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JANIZARIES--JANSENIUS. 



I'rusa cloth. Teachers came every morning, who 

 n in; lined with them until evening, and taught them 

 to read and write. At a particular time, they were 

 all circumcised. Those who had performed hard 

 labour were made janizaries. Those who were 

 ducated in the seraglios became either spahis, or 

 higher officers of state. Both classes were kept 

 under a strict discipline. The former, particularly, 

 were accustomed to privation of food, drink, and 

 comfortable clothing, and to hard labour. They 

 were exercised in shooting with the bow and harque- 

 Imss by day, and spent the night in a long, lighted 

 hall, with an overseer, who walked up and down, 

 and permitted no one to stir. When they were 

 received into the corps of the janizaries, they were 

 placed in cloister-like barracks, in which the dif- 

 ferent otlas or ortas lived so entirely in common, that 

 the military dignities were called from their soups 

 nnd kitchens. Here not only the younger continued 

 to obey the elders in silence and submission, but all 

 were governed with such strictness, that no one was 

 permitted to spend the night abroad, and whoever 

 was punished was compelled to kiss the hand of him 

 who inflicted the punishment. The younger portion 

 in the seraglios were kept not less strictly, every ten 

 being committed to the care of an inexorable eunuch. 

 They were employed in similar exercises, but like- 

 wise in study. The grand seignior permitted them 

 to leave the seraglio every three years. Those who 

 chose to remain, ascended, according to their age, in 

 the immediate service of their master, from chamber 

 to chamber, and to constantly greater pay, till they 

 attained, perhaps, to one of the four great posts of 

 the innermost chamber, from which the way to the 

 dignity of a beglerbeg, of a capitan deiri (that is, an 

 admiral), or even of a vizier, was open. Those, on 

 the contrary, who took advantage of this permission, 

 entered, each one according to his previous rank, 

 into the four first corps of the paid spahis, who were 

 in the immediate service of the sultan, and in whom 

 he confided more tlian in his other body-guards. This 

 institution fully satisfied expectation. An Austrian 

 ambassador at the court of Soliman, Busbequius, 

 whose accounts are to be perfectly relied on, speaks 

 of the strict discipline of these janizaries, which made 

 them appear at one time like monks, and at another 

 like statues, of their simple dress, with only a few 

 heron's feathers for an ornament to their heads, and 

 of their temperate life. They would not suffer one 

 among them, who had grown up in the indulgences 

 of home. This corps has in many instances been the 

 salvation of the empire. The battle of Varna, the 

 foundation of the Ottoman greatness, would not have 

 l>een gained without them. At Cassova, the Rume- 

 lian and Natolian troops had already fled before the 

 devil, as they called John Hunniades, yet the janizaries 

 obtained the victory. It was their boast that they 

 had never fled in battle ; and Lazarus Suendius, for 

 a long time a German general against them, con- 

 fessed the truth of this assertion. In all accounts they 

 were called the nerve and the sinew of the Ottoman 

 army. It is worthy of remark, that this invincible 

 infantry of the East was formed about the same time 

 (in 1367) as the not less invincible Swiss infantry. 

 The former, however, was composed of slaves, and 

 the latter of free mountaineers. The whole body 

 was divided into four squadrons, each containing a 

 certain number of ortas (troops). Each ortu, in Con- 

 stantinople, was supposed to have 100 men; else- 

 where, 200 or 300. In time of war, the comple- 

 ment was 500 men. The regimental rolls produced 

 on the pay days made the whole number of the corps 

 120,000; but those lists were never correct, and they 

 comprehended all in actual service, the supernume- 

 raries who lived by their trades and callings, and 



succeeded in case of vacancies, and the honorary 

 members. Three years' service gave a right to pay 

 in time of peace. As the government furnished only 

 a small allowance of provisions, and clothing for 

 12,000 men, the privates were suffered to work at 

 their trades. All the men of one regiment were 

 bakers, all those of two others butchers; others, again, 

 were all boatmen, masons, &c.,nnd they were named 

 accordingly. The kttla/i, or cap of dirty white felt, 

 with a long strip hanging down behind, was the dis- 

 tinctive part of a janizary's dress. The Turkish 

 troops were required to find their own arms, but, 

 in time of war fire-arms were furnished to such 

 soldiers as had none, from the arsenal at Constanti- 

 nople. A firelock, pistols, mace, and axe were tin: 

 arms carried by the infantry; and the janizaries prided 

 themselves in having not only well tempered, but also 

 richly ornamented arms. Besides the standards and 

 horse-tails placed before the tent of the aga, or com- 

 mander-in-chief, each ortu had its own particular 

 ensign. But a more important distinction, in the 

 estimation of these troops, were the caldrons attached 

 to each or/a, two or three in number, placed under 

 the care of the subaltern officers. The loss of these 

 was considered as the greatest misfortune which 

 could befell the regiment; and, if they were taken 

 in war, all the officers were immediately cashiered, 

 and in many cases the regiment was publicly dis- 

 graced. In these caldrons the broth was carried 

 daily from the barracks to the different guard-houses. 

 The police of the capital and the large towns was 

 intrusted principally to the janizaries. Lampoons 

 and seditious papers affixed to the gates of the 

 mosques, and conflagrations in various parts of the 

 city, were the means by which this formidable body 

 made its displeasure known to the sultan; but that 

 discontent was seldom excited by any thing except 

 the power of some unpopular minister, or the revival 

 of a more rigid discipline. In various instances, sul- 

 tans were deposed, insulted, and murdered by the 

 insurgent janizaries. This corps offers the only 

 example in Turkish history of a public anathema or 

 bann. After the dethronement of Osinan II., a 

 janizary of the sixty-fifth company dared to raise his 

 hand against his fallen monarch, and strike him in 

 the streets of the city. Amurath III. punished the 

 crime by cutting off the whole company. The 

 memory of the crime and the punishment was renewed 

 twice every month. On Wednesday, when the lights 

 were distributed to the different barracks, the sixty- 

 fifth company was called to receive their portion, 

 but, at the second call, an officer replied, " Let their 

 voice be silent; let them be wholly extinguished.'-' 

 The reforms which were attempted in this corps met 

 with the greatest opposition on the part of the mem- 

 bers, and produced several revolutions. It was 

 finally entirely broken up in 1826. In May, 1828, 

 the janizaries had declared themselves willing to have 

 a new militia formed, but on the 14th June of that 

 year, they rebelled on this account; but the sultan 

 and aga Hussein Pacha, at the head of the grand 

 seignior's troops, repulsed the rebels; their barracks 

 were burnt, and many were executed. The procla- 

 mation of June 1 7th abolished the corps forever, and 

 laid a curse upon the name. The new troops are 

 disciplined in the manner of the Christian nations. 



JANSENIUS, CORNELIUS; professor of theology 

 at Louvain, and from 1636 bishop of Vpres in the 

 Netherlands, owes his fame, which eclipses the name 

 of the elder Cornelius Jansenius (bishop of Ghent ; 

 died 1571; known as a biblical critic), to the con- 

 troversy, during his age, concerning the nature and 

 efficacy of divine grace ; was born in 1585. Owing 

 principally to the different representations of this 

 doctrine by Augustine, who found it necessary to 



