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diff --git a/3821.txt b/3821.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f64e4c --- /dev/null +++ b/3821.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9464 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Roman and the Teuton, by Charles +Kingsley, Edited by F. Max Muller + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Roman and the Teuton + A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge + + +Author: Charles Kingsley + +Editor: F. Max Muller + +Release Date: October 4, 2007 [eBook #3821] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMAN AND THE TEUTON*** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1889 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +THE ROMAN AND THE TEUTON + + +A SERIES OF LECTURES + +DELIVERED BEFORE + +_THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE_ + +BY +CHARLES KINGSLEY, M.A. + +_NEW EDITION_, _WITH PREFACE_, _BY_ +PROFESSOR F. MAX MULLER + +London +MACMILLAN AND CO. +1889 + +[_All rights reserved_] + +OXFORD: +HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY. + +DEDICATED +TO +The Gentlemen of the University +WHO DID ME THE HONOUR +TO ATTEND THESE LECTURES. + +Contents + +Preface by Professor F. Max Muller + The Forest Children + The Dying Empire + Preface to Lecture III + The Human Deluge + The Gothic Civilizer + Dietrich's End + The Nemesis of the Goths + Paulus Diaconus + The Clergy and the Heathen + The Monk a Civilizer + The Lombard Laws + The Popes and the Lombards + The Strategy of Prividence + Appendix--Inaugural Lecture: The Limits of Exact Science as Applied to +History + + + + +PREFACE + + +Never shall I forget the moment when for the last time I gazed upon the +manly features of Charles Kingsley, features which Death had rendered +calm, grand, sublime. The constant struggle that in life seemed to allow +no rest to his expression, the spirit, like a caged lion, shaking the +bars of his prison, the mind striving for utterance, the soul wearying +for loving response,--all that was over. There remained only the +satisfied expression of triumph and peace, as of a soldier who had fought +a good fight, and who, while sinking into the stillness of the slumber of +death, listens to the distant sounds of music and to the shouts of +victory. One saw the ideal man, as Nature had meant him to be, and one +felt that there is no greater sculptor than Death. + +As one looked on that marble statue which only some weeks ago had so +warmly pressed one's hand, his whole life flashed through one's thoughts. +One remembered the young curate and the Saint's Tragedy; the chartist +parson and Alton Locke; the happy poet and the Sands of Dee; the +brilliant novel-writer and Hypatia and Westward-Ho; the Rector of +Eversley and his Village Sermons; the beloved professor at Cambridge, the +busy canon at Chester, the powerful preacher in Westminster Abbey. One +thought of him by the Berkshire chalk-streams and on the Devonshire +coast, watching the beauty and wisdom of Nature, reading her solemn +lessons, chuckling too over her inimitable fun. One saw him in +town-alleys, preaching the Gospel of godliness and cleanliness, while +smoking his pipe with soldiers and navvies. One heard him in drawing- +rooms, listened to with patient silence, till one of his vigorous or +quaint speeches bounded forth, never to be forgotten. How children +delighted in him! How young, wild men believed in him, and obeyed him +too! How women were captivated by his chivalry, older men by his genuine +humility and sympathy! + +All that was now passing away--was gone. But as one looked on him for +the last time on earth, one felt that greater than the curate, the poet, +the professor, the canon, had been the man himself, with his warm heart, +his honest purposes, his trust in his friends, his readiness to spend +himself, his chivalry and humility, worthy of a better age. + +Of all this the world knew little;--yet few men excited wider and +stronger sympathies. + +Who can forget that funeral on the 28th Jan., 1875, and the large sad +throng that gathered round his grave? There was the representative of +the Prince of Wales, and close by the gipsies of the Eversley common, who +used to call him their Patrico-rai, their Priest-King. There was the old +Squire of his village, and the labourers, young and old, to whom he had +been a friend and a father. There were Governors of distant Colonies, +officers, and sailors, the Bishop of his diocese, and the Dean of his +abbey; there were the leading Nonconformists of the neighbourhood, and +his own devoted curates, Peers and Members of the House of Commons, +authors and publishers; and outside the church-yard, the horses and the +hounds and the huntsman in pink, for though as good a clergyman as any, +Charles Kingsley had been a good sportsman too, and had taken in his life +many a fence as bravely as he took the last fence of all, without fear or +trembling. All that he had loved, and all that had loved him was there, +and few eyes were dry when he was laid in his own yellow gravel bed, the +old trees which he had planted and cared for waving their branches to him +for the last time, and the grey sunny sky looking down with calm pity on +the deserted rectory, and on the short joys and the shorter sufferings of +mortal men. + +All went home feeling that life was poorer, and every one knew that he +had lost a friend who had been, in some peculiar sense, his own. Charles +Kingsley will be missed in England, in the English colonies, in America, +where he spent his last happy year; aye, wherever Saxon speech and Saxon +thought is understood. He will be mourned for, yearned for, in every +place in which he passed some days of his busy life. As to myself, I +feel as if another cable had snapped that tied me to this hospitable +shore. + +When an author or a poet dies, the better part of him, it is often said, +is left in his works. So it is in many cases. But with Kingsley his +life and his works were one. All he wrote was meant for the day when he +wrote it. That was enough for him. He hardly gave himself time to think +of fame and the future. Compared with a good work done, with a good word +spoken, with a silent grasp of the hand from a young man he had saved +from mischief, or with a 'Thank you, Sir,' from a poor woman to whom he +had been a comfort, he would have despised what people call glory, like +incense curling away in smoke. He was, in one sense of the word, a +careless writer. He did his best at the time and for the time. He did +it with a concentrated energy of will which broke through all +difficulties. In his flights of imagination, in the light and fire of +his language he had few equals, if any; but the perfection and classical +finish which can be obtained by a sustained effort only, and by a +patience which shrinks from no drudgery, these are wanting in most of his +works. + +However, fame, for which he cared so little, has come to him. His bust +will stand in Westminster Abbey, in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, +by the side of his friend, Frederick Maurice; and in the Temple of Fame +which will be consecrated to the period of Victoria and Albert, there +will be a niche for Charles Kingsley, the author of Alton Locke and +Hypatia. + +Sooner or later a complete edition of his works will be wanted, though we +may doubt whether he himself would have wished all his literary works to +be preserved. From what I knew of him and his marvellous modesty, I +should say decidedly not. I doubt more especially, whether he would have +wished the present book, _The Roman and the Teuton_, to be handed down to +posterity. None of his books was so severely criticised as this volume +of Lectures, delivered before the University of Cambridge, and published +in 1864. He himself did not republish it, and it seems impossible to +speak in more depreciatory terms of his own historical studies than he +does himself again and again in the course of his lectures. Yet these +lectures, it should be remembered, were more largely attended than almost +any other lectures at Cambridge. They produced a permanent impression on +many a young mind. They are asked for again and again, and when the +publishers wished for my advice as to the expediency of bringing out a +new and cheaper edition, I could not hesitate as to what answer to give. + +I am not so blinded by my friendship for Kingsley as to say that these +lectures are throughout what academical lectures ought to be. I only +wish some one would tell me what academical lectures at Oxford and +Cambridge can be, as long as the present system of teaching and examining +is maintained. It is easy to say what these lectures are not. They do +not profess to contain the results of long continued original research. +They are not based on a critical appreciation of the authorities which +had to be consulted. They are not well arranged, systematic or complete. +All this the suddenly elected professor of history at Cambridge would +have been the first to grant. 'I am not here,' he says, 'to teach you +history. I am here to teach you how to teach yourselves history.' I +must say even more. It seems to me that these lectures were not always +written in a perfectly impartial and judicial spirit, and that +occasionally they are unjust to the historians who, from no other motive +but a sincere regard for truth, thought it their duty to withhold their +assent from many of the commonly received statements of mediaeval +chroniclers. + +But for all that, let us see what these Lectures are, and whether there +is not room for them by the side of other works. First of all, according +to the unanimous testimony of those who heard them delivered at +Cambridge, they stirred up the interest of young men, and made them ask +for books which Undergraduates had never asked for before at the +University libraries. They made many people who read them afterwards, +take a new interest in old and half-forgotten kings and battles, and they +extorted even from unfriendly critics the admission that certain +chapters, such as, for instance, 'The Monk as a Civiliser,' displayed in +an unexpected way his power of appreciating the good points in +characters, otherwise most antipathic to the apostle of Manly +Christianity. They contain, in fact, the thoughts of a poet, a moralist, +a politician, a theologian, and, before all, of a friend and counsellor +of young men, while reading for them and with them one of the most awful +periods in the history of mankind, the agonies of a dying Empire and the +birth of new nationalities. History was but his text, his chief aim was +that of the teacher and preacher, and as an eloquent interpreter of the +purposes of history before an audience of young men to whom history is +but too often a mere succession of events to be learnt by heart, and to +be ready against periodical examinations, he achieved what he wished to +achieve. Historians by profession would naturally be incensed at some +portions of this book, but even they would probably admit by this time, +that there are in it whole chapters full of excellence, telling passages, +happy delineations, shrewd remarks, powerful outbreaks of real eloquence, +which could not possibly be consigned to oblivion. + +Nor would it have been possible to attempt to introduce any alterations, +or to correct what may seem to be mistakes. The book is not meant as a +text-book or as an authority, any more than Schiller's History of the +Thirty Years' War; it should be read in future, as what it was meant to +be from the first, Kingsley's thoughts on some of the moral problems +presented by the conflict between the Roman and the Teuton. One cannot +help wishing that, instead of lectures, Kingsley had given us another +novel, like Hypatia, or a real historical tragedy, a Dietrich von Bern, +embodying in living characters one of the fiercest struggles of humanity, +the death of the Roman, the birth of the German world. Let me quote here +what Bunsen said of Kingsley's dramatic power many years ago: + +'I do not hesitate (he writes) to call these two works, the _Saint's +Tragedy_ and _Hypatia_, by far the most important and perfect of this +genial writer. In these more particularly I find the justification of a +hope which I beg to be allowed to express--that Kingsley might continue +Shakspeare's historical plays. I have for several years made no secret +of it, that Kingsley seems to me the genius of our century, called to +place by the side of that sublime dramatic series from _King John_ to +_Henry VIII_, another series of equal rank, from _Edward VI_ to the +_Landing of William of Orange_. This is the only historical development +of Europe which unites in itself all vital elements, and which we might +look upon without overpowering pain. The tragedy of _St. Elizabeth_ +shows that Kingsley can grapple, not only with the novel, but with the +more severe rules of dramatic art. And _Hypatia_ proves, on the largest +scale, that he can discover in the picture of the historical past, the +truly human, the deep, the permanent, and that he knows how to represent +it. How, with all this, he can hit the fresh tone of popular life, and +draw humourous characters and complications with Shakspearian energy, is +proved by all his works. And why should he not undertake this great +task? There is a time when the true poet, the prophet of the present, +must bid farewell to the questions of the day, which seem so great +because they are so near, but are, in truth, but small and unpoetical. He +must say to himself, "Let the dead bury their dead"--and the time has +come that Kingsley should do so.' + +A great deal has been written on mistakes which Kingsley was supposed to +have made in these Lectures, but I doubt whether these criticisms were +always perfectly judicial and fair. For instance, Kingsley's using the +name of Dietrich, instead of Theodoric, was represented as the very gem +of a blunder, and some critics went so far as to hint that he had taken +Theodoric for a Greek word, as an adjective of Theodorus. This, of +course, was only meant as a joke, for on page 120 Kingsley had said, in a +note, that the name of _Theodoric_, _Theuderic_, _Dietrich_, signifies +'king of nations.' He therefore knew perfectly well that _Theodoric_ was +simply a Greek adaptation of the Gothic name _Theode-reiks_, _theod_ +meaning people, _reiks_, according to Grimm, _princeps_ {1}. But even if +he had called the king Theodorus, the mistake would not have been +unpardonable, for he might have appealed to the authority of Gregory of +Tours, who uses not only Theodoricus, but also Theodorus, as the same +name. + +A more serious charge, however, was brought against him for having used +the High-German form _Dietrich_, instead of the original form +_Theodereiks_ or _Theoderic_, or even _Theodoric_. Should I have altered +this? I believe not; for it is clear to me that Kingsley had his good +reasons for preferring Dietrich to Theodoric. + +He introduces him first to his hearers as 'Theodoric, known in German +song as Dietrich of Bern.' He had spoken before of the Visi-Gothic +Theodoric, and of him he never speaks as Dietrich. Then, why should he +have adopted this High-German name for the great Theodoric, and why +should he speak of Attila too as Etzel? + +One of the greatest of German historians, Johannes von Muller, does the +same. He always calls Theodoric, Dietrich of Bern; and though he gives +no reasons for it, his reasons can easily be guessed. Soon after +Theodoric's death, the influence of the German legends on history, and of +history on the German legends, became so great that it was impossible for +a time to disentangle two characters, originally totally distinct, viz. +_Thjodrekr_ of the Edda, the _Dietrich_ of the German poetry on one side, +and the King of the Goths, _Theodoric_, on the other. What had long been +said and sung about Thjodrekr and Dietrich was believed to have happened +to King Theodoric, while at the same time historical and local elements +in the life of Theodoric, residing at Verona, were absorbed by the +legends of Thjodrekr and Dietrich. The names of the legendary hero and +the historical king were probably identical, though even that is not +quite certain {2}; but at all events, after Theodoric's death, all the +numerous dialectic varieties of the name, whether in High or in +Low-German, were understood by the people at large, both of the hero and +of the king. + +Few names have had a larger number of alias'. They have been carefully +collected by Graff, Grimm, Forstemann, Pott, and others. I here give the +principal varieties of this name, as actually occurring in MSS., and +arranged according to the changes of the principal consonants:-- + +(1) With _Th-d_: Theudoricus, Theudericus, [Greek text], Thiodiricus, +Thiodericus, Thiodric, Thiodricus, Thiodrih, Theodoricus, Theodericus, +Theoderic, Theodrich, Thiadric, Thiadrich, Thiedorik, Thiederic, +Thiederik, Thiederich, Thiedorich, Thiedric, Thiedrich, Thideric, +Thiederich, Thidrich, Thodericus, Thiaedric, Thieoderich, Thederich, +Thedric. + +(2) With _T-d_: Teudericus, Teudricus, Tiodericus, Teodoricus, +Teodericus, Teodric, Teodrich, Tiadric, Tiedrik, Tiedrich, Tiedric, +Tidericus, Tiderich, Tederich. + +(3) With _D-d_: [Greek text], Diodericus, Deoderich, Deodrich, +Diederich, Diderich. + +(4) With _Th-t_: Thiotiricus, Thiotirih, Thiotiricus, Thiotrih, +Theotoricus, Theotericus, Theoterih, Theotrih, Theotrich, Thiatric, +Thieterich, Thietrih, Thietrich, Theatrih. + +(5) With _T-t_: Teutrich, Teoterih, Teotrich, Teotrih, Tieterich, +Teatrih, Tiheiterich. + +(6) With _D-t_: Dioterih, Diotericus, Diotricus, Deotrich, Deotrih, +Dieterih, Dieterich, Dietrich, Diterih, Ditricus. + +(7) With _Th-th_: Theotherich, Theothirich. + +(8) With _T-th_: _deest_. + +(9) With _D-th_: Dietherich. + +It is quite true that, strictly speaking, the forms with Th-d, are Low- +German, and those with D-t, High-German, but before we trust ourselves to +this division for historical purposes, we must remember three facts: (1) +that Proper Names frequently defy Grimm's Law; (2) that in High-German +MSS. much depends on the locality in which they are written; (3) that +High-German is not in the strict sense of the word a corruption of Low- +German, and, at all events, not, as Grimm supposed, chronologically +posterior to Low-German, but that the two are parallel dialects, like +Doric and Aeolic, the Low-German being represented by the earliest +literary documents, Gothic and Saxon, the High-German asserting its +literary presence later, not much before the eighth century, but +afterwards maintaining its literary and political supremacy from the time +of Charlemagne to the present day. + +When Theodoric married Odeflede, the daughter of Childebert, and a sister +of Chlodwig, I have little doubt that, at the court of Chlodwig or +Clovis, his royal brother-in-law was spoken of in conversation as +Dioterih, although in official documents, and in the history of Gregory +of Tours, he appears under his classical name of Theodoricus, in +Jornandes Theodericus. Those who, with Grimm {3}, admit a transition of +Low into High-German, and deny that the change of Gothic _Th_ into High- +German _D_ took place before the sixth or seventh century, will find it +difficult to account, in the first century, for the name of Deudorix, a +German captive, the nephew of Melo the Sigambrian, mentioned by Strabo +{4}. In the oldest German poem in which the name of Dietrich occurs, the +song of Hildebrand and Hadebrand, written down in the beginning of the +ninth century {5}, we find both forms, the Low-German _Theotrih_, and the +High-German _Deotrih_, used side by side. + +Very soon, however, when High-German became the more prevalent language +in Germany, German historians knew both of the old legendary hero and of +the Ost-gothic king, by one and the same name, the High-German +_Dietrich_. + +If therefore Johannes von Muller spoke of Theodoric of Verona as Dietrich +von Bern, he simply intended to carry on the historical tradition. He +meant to remind his readers of the popular name which they all knew, and +to tell them,--This Dietrich with whom you are all acquainted from your +childhood, this Dietrich of whom so much is said and sung in your +legendary stories and poems, the famous Dietrich of Bern, this is really +the Theoderic, the first German who ruled Italy for thirty-three years, +more gloriously than any Roman Emperor before or after. I see no harm in +this, as long as it is done on purpose, and as long as the purpose which +Johannes von Muller had in his mind, was attained. + +No doubt the best plan for an historian to follow is to call every man by +the name by which he called himself. Theodoric, we know, could not +write, but he had a gold plate {6} made in which the first four letters +of his name were incised, and when it was fixed on the paper, the King +drew his pen through the intervals. Those four letters were [Greek +text], and though we should expect that, as a Goth, he would have spelt +his name _Thiudereik_, yet we have no right to doubt, that the vowels +were _eo_, and not _iu_. But again and again historians spell proper +names, not as they were written by the people themselves, but as they +appear in the historical documents through which they became chiefly +known. We speak of Plato, because we have Roman literature between us +and Greece. American names are accepted in history through a Spanish, +Indian names through an English medium. The strictly Old High-German +form of Carolus Magnus would be Charal, A. S. Carl; yet even in the Oaths +of Strassburg (842) the name appears as Karlus and as Karl, and has +remained so ever since {7}. In the same document we find Ludher for +Lothar, Ludhuwig and Lodhuvig for Ludovicus, the oldest form being +Chlodowich: and who would lay down the law, which of these forms shall be +used for historical purposes? + +I have little doubt that Kingsley's object in retaining the name Dietrich +for the Ost-gothic king was much the same as Johannes von Muller's. You +know, he meant to say, of Dietrich of Bern, of all the wonderful things +told of him in the Nibelunge and other German poems. Well, that is the +Dietrich of the German people, that is what the Germans themselves have +made of him, by transferring to their great Gothic king some of the most +incredible achievements of one of their oldest legendary heroes. They +have changed even his name, and as the children in the schools of Germany +{8} still speak of him as their Dietrich von Bern, let him be to us too +Dietrich, not simply the Ost-gothic Theoderic, but the German Dietrich. + +I confess I see no harm in that, though a few words on the strange +mixture of legend and history might have been useful, because the case of +Theodoric is one of the most luculent testimonies for that blending of +fact and fancy in strictly historical times which people find it so +difficult to believe, but which offers the key, and the only true key, +for many of the most perplexing problems, both of history and of +mythology. + +Originally nothing could be more different than the Dietrich of the old +legend and the Dietrich of history. The former is followed by misfortune +through the whole of his life. He is oppressed in his youth by his +uncle, the famous Ermanrich {9}; he has to spend the greater part of his +life (thirty years) in exile, and only returns to his kingdom after the +death of his enemy. Yet whenever he is called Dietrich of Bern, it is +because the real Theodoric, the most successful of Gothic conquerors, +ruled at Verona. When his enemy was called Otacher, instead of Sibich, +it is because the real Theodoric conquered the real Odoacer. When the +king, at whose court he passes his years of exile, is called Etzel, it is +because many German heroes had really taken refuge in the camp of Attila. +That Attila died two years before Theodoric of Verona was born, is no +difficulty to a popular poet, nor even the still more glaring +contradiction between the daring and ferocious character of the real +Attila and the cowardice of his namesake Etzel, as represented in the +poem of the Nibelunge. Thus was legend quickened by history. + +On the other hand, if historians, such as Gregory I (Dial. iv. 36) {10}, +tell us that an Italian hermit had been witness in a vision to the +damnation of Theodoric, whose soul was plunged, by the ministers of +divine vengeance, into the volcano of Lipari, one of the flaming mouths +of the infernal world, we may recognise in the heated imagination of the +orthodox monk some recollection of the mysterious end of the legendary +Dietrich {11}. Later on, the legendary and the real hero were so firmly +welded together that, as early as the twelfth century, chroniclers are at +their wits' end how to reconcile facts and dates. + +Ekkehard, in his Chronicon Universale {12}, which ends 1126 A.D., points +out the chronological contradiction between Jornandes, who places the +death of Ermanrich long before Attila, and the popular story which makes +him and Dietrich, the son of Dietmar, his contemporaries. + +Otto von Freising {13}, in the first half of the twelfth century, +expresses the same perplexity when he finds that Theodoric is made a +contemporary of Hermanricus and Attila, though it is certain that Attila +ruled long after Hermanric, and that, after the death of Attila, +Theodoric, when eight years old, was given by his father as a hostage to +the emperor Leo. + +Gottfried von Viterbo {14}, in the second half of the twelfth century, +expresses his difficulties in similar words. + +All these chroniclers who handed down the historical traditions of +Germany were High-Germans, and thus it has happened that in Germany +Theodoric the Great became Dietrich, as Strataburgum became Strassburg, +or Turicum, Zurich. Whether because English belongs to the Low German +branch, it is less permissible to an English historian than to a German +to adopt these High-German names, I cannot say: all I wished to point out +was that there was a very intelligible reason why Kingsley should have +preferred the popular and poetical name of Dietrich, even though it was +High-German, either to his real Gothic name, Theodereik, or to its +classical metamorphosis, Theodoricus or Theodorus. + +Some other mistakes, too, which have been pointed out, did not seem to me +so serious as to justify their correction in a posthumous edition. It +was said, for instance, that Kingsley ought not to have called Odoacer +and Theodoric, Kings of Italy, as they were only lieutenants of the +Eastern Caesar. Cassiodorus, however, tells us that Odoacer assumed the +name of king (nomen regis Odoacer assumpsit), and though Gibbon points +out that this may only mean that he assumed the abstract title of a king, +without applying it to any particular nation or country, yet that great +historian himself calls Odoacer, King of Italy, and shows how he was +determined to abolish the useless and expensive office of vicegerent of +the emperor. Kingsley guesses very ingeniously, that Odoacer's assumed +title, King of nations, may have been the Gothic _Theode-reiks_, the very +name of Theodoric. As to Theodoric himself, Kingsley surely knew his +real status, for he says: 'Why did he not set himself up as Caesar of +Rome? Why did he always consider himself as son-in-arms, and +quasi-vassal of the Caesar of Constantinople?' + +Lastly, in speaking of the extinction of the Western Empire with Romulus +Augustulus, Kingsley again simply followed the lead of Gibbon and other +historians; nor can it be said that the expression is not perfectly +legitimate, however clearly modern research may have shown that the Roman +Empire, though dead, lived. + +So much in defence, or at all events, in explanation, of expressions and +statements which have been pointed out as most glaring mistakes in +Kingsley's lectures. I think it must be clear that in all these cases +alterations would have been impossible. There were other passages, where +I should gladly have altered or struck out whole lines, particularly in +the ethnological passages, and in the attempted etymologies of German +proper names. Neither the one nor the other, I believe, are Kingsley's +own, though I have tried in vain to find out whence he could possibly +have taken them. + +These, however, are minor matters which are mentioned chiefly in order to +guard against the impression that, because I left them unchanged, I +approved of them. The permanent interest attaching to these lectures +does not spring from the facts which they give. For these, students will +refer to Gibbon. They will be valued chiefly for the thoughts which they +contain, for the imagination and eloquence which they display, and last, +not least, for the sake of the man, a man, it is true, of a warm heart +rather than of a cold judgment, but a man whom, for that very reason, +many admired, many loved, and many will miss, almost every day of their +life. + +M. M. + + + + +LECTURE I--THE FOREST CHILDREN. + + +I wish in this first lecture to give you some general conception of the +causes which urged our Teutonic race to attack and destroy Rome. I shall +take for this one lecture no special text-book: but suppose you all to be +acquainted with the Germania of Tacitus, and with the 9th Chapter of +Gibbon. And I shall begin, if you will allow me, by a parable, a myth, a +saga, such as the men of whom I am going to tell you loved; and if it +seem to any of you childish, bear in mind that what is childish need not +therefore be shallow. I know that it is not history. These lectures +will not be, in the popular sense, history at all. But I beg you to bear +in mind that I am not here to teach you history. No man can do that. I +am here to teach you how to teach yourselves history. I will give you +the scaffolding as well as I can; you must build the house. + +Fancy to yourself a great Troll-garden, such as our forefathers dreamed +of often fifteen hundred years ago;--a fairy palace, with a fairy garden; +and all around the primaeval wood. Inside the Trolls dwell, cunning and +wicked, watching their fairy treasures, working at their magic forges, +making and making always things rare and strange; and outside, the forest +is full of children; such children as the world had never seen before, +but children still: children in frankness, and purity, and +affectionateness, and tenderness of conscience, and devout awe of the +unseen; and children too in fancy, and silliness, and ignorance, and +caprice, and jealousy, and quarrelsomeness, and love of excitement and +adventure, and the mere sport of overflowing animal health. They play +unharmed among the forest beasts, and conquer them in their play; but the +forest is too dull and too poor for them; and they wander to the walls of +the Troll-garden, and wonder what is inside. One can conceive easily for +oneself what from that moment would begin to happen. Some of the more +adventurous clamber in. Some, too, the Trolls steal and carry off into +their palace. Most never return: but here and there one escapes out +again, and tells how the Trolls killed all his comrades: but tells too, +of the wonders he has seen inside, of shoes of swiftness, and swords of +sharpness, and caps of darkness; of charmed harps, charmed jewels, and +above all of the charmed wine: and after all, the Trolls were very kind +to him--see what fine clothes they have given him--and he struts about +awhile among his companions; and then returns, and not alone. The Trolls +have bewitched him, as they will bewitch more. So the fame of the Troll- +garden spreads; and more and more steal in, boys and maidens, and tempt +their comrades over the wall, and tell of the jewels, and the dresses, +and the wine, the joyous maddening wine, which equals men with gods; and +forget to tell how the Trolls have bought them, soul as well as body, and +taught them to be vain, and lustful, and slavish; and tempted them, too +often, to sins which have no name. + +But their better nature flashes out at times. They will not be the +slaves and brutes in human form, which the evil Trolls would have them; +and they rebel, and escape, and tell of the horrors of that fair foul +place. And then arises a noble indignation, and war between the Trolls +and the forest-children. But still the Trolls can tempt and bribe the +greedier or the more vain; and still the wonders inside haunt their +minds; till it becomes a fixed idea among them all, to conquer the garden +for themselves and bedizen themselves in the fine clothes, and drink +their fill of the wine. Again and again they break in: but the Trolls +drive them out, rebuild their walls, keep off those outside by those whom +they hold enslaved within; till the boys grow to be youths, and the +youths men: and still the Troll-garden is not conquered, and still it +shall be. And the Trolls have grown old and weak, and their walls are +crumbling away. Perhaps they may succeed this time--perhaps next. + +And at last they do succeed--the fairy walls are breached, the fairy +palace stormed--and the Trolls are crouching at their feet, and now all +will be theirs, gold, jewels, dresses, arms, all that the Troll +possesses--except his cunning. + +For as each struggles into the charmed ground, the spell of the place +falls on him. He drinks the wine, and it maddens him. He fills his arms +with precious trumpery, and another snatches it from his grasp. Each +envies the youth before him, each cries--Why had I not the luck to enter +first? And the Trolls set them against each other, and split them into +parties, each mad with excitement, and jealousy, and wine, till, they +scarce know how, each falls upon his fellow, and all upon those who are +crowding in from the forest, and they fight and fight, up and down the +palace halls, till their triumph has become a very feast of the Lapithae, +and the Trolls look on, and laugh a wicked laugh, as they tar them on to +the unnatural fight, till the gardens are all trampled, the finery torn, +the halls dismantled, and each pavement slippery with brothers' blood. +And then, when the wine is gone out of them, the survivors come to their +senses, and stare shamefully and sadly round. What an ugly, desolate, +tottering ruin the fairy palace has become! Have they spoilt it +themselves? or have the Trolls bewitched it? And all the fairy +treasure--what has become of it? no man knows. Have they thrown it away +in their quarrel? have the cunningest hidden it? have the Trolls flown +away with it, to the fairy land beyond the Eastern mountains? who can +tell? Nothing is left but recrimination and remorse. And they wander +back again into the forest, away from the doleful ruin, carrion-strewn, +to sulk each apart over some petty spoil which he has saved from the +general wreck, hating and dreading each the sound of his neighbour's +footstep. + +What will become of the forest children, unless some kind saint or hermit +comes among them, to bind them in the holy bonds of brotherhood and law? + +This is my saga, gentlemen; and it is a true one withal. For it is +neither more nor less than the story of the Teutonic tribes, and how they +overthrew the Empire of Rome. + +Menzel, who though he may not rank very high as a historian, has at least +a true German heart, opens his history with a striking passage. + +'The sages of the East were teaching wisdom beneath the palms; the +merchants of Tyre and Carthage were weighing their heavy anchors, and +spreading their purple sails for far seas; the Greek was making the earth +fair by his art, and the Roman founding his colossal empire of force, +while the Teuton sat, yet a child, unknown and naked among the forest +beasts: and yet unharmed and in his sport he lorded it over them; for the +child was of a royal race, and destined to win glory for all time to +come.' + +To the strange and complicated education which God appointed for this +race; and by which he has fitted it to become, at least for many +centuries henceforth, the ruling race of the world, I wish to call your +attention in my future lectures. To-day, I wish to impress strongly on +your minds this childishness of our forefathers. For good or for evil +they were great boys; very noble boys; very often very naughty boys--as +boys with the strength of men might well be. Try to conceive such to +yourselves, and you have the old Markman, Allman, Goth, Lombard, Saxon, +Frank. And the notion may be more than a mere metaphor. Races, like +individuals, it has been often said, may have their childhood, their +youth, their manhood, their old age, and natural death. It is but a +theory--perhaps nothing more. But at least, our race had its childhood. +Their virtues, and their sad failings, and failures, I can understand on +no other theory. The nearest type which we can see now is I fancy, the +English sailor, or the English navvy. A great, simple, honest, baby--full +of power and fun, very coarse and plain spoken at times: but if treated +like a human being, most affectionate, susceptible, even sentimental and +superstitious; fond of gambling, brute excitement, childish amusements in +the intervals of enormous exertion; quarrelsome among themselves, as boys +are, and with a spirit of wild independence which seems to be strength; +but which, till it be disciplined into loyal obedience and +self-sacrifice, is mere weakness; and beneath all a deep practical +shrewdness, an indomitable perseverance, when once roused by need. Such +a spirit as we see to this day in the English sailor--that is the nearest +analogue I can find now. One gets hints here and there of what manner of +men they were, from the evil day, when, one hundred and two years before +Christ, the Kempers and Teutons, ranging over the Alps toward Italy, +300,000 armed men and 15,000 mailed knights with broad sword and lances, +and in their helmets the same bulls'-horns, wings, and feathers, which +one sees now in the crests of German princes, stumbled upon Marius and +his Romans, and were destroyed utterly, first the men, then the women, +who like true women as they were, rather than give up their honour to the +Romans, hung themselves on the horns of the waggon-oxen, and were +trampled to death beneath their feet; and then the very dogs, who fought +on when men and women were all slain--from that fatal day, down to the +glorious one, when, five hundred years after, Alaric stood beneath the +walls of Rome, and to their despairing boast of the Roman numbers, +answered, 'Come out to us then, the thicker the hay, the easier +mowed,'--for five hundred years, I say, the hints of their character are +all those of a boy-nature. + +They were cruel at times: but so are boys--much more cruel than grown +men, I hardly know why--perhaps because they have not felt suffering so +much themselves, and know not how hard it is to bear. There were +varieties of character among them. The Franks were always false, vain, +capricious, selfish, taking part with the Romans whenever their interest +or vanity was at stake--the worst of all Teutons, though by no means the +weakest--and a miserable business they made of it in France, for some +five hundred years. The Goths, Salvian says, were the most ignavi of all +of them; great lazy lourdans; apt to be cruel, too, the Visigoths at +least, as their Spanish descendants proved to the horror of the world: +but men of honour withal, as those old Spaniards were. The Saxons were +famed for cruelty--I know not why, for our branch of the Saxons has been, +from the beginning of history, the least cruel people in Europe; but they +had the reputation--as the Vandals had also--of being the most pure; +Castitate venerandi. And among the uncivilized people coldness and +cruelty go often together. The less passionate and sensitive the nature, +the less open to pity. The Caribs of the West Indies were famed for +both, in contrast to the profligate and gentle inhabitants of Cuba and +Hispaniola; and in double contrast to the Red Indian tribes of North +America, who combined, from our first acquaintance with them, the two +vices of cruelty and profligacy, to an extent which has done more to +extirpate them than all the fire-water of the white man. + +But we must be careful how we compare our forefathers with these, or any +other savages. Those who, like Gibbon, have tried to draw a parallel +between the Red Indian and the Primaeval Teuton, have done so at the +expense of facts. First, they have overlooked the broad fact, that while +the Red Indians have been, ever since we have known them, a decreasing +race, the Teutons have been a rapidly increasing one; in spite of war, +and famine, and all the ills of a precarious forest life, proving their +youthful strength and vitality by a reproduction unparalleled, as far as +I know, in history, save perhaps by that noble and young race, the +Russian. These writers have not known that the Teuton had his definite +laws, more simple, doubtless, in the time of Tacitus than in that of +Justinian, but still founded on abstract principles so deep and broad +that they form the groundwork of our English laws and constitution; that +the Teuton creed concerning the unseen world, and divine beings, was of a +loftiness and purity as far above the silly legends of Hiawatha as the +Teuton morals were above those of a Sioux or a Comanche. Let any one +read honest accounts of the Red Indians; let him read Catlin, James, +Lewis and Clarke, Shoolbred; and first and best of all, the old 'Travaile +in Virginia,' published by the Hakluyt Society: and then let him read the +Germania of Tacitus, and judge for himself. For my part, I believe that +if Gibbon was right, and if our forefathers in the German forests had +been like Powhattan's people as we found them in the Virginian forests, +the Romans would not have been long in civilizing us off the face of the +earth. + +No. All the notes which Tacitus gives us are notes of a young and strong +race; unconscious of its own capabilities, but possessing such +capabilities that the observant Romans saw at once with dread and awe +that they were face to face with such a people as they had never met +before; that in their hands, sooner or later, might be the fate of Rome. +Mad Caracalla, aping the Teuton dress and hair, listening in dread to the +songs of the Allman Alrunas, telling the Teutons that they ought to come +over the Rhine and destroy the empire, and then, murdering the +interpreters, lest they should repeat his words, was but babbling out in +an insane shape the thought which was brooding in the most far-seeing +Roman minds. He felt that they could have done the deed; and he felt +rightly, madman as he was. They could have done it then, if physical +power and courage were all that was needed, in the days of the Allman +war. They could have done it a few years before, when the Markmen fought +Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; on the day when the Caesar, at the advice of +his augurs, sent two lions to swim across the Danube as a test of +victory; and the simple Markmen took them for big dogs, and killed them +with their clubs. From that day, indeed, the Teutons began to conquer +slowly, but surely. Though Antoninus beat the Markmen on the Danube, and +recovered 100,000 Roman prisoners, yet it was only by the help of the +Vandals; from that day the empire was doomed, and the Teutons only kept +at bay by bribing one tribe to fight another, or by enlisting their more +adventurous spirits into the Roman legions, to fight against men of their +own blood;--a short-sighted and suicidal policy; for by that very method +they were teaching the Teuton all he needed, the discipline and the +military science of the Roman. + +But the Teutons might have done it a hundred years before that, when Rome +was in a death agony, and Vitellius and Vespasian were struggling for the +purple, and Civilis and the fair Velleda, like Barak and Deborah of old, +raised the Teuton tribes. They might have done it before that again, +when Hermann slew Varus and his legions in the Teutoburger Wald; or +before that again, when the Kempers and Teutons burst over the Alps, to +madden themselves with the fatal wines of the rich south. And why did +the Teutons _not_ do it? Because they were boys fighting against cunning +men. Boiorich, the young Kemper, riding down to Marius' camp, to bid him +fix the place and time of battle--for the Teuton thought it mean to use +surprises and stratagems, or to conquer save in fair and open fight--is +the type of the Teuton hero; and one which had no chance in a struggle +with the cool, false, politic Roman, grown grey in the experience of the +forum and of the camp, and still as physically brave as his young enemy. +Because, too, there was no unity among them; no feeling that they were +brethren of one blood. Had the Teuton tribes, at any one of the great +crises I have mentioned, and at many a crisis afterwards, united for but +three years, under the feeling of a common blood, language, interest, +destiny, Rome would have perished. But they could not learn that lesson. +They could not put aside their boyish quarrels. + +They never learnt the lesson till after their final victory, when the +Gospel of Christ--of a Being to whom they all owed equal allegiance, in +whose sight they were all morally equal--came to unite them into a +Christendom. + +And it was well that they did not learn it sooner. Well for them and for +the world, that they did not unite on any false ground of interest or +ambition, but had to wait for the true ground of unity, the knowledge of +the God-man, King of all nations upon earth. + +Had they destroyed Rome sooner, what would not they have lost? What +would not the world have lost? Christianity would have been stifled in +its very cradle; and with Christianity all chance--be sure of it--of +their own progress. Roman law, order, and discipline, the very things +which they needed to acquire by a contact of five hundred years, would +have been swept away. All classic literature and classic art, which they +learnt to admire with an almost superstitious awe, would have perished +likewise. Greek philosophy, the germs of physical science, and all that +we owe to the ancients, would have perished; and we should have truly had +an invasion of the barbarians, followed by truly dark ages, in which +Europe would have had to begin all anew, without the help of the +generations which had gone before. + +Therefore it was well as it was, and God was just and merciful to them +and to the human race. They had a glorious destiny, and glorious powers +wherewith to fulfil it: but they had, as every man and people has, before +whom there is a noble future, to be educated by suffering. There was +before them a terrible experience of sorrow and disappointment, sin and +blood, by which they gained the first consciousness of what they could do +and what they could not. Like Adam of old, like every man unto this day, +they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and were driven +out of the paradise of unconsciousness; had to begin again sadder and +wiser men, and eat their bread in the sweat of their brow; and so to +rise, after their fall, into a nobler, wiser, more artificial, and +therefore more truly human and divine life, than that from which they had +at first fallen, when they left their German wilds. + +One does not, of course, mean the parallel to fit in all details. The +fall of the Teuton from the noble simplicity in which Tacitus beheld and +honoured him, was a work of four centuries; perhaps it was going on in +Tacitus' own time. But the culminating point was the century which saw +Italy conquered, and Rome sacked, by Visigoth, by Ostrogoth, by Vandal, +till nothing was left save fever-haunted ruins. Then the ignorant and +greedy child, who had been grasping so long after the fair apples of +Sodom, clutched them once and for all, and found them turn to ashes in +his hands. + +Yes--it is thus that I wish you to look at the Invasion of the +Barbarians, Immigration of the Teutons, or whatsoever name you may call +it. Before looking at questions of migration, of ethnology, of laws, and +of classes, look first at the thing itself; and see with sacred pity--and +awe, one of the saddest and grandest tragedies ever performed on earth. +Poor souls! And they were so simple withal. One pities them, as one +pities a child who steals apples, and makes himself sick with them after +all. It is not the enormous loss of life which is to me the most tragic +part of the story; it is that very simplicity of the Teutons. Bloodshed +is a bad thing, certainly; but after all nature is prodigal of human +life--killing her twenty thousand and her fifty thousand by a single +earthquake; and as for death in battle--I sometimes am tempted to think, +having sat by many death beds, that our old forefathers may have been +right, and that death in battle may be a not unenviable method of passing +out of this troublesome world. Besides, we have no right to blame those +old Teutons, while we are killing every year more of her Majesty's +subjects by preventible disease, than ever they killed in their bloodiest +battle. Let us think of that, and mend that, ere we blame the old German +heroes. No, there are more pitiful tragedies than any battlefield can +shew; and first among them, surely, is the disappointment of young hopes, +the degradation of young souls. + +One pities them, I say. And they pitied themselves. Remorse, shame, +sadness, mark the few legends and songs of the days which followed the +fall of Rome. They had done a great work. They had destroyed a mighty +tyranny; they had parted between them the spoils wrung from all the +nations; they had rid the earth of a mighty man-devouring ogre, whose +hands had been stretched out for centuries over all the earth, dragging +all virgins to his den, butchering and torturing thousands for his sport; +foul, too, with crimes for which their language, like our own (thank God) +has scarcely found a name. Babylon the Great, drunken with the blood of +the saints, had fallen at last before the simple foresters of the north: +but if it looks a triumph to us, it looked not such to them. They could +only think how they had stained their hands in their brothers' blood. +They had got the fatal Nibelungen hoard: but it had vanished between +their hands, and left them to kill each other, till none was left. + +You know the Nibelungen Lied? That expresses, I believe, the key-note of +the old Teuton's heart, after his work was done. Siegfried murdered by +his brother-in-law; fair Chriemhild turned into an avenging fury; the +heroes hewing each other down, they scarce know why, in Hunnish Etzel's +hall, till Hagen and Gunther stand alone; Dietrich of Bern going in, to +bind the last surviving heroes; Chriemhild shaking Hagen's gory head in +Gunther's face, himself hewed down by the old Hildebrand, till nothing is +left but stark corpses and vain tears:--while all the while the +Nibelungen hoard, the cause of all the woe, lies drowned in the deep +Rhine until the judgment day.--What is all this, but the true tale of the +fall of Rome, of the mad quarrels of the conquering Teutons? The names +are confused, mythic; the dates and places all awry: but the tale is +true--too true. Mutato nomine fabula narratur. Even so they went on, +killing, till none were left. Deeds as strange, horrible, fratricidal, +were done, again and again, not only between Frank and Goth, Lombard and +Gepid, but between Lombard and Lombard, Frank and Frank. Yes, they were +drunk with each other's blood, those elder brethren of ours. Let us +thank God that we did not share their booty, and perish, like them, from +the touch of the fatal Nibelungen hoard. Happy for us Englishmen, that +we were forced to seek our adventures here, in this lonely isle; to turn +aside from the great stream of Teutonic immigration; and settle here, +each man on his forest-clearing, to till the ground in comparative peace, +keeping unbroken the old Teutonic laws, unstained the old Teutonic faith +and virtue, cursed neither with poverty nor riches, but fed with food +sufficient for us. To us, indeed, after long centuries, peace brought +sloth, and sloth foreign invaders and bitter woes: but better so, than +that we should have cast away alike our virtue and our lives, in that mad +quarrel over the fairy gold of Rome. + + + + +LECTURE II--THE DYING EMPIRE. + + +It is not for me to trace the rise, or even the fall of the Roman Empire. +That would be the duty rather of a professor of ancient history, than of +modern. All I need do is to sketch, as shortly as I can, the state in +which the young world found the old, when it came in contact with it. + +The Roman Empire, toward the latter part of the fourth century, was in +much the same condition as the Chinese or the Turkish Empire in our own +days. Private morality (as Juvenal and Persius will tell you), had +vanished long before. Public morality had, of course, vanished likewise. +The only powers really recognised were force and cunning. The only aim +was personal enjoyment. The only God was the Divus Caesar, the imperial +demigod, whose illimitable brute force gave him illimitable powers of +self-enjoyment, and made him thus the paragon and ideal of humanity, whom +all envied, flattered, hated, and obeyed. The palace was a sink of +corruption, where eunuchs, concubines, spies, informers, freedmen, +adventurers, struggled in the basest plots, each for his share of the +public plunder. The senate only existed to register the edicts of their +tyrant, and if need be, destroy each other, or any one else, by judicial +murders, the willing tools of imperial cruelty. The government was +administered (at least since the time of Diocletian) by an official +bureaucracy, of which Professor Goldwin Smith well says, 'the earth +swarmed with the consuming hierarchy of extortion, so that it was said +that they who received taxes were more than those who paid them.' The +free middle class had disappeared, or lingered in the cities, too proud +to labour, fed on government bounty, and amused by government spectacles. +With them, arts and science had died likewise. Such things were left to +slaves, and became therefore, literally, servile imitations of the past. +What, indeed, was not left to slaves? Drawn without respect of rank, as +well as of sex and age, from every nation under heaven by an organized +slave-trade, to which our late African one was but a tiny streamlet +compared with a mighty river; a slave-trade which once bought 10,000 +human beings in Delos in a single day; the 'servorum nationes' were the +only tillers of the soil, of those 'latifundia' or great estates, 'quae +perdidere Romam.' Denied the rights of marriage, the very name of +humanity; protected by no law, save the interest or caprice of their +masters; subjected, for slight offences, to cruel torments, they were +butchered by thousands in the amphitheatres to make a Roman holiday, or +wore out their lives in 'ergastula' or barracks, which were dens of +darkness and horror. Their owners, as 'senatores,' 'clarissimi,' or at +least 'curiales,' spent their lives in the cities, luxurious and +effeminate, and left their slaves to the tender mercy of 'villici,' +stewards and gang-drivers, who were themselves slaves likewise. + +More pampered, yet more degraded, were the crowds of wretched beings, cut +off from all the hopes of humanity, who ministered to the wicked +pleasures of their masters, even in the palaces of nominally Christian +emperors--but over that side of Roman slavery I must draw a veil, only +saying, that the atrocities of the Romans toward their slaves--especially +of this last and darkest kind--notably drew down on them the just wrath +and revenge of those Teutonic nations, from which so many of their slaves +were taken. {19} + +And yet they called themselves Christians--to whom it had been said, 'Be +not deceived, God is not mocked. For these things cometh the wrath of +God on the children of disobedience.' And the wrath did come. + +If such were the morals of the Empire, what was its political state? One +of complete disorganization. The only uniting bond left seems to have +been that of the bureaucracy, the community of tax-gatherers, who found +it on the whole safer and more profitable to pay into the imperial +treasury a portion of their plunder, than to keep it all themselves. It +stood by mere vi inertiae, just because it happened to be there, and +there was nothing else to put in its place. Like an old tree whose every +root is decayed, it did not fall, simply because the storm had not yet +come. Storms, indeed, had come; but they had been partial and local. One +cannot look into the pages of Gibbon, without seeing that the normal +condition of the empire was one of revolt, civil war, +invasion--Pretenders, like Carausius and Allectus in Britain, setting +themselves up as emperors for awhile--Bands of brigands, like the Bagaudae +of Gaul, and the Circumcelliones of Africa, wandering about, desperate +with hunger and revenge, to slay and pillage--Teutonic tribes making +forays on the frontier, enlisted into the Roman armies, and bought off, +or hired to keep back the tribes behind them, and perish by their +brethren's swords. + +What kept the empire standing, paradoxical as it may seem, was its own +innate weakness. From within, at least, it could not be overthrown. The +masses were too crushed to rise. Without unity, purpose, courage, they +submitted to inevitable misery as to rain and thunder. At most they +destroyed their own children from poverty, or, as in Egypt, fled by +thousands into the caves and quarries, and turned monks and hermits; +while the upper classes, equally without unity or purpose, said each to +himself, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' + +The state of things at Rome, and after the rise of Byzantium under +Constantine at Byzantium likewise, was one altogether fantastic, +abnormal, utterly unlike anything that we have seen, or can imagine to +ourselves without great effort. I know no better method of illustrating +it, than quoting, from Mr. Sheppard's excellent book, _The Fall of Rome +and the Rise of New Nationalities_, a passage in which he transfers the +whole comi-tragedy from Italy of old to England in 1861. + +'I have not thought it necessary to give a separate and distinct reply to +the theory of Mr. Congreve, that Roman Imperialism was the type of all +good government, and a desirable precedent for ourselves. Those who feel +any penchant for the notion, I should strongly recommend to read the +answer of Professor G. Smith, in the _Oxford Essays_ for 1856, which is +as complete and crushing as that gentleman's performances usually are. +But in order to convey to the uninitiated some idea of the state of +society under Caesarian rule, and which a Caesarian rule, so far as mere +government is concerned, if it does not produce, has never shewn any +tendency to prevent, let us give reins to imagination for a moment, and +picture to ourselves a few social and political analogies in our own +England of the nineteenth century. + +'An entire revolution has taken place in our principles, manners, and +form of government. Parliaments, meetings, and all the ordinary +expressions of the national will, are no longer in existence. A free +press has shared their fate. There is no accredited organ of public +opinion; indeed there is no public opinion to record. Lords and Commons +have been swept away, though a number of the richest old gentlemen in +London meet daily at Westminster to receive orders from Buckingham +Palace. But at the palace itself has broken out one of those sanguinary +conspiracies which have of late become unceasing. The last heir of the +house of Brunswick is lying dead with a dagger in his heart, and +everything is in frightful confusion. The armed force of the capital are +of course "masters of the situation," and the Guards, after a tumultuous +meeting at Windsor or Knightsbridge, have sold the throne to Baron +Rothschild, for a handsome donation of 25 pounds a-piece. Lord Clyde, +however, we may be sure, is not likely to stand this, and in a few months +will be marching upon London at the head of the Indian Army. In the mean +time the Channel Fleet has declared for its own commander, has seized +upon Plymouth and Portsmouth, and intends to starve the metropolis by +stopping the imports of "bread-stuffs" at the mouth of the Thames. And +this has become quite possible; for half the population of London, under +the present state of things, subsist upon free distributions of corn +dispensed by the occupant of the throne for the time being. But a more +fatal change than even this has come over the population of the capital +and of the whole country. The free citizens and 'prentices of London; +the sturdy labourers of Dorsetshire and the eastern counties; and the +skilful artizans of Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham; the mariners +and shipwrights of Liverpool, have been long ago drafted into marching +regiments, and have left their bones to bleach beneath Indian suns and +Polar snows. Their place has been supplied by countless herds of negro +slaves, who till the fields and crowd the workshops of our towns, to the +entire exclusion of free labour; for the free population, or rather the +miserable relics of them, disdain all manual employment: they divide +their time between starvation and a degrading debauchery, the means for +which are sedulously provided by the government. The time-honoured +institutions of the bull-bait, the cockpit, and the ring, are in daily +operation, under the most distinguished patronage. Hyde Park has been +converted into a gigantic arena, where criminals from Newgate "set-to" +with the animals from the Zoological Gardens. Every fortnight there is a +Derby Day, and the whole population pour into the Downs with frantic +excitement, leaving the city to the slaves. And then the moral condition +of this immense mass! Of the doings about the palace we should be sorry +to speak. But the lady patronesses of Almack's still more assiduously +patronize the prize-fights, and one of them has been seen within the +ropes, in battle array, by the side of Sayers himself. No tongue may +tell the orgies enacted, with the aid of French cooks, Italian singers, +and foreign artists of all sorts, in the gilded saloons of Park Lane and +Mayfair. Suffice to say, that in them the worst passions of human nature +have full swing, unmodified by any thought of human or divine restraints, +and only dashed a little now and then by the apprehension that the slaves +may rise, and make a clean sweep of the metropolis with fire and steel. +But _n'importe_--_Vive la bagatelle_! Mario has just been appointed +prime minister, and has made a chorus singer from the Opera Duke of +Middlesex and Governor-General of India. All wise men and all good men +despair of the state, but they are not permitted to say anything, much +less to act. Mr. Disraeli lost his head a few days ago; Lords Palmerston +and Derby lie in the Tower under sentence of death; Lord Brougham, the +Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mr. Gladstone, opened their veins and died +in a warm bath last week. Foreign relations will make a still greater +demand on the reader's imagination. We must conceive of England no +longer as + + "A precious stone set in the silver sea, + Which serves it in the office of a wall, + Or as a moat defensive of a house." + +but rather as open to the inroad of every foe whom her aggressive and +colonizing genius has provoked. The red man of the West, the Caffre, the +Sikh, and the Sepoy, Chinese braves, and fierce orientals of all sorts, +are hovering on her frontiers in "numbers numberless," as the flakes of +snow in the northern winter. They are not the impotent enemy which we +know, but vigorous races, supplied from inexhaustible founts of +population, and animated by an insatiate appetite for the gold and +silver, purple and fine linen, rich meats and intoxicating drinks of our +effete civilization. And we can no longer oppose them with those +victorious legions which have fought and conquered in all regions of the +world. The men of Waterloo and Inkermann are no more. We are compelled +to recruit our armies from those very tribes before whose swords we are +receding! + +'Doubtless the ordinary reader will believe this picture to be +overcharged, drawn with manifest exaggeration, and somewhat questionable +taste. _Every single statement which it contains_ may be paralleled by +the circumstances and events of the decadence of the Roman Empire. The +analogous situation was with the subjects of this type of all good +government, _always a possible_, often an actual, state of things. We +think this disposes of the theory of Mr. Congreve. With it may +advantageously be contrasted the opinion of a man of more statesman-like +mind. "The benefits of despotism are short-lived; it poisons the very +springs which it lays open; if it display a merit, it is an exceptional +one; if a virtue, it is created of circumstances; and when once this +better hour has passed away, all the vices of its nature break forth with +redoubled violence, and weigh down society in every direction." So +writes M. Guizot. Is it the language of prophecy as well as of personal +experience?' + +Mr. Sheppard should have added, to make the picture complete, that the +Irish have just established popery across St. George's Channel, by the +aid of re-immigrants from America; that Free Kirk and National Kirk are +carrying on a sanguinary civil war in Scotland; that the Devonshire +Wesleyans have just sacked Exeter cathedral, and murdered the Bishop at +the altar, while the Bishop of London, supported by the Jews and the rich +churchmen (who are all mixed up in financial operations with Baron +Rothschild) has just commanded all Dissenters to leave the metropolis +within three days, under pain of death. + +I must add yet one more feature to this fearful, but accurate picture, +and say how, a few generations forward, an even uglier thing would be +seen. The English aristocracy would have been absorbed by foreign +adventurers. The grandchildren of these slaves and mercenaries would be +holding the highest offices in the state and the army, naming themselves +after the masters who had freed them, or disguising their barbarian names +by English endings. The De Fung-Chowvilles would be Dukes, the Little- +grizzly-bear-Joe-Smiths Earls, and the Fitz-Stanleysons, descended from a +king of the gipsies who enlisted to avoid transportation, and in due time +became Commander-in-Chief, would rule at Knowsley in place of the Earl of +Derby, having inherited the same by the summary process of assassination. +Beggars on horseback, only too literally; married, most of them, to +Englishwomen of the highest rank; but looking on England merely as a +prey; without patriotism, without principle; they would destroy the old +aristocracy by legal murders, grind the people, fight against their yet +barbarian cousins outside, as long as they were in luck: but the moment +the luck turned against them, would call in those barbarian cousins to +help them, and invade England every ten years with heathen hordes, armed +no more with tulwar and matchlock, but with Enfield rifle and Whitworth +cannon. And that, it must be agreed, would be about the last phase of +the British empire. If you will look through the names which figure in +the high places of the Roman empire, during the fourth and fifth +centuries, you will see how few of them are really Roman. If you will +try to investigate, not their genealogies--for they have none--not a +grandfather among them--but the few facts of their lives which have come +down to us; you will see how that Nemesis had fallen on her which must at +last fall on every nation which attempts to establish itself on slavery +as a legal basis. Rome had become the slave of her own slaves. + +It is at this last period, the point when Rome has become the slave of +her own slaves, that I take up the story of our Teutonic race. + +I do not think that anyone will call either Mr. Sheppard's statements, or +mine, exaggerated, who knows the bitter complaints of the wickedness and +folly of the time, which are to be found in the writings of the Emperor +Julian. Pedant and apostate as he was, he devoted his short life to one +great idea, the restoration of the Roman Empire to what it had been (as +he fancied) in the days of the virtuous stoic Emperors of the second +century. He found his dream a dream, owing to the dead heap of +frivolity, sensuality, brutality, utter unbelief, not merely in the dead +Pagan gods whom he vainly tried to restore, but in any god at all, as a +living, ruling, judging, rewarding, punishing power. + +No one, again, will call these statements exaggerated who knows the Roman +history of his faithful servant and soldier, Ammianus Marcellinus, and +especially the later books of it, in which he sets forth the state of the +Empire after Julian's death, under Jovian, Procopius, Valentinian, (who +kept close to his bed-chamber two she-bears who used to eat men, one +called Golden Camel, and the other Innocence--which latter, when she had +devoured a sufficiency of his living victims, he set free in the forests +as a reward for her services--a brutal tyrant, whose only virtue seems to +have been his chastity); and Valens, the shameless extortioner who +perished in that great battle of Adrianople, of which more hereafter. The +last five remaining books of the honest soldier's story are a tissue of +horrors, from reading which one turns away as from a slaughter-house or a +witches' sabbath. + +No one, again, will think these statements exaggerated who knows +Salvian's De Gubernatione Dei. It has been always and most justly held +in high esteem, as one great authority of the state of Gaul when +conquered by the Franks and Goths and Vandals. + +Salvian was a Christian gentleman, born somewhere near Treves. He +married a Pagan lady of Cologne, converted her, had by her a daughter, +and then persuaded her to devote herself to celibacy, while he did the +like. His father-in-law, Hypatius, quarrelled with him on this account; +and the letter in which he tries to soothe the old man is still extant, a +curious specimen of the style of cultivated men in that day. Salvian +then went down to the south of France and became a priest at Marseilles, +and tutor to the sons of Eucherius, the Bishop of Lyons. Eucherius, +himself a good man, speaks in terms of passionate admiration of Salvian, +his goodness, sanctity, learning, talents. Gennadius (who describes him +as still living when he wrote, about 490) calls him among other +encomiums, the Master of Bishops; and both mention familiarly this very +work, by which he became notorious in his own day, and which he wrote +about 450 or 455, during the invasion of the Britons. So that we may +trust fully that we have hold of an authentic contemporaneous work, +written by a good man and true. + +Let me first say a few words on the fact of his having--as many good men +did then--separated from his wife in order to lead what was called a +religious life. It has a direct bearing on the History of those days. +One must not praise him because he (in common with all Christians of his +day) held, no doubt, the belief that marriage was a degradation in +itself; that though the Church might mend it somewhat by exalting it into +a sacrament, still, the less of a bad thing the better:--a doctrine +against which one need not use (thank God) in England, the same language +which Michelet has most justly used in France. We, being safe from the +poison, can afford to talk of it calmly. But I boldly assert, that few +more practically immoral doctrines than that of the dignity of celibacy +and the defilement of marriage (which was the doctrine of all Christian +devotees for 1000 years) have, as far as I know, ever been preached to +man. That is a strong statement. It will be answered perhaps, by the +patent fact, that during those very 1000 years the morality of Europe +improved more, and more rapidly, than it had ever done before. I know +it; and I thank God for it. But I adhere to my statement, and rejoin--And +how much more rapidly have the morals of Europe improved, since that +doctrine has been swept away; and woman, and the love of woman, have been +restored to their rightful place in the education of man? + +But if we do not praise Salvian, we must not blame him, or any one else +who meant to be an honest and good man. Such did not see to what their +celibate notions would lead. If they had, we must believe that they +would have acted differently. And what is more, their preference for +celibacy was not fancy, but common sense of a very lofty kind. Be sure +that when two middle-aged Christian people consider it best to part, they +have very good reasons for such a solemn step, at which only boys or +cynics will laugh. And the reasons, in Salvian's case, and many more in +his day, are patent to common human understanding. Do not fancy that he +had any private reason, such as we should very fairly assign now: public +reasons, and those, such as God grant no living man may see, caused wise +men to thank God that they were not burdened with wife and child. +Remember the years in which Salvian lived--from 416 perhaps to 490. It +was a day of the Lord such as Joel saw; 'a day of clouds and of thick +darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains; a great people and +strong; there had not been ever the like, neither should be any more +after it: the land was a garden of Eden before them, and behind them a +desolate wilderness: Yea, and nothing should escape them.' All things +were going to wrack; the country was overrun by foreign invaders; +bankruptcy, devastation, massacre, and captivity were for perhaps 100 +years the normal state of Gaul, and of most other countries besides. I +have little doubt that Salvian was a prudent man, when he thought fit to +bring no more human beings into the world. That is an ugly thought--I +trust that you feel how ugly, unnatural, desperate a thought it is. If +you do not, think over it till you do, till it frightens you. You will +gain a great step thereby in human sympathy, and therefore in the +understanding of history. For many times, and in many places, men have +said, rightly or wrongly, 'It is better to leave none behind me like +myself. The miseries of life (and of what comes after this life) are +greater than its joys. I commit an act of cruelty by bringing a fresh +human being into the world.' I wish you to look at that thought +steadily, and apply it for yourselves. It has many applications: and has +therefore been a very common one. + +But put to yourselves--it is too painful for me to put to you--the case +of a married gentleman who sees his country gradually devastated and +brought to utter ruin by foreign invaders; and who feels--as poor Salvian +felt, that there is no hope or escape; that the misery is merited, +deserved, fairly _earned_ (for that is the true meaning of those words), +and therefore must come. Conceive him seeing around him estates +destroyed, farms burnt, ladies and gentlemen, his own friends and +relations, reduced in an hour to beggary, plundered, stript, driven off +in gangs--I do not choose to finish the picture: but ask yourselves, +would an honourable man wish to bring sons--much more daughters--into the +world to endure that? + +Put yourselves in Salvian's place. Forget for a few minutes that you are +Englishmen, the freest and bravest nation upon earth, strong in all that +gives real strength, and with a volunteer army which is now formidable by +numbers and courage--which, did the terrible call come, might be +increased ten times in as many months. Forget all that awhile; and put +yourselves in Salvian's place, the gentleman of Gaul, while Franks and +Goths, Burgunds and Vandals were sweeping, wave after wave, over that +lovely land; and judge him rationally, and talk as little as possible of +his superstition, and as much as possible of his human feeling, prudence, +self-control, and common sense. Believe me, neither celibacy, nor any +other seemingly unnatural superstition would have held its ground for a +generation if there had not been some practical considerations of common +sense to back them. We wonder why men in old times went into +monasteries. The simplest answer is, common sense sent them thither. +They were tired of being the slaves of their own passions; they were +tired of killing, and of running the chance of being killed. They saw +society, the whole world, going to wrack, as they thought, around them: +what could they do better, than see that their own characters, morals, +immortal souls did not go to wrack with the rest. We wonder why women, +especially women of rank, went into convents; why, as soon as a community +of monks was founded, a community of nuns sprung up near them. The +simplest answer is, common sense sent them thither. The men, especially +of the upper fighting classes, were killed off rapidly; the women were +not killed off, and a large number always remained, who, if they had +wished to marry, could not. What better for them than to seek in +convents that peace which this world could not give? + +They may have mixed up with that simple wish for peace the notion of +being handmaids of God, brides of Christ, and so forth. Be it so. Let +us instead of complaining, thank heaven that there was some motive, +whether quite right or not, to keep alive in them self-respect, and the +feeling that they were not altogether useless and aimless on earth. Look +at the question in this light, and you will understand two things; first, +how horrible the times were, and secondly, why there grew up in the early +middle age a passion for celibacy. + +Salvian, in a word, had already grown up to manhood and reason, when he +saw a time come to his native country, in which were fulfilled, with +fearful exactness, the words of the prophet Isaiah:-- + + 'Behold, the Lord maketh the land empty, and maketh it waste, and + turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. + And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the + slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as + with the seller, so with the buyer; as with the lender, so with the + borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to + him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the + Lord hath spoken this word.' + +And Salvian desired to know the reason why the Lord had spoken that word, +and read his Bible till he found out, and wrote thereon his book De +Gubernatione Dei, of the government of God; and a very noble book it is. +He takes his stand on the ground of Scripture, with which he shews an +admirable acquaintance. The few good were expecting the end of the +world. Christ was coming to put an end to all these horrors: but why did +he delay his coming? The many weak were crying that God had given up the +world; that Christ had deserted his Church, and delivered over Christians +to the cruelties of heathen and Arian barbarians. The many bad were +openly blaspheming, throwing off in despair all faith, all bonds of +religion, all common decency, and crying, Let us eat and drink, for to- +morrow we die. Salvian answers them like an old Hebrew prophet: 'The +Lord's arm is not shortened. The Lord's eyes are not closed. The Lord +is still as near as ever. He is governing the world as He has always +governed it: by the everlasting moral laws, by which the wages of sin are +death. Your iniquities have withheld good things from you. You have +earned exactly what God has paid you. Yourselves are your own +punishment. You have been wicked men, and therefore weak men; your own +vices, and not the Goths, have been your true conquerors.' As I said in +my inaugural lecture--that is after all the true theory of history. Men +may forget it in piping times of peace. God grant that in the dark hour +of adversity, God may always raise up to them a prophet, like good old +Salvian, to preach to them once again the everlasting judgments of God; +and teach them that not faulty constitutions, faulty laws, faulty +circumstances of any kind, but the faults of their own hearts and lives, +are the causes of their misery. + +M. Guizot, in his elaborate work on the History of Civilization in +France, has a few curious pages, on the causes of the decline of civil +society in Roman Gaul, and its consequent weakness and ruin. He tells +you how the Senators or Clarissimi did not constitute a true aristocracy, +able to lead and protect the people, being at the mercy of the Emperor, +and nominated and removed at his pleasure. How the Curiales, or wealthy +middle class, who were bound by law to fulfil all the municipal offices, +and were responsible for the collection of the revenue, found their +responsibilities so great, that they by every trick in their power, +avoided office. How, as M. Guizot well puts it, the central despotism of +Rome stript the Curiales of all they earned, to pay its own functionaries +and soldiers; and gave them the power of appointing magistrates, who were +only after all the imperial agents of that despotism, for whose sake they +robbed their fellow-citizens. How the plebs, comprising the small +tradesmen and free artizans, were utterly unable to assert their own +opinions or rights. How the slave population, though their condition was +much improved, constituted a mere dead weight of helpless brutality. + +And then he says, that the Roman Empire was dying. Very true: but often +as he quotes Salvian, he omits always to tell us what Roman society was +dying of. Salvian says, that it was dying of vice. Not of bad laws and +class arrangements, but of bad men. M. Guizot belongs to a school which +is apt to impute human happiness and prosperity too exclusively to the +political constitution under which they may happen to live, +irrespectively of the morality of the people themselves. From that, the +constitutionalist school, there has been of late a strong reaction, the +highest exponent, nay the very coryphaeus of which is Mr. Carlyle. He +undervalues, even despises, the influence of laws and constitutions: with +him private virtue, from which springs public virtue, is the first and +sole cause of national prosperity. My inaugural lecture has told you how +deeply I sympathize with his view--taking my stand, as Mr. Carlyle does, +on the Hebrew prophets. + +There is, nevertheless, a side of truth in the constitutionalist view, +which Mr. Carlyle, I think, overlooks. A bad political constitution does +produce poverty and weakness: but only in as far as it tends to produce +moral evil; to make men bad. That it can help to do. It can put a +premium on vice, on falsehood, on peculation, on laziness, on ignorance; +and thus tempt the mass to moral degradation, from the premier to the +slave. Russia has been, for two centuries now but too patent a proof of +the truth of this assertion. But even in this case, the moral element is +the most important, and just the one which is overlooked. To have good +laws, M. Guizot is apt to forget, you must first have good men to make +them; and second, you must have good men to carry them out, after they +are made. Bad men can abuse the best of laws, the best of constitutions. +Look at the working of our parliaments during the reigns of William III +and Anne, and see how powerless good constitutions are, when the men who +work them are false and venal. Look, on the other hand, at the Roman +Empire from the time of Vespasian to that of the Antonines, and see how +well even a bad constitution will succeed, when good men are working it. + +Bad laws, I say, will work tolerably under good men, if fitted to the +existing circumstances by men of the world, as all Roman laws were. If +they had not been such, how was the Roman Empire, at least in its first +years, a blessing to the safety, prosperity, and wealth of every country +it enslaved? But when defective Roman laws began to be worked by bad +men, and that for 200 years, then indeed came times of evil. Let us +take, then, Salvian's own account of the cause of Roman decay. He, an +eye-witness, imputes it all to the morals of Roman citizens. They were, +according to him, of the very worst. To the general dissoluteness he +attributes, in plain words, the success of the Frank and Gothic invaders. +And the facts which he gives, and which there is no reason to doubt, are +quite enough to prove him in the right. Every great man's house, he +says, was a sink of profligacy. The women slaves were at the mercy of +their master; and the slaves copied his morals among themselves. It is +an ugly picture: but common sense will tell us, if we but think a little, +that such will, and must, be the case in slave-holding countries, +wherever Christianity is not present in its purest and strongest form, to +control the passions of arbitrary power. + +But there was not merely profligacy among these Gauls. That alone would +not have wrought their immediate ruin. Morals were bad enough in old +Greece and Rome; as they were afterwards among the Turks: nevertheless as +long as a race is strong; as long as there is prudence, energy, deep +national feeling, outraged virtue does not avenge itself at once by +general ruin. But it avenges itself at last, as Salvian shews--as all +experience shews. As in individuals so in nations, unbridled indulgence +of the passions must produce, and does produce, frivolity, effeminacy, +slavery to the appetite of the moment, a brutalized and reckless temper, +before which, prudence, energy, national feeling, any and every feeling +which is not centered in self, perishes utterly. The old French noblesse +gave a proof of this law, which will last as a warning beacon to the end +of time. The Spanish population of America, I am told, gives now a +fearful proof of this same terrible penalty. Has not Italy proved it +likewise, for centuries past? It must be so, gentlemen. For national +life is grounded on, is the development of, the life of the family. And +where the root is corrupt, the tree must be corrupt likewise. It must be +so. For Asmodeus does not walk alone. In his train follow impatience +and disappointment, suspicion and jealousy, rage and cruelty, and all the +passions which set man's hand against his fellow-man. It must be so. For +profligacy is selfishness; and the family, and the society, the nation, +exists only by casting away selfishness and by obeying law:--not only the +outward law, which says in the name of God, 'Thou shalt not,' but the +inward law, the Law of Christ, which says, 'Thou must;' the law of self- +sacrifice, which selfish lust tramples under foot, till there is no more +cohesion left between man and man, no more trust, no more fellow-help, +than between the stags who fight for the hinds; and God help the nation +which has brought itself to that! + +No wonder, therefore, if Salvian's accounts of Gaulish profligacy be +true, that Gaulish recklessness reached at last a pitch all but +incredible. It is credible, however shocking, that as he says, he +himself saw, both at Treves, and another great city (probably Cologne, +Colonia Agrippina, or 'The Colony' par excellence) while the destruction +of the state was imminent, 'old men of rank, decrepit Christians, slaves +to gluttony and lust, rabid with clamour, furious with bacchanalian +orgies.' It is credible, however shocking, that all through Gaul the +captivity was 'foreseen, yet never dreaded.' And 'so when the barbarians +had encamped almost in sight, there was no terror among the people, no +care of the cities. All was possest by carelessness and sloth, gluttony, +drunkenness, sleep, according to that which the prophet saith: A sleep +from the Lord had come over them.' It is credible, however shocking, +that though Treves was four times taken by the barbarians, it remained +just as reckless as ever; and that--I quote Salvian still--when the +population was half destroyed by fire and sword, the poor dying of +famine, corpses of men and women lying about the streets breeding +pestilence, while the dogs devoured them, the few nobles who were left +comforted themselves by sending to the Emperor to beg for Circensian +games. + +Those Circensian games, and indeed all the public spectacles, are fresh +proofs of what I said just now; that if a bad people earn bad government, +still a bad government makes a bad people. + +They were the most extraordinary instance which the world ever saw, of a +government setting to work at a vast expense to debauch its subjects. +Whether the Roman rulers set that purpose consciously before them, one +dare not affirm. Their notion probably was (for they were as worldly +wise as they were unprincipled) that the more frivolous and sensual the +people were, the more quietly they would submit to slavery; and the best +way to keep them frivolous and sensual, the Romans knew full well; so +well, that after the Empire became Christian, and many heathen matters +were done away with, they did not find it safe to do away with the public +spectacles. The temples of the Gods might go: but not the pantomimes. + +In one respect, indeed, these government spectacles became worse, not +better, under Christianity. They were less cruel, no doubt: but also +they were less beautiful. The old custom of exhibiting representations +of the old Greek myths, which had something of grace and poetry about +them, and would carry back the spectators' thoughts to the nobler and +purer heroic ages, disappeared before Christianity; but the old vice did +not. That was left; and no longer ennobled by the old heroic myths round +which it had clustered itself, was simply of the silliest and most vulgar +kind. We know in detail the abominations, as shameless and ridiculous, +which went on a century after Salvian, in the theatres of Constantinople, +under the eyes of the most Christian Emperor Justinian, and which won for +that most infamous woman, Theodora, a share in his imperial crown, and +the right to dictate doctrine to the Christian Bishops of the East, and +to condemn the soul of Origen to everlasting damnation, for having +exprest hopes of the final pardon of sinners. We can well believe, +therefore, Salvian's complaints of the wickedness of those pantomimes of +which he says, that 'honeste non possunt vel accusari;' he cannot even +accuse them without saying what he is ashamed to say; I believe also his +assertion, that they would not let people be modest, even if they wished; +that they inflamed the passions, and debauched the imaginations of young +and old, man and woman, and--but I am not here to argue that sin is sin, +or that the population of London would be the worse if the most shameless +persons among them were put by the Government in possession of Drury Lane +and Covent Garden; and that, and nothing less than that, did the Roman +pantomimes mean, from the days of Juvenal till those of the most holy and +orthodox Empress Theodora. + +'Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they who do such things are +worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do +them.' + +Now in contrast to all these abominations, old Salvian sets, boldly and +honestly, the superior morality of the barbarians. That, he says, is the +cause of their strength and our weakness. We, professing orthodoxy, are +profligate hypocrites. They, half heathens, half Arians, are honester +men, purer men than we. There is no use, he says, in despising the Goths +as heretics, while they are better men than we. They are better +Christians than the Romans, because they are better men. They pray to +God for success, and trust in him, and we presumptuously trust in +ourselves. We swear by Christ: but what do we do but blaspheme him, when +we swear 'Per Christum tollo eum,' 'I will make away with him,' 'Per +Christum hunc jugulo,' 'I will cut his throat,' and then believe +ourselves bound to commit the murder which we have vowed? . . . 'The +Saxons,' he says, 'are fierce, the Franks faithless, the Gepidae inhuman, +the Huns shameless. But is the Frank's perfidy as blameable as ours? Is +the Alman's drunkenness, or the Alan's rapacity, as damnable as a +Christian's? If a Hun or a Gepid deceives you, what wonder? He is +utterly ignorant that there is any sin in falsehood. But what of the +Christian who does the same? The Barbarians,' he says, 'are better men +than the Christians. The Goths,' he says, 'are perfidious, but chaste. +The Alans unchaste, but less perfidious. The Franks are liars, but +hospitable; the Saxons ferociously cruel, but venerable for their +chastity. The Visigoths who conquered Spain,' he says, 'were the most +"ignavi" (heavy, I presume he means, and loutish) of all the barbarians: +but they were chaste, and therefore they conquered.' + +In Africa, if we are to believe Salvian, things stood even worse, at the +time of the invasion of the Vandals. In his violent invectives against +the Africans, however, allowance must be made. Salvian was a great lover +of monks; and the Africans used, he says, to detest them, and mob them +wherever they appeared; for which offence, of course, he can find no +words too strong. St. Augustine, however, himself a countryman of +theirs, who died, happily, just before the storm burst on that hapless +land, speaks bitterly of their exceeding profligacy--of which he himself +in his wild youth, had had but too sad experience. Salvian's assertion +is, that the Africans were the most profligate of all the Romans; and +that while each barbarian tribe had (as we have just seen) some good in +them, the Africans had none. + +But there were noble souls left among them, lights which shone all the +more brightly in the surrounding darkness. In the pages of Victor +Vitensis, which tell the sad story of the persecution of the African +Catholics by the Arian Vandals, you will find many a moving tale which +shews that God had his own, even among those degraded Carthaginians. + +The causes of the Arian hatred to the Catholics is very obscure. You +will find all that is known in Dean Milman's History of Latin +Christianity. A simple explanation may be found in the fact that the +Catholics considered the Arians, and did not conceal their opinion, as +all literally and actually doomed to the torments of everlasting fire; +and that, as Gibbon puts it, 'The heroes of the north, who had submitted +with some reluctance, to believe that all their ancestors were in hell, +were astonished and exasperated to learn, that they themselves had only +changed the mode of their eternal condemnation.' The Teutons were +(Salvian himself confesses it) trying to serve God devoutly, in chastity, +sobriety, and honesty, according to their light. And they were told by +the profligates of Africa, that this and no less, was their doom. It is +not to be wondered at, again, if they mistook the Catholic creed for the +cause of Catholic immorality. That may account for the Vandal custom of +re-baptizing the Catholics. It certainly accounts for the fact (if after +all it be a fact) which Victor states, that they tortured the nuns to +extort from them shameful confessions against the priests. But the +history of the African persecution is the history of all persecutions, as +confest again and again by the old fathers, as proved by the analogies of +later times. The sins of the Church draw down punishment, by making her +enemies confound her doctrine and her practice. But in return, the +punishment of the Church purifies her, and brings out her nobleness +afresh, as the snake casts his skin in pain, and comes out young and fair +once more; and in every dark hour of the Church, there flashes out some +bright form of human heroism, to be a beacon and a comfort to all future +time. Victor, for instance, tells the story of Dionysia, the beautiful +widow whom the Vandals tried to torture into denying the Divinity of our +Lord.--How when they saw that she was bolder and fairer than all the +other matrons, they seized her, and went to strip her: and she cried to +them, 'Qualiter libet occidite: verecunda tamen membra nolite nudare,' +but in vain. They hung her up by the hands, and scourged her till +streams of blood ran down every limb. Her only son, a delicate boy, +stood by trembling, knowing that his turn would come next; and she saw +it, and called to him in the midst of her shame and agony. 'He had been +baptized into the name of the Blessed Trinity; let him die in that name, +and not lose the wedding-garment. Let him fear the pain that never ends, +and cling to the life that endures for ever.' The boy took heart, and +when his turn came, died under the torture; and Dionysia took up the +little corpse, and buried it in her own house; and worshipped upon her +boy's grave to her dying day. + +Yes. God had his own left, even among those fallen Africans of Carthage. + +But neither there, nor in Spain, could the Vandals cure the evil. 'Now-a- +days,' says Salvian, 'there are no profligates among the Goths, save +Romans; none among the Vandals, save Romans. Blush, Roman people, +everywhere, blush for your morals. There is hardly a city free from dens +of sin, and none at all from impurity, save those which the barbarians +have begun to occupy. And do we wonder if we are surpassed in power, by +an enemy who surpasses us in decency? It is not the natural strength of +their bodies which makes them conquer us. We have been conquered only by +the vices of our own morals.' + +Yes. Salvian was right. Those last words were no mere outburst of +national vanity, content to confess every sin, save that of being +cowards. He was right. It was not the mere muscle of the Teuton which +enabled him to crush the decrepit and debauched slave-nations, Gaul and +Briton, Iberian and African, as the ox crushes the frogs of the marsh. +The 'sera juvenum Venus, ideoque inexhausta pubertas,' had given him more +than his lofty stature, and his mighty limbs. Had he had nought but +them, he might have remained to the end a blind Samson, grinding among +the slaves in Caesar's mill, butchered to make a Roman holiday. But it +had given him more, that purity of his; it had given him, as it may give +you, gentlemen, a calm and steady brain, and a free and loyal heart; the +energy which springs from health; the self-respect which comes from self- +restraint; and the spirit which shrinks from neither God nor man, and +feels it light to die for wife and child, for people, and for Queen. + + + + +PREFACE TO LECTURE III.--ON DR. LATHAM'S 'GERMANIA.' + + +If I have followed in these lectures the better known and more widely +received etymology of the name Goth, I have done so out of no disrespect +to Dr. Latham; but simply because his theory seems to me adhuc sub +judice. It is this, as far as I understand it. That 'Goth' was not the +aboriginal name of the race. That they were probably not so called till +they came into the land of the Getae, about the mouths of the Danube. +That the Teutonic name for the Ostrogoths was Grutungs, and that of the +Visigoths (which he does not consider to mean West-Goths) Thervings, +Thuringer. That on reaching the land of the Getae they took their name; +'just as the Kentings of Anglo-Saxon England took name from the Keltic +country of Kent;' and that the names Goth, Gothones, Gothini were +originally given to Lithuanians by their Sclavonic neighbours. I merely +state the theory, and leave it for the judgment of others. + +The principal points which Dr. Latham considers himself to have +established, are-- + +That the area and population of the Teutonic tribes have been, on the +authority of Tacitus, much overrated; many tribes hitherto supposed to be +Teutonic being really Sclavonic, &c. + +This need not shock our pride, if proved--as it seems to me to be. The +nations who have influenced the world's destiny have not been great, in +the modern American sense of 'big;' but great in heart, as our +forefathers were. The Greeks were but a handful at Salamis; so were the +Romans of the Republic; so were the Spaniards of America; so, probably, +were the Aztecs and Incas whom they overthrew; and surely our own +conquerors and re-conquerers of Hindostan have shewn enough that it is +not numbers, but soul, which gives a race the power to rule. + +Neither need we object to Dr. Latham's opinion, that more than one of the +tribes which took part in the destruction of the Empire were not +aboriginal Germans, but Sclavonians Germanized, and under German leaders. +It may be so. The custom of enslaving captives would render pure +Teutonic blood among the lower classes of a tribe the exception and not +the rule; while the custom of chiefs choosing the 'thegns,' 'gesitha,' or +'comites,' who lived and died as their companions-in-arms, from among the +most valiant of the unfree, would tend to produce a mixed blood in the +upper classes also, and gradually assimilate the whole mass to the +manners and laws of their Teutonic lords. Only by some such actual +superiority of the upper classes to the lower can I explain the deep +respect for rank and blood, which distinguishes, and will perhaps always +distinguish, the Teutonic peoples. Had there even been anything like a +primaeval equality among our race, a hereditary aristocracy could never +have arisen, or if arising for a while, never could have remained as a +fact which all believed in, from the lowest to the highest. Just, or +unjust, the institution represented, I verily believe, an ethnological +fact. The golden-haired hero said to his brown-haired bondsman, 'I am a +gentleman, who have a "gens," a stamm, a pedigree, and know from whom I +am sprung. I am a Garding, an Amalung, a Scylding, an Osing, or what +not. I am a son of the gods. The blood of the Asas is in my veins. Do +you not see it? Am I not wiser, stronger, more virtuous, more beautiful +than you? You must obey me, and be my man, and follow me to the death. +Then, if you prove a worthy thane, I will give you horse, weapons, +bracelets, lands; and marry you, it may be, to my daughter or my niece. +And if not, you must remain a son of the earth, grubbing in the dust of +which you were made.' And the bondsman believed him; and became his +lord's man, and followed him to the death; and was thereby not degraded, +but raised out of selfish savagery and brute independence into loyalty, +usefulness, and self-respect. As a fact, that is the method by which the +thing was done: done;--very ill indeed, as most human things are done; +but a method inevitable--and possibly right; till (as in England now) the +lower classes became ethnologically identical with the upper, and +equality became possible in law, simply because it existed in fact. + +But the part of Dr. Latham's 'Germania' to which I am bound to call most +attention, because I have not followed it, is that interesting part of +the Prolegomena, in which he combats the generally received theory, that, +between the time of Tacitus and that of Charlemagne, vast masses of +Germans had migrated southward from between the Elbe and the Vistula; and +that they had been replaced by the Sclavonians who certainly were there +in Charlemagne's days. + +Dr. Latham argues against this theory with a great variety of facts and +reasons. But has he not overstated his case on some points? + +Need the migrations necessary for this theory have been of 'unparalleled +magnitude and rapidity'? + +As for the 'unparalleled completeness' on which he lays much stress, from +the fact that no remnants of Teutonic population are found in the +countries evacuated: + +Is it the fact that 'history only tells us of German armies having +advanced south'? Do we not find four famous cases--the irruption of the +Cimbri and Teutons into Italy; the passage of the Danube by the +Visigoths; and the invasions of Italy first by the Ostrogoths, then by +the Lombards--in which the nations came with men, women, and children, +horses, cattle, and dogs, bag and baggage? May not this have been the +custom of the race, with its strong feeling for the family tie; and may +not this account for no traces of them being left behind? + +Does not Dr. Latham's theory proceed too much on an assumption that the +Sclavonians dispossest the Teutons by force? And is not this assumption +his ground for objecting that the movement was effected improbably 'by +that division of the European population (the Sclavonic and Lithuanian) +which has, within the historic period, receded before the Germanic'? + +Are these migrations, though 'unrepresented in any history' (i.e. +contemporaneous), really 'unrepresented in any tradition'? Do not the +traditions of Jornandes and Paulus Diaconus, that the Goths and the +Lombards came from Scandinavia, represent this very fact?--and are they +to be set aside as naught? Surely not. Myths of this kind generally +embody a nucleus of truth, and must be regarded with respect; for they +often, after all arguments about them are spent, are found to contain the +very pith of the matter. + +Are the 'phenomena of replacement and substitution' so very strange--I +will not say upon the popular theory, but at least on one half-way +between it and Dr. Latham's? Namely-- + +That the Teutonic races came originally, as some of them say they did, +from Scandinavia, Denmark, the South Baltic, &c. + +That they forced their way down, wave after wave, on what would have been +the line of least resistance--the Marches between the Gauls, Romanized or +otherwise, and the Sclavonians. And that the Alps and the solid front of +the Roman Empire turned them to the East, till their vanguard found +itself on the Danube. + +This would agree with Dr. Latham's most valuable hint, that Markmen, 'Men +of the Marches,' was perhaps the name of many German tribes successively. + +That they fought, as they went, with the Sclavonian and other tribes (as +their traditions seem to report), and rolled them back to the eastward; +and that as each Teutonic tribe past down the line, the Sclavonians +rolled back again, till the last column was past. + +That the Teutons also carried down with them, as slaves or allies, a +portion of this old Sclavonic population (to which Dr. Latham will +perhaps agree); and that this fact caused a hiatus, which was gradually +filled by tribes who after all were little better than nomad hunters, and +would occupy (quite nominally) a very large tract with a small +population. + +Would not this theory agree at once tolerably with the old traditions and +with Dr. Latham's new facts? + +The question still remains--which is the question of all. What put these +Germanic peoples on going South? Were there no causes sufficient to +excite so desperate a resolve? + +(1) Did they all go? Is not Paulus Diaconus' story that one-third of +the Lombards was to emigrate by lot, and two-thirds remain at home, a +rough type of what generally happened--what happens now in our modern +emigrations? Was not the surplus population driven off by famine toward +warmer and more hopeful climes? + +(2) Are not the Teutonic populations of England, North Germany, and the +Baltic, the descendants, much intermixed, and with dialects much changed, +of the portions which were left behind? This is the opinion, I believe, +of several great ethnologists. Is it not true? If philological +objections are raised to this, I ask (but in all humility), Did not these +southward migrations commence long before the time of Tacitus? If so, +may they not have commenced before the different Teutonic dialects were +as distinct as they were in the historic period? And are we to suppose +that the dialects did not alter during the long journeyings through many +nations? Is it possible that the Thervings and Grutungs could have +retained the same tongue on the Danube, as their forefathers spoke in +their native land? Would not the Moeso-Gothic of Ulfilas have been all +but unintelligible to the Goth who, upon the old theory, remained in +Gothland of Sweden? + +(3) But were there not more causes than mere want, which sent them +south? Had the peculiar restlessness of the race nothing to do with it? +A restlessness not nomadic, but migratory: arising not from carelessness +of land and home, but from the longing to found a home in a new land, +like the restlessness of us, their children? As soon as we meet them in +historic times, they are always moving, migrating, invading. Were they +not doing the same in pre-historic times, by fits and starts, no doubt +with periods of excitement, periods of collapse and rest? When we +recollect the invasion of the Normans; the wholesale eastward migration +of the Crusaders, men, women, and children; and the later colonization by +Teutonic peoples, of every quarter of the globe, is there anything +wonderful in the belief that similar migratory manias may have seized the +old tribes; that the spirit of Woden, 'the mover,' may have moved them, +and forced them to go ahead, as now? Doubtless the theory is strange. +But the Teutons were and are a strange people; so strange, that they have +conquered--one may almost say that they are--all nations which are alive +upon the globe; and we may therefore expect them to have done strange +things even in their infancy. + +The Romans saw them conquer the empire; and said, the good men among +them, that it was on account of their superior virtue. But beside the +virtue which made them succeed, there must have been the adventurousness +which made them attempt. They were a people fond of 'avanturen,' like +their descendants; and they went out to seek them; and found enough and +to spare. + +(4) But more, had they never heard of Rome? Surely they had, and at a +very early period of the empire. We are apt to forget, that for every +discovery of the Germans by the Romans, there was a similar discovery of +the Romans by the Germans, and one which would tell powerfully on their +childish imagination. Did not one single Kemper or Teuton return from +Marius' slaughter, to spread among the tribes (niddering though he may +have been called for coming back alive) the fair land which they had +found, fit for the gods of Valhalla; the land of sunshine, fruits and +wine, wherein his brothers' and sisters' bones were bleaching unavenged? +Did no gay Gaul of the Legion of the Lark, boast in a frontier wine-house +to a German trapper, who came in to sell his peltry, how he himself was a +gentleman now, and a civilized man, and a Roman; and how he had followed +Julius Caesar, the king of men, over the Rubicon, and on to a city of the +like of which man never dreamed, wherein was room for all the gods of +heaven? Did no captive tribune of Varus' legions, led with horrid shouts +round Thor's altar in the Teutoburger Wald, ere his corpse was hung among +the horses and goats on the primaeval oaks, turn to bay like a Roman, and +tell his wild captors of the Eternal City, and of the might of that Caesar +who would avenge every hair upon his head with a German life; and receive +for answer a shout of laughter, and the cry--'You have come to us: and +some day we will go to you?' Did no commissary, bargaining with a German +for cattle to be sent over the frontier by such a day of the week, and +teaching him to mistranslate into those names of Thor, Woden, Freya, and +so forth, which they now carry, the Jewish-Assyrian-Roman days of the +se'nnight, amuse the simple forester by telling him how the streets of +Rome were paved with gold, and no one had anything to do there but to eat +and bathe at the public expense, and to go to the theatre, and see 20,000 +gladiators fight at once? Did no German 'Regulus,' alderman, or king, +enter Rome on an embassy, and come back with uplifted eyes and hands, +declaring that he had seen things unspeakable--a 'very fine plunder,' as +Blucher said of London; and that if it were not for the walls, they might +get it all; for not only the ladies, but the noblemen, went about in +litters of silver and gold, and wore gauze dresses, the shameless +wretches, through which you might see every limb, so that as for killing +them, there was no more fear of them than of a flock of sheep: but that +he did not see as well as he could have wished how to enter the great +city, for he was more or less the worse for liquor the whole time, with +wondrous stuff which they called wine? Or did no captive, escaped by +miracle from the butcheries of the amphitheatre, return to tell his +countrymen how all the rest had died like German men; and call on them to +rise and avenge their brothers' blood? Yes, surely the Teutons knew +well, even in the time of Tacitus, of the 'micklegard,' the great city +and all its glory. Every fresh tribe who passed along the frontier of +Gaul or of Noricum would hear more and more of it, see more and more men +who had actually been there. If the glory of the city exercised on its +own inhabitants an intoxicating influence, as of a place omnipotent, +superhuman, divine--it would exercise (exaggerated as it would be) a +still stronger influence on the barbarians outside: and what wonder if +they pressed southwards at first in the hope of taking the mighty city; +and afterwards, as her real strength became more known, of at least +seizing some of those colonial cities, which were as superhuman in their +eyes as Rome itself would have been? In the crusades, the children, +whenever they came to a great town, asked their parents if that was not +Jerusalem. And so, it may be, many a gallant young Teuton, on entering +for the first time such a city as Cologne, Lyons, or Vienna, whispered +half trembling to his lord--'Surely this must be Rome.' + +Some such arguments as these might surely be brought in favour of a +greater migration than Dr. Latham is inclined to allow: but I must leave +the question for men of deeper research and wider learning, than I +possess. + + + + +LECTURE III.--THE HUMAN DELUGE + + +'I have taken in hand,' said Sir Francis Drake once to the crew of the +immortal Pelican, 'that which I know not how to accomplish. Yea, it hath +even bereaved me of my wits to think of it.' + +And so I must say on the subject of this lecture. I wish to give you +some notion of the history of Italy for nearly one hundred years; say +from 400 to 500. But it is very difficult. How can a man draw a picture +of that which has no shape; or tell the order of absolute disorder? It +is all a horrible 'fourmillement des nations,' like the working of an ant- +heap; like the insects devouring each other in a drop of water. Teuton +tribes, Sclavonic tribes, Tartar tribes, Roman generals, empresses, +bishops, courtiers, adventurers, appear for a moment out of the crowd, +dim phantoms--nothing more, most of them--with a name appended, and then +vanish, proving their humanity only by leaving behind them one more stain +of blood. + +And what became of the masses all the while? of the men, slaves the +greater part of them, if not all, who tilled the soil, and ground the +corn--for man must have eaten, then as now? We have no hint. One trusts +that God had mercy on them, if not in this world, still in the world to +come. Man, at least, had none. + +Taking one's stand at Rome, and looking toward the north, what does one +see for nearly one hundred years? Wave after wave rising out of the +north, the land of night, and wonder, and the terrible unknown; visible +only as the light of Roman civilization strikes their crests, and they +dash against the Alps, and roll over through the mountain passes, into +the fertile plains below. Then at last they are seen but too well; and +you discover that the waves are living men, women, and children, horses, +dogs, and cattle, all rushing headlong into that great whirlpool of +Italy: and yet the gulf is never full. The earth drinks up the blood; +the bones decay into the fruitful soil; the very names and memories of +whole tribes are washed away. And the result of an immigration which may +be counted by hundreds of thousands is this--that all the land is waste. + +The best authorities which I can give you (though you will find many more +in Gibbon) are--for the main story, Jornandes, De Rebus Geticis. Himself +a Goth, he wrote the history of his race, and that of Attila and his +Huns, in good rugged Latin, not without force and sense. + +Then Claudian, the poet, a bombastic panegyrist of contemporary Roman +scoundrels; but full of curious facts, if one could only depend on them. + +Then the earlier books of Procopius De Bello Gothico, and the Chronicle +of Zosimus. + +Salvian, Ennodius and Sidonius Apollinaris, as Christians, will give you +curious details, especially as to South France and North Italy; while +many particulars of the first sack of Rome, with comments thereon which +express the highest intellects of that day, you will find in St. Jerome's +Letters, and St. Augustine's City of God. + +But if you want these dreadful times _explained_ to you, I do not think +you can do better than to take your Bibles, and to read the Revelations +of St. John the Apostle. I shall quote them, more than once, in this +lecture. I cannot help quoting them. The words come naturally to my +lips, as fitter to the facts than any words of my own. + +I do not come here to interpret the Book of Revelations. I do not +understand that book. But I do say plainly, though I cannot interpret +the book, that the book has interpreted those times to me. Its awful +metaphors give me more living and accurate pictures of what went on than +any that Gibbon's faithful details can give. + +You may see, if you have spiritual eyes wherewith to see, the Dragon, the +serpent, symbol of political craft and the devilish wisdom of the Roman, +giving authority to the Beast, the symbol of brute power; to mongrel +AEtiuses and Bonifaces, barbarian Stilichos, Ricimers and Aspars, and a +host of similar adventurers, whose only strength was force. + +You may see the world wondering after the beast, and worshipping brute +force, as the only thing left to believe in. + +You may see the nations of the world gnawing their tongues for pain, and +blaspheming God, but not repenting of their deeds. + +You may see the faith and patience of the saints--men like Augustine, +Salvian, Epiphanius, Severinus, Deogratias of Carthage, and a host more, +no doubt, whose names the world will never hear--the salt of the earth, +which kept it all from rotting. + +You may see Babylon the great fallen, and all the kings and merchants of +the earth bewailing her afar off, and watching the smoke of her torment. + +You may see, as St. John warns you, that--after her fall, mind--if men +would go on worshipping the beast, and much more his image--the phantom +and shadow of brute force, after the reality had passed away--they should +drink of the wine of the wrath of God, and be tormented for ever. For +you may see how those degenerate Romans did go on worshipping the shadow +of brute force, and how they were tormented for ever; and had no rest day +or night, because they worshipped the Beast and his image. + +You may see all the fowl of the heavens flocking together to the feast of +the great God, to eat the flesh of kings and captains, horse and rider, +bond and free.--All carrion-birds, human as well as brute--All greedy +villains and adventurers, the scoundreldom of the whole world, flocking +in to get their share of the carcass of the dying empire; as the vulture +and the raven flock in to the carrion when the royal eagles have gorged +their fill. + +And lastly, you may see, if God give you grace, One who is faithful and +true, with a name which no man knew, save Himself, making war in +righteousness against all evil; bringing order out of disorder, hope out +of despair, fresh health and life out of old disease and death; executing +just judgment among all the nations of the earth; and sending down from +heaven the city of God, in the light of which the nations of those who +are saved should walk, and the kings of the earth should bring their +power and their glory into it; with the tree of life in the midst of it, +whose leaves should be for the healing of the nations. + +Again, I say, I am not here to interpret the Book of Revelations; but +this I say, that that book interprets those times to me. + +Leaving, for the present at least, to better historians than myself the +general subject of the Teutonic immigrations; the conquest of North Gaul +by the Franks, of Britain by the Saxons and Angles, of Burgundy by the +Burgundians, of Africa by the Vandals, I shall speak rather of those +Teutonic tribes which actually entered and conquered Italy; and first, of +course, of the Goths. Especially interesting to us English should their +fortunes be, for they are said to be very near of kin to us; at least to +those Jutes who conquered Kent. As Goths, Geats, Getae, Juts, +antiquarians find them in early and altogether mythic times, in the +Scandinavian peninsula, and the isles and mainland of Denmark. + +Their name, it is said, is the same as one name for the Supreme Being. +Goth, Guth, Yuth, signifies war. 'God' is the highest warrior, the Lord +of hosts, and the progenitor of the race, whether as an 'Eponym hero' or +as the supreme Deity. Physical force was their rude notion of Divine +power, and Tiu, Tiv, or Tyr, in like manner, who was originally the god +of the clear sky, the Zeus or Jove of the Greeks and Romans, became by +virtue of his warlike character, identical with the Roman Mars, till the +dies Martis of the Roman week became the German Tuesday. + +Working their way down from Gothland and Jutland, we know not why nor +when, thrusting aside the cognate Burgunds, and the Sclavonic tribes whom +they met on the road, they had spread themselves, in the third century, +over the whole South of Russia, and westward over the Danubian Provinces, +and Hungary. The Ostrogoths (East-goths) lay from the Volga to the +Borysthenes, the Visigoths (West-goths?) from the Borysthenes to the +Theiss. Behind them lay the Gepidae, a German tribe, who had come south- +eastward with them, and whose name is said to signify the men who had +'bided' (remained) behind the rest. + +What manner of men they were it is hard to say, so few details are left +to us. But we may conceive them as a tall, fair-haired people, clothed +in shirts and smocks of embroidered linen, and gaiters cross-strapped +with hide; their arms and necks encircled with gold and silver rings; the +warriors, at least of the upper class, well horsed, and armed with lance +and heavy sword, with chain-mail, and helmets surmounted with plumes, +horns, towers, dragons, boars, and the other strange devices which are +still seen on the crests of German nobles. This much we can guess; for +in this way their ancestors, or at least relations, the War-Geats, appear +clothed in the grand old song of Beowulf. Their land must have been +tilled principally by slaves, usually captives taken in war: but the +noble mystery of the forge, where arms and ornaments were made, was an +honourable craft for men of rank; and their ladies, as in the middle age, +prided themselves on their skill with the needle and the loom. Their +language has been happily preserved to us in Ulfilas' Translation of the +Scriptures. For these Goths, the greater number of them at least, were +by this time Christians, or very nearly such. Good Bishop Ulfilas, +brought up a Christian and consecrated by order of Constantine the Great, +had been labouring for years to convert his adopted countrymen from the +worship of Thor and Woden. He had translated the Bible for them, and had +constructed a Gothic alphabet for that purpose. He had omitted, however +(prudently as he considered) the books of Kings, with their histories of +the Jewish wars. The Goths, he held, were only too fond of fighting +already, and 'needed in that matter the bit, rather than the spur.' He +had now a large number of converts, some of whom had even endured +persecution from their heathen brethren. Athanaric, 'judge,' or alderman +of the Thervings, had sent through the camp--so runs the story--the +waggon which bore the idol of Woden, and had burnt, with their tents and +their families, those who refused to worship. + +They, like all other German tribes, were ruled over by two royal races, +sons of Woden and the Asas. The Ostrogoth race was the Amalungs--the +'heavenly,' or 'spotless' race; the Visigoth race was the Balthungs--the +'bold' or 'valiant' race; and from these two families, and from a few +others, but all believed to be lineally descended from Woden, and now +much intermixed, are derived all the old royal families of Europe, that +of the House of Brunswick among the rest. + +That they were no savages, is shewn sufficiently by their names, at least +those of their chiefs. Such names as Alaric, 'all rich' or 'all +powerful,' Ataulf, 'the helping father,' Fridigern, 'the willing peace- +maker,' and so forth--all the names in fact, which can be put back into +their native form out of their Romanized distortions, are tokens of a +people far removed from that barbarous state in which men are named after +personal peculiarities, natural objects, or the beasts of the field. On +this subject you may consult, as full of interest and instruction, the +list of Teutonic names given in Muratori. + +They had broken over the Roman frontier more than once, and taken cities. +They had compelled the Emperor Gratian to buy them off. They had built +themselves flat-bottomed boats without iron in them and sailed from the +Crimea round the shores of the Black Sea, once and again, plundering +Trebizond, and at last the temple itself of Diana at Ephesus. They had +even penetrated into Greece and Athens, plundered the Parthenon, and +threatened the capitol. They had fought the Emperor Decius, till he, and +many of his legionaries, were drowned in a bog in the moment of victory. +They had been driven with difficulty back across the Danube by Aurelian, +and walled out of the Empire with the Allemanni by Probus's +'Teufels-Mauer,' stretching from the Danube to the Rhine. Their time was +not yet come by a hundred years. But they had seen and tasted the fine +things of the sunny south, and did not forget them amid the steppes and +snows. + +At last a sore need came upon them. About 350 there was a great king +among them, Ermanaric, 'the powerful warrior,' comparable, says +Jornandes, to Alexander himself, who had conquered all the conquered +tribes around. When he was past 100 years old, a chief of the Roxolani +(Ugrians, according to Dr. Latham; men of Ros, or Russia), one of these +tribes, plotted against him, and sent for help to the new people, the +Huns, who had just appeared on the confines of Europe and Asia. Old +Ermanaric tore the traitor's wife to pieces with wild horses: but the +Huns came nevertheless. A magic hind, the Goths said, guided the new +people over the steppes to the land of the Goths, and then vanished. They +fought with the Goths, and defeated them. Old Ermanaric stabbed himself +for shame, and the hearts of the Goths became as water before the tempest +of nations. They were supernatural creatures, the Goths believed, +engendered of witches and demons on the steppes; pig-eyed hideous beings, +with cakes instead of faces, 'offam magis quam faciem,' under ratskin +caps, armed with arrows tipped with bone, and lassos of cord, eating, +marketing, sleeping on horseback, so grown into the saddle that they +could hardly walk in their huge boots. With them were Acatzirs, painted +blue, hair as well as skin; Alans, wandering with their waggons like the +Huns, armed with heavy cuirasses of plaited horn, their horses decked +with human scalps; Geloni armed with a scythe, wrapt in a cloak of human +skin; Bulgars who impaled their prisoners--savages innumerable as the +locust swarms. Who could stand against them? + +In the year 375, the West Goths came down to the Danube-bank and +entreated the Romans to let them cross. There was a Christian party +among them, persecuted by the heathens, and hoping for protection from +Rome. Athanaric had vowed never to set foot on Roman soil, and after +defending himself against the Huns, retired into the forests of +'Caucaland.' Good Bishop Ulfilas and his converts looked longingly +toward the Christian Empire. Surely the Christians would receive them as +brothers, welcome them, help them. The simple German fancied a Roman +even such a one as themselves. + +Ulfilas went on embassy to Antioch, to Valens the Emperor. Valens, low- +born, cruel, and covetous, was an Arian, and could not lose the +opportunity of making converts. He sent theologians to meet Ulfilas, and +torment him into Arianism. When he arrived, Valens tormented him +himself. While the Goths starved he argued, apostasy was the absolute +condition of his help, till Ulfilas, in a weak moment, gave his word that +the Goths should become Arians, if Valens would give them lands on the +South bank of the Danube. Then they would be the Emperor's men, and +guard the marches against all foes. From that time Arianism became the +creed, not only of the Goths, but of the Vandals, the Sueves, and almost +all the Teutonic tribes. + +It was (if the story be true) a sinful and foolish compact, forced from a +good man by the sight of his countrymen's extreme danger and misery. It +avenged itself, soon enough, upon both Goths and Romans. + +To the Goths themselves the change must have seemed not only unimportant, +but imperceptible. Unaccustomed to that accuracy of thought, which is +too often sneered at by Gibbon as 'metaphysical subtlety,' all of which +they would have been aware was the change of a few letters in a creed +written in an unknown tongue. They could not know, (Ulfilas himself +could not have known, only two years after the death of St. Athanasius at +Alexandria; while the Nicaean Creed was as yet received by only half of +the Empire; and while he meanwhile had been toiling for years in the +Danubian wilds, ignorant perhaps of the controversy which had meanwhile +convulsed the Church)--neither the Goths nor he, I say, could have known +that the Arianism, which they embraced, was really the last, and as it +were apologetic, refuge of dying Polytheism; that it, and not the +Catholic Faith, denied the abysmal unity of the Godhead; that by making +the Son inferior to the Father, as touching his Godhead, it invented two +Gods, a greater and a lesser, thus denying the absoluteness, the +infinity, the illimitability, by any category of quantity, of that One +Eternal, of whom it is written, that God is a Spirit. Still less could +they have guessed that when Arius, the handsome popular preacher (whose +very name, perhaps, Ulfilas never heard) asked the fine ladies of +Alexandria--'Had you a son before that son was born?'--'No.' 'Then God +could have no son before that son was begotten, &c.'--that he was +mingling up the idea of Time with the idea of that Eternal God who +created Time, and debasing to the accidents of before and after that +Timeless and Eternal Generation, of which it is written, 'Thou art my +Son, this day have I begotten thee.' Still less could Ulfilas, or his +Goths, have known, that the natural human tendency to condition God by +Time, would be, in later ages, even long after Arianism was crushed +utterly, the parent of many a cruel, gross, and stupid superstition. To +them it would have been a mere question whether Woden, the All-father, +was superior to one of his sons, the Asas: and the Catholic faith +probably seemed to them an impious assumption of equality, on the part of +one of those Asas, with Woden himself. + +Of the battle between Arianism and Orthodoxy I have said enough to shew +you that I think it an internecine battle between truth and falsehood. +But it has been long ago judged by wager of battle: by the success of +that duel of time, of which we must believe (as our forefathers believed +of all fair duels) that God defends the right. + +So the Goths were to come over the Danube stream: but they must give up +their arms, and deliver their children (those of rank, one supposes), as +hostages, to be educated by the Romans, as Romans. + +They crossed the fatal river; they were whole days in crossing; those set +to count them gave it up in despair; Ammianus says: 'He who wishes to +know their number,' + + 'Libyci velit aequoris idem + Discere quam multae Zephyro volvuntur arenae.' + +And when they were across, they gave up the children. They had not the +heart to give up the beloved weapons. The Roman commissioners let them +keep the arms, at the price of many a Gothic woman's honour. Ugly and +foul things happened, of which we have only hints. Then they had to be +fed for the time being, till they could cultivate their land. Lupicinus +and Maximus, the two governors of Thrace pocketed the funds which Valens +sent, and starved the Goths. The markets were full of carrion and dogs' +flesh. Anything was good enough for a barbarian. Their fringed carpets, +their beautiful linens, all went. A little wholesome meat cost 10 pounds +of silver. When all was gone, they had to sell their children. To +establish a slave-trade in the beautiful boys and girls was just what the +wicked Romans wanted. + +At last the end came. They began to rise. Fridigern, their king, kept +them quiet till the time was ripe for revenge. The Romans, trying to +keep the West Goths down, got so confused, it seems, that they let the +whole nation of the East Goths (of whom we shall hear more hereafter) +dash across the Danube, and establish themselves in the north of the +present Turkey, to the east of the West Goths. + +Then at Marcianopolis, the capital of Lower Moesia, Lupicinus asked +Fridigern and his chiefs to a feast. The starving Goths outside were +refused supplies from the market, and came to blows with the guards. +Lupicinus, half drunk, heard of it, and gave orders for a massacre. +Fridigern escaped from the palace, sword in hand. The smouldering embers +burst into flame, the war-cry was raised, and the villain Lupicinus fled +for his life. + +Then began war south of the Danube. The Roman legions were defeated by +the Goths, who armed themselves with the weapons of the dead. Moesia was +overrun with fire and sword. Adrianople was attacked, but in vain. The +slaves in the gold mines were freed from their misery, and shewed the +Goths the mountain-passes and the stores of grain. As they went on, the +Goths recovered their children. The poor things told horrid tales; and +the Goths, maddened, avenged themselves on the Romans of every age and +sex. 'They left,' says St. Jerome, 'nothing alive--not even the beasts +of the field; till nothing was left but growing brambles and thick +forests.' + +Valens, the Emperor, was at Antioch. Now he hurried to Constantinople, +but too late. The East Goths had joined the West Goths; and hordes of +Huns, Alans, and Taifalae (detestable savages, of whom we know nothing +but evil) had joined Fridigern's confederacy. + +Gratian, Valens' colleague and nephew, son of Valentinian the bear-ward, +had just won a great victory over the Allemanni at Colmar in Alsace; and +Valens was jealous of his glory. He is said to have been a virtuous +youth, whose monomania was shooting. He fell in love with the wild +Alans, in spite of their horse-trappings of scalps, simply because of +their skill in archery; formed a body-guard of them, and passed his time +hunting with them round Paris. Nevertheless, he won this great victory +by the help, it seems, of one Count Ricimer ('ever-powerful'), Count of +the Domestics, whose name proclaims him a German. + +Valens was jealous of Gratian's fame; he was stung by the reproaches of +the mob of Constantinople; and he undervalued the Goths, on account of +some successes of his lieutenants, who had recovered much of the plunder +taken by them, and had utterly overpowered the foul Taifalae, +transporting them to lands about Modena and Parma in Italy. He rejected +Count Ricimer's advice to wait till Gratian reinforced him with the +victorious western legions, and determined to give battle a few miles +from Adrianople. Had he waited for Gratian, the history of the whole +world might have been different. + +For on the ninth of August, A.D. 378, the fatal day, the second Cannae, +from which Rome never recovered as from that first, the young world and +the old world met, and fought it out; and the young world won. The light +Roman cavalry fled before the long lances and heavy swords of the German +knights. The knights turned on the infantry, broke them, hunted them +down by charge after charge, and left the footmen to finish the work. + +Two-thirds of the Roman army were destroyed; four Counts of the Empire; +generals and officers without number. Valens fled wounded to a cottage. +The Goths set it on fire, and burned him and his staff therein, ignorant +that they had in their hands the Emperor of Rome. Verily there is a God +who judgeth the earth. + +So thought the Catholics of that day, who saw in the fearful death of +Valens a punishment for his having forced the Goths to become Arians. 'It +was just,' says one, 'that he should burn on earth, by whose counsels so +many barbarians will burn in hell for ever.' There are (as I have shewn) +still darker counts in the conduct of the Romans toward the Goths; enough +(if we believe our Bibles) to draw down on the guilty the swift and +terrible judgments of God. + +At least, this was the second Cannae, the death-wound of Rome. From that +day the end was certain, however slow. The Teuton had at last tried his +strength against the Roman. The wild forest-child had found himself +suddenly at death-grips with the Enchanter whom he had feared, and almost +worshipped, for so long; and behold, to his own wonder, he was no more a +child, but grown into a man, and the stronger, if not the cunninger of +the two. There had been a spell upon him; the 'Romani nominis umbra.' +But from that day the spell was broken. He had faced a Roman Emperor, a +Divus Caesar, the man-god by whose head all nations swore, rich with the +magic wealth, wise with the magic cunning, of centuries of superhuman +glory; and he had killed him, and behold he died, like other men. That +he had done. What was there left for him now that he could not do? + +The stronger he was, but not yet the cunninger of the two. The Goths +could do no more. They had to leave Adrianople behind them, with the +Emperor's treasures safe within its walls; to gaze with childish wonder +at the Bosphorus and its palaces; to recoil in awe from the 'long walls' +of Constantinople, and the great stones which the engines thereon hurled +at them by 'arsmetricke and nigromancy,' as their descendants believed of +the Roman mechanicians, even five hundred years after; to hear (without +being able to avenge) the horrible news, that the Gothic lads distributed +throughout Asia, to be educated as Romans, had been decoyed into the +cities by promises of lands and honours, and then massacred in cold +blood; and then to settle down, leaving their children unavenged, for +twenty years on the rich land which we now call Turkey in Europe, waiting +till the time was come. + +Waiting, I say, till the time was come. The fixed idea that Rome, if not +Constantinople, could be taken at last, probably never left the minds of +the leading Goths after the battle of Adrianople. The altered policy of +the Caesars was enough of itself to keep that idea alive. So far from +expelling them from the country which they had seized, the new Emperor +began to flatter and to honour them. + +They had been heretofore regarded as savages, either to be driven back by +main force, or tempted to enlist in the Roman ranks. Theodosius regarded +them as a nation, and one which it was his interest to hire, to trust, to +indulge at the expense of his Roman subjects. + +Theodosius has received the surname of Great--seemingly by comparison; +'Inter caecos luscus rex;' and it was highly creditable to a Roman +Emperor in those days to be neither ruffian nor villain, but a handsome, +highbred, courteous gentleman, pure in his domestic life, an orthodox +Christian, and sufficiently obedient to the Church to forgive the monks +who had burnt a Jewish synagogue, and to do penance in the Cathedral of +Milan for the massacre of Thessalonica. That the morals of the Empire +(if Zosimus is to be at all believed) grew more and more effeminate, +corrupt, reckless; that the soldiers (if Vegetius is to be believed) +actually laid aside, by royal permission, their helmets and cuirasses, as +too heavy for their degenerate bodies; that the Roman heavy infantry, +which had conquered the world, ceased to exist, while its place was taken +by that Teutonic heavy cavalry, which decided every battle in Europe till +the English yeoman, at Crecy and Poictiers, turned again the balance of +arms in favour of the men who fought on foot; that the Goths became the +'foederati' or allies of the Empire, paid to fight its battles against +Maximus the Spaniard, and Arbogast the Frank, the rebels who, after the +murder of young Gratian, attempted to set up a separate empire in the +west; that Stilicho the Vandal was the Emperor's trusted friend, and +master of the horse; that Alaric the Balth, and other noble Goths, were +learning to combine with their native courage those Roman tactics which +they only needed to become masters of the world; that in all cities, even +in the Royal Palace, the huge Goth swaggered in Roman costume, his neck +and arms heavy with golden torcs and bracelets; or even (as in the case +of Fravitta and Priulf) stabbed his enemy with impunity at the imperial +table; that [Greek text], to disturb the Goths, was a deadly offence +throughout the Empire: all these things did not prevent a thousand new +statues from rising in honour of the great Caesar, and excited nothing +more than grumblings of impotent jealousy from a people whose maxim had +become, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' + +Three anecdotes will illustrate sufficiently the policy of Theodosius +toward his inconvenient guests. Towards the beginning of his reign, when +the Goths, after the death of the great Fridigern, were broken up, and +quarreling among themselves, he tempted a royal Amal, Modar by name, by +the title of Master-General, to attack and slaughter in their sleep a +rival tribe of Goths, and carry off an immense spoil to the imperial +camp. To destroy the German by the German was so old a method of the +Roman policy, that it was not considered derogatory to the 'greatness' of +Theodosius. + +The old Athanaric, the Therving--he who had sworn never to set foot on +Roman soil, and had burnt them who would not fall down and worship before +Woden's waggon, came over the Danube, out of the forests of 'Caucaland,' +and put himself at the head of the Goths. The great Caesar trembled +before the heathen hero; and they made peace together; and old Athanaric +went to him at Constantinople, and they became as friends. And the +Romani nominis umbra, the glamour of the Roman name, fell on the old man, +too feeble now to fight; and as he looked, says Jornandes, on the site of +the city, and on the fleets of ships, and the world-famous walls, and the +people from all the nations upon earth, he said, 'Now I behold what I +have often heard tell, and never believed. The Kaiser is a God on earth, +and he who shall lift his hand against him, is guilty of his own blood.' +The old hero died in Constantinople, and the really good-natured Emperor +gave him a grand funeral, and a statue, and so delighted the simple +Goths, that the whole nation entered his service bodily, and became the +Emperor's men. + +The famous massacre of Thessalonica, and the penance of Theodosius, +immortalized by the pencil of Vandyke, is another significant example of +the relation between Goth and Roman. One Botheric (a Vandal or other +Teuton by his name) was military commandant of that important post. He +put in prison a popular charioteer of the circus, for a crime for which +the Teutonic language had to borrow a foreign name, and which the +Teutons, like ourselves, punished with death, though it was committed +with impunity in any Roman city. At the public games, the base mob +clamoured, but in vain, for the release of their favourite; and not +getting him, rose on Botheric, murdered him and his officers, and dragged +their corpses through the streets. + +This was indeed [Greek text]; and Theodosius, partly in honest +indignation, partly perhaps in fear of the consequences, issued orders +from Milan which seem to have amounted to a permission to the Goths to +avenge themselves. The populace were invited as usual to the games of +the circus, and crowded in, forgetful of their crime, heedless of danger, +absorbed in the one greed of frivolous, if not sinful pleasure. The +Gothic troops concealed around entered, and then began a 'murder grim and +great.' For three hours it lasted. Every age and sex, innocent or +guilty, native or foreigner, to the number of at least 7,000, perished, +or are said to have perished; and the soul of Botheric had 'good company +on its way to Valhalla.' + +The Goths, doubtless, considered that they were performing an act of +public justice upon villains: but the Bishops of the Church looked at the +matter in another light. The circumstances of treachery, the confusion +of the innocent with the guilty, the want of any judicial examination and +sentence, aroused their sense of humanity and justice. The offence was +aggravated by the thought that the victims were Roman and orthodox, the +murderers barbarians and Arians; St. Ambrose, with a noble courage, +stopped the Emperor at the door of the Basilica of Milan, and forbad him +to enter, till he had atoned for the fatal order by public penance. The +Caesar submitted nobly to the noble demand; and the repentance of +Theodosius is the last scene in the downward career of the Caesars, which +can call forth a feeling of admiration and respect. + +In January 395 Theodosius died; and after him came the deluge. + +The Empire was parted between his two worthless sons. Honorius had the +west, Arcadius the east; while the real master of the Empire was Stilicho +the Vandal, whose virtues and valour and mighty stature are sung (and not +undeservedly) in the pompous verses of Claudian. Of the confusion which +ensued; of the murder (well-deserved) of Rufinus, the infamous minister +whose devout hypocrisy had so long cajoled Theodosius; of the revolt and +atrocities of Gildo in Africa, you must read in the pages of Gibbon. +These lectures confine themselves, at present, to the history of the +Goths. + +In January 395, I said, Theodosius died. Before the end of the winter +the Goths were in arms, with Alaric the Balth at their head. They had +been refused, at least for the time, the payment of their usual subsidy. +He had been refused the command of the Roman armies. Any excuse was +sufficient. The fruit was ripe for plucking. The wrongs of centuries +were to be avenged. Other tribes crost the Danube on the ice, and joined +the Goths; and the mighty host swept down through Greece, passing +Thermopylae unopposed, ransoming Athens (where Alaric enjoyed a Greek +bath and a public banquet, and tried to behave for a day like a Roman +gentleman); sacking Corinth, Argos, Sparta, and all the cities and +villages far and wide, and carrying off plunder inestimable, and troops +of captive women. + +Stilicho threw himself into the Peloponnese at Corinth to cut off the +Goths, and after heavy fighting, Alaric, who seems to have been a really +great general, out-manoeuvred him, crost the Gulf of Corinth at Rhium, +with all his plunder and captives, and got safe away into northern +Greece. + +There Arcadius, the terrified Emperor of the East, punished him for +having devastated Greece, by appointing him Master-General of the very +country which he had ravaged. The end was coming very near. The Goths +lifted him on the shield, and proclaimed him King of the West Goths; and +there he staid, somewhere about the head of the Adriatic, poised like an +eagle in mid-air, watching Rome on one side, and Byzant on the other, +uncertain on which quarry he should swoop. + +He made up his mind for Rome. He would be the man to do the deed at +last. There was a saga in which he trusted. Claudian gives it in an +hexameter, + + 'Alpibus Italiae ruptis penetrabis ad urbem.' + +Yes, he would take The City, and avenge the treachery of Valens, and all +the wrongs which Teutons had endured from the Romans for now four +centuries. And he did it. + +But not the first time. He swept over the Alps. Honorius fled to Asta, +and Alaric besieged him there. The faithful Stilicho came to the rescue; +and Alaric was driven to extremities. His warriors counselled him to +retreat. No, he would take Rome, or die. But at Pollentia, Stilicho +surprised him, while he and his Goths were celebrating Easter Sunday, and +a fearful battle followed. The Romans stormed his camp, recovered the +spoils of Greece, and took his wife, decked in the jewels in which she +meant to enter Rome. One longs to know what became of her. + +At least, so say the Romans: the Goths tell a very different story; and +one suspects that Pollentia may be one more of those splendid paper +victories, in which the Teutons were utterly exterminated, only to rise +out of the ground, seemingly stronger and more numerous than ever. At +least, instead of turning his head to the Alps, he went on toward Rome. +Stilicho dared not fight him again, and bought him off. He turned +northward toward Gaul, and at Verona Stilicho got him at an advantage, +and fought him once more, and if we are to believe Rosino and Claudian, +beat him again. 'Taceo de Alarico, saepe victo, saepe concluso, +semperque dimisso.' 'It is ill work trapping an eagle,' says some one. +When you have caught him, the safest thing very often is to let him go +again. + +Meanwhile poured down into Italy, as far as Florence (a merely +unimportant episode in those fearful days), another wave of German +invaders under one Radogast, 200,000 strong. Under the walls of Florence +they sat down, and perished of wine, and heat, and dysentery. Like water +they flowed in, and like water they sank into the soil: and every one of +them a human soul. + +Stilicho and Honorius went to Rome, and celebrated their triumph over the +Goths, with (for the last time in history) gladiatorial sports. Three +years past, and then Stilicho was duly rewarded for having saved Rome, in +the approved method for every great barbarian who was fool enough to help +the treacherous Roman; namely, by being murdered. + +Alaric rose instantly, and with him all the Gothic tribes. Down through +Italy he past, almost without striking a blow. Ravenna, infamous, +according to Sidonius, for its profligacy, where the Emperor's court was, +he past disdainfully, and sat down before the walls of Rome. He did not +try to storm it. Probably he could not. He had no such machines, as +those with which the Romans battered walls. Quietly he sat, he and his +Goths, 'as wolves wait round the dying buffalo;' waiting for the Romans +within to starve and die. They did starve and die; men murdered each +other for food; mothers ate their own babes; but they sent out embassies, +boasting of their strength and numbers. Alaric laughed,--'The thicker +the hay, the easier it is mowed.' What terms would he take? 'All your +gold, all your silver, the best of your precious things. All your +barbarian slaves.' That last is significant. He would deliver his own +flesh and blood. The Teuton man should be free. The trolls should drag +no more of the forest children into their accursed den. 'What then will +you leave us?' 'Your lives.' + +They bought him off with a quaint ransom: 5000 pounds weight of gold, +30,000 of silver, 4000 robes of silk, 3000 pieces of scarlet cloth, and +3000 lbs. of pepper, possibly spices of all kinds. Gold, and finery, and +spices--gifts fit for children, such as those Goths were. + +But he got, too, 40,000 Teuton slaves safe out of the evil place, and +embodied them into his army. He had now 100,000 fighting men. Why did +he not set up as king of Italy? Was it that the awe of the place, the +prestige of the Roman name, cowed him? It cowed each of the Teutonic +invaders successively. To make themselves emperors of Rome was a thing +of which they dared not dream. Be that as it may, all he asked was, to +be received as some sort of vassal of the Emperor. The +Master-Generalship of Italy, subsidies for his army, an independent +command in the Tyrolese country, whence he had come, were his demand. + +Overblown with self-conceit, the Romans refused him. They would listen +to no conditions. They were in a thoroughly Chinese temper. You will +find the Byzantine empire in the same temper centuries after; blinded to +present weakness by the traditions of their forefathers' strength. They +had worshipped the beast. Now that only his image was left, they +worshipped that. + +Alaric seized Ostia, and cut off their supplies. They tried to appease +him by dethroning Honorius, and setting up some puppet Attalus. Alaric +found him plotting; or said that he had done so; and degraded him +publicly at Rimini before his whole army. Again he offered peace. The +insane Romans proclaimed that his guilt precluded him for ever from the +clemency of the Empire. + +Then came the end. He marched on Rome. The Salarian gate was thrown +open at midnight, probably by German slaves within; and then, for five +dreadful days and nights, the wicked city expiated in agony the sins of +centuries. + +And so at last the Nibelungen hoard was won. + +'And the kings of the earth who had lived delicately with her, and the +merchants of the earth who were made rich by her, bewailed her, standing +afar off for the fear of her torment, and crying, Alas! alas, that great +Babylon! for in one hour is thy judgment come.' + +St. John passes in those words from the region of symbol to that of +literal description. A great horror fell upon all nations, when the news +came. Rome taken? Surely the end of all things was at hand. The +wretched fugitives poured into Egypt and Syria--especially to Jerusalem; +perhaps with some superstitious hope that Christ's tomb, or even Christ +himself, might save them. + +St. Jerome, as he saw day by day patrician men and women who had passed +their lives in luxury, begging their bread around his hermitage at +Bethlehem, wrote of the fall of Rome as a man astonied. + +St. Augustine, at Hippo, could only look on it as the end of all human +power and glory, perhaps of the earth itself. Babylon the great had +fallen, and now Christ was coming in the clouds of heaven to set up the +city of God for ever. In that thought he wrote his De Civitate Dei. Read +it, gentlemen--especially you who are to be priests--not merely for its +details of the fall of Rome, but as the noblest theodicy which has yet +proceeded from a human pen. + +Followed by long trains of captives, long trains of waggons bearing the +spoils of all the world, Alaric went on South, 'with the native instinct +of the barbarian,' as Dr. Sheppard well says. Always toward the sun. +Away from Muspelheim and the dark cold north, toward the sun, and +Valhalla, where Odin and the Asas dwell in everlasting light. + +He tried to cross into Sicily: but a storm wrecked his boats, and the +Goths were afraid of the sea. And after a while he died. And the wild +men made a great mourning over him. They had now no plan left; no heart +to go south, and look for Odin over the sea. But of one thing they were +resolved, that the base Romans should not dig up Alaric out of his barrow +and scatter his bones to the winds. + +So they put no barrow over the great king; but under the walls of Cosenza +they turned the river-bed, and in that river-bed they set Alaric, armed +and mailed, upright upon his horse, with gold, and jewels, and arms, and +it may be captive youths and maids, that he might enter into Valhalla in +royal pomp, and make a worthy show among the heroes in Odin's hall. And +then they turned back the river into its bed, and slew the slaves who had +done the work, that no man might know where Alaric lies: and no man does +know till this day. + +As I said, they had no plan left now. Two years they stayed in Campania, +basking in the villas and gardens, drinking their fill of the wine; and +then flowed away northward again, no one knows why. They had no wish to +settle, as they might have done. They followed some God-given instinct, +undiscoverable now by us. Ataulf, Alaric's kinsman, married Placidia, +the Emperor's beautiful young sister, and accepted from him some sort of +commission to fight against his enemies in Gaul. So to the south of Gaul +they went, and then into Spain, crushing before them Alans, Sueves, and +Vandals, and quarrelling among themselves. Ataulf was murdered, and all +his children; Placidia put to shame. Then she had her revenge. To me it +is not so much horrible as pitiful. They had got the Nibelungen hoard; +and with it the Nibelungen curse. + +A hundred years afterwards, when the Franks pillaged the Gothic palace of +Narbonne, they found the remnants of it. Things inestimable, +indescribable; tables of solid emerald; the Missorium, a dish 2500 lbs. +weight, covered with all the gems of India. They had been in Solomon's +Temple, fancied the simple Franks--as indeed some of them may well have +been. The Arabs got the great emerald table at last, with its three rows +of great pearls. Where are they all now? What is become, gentlemen, of +the treasures of Rome? Jewels, recollect, are all but indestructible; +recollect, too, that vast quantities were buried from time to time, and +their places forgotten. Perhaps future generations will discover many +such hoards. Meanwhile, many of those same jewels must be in actual use +even now. Many a gem which hangs now on an English lady's wrist saw +Alaric sack Rome--and saw before and since--What not? The palaces of the +Pharaohs, or of Darius; then the pomp of the Ptolemies, or of the +Seleucids--came into Europe on the neck of some vulgar drunken wife of a +Roman proconsul, to glitter for a few centuries at every gladiator's +butchery in the amphitheatre; then went away with Placidia on a Gothic ox- +waggon, to pass into an Arab seraglio at Seville; and then, perhaps, back +from Sultan to Sultan again to its native India, to figure in the peacock- +throne of the Great Mogul, and be bought at last by some Armenian for a +few rupees from an English soldier, and come hither--and whither next? +When England shall be what Alexandria and Rome are now, that little stone +will be as bright as ever.--An awful symbol, if you will take it so, of +the permanence of God's works and God's laws, amid the wild chance and +change of sinful man. + +Then followed for Rome years of peace,--such peace as the wicked make for +themselves--A troubled sea, casting up mire and dirt. Wicked women, +wicked counts (mayors of the palace, one may call them) like Aetius and +Boniface, the real rulers of a nominal Empire. + +Puppet Valentinian succeeded his father, puppet Honorius. In his days +appeared another great portent--another comet, sweeping down out of +infinite space, and back into infinite space again.--Attila and his Huns. +They lay in innumerable hordes upon the Danube, until Honoria, +Valentinian's sister, confined in a convent at Constantinople for some +profligacy, sent her ring to Attila. He must be her champion, and +deliver her. He paused a while, like Alaric before him, doubting whether +to dash on Constantinople or Rome, and at last decided for Rome. But he +would try Gaul first; and into Gaul he poured, with all his Tartar +hordes, and with them all the Teuton tribes, who had gathered in his +progress, as an avalanche gathers the snow in its course. At the great +battle of Chalons, in the year 451, he fought it out: Hun, Sclav, Tartar, +and Finn, backed by Teutonic Gepid and Herule, Turkling, East Goth and +Lombard, against Roman and West Goth, Frank and Burgund, and the Bretons +of Armorica. Wicked Aetius shewed himself that day, as always, a general +and a hero--the Marlborough of his time--and conquered. Attila and his +hordes rolled away eastward, and into Italy for Rome. + +That is the Hunnenschlacht; 'a battle,' as Jornandes calls it, 'atrox, +multiplex, immane, pertinax.' Antiquity, he says, tells of nothing like +it. No man who had lost that sight could say that he had seen aught +worth seeing.--A fight gigantic, supernatural in vastness and horror, and +the legends which still hang about the place. You may see one of them in +Von Kaulbach's immortal design--the ghosts of the Huns and the ghosts of +the Germans rising from their graves on the battle-night in every year, +to fight it over again in the clouds, while the country far and wide +trembles at their ghostly hurrah. No wonder men remember that +Hunnenschlacht. Many consider that it saved Europe; that it was one of +the decisive battles of the world. + +Not that Attila was ruined. Within the year he had swept through +Germany, crossed the Alps, and devastated Italy almost to the walls of +Rome. And there the great Pope Leo, 'the Cicero of preaching, the Homer +of theology, the Aristotle of true philosophy,' met the wild heathen: and +a sacred horror fell upon Attila, and he turned, and went his way, to die +a year or two after no man knows how. Over and above his innumerable +wives, he took a beautiful German girl. When his people came in the +morning, the girl sat weeping, or seeming to weep; but Etzel, the scourge +of God, lay dead in a pool of gore. She said that he had burst a blood- +vessel. The Teutons whispered among themselves, that like a free-born +Teuton, she had slain her tyrant. One longs to know what became of her. + +And then the hordes broke up. Ardarich raised the Teuton Gepids and +Ostrogoths. The Teutons who had obeyed Attila, turned on their Tartar +conquerors, the only people who had ever subdued German men, and then +only by brute force of overpowering numbers. At Netad, upon the great +plain between the Drave and the Danube, they fought the second +Hunnenschlacht, and the Germans conquered. Thirty thousand Huns fell on +that dreadful day, and the rest streamed away into the heart of Asia, +into the infinite unknown deserts from whence the foul miscreants had +streamed forth, and left the Teutons masters of the world. The battle of +Netad; that, and not Chalons, to my mind, was the saving battle of +Europe. + +So Rome was saved; but only for a few years. Puppet Valentinian rewarded +Aetius for saving Rome, by stabbing with his own hand in his own palace, +the hero of Chalons; and then went on to fill up the cup of his iniquity. +It is all more like some horrible romance than sober history. Neglecting +his own wife Eudoxia, he took it into his wicked head to ravish her +intimate friend, the wife of a senator. Maximus stabbed him, retaliated +on the beautiful empress, and made himself Emperor. She sent across the +seas to Africa, to Genseric the Vandal, the cruel tyrant and persecutor. +He must come and be her champion, as Attila had been Honoria's. And he +came, with Vandals, Moors, naked Ausurians from the Atlas. The wretched +Romans, in their terror, tore Maximus in pieces; but it was too late. +Eudoxia met Genseric at the gates in royal robes and jewels. He stript +her of her jewels on the spot, and sacked Rome; and that was her reward. + +This is the second sack. More dreadful far than the first--455 is its +date. Then it was that the statues, whose fragments are still found, +were hurled in vain on the barbarian assailants. Not merely gold and +jewels, but the art-treasures of Rome were carried off to the Vandal +fleet, and with them the golden table and the seven-branched candlestick +which Titus took from the Temple of Jerusalem. + +How had these things escaped the Goths forty years before? We cannot +tell. Perhaps the Gothic sack, which only lasted five days, was less +complete than this one, which went on for fourteen days of unutterable +horrors. The plunderers were not this time sturdy honest Goths; not even +German slaves, mad to revenge themselves on their masters: they were +Moors, Ausurian black savages, and all the pirates and cut-throats of the +Mediterranean. + +Sixty thousand prisoners were carried off to Carthage. All the statues +were wrecked on the voyage to Africa, and lost for ever. + +And yet Rome did not die. She lingered on; her Emperor still calling +himself an Emperor, her senate a senate; feeding her lazy plebs, as best +she could, with the remnant of those revenues which former Emperors had +set aside for their support--their public bread, public pork, public oil, +public wine, public baths,--and leaving them to gamble and quarrel, and +listen to the lawyers in rags and rascality, and to rise and murder ruler +after ruler, benefactor after benefactor, out of base jealousy and fear +of any one less base than themselves. And so 'the smoke of her torment +went up continually.' + +But if Rome would not die, still less would she repent; as it is +written--'The remnant of the people repented not of their deeds, but +gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven.' + +As the century runs on, the confusion becomes more and more dreadful. +Anthemius, Olybrius, Orestes, and the other half-caste Romans with Greek +names who become quasi-emperors and get murdered; Ricimer the Sueve, the +king-maker and king-murderer; even good Majorian, who as puppet Emperor +set up by Ricimer, tries to pass a few respectable laws, and is only +murdered all the sooner. None of these need detain us. They mean +nothing, they represent no idea, they are simply kites and crows +quarrelling over the carcase, and cannot possibly teach us anything, but +the terrible lesson, that in all revolutions the worst men are certain to +rise to the top. + +But only for a while, gentlemen, only for a while. Villany is by its +very essence self-destructive, and if rogues have their day, the time +comes when rogues fall out, and honest men come by their own. + +That day, however, was not come for wretched Rome. A third time she was +sacked by Ricimer her own general; and then more villains ruled her; and +more kites and crows plundered her. The last of them only need keep us a +while. He is Odoacer, the giant Herule, Houd-y-wacker, as some say his +name really is, a soubriquet perhaps from his war-cry, 'Hold ye stoutly,' +'Stand you steady.' His father was AEdecon, Attila's secretary, chief of +the little Turkling tribe, who, though Teutonic, had clung faithfully to +Attila's sons, and after the battle of Netad, came to ruin. There are +strange stories of Odoacer. One from the Lives of St. Severinus, how +Odoacer and his brothers started over the Alps, knapsacks at back, to +seek their fortunes in Italy, and take service with the Romans; and how +they came to St. Severinus' cell near Vienna, and went in, heathens as +they probably were, to get a blessing from the holy hermit; and how +Odoacer had to stoop, and stand stooping, so huge he was. And how the +saint saw that he was no common lad, and said, 'Go into Italy, clothed in +thy ragged sheep-skins: thou shalt soon give greater gifts to thy +friends.' So he went, and his brother with him. One of them at least +ought to interest us. He was Onulf, Hunwulf, Wulf, Guelph, the Wolf-cub, +who went away to Constantinople, and saw strange things, and did strange +things likewise, and at last got back to Germany, and settled in Bavaria, +and became the ancestor of all the Guelphs, and of Victoria, queen of +England. His son, Wulfgang, fought under Belisarius against the Goths; +his son again, Ulgang, under Belisarius against Persian and Lombard; his +son or grandson was Queen Brunhilda's confidant in France, and became +Duke of Burgundy; and after that the fortunes of his family were mixed up +with the Merovingian kings of France, and then again with the Lombards in +Italy, till one of them emerges as Guelf, count of Altorf, the ancestor +of our Guelphic line. + +But to return to Odoacer. He came to Rome, seeking his fortune. There +he found in power Orestes, his father's old colleague at Attila's court, +the most unprincipled turn-coat of his day; who had been the Emperor's +man, then Attila's man, and would be anybody's man if needed: but who was +now his own man, being king-maker for the time being, and father of the +puppet Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, a pretty little lad, with an ominous +name. + +Odoacer took service under Orestes in the bodyguards, became a great +warrior and popular; watched his time; and when Orestes refused the +mercenaries, Herules, Rugians, Scyrings, Turklings and Alans--all the +weak or half-caste frontier tribes who had as yet little or no share in +the spoils of Italy--their demand of the third of the lands of Italy, he +betrayed his benefactor; promised the mercenaries to do for them what +Orestes would not, and raises his famous band of confederates. At last +he called himself King of Nations, burnt Pavia, and murdered Orestes, as +a due reward for his benefits. Stript of his purple, the last Emperor of +Rome knelt crying at the feet of the German giant, and begged not to be +murdered like his father. And the great wild beast's hard heart smote +him, and he sent the poor little lad away, to live in wealth and peace in +Lucullus' villa at Misenum, with plenty of money, and women, and gewgaws, +to dream away his foolish life looking out over the fair bay of +Naples--the last Emperor of Rome. + +Then Odoacer set to work, and not altogether ill. He gave his +confederates the third of Italy, in fief under himself as king, and for +fourteen years (not without the help of a few more murders) he kept some +sort of rude order and justice in the wretched land. Remember him, for, +bad man as he is, he does represent a principle. He initiated, by that +gift of the lands to his soldiers, the feudal system in Italy. I do not +mean that he invented it. It seems rather to be a primaeval German form, +as old as the days of Tacitus, who describes, if you will recollect, the +German war-kings as parting the conquered lands among their 'comites,' +thanes, or companions in arms. + +So we leave Odoacer king of Italy, for fourteen years, little dreaming, +perhaps, of the day when as he had done unto others so should it be done +to him. But for that tale of just and terrible retribution you must wait +till the next lecture. + +And now, to refresh us with a gleam of wholesome humanity after all these +horrors, let us turn to our worthy West Goth cousins for a while. They +have stopt cutting each other's throats, settled themselves in North +Spain and South France, and good bishop Sidonius gets to like them. They +are just and honest men on the whole, kindly, and respectable in morals, +living according to their strange old Gothic Law. But above all Sidonius +likes their king--Theodoric is his name. A man of blood he has been in +his youth: but he has settled down, like his people; and here is a +picture of him. A real photograph of a live old Goth, nearly 1400 years +ago. Gibbon gives a good translation of it. I will give you one, but +Sidonius is prolix and florid, and I have had to condense. + +A middle-sized, stout man, of great breadth of chest, and thickness of +limb, a large hand, and a small foot, curly haired, bushy eye-browed, +with remarkably large eyes and eyelids, hook-nosed, thin-lipped; +brilliant, cheerful, impassioned, full of health and strength in mind and +body. He goes to chapel before day-light, sits till eight doing justice, +while the crowd, let into a latticed enclosure, is admitted one by one +behind a curtain into the presence. At eight he leaves the throne, and +goes either to count his money, or look at his horses. If he hunts, he +thinks it undignified to carry his bow, and womanish to keep it strung, a +boy carries it behind him; and when game gets up, he asks you (or the +Bishop, who seems to have gone hunting with him) what you would wish him +to aim at; strings his bow, and then (says Sidonius) never misses his +shot. He dines at noon, quietly in general, magnificently on Saturdays; +drinks very little, and instead of sleeping after dinner, plays at tables +and dice. He is passionately fond of his game, but never loses his +temper, joking and talking to the dice, and to every one round him, +throwing aside royal severity, and bidding all be merry (says the +bishop); for, to speak my mind, what he is afraid of is, that people +should be afraid of him. If he wins he is in immense good humour; then +is the time to ask favours of him; and, says the crafty bishop, many a +time have I lost the game, and won my cause thereby. At three begins +again the toil of state. The knockers return, and those who shove them +away return too; everywhere the litigious crowd murmurs round; and +follows him at evening, when he goes to supper, or gets its matters +settled by the officers of the court, who have to stay there till bed- +time. At supper, though there are but rarely 'mimici sales,' which I +cannot translate--some sort of jesting: but biting and cruel insults +(common at the feasts of the Roman Emperors) are never allowed. His +taste in music is severe. No water-organs, flute-player, lyrist, cymbal +or harp-playing woman is allowed. All he delights in is the old Teutonic +music, whose virtue (says the bishop) soothes the soul no less than does +its sound the ear. When he rises from table the guards for the night are +set, and armed men stand at all the doors, to watch him through the first +hours of sleep. + + + + +LECTURE IV.--THE GOTHIC CIVILIZER + + +Let us follow the fortunes of Italy and of Rome. They are not only a +type of the fortunes of the whole western world, but the fortunes of that +world, as you will see, depend on Rome. + +You must recollect, meanwhile, that by the middle of the fifth century, +the Western Empire had ceased to exist. The Angles and Saxons were +fighting their way into Britain. The Franks were settled in north France +and the lower Rhineland. South of them, the centre of Gaul still +remained Roman, governed by Counts of cities, who were all but +independent sovereigns, while they confessed a nominal allegiance to the +Emperor of Constantinople. Their power was destined soon to be +annihilated by the conquests of Clovis and his Franks--as false and cruel +ruffians as their sainted king, the first-born son of the Church. The +history of Gaul for some centuries becomes henceforth a tissue of +internecine horrors, which you must read for yourselves in the pages of +M. Sismondi, or of Gregory of Tours. The Allemanni (whose name has +become among the Franks the general name for Germans) held the lands from +the Maine to the Rhaetian Alps. The Burgunds, the lands to the south- +west of them, comprising the greater part of south-east Gaul. The West +Goths held the south-west of Gaul, and the greater part of Spain, having +thrust the Sueves, and with them some Alans, into Gallicia, Asturias, and +Portugal; and thrust, also, the Vandals across the straits of Gibraltar, +to found a prosperous kingdom along the northern shore of Africa. The +East Goths, meanwhile, after various wanderings to the north of the Alps, +lay in the present Austria and in the Danube lands, resting after their +great struggle with the Huns, and their crowning victory of Netad. + +To follow the fortunes of Italy, we must follow those of these East +Goths, and especially of one man among them, Theodoric, known in German +song as Dietrich of Bern or Verona. + +Interesting exceedingly to us should this great hero be. No man's +history better shows the strange relations between the Teutons and the +dying Empire: but more; his life is the first instance of a Teuton +attempting to found a civilized and ordered state, upon experience drawn +from Roman sources; of the young world trying to build itself up some +sort of dwelling out of the ruins of the old. Dietrich failed, it is +true. But if the thing had been then possible, he seems to have been the +man to have done it. He lived and laboured like what he was--a royal +Amal, a true son of Woden. Unable to write, he founded a great kingdom +by native virtue and common sense. Called a barbarian, he restored +prosperity to ruined Italy, and gave to it (and with it to the greater +part of the western world), peace for three and thirty years. Brought up +among hostile sects, he laid down that golden law of religious liberty +which the nineteenth century has not yet courage and humanity enough to +accept. But if his life was heroic, his death was tragic. He failed +after all in his vast endeavours, from causes hidden from him, but +visible, and most instructive, to us; and after having toiled impartially +for the good of conquerors and of conquered alike, he died sadly, leaving +behind him a people who, most of them, believed gladly the news that a +holy hermit had seen his soul hurled down the crater of Stromboli, as a +just punishment for the inexpiable crime of being wiser than his +generation. + +Some have complained of Gibbon's 'hero-worship' of Dietrich--I do not. +The honest and accurate cynic so very seldom worshipped a hero, or +believed in the existence of any, that we may take his good opinion as +almost final and without appeal. One author, for whose opinion I have +already exprest a very high respect, says that he was but a wild man of +the woods to the last; polished over skin-deep with Roman civilization; +'Scratch him, and you found the barbarian underneath {101}.' It may be +true. If it be true, it is a very high compliment. It was not from his +Roman civilization, but from his 'barbarian' mother and father, that he +drew the 'vive intelligence des choses morales, et ces inspirations +elevees et heroiques,' which M. Thierry truly attributes to him. If +there was, as M. Thierry truly says, another nature struggling within +him--is there not such in every man? And are not the struggles the more +painful, the temptations more dangerous, the inconsistencies too often +the more shameful, the capacities for evil as well as for good, more +huge, just in proportion to the native force and massiveness of the soul? +The doctrine may seem dangerous. It is dangerous, like many truths; and +woe to those who, being unlearned and unstable, wrest it to their own +destruction; and presume upon it to indulge their own passions under +Byronic excuses of 'genius,' or 'muscular Christianity.' But it is true +nevertheless: so at least the Bible tells us, in its wonderful +delineations of David, 'the man after God's own heart,' and of St. Peter, +the chief of the apostles. And there are points of likeness between the +character of Dietrich, and that of David, which will surely suggest +themselves to any acute student of human nature. M. Thierry attributes +to him, as his worse self, 'les instincts les plus violents; la cruaute, +l'astuce, l'egoisme impitoyable.' The two first counts are undeniable--at +least during his youth: they were the common vices of the age. The two +latter I must hold as not proven by facts: but were they proven, they +would still be excusable, on the simple ground of his Greek education. +'Cunning and pitiless egotism' were the only moral qualities which +Dietrich is likely to have seen exercised at the court of Constantinople: +and what wonder, if he was somewhat demoralized by the abominable +atmosphere which he breathed from childhood? Dietrich is an illustration +of the saga with which these lectures began. He is the very type of the +forest child, bewitched by the fine things of the wicked Troll garden. +The key to the man's character, indeed the very glory of it, is the long +struggle within him, between the Teutonic and the Greek elements. Dazzled +and debauched, at times, by the sinful glories of the Bosphorus, its +palaces, its gold, and its women, he will break the spell desperately. He +will become a wild Goth and an honest man once more; he will revenge his +own degradation on that court and empire which he knows well enough to +despise, distrust and hate. Again and again the spell comes over him. +His vanity and his passions make him once more a courtier among the +Greeks; but the blood of Odin is strong within him still; again and again +he rises, with a noble shame, to virtue and patriotism, trampling under +foot selfish luxury and glory, till the victory is complete; and he turns +away in the very moment of the greatest temptation, from the bewitching +city, to wander, fight, starve, and at last conquer a new land for +himself and for his nation; and shew, by thirty years of justice and +wisdom, what that true Dietrich was, which had been so long overlaid by +the false Dietrich of his sinful youth. + +Look at the facts of his history, as they stand, and see whether they do +not bear out this, and no other, theory of his character. + +The year was 455, two years after Attila's death. Near Vienna a boy was +born, of Theodemir one of the Gothic kings and his favourite Erleva. He +was sent when eight years old to Constantinople as a hostage. The +Emperor Leo had agreed to pay the Goths 300 pounds of gold every year, if +they would but leave him in peace; and young Dietrich was the pledge of +the compact. There he grew up amid all the wisdom of the Romans, +watching it all, and yet never even learning to write. It seems to some +that the German did not care to learn; it seems to me rather that they +did not care to teach. He came back to his people at eighteen, delighted +them by his strength and stature, and became, to all appearance, a Goth +of the Goths; going adventures with six thousand volunteers against the +Sarmatae, who had just defeated the Greeks, and taken a city--which he +retook, but instead of restoring it to the Emperor, kept himself. Food +becoming scarce in Austria, the Ostrogoths moved some into Italy, some +down on Illyria and Thessaly; and the Emperor gracefully presented them +with the country of which they had already taken possession. + +In every case, you see, this method went on. The failing Emperors bought +off the Teutons where they could; submitted to them where they could not; +and readily enough turned on them when they had a chance. The relations +between the two parties can be hardly better explained, than by comparing +them to those between the English adventurers in Hindostan and the +falling Rajahs and Sultans of the last century. + +After a while Theodoric, or Dietrich, found himself, at his father's +death, sole king of the Ostrogoths. This period of his life is very +obscure: but one hint at least we have, which may explain his whole +future career. Side by side with him and with his father before him, +there was another Dietrich--Dietrich the One-eyed, son of Triar, a low- +born adventurer, who had got together the remnants of some low-caste +tribes, who were called the Goths of Thrace, and was swaggering about the +court of Constantinople, as, when the East Goths first met him, what we +call Warden of the Marches, with some annual pay for his Goths. He was +insolent to Theodemir and his family, and they retaliated by bitter +hatred. It was intolerable for them, Amals, sons of Odin, to be insulted +by this upstart. So they went on for years, till the miserable religious +squabble fell out--you may read it in Gibbon--which ended in the Emperor +Zeno, a low-born and cunning man, suspected of the murder of his own son +by the princess Ariadne, being driven out of Constantinople by +Basiliscus. We need not enter into such matters, except as far as they +bear on the history of Dietrich the Amal. Dietrich the One-eyed helped +Basiliscus--and then Zeno seems to have sent for Dietrich the Amal to +help him. He came, but too late. Basiliscus' party had already broken +up; Basiliscus and his family had taken refuge in a church, from whence +Zeno enticed him, on the promise of shedding no blood, which he did not: +but instead, put him, his wife and children, in a dry cistern, walled it +up and left them. + +Dietrich the Amal rose into power and great glory, and became 'son-in- +arms' to the Emperor. But the young Amal longed for adventures. He +offered to take his Ostrogoths into Italy, drive out Odoacer, and seat on +the throne of the West, Nepos, one of the many puppets who had been +hurled off it a few years before. Zeno had need of the young hero nearer +home, and persuaded him to stay in Constantinople, eat, drink, and be +merry. + +Whereon Odoacer made Romulus Agustulus and the Roman Senate write to Zeno +that they wanted no Emperor save him at Constantinople; that they were +very happy under the excellent Odoacer, and that they therefore sent to +Zeno, as the rightful owner, all the Imperial insignia and ornaments; +things which may have been worn, some of them, by Augustus himself. And +so ended, even in name, the Empire of Rome. All which the Amal saw, and, +as will appear, did not forget. + +Zeno gave the Amal all that the One-eyed had had before him, and paid the +Ostrogoths yearly as he had paid the One-eye's men. The One-eyed was +banished to his cantonments, and of course revolted. Zeno wanted to buy +him off, but the Amal would not hear of it; he would not help the Romans +against his rival, unless they swore perpetual enmity against him. + +They did so, and he marched to the assistance of the wretched Empire. He +was to be met by Roman reinforcements at the Haemus. They never came; +and the Amal, disgusted and disheartened, found himself entangled in the +defiles of the Haemus, starving and worn out; with the One-eyed +entrenched on an inaccessible rock, where he dared not attack him. + +Then followed an extraordinary scene. The One-eyed came down again and +again from his rock, and rode round the Amal's camp, shouting to him +words so true, that one must believe them to have been really spoken. + +'Perjured boy, madman, betrayer of your race--do you not see that the +Roman plan is as always to destroy Goths by Goths? Whichever of us +falls, they, not we, will be the stronger. They never met you as they +promised, at the cities, nor here. They have sent you out here to perish +in the desert.' + +Then the East Goths raised a cry. 'The One-eyed is right. The Amal +cares not that these men are Goths like ourselves.' + +Then the One-eyed appeals to the Goths themselves, as he curses the Amal. + +'Why are you killing your kinsmen? Why have you made so many widows? +Where is all their wealth gone, they who set out to fight for you? Each +of them had two or three horses: but now they are walking on foot behind +you like slaves,--free-men as well-born as yourself:--and you promised to +measure them out gold by the bushel.' + +Was it not true? If young Dietrich had in him (and he shewed that he had +in after years) a Teuton's heart, may not that strange interview have +opened his eyes to his own folly, and taught him that the Teuton must be +his own master, and not the mercenary of the Romans? + +The men cried out that it was true. He must make peace with the +One-eyed, or they would do it themselves; and peace was made. They both +sent ambassadors to Zeno; the Amal complaining of treachery; the One-eyed +demanding indemnity for all his losses. The Emperor was furious. He +tried to buy off the Amal by marrying him to a princess of the blood +royal, and making him a Caesar. Dietrich would not consent; he felt that +it was a snare. Zeno proclaimed the One-eyed an enemy to the Empire; and +ended by reinstating him in his old honours, and taking them from the +Amal. The Amal became furious, burnt villages, slaughtered the peasants, +even (the Greeks say) cut off the hands of his captives. He had broken +with the Romans at last. The Roman was astride of him, and of all +Teutons, like Sindbad's old man of the sea. The only question, as with +Sindbad, was whether he should get drunk, and give them a chance of +throwing the perfidious tyrant. And now the time was come. He was +compelled to ask himself, not--what shall I be in relation to myself: but +what shall I be in relation to the Kaiser of the Romans--a mercenary, a +slave, or a conqueror--for one of the three I must be? + +So it went on, year after year--sometimes with terrible reverses for +Dietrich, till the year 480. Then the old One-eyed died, in a strange +way. Mounting a wild horse at the tent-door, the beast reared before he +could get his seat; afraid of pulling it over by the curb, he let it go. +A lance, in Gothic fashion, was hanging at the tent-door, and the horse +plunged the One-eyed against it. The point went deep into his side, and +the old fighting man was at rest for ever. + +And then came a strange peripeteia for the Amal. Zeno, we know not why, +sent instantly for him. He had been ravaging, pursuing, defeating Roman +troops, or being defeated by them. Now he must come to Rome. His Goths +should have the Lower Danube. He should have glory and honour to spare. +He came. His ideal, at this time, seems actually to have been to live +like a Roman citizen in Constantinople, and help to govern the Empire. +Recollect, he was still little more than five and twenty years old. + +So he went to Constantinople, and I suppose with him the faithful mother, +and faithful sister, who had been with him in all his wanderings. He had +a triumph decreed him at the Emperor's expense, was made Consul +Ordinarius ('which,' saith Jornandes, 'is accounted the highest good and +chief glory in the world') and Master-general, and lodged in the palace. + +What did it all mean? Dietrich was dazzled by it, at least for a while. +What it meant, he found out too soon. He was to fight the Emperor's +battles against all rebels, and he fought them, to return irritated, +complaining (justly or unjustly) of plots against his life; to be +pacified, like a child, with the honour of an equestrian statue; then to +sink down into Byzantine luxury for seven inglorious years, with only one +flashing out of the ancient spirit, when he demanded to go alone against +the Bulgars, and killed their king with his own hand. + +What woke him from his dream? The cry of his starving people. + +The Goths, settled on the lower Danube, had been living, as wild men and +mercenaries live, recklessly from hand to mouth, drinking and gambling +till their families were in want. They send to the Amal. 'While thou +art revelling at Roman banquets, we are starving--come back ere we are +ruined.' + +They were jealous, too, of the success of Odoacer and his mercenaries. He +was growing now to be a great power; styling himself 'King of nations +{109},' giving away to the Visigoths the Narbonnaise, the last remnant of +the Western Empire; collecting round him learned Romans like Symmachus, +Boethius, and Cassiodorus; respecting the Catholic clergy; and seemingly +doing his best to govern well. His mercenaries, however, would not be +governed. Under their violence and oppression agriculture and population +were both failing; till Pope Gelasius speaks of 'AEmilia, Tuscia, +ceteraeque provinciae in quibus nullus prope hominum existit.' + +Meanwhile there seems to have been a deep hatred on the part of the Goths +to Odoacer and his mercenaries. Dr. Sheppard thinks that they despised +him himself as a man of low birth. But his father AEdecon had been chief +of the Turklings, and was most probably of royal blood. It is very +unlikely, indeed, that so large a number of Teutons would have followed +any man who had not Odin's blood in his veins. Was there a stain on +Odoacer from his early connexion with Attila? Or was the hatred against +his men more than himself, contempt especially of the low-caste +Herules,--a question of race, springing out of those miserable +tribe-feuds, which kept the Teutons always divided and weak? Be that as +it may, Odoacer had done a deed which raised this hatred to open fury. He +had gone over the Alps into Rugiland (then Noricum, and the neighbourhood +of Vienna) and utterly destroyed those of the Rugier who had not gone +into Italy under his banner. They had plundered, it is said, the cell of +his old friend St. Severinus, as soon as the saint died, of the garments +laid up for the poor, and a silver cup, and the sacred vessels of the +mass. Be that as it may, Odoacer utterly exterminated them, and carried +their king Feletheus, or Fava, back to Italy, with Gisa his 'noxious +wife;' and with them many Roman Christians, and (seemingly) the body of +St. Severinus himself. But this had been a small thing, if he had not +advised himself to have a regular Roman triumph, with Fava, the captive +king, walking beside his chariot; and afterwards, in the approved fashion +of the ancient Romans on such occasions, to put Fava to death in cold +blood. + +The records of this feat are to be found, as far as I know them, in one +short chapter (I. xix.) of Paulus Diaconus, and in Muratori's notes +thereto; but however small the records, the deed decided the fate of +Italy. Frederic, son of Fava, took refuge with the Ostrogoths, and +demanded revenge in the name of his royal race; and it is easy to +conceive that the sympathies of the Goths would be with him. An attack +(seemingly unprovoked) on an ancient Teutonic nation by a mere band of +adventurers was--or could easily be made--a grievous wrong, and clear +casus belli, over and above the innate Teutonic lust for fighting and +adventures, simply for the sake of 'the sport.' + +Dietrich went back, and from that day, the dream of eastern luxury was +broken, and young Dietrich was a Goth again, for good and for evil. + +He assembled the Goths, and marched straight on Constantinople, burning +and pillaging as he went. So say, at least, the Greek historians, of +whom, all through this strange story, no one need believe more than he +likes. Had the Goths had the writing of the life of Dietrich, we should +have heard another tale. As it is, we have, as it were, a life of Lord +Clive composed by the court scribes of Delhi. + +To no Roman would he tell what was in his mind. Five leagues from +Constantinople he paused. Some say that he had compassion on the city +where he had been brought up. Who can tell? He demanded to speak to +Zeno alone, and the father in arms and his wild son met once more. There +was still strong in him the old Teutonic feudal instinct. He was 'Zeno's +man,' in spite of all. He asked (says Jornandes) Zeno's leave to march +against Odoacer, and conquer Italy. Procopius and the Valesian Fragment +say that Zeno sent him, and that in case of success, he was to reign +there till Zeno came. Zeno was, no doubt, glad to get rid of him at any +price. As Ennodius well says, 'Another's honour made him remember his +own origin, and fear the very legions which obeyed him--for that +obedience is suspected which serves the unworthy.' Rome was only +nominally under Zeno's dominion; and it mattered little to him whether +Herule or Gothic adventurer called himself his representative. + +Then was held a grand function. Dietrich, solemnly appointed +'Patrician,' had Italy ceded to him by a 'Pragmatic' sanction, and Zeno +placed on his head the sacrum velamen, a square of purple, signifying in +Constantinople things wonderful, august, imperial--if they could only be +made to come to pass. And he made them come to pass. He gathered all +Teutonic heroes of every tribe, as well as his own; and through Roumelia, +and through the Alps, a long and dangerous journey, went Dietrich and his +Goths, with their wives and children, and all they had, packed on +waggons; living on their flocks and herds, grinding their corn in hand- +mills, and hunting as they went, for seven hundred miles of march; +fighting as they went with Bulgars and Sarmatians, who had swarmed into +the waste marches of Hungary and Carniola, once populous, cultivated, and +full of noble cities; fighting a desperate battle with the Gepidae, up to +their knees in a morass; till over the passes of the Julian Alps, where +icicles hung upon their beards, and their clothes cracked with frost, +they poured into the Venetian plains. It was a daring deed; and needed a +spirit like Dietrich's to carry it through. + +Odoacer awaited him near the ruins of Aquileia. On the morning of the +fight, as he was arming, Dietrich asked his noble mother to bring him +some specially fine mantle, which she had embroidered for him, and put it +over his armour, 'that all men may see how he goes gayer into the fight +than ever he did into feast. For this day she shall see whether she have +brought a man-child into the world, or no.' + +And in front of Verona (where the plain was long white with human bones), +he beat Odoacer, and after a short and sharp campaign, drove him to +Ravenna. But there, Roman fortifications, and Roman artillery, stopped, +as usual, the Goth; and Odoacer fulfilled his name so well, and stood so +stout, that he could only be reduced by famine; and at last surrendered +on terms, difficult now to discover. + +Gibbon says, that there was a regular compact that they should enjoy +equal authority, and refers to Procopius: but Procopius only says, that +they should live together peaceably 'in that city.' Be that as it may, +Odoacer and his party were detected, after awhile, conspiring against +Dietrich, and put to death in some dark fashion. Gibbon, as advocatus +diaboli, of course gives the doubt against Dietrich, by his usual +enthymeme--All men are likely to be rogues, ergo, Dietrich was one. +Rather hard measure, when one remembers that the very men who tell the +story are Dietrich's own enemies. By far the most important of them, the +author of the Valesian Fragment, who considers Dietrich damned as an +Arian, and the murderer of Boethius and Symmachus, says plainly that +Odoacer plotted against his life. But it was a dark business at best. + +Be that as it may, Dietrich the Amal found himself in one day king of all +Italy, without a peer. And now followed a three and thirty years' reign +of wisdom, justice, and prosperity, unexampled in the history of those +centuries. Between the days of the Antonines and those of Charlemagne, I +know no such bright spot in the dark history of Europe. + +As for his transferring the third of the lands of Italy, which had been +held by Odoacer's men, to his own Goths,--that was just or unjust (even +putting out of the question the rights of conquest), according to what +manner of men Odoacer's mercenaries were, and what right they had to the +lands. At least it was done so, says Cassiodorus, that it notoriously +gave satisfaction to the Romans themselves. One can well conceive it. +Odoacer's men had been lawless adventurers; and now law was installed as +supreme. Dietrich, in his long sojourn at the Emperor's court, had +discovered the true secret of Roman power, which made the Empire terrible +even in her fallen fortunes; and that was Law. Law, which tells every +man what to expect, and what is expected of him; and so gives, if not +content, still confidence, energy, industry. The Goths were to live by +the Gothic law, the Romans by the Roman. To amalgamate the two races +would have been as impossible as to amalgamate English and Hindoos. The +parallel is really tolerably exact. The Goth was very English; and the +over-civilized, learned, false, profligate Roman was the very counterpart +of the modern Brahmin. But there was to be equal justice between man and +man. If the Goths were the masters of much of the Roman soil, still +spoliation and oppression were forbidden; and the remarkable edict or +code of Theodoric, shews how deeply into his great mind had sunk the idea +of the divineness of Law. It is short, and of Draconic severity, +especially against spoliation, cheating, false informers, abuse by the +clergy of the rights of sanctuary, and all offences against the honour of +women. I advise you all to study it, as an example of what an early +Teutonic king thought men ought to do, and could be made to do. + +The Romans were left to their luxury and laziness; and their country +villas (long deserted) were filled again by the owners. The Goths were +expected to perform military service, and were drilled from their youth +in those military evolutions which had so often given the disciplined +Roman the victory over the undisciplined Goth, till every pomoerium +(boulevard), says Ennodius, might be seen full of boys and lads, learning +to be soldiers. Everything meanwhile was done to soothe the wounded +pride of the conquered. The senate of Rome was still kept up in name (as +by Odoacer), her nobles flattered by sonorous titles, and the officers of +the kingdom and the palace bore the same names as they would have done +under Roman emperors. The whole was an attempt to develop Dietrich's own +Goths by the only civilization which he knew, that of Constantinople: but +to engraft on it an order, a justice, a freedom, a morality, which was +the 'barbarian' element. The treasures of Roman art were placed under +the care of government officers; baths, palaces, churches, aqueducts, +were repaired or founded; to build seems to have been Dietrich's great +delight; and we have left us, on a coin, some image of his own palace at +Verona, a strange building with domes and minarets, something like a +Turkish mosque; standing, seemingly, on the arcades of some older Roman +building. Dietrich the Goth may, indeed, be called the founder of +'Byzantine' architecture throughout the Western world. + +Meanwhile, agriculture prospered once more; the Pontine Marshes were +drained; the imperial ports restored, and new cities sprang up. 'The new +ones,' says Machiavelli, 'were Venice, Siena, Ferrara, Aquileia; and +those which became extended were Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Milan, Naples, +and Bologna.' Of these the great sea-ports, especially Venice, were +founded not by Goths, but by Roman and Greek fugitives: but it was the +security and liberality of Dietrich's reign which made their existence +possible; and Venice really owes far more to the barbarian hero, than to +the fabled patronage of St. Mark. + +'From this devastation and new population,' continues Machiavelli, 'arose +new languages, which, partaking of the native idiom of the new people, +and of the old Roman, formed a new manner of discourse. Besides, not +only were the names of provinces changed, but also of lakes, rivers, +seas, and men; for France, Spain, and Italy are full of fresh names, +wholly different from the ancient.' + +This reign of Dietrich was, in fact, the birth-hour of modern Italy; and, +as Machiavelli says, 'brought the country to such a state of greatness, +that her previous sufferings were unrecognizable.' We shall see +hereafter how the great Goth's work was all undone; and (to their +everlasting shame) by whom it was undone. + +The most interesting records of the time are, without doubt, the letters +of Cassiodorus, the king's secretary and chancellor, which have come down +to us in great numbers. There are letters among them on all questions of +domestic and foreign policy: to the kings of the Varni, kings of the +Herules, kings of the Thuringer (who were still heathens beyond the Black +forest), calling on them all to join him and the Burgundians, and defend +his son-in-law Alaric II., king of the Visigoths, against Clovis and his +Franks. There are letters, too, bearing on the religious feuds of the +Roman population, and on the morals and social state of Rome itself, of +which I shall say nothing in this lecture, having cause to refer to them +hereafter. But if you wish to know the times, you must read Cassiodorus +thoroughly. + +In his letters you will remark how most of the so-called Roman names are +Greek. You will remark, too, as a sign of the decadence of taste and +art, that though full of wisdom and practical morality, the letters are +couched in the most wonderful bombast to be met with, even in that age of +infimae Latinitatis. One can only explain their style by supposing that +King Dietrich, having supplied the sense, left it for Cassiodorus to +shape it as he thought best; and when the letter was read over to him, +took for granted (being no scholar) that that was the way in which Roman +Caesars and other cultivated personages ought to talk; admired his +secretary's learning; and probably laughed in his sleeve at the whole +thing, thinking that ten words of honest German would have said all that +he meant. As for understanding these flights of rhetoric, it is +impossible that Dietrich could have done so: perhaps not even Cassiodorus +himself. Take as one example, such a letter as this.--After a lofty +moral maxim, which I leave for you to construe--'In partem pietatis +recidit mitigata districtio; et sub beneficio praestat, qui poenam +debitam moderatione considerata palpaverit,'--Jovinus the curial is +informed, after the most complex method, that having first quarrelled +with a fellow-curial, and then proceeded to kill him, he is banished for +life to the isle of Volcano, among the Liparis. As a curial is a +gentleman and a government magistrate, the punishment is just enough; but +why should Cassiodorus (certainly not King Dietrich) finish a short +letter by a long dissertation on volcanoes in general, and Stromboli in +particular, insisting on the wonder that the rocks, though continually +burnt, are continually renewed by 'the inextricable potency of nature;' +and only returning to Jovinus to inform him that he will henceforth +follow the example of a salamander, which always lives in fire, 'being so +contracted by natural cold, that it is tempered by burning flame. It is +a thin and small animal, connected with worms, and clothed with a yellow +colour;' . . . Cassiodorus then returns to the main subject of volcanoes, +and ends with a story of Stromboli having broken out just as Hannibal +poisoned himself at the court of Prusias;--information which may have +been interesting, though not consoling, to poor Jovinus, in the prospect +of living there; but of which one would like to have had king Dietrich's +opinion. Did he felicitate himself like a simple Teuton, on the +wonderful learning and eloquence of his Greek-Roman secretary? Or did he +laugh a royal laugh at the whole letter, and crack a royal joke at +Cassiodorus and all quill-driving schoolmasters and lawyers--the two +classes of men whom the Goths hated especially, and at the end to which +they by their pedantries had brought imperial Rome? One would like to +know. For not only was Dietrich no scholar himself, but he had a +contempt for the very scholarship which he employed, and forbade the +Goths to learn it--as the event proved, a foolish and fatal prejudice. +But it was connected in his mind with chicanery, effeminacy, and with the +cruel and degrading punishments of children. Perhaps the ferula had been +applied to him at Constantinople in old days. If so, no wonder that he +never learnt to write. 'The boy who trembles at a cane,' he used to say, +'will never face a lance.' His mother wit, meanwhile, was so shrewd that +'many of his sayings (says the unknown author of the invaluable Valesian +Fragment) remain among us to this day.' Two only, as far as I know, have +been preserved, quaint enough: + + 'He that hath gold, or a devil, cannot hide it.' + +And + + 'The Roman, when poor, apes the Goth: the Goth, + when rich, apes the Roman.' + +There is a sort of Solomon's judgment, too, told of him, in the case of a +woman who refused to acknowledge her own son, which was effectual enough; +but somewhat too homely to repeat. + +As for his personal appearance, it was given in a saga; but I have not +consulted it myself, and am no judge of its authenticity. The +traditional description of him is that of a man almost beardless--a rare +case among the Goths--with masses of golden ringlets, and black eyebrows +over 'oculos caesios,' the blue grey eyes common to so many conquerors. A +complexion so peculiar, that one must believe it to be truly reported. + +His tragic death, and the yet more tragic consequences thereof, will be +detailed in the next lecture. + + + + +LECTURE V--DIETRICH'S END. + + +I have now to speak to you on the latter end of Dietrich's reign--made so +sadly famous by the death of Boethius--the last Roman philosopher, as he +has been called for centuries, and not unjustly. His De Consolatione +Philosophiae is a book good for any man, full of wholesome and godly +doctrine. For centuries it ranked as high as the highest classics; +higher perhaps at times than any book save the Bible, among not merely +scholars, but statesmen. It is the last legacy of the dying old world to +the young world which was trampling it out of life; and therefore it is +full of sadness. But beneath the sadness there is faith and hope; for +God is just, and virtue must be triumphant and immortal, and the absolute +and only good for man. The whole story is very sad. Dietrich was one of +those great men, who like Henry VIII, Elizabeth, Napoleon, or the late +Czar Nicholas, have lived too long for their own honour. The old heathen +would have attributed his misadventures to a [Greek text], an envy of the +Gods, who will not abide to see men as prosperous as they themselves are. +We may attribute it more simply and more piously to the wear and tear of +frail humanity. For it may be that very few human souls can stand for +many years the strain of a great rule. I do not mean that they break +down from overwork, but that they are pulled out of shape by it; and +that, especially, the will becomes enormously developed at the expense of +the other powers of the soul, till the man becomes, as he grows older, +imperious, careless of, or irritated by counsel, determined to have his +own way because it is his own way. We see the same tendency in all +accustomed for a long while to absolute rule, even in petty matters;--in +the old ship's captain, the old head of a factory, the old master of +hounds; and we do not blame them for it. It is a disease incident to +their calling, as pedantry is to that of a scholar, or astuteness to that +of an attorney. But it is most dangerous in the greatest minds, and in +the highest places; and only to be kept off by them, as by us, each in +our place, by honest self-examination, diligent prayer, and the grace of +God which comes thereby. Once or twice in the world's history a great +ruler, like Charles the Fifth, cuts the Gordian knot, and escapes into a +convent: but how few can or ought to do that? There are those who must +go on ruling, or see their country ruined; for all depends on them. So +had Queen Elizabeth to do; so had Dietrich of Bern likewise. After them +would come the deluge, and did come; and they must endure to the last, +whatever it may cost to their own health of character, or peace of mind. + +But most painful, and most dangerous to the veteran sovereign, is it to +have learnt to suspect, perhaps to despise, those whom he rules; to have +thrown away all his labour upon knaves and fools; to have cast his pearls +before swine, and find them turning again and rending him. That feeling, +forced from Queen Elizabeth, in her old age, that tragic cry, 'I am a +miserable forlorn woman. There is none about me whom I can trust.' She +was a woman, always longing for some one to love; and her heart broke +under it all. But do you not see that where the ruler is not an +affectionate woman, but a strong proud man, the effect may be very +different, and very terrible?--how, roused to indignation, scorn, +suspicion, rage, he may turn to bay against his own subjects, with +'Scoundrels! you have seen the fair side of my character, and in vain. +Now you shall see the foul, and beware for yourselves.' + +Even so, I fancy, did old Dietrich turn to bay, and did deeds which have +blackened his name for ever. Heaven forgive him! for surely he had +provocation enough and to spare. + +I have told you of the simple, half-superstitious respect which the +Teuton had for the prestige of Rome. Dietrich seems to have partaken of +it, like the rest. Else why did he not set himself up as Caesar of Rome? +Why did he always consider himself as son-in-arms, and quasi-vassal, of +the Caesar of Constantinople? He had been in youth overawed by the +cunning civilization which he had seen in the great city. He felt, with +a noble modesty, that he could not emulate it. He must copy it afar off. +He must take to his counsels men like Cassiodorus, Symmachus, Boethius, +born and bred in it; trained from childhood in the craft by which, as a +patent fact, the Kaisers of Rome had been for centuries, even in their +decay and degradation, the rulers of the nations. Yet beneath that there +must have been a perpetual under-current of contempt for it and for +Rome--the 'colluvies gentium'--the sink of the nations, with its conceit, +its pomposity, its beggary, its profligacy, its superstition, its +pretence of preserving the Roman law and rights, while practically it +cared for no law nor right at all. Dietrich had had to write letter upon +letter, to prevent the green and blue factions cutting each other's +throats at the public spectacles; letters to the tribunus voluptatum, who +had to look after the pantomimes and loose women, telling him to keep the +poor wretches in some decent order, and to set them and the city an +example of a better life, by being a chaste and respectable man himself. +Letter upon letter of Cassiodorus', written in Dietrich's name, disclose +a state of things in Rome on which a Goth could look only with disgust +and contempt. + +And what if he discovered (or thought that he discovered) that these +prating coxcombs--who were actually living on government bounty, and had +their daily bread, daily bath, daily oil, daily pork, daily wine, found +for them at government expense, while they lounged from the theatre to +the church, and the church to the theatre--were plotting with Justin the +scoundrel and upstart Emperor at Constantinople, to restore forsooth the +liberties of Rome? And that that was their answer to his three and +thirty years of good government, respect, indulgence, which had raised +them up again out of all the miseries of domestic anarchy and foreign +invasion? + +And what if he discovered (or thought that he discovered) that the +Catholic Clergy, with Pope John at their head, were in the very same plot +for bringing in the Emperor of Constantinople, on the grounds of +religion; because he was persecuting the Arian Goths at Constantinople, +and therefore would help them to persecute them in Italy? And that that +was their answer to his three and thirty years of unexampled religious +liberty? Would not those two facts (even the belief that they were +facts) have been enough to drive many a wise man mad? + +How far they were facts, we never shall exactly know. Almost all our +information comes from Catholic historians--and he would be a rash man +who would pin his faith on any statement of theirs concerning the actions +of a heretic. But I think, even with no other help than theirs, we may +see why Dietrich would have looked with horror on any intimacy between +the Church of Rome and the Court of Constantinople. + +We must remember first what the Greek Empire was then, and who was the +new Emperor. Anastasius the poor old Emperor, dying at eighty with his +heart broken by monks and priests, had an ugly dream; and told it to +Amantius the eunuch and lord chamberlain. Whereon Amantius said he had +had a dream too;--how a great hog flew at him as he was in waiting in the +very presence, and threw him down and eat him fairly up. Which came +true--though not in the way Amantius expected. On the death of +Anastasius he determined to set up as Emperor a creature of his own. For +this purpose he must buy the guards; to which noble end he put a large +sum of treasure into the hands of Justin, senator, and commander-in-chief +of the said guards, who takes the money, and spends it on his own +account; so that the miserable eunuch finds, not his man, but Justin +himself, Emperor, and his hard-earned money spent against him. The mere +rise of this unscrupulous swindler and his still more unscrupulous +nephew, Justinian, would have been enough to rouse Dietrich's suspicion, +if not fear. + +Deep and unspeakable must have been the royal Amal's contempt for the +man. For he must have known him well at Constantinople in his youth; +known how he was a Goth or other Teuton after all, though he was called a +Dardanian; how his real name was Uprauda (upright), the son of +Stock--which Uprauda he had latinized into Justinus. The Amal knew well +how he had entered the Emperor's guard; how he had intrigued and fought +his way up (for the man did not lack courage and conduct) to his +general's commission; and now, by a crowning act of roguery, to the +Empire. He had known too, most probably, the man's vulgar peasant wife, +who, in her efforts to ape royalty, was making herself the laughing-stock +of the people, and who was urging on her already willing husband to +persecute. And this man he saw ready to convulse his own Empire by +beginning a violent persecution against the Arians. He was dangerous +enough as a villain, doubly dangerous as a bigot also. + +We must remember next what the Greek Church was then; a chaos of +intrigue, villainy, slander, and wild fury, tearing to pieces itself and +the whole Empire by religious feuds, in which the doctrine in question +becomes invisible amid the passions and crimes of the disputants, while +the Lords of the Church were hordes of wild monks, who swarm out of their +dens to head the lowest mobs, or fight pitched battles with each other. +The ecclesiastical history of the fifth century in the Eastern Empire is +one, which not even the genius of a Gibbon or a Milman can make +interesting, or even intelligible. + +Recollect that Dietrich had seen much of this with his own eyes; had seen +actually, as I told you, the rebellion of Basiliscus and the Eutychian +Bishops headed by the mad Daniel the Stylite against his foster father +the Emperor Zeno; had seen that Emperor (as Dean Milman forcibly puts it) +'flying before a naked hermit, who had lost the use of his legs by +standing sixteen years upon a column.' Recollect that Dietrich and his +Goths had helped to restore that Emperor to his throne; and then +understand in what a school he had learnt his great ideas of religious +toleration: how deep must have been the determination to have no such +doings in his kingdom; how deep, too, the dread of any similar outbreak +at Rome. + +Recollect, also, that now in his old age he had just witnessed the same +iniquities again rending the Eastern Empire; the old Emperor Anastasius +hunted to death by armies of mad monks about the Monophysite Heresy; the +cities, even the holiest places of the East, stained with Christian +blood; everywhere mob-law, murder, treachery, assassination even in the +house of God; and now the new Emperor Justin was throwing himself into +the party of the Orthodox with all the blind rage of an ignorant peasant; +persecuting, expelling, shutting up the Arian Churches of the Goths, +refusing to hear Dietrich's noble appeals; and evidently organizing a +great movement against those peaceable Arians, against whom, during the +life-time of Dietrich, their bitterest enemies do not allege a single +case of persecution. + +Remember, too, that Dietrich had had experience of similar outbreaks of +fanaticism at Rome; that the ordination of two rival Popes had once made +the streets run with blood; that he had seen priests murdered, +monasteries fired, nuns insulted, and had had to interfere with the +strong arm of the law, and himself decide in favour of the Pope who had +the most votes, and was first chosen; and that in the quarrels, +intrigues, and slanders, which followed that election, he had had too +good proof that the ecclesiastics and the mob of Rome, if he but let +them, could behave as ill as that of Constantinople; and, moreover, that +this new Pope John, who seems to have been a hot-headed fanatic, had +begun his rule by whipping and banishing Manichees--by whose permission, +does not appear. + +Recollect too, that for some reason or other, Dietrich, when he had +interfered in Eastern matters, had been always on the side of the +Orthodox and the Council of Chalcedon. He had fought for the Orthodox +against Basiliscus. He had backed the Orthodox and Vitalianus their +champion, against the late Emperor Anastasius; and now as soon as the +Orthodox got into power under Justin, this was the reward of his +impartiality. If he did not distrust and despise the Church and Emperor +of the East, he must have been not a hero, but a saint. + +Recollect, too, that in those very days, Catholic bigotry had broken out +in a general plunder of the Jews. At Rome, at Milan, and Genoa their +houses had been sacked, and their synagogues burnt; and Dietrich, having +compelled the Catholics to rebuild them at their own expense, had earned +the hatred of a large portion of his subjects. And now Pope John was +doing all he could to thwart him. Dietrich bade him go to +Constantinople, and plead with Justin for the persecuted Arians. He +refused. Dietrich shipt him off, nolentem volentem. But when he got to +Constantinople he threw his whole weight into the Emperor's scale. He +was received by Justin as if he was St. Peter himself, the Emperor coming +out to meet him with processions and wax-lights, imploring his blessing; +he did exactly the opposite to what Dietrich bade him do; and published +on his return a furious epistle to the bishops of Italy, calling upon +them to oppress and extirpate the Arian perfidy, so that no root of it is +left: to consecrate the Arian churches wheresoever he found them, +pleading the advice of the most pious and Christian Emperor Justin, +talking of Dietrich as tainted inwardly and wrapt up outwardly with the +pest of heresy. On which Cochlaeus (who religiously believes that +Dietrich was damned for his Arianism, and that all his virtues went for +nothing because he had not charity, which exists, he says, alone within +the pale of the Church), cannot help the naive comment, that if the +Pontiff did really write that letter, he cannot wonder at Dietrich's +being a little angry. Kings now, it is true, can afford to smile at such +outbursts; they could not afford to do so in Dietrich's days. Such words +meant murder, pillage, civil war, dethronement, general anarchy; and so +Dietrich threw Pope John into prison. He had been in bad health before +he sailed to Constantinople, and in a few months he died, and was +worshipped as a saint. + +As for the political conspiracy, we shall never know the truth of it. The +'Anonymus Valesii,' meanwhile says, that when Cyprian accused Albinus, +Boethius answered, 'It is false: but if Albinus has done it, so have I, +and the whole senate, with one consent. It is false, my Lord King!' +Whatever such words may prove, they prove at least this, that Boethius, +as he says himself, was the victim of his own chivalry. To save Albinus, +and the senate, he thrust himself into the fore-front of the battle, and +fell at least like a brave man. Whether Albinus, Boethius, and Symmachus +did plot to bring in Justin; whether the senate did send a letter to him, +I cannot tell. Boethius, in his De Consolatione, denies it all; and +Boethius was a good man. He says that the letters in which he hoped for +the liberty of Rome were forged; how could he hope for the impossible? +but he adds, 'would that any liberty could have been hoped for! I would +have answered the king as Cassius did, when falsely accused of conspiring +by Caligula: "If I had known of it, you should not."' One knows not +whether Dietrich ever saw those words: but they prove at least that all +his confidence, justice, kindness to the patrician philosopher, had not +won him from the pardonable conceit about the Romani nominis umbram. + +Boethius' story is most probably true. One cannot think that that man +would die with a lie in his mouth. One cannot pass by, as the utterances +of a deliberate hypocrisy, those touching appeals to his guiding +mistress, that heavenly wisdom who has led him so long upon the paths of +truth and virtue, and who seems to him, in his miserable cell, to have +betrayed him in his hour of need. Heaven forbid. Better to believe that +Dietrich committed once in his life, a fearful crime, than that good +Boethius' famous book is such another as the Eikon Basilike. + +Boethius, again, says that the Gothic courtiers hated him, and suborned +branded scoundrels to swear away his life and that of the senate, because +he had opposed 'the hounds of the palace,' Amigast, Trigulla, and other +greedy barbarians. There was, of course, a Gothic party and a Roman +party about the court; and each hated the other bitterly. Dietrich had +favoured the Romans. But the Goths could not have seen such men as +Symmachus and Boethius the confidants and counsellors of the Amal, +without longing for their downfall; and if, as Boethius and the Catholic +historians say, the whole tragedy arose out of a Gothic plot to destroy +the Roman party, such things have happened but too often in the world's +history. The only facts which make against the story are, that Cyprianus +the accuser was a Roman, and that Cassiodorus, who must have belonged to +the Roman party, not only is never mentioned during the whole tragedy, +but was high in power under Theodatus and Athalaric afterwards. + +Add to this, that there were vague but wide-spread reports that the Goths +were in danger; that Dietrich at least could not be ignorant of the +ambition and the talents of that terrible Justinian, Justin's nephew, who +was soon to alter, for a generation, the fortunes of the whole Empire, +and to sweep the Goths from Italy; that men's minds must have been +perplexed with fear of change, when they recollected that Dietrich was +seventy years old, without a son to succeed him, and that a woman and a +child would soon rule that great people in a crisis, which they could not +but foresee. We know that the ruin came; is it unreasonable to suppose +that the Goths foresaw it, and made a desperate, it may be a treacherous, +effort to crush once and for all, the proud and not less treacherous +senators of Rome? + +So, maddened with the fancied discovery that the man whom he had +honoured, trusted, loved, was conspiring against him, Dietrich sent +Boethius to prison. He seems, however, not to have been eager for his +death; for Boethius remained there long enough to write his noble book. + +However, whether fresh proofs of his supposed guilt were discovered or +not, the day came when he must die. A cord was twisted round his head +(probably to extort confession), till his eyes burst from their sockets, +and then he was put out of his misery by a club; and so ended the last +Roman philosopher. Symmachus, his father-in-law, was beheaded; and Pope +John, as we have heard, was thrown into prison on his return, and died +after a few months. These are the tragedies which have stained for ever +the name of 'Theodoric the Great.' + +Pope John seems to have fairly earned his imprisonment. For the two +others, we can only, I fear, join in the sacred pity in which their +memories have been embalmed to all succeeding generations. But we must +recollect, that after all, we know but one side of the question. The +Romans could write; the Goths could not: they may have been able to make +out a fair case for themselves; they may have believed truly in the guilt +of Boethius; and if they did, nothing less could have happened, by such +rules of public law and justice as were then in vogue, than did happen. + +Be that as it may, the deed was done; and the punishment, if deserved, +came soon enough. Sitting at dinner (so the story runs), the head of a +fish took in Dietrich's fancy the shape of Symmachus' head, the upper +teeth biting the lip, the great eyes staring at him. He sprang up in +horror; took to his bed; and there, complaining of a mortal chill, +wrapping himself up in heaps of blankets, and bewailing to his physician +the death of his two victims, he died sadly in a few days. And a certain +holy hermit, name not given, nor date of the vision, saw the ghosts of +Boethius and Symmachus lead the Amal's soul up the cone of Stromboli, and +hurl him in, as the English sailors saw old Boots, the Wapping usurer, +hurled into the same place, for offences far more capable of proof. + +So runs the story of Dietrich's death. It is perfectly natural, and very +likely true. His contemporaries, who all believed it, saw in it proof of +his enormous guilt, and the manifest judgment of God. We shall rather +see in it a proof of the earnest, child-like, honest nature of the man, +startled into boundless horror and self-abasement, by the sudden +revelation of his crime. Truly bad men die easier deaths than that; and +go down to the grave, for the most part, blind and self-contented, and, +as they think, unpunished; and perhaps forgiven. + +After Dietrich came the deluge. The royal head was gone. The royal +heart remained in Amalasuentha 'the heavenly beauty,' a daughter worthy +of her father. + +One of her first acts was to restore to the widows and children of the +two victims the estates which Dietrich had confiscated. That may, or may +not, prove that she thought the men innocent. She may have only felt it +royal not to visit the sins of the fathers on the children; and those +fathers, too, her own friends and preceptors. Beautiful, learned, and +wise, she too was, like her father, before her age. She, the pupil of +Boethius, would needs bring up her son Athalaric in Roman learning, and +favour the Romans in all ways; never putting to death or even fining any +of them, and keeping down the rough Goths, who were ready enough, now +Dietrich's hand was off them, to ill-use the conquered Italians. The +Goths soon grew to dislike her, and her Roman tendencies, her Roman +education of the lad. One day she boxed his ears for some fault. He ran +crying out into the Heldensaal, and complained to the heroes. They sent +a deputation to Amalasuentha, insolent enough. 'The boy should not be +made a scholar of.' 'She meant to kill the boy and marry again. Had not +old Dietrich forbidden free Goths to go to schoolmasters, and said, that +the boy who was taught to tremble at a cane, would never face a lance?' +So they took the lad away from the women, and made a ruffian of him. What +with drink, women, idleness, and the company of wild young fellows like +himself, he was early ruined, body and soul. Poor Amalasuentha, not +knowing whither to turn, took the desperate resolution of offering Italy +to the Emperor Justinian. She did not know that her cousin Theodatus had +been beforehand with her--a bad old man, greedy and unjust, whose +rapacity she had had to control again and again, and who hated her in +return. Both send messages to Justinian. The wily Emperor gave no +direct answer: but sent his ambassador to watch the course of events. The +young prince died of debauchery, and the Goths whispered that his mother +had poisoned him. Meanwhile Theodatus went on from bad to worse; +accusations flowed in to Amalasuentha of his lawless rapacity: but he was +too strong for her; and she, losing her head more and more, made the +desperate resolve of marrying him, as the only way to keep him quiet. He +was the last male heir of the royal Amalungs. The marriage would set him +right in the eyes of the Goths, while it would free her from the +suspicion of having murdered her son, in order to reign alone. Theodatus +meanwhile was to have the name of royalty; but she was to keep the power +and the money--a foolish, confused plan, which could have but one ending. +Theodatus married her of course, and then cast her into prison, seized +all her treasures, and threw himself into the arms of that party among +the Goths, who hated Amalasuentha for having punished their oppressions. +The end was swift and sad. By the time that Justinian's ambassador +landed, Amalasuentha was strangled in her bath; and all that Peter the +ambassador had to do was, to catch at the cause of quarrel, and declare +'inexpiable war' on the part of Justinian, as the avenger of the Queen. + +And then began that dreadful East Goth war, which you may read for +yourselves in the pages of an eye-witness, Procopius;--a war which +destroyed utterly the civilization of Dietrich's long and prosperous +reign, left Italy a desert, and exterminated the Roman people. + +That was the last woe: but of it I must tell you in my next Lecture. + + + + +LECTURE VI--THE NEMESIS OF THE GOTHS. + + +Of this truly dreadful Gothic war I can give you but a hasty sketch; of +some of the most important figures in it, not even a sketch. I cannot +conceive to myself, and therefore cannot draw for you, the famous +Belisarius. Was he really the strange compound of strength and weakness +which Procopius, and after him Gibbon, represent him?--a caricature, for +good and evil, of our own famous Marlborough? You must read and judge +for yourselves. I cannot, at least as yet, offer you any solution of the +enigma. + +Still less can I conceive to myself Narses, living till his grey hairs in +the effeminate intrigues of the harem, and then springing forth a +general; the Warrior Eunuch; the misanthrope avenging his great wrong +upon all mankind in bloody battle-fields; dark of counsel, and terrible +of execution; him to whom in after years the Empress Sophia sent word +that he was more fit to spin among maids than to command armies, and he +answered, that he would spin her such a thread as she could not unravel; +and kept his word (as legends say) by inviting the Lombards into Italy. + +Least of all can I sketch Justinian the Great, the half-Teuton peasant, +whom his uncle Justin sent for out of the Dardanian hills, to make him a +demigod upon earth. Men whispered in after years that he was born of a +demon, a demon himself, passing whole days without food, wandering up and +down his palace corridors all night, resolving dark things, and labouring +all day with Herculean force to carry them out. No wonder he was thought +to be a demon, wedded to a demon-wife. The man is unfathomable, +inexplicable;--marrying deliberately the wickedest of all women, plainly +not for mere beauty's sake, but possibly because he saw in her a +congenial intellect;--faithful and loving to her and she to him, amid all +the crimes of their following years;--pious with exceeding devotion and +orthodoxy, and yet with a piety utterly divorced from, unconscious of, +the commonest morality;--discerning and using the greatest men, +Belisarius and Narses for example, and throwing them away again, surely +not in weak caprice, whenever they served him too well;--conquering +Persians, Vandals, Goths; all but re-conquering, in fact, the carcase +Roman Empire;--and then trying (with a deep discernment of the value of +Roman law) to put a galvanic life into the carcase by codifying that law. + +In whatever work I find this man, during his long life, he is to me +inexplicable. Louis XI of France is the man most like Justinian whom I +know, but he, too, is a man not to be fathomed by me. All the facts +about Justinian you will find in Gibbon. I have no theory by which to +arrange and explain them, and therefore can tell you no more than Gibbon +does. + +So to this Gothic war; which, you must remember, became possible for +Justinian by Belisarius' having just destroyed the Vandals out of Africa. +It began by Belisarius invading the south of Italy. Witigis was elected +war-king of the Goths, 'the man of witty counsels,' who did not fulfil +his name; while Theodatus (Theod-aht 'esteemed by the people' as his name +meant) had fallen into utter disesteem, after some last villainy about +money; had been struck down in the road by the man he had injured; and +there had his throat cut, 'resupinus instar victimae jugulatus.' + +He had consulted a Jew diviner just before, who had given him a warning. +Thirty pigs, signifying the unclean Gentiles, the Jew shut up in three +sties; naming ten Goths, ten Romans, and ten Imperialists of Belisarius' +army, and left them to starve. At the end they found dead all the Goths +but two, hardly any of the Imperialists, and half the Romans: but the +five Roman pigs who were left had lost their bristles--bare to the skin, +as the event proved. + +After that Theodatus had no heart to fight, and ended his dog's life by a +dog's death, as we have seen. + +Note also this, that there was a general feeling of coming ruin; that +there were quaint signs and omens. We have heard of the pigs which +warned the Goths. Here is another. There was a Mosaic picture of +Theodoric at Naples; it had been crumbling to pieces at intervals, and +every fresh downfall had marked the death of an Amal. Now the last +remains went down, to the very feet, and the Romans believed that it +foretold the end of the Amal dynasty. There was a Sibylline oracle too; + + 'Quintili mense Roma nihil Geticum metuet.' + +Here, too, we find the last trace of heathenism, of that political +mythology which had so inextricably interwoven itself with the life and +history of the city. The shrine of Janus was still standing, all of +bronze, only just large enough, Procopius says, to contain the bronze +image of Janus Bifrons. The gates, during Christian centuries, had never +been opened, even in war time. Now people went by night, and tried to +force them open: but hardly succeeded. + +Belisarius garrisoned Rome, and the Goths attacked it, but in vain. You +must read the story of that famous siege in the really brilliant pages of +old Procopius, the last good historian of the old world. + +Moreover, and this is most important, Belisarius raised the native +population against the Goths. As he had done in Africa, when in one +short campaign he utterly destroyed the now effeminate aristocracy of the +Vandals, so he did in Italy. By real justice and kindness; by +proclaiming himself the deliverer of the conquered from the yoke of +foreign tyrants, he isolated the slave-holding aristocracy of the Goths +from the mass of the inhabitants of Italy. + +Belisarius and the Goths met, and the Goths conquered. But to take Rome +was beyond their power; and after that a long miserable war struggled and +wrangled up and down over the wretched land; city after city was taken +and destroyed, now by Roman, now by Goth. The lands lay waste, the +people disappeared in tens of thousands. All great Dietrich's work of +thirty years was trampled into mud. + +There were horrible sieges and destructions by both parties;--sack of +Milan by Goths, sack of Rimini and the country round by Romans; horrors +of famine at Auximum; two women who kept an inn, killing and eating +seventeen men, till the eighteenth discovered the trap and killed them. +Everywhere, as I say, good Dietrich's work of thirty years trampled into +gory mud. + +Then Theudebert and his false Franks came down to see what they could +get; all (save a few knights round the king) on foot, without bow or +lance; but armed with sword, shield, and heavy short-handled double-edged +francisc, or battle-axe. At the bridge over the Ticinus they (nominal +Catholics) sacrificed Gothic women and children with horrid rites, fought +alike Goths and Romans, lost a third of their army by dysentery, and went +home again. + +At last, after more horrors, Vitigis and his Goths were driven into +Ravenna. Justinian treated for peace; and then followed a strange +peripeteia, which we have, happily, from an eye-witness, Procopius +himself. The Roman generals outside confessed their chance of success +hopeless. The Goths inside, tired of the slow Vitigis, send out to the +great Belisarius, Will he be their king? King over them there in Italy? +He promised, meaning to break his promise; and to the astonishment and +delight of the Romans, the simple and honest barbarians opened the gates +of Ravenna, and let in him and his Romans, to find themselves betrayed +and enslaved. 'When I saw our troops march in,' says Procopius, 'I felt +it was God's doing, so to turn their minds. The Goths,' he says, 'were +far superior in numbers and in strength; and their women, who had fancied +these Romans to be mighty men of valour, spit in the faces of their huge +husbands, and pointing to the little Romans, reproached them with having +surrendered to such things as that.' But the folly was committed. +Belisarius carried them away captive to Constantinople, and so ended the +first act of the Gothic war. + +In the moment of victory the envy of the Byzantine court undid all that +it had done. Belisarius returned with his captives to Rome, not for a +triumph, but for a disgrace; and Italy was left open to the Goths, if +they had men and heart to rise once more. + +And they did rise. Among the remnant of the race was left a hero, Totila +by name;--a Teuton of the ancient stamp. Totilas, 'free from death'--'the +deathless one,' they say his name means. Under him the nation rose once +more as out of the ground. + +A Teuton of the ancient stamp he was, just and merciful exceedingly. Take +but two instances of him, and know the man by them. He retook Naples. +The Romans within were starving. He fed them; but lest they should die +of the sudden repletion, he kept them in by guards at each gate, and fed +them up more and more each day, till it was safe to let them out, to find +food for themselves in the country. A Roman came to complain that a Goth +had violated his daughter. He shall die, said Totila. He shall not die, +said the Goths. He is a valiant hero. They came clamouring to the king. +He answered them quietly and firmly. They may choose to-day, whether to +let this man go unpunished, or to save the Gothic nation and win the +victory. Do they not recollect how at the beginning of the war, they had +brave soldiers, famous generals, countless treasures, horses, weapons, +and all the forts of Italy? And yet under Theodatus, a man who loved +gold better than justice, they had so angered God by their unrighteous +lives, that--what had happened they knew but too well. Now God had +seemed to have avenged himself on them enough. He had begun a new course +with them. They must begin a new course with him; and justice was the +only path. As for the man's being a valiant hero: let them know that the +unjust and the ravisher were never brave in fight; but that according to +a man's life, such was his luck in battle. + +His noble words came all but true. The feeble generals who were filling +Belisarius's place were beaten one by one, and almost all Italy was +reconquered. Belisarius had to be sent back again to Italy: but the +envy, whether of Justinian himself, or of the two wicked women who ruled +his court, allowed him so small a force that he could do nothing. + +Totila and the Goths came down once more to Rome. Belisarius in agony +sent for reinforcements, and got them; but too late. He could not +relieve Rome. The Goths had massed themselves round the city, and +Belisarius, having got to Ostia (Portus) at the Tiber's mouth, could get +no further. This was the last woe; the actual death-agony of ancient +Rome. The famine grew and grew. The wretched Romans cried to Bessas and +his garrison, either to feed them or to kill them out of their misery. +They would do neither. They could hardly at last feed themselves. The +Romans ate nettles off the ruins, and worse things still. There was not +a dog or a rat left. They even killed themselves. One father of five +children could bear no longer their cries for food. He wrapped his head +in his mantle, and sprang into the Tiber, while the children looked on. +The survivors wandered about like spectres, brown with hunger, and +dropped dead with half-chewed nettles between their lips. To this, says +Procopius, had fortune brought the Roman senate and people. Nay, not +fortune, but wickedness. They had wished to play at being free, while +they themselves were the slaves of sin. + +And still Belisarius was coming,--and still he did not come. He was +forcing his way up the Tiber; he had broken Totila's chain, burnt a tower +full of Goths, and the city was on the point of being relieved, when one +Isaac made a fool of himself, and was taken by the Goths. Belisarius +fancied that Portus, his base of operations, with all his supplies, and +Antonia, the worthless wife on whom he doted, were gone. He lost his +head, was beaten terribly, fell back on Ostia, and then the end came. +Isaurians from within helped in Goths by night. The Asinarian gate was +opened, and Rome was in the hands of the Goths. + +And what was left? What of all the pomp and glory, the spoils of the +world, the millions of inhabitants? + +Five or six senators, who had taken refuge in St. Peter's, and some five +hundred of the plebs; Pope Pelagius crouching at Totila's feet, and +crying for mercy; and Rusticiana, daughter of Symmachus, Boethius' widow, +with other noble women, in slaves' rags, knocking without shame at door +after door to beg a bit of bread. And that was what was left of Rome. + +Gentlemen, I make no comment. I know no more awful page in the history +of Europe. Through such facts as these God speaks. Let man be silent; +and look on in fear and trembling, knowing that it was written of old +time--The wages of sin are death. + +The Goths wanted to kill Rusticiana. She had sent money to the Roman +generals; she had thrown down Dietrich's statues, in revenge for the +death of her father and her husband. Totila would not let them touch +her. Neither maid, wife, nor widow, says Procopius, was the worse for +any Goth. + +Next day he called the heroes together. He is going to tell them the old +tale, he says--How in Vitigis' time at Ravenna, 7000 Greeks had conquered +and robbed of kingdom and liberty 200,000 rich and well-armed Goths. And +now that they were raw levies, few, naked, wretched, they had conquered +more than 20,000 of the enemy. And why? Because of old they had looked +to everything rather than to justice; they had sinned against each other +and the Romans. Therefore they must choose, and be just men henceforth, +and have God with them, or unjust, and have God against them. + +Then he sends for the wretched remnant of the senators and tells them the +plain truth:--How the great Dietrich and his successors had heaped them +with honour and wealth; and how they had returned his benefits by +bringing in the Greeks. And what had they gained by changing Dietrich +for Justinian? Logothetes, who forced them by blows to pay up the money +which they had already paid to their Gothic rulers; and revenue exacted +alike in war and in peace. Slaves they deserve to be; and slaves they +shall be henceforth. + +Then he sends to Justinian. He shall withdraw his army from Italy, and +make peace with him. He will be his ally and his son in arms, as +Dietrich had been to the Emperors before him, or if not, he will kill the +senate, destroy Rome, and march into Illyricum. + +Justinian leaves it to Belisarius. + +Then Totila begins to destroy Rome. He batters down the walls, he is +ready to burn the town. He will turn the evil place into a +sheep-pasture. Belisarius flatters and cajoles him from his purpose, and +he marches away with all his captives, leaving not a living soul in Rome. + +But Totila shews himself a general unable to cope with that great +tactician. He divides his forces, and allows Belisarius to start out of +Ostia and fortify himself in Rome. The Goths are furious at his +rashness: but it is too late, and the war begins again, up and down the +wretched land, till Belisarius is recalled by some fresh court intrigue +of his wicked wife, and another and even more terrible enemy appears on +the field, Narses the eunuch, avenging his wrong upon his fellow-men by +cunning and courage almost preternatural. He comes upon them with a +mighty host: but not of Romans alone. He has gathered the Teuton +tribes;--Herules, the descendants probably of Odoacer's confederates; +Gepids, who have a long blood-feud against the Goths; and most terrible +of all, Alboin with his five thousand more Burgundians, of whom you will +hear enough hereafter. We read even of multitudes of Huns, and even of +Persian deserters from the Chosroo. But Narses' policy is the old Roman +one--Teuton must destroy Teuton. And it succeeds. + +In spite of some trouble with the Franks, who are holding Venetia, he +marches down victorious through the wasted land, and Totila marches to +meet him in the Apennines. The hero makes his last speech. He says, +'There will be no need to talk henceforth. This day will end the war. +They are not to fear these hired Huns, Herules, Lombards, fighting for +money. Let them hold together like desperate men.' So they fight it +out. The Goths depending entirely on the lance, the Romans on a due use +of every kind of weapon. The tremendous charge of the Gothic knights is +stopped by showers of Hun and Herule arrows, and they roll back again and +again in disorder on the foot: but in spite of the far superior numbers +of the Romans, it is not till nightfall that Narses orders a general +advance of his line. The Goths try one last charge; but appalled by the +numbers of the enemy, break up, and, falling back on the foot, throw them +into confusion, and all is lost. + +The foot are cut down flying. The knights ride for their lives. Totila +and five horsemen are caught up by Asbad the Gepid chief. Asbad puts his +lance in rest, not knowing who was before him. 'Dog,' cries Totila's +page, 'wilt thou strike thy lord?' But it is too late. Asbad's lance +goes through his back, and he drops on his horse's neck. Scipwar +(Shipward) the Goth wounds Asbad, and falls wounded himself. The rest +carry off Totila. He dies that night, after reigning eleven stormy +years. + +The Goths flee across the Po. There is one more struggle for life, and +one more hero left. Teia by name, 'the slow one,' slow, but strong. He +shall be king now. They lift him on the shield, and gather round him +desperate, but determined to die hard. He finds the treasure of Totila, +hid in Pisa. He sends to Theudebald and his Franks. Will they help him +against the Roman, and they shall have the treasure; the last remnant of +the Nibelungen hoard. No. The Luegenfelden will not come. They will +stand by and see the butchery, on the chance of getting all Italy for +themselves. Narses storms Rome--or rather a little part of it round +Hadrian's Mole, which the Goths had fortified; and the Goths escape down +into Campania, mad with rage. + +That victory of Narses, says Procopius, brought only a more dreadful +destruction on the Roman senate and people. The Goths, as they go down, +murder every Roman they meet. The day of grace which Totila had given +them is over. The Teutons in Narses' army do much the same. What matter +to Burgunds and Herules who was who, provided they had any thing to be +plundered of? Totila has allowed many Roman senators to live in +Campania. They hear that Narses has taken Rome, they begin to flock to +the ghastly ruin. Perhaps there will be once again a phantom senate, +phantom consuls, under the Romani nominis umbram. The Goths catch them, +and kill them to a man. And there is an end of the Senatus Populusque +Romanus. + +The end is near now. And yet these terrible Goths cannot be killed out +of the way. On the slopes of Vesuvius, by Nuceria, they fortify a camp; +and as long as they are masters of the neighbouring sea, for two months +they keep Narses at bay. At last he brings up an innumerable fleet, cuts +off their supplies; and then the end comes. The Goths will die like +desperate men on foot. They burst out of camp, turn their horses loose, +after the fashion of German knights--One hears of the fashion again and +again in the middle age,--and rush upon the enemy in deep solid column. +The Romans have hardly time to form some sort of line; and then not the +real Romans, I presume, but the Burgunds and Gepids, turn their horses +loose like the Goths. There is no need for tactics; the fight is hand to +hand; every man, says Procopius, rushing at the man nearest him. + +For a third of the day Teia fights in front, sheltered by his long +pavisse, stabbing with a mighty lance at the mob which makes at him, as +dogs at a boar at bay. Procopius is awed by the man. Most probably he +saw him with his own eyes. Second in valour, he says, to none of the +Heroes. + +Again and again his shield is full of darts. Without moving a foot, +without turning an inch right or left, says Procopius, he catches another +from his shield-bearer, and fights on. At last he has twelve lances in +his shield, and cannot move it: coolly he calls for a fresh one, as if he +were fixed to the soil, thrusts back the enemy with his left hand, and +stabs at them with his right. But his time is come. As he shifts his +shield for a moment his chest is exposed, and a javelin is through him. +And so ends the last hero of the East Goths. They put his head upon a +pole, and carry it round the lines to frighten the Goths. The Goths are +long past frightening. + +All day long, and all the next day, did the Germans fight on, Burgund and +Gepid against Goth, neither giving nor taking quarter, each man dying +where he stood, till human strength could bear up no longer, while Narses +sat by, like an ugly Troll as he was, smiling to see the Teuton slay the +Teuton, for the sake of their common enemy. Then the Goths sent down to +Narses. They were fighting against God. They would give in, and go +their ways peaceably, and live with some other Teuton nations after their +own laws. They had had enough of Italy, poor fellows, and of the +Nibelungen hoard. Only Narses, that they might buy food on the journey +back, must let them have their money, which he had taken in various towns +of Italy. + +Narses agreed. There was no use fighting more with desperate men. They +should go in peace. And he kept his faith with them. Perhaps he dared +not break it. He let them go, like a wounded lion crawling away from the +hunter, up through Italy, and over the Po, to vanish. They and their +name became absorbed in other nations, and history knows the East Goths +no more. + +So perished, by their own sins, a noble nation; and in perishing, +destroyed utterly the Roman people. After war and famine followed as +usual dreadful pestilence, and Italy lay waste for years. Henceforth the +Italian population was not Roman, but a mixture of all races, with a most +powerful, but an entirely new type of character. Rome was no more +Senatorial, but Papal. + +And why did these Goths perish, in spite of all their valour and +patriotism, at the hands of mercenaries? + +They were enervated, no doubt, as the Vandals had been in Africa, by the +luxurious southern climate, with its gardens, palaces, and wines. But I +have indicated a stronger reason already:--they perished because they +were a slave-holding aristocracy. + +We must not blame them. All men then held slaves: but the original sin +was their ruin, though they knew it not. It helped, doubtless, to +debauch them; to tempt them to the indulgence of those fierce and greedy +passions, which must, in the long run, lower the morality of +slaveholders; and which, as Totila told them, had drawn down on them the +anger of heaven. But more; though they reformed their morals, and that +nobly, under the stern teaching of affliction, that could not save them. +They were ruined by the inherent weakness of all slaveholding states; the +very weakness which had ruined, in past years, the Roman Empire. They +had no middle class, who could keep up their supplies, by exercising for +them during war the arts of peace. They had no lower class, whom they +dare entrust with arms, and from whom they might recruit their hosts. +They could not call a whole population into the field, and when beaten in +that field, carry on, as Britain would when invaded, a guerilla warfare +from wood to wood, and hedge to hedge, as long as a coign of +vantage-ground was left. They found themselves a small army of +gentlemen, chivalrous and valiant, as slaveholders of our race have +always been; but lessening day by day from battle and disease, with no +means of recruiting their numbers; while below them and apart from them +lay the great mass of the population, helpless, unarmed, degraded, ready +to side with any or every one who would give them bread, or let them earn +it for themselves (for slaves must eat, even though their masters +starve), and careless of, if not even hostile to, their masters' +interests, the moment those masters were gone to the wars. + +In such a case, nothing was before them, save certain defeat at last by +an enemy who could pour in ever fresh troops of mercenaries, and who had +the command of the seas. + +I may seem to be describing the case of a modern and just as valiant and +noble a people. I do not mention its name. The parallel, I fear, is too +complete, not to have already suggested itself to you. + + + + +LECTURE VII--PAULUS DIACONUS + + +And now I come to the final settlement of Italy and the Lombard race; and +to do that well, I must introduce you to-day to an old chronicler--a very +valuable, and as far as we know, faithful writer--Paul Warnefrid, alias +Paul the Deacon. + +I shall not trouble you with much commentary on him; but let him, as much +as possible, tell his own story. He may not be always quite accurate, +but you will get no one more accurate. In the long run, you will know +nothing about the matter, save what he tells you; so be content with what +you can get. Let him shew you what sort of an account of his nation, and +the world in general, a Lombard gentleman and clergyman could give, at +the end of the 8th century. + +You recollect the Lombards, of whom Tacitus says, 'Longobardos paucitas +nobilitat.' Paulus Warnefrid was one of their descendants, and his +history carries out the exact truth of Tacitus' words. He too speaks of +them as a very small tribe. He could not foresee how much the +'nobilitat' meant. He knew his folk as a brave semi-feudal race, who had +conquered the greater part of Italy, and tilled and ruled it well; who +were now conquered by Charlemagne, and annexed to the great Frank Empire, +but without losing anything of their distinctive national character. He +did not foresee that they would become the architects, the merchants, the +goldsmiths, the bankers, the scientific agriculturists of all Europe. We +know it. Whenever in London or any other great city, you see a 'Lombard +Street,' an old street of goldsmiths and bankers--or the three golden +balls of Lombardy over a pawnbroker's shop--or in the country a field of +rye-grass, or a patch of lucerne--recollect this wise and noble people, +and thank the Lombards for what they have done for mankind. + +Paulus is a garrulous historian, but a valuable one, just because he is +garrulous. Though he turned monk and deacon in middle life, he has not +sunk the man in the monk, and become a cosmopolite, like most Roman +ecclesiastics, who have no love or hate for human beings save as they are +friends or enemies of the pope, or their own abbey. He has retained +enough of the Lombard gentleman to be proud of his family, his country, +and the old legends of his race, which he tells, half-ashamed, but with +evident enjoyment. + +He was born at beautiful Friuli, with the jagged snow-line of the Alps +behind him, and before him the sun and the sea, and the plains of Po; he +was a courtier as a boy in Desiderius' court at Pavia, and then, when +Charlemagne destroyed the Lombard monarchy, seems to have been much with +the great king at Aix. He certainly ended his life as a Benedictine +monk, at Monte Casino, about 799; having written a Life of St. Gregory; +Homilies long and many; the Appendix to Eutropius (the Historia Miscella, +as it is usually called) up to Justinian's time; and above all, this +history of the Lombards, his forefathers, which I shall take as my text. + +To me, and I believe to the great German antiquaries, his history seems a +model history of a nation. You watch the people and their story rise +before you out of fable into fact; out of the dreary darkness of the +unknown north, into the clear light of civilized Roman history. + +The first chapter is 'Of Germany, how it nourishes much people, and +therefore many nations go forth of it.' The reason which he gives for +the immense population is significant. The further to the north, and the +colder, the more healthy he considers the world to be, and more fit for +breeding human beings; whereas the south, being nearer to the heat of the +sun, always abounds with diseases. The fact really is, I presume, that +Italy (all the south which he knew), and perhaps most of the once Roman +empire, were during the 6th and 7th centuries pestilential. Ruined +cities, stopt watercourses, cultivated land falling back into marsh and +desert, a soil too often saturated with human corpses--offered all the +elements for pestilence. If the once populous Campagna of Rome be now +uninhabitable from malaria, what must it have been in Paul Warnefrid's +time? + +Be that as it may, this is his theory. + +Then he tells us how his people were at first called Winils; and how they +came out of Scania Insula. Sweden is often, naturally, an island with +the early chroniclers; only the south was known to them. The north was +magical, unknown, Quenland, the dwelling-place of Yotuns, Elves, Trolls, +Scratlings, and all other uncanny inhumanities. The Winils find that +they are growing too many for Scanland, and they divide into three +parties. Two shall stay behind, and the third go out to seek their +fortunes. Which shall go is to be decided by lot. The third on whom the +lot falls choose as war-kings, two brothers, Ayo and Ibor, and with them +their mother, Gambara, the Alruna-wife, prudent and wise exceedingly--and +they go forth. + +But before Paul can go too, he has a thing or two to say, which he must +not forget, about the wild mysterious north from which his forefathers +came. First how, in those very extreme parts of Germany, in a cave on +the ocean shore, lie the seven sleepers. How they got thither from +Ephesus, I cannot tell, still less how they should be at once there on +the Baltic shore, and at Ephesus--as Mohammed himself believed, and +Edward the Confessor taught--and at Marmoutier by Tours, and probably +elsewhere beside. Be that as it may, there they are, the seven martyrs, +sleeping for ever in their Roman dresses, which some wild fellow tried to +pull off once, and had his arms withered as a punishment. And Paul +trusts that they will awake some day, and by their preaching save the +souls of the heathen Wends and Finns who haunt those parts. + +The Teutonic knights, however, and not the seven sleepers, did that good +work. + +Only their dog is not with them, it appears;--the sacred dog which +watches them till the judgment day, when it is to go up to heaven, with +Noah's dove, and Balaam's ass, and Alborah the camel, and all the holy +beasts. The dog must have been left behind at Ephesus. + +Then he must tell us about the Scritofinns of the Bothnia gulf; wild +Lapps and Finns, who have now retreated before the Teutonic race. In +Paul Warnefrid's eyes they are little wild hopping creatures--whence they +derive their name, he says--Scritofinns, the hopping, or scrambling +Finns. + +Scrattels, Skretles, often figure in the Norse tales as hopping dwarfs, +half magical {158}. The Norse discoverers of America recognized the +Skraellings in the Esquimaux, and fled from them in panic terror; till +that furious virago Freydisa, Thorvard's wife, and Eirek the Red's +daughter, caught up a dead man's sword, and put to flight, single-handed, +the legion of little imps. + +Others, wiser, or too wise, say that Paul is wrong; that Skrikfins is the +right name, so called from their 'screeking', screaming, and jabbering, +which doubtless the little fellows did, loudly enough. + +Be that as it may, they appear to Paul (or rather to his informants, +Wendish merchants probably, who came down to Charlemagne's court at Aix, +to sell their amber and their furs) as hopping about, he says, after the +rein-deer, shooting them with a little clumsy bow, and arrows tipt with +bone, and dressing themselves in their skins. Procopius knew these +Scritfins too (but he has got (as usual) addled in his geography, and +puts them in ultima Thule or Shetland), and tells us, over and above the +reindeer-skin dresses, that the women never nursed their children, but +went out hunting with their husbands, hanging the papoose up to a tree, +as the Lapps do now, with a piece of deer's marrow in its mouth to keep +it employed; and moreover, that they sacrificed their captives to a war- +god (Mars he calls him) in cruel ugly ways. All which we may fully +believe. + +Then Paul has to tell us how in the Scritfin country there is little or +no night in midsummer, little or no day in winter; and how the shadows +there are exceeding long, and shorten to nothing as they reach the +equator,--where he puts not merely Egypt, but Jerusalem. And how on +Christmas days a man's shadow is nine feet long in Italy, whereas at +Totonis Villam (Thionville), as he himself has measured, it is nineteen +feet and a half. Because, he says, shrewdly enough, the further you go +from the sun, the nearer the sun seems to the horizon. Of all which if +you answer--But this is not history: I shall reply--But it is better than +history. It is the history of history. It helps you to see how the +world got gradually known; how history got gradually to be written; how +each man, in each age, added his little grain to the great heap of facts, +and gave his rough explanation thereof; and how each man's outlook upon +this wondrous world grew wider, clearer, juster, as the years rolled on. + +And therefore I have no objection at all to listen to Paul in his next +chapter, concerning the two navels of the ocean, one on each side +Britain--abysses which swallow up the water twice a day, and twice a day +spout it up again. Paul has seen, so he seems to say, the tide, the +[Greek text], that inexplicable wonder of the old Greeks and Romans, +running up far inland at the mouths of the Seine and Loire; and he has to +get it explained somehow, before he can go forward with a clear +conscience. One of the navels seems to be the Mahlstrom in Norway. Of +the place of the other there is no doubt. It is close to Evodia insula, +seemingly Alderney. For a high noble of the French told him so; he was +sucked into it, ships and all, and only escaped by clinging to a rock. +And after awhile the margins of that abyss were all left bare, leaving +the Frenchman high and dry, 'palpitating so with fear,' says Paul, 'that +he could hardly keep his seat.' But when all the water had been sucked +in, out and up it came pouring again, in huge mountains, and upon them +the Frenchman's ships, to his intense astonishment, reappeared out of the +bottomless pit; into one of which he jumped; being, like a true +Frenchman, thoroughly master of the situation; and got safe home to tell +Paul the deacon. It is not quite the explanation of the tides which one +would have wished for: but if a French nobleman of high rank will swear +that he saw it with his own eyes, what can Paul do, in common courtesy, +but believe him? + +Paul has observed, too, which is a fact, that there is a small tide in +his own Adriatic; and suggests modestly that there may be a similar hole +in the bottom of that sea, only a little one, the tide being very little. +After which, 'his praelibatis,' he will return, he says, to his story. +And so he goes back to the famous Langbard Saga, the old story, which he +has turned out of living Teutonic verse into dead Latin prose, and calls +De Woden et Frea quaedam ridicula fabula; but can't help for the life of +him telling it, apologizing all the time. How the Winils (his own folk) +went out to fight the Wendels, many more than them in number; and how +Gambara, the Alruna-wife, cried to Freia the goddess, and Freia told her +that whichsoever of the two armies first greeted Woden at the sunrise +should win. But the Winils are far away on the war-road, and there is no +time to send to them. So Freia bids her take the Winil women, and dress +them as warriors, and plait their tresses over their lips for beards, and +cry to Woden; and Woden admires their long beards, and thinks them such +valiant 'war-beasts,' that he grants them the victory. + +Then Freia tells him how he has been taken in, and the old god laughs +till the clouds rattle again, and the Winils are called Langbardr ever +after. + +But then comes in the antiquary, and says that the etymology is +worthless, and that Langbardr means long axes--(bard=an axe)--a word +which we keep in halbert, a hall-axe, or guard's pole-axe; and perhaps +the antiquary is right. + +But again comes in a very learned man, Dr. Latham {162}, and more than +hints that the name is derived from the Lange Borde, the long meadows by +the side of the Elbe: and so a good story crumbles to pieces, and + + 'All charms do fly + Beneath the touch of cold philosophy.' + +Then follows another story, possibly from another saga. How by reason of +a great famine they had to leave Scoringia, the shore-land, and go into +Mauringia, a word which Mr. Latham connects with the Merovingi, or +Meerwing conquerors of Gaul. Others say that it means the moorland, +others something else. All that they will ever find out we may see for +ourselves already.--A little tribe of valiant fair-haired men, whether +all Teutons, or, as Mr. Latham thinks, Sclavonians with Teuton leaders, +still intimately connected with our own English race both by their +language and their laws, struggling for existence on the bleak brown bogs +and moors, sowing a little barley and flax, feeding a few rough cattle, +breeding a few great black horses; generation after generation fighting +their way southward, as they exhausted the barren northern soils, or +became too numerous for their marches, or found land left waste in front +of them by the emigration of some Suevic, Vandal, or Burgund tribe. We +know nothing about them, and never shall know, save that they wore white +linen gaiters, and carried long halberts, or pole-axes, and had each an +immortal soul in him, as dear to God as yours or mine, with immense +unconscious capabilities, which their children have proved right well. + +Then comes another saga, how they met the Assipitti, of whom, whether +they were Tacitus's Usipetes, of the Lower Rhine, or Asabiden, the +remnant of the Asen, who went not to Scandinavia with Odin, we know not, +and need not know; and how the Assipitti would not let them pass; and how +they told the Lombards that they had dogheaded men in their tribe who +drank men's blood, which Mr. Latham well explains by pointing out, in the +Traveller's Song, a tribe of Hundings (Houndings) sons of the hound; and +how the Lombards sent out a champion, who fought the champion of the +Assipitti, and so gained leave to go on their way. + +Forward they go, toward the south-east, seemingly along the German +marches, the debateable land between Teuton and Sclav, which would, +mechanically speaking, be the line of least resistance. We hear of +Gothland--wherever that happened to be just then; of Anthaib, the land +held by the Sclavonian Anten, and Bathaib, possibly the land held by the +Gepidae, or remnant of the Goths who bided behind (as Wessex men still +say), while the Goths moved forward; and then of Burgundhaib, wherever +the Burgunds might be then. I know not; and I will dare to say, no man +can exactly know. For no dates are given, and how can they be? The +Lombards have not yet emerged out of the dismal darkness of the north +into the light of Roman civilization; and all the history they have are a +few scraps of saga. + +At last they take a king of the family of the Gungings, Agilmund, son of +Ayo, like the rest of the nations, says Jornandes; for they will be no +more under duces, elective war-kings. And then follows a fresh saga +(which repeats itself in the myths of several nations), how a woman has +seven children at a birth, and throws them for shame into a pond; and +Agilmund the king, riding by, stops to see, and turns them over with his +lance; and one of the babes lays hold thereof; and the king says, 'This +will be a great man;' and takes him out of the pond, and calls him +Lamissohn, 'the son of the fishpond,' (so it is interpreted;) who grows +to be a mighty Kemper-man, and slays an Amazon. For when they come to a +certain river, the Amazons forbid them to pass, unless they will fight +their she-champion; and Lamissohn swims over and fights the war-maiden, +and slays her; and they go on and come into a large land and quiet, +somewhere about Silesia, it would seem, and abode there a long while. + +Then down on them come the savage Bulgars by night, and slay king +Agilmund, and carry off his daughter; and Lamissohn follows them, and +defeats them with a great slaughter, and is made king; and so forth: till +at last they have got--how we shall never know--near history and historic +lands. For when Odoacer and his Turklings and other confederates went up +into Rugiland, the country north of Vienna, and destroyed the Rugians, +and Fava their king, then the Lombards went down into the waste land of +the Rugians, because it was fertile, and abode there certain years. + +Then they moved on again, we know not why, and dwelt in the open plains, +which are called feld. One says 'Moravia;' but that they had surely left +behind. Rather it is the western plain of Hungary about Comorn. Be that +as it may, they quarrelled there with the Heruli. Eutropius says that +they paid the Herules tribute for the land, and offered to pay more, if +the Herules would not attack them. Paul tells a wild saga, or story, of +the Lombard king's daughter insulting a Herule prince, because he was +short of stature: he answered by some counter-insult; and she, furious, +had him stabbed from behind through a window as he sat with his back to +it. Then war came. The Herules, old and practised warriors, trained in +the Roman armies, despised the wild Lombards, and disdained to use armour +against them, fighting with no clothes save girdles. Rodulf their king, +too certain of victory, sat playing at tables, and sent a man up a tree +to see how the fight went, telling him that he would cut his head off if +he said that the Herules fled; and then, touched by some secret anxiety +as to the end, spoke the fatal words himself; and a madness from God came +on the Herules; and when they came to a field of flax, they took the blue +flowers for water, and spread out their arms to swim through, and were +all slaughtered defencelessly. + +Then they fought with the Suevi; and their kings' daughters married with +the kings of the Franks; and then ruled Aldwin (a name which Dr. Latham +identifies with our English Eadwin, or Edwin, 'the noble conqueror,' +though Grotius translates it Audwin, 'the old or auld conqueror'), who +brought them over the Danube into Pannonia, between the Danube and the +Drave, about the year 526. Procopius says, that they came by a grant +from the Emperor Justinian, who gave as wife to Aldwin a great niece of +Dietrich the Good, carried captive with Witigis to Byzant. + +Thus at last they too have reached the forecourt of the Roman Empire, and +are waiting for their turn at the Nibelungen hoard. They have one more +struggle, the most terrible of all; and then they will be for a while the +most important people of the then world. + +The Gepidae are in Hungary before them, now a great people. Ever since +they helped to beat the Huns at Netad, they have been holding Attila's +old kingdom for themselves and not attempting to move southward into the +Empire; so fulfilling their name. + +There is continual desultory war; Justinian, according to Procopius' +account, playing false with each, in order to make them destroy each +other. Then, once (this is Procopius' story, not Paul's) they meet for a +great fight; and both armies run away by a panic terror; and Aldwin the +Lombard and Thorisend the Gepid are left alone, face to face.--It is the +hand of God, say the two wild kings--God does not mean these two peoples +to destroy each other. So they make a truce for two years. Then the +Gepidae call in Cutuguri, a Hunnic tribe, to help them; then, says +Procopius, Aldwin, helped by Roman mercenaries, under Amalfrid the Goth, +Theodoric's great nephew, and brother-in-law of Aldwin, has a great fight +with the Gepidae. But Paul knows naught of all this: with him it is not +Aldwin, but Alboin his son, who destroys the Gepidae. Alboin, Grotius +translates as Albe-win, 'he who wins all:' but Dr. Latham, true to his +opinion that the Lombards and the Angles were closely connected, +identifies it with our AElfwine, 'the fairy conqueror.' + +Aldwin, Paul says, and Thorisend fought in the Asfeld,--wherever that may +be,--and Alboin the Lombard prince slew Thorisend the Gepid prince, and +the Gepidae were defeated with a great slaughter. + +Then young Alboin asked his father to let him sit at the table with him. +No, he could not do that, by Lombard custom, till he has become son-at- +arms to some neighbouring king. + +Young Alboin takes forty thanes, and goes off to Thorisend's court, as +the guest of his enemy. The rites of hospitality are sacred. The king +receives him, feasts him, seats him, the slayer of his son, in his dead +son's place. And as he looks on him he sighs; and at last he can contain +no longer. The seat, he says, I like right well: but not the man who +sits in it. One of his sons takes fire, and begins to insult the +Lombards and their white gaiters. You Lombards have white legs like so +many brood mares. A Lombard flashes up. Go to the Asfeld, and you will +see how Lombard mares can kick. Your brother's bones are lying about +there like any sorry nag's. This is too much; swords are drawn; but old +Thorisend leaps up. He will punish the first man who strikes. Guests +are sacred. Let them sit down again, and drink their liquor in peace. +And after they have drunk, he gives Alboin his dead son's weapons, and +lets them go in peace, like a noble gentleman. + +This grand old King dies in peace. Aldwin dies likewise, and to them +succeed their sons, Alboin and Cunimund--the latter probably the prince +who made the jest about the brood-mares--and they two will fight the +quarrel out. Cunimund, says Paul, began the war--of course that is his +story. Alboin is growing a great man; he has married a daughter of +Clotaire, king of the Franks: and now he takes to his alliance the Avars, +who have just burst into the Empire, wild people who afterwards founded a +great kingdom in the Danube lands, and they ravage Cunimund's lands. He +will fight the Lombards first, nevertheless: he can settle the Avars +after. He and his, says Paul, are slain to a man. Alboin makes a +drinking-cup of his skull, carries off his daughter Rosamund +('Rosy-mouth'), and a vast multitude of captives and immense wealth. The +Gepidae vanish from history; to this day (says Paul) slaves either of the +Lombards or the Huns (by whom he rather means Avars); and Alboin becomes +the hero of his time, praised even to Paul's days in sagas, Saxon and +Bavarian as well as Lombard, for his liberality and his glory. We shall +see now how he has his chance at the Nibelungen hoard. + +He has heard enough (as all Teutons have) of Italy, its beauty, and its +weakness. He has sent five thousand chosen warriors to Narses, to help +him against Totila and the Ostrogoths; and they have told him of the fair +land and large, with its vineyards, olive-groves, and orchards, waste by +war and pestilence, and crying out for human beings to come and till it +once more. + +There is no force left in Italy now, which can oppose him. Hardly any +left in the Roman world. The plague is come; to add its horrors to all +the other horrors of the time--the true old plague, as far as I can +ascertain; bred, men say, from the Serbonian bog; the plague which +visited Athens in the time of Socrates, and England in the seventeenth +century: and after the plague a famine; woe on woe, through all the dark +days of Justinian the demon-emperor. The Ostrogoths, as you know, were +extinct as a nation. The two deluges of Franks and Allmen, which, under +the two brothers Buccelin and Lothaire, all on foot (for the French, as +now, were no horsemen), had rolled into Italy during the Gothic war, had +been swallowed up, as all things were, in the fatal gulf of Italy. +Lothaire and his army, returning laden with plunder, had rotted away like +sheep by Lake Benacus (Garda now) of drink, and of the plague. Buccelin, +entrenched among his plunder-waggons by the Volturno stream in the far +south, had waited in vain for that dead brother and his dead host, till +Narses came on him, with his army of trained Herules and Goths; the +Francisc axe and barbed pike had proved useless before the arrows and the +cavalry of the Romans; and no more than five Allmen, says one, remained +of all that mighty host. Awful to think of: 75,000 men, they say, in one +column, 100,000 in the other: and like water they flowed over the land; +and like water they sank into the ground, and left no trace. + +And now Narses, established as exarch of Ravenna, a sort of satrap, like +those of the Persian Emperors, and representing the Emperor of +Constantinople, was rewarded for all his conquests and labours by +disgrace. Eunuch-like, he loved money, they said; and eunuch-like, he +was harsh and cruel. The Empress Sophia, listening too readily to court- +slanders, bade him 'leave to men the use of arms, and come back to the +palace, to spin among the maids.'--'Tell her,' said the terrible old imp, +'I will spin her such a thread as she shall not unravel.' + +He went, superseded by Longinus; but not to Constantinople. From Naples +he sent (so says Paul the Deacon) to Alboin, and bade him come and try +his fortune as king of Italy. He sent, too, (so says old Paul) presents +to tempt the simple Lombard men--such presents as children would like--all +fruits which grew in Italian orchards. Though the gold was gone, those +were still left. Great babies they were, these Teutons, as I told you at +the first; and Narses knew it well, and had used them for his ends for +many a year. + +Then were terrible signs seen in Italy by night; fiery armies fighting in +the sky, and streams of blood aloft, foreshadowing the blood which should +be shed. + +Sent for or not, King Alboin came; and with him all his army, and a +mighty multitude, women, and children, and slaves; Bavarians, Gepidae, +Bulgars, Sarmatae, Pannonians, Sueves, and Noricans; whose names (says +Paul) remain unto this day in the names of the villages where they +settled. With Alboin, too, came Saxons, twenty thousand of them at the +least, with wife and child. And Sigebert king of the Franks put Suevic +settlers into the lands which the Saxons had left. + +Alboin gave up his own Hungarian land to his friends the Avars, on the +condition that he should have them back if he had to return. But return +he never did, he nor his Lombard host. This is the end. The last +invasion of Italy. The sowing, once for all, of an Italian people. Fresh +nations were still pressing down to the rear of the Alps, waiting for +their turn to enter the Fairy Land--not knowing, perhaps, that nothing +was left therein, but ashes and blood:--but their chance was over now: a +people were going into Italy who could hold what they got. + +On Easter Tuesday, in the year of grace 568, they came, seemingly by the +old road; the path of Alaric and Dietrich and the rest; the pass from +Carniola, through which the rail runs now from Laybach to Trieste. It +must have been white, in those days, with the bones of nigh 200 years. +And they found bisons, aurochsen, in the mountains, Paul says, and is not +surprised thereat, because there are plenty of them in Hungary near by. +An old man told him he had seen a skin in which fifteen men might lie +side by side. None, you must know, are left now, save a very few in the +Lithuanian forests. Paul goes out of his way to note this fact, and so +shall I. + +Alboin left a strong guard in Friuli, and Paul's ancestor among them, +under Gisulf his nephew, and Marphrais or master of the horse, who now +became duke of Friuli and warden of the marches, bound to prevent the +Avars following them into their new abode. Then the human deluge spread +itself slowly over the Lombard plains. None fought with them, and none +gainsaid; for all the land was waste. The plague of three years before, +and the famine which followed it had, says Paul, reduced the world into +primaeval silence. The villages had no inhabitants but dogs; the sheep +were pasturing without a shepherd; the wild birds swarmed unhurt about +the fields. The corn was springing self-sown under the April sun, the +vines sprouting unpruned, the lucerne fields unmown, when the great +Lombard people flowed into that waste land, and gave to it their own +undying name. + +The scanty population, worn out with misery, fled to rocks and islands in +the lakes, and to the seaport towns; but they seem to have found the +Lombards merciful masters, and bowed their necks meekly to the inevitable +yoke. The towns alone seem to have offered resistance. Pavia Alboin +besieged three years, and could not take. He swore some wild oath of +utter destruction to all within, and would have kept it. At last they +capitulated. As Alboin rode in at St. John's gate, his horse slipped up; +and could not rise, though the grooms beat him with their lance-butts. A +ghostly fear came on the Lombards. 'Remember, lord king, thy cruel oath, +and cancel it; for there are Christian folk in the city.' Alboin +cancelled his oath, and the horse rose at once. So Alboin spared the +people of Pavia, and entered the palace of old Dietrich the Ostrogoth, as +king of Italy, as far as the gates of Rome and Ravenna. + +And what was his end? Such an end as he deserved; earned and worked out +for himself. A great warrior, he had destroyed many nations, and won a +fair land. A just and wise governor, he had settled North Italy on some +rough feudal system, without bloodshed or cruelty. A passionate savage, +he died as savages deserve to die. You recollect Rosamund his Gepid +bride? In some mad drinking-bout (perhaps cherishing still his old +hatred of her family) he sent her her father's skull full of wine, and +bade her drink before all. She drank, and had her revenge. + +The story has become world-famous from its horror: but I suppose I must +tell it you in its place.--How she went to Helmichis the shield-bearer, +and he bade her get Peredeo the Kemper-man to do the deed: and how +Peredeo intrigued with one of her bower-maidens, and how Rosamund did a +deed of darkness, and deceived Peredeo; and then said to him, I am thy +mistress; thou must slay thy master, or thy master thee. And how he, +like Gyges in old Herodotus's tale, preferred to survive; and how +Rosamund bound the king's sword to his bedstead as he slept his mid-day +sleep, and Peredeo did the deed; and how Alboin leapt up, and fought with +his footstool, but in vain. And how, after he was dead, Rosamund became +Helmichis' leman, as she had been Peredeo's, and fled with him to +Ravenna, with all the treasure and Alpswintha, Alboin's daughter by the +Frankish wife; and how Longinus the exarch persuaded her to poison +Helmichis, and marry him; and how she gave Helmichis the poisoned cup as +he came out of the bath, and he saw by the light of her wicked eyes that +it was poison, and made her drink the rest; and so they both fell dead. +And then how Peredeo and the treasure were sent to the Emperor at +Constantinople; and how Peredeo slew a great lion in the theatre; and how +Tiberius, when he saw that he was so mighty a man of his hands, bade put +his eyes out; and how he hid two knives in his sleeves, and slew with +them two great chamberlains of the Emperor; and so died, like Samson, +says old Paul, having got good weregeld for the loss of his eyes--a man +for either eye. + +And old Narses died at Rome, at a great age; and they wrapt him in lead, +and sent him to Byzant with all his wealth. But some say that while he +was still alive, he hid his wealth in a great cistern, and slew all who +knew of it save one old man, and swore him never to reveal the place. But +after Narses' death that old man went to Constantinople to Tiberius the +Caesar, and told him how he could not die with that secret on his mind; +and so Tiberius got all the money, so much that it took many days to +carry away, and gave it all to the poor, as was his wont. + +A myth--a fable: but significant, as one more attempt to answer the +question of all questions in a Teuton's mind--What had become of the +Nibelungen hoard? What had become of all the wealth of Rome? + + + + +LECTURE VIII--THE CLERGY AND THE HEATHEN + + +I asked in my first lecture, 'What would become of the forest children, +unless some kind saint or hermit took pity on them?' + +I used the words saint and hermit with a special purpose. It was by the +influence, actual or imaginary, of such, that the Teutons, after the +destruction of the Roman empire, were saved from becoming hordes of +savages, destroying each other by continual warfare. + +What our race owes, for good and for evil, to the Roman clergy, I shall +now try to set before you. + +To mete out to them their due share of praise and blame is, I confess, a +very difficult task. It can only be fulfilled by putting oneself, as far +as possible, in their place, and making human allowance for the +circumstances, utterly novel and unexpected, in which they found +themselves during the Teutonic invasions. Thus, perhaps, we may find it +true of some of them, as of others, that 'Wisdom is justified of all her +children.' + +That is a hard saying for human nature. Justified of her children she +may be, after we have settled which are to be her children and which not: +but of all her children? That is a hard saying. And yet was not every +man from the beginning of the world, who tried with his whole soul to be +right, and to do good, a child of wisdom, of whom she at least will be +justified, whether he is justified or not? He may have had his +ignorances, follies, weaknesses, possibly crimes: but he served the +purpose of his mighty mother. He did, even by his follies, just what she +wanted done; and she is justified of all her children. + +This may sound like optimism: but it also sounds like truth to any one +who has fairly studied that fantastic page of history, the contrast +between the old monks and our own heathen forefathers. The more one +studies the facts, the less one is inclined to ask, 'Why was it not done +better?'--the more inclined to ask, 'Could it have been done better?' +Were not the celibate clergy, from the fifth to the eighth centuries, +exceptional agents fitted for an exceptional time, and set to do a work +which in the then state of the European races, none else could have done? +At least, so one suspects, after experience of their chronicles and +legends, sufficient to make one thoroughly detest the evil which was in +their system: but sufficient also to make one thoroughly love many of the +men themselves. + +A few desultory sketches, some carefully historical, the rest as +carefully compiled from common facts, may serve best to illustrate my +meaning. + +The monk and clergyman, whether celibate or not, worked on the heathen +generally in one of three capacities: As tribune of the people; as hermit +or solitary prophet; as colonizer; and in all three worked as well as +frail human beings are wont to do, in this most piecemeal world. + +Let us look first at the Hermits. All know what an important part they +play in old romances and ballads. All are not aware that they played as +important a part in actual history. Scattered through all wildernesses +from the cliffs of the Hebrides to the Sclavonian marches, they put forth +a power, uniformly, it must be said, for good. + +Every one knows how they appear in the old romances.--How some Sir +Bertrand or other, wearied with the burden of his sins, stumbles on one +of these Einsiedler, 'settlers alone,' and talks with him; and goes on a +wiser and a better man. How he crawls, perhaps, out of some wild +scuffle, 'all-to bebled,' and reeling to his saddlebow; and 'ever he went +through a waste land, and rocks rough and strait, so that it him seemed +he must surely starve; and anon he heard a little bell, whereat he +marvelled; and betwixt the water and the wood he was aware of a chapel, +and an hermitage; and there a holy man said mass, for he was a priest, +and a great leech, and cunning withal. And Sir Bertrand went in to him +and told him all his case--how he fought Sir Marculf for love of the fair +Ellinore, and how the king bade part them, and how Marculf did him open +shame at the wineboard, and how he went about to have slain him privily, +but could not; and then how he went and wasted Marculf's lands, house +with byre, kine with corn, till a strong woman smote him over the head +with a quern-stone, and all-to broke his brain-pan;' and so forth--the +usual story of mad passion, drink, pride, revenge. + +'And there the holy man a-read him right godly doctrine, and shrived him, +and gave him an oath upon the blessed Gospels, that fight he should not, +save in his liege lord's quarrel, for a year and a day. And there he +abode till he was well healed, he and his horse.' + +Must not that wild fighting Bertrand have gone away from that place a +wiser and a better man? Is it a matter to be regretted, or otherwise, +that such men as the hermit were to be found in that forest, to mend +Bertrand's head and his morals, at the same time? Is it a matter to be +regretted, or otherwise, that after twenty or thirty years more of +fighting and quarrelling and drinking, this same Sir Bertrand--finding +that on the whole the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the +pride of life, were poor paymasters, and having very sufficient proof, in +the ends of many a friend and foe, that the wages of sin are death--'fell +to religion likewise, and was a hermit in that same place, after the holy +man was dead; and was made priest of that same chapel; and died in +honour, having succoured many good knights, and wayfaring men'? + +One knows very well that it would not be right now; that it is not needed +now. It is childish to repeat that, when the question is, was it right +then--or, at least, as right as was possible then? Was it needed +then--or, at least, the nearest thing to that which was needed? + +If it was, why should not wisdom be justified of all her children? + +One hopes that she was; for certainly, if any men ever needed to be in +the right, lest they should be of all men most miserable, it was these +same old hermits. Praying and preaching continually, they lived on food +which dogs would not eat, in dens in which dogs ought not to live. They +had their reasons. Possibly they knew their own business best. Possibly +also they knew their neighbour's business somewhat; they knew that such +generations as they lived in could not be taught, save by some +extravagant example of this kind, some caricature, as it were, of the +doctrines which were to be enforced. Nothing less startling, perhaps, +could have touched the dull hearts, have convinced the dull brains, of +fierce, ignorant, and unreasoning men. + +Ferocity, lawlessness, rapine, cruelty, and--when they were glutted and +debauched by the spoils of the Roman empire--sensuality, were the evils +which were making Europe uninhabitable for decent folk, and history--as +Milton called it--a mere battle of kites and crows. What less than the +example of the hermit--especially when that hermit was a delicate and +high-born woman--could have taught men the absolute superiority of soul +to body, of spiritual to physical force, of spiritual to physical +pleasure, and have said to them, not in vain words, but solid acts--'All +that you follow is not the way of life. The very opposite to it is the +way of life. The wages of sin are death; and you will find them so,--in +this life the victims of your own passions, and of the foes whom your +crimes arouse, and in life to come of hell for ever. But I tell you I +have no mind to go to hell. I have a mind to go to heaven; and I know my +mind right well. If the world is to be such as this, and the rulers +thereof such as you, I will flee from you. I will not enter into the +congregation of sinners, neither will I cast in my lot with the +bloodthirsty. I will be alone with God and His universe. I will go to +the mountain cave or to the ocean cliff, and there, while the salt wind +whistles through my hair, I will be stronger than you, safer than you, +richer than you, happier than you. Richer than you, for I shall have for +my companion the beatific vision of God, and of all things and beings God- +like, fair, noble, just, and merciful. Stronger than you, because virtue +will give me a power over the hearts of men such as your force cannot +give you; and you will have to come to my lonely cell, and ask me to +advise you, and teach you, and help you against the consequences of your +own sins. Safer than you, because God in whom I trust will protect me: +and if not, I have still the everlasting life of heaven, which this world +cannot give or take away. So go your ways, fight and devour one another, +the victims of your own lusts. I am minded to be a good man; and to be +that, I will give up--as you have made all other methods impossible for +me--all which seems to make life worth having'? Oh! instead of finding +fault with such men; instead of, with vulturine beak, picking out the +elements of Manichaeism, of conceit, of discontent, of what not human +frailty and ignorance, which may have been in them, let us honour the +enormous moral force which enabled them so to bear witness that not the +mortal animal, but the immortal spirit, is the Man; and that when all +which outward circumstance can give is cast away, the Man still lives for +ever, by God, and in God. + +And they did teach that lesson. They were good, while other men were +bad; and men saw the beauty of goodness, and felt the strength of it, and +worshipped it in blind savage admiration. Read Roswede's Vitae Patrum +Eremiticorum; read the legends of the hermits of the German forests; read +Colgan's Lives of the Irish Saints; and see whether, amid all fantastic, +incredible, sometimes immoral myths, the goodness of life of some one or +other is not the historic nucleus, round which the myths, and the worship +of the saint, have crystallized and developed. + +Take, for instance, the exquisite hymn of St. Bridget, which Colgan +attributes to the sixth century: though it is probably much later; that +has nothing to do with the argument:-- + + 'Bridget, the victorious, she loved not the world; + She sat on it as a gull sits on the ocean; + She slept the sleep of a captive mother, + Mourning after her absent child. + + She suffered not much from evil tongues; + She held the blessed faith of the Trinity; + Bridget, the mother of my Lord of Heaven, + The best among the sons of the Lord. + + She was not querulous, nor malevolent; + She loved not the fierce wrangling of women; + She was not a backbiting serpent, or a liar; + She sold not the Son of God for that which passes away. + + She was not greedy of the goods of this life; + She gave away without gall, without slackness; + She was not rough to wayfaring men; + She handled gently the wretched lepers. + + She built her a town in the plains (of Kildare); + And dead, she is the patroness of many peoples.' + +I might comment much on this quotation. I might point out how St. +Bridget is called the mother of the Lord, and by others, the Mary of the +Irish, the 'Automata coeli regina,' and seems to have been considered at +times as an avatar or incarnation of the blessed Virgin. I might more +than hint how that appellation, as well as the calling of Christ 'the +best of the sons of the Lord,' in an orthodox Catholic hymn, seems to +point to the remnants of an older creed, possibly Buddhist, the +transition whence towards Catholic Christianity was slow and imperfect. I +might make merry over the fact that there are many Bridgets, some say +eleven; even as there are three or four St. Patricks; and raise learned +doubts as to whether such persons ever existed, after that Straussian +method of pseudo-criticism which cometh not from above, from the Spirit +of God, nor yet indeed from below, from the sound region of fact, but +from within, out of the naughtiness of the heart, defiling a man. I +might weaken, too, the effect of the hymn by going on with the rest of +it, and making you smile at its childish miracles and portents; but I +should only do a foolish thing, by turning your minds away from the broad +fact that St. Bridget, or various persons who got, in the lapse of time, +massed together under the name of St. Bridget, were eminently good women. + +It matters little whether these legends are historically correct. Their +value lies in the moral of them. And as for their real historical +correctness, the Straussian argument that no such persons existed, +because lies are told of them, is, I hold, most irrational. The +falsehood would not have been invented unless it had started in a truth. +The high moral character ascribed to them would never have been dreamed +of by persons who had not seen living instances of that character. Man's +imagination does not create; it only reproduces and recombines its own +experience. It does so in dreams. It does so, as far as the moral +character of the saint is concerned, in the legend; and if there had not +been persons like St. Bridget in Ireland, the wild Irish could never have +imagined them. + +Therefore it matters little to a wise man, standing on the top of Croagh +Patrick, the grandest mountain perhaps, with the grandest outlook, in +these British isles, as he looks on the wild Irish there on pattern days, +up among the Atlantic clouds, crawling on bare and bleeding knees round +St. Patrick's cell,--it matters little, I say, to the wise man, whether +St. Patrick himself owned the ancient image which is worshipped on that +mountain peak, or the ancient bell which till late years hung in the +sanctuary,--such a strange oblong bell as the Irish saints carried with +them to keep off the demons--the magic bells which appear (as far as I am +aware) in the legends of no country till you get to Tartary and the +Buddhists;--such a bell as came (or did not come) down from heaven to St. +Senan; such a bell as St. Fursey sent flying through the air to greet St. +Cuanady at his devotions when he could not come himself; such a bell as +another saint, wandering in the woods, rang till a stag came out of the +covert, and carried his burden for him on his horns. It matters as +little to the wise man whether that bell belonged to St. Patrick, as +whether all these child's dreams are dreams. It matters little to him, +too, whether St. Patrick did, or did not stand on that mountain peak, 'in +the spirit and power of Elias' (after whom it was long named), fasting, +like Elias, forty days and forty nights, wrestling with the demons of the +storm, and the snakes of the fen, and the Peishta-more (the monstrous +Python of the lakes), which assembled at the magic ringing of his bell, +till he conquered not by the brute force of a Hercules and Theseus, and +the monster-quellers of old Greece, but by the spiritual force of which +(so the text was then applied) it is written, 'This kind cometh not out +but by prayer and fasting,' till he smote the evil things with 'the +golden rod of Jesus,' and they rolled over the cliff, in hideous rout, +and perished in the Atlantic far below. But it matters much to a wise +man that under all these symbols (not childish at all, but most grand, to +the man who knows the grand place of which they are told), there is set +forth the victory of a good and beneficent man over evil, whether of +matter or of spirit. It matters much to him that that cell, that bell, +that image are tokens that if not St. Patrick, some one else, at least, +did live and worship on that mountain top, in remote primaeval times, in +a place in which we would not, perhaps could not, endure life a week. It +matters much to him that the man who so dwelt there, gained such a power +over the minds of the heathen round him, that five millions of their +Christian descendants worship him, and God on account of him, at this +day. + +St. Ita, again. It matters little that she did not--because she could +not--perform the miracles imputed to her. It matters little whether she +had or not--as I do not believe her to have had--a regularly organized +convent of nuns in Ireland during the sixth century. It matters little +if the story which follows is a mere invention of the nuns in some after- +century, in order to make a good title for the lands which they held--a +trick but too common in those days. But it matters much that she should +have been such a person, that such a story as this, when told of her, +should have gained belief:--How the tribes of Hy-Connell, hearing of her +great holiness, came to her with their chiefs, and offered her all the +land about her cell. But she, not wishing to be entangled with earthly +cares, accepted but four acres round her cell, for a garden of herbs for +her and her nuns. And the simple wild Irish were sad and angry, and +said, 'If thou wilt not take it alive, thou shalt take it when thou art +dead. So they chose her then and there for their patroness, and she +blessed them with many blessings, which are fulfilled unto this day; and +when she migrated to the Lord they gave her all the land, and her nuns +hold it to this day, the land of Hy-Connell on the east Shannon bank, at +the roots of Luachra mountain.' + +What a picture! One hopes that it may be true, for the sake of its +beauty and its pathos. The poor, savage, half-naked, and, I fear, on the +authority of St. Jerome and others, now and then cannibal Celts, with +their saffron scarfs, and skenes, and darts, and glibs of long hair +hanging over their hypo-gorillaceous visages, coming to the prophet +maiden, and asking her to take their land, for they could make no decent +use of it themselves; and look after them, body and soul, for they could +not look after themselves; and pray for them to her God, for they did not +know how to pray to Him themselves. If any man shall regret that such an +event happened to any savages on this earth, I am, I confess, sorry for +him. + +St. Severinus, again, whom I have mentioned to you more than once:--none +of us can believe that he made a dead corpse (Silvinus the priest, by +name) sit up and talk with him on its road to burial. None of us need +believe that he stopped the plague at Vienna by his prayers. None of us +need attribute to anything but his sagacity the Divine revelations +whereby he predicted the destruction of a town for its wickedness, and +escaped thence, like Lot, alone; or by which he discovered, during the +famine of Vienna, that a certain rich widow had much corn hidden in her +cellars: but there are facts enough, credible and undoubted, concerning +St. Severinus, the apostle of Austria, to make us trust that in him, too, +wisdom was justified of all her children. + +You may remark, among the few words which have been as yet said of St. +Severinus, a destruction, a plague, and a famine. Those words are a fair +sample of St. Severinus's times, and of the circumstances into which he +voluntarily threw himself. About the middle of the fifth century there +appears in the dying Roman province of Noricum (Austria we now call it) a +strange gentleman, eloquent and learned beyond all, and with the +strangest power of melting and ruling the hearts of men. Who he is he +will not tell, save that his name is Severinus, a right noble name +without doubt. Gradually it oozes out that he has been in the far East, +through long travels and strange dangers, through many cities and many +lands; but he will tell nothing. He is the servant of God, come hither +to try to be of use. He certainly could have come for no other reason, +unless to buy slaves; for Austria was at that time the very highway of +the nations, the centre of the human Mahlstrom, in which Huns, Gepiden, +Allmannen, Rugen, and a dozen wild tribes more, wrestled up and down +round the starving and beleaguered Roman towns of that once fertile and +happy province. A man who went there for his own pleasure, or even +devotion, would have been as wise as one who had built himself last +summer a villa on the Rappahannock, or retired for private meditation to +the orchard of Hougoumont during the battle of Waterloo. + +Nevertheless, there Severinus stayed till men began to appreciate him; +and called him, and not unjustly, Saint. Why not? He preached, he +taught, he succoured, he advised, he fed, he governed; he turned aside +the raids of the wild German kings; he gained a divine power over their +hearts; he taught them something of God and of Christ, something of +justice and mercy; something of peace and unity among themselves; till +the fame ran through all the Alps, and far away into the Hungarian +marches, that there was a prophet of God arisen in the land; and before +the unarmed man, fasting and praying in his solitary cell on the mountain +above Vienna, ten thousand knights and champions trembled, who never had +trembled at the sight of armed hosts. + +Who would deny that man the name of saint? And who, if by that sagacity +which comes from the combination of intellect and virtue, he sometimes +seemed miraculously to foretell coming events, would deny him the name of +prophet also? + +If St. Severinus be the type of the monk as prophet, St. Columba may +stand as the type of the missionary monk; the good man strengthened by +lonely meditation; but using that strength not for selfish fanaticism, +but for the good of men; going forth unwillingly out of his beloved +solitude, that he may save souls. Round him, too, cluster the usual +myths. He drives away with the sign of the cross a monster which attacks +him at a ford. He expels from a fountain the devils who smote with palsy +and madness all who bathed therein. He sees by a prophetic spirit, he +sitting in his cell in Ireland, a great Italian town destroyed by a +volcano. His friends behold a column of light rising from his head as he +celebrates mass. Yes; but they also tell of him, 'that he was angelical +in look, brilliant in speech, holy in work, clear in intellect, great in +council.' That he 'never passed an hour without prayer, or a holy deed, +or reading of the Scriptures (for these old monks had Bibles, and knew +them by heart too, in spite of all that has been written to the +contrary), that he was of so excellent a humility and charity, bathing +his disciples' feet when they came home from labour, and carrying corn +from the mill on his own back, that he fulfilled the precept of his +Master, 'He that will be the greatest among you, let him be as your +servant.' + +They also tell of him (and this is fact and history) how he left his +monastery of Derm Each, 'the field of oaks,' which we call Derry, and +went away at the risk of his life to preach to the wild Picts of +Galloway, and founded the great monastery of Iona, and that succession of +abbots from whom Christianity spread over the south of Scotland and north +of England, under his great successor Aidan. + +Aidan has his myths likewise. They tell of him how he stilled the sea- +waves with holy oil; how he turned back on Penda and his Saxons the +flames with which the heathen king was trying to burn down Bamborough +walls. But they tell, too (and Bede had heard it from those who had +known Aidan in the flesh) of 'his love of peace and charity, his purity +and humility, his mind superior to avarice or pride, his authority, +becoming a minister of Christ, in reproving the haughty and powerful, and +his tenderness in relieving the afflicted, and defending the poor.' Who, +save one who rejoiceth in evil, instead of rejoicing in the truth, will +care to fix his eyes for a moment upon the fairy tales which surround +such a story, as long as there shines out from among them clear and pure, +in spite of all doctrinal errors, the grace of God, the likeness of Jesus +Christ our Lord? + +Let us look next at the priest as Tribune of the people, supported +usually by the invisible, but most potent presence of the saint, whose +relics he kept. One may see that side of his power in Raphael's immortal +design of Attila's meeting with the Pope at the gates of Rome, and +recoiling as he sees St. Peter and St. Paul floating terrible and +threatening above the Holy City. Is it a myth, a falsehood? Not +altogether. Such a man as Attila probably would have seen them, with his +strong savage imagination, as incapable as that of a child from +distinguishing between dreams and facts, between the subjective and the +objective world. And it was on the whole well for him and for mankind, +that he should think that he saw them, and tremble before the spiritual +and the invisible; confessing a higher law than that of his own ambition +and self-will; a higher power than that of his brute Tartar hordes. + +Raphael's design is but a famous instance of an influence which wrought +through the length and breadth of the down-trodden and dying Roman +Empire, through the four fearful centuries which followed the battle of +Adrianople. The wild licence, the boyish audacity, of the invading +Teutons was never really checked, save by the priest and the monk who +worshipped over the bones of some old saint or martyr, whose name the +Teutons had never heard. + +Then, as the wild King, Earl, or Comes, with his wild reiters at his +heels, galloped through the land, fighting indiscriminately his Roman +enemies, and his Teutonic rivals--harrying, slaughtering, burning by +field and wild--he was aware at last of something which made him pause. +Some little walled town, built on the ruins of a great Roman city, with +its Byzantine minster towering over the thatched roofs, sheltering them +as the oak shelters the last night's fungus at its base. More than once +in the last century or two, has that same town been sacked. More than +once has the surviving priest crawled out of his hiding-place when the +sound of war was past, called the surviving poor around him, dug the dead +out of the burning ruins for Christian burial, built up a few sheds, fed +a few widows and orphans, organized some form of orderly life out of the +chaos of blood and ashes, in the name of God and St. Quemdeusvult whose +bones he guards; and so he has established a temporary theocracy, and +become a sort of tribune of the people, magistrate and father--the only +one they have. And now he will try the might of St. Quemdeusvult against +the wild king, and see if he can save the town from being sacked once +more. So out he comes--a bishop perhaps, with priests, monks, +crucifixes, banners, litanies. The wild king must come no further. That +land belongs to no mortal man, but to St. Quemdeusvult, martyred here by +the heathen five hundred years ago. Some old Kaiser of Rome, or it may +be some former Gothic king, gave that place to the saint for ever, and +the saint will avenge his rights. He is very merciful to those who duly +honour him: but very terrible in his wrath if he be aroused. Has not the +king heard how the Count of such a place, only forty years before, would +have carried off a maiden from St. Quemdeusvult's town; and when the +bishop withstood him, he answered that he cared no more for the relics of +the saint than for the relics of a dead ass, and so took the maiden and +went? But within a year and a day, he fell down dead in his drink, and +when they came to lay out the corpse, behold the devils had carried it +away, and put a dead ass in its place. + +All which the bishop would fully believe. Why not? He had no physical +science to tell him that it was impossible. Morally, it was in his eyes +just, and therefore probable; while as for testimony, men were content +with very little in those days, simply because they could get very +little. News progressed slowly in countries desolate and roadless, and +grew as it passed from mouth to mouth, as it did in the Highlands a +century ago, as it did but lately in the Indian Mutiny; till after a fact +had taken ten years in crossing a few mountains and forests, it had +assumed proportions utterly fantastic and gigantic. + +So the wild king and his wild knights pause. They can face flesh and +blood: but who can face the quite infinite terrors of an unseen world? +They are men of blood too, men of evil lives; and conscience makes them +cowards. They begin to think that they have gone too far. Could they +see the saint, and make it up with him somewhat? + +No. The saint they cannot see. To open his shrine would be to commit +the sin of Uzzah. Palsy and blindness would be the least that would +follow. But the dome under which he lies all men may see; and perhaps +the saint may listen, if they speak him fair. + +They feel more and more uncomfortable. This saint, in heaven at God's +right hand, and yet there in the dom-church--is clearly a mysterious, +ubiquitous person, who may take them in the rear very unexpectedly. And +his priests, with their book-learning, and their sciences, and their +strange dresses and chants--who knows what secret powers, magical or +other, they may not possess? + +They bluster at first: being (as I have said) much of the temper and +habits, for good and evil, of English navvies. But they grow more and +more uneasy, full of childish curiosity, and undefined dread. So into +the town they go, on promise (which they will honourably keep, being +German men) of doing no harm to the plebs, the half Roman artisans and +burghers who are keeping themselves alive here--the last dying remnants +of the civilization, and luxury, and cruelty, and wickedness, of a great +Roman colonial city; and they stare at arts and handicrafts new to them; +and are hospitably fed by bishops and priests; and then they go, +trembling and awkward, into the great dom-church; and gaze wondering at +the frescoes, and the carvings of the arcades--marbles from Italy, +porphyries from Egypt, all patched together out of the ruins of Roman +baths, and temples, and theatres; and at last they arrive at the saint's +shrine itself--some marble sarcophagus, most probably covered with vine +and ivy leaves, with nymphs and satyrs, long since consecrated with holy +water to a new and better use. Inside that lies the saint, asleep, yet +ever awake. So they had best consider in whose presence they are, and +fear God and St. Quemdeusvult, and cast away the seven deadly sins +wherewith they are defiled; for the saint is a righteous man, and died +for righteousness' sake; and those who rob the orphan and the widow, and +put the fatherless to death, them he cannot abide; and them he will watch +like an eagle of the sky, and track like a wolf of the wood, fill he +punishes them with a great destruction. In short, the bishop preaches to +the king and his men a right noble and valiant sermon, calling things by +their true names without fear or favour, and assuming, on the mere +strength of being in the right, a tone of calm superiority which makes +the strong armed men blush and tremble before the weak and helpless one. + +Yes. Spirit is stronger than flesh. 'Meekly bend thy neck, Sicamber!' +said St. Remigius to the great conquering King Clovis, when he stept into +the baptismal font--(not 'Most Gracious Majesty,' or 'Illustrious Caesar,' +or 'by the grace of God Lord of the Franks,' but Sicamber, as a +missionary might now say Maori, or Caffre,--and yet St. Remigius's life +was in Clovis's hand then and always),--'Burn what thou hast adored, and +adore what thou hast burned!' And the terrible Clovis trembled and +obeyed. + +So does the wild king at the shrine of St. Quemdeusvult. He takes his +bracelet, or his jewel, and offers it civilly enough. Will the bishop be +so good as to inform the great Earl St. Quemdeusvult, that he was not +aware of his rights, or even of his name; that perhaps he will deign to +accept this jewel, which he took off the neck of a Roman +General--that--that on the whole he is willing to make the amende +honorable, as far as is consistent with the feelings of a nobleman; and +trusts that the saint, being a nobleman too, will be satisfied therewith. + +After which, probably, it will appear to the wild king that this bishop +is the very man that he wants, the very opposite to himself and his wild +riders; a man pure, peaceable, just, and brave; possessed, too, of +boundless learning; who can read, write, cipher, and cast nativities; who +has a whole room full of books and parchments, and a map of the whole +world; who can talk Latin, and perhaps Greek, as well as one of those +accursed man-eating Grendels, a Roman lawyer, or a logothete from +Ravenna; possessed, too, of boundless supernatural power;--Would the +bishop be so good as to help him in his dispute with the Count Boso, +about their respective marches in such and such a forest? If the bishop +could only settle that without more fighting, of course he should have +his reward. He would confirm to the saint and his burg all the rights +granted by Constantine the Kaiser; and give him moreover all the meadow +land in such and such a place, with the mills and fisheries, on service +of a dish of trout from the bishop and his successors, whenever he came +that way: for the trout there were exceeding good, that he knew. And so +a bargain would be struck, and one of those curious compromises between +the spiritual and temporal authorities take root, of which one may read +at length in the pages of M. Guizot, or Sir James Stephen. + +And after a few years, most probably, the king would express a wish to be +baptized, at the instance of his queen who had been won over by the +bishop, and had gone down into the font some years before; and he would +bid his riders be baptized also; and they would obey, seeing that it +could do them no harm, and might do them some good; and they would agree +to live more or less according to the laws of God and common humanity; +and so one more Christian state would be formed; one more living stone +(as it was phrased in those days) built into the great temple of God +which was called Christendom. + +So the work was done. Can we devise any better method of doing it? If +not, let us be content that it was done somehow, and believe that wisdom +is justified of all her children. + +We may object to the fact, that the dom-church and its organization grew +up (as was the case in the vast majority of instances) round the body of +a saint or martyr; we may smile at the notion of an invisible owner and +protector of the soil: but we must not overlook the broad fact, that +without that prestige the barbarians would never have been awed into +humanity; without that prestige the place would have been swept off the +face of the earth, till not one stone stood on another: and he who does +not see what a disaster for humanity that would have been, must be +ignorant that the civilization of Europe is the child of the towns; and +also that our Teutonic forefathers were by profession destroyers of +towns, and settlers apart from each other on country freeholds. Lonely +barbarism would have been the fate of Europe, but for the monk who +guarded the relics of the saint within the walled burg. + +This good work of the Church, in the preservation and even resuscitation +of the municipal institutions of the towns, has been discust so well and +fully by M. Guizot, M. Sismondi, and Sir James Stephen, that I shall say +no more about it, save to recommend you to read what they have written. I +go on to point out to you some other very important facts, which my ideal +sketch exemplifies. + +The difference between the Clergy and the Teuton conquerors was more than +a difference of creed, or of civilization. It was an actual difference +of race. They were Romans, to whom the Teuton was a savage, speaking a +different tongue, obeying different laws, his whole theory of the +universe different from the Roman. And he was, moreover, an enemy and a +destroyer. The Teuton was to them as a Hindoo is to us, with the +terrible exception, that the positions were reversed; that the Teuton was +not the conquered, but the conqueror. It is easy for us to feel humanity +and Christian charity toward races which we have mastered. It was not so +easy for the Roman priest to feel them toward a race which had mastered +him. His repugnance to the 'Barbarian' must have been at first intense. +He never would have conquered it; he never would have become the willing +converter of the heathen, had there not been in him the Spirit of God, +and firm belief in a Catholic Church, to which all men of all races ought +alike to belong. This true and glorious idea, the only one which has +ever been or ever will be able to break down the barriers of race, and +the animal antipathy which the natural man has to all who are not of his +own kin: this idea was the sole possession of the Roman clergy; and by it +they conquered, because it was true, and came from God. + +But this very difference of race exposed the clergy to great temptations. +They were the only civilized men left, west of Constantinople. They +looked on the Teuton not as a man, but as a child; to be ruled; to be +petted when he did right, punished when he did wrong; and too often +cajoled into doing right, and avoiding wrong. Craft became more and more +their usual weapon. There were great excuses for them. Their lives and +property were in continual danger. Craft is the natural weapon of the +weak against the strong. It seemed to them, too often, to be not only +natural, but spiritual also, and therefore just and right. + +Again, the clergy were the only organic remnants of the Roman Empire. +They claimed their privileges and lands as granted to them by past Roman +Emperors, under the Roman law. This fact made it their interest, of +course, to perpetuate that Roman law, and to introduce it as far as they +could among their conquerors, to the expulsion of the old Teutonic laws; +and they succeeded on the whole. Of that more hereafter. Observe now, +that as their rights dated from times which to the Teutons were +pre-historic, their statements could not be checked by conquerors who +could not even read. Thence rose the temptation to forge; to forge +legends, charters, dotations, ecclesiastical history of all kinds--an +ugly and world-famous instance of which you will hear of hereafter. To +that temptation they yielded more and more as the years rolled on, till +their statements on ecclesiastical history became such as no historian +can trust, without the most plentiful corroboration. + +There were great excuses for them, in this matter, as in others. They +could not but look on the Teuton as--what in fact and law he was--an +unjust and intrusive usurper. They could not but look on their Roman +congregations, and on themselves, as what in fact and law they were, the +rightful owners of the soil. They were but defending or recovering their +original rights. Would not the end justify the means? + +But more. Out of this singular position grew a doctrine, which looks to +us irrational now, but was by no means so then. If the Church derived +her rights from the extinct Roman Caesars, how could the Teuton +conquerors interfere with those rights? If she had owed allegiance to +Constantine or Theodosius, she certainly owed none to Dietrich, Alboin, +or Clovis. She did not hold their lands of them; and would pay them, if +she could avoid it, neither tax nor toll. She did not recognize the +sovereignty of these Teutons as 'ordained by God.' + +Out of this simple political fact grew up vast consequences. The Teuton +king was a heathen or Arian usurper. He was not a king de jure, in the +eyes of the clergy, till he was baptized into the Church, and then +lawfully anointed king by the clergy. Thus the clergy gradually became +the makers of kings; and the power of making involved a corresponding +power of unmaking, if the king rebelled against the Church, and so cut +himself off from Christendom. At best, he was one of 'the Princes of +this world,' from whom the Church was free, absolutely in spiritual +matters, and in temporal matters, also de jure, and therefore de facto as +far as she could be made free. To keep the possessions of the Church +from being touched by profane hands, even that they might contribute to +the common needs of the nation, became a sacred duty, a fixed idea, for +which the clergy must struggle, anathematize, forge if need be: but +also--to do them justice--die if need be as martyrs. The nations of this +world were nothing to them. The wars of the nations were nothing. They +were the people of God, 'who dwelt alone, and were not reckoned among the +nations;' their possessions were the inheritance of God: and from this +idea, growing (as I have shewn) out of a political fact, arose the extra- +national, and too often anti-national position, which the Roman clergy +held for many ages, and of which the instinct, at least, lingers among +them in many countries. Out of it arose, too, all after struggles +between the temporal and ecclesiastical powers. Becket, fighting to the +death against Henry II., was not, as M. Thierry thinks, the Anglo-Saxon +defying the Norman. He was the representative of the Christian Roman +defying the Teuton, on the ground of rights which he believed to have +existed while the Teuton was a heathen in the German forests. Gradually, +as the nations of Europe became really nations, within fixed boundaries, +and separate Christian organizations, these demands of the Church became +intolerable in reason, because unnecessary in fact. But had there not +been in them at the first an instinct of right and justice, they would +never have become the fixed idea of the clerical mind; the violation of +them the one inexpiable sin; and the defence of them (as may be seen by +looking through the Romish Calendar) the most potent qualification for +saintship. + +Yes. The clergy believed that idea deeply enough to die for it. St. +Alphege at Canterbury had been, it is said, one of the first advisers of +the ignominious payment of the Danegeld: but there was one thing which he +would not do. He would advise the giving up of the money of the nation: +but the money of his church he would not give up. The Danes might thrust +him into a filthy dungeon: he would not take the children's bread and +cast it unto the dogs. They might drag him out into their husting, and +threaten him with torture: but to the drunken cry of 'Gold! Bishop! +Gold!' his only answer would be--Not a penny. He could not rob the poor +of Christ. And when he fell, beaten to death with the bones and horns of +the slaughtered oxen, he died in faith; a martyr to the great idea of +that day, that the gold of the Church did not belong to the conquerors of +this world. + +But St. Alphege was an Englishman, and not a Roman. True in the letter: +but not in the spirit. The priest or monk, by becoming such, more or +less renounced his nationality. It was the object of the Church to make +him renounce it utterly; to make him regard himself no longer as +Englishman, Frank, Lombard, or Goth: but as the representatives by an +hereditary descent, considered all the more real because it was spiritual +and not carnal, of the Roman Church; to prevent his being entangled, +whether by marriage or otherwise, in the business of this life; out of +which would flow nepotism, Simony, and Erastian submission to those +sovereigns who ought to be the servants, not the lords of the Church. For +this end no means were too costly. St. Dunstan, in order to expel the +married secular priests, and replace them by Benedictine monks of the +Italian order of Monte Casino, convulsed England, drove her into civil +war, paralysed her monarchs one after the other, and finally left her +exhausted and imbecile, a prey to the invading Northmen: but he had at +least done his best to make the royal House of Cerdic, and the nations +which obeyed that House, understand that the Church derived its rights +not from them, but from Rome. + +This hereditary sense of superiority on the part of the clergy may +explain and excuse much of their seeming flattery. The most vicious +kings are lauded, if only they have been 'erga servos Dei benevoli;' if +they have founded monasteries; if they have respected the rights of the +Church. The clergy too often looked on the secular princes as more or +less wild beasts, of whom neither common decency, justice, or mercy was +to be expected; and they had too often reason enough to do so. All that +could be expected of the kings was, that if they would not regard man, +they should at least fear God; which if they did, the proof of 'divine +grace' on their part was so unexpected, as well as important, that the +monk chroniclers praised them heartily and honestly, judging them by what +they had, not by what they had not. + +Thus alone can one explain such a case as that of the monastic opinion of +Dagobert the Second, king of the Franks. We are told in the same +narrative, seemingly without any great sense of incongruity, how he +murdered his own relations and guests, and who not?--how he massacred +9000 Bulgars to whom he had given hospitality; how he kept a harem of +three queens, and other women so numerous that Fredegarius cannot mention +them; and also how, accompanied by his harem, he chanted among the monks +of St. Denis; how he founded many rich convents; how he was the friend, +or rather pupil, of St. Arnulf of Metz, St. Omer, and above all of St. +Eloi--whose story I recommend you to read, charmingly told, in Mr. +Maitland's 'Dark Ages,' pp. 81-122. The three saints were no +hypocrites--God forbid! They were good men and true, to whom had been +entrusted the keeping of a wild beast, to be petted and praised whenever +it shewed any signs of humanity or obedience. + +But woe to the prince, however useful or virtuous in other respects, who +laid sacrilegious hands on the goods of the Church. He might, like +Charles Martel, have delivered France from the Pagans on the east, and +from the Mussulmen on the south, and have saved Christendom once and for +all from the dominion of the Crescent, in that great battle on the plains +of Poitiers, where the Arab cavalry (says Isidore of Beja) broke against +the immoveable line of Franks, like 'waves against a wall of ice.' + +But if, like Charles Martel, he had dared to demand of the Church taxes +and contributions toward the support of his troops, and the salvation +both of Church and commonweal, then all his prowess was in vain. Some +monk would surely see him in a vision, as St. Eucherius, Bishop of +Orleans, saw Charles Martel (according to the Council of Kiersy), 'with +Cain, Judas, and Caiaphas, thrust into the Stygian whirlpools and +Acherontic combustion of the sempiternal Tartarus.' + +Those words, which, with slight variations, are a common formula of +cursing appended to monastic charters against all who should infringe +them, remind us rather of the sixth book of Virgil's AEneid than of the +Holy Scriptures; and explain why Dante naturally chooses that poet as a +guide through his Inferno. + +The cosmogony from which such an idea was derived was simple enough. I +give, of course, no theological opinion on its correctness: but as +professor of Modern History, I am bound to set before you opinions which +had the most enormous influence on the history of early Europe. Unless +you keep them in mind, as the fixed and absolute background of all human +thought and action for more than 1000 years, you will never be able to +understand the doings of European men. + +This earth, then, or at least the habitable part of it, was considered as +most probably a flat plane. Below that plane, or in the centre of the +earth, was the realm of endless fire. It could be entered (as by the +Welsh knight who went down into St. Patrick's Purgatory) by certain +caves. By listening at the craters of volcanoes, which were its mouths, +the cries of the tortured might be heard in the depths of the earth. + +In that 'Tartarus' every human being born into the world was doomed to be +endlessly burnt alive: only in the Church, 'extra quam nulla salus,' was +there escape from the common doom. But to that doom, excommunication, +which thrust a man from the pale of the Church, condemned the sinner +afresh, with curses the most explicit and most horrible. + +The superior clergy, therefore, with whom the anathematizing power lay, +believed firmly that they could, proprio motu, upon due cause shewn, +cause any man or woman to be burned alive through endless ages. And what +was more, the Teutonic laity, with that intense awe of the unseen which +they had brought with them out of the wilderness, believed it likewise, +and trembled. It paralysed the wisest, as well as the fiercest, that +belief. Instead of disgusting the kings of the earth, it gave them over, +bound hand and foot by their own guilty consciences, into the dominion of +the clergy; and the belief that Charles Martel was damned, only knit (as +M. Sismondi well remarks) his descendants the Carlovingians more closely +to the Church which possest so terrible a weapon. + +Whether they were right or wrong in these beliefs is a question not to be +discussed in this chair. My duty is only to point out to you the +universal existence of those beliefs, and the historic fact that they +gave the clergy a character supernatural, magical, divine, with a reserve +of power before which all trembled, from the beggar to the king; and +also, that all struggles between the temporal and spiritual powers, like +that between Henry and Becket, can only be seen justly in the light of +the practical meaning of that excommunication which Becket so freely +employed. I must also point out to you that so enormous a power (too +great for the shoulders of mortal man) was certain to be, and actually +was, fearfully abused, not only by its direct exercise, but also by +bargaining with men, through indulgences and otherwise, for the remission +of that punishment, which the clergy could, if they would, inflict; and +worst of all, that out of the whole theory sprang up that system of +persecution, in which the worst cruelties of heathen Rome were imitated +by Christian priests, on the seemingly irrefragable ground that it was +merciful to offenders to save them, or, if not, at least to save others +through them, by making them feel for a few hours in this world what they +would feel for endless ages in the next. + + + + +LECTURE IX--THE MONK A CIVILIZER + + +Historians are often blamed for writing as if the History of Kings and +Princes were the whole history of the world. 'Why do you tell us,' is +said, 'of nothing but the marriages, successions, wars, characters, of a +few Royal Races? We want to know what the people, and not the princes, +were like. History ought to be the history of the masses, and not of +kings.' + +The only answer to this complaint seems to be, that the defect is +unavoidable. The history of the masses cannot be written, while they +have no history; and none will they have, as long as they remain a mass; +ere their history begins, individuals, few at first, and more and more +numerous as they progress, must rise out of the mass, and become persons, +with fixed ideas, determination, conscience, more or less different from +their fellows, and thereby leavening and elevating their fellows, that +they too may become persons, and men indeed. Then they will begin to +have a common history, issuing out of each man's struggle to assert his +own personality and his own convictions. Till that point is reached, the +history of the masses will be mere statistic concerning their physical +well-being or ill-being, which (for the early ages of our race) is +unwritten, and therefore undiscoverable. + +The early history of the Teutonic race, therefore, is, and must always +remain, simply the history of a few great figures. Of the many of the +masses, nothing is said; because there was nothing to say. They all ate, +drank, married, tilled, fought, and died, not altogether brutally, we +will hope, but still in a dull monotony, unbroken by any struggle of +principles or ideas. We know that large masses of human beings have so +lived in every age, and are living so now--the Tartar hordes, for +instance, or the thriving negroes of central Africa: comfortable folk, +getting a tolerable living, son after father, for many generations, but +certainly not developed enough, or afflicted enough, to have any history. + +I believe that the masses, during the early middle age, were very well +off; quite as well off as they deserved; that is, earned for themselves. +They lived in a rough way, certainly: but roughness is not discomfort, +where the taste has not been educated. A Red Indian sleeps as well in a +wigwam as we in a spring bed; and the Irish babies thrive as well among +the peat ashes as on a Brussels carpet. Man is a very well constructed +being, and can live and multiply anywhere, provided he can keep warm, and +get pure water and enough to eat. Indeed, our Teutonic fathers must have +been comfortably off, or they could not have multiplied as they did. Even +though their numbers may have been overstated, the fact is patent, that +howsoever they were slaughtered down, by the Romans or by each other, +they rose again as out of the soil, more numerous than ever. Again and +again you read of a tribe being all but exterminated by the Romans, and +in a few years find it bursting over the Pfalzgrab or the Danube, more +numerous and terrible than before. Never believe that a people deprest +by cold, ill-feeding, and ill-training, could have conquered Europe in +the face of centuries of destructive war. Those very wars, again, may +have helped in the long run the increase of population, and for a reason +simple enough, though often overlooked. War throws land out of +cultivation; and when peace returns, the new settlers find the land +fallow, and more or less restored to its original fertility; and so +begins a period of rapid and prosperous increase. In no other way can I +explain the rate at which nations after the most desolating wars spring +up, young and strong again, like the phoenix, from their own funeral +pile. They begin afresh as the tillers of a virgin soil, fattened too +often with the ashes of burnt homesteads, and the blood of the slain. + +Another element of comfort may have been the fact, that in the rough +education of the forest, only the strong and healthy children lived, +while the weakly died off young, and so the labour-market, as we should +say now, was never overstocked. This is the case with our own gipsies, +and with many savage tribes--the Red Indians, for instance--and accounts +for their general healthiness: the unhealthy being all dead, in the first +struggle for existence. But then these gipsies, and the Red Indians, do +not increase in numbers, but the contrary; while our forefathers +increased rapidly. On the other hand, we have, at least throughout the +middle ages, accounts of such swarms of cripples, lepers, deformed, and +other incapable persons, as to make some men believe that there were more +of them, in proportion to the population, than there are now. And it may +have been so. The strongest and healthiest men always going off to be +killed in war, the weakliest only would be left at home to breed; and so +an unhealthy population might spring up. And again--and this is a +curious fact--as law and order enter a country, so will the proportion of +incapables, in body and mind, increase. In times of war and anarchy, +when every one is shifting for himself, only the strongest and shrewdest +can stand. Woe to those who cannot take care of themselves. The fools +and cowards, the weakly and sickly, are killed, starved, neglected, or in +other ways brought to grief. But when law and order come, they protect +those who cannot protect themselves, and the fools and cowards, the +weakly and sickly, are supported at the public expense, and allowed to +increase and multiply as public burdens. I do not say that this is +wrong, Heaven forbid! I only state the fact. A government is quite +right in defending all alike from the brute competition of nature, whose +motto is--Woe to the weak. To the Church of the middle age is due the +preaching and the practice of the great Christian doctrine, that society +is bound to protect the weak. So far the middle age saw: but no further. +For our own times has been reserved the higher and deeper doctrine, that +it is the duty of society to make the weak strong; to reform, to cure, +and above all, to prevent by education, by sanitary science, by all and +every means, the necessity of reforming and of curing. + +Science could not do that in the middle age. But if Science could not do +it, Religion would at least try to do the next best thing to it. The +monasteries were the refuges, whither the weak escaped from the +competition of the strong. Thither flocked the poor, the crippled, the +orphan, and the widow, all, in fact, who could not fight for themselves. +There they found something like justice, order, pity, help. Even the +fool and the coward, when they went to the convent-door, were not turned +away. The poor half-witted rascal, who had not sense enough to serve the +king, might still serve the abbot. He would be set to drive, plough, or +hew wood--possibly by the side of a gentleman, a nobleman, or even a +prince--and live under equal law with them; and under, too, a discipline +more strict than that of any modern army; and if he would not hew the +wood, or drive the bullocks, as he ought, then the abbot would have him +flogged soundly till he did; which was better for him, after all, than +wandering about to be hooted by the boys, and dying in a ditch at last. + +The coward, too--the abbot could make him of use, even though the king +could not. There were, no doubt, in those days, though fewer in number +than now, men who could not face physical danger, and the storm of the +evil world,--delicate, nervous, imaginative, feminine characters; who, +when sent out to battle, would be very likely to run away. Our +forefathers, having no use for such persons, used to put such into a bog- +hole, and lay a hurdle over them, in the belief that they would sink to +the lowest pool of Hela for ever more. But the abbot had great use for +such. They could learn to read, write, sing, think; they were often very +clever; they might make great scholars; at all events they might make +saints. Whatever they could not do, they could pray. And the united +prayer of those monks, it was then believed, could take heaven by storm, +alter the course of the elements, overcome Divine justice, avert from +mankind the anger of an offended God. Whether that belief were right or +wrong, people held it; and the man who could not fight with carnal +weapons, regained his self-respect, and therefore his virtue, when he +found himself fighting, as he held, with spiritual weapons against all +the powers of darkness {214}. The first light in which I wish you to +look at the old monasteries, is as defences for the weak against the +strong. + +But what has this to do with what I said at first, as to the masses +having no history? This:--that through these monasteries the masses +began first to have a history; because through them they ceased to be +masses, and became first, persons and men, and then, gradually, a people. +That last the monasteries could not make them: but they educated them for +becoming a people; and in this way. They brought out, in each man, the +sense of individual responsibility. They taught him, whether warrior or +cripple, prince or beggar, that he had an immortal soul, for which each +must give like account to God. + +Do you not see the effect of that new thought? Treated as slaves, as +things and animals, the many had learnt to consider themselves as things +and animals. And so they had become 'a mass,' that is, a mere heap of +inorganic units, each of which has no spring of life in itself as +distinguished from a whole, a people, which has one bond, uniting each to +all. The 'masses' of the French had fallen into that state, before the +Revolution of 1793. The 'masses' of our agricultural labourers,--the +'masses' of our manufacturing workmen, were fast falling into that state +in the days of our grandfathers. Whether the French masses have risen +out of it, remains to be seen. The English masses, thanks to Almighty +God, have risen out of it; and by the very same factor by which the +middle-age masses rose--by Religion. The great Methodist movement of the +last century did for our masses, what the monks did for our forefathers +in the middle age. Wesley and Whitfield, and many another noble soul, +said to Nailsea colliers, Cornish miners, and all manner of drunken +brutalized fellows, living like the beasts that perish,--'Each of +you--thou--and thou--and thou--stand apart and alone before God. Each +has an immortal soul in him, which will be happy or miserable for ever, +according to the deeds done in the body. A whole eternity of shame or of +glory lies in you--and you are living like a beast.' And in proportion +as each man heard that word, and took it home to himself, he became a new +man, and a true man. The preachers may have mixed up words with their +message with which we may disagree, have appealed to low hopes and fears +which we should be ashamed to bring into our calculations;--so did the +monks: but they got their work done somehow; and let us thank them, and +the old Methodists, and any man who will tell men, in whatever clumsy and +rough fashion, that they are not things, and pieces of a mass, but +persons, with an everlasting duty, an everlasting right and wrong, an +everlasting God in whose presence they stand, and who will judge them +according to their works. True, that is not all that men need to learn. +After they are taught, each apart, that he is a man, they must be taught, +how to be an united people: but the individual teaching must come first; +and before we hastily blame the individualizing tendencies of the old +Evangelical movement, or that of the middle-age monks, let us remember, +that if they had not laid the foundation, others could not build thereon. + +Besides, they built themselves, as well as they could, on their own +foundation. As soon as men begin to be really men, the desire of +corporate life springs up in them. They must unite; they must organize +themselves. If they possess duties, they must be duties to their fellow- +men; if they possess virtues and graces, they must mix with their fellow- +men in order to exercise them. + +The solitaries of the Thebaid found that they became selfish wild beasts, +or went mad, if they remained alone; and they formed themselves into +lauras, 'lanes' of huts, convents, under a common abbot or father. The +evangelical converts of the last century formed themselves into powerful +and highly organized sects. The middle-age monasteries organized +themselves into highly artificial communities round some sacred spot, +generally under the supposed protection of some saint or martyr, whose +bones lay there. Each method was good, though not the highest. None of +them rises to the idea of a people, having one national life, under one +monarch, the representative to each and all of that national life, and +the dispenser and executor of its laws. Indeed, the artificial +organization, whether monastic or sectarian, may become so strong as to +interfere with national life, and make men forget their real duty to +their king and country, in their self-imposed duty to the sect or order +to which they belong. The monastic organization indeed had to die, in +many countries, in order that national life might develop itself; and the +dissolution of the monasteries marks the birth of an united and powerful +England. They or Britain must have died. An imperium in imperio--much +more many separate imperia--was an element of national weakness, which +might be allowed in times of peace and safety, but not in times of +convulsion and of danger. + +You may ask, however, how these monasteries became so powerful, if they +were merely refuges for the weak? Even if they were (and they were) the +homes of an equal justice and order, mercy and beneficence, which had few +or no standing-places outside their walls, still, how, if governed by +weak men, could they survive in the great battle of life? The sheep +would have but a poor life of it, if they set up hurdles against the +wolves, and agreed at all events not to eat each other. + +The answer is, that the monasteries were not altogether tenanted by +incapables. The same causes which brought the low-born into the +monasteries, brought the high-born, many of the very highest. The same +cause which brought the weak into the monasteries, brought the strong, +many of the very strongest. + +The middle-age records give us a long list of kings, princes, nobles, who +having done (as they held) their work in the world outside, went into +those convents to try their hands at what seemed to them (and often was) +better work than the perpetual coil of war, intrigue, and ambition, which +was not the crime, but the necessary fate, of a ruler in the middle ages. +Tired of work, and tired of life; tired too, of vain luxury and vain +wealth, they fled to the convent, as to the only place where a man could +get a little peace, and think of God, and his own soul; and recollected, +as they worked with their own hands by the side of the lowest-born of +their subjects, that they had a human flesh and blood, a human immortal +soul, like those whom they had ruled. Thank God that the great have +other methods now of learning that great truth; that the work of life, if +but well done, will teach it to them: but those were hard times, and wild +times; and fighting men could hardly learn, save in the convent, that +there was a God above who watched the widows' and the orphans' tears, and +when he made inquisition for blood, forgot not the cause of the poor. + +Such men and women of rank brought into the convent, meanwhile, all the +prestige of their rank, all their superior knowledge of the world; and +became the patrons and protectors of the society; while they submitted, +generally with peculiar humility and devotion, to its most severe and +degrading rules. Their higher sensibilities, instead of making them +shrink from hardship, made them strong to endure self-sacrifices, and +often self-tortures, which seem to us all but incredible; and the lives, +or rather living deaths, of the noble and princely penitents of the early +middle age, are among the most beautiful tragedies of humanity. + +To these monasteries, too, came the men of the very highest intellect, of +whatsoever class. I say, of the very highest intellect. Tolerably +talented men might find it worth while to stay in the world, and use +their wits in struggling upward there. The most talented of all would be +the very men to see a better 'carriere ouverte aux talens' than the world +could give; to long for deeper and loftier meditation than could be found +in the court; for a more divine life, a more blessed death, than could be +found in the camp and the battle-field. + +And so it befals, that in the early middle age the cleverest men were +generally inside the convent, trying, by moral influence and superior +intellect, to keep those outside from tearing each other to pieces. + +But these intellects could not remain locked up in the monasteries. The +daily routine of devotion, even of silent study and contemplation, was +not sufficient for them, as it was for the average monk. There was still +a reserve of force in them, which must be up and doing; and which, in a +man inspired by that Spirit which is the Spirit of love to man as well as +to God, must needs expand outwards in all directions, to Christianize, to +civilize, to colonize. + +To colonize. When people talk loosely of founding an abbey for +superstitious uses, they cannot surely be aware of the state of the +countries in which those abbeys were founded; either primaeval forest, +hardly-tilled common, or to be described by that terrible epithet of +Domesday-book, 'wasta'--wasted by war. A knowledge of that fact would +lead them to guess that there were almost certainly uses for the abbey +which had nothing to do with superstition; which were as thoroughly +practical as those of a company for draining the bog of Allen, or running +a railroad through an American forest. Such, at least, was the case, at +least for the first seven centuries after the fall of Rome; and to these +missionary colonizers Europe owes, I verily believe, among a hundred +benefits, this which all Englishmen will appreciate; that Roman +agriculture not only revived in the countries which were once the Empire, +but spread from thence eastward and northward, into the principal +wilderness of the Teuton and Sclavonic races. + +I cannot, I think, shew you better what manner of men these +monk-colonizers were, and what sort of work they did, than by giving you +the biography of one of them; and out of many I have chosen that of St. +Sturmi, founder whilome of the great abbey of Fulda, which lies on the +central watershed of Germany, about equidistant, to speak roughly, from +Frankfort, Cassel, Gotha, and Coburg. + +His life is matter of history, written by one Eigils (sainted like +himself), who was his disciple and his friend. Naturally told it is, and +lovingly; but if I recollect right, without a single miracle or myth; the +living contemporaneous picture of such a man, living in such a state of +society, as we shall never (and happily need never) see again, but which +is for that very reason worthy to be preserved, for a token that wisdom +is justified of all her children. + +It stands at length in Pertz's admirable 'Monumenta Historica,' among +many another like biography, and if I tell it here somewhat at length, +readers must forgive me. + +Every one has heard of little king Pepin, and many may have heard also +how he was a mighty man of valour, and cut off a lion's head at one blow; +and how he was a crafty statesman, and first consolidated the temporal +power of the Popes, and helped them in that detestable crime of +overthrowing the noble Lombard kingdom, which cost Italy centuries of +slavery and shame, and which has to be expiated even yet, it would seem, +by some fearful punishment. + +But every one may not know that Pepin had great excuses--if not for +helping to destroy the Lombards--yet still for supporting the power of +the Popes. It seemed to him--and perhaps it was--the only practical +method of uniting the German tribes into one common people, and stopping +the internecine wars by which they were tearing themselves to pieces. It +seemed to him--and perhaps it was--the only practical method for +civilizing and Christianizing the still wild tribes, Frisians, Saxons, +and Sclaves, who pressed upon the German marches, from the mouth of the +Elbe to the very Alps. Be that as it may, he began the work; and his son +Charlemagne finished it; somewhat well, and again somewhat ill--as most +work, alas! is done on earth. Now in the days of little king Pepin there +was a nobleman of Bavaria, and his wife, who had a son called Sturmi; and +they brought him to St. Boniface, that he might make him a priest. And +the child loved St. Boniface's noble English face, and went with him +willingly, and was to him as a son. And who was St. Boniface? That is a +long story. Suffice it that he was a man of Devon, brought up in a +cloister at Exeter; and that he had crossed over into Frankenland, upon +the lower Rhine, and become a missionary of the widest and loftiest aims; +not merely a preacher and winner of souls, though that, it is said, in +perfection; but a civilizer, a colonizer, a statesman. He, and many +another noble Englishman and Scot (whether Irish or Caledonian) were +working under the Frank kings to convert the heathens of the marches, and +carry the Cross into the far East. They led lives of poverty and danger; +they were martyred, half of them, as St. Boniface was at last. But they +did their work; and doubtless they have their reward. They did their +best, according to their light. God grant that we, to whom so much more +light has been given, may do our best likewise. Under this great genius +was young Sturmi trained. Trained (as was perhaps needed for those who +had to do such work in such a time) to have neither wife, nor child, nor +home, nor penny in his purse; but to do all that he was bid, learn all +that he could, and work for his living with his own hands; a life of +bitter self-sacrifice. Such a life is not needed now. Possibly, +nevertheless, it was needed then. + +So St. Boniface took Sturmi about with him in his travels, and at last +handed him over to Wigbert, the priest, to prepare him for the ministry. +'Under whom,' says his old chronicler, 'the boy began to know the Psalms +thoroughly by heart; to understand the Holy Scriptures of Christ with +spiritual sense; took care to learn most studiously the mysteries of the +four Gospels, and to bury in his heart, by assiduous reading, the +treasures of the Old and New Testament. For his meditation was in the +Law of the Lord day and night; profound in understanding, shrewd of +thought, prudent of speech, fair of face, sober of carriage, honourable +in morals, spotless in life, by sweetness, humility, and alacrity, he +drew to him the love of all.' + +He grew to be a man; and in due time he was ordained priest, 'by the will +and consent of all;' and he 'began to preach the words of Christ +earnestly to the people;' and his preaching wrought wonders among them. + +Three years he preached in his Rhineland parish, winning love from all. +But in the third year 'a heavenly thought' came into his mind that he +would turn hermit and dwell in the wild forest. And why? Who can tell? +He may, likely enough, have found celibacy a fearful temptation for a +young and eloquent man, and longed to flee from the sight of that which +must not be his. And that, in his circumstances, was not a foolish wish. +He may have wished to escape, if but once, from the noise and crowd of +outward things, and be alone with God and Christ, and his own soul. And +that was not a foolish wish. John Bunyan so longed, and found what he +wanted in Bedford Jail, and set it down and printed it in a Pilgrim's +Progress, which will live as long as man is man. George Fox longed for +it, and made himself clothes of leather which would not wear out, and +lived in a hollow tree, till he, too, set down the fruit of his solitude +in a diary which will live likewise as long as man is man. Perhaps, +again, young Sturmi longed to try for once in a way what he was worth +upon God's earth; how much he could endure; what power he had of helping +himself, what courage to live by his own wits, and God's mercy, on roots +and fruits, as wild things live. And surely that was not altogether a +foolish wish. At least, he longed to be a hermit; but he kept his +longing to himself, however, till St. Boniface, his bishop, appeared; and +then he told him all his heart. + +And St. Boniface said: 'Go; in the name of God;' and gave him two +comrades, and sent him into 'the wilderness which is called Buchonia, the +Beech Forest, to find a place fit for the servants of the Lord to dwell +in. For the Lord is able to provide his people a home in the desert.' + +So those three went into the wild forest. And 'for three days they saw +nought but earth and sky and mighty trees. And they went on, praying +Christ that He would guide their feet into the way of peace. And on the +third day they came to the place which is called Hersfelt (the hart's +down?), and searched it round, and prayed that Christ would bless the +place for them to dwell in; and then they built themselves little huts of +beech-bark, and abode there many days, serving God with holy fastings, +and watchings, and prayers.' + +Is it not a strange story? so utterly unlike anything which we see +now;--so utterly unlike anything which we ought to see now? And yet it +may have been good in its time. It looks out on us from the dim ages, +like the fossil bone of some old monster cropping out of a quarry. But +the old monster was good in his place and time. God made him and had +need of him. It may be that God made those three poor monks, and had +need of them likewise. + +As for their purposes being superstitious, we shall be better able to +judge of that when we have seen what they were--what sort of a house they +meant to build to God. As for their having self-interest in view, no +doubt they thought that they should benefit their own souls in this life, +and in the life to come. But one would hardly blame them for that, +surely? + +One would not blame them as selfish and sordid if they had gone out on a +commercial speculation? Why, then, if on a religious one? The merchant +adventurer is often a noble type of man, and one to whom the world owes +much, though his hands are not always clean, nor his eye single. The +monk adventurer of the middle age is, perhaps, a still nobler type of +man, and one to whom the world owes more, though his eye, too, was not +always single, nor his hands clean. + +As for selfishness, one must really bear in mind that men who walked away +into that doleful 'urwarld' had need to pray very literally 'that Christ +would guide their feet into the way of peace;' and must have cared as +much for their wordly interests as those who march up to the cannon's +mouth. Their lives in that forest were not worth twenty-four hours' +purchase, and they knew it. It is an ugly thing for an unarmed man, +without a compass, to traverse the bush of Australia or New Zealand, +where there are no wild beasts. But it was uglier still to start out +under the dark roof of that primaeval wood. Knights, when they rode it, +went armed cap-a-pie, like Sintram through the dark valley, trusting in +God and their good sword. Chapmen and merchants stole through it by a +few tracks in great companies, armed with bill and bow. Peasants +ventured into it a few miles, to cut timber, and find pannage for their +swine, and whispered wild legends of the ugly things therein--and +sometimes, too, never came home. Away it stretched from the fair +Rhineland, wave after wave of oak and alder, beech and pine, God alone +knew how far, into the land of night and wonder, and the infinite +unknown; full of elk and bison, bear and wolf, lynx and glutton, and +perhaps of worse beasts still. Worse beasts, certainly, Sturmi and his +comrades would have met, if they had met them in human form. For there +were waifs and strays of barbarism there, uglier far than any waif and +stray of civilization, border ruffian of the far west, buccaneer of the +Tropic keys, Cimaroon of the Panama forests; men verbiesterte, turned +into the likeness of beasts, wildfanger, huner, ogres, wehr-wolves, +strong thieves and outlaws, many of them possibly mere brutal maniacs; +naked, living in caves and coverts, knowing no law but their own hunger, +rage, and lust; feeding often on human flesh; and woe to the woman or +child or unarmed man who fell into their ruthless clutch. Orson, and +such like human brutes of the wilderness, serve now to amuse children in +fairy tales; they were then ugly facts of flesh and blood. There were +heathens there, too, in small colonies: heathen Saxons, cruelest of all +the tribes; who worshipped at the Irmensul, and had an old blood-feud +against the Franks; heathen Thuringer, who had murdered St. Kilian the +Irishman at Wurzburg; heathen Slaves, of different tribes, who had +introduced into Europe the custom of impaling their captives: and woe to +the Christian priest who fell into any of their hands. To be knocked on +the head before some ugly idol was the gentlest death which they were +like to have. They would have called that martyrdom, and the gate of +eternal bliss; but they were none the less brave men for going out to +face it. + +And beside all these, and worse than all these, there were the terrors of +the unseen world; very real in those poor monks' eyes, though not in +ours. There were Nixes in the streams, and Kobolds in the caves, and +Tannhauser in the dark pine-glades, who hated the Christian man, and +would lure him to his death. There were fair swan-maidens and +elf-maidens; nay, dame Venus herself, and Herodias the dancer, with all +their rout of revellers; who would tempt him to sin, and having made him +sell his soul, destroy both body and soul in hell. There was Satan and +all the devils, too, plotting to stop the Christian man from building the +house of the Lord, and preaching the gospel to the heathen; ready to call +up storms, and floods, and forest fires; to hurl the crag down from the +cliffs, or drop the rotting tree on their defenceless heads--all real and +terrible in those poor monks' eyes, as they walked on, singing their +psalms, and reading their Gospels, and praying to God to save them, for +they could not save themselves; and to guide them, for they knew not, +like Abraham, whither they went; and to show them the place where they +should build the house of the Lord, and preach righteousness, peace, and +joy in the Holy Spirit to the heathen round. We talk still, thank +heaven, of heroes, and understand what that great word should mean. But +were not these poor monks heroes? Knights-errant of God, doing his work +as they best knew how. We have a purer gospel than they: we understand +our Bibles better. But if they had not done what they did, where would +have been now our gospel, and our Bible? We cannot tell. It was a wise +old saw of our forefathers--'Do not speak ill of the bridge which carries +you over.' + +If Sturmi had had a 'holy longing' to get into the wild wood, now he had +a 'holy longing' to go back; and to find St. Boniface, and tell him what +a pleasant place Hersfelt was, and the quality of the soil, and the +direction of the watershed, and the meadows, and springs, and so forth, +in a very practical way. And St. Boniface answered, that the place +seemed good enough; but that he was afraid for them, on account of the +savage heathen Saxons. They must go deeper into the forest, and then +they would be safe. So he went back to his fellow-hermits, and they made +to themselves a canoe; and went paddling up and down the Fulda stream, +beneath the alder boughs, 'trying the mouths of the mountain-streams, and +landing to survey the hills and ridges,'--pioneers of civilization none +the less because they pioneered in the name of Him who made earth and +heaven: but they found nothing which they thought would suit the blessed +St. Boniface, save that they stayed a little at the place which is called +Ruohen-bah, 'the rough brook,' to see if it would suit; but it would not. +So they went back to their birch huts to fast and pray once more. + +St. Boniface sent for Sturmi after awhile, probably to Maintz, to ask of +his success; and Sturmi threw himself on his face before him; and +Boniface raised him up, and kissed him, and made him sit by his +side--which was a mighty honour; for St. Boniface, the penniless monk, +was at that moment one of the most powerful men of Europe; and he gave +Sturmi a good dinner, of which, no doubt, he stood in need; and bade him +keep up heart, and seek again for the place which God had surely +prepared, and would reveal in His good time. + +And this time Sturmi, probably wiser from experience, determined to go +alone; but not on foot. So he took to him a trusty ass, and as much food +as he could pack on it; and, axe in hand, rode away into the wild wood, +singing his psalms. And every night, before he lay down to sleep, he cut +boughs, and stuck them up for a ring fence round him and the ass, to the +discomfiture of the wolves, which had, and have still, a great hankering +after asses' flesh. It is a quaint picture, no doubt; but let us respect +it, while we smile at it; if we, too, be brave men. + +Then one day he fell into a great peril. He came to the old road (a +Roman one, I presume; for the Teutons, whether in England or elsewhere, +never dreamed of making roads till three hundred years ago, but used the +old Roman ones), which led out of the Thuringen land to Maintz. And at +the ford over the Fulda he met a great multitude bathing, of Sclavonian +heathens, going to the fair at Maintz. And they smelt so strong, the +foul miscreants, that Sturmi's donkey backed, and refused to face them; +and Sturmi himself was much of the donkey's mind, for they began to mock +him (possibly he nearly went over the donkey's head), and went about to +hurt him. + +'But,' says the chronicler, 'the power of the Lord held them back.' + +Then he went on, right thankful at having escaped with his life, up and +down, round and round, exploring and surveying--for what purpose we shall +see hereafter. And at last he lost himself in the place which is called +Aihen-loh, 'the glade of oaks;' and at night-fall he heard the plash of +water, and knew not whether man or wild beast made it. And not daring to +call out, he tapped a tree-trunk with his axe (some backwoodsman's sign +of those days, we may presume), and he was answered. And a forester came +to him, leading his lord's horse; a man from the Wetterau, who knew the +woods far and wide, and told him all that he wanted to know. And they +slept side by side that night; and in the morning they blest each other, +and each went his way. + +Yes, there were not merely kings and wars, popes and councils, in those +old days;--there were real human beings, just such as we might meet by +the wayside any hour, with human hearts and histories within them. And +we will be thankful if but one of them, now and then, starts up out of +the darkness of twelve hundred years, like that good forester, and looks +at us with human eyes, and goes his way again, blessing, and not unblest. + +And now Sturmi knew all that he needed to know; and after awhile, +following the counsel of the forester, he came to 'the blessed place, +long ago prepared of the Lord. And when he saw it, he was filled with +immense joy, and went on exulting; for he felt that by the merits and +prayers of the holy Bishop Boniface that place had been revealed to him. +And he went about it, and about it, half the day; and the more he looked +on it the more he gave God thanks;' and those who know Fulda say, that +Sturmi had reason to give God thanks, and must have had a keen eye, +moreover, for that which man needs for wealth and prosperity, in soil and +water, meadow and wood. So he blessed the place, and signed it with the +sign of the Cross (in token that it belonged thenceforth neither to +devils nor fairies, but to his rightful Lord and Maker), and went back to +his cell, and thence a weary journey to St. Boniface, to tell him of the +fair place which he had found at last. + +And St. Boniface went his weary way, either to Paris or to Aix, to Pepin +and Carloman, kings of the Franks; and begged of them a grant of the +Aihen-loh, and all the land for four miles round, and had it. And the +nobles about gave up to him their rights of venison, and vert, and +pasture, and pannage of swine; and Sturmi and seven brethren set out +thither, 'in the year of our Lord 744, in the first month (April, +presumably), in the twelfth day of the month, unto the place prepared of +the Lord,' that they might do what? + +That they might build an abbey. Yes; but the question is, what building +an abbey meant, not three hundred, nor five hundred, but eleven hundred +years ago--for centuries are long matters, and men and their works change +in them. + +And then it meant this: Clearing the back woods for a Christian +settlement; an industrial colony, in which every man was expected to +spend his life in doing good--all and every good which he could for his +fellow-men. Whatever talent he had he threw into the common stock; and +worked, as he was found fit to work, at farming, gardening, carpentering, +writing, doctoring, teaching in the schools, or preaching to the heathen +round. In their common church they met to worship God; but also to ask +for grace and strength to do their work, as Christianizers and civilizers +of mankind. What Christianity and civilization they knew (and they knew +more than we are apt now to believe) they taught it freely; and therefore +they were loved, and looked up to as superior beings, as modern +missionaries, wherever they do their work even decently well, are looked +up to now. + +So because the work could be done in that way, and (as far as men then, +or now, can see) in no other way, Pepin and Carloman gave Boniface the +glade of oaks, that they might clear the virgin forest, and extend +cultivation, and win fresh souls to Christ, instead of fighting, like the +kings of this world, for the land which was already cleared, and the +people who were already Christian. + +In two months' time they had cut down much of the forest; and then came +St. Boniface himself to see them, and with him a great company of +workmen, and chose a place for a church. And St. Boniface went up to the +hill which is yet called Bishop's Mount, that he might read his Bible in +peace, away from kings and courts, and the noise of the wicked world; and +his workmen felled trees innumerable, and dug peat to burn lime withal; +and then all went back again, and left the settlers to thrive and work. + +And thrive and work they did, clearing more land, building their church, +ploughing up their farm, drawing to them more and more heathen converts, +more and more heathen school-children; and St. Boniface came to see them +from time to time, whenever he could get a holiday, and spent happy days +in prayer and study, with his pupil and friend. And ten years after, +when St. Boniface was martyred at last by the Friesland heathens, and +died, as he had lived, like an apostle of God, then all the folk of +Maintz wanted to bring his corpse home to their town, because he had been +Archbishop there. But he 'appeared in a dream to a certain deacon, and +said: "Why delay ye to take me home to Fulda, to my rest in the +wilderness which God bath prepared for me?"' + +So St. Boniface sleeps at Fulda,--unless the French Republican armies dug +up his bones, and scattered them, as they scattered holier things, to the +winds of heaven. And all men came to worship at his tomb, after the +fashion of those days. And Fulda became a noble abbey, with its +dom-church, library, schools, workshops, farmsteads, almshouses, and all +the appanages of such a place, in the days when monks were monks indeed. +And Sturmi became a great man, and went through many troubles and +slanders, and conquered in them all, because there was no fault found in +him, as in Daniel of old; and died in a good old age, bewept by +thousands, who, but for him, would have been heathens still. And the +Aihen-loh became rich corn-land and garden, and Fulda an abbey borough +and a principality, where men lived in peace under mild rule, while the +feudal princes quarrelled and fought outside; and a great literary +centre, whose old records are now precious to the diggers among the bones +of bygone times; and at last St. Sturmi and the Aihen-lob had so +developed themselves, that the latest record of the Abbots of Fulda which +I have seen is this, bearing date about 1710:-- + +'The arms of the most illustrious Lord and Prince, Abbot of Fulda, +Archchancellor of the most Serene Empress, Primate of all Germany and +Gaul, and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.' Developed, certainly: and +not altogether in the right direction. For instead of the small beer, +which they had promised St. Boniface to drink to the end of the world, +the abbots of Fulda had the best wine in Germany, and the best table too. +Be that as it may, to have cleared the timber off the Aihen-lob, and +planted a Christian colony instead, was enough to make St. Sturmi hope +that he had not read his Bible altogether in vain. + +Surely such men as St. Sturmi were children of wisdom, put what sense on +the word you will. In a dark, confused, lawless, cut-throat age, while +everything was decided by the sword, they found that they could do no +good to themselves, or any man, by throwing their swords into either +scale. They would be men of peace, and see what could be done so. Was +that not wise? So they set to work. They feared God exceedingly, and +walked with God. Was not that wise? They wrought righteousness, and +were merciful and kind, while kings and nobles were murdering around +them; pure and temperate, while other men were lustful and drunken; just +and equal in all their ways, while other men were unjust and capricious; +serving God faithfully, according to their light, while the people round +them were half or wholly heathen; content to do their work well on earth, +and look for their reward in heaven, while the kings and nobles, the +holders of the land, were full of insane ambition, every man trying to +seize a scrap of ground from his neighbour, as if that would make them +happier. Was that not wise? Which was the wiser, the chief killing +human beings, to take from them some few square miles which men had +brought into cultivation already, or the monk, leaving the cultivated +land, and going out into the backwoods to clear the forest, and till the +virgin soil? Which was the child of wisdom, I ask again? And do not +tell me that the old monk worked only for fanatical and superstitious +ends. It is not so. I know well his fanaticism and his superstition, +and the depths of its ignorance and silliness: but he had more in him +than that. Had he not, he would have worked no lasting work. He was not +only the pioneer of civilization, but he knew that he was such. He +believed that all knowledge came from God, even that which taught a man +to clear the forest, and plant corn instead; and he determined to spread +such knowledge as he had wherever he could. He was a wiser man than the +heathen Saxons, even than the Christian Franks, around him; a better +scholar, a better thinker, better handicraftsman, better farmer; and he +did not keep his knowledge to himself. He did not, as some tell you, +keep the Bible to himself. It is not so; and those who say so, in this +generation, ought to be ashamed of themselves. The monk knew his Bible +well himself, and he taught it. Those who learnt from him to read, +learnt to read their Bibles. Those who did not learn (of course the vast +majority, in days when there was no printing), he taught by sermons, by +pictures, afterward by mystery and miracle plays. The Bible was not +forbidden to the laity till centuries afterwards--and forbidden then, +why? Because the laity throughout Europe knew too much about the Bible, +and not too little. Because the early monks had so ingrained the mind of +the masses, throughout Christendom, with Bible stories, Bible personages, +the great facts, and the great doctrines, of our Lord's life, that the +masses knew too much; that they could contrast too easily, and too +freely, the fallen and profligate monks of the 15th and 16th centuries, +with those Bible examples, which the old monks of centuries before had +taught their forefathers. Then the clergy tried to keep from the laity, +because it testified against themselves, the very book which centuries +before they had taught them to love and know too well. In a word, the +old monk missionary taught all he knew to all who would learn, just as +our best modern missionaries do; and was loved, and obeyed, and looked on +as a superior being, as they are. + +Of course he did not know how far civilization would extend. He could +not foretell railroads and electric telegraphs, any more than he could +political economy, or sanitary science. But the best that he knew, he +taught--and did also, working with his own hands. He was faithful in a +few things, and God made him ruler over many things. For out of those +monasteries sprang--what did not spring? They restored again and again +sound law and just government, when the good old Teutonic laws, and the +Roman law also, was trampled underfoot amid the lawless strife of +ambition and fury. Under their shadow sprang up the towns with their +corporate rights, their middle classes, their artizan classes. They were +the physicians, the alms-givers, the relieving officers, the +schoolmasters of the middle-age world. They first taught us the great +principle of the division of labour, to which we owe, at this moment, +that England is what she is, instead of being covered with a horde of +peasants, each making and producing everything for himself, and starving +each upon his rood of ground. They transcribed or composed all the books +of the then world; many of them spent their lives in doing nothing but +writing; and the number of books, even of those to be found in single +monasteries, considering the tedious labour of copying, is altogether +astonishing. They preserved to us the treasures of classical antiquity. +They discovered for us the germs of all our modern inventions. They +brought in from abroad arts and new knowledge; and while they taught men +to know that they had a common humanity, a common Father in heaven taught +them also to profit by each other's wisdom instead of remaining in +isolated ignorance. They, too, were the great witnesses against feudal +caste. With them was neither high-born nor low-born, rich nor poor: +worth was their only test; the meanest serf entering there might become +the lord of knights and vassals, the counsellor of kings and princes. Men +may talk of democracy--those old monasteries were the most democratic +institutions the world had ever till then seen. 'A man's a man for a' +that,' was not only talked of in them, but carried out in practice--only +not in anarchy, and as a cloak for licentiousness: but under those +safeguards of strict discipline, and almost military order, without which +men may call themselves free, and yet be really only slaves to their own +passions. Yes, paradoxical as it may seem, in those monasteries was +preserved the sacred fire of modern liberty, through those feudal +centuries when all the outside world was doing its best to trample it +out. Remember, as a single instance, that in the Abbot's lodging at Bury +St. Edmunds, the Magna Charta was drawn out, before being presented to +John at Runymede. I know what they became afterwards, better than most +do here; too well to defile my lips, or your ears, with tales too true. +They had done their work, and they went. Like all things born in time, +they died; and decayed in time; and the old order changed, giving place +to the new; and God fulfilled himself in many ways. But in them, too, he +fulfilled himself. They were the best things the world had seen; the +only method of Christianizing and civilizing semi-barbarous Europe. Like +all human plans and conceptions, they contained in themselves original +sin; idolatry, celibacy, inhuman fanaticism; these were their three roots +of bitterness; and when they bore the natural fruit of immorality, the +monasteries fell with a great and just destruction. But had not those +monasteries been good at first, and noble at first; had not the men in +them been better and more useful men than the men outside, do you think +they would have endured for centuries? They would not even have +established themselves at all. They would soon, in those stormy times, +have been swept off the face of the earth. Ill used they often were, +plundered and burnt down. But men found that they were good. Their own +plunderers found that they could not do without them; and repented, and +humbled themselves, and built them up again, to be centres of justice and +mercy and peace, amid the wild weltering sea of war and misery. For all +things endure, even for a generation, only by virtue of the good which is +in them. By the Spirit of God in them they live, as do all created +things; and when he taketh away their breath they die, and return again +to their dust. + +And what was the original sin of them? We can hardly say that it was +their superstitious and partially false creed: because that they held in +common with all Europe. It was rather that they had identified +themselves with, and tried to realize on earth, one of the worst +falsehoods of that creed--celibacy. Not being founded on the true and +only ground of all society, family life, they were merely artificial and +self-willed arrangements of man's invention, which could not develop to +any higher form. And when the sanctity of marriage was revindicated at +the Reformation, the monasteries, having identified themselves with +celibacy, naturally fell. They could not partake in the Reformation +movement, and rise with it into some higher form of life, as the laity +outside did. I say, they were altogether artificial things. The Abbot +might be called the Abba, Father, of his monks: but he was not their +father--just as when young ladies now play at being nuns, they call their +superior, Mother: but all the calling in the world will not make that +sacred name a fact and a reality, as they too often find out. + +And celibacy brought serious evils from the first. It induced an +excited, hysterical tone of mind, which is most remarkable in the best +men; violent, querulous, suspicious, irritable, credulous, visionary; at +best more womanly than manly; alternately in tears and in raptures. You +never get in their writings anything of that manly calmness, which we so +deservedly honour, and at which we all aim for ourselves. They are +bombastic; excited; perpetually mistaking virulence for strength, putting +us in mind for ever of the allocutions of the Popes. Read the writings +of one of the best of monks, and of men, who ever lived, the great St. +Bernard, and you will be painfully struck by this hysterical element. The +fact is, that their rule of life, from the earliest to the latest,--from +that of St. Benedict of Casino, 'father of all monks,' to that of Loyola +the Jesuit, was pitched not too low, but too high. It was an ideal +which, for good or for evil, could only be carried out by new converts, +by people in a state of high religious excitement, and therefore the +history of the monastic orders is just that of the protestant sects. We +hear of continual fallings off from their first purity; of continual +excitements, revivals, and startings of new orders, which hoped to +realize the perfection which the old orders could not. You must bear +this in mind, as you read mediaeval history. You will be puzzled to know +why continual new rules and new orders sprung up. They were so many +revivals, so many purist attempts at new sects. You will see this very +clearly in the three great revivals which exercised such enormous +influence on the history of the 13th, the 16th and the 17th centuries,--I +mean the rise first of the Franciscans and Dominicans, next of the +Jesuits, and lastly of the Port Royalists. They each professed to +restore monachism to what it had been at first; to realize the unnatural +and impossible ideal. + +Another serious fault of these monasteries may be traced to their +artificial celibate system. I mean their avarice. Only one generation +after St. Sturmi, Charlemagne had to make indignant laws against Abbots +who tried to get into their hands the property of everybody around them: +but in vain. The Abbots became more and more the great landholders, till +their power was intolerable. The reasons are simple enough. An abbey +had no children between whom to divide its wealth, and therefore more +land was always flowing in and concentrating, and never breaking up +again; while almost every Abbot left his personalities, all his private +savings and purchases, to his successor. + +Then again, in an unhappy hour, they discovered that the easiest way of +getting rich was by persuading sinners, and weak persons, to secure the +safety of their souls by leaving land to the Church, in return for the +prayers and masses of monks; and that shameful mine of wealth was worked +by them for centuries, in spite of statutes of mortmain, and other checks +which the civil power laid on them, very often by most detestable means. +One is shocked to find good men lending themselves to such base tricks: +but we must recollect, that there has always been among men a public and +a private conscience, and that these two, alas! have generally been very +different. It is an old saying, that 'committees have no consciences;' +and it is too true. A body of men acting in concert for a public purpose +will do things which they would shrink from with disgust, if the same +trick would merely put money into their private purses; and this is too +often the case when the public object is a good one. Then the end seems +to sanctify the means, to almost any amount of chicanery. + +So it was with those old monks. An abbey had no conscience. An order of +monks had no conscience. A Benedictine, a Dominican, a Franciscan, who +had not himself a penny in the world, and never intended to have one, +would play tricks, lie, cheat, slander, forge, for the honour and the +wealth of his order; when for himself, and in himself, he may have been +an honest God-fearing man enough. So it was; one more ugly fruit of an +unnatural attempt to be not good men, but something more than men; by +trying to be more than men, they ended by being less than men. That was +their sin, and that sin, when it had conceived, brought forth death. + + + + +LECTURE X--THE LOMBARD LAWS + + +I have tried to shew you how the Teutonic nations were Christianized. I +have tried to explain to you why the clergy who converted them were, +nevertheless, more or less permanently antagonistic to them. I shall +have, hereafter, to tell you something of one of the most famous +instances of that antagonism: of the destruction of the liberties of the +Lombards by that Latin clergy. But at first you ought to know something +of the manners of these Lombards; and that you may learn best by studying +their Code. + +They are valuable to you, as giving you a fair specimen of the laws of an +old Teutonic people. You may profitably compare them with the old +Gothic, Franco-Salic, Burgundian, Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian laws, all +formed on the same primaeval model, agreeing often in minute details, and +betokening one primaeval origin, of awful antiquity. By studying them, +moreover, you may gain some notion of that primaeval liberty and self- +government, common at first to all the race, but preserved alone by +England;--to which the descendants of these very Lombards are at this +very moment so manfully working their way back. + +These laws were collected and published in writing by king Rothar, A.D. +643, 76 years after Alboin came into Italy. The cause, he says, was the +continual wearying of the poor, and the superfluous exactions, and even +violence, of the strong against those who were weak. They are the 'laws +of our fathers, as far as we have learnt them from ancient men, and are +published with the counsel and consent of our princes, judges, and all +our most prosperous army,' i.e. the barons, or freemen capable of bearing +arms; 'and are confirmed according to the custom of our nation by +garathinx,' that is, as far as I can ascertain from Grimm's German Law, +by giving an earnest, garant, or warrant of the bargain. + +Among these Lombards, as among our English forefathers, when a man +thingavit, i.e. donavit, a gift or bequest to any one, it was necessary, +according to law CLXXII., to do it before gisiles, witnesses, and to give +a garathinx, or earnest, of his bequest--a halm of straw, a turf, a cup +of drink, a piece of money--as to this day a drover seals his bargain +with a shilling, and a commercial traveller with a glass of liquor. +Whether Rothar gave the garathinx to his barons, or his barons to him, I +do not understand: but at least it is clear from the use of this one word +that the publication of these laws was a 'social contract'--a distinct +compact between king and people. From all which you will perceive at +once that these Lombards, like all Teutons, were a free people, under a +rough kind of constitutional monarchy. They would have greeted with +laughter the modern fable of the divine right of kings, if by that they +were expected to understand that the will of the king was law, or that +the eldest son of a certain family had any God-given ipso-facto right to +succeed his father. Sixteen kings, says the preface, had reigned from +Agilmund to Rothar; and seven times had the royal race been changed. That +the king should belong to one of the families who derived their pedigree +from Wodin, and that a son should, as natural, succeed his father, were +old rules: but the barons would, as all history shews, make little of +crowning a younger son instead of an elder, if the younger were a hero, +and the elder an 'arga'--a lazy loon; and little, also, would they make +of setting aside the whole royal family, and crowning the man who would +do their business best. The king was, as this preface and these laws +shew, the commander in chief of the exercitus, the militia, and therefore +of every free man in the state; (for all were bound to fight when +required). He was also the supreme judge, the head of the executive, +dispenser and fountain of law: but with no more power of making the law, +of breaking the law, or of arbitrarily depriving a man of his property, +than an English sovereign has now; and his power was quamdiu se bene +gesserit, and no longer, as history proves in every page. + +The doctrine of the divine right of kings as understood in England in the +seventeenth century, and still in some continental countries, was, as far +as I can ascertain, invented by the early popes, not for the purpose of +exalting the kings, but of enslaving them, and through them the nations. +A king and his son's sons had divine 'right to govern wrong' not from +God, but from the vicar of God and the successor of St. Peter, to whom +God had given the dominion of the whole earth, and who had the right to +anoint, or to depose, whomsoever he would. Even in these old laws, we +see that new idea obtruding itself. 'The king's heart,' says one of them +'is in the hand of God.' That is a text of Scripture. What it was meant +to mean, one cannot doubt, or by whom it was inserted. The 'Chancellor,' +or whoever else transcribed those laws in Latin, was, of course, a +cleric, priest or monk. From his hand comes the first hint of arbitrary +power; the first small blot of a long dark stain of absolutism, which was +to darken and deepen through centuries of tyranny and shame. + +But to plead the divine right of kings, in a country which has thrown off +its allegiance to the pope, is to assert the conclusion of a syllogism, +the major and minor premiss of which are both denied by the assertor. The +arguments for such a right drawn from the Old Testament, which were +common among the high-church party from James I. to James II. and the +Nonjurors, are really too inconsequent to require more than a passing +smile. How can you prove that a king has the power to make laws, from +the history of the Jewish nation, when that very history represents it +all through as bound by a primaeval and divinely revealed law, to which +kings and people were alike subject? How can you prove that the eldest +son's eldest son has a divine right to wear the crown as 'God's +anointed,' when the very persons to whom that title is given are +generally either not eldest sons, or not of royal race at all? The rule +that the eldest son's eldest son should succeed, has been proved by +experience to be in practice a most excellent one: but it rests, as in +England, so in Lombardy, or Spain, or Frankreich of old time, simply upon +the consent of the barons, and the will of the thing or parliament. + +There is a sentimental admiration of 'Imperialism' growing up now-a-days, +under the pretentious titles of 'hero-worship,' and 'strong government;' +and the British constitution is represented as a clumsy and artificial +arrangement of the year 1688. 1688 after Christ? 1688 before Christ +would be nearer the mark. It is as old, in its essentials, as the time +when not only all the Teutons formed one tribe, but when Teutons and +Scandinavians were still united--and when that was, who dare say? We at +least brought the British constitution with us out of the bogs and moors +of Jutland, along with our smock-frocks and leather gaiters, brown bills +and stone axes; and it has done us good service, and will do, till we +have carried it right round the world. + +As for these Lombard kings, they arose on this wise. After Alboin's +death the Lombards were for ten years under dukes, and evil times came, +every man doing what was right in his own eyes; enlarging their frontier +by killing the Roman landholders, and making the survivors give them up a +portion of their lands, as Odoacer first, and the Ostrogoths next, had +done. At last, tired of lawlessness, dissension and weakness, and +seemingly dreading an invasion from Childebert, king of the Franks, they +chose a king, Autharis the son of Cleph, and called him Flavius, by which +Roman title the Lombard kings were afterwards known. Moreover, they +agreed to give him (I conclude only once for all) the half of all their +substance, to support the kingdom. There were certain tributes +afterwards paid into the king's treasury every three years; and certain +fines, and also certain portions of the property of those who died +without direct heirs, seem to have made up the revenue. Whereon, Paul +says, perfect peace and justice followed. + +Now for the laws, which were reduced into writing about sixty years +afterwards. The first thing that you will remark about these laws, is +that duel, wager of battle under shield, 'diremptio causae per pugnam sub +uno scuto,' is the earliest form of settling a lawsuit. If you cannot +agree, fight it out fairly, either by yourself or per campionem, a +champion or kemper man, and God defend the right. Then follows 'faida,' +blood-feud, from generation to generation. To stop which a man is +allowed to purge himself by oath; his own and that of certain neighbours, +twelve in general, who will swear their belief in his innocence. This +was common to the northern nations, and was the origin of our trial by +jury. If guilty, the offender has to pay the weregeld, or legal price, +set upon the injury he has inflicted. When the composition is paid, +there is an end of the feud; if after taking the composition the +plaintiff avenges himself, he has to pay it back. Hence our system of +fines. + +This method of composition by fines runs through all the Teutonic laws; +and makes the punishment of death, at least among freemen, very rare. + +Punishments by stripes, by imprisonment, or by cruel or degrading +methods, there are none. The person of a freeman is sacred, 'Vincire et +verberare nefas,' as Tacitus said of these Germans 600 years before. + +The offences absolutely punishable by death seem to be, treason against +the king's life; cowardice in battle; concealment of robbers; mutinies +and attempts to escape out of the realm; and therefore (under the then +military organization) to escape from the duty of every freeman, to bear +arms in defence of the land. + +More than a hundred of these laws define the different fines, or +'weregelds,' by which each offence is to be compounded for, from 900 +solidi aurei, gold pieces, for a murder, downwards to the smallest breach +of the peace. Each limb has its special price. For the loss of an eye, +half the price of the whole man is to be paid. A front tooth is worth +16s., solidi aurei; their loss being a disfigurement; but a back tooth is +worth only 8s. A slave's tooth, on the other hand, is worth but 4s.; and +in every case, the weregeld of a slave is much less than that of a +freeman. + +The sacredness of the household, and the strong sense of the individual +rights of property, are to be remarked. One found in a 'court,' +courtledge (or homestead), by night (as we say in old English), may be +killed. You know, I dare say, that in many Teutonic and Scandinavian +nations the principle that a man's house is his castle was so strongly +held that men were not allowed to enter a condemned man's house to carry +him off to execution; but if he would not come out, could only burn the +house over his head. Shooting, or throwing a lance into any man's +homestead, costs 20s. 'Oberos,' or 'curtis ruptura,' that is, making +violent entry into a man's homestead, costs 20s. also. Nay, merely to +fetch your own goods out of another man's house secretly, and without +asking leave, was likewise punished as oberos. + +So of personal honour. 'Schelte' or insult, for instance, to call a man +arga, i.e. a lazy loon, is a serious offence. If the defendant will +confess that he said it in a passion, and will take oath that he never +knew the plaintiff to be arga, he must still pay 12_s._; but if he will +stand to his word, then he must fight it out by duel, sub uno scuto. + +The person, for the same reason, was sacred. If a man had lain in wait +for a freeman, 'cum virtute et solatio,' with valour and comfort, i.e. +with armed men to back him, and had found him standing or walking simply, +and had shamefully held him, or 'battiderit,' committed assault and +battery on him, he must pay half the man's weregeld; the 'turpiter et +ridiculum' being considered for a freeman as half as bad as death. Here +you find in private life, as well as in public, the vincire et verberare +nefas. + +If, again, one had a mind to lose 80 shillings of gold, he need but to +commit the offence of 'meerworphin,' a word which will puzzle you +somewhat, till you find it to signify 'mare warping,' to warp, or throw +one's neighbour off his mare or horse. + +A blow with the closed fist, again, costs three shillings: but one with +the open hand, six. The latter is an insult as well as an injury. A +freeman is struck with the fist, but a slave with the palm of the hand. +Breaking a man's head costs six solidi. But if one had broken his skull, +then (as in the Alemannic laws) one must pay twelve shillings, and twelve +more for each fracture up to three--after which they are not counted. But +a piece of bone must come out which will make a sound when thrown into a +shield twelve feet off; which feet are to be measured by that of a man of +middle stature. From which strange law may be deduced, not only the +toughness of the Lombard brain-pan, but the extreme necessity of defining +each particular, in order to prevent subsequent disputes, followed up by +a blood-feud, which might be handed down from father to son. For by +accepting the legal fine, the injured man expressly renounced his +primaeval right of feud. + +Then follow some curious laws in favour of the masters of Como, Magistri +Comacenes, who seem to have been a guild of architects, perhaps the +original germ of the great society of free-masons--belonging, no doubt, +to the Roman population--who were settled about the lake of Como, and +were hired, on contract, (as the laws themselves express,) to build for +the Lombards, who of course had no skill to make anything beyond a skin- +tent or a log-hall. + +Then follow laws against incendiaries; a fine for damage by accidental +house-fire, if the offender have carried fire more than nine feet from +the hearth; a law against leaving a fire alight on a journey, as in the +Australian colonies now. Then laws to protect mills; important matters +in those days, being unknown to the Lombards before their entrance into +Italy. + +Then laws of inheritance; on which I shall remark, that natural sons, if +free, are to have a portion of their father's inheritance; but less than +the legitimate sons: but that a natural son born of a slave remains a +slave, 'nisi pater liberum thingaverit.' This cruel law was the law of +Rome and of the Church; our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, to their honour, +held the reverse rule. 'Semper a patre, non a matre, generationis ordo +texitur.' Next, it is to be remarked, that no free woman can live in +Lombardy, or, I believe, in any Teutonic state, save under the 'mundium' +of some one. You should understand this word 'mund.' Among most of the +Teutonic races, women, slaves, and youths, at least not of age to carry +arms, were under the mund of some one. Of course, primarily the father, +head of the family, and if he died, an uncle, elder brother, &c. The +married woman was, of course, under the mund of her husband. He was +answerable for the good conduct of all under his mund; he had to pay +their fines if they offended; and he was bound, on the other hand, to +protect them by all lawful means. + +This system still lingers in the legal status of women in England, for +good and evil; the husband is more or less answerable for the wife's +debts; the wife, till lately, was unable to gain property apart from her +husband's control; the wife is supposed, in certain cases of law, to act +under the husband's compulsion. All these, and many others, are relics +of the old system of mund for women; and that system has, I verily +believe, succeeded. It has called out, as no other system could have +done, chivalry in the man. It has made him feel it a duty and an honour +to protect the physically weaker sex. It has made the woman feel that +her influence, whether in the state or in the family, is to be not +physical and legal, but moral and spiritual; and that it therefore rests +on a ground really nobler and deeper than that of the man. The modern +experiments for emancipating women from all mund, and placing them on a +physical and legal equality with the man, may be right, and may be +ultimately successful. We must not hastily prejudge them. But of this +we may be almost certain; that if they succeed, they will cause a wide- +spread revolution in society, of which the patent danger will be, the +destruction of the feeling of chivalry, and the consequent brutalization +of the male sex. + +Then follow laws relating to marriage and women, of which I may remark, +that (as in Tacitus' time), the woman brings her dowry, or 'fader fee,' +to her husband; and that the morning after the wedding she receives from +him, if he be content with her, her morgen gap, or morning gift; which +remains her own private property, unless she misbehaves. + +The honour of women, whether in fact or merely in fame, is protected by +many severe laws, among which I shall only notice, that the calling a +free woman 'striga' (witch) is severely punishable. If any one does so +who has the mund of her, except her father or brother, he loses his mund. + +On the whole, woman's condition seems inferior to man's on some points: +but superior on others. e.g. A woman's weregeld--the price of her +life--is 1200 solidi; while the man's is only 900. For he can defend +himself, but she cannot. On the other hand, if a man kill his wife, he +pays only the 1200 solidi, and loses her dowry: but if she kill him, she +dies. + +Again. If a free man be caught thieving, up to the amount of 20 siliquae, +beans, _i.e._ one gold piece--though Pope Gregory makes the solidus +(aureus) 24 siliquae--he replaces the theft, and pays 80 solidi, or dies; +and a slave one half, or dies. + +But if a free woman is taken in theft, she only replaces it; for she has +suffered for her wrong-doing, and must lay it to her own shame, that she +has tried to do 'operam indecentem,' a foul deed. And if an aldia or +slave-woman steals, her master replaces the theft, and pays 40 solidi, +minus the value of the stolen goods--and beats her afterwards, I presume, +if he chooses. + +And now concerning slaves, who seem to have been divided into three +classes. + +The Aldius and Aldia, masculine and feminine, who were of a higher rank +than other slaves. + +The Aldius could marry a free woman, while the slave marrying a free +woman is punishable by death; and, as experimentum crucis, if an Aldius +married an Aldia or a free woman, the children followed the father. If +he married a slave, the children followed the mother, and became slaves +of his lord. + +The Aldius, again, may not sell his lord's land or slaves, which +indicates that he held land and slaves under his lord. + +What the word means, Grimm does not seem to know. He thinks it +synonymous with 'litus,' of whom we hear as early as Tacitus' time, as +one of the four classes, nobles, freemen, liti, slaves; and therefore +libertus, a freedman. But the word does not merely mean, it appears, a +slave half freed by his master; but one rather hereditarily half free, +and holding a farm under his lord. + +Dio, however, is said to be an old German word for a slave; and it is +possible that aldius (a word only known, seemingly, in Lombardy) may have +signified originally an old slave, an old Roman colonus, or peasant of +some sort, found by the conquerors in possession of land, and allowed to +retain, and till it, from father to son. We, in England, had the same +distinction between 'Laet,' or 'villains' settled on the land, glebae +adscripti, and mere thralls or theows, slaves pure and simple. No doubt +such would have better terms than the mere mancipia--slaves taken in war, +or bought--for the simple reason, that they would be agriculturists, +practised in the Roman tillage, understanding the mysteries of +irrigation, artificial grasses, and rotation of crops, as well as the +culture of vines, fruit, and olives. + +Next to them you have different sorts of slaves; Servus massarius, who +seems to be also rusticanus, one who takes care of his lord's 'massa' or +farm, and is allowed a peculium, it seems, some animals of his own, which +he may not sell, though he may give them away. And again, servus doctus, +an educated household slave, whose weregeld is higher than that of +others. + +The laws relating to fugitive slaves seem as merciful as such things can +be; and the Lombards have always had the credit of being kind and easy +masters. + +Connected with fugitive slaves are laws about portunarii, ferrymen, who +appear, as you know, in the old ballads as very important, and generally +formidable men. The fight between Von Troneg Hagen and the old ferryman +in the Nibelungen Lied, is a famous instance of the ancient ferrymen's +prowess. One can easily understand how necessary strict laws were, to +prevent these ferrymen carrying over fugitive slaves, outlaws, and indeed +any one without due caution; for each man was bound to remain in his own +province, that he might be ready when called on for military service; and +a traveller to foreign parts was looked on as a deserter from his liege- +lord and country. + +Then follow a great number of laws, to me both amusing and instructive, +as giving us some glimpse of the country life of those Lombards in the +8th century. + +Scattered in the vast woodlands and marshes lie small farms, enclosed by +ditches and posts and rails, from which if you steal a rail, you are +fined 1s., if you steal a post, 3s. There were stake fences, which you +must be careful in making, for if a horse stakes himself by leaping in, +you pay nothing; but if he does so by leaping out, you pay the price of +the horse. Moreover, you must leave no sharp stakes standing out of the +hedge; for if a man or beast wounds himself thereby in passing, you have +to pay full weregeld. + +Walking over sown land, or sending a woman of your mundium to do so, in +accordance with an ancient superstition, is a severe offence; so is +injuring a vineyard, or taking more than tres uvae (bunches of grapes, I +presume) from the vine. Injuring landmarks cut on the trees (theclaturas +and signaturas) or any other boundary mark, is severely punishable either +in a slave, or in a freeman. + +In the vast woods range herds of swine, and in the pastures, horses, +cared for by law; for to take a herd of swine or brood mares as pledge, +without the king's leave, is punishable by death, or a fine of 900_s._ +Oxen or horses used to the yoke can be taken as pledge; but only by leave +of the king, or of the schuldhais (local magistrate), on proof that the +debtor has no other property; for by them he gets his living. If, +however, you find pigs routing in your enclosure, you may kill one, under +certain restrictions, but not the 'sornpair,' sounder boar, who 'battit +et vincit' all the other boars in the sounder (old English for herd). + +Rival swineherds, as is to be supposed, 'battidunt inter se,' and +'scandalum faciunt,' often enough. Whereon the law advises them to fight +it out, and then settle the damage between them. + +Horses are cared for. To ride another man's horse costs 2s.; to dock or +crop him, eight-fold the damage; and so on of hurting another man's +horse. Moreover, if your neighbour's dog flies at you, you may hit him +with a stick or little sword, and kill him, but if you throw a stone +after him and kill him, you being then out of danger, you must give the +master a new dog. + +Then there are quaint laws about hunting; and damage caused by wild +beasts caught in snares or brought to bay. A wounded stag belongs to the +man who has wounded it for twenty-four hours: but after that to anyone. +Tame deer, it is observable, are kept; and to kill a doe or fawn costs +6s., to kill a buck, 12s. Tame hawks, cranes, and swans, if taken in +snares, cost 6s. But any man may take flying hawks out of his +neighbour's wood, but not out of the Gaias Regis, the king's gehage, +haies, hedges, or enclosed parks. + +And now, I have but one more law to mention--would God that it had been +in force in later centuries-- + +'Let no one presume to kill another man's aldia or ancilla, as a striga, +witch, which is called masca; because it is not to be believed by +Christian minds, that a woman can eat up a live man from within; and if +any one does so he shall pay 60s. as her price, and for his fault, half +to her master, and half to the king.' + +This last strange law forces on us a serious question, one which may have +been suggesting itself to you throughout my lecture. If these were the +old Teutonic laws, this the old Teutonic liberty, the respect for man as +man, for woman as woman, whence came the opposite element? How is it +that these liberties have been lost throughout almost all Europe? How is +it that a system of law prevailed over the whole continent, up to the +French revolution, and prevails still in too many countries, the very +opposite of all this? + +I am afraid that I must answer, Mainly through the influence of the Roman +clergy during the middle age. + +The original difference of race between the clergy and the Teutonic +conquerors, which I have already pointed out to you, had a curious +effect, which lingers to this day. It placed the Church in antagonism, +more or less open, to the civil administration of justice. The criminal +was looked on by the priest rather as a sufferer to be delivered, than an +offender to be punished. All who are conversant with the lives of saints +must recollect cases in which the saint performs even miracles on behalf +of the condemned. Mediaeval tales are full of instances of the same +feeling which prompted the Italian brigands, even in our own times, to +carry a leaden saint's image in his hat as a safeguard. In an old French +fabliau, for instance, we read how a certain highway-robber was always +careful to address his prayers to the Blessed Virgin, before going out to +murder and steal; and found the practice pay him well. For when he was +taken and hanged, our Lady put her 'mains blanches' under his feet, and +supported him invisibly for a whole day, till the executioner, finding it +impossible to kill him, was forced to let him retire peaceably into a +monastery, where he lived and died devoutly. We may laugh at such +fancies; or express, if we will, our abhorrence of their immorality: but +it will be more useful to examine into the causes which produced them. +They seem to have been twofold. In the first place, the Church did not +look on the Teutonic laws, whether Frank, Burgund, Goth or Lombard, as +law at all. Her law, whether ecclesiastical or civil, was formed on the +Roman model; and by it alone she wished herself, and those who were under +her protection, to be judged. Next--and this count is altogether to her +honour--law, such as it was, was too often administered, especially by +the Franks, capriciously and brutally; while the servile population, +always the great majority, can hardly be said to have been under the +protection of law at all. No one can read the pages of Fredegarius, or +Gregory of Tours, without seeing that there must have been cases weekly, +even daily, which called on the clergy, in the name of justice and +humanity, to deliver if possible, the poor from him that spoiled him; +which excused fully the rise of the right of sanctuary, and of benefit of +clergy, afterwards so much abused; which made it a pious duty in prelates +to work themselves into power at court, and there, as the 'Chancellors' +of princes, try to get something like regular justice done; and naturally +enough, to remodel the laws of each nation on the time-honoured and +scientific Roman form. Nevertheless, the antagonism of the Church to the +national and secular law remained for centuries. It died out first +perhaps, in England, after the signature of Magna Charta. For then the +English prelates began to take up that truly Protestant and national +attitude which issued in the great Reformation: but it lingers still in +Ireland and in Italy. It lingered in France up to the French revolution, +as may be seen notably in the account of the execution of the Marquise de +Brinvilliers, by the priest who attended her. Horror at her atrocious +crimes is quite swallowed up, in the mind of the good father, by sympathy +with her suffering; and the mob snatch her bones from the funeral pile, +and keep them as the relics of a saint. + +But more. While the Roman clergy did real good to Europe, in preserving +the scientific elements of Roman law, they did harm by preserving +therewith other elements--Roman chicane, and Roman cruelty. In that +respect, as in others, 'Rome conquered her conquerors;' and the +descendants of those Roman lawyers, whom the honest Teutons called +adders, and as adders killed them down, destroyed, in course of time, +Teutonic freedom. + +But those descendants were, alas! the clergy. Weak, they began early to +adopt those arms of quibbling and craft, which religious men too often +fancy are the proper arms of 'the saints' against 'the world.' Holding +human nature in suspicion and contempt, they early gave way to the maxim +of the savage, that every one is likely to be guilty till proved +innocent, and therefore licensed the stupid brutalities of torture to +extract confession. Holding self-degradation to be a virtue, and +independence as a carnal vice; glorying in being slaves themselves, till +to become, under the name of holy obedience, 'perinde ac cadaver,' was +the ideal of a good monk; and accustomed, themselves, to degrading +corporal punishment; they did not shrink from inflicting, even on boys +and women, tortures as dastardly as indecent. Looking on the world, and +on the future of the human race, through a medium compared with which the +darkest fancies of a modern fanatic are bright and clear, they did not +shrink from inflicting penalties, the very mention of which makes the +blood run cold. Suspecting, if not alternately envying and despising, +all women who were not nuns; writing openly of the whole sex (until +unsexed) as the snare and curse of mankind; and possessed by a Manichaean +belief in the power and presence of innumerable demons, whose especial +victims were women; they erected witch-hunting into a science; they +pandered to, and actually formalized, and justified on scientific +grounds, the most cruel and cowardly superstitions of the mob; and again +and again raised literal crusades against women, torturing, exposing, +burning, young and old, not merely in the witch-mania of the 17th +century, but through the whole middle age. It is a detestable page of +history. I ask those who may think my statement exaggerated, to consult +the original authorities. Let them contrast Rothar's law about the +impossibility of witchcraft, with the pages of the Malleus Maleficarum, +Nider's Fornicarium, or Delrio the Jesuit, and see for themselves who +were the false teachers. And if they be told, that the cruelties of the +Inquisition were only those in vogue according to the secular law of the +day, let them recollect that the formulizers of that law were none other +than the celibate Roman clergy. + +I do not deny that there was in all this a just, though a terrible, +Nemesis. What was the essential fault of these Lombard laws--indeed of +all the Teutonic codes? This--that there was one law for the free man, +another for the slave. Ecclesiastical dominion was necessary, to make +one law for all classes, even though it were a law of common slavery. As +the free had done to the slave, even so, and far worse, would the Roman +clergy do to them. The Albigense persecutors, burning sixty ladies in +one day; Conrad of Marpurg scourging his own sovereign, St. Elizabeth; +shaving the Count of Saiym's head; and burning noble ladies almost +without trial; Sprenger and his compeers, offering up female hecatombs of +the highest blood thoughout Germany; English bishops burning in +Smithfield Anne Askew, the hapless court-beauty, and her fellow-courtier +Mr. Lascelles, just as if they had been Essex or Berkshire peasants;--all +these evildoers were welding the different classes of the European +nations, by a community of suffering, into nations; into the belief that +free and slave had one blood, one humanity, one conscience, one capacity +of suffering; and at last, one capacity of rebelling, and making common +cause, high and low alike, against him who reigned in Italy under the +'Romani nominis umbram.' + +And if our English law, our English ideas of justice and mercy, have +retained, more than most European codes, the freedom, the truthfulness, +the kindliness, of the old Teutonic laws, we owe it to the fact, that +England escaped, more than any other land, the taint of effete Roman +civilization; that she therefore first of the lands, in the 12th century, +rebelled against, and first of them, in the 16th century, threw off, the +Ultramontane yoke. + +And surely it will be so, in due time, with the descendants of these very +Lombards. We have seen them in these very years arise out of the dust +and shame of centuries, and determine to be Lombards once again. We have +seen a hero arise among them of the true old Teuton stamp, bearing +worthily the name which his forefathers brought over the Alps with +Alboin--Garibald, the 'bold in war.' May they succeed in the same noble +struggle as that in which we succeeded, and returning, not in letter, but +in spirit, to the old laws of Rothar and their free forefathers, become +the leading race of a free and united Italy! + + + + +LECTURE XI--THE POPES AND THE LOMBARDS + + +'Our Lady the Mother of God, even Virgin Maria, together with us, +protests to you, adjuring you with great obligations, and admonishes and +commands you, and with her the thrones, dominations, all the heavenly +angels, the martyrs and confessors of Christ, on behalf of the Roman +city, committed to us by the Lord God, and the sheep of the Lord dwelling +in it. Defend and free it speedily from the hands of the persecuting +Lombards, lest my body which suffered torments for Christ, and my home in +which it rests by the command of God, be contaminated by the people of +the Lombards, who are guilty of such iniquitous perjury, and are proud +transgressors of the divine scripture. So will I at the day of judgment +reward you with my patronage, and prepare for you in the kingdom of God +most shining and glorious tabernacles, promising you the reward of +eternal retribution, and the infinite joys of paradise. + +'Run, by the true and living God I exhort you, run, and help; before the +living fountain, whence you were consecrated and born again, shall dry +up: before the little spark remaining of that brilliant flame, from which +you knew the light, be extinguished; before your spiritual mother, the +holy Church of God, in which you hope to receive eternal life, shall be +humiliated, invaded, violated, and defiled by the impious. + +'But if not, may your provinces in return, and your possessions, be +invaded by people whom you know not. Separate not yourselves from my +Roman people; so you will not be aliens, and separate from the kingdom of +God, and eternal life. For whatever you shall ask of me, I will surely +give you, and be your patron. Assist my Roman people, your brothers; and +strive more perfectly; for it is written, No man receiveth the crown, +unless he strive lawfully. + +'I conjure you, most beloved, by the living God, leave not this my city +of Rome to be any longer torn by the Lombards, lest your bodies and souls +be torn and tormented for ever, in inextinguishable and Tartarian fire +with the devil and his pestiferous angels; and let not the sheep of the +Lord's flock, which are the Roman people, be dispersed any more, lest the +Lord disperse you, and cast you forth as the people of Israel was +dispersed.' + +You will conclude, doubtless, that this curious document can be nothing +but a papal allocution. Its peculiar scriptural style (wrongly supposed +to have been invented by the Puritans, who merely learnt it from the old +Roman clergy), as well as the self-conceit, which fancies the fate of the +whole world to depend on the prosperity of a small half-ruined city in +Italy, will be to you sufficient marks of the Roman hand. But you will +be somewhat mistaken. It is hardly an epistle from the successor of St. +Peter. It professes to be an epistle from St. Peter himself, and sent by +him through the hands of Pope Stephen III. to Pepin the king of the +Franks, in the year 755. You will have concluded also from it, that +Catholic Christianity is in its extreme agony; that the worship and name +of our Lord, and the fountains of sacramental grace are about to be +extinguished for ever, and that nothing but heresy or heathendom can +follow. Then you will be quite mistaken. These Lombards are pious +Catholics. Builders of churches and monasteries, they are taking up the +relics of the Roman martyrs, to transfer them to the churches of Milan +and Pavia. They have just given Pope Stephen the most striking proof of +their awe of his person and office. But they are quarrelling with him +about the boundaries of his estates for the patrimony of St. Peter. They +consider that he and his predecessors have grossly wronged them at +different times; and now last of all, by calling in foreign invaders; and +they are at the gates of Rome laying waste the country, and demanding a +poll-tax as ransom. That is all. + +The causes which led to this quarrel must be sought far back in history. +The original documents in which you will find the facts will be Paulus +Diaconus, as far as King Luitprand's death; then the Life and Writings of +Gregory the Great; and then Baronius' Annals, especially his quotations +from Anastasius' Life of Stephen III., bearing in mind that, as with the +Ostrogoths, we have only the Roman Papal story; that the Lombards have +never stated their case, not even through Paulus Diaconus, who, being a +clergyman, prudently holds his tongue about the whole matter. But by far +the best account is to be found in Dean Milman's 'Latin Christianity,' +Vols. I. and II. Rome, you must understand, has become gradually the +patrimony of St. Peter; the Popes are the practical kings of Rome, +possessing, in the name of the Church, much land round Rome, and many +estates scattered throughout Italy, and even in Sicily, Gaul, Africa, and +the East--estates probably bequeathed by pious people. They have +succeeded to this jurisdiction simply by default. They rule Rome, +because there is no one else to rule it. We find St. Gregory the Great +feeding the pauper-masses of Rome, on the first day of every month, from +the fruitful corn-bearing estates in Sicily; keeping up the 'Panem;' but +substituting, thank Heaven, for the 'Circenses' at least the services of +the Church. Of course, the man who could keep the Roman people alive +must needs become, ipso facto, their monarch. + +The Pope acknowledges, of course, a certain allegiance to the Emperor at +Constantinople, and therefore to his representative, the Exarch of +Ravenna: that is to say, he meets them with flattery when they are +working on his side; with wrath when they oppose him. He intrigues with +them, too, whenever he can safely do so, against the Lombards. + +Thus the Pope has become, during the four centuries which followed the +destruction of the Western Empire, the sole surviving representative of +that Empire. He is the head of the 'gens togata;' of the 'Senatus +Populusque Romanus.' In him Rome has risen again out of her grave, to +awe the peoples once more by the Romani nominis umbra; and to found a new +Empire; not as before, on physical force, and the awe of visible power; +but on the deeper and more enduring ground of spiritual force, and the +awe of the invisible world. + +An Empire, I say. The Popes were becoming, from the 5th to the 8th +centuries, not merely the lords of Rome, but the lords of the Western +Church. Their spiritual Empire, to do them justice, was not so much +deliberately sought by them, as thrust upon them. As the clergy were, +all over the Empire, the representatives of the down-trodden Romans, so +they naturally gravitated toward the Eternal City, their ancient +mistress. Like all disciplined and organized bodies they felt the need +of unity, of monarchy. Where could they find it, save at Rome? Rome was +still, practically and in fact, the fountain of their doctrine, of their +superior civilization; and to submit themselves to the Pope of Rome was +their only means of keeping up one faith, one practice, and the strength +which comes from union. + +To seat the Pope upon the throne of the Caesars; to attribute to him +powers weightier than all which the Caesars had possest . . . It was a +magnificent idea. A politic idea, too; for it would cover the priesthood +with all the prestige of ancient Rome, and enable them to face the +barbarian in the name of that great people whose very memory still awed +him; whose baths, aqueducts, palaces, he looked on as the work of demons; +whose sages and poets were to him enchanters; whose very gems, dug out of +the ruins by night, in fear and trembling, possest magic influence for +healing, for preservation, for good fortune in peace or war. + +Politic; and in their eyes, true. Easy enough to be believed honestly, +by men who already believed honestly in their own divine mission. They +were the representatives of Christ on earth. Of that fact there could be +then, or can be now, no doubt whatsoever. Whatsoever truth, light, +righteousness, there was in the West, came to it through them. And +Christ was the King of kings. But He delayed his coming: at moments, He +seemed to have deserted the earth, and left mankind to tear itself in +pieces, with wild war and misrule. But it could not be so. If Christ +were absent, He must at least have left an authority behind Him to occupy +till He came; a head and ruler for his opprest and distracted Church. And +who could that be, if not the Pope of Rome? + +It ought to be so.--It must be so--thought they. And to men in that +mood, proofs that it was so soon came to hand, and accumulated from +generation to generation; till the Pope at last found himself +proclaiming, and what was more, believing, that God had given the whole +world to St. Peter, and through St. Peter to him; and that he was the +only source of power, law, kingship, who could set up and pull down whom +he would, as the vicegerent of God on earth. + +Such pretensions, of course, grew but slowly. It was not, I believe, +till the year 875, 180 years after the time of which I am speaking, that +Pope John VIII. distinctly asserted his right, as representative of the +ancient Roman Empire, to create the Caesar; and informed the Synod of +Pavia that he had 'elected and approved Charles the Bald, with the +consent of his brothers the bishops, of the other ministers of the Holy +Roman Church, and' (significant, though empty words) 'of the Roman senate +and people.' + +At the time of which I speak, the power was still in embryo, growing, +through many struggles: but growing surely and strongly, and destined +speedily to avenge the fall of Rome on the simple barbarians who were +tearing each other to pieces over her spoils. + +It is not easy to explain the lasting and hereditary hatred of the Popes +to the Lombards. Its origin is simple enough: but not so its +continuance. Why they should be nefandissimi in the eyes of Pope Gregory +the Great one sees: but why 100 years afterwards, they should be still +nefandissimi, and 'non dicenda gens Langobardorum,' not to be called a +nation, is puzzling. + +At first, of course, the Pope could only look on them as a fresh horde of +barbarous conquerors; half heathen, half Arian. Their virtuous and loyal +life within the boundaries of Alboin's conquests--of which Paulus +Diaconus says, that violence and treachery were unknown--that no one +oppressed, no one plundered--that the traveller went where he would in +perfect safety--all this would be hid from the Pope by the plain fact, +that they were continually enlarging their frontier toward Rome; that +they had founded two half-independent Dukedoms of Beneventum and Spoleto, +that Autharis had swept over South Italy, and ridden his horse into the +sea at Reggio, to strike with his lance a column in the waves, and cry, +'Here ends the Lombard kingdom.' + +The Pope (Gregory the Great I am speaking of) could only recollect, +again, that during the lawless interregnum before Autharis' coronation, +the independent Lombard dukes had plundered churches and monasteries, +slain the clergy, and destroyed the people, who had 'grown up again like +corn.' + +But as years rolled on, these Arian Lombards had become good Catholics; +and that in the lifetime of Gregory the Great. + +Theodelinda, the Bavarian princess, she to whom Autharis had gone in +disguise to her father's court, and only confessed himself at his +departure, by rising in his stirrups, and burying his battle-axe in a +tree stem with the cry, 'Thus smites Autharis the Lombard,'--this +Theodelinda, I say, had married after his death Agilwulf his cousin, and +made him king of the Lombards. + +She was a Catholic; and through her Gregory the Great converted Autharis, +and the Lombard nation. To her he addressed those famous dialogues of +his, full alike of true piety and earnestness, and of childish +superstition. But in judging them and him we must bear in mind, that +these Lombards became at least by his means Catholics, and that Arians +would have believed in the superstitions just as much as Catholics. And +it is surely better to believe a great truth, plus certain mistakes which +do not affect it in the least, than a great lie, plus the very same +mistakes likewise. Which is best, to believe that the road to London +lies through Bishopstortford, and that there are dog-headed men on the +road: or that it lies through Edinburgh, but that there are dog-headed +men on that road too? + +Theodelinda had built at Modicaea, twelve miles above Milan, a fair +basilica to John the Baptist, enriched by her and the Lombard kings and +dukes, 'crowns, crosses, golden tables adorned with emeralds, hyacinths, +amber, carbuncles and pearls, gold and silver altar-cloths, and that +admirable cup of sapphire,' all which remained till the eighteenth +century. There, too, was the famous iron crown of Lombardy, which +Austria still claims as her own; so called from a thin ring of iron +inserted in it, made from a nail of the true cross which Gregory had sent +Agilwulf; just as he sent Childebert, the Frankish king, some filings of +St. Peter's chains; which however, he says, did not always allow their +sacred selves to be filed. + +In return, Agilwulf had restored the church-property which he had +plundered, had reinstated the bishops; and why did not all go well? Why +are these Lombards still the most wicked of men? + +Again, in the beginning of the eighth century came the days of the good +Luitprand, 'wise and pious, a lover of peace, and mighty in war; merciful +to offenders, chaste and modest, instant in prayer, bountiful in alms, +equal to the philosophers, though he knew no letters, a nourisher of his +people, an augmenter of the laws.' He it was, who, when he had +quarrelled with Pope Gregory II., and marched on Rome, was stopped at the +Gates of the Vatican by the Pontiff's prayers and threats. And a sacred +awe fell on him; and humbly entering St. Peter's, he worshipped there, +and laid on the Apostle's tomb his royal arms, his silver cross and crown +of gold, and withdrawing his army, went home again in peace. But why +were this great king's good deeds towards the Pope and the Catholic faith +rewarded, by what we can only call detestable intrigue and treachery? + +Again; Leo the Iconoclast Emperor destroyed the holy images in the East, +and sent commands to the Exarch of Ravenna to destroy them in western +Italy. Pope Gregory II. replied by renouncing allegiance to the Emperor +of Constantinople; and by two famous letters which are still preserved; +in which he tells the Iconoclast Emperor, that, 'if he went round the +grammar-schools at Rome, the children would throw their horn-books at his +head . . . that he implored Christ to send the Emperor a devil, for the +destruction of his body and the salvation of his soul . . . that if he +attempted to destroy the images in Rome, the pontiff would take refuge +with the Lombards, and then he might as well chase the wind that the +Popes were the mediators of peace between East and West, and that the +eyes of the nations were fixed on the Pope's humility, and adored as a +God on earth the apostle St. Peter. And that the pious Barbarians, +kindled into rage, thirsted to avenge the persecution of the East.' Then +Luitprand took up the cause of the Pope and his images, and of the mob, +who were furious at the loss of their idols; and marched on Ravenna, +which opened her gates to him, so that he became master of the whole +Pentapolis; and image-worship, to which some plainspoken people give a +harsher name, was saved for ever and a day in Italy. Why did Gregory II. +in return, call in Orso, the first Venetian Doge, to expel from Ravenna +the very Luitprand who had fought his battles for him, and to restore +that Exarchate of Ravenna, of which it was confessed, that its civil +quarrels, misrule, and extortions, made it the most miserable government +in Italy? And why did he enter into secret negotiations with the Franks +to come and invade Italy? + +Again, when Luitprand wanted to reduce the duchies of Beneventum and +Spoleto, which he considered as rebels against him, their feudal +suzerain; why did the next Pope, Gregory III., again send over the Alps +to Charles Martel to come and invade Italy, and deliver the Church and +Christ's people from ruin? + +And who were these Franks, the ancestors of that magnificent, but +profligate aristocracy whose destruction our grandfathers beheld in 1793? +I have purposely abstained from describing them, till they appear upon +the stage of Italy, and take part in her fortunes--which were then the +fortunes of the world. + +They appear first on the Roman frontier in A.D. 241, and from that time +are never at rest till they have conquered the north of Gaul. They are +supposed (with reason) not to have been a race or tribe at all; but a +confederation of warriors, who were simply 'Franken,' 'free;' 'free +companions,' or 'free lances,' as they would have been called a few +centuries later; who recruited themselves from any and every tribe who +would join them in war and plunder. If this was the case; if they had +thrown away, as adventurers, much of the old Teutonic respect for law, +for the royal races, for family life, for the sacred bonds of kindred, +many of their peculiarities are explained. Falsehood, brutality, +lawlessness, ignorance, and cruelty to the conquered Romans, were their +special sins; while their special, and indeed only virtue, was that +indomitable daring which they transmitted to their descendants for so +many hundred years. The buccaneers of the young world, they were +insensible to all influences save that of superstition. They had become, +under Clovis, orthodox Christians: but their conversion, to judge from +the notorious facts of history, worked little improvement on their +morals. The pages of Gregory of Tours are comparable, for dreary +monotony of horrors, only to those of Johnson's History of the Pyrates. + +But, as M. Sismondi well remarks, their very ignorance and brutality made +them the more easily the tools of the Roman clergy: 'Cette haute +veneration pour l'Eglise, et leur severe orthodoxie, d'autant plus facile +a conserver que, ne faisant aucune etude, et ne disputant jamais sur la +foi, ils ne connaissaient pas meme les questions controversees, leur +donnerent dans le clerge de puissants auxiliaires. Les Francs se +montrerent disposes a hair les Ariens, a les combattres, et les +depouiller sans les entendre; les eveques, en retour, ne se montrerent +pas scrupuleux sur le reste des enseignements moraux de la religion: ils +fermerent les yeux sur les violences, le meurtre, le dereglement des +moeurs; ils autoriserent en quelque sorte publiquement la poligamie, et +ils precherent le droit divin des rois et le devoir le l'obeissance pour +les peuples {279}.' + +A painful picture of the alliance: but, I fear, too true. + +The history of these Franks you must read for yourselves. You will find +it well told in the pages of Sismondi, and in Mr. Perry's excellent book, +'The Franks.' It suffices now to say, that in the days of Luitprand +these Franks, after centuries of confusion and bloodshed, have been +united into one great nation, stretching from the Rhine to the Loire and +the sea, and encroaching continually to the southward and eastward. The +government has long passed out of the hands of their faineant Meerwing +kings into that of the semi-hereditary Majores Domus, or Mayors of the +Palace; and Charles Martel, perhaps the greatest of that race of great +men, has just made himself mayor of Austrasia (the real Teutonic centre +of Frank life and power), Neustria and Burgundy. He has crushed Eudo, +the duke of Romanized Aquitaine, and has finally delivered France and +Christendom from the invading Saracens. On his Franks, and on the +Lombards of Italy, rest, for the moment, the destinies of Europe. + +For meanwhile another portent has appeared, this time out of the far +East. Another swarm of destroyers has swept over the earth. The wild +Arabs of the desert, awakening into sudden life and civilization under +the influence of a new creed, have overwhelmed the whole East, the whole +north of Africa, destroying the last relics of Roman and Greek +civilization, and with them the effete and semi-idolatrous Christianity +of the Empire. All the work of Narses and Belisarius is undone. Arab +Emirs rule in the old kingdom of the Vandals. The new human deluge has +crossed the Straits into Europe. The Visigoths, enervated by the +luxurious climate of Spain, have recoiled before the Mussulman invaders. +Roderick, the last king of the Goths, is wandering as an unknown penitent +in expiation of his sin against the fair Cava, which brought down (so +legends and ballads tell) the scourge of God upon the hapless land; and +the remnants of the old Visigoths and Sueves are crushed together into +the mountain fastnesses of Asturias and Gallicia, thence to reissue, +after long centuries, as the noble Spanish nation, wrought in the forges +of adversity into the likeness of tempered steel; and destined to +reconquer, foot by foot, their native land from the Moslem invader. + +But at present the Crescent was master of the Cross; and beyond the +Pyrenees all was slavery and 'miscreance.' The Arabs, invading France in +732, in countless thousands, had been driven back at the great fight of +Tours, with a slaughter so great, that the excited imagination of Paulus +Diaconus sees 375,000 miscreants dead upon the field, while only 1500 +Franks had perished. But home troubles had prevented 'the Hammer of the +Moors' from following up his victory. The Saracens had returned in force +in 737, and again in 739. They still held Narbonne. The danger was +imminent. There was no reason why they should not attempt a third +invasion. Why should they not spread along the shores of the +Mediterranean, establishing themselves there, as they were already doing +in Sicily, and menacing Rome from north as well as south? To unite, +therefore, the two great Catholic Teutonic powers, the Frank and the +Lombard, for the defence of Christendom, should have been the policy of +him who called himself the Chief Pontiff in Christendom. Yet the Pope +preferred, in the face of that great danger, to set the Teutonic nations +on destroying each other, rather than to unite them against the Moslem. + +The bribe offered to the Frank was significant--the title of Roman +Consul; beside which he was to have filings of St. Peter's chains, and +the key of his tomb, to preserve him body and soul from all evil. + +Charles would not come. Frank though he was, he was too honourable to +march at a priest's bidding against Luitprand, his old brother in arms, +to whom he had sent the boy Pepin, his son, that Luitprand might take him +on his knee, and cut his long royal hair, and become his father-in-arms, +after the good old Teuton fashion; Luitprand, who with his Lombards had +helped him to save Christendom a second time from the Mussulman in 737. +The Pope, one would think, should have remembered that good deed of the +good Lombard's whereof his epitaph sings, + + 'Deinceps tremuere feroces + Usque Saraceni, quos dispulit impiger, ipsos + Cum premerent Gallos, Karolo poscente juvari.' + +So Charles Martel took the title of Patrician from the Pope, but sent him +no armies; and the quarrel went on; while Charles filled up the measure +of his iniquity by meddling with that church-property in Gaul which his +sword had saved from the hordes of the Saracens; and is now, as St. +Eucherius (or Bishop Hincmar) saw in a vision, writhing therefore in the +lowest abyss of hell. + +So one generation more passes by; and then Pepin le Bref, grown to +manhood, is less scrupulous than his father. He is bound to the Pope by +gratitude. The Pope has confirmed him as king, allowing him to depose +the royal house of the Merovingians, and so assumed the right of making +kings.--A right which future popes will not forget. + +Meanwhile the Pope has persuaded the Lombard king Rachis to go into a +monastery. Astulf seizes the crown, and attacks Ravenna. The Pope +succeeding, Stephen III., opposes him; and he marches on Rome, +threatening to assault it, unless the citizens redeem their lives by a +poll-tax. + +Stephen determines to go himself to Pepin to ask for help: and so awful +has the name and person of a Pope become, that he is allowed to do it; +allowed to pass safely and unarmed through the very land upon which he is +going to let loose all the horrors of invading warfare. + +It is a strange, and instructive figure, that. The dread of the unseen, +the fear of spiritual power, has fallen on the wild Teutons; on Frank and +on Lombard alike. The Pope and his clergy are to them magicians, against +whom neither sword nor lance avails; who can heal the sick and blast the +sound; who can call to their aid out of the clouds that pantheon of demi- +gods, with which, under the name of saints, they have peopled heaven; who +can let loose on them the legions of fiends who dwell in every cave, +every forest, every ruin, every cloud; who can, by the sentence of +excommunication, destroy both body and soul in hell. They were very loth +to fear God, these wild Teutons; therefore they had instead, as all men +have who will not fear God, to fear the devil. + +So Pope Stephen goes to Pepin, the eldest son of the Church. He promises +to come with all his Franks. Stephen's conscience seems to have been +touched: he tries to have no fighting, only negotiation: but it is too +late now. Astolf will hear of no terms; Pepin sweeps over the Alps, and +at the gates of Pavia dictates his own terms to the Lombards. The old +Lombard spirit seems to have past away. + +Pepin goes back again, and Astolf refuses to fulfil his promises. The +Pope sends Pepin that letter from St. Peter himself with which this +lecture commenced. + +Astolf has marched down, as we heard, to the walls of Rome, laying the +land waste; cutting down the vines, carrying off consecrated vessels, +insulting the sacrament of the altar. The Lombards have violated nuns; +and tried to kill them, the Pope says; though, if they had really tried, +one cannot see why they should not have succeeded. In fact, Pope +Stephen's hysterical orations to Pepin must be received with extreme +caution. No Catholic historian of that age cares to examine the truth of +a fact which makes for him; nothing is too bad to say of an enemy: and +really the man who would forge a letter from St. Peter might dare to tell +a few lesser falsehoods into the bargain. Pepin cannot but obey so +august a summons; and again he is in Italy, and the Lombards dare not +resist him. He seizes not only all that Astolf had taken from the Pope, +but the Pentapolis and Exarchate, the property, if of any one, of the +Greek Emperors, and bestows them on Stephen, the Pope, and 'the holy +Roman Republic.' + +The pope's commissioners received the keys of the towns, which were +placed upon the altar of St. Peter; and this, the Dotation of Pepin, the +Dotation of the Exarchate, was the first legal temporal sovereignty of +the Popes:--born in sin, and conceived in iniquity, as you may see. + +The Lombard rule now broke up rapidly. The Lombards of Spoleto yielded +to the double pressure of Franks and Romans, asked to be 'taken into the +service of St. Peter,' and clipt their long German locks after the Roman +fashion. + +Charlemagne, in his final invasion, had little left to do. He confirmed +Pepin's gift, and even, though he hardly kept his promise, enlarged it to +include the whole of Italy, from Lombardy to the frontier of Naples, +while he himself became king of Lombardy, and won the iron crown. + +And so by French armies--not for the last time--was the Pope propt up on +his ill-gotten throne. + +But the mere support of French armies was not enough to seat the Pope +securely upon the throne of the western Caesars. Documentary evidence +was required to prove that they possessed Rome, not as the vassals of the +Frankish Kaisers, or of any barbarian Teutons whatsoever; but in their +own right, as hereditary sovereigns of Rome. And the documents, when +needed, were forthcoming. Under the name of St. Isidore, some ready +scribe produced the too-famous 'Decretals,' and the 'Donation of +Constantine,' and Pope Adrian I. saw no reason against publishing them to +Charlemagne and to the world. + +It was discovered suddenly, by means of these remarkable documents, that +Constantine the Great had been healed of leprosy, and afterwards +baptized, by Pope Sylvester; that he had, in gratitude for his cure, +resigned to the Popes his western throne, and the patrimony of St. Peter, +and the sovereignty of Italy and the West; and that this was the true +reason of his having founded Constantinople, as a new seat of government +for the remnant of his empire. + +This astounding falsehood was, of course, accepted humbly by the +unlettered Teutons; and did its work well, for centuries to come. It is +said--I trust not truly--to be still enrolled among the decrees of the +Canon law, though reprobated by all enlightened Roman Catholics. Be that +as it may, on the strength of this document the Popes began to assume an +all but despotic sovereignty over the western world, and--the Teutonic +peoples, and Rome's conquest of her conquerors was at last complete. + +What then were the causes of the Papal hatred of a race who were good and +devout Catholics for the last 200 years of their rule? + +There were deep political reasons (in the strictest, and I am afraid +lowest sense of the word); but over and above them there were evidently +moral reasons, which lay even deeper still. + +A free, plain-spoken, practical race like these Lombards; living by their +own laws; disbelieving in witchcraft; and seemingly doing little for +monasticism, were not likely to find favour in the eyes of popes. They +were not the material which the Papacy could mould into the Neapolitan +ideal of 'Little saints,--and little asses.' These Lombards were not a +superstitious race; they did not, like the Franks and Anglo-Saxons, crowd +into monasteries. I can only find four instances of Lombard sovereigns +founding monasteries in all Paulus' history. One of them, strangely +enough, is that of the very Astulf against whom the Pope fulminated so +loudly the letter from St. Peter which I read you. + +Moreover, it must be said in all fairness--the Lombards despised the +Romans exceedingly. So did all the Teutons. 'We Lombards,' says Bishop +Luitprand, 'Saxons, Franks, Lorrainers, Bavarians, Sueves, Burgunds, +consider it a sufficient insult to call our enemy a Roman; comprehending +in that one name of Roman, whatever is ignoble, cowardly, avaricious, +luxurious, false, in a word, every vice.' If this was--as it very +probably was--the feeling of the whole Teutonic race; and if it was +repaid--as it certainly was--on the part of the Roman, by contempt for +the 'barbarism' and 'ignorance' of the Teuton; what must have been the +feeling between Roman and Lombard? Contact must have embittered mutual +contempt into an utter and internecine hatred, in which the Pope, as +representative of the Roman people, could not but share. + +As for the political reasons, they are clear enough. It is absurd to say +that they wished to free Italy from Lombard tyrants. What did they do +but hand her over to Frankish tyrants instead? No. The true reason was +this. Gradually there had arisen in the mind of all Popes, from Gregory +the Great onward, the idea of a spiritual supremacy, independent of all +kings of the earth. It was a great idea, as the event proved: it was a +beneficent one for Europe; but a ruinous one for Italy. For the Popes +were not content with spiritual power. They could not conceive of it as +separated from temporal power, and temporal power meant land. How early +they set their hearts on the Exarchate of Ravenna, we shall never know: +the fact is patent, that it was a Naboth's vineyard to them; and that to +obtain it they called in the Franks. + +Their dread was, evidently, lest the Lombards should become masters of +the whole of Italy. A united Italy suited their views then, no more than +it does now. Not only did they conceive of Rome as still the centre of +the western world, but more, their stock in trade was at Rome. The +chains of St. Peter, the sepulchres of St. Peter and St. Paul, the +catacombs filled with the bones of innumerable martyrs;--these were their +stock in trade. By giving these, selling these, working miracles with +these, calling pilgrims from all parts of Christendom to visit these in +situ, they kept up their power and their wealth. I do not accuse them of +misusing that power and that wealth in those days. They used them, on +the contrary, better than power and wealth had been ever used in the +world before. But they were dependent on the sanctity attached to a +particular spot; and any power, which, like the Lombard, tended to give +Italy another centre than Rome, they dreaded and disliked. That Lombard +basilica, near Milan, with all its treasures, must have been in their +eyes, a formidable rival. Still more frightful must it have been to them +to see Astulf, when he encamped before the walls of Rome, searching for +martyrs' relics, and carrying them off to Milan. That, as a fact, seems +to have been the exciting cause of Stephen's journey to Pepin. This +Astulf was a good Catholic. He founded a nunnery, and put his own +daughters in it. What could a man do more meritorious in the eyes of the +Pope? But he took away the lands of the Church, and worse, the relics, +the reserved capital by which the Church purchased lands. This was +indeed a crime only to be expiated by the horrors of a Frank invasion. + +On the same principle the Popes supported the Exarchs of Ravenna, and the +independent duchies of Spoleto and Beneventum. Well or ill ruled, +Iconoclast or not, they were necessary to keep Italy divided and weak. +And having obtained what they wanted from Pepin and Charlemagne, it was +still their interest to pursue the same policy; to compound for their own +independence, as they did with Charlemagne and his successors, by +defending the pretences of foreign kings to the sovereignty of the rest +of Italy. This has been their policy for centuries. It is their policy +still; and that policy has been the curse of Italy. This fatal gift of +the patrimony of St. Peter--as Dante saw--as Machiavelli saw,--as all +clear-sighted Italians have seen,--as we are seeing it now in these very +days--has kept her divided, torn by civil wars, conquered and reconquered +by foreign invaders. Unable, as a celibate ecclesiastic, to form his +dominions into a strong hereditary kingdom; unable, as the hierophant of +a priestly caste, to unite his people in the bonds of national life; +unable, as Borgia tried to do, to conquer the rest of Italy for himself; +and form it into a kingdom large enough to have weight in the balance of +power; the Pope has been forced, again and again, to keep himself on his +throne by intriguing with foreign princes, and calling in foreign arms; +and the bane of Italy, from the time of Stephen III. to that of Pius IX., +has been the temporal power of the Pope. + +But on the popes, also, the Nemesis came. In building their power on the +Roman relics, on the fable that Rome was the patrimony of Peter, they had +built on a lie; and that lie avenged itself. + +Had they been independent of the locality of Rome; had they been really +spiritual emperors, by becoming cosmopolitan, journeying, it may be, from +nation to nation in regular progresses, then their power might have been +as boundless as they ever desired it should be. Having committed +themselves to the false position of being petty kings of a petty kingdom, +they had to endure continual treachery and tyranny from their foreign +allies; to see not merely Italy, but Rome itself insulted, and even +sacked, by faithful Catholics; and to become more and more, as the +centuries rolled on, the tools of those very kings whom they had wished +to make their tools. + +True, they defended themselves long, and with astonishing skill and +courage. Their sources of power were two, the moral, and the +thaumaturgic; and they used them both: but when the former failed, the +latter became useless. As long as their moral power was real; as long as +they and their clergy were on the whole, in spite of enormous faults, the +best men in Europe; so long the people believed in them, and in their +thaumaturgic relics likewise. But they became by no means the best men +in Europe. Then they began to think that after all it was more easy to +work the material than the moral power--easier to work the bones than to +work righteousness. They were deceived. Behold! when the righteousness +was gone, the bones refused to work. People began to question the +virtues of the bones, and to ask, We can believe that the bones may have +worked miracles for good men, but for bad men? We will examine whether +they work any miracles at all. And then, behold, it came out that the +bones did not work miracles, and that possibly they were not saints' +bones at all; and then the storm came: and the lie, as all lies do, +punished itself. The salt had lost its savour. The Teutonic intellect +appealed from its old masters to God, and to God's universe of facts, and +emancipated itself once and for all. They who had been the light of +Europe, became its darkness; they who had been first, became last; a +warning to mankind until the end of time, that on Truth and Virtue +depends the only abiding strength. + + + + +LECTURE XII--THE STRATEGY OF PROVIDENCE + + +I no not know whether any of you know much of the theory of war. I know +very little myself. But something of it one is bound to know, as +Professor of History. For, unfortunately, a large portion of the history +of mankind is the history of war; and the historian, as a man who wants +to know how things were done--as distinct from the philosopher, the man +who wants to know how things ought to have been done--ought to know a +little of the first of human arts--the art of killing. What little I +know thereof I shall employ to-day, in explaining to you the invasion of +the Teutons, from a so-called mechanical point of view. I wish to shew +you how it was possible for so small and uncivilized a people to conquer +one so vast and so civilized; and what circumstances (which you may +attribute to what cause you will: but I to God) enabled our race to +conquer in the most vast and important campaign the world has ever seen. + +I call it a campaign rather than a war. Though it lasted 200 years and +more, it seems to me (it will, I think, seem to you) if you look at the +maps, as but one campaign: I had almost said, one battle. There is but +one problem to be solved; and therefore the operations of our race take a +sort of unity. The question is, how to take Rome, and keep it, by +destroying the Roman Empire. + +Let us consider the two combatants--their numbers, and their position. + +One glance at the map will shew you which are the most numerous. When +you cast your eye over the vastness of the Roman Empire from east to +west--Italy, Switzerland, half Austria, Turkey and Greece, Asia Minor, +Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, France, Britain--and then compare it +with the narrow German strip which reaches from the mouth of the Danube +to the mouth of the Rhine, the disparity of area is enormous; ten times +as great at least; perhaps more, if you accept, as I am inclined to do, +the theory of Dr. Latham, that we were always 'Markmen,' men of the +Marches, occupying a narrow frontier between the Slavs and the Roman +Empire; and that Tacitus has included among Germans, from hearsay, many +tribes of the interior of Bohemia, Prussia, and Poland, who were Slavs or +others; and that the numbers and area of our race has been, on Tacitus' +authority, greatly overrated. + +What then were the causes of the success of the Teutons? Native courage +and strength? + +They had these: but you must recollect what I have told you, that those +very qualities were employed against them; that they were hired, in large +numbers, into the Roman armies, to fight against their own brothers. + +Unanimity? Of that, alas! one can say but little. The great Teutonic +army had not only to fight the Romans, but to fight each brigade the +brigade before it, to make them move on; and the brigade behind it +likewise, to prevent their marching over them; while too often two +brigades quarrelled like children, and destroyed each other on the spot. + +What, then, was the cause of their success? I think a great deal of it +must be attributed to their admirable military position. + +Look at a map of Europe; putting yourself first at the point to be +attacked--at Rome, and looking north, follow the German frontier from the +Euxine up the Danube and down the Rhine. It is a convex arc: but not +nearly as long as the concave arc of the Roman frontier opposed to it. +The Roman frontier overlaps it to the north-west by all Britain, to the +south-west by part of Turkey and the whole of Asia Minor. + +That would seem to make it weak, and liable to be outflanked on either +wing. In reality it made it strong. + +Both the German wings rested on the sea; one on the Euxine, one on the +North Sea. That in itself would not have given strength; for the Roman +fleets were masters of the seas. But the lands in the rear, on either +flank, were deserts, incapable of supporting an army. What would have +been the fate of a force landed at the mouth of the Weser on the north, +or at the mouth of the Dnieper at the west? Starvation among wild moors, +and bogs, and steppes, if they attempted to leave their base of +operations on the coast. The Romans saw this, and never tried the plan. +To defend the centre of their position was the safest and easiest plan. + +Look at this centre. It is complicated. The Roman position is guarded +by the walls of Italy, the gigantic earthwork of the Alps. To storm +them, is impossible. But right and left of them, the German position has +two remarkable points--strategic points, which decided the fate of the +world. + +They are two salient angles, promontories of the German frontier. The +one is north-east of Switzerland; the Allman country, between the head- +waters of the Danube and the Upper Rhine, Basle is its apex. Mentz its +northern point, Ratisbon its southern. That triangle encloses the end of +the Schwartzwald; the Black Forest of primaeval oak. Those oaks have +saved Europe. + +The advantages of a salient angle of that kind, in invading an enemy's +country, are manifest. You can break out on either side, and return at +once into your own country on 'lines of interior operation;' while the +enemy has to march round the angle, three feet for your one, on 'lines of +exterior operation.' The early German invaders saw that, and burst again +and again into Gaul from that angle. The Romans saw it also (admirable +strategists as they were) and built Hadrian's wall right across it, from +the Maine to the Danube, to keep them back. And why did not Hadrian's +wall keep them back? On account of the Black Forest. The Roman never +dared to face it; to attempt to break our centre, and to save Italy by +carrying the war into the heart of Germany. They knew (what the invaders +of England will discover to their cost) that a close woodland is a more +formidable barrier than the Alps themselves. The Black Forest, I say, +was the key of our position, and saved our race. + +From this salient angle, and along the whole Rhine above it, the Western +Teutons could throw their masses into Gaul; Franks, Vandals, Alans, +Suevi, following each other in echellon. You know what an echellon +means? When bodies of troops move in lines parallel to each other, but +each somewhat in the rear of the other, so that their whole position +resembles an echelle--a flight of steps. This mode of attack has two +great advantages. It cannot be outflanked by the enemy; and he dare not +concentrate his forces on the foremost division, and beat the divisions +in detail. If he tries to do so, he is out-flanked himself; and he is +liable to be beaten in detail by continually fresh bodies of troops. Thus +only a part of his line is engaged at a time. Now it was en echellon, +from necessity, that the tribes moved down. They could not follow +immediately in each other's track, because two armies following each +other would not have found subsistence in the same country. They had to +march in parallel lines; those nearest to Italy moving first; and thus +forming a vast echellon, whose advanced left rested on, and was protected +by, the Alps. + +But you must remember (and this is important) that all these western +attacks along the Rhine and Rhone were mistakes, in as far as they were +aimed at Rome. The Teutons were not aware, I suppose, that the Alps +turned to the South between Gaul and Italy, and ran right down to the +Mediterranean. There they found themselves still cut off from Rome by +them. Hannibal's pass over the Mont Cenis they seem not to have known. +They had to range down to the Mediterranean; turn eastward along the +Genoese coast at Nice; and then, far away from their base of operations, +were cut off again and again, just as the Cimbri and Teutons were cut off +by Marius. All attempts to take Rome from the Piedmontese entrance into +Italy failed. But these western attacks had immense effects. They cut +the Roman position in two. + +And then came out the real weakness of that great ill-gotten Empire, +conquered for conquering's sake. To the north-west, the Romans had +extended their line far beyond what they could defend. The whole of +North Gaul was taken by the Franks. Britain was then isolated, and had +to be given up to its fate. South Gaul, being nearer to Italy their +base, they could defend, and did, like splendid soldiers as they were; +but that defence only injured them. It thrust the foremost columns of +the enemy on into Spain. Spain was too far from their base of operation +to be defended, and was lost likewise, and seized by Vandals and Suevi. +The true point of attack was at the other salient angle of our position, +on the Roman right centre. + +You know that the Danube as you ascend it lies east and west from the +Black Sea to Belgrade; but above the point where the Save enters it, it +turns north almost at right angles. This is the second salient point; +the real key of the whole Roman Empire. For from this point the Germans +could menace--equally, Constantinople and Turkey on the right (I speak +always as standing at Rome and looking north), and Italy and Rome on the +left. The Danube once crossed, between them and Constantinople was +nothing but the rich rolling land of Turkey; between them and Rome +nothing but the easy passes of the Carnic Alps, Laybach to Trieste. +Trieste was the key of the Roman position. It was, and always will be, a +most important point. It might be the centre of a great kingdom. The +nation which has it ought to spend its last bullet in defending it. + +The Teutons did cross the Danube, as you know, in 376, and had a great +victory, of which nothing came but moral force. They waited long in +Moesia before they found out the important step which they had made. The +genius of Alaric first discovered the key of the Roman position, and +discovered that it was in his own hands. + +I do not say that no Germans had crossed the Laybach pass before him. On +the contrary, Markmen, Quadi, Vandals, seem to have come over it as early +as 180, and appeared under the walls of Aquileia. Of course, some one +must have gone first, or Alaric would not have known of it. There were +no maps then, at least among our race. Their great generals had to feel +their way foot by foot, trusting to hearsays of old adventurers, +deserters, and what not, as to whether a fruitful country or an +impassable alp, a great city or the world's end, was twenty miles a-head +of them. Yes, they had great generals among them, and Alaric, perhaps, +the greatest. + +If you consider Alaric's campaigns, from A.D. 400 to A.D. 415, you will +see that the eye of a genius planned them. He wanted Rome, as all +Teutons did. He was close to Italy, in the angle of which I just spoke; +but instead of going hither, he resolved to go south, and destroy Greece, +and he did it. Thereby, if you will consider, he cut the Roman Empire in +two. He paralysed and destroyed the right wing of its forces, which +might, if he had marched straight for Italy, have come up from Greece and +Turkey, to take him in flank and rear. He prevented their doing that; he +prevented also their succouring Italy by sea by the same destruction. And +then he was free to move on Rome, knowing that he leaves no strong place +on his left flank, save Constantinople itself; and that the Ostrogoths, +and other tribes left behind, would mask it for him. Then he moved into +Italy over the Carnic Alps, and was repulsed the first time at Pollentia. +He was not disheartened; he retired upon Hungary, waited five years, +tried it again, and succeeded, after a campaign of two years. + +Yes. He was a great general. To be able to move vast masses of men +safely through a hostile country and in face of an enemy's army (beside +women and children) requires an amount of talent bestowed on few. Alaric +could do it. Dietrich the Ostrogoth could do it. Alboin the Lombard +could do it, though not under such fearful disadvantages. There were +generals before Marlborough or Napoleon. + +And do not fancy that the work was easy; that the Romans were degenerate +enough to be an easy prey. Alaric had been certainly beaten out of +Italy, even though the victory of Pollentia was exaggerated. And in 405, +Radagast with 200,000 men had tried to take Rome by Alaric's route, and +had simply, from want of generalship, been forced to capitulate under the +walls of Florence, and the remnant of his army sold for slaves. + +Why was Alaric more fortunate? Because he was a great genius. And why +when he died, did the Goths lose all plan, and wander wildly up Italy, +and out into Spain? Because the great genius was gone. Native Teuton +courage could ensure no permanent success against Roman discipline and +strategy, unless guided by men like Alaric or Dietrich. + +You might fancy the campaign over now: but it was not. Along the country +of the Danube, from the Euxine to the Alps, the Teutons had still the +advantage of interior lines, and vast bodies of men--Herules, Gepids, +Ostrogoths, Lombards--were coming down in an enormous echellon similar to +that which forced the Rhine; to force Italy at the same fatal +point--Venetia. The party who could command the last reserve would win, +as is the rule. And the last reserves were with our race. They must +win. But not yet. They had, in the mean time, taken up a concave line; +a great arc running round the whole west of the Mediterranean from Italy, +France, Spain, Algeria, as far as Carthage. They could not move forces +round that length of coast, as fast as the Romans could move them by sea; +and they had no fleets. Although they had conquered the Western Empire, +they were in a very dangerous position, and were about to be very nearly +ruined. + +For you see, the Romans in turn had changed front at more than a right +angle. They lay at first north-west and south-east. They lay in +Justinian's time, north and south. Their right was Constantinople; their +left Pentapolis; between those two points they held Greece, Asia Minor, +Syria and Egypt; a position of wealth incalculable. Meanwhile, as we +must remember always, they were masters of the sea, and therefore of the +interior lines of operation. They had been forced into this position; +but, like Romans, they had accepted it. With the boundless common sense +of the race (however fallen, debauched, pedantic), they worked it out, +and with terrible effect. + +Their right in Constantinople was so strong that they cared nothing for +it, though it was the only exposed point. They would defend it by hiring +the Barbarians, and when they could not pay them, setting them on to kill +down each other; while they quietly drew into Constantinople the +boundless crops of Asia, Syria and Egypt. + +The strength of Constantinople was infinite--commanding two seas and two +continents. It is, as the genius of Constantinople saw--as the genius of +the Czar Nicholas saw--the strongest spot, perhaps, in the world. That +fact was what enabled Justinian's Empire to arise again, and enabled +Belisarius and Narses to reconquer Africa and Italy. Remember that, and +see how strong the Romans were still. + +The Teutons meanwhile had changed their front, by conquering the Western +Mediterranean, and were becoming weak, because scattered on exterior +lines, to their extreme danger. + +I cannot exaggerate the danger of that position. It enabled the Romans +by rapid movements of their fleets, to reconquer Africa and Italy. It +might have enabled them to do much more. + +Belisarius, with great wisdom, began by attacking the Vandals at Carthage +on the extreme right. They had put themselves into an isolated position, +and were destroyed without help. Then he moved on Italy and the +Ostrogoths. He was going to force the positions in detail, and drive +them back behind the Alps. What he did not finish, Narses did; and the +Teutons were actually driven back behind the Alps for some years. + +But Narses had to stop at Italy. Even if not recalled, he could have +gone no further. The next move should have been on Spain, if he had +really had strength in Italy. But to attack Spain from Constantinople, +would have been to go too far from home. The Franks would have crost the +Pyrenees, and fallen on his flank. The Visigoths, even if beaten, would +have been only pushed across the Straits of Gibraltar, to reconquer the +Vandal coast of Africa; while to take troops from Italy for any such +purpose, would have been to let in the Lombards--who came, let in or not. +There were reserves in Germany still, of which Narses knew full well; for +he had seen 5000 Lombards, besides Herules, and Huns, and Avars, fight +for him at Nuceria, and destroy the Ostrogoths; and he knew well that +they could, if they chose, fight against him. + +On the other hand, the Roman Empire had no reserves; while the campaign +had just come to that point at which he who can bring up the last reserve +wins. Ours were so far from being exhausted, that the heaviest of them, +the Franks, came into action, stronger than ever, 200 years after. + +But the Roman reserves were gone. If Greece, if Asia Minor, if Egypt, +had been the holds of a hardy people, the Romans might have done +still--Heaven alone knows what. At least, they might have extended their +front once more to the line of Carthage, Sicily, Italy. + +But the people of Syria and Egypt, were--what they were. No recruits, as +far as I know, were drawn from them. Had they been, they would have been +face to face with a Frank, or a Lombard, or a Visigoth, much what--not a +Sikh, a Rohilla, or a Ghoorka, but a Bengalee proper--would be face to +face with an Englishman. One thousand Varangers might have walked from +Constantinople to Alexandria without fighting a pitched battle, if they +had had only Greeks and Syrians to face. + +Thus the Romans were growing weak. If we had lost, so had they. Every +wild Teuton who came down to perish, had destroyed a Roman, or more than +one, before he died. Each column which the admirable skill and courage +of the Romans had destroyed, had weakened them as much, perhaps more, +than its destruction weakened the Teutons; and had, by harrying the +country, destroyed the Roman's power of obtaining supplies. Italy and +Turkey at last became too poor to be a fighting ground at all. + +But now comes in one of the strangest new elements in this strange +epic--Mohammed and his Arabs. + +Suddenly, these Arab tribes, under the excitement of the new Mussulman +creed, burst forth of the unknown East. They take the Eastern Empire in +the rear; by such a rear attack as the world never saw before or since; +they cut it in two; devour it up: and save Europe thereby. + +That may seem a strange speech. I must explain it. I have told you how +the Eastern Empire and its military position was immensely strong; that +Constantinople was a great maritime base of operations, mistress of the +Mediterranean. What prevented the Romans from reconquering all the +shores of that sea, and establishing themselves in strength in the Morea, +or in Sicily, or in Carthage, or in any central base of operations? What +forced them to cling to Constantinople, and fight a losing campaign +thenceforth. Simply this; the Mussulman had forced their position from +the rear, and deprived them of Syria, Egypt, Africa. + +But the Teutons could not have opposed them. During the 7th century the +Lombards in Italy were lazy and divided; the Goths in Spain lazier and +more divided still; the Franks were tearing themselves in pieces by civil +war. The years from A.D. 550 to A.D. 750 and the rise of the +Carlovingian dynasty, were a period of exhaustion for our race, such as +follows on great victories, and the consequent slaughter and collapse. + +This was the critical period of the Teutonic race; little talked of, +because little known: but very perilous. Nevertheless, whatever the +Eastern Empire might have done, the Saracens prevented its doing; and if +you hold (with me) that the welfare of the Teutonic race is the welfare +of the world; then, meaning nothing less, the Saracen invasion, by +crippling the Eastern Empire, saved Europe and our race. + +And now, gentlemen, was this vast campaign fought without a general? If +Trafalgar could not be won without the mind of a Nelson, or Waterloo +without the mind of a Wellington, was there no one mind to lead those +innumerable armies, on whose success depended the future of the whole +human race? Did no one marshal them in that impregnable convex front, +from the Euxine to the North Sea? No one guide them to the two great +strategic centres, of the Black Forest and Trieste? No one cause them, +blind barbarians without maps or science, to follow those rules of war, +without which victory in a protracted struggle is impossible; and by the +pressure of the Huns behind, force on their flagging myriads to an +enterprise which their simplicity fancied at first beyond the powers of +mortal men? Believe it who will: but I cannot. I may be told that they +gravitated into their places, as stones and mud do. Be it so. They +obeyed natural laws of course, as all things do on earth, when they +obeyed the laws of war: those too are natural laws, explicable on simple +mathematical principles. But while I believe that not a stone or a +handful of mud gravitates into its place without the will of God; that it +was ordained, ages since, into what particular spot each grain of gold +should be washed down from an Australian quartz reef, that a certain man +might find it at a certain moment and crisis of his life;--if I be +superstitious enough (as thank God I am) to hold that creed, shall I not +believe that though this great war had no general upon earth, it may have +had a general in Heaven? and that in spite of all their sins, the hosts +of our forefathers were the hosts of God? + + + + +APPENDIX: THE LIMITS OF EXACT SCIENCE AS APPLIED TO HISTORY. + + +It is with a feeling of awe, I had almost said of fear, that I find +myself in this place, upon this errand. The responsibility of a teacher +of History in Cambridge is in itself very heavy: but doubly heavy in the +case of one who sees among his audience many men as fit, it may be some +more fit, to fill this Chair: and again, more heavy still, when one +succeeds to a man whose learning, like his virtues, one can never hope to +equal. + +But a Professor, I trust, is like other men, capable of improvement; and +the great law, 'docendo disces,' may be fulfilled in him, as in other +men. Meanwhile, I can only promise that such small powers as I possess +will be honestly devoted to this Professorate; and that I shall endeavour +to teach Modern History after a method which shall give satisfaction to +the Rulers of this University. + +I shall do that best, I believe, by keeping in mind the lessons which I, +in common with thousands more, have learnt from my wise and good +predecessor. I do not mean merely patience in research, and accuracy in +fact. They are required of all men: and they may be learnt from many +men. But what Sir James Stephen's life and writings should especially +teach us, is the beauty and the value of charity; of that large-hearted +humanity, which sympathizes with all noble, generous, earnest thought and +endeavour, in whatsoever shape they may have appeared; a charity which, +without weakly or lazily confounding the eternal laws of right and wrong, +can make allowances for human frailty; can separate the good from the +evil in men and in theories; can understand, and can forgive, because it +loves. Who can read Sir James Stephen's works without feeling more +kindly toward many a man, and many a form of thought, against which he +has been more or less prejudiced; without a more genial view of human +nature, a more hopeful view of human destiny, a more full belief in the +great saying, that 'Wisdom is justified of all her children'? Who, too, +can read those works without seeing how charity enlightens the intellect, +just as bigotry darkens it; how events, which to the theorist and the +pedant are merely monstrous and unmeaning, may explain themselves easily +enough to the man who will put himself in his fellow-creatures' place; +who will give them credit for being men of like passions with himself; +who will see with their eyes, feel with their hearts, and take for his +motto, 'Homo sum, nil humani a me alienum puto'? + +I entreat gentlemen who may hereafter attend my lectures to bear in mind +this last saying. If they wish to understand History, they must first +try to understand men and women. For History is the history of men and +women, and of nothing else; and he who knows men and women thoroughly +will best understand the past work of the world, and be best able to +carry on its work now. The men who, in the long run, have governed the +world, have been those who understood the human heart; and therefore it +is to this day the statesman who keeps the reins in his hand, and not the +mere student. He is a man of the world; he knows how to manage his +fellow-men; and therefore he can get work done which the mere student (it +may be) has taught him ought to be done; but which the mere student, much +less the mere trader or economist, could not get done; simply because his +fellow-men would probably not listen to him, and certainly outwit him. Of +course, in proportion to the depth, width, soundness, of his conception +of human nature, will be the greatness and wholesomeness of his power. He +may appeal to the meanest, or to the loftiest motives. He may be a fox +or an eagle; a Borgia, or a Hildebrand; a Talleyrand, or a Napoleon; a +Mary Stuart, or an Elizabeth: but however base, however noble, the power +which he exercises is the same in essence. He makes History, because he +understands men. And you, if you would understand History, must +understand men. + +If, therefore, any of you should ask me how to study history, I should +answer--Take by all means biographies: wheresoever possible, +autobiographies; and study them. Fill your minds with live human +figures; men of like passions with yourselves; see how each lived and +worked in the time and place in which God put him. Believe me, that when +you have thus made a friend of the dead, and brought him to life again, +and let him teach you to see with his eyes, and feel with his heart, you +will begin to understand more of his generation and his circumstances, +than all the mere history-books of the period would teach you. In +proportion as you understand the man, and only so, will you begin to +understand the elements in which he worked. And not only to understand, +but to remember. Names, dates, genealogies, geographical details, +costumes, fashions, manners, crabbed scraps of old law, which you used, +perhaps, to read up and forget again, because they were not rooted, but +stuck into your brain, as pins are into a pincushion, to fall out at the +first shake--all these you will remember; because they will arrange and +organize themselves around the central human figure: just as, if you have +studied a portrait by some great artist, you cannot think of the face in +it, without recollecting also the light and shadow, the tone of +colouring, the dress, the very details of the background, and all the +accessories which the painter's art has grouped around; each with a +purpose, and therefore each fixing itself duly in your mind. Who, for +instance, has not found that he can learn more French history from French +memoirs, than even from all the truly learned and admirable histories of +France which have been written of late years? There are those, too, who +will say of good old Plutarch's lives (now-a-days, I think, too much +neglected), what some great man used to say of Shakspeare and English +history--that all the ancient history which they really knew, they had +got from Plutarch. I am free to confess that I have learnt what little I +know of the middle-ages, what they were like, how they came to be what +they were, and how they issued in the Reformation, not so much from the +study of the books about them (many and wise though they are), as from +the thumbing over, for years, the semi-mythical saints' lives of Surius +and the Bollandists. + +Without doubt History obeys, and always has obeyed, in the long run, +certain laws. But those laws assert themselves, and are to be +discovered, not in things, but in persons; in the actions of human +beings; and just in proportion as we understand human beings, shall we +understand the laws which they have obeyed, or which have avenged +themselves on their disobedience. This may seem a truism: if it be such, +it is one which we cannot too often repeat to ourselves just now, when +the rapid progress of science is tempting us to look at human beings +rather as things than as persons, and at abstractions (under the name of +laws) rather as persons than as things. Discovering, to our just +delight, order and law all around us, in a thousand events which seemed +to our fathers fortuitous and arbitrary, we are dazzled just now by the +magnificent prospect opening before us, and fall, too often, into more +than one serious mistake. + +First; students try to explain too often all the facts which they meet by +the very few laws which they know; and especially moral phaenomena by +physical, or at least economic laws. There is an excuse for this last +error. Much which was thought, a few centuries since, to belong to the +spiritual world, is now found to belong to the material; and the +physician is consulted, where the exorcist used to be called in. But it +is a somewhat hasty corollary therefrom, and one not likely to find +favour in this University, that moral laws and spiritual agencies have +nothing at all to do with the history of the human race. We shall not be +inclined here, I trust, to explain (as some one tried to do lately) the +Crusades by a hypothesis of over-stocked labour-markets on the Continent. + +Neither, again, shall we be inclined to class those same Crusades among +'popular delusions,' and mere outbursts of folly and madness. This is a +very easy, and I am sorry to say, a very common method of disposing of +facts which will not fit into the theory, too common of late, that need +and greed have been always, and always ought to be, the chief motives of +mankind. Need and greed, heaven knows, are powerful enough: but I think +that he who has something nobler in himself than need and greed, will +have eyes to discern something nobler than them, in the most fantastic +superstitions, in the most ferocious outbursts, of the most untutored +masses. Thank God, that those who preach the opposite doctrine belie it +so often by a happy inconsistency; that he who declares self-interest to +be the mainspring of the world, can live a life of virtuous +self-sacrifice; that he who denies, with Spinoza, the existence of free- +will, can disprove his own theory, by willing, like Spinoza, amid all the +temptations of the world, to live a life worthy of a Roman Stoic; and +that he who represents men as the puppets of material circumstance, and +who therefore has no logical right either to praise virtue, or to blame +vice, can shew, by a healthy admiration of the former, a healthy scorn of +the latter, how little his heart has been corrupted by the eidola specus, +the phantoms of the study, which have oppressed his brain. But though +men are often, thank heaven, better than their doctrines, yet the +goodness of the man does not make his doctrine good; and it is immoral as +well as unphilosophical to call a thing hard names simply because it +cannot be fitted into our theory of the universe. Immoral, because all +harsh and hasty wholesale judgments are immoral; unphilosophical, because +the only philosophical method of looking at the strangest of phaenomena +is to believe that it too is the result of law, perhaps a healthy result; +that it is not to be condemned as a product of disease before it is +proven to be such; and that if it be a product of disease, disease has +its laws, as much as health; and is a subject, not for cursing, but for +induction; so that (to return to my example) if every man who ever took +part in the Crusades were proved to have been simply mad, our sole +business would be to discover why he went mad upon that special matter, +and at that special time. And to do that, we must begin by recollecting +that in every man who went forth to the Crusades, or to any other strange +adventure of humanity, was a whole human heart and brain, of like +strength and weakness, like hopes, like temptations, with our own; and +find out what may have driven him mad, by considering what would have +driven us mad in his place. + +May I be permitted to enlarge somewhat on this topic? There is, as you +are aware, a demand just now for philosophies of History. The general +spread of Inductive Science has awakened this appetite; the admirable +contemporary French historians have quickened it by feeding it; till, the +more order and sequence we find in the facts of the past, the more we +wish to find. So it should be (or why was man created a rational being?) +and so it is; and the requirements of the more educated are becoming so +peremptory, that many thinking men would be ready to say (I should be +sorry to endorse their opinion), that if History is not studied according +to exact scientific method, it need not be studied at all. + +A very able anonymous writer has lately expressed this general tendency +of modern thought in language so clear and forcible that I must beg leave +to quote it:-- + +'Step by step,' he says, 'the notion of evolution by law is transforming +the whole field of our knowledge and opinion. It is not one order of +conception which comes under its influence: but it is the whole sphere of +our ideas, and with them the whole system of our action and conduct. Not +the physical world alone is now the domain of inductive science, but the +moral, the intellectual, and the spiritual are being added to its empire. +Two co-ordinate ideas pervade the vision of every thinker, physicist or +moralist, philosopher or priest. In the physical and the moral world, in +the natural and the human, are ever seen two forces--invariable rule, and +continual advance; law and action; order and progress; these two powers +working harmoniously together, and the result, inevitable sequence, +orderly movement, irresistible growth. In the physical world indeed, +order is most prominent to our eyes; in the moral world it is progress, +but both exist as truly in the one as in the other. In the scale of +nature, as we rise from the inorganic to the organic, the idea of change +becomes even more distinct; just as when we rise through the gradations +of the moral world, the idea of order becomes more difficult to grasp. It +was the last task of the astronomer to show eternal change even in the +grand order of our Solar System. It is the crown of philosophy to see +immutable law even in the complex action of human life. In the latter, +indeed, it is but the first germs which are clear. No rational thinker +hopes to discover more than some few primary actions of law, and some +approximative theory of growth. Much is dark and contradictory. Numerous +theories differing in method and degree are offered; nor do we decide +between them. We insist now only upon this, that the principle of +development in the moral, as in the physical, has been definitely +admitted; and something like a conception of one grand analogy through +the whole sphere of knowledge, has almost become a part of popular +opinion. Most men shrink from any broad statement of the principle, +though all in some special instances adopt it. It surrounds every idea +of our life, and is diffused in every branch of study. The press, the +platform, the lecture-room, and the pulpit ring with it in every variety +of form. Unconscious pedants are proving it. It flashes on the +statistician through his registers; it guides the hand of simple +philanthropy; it is obeyed by the instinct of the statesman. There is +not an act of our public life which does not acknowledge it. No man +denies that there are certain, and even practical laws of political +economy. They are nothing but laws of society. The conferences of +social reformers, the congresses for international statistics and for +social science bear witness of its force. Everywhere we hear of the +development of the constitution, of public law, of public opinion, of +institutions, of forms of society, of theories of history. In a word, +whatever views of history may be inculcated on the Universities by +novelists or epigrammatists, it is certain that the best intellects and +spirits of our day are labouring to see more of that invariable order, +and of that principle of growth in the life of human societies and of the +great society of mankind which nearly all men, more or less, acknowledge, +and partially and unconsciously confirm.' + +This passage expresses admirably, I think, the tendencies of modern +thought for good and evil. + +For good. For surely it is good, and a thing to thank God for, that men +should be more and more expecting order, searching for order, welcoming +order. But for evil also. For young sciences, like young men, have +their time of wonder, hope, imagination, and of passion too, and haste, +and bigotry. Dazzled, and that pardonably, by the beauty of the few laws +they may have discovered, they are too apt to erect them into gods, and +to explain by them all matters in heaven and earth; and apt, too, as I +think this author does, to patch them where they are weakest, by that +most dangerous succedaneum of vague and grand epithets, which very often +contain, each of them, an assumption far more important than the law to +which they are tacked. + +Such surely are the words which so often occur in this +passage--'Invariable, continual, immutable, inevitable, irresistible.' +There is an ambiguity in these words, which may lead--which I believe +does lead--to most unphilosophical conclusions. They are used very much +as synonyms; not merely in this passage, but in the mouths of men. Are +you aware that those who carelessly do so, blink the whole of the world- +old arguments between necessity and free-will? Whatever may be the +rights of that quarrel, they are certainly not to be assumed in a passing +epithet. But what else does the writer do, who tells us that an +inevitable sequence, an irresistible growth, exists in the moral as well +as in the physical world; and then says, as a seemingly identical +statement, that it is the crown of philosophy to see immutable law, even +in the complex action of human life? + +The crown of philosophy? Doubtless it is so. But not a crown, I should +have thought, which has been reserved as the special glory of these +latter days. Very early, at least in the known history of mankind, did +Philosophy (under the humble names of Religion and Common Sense) see most +immutable, and even eternal, laws, in the complex action of human life, +even the laws of right and wrong; and called them The Everlasting +Judgments of God, to which a confused and hard-worked man was to look; +and take comfort, for all would be well at last. By fair induction (as I +believe) did man discover, more or less clearly, those eternal laws: by +repeated verifications of them in every age, man has been rising, and +will yet rise, to clearer insight into their essence, their limits, their +practical results. And if it be these, the old laws of right and wrong, +which this author and his school call invariable and immutable, we shall, +I trust, most heartily agree with them; only wondering why a moral +government of the world seems to them so very recent a discovery. + +But we shall not agree with them, I trust, when they represent these +invariable and immutable laws as resulting in any inevitable sequence, or +irresistible growth. We shall not deny a sequence--Reason forbids that; +or again, a growth--Experience forbids that: but we shall be puzzled to +see why a law, because it is immutable itself, should produce inevitable +results; and if they quote the facts of material nature against us, we +shall be ready to meet them on that very ground, and ask:--You say that +as the laws of matter are inevitable, so probably are the laws of human +life? Be it so: but in what sense are the laws of matter inevitable? +Potentially, or actually? Even in the seemingly most uniform and +universal law, where do we find the inevitable or the irresistible? Is +there not in nature a perpetual competition of law against law, force +against force, producing the most endless and unexpected variety of +results? Cannot each law be interfered with at any moment by some other +law, so that the first law, though it may struggle for the mastery, shall +be for an indefinite time utterly defeated? The law of gravity is +immutable enough: but do all stones inevitably fall to the ground? +Certainly not, if I choose to catch one, and keep it in my hand. It +remains there by laws; and the law of gravity is there too, making it +feel heavy in my hand: but it has not fallen to the ground, and will not, +till I let it. So much for the inevitable action of the laws of gravity, +as of others. Potentially, it is immutable; but actually it can be +conquered by other laws. + +I really beg your pardon for occupying you here with such truisms: but I +must put the students of this University in mind of them, as long as too +many modern thinkers shall choose to ignore them. + +Even if then, as it seems to me, the history of mankind depended merely +on physical laws, analogous to those which govern the rest of nature, it +would be a hopeless task for us to discover an inevitable sequence in +History, even though we might suppose that such existed. But as long as +man has the mysterious power of breaking the laws of his own being, such +a sequence not only cannot be discovered, but it cannot exist. For man +can break the laws of his own being, whether physical, intellectual, or +moral. He breaks them every day, and has always been breaking them. + +The greater number of them he cannot obey till he knows them. And too +many of them he cannot know, alas, till he has broken them; and paid the +penalty of his ignorance. He does not, like the brute or the vegetable, +thrive by laws of which he is not conscious: but by laws of which he +becomes gradually conscious; and which he can disobey after all. And +therefore it seems to me very like a juggle of words to draw analogies +from the physical and irrational world, and apply them to the moral and +rational world; and most unwise to bridge over the gulf between the two +by such adjectives as 'irresistible' or 'inevitable,' such nouns as +'order, sequence, law'--which must bear an utterly different meaning, +according as they are applied to physical beings or to moral ones. + +Indeed, so patent is the ambiguity, that I cannot fancy that it has +escaped the author and his school; and am driven, by mere respect for +their logical powers, to suppose that they mean no ambiguity at all; that +they do not conceive of irrational beings as differing from rational +beings, or the physical from the moral, or the body of man from his +spirit, in kind and property; and that the immutable laws which they +represent as governing human life and history have nothing at all to do +with those laws of right and wrong, which I intend to set forth to you, +as the 'everlasting judgments of God.' + +In which case, I fear, they must go their way; while we go ours; +confessing that there is an order, and there is a law, for man; and that +if he disturb that order, or break that law in anywise, they will prove +themselves too strong for him, and reassert themselves, and go forward, +grinding him to powder if he stubbornly try to stop their way. But we +must assert too, that his disobedience to them, even for a moment, has +disturbed the natural course of events, and broken that inevitable +sequence, which we may find indeed, in our own imaginations, as long as +we sit with a book in our studies: but which vanishes the moment that we +step outside into practical contact with life; and, instead of talking +cheerfully of a necessary and orderly progress, find ourselves more +inclined to cry with the cynical man of the world: + + 'All the windy ways of men, + Are but dust that rises up; + And is lightly laid again.' + +The usual rejoinder to this argument is to fall back upon man's weakness +and ignorance, and to take refuge in the infinite unknown. Man, it is +said, may of course interfere a little with some of the less important +laws of his being: but who is he, to grapple with the more vast and +remote ones? Because he can prevent a pebble from falling, is he to +suppose that he can alter the destiny of nations, and grapple forsooth +with 'the eternities and the immensities,' and so forth? The argument is +very powerful: but addrest rather to the imagination than the reason. It +is, after all, another form of the old omne ignotum pro magnifico; and we +may answer, I think fairly--About the eternities and immensities we know +nothing, not having been there as yet; but it is a mere assumption to +suppose, without proof, that the more remote and impalpable laws are more +vast, in the sense of being more powerful (the only sense which really +bears upon the argument), than the laws which are palpably at work around +us all day long; and if we are capable of interfering with almost every +law of human life which we know of already, it is more philosophical to +believe (till disproved by actual failure) that we can interfere with +those laws of our life which we may know hereafter. Whether it will pay +us to interfere with them, is a different question. It is not prudent to +interfere with the laws of health, and it may not be with other laws, +hereafter to be discovered. I am only pleading that man can disobey the +laws of his being; that such power has always been a disturbing force in +the progress of the human race, which modern theories too hastily +overlook; and that the science of history (unless the existence of the +human will be denied) must belong rather to the moral sciences, than to +that 'positive science' which seems to me inclined to reduce all human +phaenomena under physical laws, hastily assumed, by the old fallacy of +[Greek text], to apply where there is no proof whatsoever that they do or +even can apply. + +As for the question of the existence of the human will--I am not here, I +hope, to argue that. I shall only beg leave to assume its existence, for +practical purposes. I may be told (though I trust not in this +University), that it is, like the undulatory theory of light, an +unphilosophical 'hypothesis.' Be that as it may, it is very convenient +(and may be for a few centuries to come) to retain the said 'hypothesis,' +as one retains the undulatory theory; and for the simple reason, that +with it one can explain the phaenomena tolerably; and without it cannot +explain them at all. + +A dread (half-unconscious, it may be) of this last practical result, +seems to have crossed the mind of the author on whom I have been +commenting; for he confesses, honestly enough (and he writes throughout +like an honest man) that in human life 'no rational thinker hopes to +discover more than some few primary actions of law, and some +approximative theory of growth.' I have higher hopes of a possible +science of history; because I fall back on those old moral laws, which I +think he wishes to ignore: but I can conceive that he will not; because +he cannot, on his own definitions of law and growth. They are (if I +understand him aright) to be irresistible and inevitable. I say that +they are not so, even in the case of trees and stones; much more in the +world of man. Facts, when he goes on to verify his theories, will leave +him with a very few primary actions of law, a very faint approximative +theory; because his theories, in plain English, will not work. At the +first step, at every step, they are stopped short by those disturbing +forces, or at least disturbed phaenomena, which have been as yet, and +probably will be hereafter, attributed (as the only explanation of them) +to the existence, for good and evil, of a human will. + +Let us look in detail at a few of these disturbances of anything like +inevitable or irresistible movement. Shall we not, at the very first +glance, confess--I am afraid only too soon--that there always have been +fools therein; fools of whom no man could guess, or can yet, what they +were going to do next or why they were going to do it? And how, pray, +can we talk of the inevitable, in the face of that one miserable fact of +human folly, whether of ignorance or of passion, folly still? There may +be laws of folly, as there are laws of disease; and whether there are or +not, we may learn much wisdom from folly; we may see what the true laws +of humanity are, by seeing the penalties which come from breaking them: +but as for laws which work of themselves, by an irresistible +movement,--how can we discover such in a past in which every law which we +know has been outraged again and again? Take one of the highest +instances--the progress of the human intellect--I do not mean just now +the spread of conscious science, but of that unconscious science which we +call common sense. What hope have we of laying down exact laws for its +growth, in a world wherein it has been ignored, insulted, crushed, a +thousand times, sometimes in whole nations and for whole generations, by +the stupidity, tyranny, greed, caprice of a single ruler; or if not so, +yet by the mere superstition, laziness, sensuality, anarchy of the mob? +How, again, are we to arrive at any exact laws of the increase of +population, in a race which has had, from the beginning, the abnormal and +truly monstrous habit of slaughtering each other, not for food--for in a +race of normal cannibals, the ratio of increase or decrease might easily +be calculated--but uselessly, from rage, hate, fanaticism, or even mere +wantonness? No man is less inclined than I to undervalue vital +statistics, and their already admirable results: but how can they help +us, and how can we help them, in looking at such a past as that of three- +fourths of the nations of the world? Look--as a single instance among +too many--at that most noble nation of Germany, swept and stunned, by +peasant wars, thirty years' wars, French wars, and after each hurricane, +blossoming up again into brave industry and brave thought, to be in its +turn cut off by a fresh storm ere it could bear full fruit: doing +nevertheless such work, against such fearful disadvantages, as nation +never did before; and proving thereby what she might have done for +humanity, had not she, the mother of all European life, been devoured, +generation after generation, by her own unnatural children. Nevertheless, +she is their mother still; and her history, as I believe, the +root-history of Europe: but it is hard to read--the sibylline leaves are +so fantastically torn, the characters so blotted out by tears and blood. + +And if such be the history of not one nation only, but of the average, +how, I ask, are we to make calculations about such a species as man? Many +modern men of science wish to draw the normal laws of human life from the +average of humanity: I question whether they can do so; because I do not +believe the average man to be the normal man, exhibiting the normal laws: +but a very abnormal man, diseased and crippled, but even if their method +were correct, it could work in practice, only if the destinies of men +were always decided by majorities: and granting that the majority of men +have common sense, are the minority of fools to count for nothing? Are +they powerless? Have they had no influence on History? Have they even +been always a minority, and not at times a terrible majority, doing each +that which was right in the sight of his own eyes? You can surely answer +that question for yourselves. As far as my small knowledge of History +goes, I think it may be proved from facts, that any given people, down to +the lowest savages, has, at any period of its life, known far more than +it has done; known quite enough to have enabled it to have got on +comfortably, thriven, and developed; if it had only done, what no man +does, all that it knew it ought to do, and could do. St. Paul's +experience of himself is true of all mankind--'The good which I would, I +do not; and the evil which I would not, that I do.' The discrepancy +between the amount of knowledge and the amount of work, is one of the +most patent and most painful facts which strikes us in the history of +man; and one not certainly to be explained on any theory of man's +progress being the effect of inevitable laws, or one which gives us much +hope of ascertaining fixed laws for that progress. + +And bear in mind, that fools are not always merely imbecile and +obstructive; they are at times ferocious, dangerous, mad. There is in +human nature what Goethe used to call a demoniac element, defying all +law, and all induction; and we can, I fear, from that one cause, as +easily calculate the progress of the human race, as we can calculate that +of the vines upon the slopes of AEtna, with the lava ready to boil up and +overwhelm them at any and every moment. Let us learn, in God's name, all +we can, from the short intervals of average peace and common sense: let +us, or rather our grandchildren, get precious lessons from them for the +next period of sanity. But let us not be surprised, much less +disheartened, if after learning a very little, some unexpected and truly +demoniac factor, Anabaptist war, French revolution, or other, should toss +all our calculations to the winds, and set us to begin afresh, sadder and +wiser men. We may learn, doubtless, even more of the real facts of human +nature, the real laws of human history, from these critical periods, when +the root-fibres of the human heart are laid bare, for good and evil, than +from any smooth and respectable periods of peace and plenty: nevertheless +their lessons are not statistical, but moral. + +But if human folly has been a disturbing force for evil, surely human +reason has been a disturbing force for good. Man can not only disobey +the laws of his being, he can also choose between them, to an extent +which science widens every day, and so become, what he was meant to be, +an artificial being; artificial in his manufactures, habits, society, +polity--what not? All day long he has a free choice between even +physical laws, which mere things have not, and which make the laws of +mere things inapplicable to him. Take the simplest case. If he falls +into the water, he has his choice whether he will obey the laws of +gravity and sink, or by other laws perform the (to him) artificial +process of swimming, and get ashore. True, both would happen by law: but +he has his choice which law shall conquer, sink or swim. We have yet to +learn why whole nations, why all mankind may not use the same prudential +power as to which law they shall obey,--which, without breaking it, they +shall conquer and repress, as long as seems good to them. + +It is true, nature must be obeyed in order that she may he conquered: but +then she is to be CONQUERED. It has been too much the fashion of late to +travestie that great dictum of Bacon's into a very different one, and +say, Nature must be obeyed because she cannot be conquered; thus +proclaiming the impotence of science to discover anything save her own +impotence--a result as contrary to fact, as to Bacon's own hopes of what +science would do for the welfare of the human race. For what is all +human invention, but the transcending and conquering one natural law by +another? What is the practical answer which all mankind has been making +to nature and her pretensions, whenever it has progressed one step since +the foundation of the world: by which all discoverers have discovered, +all teachers taught: by which all polities, kingdoms, civilizations, +arts, manufactures, have established themselves; all who have raised +themselves above the mob have faced the mob, and conquered the mob, +crucified by them first and worshipped by them afterwards: by which the +first savage conquered the natural law which put wild beasts in the +forest, by killing them; conquered the natural law which makes raw meat +wholesome, by cooking it; conquered the natural law which made weeds grow +at his hut door, by rooting them up, and planting corn instead; and won +his first spurs in the great battle of man against nature, proving +thereby that he was a man, and not an ape? What but this?--'Nature is +strong, but I am stronger. I know her worth, but I know my own. I trust +her and her laws, but my trusty servant she shall be, and not my tyrant; +and if she interfere with my ideal, even with my personal comfort, then +Nature and I will fight it out to the last gasp, and Heaven defend the +right!' + +In forgetting this, in my humble opinion, lay the error of the early, or +laissez faire School of Political Economy. It was too much inclined to +say to men: 'You are the puppets of certain natural laws. Your own +freewill and choice, if they really exist, exist merely as a dangerous +disease. All you can do is to submit to the laws, and drift +whithersoever they may carry you, for good or evil.' But not less +certainly was the same blame to be attached to the French Socialist +School. It, though based on a revolt from the Philosophie du neant, +philosophie de la misere, as it used to term the laissez faire School, +yet retained the worst fallacy of its foe, namely, that man was the +creature of circumstances; and denied him just as much as its antagonist +the possession of freewill, or at least the right to use freewill on any +large scale. + +The laissez faire School was certainly the more logical of the two. With +them, if man was the creature of circumstances, those circumstances were +at least defined for him by external laws which he had not created: while +the Socialists, with Fourier at their head (as it has always seemed to +me), fell into the extraordinary paradox of supposing that though man was +the creature of circumstances, he was to become happy by creating the +very circumstances which were afterwards to create him. But both of them +erred, surely, in ignoring that self-arbitrating power of man, by which +he can, for good or for evil, rebel against and conquer circumstance. + +I am not, surely, overstepping my province as Professor of History, in +alluding to this subject. Just notions of Political Economy are +absolutely necessary to just notions of History; and I should wish those +young gentlemen who may attend my Lectures, to go first, were it +possible, to my more learned brother, the Professor of Political Economy, +and get from him not merely exact habits of thought, but a knowledge +which I cannot give, and yet which they ought to possess. For to take +the very lowest ground, the first fact of history is, Bouche va toujours; +whatever men have or have not done, they have always eaten, or tried to +eat; and the laws which regulate the supply of the first necessaries of +life are, after all, the first which should be learnt, and the last which +should be ignored. + +The more modern school, however, of Political Economy while giving due +weight to circumstance, has refused to acknowledge it as the force which +ought to determine all human life; and our greatest living political +economist has, in his Essay on Liberty, put in a plea unequalled since +the Areopagitica of Milton, for the self-determining power of the +individual, and for his right to use that power. + +But my business is not with rights, so much as with facts; and as a fact, +surely, one may say, that this inventive reason of man has been, in all +ages, interfering with any thing like an inevitable sequence or orderly +progress of humanity. Some of those writers, indeed, who are most +anxious to discover an exact order, are most loud in their complaints +that it has been interfered with by over-legislation; and rejoice that +mankind is returning to a healthier frame of mind, and leaving nature +alone to her own work in her own way. I do not altogether agree with +their complaints; but of that I hope to speak in subsequent lectures. +Meanwhile, I must ask, if (as is said) most good legislation now-a-days +consists in repealing old laws which ought never to have been passed; if +(as is said) the great fault of our forefathers was that they were +continually setting things wrong, by intermeddling in matters political, +economic, religious, which should have been let alone, to develop +themselves in their own way, what becomes of the inevitable laws, and the +continuous progress, of the human mind? + +Look again at the disturbing power, not merely of the general reason of +the many, but of the genius of the few. I am not sure, but that the one +fact, that genius is occasionally present in the world, is not enough to +prevent our ever discovering any regular sequence in human progress, past +or future. + +Let me explain myself. In addition to the infinite variety of individual +characters continually born (in itself a cause of perpetual disturbance), +man alone of all species has the faculty of producing, from time to time, +individuals immeasurably superior to the average in some point or other, +whom we call men of genius. Like Mr. Babbage's calculating machine, +human nature gives millions of orderly respectable common-place results, +which any statistician can classify, and enables hasty philosophers to +say--It always has gone on thus; it must go on thus always; when behold, +after many millions of orderly results, there turns up a seemingly +disorderly, a certainly unexpected, result, and the law seems broken +(being really superseded by some deeper law) for that once, and perhaps +never again for centuries. Even so it is with man, and the physiological +laws which determine the earthly appearance of men. Laws there are, +doubt it not; but they are beyond us: and let our induction be as wide as +it may, they will baffle it; and great nature, just as we fancy we have +found out her secret, will smile in our faces as she brings into the +world a man, the like of whom we have never seen, and cannot explain, +define, classify--in one word, a genius. Such do, as a fact, become +leaders of men into quite new and unexpected paths, and, for good or +evil, leave their stamp upon whole generations and races. Notorious as +this may be, it is just, I think, what most modern theories of human +progress ignore. They take the actions and the tendencies of the average +many, and from them construct their scheme: a method not perhaps quite +safe were they dealing with plants or animals; but what if it be the very +peculiarity of this fantastic and altogether unique creature called man, +not only that he develops, from time to time, these exceptional +individuals, but that they are the most important individuals of all? +that his course is decided for him not by the average many, but by the +extraordinary few; that one Mahommed, one Luther, one Bacon, one +Napoleon, shall change the thoughts and habits of millions?--So that +instead of saying that the history of mankind is the history of the +masses, it would be much more true to say, that the history of mankind is +the history of its great men; and that a true philosophy of history ought +to declare the laws--call them physical, spiritual, biological, or what +we choose--by which great minds have been produced into the world, as +necessary results, each in his place and time. + +That would be a science indeed; how far we are as yet from any such, you +know as well as I. As yet, the appearance of great minds is as +inexplicable to us as if they had dropped among us from another planet. +Who will tell us why they have arisen when they did, and why they did +what they did, and nothing else? I do not deny that such a science is +conceivable; because each mind, however great or strange, may be the +result of fixed and unerring laws of life: and it is conceivable, too, +that such a science may so perfectly explain the past, as to be able to +predict the future; and tell men when a fresh genius is likely to arise +and of what form his intellect will be. Conceivable: but I fear only +conceivable; if for no other reason, at least for this one. We may grant +safely that the mind of Luther was the necessary result of a combination +of natural laws. We may go further, and grant, but by no means safely, +that Luther, was the creature of circumstances, that there was no self- +moving originality in him, but that his age made him what he was. To +some modern minds these concessions remove all difficulty and mystery: +but not, I trust, to our minds. For does not the very puzzle de quo +agitur remain equally real; namely, why the average of Augustine monks, +the average of German men, did not, by being exposed to the same average +circumstances as Luther, become what Luther was? But whether we allow +Luther to have been a person with an originally different character from +all others, or whether we hold him to have been the mere puppet of +outside influences, the first step towards discovering how he became what +he was, will be to find out what he was. It will be more easy, and, I am +sorry to say, more common to settle beforehand our theory, and explain by +it such parts of Luther as will fit it; and call those which will not fit +it hard names. History is often so taught, and the method is popular and +lucrative. But we here shall be of opinion, I am sure, that we only can +learn causes through their effects; we can only learn the laws which +produced Luther, by learning Luther himself; by analyzing his whole +character; by gauging all his powers; and that--unless the less can +comprehend the greater--we cannot do till we are more than Luther +himself. I repeat it. None can comprehend a man, unless he be greater +than that man. He must be not merely equal to him, because none can see +in another elements of character which he has not already seen in +himself: he must be greater; because to comprehend him thoroughly, he +must be able to judge the man's failings as well as his excellencies; to +see not only why he did what he did, but why he did not do more: in a +word, he must be nearer than his object is to the ideal man. + +And if it be assumed that I am quibbling on the words 'comprehend' and +'greater,' that the observer need be greater only potentially, and not in +act; that all the comprehension required of him, is to have in himself +the germs of other men's faculties, without having developed those germs +in life; I must still stand to my assertion. For such a rejoinder +ignores the most mysterious element of all character, which we call +strength: by virtue of which, of two seemingly similar characters, while +one does nothing, the other shall do great things; while in one the germs +of intellect and virtue remain comparatively embryonic, passive, and +weak, in the other these same germs shall develop into manhood, action, +success. And in what that same strength consists, not even the dramatic +imagination of a Shakespeare could discover. What are those +heart-rending sonnets of his, but the confession that over and above all +his powers he lacked one thing, and knew not what it was, or where to +find it--and that was--to be strong? + +And yet he who will give us a science of great men, must begin by having +a larger heart, a keener insight, a more varying human experience, than +Shakespeare's own; while those who offer us a science of little men, and +attempt to explain history and progress by laws drawn from the average of +mankind, are utterly at sea the moment they come in contact with the very +men whose actions make the history, to whose thought the progress is due. +And why? Because (so at least I think) the new science of little men can +be no science at all: because the average man is not the normal man, and +never yet has been; because the great man is rather the normal man, as +approaching more nearly than his fellows to the true 'norma' and standard +of a complete human character; and therefore to pass him by as a mere +irregular sport of nature, an accidental giant with six fingers and six +toes, and to turn to the mob for your theory of humanity, is (I think) +about as wise as to ignore the Apollo and the Theseus, and to determine +the proportions of the human figure from a crowd of dwarfs and cripples. + +No, let us not weary ourselves with narrow theories, with hasty +inductions, which will, a century hence, furnish mere matter for a smile. +Let us confine ourselves, at least in the present infantile state of the +anthropologic sciences, to facts; to ascertaining honestly and patiently +the thing which has been done; trusting that if we make ourselves masters +of them, some rays of inductive light will be vouchsafed to us from Him +who truly comprehends mankind, and knows what is in man, because He is +the Son of Man; who has His own true theory of human progress, His own +sound method of educating the human race, perfectly good, and perfectly +wise, and at last, perfectly victorious; which nevertheless, were it +revealed to us to-morrow, we could not understand; for if he who would +comprehend Luther must be more than Luther, what must he be, who would +comprehend God? + +Look again, as a result of the disturbing force of genius, at the effects +of great inventions--how unexpected, complex, subtle, all but +miraculous--throwing out alike the path of human history, and the +calculations of the student. If physical discoveries produced only +physical or economic results--if the invention of printing had only +produced more books, and more knowledge--if the invention of gunpowder +had only caused more or less men to be killed--if the invention of the +spinning-jenny had only produced more cotton-stuffs, more employment, and +therefore more human beings,--then their effects would have been, however +complex, more or less subjects of exact computation. + +But so strangely interwoven is the physical and spiritual history of man, +that material inventions produce continually the most unexpected +spiritual results. Printing becomes a religious agent, causes not merely +more books, but a Protestant Reformation; then again, through the Jesuit +literature, helps to a Romanist counter-reformation; and by the clashing +of the two, is one of the great causes of the Thirty Years' War, one of +the most disastrous checks which European progress ever suffered. +Gunpowder, again, not content with killing men, becomes unexpectedly a +political agent; 'the villanous saltpetre,' as Ariosto and Shakespeare's +fop complain, 'does to death many a goodly gentleman,' and enables the +masses to cope, for the first time, with knights in armour; thus forming +a most important agent in the rise of the middle classes; while the +spinning-jenny, not content with furnishing facts for the political +economist, and employment for millions, helps to extend slavery in the +United States, and gives rise to moral and political questions, which may +have, ere they be solved, the most painful consequences to one of the +greatest nations on earth. + +So far removed is the sequence of human history from any thing which we +can call irresistible or inevitable. Did one dare to deal in epithets, +crooked, wayward, mysterious, incalculable, would be those which would +rather suggest themselves to a man looking steadily not at a few facts +here and there, and not again at some hasty bird's-eye sketch, which he +chooses to call a whole, but at the actual whole, fact by fact, step by +step, and alas! failure by failure, and crime by crime. + +Understand me, I beg. I do not wish (Heaven forbid!) to discourage +inductive thought; I do not wish to undervalue exact science. I only ask +that the moral world, which is just as much the domain of inductive +science as the physical one, be not ignored; that the tremendous +difficulties of analyzing its phenomena be fairly faced; and the hope +given up, at least for the present, of forming any exact science of +history; and I wish to warn you off from the too common mistake of trying +to explain the mysteries of the spiritual world by a few roughly defined +physical laws (for too much of our modern thought does little more than +that); and of ignoring as old fashioned, or even superstitious, those +great moral laws of history, which are sanctioned by the experience of +ages. + +Foremost among them stands a law which I must insist on, boldly and +perpetually, if I wish (as I do wish) to follow in the footsteps of Sir +James Stephen: a law which man has been trying in all ages, as now, to +deny, or at least to ignore; though he might have seen it if he had +willed, working steadily in all times and nations. And that is--that as +the fruit of righteousness is wealth and peace, strength and honour; the +fruit of unrighteousness is poverty and anarchy, weakness and shame. It +is an ancient doctrine, and yet one ever young. The Hebrew prophets +preached it long ago, in words which are fulfilling themselves around us +every day, and which no new discoveries of science will abrogate, because +they express the great root-law, which disobeyed, science itself cannot +get a hearing. + +For not upon mind, gentlemen, not upon mind, but upon morals, is human +welfare founded. The true subjective history of man is the history not +of his thought, but of his conscience; the true objective history of man +is not that of his inventions, but of his vices and his virtues. So far +from morals depending upon thought, thought, I believe, depends on +morals. In proportion as a nation is righteous,--in proportion as common +justice is done between man and man, will thought grow rapidly, securely, +triumphantly; will its discoveries be cheerfully accepted, and faithfully +obeyed, to the welfare of the whole commonweal. But where a nation is +corrupt, that is, where the majority of individuals in it are bad, and +justice is not done between man and man, there thought will wither, and +science will be either crushed by frivolity and sensuality, or abused to +the ends of tyranny, ambition, profligacy, till she herself perishes, +amid the general ruin of all good things; as she had done in Greece, in +Rome, in Spain, in China, and many other lands. Laws of economy, of +polity, of health, of all which makes human life endurable, may be +ignored and trampled under foot, and are too often, every day, for the +sake of present greed, of present passion; self-interest may become, and +will become, more and more blinded, just in proportion as it is not +enlightened by virtue; till a nation may arrive, though, thank God, but +seldom, at that state of frantic recklessness which Salvian describes +among his Roman countrymen in Gaul, when, while the Franks were +thundering at their gates, and starved and half-burnt corpses lay about +the unguarded streets, the remnant, like that in doomed Jerusalem of old, +were drinking, dicing, ravishing, robbing the orphan and the widow, +swindling the poor man out of his plot of ground, and sending meanwhile +to the tottering Caesar at Rome, to ask, not for armies, but for +Circensian games. + +We cannot see how science could have bettered those poor Gauls. And we +can conceive, surely, a nation falling into the same madness, and crying +'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,' in the midst of railroads, +spinning-jennies, electric telegraphs, and crystal palaces, with infinite +blue-books and scientific treatises ready to prove to them, what they +knew perfectly well already, that they were making a very unprofitable +investment, both of money and of time. + +For science indeed is great: but she is not the greatest. She is an +instrument, and not a power; beneficent or deadly, according as she is +wielded by the hand of virtue or of vice. But her lawful mistress, the +only one which can use her aright, the only one under whom she can truly +grow, and prosper, and prove her divine descent, is Virtue, the likeness +of Almighty God. This, indeed, the Hebrew Prophets, who knew no science +in one sense of the word, do not expressly say: but it is a corollary +from their doctrine, which we may discover for ourselves, if we will look +at the nations round us now, if we will look at all the nations which +have been. Even Voltaire himself acknowledged that; and when he pointed +to the Chinese as the most prosperous nation upon earth, ascribed their +prosperity uniformly to their virtue. We now know that he was wrong in +fact: for we have discovered that Chinese civilization is one not of +peace and plenty, but of anarchy and wretchedness. But that fact only +goes to corroborate the belief, which (strange juxtaposition!) was common +to Voltaire and the old Hebrew Prophets at whom he scoffed, namely, that +virtue is wealth, and vice is ruin. For we have found that these +Chinese, the ruling classes of them at least, are an especially +unrighteous people; rotting upon the rotting remnants of the wisdom and +virtue of their forefathers, which now live only on their lips in flowery +maxims about justice and mercy and truth, as a cloak for practical +hypocrisy and villany; and we have discovered also, as a patent fact, +just what the Hebrew Prophets would have foretold us--that the miseries +and horrors which are now destroying the Chinese Empire, are the direct +and organic results of the moral profligacy of its inhabitants. + +I know no modern nation, moreover, which illustrates so forcibly as China +the great historic law which the Hebrew Prophets proclaim; and that is +this:--That as the prosperity of a nation is the correlative of their +morals, so are their morals the correlative of their theology. As a +people behaves, so it thrives; as it believes, so it behaves. Such as +his Gods are, such will the man be; down to that lowest point which too +many of the Chinese seem to have reached, where, having no Gods, he +himself becomes no man; but (as I hear you see him at the Australian +diggings) abhorred for his foul crimes even by the scum of Europe. + +I do not say that the theology always produces the morals, any more than +that the morals always produce the theology. Each is, I think, +alternately cause and effect. Men make the Gods in their own likeness; +then they copy the likeness they have set up. But whichever be cause, +and whichever effect, the law, I believe, stands true, that on the two +together depends the physical welfare of a people. History gives us many +examples, in which superstition, many again in which profligacy, have +been the patent cause of a nation's deoradation. It does not, as far as +I am aware, give us a single case of a nation's thriving and developing +when deeply infected with either of those two vices. + +These, the broad and simple laws of moral retribution, we may see in +history; and (I hope) something more than them; something of a general +method, something of an upward progress, though any thing but an +irresistible or inevitable one. For I have not argued that there is no +order, no progress--God forbid. Were there no order to be found, what +could the student with a man's reason in him do, but in due time go +mad?--Were there no progress, what could the student with a man's heart +within him do, but in due time break his heart, over the sight of a chaos +of folly and misery irredeemable?--I only argue that the order and the +progress of human history cannot be similar to those which govern +irrational beings, and cannot (without extreme danger) be described by +metaphors (for they are nothing stronger) drawn from physical science. If +there be an order, a progress, they must be moral; fit for the guidance +of moral beings; limited by the obedience which those moral beings pay to +what they know. + +And such an order, such a progress as that, I have good hope that we +shall find in history. + +We shall find, as I believe, in all the ages, God educating man; +protecting him till he can go alone, furnishing him with the primary +necessaries, teaching him, guiding him, inspiring him, as we should do to +our children; bearing with him, and forgiving him too, again and again, +as we should do: but teaching him withal (as we shall do if we be wise) +in great part by his own experience, making him test for himself, even by +failure and pain, the truth of the laws which have been given him; +discover for himself, as much as possible, fresh laws, or fresh +applications of laws; and exercising his will and faculties, by trusting +him to himself wherever he can be trusted without his final destruction. +This is my conception of history, especially of Modern History--of +history since the Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. I express myself +feebly enough, I know. And even could I express what I mean perfectly, +it would still be but a partial analogy, not to be pushed into details. +As I said just now, were the true law of human progress revealed to us to- +morrow, we could not understand it. + +For suppose that the theory were true, which Dr. Temple of Rugby has +lately put into such noble words: suppose that, as he says, 'The power +whereby the present ever gathers into itself the results of the past, +transforms the human race into a colossal man, whose life reaches from +the creation to the day of judgment. The successive generations of men, +are days in this man's life. The discoveries and inventions which +characterize the different epochs of the world, are this man's works. The +creeds and doctrines, the opinions and principles of the successive ages, +are his thoughts. The state of society at different times, are his +manners. He grows in knowledge, in self-control, in visible size, just +as we do.' Suppose all this; and suppose too, that God is educating this +his colossal child, as we educate our own children; it will hardly follow +from thence that his education would be, as Dr. Temple says it is, +precisely similar to ours. + +Analogous it may be, but not precisely similar; and for this reason: That +the collective man, in the theory, must be infinitely more complex in his +organization than the individuals of which he is composed. While between +the educator of the one and of the other, there is simply the difference +between a man and God. How much more complex then must his education be! +how all-inscrutable to human minds much in it!--often as inscrutable as +would our training of our children seem to the bird brooding over her +young ones in the nest. The parental relations in all three cases may +be--the Scriptures say that they are--expansions of the same great law; +the key to all history may be contained in those great words--'How often +would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathereth her chickens under +her wings.' Yet even there the analogy stops short--'but thou wouldest +not' expresses a new element, which has no place in the training of the +nestling by the dam, though it has place in our training of our children; +even that self-will, that power of disobedience, which is the dark side +of man's prerogative as a rational and self-cultivating being. Here that +analogy fails, as we should have expected it to do; and in a hundred +other points it fails, or rather transcends so utterly its original type, +that mankind seems, at moments, the mere puppet of those laws of natural +selection, and competition of species, of which we have heard so much of +late; and, to give a single instance, the seeming waste, of human +thought, of human agony, of human power, seems but another instance of +that inscrutable prodigality of nature, by which, of a thousand acorns +dropping to the ground, but one shall become the thing it can become, and +grow into a builder oak, the rest be craunched up by the nearest swine. + +Yet these dark passages of human life may be only necessary elements of +the complex education of our race; and as much mercy under a fearful +shape, as ours when we put the child we love under the surgeon's knife. +At least we may believe so; believe that they have a moral end, though +that end be unseen by us; and without any rash or narrow prying into +final causes (a trick as fatal to historic research as Bacon said it was +to science), we may justify God by faith, where we cannot justify Him by +experience. + +Surely this will be the philosophic method. If we seem to ourselves to +have discovered a law, we do not throw it away the moment we find +phaenomena which will not be explained by it. We use those phaenomena to +correct and to expand our law. And this belief that History is 'God +educating man,' is no mere hypothesis; it results from the observation of +thousands of minds, throughout thousands of years. It has long seemed--I +trust it will seem still--the best explanation of the strange deeds of +that strange being, man: and where we find in history facts which seem to +contradict it, we shall not cast away rashly or angrily either it or +them: but if we be Bacon's true disciples, we shall use them patiently +and reverently to correct and expand our notions of the law itself, and +rise thereby to more deep and just conceptions of education, of man, +and--it may be--of God Himself. + +In proportion as we look at history thus; searching for effective, rather +than final causes, and content to see God working everywhere, without +impertinently demanding of Him a reason for His deeds, we shall study in +a frame of mind equally removed from superstition on the one hand, and +necessitarianism on the other. We shall not be afraid to confess natural +agencies: but neither shall we be afraid to confess those supernatural +causes which underlie all existence, save God's alone. + +We shall talk of more than of an over-ruling Providence. That such +exists, will seem to us a patent fact. But it will seem to us somewhat +Manichaean to believe that the world is ill made, mankind a failure, and +that all God has to do with them, is to set them right here and there, +when they go intolerably wrong. We shall believe not merely in an over- +ruling Providence, but (if I may dare to coin a word) in an under-ruling +one, which has fixed for mankind eternal laws of life, health, growth, +both physical and spiritual; in an around-ruling Providence, likewise, by +which circumstances, that which stands around a man, are perpetually +arranged, it may be, are fore-ordained, so that each law shall have at +least an opportunity of taking effect on the right person, in the right +time and place; and in an in-ruling Providence. too, from whose +inspiration comes all true thought, all right feeling; from whom, we must +believe, man alone of all living things known to us inherits that +mysterious faculty of perceiving the law beneath the phaenomena, by +virtue of which he is a _man_. + +But we can hold all this, surely, and equally hold all which natural +science may teach us. Hold what natural science teaches? We shall not +dare not to hold it. It will be sacred in our eyes. All light which +science, political, economic, physiological, or other, can throw upon the +past, will be welcomed by us, as coming from the Author of all light. To +ignore it, even to receive it suspiciously and grudgingly, we shall feel +to be a sin against Him. We shall dread no 'inroads of materialism;' +because we shall be standing upon that spiritual ground which +underlies--ay, causes--the material. All discoveries of science, whether +political or economic, whether laws of health or laws of climate, will be +accepted trustfully and cheerfully. And when we meet with such startling +speculations as those on the influence of climate, soil, scenery on +national character, which have lately excited so much controversy, we +shall welcome them at first sight, just because they give us hope of +order where we had seen only disorder, law where we fancied chance: we +shall verify them patiently; correct them if they need correction; and if +proven, believe that they have worked, and still work, [Greek text], as +factors in the great method of Him who has appointed to all nations their +times, and the bounds of their habitation, if haply they might feel after +Him, and find Him: though He be not far from any one of them; for in Him +we live, and move, and have our being, and are the offspring of God +Himself. + +I thus end what it seemed to me proper to say in this, my Inaugural +Lecture; thanking you much for the patience with which you have heard me: +and if I have in it too often spoken of myself, and my own opinions, I +can only answer that it is a fault which has been forced on me by my +position, and which will not occur again. It seemed to me that some sort +of statement of my belief was necessary, if only from respect to a +University from which I have been long separated, and to return to which +is to me a high honour and a deep pleasure; and I cannot but be aware (it +is best to be honest) that there exists a prejudice against me in the +minds of better men than I am, on account of certain early writings of +mine. That prejudice, I trust, with God's help, I shall be able to +dissipate. At least whatever I shall fail in doing, this University will +find that I shall do one thing; and that is, obey the Apostolic precept, +'Study to be quiet, and to do your own business.' + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{1} Grimm, Grammatik, ii. p. 516. + +{2} See Grimm, Grammatik, (2nd edit.) vol. i. p. 108; vol. ii. p. 581. + +{3} Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii. p. 232. + +{4} Forstemann mentions a Latin inscription of the third century found +near Wiesbaden with the Dative Toutiorigi. + +{5} German classics, by M. M. p. 12. + +{6} Anonym. Valesian. ad calcem Ann. Marcellin. p. 722. Gibbon, cap. +xxxix; now known, through Mommsen, as the Annals of Ravenna. + +{7} Grimm thinks that Charle-maigne and Charlemagne were originally +corruptions of Karlo-man, and were interpreted later as Carolus magnus. +Grimm, Grammatik, ii. 462; iii. 320. + +{8} Weber, Lehrbuch der Weltgeschichte, section 245: 'Bei Verona von +Theoderich (daher Dietrich von Bern) besiegt, barg sich Odoaker hinter +die Mauern von Ravenna.' It is much more objectionable when Simrock in +his translation of the Edda renders Thjodrekr by Dietrich, though he +retains Theodolf and similar names. But it shows at the same time the +wide popularity of that name. + +{9} Grimm, Heldensage, p. 344. + +{10} Gibbon, chap. xxxix. sub fin. + +{11} Otto von Freising, in the first half of the twelfth century +(Chronicon 5, 3), takes the opposite view, and thinks the fable derived +from history: 'Ob ea non multis post diebus, xxx imperii sui anno, +subitanea morte rapitur ac juxta beati Gregorii dialogum (4, 36) a Joanne +et Symmacho in Aetnam praecipitatus, a quodam homine Dei cernitur. Hinc +puto fabulam illam traductam, qua vulgo dicitur: _Theodoricus vivus equo +sedens ad inferos descendit_. + +{12} Grimm, Deutsche Heldensage, p. 36. Chronicon Urspergense, 85a: +Haec Jordanis quidam grammaticus, ex eorundem stirpe Gothorum progenitus, +de Getarum origine et Amalorum nobilitate non omnia, quae de eis +scribuntur et referuntur, ut ipse dicit, complexus exaravit, sed brevius +pro rerum notitia huic opusculo inseruimus. His perlectis diligenterque +perspectis perpendat, qui discernere noverit, quomodo illud ratum +teneatur, quod non solum _vulgarifabulatione_ et _cantilenarum +modulatione_ usitatur, verum etiam in _quibusdam chronicis_ annotatur; +scilicet quod _Hermenricus_ tempore Martiani principis super omnes Gothos +regnaverit, et _Theodoricum Dietmari filium_, _patruelem_ suum, ut +dicunt, _instimulante Odoacre_, item, ut ajunt, _patruele suo de Verona +pulsum_, apud _Attilam Hunorum regem exulare coegerit_, cum +historiographus narret, Ermenricum regem Gothorum multis regibus +dominantem tempore Valentiniani et Valentis fratrum regnasse et a _duobus +fratribus Saro_ et _Ammio_, quos conjicimus eos fuisse, qui _vulgariter +Sarelo et Hamidiecus_ dicuntur, vulneratum in primordio egressionis +Hunorum per Maeotidem paludem, quibus rex fuit Valamber, tam vulneris +quam Hunorum irruptionis dolore defunctum fuisse, Attilam vero postea +ultra LXX annos sub Martiano et Valentiniano cum Romanis et Wisigothis +Aetioque duce Romanorum pugnasse et sub eisdem principibus regno vitaque +decessisse. . . . Hinc rerum diligens inspector perpendat, quomodo +_Ermenricus Theodoricum Dietmari filium apud Attilam exulare coegerit_, +cum juxta hunc historiographum contemporalis ejus non fuit. Igitur aut +hic falsa conscripsit, aut _vulgaris opinio fallitur_ et _fallit_, aut +alius Ermenricus et alms Theodoricus dandi sunt Attilae contemporanei, in +quibus hujus modi rerum convenientia rata possit haberi. Hic enim +Ermenricus longe ante Attilam legitur defunctus. + +{13} Chronicon, 5, 3: Quod autem rursum narrant, eum Hermanarico +Attilaeque contemporaneum fuisse, omnino stare non potest, dum Attilam +longe post Hermanaricum constat exercuisse tyrannidem istumque post +mortem Attilae octennem a patre obsidem Leoni Augusto traditum. + +{14} Chronicon, 16, 481: Quod autem quidam dicunt, ipsum Theodoricum +fuisse Hermenrico Veronensi et Attilae contemporaneum, non est verum. +Constat enim Attilam longe post Hermenricum fuisse Theodoricum etiam +longe post mortem Attilae, quum esset puer octennis, Leoni imperatori in +obsidem datum fuisse. + +{19} The early romancers, and especially Achilles Tatius, give pictures +of Roman praedial slavery too painful to quote. Roman domestic slavery +is not to be described by the pen of an Englishman. And I must express +my sorrow, that in the face of such notorious facts, some have of late +tried to prove American slavery to be as bad as, or even worse than, that +of Rome. God forbid! Whatsoever may have been the sins of the Southern +gentleman, he is at least a Teuton, and not a Roman; a whole moral heaven +above the effeminate wretch, who in the 4th and 5th centuries called +himself a senator and a clarissimus. + +{101} Dr. Sheppard, p. 297. + +{109} Had he actually taken the name of Theodoric, Theuderic, Dietrich, +which signifies much the same thing as 'King of nations'? + +{158} With west-countrymen, to 'scrattle' still means to scramble, or +shuffle about. + +{162} English Language, vol. i. p. 200. + +{214} Cf. Montalembert. 'Moines d'Occident.' + +{279} Sismondi _Hist. de la Chute de l'Empire Romain_, p. 187. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMAN AND THE TEUTON*** + + +******* This file should be named 3821.txt or 3821.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/2/3821 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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