Alhambra Decree

  (1492)

  In the most cataclysmic event in Jewish history since the second century AD, Spain’s Catholic joint monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, issue an edict expelling all of the kingdom’s Jews unless they convert to Christianity – a milestone in the history of intolerance.

  In 1491 Spanish forces scored their victory in the Battle of Granada, effectively ending 780 years of Muslim rule of the Iberian Peninsula. The region’s peaceful coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews came to an end as King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I of Spain took steps to drive out a large Jewish population that had lived there under the Moors.

  On 31 March 1492, the royal couple (led by Isabella) signed an edict, setting forth a list of purported offences committed by the Jews. Conversion being a central issue for the Spanish Inquisition, it was claimed that some purported converts to Christianity still secretly practised Judaism – ‘wicked’ practices, they said, that had ‘redounded to the great injury, detriment and opprobrium of our holy Catholic faith.’ Hence, for these and other alleged offenses, all Jews in the kingdom were ordered to leave the country at once, under pain of death without trial if they remained. Anyone who sheltered or hid Jews stood to forfeit all their property and hereditary privileges.

  The expulsion covered all Jews and their servants and supporters living within the entire Spanish kingdom and territories – an estimated population of 250,000 persons.

  Ferdinand and Isabella issued the document at the same time they ordered Christopher Columbus to sail for the Indies in what would tur
n out to be another world-changing event, and Columbus was keenly aware of it, particularly since he too may have had some Jewish ancestry.

  The Alhambra Decree was ordered to take effect in precisely four months – an impossibly short time frame given what was required. As a result, Dominican priests hounded the Jews to force them to convert. Thousands renounced their Jewish beliefs. Those who did not had to hastily liquidate their homes and businesses (at drastic prices), yet they were forbidden to take away any gold, silver or minted money. In the frantic effort to flee, tens of thousands of refugees died; others were charged exorbitant sums and betrayed. As many as 100,000 exiles trudged to neighbouring Portugal, from which they would be expelled again four years later. Another 50,000 or so crossed into North Africa or they fled by ship to Turkey or other ports. Regardless, by the end of July there were no more Jews left in Spain.

  The Vatican finally revoked the edict in 1968 and in 2014 the government of Spain formally recognized its ‘shameful’ treatment of the Jews back in 1492. The Alhambra Decree records one of history’s infamous chapters of religious persecution.

  A Jewish man pleads for mercy in Emilio Sala’s Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1889), based on the passing of the Alhambra Decree.