Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  The three Polos started on their tremendous journey and crossed the whole length of Asia by the land routes. What mighty journeys they were! Even now, to follow the route of the Polos would take the best part of a year. Partly the Polos followed the old route of Hiuen Tsang. They went via Palestine to Armenia and then to Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, where they met merchants from India. Across Persia to Balkh, and over the mountains to Kashgar, and then to Khotan and the Lop-Nor, the Wandering Lake. Again the desert, and so on to the fields of China and Peking. They had a sovereign passport with them—a gold tablet given by the Great Khan himself.

  This was the old caravan route between China and Syria in the days of ancient Rome. A short while ago I read of a journey across the Gobi Desert by Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer and traveller. He went from Peking west, crossing the desert, touching the Lake—Lop-Nor— on to Khotan and beyond. He had every modern convenience with him, and yet his expedition had to face trouble and suffering. What must the journey have been like 700 and 1300 years ago, when the Polos and Hiuen Tsang went that way! Sven Hedin made an interesting discovery. He found that Lop-Nor, the lake, had changed its position. Long ago, in the fourth century, the river Tarin, which flows into the Lop-Nor, changed its course, and the desert sands quickly came and covered its old deserted course. The old city of Loulan that stood there was cut off from the outside world and its inhabitants left it to its ruin. The lake also changed its position because of this river, and the old caravan and trade route did likewise. Sven Hedin found that very recently, only a few years ago, the Tarin river had again changed its course and gone back to its old position. The lake has followed it. Again the Tarin goes by the ruins of the old city of Loulan, and it may be that the old route, unused for 1600 years, may again come into fashion, but the place of the camel may be taken by the motor-car. It is because of this that Lop-Nor is called the Wandering Lake. I have told you of the wanderings of the Tarin river and the Lop-Nor, as it will give some idea of how water-courses change large areas, and thus affect history. Central Asia, in the old days, as we have seen, had a teeming population; and wave after wave of its people went conquering to the west and to the south. Today it is almost a deserted area, with few towns and a sparse population. Probably there was much more water there at that time, and so it could support a big population. As the climate became drier and water less abundant, the population lessened and dwindled away.

  There was one advantage in these long journeys. One had time to learn the new language or languages. The three Polos took three and a half years to reach Peking from Venice, and during this long period Marco mastered the Mongol language, and perhaps Chinese also. Marco became a favourite with the Great Khan, and for nearly seventeen years he served him. He was made governor, and went on official missions to different parts of China. Although Marco and his father were homesick and wanted to return to Venice, it was not easy to get the Khan’s permission. At last they had a chance of returning. The Mongol ruler of the Ilkhan Empire in Persia, who was a cousin of Kublai’s, lost his wife. He wanted to marry again, but his old wife had made him promise not to marry any woman outside their clan. So Argon (that was his name) sent envoys to Kublai Khan to Peking and begged him to send a suitable woman of the clan to him.

  Kublai Khan selected a young Mongol princess, and the three Polos were added to her escort as they were experienced travellers. They went by sea from the south of China to Sumatra and stayed there for some time. The Buddhist Empire of Sri Vijaya flourished in Sumatra then, but it was shrinking. From Sumatra the party came to South India. I have already told you of Marco’s visit to the flourishing port of Kayal in the Pandya kingdom of South India. The Princess and Marco and the party made a fairly long stay in India. They seem to have been in no hurry, and it took them two years to reach Persia. But meanwhile the expectant bridegroom had died! He had waited long enough. Perhaps it was not such a great misfortune that he died. The young Princess married Argon’s son, who was much more her age.

  The Polos left the Princess and went on towards home via Constantinople. They reached Venice in 1295, twenty-four years after they had left it. No one recognized them, and it is said that to impress their old friends and others, they gave a feast, and in the middle of it they ripped open their shabby and padded clothes. Immediately valuable jewels—diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other kinds—came out in heaps and astonished the guests. But still, few people believed the stories of the Polos about their adventures in China and India. They thought that Marco and his father and uncle were exaggerating. Used to their little republic of Venice, they could not imagine the size and wealth of China and other Asiatic countries.

  Three years later, in 1295, Venice went to war with the city of Genoa. They were both sea Powers and rivals of each other, and there was a great naval battle between them. The Venetians got beaten, and many thousands of them were made prisoners by the Genoese. Among these prisoners was our friend Marco Polo. Sitting in his prison in Genoa, he wrote, or rather dictated, an account of his travels. In this way the Travels of Marco Polo came into existence. What a useful place prison is in which to do good work!

  In these travels Marco describes China especially, and the many journeys he made through it; he also describes to some extent Siam, Java, Sumatra, Ceylon and South India. He tells us of the great Chinese seaports crowded with ships from all parts of the Orient, some so large as to carry crews of 300 or 400 men. He describes China as a smiling and prosperous country with many cities and boroughs; and manufactures of “cloth of silk and gold and many fine taffetas”; and “fine vineyards and fields and gardens”; and “excellent hostelries for travellers” all along the routes. He tells of a special messenger service for imperial messages. These messages travelled at the rate of 400 miles in twenty-four hours by relays of horses—which is very good going indeed. We are informed that the people of China used black stones, which they dug out of the ground, in place of firewood. This obviously means that they worked coal-mines and used coal as fuel. Kublai Khan issued paper money— that is, he issued paper notes with the promise to pay in gold, as is done today. This is most interesting as showing that a modern method of creating credit was used by him. Marco mentioned, much to the excitement and amazement of people in Europe, that a Christian colony, under a ruler, Prester John, lived in China. Probably these were some old Nestorians in Mongolia.

  About Japan and Burma and India, he also wrote: sometimes what he had seen, and sometimes what he had heard. Marco’s story was, and still is, a wonderful story of travel. To the people of Europe in their tight little countries with their petty jealousies it was an eye-opener. It brought home to them the greatness and wealth and marvels of the larger world. It excited their imaginations, and called to their sense of adventure, and tickled their cupidity. It induced them to take to the sea more. Europe was growing. Its young civilization was finding its feet and struggling against the restrictions of the Middle Ages. It was full of energy, like a youth on the verge of manhood. This urge to the sea and the quest of wealth and adventure carried the Europeans later to America, round the Cape of Good Hope, to the Pacific, to India, to China and Japan. The sea became the highway of the world, and the great caravan routes across continents lessened in importance.

  The Great Khan, Kublai, died soon after Marco Polo left him. The Yuan dynasty, which he had founded in China, did not long survive him. The Mongol power declined rapidly, and there was a Chinese nationalist wave against the foreigner. Within sixty years the Mongols had been driven out from South China, and a Chinaman had established himself as Emperor at Nanking. In another dozen years—in 1368—the Yuan dynasty fell finally and the Mongols were driven beyond the Great Wall. Another great Chinese dynasty—the “Tai Ming” dynasty—comes upon the scene now. For a long period, nearly 300 years, this dynasty ruled in China, and this period is looked upon as one of good government, prosperity and culture. No attempt was made at foreign conquests or imperialistic ventures.

  The break-up o
f the Mongol Empire in China resulted ending the intercourse between China and Europe. The land routes were not safe now. The sea routes were not much in use yet.

  70

  The Roman Church Becomes Militant

  June 28, 1932

  I have told you that Kublai Khan sent a message to the Pope asking him to send 100 learned men to China. But the Pope did no such thing. He was in a bad way at the time. If you remember it, this was the period, after the death of Emperor Frederick II, when there was no Emperor from 1250 to 1273. Central Europe was in a frightful condition then, and there was disorder, and robber knights plundering everywhere. Rudolph of Hapsburg became Emperor in 1273, but this did not improve matters much. Italy was lost to the Empire.

  Not only was there political disorder, but there were the beginnings of what might be called religious disorder, from the point of view of the Roman Church. People were no longer so docile and obedient to the orders of the Church. They had begun to doubt, and doubt is a dangerous thing in matters religious. Already we have seen the Emperor Frederick II treating the Pope casually and not caring much about being excommunicated. He even started an argument with him in writing, and the Pope did not come off well in this argument. There must have been many doubters like Frederick in Europe in his time. There were many also who, though not doubting or objecting to the claims of the Church or the Pope, resented the corruption and luxury of the big men of the Church.

  The Crusades were tapering off rather ignominiously. They had started off with great hopes and enthusiasm, but they failed to achieve anything, and such failures always bring about a reaction. Not wholly satisfied with the Church as it was, people began, rather vaguely and gradually, to look elsewhere for light. The Church retaliated by violence, and tried to retain control over men’s minds by methods of terrorism. It forgot that the mind of man is a very tricky thing and that brute force is a poor weapon against it. So it tried to strangle the stirrings of conscience in individuals and groups; it tried to meet doubt not by argument and reason, but by the club and the stake.

  As early as 1155, the wrath of the Church fell on a popular and earnest preacher, Arnold of Brescia in Italy. Arnold preached against the corruption and luxury of the clergy. He was seized and hanged, and then his dead body was burnt and the ashes were thrown into the river Tiber, so that people might not keep them as relics! To the last Arnold was constant and calm.

  The Popes even went so far as to declare whole groups and Christian sects, who differed in some small matter of belief or who criticized the clergy too much, as outcasts. Regular crusades were proclaimed against these people and every kind of disgusting cruelty and frightfulness was practised against them. In this way were treated the Albigeois (or the Albigenses) of Toulouse in the south of France, and the Waldenses, the followers of a man named Waldo.

  About this time, or rather a little earlier, there lived a man in Italy who is one of the most attractive figures in Christianity. He was Francis of Assisi. He was a rich man who gave up his riches and, taking a vow of poverty, went out into the world to serve the sick and the poor. And because lepers were the most unhappy and uncared for, he devoted himself especially to them. He founded an order—the Order of St. Francis, it is called—something like the Sangha of the Buddha. He went about preaching and serving from place to place, trying to live as Christ had lived. Great numbers of people came to him, and many became his disciples. He even went to Egypt and Palestine, while the Crusades were going on. But, Christian as he was, the Muslims respected this gentle and lovable person, and did not interfere with him in any way. He lived from 1181 to 1226. His Order came into conflict with the high officials of the Church after his death. Perhaps the Church did not fancy this stress on a life of poverty. They had outgrown this primitive Christian doctrine. Four Franciscan friars were burnt alive as heretics in Marseilles in 1318.

  A few years ago there was a great celebration at the little town of Assisi in honour of St. Francis. I forget why it was held then. Probably it was the seven hundredth anniversary of his death.

  Like the Franciscan Order, but very unlike it in spirit, another Order rose inside the Church. This was founded by St. Dominic, a Spaniard, and it is called the Dominican Order. This was aggressive and orthodox. To them everything was to be subordinated to the grand duty of maintaining the faith. If this could not be done by persuasion, then it would be done by violence.

  The Church started the reign of violence in religion, formally and officially, in 1233, by starting what is called the Inquisition. This was a kind of court which inquired into the orthodoxy of people’s beliefs, and if they did not come up to the standard, their usual punishment was death by burning. There was a regular hunt for “heretics”, and hundreds of them were burnt at the stake. Even worse than this burning was the torture inflicted on them to make them recant. Many poor unfortunate women were accused of being witches and were burnt. But this was often done, and especially in England and Scotland, by the mob, and not by order of the Inquisition.

  The Pope issued an “Edict of Faith” calling upon every man to be an informer! He condemned chemistry and called it a diabolical art. And all this violence and terror was done in all honesty. They believed that by burning the man at the stake, they were saving his soul or the souls of other people. Men of religion have often thrust themselves on others, forced down their own views on them and believed that they were doing a public service. In the name of God they have killed and murdered; and talking about saving the “immortal soul”, they have not hesitated to reduce the mortal body to ashes. The record of religion is very bad. But I do not think there is anything to beat the Inquisition for coldblooded cruelty. And yet it is an amazing thing that many of the men who were responsible for this did it, not for any personal gain, but in the firm belief that they were doing the right thing.

  While the Popes were letting loose this reign of terror on Europe, they were losing the commanding position they had come to occupy, as the lords of kings and emperors. The days of their excommunicating an emperor and frightening him into submission were gone. When the Holy Roman Empire was in a bad way, and there was no emperor, or the Emperor kept far from Rome, the King of France began to interfere with the Popes. In 1303, the King was displeased at something the Pope had done. He sent a man to him, who forced his way to the Pope’s bedroom in his own palace, and insulted him to his face. There was no disapproval of this insulting treatment in any country. Compare this with the bare-footed emperor in the snow at Canossa!

  A few years later, in 1309, a new Pope, who was a Frenchman, took up his residence at Avignon, in France. Here the Popes lived till 1377 very much under the influence of the French kings. Next year, in 1378, there was a split in the College of Cardinals, called the Great Schism. Two Popes were elected, one by each group of cardinals. One Pope lived at Rome and the Emperor and most countries of northern Europe acknowledged him; the other, who came to be called the anti-Pope, lived at Avignon, and the King of France and some of his allies supported him. For forty years this continued, and Pope and anti-Pope cursed each other and excommunicated each other. In 1417 there was a compromise and a new Pope, living in Rome, was elected by both parties. But this unseemly quarrel between two Popes must have had a very great effect on the people of Europe. If the vicars and representatives of God on earth, as they called themselves, behave in this way, people begin to doubt their holiness and bona fides. So this quarrel helped greatly in shaking people out of a blind obedience to religious authority. But they required much more shaking yet.

  One of the men who started criticizing the Church rather freely was Wycliffe, an Englishman. He was a clergyman and a professor at Oxford. He is famous as the first translator of the Bible into English. He managed to escape the anger of Rome during his lifetime, but in 1415, thirty-one years after his death, a Church Council ordered that his bones should be dug up and burnt! And this was done.

  Although Wycliffe’s bones were desecrated and burnt, his views could not easily be
stifled, and they spread. They even reached far Bohemia, or Czechoslovakia as it is called now, and influenced John Huss, who became the head of the Prague University. He was excommunicated by the Pope for his views, but they could do little to him in his native town, as he was very popular. So they played a trick on him. He was given a safe conduct by the Emperor and invited to Constance in Switzerland, where a Church Council was sitting. He went. He was told to confess his error. He refused to do so unless he was convinced of it. And then in spite of their promise and safe conduct, they burnt him alive. This was in 1415 AC Huss was a very brave man and he preferred a painful death to saying what he knew to be false. He died a martyr to freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. He is one of the heroes of the Czech people, and his memory is honoured to this day in Czechoslovakia.

  John Huss’s martyrdom was not in vain. It was a spark which lighted a fire of insurrection among his followers in Bohemia. The Pope proclaimed a crusade against them. Crusades were cheap and cost nothing and there were plenty of scoundrels and adventurers who took advantage of them. These Crusaders committed “the most horrible atrocities” (as H. G. Wells tells us) on innocent people. But when the army of the Hussites came singing their battle-hymn, the Crusaders vanished. They went back rapidly the way they had come. So long as innocent villagers could be killed and plundered, the Crusaders were full of martial enthusiasm, but on the approach of organized fighters, they fled.