682 



TROSACHS TROUBADOURS. 



Prussian part contains 54,500, the Austrian 76,000 

 inhabitants. In the latter is situated the capital, 

 Troppuu, on the Oppa, with 8300 inhabitants, ex- 

 clusive of the 3000 inhabitants of Kutharinendorf, 

 which is connected with the city. Troppau is 

 famous for the congress, held there from October 

 to December, 1820, in which the assembled mon- 

 archs, the emperors of Austria and Russia, and the 

 king of Prussia, announced the principle of armed 

 intervention. The revolutions of Spain, Portugal, 

 and Naples, gave occasion to this congress. The 

 protocols were drawn up by Gentz. The object of 

 the deliberations was to effect a compact between 

 the great powers, that they would not acknowledge 

 any constitution which should deviate from the 

 legitimate monarchical standard. But England and 

 France endeavoured to establish the system of neu- 

 trality, the reasons for which were stated in a note 

 of lord Stewart. Great Britain expressed her un- 

 willingness to take part in any measure of violence 

 against Naples, and France would join the league 

 only upon certain conditions, which, however, were 

 refused by Austria, Russia and Prussia, as these 

 powers were resolved to use force to put down the 

 revolutionary spirit. The king of Naples was in- 

 vited to proceed to Laybach, in order to act the 

 part of mediator between his people and the govern- 

 ments, whose quiet was endangered by the revolu- 

 tion in Naples. The king of France joined in the 

 invitation, and Ferdinand I. left Naples, December 

 13, with the consent of the Neapolitan parliament. 

 He arrived at Laybach in January. It had been fur- 

 ther resolved at Troppau, that in case a war should 

 actually break out with Naples, Austria should 

 carry it on alone, whilst Russia and Prussia pledged 

 themselves to keep watch on the rest of Europe, 

 and guarantied the security of the Austrian states. 

 The monarchs also disclaimed all ideas of conquest 

 or of injury to the independence of other states. 

 The first work written against the congress of 

 Troppau was Bignon's Du Congres de Troppau. 

 TROSACHS. See Loch Katrine. 

 TROTZENDORF, VALENTINE FKIEDLAND, the 

 most distinguished schoolmaster of his time, of 

 whom Melanchthon said, " quern ad regendas scho- 

 las non minus natum, quam ad regenda castra Sci- 

 pionem olim Africanum puto" (Decl., vol. v., p. 817), 

 was born probably in 1490, in Trotzendorf, in Up- 

 per Lusatia. His father was a poor peasant, and 

 Valentine learned to write on the bark of birch, 

 with ink made of water and soot. By great efforts, 

 he was enabled to study in Leipsie, where he be- 

 came master of arts in 1515. He instructed the 

 rector of the university in the elements of Greek. 

 In 1518, he went to Wittemberg, and, being too 

 poor to pay a Jew for teaching him Hebrew, he 

 became his servant, to enjoy his instruction. In 

 1531, after having gone through many changes, he 

 became a second time rector of the school at Gold- 

 berg. For thirty-three years he conducted this 

 school with great faithfulness and talent. Pupils 

 came to him from Poland, Lithuania, Austria, Bo- 

 hemia, Hungary, Transylvania, Germany, &c.; and 

 it is said that he used sometimes to salute them, on 

 entering the school in the morning, thus : " Good 

 morning, ye noble lords, ye imperial, royal and 

 princely counsellors, ye burgomasters and magis- 

 trates, mechanics, artists, merchants and soldiers, 

 good-for-nothings though you be." He had some- 

 times above a thousand pupils, and used the members 

 of the upper classes to teach the lower ones. He 

 instructed his scholars in the principles of religion, 



in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, rhetoric, history, dia- 

 lectics, gymnastics and music. " Learn to sing, 

 my dear boys," he would say, "and, then, if you 

 go to heaven, the angels will admit you into their 

 choir." His institution was a republic, with the 

 forms of Roman government, at the head of which 

 he stood. He was assisted by two consuls, two 

 censors, and a senate of twelve members, with 

 whom he decided important affairs. Each class had 

 a questor, &c. He died in 1550, at Leignitz. He 

 was grave, kind, strict, just, active, learned, bene- 

 volent, moderate, and pious; one of the best and 

 most successful teachers th.it ever lived, and re- 

 vered by his pupils, who were so numerous, that 

 he used to say, " Could I but collect all my pupils, 

 I could easily beat the Turks." His memory was 

 extraordinary. 



TROUBADOURS. The most beautiful period 

 of the middle ages produced, in the south of Eu- 

 rope, the singers and poets called Troubadours. The 

 name is derived from the French word trouver, and 

 marks the ease of their poetry, as if in opposition 

 to the elaborate compositions of the Greek rtinrnt . 

 The proper home of the Troubadours was France, 

 part of Upper Italy, and, for some time, the king- 

 doms of Catalonia and Arragon ; and their flourish- 

 ing period extends from the tenth century to the 

 middle of the thirteenth. In this period, cor- 

 responding to the heroic era of Greece, after the 

 migrations of the tribes under Pelasgus and Danaus, 

 chivalry arose, and spread all over Europe, giving 

 birth, in the different countries, to poetry as diver- 

 sified as the forms of the chivalric character from 

 which it sprung. Thus originated the productions 

 of the minnesingers in Germany, the lofty poetry 

 of the north, the ballads of Spain, the songs of the 

 Troubadours and trouveres in France, and those of 

 their brethren, the minstrels, in England. The 

 life of the nobles, at this period, in all the Chris- 

 tian lands, was a scene of hazardous and romantic 

 exploits, favourable, in a high degree, to poetry. 

 But their poetry was necessarily unpolished, the 

 genuine growth of nature and of the genius of the 

 times. In different countries, indeed, it assumed 

 different shapes, but its nature and spirit is one 

 and the same. Through the whole of the middle 

 ages, France was divided by the Loire into two 

 distinct countries, the provinces of the Langue 

 d"oui, or Langue d'oil (Walloon Romance), and of 

 the Langue d'oc (Proven9al Romance). The dif- 

 ference of those two, as shown in their political 

 constitutions, and their history, appears also in 

 their poetry. The trouveres of Northern France, 

 in England called also minstrels, who cultivated the 

 Walloon Romance, the mother of the modern 

 French language, were the epic poets of France, 

 whose songs and chivalrous romances described the 

 fabulous exploits of the knights of the Round Ta- 

 ble, of Amadis, and of Charlemagne, with his peers. 

 They proceeded chiefly from the duchy of Nor- 

 mandy, founded by Rollo, spread over France and 

 England, and flourished from the twelfth century 

 till the rise of the modern French literature. They 

 confined themselves to the reasoning, narrative 

 style, which still prevails in France. The beauti- 

 ful shores of Provence, Languedoc, and Guienne, 

 together with Gascony, had earlier become suscep- 

 tible of civilization, through their intercourse \yith 

 , the Romans ; and the victorious German tribes 

 i found in these regions much stronger inducements 

 , to exchange their savage life for gentler manners 

 than in the north of France. Less isolated than 



