" It
may be readily supposed that after this well-merited rebuke the grinning
courtiers at once disappeared.
Julius II, one of the most warlike of all the Roman Pontiffs, was the
first Pope who permitted his beard to grow, to inspire the faithful with
still greater respect for his august person. Kings and their courtiers
were not slow to follow the example of the Head of the Church and the
ruler of kings, and the fashion soon spread among people of all ranks.
So highly prized was the beard in former times that Baldwin, Prince of
Edessa, as Nicephorus relates in his Chronicle, pawned his beard for a
large sum of money, which was redeemed by his father Gabriel, Prince of
Melitene, to prevent the ignominy which his son must have suffered by
its loss. And when Juan de Castro, the Portuguese admiral, borrowed a
thousand pistoles from the citizens of Goa he pledged one of his
whiskers, saying, "All the gold in the world cannot equal this natural
ornament of my valour." And it is said the people of Goa were so much
affected by the noble message that they remitted the money and returned
the whisker--though of what earthly use it could prove to the gallant
admiral, unless, perhaps, to stuff a tennis ball, it is not easy to say.
To deprive a man of his beard was a token of ignominious subjection, and
is still a common mode of punishment in some Asiatic countries.
Pages:
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388