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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7960-8.txt b/7960-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1280a9e --- /dev/null +++ b/7960-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,29426 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY, by HUTTON WEBSTER + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY + +Author: HUTTON WEBSTER + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7960] +[This file was first posted on June 5, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY *** + + + + +Anne Soulard, Charles Franks, Robert Fite, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + +EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY + +BY + +HUTTON WEBSTER, PH.D. + + + + + + + +"There is no part of history so generally useful as that which relates to +the progress of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the +successive advances of science, the vicissitudes of learning and +ignorance, which are the light and darkness of thinking beings, the +extinction and resuscitation of arts, and the revolutions of the +intellectual world." + --SAMUEL JOHNSON, _Rasselas_. + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book aims to furnish a concise and connected account of human +progress during ancient, medieval, and early modern times. It should meet +the requirements of those high schools and preparatory schools where +ancient history, as a separate discipline, is being supplanted by a more +extended course introductory to the study of recent times and contemporary +problems. Such a course was first outlined by the Regents of the +University of the State of New York in their _Syllabus for Secondary +Schools_, issued in 1910. + +Since the appearance of the Regents' _Syllabus_ the Committee of Five of +the American Historical Association has made its _Report_ (1911), +suggesting a rearrangement of the curriculum which would permit a year's +work in English and Continental history. Still more recently the Committee +on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary +Education, in its _Report_ (1916) to the National Education Association +has definitely recommended the division of European history into two +parts, of which the first should include ancient and Oriental +civilization, English and Continental history to approximately the end of +the seventeenth century, and the period of American exploration. + +The first twelve chapters of the present work are based upon the author's +_Ancient History_, published four years ago. In spite of many omissions, +it has been possible to follow without essential modification the plan of +the earlier volume. A number of new maps and illustrations have been added +to these chapters. + +The selection of collateral reading, always a difficult problem in the +secondary school, is doubly difficult when so much ground must be covered +in a single course. The author ventures, therefore, to call attention to +his _Readings in Ancient History_. Its purpose, in the words of the +preface, is "to provide immature pupils with a variety of extended, +unified, and interesting extracts on matters which a textbook treats with +necessary, though none the less deplorable, condensation." A companion +volume, entitled _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, will be +published shortly. References to both books are inserted in footnotes. + +At the end of what has been a long and engrossing task, it becomes a +pleasant duty to acknowledge the help which has been received from +teachers in school and college. Various chapters, either in manuscript or +in the proofs, have been read by Professor James M. Leake of Bryn Mawr +College; Professor J. C. Hildt of Smith College; Very Rev. Patrick J. +Healy, Professor of Church History in the Catholic University of America; +Professor E. F. Humphrey of Trinity College; Dr. James Sullivan, Director +of the Division of Archives and History, State Dept. of Education of New +York; Constantine E. McGuire, Assistant Secretary General, International +High Commission, Washington; Miss Margaret E. McGill, of the Newton +(Mass.) High School; and Miss Mabel Chesley, of the Erasmus Hall High +School, Brooklyn. The author would also express appreciation of the labors +of the cartographers, artists, and printers, to whose accuracy and skill +every page of the book bears witness. + +HUTTON WEBSTER + +LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, February, 1917 + + + + +[Illustration: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL GEMS. + 1 Steatite from Crete, two lions with forefeet on a pedestal, above + a sun + 2 Sardonyx from Elis, a goddess holding up a goat by the horns + 3 Rock crystal a bearded Triton + 4 Carnelian, a youth playing a trigonon + 5 Chalcedony from Athens, a Bacchante + 6 Sard, a woman reading a manuscript roll, before her a lyre + 7 Carnelian, Theseus + 8 Chalcedony, portrait head, Hellenistic Age + 9 Aquamarine, portrait of Julia daughter of the emperor Titus + 10 Chalcedony, portrait head, Hellenistic Age + 11 Carnelian, bust portrait of the Roman emperor Decius + 12 Beryl, portrait of Julia Domna wife of the emperor Septimius + Severus + 13 Sapphire, head of the Madonna + 14 Carnelian, the judgment of Paris, Renaissance work + 15 Rock crystal, Madonna with Jesus and St. Joseph, probably Norman + Sicilian work] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +LIST OF MAPS + +LIST OF PLATES + +SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY + +CHAPTER + +I. THE AGES BEFORE HISTORY. + + 1. The Study of History + 2. Prehistoric Peoples + 3. Domestication of Animals and Plants + 4. Writing and the Alphabet + 5. Primitive Science and Art + 6. Historic Peoples + +II. THE LANDS AND PEOPLES OF THE EAST TO ABOUT 500 B.C. + + 7. Physical Asia + 8. Babylonia and Egypt + 9. The Babylonians and the Egyptians + 10. The Phoenicians and the Hebrews + 11. The Assyrians + 12. The World Empire of Persia + +III. ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION. + + 13. Social Classes + 14. Economic Conditions + 15. Commerce and Trade Routes + 16. Law and Morality + 17. Religion + 18. Literature and Art + 19. Science and Education + +IV. THE LANDS OF THE WEST AND THE RISE OF GREECE TO ABOUT 500 B.C. + + 20. Physical Europe + 21. Greece and the Aegean + 22. The Aegean Age (to about 1100 B.C.) + 23. The Homeric Age (about 1100-750 B.C.) + 24. Early Greek Religion + 25. Religious Institutions--Oracles and Games + 26. The Greek City-State + 27. The Growth of Sparta (to 500 B.C.) + 28. The Growth of Athens (to 500 B.C.) + 29. Colonial Expansion of Greece (about 750-500 B.C.) + 30. Bonds of Union among the Greeks + +V. THE GREAT AGE OF THE GREEK REPUBLICS TO 362 B.C. + + 31. The Perils of Hellas + 32. Expeditions of Darius against Greece + 33. Xerxes and the Great Persian War + 34. Athens under Themistocles, Aristides, and Cimon + 35. Athens under Pericles + 36. The Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C. + 37. The Spartan and Theban Supremacies, 404-362 B.C. + 38. Decline of the City-State + +VI. MINGLING OF EAST AND WEST AFTER 359 B.C. + + 39. Philip and the Rise of Macedonia + 40. Demosthenes and the End of Greek Freedom + 41. Alexander the Great + 42. Conquest of Persia and the Far East, 334-323 B.C. + 43. The Work of Alexander + 44. Hellenistic Kingdoms and Cities + 45. The Hellenistic Age + 46. The Graeco-Oriental World + +VII. THE RISE OF ROME TO 264 B.C. + + 47. Italy and Sicily + 48. The Peoples of Italy + 49. The Romans + 50. Early Roman Society + 51. Roman Religion + 52. The Roman City State + 53. Expansion of Rome over Italy, 509 (?)-264 B.C. + 54. Italy under Roman Rule + 55. The Roman Army + +VIII. THE GREAT AGE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, 264-31 B.C. + + 56. The Rivals Rome and Carthage, 264-218 B.C. + 57. Hannibal and the Great Punic War, 218-201 B.C. + 58. Roman Supremacy in the West and in the East, 201-133 B.C. + 59. The Mediterranean World under Roman Rule + 60. The Gracchi + 61. Marius and Sulla + 62. Pompey and Caesar + 63. The Work of Caesar + 64. Antony and Octavian + 65. The End of an Epoch + +IX. THE EARLY EMPIRE: THE WORLD UNDER ROMAN RULE, 31 B.C.-l80 A.D. + + 66. Augustus, 31 B.C.-l4 A.D. + 67. The Successors of Augustus, 14-96 A.D. + 68. The "Good Emperors," 96-180 A.D. + 69. The Provinces of the Roman Empire + 70. The Roman Law and the Latin Language + 71. The Municipalities of the Roman Empire + 72. Economic and Social Conditions in the First and Second Centuries + 73. The Graeco-Roman World + +X. THE LATER EMPIRE: CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN WORLD, 180-395 A.D. + + 74. The "Soldier Emperors," 180-284 A.D. + 75. The "Absolute Emperors," 284-395 A.D. + 76. Economic and Social Conditions in the Third and Fourth Centuries + 77. The Preparation for Christianity + 78. Rise and Spread of Christianity + 79. The Persecutions + 80. Triumph of Christianity + 81. Christian Influence on Society + +XI. THE GERMANS TO 476 A.D. + + 82. Germany and the Germans + 83. Breaking of the Danube Barrier + 84. Breaking of the Rhine Barrier + 85. Inroads of the Huns + 86. End of the Roman Empire in the West, 476 A.D. + 87. Germanic Influence on Society + +XII. CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION. + + 88. The Classical City + 89. Education and the Condition of Children + 90. Marriage and the Position of Women + 91. The Home and Private Life + 92. Amusements + 93. Slavery + 94. Greek Literature + 95. Greek Philosophy + 96. Roman Literature + 97. Greek Architecture + 98. Greek Sculpture + 99. Roman Architecture and Sculpture + 100. Artistic Athens + 101. Artistic Rome + +XIII. WESTERN EUROPE DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES, 476-962 A.D. + + 102. The Ostrogoths in Italy, 488-553 A.D. + 103. The Lombards in Italy, 568-774 A.D. + 104. The Franks under Clovis and His Successors + 105. The Franks under Charles Martel and Pepin the Short + 106. The Reign of Charlemagne, 768-814 A.D. + 107. Charlemagne and the Revival of the Roman Empire, 800 A.D. + 108. Disruption of Charlemagne's Empire, 814-870 A.D. + 109. Germany under Saxon Kings, 919-973 A.D. + 110. Otto the Great and the Restoration of the Roman Empire, 962 A.D. + 111. The Anglo-Saxons in Britain, 449-839 A.D. + 112. Christianity in the British Isles + 113. The Fusion of Germans and Romans + +XIV. EASTERN EUROPE DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES, 395-1095 A.D. + + 114. The Roman Empire in the East + 115. The Reign of Justinian, 527-565 A.D. + 116. The Empire and its Asiatic Foes + 117. The Empire and its Foes in Europe + 118. Byzantine Civilization + 119. Constantinople + +XV. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST TO 1054 A.D. + + 120. Development of the Christian Church + 121. Eastern Christianity + 122. Western Christianity: Rise of the Papacy + 123. Growth of the Papacy + 124. Monasticism + 125. Life and Work of the Monks + 126. Spread of Christianity over Europe + 127. Separation of Eastern and Western Christianity + 128. The Greek Church + 129. The Roman Church + +XVI. THE ORIENT AGAINST THE OCCIDENT: RISE AND SPREAD OF ISLAM, + 622-1058 A.D. + + 130. Arabia and the Arabs + 131. Mohammed: Prophet and Statesman, 622-632 A.D. + 132. Islam and the Koran + 133. Expansion of Islam in Asia and Egypt + 134. Expansion of Islam in North Africa and Spain + 135. The Caliphate and its Disruption, 632-1058 A.D. + 136. Arabian Civilization + 137. The Influence of Islam + +XVII. THE NORTHMEN AND THE NORMANS TO 1066 A.D. + + 138. Scandinavia and the Northmen + 139. The Viking Age + 140. Scandinavian Heathenism + 141. The Northmen in the West + 142. The Northmen in the East + 143. Normandy and the Normans + 144. Conquest of England by the Danes; Alfred the Great + 145. Norman Conquest of England; William the Conqueror + 146. Results of the Norman Conquest + 147. Norman Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily + 148. The Normans in European History + +XVIII. FEUDALISM + + 149. Rise of Feudalism + 150. Feudalism as a System of Local Government + 151. Feudal Justice + 152. Feudal Warfare + 153. The Castle and Life of the Nobles + 154. Knighthood and Chivalry + 155. Feudalism as a System of Local Industry + 156. The Village and Life of the Peasants + 157. Serfdom + 158. Decline of Feudalism + +XIX THE PAPACY AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, 962-1273 A.D. + + 159. Characteristics of the Medieval Church + 160. Church Doctrine and Worship + 161. Church Jurisdiction + 162. The Secular Clergy + 163. The Regular Clergy + 164. The Friars + 165. Power of the Papacy + 166. Popes and Emperors, 962-1122 A.D. + 167. Popes and Emperors, 1122-1273 A.D. + 168. Significance of the Medieval Church + +XX. THE OCCIDENT AGAINST THE ORIENT, THE CRUSADES, 1095-1291 A.D. + + 169. Causes of the Crusades + 170. First Crusade, 1095-1099 A.D. + 171. Crusaders' States in Syria + 172. Second Crusade, 1147-1149 A.D., and Third Crusade, 1189-1192 A.D. + 173. Fourth Crusade and the Latin Empire of Constantinople, + 1202-1261 A.D. + 174. Results of the Crusades + +XXI THE MONGOLS AND THE OTTOMAN TURKS TO 1453 A.D. + + 175. The Mongols + 176. Conquests of the Mongols, 1206-1405 A.D. + 177. The Mongols in China and India + 178. The Mongols in Eastern Europe + 179. The Ottoman Turks and their Conquests, 1227-1453 A.D. + 180. The Ottoman Turks in Southeastern Europe + +XXII. EUROPEAN NATIONS DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES + + 181. Growth of the Nations + 182. England under William the Conqueror, 1066-1087 A.D., the Norman + Kingship + 183. England under Henry II, 1154-1189 A.D., Royal Justice and the + Common Law + 184. The Great Charter, 1215 A.D. + 185. Parliament during the Thirteenth Century + 186. Expansion of England under Edward I, 1272-1307 A.D. + 187. Unification of France, 987-1328 A.D. + 188. The Hundred Years' War between England and France, 1337-1453 A.D. + 189. The Unification of Spain (to 1492 A.D.) + 190. Austria and the Swiss Confederation, 1273-1499 A.D. + 191. Expansion of Germany + +XXIII. EUROPEAN CITIES DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES + + 192. Growth of the Cities + 193. City Life + 194. Civic Industry--the Guilds + 195. Trade and Commerce + 196. Money and Banking + 197. Italian Cities + 198. German Cities, the Hanseatic League + 199. The Cities of Flanders + +XXIV. MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION + + 200. Formation of National Languages + 201. Development of National Literatures + 202. Romanesque and Gothic Architecture, the Cathedrals + 203. Education, the Universities + 204. Scholasticism + 205. Science and Magic + 206. Popular Superstitions + 207. Popular Amusements and Festivals + 208. Manners and Customs + +XXV. THE RENAISSANCE + + 209. Meaning of the Renaissance + 210. Revival of Learning in Italy + 211. Paper and Printing + 212. Revival of Art in Italy + 213. Revival of Learning and Art beyond Italy + 214. The Renaissance in Literature + 215. The Renaissance in Education + 216. The Scientific Renaissance + 217. The Economic Renaissance + +XXVI. GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION + + 218. Medieval Geography + 219. Aids to Exploration + 220. To the Indies Eastward--Prince Henry and Da Gama + 221. The Portuguese Colonial Empire + 222. To the Indies Westward: Columbus and Magellan + 223. The Indians + 224. Spanish Explorations and Conquests in America + 225. The Spanish Colonial Empire + 226. French and English Explorations in America + 227. The Old World and the New + +XXVII. THE REFORMATION AND THE RELIGIOUS WARS, 1517-1648 A.D. + + 228. Decline of the Papacy + 229. Heresies and Heretics + 230. Martin Luther and the Beginning of the Reformation in Germany, + 1517-1522 A.D. + 231. Charles V and the Spread of the German Reformation, 1519-1556 A.D. + 232. The Reformation in Switzerland: Zwingli and Calvin + 233. The English Reformation, 1533-1558 A.D. + 234. The Protestant Sects + 235. The Catholic Counter Reformation + 236. Spain under Philip II, 1556-1598 A.D. + 237. Revolt of the Netherlands + 238. England under Elizabeth, 1558-1603 A.D. + 239. The Huguenot Wars in France + 240. The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 A.D. + +XXVIII. ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND, 1603-1715 A.D. + + 241. The Divine Right of Kings + 242. The Absolutism of Louis XIV, 1661-1715 A.D. + 243. France under Louis XIV + 244. The Wars of Louis XIV + 245. The Absolutism of the Stuarts, 1603-1642 A.D. + 246. Oliver Cromwell and the Civil War, 1642-1649 A.D. + 247. The Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 1649-1660 A.D. + 248. The Restoration and the "Glorious Revolution," 1660-1689 A.D. + 249. England in the Seventeenth Century + +APPENDIX--Table of Events and Dates + +INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Disk of Phaestus. + A Papyrus Manuscript. + A Prehistoric Egyptian Grave. + A Hatchet of the Early Stone Age. + Arrowheads of the Later Stone Age. + Early Roman Bar Money. + Various Signs of Symbolic Picture Writing. + Mexican Rebus. + Chinese Picture Writing and Later Conventional Characters. + Cretan Writing. + Egyptian and Babylonian Writing. + The Moabite Stone (Louvre, Paris). + Head of a Girl (Musée S. Germain, Paris). + Sketch of Mammoth on a Tusk found in a Cave in France. + Bison painted on the Wall of a Cave. + Cave Bear drawn on a Pebble. + Wild Horse on the Wall of a Cave in Spain. + A Dolmen. + Carved Menhir. + Race Portraiture of the Egyptians. + The Great Wall of China. + Philae. + Top of Monument containing the Code of Hammurabi (British Museum, + London). + Khufu (Cheops), Builder of the Great Pyramid. + Menephtah, the supposed Pharaoh of the Exodus. + Head of Mummy of Rameses II (Museum of Gizeh). + The Great Pyramid. + The Great Sphinx. + A Phoenician War Galley. + An Assyrian. + An Assyrian Relief (British Museum, London). + The Ishtar Gate, Babylon. + The Tomb of Cyrus the Great. + Darius with his Attendants. + Rock Sepulchers of the Persian Kings. + A Royal Name in Hieroglyphics (Rosetta Stone). + An Egyptian Court Scene. + Plowing and Sowing in Ancient Egypt. + Transport of an Assyrian Colossus. + Egyptian weighing Cow Gold. + Babylonian Contract Tablet. + An Egyptian Scarab. + Amenhotep IV. + Mummy and Cover of Coffin (U.S. National Museum, Washington). + The Judgment of the Dead. + The Deluge Tablet (British Museum, London). + An Egyptian Temple (Restored). + An Egyptian Wooden Statue (Museum of Gizeh). + An Assyrian Palace (Restored). + An Assyrian Winged Human headed Bull. + An Assyrian Hunting Scene (British Museum, London). + A Babylonian Map of the World. + An Egyptian Scribe (Louvre, Paris). + Excavations at Nippur. + Excavations at Troy. + Lions' Gate, Mycenae. + Silver Fragment from Mycenae (National Museum, Athens). + A Cretan Girl (Museum of Candia, Crete). + Aegean Snake Goddess (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). + A Cretan Cupbearer (Museum of Candia, Crete). + The François Vase (Archaeological Museum, Florence). + Consulting the Oracle at Delphi. + The Discus Thrower (Lancelotti Palace, Rome). + Athlete using the Strigil (Vatican Gallery, Rome). + "Temple of Neptune," Paestum. + Croesus on the Pyre. + Persian Archers (Louvre, Paris). + Gravestone of Aristion (National Museum, Athens). + Greek Soldiers in Arms. + The Mound at Marathon. + A Themistocles Ostrakon (British Museum, London). + An Athenian Trireme (Reconstruction). + "Theseum". + Pericles (British Museum, London). + An Athenian Inscription. + The "Mourning Athena" (Acropolis Museum, Athens). + A Silver Coin of Syracuse. + Philip II. + Demosthenes (Vatican Museum, Rome). + Alexander (Glyptothek, Munich). + The Alexander Mosaic (Naples Museum). + A Greek Cameo (Museum, Vienna). + The Dying Gaul (Capitoline Museum, Rome). + A Graeco-Etruscan Chariot (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). + An Etruscan Arch. + Characters of the Etruscan Alphabet. + An Early Roman Coin. + A Roman Farmer's Calendar. + Cinerary Urns in Terra Cotta (Vatican Museum, Rome). + A Vestal Virgin. + Suovetaurilia (Louvre, Paris). + An Etruscan Augur. + Coop with Sacred Chickens. + Curule Chair and Fasces. + The Appian Way. + A Roman Legionary. + A Roman Standard Bearer (Bonn Museum). + Column of Duilius (Restored). + A Carthaginian or Roman Helmet (British Museum, London). + A Testudo. + Storming a City (Reconstruction). + Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Spada Palace, Rome). + Marcus Tullius Cicero (Vatican Museum, Rome). + Gaius Julius Caesar (British Museum, London). + A Roman Coin with the Head of Julius Caesar. + Augustus (Vatican Museum, Rome). + Monumentum Ancyranum. + Pompeii. + Nerva (Vatican Museum, Rome). + Column of Trajan. + The Pantheon. + The Tomb of Hadrian. + Marcus Aurelius in his Triumphal Car (Palace of the Conservatori, Rome). + Wall of Hadrian in Britain. + Roman Baths, at Bath, England. + A Roman Freight Ship. + A Roman Villa. + A Roman Temple. + The Amphitheater at Arles. + A Megalith at Baalbec + The Wall of Rome + A Mithraic Monument + Modern Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives + Madonna and Child + Christ the Good Shepherd (Imperial Museum, Constantinople) + Interior of the Catacombs + The Labarum + Arch of Constantine + Runic Alphabet + A Page of the Gothic Gospels (Reduced) + An Athenian School (Royal Museum, Berlin) + A Roman School Scene + Youth reading a Papyrus Roll + House of the Vettii at Pompeii (Restored) + Atrium of a Pompeian House + Pompeian Floor Mosaic + Peristyle of a Pompeian House + A Greek Banquet + A Roman Litter + Theater of Dionysus, Athens + A Dancing Girl + The Circus Maximus (Restoration) + Gladiators + A Slave's Collar + Sophocles (Lateran Museum, Rome) + Socrates (Vatican Museum, Rome) + Corner of a Doric Façade + Corner of an Ionic Façade + Corinthian Capital + Composite Capital + Tuscan Capital + Interior View of the Ulpian Basilica (Restoration) + A Roman Aqueduct + The Colosseum (Exterior) + The Colosseum (Interior) + A Roman Cameo + Tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna + Charlemagne (Lateran Museum Rome) + The Iron Crown of Lombardy + Cathedral at Aix la Chapelle + Ring Seal of Otto the Great + Anglo Saxon Drinking Horn + St. Martin's Church, Canterbury + Canterbury Cathedral + A Mosaic of Justinian + The Three Existing Monuments of the Hippodrome, Constantinople + Religious Music + The Nestorian Monument + Papal Arms + St. Daniel the Stylite on his Column + Abbey of Saint Germain des Prés, Paris + A Monk Copyist + Mecca + A Letter of Mohammed + A Passage from the Koran + Naval Battle showing Use of "Greek Fire" + Interior of the Mosque of Cordova + Capitals and Arabesques from the Alhambra + Swedish Rock Carving + A Runic Stone + A Viking Ship + Norse Metal Work (Museum, Copenhagen) + Alfred the Great + Alfred's Jewel (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) + A Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry (Museum of Bayeux, Normandy) + Trial by Combat + Mounted Knight + Pierrefonds + Château Gaillard (Restored) + King and Jester + Falconry + Farm Work in the Fourteenth Century + Pilgrims to Canterbury + A Bishop ordaining a Priest + St. Francis blessing the Birds + The Spiritual and the Temporal Power + Henry IV, Countess Matilda, and Gregory VII + Contest between Crusaders and Moslems + "Mosque of Omar," Jerusalem + Effigy of a Knight Templar + Richard I in Prison + Hut-Wagon of the Mongols (Reconstruction) + Tomb of Timur at Samarkand + Mohammed II + The "White Tower" + A Passage from Domesday Book + Windsor Castle + Extract from the Great Charter + Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey + A Queen Eleanor Cross + Royal Arms of Edward III + English Archer + Walls of Carcassonne + A Scene in Rothenburg + House of the Butchers' Guild, Hildesheim, Germany + Baptistery, Cathedral, and "Leaning Tower" of Pisa + Venice and the Grand Canal + Belfry of Bruges + Town Hall of Louvain, Belgium + Geoffrey Chaucer + Roland at Roncesvalles + Cross Section of Amiens Cathedral + Gargoyles on the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris + View of New College, Oxford + Tower of Magdalen College, Oxford + Roger Bacon + Magician rescued from the Devil + The Witches' Sabbath + Chess Pieces of Charlemagne + Bear Baiting + Mummers + A Miracle Play at Coventry, England + Manor House in Shropshire, England + Interior of an English Manor House + Costumes of Ladies during the Later Middle Ages + Dante Alighieri + Petrarch + An Early Printing Press + Facsimile of Part of Caxton's "Aeneid" (Reduced) + Desiderius Erasmus (Louvre, Paris) + Cervantes + William Shakespeare + Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon + Richard II + Geographical Monsters + An Astrolabe + Vasco da Gama + Christopher Columbus (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid) + Isabella + Ship of 1492 A.D. + The Name "America" + Ferdinand Magellan + Aztec Sacrificial Knife + Aztec Sacrificial Stone + Cabot Memorial Tower + John Wycliffe + Martin Luther + Charles V + John Calvin + Henry VIII + Ruins of Melrose Abbey + Chained Bible + St. Ignatius Loyola + Philip II + The Escorial + William the Silent + Elizabeth + Crown of Elizabeth's Reign + London Bridge in the Time of Elizabeth + The Spanish Armada in the English Channel + Cardinal Richelieu (Louvre, Paris.) + Gustavus Adolphus + Cardinal Mazarin + Louis XIV + Versailles + Medal of Louis XIV + Marlborough + Gold Coin of James I + A Puritan Family + Charles I + Execution of the Earl of Strafford + Oliver Cromwell + Interior of Westminster Hall + Great Seal of England under the Commonwealth (Reduced) + Boys' Sports + Silver Crown of Charles II + A London Bellman + Coach and Sedan Chair + Death Mask of Sir Isaac Newton + + + + +LIST OF MAPS + + + Distribution of Semitic and Indo-European Peoples. + Physical Map of Asia. + Egyptian Empire (about 1450 B.C.) + Canaan as divided among the Tribes. + Solomon's Kingdom. + Assyrian Empire (about 660 B.C.) + Lydia, Media, Babylonia, and Egypt (about 550 B.C.) + Persian Empire at its Greatest Extent (about 500 B.C.) + Ancient Trade Routes + Phœnician and Greek Colonies. + Physical Map of Europe. + Ancient Greece and the Aegean. + Aegean Civilization. + Greek Conquests and Migrations. + The World according to Homer, 900 B.C. + Greece at the Opening of the Persian Wars, 490 B.C. + Vicinity of Athens. + Greece at the Opening of the Peloponnesian War. + Route of the Ten Thousand. + Empire of Alexander the Great (about 323 B.C.) + Kingdoms of Alexander's Successors (about 200 B.C.) + The World according to Eratosthenes, 200 B.C. + The World according to Ptolemy, 150 A.D. + Ancient Italy and Sicily. + Vicinity of Rome. + Expansion of Roman Dominions in Italy, 509-264 B.C. + Colonies and Military Roads in Italy. + Expansion of Roman Dominions, 264-133 B.C. + Expansion of Roman Dominions, 133-31 B.C. + Expansion of Roman Dominions, 31 B.C.-180 A.D. + Plan of Jerusalem and its Environs. + Roman Britain. + Roman Empire (about 395 A.D.) + Palestine. + Growth of Christianity to the End of the Fourth Century. + Germanic Migrations to 476 A.D. + Europe at the Deposition of Romulus Augustulus, 476 A.D. + Plan of the Ulpian Basilica + Plan of Ancient Athens + Plan of the Parthenon + Plan of Ancient Rome + Europe at the Death of Theodoric, 526 A.D. + Europe at the Death of Justinian, 565 A.D. + Growth of the Frankish Dominions, 481-768 A.D. + Europe in the Age of Charlemagne, 800 A.D. + The Frankish Dominions as divided by the Treaties of Verdun + (843 A.D.) and Mersen (870 A.D.) + Europe in the Age of Otto the Great, 972 A.D. + Anglo-Saxon Britain + Peoples of Europe at the Beginning of the Tenth Century + The Roman Empire in the East during the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries + Vicinity of Constantinople + Plan of Constantinople + Plan of Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire + Growth of Christianity from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Century + Expansion of Islam + Discoveries of the Northmen in the West + England under Alfred the Great + Dominions of William the Conqueror + Plan of Château Gaillard + Plan of Hitchin Manor, Hertfordshire + Germany and Italy during the Interregnum, 1254-1273 A.D. + Mediterranean Lands after the Fourth Crusade, 1202-1204 A.D. + The Mongol Empire + Russia at the End of the Middle Ages + Empire of the Ottoman Turks at the Fall of Constantinople, 1453 A.D. + Dominions of the Plantagenets in England and France + Scotland in the Thirteenth Century + Unification of France during the Middle Ages + Unification of Spain during the Middle Ages + Growth of the Hapsburg Possessions + The Swiss Confederation, 1291-1513 A.D. + German Expansion Eastward during the Middle Ages + Trade Routes between Northern and Southern Europe in the + Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries + Medieval Trade Routes + Plan of Salisbury Cathedral, England + The World according to Cosmas Indicopleustes, 535 A.D. + The Hereford Map, 1280 A.D. + Behaim's Globe + Portuguese and Spanish Colonial Empires in the Sixteenth Century + The West Indies + An Early Map of the New World (1540 A.D.) + The Great Schism, 1378-1417 A.D. + Europe at the Beginning of the Reformation, 1519 A.D. + Extent of the Reformation, 1524-1572 A.D. + The Netherlands in the Sixteenth Century + Western Europe in the Time of Elizabeth + Europe at the End of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 A.D. + Acquisitions of Louis XIV and Louis XV + Europe after the Peace of Utrecht, 1713 A.D. + England and Wales--The Civil Wars of the Seventeenth Century + Ireland in the Sixteenth Century + + + + +LIST OF PLATES + + + Ancient and Medieval Gems + Stonehenge + The Rosetta Stone (British Museum, London) + The Vaphio Gold Cups (National Museum, Athens) + Greek Gods and Goddesses: Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Aphrodite + Aphrodite of Melos (Louvre, Paris) + Hermes and Dionysus (Museum of Olympia) + Sarcophagus from Sidon (Imperial Ottoman Museum, Constantinople) + Laocoön and his Children (Vatican Museum, Rome) + Victory of Samothrace (Louvre, Paris) + Oriental, Greek, and Roman Coins + A Scene in Sicily + Bay of Naples and Vesuvius + Relief on the Arch of Titus + The Parthenon + Views of Pediment and Frieze of Parthenon + Acropolis of Athens (Restoration) + Acropolis of Athens from the Southwest + Roman Forum and Surrounding Buildings (Restored) + Roman Forum at the Present Time + Sancta Sophia, Constantinople + Fountain of Lions in the Alhambra + The Taj Mahal, Agra + Campanile and Doge's Palace, Venice + Illuminated Manuscript + Reims Cathedral + Cologne Cathedral + Interior of King's College Chapel, Cambridge + Ghiberti's Bronze Doors at Florence + St. Peter's, Rome + Italian Paintings of the Renaissance + Flemish, Spanish, and Dutch Paintings of the Renaissance + + + + +SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY + + +PERIODICALS + +All serious students of history should have access to the _American +Historical Review_ (N. Y., 1895 to date, quarterly, $4.00 a year). This +journal, the organ of the American Historical Association, contains +articles by scholars, critical reviews of all important works, and notes +and news. The _History Teacher's Magazine_ is edited under the supervision +of a committee of the American Historical Association (Philadelphia, 1909 +to date, monthly, $2.00 a year). Every well-equipped school library should +contain the files of the _National Geographic Magazine_ (Washington, 1890 +to date, monthly, $2.00 a year) and of _Art and Archeology_ (Washington, +1914 to date, monthly, $3.00 a year). These two periodicals make a special +feature of illustrations. + +WORKS ON THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF HISTORY + +Useful books for the teacher's library include H. E. Bourne, _The Teaching +of History and Civics in the Elementary and the Secondary School_ (N. Y., +1902, Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.50), Henry Johnson, _The Teaching of +History_ (N. Y., 1915, Macmillan, $1.40), H. B. George, _Historical +Evidence_ (N.Y., 1909, Oxford University Press, American Branch, 75 +cents), Frederic Harrison, _The Meaning of History and Other Historical +Pieces_ (New ed., N.Y., 1900, Macmillan, $1.75), J. H. Robinson, _The New +History_ (N. Y., 1912, Macmillan, $1.50), and H. B. George, _The Relations +of History and Geography_ (4th ed., N. Y., 1910, Oxford University Press, +American Branch, $1.10). The following reports are indispensable: + +_The Study of History in Schools_. Report to the American Historical +Association by the Committee of Seven (N. Y., 1899, Macmillan, 50 cents). + +_The Study of History in Secondary Schools_. Report to the American +Historical Association by a Committee of Five (N. Y., 1911, Macmillan, 25 +cents). + +_Historical Sources in Schools._ Report to the New England History +Teachers' Association by a Select Committee (N. Y., 1902, Macmillan, out +of print). + +_A History Syllabus for Secondary Schools_. Report by a Special Committee +of the New England History Teachers' Association (N. Y., 1904, Heath, +$1.32). + +_A Bibliography of History for Schools and Libraries._ Published under the +auspices of the Association of History Teachers of the Middle States and +Maryland (2d ed., N. Y., 1915, Longmans, Green, and Co., 60 cents). + +DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS + +The most useful dictionaries of classical antiquities are H. B. Walters, +_A Classical Dictionary_ (N. Y., 1916, Putnam, $6.50) and H. T. Peck, +_Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities_ (N. Y., +1897, American Book Co., $6.00). Cambridge University, England, has +published _A Companion to Greek Studies_, edited by L. Whibley (2d ed., N. +Y., 1906, Putnam, $6.00), and _A Companion to Latin Studies_, edited by J. +E. Sandys (N. Y., 1911, Putnam, $6.00). These two volumes treat every +phase of ancient life in separate essays by distinguished scholars. For +chronology, genealogies, lists of sovereigns, and other data the most +valuable works are Arthur Hassall, _European History, 476-1910_ (new ed., +N. Y., 1910, Macmillan, $2.25), G. P. Putnam, _Tabular Views of Universal +History_ (new ed., N. Y., 1915, Putnam, $2.50), and Karl J. Ploetz, _A +Handbook of Universal History_, translated by W. H. Tillinghast (Boston, +1915, Houghton Mifflin Co., $3.00). + + +SYLLABI + +The _Illustrated Topics for Ancient History_, arranged by D. C. Knowlton +(Philadelphia, McKinley Publishing Co., 65 cents), contain much valuable +material in the shape of a syllabus, source quotations, outline maps, +pictures, and other aids. The following syllabi have been prepared for +collegiate instruction: + +Botsford, G. W. _A Syllabus of Roman History_ (N. Y., 1915, Macmillan, 50 +cents). + +Munro, D. C., and SELLERY, G. C. _A Syllabus of Medieval History, 395- +1500_ (N. Y., 1913, Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.00). + +Richardson, O. H. _Syllabus of Continental European History from the Fall +of Rome to 1870_ (Boston, 1904, Ginn, boards, 75 cents). + +Stephenson, Andrew. _Syllabus of Lectures on European History_ (Terre +Haute, Ind., 1897, Inland Publishing Co., $1.50). + +Thompson, J. W. _Reference Studies in Medieval History_ (2d ed., Chicago, +1914, University of Chicago Press, $1.25). A rich collection of classified +references. + +ATLASES + +An admirable collection of maps for school use is W. R. Shepherd, +_Historical Atlas_ (N. Y., 1911, Holt, $2.50), with about two hundred and +fifty maps covering the historical field. The latest and one of the best +of the classical atlases is _Murray's Small Classical Atlas_, edited by G. +B. Grundy (N. Y., 1904, Oxford University Press, American Branch, $1.35). +A special feature of this work is the adoption of the system of colored +contours to indicate configuration. The _Atlas of Ancient and Classical +Geography_ in "Everyman's Library" (N. Y., 1910, Dutton, 35 cents) might +well be purchased by every student. Other valuable works are E. W. Dow, +_Atlas of European History_ (N. Y., 1907, Holt, $1.50) and Ramsay Muir, _A +New School Atlas of Modern History_ (N. Y., 1911, Holt, $1.25). Much use +can be made of the inexpensive and handy _Literary and Historical Atlas of +Europe_ by J. G. Bartholomew in "Everyman's Library" (N. Y., 1910, Dutton, +35 cents). + +WALL MAPS AND CHARTS + +Kiepert's _New Wall Maps of Ancient History_ (Chicago, Rand, McNally, and +Co.) and Johnston's _Classical Series_ (Chicago, A. J. Nystrom and Co.) +may be obtained singly, mounted on common rollers, or by sets in a case +with spring rollers. The text is in Latin. The Spruner-Bretschneider +_Historical Maps_ are ten in number, size 62 x 52 inches, and cover the +period from A.D. 350 to 1815. The text is in German (Chicago, Nystrom, +each $6.00; Rand, McNally, and Co., each $6.50). Johnston's _Maps of +English and European History_ are sixteen in number, size 40 x 30 inches, +and include four maps of ancient history (Chicago, Nystrom, each $2.50). A +new series of _European History Maps_, thirty-nine in number, size 44 x 32 +inches, has been prepared for the study of ancient history by Professors +J. H. Breasted and C. F. Huth, and for medieval and modern history by +Professor S. B. Harding (Chicago, Denoyer-Geppert Co., complete set with +tripod stand, $52.00; in two spring roller cases, $73.00). These maps may +also be had separately. The maps in this admirable series omit all +irrelevant detail, present place names in the modern English form, and in +choice of subject matter emphasize the American viewpoint. The school +should also possess good physical wall maps such as the Sydow-Habenicht or +the Kiepert series, both to be obtained from Rand, McNally, and Co. The +text is in German. Phillips's _Model Test Maps_ and Johnston's _New Series +of Physical Wall Maps_ are obtainable from A. J. Nystrom and Co. The only +large charts available are those prepared by MacCoun for his _Historical +Geography Charts of Europe_. The two sections, "Ancient and Classical" and +"Medieval and Modern," are sold separately (N. Y., Silver, Burdett, and +Co., $15.00). A helpful series of _Blackboard Outline Maps_ is issued by +J. L. Engle, Beaver, Penn. These are wall maps, printed with paint on +blackboard cloth, for use with an ordinary crayon. Such maps are also sold +by the Denoyer-Geppert Co., Chicago. + +OUTLINE MAPS + +The "Studies" following each chapter of this book include various +exercises for which small outline maps are required. Such maps are sold by +D. C. Heath and Co., Boston, New York, Chicago. Useful atlases of outline +maps are also to be had of the McKinley Publishing Co., Philadelphia, +Atkinson, Mentzer and Grover, Chicago, W. B. Harison, New York City, and +of other publishers. + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The best photographs of ancient works of art must usually be obtained from +the foreign publishers in Naples, Florence, Rome, Munich, Paris, Athens, +and London, or from their American agents. Such photographs, in the usual +size, 8 x 10 inches, sell, unmounted, at from 6 to 8 francs a dozen. All +dealers in lantern slides issue descriptive catalogues of a great variety +of archaeological subjects. In addition to photographs and lantern slides, +a collection of stereoscopic views is very helpful in giving vividness and +interest to instruction in ancient history. An admirable series of +photographs for the stereoscope, including Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and +Italy, is issued by Underwood and Underwood, New York City. The same firm +supplies convenient maps and handbooks for use in this connection. The +Keystone stereographs, prepared by the Keystone View Company, Meadville, +Penn., may also be cordially recommended. The architecture, costumes, +amusements, and occupations of the Middle Ages in England are shown in +_Longmans' Historical Illustrations_ (six portfolios, each containing +twelve plates in black-and-white, Longmans, Green, and Co., 90 cents, each +portfolio). The same firm issues _Longmans' Historical Wall Pictures_, +consisting of twelve colored pictures from original paintings illustrating +English history (each picture, separately, 80 cents; in a portfolio, +$10.50). Other notable collections are Lehmann's _Geographical Pictures, +Historical Pictures_, and _Types of Nations_, and Cybulski's _Historical +Pictures_ (Chicago, Denoyer-Geppert Co.; each picture separately mounted +on rollers, $1.35 to $2.25). The New England History Teachers' Association +publishes a series of _Authentic Pictures for Class Room Use_, size 5 x 8 +inches, price 3 cents each. The _Catalogue of the Collection of Historical +Material at Simmons College_, prepared by the New England History +Teachers' Association (2d ed., Boston, 1912, Houghton Mifflin Co., 25 +cents), contains an extensive list of pictures, slides, models, and other +aids to history teaching. Among the more useful collections in book form +of photographic reproductions and drawings are the following: + +Fechneimer, Hedwig. _Die Plastik der Ägypter_ (2d. ed., Berlin, 1914, B. +Cassirer, 12 marks). 156 plates of Egyptian sculpture. + +Fougères, Gustvae. _La vie publique et privée des Grecs et des Romains_ +(2d ed., Paris, 1900, Hachette, 15 francs). An album of 85 pictures. + +Furtwängler, Adolf. _Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture_ (N. Y., Scribner, +$15.00). + +Hekler, Anton. _Greek and Roman Portraits_ (N. Y., 1913, Putnam, $7.50). +311 plates, with comment and bibliography. + +Hill, G. F. _Illustrations of School Classics_ (N. Y., 1903, Macmillan, +$2.50). + +Muzik, H., and Perschinka, F. _Kunst und Leben im Altertum_ (Vienna, 1909, +F. Tempsky; Leipzig, G. Freytag, 4.40 marks). + +Osborne, Duffield. _Engraved Gems_ (N. Y., 1913, Holt, $6.00). + +Parmentier, A. _Album historique_ (Paris, 1894-1905, Colin, 4 vols., each +15 francs). Illustrations covering the medieval and modern periods, with +descriptive text in French. + +Rheinhard, Hermann. _Album des klassischen Altertums_ (Stuttgart, 1882, +Hoffman, 18 marks). 72 pictures in colors. + +Rouse, W. H. D. _Atlas of Classical Portraits._ Greek Section, Roman +Section (London, 1898, Dent, 2 vols., each 1_s_. 6_d_.). Small, half-tone +engravings, accompanied by brief biographies. + +Schreiber, Theodor. _Atlas of Classical Antiquities_ (N. Y., 1895, +Macmillan, $6.50). + +WORKS OF TRAVEL + +To vitalize the study of geography and history there is nothing better +than the reading of modern books of travel. Among these may be mentioned: + +Allinson, F. G. and Allinson, Anne C. E. _Greek Lands and Letters_ +(Boston, 1909, Houghton Mifflin Co., $2.50). An entertaining work of +mingled history and geography. + +Barrows, S. J. _The Isles and Shrines of Greece_ (Boston, 1898, Little, +Brown, and Co., $2.00). + +Clark, F. E. _The Holy Land of Asia Minor_ (N. Y., 1914, Scribner, $1.00). +Popular sketches. + +Dunning, H. W. _To-day on the Nile_ (N. Y., 1905, Pott, $2.50). + +------ _To-day in Palestine_ (N. Y., 1907, Pott, $2.50). + +Dwight, H. G. _Constantinople, Old and New_ (N. Y., 1915, Scribner, +$5.00). + +Edwards, Amelia B. _A Thousand Miles up the Nile_ (2d ed., N. Y., 1888, +Dutton, $2.50). + +Forman, H. J. _The Ideal Italian Tour_ (Boston, 1911, Houghton Mifflin +Co., $1.50). A brief and attractive volume covering all Italy. + +Hay, John. _Castilian Days_ (Boston, 1871, Houghton Mifflin Co., $1.25). + +Hutton, Edward, _Rome_ (N. Y., 1909, Macmillan, $2.00). + +Jackson, A. V. W. _Persia, Past and Present_ (N. Y., 1906, Macmillan, +$4.00). + +Lucas, E. V. _A Wanderer in Florence_ (N. Y., 1912, Macmillan, $1.75). + +Manatt, J. I. _Aegean Days_ (Boston, 1913, Houghton Mifflin Co., $3.00). +Describes the most important islands of the Aegean. + +Marden, P. S. _Greece and the Aegean Islands_ (Boston, 1907, Houghton +Mifflin Co., $3.00). + +Paton, W. A. _Picturesque Sicily_ (2d ed., N. Y., 1902, Harper, $2.50). + +Richardson, R. B. _Vacation Days in Greece_ (N. Y., 1903, Scribner, +$2.00). + +Warner, C. D. _In the Levant_ (N. Y., 1876, Harper, $2.00). + +HISTORICAL FICTION + +The following works of historical fiction comprise only a selection from a +very large number of books suitable for supplementary reading. For +extended bibliographies see E. A. Baker, _A Guide to Historical Fiction_ +(new ed., N. Y., 1914, Macmillan, $6.00) and Jonathan Nield, _A Guide to +the Best Historical Novels and Tales_ (3d ed., N. Y., 1904, Putnam, +$1.75). An excellent list of historical stories, especially designed for +children, will be found in the _Bibliography of History for Schools and +Libraries_, parts viii-ix. + +Bulwer-Lytton, Edward. _The Last Days of Pompeii_ (Boston, 1834, Little, +Brown, and Co., $1.25). + +Champney, Elizabeth W. _The Romance of Imperial Rome_ (N. Y., 1910, +Putnam, $3.50). + +Church, A. J. _Roman Life in the Days of Cicero_ (N. Y., 1883, Macmillan, +50 cents). + +------ _Stories of Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers of France_ (N. Y., +1902, Macmillan, $1.75). + +Cox, G. W. _Tales of Ancient Greece_ (Chicago, 1868, McClurg, $1.00). + +Dahn, Felix, _Felicitas_ (Chicago, 1883, McClurg, 75 cents). Rome, 476 +A.D. + +Doyle, A. C. _The White Company_ (Boston, 1890, Caldwell, 75 cents). The +English in France and Castile, 1366-1367 A.D. + +Ebers, Georg, _Uarda_ (N. Y., 1877, Appleton, 2 vols., $1.50). Egypt, +fourteenth century B.C. + +Eliot, George. _Romola_ (N. Y., 1863, Dutton, 35 cents). Florence and +Savonarola in the latter part of the fifteenth century. + +Fénelon, François. _Adventures of Telemachus_, translated by Dr. +Hawkesworth (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., $2.25). + +Hale, E. E. _In His Name_ (Boston, 1873, Little, Brown, and Co., $1.00). +The Waldenses about 1179 A.D. + +Hardy, A. S. _Passe Rose_ (Boston, 1889, Houghton Mifflin Co., $1.25). +Franks and Saxons of Charlemagne's time. + +Hawthorne, Nathaniel. _The Scarlet Letter_ (N. Y., 1850, Dutton, 35 +cents). Massachusetts in the seventeenth century. + +Henty, G. A. _The Young Carthaginian_ (N. Y., 1886, Scribner, $1.50). +Second Punic War. + +Hugo, Victor. _Notre Dame_ (N. Y. 1831, Dutton, 35 cents). Paris, late +fifteenth century. + +Irving, Washington. _The Alhambra_ (N. Y., 1832, Putnam, $1.00). Sketches +of the Moors and Spaniards. + +Jacobs, Joseph (editor). _The Most Delectable History of Reynard the Fox_ +(N. Y., 1895, Macmillan, $1.50). + +Kingsley, Charles S. _Hypatia_ (N. Y., 1853, Macmillan, $1.25). +Alexandria, 391 A.D. + +------ _Westward Ho!_ (N. Y., 1855, Button, 35 Cents). Voyages of +Elizabethan seamen and the struggle with Spain. + +Kipling, Rudyard. _Puck of Pooks Hill_ (N. Y., 1906, Doubleday, Page, and +Co., $1.50). Roman occupation of Britain. + +Lang, Andrew. _The Monk of Fife_ (N. Y., 1895, Longmans, Green, and Co., +$1.25). The Maid of Orleans and the Hundred Years' War. + +Lane, E. W. (translator). _The Arabian Nights' Entertainments_ (2d ed., N. +Y., 1859, Macmillan, 35 cents). + +London, Jack. _Before Adam_ (N. Y., 1907, Macmillan, $1.50). Prehistoric +life. + +Manzoni, Alessandro. _The Betrothed_ (N. Y., 1825, Macmillan, 2 vols., 70 +cents). Milan under Spanish rule, 1628-1630 A.D. + +Mason, Eugene (translator). _Aucassin and Nicolette and other Medieval +Romances, and Legends_ (N. Y., 1910, Dutton, 35 cents). + +Newman, J. H. _Callista_ (N. Y., 1856, Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.25). +Persecution of Christians in North Africa, 250 A.D. + +Reade, Charles. _The Cloister and the Hearth_ (N. Y., 1861, Dutton, 35 +cents). Eve of the Reformation. + +Scheffel, J. Von. _Ekkehard_, translated by Helena Easson (N. Y., 1857, +Dutton, 35 cents). Germany in the tenth century. + +Scott, (Sir) Walter. _The Talisman_ (N. Y., 1825, Dutton, 35 cents). Reign +of Richard I, 1193 A.D. + +------ Ivanhoe (N. Y., Heath, 50 cents). Richard I, 1194 A.D. + +Sienkiewicz, Henryk. _Quo Vadis?_ (Boston, 1896, Little, Brown, and Co., +$2.00). Reign of Nero. + +Stevenson, R. L. _The Black Arrow_ (N. Y., 1888, Scribner, $1.00). War of +the Roses. + +"Twain, Mark." _A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur_ (N. Y., +1889, Harper, $1.75). + +Wallace, Lew. _Ben-Hur; a Tale of the Christ_ (N. Y., 1880, Harper, +$1.50). + +Waterloo, Stanley. _The Story of Ab_ (2d ed., N. Y., 1905, Doubleday, +Page, and Co., $1.50). Prehistoric life. + +HISTORICAL POETRY + +It is unnecessary to emphasize the value, as collateral reading, of +historical poems and plays. To the brief list which follows should be +added the material in Katharine Lee Bates and Katharine Coman, _English +History told by English Poets_ (N. Y., 1902, Macmillan, 60 cents). + +Browning, Robert. _Echetlos and Pheidippides._ + +Burns, Robert. _The Battle of Bannockburn._ + +Byron (Lord). _Song of Saul before His Last Battle, The Destruction of +Sennacherib, Belshazzar's Feast, Prometheus,_ "Greece" (_The Corsair_, +canto iii, lines 1-54), "Modern Greece" (_Childe Harold_, canto ii, +stanzas 85-91), "The Death of Greece" (_The Giaour_, lines 68-141), "The +Isles of Greece" (_Don Juan_, canto in), and "The Colosseum" (_Childe +Harold_, canto iv, stanzas 140-145). + +Clough, A. H. _Columbus_. + +Coleridge, S. T. _Kubla Khan_. + +Domett, Alfred. _A Christmas Hymn_ + +Drayton, Michael. _The Battle of Agincourt._ + +Dryden, John. _Alexander's Feast._ + +Jonson, Ben. _Hymn to Diana._ + +Keats, John. _Ode on a Grecian Urn._ + +Kingsley, Charles. _Andromeda and The Red King._ + +Landor, W. S. _Orpheus and Eurydice._ + +Longfellow, H. W. "The Saga of King Olaf" (_Tales of a Wayside Inn_) and +_The Skeleton in Armor._ + +Lowell, J. R. _Rhoecus_ and _The Shepherd of King Admetus._ + +Macaulay, T. B. _Lays of Ancient Rome_ ("Horatius," "Virginia," "The +Battle of Lake Regillus," and "The Prophecy of Capys"), _The Armada_, and +_The Battle of Ivry._ + +Miller, Joaquin. _Columbus._ + +Milton, John. _Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity._ + +Praed, W. M. _Arminius._ + +Rossetti, D. G. _The White Ship._ + +Schiller, Friedrich. _The Maid of Orleans, William Tell, Maria Stuart_, +and _Wallenstein._ + +Scott, (Sir) Walter. "Flodden Field" (_Marmion_, canto vi, stanzas 19-27, +33-35). + +Shakespeare, William. _Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, +King John, Richard the Second, Henry the Fourth,_ parts i and ii, _Henry +the Fifth, Henry the Sixth_, parts i, ii, and iii, _Richard the Third, +Henry the Eighth_, and _The Merchant of Venice._ + +Shelley, P. B. _To the Nile, Ozymandias, Hymn of Apollo, Arethusa_, and +_Song of Proserpine._ + +Tennyson, Alfred. _Ulysses, Oenone, The Death of Oenone, Demeter and +Persephone, The Lotus-Eaters, Boadicea, St. Telemachus, St. Simeon +Stylites, Sir Galahad_, and _The Revenge: a Ballad of the Fleet._ + +Thackeray, W. M. _King Canute._ + +Wordsworth, William. _Laodamia._ + +SOURCES + +Full information regarding the best translations of the sources of +ancient, medieval, and modern history is to be found in one of the Reports +previously cited--_Historical Sources in Schools_, parts ii-iv. The use of +the following collections of extracts from the sources will go far toward +remedying the lack of library facilities. + +Botsford, G. W., and Botsford, Lillie S. _Source Book of Ancient History_ +(N. Y., 1912, Macmillan, $1.30). + +Davis, W. S. _Readings in Ancient History_ (Boston, 1912, Allyn and Bacon, +2 vols., $2.00). + +Duncalf, Frederic, and Krey, A. C. _Parallel Source Problems in Medieval +History_ (N. Y., 1912, Harper, $1.10). + +Fling, F. M. _A Source Book of Greek History_ (N. Y., 1907, Heath, $1.12). + +Munro, D. C. _A Source Book of Roman History_ (N. Y., 1904, Heath, $1.12). + +Ogg, F. A. _A Source Book of Medieval History_ (N. Y., 1907, American Book +Co., $1.50). + +Robinson, J. H. _Readings in European History_ (Abridged ed., Boston, +1906, Ginn, $1.50). + +Thallon, Ida C. _Readings in Greek History_ (Boston, 1914, Ginn, $2.00). + +Thatcher, O. J., and McNeal, E. H. _A Source Book for Medieval History_ +(N. Y., 1905, Scribner, $1.85). + +Webster, Hutton. _Readings in Ancient History_ (N. Y., 1913, Heath, +$1.12). + +------ _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_ (N. Y., 1917, Heath, +$1.12). + +_Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History_ +(N. Y., 1894-1899, Longmans, Green, and Co., 6 vols., each $1.50). + +MODERN WORKS + +Most of the books in the following list are inexpensive, easily procured, +and well adapted in style and choice of topics to the needs of immature +pupils. A few more elaborate and costly volumes, especially valuable for +their illustrations, are indicated by an asterisk (*). For detailed +bibliographies, often accompanied by critical estimates, see C. K. Adams, +_A Manual of Historical Literature_ (3d ed., N. Y., 1889, Harper, $2.50), +and the _Bibliography of History for Schools and Libraries_, parts iii-v. + + +GENERAL WORKS + +Carlyle, Thomas. _On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History_ (N. +Y., 1840, Dutton, 35 cents). + +Creasy, E. S. _The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World from Marathon to +Waterloo_ (N. Y., 1854, Dutton, 35 cents). + +Gibbins, H. De B. _The History of Commerce in Europe_ (26. ed., N. Y., +1897, Macmillan, 90 cents). + +Herbertson, A. J., and Herbertson, F. D. _Man and His Work_ (3d ed., N. +Y., 1914, Macmillan, 60 cents). An introduction to the study of human +geography. + +Jacobs, Joseph. _The Story of Geographical Discovery_ (N. Y., 1898, +Appleton, 35 cents). + +Jenks, Edward. _A History of Politics_ (N. Y., 1900, Dutton, 35 cents). A +very illuminating essay. + +Keane, John. _The Evolution of Geography_ (London, 1899, Stanford, 6s.). +Helpfully illustrated. + +Myres, J. L. _The Dawn of History_ (N. Y., 1912, Holt, 50 cents). + +Pattison, R. P. B. _Leading Figures in European History_ (N. Y., 1912, +Macmillan, $1.60). Biographical sketches of European statesmen from +Charlemagne to Bismarck. + +Reinach, Salomon. _Apollo; an Illustrated Manual of the History of Art +throughout the Ages_, translated by Florence Simmonds (last ed., N. Y., +1914, Scribner, $1.50). The best brief work on the subject. + +Seignobos, Charles. _History of Ancient Civilization_, edited by J. A. +James (N. Y., 1906, Scribner, $1.25). + +------ _History of Medieval and of Modern Civilization_, edited by J. A. +James (N. Y., 1907, Scribner, $1.25). + + +PREHISTORIC TIMES + +Clodd, Edward. _The Story of Primitive Man_ (N Y., 1895, Appleton, 35 +cents). Generally accurate and always interesting. + +------ _The Childhood of the World_ (2d ed., N. Y., 1914, Macmillan, +$1.25). + +Elliott, G. F. S. _Prehistoric Man and His Story_ (Philadelphia, 1915, +Lippincott, $2.00). + +Holbrook, Florence. _Cave, Mound, and Lake Dwellers_ (N. Y., 1911, Heath, +44 cents). + +Mason, O. T, _Woman's Share in Primitive Culture_ (N. Y., 1900, D. +Appleton, $1.75). The only work on the subject; by a competent +anthropologist. + +* Osborn, H. F. _Men of the Old Stone Age_ (N. Y., 1915 Scribners, $5.00). +An authoritative, interesting, and amply illustrated work. + +* Spearing, H. G. _The Childhood of Art_ (N. Y., 1913, Putnam, $6.00). +Deals with primitive and Greek art; richly illustrated. + +Starr, Frederick. _Some First Steps in Human Progress_ (Chautauqua, N. Y., +1895, Chautauqua Press, $1.00). A popular introduction to anthropology. + +Tylor, (Sir) E. B. _Anthropology_ (N. Y., 1881, Appleton, $2.00). +Incorporates the results of the author's extensive studies and still +remains the best introduction to the entire field. + + +ORIENTAL HISTORY + +Baikie, James. _The Story of the Pharaohs_ (N. Y., 1908, Macmillan, +$2.00). A popular work; well illustrated. + +* Ball, C. J. _Light from the East_ (London, 1899, Eyre and Spottiswoode, +15s.). An account of Oriental archaeology, with special reference to the +Old Testament. + +Banks, E. G. _The Bible and the Spade_ (N. Y., 1913, Association Press, +$1.00). A popular presentation of Oriental archaeology. + +* Breasted, J. H. _A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the +Persian Conquest_ (2d ed., N. Y., 1909, Scribner, $5.00). The standard +work on Egyptian history. + +Clay, A. T. _Light on the East from Babel_ (4th ed., Philadelphia, 1915, +Sunday School Times Co., $2.00). + +* Erman, Asolf. _Life in Ancient Egypt_ (N. Y., 1894, Macmillan, $6.00). + +* Handcock, P. S. P. _Mesopotamian Archaeology_ (N. Y. 1912, Putnam, +$3.50). + +Hogarth, D. G. _The Ancient East_ (N. Y., 1915, Holt, 50 cents). "Home +University Library." + +* Jastrow, Morris, Jr. _The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria_ +(Philadelphia, 1915, Lippincott, $6.00). A finely illustrated work by a +great scholar. + +Macalister, R. A. S. _A History of Civilization in Palestine_ (N. Y., +1912, Putnam, 35 cents). "Cambridge Manuals." + +Maspero, (Sir) Gaston. _Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria_ (N.Y., 1892, +Appleton, $1.50). Fascinating and authoritative. + +Ragozin, Zénaïde A. _Earliest Peoples_ (N. Y., 1899, Harison, 60 cents). A +well-written, fully-illustrated account of prehistoric man and the +beginnings of history in Babylonia. + +------ _Early Egypt_ (N. Y., 1900, Harison, 60 cents). + + +GREEK AND ROMAN HISTORY + +Abbott, Evelyn. _Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens_ (N. Y., 1891, +Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations." + +Baikie, James. _The Sea-Kings of Crete_ (2d ed., N. Y., 1912, Macmillan, +$1.75). A clear and vivid summary of Cretan archaeology. + +Blümner, Hugo. _The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks_, translated by Alice +Zimmern (3d ed., N. Y., 1910, Funk and Wagnalls Co., $2.00). + +Bulley, Margaret H. _Ancient and Medieval Art_ (N. Y., 1914, Macmillan, +$1.75). An elementary treatment, particularly designed for schools. + +Church, A. J., and Gilman, Arthur. _The Story of Carthage_ (N. Y., 1886, +Putnam, $1.50). "Story of the Nations" + +Davis, W. S. _The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome_ (N. Y., 1910, +Macmillan, $2.00). An interesting treatment of an important theme. + +------ _A Day in Old Athens_ (Boston, 1914, Allyn and Bacon, $1.00). + +------ _An Outline History of the Roman Empire_ (N. Y., 1909, Macmillan, +65 cents). Covers the period 44 B.C.-378 A.D. + +* Dennie, John. _Rome of To-day and Yesterday; the Pagan City_ (5th ed., +N. Y., 1909, Putnam, $3.50). + +Fowler, W. W. _Rome_ (N. Y., 1912, Holt, 50 cents). + +------ _The City-State of the Greeks and Romans_ (N. Y., 1893, Macmillan, +$1.00). The only constitutional history of the classical peoples +intelligible to elementary students. + +------ _Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero_ (N. Y., 1909, Macmillan, +50 cents). In every way admirable. + +------ _Julius Caesar and the Foundation of the Roman Imperial System_ (2d +ed., N. Y., 1897, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations." + +* Gardner, E. A. _Ancient Athens_ (N. Y., 1902, Macmillan, $3.50). + +Gayley, C. M. _The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art_ (2d +ed., Boston, 1911, Ginn, $1.60). Of special importance for the +illustrations. + +Goodyear, W. H. _Roman and Medieval Art_ (2d ed., N. Y., 1897, Macmillan, +$1.00). + +Grant, A. J. _Greece in the Age of Pericles_ (N. Y., 1893, Scribner, +$1.25). + +Gulick, C. B. _The Life of the Ancient Greeks_ (N. Y., 1902, Appleton, +$1.40). + +* Hall, H. R. _Aegean Archeology_ (N. Y., 1915, Putnam, $3.75). A well- +written and well-illustrated volume. + +Hawes, C. H., and Hawes, HARRIET B. _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_ (N. +Y., 1909, Harper, 75 cents). + +How, W. W. _Hannibal and the Great War between Rome and Carthage_ (London, +1899, Seeley, 2_s_.). + +Jones, H. S. _The Roman Empire, B.C. 29-A.D. 476_ (N. Y., 1908, Putnam, +$1.50). "Story of the Nations." + +* Lanciani, Rudolfo. _The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome_ (Boston, +1898, Houghton Mifflin Co., $4.00). + +Mahaffy, J. P. _Old Greek Life_ (N. Y., 1876, American Book Co., 35 +cents). + +------ _What have the Greeks done for Modern Civilization?_ (N. Y., 1909, +Putnam, $1.50). + +Mahaffy, J. P., and Gilman, Arthur. _The Story of Alexander's Empire_ (N. +Y., 1887, Putnam, $1.50). The only concise narrative of the Hellenistic +period. + +* Mau, August. _Pompeii: its Life and Art_, translated by F. W. Kelsey (N. +Y., 1899, Macmillan, $2.50). + +Morris, W. O'C. _Hannibal and the Crisis of the Struggle between Carthage +and Rome_ (N. Y., 1897, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations." + +Oman, Charles. _Seven Roman Statesmen of the Later Republic_ (N. Y., 1902, +Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.60). A biographical presentation of Roman +history. + +Pellison, Maurice. _Roman Life in Pliny's Time_, translated by Maud +Wilkinson (Philadelphia, 1897, Jacobs, $1.00). + +Pickard-Cambridge, A. W. _Demosthenes and the Last Days of Greek Freedom_ +(N. Y., 1914, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations." + +Powers, H. H. _The Message of Greek Art_ (N. Y., 1913, Macmillan, 50 +cents). + +Preston, Harriet W., and Dodge, Louise. _The Private Life of the Romans_ +(N. Y., 1893, Sanborn, $1.05). + +Robinson, C. E. _The Days of Alcibiades_ (N. Y., 1916, Longmans, Green, +and Co., $1.50), A picture of Greek life and culture in the Age of +Pericles. + +* Seymour, T. D. _Life in the Homeric Age_ (N. Y., 1907, Macmillan, +$4.00). + +* Stobart, J. C. _The Glory that was Greece: a Survey of Hellenic Culture +and Civilization_ (Philadelphia, 1911, Lippincott, $7.50). + +------ _The Grandeur that was Rome: a Survey of Roman Culture and +Civilization_ (Philadelphia, 1912, Lippincott, $7.50). + +Strachan-Davidson, J. S. _Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Republic_ (N. +Y., 1894, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations." + +Tarbell, F. B. _A History of Greek Art_ (2d ed., N. Y., 1905, Macmillan, +$1.00). + +Tozer, H. F. _Classical Geography_ (N. Y., 1883, American Book Co., 35 +cents). A standard manual. + +Tucker, T. G. _Life in Ancient Athens_ (N. Y., 1906, Macmillan, $1.25). +The most attractive treatment of the subject. + +------ _Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul_ (N. Y., 1910, +Macmillan, $2.50). + +* Walters, H. B. _The Art of the Greeks_ (N. Y., 1900, Macmillan, $6.00). + +* ------ _The Art of the Romans_ (N. Y., 1911, Macmillan, $5.00). + +* Weller, C. H. _Athens and its Monuments_ (N. Y., 1913, Macmillan, +$4.00). + +Wheeler, B.I. _Alexander the Great and the Merging of East and West into +Universal History_ (N. Y., 1900, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations." + +Wilkins, A. S. _Roman Antiquities_ (N. Y., 1884, American Book Co., 35 +cents). + + +MEDIEVAL HISTORY + +Adams, G. B. _The Growth of the French Nation_ (N. Y., 1896, Macmillan, +$1.25). The best short history of France. + +Archer, T. A., and Kingsford, C. L. _The Crusades_ (N. Y., 1894, Putnam, +$1.50). + +Baring-Gould, Sabine. _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_ (N. Y., 1869, +Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.25). + +Bateson, Mary. _Medieval England_ (N. Y., 1903, Putnam, $1.50). Deals with +social and economic life. "Story of the Nations." + +Cheyney, E. P. _An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of +England_ (N. Y., 1901, Macmillan, $1.40). The best brief work on the +subject. + +Church, R. W. _The Beginning of the Middle Ages_ (N. Y., 1877, Scribner, +$1.00). + +Cutts, E. L. _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_ (London, 1872, De +La More Press, 7s. 6d.). An almost indispensable book; illustrated. + +Davis, H. W. C. Medieval Europe (N. Y., 1911, Holt, 50 cents). + +------ _Charlemagne, the Hero of Two Nations_ (N. Y., 1899, Putnam, +$1.50). "Heroes of the Nations." + +Emerton, Ephraim. _An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages_ +(Boston, 1888, Ginn, $1.10). The most satisfactory short account, and of +special value to beginners. + +Foord, Edward. _The Byzantine Empire_ (N. Y., 1911, Macmillan, $2.00). The +most convenient short treatment; lavishly illustrated. + +* Gibbon, Edward. _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire_, edited by J. B. Bury (N. Y., 1914, Macmillan, 7 vols., $25.00). +The best edition, illustrated and provided with maps, of this standard +work. + +* Green, J. R. _Short History of the English People_, edited by Mrs. J. R. +Green and Miss Kate Norgate (N. Y., 1893-1895, Harper, 4 vols., $20.00). A +beautifully illustrated edition of this standard work. + +Guerber, H. A. _Legends of the Middle Ages_ (N. Y., 1896, American Book +Co., $1.50). + +Haskins, C. H. _The Normans in European History_ (Boston, 1915, Houghton +Mifflin Co., $2.00). + +Hodgkin, Thomas. _The Dynasty of Theodosius_ (N. Y., 1899, Oxford +University Press, American Branch, $1.50). Popular lectures summarizing +the author's extensive studies. + +Jessopp, Augustus. _The Coming of the Friars, and Other Historic Essays_ +(N. Y., 1888, Putnam, $1.25). A book of great interest. + +* Lacroix, Paul. _Science and Literature in the Middle Ages and at the +Period of the Renaissance_ (London, 1880, Bickers and Son, out of print). + +Lawrence, W. W. _Medieval Story_ (N. Y., 1911, Columbia University Press, +$i.50). Discusses the great literary productions of the Middle Ages. + +Mawer, Allen. _The Vikings_ (N. Y, 1913, Putnam, 35 cents). + +Munro, D. C., and Sellery, G. C _Medieval Civilization_ (2d ed., N. Y., +1907, Century Co., $2.00). Translated selections from standard works by +French and German scholars. + +Rait, R. S. _Life in the Medieval University_ (N. Y., 1912, Putnam, 35 +cents). "Cambridge Manuals." + +Synge, M. B. _A Short History of Social Life in England_ (N. Y., 1906, +Barnes, $1.50). + +Tappan, Eva M. _When Knights were Bold_ (Boston, 1912, Houghton Mifflin +Co., $2.00). An economic and social study of the Feudal Age; charmingly +written. + +Tickner, F. W. _A Social and Industrial History of England_ (N. Y., 1915, +Longmans, Green, and Co., $1.00). Very simply written and well +illustrated. + +* Wright, Thomas. _The Homes of Other Days_ (London, 1871, Trübner, out of +print). Valuable for both text and illustrations. + + +TRANSITION TO MODERN TIMES + +Cheyney, E. P. _European Background of American History, 1300-1600_ (N. +Y., 1904, Harper, $2.00). + +Creighton, Mandell. _The Age of Elizabeth_ (13th ed., N. Y., 1897, +Scribner, $ 1.00). "Epochs of Modern History." + +Fiske, John. _The Discovery and Colonization of North America_ (Boston, +1905, Ginn, 90 cents). + +Gardiner, S. R. _The Thirty Years' War_ (N. Y., 1874, Scribner, $1.00). + +Goodyear, W. H. _Renaissance and Modern Art_ (N. Y., 1894, Macmillan, +$1.00). + +Hudson, W. H. _The Story of the Renaissance_ (N. Y., 1912, Cassell, +$1.50). A well-written volume. + +Hulme, E. M. _The Renaissance, the Protestant Revolution, and the Catholic +Reformation in Continental Europe_ (rev. ed., N. Y., 1915, Century Co., +$2.50). The best work on the subject by an American scholar. + +* Joyce, T. A. _Mexican Archaeology_ (N. Y., 1914, Putnam, $4.00). + +------ _South American Archaeology_ (N. Y., 1912, Putnam, $3.50). + +Kerr, P. H., and Kerr, A. C. _The Growth of the British Empire_ (N. Y., +1911, Longmans, Green, and Co., 50 cents). + +Oldham, J. B. _The Renaissance_ (N. Y., 1912, Dutton, 35 cents). + +Seebohm, Frederic. _The Era of the Protestant Revolution_ (N. Y., 1875, +Scribner, $1.00). "Epochs of Modern History." + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE AGES BEFORE HISTORY + + +1. THE STUDY OF HISTORY + +SUBJECT MATTER OF HISTORY + +History is the narrative of what civilized man has done. It deals with +those social groups called states and nations. Just as biography describes +the life of individuals, so history relates the rise, progress, and +decline of human societies. + +MANUSCRIPTS AND BOOKS + +History cannot go back of written records. These alone will preserve a +full and accurate account of man's achievements. Manuscripts and books +form one class of written records. The old Babylonians used tablets of +soft clay, on which signs were impressed with a metal instrument. The +tablets were then baked hard in an oven. The Egyptians made a kind of +paper out of the papyrus, a plant native to the Nile valley. The Greeks +and Romans at first used papyrus, but later they employed the more lasting +parchment prepared from sheepskin. Paper seems to have been a Chinese +invention. It was introduced into Europe by the Arabs during the twelfth +century of our era. + +[Illustration: THE DISK OF PHAESTUS +Found in 1908 A.D. in the palace at Phaestus, Crete. The disk is of +refined clay on which the figures were stamped in relief with punches. +Both sides of the disk are covered with characters. The side seen in the +illustration contains 31 sign groups (123 signs) separated from one +another by incised lines. The other side contains 30 sign groups (118 +signs). The inscription dates from about 1800 B.C.] + +[Illustration: A PAPYRUS MANUSCRIPT +The pith of the papyrus, a plant native to the Nile valley, was cut into +slices, which were then pressed together and dried in the sun. Several of +the paper sheets thus formed were glued together at their edges to form a +roll. From _papyros_ and _byblos_, the two Greek names of this plant, have +come our own words, "paper" and "Bible." The illustration shows a +manuscript discovered in Egypt in 1890 A.D. It is supposed to be a +treatise, hitherto lost, on the Athenian constitution by the Greek +philosopher Aristotle.] + +INSCRIPTIONS AND REMAINS + +A second class of written records consists of inscriptions. These are +usually cut in stone, but sometimes we find them painted over the surface +of a wall, stamped on coins, or impressed upon metal tablets. The +historian also makes use of remains, such as statues, ornaments, weapons, +tools, and utensils. Monuments of various sorts, including palaces, tombs, +fortresses, bridges, temples, and churches, form a very important class of +remains. + +BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY + +History, based on written records, begins in different countries at +varying dates. A few manuscripts and inscriptions found in Egypt date back +three or four thousand years before Christ. The annals of Babylonia are +scarcely less ancient. Trustworthy records in China and India do not +extend beyond 1000 B.C. For the Greeks and Romans the commencement of the +historic period must be placed about 750 B.C. The inhabitants of northern +Europe did not come into the light of history until about the opening of +the Christian era. + + +2. PREHISTORIC PEOPLES + +THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD + +In studying the historic period our chief concern is with those peoples +whose ideas or whose deeds have aided human progress and the spread of +civilization. Six-sevenths of the earth's inhabitants now belong to +civilized countries, and these countries include the best and largest +regions of the globe. At the beginning of historic times, however, +civilization was confined within a narrow area--the river valleys of +western Asia and Egypt. The uncounted centuries before the dawn of history +make up the prehistoric period, when savagery and barbarism prevailed +throughout the world. Our knowledge of it is derived from the examination +of the objects found in caves, refuse mounds, graves, and other sites. +Various European countries, including England, France, Denmark, +Switzerland, and Italy, are particularly rich in prehistoric remains. + +[Illustration: A PREHISTORIC EGYPTIAN GRAVE +The skeleton lay on the left side, with knees drawn up and hands raised to +the head. About it were various articles of food and vessels of pottery.] + +THE TWO AGES + +The prehistoric period is commonly divided, according to the character of +the materials used for tools and weapons, into the Age of Stone and the +Age of Metals. The one is the age of savagery; the other is the age of +barbarism or semicivilization. + +THE STONE AGE + +Man's earliest implements were those that lay ready to his hand. A branch +from a tree served as a spear; a thick stick in his strong arms became a +powerful club. Later, perhaps, came the use of a hard stone such as flint, +which could be chipped into the forms of arrowheads, axes, and spear tips. +The first stone implements were so rude in shape that it is difficult to +believe them of human workmanship. They may have been made several hundred +thousand years ago. After countless centuries of slow advance, savages +learned to fasten wooden handles to their stone tools and weapons and also +to use such materials as jade and granite, which could be ground and +polished into a variety of forms. Stone implements continued to be made +during the greater part of the prehistoric period. Every region of the +world has had a Stone Age. [1] Its length is reckoned, not by centuries, +but by milleniums. + +[Illustration: A HATCHET OF THE EARLY STONE AGE +A hatchet of flint, probably used without a helve and intended to fit the +hand. Similar implements have been found all over the world, except in +Australia.] + +[Illustration: ARROWHEADS OF THE LATER STONE AGE +Different forms from Europe, Africa, and North America.] + +THE AGE OF METALS + +The Age of Metals, compared with its predecessor, covers a brief expanse +of time. The use of metals came in not much before the dawn of history. +The earliest civilized peoples, the Babylonians and Egyptians, when we +first become acquainted with them, appear to be passing from the use of +stone implements to those of metal. + +COPPER + +Copper was the first metal in common use. The credit for the invention of +copper tools seems to belong to the Egyptians. At a very early date they +were working the copper mines on the peninsula of Sinai. The Babylonians +probably obtained their copper from the same region. Another source of +this metal was the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. The +Greek name of the island means "copper." + +BRONZE + +But copper tools were soft and would not keep an edge. Some ancient smith, +more ingenious than his fellows, discovered that the addition of a small +part of tin to the copper produced a new metal--bronze--harder than the +old, yet capable of being molded into a variety of forms. At least as +early as 3000 B.C. we find bronze taking the place of copper in both Egypt +and Babylonia. Somewhat later bronze was introduced into the island of +Crete, then along the eastern coast of Greece, and afterwards into other +European countries. + +IRON + +The introduction of iron occurred in comparatively recent times. At first +it was a scarce, and therefore a very precious, metal. The Egyptians seem +to have made little use of iron before 1500 B.C. They called it "the metal +of heaven," as if they obtained it from meteorites. In the Greek Homeric +poems, composed about 900 B.C. or later, we find iron considered so +valuable that a lump of it is one of the chief prizes at athletic games. +In the first five books of the Bible iron is mentioned only thirteen +times, though copper and bronze are referred to forty-four times. Iron is +more difficult to work than either copper or bronze, but it is vastly +superior to those metals in hardness and durability. Hence it gradually +displaced them throughout the greater part of the Old World. [2] + +FIRST STEPS TOWARD CIVILIZATION + +During the prehistoric period early man came to be widely scattered +throughout the world. Here and there, slowly, and with utmost difficulty, +he began to take the first steps toward civilization. The tools and +weapons which he left behind him afford some evidence of his advance. We +may now single out some of his other great achievements and follow their +development to the dawn of history. + + +3. DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS + +HUNTING AND FISHING STAGE + +Prehistoric man lived at first chiefly on wild berries, nuts, roots, and +herbs. As his implements improved and his skill increased, he became +hunter, trapper, and fisher. A tribe of hunters, however, requires an +extensive territory and a constant supply of game. When the wild animals +are all killed or seriously reduced in number, privation and hardship +result. It was a forward step, therefore, when man began to tame animals +as well as to kill them. + +DOMESTICATION OF THE DOG + +The dog was man's first conquest over the animal kingdom. As early as the +Age of Metals various breeds appear, such as deerhounds, sheep dogs, and +mastiffs. The dog soon showed how useful he could be. He tracked game, +guarded the camp, and later, in the pastoral stage, protected flocks and +herds against their enemies. + +THE COW + +The cow also was domesticated at a remote period. No other animal has been +more useful to mankind. The cow's flesh and milk supply food: the skin +provides clothing; the sinews, bones, and horns yield materials for +implements. The ox was early trained to bear the yoke and draw the plow, +as we may learn from ancient Egyptian paintings. [3] Cattle have also been +commonly used as a kind of money. The early Greeks, whose wealth consisted +chiefly of their herds, priced a slave at twenty oxen, a suit of armor at +one hundred oxen, and so on. The early Romans reckoned values in cattle +(one ox being equivalent to ten sheep). Our English word "pecuniary" goes +back to the Latin _pecus_, or "herd" of cattle. + +[Illustration: EARLY ROMAN BAR MONEY +A bar of copper marked with the figure of a bull. Dates from the fourth +century B.C.] + +THE HORSE + +The domestication of the horse came much later than that of the cow. In +the early Stone Age the horse ran wild over western Europe and formed an +important source of food for primitive men. This prehistoric horse, as +some ancient drawings show, [4] was a small animal with a shaggy mane and +tail. It resembled the wild pony still found on the steppes of Mongolia. +The domesticated horse does not appear in Egypt and western Asia much +before 1500 B.C. For a long time after the horse was tamed, the more +manageable ox continued to be used as the beast of burden. The horse was +kept for chariots of war, as among the Egyptians, or ridden bareback in +races, as by the early Greeks. + +OTHER ANIMALS DOMESTICATED + +At the close of prehistoric times in the Old World nearly all the domestic +animals of to-day were known. Besides those just mentioned, the goat, +sheep, ass, and hog had become man's useful servants. [5] + +PASTORAL STAGE + +The domestication of animals made possible an advance from the hunting and +fishing stage to the pastoral stage. Herds of cattle and sheep would now +furnish more certain and abundant supplies of food than the chase could +ever yield. We find in some parts of the world, as on the great Asiatic +plains, the herdsman succeeding the hunter and fisher. But even in this +stage much land for grazing is required. With the exhaustion of the +pasturage the sheep or cattle must be driven to new fields. Hence pastoral +peoples, as well as hunting and fishing folk, remained nomads without +fixed homes. Before permanent settlements were possible, another onward +step became necessary. This was the domestication of plants. + +AGRICULTURAL STAGE + +The domestication of plants marked almost as wonderful an advance as the +domestication of animals. When wild seedgrasses and plants had been +transformed into the great cereals--wheat, oats, barley, and rice--people +could raise them for food, and so could pass from the life of wandering +hunters or shepherds to the life of settled farmers. There is evidence +that during the Stone Age some of the inhabitants of Europe were familiar +with various cultivated plants, but agriculture on a large scale seems to +have begun in the fertile regions of Egypt and western Asia. [6] Here +first arose populous communities with leisure to develop the arts of life. +Here, as has been already seen, [7] we must look for the beginnings of +history. + + +4. WRITING AND THE ALPHABET + +PICTURE WRITING + +Though history is always based on written records, the first steps toward +writing are prehistoric. We start with the pictures or rough drawings +which have been found among the remains of the early Stone Age. [8] +Primitive man, however, could not rest satisfied with portraying objects. + +[Illustration: VARIOUS SIGNS OF SYMBOLIC PICTURE WRITING +1, "war" (Dakota Indian); 2, "morning" (Ojibwa Indian); 3, "nothing" +(Ojibwa Indian); 4 and 5, "to eat" (Indian, Mexican, Egyptian, etc.).] + +He wanted to record thoughts and actions, and so his pictures tended to +become symbols of ideas. The figure of an arrow might be made to +represent, not a real object, but the idea of an "enemy." A "fight" could +then be shown simply by drawing two arrows directed against each other. +Many uncivilized tribes still employ picture writing of this sort. The +American Indians developed it in most elaborate fashion. On rolls of birch +bark or the skins of animals they wrote messages, hunting stories, and +songs, and even preserved tribal annals extending over a century. + +SOUND WRITING; THE REBUS + +A new stage in the development of writing was reached when the picture +represented, not an actual object or an idea, but a sound of the human +voice. This difficult but all-important step appears to have been taken +through the use of the rebus, that is, writing words by pictures of +objects which stand for sounds. Such rebuses are found in prehistoric +Egyptian writing; for example, the Egyptian words for "sun" and "goose" +were so nearly alike that the royal title, "Son of the Sun," could be +suggested by grouping the pictures of the sun and a goose. Rebus making is +still a common game among children, but to primitive men it must have been +a serious occupation. + +[Illustration: MEXICAN REBUS +The Latin _Pater Noster,_ "Our Father," is written by a flag _(pan)_, a +stone _(te)_, a prickly pear _(noch)_, and another stone _(te)_.] + +[Illustration: CHINESE PICTURE WRITING AND LATER CONVENTIONAL CHARACTERS] + +WORDS AND SYLLABLES + +In the simplest form of sound writing each separate picture or symbol +stands for the sound of an entire word. This method was employed by the +Chinese, who have never given it up. A more developed form of sound +writing occurs when signs are used for the sounds, not of entire words, +but of separate syllables. Since the number of different syllables which +the voice can utter is limited, it now becomes possible to write all the +words of a language with a few hundred signs. The Japanese, who borrowed +some of the Chinese symbols, used them to denote syllables, instead of +entire words. The Babylonians possessed, in their cuneiform [9] +characters, signs for about five hundred syllables. The prehistoric +inhabitants of Crete appear to have been acquainted with a somewhat +similar system. [10] + +LETTERS + +The final step in the development of writing is taken when the separate +sounds of the voice are analyzed and each is represented by a single sign +or letter. With alphabets of a few score letters every word in a language +may easily be written. + +[Illustration: CRETAN WRITING +A large tablet with linear script found in the palace at Gnossus, Crete +There are eight lines of writing, with a total of about twenty words +Notice the upright lines, which appear to mark the termination of each +group of signs.] + +EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS + +The Egyptians early developed such an alphabet. Unfortunately they never +gave up their older methods of writing and learned to rely upon alphabetic +signs alone. Egyptian hieroglyphics [11] are a curious jumble of object- +pictures, symbols of ideas, and signs for entire words, separate +syllables, and letters. The writing is a museum of all the steps in the +development from the picture to the letter. + +PHOENICIAN ALPHABET + +As early, apparently, as the tenth century B.C. we find the Phoenicians of +western Asia in possession of an alphabet. It consisted of twenty-two +letters, each representing a consonant. The Phoenicians do not seem to +have invented their alphabetic signs. It is generally believed that they +borrowed them from the Egyptians, but recent discoveries in Crete perhaps +point to that island as the source of the Phoenician alphabet. + +[Illustration: EGYPTIAN AND BABYLONIAN WRITING +Below the pictured hieroglyphics in the first line is the same text in a +simpler writing known as hieratic. The two systems, however, were not +distinct; they were as identical as our own printed and written +characters. The third line illustrates old Babylonian cuneiform, in which +the characters, like the hieroglyphics, are rude and broken-down pictures +of objects. Derived from them is the later cuneiform shown in lines four +and five.] + +DIFFUSION OF THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET + +If they did not originate the alphabet now in use, the Phoenicians did +most to spread a knowledge of it in other lands. They were bold sailors +and traders who bought and sold throughout the Mediterranean. Wherever +they went, they took their alphabet. From the Phoenicians the Greeks +learned their letters. Then the Greeks taught them to the Romans, from +whom other European peoples borrowed them. [12] + +[Illustration: THE MOABITE STONE, (Louvre, Paris) +Found in 1868 A.D. at Diban east of the Dead Sea. The monument records the +victory of Mesha king of Moab, over the united armies of Israel and Judah +about 850 B.C. The inscription, consisting of 34 lines is one of the most +ancient examples of Phoenician writing.] + + +5. PRIMITIVE SCIENCE AND ART + +FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE + +We have already seen that prehistoric men in their struggle for existence +had gathered an extensive fund of information. They could make useful and +artistic implements of stone. They could work many metals into a variety +of tools and weapons. They were practical botanists, able to distinguish +different plants and to cultivate them for food. They were close students +of animal life and expert hunters and fishers. They knew how to produce +fire and preserve it, how to cook, how to fashion pottery and baskets, how +to spin and weave, how to build boats and houses. After writing came into +general use, all this knowledge served as the foundation of science. + +COUNTING AND MEASURING + +We can still distinguish some of the first steps in scientific knowledge. +Thus, counting began with calculations on one's fingers, a method still +familiar to children. Finger counting explains the origin of the decimal +system. The simplest, and probably the earliest, measures of length are +those based on various parts of the body. Some of our Indian tribes, for +instance, employed the double arm's length, the single arm's length, the +hand width, and the finger width. Old English standards, such as the span, +the ell, and the hand, go back to this very obvious method of measuring on +the body. + +CALCULATION OF TIME; THE CALENDAR + +It is interesting to trace the beginnings of time reckoning and of that +most important institution, the calendar. Most primitive tribes reckon +time by the lunar month, the interval between two new moons (about twenty- +nine days, twelve hours). Twelve lunar months give us the lunar year of +about three hundred and fifty-four days. In order to adapt such a year to +the different seasons, the practice arose of inserting a thirteenth month +from time to time. Such awkward calendars were used in antiquity by the +Babylonians, Jews, and Greeks; in modern times by the Arabs and Chinese. +The Egyptians were the only people in the Old World to frame a solar year. +From the Egyptians it has come down, through the Romans, to us. [13] + +[Illustration: STONEHENGE +On Salisbury Plain in the south of England: appears to date from the close +of the New Stone Age or the beginning of the Bronze Age. The outer circle +measures 300 feet in circumference; the inner circle, 106 feet. The +tallest stones reach 25 feet in height. This monument was probably a tomb, +or group of tombs, of prehistoric chieftains.] + +EARLY DRAWING AND PAINTING + +The study of prehistoric art takes us back to the early Stone Age. The men +of that age in western Europe lived among animals such as the mammoth, +cave bear, and woolly-haired rhinoceros, which have since disappeared, and +among many others, such as the lion and hippopotamus, which now exist only +in warmer climates. Armed with clubs, flint axes, and horn daggers, +primitive hunters killed these fierce beasts and on fragments of their +bones, or on cavern walls, drew pictures of them. Some of these earliest +works of art are remarkably lifelike. + +[Illustration: HEAD OF A GIRL (Musée S. Germain, Paris) +A small head of a young girl carved from mammoth ivory. Found at +Brassempouy, France, in cave deposits belonging to the early Stone Age. +The hair is arranged somewhat after the early Egyptian fashion. Of the +features the mouth alone is wanting.] + +[Illustration: PREHISTORIC ART + SKETCH OF MAMMOTH ON A TUSK FOUND IN A CAVE IN FRANCE + CAVE BEAR DRAWN ON A PEBBLE + BISON PAINTED ON THE WALL OF A CAVE + WILD HORSE ON THE WALL OF A CAVE IN SPAIN. + + Later he pictured an aurochs--later he pictured a bear-- + Pictured the sabre toothed tiger dragging a man to his lair-- + Pictured the mountainous mammoth hairy abhorrent alone-- + Out of the love that he bore them scribing them clearly on bone-- + KIPLING.] + +EARLY ARCHITECTURE + +A still later period of the Stone Age witnessed the beginnings of +architecture. Men had begun to raise huge dolmens which are found in +various parts of the Old World from England to India. They also erected +enormous stone pillars, known as menhirs. Carved in the semblance of a +human face and figure, the menhir became a statue, perhaps the first ever +made. + +As we approach historic times, we note a steady improvement in the various +forms of art. Recent discoveries in Egypt, Greece, Italy, and other lands +indicate that their early inhabitants were able architects, often building +on a colossal scale. + +[Illustration: A DOLMEN +Department of Morbihan, Brittany. A dolmen was a single chambered tomb +formed by laying one long stone over several other stones set upright in +the ground. Most if not all dolmens were originally covered with earth.] + +[Illustration: CARVED MENHIR +From Saint Sernin in Aveyron, a department of southern France.] + +SIGNIFICANCE OF PREHISTORIC ART + +Their paintings and sculptures prepared the way for the work of later +artists. Our survey of the origins of art shows us that in this field, as +elsewhere, we must start with the things accomplished by prehistoric men. + + +6. HISTORIC PEOPLES + +RACES OF MAN + +At the dawn of history the various regions of the world were already in +the possession of many different peoples. Such physical characteristics as +the shape of the skull, the features, stature, or complexion may serve to +distinguish one people from another. Other grounds for distinction are +found in language, customs beliefs, and general intelligence. + +CLASSIFICATION OF RACES + +If we take complexion or color as the basis of classification, it is +possible to distinguish a few large racial groups. Each of these groups +occupies, roughly speaking, its separate area of the globe. The most +familiar classification is that which recognizes the Black or Negro race +dwelling in Africa, the Yellow or Mongolian race whose home is in central +and eastern Asia, and the White or Caucasian race of western Asia and +Europe. Sometimes two additional divisions are made by including, as the +Red race, the American Indians, and as the Brown race, the natives of the +Pacific islands. + +THE WHITE RACE + +These separate racial groups have made very unequal progress in culture. +The peoples belonging to the Black, Red, and Brown races are still either +savages or barbarians, as were the men of prehistoric times. The Chinese +and Japanese are the only representatives of the Yellow race that have +been able to form civilized states. In the present, as in the past, it is +chiefly the members of the White race who are developing civilization and +making history. + +INDO-EUROPEANS AND SEMITES + +Because of differences in language, scholars have divided the White or +Caucasian race into two main groups, called Indo-Europeans and Semites. +[14] This classification is often helpful, but the student should remember +that Indo-European and Semitic peoples are not always to be sharply +distinguished because they have different types of language. There is no +very clear distinction in physical characteristics between the two groups. +A clear skin, an oval face, wavy or curly hair, and regular features +separate them from both the Negro and the Mongolian. + +PRINCIPAL INDO-EUROPEAN PEOPLES + +The Indo-Europeans in antiquity included the Hindus of India, the Medes +and Persians dwelling on the plateau of Iran, the Greeks and Italians, and +most of the inhabitants of central and western Europe. All these peoples +spoke related languages which are believed to be offshoots from one common +tongue. Likeness in language does not imply that all Indo-Europeans were +closely related in blood. Men often adopt a foreign tongue and pass it on +to their children. + +PRINCIPAL SEMITIC PEOPLES + +The various Semitic nations dwelling in western Asia and Arabia were more +closely connected with one another. They spoke much the same type of +language, and in physical traits and habits of life they appear to have +been akin. The Semites in antiquity included the Babylonians and +Assyrians, the Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Arabs. + +[Illustration: RACE PORTRAITURE OF THE EGYPTIANS +Paintings on the walls of royal tombs. The Egyptians were painted red, the +Semites yellow, the Negroes black, and the Libyans white, with blue eyes +and fair beards. Each racial type is distinguished by peculiar dress and +characteristic features.] + +[Illustration: Map. Distribution of SEMITIC and INDO-EUROPEAN PEOPLES] +PEOPLES OF UNCERTAIN RELATIONSHIP + +At the opening of the historic period still other parts of the World were +the homes of various peoples who cannot be classed with certainty as +either Indo-Europeans or Semites. Among these were the Egyptians and some +of the inhabitants of Asia Minor. We must remember that, during the long +prehistoric ages, repeated conquests and migrations mingled the blood of +many different communities. History, in fact, deals with no unmixed +peoples. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the areas occupied in antiquity by Semites +and Indo-Europeans. + +2. Find definitions for the following terms: society, nation, state, +government, institution, culture, and civilization. + +3. Explain the abbreviations B.C. and A.D. In what century was the year +1917 B.C.? the year 1917 A.D.? + +4. Look up the derivation of the words "paper" and "Bible." + +5. Distinguish between the three stages of savagery, barbarism, and +civilization, and give examples of existing peoples in each stage. + +6. Can you name any savages still living in the Stone Age? + +7. What stone implements have you ever seen? Who made them? Where were +they? + +8. Why should the discovery of fire be regarded as of more significance +than the discovery of steam? + +9. Why has the invention of the bow-and-arrow been of greater importance +than the invention of gunpowder? + +10. How does the presence of few tameable animals in the New World help to +account for its tardier development as compared with the Old World? + +11. What examples of pastoral and agricultural life among the North +American Indians are familiar to you? + +12. Give examples of peoples widely different in blood who nevertheless +speak the same language. + +13. In the classification of mankind, where do the Arabs belong? the +Persians? the Germans? the inhabitants of the United States? + +14. Enumerate the most important contributions to civilization made in +prehistoric times. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] There are still some savage peoples, for instance, the Australians, +who continue to make stone implements very similar to those of prehistoric +men. Other primitive peoples, such as the natives of the Pacific islands, +passed directly from the use of stone to that of iron, after this part of +the world was opened up to European trade in the nineteenth century. + +[2] Iron was unknown to the inhabitants of North America and South America +before the coming of the Europeans. The natives used many stone +implements, besides those of copper and bronze. The Indians got most of +their copper from the mines in the Lake Superior region, whence it was +carried far and wide. + +[3] See the illustration, page 45. + +[4] See the illustration, page 14. + +[5] In the New World, the only important domestic animal was the llama of +the Andes. The natives used it as a beast of burden, ate its flesh, and +clothed themselves with its wool. + +[6] The plants domesticated in the New World were not numerous. The most +important were the potato of Peru and Ecuador, Indian corn or maize, +tobacco, the tomato, and manioc. From the roots of the latter, the starch +called tapioca is derived. + +[7] See page 2. + +[8] See the illustration, page 14. + +[9] Latin cuneus, "a wedge". + +[10] See page 71. + +[11] From the Greek words hieros, "holy," and glyphein, "to carve" The +Egyptians regarded their signs as sacred. + +[12] Our word "alphabet" comes from the names of the first two letters of +the Greek alphabet, _alpha_ (a) and _beta_ (b). + +[13] See page 186 and note 2. + +[14] The Old Testament (_Genesis_, x 21-22) represents Shem (or Sem), son +of Noah, as the ancestor of the Semitic peoples. The title "Indo- +Europeans" tells us that the members of that group now dwell in India and +in Europe. Indo-European peoples are popularly called "Aryans," from a +word in Sanskrit (the old Hindu language) meaning "noble." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LANDS AND PEOPLES OF THE EAST TO ABOUT 600 B.C. [1] + + +7. PHYSICAL ASIA + +GRAND DIVISIONS OF ASIA + +Ancient history begins in the East--in Asia and in that part of Africa +called Egypt, which the peoples of antiquity always regarded as belonging +to Asia. If we look at a physical map of Asia, we see at once that it +consists of two very unequal divisions separated by an almost continuous +mass of mountains and deserts. These two divisions are Farther and Nearer, +or Eastern and Western, Asia. + +[Illustration: Map, PHYSICAL MAP OF ASIA.] + +FARTHER ASIA + +Farther Asia begins at the center of the continent with a series of +elevated table-lands which rise into the lofty plateaus, known as the +"Roof of the World." Here two tremendous mountain chains diverge. The +Altai range runs out to the northeast and reaches the shores of the +Pacific near Bering Strait. The Himalaya range extends southeast to the +Malay peninsula. In the angle formed by their intersection lies the cold +and barren region of East Turkestan and Tibet, the height of which, in +some places, is ten thousand feet above the sea. From these mountains and +plateaus the ground sinks gradually toward the north into the lowlands of +West Turkestan and Siberia, toward the east and south into the plains of +China and India. + +CHINA + +The fertile territory of central China, watered by the two streams, +Yangtse and Hoangho, was settled at a remote period by barbarous tribes. +The civilization which they slowly developed in antiquity has endured with +little change until the present day. The inhabitants of neighboring +countries, Korea, Japan, and Indo-China, owe much to this civilization. It +has exerted slight influence on the other peoples of Asia because the +Chinese have always occupied a distant corner of the continent, cut off by +deserts and mountains from the lands on the west. As if these barriers +were not enough, they raised the Great Wall to protect their country from +invasion. + +[Illustration: THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA +The wall extends for about fifteen hundred miles along the northern +frontier of China. In 1908 AD it was traversed for its entire length by an +American Mr. W. E. Geil. He found many parts of the fortification still in +good repair, though built twenty one centuries ago.] + +Behind this mighty rampart the Chinese have lived secluded and aloof from +the progress of our western world. In ancient times China was a land of +mystery. + +INDIA + +India was better known than China, especially its two great rivers, the +Indus and the Ganges, which flow to the southwest and southeast, +respectively, and make this part of the peninsula one of the most fertile +territories on the globe. Such a land attracted immigrants. The region now +known as the Punjab, where the Indus receives the waters of five great +streams, was settled by light-skinned Indo-Europeans [2] perhaps as early +as 2000 B.C. Then they occupied the valley of the Ganges and so brought +all northern India under their control. + +INDIA AND THE WEST + +India did not remain entirely isolated from the rest of Asia, The Punjab +was twice conquered by invaders from the West; by the Persians in the +sixth century B.C., [3] and about two hundred years later by the Greeks. +[4] After the end of foreign rule India continued to be of importance +through its commerce, which introduced such luxuries as precious stones, +spices, and ivory among the western peoples. + +NEARER ASIA + +Nearer, or Western Asia, the smaller of the two grand divisions of the +Asiatic continent, is bounded by the Black and Caspian seas on the north, +by the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean on the south, eastward by +the Indus River, and westward by the Mediterranean and the Nile. Almost +all the countries within this area played a part in the ancient history of +the Orient. + +COUNTRIES OF NEARER ASIA + +The lofty plateaus of central Asia decline on the west into the lower but +still elevated region of Iran. The western part of Iran was occupied in +antiquity by the kindred people known as Medes and Persians. Armenia, a +wild and mountainous region, is an extension to the northwest of the +Iranian table-land. Beyond Armenia we cross into the peninsula of Asia +Minor, a natural link between Asia and Europe. Southward from Asia Minor +we pass along the Mediterranean coast through Syria to Arabia. The Arabian +peninsula may be regarded as the link between Asia and Africa. + +INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS + +These five countries of Nearer Asia were not well fitted to become centers +of early civilization. They possessed no great rivers which help to bring +people together, and no broad, fertile plains which support a large +population. Armenia, Asia Minor, and Syria were broken up into small +districts by chains of mountains. Iran and Arabia were chiefly barren +deserts. But two other divisions of Nearer Asia resembled distant India +and China in the possession of a warm climate, a fruitful soil, and an +extensive river system. These lands were Babylonia and Egypt, the first +homes of civilized man. + + +8. BABYLONIA AND EGYPT + +THE TIGRIS AND THE EUPHRATES + +Two famous rivers rise in the remote fastnesses of Armenia--the Tigris and +the Euphrates. As they flow southward, the twin streams approach each +other to form a common valley, and then proceed in parallel channels for +the greater part of their course. In antiquity each river emptied into the +Persian Gulf by a separate mouth. This Tigris-Euphrates valley was called +by the Greeks Mesopotamia, "the land between the rivers." + +PRODUCTIONS OF BABYLONIA + +Babylonia is a remarkably productive country. The annual inundation of the +rivers has covered its once rocky bottom with deposits of rich silt. Crops +planted in such a soil, under the influence of a blazing sun, ripen with +great rapidity and yield abundant harvests. "Of all the countries that we +know," says an old Greek traveler, "there is no other so fruitful in +grain." [5] Wheat and barley were perhaps first domesticated in this part +of the world. [6] Wheat still grows wild there. Though Babylonia possessed +no forests, it had the date palm, which needed scarcely any cultivation. +If the alluvial soil yielded little stone, clay, on the other hand, was +everywhere. Molded into brick and afterwards dried in the sun, the clay +became _adobe_, the cheapest building material imaginable. + +BABYLONIA AN EARLY CENTER OF CIVILIZATION + +In Babylonia Nature seems to have done her utmost to make it easy for +People to gain a living. We can understand, therefore, why from +prehistoric times men have been attracted to this region, and why it is +here that we must look for one of the earliest seats of civilization. [7] + +LOWER AND UPPER EGYPT + +Egypt may be described as the valley of the Nile. Rising in the Nyanza +lakes of central Africa, that mighty stream, before entering Egypt, +receives the waters of the Blue Nile near the modern town of Khartum. From +this point the course of the river is broken by a series of five rocky +rapids, misnamed cataracts, which can be shot by boats. The cataracts +cease near the island of Philae, and Upper Egypt begins. This is a strip +of fertile territory, about five hundred miles in length but averaging +only eight miles in width. Not far from modern Cairo the hills inclosing +the valley fall away, the Nile divides into numerous branches, and Lower +Egypt, or the Delta, begins. The sluggish stream passes through a region +of mingled swamp and plain, and at length by three principal mouths +empties its waters into the Mediterranean. + +[Illustration: PHILAE +The island was originally only a heap of granite bowlders. Retaining walls +were built around it, and the space within when filled with rich Nile mud, +became beautiful with groves of palms and mimosas. As the result of the +construction of the Assuan dam, Philae and its exquisite temples are now +submerged during the winter months, when the reservoir is full.] + +EGYPT THE GIFT OF THE NILE + +Egypt owes her existence to the Nile. All Lower Egypt is a creation of the +river by the gradual accumulation of sediment at its mouths. Upper Egypt +has been dug out of the desert sand and underlying rock by a process of +erosion centuries long. Once the Nile filled all the space between the +hills that line its sides. Now it flows through a thick layer of alluvial +mud deposited by the yearly inundation. + +ANNUAL INUNDATION OF THE NILE + +The Nile begins to rise in June, when the snow melts on the Abyssinian +mountains. High-water mark, some thirty feet above the ordinary level, is +reached in September. The inhabitants then make haste to cut the confining +dikes and to spread the fertilizing water over their fields. Egypt takes +on the appearance of a turbid lake, dotted here and there with island +villages and crossed in every direction by highways elevated above the +flood. Late in October the river begins to subside and by December has +returned to its normal level. As the water recedes, it deposits that +dressing of fertile vegetable mold which makes the soil of Egypt perhaps +the richest in the world. [8] + +EGYPT AN EARLY CENTER OF CIVILIZATION + +It was by no accident that Egypt, like Babylonia, became one of the first +homes of civilized men. Here, as there, every condition made it easy for +people to live and thrive. Food was cheap, for it was easily produced. The +peasant needed only to spread his seed broadcast over the muddy fields to +be sure of an abundant return. The warm, dry climate enabled him to get +along with little shelter and clothing. Hence the inhabitants of this +favored region rapidly increased in number and gathered in populous towns +and cities. At a time when most of their neighbors were still in the +darkness of the prehistoric age, the Egyptians had entered the light of +history. + + +9. THE BABYLONIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS + +INHABITANTS OF BABYLONIA + +The earliest inhabitants of Babylonia of whom we know anything were a +people called Sumerians. They entered the Babylonian plain through the +passes of the eastern mountains, three or four thousand years before the +Christian era. Here they formed a number of independent states, each with +its capital city, its patron god, and its king. After them came Semitic +tribes from the deserts of northern Arabia. The Semites mingled with the +Sumerians and adopted Sumerian civilization. + +HAMMURABI, KING OF BABYLONIA, ABOUT 2000 B.C. + +Of all the early Babylonian kings the most famous was Hammurabi. Some +inscriptions still remain to tell how he freed his country from foreign +invaders and made his native Babylon the capital of the entire land. This +city became henceforth the real center of the Euphrates valley, to which, +indeed, it gave its name. Hammurabi was also an able statesman, who sought +to develop the territories his sword had won. He dug great canals to +distribute the waters of the Euphrates and built huge granaries to store +the wheat against a time of famine. In Babylon he raised splendid temples +and palaces. For all his kingdom he published a code of laws, the oldest +in the world. [9] Thus Hammurabi, by making Babylonia so strong and +flourishing, was able to extend her influence in every direction. Her only +important rival was Egypt. + +[Illustration: TOP OF MONUMENT CONTAINING THE CODE OF HAMMURABI (British +Museum, London) +A block of black diorite nearly 8 feet high, on which the code is chiseled +in 44 columns and over 3600 lines. The relief at the top of the monument +shows the Babylonian king receiving the laws from the sun god who is +seated at the right.] + +The origin of the Egyptians is not known with certainty. In physical +characteristics they resembled the native tribes of northern and +inhabitants eastern Africa. Their language, however, shows of Egypt close +kinship to the Semitic tongues of western Asia and Arabia. It is probable +that the Egyptians, like the Babylonians, arose from the mingling of +several peoples. + +MENES, KING OF EGYPT, ABOUT 3400 B.C. + +The history of Egypt commences with the union of the two kingdoms of Upper +and Lower Egypt under Menes. An ancient tradition made him the builder of +Memphis, near the head of the Delta, and the founder of the Egyptian +monarchy. Scholars once doubted these exploits and even regarded Menes +himself as mythical. Recently, however, his tomb has been discovered. In +the gray dawn of history Menes appears as a real personage, the first of +that line of kings, or "Pharaohs," who for nearly three thousand years +ruled over Egypt. + +[Illustration: Map, EGYPTIAN EMPIRE About 1450 B.C.] + +THE PYRAMID KINGS, ABOUT 3000-2500 B.C. + +Several centuries after Menes we reach the age of the kings who raised the +pyramids. Probably no other rulers have ever stamped their memory so +indelibly on the pages of history as the builders of these mighty +structures. The most celebrated monarch of this line was the Pharaoh whom +the Greeks called Cheops. The Great Pyramid near Memphis, erected for his +tomb, remains a lasting witness to his power. + +[Illustration: TWO FAMOUS PHARAOHS + Khufu (Cheops) builder of the Great Pyramid + Menephtah the supposed Pharaoh of the Exodus] + +[Illustration: THE GREAT PYRAMID +The pyramid when completed had a height of 481 feet. It is now 451 feet +high. Its base covers about thirteen acres. Some of the blocks of white +limestone used in construction weigh fifty tons. The facing of polished +stone was gradually removed for building purposes by the Arabs. On the +northern side of the pyramid a narrow entrance once carefully concealed, +opens into tortuous passages which lead to the central vault. Here the +sarcophagus of the king was placed. This chamber was long since entered +and its contents rifled.] + +[Illustration: THE GREAT SPHINX +This colossal figure, human headed and lion bodied, is hewn from the +natural rock. The body is about 150 feet long, the paws 50 feet, the head +30 feet. The height from the base to the top of the head is 70 feet. +Except for its head and shoulders the figure has been buried for centuries +in the desert sand. The eyes, nose and beard have been mutilated by the +Arabs. The face is probably that of one of the pyramid kings.] + +AFTER THE PYRAMID KINGS + +For a long time after the epoch of the pyramid kings the annals of Egypt +furnish a record of quiet and peaceful progress. The old city of Memphis +gradually declined in importance and Thebes in Upper Egypt became the +capital. The vigorous civilization growing up in Egypt was destined, +however, to suffer a sudden eclipse. About 1800 B.C. barbarous tribes from +western Asia burst into the country, through the isthmus of Suez, and +settled in the Delta. The Hyksos, as they are usually called, extended +their sway over all Egypt. At first they ruled harshly, plundering the +cities and enslaving the inhabitants, but in course of time the invaders +adopted Egyptian culture and their kings reigned like native Pharaohs. The +Hyksos are said to have introduced the horse and military chariot into +Egypt. A successful revolt at length expelled the intruders and set a new +line of Theban monarchs on the throne. + +THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE + +The overthrow of the Hyksos marked a new era in the history of Egypt. From +a home-loving and peaceful people the Egyptians became a warlike race, +ambitious for glory. The Pharaohs raised powerful armies and by extensive +conquests created an Egyptian Empire, reaching from the Nile to the +Euphrates. + +IMPERIAL SPLENDOR OF EGYPT + +This period of the imperial greatness of Egypt is the most splendid in its +history. An extensive trade with Cyprus, Crete, and other Mediterranean +Islands introduced many foreign luxuries. The conquered territories in +Syria paid a heavy tribute of the precious metals, merchandise, and +slaves. The forced labor of thousands of war captives enabled the Pharaohs +to build public works in every part on their realm. Even the ruins of +these stupendous structures are enough to indicate the majesty and power +of ancient Egypt. + +RAMESES II, ABOUT 1292-1225 B.C. + +Of all the conquering Pharaohs none won more fame than Rameses II, who +ruled for nearly seventy years. His campaigns in Syria were mainly against +the Hittites, a warlike people who had moved southward from their home in +Asia Minor and sought to establish themselves in the Syrian lands. Rameses +does not appear to have been entirely successful against his foes. We find +him at length entering into an alliance with "the great king of the +Hittites," by which their dominion over northern Syria was recognized. In +the arts of peace Rameses achieved a more enduring renown. He erected many +statues and temples in various parts of Egypt and made Thebes, his +capital, the most magnificent city of the age. + +[Illustration: HEAD OF MUMMY OF RAMESES II (Museum of Gizeh) +The mummy was discovered in 1881 AD in an underground chamber near the +site of Thebes. With it were the coffins and bodies of more than a score +of royal personages. Rameses II was over ninety years of age at the time +of his death. In spite of the somewhat grotesque disguise of +mummification, the face of this famous Pharaoh still wears an aspect of +majesty and pride.] + +DECLINE OF THE EGYPTIAN POWER + +Rameses II was the last of the great Pharaohs. After his death the empire +steadily declined in strength. The Asiatic possessions fell away, never to +be recovered. By 1100 B.C. Egypt had been restricted to her former +boundaries in the Nile valley. The Persians, in the sixth century, brought +the country within their own vast empire. + + +10. THE PHOENICIANS AND THE HEBREWS + +THE PHOENICIANS + +The Phoenicians were the first Syrian people to assume importance. Their +country was a narrow stretch of coast, about one hundred and twenty miles +in length, seldom more than twelve miles in width, between the Lebanon +Mountains and the sea. This tiny land could not support a large +population. As the Phoenicians increased in numbers, they were obliged to +betake themselves to the sea. The Lebanon cedars furnished soft, white +wood for shipbuilding, and the deeply indented coast offered excellent +harbors. Thus the Phoenicians became preeminently a race of sailors. Their +great cities, Sidon and Tyre, established colonies throughout the +Mediterranean and had an extensive commerce with every region of the known +world. + +THE HEBREWS + +The Hebrews lived south of Phoenicia in the land of Canaan, west of the +Jordan River Their history begins with the emigration of twelve Hebrew +tribes (called Israelites) from northern Arabia to Canaan. In their new +home the Israelites gave up the life of wandering shepherds and became +farmers. They learned from the Canaanites to till the soil and to dwell in +towns and cities. + +PERIOD OF THE JUDGES + +The thorough conquest of Canaan proved to be no easy task. At first the +twelve Israelitish tribes formed only a loose and weak confederacy without +a common head. "In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did +what was right in his own eyes." [10] The sole authority was that held by +valiant chieftains and law-givers, such as Samson, Gideon, and Samuel, who +served as judges between the tribes and often led them in successful +attacks upon their foes. Among these were the warlike Philistines, who +occupied the southwestern coast of Canaan. To resist the Philistines with +success it was necessary to have a king who could bring all the scattered +tribes under his firm, well-ordered rule. + +REIGNS OF SAUL AND DAVID + +In Saul, "a young man and a goodly," the warriors of Israel found a leader +to unite them against their enemies. His reign was passed in constant +struggles with the Philistines. David, who followed him, utterly destroyed +the Philistine power and by further conquests extended the boundaries of +the new state. For a capital city he selected the ancient fortress of +Jerusalem. Here David built himself a royal palace and here he fixed the +Ark, the sanctuary of Jehovah. Jerusalem became to the Israelites their +dearest possession and the center of their national life. + +[Illustration: Map, CANAAN as Divided among THE TRIBES] + +REIGN OF SOLOMON, ABOUT 955-925 B.C. + +The reign of Solomon, the son and successor of David, was the most +splendid period in Hebrew history. His kingdom stretched from the Red Sea +and the peninsula of Sinai northward to the Lebanon Mountains and the +Euphrates. With the surrounding peoples Solomon was on terms of friendship +and alliance. He married an Egyptian princess, a daughter of the reigning +Pharaoh. He joined with Hiram, king of Tyre, in trading expeditions on the +Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The same Phoenician monarch supplied him with +the "cedars of Lebanon," with which he erected at Jerusalem a famous +temple for the worship of Jehovah. A great builder, a wise administrator +and governor, Solomon takes his place as a typical Oriental despot, the +most powerful monarch of the age. + +[Illustration: A PHOENICIAN WAR GALLEY +From a slab found at Nineveh in the palace of the Assyrian king, +Sennacherib. The vessel shown is a bireme with two decks. On the upper +deck are soldiers with their shields hanging over the side. The oarsmen +sit on the lower deck, eight at each side. The crab catching the fish is a +humorous touch.] + +SECESSION OF THE TEN TRIBES, ABOUT 925 B.C. + +But the political greatness of the Hebrews was not destined to endure. The +people were not ready to bear the burdens of empire. They objected to the +standing army, to the forced labor on public buildings, and especially to +the heavy taxes. The ten northern tribes seceded shortly after Solomon's +death and established the independent kingdom of Israel, with its capital +at Samaria. The two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, formed the +kingdom of Judea, and remained loyal to the successors of Solomon. + +[Illustration: Map, SOLOMON'S KINGDOM] + +DECLINE OF THE HEBREW POWER + +The two small Hebrew kingdoms could not resist their powerful neighbors. +About two centuries after the secession of the Ten Tribes, the Assyrians +overran Israel. Judea was subsequently conquered by the Babylonians. Both +countries in the end became a part of the Persian Empire. + + +11. THE ASSYRIANS + +GREATNESS OF ASSYRIA, 745-626 B.C. + +Assyria, lying east of the Tigris River, was colonized at an early date by +emigrants from Babylonia. After the Assyrians freed themselves from +Babylonian control, they entered upon a series of sweeping conquests. +Every Asiatic state felt their heavy hand. The Assyrian kings created a +huge empire stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, the +Mediterranean, and the Nile. For the first time in Oriental history +Mesopotamia and Egypt, with the intervening territory, were brought under +one government. + +CHARACTER OF ASSYRIAN RULE + +This unification of the Orient was accomplished only at a fearful cost. +The records of Assyria are full of terrible deeds--of towns and cities +without number given to the flames, of the devastation of fertile fields +and orchards, of the slaughter of men, women, and children, of the +enslavement of entire nations. Assyrian monarchs, in numerous +inscriptions, boast of the wreck and ruin they brought to many flourishing +lands. + +[Illustration: AN ASSYRIAN +From a Nineveh bas-relief. The original is colored.] + +SARGON II, 722-705 B.C. + +The treatment of conquered peoples by the Assyrian rulers is well +illustrated by their dealings with the Hebrews. One of the mightiest +monarchs was an usurper, who ascended the throne as Sargon II. Shortly +after his succession he turned his attention to the kingdom of Israel, +which had revolted. Sargon in punishment took its capital city of Samaria +(722 B.C.) and led away many thousands of the leading citizens into a +lifelong captivity in distant Assyria. The Ten Tribes mingled with the +population of that region and henceforth disappeared from history. + +[Illustration: ANCIENT ORIENTAL EMPIRES + Map, THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE about 660 B.C. + Map, LYDIA, MEDIA, BABYLONIA and EGYPT about 550 B.C.] + +SENNACHERIB, 705-681 B.C. + +Sargon's son, Sennacherib, though not the greatest, is the best known of +Assyrian kings. His name is familiar from the many references to him in +Old Testament writings. An inscription by Sennacherib describes an +expedition against Hezekiah, king of Judea, who was shut up "like a caged +bird in his royal city of Jerusalem." Sennacherib, however, did not +capture the place. His troops were swept away by a pestilence. The ancient +Hebrew writer conceives it as the visitation of a destroying angel: "It +came to pass that night that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in +the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when +men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies." [11] +So Sennacherib departed, and returned with a shattered army to Nineveh, +his capital. + +[Illustration: AN ASSYRIAN RELIEF (British Museum, London) +The relief represents the siege and capture of Lachish, a city of the +Canaanites, by Sennacherib's troops. Notice the total absence of +perspective in this work.] + +DOWNFALL OF ASSYRIA, 606 B.C. + +Although Assyria recovered from this disaster, its empire rested on +unstable foundations. The subject races were attached to their oppressive +masters by no ties save those of force. When Assyria grew exhausted by its +career of conquest, they were quick to strike a blow for freedom. By the +middle of the seventh century Egypt had secured her independence, and many +other provinces were ready to revolt. Meanwhile, beyond the eastern +mountains, the Medes were gathering ominously on the Assyrian frontier. +The storm broke when the Median monarch, in alliance with the king of +Babylon, moved upon Nineveh and captured it. The city was utterly +destroyed. + +[Illustration: THE ISHTAR GATE, BABYLON +Explorations on the site of Babylon have been conducted since 1899 A.D. by +the German Oriental Society. Large parts of the temple area, as well as +sections of the royal palaces, have been uncovered. The most important +structure found is the Ishtar Gate. The towers which flank it are adorned +with figures of dragons and bulls in brilliantly colored glazed tile.] + +PARTITION OF ASSYRIA + +After the conquest of the Assyrian Empire the victors proceeded to divide +the spoils. The share of Media was Assyria itself, together with the long +stretch of mountain country extending from the Persian Gulf to Asia Minor. +Babylonia obtained the western half of the Assyrian domains, including the +Euphrates valley and Syria. Under its famous king, Nebuchadnezzar (604-561 +B.C.), Babylonia became a great power in the Orient. It was Nebuchadnezzar +who brought the kingdom of Judea to an end. He captured Jerusalem in 586 +B.C., burned the Temple, and carried away many Jews into captivity. The +day of their deliverance, when Babylon itself should bow to a foreign foe, +was still far distant. + + +12. THE WORLD EMPIRE OF PERSIA + +CYRUS THE GREAT, 553-529 B.C. + +Not much earlier than the break-up of the Assyrian Empire, we find a new +and vigorous people pressing into western Iran. They were the Persians, +near kinsmen of the Medes. Subjects at first of Assyria, and then of +Media, they regained their independence and secured imperial power under a +conquering king whom history knows as Cyrus the Great. In 553 B.C. Cyrus +revolted against the Median monarch and three years later captured the +royal city of Ecbatana. The Medes and Persians formed henceforth a united +people. + +[Illustration: THE TOMB OF CYRUS THE GREAT +The mausoleum is built of immense marble blocks joined together without +cement. Its total height including the seven steps is about thirty five +feet. A solitary pillar near the tomb still bears the inscription 'I am +Cyrus, the King, the Achaemenian.'] + +CONQUEST OF LYDIA BY CYRUS, 546 B.C. + +The conquest of Media was soon followed by a war with the Lydians, who had +been allies of the Medes. The throne of Lydia, a state in the western part +of Asia Minor, was at this time held by Croesus, the last and most famous +of his line. The king grew so wealthy from the tribute paid by Lydian +subjects and from his gold mines that his name has passed into the +proverb, "rich as Croesus." He viewed with alarm the rising power of Cyrus +and rashly offered battle to the Persian monarch. Defeated in the open +field, Croesus shut himself up in Sardis, his capital. The city was soon +taken, however, and with its capture the Lydian kingdom came to an end. + +CAPTURE OF BABYLON, 539 B.C. + +The downfall of Lydia prepared the way for a Persian attack on Babylonia. +The conquest of that country proved unexpectedly easy. In 539 B.C. the +great city of Babylon opened its gates to the Persian host. Shortly +afterwards Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jewish exiles there to +return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, which Nebuchadnezzar had +destroyed. With the surrender of Babylon the last Semitic empire in the +East came to an end. The Medes and Persians, an Indo-European people, +henceforth ruled over a wider realm than ever before had been formed in +Oriental lands. + +CAMBYSES, 529-522 B.C. + +Cyrus was followed by his son, Cambyses, a cruel but stronghanded despot. +Cambyses determined to add Egypt to the Persian dominions. His land army +was supported by a powerful fleet, to which the Phoenicians and the Greeks +of Cyprus contributed ships. A single battle sufficed to overthrow the +Egyptian power and to bring the long rule of the Pharaohs to a close. [12] + +DARIUS THE GREAT, 521-485 B.C. + +The reign of Darius, the successor of Cambyses, was marked by further +extensions of the frontiers. An expedition to the distant East added to +the empire the region of the Punjab, [13] along the upper waters of the +Indus. Another expedition against the wild Scythian tribes along the +Danube led to conquests in Europe and brought the Persian dominions close +to those of the Greeks. Not without reason could Darius describe himself +in an inscription which still survives, as "the great king, king of kings, +king of countries, king of all men." + +[Illustration: DARIUS WITH HIS ATTENDANTS +Bas-relief at Persepolis. The monarch's right hand grasps a staff or +scepter, his left hand, a bunch of flowers. His head is surmounted by a +crown, his body is enveloped in the long Median mantle. Above the king is +a representation of the divinity which guarded and guided him. In the rear +are two Persian nobles, one carrying the royal fan, the other the royal +parasol.] + +[Illustration: ROCK SEPULCHERS OF THE PERSIAN KINGS +The tombs are those of Darius, Xerxes, and two of their successors. They +are near Persepolis.] + +ORGANIZATION OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE + +It was the work of Darius to provide for his dominions a stable government +which should preserve what the sword had won. The problem was difficult. +The empire was a collection of many peoples widely different in race, +language, customs, and religion. Darius did not attempt to weld the +conquered nations into unity. As long as the subjects of Persia paid +tribute and furnished troops for the royal army, they were allowed to +conduct their own affairs with little interference from the Great King. + +THE SATRAPAL SYSTEM + +The entire empire, excluding Persia proper, was divided into twenty +satrapies, or provinces, each one with its civil governor, or satrap. The +satraps carried out the laws and collected the heavy tribute annually +levied throughout the empire. In most of the provinces there were also +military governors who commanded the army and reported directly to the +king. This device of intrusting the civil and military functions to +separate officials lessened the danger of revolts against the Persian +authority. As an additional precaution Darius provided special agents +whose business it was to travel from province to province and investigate +the conduct of his officials. It became a proverb that "the king has many +eyes and many ears." + +PERSIAN ROADS + +Darius also established a system of military roads throughout the Persian +dominions. The roads were provided at frequent intervals with inns, where +postmen stood always in readiness to take up a letter and carry it to the +next station. The Royal Road from Susa, the Persian capital, to Sardis in +Lydia was over fifteen hundred miles long; but government couriers, using +relays of fresh horses, could cover the distance within a week. An old +Greek writer declares with admiration that "there is nothing mortal more +swift than these messengers." [14] + +UNION OF THE EAST UNDER PERSIA + +The political history of the East fitly ends with the three Persian +conquerors, Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, who thus brought into their huge +empire every great state of Oriental antiquity. Medes and Persians, +Babylonians and Assyrians, Lydians, Syrians, and Egyptians--all were at +length united under a single dominion. In the reign of Darius this united +Orient first comes into contact with the rising power of the Greek states +of Europe. So we may leave its history here, resuming our narrative when +we discuss the momentous conflict between Persia and Greece, which was to +affect the course, not alone of Persian or Greek, but of all European +history. [15] + +[Illustration: Map, THE PERSIAN EMPIRE AT ITS GREATEST EXTENT (About 500 +B. C.)] + + +STUDIES + +1. On the map Physical Map of Asia, section 7. Physical Asia, topic Grand +Divisions of Asia, see what regions of Asia are less than 500 feet above +sea level; less than 3000 feet; less than 9000 feet; less than 15,000 +feet; over 15,000 feet. + +2. On an outline map of the Orient indicate eight important rivers, two +gulfs, three inland seas, the great plateaus and plains, the principal +mountain ranges, two important passes, and the various countries and +cities mentioned in this chapter. + +3. On an outline map draw the boundaries of the Persian Empire under +Darius, showing what parts were conquered by Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, +respectively. + +4. For what were the following places noted: Jerusalem; Thebes; Tyre; +Nineveh; and Babylon? + +5. For what were the following persons famous: Hammurabi; Rameses II; +Solomon; Cyrus; Nebuchadnezzar; and Darius? + +6. Define and illustrate these terms: empire, kingdom, province, tributary +state, satrapy. + +7. Identity these dates: 606 B.C.; 539 B.C.; and 540 B.C. + +8. Why was India better known in ancient times than China? + +9. What modern countries are included within the limits of ancient Iran? + +10. Why was a canal through the isthmus of Suez less needed in ancient +times than to-day? + +11. Can you suggest any reasons why the sources of the Nile remained +unknown until late in the nineteenth century? + +12. What is the origin of the name _Delta_ applied to such a region as +Lower Egypt? + +13. Comment on the statement: "Egypt as a geographical expression is two +things--the Desert and the Nile. As a habitable country it is only one +thing--the Nile." + +14. Why did the Greek traveler, Herodotus, call Egypt "the gift of the +Nile"? + +15. Distinguish between Syria and Assyria. + +16. What is the exact meaning of the words, _Hebrew_, _Israelite_, and +_Jew_? Describe some features of Assyrian warfare (illustration, page 35). + +17. What modern countries are included within the limits of the Persian +Empire under Darius? + +18. Trace on the map facing page 40 the course of the Royal Road, noting +the countries through which it passed. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter ii, "The Founders of +the Persian Empire: Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius." + +[2] See page 16. + +[3] See page 39. + +[4] See page 125. + +[5] Herodotus, i, 193. + +[6] See page 8. + +[7] It is interesting to note that Hebrew tradition (_Genesis_, ii, 8-15) +places Paradise, the garden of God and original home of man, in southern +Babylonia. The ancient name for this district was Edin (Eden). + +[8] The problem of regulating the Nile inundation so as to distribute the +water for irrigation when and where it is most needed has been solved by +the building of the Assuan dam. It lies across the head of the first +cataract for a distance of a mile and a quarter, and creates a lake two +hundred and forty miles in length. This great work was completed in 1912 +A.D. by the British officials who now control Egypt. + +[9] See page 50. + +[10] Judges, xvii, 6. + +[11] 2 _Kings_, xix, 35. See Byron's poem, _The Destruction of +Sennacherib_. + +[12] See page 29. + +[13] See page 21. + +[14] Herodotus, viii, 98. + +[15] See chapter v. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION [1] + + +13. SOCIAL CLASSES + +REDISCOVERY OF THE ORIENT + +Our present knowledge of the Orient has been gained within recent times. +Less than a century ago no one could read the written records of the +Egyptians and Babylonians. The decipherment of the Rosetta Stone, which +contained an inscription in both Greek and hieroglyphics, led to the +understanding of Egyptian writing. Scholars later succeeded in +interpreting the Babylonian cuneiform script. Modern excavations in the +valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates have now provided them with abundant +material for study in the shape of books and inscriptions. As these are +gradually deciphered, new light is being thrown on all features of ancient +Oriental civilization. + +[Illustration: A ROYAL NAME IN HIEROGLYPHICS (ROSETTA STONE) +The cut shows the symbols contained in one of the oval rings, or +_cartouches_, for Ptolemaios, the Greek name of King Ptolemy. Each symbol +represents the initial letter of the Egyptian name for the object +pictured. The objects in order are: a mat, a half-circle, a noose, a lion, +a hole, two reeds, and a chair-back. The entire hieroglyph is read from +left to right, as we read words in English.] + +[Illustration: THE ROSETTA STONE. +British Museum, London. A block of black basalt, three feet seven inches +in height, found in 1799 A.D., near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile.] + +THE KING AS AUTOCRAT + +The Oriental peoples, when their history opens, were living under the +monarchical form of government. The king, to his subjects, was the earthly +representative of the god. Often, indeed, he was himself regarded as +divine. The belief in the king's divine origin made obedience to him a +religious obligation for his subjects. Every Oriental monarch was an +autocrat. Every Oriental monarchy was a despotism. + +THE KING'S DUTIES + +The king had many duties. He was judge, commander, and high priest, all in +one. In time of war, he led his troops and faced the dangers of the battle +field. During intervals of peace, he was occupied with a constant round of +sacrifices, prayers, and processions, which could not be neglected without +exciting the anger of the gods. To his courtiers he gave frequent +audience, hearing complaints, settling disputes, and issuing commands. A +conscientious monarch, such as Hammurabi, who describes himself as "a real +father to his people," must have been a very busy man. + +[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN COURT SCENE +Wall painting from a tomb at Thebes. Shows a Pharaoh receiving Asiatic +envoys bearing tribute. They are introduced by white robed Egyptian +officials. The Asiatics may be distinguished by their gay clothes and +black, sharp pointed beards.] + +NOBLES AND PRIESTS + +Besides the monarch and the royal family there was generally in Oriental +countries an upper class of landowners. In Egypt the Pharaoh was regarded +as sole owner of the land. Some of it he worked through his slaves, but +the larger part he granted to his favorites, as hereditary estates. Such +persons may be called the nobles. The different priesthoods also had much +land, the revenues from which kept up the temples where they ministered. +In Babylonia, likewise, we find a priesthood and nobility supported by the +income from landed property. + +THE MIDDLE CLASS + +The middle class included professional men, shopkeepers independent +farmers, and skilled craftsmen. Though regarded as inferiors, still they +had a chance to rise in the world. If they became rich, they might hope to +enter the upper class as priests or government officials. + +WORKMEN AND PEASANTS + +No such hopes encouraged the day laborer in the fields or shops. His lot +was bitter poverty and a life of unending toil. If he was an unskilled +workman, his wages were only enough to keep him and his family. He toiled +under overseers who carried sticks and used them freely. "Man has a back," +says an Egyptian proverb, "and only obeys when it is beaten." If the +laborer was a peasant, he could be sure that the nobles from whom he +rented the land and the tax collectors of the king would leave him +scarcely more than a bare living. + +SLAVES + +At the very bottom of the social ladder were the slaves. Every ancient +people possessed them. At first they were prisoners of war, who, instead +of being slaughtered, were made to labor for their masters. At a later +period people unable to pay their debts often became slaves. The treatment +of slaves depended on the character of the master. A cruel and overbearing +owner might make life a burden for his bondmen. Escape was rarely +possible. Slaves were branded like cattle to prevent their running away. +Hammurabi's code [2] imposed the death penalty on anybody who aided or +concealed the fugitives. There was plenty of work for the slaves to +perform--repairing dikes, digging irrigation canals, and erecting vast +palaces and temples. The servile class in Egypt was not as numerous as in +Babylonia, and slavery itself seems to have assumed there a somewhat +milder form. + +[Illustration: TRANSPORT OF AN ASSYRIAN COLOSSUS +A slab from a gallery of Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh. The immense +block is being pulled forward by slaves, who work under the lash.] + + +14. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS + +FARMING + +Such fruitful, well-watered valleys as those of the Nile and the Euphrates +encouraged agricultural life. Farming was the chief occupation. Working +people, whether slaves or freemen, were generally cultivators of the soil. +All the methods of agriculture are pictured for us on the monuments. We +mark the peasant as he breaks up the earth with a hoe or plows a shallow +furrow with a sharp-pointed stick. We see the sheep being driven across +sown fields to trample the seed into the moist soil. We watch the patient +laborers as with hand sickles they gather in the harvest and then with +heavy flails separate the chaff from the grain. Although their methods +were very clumsy, ancient farmers raised immense crops of wheat and +barley. The soil of Egypt and Babylonia not only supported a dense +population, but also supplied food for neighboring peoples. These two +lands were the granaries of the East. + +[Illustration: PLOWING AND SOWING IN ANCIENT EGYPT] + +MANUFACTURING + +Many industries of to-day were known in ancient Egypt and Babylonia. There +were blacksmiths, carpenters, stonecutters, workers in ivory, silver, and +gold, weavers, potters, and glass blowers. The creations of these ancient +craftsmen often exhibit remarkable skill. Egyptian linens were so +wonderfully fine and transparent as to merit the name of "woven air." +Babylonian tapestries, carpets, and rugs enjoyed a high reputation for +beauty of design and color. Egyptian glass with its waving lines of +different hues was much prized. Precious stones were made into beads, +necklaces, charms, and seals. The precious metals were employed for a +great variety of ornaments. Egyptian paintings show the goldsmiths at work +with blowpipe and forceps, fashioning bracelets, rings, and diadems, +inlaying objects of stone and wood, or covering their surfaces with fine +gold leaf. The manufacture of tiles and glazed pottery was everywhere +carried on. Babylonia is believed to be the original home of porcelain. +Enameled bricks found there are unsurpassed by the best products of the +present day. + +TRADE + +The development of the arts and crafts brought a new industrial class into +existence. There was now need of merchants and shopkeepers to collect +manufactured products where they could be readily bought and sold. The +cities of Babylonia, in particular, became thriving markets. Partnerships +between tradesmen were numerous. We even hear of commercial companies. +Business life in ancient Babylonia wore, indeed, quite a modern look. + +MONEY + +Metallic money first circulated in the form of rings and bars. The +Egyptians had small pieces of gold--"cow gold"--each of which was simply +the value of a full-grown cow. [3] It was necessary to weigh the metal +whenever a purchase took place. A common picture on the Egyptian monuments +is that of the weigher with his balance and scales. Then the practice +arose of stamping each piece of money with its true value and weight. The +next step was coinage proper, where the government guarantees, not only +the weight, but also the genuineness of the metal. + +[Illustration: EGYPTIAN WEIGHING "COW GOLD"] + +COINAGE + +The honor of the invention of coinage is generally given to the Lydians, +whose country was well supplied with the precious metals. As early as the +eighth century B.C. the Lydian monarchs began to strike coins of electrum, +a natural alloy of gold and silver. The famous Croesus,[4] whose name is +still a synonym for riches, was the first to issue coins of pure gold and +silver. The Greek neighbors of Lydia quickly adopted the art of coinage +and so introduced it into Europe. [5] + +BANKING + +The use of money as a medium of exchange led naturally to a system of +banking. In Babylonia, for instance, the bankers formed an important and +influential class. One great banking house, established at Babylon before +the age of Sennacherib, carried on operations for several centuries. +Hundreds of legal documents belonging to this firm have been discovered in +the huge earthenware jars which served as safes. The Babylonian temples +also received money on deposit and loaned it out again, as do our modern +banks. Knowledge of the principles of banking passed from Babylonia to +Greece and thence to ancient Italy and Rome. + + +15. COMMERCE AND TRADE ROUTES + +ASIATIC COMMERCE + +The use of the precious metals as money greatly aided the exchange of +commodities between different countries. The cities of the Tigris- +Euphrates valley were admirably situated for commerce, both by sea and +land. They enjoyed a central position between eastern and western Asia. +The shortest way by water from India skirted the southern coast of Iran +and, passing up the Persian Gulf, gained the valley of the two great +rivers. Even more important were the overland roads from China and India +which met at Babylon and Nineveh. Along these routes traveled long lines +of caravans laden with the products of the distant East--gold and ivory, +jewels and silks, tapestries, spices, and fine woods. Still other avenues +of commerce radiated to the west and entered Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. +Many of these trade routes are in use even to-day. + +[Illustration: Map, ANCIENT TRADE ROUTES] + +COMMERCE WITH EUROPE + +While the inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria were able to control the +caravan routes of Asia, it was reserved for a Syrian people, the +Phoenicians, to become the pioneers of commerce with Europe. As early as +1500 B.C. the rich copper mines of Cyprus attracted Phoenician colonists +to this island. [6] From Cyprus these bold mariners and keen business men +passed to Crete, thence along the shores of Asia Minor to the Greek +mainland, and possibly to the Black Sea. Some centuries later the +Phoenicians were driven from these regions by the rising power of the +Greek states. Then they sailed farther westward and established their +trading posts in Sicily, Africa, and Spain. At length they passed through +the strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic and visited the shores of +western Europe and Africa. + +[Illustration: Map, PHOENICIAN AND GREEK COLONIES] + +PHOENICIAN IMPORTS AND EXPORTS + +The Phoenicians obtained a great variety of products from their widely +scattered settlements. The mines of Spain yielded tin, lead, and silver. +The tin was especially valuable because of its use in the manufacture of +bronze. [7] From Africa came ivory, ostrich feathers, and gold; from +Arabia, incense, perfumes, and costly spices. The Phoenicians found a +ready sale for these commodities throughout the East. Still other products +were brought directly to Phoenicia to provide the raw materials for her +flourishing manufactures. The fine carpets and glassware, the artistic +works in silver and bronze, and the beautiful purple cloths [8] produced +by Phoenician factories were exported to every region of the known world. + +PHOENICIAN VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION + +The Phoenicians were the boldest sailors of antiquity. Some of their long +voyages are still on record. We learn from the Bible that they made +cruises on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean and brought the gold of Ophir-- +"four hundred and twenty talents"--to Solomon. [9] There is even a story +of certain Phoenicians who, by direction of an Egyptian king, explored the +eastern coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and after three +years' absence returned to Egypt through the strait of Gibraltar. A much +more probable narrative is that of the voyage of Hanno, a Carthaginian +admiral. We still possess a Greek translation of his interesting log book. +It describes an expedition made about 500 B.C. along the western coast of +Africa. The explorers seem to have sailed as far as the country now called +Sierra Leone. Nearly two thousand years elapsed before a similar voyage +along the African coast was undertaken. + +PHOENICIAN SETTLEMENTS + +Wherever the Phoenicians journeyed, they established settlements. Most of +these were merely trading posts which contained the warehouses for the +storage of their goods. Here the shy natives came to barter their raw +materials for the finished products--cloths, tools, weapons, wine, and +oil--which the strangers from the East had brought with them. Phoenician +settlements sometimes grew to be large and flourishing cities. The colony +of Gades in southern Spain, mentioned in the Old Testament as Tarshish, +[10] survives to this day as Cadiz. The city of Carthage, founded in North +Africa by colonists from Tyre, became the commercial mistress of the +Mediterranean. Carthaginian history has many points of contact with that +of the Greeks and Romans. + + +16. LAW AND MORALITY + +BABYLONIAN CONTRACTS + +It is clear that societies so highly organized as Phoenicia, Egypt, and +Babylonia must have been held together by the firm bonds of law. The +ancient Babylonians, especially, were a legal-minded people. When a man +sold his wheat, bought a slave, married a wife, or made a will, the +transaction was duly noted on a contract tablet, which was then filed away +in the public archives. Instead of writing his name, a Babylonian stamped +his seal on the wet clay of the tablet. Every man who owned property had +to have a seal. + +CODE OF HAMMURABI + +The earliest laws were, of course, unwritten. They were no more than the +long-established customs of the community. As civilization advanced, the +usages that generally prevailed were written out and made into legal +codes. A recent discovery has given to us the almost complete text of the +laws which Hammurabi, the Babylonian king, ordered to be engraved on stone +monuments and set up in all the chief cities of his realm. [11] + +SUBJECT MATTER OF HAMMURABI'S CODE + +The code of Hammurabi shows, in general, a high sense of justice. A man +who tries to bribe a witness or a judge is to be severely punished. A +farmer who is careless with his dikes and allows the water to run through +flood his neighbor's land must restore the value of the grain he has +damaged. The owner of a vicious ox which has gored a man must pay a heavy +fine, provided he knew the disposition of the animal and had not blunted +its horns. A builder who puts up a shaky house which afterwards collapses +and kills the tenant is himself to be put to death. On the other hand, the +code has some rude features. Punishments were severe. For injuries to the +body there was the simple rule of retaliation: an eye for an eye, a tooth +for a tooth, a limb for a limb. A son who had struck his father was to +have his hands cut off. The nature of the punishment depended, moreover, +on the rank of the aggrieved party. A person who had caused the loss of a +"gentleman's" eye was to have his own plucked out; but if the injury was +done to a poor man, the culprit had only to pay a fine. + +[Illustration: BABYLONIAN CONTRACT TABLET +The actual tablet is on the right, on the left is a hollow clay case or +envelope.] + +IMPORTANCE OF HAMMURABI'S CODE + +Hammurabi's laws thus present a vivid picture of Oriental society two +thousand years before Christ. They always remained the basis of the +Babylonian and Assyrian legal system. They were destined, also, to exert +considerable influence upon Hebrew legislation. Centuries after Hammurabi +the enactments of the old Babylonian king were reproduced in some of the +familiar regulations of the laws of Moses. In this way they became the +heritage of the Hebrews and, through them, of our modern world. + +THE MOSAIC CODE + +The laws which we find in the earlier books of the Bible were ascribed by +the Hebrews to Moses. These laws covered a wide range of topics. They +fixed all religious ceremonies, required the observance every seventh day +of the Sabbath, dealt with marriage and the family, stated the penalties +for wrongdoing, gave elaborate rules for sacrifices, and even indicated +what foods must be avoided as "unclean." No other ancient people possessed +so elaborate a code. The Jews throughout the world obey, to this day, its +precepts. And modern Christendom still recites the Ten Commandments, the +noblest summary of the rules of right living that has come down to us from +the ancient world. + + +17. RELIGION + +NATURE WORSHIP + +Oriental ideas of religion, even more than of law and morality, were the +gradual outgrowth of beliefs held by the Asiatic peoples in prehistoric +times. Everywhere nature worship prevailed. The vault of heaven, earth and +ocean, sun, moon, and stars were all regarded either as themselves divine +or as the abode of divinities. The sun was an object of especial +adoration. We find a sun god, under different names, in every Oriental +country. + +BABYLONIAN BELIEF IN EVIL SPIRITS + +Another inheritance from prehistoric times was the belief in evil spirits. +In Babylonia and Assyria this superstition became a prominent feature of +the popular religion. Men supposed themselves to be constantly surrounded +by a host of demons which caused insanity, sickness, disease, and death-- +all the ills of life. People lived in constant fear of offending these +malignant beings. + +MAGIC + +To cope with evil spirits the Babylonian used magic. He put up a small +image of a protecting god at the entrance to his house and wore charms +upon his person. If he felt ill, he went to a priest, who recited a long +incantation supposed to drive out the "devil" afflicting the patient. The +reputation of the Babylonian priests was so widespread that in time the +name "Chaldean" [12] came to mean one who is a magician. Some of their +magical rites were borrowed by the Jews, and later by the Romans, from +whom they entered Christian Europe. Another Babylonian practice which +spread westward was that of divination, particularly by inspecting the +entrails of animals slain in sacrifice. This was a very common method of +divination among the Greeks and Romans. [13] + +[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SCARAB +The beetle, as a symbol of birth and resurrection, and hence of +immortality, enjoyed much reverence in ancient Egypt. A scarab, or image +of the beetle, was often worn as a charm and was placed in the mummy as an +artificial heart.] + +ASTROLOGY + +Astrology received much attention. It was believed that the five planets, +comets, and eclipses of the sun and moon exerted an influence for good or +evil on the life of man. Babylonian astrology likewise extended to western +lands and became popular among the Greeks and Romans. Some of it survives +to the present time. When we name the days Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, +we are unconscious astrologers, for in old belief the first day belonged +to the planet Saturn, the second to the sun, and the third to the moon. +[14] Superstitious people who try to read their fate in the stars are +really practicing an art of Babylonian origin. + +EGYPTIAN ANIMAL WORSHIP + +Less influential in later times was the animal worship of the Egyptians. +This, too, formed a heritage from the prehistoric past. Many common +animals of Egypt--the cat, hawk, the jackal, the bull, the ram, the +crocodile--were highly reverenced. Some received worship because deities +were supposed to dwell in them. The larger number, however, were not +worshiped for themselves, but as symbols of different gods. + +MONOTHEISM IN PERSIA + +In the midst of such an assemblage of nature deities, spirits, and sacred +animals, it was remarkable that the belief in one god should ever have +arisen. The Medes and Persians accepted the teachings of Zoroaster, a +great prophet who lived perhaps as early as 1000 B.C. According to +Zoroaster, Ahuramazda, the heaven-deity, is the maker and upholder of the +universe. He is a god of light and order, of truth and purity. Against him +stands Ahriman, the personification of darkness and evil. Ahuramazda in +the end will overcome Ahriman and will reign supreme in a righteous world. +Zoroastrianism was the only monotheistic religion developed by an Indo- +European people. [15] + +[Illustration: AMENHOTEP IV +A striking likeness of an Egyptian king (reigned about 1375-1358 B.C.) who +endeavored to introduce monotheism in Egypt by abolishing the worship of +all gods except the sun god. This religious revolution ended in failure +for after the king's death the old deities were restored to honor.] + +HEBREW MONOTHEISM + +The Hebrews, alone among the Semitic peoples of antiquity, were to develop +the worship of their god, Jehovah, into a lasting monotheism. This was a +long and gradual process Jehovah was at first regarded as the peculiar +divinity of the Hebrews. His worshipers did not deny the existence of the +gods of other nations. From the eighth century onward this narrow +conception of Jehovah was transformed by the labors of the Hebrew +prophets. They taught that Jehovah was the creator and ruler of the world +and the loving father of all mankind. On Hebrew monotheism two world +religions have been founded--Mohammedanism and Christianity. + +EGYPTIAN IDEAS OF THE FUTURE LIFE + +We do not find among the early Hebrews or any other Oriental people very +clear ideas about the life after death. The Egyptians long believed that +the soul of the dead man resided in or near the tomb, closely associated +with the body. This notion seems to have first led to the practice of +embalming the corpse, so that it might never suffer decay. If the body was +not preserved, the soul might die, or it might become a wandering ghost, +restless and dangerous to the living. Later Egyptian thought regarded the +future state as a place of rewards and punishments. One of the chapters of +the work called the _Book of the Dead_ describes the judgment of the soul +in the spirit world. If a man in the earthly life had not murdered, +stolen, coveted the property of others, blasphemed the gods, borne false +witness, ill treated his parents, or committed certain other wrongs, his +soul would enjoy a blissful immortality. + +[Illustration: MUMMY AND COVER OF COFFIN (U.S. National Museum, +Washington)] + +BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW IDEAS OF THE FUTURE LIFE + +Some Oriental peoples kept the primitive belief that after death all men, +good and bad alike, suffered the same fate. The Babylonians supposed that +the souls of the departed passed a cheerless existence in a gloomy and +Hebrew underworld. The early Hebrew idea of Sheol, "the land of darkness +and the shadow of death," [16] was very similar. Such thoughts of the +future life left nothing for either fear or hope. In later times, however, +the Hebrews came to believe in the resurrection of the dead and the last +judgment, conceptions afterwards adopted by Christianity. + + +18. LITERATURE AND ART + +THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD + +Religion inspired the largest part of ancient literature. Each Oriental +people possessed sacred writings. The Egyptian _Book of the Dead_ was +already venerable in 3000 B.C. It was a collection of hymns, prayers, and +magical phrases to be recited by the soul on its journey beyond the grave +and in the spirit world. A chapter from this work usually covered the +inner side of the mummy case. + +[Illustration: THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD +From a papyrus containing the _Book of the Dead_. The illustration shows a +man and his wife (at the left) entering the hall in the spirit world, +where sits the god of the dead with forty two jurors (seen above) as his +assistants. The heart of the man, symbolized by a jar, is being weighed in +balances by a jackal-headed god against a feather, the symbol of truth. +The monster in the right hand corner stands ready to devour the soul, if +the heart is found lighter than the feather.] + +THE BABYLONIAN EPICS + +Much more interesting are the two Babylonian epics, fragments of which +were found on clay tablets in a royal library at Nineveh. The epic of the +Creation tells how the god Marduk overcame a terrible dragon, the symbol +of primeval chaos, and thus established order in the universe. Then with +half the body of the dead dragon he made a covering for the heavens and +set therein the stars. Next he caused the new moon to shine and made it +the ruler of the night. His last work was the creation of man, in order +that the service and worship of the gods might be established forever. The +second epic contains an account of a flood, sent by the gods to punish +sinful men. The rain fell for six days and nights and covered the entire +earth. All men were drowned except the Babylonian Noah, his family, and +his relatives, who safely rode the waters in an ark. This ancient +narrative so closely resembles the Bible story in _Genesis_ that we must +trace them both to a common source. + +[Illustration: THE DELUGE TABLET (British Museum London) +Contains the narrative of the flood as pieced together and published by +George Smith in 1872 A.D. There are sixteen fragments in the restoration.] + +[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE (RESTORED) +The building extended along the Nile for nearly eight hundred feet. A +double line of sphinxes led to the only entrance, in front of which were +two obelisks and four colossal statues of Rameses II. Behind the first +gateway, or pylon came an open court surrounded by a portico upheld by +pillars. The second and third pylons were connected by a covered passage +leading into another open court. Lower rooms at the rear of the temple +contained the sanctuary of the god, which only the king and priests could +enter.] + +THE HEBREW BIBLE + +All these writings are so ancient that their very authors are forgotten. +The interest they excite is historical rather than literary. From Oriental +antiquity only one great work has reached us that still has power to move +the hearts of men--the Hebrew Bible. + +EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE + +Architecture, in Egypt, was the leading art. The Egyptians were the first +people who learned to raise buildings with vast halls supported by +ponderous columns. Their wealth and skill, however, were not lavished in +the erection of fine private mansions or splendid public buildings. The +characteristic works of Egyptian architecture are the tombs of the kings +and the temples of the gods. The picture of the great structure at Thebes, +which Rameses II completed, [17] will give some idea of an Egyptian temple +with its gateways, open courts, obelisks, and statues. + +[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN WOODEN STATUE, (Museum of Gizeh) +Found in a tomb near Memphis. The statue, which belongs to the age of the +pyramid kings, represents a bustling, active, middle-class official.] + +ARCHITECTURE IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA + +The architecture of Babylonia and Assyria was totally unlike that of +Egypt, because brick, and not stone, formed the chief building and Assyria +material. In Babylonia the temple was a solid, square tower, built on a +broad platform. It consisted usually of seven stages, which arose one +above the other to the top, where the shrine of the deity was placed. The +different stages were connected by an inclined ascent. The four sides of +the temple faced the cardinal points, and the several stages were +dedicated to the sun, moon, and five planets. In Assyria the +characteristic building was the palace. But the sun-dried bricks, of which +both temples and palaces were composed, lacked the durability of stone and +have long since dissolved into shapeless mounds. + +EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE + +The surviving examples of Egyptian sculpture consist of bas-reliefs and +figures in the round, carved from limestone and granite or cast in bronze. +Many of the statues appear to our eyes very stiff and ungraceful. The +sculptor never learned how to pose his figures easily or how to arrange +them in an artistic group. In spite of these defects some Egyptian statues +are wonderfully lifelike. [18] + +[Illustration: AN ASSYRIAN PALACE (RESTORED) +The royal residence of Sargon II near Nineveh was placed upon a high +platform of brick masonry the top of which was gained by stairs and an +inclined roadway. The palace consisted of a series of one storied +rectangular halls and long corridors surrounding inner courts. They were +provided with imposing entrances flanked by colossal human headed bulls +representing guardian spirits. The entire building covered more than +twenty three acres and contained two hundred apartments. In the rear is +seen a temple tower.] + +SCULPTURE IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA + +Few examples have reached us of Babylonian and Assyrian sculpture in the +round. As in Egypt, the figures seem rigid and out of proportion. The +Assyrian bas-reliefs show a higher development of the artistic sense, +especially in the rendering of animals. The sculptures that deal with the +exploits of the kings in war and hunting often tell their story in so +graphic a way as to make up for the absence of written records. + +ORIENTAL PAINTING + +Painting in the ancient East did not reach the dignity of an independent +art. It was employed solely for decorative purposes. Bas-reliefs and wall +surfaces were often brightly colored, The artist had no knowledge of +perspective and drew all his figures in profile, without any distinction +of light and shade. Indeed, Oriental painting, as well as Oriental +sculpture, made small pretense to the beautiful. Beauty was born into the +world with the art of the Greeks. + +[Illustration: AN ASSYRIAN WINGED HUMAN HEADED BULL] + +[Illustration: AN ASSYRIAN HUNTING SCENE (British Museum, London) +A bas relief from a slab found at Nineveh.] + + +19. SCIENCE AND EDUCATION + +ARITHMETIC AND GEOMETRY + +Conspicuous advance took place in the exact sciences. The leading +operations of arithmetic were known. A Babylonian tablet gives a table of +squares and cubes correctly calculated from 1 to 60. The number 12 was the +basis of all reckonings. The division of the circle into degrees, minutes, +and seconds (360°, 60', 60") was an invention of the Babylonians which +illustrates this duodecimal system A start was made in geometry. One of +the oldest of Egyptian books contains a dozen geometrical problems. This +knowledge was afterwards developed into a true science by the Greeks. + +ASTRONOMY + +In both Egypt and Babylonia the cloudless skies and still, warm nights +early led to astronomical research. At a remote period, perhaps before +4000 B.C., the Egyptians framed a solar calendar, [19] consisting of +twelve months, each thirty days in length, with five extra days at the end +of the year. This calendar was taken over by the Romans, [20] who added +the system of leap years. The Babylonians made noteworthy progress in some +branches of astronomy. They were able to trace the course of the sun +through the twelve constellations of the zodiac and to distinguish five of +the planets from the fixed stars. The successful prediction of eclipses +formed another Babylonian achievement. Such astronomical discoveries must +have required much patient and accurate observation. + +GEOGRAPHY + +Geographical ideas for a long time were very crude. An ancient map, +scratched on clay, indicates that about eight centuries before Christ the +Babylonians had gained some knowledge, not only of their own land, but +even of regions beyond the Mediterranean. The chief increase in man's +knowledge of the world in ancient times was due to the Phoenicians. [21] + +PRACTICAL SCIENCES + +The skill of Oriental peoples as mechanics and engineers is proved by +their success as builders. The great pyramids exactly face the points of +the compass. The principle of the round arch was known in Babylonia at a +remote period The transportation of colossal stone monuments exhibits a +knowledge of the lever, pulley, and inclined plane. [22] Babylonian +inventions were the sundial and the water clock, the one to register the +passage of the hours by day, the other by night. The Egyptians and +Babylonians also made some progress in the practice of medicine. + +[Illustration: A BABYLONIAN MAP OF THE WORLD +A tablet of dark brown clay, much injured, dating from the 8th or 7th +century B.C. The two large concentric circles indicate the ocean or, as it +is called in the cuneiform writing between the circles, the 'Briny Flood.' +Beyond the ocean are seven successive projections of land, represented by +triangles. Perhaps they refer to the countries existing beyond the Black +Sea and the Red Sea. The two parallel lines within the inner circle +represent the Euphrates. The little rings stand for the Babylonian cities +in this region.] + +THE TEMPLE SCHOOL + +The schools, in both Egypt and Babylonia, were attached to the temples and +were conducted by the priests. Writing was the chief subject of +instruction. It took many years of patient study to master the cuneiform +symbols or the even more difficult hieroglyphics. "He who would excel in +the school of the scribes," ran an ancient maxim, "must rise with the +dawn." Writing was learned by imitating the examples supplied in copy- +books. Some of the model letters studied by Egyptian boys of the twentieth +century B.C. have come down to us. Reading, too, was an art not easy to +learn. Dictionaries and grammars were written to aid the beginner. A +little instruction was also provided in counting and calculating. + +[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN SCRIBE (Louvre, Paris)] + +THE SCRIBES + +Having learned to read and write, the pupil was ready to enter on the +coveted career of a scribe. In a community where nearly every one was +illiterate, the scribes naturally held an honorable place. They conducted +the correspondence of the time. When a man wished to send a letter, he had +a scribe write it, signing it himself by affixing his seal. When he +received a letter, he usually employed a scribe to read it to him. The +scribes were also kept busy copying books on the papyrus paper or clay +tablets which served as writing materials. + +THE TEMPLE LIBRARY + +Every large city of Babylonia possessed a collection of books. Several of +the larger libraries have been discovered. At Nippur, in Babylonia, thirty +thousand clay tablets were found. Another great collection of books was +unearthed in a royal palace at Nineveh. This Assyrian library seems to +have been open for the general use of the king's subjects. The Egyptians +also had their libraries, usually as adjuncts to the temples, and hence +under priestly control. + +WIDESPREAD POPULAR IGNORANCE + +Learning and education were so closely limited to a few individuals that +the mass of the people were sunk in deepest ignorance. Men could not +pursue knowledge for themselves, but had to accept every thing on +authority. Hence the inhabitants of Oriental lands remained a conservative +folk, slow to abandon their time-honored beliefs and very unwilling to +adopt a new custom even when clearly better than the old. This absence of +popular education, more than anything else, made Oriental civilization +unprogressive. + +[Illustration: EXCAVATION AT NIPPUR +Nippur was the ancient "Calneh in the land of Shinar" (_Genesis_, x, 10) +Excavations here were conducted by the University of Pennsylvania during +1889-1900 A.D. The city contained an imposing temple, a library, a school, +and even a little museum of antiquities.] + + +STUDIES + +1. What was the origin of the "divine right" of kings? + +2. Explain what is meant by _despotism_; by _autocracy_. + +3. What European state comes nearest to being a pure despotism? What +European monarch styles himself as an autocrat? + +4. What do the illustrations on pages 38, 43 tell about the pomp of +Oriental kings? + +5. Why did the existence of numerous slaves in Egypt and Babylonia tend to +keep low the wages of free workmen? Why is it true that civilization may +be said to have begun "with the cracking of the slave whip"? + +6. What light is thrown on the beginnings of money in ancient Egypt by the +illustration on page 47? + +7. Name some objects which, in place of the metals, are used by primitive +peoples as money. + +8. Interest in Babylonia was usually at the rate of 20% a year. Why is it +so much lower in modern countries? + +9. On the map, page 48, indicate the trade routes between eastern and +western Asia which met in Mesopotamia. + +10. The Phoenicians have been called "the English of antiquity." Can you +give any reason for this characterization? + +11. Why should the Phoenicians have been called the "colossal peddlers" of +the ancient world? + +12. What books of the Bible contain the laws of Israel? + +13. What reasons can you suggest for the universal worship of the sun? + +14. Define _polytheism_ and _monotheism_, giving examples of each. + +15. Describe the Egyptian conception of the judgment of the dead +(illustration, page 56). + +16. How many "books" are there in the Old Testament? + +17. What is the Apocrypha? + +18. How are the pyramids proof of an advanced civilization among the +Egyptians? + +19. What is a bas-relief? Select some examples from the illustrations. + +20. From what Oriental peoples do we get the oldest true arch? the first +coined money? the earliest legal code? the most ancient book? + +21. Enumerate the most important contributions to civilization made in +Oriental antiquity. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter 1, "Three Oriental +Peoples as Described by Herodotus." + +[2] See page 25. + +[3] See page 6. + +[4] See page 37. + +[5] For illustrations of Oriental coins see the plate facing page 134. + +[6] See page 4. + +[7] See page 5. + +[8] "Tyrian purple" was a dye secured from a species of shellfish found +along the Phoenician coast and in Greek waters. + +[9] See I _Kings_, ix, 26-28. The site of Ophir is not known, though +probably it was in southern Arabia. + +[10] See _Ezekiel_, xxvii, 12, 25. + +[11] A monument containing the code of Hammurabi was found on the site of +Susa in 1901-1902 A.D. See the illustration, page 25. + +[12] Chaldea was another name for Babylonia. + +[13] See page 148. + +[14] The names of four other week days come from the names of old Teutonic +deities. Tuesday is the day of Tyr, Wednesday of Woden (Odin), Thursday of +Thunor (Thor), and Friday of the goddess Frigga. See page 304. + +[15] Zoroastrians are still to be found in the East In Persia, now a +Mohammedan country, there is a little band of devoted followers of +Zoroaster, who keep up to this day the tenets of their ancient faith. In +India the Parsees of Bombay are the descendants of those Persians who fled +from Persia at the time of the Mohammedan conquest (page 376), rather than +surrender their cherished beliefs and embrace a new religion. + +[16] _Job_, X, 21. + +[17] See page 28. + +[18] See the illustrations, pages 27, 54, 58, 63. + +[19] See page 13. + +[20] See page 186, note 2. + +[21] See page 48. + +[22] See the illustration, page 46. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LANDS OF THE WEST AND THE RISE OF GREECE TO ABOUT 500 B.C. [1] + + +20. PHYSICAL EUROPE + +EUROPE A PENINSULA OF ASIA + +The continent of Asia, projecting its huge bulk southwestward between the +seas, gradually narrows into the smaller continent of Europe. The boundary +between the two regions is not well defined. Ancient geographers found a +convenient dividing line north of the Black Sea in the course of the river +Don. Modern map makers usually place the division at the Ural Mountains, +the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus. Each of these boundaries is more or +less arbitrary. In a geographical sense Europe is only the largest of the +great Asiatic peninsulas. + +PHYSICAL FEATURES OF EUROPE + +But in physical features the two continents disclose the most striking +contrasts. The sea, which washes only the remote edges of Asia, penetrates +deeply into Europe and forms an extremely irregular coast line with +numerous bays and harbors. The mountains of Europe, seldom very high and +provided with easy passes, present no such barriers to intercourse as the +mightier ranges of Asia. We miss in Europe the extensive deserts and +barren table-lands which form such a feature of Asiatic geography. With +the exception of Russia the surface, generally, is distributed into +plains, hills, and valleys of moderate size. Instead of a few large +rivers, such as are found in Asia, Europe is well supplied with numerous +streams that make it possible to travel readily from one district to +another. + +CENTRAL AND NORTHERN EUROPE + +The almost unbroken mountain chain formed by the Pyrenees, the Alps, and +the Balkans, sharply separates the central land mass of Europe from the +regions to the south. Central Europe consists, in general, of lowlands, +which widen eastward into the vast Russian plain. Northern Europe includes +the British Isles, physically an extension of Europe, and the peninsulas +of Scandinavia and Finland, between the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean. +Twenty centuries ago central and northern Europe was a land of forests and +marshes, of desolate steppes and icebound hills. The peoples who inhabited +it--Celts in the west, Teutons or Germans in the north, Slavs in the east +--were men of Indo-European [2] race and speech. They were still +barbarians. During ancient times we hear little of them, except as their +occasional migrations southward brought them into contact with the Greeks +and the Romans. + +SOUTHERN EUROPE + +Southern Europe comprises the three peninsulas of Spain, Italy, and the +Balkans, which reach far south into the Mediterranean. This great inland +sea is divided into two parts near the center, where Africa and the island +of Sicily almost touch each other across a narrow strait. The eastern part +contains several minor seas, of which the one called the Aegean had most +importance in Greek history. + + +21. GREECE AND THE AEGEAN + +THE AEGEAN SEA + +The Aegean is an almost landlocked body of water. The Balkan peninsula, +narrowing toward the Mediterranean into the smaller peninsula of Greece, +confines it on the west. On the east it meets a boundary in Asia Minor. +The southern boundary is formed by a chain of islands, while the only +opening northward is found in the narrow passage leading to the Black Sea. +The coasts and islands of the Aegean thus make up a little world set off +by itself. + +[Illustration: Map, PHYSICAL MAP OF EUROPE] + +CONTINENTAL GREECE + +Continental Greece is a tiny country. Its greatest length is scarcely more +than two hundred and fifty miles; its greatest breadth is only one hundred +and eighty miles. Mountain ridges, offshoots of the Balkans, compose the +greater part of its area. Into the valleys and deep gorges of the interior +the impetuous sea has everywhere forced a channel. The coast line, +accordingly, is most irregular--a constant succession of sharp +promontories and curving bays. The mountains, crossing the peninsula in +confused masses, break it up into numberless valleys and glens which +seldom widen into plains. The rivers are not navigable. The few lakes, +hemmed in by the hills, have no outlets except in underground channels. In +this land of the Greeks no place is more than fifty miles from a mountain +range, or more than forty miles from some long arm of the Mediterranean. + +THE AEGEAN ISLANDS + +From the Greek mainland to the coast of Asia Minor the traveler follows a +route thickly studded with rocky islands. They are near enough together to +permit the passage from one to another without losing sight of land. The +Aegean islands thus served as "stepping-stones" between Greece and Asia +Minor. [3] + +WESTERN ASIA MINOR + +Western Asia Minor resembles Continental Greece in its deeply indented +coast, variety of scenery, and mild climate. The fertile river valleys of +this region early attracted Greek colonists. They built here many +flourishing cities, especially along the central coast, which came to be +known as Ionia. + +INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS + +Greek history well illustrates the influence of geographical conditions on +the life of a people. In the first place, mountain ranges cut up +Continental Greece into many small states, separated from one another by +natural ramparts. Hence the Greeks loved most of all their own local +independence and always refused to unite into one nation under a single +government. In the second place, the near presence of the sea made sailors +of the Greeks and led them to devote much energy to foreign commerce. They +early felt, in consequence, the stimulating effects of intercourse with +other peoples. Finally, the location of Greece at the threshold of Asia, +with its best harbors and most numerous islands on the eastern coast, +enabled the country to receive and profit by all the culture of the +Orient. Greece faced the civilized East. + + +22. THE AEGEAN AGE (TO ABOUT 1100 B.C.) + +A PREHISTORIC CIVILIZATION + +The Greeks of historic times knew very little about their prehistoric +period. Instead of accurate knowledge they had only the beautiful legends +preserved in ancient poems, such as the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. Within +our own day, however, remarkable excavations have disclosed the remains of +a widespread and flourishing civilization in times so distant that the +historic Greeks had lost all sight of it. As in the Orient, [4] the labors +of modern scholars are yearly adding to our knowledge of ancient life. + +[Illustration: Map, AEGEAN CIVILIZATION] + +[Illustration: EXCAVATIONS AT TROY The great northeast tower of the sixth +city. The stairs at the right belong to the eighth city.] + +SCHLIEMANN'S EXCAVATIONS AT TROY + +The man who did most to reveal the prehistoric civilization of Greece was +a wealthy German merchant named Heinrich Schliemann. An enthusiastic lover +of Homer, he believed that the stories of the Trojan War related in the +_Iliad_ were not idle fancies, but real facts. In 1870 A.D. he started to +test his beliefs by excavations at a hill called Hissarlik, on the +northwestern coast of Asia Minor. Here tradition had always fixed the site +of ancient Troy. Schliemann's discoveries and those of later explorers +proved that at Hissarlik at least nine successive cities had come into +existence, flourished, and passed away. Excavations completed in 1892 A.D. +have shown that the sixth city in order from the bottom was the one +described in the Homeric poems. It had powerful walls defended by towers, +well-fortified gates, and palaces of stone. The marks of fire throughout +the ruins indicate that the city must have been destroyed by a disastrous +conflagration. + +SCHLIEMANN'S EXCAVATIONS AT MYCENAE AND TIRYNS + +The remarkable disclosures at Troy encouraged Schliemann to excavate other +Homeric sites. At Mycenae, a prehistoric city of Argolis in Greece, he +laid bare six rock-hewn graves, containing the skeletons of nineteen +persons, men, women, and children. The faces of the dead had been covered +with thin masks of gold, and their bodies had been decked with gold +diadems, bracelets, and pendants. The other funeral offerings include gold +rings, silver vases, and a variety of bronze weapons. At Tiryns, once the +capital of Argolis, he uncovered the ruins of an extensive structure with +gateways, open courts, and closed apartments. Characteristic of this +edifice were the separate quarters occupied by men and women, the series +of storerooms for provisions, and such a modern convenience as a bathroom +with pipes and drains. In short, the palace at Tiryns gives us a clear and +detailed picture of the home of a Homeric prince. + +[Illustration: LIONS' GATE, MYCENAE +The stone relief, of triangular shape, represents two lions (or lionesses) +facing each other on opposite sides of a pillar. The heads of the animals +have been lost.] + +EVANS'S EXCAVATIONS AT GNOSSUS + +But the fame of even Schliemann's discoveries has been somewhat dimmed by +the excavations made since 1900 A.D. on the site of Gnossus, the ancient +capital of the island of Crete. At Gnossus an Englishman, Sir Arthur +Evans, has found the remains of an enormous palace, with numerous courts, +passages, and rooms. Here is the royal council chamber with the throne on +which the king once sat. Here are the royal magazines, still filled with +huge earthenware jars for the storage of provisions. A great number of +brilliant pictures--hunting scenes, landscapes, portraits of men and +women--cover the palace walls. Buried in some of the chambers were +thousands of clay tablets with inscriptions which, if ever read, will add +new chapters to ancient history. [5] + +[Illustration: THE VAPHIO GOLD CUPS (National Museum, Athens) +These beautiful objects were found in 1888 within a "bee-hive" tomb at +Vaphio in Laconia. The two cups are of beaten gold, ornamented with +designs in _repoussé_ work. The first scene represents a wild-bull hunt. +The companion piece pictures four tame bulls under the care of a +herdsman.] + +[Illustration: SILVER FRAGMENT FROM MYCENAE (National Museum, Athens) +A siege scene showing the bows, slings, and huge shields of Mycenaean +warriors. In the background are seen the masonry of the city wall and the +flat-roofed houses.] + +ANTIQUITY OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION + +These discoveries in the Aegean enable us to place another venerable +center of civilized life by the side of Babylonia and Egypt. As early as +3000 B.C. the primitive inhabitants of the Aegean were giving up the use +of stone tools and weapons for those of metal. Bronze soon came into +general use, as is shown by the excavations. The five centuries between +1600 and 1100 B.C. appear to have been the time when the civilization of +the Aegean Age reached its highest development. + +THE FINE ARTS + +Remarkable progress took place during Aegean times in some of the fine +arts. We find imposing palaces, often splendidly adorned and arranged for +a life of comfort. Wall paintings, plaster reliefs, and fine carvings in +stone excite our admiration. Aegean artists made beautiful pottery of many +shapes and cleverly decorated it with plant and animal forms. They carved +ivory, engraved gems, and excelled in the working of metals. Some of their +productions in gold, silver, and bronze were scarcely surpassed by Greek +artists a thousand years later. [6] + +COMMERCE + +There was much intercourse throughout the Mediterranean during this +period. Products of Aegean art have been found as far west as Sicily, +Italy, and Spain, Aegean pottery has frequently been discovered in +Egyptian tombs. Some objects unearthed in Babylonia are apparently of +Aegean workmanship. In those ancient days Crete was mistress of the seas. +Cretan merchants preceded the Phoenicians as carriers between Asia and +Europe. [7] Trade and commerce thus opened up the Mediterranean world to +all the cultural influences of the Orient. + +[Illustration: A CRETAN GIRL (Museum of Candia, Crete) +A fresco painting from the palace of Gnossus. The girl's face is so +astonishingly modern in treatment that one can scarcely believe that the +picture belongs to the sixteenth century B.C.] + +DOWNFALL OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION + +Aegean civilization did not penetrate beyond the shores of Asia Minor, the +islands, and the coasts of Continental Greece. The interior regions of the +Greek peninsula remained the home of barbarous tribes, which had not yet +learned to build cities, to create beautiful objects of art, or to traffic +on the seas. By 1100 B.C. their destructive inroads brought the Aegean Age +to an end. + + +23. THE HOMERIC AGE (ABOUT 1100-750 B.C.) + +COMING OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS + +The barbarians who overthrew Aegean civilization seem to have entered +Greece from the north, perhaps from the region the Danube River. They +pushed gradually southward, sometimes exterminating or enslaving the +earlier inhabitants of the country, but more often settling peaceably +in their new homes. Conquerors and conquered slowly intermingled and so +produced the one Greek people which is found at the dawn of history. These +Greeks, as we shall call them henceforth, also occupied the islands of the +Aegean Sea and the coast of Asia Minor. The entire basin of the Aegean +thus became a Greek world. + +[Illustration: AEGEAN SNAKE GODDESS (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) +A gold and ivory statuette found in Crete. Dates from the sixteenth +century B.C. The goddess wears the characteristic Cretan dress, with low- +cut jacket and full skirt with five plaited flounces. On her head is an +elaborate crown.] + +THE HOMERIC EPICS + +The period between the end of the Aegean Age and the opening of historic +times in Greece is usually called the Homeric Age, because many features +of its civilization are reflected in two epic poems called the _Iliad_ and +the _Odyssey_. The former deals with the story of a Greek expedition +against Troy; the latter describes the wanderings of the hero Odysseus on +his return from Troy. The two epics were probably composed in Ionia, and +by the Greeks were attributed to a blind bard named Homer. Many modern +scholars, however, consider them the work of several generations of poets. +The references in the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ to industry, social life, +law, government, and religion give us some idea of the culture which the +historic Greeks received as their inheritance. + +INDUSTRY + +The Greeks as described in the Homeric epics were in a transitional stage +between the life of shepherds and that of farmers. Wealth consisted +chiefly of flocks and herds, though nearly every freeman owned a little +plot of land on which he cultivated grain and cared for his orchard and +vineyard. There were few skilled workmen, for almost everything was made +at home. A separate class of traders had not yet arisen. Commerce was +little followed. The Greeks depended on Phoenician sailors to bring to +their shores the commodities which they could not produce themselves. Iron +was known and used, for instance, in the manufacture of farm tools. During +Homeric times, however, that metal had not yet displaced copper and +bronze. [8] + +SOCIAL LIFE + +Social life was very simple. Princes tended flocks and built houses; +princesses carried water and washed clothes. Agamemnon, Odysseus, and +other heroes were not ashamed to be their own butchers and cooks. The +Homeric knights did not ride on horseback, but fought from chariots. They +sat at table instead of reclining at meals, as did the later Greeks. +Coined money was unknown. Trade was by barter, values being reckoned in +oxen or in lumps of gold and silver. Men bought their wives by making +gifts of cattle to the parents. The art of writing is mentioned only once +in the Homeric poems, and doubtless was little used. + +[Illustration: A CRETAN CUPBEARER (Museum of Candia, Crete) +A fresco painting from the palace of Gnossus. The youth carries a silver +cup ornamented with gold. His waist is tightly drawn in by a girdle, his +hair is dark and curly, his profile is almost classically Greek.] + +LAW AND MORALITY + +The times were rude. Wars, though petty, were numerous and cruel. The +vanquished suffered death or slavery. Piracy, flourishing upon the +unprotected seas, ranked as an honorable occupation. It was no insult to +inquire of a seafaring stranger whether he was pirate or merchant. Murders +were frequent. The murderer had to dread, not a public trial and +punishment, but rather the personal vengeance of the kinsmen of his +victim. The Homeric Greeks, in fact, exhibited the usual defects and vices +of barbarous peoples. + +HOMERIC GEOGRAPHY + +The _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ disclose a considerable acquaintance with +peninsular Greece and the coasts of Asia Minor. Cyprus, Egypt, and Sicily +are also known in part. The poet imagines the earth as a sort of flat +shield, with Greece lying in the center. [9] The Mediterranean, "The Sea," +as it is called by Homer, and its continuation, the Euxine, [10] divided +the world into two equal parts. Surrounding the earth was "the great +strength of the Stream of Ocean," [11] a river, broad and deep, beyond +which lay the dark and misty realm of the mythical Cimmerians. The +underworld of Hades, home of the dead, was beneath the surface of the +earth. + +[Illustration: Map, THE WORLD according to HOMER (900 B.C.)] + +[Illustration: Map, GREEK CONQUESTS AND MIGRATIONS] + + +24. EARLY GREEK RELIGION + +THE OLYMPIAN COUNCIL + +We may learn from the Homeric poems what were the religious ideas held by +the early Greeks. The greater gods and goddesses were not numerous. Less +than a score everywhere received worship under the same names and in all +the temples. Twelve of the chief deities formed a select council, which +was supposed to meet on the top of snow-crowned Olympus. The Greeks, +however, did not agree as to what gods and goddesses should be included in +this august assemblage. + +ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITIES + +Many of the Olympian deities appear to have been simply personifications +of natural phenomena. Zeus, "father of gods and men," as Homer calls him, +was a heaven god, who gathered the clouds in storms and hurled the +lightning bolt. Apollo, a mighty god of light, who warded off darkness and +evil, became the ideal of manly beauty and the patron of music, poetry, +and healing. Dionysus was worshiped as the god of sprouting and budding +vegetation. Poseidon, brother of Zeus, ruled the sea. Hera, the wife of +Zeus, represented the female principle in nature. Hence she presided over +the life of women and especially over the sacred rites of marriage. +Athena, who sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus, embodied the idea +of wisdom and all womanly virtues. Aphrodite, who arose from the foam of +the sea, was the goddess of love and beauty. Demeter, the great earth- +mother, watched over seed-time and harvest. Each deity thus had a kingdom +and a function of its own. + +[Illustration: GREEK GODS AND GODDESSES + ZEUS OTRICOLI, Vatican Gallery, Rome + HERA, Ludovisi Villa, Rome + APOLLO OF THE BELVEDERE, Vatican Gallery, Rome + APHRODITE OF CNIDUS, Glyptothek, Munich] + +[Illustration: THE APHRODITE OF MELOS (Louvre, Paris) +More commonly known as the "Venus of Milo." The statue was discovered in +1820 A.D. on the island of Melos. It consists of two principal pieces +joined together across the folds of the drapery. Most art critics date +this work about 100 B.C. The strong serene figure of the goddess sets +forth the Greek ideal of female loveliness.] + +CONCEPTIONS OF THE DEITIES + +The Greeks made their gods and goddesses after themselves. The Olympian +divinities are really magnified men and women, subject to all human +passions and appetites, but possessed of more than human power and endowed +with immortality. They enjoy the banquet, where they feast on nectar and +ambrosia; they take part in the struggles of the battle field; they marry +and are given in marriage. The gods, morally, were no better than their +worshipers. They might be represented as deceitful, dissolute, and cruel, +but they could also be regarded as upholders of truth and virtue. Even +Homer could say, "Verily the blessed gods love not evil deeds, but they +reverence justice and the righteous acts of men." [12] + +[Illustration: THE FRANÇOIS VASE (Archaeological Museum, Florence) +Found in an Etruscan grave in 1844 A.D. A black-figured terra cotta vase +of about 600 B.C. It is nearly three feet in height and two an one half +feet in diameter. The figures on the vase depict scenes from Greek +mythology. + + Calydonian boar hunt + Games at the funeral of Patroclus + Peleus Thetis and the gods + Pursuit of Troilus by Achilles + Animal scenes, sphinxes, etc.] + +IDEAS OF THE OTHER WORLD + +Greek ideas of the other world were dismal to an extreme. The after-life +in Hades was believed to be a shadowy, joyless copy of the earthly +existence. In Hades the shade of great Achilles exclaims sorrowfully, +"Nay, speak not comfortably to me of death. Rather would I live on earth +as the hireling of another, even with a landless man who had no great +livelihood, than bear sway among all the dead." [13] It was not until +several centuries after Homer that happier notions of the future life were +taught, or at least suggested, in the Eleusinian mysteries. [14] + + +25. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS: ORACLES AND GAMES + +ORACLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI + +The Greeks believed that communications from the gods were received from +certain inspired persons at places called oracles. The oracle of Apollo at +Delphi in Phocis enjoyed the utmost veneration. It lay within a deep cave +on the rocky side of Mount Parnassus. Out of a chasm rose a volcanic vapor +which had a certain intoxicating power. The Pythia, or prophetess of +Apollo, sat on a tripod over the steaming cleft and inhaled the gas. The +words she uttered in delirium were supposed to come from the god. They +were taken down by the attendant priests, written out in verse, and +delivered to the suppliants. + +INQUIRIES AT THE ORACLE + +The fame of Apollo as the patron of inspiration and prophecy spread +throughout Greece and penetrated to foreign lands. Every year thousands of +visitors made their way to Apollo's shrine. Sick men prayed for health, +childless men prayed for offspring. Statesmen wished to learn the fate of +their political schemes; ambassadors sent by kings and cities sought +advice as to weighty matters of peace and war. Above all, colonists came +to Delphi in order to obtain directions as to the best country in which to +settle. Some of the noblest cities of the Greek world, Cyrene and +Byzantium, for example, [15] had their sites fixed by Apollo's guidance. + +[Illustration: CONSULTING THE ORACLE AT DELPHI] + +CHARACTER OF THE RESPONSES + +The priests who managed the oracle and its responses were usually able to +give good advice to their inquirers, because news of every sort streamed +into Delphi. When the priests were doubtful what answer to give, the +prophecy of the god was sometimes expressed in such ambiguous fashion +that, whatever the outcome, neither Apollo nor his servants could be +charged with deceit. For instance, when Croesus, the Lydian king, was +about to attack Cyrus, he learned from the oracle that "if he warred with +the Persians he would overthrow a mighty empire" [16]--but the mighty +empire proved to be his own. [17] + +THE OLYMPIAN GAMES + +Athletic games were held in different parts of Greece from a remote +period. The most famous games were those in honor of Zeus at Olympia in +Elis. They took place every fourth year, in midsummer. [18] A sacred truce +was proclaimed for an entire month, in order that the thousands of +spectators from every part of Greece might arrive and depart in safety. No +one not of Greek blood and no one convicted of crime or of the sin of +impiety might participate in the contests. The candidates had also to +prove that they were qualified for the severe tests by a long and hard +training. Once accepted as competitors, they could not withdraw. The man +who shrank back when the hour of trial arrived was considered a coward and +was punished with a heavy fine. + +THE CONTESTS + +The games occupied five days, beginning with the contests in running. +There was a short-distance dash through the length of the stadium, a +quarter-mile race, and also a longer race, probably for two or three +miles. Then followed a contest consisting of five events: the long jump, +hurling the discus, throwing the javelin, running, and wrestling. It is +not known how victory in these five events taken together was decided. In +the long jump, weights like dumb-bells were held in the hands, the swing +of the weights being used to assist the spring. The discus, which weighed +about twelve pounds, was sometimes hurled more than one hundred feet. The +javelin was thrown either by the hand alone or with the help of a thong +wound about the shaft and held in the fingers. In wrestling, three falls +were necessary for a victory. The contestants were free to get their grip +as best they could. Other contests included boxing, horse races, and +chariot races. Women were apparently excluded from the games, yet they +were allowed to enter horses for the races and to set up statues in honor +of the victors. + +[Illustration: THE DISCUS THROWER (DISCOBOLUS) (Lancelotti Palace, Rome) +Marble copy of the bronze original by Myron, a sculptor of the fifth +century B.C. Found in 1781 A.D. on the Esquiline Hill, Rome. The statue +represents a young man, perhaps an athlete at the Olympian games, who is +bending forward to hurl the discus. His body is thrown violently to the +left with a twisting action that brings every muscle into play.] + +THE VICTOR'S REWARD + +The Olympian festival was profoundly religious, because the display of +manly strength was thought to be a spectacle most pleasing to the gods. +The winning athlete received only a wreath of wild olive at Olympia, but +at home he enjoyed the gifts and veneration of his fellow-citizens. Poets +celebrated his victories in noble odes. Sculptors reproduced his triumphs +in stone and bronze. To the end of his days he remained a distinguished +man. + +[Illustration: HERMES AND DIONYSUS (Museum of Olympia) +An original statue by the great sculptor, Praxiteles. It was found in 1877 +A.D. at Olympia. Hermes is represented carrying the child Dionysus, whom +Zeus had intrusted to his care. The symmetrical body of Hermes is +faultlessly modeled; the poise of his head is full of dignity; his +expression is refined and thoughtful. Manly strength and beauty have never +been better embodied than in this work.] + +[Illustration: ATHLETE USING THE STRIGIL (APOXYOMENUS) (Vatican Gallery, +Rome) + +Marble copy of the bronze original by Lysippus, a sculptor of the fourth +century B.C. The statue represents an athlete rubbing his arm with a flesh +scraper to remove the oil and sand of the palestra, or exercising ground. +His slender form suggests quickness and agility rather than great +strength.] + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GAMES + +There were few Greeks who at least once in their lives did not attend the +festival. The crowds that gathered before and after the games turned the +camp into a great fair, at which merchants set up their shops and money +changers their tables. Poets recited their lines before admiring audiences +and artists exhibited their masterpieces to intending purchasers. Heralds +read treaties recently formed between Greek cities, in order to have them +widely known. Orators addressed the multitude on subjects of general +interest. The games thus helped to preserve a sense of fellowship among +Greek communities. + + +26. THE GREEK CITY-STATE + +NATURE OF THE CITY STATE + +The Greeks in Homeric times had already begun to live in towns and cities. +A Greek city, being independent and self-governing, is properly called a +city-state. Just as a modern nation, it could declare war, arrange +treaties, and make alliances with its neighbors. Such a city-state +included not only the territory within its walls, but also the surrounding +district where many of the citizens lived. + +THE CITIZENS + +The members of a Greek city-state were very closely associated. The +citizens believed themselves to be descended from a common ancestor and so +to be all related. They were united, also, in the worship of the patron +god or hero who had them under his protection. These ties of supposed +kinship and common religion were of the utmost importance. They made +citizenship a privilege which came to a person only by birth, a privilege +which he lost by removal to another city. Elsewhere he was only a +foreigner without legal rights--a man without a country. + +GOVERNMENT OF THE CITY-STATE + +The Homeric poems, which give us our first view of the Greek city-state, +also contain the most ancient account of its government. Each city-state +had a king, "the shepherd of the people" [19] as Homer calls him. The king +did not possess absolute authority. He was surrounded by a council of +nobles, chiefly the great landowners of the community. They helped him in +judgment and sacrifice, followed him to war, and filled the principal +offices. Both king and nobles were obliged to consult the common people on +matters of great importance. For this purpose the ruler would summon the +citizens to the market place to hear the deliberations of his council and +to settle such questions as making war or declaring peace. All men of free +birth could attend the assembly, where they shouted assent to the decision +of their leaders or showed disapproval by silence. This public assembly +had little importance in the Homeric Age, but later it became the center +of Greek democracy. + +POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY-STATE + +After the middle of the eighth century B.C., when historic times began in +Greece, some interesting changes took place in the government of the city- +states. In some of them, for example, Thebes and Corinth, the nobles +became strong enough to abolish the kingship altogether. Monarchy, the +rule of one, thus gave away to aristocracy, [20] the rule of the nobles. +In other states, for instance, Sparta and Argos, the kings were not driven +out, but their power was much weakened. Some states came under the control +of usurpers whom the Greeks called "tyrants." A tyrant was a man who +gained supreme power by force and governed for his own benefit without +regard to the laws. There were many tyrannies in the Greek world during +the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Still other states went through an +entire cycle of changes from kingship to aristocracy, from aristocracy to +tyranny, and from tyranny to democracy or popular rule. + +SPARTA AND ATHENS AS TYPES OF THE CITY-STATE + +The isolated and independent Greek communities thus developed at an early +period many different kinds of government. To study them all would be a +long task. It is better to fix our attention on the two city-states which +held the principal place in Greek history and at the same time presented +the most striking contrasts in government and social life. These were +Sparta and Athens. + + +27. THE GROWTH OF SPARTA (TO 500 B.C.) + +SPARTA AND THE PELOPONNESIAN LEAGUE + +The Greek invaders who entered southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, [21] +were known as Dorians. They founded the city of Sparta, in the district of +Laconia. By the close of the sixth century B.C. the Spartans were able to +conquer their immediate neighbors and to organize some of the city-states +of the Peloponnesus into a strong confederacy called the Peloponnesian +League. The members of the league did not pay tribute, but they furnished +troops to serve in war under Spartan leaders, and they looked to Sparta +for guidance and protection. Thus this single city became the foremost +power in southern Greece. + +SPARTA A MILITARY CAMP + +It is clear that the Spartans must have been an extremely vigorous and +warlike people. Their city, in fact, formed a military camp, garrisoned by +soldiers whose whole life was passed in war and in preparation for war. +The Spartans were able to devote themselves to martial pursuits because +they possessed a large number of serfs, called helots. The helots tilled +the lands of the Spartans and gave up to their masters the entire product +of their labor, except what was necessary for a bare subsistence. + +GOVERNMENT OF SPARTA + +Spartan government also had a military character. In form the state was a +kingdom, but since there were always two kings reigning at once and +enjoying equal authority, neither of them could become very powerful. The +real management of public affairs lay in the hands of five men, known as +ephors, who were elected every year by the popular assembly. The ephors +accompanied the kings in war and directed their actions; guided the +deliberations of the council of nobles and the assembly of freemen; +superintended the education of children; and exercised a general oversight +of the private life of citizens. The ephors had such absolute control over +the lives and property of the Spartans that we may describe their rule as +socialistic and select Sparta as an example of ancient state socialism. +Nowhere else in the Greek world was the welfare of the individual man so +thoroughly subordinated to the interests of the society of which he formed +a unit. + +THE SPARTAN BOY + +Spartan education had a single purpose--to produce good soldiers and +obedient citizens. A sound body formed the first essential. A father was +required to submit his son, soon after birth, to an inspection by the +elders of his tribe. If they found the child puny or ill-shaped, they +ordered it to be left on the mountain side, to perish from exposure. At +the age of seven a boy was taken from his parents' home and placed in a +military school. Here he was trained in marching, sham fighting, and +gymnastics. He learned to sing warlike songs and in conversation to +express himself in the fewest possible words. Spartan brevity of speech +became proverbial. Above all he learned to endure hardship without +complaint. He went barefoot and wore only a single garment, winter and +summer. He slept on a bed of rushes. Every year he and his comrades had to +submit to a flogging before the altar of the goddess Artemis, and the hero +was the lad who could bear the whipping longest without giving a sign of +pain. It is said that boys sometimes died under the lash rather than utter +a cry. Such ordeals are still a feature of savage life to-day. + +THE ADULT SPARTAN + +On reaching the age of twenty the youth was considered a warrior. He did +not live at home, but passed his time in barracks, as a member of a +military mess to which he contributed his proper share of food, wine, and +money. At the age of thirty years the young Spartan became a full citizen +and a member of the popular assembly. He was then compelled to marry in +order to raise children for the state. But marriage did not free him from +attendance at the public meals, the drill ground, and the gymnasium. A +Spartan, in fact, enjoyed little home life until his sixtieth year, when +he became an elder and retired from actual service. + +EXCELLENCE OF THE SPARTAN SOLDIERY + +This exclusive devotion to military pursuits accomplished its object. The +Spartans became the finest soldiers of antiquity. "All the rest of the +Greeks," says an ancient writer, "are amateurs; the Spartans are +professionals in the conduct of war." [22] Though Sparta never produced +great thinkers, poets or artists, her military strength made her the +bulwark of Greece against foreign foes. The time was to come when Greece, +to retain her liberties, would need this disciplined Spartan soldiery. +[23] + + +28. THE GROWTH OF ATHENS (to 500 B.C.) + +ATHENS AS A CITY-STATE + +The district of Attica, though smaller than our smallest American +commonwealth, was early filled with a number of independent city-states. +It was a great step in advance when, long before the dawn of Greek +history, these tiny communities were united with Athens. The inhabitants +of the Attic towns and villages gave up their separate governments and +became members of the one city-state of Athens. Henceforth a man was a +Athenian citizen, no matter in what part of Attica he lived. + +OPPRESSIVE RULE OF THE NOBLES + +At an earlier period, perhaps, than elsewhere in Greece, monarchy at +Athens disappeared before the rising power of the nobles. The rule of the +nobility bore harshly on the common people. Popular discontent was +especially excited at the administration of justice. There were at first +no written laws, but only the long-established customs of the community. +Since all the judges were nobles, they were tempted to decide legal cases +in favor of their own class. The people, at length, began to clamor for a +written code. They could then know just what the laws were. + +DRACO'S CODE, 621 B.C. + +After much agitation an Athenian named Draco was employed to write out a +code for the state. The laws, as published, were very severe. The penalty +for most offenses, even the smallest theft, was death. The Athenians used +to declare that the Draconian code had been written, "not in ink, but in +blood." Its publication, however, was a popular triumph and the first step +toward the establishment of Athenian democracy. + +LEGISLATION OF SOLON, 594-593 B.C. + +The second step was the legislation of Solon. This celebrated Athenian was +accounted among the wisest men of his age. The people held him in high +honor and gave him power to make much-needed reforms. At this time the +condition of the Attic peasants was deplorable. Many of them had failed to +pay their rent to the wealthy landowners, and according to the old custom +were being sold into slavery. Solon abolished the custom and restored to +freedom all those who had been enslaved for debt. He also limited the +amount of land which a noble might hold. By still another law he admitted +even the poorest citizens to the popular assembly, where they could vote +for magistrates and judge of their conduct after their year of office was +over. By giving the common people a greater share in the government, Solon +helped forward the democratic movement at Athens. + +TYRANNY OF PISISTRATUS, 560-527 B.C. + +Solon's reforms satisfied neither the nobility nor the commons. The two +classes continued their rivalry until the disorder of the times enabled an +ambitious politician to gain supreme power as a tyrant. [24] He was +Solon's own nephew, a noble named Pisistratus. The tyrant ruled with +moderation and did much to develop the Athenian city-state. He fostered +agriculture by dividing the lands of banished nobles among the peasants. +His alliances with neighboring cities encouraged the rising commerce of +Athens. The city itself was adorned with handsome buildings by architects +and sculptors whom Pisistratus invited to his court from all parts of +Greece. + +REFORMS OF CLISTHENES, 508-507 B.C. + +Pisistratus was succeeded by his two sons, but the Athenians did not take +kindly to their rule. Before long the tyranny came to an end. The +Athenians now found a leader in a noble named Clisthenes, who proved to be +an able statesman. He carried still further the democratic movement begun +by Draco and Solon. One of his reforms extended Athenian citizenship to +many foreigners and emancipated slaves ("freedmen") then living in Attica. +This liberal measure swelled the number of citizens and helped to make the +Athenians a more progressive people. Clisthenes, it is said, also +established the curious arrangement known as ostracism. Every year, if +necessary, the citizens were to meet in assembly and to vote against any +persons whom they thought dangerous to the state. If as many as six +thousand votes were cast, the man who received the highest number of votes +had to go into honorable exile for ten years. [25] Though ostracism was +intended as a precaution against tyrants, before long it came to be used +to remove unpopular politicians. + +ATHENS A DEMOCRATIC STATE + +There were still some steps to be taken before the rule of the people was +completely secured at Athens. But, in the main, the Athenians by 500 B.C. +had established a truly democratic government, the first in the history of +the world. The hour was now rapidly approaching when this young and +vigorous democracy was to show forth its worth before the eyes of all +Greece. + + +29. COLONIAL EXPANSION OF GREECE (ABOUT 750-500 B.C.) + +THE GREAT AGE OF COLONIZATION + +While Athens, Sparta, and their sister states were working out the +problems of government, another significant movement was going on in the +Greek world. The Greeks, about the middle of the eighth century B.C., +began to plant numerous colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean and +of the Black Sea. The great age of colonization covered more than two +hundred years. [26] + +REASONS FOR FOUNDING COLONIES + +Several reasons led to the founding of colonies. Trade was an important +motive. The Greeks, like the Phoenicians, [27] could realize large profits +by exchanging their manufactured goods for the food and raw materials of +other countries. Land hunger was another motive. The poor soil of Greece +could not support many inhabitants and, when population increased, +emigration afforded the only means of relieving the pressure of numbers. A +third motive was political and social unrest. Greek cities at this period +contained many men of adventurous disposition who were ready to seek in +foreign countries a refuge from the oppression of nobles or tyrants. They +hoped to find in their new settlements more freedom than they had at home. + +CHARACTER OF THE GREEK COLONY + +A Greek colony was not simply a trading post; it was a center of Greek +life. The colonists continued to be Greeks in customs, language, and +religion. Though quite independent of the parent state, they always +regarded it with reverence and affection: they called themselves "men away +from home." Mother city and daughter colony traded with each other and in +time of danger helped each other. A symbol of this unity was the sacred +fire carried from the public hearth of the old community to the new +settlement. + +COLONIZATION IN THE NORTH AND EAST + +The Greeks planted many colonies on the coast of the northern Aegean and +on both sides of the long passage between the Mediterranean and the Black +Sea. Their most important colony was Byzantium, upon the site where +Constantinople now stands. They also made settlements along the shores of +the Black Sea. The cities founded here were centers from which the Greeks +drew their supplies of fish, wood, wool, grain, metals, and slaves. The +immense profits to be gained by trade made the Greeks willing to live in a +cold country so unlike their own and among barbarous peoples. + +COLONIZATION IN THE WEST + +The western lands furnished far more attractive sites for colonization. +The Greeks could feel at home in southern Italy, where the genial climate, +pure air, and sparkling sea recalled their native land. At a very early +date they founded Cumae, on the coast just north of the bay of Naples. +Emigrants from Cumae, in turn, founded the city of Neapolis (Naples), +which in Roman times formed a home of Greek culture and even to-day +possesses a large Greek population. To secure the approaches from Greece +to these remote colonies, two strongholds were established on the strait +of Messina: Regium (modern Reggio) on the Italian shore and Messana +(modern Messina) on that of Sicily. Another important colony in southern +Italy was Tarentum (modern Taranto). + +[Illustration: "TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE," PAESTUM +Paestum, the Greek Poseidonia, was a colony of Sybaris The malarial +atmosphere of the place led to its desertion in the ninth century of our +era. Hence the buildings there were not used as quarries for later +structures. The so called "Temple of Neptune" at Paestum is one of the +best preserved monuments of antiquity.] + +THE SICILIAN COLONIES + +Greek settlements in Sicily were mainly along the coast. Expansion over +the entire island was checked by the Carthaginians, who had numerous +possessions at its western extremity. The most celebrated colony in Sicily +was Syracuse, established by emigrants from Corinth. It became the largest +of Greek cities. + +OTHER MEDITERRANEAN COLONIES + +In Corsica, Sardinia, and on the coast of Spain Carthage also proved too +obstinate a rival for the Greeks to gain much of a foothold. The city of +Massilia (Marseilles), at the mouth of the Rhone, was their chief +settlement in ancient Gaul. Two colonies on the southern shore of the +Mediterranean were Cyrene, west of Egypt, and Naucratis, in the Delta of +the Nile. From this time many Greek travelers visited Egypt to see the +wonders of that strange old country. + +RESULTS OF COLONIZATION + +Energetic Greeks, the greatest colonizers of antiquity, thus founded +settlements from the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. "All the Greek +colonies" says an ancient writer, "are washed by the waves of the sea, +and, so to speak, a fringe of Greek earth is woven on to foreign lands." +[28] To distinguish themselves from the foreigners, or "barbarians," [29] +about them, the Greeks began to call themselves by the common name of +Hellenes. Hellas, their country, came to include all the territory +possessed by Hellenic peoples. The life of the Greeks, henceforth, was +confined no longer within the narrow limits of the Aegean. Wherever rose a +Greek city, there was a scene of Greek history. + + +30. BONDS OF UNION AMONG THE GREEKS + +LANGUAGE AS A UNIFYING FORCE + +The Greek colonies, as we have seen, were free and independent. In Greece +itself the little city-states were just as jealous of their liberties. +Nevertheless ties existed, not of common government, but of common +interests and ideals, which helped to unite the scattered sections of the +Greek world. The strongest bond of union was, of course, the one Greek +speech. Everywhere the people used the same beautiful and expressive +language. It is not a "dead" language, for it still lives in modified form +on the lips of nearly three million people in the Greek peninsula, +throughout the Mediterranean, and even in remote America. + +LITERATURE AS UNIFYING FORCE; HOMER + +Greek literature, likewise, made for unity. The _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ +were recited in every Greek village for centuries. They formed the +principal textbook in the schools; an Athenian philosopher calls Homer the +"educator of Hellas." It has been well said that these two epics were at +once the Bible and the Shakespeare of the Greek people. + +RELIGION AS A UNIFYING FORCE; AMPHICTYONIES + +Religion formed another bond of union. Everywhere the Greeks worshiped the +same gods and performed the same sacred rites. Religious influences were +sometimes strong enough to bring about federations known as amphictyonies, +or leagues of neighbors. The people living around a famous sanctuary would +meet to observe their festivals in common and to guard the shrine of their +divinity. The Delphic amphictyony was the most noteworthy of these local +unions. It included twelve tribes and cities of central Greece and +Thessaly. They established a council, which took the shrine of Apollo +under its protection and superintended the athletic games at Delphi. + +A NEW AGE + +The seventh and sixth centuries before Christ form a noteworthy epoch in +Greek history. Commerce and colonization were bringing their educating +influence to bear upon the Greeks. Hellenic cities were rising everywhere +along the Mediterranean shores. A common language, literature, and +religion were making the people more and more conscious of their unity as +opposed to the "barbarians" about them. + +THE GREEK WORLD, 500 B.C. + +Greek history has now been traced from its beginnings to about 500 B.C. It +is the history of a people, not of one country or of a united nation. Yet +the time was drawing near when all the Greek communities were to be +brought together in closer bonds of union than they had ever before known. + + +STUDIES + +1. On the map facing page 66 see what regions of Europe are less than 500 +feet above sea level; less than 3000 feet; over 9000 feet. + +2. Why was Europe better fitted than Asia to develop the highest +civilization? Why not so well fitted as Asia to originate civilization? + +3. "The tendency of mountains is to separate, of rivers to unite, adjacent +peoples." How can you justify this statement by a study of European +geography? + +4. Why has the Mediterranean been called a "highway of nations"? + +5. Locate on the map several of the natural entrances into the basin of +the Mediterranean. + +6. At what points is it probable that southern Europe and northern Africa +were once united? + +7. Compare the position of Crete in relation to Egypt with that of Sicily +in relation to the north African coast. + +8. Why was the island of Cyprus a natural meeting place of Egyptian, +Syrian, and Greek peoples? + +9. What modern countries are included within the limits of the Balkan +peninsula? + +10. Describe the island routes across the Aegean (map between pages 68- +69). + +11. What American states lie in about the same latitude as Greece? + +12. Compare the boundaries of ancient Greece with those of the modern +kingdom. + +13. What European countries in physical features closely resemble Greece? +What state of our union? + +14. Why is Greece in its physical aspects "the most European of European +lands"? + +15. What countries of Greece did not touch the sea? + +16. Tell the story of the _Iliad_ and of the _Odyssey_. + +17. Explain the following terms: oracle; amphictyony; helot; Hellas; +Olympiad; and ephors. + +18. Give the meaning of our English words "ostracism" and "oracular." + +19. Explain the present meaning and historical origin of the following +expressions: "a Delphic response"; "Draconian severity"; "a laconic +speech." + +20. What is the date of the first recorded Olympiad? of the expulsion of +the last tyrant of Athens? + +21. Describe the Lions' Gate (illustration, page 70) and the François +Vase (illustration, page 77). + +22. Compare Greek ideas of the future life with those of the Babylonians. + +23. Why has the Delphic oracle been called "the common hearth of Hellas"? + +24. What resemblances do you discover between the Olympian festival and +one of our great international expositions? + +25. Define and illustrate these terms: monarchy; aristocracy; tyranny; +democracy. + +26. Why are the earliest laws always unwritten? + +27. What differences existed between Phoenician and Greek colonization? + +28. Why did the colonies, as a rule, advance more rapidly than the mother +country in wealth and population? + +29. What is the origin of the modern city of Constantinople? of +Marseilles? of Naples? of Syracuse in Sicily? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter iii, "Early Greek +Society as Pictured in the Homeric Poems"; chapter iv, "Stories from Greek +Mythology"; chapter v, "Some Greek Tyrants"; chapter vi, "Spartan +Education and Life." + +[2] See pages 16-17. + +[3] For the island routes see the map between pages 68-69. + +[4] See page 42. + +[5] See the illustration, page 10. + +[6] See the plate facing page 70. + +[7] See pages 29, 48. + +[8] See page 5. + +[9] See the map, page 76. + +[10] The Greek name of the Black Sea. + +[11] _Iliad_, xviii, 607. + +[12] _Odyssey_, xiv, 83-84. + +[13] _Odyssey_, xi, 488-491. + +[14] See page 227. + +[15] See pages 88,90. + +[16] Herodotus, i, 53. + +[17] See page 37. + +[18] The first recorded celebration occurred in 776 B.C. The four-year +period between the games, called an Olympiad, became the Greek unit for +determining dates. Events were reckoned as taking place in the first, +second, third, or fourth year of a given Olympiad. + +[19] _Iliad_, ii, 243. + +[20] _Aristocracy_ means, literally, the "government of the best." The +Greeks also used the word _oligarchy_--"rule of the few"--to describe a +government by citizens who belong to the wealthy class. + +[21] "Pelops's island," a name derived from a legendary hero who settled +in southern Greece. + +[22] Xenophon, _Polity of the Lacedaemonians_, 13. + +[23] The Spartans believed that their military organization was the work +of a great reformer and law-giver named Lycurgus. He was supposed to have +lived early in the ninth century B.C. We do not know anything about +Lycurgus, but we do know that some existing primitive tribes, for +instance, the Masai of East Africa, have customs almost the same as those +of ancient Sparta. Hence we may say that the rude, even barbarous, +Spartans only carried over into the historic age the habits of life which +they had formed in prehistoric times. + +[24] See page 82. + +[25] The name of an individual voted against was written on a piece of +pottery (Greek _ostrakon_), whence the term _ostracism_. See the +illustration, page 97. + +[26] See the map facing page 50. + +[27] See page 49. + +[28] Cicero, _De republica_, ii, 4. + +[29] Greek _barbaroi_, "men of confused speech." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE GREAT AGE OF THE GREEK REPUBLICS TO 362 B.C. [1] + + +31. THE PERILS OF HELLAS + +ASIATIC GREEKS CONQUERED BY CROESUS + +The history of the Greeks for many centuries had been uneventful--a +history of their uninterrupted expansion over barbarian lands. But now the +time was approaching when the independent and isolated Greek communities +must meet the attack of the great despotic empires of Asia. The Greek +cities of Asia Minor were the first part of the Hellenic world to be +involved. Their conquest by the Lydian king, Croesus, about the middle of +the sixth century B.C., showed how grave was the danger to Greek +independence from the ambitious designs of Oriental monarchs. + +CONQUESTS OF CYRUS AND CAMBYSES + +As we have already learned, Croesus himself soon had to submit to a +foreign overlord, in the person of Cyrus the Great. The subjugation of +Lydia and the Greek seaboard by Cyrus extended the Persian Empire to the +Mediterranean. The conquest of Phoenicia and Cyprus by Cambyses added the +Phoenician navy to the resources of the mighty empire. Persia had now +become a sea power, able to cope with the Greeks on their own element. The +subjection of Egypt by the same king led naturally to the annexation of +the Greek colonies on the north African shore. The entire coast of the +eastern Mediterranean had now come under the control of a new, powerful, +and hostile state. + +[Illustration: CROESUS ON THE PYRE +Painting on an Athenian vase of about 490 B.C. According to the legend +Cyrus the Great, having made Croesus prisoner, intended to burn him on a +pyre. But the god Apollo, to whose oracle at Delphi Croesus had sent rich +gifts, put out the blaze by a sudden shower of rain. The vase painting +represents the Lydian king sitting enthroned upon the pyre, with a laurel +wreath on his head and a scepter in one hand. With the other hand he pours +a libation. He seems to be performing a religious rite, not to be +suffering an ignominious death.] + +[Illustration: PERSIAN ARCHERS (Louvre, Paris) +A frieze of enameled brick from the royal palace at Susa. It is a +masterpiece of Persian art and shows the influence of both Assyrian and +Greek design. Each archer carries a spear, in addition to the bow over the +left shoulder and the quiver on the back. These soldiers probably served +as palace guards, hence the fine robes worn by them.] + +CONQUESTS OF DARIUS + +The accession of Darius to the Persian throne only increased the dangers +that overshadowed Hellas. He aimed to complete the work of Cyrus and +Cambyses by extending the empire wherever a natural frontier had not been +reached. Accordingly, about 512 B.C., Darius invaded Europe with a large +army, annexed the Greek colonies on the Hellespont (the modern +Dardanelles), and subdued the wild tribes of Thrace and Macedonia. The +Persian dominions now touched those of the Greeks. [2] + +[Illustration: Map, GREECE at opening of the PERSIAN WARS 400 B.C.] + +THE IONIAN REVOLT, 499-493 B.C. + +Not long after this European expedition of Darius, the Ionian cities of +Asia Minor revolted against the Persians. Unable to face their foes +single-handed, they sought aid from Sparta, then the chief military power +of Greece. The Spartans refused to take part in the war, but the +Athenians, who realized the menace to Greece in the Persian advance, sent +ships and men to fight for the Ionians. Even with this help the Ionian +cities could not hold out against the vast resources of the Persians. One +by one they fell again into the hands of the Great King. + + +32. EXPEDITIONS OF DARIUS AGAINST GREECE + +FIRST EXPEDITION, 492 B.C. + +No sooner was quiet restored in Asia Minor than Darius began preparations +to punish Athens for her part in the Ionian Revolt. The first expedition +under the command of Mardonius, the son-in-law of the Persian monarch, was +a failure. Mardonius never reached Greece, because the Persian fleet, on +which his army depended for provisions, was wrecked off the promontory of +Mount Athos. + +SECOND EXPEDITION, 490 B.C. + +Darius did not abandon his designs, in consequence of the disaster. Two +years later a second fleet, bearing a force of perhaps sixty thousand men, +set out from Ionia for Greece. Datis and Artaphernes, the Persian leaders, +sailed straight across the Aegean and landed on the plain of Marathon, +twenty-six miles from Athens. + +[Illustration: GRAVESTONE OF ARISTON (National Museum, Athens) +Found near Marathon in 1838 A.D. Belongs to the late sixth century B.C. +Incorrectly called the "Warrior of Marathon"] + +BATTLE OF MARATHON, 490 B.C. + +The situation of the Athenians seemed desperate. They had scarcely ten +thousand men with whom to face an army far larger and hitherto invincible. +The Spartans promised support, but delayed sending troops at the critical +moment. Better, perhaps, than a Spartan army was the genius of Miltiades, +one of the Athenian generals. Relying on Greek discipline and Greek valor +to win the day, he decided to take the offensive. His heavy armed soldiers +made a smashing charge on the Persians and drove them in confusion to +their ships. Datis and Artaphernes then sailed back to Asia with their +errand of vengeance unfulfilled. + +[Illustration: GREEK SOLDIERS IN ARMS +Painting on a Greek vase] + +POLICIES OF ARISTIDES AND THEMISTOCLES + +After the battle of Marathon the Athenians began to make preparations to +resist another Persian invasion. One of their leaders, the eminent +Aristides, thought that they should increase their army and meet the enemy +on land. His rival, Themistocles, urged a different policy. He would +sacrifice the army to the navy and make Athens the strongest sea power in +Greece. The safety of Athens, he argued, lay in her ships. In order to +settle the question the opposing statesmen were put to the test of +ostracism. [3] The vote went against Aristides, who was obliged to +withdraw into exile. Themistocles, now master of the situation, persuaded +the citizens to use the revenues from some silver mines in Attica for the +upbuilding of a fleet. When the Persians came, the Athenians were able to +oppose them with nearly two hundred triremes [4]--the largest navy in +Greece. + + +33. XERXES AND THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR + +PREPARATIONS OF PERSIA + +"Ten years after Marathon," says a Greek historian, "the 'barbarians' +returned with the vast armament which was to enslave Hellas." [5] Darius +was now dead, but his son Xerxes had determined to complete his task. Vast +quantities of provisions were collected; the Hellespont was bridged with +boats; and the rocky promontory of Mount Athos, where a previous fleet had +suffered shipwreck, was pierced with a canal. An army of several hundred +thousand men was brought together from all parts of the Great King's +domain. He evidently intended to crush the Greeks by sheer weight of +numbers. + +[Illustration: A THEMISTOCLES OSTRAKON (British Museum, London) +A fragment of a potsherd found in 1897 A.D., near the Acropolis of Athens. +This ostrakon was used to vote for the ostracism of Themistocles, either +in 483 B.C. when he was victorious against Aristides, or some ten years +later, when Themistocles was himself defeated and forced into exile.] + +GREEK PREPARATIONS + +Xerxes did not have to attack a united Greece. His mighty preparations +frightened many of the Greek states into yielding, when Persian heralds +came to demand "earth and water," the customary symbols of submission. +Some of the other states, such as Thebes, which was jealous of Athens, and +Argos, equally jealous of Sparta, did nothing to help the loyal Greeks +throughout the struggle. But Athens and Sparta with their allies remained +joined for resistance to the end. Upon the suggestion of Themistocles a +congress of representatives from the patriotic states assembled at the +isthmus of Corinth in 481 B.C. Measures of defense were taken, and Sparta +was put in command of the allied fleet and army. + +BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE, 480 B.C. + +The campaigns of the Great Persian War have been described, once for all, +in the glowing pages of the Greek historian, Herodotus. [6] Early in the +year 480 B.C. the Persian host moved out of Sardis, crossed the +Hellespont, and advanced to the pass of Thermopylae, commanding the +entrance to central Greece. This position, one of great natural strength, +was held by a few thousand Greeks under the Spartan king, Leonidas. For +two days Xerxes hurled his best soldiers against the defenders of +Thermopylae, only to find that numbers did not count in that narrow +defile. There is no telling how long the handful of Greeks might have kept +back the Persian hordes, had not treachery come to the aid of the enemy. A +traitor Greek revealed to Xerxes the existence of an unfrequented path, +leading over the mountain in the rear of the pass. A Persian detachment +marched over the trail by night and took up a position behind the Greeks. +The latter still had time to escape, but three hundred Spartans and +perhaps two thousand allies refused to desert their post. While Persian +officers provided with whips lashed their unwilling troops to battle, +Leonidas and his men fought till spears and swords were broken, and hands +and teeth alone remained as weapons. Xerxes at length gained the pass--but +only over the bodies of its heroic defenders. Years later a monument to +their memory was raised on the field of battle. It bore the simple +inscription: "Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here in obedience +to their commands." [7] + +AFTER THERMOPYLAE + +After the disaster at Thermopylae nearly all the states of central Greece +submitted to the Persians. They marched rapidly through Boeotia and Attica +to Athens, but found a deserted city. Upon the advice of Themistocles the +non-combatants had withdrawn to places of safety, and the entire fighting +force of Athens had embarked on the ships. The Athenian fleet took up a +position in the strait separating the island of Salamis from Attica and +awaited the enemy. [8] + +BATTLE OF SALAMIS, 480 B.C. + +The battle of Salamis affords an interesting example of naval tactics in +antiquity. The trireme was regarded as a missile to be hurled with sudden +violence against the opposing ship, in order to disable or sink it. A sea +fight became a series of maneuvers; and victory depended as much on the +skill of the rowers and steersmen as on the bravery of the soldiers. The +Persians at Salamis had many more ships than the Greeks, but Themistocles +rightly believed that in the narrow strait their numbers would be a real +disadvantage to them. Such proved to be the case. The Persians fought +well, but their vessels, crowded together, could not navigate properly and +even wrecked one another by collision. After an all-day contest what +remained of their fleet withdrew from the strait. + +[Illustration: AN ATHENIAN TRIREME (Reconstruction) +A trireme is supposed to have had three tiers or banks of oars, placed one +above the other. Each tier thus required an oar about a yard longer than +the one immediately beneath it. There were about two hundred rowers on a +trireme.] + +AFTER SALAMIS + +The victory at Salamis had important results. It so crippled the Persians +that henceforth they lost command of the sea. Xerxes found it difficult to +keep his men supplied with provisions and at once withdrew with the larger +part of his force to Asia. The Great King himself had no heart for further +fighting, but he left Mardonius, with a strong body of picked troops, to +subjugate the Greeks on land. So the real crisis of the war was yet to +come. + +BATTLES OF PLATAEA AND MYCALE, 479 B.C. + +Mardonius passed the winter quietly in Thessaly, preparing for the spring +campaign. The Greeks in their turn made a final effort. A strong Spartan +army, supported by the Athenians and their allies, met the Persians near +the little town of Plataea in Boeotia. Here the heavy-armed Greek +soldiers, with their long spears, huge shields, and powerful swords, +easily overcame the enormous masses of the enemy. The success at Plataea +showed how superior to the Persians were the Greeks in equipment, +leadership, and fighting power. At the same time as this battle the +remainder of the Persian fleet suffered a crushing defeat at Mycale, a +promontory off the Ionian coast. These two battles really ended the war. +Never again was Persia to make a serious effort to secure dominion over +Continental Greece. + +VICTORIUS HELLAS + +The Great Persian War was much more than a conflict between two rival +states. It was a struggle between East and West; between Oriental +despotism and Occidental individualism. On the one side were all the +populous, centralized countries of Asia; on the other side, the small, +disunited states of Greece. In the East was the boundless wealth, in men +and money, of a world-wide empire. In the West were the feeble resources +of a few petty communities. Nevertheless Greece won. The story of her +victory forms an imperishable record in the annals of human freedom. + + +34. ATHENS UNDER THEMISTOCLES, ARISTIDES, AND CIMON + +THEMISTOCLES AND THE FORTIFICATIONS OF ATHENS + +After the battle of Plataea the Athenians, with their wives and children, +returned to Attica and began the restoration of their city, which the +Persians had burned. Their first care was to raise a wall so high and +strong Athens in future would be impregnable to attack. Upon the +suggestion of Themistocles it was decided to include within the +fortifications a wide area where all the country people, in case of +another invasion, could find a refuge. Themistocles also persuaded the +Athenians to build a massive wall on the land side of Piraeus, the port +of Athens. That harbor town now became the center of Athenian industry +and commerce. + +ARISTIDES AND THE DELIAN LEAGUE, 477 B.C. + +While the Athenians were rebuilding their city, important events were +taking place in the Aegean. After the battle of Mycale the Greek states in +Asia Minor and on the islands once more rose in revolt against the +Persians. Aided by Sparta and Athens, they gained several successes and +removed the immediate danger of another Persian attack. It was clearly +necessary, however, for the Greek cities in Asia Minor and the Aegean to +remain in close alliance with the Continental Greeks, if they were to +preserve their independence. Under the guidance of Aristides, the old +rival of Themistocles, [9] the allies formed a union known as the Delian +League. + +[Illustration: "THESEUM" +An Athenian temple formerly supposed to have been constructed by Cimon to +receive the bones of the hero Theseus. It is now believed to have been a +temple of Hephaestus and Athena erected about 440 B.C. The 'Theseum' owes +its almost perfect preservation to the fact that during the Middle Ages it +was used as a church.] + +CONSTITUTION OF THE LEAGUE + +The larger cities in the league agreed to provide ships and crews for a +fleet, while the smaller cities were to make their contributions in money. +Athens assumed the presidency of the league, and Athenian officials +collected the revenues, which were placed in a treasury on the island of +Delos. As head of this new federation Athens now had a position of +supremacy in the Aegean like that which Sparta enjoyed in the +Peloponnesus. [10] + +CIMON AND THE WAR AGAINST PERSIA + +The man who succeeded Themistocles and Aristides in leadership of the +Athenians was Cimon, son of Miltiades, the hero of Marathon. While yet a +youth his gallantry at the battle of Salamis gained him a great +reputation, and when Aristides introduced him to public life the citizens +welcomed him gladly. He soon became the head of the aristocratic or +conservative party in the Athenian city. To Cimon the Delian League +entrusted the continuation of the war with Persia. The choice was +fortunate, for Cimon had inherited his father's military genius. No man +did more than he to humble the pride of Persia. As the outcome of Cimon's +successful campaigns the southern coast of Asia Minor was added to the +Delian League, and the Greek cities at the mouth of the Black Sea were +freed from the Persian yoke. Thus, with Cimon as its leader, the +confederacy completed the liberation of the Asiatic Greeks. + +THE DELIAN LEAGUE BECOMES SUBJECT TO ATHENS, ABOUT 454 B.C. + +While the Greeks were gaining these victories, the character of the Delian +League was being transformed. Many of the cities, instead of furnishing +ships, had taken the easier course of making all their contributions in +money. The change really played into the hands of Athens, for the tribute +enabled the Athenians to build the ships themselves and add them to their +own navy. They soon had a fleet powerful enough to coerce any city that +failed to pay its assessments or tried to withdraw from the league. +Eventually the common treasure was transferred from Delos to Athens. The +date of this event (454 B.C.) may be taken as marking the formal +establishment of the Athenian naval empire. + +DECLINE OF CIMON'S INFLUENCE + +Sparta and her Peloponnesian allies viewed with growing jealousy the rapid +rise of Athens. As long, however, as Cimon remained at the head of +Athenian affairs, there was little danger of a break with Sparta. He +desired his city to keep on good terms with her powerful neighbor: Athens +should be mistress of the seas, and Sparta should be mistress on the +mainland. A contest between them, Cimon foresaw, would work lasting injury +to all Greece. Cimon's pro-Spartan attitude brought him, however, into +disfavor at Athens, and he was ostracized. New men and new policies +henceforth prevailed in the Athenian state. + + +35. ATHENS UNDER PERICLES + +PERICLES + +The ostracism of Cimon deprived the aristocrats of their most prominent +representative. It was possible for the democratic or liberal party to +assume complete control of public affairs. Pericles, their leader and +champion, was a man of studious habits. He never appeared on the streets +except when walking between his house and the popular assembly or the +market place, kept rigidly away from dinners and drinking bouts, and ruled +his household with strict economy that he might escape the suspicion of +enriching himself at the public expense. He did not speak often before the +people, but came forward only on special occasions; and the rarity of his +utterances gave them added weight. Pericles was a thorough democrat, but +he used none of the arts of the demagogue. He scorned to flatter the +populace. His power over the people rested on his majestic eloquence, on +his calm dignity of demeanor, and above all on his unselfish devotion to +the welfare of Athens. + +[Illustration: PERICLES (British Museum, London) +The bust is probably a good copy of a portrait statue set up during the +lifetime of Pericles on the Athenian Acropolis. The helmet possibly +indicates the office of General held by Pericles.] + +AGE OF PERICLES, 461-429 B.C. + +The period, about thirty years in length, between the ostracism of Cimon +and the death of Pericles, forms the most brilliant epoch in Greek +history. Under the guidance of Pericles the Athenian naval empire reached +its widest extent. Through his direction Athens became a complete +democracy. Inspired by him the Athenians came to manifest that love of +knowledge, poetry, art, and all beautiful things which, even more than +their empire or their democracy, has made them famous in the annals of +mankind. The Age of Pericles affords, therefore, a convenient opportunity +to set forth the leading features of Athenian civilization in the days of +its greatest glory. + +ATHENIAN IMPERIALISM + +Athens under Pericles ruled more than two hundred towns and cities in Asia +Minor and the islands of the Aegean Sea. [11] The subjects of Athens, in +return for the protection that she gave them against Persia, owed many +obligations. They paid an annual tribute and furnished soldiers in time of +war. In all legal cases of importance the citizens had to go to Athens for +trial by Athenian courts. The Delian communities, in some instances, were +forced to endure the presence of Athenian garrisons and officers. To the +Greeks at large all this seemed nothing less than high-handed tyranny. +Athens, men felt, had built up an empire on the ruins of Hellenic liberty. + +NATURE OF THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY + +If the Athenians possessed an empire, they themselves were citizens of a +state more democratic than any other that has existed, before or since, in +the history of the world. They had now learned how unjust was the rule of +a tyrant or of a privileged class of nobles. They tried, instead, to +afford every one an opportunity to make the laws, to hold office, and to +administer justice. Hence the Athenian popular assembly and law courts +were open to all respectable citizens. The offices, also, were made very +numerous--fourteen hundred in all--so that they might be distributed as +widely as possible. Most of them were annual, and some could not be held +twice by the same person. Election to office was usually by lot. This +arrangement did away with favoritism and helped to give the poor man a +chance in politics, as well as the man of wealth or noble birth. + +THE ASSEMBLY + +The center of Athenian democracy was the Assembly. Its membership included +every citizen who had reached twenty years of age. Rarely, however, did +the attendance number more than five thousand, since most of the citizens +lived outside the walls in the country districts of Attica. Forty regular +meetings were held every year. These took place on the slopes of the hill +called the Pnyx. A speaker before the Assembly faced a difficult audience. +It was ready to yell its disapproval of his advice, to mock him if he +mispronounced a word, or to drown his voice with shouts and whistles. +Naturally, the debates became a training school for orators. No one could +make his mark in the Assembly who was not a clear and interesting speaker. +Voting was by show of hands, except in cases affecting individuals, such +as ostracism, when the ballot was used. Whatever the decision of the +Assembly, it was final. This great popular gathering settled questions of +war and peace, sent out military and naval expeditions, voted public +expenditures, and had general control over the affairs of Athens and the +empire. + +[Illustration: AN ATHENIAN INSCRIPTION +A decree of the Assembly, dating from about 450 B.C.] + +THE TEN GENERALS + +The Assembly was assisted in the conduct of public business by many +officers and magistrates, among whom the Ten Generals held the leading +place. It was their duty to guide the deliberations of the Assembly and to +execute the orders of that body. + +THE JURY COURTS + +There was also a system of popular jury courts composed of citizens +selected by lot from the candidates who presented themselves. The number +of jurors varied; as many as a thousand might serve at an important trial. +A court was both judge and jury, it decided by majority vote; and from its +decision lay no appeal. Before these courts public officers accused of +wrong-doing were tried; disputes between different cities of the empire +and other important cases were settled; and all ordinary legal business +affecting the Athenians themselves was transacted. Thus, even in matters +of law, the Athenian government was completely democratic. + +STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY + +Democracy then, reached its height in ancient Athens. The people ruled, +and they ruled directly. Every citizen had some active part in politics. +Such a system worked well in the management of a small city-state like +Athens. But if the Athenians could govern themselves, they proved unable +to govern an empire with justice and wisdom. There was no such thing as +representation in their constitution. The subject cities had no one to +speak for them in the Assembly or before the jury courts. We shall notice +the same absence of a representative system in republican Rome. [12] + +SYSTEM OF STATE PAY + +A large number of Athenians were relieved from the necessity of working +for themselves through the system of state pay introduced by Pericles. +Jurors, soldiers, and sailors received money for their services. Later, in +the fourth century, citizens accepted fees for attending the Assembly. +These payments, though small, enabled poor citizens to devote much time to +public duties. + +INDUSTRIAL ATHENS + +Athens contained many skilled workmen whose daily tasks gave them scant +opportunity to engage in the exciting game of politics. The average rate +of wages was very low. In spite of cheap food and modest requirements for +clothing and shelter, it must have been difficult for the laborer to keep +body and soul together. Outside of Athens, in the country districts of +Attica, lived the peasants whose little farms produced the olives, grapes, +and figs for which Attica was celebrated. + +SLAVERY + +There were many thousands of slaves in Athens and Attica at this period. +Their number was so great and their labor so cheap that we may think of +them as taking the place of modern machines. It was the slaves who did +most of the work on the large estates owned by wealthy men, who toiled in +the mines and quarries, and who served as oarsmen on the ships. The system +of slavery enabled many an Athenian to live a life of leisure, but it +lowered the dignity of labor and tended to prevent the rise of the poorer +citizens to positions of responsibility. In Greece, as in the Orient, [13] +slavery cast its blight over free industry. + +COMMERCIAL ATHENS + +The Athenian city was now the chief center of Greek commerce. [14] "The +fruits of the whole earth," said Pericles, "flow in upon us; so that we +enjoy the goods of other Commercial countries as freely as of our own." +[15] Exports of Athens wine and olive oil, pottery, metal wares, and +objects of art were sent out from Piraeus [16] to every region of the +Mediterranean. The imports from the Black Sea region, Thrace, and the +Aegean included such commodities as salt, dried fish, wool, timber, hides, +and, above all, great quantities of wheat. Very much as modern England, +Athens was able to feed all her people only by bringing in food from +abroad. To make sure that in time of war there should be no interruption +of food supplies, the Athenians built the celebrated Long Walls, between +the city and its port of Piraeus. (See the map below) Henceforth they felt +secure from attack, as long as their navy ruled the Aegean. + +[Illustration: Map, THE VICINITY OF ATHENS] + +ARTISTIC AND INTELLECTUAL ATHENS + +In the days of her prosperity Athens began to make herself not only a +strong, but also a beautiful, city. The temples and other structures which +were raised on the Acropolis during the Age of Pericles still excite, even +in their ruins, the envy and wonder of mankind. [17] Athens at this time +was also the center of Greek intellectual life. In no other period of +similar length have so many admirable books been produced. No other epoch +has given birth to so many men of varied and delightful genius. The +greatest poets, historians, and philosophers of Greece were Athenians, +either by birth or training. As Pericles himself said in a noble speech, +Athens was "the school of Hellas." [18] + + +36. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, 431-404 B.C. + +INEVITABLENESS OF THE WAR + +The brilliant Age of Pericles had not come to an end before the two chief +powers in the Hellenic world became involved in a deadly war. It would +seem that Athens and Sparta, the one supreme upon the sea, the other at +the head of the Peloponnesus, might have avoided a struggle which was sure +to be long and costly. But Greek cities were always ready to fight one +another. When Athens and Sparta found themselves rivals for the leadership +of Greece, it was easy for the smouldering fires of distrust and jealousy +to flame forth into open conflict. "And at that time," says Thucydides, +the Athenian historian who described the struggle, "the youth of Sparta +and the youth of Athens were numerous; they had never seen war, and were +therefore very willing to take up arms." [19] + +[Illustration: Map, GREECE at Opening of the PELOPONNESIAN WAR 431 B.C.] + +[Illustration: THE "MOURNING ATHENA" (Acropolis Museum, Athens) +A tablet of Pentelic marble. Athena, leaning on her spear, is gazing with +downcast head at a grave monument.] + +ORIGIN OF THE WAR + +The conflict was brought on by Corinth, one of the leading members of the +Peloponnesian League and, next to Athens, the most important commercial +power in Greece. She had already seen her once-profitable trade in the +Aegean monopolized by Athens. That energetic city was now reaching out for +Corinthian commerce in Italian and Sicilian waters. When the Athenians +went so far as to interfere in a quarrel between Corinth and her colony of +Corcyra, even allying themselves with the latter city, the Corinthians +felt justly resentful and appealed to Sparta for aid. The Spartans +listened to their appeal and, with the apparent approval of the Delphic +oracle which assured them "that they would conquer if they fought with all +their might," [20] declared war. + +RESOURCES OF THE CONTESTANTS + +The two antagonists were fairly matched. The one was strong where the +other was weak. Sparta, mainly a continental power, commanded all the +Peloponnesian states except Argos and Achaea, besides some of the smaller +states of central Greece. Athens, mainly a maritime power, ruled all the +subject cities of the Aegean. The Spartans possessed the most formidable +army then in the world, but lacked money and ships. The Athenians had a +magnificent navy, an overflowing treasury, and a city impregnable to +direct attack. It seemed, in fact, as if neither side could seriously +injure the other. + +FIRST STAGE OF THE WAR, 431-421 B.C. + +The war began in 431 B.C. Its first stage was indecisive. The Athenians +avoided a conflict in the open field with the stronger Peloponnesian army, +which ravaged Attica. They were crippled almost at the outset of the +struggle by a terrible plague among the refugees from Attica, crowded +behind the Long Walls. The pestilence slew at least one-fourth of the +inhabitants of Athens, including Pericles himself. After ten years of +fighting both sides grew weary of the war and made a treaty of peace to +last for fifty years. + +THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION, 4l5-4l3 B.C. + +Not long after the conclusion of peace the Athenians were persuaded by a +brilliant and ambitious politician, named Alcibiades, to undertake an +expedition against Syracuse in Sicily. This city was a colony of Corinth, +and hence was a natural ally of the Peloponnesian states. The Athenians, +by conquering it, expected to establish their power in Sicily. But the +siege of Syracuse ended in a complete failure. The Athenians failed to +capture the city, and in a great naval battle they lost their fleet. Then +they tried to retreat by land, but soon had to surrender. Many of the +prisoners were sold as slaves; many were thrown by their inhuman captors +into the stone quarries near Syracuse, where they perished from exposure +and starvation. The Athenians, says Thucydides, "were absolutely +annihilated--both army and fleet--and of the many thousands who went away +only a handful ever saw their homes again." [21] + +[Illustration: A SILVER COIN OF SYRACUSE +The profile of the nymph Arethusa has been styled the most exquisite Greek +head known to us.] + +LAST STAGE OF THE WAR 413-404 B.C. + +Athens never recovered from this terrible blow. The Spartans quickly +renewed the contest, now with the highest hopes of success. The Athenians +had to guard their city against the invader night and day; their slaves +deserted to the enemy; and they themselves could do no farming except +under the walls of the city. For supplies they had to depend entirely on +their ships. For nearly ten years, however, the Athenians kept up the +struggle. At length the Spartans captured an Athenian fleet near +Aegospotami on the Hellespont. Soon afterwards they blockaded Piraeus and +their army encamped before the walls of Athens. Bitter famine compelled +the Athenians to sue for peace. The Spartans imposed harsh terms. The +Athenians were obliged to destroy their Long Walls and the fortifications +of Piraeus, to surrender all but twelve of their warships, and to +acknowledge the supremacy of Sparta. + + +37. THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACIES, 404-362 B.C. + +SPARTAN DESPOTISM + +Sparta was now the undisputed leader of Continental Greece and of the +Aegean. As the representative of the liberty-loving Greeks she had humbled +the pride and power of "tyrant" Athens. A great opportunity lay before her +to reorganize the Hellenic world and to end the struggles for supremacy +between rival cities. But Sparta entered upon no such glorious career. She +had always stood as the champion of aristocracy against democracy, and now +in her hour of triumph she began to overturn every democratic government +that still existed in Greece. The Greek cities soon found they had +exchanged the mild sway of Athens for the brutal despotism of Sparta. + +THE FREEING OF THEBES 379 B.C. + +But Spartan despotism provoked resistance. It was the Boeotian city of +Thebes which raised the standard of revolt. Some of the liberty-loving +Thebans, headed by Pelopidas, a patriotic noble, formed a conspiracy to +drive the Spartans out of the city. Disguised as huntsmen, Pelopidas and +his followers entered Thebes at nightfall, killed the tyrants whom Sparta +had set over the people, and forced the Spartan garrison to surrender. + +BATTLE OF LEUCTRA, 371 B.C. + +The Thebans had now recovered their independence. Eight years later they +totally defeated a superior Peloponnesian force at the battle of Leuctra +and brought the supremacy of Sparta to an end. This engagement from a +military standpoint is one of the most interesting in ancient history. +Epaminondas, the skilful Theban commander, massed his best troops in a +solid column, fifty men deep, and hurled it with terrific force against +the Spartan ranks. The enemy, drawn up twelve men deep in the customary +formation, could not withstand the impact of the Theban column; their +lines gave way, and the fight was soon won. The battle destroyed once for +all the legend of Spartan invincibility. + +PELOPIDAS AND EPAMINONDAS + +The sudden rise of Thebes to the position of the first city in Greece was +the work of two men whose names are always linked together in the annals +of the time. In Pelopidas and Epaminondas, bosom friends and colleagues, +Thebes found the heroes of her struggle for independence. Pelopidas was a +fiery warrior whose bravery and daring won the hearts of his soldiers. +Epaminondas was both an able general and an eminent statesman. No other +Greek, save perhaps Pericles, can be compared with him. Even Pericles +worked for Athens alone and showed no regard for the rest of Greece. +Epaminondas had nobler ideals and sought the general good of the Hellenic +race. He fought less to destroy Sparta than to curb that city's power of +doing harm. He aimed not so much to make Thebes mistress of an empire as +to give her a proper place among Greek cities. The Thebans, indeed, +sometimes complained that Epaminondas loved Hellas more than his native +city. + +BATTLE OF MANTINEA, 362 B.C. + +By crippling Sparta, Epaminondas raised Thebes to a position of supremacy. +Had he been spared for a longer service, Epaminondas might have realized +his dream of bringing unity and order into the troubled politics of his +time. But circumstances were too strong for him. The Greek states, which +had accepted the leadership of Athens and Sparta, were unwilling to admit +the claims of Thebes to a position of equal power and importance. The +period of Theban rule was filled, therefore, with perpetual conflict. Nine +years after Leuctra Epaminondas himself fell in battle at Mantinea in the +Peloponnesus, and with his death ended the brief glory of Thebes. + + +38. DECLINE OF THE CITY-STATE + +WEAKNESS OF CITY-STATES + +The battle of Mantinea proved that no single city--Athens, Sparta, or +Thebes--was strong enough to rule Greece. By the middle of the fourth +century B.C. it had become evident that a great Hellenic power could the +not be created out of the little, independent city-states of Greece. + +A RECORD OF ALMOST CEASELESS CONFLICT + +The history of Continental Hellas for more than a century after the close +of the Persian War had been a record of almost ceaseless conflict. We have +seen how Greece came to be split up into two great alliances, the one a +naval league ruled by Athens, the other a confederacy of Peloponnesian +cities under the leadership of Sparta. How the Delian League became the +Athenian Empire; how Sparta began a long war with Athens to secure the +independence of the subject states and ended it by reducing them to her +own supremacy; how the rough-handed sway of Sparta led to the revolt of +her allies and dependencies and the sudden rise of Thebes to supremacy; +how Thebes herself established an empire on the ruins of Spartan rule-- +this is a story of fruitless and exhausting struggles which sounded the +knell of Greek liberty and the end of the city-state. + +THE FUTURE + +Far away in the north, remote from the noisy conflicts of Greek political +life, a new power was slowly rising to imperial greatness--no +insignificant city-state, but an extensive territorial state like those of +modern times. Three years after the battle of Mantinea Philip II ascended +the throne of Macedonia. He established Hellenic unity by bringing the +Hellenic people within a widespread empire. Alexander the Great, the son +of this king, carried Macedonian dominion and Greek culture to the ends of +the known world. To this new period of ancient history we now turn. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the principal places mentioned in this +chapter. + +2. On an outline map indicate the Athenian allies and dependencies and +those of Sparta at the opening of the Peloponnesian War. + +3. What do you understand by a "decisive" battle? Why has Marathon been +considered such a battle? + +4. Why did Xerxes take the longer route through Thrace, instead of the +shorter route followed by Datis and Artaphernes? + +5. What was the importance of the Phoenician fleet in the Persian +invasions? + +6. What reasons can be given for the Greek victory in the struggle against +Persia? + +7. Distinguish between a confederacy and an empire. + +8. Compare the relations of the Delian subject cities to Athens with those +of British colonies, such as Canada and Australia, to England. + +9. What do you understand by representative government? + +10. If the Athenian Empire could have rested on a representative basis, +why would it have been more likely to endure? + +11. How far can the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for +the people" be applied to the Athenian democracy? + +12. Did the popular assembly of Athens have any resemblance to a New +England town meeting? + +13. Compare the Athenian jury system with that of England and the United +States. + +14. The Athenian democracy of the time of Pericles has been described as a +_pure_ democracy and not, like the American, as a _representative_ +democracy. In what lies the difference? + +15. Can you suggest any objections to the system of state pay introduced +by Pericles? To what extent do we employ the same system under our +government? + +16. What conditions of the time help to explain the contempt of the Greeks +for money-making? + +17. Trace on the map, page 107, the Long Walls of Athens. + +18. Why has the Peloponnesian War been called an "irrepressible conflict"? +Why has it been called the "suicide of Greece"? + +19. What states of the Greek mainland were neutral in the Peloponnesian +War (map facing page 108)? + +20. Contrast the resources of the contending parties. Where was each side +weak and where strong? + +21. Why was the tyranny of Sparta more oppressive than that of Athens? + +22. What were the reasons for the failure of the Athenian, Spartan, and +Theban attempts at empire? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter vii, "Xerxes and the +Persian Invasion of Greece"; chapter viii, "Episodes from the +Peloponnesian War"; chapter ix, "Alcibiades the Athenian"; chapter x, "The +Expedition of the Ten Thousand"; chapter xi, "The Trial and Death of +Socrates." + +[2] See the map facing page 38. + +[3] See page 87. + +[4] See the illustration, page 99. + +[5] Thucydides, i, 18. + +[6] See page 272. + +[7] Herodotus, vii, 228. + +[8] See the map on page 107. + +[9] See page 96. + +[10] See page 83. + +[11] See the map facing page 108. + +[12] See page 155. + +[13] See page 44. + +[14] The commercial importance of Athens is indicated by the general +adoption of her monetary standard by the other Greek states. (For +illustrations of Greek coins see the plate facing page 134.) + +[15] Thucydides, ii, 38. + +[16] See the map, page 107. + +[17] For a description of ancient Athens, see pages 288-292. + +[18] Thucydides, ii, 41. + +[19] Thucydides, ii, 8. + +[20] Thucydides, i, 118. + +[21] Thucydides, vii, 87. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MINGLING OF EAST AND WEST AFTER 359 B.C. [1] + + +39. PHILIP AND THE RISE OF MACEDONIA + +MACEDONIA AND THE MACEDONIANS + +The land of Macedonia, lying to the north of Greece, for a long time had +been an inconspicuous part of the ancient world. Its people, though only +partially civilized, were Greeks in blood and language. No doubt they +formed an offshoot of those northern invaders who had entered the Balkan +peninsula before the dawn of history. The Macedonian kings, from the era +of the Persian wars, seized every opportunity of spreading Greek culture +throughout their realm. By the middle of the fourth century B.C., when +Philip II ascended the throne, the Macedonians were ready to take a +leading place in the Greek world. + +[Illustration: PHILIP II +From a gold medallion struck by Alexander] + +PHILIP'S AIMS + +Philip of Macedonia, one of the most remarkable men of antiquity, was +endowed with a vigorous body, a keen mind, and a resolute will. He was no +stranger to Greece and its ways. Part of his boyhood had been passed as a +hostage at Thebes in the days of Theban glory. His residence there gave +him an insight into Greek politics and taught him the art of war as it had +been perfected by Epaminondas. In the distracted condition of Greece, worn +out by the rivalries of contending cities, Philip saw the opportunity of +his own country. He aimed to secure for Macedonia the position of +supremacy which neither Athens, Sparta, nor Thebes had been able to +maintain. + +THE MACEDONIAN ARMY + +Philip's most important achievement was the creation of the Macedonian +army, which he led to the conquest of Greece and which his son was to lead +to the conquest of the World. Taking a hint from the tactics of +Epaminondas, Philip trained his infantry to fight by columns, but with +sufficient intervals between the files to permit quick and easy movements. +Each man bore an enormous lance, eighteen feet in length. When this heavy +phalanx was set in array, the weapons carried by the soldiers in the first +five ranks presented a bristling thicket of lance-points, which no onset, +however determined, could penetrate. The business of the phalanx was to +keep the front of the foe engaged, while horsemen rode into the enemy's +flanks. This reliance on masses of cavalry to win a victory was something +new in warfare. Another novel feature consisted in the use of engines +called catapults, able to throw darts and huge stones three hundred yards, +and of battering rams with force enough to hurl down the walls of cities. +All these different arms working together made a war machine of tremendous +power--the most formidable in the ancient world until the days of the +Roman legion. + +CONQUESTS OF PHILIP + +Philip commanded a fine army; he ruled with absolute sway a territory +larger than any other Hellenic state; and he himself possessed a genius +for both war and diplomacy, With such advantages the Macedonian king +entered on the subjugation of disunited Greece. His first great success +was won in western Thrace. Here he founded the city of Philippi [2] and +seized some rich gold mines, the income from which enabled him to keep his +soldiers always under arms, to fit out a fleet, and, by means of liberal +bribes, to hire a crowd of agents in nearly every Greek city. Philip next +made Macedonia a maritime state by subduing the Greek cities on the +peninsula of Chalcidice. [3] He also appeared in Thessaly, occupied its +principal fortresses, and brought the frontier of Macedonia as far south +as the pass of Thermopylae. + + +40. DEMOSTHENES AND THE END OF GREEK FREEDOM + +DEMOSTHENES, 384-322 B.C. + +Philip for many years had been steadily extending his sway over Greece. In +the face of his encroachments would Athens, Sparta, and Thebes, so long +the leading cities, submit tamely to this Macedonian conqueror? There was +one man, at least, who realized the menace to Greek freedom from Philip's +onward march. In Demosthenes Greece found a champion of her threatened +liberties. + +[Illustration: DEMOSTHENES (Vatican Museum, Rome) +A marble statue, probably a copy of the bronze original by the sculptor +Polyeuctus. The work, when found, was considerably mutilated and has been +restored in numerous parts. Both forearms and the hands holding the scroll +are modern additions. It seems likely that the original Athenian statue +showed Demosthenes with tightly clasped hands, which, with his furrowed +visage and contracted brows, were expressive of the orator's earnestness +and concentration of thought.] + +DEMOSTHENES AS AN ORATOR AND A PATRIOT + +Demosthenes was the last, as well as the most famous, of the great +Athenian orators. When he first began to speak, the citizens laughed at +his long, involved sentences, over-rapid delivery, and awkward bearing. +Friends encouraged him to persist, assuring him that, if the manner of his +speeches was bad, their matter was worthy of Pericles. Numerous stories +are told of the efforts made by Demosthenes to overcome his natural +defects. He practiced gesturing before a mirror and, to correct a +stammering pronunciation, recited verses with pebbles in his mouth. He +would go down to the seashore during storms and strive to make his voice +heard above the roar of wind and waves, in order the better to face the +boisterous Assembly. Before long he came to be regarded as the prince of +speakers even in the city of orators. Demosthenes was a man cast in the +old heroic mold. His patriotic imagination had been fired by the great +deeds once accomplished by free Greeks. Athens he loved with passionate +devotion. Let her remember her ancient glories, he urged, and, by +withstanding Philip, become the leader of Hellas in a second war for +liberty. + +LAST STRUGGLE OF THE GREEKS + +The stirring appeals of the great orator at first had little effect. There +were many friends of Philip in the Greek states, even in Athens itself. +When, however, Philip entered central Greece and threatened the +independence of its cities, the eloquence of Demosthenes met a readier +response. In the presence of the common danger Thebes and Athens gave up +their ancient rivalry and formed a defensive alliance against Philip. Had +it been joined by Sparta and the other Peloponnesian states, it is +possible that their united power might have hurled back the invader. But +they held aloof. + +BATTLE OF CHAERONEA, 338 B.C. + +The decisive battle was fought at Chaeronea in Boeotia. On that fatal +field the well-drilled and seasoned troops of Macedonia, headed by a +master of the art of war, overcame the citizen levies of Greece. The +Greeks fought bravely, as of old, and their defeat was not inglorious. +Near the modern town of Chaeronea the traveler can still see the tomb +where the fallen heroes were laid, and the marble lion set up as a +memorial to their dauntless struggle. + +PHILIP'S POLICY AS A CONQUEROR + +Chaeronea gave Philip the undisputed control of Greece. But now that +victory was assured, he had no intention of playing the tyrant. He +compelled Thebes to admit a Macedonian garrison to her citadel, but +treated Athens so mildly that the citizens were glad to conclude with him +a peace which left their possessions untouched. Philip entered the +Peloponnesus as a liberator. Its towns and cities welcomed an alliance +with so powerful a protector against Sparta. + +CONGRESS AT CORINTH, 337 B.C. + +Having completely realized his design of establishing Macedonian rule over +Greece, Philip's restless energy drove him forward to the next step in his +ambitious program. He determined to carry out the plans, so long cherished +by the Greeks, for an invasion of Asia Minor and, perhaps, of Persia +itself. In the year 337 B.C. a congress of all the Hellenic states met at +Corinth under Philip's presidency. The delegates voted to supply ships and +men for the great undertaking and placed Philip in command of the allied +forces. A Macedonian king was to be the captain-general of Hellas. + +DEATH OF PHILIP, 336 B.C. + +But Philip was destined never to lead an army across the Hellespont. Less +than two years after Chaeronea he was killed by an assassin, and the +scepter passed to his young son, Alexander. + +[Illustration: ALEXANDER (Glyptothek, Munich) +Probably an authentic portrait of the youthful Alexander about 338 B.C.] + + +41. ALEXANDER THE GREAT + +THE YOUTHFUL ALEXANDER + +Alexander was only twenty years of age when he became ruler of Macedonia. +From his father he inherited the powerful Frame, the kingly figure, the +masterful will, which made so deep an impression on all his +contemporaries. His mother, a proud and ambitious woman, told him that the +blood of Achilles ran in his veins, and bade him emulate the deeds of that +national hero. We know that he learned the _Iliad_ by heart and always +carried a copy of it on his campaigns. As he came to manhood, Alexander +developed into a splendid athlete, skillful in all the sports of his +rough-riding companions, and trained in every warlike exercise. + +EDUCATION OF ALEXANDER BY ARISTOTLE + +Philip believed that in Alexander he had a worthy son, for he persuaded +Aristotle, [4] the most learned man in Greece, to become the tutor of the +young prince. The influence of that philosopher remained with Alexander +throughout life. Aristotle taught him to love Greek art and science, and +instilled into his receptive mind an admiration for all things Grecian. +Alexander used to say that, while he owed his life to his father, he owed +to Aristotle the knowledge of how to live worthily. + +ALEXANDER CRUSHES REBELLION + +The situation which Alexander faced on his accession might well have +dismayed a less dauntless spirit. Philip had not lived long enough to +unite firmly his wide dominions. His unexpected death proved the signal +for uprisings and disorder. The barbarous Thracians broke out in +widespread rebellion, and the Greeks made ready to answer the call of +Demosthenes to arms. But Alexander soon set his kingdom in order. After +crushing the tribes of Thrace, he descended on Greece and besieged Thebes, +which had risen against its Macedonian garrison. The city was soon +captured; its inhabitants were slaughtered or sold into slavery; and the +place itself was destroyed. The terrible fate of Thebes induced the other +states to submit without further resistance. + +SEEMING STRENGTH OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE + +With Greece pacified, Alexander could proceed to the invasion of Persia. +Since the days of Darius the Great the empire had remained almost intact-- +a huge, loosely-knit collection of many different peoples, whose sole bond +of union was their common allegiance to the Great King. [5] Its resources +were enormous. There were millions of men for the armies and untold wealth +in the royal treasuries. Yet the empire was a hollow shell. + +EXPEDITION OF THE "TEN THOUSAND," 401-400 B.C. + +Some seventy years before Alexander set forth on his expedition the Greeks +had witnessed a remarkable disclosure of the military weakness of Persia. +One of those rare revolts which troubled the security of the Persian +Empire broke out in Asia Minor. It was headed by Cyrus the Younger, a +brother of the Persian monarch. Cyrus gathered a large body of native +troops and also hired about ten thousand Greek soldiers. He led this mixed +force into the heart of the Persian dominions, only to fall in battle at +Cunaxa, near Babylon. The Greeks easily routed the enemy arrayed against +them, but the death of Cyrus made their victory fruitless. In spite of +their desperate situation the Greeks refused to surrender and started to +return homewards. The Persians dogged their footsteps, yet never ventured +on a pitched battle. After months of wandering in Assyria and Armenia the +little band of intrepid soldiers finally reached Trapezus, (Modern +Trebizond) a Greek city on the Black Sea. + +[Illustration: Map, ROUTE OF THE TEN THOUSAND] + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EXPEDITION + +The story of this invasion of Persia and the subsequent retreat was +written by the Athenian Xenophon [6] in his _Anabasis_. It is one of the +most interesting books that have come down to us from antiquity. We can +judge from it how vivid was the impression which the adventures of the +"Ten Thousand" made on the Greeks of Xenophon's time. A small army had +marched to the center of the Persian dominions, had overcome a host many +times its size, and had returned to Greece in safety. It was clear proof +that the Persian power, however imposing on the outside, could offer no +effective resistance to an attack by a strong force of disciplined Greek +soldiers. Henceforth the Greeks never abandoned the idea of an invasion of +Persia. + +ALEXANDER'S INVASION + +The gigantic task fell, however, to Alexander, as the champion of Hellas +against the "barbarians." With an army of less than forty thousand men +Alexander destroyed an empire before which, for two centuries, all Asia +had been wont to tremble. History, ancient or modern, contains no other +record of conquests so widespread, so thorough, so amazingly rapid. + + +42. CONQUEST OF PERSIA AND THE FAR EAST, 334-323 B.C. + +BATTLE OF THE GRANICUS, 334 B.C. + +Alexander crossed the Hellespont in the spring of the year 334 B.C. He +landed not far from the historic plain of Troy and at once began his march +along the coast. Near the little river Granicus the satraps of Asia Minor +had gathered an army to dispute his passage. Alexander at once led his +cavalry across the river in an impetuous charge, which soon sent the +Persian troops in headlong flight. The victory cost the Macedonians +scarcely a hundred men; but it was complete. As Alexander passed +southward, town after town opened its gates--first Sardis, next Ephesus, +then all the other cities of Ionia. They were glad enough to be free of +Persian control. Within a year Asia Minor was a Macedonian possession. + +BATTLE OF ISSUS, 333 B.C. + +In the meantime Darius III, the Persian king, had been making extensive +preparations to meet the invader. He commanded half a million men, but he +followed Alexander too hastily and had to fight in a narrow defile on the +Syrian coast between the mountains and the sea. In such cramped quarters +numbers did not count. The battle became a massacre, and only the approach +of night stayed the swords of the victorious Macedonians. A great quantity +of booty, including the mother, wife, and children of Darius, fell into +Alexander's hands. He treated his royal captives kindly, but refused to +make peace with the Persian king. + +[Illustration: THE ALEXANDER MOSAIC (Naples Museum) +This splendid mosaic composed of pieces of colored glass formed the +pavement of a Roman house at Pompeii in Italy. It represents the charge of +Alexander (on horseback at the left) against the Persian king in his +chariot, at the battle of Issus.] + +CAPTURE OF TYRE, 332 B.C. + +The next step was to subdue the Phoenician city of Tyre, the headquarters +of Persia's naval power. The city lay on a rocky island, half a mile from +the shore. Its fortifications rose one hundred feet above the waves. +Although the place seemed impregnable, Alexander was able to capture it +after he had built a mole, or causeway, between the shore and the island. +Powerful siege engines then breached the walls, the Macedonians poured in, +and Tyre fell by storm. Thousands of its inhabitants perished and +thousands more were sold into slavery. The great emporium of the East +became a heap of ruins. + +ALEXANDER IN EGYPT + +From Tyre Alexander led his ever-victorious army through Syria into Egypt. +The Persian forces here offered little resistance, and the Egyptians +themselves welcomed Alexander as a deliverer. The conqueror entered +Memphis in triumph and then sailed down the Nile to its western mouth, +where he laid the foundations of Alexandria, a city which later became the +metropolis of the Orient. + +ALEXANDER IN LIBYA + +Another march brought Alexander to the borders of Libya, Here he received +the submission of Cyrene, the most important Greek colony in Africa. [7] +Alexander's dominions were thus extended to the border of the Carthaginian +possessions. It was at this time that Alexander visited a celebrated +temple of the god Amon, located in an oasis of the Libyan desert. The +priests were ready enough to hail him as a son of Amon, as one before whom +his Egyptian subjects might bow down and adore. But after Alexander's +death his worship spread widely over the world, and even the Roman Senate +gave him a place among the gods of Olympus. + +BATTLE OF ARBELA, 331 B.C. + +The time had now come to strike directly at the Persian king. Following +the ancient trade routes through northern Mesopotamia, Alexander crossed +the Euphrates and the Tigris and, on a broad plain not far from the ruins +of ancient Nineveh, [8] found himself confronted by the Persian host. +Darius held an excellent position and hoped to crush his foe by sheer +weight of numbers. But nothing could stop the Macedonian onset; once more +Darius fled away, and once more the Persians, deserted by their king, +broke up in hopeless rout. + +END OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE + +The battle of Arbela decided the fate of the Persian Empire. It remained +only to gather the fruits of victory. The city of Babylon surrendered +without a struggle. Susa, with its enormous treasure, fell into the +conqueror's hands. Persepolis, the old Persian capital, was given up to +fire and sword. [9] Darius himself, as he retreated eastward, was murdered +by his own men. With the death of Darius the national war of Greece +against Persia came to an end. + +CONQUEST OF IRAN + +The Macedonians had now overrun all the Persian provinces except distant +Iran and India. These countries were peopled of by warlike tribes of a +very different stamp from the effeminate Persians. Alexander might well +have been content to leave them undisturbed, but the man could never rest +while there were still conquests to be made. Long marches and much hard +fighting were necessary to subdue the tribes about the Caspian and the +inhabitants of the countries now known as Afghanistan and Turkestan. + +[Illustration: Map, EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT About 323 B.C.] + +CONQUEST OF INDIA + +Crossing the lofty barrier of the Hindu-Kush, Alexander led his weary +soldiers into northwestern India, where a single battle added the Persian +province of the Punjab [10] to the Macedonian possessions. Alexander then +pressed forward to the conquest of the Ganges valley, but in the full tide +of victory his troops refused to go any farther. They had had their fill +of war and martial glory; they would conquer no more lands for their +ambitious king. Alexander gave with reluctance the order for the homeward +march. + +ALEXANDER'S RETURN TO BABYLON + +Alexander was of too adventurous a disposition to return by the way he had +come. He resolved to reach Babylon by a new route. He built a navy on the +Indus and had it accompany the army down the river. At the mouth of the +Indus Alexander dispatched the fleet under his admiral, Nearchus, to +explore the Indian Ocean and to discover, if possible, a sea route between +India and the West. He himself led the army, by a long and toilsome march +through the deserts of southern Iran, to Babylon. That city now became the +capital of the Macedonian Empire. + +DEATH OF ALEXANDER, 323 B.C. + +Scarcely two years after his return, while he was planning yet more +extensive conquests in Arabia, Africa, and western Europe, he was smitten +by the deadly Babylonian fever. In 323 B.C., after several days of +illness, the conqueror of the world passed away, being not quite thirty- +three years of age. + + +43. THE WORK OF ALEXANDER + +ALEXANDER AS WARRIOR AND STATESMAN + +Alexander the Great was one of the foremost, perhaps the first, of the +great captains of antiquity. But he was more than a world-conqueror; he +was a statesman of the highest order. Had he been spared for an ordinary +lifetime, there is no telling how much he might have accomplished. In +eleven years he had been able to subdue the East and to leave an impress +upon it which was to endure for centuries. And yet his work had only +begun. There were still lands to conquer, cities to build, untrodden +regions to explore. Above all, it was still his task to shape his +possessions into a well-knit, unified empire, which would not fall to +pieces in the hands of his successors. His early death was a calamity, for +it prevented the complete realization of his splendid ambitions. + +HELLENIZING OF THE ORIENT + +The immediate result of Alexander's conquests was the disappearance of the +barriers which had so long shut in the Orient. The East, until his day, +was an almost unknown land. Now it lay open to the spread of Greek +civilization. In the wake of the Macedonian armies followed Greek +philosophers and scientists, Greek architects and artists, Greek +colonists, merchants, and artisans. Everywhere into that huge, inert, +unprogressive Oriental world came the active and enterprising men of +Hellas. They brought their arts and culture and became the teachers of +those whom they had called "barbarians." + +FUSION OF EAST AND WEST + +The ultimate result of Alexander's conquests was the fusion of East and +West. He realized that his new empire must contain a place for Oriental, +as well as for Greek and East and Macedonian, subjects. It was Alexander's +aim, therefore, to build up a new state in which the distinction between +the European and the Asiatic should gradually pass away. He welcomed +Persian nobles to his court and placed them in positions of trust. He +organized the government of his provinces on a system resembling that of +Darius the Great. [11] He trained thousands of Persian soldiers to replace +the worn-out veterans in his armies. He encouraged by liberal dowries +mixed marriages between Macedonians and Orientals, and himself wedded the +daughter of the last Persian king. To hold his dominions together and +provide a meeting place for both classes of his subjects, he founded no +less than seventy cities in different parts of the empire. Such measures +as these show that Alexander had a mind of wide, even cosmopolitan, +sympathies. They indicate the loss which ancient civilization suffered by +his untimely end. + +[Illustration: SARCOPHAGUS FROM SIDON (Imperial Ottoman Museum, +Constantinople.) + +One of eighteen splendid sarcophagi discovered in 1887 A.D. in an ancient +cemetery at Sidon. The sculptures on the longer sides represent two scenes +from the life of Alexander--the one a battle, the other a lion hunt. The +figures, in almost full relief, are delicately painted. ] + + +44. HELLENISTIC KINGDOMS AND CITIES + +THE THREE GREAT KINGDOMS + +The half century following Alexander's death is a confused and troubled +period in ancient history. The king had left no legitimate son--no one +with an undisputed title to the succession. On his deathbed Alexander had +himself declared that the realm should go "to the strongest." [12] It was +certain, under these circumstances, that his possessions would become the +prey of the leading Macedonian generals. The unwieldy empire at length +broke in pieces. Out of the fragments arose three great states, namely, +Macedonia, Egypt, and Syria. The kingdom of Egypt was ruled by Ptolemy, +one of Alexander's generals. Seleucus, another of his generals, +established the kingdom of Syria. It comprised nearly all western Asia. +These kingdoms remained independent until the era of Roman conquest in the +East. + +[Illustration: A GREEK CAMEO (Museum, Vienna) +Cut in sardonyx. Represents Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, and his +wife Arsinoë.] + +MINOR INDEPENDENT STATES + +Several small states also arose from the break-up of Alexander's empire. +[13] Each had its royal dynasty, its capital city, and its own national +life. Thus the conquests of Alexander, instead of establishing a world- +power under one ruler, led to the destruction of the unity of government +which Persia had given to the East. + +CITY LIFE IN THE ORIENT + +More significant for the history of civilization than these kingdoms were +the Hellenistic [14] cities, which from the time of Alexander arose in +every part of the eastern world. Some were only garrison towns in the +heart of remote provinces or outposts along the frontiers. Many more, +however, formed busy centers of trade and industry, and became seats of +Greek influence in the Orient. Such cities were quite unlike the old Greek +city-states. [15] They were not free and independent, but made a part of +the kingdom in which they were situated. The inhabitants consisted of +Greeks and Macedonians, comprising the governing class, together with +native artisans and merchants who had abandoned their village homes for +life in a metropolis. In appearance, also, these cities contrasted with +those of old Greece. They had broad streets, well paved and sometimes +lighted at night, enjoyed a good water supply, and possessed baths, +theaters, and parks. + +ALEXANDRIA + +In the third century B.C. the foremost Hellenistic city was Alexandria. It +lay on a strip of flat, sandy land separating Lake Mareotis from the +Mediterranean. On the one side was the lake-harbor, connected with the +Nile; on the other side were two sea-harbors, sheltered from the open sea +by the long and narrow island of Pharos. [16] The city possessed a +magnificent site for commerce. It occupied the most central position that +could be found in the ancient world with respect to the three continents, +Africa, Asia, and Europe. The prosperity which this port has enjoyed for +more than two thousand years is ample evidence of the wisdom which led to +its foundation. + +ANTIOCH + +The chief city in the kingdom of Syria was splendid and luxurious Antioch. +It lay in the narrow valley of the Orontes River, so close to both the +Euphrates and the Mediterranean that it soon became an important +commercial center. The city must have been a most delightful residence, +with its fine climate, its location on a clear and rapid stream, and the +near presence of the Syrian hills. In the sixth century A.D. repeated +earthquakes laid Antioch in ruins. The city never recovered its +prosperity, though a modern town, Antakia, still marks the site of the +once famous capital. + +[Illustration: Map, THE KINGDOMS OF ALEXANDER'S SUCCESSORS (About 200 +B.C.), Before the Roman Macedonian Wars] + +[Illustration: THE DYING GAUL (Capitoline Museum, Rome) +The statue represents a Gaul who in battle has fallen on his sword to +avoid a shameful captivity. Overcome by the faintness of death he sinks +upon his shield, his head dropping heavily forward. Though realistic the +statue shows nothing violent or revolting. It is a tragedy in stone.] + +PERGAMUM + +Asia Minor, during this period, contained many Hellenistic cities. One of +the most important was Pergamum, the capital of a small but independent +kingdom of the same name. Its rulers earned the gratitude of all the +Greeks by their resistance to the terrible Gauls. About fifty years after +Alexander's death this barbarous people, pouring down from central Europe, +had ravaged Greece and invaded Asia Minor. The kings of Pergamum +celebrated their victories over the Gauls with so many works of +architecture and sculpture that their city became the artistic rival of +Athens. + +RHODES + +One other great Hellenistic center existed in the island city of Rhodes. +Founded during the closing years of the Peloponnesian War, Rhodes soon +distanced Athens in the race for commercial supremacy. The merchants of +Rhodes framed admirable laws, especially for business affairs, and many of +these were incorporated in the Roman code. Rhodes was celebrated for art. +No less than three thousand statues adorned the streets and public +buildings. It was also a favorite place of education for promising orators +and writers. During Roman days many eminent men, Cicero and Julius Caesar +among them, studied oratory at Rhodes. + + +45. THE HELLENISTIC AGE + +HELLENISTIC LITERATURE + +These splendid cities in the Orient were the centers of much literary +activity. Their inhabitants, whether Hellenic or "barbarian," used Greek +as a common language. During this period Greek literature took on a +cosmopolitan character. It no longer centered in Athens. Writers found +their audiences in all lands where Greeks had settled. At the same time +literature became more and more an affair of the study. The authors were +usually professional bookmen writing for a bookish public. They produced +many works of literary criticism, prepared excellent grammars and +dictionaries, but wrote very little poetry or prose of enduring value. + +THE MUSEUM AT ALEXANDRIA + +The Hellenistic Age was distinguished as an age of learning. Particularly +was this true at Alexandria, where the Museum, founded by the first +Macedonian king of Egypt, became a real university. It contained galleries +of art, an astronomical observatory, and even zoological and botanical +gardens. The Museum formed a resort for men of learning, who had the +leisure necessary for scholarly research. The beautiful gardens, with +their shady walks, statues, and fountains, were the haunt of thousands of +students whom the fame of Alexandria attracted from all parts of the +civilized world. + +THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY + +In addition to the Museum there was a splendid library, which at one time +contained over five hundred thousand manuscripts--almost everything that +had been written in antiquity. The chief librarian ransacked private +collections and purchased all the books he could find. Every book that +entered Egypt was brought to the Library, where slaves transcribed the +manuscript and gave a copy to the owner in place of the original. Before +this time the manuscripts of celebrated works were often scarce and always +in danger of being lost. Henceforth it was known where to look for them. + +[Illustration: LAOCOON AND HIS CHILDREN (Vatican Museum Rome) +A product of the art school of Rhodes (about 150 B.C.). The statue +represents the punishment inflicted on Laocoon a Trojan priest together +with his two sons. A pair of large serpents sent by the offended gods have +seized the unhappy victims.] + +[Illustration: VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE (Louvre, Paris) +Commemorates a naval battle fought in 306 B.C. The statue, which is +considerably above life-size, stood on a pedestal having the form of a +ship's prow. The goddess of Victory was probably represented holding a +trumpet to her lips with her right hand. The fresh ocean breeze has blown +her garments back into tumultuous folds.] + +SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES + +The Hellenistic Age was remarkable for the rapid advance of scientific +knowledge. Most of the mathematical works of the Greeks date from this +epoch. Euclid wrote a treatise on geometry which still holds its place in +the schools. Archimedes of Syracuse, who had once studied at Alexandria, +made many discoveries in engineering. A water screw of his device is still +in use. He has the credit for finding out the laws of the lever. "Give me +a fulcrum on which to rest," he said, "and I will move the earth." The +Hellenistic scholars also made remarkable progress in medicine. The +medical school of Alexandria was well equipped with charts, models, and +dissecting rooms for the study of the human body. During the second +century of our era all the medical knowledge of antiquity was gathered up +in the writings of Galen (born about 130 A.D.). For more than a thousand +years Galen of Pergamum remained the supreme authority in medicine. + +ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE COMPARED + +In scientific work it seems as if the Greeks had done almost all that +could be accomplished by sheer brain power aided only by rude instruments. +They had no real telescopes or microscopes, no mariner's compass or +chronometer, and no very delicate balances. Without such inventions the +Greeks could hardly proceed much farther with their researches. Modern +scientists are perhaps no better thinkers than were those of antiquity, +but they have infinitely better apparatus and can make careful experiments +where the Greeks had to rely on shrewd guesses. + +EXTENSION OF GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE + +During the Hellenistic Age men began to gain more accurate ideas regarding +the shape and size of the habitable globe. Such events as the expedition +of the "Ten Thousand" [17] and Alexander's conquests in central Asia and +India brought new information about the countries and peoples of the +Orient. During Alexander's lifetime a Greek named Pytheas, starting from +Massilia, [18] made an adventurous voyage along the shores of Spain and +Gaul and spent some time in Britain. He was probably the first Greek to +visit that island. + +ERATOSTHENES, ABOUT 276-194 B.C. + +All this new knowledge of East and West was soon gathered together by +Eratosthenes, the learned librarian of Alexandria. He was the founder of +scientific geography. Before his time some students had already concluded +that the earth is spherical and not flat, as had been taught in the +Homeric poems. [19] Guesses had even been made of the size of the earth. +Eratosthenes by careful measurements came within a few thousand miles of +its actual circumference. Having estimated the size of the earth, +Eratosthenes went on to determine how large was its habitable area. He +reached the conclusion that the distance from the strait of Gibraltar to +the east of India was about one-third of the earth's circumference. The +remaining two-thirds, he thought, was covered by the sea. And with what +seems a prophecy he remarked that, if it was not for the vast extent of +the Atlantic Ocean, one might almost sail from Spain to India along the +same parallel of latitude. + +[Illustration: PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE IN ANTIQUITY + Map, The World according to Eratosthenes, 200 B.C. + Map, The World according to Ptolemy, 150 A.D.] + +PTOLEMY + +The next two centuries after Eratosthenes saw the spread of Roman rule +over Greeks and Carthaginians in the Mediterranean and over the barbarous +inhabitants of Gaul, Britain, and Germany. The new knowledge thus gained +was summed up in the Greek _Geography_ by Ptolemy [20] of Alexandria. His +famous map shows how near he came to the real outlines both of Europe and +Asia. + +THE PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM + +Ptolemy was likewise an eminent astronomer. He believed that the earth was +the center of the universe and that the sun, planets, and fixed stars all +revolved around it. This Ptolemaic system was not overthrown until the +grand discovery of Copernicus in the sixteenth century of our era. + + +46. THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD + +THE NEW LUXURY + +The Hellenistic Age was characterized by a general increase in wealth. The +old Greeks and Macedonians, as a rule, had been content to live plainly. +Now kings, nobles, and rich men began to build splendid palaces and to +fill them with the products of ancient art--marbles from Asia Minor, vases +from Athens, Italian bronzes, and Babylonian tapestries. They kept up +great households with endless lords in waiting, ladies of honor, pages, +guards, and servants. Soft couches and clothes of delicate fabric replaced +the simple coverlets and coarse cloaks of an earlier time. They possessed +rich carpets and hangings, splendid armor and jewelry, and gold and silver +vessels for the table. The Greeks thus began to imitate the luxurious +lives of Persian nobles. + +THE SEA ROUTE TO INDIA + +These new luxuries flowed in from all parts of the ancient world. Many +came from the Far East in consequence of the rediscovery of the sea route +to India, by Alexander's admiral, Nearchus. [21] The voyage of Nearchus +was one of the most important results of Alexander's eastern conquests. It +established the fact, which had long been forgotten, that one could reach +India by a water route much shorter and safer than the caravan roads +through central Asia. [22] Somewhat later a Greek sailor, named Harpalus, +found that by using the monsoons, the periodic winds which blow over the +Indian Ocean, he could sail direct from Arabia to India without +laboriously following the coast. The Greeks, in consequence, gave his name +to the monsoons. + +ORIENTAL INFLUENCE ON THE GREEKS + +All this sudden increase of wealth, all the thousand new enjoyments with +which life was now adorned and enriched, did not work wholly for good. +With luxury there went, as always, laxity in morals. Contact with the vice +and effeminacy of the East tended to lessen the manly vigor of the Greeks, +both in Asia and in Europe. Hellas became corrupt, and she in turn +corrupted Rome. + +GREEK INFLUENCE ON THE ORIENT + +Yet the most interesting, as well as the most important, feature of the +age is the diffusion of Hellenic culture--the "Hellenizing" of the Orient. +It was, indeed, a changed world in which men were now living. Greek +cities, founded by Alexander and his successors, stretched from the Nile +to the Indus, dotted the shores of the Black Sea and Caspian, and arose +amid the wilds of central Asia. The Greek language, once the tongue of a +petty people, grew to be a universal language of culture, spoken even by +"barbarian" lips. And the art, the science, the literature, the principles +of politics and philosophy, developed in isolation by the Greek mind, +henceforth became the heritage of many nations. + +THE NEW COSMOPOLITANISM + +Thus, in the period after Alexander the long struggle between East and +West reached a peaceful conclusion. The distinction between Greek and +Barbarian gradually faded away, and the ancient world became ever more +unified in sympathies and aspirations. It was this mingled civilization of +Orient and Occident with which the Romans were now to come in contact, as +they pushed their conquering arms beyond Italy into the eastern +Mediterranean. + +[Illustration: ORIENTAL, GREEK, AND ROMAN COINS + 1. Lydian coin of about 700 B.C.; the material is electrum, a + compound of gold and silver. + 2. Gold _daric_; a Persian coin worth about $5. + 3. Hebrew silver _shekel_. + 4. Athenian silver _tetradrachm_ showing Athena, her olive + branch and sacred owl. + 5. Roman bronze _as_ (2 cents) of about 217 B.C.; the + symbols are the head of Janus and the prow of a ship. + 6. Bronze _sestertius_ (5 cents) struck in Nero's reign; the + emperor, who carries a spear, is followed by a second horseman + bearing a banner. + 7. Silver _denarius_ (20 cents) of about 99 B.C.; it shows a + bust of Roma and three citizens voting. + 8. Gold _solidus_ ($5) of Honorius about 400 A.D.; the emperor + wears a diadem and carries a scepter.] + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the routes of Alexander, marking the +principal battle fields and the most important cities founded by him. +Note, also, the voyage of Nearchus. + +2. On an outline map indicate the principal Hellenistic kingdoms about 200 +B.C. + +3. Give the proper dates for (a) accession of Alexander; (b) battle of +Issus; (c) battle of Arbela; and (d) death of Alexander. + +4. In what sense was Chaeronea a decisive battle? + +5. How is it true that the expedition of the Ten Thousand forms "an +epilogue to the invasion of Xerxes and a prologue to the conquests of +Alexander"? + +6. How much can you see and describe in the Alexander Mosaic +(illustration, page 123)? + +7. Compare Alexander's invasion of Persia with the invasion of Greece by +Xerxes. + +8. Distinguish between the immediate and the ultimate results of +Alexander's conquests. + +9. Comment on the following statement: "No single personality, excepting +the carpenter's son of Nazareth, has done so much to make the world we +live in what it is as Alexander of Macedon." + +10. How did the Macedonian Empire compare in size with that of Persia? +With that of Assyria? + +11. What modern countries are included within the Macedonian Empire under +Alexander? + +12. How did the founding of the Hellenistic cities continue the earlier +colonial expansion of Greece? + +13. Why were the Hellenistic cities the real "backbone" of Hellenism? + +14. Why do great cities rarely develop without the aid of commerce? Were +all the great cities in Alexander's empire of commercial importance? + +15. Show how Alexandria has always been one of the meeting points between +Orient and Occident. + +16. How did the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 A.D. affect the +commercial importance of Alexandria? + +17. Name some of the great scientists of the Alexandrian age. + +18. What were their contributions to knowledge? + +19. Using the maps on pages 76 and 132, trace the growth of geographical +knowledge from Homer's time to that of Ptolemy. + +20. What parts of the world are most correctly outlined on Ptolemy's map? + +21. "The seed-ground of European civilization is neither Greece nor the +Orient, but a world joined of the two." Comment on this statement. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter xii, "Demosthenes and +the Struggle against Philip"; chapter xiii, "Exploits of Alexander the +Great." + +[2] Philippi became noted afterwards as the first city in Europe where +Christianity was preached. See _Acts_, xvi, 9. + +[3] See the map between pages 68-69. + +[4] See page 275. + +[5] See page 39. + +[6] See page 272. + +[7] See page 90. + +[8] See page 36. + +[9] See John Dryden's splendid ode, _Alexander's Feast_. + +[10] See pages 20 and 39. + +[11] See pages 39-40. + +[12] Arrian, _Anabasis of Alexander_, vii, 26. + +[13] See the map facing page 128. + +[14] The term "Hellenic" refers to purely Greek culture; the term +"Hellenistic," to Greek culture as modified by contact with Oriental life +and customs. + +[15] See page 81. + +[16] The lighthouse on the island of Pharos was considered one of the +"seven wonders" of the ancient world. The others were the hanging gardens +and walls of Babylon, the pyramids, the Colossus of Rhodes, the temple of +Artemis at Ephesus, the mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and the statue of Zeus +at Olympia. + +[17] See page 120. + +[18] See page 89. + +[19] See page 74. + +[20] Not to be confused with King Ptolemy (page 127). + +[21] See page 125. + +[22] See page 48. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE RISE OF ROME TO 264 B.C. [1] + + +47. ITALY AND SICILY + +THE APENNINES + +The shape of Italy is determined by the course of the Apennines. Branching +off from the Alps at the gulf of Genoa, these mountains cross the +peninsula in an easterly direction, almost to the Adriatic. Here they turn +sharply to the southeast and follow the coast for a considerable distance. +The plains of central Italy, in consequence, are all on the western slope +of the Apennines. In the lower part of the peninsula the range swerves +suddenly to the southwest, so that the level land is there on the eastern +side of the mountains. Near the southern extremity of Italy the Apennines +separate into two branches, which penetrate the "heel and toe" of the +peninsula. + +DIVISIONS OF ITALY + +Italy may be conveniently divided into a northern, a central, and a +southern section. These divisions, however, are determined by the +direction of the mountains and not, as in Greece, chiefly by inlets of the +sea. Northern Italy contains the important region known in ancient times +as Cisalpine Gaul. This is a perfectly level plain two hundred miles in +length, watered by the Po (_Padus_), which the Romans called the "king of +rivers," because of its length and many tributary streams. Central Italy, +lying south of the Apennines, includes seven districts, of which the three +on the western coast--Etruria, Latium, and Campania--were most conspicuous +in ancient history. Southern Italy, because of its warm climate and deeply +indented coast, early attracted many Greek colonists. Their colonies here +came to be known as Magna Graecia, or Great Greece. + +[Illustration: Map, ANCIENT ITALY AND SICILY.] + +SICILY + +The triangular-shaped island of Sicily is separated from Italy by the +strait of Messina, a channel which, at the narrowest part, is only two +miles wide. At one time Sicily must have been joined to the mainland. Its +mountains, which rise at their highest point in the majestic volcano of +Aetna, nearly eleven thousand feet above sea level, are a continuation of +those of Italy. The greater part of Sicily is remarkably productive, +containing rich grainfields and hillsides green with the olive and the +vine. Lying in the center of the Mediterranean and in the direct route of +merchants and colonists from every direction, Sicily has always been a +meeting place of nations. In antiquity Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans +contended for the possession of this beautiful island. + +INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS + +On Italian history, as on that of Greece, [2] we are able to trace the +profound influence of geographical conditions. In the first place, the +peninsula of Italy is not cut up by a tangle of mountains into many small +districts. Hence it was easier for the Italians, than for the Greeks, to +establish one large and united state. In the second place, Italy, which +has few good harbors but possesses fine mountain pastures and rich lowland +plains, was better adapted to cattle raising and agriculture than was +Greece. The Italian peoples, in consequence, instead of putting to sea, +remained a conservative, home-staying folk, who were slow to adopt the +customs of other nations. Finally, the location of Italy, with its best +harbors and most numerous islands on the western coast, brought that +country into closer touch with Gaul, Spain, and northwestern Africa than +with Greece and the Orient. Italy fronted the barbarous West. + + +48. THE PEOPLES OF ITALY + +NEIGHBORS OF THE ROMANS + +Long before the Romans built their city by the Tiber every part of Italy +had become the home of wandering peoples, attracted by the mild climate +and rich soil of this favored land. Two of these peoples were neighbors of +the Romans--Etruscans on the north and Greeks on the south. + +THE ETRUSCANS + +The ancestors of the historic Etruscans were probably Aegean sea-rovers +who settled in the Italian peninsula before the beginning of the eighth +century B.C. The immigrants mingled with the natives and by conquest and +colonization founded a strong power in the country to which they gave +their name--Etruria. At one time the Etruscans appear to have ruled over +Campania and also in the Po Valley as far as the Alps. Their colonies +occupied the shores of Sardinia and Corsica. Their fleets swept the +Tyrrhenian Sea. The Etruscans for several centuries were the leading +nation in Italy. + +[Illustration: A GRAECO-ETRUSCAN CHARIOT (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New +York) + +The chariot was discovered in 1903 A.D. in an Etruscan cemetery near Rome. +It dates from perhaps 600 B.C. Almost every part of the vehicle is covered +with thin plates of bronze, elaborately decorated. The wheels are only two +feet in diameter. Since the chariot is too small and delicate for use in +warfare, we may believe it to have been intended for ceremonial purposes +only.] + +ETRUSCAN CIVILIZATION + +These Etruscans, like the Hittites of Asia Minor, [3] are a mysterious +race. No one as yet has been able to read their language, which is quite +unlike any Indo-European tongue. The words, however, are written in an +alphabet borrowed from Greek settlers in Italy. Many other civilizing arts +besides the alphabet came to the Etruscans from abroad. Babylonia gave to +them the principle of the round arch and the practice of divination. [4] +Etruscan graves contain Egyptian seals adorned with hieroglyphics and +beautiful vases bearing designs from Greek mythology. The Etruscans were +skillful workers in iron, bronze, and gold. They built their cities with +massive walls, arched gates, paved streets, and underground drains. In the +course of time a great part of this Etruscan civilization was absorbed in +that of Rome. + +[Illustration: AN ETRUSCAN ARCH +The Italian city of Volterra still preserves in the Porta dell' Arco an +interesting relic of Etruscan times. The archway, one of the original +gates of the ancient town, is about twenty feet in height and twelve feet +in width. On the keystone and imposts are three curious heads, probably +representing the guardian deities of the place.] + +[Illustration: CHARACTERS OF THE ETRUSCAN ALPHABET +About eight thousand Etruscan inscriptions are known, almost all being +short epitaphs on gravestones. In 1892 A.D. an Etruscan manuscript which +had been used to pack an Egyptian mummy, was published, but the language +could not be deciphered.] + +THE GREEKS + +As teachers of the Romans the Etruscans were followed by the Greeks. About +the middle of the eighth century B.C. Hellenic colonies began to occupy +the coasts of Sicily and southern Italy. The earliest Greek settlement was +Cumae, near the bay of Naples. [5] It was a city as old as Rome itself, +and a center from which Greek culture, including the Greek alphabet, +spread to Latium. A glance at the map [6] shows that the chief Greek +Colonies were all on or near the Sea, from Campania to the gulf of +Tarentum. North of the "heel" of Italy extends an almost harborless coast, +where nothing tempted the Greeks to settle. North of Campania, again, they +found the good harbors already occupied by the Etruscans. The Greeks, in +consequence, were never able to make Italy a completely Hellenic land. +Room was left for the native Italian peoples, under the leadership of +Rome, to build up their own power in the peninsula. + +THE ITALIAN HIGHLANDERS + +The Italians were an Indo-European people who spoke a language closely +related, on the one side, to Greek and, on the other side, to the Celtic +tongues of western Europe. They entered Italy through the Alpine passes, +long before the dawn of history, and gradually pushed southward until they +occupied the interior of the peninsula. At the beginning of historic times +they had separated into two main branches. The eastern and central parts +of Italy formed the home of the highlanders, grouped in various tribes. +Among them were the Umbrians in the northeast, the Sabines in the upper +valley of the Tiber, and the Samnites in the south. Still other Italian +peoples occupied the peninsula as far as Magna Graecia. + +THE LATINS + +The western Italians were known as Latins. They dwelt in Latium, the "flat +land" extending south of the Tiber between the Apennines and the +Tyrrhenian Sea. Residence in the lowlands, where they bordered on the +Etruscans, helped to make the Latins a civilized people. Their village +communities grew into larger settlements, until the whole of Latium became +filled with a number of independent city-states. The ties of kinship and +the necessity of defense against Etruscan and Sabine foes bound them +together. At a very early period they had united in the Latin League, +under the headship of Alba Longa. Another city in this league was Rome. + + +49. THE ROMANS + +FOUNDING OF ROME + +Rome sprang from a settlement of Latin shepherds, farmers, and traders on +the Palatine Mount. [7] This was the central eminence in a group of low +hills south of the Tiber, about fifteen miles by water from the river's +mouth. Opposite the Palatine community there arose on the Quirinal Hill +another settlement, which seems to have been an outpost of the Sabines. +After much hard fighting the rival hill towns united on equal terms into +one state. The low marshy land between the Palatine and Quirinal became +the Forum, or common market place, and the steep rock, known as the +Capitoline, formed the common citadel. [8] + +[Illustration: Map, VICINITY OF ROME.] + +UNION OF THE SEVEN HILLS + +The union of the Palatine and Quirinal settlements greatly increased the +area and population of the Roman city. In course of time settlements were +made on the neighboring hills and these, too, cast in their lot with Rome. +Then a fortification, the so-called "Wall of Servius," was built to bring +them all within the boundaries of the enlarged community. Rome came into +existence as the City of the Seven Hills. + +MYTHS OF EARLY ROME + +Long after the foundation of Rome, when that city had grown rich and +powerful, her poets and historians delighted to relate the many myths +which clustered about the earlier stages of her career. According to these +myths Rome began as a colony of Alba Longa, the capital of Latium. The +founder of this city was Ascanius, son of the Trojan prince Aeneas, who +had escaped from Troy on its capture by the Greeks and after long +wanderings had reached the coast of Italy. Many generations afterwards, +when Numitor sat on the throne of Alba Longa, his younger brother, +Amulius, plotted against him and drove him into exile. He had Numitor's +son put to death, and forced the daughter, Rhea Silvia, to take the vows +of a Vestal Virgin. [9] + +[Illustration: AN EARLY ROMAN COIN +Shows the twins, Romulus and Remus as infants suckled by a wolf.] + +ROMULUS AND REMUS + +But Rhea Silvia, beloved by Mars, the god of war, gave birth to twin boys +of more than human size and beauty. The wicked Amulius ordered the +children to be set adrift in a basket on the Tiber. Heaven, however, +guarded these offspring of a god; the river cast them ashore near Mount +Palatine, and a she-wolf came and nursed them. There they were discovered +by a shepherd, who reared them in his own household. When the twins, +Romulus and Remus, reached manhood, they killed Amulius and restored their +grandfather to his kingdom. With other young men from Alba Longa, they +then set forth to build a new city on the Palatine, where they had been +rescued. As they scanned the sky to learn the will of the gods, six +vultures, birds of Jupiter, appeared to Remus; but twelve were seen by +Romulus. So Romulus marked out the boundary of the city on the Palatine, +and Remus, who in derision leaped over the half-finished wall, he slew in +anger. Romulus thus became the sole founder of Rome and its first king. + +SUCCESSORS OF ROMULUS + +Romulus was followed by a Sabine, Numa Pompilius, who taught the Romans +the arts of peace and the worship of the gods. Another king destroyed Alba +Longa and brought the inhabitants to Rome. The last of Rome's seven kings +was an Etruscan named Tarquin the Proud. His tyranny finally provoked an +uprising, and Rome became a republic. + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MYTHS + +These famous tales have become a part of the world's literature and still +possess value to the student. They show us what the Romans themselves +believed about the foundation and early fortunes of their city. Sometimes +they refer to what seem to be facts, such as the first settlement on the +Palatine, the union with the Sabines on the Quirinal, the conquest of Alba +Longa, and Etruscan rule at Rome. The myths also contain so many +references to customs and beliefs that they are a great help in +understanding the social life and religion of the early Romans. + + +50. EARLY ROMAN SOCIETY + +THE ROMANS AN AGRICULTURAL PEOPLE + +Agriculture was the chief occupation of the Roman people. "When our +forefathers," said an ancient writer, "would praise a worthy man, they +praised him as a good farmer and a good landlord; and they believed that +an praise could go no further." [10] Roman farmers raised large crops of +grain--the staple product of ancient Italy. Cattle-breeding, also, must +have been an important pursuit, since in early times prices were estimated +in oxen and sheep. [11] + +[Illustration: A ROMAN FARMER'S CALENDAR +A marble cube, two feet high, of about 31-29 B.C. + The month of May, + XXXI days, + The nones fall on the 7th day. + The day has 19-1/2 hours. + The night has 9-1/2 hours + The sun is in the sign of Taurus + The month is under the protection of Apollo. + The corn is weeded + The sheep are shorn + The wool is washed + Young steers are put under the yoke. + The vetch of the meadows is cut. + The lustration of the crops is made. + Sacrifices to Mercury and Flora.] + +ECONOMIC CONDITIONS + +In such a community of peasants no great inequalities of wealth existed. +Few citizens were very rich; few were very poor. The members of each +household made their own clothing from flax or wool, and fashioned out of +wood and clay what utensils were needed for their simple life. For a long +time the Romans had no coined money whatever. When copper came into use as +currency, it passed from hand to hand in shapeless lumps that required +frequent weighing. It was not until the fourth century that a regular +coinage began. [12] This use of copper as money indicates that gold and +silver were rare among the Romans, and luxury almost unknown. + +MORAL CHARACTER OF THE EARLY ROMANS + +Hard-working, god-fearing peasants are likely to lead clean and sober +lives. This was certainly true of the early Romans. They were a manly +breed, abstemious in food and drink, iron-willed, vigorous, and strong. +Deep down in the Roman's heart was the proud conviction that Rome should +rule over all her neighbors. For this he freely shed his blood; for this +he bore hardship, however severe, without complaint. Before everything +else, he was a dutiful citizen and a true patriot. Such were the sturdy +men who on their farms in Latium formed the backbone of the Roman state. +Their character has set its mark on history for all time. + +THE ROMAN FAMILY + +The family formed the unit of Roman society. Its most marked feature was +the unlimited authority of the father. In his house he reigned an absolute +king. His wife had no legal rights: he could sell her into slavery or +divorce her at will. Nevertheless, no ancient people honored women more +highly than the Romans. A Roman wife was the mistress of the home, as her +husband was its master. Though her education was not carried far, we often +find the Roman matron taking a lively interest in affairs of state, and +aiding her husband both in politics and business. It was the women, as +well as the men, who helped to make Rome great among the nations. Over his +unmarried daughters and his sons, the Roman father ruled as supreme as +over his wife. He brought up his children to be sober, silent, modest in +their bearing, and, above all, obedient. Their misdeeds he might punish +with penalties as severe as banishment, slavery, or death. As head of the +family he could claim all their earnings; everything they had was his. The +father's great authority ceased only with his death. Then his sons, in +turn, became lords over their families. + +[Illustration: CINERARY URNS IN TERRA COTTA (Vatican Museum, Rome) +These receptacles for the ashes of the dead were found in an old cemetery +at Alba Longa They show two forms of the primitive Roman hut.] + + +51. ROMAN RELIGION + +WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS + +The Romans, like the ancient Greeks and the modern Chinese, paid special +veneration to the souls of the dead. These were known by the flattering +name of _manes_, the "pure" or "good ones." The Romans always regarded the +_manes_ as members of the household to which they had belonged on earth. +The living and the dead were thus bound together by the closest ties. The +idea of the family triumphed even over the grave. + +THE HOUSEHOLD DEITIES + +The ancient Roman house had only one large room, the _atrium_, where all +members of the family lived together. It was entered by a single door, +which was sacred to the god Janus. On the hearth, opposite the doorway, +the housewife prepared the meals. The fire that ever blazed upon it gave +warmth and nourishment to the inmates. Here dwelt Vesta, the spirit of the +kindling flame. The cupboard where the food was kept came under the charge +of the Penates, who blessed the family store. The house as a whole had its +protecting spirits, called Lares. + +WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD DEITIES + +The daily worship of these deities took place at the family meal. The +table would be placed at the side of the hearth, and when the father and +his family sat down to it, a little food would be thrown into the flames +and a portion of wine poured out, as an offering to the gods. The images +of the Lares and Penates would also be fetched from the shrine and placed +on the table in token of their presence at the meal. This religion of the +family lasted with little change throughout the entire period of Roman +history. + +[Illustration: A VESTAL VIRGIN +Portrait from a statue discovered in the ruins of the temple of Vesta in +the Roman Forum.] + +JANUS AND VESTA + +The early Roman state was only an enlarged family, and hence the religion +of the state was modeled after that of the family. Some of the divinities, +such as Janus and Vesta, were taken over with little change from the +domestic worship. The entrance to the Forum formed a shrine of Janus, [13] +which Numa himself was said to have built. The door, or gateway, stood +open in time of war, but shut when Rome was at peace. At the south end of +the Forum stood the round temple of Vesta, containing the sacred hearth of +the city. Here Vesta was served by six virgins of free birth, whose duty +it was to keep the fire always blazing on the altar. If by accident the +fire went out, it must be relighted from a "pure flame," either by +striking a spark with flint or by rubbing together two dry sticks. Such +methods of kindling fire were those familiar to the prehistoric Romans. + +[Illustration: SUOVETAURILIA (Louvre, Paris) +The relief pictures an ancient Italian sacrifice of a bull, a ram and a +boar offered to Mars to secure purification from sin. Note the sacred +laurel trees, the two altars, and the officiating magistrate whose head is +covered with the toga. He is sprinkling incense from a box held by an +attendant. Another attendant carries a ewer with the libation. In the rear +is the sacrificer with his ax.] + +JUPITER AND MARS + +The Romans worshiped various gods connected with their lives as shepherds, +farmers, and warriors. The chief divinity was Jupiter, who ruled the +heavens and sent rain and sunshine to nourish the crops. The war god Mars +reflected the military character of the Romans. His sacred animal was the +fierce, cruel wolf, his symbols were spears and shields; his altar was the +Campus Martius (Field of Mars) outside the city walls, where the army +assembled in battle array. March, the first month of the old Roman year, +was named in his honor. Some other gods were borrowed from the Greeks, +together with many of the beautiful Greek myths. + +DIVINATION + +The Romans took many precautions, before beginning any enterprise, to find +out what was the will of the gods and how their favor might first be +gained. They did not have oracles, but they paid much attention to omens +of all sorts. A sudden flash of lightning, an eclipse of the sun, a +blazing comet, or an earthquake shock was an omen which awakened +superstitious fear. It indicated the disapproval of the gods. From the +Etruscans the Romans learned to divine the future by examining the +entrails of animal victims. They also borrowed from their northern +neighbors the practice of looking for signs in the number, flight, and +action of birds. To consult such signs was called "taking the auspices." +[14] + +[Illustration: AN ETRUSCAN AUGUR +Wall painting from a tomb at Tarquinii in Etruria.] + +[Illustration: COOP WITH SACRED CHICKENS +The relief represents the chickens in the act of feeding. The most +favorable omen was secured when the fowls greedily picked up more of the +corn than they could swallow at one time. Their refusal to eat at all was +an omen of disaster.] + +PRIESTHOODS + +Roman priests, who conducted the state religion, did not form a separate +class, as in some Oriental countries. They were chosen, like other +magistrates, from the general body of citizens. A board, or "college," of +six priests had charge of the public auspices. Another board, that of the +pontiffs, regulated the calendar, kept the public annals, and regulated +weights and measures. They were experts in all matters of religious +ceremonial and hence were very important officials. [15] + +IMPORTANCE OF THE STATE RELIGION + +This old Roman faith was something very different from what we understand +by religion. It had little direct influence on morality. It did not +promise rewards or threaten punishments in a future world. Roman religion +busied itself with the everyday life of man. Just as the household was +bound together by the tie of common worship, so all the citizens were +united in a common reverence for the deities which guarded the state. The +religion of Rome made and held together a nation. + + +52. THE ROMAN CITY-STATE + +EARLY ROMAN GOVERNMENT + +We find in early Rome, as in Homeric Greece, [16] a city-state with its +king, council, and assembly. The king was the father of his people, having +over them the same absolute authority that the house-father held within +the family. The king was assisted by a council of elders, or Senate (Latin +_senes_, "old men"). Its members were chosen by the king and held office +for life. The most influential heads of families belonged to the Senate. +The common people at first took little part in the government, for it was +only on rare occasions that the king summoned them to deliberate with him +in an assembly. + +THE REPUBLICAN CONSULS + +Toward the close of the sixth century, as we have already learned, [17] +the ancient monarchy disappeared from Rome. In place of the lifelong king +two magistrates, named consuls, were elected every year. Each consul had +to share his honor and authority with a colleague who enjoyed the same +power as himself. Unless both agreed, there could be no action. Like the +Spartan kings, [18] the consuls served as checks, the one on the other. +Neither could safely use his position to aim at unlawful rule. + +THE DICTATOR + +This divided power of the consuls might work very well in times of peace. +During dangerous wars or insurrections it was likely to prove disastrous. +A remedy was found in the temporary revival of the old kingship under a +new name. When occasion required, one of the consuls, on the advice of the +Senate, appointed a dictator. The consuls then gave up their authority and +the people put their property and lives entirely at the dictator's +disposal. During his term of office, which could not exceed six months, +the state was under martial law. Throughout Roman history there were many +occasions when a dictatorship was created to meet a sudden emergency. + +PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS + +The Roman state, during the regal age, seems to have been divided between +an aristocracy and a commons. The nobles were called patricians, [19] and +the common people were known as plebeians. [20] The patricians occupied a +privileged position, since they alone sat in the Senate and served as +priests, judges, and magistrates. In fact, they controlled society, and +the common people found themselves excluded from much of the religious, +legal, and political life of the Roman city. Under these circumstances it +was natural for the plebeians to agitate against the patrician monopoly of +government. The struggle between the two orders of society lasted about +two centuries. + +THE TRIBUNES + +A few years after the establishment of the republic the plebeians +compelled the patricians to allow them to have officers of their own, +called tribunes, as a means of protection. There were ten tribunes, +elected annually by the plebeians. Any tribune could veto, that is, +forbid, the act of a magistrate which seemed to bear harshly on a citizen. +To make sure that a tribune's orders would be respected, his person was +made sacred and a solemn curse was pronounced upon the man who injured him +or interrupted him in the performance of his duties. The tribune's +authority, however, extended only within the city and a mile beyond its +walls. He was quite powerless against the consul in the field. + +THE TWELVE TABLES, 449 B.C. + +We next find the plebeians struggling for equality before the law. Just as +in ancient Athens, [21] the early Roman laws had never been written down +or published. About half a century after the plebeians had obtained the +tribunes, they forced the patricians to give them written laws. A board of +ten men, known as decemvirs, was appointed to frame a legal code, binding +equally on both patricians and plebeians. The story goes that this +commission studied the legislation of the Greek states of southern Italy, +and even went to Athens to examine some of Solon's laws which were still +in force. The laws framed by the decemvirs were engraved on twelve bronze +tablets and set up in the Forum. A few sentences from this famous code +have come down to us in rude, unpolished Latin. They mark the beginning of +what was to be Rome's greatest gift to civilization--her legal system. + +[Illustration: CURULE CHAIR AND FASCES +A consul sat on the curule chair. The _fasces_ (axes in a bundle of rods) +symbolized his power to flog and behead offenders.] + +FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE PLEBEIANS + +The hardest task of the plebeians was to secure the right of holding the +great offices of state. Eventually, however, they gained entrance to +Senate and became eligible to the consulship and other magistracies and to +the priesthoods. By the middle of the third century the plebeians and +patricians, equal before the law and with equal privileges, formed one +compact body of citizens in the Roman state. + +ROME AS A REPUBLIC + +The Roman state called itself a republic--_respublica_--"a thing of the +people." Roman citizens made the laws and elected public officers. Though +the people in their gatherings had now become supreme, their power was +really much limited by the fact that very little discussion of a proposed +measure was allowed. This formed a striking contrast to the vigorous +debating which went on in the Athenian Assembly. [22] Roman citizens could +not frame, criticize, or amend public measures; they could only vote "yes" +or "no" to proposals made to them by a magistrate. + +MAGISTRATES + +Rome had many magistrates. Besides the two consuls and an occasional +dictator there were the ten tribunes, the praetors, who served as judges, +and the quaestors, or keepers of the treasury. The two censors were also +very important officers. It was their business to make an enumeration or +census of the citizens and to assess property for taxation. The censors +almost always were reverend seniors who had held the consulship and +enjoyed a reputation for justice and wisdom. Their office grew steadily in +importance, especially after the censors began to exercise an oversight of +the private life of the Romans. They could expel a senator from his seat +for immorality and could deprive any citizen of his vote. The word +"censorious," meaning faultfinding, is derived from the name of these +ancient officials. + +MEMBERSHIP OF THE SENATE + +The authority of the magistrates was much limited by the Senate. This body +contained about three hundred members, who held their seats generally for +life. When vacancies occurred, they were filled, as a rule, by those who +had previously held one or more of the higher magistracies. There sat in +the Senate every man who, as statesman, general, or diplomatist, had +served his country well. + +POWERS EXERCISED BY THE SENATE + +The Senate furnished an admirable school for debate. Any senator could +speak as long and as often as he chose. The opportunities for discussion +were numerous, for all weighty matters came before this august assemblage. +It managed finances and public works. It looked after the state religion. +It declared and conducted war, received ambassadors from foreign +countries, made alliances, and administered conquered territories. The +Senate formed the real governing body of the republic. + +"AN ASSEMBLY OF KINGS" + +The Senate proved not unworthy of its high position. For two centuries, +while Rome was winning dominion over Italy and the Mediterranean, that +body held the wisest and noblest Romans of the time. To these men office +meant a public trust--an opportunity to serve their country with +distinction and honor. The Senate, in its best days, was a splendid +example of the foresight, energy, and wisdom of republican Rome. An +admiring foreigner called it "an assembly of kings." [23] + +[Illustration: A SCENE IN SICILY +Taormina, on the Sicilian coast, thirty one miles southwest of Messina. +The ruins are those of a theater, founded by the Greeks, but much altered +in Roman times. The view of Aetna from this site is especially fine.] + +[Illustration: BAY OF NAPLES AND VESUVIUS] + + +53. EXPANSION OF ROME OVER ITALY, 509(?)-264 B.C. + +ROME SUPREME IN LATIUM, 338 B.C. + +The first centuries of the republic were filled with constant warfare. The +Romans needed all their skill, bravery, and patriotism to keep back the +Etruscans on the north, and the wild tribes of the Apennines. About 390 +B.C. the state was brought near to destruction by an invasion of the +Gauls. [24] These barbarians, whose huge bulk and enormous weapons struck +terror to the hearts of their adversaries, poured through the Alpine +passes and ravaged far and wide. At the river Allia, only a few miles from +Rome, they annihilated a Roman army and then captured and burned the city +itself. But the Gallic tide receded as swiftly as it had come, and Rome +rose from her ashes mightier than ever. Half a century after the Gallic +invasion she was able to subdue her former allies, the Latins, and to +destroy their league. The Latin War, as it is called, ended in 338 B.C., +the year of the fateful battle of Chaeronea in Greece. [25] By this time +Rome ruled in Latium and southern Etruria and had begun to extend her sway +over Campania. There remained only one Italian people to contest with her +the supremacy of the peninsula--the Samnites. + +ROME SUPREME IN CENTRAL ITLAY, 290 B.C. + +The Samnites were the most vigorous and warlike race of central Italy. +While the Romans were winning their way in Latium, the Samnites were also +entering on a career of conquest. They coveted the fertile Campanian plain +with its luxurious cities, Cumae and Neapolis, which the Greeks had +founded. The Romans had also fixed their eyes on the same region, and so a +contest between the two peoples became inevitable. In numbers, courage, +and military skill Romans and Samnites were well matched. Nearly half a +century of hard fighting was required before Rome gained the upper hand. +The close of the Samnite wars found Rome supreme in central Italy. Her +authority was now recognized from the upper Apennines to the foot of the +peninsula. + +ROME SUPREME IN SOUTHERN ITALY, 264 B.C. + +The wealthy cities of southern Italy offered a tempting prize to Roman +greed. Before long many of them received Roman garrisons and accepted the +rule of the great Latin republic. Tarentum, [26] however, the most +important of the Greek colonies, held jealously to her independence. +Unable single-handed to face the Romans, Tarentum turned to Greece for +aid. She called on Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, the finest soldier of his age. +Pyrrhus led twenty-five thousand mercenary soldiers into Italy, an army +almost as large as Alexander's. The Romans could not break the bristling +ranks of the Greek phalanx, and they shrank back in terror before the huge +war elephants which Pyrrhus had brought with him. The invader won the +first battle, but lost many of his best troops. He then offered peace on +condition that the Romans should give up their possessions in southern +Italy. The Senate returned the proud reply that Rome would not treat with +the enemy while he stood on Italian soil. A second battle was so bitterly +contested that Pyrrhus declared, "Another such victory, and I am lost." +[27] Weary of the struggle, Pyrrhus now crossed over to Sicily to aid his +countrymen against the Carthaginians. The rapid progress of the Roman arms +called him back, only to meet a severe defeat. Pyrrhus then withdrew in +disgust to Greece; Tarentum fell; and Rome established her rule over +southern Italy. + +POLITICAL SITUATION IN 264 B.C. + +The triumph over Pyrrhus and the conquest of Magna Graecia mark a decisive +moment in the history of Rome. Had Pyrrhus won Italy, as well as Asia and +Egypt, might have become a Greek land, ruled by Hellenistic kings. Now it +was clear that Rome, having met the invader so bravely, was to remain +supreme in the Italian peninsula. She was the undisputed mistress of Italy +from the strait of Messina northward to the Arnus and the Rubicon. +Etruscans, Latins, Samnites, and Greeks acknowledged her sway. The central +city of the peninsula had become the center of a united Italy. [28] + +[Illustration: Map, THE EXPANSION of ROMAN DOMINIONS in ITALY, 500-264 +B.C.] + + +54. ITALY UNDER ROMAN RULE + +THE ROMAN CITIZENS + +Italy did not form a single state under Roman rule. About one-third of +Italy composed the strictly Roman territory occupied by Roman citizens. +Since ancient Rome knew nothing of the great principle of representative +government, [29] it was necessary that citizens who wished to vote or to +stand for office should visit in person the capital city. Few men, of +course, would journey many miles to Rome in order to exercise their +political rights. The elections, moreover, were not all held on one day, +as with us, but consuls, praetors, and other magistrates were chosen on +different days, while meetings of the assemblies might be held at any time +of the year. A country peasant who really tried to fulfill his duties as a +citizen would have had little time for anything else. In practice, +therefore, the city populace at Rome had the controlling voice in ordinary +legislation. The Romans were never able to remedy this grave defect in +their political system. We shall see later what evils government without +representation brought in its train. + +THE ITALIANS + +Over against this body of Roman citizens were the Italian peoples. Rome +was not yet ready to grant them citizenship, but she did not treat them as +complete subjects. The Italians were called the "allies and friends" of +the Roman people. They lost the right of declaring war on one another, of +making treaties, and of coining money. Rome otherwise allowed them to +govern themselves, never calling on them for tribute and only requiring +that they should furnish soldiers for the Roman army in time of war. These +allies occupied a large part of the Italian peninsula. + +THE LATIN COLONIES + +The Romans very early began to establish what were called Latin colonies +[30] in various parts of Italy. The colonists were usually veteran +soldiers or poor plebeians colonies who wanted farms of their own. When +the list of colonists was made up, they all marched forth in military +array to lake possession of their new homes and build their city. The +Latin colonies were really offshoots of Rome and hence were always +faithful to her interests. Scattered everywhere in Italy they formed so +many permanent camps or garrisons to keep the conquered peoples in +subjection. At the same time they helped mightily in spreading the Latin +language, law, and civilization throughout the peninsula. + +ROMAN ROADS + +All the colonies were united with one another and with Rome by an +extensive system of roads. The first great road, called the Appian Way, +was made during the period of the Samnite wars. It united the city of Rome +with Capua and secured the hold of Rome on Campania. The Appian Way was +afterwards carried across the Apennines to Brundisium on the Adriatic, +whence travelers embarked for the coast of Greece. Other trunk lines were +soon built in Italy, and from them a network of smaller highways was +extended to every part of the peninsula. + +[Illustration: Map, COLONIES AND MILITARY ROADS IN ITALY] + +[Illustration: THE APPIAN WAY +A view in the neighborhood of Rome. The ancient construction of the road +and its massive paving blocks of lava have been laid bare by modern +excavations. The width of the roadway proper was only fifteen feet. The +arches, seen in the background, belong to the aqueduct built by the +emperor Claudius in 52 A.D.] + +USES OF ROMAN ROADS + +Roman roads had a military origin. Like the old Persian roads [31] they +were intended to facilitate the rapid dispatch of troops, supplies, and +official messages into every corner of Italy. Hence the roads ran, as much +as possible, in straight lines and on easy grades. Nothing was allowed to +obstruct their course. Engineers cut through or tunneled the hills, +bridged rivers and gorges, and spanned low, swampy lands with viaducts of +stone. So carefully were these roads constructed that some stretches of +them are still in good condition. These magnificent highways were free to +the public. They naturally became avenues of trade and travel and so +served to bring the Italian peoples into close touch with Rome. + +ROMANIZATION OF ITALY + +Rome thus began in Italy that wonderful process of Romanization which she +was to extend later to Spain, Gaul, and Britain. She began to make, the +Italian peoples like herself in blood, speech, customs, and manners. More +and more the Italians, under Rome's leadership, came to look upon +themselves as one people--the people who wore the gown, or _toga_, as +contrasted with the barbarous and trousers-wearing Gauls. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN LEGIONARY +From a monument of the imperial age. The soldier wears a metal helmet, a +leather doublet with shoulder-pieces, a metal-plated belt, and a sword +hanging from a strap thrown over the left shoulder. His left hand holds a +large shield, his right, a heavy javelin.] + + +55. THE ROMAN ARMY + +THE LEGION + +While the Romans were conquering Italy, they were making many improvements +in their army. All citizens between the ages of seventeen and forty-six +were liable to active service. These men were mainly landowners--hardy, +intelligent peasants--who knew how to fight and how to obey orders. An +army in the field consisted of one or more legions. A legion included +about three thousand heavy-armed footmen, twelve hundred light infantry, +and three hundred horsemen. After the conquest of Italy the states allied +with Rome had to furnish soldiers, chiefly archers and cavalry. These +auxiliaries, as they were called, were at least as numerous as +legionaries. The Romans, in carrying on war, employed not only their +citizens but also their subjects. + +METHOD OF FIGHTING + +The legion offered a sharp contrast to the unwieldy phalanx. [32] Roman +soldiers usually fought in an open order, with the heavy-armed infantry +arranged in three lines: first, the younger men; next, the more +experienced warriors; and lastly the veterans. A battle began with +skirmishing by the light troops, which moved to the front and discharged +their darts to harass the enemy. The companies of the first line next +flung their javelins at a distance of from ten to twenty paces and then, +wielding their terrible short swords, came at once to close quarters with +the foe. It was like a volley of musketry followed by a fierce bayonet +charge. If the attack proved unsuccessful, the wearied soldiers withdrew +to the rear through the gaps in the line behind. The second line now +marched forward to the attack; if it was repulsed, there was still the +third line of steady veterans for the last and decisive blow. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN STANDARD BEARER (Bonn Museum) +From a gravestone of the first century A.D. The standard consists of a +spear crowned with a wreath, below which is a crossbar bearing pendant +acorns Then follow, in order, a metal disk, Jupiter's eagle standing on a +thunderbolt, a crescent moon, an amulet, and a large tassel.] + +FORTIFIED CAMPS + +A very remarkable part of the Roman military system consisted in the use +of fortified camps. Every time the army halted, if only for a single +night, the legionaries intrenched themselves within a square inclosure. It +was protected by a ditch, an earthen mound, and a palisade of stakes. This +camp formed a little city with its streets, its four gates, a forum, and +the headquarters of the general. Behind the walls of such a fortress an +army was always at liberty to accept or decline a battle. As a proverb +said, the Romans often conquered by "sitting still." + +DISCIPLINE: REWARDS AND HONORS + +Roman soldiers lived under the strictest discipline. To their general they +owed absolute, unquestioning obedience. He could condemn them to death +without trial. The sentinel who slept on his watch, the legionary who +disobeyed an order or threw away his arms on the field of battle, might be +scourged with rods and then beheaded. The men were encouraged to deeds of +valor by various marks of distinction, which the general presented to them +in the presence of the entire army. The highest reward was the civic crown +of oak leaves, granted to one who had saved the life of a fellow-soldier +on the battle field. + +THE TRIUMPH + +The state sometimes bestowed on a victorious general the honor of a +triumph. This was a grand parade and procession in the city of Rome. First +came the magistrates and senators, wagons laden with booty, and captives +in chains. Then followed the conqueror himself, clad in a gorgeous robe +and riding in a four-horse chariot. Behind him marched the soldiers, who +sang a triumphal hymn. The long procession passed through the streets to +the Forum and mounted the Capitoline Hill. There the general laid his +laurel crown upon the knees of the statue of Jupiter, as a thank offering +for victory. Meanwhile, the captives who had just appeared in the +procession were strangled in the underground prison of the Capitol. It was +a day of mingled joy and tragedy. + +MILITARY GENIUS OF THE ROMANS + +The Romans, it has been said, were sometimes vanquished in battle, but +they were always victorious in war. With the short swords of her +disciplined soldiers, her flexible legion, and her fortified camps, Rome +won dominion in Italy and began the conquest of the world. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the Roman dominions in 509 B.C.; in 338 +B.C.; in 264 B.C. + +2. Make a list of the Roman magistrates mentioned in this chapter, and of +the powers exercised by each. + +3. Give the meaning of our English words "patrician," "plebeian," +"censor," "dictator," "tribune," "augury," "auspices," and "veto." + +4. Connect the proper events with the following dates: 753 B.C.; 509 B.C.; +and 338 B.C. + +5. Why have Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica been called the "suburbs of +Italy"? + +6. "Italy and Greece may be described as standing back to back to each +other." Explain this statement. + +7. What is the origin of our names of the two months, January and March? + +8. Compare the early Roman with the early Greek religion as to (a) +likenesses; (b) differences. + +9. Why have the consuls been called "joint kings for one year"? + +10. What do you understand by "martial law"? Under what circumstances is +it sometimes declared in the United States? + +11. Compare the position of the Roman patricians with that of the Athenian +nobles before the legislation of Draco and Solon. + +12. What officers in American cities perform some of the duties of the +censors, praetors, and aediles? + +13. In the Roman and Spartan constitutions contrast: (a) consuls and +kings; (b) censors and ephors; and (c) the two senates. + +14. Compare the Roman Senate and the Senate of the United States as to +size, term of office of members, conditions of membership, procedure, +functions, and importance. + +15. How far can the phrase, "government of the people, by the people, for +the people," be applied to the Roman Republic at this period? + +16. What conditions made it easy for the Romans to conquer Magna Graecia +and difficult for them to subdue the Samnites? + +17. What is a "Pyrrhic victory"? + +18. Compare the nature of Roman rule over Italy with that of Athens over +the Delian League. + +19. Trace on the map, page 156, the Appian and Flaminian ways, noting some +of the cities along the routes and the terminal points of each road. + +20. Explain: "all roads lead to Rome." + +21. Contrast the legion and the phalanx as to arrangement, armament, and +method of fighting. + +22. "Rome seems greater than her greatest men." Comment on this statement. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter xiv, "Legends of Early +Rome." + +[2] See page 67. + +[3] See page 28. + +[4] See pages 53, 61. + +[5] Naples, the ancient Neapolis, was a colony of Cumae. See page 89. + +[6] See the map facing page 50. + +[7] The Romans believed that their city was founded in 753 B.C., from +which year all Roman dates were reckoned. + +[8] See the map, page 293. + +[9] See page 146. + +[10] Cato, _De agricultura_, I. + +[11] See page 6. + +[12] See the illustration, page 7. + +[13] Since a door (_janua_) had two sides, Janus, the door god, was +represented with the curious double face which appears on Roman coins (See +the plate facing page 134) The month of January in the Julian calendar was +named for him. + +[14] Latin _auspicium_, from _auspex_, a bird seer. + +[15] The title of the president of the pontiffs, _Pontifex Maximus_ +(Supreme Pontiff), is still that of the pope. See page 364. + +[16] See page 81. + +[17] See page 143. + +[18] See page 83. + +[19] From the Latin _patres_, "fathers." + +[20] Latin _plebs_, "the crowd." + +[21] See page 85. + +[22] See page 105. + +[23] The four letters inscribed on Roman military standards indicate the +important place held by the Senate. They are _S. P. Q. R._, standing for +_Senatus Populusque Romanus_, "The Senate and the People of Rome." + +[24] See page 129. + +[25] See page 118. + +[26] See page 89. + +[27] Plutarch, _Pyrrhus_, 21. + +[28] It should be noticed, however, that as yet Rome controlled only the +central and southern parts of what is the modern kingdom of Italy. Two +large divisions of that kingdom, which every Italian now regards as +essential to its unity, were in other hands--the Po valley and the island +of Sicily. + +[29] See page 106. + +[30] Latin colonists did not have the right of voting in the assemblies at +Rome. This privilege was enjoyed, however, by members of the "Roman" +colonies, which were planted mainly along the coast. See the map, page +156. + +[31] See page 40. + +[32] See page 116. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE GREAT AGE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, 264-31 B.C. [1] + + +56. THE RIVALS: ROME AND CARTHAGE, 264-218 B.C. + +THE PUNIC WARS + +The conquest of Italy made Rome one of the five leading states of the +Mediterranean world. In the East there were the kingdoms of Macedonia, +Syria, and Egypt, which had inherited the dominions of Alexander the +Great. In the West there were Carthage and Rome, once in friendly +alliance, but now to become the bitterest foes. Rome had scarcely reached +the headship of united Italy before she was involved in a life-and-death +struggle with this rival power. The three wars between them are known as +the Punic wars; they are the most famous contests that ancient history +records; and they ended in the complete destruction of Carthage. + +FOUNDATION OF CARTHAGE + +More than a century before the traditional date at which Rome rose upon +her seven hills, Phoenician colonists laid the foundations of a second +Tyre. The new city occupied an admirable site, for it bordered on rich +farming land and had the largest harbor of the north African coast. A +position at the junction of the eastern and western basins of the +Mediterranean gave it unsurpassed opportunities for trade. At the same +time Carthage was far enough away to be out of the reach of Persian or +Macedonian conquerors. + +COMMERCIAL EMPIRE OF CARTHAGE + +By the middle of the third century B.C. the Carthaginians had formed an +imposing commercial empire. Their African dominions included the strip of +coast from Cyrene westward to the strait of Gibraltar. Their colonies +covered the shores of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and southern Spain. The +western half of the Mediterranean had become a Carthaginian lake. + +CARTHAGINIAN CIVILIZATION + +Before the opening of the Punic wars Carthage had been much enlarged by +emigrants from Tyre, after the capture of that city by Alexander. [2] The +Phoenician colonists kept their own language, customs, and beliefs and did +not mingle with the native African peoples. Carthage in form was a +republic, but the real power lay in the hands of one hundred men, selected +from the great merchant families. It was a government by capitalists who +cared very little for the welfare of the poor freemen and slaves over whom +they ruled. The wealth of Carthage enabled her to raise huge armies of +mercenary soldiers and to build warships which in size, number, and +equipment surpassed those of any other Mediterranean state. Mistress of a +wide realm, strong both by land and sea, Carthage was now to prove herself +Rome's most dangerous foe. + +[Illustration: COLUMN OF DUILIUS (RESTORED) +The Roman admiral, Duilius, who won a great victory in 260 B.C., was +honored by a triumphal column set up in the Forum. The monument was +adorned with the brazen beaks of the captured Carthaginian vessels. Part +of the inscription, reciting the achievements of the Roman fleet, has been +preserved.] + +ORIGIN OF THE FIRST PUNIC WAR + +The First Punic War was a contest for Sicily. The Carthaginians aimed to +establish their rule over that island, which from its situation seems to +belong almost as much to Africa as to Italy. But Rome, having become +supreme in Italy, also cast envious eyes on Sicily. She believed, too, +that the Carthaginians, if they should conquer Sicily, would sooner or +later invade southern Italy. The fear for her possessions, as well as the +desire to gain new ones, led Rome to fling down the gage of battle. + +COURSE AND RESULTS OF THE WAR, 264-241 B.C. + +The contest between the two rival states began in 264 B.C. and lasted +nearly twenty-four years. The Romans overran Sicily and even made an +unsuccessful invasion of Africa, but the main struggle was on the sea. +Here at first the Romans were at a disadvantage, for they had no ships as +large and powerful as those of the Carthaginians. With characteristic +energy, however, they built several great war fleets and finally won a +complete victory over the enemy. The treaty of peace provided that +Carthage should abandon Sicily, return all prisoners without ransom, and +pay a heavy indemnity. + +THE INTERVAL OF PREPARATION, 241-218 B.C. + +Carthage, though beaten, had not been humbled. She had lost Sicily and the +commercial monopoly of the Mediterranean. But she was not ready to abandon +all hope of recovering her former supremacy. The peace amounted to no more +than an armed truce. Both parties were well aware that the real conflict +was yet to come. The war, however, was delayed for nearly a quarter of a +century. During this interval Rome strengthened her military position by +seizing the islands of Sardinia and Corsica from Carthage and by +conquering the Gauls in the Po valley. The Carthaginians, meanwhile, began +to create a new empire in Spain, whose silver mines would supply fresh +means for another contest and whose hardy tribes would furnish soldiers as +good as the Roman legionaries. + + +57. HANNIBAL AND THE GREAT PUNIC WAR, 218-201 B.C. + +BEGINNING OF THE SECOND PUNIC WAR, 218 B.C. + +The steady advance of the Carthaginian arms in Spain caused much +uneasiness in Rome and at length led that city to declare war. Carthage +herself was not unwilling for a second trial of strength. Her leading +general, Hannibal, who had been winning renown in Spain, believed that the +Carthaginians were now in a position to wage an aggressive war against +their mighty rival. And so the two great Mediterranean powers, each +confident of success, renewed the struggle for supremacy. + +HANNIBAL + +At the opening of the conflict Hannibal was not quite twenty-seven years +of age. While yet a mere child, so the story went, his father had led him +to the altar, and bade him swear by the Carthaginian gods eternal enmity +to Rome. He followed his father to Spain and there learned all the duties +of a soldier. As a master of the art of war, he ranks with Alexander the +Great. The Macedonian king conquered the world for the glory of conquest; +Hannibal, burning with patriotism, fought to destroy the power which had +humbled his native land. He failed; and his failure left Carthage weaker +than he found her. Few men have possessed a more dazzling genius than +Hannibal, but his genius was not employed for the lasting good of +humanity. + +HANNIBAL'S INVASION OF ITALY + +The Romans planned to conduct the war in Spain and Africa, at a distance +from their own shores. Hannibal's bold movements totally upset these +calculations. The Carthaginian general had determined that the conflict +should take place in the Italian peninsula itself. Since Roman fleets now +controlled the Mediterranean, it was necessary for Hannibal to lead his +army, with its supplies, equipment, and beasts of burden, by the long and +dangerous land route from Spain to Italy. In the summer of 218 B.C. +Hannibal set out from Spain with a large force of infantry and cavalry, +besides a number of elephants. Beyond the river Ebro he found himself in +hostile territory, through which the soldiers had to fight their way. To +force the passage of the Pyrenees and the Alps cost him more than half his +original army. When, after a five months' march he stood on the soil of +Italy, Hannibal had scarcely twenty-five thousand troops with which to +meet the immense power of Rome--a power that, given time, could muster to +her defense more than half a million disciplined soldiers. + +FIRST VICTORIES OF HANNIBAL + +The Romans were surprised by the boldness and rapidity of Hannibal's +movements. They had expected to conduct the war far away in foreign lands; +they now knew that they must fight for their own homes and firesides. The +first battles were complete victories for the Carthaginians and opened the +road to Rome. Hannibal's plans, however, did not include a siege of the +capital. He would not shatter his victorious army in an assault on a +fortified town. Hannibal's real object was to bring the Italians over to +his side, to ruin Rome through the revolts of her allies. But now he +learned, apparently for the first time, that Italy was studded with Latin +colonies, [3] each a miniature Rome, each prepared to resist to the bitter +end. Not a single city opened its gates to the invader. On such solid +foundations rested Roman rule in Italy. + +A DICTATORSHIP + +The Senate faced the crisis with characteristic energy. New forces were +raised and intrusted to a dictator, [4] Quintus Fabius Maximus. He refused +to meet Hannibal in a pitched battle, but followed doggedly his enemy's +footsteps, meanwhile drilling his soldiers to become a match for the +Carthaginian veterans. This strategy was little to the taste of the Roman +populace, who nicknamed Fabius _Cunctator_, "the Laggard." However, it +gave Rome a brief breathing space, until her preparations to crush the +invader should be completed. + +[Illustration: A CARTHAGINAN OR ROMAN HELMET (British Museum, London) +Found on the battle field of Cannae.] + +BATTLE OF CANNAE, 316 B.C. + +After the term of Fabius as dictator had expired, new consuls were chosen. +They commanded the largest army Rome had ever put in the field. The +opposing forces met at Cannae in Apulia. The Carthaginians numbered less +than fifty thousand men; the Romans had more than eighty thousand troops. +Hannibal's sole superiority lay in his cavalry, which was posted on the +wings with the infantry occupying the space between. Hannibal's center was +weak and gave way before the Romans, who fought this time massed in solid +columns. The arrangement was a poor one, for it destroyed the mobility of +the legions. The Roman soldiers, having pierced the enemy's lines, now +found themselves exposed on both flanks to the African infantry and taken +in the rear by Hannibal's splendid cavalry. The battle ended in a hideous +butchery. One of the consuls died fighting bravely to the last; the other +escaped from the field and with the wreck of his army fled to Rome. A +Punic commander who survived such a disaster would have perished on the +cross; the Roman commander received the thanks of the Senate "for not +despairing of the republic." [5] + +AFTER CANNAE + +The battle of Cannae marks the summit of Hannibal's career. He maintained +himself in Italy for thirteen years thereafter, but the Romans, taught by +bitter experience, refused another engagement with their foe. Hannibal's +army was too small and too poorly equipped with siege engines for a +successful attack on Rome. His brother, Hasdrubal, led strong +reinforcements from Spain to Italy, but these were caught and destroyed +before they could effect a junction with Hannibal's troops. Meanwhile the +brilliant Roman commander, Publius Scipio, drove the Carthaginians from +Spain and invaded Africa. Hannibal was summoned from Italy to face this +new adversary. He came, and on the field of Zama (202 B.C.) met his first +and only defeat. Scipio, the victor, received the proud surname, +_Africanus_. + +PEACE IN 201 B.C. + +Exhausted Carthage could now do no more than sue for peace on any terms +that Rome was willing to grant. In the hour of defeat she still trusted +her mighty soldier, and it was Hannibal who conducted the final +negotiations. The conditions of peace were severe enough. The +Carthaginians gave up Spain and all their ships except ten triremes. They +were saddled with a huge indemnity and bound to engage in no war without +the consent of Rome. Carthage thus became a dependent ally of the Roman +city. + +VICTORIOUS ROME + +In describing the course and outcome of the Second Punic War our +sympathies naturally go out to the heroic figure of Hannibal, who fought +so long and so bravely for his native land. It is clear, however, that +Rome's victory in the gigantic struggle was essential to the continued +progress of classical civilization. The triumph of Carthage in the third +century, like that of Persia in the fifth century, [6] must have resulted +in the spread of Oriental ideas and customs throughout the Mediterranean. +From this fate Rome saved Europe. + + +58. ROMAN SUPREMACY IN THE WEST AND IN THE EAST, 201-133 B.C. + +THIRD PUNIC WAR BEGUN, 148 B.C. + +Carthage had been humbled, but not destroyed. She still enjoyed the +advantages of her magnificent situation and continued to be a competitor +of Rome for the trade of the Mediterranean. The Romans watched with +jealousy the reviving strength of the Punic city and at last determined to +blot it out of existence. In 149 B.C. a large army was landed in Africa, +and the inhabitants of Carthage were ordered to remove ten miles from the +sea. They resolved to perish in the ruins of their capital, rather than +obey such a cruel command. + +[Illustration: A TESTUDO +A relief from the Column of Trajan, Rome. The name _testudo_ a tortoise +(shell) was applied to the covering made by a body of soldiers who placed +their shields over their heads The shields fitted so closely together that +men could walk on them and even horses and chariots could be driven over +them.] + +[Illustration: Map, THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINIONS 264-133 B. C.] + +DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE, 146 B.C. + +Carthage held out for three years. The doubtful honor of its capture +belonged to Scipio Aemilianus, grandson, by adoption, of the victor of +Zama. For seven days the legionaries fought their way, street by street, +house by house, until only fifty thousand inhabitants were left to +surrender to the tender mercies of the Romans. The Senate ordered that the +city should be burned and that its site should be plowed up and dedicated +to the infernal gods. Such was the end of the most formidable rival Rome +ever met in her career of conquest. [7] + +SICILY + +The two European countries, Sicily and Spain, which Rome had taken from +Carthage, presented to the conqueror very different problems. Sicily had +been long accustomed to foreign masters. Its civilized and peace-loving +inhabitants were as ready to accept Roman rule as, in the past, they had +accepted the rule of Greeks and Carthaginians. Every year the island +became more and more a part of Italy and of Rome. + +SPAIN + +Spain, on the contrary, gave the Romans some hard fighting. The wild +Spanish tribes loved their liberty, and in their mountain fastnesses long +kept up a desperate struggle for independence. It was not until the Romans +sent Scipio Aemilianus to Spain that the Spanish resistance was finally +overcome (133 B.C.). + +ROMANIZATION OF SPAIN + +All Spain, except the inaccessible mountain district in the northwest, now +became Roman territory. Many colonists settled there; traders and +speculators flocked to seaports; even the legionaries, quartered in Spain +for long periods, married Spanish wives and, on retiring from active +service, made their homes in the peninsula. Rome thus continued in Spain +the process of Romanization which she had begun in Italy. [8] She was to +repeat this process in Gaul and Britain. [9] Her way was prepared by the +sword; but after the sword came civilization. + +ROME AND MACEDONIA + +While Rome was subduing the West, she was also extending her influence +over the highly civilized peoples of the East. Roman interference in the +affairs of Macedonia found an excuse in the attempt of that country, +during the Second Punic War, to give aid to Hannibal. It was a fateful +moment when, for the second time, the legion faced the phalanx. The easy +victory over Macedonia showed that this Hellenistic kingdom was no match +for the Italian republic. Macedonia was finally made into a subject state +or province of Rome. Thus disappeared a great power, which Philip had +founded and which Alexander had led to the conquest of the world. + +[Illustration: STORMING A CITY (RECONSTRUCTION)] + +ROME AND GREECE + +Having subdued Macedonia, Rome proclaimed Greece a free state. But this +"freedom" really meant subjection, as was amply proved when some of the +Greek cities rose in revolt against Roman domination. The heavy hand of +Roman vengeance especially descended on Corinth, at this time one of the +most beautiful cities of the world. In 146 B.C., the same year in which +the destruction of Carthage occurred, Corinth was sacked and burned to the +ground. [10] The fall of Corinth may be said to mark the final extinction +of Greek liberty. Though the Hellenic cities and states were allowed to +rule themselves, they paid tribute and thus acknowledged the supremacy of +Rome. A century later, Greece became in name, as well as in fact, a +province of the Roman Empire. [11] + +ROME AND SYRIA + +Rome, in the meantime, was drawn into a conflict with the kingdom of +Syria. That Asiatic power proved to be no more capable than Macedonia of +checking the Roman advance. The Syrian king had to give up the greater +part of his possessions in Asia Minor. The western part of the peninsula, +together with the Greek cities on the coast, was formed in 133 B.C. into +the province of Asia. Thus the same year that witnessed the complete +establishment of Roman rule in Spain saw Rome gain her first possessions +at the opposite end of the Mediterranean. + +POLITICAL SITUATION IN 133 B.C. + +Roman supremacy over the Mediterranean world was now all but complete. In +264 B.C. Rome had been only one of the five great Mediterranean states. In +133 B.C. no other power existed to match its strength with that of Rome. +To her had fallen in the West the heritage of Carthage, in the East the +heritage of Alexander. Rome had built up this mighty empire at a terrible +cost in blood and treasure. Let us see what use she was to make of it. + + +59. THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD UNDER ROMAN RULE + +CREATION OF THE PROVINCIAL SYSTEM + +Rome's dealings with the new dependencies across the sea did not follow +the methods that had proved so successful in Italy. The Italian peoples +had been treated with great liberality. Rome regarded them as allies, +exempted them from certain taxes, and in many instances gave them Roman +citizenship. It did not seem possible to extend this wise policy to remote +and often barbarous lands beyond the borders of Italy. Rome adopted, +instead, much the same system of imperial rule that had been previously +followed by Persia and by Athens. [12] She treated the foreign peoples +from Spain to Asia as subjects and made her conquered territories into +provinces. [13] Their inhabitants were compelled to pay tribute and to +accept the oversight of Roman officials. + +EVILS OF THE PROVINCIAL SYSTEM + +As the Romans came more and more to relish the opportunities for plunder +afforded by a wealthy province, its inhabitants were often wretchedly +misgoverned. Many governors of the conquered lands were corrupt and +grasping men. They tried to wring all the money they could from their +helpless subjects. To the extortions of the governors must be added those +of the tax collectors, whose very name of "publican" [14] became a byword +for all that was rapacious and greedy. In this first effort to manage the +world she had won, Rome had certainly made a failure. A city-state could +not rule, with justice and efficiency, an empire. + +THE PROFITS OF CONQUEST + +In the old days, before Rome entered on a career of foreign conquest, her +citizens were famous among men for their love of country, their simple +lives, and their conservative, old-fashioned ways. They worked hard on +their little farms, fought bravely in the legions, and kept up with +careful piety all the ceremonies of their religion. But now the Roman +republic was an imperial power with all the privileges of universal rule. +Her foreign wars proved to be immensely profitable. At the end of a +successful campaign the soldiers received large gifts from their general, +besides the booty taken from the enemy. The Roman state itself profited +from the sale of enslaved prisoners and their property. Large sums of +money were sometimes seized and taken to Rome. When once peace had been +made, the Roman governors and tax collectors followed in the wake of the +armies and squeezed the provincials at every turn. The Romans, indeed, +seem to have conquered the world less for glory than for profit. + +GROWTH OF LUXURY + +So much wealth poured into Rome from every side that there could scarcely +fail to be a sudden growth of luxurious tastes. Rich nobles quickly +developed a relish for all sorts of reckless display. They built fine +houses adorned with statues, costly paintings, and furnishings. They +surrounded themselves with troops of slaves. Instead of plain linen +clothes they and their wives wore garments of silk and gold. At their +banquets they spread embroidered carpets, purple coverings, and dishes of +gilt plate. Pomp and splendor replaced the rude simplicity of an earlier +age. + +DISAPPEARANCE OF THE PEASANTRY + +But if the rich were becoming richer, it seems that the poor were also +becoming poorer. After Rome became mistress of the Mediterranean, her +markets were flooded with the cheap wheat raised in the provinces, +especially in those granaries, Sicily and Africa. The price of wheat fell +so low that Roman peasants could not raise enough to support their +families and pay their taxes. When agriculture became unprofitable, the +farmer was no longer able to remain on the soil. He had to sell out, often +at a ruinous sacrifice. His land was bought by capitalists, who turned +many small fields into vast sheep pastures and cattle ranches. Gangs of +slaves, laboring under the lash, gradually took the place of the old Roman +peasantry, the very strength of the state. Not unjust was the famous +remark, "Great domains ruined Italy." [15] + +THE EXODUS OF THE CITIES + +The decline of agriculture and the disappearance of the small farmer under +the stress of foreign competition may be studied in modern England as well +as in ancient Italy. Nowadays an English farmer, under the same +circumstances, will often emigrate to America or to Australia, where land +is cheap and it is easy to make a living. But these Roman peasants did not +care to go abroad and settle on better soil in Spain or in Africa. They +thronged, instead, to the cities, to Rome especially, where they labored +for a small wage, fared plainly on wheat bread, and dwelt in huge lodging +houses, three or four stories high. + +THE CITY MOB + +We know very little about this poorer population of Rome. They must have +lived from hand to mouth. Since their votes controlled elections, [16] +they were courted by candidates for office and kept from grumbling by +being fed and amused. Such poor citizens, too lazy for steady work, too +intelligent to starve, formed, with the other riffraff of a great city, +the elements of a dangerous mob. And the mob, henceforth, plays an ever- +larger part in the history of the times. + +HELLENIC INFLUENCE AT ROME + +We must not imagine, however, that all the changes in Roman life worked +for evil. If the Romans were becoming more luxurious, they were likewise +gaining in culture. The conquests which brought Rome in touch, first with +Magna Graecia and Sicily, then with Greece itself and the Hellenic East, +prepared the way for the entrance of Hellenism. Roman soldiers and traders +carried back to Italy an acquaintance with Greek customs and ideas. +Thousands of cultivated Greeks, some as slaves, others as freemen, settled +in the capital as actors, physicians, artists, and writers. There they +introduced the Greek language, as well as the religion, literature, and +art of their native land. Roman nobles of the better type began to take an +interest in other things than simply farming, commerce, or war. They +imitated Greek fashions in dress and manners, collected Greek books, and +filled their homes with the productions of Greek artists. Henceforth every +aspect of Roman society felt the quickening influence of the older, richer +culture of the Hellenic world. It was a Roman poet who wrote, "Captive +Greece captured her conqueror rude." [17] + + +60. THE GRACCHI + +TIBERIUS AND GAIUS GRACCHUS + +In 133 B.C., a year otherwise made memorable by the final subjugation of +Spain and the acquisition of Asia, efforts began Rome to remedy some of +the disorders which were now seen to be sapping the strength of Roman +society. The first persons to undertake the work of reform were the two +brothers, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. The Gracchi belonged to the highest +nobility of Rome. Their father had filled a consulship and a censorship +and had celebrated triumphs. Cornelia, their mother, was a daughter of +Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal. A fine type of the Roman +matron, she called her boys her "jewels," more precious than gold, and +brought them up to love their country better than their own lives. +Tiberius, the elder brother, was only thirty years of age when he became a +tribune and began his career in Roman politics. + +AGRARIAN LAW OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS + +Tiberius signalized his election to the tribunate by bringing forward his +celebrated agrarian law. He proposed that the public lands of Rome, then +largely occupied by wealthy men who alone had the money necessary to work +them with cattle and slaves, should be reclaimed by the state, divided +into small tracts, and given to the poorer citizens. By getting the people +back again on the soil, Tiberius hoped to revive the declining agriculture +of Italy. + +DEFECTS OF THE AGRARIAN LAW + +This agrarian law, though well intentioned, did not go to the root of the +real difficulty--foreign competition. No legislation could have helped the +farming class, except import duties to keep out the cheap grain from +abroad. But the idle mob at Rome, controlling the assemblies, would never +have voted in favor of taxing their food, thus making it more expensive. +At the same time the proposal to take away part of the public domains from +its possessors roused a hornet's nest about the reformer's ears. Rich +people had occupied the public land for so long that they had come to look +upon it as really their own. They would be very sure to oppose such a +measure. Poor people, of course, welcomed a scheme which promised to give +them farms for nothing. Tiberius even wished to use the public funds to +stock the farms of his new peasantry. This would have been a mischievous +act of state philanthropy. + +FAILURE AND DEATH OF TIBERIUS, 133 B.C. + +In spite of these defects in his measure, Tiberius urged its passage with +fiery eloquence. But the great landowners in the Senate got another +tribune, devoted to their interests, to place his veto [18] on the +proposed legislation. The impatient Tiberius at once took a revolutionary +step. Though a magistrate could not legally be removed from office, +Tiberius had the offending tribune deposed and dragged from his seat. The +law was then passed without further opposition. This action of Tiberius +placed him clearly in the wrong. The aristocrats threatened to punish him +as soon as his term of office was over. To avoid impeachment Tiberius +sought reelection to the tribunate for the following year. This, again, +was contrary to custom, since no one might hold office for two successive +terms. On the day appointed for the election, while voting was in +progress, a crowd of angry senators burst into the Forum and killed +Tiberius, together with three hundred of his followers. Both sides had now +begun to display an utter disregard for law. Force and bloodshed, +henceforth, were to help decide political disputes. + +GAIUS GRACCHUS BECOMES TRIBUNE, 123 B.C. + +Tiberius Gracchus, in his efforts to secure economic reform, had +unwittingly provoked a conflict between the Senate and the assemblies. Ten +years after his death, his brother, Gaius Gracchus, came to the front. +Gaius quickly made himself a popular leader with the set purpose of +remodeling the government of Rome. He found in the tribunate an office +from which to work against the Senate. After the death of Tiberius a law +had been passed permitting a man to hold the position of tribune year +after year. Gaius intended to be a sort of perpetual tribune, and to rule +the Roman assemblies very much as Pericles had ruled the people at Athens. +[19] One of his first measures was a law permitting the sale of grain from +the public storehouses to Roman citizens at about half the market price. +This measure, of course, won over the city mob, but it must be regarded as +very unwise. It saddled the treasury with a heavy burden, and later the +government had to furnish the grain for nothing. Indiscriminate charity of +this sort increased, rather than lessened, the number of paupers. + +MEASURES OF GAIUS TO RELIEVE THE POOR + +Having won popular support, Gaius was able to secure the additional +legislation which he deemed necessary to carry out his brother's work. He +reenacted the land laws for the benefit of the peasantry and furnished +work for the unemployed by building roads throughout Italy. He also began +to establish colonies of poor citizens, both in Italy and in the +provinces. This was a wise policy. Had it been allowed to continue, such +state-assisted emigration, by providing the landless poor of Italy with +farms abroad, would have relieved the economic distress of the peninsula. + +AN EFFORT TO EXTEND ROMAN CITIZENSHIP + +Gaius now came forward with another measure which marked him as an able +and prudent statesman. He proposed to bestow the right of voting in the +Roman assemblies upon the inhabitants of the Latin colonies. [20] He +thought, also, that the Italian allies should be allowed to intermarry +with Romans and hold property under the protection of the Roman law. No +doubt Gaius believed that the time might come when all the Italian peoples +would be citizens of Rome. This time did come, thirty years later, but +only after a terrible war that nearly ruined Rome. + +FAILURE AND DEATH OF GAIUS, 121 B.C. + +The effort by Gaius to extend Roman citizenship cost the reformer all his +hard-won popularity. It aroused the jealousy of the selfish city mob, +which believed that the entrance of so many new citizens would mean the +loss of its privileges. There would not be so many free shows and so much +cheap grain. So the people rejected the measure and, turning from their +former favorite, failed to reëlect him to the tribunate. When Gaius was no +longer protected by the sanctity of the tribune's office, [21] he fell an +easy victim to senatorial hatred. Another bloody tumult broke out, in +which Gaius and three thousand of his followers perished. The consul who +quelled the disturbance erected at the head of the Forum a temple to +Harmony (_Concordia_). + +THE GRACCHI BEGIN THE REVOLUTION + +The pathetic career of the Gracchi had much significance in Roman history. +They were the unconscious sponsors of a revolutionary movement which did +not end until the republic had come under the rule of one man. They failed +because they put their trust in the support of the Roman mob. Future +agitators were to appear with the legionaries at their heels. + + +61. MARIUS AND SULLA + +MARIUS AND THE JUGURTHINE WAR, 112-106 B.C. + +Although Rome now ruled throughout the Mediterranean, she was constantly +engaged in border wars in one corner or another of her wide dominions. +These wars brought to the front new military leaders, of whom the first +was Gaius Marius. He was a peasant's son, a coarse, rude soldier, but an +honest, courageous, and able man. Marius rose to prominence in the so- +called Jugurthine War, which the Romans were waging against Jugurtha, king +of Numidia. That wily African had discovered that it was easier to bribe +the Roman commanders than to fight them; and the contest dragged on in +disgraceful fashion year after year. Marius at last persuaded the people +to elect him consul and intrust him with the conduct of the war. By +generalship and good fortune he speedily concluded the struggle and +brought Jugurtha in chains to Rome. + +MARIUS AND THE WAR WITH THE GERMANS, 102-101 B.C. + +A few years later Marius had another opportunity to win distinction. He +became the defender of Rome and Italy against a dangerous invasion of +Germanic barbarians, who were ravaging Transalpine Gaul and the Po Valley. +The decisive victories which Marius gained over them removed a grave +danger which threatened the Roman world. The time had not yet come for +ancient civilization to be submerged under a wave of barbarism. + +SULLA AND THE SOCIAL WAR, 90-88 B.C. + +The second military leader whom this troubled period brought forth was +Lucius Cornelius Sulla. He was a man of noble birth, and with his social +gifts, his appreciation of art and letters, his knowledge of men and the +world, presented a sharp contrast to Marius. Sulla's great abilities +quickly brought him into public notice; he rose rapidly from one office to +another; and in the Social War showed his skill as a commander. This +struggle was the consequence of Rome's refusal to grant the rights of +citizenship to her Italian allies. The strength of the rebellion lay among +the Samnites and other peoples of central and southern Italy. The war came +to an end only when Rome promised the franchise to all Italians who +returned to their allegiance. Before many years had passed, the +inhabitants of nearly all the Italian towns south of the Rubicon River +received Roman citizenship. It was this same wise policy of making +conquered peoples equal with herself that afterwards led Rome to grant +citizenship to the inhabitants of the provinces. [22] + +SULLA AND THE MITHRADATIC WAR, 88-84 B.C. + +What military honors were gained in the struggle belonged to Sulla. His +reward was the consulship and an appointment as general in still another +conflict which distracted Rome had to face. While that city had been busy +with civil enemies and barbarian foes, a powerful state, known as Pontus, +had been growing up in Asia Minor. Its king, Mithradates, overran the +Roman provinces in the Orient and threatened to annex them to his own +kingdom. But Sulla, with greatly inferior forces, compelled Mithradates to +abandon his conquests, surrender his fleet, and pay a large indemnity. If +Marius had the honor of repelling the barbarian invasion of the West, +Sulla had the honor of preserving Rome's possessions in the East. + +RIVALRY OF MARIUS AND SULLA + +Marius and Sulla were rivals not only in war but also in politics. Sulla +naturally espoused the aristocratic cause and stood as the champion of the +Senate. Marius just as naturally became the head of the democratic party. +The rivalry between the two leaders finally led to civil war. During +Sulla's absence in the East the democrats got the upper hand at Rome and +revenged themselves by murdering their political foes among the +aristocrats. The reign of terror ended only with the sudden death of +Marius, just after he had been elected to his seventh consulship. A few +years later Sulla returned to Italy with his army and defeated the +democrats in a great battle outside the Colline Gate of Rome. Sulla +signalized his victory by ordering the assassination of every prominent +man in the democratic party. + +SULLA AS "PERPETUAL DICTATOR" + +Sulla regarded this legalized butchery as a necessary step in his self- +appointed task of putting the Roman government once more to rights. He now +received the title of "Perpetual Dictator," with complete authority to +govern the state until the new order of things should be established. Rome +thus came under the rule of one man for the first time since the expulsion +of the kings. + +SULLA'S DEATH, 78 B.C. + +The various measures by which Sulla intrenched the Senate in power did not +long survive his death and hence had no lasting influence on Roman +politics. After a rule of three years Sulla voluntarily gave up the +dictatorship and retired to his villa on the bay of Naples. He died a few +months later. The Senate honored him with a public funeral, the most +splendid that Rome had ever seen. His monument bore an inscription which +the dictator himself is said to have composed: "No friend ever did him a +kindness and no enemy, a wrong, without being fully repaid." [23] That was +one epitaph which told the truth. + + +62. POMPEY AND CAESAR + +RISE OF POMPEY + +The struggle between Marius and Sulla, decided as it was by the sword, +marks a stage in the decline of the Roman Republic. The careers of these +two men showed how easily the state could be ruled by a successful +commander who had his soldiers behind him. After Sulla's death his friend +Pompey became the leading figure in Roman politics. Pompey's first service +was in Spain, where the adherents of Marius sought to humble the Senate +and the aristocratic party by encouraging the Spaniards to rise against +Roman rule. Having crushed this rebellion, Pompey returned to Italy in +time to take part in putting down a formidable insurrection of slaves, +outlaws, and ruined peasants. He was next intrusted with the war against +the pirates, who swarmed in the Mediterranean, preyed on commerce, and +plundered wealthy cities near the coast. Brilliant success in clearing the +seas of these marauders led to his being sent to the East to end the war +with Mithradates, who was once more in arms against Rome. Pompey drove the +Pontic monarch from his kingdom and then annexed Syria to the Roman +dominions. When Pompey returned to Rome in 62 B.C., he brought with him a +reputation as the most successful general of his time. + +[Illustration: GNAEUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS (Spada Palace, Rome)] + +MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO + +We have seen how steadily since the days of the Gracchi the Roman state +had been moving toward the rule of one man. Marius, Sulla, and Pompey each +represent a step in the direction of monarchy. Yet there were still able +and patriotic leaders at Rome who believed in the old order of things and +tried their best to uphold the fast-perishing republic. No republican +statesman was more devoted to the constitution than Cicero. A native of +Arpinum, the same Italian town which had already given birth to Marius, +Cicero came to Rome a youth without wealth or family influence. He made +his way into Roman society by his social and conversational powers and by +his capacity for friendship. His mind had been carefully trained under the +influence of Hellenic culture; he had traveled and studied in Greece; and +throughout life he loved to steal away from the tumult of the Forum and +the law courts and enjoy the companionship of his books. Though the proud +nobles were inclined to look down on him as a "new man," Cicero's splendid +eloquence soon gave him prominence in politics. He ranks in fame as the +second orator of antiquity, inferior only to Demosthenes. + +[Illustration: MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (Vatican Museum, Rome)] + +IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES, 70 B.C. + +Cicero rose to prominence through his prosecution of Verres, a thieving +governor of Sicily. Verres had powerful friends among the nobles at Rome +and counted on his influence and wealth to escape punishment. He openly +boasted that he had plunder enough to live in luxury, even though he had +to surrender two-thirds of it as fees to his lawyers and bribes to the +jury. But Verres had not reckoned with the brilliant young advocate who +took up the cause of the oppressed provincials. Cicero hurried to Sicily +and there collected such an overwhelming mass of evidence that the bare +statement of the facts was enough to condemn the criminal. Verres went +into exile. Cicero became the head of the Roman bar. Seven years later he +was elected consul. + +CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE, 63 B.C. + +The year of Cicero's consulship was marked by an event which throws a +lurid light on the conditions of the time. Lucius Catiline, a young noble +of ability, but bankrupt in character and purse, organized a conspiracy to +seize Rome, murder the magistrates, and plunder the rich. He gathered +about himself outlaws of every description, slaves, and starving peasants +--all the discontented and needy classes throughout Italy. He and his +associates were desperate anarchists who sought to restore their own +broken fortunes by overturning the government. The spread of the +insurrection was checked by Cicero's vigorous measures. In a series of +famous speeches he exposed Catiline's plans to the astounded Senate. +Catiline then fled to his camp in Etruria and shortly afterwards perished +in battle, together with three thousand of his followers. Cicero now +gained fresh popularity and honor. The grateful citizens called him +"Father of his Country" (_Pater Patriae_). + +RISE OF CAESAR + +Rome at this time held another prominent leader in politics, namely, Gaius +Julius Caesar. He belonged to a noble family, but his father had favored +the democratic cause and his aunt had married Marius. After Sulla's death +Caesar threw himself with energy into the game of politics at the capital +city. In these early years the future statesman seems to have been a +demagogue of the usual type, who sought through the favor of the people a +rapid rise to power. He won the ear of the multitude by his fiery +harangues, his bribes of money, and his gifts of food and public shows. +Caesar's expenditures for such purposes were enormous. Before he was +twenty-four he had spent all his private fortune. Henceforth he was +"financed" by the millionaire Crassus, who lent him the money so necessary +for a successful career as a politician. + +THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE, 60 B.C. + +Caesar and Crassus, the two leaders of the democratic party at Rome, now +joined with Pompey in what is called the First Triumvirate. To this "ring" +Pompey contributed his military reputation, Crassus, his wealth, and +Caesar, his influence over the Roman mob. Supported both by the people and +by the army, these three men were really masters of Rome. An immediate +result of the First Triumvirate was the appointment of Caesar as governor +of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul. + +[Illustration: GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR (British Museum, London)] + +CAESAR'S CAMPAIGNS IN GAUL, 58-50 B.C. + +The story of his career in Gaul has been related by Caesar himself in the +famous _Commentaries_. This book describes a series of military successes +which have given the author a place among the world's generals. Caesar +overran Transalpine Gaul, twice bridged the Rhine and invaded Germany, +made two expeditions to Britain, and brought within the Roman dominions +all the territory bounded by the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Rhine, and the +Atlantic Ocean. + +ROMANIZATION OF GAUL + +Caesar's conquests in Gaul are more than a chapter in the history of the +art of war. They belong to the history of civilization. Henceforth the +frontier of prehistoric Europe retreated rapidly to the north. The map of +the ancient civilized world widened from the Mediterranean basin to the +shores of the Atlantic. Into the conquered lands came the Latin language, +the Roman law, and the customs and institutions of Rome. Gaul speedily +became one of the most flourishing parts of the Roman world. "Let the Alps +sink," exclaimed Cicero, "the gods raised them to shelter Italy from the +barbarians, but now they are no longer needed." + +DEFEAT AND DEATH OF CRASSUS, 53 B.C. + +During Caesar's long absence in Gaul the First Triumvirate was suddenly +ended by the death of one of its members. It had been a part of their +bargain in dividing the Roman world that Crassus should have the +government of Syria. But this unlucky general, while aspiring to rival +Caesar's exploits by new conquests beyond the Euphrates, lost his army and +his life in battle with the Parthians. Besides checking the extension of +the Roman arms in the remote East, the disaster had its effect on Roman +politics. It dissolved the triumvirate and prepared the way for that +rivalry between Caesar and Pompey which formed the next step in the +downward course of the republic. + +GROWING OPPOSITION BETWEEN POMPEY AND CAESAR + +The two men were now rapidly drawing apart. Pompey grew more and more +jealous of Caesar and more and more fearful that the latter was aiming at +despotic power. He himself had no desire to be king or dictator. He was +equally determined that Caesar should not gain such a position. In this +attitude he had the full support of Cicero and the other members of the +Senate. They saw clearly that the real danger to the state was Caesar, not +Pompey. + +CAESAR DECLARES WAR IN THE REPUBLIC, 49 B.C. + +Caesar's command in Gaul was to expire in 49 B.C. The senatorial party +desired that he should return to Rome without an army. His opponents +intended to prosecute him when he became a private citizen. Caesar had no +inclination to trust himself to their tender mercies and refused to +disband his legions unless his rival did the same. Finally the Senate, +conscious of Pompey's support, ordered him to lay down his arms on pain of +outlawry. Caesar replied to this challenge of the Senate by leading his +troops across the Rubicon, the little stream that separated Cisalpine Gaul +from Italy. As he plunged into the river, he exclaimed, "The die is cast." +[24] He had now declared war on the republic. + +CAESAR MASTER OF THE WEST + +Caesar's bold movement caught the senatorial party unawares. Pompey could +not gather his legions before his audacious foe reached Rome. Finding it +impossible to make a stand in Italy, Pompey, with the consuls and many +senators, withdrew to Greece. Caesar did not follow him at once. He +hurried to Spain and, after a brilliant campaign only six weeks in length, +broke down the republican resistance in that peninsula. Having now secured +Italy and Spain, Caesar was free to turn his forces against Pompey in the +East. + +[Illustration: Map, THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINIONS 133-31 B.C.] + +BATTLE OF PHARSALUS, 48 B.C. + +The final battle took place on the plain of Pharsalus in Thessaly. +Pompey's troops, though nearly twice as numerous as Caesar's, were +defeated after a severe struggle. Their great leader then fled to Egypt, +only to be foully murdered. Pompey's head was sent to Caesar, but he +turned from it with horror. Such was the end of an able general and an +honest man, one who should have lived two hundred years earlier, when Rome +was still a free state. + +CAESAR IN EGYPT, ASIA MINOR, AND AFRICA, 48-46 B.C. + +After Pharsalus there still remained several years of fighting before +Caesar's victory was complete. He made Cleopatra, the beautiful queen of +Egypt, secure in the possession of the throne and brought that country +into dependence on Rome. He passed through Asia Minor and in one swift +campaign crushed a revolt headed by the son of Mithridates. The conqueror +sent tidings of his victory in a laconic dispatch: "I came, I saw, I +conquered." [25] After subduing the remnants of the senatorial party in +Africa, Caesar returned home to crown his exploits by a series of splendid +triumphs and to enjoy less than two years of untrammeled power. + + +63. THE WORK OF CAESAR + +AUTHORITY AND POSITION OF CAESAR + +The new government which Caesar brought into being was a monarchy in all +except name. He became dictator for life and held other republican +offices, such as the consulship and censorship. He refused the title of +king, but accepted as a civil magistrate the name of _imperator_, [26] +with which the soldiers had been wont to salute a victorious general. +Though he abolished none of the old republican forms, the Senate became +simply his advisory council, the assemblies, his submissive agents the +consuls, praetors and tribunes, his pliant tools. The laurel wreath, the +triumphal dress, the conqueror's scepter--all proclaimed the autocrat. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN COIN WITH THE HEAD OF JULIUS CAESAR] + +CHARACTER OF CAESAR'S RULE + +Caesar used his power wisely and well. No massacres or confiscations +sullied his victory. He treated his former foes with clemency and even +with kindness. No sooner was domestic tranquillity assured than, with +restless energy, he entered on a series of far-reaching reforms. + +REFORMS AT ROME AND IN ITALY + +Caesar's measures sought to remove the economic evils which a century of +discord had made so manifest. By restricting the monthly distribution of +grain to those actually in need, he tried to discourage the public charity +which was making the capital city a paradise for the idle and the +shiftless. By planning great colonies beyond the sea, notably at Corinth +and Carthage, he sought to provide farms for the landless citizens of +Italy. His active mind even found time for such matters as the +codification of Roman law, the construction of great public works, and the +improvement of the coinage and the calendar. [27] + +REFORMATION OF THE PROVINCIAL SYSTEM + +Caesar's reforms in the provinces had an epoch-making character. He +reduced taxes, lessened the burden of their collection, and took into his +own hands the appointment of provincial magistrates. Henceforth oppressive +governors and swindling publicans had to expect swift, stern punishment +from one whose interests included the welfare of both citizens and +subjects. By granting Roman citizenship to communities in Gaul and Sicily, +he indicated his purpose, as rapidly as possible, to convert the +provincials into Romans. It was Caesar's aim to break down the barriers +between Rome and her provinces, to wipe out the distinction between the +conquerors and the conquered. + +ASSASSINATION OF CAESAR, 44 B.C. + +Caesar did not live to complete his task. Like that other colossal figure, +Alexander the Great, he perished before his work as a statesman had hardly +more than begun. On the Ides of March, 44 B.C., he was struck down in the +Senate-house by the daggers of a group of envious and irreconcilable +nobles, headed by Cassius and Brutus. He fell at the foot of Pompey's +statue, pierced with no less than twenty-three wounds. His body was burnt +on a pyre in the Forum, and his friend, Antony, pronounced the funeral +eulogy. + +CONSEQUENCES OF CAESAR'S DEATH + +In the light of all the possibilities of beneficent government which +Caesar was revealing, his cowardly murder becomes one of the most +stupendous follies recorded in history. Caesar's death could not restore +the republic. It served only to prolong disorder and strife within the +Roman state. As Cicero himself said, hearing the news, "The tyrant is +dead; the tyranny still lives." + + +64. ANTONY AND OCTAVIAN + +ANTONY BECOMES CAESAR'S SUCCESSOR + +The murderers of Caesar called themselves the "liberators" of the +republic. They thought that all Rome would applaud their deed, but the +contrary was true. The senatorial order remained lukewarm. The people, +instead of flocking to their support, mourned the loss of a friend and +benefactor. Soon the conspirators found themselves in great peril. +Caesar's friend and lieutenant, Antony, who became sole consul after +Caesar's death, quickly made himself master of the situation. Brutus and +Cassius were forced to withdraw to the provinces which had been previously +assigned to them by Caesar, leaving Antony to rule Rome as his successor. + +A RIVAL IN THE YOUNG OCTAVIAN + +Antony's hope of reigning supreme was soon disturbed by the appearance of +a new rival. Caesar, in his will, had made his grandnephew, Octavian, [28] +his heir. He now came to Rome to claim the inheritance. In that sickly, +studious youth people did not at first recognize the masterful personality +he was soon to exhibit. They rather reëchoed Cicero's sentiment that "the +young man was to be praised, complimented, and got rid of." [29] But +Octavian easily made himself a power, winning the populace by paying +Caesar's legacies to them and conciliating the senatorial party by siding +with it against Antony. Men now began to talk of Octavian as the destined +restorer of the republic. + +THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE, 43 B.C. + +Octavian, however, entertained other designs. He had never been sincere in +his support of the Senate, and the distrustful policy of that body soon +converted him into an active foe. From fighting Antony, Octavian turned to +alliance with him. The two antagonists made up their differences, and with +Lepidus, one of Caesar's lieutenants, as a third ally, marched on Rome at +the head of their legions. The city fell again under military rule. The +three men then united in the Second Triumvirate with full authority to +govern and reorganize the state. The advent of this new tyranny was +signalized by a butchery almost as bloody as Sulla's. Cicero, who had +incurred the hatred of Antony by his fiery speeches against him, was the +most illustrious victim. More than two thousand persons, mainly men of +high rank, were slain. The triumvirs by this massacre firmly established +their rule at Rome and in the West. + +BATTLES OF PHILIPPI, 42 B.C. + +In the East, where Brutus and Cassius had gathered a formidable force, the +triumvirs were not to win without a struggle. It took place on the plain +of Philippi in Macedonia. The two battles fought there ended in the +suicide of the republican leaders and the dispersal of their troops. This +was the last attempt to restore the republic by force of arms. + +DIVISION OF THE ROMAN WORLD + +Though the republic had been overthrown, it remained to be seen who would +be master of the new empire, Antony or Octavian. The triumvirate lasted +for more than ten years, but during this period the incompetent Lepidus +was set aside by his stronger colleagues. The two remaining members then +divided between them the Roman world. Octavian took Italy and the West; +Antony took the East, with Alexandria as his capital. + +OCTAVIAN IN THE WEST + +In the western half of the empire Octavian ruled quietly and with success. +Men were already congratulating themselves on the return of peace under a +second Caesar. In a few years Octavian, from an obscure boy of eighteen, +had grown to be one of the most powerful personalities of his age. + +ANTONY IN THE EAST + +In the eastern half of the empire things did not go so well. Antony was +clever, but fond of luxury and vice. He had married a sister of Octavian, +but he soon grew tired of her and put her away for the fascinating +Cleopatra. [30] The Roman world was startled by tidings that she had been +proclaimed "queen of kings," and that to her and her sons had been given +the richest provinces in the East. It was even rumored that Cleopatra, +having enslaved Antony with her charms, planned to be enthroned as queen +at Rome. + +BATTLE OF ACTIUM, 31 B.C. + +Antony's disgraceful conduct aroused the Roman people. They willingly +followed Octavian to a war against one who seemed a national enemy. A +naval battle in the bay of Actium, on the coast of Epirus, decided the +issue. The fight had hardly begun before Cleopatra and Antony sailed away, +leaving their fleet to take care of itself. Octavian pursued the +infatuated pair into Egypt. Antony committed suicide, and Cleopatra, +rather than be led a captive in a Roman triumph, followed his example. +With the death of Cleopatra the dynasty of the Ptolemies [31] came to an +end. Egypt henceforth formed a province of the Roman Empire. + +THE TRIUMPH OF OCTAVIAN + +Octavian, on his return to Rome, enjoyed the honors of a three days' +triumph. [32] As the grand parade moved along the Sacred Way through the +Forum, and thence to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline, men noted +that the magistrates, instead of heading the procession as was the custom, +followed in the conqueror's train. It was a significant change. Octavian, +not the magistrates of Rome, now ruled the Roman world. + + +65. THE END OF AN EPOCH + +DOOM OF THE REPUBLIC + +The republic, indeed, was doomed. A hundred years of dissension and civil +warfare proclaimed clearly enough the failure of the old order. Rome was a +city-state suddenly called to the responsibilities of universal rule. Both +the machinery of her government and the morals of her people were +inadequate for so huge a task. The gradual revolution which changed this +Roman city-state into imperial Rome, judged by its results, is perhaps the +most momentous movement in the annals of mankind. Let us summarize its +course. + +A CENTURY OF REVOLUTION + +In 133 B.C. Roman society had been corrupted and enfeebled as the result +of foreign conquests. The supreme power in the state more and more tended +to fall into the hands of a narrow oligarchy--the senatorial nobility. Its +dishonesty and weakness soon led to efforts at reform. The attempts of the +Gracchi to overthrow the Senate's position and restore popular sovereignty +ended in disaster. Then, in quick succession, arose a series of military +leaders who aimed to secure by the sword what was no longer to be obtained +through constitutional and legal means. Marius, a great general but no +politician, could only break down and destroy. Sulla, a sincere but +narrow-minded statesman, could do no more than prop up the structure-- +already tottering--of senatorial rule. Pompey soon undid that work and +left the constitution to become again the sport of rival soldiers. Caesar, +triumphing over Pompey, gained a position of unchallenged supremacy. After +Caesar's death, imperial power was permanently restored in the person of +Octavian. The battle of Actium in 31 B.C. made Octavian master of the +Roman world. + +THE FUTURE + +But the Romans were not yet an old and worn-out people. On the ruins of +the old republican order it was still possible to build up a new imperial +system in which good government, peace, and prosperity should prevail for +more than two centuries. During this period Rome performed her real, her +enduring, work for civilization. + + +STUDIES + +1. Write a summary account (500 words) of Roman expansion 264-133 B.C. + +2. On outline maps indicate the possessions of Carthage and Rome at the +beginning of the First Punic War; at the beginning of the Second Punic +War; at the end of the Second Punic War. + +3. On outline maps indicate the boundaries of the Roman world in 133 B.C. +and in 31 B.C. and the division into provinces at these dates. + +4. What events are connected with the following places: Zama; Cannae; +Actium; Pharsalus, and Philippi? + +5. Who were Quintus Fabius Maximus, Mithradates, Catiline, and Cleopatra? + +6. Identify the following dates: 146 B.C.; 264 B.C.; 133 B.C.; 201 B.C.; +44 B.C.; and 63 B.C. + +7. Why has Carthage been called the "London" of the ancient world? + +8. What is meant by the statement that Carthage is a "dumb actor on the +stage of history"? + +9. Was Rome wise in adopting her new policy of expansion beyond the limits +of Italy? + +10. Give some examples in modern times of war indemnities paid by defeated +nations. + +11. Why did the Romans call the Second Punic War the "War of Hannibal"? + +12. What is a "Fabian policy"? Do you know why Washington was called the +"American Fabius"? + +13. What reasons can you give for Hannibal's early successes and final +failure? + +14. Show the signal importance to Rome of her control of the sea during +the Second Punic War. + +15. Comment on this statement: "As the rise of Rome was central in +history, the Second Punic War was central in the rise of Rome." + +16. What provinces had been formed by 133 B.C. (map facing page 184)? + +17. What parts of the world belonged to Rome in 133 B.C. but were not yet +provinces? + +18. Might Rome have extended her federal policy to her territories outside +of Italy? Was a provincial system really necessary? + +19. Compare a Persian satrapy with a Roman province. + +20. Would import duties on foreign grain have revived Italian agriculture? + +21. Why did the cattle breeder in Italy have no reason to fear foreign +competition? + +22. Compare the Athenian practice of state pay with the Roman "bread and +the games of the circus." + +23. Had the Italians triumphed in the Social War, is it likely they would +have established a better government than that of Rome? + +24. Was Marius or was Sulla more to blame for the Civil War? + +25. Explain the real meaning of Sulla's "perpetual dictatorship." + +26. Why was the rule of the Senate, unsatisfactory though it was, to be +preferred to that of the Roman populace? + +27. Why is the First Triumvirate described as a "ring"? Did it have an +official character? + +28. Why does the First Triumvirate mark a distinct step toward the +establishment of the empire? + +29. Why can wars with barbarous and savage peoples be justified as "the +most ultimately righteous of all wars"? + +30. Can you suggest why Caesar's conquest of Gaul had even greater +importance than Pompey's conquests in the East? + +31. Was Caesar justified in leading his army against Rome? + +32. Had Pompey triumphed over Caesar, is it probable that the republic +would have been restored? + +33. What contrasts can you draw between Caesar and Alexander? + +34. Justify the aphorism, "In the midst of arms the laws are silent," by +the statements in this chapter. + +35. How do you account for the failure of the republican institutions of +Rome? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter xv, "Hannibal and the +Great Punic War"; chapter xvi, "Cato the Censor: a Roman of the Old +School"; chapter xvii, "Cicero the Orator"; chapter xviii, "The Conquest +of Gaul, Related by Caesar"; chapter xix, "The Makers of Imperial Rome: +Character Sketches by Suetonius." + +[2] See page 123. + +[3] See page 155. + +[4] See page 149. + +[5] Livy, xxii, 61. + +[6] See page 100. + +[7] In 29 B.C., one hundred and seventeen years after the destruction of +Carthage at the end of the Punic wars, a new town was founded near the old +site by the emperor Augustus. It became in time the third city of the +Roman Empire. It was destroyed by the Arabs in 698 A.D. + +[8] See page 158. + +[9] See pages 184 and 197. + +[10] Corinth offered too good a site to remain long in ruins. Resettled in +46 B.C. as a Roman colony, it soon became one of the great cities in the +empire. It was to the Corinthians that St Paul wrote two of his +_Epistles_. + +[11] The Greeks were not again a free people until the nineteenth century +of our era. In 1821 A.D. they rose against their Turkish masters in a +glorious struggle for liberty. Eight years later the powers of Europe +forced the Sultan to recognize the freedom of Greece. That country then +became an independent kingdom, with its capital at Athens. + +[12] See pages 39-40 and 104. + +[13] In 133 B.C. there were eight provinces--Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, +Hither Spain, Farther Spain, Illyricum, Africa, Macedonia, and Asia. See +the map facing page 184. + +[14] In the New Testament "publicans and sinners" are mentioned side by +side. See _Matthew_, ix, 10. + +[15] _Latifundia perdidere Italiam_ (Pliny, _Natural History_, xviii, 7). + +[16] See page 155. + +[17] Horace, _Epistles_, ii, 1, 156. + +[18] See page 103. + +[19] See page 150. + +[20] See page 155, note 2. + +[21] See page 150. + +[22] See page 204. + +[23] Plutarch, Sulla, 38. + +[24] Suetonius, _Julius Caesar_, 32. + +[25] _Veni, vidi, vici_ (Suetonius, _Julius Caesar_, 37). + +[26] Hence our word "emperor." + +[27] Before Caesar's reform (46 B.C.) the Roman year consisted of 12 +months and 355 days. As this lunar year, like that of the Greeks, was +shorter than the solar year, it had been necessary to intercalate an +additional month, of varying length, in every alternate year. Caesar +adopted the more accurate Egyptian calendar of 365 days and instituted the +system of leap years. His rearrangement made the year 11 minutes, 14 +seconds too long. By 1582 A.D. this difference had amounted to nearly 10 +days. Pope Gregory XIII modified the "Julian Calendar" by calling Oct. 5, +1582, Oct. 15, and continuing the count 10 days in advance. This +"Gregorian Calendar" was adopted by Great Britain in 1752 A.D. and +subsequently by other Protestant countries. It has not won acceptance in +Russia and Greece. The difference between the two systems--the Old Style +and the New Style--is now about 13 days. + +[28] His name was Octavius, but after his adoption by Caesar he called +himself Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. + +[29] Cicero, _Letters_, xix, 20. + +[30] See page 185. + +[31] See page 127. + +[32] See page 160. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EARLY EMPIRE: THE WORLD UNDER ROMAN RULE, 31 B.C.-l80 A.D. [1] + + +66. AUGUSTUS, 31 B.C.-l4 A.D. + +[Illustration: AUGUSTUS (Vatican Museum, Rome)] + +THE EARLY EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-180 A.D. + +The period of two hundred and eleven years, between the accession of +Augustus and the death of Marcus Aurelius, is known as the Early Empire. +As we shall now learn, it was a time of settled government and of internal +tranquillity. Except for a brief period of anarchy at the close of the +reign of Nero, it was also a time of regular succession to the throne. +Nearly all the emperors were vigorous and capable rulers. The peace and +prosperity which they gave to the Roman world amply justify--if +justification be needed--the change from republic to empire. + +THE NEW RULER + +Few persons have set their stamp more indelibly on the pages of history +than Octavian, whom we may now call by his more familiar name _Augustus_ +("Majestic"). Augustus was no military genius to dazzle the world with his +achievements. He was a cool and passionless statesman who took advantage +of a memorable opportunity to remake the Roman state, and who succeeded in +the attempt. Absolute power, which destroys weaker men, with Augustus +brought out the nobler elements of character. From the successful leader +of a party he became the wise and impartial ruler of an empire. + +THE NEW GOVERNMENT + +Augustus had almost unlimited power. His position was that of a king, as +supreme as Julius Caesar had ever been. Better, however, than Julius +Caesar, Augustus realized that an undisguised autocracy would only +alienate public opinion and invite fresh plots and rebellions, Augustus +intended to be the real master, but he would also be careful to conceal +his authority under republican forms. The emperor was neither king, +dictator, nor triumvir. He called himself a republican magistrate-- +_Princeps_ [2]--the "First Citizen" of the state. + +POWERS ENJOYED BY AUGUSTUS + +Augustus gave up the externals, only to keep the essentials, of royalty. +He held the proconsular authority, which extended over the frontier +provinces and their legions. He held the tribunician authority, which made +his person sacred. As perpetual tribune he could preside over the popular +assemblies, manage the Senate and change its membership at pleasure, and +veto the acts of almost any magistrate. In the provinces and at home in +the capital city the emperor was supreme. + +THE EMPIRE UNDER AUGUSTUS + +Augustus ruled a vast realm. In it all the dreams of world dominion which +Alexander had cherished were more than realized. The empire included +nearly the entire circle of the Mediterranean lands. On the west and south +it found natural barriers in the Atlantic Ocean and the African desert. On +the east the Euphrates River had formed, since the defeat of Crassus, [3] +the dividing line between Rome and Parthia. The northern frontier, beyond +which lay the Germanic barbarians, required, however, additional conquests +for its protection. + +[Illustration: Map, THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINIONS 31 B.C.-180 A.D.] + +THE DANUBE BOUNDARY + +The Danube River made an admirable boundary for much of the Roman +territory between the Black Sea and the Rhine. Augustus annexed the +district south of the lower course of this river and formed it into the +province of Moesia (modern Serbia and Bulgaria). The line of the upper +Danube was later secured by the creation of three new provinces on the +northern slopes of the Alps. [4] Henceforth the Balkan peninsula and Italy +on the northeast, where the Alpine passes are low and comparatively easy, +were shielded from attack. + +THE RHINE BOUNDARY + +After the conquests of Julius Caesar in Gaul the Rhine had become the +frontier between that country and Germany. Augustus repeatedly sent the +legions into western Germany on punitive expeditions to strike terror into +its warlike tribes and to inspire respect for Roman power. It is doubtful, +however, whether he ever intended to conquer Germany and to convert it +into another province. His failure to do so meant that the Germans were +not to be Romanized as were their neighbors, the Celts of Gaul. The Rhine +continued to be the dividing-line between Roman civilization and Germanic +barbarism. + +THE AUGUSTAN AGE + +The clash of arms on the distant frontiers scarcely disturbed the serenity +of the Roman world. Within the boundaries of the empire the Augustan Age +was an age of peace and prosperity. The emperor, with unwearied devotion, +turned to the task of ruling wisely and well his vast dominions. He +followed the example of Julius Caesar in his insistence on just government +of the provincials. [5] In Italy he put down brigandage, repaired the +public highways, and planted many colonies in unsettled districts. In Rome +he established a regular police service, organized the supply of grain and +water, and continued, on a larger scale than ever, the public games. So +many were his buildings in the capital city that he could boast he had +"found Rome of brick and left it of marble." [6] Augustus was also very +successful as a religious reformer. He restored numerous temples that had +fallen into decay, revived the ancient sacrifices, and celebrated with +pomp and majesty the festivals that had been neglected. These reforms gave +new vigor to the Roman state religion. + +[Illustration: MONUMENTUM ANCYRANUM +An inscription on the walls of a ruined temple at Ancyra (modern Angora) +in Asia Minor. It is a copy of the record descriptive of the reign of +Augustus which that emperor in his will decreed to be inscribed on bronze +tablets and placed before his mausoleum at Rome.] + +DEIFICATION OF AUGUSTUS + +Even during the lifetime of Augustus worship had been offered to him by +the provincials. After his death the Senate gave him divine honors and +enrolled his name among the gods. Temples rose in every province to the +deified Augustus, and altars smoked with sacrifices to him. Emperor +worship spread rapidly over the ancient world and helped to unite all +classes in allegiance to the new government. It provided a universal +religion for a universal empire. Yet just at the time when this new cult +was taking root, and in the midst of the happy reign of Augustus, there +was born in Bethlehem of Judea the Christ whose religion was to overcome +the worship of the emperors and with it all other faiths of pagan +antiquity. [7] + + +67. THE SUCCESSORS OF AUGUSTUS, 14-96 A.D. + +JULIAN AND CLAUDIAN CAESARS, 14-68 A.D. + +For more than half a century following the death of Augustus his place was +filled by emperors who, either by descent or adoption, claimed kinship +with himself and the mighty Julius. They are known as the Julian and +Claudian Caesars. [8] Though none of these four princes had the political +ability of Augustus, two of them (Tiberius and Claudius) were excellent +rulers, who ably maintained the standards set by that great emperor. The +other two (Caligula and Nero) were vicious tyrants, the recital of whose +follies and crimes occupies much space in the works of ancient historians. +Their doings and misdoings fortunately exerted little influence outside +the circle of the imperial court and the capital city. Rome itself might +be disturbed by conspiracy and bloodshed, but Italy and the provinces kept +their prosperity. + +CONQUEST OF BRITAIN BEGUN, 43 A.D. + +The reign of Claudius was marked by the beginning of the extension of the +empire over Britain. For nearly a hundred years after Caesar's expeditions +no further attempt had been made to annex that island. But its nearness to +Gaul, already thoroughly Romanized, brought the country within the sphere +of Roman influence. The thorough conquest of Britain proved to be no easy +task. It was not until the close of the first century that the island, as +far north as the Scottish Highlands, was brought under Roman sway. The +province of Britannia remained a part of the empire for more than three +hundred years. + +BURNING OF ROME, 64 A.D. + +During Nero's reign half of Rome was laid in ashes by a great fire, which +raged for a week. But a new Rome speedily arose. It was a much finer city +than the old, with wide, straight streets instead of narrow alleys, and +with houses of good stone in place of wooden hovels. Except for the loss +of the temples and public buildings, the fire was a blessing in disguise. + +FLAVIAN CAESARS, 69-96 A.D. + +After the death of Nero the dynasty that traced its descent from Julius +and Augustus became extinct. There was no one who could legally claim the +vacant throne. The Senate, which in theory had the appointment of a +successor, was too weak to exercise its powers. The imperial guard and the +legions on the frontiers placed their own candidates in the field. The +Roman world fell into anarchy, and Italy became once more the seat of +civil war. The throne was finally seized by the able general, Flavius +Vespasianus, supported by the armies of the East. He and his two sons, +Titus and Domitian, are called the Flavian Caesars. + +[Illustration: POMPEII] + +CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM, 70 A.D. + +During the reign of Vespasian a revolt of the Jews was crushed, and +Jerusalem was captured by Titus, Vespasian's son. It is said, doubtless +with exaggeration, that one million Jews perished in the siege, the most +awful that history records. The Holy City, together with the Temple, was +destroyed, and a Roman camp was pitched upon the spot. We may still see in +Rome the splendid arch that commemorates this tragic event. [9] + +[Illustration: PLAN OF JERUSALEM AND ITS ENVIRONS.] + +[Illustration: A RELIEF ON THE ARCH OF TITUS +The relief shows Roman soldiers bearing the spoils of the Temple at +Jerusalem. Among these are two trumpets, the table of the shewbread, and +the seven-branched golden candlestick.] + +ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS, 79 A.D. + +The reign of Titus is chiefly memorable for the destruction of Pompeii and +Herculaneum, two cites on the bay of Naples. After long inactivity the +volcano of Vesuvius suddenly belched forth torrents of liquid lava and +mud, followed by a rain of ashes. Pompeii was covered to a depth of about +fifteen feet by the falling cinders. Herculaneum was overwhelmed in a sea +of sulphurous mud and lava to a depth of eighty feet in many places. The +cities were completely entombed, and in time even their location was +forgotten. Modern excavations have disclosed a large part of Pompeii, with +its streets, shops, baths, temples, and theaters. The visitor there gains +a vivid impression of Roman life during the first century of our era. [10] + + +68. THE "GOOD EMPERORS," 96-180 A.D. + +THE ANTONINE CAESARS + +The five rulers--Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus +Aurelius--whose reigns cover the greater part of the second century, are +sometimes called the Antonine Caesars, because two of them bore the name +Antoninus. They are better known as the "Good Emperors," a title which +well describes them. Under their just and beneficent government the empire +reached its greatest prosperity. + +[Illustration: NERVA (Vatican Museum, Rome) +A remarkably fine example of Roman portrait statuary.] + +TRAJAN THE CONQUEROR + +The emperor Trajan rivaled Julius Caesar in military ability and enlarged +the Roman world to the widest limits it was ever to attain. His first +conquests were in Europe and resulted in the annexation of Dacia, an +extensive territory north of the Danube. Thousands of colonists settled in +Dacia and spread everywhere the language and arts of Rome. Its modern name +(Rumania) bears witness to Rome's abiding influence there. Trajan's +campaigns in Asia had less importance, though in appearance they were more +splendid. He drove the Parthians from Armenia and conquered the Tigris- +Euphrates valley. To hold in subjection such distant regions only +increased the difficulty of guarding the frontiers. Trajan's successor, +Hadrian, at once abandoned them. + +[Illustration: COLUMN OF TRAJAN +A bronze statue of Trajan formerly occupying the top of the monument has +been replaced by a figure of St Peter. The column is decorated with a +continuous spiral relief representing scenes from the Dacian War. About +twenty five hundred separate designs are included in this remarkable +collection.] + +HADRIAN THE ADMINISTRATOR + +Hadrian distinguished himself as an administrator. He may be compared with +Augustus in his love of peace and in his care for the interests of the +provincials. Hadrian made two long journeys throughout the Roman world. On +the frontiers he built fortresses and walls, in the provinces he raised +baths, aqueducts, theaters, and temples. Scarcely a city throughout the +empire lacked some monument to his generosity. Hadrian left behind him the +memory of a prince whose life was devoted to the public welfare--the first +servant of the state. + +[Illustration: WALL OF HADRIAN IN BRITAIN +The wall extended between the Tyne and the Solway a distance of seventy +miles. It was built of concrete faced with square blocks. The height is +nearly twenty feet, the thickness about eight feet. Along the wall were +numerous towers and gates and a little to the north of it stretched an +earthen rampart protected by a deep ditch. A broad road, lined with +seventeen military camps, ran between the two fortifications.] + +MARCUS AURELIUS, THE PHILOSOPHER ON THE THRONE + +The last of the "Good Emperors," Marcus Aurelius, was a thinker and a +student, but he enjoyed little opportunity for meditation. His reign was +filled with an almost uninterrupted series of campaigns against the +Parthians on the Euphrates and the Germans on the Danube and the Rhine. +These wars revealed the weakness of the frontiers and rapidly growing +strength of the barbarians. After the death of Marcus Aurelius the empire +entered on its downward course. But before passing to this period of our +study, we may take a survey of the world under Roman rule, during the two +centuries between Augustus and Marcus Aurelius. + +[Illustration: MARCUS AURELIUS IN HIS TRIUMPHAL CAR (Palace of the +Conservatori, Rome) + +A panel from an arch erected by the emperor.] + + +69. THE PROVINCES OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE + +THE STANDING ARMY + +The Roman Empire, at its widest extent in the second century, included +forty-three provinces. They were protected against Germans, Parthians and +other foes by twenty-five legions, numbering with the auxiliary forces, +about three hundred thousand men. This standing army was one of Rome's +most important agencies for the spread of her civilization over barbarian +lands. Its membership was drawn largely from the border provinces, often +from the very countries where the soldiers' camps were fixed. Though the +army became less and less Roman in blood, it always kept in character and +spirit the best traditions of Rome. The long intervals of peace were not +passed by the soldiers in idleness. They built the great highways that +penetrated every region of the empire, spanned the streams with bridges, +raised dikes and aqueducts, and taught the border races the arts of +civilization. It was due, finally, to the labors of the legionaries, that +the most exposed parts of the frontiers were provided with an extensive +system of walls and ramparts. + +[Illustration: THE PANTHEON +The original building was the work of Agrippa, a minister of Augustus. The +temple was reconstructed by Hadrian who left the Greek portico unchanged +but added the rotunda and the dome. This great dome, the largest in the +world, is made of solid concrete. During the Middle Ages, the Pantheon was +converted into a church. It is now the burial place of the kings of +Italy.] + +THE ROMAN ROADS + +The Roman system of roads received its great extension during the imperial +age. The principal trunk lines began at the gates of Rome and radiated +thence to every province. Along these highways sped the couriers of the +Caesars, carrying dispatches and making, by means of relays of horses, as +much as one hundred and fifty miles a day. The roads resounded to the +tramp of the legionaries passing to their stations on the distant +frontier. Travelers by foot, horseback, or litter journeyed on them from +land to land, employing maps which described routes and distances. Traders +used them for the transport of merchandise. Roman roads, in short, were +the railways of antiquity. [11] + +[Illustration: THE TOMB OF HADRIAN +The building was formerly topped by another of smaller size which bore a +statue of the emperor. In medieval times this stately tomb was converted +into a castle. It is now used as a museum. The bridge across the Tiber was +built by Hadrian.] + +[Illustration: Map, ROMAN BRITAIN SHOWING CHIEF ROMAN ROADS] + +THE PAX ROMANA + +In her roads and fortifications, in the living rampart of her legions, +Rome long found security. Except for the districts conquered by Trajan but +abandoned by Hadrian, [12] the empire during this period did not lose a +province. For more than two hundred years, throughout an area as large as +the United States, the civilized world rested under what an ancient writer +calls "the immense majesty of the Roman peace." [13] + +EXTENSION OF ROMAN CITIZENSHIP + +The grant of Roman citizenship to all Italians after the Social War [14] +only increased for a time the contrast between Italy and the provinces. +But even before the fall of the republic Caesar's legislation had begun +the work of uniting the Roman and the provincial. [15] More and more the +emperors followed in his footsteps. The extension of Roman citizenship was +a gradual process covering two centuries. It was left for the emperor +Caracalla, early in the third century, to take the final step. In 212 A.D. +he issued an edict which bestowed citizenship on all freeborn inhabitants +of the empire. This famous edict completed the work, begun so many +centuries before, of Romanizing the ancient world. + +PRIVILEGES OF ROMAN CITIZENS + +The grant of citizenship, though it increased the burden of taxation, +brought no slight advantage to those who possessed it. A Roman citizen +could not be maltreated with impunity or punished without a legal trial +before Roman courts. If accused in a capital case, he could always protect +himself against an unjust decision by an "appeal to Caesar", that is, to +the emperor at Rome. St. Paul did this on one occasion when on trial for +his life. [16] Wherever he lived, a Roman citizen enjoyed, both for his +person and his property, the protection of Roman law. + + +70. THE ROMAN LAW AND THE LATIN LANGUAGE + +IMPROVEMENT OF ROMAN LAW + +The Romans were the most legal-minded people of antiquity. It was their +mission to give laws to the world. Almost at the beginning of the republic +they framed the code of the Twelve Tables, [17] which long remained the +basis of their jurisprudence. This code, however, was so harsh, technical, +and brief that it could not meet the needs of a progressive state. The +Romans gradually improved their legal system, especially after they began +to rule over conquered nations. The disputes which arose between citizens +and subjects were decided by the praetors or provincial governors in +accordance with what seemed to them to be principles of justice and +equity. These principles gradually found a place in Roman law, together +with many rules and observances of foreign peoples. Roman law in this way +tended to take over and absorb all that was best in ancient jurisprudence. + +CHARACTER OF ROMAN LAW + +Thus, as the extension of the citizenship carried the principles and +practice of Roman law to every quarter of the empire, the spirit of that +law underwent an entire change. It became exact, impartial, liberal, +humane. It limited the use of torture to force confession from persons +accused of crime. It protected the child against a father's tyranny. It +provided that a master who killed a slave should be punished as a +murderer, and even taught that all men are originally free by the law of +nature and therefore that slavery is contrary to natural right. Justice it +defined as "the steady and abiding purpose to give every man that which is +his own." [18] Roman law, which began as the rude code of a primitive +people, ended as the most refined and admirable system of jurisprudence +ever framed by man. This law, as we shall see later, has passed from +ancient Rome to modern Europe. [19] + +LATIN IN ITALY + +The conquest by Latin of the languages of the world is almost as +interesting and important a story as the conquest by Rome of the nations +of the world. At the beginning of Latin in Roman history Latin was the +speech of only the Italy people of Latium. Beyond the limits of Latium +Latin came into contact with the many different languages spoken in early +Italy. Some of them, such as Greek and Etruscan, soon disappeared from +Italy after Roman expansion, but those used by native Italian peoples +showed more power of resistance. It was not until the last century B.C. +that Latin was thoroughly established in the central and southern parts of +the peninsula. After the Social War the Italian peoples became citizens of +Rome, and with Roman citizenship went the use of the Latin tongue. + +LATIN IN THE WESTERN PROVINCES + +The Romans carried their language to the barbarian peoples of the West, as +they had carried it to Italy. Their missionaries were colonists, +merchants, soldiers, and public officials. The Latin spoken by them was +eagerly taken up by the rude, unlettered natives, who tried to make +themselves as Roman as possible in dress, customs, and speech. This +provincial Latin was not simply the language of the upper classes; the +common people themselves used it freely, as we know from thousands of +inscriptions found in western and central Europe. In the countries which +now make up Spain, France, Switzerland, southern Austria, England, and +North Africa, the old national tongues were abandoned for the Latin of +Rome. + +ROMANCE LANGUAGES + +The decline of the Roman Empire did not bring about the downfall of the +Latin language in the West. It became the basis of the so-called Romance +languages--French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Rumanian--which arose +in the Middle Ages out of the spoken Latin of the common people. Even our +English language, which comes to us from the speech of the Germanic +invaders of Britain, contains so many words of Latin origin that we can +scarcely utter a sentence without using some of them. The rule of Rome has +passed away; the language of Rome still remains to enrich the intellectual +life of mankind. + + +71. THE MUNICIPALITIES OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE + +PREVALENCE OF CITY LIFE + +The world under Roman rule was a world of cities. Some had earlier been +native settlements, such as those in Gaul before the Roman conquest. +Others were the splendid Hellenistic cities in the East. [20] Many more +were of Roman origin, arising from the colonies and fortified camps in +which citizens and soldiers had settled. [21] Where Rome did not find +cities, she created them. + +SOME IMPORTANT CITIES + +Not only were the cities numerous, but many of them, even when judged by +modern standards, reached great size. Rome was the largest, her population +being estimated at from one to two millions. Alexandria came next with +more than half a million people. Syracuse was the third metropolis of the +empire. Italy contained such important towns as Verona, Milan, and +Ravenna. In Gaul were Marseilles, Nîmes, Bordeaux, Lyons--all cities with +a continuous existence to the present day. In Britain York and London were +seats of commerce, Chester and Lincoln were military colonies, and Bath +was celebrated then, as now, for its medicinal waters. Carthage and +Corinth had risen in new splendor from their ashes. Athens was still the +home of Greek art and Greek culture. Asia included such ancient and +important centers as Pergamum, Smyrna, Ephesus, Rhodes, and Antioch. The +student who reads in his New Testament the _Acts of the Apostles_ will get +a vivid impression of some of these great capitals. + +[Illustration: ROMAN BATHS, AT BATH, ENGLAND +Bath, the ancient Aquae Sulis, was famous in Roman times for its hot +springs. Here are very interesting remains, including a large pool, +eighty-three by forty feet in size, and lined at the bottom with the +Roman lead, besides smaller bathing chambers and portions of the ancient +pipes and conduits. The building and statues are modern restorations.] + +APPEARANCE OF THE CITIES + +Every municipality was a Rome in miniature. It had its forum and senate- +house, its temples, theaters, and baths, its circus for racing, and its +amphitheater for gladiatorial combats. Most of the municipalities enjoyed +an abundant supply of water, and some had good sewer systems. The larger +towns had well-paved, though narrow, streets. Pompeii, a small place of +scarcely thirty thousand inhabitants, still exists to give us an idea of +the appearance of one of these ancient cities. And what we find at Pompeii +was repeated on a more splendid scale in hundreds of places from the +Danube to the Nile, from Britain to Arabia. + +CITY GOVERNMENT + +The municipalities of Roman origin copied the government of Rome itself. +[22] Each city had a council, or senate, and a popular assembly which +chose the magistrates. These officials were generally rich men; they +received no salary, and in fact had to pay a large sum on entering office. +Local politics excited the keenest interest. Many of the inscriptions +found on the walls of Pompeii are election placards recommending +particular candidates for office. Women sometimes took part in political +contests. Distributions of grain, oil, and money were made to needy +citizens, in imitation of the bad Roman practice. There were public +banquets, imposing festivals, wild-beast hunts, and bloody contests of +gladiators, like those at Rome. + +SURVIVAL OF THE ROMAN MUNICIPAL SYSTEM + +The busy, throbbing life in these countless centers of the Roman world has +long since been stilled. The cities themselves, in many instances, have +utterly disappeared. Yet the forms of municipal government, together with +the Roman idea of a free, self-governing city, never wholly died out. Some +of the most important cities which flourished in southern and western +Europe during the later Middle Ages preserved clear traces of their +ancient Roman origin. + + +72. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES + +PROMOTION OF COMMERCE + +The first two centuries of our era formed the golden age of Roman +commerce. The emperors fostered it in many ways. Augustus and his +successors kept the Mediterranean free from pirates, built lighthouses and +improved harbors, policed the highways, and made travel by land both +speedy and safe. An imperial currency [23] replaced the various national +coinages with their limited circulation. The vexatious import and export +duties, levied by different countries and cities on foreign produce, were +swept away. Free trade flourished between the cities and provinces of the +Roman world. + +PRINCIPAL TRADE ROUTES + +Roman commerce followed, in general, the routes which Phoenicians had +discovered centuries before. After the annexation of Gaul the rivers of +that country became channels of trade between western Europe and Italy. +The conquest of the districts north and south of the Danube opened up an +important route between central Europe and the Mediterranean. Imports from +the far eastern countries came by caravan through Asia to ports on the +Black Sea. The water routes led by way of the Persian Gulf to the great +Syrian cities of Antioch and Palmyra and, by way of the Red Sea, to +Alexandria on the Nile. From these thriving commercial centers products +were shipped to every region of the empire. [24] + +[Illustration: A ROMAN FREIGHT SHIP +The ship lies beside the wharf at Ostia. In the after-part of the vessel +is a cabin with two windows. Notice the figure of Victory on the top of +the single mast and the decoration of the mainsail with the wolf and +twins. The ship is steered by a pair of huge paddles.] + +LOCAL TRADING AT ROME + +The importation and disposal of foreign goods at Rome furnished employment +for many thousands of traders. There were great wholesale merchants whose +warehouses stored grain and all kinds of merchandise. There were also many +retail shopkeepers. They might be sometimes the slaves or freedmen of a +wealthy noble who preferred to keep in the background. Sometimes they were +men of free birth. The feeling that petty trade was unworthy of a citizen, +though strong in republican days, tended to disappear under the empire. + +FREE LABORERS AT ROME + +The slaves at Rome, like those at Athens, [25] carried on many industrial +tasks. We must not imagine, however, that all the manual labor of the city +was performed by bondmen. The number of slaves even tended to decline, +when there were no more border wars to yield captives for the slave +markets. The growing custom of emancipation worked in the same direction. +We find in this period a large body of free laborers, not only in the +capital city, but in all parts of the empire. + +THE GUILDS + +The workmen engaged in a particular calling frequently formed clubs, or +guilds. [26] There were guilds of weavers, shoe-makers, jewelers, +painters, musicians, and even of gladiators. These associations were not +organized for the purpose of securing higher wages and shorter hours by +strikes or threat of strikes. They seem to have existed chiefly for social +and religious purposes. Each guild had its clubhouse for official meetings +and banquets. Each guild had its special deity, such as Vesta, the fire +goddess, for bakers, and Bacchus, the wine god, for innkeepers. Every year +the guildsmen held a festival, in honor of their patron, and marched +through the streets with banners and the emblems of their trade. Nearly +all the guilds had as one main object the provision of a proper funeral +and tomb for deceased members. The humble laborer found some consolation +in the thought that he belonged to a club of friends and fellow workers, +who after death would give him decent burial and keep his memory green. + +LIFE OF THE WORKING CLASSES + +Free workingmen throughout the Roman world appear to have led reasonably +happy lives. They were not driven or enslaved by their employers or forced +to labor for long hours in grimy, unwholesome factories. Slums existed, +but no sweatshops. If wages were low, so also was the cost of living. +Wine, oil, and wheat flour were cheap. The mild climate made heavy +clothing unnecessary and permitted an outdoor life. The public baths-- +great clubhouses--stood open to every one who could pay a trifling fee. +[27] Numerous holidays, celebrated with games and shows, brightened +existence. On the whole we may conclude that working people at Rome and in +the provinces enjoyed greater comfort during this period than had ever +been their lot in previous ages. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN VILLA +Wall painting, Pompeii.] + +GREAT FORTUNES + +It was an age of millionaires. There had been rich men, such as Crassus, +[28] during the last century of the republic; their numbers increased and +their fortunes rose during the first century of the empire. The +philosopher Seneca, a tutor of Nero, is said to have made twelve million +dollars within four years by the emperor's favor. Narcissus, the secretary +of Claudius, made sixteen million dollars--the largest Roman fortune on +record. This sum must be multiplied four or five times to find its modern +equivalent, since in antiquity interest rates were higher and the +purchasing power of money was greater than to-day. Such private fortunes +are surpassed only by those of the present age. + +LUXURY AND EXTRAVAGANCE + +The heaping-up of riches in the hands of a few brought its natural +consequence in luxury and extravagance. The palaces of the wealthy, with +their gardens, baths, picture galleries, and other features, were costly +to build and costly to keep up. The money not lavished by a noble on his +town house could be easily sunk on his villas in the country. All Italy, +from the bay of Naples, to the foot of the Alps, was dotted with elegant +residences, having flower gardens, game preserves, fishponds, and +artificial lakes. Much senseless waste occurred at banquets and +entertainments. Vast sums were spent on vessels of gold and silver, +jewelry, clothing, and house furnishings. Even funerals and tombs required +heavy outlays. A capitalist of imperial Rome could get rid of a fortune in +selfish indulgences almost as readily as any modern millionaire not +blessed with a refined taste or with public spirit. + +SOME SOCIAL EVILS + +Some of the customs of the time appear especially shocking. The brutal +gladiatorial games [29] were a passion with every one, from the emperor to +his lowest subject. Infanticide was a general practice. Marriage grew to +be a mere civil contract, easily made and easily broken. Common as divorce +had become, the married state was regarded as undesirable. Augustus vainly +made laws to encourage matrimony and discourage celibacy. Suicide, +especially among the upper classes, was astonishingly frequent. No one +questioned another's right to leave this life at pleasure. The decline of +the earlier paganism left many men without a deep religious faith to +combat the growing doubt and worldliness of the age. + +BRIGHTER ASPECTS OF ROMAN SOCIETY + +Yet this dark picture needs correction at many points. It may be +questioned whether the vice, luxury, and wickedness of ancient Rome, +Antioch, or Alexandria much exceeded what our great modern capitals can +show, During this period, moreover, many remarkable improvements took +place in social life and manners. There was an increasing kindliness and +charity. The weak and the infirm were better treated. The education of the +poor was encouraged by the founding of free schools. Wealthy citizens of +the various towns lavished their fortunes on such public works as baths, +aqueducts, and temples, for the benefit of all classes. Even the slaves +were much better treated. Imperial laws aimed to check the abuses of +cruelty, overwork, and neglect, and philosophers recommended to masters +the exercise of gentleness and mercy toward slaves. In fact, the first and +second centuries of our era were marked by a great growth of the +humanitarian spirit. + + +73. THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD + +THE NEW COSMOPOLITANISM + +Just as the conquests of Alexander, by uniting the Orient to Greece, +produced a Graeco-Oriental civilization, so now the expansion of Rome over +the Mediterranean formed another world-wide culture, in which both Greek +and Roman elements met and mingled. A new sense of cosmopolitanism arose +in place of the old civic or national patriotism. Roman elements met and +mingled. A new sense of cosmopolitanism arose in place of the old civic or +national patriotism. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN TEMPLE +The best preserved of Roman temples. Located at Nîmes in southern France, +where it is known as La Maison Carrée ("the square house"). The structure +is now used as a museum of antiquities.] + +UNIFYING AND CIVILIZING FORCES + This cosmopolitan feeling was the outcome of those unifying and +civilizing forces which the imperial system set at work. The extension of +Roman citizenship broke down the old distinction between the citizens and +the subjects of Rome. The development of Roman law carried its principles +of justice and equity to the remotest regions. The spread of the Latin +language provided the western half of the empire with a speech as +universal there as Greek was in the East. Trade and travel united the +provinces with one another and with Rome. The worship of the Caesars +dimmed the luster of all local worships and kept constantly before men's +minds the idea of Rome and of her mighty emperors. Last, but not least +important, was the fusion of alien peoples through intermarriage with +Roman soldiers and colonists. "How many settlements," exclaims the +philosopher Seneca, "have been planted in every province! Wherever the +Roman conquers, there he dwells." [30] + +[Illustration: THE AMPHITHEATER AT ARLES +The amphitheater at Arles in southern France was used during the Middle +Ages as a fortress then as a prison and finally became the resort of +criminals and paupers. The illustration shows it before the removal of the +buildings about 1830 A.D. Bullfights still continue in the arena, where, +in Roman times, animal baitings and gladiatorial games took place.] + +MONUMENTS OF ROMAN RULE + +The best evidence of Rome's imperial rule is found in the monuments she +raised in every quarter of the ancient world. Some of the grandest ruins +of antiquity are not in the capital city itself, or even in Italy, but in +Spain, France, England, Greece, Switzerland, Asia Minor, Syria, and North +Africa. Among these are Hadrian's Wall in Britain, the splendid aqueduct +known as the Pont du Gard near Nîmes in southern France, the beautiful +temple called La Maison Carrée in the same city, the Olympieum at Athens, +and the temple of the Sun at Baalbec in Syria Thus the lonely hilltops, +the desolate desert sands, the mountain fastnesses of three continents +bear witness even now to the widespreading sway of Rome. + +[Illustration: A MEGALITH AT BAALBEC +A block of stone 68 feet long 10 feet high and weighing about 1500 tons. +It is still attached to its bed in the quarry not far from the ruins of +Baalbec in Syria. The temples of Baalbec seen in the distance were built +by the Romans in the third century A.D. The majestic temple of the Sun +contains three megaliths almost as huge as the one represented in the +illustration. They are the largest blocks known to have been used in any +structure. For a long time they were supposed to be relics of giant +builders.] + +ROMANIZATION OF EAST AND WEST + +The civilized world took on the stamp and impress of Rome. The East, +indeed, remained Greek in language and feeling, but even there Roman law +and government prevailed, Roman roads traced their unerring course, and +Roman architects erected majestic monuments. The West became completely +Roman. North Africa, Spain, Gaul, distant Dacia, and Britain were the +seats of populous cities, where the Latin language was spoken and Roman +customs were followed. From them came the emperors. They furnished some of +the most eminent men of letters. Their schools of grammar and rhetoric +attracted students from Rome itself. Thus unconsciously, but none the less +surely, local habits and manners, national religions and tongues, +provincial institutions and ways of thinking disappeared from the ancient +world. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the additions to Roman territory: during the +reign of Augustus, 31 B.C.-14 A.D.; during the period 14-180 A.D. + +2. On an outline map indicate ten important cities of the Roman Empire. + +3. Connect the proper events with the following dates: 79 A.D.; 180 A.D.; +and 14 A.D. + +4. Whom do you consider the greater man, Julius Caesar or Augustus? Give +reasons for your answer. + +5. Compare the Augustan Age at Rome with the Age of Pericles at Athens. + +6. What is the _Monumentum Ancyranum_ and its historic importance +(illustration Monumentum Ancyranum, section 66. Augustus, 31 B.C.-l4 A.D., +topic The Augustan Age)? + +7. How did the worship of the Caesars connect itself with ancestor +worship? + +8. In the reign of what Roman emperor was Jesus born? In whose reign was +he crucified? + +9. How did the "year of anarchy" after Nero's death exhibit a weakness in +the imperial system? + +10. How many provinces existed under Trajan? + +11. What modern countries are included within the limits of the Roman +Empire in the age of Trajan? + +12. Compare the extent of the Roman Empire under Trajan with (a) the +empire of Alexander; and (b) the empire of Darius. + +13. Give the Roman names of Spain, Italy, Gaul, Germany, Britain, +Scotland, and Ireland. + +14. Contrast the Roman armies under the empire with the standing armies of +modern Europe. + +15. Trace on the map, page 205, the Roman roads in Britain. + +16. "To the Roman city the empire was political death; to the provinces it +was the beginning of new life." Comment on this statement. + +17. Why should Rome have made a greater success of her imperial policy +than either Athens or Sparta? + +18. Compare Roman liberality in extending the franchise with the similar +policy displayed by the United States. + +19. Compare the freedom of trade between the provinces of the Roman Empire +with that between the states of the American Union. + +20. On the map, page 48, trace the trade routes during imperial times. + +21. Compare as civilizing forces the Roman and the Persian empires. + +22. What was the _Pax Romana_? What is the _Pax Britannica_? + +23. Compare the Romanization of the ancient world with that process of +Americanization which is going on in the United States to-day. + +24. Explain this statement: "The Roman Empire is the lake in which all the +streams of ancient history lose themselves and which all the streams of +modern history flow out of." + +25. "Republican Rome had little to do, either by precept or example, with +the modern life of Europe, Imperial Rome everything." Can you justify this +statement? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter xix, "The Makers of +Imperial Rome: Character Sketches by Suetonius"; chapter xx, "Nero, a +Roman Emperor." + +[2] Hence our word "prince". + +[3] See page 184. + +[4] The provinces of Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia. See the map facing +page 184. + +[5] See page 187. + +[6] For a description of ancient Rome see pages 292-296. + +[7] Jesus was born probably in 4 B.C., the last year of the reign of +Herod, whom the triumvirs, Antony and Octavian, had placed on the throne +of Judea in 37 B.C. + +[8] A Roman emperor was generally called "Caesar" by the provincials. See, +for example, _Matthew_, xxii, 17-21, or _Acts_, xxv, 10-12. This title +survives in the German _Kaiser_ and perhaps in the Russian _Tsar_ or +_Czar_. + +[9] In 131 A.D., during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, the Jews once +more broke out in revolt. Jerusalem, which had risen from its ruins, was +again destroyed by the Romans, and the plow was passed over the +foundations of the Temple. From Roman times to the present the Jews have +been a people without a country. + +[10] See Bulwer-Lytton's novel, _The Last Days of Pompeii_. + +[11] See the map on page 205 for the system of Roman roads in Britain. + +[12] See page 200. + +[13] Pliny, _Natural History_, xxvii, 1. + +[14] See page 179. + +[15] See page 187. + +[16] See _Acts_, XXV, 9-12. + +[17] See page 151. + +[18] _Institutes_, bk. i, tit. i. + +[19] See page 331. + +[20] See page 127. + +[21] Several English cities, such as Lancaster, Leicester, Manchester, and +Chester, betray in their names their origin in the Roman castra, or camp. + +[22] See page 149. + +[23] For illustrations of Roman coins see the plate facing page 134. + +[24] See the map on page 48. + +[25] See page 107. + +[26] Latin _collegia_, whence our "college." + +[27] See pages 263 and 285. + +[28] See page 183. + +[29] See page 267. + +[30] Seneca, _Minor Dialogues_, XI, 7. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE LATER EMPIRE: CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN WORLD, 180-395 A.D. + + +74. THE "SOLDIER EMPERORS," 180-284 A.D. + +THE LATER EMPIRE, 180-395 A.D. + +The period called the Later Empire covers the two hundred and fifteen +years from the accession of Commodus to the final division of the Roman +world at the death of Theodosius. It formed, in general, a period of +decline. The very existence of the empire was threatened, both from within +and from without. The armies on the frontiers often set up their favorite +leaders as contestants for the throne, thus provoking civil war. Ambitious +governors of distant provinces sometimes revolted against a weak or +unpopular emperor and tried to establish independent states. The Germans +took advantage of the unsettled condition of affairs to make constant +inroads. About the middle of the third century it became necessary to +surrender to them the great province of Dacia, which Trajan had won. [1] A +serious danger also appeared in the distant East. Here the Persians, +having overcome the Parthians, [2] endeavored to recover from Roman hands +the Asiatic provinces which had once belonged to the old Persian realm. +Though the Persians failed to make any permanent conquest of Roman +territory, their constant attacks weakened the empire at the very time +when the northern barbarians had again become a menace. + +"IMPERIAL PHANTOMS" + +The rulers who occupied the throne during the first half of this troubled +period are commonly known as the "Soldier Emperors," because so many of +them owed their position to the swords of the legionaries. Emperor after +emperor followed in quick succession, to enjoy a brief reign and then to +perish in some sudden insurrection. Within a single year (237-238 A.D.) +six rulers were chosen, worshiped, and then murdered by their troops "You +little know," said one of these imperial phantoms, "what a poor thing it +is to be an emperor." [3] + +POLITICAL SITUATION IN 284 A.D. + +The close of the third century thus found the empire engaged in a struggle +for existence. No part of the Roman world had escaped the ravages of war. +The fortification of the capital city by the emperor Aurelian was itself a +testimony to the altered condition of affairs. The situation was +desperate, yet not hopeless. Under an able ruler, such as Aurelian, Rome +proved to be still strong enough to repel her foes. It was the work of the +even more capable Diocletian to establish the empire on so solid a +foundation that it endured with almost undiminished strength for another +hundred years. + +[Illustration: THE WALL OF ROME +Constructed by Aurelian and rebuilt by Honorius. The material is concrete +faced with brick, thickness 13 feet, greatest height 58 feet. This is +still the wall of the modern city, although at present no effort is made +to keep it in repair.] + + +75. THE "ABSOLUTE EMPERORS," 284-395 A.D. + +REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN, 284-305 A.D. + +Diocletian, whose reign is one of the most illustrious in Roman history, +entered the army as a common soldier, rose to high command, and fought his +way to the throne. A strong, ambitious man, Diocletian resolutely set +himself to the task of remaking the Roman government. His success in this +undertaking entitles him to rank, as a statesman and administrator, with +Augustus. + +WEAKNESSES IN THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM + +The reforms of Diocletian were meant to remedy those weaknesses in the +imperial system disclosed by the disasters of the preceding century. In +the first place, experience showed that the empire was unwieldy. There +were the distant frontiers on the Rhine, Danube, and Euphrates to be +guarded; there were all the provinces to be governed. A single ruler, +however able and energetic, had more than he could do. In the second +place, the succession to the imperial throne was uncertain. Now an emperor +named his successor, now the Senate elected him, and now the swords of the +legionaries raised him to the purple. Such an unsettled state of affairs +constantly invited those struggles between rival pretenders which had so +nearly brought the empire to destruction. + +DIOCLETIAN'S REFORMS + +Diocletian began his reforms by adopting a scheme for "partnership +emperors." He shared the Roman world with a trusted lieutenant named +Maximian. Each was to be an Augustus, with all the honors of an emperor. +Diocletian ruled the East; Maximian ruled the West. Further partnership +soon seemed advisable, and so each _Augustus_ chose a younger associate, +or _Caesar_, to aid him in the government and at his death or abdication +to become his heir. Diocletian also remodeled the provincial system. The +entire empire, including Italy, was divided into more than one hundred +provinces. They were grouped into thirteen dioceses and these, in turn, +into four prefectures. [4] This reform much lessened the authority of the +provincial governor, who now ruled over a small district and had to obey +the vicar of his diocese. + +THE NEW ABSOLUTISM + +The emperors, from Diocletian onward, were autocrats. They bore the proud +title of _Dominus_ ("Lord"). They were treated as gods. Everything that +touched their persons was sacred. They wore a diadem of pearls and +gorgeous robes of silk and gold, like those of Asiatic monarchs. They +filled their palaces with a crowd of fawning, flattering nobles, and +busied themselves with an endless round of stately and impressive +ceremonials. Hitherto a Roman emperor had been an _imperator_, [5] the +head of an army. Now he became a king, to be greeted, not with the old +military salute, but with the bent knee and the prostrate form of +adoration. Such pomps and vanities, which former Romans would have thought +degrading, helped to inspire reverence among the servile subjects of a +later age. If it was the aim of Augustus to disguise, it was the aim of +Diocletian to display, the unbounded power of a Roman emperor. + +CONSTANTINE, SOLE EMPEROR, 324-337 A.D. + +There can be little doubt that Diocletian's reforms helped to prolong the +existence of the empire. In one respect, however, they must be pronounced +a failure. They did not end the disputes about the succession. Only two +years after the abdication of Diocletian there were six rival pretenders +for the title of _Augustus_. Their dreary struggles continued, until at +length two emperors were left--Constantine in the West, Licinius in the +East. After a few years of joint rule another civil war made Constantine +supreme. The Roman world again had a single master. + +REIGN OF CONSTANTINE + +Constantine was an able general and a wise statesman. Two events of +lasting importance have made his reign memorable. It was Constantine who +recognized Christianity as one of the religions of the empire and thus +paved the way for the triumph of that faith over the ancient paganism. His +work in this connection will be discussed presently. It was Constantine, +also, who established a new capital for the Roman world at Byzantium [6] +on the Bosporus. He christened it "New Rome," but it soon took the +emperor's name as Constantinople, the "City of Constantine." [7] + +FOUNDATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE + +Several good reasons could be urged for the removal of the world's +metropolis from the Tiber to the Bosporus. The Roman Empire was ceasing to +be one empire. Constantine wanted a great city for the eastern half to +balance Rome in the western half. Again, Constantinople, far more than +Rome, was the military center of the empire. Rome lay too far from the +vulnerable frontiers; Constantinople occupied a position about equidistant +from the Germans on the lower Danube and the Persians on the Euphrates. +Finally, Constantine believed that Christianity, which he wished to become +the prevailing religion, would encounter less opposition and criticism in +his new city than at Rome, with its pagan atmosphere and traditions. +Constantinople was to be not simply a new seat of government but also +distinctively a Christian capital. Such it remained for more than eleven +centuries. [8] + +AFTER CONSTANTINE, 337-395 A.D. + +After the death of Constantine the Roman world again entered on a period +of disorder. The inroads of the Germans across the Danube and the Rhine +threatened the European provinces of the empire with dissolution. The +outlook in the Asiatic provinces, overrun by the Persians, was no less +gloomy. Meanwhile the eastern and western halves of the empire tended more +and more to grow apart. The separation between the two had become well +marked by the close of the fourth century. After the death of the emperor +Theodosius (395 A.D.) there came to be in fact, if not in name, a Roman +Empire in the East and a Roman Empire in the West. + +POLITICAL SITUATION IN 395 A.D. + +More than four hundred years had now elapsed since the battle of Actium +made Octavian supreme in the Roman world. If we except the abandonment of +Trajan's conquests beyond the Danube and the Euphrates, [9] no part of the +huge empire had as yet succumbed to its enemies. The subject peoples, +during these four centuries, had not tried to overthrow the empire or to +withdraw from its protection. The Roman state, men believed, would endure +forever. Yet the times were drawing nigh when the old order of things was +to be broken up; when barbarian invaders were to seize the fairest +provinces as their own; and when new kingdoms, ruled by men of Germanic +speech, were to arise in lands that once obeyed Rome. + + +76. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN THE THIRD AND FOURTH CENTURIES + +THE "FALL" OF ROME + +Rome, it has been said, was not built in a day; the rule of Rome was not +destroyed in a day. When we speak of the "fall" of Rome, we have in mind, +not a violent catastrophe which suddenly plunged the civilized world into +ruin, but rather the slow and gradual decay of ancient society throughout +the basin of the Mediterranean. This decay set in long before the Germans +and the Persians became a serious danger to the empire. It would have +continued, doubtless, had there been no Germans and Persians to break +through the frontiers and destroy. The truth seems to be that, during the +third and fourth centuries of our era, classical civilization, like an +overtrained athlete, had grown "stale." + +DEPOPULATION DUE TO THE SLAVE SYSTEM + +It is not possible to set forth all the forces which century after century +had been sapping the strength of the state. The most obvious element of +weakness was the want of men to fill the armies and to cultivate the +fields. The slave system seems to have been partly responsible for this +depopulation. The peasant on his little homestead could not compete with +the wealthy noble whose vast estates were worked by gangs of slaves. The +artisan could not support himself and his family on the pittance that kept +his slave competitor alive. Peasants and artisans gradually drifted into +the cities, where the public distributions of grain, wine, and oil assured +them of a living with little expense and almost without exertion. In both +Italy and the provinces there was a serious decline in the number of free +farmers and free workingmen. + +"RACE SUICIDE" + +But slavery was not the only cause of depopulation. There was a great deal +of what has been called "race suicide" in the old Roman world. Well-to-do +people, who could easily support large families, often refused to be +burdened with them. Childlessness, however, was not confined to the +wealthy, since the poorer classes, crowded in the huge lodging houses of +the cities, had no real family life. Roman emperors, who saw how difficult +it was to get a sufficient number of recruits for the army, and how whole +districts were going to waste for lack of people to cultivate them, tried +to repopulate the empire by force of law. They imposed penalties for the +childlessness and celibacy of the rich, and founded institutions for the +rearing of children, that the poor might not fear to raise large families. +Such measures were scarcely successful. "Race suicide" continued during +pagan times and even during the Christian age. + +LOSS OF REVENUES + +The next most obvious element of weakness was the shrinkage of the +revenues. The empire suffered from want of money, as well as from want of +men. To meet the heavy cost of the luxurious court, to pay the salaries of +the swarms of public officials, to support the idle populace in the great +cities required a vast annual income. But just when public expenditures +were rising by leaps and bounds, it became harder and harder to secure +sufficient revenue. Smaller numbers meant fewer taxpayers. Fewer taxpayers +meant a heavier burden on those who survived to pay. + +ECONOMIC RUIN + +These two forces--the decline in population and the decline in wealth-- +worked together to produce economic ruin. It is no wonder, therefore, that +in province after province large tracts of land went out of cultivation, +that the towns decayed, and that commerce and manufactures suffered an +appalling decline. "Hard times" settled on the Roman world. + +INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY + +Doubtless still other forces were at work to weaken the state and make it +incapable of further resistance to the barbarians. Among such forces we +must reckon Christianity itself. By the close of the fourth century +Christianity had become the religion of the empire. The new faith, as we +shall soon see, helped, not to support, but rather to undermine, pagan +society. + + +77. THE PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY + +DECLINE OF PAGANISM + +Several centuries before the rise of Christianity many Greek thinkers +began to feel a growing dissatisfaction with the crude faith that had come +down to them from prehistoric times. They found it more and more difficult +to believe in the Olympian deities, who were fashioned like themselves and +had all the faults of mortal men. [10] An adulterous Zeus, a bloodthirsty +Ares, and a scolding Hera, as Homer represents them, were hardly +divinities that a cultured Greek could love and worship. For educated +Romans, also, the rites and ceremonies of the ancient religion came +gradually to lose their meaning. The worship of the Roman gods had never +appealed to the emotions. Now it tended to pass into the mere mechanical +repetition of prayers and sacrifices. Even the worship of the Caesars, +[11] which did much to hold the empire together, failed to satisfy the +spiritual wants of mankind. It made no appeal to the moral nature; it +brought no message, either of fear or hope, about a future world and a +life beyond the grave. + +STOICISM + +During these centuries a system of Greek philosophy, called Stoicism, +gained many adherents among the Romans. Any one who will read the Stoic +writings, such as those of the noble emperor, Marcus Aurelius, [12] will +see how nearly Christian was the Stoic faith. It urged men to forgive +injuries--to "bear and forbear." It preached the brotherhood of man. It +expressed a humble and unfaltering reliance on a divine Providence. To +many persons of refinement Stoicism became a real religion. But since +Stoic philosophy could reach and influence only the educated classes, it +could not become a religion for all sorts and conditions of men. + +THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES + +Many Greeks found a partial satisfaction of their religious longings in +secret rites called mysteries. Of these the most important grew up at +Eleusis, [13] a little Attic town thirteen miles from Athens. They were +connected with the worship of Demeter, goddess of vegetation and of the +life of nature. The celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries came in +September and lasted nine days. When the candidates for admission to the +secret rites were worked up to a state of religious excitement, they +entered a brilliantly lighted hall and witnessed a passion play dealing +with the legend of Demeter. They seem to have had no direct moral +instruction but saw, instead, living pictures and pantomimes which +represented the life beyond the grave and held out to them the promise of +a blessed lot in another world. As an Athenian orator said, "Those who +have shared this initiation possess sweeter hopes about death and about +the whole of life." [14] + +INFLUENCE OF THE MYSTERIES + +The Eleusinian mysteries, though unknown in the Homeric Age, were already +popular before the epoch of the Persian wars. They became a Panhellenic +festival open to all Greeks, women as well as men, slaves as well as +freemen. The privilege of membership was later extended to Romans. During +the first centuries of our era the influence of the mysteries increased, +as faith in the Olympian religion declined. They formed one of the last +strongholds of paganism and endured till the triumph of Christianity in +the Roman world. + +ORIENTAL RELIGIONS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE + +The Asiatic conquests of Alexander, followed in later centuries by the +extension of Roman rule over the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, +brought the classical peoples into contact with new religions which had +arisen in the Orient. Slaves, soldiers, traders, and travelers carried the +eastern faiths to the West, where they speedily won many followers. Even +before the downfall of the republic the deities of Asia Minor, Egypt, and +Persia had found a home at Rome. Under the empire many men and women were +attracted to their worship. + +MITHRA + +Perhaps the most remarkable of the Asiatic religions was Mithraism. Mithra +first appears as a Persian sun god, the leader of Ahuramazda's hosts in +the ceaseless struggle against the forces of darkness and evil. [15] As a +god of light Mithra was also a god of truth and purity. His worship, +spreading over the length and breadth of the Roman Empire, became the +noblest of all pagan faiths. Men saw in Mithra a Lord and Giver of Life, +who protected the weak and miserable, cleansed the sinner, conquered +death, and procured for his faithful followers the crown of immortality. + +[Illustration: A MITHRAIC MONUMENT +A bas relief discovered in 1838 A.D. in a cave near Heidelberg, Germany. +The central group represents Mithra slaying the bull. The smaller reliefs +show scenes from the life of Mithra, including his birth from the rock and +his ascent to Ahuramazda.] + +THE WORSHIP OF MITHRA + +The Mithraic worship took the form of a mystery with seven grades, or +degrees, through which candidates passed by ordeals of initiation. The +rites included a kind of baptism with holy water, a sacrificial meal of +bread and wine, and daily litanies to the sun. Mithra was represented as a +youthful hero miraculously born from a rock at the dawn of day; for this +reason his worship was always conducted underground in natural or +artificial caves, or in cellars. At the back of one of these subterranean +temples would be often a picture of Mithra slaying a bull, and an +inscription: "To the Unconquerable Sun, to Mithra." [16] + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS + +The new Oriental religions all appealed to the emotions. They helped to +satisfy the spiritual wants of men and women, by dwelling on the need of +purification from sin and by holding forth the prospect of a happier life +beyond the tomb. It is not strange, therefore, that they penetrated every +province of the Roman Empire and flourished as late as the fourth century +of our era. Christianity had no more dangerous antagonists than the +followers of Mithra and other eastern divinities. + + +78. RISE AND SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY + +CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE JEWS + +Christianity rose among the Jews, for Jesus was a Jew and his disciples +were Jews. At the time of the death of Jesus [17] his immediate followers +numbered scarcely a Christianity hundred persons. The catastrophe of the +crucifixion struck them with sorrow and dismay. When, however, the +disciples came to believe in the resurrection of their master, a wonderful +impetus was given to the growth of the new religion. They now asserted +that Jesus was the true Messiah, or Christ, who by rising from the dead +had sealed the truth of his teachings. For several years after the +crucifixion, the disciples remained at Jerusalem, preaching and making +converts. The new doctrines met so much opposition on the part of Jewish +leaders in the capital city that the followers of Jesus withdrew to +Samaria, Damascus, and Antioch. In all these places there were large +Jewish communities, among whom Peter and his fellow apostles labored +zealously. + +[Illustration: Map, PALESTINE IN THE TIME OF CHRIST] + +[Illustration: MODERN JERUSALEM AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES] + +MISSIONARY LABORS OF PAUL + +Up to this time the new faith had been spread only among the Jews. The +first Christians did not neglect to keep up all the customs of the Jewish +religion. It was even doubted for a while whether any but Jews could +properly be allowed within the Christian fold. A new convert, Saul of +Tarsus, afterwards the Apostle Paul, did most to admit the Gentiles, or +pagans, to the privileges of the new religion. Though born a Jew, Paul had +been trained in the schools of Tarsus, a city of Asia Minor which was a +great center of Greek learning. He possessed a knowledge of Greek +philosophy, and particularly of Stoicism. This broad education helped to +make him an acceptable missionary to Greek-speaking peoples. During more +than thirty years of unceasing activity Paul established churches in Asia +Minor, Greece, Macedonia, and Italy. To many of these churches he wrote +the letters (epistles), which have found a place in the New Testament. So +large a part of the doctrines of Christianity has been derived from Paul's +writings that we may well speak of him as the second founder of the +Christian faith. + +[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD +The earliest known representation of Mary and the infant Jesus. The +prophet Isaiah is shown pointing to the new star. The picture dates from +about 200 A.D. and comes from the catacombs of St. Priscilla.] + +CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE GENTILES + +Christianity advanced with marvelous rapidity over the Roman world. At the +close of the first century there were Christians everywhere in Asia Minor. +The second century saw the establishment of flourishing churches in almost +every province of the empire. A hundred years later there were +missionaries along the Rhine, on the Danube frontier, and in distant +Britain. "We are but of yesterday," says a Christian writer, with +pardonable exaggeration, "yet we have filled all your places of resort-- +cities, islands, fortresses, towns, markets, the camp itself, the tribes, +town councils, the palace, the senate, and the forum, We have left to you +only the temples of your gods." [18] + +CONDITIONS FAVORING THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY + +Certain circumstances contributed to the success of this gigantic +missionary enterprise. Alexander's conquests in the East and those of Rome +in the West had done much to remove the barriers to intercourse between +nations. The spread of Greek and Latin as the common languages of the +Mediterranean world furnished a medium in which Christian speakers and +writers could be easily understood. The scattering of the Jews after the +destruction of Jerusalem [19] provided the Christians with an audience in +many cities of the empire. The early missionaries, such as Paul himself, +were often Roman citizens who enjoyed the protection of the Roman law and +profited by the ease of travel which the imperial rule had made possible. +At no other period in ancient history were conditions so favorable for the +rapid spread of a new religion. + +ORGANIZATION OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY + +While Christianity was conquering the world, the believers in its +doctrines were grouping themselves into communities or churches. Every +city had a congregation of Christian worshipers. [20] They met, not in +synagogues as did the Jews, but in private houses, where they sang hymns, +listened to readings from the Holy Scriptures, and partook of a +sacrificial meal in memory of the last supper of Jesus with his disciples. +Certain officers called presbyters, [21] or elders, were chosen to conduct +the services and instruct the converts. The chief presbyter received the +name of "overseer," or bishop. [22] Each church had also one or more +deacons, who visited the sick and relieved the wants of the poor. Every +Christian community thus formed a little brotherhood of earnest men and +women, united by common beliefs and common hopes. + +[Illustration: CHRIST, THE GOOD SHEPHERD (Imperial Museum, Constantinople) +This quaint, rude figure, found in an early Christian tomb in Asia Minor, +dates probably from the beginning of the third century. It is the oldest +known statue of Christ. He wears the coarse garb of an Oriental peasant; +his countenance is gentle and thoughtful; on his broad shoulders rests a +lamb.] + + +79. THE PERSECUTIONS + +HOSTILITY TOWARD THE CHRISTIANS + +The new religion from the start met popular disapproval. The early +Christians, who tried to keep themselves free from idolatry, were regarded +as very unsociable persons. They never appeared at public feasts and +entertainments. They would not join in the amusements of the circus or the +amphitheater. They refused to send their children to the schools. The +ordinary citizen could not understand such people. It is not surprising, +therefore, that they gained the evil name of "haters of mankind." + +SUPERSTITIOUS FEAR OF THE CHRISTIANS + +If the multitude despised the Christians, they sometimes feared them as +well. Strange stories circulated about the secret meetings of the +Christians, who at their sacrificial meal were declared to feast on +children. The Christians, too, were often looked upon as magicians who +caused all sorts of disasters. It was not difficult to excite the vicious +crowds of the larger cities to riots and disorders, in which many +followers of the new religion lost their lives. + +ANTAGONISM OF THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT + +Such outbursts of mob hatred were only occasional. There would have been +no organized, persistent attack, if the imperial government had not taken +a hand. Rome, which had treated so many other foreign faiths with careless +indifference or even with favor, which had tolerated the Jews and granted +to them special privileges of worship, made a deliberate effort to crush +Christianity. + +ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIANS TOWARD PAGANISM + +Rome entered on the persecutions because it saw in Christianity that which +threatened its own existence. The Christians declined to support the state +religion; they even condemned it unsparingly as sinful and idolatrous. The +Christians, moreover, would not worship the _genius_, or guardian spirit +of the emperor, and would not burn incense before his statue, which stood +in every town. Such a refusal to take what was really an oath of +allegiance was regarded as an act of rebellion. These feelings of +hostility to the Christians were strengthened by their unwillingness to +serve in the army and to swear by the pagan gods in courts of law. In +short, the members of this new sect must have appeared very unruly +subjects who, if allowed to become numerous enough, would endanger the +security of the government. + +DIOCLETIAN'S PERSECUTION, 303-311 A.D. + +As early as the beginning of the second century Roman officials began to +search out and punish Christians, wherever they were found. During the +third century the entire power of the imperial government was directed +against this outlawed sect. The persecution which began under Diocletian +was the last and most severe. With some interruptions it continued for +eight years. Only Gaul and Britain seem to have escaped its ravages. The +government began by burning the holy books of the Christians, by +destroying their churches, and by taking away their property. Members of +the hated faith lost their privileges as full Roman citizens. Then sterner +measures followed. The prisons were crowded with Christians. Those who +refused to recant and sacrifice to the emperor were thrown to wild animals +in the arena, stretched on the rack, or burned over a slow fire. Every +refinement of torture was practiced. Paganism, fighting for its existence, +left no means untried to root out a sect both despised and feared. + +THE MARTYRS + +The Christians joyfully suffered for their religion. They welcomed the +torture and death which would gain for them a heavenly crown. Those who +perished were called martyrs, that is, "witnesses." Even now the festal +day of a martyr is the day of his death. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE CATACOMBS +The catacombs of Rome are underground cemeteries in which the Christians +buried their dead. The bodies were laid in recesses in the walls of the +galleries or underneath the pavement. Several tiers of galleries (in one +instance as many as seven) lie one below the other. Their total length has +been estimated at no less than six hundred miles. The illustration shows a +small chamber, or cubiculum. The graves have been opened and the bodies +taken away.] + + +80. TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY + +CHRISTIANITY BECOMES A TOLERATED RELIGION + +Diocletian's persecution, which continued for several years after his +abdication, came to an end in 311 A.D. In that year Galerius, the ruler in +the East, published an edict which permitted the Christians to rebuild +their churches and worship undisturbed. It remained for the emperor +Constantine to take the next significant step. In 313 A.D. Constantine and +his colleague, Licinius, issued the Edict of Milan, which proclaimed for +the first time in history the noble principle of religious toleration. It +gave absolute freedom to every man to choose and follow the religion which +he deemed best suited to his needs. This edict placed the Christian faith +on an equality with paganism. + +CONSTANTINE'S CONVERSION + +The conversion of Constantine is one of the most important events in +ancient history. A Roman emperor, himself a god to the subjects of Rome, +became the worshiper of a crucified provincial of his empire. Constantine +favored the Christians throughput his reign. He surrounded himself with +Christian bishops, freed the clergy from taxation, and spent large sums in +building churches. One of his laws abolished the use of the cross as an +instrument of punishment. Another enactment required that magistrates, +city people, and artisans were to rest on Sunday. This was the first +"Sunday law." [23] + +[Illustration: THE LABARUM +The sacred military standard of the early Christian Roman emperors. First +adopted by Constantine. It consisted of a staff or lance with a purple +banner on a cross-bar. The two Greek letters XP (CHR) make a monogram of +the word Christ (Greek _Christos_).] + +CHURCH COUNCIL AT NICAEA, 325 A.D. + +Significant of the emperor's attitude toward Christianity was his action +in summoning all the bishops in the different provinces to a gathering at +Nicaea in Asia Minor. It was the first general council of the Church. The +principal work of the Council of Nicaea was the settlement of a great +dispute which had arisen over the nature of Christ. Some theologians +headed by Arius, a priest of Alexandria, maintained that Christ the Son, +having been created by God the Father, was necessarily inferior to him +Athanasius, another Alexandrian priest, opposed this view and held that +Christ was not a created being, but was in all ways equal to God. The +Council accepted the arguments of Athanasius, condemned Arius as a +heretic, and framed the Nicene Creed, which is still the accepted summary +of Christian doctrine. Though thrust out of the Church, Arianism lived to +flourish anew among the Germanic tribes, of which the majority were +converted to Christianity by Arian missionaries. + +[Illustration: ARCH OF CONSTANTINE +Erected at Rome in 315 A.D. to commemorate the victory of Constantine over +Maxentius. The monument consists of a central gateway and two smaller +arches flanked by detached columns in the Corinthian style. The arch is +decorated with four large statues in front of the upper story and also +with numerous sculptures in relief.] + +CHRISTIANITY BECOMES THE STATE RELIGION UNDER THEODOSIUS, 379-395 A.D. + +The recognition given to Christianity by Constantine helped immensely to +spread the new faith. The emperor Theodosius, whose services to the church +won him the title of "the Great," made Christianity the state religion. +Sacrifices to the pagan gods were forbidden, the temples were closed, and +their property was taken away. Those strongholds of the old paganism, the +Delphic oracle, the Olympian games, and the Eleusinian mysteries, were +abolished. Even the private worship of the household Lares and Penates +[24] was prohibited. Though paganism lingered for a century or more in the +country districts, it became extinct as a state religion by the end of the +fourth century. + +[Illustration: Map, THE GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE END OF THE FOURTH +CENTURY.] + + +81. CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY + +MORAL TEACHINGS OF CHRISTIANITY + +The new religion certainly helped to soften and refine manners by the +stress which it laid upon such "Christian" virtues as humility, +tenderness, and gentleness. By dwelling on the sanctity of human life, +Christianity did its best to repress the very common practice of suicide +as well as the frightful evil of infanticide. [25] It set its face sternly +against the obscenities of the theater and the cruelties of the +gladiatorial shows. [26] In these and other respects Christianity had much +to do with the improvement of ancient morals. + +SOCIAL TEACHINGS OF CHRISTIANITY + +Perhaps even more original contributions of Christianity to civilization +lay in its social teachings. The belief in the fatherhood of God implied a +corresponding belief in the brotherhood of man. This doctrine of the +equality of men had been expressed before by ancient philosophers, but +Christianity translated the precept into practice. In this way it helped +to improve the condition of slaves and, by favoring emancipation, even +tended to decrease slavery. [27] Christianity also laid much emphasis on +the virtue of charity and the duty of supporting all institutions which +aimed to relieve the lot of the poor, the sick, and the downtrodden. + +CHRISTIANITY AND THE GERMANS + +At the close of the fourth century the Germanic tribes living nearest the +frontiers had been visited by missionaries and had become converts to +Christianity. The fact that both Romans and Germans were Christians tended +to lessen the terrors of the invasions and to bring about a peaceful +fusion of the conquerors and the conquered. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the territories of the Roman Empire and +their division, 395 A D. + +2. What is the date of the accession of the emperor Commodus? of the +accession of Diocletian? of the death of Theodosius? of the Edict of +Milan? of the Council of Nicaea? + +3. What elements of weakness in the imperial system had been disclosed +during the century 180-284 A.D.? + +4. Explain Diocletian's plan of "partnership emperors." + +5. Define the terms _absolutism_ and _centralization_. Give an example of +a European country under a centralized administration; of a European +country under an absolute government. + +6. What are the advantages of local self-government over a centralized +government? + +7. "The emperor of the first century was a _Prince_, that is, 'first +citizen'; the emperor of the fourth century was a _Sultan_." Comment on +this statement. + +8. What arguments might have been made for and against the removal of the +capital to Constantinople? + +9. Enumerate the causes of the decline of population in imperial times. + +10. Show how an unwise system of taxation may work great economic injury. + +11. Give reasons for the decline of Greek and Roman paganism. + +12. Why should Mithraism have proved "the most formidable foe which +Christianity had to overcome"? + +13. Were any of the ancient religions missionary faiths? + +14. When and where was Jesus born? Who was king of Judea at the time? Were +the Jews independent of Rome during the lifetime of Jesus? + +15. Locate on the map, facing page 230, the three divisions of Palestine +at the time of Christ. + +16. To what cities of Asia Minor did Paul write his epistles, or letters? +To what other cities in the Roman Empire? + +17. What was the original meaning of the words "presbyter," "bishop," and +"deacon"? + +18. What is meant by calling the Church an episcopal organization? + +19. How can you explain the persecution of the Christians by an emperor so +great and good as Marcus Aurelius? + +20. What is the meaning of the word "martyr"? + +21. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Explain. + +22. Describe the _Labarum_ (illustration, page 235). + +23. What reasons suggest themselves as helping to explain the conversion +of the civilized world to Christianity? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] See page 200. + +[2] See pages 184, 194. + +[3] Vopiscus, _Saturninus_, 10. + +[4] The number and arrangement of these divisions varied somewhat during +the fourth century. See the map, between pages 222-223, for the system as +it existed about 395 A.D. + +[5] See page 186. + +[6] See page 88. + +[7] See the map, page 340. + +[8] Until the capture of the city by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 A.D. + +[9] See pages 200, 219. + +[10] See page 77. + +[11] See page 196. + +[12] See page 201. + +[13] See the map, page 107. + +[14] Isocrates, _Panegyricus_, 29. + +[15] See page 54. + +[16] _Soli Invicto Mithrae._ An interesting survival of Mithra worship is +the date of our festival of Christmas. The 25th of December was the day of +the great annual celebration in memory of the Persian deity. In 274 A.D. +the emperor Aurelian raised a gorgeous temple to the sun god in the Campus +Martius, dedicating it on the 25th of December, "the birthday of the +Unconquerable Sun." After the triumph of Christianity the day was still +honored, but henceforth as the anniversary of the birth of Christ. + +[17] The exact date of the crucifixion is unknown. It took place during +the reign of Tiberius, when Pontius Pilatus was procurator of Judea. + +[18] Tertullian, _Apology_, 37. + +[19] See page 199, note 1. + +[20] The meeting was called _ecclesia_ from the Greek word for "popular +assembly." Hence comes our word "ecclesiastical." + +[21] Whence the word "priest." + +[22] The word "bishop" comes from the Greek _episkopos_ and means, +literally, an "overseer." + +[23] It is highly doubtful, however, whether this legislation had any +reference to Christianity. More probably, Constantine was only adding the +day of the Sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in the +empire (see page 229, note 1) to the other holy days of the Roman +calendar. + +[24] See page 146. + +[25] See page 253. + +[26] See page 267. + +[27] See page 270. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GERMANS TO 476 A.D. [1] + + +82. GERMANY AND THE GERMANS + +PHYSICAL FEATURES OF GERMANY + +The Germans were an Indo-European people, as were their neighbors, the +Celts of Gaul and Britain. They had lived for many centuries in the wild +districts of central Europe north of the Alps and beyond the Danube and +the Rhine. This home land of the Germans in ancient times was cheerless +and unhealthy. Dense forests or extensive marshes covered the ground. The +atmosphere was heavy and humid; in summer clouds and mists brooded over +the country; and in winter it was covered with snow and ice. In such a +region everything was opposed to civilization. Hence the Germans, though a +gifted race, had not advanced as rapidly as the Greek and Italian peoples. + +THE GERMANS DESCRIBED BY THE ROMANS + +Our earliest notice of the Germans is found in the _Commentaries_ by +Julius Caesar, who twice invaded their country. About a century and a half +later the Roman historian, Tacitus, wrote a little book called Germany, +which gives an account of the people as they were before coming under the +influence of Rome and Christianity. Tacitus describes the Germans as +barbarians with many of the usual marks of barbarism. He speaks of their +giant size, their fierce, blue eyes, and their blonde or ruddy hair. These +physical traits made them seem especially terrible to the smaller and +darker Romans. He mentions their love of warfare, the fury of their onset +in battle, and the contempt which they had for wounds and even death +itself. When not fighting, they passed much of their time in the chase, +and still more time in sleep and gluttonous feasts. They were hard +drinkers, too, and so passionately fond of gambling that, when a man's +wealth was gone, he would even stake his liberty on a single game. In some +of these respects the Germans resembled our own Indian tribes. + +GERMAN MORALS + +On the other hand, the Germans had certain attractive qualities not always +found even among civilized peoples. They were hospitable to the stranger, +they respected their sworn word, they loved liberty and hated restraint. +Their chiefs, we are told, ruled rather by persuasion than by authority. +Above all, the Germans had a pure family life. "Almost alone among +barbarians," writes Tacitus, "they are content with one wife. No one in +Germany laughs at vice, nor is it the fashion to corrupt and be corrupted. +Good habits are here more effectual than good laws elsewhere." [2] The +Germans, then, were strong and brave, hardy, chaste, and free. + +PROGRESS OF THE GERMANS + +The Germans, during the three centuries between the time of Tacitus and +the beginning of the invasions, had advanced somewhat in civilization. +They were learning to live in towns instead of in rude villages, to read +and write, to make better weapons and clothes, to use money, and to enjoy +many Roman luxuries, such as wine, spices, and ornaments. They were +likewise uniting in great confederations of tribes, ruled by kings who +were able to lead them in migrations to other lands. + +[Illustration: RUNIC ALPHABET +The word "rune" comes from a Gothic word meaning a secret thing, a +mystery. To the primitive Germans it seemed a mysterious thing that +letters could be used to express thought. The art of writing with an +alphabet appears to have been introduced into Germanic Europe during the +first centuries of our era. Most Runic inscriptions have been found in +Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula.] + +REASONS FOR THE GERMANIC MIGRATIONS + +During this same period, also, the Germans increased rapidly in numbers. +Consequently it was a difficult matter for them to live by hunting and +fishing, or by such rude agriculture as their country allowed. They could +find additional land only in the fertile and well cultivated territories +of the Romans. It was this hunger for land, together with the love of +fighting and the desire for booty and adventure, which led to their +migrations. + +GROWING WEAKNESS OF ROME + +The German inroads were neither sudden, nor unexpected, nor new. Since the +days of Marius and of Julius Caesar not a century had passed without +witnessing some dangerous movement of the northern barbarians. Until the +close of the fourth century Rome had always held their swarming hordes at +bay. Nor were the invasions which at length destroyed the empire much more +formidable than those which had been repulsed many times before. Rome fell +because she could no longer resist with her earlier power. If the +barbarians were not growing stronger, the Romans themselves were steadily +growing weaker. The form of the empire was still the same, but it had lost +its vigor and its vitality. [3] + + +83. BREAKING OF THE DANUBE BARRIER + +THE GOTHS + +North of the Danube lived, near the close of the fourth century, a German +people called Visigoths, or West Goths. Their kinsmen, the Ostrogoths, or +East Goths, held the land north of the Black Sea between the Danube and +the Don. These two nations had been among the most dangerous enemies of +Rome. In the third century they made so many expeditions against the +eastern territories of the empire that Aurelian at last surrendered to the +Visigoths the great province of Dacia. [4] The barbarians now came in +contact with Roman civilization and began to lead more settled lives. Some +of them even accepted Christianity from Bishop Ulfilas, who translated the +Bible into the Gothic tongue. + +THE VISIGOTHS CROSS THE DANUBE, 376 A.D. + +The peaceful fusion of Goth and Roman might have gone on indefinitely but +for the sudden appearance in Europe of the Huns. They were a nomadic +people from central Asia. Entering Europe north of the Caspian Sea, the +Huns quickly subdued the Ostrogoths and compelled them to unite in an +attack upon their German kinsmen. Then the entire nation of Visigoths +crowded the banks of the Danube and begged the Roman authorities to allow +them to cross that river and place its broad waters between them and their +terrible foes. In an evil hour for Rome their prayer was granted. At +length two hundred thousand Gothic warriors, with their wives and +children, found a home on Roman soil. + +BATTLE OF ADRIANOPLE, 378 A.D. + +The settlement of such a host of barbarians within the frontier of the +empire was in itself a dangerous thing. The danger was increased by the +ill treatment which the immigrants received. The Roman officials robbed +them of their possessions, withheld the promised supplies of food, and +even tried to murder their leaders at a banquet. Finally, the Germans +broke out in open revolt. The emperor Valens misjudged their strength and +rashly gave them battle near Adrianople in Thrace. The once invincible +legions fell an easy prey to their foes, and the emperor himself perished. + +[Illustration: A PAGE OF THE GOTHIC GOSPELS (REDUCED) +A manuscript of Ulfilas's translation of the Bible forms one of the +treasures of the library of the university of Upsala, Sweden. It is +beautifully written in letters of gold and silver on parchment of a rich +purple dye. In making his version Ulfilas, who was himself a converted +Visigoth, generally indicated the Gothic sounds by means of the Greek +alphabet. He added, however, a few signs from the Runic alphabet, with +which the Germans were familiar.] + +RESULTS OF THE BATTLE + +The defeat at Adrianople is considered one of the few really decisive +battles in the world's history. It showed the barbarians that they could +face the Romans in open fight and beat them. And it broke, once for all, +the Danube barrier. Swarms of fighting men, Ostrogoths as well as +Visigoths, overran the provinces south of the Danube. The great ruler, +Theodosius, [5] saved the empire for a time by granting lands to the +Germans and by enrolling them in the army under the high-sounding title of +"allies." Until his death the Goths remained quiet--but it was only the +lull before the storm. + +ALARIC THE VISIGOTH + +Theodosius, "the friend of the Goths," died in 395 A.D., leaving the +defense of the Roman world to his weakling sons, Arcadius and Honorius. In +the same year the Visigoths raised one of their young nobles, named +Alaric, upon a shield and with joyful shouts acclaimed him as their king. +The Visigothic leader despised the service of Rome. His people, he +thought, should be masters, not servants. Alaric determined to lead them +into the very heart of the empire, where they might find fertile lands and +settle once for all. + +ALARIC IN GREECE AND ITALY + +Alaric at first fixed his attention on Constantinople. Realizing, at +length, how hopeless would be the siege of that great city, he turned +toward the west and descended upon Greece. The Germans marched unopposed +through the pass of Thermopylae and devastated central Greece, as the +Persians had done nearly nine centuries before. [6] Then the barbarians +entered the Peloponnesus, but were soon driven out by Stilicho, a German +chieftain who had risen to the command of the army of Honorius. Alaric +gave up Greece only to invade Italy. Before long the Goths crossed the +Julian Alps and entered the rich and defenseless valley of the Po. To meet +the crisis the legions were hastily called in, even from the distant +frontiers. Stilicho formed them into a powerful army, beat back the enemy, +and captured the Visigothic camp, filled with the spoil of Greek cities. +In the eyes of the Romans Stilicho seemed a second Marius, who had arisen +in an hour of peril to save Italy from its barbarian foes. [7] + +THE VISIGOTHS BEFORE ROME + +Alaric and his Goths had been repulsed; they had not been destroyed. +Beyond the Alps they were regaining their shattered strength and biding +their time. Their opportunity came soon enough, when Honorius caused +Stilicho to be put to death on a charge of plotting to seize the throne. +The accusation may have been true, but in killing Stilicho the emperor had +cut off his right hand with his left. Now that Stilicho was out of the +way, Alaric no longer feared to descend again on Italy. The Goths advanced +rapidly southward past Ravenna, where Honorius had shut himself up in +terror, and made straight for Rome. In 410 A.D., just eight hundred years +after the sack of the city by the Gauls, [8] Rome found the Germans within +her gates. + +SACK OF ROME BY THE VISIGOTHS, 410 A.D. + +The city for three days and nights was given up to pillage. Alaric, who +was a Christian, ordered his followers to respect the churches and their +property and to refrain from bloodshed. Though the city did not greatly +suffer, the moral effect of the disaster was immense. Rome the eternal, +the unconquerable, she who had taken captive all the world, was now +herself a captive. The pagans saw in this calamity the vengeance of the +ancient deities, who had been dishonored and driven from their shrines. +The Christians believed that God had sent a judgment on the Romans to +punish them for their sins. In either case the spell of Rome was forever +broken. + +KINGDOM OF THE VISIGOTHS, 415-711 A.D. + +From Rome Alaric led his hosts, laden with plunder, into southern Italy. +He may have intended to cross the Mediterranean and bring Africa under his +rule. The plan was never carried out, for the youthful chieftain died +suddenly, a victim to the Italian fever. After Alaric's death, the +barbarians made their way northward through Italy and settled in southern +Gaul and Spain. In these lands they founded an independent Visigothic +kingdom, the first to be created on Roman soil. + +[Illustration: Map, THE GERMANIC MIGRATIONS to 476 A.D.] + +ROMANIZATION OF THE VISIGOTHS + +The possessions of the Visigoths in Gaul were seized by their neighbors, +the Franks, in less than a century; [9] but the Gothic kingdom in Spain +had three hundred years of prosperous life. [10] The barbarian rulers +sought to preserve the institutions of Rome and to respect the rights of +their Roman subjects. Conquerors and conquered gradually blended into one +people, out of whom have grown the Spaniards of modern times. + + +84. BREAKING OF THE RHINE BARRIER + +THE GERMANS CROSS THE RHINE, 406 A.D. + +After the departure of the Visigoths Rome and Italy remained undisturbed +for nearly forty years. The western provinces were not so fortunate. At +the time of Alaric's first attack on Italy the legions along the Rhine had +been withdrawn to meet him, leaving the frontier unguarded. In 406 A.D., +four years before Alaric's sack of Rome, a vast company of Germans crossed +the Rhine and swept almost unopposed through Gaul. Some of these peoples +succeeded in establishing kingdoms for themselves on the ruins of the +empire. + +KINGDOM OF THE BURGUNDIANS, 443-534 A.D. + +The Burgundians settled on the upper Rhine and in the fertile valley of +the Rhone, in southeastern Gaul. Alter less than a century of independence +they were conquered by the Franks. [11] Their name, however, survives in +modern Burgundy. + +VANDAL KINGDOM IN NORTH AFRICA, 429-534 A.D. + +The Vandals settled first in Spain. The territory now called Andalusia +still preserves the memory of these barbarians. After the Visigothic +invasion of Spain the Vandals passed over to North Africa. They made +themselves masters of Carthage and soon conquered all the Roman province +of Africa. Their kingdom here lasted about one hundred years. [12] + +THE FRANKS IN NORTHERN GAUL + +While the Visigoths were finding a home in the districts north and south +of the Pyrenees, the Burgundians in the Rhone valley, and the Vandals in +Africa, still another Germanic people began to spread over northern Gaul. +They were the Franks, who had long held lands on both sides of the lower +Rhine. The Franks, unlike the other Germans, were not of a roving +disposition. They contented themselves with a gradual advance into Roman +territory. It was not until near the close of the fifth century that they +overthrew the Roman power in northern Gaul and began to form the Frankish +kingdom, out of which modern France has grown. + +THE ANGLES AND SAXONS IN BRITAIN, FROM 449 A.D. + +The troubled years of the fifth century saw also the beginning of the +Germanic conquest of Britain. The withdrawal of the legions from that +island left it defenseless, for the Celtic inhabitants were too weak to +defend themselves. Bands of savage Picts from Scotland swarmed over +Hadrian's Wall, attacking the Britons in the rear. Ireland sent forth the +no less savage Scots. The eastern coasts, at the same time, were +constantly exposed to raids by German pirates. The Britons, in their +extremity, adopted the old Roman practice of getting the barbarians to +fight for them. Bands of Jutes were invited over from Denmark in 449 A.D. +The Jutes forced back the Picts and then settled in Britain as conquerors. +Fresh swarms of invaders followed them, chiefly Angles from what is now +Schleswig-Holstein and Saxons from the neighborhood of the rivers Elbe and +Weser in northern Germany. The invaders subdued nearly all that part of +Britain that Rome had previously conquered. In this way the Angles and +Saxons became ancestors of the English people, and Engleland became +England. [13] + +POLITICAL SITUATION IN 451 A.D. + +By the middle of the fifth century the larger part of the Roman Empire in +the West had come under barbarian control. The Germans ruled in Africa, +Spain, Britain, and parts of Gaul. But now the new Germanic kingdoms, +together with what remained of the old empire, were threatened by a common +foe--the terrible Huns. + + +85. INROADS OF THE HUNS + +THE HUNS + +We know very little about the Huns, except that they were not related to +the Germans or to any other European people. Some scholars believe them to +have belonged to the Mongolian race. But the Huns, to the excited +imagination of Roman writers, were demons rather than men. Their olive +skins, little, turned-up noses, and black, beady eyes must have given them +a very frightful appearance. They spent most of their time on horseback, +sweeping over the country like a whirlwind and leaving destruction and +death in their wake. + +ATTILA THE HUN + +The Huns did not become dangerous to Rome for more than half a century +after their first appearance in Europe. [14] During this time they moved +into the Danube region and settled in the lands now known as Austria and +Hungary. At last the Huns found a national leader in Attila, "a man born +into the world to agitate the nations, the fear of all lands," [15] one +whose boast it was that the grass never grew again where his horse's hoofs +had trod. He quickly built up a great military power obeyed by many +barbarous nations from the Caspian to the Rhine. + +INVASION OF GAUL BY ATTILA + +Attila, from his capital on the Danube, could threaten both the East and +the West. The emperors at Constantinople bought him off with lavish gifts, +and so the robber-ruler turned to the western provinces for his prey. In +451 A.D. he led his motley host, said to number half a million men, across +the Rhine. Many a noble municipality with its still active Roman life was +visited by the Huns with fire and sword. Paris, it is worthy of note, +escaped destruction. That now famous city was then only a little village +on an island in the Seine. + +BATTLE OF CHÂLONS, 451 A.D. + +In this hour of danger Romans and Germans gave up quarreling and united +against the common foe. Visigoths under their native king hastened from +Spain; Burgundians and Franks joined their ranks; to these forces a German +general, named Aëtius, added the last Roman army in the West. Opposed to +them Attila had his Huns, the conquered Ostrogoths, and many other +barbarian peoples. The battle of Châlons has well been called a struggle +of the nations. It was one of the fiercest conflicts recorded in history. +On both sides thousands perished, but so many more of Attila's men fell +that he dared not risk a fresh encounter on the following day. He drew his +shattered forces together and retreated beyond the Rhine. + +ATTILA INVADES ITALY, 452 A.D. + +In spite of this setback Attila did not abandon the hope of conquest. The +next year he led his still formidable army over the Julian Alps and burned +or plundered many towns of northern Italy. A few trembling fugitives +sought shelter on the islands at the head of the Adriatic. Out of their +rude huts grew up in the Middle Ages splendid and famous Venice, a city +that in later centuries was to help defend Europe against those kinsmen of +the Huns, the Turks. + +DEATH OF ATTILA, 453 A.D. + +The fiery Hun did not long survive this Italian expedition. Within a year +he was dead, dying suddenly, it was said, in a drunken sleep. The great +confederacy which he had formed broke up after his death. The German +subjects gained their freedom, and the Huns themselves either withdrew to +their Asiatic wilds or mingled with the peoples they had conquered. Europe +breathed again; the nightmare was over. + + +86. END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST, 476 A.D. + +VANDAL PIRATES + +Rome escaped a visitation by the Huns only to fall a victim, three years +later, to the Vandals. After the capture of Carthage,[16] these barbarians +made that city the seat of a pirate empire. Putting out in their long, +light vessels, they swept the seas and raided many a populous city on the +Mediterranean coast. So terrible were their inroads that the word +"vandalism" has come to mean the wanton destruction of property. + +SACK OF ROME BY THE VANDALS, 455 A.D. + +In 455 A.D. the ships of the Vandals, led by their king, Gaiseric, +appeared at the mouth of the Tiber. The Romans could offer no resistance. +Only the noble bishop Leo went out with his clergy to meet the invader and +intercede for the city. Gaiseric promised to spare the lives of the +inhabitants and not to destroy the public buildings. These were the best +terms he would grant. The Vandals spent fourteen days stripping Rome of +her wealth. Besides shiploads of booty the Vandals took away thousands of +Romans as slaves, including the widow and two daughters of an emperor. + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST, 455-476 A.D. + +After the Vandal sack of Rome the imperial throne became the mere +plaything of the army and its leaders. A German commander, named Ricimer, +set up and deposed four puppet emperors within five years. He was, in +fact, the real ruler of Italy at this time. After his death Orestes, +another German general, went a step beyond Ricimer's policy and placed his +own son on the throne of the Caesars. By a curious coincidence, this lad +bore the name of Romulus, legendary founder of Rome, and the nickname of +Augustulus ("the little Augustus"). The boy emperor reigned less than a +year. The German troops clamored for a third of the lands of Italy and, +when their demand was refused, proclaimed Odoacer king. The poor little +emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was sent to a villa near Naples, where he +disappears from history. + +[Illustration: Map, EUROPE at the Deposition of Romulus Augustulus 476 +A.D.] + +POLITICAL SITUATION IN 476 A.D. + +There was now no emperor in the West. To the men of that time it seemed +that East and West had been once more joined under a single ruler, as in +the days of Constantine. The emperors who reigned at Constantinople did +not relinquish their claims to be regarded as the rightful sovereigns in +Italy and Rome. Nevertheless, as an actual fact, Roman rule in the West +was now all but extinct. Odoacer, the head of the barbarians in Italy, +ruled a kingdom as independent as that of the Vandals in Africa or that of +the Visigoths in Spain and Gaul. The date 476 A.D. may therefore be chosen +as marking, better than any other, the overthrow of the Roman Empire in +the West by the Germans. + + +87. GERMANIC INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GERMANIC INVASIONS + +Classical civilization suffered a great shock when the Germans descended +on the empire and from its provinces carved out their kingdoms. These +barbarians were rude in manners, were very ignorant, and had little taste +for anything except fighting and bodily enjoyments. They were unlike the +Romans in dress and habits of life. They lived under different laws, spoke +different languages, obeyed different rulers. Their invasions naturally +ushered in a long period of confusion and disorder, during which the new +race slowly raised itself to a level of culture somewhat approaching that +which the Greeks and the Romans had attained. + +RETROGRESSIVE FORCES + +The Germans in many ways did injury to classical civilization. They +sometimes destroyed Roman cities and killed or enslaved the inhabitants. +Even when the invaders settled peaceably in the empire, they took +possession of the land and set up their own tribal governments in place of +the Roman. They allowed aqueducts, bridges, and roads to go without +repairs, and theaters, baths, and other public buildings to sink into +ruins. Having no appreciation of education, the Germans failed to keep up +the schools, universities, and libraries. Being devoted chiefly to +agriculture, they had no need for foreign wares or costly articles of +luxury, and hence they permitted industry and commerce to languish. In +short, large parts of western Europe, particularly Gaul, Spain, and +Britain, fell backward into a condition of ignorance, superstition, and +even barbarism. + +PROGRESSIVE FORCES + +But in closing our survey of the Germanic invasions we need to dwell on +the forces that made for progress, rather than on those that made for +decline. Classical civilization, we have already found reason to believe, +[17] had begun to decay long before the Germans broke up the empire. The +Germans came, as Christianity had come, only to hasten the process of +decay. Each of these influences, in turn, worked to build up the fabric of +a new society on the ruins of the old. First Christianity infused the +pagan world with its quickening spirit and gave a new religion to mankind. +Later followed the Germans, who accepted Christianity, who adopted much of +Graeco-Roman culture, and then contributed their fresh blood and youthful +minds and their own vigorous life. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the extent of Germany in the time of +Tacitus. + +2. Make a list of all the Germanic nations mentioned in this chapter, and +give a short account of each. + +3 Give dates for the following: battle of Châlons; sack of Rome by Alaric; +battle of Adrianople; and end of the Roman Empire in the West. + +4. What resemblances existed between the culture of the Germans and that +of the early Greeks? + +5. Why did the Germans progress more slowly in civilization than the +Greeks and the Romans? + +6. Comment on this statement: "The Germans had stolen their way into the +very citadel of the empire long before its distant outworks were stormed." + +7. Why is modern civilization, unlike that of antiquity, in little danger +from barbarians? + +8. Why has the battle of Adrianople been called "the Cannae of the fourth +century"? + +9. Why has Alaric been styled "the Moses of the Visigoths"? + +10. What is the origin of the geographical names Andalusia, Burgundy, +England, and France? + +11. Why was Attila called the "scourge of God"? + +12. Can you suggest a reason why some historians do not regard Châlons as +one of the world's decisive battles? + +13. In what sense does the date, 476 A.D., mark the "fall" of the Roman +Empire? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter xxiii, "The Germans as +Described by Tacitus." + +[2] Tacitus, _Germania_, 19. + +[3] See pages 224-226. + +[4] See page 219. + +[5] See page 223. + +[6] See page 98. + +[7] See page 178. + +[8] See page 153. + +[9] See page 303. + +[10] See page 378. + +[11] See page 303. + +[12] See page 330. + +[13] The invasion of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was followed by the +migration across the Channel of large numbers of the defeated islanders. +The district in France where they settled is called after them, Brittany. + +[14] See page 241. + +[15] Jordanes, _De rebus Geticis_, 35. + +[16] See page 225. + +[17] See page 224. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION [1] + + +88. THE CLASSICAL CITY + +THE CENTER OF CLASSICAL LIFE + +The history of the Greeks and Romans ought not to be studied only in their +political development and the biographies of their great statesmen and +warriors. We must also know something of ancient literature, philosophy, +and art. Especially do we need to learn about the private life of the +classical peoples--their manners, customs, occupations, and amusements. +This life centered in the city. + +ORIGIN OF THE CITY + +A Greek or a Roman city usually grew up about a hill of refuge +(_acropolis, capitolium_), to which the people of the surrounding district +could flee in time of danger. The hill would be crowned with a fortress +and the temples of the gods. Not far away was the market place (_agora, +forum_), where the people gathered to conduct their business and to enjoy +social intercourse. About the citadel and market place were grouped the +narrow streets and low houses of the town. + +GENERAL APPEARANCE OF AN ANCIENT CITY + +The largest and most beautiful buildings in an ancient city were always +the temples, colonnades, and other public structures. The houses of +private individuals, for the most part, had few pretensions to beauty. +They were insignificant in appearance and were often built with only one +story. From a distance, however, their whitewashed walls and red-tiled +roofs, shining brightly under the warm sun, must have made an attractive +picture. + +LIFE IN THE CITY + +To the free-born inhabitant of Athens or of Rome his city was at once his +country and his church, his club and his home. He shared in its +government; he took part in the stately ceremonies that honored its patron +god; in the city he could indulge his taste for talking and for politics; +here he found both safety and society. No wonder that an Athenian or a +Roman learned, from early childhood, to love his city with passionate +devotion. + + +89. EDUCATION AND THE CONDITION OF CHILDREN + +IMPORTANCE OF MALE CHILDREN + +The coming of a child, to parents in antiquity as to parents now, was +usually a very happy event. Especially welcome was the birth of a son. The +father felt assured that through the boy his old age would be cared for +and that the family name and the worship of the family ancestors would be +kept up after his own death. "Male children," said an ancient poet, "are +the pillars of the house." [2] The city, as well, had an interest in the +matter, for a male child meant another citizen able to take the father's +place in the army and the public assembly. To have no children was +regarded as one of the greatest calamities that could befall a Greek or a +Roman. + +INFANTICIDE + +The ancient attitude toward children was in one respect very unlike our +own. The law allowed a father to do whatever he pleased with a newly born +child. If he was very poor, or if his child was deformed, he could expose +it in some desert spot, where it soon died. An infant was sometimes placed +secretly in a temple, where possibly some kind-hearted person might rescue +it. The child, in this case, became the slave of its adopter. This custom +of exposure, an inheritance from prehistoric savagery, tended to grow less +common with advancing culture. The complete abolition of infanticide was +due to the spread of Christian teachings about the sacredness of human +life. [3] + +NAMES + +A Greek boy generally had but one name. The favorite name for the eldest +son was that of his paternal grandfather. A father, however, might give +him his own name or that of an intimate friend. The Romans at first seem +to have used only the one name, then two were given; and later we have the +familiar three-fold name, representing the individual, the clan, and the +family. [4] + +GREEK EDUCATION + +Greek education consisted of three main branches, known as gymnastics, +music, and grammar. By gymnastics the Greeks meant the physical training +in the palestra, an open stretch of ground on the outskirts of the city. +Here a private teacher gave instruction in the various athletic sports +which were so popular at the national games. The training in music was +intended to improve the moral nature of young men and to fit them for +pleasant social intercourse. They were taught to play a stringed +instrument, called the lyre, and at the same time to sing to their own +accompaniment. Grammar, the third branch of education, included +instruction in writing and the reading of the national literature. After a +boy had learned to write and to read, the schoolmaster took up with him +the works of the epic poets, especially Homer, besides _Aesop's Fables_ +and other popular compositions. The student learned by heart much of the +poetry and at so early an age that he always remembered it. Not a few +Athenians, it is said, could recite the entire _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_. + +[Illustration: AN ATHENIAN SCHOOL (Royal Museum, Berlin) +A painting by Duris on a drinking-cup, or cylix. The picture is divided by +the two handles. In the upper half, beginning at the left: a youth playing +the double flute as a lesson to the boy before him; a teacher holding a +tablet and stylus and correcting a composition; a slave (_paedagogus_), +who accompanied the children to and from school. In the lower half: a +master teaching his pupil to play the lyre; a teacher holding a half- +opened roll, listening to a recitation by the student before him; a +bearded _paedagogus_. The inner picture, badly damaged, represents a youth +in a bath.] + +ROMAN EDUCATION + +A Roman boy began his school days at about the age of seven. He learned to +read, to write with a stylus on wax tablets, and to cipher by means of the +reckoning board, or abacus. He received a little instruction in singing +and memorized all sorts of proverbs and maxims, besides the laws of the +Twelve Tables. [5] His studying went on under the watchful eyes of a harsh +schoolmaster, who did not hesitate to use the rod. After Rome began to +come into close contact with Greece, the curriculum was enlarged by the +study of literature. The Romans were the first people who made the +learning of a foreign tongue an essential part of education. Schools now +arose in which the Greek language and literature formed the chief subject +of instruction. As Latin literature came into being, its productions, +especially the orations of Cicero and the poems of Vergil and Horace, were +also used as texts for study. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN SCHOOL SCENE +Wall painting, Herculaneum.] + +[Illustration: YOUTH READING A PAPYRUS ROLL +Relief on a sarcophagus. The papyrus roll was sometimes very long. The +entire _Iliad_ or _Odyssey_ might be contained in a single manuscript +measuring one hundred and fifty feet in length. In the third century A.D. +the unwieldy roll began to give way to the tablet, composed of a number of +leaves held together by a ring. About this time, also, the use of vellum, +or parchment made of sheepskin, became common.] + +TRAVEL AND STUDY ABROAD + +Persons of wealth or noble birth might follow their school training by a +university course at a Greek city, such as Athens, Alexandria, or Rhodes. +Here the Roman youth would listen to lectures on philosophy, delivered by +the deep thinkers whom Greece still produced, and would profit by the +treasures of art and science preserved in these ancient capitals. Many +famous Romans thus passed several years abroad in graduate study. During +the imperial age, as we have already seen, [6] schools of grammar and +rhetoric arose in the West, particularly in Gaul and Spain, and attracted +students from all parts of the empire. + + +90. MARRIAGE AND THE POSITION OF WOMEN + +ENGAGEMENTS + +A young man in Athens or in Rome did not, as a rule, marry immediately on +coming of age. He might remain a bachelor for several years, sometimes +till he was thirty or over. The young man's father had most to do with the +selection of a wife. He tried to secure for his son some daughter of a +friend who possessed rank and property equal to his own. The parents of +the two parties would then enter into a contract which, among other +things, usually stated how large a dowry the bride's father was to settle +on his daughter. An engagement was usually very little a matter of romance +and very much a matter of business. + +WEDDING CUSTOMS + +The wedding customs of the Greeks and Romans presented many likenesses. +Marriage, among both peoples, was a religious ceremony. On the appointed +day the principals and their guests, dressed in holiday attire, met at the +house of the bride. In the case of a Roman wedding the auspices [7] were +then taken, and the words of the nuptial contract were pronounced in the +presence of witnesses. After a solemn sacrifice to the gods of marriage, +the guests partook of the wedding banquet. When night came on, the husband +brought his wife to her new abode, escorted by a procession of +torchbearers, musicians, and friends, who sang the happy wedding song. + +POSITION OF WOMEN + +An Athenian wife, during her younger years, always remained more or less a +prisoner. She could not go out except by permission. She took no part in +the banquets and entertainments which her husband gave. She lived a life +of confinement in that quarter of the house assigned to the women for +their special abode. Married women at Rome enjoyed a far more honorable +position. Although early custom placed the wife, together with her +children, in the power of the husband, [8] still she possessed many +privileges. She did not remain all the time at home, but mingled freely in +society. She was the friend and confidante of her husband, as well as his +housekeeper. During the great days of Roman history the women showed +themselves virtuous and dignified, loving wives and excellent companions. + + +91. THE HOME AND PRIVATE LIFE + +CLOTHING + +There were no great differences between the dress of the two classical +peoples. Both wore the long, loosely flowing robes that contrast so +sharply with our tight-fitting garments. [9] Athenian male attire +consisted of but two articles, the tunic and the mantle. The tunic was an +undergarment of wool or linen, without sleeves. Over this was thrown a +large woolen mantle, so wrapped about the figure as to leave free only the +right shoulder and head. In the house a man wore only his tunic; out of +doors and on the street he usually wore the mantle over it. Very similar +to the two main articles of Greek clothing were the Roman _tunica_ and +_toga_. [10] + +COVERING FOR THE HEAD AND FEET + +On a journey or out in the country broad-brimmed hats were used to shield +the head from the sun. In rainy weather the mantle, pulled up over the +head, furnished protection. Sandals, merely flat soles of wood or leather +fastened by thongs, were worn indoors, but even these were laid aside at a +dinner party. Outside the house leather shoes of various shapes and colors +were used. They cannot have been very comfortable, since stockings were +not known in antiquity. + +EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE + +The ancient house lay close to the street line. The exterior was plain and +simple to an extreme. The owner was satisfied if his mansion shut out the +noise and dust of the highway. He built it, therefore, round one or more +open courts, which took the place of windows supplying light and air. +Except for the doorway the front of the house presented a bare, blank +surface, only relieved by narrow slits or lattices in the wall of the +upper story. The street side of the house wall received a coating of +whitewash or of fine marble stucco. The roof of the house was covered with +clay tiles. This style of domestic architecture is still common in eastern +lands. + +[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE VETTII AT POMPEII (RESTORED) +Notice the large area of blank wall both on the front and on the side. The +front windows are very small and evidently of less importance for +admitting light than the openings of the two _atria_. At the back is seen +the large, well-lighted peristyle.] + +[Illustration: ATRIUM OF POMPEIAN HOUSE +The view shows the _atrium_ with the basin for rainwater, in the center +the _tabinum_ with its wall paintings, and the peristyle at the rear.] + +INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE + +In contrast with its unpretentious exterior a classical dwelling indoors +had a most attractive appearance. We cannot exactly determine just what +were the arrangements of a Greek interior. But the better class of Roman +houses, such as some of those excavated at Pompeii, [11] followed Greek +designs in many respects. The Pompeian remains, therefore, will give some +idea of the sort of residence occupied by a well-to-do citizen of Athens +or Rome. + +[Illustration: POMPEIAN FLOOR MOSAIC] + +THE ATRIUM + +The visitor at one of these ancient houses first entered a small +vestibule, from which a narrow passage led to the heavy oaken door. A dog +was sometimes kept chained in this hallway; in Pompeii there is a picture +of one worked in mosaic on the floor with the warning beneath it, "Beware +of the dog." Having made known his presence by using the knocker, the +guest was ushered into the reception room, or _atrium_. This was a large +apartment covered with a roof, except for a hole in the center admitting +light and air. A marble basin directly underneath caught the rain water +which came through the opening. The _atrium_ represents the single room of +the primitive Roman house without windows or chimney. [12] + +THE PERISTYLE + +A corridor from the _atrium_ led into the _peristyle_, the second of the +two main sections of a Roman house. It was a spacious court, open to the +sky and inclosed by a colonnade or portico. This delightful spot, rather +than the formal _atrium_, served as the center of family life. About it +were grouped the bedchambers, bathrooms, dining rooms, kitchen, and other +apartments of a comfortable mansion. Still other rooms occupied the upper +stories of the dwelling. + +BUSINESS OF THE FORENOON + +The ancient Athenian was no sluggard. At sunrise, or even before, he rose +from his couch, washed his face and hands, put on his scanty garments, and +was soon ready for the street. Before leaving the house, he broke his fast +with a meal as simple as the European "rolls and coffee"--in this case +merely a few mouthfuls of bread dipped in wine. After breakfast he might +call on his friends or perhaps ride into the country and visit his +estates. About ten o'clock (which the Athenians called "full market"), he +would be pretty sure to find his way to the Agora. The shops at this time +were crowded with purchasers, and every sociable citizen of Athens was to +be found in them or in the neighboring colonnades which lined the market +place. + +[Illustration: PERISTYLE OF A POMPEIAN HOUSE +House of the Vettii Pompeii. The peristyle, excavated in 1894-1895 A.D. +has been carefully restored. The garden, fountains, tables, and marble +colonnades are all modern] + +OCCUPATIONS IN THE AFTERNOON + +The public resorts were deserted at noon, when the Athenian returned home +to enjoy a light meal and a rest during the heat. As the day grew cooler, +men again went out and visited a gymnasium, such as the Lyceum or the +Academy, in the city suburbs. [13] Here were grounds for running, +wrestling, discus-throwing, and other sports, as well as rooms for bathing +and anointing. While the younger men busied themselves in such active +exercises, those of maturer years might be content with less vigorous +games or with conversation on political or philosophical themes. + +THE EVENING MEAL + +The principal meal of the day came about sunset. The master of the house, +if he had no guests, shared the repast with his wife and children. For a +man of moderate means the ordinary fare was very much what it is now in +Greece--bread, olives, figs, cheese, and a little meat as an occasional +luxury. At the end of the meal the diners refreshed themselves with wine +mixed with water. The Greeks appear to have been usually as temperate in +their drink as they were frugal in their food. The remainder of the +evening would be devoted to conversation and music and possibly a little +reading. As a rule the Athenian went early to bed. + +[Illustration: A GREEK BANQUET +From a vase painting by Duns.] + +MORNING ROUND OF A ROMAN NOBLE + +A Roman of the higher class, who lived in late republican or early +imperial times, passed through much the same daily routine as an Athenian +citizen in the days of Pericles. He rose at an early hour and after a +light breakfast dispatched his private business with the help of his +steward and manager. He then took his place in the _atrium_ to meet the +crowd of poor dependents who came to pay their respects to their patron +and to receive their usual morning alms--either food or sufficient money +to buy a modest dinner. Having greeted his visitors and perhaps helped +them in legal or business matters, the noble entered his litter and was +carried down to the Forum. Here he might attend the law courts to plead a +case for himself or for his clients. If he were a member of the Senate, he +would take part in the deliberations of that body. At eleven o'clock, when +the ordinary duties of the morning were over, he would return home to eat +his luncheon and enjoy the midday rest, or siesta. The practice of having +a nap in the heat of the day became so general that at noon the streets of +a Roman city had the same deserted appearance as at midnight. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN LITTER +The litter consists of an ordinary couch with four posts and a pair of +poles. Curtains fastened to the rod above the canopy shielded the occupant +from observation.] + +THE AFTERNOON EXERCISE AND BATH + +After an hour of refreshing sleep it was time for the regular exercise out +of doors in the Campus Martius or indoors at one of the large city baths. +Then came one of the chief pleasures of a Roman's existence--the daily +bath. It was taken ordinarily in one of the public bathing establishments, +or _thermae_, to be found in every Roman town. [14] A Roman bath was a +luxurious affair. After undressing, the bathers entered a warm anteroom +and sat for a time on benches, in order to perspire freely. This was a +precaution against the danger of passing too suddenly into the hot bath, +which was taken in a large tank of water sunk in the middle of the floor. +Then came an exhilarating cold plunge and anointing with perfumed oil. +Afterwards the bathers rested on the couches with which the resort was +supplied and passed the time in reading or conversation until the hour for +dinner. + +THE LATE DINNER + +The late dinner, with the Romans as with the Greeks, formed the principal +meal of the day. It was usually a social function. The host and his guests +reclined on couches arranged about a table. The Romans borrowed from the +Greeks the custom of ending a banquet with a symposium, or drinking-bout. +The tables were cleared of dishes, and the guests were anointed with +perfumes and crowned with garlands. During the banquet and the symposium +it was customary for professional performers to entertain the guests with +music, dancing, pantomimes, and feats of jugglery. + + +92. AMUSEMENTS + +ATHENIAN RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS + +The Athenians celebrated many religious festivals. One of the most +important was the Great Panathenaea, [15] held every fourth year in the +month of July. Athletic contests and poetical recitations, sacrifices, +feasts, and processions honored the goddess Athena, who presided over the +Athenian city. Even more interesting, perhaps, were the dramatic +performances held in midwinter and in spring, at the festivals of +Dionysus. The tragedies and comedies composed for these entertainments +took their place among the masterpieces of Greek literature. + +[Illustration: THEATER OF DIONYSUS, ATHENS +The theater of Dionysus where dramatic exhibitions were held lay close to +the south eastern angle of the Acropolis. The audience at first sat upon +wooden benches rising tier after tier on the adjacent hillside. About the +middle of the fourth century B.C. these were replaced by the stone seats +which are still to be seen. Sixteen thousand people could be accommodated +in this open air theater.] + +FEATURES OF A GREEK PLAY + +There is very little likeness between the ancient and the modern drama. +Greek plays were performed out of doors in the bright sunlight. Until late +Roman times it is unlikely that a raised stage existed. The three actors +and the members of the chorus appeared together in the dancing ring, or +orchestra. The performers were all men. Each actor might play several +parts. There was no elaborate scenery; the spectator had to rely chiefly +on his own imagination for the setting of the piece. The actors indulged +in few lively movements or gestures. They must have looked from a distance +like a group of majestic statues. All wore elaborate costumes, and tragic +actors, in addition, were made to appear larger than human with masks, +padding, and thick-soled boots, or buskins. The performances occupied the +three days of the Dionysiac festivals, beginning early in the morning and +lasting till night. All this time was necessary because they formed +contests for a prize which the people awarded to the poet and chorus whose +presentation was judged of highest excellence. + +[Illustration: A DANCING GIRL +A Greek bronze statuette found in a sunken galley off the coast of Tunis. +The galley had been wrecked while on its way to Rome carrying a load of +art objects to decorate the villas of wealthy nobles. This statuette was +doubtless a life-like copy of some well-known entertainer. The dancer's +pose suggests the American "cakewalk" and her costume, the modern "hobble +skirt."] + +PANTOMIME AND VAUDEVILLE AT ROME + +Pantomimes formed the staple amusement of the Roman theater. In these +performances a single dancer, by movements and gestures, represented +mythological scenes and love stories. The actor took several characters in +succession and a chorus accompanied him with songs. There were also +"vaudeville" entertainments, with all manner of jugglers, ropedancers, +acrobats, and clowns, to amuse a people who found no pleasure in the +refined productions of the Greek stage. + +CHARIOT RACES + +Far more popular than even pantomime and vaudeville were the "games of the +circus." At Rome these were held chiefly in the Circus Maximus. Chariot +races formed the principal attraction of the circus. There were usually +four horses to a chariot, though sometimes the drivers showed their skill +by handling as many as six or seven horses. The contestants whirled seven +times around the low wall, or _spina_, which divided the race course. The +shortness of the stretches and the sharp turns about the _spina_ must have +prevented the attainment of great speed. A race, nevertheless, was a most +exciting sport. What we should call "fouling" was permitted and even +encouraged. The driver might turn his team against another or might +endeavor to upset a rival's car. It was a very tame contest that did not +have its accompaniment of broken chariots, fallen horses, and killed or +injured drivers. + +[Illustration: THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS (RESTORATION)] + +ANIMAL BAITINGS + +The Circus Maximus was often used for a variety of animal shows. Fierce +wild beasts, brought from every quarter of the empire, were turned loose +to slaughter one another, or to tear to pieces condemned criminals. [16] +More popular still were the contests between savage animals and men. Such +amusements did something to satisfy the lust for blood in the Roman +populace--a lust which was more completely satisfied by the gladiatorial +combats. + +[Illustration: GLADIATORS +From a stucco relief on the tomb of Scaurus, Pompeii. Beginning at the +left are two fully armed horsemen fighting with lances. Behind them are +two gladiators, one of whom is appealing to the people. Then follows a +combat in which the defeated party raises his hand in supplication for +mercy. The lower part of the relief represents fights with various wild +beasts.] + +GLADIATORIAL SHOWS + +Exhibitions of gladiators were known in Italy long before they became +popular at Rome. The combats probably started from the savage practice of +sacrificing prisoners or slaves at the funeral of their master. Then the +custom arose of allowing the victims a chance for their lives by having +them fight one another, the conquerors being spared for future battles. +From this it was but a step to keeping trained slaves as gladiators. +During the imperial epoch the number of such exhibitions increased +greatly. The emperor Trajan, for example, to celebrate his victories over +the Dacians, [17] exhibited no less than ten thousand men within the space +of four months. The gladiators belonged to various classes, according to +the defensive armor they wore and the style of fighting they employed. +When a man was wounded and unable to continue the struggle, he might +appeal to the spectators. He lifted his finger to plead for release; if he +had fought well, the people indicated their willingness to spare him by +waving their handkerchiefs. If the spectators were in a cruel mood, they +turned down their thumbs as the signal for his deathblow. These hideous +exhibitions continued in different parts of the Roman Empire until the +fifth century of our era. + +"BREAD AND THE GAMES OF THE CIRCUS." + +Gladiatorial combats, chariot races, and dramatic shows were free +performances. For the lower classes in the Roman city they became the +chief pleasure of life. The days of their celebration were public +holidays, which in the fourth century numbered no less than one hundred +and seventy-five. The once-sovereign people of Rome became a lazy, +worthless rabble, fed by the state and amused with the games. It was well +said by an ancient satirist that the Romans wanted only two things to make +them happy--"bread and the games of the circus." [18] + + +93. SLAVERY + +PLACE OF SLAVERY IN CLASSICAL LIFE + +The private life of the Greeks and Romans, as described in the preceding +pages, would have been impossible without the existence of a large servile +class. Slaves did much of the heavy and disagreeable work in the ancient +world, thus allowing the free citizen to engage in more honorable +employment or to pass his days in dignified leisure. + +SOURCES OF SLAVES + +The Greeks seem sometimes to have thought that only barbarians should be +degraded to the condition of servitude. Most Greek slaves, as a matter of +fact, were purchased from foreign countries. But after the Romans had +subdued the Mediterranean world, their captives included not only members +of inferior races, but also the cultivated inhabitants of Greece, Egypt, +and Asia Minor. We hear of slaves at Rome who served as clerks, +secretaries, librarians, actors, and musicians. Their education was often +superior to that of the coarse and brutal masters who owned them. + +NUMBER AND CHEAPNESS OF SLAVES + +The number of slaves, though great enough in Athens and other Greek +cities, reached almost incredible figures during the later period of Roman +history. Every victorious battle swelled the troops of captives sent to +the slave markets at Rome. Ordinary slaves became as cheap as beasts of +burden are now. The Roman poet Horace tells us that at least ten slaves +were necessary for a gentleman in even moderate circumstances. Wealthy +individuals, given to excessive luxury, might number their city slaves by +the hundreds, besides many more on their country estates. + +SLAVES' TASKS + +Slaves engaged in a great variety of occupations. They were domestic +servants, farm laborers, miners, artisans, factory hands, and even +shopkeepers. Household slaves at Rome were employed in every conceivable +way. Each part of a rich man's residence had its special staff of +servants. The possession of a fine troop of slaves, dressed in handsome +liveries, was a favorite method of showing one's wealth and luxury. + +TREATMENT OF SLAVES + +It is difficult for us to realize the attitude of ancient peoples toward +their slaves. They were regarded as part of the chattels of the house--as +on a level with domestic animals rather than human beings. Though Athenian +law forbade owners to kill their slaves or to treat them cruelly, it +permitted the corporal punishment of slaves for slight offenses. At Rome, +until the imperial epoch, [19] no restraints whatever existed upon the +master's power. A slave was part of his property with which he could do +exactly as he pleased. The terrible punishments, the beating with scourges +which followed the slightest misconduct or neglect of duty, the branding +with a hot iron which a runaway slave received, the fearful penalty of +crucifixion which followed an attempt upon the owner's life--all these +tortures show how hard was the lot of the bondman in pagan Rome. + +POSSIBILITIES OF FREEDOM + +A slave, under some circumstances, could gain his freedom. In Greece, +where many little states constantly at war bordered one another, a slave +could often run away to liberty. In a great empire like Rome, where no +boundary lines existed, this was usually impossible. Freedom, however, was +sometimes voluntarily granted. A master in his will might liberate his +favorite slave, as a reward for the faithful service of a lifetime. A more +common practice permitted the slave to keep a part of his earnings until +he had saved enough to purchase his freedom. + +[Illustration: A SLAVE'S COLLAR +A runaway slave, if recaptured, was sometimes compelled to wear a metal +collar riveted about his neck. One of these collars, still preserved at +Rome, bears the inscription: _Servus sum dom(i)ni mei Scholastici v(iri) +sp(ectabüis). Tene me ne fugiam de domo._--"I am the slave of my master +Scholasticus, a gentleman of importance. Hold me, lest I flee from home."] + +PERMANENCE OF SLAVERY + +Slavery in Greece and Italy had existed from the earliest times. It never +was more flourishing than in the great age of classical history. Nor did +it pass away when the Roman world became Christian. The spread of +Christianity certainly helped to improve the lot of the slave and to +encourage his liberation. The Church, nevertheless, recognized slavery +from the beginning. Not until long after ancient civilization had perished +did the curse of slavery finally disappear from European lands. [20] + + +94. GREEK LITERATURE + +EPIC POETRY + +The literature of Greece begins with epic poetry. An epic may be defined +as a long narrative in verse, dealing with some large and noble theme. The +earliest epic poetry of the Greeks was inseparable from music. Wandering +minstrels sang at feasts in the palaces of kings and accompanied their +lays with the music of the clear-toned lyre. In time, as his verse reached +a more artistic character, the singer was able to give up the lyre and to +depend for effect solely on the poetic power of his narrative. Finally, +the scattered lays were combined into long poems. The most famous are the +_Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_, works which the Greeks attributed to Homer. +[21] + +LYRIC POETRY + +Several centuries after Homer the Greeks began to create a new form of +poetic expression--lyric poetry. In short poems, accompanied by the flute +or the lyre, they found a medium for the expression of personal feelings +which was not furnished by the long and cumbrous epic. The greatest lyric +poet was Pindar. We still possess forty-four of his odes, which were +written in honor of victorious athletes at the Olympian and other national +games. [22] Pindar's verses were so popular that he became, as it were, +the "poet laureate" of Greece. When Alexander the Great destroyed Thebes, +[23] the native town of Pindar, he spared that poet's birthplace from the +general ruin. + +[Illustration: SOPHOCLES (Lateran Museum, Rome) +This marble statue is possibly a copy of the bronze original which the +Athenians set up in the theater of Dionysus. The feet and the box of +manuscript rolls are modern restorations.] + +ATHENIAN TRAGEDY + +The three great masters of the tragic drama [24] lived and wrote in Athens +during the splendid half century between the Persian and the Peloponnesian +wars. Such was the fertility of their genius that they are said to have +written altogether nearly three hundred plays. Only thirty-two have come +down to us. Aeschylus, the first of the tragic poets, had fought at +Marathon and Salamis. One of his works, the _Persians_, is a magnificent +song of triumph for the victory of Hellas. Sophocles, while yet a young +man, gained the prize in a dramatic contest with Aeschylus. His plays mark +the perfection of Greek tragedy. After the death of Sophocles the +Athenians revered him as a hero and honored his memory with yearly +sacrifices. Euripides was the third of the Athenian dramatists and the +most generally popular. His fame reached far beyond his native city. We +are told that the Sicilians were so fond of his verses that they granted +freedom to every one of the Athenian prisoners captured at Syracuse who +could recite the poet's lines. + +ATHENIAN COMEDY + +Athenian comedy during the fifth century B.C. is represented by the plays +of Aristophanes. He was both a great poet and a great satirist. In one +comedy Aristophanes attacks the demagogue Cleon, who was prominent in +Athenian politics after the death of Pericles. In other comedies he +ridicules the philosophers, makes fun of the ordinary citizen's delight in +sitting on jury courts and trying cases, and criticizes those responsible +for the unfortunate expedition to Sicily. The plays of Aristophanes were +performed before admiring audiences of thousands of citizens and hence +must have had much influence on public opinion. + +HISTORY + +The "father of history," Herodotus, flourished about the middle of the +fifth century B.C. Though a native of Asia Minor, Herodotus spent some of +the best years of his life at Athens, mingling in its brilliant society +and coming under the influences, literary and artistic, of that city. He +traveled widely in the Greek world and in the East, as a preparation for +his great task of writing an account of the rise of the Oriental nations +and the struggle between Greece and Persia. Herodotus was not a critical +historian, diligently sifting truth from fable. Where he can he gives us +facts. Where facts are lacking, he tells interesting stories in a most +winning style. A much more scientific writer was Thucydides, an Athenian +who lived during the epoch of the Peloponnesian War and became the +historian of that contest. An Athenian contemporary of Thucydides, +Xenophon, is best known from his _Anabasis_, which describes the famous +expedition of the "Ten Thousand" Greeks against Persia. [25] + +BIOGRAPHY + +Of the later prose writers of Greece it is sufficient to name only one-- +the immortal Plutarch. He was a native of Chaeronea in Boeotia and lived +during the first century of our era. Greece at that time was only a +province of the Roman Empire; the days of her greatness had long since +passed away. Plutarch thus had rather a melancholy task in writing his +_Parallel Lives_. In this work he relates, first the life of an eminent +Greek, then of a famous Roman who in some way resembled him; and ends the +account with a short comparison of the two men. Plutarch had a wonderful +gift of sympathy for his heroes and a keen eye for what was dramatic in +their careers. It is not surprising, therefore, that Plutarch has always +been a favorite author. No other ancient writer gives us so vivid and +intimate a picture of the classical world. + +ORIGINALITY OF GREEK LITERATURE + +From the foregoing survey it is clear that the Greeks were pioneers in +many forms of literature. They first composed artistic epic poems. They +invented lyric and dramatic poetry. They were the first to write histories +and biographies. In oratory, as has been seen, they also rose to eminence. +[26] We shall now find that the Greek intellect was no less fertile and +original in the study of philosophy. + + +95. GREEK PHILOSOPHY + +THE SOPHISTS + +The Greek philosophy took its rise in the seventh century B.C., when a few +bold students began to search out the mysteries of the universe. Their +theories were so many and so contradictory, however, that after a time +philosophers gave up the study of nature and proposed in turn to study man +himself. These later thinkers were called sophists. They traveled +throughout Greece, gathering the young men about them and lecturing for +pay on subjects of practical interest. Among other things they taught the +rhetoric and oratory which were needed for success in a public career. + +SOCRATES + +One of the founders of Greek philosophy and the greatest teacher of his +age was Socrates the Athenian. He lived and taught during the period of +the Peloponnesian War. Socrates resembled the sophists in his possession +of an inquiring, skeptical mind which questioned every common belief and +superstition. But he went beyond the sophists in his emphasis on problems +of every-day morality. + +Though Socrates wrote nothing, his teaching and personality made a deep +impression on his contemporaries. The Delphic oracle declared that no one +in the world was wiser than Socrates. Yet he lived through a long life at +Athens, a poor man who would neither work at his trade of sculptor, nor +(as did the sophists) accept money for his instruction. He walked the +streets, barefoot and half-clad, and engaged in animated conversation with +anyone who was willing to discuss intellectual subjects with him. Socrates +must have been a familiar figure to the Athenians. His short body, large, +bald head, and homely features hardly presented the ideal of a +philosopher. Even Aristophanes in a comedy laughs at him. + +[Illustration: SOCRATES (Vatican Gallery, Rome)] + +CONDEMNATION AND DEATH OF SOCRATES + +Late in life Socrates was accused of impiety and of corrupting the youth +of Athens with his doctrines. As a matter of fact he was a deeply +religious man. If he objected to the crude mythology of Homer, he often +spoke of one God, who ruled the world, and of a divine spirit or +conscience within his own breast. A jury court found him guilty, however, +and condemned him to death. He refused to escape from prison when +opportunity offered and passed his last days in eager conversation on the +immortality of the soul. When the hour of departure arrived, he bade his +disciples farewell and calmly drained the cup of hemlock, a poison that +caused a painless death. Although Socrates gave his life for his +philosophy, this did not perish with him. + +PLATO + +One of the members of the Socratic circle was Plato, a wealthy noble who +abandoned a public career for the attractions of philosophy. After the +death of Socrates, Plato traveled widely in the Greek world and even +visited Egypt, where he interviewed the learned priests. On his return to +Athens Plato began teaching in the garden and gymnasium called the +Academy. [27] His writings, known as _Dialogues_, are cast in the form of +question and answer that Socrates had used. In most of them Plato makes +Socrates the chief speaker. Plato's works are both profound in thought and +admirable in style. The Athenians used to say that if Zeus had spoken +Greek he would have spoken it as did Plato. + +ARISTOTLE + +As great a philosopher as Plato, but a far less attractive writer, was +Aristotle. He was not an Athenian by birth, but he passed many years in +Athens, first as a pupil of Plato, who called him the "mind" of the +school, and then as a teacher in the Athenian city. Aristotle seems to +have taken all knowledge for his province. He investigated the ideas +underlying the arts of rhetoric and poetry; he gathered the constitutions +of many Greek states and drew from them some general principles of +politics; he studied collections of strange plants and animals to learn +their structure and habits; he examined the acts and beliefs of men in +order to write books on ethics. In all this investigation Aristotle was +not content to accept what previous men had written or to spin a pleasing +theory out of his own brain. Everywhere he sought for facts; everything he +tried to bring to the test of personal observation. Aristotle, then, was +as much a scientist as a philosopher. His books were reverently studied +for centuries after his death and are still used in our universities. + +EPICUREANISM + +The system of philosophy called Epicureanism was founded by a Greek named +Epicurus. He taught in Athens during the earlier part of the third century +B.C. Epicurus believed that pleasure is the sole good, pain, the sole +evil. He meant by pleasure not so much the passing enjoyments of the hour +as the permanent happiness of a lifetime. In order to be happy men should +not trouble themselves with useless luxuries, but should lead the "simple +life." They must be virtuous, for virtue will bring more real satisfaction +than vice. Above all, men ought to free themselves from idle hopes and +fears about a future existence. The belief in the immortality of the soul, +said Epicurus, is only a delusion, for both soul and body are material +things which death dissolves into the atoms making up the universe. And if +there are any gods, he declared, they do not concern themselves with human +affairs. Some of the followers of Epicurus seemed to find in his +philosophic system justification for free indulgence in every appetite and +passion. Even to-day, when we call a person an "Epicurean," we think of +him as a selfish pleasure seeker. + +STOICISM + +The noblest of all pagan philosophies was Stoicism, founded by Zeno, a +contemporary of Epicurus. Virtue, said the Stoic, consists in living +"according to nature," that is, according to the Universal Reason or +Divine Providence that rules the world. The followers of this philosophy +tried, therefore, to ignore the feelings and exalt the reason as a guide +to conduct. They practiced self-denial, despised the pomps and vanities of +the world, and sought to rise above such emotions as grief, fear, hope, +and joy. The doctrines of Stoicism gained many adherents among the Romans +[28] and through them became a real moral force in the ancient world. +Stoicism is even now no outworn creed. Our very word "stoical" is a +synonym for calm indifference to pleasure or to pain. + + +96. ROMAN LITERATURE + +RISE OF ROMAN LITERATURE + +The beginnings of Roman literature go back to the third century B.C., when +some knowledge of the Greek language became increasingly common in Rome. +The earlier writers--chiefly poets and dramatists--did little original +work, and usually were content to translate and adapt the productions of +Greek authors for Roman audiences. During this period the Romans gradually +discovered the capabilities of their language for prose composition. The +republican institutions of Rome, like those of Athens, were highly +favorable to the art of public speaking. It was the development of oratory +which did most to mold the Latin language into fitness for the varied +forms of prose. + +CICERO + +Cicero, the greatest of Roman orators, created a style for Latin prose +composition which has been admired and imitated by men of letters even to +our own day. Latin, in his hands, became a magnificent instrument for the +expression of human thought. Cicero's qualities as an author are shown, +not only by his _Orations_, but also by the numerous _Epistles_ which he +wrote to friends and correspondents in all parts of the Roman world. +Besides their historical interest Cicero's letters are models of what good +letters ought to be--the expression of the writer's real thoughts and +feelings in simple, unstilted language. Cicero also composed a number of +_Dialogues_, chiefly on philosophical themes. If not very profound, they +are delightfully written, and long served as textbooks in the schools. + +CAESAR + +Another eminent statesman--Julius Caesar--won success in literature. As an +orator he was admitted by his contemporaries to stand second to Cicero. +None of his speeches have survived. We possess, however, his invaluable +_Commentaries_ on the Gallic and Civil wars. These works, though brief and +in most parts rather dull, are highly praised for their simple, concise +style and their mastery of the art of rapid narration. + +VERGIL AND HORACE + +The half century included within the Augustan Age marks a real epoch in +the history of Latin literature. The most famous poet of this period was +Vergil. The _Aeneid_, which he undertook at the suggestion of Augustus, is +his best-known work. In form the poem is a narrative of the adventures of +the Trojan hero, Aeneas, [29] but its real theme is the growth of Rome +under the fostering care of the gods. The _Aeneid_, though unfinished at +the author's death, became at once what it has always remained--the only +ancient epic worthy of comparison with the _Iliad_ or with the _Odyssey._ +Another member of the Augustan circle was Vergil's friend and fellow- +worker, Horace. An imitative poet, Horace reproduced in Latin verse the +forms, and sometimes even the substance, of his Greek models. But, like +Vergil, what Horace borrowed he made his own by the added beauty which he +gave to it. His _Odes_ are perhaps the most admirable examples of literary +art to be found in any language. + +LIVY + +The most famous prose writer of the Augustan Age was Livy. His _History of +Rome_, beginning with Romulus and extending to Augustus, traced the rise +and growth of the Roman state during eight centuries of triumphal +progress. It did in prose what Vergil's _Aeneid_ had done in verse. + +TACITUS + +The period of the "Good Emperors" saw the rise of several important +authors, of whom one, the historian Tacitus, was a man of genius. The +crowning labor of his life was a history of Rome from Tiberius to +Domitian. Of this work, issued under the two titles of _Histories_ and +_Annals_, only about one-half is extant. + +SURVIVAL OF ROMAN LITERATURE + +Less than two hundred years separate Cicero and Tacitus. During this +period Latin authors, writing under the influence of old Greece, +accomplished much valuable work. Some of their productions are scarcely +inferior to the Greek masterpieces. In later centuries, when Greek +literature was either neglected or forgotten in the West, the literature +of Rome was still read and enjoyed. Even to-day a knowledge of it forms an +essential part of a "classical" education. + + +97. GREEK ARCHITECTURE + +CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK ARCHITECTURE + +The existing monuments of Greek architecture--chiefly ruined temples-- +afford some idea of its leading characteristics. The building materials +were limestone and white marble. The blocks of stone were not bound +together by cement, but by metal clamps which held them in a firm grip. It +was usual to color the ornamental parts of a temple and the open spaces +that served as a background for sculpture. The Greeks did not employ the +principle of the arch, in order to cover large spaces with a vaulted +ceiling. Their temples and other public buildings had only flat ceilings, +resting on long rows of columns. The column probably developed from the +wooden post or tree trunk used in timber construction. The capital at the +top of the column originated in the square wooden slab which supported the +heavy beam of the roof. + +[Illustration: CORNER OF A DORIC FAÇADE] + +[Illustration: CORNER OF AN IONIC FAÇADE] + +THE DORIC COLUMN + +The two Greek orders of architecture, Doric and Ionic, [30] are +distinguished mainly by differences in the treatment of the column. The +Doric column has no base of its own. The sturdy shaft is grooved +lengthwise with some twenty flutings. The capital is a circular band of +stone capped by a square block, all without decoration. The mainland of +Greece was the especial home of the Doric order. This was also the +characteristic style of southern Italy and Sicily. + +THE IONIC COLUMN. + +The Ionic column rests upon a base. Its shaft is tall and slender. The +beautifully carved capital swells outward into two spiral rolls, the ends +of which are curled under to form the "volutes." The Ionic order +flourished particularly in Asia Minor. It was well known, too, at Athens. + +[Illustration: CAPITALS +The highly decorative Corinthian capital, modeled on acanthus leaves, came +into fashion in Alexandrian and Roman times. The Composite capital, as its +name indicates, combined details from the Ionic and Corinthian into one +ornate whole. This and the plain Tuscan capital were quite generally +employed by the Romans.] + +NATURE OF THE GREEK TEMPLE + +The temple formed the chief structure in a Greek city. It was very simple +in outline--merely a rectangular building provided with doors, but without +windows. Around it was a single or a double row of columns. Above them +rose the architrave, a plain band of massive stones which reached from one +column to another. Then came the frieze, adorned with sculptured reliefs, +then the horizontal cornice, and at the ends of the building the +triangular pediments formed by the sloping roof. The pediments were +sometimes decorated with statues. Since the temple was not intended to +hold a congregation of worshipers, but only to contain the image of the +god, the interior usually had little ornamentation. + +[Illustration: THE PARTHENON + RESTORATION + PRESENT CONDITION +After serving as a temple for about nine centuries the Parthenon was +turned into a Christian church and later into a Mohammedan mosque. In 1687 +A.D. the Venetians bombarded Athens and sent a shell into the center of +the building which the Turks had used as a powder magazine. The result was +an explosion that threw down the side walls and many of the columns.] + +[Illustration: FIGURES FROM THE PEDIMENT OF THE PARTHENON] + +[Illustration: FROM THE PARTHENON FRIEZE] + +[Illustration: CORNER OF THE PARTHENON (RESTORED)] + +[Illustration: CARYATID PORCH OF THE ERECHTHEUM] + +UNIQUENESS OF THE GREEK TEMPLE + +Greek temples were not very large, for hugeness was no object to the +builders. They were not even lavishly decorated. Their beauty lies, most +of all, in their harmonious proportions and perfect symmetry. In the best +examples of the Greek temple there are, for instance, no straight lines. +The columns are not set at equal intervals, but closer together near the +corners of the building. The shafts of the columns, instead of tapering +upward at a uniform rate, swell slightly toward the center. The artistic +eyes of the Greeks delighted in such subtle curves. These characteristics +make a classical temple unique of its kind. [31] + + +98. GREEK SCULPTURE + +THE GREEK GENIUS IN SCULPTURE + +The greatest achievement of the Greeks in art was their sculpture. Roman +artists surpassed them in the creation of massive architectural works; +modern artists have surpassed them in painting. In sculpture the Greeks +still remain unexcelled. + +LOSS OF THE MASTERPIECES + +The existing remains of Greek sculpture are very scanty. The statues of +gold and ivory vanished long ago. The bronze statues, formerly numbered by +thousands, have nearly all gone into the melting pot. Sculptures in marble +were turned into mortar or used as building materials. Those which escaped +such a fate were often ruined by wanton mutilation and centuries of +neglect. The statues which we still possess are mainly marble copies, made +in Roman times from Greek originals. It is as if the paintings by the old +masters of Europe, four centuries ago, were now known only in the +reproductions by modern artists of inferior powers. + +MATERIALS + +The Greek sculptor worked with a variety of materials. Wood was in common +use during primitive times. Terra cotta was employed at all periods for +statuettes a few inches in height. Productions in gold and ivory, from the +costliness of these objects, were extremely rare. Bronze was the favorite +material of some of the most eminent artists. The Greek sculptor +especially relied on the beautiful marbles in which his country abounded. + +TECHNICAL PROCESSES + +The methods employed by the ancient sculptor differed in some respects +from those followed by his modern successors. A Greek marble statue was +usually built up out of several parts. The joining was accomplished with +such skill as to escape ordinary observation. The preliminary work of +hewing out from the rough was done by means of chisels. The surface of the +marble afterwards received a careful polishing with the file, and also +with sand. Marble statues were always more or less painted. The coloring +seems to have been done sparingly, being applied, as a rule, only to the +features and draperies. Still, it is worth while to remember that the pure +white statues of modern sculptors would not have satisfied Greek artists +of the classical age. + +VARIETIES OF GREEK SCUPLTURE + +Greek sculpture existed in the two forms of bas-reliefs and statuary in +the round. Reliefs were chiefly used for temple pediments and friezes, and +also for the many grave monuments. Statues consisted of the images of the +gods set up in their shrines, the sculptures dedicated as offerings to +divinities, and the figures of statesmen, generals, and victorious +athletes raised in public places and sanctuaries. + +IMPORTANCE OF THE SCULPTOR'S ART + +This list will show how many were the opportunities which the ancient +sculptor enjoyed. The service of religion created a constant demand for +his genius. The numerous athletic contests and the daily sports of the +gymnasium gave him a chance to study living models in the handsome, +finely-shaped bodies of the contestants. With such inspiration it is not +remarkable that sculpture reached so high a development in ancient Greece. +[32] + + +99. ROMAN ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE + +THE ARCH AND DOME IN ROMAN BUILDINGS + +In architecture the Romans achieved preëminence. The temples and other +public works of Greece seem almost insignificant beside the stupendous +edifices raised by Roman genius in every province of the empire. The +ability of the Romans to build on so large a scale arose from their use of +vaulted constructions. Knowledge of the round arch passed over from the +Orient to the Etruscans and from them to the Romans. [33] At first the +arch was employed mainly for gates, drainage sewers, aqueducts, and +bridges. In imperial times this device was adopted to permit the +construction of vast buildings with overarching domes. The principle of +the dome has inspired some of the finest creations of ancient and modern +architecture. + +ROMAN USE OF CONCRETE AND RUBBLE + +The Romans for many of their buildings made much use of concrete. Its +chief ingredient was _pozzolana_, a sand found in great abundance near +Rome and other sites. When mixed with lime, it formed a very strong +cement. This material was poured in a fluid state into timber casings, +where it quickly set and hardened. Small pieces of stone, called rubble, +were also forced down into the cement to give it additional stability. +Buildings of this sort were usually faced with brick, which in turn might +be covered with thin slabs of marble, thus producing an attractive +appearance. + +TEMPLES + +The triumphs of Roman architecture were not confined chiefly to sacred +edifices. Roman temples, indeed, are mostly copies from the Greek. In +comparison with their originals, they lack grace and refinement. There is +less accuracy in the masonry fitting and far less careful attention to +details of construction. A frequent departure from Greek models is found +in the restriction of the rows of pillars to the front of the building, +while the sides and rear are lined with "engaged" columns to give the idea +of a colonnade. [34] More characteristically Roman are vaulted temples, +such as the Pantheon, [35] where the circular dome is faced with a Greek +portico. + +BASILICAS + +Roman basilicas, of which only the ruins are now in existence, were once +found in every city. These were large, lofty buildings for the use of +judges and merchants. The chief feature of a basilica was the spacious +central hall flanked by a single or double row of columns, forming aisles +and supporting the flat roof. At one end of the hall was a semicircular +recess--the apse--where the judges held court. This arrangement of the +interior bears a close resemblance to the plan of the early Christian +church with its nave, choir (or chancel) and columned aisles. The +Christians, in fact, seem to have taken the familiar basilicas as the +models for their places of worship. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE ULPIAN BASILICA +The hall measured 360 feet in length and 180 feet in width.] + +[Illustration: INTERIOR VIEW OF THE ULPIAN BASILICA (RESTORATION) +Built by the Emperor Trajan in connection with his Forum at Rome.] + +AQUEDUCTS + +Perhaps the most imposing, and certainly among the most useful, of Roman +structures were aqueducts. [36] There were sixty-eight in Italy and the +provinces. No less than fourteen supplied the capital city with water. The +aqueducts usually ran under the surface of the ground, as do our water +pipes. They were carried on arches only across depressions and valleys. +The Claudian aqueduct ran for thirty-six miles underground and for nine +and a half miles on arches. Though these monuments were intended simply as +engineering works, their heavy masses of rough masonry produce an +inspiring sense of power. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN AQUEDUCT +The Pont du Gard near Nîmes (ancient Nemausus) in southern France. Built +by the emperor Antoninus Pius. The bridge spans two hilltops nearly a +thousand feet apart. It carries an aqueduct with three tiers of massive +stone arches at a height of 160 feet above the stream. This is the finest +and best preserved aqueduct in existence.] + +THERMAE + +The abundant water supply furnished by the aqueducts was connected with a +system of great public baths, or _thermae_. [37] Scarcely a town or +village throughout the empire lacked one or more such buildings. Those at +Rome were constructed on a scale of magnificence of which we can form but +a slight conception from the ruins now in existence. In addition to many +elaborate arrangements for the bathers, the _thermae_ included lounging +and reading rooms, libraries, gymnasia, and even museums and galleries of +art. The baths, indeed, were splendid clubhouses, open at little or no +expense to every citizen of the metropolis. + +[Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM] + +TRIUMPHAL ARCHES AND COLUMNS + +A very characteristic example of Roman building is found in the triumphal +arches. [38] Their sides were adorned with bas-reliefs, which pictured the +principal scenes of a successful campaign. Memorial structures, called +columns of victory, [39] were also set up in Rome and other cities. Both +arch and column have been frequently imitated by modern architects. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN CAMEO +Portrait of a youth cut in sardonyx. Probably of the first century A.D.] + +CIRCUSES, THEATERS, AND AMPHITHEATERS + +The palaces of Roman emperors and nobles, together with their luxurious +country houses, or villas, have all disappeared. A like fate has befallen +the enormous circuses, such as the Circus Maximus [40] at Rome and the +Hippodrome [41] at Constantinople. The Roman theaters that still survive +reproduce, in most respects, the familiar outlines of the Greek +structures. In the amphitheaters, where animal shows and gladiatorial +combats were exhibited, we have a genuinely Roman invention. The gigantic +edifice, called the Colosseum, in its way as truly typifies Roman +architectural genius as the Parthenon represents at its best that of the +Greeks. + +ROMAN SCULPTURE + +Roman sculpture owed much to Greek models. However, the portrait statues +and bas-reliefs show originality and illustrate the tendency of the Romans +toward realism in art. The sculptor tried to represent an historic person +as he really looked or an historic event, for example, a battle or a +triumphal procession, as it actually happened. The portrait statues of +Roman emperors and the bas-reliefs from the arch of Titus impress us at +once with a sense of their reality. + +WALL PAINTINGS + +Our knowledge of Roman painting is almost wholly confined to the wall +paintings found at Rome, Herculaneum, and Pompeii. What has survived is +apparently the work of ordinary craftsmen, who, if not Greeks, were deeply +affected by the Greek spirit. Most of the scenes they depict are taken +from classical mythology. The coloring is very rich; and the peculiar +shade of red used is known to-day by the name of "Pompeian red." The +practice of mural painting passed over from the Romans to European +artists, who have employed it in the frescoes of medieval and modern +churches. + + +100. ARTISTIC ATHENS + +ART CENTERS OF ANTIQUITY + +Athens and Rome were the artistic centers of the classical world. +Architects, sculptors, and painters lavished their finest efforts on the +adornment of these two capitals. Here there are still to be seen some of +the most beautiful and impressive monuments of antiquity. + +ROADS AND SUBURBS OF ATHENS + +Athens lies in the center of the Attic plain, about four miles from the +sea. [42] The city commands a magnificent view of purple-hued mountains +and the shining waters of the Aegean. Roads approached the ancient city +from all parts of Attica. Among these were the highway from Piraeus, +running between the Long Walls, [43] and the Sacred Way from Eleusis, +where the famous mysteries were yearly celebrated. [44] The suburbs of +Athens included the Outer Ceramicus, part of which was used as a national +cemetery, and a pleasure ground and gymnasium on the banks of the +Cephissus, called the Academy. Another resort, known as the Lyceum, +bordered the little stream of the Ilissus. + +WALLS OF ATHENS + +The traveler who passed through these suburbs came at length to the great +wall, nearly five miles in circumference, raised by Themistocles to +surround the settlement at the foot of the Acropolis. [45] The area +included within this wall made up Old Athens. About six centuries after +Themistocles the Roman emperor Hadrian, by building additional +fortifications on the east, brought an extensive quarter, called New +Athens, inside the city limits. + +HILLS OF ATHENS + +The region within the walls was broken up by a number of rocky eminences +which have a prominent place in the topography of Athens. Near the center +the Acropolis rises more than two hundred feet above the plain, its summit +crowned with monuments of the Periclean Age. Not far away is the hill +called the Areopagus. Here the Council of the Areopagus, a court of +justice in trials for murder, held its deliberations in the open air. +Beyond this height is the hill of the Pnyx. This was the meeting place of +the Athenian Assembly until the fourth century B.C., when the sessions +were transferred to the theater of Dionysus. + +[Illustration: Map, ATHENS] + +THE AGORA + +The business and social center of an ancient city was the agora or market +place. The Athenian Agora lay in the hollow north of the Areopagus and +Acropolis. The square was shaded by rows of plane trees and lined with +covered colonnades. In the great days of the city, when the Agora was +filled with countless altars and shrines, it presented a most varied and +attractive scene. + +PUBLIC BUILDINGS + +Not all the splendid structures in Athens were confined to the Agora and +the Acropolis. On a slight eminence not far from the Agora, rose the so- +called "Theseum," [46] a marble temple in the Doric order. Another famous +temple, the colossal edifice known as the Olympieum, lay at some distance +from the Acropolis on the southeast. Fifteen of the lofty columns with +their Corinthian capitals are still standing. The theater of Dionysus [47] +is in a fair state of preservation. Beyond this are the remains of the +Odeum, or "Hall of Song," used for musical contests and declamations. The +original building was raised by Pericles, in imitation, it is said, of the +tent of Xerxes. The present ruins are those of the structure erected in +the second century A.D. by a public-spirited benefactor of Athens. + +THE ACROPOLIS + +The adornment of the Acropolis formed perhaps the most memorable +achievement of Pericles. [48] This rocky mount was approached on the +western side by a flight of sixty marble steps. To the right of the +stairway rose a small but very beautiful Ionic temple dedicated to Athena. +Having mounted the steps, the visitor passed through the superb entrance +gate, or Propylaea, which was constructed to resemble the front of a +temple with columns and pediment. Just beyond the Propylaea stood a great +bronze statue of the Guardian Athena, a masterpiece of the sculptor +Phidias. + +[Illustration: THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS (RESTORATION)] + +[Illustration: ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS FROM THE SOUTHWEST] + +THE ERECHTHEUM + +The Erechtheum, a temple which occupies part of the Acropolis, is in the +Ionic style. It may be regarded as the best existing example of this light +and graceful order. Perhaps the most interesting feature is the porch of +the Caryatides, with a marble roof supported by six pillars carved in the +semblance of maidens. [49] This curious but striking device has been often +copied by modern architects. + +ARCHITECTURE OF THE PARTHENON + +The other temple on the Acropolis is the world-famed edifice known as the +Parthenon, the shrine of the Virgin of the Athena. [50] The Parthenon +illustrates the extreme simplicity of a Greek temple. It had no great size +or height and included only two chambers. The rear room stored sacred +vessels and furniture used in worship, state treasure, and the more +valuable offerings intrusted to the goddess for safekeeping. The second +and larger room contained a colossal gold and ivory statue of Athena, the +work of Phidias. It faced the eastern entrance so that it might be bathed +in the rays of the rising sun. Apart from the large doors a certain amount +of light reached the interior through the semi-transparent marble tiles of +the roof. The Doric columns surrounding the building are marvels of fine +workmanship. The Parthenon, because of its perfection of construction and +admirable proportions, is justly regarded as a masterpiece of +architecture. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE PARTHENON +The larger room (cella) measured exactly one hundred feet in length.] + +SCULPTURES OF THE PARTHENON + +The Parthenon was also remarkable for its sculptures [51] executed under +the superintendence of Phidias. The subjects of the pediment sculptures +are taken from the mythic history of Athena. The frieze of the Parthenon +consists of a series of sculptured slabs, over five hundred feet in +length. The subject was the procession of the Great Panathenaea, [52] the +principal festival in honor of Athena. At this time the sacred robe of the +goddess, woven anew for each occasion, was brought to adorn her statue. +The procession is thought of as starting from the western front, where +Athenian youths dash forward on their spirited steeds. Then comes a +brilliant array of maidens, matrons, soldiers, and luteplayers. Near the +center of the eastern front they meet a group of divinities, who are +represented as spectators of the imposing scene. This part of the frieze +is still in excellent condition. + +THE GLORY OF ATHENS + +It was, indeed, a splendid group of buildings that rose on the Acropolis +height. If to-day they have lost much of their glory, we can still +understand how they were the precious possession of the Athenians and the +wonder of all the ancient world. "O shining, violet-crowned city of song, +great Athens, bulwark of Hellas, walls divine!" The words are those of an +old Greek poet, [53] but they are reëchoed by all who have come under the +magic spell of the literature and art of the Athenian city. + + +101. ARTISTIC ROME + +DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT ROME + +The monuments of Rome, unlike those of Athens, cannot lay claim to great +antiquity. The destruction wrought by the Gauls in 390 B.C. and the great +fire under Nero in 64 A.D. removed nearly all traces of the regal and +republican city. Many buildings erected in the imperial age have also +disappeared, because in medieval and modern times the inhabitants of Rome +used the ancient edifices as quarries. The existing monuments give only a +faint idea of the former magnificence of the capital city. + +HILLS OF ROME + +The city of Rome lies on the Tiber. Where the river approaches Rome it +makes two sharp turns, first to the west and then to the east. On the +western, or Etruscan, bank stood the two hills called Vatican and +Janiculum. They were higher than the famous seven which rose on the +eastern side, where the ancient city was built. Two of these seven hills +possess particular interest. The earliest settlement, as we have seen, +[54] probably occupied the Palatine. It became in later days the favorite +site for the town houses of Roman nobles. In the imperial age the splendid +palaces of the Caesars were located here. The Capitoline, steepest of the +seven hills, was divided into two peaks. On one of these rose the most +famous of all Roman temples, dedicated to Jupiter and his companion +deities, Juno and Minerva. The other peak was occupied by a large temple +of Juno Moneta ("the Adviser"), which served as the mint. The altars, +shrines, and statues which once covered this height were so numerous that +the Capitoline, like the Athenian Acropolis, became a museum of art. + +[Illustration: Map, ROME] + +WALLS AND OPEN SPACES + +Rome in early times was surrounded by a wall which bore the name of its +legendary builder, Servius Tullius. The present fortifications were not +constructed until the reign of the emperor Aurelian. [55] The ancient city +was closely built up, with only two great open spaces, in addition to the +Forum. These were the Circus Maximus, in the hollow between the Palatine +Mount and the Aventine, and the Campus Martius, stretching along the Tiber +to the northwest of the Capitoline Hill. + +PUBLIC BUILDINGS + +Following the map of ancient Rome under the empire we may note the more +important monuments which still exist in something like their original +condition. Across the Tiber and beyond the Campus Martius stands the +mausoleum of Hadrian. [56] The most notable structure in the Campus +Martius is the Pantheon. [57] It is the one ancient building in the entire +Roman world which still survives, inside and out, in a fair state of +preservation. The depression between the Caelian and Esquiline hills +contains the Flavian Amphitheater, better known as the Colosseum. [58] It +was begun by Vespasian and probably completed by Titus. No less than +eighty entrances admitted the forty-five thousand spectators who could be +accommodated in this huge structure. Despite the enormous mass of the +present ruins probably two-thirds of the original materials have been +carried away to be used in other buildings. Close to the Colosseum stands +the arch [59] erected by the Senate in honor of the victory of Constantine +over his rival Maxentius. From this event is dated the triumph of +Christianity in the Roman state. The ruins of the huge baths of Caracalla +lie about half a mile from the Colosseum. Near the center of the city are +the remains of the Forum added by Trajan to the accommodations of the +original Forum. It contains the column of Trajan [60] under which that +emperor was buried. + +THE FORUM + +The Forum lies in the valley north of the Palatine Hill. It was the +business and social center of the Roman city. During the Middle Ages the +site was buried in ruins and rubbish, in some places to a depth of forty +feet or more. Recent excavations have restored the ancient level and +uncovered the remains of the ancient structures. + +[Illustration: THE ROMAN FORUM AND THE SURROUNDING BUILDINGS (RESTORED)] + +[Illustration: THE ROMAN FORUM AT THE PRESENT TIME] + +APPROACH TO THE FORUM + +The Forum could be approached from the east by one of the most famous +streets in the world, the Roman Sacred Way. The illustration of the Forum +at the present time gives a view, looking eastward from the Capitoline +Mount, and shows several of the buildings on or near the Sacred Way. At +the left are seen the ruins of the basilica of Constantine. Farther in the +distance the Colosseum looms up. Directly ahead is the arch of Titus, +which commemorates the capture of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. [61] The ruins of +the palaces of the Caesars occupy the slopes of the Palatine. + +THE FORUM TO-DAY + +The only well-preserved monument in the Forum is the beautiful arch +erected by the emperor Septimius Severus. Beyond it are three columns +which once formed part of the temple of Castor. They date from the time of +Tiberius. In front are the foundations of the Basilica Julia, built by +Augustus. Next come eight Ionic columns, all that remain of the temple of +Saturn. Near it and in the foreground are several columns in the +Corinthian style, belonging to a temple built by Vespasian. + +THE FORUM IN ANTIQUITY + +These ruined monuments, these empty foundations and lonely pillars, afford +little idea of all the wealth of architecture that once adorned this spot. +Here stood the circular shrine of Vesta, [62] guarding the altar and its +ever-blazing fire. Here was the temple of Concord, famous in Roman +history. [63] The Senate-house was here, and just before it, the Rostra, a +platform adorned with the beaks (_rostra_) of captured ships. From this +place Roman orators addressed their assembled fellow-citizens. + +THE GRANDEUR OF ROME + +How splendid a scene must have greeted an observer in ancient times who, +from the height of the Capitol, gazed at the city before him. The Forum +was then one radiant avenue of temples, triumphal arches, columns, and +shrines. And beyond the Forum stretched a magnificent array of theaters +and amphitheaters, enormous baths, colossal sepulchers, and statues in +stone and bronze. So prodigious an accumulation of objects beautiful, +costly, and rare has never before or since been found on earth. + + +STUDIES + +1. What is the origin of our words _pedagogue_, _symposium_, _circus_, and +_academy_? + +2. Make a list of such Roman names as you have met in your reading. + +3. Write a letter describing an imaginary visit to the theater of Dionysus +during the performance of a tragedy. + +4. What did civic patriotism mean to the Greek and to the Roman? + +5. Have we anything to learn from the Greeks about the importance of +training in music? + +6. What were the schoolbooks of Greek boys? + +7. What features of Athenian education are noted in the illustration, page +254? + +8. How did the position of women at Athens differ from their position in +Homeric Greece? + +9. Why does classical literature contain almost no "love stories," or +novels? + +10. What contrasts exist between the ancient and the modern house? + +11. Describe a Roman litter (illustration, page 263). + +12. What differences exist between an ancient and a modern theatre? + +13. What features of our "circus" recall the proceedings at the Roman +games? + +14. How many holidays (including Sundays) are there in your state? How do +they compare in number with those at Rome in the reign of Marcus Aurelius? + +15. Describe the theater of Dionysus (illustration, page 264). + +16. What is the "Socratic method" of teaching? + +17. How did the Greeks manage to build solidly without the use of mortar? + +18. Discuss the appropriateness of the terms: _severe_ Doric; _graceful_ +Ionic; _ornate_ Corinthian. + +19. Can you find examples of any of the Greek orders in public buildings +familiar to you? + +20. How do you explain the almost total loss of original Greek sculptures? + +21. By reference to the illustrations, page 279, explain the following +terms: _shaft_; _capital_; _architrave_; _frieze;_ and _cornice._ + +22. Explain the "Greek profile" seen in the Aphrodite of Cnidus and the +Apollo of the Belvedere (plate facing page 76). + +23. Name five famous works of Greek sculpture which exist to-day only in +Roman copies. + +24. What is your favorite Greek statue? Why do you like it? + +25. "The dome, with the round arch out of which it sprang, is the most +fertile conception in the whole history of building." Justify this +statement. + +26. What famous examples of domed churches and public buildings are +familiar to you? + +27. What artistic objections to the use of "engaged columns" can you +mention? + +28. Discuss the revival of cement construction in modern times. What are +its special advantages? + +29. What examples of triumphal arches in the United States and France are +known to you? + +30. Do you know of any modern columns of victory? + +31. Why is it likely that the bust of Nerva (illustration, page 200) is a +more faithful likeness than that of Pericles (illustration, page 103)? + +32. Write a brief essay describing an imaginary walk on the Athenian +Acropolis in the Age of Pericles. + +33. Enumerate the most important contributions to civilization made in +classical antiquity. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter xxi, "Roman Life as +Seen in Pliny's Letters"; chapter xxii, "A Satirist of Roman Society." + +[2] Euripides, _Iphigenia in Tauris_, 57. + +[3] See page 237. + +[4] In "Marcus Tullius Cicero," "Marcus," the _praenomen_, corresponds to +our "given" name; "Tullius," the _nomen_, marks the clan, or _gens;_ +"Cicero," the _cognomen_, indicates the family. + +[5] See pages 151, 206. + +[6] See page 218. + +[7] See page 148. + +[8] See page 144. + +[9] See the illustrations, pages 117, 271. + +[10] The corresponding names of women's garments were _stola_ and +_pallet_. + +[11] See page 199. + +[12] See the illustration, page 145. + +[13] See page 288. + +[14] See page 285. + +[15] Panathenaic means 'belonging to all the Athenians.' See page 292. + +[16] See page 234. + +[17] See page 200. + +[18] _Panem et circenses_ (Juvenal x, 80-81). + +[19] See page 215. + +[20] See pages 436, 463. + +[21] See page 73. + +[22] See page 80. + +[23] See page 120. + +[24] See page 265. + +[25] See page 121. + +[26] See page 117. + +[27] See page 261. + +[28] See page 226. + +[29] See page 142. + +[30] The so-called Corinthian order differs from the Ionic only in its +capital. + +[31] For illustrations of Greek temples, see pages 89, 101. + +[32] For illustrations of Greek statues see pages 80, 81, 103, 117, 119, +129, 271 and the plates facing pages 76, 77, 80, 130, 131. + +[33] See pages 61, 138. + +[34] See the illustration, page 215. + +[35] See the illustration, page 202. + +[36] See the illustrations, pages 157, 285. + +[37] See page 263. + +[38] See the illustration, page 236. + +[39] See the illustrations, pages 163, 201. + +[40] See the illustration, page 266. + +[41] See the illustration, page 339. + +[42] See the map, page 107. + +[43] See page 108. + +[44] See page 227. + +[45] See page 100. + +[46] See the illustration, page 101. + +[47] See the illustration, page 264. + +[48] See page 108. + +[49] See the plate facing page 281. + +[50] See the plate facing page 280. + +[51] See the plate facing page 281. + +[52] See page 264. + +[53] Pindar, _Fragments_, 76. + +[54] See page 140. + +[55] See the illustration, page 220. + +[56] See the illustration, page 203. + +[57] See the illustration, page 202. + +[58] See the illustration, page 286. + +[59] See the illustration, page 236. + +[60] See the illustration, page 201. + +[61] See the plate facing page 198. + +[62] See page 146. + +[63] See page 177. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WESTERN EUROPE DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES, 476-962 A.D. [1] + + +102. THE OSTROGOTHS IN ITALY, 488-553 A.D. + +TRANSITION TO THE MIDDLE AGES + +We are not to suppose that the settlement of Germans within the Roman +Empire ended with the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, near the close of +the fifth century. The following centuries witnessed fresh invasions and +the establishment of new Germanic states. The study of these troubled +times leads us from the classical world to the world of medieval Europe, +from the history of antiquity to the history of the Middle Ages. + +THE OSTROGOTHS UNDER THEODORIC + +The kingdom which Odoacer established on Italian soil did not long endure. +It was soon overthrown by the Ostrogoths. At the time of the "fall" of +Rome in 476 A.D. they occupied a district south of the middle Danube, +which the government at Constantinople had hired them to defend. The +Ostrogoths proved to be expensive and dangerous allies. When, therefore, +their chieftain, Theodoric, offered to lead his people into Italy and +against Odoacer, the Roman emperor gladly sanctioned the undertaking. + +OSTROGOTHIC INVASION OF ITALY, 488-493 A.D. + +Theodoric led the Ostrogoths--women and children as well as warriors-- +across the Alps and came down to meet Odoacer and his soldiers in battle. +After suffering several defeats, Odoacer shut himself up in the strong +fortress of Ravenna. Theodoric could not capture the place and at last +agreed to share with Odoacer the government of Italy, if the latter would +surrender. The agreement was never carried into effect. When Theodoric +entered Ravenna, he invited Odoacer to a great feast and at its conclusion +slew him in cold blood. Theodoric had now no rival in Italy. + +THEODORIC KING OF ITALY, 493-526 A.D. + +Though Theodoric gained the throne by violence and treachery, he soon +showed himself to be, as a ruler, wise, broad-minded, and humane. He had +lived as a youth in the imperial court at Constantinople and there had +become well acquainted with Roman ideas of law and order. Roman +civilization impressed him; and he wished not to destroy but to preserve +it. Theodoric reigned in Italy for thirty-three years, and during this +time the country enjoyed unbroken peace and prosperity. + +[Illustration: TOMB OF THEODORIC AT RAVENNA +A two storied marble building erected by Theodoric in imitation of a Roman +tomb. The roof is a single block of marble 33 feet in diameter and +weighing more than 300 tons. Theodoric's body was subsequently removed +from its resting place, and the mausoleum was converted into a church.] + +THEODORIC'S RULE IN ITALY. + +The enlightened policy of Theodoric was exhibited in many ways. He +governed Ostrogoths and Romans with equal consideration. He kept all the +old offices, such as the senatorship and the consulate, and by preference +filled them with men of Roman birth. His chief counselors were Romans. A +legal code, which he drew up for the use of Ostrogoths and Romans alike, +contained only selections from Roman law. He was remarkably tolerant and, +in spite of the fact that the Ostrogoths were Arians, [2] was always ready +to extend protection to Catholic Christians. Theodoric patronized +literature and gave high positions to Roman writers. He restored the +cities of Italy, had the roads and aqueducts repaired, and so improved the +condition of agriculture that Italy, from a wheat-importing, became a +wheat-exporting, country. At Ravenna, the Ostrogothic capital, Theodoric +erected many notable buildings, including a palace, a mausoleum, and +several churches. The remains of these structures are still to be seen. + +THEODORIC'S FOREIGN POLICY + +The influence of Theodoric reached far beyond Italy. He allied himself by +marriage with most of the Germanic rulers of the West. His second wife was +a Frankish foreign princess, his sister was the wife of a Vandal +chieftain, one of his daughters married a king of the Visigoths, and +another daughter wedded a Burgundian king. Theodoric by these alliances +brought about friendly relations between the various barbarian peoples. It +seemed, in fact, as if the Roman dominions in the West might again be +united under a single ruler; as if the Ostrogoths might be the Germanic +people to carry on the civilizing work of Rome. But no such good fortune +was in store for Europe. + +END OF THE OSTROGOTHIC KINGDOM, 553 A.D. + +Theodoric died in 526 A.D. The year after his death, a great emperor, +Justinian, came to the throne at Constantinople. Justinian had no +intention of abandoning to the Ostrogothic Germans the rich provinces of +Sicily and Italy. Although the Ostrogoths made a stubborn resistance to +his armies, in the end they were so completely overcome that they agreed +to withdraw from the Italian peninsula. The feeble remnant of their nation +filed sadly through the passes of the Alps and, mingling with other +barbarian tribes, disappeared from history. + + +103. THE LOMBARDS IN ITALY, 568-774 A.D. + +INVASION OF ITALY BY THE LOMBARDS + +The destruction of the Ostrogothic kingdom did not free Italy of the +Germans. Soon after Justinian's death the country was again overrun, this +time by the Lombards. The name of these invaders (in Latin, _Langobardi_) +may have been derived from the long beards that gave them such a ferocious +aspect. The Lombards were the last of the Germanic peoples to quit their +northern wilderness and seek new homes in sunny Italy. They seized the +territory north of the river Po--a region ever since known as Lombardy-- +and established their capital at Pavia. The Lombards afterwards made many +settlements in central and southern Italy, but never succeeded in subduing +the entire peninsula. + +[Illustration: Map, EUROPE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY] + +LOMBARD RULE IN ITALY + +The rule of the Lombards at first bore hardly on Italy, which they treated +as a conquered land. In character they seem to been far less attractive +than their predecessors the Visigoths and Ostrogoths. Many of them were +still heathen when they entered Italy and others were converts to the +Arian [3] form of Christianity. In course of time, however, the Lombards +accepted Roman Catholicism and adopted the customs of their subjects. They +even forgot their Germanic language and learned to speak Latin. The +Lombard kingdom lasted over two centuries, until it was overthrown by the +Franks. [4] + +RESULTS OF THE LOMBARD INVASION + +The failure of the Lombards to conquer all Italy had important results in +later history. Sicily and the extreme southern part of the Italian +peninsula, besides large districts containing the cities of Naples, Rome, +Genoa, Venice, and Ravenna, continued to belong to the Roman Empire in the +East. The rulers at Constantinople could not exercise effective control +over their Italian possessions, now that these were separated from one +another by the Lombard territories. The consequence was that Italy broke +up into a number of small and practically independent states, which never +combined into one kingdom until our own time. The ideal of a united Italy +waited thirteen hundred years for its realization. [5] + + +104. THE FRANKS UNDER CLOVIS AND HIS SUCCESSORS + +CLOVIS, KING OF THE FRANKS, 481-511 A.D. + +We have already met the Franks in their home on the lower Rhine, from +which they pushed gradually into Roman territory. [6] In 486 A.D., just +ten years after the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, the Franks went +forth to conquer under Clovis, [7] one of their chieftains. By overcoming +the governor of Roman Gaul, in a battle near Soissons, Clovis destroyed +the last vestige of imperial rule in the West and extended the Frankish +dominions to the river Loire. Clovis then turned against his German +neighbors. East of the Franks, in the region now known as Alsace, lived +the Alamanni, a people whose name still survives in the French name of +Germany. [8] The Alamanni were defeated in a great battle near Strassburg +(496 A.D.), and much of their territory was added to that of the Franks. +Clovis subsequently conquered the Visigothic possessions between the Loire +and the Pyrenees, and compelled the Burgundians to pay tribute. Thus +Clovis made himself supreme over nearly the whole of Gaul and even +extended his authority to the other side of the Rhine. This great work +entitles him to be called the founder of the French nation. + +THE FRANKS AND THE GALLO-ROMANS + +Clovis reigned in western Europe as an independent king, but he +acknowledged a sort of allegiance to the Roman emperor by accepting the +title of honorary consul. Henceforth to the Gallo-Romans he represented +the distant ruler at Constantinople. The Roman inhabitants of Gaul were +not oppressed; their cities were preserved; and their language and laws +were undisturbed. Clovis, as a statesman, may be compared with his eminent +contemporary, Theodoric the Ostrogoth. + +CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE FRANKS, 496 A.D. + +The Franks were still a heathen people, when they began their career of +conquest. Clovis, however, had married a Burgundian princess, Clotilda, +who was a devout Catholic and an ardent advocate of Christianity. The +story is told how, when Clovis was hard-pressed by the Alamanni at the +battle of Strassburg, he vowed that if Clotilda's God gave him victory he +would become a Christian. The Franks won, and Clovis, faithful to his vow, +had himself baptized by St. Remi, bishop of Reims. "Bow down thy head," +spoke the bishop, as the Frankish king approached the font, "adore what +thou hast burned, burn what thou has adored." [9] With Clovis were +baptized on that same day three thousand of his warriors. + +[Illustration: Map, GROWTH OF THE FRANKISH DOMINIONS, 481-768 A.D.] + +SIGNIFICANCE OF CLOVIS'S CONVERSION + +The conversion of Clovis was an event of the first importance. He and his +Franks naturally embraced the orthodox Catholic faith, which was that of +his wife, instead of the Arian form of Christianity, which had been +accepted by almost all the other Germanic invaders. Thus, by what seems +the merest accident, Catholicism, instead of Arianism, became the religion +of a large part of western Europe. More than this, the conversion of +Clovis gained for the Frankish king and his successors the support of +conversion the Roman Church. The friendship between the popes and the +Franks afterwards ripened into a close alliance which greatly influenced +European history. + +THE EARLIER MEROVINGIAN KINGS + +The descendants of Clovis are called Merovingians. [10] They occupied the +throne of the Franks for nearly two hundred and fifty years. The annals of +their reigns form an unpleasant catalogue of bloody wars, horrible +murders, and deeds of treachery without number. Nevertheless, the earlier +Merovingians were strong men, under whose direction the Frankish territory +continued to expand, until it included nearly all of what is now France, +Belgium, and Holland, besides a considerable part of Germany. + +CHARACTER OF THE FRANKISH CONQUESTS + +The Frankish conquests differed in two important respects from those of +the other Germanic peoples. In the first place, the Franks did not cut +themselves off completely from their original homes. They kept permanently +their territory in Germany, drawing from it continual reinforcements of +fresh German blood. In the second place, the Franks steadily added new +German lands to their possessions. They built up in this way what was the +largest and the most permanent of all the barbarian states founded on the +ruins of the Roman Empire. + + +105. THE FRANKS UNDER CHARLES MARTEL AND PEPIN THE SHORT + +THE LATER MEROVINGIAN KINGS + +After the middle of the seventh century the Frankish rulers, worn out by +violence and excesses, degenerated into weaklings, who reigned but did not +rule. The actual management of the state passed into the hands of +officers, called "mayors of the palace." They left to the kings little +more than their title, their long hair,--the badge of royalty among the +Franks,--and a scanty allowance for their support. The later Merovingians, +accordingly, are often known as the "do-nothing kings." + +CHARLES MARTEL + +The most illustrious of these mayors was Charles, surnamed Martel, "the +Hammer," from the terrible defeat which he administered to the Mohammedans +near Tours, in central France. [11] Charles Martel was virtually a king, +but he never ventured to set aside the Merovingian ruler and himself +ascend the throne. This step was taken, however, by Charles's son, Pepin +the Short. + +PEPIN THE SHORT BECOMES KING OF THE FRANKS, 751 A.D. + +Before dethroning the last feeble "do-nothing," Pepin sought the approval +of the bishop of Rome. The pope, without hesitation, declared that it was +only right that the man who had the real authority in the state should +have the royal title also. Pepin, accordingly, caused himself to be +crowned king of the Franks, thus founding the Carolingian [12] dynasty. +(751 A.D.). Three years later Pope Stephen II came to Pepin's court and +solemnly anointed the new ruler with holy oil, in accordance with ancient +Jewish custom. The rite of anointing, something unknown to the Germans, +gave to Pepin's coronation the sanction of the Roman Church. Henceforth +the Frankish sovereigns called themselves "kings by the grade of God." + +"DONATION OF PEPIN," 756 A.D. + +Pepin was soon able to repay his great obligation to the Roman Church by +becoming its protector against the Lombards. These barbarians, who were +trying to extend their rule in Italy, threatened to capture Rome and the +territory in the vicinity of that city, then under the control of the +pope. Pepin twice entered Italy with his army, defeated the Lombards, and +forced them to cede to Pope Stephen an extensive district lying between +Rome and Ravenna. Pepin might have returned this district to the emperor +at Constantinople, to whom it belonged, but the Frankish king declared +that he had not fought for the advantage of any man but for the welfare of +his own soul. He decided, therefore, to bestow his conquests on St. +Peter's representative, the pope. Before this time the bishops of Rome had +owned much land in Italy and had acted as virtual sovereigns in Rome and +its neighborhood. Pepin's gift, known as the "Donation of Pepin," greatly +increased their possessions, which came to be called the States of the +Church. They remained in the hands of the popes until late in the +nineteenth century. [13] + + +106. THE REIGN OF CHARLEMAGNE, 768-814 A.D. + +CHARLEMAGNE THE MAN + +Pepin was succeeded in 768 A.D. by his two sons, one of whom, Charlemagne, +three years later became sole king of the Franks. Charlemagne reigned for +nearly half a century, and during this time he set his stamp on all later +European history. His character and personality are familiar to us from a +brief biography, written by his secretary, Einhard. Charlemagne, we learn, +was a tall, square-shouldered, strongly built man, with bright, keen eyes, +and an expression at once cheerful and dignified. Riding, hunting, and +swimming were his favorite sports. He was simple in his tastes and very +temperate in both food and drink. Except when in Rome, he wore the old +Frankish costume, with high-laced boots, linen tunic, blue cloak, and +sword girt at his side. He was a clear, fluent speaker, used Latin as +readily as his native tongue, and understood Greek when it was spoken. "He +also tried to learn to write and often kept his tablets and writing book +under the pillow of his couch, that, when he had leisure, he might +practice his hand in forming letters; but he made little progress in this +task, too long deferred and begun too late in life." [14] For the times, +however, Charlemagne was a well-educated man--by no means a barbarian. + +[Illustration: CHARLEMAGNE (Lateran Museum, Rome) +A mosaic picture, made during the lifetime of Charlemagne and probably a +fair likeness of him.] + +CONQUEST AND CONVERSION OF THE SAXONS, 772-804 A.D. + +Much of Charlemagne's long life, almost to its close, was filled with +warfare. He fought chiefly against the still-heathen peoples on the +frontiers of the Frankish realm. The subjugation of the Saxons, who lived +in the forests and marshes of northwestern Germany, took many years. +Charlemagne at the head of a great army would invade their territory, beat +them in battle, and receive their submission, only to find his work undone +by a sudden rising of the liberty-loving natives, after the withdrawal of +the Franks. Once when Charlemagne was exasperated by a fresh revolt, he +ordered forty-five hundred prisoners to be executed. This savage massacre +was followed by equally severe laws, which threatened with death all +Saxons who refused baptism or observed the old heathen rites. By such +harsh means Charlemagne at length broke down the spirit of resistance +among the people. All Saxony, from the Rhine to the Elbe, became a +Christian land and a permanent part of the Frankish realm. + +[Illustration: THE IRON CROWN OF LOMBARDY +A fillet of iron, which, according to pious legend, had been beaten out of +one of the nails of the True Cross. It came to the Lombards as a gift from +Pope Gregory I. as a reward for their conversion to Roman Catholicism. +During the Middle Ages it was used to crown the German emperors kings of +Italy. This precious relic is now kept in a church at Monza in northern +Italy.] + +CONQUEST OF THE LOMBARDS, 774 A.D. + +Shortly after the beginning of the Saxon wars the king of the Franks +received an urgent summons from the pope, who was again being threatened +by his old enemies, the Lombards. Charlemagne led a mighty host across the +Alps, captured Pavia, where the Lombard ruler had taken refuge, and added +his possessions to those of the Franks. Thus passed away one more of the +Germanic states which had arisen on the ruins of the Roman Empire. +Charlemagne now placed on his own head the famous "Iron Crown," and +assumed the title of "King of the Franks and Lombards, and Patrician of +the Romans." + +CHARLEMAGNE'S OTHER CONQUESTS + +Charlemagne's conquests were not confined to Germanic peoples. He forced +the wild Avars, who had advanced from the Caspian into the Danube valley, +to acknowledge his supremacy. He compelled various Slavic tribes, +including the Bohemians, to pay tribute. He also invaded Spain and wrested +from the Moslems the district between the Ebro River and the Pyrenees. By +this last conquest Charlemagne may be said to have begun the recovery of +the Spanish peninsula from Mohammedan rule. [15] + +[Illustration: Map, EUROPE In the Age of Charlemagne, 800 A.D.] + +CHARLEMAGNE'S GOVERNMENT + +Charlemagne was a statesman, as well as a warrior. He divided his wide +dominions into counties, each one ruled by a count, who was expected to +keep order and administer justice. The border districts, which lay exposed +to invasion, were organized into "marks," under the military supervision +of counts of the mark, or margraves (marquises). These officials had so +much power and lived so far from the royal court that it was necessary for +Charlemagne to appoint special agents, called _missi dominici_ ("the +lord's messengers"), to maintain control over them. The _missi_ were +usually sent out in pairs, a layman and a bishop or abbot, in order that +the one might serve as a check upon the other. They traveled from county +to county, bearing the orders of their royal master and making sure that +these orders were promptly obeyed. In this way Charlemagne kept well +informed as to the condition of affairs throughout his kingdom. + +REVIVAL OF LEARNING UNDER CHARLEMAGNE + +Charlemagne made a serious effort to revive classical culture in the West +from the low state into which it had fallen during the period of the +invasions. We still possess a number of laws issued by this Frankish king +for the promotion of education. He founded schools in the monasteries and +cathedrals, where not only the clergy but also the common people might +receive some training. He formed his whole court into a palace school, in +which learned men from Italy, Spain, and England gave instruction to his +own children and those of his nobles. The king himself often studied with +them, under the direction of his good friend, Alcuin, an Englishman and +the foremost scholar in western Europe. He had the manuscripts of Latin +authors collected and copied, so that the knowledge preserved in books +should not be forgotten. All this civilizing work, together with the peace +and order which he maintained throughout a wide territory, made his reign +the most brilliant period of the early Middle Ages. + +[Illustration: CATHEDRAL AT AIX-LA-CHAPELLE +Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) was the capital city and favorite residence of +Charlemagne. The church which he built here was almost entirely destroyed +by the Northmen in the tenth century. The octagonal building surmounted by +a dome which forms the central part of the present cathedral is a +restoration of the original structure. The marble columns pavements and +mosaics of Charlemagne's church were brought by him from Ravenna.] + + +107. CHARLEMAGNE AND THE REVIVAL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 800 A.D. + +CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE, 800 A.D. + +Charlemagne, the champion of Christendom and the foremost ruler in Europe, +seemed to the men of his day the rightful successor of the Roman emperors. +He had their power, and now he was to have their name. In the year 800 +A.D. the Frankish king visited Rome to investigate certain accusations +made against the pope, Leo III, by his enemies in the city. Charlemagne +absolved Leo of all wrong-doing and restored him to his office. +Afterwards, on Christmas Day Charlemagne went to old St. Peter's Church, +where the pope was saying Mass. As the king, dressed in the rich robes of +a Roman patrician, knelt in prayer before the high altar, the pope +suddenly placed on his head a golden crown, while all the people cried out +with one voice, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, the great and +pacific emperor of the Romans, crowned by God!" + +REASONS FOR THE CORONATION + +Although Charlemagne appears to have been surprised by the pope's act, we +know that he wished to become emperor. The imperial title would confer +upon him greater dignity and honor, though not greater power, than he +possessed as king of the Franks and of the Lombards. The pope, in turn, +was glad to reward the man who had protected the Church and had done so +much to spread the Catholic faith among the heathen. The Roman people also +welcomed the coronation, because they felt that the time had come for Rome +to assume her old place as the capital of the world. To reject the eastern +ruler, in favor of the great Frankish king, was an emphatic method of +asserting Rome's independence of Constantinople. + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CORONATION + +The coronation of Charlemagne was one of the most important events in +medieval history. It might be thought a small matter that he should take +the imperial title, when he already exercised imperial sway throughout +western Europe. But Charlemagne's contemporaries believed that the old +Roman Empire had now been revived, and a German king now sat on the throne +once occupied by Augustus and Constantine. Henceforth there was +established in the West a line of Roman emperors which lasted until the +opening of the nineteenth century. [16] + +CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE + +Charlemagne's empire was not in any true sense a continuation of the Roman +Empire. It did not include the dominions over which the emperors at +Constantinople were to reign for centuries. Moreover, Charlemagne and his +successors on the throne had little in common with the old rulers of Rome, +who spoke Latin, administered Roman law, and regarded the Germans as among +their most dangerous enemies. Charlemagne's empire was, in fact, largely a +new creation. + + +108. DISRUPTION OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE, 814-870 A.D. + +AFTER CHARLEMAGNE + +The empire of Charlemagne did not long remain intact. So vast was its +extent and so unlike were its inhabitants in race, language, and customs +that it could be managed only by a ruler of the greatest energy and +strength of will. Unfortunately, the successors of Charlemagne proved to +be too weak for the task of maintaining peace and order. Western Europe +now entered on a long period of confusion and violence, during which +Charlemagne's possessions broke up into separate and warring kingdoms. + +TREATY OF VERDUN, 843 A.D. + +Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious, who became emperor in 814 A.D., was a +well-meaning but feeble ruler, better fitted for the quiet life of a +monastery than for the throne. He could not control his rebellious sons, +who, even during his lifetime, fought bitterly over their inheritance. The +unnatural strife, which continued after his death, was temporarily settled +by a treaty concluded at the city of Verdun. According to its terms +Lothair, the eldest brother, received Italy and the imperial title, +together with a narrow stretch of land along the valleys of the Rhine and +the Rhone, between the North Sea and the Mediterranean. Louis and Charles, +the other brothers, received kingdoms lying to the east and west, +respectively, of Lothair's territory. The Treaty of Verdun may be said to +mark the first stage in the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. + +TREATY OF MERSEN, 870 A.D. + +A second treaty, made at Mersen in Holland, was entered into by Louis and +Charles, after the death of their brother Lothair. They divided between +themselves Lothair's kingdom north of the Alps, leaving to his young son +the possession of Italy and the empty title of "emperor." The Treaty of +Mersen may be said to mark the second stage in the dissolution of the +Carolingian Empire. That empire, as such, had now ceased to exist. + +[Illustration: Map, THE FRANKISH DOMINIONS AS DIVIDED BY THE TREATIES OF +VERDUN (843 A.D.) AND MERSEN (870 A.D.)] + +IMPORTANCE OF THE TWO TREATIES + +The territorial arrangements made by the treaties of Verdun and Mersen +foreshadowed the future map of western Europe. The East Frankish kingdom +of Louis, inhabited almost entirely by Germanic peoples, was to develop +into modern Germany. The West Frankish kingdom of Charles, inhabited +mainly by descendants of Romanized Gauls, was to become modern France. +Lothair's kingdom, separated into two parts by the Alps, never became a +national state. Italy, indeed, might be united under one government, but +the long, narrow strip north of the Alps had no unity of race, no common +language, and no national boundaries. It was fated to be broken into +fragments and to be fought over for centuries by its stronger neighbors. +Part of this territory now forms the small countries of Belgium, Holland, +and Switzerland, and another part, known as Alsace and Lorraine, [17] +still remains a bone of contention between France and Germany. + +RENEWED BARBARIAN INVASIONS + +Even had Charlemagne been followed by strong and able rulers, it would +have been a difficult matter to hold the empire together in the face of +the fresh series of barbarian inroads which began immediately after his +death. The Mohammedans, though checked by the Franks at the battle of +Tours, [18] continued to be dangerous enemies. They ravaged southern +France, Sicily, and parts of Italy. The piratical Northmen from Denmark +and Norway harried the coast of France and made inroads far beyond Paris. +They also penetrated into western Germany, sailing up the Rhine in their +black ships and destroying such important towns as Cologne and Aix-la- +Chapelle. Meanwhile, eastern Germany lay exposed to the attacks of the +Slavs, whom Charlemagne had defeated but not subdued. The Magyars, or +Hungarians, were also dreaded foes. Their wild horsemen entered Europe +from the plains of Asia and, like the Huns and Avars to whom they were +probably related, spread devastation far and wide. A great part of Europe +thus suffered from invasions almost as destructive as those which had +brought ruin to the old Roman world. + + +109. GERMANY UNDER THE SAXON KINGS, 919-973 A.D. + +THE GERMAN STEM-DUCHIES + +The tenth century saw another movement toward the restoration of law and +order. The civilizing work of Charlemagne was taken up by German kings, +not of the old Prankish stock, but belonging to that Saxon people which +had opposed Charlemagne so long and bitterly. Saxony was one of the five +great territorial states, or stem-duchies, as they are usually called, +into which Germany was then divided. [19] Germany at that time extended +only as far east as the river Elbe, beyond which lay the territory +occupied by half-civilized Slavic tribes. + +ELECTIVE KINGSHIP OF GERMANY + +The rulers of the stem-duchies enjoyed practical independence, though they +had recognized some king of Germany ever since the Treaty of Verdun. Early +in the tenth century the Carolingian dynasty died out in Germany, and the +German nobles then proceeded to elect their own kings. Their choice fell +first upon Conrad, duke of Franconia, but he had little authority outside +his own duchy. A stronger man was required to keep the peace among the +turbulent nobles and to repel the invaders of Germany. Such a man appeared +in the person of Henry, duke of Saxony, who, after Conrad's death, was +chosen king. + +REIGN OF HENRY THE FOWLER, 919-936 A.D. + +Henry I, called the Fowler, because he was fond of hunting birds, spent +the greater part of his reign in wars against the Slavs, Magyars, and +other invaders. He conquered from the Slavs the territory afterwards known +as Brandenburg. This country was to furnish Germany, in later centuries, +with its present dynasty--the Hohenzollerns. [20] He occupied the southern +part of Denmark (Schleswig) and Christianized it. He also recovered for +Germany Lorraine, a district which remained in German hands until the +eighteenth century. + +REIGN OF OTTO THE GREAT, 936-973 A.D. + +Henry the Fowler was succeeded by his son, Otto I, whom history knows as +Otto the Great. He well deserved the title. Like Charlemagne, Otto +presented the aspect of a born ruler. He is described as being tall and +commanding in presence, strong and vigorous of body, and gifted with great +charm of manner. In his bronzed face shone clear and sparkling eyes, and +down his breast hung a long, thick beard. Though subject to violent +outbursts of temper, he was liberal to his friends and just to his foes. +Otto was a man of immense energy and ambition, with a high conception of +his duties as a sovereign. His reign forms one of the most notable epochs +in German history. + +[Illustration: RING SEAL OF OTTO THE GREAT +The inscription reads _Oddo Rex_.] + +OTTO AND THE MAGYARS + +Otto continued Henry's work of defending Germany from the foes which +threatened to overrun that country. He won his most conspicuous success +against the Magyars, who suffered a crushing defeat on the banks of the +river Lech in Bavaria (955 A.D.). These barbarians now ceased their raids +and retired to the lands on the middle Danube which they had seized from +the Slavs. Here they settled down, accepted Christianity from the Roman +Church, and laid the foundations of the kingdom of Hungary. [21] As a +protection against future Magyar inroads Otto established the East Mark. +This region afterwards rose to great importance under the name of Austria. + +OTTO AND THE STEM-DUKES + +Otto was an excellent ruler of Germany. He made it his business to +strengthen the royal authority by weakening that of the stem-dukes. He had +to fight against them on more than one occasion, for they regarded +themselves almost as independent kings. Otto was able to keep them in +check, but the rulers who followed him were less successful in this +respect. The struggle between the kings and their powerful nobles formed a +constant feature of the medieval history of Germany. + + +110. OTTO THE GREAT AND THE RESTORATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 962 A.D. + +CONDITION OF ITALY + +Otto the Great is not to be remembered only as a German king. His reign +was also noteworthy in the history of Italy. The country at this time was +hopelessly divided between rival and contending peoples. The emperor at +Constantinople controlled the southern extremity of the peninsula. The +Mohammedans held Sicily and some cities on the mainland. The pope ruled at +Rome and in the States of the Church. A so-called king of Italy still +reigned in Lombardy, but he could not manage the powerful counts, dukes, +and marquises, who were virtually independent within their own domains. +Even the imperial title died out, and now there was no longer a Roman +emperor in the West. + +CORONATION OF OTTO THE GREAT, 962 A.D. + +The deplorable condition of Italy invited interference from abroad. +Following in the footsteps of Charlemagne, Otto the Great led two +expeditions across the Alps, assumed the "Iron Crown" [22] of Lombardy, +and then proceeded to Rome, where he secured the pope (John XII) against +the latter's enemies in that city. Otto's reward was the same as +Charlemagne's. On Candlemas Day, (February 2d) 962 A.D., the grateful pope +crowned him Roman emperor. + +MEANING OF THE CORONATION + +The coronation of Otto the Great seemed to his contemporaries a necessary +and beneficial act. They still believed that the Roman Empire was +suspended, not extinct; and that now, one hundred and fifty years after +Charlemagne, the occasion was opportune to revive the name and power +associated with the golden age of the first Frankish emperor. Otto's +ardent spirit, one may well believe, was fired with this vision of +imperial sway and the renewal of a title around which clustered so many +memories of success and glory. + +[Illustration: Map, EUROPE IN THE AGE OF OTTO THE GREAT, 962 A.D.] + +ULTIMATE RESULTS OF THE CORONATION + +But the outcome of Otto's restoration of the Roman Empire was good neither +for Italy nor for Germany. It became the rule, henceforth, that the man +whom the German nobles chose as their king had a claim, also, to the +Italian crown and the imperial title. The efforts of the German kings to +make good this claim led to their constant interference in the affairs of +Italy. They treated that country as a conquered province which had no +right to a national life and an independent government under its own +rulers. At the same time they neglected Germany and failed to keep their +powerful territorial lords in subjection. Neither Italy nor Germany, in +consequence, could become a unified, centralized state, such as was formed +in France and England during the later Middle Ages. + +THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE + +The empire of Charlemagne, restored by Otto the Great, came to be called +in later centuries the "Holy Roman Empire." The title points to the idea +of a world monarchy--the Roman Empire--and a world religion--Roman +Christianity--united in one institution. This magnificent idea was never +fully realized. The popes and emperors, instead of being bound to each +other by the closest ties, were more generally enemies than friends. A +large part of medieval history was to turn on this conflict between the +Empire and the Papacy. [23] + + +111. THE ANGLO-SAXONS IN BRITAIN, 449-839 A.D. + +ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST OF BRITAIN + +From the history of Continental Europe we now turn to the history of +Britain. That island had been overrun by the Germanic barbarians after the +middle of the fifth century. [24] They are commonly known as Anglo-Saxons, +from the names of their two principal peoples, the Angles and Saxons. The +Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain was a slow process, which lasted at least +one hundred and fifty years. The invaders followed the rivers into the +interior and gradually subdued more than a half of what is now England, +comprising the fertile plain district in the southern and eastern parts of +the island. + +NATURE OF THE CONQUEST + +Though the Anglo-Saxons probably destroyed many flourishing cities and +towns of the Romanized Britons, it seems likely that the conquerors spared +the women, with whom they intermarried, and the agricultural laborers, +whom they made slaves. Other natives took refuge in the hill regions of +western and northern Britain, and here their descendants still keep up the +Celtic language and traditions. The Anglo-Saxons regarded the Britons with +contempt, naming them Welsh, a word which means one who talks gibberish. +The antagonism between the two peoples died out in the course of +centuries, conquerors and conquered intermingled, and an English nation, +partly Celtic and partly Germanic, came into being. + +[Illustration: ANGLO-SAXON DRINKING HORN +Horn of Ulphus (Wulf) in the cathedral of York. The old English were heavy +drinkers chiefly of ale and mead. The evening meal usually ended with a +drinking bout.] + +THE SEVEN KINGDOMS IN BRITAIN + +The Anglo-Saxons started to fight one another before they ceased fighting +their common enemy, the Britons. Throughout the seventh and eighth +centuries, the Anglo-Saxon states were engaged in almost constant +struggles, either for increase of territory or for supremacy. The kingdoms +farthest east--Kent, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia--found their expansion +checked by other kingdoms--Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex--which grew up +in the interior of the island. Each of these three stronger states gained +in turn the leading place. + +EGBERT AND THE SUPREMACY OF WESSEX, 802-839 A.D. + +The beginning of the supremacy of Wessex dates from the reign of Egbert. +He had lived for some years as an exile at the court of Charlemagne, from +whom he must have learned valuable lessons of war and statesmanship. After +returning from the Continent, Egbert became king of Wessex and gradually +forced the rulers of the other states to acknowledge him as overlord. +Though Egbert was never directly king of all England, he began the work of +uniting the Anglo-Saxons under one government. His descendants have +occupied the English throne to the present day. + +ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN + +When the Germans along the Rhine and the Danube crossed the frontiers and +entered the western provinces, they had already been partially Romanized. +They understood enough of Roman civilization to appreciate it and to +desire to preserve it. The situation was quite different with the Anglo- +Saxons. Their original home lay in a part of Germany far beyond the +borders of the Roman Empire and remote from the cultural influences of +Rome. Coming to Britain as barbarians, they naturally introduced their own +language, laws, and customs wherever they settled. Much of what the Anglo- +Saxons brought with them still lives in England, and from that country has +spread to the United States and the vast English colonies beyond the seas. +The English language is less indebted to Latin than any of the Romance +languages, [25] and the Common law of England owes much less to Roman law +than do the legal systems of Continental Europe. England, indeed, looks to +the Anglo-Saxons for some of the most characteristic and important +elements of her civilization. + +[Illustration: Map, ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN] + + +112. CHRISTIANITY IN THE BRITISH ISLES + +PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY + +The Anglo-Saxons also brought to Britain their heathen faith. Christianity +did not come to them until the close the sixth century. At this time more +or less intercourse had sprung up between the people of Kent, lying +nearest to the Continent, and the Franks in Gaul. Ethelbert, the king of +Kent, had even married the Frankish princess, Bertha. He allowed his +Christian wife to bring a bishop to her new home and gave her the deserted +church of St. Martin at Canterbury as a place of worship. Queen Bertha's +fervent desire for the conversion of her husband and his people prepared +the way for an event of first importance in English history--the mission +of Augustine. + +MISSION OF AUGUSTINE, 597 A.D. + +The pope at this time was Gregory I, better known, from his services to +the Roman Church, as Gregory the Great. [26] The kingdom of Kent, with its +Christian queen, must have seemed to him a promising field for missionary +enterprise. Gregory, accordingly, sent out the monk Augustine with forty +companions to carry the Gospel to the heathen English. The king of Kent, +already well disposed toward the Christian faith, greeted the missionaries +kindly and told them that they were free to convert whom they would. +Before long he and his court embraced Christianity, and the people of Kent +soon followed the royal example. The monks were assigned a residence in +Canterbury, a city which has ever since remained the religious capital of +England. From Kent Christianity in its Roman form gradually spread into +the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. + +[Illustration: ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY +The present church, dating from the thirteenth century occupies the site +of a chapel built before the arrival of Augustine, The walls still contain +some of the Roman bricks used in the original structure. St Martin's +Church was the scene of the earliest work of Augustine in Canterbury.] + +CELTIC CHRISTIANITY + +Augustine and his monks were not the first missionaries to Britain. Roman +soldiers, merchants, and officials had introduced Christianity among the +Britons as early as second century. During the fifth century the famous +St. Patrick had carried Christianity to the heathen Irish. The Anglo-Saxon +invasion of Britain drove many Christians to Ireland, and that island in +the sixth and seventh centuries became a center from which devoted monks +went forth to labor in western Scotland and northern Britain [27] Here +they came in contact with the Roman missionaries. + +DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CELTIC AND ROMAN CHRISTIANITY + +The Celtic Christians followed some customs which differed from those +observed by Roman Christians. They computed the date on which Easter fell +according to a system unlike that of the Romans. They permitted their +priests to marry; the Romans forbade the practice. Their monks shaved the +front of the head from ear to ear as a tonsure, while Roman monks shaved +the top of the head, leaving a "crown of thorns." These differences may +not seem very important, but they were enough to prevent the cooperation +of Celtic and Roman missionaries for the conversion of the heathen. + +[Illustration: CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL +The choir dates from the twelfth century, the nave, transepts, and central +tower, from the fifteenth century. One of the two towers at the west front +was built in 1834-1840 A.D. The beautiful stained glass in the windows of +the choir belongs to the thirteenth century.] + +SYNOD OF WHITBY, 664 A.D. + +The rivalry between Celtic and Roman Christians was finally settled at a +church gathering, or synod, called by the king of Northumbria at Whitby. +The main controversy at this synod concerned the proper date for Easter. +In the course of the debate it was asserted that the Roman custom had the +sanction of St. Peter, to whom Christ had intrusted the keys of heaven. +This statement was enough for the Northumbrian king, who thereupon decided +in favor of the Roman claim, declaring that he would not oppose St. Peter, +"lest when I come before the gates of the kingdom of heaven, he who holds +the keys should not open to me." [28] The representatives of the Celtic +Church then withdrew from England, leaving the field clear for Roman +missionaries. + +THE BRITISH ISLES BECAME ROMAN CATHOLIC + +The decision of the Synod of Whitby in favor of Rome meant that all +England henceforth would recognize the pope's authority in religious +matters. It remained a Roman Catholic country until the time of the +Reformation, nearly nine hundred years later. [29] The Celtic Christians +in Ireland and Scotland also in the course of time became the devoted +children of the Roman Church. + + +113. THE FUSION OF GERMANS AND ROMANS + +THE GERMANIC KINGDOMS + +We have now followed the fortunes of the Germans for five centuries from +the end of the Roman Empire in the West. Most of their kingdoms, it has +been seen, were not permanent. The Visigothic and Burgundian dominions in +Gaul yielded to the Franks, and those of the Visigoths in Spain, to the +Mohammedan Arabs. [30] The Vandal possessions in North Africa were +regained by the emperors at Constantinople. [31] The rule of the +Ostrogoths in Italy endured for only sixty years and that of the Lombards +passed away after two centuries. The kingdoms established by the Franks +and the Anglo-Saxons alone developed into lasting states. + +HINDRANCES TO THE FUSION OF GERMANS AND ROMANS + +But even where the Germans did not found permanent kingdoms, they mingled +with the subject provincials and adopted much of the old Roman +civilization. The fusion of the two peoples naturally required a long +time, being scarcely completed before the middle of the tenth century. It +was hindered, in the first place, by the desire of the Germans to secure +the lands of the Romans. Wherever the barbarians settled, they +appropriated a large part of the agricultural soil. How much they took +varied in different countries. The Ostrogoths seem to have seized one- +third of the land in Italy; the Visigoths, two-thirds of that in Gaul and +Spain; the Anglo-Saxons, perhaps all the tillable soil of Britain. It +could not but be galling to the Romans to surrender their farms to the +barbarians. In the second place, the Germans often assessed heavy taxes on +the Romans, which they themselves refused to pay. Tax-paying seemed to the +Germans a mark of servitude. In the third place, a barrier between the two +peoples arose from the circumstance that each had its particular law. For +several centuries following the invasions there was one law for the +Romans--that which they had enjoyed under the empire--and another law for +the Germans--their old tribal customs. After the Germans had lived for +some time in contact with the Romans they wrote out their laws in the +Latin language. These "Laws of the Barbarians" still survive and throw +much light on their early beliefs and manners. + +CONDITIONS FAVORING FUSION + +In spite of the hindrances to fusion, it seems true that the Germans and +the Romans felt no great dislike for each other and that, as a rule, they +freely intermingled. Certain conditions directly favored this result. +First, many Germans had found their way within the empire as hired +soldiers, colonists, and slaves, long before the invasions began. Second, +the Germanic invaders came in relatively small numbers. Third, the Germans +entered the Roman world not as destroyers, but as homeseekers. They felt a +real reverence for Roman civilization. And fourth, some of the principal +Germanic nations, including the Visigoths, Burgundians, and Vandals, were +already Christians at the time of their invasions, while other nations, +such as the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons, were afterwards converted to +Christianity. As long, however, as most of the Germans remained Arian +Christians [32] their belief stood in the way of friendly intercourse with +the Roman provincials, who had accepted the Catholic faith. + +[Illustration: Map, THE PEOPLES OF EUROPE at the beginning of the Tenth +Century.] + +CONTRAST BETWEEN EAST AND WEST + +If western Europe during the early Middle Ages presented a scene of +violence and confusion while the Germans were settling in their new homes, +a different picture was afforded by eastern Europe. Here the Roman Empire +still survived and continued to uphold for centuries the Roman tradition +of law and order. The history of that empire forms the theme of the +following chapter. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the boundaries of the empire of Charlemagne, +distinguishing his hereditary possessions from those which he acquired by +conquest. + +2. On an outline map indicate the boundaries of the empire of Otto the +Great. + +3. What events are connected with the following places: Soissons; Mersen; +Whitby; Reims; Verdun; Canterbury; and Strassburg? + +4. What is the historical importance of Augustine, Henry the Fowler, Pepin +the Short, Charles Martel, Egbert, and Ethelbert? + +5. Give dates for the following events: battle of Tours; crowning of +Charlemagne as emperor; crowning of Otto the Great as emperor; deposition +of Romulus Augustulus; Augustine's mission to England; and the Treaty of +Verdun. + +6. Explain the following expressions: "do-nothing kings"; _missi +dominici_; Holy Roman Empire; and "Donation of Pepin." + +7. Why was the extinction of the Ostrogothic kingdom a misfortune for +Italy? + +8. Why did Italy remain for so many centuries after the Lombard invasion +merely "a geographical expression"? + +9. What difference did it make whether Clovis became an Arian or a +Catholic? + +10. What events in the lives of Clovis and Pepin the Short contributed to +the alliance between the Franks and the popes? + +11. What provinces of the Roman Empire in the West were not included +within the limits of Charlemagne's empire? + +12. What countries of modern Europe are included within the limits of +Charlemagne's empire? + +13. Compare the _missi dominici_ with the "eyes and ears" of Persian +kings. + +14. What is the origin of the word "emperor"? As a title distinguish it +from that of "king." + +15. Why has Lothair's kingdom north of the Alps been called the "strip of +trouble"? + +16. In what parts of the British Isles are Celtic languages still spoken? + +17. How did the four English counties, Sussex, Essex, Norfolk, and +Suffolk, receive their names? + +18. What was the importance of the Synod of Whitby? + +19. Set forth the conditions which hindered, and those which favored, the +fusion of Germans and Romans. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter i, +"Stories of the Lombard Kings"; chapter ii, "Charlemagne." + +[2] See page 236. + +[3] See page 236. + +[4] See page 309. + +[5] The modern kingdom of Italy dates from 1861-1870 A.D. + +[6] See page 245. + +[7] His name is properly spelled Chlodweg, which later became Ludwig, and +in French, Louis. + +[8] _Allemagne_. On the other hand, the inhabitants of Gaul came to call +their country _France_ and themselves _Français_ after their conquerors, +the Germanic Franks. + +[9] Gregory of Tours, _Historia Francorum_, ii, 31. + +[10] From Merovech, grandfather of Clovis. + +[11] See page 379. + +[12] So called from Pepin's son, Charles the Great (in Latin, _Carolus +Magnus_). The French form of his name is Charlemagne. + +[13] In 1870 A.D. the States of the Church were added to the newly formed +kingdom of Italy. + +[14] Einhard, _Vita Caroli Magni_, 25. + +[15] The rearguard of Charlemagne's army, when returning from Spain, was +attacked and overwhelmed by the mountaineers of the Pyrenees. The incident +gave rise to the famous French epic known as the _Song of Roland_. + +[16] The title of "Holy Roman Emperor," assumed by the later successors of +Charlemagne, was kept by them till 1806 A.D. + +[17] The French name Lorraine and the German name Lothringen are both +derived from the Latin title of Lothair's kingdom--_Lotharii regnum_. + +[18] See page 306. + +[19] The others were Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, and Lorraine. + +[20] The Hohenzollerns became electors of Brandenburg in 1415 A.D., kings +of Prussia in 1701, and emperors of Germany in 1871. + +[21] The Magyar settlement in central Europe had the important result of +dividing the Slavic peoples into three groups. Those who remained south of +the Danube (Serbians, Croatians, etc.) were henceforth separated from the +northwestern Slavs (Bohemians, Moravians, and Poles) and from the eastern +Slavs (Russians). See the map facing page 326. + +[22] See the Illustration, page 308. + +[23] See pages 455-463. + +[24] See page 246. + +[25] See page 208. + +[26] See page 350. + +[27] The enthusiasm of the Celtic Christians reached such proportions that +it swept back upon the Continent. In the seventh and eighth centuries +Irish missionaries worked among the heathen Germans and founded +monasteries in Burgundy, Lombardy, and southern Germany (now Switzerland). + +[28] Bede, _Historia ecclesiastica_, iii, 25. + +[29] The separation from Rome occurred in 1534 A.D., during the reign of +Henry VIII. + +[30] See page 378. + +[31] See page 330. + +[32] See page 236. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +EASTERN EUROPE DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES, 395-1096 A.D. + + +114. THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST + +SURVIVAL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST + +The Roman Empire in the West moved rapidly to its "fall" in 476 A.D., at +the hands of the Germanic invaders. The Roman Empire in the East, though +threatened by enemies from without and weakened by civil conflicts from +within, endured for more than a thousand years. Until the middle of the +eleventh century it was the strongest state in Europe, except during the +reign of Charlemagne, when the Frankish kingdom eclipsed it. Until the +middle of the fifteenth century it preserved the name, the civilization, +and some part of the dominions, of ancient Rome. [1] + +CAUSES OF THE SURVIVAL + +The long life of the Roman Empire in the East is one of the marvels of +history. Its great and constant vitality appears the more remarkable, when +one considers that it had no easily defensible frontiers, contained many +different races with little in common, and on all sides faced hostile +states. The empire survived so long, because of its vast wealth and +resources, its despotic, centralized government, the strength of its army, +and the almost impregnable position occupied by Constantinople, the +capital city. + +CHARACTER OF THE EMPIRE + +The changing fortunes of the empire during the Middle Ages are reflected +in some of the names by which it is often known. The term "Greek Empire" +expresses the fact that the state became more and more Greek in character, +owing to the loss, first of the western provinces in the fifth century, +and then of Syria and Egypt in the seventh century. Another term-- +"Byzantine Empire"--appropriately describes the condition of the state in +still later times, when its possessions were reduced to Constantinople +(ancient Byzantium) and the territory in the neighborhood of that city. +But through all this period the rulers at Constantinople regarded +themselves as the true successors of Augustus, Diocletian, and +Constantine. They never admitted the right of Charlemagne and Otto the +Great to establish a rival Roman Empire in western Europe. [2] They +claimed to be the only legitimate heirs of Old Rome. + + +115. THE REIGN OF JUSTINIAN, 527-565 A.D. + +SUCCESSORS OF THEODOSIUS, 395-527 A.D. + +The history of the Roman Empire in the East, for more than one hundred +years after the death of Theodosius, is uneventful. His successors, though +unable to prevent the Germans from seizing Italy and the other western +provinces, managed to keep their own dominions intact. The eastern +provinces escaped the fate of those in the West, because they were more +populous and offered greater obstacles to the barbarian invaders, who +followed the line of least resistance. The gradual recovery of the empire +in strength and warlike energy prepared the way for a really eminent +ruler--Justinian. + +JUSTINIAN AND THEODORA + +Justinian is described as a man of noble bearing, simple in his habits, +affable in speech, and easy of approach to all his subjects. Historians +have often drawn attention to his wonderful activity of mind and power of +steady industry. So great was his zeal for work that one of his courtiers +called him "the emperor who never sleeps." Possessed of large ideas and +inspired by the majesty of Rome, Justinian aimed to be a great conqueror, +a great lawgiver, and a great restorer of civilization. His success in +whatever he undertook must be ascribed in part to his wife, Theodora, whom +he associated with himself on the throne. Theodora, strong of mind and +wise in counsel, made a worthy helpmate for Justinian, who more than once +declared that in affairs of state he had consulted his "revered wife." + +CONQUESTS OF JUSTINIAN + +It was the ambition of Justinian to conquer the Germanic kingdoms which +had been formed out of the Mediterranean provinces. In this task he relied +chiefly on the military genius of Belisarius, one of the world's foremost +commanders. Belisarius was able in one short campaign to destroy the +Vandal kingdom in North Africa. [3] The Vandals by this time had lost +their early vigor; they made but a feeble resistance; and their Roman +subjects welcomed Belisarius as a deliverer. Justinian awarded a triumph +to his victorious general, an honor which for five centuries emperors +alone had enjoyed. The conquest of North Africa, together with the islands +of Sardinia and Corsica, was followed by the overthrow of the Ostrogothic +kingdom in Sicily and Italy. [4] Justinian also recovered from the +Visigoths [5] the southeastern part of Spain. He could now say with truth +that the Mediterranean was once more a Roman sea. [6] + +[Illustration: A MOSAIC OF JUSTINIAN +A mosaic dating from 547 A.D., in the church of San Vitale, Ravenna. It +shows the emperor (in the center) with a bishop, his suite and imperial +guards. The picture probably gives us a fair idea of Justinian's +appearance, though it represents him as somewhat younger than he was at +the time.] + +CODIFICATION OF ROMAN LAW + +The conquests of Justinian proved to be less enduring than his work as a +lawgiver. Until his reign the sources of Roman law, including the +legislation of the popular assemblies, the decrees of the Senate, the +edicts of the of Roman praetors and emperors, and the decisions of learned +lawyers, had never been completely collected and arranged in scientific +form. Justinian appointed a commission of legal scholars to perform this +task. The result of their labors, in which the emperor himself assisted, +was the publication of the _Corpus Juris Civilis_, the "Body of Civil +Law." Under this form the Roman principles of jurisprudence have become +the foundation of the legal systems of modern Italy, Spain, France, +Germany, and other European countries. These principles even influenced +the Common law of England, which has been adopted by the United States. +[7] The _Corpus Juris Civilis_, because of this widespread influence, is +justly regarded as one of Rome's most important gifts to the world. + +CIVILIZING WORK OF JUSTINIAN + +Justinian's claim to the title of "Great" rests also on his civilizing +work. He wished to restore the prosperity, as well as the provinces, of +the empire. During his reign roads, bridges, and aqueducts were repaired, +and commerce and agriculture were encouraged. It was at this time that two +Christian missionaries brought from China the eggs of the silkworm, and +introduced the manufacture of silk in Europe. As a builder Justinian +gained special fame. The edifices which he caused to be raised throughout +his dominions included massive fortifications on the exposed frontiers, +splendid palaces, and many monasteries and churches. The most noteworthy +monument to his piety is the church of Sancta Sophia [8] at +Constantinople, now used as a Mohammedan mosque. By his conquests, his +laws, and his buildings, Justinian revived for a time the waning glory of +imperial Rome. + + +116. THE EMPIRE AND ITS ASIATIC FOES + +AFTER JUSTINIAN + +The Roman Empire in the East did not long remain at the pinnacle of +greatness to which Justinian had raised it. His conquests, indeed, +weakened rather than strengthened the empire, since now there were much +more extensive frontiers to defend. Within half a century after his death +it was attacked both in Europe and in Asia. The Lombards [9] soon seized +Italy, and in the East the Persians renewed their contest against the +Roman power. + +[Illustration: Map, THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST DURING THE TENTH AND +ELEVENTH CENTURIES] + +PERSIANS + +The struggle with the Persians was an inheritance from earlier times. [10] +Under an ambitious king, Chosroes II, the Persians overran all the Asiatic +provinces of the empire. A savior arose, however, in the person of the +Roman emperor, Heraclius (610-641 A.D.). His brilliant campaigns against +Chosroes partook of the nature of a crusade, or "holy war," for the +Persians had violated the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem and had stolen away +the True Cross, the most sacred relic of Christendom. Heraclius recovered +all his provinces, but only at the cost of a bloody struggle which drained +them of men and money and helped to make them fall easy victims to foes +still more terrible than the Persians. These were the Arabs. + +ARABS + +Heraclius had not closed his reign before he saw all his victories undone +by the advance of the Arabs. The first wave of invasion tore away Syria +and Egypt from the empire, penetrated Asia Minor, and reached the shores +of the Bosporus. Repulsed before the walls of Constantinople, the Arabs +carried their arms to the West and seized North Africa, Spain, part of +southern Italy, and the Mediterranean islands. Asia Minor and the Balkan +peninsula still held out, however, and during the tenth century a line of +able rulers at Constantinople succeeded in winning back some of their lost +provinces. + +SELJUK TURKS + +During the eleventh century the empire had to face new enemies. These were +the Seljuk Turks, [11] fierce nomads from the steppes beyond the Caspian. +After their conversion to Mohammedanism, they swept with irresistible +force through the East and conquered nearly all Asia Minor. The ruin of +this country, in earlier ages one of the most populous and flourishing +regions of the world, dates from its occupation by the Seljuks. To resist +their further advance the Roman emperor sought in 1095 A.D. the help of +the Christians of Europe. His appeals for aid resulted in the First +Crusade, with which a new chapter of medieval history began. (See Chapter +XX.) + +WORK OF THE EMPIRE IN ASIA + +Thus, for more than five centuries after Justinian, the Roman Empire in +the East was engaged in a long struggle with the foes--Persians, Arabs, +and Seljuk Turks--which successively attacked its dominions. By its +stubborn resistance of the advance of the invaders the old empire +protected the young states of Europe from attack, until they grew strong +enough to meet and repulse the hordes of Asia. This service to +civilization was not less important than that which had been performed by +Greece and Rome in their contests with the Persians and the Carthaginians. + + +117. THE EMPIRE AND ITS FOES IN EUROPE + +SLAVS + +The troubled years after Justinian's death also witnessed the beginning of +the Slavic [12] settlements in southeastern Europe. The Slavs belonged to +the Indo-European race, but had not progressed in civilization as far as +the Germans. Their cradle land seems to have been in western Russia, +whence they slowly spread to the Baltic, the Elbe, and the Danube. We have +already mentioned the campaigns which Charlemagne and Henry the Fowler +waged against them. [13] The emperors at Constantinople were less +successful in resisting that branch of the Slavs which tried to occupy the +Balkan peninsula. After crossing the Danube, the Slavs pressed on farther +and farther, until they reached the southern extremity of ancient Greece. +They avoided the cities, but formed peasant communities in the open +country, where they readily mingled with the inhabitants. Their +descendants have remained in the Balkan peninsula to this day. The +inhabitants of modern Serbia [14] are Slavs, and even in the Greeks there +is a considerable strain of Slavic blood. + +BULGARIANS + +The Bulgarians, a people akin to the Huns and Avars, made their appearance +south of the lower Danube in the seventh century. For more than three +hundred years these barbarians, brutal, fierce, and cruel, were a menace +to the empire. At one time they threatened Constantinople and even killed +a Roman emperor, whose skull was converted into a drinking cup to grace +their feasts. The Bulgarians settled in the region which now bears their +name and gradually adopted the speech and customs of the Slavs. Modern +Bulgaria is essentially a Slavic state. + +RUSSIANS + +The empire was attacked in southeastern Europe by still other barbarians, +among whom were the Russians. This Slavic people, led by chieftains from +Sweden, descended the Dnieper and Dniester rivers and, crossing the Black +Sea, appeared before the walls of Constantinople. Already, in the tenth +century, that city formed the goal of Russian ambitions. The invaders are +said to have made four attempts to plunder its treasures. Though +unsuccessful, they compelled the emperors from time to time to pay them +tribute. + +WORK OF THE EMPIRE IN EUROPE + +Christianity reached the invaders of the Balkan peninsula from +Constantinople. The Serbians, Bulgarians, and Russians were converted in +the ninth and tenth centuries. With Christianity they received the use of +letters and some knowledge of Roman law and methods of government. +Constantinople was to them, henceforth, such a center of religion and +culture as Rome was to the Germans. By becoming the teacher of the vast +Slavic peoples of the Balkan peninsula and European Russia, the empire +performed another important service to civilization. + + +118. BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION + +STRENGTH AND WEALTH OF THE EMPIRE + +The Roman Empire in the East, though often menaced by barbarian foes, long +continued to be the leading European power. Its highest degree of +prosperity was reached between the middle of the ninth and the middle of +the eleventh century. The provinces in Asia Minor and the Balkan peninsula +produced a vast annual revenue, much of which went for defense. It was +necessary to maintain a large, well-disciplined army, great fleets and +engines of war, and the extensive fortifications of Constantinople and the +frontier cities. Confronted by so many dangers, the empire could hope to +survive only by making itself a strong military state. + +COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY + +The merchant ships of Constantinople, during the earlier part of the +Middle Ages, carried on most of the commerce of the Mediterranean and the +Black Sea. The products of Byzantine industry, including silks, +embroideries, mosaics, enamels, and metal work, were exchanged at that +city for the spices, drugs, and precious stones of the East. Byzantine +wares also found their way into Italy and France and, by way of the +Russian rivers, reached the heart of eastern Europe. Russia, in turn, +furnished Constantinople with large quantities of honey, wax, fur, wool, +grain, and slaves. A traveler of the twelfth century well described the +city as a metropolis "common to all the world, without distinction of +country or religion." + +CHARACTER OF BYZANTINE ART + +Many of the Roman emperors from Justinian onward were great builders. +Byzantine architecture, seen especially in the churches, became a leading +form of art. Its most striking feature is the dome, which replaces the +flat, wooden roof used in the basilican [15] Churches of Italy. The +exterior of a Byzantine church is plain and unimposing, but the interior +is adorned on a magnificent scale. The eyes of the worshiper are dazzled +by the walls faced with marble slabs of variegated colors, by the columns +of polished marble, jasper, and porphyry, and by the brilliant mosaic +pictures of gilded glass. The entire impression is one of richness and +splendor. Byzantine artists, though mediocre painters and sculptors, +excelled in all kinds of decorative work. Their carvings in wood, ivory, +and metal, together with their embroideries, enamels, and miniatures, +enjoyed a high reputation throughout medieval Europe. + +INFLUENCE OF BYZANTINE ART + +Byzantine art, from the sixth century to the present time, has exerted a +wide influence. Sicily, southern Italy, Rome, Ravenna, and Venice contain +many examples of Byzantine churches. Italian painting in the Middle Ages +seems to have been derived directly from the mosaic pictures of the +artists of Constantinople. Russia received not only its religion but also +its art from Constantinople. The great Russian churches of Moscow and +Petrograd follow Byzantine models. Even the Arabs, in spite of their +hostility to Christianity, borrowed Byzantine artists and profited by +their services. The Mohammedan mosques of Damascus, Cairo, and Cordova, +both in methods of construction and in details of ornamentation, reproduce +Byzantine styles. + +LITERATURE AND LEARNING + +The libraries and museums of Constantinople preserved classical learning. +In the flourishing schools of that city the wisest men of the day taught +philosophy, law, medicine, and science to thousands of students. The +professors figured among the important persons of the court: official +documents mention the "prince of the rhetoricians" and the "consul of the +philosophers." Many of the emperors showed a taste for scholarship; one of +them was said to have been so devoted to study that he almost forgot to +reign. When kings in western Europe were so ignorant that they could with +difficulty scrawl their names, eastern emperors wrote books and composed +poetry. It is true that Byzantine scholars were erudite rather than +original. Impressed by the great treasures of knowledge about them, they +found it difficult to strike out into new, unbeaten paths. Most students +were content to make huge collections of extracts and notes from the books +which antiquity had bequeathed to them. Even this task was useful, +however, for their encyclopedias preserved much information which +otherwise would have been lost. During the Middle Ages the East cherished +the productions of classical learning, until the time came when the West +was ready to receive them and to profit by them. + + +119. CONSTANTINOPLE + +POSITION OF CONSTANTINOPLE + +The heart of Byzantine civilization was Constantinople. The city lies on a +peninsula between the Sea of Marmora and the spacious harbor called the +Golden Horn. Washed on three sides by the water and, like Rome, enthroned +upon seven hills, Constantinople occupies a site justly celebrated as the +noblest in the world. It stands in Europe, looks on Asia, and commands the +entrance to both the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. As a sixteenth +century writer pointed out, Constantinople "is a city which Nature herself +has designed to be the mistress of the world." + +[Illustration: Map, VICINITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE] + +CONSTANTINOPLE AS A NATURAL CITADEL + +The position of Constantinople made it difficult to attack but easy to +defend. To surround the city an enemy would have to be strong upon both +land and sea. A hostile army, advancing through Asia Minor, found its +further advance arrested by the long, winding channel which the Bosporus, +the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles combine to form. A hostile fleet, +coming by way of the Mediterranean or the Black Sea, faced grave +difficulties in attempting to penetrate the narrow strait into which this +waterway contracts at each extremity. On the landward side the line of +defense was so short--about four miles in width--that it could be strongly +fortified and held by a small force against large numbers. During the +Middle Ages the rear of the city was protected by two huge walls, the +remains of which are still visible. Constantinople, in fact, was all but +impregnable. Though each new century brought a fresh horde of enemies, it +resisted siege after siege and long continued to be the capital of what +was left of the Roman Empire. [16] + +MONUMENTS OF CONSTANTINOPLE + +Constantine had laid out his new city on an imposing scale and adorned it +with the choicest treasures of art from Greece, Italy, and the Orient. +Fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, eight public baths, and several +triumphal arches are assigned to the founder of the city. His most stately +building was the Hippodrome, an immense structure devoted to chariot races +and all sorts of popular gatherings. There new emperors, after their +consecration in Sancta Sophia, were greeted by their subjects; there civic +festivals were held; and there the last Roman triumphs were celebrated. +Theodosius the Great built the principal gate of Constantinople, the +"Golden Gate," as it was called, by which the emperors made their solemn +entry into the city. But it was Justinian who, after Constantine, did most +to adorn the new capital by the Bosporus. He is said to have erected more +than twenty-five churches in Constantinople and its suburbs. Of these, the +most beautiful is the world-famed cathedral dedicated by Justinian to +"Holy Wisdom." On its completion the emperor declared that he had +surpassed Solomon's Temple. Though nearly fourteen hundred years old and +now defaced by vandal hands, it remains perhaps the supreme achievement of +Christian architecture. + +[Illustration: SANCTA SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE +Built by Justinian and dedicated on Christmas Day, 538 A.D. The main +building is roofed over by a great central dome 107 feet in diameter and +179 feet in height. After the Ottoman Turks turned the church into a +mosque, a minaret was erected at each of the four exterior angles. The +outside of Sancta Sophia is somewhat disappointing, but the interior, with +its walls and columns of polished marble granite and porphyry, is +magnificent. The crystal balustrades, pulpits, and large metal disks are +Turkish.] + +[Illustration: THE THREE EXISTING MONUMENTS OF THE HIPPODROME, +CONSTANTINOPLE. + +These three monuments preserve for us the exact line of the low wall or +_spina_, which divided the race course and around which the charioteers +drove their furious steeds. The obelisk was transported from Egypt by +Constantine. Between it and the crumbling tower beyond is a pillar of +three brazen serpents, originally set up at Delphi by the Greeks, after +the battle of Plataea. On this trophy were engraved the names of the +various states that sent soldiers to fight the Persians.] + +[Illustration: Map, CONSTANTINOPLE] + +HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSTANTINOPLE + +Excepting Athens and Rome, no other European city can lay claim to so long +and so important a history as Constantinople. Her day came after theirs +was done. Throughout the Middle Ages Constantinople remained the most +important city in Europe. When London, Paris, and Vienna were small and +mean towns, Constantinople was a large and flourishing metropolis. The +renown of the city penetrated even into barbarian lands. The Scandinavians +called it Micklegarth, the "Great City"; the Russians knew of it as +Tsarigrad, the "City of the Caesars." But its own people best described it +as the "City guarded by God." Here, for more than eleven centuries, was +the capital of the Roman Empire and the center of Eastern Christendom. + + +STUDIES + +1. Compare the area of the Roman Empire in the East in 395 A.D. with its +area in 800 A.D. (maps between pages 222-223 and facing page 308). + +2. Compare the respective areas in 800 A.D. of the Roman Empire in the +East and Charlemagne's empire. + +3. On the map, page 338, locate Adrianople, Gallipoli, Nicaea, the +Bosporus, Sea of Marmora, and Dardanelles. + +4. Who were Belisarius, Chosroes II, and Heraclius? + +5. In your opinion which of the two rival imperial lines after 800 A.D. +had the better title to represent ancient Rome? + +6. Why has Justinian been called the "lawgiver of civilization"? + +7. Why was it necessary to codify Roman law? Is the English Common law +codified? + +8. Compare the work of Alexandrian and Byzantine scholars in preserving +learning. + +9. "The Byzantines were the teachers of the Slavs, as the Romans were of +the Germans." Comment on this statement. + +10. The Byzantine Empire was once called "a gigantic mass of mould, a +thousand years old." Does this seem a fair description? + +11. "The history of medieval civilization is, in large measure, the +history of the Roman Empire in the East." Comment on this statement. + +12. Show that Constantinople formed "a natural citadel." + +13. On the map, page 340, trace the successive walls of Constantinople. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] The fall of the empire came in 1453 A.D., when Constantinople was +captured by the Ottoman Turks. + +[2] See pages 311-312, 317-318. + +[3] See page 245. + +[4] See page 300. + +[5] See page 244. + +[6] See the map, page 301. + +[7] Roman law still prevails in the province of Quebec and the state of +Louisiana, territories formerly under French control, and in all the +Spanish-American countries. + +[8] In Greek, _Hagia Sophia_, "Holy Wisdom." + +[9] See page 302. + +[10] See page 219. + +[11] So named from one of their leaders. + +[12] The word _slova_ means "speech"; the Slavs are those who speak the +same language. + +[13] See pages 309, 315. + +[14] A more accurate designation than Servia. Originally, all Slavic +peoples called themselves Serbs. + +[15] See page 284. + +[16] Of the eight sieges to which Constantinople was subjected in medieval +times, only two succeeded. In 1204 A.D. it was captured by the Venetians +and in 1453 A.D., by the Ottoman Turks. See pages 477 and 492. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST TO 1054 A.D. [1] + + +120. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH + +THE CATHOLIC CHURCH + +A preceding chapter has traced the early history of Christianity. We there +saw how the new religion appeared in the Orient, how it spread rapidly +over the Roman Empire, how it engaged with the imperial government in the +long conflict called the Persecutions, how the emperor Constantine, after +his conversion, placed it on an equality with paganism, and how at the end +of the fourth century the emperor Theodosius made it the state religion. +By this time the Church had become a great and powerful organization, with +fixed laws, with a graded system of officers, and with councils attended +by clergy from all parts of the Roman world. To this organization the word +Catholic, that is, "universal," came to be applied. Membership in the +Catholic Church, secured only by baptism, was believed to be essential to +salvation. As St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, had said, "He can no longer +have God for his Father who has not the Church for his Mother." + +THE EPISCOPATE + +The first three centuries of Christianity witnessed the development of the +episcopal system in the Church. Each provincial city had its bishop, +assisted by priests and deacons. An archbishop (sometimes called a +metropolitan) presided over the bishops of each province, and a patriarch +had jurisdiction, in turn, over metropolitans. This graded arrangement of +ecclesiastical officers, from the lowest to the highest, helped to make +the Church centralized and strong. It appears to have been modeled, almost +unconsciously, on the government of the Roman Empire. [2] + +THE PATRIARCHS + +The development of the patriarchate calls for special notice. At the time +of the Council of Nicaea [3] there were three patriarchs, namely, the +bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. These cities ranked among the +most important in the Roman world. It was only natural, therefore, that +the churches established in them should be singled out for preëminence. +Some years after the removal of the capital to Constantinople, the bishop +of that imperial city was recognized as a patriarch at a general council +of the Church. In the fifth century the bishop of Jerusalem received the +same dignity. Henceforth there were five patriarchs--four in the East but +only one in the West. + +CLERGY AND LAITY + +The Christian Church was a very democratic organization. Patriarchs, +archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons were drawn from all ranks of +life. No special training at first was considered necessary to fit them +for their duties, though the more celebrated ministers were often highly +educated. To eke out their salaries the clergy sometimes carried on +business as farmers and shopkeepers. Where, however, a church had +sufficient funds to support its bishop, his engagement in secular affairs +was discouraged and finally prohibited. In the fourth century, as earlier, +priests and bishops were generally married men. The sentiment in favor of +celibacy for the clergy became very pronounced during the early Middle +Ages, especially in the West, and led at length to the general abandonment +of priestly marriage in those parts of Europe where papal influence +prevailed. Distinctive garments for clergymen did not begin to come into +use until the fifth century, when some of them began to don clothing of a +more sober hue than was fashionable at the time. Clerical vestments were +developed from two pieces of ancient Roman dress--the tunic and the toga. +[4] Thus the clergy were gradually separated from the people, or laity, by +differences in dress, by their celibate lives, and by their abstention +from worldly occupations. + +HERESIES + +While the Church was perfecting her organization, she was also elaborating +her doctrines. Theologians engaged in many controversies upon such +subjects as the connection of Christ with God and the nature of the +Trinity. In order to obtain an authoritative expression of Christian +opinion, councils of the higher clergy were held, at which the opposing +views were debated and a decision was reached. The Council of Nicaea, +which condemned Arianism, formed the first, and one of the most important, +of these general gatherings of the Church. After the Church had once +expressed itself on any matter of Christian belief, it was regarded as +unlawful to maintain a contrary opinion. Those who did so were called +heretics, and their teachings, heresies. The emperor Theodosius, whose +severe laws finally shattered the ancient paganism, [5] devoted even more +attention to stamping out heresies among his Christian subjects. He +prohibited meetings of heretics, burned their books, and threatened them +with death if they persisted in their peculiar doctrines. During his reign +a Spanish bishop and six of his partisans were executed for holding +unorthodox beliefs. This was the beginning of the persecutions for heresy. + +WORSHIP + +As soon as Christianity had triumphed in the Roman Empire, thus becoming +the religion of the rich and powerful as well as the religion of the poor +and lowly, more attention was devoted to the conduct of worship. +Magnificent church buildings were often erected. Their architects seem to +have followed as models the basilicas, or public halls, which formed so +familiar a sight in Roman cities. [6] Church interiors were adorned with +paintings, mosaic pictures, images of saints and martyrs, and the figure +of the cross. Lighted candles on the altars and the burning of fragrant +incense lent an additional impressiveness to worship. Beautiful prayers +and hymns were composed. Some of the early Christian hymns, such as the +_Gloria in Excelsis_ and the _Te Deum Laudamus_, are still sung in our +churches. Organs did not come into use until the seventh century, and then +only in the West, but church bells, summoning the worshiper to divine +service, early became attached to Christian edifices. + +[Illustration: RELIGIOUS MUSIC +From a window of the cathedral of Bourges, a city in central France. Shows +a pipe organ and chimes.] + +SUNDAY + +The Christians from the start appear to have observed "the first day of +the week" [7] in memory of Christ's resurrection. They attended public +worship on the Lord's Day, but otherwise did not rigidly abstain from +worldly business and amusements. The Jewish element in some churches, and +especially in the East, was strong enough to secure an additional +observance of Saturday as a weekly festival. Saturday long continued to be +marked by religious assemblies and feasting, though not by any compulsory +cessation of the ordinary occupations. During the fourth century Sunday, +as the Lord's Day was now generally called, came more and more to be kept +as a day of obligatory rest. Constantine's Sunday law [8] formed the first +of a long series of imperial edicts imposing the observance of that day as +a legal duty. In this manner Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath on the +seventh day of the week, was dedicated wholly to the exercises of +religion. + +FESTIVALS + +The great yearly festivals of the Church gradually took shape during the +early Christian centuries. The most important anniversary to be observed +was Easter, in memory of the resurrection of Christ. A period of fasting +(Lent), which finally lasted forty days, preceded the festival. +Whitsunday, or Pentecost, was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter. +[9] Two other festivals of later adoption were Christmas, the celebration +of which was finally assigned to the 25th of December, [10] and Epiphany +(January 6), commemorating the baptism of Christ. In course of time many +other feasts and fasts, together with numerous saints' days, were added to +the calendar of the "Christian Year." + + +121. EASTERN CHRISTIANITY + +EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST + +By the time of Constantine, Christianity had spread widely throughout the +eastern half of the Roman Empire. Asia Minor was then largely Christian. +Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and Greece were all ecclesiastical provinces +with their own metropolitans. Many Christians were found in Syria and +Egypt. Churches also existed in Mesopotamia and Arabia, and even beyond +the boundaries of the empire in Armenia and Persia. Between the time of +Constantine and that of Justinian, Christianity continued to expand in the +East, until the gospel had been carried to such distant regions as +Abyssinia and India. + +UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE + +Most of the Christian communities in the Orient owed allegiance to the +patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The +Roman emperor, however, was the supreme religious authority in the East. +He felt it as much his duty to maintain the doctrines and organization of +Christianity as to preserve the imperial dominions against foreign foes. +Since he presided over the Church, there could be no real independence for +its officers. Bishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs were in every respect +subordinate to his will. This union of Church and State formed one of the +most characteristic features of Christianity in the East. + +THEOLOGICAL DISPUTES; HERESIES + +Eastern Christians, far more than those in the West, devoted themselves to +theological speculations. Constantinople and the great Hellenistic cities +of Antioch and Alexandria contained many learned scholars who had +prolonged and heated arguments over subtle questions of belief. After the +Arian controversy had been settled in the fourth century, other disputes +concerning the true nature of Christ broke out. These gave rise to many +heresies. + +NESTORIANISM + +The heresy known as Nestorianism, from Nestorius, a patriarch of +Constantinople, spread widely in the East. Nestorian missionaries even +penetrated to India, China, and Mongolia. The churches which they +established were numerous and influential during the Middle Ages, but +since then most of them have been destroyed by the Mohammedans. Members of +this sect are still to be found, however, in eastern lands. [11] + +[Illustration: THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT +Evidence of Nestorian missions in China is afforded by the famous monument +at Chang-an, province of Shensi. The stone, which was set up in 781 A.D., +commemorates by an inscription in Chinese characters and the figure of a +cross the introduction of Christianity into northwestern China. A replica +of the Nestorian monument was taken to the United States in 1908 A.D. and +was deposited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.] + +ORTHODOXY + +After the formation of the Nestorian and other heretical sects, the +orthodox faith was preserved in the East only by the Greeks of Asia Minor +and Europe. The Greek Church, which calls itself the "Holy Orthodox +Church," for a time remained in unity with the Roman Church in the West. +The final separation of these two churches occurred in the eleventh +century. [12] + + +122. WESTERN CHRISTIANITY: RISE OF THE PAPACY + +THE PAPACY + +Christianity in the West presented two sharp contrasts to eastern +Christianity. In the first place, the great heresies which divided the +East scarcely affected the West. In the second place, no union of Church +and State existed among western Christians. Instead of acknowledging the +religious supremacy of the emperor at Constantinople, they yielded +obedience to the bishop of Rome, the head of the Roman Church. He is known +to us as the pope, and his office is called the Papacy. We shall now +inquire how the popes secured their unchallenged authority over western +Christendom. + +[Illustration: PAPAL ARMS +According to the well-known passage in _Matthew_ (xvi, 19), Christ gave to +St. Peter the "keys of the kingdom of heaven," with the power "to bind and +to loose." These keys are always represented in the papal arms, together +with the tiara or headdress, worn by the popes on certain occasions.] + +ROME AN APOSTOLIC CHURCH + +A church in Rome must have been established at an early date, for it was +to Roman Christians that St. Paul addressed one of the _Epistles_ now +preserved in the New Testament. St. Paul visited Rome, as we know from the +_Acts of the Apostles_, and there he is said to have suffered martyrdom. +Christian tradition, very ancient and very generally received, declares +that St. Peter also labored in Rome, where he met a martyr's death, +perhaps during the reign of the emperor Nero. To the early Christians, +therefore, the Roman Church must have seemed in the highest degree sacred, +for it had been founded by the two greatest apostles and had been +nourished by their blood. + +ROME A "MOTHER-CHURCH" + +Another circumstance helped to give the Roman Church a superior position +in the West. It was a vigorous missionary church. Rome, the largest and +most flourishing city in the empire and the seat of the imperial +government, naturally became the center from which Christianity spread +over the western provinces. Many of the early Christian communities +planted in Spain, Gaul, and Africa owed their start to the missionary zeal +of the Roman Church. To Rome, as the great "Mother-church," her daughters +in western Europe would turn henceforth with reverence and affection; they +would readily acknowledge her leading place among the churches; and they +would seek her advice on disputed points of Christian belief or worship. + +THE ROMAN CHURCH INDEPENDENT + +The independence of the Roman Church also furthered its development. The +bishop of Rome was the sole patriarch in the West, while in the East there +were two, and later four patriarchs, each exercising authority in +religious matters. Furthermore, the removal of the capital from Rome to +Constantinople helped to free the Roman bishop from the close oversight of +the imperial government. He was able, henceforth, to promote the interests +of the church under his control without much interference on the part of +the eastern emperor. + +THE ROMAN CHURCH ORTHODOX + +Finally, it must be noted how much the development of the Roman Church was +aided by its attitude on disputed questions of belief. While eastern +Christendom was torn by theological controversies, the Church of Rome +stood firmly by the Nicene Creed. [13] After the Arian, Nestorian, and +other heresies were finally condemned, orthodox Christians felt indebted +to the Roman Church for its unwavering championship of "the faith once +delivered to the saints." They were all the more ready, therefore, to +defer to that church in matters of doctrine and to accept without question +its spiritual authority. + +THE PETRINE SUPREMACY + +The claim of the Roman bishops to supremacy over the Christian world had a +double basis. Certain passages in the New Testament, where St. Peter is +represented as the rock on which the Church is built, the pastor of the +sheep and lambs of the Lord, and the doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven, +appear to indicate that he was regarded by Christ as the chief of the +Apostles. Furthermore, a well-established tradition made St. Peter the +founder of the Roman Church and its first bishop. It was then argued that +he passed to his successors, the popes, all his rights and dignity. As St. +Peter was the first among the Apostles, so the popes were to be the first +among bishops. Such was the doctrine of the Petrine supremacy, expressed +as far back as the second century, strongly asserted by many popes during +the Middle Ages, and maintained to-day by the Roman Church. + + +123. GROWTH OF THE PAPACY + +PONTIFICATE OF LEO I, 440-461 A.D. + +Up to the middle of the fifth century about forty-five bishops had +occupied St. Peter's chair at Rome. The most eminent these was Leo the +Great. When he became bishop, the Germans were overrunning the western +provinces of the empire. The invaders professed the Arian faith, as we +have seen, and often persecuted the orthodox Christians among whom they +settled. At such a time, when the imperial power was growing weaker, +faithful Catholics in the West naturally turned for support to the bishop +of Rome. Leo became their champion against the barbarians. Tradition +declares that he succeeded in diverting Attila from an attack on Rome, and +when the Vandals sacked the city Leo also intervened to prevent its +destruction. [14] + +PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY I, 590-604 A.D. + +After Leo, no important name occurs in the list of popes until we come to +Gregory the Great. Gregory, as the son of a rich and distinguished Roman +senator, enjoyed a good education in all the learning of the time. He +entered public life and at an early age became prefect of Rome. But now, +almost at the outset of his career, Gregory laid aside earthly ambition. +He gave up his honorable position and spent the fortune, inherited from +his father, in the foundation of monasteries and the relief of the poor. +He himself became a monk, turned his palace at Rome into a monastery, and +almost ruined his health by too great devotion to fasts and midnight +vigils. Gregory's conspicuous talents, however, soon called him from +retirement and led to his election as pope. + +TEMPORAL POWER OF GREGORY + +The work of Gregory lay principally in two directions. As a statesman he +did much to make the popes virtual sovereigns at Rome and in Italy. At +this time the Italian peninsula, overrun by the Lombards and neglected by +the eastern emperor, was in a deplorable condition. The bishop of Rome +seemed to be the only man who could protect the people and maintain order. +Gregory had very great success in this task. He appointed governors of +cities, issued orders to generals, drilled the Romans for military +defense, and sent ambassadors to treat with the king of the Lombards. It +was largely owing to Gregory's efforts that these barbarians were +prevented from conquering central Italy. + +GREGORY'S SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY + +Gregory was no less eminent as a churchman. His writings and his personal +influence greatly furthered the advancement of the Roman Church in the +West. We find him sternly repressing heresies wherever they arose, aiding +the conversion of Arian Visigoths in Spain and Arian Lombards in Italy, +and sending out monks as missionaries to distant Britain. [15] He well +deserved by these labors the title "Servant of the servants of God," [16] +which he assumed, and which the popes after him have retained. The +admiration felt for his character and abilities raised him, in later ages, +to the rank of a saint. + +POSITION OF THE PAPACY + +When Gregory the Great closed his remarkable career, the Papacy had +reached a commanding place in western Christendom. To their spiritual +authority the popes had now begun to add some measure of temporal power as +rulers at Rome and in Italy. During the eighth century, as we have already +learned, [17] the alliance of the popes and the Franks helped further to +establish the Papacy as an ecclesiastical monarchy, ruling over both the +souls and bodies of men. Henceforth it was to go forward from strength to +strength. + + +124. MONASTICISM + +THE MONASTIC SPIRIT + +The Papacy during the Middle Ages found its strongest supporters among the +monks. By the time of Gregory the Great monasticism [18] was well +established in the Christian Church. Its origin must be sought in the +need, often felt by spiritually-minded men, of withdrawing from the world +--from its temptations and its transitory pleasures--to a life of +solitude, prayer, and religious contemplation. Joined to this feeling has +been the conviction that the soul may be purified by subduing the desires +and passions of the body. Men, influenced by the monastic spirit, sought +a closer approach to God. + +EARLY CHRISTIAN MONASTICISM + +The monastic spirit in Christianity owed much to the example of its +founder, who was himself unmarried, poor, and without a place "where to +lay his head." Some of Christ's teachings, taken literally, also helped to +exalt the worth of the monastic life. At a very early period there were +Christian men and women who abstained from marriage, flesh meat, and the +use of wine, and gave themselves up to prayer, religious exercises, and +works of charity. This they did in their homes, without abandoning their +families and human society. + +THE HERMITS + +Another monastic movement began about the middle of the third century, +when many Christians in Egypt withdrew into the desert to live as hermits. +St. Anthony, who has been called the first Christian hermit, passed twenty +years in a deserted fort on the east bank of the Nile. During all this +time he never saw a human face. Some of the hermits, believing that pain +and suffering had a spiritual value, went to extremes of self- +mortification. They dwelt in wells, tombs, and on the summits of pillars, +deprived themselves of necessary food and sleep, wore no clothing, and +neglected to bathe or to care for the body in any way. Other hermits, who +did not practice such austerities, spent all day or all night in prayer. +The examples of these recluses found many imitators in Syria and other +eastern lands. [19] + +[Illustration: ST. DANIEL THE STYLITE ON HIS COLUMN +From a Byzantine miniature in the Vatican.] + +RULE OF ST. BASIL + +A life shut off from all contact with one's fellows is difficult and +beyond the strength of ordinary men. The mere human need for social +intercourse gradually brought the hermits together, at first in small +groups and then in larger communities, or monasteries. The next step was +to give the scattered monasteries a common organization and government. +Those in the East gradually adopted the regulations which St. Basil, a +leading churchman of the fourth century, drew up for the guidance of the +monks under his direction. St. Basil's Rule, as it is called, has remained +to the present time the basis of monasticism in the Greek Church. + +ST. BENEDICT + +The monastic system, which early gained an entrance into western +Christendom, looked to St. Benedict as its organizer. While yet a young +man, St. Benedict had sought to escape from the vice about him by retiring +to a cave in the Sabine hills near Rome. Here he lived for three years as +a hermit, shutting himself off from all human intercourse, wearing a hair +shirt, and rolling in beds of thistles to subdue "the flesh." St. +Benedict's experience of the hermit's life convinced him that there was a +surer and better road to religious peace of mind. His fame as a holy man +had attracted to him many disciples, and these he now began to group in +monastic communities under his own supervision. St. Benedict's most +important monastery was at Monte Cassino, midway between Rome and Naples. +It became the capital of monasticism in the West. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF KIRKSTALL ABBEY, YORKSHIRE] + +RULE OF ST. BENEDICT, 529(?) A.D. + +To control the monks of Monte Cassino St. Benedict framed a Rule, or +constitution, which was modeled in some respects upon the earlier Rule of +St. Basil. The monks formed a sort of corporation, presided over by an +abbot, [20] who held office for life. To the abbot every candidate for +admission took the vow of obedience. Any man, rich or poor, noble or +peasant, might enter the monastery, after a year's probation; having once +joined, however, he must remain a monk for the rest of his days. The monks +were to live under strict discipline. They could not own any property; +they could not go beyond the monastery walls without the abbot's consent; +they could not even receive letters from home; and they were sent to bed +early. A violation of the regulations brought punishment in the shape of +private admonitions, exclusion from common prayer, and, in extreme cases, +expulsion. + +SPREAD OF THE BENEDICTINE RULE + +The Rule of St. Benedict came to have the same wide influence in the West +which that of St. Basil exerted in the East. Gregory the Great established +it in many places in Italy, Sicily, and England. During Charlemagne's +reign it was made the only form of monasticism throughout his dominions. +By the tenth century the Rule prevailed everywhere in western Europe. [21] + + +125. LIFE AND WORK OF THE MONKS + +A MONASTIC COMMUNITY + +St. Benedict sought to draw a sharp line between the monastic life and +that of the outside world. Hence he required that, as far as possible, +each monastery should form an independent, self-supporting community whose +members had no need of going beyond its limits for anything. In course of +time, as a monastery increased in wealth and number of inmates, it might +come to form an enormous establishment, covering many acres and presenting +within its massive walls the appearance of a fortified town. + +THE MONASTERY BUILDINGS + +The principal buildings of a Benedictine monastery of the larger sort were +grouped around an inner court, called a cloister. These included a church, +a refectory, or dining room, with the kitchen and buttery near it, a +dormitory, where the monks slept, and a chapter house, where they +transacted business. There was also a library, a school, a hospital, and a +guest house for the reception of strangers, besides barns, bakeries, +laundries, workshops, and storerooms for provisions. Beyond these +buildings lay vegetable gardens, orchards, grain fields, and often a mill, +if the monastery was built on a stream. The high wall and ditch, usually +surrounding a monastery, shut it off from outsiders and in time of danger +protected it against attack. + +[Illustration: ABBEY OF SAINT GERMAIN DES PRÉS, PARIS +This celebrated monastery was founded in the sixth century. Of the +original buildings only the abbey church remains. The illustration shows +the monastery as it was in 1361 A.D., with walls, towers, drawbridge, and +moat. Adjoining the church were the cloister, the refectory, and the +dormitory.] + +MONASTIC OCCUPATIONS + +St. Benedict defined a monastery as "a school for the service of the +Lord." The monks under his Rule occupied themselves with a regular round +of worship, reading, and manual labor. Each day was divided into seven +sacred offices, beginning and ending with services in the monastery +church. The first service came usually about two o'clock in the morning; +the last, just as evening set in, before the monks retired to rest. In +addition to their attendance at church, the monks spent several hours in +reading from the Bible, private prayer, and meditation. For most of the +day, however, they worked hard with their hands, doing the necessary +washing and cooking for the monastery, raising the necessary supplies of +vegetables and grain, and performing all the other tasks required to +maintain a large establishment. This emphasis on labor, as a religious +duty, was a characteristic feature of western monasticism. "To labor is to +pray" became a favorite motto of the Benedictines. [22] + +[Illustration: A MONK COPYIST +From a manuscript in the British Museum, London.] + +ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE MONASTIC LIFE + +It is clear that life in a Benedictine monastery appealed to many +different kinds of people in the Middle Ages. Those of a spiritual turn of +mind found in the monastic life the opportunity of giving themselves +wholly to God. Studious and thoughtful persons, with no disposition for an +active career in the world, naturally turned to the monastery as a secure +retreat. The friendless and the disgraced often took refuge within its +walls. Many a troubled soul, to whom the trials of this world seemed +unendurable, sought to escape from them by seeking the peaceful shelter of +the cloister. + +THE MONKS AS CIVILIZERS + +The civilizing influence of the Benedictine monks during the early Middle +Ages can scarcely be over-emphasized. A monastery was often at once a +model farm, an inn, a hospital, a school, and a library. By the careful +cultivation of their lands the monks set an example of good farming +wherever they settled. They entertained pilgrims and travelers, at a +period when western Europe was almost destitute of inns. They performed +many works of charity, feeding the hungry, healing the sick who were +brought to their doors, and distributing their medicines freely to those +who needed them. In their schools they trained both boys who wished to +become priests and those who intended to lead active lives in the world. +The monks, too, were the only scholars of the age. By copying the +manuscripts of classical authors, they preserved valuable books that would +otherwise have been lost. By keeping records of the most striking events +of their time, they acted as chroniclers of medieval history. To all these +services must be added the work of the monks as missionaries to the +heathen peoples of Europe. + + +126. SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY OVER EUROPE + +THE ROMAN CHURCH AND THE BARBARIANS + +Almost all Europe had been won to Christianity by the end of the eleventh +century. In the direction of this great missionary campaign the Roman +Church took the leading part. [23] The officers of her armies were zealous +popes, bishops, and abbots; her private soldiers were equally zealous +monks, priests, and laymen. Pagan Rome had never succeeded in making a +complete and permanent conquest of the barbarians. Christian Rome, +however, was able to bring them all under her spiritual sway. + +RECONVERSION OF THE ARIAN GERMANS + +Christianity first reached the Germanic invaders in its Arian [24] form. +Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Lombards were all Arians. +The Roman Church regarded them as heretics and labored with success to +reconvert them. This work was at last completed when the Lombards, in the +seventh century, accepted the Catholic faith. + +FRANKS AND ANGLO-SAXONS CONVERTED TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM + +The Franks and the Anglo-Saxons, whose kingdoms were to develop into the +chief states of medieval Europe, adopted from the outset the Catholic form +of Christianity. The conversion of the Franks provided the Roman Church +with its strongest and most faithful adherents among the Germanic tribes. +[25] The conversion of Anglo-Saxon Britain by Augustine and his monks, +followed later by the spread of Roman Catholicism in Ireland and Scotland, +firmly united the British Isles to the Papacy. [26] Thus Rome during the +Middle Ages came to be the one center of church life for the peoples of +western Europe. + +ST. BONIFACE AND THE CONVERSION OF THE GERMANS + +An Anglo-Saxon monk, St. Boniface, did more than any other missionary to +carry Christianity to the remote tribes of Germany. Like Augustine in +England, St. Boniface was sent by the pope, who created him missionary +bishop and ordered him to "carry the word of God to unbelievers." St. +Boniface also enjoyed the support of the Frankish rulers, Charles Martel +and Pepin the Short. Thanks to their assistance this intrepid monk was +able to penetrate into the heart of Germany. Here he labored for nearly +forty years, preaching, baptizing, and founding numerous churches, +monasteries, and schools. His boldness in attacking heathenism is +illustrated by the story of how he cut down with his own hands a certain +oak tree, much reverenced by the natives of Hesse as sacred to the god +Woden, and out of its wood built a chapel dedicated to St. Peter. St. +Boniface crowned a lifetime of missionary labor with a martyr's death, +probably in 754 A.D. His work was continued by Charlemagne, who forced the +Saxons to accept Christianity at the point of the sword. [27] All Germany +at length became a Christian land, devoted to the Papacy. + +CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS + +Roman Catholicism not only spread to Celtic and Germanic peoples, but it +also gained a foothold among the Slavs. Both Henry the Fowler and Otto the +Great attempted to Christianize the Slavic tribes between the Elbe of the +Slavs and the Vistula, by locating bishoprics in their territory. The work +of conversion encountered many setbacks and did not reach completion until +the middle of the twelfth century. The most eminent missionaries to the +Slavs were Cyril and Methodius. These brother-monks were sent from +Constantinople in 863 A.D. to convert the Moravians, who formed a kingdom +on the eastern boundary of Germany. Seeing their great success as +missionaries, the pope invited them to Rome and secured their consent to +an arrangement which brought the Moravian Christians under the control of +the Papacy. [28] From Moravia Christianity penetrated into Bohemia and +Poland. These countries still remain strongholds of the Roman Church. The +Serbians and Russians, as we have learned, [29] received Christianity by +way of Constantinople and so became adherents of the Greek Church. + +FINAL EXTENSION OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM + +Roman Catholicism gradually spread to most of the remaining peoples of +Europe. The conversion of the Norwegians and Swedes was well advanced by +the middle of the eleventh century. The Magyars, or Hungarians, accepted +Christianity at about the same date. The king of Hungary was such a devout +Catholic that in the year 1000 A.D. the pope sent to him a golden crown +and saluted him as "His Apostolic Majesty." The last parts of heathen +Europe to receive the message of the gospel were the districts south and +east of the Baltic, occupied by the Prussians, Lithuanians, and Finns. +Their conversion took place between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. + + +127. SEPARATION OF EASTERN AND WESTERN CHRISTIANITY + +DIVERGENCE OF EAST AND WEST + +Before the Christian conquest of Europe was finished, Christianity had +divided into two great communions--the Greek Church and the Roman Church. +Their separation was a long, slow process, arising from the deep-seated +differences between East and West. Though Rome had carried her conquering +arms throughout the Mediterranean basin, all the region east of the +Adriatic was imperfectly Romanized. [30] It remained Greek in language and +culture, and tended, as time went on, to grow more and more unlike the +West, which was truly Roman. The founding of Constantinople and the +transference of the capital from the banks of the Tiber to the shores of +the Bosporus still further widened the breach between the two halves of +the Roman world. After the Germans established their kingdoms in Italy, +Spain, Gaul, and Britain, western Europe was practically independent of +the rulers at Constantinople. The coronation of Charlemagne in 800 A.D. +marked the final severance of East and West. + +THE PAPACY AND THE EASTERN EMPERORS + +The division of the Roman Empire led naturally to a grouping of the +Christian Church about Rome and Constantinople, the two chief centers of +government. The popes, it has been seen, had always enjoyed spiritual +leadership in the West. In temporal matters they acknowledged the +authority of the eastern emperors, until the failure of the latter to +protect Rome and Italy from the barbarians showed clearly that the popes +must rely on their own efforts to defend Christian civilization. We have +already learned how well such men as Leo the Great and Gregory the Great +performed this task. Then in the eighth century came the alliance with the +Frankish king, Pepin the Short, which gave the Papacy a powerful and +generous protector beyond the Alps. Finally, by crowning Charlemagne, the +pope definitely broke with the emperor at Constantinople and transferred +his allegiance to the newly created western emperor. + +RISE OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE + +The patriarch of Constantinople, as bishop of the capital city, enjoyed an +excellent position from which to assert his preeminence over the bishops +of the other churches in the East. Justinian in 550 A.D. conferred on him +the privilege of receiving appeals from the other patriarchs, and a few +years later that dignitary assumed the high-sounding title of "Universal +Archbishop." The authority of the patriarch of Constantinople was +immensely strengthened when the Mohammedans, having conquered Syria and +Egypt, practically extinguished the three patriarchates of Antioch, +Jerusalem, and Alexandria. [31] The Church in the East now had a single +patriarch, just as that in the West had the one bishop of Rome. Rivalry +between them was inevitable. + +RIVALRY BETWEEN POPE AND PATRIARCH + +One source of strife between pope and patriarch was the controversy, +arising in the eighth century, over the use of images in the churches. +These images seem to have been, not statues, but pictures (icons) of the +apostles, saints, and martyrs. Many eastern Christians sought to strip the +churches of icons, on the ground that by the ignorant they were venerated +almost as idols. The Iconoclasts ("image-breakers") gained no support in +the West. The Papacy took the view that images were a help to true +devotion and might, therefore, be allowed. When a Roman emperor issued a +decree for the destruction of all images, the pope refused to obey the +order in the churches under his direction, and went so far as to exclude +the Iconoclasts from Christian fellowship. Although the iconoclastic +movement failed in the East, after a violent controversy, it helped still +further to sharpen the antagonism between the two branches of Christendom. +Other causes of dispute arose in later times, chiefly concerning fine +points of doctrine on which neither side would yield. + +THE FINAL RUPTURE, 1054 A.D. + +The final rupture of Christendom was delayed until the middle of the +eleventh century. In 1054 A.D. the pope sent his legates to Constantinople +to demand obedience to the Papacy. This being refused, they laid upon the +high altar of Sancta Sophia the pope's bill of excommunication. Against +the patriarch and his followers they pronounced a solemn curse, or +anathema, devoting them "to the eternal society of the Devil and his +angels." Then, we are told, they strode out of Sancta Sophia, shaking the +dust from their feet and crying, "Let God see and judge." The two branches +of the Christian Church, thus torn apart, were never afterward reunited. +[32] + + +128. THE GREEK CHURCH + +THE GREEK AND ROMAN CHURCH COMPARED + +The Greek and Roman churches, in some respects, are nearer together than +Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Both recognize three orders for the +ministry, namely, bishops, priests, and deacons. Priests of the Greek +Church may marry, but this privilege is not extended to bishops, who, +therefore, are chosen from the monks. Baptism, by both churches, is +administered to infants, but by the Greek Church under the form of total +immersion. Confirmation in the Greek Church follows immediately after +baptism; in the Roman Church it is postponed to the age of reason. In the +communion service the Greek Church gives leavened bread, dipped in wine. +The Roman Church withholds wine from the laity and uses only a dry, +unleavened wafer. While the services of the Roman Church are conducted in +Latin, for those of the Greek Church the national languages (Greek, +Russian, etc.) of the communicants are used. Its festivals do not coincide +in time of celebration with those of the Roman Church, since the "Julian +Calendar" followed in the East is now thirteen days behind the "Gregorian +Calendar." [33] + +SPREAD OF THE GREEK CHURCH + +The Greek Church has not lacked missionary zeal. Through her agency the +barbarians who entered southeastern Europe during the early Middle Ages +were converted to Christianity. At the present time nearly all the peoples +of the Balkan peninsula, including Greeks, Montenegrins, Serbians, +Bulgarians, and Rumanians, belong to the Greek Church. [34] Its greatest +victory was won toward the close of the tenth century, when the Russians +were induced to accept the Greek form of Christianity. Outlying branches +of the Greek Church are found also in the Turkish Empire. It now includes +about one hundred and thirty-five million adherents in European lands. + +PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE GREEK CHURCH + +The patriarch of Constantinople is the spiritual head of the Greek Church. +He enjoys, however, no such wide authority over eastern Christians as that +exercised by the pope over all Roman Catholics. There are as many as +sixteen branches of the Greek Church, each self-governing and under its +own officers. Despite the local independence of its branches, the Greek +Church remains unified in doctrine. It claims to be the only "Orthodox" +church and clings with almost Oriental conservatism to the traditions of +earlier ages. Nevertheless, as the official church of Russia, the largest +and most swiftly growing of European countries, the Greek Church has +before it a future of great importance. + + +129. THE ROMAN CHURCH + +THE ROMAN CHURCH PROGRESSIVE + +The separation of eastern and western Christianity naturally increased the +importance of the Papacy. The popes henceforth had a free hand to guide +the destinies of the Roman Church. That church under their direction was +to show itself vigorous and progressive, with a wonderful power of +adaptation to new and changed conditions. + +THE ROMAN CHURCH SURVIVES THE EMPIRE + +The Roman Empire in the West had gone down before the assaults of the +Germanic barbarians, but in its place had arisen a new creation--the Roman +Church. The chief city of the old empire became the capital of the Papacy. +The pope took, and has since retained, the title of Supreme Pontiff +(_Pontifex Maximus_), once given to the head of the Roman state religion. +[35] Latin has continued to be the official language of Roman Catholicism. +The Roman genius for law and government found a new expression in the +creation of the papal power. The true successors of the ancient Roman +statesmen were the popes of the Middle Ages. The idea of Rome, of her +universality and of her eternity, lived on in the Roman Church. + +WORK OF THE ROMAN CHURCH + +The Roman Church, as the successor of the Roman Empire in the West, formed +the chief center of civilization during the earlier part of the Middle +Ages. She stood between the conquering Germans and the Romanized +provincials and helped to join them both in lasting union. To the heathen +she sent out her missionaries, preaching a religion of love and charity +and introducing a higher morality than the barbarians had ever known +before. She multiplied hospitals, orphanages, and asylums. Her bishops +were the only protectors of the weak and the oppressed. She fostered +education, art, and learning within the walls of churches and monasteries. +Her priests and monks were the only teachers in an ignorant age. In an age +of bloodshed and violence, when might made right, she proclaimed the +superiority of the spirit to mere brute force. To sum up: the Roman Church +was an indispensable agent in the making of medieval Europe. + +THE MENACE TO CHRISTENDOM + +Christianity in its Greek and Roman forms was not the only great religion +of the Middle Ages. In the seventh century, before the separation of the +two churches had been completed and before all Europe had become +Christian, another religion arose. It grew with marvelous rapidity, +stripped the Church of much territory in western Asia, northern Africa, +and Spain, and promised for a time to become the dominant faith of the +world. This was Islam, or Mohammedanism, the religion of the Arabs. + + +STUDIES + +1. In what different senses is the word "church" often used? + +2. "The eastern patriarch was the shadow of the emperor, cast on the +spiritual world." Explain this statement. + +3. Why did heresies develop in the East rather than in the West? + +4. Look up in the New Testament the following texts relating to the +primacy of St. Peter: _Matthew_, xvi, 18-19; _Luke_, xxii, 31-32; and +_John_, xxi, 15-17. + +5. What is "the power of the keys" which the popes claim to possess? + +6. What reasons for the growth of the Papacy have been set forth in this +chapter? + +7. In what non-Christian religions is monasticism an established +institution? + +8. Look up in the New Testament the following texts quoted as favorable to +monasticism: _Matthew_, xix, 21; _Mark_, x, 29-30; and _Luke_, xiv, 26. + +9. What is the origin of the words "monk," "hermit," "anchorite," and +"abbot"? + +10. Summarize the principal benefits which the monastic system conferred +on Europe. + +11. Give reasons for the rapid conversion of the Germans to Christianity. + +12. In what sense is it true that "half Europe owes its Christianity to +women"? + +13. Who was the "Apostle to the Germans"? + +14. Who were the "Apostles to the Slavs"? + +15. Comment on the significance to European civilization of the missionary +activity of the Christian Church in the Middle Ages. + +16. Why has the separation of the Greek and Roman churches been described +as "the most momentous fact in the history of Christendom during the +Middle Ages"? + +17. Why could not such an institution as the Papacy develop in the East? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter iii, "The +Benedictine Rule"; chapter iv, "The Reestablishment of Christianity in +Britain"; chapter v, "St. Boniface, Apostle to the Germans." + +[2] The correspondence may be indicated as follows: + + The Roman Empire The Christian Church + City--Municipal officials. Bishop. + Province--Governor. Archbishop, or Metropolitan. + Diocese--Vicar. Patriarch. + Prefecture--Prefect. (No corresponding division.) + +[3] See page 235. + +[4] See page 258. + +[5] See page 236. + +[6] See page 284. + +[7] _John_, xx, i, 19; compare I _Corinthians_, xvi, 2. + +[8] See page 235 and note 1. + +[9] See _Acts_, ii, 1-4. + +[10] See page 239, note 1. + +[11] In modern India (Malabar) there are no less than 400,000 Syrian +Christians who owe their religion to Nestorian missionaries. + +[12] See page 362. + +[13] See page 236. + +[14] See pages 248-249. + +[15] See page 322. + +[16] _Servus servorum Dei_. + +[17] See pages 305-307. + +[18] From a Greek word which means "living alone." + +[19] See Tennyson's poem, _St. Simeon Stylites_. + +[20] From a Syrian word, abba, meaning "father." Hence a monastery was +often called an abbey. + +[21] Other monastic orders arose during the later Middle Ages (see pages +449, 452), but the Benedictines still exist, chiefly in Austria and Italy. +Their order was introduced into the United States during the nineteenth +century. + +[22] _Laborare est orare._ + +[23] For the missionary work of Celtic Christians see page 323 and note 1. + +[24] See page 236. + +[25] See pages 304-305. + +[26] See pages 322-325. + +[27] See page 308. + +[28] Cyril and Methodius were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1881 A.D. A +millenial celebration of the two apostles was held in 1863 A.D. by the +people of Moravia and Bohemia. + +[29] See page 335. The Bulgarians also got their Christianity from +Constantinople in the ninth century. + +[30] See pages 217, 223. + +[31] See page 376. + +[32] Unsuccessful attempts to heal the schism between the two churches +took place in the Middle Ages. The latest movement in this direction was +made by Pope Leo XIII in 1894 A.D., but his efforts were not crowned with +success. + +[33] See page 186, note 2. + +[34] Many Roman Catholics are found in Croatia-Slavonia, Bosnia, Dalmatia, +and Albania. + +[35] See page 148, note 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE ORIENT AGAINST THE OCCIDENT: RISE AND SPREAD OF ISLAM, 622-1058 A.D. +[1] + + +130. ARABIA AND THE ARABS + +THE ARABIAN PENINSULA + +Arabia, a vast peninsula between the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and +the Red Sea, forms the link between Asia and Africa. It is connected with +Asia by the arid plains extending northward to the Euphrates; with Africa, +by the equally arid isthmus of Suez. Though the country is more than one- +third the size of the United States (excluding Alaska), it has never +supported a large population. The interior, except for occasional oases, +is a desert, inhabited only by wandering tribes. Along the southern and +western coasts, between the mountains and the sea, the soil is generally +fertile, the climate temperate, and the rainfall sufficient. Here the +chief cities and towns are located. + +INHABITANTS OF ARABIA + +The original home of the Semites is believed to have been Arabia. Some +Semitic peoples appear to have migrated northward to Babylonia and Syria, +while others crossed the Red Sea to Abyssinia. Physically, the Arabs are +an attractive people, with well-shaped, muscular figures, handsome, +bronzed faces, brilliant, black eyes, and all the organs of sense +exquisitely acute. Simple and abstemious in their habits, they lead +healthy lives and often reach an extreme yet vigorous old age. + +THE BEDOUINS OF THE DESERT + +The Bedouin Arabs, by which name the nomadic inhabitants of the desert are +known, claim Ishmael, the son of Abraham and half-brother of Isaac, as +their ancestor. The life which they lead in the Arabian wilderness closely +resembles that of the Hebrew patriarchs, as described in the Old +Testament. The Bedouins are shepherds and herdsmen, continually moving +with their sheep and camels from one pasturage and water-hole to another. +Their virtues--hospitality to the stranger, generosity, faithfulness to +the ties of kinship--are those of a nomadic, barbarian people. Such also +are their vices--love of fighting and plunder, revengefulness, and +impatience of restraint. Nothing like a settled government is known to +them. The only tribal authority is that of the chief, or "sheik," who, +because of his birth, courage, or wealth, has been chosen to the +leadership. This description of the Bedouins to-day applies equally well +to them in the age of Mohammed, during the sixth century. + +[Illustration: MECCA +The chief sanctuary of Mecca is the building called the Kaaba, which lies +in the center of a vast courtyard surrounded by a colonnade. The Kaaba is +here seen covered with a heavy black cloth renewed each year. Pilgrims +enter the courtyard, walk slowly around the Kaaba seven times--seven is a +holy number in Islam--and kiss the sacred black stone fixed in the walls +of the structure. The stone is now broken into pieces, which are kept +together by a silver setting. The Kaaba has been rebuilt several times +since the days of Mohammed, but it still preserves the old form of a +heathen temple.] + +THE SEDENTARY ARABS + +The Arabs who settled along the southern and western coasts of the +peninsula had reached in the sixth century a considerable degree of +civilization. They practiced agriculture and carried on a flourishing +trade across the Red Sea and even to distant India. Between these +sedentary Arabs and the Bedouins raged constant feuds, leading to much +petty warfare. Nevertheless the hundreds of tribes throughout the +peninsula preserved a feeling of national unity, which was greatly +strengthened by Mohammed's appearance on the scene. + +ARABIAN HEATHENISM + +The city of Mecca, located about fifty miles from the Red Sea, was a +commercial metropolis and the center of Arabian heathenism. Every year the +Arab tribes ceased fighting for four months, and went up to Mecca to buy +and sell and visit the famous sanctuary called the Kaaba. Here were three +hundred and sixty idols and a small, black stone (probably a meteorite), +which legend declared had been brought from heaven. The stone was +originally white, but the sins of the people who touched it had blackened +it. Although most of the Arabs were idolaters, yet some of them recognized +the "Unknown God" of the Semites, Allah, the Creator of all things. Arabia +at this time contained many Jews, Zoroastrians, and Christians, who helped +to spread abroad the conception of one God and thus to prepare the way for +a prophet of a new religion. + + +131. MOHAMMED: PROPHET AND STATESMAN, 622-632 A.D. + +EARLY LIFE OF MOHAMMED + +Mohammed, [2] born at Mecca about 570 A.D., belonged to the tribe of the +Koreish, who had long been guardians of the sacred Kaaba. Left an orphan +at an early age, the future prophet was obliged to earn his own living. He +served first as a shepherd on the hillsides of Mecca. This occupation, +though lowly, gave him the love of solitude, and helped to nourish in his +soul that appreciation of nature which later found expression in so many +of his utterances. While still a youth he became a camel-driver and twice +crossed the deserts with caravans to Syria. Doubtless he made many +acquaintances on these journeys and picked up much useful information. +Mohammed, however, did not receive a regular education; it is doubtful +whether he could read or write. His marriage, when about twenty-five years +of age, to a rich widow, named Khadija, brought him wealth and +consideration. For some time, henceforth, he led the life of a prosperous +merchant of Mecca. + +[Illustration: A LETTER OF MOHAMMED +A letter, probably in the handwriting of Mohammed's secretary, addressed +to the governor of Alexandria. The seal is inscribed "Mohammed, the +prophet of God."] + +MOHAMMED'S VISIONS + +Mohammed seems always to have been a deeply religious man. As he grew +older, his thoughts more and more centered on spiritual themes. He could +not reconcile the gross idolatry of the Arabs with that belief in the +unity of God which he himself had reached. In his distress he would +withdraw into the wilderness, where he spent much time in fasting and +solitary vigils, practices perhaps suggested to him by the example of +Christian hermits. [3] During these lonely hours in the desert strange +scenes passed before his eyes and strange voices sounded in his ears. At +first Mohammed thought that evil spirits possessed him, but Khadija +encouraged him to believe that his visions were a revelation from another +world. One day, so he declared, God's messenger, the archangel Gabriel, +appeared to him and bade him preach a new religion to the Arabs. It was +very simple, but in its simplicity lay its strength: "There is no god but +God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." + +THE HEGIRA, 622 A.D. + +The prophet made his first converts in his wife, his children, and the +friends who knew him best. Then, becoming bolder, he began to preach +publicly in Mecca. In spite of Mohammed's eloquence, obvious sincerity, +and attractive personality, he met a discouraging reception. A few slaves +and poor freemen became his followers, but most of the citizens of Mecca +regarded him as a madman. Mohammed's disciples, called Moslems, [4] were +bitterly persecuted by the Koreish, who resented the prophet's attacks on +idolatry and feared the loss of their privileges at the Kaaba. Finally +Mohammed and his converts took refuge in Medina, where some of the +inhabitants had already accepted his teachings. This was the famous Hegira +(Flight of the prophet). [5] + +LATER LIFE OF MOHAMMED + +At Medina Mohammed occupied a position of high honor and influence. The +people welcomed him gladly and made him their chief magistrate. As his +adherents increased in number, Mohammed began to combine fighting with +preaching. His military expeditions against the Arab tribes proved to be +very successful. Many of the conquered Bedouins enlisted under his banner +and in 630 A.D. captured Mecca for the prophet. He treated its inhabitants +leniently, but threw down all the idols in the Kaaba, After the submission +of Mecca most of the Arabs abandoned idolatry and accepted the new +religion. + +DEATH OF MOHAMMED, 632 A.D. + +Mohammed did not long enjoy his position as uncrowned king of Arabia. He +died in 632 A.D., at Medina, where he was buried and where his tomb is +still visited by pious Moslems. His followers could scarcely believe that +their great prophet had gone away from them forever. They were ready to +worship him as a god, until old Abu Bekr, Mohammed's father-in-law, +rebuked them with the memorable words: "Whoso worshipeth Mohammed, let him +know that Mohammed is dead; but whoso worshipeth God, let him know that +God liveth and dieth not." + +MOHAMMED'S CHARACTER + +The character of Mohammed has been variously estimated. Moslem writers +make him a saint; Christian writers, until Mohammed's recent times, have +called him an "impostor." We know that he was a man of simple habits, who, +even in the days of his prosperity, lived on dates, barley bread, and +water, mended his woolen garments, and attended to his own wants. He was +mild and gentle, a lover of children, devoted to his friends, and +forgiving toward his foes. He seems to have won the admiration of all with +whom he came in contact. We know, too, that Mohammed was so deeply +impressed with the consciousness of his religious mission that he was +ready to give up wealth and an honorable position and face for years the +ridicule and hatred of the people of Mecca. His faults--deceitfulness, +superstitiousness, sensuality--were those of the Arabs of his time. Their +existence in Mohammed's character should not prevent our recognition of +his real greatness as a prophet and as a statesman. + + +132. ISLAM AND THE KORAN + +FORMATION OF THE KORAN + +The religion which Mohammed preached is called Islam, an Arabic word +meaning "surrender," or "resignation." This religion has its sacred book, +the Koran ("thing read" or "thing recited"). It contains the speeches, +prayers, and other utterances of Mohammed at various times during his +career. Some parts of the Koran were dictated by the prophet to his +disciples and by them were written out on skins, leaves of palm trees, +bones, and bits of parchment. Many other parts remained at first only in +the memory of Mohammed's followers. Soon after his death all the scattered +passages were collected into one book. Since the middle of the seventh +century the Koran, every word of which the Moslems consider holy, has +remained unchanged. + +[Illustration: A PASSAGE FROM THE KORAN +From a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.] + +RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS OF THE KORAN + +The doctrines found in the Koran show many adaptations from the Jewish and +Christian religions. Like them Islam emphasizes the unity of God. The +Moslem cry--"_Allah Akbar!_" "God is Great!"--forms its cardinal +principle. Like them, also, Islam recognizes the existence of prophets, +including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, but insists that Mohammed was the +last and greatest of the prophets. The existence of angels and demons is +recognized. The chief of the demons, Iblis, bears some resemblance to the +Jewish Satan and the Christian Devil. The account of the creation and fall +of man is taken, with variations, from the Old Testament. The description +of the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, and the division of +the future world into paradise and hell, the former for believers in +Islam, the latter for those who have refused to accept it, seems to have +been based on Persian and Jewish ideas. These borrowings from other +religions facilitated the spread of Islam among eastern peoples. + +OBSERVANCES OF ISLAM + +The Koran imposes on the faithful Moslem five great obligations. First, he +must recite, at least once in his life, aloud, correctly, and with full +understanding, the short creed: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is +the prophet of God." Second, he must pray five times a day: at dawn, just +after noon, before sunset, just after sunset, and at the end of the day. +In every Mohammedan city the hour of prayer is announced from the tall +minaret of the mosque by a crier (_muezzin_). Before engaging in prayer +the worshiper washes face, hands, and feet; during the prayer he turns +toward Mecca and bows his head to the ground. Third, he must observe a +strict fast, from morning to night, during every day of _Ramadan_, the +ninth month of the Mohammedan year. [6] In this month God presented the +Koran to Gabriel for revelation to the prophet. Fourth, he must give alms +to the poor. Fifth, he must, "if he is able," undertake at least one +pilgrimage to Mecca. The annual visit of thousands of pilgrims to the holy +city helps to preserve the feeling of brotherhood among Moslems all over +the world. These five obligations are the "pillars" of Islam. + +ORGANIZATION OF ISLAM + +As a religious system Islam is exceedingly simple. It does not provide any +elaborate ceremonies of worship and permits no altars, pictures, or images +in the mosque. Islam even lacks a priesthood. Every Moslem acts as his own +priest. There is, however, an official, who on Friday, the Mohammedan +Sabbath, offers up public prayers in the mosque and delivers a sermon to +the assembled worshipers. All work is suspended during this service, but +at its close secular activities are resumed. + +MORAL TEACHINGS OF THE KORAN + +The Koran furnishes a moral code for the adherents of Islam. It contains a +few important prohibitions. The Moslem is not to make images, to engage in +games of chance, to eat pork, or to drink wine. This last prohibition has +saved the Mohammedan world from the degradation and misery which alcohol +has introduced into Christian lands. To Mohammed strong drink was "the +mother of all evil," and drunkenness, a sin. The Koran also inculcates +many active virtues, including reverence toward parents, protection of +widows and orphans, charity toward the poor, kindness to slaves, and +gentle treatment of the lower animals. On the whole it must be admitted +that the laws of the Koran did much to restrain the vices of the Arabs and +to provide them with higher standards of right and wrong. Islam marked a +great advance over Arabian heathenism. + + +133. EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN ASIA AND EGYPT + +ISLAM SPREAD BY THE SWORD + +Mohammed, as we have learned, did not scruple to use the sword as a means +of spreading his new religion among the idolatrous Arab tribes. By thus +following up preaching with force, he subdued the greater part of Arabia. +The prophet's methods were adopted by his successors. Within a century +after Mohammed's death, they carried the doctrines of Islam over a large +part of the civilized world and founded an Arabian Empire. + +ISLAM AS A RELIGION OF CONQUEST + +Islam was a religion of conquest. It proclaimed the righteousness of a +"holy war," or _jihad_, against unbelievers. It promised rich booty for +those who fought and won, and paradise for those who fell. The Arab +soldier, dying on the battlefield, expected to be carried away by bright- +eyed maidens to a garden of delight, where, reclining on soft cushions and +rugs, he was to enjoy forever an existence of sensual ease. "Whosoever +falls in battle," so runs a passage in the Koran, "his sins are forgiven, +and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of +angels and cherubim." + +ISLAM AS A POLITICAL FORCE + +The sudden creation of the Arabian power must not be understood, however, +as solely a religious movement. Pride and greed, as well as fanaticism, +drove the Arabs forward on their conquering career. Long before Mohammed's +time Arabia had been in a state of unrest. Its warlike tribes, feeling a +sense of their superiority to other peoples, were eager to overrun the +rich districts of western Asia, much as the Germans had overrun western +Europe. Islam strengthened the racial pride of the Arabs, united them into +one nation, and gave them an effective organization for world-wide rule. + +ARAB CONQUESTS IN THE EAST, 632-642 A.D. + +The most extensive conquests of the Arabs were made within ten years after +Mohammed's death. During this time the Moslem warriors, though poorly +armed, ill-disciplined, and in every battle greatly outnumbered, attacked +with success the two strongest military powers then in the world--Rome and +Persia. From the Roman Empire in the East they seized the provinces of +Syria and Palestine, with the famous cities of Damascus, Antioch, and +Jerusalem. [7] They took Mesopotamia from the Persians and then, invading +Iran, overthrew the Persian power. [8] Egypt also was subjugated by these +irresistible soldiers of the Crescent. + +TREATMENT OF THE CONQUERED PEOPLES + +According to the strict teaching of the Koran, those who refused to accept +Islam were either to be killed or to be reduced to slavery. As a matter of +fact, the Arabs treated their new subjects with marked liberality. No +massacres and no persecutions occurred. The conquered peoples were allowed +to retain their own religions, on condition of paying ample tribute. In +course of time, however, many of the Christians in Syria and Egypt and +most of the Zoroastrians [9] in Persia adopted Islam, in order that they +might acquire the rights and privileges of Moslem citizens. + +LATER ARAB CONQUESTS + +The sweeping conquests of the decade 632-642 A.D. were followed in later +years by a further extension of the boundaries of the Arabian Empire. In +the remote East the Arabs sent their victorious armies beyond the Oxus and +Indus rivers to central Asia and India. They captured the island of +Cyprus, annexed parts of Armenia and Asia Minor, and at length threatened +to take Constantinople. Had that city fallen, all eastern Europe would +have been laid open to invasion. + +[Illustration: Map, EXPANSION OF ISLAM] + +SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 716-717 A.D. + +The first attempts on Constantinople were made by sea and were repulsed, +but during the years 716-717 A.D. the city had to face a combined attack +by a Moslem navy and army. The eastern emperor, Leo the Isaurian, +conducted a heroic defense, using with much effectiveness the celebrated +mixture known as "Greek fire." This combustible, probably composed of +sulphur, naphtha, and quicklime, was poured or hurled on the enemy's ships +in order to burn them. "Greek fire," the rigors of an uncommonly severe +winter, and timely aid from the Bulgarians at length compelled the Arabs +to beat a retreat. Their failure to take Constantinople gave the Roman +Empire in the East another long lease of life. + +[Illustration: NAVAL BATTLE SHOWING USE OF "GREEK FIRE" +From a Byzantine manuscript of the fourteenth century at Madrid. "Greek +fire" in marine warfare was most commonly propelled through long tubes of +copper which were placed on the prow of a ship and managed by a gunner. +Combustibles might also be kept in tubes flung by hand and exploded on +board the enemy's vessel.] + + +134. EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN NORTH AFRICA AND SPAIN + +NORTH AFRICA SUBDUED + +Though repulsed before the impregnable walls of Constantinople, the Arabs +continued to win new dominions in other North Africa parts of the +Christian world. After their occupation of Egypt, they began to overrun +North Africa, which Justinian, little more than a century earlier, had +reconquered from the Vandals. [10] The Romanized provincials, groaning +under the burdensome taxes imposed on them by the eastern emperors, made +only a slight resistance to the Moslem armies. A few of the great cities +held out for a time, but after the capture and destruction of Carthage +[11] in 698 A.D., Arab rule was soon established over the whole extent of +the Mediterranean coast from Egypt to the Atlantic. + +ARABS AND BERBERS + +Islam made in North Africa one of its most permanent conquests. After the +coming of the Arabs many of the Christian inhabitants appear to have +withdrawn to Spain and Sicily, leaving the field clear for the +introduction of Arabian civilization. The Arabs who settled in North +Africa gave their religion and government to the Berbers, as the natives +of the country were called, and to some extent intermingled with them. +Arabs and Berbers still comprise the population of North Africa, though +their once independent states have now been absorbed by European powers. +[12] + +SUBJUGATION OF SPAIN BEGUN, 711 A.D. + +With North Africa in their hands the Moslems did not long delay the +invasion of Spain. In 711 A.D. an army of Arabs and Berbers, under their +leader Tarik, crossed the strait which still bears his name [13] and for +the first time confronted the Germans. The Visigothic kingdom, [14] +already much enfeebled, proved to be an easy prey. A single battle made +the invaders masters of half of Spain. Within a few years their hosts +swept northward to the Pyrenees. Only small districts in the northern part +of the Spanish peninsula remained unconquered. + +THE MOSLEM ADVANCE IN GAUL + +The Moslems were not stopped by the Pyrenees. Crossing these mountains, +they captured many of the old Roman cities in the south of Gaul and then +advanced to the north, attracted, apparently, by the booty to be found in +Christian monasteries and churches. In the vicinity of Tours they +encountered the great army which Charles Martel, the chief minister of the +Frankish king, [15] had collected to oppose their advance. + +BATTLE OF TOURS, 732 A.D. + +The battle of Tours seems to have continued for several days. Of its +details we know nothing, though a Spanish chronicler tells us that the +heavy infantry of the Franks stood "immovable as a wall, inflexible as a +block of ice" against the desperate assaults of the Moslem horsemen. When +the Franks, after the last day's fighting, wished to renew the struggle, +they found that the enemy had fled, leaving a camp filled with the spoils +of war. This engagement, though famous in history, was scarcely decisive. +For some time afterward the Moslems maintained themselves in southern +Gaul. It was the Frankish ruler, Pepin the Short, who annexed their +possessions there and drove them back across the Pyrenees to Spain. [16] + + +135. THE CALIPHATE AND ITS DISRUPTION, 632-1058 A.D. + +THE FOUR "ORTHODOX" CALIPHS, 632-661 A.D. + +Only eighteen years after the battle of Tours, the Arabian Empire was +divided into two rival and more or less hostile parts, which came to be +called the Eastern and Western caliphates. The title of caliph, meaning +"successor" or "representative," had first been assumed by Mohammed's +father-in-law, Abu Bekr, who was chosen to succeed the prophet as the +civil and religious head of the Moslem world. After him followed Omar, who +had been one of Mohammed's most faithful adherents, and then Othman and +Ali, both sons-in-law of Mohammed. These four rulers are sometimes known +as the "Orthodox" caliphs, because their right to the succession was +universally acknowledged by Moslems. + +OMMIAD CALIPHS AT DAMASCUS, 661-750 A.D. + +After Ali's death the governor of Syria, Moawiya by name, succeeded in +making himself caliph of the Moslem world. This usurper converted the +caliphate into a hereditary, instead of an elective, office, and +established the dynasty of the Ommiads. [17] Their capital was no longer +Medina in Arabia, but the Syrian city of Damascus. The descendants of +Mohammed's family refused, however, to recognize the Ommiads as legitimate +caliphs. In 750 A.D. a sudden revolt, headed by the party of the Abbasids, +[18] established a new dynasty. The Abbasids treacherously murdered nearly +all the members of the Ommiad family, but one survivor escaped to Spain, +where he founded at Cordova an independent Ommiad dynasty. [19] North +Africa, also, before long separated itself from Abbasid rule. Thus the +once united caliphate, like the old Roman Empire, split in twain. + +THE ABBASID CALIPHS, 750-1058 A.D. + +The Abbasids continued to reign over the Moslems in Asia for more than +three hundred years. The most celebrated of Abbasid caliphs was Harun-al- +Rashid (Aaron the Just), a contemporary of Charlemagne, to whom the Arab +ruler sent several presents, including an elephant and a water-clock which +struck the hours. The tales of Harun-al-Rashid's magnificence, his gold +and silver, his silks and gems, his rugs and tapestries, reflect the +luxurious life of the Abbasid rulers. Gradually, however, their power +declined, and in 1058 A.D. the Seljuk Turks, [20] recent converts to +Islam, deprived them of their power. A Turkish chieftain, with the title +of "King of the East and West," then took the place of the Arabian caliph, +though the latter remained the religious head of Islam. He lost even this +spiritual authority, just two centuries later, when the Mongols from +central Asia overran the Turkish dominions. [21] + +BAGDAD + +The Abbasids removed their capital from Damascus to Bagdad on the banks of +the middle Euphrates. The new city, under the fostering care of the +caliphs, grew with great rapidity. Its population in the ninth century is +said to have reached two millions. For a time it was the largest and +richest city in the Moslem world. How its splendor impressed the +imagination may be seen from the stories of the _Thousand and One Nights_. +[22] After the extinction of the Abbasid caliphate, its importance as the +religious and political center of Islam declined. But memories of the +former grandeur of Bagdad still cling to it, and even to-day it is +referred to in Turkish official documents as the "glorious city." + +EXTINCTION OF THE ARABIAN EMPIRE A MISFORTUNE + +It was a very great misfortune for the eastern world when the Arabian +Empire passed under the control of rude Asiatic peoples. The Turks +accepted Islam, but they did little to preserve and extend Arabian +civilization. The stagnant, non-progressive condition of the East at the +present time is largely due to the misgovernment of its Turkish +conquerors. + + +136. ARABIAN CIVILIZATION + +THE ARABS AS ABSORBERS OF CIVILIZATION + +The great Moslem cities of Bagdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Cordova were not +only seats of government for the different divisions of the Arabian +Empire; they were also the centers of Arabian civilization. The conquests +of the Arabs had brought them into contact with highly developed peoples +whose culture they absorbed and to some extent improved. They owed most to +Persia and, after Persia, to Greece, through the empire at Constantinople, +In their hands there was somewhat the same fusion of East and West as +Alexander the Great had sought to accomplish. [23] Greek science and +philosophy mingled with the arts of Persia and other Oriental lands. +Arabian civilization, for about four centuries under the Ommiad and +Abbasid caliphs, far surpassed anything to be found in western Europe. + +AGRICULTURE + +Many improvements in agriculture were due to the Arabs. They had a good +system of irrigation, practiced rotation of crops, employed fertilizers, +and understood how to graft and produce new varieties of plants and +fruits. From the Arabs we have received cotton, flax, hemp, buckwheat, +rice, sugar cane, and coffee, various vegetables, including asparagus, +artichokes, and beans, and such fruits as melons, oranges, lemons, +apricots, and plums. + +MANUFACTURING + +The Arabs excelled in various manufactures. Damascus was famous for its +brocades, tapestries, and blades of tempered steel. The Moorish cities in +Spain had also their special productions: Cordova, leather; Toledo, armor; +and Granada, rich silks. Arab craftsmen taught the Venetians to make +crystal and plate glass. The work of Arab potters and weavers was at once +the admiration and despair of its imitators in western Europe. The Arabs +knew the secrets of dyeing and they made a kind of paper. Their textile +fabrics and articles of metal were distinguished for beauty of design and +perfection of workmanship. European peoples during the early Middle Ages +received the greater part of their manufactured articles of luxury through +the Arabs. [24] + +COMMERCE + +The products of Arab farms and workshops were carried far and wide +throughout medieval lands. The Arabs were keen merchants, and Mohammed had +expressly encouraged commerce by declaring it agreeable to God. The Arabs +traded with India, China, the East Indies (Java and Sumatra), the interior +of Africa, Russia, and even with the Baltic lands. Bagdad, which commanded +both land and water routes, was the chief center of this commerce, but +other cities of western Asia, North Africa, and Spain shared in its +advantages. The bazaar, or merchants' quarter, was found in every Moslem +city. + +GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE + +The trade of the Arabs, their wide conquests, and their religious +pilgrimages to Mecca vastly increased their knowledge of the world. They +were the best geographers of the Middle Ages. An Abbasid caliph, the son +of Harun-al-Rashid, had the Greek _Geography_ of Ptolemy [25] translated +into Arabic and enriched the work with illuminated maps. Arab scholars +compiled encyclopedias describing foreign countries and peoples, +constructed celestial spheres, and measured closely the arc of the +meridian in order to calculate the size of the earth. There is some reason +to believe that the mariner's compass was first introduced into Europe by +the Arabs. The geographical knowledge of Christian peoples during the +Middle Ages owed much, indeed, to their Moslem forerunners. + +EDUCATION + +Schools and universities flourished in Moslem lands when Christian Europe +was still in the "Dark Ages." The largest institution of learning was at +Cairo, where the lectures of the professors were attended by thousands of +students. Famous universities also existed in Bagdad and Cordova. Moslem +scholars especially delighted in the study of philosophy. Arabic +translations of Aristotle's [26] writings made the ideas of that great +thinker familiar to the students of western Europe, where the knowledge of +Greek had all but died out. The Arabs also formed extensive libraries of +many thousands of manuscripts, all carefully arranged and catalogued. +Their libraries and universities, especially in Spain, were visited by +many Christians, who thus became acquainted with Moslem learning and +helped to introduce it into Europe. + +CHEMISTRY AND MEDICINE + +The Arabs have been considered to be the founders of modern experimental +science. They were relatively skillful chemists, for they discovered a +number of new compounds (such as alcohol, aqua regia, nitric acid, and +corrosive sublimate) and understood the preparation of mercury and of +various oxides of metals. In medicine the Arabs based their investigations +on those of the Greeks, [27] but made many additional contributions to the +art of healing. They studied physiology and hygiene, dissected the human +body, performed difficult surgical operations, used anaesthetics, and +wrote treatises on such diseases as measles and smallpox. Arab medicine +and surgery were studied by the Christian peoples of Europe throughout the +later period of the Middle Ages. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE OF CORDOVA +The great mosque of Cordova, begun in the eighth century, was gradually +enlarged during the following centuries to its present dimensions, 570 by +425 feet. The building, one of the largest in the world, has now been +turned into a cathedral. The most striking feature of the interior is the +forest of porphyry, jasper, and marble pillars supporting open Moorish +arches. Originally there were 1200 of these pillars, but many have been +destroyed.] + +MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY + +The Arabs had a strong taste for mathematics. Here again they carried +further the old Greek investigations. In arithmetic they used the so- +called "Arabic" figures, which were probably borrowed from India. The +Arabic numerals gradually supplanted in western Europe the awkward Roman +numerals. In geometry the Arabs added little to Euclid, but algebra is +practically their creation. An Arabic treatise on algebra long formed the +textbook of the subject in the universities of Christian Europe. Spherical +trigonometry and conic sections are Arabic inventions. This mathematical +knowledge enabled the Arabs to make considerable progress in astronomy. +Observatories at Bagdad and Damascus were erected as early as the ninth +century. Some of the astronomical instruments which they constructed, +including the sextant and the gnomon, are still in use. [28] + +ROMANCE AND POETRY + +In prose and verse there are two Moslem productions which have attained +wide popularity in European lands. The first work is the _Thousand and One +Nights_, a collection of tales written in Arabic and describing life and +manners at the court of the Abbasids. The book, as we now have it, seems +to have been composed as late as the fifteenth century, but it borrows +much from earlier Arabic sources. Many of the tales are of Indian or +Persian origin, but all have a thoroughly Moslem coloring. The second work +is the _Rubáiyát_ of the astronomer-poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam, who +wrote about the beginning of the twelfth century. His _Rubáiyát_ is a +little volume of quatrains, about five hundred in all, distinguished for +wit, satirical power, and a vein of melancholy, sometimes pensive, +sometimes passionate. These characteristics of Omar's poetry have made it +widely known in the western world. [29] + +ARCHITECTURE + +Painting and sculpture owe little to the Arabs, but their architecture, +based in part on Byzantine and Persian models, reached a high level of +excellence. Swelling domes, vaulted roofs, arched porches, tall and +graceful minarets, and the exquisite decorative patterns known as +"arabesques" make many Arab buildings miracles of beauty. Glazed tiles, +mosaics, and jeweled glass were extensively used for ornamentation. From +the first the Arab builders adopted the pointed arch; they introduced it +into western Europe; and it became a characteristic feature of Gothic +cathedrals. [30] Among the best-known of Arab buildings are the so-called +"Mosque of Omar" at Jerusalem, [31] the Great Mosque of Cordova, and that +architectural gem, the Alhambra at Granada. Many features of Moorish art +were taken over by the Spaniards, who reproduced them in the cathedrals +and missions of Mexico and California. + +[Illustration: CAPITALS AND ARABESQUES FROM THE ALHAMBRA +One of Mohammed's laws forbidding the use of idols was subsequently +expanded by religious teachers into a prohibition of all imitations of +human or animal forms in art. Sculptors who observed this prohibition +relied for ornamentation on intricate geometrical designs known as +arabesques. These were carved in stone or molded in plaster.] + + +137. THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM + +GROWTH OF ISLAM + +The division of the Arabian Empire into rival caliphates did not check the +spread of Islam. The Turks and Mongols during the Middle Ages carried it +to the uttermost regions of Asia and throughout southeastern Europe. Some +parts of the territory thus gained by it have since been lost. Spain and +the Balkan peninsula are once more Christian lands. In other parts of the +world, and notably in Africa and India, the religion of Mohammed is +spreading faster than any other creed. Islam to-day claims about two +hundred million adherents. + +[Illustration: THE FOUNTAIN OF THE LIONS IN THE ALHAMBRA +The most remarkable feature of the Alhambra is the Court of the Lions. It +measures 116 feet in length by 66 feet in breadth. A gallery supported on +marble columns surrounds the court. In the center is the Fountain of +Lions, an alabaster basin resting on the backs of 12 marble lions.] + +THE BENEFITS OF ISLAM + +The growth of Islam is evidence that it meets the needs of Asiatic and +African peoples. Its simple creed--the unity of God, man's immortal soul, +and material rewards and penalties in a future life--adapt it to the +understanding of half-civilized peoples. As a religion it is immeasurably +superior to the rude nature worship and idolatry which it has supplanted. +The same is true of Islam as a system of morality. The practice of the +virtues recommended by the Koran and the avoidance of the vices which that +book condemns tend to raise its adherents in the moral scale. + +TREATMENT OF WOMEN + +From the moral standpoint one of the least satisfactory features of Islam +is its attitude toward women. The ancient Arabs, like many other peoples, +seem to have set no limit to the number of wives a man might possess. +Women were regarded by them as mere chattels, and female infants were +frequently put to death. Mohammed recognized polygamy, but limited the +number of legitimate wives to four. At the same time Mohammed sought to +improve the condition of women by forbidding female infanticide, by +restricting the facilities for divorce, and by insisting on kind treatment +of wives by their husbands. "The best of you," he said, "is he who behaves +best to his wives." According to eastern custom Moslem women are secluded +in a separate part of the house, called the _harem_. [32] They never +appear in public, except when closely veiled from the eyes of strangers. +Their education is also much neglected. + +SLAVERY + +Slavery, like polygamy, was a custom which Mohammed found fully +established among the Arabs. He disliked slavery and tried in several ways +to lessen its evils. He declared that the emancipation of Moslem slaves +was an act of special merit, and ordered that in a war between Moslems the +prisoners were not to be enslaved. Mohammed also insisted on kind +treatment of slaves by their masters. "Feed your slaves," he directed, +"with food of that which you eat and clothe them with such clothing as you +wear, and command them not to do that which they are unable to do." The +condition of Moslem slaves does not appear to be intolerable, though the +slave traffic which still exists in some parts of Africa is a disgrace to +Islam. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the Arabian Empire at its widest extent. +Locate the more important cities, including Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, +Damascus, Bagdad, Cairo, Alexandria, Granada, Cordova, and Seville. + +2. Define the following: Kaaba; Islam; Koran; and caliph. + +3. How did the geographical situation of Arabia preserve it from being +conquered by Persians, Macedonians, or Romans? + +4. Why had the Arabs, until the time of Mohammed, played so inconspicuous +a part in the history of the world? + +5. Mohammed "began as a mule driver and ended as both a pope and a king." +Explain this statement. + +6. How does Mohammed's career in Mecca illustrate the saying that "a +prophet is not without honor save in his own country"? + +7. What resemblances may be traced between Islam on the one side and +Judaism and Christianity on the other side? + +8. Did religion have anything to do with the migrations of the Germans? +How was it with the Arabs? + +9. Contrast the methods of propagating Christianity in Europe with those +of spreading Islam in Asia. + +10. Why is the defeat of the Moslems before Constantinople regarded as +more significant than their defeat at the battle of Tours? + +11. Compare the eastern limits of the Arabian Empire with those of +Alexander's empire (maps facing pages 124, 376). + +12. Show that the Arabian Empire, because of its geographical position, +was less easily defended than the Roman Empire. + +13. Locate on the map facing page 376 the following commercial cities in +the Arabian Empire: Samarkand; Cabul; Bokhara; Mosul; Kairwan; Fez; +Seville; and Toledo. + +14. Can you suggest any reason why the Arabs did little in painting and +sculpture? + +15. What are some of the best-known stories in the _Thousand and One +Nights_? + +16. Discuss the justice of this statement: "If our ideas and our arts go +back to antiquity, all the inventions which make life easy and agreeable +come to us from the Arabs." + +17. "From the eighth to the twelfth century the world knew but two +civilizations, that of Byzantium and that of the Arabs." Comment on this +statement. + +18. Show that Islam was an heir to the Graeco-Oriental civilization. + +19. Can you suggest any reasons why Islam to-day spreads among the African +negroes more rapidly than Christianity? + +20. How does Islam, by sanctioning polygamy and slavery, hinder the rise +of women and of the working classes? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter vi, "The +Teachings of Mohammed." + +[2] The earlier spelling was Mahomet. + +[3] See page 352. + [4] From the Arabic _muslim_, "one who surrenders himself" (to God's +will). During the Middle Ages the Moslems to their Christian enemies were +commonly known as Saracens, a term which is still in use. + +[5] The year 622 A.D., in which the Hegira occurred, marks the beginning +of the Mohammedan era. The Christian year 1917 A.D. nearly corresponds to +the Mohammedan year 1336 A.H. (_Anno Hegirae_). + +[6] Feasting during the nights of this month is allowable. + +[7] See page 333. + +[8] See page 219, 332. + +[9] See page 54, note 1. + +[10] See page 330. + +[11] See page 245. + +[12] Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis belong to France; Tripoli, to Italy. + +[13] Gibraltar = _Gibal al Tarik_, "the mountain of Tarik." + +[14] See pages 244-245. + +[15] See page 306. + +[16] For Charlemagne's Spanish conquests, see page 309. + +[17] So called from a leading family of Mecca, to which Moawiya belonged. + +[18] So called from Abbas, an uncle of Mohammed. + +[19] This was at first known as the emirate of Cordova, but in 929 A.D. it +became the caliphate of Cordova. See the map facing page 308. + +[20] See page 333. + +[21] See page 485. Descendants of the Abbasids subsequently took up their +abode in Egypt. Through them the claim to the caliphate passed in 1538 +A.D. to the Ottoman Turks. The Sultan at Constantinople still calls +himself caliph of the Moslem world. However, in 1916 A.D. the Grand Sherif +of Mecca, a descendant of Mohammed, led a revolt against the Turks, +captured Mecca and Medina, and proclaimed Arab independence. Should the +European war end in favor of the Allies, the caliphate will undoubtedly go +back to the Arabs. + +[22] Popularly called the _Arabian Nights_. + +[23] See page 126. + +[24] The European names of some common articles reveal the Arabic sources +from which they were first derived. Thus, _damask_ comes from Damascus, +_muslin_ from Mosul, _gauze_ from Gaza, _cordovan_ (a kind of leather) +from Cordova, and _morocco_ leather from North Africa. + +[25] See page 133. + +[26] See page 275. + +[27] See page 131. + +[28] Many words in European languages beginning with the prefix _al_ (the +definite article in Arabic) show how indebted was Europe to the Arabs for +scientific knowledge. In English these words include _alchemy_ (whence +_chemistry_), _alcohol_, _alembic_, _algebra_, _alkali_, _almanac_, +_Aldebaran_ (the star), etc. + +[29] The translation of the _Rubáiyát_ by Edward Fitzgerald is almost an +English classic. + +[30] See page 564. + +[31] See the illustration, page 471. + +[32] The Athenians had a similar practice. See page 257. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE NORTHMEN AND THE NORMANS TO 1066 A.D. [1] + + +138. SCANDINAVIA AND THE NORTHMEN + +A NEW SERIES OF MIGRATIONS + +From the East we return once more to the West, from Asia to Europe, from +Arabia to Scandinavia. We have now to deal with the raids and settlements +of the Norsemen or Northmen. Like the Arabs the Northmen quitted a sterile +peninsula and went forth to find better homes in distant lands. Their +invasions, beginning toward the close of the eighth century, lasted about +three hundred years. + +A TEUTONIC MOVEMENT + +The Northmen belonged to the Teutonic family of peoples. They were kinsmen +of the Germans, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Dutch. Their migrations may be +regarded, therefore, as the last wave of that great Teutonic movement +which in earlier times had inundated western Europe and overwhelmed the +Roman Empire. + +SCANDINAVIA + +The Northmen lived, as their descendants still live, in Denmark, Sweden, +and Norway. The name Scandinavia is sometimes applied to all three +countries, but more commonly it is restricted to the peninsula comprising +Sweden and Norway. + +[Illustration: SWEDISH ROCK CARVING +Shows a man plowing.] + +SWEDEN + +Sweden, with the exception of the northern highlands, is mostly a level +region, watered by copious streams, dotted with many lakes, and sinking +down gradually to the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. The fact that +Sweden faces these inland waters determined the course of her development +as a nation. She never has had any aspirations to become a great oceanic +power. Her whole historic life has centered about the Baltic. + +[Illustration: A RUNIC STONE +A stone, twelve feet high and six feet wide, in the churchyard of Rok, +Ostergotland, Sweden. The runic inscription, which contains more than 760 +letters, is the longest known.] + +NORWAY + +Norway, in contrast to Sweden, faces the Atlantic. The country is little +more than a strip of rugged seacoast reaching northward to well within the +Arctic Circle. Were it not for the influence of the "Gulf Stream drift," +much of Norway would be a frozen waste for the greater part of the year. +Vast forests of fir, pine, and birch still cover the greater part of the +country, and the land which can be used for farming and grazing does not +exceed eleven per cent of the entire area. But Norway, like Greece, [2] +has an extent of shore-line out of all proportion to its superficial area. +So numerous are the fiords, or inlets of the sea, that the total length of +the coast approximates twelve thousand miles. Slight wonder that the +Vikings, [3] as they called themselves, should feel the lure of the ocean +and should put forth their frail barks upon the "pathway of the swans" in +search of booty and adventure. + +PREHISTORIC TIMES IN SCANDINAVIA + +The Swedes and Norwegians, together with their kinsmen, the Danes, +probably settled in Scandinavia long before the beginning of the Christian +era. During the earlier part of the prehistoric period the inhabitants +were still in the Stone Age, but the use of bronze, and then of iron, was +gradually introduced. Excavations in ancient grave mounds have revealed +implements of the finest polished stone, beautiful bronze swords, and +coats of iron ring mail, besides gold and silver ornaments which may have +been imported from southern Europe. The ancient Scandinavians have left to +us curious records of the past in their picture writing chiseled on the +flat surface of rocks. The objects represented include boats with as many +as thirty men in them, horses drawing two-wheeled carts, spans of oxen, +farmers engaged in ploughing, and warriors on horseback. By the close of +the prehistoric period the northern peoples were also familiar with a form +of the Greek alphabet (the "runes" [4]) and with the art of writing. + + +139. THE VIKING AGE + +DAWN OF HISTORY IN SCANDINAVIA + +The Viking Age, with which historic times begin in northern Europe, +extends from about 800 A.D. to the introduction of Christianity in the +tenth and eleventh centuries. This was the period when the Northmen, or +Vikings, realizing that the sea offered the quickest road to wealth and +conquest, began to make long voyages to foreign lands. In part they went +as traders and exchanged the furs, wool, and fish of Scandinavia for the +clothing, ornaments, and other articles of luxury found in neighboring +countries. But it was no far cry from merchant to freebooter, and, in +fact, expeditions for the sake of plunder seem to have been even more +popular with the Northmen than peaceful commerce. + +THE NORTHMEN AS SAILORS + +Whether the Northmen engaged in trade or in warfare, good ships and good +seamanship were indispensable to them. They became the boldest sailors of +the early Middle Ages. No longer hugging the coast, as timid mariners had +always done before them, the Northmen pushed out into the uncharted main +and steered their course only by observation of the sun and stars. In this +way the Northmen were led to make those remarkable explorations in the +Atlantic Ocean and the polar seas which added so greatly to geographical +knowledge. + +SHIPS OF THE NORTHMEN + +It was not uncommon for a Viking chieftain, after his days of sea-roving +had ended, to be buried in his ship, over which a grave chamber, covered +with earth, would be erected. The discovery of several of these burial +ships enables us to form a good idea of Viking vessels. The largest of +them might reach a length of seventy feet and hold as many as one hundred +and twenty men. A fleet of the Northmen, carrying several thousand +warriors, mail-clad and armed with spears, swords, and battle-axes, was +indeed formidable. During this period the Northmen were the masters of the +sea, as far as western Europe was concerned. This fact largely explains +their successful campaigns. + +[Illustration: A VIKING SHIP +The Gokstad vessel is of oak, twenty-eight feet long and sixteen feet +broad in the center. It has seats for sixteen pairs of rowers, a mast for +a single sail, and a rudder on the right or starboard side. The gunwale +was decorated with a series of shields, painted alternately black and +gold. This ship, which probably dates from about 900 A.D., was found on +the shore of Christiania Fiord. A still larger ship, of about the same +date, was taken in 1904 A.D. from the grave of a Norwegian queen at +Oseberg. With the queen had been buried a four-wheeled wagon, three +sleighs, three beds, two chests, a chair, a large loom, and various +kitchen utensils, in fact everything needed for her comfort in the other +world.] + +THE SAGAS + +A very important source of information for the Viking Age consists of the +writings called sagas. [5] These narratives are in prose, but they were +based, in many instances, on the songs which the minstrels (_skalds_) sang +to appreciative audiences assembled at the banqueting board of a Viking +chieftain. It was not until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that the +sagas were committed to writing. This was done chiefly in Iceland, and so +it happens that we must look to that distant island for the beginnings of +Scandinavian literature. + +SUBJECT MATTER OF THE SAGAS + +The sagas belong to different classes. The oldest of them relate the deeds +of Viking heroes and their families. Others deal with the lives of +Norwegian kings. Some of the most important sagas describe the +explorations and settlements of the Northmen and hence possess +considerable value as historical records. + +THE NORTHMEN AS SEEN IN THE SAGAS + +The sagas throw much light on the character of the Northmen. Love of +adventure and contempt for the quiet joys of home comes out in the +description of Viking chiefs, who "never sought refuge under a roof nor +emptied their drinking-horns by a hearth." An immense love of fighting +breathes in the accounts of Viking warriors, "who are glad when they have +hopes of a battle; they will leap up in hot haste and ply the oars, +snapping the oar-thongs and cracking the tholes." The undaunted spirit of +Viking sailors, braving the storms of the northern ocean, expresses itself +in their sea songs: "The force of the tempest assists the arms of our +oarsmen; the hurricane is our servant, it drives us whithersoever we wish +to go." The sagas also reveal other characteristics of the Northmen: a +cruelty and faithlessness which made them a terror to their foes; an +almost barbaric love of gay clothing and ornament; a strong sense of +public order, giving rise to an elaborate legal system; and even a feeling +for the romantic beauty of their northern home, with its snow-clad +mountains, dark forests of pine, sparkling waterfalls, and deep, blue +fiords. + +EDDAIC POEMS + +It is to the Viking Age also that we owe the composition of the poems +going by the name of the _Elder Edda_. These poems, as well as the prose +sagas, were collected and arranged in Iceland during the later Middle +Ages. The _Elder Edda_ is a storehouse of old Norse mythology. It forms +our chief source of knowledge concerning Scandinavian heathenism before +the introduction of Christianity. + + +140. SCANDINAVIAN HEATHENISM + +THE GOD ODIN + +The religion of the Northmen bore a close resemblance to that of the other +Teutonic peoples. The leading deity was Odin (German _Woden_), whose +exploits are celebrated in many of the songs of the _Elder Edda_. Odin was +represented as a tall, gray-bearded chieftain, carrying a shield and a +spear which never missed its mark. Though a god of battle, Odin was also a +lover of wisdom. He discovered the runes which gave him secret knowledge +of all things. Legend told how Odin killed a mighty giant, whose body was +cut into pieces to form the world: the earth was his flesh, the water his +blood, the rocks his bones, and the heavens his skull. Having created the +world and peopled it with human beings, Odin retired to the sacred city of +Asgard, where he reigned in company with his children. + +THE GOD THOR + +Enthroned beside Odin sat his oldest son, Thor (German _Thunor_), god of +thunder and lightning. His weapon, the thunderbolt, was imagined as a +hammer, and was especially used by him to protect gods and men against the +giants. The hammer, when thrown, returned to his hand of its own accord. +Thor also possessed a belt of strength, which, when girded about him, +doubled his power. + +THOR'S DEEDS OF STRENGTH + +Many stories were told of Thor's adventures, when visiting Jötunheim, the +abode of the giants. In a drinking-match he tried to drain a horn of +liquor, not knowing that one end of the horn reached the sea, which was +appreciably lowered by the god's huge draughts. He sought to lift from the +ground a large, gray cat, but struggle as he might, could raise only one +of the animal's feet. What Thor took for a cat, however, was really the +Midgard serpent, which, with its tail in its mouth, encircled the earth. +In the last trial of strength Thor wrestled with an old woman, and after a +violent contest was thrown down upon one knee. But the hag was in truth +relentless old age, who sooner or later lays low all men. + +MYTH OF BALDER + +Most beautiful and best beloved of the Scandinavian divinities was Odin's +son, Balder. He was represented as a gentle deity of innocence and +righteousness. As long as he lived, evil could gain no real control in the +world and the power of the gods would remain unshaken. To preserve Balder +from all danger his mother Frigga required everything on earth to swear +never to harm her son. Only a single plant, the mistletoe, did not take +the oath. Then the traitor Loki gathered the mistletoe and came to an +assembly where the gods were hurling all kinds of missiles at Balder, to +show that nothing could hurt him. Loki asked the blind Höder to throw the +plant at Balder. Höder did so, and Balder fell dead. The gods tried to +recover him from Hel, the gloomy underworld, but Hel demanded as his +ransom a tear from every living creature. Gods, men, and even things +inanimate wept for Balder, except one cruel giantess--Loki in disguise-- +who would not give a single tear. She said, "Neither living nor dead was +Balder of any use to me. Let Hel keep what it has." + +"TWILIGHT OF THE GODS" + +Disasters followed Balder's death. An immense fire burned up the world and +the human race. The giants invaded Asgard and slaughtered its inhabitants. +Odin fell a victim to the mighty wolf Fenris. Thor, having killed the +Midgard serpent, was suffocated with the venom which the dying monster +cast over him. The end of all things arrived. This was the catastrophe +which had been predicted of old--the "Twilight of the Gods." + +VALHALLA + +Besides the conception of Hel, the Northmen also framed the idea of +Valhalla, [6] the abode to which Odin received the souls of those who had +died, not ingloriously in their beds, but on the field of battle. A troop +of divine maidens, the Valkyries, [7] rode through the air on Odin's +service to determine the issue of battles and to select brave warriors for +Valhalla. There on the broad plains they fought with one another by day, +but at evening the slayer and the slain returned to Odin's hall to feast +mightily on boar's flesh and drink deep draughts of mead. + +SUPERNATURAL BEINGS + +As with most heathen religions that of the Northmen was full of terrors. +Their lively imagination peopled the world with many strange figures. +Fiends and monsters inhabited the marshes, giants lived in the dark +forest, evil spirits haunted all solitary places, and ghosts stalked over +the land by night. The use of charms and spells to guard against such +creatures passed over into Christian times. Their memory also survives in +folk tales, which are full of allusions to giants, dwarfs, goblins, and +other supernatural beings. + +CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE NORTHMEN + +Christianity first gained a foothold in Denmark through the work of Roman +Catholic missionaries sent out by Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious. [8] +Two centuries elapsed before the Danes were completely converted. From +Denmark the new faith spread to Sweden. Norway owed its conversion largely +to the crusading work of King Olaf (1016-1029 A.D.), whose zeal for +Christianity won him the title of Olaf the Saint. The Norwegians carried +Christianity to Iceland, where it supplanted the old heathenism in the +year 1000 A.D. With the general adoption of the Christian religion in +Scandinavian lands, the Viking Age drew to an end. + +[Illustration: NORSE METAL WORK (Museum, Copenhagen) +A door from a church in Iceland; date, tenth or eleventh century. The iron +knob is inlaid with silver. The slaying of a dragon is represented above +and below is shown the Midgard serpent.] + + +141. THE NORTHMEN IN THE WEST + +CAUSES OF THE VIKING MOVEMENT + +The Northmen were still heathen when they set forth on their expeditions +of plunder and conquest. Doubtless the principal cause of this Viking +movement is to be sought in the same hunger for land which prompted the +Germanic invasions and, in fact, has led to colonial expansion in all +ages. By the ninth century Scandinavia could no longer support its rapidly +growing population, and enforced emigration was the natural consequence. +The political condition of Scandinavia at this time also helps to explain +the Viking expansion. Denmark and Norway had now become strong kingdoms, +whose rulers forced all who would not submit to their sway to leave the +country. Thus it resulted that the numbers of the emigrants were swelled +by exiles, outlaws, and other adventurers who turned to the sea in hope of +gain. + +RAIDS OF THE NORTHMEN + +The Northmen started out as pirates and fell on the coasts of England, +France, and Germany. In their shallow boats they also found it easy to +ascend the rivers and reach places lying far inland. The Northmen directed +their attacks especially against the churches and monasteries, which were +full of treasure and less easily defended than fortified towns. Their +raids inspired such great terror that a special prayer was inserted in the +church services: "From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us." + +THE NORTHMEN IN IRELAND, SCOTLAND, AND THE ISLANDS + +At first the incursions of the Northmen took place only in summer, but +before long they began to winter in the lands which they visited. Year by +year their fleets became larger, and their attacks changed from mere +forays of pirates to well-organized expeditions of conquest and +colonization. Early in the ninth century we find them making permanent +settlements in Ireland, and for a time bringing a considerable part of +that country under their control. The first cities on Irish soil, +including Dublin and Limerick, were founded by the Northmen. Almost +simultaneously with the attacks on Ireland came those on the western coast +of Scotland. In the course of their westward expeditions the Northmen had +already discovered the Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, the Shetlands and the +Hebrides. These barren and inhospitable islands received large numbers of +Norse immigrants and long remained under Scandinavian control. + +[Illustration: Map, DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN IN THE WEST] + +THE NORTHMEN IN ICELAND + +The Northmen soon discovered Iceland, where Irish monks had previously +settled. Colonization began in 874 A.D. [9] One of the most valuable of +the sagas--the "Book of the Land-taking"--describes the emigration to the +island and enumerates the Viking chiefs who took part in the movement. +Iceland soon became almost a second Norway in language, literature, and +customs. It remains to-day an outpost of Scandinavian civilization. + +THE NORTHMEN IN GREENLAND + +The first settlement of Greenland was the work of an Icelander, Eric the +Red, who reached the island toward the end of the tenth century. He called +the country Greenland, not because it was green, but because, as he said, +"there is nothing like a good name to attract settlers." Intercourse +between Greenland and Iceland was often dangerous, and at times was +entirely interrupted by ice. Leif Ericsson, the son of Eric the Red, +established a new route of commerce and travel by sailing from Greenland +to Norway by way of the Hebrides. This was the first voyage made directly +across the Atlantic. Norway and Greenland continued to enjoy a flourishing +trade for several centuries. After the connection with Norway had been +severed, the Greenlanders joined the Eskimos and mingled with that +primitive people. + +THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA + +Two of the sagas give accounts of a voyage which Leif Ericsson about 1000 +A.D. made to regions lying southward from Greenland. In the sagas they are +called Helluland (stone-land), Markland (wood-land), and Vinland. Just +what part of the coast of North America these countries occupied is an +unsolved problem. Leif Ericsson and the Greenlanders who followed him seem +to have reached at least the shores of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova +Scotia. They may have gone even farther southward, for the sagas describe +regions where the climate was mild enough for wild vines and wild wheat to +grow. The Northmen, however, did not follow up their explorations by +lasting settlements. Before long all memory of the far western lands faded +from the minds of men. The curtain fell on the New World, not again to +rise until the time of Columbus and Cabot. + + +142. THE NORTHMEN IN THE EAST + +ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS OF THE NORTHMEN + +In the Viking movement westward across the Atlantic the Norwegians took +the leading part. They also sailed far northward, rounding the North Cape +and reaching the mouth of the Dwina River in the White Sea. Viking +sailors, therefore, have the credit for undertaking the first voyages of +exploration into the Arctic. + +THE NORTHMEN IN FINLAND + +The Swedes, on account of their geographical position, were naturally the +most active in expeditions to eastern lands. At a very early date they +crossed the Gulf of Bothnia and paid frequent visits to Finland. Its rude +inhabitants, the Finns, were related in language, and doubtless in blood +also, to the Huns, Magyars, and other Asiatic peoples. Sweden ruled +Finland throughout the Middle Ages. Russia obtained control of the country +during the eighteenth century, but Swedish influence has made it largely +Scandinavian in civilization. + +THE NORTHMEN IN RUSSIA + +The activities of the Swedes also led them to establish settlements on the +southern shore of the Baltic and far inland along the waterways leading +into Russia. An old Russian chronicler declares that in 862 A.D. the Slavs +sent an embassy to the Swedes, whom they called "Rus," saying, "Our +country is large and rich, but there is no order in it; come and rule over +us." The Swedes were not slow to accept the invitation. Their leader, +Ruric, established a dynasty which reigned in Russia for more than seven +hundred years. [10] + +NOVGOROD AND KIEV + +The first Russian state centered in the city of Novgorod, near Lake Ilmen, +where Ruric built a strong fortress. [11] Novgorod during the Middle Ages +was an important station on the trade route between Constantinople and the +Baltic. Some of Ruric's followers, passing southward along the Dnieper +River, took possession of the small town of Kiev. It subsequently became +the capital of the Scandinavian possessions in Russia. + +SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE IN RUSSIA + +The Northmen in Russia maintained close intercourse with their mother +country for about two centuries. During this period they did much to open +up northeastern Europe to the forces of civilization and progress. +Colonies were founded, cities were built, commerce was fostered, and a +stable government was established. Russia under the sway of the Northmen +became for the first time a truly European state. + +THE NORTHMEN AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST + +Having penetrated the wilds of Russia, it was comparatively easy for the +Northmen to sail down the Russian rivers to the Black Sea and thence to +Constantinople. Some of them went as raiders and several times devastated +the neighborhood of Constantinople, until bought off by the payment of +tribute. [12] Many Northmen also joined the bodyguard of the eastern +emperor and saw service under his standard in different parts of the +Mediterranean. + +CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA, 988 A.D. + +During the reign of Vladimir, a descendant of Ruric, the Christian +religion gained its first foothold in Russia. We are told that Vladimir, +having made up his mind to embrace a new faith, sent commissioners to Rome +and Constantinople, and also to the adherents of Islam and Judaism. His +envoys reported in favor of the Greek Church, for their barbarian +imagination had been so impressed by the majesty of the ceremonies +performed in Sancta Sophia that "they did not know whether they were on +earth or in heaven." Vladimir accepted their report, ordered the idols of +Kiev to be thrown into the Dnieper, and had himself and his people +baptized according to the rites of the Greek Church. At the same time he +married a sister of the reigning emperor at Constantinople. + +IMPORTANCE OF THE CONVERSION OF RUSSIA + +Vladimir's decision to adopt the Greek form of Christianity is justly +regarded as one of the formative influences in Russian history. It meant +that the Slavs were to come under the religious influence of +Constantinople, instead of under that of Rome. Furthermore, it meant that +Byzantine civilization, then incomparably superior to the rude culture of +the western peoples, would henceforth gain an entrance into Russia. The +country profited by this rich civilization and during the early part of +the Middle Ages took a foremost place in Europe. + +CHARLEMAGNE AND THE NORTHMEN + +No part of western Europe suffered more severely from the Northmen than +France. They first appeared on the French coast toward the end of +Charlemagne's reign. A well-known legend relates that the emperor, from +window of his palace once saw the dark sails of the Vikings and wept at +the thought of the misery which these daring pirates would some day +inflict upon his realm. + +THE NORTHMEN IN FRANCE + +After Charlemagne's death the wars of his grandsons left the empire +defenseless, and the Northmen in consequence redoubled their attacks. They +sailed far up the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne to plunder and murder. +Paris, then a small but important city, lay in the path of the invaders +and more than once suffered at their hands. The destruction by the +Northmen of many monasteries was a loss to civilization, for the monastic +establishments at this time were the chief centers of learning and +culture. [13] + +THE NORTHMEN IN GERMANY + +The heavy hand of the Northmen also descended on Germany. The rivers +Scheldt, Meuse, Rhine, and Elbe enabled them to proceed at will into the +heart of the country. Liège, Cologne, Strassburg, Hamburg, and other great +Frankish cities fell before them. Viking raiders even plundered Aachen and +stabled their horses in the church which Charlemagne had built there. [14] +Thus the ancient homeland of the Franks was laid completely waste. + +ROLLO AND THE GRANT OF NORMANDY, 911 A.D. + +The history of the Northmen in France began in 911 A.D., when the +Carolingian king granted to a Viking chieftain, Rollo, dominion over the +region about the lower Seine. Rollo on his part agreed to accept +Christianity and to acknowledge the French ruler as his lord. It is said, +however, that he would not kneel and kiss the king's foot as a mark of +homage, and that the follower who performed the unwelcome duty did it so +awkwardly as to overturn the king, to the great amusement of the assembled +Northmen. The story illustrates the Viking sense of independence. + +DUCHY OF NORMANDY + +The district ceded to Rollo developed into what in later times was known +as the duchy of Normandy. Its Scandinavian settlers, henceforth called +Normans, [15] soon became French in language and culture. It was amazing +to see how quickly the descendants of wild sea-rovers put off their +heathen ways and made their new home a Christian land, noted for its +churches, monasteries, and schools. Normandy remained practically +independent till the beginning of the thirteenth century, when a French +king added it to his possessions. [16] + +THE NORMANS AND HUGH CAPET, 987 A.D. + +The Normans helped to found the medieval French monarchy. During the tenth +century the old Carolingian line of rulers, which had already died out in +Germany and Italy, [17] came also to an end in France. A new dynasty was +then founded by a nobleman named Hugh Capet, who secured the aid of the +powerful Norman dukes in his efforts to gain the throne. The accession of +Hugh Capet took place in 987 A.D. His descendants reigned over France for +almost exactly eight hundred years. [18] + + * * * * * + +144. CONQUEST OF ENGLAND BY THE DANES; ALFRED THE GREAT + +ENGLAND OVERRUN BY THE DANES + +Even before Egbert of Wessex succeeded in uniting all the Anglo-Saxon +kingdoms, [19] bands of Vikings, chiefly from Denmark, had made occasional +forays on the English coast. Egbert kept the Danes at bay, but he died in +839 A.D., and from that time the real invasion of England began. The Danes +came over in large numbers, made permanent settlements, and soon +controlled all England north of the Thames. + +[Illustration: ALFRED THE GREAT +A lofty bronze statue by H. Thorneycraft set up at Winchester Alfred's +ancient capital. It was dedicated in 1901 A.D. on the thousandth +anniversary of his death. The inscription reads: + + "Alfred found learning dead, + And he restored it, + Education neglected + And he revived it, + The laws powerless + And he gave them force, + The Church debased, + And he raised it, + The land ravaged by a fearful enemy + From which he delivered it."] + +KING ALFRED AND THE DANES + +Wessex before long experienced the full force of the Danish attack. The +country at this time was ruled by Alfred, the grandson of Egbert. Alfred +came to the throne in 871 A.D., when he was only about twenty-three years +old. In spite of his youth, he showed himself the right sort of leader for +the hard-pressed West Saxons. For several years fortune favored the Danes. +Then the tide turned. Issuing from the marshes of Somersetshire, where he +had rallied his dispirited troops, Alfred suddenly fell on the enemy and +gained a signal success. The beaten Danes agreed to make peace and to +accept the religion of their conquerors. + +THE DANELAW + +Alfred's victory did not end the war. Indeed, almost to the end of his +reign, the heroic king had to face the Vikings, but he always drove them +off and even recovered some of the territory north of the Thames. The +English and Danes finally agreed to a treaty dividing the country between +them. The eastern part of England, where the invaders were firmly +established, came to be called the Danelaw, because here the Danish, and +not the Anglo-Saxon, law prevailed. In the Danelaw the Danes have left +memorials of themselves in local names [20] and in the bold, adventurous +character of the inhabitants. + +[Illustration: Map, ENGLAND UNDER ALFRED THE GREAT] + +CIVILIZING ACTIVITIES OF ALFRED + +It was a well-nigh ruined country which Alfred had now to rule over and +build up again. His work of restoration invites comparison with that of +Charlemagne. Alfred's first care was to organize a fighting force always +ready at his call to repel invasion. He also created an efficient fleet, +which patrolled the coast and engaged the Vikings on their own element. He +had the laws of the Anglo-Saxons collected and reduced to writing, taking +pains at the same time to see that justice was done between man and man. +He did much to rebuild the ruined churches and monasteries. Alfred labored +with especial diligence to revive education among the English folk. His +court at Winchester became a literary center where learned men wrote and +taught. The king himself mastered Latin, in order that he might translate +Latin books into the English tongue. So great were Alfred's services in +this direction that he has been called "the father of English prose." + +[Illustration: ALFRED'S JEWEL (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) +A jewel of blue enamel inclosed in a setting of gold, with the words +around it "Alfred had me wrought." Found at Athelney in the seventeenth +century.] + +ALFRED'S CHARACTER + +Alfred alone of English rulers bears the title of "the Great." He well +deserves it, not only for what he did but for what he was. Through the +mists of ten centuries his figure still looms large. It is the figure of a +brave, patient, and modest man, who wore himself out in the service of his +people. The oft-quoted words which he added to one of his translations +form a fitting epitaph to this noble king: "My wish was to live worthily +as long as I lived, and after my life to leave to them that should come +after, my memory in good works." His wish has been fulfilled. + +FROM ALFRED TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 901-1066 A.D. + +About seventy-five years after Alfred's death the Danes renewed their +invasions. It then became necessary to buy them off with an annual tribute +called the Danegeld. Early in the eleventh century Canute, the son of a +Danish king, succeeded in establishing himself on the English throne +(1016-1035 A.D.). His dynasty did not last long, however, and at length +the old West-Saxon line was restored in the person of Edward the Confessor +(or "the Saint"). Edward had spent most of his early life in Normandy, and +on coming to England brought with him a large following of Normans, whom +he placed in high positions. During his reign (1042-1066 A.D.) Norman +nobles and churchmen gained a foothold in England, thus preparing the way +for the Norman conquest of the country. + + +145. NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND; WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR + +HAROLD AND WILLIAM + +Edward the Confessor having left no direct heirs, the choice of his +successor fell lawfully upon the Witenagemot, [21] as the national +assembly of noblemen and higher clergy was called. This body chose as +king, Harold, earl of Wessex, the leading man in England. Harold's right +to the succession was disputed by William, duke of Normandy, who declared +that the crown had been promised to him by his cousin, the Confessor. +William also asserted that Harold had once sworn a solemn oath, over a +chest of sacred relics, to support his claim to the throne on Edward's +death. When word came of Harold's election, William wrathfully denounced +him as a usurper and began to prepare a fleet and an army for the invasion +of England. + +WILLIAM'S PREPARATIONS + +Normandy under Duke William had become a powerful, well-organized state. +Norman knights, attracted by promises of wide lands and rich booty, if +they should conquer, formed the core of William's forces. Adventurers from +every part of France, and even from Spain and Italy, also entered his +service. The pope blessed the enterprise and sent to William a ring +containing a hair from St. Peter's head and a consecrated banner. When all +was ready in the late fall of 1066 A.D., a large fleet, bearing five or +six thousand archers, foot soldiers, and horsemen, crossed the Channel and +landed in England. + +[Illustration: A SCENE FROM THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY (Museum of Bayeux, +Normandy) + +The Bayeux Tapestry, which almost certainly belongs to the time of the +Norman Conquest, is a strip of coarse linen cloth, about 230 feet long by +20 inches wide, embroidered in worsted thread of eight different colors. +There are seventy-two scenes picturing various events in the history of +the Norman Conquest. The illustration given above represents an attack of +Norman cavalry on the English shield wall at the battle of Hastings.] + +BATTLE OF HASTINGS, 1066 A.D. + +William at first met no resistance. Harold was far away in the north +fighting against the Norwegians, who had seized the opportunity to make +another descent on the English coast. Harold defeated them decisively and +then hurried southward to face his new foe. The two armies met near +Hastings on the road to London. All day they fought. The stout English +infantry, behind their wall of shields, threw back one charge after +another of the Norman knights. Again and again the duke rallied his men +and led them where the foe was thickest. A cry arose that he was slain. "I +live," shouted William, tearing off his helmet that all might see his +face, "and by God's help will conquer yet." At last, with the approach of +evening, Harold was killed by an arrow; his household guard died about +him; and the rest of the English took to flight. William pitched his camp +on the field of victory, and "sat down to eat and drink among the dead." + +[Illustration: Map, DOMINIONS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR] + +WILLIAM BECOMES KING + +The battle of Hastings settled the fate of England. Following up his +victory with relentless energy, William pressed on to London. That city, +now practically the capital of the country, opened its gates to him. The +Witenagemot, meeting in London offered the throne to William. On Christmas +Day, 1066 A.D., in Westminster Abbey the duke of Normandy was crowned king +of England. + +WILLIAM'S PERSONALITY + +What manner of man was William the Conqueror? Tall of stature, endowed +with tremendous strength, and brave even to desperation, he seemed an +embodiment of the old viking spirit. "No knight under heaven," men said +truly, "was William's peer." A savage temper and a harsh, forbidding +countenance made him a terror even to his closest followers. "So stern and +wrathful was he," wrote an English chronicler, "that none durst do +anything against his will." Though William never shrank from force or +fraud, from bloodshed or oppression, to carry out his ends, he yet showed +himself throughout his reign a patron of learning, a sincere supporter of +the Church, and a statesman of remarkable insight. He has left a lasting +impress on English history. + + +146. RESULTS OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST + +NORMAN ELEMENT IN THE ENGLISH PEOPLE + +The coming of the Normans to England formed the third and last installment +of the Teutonic invasion. Norman merchants and artisans followed Norman +soldiers and settled particularly in the southern and eastern parts of the +island. They seem to have emigrated in considerable numbers and doubtless +added an important element to the English population. The Normans thus +completed the work of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes in making England a +Teutonic country. + +NORMAN ELEMENT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE + +It must be remembered, however, that the Normans in Normandy had received +a considerable intermixture of French blood and had learned to speak a +form of the French language (Norman-French). In England Norman-French +naturally was used by the upper and ruling classes--by the court, the +nobility, and the clergy. The English held fast to their own homely +language, but could not fail to pick up many French expressions, as they +mingled with their conquerors in churches, markets, and other places of +public resort. It took about three hundred years for French words and +phrases to soak thoroughly into their speech. The result was a very large +addition to the vocabulary of English. [22] + +UNION OF ENGLAND AND NORMANDY + +Until the Norman Conquest England, because of its insular position, had +remained out of touch with Continental Europe. William the Conqueror and +his immediate successors were, however, not only rulers of England, but +also dukes of Normandy and subjects of the French kings. Hence, the union +of England with Normandy brought it at once into the full current of +European affairs. The country became for a time almost a part of France +and profited by the more advanced civilization which had arisen on French +soil. The nobility, the higher clergy, and the officers of government were +Normans. The architects of the castles and churches, the lawyers, and the +men of letters came from Normandy. Even the commercial and industrial +classes were largely recruited from across the Channel. + +ENGLAND AND THE PAPACY + +The Norman Conquest much increased the pope's authority over England. The +English Church, as has been shown, [23] was the child of Rome, but during +the Anglo-Saxon period it had become more independent of the Papacy than +the churches on the Continent. William the Conqueror, whose invasion of +England took place with the pope's approval, repaid his obligation by +bringing the country into closer dependence on the Roman pontiff. + +FUSION OF ENGLISH AND NORMAN + +Although the Normans settled in England as conquerors, yet after all they +were near kinsmen of the English and did not long keep separate from them. +In Normandy a century and a half had been enough to turn the Northmen into +Frenchmen. So in England, at the end of a like period, the Normans became +Englishmen. Some of the qualities that have helped to make the modern +English a great people--their love of the sea and fondness for adventure, +their vigor, self-reliance, and unconquerable spirit--are doubtless +derived in good part from the Normans. + + +147. NORMAN CONQUEST OF SOUTHERN ITALY AND SICILY + +NORMAN EXPANSION SOUTHWARD + +The conquest of England, judged by its results, proved to be the most +important undertaking of the Normans. But during this same eleventh +century they found another field in which to display their energy and +daring. They turned southward to the Mediterranean and created a Norman +state in Italy and Sicily. + +CONQUESTS OF ROBERT GUISCARD + +The unsettled condition of Italy [24] gave the Normans an opportunity for +interference in the affairs of the country. The founding of Norman power +there was largely the work of a noble named Robert Guiscard ("the +Crafty"), a man almost as celebrated as William the Conqueror. He had set +out from his home in Normandy with only a single follower, but his valor +and shrewdness soon brought him to the front. Robert united the scattered +bands of Normans in Italy, who were fighting for pay or plunder, and +wrested from the Roman Empire in the East its last territories in the +peninsula. Before his death (1085 A.D.) most of southern Italy had passed +under Norman rule. + +ROGER GUISCARD'S CONQUESTS + +Robert's brother, Roger, crossed the strait of Messina and began the +subjugation of Sicily, then a Moslem possession. Its recovery from the +hands of "infidels" was considered by the Normans a work both pleasing to +God and profitable to themselves. By the close of the eleventh century +they had finally established their rule in the island. + +KINGDOM OF THE TWO SICILIES + +The conquests of the Normans in southern Italy and Sicily were united into +a single state, which came to be known as the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. +The Normans governed it for only about one hundred and fifty years, but +under other rulers it lasted until the middle of the nineteenth century, +when the present kingdom of Italy came into existence. + +NORMAN CULTURE IN THE SOUTH + +The kingdom of the Two Sicilies was well-governed, rich, and strong. Art +and learning flourished in the cities of Naples, Salerno, and Palermo. +Southern Italy and Sicily under the Normans became a meeting-point of +Byzantine and Arabic civilization. The Norman kingdom formed an important +channel through which the wisdom of the East flowed to the North and to +the West. + + +148. THE NORMANS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY + +NORMAN FACULTY OF ADAPTATION + +The conquests of the Normans in England, Italy, and Sicily were effected +after they had become a Christian and a French-speaking people. In these +lands they were the armed missionaries of a civilization not their own. +The Normans, indeed, invented little and borrowed much. But, like the +Arabs, they were more than simple imitators. In language, literature, art, +religion, and law what they took from others they improved and then spread +abroad throughout their settlements. + +ASSIMILATION OF THE NORMANS + +It seems at first sight remarkable that a people who occupied so much of +western Europe should have passed away. Normans as Normans no longer +exist. They lost themselves in the kingdoms which they founded and among +the peoples whom they subdued. Their rapid assimilation was chiefly the +consequence of their small numbers: outside of Normandy they were too few +long to maintain their identity. + +NORMAL INFLUENCE + +If the Normans themselves soon disappeared, their influence was more +lasting. Their mission, it has been well said, was to be leaders and +energizers of society--"the little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump." +The peoples of medieval Europe owed much to the courage and martial +spirit, the genius for government, and the reverence for law, of the +Normans. In one of the most significant movements of the Middle Ages--the +crusades--they took a prominent part. Hence we shall meet them again. + + +STUDIES + +1. What events are associated with the following dates: 988 A.D.; 862 +A.D.; 1066 A.D.; 1000 A.D.; and 987 A.D.? + +2. What was the origin of the geographical names Russia, Greenland, +Finland, and Normandy? + +3. Mention some of the striking physical contrasts between the Arabian and +Scandinavian peninsulas. + +4. Why has the Baltic Sea been called a "secondary Mediterranean"? + +5. How does it happen that the gulf of Finland is often frozen over in +winter, while even the northernmost of the Norse fiords remain open? + +6. Why is an acquaintance with Scandinavian mythology, literature, and +history especially desirable for English-speaking peoples? + +7. What is meant by the "berserker's rage"? + +8. What names of our weekdays are derived from the names of Scandinavian +deities? + +9. Compare the Arab and Scandinavian conceptions of the future state of +departed warriors. + +10. What is meant by "sea-power"? What people possessed it during the +ninth and tenth centuries? + +11. Compare the invasions of the Northmen with those of the Germans as to +(a) causes, (b) area covered, and (c) results. + +12. What was the significance of the fact that the Northmen were not +Christians at the time when they began their expeditions? + +13. Show how the voyages of the Northmen vastly increased geographical +knowledge. + +14. Show that the Russian people have received from Constantinople their +writing, religion, and art. + +15. Mention three conquests of England by foreign peoples before 1066 A.D. +Give for each conquest the results and the approximate date. + +16. On the map, page 405, trace the boundary line between Alfred's +possessions and those of the Danes. + +17. Compare Alfred and Charlemagne as civilizing kings. + +18. Compare Alfred's cession of the Danelaw with the cession of Normandy +to Rollo. + +19. Why is Hastings included among "decisive" battles? + +20. "We English are not ourselves but somebody else." Comment on this +statement. + +21. What is meant by the "Norman graft upon the sturdy Saxon tree"? + +22. What settlements of the Northmen most influenced European history? + +23. Compare the Norman faculty of adaptation with that of the Arabs. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter vii, "The +Saga of a Viking"; chapter viii, "Alfred the Great"; chapter ix, "William +the Conqueror and the Normans in England." + +[2] See page 67. + +[3] The word perhaps comes from the old Norse _vik_, a bay, and means "one +who dwells by a bay or fiord." Another meaning assigned to Viking is +"warrior." + +[4] See the illustration, page 240. + +[5] The word is derived from old Norse _segya_, "to say"; compare German +_sagen_. + +[6] "Hall of the slain." + +[7] "Choosers of the slain." + +[8] See page 312. + +[9] The Icelanders in 1874 A.D. celebrated the thousandth anniversary of +the Scandinavian settlement of their island. + +[10] Russia in 1862 A.D. celebrated the millenary of her foundation by +Ruric. + +[11] The Norse word for "fort" is preserved in the gorod of Novgorod. + +[12] See page 335. + +[13] See page 358. + +[14] See the illustration, page 310. + +[15] "Norman" is a softened form of "Northman." + +[16] In 1911 A.D. Normandy celebrated in the ancient capital of Rouen the +thousandth anniversary of its existence. + +[17] See pages 315, 317. + +[18] The abolition of the French monarchy dates from 1792 A.D., when Louis +XVI was deposed from the throne. + +[19] See page 320. + +[20] The east of England contains more than six hundred names of towns +ending in _by_ (Danish "town"), compare _by-law_, originally a law for a +special town. + +[21] "Meeting of wise men." The word _gemot_ or _moot_ was used for any +kind of formal meeting. + +[22] See page 556. + +[23] See page 325. + +[24] See page 317. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +FEUDALISM + + +149. RISE OF FEUDALISM + +A DARK AGE + +The ninth century in western Europe was, as we have learned, [1] a period +of violence, disorder, and even anarchy. Charlemagne for a time had +arrested the disintegration of society which resulted from the invasions +of the Germans, and had united their warring tribes under something like a +centralized government. But his work, it has been well said, was only a +desperate rally in the midst of confusion. After his death the Carolingian +Empire, attacked by the Northmen and other invaders and weakened by civil +conflicts, broke up into separate kingdoms. + +DECLINE OF ROYAL AUTHORITY + +Charlemagne's successors in France, Germany, and Italy enjoyed little real +authority. They reigned, but did not rule. Under the conditions of the +age, it was impossible for a king to govern with a strong hand. The +absence of good roads or of other easy means of communication made it +difficult for him to move troops quickly from one district to another, in +order to quell revolts. Even had good roads existed, the lack of ready +money would have prevented him from maintaining a strong army devoted to +his interests. Moreover, the king's subjects, as yet not welded into a +nation, felt toward him no sentiments of loyalty and affection. They cared +far less for their king, of whom they knew little, than for their own +local lords who dwelt near them. + +INCREASED POWER OF THE NOBLES + +The decline of the royal authority, from the ninth century onward, meant +that the chief functions of government would be more and more performed by +the nobles, who were the great landowners of the kingdom. Under +Charlemagne these men had been the king's officials, appointed by him and +holding office at his pleasure. Under his successors they tended to become +almost independent princes. In proportion as this change was accomplished +during the Middle Ages, European society entered upon the stage of +feudalism. [2] + +PARALLELS TO EUROPEAN FEUDALISM + +Feudalism in medieval Europe was not a unique development. Parallels to it +may be found in other parts of the world. Whenever the state becomes +incapable of protecting life and property, powerful men in each locality +will themselves undertake this duty; they will assume the burden of their +own defense and of those weaker men who seek their aid. Such was the +situation in ancient Egypt for several hundred years, in medieval Persia, +and in modern Japan until about two generations ago. + +EXTENT OF EUROPEAN FEUDALISM + +European feudalism arose and flourished in the three countries which had +formed the Carolingian Empire, that is, in France, Germany, and northern +Italy. It also spread to Bohemia, Hungary, and the Christian states of +Spain. Toward the close of the eleventh century the Normans transplanted +it into England, southern Italy, and Sicily. During the twelfth and +thirteenth centuries the crusaders introduced it into the kingdoms which +they founded in the East. [3] Still later, in the fourteenth century, the +Scandinavian countries became acquainted with feudalism. Throughout this +wide area the institution, though varying endlessly in details, presented +certain common features. + + +150. FEUDALISM AS A SYSTEM OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT + +FEUDAL SOVEREIGNTY + +The basis of feudal society was usually the landed estate. Here lived the +feudal noble, surrounded by dependents over whom he exercised the rights +of a petty sovereign. He could tax them; he could require them to give him +military assistance; he could try them in his courts. A great noble, the +possessor of many estates, even enjoyed the privilege of declaring war, +making treaties, and coining money. How, it will be asked, did these +rights and privileges arise? + +FEUDAL TENURE OF LAND + +Owing to the decay of commerce and industry, land had become practically +the only form of wealth in the early Middle Ages. The king, who in theory +was absolute owner of the soil, would pay his officials for their services +by giving them the use of a certain amount of land. In the same way one +who had received large estates would parcel them out among his followers, +in return for their support. Sometimes an unscrupulous noble might seize +the lands of his neighbors and compel them to become his tenants. +Sometimes, too, those who owned land in their own right might surrender +the title to it in favor of a noble, who then became their protector. + +THE FIEF + +An estate in land which a person held of a superior lord, on condition of +performing some "honorable" service, was called a fief. At first the +tenant received the fief only for a specified term of years or for his +lifetime; but in the end it became inheritable. On the death of the tenant +his eldest son succeeded him in possession. This right of the first-born +son to the whole of the father's estate was known as primogeniture. [4] If +a man had no legal heir, the fief went back to its lord. + +VASSALAGE + +The tie which bound the tenant who accepted a fief to the lord who granted +it was called vassalage. Every holder of land was the vassal of some lord. +At the apex of the feudal pyramid stood the king, the supreme landlord, +who was supposed to hold his land from God; below the king stood the +greater lords (dukes, marquises, counts, and barons), with large estates; +and below them stood the lesser lords, or knights, whose possessions were +too small for further subdivision. + +PERSONAL SERVICES OF THE VASSAL + +The vassal, first of all, owed various services to the lord. In time of +war he did garrison duty at the lord's castle and joined him in military +expeditions. In time of peace the vassal attended the lord on ceremonial +occasions, gave him the benefit of his advice, when required, and helped +him as a judge in trying cases. + +THE VASSAL'S MONEY PAYMENTS + +Under certain circumstances the vassal was also compelled to make money +payments. When a new heir succeeded to the fief, the lord received from +him a sum usually money equivalent to one year's revenue of the estate. +This payment was called a "relief." Again, if a man sold his fief, the +lord demanded another large sum from the purchaser, before giving his +consent to the transaction. Vassals were also expected to raise money for +the lord's ransom, in case he was made prisoner of war, to meet the +expenses connected with the knighting of his eldest son, and to provide a +dowry for his eldest daughter. Such exceptional payments went by the name +of "aids." + +THE LORD'S DUTY TO THE VASSAL + +The vassal, in return for his services and payments, looked to the lord +for the protection of life and property. The lord agreed to secure him in +the enjoyment of his fief, to guard him against his enemies, and to see +that in all matters he received just treatment. This was no slight +undertaking. + +HOMAGE + +The ceremony of homage [5] symbolized the whole feudal relationship. One +who proposed to become a vassal and hold a fief came into the lord's +presence, bareheaded and unarmed, knelt down, placed his hands between +those of the lord, and promised henceforth to become his "man." The lord +then kissed him and raised him to his feet. After the ceremony the vassal +placed his hand upon the Bible or upon sacred relics and swore to remain +faithful to his lord. This was the oath of "fealty." The lord then gave +the vassal some object--a stick, a clod of earth, a lance, or a glove--in +token of the fief with the possession of which he was now "invested." + +FEUDAL GOVERNMENT A SUBSTITUTE FOR ANARCHY + +It is clear that the feudal method of land tenure, coupled with the custom +of vassalage, made in some degree for security and order. Each noble was +attached to the lord above him by the bond of personal service and the +oath of fidelity. To his vassals beneath him he was at once protector, +benefactor, and friend. Unfortunately, feudal obligations were far less +strictly observed in practice than in theory. Both lords and vassals often +broke their engagements, when it seemed profitable to do so. Hence they +had many quarrels and indulged in constant warfare. But feudalism, despite +its defects, was better than anarchy. The feudal lords drove back the +pirates and hanged the brigands and enforced the laws, as no feeble king +could do. They provided a rude form of local government for a rude +society. + + +151. FEUDAL JUSTICE + +FEUDALISM AS A SYSTEM OF LOCAL JUSTICE + +Feudalism was not only a system of local government; it was also a system +of local justice. Knights, barons, counts, and dukes had their separate +courts, and the king had his court above all. Cases arising on the lord's +estate were tried before him and the vassals whom he called to his +assistance in giving justice. Since most wrongs could be atoned for by the +payment of a fine, the conduct of justice on a large fief produced a +considerable income. The nobles, accordingly, regarded their judicial +rights as a valuable property, which they were loath to surrender to the +state. + +JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION + +The law followed in a feudal court was largely based on old Germanic +customs. The court did not act in the public interest, as with us, but +waited until the plaintiff requested service. Moreover, until the case had +been decided, the accuser and the accused received the same treatment. +Both were imprisoned; and the plaintiff who lost his case suffered the +same penalty which the defendant, had he been found guilty, would have +undergone. + +THE OATH + +Unlike a modern court, again, the feudal court did not require the accuser +to prove his case by calling witnesses and having them give testimony. The +burden of proof lay on the accused, who had to clear himself of the +charge, if he could do so. In one form of trial it was enough for him to +declare his innocence under oath, and then to bring in several "oath- +helpers," sometimes relatives, but more often neighbors, who swore that +they believed him to be telling the truth. The number of these "oath- +helpers" varied according to the seriousness of the crime and the rank of +the accused. This method was hardly as unsatisfactory as it seems to be, +for a person of evil reputation might not be able to secure the required +number of friends who would commit perjury on his behalf. To take an oath +was a very solemn proceeding; it was an appeal to God, by which a man +called down on himself divine punishment if he swore falsely. + +ORDEALS + +The consequences of a false oath were not apparent at once. Ordeals, +however, formed a method of appealing to God, the results of which could +be immediately observed. A common form of ordeal was by fire. The accused +walked barefoot over live brands, or stuck his hand into a flame, or +carried a piece of red-hot iron for a certain distance. In the ordeal by +hot water he plunged his arm into boiling water. A man established his +innocence through one of these tests, if the wound healed properly after +three days. The ordeal by cold water rested on the belief that pure water +would reject the criminal. Hence the accused was thrown bound into a +stream: if he floated he was guilty; if he sank he was innocent and had to +be rescued. Though a crude method of securing justice, ordeals were +doubtless useful in many instances. The real culprit would often prefer to +confess, rather than incur the anger of God by submitting to the test. + +THE JUDICIAL DUEL + +A form of trial which especially appealed to the warlike nobles was the +judicial duel. [6] The accuser and the accused fought with each other; and +the conqueror won the case. God, it was believed, would give victory to +the innocent party, because he had right on his side. When one of the +adversaries could not fight, he secured a champion to take his place. +Though the judicial duel finally went out of use in the law courts, it +still continued to be employed privately, as a means of settling disputes +which involved a man's honor. The practice of dueling is only now dying +out in civilized communities. + +[Illustration: TRIAL BY COMBAT +From a manuscript of the fifteenth century.] + +FEUDAL AND ROMAN LAW + +Oaths, ordeals, and duels formed an inheritance from Germanic antiquity. +[7] They offered a sharp contrast to Roman law, which acted in the public +interest, balanced evidence, and sought only to get at the truth. After +the middle of the twelfth century the revival of the study of Roman law, +as embodied in Justinian's code, [8] led gradually to the abandonment of +most forms of appeal to the judgment of God. At the same time the kings +grew powerful enough to take into their own hands the administration of +justice. + + +152. FEUDAL WARFARE + +FEUDALISM AS A SYSTEM OF LOCAL DEFENSE + +Feudalism, once more, was a system of local defense. The knight must guard +his small estate, the baron his barony, the count his county, the duke his +duchy. At the lord's bidding the vassal had to follow him to war, either +alone or with a certain number of men, according to the size of the fief. +But this assistance was limited. A vassal served only for a definite +period (varying from one month to three in the year), and then only within +a reasonable distance from the lands for which he did homage. These +restrictions made it difficult to conduct a lengthy campaign, or one far +removed from the vassal's fief, unless mercenary soldiers were employed. + +THE FEUDAL ARMY + +The feudal army, as a rule, consisted entirely of cavalry. Such swiftly +moving assailants as the Northmen and the Magyars could best be dealt with +by mounted men who could bring them to bay, compel them to fight, and +overwhelm them by the shock of the charge. In this way the foot soldiers +of Charlemagne's time came to be replaced by the mailed horsemen who for +four centuries or more dominated European battlefields. + +[Illustration: MOUNTED KNIGHT +Seal of Robert Fitzwalter, showing a mounted knight in complete mail +armor; date about 1265 A.D.] + +ARMS AND ARMOR + +The armor used in the Middle Ages was gradually perfected, until at length +the knight became a living fortress. [9] In the early feudal period he +wore a cloth or leather tunic covered with iron rings or scales, and an +iron cap with a nose guard. About the beginning of the twelfth century he +adopted chain mail, with a hood of the same material for the head. During +the fourteenth century the knight began to wear heavy plate armor, +weighing fifty pounds or more, and a helmet with a visor which could be +raised or lowered. Thus completely incased in metal, provided with shield, +lance, straight sword or battle-ax, and mounted on a powerful horse, the +knight could ride down almost any number of poorly armed peasants. Not +till the development of missile weapons--the longbow, and later the +musket--did the foot soldier resume his importance in warfare. The feudal +age by this time was drawing to a close. + +PREVALENCE OF PRIVATE WAR + +The nobles regarded the right of waging war on one another as their most +cherished privilege. Fighting became almost a form of business enterprise, +which enriched the lords and their retainers through the sack of castles, +the plunder of villages, and the ransom of prisoners. Every hill became a +stronghold and every plain a battlefield. Such neighborhood warfare, +though rarely very bloody, spread terrible havoc throughout the land. + +THE PEACE AND TRUCE OF GOD + +The Church, to its great honor, lifted a protesting voice against this +evil. It proclaimed a "Peace of God" and forbade attacks on all +defenseless people, including priests, monks, pilgrims, merchants, +peasants, and women. But it was found impossible to prevent the feudal +lords from warring with each other, even though they were threatened with +the eternal torments of Hell; and so the Church tried to restrict what it +could not altogether abolish. A "Truce of God" was established. All men +were to cease fighting from Wednesday evening to Monday morning of each +week, during Lent, and on various holy days. The truce would have given +Christendom peace for about two hundred and forty days each year; but it +seems never to have been strictly observed except in limited areas. + +ABOLITION OF PRIVATE WARFARE + +As the power of the kings increased in western Europe, they naturally +sought to put an end to the constant fighting between their subjects. The +Norman rulers of Normandy, England, and Sicily restrained their turbulent +nobles with a strong hand. Peace came later in most parts of the +Continent; in Germany, "fist right" (the rule of the strongest) prevailed +until the end of the fifteenth century. The abolition of private war was +the first step in Europe toward universal peace. The second step--the +abolition of public war between nations--is yet to be taken. + + +153. THE CASTLE AND LIFE OF THE NOBLES + +DEVELOPMENT OF THE CASTLE + +The outward mark of feudalism was the castle, [10] where the lord resided +and from which he ruled his fief. In its earliest form the castle was +simply a wooden blockhouse placed on a mound and surrounded by a stockade. +About the beginning of the twelfth century the nobles began to build in +stone, which would better resist fire and the assaults of besiegers. A +stone castle consisted at first of a single tower, square or round, with +thick walls, few windows, and often with only one room to each story. [11] +As engineering skill increased, several towers were built and were then +connected by outer and inner walls. The castle thus became a group of +fortifications, which might cover a wide area. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF CHÂTEAU GAILLARD +The plan is intended to represent that of a typical castle, as the plan of +Kirkstall Abbey represents that of a typical monastery.] + +[Illustration: PIERREFONDS +A castle near Paris built about 1400 A.D. by a brother of the king of +France. It was dismantled in 1632 A.D., but was carefully restored in the +nineteenth century by order of Napoleon III. The exterior faithfully +reproduces the appearance of a medieval fortress.] + +THE CASTLE AS A FORTRESS + +Defense formed the primary purpose of the castle. Until the introduction +of gunpowder and cannon, the only siege engines employed were those known +in ancient times. They included machines for hurling heavy stones and iron +bolts, battering rams, and movable towers, from which the besiegers +crossed over to the walls. Such engines could best be used on firm, level +ground. Consequently, a castle would often be erected on a high cliff or +hill, or on an island, or in the center of a swamp. A castle without such +natural defenses would be surrounded by a deep ditch (the "moat"), usually +filled with water. If the besiegers could not batter down or undermine the +massive walls, they adopted the slower method of a blockade and tried to +starve the garrison into surrendering. But ordinarily a well-built, well- +provisioned castle was impregnable. Behind its frowning battlements even a +petty lord could defy a royal army. + +[Illustration: CHÂTEAU GAILLARD (RESTORED) +The finest of all medieval castles. Located on a high hill overlooking the +Seine about twenty miles from Rouen. Built by Richard the Lion hearted +within a twelvemonth (1197-1198 AD) and by him called Saucy Castle. It was +captured a few years later by the French king Philip Augustus and was +dismantled early in the seventeenth century. The castle consisted of three +distinct series of fortifications, besides the keep which in this case was +merely a strong tower.] + +A CASTLE DESCRIBED + +A visitor to a medieval castle crossed the drawbridge over the moat and +approached the narrow doorway, which was protected by a tower on each +side. If he was admitted, the iron grating ("portcullis") rose slowly on +its creaking pulleys, the heavy, wooden doors swung open, and he found +himself in the courtyard commanded by the great central tower ("keep"), +where the lord and his family lived, especially in time of war. At the +summit of the keep rose a platform whence the sentinel surveyed the +country far and wide; below, two stories underground, lay the prison, +dark, damp, and dirty. As the visitor walked about the court-yard, he came +upon the hall, used as the lord's residence in time of peace, the armory, +the chapel, the kitchens, and the stables. A spacious castle might +contain, in fact, all the buildings necessary for the support of the +lord's servants and soldiers. + +[Illustration: KING AND JESTER +From a manuscript of the early fifteenth century.] + +THE CASTLE AS A RESIDENCE + +The medieval castle formed a good fortress, but a poor home. Its small +rooms, lighted only by narrow windows, heated only by fireplaces, badly +ventilated, and provided with little furniture, must have been indeed +cheerless. Toward the close of the feudal period, when life became more +luxurious, the castle began to look less like a dungeon. Windows were +widened and provided with panes of painted glass, walls were hung with +costly tapestries, and floors were covered with thick Oriental rugs. The +nobles became attached to their castle homes and often took their names +from those of their estates. + +AMUSEMENTS OF THE NOBLES + +Life within the castle was very dull. There were some games, especially +chess, which the nobles learned from the Moslems. Banqueting, however, +formed the chief indoor amusement. The lord and his retainers sat down to +a gluttonous feast and, as they ate and drank, watched the pranks of a +professional jester or listened to the songs and music of ministrels or, +it may be, heard with wonder the tales of far-off countries brought by +some returning traveler. Outside castle walls a common sport was hunting +in the forests and game preserves attached to every estate. Deer, bears, +and wild boars were hunted with hounds; for smaller animals trained hawks, +or falcons, were employed. But the nobles, as we have just seen, found in +fighting their chief outdoor occupation and pastime. "To play a great +game" was their description of a battle. + +[Illustration: FALCONRY +From a manuscript of the thirteenth century in the Bibliothèque Nationale, +Paris.] + + +154. KNIGHTHOOD AND CHIVALRY + +APPRENTICESHIP OF THE KNIGHT + +The prevalence of warfare in feudal times made the use of arms a +profession requiring special training. A nobleman's son served for a +number of years, first as a page, then as a squire, in his father's castle +or in that of some other lord. He learned to manage a horse, to climb a +scaling ladder, to wield sword, battle-ax, and lance. He also waited on +the lord's table, assisted him at his toilet, followed him in the chase, +and attended him in battle. This apprenticeship usually lasted from five +to seven years. + +CONFERRING OF KNIGHTHOOD + +When the young noble became of age, he might be made a knight, if he +deserved the honor and could afford the expense. The ceremony of +conferring knighthood was often most elaborate. The candidate fasted, took +a bath--the symbol of purification--and passed the eve of his admission in +prayer. Next morning he confessed his sins, went to Mass, and listened to +a sermon on the duties of knighthood. This ended, his father, or the noble +who had brought him up, girded him with a sword and gave him the +"accolade," that is, a blow on the neck or shoulder, at the same time +saying, "Be thou a good knight." Then the youth, clad in shining armor and +wearing golden spurs, mounted his horse and exhibited his skill in warlike +exercises. If a squire for valorous conduct received knighthood on the +battlefield, the accolade by stroke of the sword formed the only ceremony. + +CHIVALRY + +In course of time, as manners softened and Christian teachings began to +affect feudal society, knighthood developed into chivalry. The Church, +which opposed the warlike excesses of feudalism, took the knight under her +wing and bade him be always a true soldier of Christ. To the rude virtues +of fidelity to one's lord and bravery in battle, the Church added others. +The "good knight" was he who respected his sworn word, who never took an +unfair advantage of another, who defended women, widows, and orphans +against their oppressors, and who sought to make justice and right prevail +in the world. Chivalry thus marked the union of pagan and Christian +virtues, of Christianity and the profession of arms. + +THE CHIVALRIC CODE + +Needless to say, the "good knight" appears rather in romance than in sober +history. Such a one was Sir Lancelot, in the stories of King Arthur and +the Round Table. [12] As Sir Lancelot lies in death, a former companion +addresses him in words which sum up the best in the chivalric code: "'Thou +wert the courtliest knight that ever bare shield; and thou wert the truest +friend to thy lover that ever bestrode horse; and thou wert the truest +lover among sinful men that ever loved woman; and thou wert the kindest +man that ever struck with sword; and thou wert the goodliest person that +ever came among press of knights; and thou wert the meekest man, and the +gentlest, that ever ate in hall among ladies; and thou wert the sternest +knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in the rest.'" [13] + +JOUSTS AND TOURNAMENTS + +The all-absorbing passion for fighting led to the invention of mimic +warfare in the shape of jousts and tournaments. [14] These exercises +formed the medieval equivalent of the Greek athletic games and the Roman +gladiatorial shows. The joust was a contest between two knights; the +tournament, between two bands of knights. The contests took place in a +railed-off space, called the "lists," about which the spectators gathered. +Each knight wore upon his helmet the scarf or color of his lady and fought +with her eyes upon him. Victory went to the one who unhorsed his opponent +or broke in the proper manner the greatest number of lances. The beaten +knight forfeited horse and armor and had to pay a ransom to the conqueror. +Sometimes he lost his life, especially when the participants fought with +real weapons and not with blunted lances and pointless swords. The Church +now and then tried to stop these performances, but they remained +universally popular until the close of the Middle Ages. + +INFLUENCE OF CHIVALRY + +Chivalry arose with feudalism, formed, in fact, the religion of feudalism, +and passed away only when the changed conditions of society made feudalism +an anachronism. [15] While chivalry lasted, it produced some improvement +in manners, particularly by insisting on the notion of personal honor and +by fostering greater regard for women (though only for those of the upper +class). Our modern notion of the conduct befitting a "gentleman" goes back +to the old chivalric code. Chivalry expressed, however, simply the +sentiments of the warlike nobles. It was an aristocratic ideal. The knight +despised and did his best to keep in subjection the toiling peasantry, +upon whose backs rested the real burden of feudal society. + + +155. FEUDALISM AS A SYSTEM OF LOCAL INDUSTRY + +DECLINE OF URBAN LIFE + +Under the Roman Empire western Europe had been filled with flourishing +cities. [16] The Germanic invasions led to a gradual decay of trade and +manufacturing, and hence of the cities in which these activities centered. +As urban life declined, the mass of the population came to live more and +more in isolated rural communities. This was the great economic feature of +the early Middle Ages. + +FEUDALISM AND RURAL LIFE + +The introduction of feudalism fostered the movement from town to country, +for feudalism, as has been shown, rested on the soil as its basis. The +lord, his family, his servants, and his retainers were supported by the +income from landed property. The country estate of a lord was known as a +manor. + +THE MANOR + +A manor naturally varied in size, according to the wealth of its lord. In +England perhaps six hundred acres represented the extent of an average +estate. Every noble had at least one manor; great nobles might have +several manors, usually scattered throughout the country; and even the +king depended on his many manors for the food supply of the court. +England, during the period following the Norman Conquest, contained more +than nine thousand of these manorial estates. [17] + +COMMON CULTIVATION OF THE ARABLE LAND + +Of the arable land of the manor the lord reserved as much as needful for +his own use. The lord's land was called his "demesne," or domain. The rest +of the land he allotted to the peasants who were his tenants, They +cultivated their holdings in common. A farmer, instead of having his land +in one compact mass, had it split up into a large number of small strips +(usually about half an acre each) scattered over the manor, and separated, +not by fences or hedges, but by banks of unplowed turf. The appearance of +a manor, when under cultivation, has been likened to a vast checkerboard +or a patchwork quilt. [18] The reason for the intermixture of strips seems +to have been to make sure that each farmer had a portion both of the good +land and of the bad. It is obvious that this arrangement compelled all the +peasants to labor according to a common plan. A man had to sow the same +kinds of crops as his neighbors, and to till and reap them at the same +time. Agriculture, under such circumstances, could not fail to be +unprogressive. + +[Illustration: FARM WORK IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY +Plowing, Harrowing, Cutting Weeds, Reaping.] + +FARMING METHODS + +In other ways, too, agriculture was very backward. Farmers did not know +how to enrich the soil by the use of fertilizers or how to provide for a +proper rotation of crops. Hence each year they cultivated only two-thirds +of the land, letting the other third lie "fallow" (uncultivated), that it +might recover its fertility. It is said that eight or nine bushels of +grain represented the average yield of an acre. Farm animals were small, +for scientific breeding had not yet begun. A full-grown ox reached a size +scarcely larger than a calf of to-day, and the fleece of a sheep often +weighed less than two ounces. Farm implements were few and clumsy. The +wooden ploughs only scratched the ground. Harrowing was done with a hand +implement little better than a large rake. Grain was cut with a sickle, +and grass was mown with a scythe. It took five men a day to reap and bind +the harvest of two acres. + +COMMON USE OF THE NON-ARABLE LAND + +Besides his holding of farm land, which in England averaged about thirty +acres, each peasant had certain rights over the non-arable land of the +manor. He could cut a limited amount of hay from the meadow. He could turn +so many farm animals--cattle, geese, swine--on the waste. He also enjoyed +the privilege of taking so much wood from the forest for fuel and building +purposes. A peasant's holding, which also included a house in the village, +thus formed a complete outfit. + + +156. THE VILLAGE AND LIFE OF THE PEASANTS + +A VILLAGE DESCRIBED + +The peasants on a manor lived close together in one or more villages. +Their small, thatch-roofed, and one-roomed houses would be grouped about +an open space (the "green"), or on both sides of a single, narrow street. +The only important buildings were the parish church, the parsonage, a +mill, if a stream ran through the manor, and possibly a blacksmith's shop. +The population of one of these villages often did not exceed one hundred +souls. + +A VILLAGE AS SELF-SUFFICING + +Perhaps the most striking feature of a medieval village was its self- +sufficiency. The inhabitants tried to produce at home everything they +required, in order to avoid the uncertainty and expense of trade. The land +gave them their food; the forest provided them with wood for houses and +furniture. They made their own clothes of flax, wool, and leather. Their +meal and flour were ground at the village mill, and at the village smithy +their farm implements were manufactured. The chief articles which needed +to be brought from some distant market were salt, used to salt down farm +animals killed in autumn, iron for various tools, and millstones. Cattle, +horses, and surplus grain also formed common objects of exchange between +manors. + +HARD LOT OF THE PEASANTRY + +Life in a medieval village was rude and rough. The peasants labored from +sunrise to sunset, ate coarse fare, lived in huts, and suffered from +frequent pestilences. They were often the helpless prey of the feudal +nobles. If their lord happened to be a quarrelsome man, given to fighting +with his neighbors, they might see their lands ravaged, their cattle +driven off, their village burned, and might themselves be slain. Even +under peaceful conditions the narrow, shut-in life of the manor could not +be otherwise than degrading. + +ALLEVIATIONS OF THE PEASANT'S LOT + +Yet there is another side to the picture. If the peasants had a just and +generous lord, they probably led a fairly comfortable existence. Except +when crops failed, they had an abundance of food, and possibly wine or +cider drink. They shared a common life in the work of the fields, in the +sports of the village green, and in the services of the parish church. +They enjoyed many holidays; it has been estimated that, besides Sundays, +about eight weeks in every year were free from work. Festivities at +Christmas, Easter, and May Day, at the end of ploughing and the completion +of harvest, relieved the monotony of the daily round of labor. [19] +Perhaps these medieval peasants were not much worse off than the +agricultural laborers in most countries of modern Europe. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF HITCHIN MANOR, HERTFORDSHIRE +Lord's demesne, diagonal lines. Meadow and pasture lands, dotted areas. +Normal holding of a peasant, black strips.] + + +157. SERFDOM + +FREEMEN, SLAVES, AND SERFS + +A medieval village usually contained several classes of laborers. There +might be a number of freemen, who paid a fixed rent, either in money or +produce, for the use of their land. Then there might also be a few slaves +in the lord's household or at work on his domain. By this time, however, +slavery had about died out in western Europe. Most of the peasants were +serfs. + +NATURE OF SERFDOM + +Serfdom represented a stage between slavery and freedom. A slave belonged +to his master; he was bought and sold like other chattels. A serf had a +higher position, for he could not be sold apart from the land nor could +his holding be taken from him. He was fixed to the soil. On the other hand +a serf ranked lower than a freeman, because he could not change his abode, +nor marry outside the manor, nor bequeath his goods, without the +permission of his lord. + +OBLIGATIONS OF THE SERF + +The serf did not receive his land as a free gift; for the use of it he +owed certain duties to his master. These took chiefly the form of personal +services. He must labor on the lord's domain for two or three days each +week, and at specially busy seasons, such as ploughing and harvesting, he +must do extra work. At least half his time was usually demanded by the +lord. The serf had also to make certain payments, either in money or more +often in grain, honey, eggs, or other produce. When he ground the wheat or +pressed the grapes which grew on his land, he must use the lord's mill, +the lord's wine-press, and pay the customary charge. In theory the lord +could tax his serfs as heavily and make them work as hard as he pleased, +but the fear of losing his tenants doubtless in most cases prevented him +from imposing too great burdens on them. + +ORIGIN OF SERFDOM + +Serfdom developed during the later centuries of the Roman Empire and in +the early Middle Ages. It was well established by the time of Charlemagne. +Most serfs seem to have been the descendants, or at least the successors, +of Roman slaves, whose condition had gradually improved. The serf class +was also recruited from the ranks of freemen, who by conquest or because +of the desire to gain the protection of a lord, became subject to him. +Serfdom, however, was destined to be merely a transitory condition. By the +close of medieval times, the serfs in most parts of western Europe had +secured their freedom. [20] + + +158. DECLINE OF FEUDALISM + +DURATION OF FEUDALISM + +Feudalism had a vigorous life for about five hundred years. Taking +definite form early in the ninth century, it flourished throughout the +later Middle Ages, but became decadent by the opening of the fourteenth +century. + +FORCES OPPOSED TO FEUDALISM: THE KINGS + +As a system of local government, feudalism tended to pass away when the +rulers in England, France, and Spain, and later in Germany and Italy, +became powerful enough to put down private warfare, execute justice, and +maintain order everywhere in their dominions. The kings were always anti- +feudal. We shall study in a later chapter (Chapter XXII) the rise of +strong governments and centralized states in western Europe. + +FORCES OPPOSED TO FEUDALISM: THE CITIES + +As a system of local industry, feudalism could not survive the great +changes of the later Middle Ages, when reviving trade, commerce, and +manufactures had begun to lead to the increase of wealth, the growth of +markets, and the substitution of money payments for those in produce or +services. Flourishing cities arose, as in the days of the Roman Empire, +freed themselves from the control of the nobles, and became the homes of +liberty and democracy. The cities, like the kings, were always anti- +feudal. We shall deal with their development in a subsequent chapter +(Chapter XXIII). + +THE CHURCH AND FEUDALISM + +There was still another anti-feudal force, namely, the Roman Church. It is +true that many of the higher clergy were feudal lords, and that even the +monasteries owned vast estates which were parceled out among tenants. +Nevertheless, the Roman Church as a universal organization, including men +of all ranks and classes, was necessarily opposed to feudalism, a local +and an aristocratic system. The work and influence of this Church will now +engage our attention. + + +STUDIES + +1. Write a brief essay on feudal society, using the following words: lord; +vassal; castle; keep; dungeon; chivalry; tournament; manor; and serf. + +2. Explain the following terms: vassal; fief; serf; "aid"; homage; squire; +investiture; and "relief." + +3. Look up the origin of the words homage, castle, dungeon, and chivalry. + +4. "The real heirs of Charlemagne were from the first neither the kings of +France nor those of Italy or Germany; but the feudal lords." Comment on +this statement. + +5. Why was the feudal system not found in the Roman Empire in the East +during the Middle Ages? + +6. Why has feudalism been called "confusion roughly organized"? + +7. Contrast feudalism as a political system with (a) the classical city- +states, (b) the Roman Empire, and (c) modern national states. + +8. What was the effect of feudalism on the sentiment of patriotism? + +9. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of primogeniture as +the rule of inheritance? + +10. Explain these phrases: "to be in hot water;" "to go through fire and +water;" and "to haul over the coals." + +11. Compare the oaths administered to witnesses in modern courts with +medieval oaths. + +12. Why was war the usual condition of feudal society? + +13. Compare the "Peace of God" with the earlier "Roman Peace" (_Pax +Romana_). + +14. Mention some modern comforts and luxuries which were unknown in feudal +castles. + +15. What is the present meaning of the word "chivalrous"? How did it get +that meaning? + +16. Why has chivalry been called "the blossom of feudalism"? + +17. Contrast the ideal of a chivalry with that of monasticism. + +18. Show that the serf was not a slave or a "hired man" or a tenant-farmer +paying rent. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] See page 312. + +[2] The word has nothing to do with "feuds," though these were common +enough in feudal times. It comes from the medieval Latin _feudum_, from +which are desired the French _fief_ and the English _fee_. + +[3] See pages 472, 478. + +[4] The practice of primogeniture has now been abolished by the laws of +the various European countries and is not recognized in the United States. +It still prevails, however, in England. + +[5] Latin _homo_, "man." + +[6] Sir Walter Scott's novel, _Ivanhoe_ (chapter xliii), contains an +account of a judicial duel. + +[7] See page 326. + +[8] See page 331. + +[9] See the illustrations, pages 408, 421, 422, 473. + +[10] The French form of the word is _château_. + +[11] A good example is the "White Tower," which forms a part of the Tower +of London. It was built by William the Conqueror. See the illustration, +page 498. + +[12] See page 560. + +[13] Malory, _Morte d'Arthur_, xxi, 13. See also Tennyson's poem, _Sir +Galahad_, for a beautiful presentation of the ideal knight. + +[14] Sir Walter Scott's novel, _Ivanhoe_ (chapter xii), contains a +description of a tournament. + +[15] _Don Quixote_, by the Spanish writer, Cervantes (1547-1616 A.D.), is +a famous satire on chivalry. Our American "Mark Twain" also stripped off +the gilt and tinsel of chivalry in his amusing story entitled _A +Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur_. + +[16] See page 208. + +[17] According to Domesday Book (see page 499) there were 9250 manors, of +which William the Conqueror possessed 1422. His manors lay in about thirty +counties. + +[18] This "open field" system of agriculture, as it is usually called, +still survives in some parts of Europe. See the plan of Hitchin Manor, +page 435. + +[19] See page 581-582. + +[20] See page 612. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE PAPACY AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, 962-1273 A.D. [1] + + +159. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH + +THE ROMAN CHURCH + +A preceding chapter dealt with the Christian Church in the East and West +during the early Middle Ages. We learned something about its organization, +belief, and worship, about the rise and growth of the Papacy, about +monasticism, and about that missionary campaign which won all Europe to +Christianity. Our narrative extended to the middle of the eleventh +century, when the quarrel between pope and patriarch led at length to the +disruption of Christendom. We have now to consider the work and influence +of the Roman Church during later centuries of the Middle Ages. + +TERRITORIAL EXTENT OF THE CHURCH + +The Church at the height of its power held spiritual sway over all western +Europe. Italy and Sicily, the larger part of Spain, France, Germany, +Hungary, Poland, British Isles, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland +yielded obedience to the pope of Rome. + +THE CHURCH AS UNIVERSAL + +Membership in the Church was not a matter of free choice. All people, +except Jews, were required to belong to it. A person joined the Church by +baptism, a rite usually performed in infancy, and remained in it as long +as he lived. Every one was expected to conform, at least outwardly, to the +doctrines and practices of the Church, and anyone attacking its authority +was liable to punishment by the state. + +THE CHURCH AS INTERNATIONAL + +The presence of one Church throughout the western world furnished a bond +of union between European peoples during the age of feudalism. The Church +took no heed of political boundaries, for men of all nationalities entered +the ranks of the priesthood and joined the monastic orders. Priests and +monks were subjects of no country, but were "citizens of heaven," as they +sometimes called themselves. Even difference of language counted for +little in the Church, since Latin was the universal speech of the educated +classes. One must think, then, of the Church as a great international +state, in form a monarchy, presided over by the pope, and with its capital +at Rome. + +TWOFOLD DUTIES OF THE CHURCH + +The Church in the Middle Ages performed a double task. On the one hand it +gave the people religious instruction and watched over their morals; on +the other hand it played an important part in European politics and +provided a means of government. Because the Church thus combined +ecclesiastical and civil functions, it was quite unlike all modern +churches, whether Greek, Roman, or Protestant. Both sides of its +activities deserve, therefore, to be considered. + + +160. CHURCH DOCTRINE AND WORSHIP + +"THE GATE OF HEAVEN." + +In medieval times every loyal member of the Church accepted without +question its authority in religious matters. The Church taught a belief in +a personal God, all-wise, all-good, all-powerful, to know whom was the +highest goal of life. The avenue to this knowledge lay through faith in +the revelation of God, as found in the Scriptures. Since the unaided human +reason could not properly interpret the Scriptures, it was necessary for +the Church, through her officers, to declare their meaning and set forth +what doctrines were essential to salvation. The Church thus appeared as +the sole repository of religious knowledge, as "the gate of heaven." + +THE SACRAMENTAL SYSTEM + +Salvation did not depend only on the acceptance of certain beliefs. There +were also certain acts, called "sacraments," in which the faithful +Christian must participate, if he was not to be cut off eternally from +God. These acts formed channels of heavenly grace; they saved man from the +consequences of his sinful nature and filled him with "the fullness of +divine life." Since priests alone could administer the sacraments, [2] the +Church presented itself as the necessary mediator between God and man. + +BAPTISM, CONFIRMATION, MATRIMONY, AND EXTREME UNCTION + +By the thirteenth century seven sacraments were generally recognized. Four +of these marked critical stages in human life, from the cradle to the +grave. Baptism cleansed the child from the taint of original sin and +admitted him into the Christian community. Confirmation gave him full +Church fellowship. Matrimony united husband and wife in holy bonds which +might never be broken. Extreme Unction, the anointing with oil of one +mortally ill, purified the soul and endowed it with strength to meet +death. + +PENANCE + +Penance held an especially important place in the sacramental system. At +least once a year the Christian must confess his sins to a priest. If he +seemed to be truly repentant, the priest pronounced the solemn words of +absolution and then required him to accept some punishment, which varied +according to the nature of the offense. There was a regular code of +penalties for such sins as drunkenness, avarice, perjury, murder, and +heresy. Penances often consisted in fasting, reciting prayers, abstaining +from one's ordinary amusements, or beating oneself with bundles of rods. A +man who had sinned grievously might be ordered to engage in charitable +work, to make a contribution in money for the support of the Church, or to +go on a pilgrimage to a sacred shrine. The more distant and difficult a +pilgrimage, the more meritorious it was, especially if it led to some very +holy place, such as Rome or Jerusalem. People might also become monks in +order to atone for evil-doing. This system of penitential punishment +referred only to the earthly life; it was not supposed to cleanse the soul +for eternity. + +HOLY EUCHARIST + +The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, generally known as the Mass, formed +the central feature of worship. It was more than a common meal in +commemoration of the Last Supper of Christ with the Apostles. It was a +solemn ceremony, by which the Christian believed himself to receive the +body and blood of Christ, under the form of bread and wine. [3] The right +of the priest to withhold the Eucharist from any person, for good cause, +gave the Church great power, because the failure to partake of this +sacrament imperiled one's chances of future salvation. It was also +supposed that the benefits of the ceremony in purifying from sin might be +enjoyed by the dead in Purgatory; hence masses were often said for the +repose of their souls. + +ORDINATION + +The seventh and last sacrament, that of Ordination, or "Holy Orders," +admitted persons to the priesthood. According to the view of the Church +the rite had been instituted by Christ, when He chose the Apostles and +sent them forth to preach the Gospel. From the Apostles, who ordained +their successors, the clergy in all later times received their exalted +authority. [4] Ordination conferred spiritual power and set such an +indelible mark on the character that one who had been ordained could never +become a simple layman again. + +[Illustration: PILGRIMS TO CANTERBURY +From a medieval manuscript. Canterbury with its cathedral appears in the +background. The shrine of Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, formed +a celebrated resort for medieval pilgrims. The archbishop had been +murdered in the church (1180 A.D.), if not at the instigation, at any rate +without the opposition of King Henry II, whose policies he opposed. +Becket, who was regarded as a martyr, soon received canonization. Miracles +were said to be worked at his grave and at the well in which his bloody +garments had been washed. He remained the most popular saint in England +until the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, when his shrine +was destroyed.] + +REVERENCE FOR SAINTS + +The Church did not rely solely on the sacramental system as a means to +salvation. It was believed that holy persons, called saints, [5] who had +died and gone to Heaven, offered to God their prayers for men. Hence the +practice arose of invoking the aid of the saints in all the concerns of +life. The earliest saints were Christian martyrs, [6] who had sealed their +faith with their blood. In course of time many other persons, renowned for +pious deeds, were exalted to sainthood. The making of a new saint, after a +rigid inquiry into the merits of the person whom it is proposed to honor, +is now a privilege reserved to the pope. + +DEVOTION TO THE VIRGIN + +High above all the saints stood the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. +Devotion to her as the "Queen of Heaven" increased rapidly in the Church +after the time of Gregory the Great. The popularity of her cult owed not a +little to the influence of chivalry, [7] for the knight, who vowed to +cherish womanhood, saw in the Virgin the ideal woman. Everywhere churches +arose in her honor, and no cathedral or abbey lacked a chapel dedicated to +Our Lady. + +RELICS + +The growing reverence for saints led to an increased interest in relics. +These included the bones of a saint and shreds of his garments, besides +such objects as the wood or nails of the cross on which Christ suffered. +Relics were not simply mementos; they were supposed to possess miraculous +power which passed into them through contact with holy persons. This +belief explains the use of relics to heal diseases, to ward off danger, +and, in general, to bring good fortune. An oath taken upon relics was +especially sacred. [8] Every church building contained a collection of +relics, sometimes amounting to thousands in number, and even private +persons often owned them. + +PURGATORY + +The Church also taught a belief in Purgatory as a state or place of +probation. [9] Here dwelt the souls of those who were guilty of no mortal +sins which would condemn them to Hell, but yet were burdened with +imperfections which prevented them from entering Heaven. Such +imperfections, it was held, might be removed by the prayers of the living, +and hence the practice arose of praying for the dead. + + +161. CHURCH JURISDICTION + +CHURCH COURTS + +The Church had regular courts and a special system of law [10] for the +trial of offenders against its regulations. Many cases, which to-day would +be decided according to the civil or criminal law of the state, in the +Middle Ages came before the ecclesiastical courts. Since marriage was +considered a sacrament, the Church took upon itself to decide what +marriages were lawful. It forbade the union of first cousins, of second +cousins, and of godparents and godchildren. It refused to sanction +divorce, for whatever cause, if both parties at the time of marriage had +been baptized Christians. The Church dealt with inheritance under wills, +for a man could not make a legal will until he had confessed, and +confession formed part of the sacrament of Penance. All contracts made +binding by oaths came under Church jurisdiction, because an oath was an +appeal to God. [11] The Church tried those who were charged with any sin +against religion, including heresy, blasphemy, the taking of interest +(usury), and the practice of witchcraft. Widows, orphans, and the families +of pilgrims or crusaders also enjoyed the special protection of Church +courts. + +"BENEFIT OF CLERGY" + +The Church claimed the privilege of judging all cases which involved +clergymen. No layman, it was declared, ought to interfere with one who, by +the sacrament of Ordination, had been dedicated to God. This demand of the +Church to try its own officers, according to its own mild and intelligent +laws, seems not unreasonable, when we remember how rude were the methods +of feudal justice. But "benefit of clergy," as the privilege was called, +might be abused. Many persons who had no intention of acting as priests or +monks became clergymen, in order to shield themselves behind the Church in +case their misdeeds were exposed. + +RIGHT OF "SANCTUARY." + +An interesting illustration of the power of the Church is afforded by the +right of "sanctuary." Any lawbreaker who fled to a church building +enjoyed, for a limited time, the privilege of safe refuge. It was +considered a sin against God to drag even the most wicked criminal from +the altar. The most that could be done was to deny the refugee food, so +that he might come forth voluntarily. This privilege of seeking sanctuary +was not without social usefulness, for it gave time for angry passions to +cool, thus permitting an investigation of the charges against an offender. + +EXCOMMUNICATION + +Disobedience to the regulations of the Church might be followed by +excommunication. It was a punishment which cut off the offender from all +Christian fellowship. He could not attend religious services nor enjoy the +sacraments so necessary to salvation. If he died excommunicate, his body +could not be buried in consecrated ground. By the law of the state he lost +all civil rights and forfeited all his property. No one might speak to +him, feed him, or shelter him. This terrible penalty, it is well to point +out, was usually imposed only after the sinner had received a fair trial +and had spurned all entreaties to repent. [12] + +INTERDICT + +The interdict, another form of punishment, was directed against a +particular locality, for the fault of some of the inhabitants who could +not be reached directly. In time of interdict the priests closed the +churches and neither married the living nor buried the dead. Of the +sacraments only Baptism, Confirmation, and Penance were permitted. All the +inhabitants of the afflicted district were ordered to fast, as in Lent, +and to let their hair grow long in sign of mourning. The interdict also +stopped the wheels of government, for courts of justice were shut, wills +could not be made, and public officials were forbidden to perform their +duties. In some cases the Church went so far as to lay an interdict upon +an entire kingdom, whose ruler had refused to obey her mandate. [13] The +interdict has now passed out of use, but excommunication still retains its +place among the spiritual weapons of the Church. + + +162. THE SECULAR CLERGY + +THE SECULAR AND REGULAR CLERGY + +Some one has said that in the Middle Ages there were just three classes of +society: the nobles who fought; the peasants who worked; and the clergy +who prayed. The latter class was divided into the secular [14] clergy, +including deacons, priests, and bishops, who lived active lives in the +world, and the regular [15] clergy, or monks, who passed their days in +seclusion behind monastery walls. + +POSITION OF THE CLERGY + +It has been already pointed out how early both secular and regular clergy +came to be distinguished from the laity by abstention from money-making +activities, differences in dress, and the obligation of celibacy. [16] +Being unmarried, the clergy had no family cares; being free from the +necessity of earning their own living, they could devote all their time +and energy to the service of the Church. The sacrament of Ordination, +which was believed to endow the clergy with divine power, also helped to +strengthen their influence. They appeared as a distinct order, in whose +charge was the care of souls and in whose hands were the keys of heaven. + +PARISH PRIESTS + +An account of the secular clergy naturally begins with the parish priest, +who had charge of a parish, the smallest division of Christendom. No one +could act as a priest without the approval of the bishop, but the nobleman +who supported the parish had the privilege of nominating candidates for +the position. The priest derived his income from lands belonging to the +parish, from tithes, [17] and from voluntary contributions, but as a rule +he received little more than a bare living. The parish priest was the only +Church officer who came continually into touch with the common people. He +baptized, married, and buried his parishioners. For them he celebrated +Mass at least once a week, heard confessions, and granted absolution. He +watched over all their deeds on earth and prepared them for the life to +come. And if he preached little, he seldom failed to set in his own person +an example of right living. + +THE PARISH CHURCH + +The church, with its spire which could be seen afar off and its bells +which called the faithful to worship, formed the social center of the +parish. Here on Sundays and holy days the people assembled for the morning +and evening services. During the interval between religious exercises they +often enjoyed games and other amusements in the adjoining churchyard. As a +place of public gathering the parish church held an important place in the +life of the Middle Ages. + +BISHOPS + +A group of parishes formed a diocese, over which a bishop presided. It was +his business to look after the property belonging to the diocese, to hold +the ecclesiastical courts, to visit the clergy, and to see that they did +their duty. The bishop alone could administer the sacraments of +Confirmation and Ordination. He also performed the ceremonies at the +consecration of a new church edifice or shrine. Since the Church held vast +estates on feudal tenure, the bishop was usually a territorial lord, owing +a vassal's obligations to the king or to some powerful noble for his land +and himself ruling over vassals in different parts of the country. As +symbols of his power and dignity the bishop wore on his head the miter and +carried the pastoral staff, or crosier. [18] + +[Illustration: A BISHOP ORDAINING A PRIEST +From an English manuscript of the twelfth century. The bishop wears a +miter and holds in his left hand the pastoral staff, or crosier. His right +hand is extended in blessing over the priest's head.] + +ARCHBISHOPS + +Above the bishop in rank stood the archbishop. In England, for example, +there were two archbishops, one residing at York and the other at +Canterbury. The latter, as "primate of all England," was the highest +ecclesiastical dignitary in the land. An archbishop's distinctive vestment +consisted of the _pallium_, a narrow band of white wool, worn around the +neck. The pope alone could confer the right to wear the _pallium_. + +THE CATHEDRAL + +The church which contained the official seat or throne [19] of a bishop or +archbishop was called a cathedral. It was ordinarily the largest and most +magnificent church in the diocese. [20] + + +163. THE REGULAR CLERGY + +DECLINE OF MONASTICISM + +The regular clergy, or monks, during the early Middle Ages belonged to the +Benedictine order. By the tenth century, however, St. Benedict's Rule had +lost much of its force. As the monasteries increased in wealth through +gifts of land and goods, they sometimes became centers of idleness, +luxury, and corruption. The monks forgot their vows of poverty; and, +instead of themselves laboring as farmers, craftsmen, and students, they +employed laymen to work for them. At the same time powerful feudal lords +frequently obtained control of the monastic estates by appointing as +abbots their children or their retainers. Grave danger existed that the +monasteries would pass out of Church control and decline into mere fiefs +ruled by worldly men. + +THE CLUNIAC REVIVAL + +A great revival of monasticism began in 910 A.D., with the foundation of +the monastery of Cluny in eastern France. The monks of Cluny led lives of +the utmost self-denial and followed the Benedictine Rule in all its +strictness. Their enthusiasm and devotion were contagious; before long +Cluny became a center from which a reformatory movement spread over France +and then over all western Europe. By the middle of the twelfth century +more than three hundred monasteries looked to Cluny for inspiration and +guidance. + +THE "CONGREGATION OF CLUNY" + +Each of the earlier Benedictine monasteries had been an isolated +community, independent and self-governing. Consequently, when discipline +grew lax or when the abbot proved to be an incapable ruler, it was +difficult to correct the evils which arose. In the Cluniac system, +however, all the monasteries formed parts of one organization, the +"Congregation of Cluny." The abbot of Cluny appointed their "priors," or +heads, and required every monk to pass several years of his monastic life +at Cluny itself. This monarchical arrangement helps to explain why for two +hundred years the abbot of Cluny was, next to the pope, the most important +churchman in western Europe. + +THE CISTERCIAN ORDER + +Other monastic orders arose in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Of +these, the most important was the Cistercian, founded in 1098 A.D. at +Citeaux, not far from Cluny. The keynote of Cistercian life was the return +to a literal obedience of St. Benedict's Rule. Hence the members of the +order lived in the utmost simplicity, cooking their own meager repasts and +wearing coarse woolen garments woven from the fleeces of their own sheep. +The Cistercians especially emphasized the need for manual labor. They were +the best farmers and cattle breeders of the Middle Ages. Western Europe +owes even more to them than to the Benedictines for their work as pioneers +in the wilderness. "The Cistercians," declared a medieval writer, "are a +model to all monks, a mirror for the diligent, a spur to the indolent." + +ST. BERNARD, 1090-1153 A.D. + +The whole spirit of medieval monasticism found expression in St. Bernard, +a Burgundian of noble birth. While still a young man he resolved to leave +the world and seek the repose of the monastic life. He entered Citeaux, +carrying with him thirty companions. Mothers are said to have hid their +sons from him, and wives their husbands, lest they should be converted to +monasticism by his persuasive words. After a few years at Citeaux St. +Bernard established the monastery of Clairvaux, over which he ruled as +abbot till his death. His ascetic life, piety, eloquence, and ability as +an executive soon brought him into prominence. People visited Clairvaux +from far and near to listen to his preaching and to receive his counsels. +The monastery flourished under his direction and became the parent of no +less than sixty-five Cistercian houses which were planted in the +wilderness. St. Bernard's activities widened, till he came to be the most +influential man in western Christendom. It was St. Bernard who acted as an +adviser of the popes, at one time deciding between two rival candidates +for the Papacy, who combated most vigorously the heresies of the day, and +who by his fiery appeals set in motion one of the crusades. [21] The charm +of his character is revealed to us in his sermons and letters, while some +of the Latin hymns commonly attributed to him are still sung in many +churches, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. + + +164. THE FRIARS + +COMING OF THE FRIARS + +The history of Christian monasticism exhibits an ever-widening social +outlook. The early hermits [22] had devoted themselves, as they believed, +to the service of God by retiring desert for prayer, meditation, and +bodily mortification. St. Benedict's wise Rule, as followed by the +medieval monastic orders, marked a change for the better. It did away with +extreme forms of self-denial, brought the monks together in a common +house, and required them to engage in daily manual labor. Yet even the +Benedictine system had its limitations. The monks lived apart from the +world and sought chiefly the salvation of their own souls. A new +conception of the monastic life arose early in the thirteenth century, +with the coming of the friars. [23] The aim of the friars was social +service. They lived active lives in the world and devoted themselves +entirely to the salvation of others. The foundation of the orders of +friars was the work of two men, St. Francis in Italy and St. Dominic in +Spain. + +ST. FRANCIS, 1181(?)-1226 A.D. + +Twenty-eight years after the death of St. Bernard, St. Francis was born at +Assisi. As the son of a rich and prominent merchant St. Francis had before +him the prospect of a fine career in the world. But he put away all +thoughts of fame and wealth, deserted his gay companions, and, choosing +"Lady Poverty" as his bride, started out to minister to lepers and social +outcasts. One day, while attending Mass, the call came to him to preach +the Gospel, as Christ had preached it, among the poor and lowly. The man's +earnestness and charm of manner soon drew about him devoted followers. +After some years St. Francis went to Rome and obtained Pope Innocent III's +sanction of his work. The Franciscan order spread so rapidly that even in +the founder's lifetime there were several thousand members in Italy and +other European countries. + +[Illustration: ST. FRANCIS BLESSING THE BIRDS +From a painting by the Italian artist Giotto.] + +ST. FRANCIS, THE MAN + +St. Francis is one of the most attractive figures in all history. Perhaps +no other man has ever tried so seriously to imitate in his own life the +life of Christ. St. Francis went about doing good. He resembled, in some +respects, the social workers and revivalist preachers of to-day. In other +respects he was a true child of the Middle Ages. An ascetic, he fasted, +wore a hair-cloth shirt, mixed ashes with his food to make it +disagreeable, wept daily, so that his eyesight was nearly destroyed, and +every night flogged himself with iron chains. A mystic, he lived so close +to God and nature that he could include within the bonds of his love not +only men and women, but also animals, trees, and flowers. He preached a +sermon to the birds and once wrote a hymn to praise God for his +"brothers," sun, wind, and fire, and for his "sisters," moon, water, and +earth. When told that he had but a short time to live, he exclaimed, +"Welcome, Sister Death!" He died at the age of forty-five, worn out by his +exertions and self-denial. Two years later the pope made him a saint. + +ST. DOMINIC, 1170-1221 A.D. + +St. Dominic, unlike St. Francis, was a clergyman and a student of +theology. After being ordained he went to southern France and labored +there for ten years among a heretical sect known as the Albigenses. The +order of Dominicans grew out of the little band of volunteers who assisted +him in the mission. St. Dominic sent his followers--at first only sixteen +in number--out into the world to combat heresy. They met with great +success, and at the founder's death the Dominicans had as many as sixty +friaries in various European cities. + +CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRIARS + +The Franciscans and Dominicans resembled each other in many ways. They +were "itinerant," going on foot from place to place, and wearing coarse +robes tied round the waist with a rope. They were "mendicants," [24] who +possessed no property but lived on the alms of the charitable. They were +also preachers, who spoke to the people, not in Latin, but in the common +language of each country which they visited. The Franciscans worked +especially in the "slums" of the cities; the Dominicans addressed +themselves rather to educated people and the upper classes. As time went +on, both orders relaxed the rule of poverty and became very wealthy. They +still survive, scattered all over the world and employed in teaching and +missionary activity. [25] + +THE FRIARS AND THE PAPACY + +The friars by their preaching and ministrations did a great deal to call +forth a religious revival in Europe during the thirteenth century. In +particular they helped to strengthen the papal authority. Both orders +received the sanction of the pope; both enjoyed many privileges at his +hands; and both looked to him for direction. The pope employed them to +raise money, to preach crusades, and to impose excommunications and +interdicts. The Franciscans and Dominicans formed, in fact, the agents of +the Papacy. + + +165. POWER OF THE PAPACY + +THE POPE'S EXALTED POSITION + +The name "pope" [26] seems at first to have been applied to all priests as +a title of respect and affection. The Greek Church still continues this +use of the word. In the West it gradually came to be reserved to the +bishop of Rome as his official title. The pope was addressed in speaking +as "Your Holiness." His exalted position was further indicated by the +tiara, or headdress with triple crowns, worn by him in processions. [27] +He went to solemn ceremonies sitting in a chair supported on the shoulders +of his guard. He gave audience from an elevated throne, and all who +approached him kissed his feet in reverence. As "Christ's Vicar" he +claimed to be the representative on earth of the Almighty. + +THE POPE AS THE HEAD OF WESTERN CHRISTENDOM + +The pope was the supreme lawgiver of the Church. His decrees might not be +set aside by any other person. He made new laws in the form of "bulls" +[28] and by his "dispensations" could in particular cases set aside old +laws, such as those forbidding cousins to marry or monks to obtain release +from their vows. The pope was also the supreme judge of the Church, for +all appeals from the lower ecclesiastical courts came before him for +decision. Finally, the pope was the supreme administrator of the Church. +He confirmed the election of bishops, deposed them, when necessary, or +transferred them from one diocese to another. No archbishop might perform +the functions of his office until he had received the _pallium_ from the +pope's hands. The pope also exercised control over the monastic orders and +called general councils of the Church. + +THE PAPAL LEGATES + +The authority of the pope was commonly exercised by the "legates," [29] +whom he sent out as his representatives at the various European courts. +These officers kept the pope in close touch with the condition of the +Church in every part of western Europe. A similar function is performed in +modern times by the papal ambassadors known as "nuncios." + +THE CARDINALS + +For assistance in government the pope made use of the cardinals, [30] who +formed a board, or "college." At first they were chosen only from the +clergy of Rome and the vicinity, but in course of time the pope opened the +cardinalate to prominent churchmen in all countries. The number of +cardinals is now fixed at seventy, but the college is never full, and +there are always ten or more "vacant hats," as the saying goes. The +cardinals, in the eleventh century, received the right of choosing a new +pope. A cardinal ranks above all other church officers. His dignity is +indicated by the red hat and scarlet robe which he wears and by the title +of "Eminence" applied to him. + +INCOME OF THE PAPACY + +To support the business of the Papacy and to maintain the splendor of the +papal court required a large annual income. This came partly from the +States of the Church in Italy, partly from the gifts of the faithful, and +partly from the payments made by abbots, bishops, and archbishops when the +pope confirmed their election to office. Still another source of revenue +consisted of "Peter's Pence," a tax of a penny on each hearth. It was +collected every year in England and in some Continental countries until +the Reformation. The modern "Peter's Pence" is a voluntary contribution +made by Roman Catholics in all countries. + +THE CAPITAL OF THE PAPACY + +The Eternal City, from which in ancient times the known world had been +ruled, formed in the Middle Ages the capital of the Papacy. Hither every +year came tens of thousands of pilgrims to worship at the shrine of the +Prince of the Apostles. Few traces now remain of the medieval city. Old +St. Peter's Church, where Charlemagne was crowned emperor, [31] gave way +in the sixteenth century to the world-famous structure that now occupies +its site. [32] The Lateran Palace, which for more than a thousand years +served as the residence of the popes, has also disappeared, its place +being taken by a new and smaller building. The popes now live in the +splendid palace of the Vatican, adjoining St. Peter's. + +THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE + +The powers exercised by the popes during the later Middle Ages were not +secured without a struggle. As a matter of fact the concentration of +authority in papal hands was a gradual development covering several +hundred years. The pope reached his exalted position only after a long +contest with the Holy Roman Emperor. This contest forms one of the most +noteworthy episodes in medieval history. + + +166. POPES AND EMPERORS, 962-1122 A.D. + +RELATIONS BETWEEN POPE AND EMPEROR IN THEORY + +One might suppose that there could be no interference between pope and +emperor, since they seemed to have separate spheres of action. It was said +that God had made the pope, as the successor of St. Peter, supreme in +spiritual matters and the emperor, as heir of the Roman Caesars, supreme +in temporal matters. The former ruled men's souls, the latter, men's +bodies. The two sovereigns thus divided on equal terms the government of +the world. + +THEIR RELATIONS IN PRACTICE + +The difficulty with this theory was that it did not work. No one could +decide in advance where the authority the pope ended and where that of the +emperor began. When the pope claimed certain powers which were also +claimed by the emperor, a conflict between the two rulers became +inevitable. + +[Illustration: THE SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL POWER +A tenth-century mosaic in the church of St. John, Rome. It represents +Christ giving to St. Peter the keys of heaven, and to Constantine the +banner symbolic of earthly dominion.] + +OTTO THE GREAT AND THE PAPACY + +In 962 A.D. Otto the Great, as we have learned, [33] restored imperial +rule in the West, thus founding what in later centuries the came to be +known as the Holy Roman Empire. Otto as emperor possessed the rights of +making the city of Rome the imperial capital, of approving the election of +the pope, and, in general, of exerting much influence in papal affairs. +All these rights had been exercised by Charlemagne. But Otto did what +Charlemagne had never done when he deposed a pope who proved disobedient +to his wishes and on his own authority appointed a successor. At the same +time Otto exacted from the people of Rome an oath that they would never +recognize any pope to whose election the emperor had not consented. + +THE PAPACY AND OTTO'S SUCCESSORS + +The emperors who followed Otto repeatedly interfered in elections to the +Papacy. One strong ruler, Henry III (1039-1056 A.D.), has been called the +"pope-maker." Early in his reign he set aside three rival claimants to the +Papacy, creating a German bishop pope, and on three subsequent occasions +filled the papal throne by fresh appointments. It was clear that if this +situation continued much longer the Papacy would become simply an imperial +office; it would be merged in the Empire. + +PAPAL ELECTION BY THE CARDINALS + +The death of Henry III, which left the Empire in weak hands, gave the +Papacy a chance to escape the control of the secular power. In 1059 A.D. a +church council held at the Lateran Palace decreed that henceforth the +right of choosing the supreme pontiff should belong exclusively to the +cardinals, who represented the clergy of Rome. This arrangement has tended +to prevent any interference with the election of popes, either by the +Roman people or by foreign sovereigns. + +FEUDALIZING OF THE CHURCH + +Now that the Papacy had become independent, it began to deal with a grave +problem which affected the Church at large. According to ecclesiastical +rule bishops ought to be chosen by the clergy of their diocese and abbots +of by their monks. With the growth of feudalism, however, many of these +high dignitaries had become vassals, holding their lands as fiefs of +princes, kings, and emperors, and owing the usual feudal dues. Their lords +expected them to perform the ceremony of homage, [34] before "investing" +them with the lands attached to the bishopric or monastery. One can +readily see that in practice the lords really chose the bishops and +abbots, since they could always refuse to "invest" those who were +displeasing to them. + +LAY INVESTITURE FROM THE CHURCH STANDPOINT + +To the reformers in the Church lay investiture appeared intolerable. How +could the Church keep itself unspotted from the world when its highest +officers were chosen by laymen and were compelled to perform unpriestly +duties? In the act of investiture the reformers also saw the sin of simony +[35]--the sale of sacred powers--because there was such a temptation +before the candidate for a bishopric or abbacy to buy the position with +promises or with money. + +LAY INVESTITURE AS VIEWED BY THE SECULAR AUTHORITY + +The lords, on the other hand, believed that as long as bishops and abbots +held vast estates on feudal tenure they should continue to perform the +obligations of vassalage. To forbid lay investiture was to deprive the +lords of all control over Church dignitaries. The real difficulty of the +situation existed, of course, in the fact that the bishops and abbots were +both spiritual officers and temporal rulers, were servants of both the +Church and the State. They found it very difficult to serve two masters. + +PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY VII, 1073-1085 A.D. + +In 1073 A.D. there came to the throne of St. Peter one of the most +remarkable of the popes. This was Hildebrand, who, on becoming pope, took +the name of Gregory VII. Of obscure Italian birth, he received his +education in a Benedictine monastery at Rome and rose rapidly to a +position of great influence in papal affairs. He is described as a small +man, ungainly in appearance and with a weak voice, but energetic, +forceful, and of imperious will. + +GREGORY'S AIMS + +Gregory devoted all his talents to the advancement of the Papacy. A +contemporary document, [36] which may have been of Gregory's own +composition and at any rate expresses his ideas, contains the following +statements: "The Roman pontiff alone is properly called universal. He +alone may depose bishops and restore them to office. He is the only person +whose feet are kissed by all princes. He may depose emperors. He may be +judged by no one. He may absolve from their allegiance the subjects of the +wicked. The Roman Church never has erred, and never can err, as the +Scriptures testify." Gregory did not originate these doctrines, but he was +the first pope who ventured to make a practical application of them. + +DECREE AGAINST LAY INVESTITURE, 1075 A.D. + +Two years after Gregory became pope he issued a decree against lay +investiture. It declared that no emperor, king, duke, marquis, count, or +any other lay person should presume to grant investiture, under pain of +excommunication. This decree was a general one, applying to all states of +western Europe, but circumstances were such that it mainly affected +Germany. + +HENRY IV AND GREGORY VII + +Henry IV, the ruler of Germany at this time, did not refuse the papal +challenge. He wrote a famous letter to Gregory, calling him "no pope but +false monk," telling him Christ had never called him to the priesthood, +and bidding him "come down;" "come down" from St. Peter's throne. Gregory, +in reply, deposed Henry as emperor, excommunicated him, and freed his +subjects from their allegiance. + +CANOSSA, 1077 A.D. + +This severe sentence made a profound impression in Germany. Henry's +adherents fell away, and it seemed probable that the German nobles would +elect another ruler in his stead. Henry then decided on abject submission. +He hastened across the Alps and found the pope at the castle of Canossa, +on the northern slopes of the Apennines. It was January, and the snow lay +deep on the ground. For three days the emperor stood shivering outside the +castle gate, barefoot and clad in a coarse woolen shirt, the garb of a +penitent. At last, upon the entreaties of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, +Gregory admitted Henry and granted absolution. It was a strange and moving +spectacle, one which well expressed the tremendous power which the Church +in the Middle Ages exercised over the minds of men. + +[Illustration: HENRY IV, COUNTESS MATILDA, AND GREGORY VII +From a manuscript of the twelfth century now in the Vatican Library at +Rome.] + +CONCORDAT OF WORMS, 1122 A.D. + +The dramatic scene at Canossa did not end the investiture conflict. It +dragged on for half a century, being continued after Gregory's death by +the popes who succeeded him. At last in 1122 A.D. the opposing parties +agreed to what is known as the Concordat of Worms, from the old German +city where it was signed. + +TERMS OF THE CONCORDAT + +The concordat drew a distinction between spiritual and lay investiture. +The emperor renounced investiture by the ring and crosier--the emblems of +spiritual authority--and permitted bishops and abbots to be elected by the +clergy and confirmed in office by the pope. On the other hand the pope +recognized the emperor's right to be present at all elections and to +invest bishops and abbots by the scepter for whatever lands they held +within his domains. This reasonable compromise worked well for a time. But +it was a truce, not a peace. It did not settle the more fundamental issue, +whether the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire should be supreme. + + +167. POPES AND EMPERORS, 1122-1273 A.D. + +FREDERICK I, EMPEROR, 1152-1190 + +Thirty years after the signing of the Concordat of Worms the emperor +Frederick I, called Barbarossa from his red beard, succeeded to the +throne. Frederick, the second emperor, of the Hohenstaufen dynasty [37] +was capable, imaginative, and ambitious. He took Charlemagne and Otto the +Great as his models and aspired like them to rule Christian Europe and the +Church. His reign is the story of many attempts, ending at length in +failure, to unite all Italy into a single state under German sway. + +FREDERICK AND THE PAPACY + +Frederick's Italian policy brought him at once into conflict with two +powerful enemies. The popes, who feared that his success would imperil the +independence of the Papacy, opposed him at every step. The great cities of +northern Italy, which were also threatened by Frederick's soaring schemes, +united in the Lombard League to defend their freedom. The popes gave the +league their support, and in 1176 A.D. Frederick was badly beaten at the +battle of Legnano. The haughty emperor confessed himself conquered, and +sought reconciliation with the pope, Alexander III. In the presence of a +vast throng assembled before St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Frederick +knelt before the pope and humbly kissed his feet. Just a century had +passed since the humiliation of Henry IV at Canossa. + +PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III, 1198-1216 A.D. + +The Papacy reached the height of its power under Innocent III. The +eighteen years of his pontificate were one long effort, for the most part +successful, to make the pope the arbiter of Europe. Innocent announced the +claims of the Papacy in the most uncompromising manner. "As the moon," he +declared, "receives its light from the sun, and is inferior to the sun, so +do kings receive all their glory and dignity from the Holy See." This +meant, according to Innocent, that the pope has the right to interfere in +all secular matters and in the quarrels of rulers. "God," he continued, +"has set the Prince of the Apostles over kings and kingdoms, with a +mission to tear up, plant, destroy, scatter, and rebuild." + +INNOCENT AND KING PHILIP OF FRANCE + +That Innocent's claims were not idle boasts is shown by what he +accomplished. When Philip Augustus, king of France, divorced his wife and +made another marriage, Innocent declared the divorce void and ordered him +to take back his discarded queen. Philip refused, and Innocent, through +his legate, put France under an interdict. From that hour all religious +rites ceased. The church doors were barred; the church bells were silent, +the sick died unshriven, the dead lay unburied. Philip, deserted by his +retainers, was compelled to submit. + +INNOCENT AND KING JOHN OF ENGLAND + +On another occasion Innocent ordered John, the English king, to accept as +archbishop of Canterbury a man of his own choosing. When John declared +that he would never allow the pope's appointee to set foot on English +soil, Innocent replied by excommunicating him and laying his kingdom under +an interdict. John also had to yield and went so far as to surrender +England and Ireland to the pope, receiving them back again as fiefs, for +which he promised to pay a yearly rent. This tribute money was actually +paid, though irregularly, for about a century and a half. + +FREDERICK II, EMPEROR, 1212-1250 A.D. + +Innocent further exhibited his power by elevating to the imperial throne +Frederick II, grandson of Frederick Barbarossa. The young man, after +Innocent's death, proved to be a most determined opponent of the Papacy. +He passed much of his long reign in Italy, warring vainly against the +popes and the Lombard cities. Frederick died in 1250 A.D., and with him +the Holy Roman Empire really ceased to exist. [38] None of the succeeding +holders of the imperial title exercised any authority outside of Germany. + +INTERREGNUM, 1254-1273 A.D. + +The death of Frederick II's son in 1254 A.D. ended the Hohenstaufen +dynasty. There now ensued what is called the Interregnum, a period of +nineteen years, during which Germany was without a ruler. At length the +pope sent word to the German electors that if they did not choose an +emperor, he would himself do so. The electors then chose Rudolf of +Hapsburg [39] (1273 A.D.). Rudolf gained papal support by resigning all +claims on Italy, but recompensed himself through the conquest of Austria. +[40] Ever since this time the Hapsburg dynasty has filled the Austrian +throne. + +OUTCOME OF THE CONFLICT + +The conflict between popes and emperors was now ended. Its results were +momentous. Germany, so long neglected by its rightful rulers, who pursued +the will-o'-the-wisp in Italy, broke up into a mass of duchies, counties, +archbishoprics, and free cities. The map of the country at this time shows +how numerous were these small feudal states. They did not combine into a +strong government till the nineteenth century. [41] Italy likewise +remained disunited and lacked even a common monarch. The real victor was +the Papacy, which had crushed the Empire and had prevented the union of +Italy and Germany. + +[Illustration: Map, GERMANY AND ITALY During the Interregnum 1254-1273 +A.D.] + + +168. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH + +THE CHURCH AND WARFARE + +Medieval society, we have now learned, owed much to the Church, both as a +teacher of religion and morals and as an agency of government. It remains +to ask what was the attitude of the Church toward the great social +problems of the Middle Ages. In regard to warfare, the prevalence of which +formed one of the worst evils of the time, the Church, in general, cast +its influence on the side of peace. It deserves credit for establishing +the Peace and the Truce of God and for many efforts to heal strife between +princes and nobles. Yet, as will be shown, the Church did not carry the +advocacy of peace so far as to condemn warfare against heretics and +infidels. Christians believed that it was a religious duty to exterminate +these enemies of God. + +THE CHURCH AND CHARITY + +The Church was distinguished for charitable work. The clergy received +large sums for distribution to the needy. From the doors of the +monasteries, the poor, the sick, and the infirm of every sort were never +turned away. Medieval charity, however, was very often injudicious. The +problem of removing the causes of poverty seems never to have been raised; +and the indiscriminate giving multiplied, rather than reduced, the number +of beggars. + +THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY AND SERFDOM + +Neither slavery nor serfdom, into which slavery gradually passed, [42] was +ever pronounced unlawful by pope or Church council. The Church condemned +slavery only when it was the servitude of a Christian in bondage to a Jew +or an infidel. Abbots, bishops, and popes possessed slaves and serfs. The +serfs of some wealthy monasteries were counted by thousands. The Church, +however, encouraged the freeing of bondmen as a meritorious act and always +preached the duty of kindness and forbearance toward them. + +DEMOCRACY OF THE CHURCH + +The Church also helped to promote the cause of human freedom by insisting +on the natural equality of all men in the sight of God. "The Creator," +wrote one of the popes, "distributes his gifts without regard to social +classes. In his eyes there are neither nobles nor serfs." It was not +necessary to be of noble birth to become a bishop, a cardinal, or a pope. +Even serfs succeeded to the chair of St. Peter. Naturally enough, the +Church attracted the keenest minds of the age, a fact which largely +explains the influence exerted by the clergy. + +THE CLERGY AS THE ONLY EDUCATED CLASS + +The influence of the clergy in medieval Europe was also due to the fact +that they were almost the only persons of education. Few except churchmen +were able to read or write. So generally was this the case that an +offender could prove himself a clergyman, thus securing "benefit of +clergy," [43] if he showed his ability to read a single line. It is +interesting, also, to note that the word "clerk," which comes from the +Latin _clericus_, was originally limited to churchmen, since they alone +could keep accounts, write letters, and perform other secretarial duties. + +IMPORTANCE OF THE CLERGY + +It is clear that priests and monks had much importance quite aside from +their religious duties. They controlled the schools, wrote the books, +framed the laws, and, in general, acted as leaders and molders of public +opinion. A most conspicuous instance of the authority wielded by them is +seen in the crusades. These holy wars of Christendom against Islam must +now be considered. + + +STUDIES + +1. Explain the following terms: abbot; prior; archbishop; parish; diocese; +regular clergy; secular clergy; friar; excommunication; simony; interdict; +sacrament; "benefit of clergy"; right of "sanctuary"; crosier; miter; +tiara; papal indulgence; bull; dispensation; tithes; and "Peter's Pence." + +2. Mention some respects in which the Roman Church in the Middle Ages +differed from any religious society of the present day. + +3. "Medieval Europe was a camp with a church in the background." Comment +on this statement. + +4. Explain the statement that "the Church, throughout the Middle Ages, was +a government as well as an ecclesiastical organization." + +5. Distinguish between the _faith_ of the Church, the _organization_ of +the Church, and the Church as a _force_ in history. + +6. How did the belief in Purgatory strengthen the hold of the Church upon +men's minds? + +7. Name several historic characters who have been made saints. + +8. Why has the Roman Church always refused to sanction divorce? + +9. Compare the social effects of excommunication with those of a modern +"boycott." + +10. What reasons have led the Church to insist upon celibacy of the +clergy? + +11. Name four famous monks and four famous monasteries. + +12. Could monks enter the secular clergy and thus become parish priests +and bishops? + +13. Mention two famous popes who had been monks. + +14. What justification was found in the New Testament (_Matthew_, x 8-10) +for the organization of the orders of friars? + +15. How did the Franciscans and Dominicans supplement each other's work? + +16. "The monks and the friars were the militia of the Church." Comment on +this statement. + +17. Who is the present Pope? When and by whom was he elected? In what city +does he reside? What is his residence called? + +18. Why has the medieval Papacy been called the "ghost" of the Roman +Empire? + +19. In what sense is it true that the Holy Roman Empire was "neither holy +nor Roman, nor an empire"? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter x, +"Monastic Life in the Twelfth Century"; chapter xi, "St. Francis and the +Franciscans." + +[2] In case of necessity baptism might be performed by any lay person of +adult years and sound mind. + +[3] This doctrine is known as transubstantiation. In the Roman Church, as +has been noted (page 363), wine is not administered to the laity. + +[4] Hence the term "Apostolical Succession." + +[5] Latin sanctus, "holy." + +[6] See page 234. + +[7] See page 431. + +[8] See pages 407, 418. + +[9] The belief in Purgatory is not held by Protestants or by members of +the Greek Church. + +[10] The so-called "canon law." See page 568. + +[11] See page 420. + +[12] For two instances of the use of excommunication see pages 459 and +461. + +[13] For two instances of this sort see page 461. + +[14] Latin _saeculum_, used in the sense of "the world." + +[15] Latin _regula_, a "rule", referring to the rule or constitution of a +monastic order. + +[16] See page 343. + +[17] The tithe was a tenth part of the yearly income from land, stock, and +personal industry. + +[18] See illustration, page 447. + +[19] Latin _cathedra_. + +[20] For the architecture of a medieval cathedral see pages 562-565. + +[21] See page 474. + +[22] See page 352. + +[23] Latin _frater_, "brother." + +[24] Latin _mendicare_, "to beg." + +[25] In England the Franciscans, from the color of their robes, were +called Gray Friars, the Dominicans, Black Friars. + +[26] Latin _papa_, "father." + +[27] See the illustration, page 348. + +[28] So called from the lead seal (Latin _bulla_) attached to papal +documents. + +[29] Latin _legatus_, "deputy." + +[30] Latin _cardinalus_, "principal." + +[31] See page 311. + +[32] See the plate facing page 591. + +[33] See page 317. + +[34] See page 418. + +[35] A name derived from Simon Magus, who offered money to the Apostle +Peter for the power to confer the Holy Spirit. See _Acts_, viii, 18-20. + +[36] The so-called _Dictatus papae_. + +[37] The name of this German family comes from that of their castle in +southwestern Swabia. + +[38] It survived in name until 1806 A.D., when the Austrian ruler, Francis +II, laid down the imperial crown and the venerable title of "Holy Roman +Emperor." + +[39] Hapsburg as the name of a castle in northern Switzerland. + +[40] See page 522. + +[41] The modern German Empire dates from 1871 A.D. + +[42] See pages 436-437. + +[43] See page 444. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE OCCIDENT AGAINST THE ORIENT; THE CRUSADES, 1095-1291 A.D. [1] + + +169. CAUSES OF THE CRUSADES + +PLACE OF THE CRUSADES IN HISTORY + +The series of military expeditions, undertaken by the Christians of Europe +for the purpose of recovering the Holy Land from the Moslems, have +received the name of crusades. In their widest aspect the crusades may be +regarded as a renewal of the age-long contest between East and West, in +which the struggle of Greeks and Persians and of Romans and Carthaginians +formed the earlier episodes. The contest assumed a new character when +Europe had become Christian and Asia Mohammedan. It was not only two +contrasting types of civilization but also two rival world religions which +in the eighth century faced each other under the walls of Constantinople +and on the battlefield of Tours. Now, during the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries, they were to meet again. + +NUMBER OF THE CRUSADES + +Seven or eight chief crusades are usually enumerated. To number them, +however, obscures the fact that for nearly two hundred years Europe and +Asia were engaged in almost constant warfare. Throughout this period there +was a continuous movement of crusaders to and from the Moslem possessions +in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. + +PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND + +The crusades were first and foremost a spiritual enterprise. They sprang +from the pilgrimages which Christians had long been accustomed to make to +the scenes of Christ's life on earth. Men considered it a wonderful +privilege to see the cave in which He was born, to kiss the spot where He +died, and to kneel in prayer at His tomb. The eleventh century saw an +increased zeal for pilgrimages, and from this time travelers to the Holy +Land were very numerous. For greater security they often joined themselves +in companies and marched under arms. It needed little to transform such +pilgrims into crusaders. + +[Illustration: COMBAT BETWEEN CRUSADERS AND MOSLEMS +A picture in an eleventh-century window, formerly in the church of St. +Denis, near Paris.] + +ABUSE OF PILGRIMS BY THE TURKS + +The Arab conquest of the Holy Land had not interrupted the stream of +pilgrims, for the early caliphs were more tolerant of unbelievers than +Christian emperors of heretics. But after the coming of the Seljuk Turks +into the East, pilgrimages became more difficult and dangerous. The Turks +were a ruder people than the Arabs whom they displaced, and in their +fanatic zeal for Islam were not inclined to treat the Christians with +consideration. Many tales floated back to Europe of the outrages committed +on the pilgrims and on the sacred shrines venerated by all Christendom. +Such stories, which lost nothing in the telling, aroused a storm of +indignation throughout Europe and awakened the desire to rescue the Holy +Land from the grasp of the "infidel." + +THE CRUSADES AND THE UPPER CLASSES + +But the crusades were not simply an expression of the simple faith of the +Middle Ages. Something more than religious enthusiasm sent an unending +procession of crusaders along the highways of Europe and over the +trackless wastes of Asia Minor to Jerusalem. The crusades, in fact, +appealed strongly to the warlike instincts of the feudal nobles. They saw +in an expedition against the East an unequaled opportunity for acquiring +fame, riches, lands, and power. The Normans were especially stirred by the +prospect of adventure and plunder which the crusading movement opened up. +By the end of the eleventh century they had established themselves in +southern Italy and Sicily, from which they now looked across the +Mediterranean for further lands to conquer. [2] Norman knights formed a +very large element in several of the crusaders' armies. + +THE LOWER CLASSES AND THE CRUSADES + +The crusades also attracted the lower classes. So great was the misery of +the common people in medieval Europe that for them it seemed not a +hardship, but rather a relief, to leave their homes in order to better +themselves abroad. Famine and pestilence, poverty and oppression, drove +them to emigrate hopefully to the golden East. + +PRIVILEGES OF CRUSADERS + +The Church, in order to foster the crusades, promised both religious and +secular benefits to those who took part in them. A warrior of the Cross +was to enjoy forgiveness of all his past sins. If he died fighting for the +faith, he was assured of an immediate entrance to the joys of Paradise. +The Church also freed him from paying interest on his debts and threatened +with excommunication anyone who molested his wife, his children, or his +property. + + +170. FIRST CRUSADE, 1095-1099 A.D. + +OCCASION OF THE FIRST CRUSADE + +The signal for the First Crusade was given by the conquests of the Seljuk +Turks. [3] These barbarians, at first the mercenaries and then the masters +of the Abbasid caliphs, infused fresh energy into Islam. They began a new +era of Mohammedan expansion by winning almost the whole of Asia Minor from +the Roman Empire in the East. One of their leaders established himself at +Nicaea, the scene of the first Church Council, [4] and founded the +sultanate of Rum (Rome). + +APPEAL OF EMPEROR TO POPE + +The presence of the Turks so close to Constantinople was a standing menace +to all Europe. The able emperor, Alexius I, on succeeding to the throne +toward the close of the eleventh century, took steps to expel the +invaders. He could not draw on the hardy tribes of Asia Minor for the +soldiers he needed, but with reinforcements from the West he hoped to +recover the lost provinces of the empire. Accordingly, in 1095 A.D., +Alexius sent an embassy to Pope Urban II, the successor of Gregory VII, +requesting aid. The fact that the emperor appealed to the pope, rather +than to any king, shows what a high place the Papacy then held in the +affairs of Europe. + +COUNCIL OF CLERMONT, 1095 A.D. + +To the appeal of Alexius, Urban lent a willing ear. He summoned a great +council of clergy and nobles to meet at Clermont in France. Here, in an +address which, measured by its results, was the most momentous recorded in +history, Pope Urban preached the First Crusade. He said little about the +dangers which threatened the Roman Empire in the East from the Turks, but +dwelt chiefly on the wretched condition of the Holy Land, with its +churches polluted by unbelievers and its Christian inhabitants tortured +and enslaved. Then, turning to the proud knights who stood by, Urban +called upon them to abandon their wicked practice of private warfare and +take up arms, instead, against the infidel. "Christ Himself," he cried, +"will be your leader, when, like the Israelites of old, you fight for +Jerusalem.... Start upon the way to the Holy Sepulcher; wrench the land +from the accursed race, and subdue it yourselves. Thus shall you spoil +your foes of their wealth and return home victorious, or, purpled with +your own blood, receive an everlasting reward." + +"GOD WILLS IT!" + +Urban's trumpet call to action met an instant response. From the assembled +host there went up, as it were, a single shout: "God wills it! God wills +it!" "It is, in truth, His will," answered Urban, "and let these words be +your war cry when you unsheath your swords against the enemy." Then man +after man pressed forward to receive the badge of a crusader, a cross of +red cloth. [5] It was to be worn on the breast, when the crusader went +forth, and on the back, when he returned. + +PRELUDE TO THE FIRST CRUSADE + +The months which followed the Council of Clermont were marked by an +epidemic of religious excitement in western Europe. Popular preachers +everywhere took up the cry "God wills it!" and urged their hearers to +start for Jerusalem. A monk named Peter the Hermit aroused large parts of +France with his passionate eloquence, as he rode from town to town, +carrying a huge cross before him and preaching to vast crowds. Without +waiting for the main body of nobles, which was to assemble at +Constantinople in the summer of 1096 A.D., a horde of poor men, women, and +children set out, unorganized and almost unarmed, on the road to the Holy +Land. One of these crusading bands, led by Peter the Hermit, managed to +reach Constantinople, after suffering terrible hardships. The emperor +Alexius sent his ragged allies as quickly as possible to Asia Minor, where +most of them were slaughtered by the Turks. + +THE MAIN CRUSADE + +Meanwhile real armies were gathering in the West. Recruits came in greater +numbers from France than from any other country, a circumstance which +resulted in the crusaders being generally called "Franks" by their Moslem +foes. They had no single commander, but each contingent set out for +Constantinople by its own route and at its own time. [6] + +LEADERS OF THE CRUSADE + +The crusaders included among their leaders some of the most distinguished +representatives of European knighthood. Count Raymond of Toulouse headed a +band of volunteers from Provence in southern France. Godfrey of Bouillon +and his brother Baldwin commanded a force of French and Germans from the +Rhinelands. Normandy sent Robert, William the Conqueror's eldest son. The +Normans from Italy and Sicily were led by Bohemond, a son of Robert +Guiscard, [7] and his nephew Tancred. + +THE CRUSADERS IN ASIA MINOR AND SYRIA + +Though the crusaders probably did not number more than fifty thousand +fighting men, the disunion which prevailed among the Turks favored the +success of their enterprise. With some assistance from the eastern emperor +they captured Nicaea, overran Asia Minor, and at length reached Antioch, +the key to northern Syria. The city fell after a siege of seven months, +but the crusaders were scarcely within the walls before they found +themselves besieged by a large Turkish army. The crusaders were now in a +desperate plight: famine wasted their ranks; many soldiers deserted; and +Alexius disappointed all hope of rescue. But the news of the discovery in +an Antioch church of the Holy Lance which had pierced the Savior's side +restored their drooping spirits. The whole army issued forth from the +city, bearing the relic as a standard, and drove the Turks in headlong +flight. This victory opened the road to Jerusalem. + +[Illustration: "MOSQUE OF OMAR," JERUSALEM +More correctly called the Dome of the Rock. It was erected in 691 A.D., +but many restorations have taken place since that date. The walls +enclosing the entire structure were built in the ninth century, and the +dome is attributed to Saladin (1189 A.D.). This building, with its +brilliant tiles covering the walls and its beautiful stained glass, is a +fine example of Mohammedan architecture.] + +CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM, 1099 A.D. + +Reduced now to perhaps one-fourth of their original numbers, the crusaders +advanced slowly to the city which formed the goal of all their efforts. +Before attacking it they marched barefoot in religious procession around +the walls, with Peter the Hermit at their head. Then came the grand +assault. Godfrey of Bouillon and Tancred were among the first to mount the +ramparts. Once inside the city, the crusaders massacred their enemies +without mercy. Afterwards, we are told, they went "rejoicing, nay for +excess of joy weeping, to the tomb of our Savior to adore and give +thanks." + + +171. CRUSADERS' STATES IN SYRIA + +LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM + +After the capture of Jerusalem the crusaders met to elect a king. Their +choice fell upon Godfrey of Bouillon. He refused to wear a crown of gold +in the city where Christ had worn a crown of thorns and accepted, instead, +the modest title of "Protector of the Holy Sepulcher." [8] Godfrey died +the next year and his brother Baldwin, who succeeded him, being less +scrupulous, was crowned king at Bethlehem. The new kingdom contained +nearly a score of fiefs, whose lords made war, administered justice, and +coined money, like independent rulers. The main features of European +feudalism were thus transplanted to Asiatic soil. + +OTHER CRUSADERS' STATES + +The winning of Jerusalem and the district about it formed hardly more than +a preliminary stage in the conquest of Syria. Much fighting was still +necessary before the crusaders could establish themselves firmly in the +country. Instead of founding one strong power in Syria, they split up +their possessions into the three principalities of Tripoli, Antioch, and +Edessa. These small states owed allegiance to the Latin Kingdom of +Jerusalem. + +MILITARY-RELIGIOUS ORDERS + +The ability of the crusaders' states to maintain themselves for many years +in Syria was largely due to the foundation of two military-religious +orders. The members were both monks and knights; that is, to the monastic +vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience they added a fourth vow, which +bound them to protect pilgrims and fight the infidels. Such a combination +of religion and warfare made a strong appeal to the medieval mind. + +HOSPITALERS AND TEMPLARS + +The Hospitalers, the first of these orders, grew out of a brotherhood for +the care of sick pilgrims in a hospital at Jerusalem. Many knights joined +the organization, which soon proved to be very useful in defending the +Holy Land. Even more important were the Templars, so called because their +headquarters in Jerusalem lay near the site of Solomon's Temple. Both +orders built many castles in Syria, the remains of which still impress the +beholder. They established numerous branches in Europe and, by presents +and legacies, acquired vast wealth. The Templars were disbanded in the +fourteenth century, but the Hospitalers continued to fight valiantly +against the Turks long after the close of the crusading movement. [9] + +[Illustration: EFFIGY OF A KNIGHT TEMPLAR +Temple Church, London. Shows the kind of armor worn between 1190 and 1225 +A.D.] + +CHRISTIAN AND INFIDEL IN THE HOLY LAND + +The depleted ranks of the crusaders were constantly filled by fresh bands +of pilgrim knights who visited Palestine to pray at the Holy Sepulcher and +cross swords with the infidel. In spite of constant border warfare much +trade and friendly intercourse prevailed between Christians and Moslems. +They learned to respect one another both as foes and neighbors. The +crusaders' states in Syria became, like Spain [10] and Sicily, [11] a +meeting-place of East and West. + + +172. SECOND CRUSADE, 1147-1149 A.D., AND THIRD CRUSADE, 1189-1192 A.D. + +ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CRUSADE + +The success of the Christians in the First Crusade had been largely due to +the disunion among their enemies. But the Moslems learned in time the +value of united action, and in 1144 A.D. succeeded in capturing Edessa, +one of the principal Christian outposts in the East. The fall of the city, +followed by the loss of the entire county of Edessa, aroused western +Europe to the danger which threatened the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and +led to another crusading enterprise. + +PREACHING OF ST. BERNARD + +The apostle of the Second Crusade was the great abbot of Clairvaux, St. +Bernard. [12] Scenes of the wildest enthusiasm marked his preaching. When +the churches were not large enough to hold the crowds which flocked to +hear him, he spoke from platforms erected in the fields. St. Bernard's +eloquence induced two monarchs, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of +Germany, to take the blood-red cross of a crusader. + +FAILURE OF THE SECOND CRUSADE + +The Second Crusade, though begun under the most favorable auspices, had an +unhappy ending. Of the great host that set out from Europe, only a few +thousands escaped annihilation in Asia Minor at the hands of the Turks. +Louis and Conrad, with the remnants of their armies, made a joint attack +on Damascus, but had to raise the siege after a few days. This closed the +crusade. As a chronicler of the expedition remarked, "having practically +accomplished nothing, the inglorious ones returned home." + +SALADIN + +Not many years after the Second Crusade, the Moslem world found in the +famous Saladin a leader for a holy war against the Christians. Saladin in +character was a typical Mohammedan, very devout in prayers and fasting, +fiercely hostile toward unbelievers, and full of the pride of race. To +these qualities he added a kindliness and humanity not surpassed, if +equaled, by any of his Christian foes. He lives in eastern history and +legend as the hero who stemmed once for all the tide of European conquest +in Asia. + +CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM BY SALADIN, 1187 A.D. + +Having made himself sultan of Egypt, Saladin united the Moslems of Syria +under his sway and then advanced against the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. +The Christians met him in a great battle near the lake of Galilee. It +ended in the rout of their army and the capture of their king. Even the +Holy Cross, which they had carried in the midst of the fight, became the +spoil of the conqueror. Saladin quickly reaped the fruits of victory. The +Christian cities of Syria opened their gates to him, and at last Jerusalem +itself surrendered after a short siege. Little now remained of the +possessions which the crusaders had won in the East. + +THIRD CRUSADE ORGANIZED, 1189 A.D. + +The news of the taking of Jerusalem spread consternation throughout +western Christendom. The cry for another crusade arose on all sides. Once +more thousands of men sewed the cross in gold, or silk, or cloth upon +their garments and set out for the Holy Land. When the three greatest +rulers of Europe--Philip Augustus, [13] king of France, Richard I, king of +England, and the German emperor, Frederick Barbarossa [14]--assumed the +cross, it seemed that nothing could prevent the restoration of Christian +supremacy in Syria. + +DEATH OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA, 1190 A.D. + +The Germans under Frederick Barbarossa were the first to start. This great +emperor was now nearly seventy years old, yet age had not lessened his +crusading zeal. He took the overland route and after much hard fighting +reached southern Asia Minor. Here, however, he was drowned, while trying +to cross a swollen stream. Many of his discouraged followers at once +returned to Germany; a few of them, however, pressed on and joined the +other crusaders before the walls of Acre. + +[Illustration: RICHARD I IN PRISON +From an illuminated manuscript of the thirteenth century. King Richard on +his return from the Holy Land was shipwrecked off the coast of the +Adriatic. Attempting to travel through Austria in disguise, he was +captured by the duke of Austria, whom he had offended at the siege of +Acre. The king regained his liberty only by paying a ransom equivalent to +more than twice the annual revenues of England.] + +ACRE CAPTURED BY PHILIP AND RICHARD, 1191 A.D. + +The expedition of the French and English achieved little. Philip and +Richard, who came by sea, captured Acre after a hard siege, but their +quarrels prevented them from following up this initial success. Philip +soon went home, leaving the further conduct of the crusade in Richard's +hands. + +RICHARD IN THE HOLY LAND, 1191-1192 A.D. + +The English king remained for fourteen months longer in the Holy Land. His +campaigns during this time gained for him the title of "Lion-hearted," +[15] by which he is always known. He had many adventures and performed +knightly exploits without number, but could not capture Jerusalem. +Tradition declares that when, during a truce, some crusaders went up to +Jerusalem, Richard refused to accompany them, saying that he would not +enter as a pilgrim the city which he could not rescue as a conqueror. He +and Saladin finally concluded a treaty by the terms of which Christians +were permitted to visit Jerusalem without paying tribute. Richard then set +sail for England, and with his departure from the Holy Land the Third +Crusade came to an end. + + +173. FOURTH CRUSADE AND THE LATIN EMPIRE OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 1202-1261 A.D. + +INNOCENT III AND THE FOURTH CRUSADE + +The real author of the Fourth Crusade was the famous pope, Innocent III. +[16] Young, enthusiastic, and ambitious for the glory of the Papacy, he +revived the plans of Urban II and sought once more to unite the forces of +Christendom against Islam. No emperor or king answered his summons, but a +number of knights (chiefly French) took the crusader's vow. + +THE CRUSADERS AND THE VENETIANS + +The leaders of the crusade decided to make Egypt their objective point, +since this country was then the center of the Moslem power. Accordingly, +the crusaders proceeded to Venice, for the purpose of securing +transportation across the Mediterranean. The Venetians agreed to furnish +the necessary ships only on condition that the crusaders first seized Zara +on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Zara was a Christian city, but it +was also a naval and commercial rival of Venice. In spite of the pope's +protests the crusaders besieged and captured the city. Even then they did +not proceed against the Moslems. The Venetians persuaded them to turn +their arms against Constantinople. The possession of that great capital +would greatly increase Venetian trade and influence in the East; for the +crusading nobles it held out endless opportunities of acquiring wealth and +power. Thus it happened that these soldiers of the Cross, pledged to war +with the Moslems, attacked a Christian city, which for centuries had +formed the chief bulwark of Europe against the Arab and the Turk. + +SACK OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 1204 A.D. + +The crusaders--now better styled the invaders--took Constantinople by +storm. No "infidels" could have treated in worse fashion this home of +ancient civilization. They burned down a great part of it; they +slaughtered the inhabitants; they wantonly destroyed monuments, statues, +paintings, and manuscripts--the accumulation of a thousand years. Much of +the movable wealth they carried away. Never, declared an eye-witness of +the scene, had there been such plunder since the world began. + +THE LATIN EMPIRE OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 1204-1261 A.D. + +The victors hastened to divide between them the lands of the Roman Empire +in the East. Venice gained some districts in Greece, together with nearly +all the Aegean islands. The chief crusaders formed part of the remaining +territory into the Latin Empire of Constantinople. It was organized in +fiefs, after the feudal manner. There was a prince of Achaia, a duke of +Athens, a marquis of Corinth, and a count of Thebes. Large districts, both +in Europe and Asia, did not acknowledge, however, these "Latin" rulers. +The new empire lived less than sixty years. At the end of this time the +Greeks returned to power. + +DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES OF THE FOURTH CRUSADE + +Constantinople, after the Fourth Crusade, declined in strength and could +no longer cope with the barbarians menacing it. Two centuries later the +city fell an easy victim to the Turks. [17] The responsibility for the +disaster which gave the Turks a foothold in Europe rests on the heads of +the Venetians and the French nobles. Their greed and lust for power turned +the Fourth Crusade into a political adventure. + +THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE, 1213 A.D. + +The so-called Children's Crusade illustrates at once the religious +enthusiasm and misdirected zeal which marked the whole crusading movement. +During the year 1212 A.D. thousands of French children assembled in bands +and marched through the towns and villages, carrying banners, candles, and +crosses and singing, "Lord God, exalt Christianity. Lord God, restore to +us the true cross." The children could not be restrained at first, but +finally hunger compelled them to return home. In Germany, during the same +year, a lad named Nicholas really did succeed in launching a crusade. He +led a mixed multitude of men and women, boys and girls over the Alps into +Italy, where they expected to take ship for Palestine. But many perished +of hardships, many were sold into slavery, and only a few ever saw their +homes again. "These children," Pope Innocent III declared, "put us to +shame; while we sleep they rush to recover the Holy Land." + +END OF THE CRUSADES + +The crusading movement came to an end by the close of the thirteenth +century. The emperor Frederick II [18] for a short time recovered +Jerusalem by a treaty, but in 1244 A.D. the Holy City became again a +possession of the Moslems. They have never since relinquished it. Acre, +the last Christian post in Syria, fell in 1291 A.D., and with this event +the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem ceased to exist. The Hospitalers, or +Knights of St. John, still kept possession of the important islands of +Cyprus and Rhodes, which long served as a barrier to Moslem expansion over +the Mediterranean. + + +174. RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES + +FAILURE OF THE CRUSADES + +The crusades, judged by what they set out to accomplish, must be accounted +an inglorious failure. After two hundred years of conflict, after a vast +expenditure of wealth and human lives, the Holy Land remained in Moslem +hands. It is true that the First Crusade did help, by the conquest of +Syria, to check the advance of the Turks toward Constantinople. But even +this benefit was more than undone by the weakening of the Roman Empire in +the East as a result of the Fourth Crusade. + +WHY THE CRUSADES FAILED + +Of the many reasons for the failure of the crusades, three require special +consideration. In the first place, there was the inability of eastern and +western Europe to cooperate in supporting the holy wars. A united +Christendom might well have been invincible. But the bitter antagonism +between the Greek and Roman churches [19] effectually prevented all unity +of action. The emperors at Constantinople, after the First Crusade, rarely +assisted the crusaders and often secretly hindered them. In the second +place, the lack of sea-power, as seen in the earlier crusades, worked +against their success. Instead of being able to go by water directly to +Syria, it was necessary to follow the long, overland route from France or +Germany through Hungary, Bulgaria, the territory of the Roman Empire in +the East, and the deserts and mountains of Asia Minor. The armies that +reached their destination after this toilsome march were in no condition +for effective campaigning. In the third place, the crusaders were never +numerous enough to colonize so large a country as Syria and absorb its +Moslem population. They conquered part of Syria in the First Crusade, but +could not hold it permanently in the face of determined resistance. + +WHY THE CRUSADES CEASED + +In spite of these and other reasons the Christians of Europe might have +continued much longer their efforts to recover the Holy Land, had they not +lost faith in the movement. But after two centuries the old crusading +enthusiasm died out, the old ideal of the crusade as "the way of God" lost +its spell. Men had begun to think less of winning future salvation by +visits to distant shrines and to think more of their present duties to the +world about them. They came to believe that Jerusalem could best be won as +Christ and the Apostles had won it--"by love, by prayers, and by the +shedding of tears." + +INFLUENCE OF THE CRUSADES ON FEUDALISM + +The crusades could not fail to affect in many ways the life of western +Europe. For instance, they helped to undermine feudalism. Thousands of +barons and knights mortgaged or sold their lands in order to raise money +for a crusading expedition. Thousands more perished in Syria and their +estates, through failure of heirs, reverted to the crown. Moreover, +private warfare, that curse of the Middle Ages, [20] also tended to die +out with the departure for the Holy Land of so many turbulent feudal +lords. Their decline in both numbers and influence, and the corresponding +growth of the royal authority, may best be traced in the changes that came +about in France, the original home of the crusading movement. + +THE CRUSADES AND COMMERCE + +One of the most important effects of the crusades was on commerce. They +created a constant demand for the transportation of men and supplies, +encouraged ship-building, and extended the market for eastern wares in +Europe. The products of Damascus, Mosul, Alexandria, Cairo, and other +great cities were carried across the Mediterranean to the Italian +seaports, whence they found their way into all European lands. The +elegance of the Orient, with its silks, tapestries, precious stones, +perfumes, spices, pearls, and ivory, was so enchanting that an +enthusiastic crusader called it "the vestibule of Paradise." + +THE CRUSADES AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE + +Finally, it must be noted how much the crusades contributed to +intellectual and social progress. They brought the inhabitants of western +Europe into close relations with one another, with their fellow Christians +of the Roman Empire in the East, and with the natives of Asia Minor, +Syria, and Egypt. The intercourse between Christians and Moslems was +particularly stimulating, because the East at this time surpassed the West +in civilization. The crusaders enjoyed the advantages which come from +travel in strange lands and among unfamiliar peoples. They went out from +their castles or villages to see great cities, marble palaces, superb +dresses, and elegant manners; they returned with finer tastes, broader +ideas, and wider sympathies. Like the conquests of Alexander the Great, +the crusades opened up a new world. + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CRUSADES + +When all is said, the crusades remain one of the most remarkable movements +in history. They exhibited the nations of western Europe for the first +time making a united effort for a common end. The crusaders were not hired +soldiers, but volunteers, who, while the religious fervor lasted, gladly +abandoned their homes and faced hardship and death in pursuit of a +spiritual ideal. They failed to accomplish their purpose, yet humanity is +the richer for the memory of their heroism and chivalry. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate Europe and the Mediterranean lands by +religions, about 1095 A.D. + +2. On an outline map indicate the routes of the First and the Third +Crusades. + +3. Locate on the map the following places: Clermont; Acre; Antioch; Zara; +Edessa; and Damascus. + +4. Identify the following dates: 1204 A.D.; 1095 A.D.; 1096 A.D.; 1291 +A.D. + +5. Write a short essay describing the imaginary experiences of a crusader +to the Holy Land. + +6. Mention some instances which illustrate the religious enthusiasm of the +crusaders. + +7. Compare the Mohammedan pilgrimage to Mecca with the pilgrimages of +Christians to Jerusalem in the Middle Ages. + +8. Compare the Christian crusade with the Mohammedan _jihad_, or holy war. + +9. How did the expression, a "red-cross knight," arise? + +10. Why is the Second Crusade often called "St. Bernard's Crusade"? + +11. Why has the Third Crusade been called "the most interesting +international expedition of the Middle Ages"? + +12. Would the crusaders in 1204 A.D. have attacked Constantinople, if the +schism of 1054 A.D. had not occurred? + +13. "Mixture, or at least contact of races, is essential to progress." How +do the crusades illustrate the truth of this statement? + +14. Were the crusades the only means by which western Europe was brought +in contact with Moslem civilization? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter xii, +"Richard the Lion-hearted and the Third Crusade"; chapter xiii, "The +Fourth Crusade and the Capture of Constantinople." + +[2] See page 412. + +[3] See pages 333, 380. + +[4] See page 235. + +[5] Hence the name "crusades," from Latin _crux_, old French _crois_, a +"cross". + +[6] For the routes followed by the crusaders see the map between pages +478-479. + +[7] See page 412. + +[8] The emperor Constantine caused a stately church to be erected on the +supposed site of Christ's tomb. This church of the Holy Sepulcher was +practically destroyed by the Moslems, early in the eleventh century. The +crusaders restored and enlarged the structure, which still stands. + +[9] The order of Hospitalers, now known as the "Knights of Malta," still +survives in several European countries. + +[10] See page 383. + +[11] See page 413. + +[12] See pages 449-450. + +[13] See page 513. + +[14] See page 460. + +[15] In French _Coeur-de-Lion_. + +[16] See page 461. + +[17] See page 492. + +[18] See page 462. + +[19] See pages 362-363. + +[20] See page 423. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE MONGOLS AND THE OTTOMAN TURKS TO 1463 A.D. + + +175. THE MONGOLS + +THE ASIATIC COUNTER-ATTACK + +The extensive steppes in the middle and north of Asia have formed, for +thousands of years, the abode of nomadic peoples belonging to the Yellow +race. In prehistoric times they spread over northern Europe, but they were +gradually supplanted by white-skinned Indo-Europeans, until now only +remnants of them exist, such as the Finns and Lapps. In later ages history +records how the Huns, the Bulgarians, and the Magyars have poured into +Europe, spreading terror and destruction in their path. [1] These invaders +were followed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the even more +terrible Mongols and Ottoman Turks. Their inroads might well be described +as Asia's reply to the crusades, as an Asiatic counter-attack upon Europe. + +MONGOLIA + +The Mongols, who have given their name to the entire race of yellow- +skinned peoples, now chiefly occupy the high plateau bounded on the north +by Siberia, on the south by China, on the east by Manchuria, and on the +west by Turkestan. [2] Although the greater part of this area consists of +the Gobi desert, there are many oases and pastures available at different +seasons of the year to the inhabitants. Hence the principal occupation of +the Mongols has always been cattle breeding, and their horses, oxen, +sheep, and camels have always furnished them with food and clothing. + +MONGOL LIFE AND CHARACTER + +Like most nomads the Mongols dwell in tents, each family often by itself. +Severe simplicity is the rule of life, for property consists of little +more than one's flocks and herds, clothes, and weapons. The modern Mongols +are a peaceable, kindly folk, who have adopted from Tibet a debased form +of Buddhism, but the Mongols of the thirteenth century in religion and +morals were scarcely above the level of American Indians. To ruthless +cruelty and passion for plunder they added an efficiency in warfare which +enabled them, within fifty years, to overrun much of Asia and the eastern +part of Europe. + +[Illustration: HUT-WAGON OF THE MONGOLS (RECONSTRUCTION) +On the wagon was placed a sort of hut or pavilion made of wands bound +together with narrow thongs. The structure was then covered with felt or +cloth and provided with latticed windows. Hut-wagons, being very light, +were sometimes of enormous size.] + +MILITARY PROWESS OF THE MONGOLS + +The daily life of the Mongols was a training school for war. Constant +practice in riding, scouting, and the use of arms made every man a +soldier. The words with which an ancient Greek historian described the +savage Scythians applied perfectly to the Mongols: "Having neither cities +nor forts, and carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go; +accustomed, moreover, one and all, to shoot from horseback; and living not +by husbandry but on their cattle, their wagons the only houses that they +possess, how can they fail of being irresistible?" [3] + + +176. CONQUESTS OF THE MONGOLS, 1206-1405 A.D. + +JENGHIZ KHAN + +For ages the Mongols had dwelt in scattered tribes throughout their +Asiatic wilderness, engaged in petty struggles with one another for cattle +and pasture lands. It was the celebrated Jenghiz Khan, [4] chief of one of +the tribes, who brought them all under his authority and then led them to +the conquest of the world. Of him it may be said with truth that he had +the most victorious of military careers, and that he constructed the most +extensive empire known to history. If Jenghiz had possessed the ability of +a statesman, he would have taken a place by the side of Alexander the +Great and Julius Caesar. + +MONGOL EMPIRE UNDER JENGHIZ, 1206-1227 A.D. + +Jenghiz first sent the Mongol armies, which contained many Turkish allies, +over the Great Wall [5] and into the fertile plains of China. All the +northern half of the country was quickly overrun. Then Jenghiz turned +westward and invaded Turkestan and Persia. Seven centuries have not +sufficed to repair the damage which the Mongols wrought in this once- +prosperous land. The great cities of Bokhara, Samarkand, Merv, and Herat, +[6] long centers of Moslem culture, were pillaged and burned, and their +inhabitants were put to the sword. Like the Huns the Mongols seemed a +scourge sent by God. Still further conquests enlarged the empire, which at +the death of Jenghiz in 1227 A.D. stretched from the Dnieper River to the +China Sea. + +MONGOL EMPIRE UNDER THE SUCCESSORS OF JENGHIZ + +The Mongol dominions in the thirteenth century were increased by the +addition of Korea, southern China, and Mesopotamia, as well as the greater +part of Asia Minor and Russia. Japan, indeed, repulsed the Mongol hordes, +but at the other extremity of Asia they captured Bagdad, sacked the city, +and brought the caliphate to an end. [7] The Mongol realm was very loosely +organized, however, and during the fourteenth century it fell apart into a +number of independent states, or khanates. + +[Illustration: Map, THE MONGOL EMPIRE] + +TIMUR THE LAME, DIED 1405 A.D. + +It was reserved for another renowned Oriental monarch, Timur the Lame, [8] +to restore the empire of Jenghiz Khan. His biographers traced his descent +from that famous Mongol, but Timur was a Turk and an adherent of Islam. He +has come down to us as perhaps the most terrible personification in +history of the evil spirit of conquest. Such distant regions as India, +Syria, Armenia, Asia Minor, and Russia were traversed by Timur's soldiers, +who left behind them only the smoking ruins of a thousand cities and +abominable trophies in the shape of columns or pyramids of human heads. +Timur died in his seventieth year, while leading his troops against China, +and the extensive empire which he had built up in Asia soon crumbled to +pieces. + +[Illustration: TOMB OF TIMUR AT SAMARKAND +Samarkand in Russian Central Asia became Timur's capital in 1369 AD. The +city was once a center of Mohammedan wealth and culture, famous for its +beautiful mosques, palaces, and colleges. The Gur-Amir, or tomb of Timur, +consists of a chapel, crowned by a dome and enclosed by a wall. Time and +earthquakes have greatly injured this fine building. The remains of Timur +lie here under a huge block of jade.] + + +177. THE MONGOLS IN CHINA AND INDIA + +MONGOL SWAY IN CHINA + +The Mongols ruled over China for about one hundred and fifty years. During +this period they became thoroughly imbued with Chinese culture. "China," +said an old writer, "is a sea that salts all the rivers flowing into it." +The most eminent of the Mongol emperors was Jenghiz Khan's grandson, +Kublai (1259-1294 A.D.). He built a new capital, which in medieval times +was known as Cambaluc and is now called Peking. While Kublai was on the +throne, the Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, [9] visited China, and he +describes in glowing colors the virtues and glories of the "Great Khan." +There appears to have been considerable trade between Europe and China at +this time, and Franciscan missionaries and papal legates penetrated to the +remote East. After the downfall of the Mongol dynasty in 1368 A.D. China +again shut her doors to foreign peoples. All intercourse with Europe +ceased until the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. [10] + +TIMUR AND BABER IN INDIA + +Northern India, which in earlier ages had witnessed the coming of Persian, +Macedonian, and Arabian conquerors, did not escape visitations by fresh +Asiatic hordes. Timur the Lame, at the head of an innumerable host, rushed +down upon the banks of the Indus and the Ganges and sacked Delhi, making +there a full display of his unrivaled ferocity. Timur's invasion left no +permanent impress on the history of India, but its memory fired the +imagination of another Turkish chieftain, Baber, a remote descendant of +Timur. In 1525 A.D. he invaded India and speedily made himself master of +the northern part of the country. + +EMPIRE OF THE MOGULS + +The empire which Baber established in India is known as that of the +Moguls, an Arabic form of the word Mongol. The Moguls, however, were +Turkish in blood and Mohammedans in religion. The Mogul emperors reigned +in great splendor from their capitals at Delhi and Agra, until the decline +of their power in the eighteenth century opened the way for the British +conquest of India. + + +178. THE MONGOLS IN EASTERN EUROPE + +MONGOL CONQUEST OF RUSSIA, 1237-1240 A.D. + +The location of Russia [11] on the border of Asia exposed that country to +the full force of the Mongol attack. Jenghiz Khan's successors, entering +Europe north of the Caspian, swept resistlessly over the Russian plain. +Moscow and Kiev fell in quick succession, and before long the greater part +of Russia was in the hands of the Mongols. Wholesale massacres marked +their progress. "No eye remained open to weep for the dead." + +[Illustration: THE TAJ MAHAL, AGRA +Erected by the Mogul emperor, Shah Jehan, as a tomb for his favorite wife, +Muntaz Mahal. It was begun in 1632 A.D. and was completed in twenty-two +years. The material is pure white marble, inlaid with jasper, agate and +other precious stones. The building rests on a marble terrace, at each +corner of which rises a tall graceful minaret. The extreme delicacy of the +Taj Mahal and the richness of its ornamentation make it a masterpiece of +architecture.] + +INVASION OF POLAND AND HUNGARY BY THE MONGOLS, 1241 A.D. + +Still the invaders pressed on. They devastated Hungary, driving the Magyar +king in panic flight from his realm. They overran Poland. At a great +battle in Silesia they destroyed the knighthood of Germany and filled nine +sacks with the right ears of slaughtered enemies. The European peoples, +taken completely by surprise, could offer no effective resistance to these +Asiatics, who combined superiority in numbers with surpassing generalship. +Since the Arab attack in the eighth century Christendom had never been in +graver peril. But the wave of Mongol invasion, which threatened to engulf +Europe in barbarism, receded as quickly as it came. The Mongols soon +abandoned Poland and Hungary and retired to their possessions in Russia. + +[Illustration: Map, RUSSIA AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES] + +THE "GOLDEN HORDE" + +The ruler of the "Golden Horde," as the western section of the Mongol +Empire was called, continued to be the lord of Russia for about two +hundred and fifty years. Russia, throughout this period, was little more +than a dependency of Asia. The conquered people were obliged to pay a +heavy tribute and to furnish soldiers for the Mongol armies. Their +princes, also, became vassals of the Great Khan. + +MONGOL INFLUENCE ON RUSSIA + +The Mongols, or "Tartars" [12] are usually said to have Orientalized +Russia. It seems clear, however, that they did not interfere with the +language, religion, and laws of their subjects. The chief result of the +Mongol supremacy was to cut off Russia from western Europe, just at the +time when England, France, Germany, and Italy were emerging from the +darkness of the early Middle Ages. + +RISE OF MUSCOVY + +The invasion of the Mongols proved to be, indirectly, the making of the +Russian state. Before they came the country was a patchwork of rival, and +often warring, principalities. The need of union against the common enemy +welded them together. The principality of Muscovy, so named from the +capital city of Moscow, conquered its neighbors, annexed the important +city of Novgorod, whose vast possessions stretched from Lapland to the +Urals, and finally became powerful enough to shake off the Mongol yoke. + +REIGN OF IVAN III, THE GREAT, 1462-1505 A.D. + +The final deliverance of Russia from the Mongols was accomplished by Ivan +III, surnamed the Great. This ruler is also regarded as the founder of +Russian autocracy, that is, of a personal, absolute, and arbitrary +government. With a view to strengthening his claim to be the political +heir of the eastern emperors, Ivan married a niece of the last ruler at +Constantinople, who in 1453 A.D. had fallen in the defense of his capital +against the Ottoman Turks. Henceforth the Russian ruler described himself +as "the new Tsar [13] Constantine in the new city of Constantine, Moscow." + + +179. THE OTTOMAN TURKS AND THEIR CONQUESTS, 1227-1453 A.D. + +RISE OF THE OTTOMANS + +The first appearance of the Ottoman Turks in history dates from 1227 A.D., +the year of Jenghiz Khan's death. In that year a small Turkish horde, +driven westward from their central Asian homes by the Mongol advance, +settled in Asia Minor. There they enjoyed the protection of their kinsmen, +the Seljuk Turks, and from them accepted Islam. As the Seljuk power +declined, that of the Ottomans rose in its stead. About 1300 A.D. their +chieftain, Othman, [14] declared his independence and became the founder +of the Ottoman Empire. + +OTTOMAN EXPANSION + +The growth of the Ottoman power was almost as rapid as that of the Arabs +or of the Mongols. During the first half of the fourteenth century they +firmly established themselves in northwestern Asia Minor, along the +beautiful shores washed by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and the +Dardanelles. The second half of the same century found them in Europe, +wresting province after province from the feeble hands of the eastern +emperors. First came the seizure of Gallipoli on the Dardanelles, which +long remained the principal Turkish naval station. Then followed the +capture of Adrianople, where in earlier centuries the Visigoths had +destroyed a Roman army. [15] By 1400 A.D. all that remained of the Roman +Empire in the East was Constantinople and a small district in the vicinity +of that city. + +THE JANIZARIES + +The Turks owed much of their success to the famous body of troops known as +Janizaries. [16] These were recruited for the most part from Christian +children surrendered by their parents as tribute. The Janizaries received +an education in the Moslem faith and careful instruction in the use of +arms. Their discipline and fanatic zeal made them irresistible on the +field of battle. + +[Illustration: MOHAMMED II +A medal showing the strong face of the conqueror of Constantinople] + +CONSTANTINOPLE BESIEGED + +Constantinople had never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by the +freebooters of the Fourth Crusade. [17] It was isolated from western +Europe by the advance of the Turks. Frantic appeals for help brought only +a few ships and men from Genoa and Venice. When in 1453 A.D. the sultan +Mohammed II, commanding a large army amply supplied with artillery, +appeared before the walls, all men knew that Constantinople was doomed. + +CAPTURE OF THE CITY + +The defense of the city forms one of the most stirring episodes in +history. The Christians, not more than eight thousand in number, were a +mere handful compared to the Ottoman hordes. Yet they held out for nearly +two months against every assault. When at length the end drew near, the +Roman emperor, Constantine Palaeologus, a hero worthy of the name he bore, +went with his followers at midnight to Sancta Sophia and there in that +solemn fane received a last communion. Before sunrise on the following day +the Turks were within the walls. The emperor, refusing to survive the city +which he could not save, fell in the onrush of the Janizaries. +Constantinople endured a sack of three days, during which many works of +art, previously spared by the crusaders, were destroyed. Mohammed II then +made a triumphal entry into the city and in Sancta Sophia, now stripped of +its crosses, images, and other Christian emblems, proclaimed the faith of +the prophet. And so the "Turkish night," as Slavic poets named it, +descended on this ancient home of civilization. + +AN EPOCH-MAKING EVENT + +The capture of Constantinople is rightly regarded as an epoch-making +event. It meant the end, once for all, of the empire which had served so +long as the rearguard of Christian civilization, as the bulwark of the +West against the East. Europe stood aghast at a calamity which she had +done so little to prevent. The Christian powers of the West have been +paying dearly, even to our own time, for their failure to save New Rome +from infidel hands. + + +180. THE OTTOMAN TURKS IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE + +CONTINUED OTTOMAN EXPANSION + +Turkey was now a European state. After the occupation of Constantinople +the Ottoman territories continued to expand, and at the death of Mohammed +II they included what are now Bulgaria, Rumania, Serbia, Albania, and +Greece. Of all the Balkan states only tiny Montenegro, protected by +mountain ramparts, preserved its independence. + +NATURE OF TURKISH RULE + +The Turks form a small minority among the inhabitants of the Balkans. At +the present time there are said to be less than one million Turks in +southeastern Europe. Even about Constantinople the Greeks far outnumber +them. The Turks from the outset have been, not a nation in the proper +sense of the word, but rather an army of occupation, holding down by force +their far more numerous Christian subjects. + +THE TURKS A MIXED PEOPLE + +The people who thus acquired dominion over all southeastern Europe had +become, even at the middle of the fifteenth century, greatly mixed in +blood. Their ancestors were natives of central Asia, but in Europe they +intermarried freely with their Christian captives and with converts from +Christianity to Islam. So far has this admixture proceeded that the modern +Turks are almost entirely European in physique. + +[Illustration: Map, EMPIRE OF THE OTTOMAN TURKS AT THE FALL OF +CONSTANTINOPLE, 1453 A.D.] + +ISOLATION OF THE TURKS + +The Bulgarians, who came out of Asia to devastate Europe, at length turned +Christian, adopted a Slavic speech, and entered the family of European +nations. The Magyars, who followed them, also made their way into the +fellowship of Christendom. Quite the opposite has been the case with the +Turks. Preserving their Asiatic language and Moslem faith, they have +remained in southeastern Europe, not a transitory scourge, but an abiding +oppressor of Christian lands. Every century since 1453 A.D. has widened +the gulf between them and their subjects. + +TURKISH INFLUENCE IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE + +The isolation of the Turks has prevented them from assimilating the higher +culture of the peoples whom they conquered. They have never created +anything in science, art, literature, commerce, or industry. Conquest has +been the Turks' one business in the world, and when they ceased conquering +their decline set in. But it was not till the end of the seventeenth +century that the Turkish Empire entered on that downward road which is now +fast leading to its extinction as a European power. + + +STUDIES + +1. Locate these cities: Bokhara; Samarkand; Merv; Herat; Bagdad; Peking; +Delhi; Kiev; Moscow; and Adrianople. + +2. Who were Baber, Kublai Khan, Othman, Mohammed II, Constantine +Palaeologus, and Ivan the Great? + +3. Why should the steppes of central and northern Asia have been a nursery +of warlike peoples? + +4. What parts of Asia were not included in the Mongol Empire at its +greatest extent? + +5. Trace on the map on page 486 the further expansion of the Mongol Empire +after the death of Jenghiz Khan. + +6. "Scratch a Russian and you will find a Tartar." What does this mean? + +7. Why did the Mongol conquest of Russia tend to strengthen the sentiment +of nationality in the Russian people? + +8. How did the tsars come to regard themselves as the successors of the +Eastern emperors? + +9. Compare the Janizaries with the Christian military-religious orders. + +10. How was "the victory of the Crescent secured by the children of the +Cross"? + +11. Why were the invasions of the Mongols and Ottoman Turks more +destructive to civilization than those of the Germans, the Arabs, and the +Northmen? + +12. Enumerate the more important services of the Roman Empire in the East +to civilization. + +13. On an outline map indicate the extent of the Ottoman Empire in 1453 +A.D. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] See pages 241, 247, 314, 316, 334. + +[2] Mongolia has long been a part of the Chinese Empire, but in 1912 A.D., +when China because a republic, Mongolia declared its independence. + +[3] Herodotus, iv, 46. + +[4] "The Very Mighty King." + +[5] See page 20. + +[6] For the location of these cities see the map on page 486. + +[7] See page 381. + +[8] Commonly known as Tamerlane. + +[9] See page 616. + +[10] See page 622. + +[11] For the early history of Russia see page 400. + +[12] The name Tartar (more correctly, Tatar) was originally applied to +both Mongol and Turkish tribes that entered Russia. There are still over +three millions of these "Tartars" in the Russian Empire. + +[13] The title Tsar, or Czar, is supposed to be a contraction of the word +Caesar. + +[14] Whence the name Ottoman applied to this branch of the Turks. + +[15] See page 242. + +[16] A name derived from the Turkish _yeni cheri_, "new troops." + +[17] See page 478. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EUROPEAN NATIONS DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES [1] + + +181. GROWTH OF THE NATIONS + +THE NEW NATIONALISM + +The map of western Europe, that is, of Europe west of the great Russian +plain and the Balkan peninsula, shows this part of the continent at +present divided into no less than thirteen separate and independent +nations. Most of them arose during the latter part of the Middle Ages. +They have existed so long that we now think of the national state as the +highest type of human association, forgetting that it has been preceded by +other forms of political organization, such as the Greek republic, the +Roman Empire, and the feudal state, and that it may be followed some day +by an international or universal state composed of all civilized peoples. + +THE NATIONAL STATE AND FEUDALISM + +These national states were the successors of feudalism. The establishment +of the feudal system in any country meant, as has been seen, its division +into numerous small communities, each with a law court, treasury, and +army. This system of local government helped to keep order in an age of +confusion, but it did not meet the needs of a progressive society. In most +parts of Europe the feudal states gradually gave way to centralized +governments ruled by despotic kings. + +THE NEW MONARCHIES + +A feudal king was often little more than a figurehead, equaled, or perhaps +surpassed, in power by some of his own vassals. But in England, France, +Spain, and other countries a series of astute and energetic sovereigns +were able to strengthen their authority at the expense of the nobles. They +formed permanent armies by insisting that all military service should be +rendered to themselves and not to the feudal lords. They got into their +own hands the administration of justice. They developed a revenue system, +with the taxes collected by royal officers and deposited in the royal +treasury. The kings thus succeeded in creating in each country one power +which all the inhabitants feared, respected, and obeyed. + +THE SENTIMENT OF NATIONALITY + +A national state in modern times is keenly conscious of its separate +existence. All its people usually speak the same language and have for +their "fatherland" the warmest feelings of patriotic devotion. In the +Middle Ages, however, patriotism was commonly confounded with loyalty to +the sovereign, while the differences between nations were obscured by the +existence of an international Church and by the use of Latin as the common +language of all cultivated persons. The sentiment of nationality arose +earlier in England than on the Continent, partly owing to the insular +position of that country, but nowhere did it become a very strong +influence before the end of the fifteenth century. + + +182. ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, 1066-1087 A.D.; THE NORMAN +KINGSHIP + +THE LAST INVASION OF ENGLAND + +The Normans were the last invaders of England. Since 1066 A.D. the English +Channel, not more than twenty-one miles wide between Dover and Calais, has +formed a watery barrier against Continental domination. The English +people, for eight and a half centuries, have been free to develop their +ideals, customs, and methods of government in their own way. We shall now +learn how they established a strong monarchy and at the same time laid +deep and firm the foundations of constitutional liberty. + +WILLIAM'S DESPOTIC RULE + +William the Conqueror had won England by force of arms. He ruled it as a +despot. Those who resisted him he treated as rebels, confiscating their +land and giving it to Norman followers. To prevent uprisings he built a +castle in every important town and garrisoned it with his own soldiers. +The Tower of London still stands as an impressive memorial of the days of +the Conquest. But William did not rely on force alone. He sought with +success to attach the English to himself by retaining most of their old +customs and by giving them an enlightened administration of the law. "Good +peace he made in this land," said the old Anglo-Saxon chronicler, "so that +a man might travel over the kingdom with his bosom full of gold without +molestation, and no man durst kill another, however great the injury he +might have received from him." + +WILLIAM AND FEUDALISM + +The feudal system on the Continent permitted a powerful noble to gather +his vassals and make war on the king, whenever he chose to do so. William +had been familiar with this evil side of feudalism, both in France and in +his own duchy of Normandy, and he determined to prevent its introduction +into England. William established the principle that a vassal owed his +first duty to the king and not to his immediate lord. If a noble rebelled +and his men followed him, they were to be treated as traitors. Rebellion +proved to be an especially difficult matter in England, since the estates +which a great lord possessed were not all in any one place but were +scattered about the kingdom. A noble who planned to revolt could be put +down before he was able to collect his retainers from the most distant +parts of the country. + +[Illustration: THE "WHITE TOWER" +Forms part of the Tower of London. Built by William the Conqueror] + +DOMESDAY BOOK, 1085 A.D. + +The extent of William's authority is illustrated by the survey which he +caused to have made of the taxable property of the kingdom. Royal +commissioners went throughout the length and breadth of England to find +out how much farm land there was in every county, how many landowners +there were, and what each man possessed, to the last ox or cow or pig. The +reports were set down in the famous Domesday Book, perhaps so called +because one could no more appeal from it than from the Last Judgment. A +similar census of population and property had never before been taken in +the Middle Ages. + +[Illustration: A PASSAGE FROM DOMESDAY BOOK +Beginning of the entry for Oxford. The handwriting is the beautiful +Carolingian minuscule which the Norman Conquest introduced into England. +The two volumes of this compilation and the chest in which they were +formerly preserved may be seen in the Public Record Office, London.] + +THE SALISBURY OATH, 1086 A.D. + +Almost at the close of his reign William is said to have summoned all the +landowning men in England to a great meeting on Salisbury Plain. They +assembled there to the number, as it is reported, of sixty thousand and +promised "that they would be faithful to him against all other men." The +Salisbury Oath was a national act of homage and allegiance to the king. + + +183. ENGLAND UNDER HENRY II, 1154-1189 A.D.; ROYAL JUSTICE AND THE COMMON +LAW + +HENRY II, PLANTAGENET + Henry II, who ascended the English throne in 1154 A.D., was a grandson of +William the Conqueror and the first of the famous Plantagenet [2] family, +Henry spent more than half of his reign abroad, looking after his +extensive possessions in France but this fact did not prevent him from +giving England good government. Three things in which all Englishmen take +special pride--the courts, the jury system, and the Common law--began to +take shape during Henry's reign. + +THE KING'S COURT + +Henry, first of all, developed the royal court of justice. This had been, +at first, simply the court of the king's chief vassals, corresponding to +the local feudal courts. [3] Henry transformed it from an occasional +assembly of warlike nobles into a regular body of trained lawyers, and at +the same time opened its doors to all except serfs. In the king's court +any freeman could find a justice that was cheaper and speedier than that +dispensed by the feudal lords. The higher courts of England have sprung +from this institution. + +CIRCUIT JUDGES + +Henry also took measures to bring the king's justice directly to the +people. He sent members of the royal court on circuit throughout the +kingdom. At least once a year a judge was to hold an assembly in each +county and try such cases as were brought before him. This system of +circuit judges helped to make the law uniform in all parts of England. + +TRIAL BY "PETTY JURY" + +The king's court owed much of its popularity to the fact that it employed +a better form of trying cases than the old ordeal, oath-swearing, or +judicial duel. Henry introduced a method of jury trial which had long been +in use in Normandy. When a case came before the king's judges on circuit, +they were to select twelve knights, usually neighbors of the parties +engaged in the dispute, to make an investigation and give a "verdict" [4] +as to which side was in the right. These selected men bore the name of +"jurors," [5] because they swore to tell the truth. In Henry's time this +method of securing justice applied only to civil cases, that is, to cases +affecting land and other forms of property, but later it was extended to +persons charged with criminal offenses. Thus arose the "petty jury," an +institution which nearly all European peoples have borrowed from England. + +[Illustration: WINDSOR CASTLE +The town of Windsor lies on the west bank of the Thames about twenty-one +miles from London. Its famous castle has been the chief residence of +English sovereigns from the time of William the Conqueror. The massive +round tower which forms the most conspicuous feature of the castle was +built by Henry III about 1272 A.D. but Edward III wholly reconstructed it +about 1344 A.D. The state apartments of the castle include the throne +room, a guard room with medieval armor a reception room adorned with +tapestries picture galleries and the royal library.] + +ACCUSATION BY THE "GRAND JURY" + +Another of Henry's innovations developed into the "grand jury." Before his +time many offenders went unpunished, especially if they were so powerful +that no private individual dared accuse them. Henry provided that when the +king's justices came to a county court a number of selected men should be +put upon their oath and required to give the names of any persons whom +they knew or believed to be guilty of crimes. Such persons were then to be +arrested and tried. This "grand jury," as it came to be called, thus had +the public duty of making accusations, whether its members felt any +personal interest in the matter or not. + +THE COMMON LAW + +The decisions handed down by the legal experts who composed the royal +court formed the basis of the English system of jurisprudence. It received +the name Common law because it grew out of such customs as were common to +the realm, as distinguished from those which were merely local. This law, +from Henry's II's time, became so widespread and so firmly established +that it could not be supplanted by the Roman law followed on the +Continent. Carried by English colonists across the seas, it has now come +to prevail throughout a great part of the world. + + +184. THE GREAT CHARTER, 1215 A.D. + +RICHARD I AND JOHN, 1189-1216 A.D. + +The great Henry, from whose legal reforms English-speaking peoples receive +benefit even to-day, was followed by his son, Richard, the Lion-hearted +crusader. [6] After a short reign Richard was succeeded by his brother, +John, a man so cruel, tyrannical, and wicked that he is usually regarded +as the worst of English kings. In a war with the French ruler, Philip +Augustus, John lost Normandy and some of the other English possessions on +the Continent. [7] In a dispute with Innocent III he ended by making an +abject submission to the Papacy. [8] Finally, John's oppressive government +provoked a revolt, and he was forced to grant the charter of privileges +known as Magna Carta. + +[Illustration: Map, DOMINIONS OF THE PLANTAGENETS IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE] + +WINNING OF MAGNA CARTA, 1215 A.D. + +The Norman Conquest had made the king so strong that his authority could +be resisted only by a union of all classes of the people. The feudal lords +were obliged to unite with the clergy and the commons, [9] in order to +save their honor, their estates, and their heads. Matters came to a crisis +in 1215 A.D., when the nobles, supported by the archbishop of Canterbury, +placed their demands for reform in writing before the king. John swore +furiously that they were "idle dreams without a shadow of reason" and +refused to make any concessions. Thereupon the nobles formed the "army of +God and the Holy Church," as it was called, and occupied London, thus +ranging the townspeople on their side. Deserted by all except the hired +troops which he had brought from the Continent, John was compelled to +yield. At Runnimede on the Thames, not far from Windsor, he set his seal +to the Great Charter. + +[Illustration: EXTRACT FROM THE GREAT CHARTER +Facsimile of the opening lines. Four copies of Magna Carta, sealed with +the great seal of King John, as well as several unsealed copies, are in +existence. The British Museum possesses two of the sealed copies; the +other two belong to the cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury, +respectively.] + +CHARACTER OF MAGNA CARTA + +Magna Carta does not profess to be a charter of liberties for all +Englishmen. Most of its sixty-three clauses merely guarantee to each +member of the coalition against John--nobles, clergy, and commons--those +special privileges which the Norman rulers had tried to take away. Very +little is said in this long document about the serfs, who composed +probably five-sixths of the population of England in the thirteenth +century. + +SIGNIFICANCE OF MAGNA CARTA + +But there are three clauses of Magna Carta which came to have a most +important part in the history of English freedom. The first declared that +no taxes were to be levied on the nobles--besides the three recognized +feudal aids [10]--except by consent of the Great Council of the realm. +[11] By this clause the nobles compelled the king to secure their consent +before imposing any taxation. The second set forth that no one was to be +arrested, imprisoned, or punished in any way, except after a trial by his +equals and in accordance with the law of the land. The third said simply +that to no one should justice be sold, denied, or delayed. These last two +clauses contained the germ of great legal principles on which the English +people relied for protection against despotic kings. They form a part of +our American inheritance from England and have passed into the laws of all +our states. + + +185. PARLIAMENT DURING THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY + +HENRY III, 1216-1272 A.D. + +The thirteenth century, which opened so auspiciously with the winning of +the Great Charter, is also memorable as the time when England developed +her Parliament [12] into something like its present form. The first steps +in parliamentary government were taken during the reign of John's son, +Henry III. + +THE WITENAGEMOT AND THE GREAT COUNCIL + +It had long been the custom in England that in all important matters a +ruler ought not to act without the advice and consent of his leading men. +The Anglo-Saxon kings sought the advice and consent of their Witenagemot, +[13] a body of nobles, royal officers, bishops, and abbots. It approved +laws, served as a court of final appeal, elected a new monarch, and at +times deposed him. The Witenagemot did not disappear after the Norman +Conquest. Under the name of the Great Council it continued to meet from +time to time for consultation with the king. This assembly was now to be +transformed from a feudal body into a parliament representing the entire +nation. + +SIMON DE MONTFORT'S PARLIAMENT, 1265 A.D. + +The Great Council, which by one of the provisions of Magna Carta had been +required to give its consent to the levying of feudal dues, met quite +frequently during Henry III's reign. On one occasion, when Henry was in +urgent need of money and the bishops and lords refused to grant it, the +king took the significant step of calling to the council two knights from +each county to declare what aid they would give him. These knights, so ran +Henry's summons, were to come "in the stead of each and all," in other +words, they were to act as representatives of the counties. Then in 1265 +A.D., when the nobles were at war with the king, a second and even more +significant step was taken. Their leader, Simon de Montfort, summoned to +the council not only two knights from each county, but also two citizens +from each of the more important towns. + +THE REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM + +The custom of selecting certain men to act in the name and on the behalf +of the community had existed during Anglo-Saxon times in local government. +Representatives of the counties had been employed by the Norman kings to +act as assessors in levying taxes. As we have just learned, the "juries" +of Henry II also consisted of such representatives. The English people, in +fact, were quite familiar with the idea of representation long before it +was applied on a larger scale to Parliament. + +"MODEL PARLIAMENT" OF EDWARD I, 1295 A.D. + +Simon de Montfort's Parliament included only his own supporters, and hence +was not a truly national body. But it made a precedent for the future. +Thirty years later Edward I called together at Westminster, now a part of +London, a Parliament which included all classes of the people. Here were +present archbishops, bishops, and abbots, earls and barons, two knights +from every county, and two townsmen to represent each town in that county. +After this time all these classes were regularly summoned to meet in +assembly at Westminster. + +HOUSE OF LORDS AND HOUSE OF COMMONS + +The separation of Parliament into two chambers came in the fourteenth +century. The House of Lords included the nobles and higher clergy, the +House of Commons, the representatives from counties and cities. This +bicameral arrangement, as it is called, has been followed in the +parliaments of most modern countries. + +POWERS OF PARLIAMENT + +The early English Parliament was not a law-making but a tax-voting body. +The king would call the two houses in session only when he needed their +sanction for raising money. Parliament in its turn would refuse to grant +supplies until the king had corrected abuses in the administration or had +removed unpopular officials. This control of the public purse in time +enabled Parliament to grasp other powers. It became an accepted principle +that royal officials were responsible to Parliament for their actions, +that the king himself might be deposed for good cause, and that bills, +when passed by Parliament and signed by the king, were the law of the +land. England thus worked out in the Middle Ages a system of parliamentary +government which nearly all civilized nations have held worthy of +imitation. + + +186. EXPANSION OF ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD I, 1272-1307 A.D. + +THE BRITISH ISLES + +Our narrative has been confined until now to England, which forms, +together with Wales and Scotland, the island known as Great Britain. +Ireland is the only other important division of the United Kingdom. It was +almost inevitable that in process of time the British Isles should have +come under a single government, but political unity has not yet fused +English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish into a single people. + +WALES + +The conquest of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons drove many of the Welsh, [14] +as the invaders called the Britons, into the western part of the island. +This district, henceforth known as Wales, was one of the last strongholds +of the Celts. Even to-day a variety of the old Celtic language, called +Cymric, is still spoken by the Welsh people. + +CONQUEST OF WALES + +In their wild and mountainous country the Welsh long resisted all attempts +to subjugate them. Harold exerted some authority over Wales, William the +Conqueror entered part of it, and Henry II induced the local rulers to +acknowledge him as overlord, but it was Edward I who first brought all +Wales under English sway. Edward fostered the building of towns in his new +possession, divided it into counties or shires, after the system that +prevailed in England, and introduced the Common law. He called his son, +Edward II, who was born in the country, the "Prince of Wales," and this +title has ever since been borne by the heir apparent to the English +throne. The work of uniting Wales to England went on slowly, and two +centuries elapsed before Wales was granted representation in the House of +Commons. + +[Illustration: CORONATION CHAIR, WESTMINSTER ABBEY +Every English ruler since Edward I has been crowned in this oak chair. +Under the seat is the "Stone of Scone," said to have been once used by the +patriarch Jacob. Edward I brought it to London in 1291 A.D., as a token of +the subjection of Scotland.] + +SCOTLAND + +Scotland derives its name from the Scots, who came over from Ireland early +in the fifth century. [15] The northern Highlands, a nest of rugged +mountains washed by cold and stormy seas, have always been occupied in +historic times by a Celtic-speaking people, whose language, called Gaelic, +is not yet extinct there. This part of Scotland, like Wales, was a home of +freedom. The Romans did not attempt to annex the Highlands, and the Anglo- +Saxons and Danes never penetrated their fastnesses. On the other hand the +southern Lowlands, which include only about one-third of Scotland, were +subdued by the Teutonic invaders, and so this district became thoroughly +English in language and culture. [16] + +[Illustration: Map, SCOTLAND in the 13th Century] + +THE SCOTTOSH KINGDOM + +One might suppose that the Lowlands, geographically only an extension of +northern England and inhabited by an English-speaking people, would have +early united with the southern kingdom. But matters turned out otherwise. +The Lowlands and the Highlands came together under a line of Celtic kings, +who fixed their residence at Edinburgh and long maintained their +independence. + +SCOTLAND ANNEXED BY EDWARD I + +Edward I, having conquered Wales, took advantage of the disturbed +conditions which prevailed in Scotland to interfere in the affairs of that +country. The Scotch offered a brave but futile resistance under William +Wallace. This heroic leader, who held out after most of his countrymen +submitted, was finally captured and executed. His head, according to the +barbarous practice of the time, was set upon a pole on London Bridge. The +English king now annexed Scotland without further opposition. + +[Illustration: A QUEEN ELEANOR CROSS +After the death of his wife Eleanor, Edward I caused a memorial cross to +be set up at each place where her funeral procession had stopped on its +way to London. There were originally seven crosses. Of the three that +still exist, the Geddington cross is the best preserved. It consists of +three stories and stands on a platform of eight steps.] + +ROBERT BRUCE AND BANNOCKBURN, 1314 A.D. + +But William Wallace by his life and still more by his death had lit a fire +which might never be quenched. Soon the Scotch found another champion in +the person of Robert Bruce. Edward I, now old and broken, marched against +him, but died before reaching the border. The weakness of his son, Edward +II, permitted the Scotch, ably led by Bruce, to win the signal victory of +Bannockburn, near Stirling Castle. Here the Scottish spearmen drove the +English knighthood into ignominious flight and freed their country from +its foreign overlords. + +SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE + +The battle of Bannockburn made a nation. A few years afterwards the +English formally recognized the independence of the northern kingdom. So +the great design of Edward I to unite all the peoples of Britain under one +government had to be postponed for centuries. [17] + +IRELAND + +No one kingdom ever arose in Ireland out of the numerous tribes into which +the Celtic-speaking inhabitants were divided. The island was not troubled, +however, by foreign invaders till the coming of the Northmen in the ninth +century. [18] The English, who first entered Ireland during the reign of +Henry II, did not complete its conquest till the seventeenth century. +Ireland by its situation could scarcely fail to become an appanage of +Great Britain, but the dividing sea has combined with differences in race, +language, and religion, and with English misgovernment, to prevent +anything like a genuine union of the conquerors and the conquered. + + +187. UNIFICATION OF FRANCE, 987-1328 A.D. + +PHYSICAL FRANCE + +Nature seems to have intended that France should play a leading part in +European affairs. The geographical unity of the country is obvious. +Mountains and seas form its permanent boundaries, except on the north-east +where the frontier is not well defined. The western coast of France opens +on the Atlantic, now the greatest highway of the world's commerce, while +on the southeast France touches the Mediterranean, the home of classical +civilization. This intermediate position between two seas helps us to +understand why French history should form, as it were, a connecting link +between ancient and modern times. + +RACIAL FRANCE + +But the greatness of France has been due, also, to the qualities of the +French people. Many racial elements have contributed to the population. +The blood of prehistoric tribes, whose monuments and grave mounds are +scattered over the land, still flows in the veins of Frenchmen. At the +opening of historic times France was chiefly occupied by the Celts, whom +Julius Caesar found there and subdued. The Celts, or Gauls, have formed in +later ages the main stock of the French nation, but their language gave +place to Latin after the Roman conquest. In the course of five hundred +years the Gauls were so thoroughly Romanized that they may best be +described as Gallo-Romans. The Burgundians, Franks, and Northmen +afterwards added a Teutonic element to the population, as well as some +infusion of Teutonic laws and customs. + +THE CAPETIAN DYNASTY + +France, again, became a great nation because of the greatness of its +rulers. Hugh Capet, who became the French king in 987 A.D., [19] was +fortunate in his descendants. The Capetian dynasty was long lived, and for +more than three centuries son followed father on the throne without a +break in the succession. [20] During this time the French sovereigns +worked steadily to exalt the royal power and to unite the feudal states of +medieval France into a real nation under a common government. Their +success in this task made them, at the close of the Middle Ages, the +strongest monarchs in Europe. + +FRANCE AND ITS FIEFS + +Hugh Capet's duchy--the original France--included only a small stretch of +inland country centering about Paris on the Seine and Orléans on the +Loire. His election to the kingship did not increase his power over the +great lords who ruled in Normandy, Brittany, Aquitaine, Burgundy, and +other parts of the country. They did homage to the king for their fiefs +and performed the usual feudal services, but otherwise regarded themselves +as independent in their own territories. + +[Illustration: Map, UNIFICATION OF FRANCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES] + +PHILIP II, AUGUSTUS, 1180-1223 A.D. + +The most considerable additions to the royal domains were made by Philip +II, called Augustus. We have already referred to his contest with Pope +Innocent III and to his participation in the Third Crusade. [21] The +English king, John, was Philip's vassal for Normandy and other provinces +in France. A quarrel between the two rulers gave Philip an opportunity to +declare John's fiefs forfeited by feudal law. Philip then seized all the +English possessions north of the river Loire. The loss of these +possessions abroad had the result of separating England almost completely +from Continental interests; for France it meant a great increase in +territory and population. Philip made Paris his chief residence, and that +city henceforth became the capital of France. + +LOUIS IX, THE SAINT, 1226-1276 A.D. + +During the long reign of Philip's grandson, Louis IX, rich districts to +the west of the Rhone were added to the royal domains. This king, whose +Christian virtues led to his canonization, distinguished himself as an +administrator. His work in unifying France may be compared with that of +Henry II in England. He decreed that only the king's money was to +circulate in the provinces owned directly by himself, thus limiting the +right of coinage enjoyed by feudal lords. He restricted very greatly the +right of private war and forbade the use of judicial duels. Louis also +provided that important cases could be appealed from feudal courts to the +king's judges, who sat in Paris and followed in their decisions the +principles of Roman law. In these and other ways he laid the foundations +of absolute monarchy in France. + +PHILIP IV, THE FAIR, 1265-1314 A.D. + +The grandson of St. Louis, Philip IV, did much to organize a financial +system for France. Now that the kingdom had become so large and powerful, +the old feudal dues were insufficient to pay the salaries of the royal +officials and support a standing army. Philip resorted to new methods of +raising revenue by imposing various taxes and by requiring the feudal +lords to substitute payments in money for the military service due from +them. + +THE ESTATES-GENERAL + +Philip also called into existence the Estates-General, an assembly in +which the clergy, the nobles, and representatives from the commons (the +"third estate") met as separate bodies and voted grants of money. The +Estates-General arose almost at the same time as the English Parliament, +to which it corresponded, but it never secured the extensive authority of +that body. After a time the kings of France became so powerful that they +managed to reign without once summoning the nation in council. The French +did not succeed, as the English had done, in founding political liberty +upon the vote and control of taxation. + + +188. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND, 1337-1453 A.D. + +PRETEXT FOR THE WAR + +The task of unifying France was interrupted by a deplorable war between +that country and England. It continued, including periods of truce, for +over a century. The pretext for the war was found in a disputed +succession. In 1328 A.D. the last of the three sons of Philip IV passed +away, and the direct line of the house of Capet, which had reigned over +France for more than three hundred years, came to an end. The English +ruler, Edward III, whose mother was the daughter of Philip IV, considered +himself the next lineal heir. The French nobles were naturally unwilling +to receive a foreigner as king, and gave the throne, instead, to a nephew +of Philip IV. This decision was afterwards justified on the ground that, +by the old law of the Salian Franks, women could neither inherit estates +nor transmit them to a son. [22] + +[Illustration: ROYAL ARMS OF EDWARD III +Edward III, having in 1340 A.D. set up a claim to the throne of France, +proceeded to add the French lilies (_fleurs-de-lis_) to his coat of arms. +He also took as his motto _Dieu et mon Droit_ ("God and my Right"). The +lilies of France remained in the royal arms till 1801 A.D.; the motto is +still retained.] + +REASONS FOR THE WAR + +Edward III at first accepted the situation. Philip VI, however, irritated +Edward by constant encroachments on the territories which the English +still kept in France. Philip also allied himself with the Scotch and +interfered with English trade interests in the county of Flanders. [23] +This attitude of hostility provoked retaliation. Edward now reasserted his +claim to the crown of France and prepared by force of arms to make it +good. + +[Illustration: ENGLISH ARCHER +From an old manuscript.] + +BATTLES OF CRÉCY, 1346 A.D., AND POITIERS, 1356 A.D. + +In 1346 A.D. Edward led his troops across the Channel and at Crécy gained +a complete victory over the knighthood of France. Ten years later the +English at Poitiers almost annihilated another French force much superior +in numbers. These two battles were mainly won by foot soldiers armed with +the long bow, in the use of which the English excelled. Ordinary iron mail +could not resist the heavy, yard-long arrows, which fell with murderous +effect upon the bodies of men and horses alike. Henceforth infantry, when +properly armed and led, were to prove themselves on many a bloody field +more than a match for feudal cavalry. The long bow, followed later by the +musket, struck a deadly blow at feudalism. + +THE "BLACK PRINCE" + +Edward's son, the Prince of Wales, when only sixteen years of age, won his +spurs by distinguished conduct at Crécy. It was the "Black Prince," [24] +also, who gained the day at Poitiers, where he took prisoner the French +king, John. Toward his royal captive he behaved in chivalrous fashion. At +supper, on the evening of the battle, he stood behind John's chair and +waited on him, praising the king's brave deeds. But this "flower of +knighthood," who regarded warfare as only a tournament on a larger scale, +could be ruthless in his treatment of the common people. On one occasion +he caused three thousand inhabitants of a captured town--men, women and +children--to be butchered before his eyes. The incident shows how far +apart in the Middle Ages were chivalry and humanity. + +RENEWAL OF THE WAR + +The English, in spite of their victories, could not conquer France. The +French refused to fight more pitched battles and retired to their castles +and fortified towns. The war almost ceased for many years after the death +of Edward III. It began again early in the fifteenth century, and the +English this time met with more success. They gained possession of almost +all France north of the Loire, except the important city of Orléans. Had +the English taken it, French resistance must have collapsed. That they did +not take it was due to one of the most remarkable women in history--Joan +of Arc. [25] + +THE "MAID OF ORLÉANS," 1429 A.D. + +Joan was a peasant girl, a native of the little village of Domremy. Always +a devout and imaginative child, she early began to see visions of saints +and angels and to hear mysterious voices. At the time of the siege of +Orléans the archangel Michael appeared to her, so she declared, and bade +her go forth and save France. Joan obeyed, and though barely seventeen +years of age made her way to the court of the French king. There her +piety, simplicity, and evident faith in her mission overcame all doubts. +Clad in armor, girt with an ancient sword, and with a white banner borne +before her, Joan was allowed to accompany an army for the relief of +Orléans. She inspired the French with such enthusiasm that they quickly +compelled the English to raise the siege. Then Joan led her king to Reims +and stood beside him at his coronation in the cathedral. + +END OF THE WAR + +Though Joan was soon afterwards captured by the English, who, to their +lasting dishonor, burned her as a witch, her example nerved the French to +further resistance. The English gradually lost ground and in 1453 A.D., +the year of the fall of Constantinople, abandoned the effort to conquer a +land much larger than their own. They retained of the French territories +only the port of Calais and the Channel Islands. [26] + +EFFECTS OF THE WAR + +Few wars have had less to justify them, either in their causes or in their +consequences, than this long struggle between England and France. It was a +calamity to both lands. For England it meant the dissipation abroad of the +energies which would have been better employed at home. For France it +resulted in widespread destruction of property, untold suffering, famines, +and terrible loss of life. From this time dates that traditional hostility +between the two countries which was to involve them in future conflicts. +One beneficial effect the war did have. It helped to make the two nations +conscious of their separate existence. The growth of a national feeling, +the awakening of a sentiment of patriotism, was especially marked in +France, which had fought so long for independence. + +ENGLAND AFTER THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR + +Shortly after the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War the two branches of +the English royal family became involved in desperate struggle for the +crown. It was known as the War of the Roses, because the house of York +took as its badge a white rose and the house of Lancaster, a red rose. The +contest lasted 1485 A.D., when the Lancastrians conquered, and their +leader, Henry Tudor, ascended the throne as Henry VII. He married a +Yorkist wife, thus uniting the two factions, and founded the Tudor +dynasty. The War of the Roses arrested the progress of English freedom. It +created a demand for a strong monarchy which could keep order and prevent +civil strife between the nobles. The Tudors met that demand and ruled as +absolute sovereigns. It was more than a century before Parliament, +representing the people, could begin to win back free government. It did +this only at the cost of a revolution. + +FRANCE AFTER THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR + +France also issued from the Hundred Years' War with an absolute +government. Strengthened by victory over the English, the French kings +were able to reduce both the nobility and the commons to impotence. During +the reign of Louis XI (1461-1483 A.D.) the royal domains were enlarged by +the addition of Anjou, Provence, and the duchy of Burgundy. His son, +Charles VIII (1483-1498 A.D.), made Brittany a possession of the French +crown. The unification of France was now almost complete. + + +189. UNIFICATION OF SPAIN (TO 1492 A.D.) + +THE SPANISH PENINSULA + +The Spanish peninsula, known to the Romans as Hispania, is sharply +separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees Mountains. At the same +time the nearness of the peninsula to Africa has always brought it into +intimate relations with that continent. Just as Russia has formed a link +between Asia and Europe, so Spain has served as a natural highway from +Africa to Europe. + +THE SPANISH PEOPLE + +The first settlers in Spain, of whom we know anything, were the Iberians. +They may have emigrated from northern Africa. After them came the Celts, +who overran a large part of the peninsula and appear to have mingled with +the Iberians, thus forming the mixed people known as Celtiberians. In +historic times Spain was conquered by the Carthaginians, who left few +traces of their occupation, by the Romans, who thoroughly Romanized the +country, by the Visigoths, who founded a Germanic kingdom, and lastly by +the Moors, who introduced Arabian culture and the faith of Islam. [27] +These invaders were not numerous enough greatly to affect the population, +in which the Celtiberian strain is still predominant. + +CHRISTIAN STATES OF SPAIN + +The Moors never wholly conquered a fringe of mountain territory in the +extreme north of Spain. Here a number of small Christian states, including +León, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon, came into being. In the west there +also arose the Christian state of Portugal. Geographically, Portugal +belongs to Spain, from which it is separated only by artificial frontiers, +but the country has usually managed to maintain its independence. + +RECOVERY OF SPAIN FROM THE MOORS + +Acting sometimes singly and sometimes in concert, the Christian states +fought steadily to enlarge their boundaries at the expense of their Moslem +neighbors. The contest had the nature of a crusade, for it was blessed by +the pope and supported by the chivalry of Europe. Periods of victory +alternated with periods of defeat, but by the close of the thirteenth +century Mohammedan Spain had been reduced to the kingdom of Granada at the +southern extremity of the peninsula. + +THE CID + +The long struggle with the Moors made the Spanish a patriotic people, +keenly conscious of their national unity. The achievements of Christian +warriors were recited in countless ballads, and especially in the fine +_Poem of the Cid_. It deals with the exploits of Rodrigo Diaz, better +known by the title of the Cid (lord) given to him by the Moors. The Cid of +romance was the embodiment of every knightly virtue; the real Cid was a +bandit, who fought sometimes for the Christians, sometimes against them, +but always in his own interest. The Cid's evil deeds were forgotten, +however, and after his death in 1099 A.D. he became the national hero of +Spain. + +UNION OF CASTILE AND ARAGON, 1479 A.D. + +Meanwhile the separate Spanish kingdoms were coming together to form a +nation. León and Castile in 1230 A.D. combined into the one kingdom of +Castile, so named because its frontiers bristled with castles against the +Moors. But the most important step in the making of Spain was the marriage +of Ferdinand of Aragon to Isabella of Castile, leading in 1479 A.D. to the +union of these two kingdoms. About the same time the Castilian language +began to crowd out the other Spanish dialects and to become the national +speech. + +[Illustration: Map, UNIFICATION OF SPAIN DURING THE MIDDLE AGES] + +CONQUEST OF GRANADA, 1492 A.D. + +The new sovereigns of Spain aimed to continue the unification of the +peninsula by the conquest of Granada. No effort was made by the Turks, who +shortly before had captured Constantinople, to defend this last stronghold +of Islam in the West. The Moors, though thrown upon their own resources, +made a gallant resistance. At least once Ferdinand wearied of the +struggle, but Isabella's determination never wavered. In 1492 A.D. Granada +surrendered, and the silver cross of the crusading army was raised on the +highest tower of the city. Moslem rule in Spain, after an existence of +almost eight centuries, now came to an end. + +RULE OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA + +Ferdinand and Isabella belong in the front rank of European sovereigns. +Like their contemporaries, Henry VII and Louis XI, they labored with +success to build up an absolute monarchy. Spain had found, as England and +France had found, that feudalism spelled disorder, and that only a strong +central government could keep the peace, repress crime, and foster trade +and commerce. Ferdinand and Isabella firmly established the supremacy of +the crown. By the end of the fifteenth century Spain had become a leading +European power. Its importance in the councils of Europe was soon to be +increased by the marriage of a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella to the +heir of the Austrian house of Hapsburg. + + +190. AUSTRIA AND THE SWISS CONFEDERATION, 1273-1499 A.D. + +RISE OF AUSTRIA + +The name Austria--in German Oesterreich--means simply the eastern part of +any kingdom. It came to be applied particularly to the territory on the +Danube east of Bavaria, which Otto the Great had formed into a mark or +border province for defense against the Magyars. [28] This mark, soon to +be known as Austria, gained an important place among German states. The +frontiers were pushed down the Danube valley and the capital was finally +located at Vienna, once a Roman city. Frederick Barbarossa raised Austria +to the rank of a duchy. Rudolf of Hapsburg, who became emperor in 1273 +A.D., first brought the country into the hands of the Hapsburg family. +[29] + +GROWTH OF AUSTRIA UNDER THE HAPSBURGS + +The Hapsburgs founded the power of the present Austrian monarchy. At the +end of the fourteenth century their dominions included a large part of +eastern Germany, [30] reaching from beyond the Danube southward to the +Adriatic. Early in the sixteenth century they secured Bohemia, a Slavic +land thrust like a wedge into German territory, as well as part of the +Magyar land of Hungary. The possession of these two kingdoms gave Austria +its special character of a state formed by the union under one ruler of +several wholly distinct nations. Meanwhile the right of election as Holy +Roman Emperor became hereditary in the Hapsburg family. + +[Illustration: Map, GROWTH OF THE HAPSBURG POSSESSIONS] + +SWITZERLAND + +Switzerland, during the earlier period of the Middle Ages, formed a part +of the German duchy of Swabia and belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. [31] +About two-thirds of the population of Switzerland remain German in speech +and feeling, though now the country includes districts in which French or +Italian are spoken. All Swiss laws are still proclaimed in the three +languages. + +SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA + +Swiss history is closely bound up with that of Austria. The little +mountain communities of Schwyz, [32] Uri, and Unterwalden, on the shores +of beautiful Lake Lucerne, were possessions of the counts of Hapsburg. In +1291 A.D., the year when Rudolf of Hapsburg died, these three "Forest +Cantons" formed a confederation for resistance to their Hapsburg +overlords. Additional cantons joined the league, which now entered upon a +long struggle, dear to all lovers of liberty, against Austrian rule. +Nowhere did the old methods of feudal warfare break down more +conspicuously than in the battles gained by Swiss pikemen over the haughty +knights of Austria. The struggle closed in 1499 A.D., when Switzerland +became practically a free state. [33] + +[Illustration: Map, THE SWISS CONFEDERATION, 1291-1513 A.D.] + +WILLIAM TELL AND ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED + +Switzerland has two heroes of her war for independence. William Tell is a +wholly mythical character, for the story of a skillful marksman who +succeeds in striking off some small object placed on a child's head is +found in England, Norway, Denmark, and other countries. The Swiss have +localized it in Uri. Another popular hero has a better claim to historical +existence. It is said that at a critical moment in the battle of Sempach, +when the Swiss with their short weapons failed to break the Austrian +ranks, Arnold von Winkelried, a man of Unterwalden, came to the rescue. +Rushing single-handed upon the enemy, he seized all the spears within +reach and turned them into his own body. He thus opened a gap in the line, +through which the Swiss pressed on to victory. Winkelried's deed might +well have been performed, though the evidence for it is very scanty. + +THE SWISS CONFEDERATION + +Little Switzerland, lying in the heart of the Alps and surrounded by +powerful neighbors, is one of the most interesting states in Europe. The +twenty-two communities, or cantons, which make up the Swiss Confederation, +differ among themselves in language, religion (Roman Catholic or +Protestant), and customs, according to their nearness to Germany, France, +or Italy. Nevertheless the Swiss form a patriotic and united nation. It is +remarkable that a people whose chief bond of union was common hostility to +the Austrian Hapsburgs, should have established a federal government so +strong and enduring. + + +191. EXPANSION OF GERMANY + +LINES OF GERMAN EXPANSION + +An examination of the map shows how deficient Germany is in good natural +boundaries. The valley of the Danube affords an easy road to the +southeast, a road which the early rulers of Austria followed as far as +Vienna and the Hungarian frontier. Eastward along the Baltic no break +occurs in the great plain stretching from the North Sea to the Ural +Mountains. It was in this direction that German conquests and colonization +during the Middle Ages laid the foundation of modern Prussia. + +THE GERMAN AND THE SLAV + +The Germans, in descending upon the Roman Empire, had abandoned much of +their former territories to the Slavs. In the reign of Charlemagne all the +region between the Elbe and the Vistula belonged to Slavic tribes. To win +it back for Germany required several centuries of hard fighting. The Slavs +were heathen and barbarous, so that warfare with them seemed to be a kind +of crusade. In the main, however, German expansion eastward was a business +venture, due to the need for free land. It was the same need which in the +nineteenth century carried the frontiers of the United States from the +Alleghanies to the Pacific. + +BRANDENBURG AND POMERANIA + +German expansion began early in the tenth century, when Henry the Fowler +annexed Brandenburg between the Elbe and the Oder. [34] Subsequently much +of the territory between the Oder and the Vistula, including Pomerania on +the southern coast of the Baltic, came under German control. The Slavic +inhabitants were exterminated or reduced to slavery. Their place was taken +by thousands of German colonists, who introduced Christianity, built +churches and monasteries, cleared the woods, drained the marshes, and +founded many cities destined to become centers of German trade and +culture. + +PRUSSIA + +Between the Vistula and the Niemen lay the lands of the Prussians, a non- +Teutonic people closely related to the Slavs. The Prussian language and +religion have disappeared, the Prussians themselves have been completely +absorbed by the Germans who settled in their country, but the Prussian +name is borne to-day by one of the great states of modern Europe. + +THE TEUTONIC ORDER + +The conquest and conversion of the Prussians was accomplished by the +famous order of Teutonic Knights. It had been founded in Palestine as a +military-religious order, at the time of the Third Crusade. [35] The +decline of the crusading movement left the knights with no duties to +perform, and so they transferred their activities to the Prussian +frontier, where there was still a chance to engage in a holy war. +Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Teutonic Order +flourished, until its grand master ruled over the entire Baltic coast from +the Vistula to the gulf of Finland. The knights later had to relinquish +much of this region to the Slavs, but they sowed there the seeds of +civilization. Russia's Baltic provinces [36] are to-day the richest and +most advanced in the empire. + +POLITICAL GERMANY + +Germany at the close of the Middle Ages was not a united, intensely +national state, such as had been established in England, France, and +Spain. It had split into hundreds of principalities, none large, some +extremely small, and all practically independent of the feeble German +kings. [37] This weakness of the central power condemned Germany to a +minor part in the affairs of Europe, as late as the nineteenth century. +Yet Germany found some compensation for political backwardness in the +splendid city life which it developed during the later Middle Ages. The +German cities, together with those of Italy and other European lands, now +call for our attention. + +[Illustration: Map, GERMAN EXPANSION EASTWARD DURING THE MIDDLE AGES] + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate (a) William the Conqueror's French dominions +and (b) additional dominions of the Plantagenet kings in France. + +2. Prepare a chart showing the leading rulers mentioned in this chapter. +Arrange your material in parallel columns with dates, one column for +England, one for France, and one for the other European countries. + +3. Locate the following places: Crécy; Calais; Poitiers; Salisbury; +Stirling; Edinburgh; Orléans; and Granada. + +4. What happened in 987 A.D.? in 1066 A.D.? in 1215 A.D.? in 1295 A.D.? in +1346 A.D.? in 1453 A.D.? in 1485 A.D.? + +5. Distinguish between a nation, a government, and a state. + +6. Are unity of race, a common language, a common religion, and +geographical unity of themselves sufficient to make a nation? May a nation +arise where these bonds are lacking? + +7. "The thirteenth century gave Europe the nations as we now know them." +Comment on this statement. + +8. Account for the rise of national feeling in France, Spain, Scotland, +and Switzerland. + +9. "Good government in the Middle Ages was only another name for a public- +spirited and powerful monarchy." Comment on this statement. + +10. What advantages has trial by jury over the older forms of trial, such +as oaths, ordeals, and the judicial duel? + +11. Explain the difference between a grand jury and a trial, or petty +jury. + +12. Compare the extent of territory in which Roman law now prevails with +that which follows the Common law. + +13. Why was the Parliament of 1295 A.D. named the "Model Parliament"? + +14. Why has England been called "the mother of parliaments"? + +15. Distinguish between England and Great Britain. Between Great Britain +and the United Kingdom. + +16. What were the Roman names of England, Scotland, and Ireland? + +17. "Islands seem dedicated by nature to freedom." How does the history of +Ireland illustrate this statement? + +18. Trace on the map the main water routes in France between the +Mediterranean and the Atlantic. + +19. Show that Paris occupies an exceptionally good location for a capital +city. + +20. What French kings did most to form the French nation? + +21. Why have queens never ruled in France? + +22. Compare the Hundred Years' War and the Peloponnesian War as needless +conflicts. + +23. Compare Joan of Arc's visions with those of Mohammed. + +24. "Beyond the Pyrenees begins Africa." What does this statement mean? + +25. Why was Spain inconspicuous in European politics before the opening of +the sixteenth century? + +26. Look up in an encyclopedia the story of William Tell and prepare an +oral report upon it. + +27. Why was the German system of elective rulers politically less +advantageous than the settled hereditary succession which prevailed in +England and France? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History,_ chapter xiv, "St. +Louis"; chapter xv, "Episodes of the Hundred Years' War"; chapter xvi, +"Memoirs of a French Courtier." + +[2] The name comes from that of the broom plant (Latin _planta genesta_), +a sprig of which Henry's father used to wear in his hat. The family is +also called Angevin, because Henry on his father's side descended from the +counts of Anjou in France. + +[3] See page 419. + +[4] Latin _verum dictum_, "a true statement." + +[5] Latin _juro_, "I take an oath." + +[6] See pages 475-476. + +[7] See page 514. + +[8] See page 461. + +[9] A term which refers to all freemen in town and country below the rank +of nobles. + +[10] See page 418. + +[11] Made up of the chief lords and bishops. + +[12] The word "parliament," from French _parler,_ "to speak," originally +meant a talk or conference. Later, the word came to be applied to the body +of persons assembled for conference. + +[13] See page 407 and note 1. + +[14] See page 319. + +[15] See page 246. + +[16] See the map, page 321. + +[17] In 1603 A.D. James VI of Scotland ascended the throne of England as +James I. In 1707 A.D. the two countries adopted a plan of union which gave +them a common Parliament and one flag. + +[18] See page 397. + +[19] See page 403. + +[20] From 987 A.D. to 1328 A.D. France had only fourteen kings. The +average length of their reigns was, therefore, something more than twenty- +four years. + +[21] See pages 461, 475. + +[22] Hence the name "Salic law" applied to the rule excluding women from +succession to the French throne. + +[23] See page 550. + +[24] Probably so called from the black armor which he wore. It may still +be seen above his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. + +[25] In French, Jeanne d'Arc. + +[26] Calais went back to the French in 1558 A.D. The Channel Islands are +still English possessions. + +[27] See pages 164, 169, 244, 378. The Arabs and Berbers who settled in +Spain are generally called Moors. + +[28] See page 316. + +[29] See page 462. + +[30] The duchies of Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and +Carniola, and the county of Tyrol. + +[31] See the map facing page 462. + +[32] From Schwyz comes the name Switzerland. + +[33] The independence of the country was not formally recognized till 1648 +A.D. + +[34] See page 315. + +[35] See page 473. + +[36] Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia. + +[37] See pages 319, 462. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +EUROPEAN CITIES DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES + + +192. GROWTH OF THE CITIES + +THE CIVIC REVIVAL + +Civilization has always had its home in the city. [1] The statement +applies as well to medieval times as to the present day. Nothing marks +more strongly the backwardness of the early Middle Ages than the absence +of large and flourishing cities throughout western Europe. The growth of +trade in the later Middle Ages led, however, to a civic revival beginning +in the eleventh century. This change from rural to urban life was scarcely +less significant for European history than the change from the feudal to +the national state. + +CITIES OF ROMAN ORIGIN + +A number of medieval cities stood on the sites, and even within the walls, +of Roman municipalities. Particularly in Italy, southern France, and +Spain, and also in the Rhine and Danube regions, it seems that some +ancient _municipia_ had never been entirely destroyed during the Germanic +invasions. They preserved their Roman names, their streets, aqueducts, +amphitheaters, and churches, and possibly vestiges of their Roman +institutions. Among them were such important centers as Milan, Florence, +Venice, Lyons, Marseilles, Paris, Vienna, Cologne, London, and York. + +ORIGIN OF THE OTHER CITIES + +Many medieval cities were new foundations. Some rose to importance because +of advantages of situation. A place where a river could be forded, where +two roads met, or where a good harbor existed, would naturally become the +resort of traders. Some, again, started as fortresses, behind whose +ramparts the peasants took refuge when danger threatened. A third group of +cities developed from villages on the manors. A thriving settlement was +pretty sure to arise near a monastery or castle, which offered both +protection and employment to the common people. + +THE CITY AND FEUDALISM + +The city at first formed part of the feudal system. It grew upon the +territory of a feudal lord and naturally owed obedience to him. The +citizens ranked not much higher than serfs, though they were traders and +artisans instead of farmers. They enjoyed no political rights, for their +lord collected the taxes, appointed officials, kept order, and punished +offenders. In short, the city was not free. + +[Illustration: WALLS OF CARCASSONNE +The fortifications of Carcassonne an ancient city of southwestern France +are probably unique in Europe for completeness and strength. They consist +of a double line of ramparts protected by towers and pierced by only two +gates. A part of the fortifications is attributed to the Visigoths in the +sixth century, the remainder, including the castle, was raised during the +Middle Ages (eleventh to thirteenth centuries)] + +REVOLT OF THE CITIES + +But the city from the first was the decided enemy of feudalism. [2] As its +inhabitants increased in number and wealth, they became Revolt of +conscious of their strength and refused to submit the cities to +oppression. Sometimes they won their freedom by hard fighting, more often +they purchased it, perhaps from some noble who needed money to go on a +crusade. In France, England, and Spain, where the royal power was strong, +the cities obtained exemption from their feudal burdens, but did not +become entirely self-governing. In Germany and Italy, on the other hand, +the weakness of the central government permitted many cities to secure +complete independence. They became true republics, like the old Greek +city-states. [3] + +CHARTERS + +The contract which the citizens extorted from their lord was known as a +charter. It specified what taxes they should be required to pay and +usually granted to them various privileges, such as those of holding +assemblies, electing magistrates, and raising militia for local defense. +The revolt of the cities gradually extended over all western Europe, so +that at the end of the fourteenth century hardly any of them lacked a +charter. + +CIVIC FREEDOM + +The free city had no room for either slaves or serfs. All servile +conditions ceased inside its walls. The rule prevailed that anyone who had +lived in a city for the term of a year and a day could no longer be +claimed by a lord as his serf. This rule found expression in the famous +saying: "Town air renders free." + +RISE OF THE "THIRD ESTATE" + +The freedom of the cities naturally attracted many immigrants to them. +There came into existence a middle class of city people, between the +nobles and clergy on the one side and the peasants on the other side--what +the French call the _bourgeoisie._ [4] As we have [5] learned, the kings +of England and France soon began to summon representatives of this middle +class to sit in assemblies as the "third estate," by the side of the +nobles and the clergy, who formed the first two estates. Henceforth the +middle class, the _bourgeoisie,_ the "third estate," distinguished as it +was for wealth, intelligence, and enterprise, exerted an ever-greater +influence on European affairs. + + * * * * * + +193. CITY LIFE + +A CITY FROM WITHOUT + +The visitor approaching a medieval city through miles of open fields saw +it clear in the sunlight, unobscured by coal smoke. From without it looked +like a fortress, with walls, towers, gateways, drawbridges, and moat. +Beyond the fortifications he would see, huddled together against the sky, +the spires of the churches and the cathedral, the roofs of the larger +houses, and the dark, frowning mass of the castle. The general impression +would be one of wealth and strength and beauty. + +A CITY FROM WITHIN + +Once within the walls the visitor would not find things so attractive. The +streets were narrow, crooked, and ill-paved, dark during the day because +of the overhanging houses, and without illumination at night. There were +no open spaces or parks except a small market place. The whole city was +cramped by its walls, which shut out light, air, and view, and prevented +expansion into the neighboring country. Medieval London, for instance, +covered an area of less than one square mile. [6] + +[Illustration: A SCENE IN ROTHENBURG] + +UNSANITARY CONDITIONS + +A city in the Middle Ages lacked all sanitary arrangements. The only water +supply came from polluted streams and wells. There were no sewers and no +sidewalks. People piled up their refuse in the backyard or flung it into +the street, to be devoured by the dogs and pigs which served as +scavengers. The holes in the pavement collected all manner of filth, and +the unpaved lanes, in wet weather, became deep pits of mud. We can +understand why the townspeople wore overshoes when they went out, and why +even the saints in the pictures were represented with them on. The living +were crowded together in many-storied houses, airless and gloomy; the dead +were buried close at hand in crowded churchyards. Such unsanitary +conditions must have been responsible for much of the sickness that was +prevalent. The high death rate could only be offset by a birth rate +correspondingly high, and by the constant influx of country people. + +CIVIC REGULATIONS + +Numerous petty regulations restricted the private life of the townspeople. +The municipal authorities sometimes decided how many guests might be +invited to weddings, how much might be spent on wedding presents, what +different garments might be owned and worn by a citizen, and even the +number of trees that might be planted in his garden. Each citizen had to +serve his turn as watchman on the walls or in the streets at night. When +the great bell in the belfry rang the "curfew," [7] at eight or nine +o'clock, this was the signal for every one to extinguish lights and fires +and go to bed. It was a useful precaution, since conflagrations were +common enough in the densely packed wooden houses. After curfew the +streets became deserted, except for the night watch making their rounds +and the presence of occasional pedestrians carrying lanterns. The +municipal government spent little or nothing on police protection, so that +street brawls, and even robbery and murder, were not infrequent. + +PUBLIC BUILDINGS + +The inhabitants of the city took a just pride in their public buildings. +The market place, where traders assembled, often contained a beautiful +cross and sometimes a market hall to shelter goods from the weather. Not +far away rose the city hall, [8] for the transaction of public business +and the holding of civic feasts. The hall might be crowned by a high +belfry with an alarm bell to summon citizens to mass meeting. Then there +would be a number of churches and abbeys and, if the city was the capital +of a bishop's diocese, an imposing cathedral. + +MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT + +The small size of medieval cities--few included as many as ten thousand +inhabitants--simplified the problem of governing them. The leading +merchants usually formed a council presided over by a head magistrate, the +burgomaster [9] or mayor, [10] who was assisted by aldermen. [11] In some +places the guilds chose the officials and managed civic affairs. These +associations had many functions and held a most important place in city +life. + + +194. CIVIC INDUSTRY: THE GUILDS + +FORMATION OF GUILDS + +The Anglo-Saxon word "guild," which means "to pay," came to be applied to +a club or society whose members made contributions for some common +purpose. This form Of association is very old. Some of the guilds in +imperial Rome had been established in the age of the kings, while not a +few of those which flourish to-day in China and India were founded before +the Christian era. Guilds existed in Continental Europe as early as the +time of Charlemagne, but they did not become prominent till after the +crusades. + +MERCHANT GUILDS + +A guild of merchants grew up when those who bought and sold goods in any +place united to protect their own interests. The membership included many +artisans, as well as professional traders, for in medieval times a man +often sold in the front room of his shop the goods which he made in the +back rooms. He was often both shopkeeper and workman in one. + +COMMERCIAL MONOPOLY + +The chief duty of a merchant guild was to preserve to its own members the +monopoly of trade within a town. Strangers and non-guildsmen could not buy +or sell there except under the conditions imposed by the guild. They must +pay the town tolls, confine their dealings to guildsmen, and as a rule +sell only at wholesale. They were forbidden to purchase wares which the +townspeople wanted for themselves or to set up shops for retail trade. +They enjoyed more freedom at fairs, which were intended to attract +outsiders. + +[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE BUTCHERS' GUILD, HILDESHEIM, GERMANY +Hildesheim, near Hanover, is perhaps the richest of all German towns in +fine wooden-framed houses. The house of the Butchers' Guild has recently +been restored, with all its original coloring carefully reproduced.] + +CRAFT GUILDS + +After a time the traders and artisans engaged in a particular occupation +began to form an association of their own. Thus arose the craft guilds, +composed of weavers, shoemakers, bakers, tailors, carpenters, and so on, +until almost every form of industry had its separate organization. The +names of the various occupations came to be used as the surnames of those +engaged in them, so that to-day we have such common family names as Smith, +Cooper, Fuller, Potter, Chandler, and many others. The number of craft +guilds in an important city might be very large. London and Paris at one +time each had more than one hundred, and Cologne in Germany had as many as +eighty. The members of a particular guild usually lived in the same street +or quarter of the city, not only for companionship but also for better +supervision of their labor. [12] + +INDUSTRIAL MONOPOLY + +Just as the merchant guild regulated town trade, so the craft guilds had +charge of town industry. No one could engage in any craft without becoming +a member of the guild which controlled it and submitting to the guild +regulations. A man's hours of labor and the prices at which he sold his +goods were fixed for him by the guild. He might not work elsewhere than in +his shop, because of the difficulty of supervising him, nor might he work +by artificial light, lest he turn out badly finished goods. Everything +made by him was carefully inspected to see if it contained shoddy +materials or showed poor workmanship. Failure to meet the test meant a +heavy fine or perhaps expulsion from the guild. Thus the industrial +monopoly possessed by the craft guild gave some protection to both +producer and consumer. + +ORGANIZATION OF CRAFT GUILDS + +Full membership in a guild was reached only by degrees. A boy started as +an apprentice, that is, a learner. He paid a sum of money to his master +and agreed to serve him for a fixed period, usually seven years. The +master, in turn, promised to provide the apprentice with food, lodging, +and clothing, and to teach him all the secrets of the craft. At the end of +the seven years the apprentice had to pass an examination by the guild. If +he was found fit, he then became a journeyman and worked for daily wages. +As soon as he had saved enough money, he might set up as a master in his +own shop. A master was at once workman and employer, laborer and +capitalist. + +ACTIVITIES OF CRAFT GUILDS + +Like the old Roman guilds, those of the Middle Ages had their charitable +and religious aspects. Each guild raised large benefit funds for the +relief of members or their widows and orphans. Each guild had its private +altar in the cathedral, or often its own chapel, where masses were said +for the repose of the souls of deceased members, and where on the day of +its patron saint religious services were held. The guild was also a social +organization, with frequent meetings for a feast in its hall or in some +inn. The guilds in some cities entertained the people with an annual play +or procession. [13] It is clear that the members of a medieval craft guild +had common interests and shared a common life. + +DISSOLUTION OF CRAFT GUILDS + As the craft guilds prospered and increased in wealth, they tended to +become exclusive organizations. Membership fees were raised so high that +few could afford to pay them, while the number of apprentices that a +master might take was strictly limited. It also became increasingly +difficult for journeymen to rise to the station of masters; they often +remained wage-earners for life. The mass of workmen could no longer +participate in the benefits of the guild system. In the eighteenth century +most of the guilds lost their monopoly of industry, and in the nineteenth +century they gave way to trade unions. + + +195. TRADE AND COMMERCE + +MARKETS + +Nearly every town of any consequence had a weekly or semiweekly market, +which was held in the market place or in the churchyard. Marketing often +occurred on Sunday, in spite of many laws against this desecration of the +day. Outsiders who brought cattle and farm produce for sale in the market +were required to pay tolls, either to the town authorities or sometimes to +a neighboring nobleman. These market dues still survive in the "octroi" +collected at the gates of some European cities. + +"JUST PRICE" + +People in the Middle Ages did not believe in unrestricted competition. It +was thought wrong for anyone to purchase goods outside of the regular +market ("forestalling") or to purchase them in larger quantities than +necessary ("engrossing"). A man ought not to charge for a thing more than +it was worth, or to buy a thing cheap and sell it dear. The idea prevailed +that goods should be sold at their "just price" which was not determined +by supply and demand but by an estimate of the cost of the materials and +the labor that went into their manufacture. Laws were often passed fixing +this "just price," but it was as difficult then as now to prevent the +"cornering of the market" by shrewd and unscrupulous traders. + +FAIRS + +Besides markets at frequent intervals, many towns held fairs once or twice +a year. The fairs often lasted for a month or more. They were especially +necessary in medieval Europe, because merchants did not keep large +quantities or many kinds of goods on their shelves, nor could intending +purchasers afford to travel far in search of what they wanted. The more +important English fairs included those at Stourbridge near Cambridge, +Winchester, St. Ives, and Boston. On the Continent fairs were numerous and +in some places, such as Leipzig in Germany and Nijni-Novgorod in Russia, +they are still kept up. + +FAIRS AND COMMERCE + +A fair gave opportunity for the sale of commodities brought from the most +distant regions. Stourbridge Fair, for instance, attracted Venetians and +Genoese with silk, pepper, and spices of the East, Flemings with fine +cloths and linens, Spaniards with iron and wine, Norwegians with tar and +pitch from their forests, and Baltic merchants with furs, amber, and +salted fish. The fairs, by fostering commerce, helped to make the various +European peoples better acquainted with one another. + +[Illustration: Map, TRADE ROUTES BETWEEN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE IN +THE 13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES] + +DECLINE OF COMMERCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES + +Commerce in western Europe had almost disappeared as a result of the +Germanic invasions and the establishment of feudalism. What little +commercial intercourse there was encountered many obstacles. A merchant +who went by land from country to country might expect to find bad roads, +few bridges, and poor inns. Goods were transported on pack-horses instead +of in wagons. Highway robbery was so common that travelers always carried +arms and often united in bands for better protection. The feudal lords, +often themselves not much more than highwaymen, demanded tolls at every +bridge and ford and on every road. If the merchant proceeded by water, he +must face, in addition to the ordinary hazards of wind and wave, the +danger from the ill-lighted coasts and from attacks by pirates. No wonder +commerce languished in the early Middle Ages and for a long time lay +chiefly in the hands of Byzantines [14] and Arabs. [15] + +COMMERCIAL REVIVAL AFTER THE CRUSADES + +Even during the dark centuries that followed the end of the Roman Empire, +some trade with the Orient had been carried on by the cities of Italy and +southern France. The crusades, which brought East and West face to face, +greatly increased this trade. The Mediterranean lands first felt the +stimulating effects of intercourse with the Orient, but before long the +commercial revival extended to the rest of Europe. + +ASIATIC TRADE ROUTES + +Before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope the spices, drugs, incense, +carpets, tapestries, porcelains, and gems of India, China, and the East +Indies reached the West by three main routes. All had been used in ancient +times. [16] The central and most important route led up the Persian Gulf +and Tigris River to Bagdad, from which city goods went by caravan to +Antioch or Damascus. The southern route reached Cairo and Alexandria by +way of the Red Sea and the Nile. By taking advantage of the monsoons, a +merchant ship could make the voyage from India to Egypt in about three +months. The northern route, entirely overland, led to ports on the Black +Sea and thence to Constantinople. It traversed high mountain passes and +long stretches of desert, and could profitably be used only for the +transport of valuable articles small in bulk. The conquests of the Ottoman +Turks greatly interfered with the use of this route by Christians after +the middle of the fifteenth century. + +EUROPEAN TRADE ROUTES + +Oriental goods, upon reaching the Mediterranean, could be transported by +water to northern Europe. Every year the Venetians sent a fleet loaded +with eastern products to Bruges in Flanders, a city which was the most +important depot of trade with Germany, England, and Scandinavia. Bruges +also formed the terminus of the main overland route leading from Venice +over the Alps and down the Rhine. But as the map indicates, many other +commercial highways linked the Mediterranean with the North Sea and the +Baltic. + +COMMERCIAL RELATIONS + +It is important to note that until late in the Middle Ages trade existed, +not between nations, but between cities. A merchant of London was almost +as much a foreigner in any other English city as he would have been in +Bruges, Paris, or Cologne. Consequently, each city needed to make +commercial treaties with its neighbors, stipulating what were the +privileges and obligations of its merchants, wherever they went. It was +not until the kings grew strong in western Europe that merchants could +rely on the central government, rather than on local authorities, for +protection. + +[Illustration: Map, MEDIEVAL TRADE ROUTES + Land Routes + Water Routes + Marco Polo's Route] + + +196. MONEY AND BANKING + +SMALL SCALE OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISE + +We have seen that business in the Middle Ages was chiefly of a retail +character and was conducted in markets and fairs. The artisan who +manufactured the goods he sold and the peddler who carried his goods about +from place to place were the leading types of medieval traders. Little +wholesale business existed, and the merchant prince who owned warehouses +and large stocks of goods was an exceptional figure. + +LACK OF MONEY + +One reason for the small scale of business enterprise is found in the +inadequate supply of money. From the beginning of the Christian era to the +twelfth century there seems to have been a steady decrease in the amount +of specie in circulation, partly because so much moved to the Orient in +payment for luxuries, and partly because the few mines in western Europe +went out of use during the period of the invasions. The scarcity of money, +as has been shown, [17] helped directly to build up the feudal system, +since salaries, wages, and rents could be paid only in personal services +or in produce. The money supply increased during the latter part of the +Middle Ages, but it did not become sufficient for the needs of business +till the discovery of the New World enabled the Spaniards to tap the +wealth of the silver mines in Mexico and Peru. [18] + +FAULTS OF MEDIEVAL CURRENCY + +Medieval currency was not only small in amount but also faulty in +character. Many great nobles enjoyed the privilege of keeping a mint and +issuing coins. Since this feudal money passed at its full value only in +the locality where it was minted, a merchant had to be constantly changing +his money, as he went from one fief to another, and always at a loss. +Kings and nobles for their own profit would often debase the currency by +putting silver into the gold coins and copper into the silver coins. Every +debasement, as it left the coins with less pure metal, lowered their +purchasing power and so raised prices unexpectedly. Even in countries like +England, where debasement was exceptional, much counterfeit money +circulated, to the constant impediment of trade. + +"USURY" LAWS + +The prejudice against "usury," as any lending of money at interest was +called, made another hindrance to business enterprise. It seemed wrong for +a person to receive interest, since he lost nothing by the loan of his +money. Numerous Church laws condemned the receipt of interest as +unchristian. If, however, the lender could show that he had suffered any +loss, or had been prevented from making any gain, through not having his +money, he might charge something for its use. In time people began to +distinguish between interest moderate in amount and an excessive charge +for the use of money. The latter alone was henceforth prohibited as +usurious. Most modern states still have usury laws which fix the legal +rate of interest. + +THE JEWS AS MONEY LENDERS + +The business of money lending, denied to Christians, fell into the hands +of the Jews. In nearly all European countries popular prejudice forbade +the Jews to engage in agriculture, while the guild regulations barred them +from industry. They turned to trade and finance for a livelihood and +became the chief capitalists of medieval times. But the law gave the Jews +no protection, and kings and nobles constantly extorted large sums from +them. The persecutions of the Jews date from the era of the crusades, when +it was as easy to excite fanatical hatred against them as against the +Moslems. Edward I drove the Jews from England and Ferdinand and Isabella +expelled them from Spain. They are still excluded from the Spanish +peninsula, and in Russia and Austria they are not granted all the +privileges which Christians enjoy. + +ITALIAN BANKING + +The Jews were least persecuted in the commercial cities of northern Italy. +Florence, Genoa, and Venice in the thirteenth century were the money +centers of Europe. The banking companies in these cities received deposits +and then loaned the money to foreign governments and great nobles. It was +the Florentine bankers, for instance, who provided the English king, +Edward III, with the funds to carry on his wars against France. The +Italian banking houses had branches in the principal cities of Europe. +[19] It became possible, therefore, to introduce the use of bills of +exchange as a means of balancing debts between countries, without the +necessity of sending the actual money. This system of international credit +was doubly important at a time when so many risks attended the +transportation of the precious metals. Another Florentine invention was +bookkeeping by double-entry. [20] + + +197. ITALIAN CITIES + +THE CITY REPUBLICS + +The cities of northern Italy owed their prosperity, as we have learned, to +the commerce with the Orient. It was this which gave them the means and +the strength to keep up a long struggle for freedom against the German +emperors.[21] The end of the struggle, at the middle of the thirteenth +century, saw all North Italy divided into the dominions of various +independent cities. Among them were Milan, Pisa, Florence, Genoa, and +Venice. + +MILAN + +Milan, a city of Roman origin, lay in the fertile valley of the Po, at a +point where the trade routes through several Alpine passes converged. +Milan early rose to importance, and it still remains the commercial +metropolis of Italy. Manufacturing also flourished there. Milanese armor +was once celebrated throughout Europe. The city is rich in works of art, +the best known being the cathedral, which, after St. Peter's at Rome and +the cathedral of Seville, is the largest church in Europe. Though the +Milanese were able to throw off the imperial authority, their government +fell into the hands of the local nobles, who ruled as despots. Almost all +the Italian cities, except Venice, lost their freedom in this manner. + +PISA + +Pisa, like Milan, was an old Roman city which profited by the disorders of +the barbarian invasions to assert its independence. The situation of Pisa +on the Arno River, seven miles from the sea, made it a maritime state, and +the Pisan navy gained distinction in warfare against the Moslems in the +Mediterranean. The Pisans joined in the First Crusade and showed their +valor at the capture of Jerusalem. They profited greatly by the crusading +movement and soon possessed banks, warehouses, and trading privileges in +every eastern port. But Pisa had bitter rivals in Florence and Genoa, and +the conflicts with these two cities finally brought about the destruction +of its power. + +[Illustration: BAPTISTERY, CATHEDRAL, AND "LEANING TOWER" OF PISA +These three buildings in the piazza of Pisa form one of the most +interesting architectural groups in Italy. The baptistery, completed in +1278 A.D., is a circular structure, 100 feet in diameter and covered with +a high dome. The cathedral was consecrated in 1118 A.D. The finest part of +the building is the west front with its four open arcades. The campanile, +or bell tower, reaches a height of 179 feet. Owing to the sinking of the +foundations, it leans from the perpendicular to a striking extent (now +about 161/2 feet).] + +FLORENCE + +Florence, Pisa's neighbor on the Arno, was renowned for manufactures. The +fine wool, silk cloths, golden brocades, jewelry, and metal work of +Florence were imported into all European countries. The craft guilds were +very strong there, and even the neighboring nobles, who wished to become +citizens, had first to enroll themselves in some guild. It was from +banking, however, that Florence gained most wealth. In the fifteenth +century the city contained eighty great banking houses, in addition to +numerous branches outside of Italy. With their commercial spirit the +Florentines combined a remarkable taste for art and literature. Their +city, whose population never exceeded seventy thousand, gave birth to some +of the most illustrious poets, prose writers, architects, sculptors, and +painters of medieval times. It was the Athens of Italy. [22] + +GENOA + +Genoa, located on the gulf of the same name, possessed a safe and spacious +harbor. During the era of the crusades the city carried on a flourishing +trade in both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. After the fall of the +Latin Empire of Constantinople [23] the Genoese almost monopolized +Oriental commerce along the Black Sea route. The closing of this route by +the Ottoman Turks was a heavy blow to their prosperity, which also +suffered from the active competition of Venice. + +SITUATION OF VENICE + +Almost alone among Italian cities Venice was not of Roman origin. Its +beginning is traced back to the period of barbarian inroads, when +fugitives from the mainland sought a new home on the islands at the head +of the Adriatic. [24] These islands, which lie about five miles from the +coast, are protected from the outer sea by a long sand bar. They are +little more than mud-banks, barely rising above the shallow water of the +lagoons. The oozy soil afforded no support for buildings, except when +strengthened by piles; there was scarcely any land fit for farming or +cattle-raising; and the only drinking water had to be stored from the +rainfall. Yet on this unpromising site arose one of the most splendid of +European cities. + +VENETIAN COMMERCE + +The early inhabitants of Venice got their living from the sale of sea salt +and fish, two commodities for which a constant demand existed in the +Middle Ages. Large quantities of salt were needed for preserving meat in +the winter months, while fish was eaten by all Christians on the numerous +fast days and in Lent. The Venetians exchanged these commodities for the +productions of the mainland and so built up a thriving trade. From +fishermen they became merchants, with commercial relations which gradually +extended to the Orient. The crusades vastly increased the wealth of +Venice, for she provided the ships in which troops and supplies went to +the Holy Land and she secured the largest share of the new eastern trade. +Venice became the great emporium of the Mediterranean. As a commercial +center the city was the successor of ancient Tyre, Carthage, Athens, and +Alexandria. + +[Illustration: VENICE AND THE GRAND CANAL] + +[Illustration: THE CAMPANILE AND DOGE'S PALACE, VENICE +The famous Campanile or bell tower of St. Mark's Cathedral collapsed in +1902 A.D. A new tower, faithfully copying the old monument, was completed +nine years later. The Doge's Palace, a magnificent structure of brick and +marble, is especially remarkable for the graceful arched colonnades +forming the two lower stories. The blank walls of the upper story are +broken by a few large and richly ornamented windows.] + +VENETIAN POSSESSIONS + +Venice also used the crusading movement for her political advantage. The +capture of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade extended Venetian control +over the Peloponnesus, [25] Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, and many smaller +islands in the eastern Mediterranean. Even before this time Venice had +begun to gain possessions upon the Italian mainland and along the Adriatic +coast. At the height of her power about 1400 A.D. she ruled a real empire. +[26] + +VENETIAN SEA POWER + +The commerce and possessions of Venice made it necessary for her to +maintain a powerful fleet. She is said to have had at one time over three +thousand merchant vessels, besides forty-five war galleys. Her ships went +out in squadrons, with men-of-war acting as a convoy against pirates. One +fleet traded with the ports of western Europe, another proceeded to the +Black Sea, while others visited Syria and Egypt to meet the caravans from +the Far East. Venetian sea power humbled Genoa and for a long time held +the Mediterranean against the Ottoman Turks. + +THE "QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC" + +The greatness of Venice was celebrated by the annual ceremony of "the +wedding of the sea." The doge, (that is, "duke.") or chief magistrate, +standing in the bows of the state barge, cast a ring of gold into the +Adriatic with the proud words, "We have wedded thee, O sea, in token of +our rightful and perpetual dominion." + +VENICE DESCRIBED + +The visitor to modern Venice can still gain a good impression of what the +city must have looked like in the fourteenth century, when ships of every +nation crowded its quays and strangers of every country thronged its +squares or sped in light gondolas over the canals which take the place of +streets. The main highway is still the Grand Canal, nearly two miles long +and lined with palaces and churches. The Grand Canal leads to St. Mark's +Cathedral, brilliant with mosaic pictures, the Campanile, or bell tower, +and the Doge's Palace. The "Bridge of Sighs" connects the ducal palace +with the state prisons. The Rialto in the business heart of Venice is +another famous bridge. But these are only a few of the historic and +beautiful buildings of the island city. + + +198. GERMAN CITIES: THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE + +CITIES OF SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL GERMANY + +The important trade routes from Venice and Genoa through the Alpine passes +into the valleys of the Rhine and Danube were responsible for the +prosperity of many fine cities in southern and central Germany. Among them +were Augsburg, which rivaled Florence as a financial center, Nuremberg, +famous for artistic metal work, Ulm, Strassburg, and Cologne. The feeble +rule of the German kings compelled the cities to form several +confederacies for the purpose of resisting the extortionate tolls and +downright robberies of feudal lords. + +CITIES OF NORTHERN GERMANY + +It was the Baltic commerce which brought the cities of northern Germany +into a firm union. From the Baltic region came large quantities of dried +and salted fish, especially herring, wax candles for church services, +skins, tallow, and lumber. Furs were also in great demand. Every one wore +them during the winter, on account of the poorly heated houses. The German +cities which shared in this commerce early formed the celebrated Hanseatic +[27] League for protection against pirates and feudal lords. + +MEMBERSHIP OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE + +The league seems to have begun with an alliance of Hamburg and Lübeck to +safeguard the traffic on the Elbe. The growth of the league was rapid. At +the period of its greatest power, about 1400 A.D., there were upwards of +eighty Hanseatic cities along the Baltic coast and in the inland districts +of northern Germany. + +HANSEATIC "FACTORIES" + +The commercial importance of the league extended far beyond the borders of +Germany. Its trading posts, or "factories," at Bergen in Norway and +Novgorod in Russia controlled the export trade of those two countries. +Similar establishments existed at London, on the Thames just above London +Bridge, and at Bruges in Flanders. Each factory served as a fortress where +merchants could be safe from attack, as a storehouse for goods, and as a +general market. + +INFLUENCE OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE + +The Hanseatic League ruled over the Baltic Sea very much as Venice ruled +over the Adriatic. In spite of its monopolistic tendencies, so opposed to +the spirit of free intercourse between nations, the league did much useful +work by suppressing piracy and by encouraging the art of navigation. +Modern Germans look back to it as proof that their country can play a +great part on the seas. The Hanseatic merchants were also pioneers in the +half-barbarous lands of northern and eastern Europe, where they founded +towns, fostered industry, and introduced comforts and luxuries previously +unknown. Such services in advancing civilization were comparable to those +performed by the Teutonic Knights. [28] + +DECLINE OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE + +After several centuries of usefulness the league lost its monopoly of the +Baltic trade and began to decline. Moreover the Baltic, like the +Mediterranean, sank to minor importance as a commercial center, after the +Portuguese had discovered the sea route to India and the Spaniards had +opened up the New World. [29] City after city gradually withdrew from the +league, till only Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen remained. They are still +called free and independent cities, though now they form a part of the +German Empire. + + +199. THE CITIES OF FLANDERS + +COUNTY OF FLANDERS + +In the Middle Ages the Netherlands, or "Low Countries," now divided +between Holland and Belgium, consisted of a number of feudal states, +nominally under the control of German and French kings, but really quite +independent. Among them was the county of Flanders. It included the coast +region from Calais to the mouth of the Scheldt, as well as a considerable +district in what is now northwestern France. The inhabitants of Flanders +were partly of Teutonic extraction (the Flemings) and partly akin to the +French (the Walloons). + +FLANDERS AS A COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CENTER + +Flanders enjoyed a good situation for commerce. The country formed a +convenient stopping place for merchants who went by sea between the +Mediterranean and the Baltic, while important land routes led thither from +all parts of western Europe. Flanders was also an industrial center. Its +middle classes early discovered the fact that by devotion to manufacturing +even a small and sterile region may become rich and populous. + +FLEMISH WOOL TRADE + +The leading industry of Flanders was weaving. England in the Middle Ages +raised great flocks of sheep, but lacking skilled workmen to manufacture +the wool into fine cloth, sent it across the Channel to Flanders. A +medieval writer declared that the whole world was clothed in English wool +manufactured by the Flemings. The taxes that were laid on the export of +wool helped to pay the expenses of English kings in their wars with the +Welsh, the Scotch, and the Irish. The wool trade also made Flanders the +ally of England in the Hundred Years' War, thus beginning that historic +friendship between the two countries which still endures. + +[Illustration: BELFRY OF BRUGES +Bruges, the capital of West Flanders, contains many fine monuments of the +Middle Ages Among these is the belfry, which rises in the center of the +façade of the market hall. It dates from the end of the thirteenth +century. Its height is 352 feet. The belfry consists of three stories, the +two lower ones square, and the upper one, octagonal.] + +[Illustration: TOWN HALL OF LOUVAIN, BELGIUM +One of the richest and most ornate examples of Gothic architecture Erected +in the fifteenth century The building consists of three stories above +which rises the lofty roof crowned with graceful towers. The interior +decoration and arrangements are commonplace.] + +BRUGES, GHENT AND YPRES + +Among the thriving communities of Flanders three held an exceptional +position. Bruges was the mart where the trade of southern Europe, in the +hands of the Venetians, and the trade of northern Europe, in the hands of +the Hanseatic merchants, came together. Ghent, with forty thousand +workshops, and Ypres, which counted two hundred thousand workmen within +its walls and suburbs, were scarcely less prosperous. When these cities +declined in wealth, Antwerp became the commercial metropolis of the +Netherlands. + +FLANDERS AND FRANCE + +During the fourteenth century Flanders was annexed by France. The Flemish +cities resisted bravely, and on more than one occasion their citizen +levies, who could handle sword and ax, as well as the loom, defeated the +French armies, thus demonstrating again that foot soldiers were a match +for mailed cavalry. Had the cities been able to form a lasting league, +they might have established an independent Flanders, but the bitter +rivalry of Ghent and Bruges led to foreign domination, lasting into the +nineteenth century. [30] + +THE CITIES AND CIVILIZATION + +The great cities of Flanders, Germany, and Italy, not to speak of those in +France, Spain, and England, were much more than centers of trade, +industry, and finance. Within their walls learning and art flourished to +an extent which had never been possible in earlier times, when rural life +prevailed throughout western Europe. We shall now see what the cities of +the Middle Ages contributed to civilization. + + +STUDIES + +1. Indicate on the map some great commercial cities of the Middle Ages as +follows: four in Italy; three in the Netherlands; and six in Germany. + +2. Why does an American city have a charter? Where is it obtained? What +privileges does it confer? + +3. Who comprised the "third estate" in the Middle Ages? What class +corresponds to it at the present time? + +4. Why has the medieval city been called the "birthplace of modern +democracy"? + +5. Compare the merchant guild with the modern chamber of commerce, and +craft guilds with modern trade unions. + +6. Look up the origin of the words "apprentice," "journeyman," and +"master." + +7. Why was there no antagonism between labor and capital under the guild +system? + +8. Compare the medieval abhorrence of "engrossing" with the modern idea +that "combinations in restraint of trade" are wrong. + +9. Why were fairs a necessity in the Middle Ages? Why are they not so +useful now? Where are they still found? + +10. Compare a medieval fair with a modern exposition. + +11. What would be the effect on trade within an American state if tolls +were levied on the border of every county? + +12. What is meant by a "robber baron"? + +13. How did the names "damask" linen, "chinaware," "japanned" ware, and +"cashmere" shawls originate? + +14. Why was the purchasing power of money much greater in the Middle Ages +than it is now? + +15. Why are modern coins always made perfectly round and with "milled" +edges? + +16. Are modern coins "debased" to any considerable extent? What is the use +of alloys? + +17. Why was the money-changer so necessary a figure in medieval business? + +18. How is it easy to evade laws forbidding usury? + +19. Look up in an encyclopedia the legend of the "Wandering Jew." How does +it illustrate the medieval attitude toward Jews? + +20. Write out the English equivalents of the Italian words mentioned in +footnote 20. + +21. Compare the Italian despots with the Greek tyrants. + +22. Show that Venice in medieval times was the seaport nearest the heart +of commercial Europe. + +23. Compare the Venetian and Athenian sea-empires in respect to (a) +extent, (b) duration, and (c) commercial policy. + +24. Why was Venice called the "bride of the sea"? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] The word "city" comes through the French from the Latin _civilitas_, +meaning citizenship, state. The word "town" (from Anglo-Saxon _tun_), +which is now often used as a synonym of city, originally meant a village +(French _ville_, Latin _villa_). + +[2] See page 437. + +[3] See page 81. + +[4] From French _bourg,_ "town." + +[5] See pages 506, 515. + +[6] The visitor to Chester in England or Rothenburg in Germany finds the +old ramparts still standing and gains an excellent idea of the cramped +quarters of a medieval city. Nuremburg in southern Germany is another city +which has preserved its medieval monuments. + +[7] French _couvre feu_, "cover fire." + +[8] In French _hôtel de ville_; in German _Rathhaus_. + +[9] German _bürgermeister_, from _burg_, "castle." + +[10] French _maire_, from Latin _major_, "greater." + +[11] Anglo-Saxon _ealdorman_ (_eald_ means "old"). + +[12] A map of London still shows such names as Shoe Lane, Distaff Lane, +Cornhill, and many other similar designations of streets. + +[13] The civic procession in London on Lord Mayor's Day is the last +survival in England of these yearly shows. + +[14] See page 336. + +[15] See page 382. + +[16] See pages 47-48. + +[17] See page 417. + +[18] See page 640. + +[19] Lombard Street in London, the financial center of England, received +its name from the Italian bankers who established themselves in this part +of the city. + +[20] Among the Italian words having to do with commerce and banking which +have come into general use are _conto, disconto, risico, netto, deposito, +folio_, and _bilanza_. + +[21] See page 460. + +[22] See page 590. + +[23] See page 478. + +[24] See page 248. + +[25] Known in the Middle Ages as the Morea. + +[26] For the Venetian possessions in 1453 A.D. see the map, page 494. + +[27] From the old German _hansa_, a "confederacy." + +[28] See page 526. + +[29] See page 640. + +[30] In 1831 A.D. the two provinces of East Flanders and West Flanders +became part of the modern kingdom of Belgium. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION [1] + + +200. FORMATION OF NATIONAL LANGUAGES + +THE 12TH AND 13TH CENTURIES + +The twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which in western Europe saw the rise +of national states out of the chaos of feudalism and the development of +cities, may be regarded as the central period of the Middle Ages. During +this time there flourished a civilization which is properly described as +"medieval," to distinguish it from classical civilization on the one side +and modern civilization on the other side. The various European languages +then began to assume something like their present form. A large body of +literature, in both poetry and prose, appeared. Architecture revived, and +flowered in majestic cathedrals. Education also revived, especially in the +universities with their thousands of students. These and other aspects of +medieval life will now engage our attention. + +LATIN AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE + +Throughout the Middle Ages Latin continued to be an international +language. The Roman Church used it for papal bulls and other documents. +Prayers were recited, hymns were sung, and sometimes sermons were preached +in Latin. It was also the language of men of culture everywhere in western +Christendom. University professors lectured in Latin, students spoke +Latin, lawyers addressed judges in Latin, and the merchants in different +countries wrote Latin letters to one another. All learned books were +composed in Latin until the close of the sixteenth century. This practice +has not yet been entirely abandoned by European scholars. + +THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES + +Each European country during the Middle Ages had also its own national +tongue. The so-called Romance languages, [2] including modern French, +Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Rumanian, were derived from the Latin +spoken by the Romanized inhabitants of the lands now known as France, +Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Rumania. Their colloquial Latin naturally +lacked the elegance of the literary Latin used by Caesar, Cicero, Vergil, +and other classical authors. The difference between the written and spoken +forms of the language became more marked from the fifth century onward, in +consequence of the barbarian invasions, which brought about the decline of +learning. Gradually in each country new and vigorous tongues arose, +related to, yet different from, the old classical Latin in pronunciation, +grammar, and vocabulary. + +FRENCH + +The indebtedness of the Romance languages to Latin is well illustrated by +the case of French. It contains less than a thousand words introduced by +the German invaders of Gaul. Even fewer in number are the words of Celtic +origin. Nearly all the rest are derived from Latin. + +DEVELOPMENT OF FRENCH + +The popular Latin of the Gallo-Romans gave rise to two quite independent +languages in medieval France. The first was used in the southern part of +the country; it was called Provençal (from Provence). The second was +spoken in the north, particularly in the region about Paris. The +unification of the French kingdom under Hugh Capet and his successors +gradually extended the speech of northern France over the entire country. +Even to-day, however, one may hear in the south of France the soft and +harmonious Provençal. + +THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES + +The barbarians who poured from the wilds of central Europe into the Roman +world brought their languages with them. But the speech of the Goths, +Vandals, Burgundians, and Lombards disappeared, while that of the Franks +in Gaul, after their conversion to Christianity, gradually gave way to the +popular Latin of their subjects. The Teutonic peoples who remained outside +what had been the limits of the Roman world continued to use their native +tongues during the Middle Ages. From them have come modern German, Dutch, +Flemish, [3] and the various Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, +Swedish, and Icelandic [4]). In their earliest known forms all these +languages show unmistakable traces of a common origin. + +ANGLO-SAXON + +Britain was the only Roman province in the west of Europe where a Teutonic +language took root and maintained itself. Here the rough, guttural speech +of the Anglo-Saxons so completely drove out the popular Latin that only +six words were left behind by the Romans, when they abandoned the island +early in the fifth century. More Celtic words remained, words like +_cradle, crock, mop_, and _pillow_, which were names of household objects, +and the names of rivers, mountains, and lakes, which were not easily +changed by the invaders. [5] But with such slight exceptions Anglo-Saxon +was thoroughly Teutonic in vocabulary, as well as in grammar. + +CHANGES IN ANGLO-SAXON + +In course of time Anglo-Saxon underwent various changes. Christian +missionaries, from the seventh century onward, introduced many new Latin +terms for church offices, services, and observances. The Danes, besides +contributing some place-names, gave us that most useful word _are_, and +also the habit of using _to_ before an infinitive. The coming of the +Normans deeply affected Anglo-Saxon. Norman-French influence helped to +make the language simpler, by ridding it of the cumbersome declensions and +conjugations which it had in common with all Teutonic tongues. Many new +Norman-French words also crept in, as the hostility of the English people +toward their conquerors disappeared. + +DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH + +By the middle of the thirteenth century Anglo-Saxon, or English, as it may +now be called, had taken on a somewhat familiar appearance, as in these +opening words of the Lord's Prayer: "Fadir ur, that es in heven, Halud thi +nam to nevene, Thou do as thi rich rike, Thi will on erd be wrought, eek +as it is wrought in heven ay." In the poems of Geoffrey Chaucer (about +1340-1400 A.D.), especially in his _Canterbury Tales_, English wears +quite a modern aspect, though the reader is often troubled by the old +spelling and by certain words not now in use. The changes in the grammar +of English have been so extremely small since 1485 A..D.--the beginning of +the reign of Henry VII [6]--that any Englishman of ordinary education can +read without difficulty a book written more than four hundred years ago. + +[Illustration: GEOFFREY CHAUCER +From an old manuscript in the British Museum, London. The only existing +portrait of Chaucer.] + +[Illustration: ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT +From an old manuscript now in the possession of the British Museum. The +shrine of Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, was a celebrated resort +for (Proofer's Note: Remainder of text unavailable)] + +ENGLISH AS A WORLD-LANGUAGE + +What in medieval times was the speech of a few millions of Englishmen on a +single small island is now spoken by at least one hundred and fifty +millions of people all over the world. English is well fitted for the role +of a universal language, because of its absence of inflections and its +simple sentence-order. The great number of one-syllabled words in the +language also makes for ease in understanding it. Furthermore, English has +been, and still is, extremely hospitable to new words, so that its +vocabulary has grown very fast by the adoption of terms from Latin, +French, and other languages. These have immensely increased the +expressiveness of English, while giving it a position midway between the +very different Romance and Teutonic languages. + + +201. DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL LITERATURES + +LATIN HYMNS + +Medieval literature, though inferior in quality to that of Greece and +Rome, nevertheless includes many notable productions. In the twelfth and +the thirteenth centuries Latin hymns reached their perfection. The sublime +_Dies Irae_ ("Day of Wrath") presents a picture of the final judgment of +the wicked. The pathetic _Stabat Mater_, which describes the sorrows of +Mary at the foot of the Cross, has been often translated and set to music. +These two works were written by a companion and biographer of St. Francis +of Assisi. St. Bernard's _Jesu Dulcis Memoria_ ("Jesus, the Very Thought +of Thee") forms part of a beautiful hymn nearly two hundred lines in +length. Part of another hymn, composed by a monk of Cluny, has been +rendered into English as "Jerusalem the Golden." Latin hymns made use of +rhyme, then something of a novelty, and thus helped to popularize this +poetic device. + +LATIN STUDENTS' SONGS + +Very unlike the hymns in character were the Latin songs composed by +students who went from one university to another in search of knowledge +and adventure. Far from home, careless and pleasure-seeking, light of +purse and light of heart the wandering scholars of the Middle Ages +frequented taverns, as well as lecture rooms, and knew the wine-bowl even +better than books. Their songs of love, of dancing, drinking, and gaming, +reflect the jovial side of medieval life. + +SONGS OF THE TROUBADOURS + +Still another glimpse of gay society is afforded by the songs of the +troubadours. These professional poets flourished in the south of France, +but many of them traveled from court to court in other countries. Their +verses, composed in the Provençal language, were always sung to the +accompaniment of some musical instrument, generally the lute. Romantic +love and deeds of chivalry were the two themes which most inspired the +troubadours. They, too, took up the use of rhyme, using it so skillfully +as to become the teachers of Europe in lyric poetry. + +THE FRENCH EPIC + +If southern France was the native home of the lyric, northern France gave +birth to epic or narrative verse. Here arose many poems, describing the +exploits of mythical heroes or historic kings. For a long time the poems +remained unwritten and were recited by minstrels, who did not hesitate to +modify and enlarge them at will. It was not until late in the eleventh +century that any epics were written down. They enjoyed high esteem in +aristocratic circles and penetrated all countries where feudalism +prevailed. + +THE CHARLEMAGNE LEGEND + +Many of the French epics centered about the commanding personality of +Charlemagne. After his death he became a figure of legend. He was said to +have reigned one hundred and twenty-five years, to have made a pilgrimage +to Jerusalem, and to have risen from the dead to lead the First Crusade. +Angels inspired his actions. His sword contained the point of the lance +which pierced the Savior's side. His standard was the banner of St. Peter. +Though history shows that Charlemagne had little contact with the Moslems, +in the popular mind he stood forth as the great champion of Christianity +against Islam. + +SONG OF ROLAND + +The oldest, and at the same time the finest, epic connected with +Charlemagne is the Song of Roland. [7] The poem centers around Roland, one +of the twelve peers of France. When leading the rearguard of Charlemagne's +army out of Spain, Roland is suddenly attacked by the treacherous Moors. +He slays the enemy in heaps with his good sword, Durendal, and only after +nearly all the Franks have perished sounds his magic horn to summon aid. +Charlemagne, fifteen leagues distant, hears its notes and returns quickly. +But before help arrives, Roland has fallen. He dies on the field of +battle, with his face to the foe, and a prayer on his lips that "sweet +France" may never be dishonored. This stirring poem appealed strongly to +the martial Normans. A medieval chronicler relates that just before the +battle of Hastings a Norman minstrel rode out between the lines, tossing +his sword in air and catching it again, as he chanted the song "of Roland +and of Charlemagne, of Oliver and many a brave vassal who lost his life at +Roncesvalles." + +[Illustration: ROLAND AT RONCESVALLES +From a thirteenth-century window of stained glass in Chartres Cathedral. +At the right, Roland sounding his horn; at the left Roland endeavoring to +break his sword Durendal.] + +THE ARTHURIAN ROMANCES + +King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were also important figures +in medieval legend. Arthur was said to have reigned in Britain early in +the sixth century and to have fought against the Anglo-Saxons. Whether he +ever lived or not we do not know. In the Arthurian romances this Celtic +king stands forth as the model knight, the ideal of noble chivalry. The +Norman conquerors of England carried the romances to France, and here, +where feudalism was so deeply rooted, they found a hearty welcome. Sir +Thomas Malory's _Morte d' Arthur_, one of the first books to be printed in +England, contains many of the narratives from which Tennyson, in his +_Idylls of the King_, and other modern poets have drawn their inspiration. + +THE NIBELINGENLIED + +The greatest epic composed in Germany during the Middle Ages is the +_Nibelungenlied_. The poem begins in Burgundy, where three kings hold +court at Worms, on the Rhine. Thither comes the hero, Siegfried, ruler of +the Netherlands. He had slain the mysterious Nibelungs and seized their +treasure, together with the magic cloud-cloak which rendered its wearer +invisible to human eyes. He had also killed a dragon and by bathing in its +blood had become invulnerable, except in one place where a linden leaf +touched his body. Siegfried marries Kriemhild, a beautiful Burgundian +princess, and with her lives most happily. But a curse attached to the +Nibelung treasure, and Siegfried's enemy, the "grim Hagen," treacherously +slays him by a spear thrust in the one spot where he could be hurt. Many +years afterwards Kriemhild marries Attila, king of the Huns, on condition +that he help her to vengeance. Hagen and his Burgundians are invited to +Hunland, where Kriemhild causes them all to be put to death. The name of +the poet who compiled and probably wrote much of the _Nibelungenlied_ +remains unknown, but his work has a place among the classics of German +literature. + +REYNARD THE FOX + +No account of medieval literature ought to omit a reference to _Reynard +the Fox_. This is a long poem, first written in Latin, and then turned +into the chief languages of Europe. The characters are animals: Reynard, +cunning and audacious, who outwits all his foes; Chanticleer the cock; +Bruin the Bear; Isengrim the Wolf; and many others. But they are animals +in name only. We see them worship like Christians, go to Mass, ride on +horseback, debate in councils, and amuse themselves with hawking and +hunting. Satire often creeps in, as when the villainous Fox confesses his +sins to the Badger or vows that he will go to the Holy Land on a +pilgrimage. The special interest of this work lies in the fact that it +expressed the feelings of the common people, groaning under the oppression +of feudal lords. + +THE ROBIN HOOD BALLADS + +The same democratic spirit breathes in the old English ballads of the +outlaw Robin Hood. According to some accounts he flourished in the second +half of the twelfth century, when Henry II and Richard the Lion-hearted +reigned over England. Robin Hood, with his merry men, leads an adventurous +life in Sherwood Forest, engaging in feats of strength and hunting the +king's tall deer. Bishops, sheriffs, and gamekeepers are his only enemies. +For the common people he has the greatest pity, and robs the rich to endow +the poor. Courtesy, generosity, and love of fair play are some of the +characteristics which made him a popular hero. If King Arthur was the +ideal knight, Robin Hood was the ideal yeoman. The ballads about him were +sung by country folk for hundreds of years. + + +202. ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE; THE CATHEDRALS + +TWO ARCHITECTURAL STYLES + +The genius of the Middle Ages found its highest expression, not in books, +but in buildings. For several hundred years after the barbarian invasions +architecture had made little progress in western Europe, outside of Italy, +which was subject to Byzantine influence, [8] and Spain, which was a +center of Mohammedan culture. [9] Beginning about 800 A.D. came a revival, +and the adoption of an architectural style called Romanesque, because it +went back to Roman principles of construction. Romanesque architecture +arose in northern Italy and southern France and gradually spread to other +European countries. It was followed about 1100 A D. by the Gothic style of +architecture, which prevailed during the next four centuries. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF SALISBURY CATHEDRAL, ENGLAND +Note the double transepts.] + +THE ROMANESQUE CHURCH + +The church of the early Christians seems to have been modeled upon the +Roman basilica, with its arrangement of nave and aisles, its circular +arched recess (apse) at one end, and its flat, wooden ceiling supported by +columns. [10] The Romanesque church departed from the basilican plan by +the introduction of transepts, thus giving the building the form of a +Latin cross. A dome, which might be covered by a pointed roof, was +generally raised over the junction of the nave and transepts. At the same +time the apse was enlarged so as to form the choir, a place reserved for +the clergy. + +[Illustration: REIMS CATHEDRAL +The cathedral of Notre Dame at Reims in northwestern France stands on the +site where Clovis was baptized by St Remi. Here most of the French kings +were consecrated with holy oil by the archbishops of Reims. Except the +west front, which was built in the fourteenth century, the cathedral was +completed by the end of the thirteenth century. The towers, 267 feet high, +were originally designed to reach 394 feet. The facade, with its three +arched portals exquisite rose window, and "gallery of the kings," is +justly celebrated. The cathedral--walls, roof, statues, and windows--has +been terribly damaged by the German bombardment during the late war.] + +[Illustration: COLOGNE CATHEDRAL +The Cathedral, or Dom, one of the finest monuments of Gothic architecture +in Europe, was begun in the thirteenth century. The work of building +proceeded slowly and at the time of the Reformation it ceased altogether. +The structure was finally completed during the nineteenth century, and in +1880 AD it was opened in the presence of the emperor, William I. The +Cathedral, which is in the form of a cross, measures 480 feet in length +and 282 feet in breadth. Each of the towers reaches the height of 511 +feet. The very numerous and richly-colored windows add greatly to the +imposing effect of the interior.] + +VAULTING AND THE ROUND ARCH + +The Romanesque church also differed from a basilica in the use of vaulting +to take the place of a flat ceiling. The old Romans had constructed their +vaulted roofs and domes in concrete, which forms a rigid mass and rests +securely upon the walls like the lid of a box. [11] Medieval architects, +however, built in stone, which exerts an outward thrust and tends to force +the walls apart. Consequently they found it necessary to make the walls +very thick and to strengthen them by piers, or buttresses, on the outside +of the edifice. It was also necessary to reduce the width of the vaulted +spaces. The vaulting, windows, and doorways had the form of the round +arch, that is, a semicircle, as in the ancient Roman monuments. [12] + +THE GOTHIC STYLE + +Gothic architecture arose in France in the country around Paris, at a time +when the French kingdom was taking the lead in European affairs. Later it +spread to England, Germany, the Netherlands, and even to southern Europe. +As an old chronicler wrote, "It was as if the whole world had thrown off +the rags of its ancient time, and had arrayed itself in the white robes of +the churches." The term Gothic was applied contemptuously to this +architectural style by writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, +who regarded everything non-classical as barbarous. They believed it to be +an invention of the barbarian Goths, and so they called it Gothic. The +name has stuck, as bad names have a habit of doing, but nowadays every one +recognizes the greatness of this medieval art. The most beautiful +buildings of the Middle Ages are of Gothic architecture. + +RIBBED VAULTING AND THE FLYING BUTTRESS + +The Gothic style formed a natural development of the Romanesque style. The +architects of a Gothic church wished to retain the vaulted ceiling but at +the same time to do away with thick, solid walls, which had so little +window space as to leave the interior of the building dark gloomy. They +solved this problem, in the first place, by using a great number of stone +ribs, which gathered up the weight of the ceiling and rested on pillars. +Ribbed vaulting made possible higher ceilings, spanning wider areas, than +in Romanesque churches. [13] In the second place, the pillars supporting +the ribs were themselves connected by means of flying buttresses with +stout piers of masonry outside the walls of the church. [14] These walls, +relieved from the pressure of the ceiling, now became a mere screen to +keep out the weather. They could be built of light materials and opened up +with high, wide windows. + +THE POINTED ARCH + +Ribbed vaulting and the flying buttress are the distinctive features of +Gothic architecture. A third feature, noteworthy but not so important, is +the use of the pointed arch. It was not Christian in origin, for it had +long been known to the Arabs in the East and the Moslem conquerors of +Sicily. [15] The semicircular or round arch can be only half as high as it +is wide, but the pointed arch may vary greatly in its proportions. The use +of this device enabled the Gothic builder to bridge over different widths +at any required height. It is also lighter and more graceful than the +round arch. [16] + +[Illustration: CROSS SECTION OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL +A, vaulting; B, ribs; C, flying buttresses; D, buttresses; E, low windows; +F, clerestory.] + +GOTHIC ORNAMENT + +The labors of the Gothic architect were admirably seconded by those of +other artists. The sculptor cut figures of men, animals, and plants in the +utmost profusion. The painter covered vacant wall spaces with brilliant +mosaics and frescoes. The wood-carver made exquisite choir stalls, +pulpits, altars, and screens. Master workmen filled the stone tracery of +the windows with stained glass unequaled in coloring by the finest modern +work. Some rigorous churchmen like St. Bernard condemned the expense of +these magnificent cathedrals, but most men found in their beauty an +additional reason to praise God. + +[Illustration: GARGOYLES ON THE CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME, PARIS +Strange grotesque figures and faces of stone used as ornaments of Gothic +buildings and as spouts to carry off rain water. They represent beasts, +demons, and other creations of medieval fancy.] + +THE CATHEDRAL AS A RELIGIOUS EDIFICE + +The Gothic cathedral, in fact, perfectly expressed the religious spirit of +the Middle Ages. For its erection kings and nobles offered costly gifts. +The common people, when they had no money to give, contributed their +labor, each man doing what he could to carry upward the walls and towers +and to perfect every part of God's dwelling. The interior of such a +cathedral, with its vast nave rising in swelling arches to the vaulted +roof, its clustered columns, its glowing windows, and infinite variety of +ornamentation, forms the most awe-inspiring sanctuary ever raised by man. +It is a prayer, a hymn, a sermon in stone. + +THE SECULAR GOTHIC + +Gothic architecture, though at first confined to churches, came to be used +for other buildings. Among the monuments of the secular Gothic are +beautiful town halls, guild halls, markets, and charming private houses. +[17] But the cathedral remained the best expression of the Gothic style. + + +203. EDUCATION; THE UNIVERSITIES + +COMMON SCHOOLS + +Not less important than the Gothic cathedrals for the understanding of +medieval civilization were the universities. They grew out of the monastic +and cathedral schools where boys were trained to become monks or priests. +Such schools had been created or restored by Charlemagne. [18] The +teaching, which lay entirely in the hands of the clergy, was elementary in +character. Pupils learned enough Latin grammar to read religious books, if +not always to understand them, and enough music to follow the services of +the Church. They also studied arithmetic by means of the awkward Roman +notation, received a smattering of astronomy, and sometimes gained a +little knowledge of such subjects as geography, law, and philosophy. +Besides these monastic and cathedral schools, others were maintained by +the guilds. Boys who had no regular schooling often received instruction +from the parish priest of the village or town. Illiteracy was common +enough in medieval times, but the mass of the people were by no means +entirely uneducated. + +RISE OF UNIVERSITIES + +Between 1150 and 1500 A.D. at least eighty universities were established +in western Europe. Some speedily became extinct, but there are still about +fifty European institutions of learning which started in the Middle Ages. +The earliest universities did not look to the state or to some princely +benefactor for their foundation. They arose, as it were, spontaneously. In +the eleventh and twelfth centuries Europe felt the thrill of a great +intellectual revival. It was stimulated by intercourse with the highly +cultivated Arabs in Spain, Sicily, and the East, and with the Greek +scholars of Constantinople during the crusades. The desire for instruction +became so general that the common schools could not satisfy it. Other +schools were then opened in the cities and to them flocked eager learners +from every quarter. + +PETER ABELARD 1079-1142 A.D. + +How easily a university might grow up about the personality of some +eminent teacher is shown by the career of Abelard. The eldest son of a +noble family in Brittany, Abelard would naturally have entered upon a +military career, but he chose instead the life of a scholar and the +contests of debate. When still a young man he came to Paris and attended +the lectures given by a master of the cathedral school of Notre Dame. +Before long he had overcome his instructor in discussion, thus +establishing his own reputation. At the early age of twenty-two Abelard +himself set up as a lecturer. Few teachers have ever attracted so large +and so devoted a following. His lecture room under the shadow of the great +cathedral was filled with a crowd of youths and men drawn from all +countries. + +UNIVERSITY OF PARIS + +The fame of Abelard led to an increase of masters and students at Paris +and so paved the way for the establishment of the university there, later +in the twelfth century. Paris soon became such a center of learning, +particularly in theology and philosophy, that a medieval writer referred +to it as "the mill where the world's corn is ground, and the hearth where +its bread is baked." The university of Paris, in the time of its greatest +prosperity, had over five thousand students. It furnished the model for +the English university of Oxford, as well as for the learned institutions +of Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and Germany. + +UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA + +The institutions of learning in southern Europe were modeled, more or +less, upon the university of Bologna. At this Italian city, in the middle +of the twelfth century, a celebrated teacher named Irnerius gathered about +him thousands of pupils for the study of the Justinian code. [19] The +university developed out of his law school. Bologna was the center from +which the Roman system of jurisprudence made its way into France, Germany, +and other Continental countries. From Bologna, also, came the monk +Gratian, who drew up the accepted text-book of canon law, as followed in +all Church courts. [20] What Roman law was to the Empire canon law was to +the Papacy. + +UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION + +The word "university" [21] meant at first simply a union or association. +In the Middle Ages all artisans were organized in guilds, [22] and when +masters and pupils associated themselves for teaching and study they +naturally copied the guild form. This was the more necessary since the +student body included so many foreigners, who found protection against +annoyances only as members of a guild. + +DEGREES + +Like a craft guild a university consisted of masters (the professors), who +had the right to teach, and students, both elementary and advanced, who +corresponded to apprentices and journeymen. After several years of study a +student who had passed part of his examination became a "bachelor of arts" +and might teach certain elementary subjects to those beneath him. Upon the +completion of the full course--usually six years in length--the bachelor +took his final examinations and, if he passed them, received the coveted +degree of "master of arts." But as is the case to-day, many who attended +the universities never took a degree at all. + +THE TEACHERS + +A university of the Middle Ages did not need an expensive collection of +libraries, laboratories, and museums. Its only necessary equipment +consisted in lecture rooms for the professors. Not even benches or chairs +were required. Students often sat on the straw-strewn floors. The high +price of manuscripts compelled professors to give all instruction by +lectures. This method of teaching has been retained in modern +universities, since even the printed book is a poor substitute for a +scholar's inspiring words. + +THE STUDENTS + +The universities being under the protection of the Church, it was natural +that those who attended them should possess some of the privileges of +clergymen. Students were not required to pay taxes or to serve in the +army. They also enjoyed the right of trial in their own courts. This was +an especially valuable privilege, for medieval students were constantly +getting into trouble with the city authorities. The sober annals of many a +university are relieved by tales of truly Homeric conflicts between Town +and Gown. When the students were dissatisfied with their treatment in one +place, it was always easy for them to go to another university. Sometimes +masters and scholars made off in a body. Oxford appears to have owed its +existence to a large migration of English students from Paris, Cambridge +arose as the result of a migration from Oxford, and the German university +of Leipzig sprang from that of Prague in Bohemia. + +[Illustration: VIEW OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD +New College, despite its name, is one of the oldest of the Oxford +collegiate foundations. It was established in 1379 A.D. by William of +Wykeham. The illustration shows the chapel, the cloisters consecrated in +1400 A.D., and the detached tower, a tall, massive structure on the line +of the city wall.] + +COLLEGES + +The members of a university usually lived in a number of colleges. These +seem to have been at first little more than lodging-houses, where poor +students were cared for at the expense of some benefactor. In time, +however, as the colleges increased in wealth, through the gifts made to +them, they became centers of instruction under the direction of masters. +At Oxford and Cambridge, where the collegiate system has been retained to +the present time, each college has its separate buildings and enjoys the +privilege of self-government. + +FACULTIES + +The studies in a medieval university were grouped under the four faculties +of arts, theology, law, and medicine. The first-named faculty taught the +"seven liberal arts," that is, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, +geometry, astronomy, and music. They formed a legacy from old Roman +education. Theology, law, and medicine then, as now, were professional +studies, taken up after the completion of the Arts course. Owing to the +constant movement of students from one university to another, each +institution tended to specialize in one or more subjects. Thus, Paris came +to be noted for theology, Montpellier, Padua, and Salerno for medicine, +and Orléans, Bologna, and Salamanca for law. + +[Illustration: TOWER OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD +Magdalen (pronounced Maudlin) is perhaps the most beautiful college in +Oxford. The bell tower stands on High Street, the principal thoroughfare +of Oxford, and adjoins Magdalen Bridge, built across the Cherwell. Begun +in 1492 A.D.; completed in 1505 A.D. From its summit a Latin hymn is sung +every year on the morning of May Day. This graceful tower has been several +times imitated in American collegiate structures.] + + +204. SCHOLASTICISM + +THEOLOGICAL STUDY + +Theology formed the chief subject of instruction in most medieval +universities. Nearly all the celebrated scholars of the age were +theologians. They sought to arrange the doctrines of the Church in +systematic and reasonable form, in order to answer those great questions +concerning the nature of God and of the soul which have always occupied +the human mind. For this purpose it was necessary to call in the aid of +philosophy. The union of theology and philosophy produced what is known as +scholasticism. [23] + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE. +The chief architectural ornament of King's College, founded by King Henry +VI, is the chapel in the Gothic perpendicular style.* This building was +begun in 1446 A.D., but was not completed until nearly seventy years +later. The finest features of the interior are the fan vaulting which +extends throughout the chapel, the stained-glass windows, and the wooden +organ screen.] + +ABELARD AND FREEDOM OF THOUGHT + +The scholastics were loyal children of the Church and did not presume to +question her teaching in matters of religion. They held that faith +precedes reason. "The Christian," it was said, "ought to advance to +knowledge through faith, not come to faith through knowledge." The +brilliant Abelard, with his keenly critical mind, found what he considered +a flaw in this position: on many subjects the authorities themselves +disagreed. To show this he wrote a little book called _Sic et Non_ ("Yes +and No"), setting forth the conflicting opinions of the Church Fathers on +one hundred and fifty-eight points of theology. In such cases how could +truth be reached unless one reasoned it out for oneself? "Constant +questioning," he declared, "is the key to wisdom.... Through doubting we +come to inquiry and through inquiry we perceive the truth." But this +reliance on the unaided human reason as a means of obtaining knowledge did +not meet with approval, and Abelard's views were condemned as unsound. +Abelard, indeed, was a man in advance of his age. Freedom of thought had +to wait many centuries before its rights should be acknowledged. + +STUDY OF ARISTOTLE + +The philosophy on which the scholastics relied was chiefly that of +Aristotle. [24] Christian Europe read him at first in Latin translations +from the Arabic, but versions were later made from Greek copies found in +Constantinople and elsewhere in the East. This revival of Aristotle, +though it broadened men's minds by acquainting them with the ideas of the +greatest of Greek thinkers, had serious drawbacks. It discouraged rather +than favored the search for fresh truth. Many scholastics were satisfied +to appeal to Aristotle's authority, rather than take the trouble of +finding out things for themselves. The story is told of a medieval student +who, having detected spots in the sun, announced his discovery to a +learned man. "My son," said the latter, "I have read Aristotle many times, +and I assure you there is nothing of the kind mentioned by him. Be certain +that the spots which you have seen are in your eyes and not in the sun." + +ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, 1227-1274 A.D. + +There were many famous scholastics, or "schoolmen," but easily the +foremost among them was the Italian monk, Thomas Aquinas. He taught at +Paris, Cologne, Rome, and Bologna, and became so celebrated for learning +as to be known as the "Angelic Doctor." Though Aquinas died at an early +age, he left behind him no less than eighteen folio volumes. His _Summa +Theologiae_ ("Compendium of Theology"), as the name indicates, gathered up +all that the Middle Ages believed of the relations between God and man. +The Roman Church has placed him among her saints and still recommends the +study of his writings as the foundation of all sound theology. + +THE SCHOLASTIC METHOD + +Enough has been said to show that the method of study in medieval +universities was not that which generally obtains to-day. There was almost +no original research. Law students memorized the Justinian code. Medical +students learned anatomy and physiology from old Greek books, instead of +in the dissecting room. Theologians and philosophers went to the Bible, +the Church Fathers, or Aristotle for the solution of all problems. They +often debated the most subtle questions, for instance, "Can God ever know +more than He knows that He knows?" Mental gymnastics of this sort +furnished a good training in logic, but added nothing to the sum of human +knowledge. Scholasticism, accordingly, fell into disrepute, in proportion +as men began to substitute scientific observation and experiment for +speculation. + + +205. SCIENCE AND MAGIC + +SCIENTIFIC INVENTIONS + +Not all medieval learning took the form of scholasticism. The twelfth and +thirteenth centuries were marked by a healthy interest in science. Long +encyclopedias, written in Latin, collected all available information about +the natural world. The study of physics made conspicuous progress, partly +as a result of Arab influence. Various scientific inventions, including +magnifying glasses and clocks, were worked out. The mariner's compass, +perhaps derived from the Arabs, also came into general use. [25] + +ROGER BACON, ABOUT 1214-1294 A.D. + +As representative of this scientific interest we may take the Englishman, +Roger Bacon. He studied at Paris, where his attainments secured for him +the title of the "Wonderful Doctor," and lectured at Oxford. At a period +when Aristotle's influence was unbounded, Bacon turned away from +scholastic philosophy to mathematics and the sciences. No great +discoveries were made by him, but it is interesting to read a passage in +one of his works where some modern inventions are distinctly foreseen. In +time, he wrote, ships will be moved without rowers, and carriages will be +propelled without animals to draw them. Machines for flying will also be +constructed, "wherein a man sits revolving some engine by which artificial +wings are made to beat the air like a flying bird." Even in Bacon's day it +would appear that men were trying to make steamboats, automobiles, and +aëroplanes. + +[Illustration: ROGER BACON] + +GUNPOWDER + +The discovery of gunpowder, a compound of saltpeter, charcoal, and +sulphur, has often been attributed to Bacon, probably incorrectly. Bacon +and other men of his time seem to have been familiar with the composition +of gunpowder, but they regarded it as merely a sort of firework, producing +a sudden and brilliant flame. They little suspected that in a confined +space the expansive power of its gases could be used to hurl projectiles. +Gunpowder was occasionally manufactured during the fourteenth century, but +for a long time it made more noise than it did harm. Small brass cannon, +throwing stone balls, began at length to displace the medieval siege +weapons, and still later muskets took the place of the bow, the cross-bow, +and the pike. The revolution in the art of warfare introduced by gunpowder +had vast importance. It destroyed the usefulness of the castle and enabled +the peasant to fight the mailed knight on equal terms. Gunpowder, +accordingly, must be included among the forces which brought about the +downfall of feudalism. + +CHEMISTRY AND ALCHEMY + +The study of chemistry also engaged the attention of medieval +investigators. It was, however, much mixed up with alchemy, a false +science which the Middle Ages had received from the Greeks, and they, in +turn, from the Egyptians. The alchemists believed that minerals possessed +a real life of their own and that they were continually developing in the +ground toward the state of gold, the perfect metal. It was necessary, +therefore, to discover the "philosopher's stone," which would turn all +metals into gold. The alchemists never found it, but they learned a good +deal about the various metals and discovered a number of compounds and +colors. In this way alchemy contributed to the advance of chemistry. + +ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY + +Astronomy in the Middle Ages was the most advanced of any natural science, +though the telescope and the Copernican theory [26] were as yet in the +future. Astronomy, the wise mother, had a foolish daughter, astrology, the +origin of which can be traced back to Babylonia. [27] Medieval students no +longer regarded the stars as divine, but they believed that the natural +world and the life of men were controlled by celestial influences. Hence +astrologers professed to predict the fate of a person from the position of +the planets at the time of his birth. Astrological rules were also drawn +from the signs of the zodiac. A child born under the sign of the Lion will +be courageous; one born under the Crab will not go forward well in life; +one born under the Waterman will probably be drowned, and so forth. Such +fancies seem absurd enough, but in the Middle Ages educated people +entertained them. + +MEDIEVAL CREDULITY + +Alchemy and astrology were not the only instances of medieval credulity. +The most improbable stories found ready acceptance. Roger Bacon, for +instance, thought that "flying dragons" still existed in Europe and that +eating their flesh lengthened human life. Works on natural history soberly +described the lizard-like salamander, which dwelt in fire, and the +phoenix, a bird which, after living for five hundred years, burned itself +to death and then rose again full grown from the ashes. Another fabulous +creature was the unicorn, with the head and body of a horse, the hind legs +of an antelope, the beard of a goat, and a long, sharp horn set in the +middle of the forehead. Various plants and minerals were also credited +with marvelous powers. Thus, the nasturtium, used as a liniment, would +keep one's hair from falling out, and the sapphire, when powdered and +mixed with milk, would heal ulcers and cure headache. Such quaint beliefs +linger to-day among uneducated people, even in civilized lands. + +[Illustration: MAGICIAN RESCUED FROM THE DEVIL +Miniature in a thirteenth-century manuscript in the Bibliothèque +Nationale, Paris. The Devil, attempting to seize a magician who had formed +a pact with him, is prevented by a lay brother.] + +MAGICIANS + +Magicians of every sort flourished in the Middle Ages. Oneiromancers [28] +took omens from dreams. Palmists read fortunes in the lines and +irregularities of the hand. Necromancers [29] professed to reveal the +future by pretended communications with departed spirits. Other magicians +made talismans or lucky objects to be worn on the person, mirrors in which +the images of the dead or the absent were reflected, and various powders +which, when mixed with food or drink, would inspire hatred or affection in +the one consuming them. Indeed, it would be easy to draw up a long list of +the devices by which practitioners of magic made a living at the expense +of the ignorant and the superstitious. + + +206. POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS + +FOLK TALES + +Many medieval superstitions are preserved in folk tales, or "fairy +stories." Every child now reads these tales in books, but until the +nineteenth century very few of them had been collected and written down. +[30] They lived on the lips of the people, being told by mothers and +nurses to children and by young and old about the firesides during the +long winter evenings. Story-telling formed one of the chief amusements of +the Middle Ages. + +FAIRIES + +The fairies who appear so commonly in folk tales are known by different +names. They are bogies, brownies, goblins, pixies, kobolds (in Germany), +trolls (in Denmark), and so on. The Celts, especially, had a lively faith +in fairies, and it was from Wales, Scotland, and Ireland that many stories +about them became current in Europe after the tenth century. Some students +have explained the belief in fairies as due to memories of an ancient +pygmy people dwelling in underground homes. But most of these supernatural +beings seem to be the descendants of the spirits and demons which in +savage fancy haunt the world. + +CHARACTERISTICS OF FAIRIES + +A comparison of European folk tales shows that fairies have certain +characteristics in common. They live in palaces underneath the ground, +from which they emerge at twilight to dance in mystic circles. They are +ruled by kings and queens and are possessed of great wealth. Though +usually invisible, they may sometimes be seen, especially by people who +have the faculty of perceiving spirits. To mortals the fairies are +generally hostile, leading wanderers astray, often blighting crops and +cattle, and shooting arrows which carry disease and death. They are +constantly on the watch to carry off human beings to their realm. A +prisoner must be released at the end of a certain time, unless he tastes +fairy food, in which event he can never return. Children in cradles are +frequently snatched away by the fairies, who leave, instead, imps of their +own called "changelings." A changeling may always be recognized by its +peevishness and backwardness in learning to walk and speak. If well +treated, the fairies will sometimes show their gratitude by bestowing on +their favorites health, wealth, and long life. Lucky the child who can +count on a "fairy god-mother." + +GIANTS AND OGRES + +Stories of giants are common in folk tales. Giants are often represented +as not only big but also stupid, and as easily overcome by keen-witted +human foes like "Jack the Giant-killer." It may be that traditions of pre- +historic peoples have sometimes given birth to legends of giants. Another +source of stories concerning them has been the discovery of huge fossil +bones, such as those of the mammoth or mastodon, which were formerly +supposed to be bones of gigantic men. The ogres, who sometimes figure in +folk tales, are giants with a taste for human flesh. They recall the +cannibals of the savage world. + +WEREWOLVES + +Werewolves were persons who, by natural gift or magic art, were thought to +have the power of turning themselves for a time into wild beasts +(generally wolves or bears). In this animal shape they ravaged flocks and +devoured young children. A werewolf was said to sleep only two nights in +the month and to spend the rest of the time roaming the woods and fields. +Trials of persons accused of being werewolves were held in France as late +as the end of the sixteenth century. Even now the belief is found in out- +of-the-way parts of Europe. + +THE EVIL EYE + +Another medieval superstition was that of the evil eye. According to this +belief, certain persons could bewitch, injure, and kill by a glance. +Children and domestic animals were thought to be particularly susceptible +to the effects of "fascination." In order to guard against it charms of +various sorts, including texts from the Bible, were carried about. The +belief in the evil eye came into Europe from pagan antiquity. It survived +the Middle Ages and lingers yet among uneducated people. + +WITCHCRAFT + +The superstitions relating to werewolves and the evil eye are particular +forms of the belief in witchcraft, or "black magic." The Middle Ages could +not escape this delusion, which was firmly held by the Greeks and Romans +and other ancient peoples. Witchcraft had, indeed, a prehistoric origin +and the belief in it still prevails in savage society. + +[Illustration: THE WITCHES' SABBATH.] + +FEATURES OF EUROPEAN WITCHCRAFT + +Witches and wizards were supposed to have sold themselves to the Devil, +receiving in return the power to work magic. They could change themselves +or others into animals, they had charms against the hurt of weapons, they +could raise storms and destroy crops, and they could convey thorns, pins, +and other objects into their victims' bodies, thus causing sickness and +death. At night they rode on broomsticks through the air and assembled in +some lonely place for feasts, dances, and wild revels. At these "Witches' +Sabbaths," as they were called, the Devil himself attended and taught his +followers their diabolic arts. There were various tests for the discovery +of witches and wizards, the most usual being the ordeal by water. [31] + +WITCHCRAFT PERSECUTIONS + +The numerous trials and executions for witchcraft form a dark page in +history. Thousands of harmless old men and women were put to death on the +charge of being leagued with the Devil. Even the most intelligent and +humane people believed in the reality of witchcraft and found a +justification for its punishment in the Scriptural command, "Thou shalt +not suffer a witch to live." [32] The witch epidemic which broke out in +America during the seventeenth century, reaching its height at Salem, +Massachusetts, was simply a reflection of the European fear and hatred of +witches. + +UNLUCKY DAYS + +The Middle Ages inherited from antiquity the observance of unlucky days. +They went under the name of "Egyptian days," so called because it was held +that on one of them the plagues had been sent to devastate the land of +Egypt and on another Pharaoh and his host had been swallowed up in the Red +Sea. At least twenty-four days in the year were regarded as very unlucky. +At such times one ought not to buy and sell, to build a house, to plant a +field, to travel or, in fact, to undertake anything at all important. +After the sixteenth century the belief in unlucky days declined, but there +still exists a prejudice against fishermen starting out to fish, or seamen +to take a voyage, or landsmen a journey, or domestic servants to enter a +new place, on a Friday. + + +207. POPULAR AMUSEMENTS AND FESTIVALS + +INDOOR GAMES + +It is pleasant to turn from the superstitions of the Middle Ages to the +games, sports, and festivals which helped to make life agreeable alike for +rich and poor, for nobles and peasants. Some indoor games are of eastern +origin. Thus chess, with which European peoples seem to have become +acquainted as early as the tenth century [33] arose in India as a war +game. On each side a king and his general, with chariots, cavalry, +elephants, and infantry, met in battle array. These survive in the rooks, +knights, bishops, and pawns of the modern game. Checkers is a sort of +simplified chess, in which the pieces are all pawns, till they get across +the board and become kings. Playing cards are another Oriental invention. +They were introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century, either by the +Arabs or the gypsies. Their first use seems to have been for telling +fortunes. + +[Illustration: CHESS PIECES OF CHARLEMAGNE +Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The figures are carved in ivory.] + +OUTDOOR GAMES + +Many outdoor games are derived from those played in medieval times. How +one kind of game may become the parent of many others is seen in the case +of the ball-play. The ancients tossed and caught balls as children do now. +They also had a game in which each side tried to secure the ball and throw +it over the adversary's goal line. This game lasted on into the Middle +Ages, and from it football has descended. The ancients seem never to have +used a stick or bat in their ball-play. The Persians, however, began to +play ball on horseback, using a long mallet for the purpose, and +introduced their new sport throughout Asia. Under the Tibetan name of +_pulu_ ("ball") it found its way into Europe. When once the mallet had +been invented for use on horseback, it could be easily used on foot, and +so polo gave rise to the various games in which balls are hit with bats, +including tennis, hockey, golf, cricket, and croquet. + +BAITING + +The difference between our ideas of what constitutes "sport" and those of +our ancestors is shown by the popularity of baiting. In the twelfth +century bulls, bears, and even horses were baited. Cock-fighting formed +another common amusement. It was not till the nineteenth century that an +English society for the prevention of cruelty to animals succeeded in +getting a law passed which forbade these cruel sports. Most other European +countries have now followed England's example. + +FESTIVALS + +No account of life in the Middle Ages can well omit some reference to the +celebration of festivals. For the peasant and artisan they provided relief +from physical exertion, and for all classes of society the pageants, +processions, sports, feasts, and merry-makings which accompanied them +furnished welcome diversion. Medieval festivals included not only those of +the Christian Year, [34] but also others which had come down from pre- +Christian times. + +[Illustration: BEAR BAITING. +From the Luttrell Psalter.] + +SEASONAL FESTIVALS + +Many festivals not of Christian origin were derived from the ceremonies +with which the heathen peoples of Europe had been accustomed to mark the +changes of the seasons. Thus, April Fool's Day formed a relic of +festivities held at the vernal equinox. May Day, another festival of +spring, honored the spirits of trees and of all budding vegetation. The +persons who acted as May kings and May queens represented these spirits. +According to the original custom a new May tree was cut down in the forest +every year, but later a permanent May pole was set up on the village +common. On Midsummer Eve (June 23), which marked the summer solstice, came +the fire festival, when people built bonfires and leaped over them, walked +in procession with torches round the fields, and rolled burning wheels +down the hillsides. These curious rites may have been once connected with +sun worship. Hallow Eve, so called from being the eve of All Saints' Day +(November 1), also seems to have been a survival of a heathen celebration. +On this night witches and fairies were supposed to assemble. Hallow Eve +does not appear to have been a season for pranks and jokes, as is its +present degenerate form. Even the festival of Christmas, coming at the +winter solstice, kept some heathen features, such as the use of mistletoe +with which Celtic priests once decked the altars of their gods. The +Christmas tree, however, is not a relic of heathenism. It seems to have +come into use as late as the seventeenth century. + +THE MORRIS DANCE + +Young and old took part in the dances which accompanied village festivals. +Very popular in medieval England was the Morris dance. The name, a +corruption of Moorish, refers to its origin in Spain. The Morris dance was +especially associated with May Day and was danced round a May pole to a +lively and capering step. The performers represented Robin Hood, Maid +Marian, his wife, Tom the Piper, and other traditional characters. On +their garments they wore bells tuned to different notes, so as to sound in +harmony. + +MUMMING + +Mumming had a particular association with Christmas. Mummers were bands of +men and women who disguised themselves in masks and skins of animals and +then serenaded people outside their houses. Oftentimes the mummers acted +out little plays in which Father Christmas, Old King Cole, and St. George +were familiar figures. + +[Illustration: MUMMERS +From a manuscript now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was written and +illuminated in the reign of Edward III.] + +MIRACLE PLAYS + +Besides these village amusements, many plays of a religious character came +into vogue during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The earliest were +the miracle plays. They presented in dramatic form scenes from the Bible +and stories of the saints or martyrs. The actors at first were priests, +and the stage was the church itself or the churchyard. This religious +setting did not prevent the introduction of clowns and buffoons. After a +time the miracle play passed from the clergy to the guilds. All the guilds +of a town usually gave an exhibition once a year. Each guild presented a +single scene in the story. An exhibition might last for several days and +have as many as fifty scenes, beginning at Creation and ending with +Doomsday. [35] + +[Illustration: A MIRACLE PLAY AT COVENTRY, ENGLAND +The rude platform on wheels which served as a stage, was drawn by +apprentices to the market place. Each guild had its own stage.] + +MORALITY PLAYS + +The miracle plays were followed by the "moralities." They dealt with the +struggle between good and evil, rather than with theology. Characters such +as Charity, Faith, Prudence, Riches, Confession, and Death appeared and +enacted a story intended to teach moral lessons. [36] Out of the rude +"morality" and its predecessor, the miracle play, has grown the drama of +modern times. + + +208. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS + +DWELLINGS + +A previous chapter (Chapter XVIII.) described some features of domestic +life in castle and village during the age of feudalism. In England, where +the Norman kings discouraged castle building, the manor house formed the +ordinary residence of the nobility. Even in Continental Europe many +castles were gradually made over into manor houses after the cessation of +feudal warfare. A manor house, however, was only less bare and +inconvenient than a castle. It was still poorly lighted, ill-ventilated, +and in winter scarcely warmed by the open wood fires. Among the +improvements of the fourteenth century were the building of a fireplace at +one or both ends of the manor hall, instead of in the center, and the +substitution of glass windows for wooden shutters or oiled paper. + +[Illustration: MANOR HOUSE IN SHROPSHIRE, ENGLAND +Built in the twelfth century.] + +FURNITURE + +People in the Middle Ages, even the well-to-do, got along with little +furniture. The great hall of a manor house contained a long dining table, +with benches used at meals, and a few stools. The family beds often +occupied curtained recesses in the walls, but guests might have to sleep +on the floor of the manor hall. Servants often slept in the stables. Few +persons could afford rugs to cover the floor; the poor had to put up with +rushes. Utensils were not numerous, and articles of glass and silver were +practically unknown, except in the houses of the rich. Entries in wills +show the high value set upon a single spoon. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF AN ENGLISH MANOR HOUSE +Shows the great hall of a manor house at Penshurst, Kent. The screen with +the minstrels' gallery over it is seen at the end of the hall, and in the +center, the brazier for fire. Built about 1340 A.D.] + +COSTUME + +The pictures in old manuscripts give us a good idea of medieval dress. +Naturally it varied with time and place, and according to the social +position of the wearer. Sometimes laws were passed, without much result, +to regulate the quality, shape, and cost of the costumes to be worn by +different orders of society. The moralists of the age were shocked, then +as now, when tightly fitting garments, which showed the outlines of the +body, became fashionable. The inconvenience of putting them on led to the +use of buttons and buttonholes. Women's headdresses were often of +extraordinary height and shape. Not less remarkable were the pointed shoes +worn by men. The points finally got so long that they hindered walking, +unless tied by a ribbon to the knees. + +[Illustration: COSTUMES OF LADIES DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES] + +BEARDS + +The medieval noble of the twelfth century as a rule went clean shaven. To +wear a beard was regarded as a sign of effeminacy in a man. The Bayeux +Tapestry, [37] for instance, shows the Normans mostly clean-shaven, while +the English wear only moustaches. The introduction of long beards seems to +have been due to contact with the East during the crusading period. + +BATHS AND BATHING + +Regular bathing was not by any means neglected during the later Middle +Ages. In the country districts river, lake, or pool met the needs of +people used to outdoor life. The hot air and vapor baths of the Byzantines +were adopted by the Moslems and later, through the Moors and crusaders, +were made known to western Europe. After the beginning of the thirteenth +century few large cities lacked public bathing places. + +FOOD + +Medieval cookbooks show that people of means had all sorts of elaborate +and expensive dishes. Dinner at a nobleman's house might include as many +as ten or twelve courses, mostly meats and game. Such things as hedgehogs, +peacocks, sparrows, and porpoises, which would hardly tempt the modern +palate, were relished. Much use was made of spices in preparing meats and +gravies, and also for flavoring wines. Over-eating was a common vice in +the Middle Ages, but the open-air life and constant exercise enabled men +and women to digest the huge quantities of food they consumed. + +TABLE ETIQUETTE + +People in medieval times had no knives or forks and consequently ate with +their fingers. Daggers also were employed to convey food to the mouth. +Forks date from the end of the thirteenth century, but were adopted only +slowly. As late as the sixteenth century German preachers condemned their +use, for, said they, the Lord would not have given us fingers if he had +wanted us to rely on forks. Napkins were another table convenience unknown +in the Middle Ages. + +DRINKING + +In the absence of tea and coffee, ale and beer formed the drink of the +common people. The upper classes regaled themselves on costly wines. +Drunkenness was as common and as little reprobated as gluttony. The +monotony of life in medieval Europe, when the nobles had little to do but +hunt and fight, may partly account for the prevailing inebriety. But +doubtless in large measure it was a Teutonic characteristic. The Northmen +were hard drinkers, and of the ancient Germans a Roman writer states that +"to pass an entire day and night in drinking disgraces no one." [38] This +habit of intoxication survived in medieval Germany, and the Anglo-Saxons +and Danes introduced it into England. + +CENTRAL PERIOD OF THE MIDDLE AGES + +Our survey of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has now shown us that +these two hundred years deserve to be called the central period of the +Middle Ages. When the Arabs had brought the culture of the Orient to Spain +and Sicily, when the Northmen after their wonderful expansion had settled +down in Normandy, England, and other countries, and when the peoples of +western Europe, whether as peaceful pilgrims or as warlike crusaders, had +visited Constantinople and the Holy Land, men's minds received a wonderful +stimulus. The intellectual life of Europe was "speeded up," and the way +was prepared for the even more rapid advance of knowledge in the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as the Middle Ages passed into modern +times. + + +STUDIES + +1. Look up on the map between pages 358-359 the following places where +Gothic cathedrals are found: Canterbury, York, Salisbury, Reims, Amiens, +Chartres, Cologne, Strassburg, Burgos, Toledo, and Milan. + +2. Look up on the map facing page 654 the location of the following +medieval universities: Oxford, Montpellier, Paris, Orléans, Cologne, +Leipzig, Prague, Naples, and Salamanca. + +3. Explain the following terms: scholasticism; canon law; alchemy; +troubadours; Provençal language; transept; choir; flying buttress; +werewolf; and mumming. + +4. Who were St. Thomas Aquinas, Abelard, Gratian, Irnerius, and Roger +Bacon? + +5. Show how Latin served as an international language in the Middle Ages. +Name two artificial languages which have been invented as a substitute for +Latin. + +6. What is meant by saying that "French is a mere _patois_ of Latin"? + +7. In what parts of the world is English now the prevailing speech? + +8. Why has Siegfried, the hero of the _Nibelungenlied_, been called the +"Achilles of Teutonic legend"? + +9. What productions of medieval literature reflect aristocratic and +democratic ideals, respectively? + +10. Distinguish between the Romanesque and Gothic styles of architecture. +What is the origin of each term? + +11. Compare the ground plans of a Greek temple (page 291), a Roman +basilica (page 284), and a Gothic cathedral (page 562). + +12. Contrast a Gothic cathedral with a Greek temple, particularly in +regard to size, height, support of the roof, windows, and decorative +features. + +13. Why is there some excuse for describing a Gothic building as "a wall +of glass with a roof of stone"? + +14. Do you see any resemblance in structural features between a Gothic +cathedral and a modern "sky-scraper"? + +15. Mention some likenesses between medieval and modern universities. + +16. Mention some important subjects of instruction in modern universities +which were not treated in those of the Middle Ages. + +17. Why has scholasticism been called "a sort of Aristotelian +Christianity"? + +18. Look up the original meaning of the words "jovial," "saturnine," +"mercurial," "disastrous," "contemplate," and "consider." + +19. Show the indebtedness of chemistry to alchemy and of astronomy to +astrology. + +20. Mention some common folk tales which illustrate medieval +superstitions. + +21. Why was Friday regarded as a specially unlucky day? + +22. Enumerate the most important contributions to civilization made during +the Middle Ages. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter xvii, +"Medieval Tales"; chapter xviii, "Three Medieval Epics." + +[2] See pages 203, 322. + +[3] The language spoken by the natives of Flanders. The country is now +divided between France, Belgium, and Holland. See page 549. + +[4] Icelandic is the oldest and purest form of Scandinavian. Danish and +Norwegian are practically the same, in fact, their literary or book- +language is one. + +[5] Two names for rivers--_Avon_ and _Ex_--which in one form or another +are found in every part of England, are Celtic words meaning "water." + +[6] See page 518. + +[7] See page 309, note 1. + +[8] See page 336. + +[9] See page 386. + +[10] See pages 284, 344. + +[11] See page 283. + +[12] The cathedral, baptistery, and campanile of Pisa form an interesting +example of Romanesque architecture. See the illustration, page 544. + +[13] The interior of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, shows the ribs and +the beautiful tracery of the ceiling of a Gothic building. See the plate +facin page 570. + +[14] The flying buttress is well shown in the view of Canterbury Cathedral +(page 324). + +[15] See page 386. + +[16] For the pointed arch see the view of Melrose Abbey (page 660). + +[17] See the illustrations, pages 550, 551. + +[18] See page 310. + +[19] See pages 207, 331. + +[20] See page 444. + +[21] Latin _universitas_. + +[22] See page 536. + +[23] The method of the school (Latin _schola_). + +[24] See pages 275 and 383. + +[25] See page 618. + +[26] See pages 133 and 608. + +[27] See page 53. + +[28] Greek _oneiros_, "dream." + +[29] Greek _nekros_, "corpse." + +[30] Charles Perrault's _Tales of Passed Times_ appeared at Paris in 1697 +A.D. It included the now-familiar stories of "Bluebeard," "Cinderella," +"Sleeping Beauty," and "Little Red Riding Hood." In 1812 A.D. the brothers +Grimm published their _Household Tales_, a collection of stories current +in Germany. + +[31] See page 420. + +[32] _Exodus_, xxii, 18. + +[33] See page 428. + +[34] See page 346. + +[35] The great Passion Play at Ober Ammergau in Germany is the modern +survival and representative of this medieval religious drama. + +[36] _Everyman_, one of the best of the morality plays, has recently been +revived before large audiences. + +[37] See the illustration, page 408. + +[38] Tacitus, _Germania_, 22. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE RENAISSANCE [1] + + +209. MEANING OF THE RENAISSANCE + +LATER PERIOD OF THE MIDDLE AGES + +The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, covering the later period of the +Middle Ages, are commonly known as those of the Renaissance. This French +word means Rebirth or Revival. It is a convenient term for all the changes +in society, law, and government, in science, philosophy, and religion, in +literature and art which gradually transformed medieval civilization into +that of modern times. + +LIMITS OF THE RENAISSANCE + +The Renaissance, just because of its transitional character, cannot be +exactly dated. Some Renaissance movements started before 1300 A.D. For +instance, the study of Roman law, as a substitute for Germanic customs, +began toward the close of the eleventh century. The rise of European +cities, with all that they meant for industry and commerce, belonged to +about the same time. Other Renaissance movements, again, extended beyond +1500 A.D. Among these were the expansion of geographical knowledge, +resulting from the discovery of the New World, and the revolt against the +Papacy, known as the Protestant Reformation. The Middle Ages, in fact, +came to an end at different times in different fields of human activity. + +ORIGINAL HOME OF THE RENAISSANCE + +The name Renaissance applied, at first, only to the rebirth or revival of +men's interest in the literature and art of classical antiquity. Italy was +the original home of this Renaissance. There it first appeared, there it +found widest acceptance, and there it reached its highest development. +From Italy the Renaissance gradually spread beyond the Alps, until it had +made the round of western Europe. + +ITALIAN CITIES OF THE RENAISSANCE + +Italy, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, was a land particularly +favorable to the growth of learning and the arts. In northern Italy the +great cities of Milan, Pisa, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and many others had +early succeeded in throwing off their feudal burdens and had become +independent, self-governing communities. Democracy flourished in them, as +in the old Greek city-states. Noble birth counted for little; a man of +ability and ambition might rise to any place. The fierce party conflicts +within their walls stimulated mental activity and helped to make life +full, varied, and intense. Their widespread trade and thriving +manufactures made them prosperous. Wealth brought leisure, bred a taste +for luxury and the refinements of life, and gave means for the +gratification of that taste. People wanted to have about them beautiful +pictures, statuary, furniture, palaces, and churches; and they rewarded +richly the artists who could produce such things. It is not without +significance that the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance was +democratic, industrial, and wealthy Florence. [2] + +INFLUENCE OF THE CLASSIC TRADITION + +Italy enjoyed another advantage over the other European countries in its +nearness to Rome. Admiration for the ancient Roman civilization, as +expressed in literature, art, and law, was felt by all Italians. Wherever +they looked, they were reminded of the great past which once had been +theirs. Nor was the inheritance of Greece wholly lost. Greek traders and +the descendants of Greek colonists in Italy still used their ancient +language; all through the medieval centuries there were Italians who +studied Greek. The classic tradition thus survived in Italy and defied +oblivion. + +BYZANTINE, ARABIC, AND NORMAN INFLUENCE + +In the Middle Ages Italy formed a meeting place of several civilizations. +Byzantine influence was felt both in the north and in the south. The +conquest of Sicily by the Arabs made the Italians familiar with the +science, art, and poetry of this cultivated people. After the Normans had +established themselves in southern Italy and Sicily, they in turn +developed a brilliant civilization. [3] From all these sources flowed +streams of cultural influence which united in the Renaissance. + +[Illustration: GHIBERTI'S BRONZE DOORS AT FLORENCE +The second or northern pair of bronze doors of the baptistery at Florence. +Completed by Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1452 A.D. after twenty seven years of +labor The ten panels represent scenes from Old Testament history. +Michelangelo pronounced these magnificent creations worthy to be the gates +of paradise.] + +[Illustration: ST. PETER'S, ROME +St Peter's, begun in 1506 A.D., was completed in 1667, according to the +designs of Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, and other celebrated +architects. It is the largest church in the world. The central aisle, +nave, and choir measure about 600 feet in length, the great dome, 140 feet +in diameter, rises to a height of more than 400 feet. A double colonnade +encircles the piazza in front of the church. The Vatican is seen to the +right of St Peter's.] + + +210. REVIVAL OF LEARNING IN ITALY + +THE CLASSICS IN THE MIDDLE AGES + +The literature of Greece and Rome did not entirely disappear in western +Europe after the Germanic invasions. The monastery and cathedral schools +of the Middle Ages had nourished devoted students of ancient books. The +Benedictine monks labored zealously in copying the works of pagan as well +as Christian authors. The rise of universities made it possible for the +student to pursue a fairly extended course in Latin literature at more +than one institution of learning. Greek literature, however, was little +known in the West. The poems of Homer were read only in a brief Latin +summary, and even Aristotle's writings were studied in Latin translations. + +DANTE ALIGHIERI 1265-1321 A.D. + +Reverence for the classics finds constant expression in the writings of +the Italian poet Dante. He was a native of Florence, but passed much of +his life in exile. Dante's most famous work, the _Divine Comedy_, +describes an imaginary visit to the other world. Vergil guides him through +the realms of Hell and Purgatory until he meets his lady Beatrice, the +personification of love and purity, who conducts him through Paradise. The +_Divine Comedy_ gives in artistic verse an epitome of all that medieval +men knew and hoped and felt: it is a mirror of the Middle Ages. At the +same time it drew much of its inspiration from Graeco-Roman sources. +Athens, for Dante, is the "hearth from which all knowledge glows"; Homer +is the "loftiest of poets", and Aristotle is the "master of those who +know." This feeling for classical antiquity entitles Dante to rank as a +prophet of the Renaissance. + +[Illustration: DANTE ALIGHIERI +From a fresco, somewhat restored, ascribed to the contemporary artist, +Giotto. In the National Museum, Florence.] + +DANTE AND THE ITALIAN LEAGUE + +Dante exerted a noteworthy influence on the Italian language. He wrote the +_Divine Comedy_, not in Latin, but in the vernacular Italian as spoken in +Florence. The popularity of this work helped to give currency to the +Florentine dialect, and in time it became the literary language of Italy. +Italian was the first of the Romance tongues to assume a national +character. + +PETRARCH, 1304-1374 A.D. + +Petrarch, a younger contemporary of Dante, and like him a native of +Florence, has been called the first modern scholar and man of letters. He +devoted himself with tireless energy to classical studies. Writing to a +friend, Petrarch declares that he has read Vergil, Horace, Livy, and +Cicero, "not once, but a thousand times, not cursorily but studiously and +intently, bringing to them the best powers of my mind. I tasted in the +morning and digested at night. I quaffed as a boy, to ruminate as an old +man. These works have become so familiar to me that they cling not to my +memory merely, but to the very marrow of my bones." + +[Illustration: PETRARCH +From a miniature in the Laurentian Library, Florence] + +PETRARCH AS A LATIN REVIVALIST + +Petrarch himself composed many Latin works and did much to spread a +knowledge of Latin authors. He traveled widely in Italy, France, and other +countries, searching everywhere for ancient manuscripts. When he found in +one place two lost orations of Cicero and in another place a collection of +Cicero's letters, he was transported with delight. He kept copyists in his +house, at times as many as four, busily making transcripts of the +manuscripts that he had discovered or borrowed. Petrarch knew almost no +Greek. His copy of Homer, it is said, he often kissed, though he could not +read it. + +BOCCACCIO, 1313-1375 A.D. + +Petrarch's friend and disciple, Boccaccio, was the first to bring to Italy +manuscripts of the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. Having learned some Greek, +he wrote out a translation of those epic poems. But Boccaccio's fame to- +day rests on the _Decameron_. It is a collection of one hundred stories +written in Italian. They are supposed to be told by a merry company of men +and women, who, during a plague at Florence, have retired to a villa in +the country. The _Decameron_ is the first important work in Italian prose. +Many English writers, notably Chaucer in his _Canterbury Tales_ [4] have +gone to it for ideas and plots. The modern short story may be said to date +from Boccaccio. + +STUDY OF GREEK IN ITALY + +The renewed interest in Latin literature, due to Petrarch, Boccaccio, and +others, was followed in the fifteenth century by the revival of Greek +literature. In 1396 A.D. Chrysoloras, a scholar from Constantinople, began +to lecture on Greek in the university of Florence. He afterwards taught in +other Italian cities and further aided the growth of Hellenic studies by +preparing a Greek grammar--the first book of its kind. From this time, and +especially after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D., many learned +Greeks came to Italy, thus transplanting in the West the culture of the +East. "Greece had not perished, but had emigrated to Italy." + +HUMANISM + +To the scholars of the fifteenth century the classics opened up a new +world of thought and fancy. They were delighted by the fresh, original, +and human ideas which they discovered in the pages of Homer, Plato, +Cicero, Horace, and Tacitus. Their new enthusiasm for the classics came to +be known as humanism, [5] or culture. The Greek and Latin languages and +literatures were henceforth the "humanities," as distinguished from the +old scholastic philosophy and theology. + +SPREAD OF HUMANISM IN ITALY + +From Florence, as from a second Athens, humanism spread throughout Italy. +At Milan and Venice, at Rome and Naples, men fell to poring over the +classics. A special feature of the age was the recovery of ancient +manuscripts from monasteries and cathedrals, where they had often lain +neglected and blackened with the dust of ages. Nearly all the Latin works +now extant were brought to light by the middle of the fifteenth century. +But it was not enough to recover the manuscripts: they had to be safely +stored and made accessible to students. So libraries were established, +professorships of the ancient languages were endowed, and scholars were +given opportunities to pursue their researches. Even the popes shared in +this zeal for humanism. One of them founded the Vatican Library at Rome, +which has the most valuable collection of manuscripts in the world. At +Florence the wealthy family of the Medici vied with the popes in the +patronage of the new learning. + + +211. PAPER AND PRINTING + +PRINTED BOOKS + +The revival of learning was greatly hastened when printed books took the +place of manuscripts laboriously copied by hand. Printing is a complicated +process, and many centuries were required to bring it to perfection. Both +paper and movable type had to be invented. + +INTRODUCTION OF PAPER + +The Chinese at a remote period made paper from some fibrous material. The +Arabs seem to have been the first to make linen paper out of flax and +rags. The manufacture of paper in Europe was first established by the +Moors in Spain. The Arab occupation of Sicily introduced the art into +Italy. Paper found a ready sale in Europe, because papyrus and parchment, +which the ancients had used as writing materials, were both expensive and +heavy. Men now had a material moderate in price, durable, and one that +would easily receive the impression of movable type. + +DEVELOPMENT OF MOVABLE TYPE + +The first step in the development of printing was the use of engraved +blocks. Single letters, separate words, and sometimes entire pages of text +were cut in hard wood or copper. When inked and applied to writing +material, they left a clear impression. The second step was to cast the +letters in separate pieces of metal, all of the same height and thickness. +These could then be arranged in any desired way for printing. + +GUTENBERG + +Movable type had been used for centuries by the Chinese, Japanese, and +Koreans in the East, and in Europe several printers have been credited +with their invention. A German, Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, set up the +first printing press with movable type about 1450 A.D., and from it issued +the first printed book. This was a Latin translation of the Bible. + +[Illustration: AN EARLY PRINTING PRESS +Enlarged from the printer's mark of I. B. Ascensius. Used on the title +pages of books printed by him, 1507-1535 A.D.] + +ALDUS AND CAXTON + +The new art quickly spread throughout Christian Europe. It met an +especially warm welcome in Italy, where people felt so keen a desire for +reading and instruction. By the end of the fifteenth century Venice alone +had more than two hundred printing presses. Here Aldus Manutius maintained +a famous establishment for printing Greek and Latin classics. In 1476 A.D. +the English printer, William Caxton, set up his wooden presses within the +precincts of Westminster Abbey. To him we owe editions of Chaucer's poems, +Sir Thomas Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, [6] _Aesop's Fables_, and many other +works. + +INCUNABULA + +The books printed in the fifteenth century go by the name of _incunabula_. +[7] Of the seven or eight million volumes which appeared before 1500 A.D., +about thirty thousand are believed to be still in existence. Many of these +earliest books were printed in heavy, "black letter" type, an imitation of +the characters used in monkish manuscripts. It is still retained for most +books printed in Germany. The clearer and neater "Roman" characters, +resembling the letters employed for ancient Roman inscriptions, came into +use in southern Europe and England. The Aldine press at Venice also +devised "italic" type, said to be modeled after Petrarch's handwriting, to +enable the publisher to crowd more words on a page. + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF PART OF CAXTON'S "AENEID" (REDUCED) +With the same passage in modern type: Thenne beganne agayne the bataylle +of the one parte/And of the other Eneas ascryed to theym and sayd. Lordes +why doo ye fyghte/ Ye knowe well that the couuenante ys deuysed and +made/That Turnus and I shall fyghte for you alle/] + +IMPORTANCE OF PRINTING + +The invention of printing has been called the greatest event in history. +The statement is hardly too strong. It is easy to see that printing +immensely increased the supply of books. A hardworking copyist might +produce, at the most, only a few volumes a year; a printing press could +strike them off by the thousands. Not only more books, but also more +accurate books, could be produced by printing. The old-time copyist, +however skilful, was sure to make mistakes, sometimes of a serious +character. No two copies of any manuscript were exactly alike. When, +however, an entire edition was printed from the same type, mistakes in the +different copies might be entirely eliminated. Furthermore, the invention +of printing destroyed the monopoly of learning possessed by the +universities and people of wealth. Books were now the possession of the +many, not the luxury of the few. Anyone who could read had opened to him +the gateway of knowledge; he became a citizen, henceforth, of the republic +of letters. Printing, which made possible popular education, public +libraries, and ultimately cheap newspapers, ranks with gunpowder [8] as an +emancipating force. + + +212. REVIVAL OF ART IN ITALY + +ARCHITECTURE + +Gothic architecture, with its pointed arches, flying buttresses, and +traceried windows, never struck deep roots in Italy. The architects of the +Renaissance went back to Greek temples and Roman domed buildings for their +models, just as the humanists went back to Greek and Latin literature. +Long rows of Ionic or Corinthian columns, spanned by round arches, became +again the prevailing architectural style. Perhaps the most important +accomplishment of Renaissance builders was the adoption of the dome, +instead of the vault, for the roofs of churches. The majestic cupola of +St. Peter's at Rome, [9] which is modeled after the Pantheon, [10] has +become the parent of many domed structures in the Old and New World. [11] +Architects, however, did not limit themselves to churches. The magnificent +palaces of Florence, as well as some of those in Venice, are among the +monuments of the Renaissance era. Henceforth architecture became more and +more a secular art. + +SCULPTURE + +The development of architecture naturally stimulated the other arts. +Italian sculptors began to copy the ancient bas-reliefs and statues +preserved in Rome and other cities. At this time glazed terra cotta came +to be used by sculptors. Another Renaissance art was the casting of bronze +doors, with panels which represented scenes from the Bible. The beautiful +doors of the baptistery of Florence were described as "worthy of being +placed at the entrance of Paradise." + +MICHELANGELO, 1475-1564 A.D. + +The greatest of Renaissance sculptors was Michelangelo. Though a +Florentine by birth, he lived in Rome and made that city a center of +Italian art. A colossal statue of David, who looks like a Greek athlete, +and another of Moses, seated and holding the table of the law, are among +his best-known works. Michelangelo also won fame in architecture and +painting. The dome of St. Peter's was finished after his designs. Having +been commissioned by one of the popes to decorate the ceiling of the +Sistine chapel [12] in the Vatican, he painted a series of scenes which +presented the Biblical story from the Creation to the Flood. These +frescoes are unequaled for sublimity and power. On the end wall of the +same chapel Michelangelo produced his fresco of the "Last Judgment," one +of the most famous paintings in the world. + +RISE OF ITALIAN PAINTING + +The early Italian painters contented themselves, at first, with imitating +Byzantine mosaics and enamels. [13] Their work exhibited little knowledge +of human anatomy: faces might be lifelike, but bodies were too slender and +out of proportion. The figures of men and women were posed in stiff and +conventional attitudes. The perspective also was false: objects which the +painter wished to represent in the background were as near as those which +he wished to represent in the foreground. In the fourteenth century, +however, Italian painting abandoned the Byzantine style; achieved beauty +of form, design, and color to an extent hitherto unknown; and became at +length the supreme art of the Renaissance. + +CHARACTERISTICS OF ITALIAN PAINTING + +Italian painting began in the service of the Church and always remained +religious in character. Artists usually chose subjects from the Bible or +the lives of the saints. They did not trouble themselves to secure +correctness of costume, but represented ancient Jews, Greeks, and Romans +in the garb of Italian gentlemen. Many of their pictures were frescoes, +that is, the colors were mixed with water and applied to the plaster walls +of churches and palaces. After the process of mixing oils with the colors +was discovered, pictures on wood or canvas (easel paintings) became +common. Renaissance painters excelled in portraiture. They were less +successful with landscapes. + +THE "OLD MASTERS" + +Among the "old masters" of Italian painting four, besides Michelangelo, +stand out with special prominence. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 A.D.) was +architect, sculptor, musician, and engineer, as well as painter. His +finest work, the "Last Supper," a fresco painting at Milan, is much +damaged, but fortunately good copies of it exist. Paris has the best of +his easel pictures--the "Monna Lisa." Leonardo spent four years on it and +then declared that he could not finish it to his satisfaction. Leonardo's +contemporary, Raphael (1483-1520 A.D.), died before he was forty, but not +before he had produced the "Sistine Madonna," now at Dresden, the +"Transfiguration," in the Vatican Gallery at Rome, and many other famous +compositions. In Raphael Italian painting reached its zenith. All his +works are masterpieces. Another artist, the Venetian Titian (1477?-1576 +A.D.), painted portraits unsurpassed for glowing color. His "Assumption of +the Virgin" ranks among the greatest pictures in the world. Lastly must be +noted the exquisite paintings of Correggio (1494-1534 A.D.), among them +the "Holy Night" and the "Marriage of St. Catherine." + +[Illustration: ITALIAN PAINTINGS OF THE RENAISSANCE + ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN--TITIAN + SISTINE MADONNA--RAPHAEL + THE LAST SUPPER--LEONARDO DA VINCI + MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE--CORREGGIO + MONNA LISA GIOCONDA--LEONARDO DA VINCI] + +[Illustration: FLEMISH, DUTCH AND SPANISH PAINTINGS OF THE RENAISSANCE + THE NIGHTWATCH--REMBRANDT + DESCENT FROM THE CROSS--RUBENS + THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION--MURILLO] + +MUSIC + +Another modern art, that of music, arose in Italy during the Renaissance. +In the sixteenth century the three-stringed rebeck received a fourth +string and became the violin, the most expressive of all musical +instruments. A forerunner of the pianoforte also appeared in the +harpsichord. A papal organist and choir-master, Palestrina (1526-1594 +A.D.), was the first of the great composers. He gave music its fitting +place in worship by composing melodious hymns and masses still sung in +Roman Catholic churches. The oratorio, a religious drama set to music but +without action, scenery, or costume, had its beginning at this time. The +opera, however, was little developed until the eighteenth century. + + +213. REVIVAL OF LEARNING AND ART BEYOND ITALY + +SPREAD OF HUMANISM IN EUROPE + +About the middle of the fifteenth century fire from the Italian altar was +carried across the Alps, and a revival of learning began in northern +lands. Italy had led the way by recovering the long-buried treasures of +the classics and by providing means for their study. Scholars in Germany, +France, and England, who now had the aid of the printing press, continued +the intellectual movement and gave it widespread currency. + +DESIDERIUS ERASMUS 1466(?)-1536 A.D. + +The foremost humanist of the age was Desiderius Erasmus. Though a native +of Rotterdam in Holland, he lived for a time in Germany, France, England, +and Italy, and died at Basel in Switzerland. His travels and extensive +correspondence brought him in contact with most of the leading scholars of +the day. Erasmus wrote in Latin many works which were read and enjoyed by +educated men. He might be called the first really popular author in +Europe. Like Petrarch, he did much to encourage the humanistic movement by +his precepts and his example. "When I have money," said this devotee of +the classics, "I will first buy Greek books and then clothes." + +GREEK TESTAMENT OF ERASMUS + +Erasmus performed his most important service as a Biblical critic. In 1516 +A.D. he published the New Testament in the original Greek, with a Latin +translation and a dedication to the pope. Up to this time the only +accessible edition of the New Testament was the old Latin version known as +the Vulgate, which St. Jerome had made near the close of the fourth +century. By preparing a new and more accurate translation, Erasmus +revealed the fact that the Vulgate contained many errors. By printing the +Greek text, together with notes which helped to make the meaning clear, +Erasmus enabled scholars to discover for themselves just what the New +Testament writers had actually said. [14] + +HUMANISM AND THE REFORMATION + +Erasmus as a student of the New Testament carried humanism over into the +religious field. His friends and associates, especially in Germany, +continued his work. "We are all learning Greek now," said Luther, "in +order to understand the Bible." Humanism, by becoming the handmaid of +religion, thus passed insensibly into the Reformation. + +[Illustration: DESIDERIUS ERASMUS (Louvre, Paris) +A portrait by the German artist, Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543 +A.D.). Probably an excellent likeness of Erasmus.] + +THE ARTISTIC REVIVAL IN EUROPE + +Italian architects found a cordial reception in France, Spain, the +Netherlands, and other countries, where they introduced Renaissance styles +of building and ornamentation. The celebrated palace of the Louvre in +Paris, which is used to-day as an art gallery and museum, dates from the +sixteenth century. At this time the French nobles began to replace their +somber feudal dwellings by elegant country houses. Renaissance sculpture +also spread beyond Italy throughout Europe. Painters in northern countries +at first followed Italian models, but afterwards produced masterpieces of +their own. [15] + + +214. THE RENAISSANCE IN LITERATURE + +HUMANISM AND THE VERNACULAR + +The renewed interest in classical studies for a time retarded the +development of national languages and literatures in Europe. To the +humanists only Latin and Greek seemed worthy of notice. Petrarch, for +instance, composed in Italian beautiful sonnets which are still much +admired, but he himself expected to gain literary immortality through his +Latin works. Another Italian humanist went so far as to call Dante "a poet +for bakers and cobblers," and the _Divine Comedy_ was indeed translated +into Latin a few years after the author's death. + +THE VERNACULAR REVIVAL + +But a return to the vernacular was bound to come. The common people +understood little Latin, and Greek not at all. Yet they had learned to +read and they now had the printing press. Before long many books composed +in Italian, Spanish, French, English, and other national languages made +their appearance. This revival of the vernacular meant that henceforth +European literature would be more creative and original than was possible +when writers merely imitated or translated the classics. The models +provided by Greece and Rome still continued, however, to furnish +inspiration to men of letters. + +MACHIAVELLI, 1469-1527 A.D. + +The Florentine historian and diplomat, Machiavelli, by his book, _The +Prince_, did much to found the modern science of politics. Machiavelli, as +a patriotic Italian, felt infinite distress at the divided condition of +Italy, where numerous petty states were constantly at war. In _The Prince_ +he tried to show how a strong, despotic ruler might set up a national +state in the peninsula. He thought that such a ruler ought not to be bound +by the ordinary rules of morality. He must often act "against faith, +against charity, against humanity, and against religion." The end would +justify the means. Success was everything; morality, nothing. This +dangerous doctrine has received the name of "Machiavellism"; it is not yet +dead in European statecraft. + +CERVANTES, 1547-1616 A.D. + +Spain during the sixteenth century gave to the world in Cervantes the only +Spanish writer who has achieved a great reputation outside his own +country. Cervantes's masterpiece, _Don Quixote_, seems to have been +intended as a burlesque upon the romances of chivalry once so popular in +Europe. The hero, Don Quixote, attended by his shrewd and faithful squire, +Sancho Panza, rides forth to perform deeds of knight-errantry, but meets, +instead, the most absurd adventures. The work is a vivid picture of +Spanish life. Nobles, priests, monks, traders, farmers, innkeepers, +muleteers, barbers, beggars--all these pass before our eyes as in a +panorama. _Don Quixote_ immediately became popular, and it is even more +read to-day than it was three centuries ago. + +[Illustration: CERVANTES] + +FROISSART, 1397(?)-1410 A.D. + +The Flemish writer, Froissart, deserves notice as a historian and as one +of the founders of French prose. His _Chronicles_ present an account of +the fourteenth century, when the age of feudalism was fast drawing to an +end. He admired chivalry and painted it in glowing colors. He liked to +describe tournaments, battles, sieges, and feats of arms. Kings and +nobles, knights and squires, are the actors on his stage. Froissart +traveled in many countries and got much of his information at first hand +from those who had made history. Out of what he learned he composed a +picturesque and romantic story, which still captivates the imagination. + +MONTAIGNE, 1533-1593 A.D. + +A very different sort of writer was the Frenchman, Montaigne. He lives to- +day as the author of one hundred and seven essays, very delightful in +style and full of wit and wisdom. Montaigne really invented the essay, a +form of literature in which he has had many imitators. + +CHAUCER, 1340(?)-1400 A.D. + +Geoffrey Chaucer, who has been called the "morning star" of the English +Renaissance, was a story-teller in verse. His _Canterbury Tales_ are +supposed to be told by a company of pilgrims, as they journey from London +to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. [16] Chaucer describes +freshly and with unfailing good spirits the life of the middle and upper +classes. He does not reveal, any more than his contemporary Froissart, the +labor and sorrows of the down-trodden peasantry. But Chaucer was a true +poet, and his name stands high in England's long roll of men of letters. + +SHAKESPEARE, 1564-1616 A.D. + +This survey of the national authors of the Renaissance may fitly close +with William Shakespeare, whose genius transcended national boundaries and +made him a citizen of all the world. His life is known to us only in +barest outline. Born at Stratford-on-Avon, of humble parentage, he +attended the village grammar school, where he learned "small Latin and +less Greek", went to London as a youth, and became an actor and a +playwright. He prospered, made money both from his acting and the sale of +his plays, and at the age of forty-four retired to Stratford for the rest +of his life. Here he died eight years later, and here his grave may still +be seen in the village church. [17] During his residence in London he +wrote, in whole or in part, thirty-six or thirty-seven dramas, both +tragedies and comedies. They were not collected and published until +several years after his death. Shakespeare's plays were read and praised +by his contemporaries, but it has remained for modern men to see in him +one who ranks with Homer, Vergil, Dante, and Goethe among the great poets +of the world. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE +From the copper plate engraved by Martin Droeshout as frontispiece to the +First Folio edition of Shakespeare's works in 1623 A.D. In this engraving +the head is far too large for the body and the dress is out of +perspective. The only other authentic likeness of Shakespeare is the bust +over his grave in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on Avon] + +[Illustration: SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE, STRATFORD-ON-AVON +The house in which Shakespeare was born has been much altered in exterior +appearance since the poet's day. The timber framework, the floors, most of +the interior walls, and the cellars remain, however, substantially +unchanged. The illustration shows the appearance of the house before the +restoration made in 1857 A.D.] + +PERSONALITY IN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE + +Renaissance poets and prose writers revealed themselves in their books. In +the same way the sculptors and painters of the Renaissance worked out +their own ideas and emotions in their masterpieces. This personal note +affords a sharp contrast to the anonymity of the Middle Ages. We do not +know the authors of the _Song of Roland_, the _Nibelungenlied_, and +_Reynard the Fox_, any more than we know the builders of the Gothic +cathedrals. Medieval literature subordinated the individual; that of the +Renaissance expressed the sense of individuality and man's interest in +himself. It was truly "humanistic." + + +215. THE RENAISSANCE IN EDUCATION + +HUMANISM AND EDUCATION + +The universities of the Middle Ages emphasized scholastic philosophy, +though in some institutions law and medicine also received much attention. +Greek, of course, was not taught, the vernacular languages of Europe were +not studied, and neither science nor history enjoyed the esteem of the +learned. The Renaissance brought about a partial change in this +curriculum. The classical languages and literatures, after some +opposition, gained an entrance into university courses and displaced +scholastic philosophy as the chief subject of instruction. From the +universities the study of the "humanities" descended to the lower schools, +where they still hold a leading place. + +VITTORINO DA FELTRE, 1378-1446 A.D. + +An Italian humanist, Vittorino da Feltre, was the pioneer of Renaissance +education. In his private school at Mantua, the "House of Delight," as it +was called, Vittorino aimed to develop at the same time the body, mind, +and character of his pupils, so as to fit them to "serve God in Church and +State." Accordingly, he gave much attention to religious instruction and +also set a high value on athletics. The sixty or seventy young men under +his care were taught to hunt and fish, to run and jump, to wrestle and +fence, to walk gracefully, and above all things to be temperate. For +intellectual training he depended on the Latin classics as the best means +of introducing students to the literature, art, and philosophy of ancient +times. Vittorino's name is not widely known to-day; he left no writings, +preferring, as he said, to live in the lives of his pupils; but there is +scarcely a modern teacher who does not consciously or unconsciously follow +his methods. More than anyone else, he is responsible for the educational +system which has prevailed in Europe almost to the present day. + +A "CLASSICAL EDUCATION" + +It cannot be said that the influence of humanism on education was wholly +good. Henceforth the Greek and Latin languages and literatures became the +chief instruments of culture. Educators neglected the great world of +nature and of human life which lay outside the writings of the ancients. +This "bookishness" formed a real defect of Renaissance systems of +training. + +COMENIUS, 1592-1671 A.D. + +A Moravian bishop named Comenius, who gave his long life almost wholly to +teaching, stands for a reaction against humanistic education. He proposed +that the vernacular tongues, as well as the classics, should be made +subjects of study. For this purpose he prepared a reading book, which was +translated into a dozen European languages, and even into Arabic, Persian, +and Turkish. Comenius also believed that the curriculum should include the +study of geography, world history, and government, and the practice of the +manual arts. He was one of the first to advocate the teaching of science. +Perhaps his most notable idea was that of a national system of education, +reaching from primary grades to the university. "Not only," he writes, +"are the children of the rich and noble to be drawn to school, but all +alike, rich and poor, boys and girls, in great towns and small, down to +the country villages." The influence of this Slavic teacher is more and +more felt in modern systems of education. + + +216. THE SCIENTIFIC RENAISSANCE + +HUMANISM AND SCIENCE + +The Middle Ages were not by any means ignorant of science, [18] but its +study naturally received a great impetus when the Renaissance brought +before educated men all that the Greeks and Romans had done in +mathematics, physics, astronomy, medicine, and other subjects. The +invention of printing also fostered the scientific revival by making it +easy to spread knowledge abroad in every land. The pioneers of Renaissance +science were Italians, but students in France, England, Germany, and other +countries soon took up the work of enlightenment. + +COPERNICUS 1473-1543 A.D. + +The names of some Renaissance scientists stand as landmarks in the history +of thought. The first place must be given to Copernicus, the founder of +modern astronomy. He was a Pole, but lived many years in Italy. Patient +study and calculation led him to the conclusion that the earth turns upon +its own axis, and, together with the planets, revolves around the sun. The +book in which he announced this conclusion did not appear until the very +end of his life. A copy of it reached him on his deathbed. + +THE COPERNICAN THEORY + +Medieval astronomers had generally accepted the Ptolemaic system. [19] +Some students before Copernicus had indeed suggested that the earth and +planets might rotate about a central sun, but he first gave reasons for +such a belief. The new theory met much opposition, not only in the +universities, which clung to the time-honored Ptolemaic system, but also +among theologians, who thought that it contradicted many statements in the +Bible. Moreover, people could not easily reconcile themselves to the idea +that the earth, instead of being the center of the universe, is only one +member of the solar system, that it is, in fact, only a mere speck of +cosmic dust. + +GALILEO, 1564-1642 A.D. + +An Italian scientist, Galileo, made one of the first telescopes--it was +about as powerful as an opera glass--and turned it on the heavenly bodies +with wonderful results. He found the sun moving unmistakably on its axis, +Venus showing phases according to her position in relation to the sun, +Jupiter accompanied by revolving moons, or satellites, and the Milky Way +composed of a multitude of separate stars. Galileo rightly believed that +these discoveries confirmed the theory of Copernicus. + +KEPLER, 1571-1630 A.D. + +Another man of genius, the German Kepler, worked out the mathematical laws +which govern the movements of the planets. He made it clear that the +planets revolve around sun in elliptical instead of circular orbits. +Kepler's investigations afterwards led to the discovery of the principle +of gravitation. + +VESALIUS, 1514-1564 A.D., AND HARVEY, 1578-1657 A.D. + +Two other scientists did epochal work in a field far removed from +astronomy. Vesalius, a Fleming, who studied in Italian medical schools, +gave to the world the first careful description of the human body based on +actual dissection. He was thus the founder of human anatomy. Harvey, an +Englishman, after observing living animals, announced the discovery of the +circulation of the blood. He thereby founded human physiology. + +THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD + +Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Vesalius, Harvey, and their fellow workers +built up the scientific method. In the Middle Ages students had mostly +been satisfied to accept what Aristotle and other philosophers had said, +without trying to prove their statements. [20] Kepler, for instance, was +the first to disprove the Aristotelian idea that, as all perfect motion is +circular, therefore the heavenly bodies must move in circular orbits. +Similarly, the world had to wait many centuries before Harvey showed +Aristotle's error in supposing that the blood arose in the liver, went +thence to the heart, and by the veins was conducted over the body. The new +scientific method rested on observation and experiment. Students learned +at length to take nothing for granted, to set aside all authority, and to +go straight to nature for their facts. As Lord Bacon, [21] one of +Shakespeare's contemporaries and a severe critic of the old scholasticism, +declared, "All depends on keeping the eye steadily fixed upon the facts of +nature, and so receiving their images simply as they are, for God forbid +that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of +the world." Modern science, to which we owe so much, is a product of the +Renaissance. + + +217. THE ECONOMIC RENAISSANCE + +AN ECONOMIC CHANGE + +Thus far the Renaissance has been studied as an intellectual and artistic +movement, which did much to liberate the human mind and brought the Middle +Ages to an end in literature, in art, and in science. It is necessary, +however, to consider the Renaissance era from another point of view. +During this time an economic change of vast significance was taking place +in rural life all over western Europe. We refer to the decline and +ultimate extinction of medieval serfdom. + +DECLINE OF SERFDOM + +Serfdom imposed a burden only less heavy than the slavery which it had +displaced. The serf, as has been shown, [22] might not leave the manor in +which he was born, he might not sell his holdings of land, and, finally, +he had to give up a large part of his time to work without pay for the +lord of the manor. This system of forced labor was at once unprofitable to +the lord and irksome to his serfs. After the revival of trade and industry +in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries had brought more money into +circulation, [23] the lord discovered how much better it was to hire men +to work for him, as he needed them, instead of depending on serfs who +shirked their tasks as far as possible. The latter, in turn, were glad to +pay the lord a fixed sum for the use of land, since now they could devote +themselves entirely to its cultivation. Both parties gained by an +arrangement which converted the manorial lord into a landlord and the serf +into a free tenant-farmer paying rent. + +THE "BLACK DEATH" + +The emancipation of the peasantry was hastened, strangely enough, as the +result of perhaps the most terrible calamity that has ever afflicted +mankind. About the middle of the fourteenth century a pestilence of +Asiatic origin, now known to have been the bubonic plague, reached the +West. [24] The "Black Death" so called because among its symptoms were +dark patches all over the body, moved steadily across Europe. The way for +its ravages had been prepared by the unhealthful conditions of ventilation +and drainage in towns and cities. After attacking Greece, Sicily, Italy, +Spain, France, and Germany, the plague entered England in 1349 A.D. and +within less than two years swept away probably half the population of that +country. The mortality elsewhere was enormous, one estimate setting it as +high as twenty-five millions for all Europe. + +EFFECTS OF THE "BLACK DEATH" + +The pestilence in England, as in other countries, caused a great scarcity +of labor. For want of hands to bring in the harvest, crops rotted on the +ground, while sheep and cattle, with no one to care for them, strayed +through the deserted fields. The free peasants who survived demanded and +received higher wages. Even the serfs, whose labor was now more valued, +found themselves in a better position. The lord of a manor, in order to +keep his laborers, would often allow them to substitute money payments for +personal services. When the serfs got no concessions, they frequently took +to flight and hired themselves to the highest bidder. + +FIRST STATUTE OF LABORERS, 1351 A.D. + +The governing classes of England, who at this time were mainly landowners, +believed that the workers were taking an unfair advantage of the +situation. So in 1351 A.D. Parliament passed a law fixing the maximum wage +in different occupations and punishing with imprisonment those who refused +to accept work when it was offered to them. The fact that Parliament had +to reenact this law thirteen times within the next century shows that it +did not succeed in preventing a general rise of wages. It only exasperated +the working classes. + +THE PEASANTS' REBELLION, 1381 A.D. + +A few years after the first Statute of Laborers the restlessness and +discontent among the masses led to a serious outbreak. It was one of the +few attempts at violent revolution which the English working people have +made. One of the inspirers of the rebellion was a wandering priest named +John Ball. He went about preaching that all goods should be held in common +and the distinction between lords and serfs wiped away. "When Adam delved +and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" asked John Ball. Uprisings +occurred in nearly every part of England, but the one in Kent had most +importance. The rioters marched on London and presented their demands to +the youthful king, Richard II. He promised to abolish serfdom and to give +them a free pardon. As soon, however, as Richard had gathered an army, he +put down the revolt by force and hanged John Ball and about a hundred of +his followers. + +THE JACQUERIE, 1358 A.D. + +The rebellion in England may be compared with the far more terrible +Jacquerie [25] in France, a few years earlier. The French peasants, who +suffered from feudal oppression and the effects of the Hundred Years' War, +raged through the land, burning the castles and murdering their feudal +lords. The movement had scarcely any reasonable purpose; it was an +outburst of blind passion. The nobles avenged themselves by slaughtering +the peasants in great numbers. + +[Illustration: RICHARD II +After an engraving based on the original in Westminster Abbey. Probably +the oldest authentic portrait in England.] + +EXTINCTION OF SERFDOM + +Though these first great struggles of labor against capital were failures, +the emancipation of the peasantry went steadily on throughout the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. By 1500 A.D. serfdom had virtually +disappeared in Italy, in most parts of France, and in England. Some less- +favored countries retained serfdom much longer. Prussian, Austrian, and +Russian serfs did not receive their freedom until the nineteenth century. + +CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY + +The extinction of serfdom was, of course, a forward step in human freedom, +but the lot of the English and Continental peasantry long remained +wretched. The poem of _Piers Plowman_, written in the time of Chaucer, +shows the misery of the age and reveals a very different picture than that +of the gay, holiday-making, merry England seen in the _Canterbury Tales_. +One hundred and fifty years later, the English humanist, Sir Thomas More, +a friend of Erasmus, published his _Utopia_ as a protest against social +abuses. _Utopia_, or "Nowhere," is an imaginary country whose inhabitants +choose their own rulers, hold all property in common, and work only nine +hours a day. In Utopia a public system of education prevails, cruel +punishments are unknown, and every one enjoys complete freedom to worship +God. This remarkable book, though it pictures an ideal commonwealth, +really anticipates many social reforms of the present time. + + +STUDIES + +1. Prepare a chronological chart showing the leading men of letters, +artists, scientists, and educators mentioned in this chapter. + +2. For what were the following persons noted: Chrysoloras; Vittorino da +Feltre; Gutenberg; Boccaccio; Machiavelli; Harvey; and Galileo? + +3. How did the words "machiavellism" and "utopian" get their present +meanings? + +4. Distinguish and define the three terms, "Renaissance," "Revival of +Learning," and "Humanism." + +5. "Next to the discovery of the New World, the recovery of the ancient +world is the second landmark that divides us from the Middle Ages and +marks the transition to modern life." Comment on this statement. + +6. Why did the Renaissance begin as "an Italian event"? + +7. "City-states have always proved favorable to culture." Illustrate this +remark. + +8. Why was the revival of Greek more important in the history of +civilization than the revival of Latin? + +9. Show that printing was an "emancipating force." + +10. With what paintings by the "old masters" are you familiar? + +11. How does the opera differ from the oratorio? + +12. Why has Froissart been styled the "French Herodotus"? + +13. How many of Shakespeare's plays can you name? How many have you read? + +14. Can you mention any of Shakespeare's plays which are founded on +Italian stories or whose scenes are laid in Italy? + +15. Why did the classical scholar come to be regarded as the only educated +man? + +16. In what respects is the American system of education a realization of +the ideals of Comenius? + +17. Did the medieval interest in astrology retard or further astronomical +research? + +18. How did the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler confirm the Copernican +theory? + +19. What is meant by the "emancipation of the peasantry"? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter xix, "A +Scholar of the Renaissance"; chapter xx, "Renaissance Artists." + +[2] See page 545. + +[3] See page 413. + +[4] See page 604. + +[5] Latin _humanitas,_ from _homo_, "man." + +[6] See page 560. + +[7] A Latin word meaning "cradle" or "birthplace," and so the beginning of +anything. + +[8] See page 574. + +[9] See the plate facing page 591. + +[10] See the illustration, page 202. + +[11] For instance, the Invalides in Paris, St. Paul's in London, and the +Capitol at Washington. + +[12] In this chapel the election of a new pope takes place. + +[13] See page 336. + +[14] The so-called _Complutensian Polyglott_, issued at Alcalá in Spain by +Cardinal Jimenes, did even more for the advance of Biblical scholarship. +This was the first printed text of the Greek New Testament, but it was not +actually published till 1522 A.D., six years after the appearance of the +edition by Erasmus. + +[15] A list of the great European painters would include at least the +following names: Durer (1471-1582 A.D.) and Hans Holbein the Younger +(1497-1543 A.D.) in Germany; Rubens (1577-1640 A.D.) and Van Dyck (1599- +1641 A.D.) in Flanders; Rembrandt (1606-1669 A.D.) in Holland; Claude +Lorraine (1600-1682 A.D.) in France; and Velásquez (1599-1660 A.D.) and +Murillo (1617-1682 A.D.) in Spain. + +[16] See the illustration, page 442. + +[17] The three-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death was +appropriately observed in 1916 A.D. throughout the world. + +[18] See page 572. + +[19] See page 133. + +[20] See page 571. + +[21] Not to be confused with his countryman, Roger Bacon, who lived in the +thirteenth century. See page 573. + +[22] See page 436. + +[23] See page 541. + +[24] A similar plague devastated the Roman world during the reign of +Justinian. + +[25] From _Jacques_, a common French name for a peasant. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION [1] + + +218. MEDIEVAL GEOGRAPHY + +THE GEOGRAPHICAL RENAISSANCE + +There was also a geographical Renaissance. The revival of the exploring +spirit led to the discovery of ocean routes to the Far East and the +Americas. In consequence, commerce was vastly stimulated, and two +continents, hitherto unknown, were opened up to civilization. The +geographical Renaissance, which gave man a New World, thus cooperated with +the other movements of the age in bringing about the transition from +medieval to modern times. + +MEDIEVAL IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY + +The Greeks and Romans had become familiar with a large part of Europe and +Asia, but much of their learning was either forgotten or perverted during +the early Middle Ages. Even the wonderful discoveries of the Northmen in +the North Atlantic gradually faded from memory. The Arabs, whose conquests +and commerce extended over so much of the Orient, far surpassed the +Christian peoples of Europe in knowledge of the world. + +GEOGRAPHICAL MYTHS + +The alliance of medieval geography with theology led to curious results. +Map makers, relying on a passage in the Old Testament, [2] usually placed +Jerusalem in the center of the world. A Scriptural reference to the "four +corners of the earth" [3] was sometimes thought to imply the existence of +a rectangular world. From classical sources came stories of monstrous men, +one-eyed, headless, or dog-headed, who were supposed to inhabit remote +regions. Equally monstrous animals, such as the unicorn and dragon, [4] +kept them company. Sailors' "yarns" must have been responsible for the +belief that the ocean boiled at the equator and that in the Atlantic--the +"Sea of Darkness"--lurked serpents huge enough to sink ships. To the real +danger of travel by land and water people thus added imaginary terrors. + +THE COSMAS MAP + +Many maps prepared in the Middle Ages sum up the prevailing knowledge, or +rather ignorance, of the world. One of the earliest specimens that has +come down to us was made in the sixth century, by Cosmas, an Alexandrian +monk. It exhibits the earth as a rectangle surrounded by an ocean with +four deep gulfs. Beyond this ocean lies another world, the seat of +Paradise and the place "where men dwelt before the Flood." The rivers +which flow from the lakes of Paradise are also shown. Figures holding +trumpets represent the four winds. + +[Illustration: GEOGRAPHICAL MONSTERS +From an early edition of Sir John Mandeville's _Travels_. Shakespeare +(_Othello_, I, iii, 144-145) refers to: + "The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads + Do grow beneath their shoulders."] + +THE HEREFORD MAP + +A map made about seven hundred years later, and now preserved in Hereford +Cathedral, shows the earth as a circular disk with the ocean surrounding +it. In the extreme east--that is, at the top--lies Paradise, Jerusalem +occupies the center, and below it comes the Mediterranean, liberally +supplied with islands. The Black Sea appears as a narrow body of water, +and even the British Isles are strangely distorted to fit the circle. Such +a map could have been of little use to travelers; it simply satisfied a +natural curiosity about the wonders of the world. + +OPENING UP OF ASIA + +The crusades, more than anything else, first extended geographical +knowledge. As a religious movement they led to pilgrimages and missions in +Oriental lands. With the pilgrims and missionaries went hard-headed +traders, who brought back to Europe the wealth of the East. The result, by +1300 A.D., was to open up countries beyond the Euphrates which had +remained sealed to Europe for centuries. This discovery of the interior of +Asia had only less importance than that of the New World two centuries +later. + +LEGEND OF PRESTER JOHN + +What specially drew explorers eastward was the belief that somewhere in +the center of Asia existed a great Christian kingdom which, if allied to +European Christendom, might attack the Moslems from the rear. According to +one form of the story the kingdom consisted of the Ten Tribes of Israel, +[5] who had been converted to Christianity by Nestorian missionaries. [6] +Over them reigned a priest-king named Prester (or Presbyter) John. The +popes made several attempts to communicate with this mythical ruler. In +the thirteenth century, however, Franciscan friars did penetrate to the +heart of Asia. They returned to Europe with marvelous tales of the wealth +and splendor of the East under the Mongol emperors. + +THE POLOS IN THE EAST, 1271-1295 A.D. + +The most famous of all medieval travelers were Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, and +Nicolo's son, Marco. These Venetian merchants set out for Asia in 1271 +A.D., and after an adventurous journey reached the court of Kublai Khan at +Peking. [7] The Mongol ruler, who seems to have been anxious to introduce +Christianity and European culture among his people, received them in a +friendly manner, and they amassed much wealth by trade. Marco entered the +khan's service and went on several expeditions to distant parts of the +Mongol realm. Many years passed before Kublai would allow his useful +guests to return to Europe. They sailed at length from Zaitun, a Chinese +seaport, skirted the coast of southeastern Asia and India, and then made +their way overland to the Mediterranean. When the travelers reached Venice +after an absence of twenty-four years, their relatives were slow to +recognize in them the long-lost Polos. + +[Illustration: GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES + THE WORLD ACCORDING TO COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, 535 A.D. + THE HEREFORD MAP, 1280 A.D.] + +MARCO POLO'S BOOK + +The story of the Polos, as written down at Marco's dictation, became one +of the most popular works of the Middle Ages. In this book Europe read of +far Cathay (China), with its wealth, its huge cities, and swarming +population, of mysterious and secluded Tibet, of Burma, Siam, and Cochin- +China, with their palaces and pagodas, of the East Indies, famed for +spices, of Ceylon, abounding in pearls, and of India, little known since +the days of Alexander the Great. Even Cipango (Japan) Marco described from +hearsay as an island whose people were white, civilized, and so rich in +gold that the royal palace was roofed and paved with that metal. The +accounts of these countries naturally made Europeans more eager than ever +to reach the East. + + +219. AIDS TO EXPLORATION + +THE COMPASS + +The new knowledge gained by European peoples about the land routes of Asia +was accompanied by much progress in the art of ocean navigation. First in +importance came the compass to guide explorers across the waters of the +world. The Chinese appear to have discovered that a needle, when rubbed +with a lodestone, has the mysterious power of pointing to the north. The +Arabs may have introduced this rude form of the compass among +Mediterranean sailors. The instrument, improved by being balanced on a +pivot so that it would not be affected by choppy seas, seems to have been +generally used by Europeans as early as the thirteenth century. It greatly +aided sailors by enabling them to find their bearings in murky weather and +on starless nights. The compass, though useful, was not indispensable; +without its help the Northmen had made their distant expeditions in the +Atlantic. + +NAUTICAL INSTRUMENTS + +The astrolabe, which the Greeks had invented and used for astronomical +purposes, also came into Europe through the Arabs. It was employed to +calculate latitudes by observation of the height of the sun above the +horizon. Other instruments that found a place on shipboard were the hour- +glass, minute-glass, and sun-dial. A rude form of the log was used as a +means of estimating the speed of a vessel, and so of finding roughly the +longitude. + +[Illustration: AN ASTROLABE] + +OTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN NAVIGATION + +During the last centuries of the Middle Ages the charting of coasts became +a science. A sailor might rely on the "handy maps" (_portolani_) which +outlined with some approach to accuracy the bays, islands, and headlands +of the Mediterranean and adjacent waters. Manuals were prepared telling +the manner about the tides, currents, and other features of the route he +intended to follow. The increase in size of ships made navigation safer +and permitted the storage of bulky cargoes. For long voyages the sailing +vessel replaced the medieval galley rowed by oars. As the result of all +these improvements navigators no longer found it necessary to keep close +to the shore, but could push out dauntlessly into the open sea. + +MOTIVES FOR EXPLORATION + +Many motives prompted exploration. Scientific curiosity, bred of the +Renaissance spirit of free inquiry, led men to set forth on voyages of +discovery. The crusading spirit, which had not died out in Europe, +thrilled at the thought of spreading Christianity among heathen peoples. +And in this age, as in all epochs of exploration, adventurers sought in +distant lands opportunities to acquire wealth and fame and power. + +THE COMMERCIAL MOTIVE + +Commerce formed perhaps the most powerful motive for exploration. Eastern +spices--cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger--were used more +freely in medieval times than now, when people lived on salt meat during +the winter and salt fish during Lent. Even wine, ale, and medicines had a +seasoning of spices. When John Ball [8] wished to contrast the easy life +of the lords with the peasants' hard lot, he said, "They have wines, +spices, and fine bread, while we have only rye and the refuse of the +straw." [9] Besides spices, all kinds of precious stones, drugs, perfumes, +gums, dyes, and fragrant woods came from the East. Since the time of the +crusades these luxuries, after having been brought overland by water to +Mediterranean ports, had been distributed by Venetian and Genoese +merchants throughout Europe. [10] But now in the fifteenth century two +other European peoples--the Portuguese and Spaniards--appeared as +competitors for this Oriental trade. Their efforts to break through the +monopoly enjoyed by the Italian cities led to the discovery of the sea +routes to the Indies. The Portuguese were first in the field. + + +220. TO THE INDIES EASTWARD: PRINCE HENRY AND DA GAMA + +PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR, 1394-1460 A.D. + +In the history of the fifteenth century few names rank higher than that of +Prince Henry, commonly called the Navigator, because of his services to +the cause of exploration. The son of a Portuguese king, he devoted himself +during more than forty years to organizing scientific discovery. Under his +direction better maps were made, the astrolabe was improved, the compass +was placed on vessels, and seamen were instructed in all the nautical +learning of the time. The problem which Prince Henry studied and which +Portuguese sailors finally solved was the possibility of a maritime route +around Africa to the Indies. + +EXPLORATION OF THE AFRICAN COAST + +The expeditions sent out by Prince Henry began by rediscovering the +Madeira and Azores Islands, first visited by Europeans in the fourteenth +century. Then the Portuguese turned southward along the unchartered +African coast. In 1445 A.D. they got as far as Cape Verde, or "Green +Cape," so called because of its luxuriant vegetation. The discovery was +important, for it disposed of the idea that the Sahara desert extended +indefinitely to the south. Sierra Leone, which the Carthaginian Hanno [11] +had probably visited, was reached in 1462 A.D., two years after Prince +Henry's death. Soon Portuguese sailors found the great bend of the African +coast formed by the gulf of Guinea. In 1471 A.D. they crossed the equator, +without the scorching that some had feared. In 1482 A.D. they were at the +mouth of the Congo. Six years later Bartholomew Diaz rounded the southern +extremity of Africa. The story goes that he named it the Cape of Storms, +and that the king of Portugal, recognizing its importance as a stage on +the route to the East, rechristened it the Cape of Good Hope. + +DA GAMA'S VOYAGE, 1497-1499 A.D. + +A daring mariner, Vasco da Gama, opened the sea-gates to the Indies. With +four tiny ships he set sail from Lisbon in July, 1497 A.D., and after +leaving the Cape Verde Islands made a wide sweep into the South Atlantic. +Five months passed before Africa was seen again. Having doubled the Cape +of Good Hope in safety, Da Gama skirted the eastern shores of Africa and +at length secured the services of a Moslem pilot to guide him across the +Indian Ocean. In May, 1498 A.D., he reached Calicut, [12] an important +commercial city on the southwest coast of India. When Da Gama returned to +Lisbon, after an absence of over two years, he brought back a cargo which +repaid sixty times the cost of the expedition. The Portuguese king +received him with high honor and created him Admiral of the Indies. + +[Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA +From a manuscript in the British Museum.] + +CAMOENS, 1524-1580 A.D., AND THE LUSIADS + +The story of Da Gama's memorable voyage was sung by the Portuguese poet, +Camoens, in the _Lusiads_. It is the most successful of all modern epics. +The popularity of the _Lusiads_ has done much to keep alive the sense of +nationality among the Portuguese, and even to-day it forms a bond of union +between Portugal and her daughter-nation across the Atlantic--Brazil. + +SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MARITIME ROUTE + +The discovery of an ocean passage to the East came at the right moment. +Just at this time the Ottoman Turks were beginning to block up the old +trade routes. [13] Their conquests in Asia Minor and southeastern Europe, +during the fifteenth century, shut out the Italians from the northern +route through the Aegean and the Black Sea. After Syria and Egypt were +conquered, early in the sixteenth century, the central and southern routes +also passed under Turkish control. The Ottoman advance struck a mortal +blow at the prosperity of the Italian cities, which had so long +monopolized Oriental trade. But the misfortune of Venice and Genoa was the +opportunity of Portugal. + + +221. THE PORTUGUESE COLONIAL EMPIRE + +PORTUGUESE ASCENDANCY IN THE EAST + +After Da Gama's voyage the Portuguese made haste to appropriate the wealth +of the Indies. Fleet after fleet was sent out to establish trading +stations upon the coasts of Africa and Asia. The great viceroy, +Albuquerque, captured the city of Goa and made it the center of the +Portuguese dominions in India. Goa still belongs to Portugal. Albuquerque +also seized Malacca, at the end of the Malay Peninsula, and Ormuz, at the +entrance to the Persian Gulf. The possession of these strategic points +enabled the Portuguese to control the commerce of the Indian Ocean. They +also established trading relations with China, through the port of Macao, +and with Japan, which was accidentally discovered in 1542 A.D. By the +middle of the sixteenth century they had acquired almost complete +ascendancy throughout southern Asia and the adjacent islands. [14] + +PORTUGUESE TRADE MONOPOLY + +The Portuguese came to the East as the successors of the Arabs, who for +centuries had carried on an extensive trade in the Indian Ocean. Having +dispossessed the Arabs, the Portuguese took care to shut out all European +trade competitors. Only their own merchants were allowed to bring goods +from the Indies to Europe by the Cape route. For a time this policy made +Portugal very prosperous. Lisbon, the capital, formed the chief depot for +spices and other eastern commodities. The French, English, and Dutch came +there to buy them and took the place of Italian merchants in distributing +them throughout Europe. + +COLLAPSE OF THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE + +But the triumph of Portugal was short-lived. This small country, with a +population of not more than a million, lacked the strength to defend her +claims to a monopoly of the Oriental trade. During the seventeenth century +the French and English broke the power of the Portuguese in India, while +the Dutch drove them from Ceylon and the East Indies. Though the +Portuguese lost most of their possessions so soon, they deserve a tribute +of admiration for the energy, enthusiasm, and real heroism with which they +built up the first of modern colonial empires. + +EUROPE IN ASIA + +The new world in the East, thus entered by the Portuguese and later by +other European peoples, was really an old world--rich, populous, and +civilized. It held out alluring possibilities, not only for trade, but +also as a field for missionary enterprise. Da Gama and Albuquerque began a +movement, which still continues, to "westernize" Asia by opening it up to +European influence. It remains to be seen, however, whether India, China, +and Japan will allow their ancient culture to be extinguished by that of +Europe. + + +222. TO THE INDIES WESTWARD: COLUMBUS AND MAGELLAN + +THE GLOBULAR THEORY + +Six years before Vasco da Gama cast anchor in the harbor of Calicut, +another intrepid sailor, seeking the Indies by a western route, +accidentally discovered America. It does not detract from the glory of +Columbus to show that the way for his discovery had been long in +preparation. In the first place, the theory that the earth was round had +been familiar to the Greeks and Romans, and to some learned men even in +the darkest period of the Middle Ages. By the opening of the thirteenth +century it must have been commonly known, for Roger Bacon [15] refers to +it, and Dante, in the _Divine Comedy_, [16] plans his Inferno on the +supposition of a spherical world. The awakening of interest in Greek +science, as a result of the Renaissance, naturally called renewed +attention to the statements by ancient geographers. Eratosthenes, [17] for +instance, had clearly recognized the possibility of reaching India by +sailing westward on the same parallel of latitude. Especially after the +revival of Ptolemy's [18] works in the fifteenth century, scholars +accepted the globular theory; and they even went so far as to calculate +the circumference of the earth. + +MYTH OF ATLANTIS + +In the second place, men had long believed that west of Europe, beyond the +strait of Gibraltar, lay mysterious lands. This notion first appears in +the writings of the Greek philosopher, Plato, [19] who repeats an old +tradition concerning Atlantis. According to Plato, Atlantis had been an +island continental in size, but more than nine thousand years before his +time it had sunk beneath the sea. Medieval writers accepted this account +as true and found support for it in traditions of other western islands, +such as the Isles of the Blest, where Greek heroes went after death, and +the Welsh Avalon, whither King Arthur, [20] after his last battle, was +borne to heal his wounds. A widespread legend of the Middle Ages also +described the visit made by St. Brandan, an Irish monk, to the "promised +land of the Saints," an earthly paradise far out in the Atlantic. St. +Brandan's Island was marked on early maps, and voyages in search of it +were sometimes undertaken. + +BEHAIM'S GLOBE + +The ideas of European geographers in the period just preceding the +discovery of America are represented on a map, or rather a globe, which +dates from 1492 A.D. It was made by a German navigator, Martin Behaim, for +his native city of Nuremberg, where it is still preserved. Behaim shows +the mythical island of St. Brandan, lying in mid-ocean, and beyond it +Japan (Cipango) and the East Indies. It is clear that he greatly +underestimated the distance westward between Europe and Asia. The error +was natural enough, for Ptolemy had reckoned the earth's circumference to +be about one-sixth less than it is, and Marco Polo had given an +exaggerated idea of the distance to which Asia extended on the east. When +Columbus set out on his voyage, he firmly believed that a journey of four +thousand miles would bring him to Cipango. + +[Illustration: BEHAIM'S GLOBE +The outlines of North America and South America do not appear on the +original globe.] + +COLUMBUS, 1446(?)-1506 A.D. + +Christopher Columbus was a native of Genoa, where his father followed the +humble trade of a weaver. He seems to have obtained some knowledge of +astronomy and geography as a student in the university of Pavia, but at an +early age he became a sailor. Columbus knew the Mediterranean by heart; he +once went to the Guinea coast; and he may have visited Iceland. He settled +at Lisbon as a map-maker and married a daughter of one of Prince Henry's +sea-captains. As Columbus pored over his maps and charts and talked with +seamen about their voyages, the idea came to him that much of the world +remained undiscovered and that the distant East could be reached by a +shorter route than that which led around Africa. + +[Illustration: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid) +The oldest known portrait of Columbus.] + +RESEARCHES OF COLUMBUS + +Columbus was a well-read man, and in Aristotle, Ptolemy, and other ancient +authorities he found apparent confirmation of his grand idea. Columbus +also owned a printed copy of Marco Polo's book, and from his comments, +written on the margin, we know how interested he was in Polo's statements +referring to Cathay and Cipango. Furthermore, Columbus brought together +all the information he could get about the fabled islands of the Atlantic. +If he ever went to Iceland, some vague traditions may have reached him +there of Norse voyages to Greenland and Vinland. Such hints and rumors +strengthened his purpose to sail toward the setting sun in quest of the +Indies. + +[Illustration: ISABELLA] + +FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS, 1492 A.D. + +All know the story. How Columbus first laid his plans before the king of +Portugal, only to meet with rebuffs; how he then went to Spain and after +many discouragements found a patron in Queen Isabella; how with three +small ships he set out from Palos, August 3, 1492 A.D.; how after leaving +the Canaries he sailed week after week over an unknown sea; and how at +last, on the early morning of October 12, he sighted in the moonlight the +glittering coral strand of one of the Bahama Islands. [21] It was the New +World. + +[Illustration: SHIP OF 1492 A.D.] + +SUBSEQUENT VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS + +Columbus made three other voyages to the New World, in the course of which +he explored the Caribbean Sea, the mouth of the Orinoco River, and the +eastern coast of Central America. He lived and died in the belief that he +had actually reached the mainland of Asia and the realms of the Great Khan +of Cathay. The name West Indies still remains as a testimony to this +error. + +NAMING OF AMERICA + +The New World was named for a Florentine navigator, Amerigo Vespucci. [22] +While in the Spanish service he made several western voyages and printed +an account of his discovery of the mainland of America in 1497 A.D. +Scholars now generally reject his statements, but they found acceptance at +the time, and it was soon suggested that the new continent should be +called America, "because Americus discovered it." The name applied at +first only to South America. After it became certain that South America +joined another continent to the north, the name spread over the whole New +World. + +[Illustration: THE NAME "AMERICA" +Facsimile of the passage in the _Cosmographiae Introductio_ (1507), by +Martin Waldseemuller, in which the name "America" is proposed for the New +World.] + +THE DEMARCATION LINE, 1493 A.D. + +Shortly after the return of Columbus from his first voyage, Pope Alexander +VI, in response to a request by Ferdinand and Isabella, issued a bull +granting these sovereigns exclusive rights over the newly discovered +lands. In order that the Spanish possessions should be clearly marked off +from the Portuguese, the pope laid down an imaginary line of demarcation +in the Atlantic, three hundred miles west of the Azores. All new +discoveries west of the line were to belong to Spain; all those east of +it, to Portugal. [23] But this arrangement, which excluded France, +England, and other European countries from the New World, could not be +long maintained. + +[Illustration: Map, PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH COLONIAL EMPIRES IN THE +SIXTEENTH CENTURY] + +FERDINAND MAGELLAN, 1480(?)-1521 A.D. + +The demarcation line had a good deal to do in bringing about the first +voyage around the globe. So far no one had yet realized the dream of +Columbus to reach the lands of spice and silk by sailing westward. +Ferdinand Magellan, formerly one of Albuquerque's lieutenants but now in +the service of Spain, believed that the Spice Islands lay within the +Spanish sphere of influence and that an all-Spanish route, leading to them +through some strait at the southern end of South America, could be +discovered. + +CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE, 1519-1522 A.D. + +The Spanish ruler, Charles V, grandson of the Isabella who had supported +Columbus, looked with favor upon Magellan's ideas and gave him a fleet of +five vessels for the undertaking. After exploring the east coast of South +America, Magellan came at length to the strait which bears his name. +Through this channel he sailed boldly and found himself upon an ocean +which he called the Pacific, because of its peaceful aspect. Magellan's +sailors now begged him to return, for food was getting scarce, but the +navigator replied that he would go on, "if he had to eat the leather off +the rigging." He did go on, for ninety-eight days, until he reached the +Ladrone Islands. [24] By a curious chance, in all this long trip across +the Pacific, Magellan came upon only two islands, both of them +uninhabited. He then proceeded to the Philippines, where he was killed in +a fight with the natives. His men, however, managed to reach the Spice +Islands, the goal of the journey. Afterwards a single ship, the +_Victoria_, carried back to Spain the few sailors who had survived the +hardships of a voyage lasting nearly three years. + +[Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN +From a portrait formerly in the Versailles Gallery, Paris.] + +MEANING OF THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION + Magellan's voyage forms a landmark in the history of geography. It proved +that America, at least on the south, had no connection with Asia; it +showed the enormous extent of the Pacific Ocean; and it led to the +discovery of many large islands in the East Indies. Henceforth men knew of +a certainty that the earth was round and in the distance covered by +Magellan they had a rough estimate of its size. The circumnavigation of +the globe ranks with the discovery of America among the most significant +events in history. In the company of great explorers Magellan stands +beside Columbus. + + +223. THE INDIANS + +PEOPLING OF AMERICA + +The first inhabitants of America probably came from the Old World. At a +remote epoch a land-bridge connected northwest Europe with Greenland, and +Iceland still remains a witness to its former existence. Over this bridge +animals and men may have found their way into the New World. Another +prehistoric route may have led from Asia. Only a narrow strait now +separates Alaska from Siberia, and the Aleutian Islands form an almost +complete series of stepping-stones across the most northerly part of the +Pacific. + +THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES + +The natives of America, whom Columbus called Indians, certainly resemble +Asiatics in some physical features, such as the reddish-brown complexion, +the hair, uniformly black and lank, the high cheek-bones, and short +stature of many tribes. On the other hand, the large, aquiline nose, the +straight eyes, never oblique, and the tall stature of some tribes are +European traits. It seems safe to conclude that the American aborigines, +whatever their origin, became thoroughly fused into a composite race +during long centuries of isolation from the rest of mankind. + +INDIAN CULTURE + +Because of their isolation the Indians had to work out by themselves many +arts, inventions, and discoveries. They spoke over a thousand languages +and dialects; and not one has yet been traced outside of America. Their +implements consisted of polished stone, occasionally of unsmelted copper, +and in Mexico and Peru, of bronze. They cultivated Indian corn, or maize, +but lacked the other great cereals. They domesticated the dog and the +llama of the Andes. They lived in clans and tribes, ruled by headmen or +chiefs. Their religion probably did not involve a belief in a "Great +Spirit," as is so often said, but rather recognized in all nature the +abode of spiritual powers, mysterious and wonderful, whom man ought to +conciliate by prayers and sacrifices. In short, most of the American +Indians were not savages, but barbarians well advanced in culture. + +THE MAYAS + +Indian culture attained its highest development in Mexico and Central +America, especially among the Mayas of Yucatan, Guatemala, and Honduras. +The remains of their cities--the Ninevehs and Babylons of the New World-- +lie buried in the tropical jungle, where Europeans first saw them, four +hundred years ago. The temples, shrines, altars, and statues in these +ancient cities show that the Mayas had made much progress in the fine +arts. They knew enough astronomy to frame a solar calendar of three +hundred and sixty-five days, and enough mathematics to employ numbers +exceeding a million. The writing of the Mayas had reached the rebus [25] +stage and promised to become alphabetic. When their hieroglyphics have +been completely deciphered, we shall learn much more about this gifted +people. + +THE AZTECS + +Several centuries before the arrival of Europeans in America, the so- +called Aztecs came down from the north and established themselves on the +Mexican plateau. Here they formed a confederacy of many tribes, ruled over +by a sort of king, whose capital was Tenochtitlan, on the site of the +present city of Mexico. + +[Illustration: AZTEC SACRIFICIAL KNIFE +British Museum, London. Length, twelve inches. The blade is of yellow, +opalescent chalcedony, beautifully chipped and polished. The handle is of +light-colored wood carved in the form of a man masked with a bird skin. +Brilliant mosaic settings of turquoise, malachite, and shell embellish the +figure.] + +[Illustration: AZTEC SACRIFICIAL STONE +Now in the National Museum in the City of Mexico.] + +AZTEC CULTURE + +The Aztecs appear to have borrowed much of their art, science, and +knowledge of writing from their Maya neighbors. They built houses and +temples of stone or sundried brick, constructed aqueducts, roads, and +bridges, excelled in the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of cotton, and made +most beautiful ornaments of silver and gold. They worshiped many gods, to +which the priests offered prisoners of war as human sacrifices. In spite +of these bloody rites, the Aztecs were a kind-hearted, honest people, +respectful of the rights of property, brave in battle, and obedient to +their native rulers. Aztec culture in some ways was scarcely inferior to +that of the ancient Egyptians. + +THE INCAS + +The lofty table-lands of the Andes were also the seat of an advanced +Indian culture. At the time of the Spanish conquest the greater part of +what is now Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile had come under the +sway of the Incas, the "people of the sun". The Inca power centered in the +Peruvian city of Cuzco and on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which lies +twelve thousand feet above sea-level. In this region of magnificent +scenery the traveler views with astonishment the ruins of vast edifices, +apparently never completed, which were raised either by the Incas or the +Indians whom they conquered and displaced. Though the culture of the Incas +resembled in many ways that of the Aztecs, the two peoples probably never +had any intercourse and hence remained totally unaware of each other's +existence. + +[Illustration: Map, WEST INDIES] + + +224. SPANISH EXPLORATIONS AND CONQUESTS IN AMERICA + +OBJECTS OF THE SPANIARDS + +The discoverers of the New World were naturally the pioneers in its +exploration. The first object of the Spaniards had been trade with the +Indies, and for a number of years, until Magellan's voyage, they sought +vainly for a passage through the mainland to the Spice Islands. When, +however, the Spaniards learned that America was rich in deposits of gold +and silver, these metals formed the principal objects of their +expeditions. + +PONCE DE LEÓN AND BALBOA, 1513 A.D. + +The Spaniards at first had confined their settlements to the Greater +Antilles in the West Indies, [26] but after the gold of these islands was +exhausted, they began to penetrate the mainland. In 1513 A.D. Ponce de +León, who had been with Columbus on his second voyage, discovered the +country which he named Florida. It became the first Spanish possession in +North America. In the same year Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, from the isthmus of +Panama, sighted the Pacific. He entered its waters, sword in hand, and +took formal possession in the name of the king of Spain. + +[Illustration: Map, AN EARLY MAP OF THE NEW WORLD (1540 A.D.)] + +CONQUEST OF MEXICO 1519-1521 A.D. AND PERU 1531-1537 A.D. + +The overthrow of the Aztec power was accomplished by Hernando Cortés, with +the aid of Indian allies. Many large towns and half a thousand villages, +together with immense quantities of treasure, fell into the hands of the +conquerors. Henceforth Mexico, or "New Spain," became the most important +Spanish possession in America. Francisco Pizarro, who invaded Peru with a +handful of soldiers, succeeded in overthrowing the Incas. Pizarro founded +in Peru the city of Lima. It replaced Cuzco as the capital of the country +and formed the seat of the Spanish government in South America. + +EL DORADO + +The Spaniards, during the earlier part of the sixteenth century, heard +much of a fabled king whom they called El Dorado. [27] This king, it was +said, used to smear himself with gold dust at an annual religious +ceremony. In time the idea arose that somewhere in South America existed a +fabled country marvelously rich in precious metals and gems. These stories +stirred the imagination of the Spaniards, who fitted out many expeditions +to find the gilded man and his gilded realm. The quest for El Dorado +opened up the valleys of the Amazon and Orinoco and the extensive forest +region east of the Andes. Spanish explorers also tried to find El Dorado +in North America. De Soto's expedition led to the discovery of the +Mississippi in 1541 A.D., and Coronado's search for the "Seven Cities of +Cibola" not only added greatly to geographical knowledge of the Southwest, +but also resulted in the extension of Spanish dominion over this part of +the American continent. About 1605 A.D. the Spaniards founded Santa Fé and +made it the capital of their government in New Mexico. + + * * * * * + +225. THE SPANISH COLONIAL EMPIRE + +SPAIN IN THE NEW WORLD + +The wonderful exploits of the _conquistadores_ (conquerors) laid the +foundations of the Spanish colonial empire. It included Florida, New +Mexico, California, Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and all +South America except Brazil. [28] The rule of Spain over these dominions +lasted nearly three hundred years. During this time she gave her language, +her government, and her religion to half the New World. + +INTERMARRIAGE OF SPANIARDS AND INDIANS + +The Spaniards brought few women with them and hence had to find their +wives among the Indians. Intermarriage of the two peoples early became +common. The result was the mixed race which one still finds throughout the +greater part of Spanish America. In this race the Indian strain +predominates, because almost everywhere the aborigines were far more +numerous than the white settlers. + +TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS + +The Spaniards treated the Indians of the West Indies most harshly and +forced them to work in gold mines and on sugar plantations. The hard +labor, to which the Indians were unaccustomed, broke down their health, +and almost the entire native population disappeared within a few years +after the coming of the whites. This terrible tragedy was not repeated on +the mainland, for the Spanish government stepped in to preserve the +aborigines from destruction. It prohibited their enslavement and gave them +the protection of humane laws. Though these laws were not always well +enforced, the Indians of Mexico and Peru increased in numbers under +Spanish rule and often became prosperous traders, farmers, and artisans. + +CONVERSION OF THE INDIANS + +The Spaniards succeeded in winning many of the Indians to Christianity. +Devoted monks penetrated deep into the wilderness and brought to the +aborigines, not only the Christian religion, but also European +civilization. In many places the natives were gathered into permanent +villages, or "missions," each one with its church and school. Converts who +learned to read and write often became priests or entered the monastic +orders. The monks also took much interest in the material welfare of the +Indians and taught them how to farm, how to build houses, and how to spin +and weave and cook by better methods than their own. + +THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS + +The most familiar examples of the Spanish missions are those in the state +of California. During the last quarter of the eighteenth century +Franciscan friars missions erected no less than eighteen mission stations +along the Pacific coast from San Diego to San Francisco. The stations were +connected by the "King's Road" [29] which still remains the principal +highway of the state. Some of the mission buildings now lie in ruins and +others have entirely disappeared. But such a well-preserved structure as +the mission of Santa Barbara recalls a Benedictine monastery, [30] with +its shady cloisters, secluded courtyard, and timbered roof covered with +red tiles. It is a bit of the Old World transplanted to the New. + +SPANISH AMERICAN CIVILIZATION + +The civilizing work of Spain in the New World is sometimes forgotten. Here +were the earliest American hospitals and asylums, for the use of Indians +and negroes as well as of Spaniards. Here were the earliest American +schools and colleges. Twelve institutions of higher learning, all modeled +upon the university of Salamanca, arose in Spanish America during the +colonial period. Eight of these came into existence before the creation in +1636 A.D. of Harvard University, the oldest in the United States. The +pioneer printing press in the Western Hemisphere was set up at Mexico City +in 1535 A.D.; no printing press reached the English colonies till more +than one hundred years later. To the valuable books by Spanish scholars we +owe much of our knowledge of the Mayas, Aztecs, and other Indian tribes. +The first American newspaper was published at Mexico City in 1693 A.D. The +fine arts also flourished in the Spanish colonies, and architects of the +United States have now begun to copy the beautiful churches and public +buildings of Mexico and Peru. + +SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY + +The government of Spain administered its colonial dominions in the spirit +of monopoly. As far as possible it excluded French, English, and other +foreigners from trading with Spanish America. It also discouraged ship- +building, manufacturing, and even the cultivation of the vine and the +olive, lest the colonists should compete with home industries. The +colonies were regarded only as a workshop for the production of the +precious metals and raw materials. This unwise policy very largely +accounts for the economic backwardness of Mexico, Peru, and other Spanish- +American countries at the present day. Their rich natural resources have +as yet scarcely begun to be utilized. + + +226. ENGLISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS IN AMERICA + +THE CABOT VOYAGES, 1497-1498 A.D. + +The English based their claim to the right to colonize North America on +the discoveries of John Cabot, an Italian mariner in the service of the +Tudor king, Henry VII. [31] In 1497 A.D. Cabot sailed from Bristol across +the northern Atlantic and made land somewhere between Labrador and Nova +Scotia. The following year he seems to have undertaken a second voyage and +to have explored the coast of North America nearly as far as Florida. +Cabot, like Columbus, believed he had reached Cathay and the dominions of +the Great Khan. Because Cabot found neither gold nor opportunities for +profitable trade, his expeditions were considered a failure, and for a +long time the English took no further interest in exploring the New World. + +[Illustration: CABOT MEMORIAL TOWER +Erected at Bristol, England, in memory of John Cabot and his sons. The +foundation stone was laid on June 24, 1897 A.D., the four-hundredth +anniversary of John Cabot's first sight of the continent of North +America.] + +CARTIER'S VOYAGES, 1534-1542 A.D. + +The discovery by Magellan of a strait leading into the Pacific aroused +hope that a similar passage, beyond the regions controlled by Spain, might +exist in North America. In 1534 A.D. the French king, Francis I, sent +Jacques Cartier to look for it. Cartier found the gulf and river which he +named after St. Lawrence, and also tried to establish a settlement near +where Quebec now stands. The venture was not successful, and the French +did not undertake the colonization of Canada till the first decade of the +seventeenth century. + +THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE + +English sailors also sought a road to India by the so-called Northwest +Passage. It was soon found to be an impossible route, for during half the +year the seas were frozen and during the other half they were filled with +icebergs. However, the search for the Northwest Passage added much to +geographical knowledge. The names Frobisher Bay, Davis Strait, and Baffin +Land still preserve the memory of the navigators who first explored the +channels leading into the Arctic Ocean. + +THE ENGLISH "SEA DOGS" + +When the English realized how little profit was to be gained by voyages to +the cold and desolate north, they turned southward to warmer waters. Here, +of course, they came upon the Spaniards, who had no disposition to share +with foreigners the profitable trade of the New World. Though England and +Spain were not at war, the English "sea dogs," as they called themselves, +did not scruple to ravage the Spanish colonies and to capture the huge, +clumsy treasure-ships carrying gold and silver to Spain. The most famous +of the "sea dogs," Sir Francis Drake, was the first Englishman to sail +round the world (1577-1580 A.D.). + +THE RALEIGH COLONIES, 1584-1590 A.D. + +Four years after Drake had completed his voyage, another English seaman, +Sir Walter Raleigh, sent out an expedition to find a good site for a +settlement in North America. The explorers reached the coast of North +Carolina and returned with glowing accounts of the country, which was +named Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen." But Raleigh's +colonies in Virginia failed miserably, and the English made no further +attempt to settle there till the reign of James I, early in the +seventeenth century. + + +227. THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW + +EXPANSION OF EUROPE + +The New World contained two virgin continents, full of natural resources +and capable in a high degree of colonization. The native peoples, +comparatively few in number and barbarian in culture, could not offer much +resistance to the explorers, missionaries, traders, and colonists from the +Old World. The Spanish and Portuguese in the sixteenth century, followed +by the French, English, and Dutch in the seventeenth century, repeopled +America and brought to it European civilization. Europe expanded into a +Greater Europe beyond the ocean. + +SHIFTING OF TRADE ROUTES + +In the Middle Ages the Mediterranean and the Baltic had been the principal +highways of commerce. The discovery of America, followed immediately by +the opening of the Cape route to the Indies, shifted commercial activity +from these enclosed seas to the Atlantic Ocean. Venice, Genoa, Hamburg, +Lübeck, and Bruges gradually gave way, as trading centers, to Lisbon and +Cadiz, Bordeaux and Cherbourg, Antwerp and Amsterdam, London and +Liverpool. One may say, therefore, that the year 1492 A.D. inaugurated the +Atlantic period of European history. The time may come, perhaps even now +it is dawning, when the center of gravity of the commercial world will +shift still farther westward to the Pacific. + +INCREASED PRODUCTION OF THE PRECIOUS METALS + +The discovery of America revealed to Europeans a new source of the +precious metals. The Spaniards soon secured large quantities of gold by +plundering the Indians of Mexico and Peru of their stored-up wealth. After +the discovery in 1545 A.D. of the wonderfully rich silver mines of Potosi +in Bolivia, the output of silver much exceeded that of gold. It is +estimated that by the end of the sixteenth century the American mines had +produced at least three times as much gold and silver as had been current +in Europe at the beginning of the century. + +CONSEQUENCES OF THE ENLARGED MONEY SUPPLY + +The Spaniards could not keep this new treasure. Having few industries +themselves, they were obliged to send it out, as fast as they received it, +in payment for their imports of European goods. Spain acted as a huge +sieve through which the gold and silver of America entered all the +countries of Europe. Money, now more plentiful, purchased far less than in +former times; in other words, the prices of all commodities rose, wages +advanced, and manufacturers and traders had additional capital to use in +their undertakings. The Middle Ages had suffered from the lack of +sufficient money with which to do business; [32] from the beginning of +modern times the world has been better supplied with the indispensable +medium of exchange. + +NEW COMMODITIES IMPORTED + +But America was much more than a treasury of the precious metals. Many +commodities, hitherto unknown, soon found their way from the New World to +the Old. Among these were maize, the potato, which, when cultivated in +Europe, became the "bread of the poor," chocolate and cocoa made from the +seeds of the cacao tree, Peruvian bark, or quinine, so useful in malarial +fevers, cochineal, the dye-woods of Brazil, and the mahogany of the West +Indies. America also sent large supplies of cane-sugar, molasses, fish, +whale-oil, and furs. The use of tobacco, which Columbus first observed +among the Indians, spread rapidly over Europe and thence extended to the +rest of the world. All these new American products became common articles +of consumption and so raised the standard of living in European countries. + +POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES + +To the economic effects of the discoveries must be added their effects on +politics. The Atlantic Ocean now formed, not only the commercial, but also +the political center of the world. The Atlantic-facing countries, first +Portugal and Spain, then Holland, France, and England, became the great +powers of Europe. Their trade rivalries and contests for colonial +possessions have been potent causes of European wars for the last four +hundred years. + +EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES ON THOUGHT + +The sudden disclosure of oceans, islands, and continents, covering one- +third of the globe, worked a revolution in geographical ideas. The earth +was found to be far larger than men had supposed it to be, and the +imagination was stirred by the thought of other amazing discoveries which +might be made. From the sixteenth century to the twentieth the work of +exploration has continued, till now few regions of the world yet remain +unmapped. At the same time came acquaintance with many strange plants, +animals, and peoples, and so scientific knowledge replaced the quaint +fancies of the Middle Ages. + +EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES UPON RELIGION + +The sixteenth century in Europe was the age of that revolt against the +Roman Church called the Protestant Reformation. During this period, +however, the Church won her victories over the American aborigines. What +she lost of territory, wealth, and influence in Europe was more than +offset by what she gained in America. Furthermore, the region now occupied +by the United States furnished in the seventeenth century an asylum from +religious persecution, as was proved when Puritans settled in New England, +Roman Catholics in Maryland, and Quakers in Pennsylvania. The vacant +spaces of America offered plenty of room for all who would worship God in +their own way. Thus the New World became a refuge from the intolerance of +the Old. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate those parts of the world known in the time +of Columbus (before 1492 A.D.). + +2. On an outline map indicate the voyages of discovery of Vasco da Gama, +Columbus (first voyage), John Cabot, and Magellan. + +3. What particular discoveries were made by Cartier, Drake, Balboa, De +Soto, Ponce de León, and Coronado? + +4. Compare the Cosmas map (page 617) with the map of the world according +to Homer (page 76). + +5. Compare the Hereford map (page 617) with the map of the world according +to Ptolemy (page 132). + +6. Why has Marco Polo been called the "Columbus of the East Indies"? + +7. "Cape Verde not only juts out into the Atlantic, but stands forth as a +promontory in human history." Comment on this statement. + +8. How did Vasco da Gama complete the work of Prince Henry the Navigator? + +9. Show that Lisbon in the sixteenth century was the commercial successor +of Venice. + +10. "Had Columbus perished in mid-ocean, it is doubtful whether America +would have remained long undiscovered." Comment on this statement. + +11. Why did no one suggest that the New World be called after Columbus? + +12. Show that Magellan achieved what Columbus planned. + +13. Why did Balboa call the Pacific the "South Sea"? + +14. Why is Roman law followed in all Spanish-American countries? + +15. In what parts of the world is Spanish still the common language? + +16. Why did the Germans fail to take part in the work of discovery and +colonization? + +17. Show that the three words "gospel, glory, and gold" sum up the +principal motives of European colonization in the sixteenth century. + +18. Compare the motives which led to the colonization of the New World +with those which led to Greek colonization. + +19. "The opening of the Atlantic to continuous exploration is the most +momentous step in the history of man's occupation of the earth." Does this +statement seem to be justified? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter xxi, "The +Travels of Marco Polo"; chapter xxii, "The Aborigines of the New World." + +[2] _Ezekiel_, v, 5. + +[3] _Isaiah_, x, 12. + +[4] See pages 574-575. + +[5] See page 35. + +[6] See page 347. + +[7] See page 488. + +[8] See page 611. + +[9] Froissart, _Chronicles_, ii, 73. + +[10] See page 540. + +[11] See page 49. + +[12] Not Calcutta. + +[13] See page 540. + +[14] The Portuguese colonial empire included Ormuz, the west coast of +India, Ceylon, Malacca, and various possessions in the Malay Archipelago +(Sumatra, Java, Celebes, the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, and New Guinea). +The Portuguese also had many trading posts on the African coast, besides +Brazil, which one of their mariners discovered in 1500 A.D. See the map +Between pages 628-629. + +[15] See page 573. + +[16] See page 591. + +[17] See page 133. + +[18] A Latin translation of Ptolemy's _Geography_, accompanied by maps, +was printed for the first time probably in 1462 A.D. + +[19] See page 275. + +[20] See page 560. + +[21] Named San Salvador by Columbus and usually identified with Watling +Island. + +[22] In Latin, Americus Vespucius. + +[23] In 1494 A.D., the demarcation line was shifted about eight hundred +miles farther to the west. Six years later, when the Portuguese discovered +Brazil, the country was found to lie within their sphere of influence. + +[24] Also known as the Mariannes. Magellan called them the Ladrones +(Spanish _ladrón_, a robber), because of the thievish habits of the +natives. + +[25] See page 9. + +[26] Cuba, Hispaniola (now divided between the republics of Haiti and +Santo Domingo), Porto Rico, and Jamaica. + +[27] Spanish for the "gilded one." + +[28] See the map between pages 628-629. The Philippines, discovered by +Magellan in 1521 A.D., also belonged to Spain, though by the demarcation +line these islands lay within the Portuguese sphere of influence. + +[29] In Spanish _El Camino Real_. + +[30] See page 355. + +[31] See page 518. + +[32] See page 541. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE REFORMATION AND THE RELIGIOUS WARS, 1517-1648 A.D. [1] + + +228. DECLINE OF THE PAPACY + +THE PAPACY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY + +The Papacy, victorious in the long struggle with the Holy Roman Empire, +reached during the thirteenth century the height of its temporal power. +The popes at this time were the greatest sovereigns in Europe. They ruled +a large part of Italy, had great influence in the affairs of France, +England, Spain, and other countries, and in Germany named and deposed +emperors. From their capital at Rome they sent forth their legates to +every European court and issued the laws binding on western Christendom. + +FRICTION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE + +The universal dominion of the Church proved useful and even necessary in +feudal times, when kings were weak and nobles were strong. The Church of +the early Middle Ages served as the chief unifying force in Europe. When, +however, the kings had repressed feudalism, they took steps to extend +their authority over the Church as well. They tried, therefore, to +restrict the privileges of ecclesiastical courts, to impose taxes on the +clergy, as on their own subjects, and to dictate the appointment of +bishops and abbots to office. This policy naturally led to much friction +between popes and kings, between Church and State. + +PONTIFICATE OF BONIFACE VIII, 1294-1303 A.D. + +The Papacy put forth its most extensive claims under Boniface VIII. The +character of these claims is shown by two bulls which he issued. The first +forbade all laymen, under penalty of excommunication, to collect taxes on +Church lands, and all clergymen to pay them. The second announced in +unmistakable terms both the spiritual and the temporal supremacy of the +popes. "Submission to the Roman pontiff," declared Boniface, "is +altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature". + +BONIFACE AND PHILIP THE FAIR + +Boniface had employed the exalted language of Gregory VII in dealing with +Henry IV, but he found an opponent in a monarch more resolute and +resourceful than any Holy Roman Emperor. This was Philip the Fair, [2] +king of France. Philip answered the first bull by refusing to allow any +gold and silver to be exported from France to Italy. The pope, thus +deprived of valuable revenues, gave way and acknowledged that the French +ruler had a limited right to tax the clergy. Another dispute soon arose, +however, as the result of Philip's imprisonment and trial of an obnoxious +papal legate. Angered by this action, Boniface prepared to excommunicate +the king and depose him from the throne. Philip retaliated by calling +together the Estates-General and asking their support for the preservation +of the "ancient liberty of France." The nobles, the clergy, and the "third +estate" rallied around Philip, accused the pope of heresy and tyranny, and +declared that the French king was subject to God alone. + +ANAGNI, 1303 A.D. + +The last act of the drama was soon played. Philip sent his emissaries into +Italy to arrest the pope and bring him to trial before a general council +in France. At Anagni, near Rome, a band of hireling soldiers stormed the +papal palace and made Boniface a prisoner. The citizens of Anagni soon +freed him, but the shock of the humiliation broke the old man's spirit and +he died soon afterwards. The poet Dante, in the _Divine Comedy_, [3] +speaks with awe of the outrage: "Christ had been again crucified among +robbers; and the vinegar and gall had been again pressed to his lips". [4] +The historian sees in this event the end of the temporal power of the +Papacy. + +THE "BABYLONION CAPTIVITY," 1309-1377 A.D. + +Soon after the death of Boniface, Philip succeeded in having the +archbishop of Bordeaux chosen as head of the Church. The new pope removed +the papal court to Avignon, a town just outside the French frontier of +those days. The popes lived in Avignon for nearly seventy years. This +period is usually described as the "Babylonian Captivity" of the Church, a +name which recalls the exile of the Jews from their native land. [5] The +long absence of the popes from Rome lessened their power, and the +suspicion that they were the mere vassals of the French crown seriously +impaired the respect in which they had been held. + +THE "GREAT SCHISM," 1378-1417 A.D. + +Following the "Babylonian Captivity" came the "Great Schism." Shortly +after the return of the papal court to Rome, an Italian was elected pope +as Urban VI. The cardinals in the French interest refused to accept him, +declared his election void, and named Clement VII as pope. Clement +withdrew to Avignon, while Urban remained in Rome. Western Christendom +could not decide which one to obey. Some countries declared for Urban, +while other countries accepted Clement. The spectacle of two rival popes, +each holding himself out as the only true successor of St. Peter, +continued for about forty years and injured the Papacy more than anything +else that had happened to it. + +COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE, 1414-1418 A.D. + +The schism in western Christendom was finally healed at the Council of +Constance. There were three "phantom popes" at this time, but they were +all deposed in favor of a new pontiff, Martin V. The Catholic world now +had a single head, but it was not easy to revive the old, unquestioning +loyalty to him as God's vicar on earth. + +THE RENAISSANCE POPES + +From the time of Martin V the Papacy became more and more an Italian +power. The popes neglected European politics and gave their chief +attention to the States of the Church. A number of the popes took much +interest in the Renaissance movement and became its enthusiastic patrons. +[6] They kept up splendid courts, collected manuscripts, paintings, and +statues, and erected magnificent palaces and churches in Rome. Some +European peoples, especially in Germany, looked askance at such luxury and +begrudged the heavy taxes which were necessary to support it. This feeling +against the papacy also helped to provoke the Reformation. + +[Illustration: Map, THE GREAT SCHISM, 1378-1417 A.D.] + +COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE CLERGY + +The worldliness of some of the popes was too often reflected in the lives +of the lesser clergy. Throughout the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth +centuries the Church encountered much criticism from reformers. Thus, the +famous humanist, Erasmus, [7] wrote his _Praise of Folly_ to expose the +vices and temporal ambitions of bishops and monks, the foolish +speculations of theologians, and the excessive reliance which common +people had on pilgrimages, festivals, relics, and other aids to devotion. +So great was the demand for this work that it went through twenty-seven +large editions during the author's lifetime. Erasmus and others like him +were loyal sons of the Church, but they believed they could best serve her +interests by effecting her reform. Some men went further, however, and +demanded wholesale changes in Catholic belief and worship. These men were +the heretics. + + +229. HERESIES AND HERETICS + +PERSECUTION OF HERETICS + +During the first centuries of our era, when the Christians had formed a +forbidden sect, they claimed toleration on the ground that religious +belief is voluntary and not something which can be enforced by law. This +view changed after Christianity triumphed in the Roman Empire and enjoyed +the support, instead of the opposition, of the government. The Church, +backed by the State, no longer advocated freedom of conscience, but began +to persecute people who held heretical beliefs. + +MEDIEVAL ATTITUDE TOWARD HERESY + +It is difficult for those who live in an age of religious toleration to +understand the horror which heresy inspired in the Middle Ages. A heretic +was a traitor to the Church, for he denied the doctrines believed to be +essential to salvation. It seemed a Christian duty to compel the heretic +to recant, lest he imperil his eternal welfare. If he persisted in his +impious course, then the earth ought to be rid of one who was a source of +danger to the faithful and an enemy of the Almighty. + +PUNISHMENT OF HERESY + +Although executions for heresy had occurred as early as the fourth +century, [8] for a long time milder penalties were usually inflicted. The +heretic might be exiled, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property and +his rights as a citizen. The death penalty was seldom invoked by the +Church before the thirteenth century. Since ecclesiastical law forbade the +Church to shed blood, the State stepped in to seize the heretic and put +him to death, most often by fire. We must remember that in medieval times +cruel punishments were imposed for even slight offenses, and hence men saw +nothing wrong in inflicting the worst of punishments for what was believed +to be the worst of crimes. + +THE ALBIGENSES + +In spite of all measures of repression heretics were not uncommon during +the later Middle Ages. Some heretical movements spread over entire +communities. The most important was that of the Albigenses, so called from +the town of Albi in southern France, where many of them lived. Their +doctrines are not well known, but they seem to have believed in the +existence of two gods--one good (whose son was Christ), the other evil +(whose son was Satan). The Albigenses even set up a rival church, with its +priests, bishops, and councils. + +CRUSADE AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES, 1209-1229 A.D. + +The failure of attempts to convert the Albigenses by peaceful means led +the pope, Innocent III, [9] to preach a crusade against them. Those who +entered upon it were promised the usual privileges of crusaders. [10] A +series of bloody wars now followed, in the course of which thousands of +men, women, and children perished. But the Albigensian sect did not +entirely disappear for more than a century, and then only after numberless +trials and executions for heresy. + +THE WALDENSES + +The followers of Peter Waldo, who lived in the twelfth century, made no +effort to set up a new religion in Europe. They objected, however, to +certain practices of the Church, such as masses for the dead and the +adoration of saints. They also condemned the luxury of the clergy and +urged that Christians should live like the Apostles, charitable and poor. +To the Waldenses the Bible was a sufficient guide to the religious life, +and so they translated parts of the scriptures and allowed everyone to +preach, without distinction of age, or rank, or sex. The Waldenses spread +through many European countries, but being poor and lowly men they did not +exert much influence as reformers. The sect survived severe persecution +and now forms a branch of the Protestant Church in Italy. + +JOHN WYCLIFFE, 1320-1384 A.D. + +Beliefs very similar to those of the Waldenses were entertained by John +Wycliffe, (or Wyclif) master of an Oxford college and a popular preacher. +He, too, appealed from the authority of the Church to the authority of the +Bible. With the assistance of two friends Wycliffe produced the first +English translation of the Scriptures. Manuscript copies of the work had a +large circulation, until the government suppressed it. Wycliffe was not +molested in life, but the Council of Constance denounced his teaching and +ordered that his bones should be dug up, burned, and cast into a stream. + +[Illustration: JOHN WYCLIFFE +After an old print.] + +THE LOLLARDS + +Wycliffe had organized bands of "poor priests" to spread the simple truths +of the Bible through all England. They went out, staff in hand and clad in +long, russet gowns, and preached to the common people in the English +language, wherever an audience could be found. The Lollards, as Wycliffe's +followers were known, not only attacked many beliefs and practices of the +Church, but also demanded social reforms. For instance, they declared that +all wars were sinful and were but plundering and murdering the poor to win +glory for kings. The Lollards had to endure much persecution for heresy. +Nevertheless their work lived on and sowed in England and Scotland the +seeds of the Reformation. + +JOHN HUSS, 1373(?)-1415 A.D. + +The doctrines of Wycliffe found favor with Anne of Bohemia, wife of King +Richard II, [11] and through her they reached that country. Here they +attracted the attention of John Huss, (or Hus) a distinguished scholar in +the university of Prague. Wycliffe's writings confirmed Huss in his +criticism of many doctrines of the Church. He attacked the clergy in +sermons and pamphlets and also objected to the supremacy of the pope. The +sentence of excommunication pronounced against him did not shake his +reforming zeal. Finally Huss was cited to appear before the Council of +Constance, then in session. Relying on the safe conduct given him by the +German emperor, Huss appeared before the council, only to be declared +guilty of teaching "many things evil, scandalous, seditious, and +dangerously heretical." The emperor then violated the safe conduct--no +promise made to a heretic was considered binding--and allowed Huss to be +burnt outside the walls of Constance. Thus perished the man who, more than +all others, is regarded as the forerunner of Luther and the Reformation. + +THE HUSSITE WARS + +The flames which burned Huss set all Bohemia afire. The Bohemians, a +Slavic people, regarded him as a national hero and made his martyrdom an +excuse for rebelling against the Holy Roman Empire. The Hussite wars, +which followed, thus formed a political rather than a religious struggle. +The Bohemians did not gain freedom, and their country still remains a +Hapsburg possession. But the sense of nationalism is not extinct there, +and Bohemia may some day become an independent state. + + +230. MARTIN LUTHER AND THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY, 1517- +1522 A.D. + +MARTIN LUTHER, 1483-1546 A.D. + +Though there were many reformers before the Reformation, the beginning of +that movement is rightly associated with the name of Martin Luther. He was +the son of a German peasant, who, by industry and frugality, had won a +small competence. Thanks to his father's self-sacrifice, Luther enjoyed a +good education in scholastic philosophy at the university of Erfurt. +Having taken the degrees of bachelor and master of arts, Luther began to +study law, but an acute sense of his sinfulness and a desire to save his +soul soon drove him into a monastery. There he read the Bible and the +writings of the Church Fathers and found at last the peace of mind he +sought. A few years later Luther paid a visit to Rome, which opened his +eyes to the worldliness and general laxity of life in the capital of the +Papacy. He returned to Germany and became a professor of theology in the +university of Wittenberg, newly founded by Frederick the Wise, elector of +Saxony. Luther's sermons and lectures attracted large audiences, students +began to flock to Wittenberg; and the elector grew proud of the rising +young teacher who was making his university famous. + +[Illustration: MARTIN LUTHER +After a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger.] + +TETZEL AND INDULGENCES + +But Luther was soon to emerge from his academic retirement and to become, +quite unintentionally, a reformer. In 1517 A.D. there came into the +neighborhood of Wittenberg a Dominican friar named Tetzel, granting +indulgences for the erection of the new St. Peter's at Rome. [12] An +indulgence, according to the teaching of the Church, formed a remission of +the temporal punishment, or penance [13] due to sin, if the sinner had +expressed his repentance and had promised to atone for his misdeeds. It +was also supposed to free the person who received it from some or all of +his punishment after death in Purgatory. [14] Indulgences were granted for +participation in crusades, pilgrimages, and other good works. Later on +they were granted for money, which was expected to be applied to some +pious purpose. Many of the German princes opposed this method of raising +funds for the Church, because it took so much money out of their +dominions. Their sale had also been condemned on religious grounds by Huss +and Erasmus. + +POSTING OF THE NINETY-FIVE THESES, 1517 A.D. + +Luther began his reforming career by an attack upon indulgences. He did +not deny their usefulness altogether, but pointed out that they lent +themselves to grave abuses. Common people, who could not understand the +Latin in which they were written, often thought that they wiped away the +penalties of sin, even without true repentance. These criticisms Luther +set forth in ninety-five theses or propositions, which he offered to +defend against all opponents. In accordance with the custom of medieval +scholars, Luther posted his theses on the door of the church at +Wittenberg, where all might see them. They were composed in Latin, but +were at once translated into German, printed, and spread broadcast over +Germany. Their effect was so great that before long the sale of +indulgences in that country almost ceased. + +BURNING OF THE PAPAL BULL, 1520 A.D. + +The scholarly critic of indulgences soon passed into an open foe of the +Papacy. Luther found that his theological views bore a close resemblance +to those of Wycliffe and John Huss, yet he refused to give them up as +heretical. Instead, he wrote three bold pamphlets, in one of which he +appealed to the "Christian nobility of the German nation" to rally +together against Rome. The pope, at first, had paid little attention to +the controversy about indulgences, declaring it "a mere squabble of +monks," but he now issued a bull against Luther, ordering him to recant +within sixty days or be excommunicated. The papal bull did not frighten +Luther or withdraw from him popular support. He burnt it in the market +square of Wittenberg, in the presence of a concourse of students and +townsfolk. This dramatic answer to the pope deeply stirred all Germany. + +DIET OF WORMS, 1521 A.D. + +The next scene of the Reformation was staged at Worms, at an important +assembly, or Diet, of the Holy Roman Empire. The Diet summoned Luther to +appear before it for examination, and the emperor, Charles V, gave him a +safe conduct. Luther's friends, remembering the treatment of Huss, advised +him not to accept the summons, but he declared that he would enter Worms +"in the face of the gates of Hell and the powers of the air." In the great +hall of the Diet Luther bravely faced the princes, nobles, and clergy of +Germany. He refused to retract anything he had written, unless his +statements could be shown to contradict the Bible. "It is neither right +nor safe to act against conscience," Luther said. "God help me. Amen." + +LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG, 1521-1522 A.D. + +Only one thing remained to do with Luther. He was ordered to return to +Wittenberg and there await the imperial edict declaring him a heretic and +outlaw. But the elector of Saxony, who feared for Luther's safety, had him +carried off secretly to the castle of Wartburg. Here Luther remained for +nearly a year, engaged in translating the New Testament into German. There +had been many earlier translations into German, but Luther's was the first +from the Greek original. His version, simple, forcible, and easy to +understand, enjoyed wide popularity and helped to fix for Germans the form +of their literary language. Luther afterwards completed a translation of +the entire Bible, which the printing press multiplied in thousands of +copies throughout Germany. + +LUTHER'S LEADERSHIP + +Though still under the ban of the empire, Luther left the Wartburg in 1522 +A.D. and returned to Wittenberg. He lived here, unmolested, until his +death, twenty-four years later. During this time he flooded the country +with pamphlets, wrote innumerable letters, composed many fine hymns, [15] +and prepared a catechism, "a right Bible," said he, "for the laity." Thus +Luther became the guide and patron of the reformatory movement which he +had started. + + +231. CHARLES V AND THE SPREAD OF THE GERMAN REFORMATION, 1519-1556 A.D. + +CHARLES V, EMPEROR, 1519-1556 A.D. + +The young man who as Holy Roman Emperor presided at the Diet of Worms had +assumed the imperial crown only two years previously. A namesake of +Charlemagne, Charles V held sway over dominions even more extensive than +those which had belonged to the Frankish king. Through his mother, a +daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, [16] he inherited Spain, Naples, +Sicily, and the Spanish possessions in the New World. Through his father, +a son of the emperor Maximilian I, he became ruler of Burgundy and the +Netherlands and also succeeded to the Austrian territories of the +Hapsburgs. Charles was thus the most powerful monarch in Europe. + +CHARLES V AND THE LUTHERANS + +Charles, as a devout Roman Catholic, had no sympathy for the Reformation. +At Worms, on the day following Luther's refusal to recant, the emperor had +expressed his determination to stake "all his dominions, his friends, his +body and blood, his life and soul" upon the extinction of the Lutheran +heresy. This might have been an easy task, had Charles undertaken it at +once. But a revolt in Spain, wars with the French king, Francis I, and +conflicts with the Ottoman Turks led to his long absence from Germany and +kept him from proceeding effectively against the Lutherans, until it was +too late. + +[Illustration: Map, EUROPE at the Beginning of the Reformation, 1519 A.D.] + +THE "REFORMED RELIGION" + +The Reformation in Germany appealed to many classes. To patriotic Germans +it seemed a revolt against a foreign power--the Italian Papacy. To men of +pious mind it offered the attractions of a simple faith which took the +Bible as the rule of life. Worldly-minded princes saw in it an opportunity +to despoil the Church of lands and revenues. For these reasons Luther's +teachings found ready acceptance. Priests married, Luther himself setting +the example, monks left their monasteries, and the "Reformed Religion" +took the place of Roman Catholicism in most parts of northern and central +Germany. South Germany, however, did not fall away from the pope and has +remained Roman Catholic to the present time. + +[Illustration: CHARLES V +A portrait of the emperor at the age of 48, by the Venetian painter +Titian.] + +THE PROTESTANTS, 1529 A.D. + +Though Germany had now divided into two religious parties, the legal +position of Lutheranism remained for a long time in doubt. A Diet held in +1526 A.D. tried to shelve the question by allowing each German state to +conduct its religious affairs as it saw fit. But at the next Diet, three +years later, a majority of the assembled princes decided that the Edict of +Worms against Luther and his followers should be enforced. The Lutheran +princes at once issued a vigorous protest against such action. Because of +this protest those who separated from the Roman Church came to be called +Protestants. + +PEACE OF AUGSBURG, 1555 A.D. + +It was not till 1546 A.D., the year of Luther's death, that Charles V felt +his hands free to suppress the rising tide of Protestantism. By this time +the Lutheran princes had formed a league for mutual protection. Charles +brought Spanish troops into Germany and tried to break up the league by +force. Civil war raged till 1555 A.D., when both sides agreed to the Peace +of Augsburg. It was a compromise. The ruler of each state--Germany then +contained over three hundred states--was to decide whether his subjects +should be Lutherans or Catholics. Thus the peace by no means established +religious toleration, since all Germans had to believe as their prince +believed. However, it recognized Lutheranism as a legal religion and ended +the attempts to crush the German Reformation. + +LUTHERANISM IN SCANDINAVIA + +Meanwhile Luther's doctrines spread into Scandinavian lands. The rulers of +Denmark, Norway, and Sweden closed the monasteries and compelled the Roman +Catholic bishops to surrender ecclesiastical property to the crown. +Lutheranism became henceforth the official religion of these three +countries. + + +232. THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND; ZWINGLI AND CALVIN + +HULDREICH ZWINGLI, 1484-1531 A.D. + +The Reformation in Switzerland began with the work of Zwingli. He was the +contemporary but not the disciple of Luther. From his pulpit in the +cathedral of Zurich, Zwingli proclaimed the Scriptures as the sole guide +of faith and denied the supremacy of the pope. Many of the Swiss cantons +accepted his teaching and broke away from obedience to Rome. Civil war +soon followed between Protestants and Roman Catholics, and Zwingli fell in +the struggle. After his death the two parties made a peace which allowed +each canton to determine its own religion. Switzerland has continued to +this day to be part Roman Catholic and part Protestant. + +JOHN CALVIN 1509-1564 A.D. + +The Protestants in Switzerland did not remain long without a leader. To +Geneva came in 1536 A.D. a young Frenchman named Calvin. He had just +published his _Institutes of the Christian Religion_, a work which set +forth in an orderly, logical manner the main principles of Protestant +theology. Calvin also translated the Bible into French and wrote valuable +commentaries on nearly all the Scriptural books. + +CALVIN AT GENEVA + +Calvin at Geneva was sometimes called the Protestant pope. During his long +residence there he governed the people with a rod of iron. There were no +more festivals, no more theaters, no more dancing, music, and masquerades. +All the citizens had to attend two sermons on Sunday and to yield at least +a lip-assent to the reformer's doctrines. On a few occasions Calvin +proceeded to terrible extremities, as when he caused the Spanish +physician, Michael Servetus, to be burned to death, because of heretical +views concerning the Trinity. Nevertheless, Geneva prospered under +Calvin's rule and became a Christian commonwealth, sober and industrious. +The city still reveres the memory of the man who founded her university +and made her, as it were, the sanctuary of the Reformation. + +[Illustration: JOHN CALVIN, after an old print.] + +DIFFUSION OF CALVINISM + +Calvin's influence was not confined to Geneva or even to Switzerland. The +men whom he trained and on whom he set the stamp of his stern, earnest, +God-fearing character spread Calvinism over a great part of Europe. In +Holland and Scotland it became the prevailing type of Protestantism, and +in France and England it deeply affected the national life. During the +seventeenth century the Puritans carried Calvinism across the sea to New +England, where it formed the dominant faith in colonial times. + + +233. THE ENGLISH REFORMATION, 1533-1658 A.D. + +HENRY VIII, KING, 1509-1547 A.D. + +The Reformation in Germany and Switzerland started as a national and +popular movement; in England it began as the act of a despotic sovereign, +Henry VIII. This second Tudor [17] was handsome, athletic, finely +educated, and very able, but he was also selfish, sensual, and cruel. His +father had created a strong monarchy in England by humbling both +Parliament and the nobles. When Henry VIII came to the throne, the only +serious obstacle in the way of royal absolutism was the Roman Church. + +[Illustration: HENRY VIII +After a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger.] + +HENRY'S EARLY LOYALTY TO THE PAPACY + +Henry showed himself at first a devoted Catholic. He took an amateur's +interest in theology and wrote with his own royal pen a book attacking +Luther. The pope rewarded him with the title of "Defender of the Faith," a +title which English sovereigns still bear. Henry at this time did not +question the authority of the Papacy. He even made his chief adviser +Cardinal Wolsey, the most conspicuous churchman in the kingdom. + +PREPARATION FOR THE ENGLISH REFORMATION + +At the beginning of Henry's reign the Church was still strong in England. +Probably most of the people were sincerely attached to it. Still, the +labors of Wycliffe and the Lollards had weakened the hold of the Church +upon the masses, while Erasmus and the Oxford scholars who worked with +him, by their criticism of ecclesiastical abuses, had done much to +undermine its influence with the intellectual classes. In England, as on +the Continent, the worldliness of the Church prepared the way for the +Reformation. + +HENRY AND CATHERINE OF ARAGON + +The actual separation from Rome arose out of Henry's matrimonial +difficulties. He had married a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, the +aunt of the emperor Charles V and widow of Henry's older brother. The +marriage required a dispensation [18] from the pope, because canon law +forbade a man to wed his brother's widow. After living happily with +Catherine for eighteen years, Henry suddenly announced his conviction that +the union was sinful. This, of course, formed simply a pretext for the +divorce which Henry desired. Of his children by Catherine only a daughter +survived, but Henry wished to have a son succeed him on the throne. +Moreover, he had grown tired of Catherine and had fallen in love with Anne +Boleyn, a pretty maid-in-waiting at the court. + +THE DIVORCE, 1533 A.D. + +At first Henry tried to secure the pope's consent to the divorce. The pope +did not like to set aside the dispensation granted by his predecessor, nor +did he wish to offend the mighty emperor Charles V. Failing to get the +papal sanction, Henry obtained his divorce from an English court presided +over by Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury. Anne Boleyn was then +proclaimed queen, in defiance of the papal bull of excommunication. + +ACT OF SUPREMACY, 1534 A.D. + +Henry's next step was to procure from his subservient Parliament a series +of laws which abolished the pope's authority in England. Of these, the +most important was the Act of Supremacy. It declared the English king to +be "the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England." At the same +time a new treason act imposed the death penalty on anyone who called the +king a "heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel, or usurper." The great +majority of the English people seem to have accepted this new legislation +without much objection; those who refused to do so perished on the +scaffold. The most eminent victim was Sir Thomas More, [19] formerly +Henry's Lord Chancellor and distinguished for eloquence and profound +learning. His execution sent a thrill of horror through Christendom. + +THE MONASTERIES SUPPRESSED + +The suppression of the monasteries soon followed the separation from Rome. +Henry declared to Parliament that they deserved to be abolished, because +of the "slothful and ungodly lives" led by the inmates. In some instances +this accusation may have been true, but the real reason for Henry's action +was his desire to crush the monastic orders, which supported the pope, and +to seize their extensive possessions. The beautiful monasteries were torn +down and the lands attached to them were sold for the benefit of the crown +or granted to Henry's favorites. The nobles who accepted this monastic +wealth naturally became zealous advocates of Henry's anti-papal policy. + +[Illustration: RUINS OF MELROSE ABBEY +The little town of Melrose in Scotland contains the ruins of a very +beautiful monastery church built about the middle of the fifteenth +century. The principal part of the present remains is the choir, with +slender shafts, richly-carved capitals, and windows of exquisite stone- +tracery. The beautiful sculptures throughout the church were defaced at +the time of the Reformation. The heart of Robert Bruce is interred near +the site of the high altar.] + +PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION UNDER EDWARD VI, 1547-1553 A.D. + +Though Henry VIII had broken with the Papacy, he remained Roman Catholic +in doctrine to the day of his death. Under his successor, Edward VI, the +Reformation made rapid progress in England. The young king's guardian +allowed reformers from the Continent to come to England, and the doctrines +of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin were freely preached there. At this time +all paintings, statuary, wood carvings, and stained glass were removed +from church edifices. The use of tapers, incense, and holy water was also +discontinued. In order that religious services might be conducted in the +language of the people, Archbishop Cranmer and his co-workers prepared the +_Book of Common Prayer_. It consisted of translations into noble English +of various parts of the old Latin service books. With some changes, it is +still used in the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church of +the United States. + +THE CATHOLIC REACTION UNDER MARY TUDOR, 1553-1558 A.D. + +The short reign of Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, was marked +by a temporary setback to the Protestant cause. The queen prevailed on +Parliament to secure a reconciliation with Rome. She also married her +Roman Catholic cousin, Philip of Spain, the son of Charles V. Mary now +began a severe persecution of the Protestants. It gained for her the +epithet of "Bloody," but it did not succeed in stamping out heresy. Many +eminent reformers perished, among them Cranmer, the former archbishop. +Mary died childless, after ruling about five years, and the crown passed +to Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth. Under Elizabeth Anglicanism again +replaced Roman Catholicism as the religion of England. + + +234. THE PROTESTANT SECTS + +EXTENT OF PROTESTANTISM + +The Reformation was practically completed before the close of the +sixteenth century. In 1500 A.D. the Roman Church embraced all Europe west +of Russia and the Balkan peninsula. By 1575 A.D. nearly half of its former +subjects had renounced their allegiance. The greater part of Germany and +Switzerland and all of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, England, and +Scotland became independent of the Papacy. The unity of western +Christendom, which had been preserved throughout the Middle Ages, thus +disappeared and has not since been revived. + +[Illustration: Map, EXTENT OF THE REFORMATION, 1524-1572 A.D.] + +COMMON FEATURES OF PROTESTANTISM + +The reformers agreed in substituting for the authority of popes and church +councils the authority of the Bible. They went back fifteen hundred years +to the time of the Apostles and tried to restore what they believed to be +Apostolic Christianity. Hence they rejected such doctrines and practices +as were supposed to have developed during the Middle Ages. The Reformation +also abolished the monastic system and priestly celibacy. The sharp +distinction between clergy and laity disappeared, for priests married, +lived among the people, and no longer formed a separate class. In general, +Protestantism affirmed the ability of every man to find salvation without +the aid of ecclesiastics. The Church was no longer the only "gate of +heaven." + +[Illustration: CHAINED BIBLE +In the church of St. Crux, York.] + +DIVISIONS AMONG PROTESTANTS + +But the Protestant idea of authority led inevitably to differences of +opinion among the reformers. There were various ways of interpreting that +Bible to which they appealed as the rule of faith and conduct. +Consequently, Protestantism split up into many sects or denominations, and +these have gone on multiplying to the present day. Nearly all, however, +are offshoots from the three main varieties of Protestantism which +appeared in the sixteenth century. + +LUTHERANISM AND ANGLICANISM + +Lutheranism and Anglicanism presented some features in common. Both were +state churches, supported by the government; both had a book of common +prayer; and both recognized the sacraments of baptism, the eucharist, and +confirmation. The Church of England also kept the sacrament of ordination. +The Lutheran churches in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, as well as the +Church of England, likewise retained the episcopate. + +CALVINISM + +Calvinism departed much more widely from Roman Catholicism. It did away +with the episcopate and had only one order of clergy--the presbyters. [20] +It provided for a very simple form of worship. In a Calvinistic church the +service consisted of Bible reading, a sermon, extemporaneous prayers, and +hymns sung by the congregation. The Calvinists kept only two sacraments, +baptism and the eucharist. They regarded the first, however, as a simple +undertaking to bring up the child in a Christian manner, and the second as +merely a commemoration of the Last Supper. + +THE REFORMATION AND FREEDOM + +The break with Rome did not introduce religious liberty into Europe. +Nothing was further from the minds of Luther, Calvin, and other reformers +than the toleration of Reformation beliefs unlike their own. The early +Protestant sects punished dissenters as zealously as the Roman Church +punished heretics. Lutherans burned the followers of Zwingli in Germany, +Calvin put Servetus to death, and the English government, in the time of +Henry VIII and Elizabeth, executed many Roman Catholics. Complete freedom +of conscience and the right of private judgment in religion have been +secured in most European countries only within the last hundred years. + +THE REFORMATION AND MORALS + +The Reformation, however, did deepen the moral life of European peoples. +The faithful Protestant or Roman Catholic vied with his neighbor in trying +to show that his particular belief made for better living than any other. +The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in consequence, were more earnest +and serious, if also more bigoted, than the centuries of the Renaissance. + + +235. THE CATHOLIC COUNTER REFORMATION + +THE REFORMING POPES + +The rapid spread of Protestantism soon brought about a Catholic Counter +Reformation in those parts of Europe which remained faithful to Rome. The +popes now turned from the cultivation of Renaissance art and literature to +the defense of their threatened faith. They made needed changes in the +papal court and appointed to ecclesiastical offices men distinguished for +virtue and learning. This reform of the Papacy dates from the time of Paul +III, who became pope in 1534 A.D. He opened the college of cardinals to +Roman Catholic reformers, even offering a seat in it to Erasmus. Still +more important was his support of the famous Society of Jesus, which had +been established in the year of his accession to the papal throne. + +ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA, 1491-1556 A.D. + +The founder of the new society was a Spanish nobleman, Ignatius Loyola. He +had seen a good deal of service in the wars of Charles V against the +French. While in a hospital recovering from a wound Loyola read devotional +books, and these produced a profound change within him. He now decided to +abandon the career of arms and to become, instead, the knight of Christ. +So Loyola donned a beggar's robe, practiced all the kinds of asceticism +which his books described, and went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The +turning-point of his career came with his visit to Paris to study +theology. Here Loyola met the six devout and talented men who became the +first members of his society. They intended to work as missionaries among +the Moslems, but, when this plan fell through, they visited Rome and +placed their energy and enthusiasm at the disposal of the pope. + +[Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA] + +THE SOCIETY OF JESUS + +Loyola's military training deeply affected the character of the new order. +The Jesuits, as their Protestant opponents styled them, were to be an army +of spiritual soldiers, living under the strictest obedience to their head, +or general. Like soldiers, again, they were to remain in the world, and +there fight manfully for the Church and against heretics. The society grew +rapidly; before Loyola's death it included over a thousand members; and in +the seventeenth century it became the most influential of all the +religious orders. [21] The activity of the Jesuits as preachers, +confessors, teachers, and missionaries did much to roll back the rising +tide of Protestantism in Europe. + +JESUIT SCHOOLS + +The Jesuits gave special attention to education, for they realized the +importance of winning over the young people to the Church. Their schools +were so good that even Protestant children often attended them. The +popularity of Jesuit teachers arose partly from the fact that they always +tried to lead, not drive their pupils. Light punishments, short lessons, +many holidays, and a liberal use of prizes and other distinctions formed +some of the attractive features of their system of training. It is not +surprising that the Jesuits became the instructors of the Roman Catholic +world. They called their colleges the "fortresses of the faith." + +JESUIT MISSIONS + +The missions of the Jesuits were not less important than their schools. +The Jesuits worked in Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and other countries where +Protestantism threatened to become dominant. Then they invaded all the +lands which the great maritime discoveries of the preceding age had laid +open to European enterprise. In India, China, the East Indies, Japan, the +Philippines, Africa, and the two Americas their converts from heathenism +were numbered by hundreds of thousands. + +ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, 1506-1552 A.D. + +The most eminent of all Jesuit missionaries, St. Francis Xavier, had +belonged to Loyola's original band. He was a little, blue-eyed man, an +engaging preacher, an excellent organizer, and possessed of so attractive +a personality that even the ruffians and pirates with whom he had to +associate on his voyages became his friends. Xavier labored with such +devotion and success in the Portuguese colonies of the Far East as to gain +the title of "Apostle to the Indies." He also introduced Christianity in +Japan, where it flourished until a persecuting emperor extinguished it +with fire and sword. + +COUNCIL OF TRENT, 1545-1563 A.D. + +Another agency in the Counter Reformation was the great Church Council +summoned by Pope Paul III. The council met at Trent, on the borders of +Germany and Italy. It continued, with intermissions, for nearly twenty +years. The Protestants, though invited to participate, did not attend, and +hence nothing could be done to bring them back within the Roman Catholic +fold. This was the last general council of the Church for over three +hundred years. [22] + +WORK OF THE COUNCIL + +The Council of Trent made no essential changes in the Roman Catholic +doctrines, which remained as St. Thomas Aquinas [23] and other theologians +had set them forth in the Middle Ages. In opposition to the Protestant +view, it declared that the tradition of the Church possessed equal +authority with the Bible. It reaffirmed the supremacy of the pope over +Christendom. The council also passed important decrees forbidding the sale +of ecclesiastical offices and requiring bishops and other prelates to +attend strictly to their duties. Since the Council of Trent the Roman +Church has been distinctly a religious organization, instead of both a +secular and religious body, as was the Church in the Middle Ages. [24] + +THE INDEX + +The council, before adjourning, authorized the pope to draw up a list, or +Index, of works which Roman Catholics might not read. This action did not +form an innovation. The Church from an early day had condemned and +destroyed heretical writings. However, the invention of printing, by +giving greater currency to new and dangerous ideas, increased the +necessity for the regulation of thought. The "Index of Prohibited Books" +still exists, and additions to the list are made from time to time. It was +matched by the strict censorship of printing long maintained in Protestant +countries. + +THE INQUISITION + +Still another agency of the Counter Reformation consisted of the +Inquisition. This was a system of church courts for the discovery and +punishment of heretics. Such courts had been set up in the Middle Ages, +for instance, to suppress the Albigensian heresy. After the Council of +Trent they redoubled their activity, especially in Italy, the Netherlands, +and Spain. + +INFLUENCE OF THE INQUISITION + +The Inquisition probably contributed to the disappearance of Protestantism +in Italy. In the Netherlands, where it worked with great severity, it only +aroused exasperation and hatred and helped to provoke a successful revolt +of the Dutch people. The Spaniards, on the other hand, approved of the +methods of the Inquisition and welcomed its extermination of Moors and +Jews, as well as Protestant heretics. The Spanish Inquisition was not +abolished till the nineteenth century. + + +236. SPAIN UNDER PHILIP II, 1556-1598 A.D. + +ABDICATION OF CHARLES V, 1555-1556 A.D. + +In 1555 A.D., the year of the Peace of Augsburg, [25] Charles V determined +to abdicate his many crowns and seek the repose of a monastery. The plan +was duly carried into effect. His brother Ferdinand I succeeded to the +title of Holy Roman Emperor and the Austrian territories, while his son, +Philip II, [26] received the Spanish possessions in Italy, the +Netherlands, and America. There were now two branches of the Hapsburg +family--one in Austria and one in Spain. + +PHILIP II + +The new king of Spain was a man of unflagging energy, strong will, and +deep attachment to the Roman Church. As a ruler he had two great ideals: +to make Spain the foremost state in the world and to secure the triumph of +the Roman Catholic faith over Protestantism. His efforts to realize these +ideals largely determined European history during the second half of the +sixteenth century. + +[Illustration: PHILIP II +After the portrait by Titian.] + +BATTLE OF LEPANTO, 1571 A.D. + +The Spanish monarch won renown by becoming the champion of Christendom +against the Ottoman Turks. At this time the Turks had a strong navy, by +means of which they captured Cyprus from the Venetians and ravaged Sicily +and southern Italy. Grave danger existed that they would soon control all +the Mediterranean. To stay their further progress one of the popes +preached what was really the last crusade. The fleets of Genoa and Venice +united with those of Spain and under Don John of Austria, Philip's half- +brother, totally defeated the Turkish squadron in the gulf of Lepanto, off +the western coast of Greece. The battle gave a blow to the sea-power of +the Turks from which they never recovered and ended their aggressive +warfare in the Mediterranean. Lepanto is one of the proud names in the +history of Spain. + +ANNEXATION OF PORTUGAL, 1581 A.D. + +Philip had inherited an extensive realm. He further widened it by the +annexation of Portugal, thus completing the unification of the Spanish +peninsula. The Portuguese colonies in Africa, Asia, and America also +passed into Spanish hands. The union of Spain and Portugal under one crown +never commanded any affection among the Portuguese, who were proud of +their nationality and of their achievements as explorers and empire- +builders. Portugal separated from Spain in 1640 A.D. and has since +remained an independent state. + +[Illustration: THE ESCORIAL +This remarkable edifice, at once a convent, a church, a palace, and a +royal mausoleum, is situated in a sterile and gloomy wilderness about +twenty-seven miles from Madrid. It was begun by Philip II in 1563 A.D. +and was completed twenty-one years later. The Escorial is dedicated to St. +Lawrence, that saint's day (August 10, 1557) being the day when the +Spanish king won a great victory over the French at the battle of St. +Quentin. The huge dimensions of the Escorial may be inferred from the fact +that it includes eighty-six staircases, eighty-nine fountains, fifteen +cloisters, 1,200 doors, 2,600 windows, and miles of corridors. The +building material is a granite-like stone obtained in the neighborhood. +The Escorial contains a library of rare books and manuscripts and a +collection of valuable paintings. In the royal mausoleum under the altar +of the church lie the remains of Charles V, Philip II, and many of their +successors.] + +PHILIP'S FAILURES + +But the successes of Philip were more than offset by his failures. Though +he had vast possessions, enormous revenues, mighty fleets, and armies +reputed the best of the age, he could not dominate western Europe. His +attempt to conquer England, a stronghold of Protestantism under Elizabeth, +resulted in disaster. Not less disastrous was his life-long struggle with +the Netherlands. + + +237. REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS + +THE NETHERLANDS + +The seventeen provinces of the Netherlands occupied the flat, low country +along the North Sea--the Holland, Belgium, and northern France of the +present day. During the fifteenth century they became Hapsburg possessions +and thus belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. As we have learned, Charles V +received them as a part of his inheritance, and he, in turn, transmitted +them to Philip II. + +CONDITION OF THE NETHERLANDS + +The inhabitants of the Netherlands were not racially united. In the +southernmost provinces Celtic blood and Romance speech prevailed, while +farther north dwelt peoples of Teutonic extraction, who spoke Flemish and +Dutch. Each province likewise kept its own government and customs. The +prosperity which had marked the Flemish cities during the Middle Ages [27] +extended in the sixteenth century to the Dutch cities also. Rotterdam, +Leyden, Utrecht, and Amsterdam profited by the geographical discoveries +and became centers of extensive commerce with Asia and America. The rise +of the Dutch power, in a country so exposed to destructive inundations of +both sea and rivers, is a striking instance of what can be accomplished by +a frugal, industrious population. + +PROTESTANTISM IN THE NETHERLANDS + +The Netherlands were too near Germany not to be affected by the +Reformation. Lutheranism soon appeared there, only to encounter the +hostility of Charles V, who introduced the terrors of the Inquisition. +Many heretics were burned at the stake, or beheaded, or buried alive. But +there is no seed like martyr's blood. The number of Protestants swelled, +rather than lessened, especially after Calvinism entered the Netherlands. +As a Jesuit historian remarked, "Nor did the Rhine from Germany or the +Meuse from France send more water into the Low Countries than by the one +the contagion of Luther, and by the other that of Calvin, were imported +into these provinces." + +POLICY OF PHILIP II + +In spite of the cruel treatment of heretics by Charles V, both Flemish and +Dutch remained loyal to the emperor, because he had been born and reared +among them and always considered their country as his own. But Philip II, +a Spaniard by birth and sympathies, seemed to them only a foreign master. +The new ruler did nothing to conciliate the people. He never visited the +Netherlands after 1559 A.D., but governed them despotically through +Spanish officials supported by Spanish garrisons. Arbitrary taxes were +levied, cities and nobles were deprived of their cherished privileges, and +the activity of the Inquisition was redoubled. Philip intended to exercise +in the Netherlands the same absolute power which he enjoyed in Spain. + +ALVA SENT TO THE NETHERLANDS, 1567 A.D. + +The religious persecution which by Philip's orders raged through the +Netherlands everywhere aroused intense indignation. The result was rioting +by mobs of Protestants, who wrecked churches and monasteries and carried +off the treasure they found in them. Philip replied to these acts by +sending his best army, under the duke of Alva, his best general, to reduce +the turbulent provinces into submission. + +OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLT + +Alva carried out with thoroughness the policy of his royal master. A +tribunal, popularly known as the "Council of Blood," was set up for the +punishment of treason and heresy. Hundreds, and probably thousands, +perished; tens of thousands fled to Germany and England. Alva, as +governor-general, also raised enormous taxes, which threatened to destroy +the trade and manufactures of the Netherlands. Under these circumstances +Roman Catholics and Protestants, nobles and townsfolk, united against +their Spanish oppressors. A revolt began which Spain could never quell. + +WILLIAM THE SILENT, 1533-1584 A.D. + +The Netherlands found a leader in William, Prince of Orange, later known +as William the Silent, because of his customary discreetness. He was of +German birth, a convert to Protestantism, and the owner of large estates +in the Netherlands. William had fair ability as a general, a statesmanlike +grasp of the situation, and above all a stout, courageous heart which +never wavered in moments of danger and defeat. To rescue the Netherlands +from Spain he sacrificed his high position, his wealth, and eventually his +life. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM THE SILENT] + +SEPARATION OF THE NETHERLANDS + +The ten southern provinces of the Netherlands, mainly Roman Catholic in +population, soon effected a reconciliation with Philip and returned to +their allegiance. They remained in Hapsburg hands for over two centuries. +Modern Belgium has grown out of them. The seven northern provinces, where +Dutch was the language and Protestantism the religion, formed in 1579 A.D. +the Union of Utrecht. Two years later they declared their independence of +Spain. Thus the republic of the United Netherlands, often known as +Holland, the most important of the seven provinces, came into being. + +[Illustration: Map, THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY] + +COURSE OF THE REVOLT + +The struggle of the Dutch for freedom forms one of the most notable +episodes in history. At first they were no match for the disciplined +Spanish soldiery, but they fought bravely behind the walls of their cities +and on more than one occasion repelled the enemy by cutting the dikes and +letting in the sea. Though William the Silent perished in a dark hour by +an assassin's bullet, the contest continued. England now came to the aid +of the hard-pressed republic with money and a small army. Philip turned +upon his new antagonist and sent against England the great fleet called +the "Invincible Armada." Its destruction interfered with further attempts +to subjugate the Dutch, but the Spanish monarch, stubborn to the last, +refused to acknowledge their independence. His successor, in 1609 A.D., +consented to a twelve years' truce with the revolted provinces. Their +freedom was recognized officially by Spain at the close of the Thirty +Years' War in 1648 A.D. + +THE DUTCH REPUBLIC + +The long struggle bound the Dutch together and made them one nation. +During the seventeenth century they took a prominent part in European +affairs. The republic which they founded ought to be of special interest +to Americans, for many features of our national government are Dutch in +origin. To Holland we owe the idea of a declaration of independence, of a +written constitution, of religious toleration, and of a comprehensive +school system supported by taxation. In these and other matters the Dutch +were pioneers of modern democracy. + + +238. ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH, 1558-1603 A.D. + +ELIZABETH + +Queen Elizabeth, who reigned over England during the period of the Dutch +revolt, came to the throne when about twenty-five years old. She was tall +and commanding in presence and endowed with great physical vigor and +endurance. After hunting all day or dancing all night she could still +attend unremittingly to public business. Elizabeth had received an +excellent education; she spoke Latin and several modern languages; knew a +little Greek; and displayed some skill in music. To her father, Henry +VIII, she doubtless owed her tactfulness and charm of manner, as well as +her imperious will; she resembled her mother, Anne Boleyn, in her vanity +and love of display. As a ruler Elizabeth was shrewd, far-sighted, a good +judge of character, and willing to be guided by the able counselors who +surrounded her. Above all, Elizabeth was an ardent patriot. She understood +and loved her people, and they, in turn, felt a chivalrous devotion to the +"Virgin Queen," to "Good Queen Bess". + +PROTESTANTISM IN ENGLAND + +The daughter of Anne Boleyn had been born under the ban of the pope, so +that opposition to Rome was the natural course for her to pursue. Two acts +of Parliament now separated England once more from the Papacy and gave the +English Church practically the form and doctrines which it retains to-day. +The church was intended to include everyone in England, and hence all +persons were required to attend religious exercises on Sundays and holy +days. Refusal to do so exposed the offender to a fine. + +[Illustration: ELIZABETH] + +TREATMENT OF ROMAN CATHOLICS + +The great body of the people soon conformed to the state church, but Roman +Catholics could not conscientiously attend its services. The laws against +them do not seem to have been strictly enforced at first, but in the later +years of Elizabeth's reign real or suspected plots by Roman Catholics +against her throne led to a policy of repression. Those who said or heard +mass were heavily fined and imprisoned; those who brought papal bulls into +England or converted Protestants to Roman Catholicism were executed as +traitors. Several hundred priests, mostly Jesuits, suffered death, and +many more languished in jail. This persecution, however necessary it may +have seemed to Elizabeth and her advisers, is a blot on her reign. + +PROTESTANTISM IN IRELAND + +The Reformation made little progress in Ireland. Henry VIII, who had +extended English sway over most of the island, suppressed the monasteries, +demolished shrines, relics, and images, and placed English-speaking +priests in charge of the churches. The Irish people, who remained loyal to +Rome, regarded these measures as the tyrannical acts of a foreign +government. During Elizabeth's reign there were several dangerous revolts, +which her generals suppressed with great cruelty. The result was to widen +the breach between England and Ireland. Henceforth to most Irishmen +patriotism became identified with Roman Catholicism. + +[Illustration: SILVER CROWN OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN] + +ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS + +Many of the plots against Elizabeth centered about Mary Stuart, the ill- +starred Queen of Scots. She was a granddaughter of Henry VII, and extreme +Roman Catholics claimed that she had a better right to the English throne +than Elizabeth, because the pope had declared the marriage of Henry VIII +and Anne Boleyn null and void. Mary, a fervent Roman Catholic, did not +please her Scotch subjects, who had adopted Calvinistic doctrines. She +also discredited herself by marrying the man who had murdered her former +husband. An uprising of the Scottish nobles compelled Mary to abdicate the +throne in favor of her infant son [28] and to take refuge in England. +Elizabeth kept her rival in captivity for nearly twenty years. In 1586 +A.D., the former queen was found guilty of conspiring against Elizabeth's +life and was beheaded. + +[Illustration: Map, WESTERN EUROPE IN THE TIME OF ELIZABETH] + +[Illustration: LONDON BRIDGE IN THE TIME OF ELIZABETH +The old structure was completed early in the thirteenth century. It +measured 924 feet in length and had 20 narrow arches. Note the rows of +houses and shops on the bridge, the chapel in the center and the gate +above which the heads of traitors were exhibited on pikes. The present +London Bridge was completed in 1831 A.D.] + +ELIZABETH AND PHILIP II + +Philip II, the king of Spain, also threatened Elizabeth's security. At the +outset of her reign Philip had made her an offer of marriage, but she +refused to give herself, or England, a Spanish master. As time went on, +Philip turned into an open enemy of the Protestant queen and did his best +to stir up sedition among her Roman Catholic subjects. It must be admitted +that Philip could plead strong justification for his attitude. Elizabeth +allowed the English "sea dogs" [29] to plunder Spanish colonies and seize +Spanish vessels laden with the treasure of the New World. Moreover, she +aided the rebellious Dutch, at first secretly and at length openly, in +their struggle against Spain. Philip put up with these aggressions for +many years, but finally came to the conclusion that he could never subdue +the Netherlands or end the piracy and smuggling in Spanish America without +first conquering England. The execution of Mary Stuart removed his last +doubts, for Mary had left him her claims to the English throne. He at once +made ready to invade England. Philip seems to have believed that as soon +as a Spanish army landed in the island, the Roman Catholics would rally to +his cause. But the Spanish king never had a chance to verify his belief; +the decisive battle took place on the sea. + +THE "INVINCIBLE ARMADA," 1588 A.D. + +Philip had not completed his preparations before Sir Francis Drake sailed +into Cadiz harbor and destroyed a vast amount of naval stores and +shipping. This exploit, which Drake called "singeing the king of Spain's +beard," delayed the expedition for a year. The "Invincible Armada" [30] +set out at last in 1588 A.D. The Spanish vessels, though somewhat larger +than those of the English, were inferior in number, speed, and gunnery to +their adversaries, while the Spanish officers, mostly unused to the sea, +were no match for men like Drake, Frobisher, and Raleigh, the best +mariners of the age. The Armada suffered severely in a nine-days fight in +the Channel, and many vessels which escaped the English guns met shipwreck +off the Scotch and Irish coasts. Less than half of the Armada returned in +safety to Spain. + +[Illustration: THE SPANISH ARMADA IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. +After an engraving by the Society of Antiquarians following a tapestry in +the House of Lords.] + +ENGLISH SEA-POWER + +England in the later Middle Ages had been an important naval power, as her +ability to carry on the Hundred Years' War in France amply proved. But in +the sixteenth century she was greatly over-matched by Spain, especially +after the annexation of Portugal added the naval forces of that country to +the Spanish fleets. The defeat of the Armada not only did great harm to +the navy and commerce of Spain; it also showed that a new people had +arisen to claim the supremacy of the ocean. Henceforth the English began +to build up what was to be a sea-power greater than any other known to +history. + + +239. THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE + +FRANCE UNDER FRANCIS I, 1515-1547 A.D. + +By 1500 A.D. France had become a centralized state under a strong +monarchy. [31] Francis I, who reigned in the first half of the sixteenth +century, still further exalted the royal power. He had many wars with +Charles V, whose extensive dominions nearly surrounded the French kingdom. +These wars prevented the emperor from making France a mere dependency of +Spain. As we have learned, [32] they also interfered with the efforts of +Charles V to crush the Protestants in Germany. + +THE HUGUENOTS + +Protestantism in France dates from the time of Francis I. The Huguenots, +[33] as the French Protestants were called, naturally accepted the +doctrines of Calvin, who was himself a Frenchman and whose books were +written in the French language. Though bitterly persecuted by Francis I +and by his son Henry II (1547-1559 A.D.), the Huguenots gained a large +following, especially among the prosperous middle class of the towns--the +_bourgeoisie_. Many nobles also became Huguenots, sometimes because of +religious conviction, but often because the new movement offered them an +opportunity to recover their feudal independence and to plunder the +estates of the Church. In France, as well as in Germany, the Reformation +had its worldly side. + +CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE + +During most of the second half of the sixteenth century fierce conflicts +raged in France between the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots. Philip II +aided the former and Queen Elizabeth gave some assistance to the latter. +France suffered terribly in the struggle, not only from the constant +fighting, which cost the lives, it is said, of more than a million people, +but also from the pillage, burnings, and other barbarities in which both +sides indulged. The wealth and prosperity of the country visibly declined, +and all patriotic feeling disappeared in the hatreds engendered by a civil +war. + +MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY, 1572 A.D. + +The episode known as the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day illustrates the +extremes to which political ambition and religious bigotry could lead. The +massacre was an attempt to extirpate the Huguenots, root and branch, at a +time when peace prevailed between them and their opponents. The person +primarily responsible for it was Catherine de' Medici, mother of Charles +IX (1560-1574 A.D.), the youthful king of France. Charles had begun to +cast off the sway of his mother and to come under the influence of Admiral +de Coligny, the most eminent of the Huguenots. To regain her power +Catherine first tried to have Coligny murdered. When the plot failed, she +invented the story of a great Huguenot uprising and induced her weak- +minded son to authorize a wholesale butchery of Huguenots. It began in +Paris in the early morning of August 24, 1572 A.D. (St. Bartholomew's +Day), and extended to the provinces, where it continued for several weeks. +Probably ten thousand Huguenots were slain, including Coligny himself. But +the deed was a blunder as well as a crime. The Huguenots took up arms to +defend themselves, and France again experienced all the horrors of +internecine strife. + +HENRY IV + +The death of Coligny transferred the leadership of the Huguenots to Henry +Bourbon, king of Navarre. [34] Seventeen years after the massacre of St. +Bartholomew's Day, he inherited the French crown as Henry IV. The Roman +Catholics would not accept a Protestant ruler and continued the conflict. +Henry soon realized that only his conversion to the faith of the majority +of his subjects would bring a lasting peace. Religious opinions had always +sat lightly upon him, and he found no great difficulty in becoming a Roman +Catholic. "Paris," said Henry, "was well worth a mass." Opposition to the +king soon collapsed, and the Huguenot wars came to an end. + +EDICT OF NANTES, 1598 A.D. + +Though now a Roman Catholic, Henry did not break with the Huguenots. In +1598 A.D. he issued in their interest the celebrated Edict of Nantes. By +its terms the Huguenots were to enjoy freedom of private worship +everywhere in France, and freedom to worship publicly in a large number of +villages and towns. Only Roman Catholic services, however, might be held +in Paris and at the royal court. Though the edict did not grant complete +religious liberty, it marked an important step in that direction. A great +European state now for the first time recognized the principle that two +rival faiths might exist side by side within its borders. The edict was +thus the most important act of toleration since the age of Constantine. +[35] + +FRANCE UNDER HENRY IV, 1588-1610 A.D. + +Having settled the religious difficulties, Henry could take up the work of +restoring prosperity to distracted France. His interest in the welfare of +his subjects gained for him the name of "Good King Henry." With the help +of Sully, his chief minister, the king reformed the finances and +extinguished the public debt. He opened roads, built bridges, and dug +canals, thus aiding the restoration of agriculture. He also encouraged +commerce by means of royal bounties for shipbuilding. The French at this +time began to have a navy and to compete with the Dutch and English for +trade on the high seas. Henry's work of renovation was cut short in 1610 +A.D. by an assassin's dagger. Under his son Louis XIII (1610-1643 A.D.), a +long period of disorder followed, until an able minister, Cardinal +Richelieu, assumed the guidance of public affairs. Richelieu for many +years was the real ruler of France. His foreign policy led to the +intervention of that country in the international conflict known as the +Thirty Years' War. + +[Illustration: CARDINAL RICHELIEU (Louvre, Paris.) +After the portrait by the Belgian artist, Philippe de Champaigne.] + + +240. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1618-1648 A.D. + +RELIGIOUS ANTAGONISMS + +The Peace of Augsburg [36] gave repose to Germany for more than sixty +years, but it did not form a complete settlement of the religious question +in that country. There was still room for bitter disputes, especially over +the ownership of Church property which had been secularized in the course +of the Reformation. Furthermore, the peace recognized only Roman Catholics +and Lutherans and gave no rights whatever to the large body of Calvinists. +The failure of Lutherans and Calvinists to cooperate weakened German +Protestantism just at the period when the Counter Reformation inspired +Roman Catholicism with fresh energy and enthusiasm. + +POLITICAL FRICTION + +Politics, as well as religion, also helped to bring about the great +conflagration. The Roman Catholic party relied for support on the Hapsburg +emperors, who wished to unite the German states under their control, thus +restoring the Holy Roman Empire to its former proud position in the +affairs of Europe. The Protestant princes, on the other hand, wanted to +become independent sovereigns. Hence they resented all efforts to extend +the imperial authority over them. + +THE BOHEMIAN REVOLT + +The Thirty Years' War was not so much a single conflict as a series of +conflicts, which ultimately involved nearly all western Europe. It began +in Bohemia, where Protestantism had not been extinguished by the Hussite +wars. [37] The Bohemian nobles, many of whom were Calvinists, revolted +against Hapsburg rule and proclaimed the independence of Bohemia. The +German Lutherans gave them no aid, however, and the emperor, Ferdinand II, +easily put down the insurrection. Many thousands of Protestants were now +driven into exile. Those who remained in Bohemia were obliged to accept +Roman Catholicism. Thus one more country was lost to Protestantism. + +DANISH INTERVENTION + +The failure of the Bohemian revolt aroused the greatest alarm in Germany. +Ferdinand threatened to follow in the footsteps of Charles V and to crush +Protestantism in the land of its birth. When, therefore, the king of +Denmark, who as duke of Holstein had great interest in German affairs, +decided to intervene, both Lutherans and Calvinists supported him. But +Wallenstein, the emperor's able general, proved more than a match for the +Danish king, who at length withdrew from the contest. + +EDICT OF RESTITUTION, 1692 A.D. + +So far the Roman Catholic and imperial party had triumphed. Ferdinand's +success led him to issue the Edict of Restitution, which compelled the +Protestants to restore all the Church property which they had taken since +the Peace of Augsburg. The enforcement of the edict brought about renewed +resistance on the part of the Protestants. + +GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND THE INTERVENTION OF SWEDEN + +There now appeared the single heroic figure on the stage of the Thirty +Years' War. This was Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, and a man of +military genius. He had the deepest sympathy for his fellow-Protestants in +Germany and regarded himself as their divinely appointed deliverer. By +taking part in the war Gustavus also hoped to conquer the coast of +northern Germany. The Baltic would then become a Swedish lake, for Sweden +already possessed Finland and what are now the Russian provinces on the +Baltic. + +[Illustration: GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS +After the portrait by the Flemish artist, Sir Anthony Van Dyck.] + +GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, 1630-1632 A.D. + +Gustavus entered Germany with a strong force of disciplined soldiers and +tried to form alliances with the Protestant princes. They received him +coolly at first, for the Swedish king seemed to them only a foreign +invader. Just at this time the imperialists captured Magdeburg, the +largest and most prosperous city in northern Germany. At least twenty +thousand of the inhabitants perished miserably amid the smoking ruins of +their homes. This massacre turned Protestant sentiment toward Gustavus as +the "Lion of the North" who had come to preserve Germany from destruction. +With the help of his allies Gustavus reconquered most of Germany for the +Protestants, but he fell at the battle of Lützen in the moment of victory. +His work, however, was done. The Swedish king had saved the cause of +Protestantism in Germany. + +RICHELIEU AND THE INTERVENTION OF FRANCE + +After the death of Gustavus the war assumed more and more a political +character. The German Protestants found an ally, strangely enough, in +Cardinal Richelieu, the all-powerful minister of the French king. +Richelieu entered the struggle in order to humble the Austrian Hapsburgs +and extend the boundaries of France toward the Rhine, at the expense of +the Holy Roman Empire. Since the Spanish Hapsburgs were aiding their +Austrian kinsmen, Richelieu naturally fought against Spain also. The war +thus became a great international conflict in which religion played only a +minor part. The Holy Roman Emperor had to yield at last and consented to +the treaties of peace signed at two cities in the province of Westphalia. + +[Illustration: Map, EUROPE at the End of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 A.D.] + +PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, 1648 A.D. + +The Peace of Westphalia ended the long series of wars which followed the +Reformation. It practically settled the religious question, for it allowed +Calvinists in Germany to enjoy the same privileges as Lutherans and also +withdrew the Edict of Restitution. Nothing was said in the treaties about +liberty of conscience, but from this time the idea that religious +differences should be settled by force gradually passed away from the +minds of men. + +TERRITORIAL READJUSTMENTS + +The political clauses of the peace were numerous. France received nearly +all of Alsace along the Rhine. Sweden gained possessions in North Germany. +Brandenburg--the future kingdom of Prussia--secured additional territory +on the Baltic Sea. The independence of Switzerland [38] and of the United +Netherlands [39] was also recognized. + +DISRUPTION OF GERMANY + +The Peace of Westphalia left Germany more divided than ever. Each one of +the larger states was free to coin money, raise armies, make war, and +negotiate treaties without consulting the emperor. In fact, the Holy Roman +Empire had become a mere phantom. The Hapsburgs from now on devoted +themselves to their Austrian dominions, which included more Magyars and +Slavs than Germans. The failure of the Hapsburgs in the Thirty Years' War +long postponed the unification of Germany. + +EXHAUSTION OF GERMANY + +During the Thirty Years' War Germany had seen most of the fighting. She +suffered from it to the point of exhaustion. The population dwindled from +about sixteen million to one-half, or, as some believe, to one-third that +number. The loss of life was partly due to the fearful epidemics, such as +typhus fever and the bubonic plague, which spread over the land in the +wake of the invading armies. Hundreds of villages were destroyed or were +abandoned by their inhabitants. Much of the soil went out of cultivation, +while trade and manufacturing nearly disappeared. Added to all this was +the decline of education, literature, and art, and the brutalizing of the +people in mind and morals. It took Germany at least one hundred years to +recover from the injury inflicted by the Thirty Years' War; complete +recovery, indeed, came only in the nineteenth century. + +RISE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW + +The savagery displayed by all participants in the Thirty Years' War could +not but impress thinking men with the necessity of formulating rules to +protect noncombatants, to care for prisoners, and to do away with pillage +and massacre. The worst horrors of the war had not taken place, before a +Dutch jurist, named Hugo Grotius, published at Paris in 1625 A.D. a work +_On the Laws of War and Peace_. It may be said to have founded +international law. The success of the book was remarkable. Gustavus +Adolphus carried a copy about with him during his campaigns, and its +leading doctrines were recognized and acted upon in the Peace of +Westphalia. + +THE EUROPEAN STATE SYSTEM + +The great principle on which Grotius based his recommendations was the +independence of sovereign states. He gave up the medieval conception of a +temporal and spiritual head of Christendom. The nations now recognized no +common superior, whether emperor or pope, but all were equal in the sight +of international law. The book of Grotius thus marked the profound change +which had come over Europe since the Middle Ages. + + +STUDIES + +1. On an outline map indicate the European countries ruled by Charles V. + +2. On an outline map indicate the principal territorial changes made by +the Peace of Westphalia. + +3. Identify the following dates: 1648 A.D.; 1519 A.D.; 1517 A.D.; 1588 +A.D.; 1598 A.D.; and 1555 A.D. + +4. Locate the following places: Avignon; Constance; Augsburg; Zurich; +Worms; Magdeburg; and Utrecht. + +5. For what were the following persons noted: Cardinal Wolsey; Admiral de +Coligny; Duke of Alva; Richelieu; St. Ignatius Loyola; Boniface VIII; +Frederick the Wise; Gustavus Adolphus; and Mary Queen of Scots? + +6. Compare the scene at Anagni with the scene at Canossa. + +7. On the map, page 646, trace the geographical extent of the "Great +Schism." + +8. Name three important reasons for the lessened influence of the Roman +Church at the opening of the sixteenth century. + +9. Explain the difference between heresy and schism. + +10. Why has Wycliffe been called the "morning star of the Reformation"? + +11. Compare Luther's work in fixing the form of the German language with +Dante's service to Italian through the _Divine Comedy_. + +12. What is the origin of the name "Protestant"? + +13. Why was Mary naturally a Catholic and Elizabeth naturally a +Protestant? + +14. On the map, page 663, trace the geographical extent of the Reformation +in the sixteenth century. + +15. Why did the reformers in each country take special pains to translate +the Bible into the vernacular? + +16. What is the chief difference in mode of government between +Presbyterian and Congregational churches? + +17. "The heroes of the Reformation, judged by modern standards, were +reactionaries." What does this statement mean? + +18. Why is the Council of Trent generally considered the most important +church council since that of Nicaea? + +19. Mention some differences between the Society of Jesus and earlier +monastic orders. + +20. Compare the Edict of Nantes with the Peace of Augsburg. + +21. Show how political, as well as religious, motives affected the revolt +of the Netherlands, the Huguenot wars, and the Thirty Years' War. + +22. Compare the effects of the Thirty Years' War on Germany with the +effects of the Hundred Years' War on France. + +23. What would you say of Holbein's success as a portrait painter +(illustrations pages 651, 658)? + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter xxiii, +"Martin Luther and the Beginning of the Reformation"; chapter xxiv, +"England in the Age of Elizabeth." + +[2] See page 514. + +[3] See page 591. + +[4] _Purgatorio_, xx, 88-90. + +[5] See pages 36-37. + +[6] See page 594. + +[7] See page 600. + +[8] See page 344. + +[9] See page 641. + +[10] See page 468. + +[11] See page 611. + +[12] See page 455. + +[13] See page 441. + +[14] See page 443. + +[15] His hymn _Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott_ ("A mighty fortress is our +God") has been called "the Marseillaise of the Reformation." + +[16] See page 527. + +[17] See page 518. + +[18] See page 453. + +[19] See page 613. + +[20] Churches governed by assemblies of presbyters were called +Presbyterian; those which allowed each congregation to rule itself were +called Congregational. + +[21] In 1773 A.D. the pope suppressed the society, on the ground that it +had outgrown its usefulness. It was revived in many European countries +during the nineteenth century. + +[22] Until the Vatican Council, held at Rome in 1869-1870 A D. + +[23] See page 572. + +[24] See page 440. + +[25] See page 656. + +[26] See page 677. + +[27] See pages 550-552. + +[28] See page 511, note 1. + +[29] See page 639. + +[30] Armada was a Spanish name for any armed fleet. + +[31] See page 519. + +[32] See page 634. + +[33] The origin of the name is not known with certainty. + +[34] Navarre originally formed a small kingdom on both sides of the +Pyrenees. The part south of these mountains was acquired by Spain in 1513 +A.D. See the map on page 521. + +[35] See page 235. + +[36] See page 656. + +[37] See page 650. + +[38] See page 524, note 1. + +[39] See page 674. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 1603-1715 A.D. [1] + + +241. THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS + +ABSOLUTISM + +Most European nations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries accepted +the principle of absolutism in government. Absolutism was as popular then +as democracy is to-day. The rulers of France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, +Scandinavia, and other countries, having triumphed over the feudal nobles, +proceeded to revive the autocratic traditions of imperial Rome. Like +Diocletian, Constantine, and later emperors, they posed as absolute +sovereigns, who held their power, not from the choice or consent of their +subjects, but from God. + +DIVINITY OF KINGS + +Royal absolutism formed a natural development of the old belief in the +divinity of kings. Many primitive peoples regard their headmen and chiefs +as holy and give to them the control of peace and war, of life and death. +Oriental rulers in antiquity bore a sacred character. Even in the lifetime +of an Egyptian Pharaoh temples were erected to him and offerings were made +to his sacred majesty. The Hebrew monarch was the Lord's anointed, and his +person was holy. The Hellenistic kings of the East and the Roman emperors +received divine honors from their adoring subjects. An element of sanctity +also attached to medieval sovereigns, who, at their coronation, were +anointed with a magic oil, girt with a sacred sword, and given a +supernatural banner. Even Shakespeare could speak of the divinity which +"doth hedge a king." [2] + + "Not all the water in the rough rude sea + Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; + The breath of worldly men cannot depose + The deputy elected by the Lord." [3] + +DIVINE RIGHT AFTER THE REFORMATION + +The Reformation tended to emphasize the sacred character of kingship. The +reformers set up the authority of the State against the authority of the +Church, which they rejected and condemned. Providence, they argued, had +never sanctioned the Papacy, but Providence had really ordained the State +and had placed over it a king whom it was a religious duty to obey. Even +those who were not reformers distorted the Christian idea that government +has a divine basis to represent kings as God's vicegerents upon earth, as +in fact earthly deities. + +BOSSUET ON DIVINE RIGHT + +The theory of divine right received its fullest expression in a famous +book [4] written by Bossuet, a learned French bishop of the seventeenth +century. A hereditary monarchy, declared Bossuet, is the most ancient and +natural, the strongest and most efficient, of all forms of government. +Royal power emanates from God; hence the person of the king is sacred and +it is sacrilege to conspire against him. His authority is absolute and +autocratic. No man may rightfully resist the king's commands; his subjects +owe him obedience in all matters. To the violence of a king the people can +oppose only respectful remonstrances and prayers for his conversion. A +king, to be sure, ought not to be a tyrant, but he can be one in perfect +security. "As in God are united all perfection and every virtue, so all +the power of all the individuals in a community is united in the person of +the king." + + +242. THE ABSOLUTISM OF LOUIS XIV, 1661-1715 A.D. + +CARDINAL RICHELIEU + +France in the seventeenth century furnished the best example of an +absolute monarchy supported by pretensions to divine right. French +absolutism owed most of all to Cardinal Richelieu, [5] the chief minister +of Louis XIII. Though a man of poor physique and in weak health, he +possessed such strength of will, together with such thorough understanding +of politics, that he was able to dominate the king and through the king to +govern France for eighteen years (1624-1642 A.D.). + +POLICIES OF RICHELIEU + +Richelieu's foreign policy led to his intervention on the side of the +Protestants at a decisive moment in the Thirty Years' War. The great +cardinal, however, did not live to see the triumph of his measures in the +Peace of Westphalia, which humiliated the Hapsburgs and raised France to +the first place among the states of western Europe. Richelieu's domestic +policy--to make the French king supreme--was equally successful. Though +the nobles were still rich and influential, Richelieu beat down their +opposition by forbidding the practice of duelling, that last remnant of +private warfare, by ordering many castles to be blown up with gunpowder, +and by bringing rebellious dukes and counts to the scaffold. Henceforth +the nobles were no longer feudal lords but only courtiers. + +CARDINAL MAZARIN + +Richelieu died in 1642 A.D., and the next year Louis XIII, the master whom +he had served so faithfully, also passed away. The new ruler, Louis XIV, +was only a child, and the management of affairs for a second period of +eighteen years passed into the hands of Cardinal Mazarin. Though an +Italian by birth, he became a naturalized Frenchman and carried out +Richelieu's policies. Against the Hapsburgs Mazarin continued the great +war which Richelieu had begun and brought it to a satisfactory conclusion. +The Peace of Westphalia was Mazarin's greatest triumph. He also crushed a +formidable uprising against the crown, on the part of discontented nobles. +Having achieved all this, the cardinal could truly say that "if his +language was not French, his heart was," His death in 1661 A.D. found the +royal authority more firmly established than ever before. + +[Illustration: CARDINAL MAZARIN +A miniature by Petitot, in the South Kensington Museum, London.] + +LOUIS XIV, THE MAN + +Louis XIV, who now in his twenty-third year took up the reins of +government, ranks among the ablest of French monarchs. He was a man of +handsome presence, slightly below the middle height, with a prominent nose +and abundant hair, which he allowed to fall over his shoulders. In manner +he was dignified, reserved, courteous, and as majestic, it is said, in his +dressing-gown as in his robes of state. A contemporary wrote that he would +have been every inch a king, "even if he had been born under the roof of a +beggar." Louis possessed much natural intelligence, a retentive memory, +and great capacity for work. It must be added, however, that his general +education had been much neglected, and that throughout his life he +remained ignorant and superstitious. Vanity formed a striking trait in the +character of Louis. He accepted the most fulsome compliments and delighted +to be known as the "Grand Monarch" and the "Sun-king." + +[Illustration: LOUIS XIV +A portrait by J. Gale, in the Sutherland Collection, London.] + +COURT OF LOUIS XIV AT VERSAILLES + +Louis gathered around him a magnificent court, which he located at +Versailles, near Paris. Here a whole royal city, with palaces, parks, +groves, and fountains, sprang into being at his fiat. Here the "Grand +Monarch" lived surrounded by crowds of fawning courtiers. The French +nobles now spent little time on their country estates; they preferred to +remain at Versailles in attendance on the king, to whose favor they owed +offices, pensions, and honors. The king's countenance, it was said, is the +courtier's supreme felicity; "he passes his life looking on it and within +sight of it." + +[Illustration: VERSAILLES +The view shows the rear of the palace a part of the gardens and the grand +stairway leading to the Fountain of Latona. The palace now forms a +magnificent picture gallery of French historical scenes and personages +while the park with its many fine fountains is a place of holiday resort +for Parisians. It is estimated that Louis XIV spent one hundred million +dollars on the buildings and grounds of Versailles.] + +LOUIS XIV, THE KING + +Louis taught and put into practice the doctrine of divine right. In his +memoirs he declares that the king is God's representative and for his +actions is answerable to God alone. The famous saying, "I am the State," +[6] though not uttered by Louis, accurately expressed his conviction that +in him was embodied the power and greatness of France. Few monarchs have +tried harder to justify their despotic rule. He was fond of gaiety and +sport, but he never permitted himself to be turned away from the punctual +discharge of his royal duties. Until the close of his reign--the longest +in the annals of Europe--Louis devoted from five to nine hours a day to +what he called the "trade of a king." + +ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE + +Conditions in France made possible the despotism of Louis. Richelieu and +Mazarin had labored with great success to strengthen the crown at the +expense of the nobles and the commons. The nation had no Parliament to +represent it and voice its demands, for the Estates-General [7] had not +been summoned since 1614 A.D. It did not meet again till 1789 A.D., just +before the outbreak of the French Revolution. In France there was no Magna +Carta to protect the liberties of the people by limiting the right of a +ruler to impose taxes at will. The French, furthermore, lacked independent +law courts which could interfere with the king's power of exiling, +imprisoning, or executing his subjects. Thus absolute monarchy became so +firmly rooted in France that a revolution was necessary to overthrow it. + + +243. FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV + +COLBERT + +No absolute ruler, however conscientious and painstaking, can shoulder the +entire burden of government. Louis XIV necessarily had to rely very much +on his ministers, of whom Colbert was the most eminent. Colbert, until his +death in 1683 A.D., gave France the best administration it had ever known. +His reforming hand was especially felt in the finances. He made many +improvements in the methods of tax-collection and turned the annual +deficit in the revenues into a surplus. One of Colbert's innovations, now +adopted by all European states, was the budget system. Before his time +expenditures had been made at random, without consulting the treasury +receipts. Colbert drew up careful estimates, one year in advance, of the +probable revenues and expenditures, so that outlay would never exceed +income. + +COLBERT'S ECONOMIC MEASURES + +Although the science of economics or political economy was little +developed in the seventeenth century, Colbert realized that the chief +object of a minister of finance should be the increase of the national +wealth. Hence he tried in every way to foster manufactures and commerce. +Among other measures Colbert placed heavy duties on the importation of +foreign products, as a means of protecting the "infant industries" of +France. This was the inauguration of the protective system, since followed +by many European countries and from Europe introduced into America. +Colbert regarded protectionism as only a temporary device, however, and +spoke of tariffs as crutches by the help of which manufacturers might +learn to walk and then throw them away. + +[Illustration: MEDAL OF LOUIS XIV +Commemorates the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The obverse bears a +representation of 'Louis the Great the Most Christian King' the reverse +contains a legend meaning "Heresy Extinguished."] + +COLBERT AND COLONIAL EXPANSION + +Colbert shared the erroneous views of most economists of his age in +supposing that the wealth of a country is measured by the amount of gold +and silver which it possesses. He wished, therefore, to provide the French +with colonies, where they could obtain the products which they had +previously been obliged to purchase from the Spaniards, Dutch, and +English. At this time many islands in the West Indies were acquired, +Canada was developed, and Louisiana, the vast territory drained by the +Mississippi, was opened up to settlement. France, under Colbert, became +one of the leading colonial powers of Europe. + +REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES, 1685 A.D. + +As long as Colbert lived, he kept on good terms with the Huguenots, who +formed such useful and industrious subjects. But Louis hated them as +heretics and suspected them of little love for absolute monarchy. To Louis +religious unity in the state seemed as necessary as political unity. +Accordingly, he revoked in 1685 A.D. the Edict of Nantes, [8] after the +French for almost a century had enjoyed religious toleration. The +Huguenots were allowed to keep their Protestant faith, but their freedom +of worship was taken away and was not restored till the time of the French +Revolution. The Protestants in France to-day are about as numerous, in +proportion to the Roman Catholic population, as they were under Louis XIV. + +EMIGRATION OF THE HUGUENOTS + +The revocation of the Edict of Nantes resulted in a considerable +emigration of Huguenots from France. What was a loss to that country was a +gain to England and Holland, where the Huguenots settled and where they +introduced their arts and trades. Prussia, also, profited by the +emigration of the Huguenots. Many of them went to Berlin, and that capital +owed the beginning of its importance to its Huguenot population. Louis by +his bigotry thus strengthened the chief Protestant foes of France. + +ART UNDER LOUIS XIV + +Louis was a generous patron of art. French painters and sculptors led the +world at this time. One of his architects, Mansard, invented the mansard +roof, which has been largely used in France and other European countries. +This architectural device makes it possible to provide extra rooms at a +small expense, without adding an additional story to the building. Among +the monuments of Louis's reign are the Hôtel des Invalides, [9] now the +tomb of Napoleon, additions to the Louvre, [10] perhaps the masterpiece of +all modern architecture, and the huge palace of Versailles. Louis also +founded the Gobelins manufactory, so celebrated for fine carpets, +furniture, and metal work. + +LITERATURE UNDER LOUIS XIV + +The long list of French authors who flourished during the reign of Louis +includes Molière, the greatest of French dramatists, La Fontaine, whose +fables are still popular, Perrault, now remembered for his fairy tales, +and Madame de Sévigné, whose letters are regarded as models of French +prose. Probably the most famous work composed at this time is the +_Memoirs_ of Saint-Simon. It presents an intimate and not very flattering +picture of the "Grand Monarch" and his court. + +LEARNING UNDER LOUIS XIV + +Louis and his ministers believed that the government should encourage +research and the diffusion of knowledge. Richelieu founded and Colbert +fostered the French Academy. Its forty members, sometimes called the +"Immortals," are chosen for their eminent contributions to language and +literature. The great dictionary of the French language, on which they +have labored for more than two centuries, is still unfinished. The academy +now forms a section of the Institute of France. The patronage of Colbert +also did much to enrich the National Library at Paris. It contains the +largest collection of books in the world. + +THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV + +The brilliant reign of the French king cast its spell upon the rest of +Europe. Kings and princes looked to Louis as the model of what a king +should be and set themselves to imitate the splendor of his court. During +this period the French language, manners, dress, art, literature, and +science became the accepted standards of good society in all civilized +lands. France still retains in large measure the preeminent position which +she secured under the "Grand Monarch." + + +244. THE WARS OF LOUIS XIV + +AMBITIOUS DESIGNS OF LOUIS XIV + +How unwise it may be to concentrate all authority in the hands of one man +is shown by the melancholy record of the wars of Louis XIV. To aggrandize +France and gain fame for himself, Louis plunged his country into a series +of struggles from which it emerged completely exhausted. Like Philip II, +Louis dreamed of dominating all western Europe, but, as in Philip's case, +his aggressions provoked against him a constantly increasing body of +allies, who in the end proved too strong even for the king's able generals +and fine armies. + +THE BALANCE OF POWER + +The union of the smaller and weaker countries of Europe against France +illustrates the principle of the balance of power. According to this +principle no state ought to become so strong as to overshadow the rest. In +such a case all the others must combine against it and treat it as a +common enemy. The maintenance of the balance of power has been a leading +object of European diplomacy from the time of the Thirty Years' War to the +present day. + +FRENCH MILITARISM + +Louis himself lacked military talent and did not take a prominent part in +any campaign. He was served, however, by very able commanders, including +Condé and Turenne. Vauban, an eminent engineer, especially developed the +art of siege craft. It was said of Vauban that he never besieged a +fortress without taking it and never lost one which he defended. Louvois, +the war minister of the king, recruited, equipped, and provisioned larger +bodies of troops than ever before had appeared on European battlefields. +It was Louvois who introduced the use of distinctive uniforms for soldiers +and the custom of marching in step. He also established field hospitals +and ambulances and placed camp life on a sanitary basis. The labors of +these men gave Louis the best standing army of the age. + +THE RHINE BOUNDARY + +Of the four great wars which filled a large part of Louis's reign, all but +the last were designed to extend the dominions of France on the east and +northeast to the Rhine. That river in ancient times had separated Gaul and +Germany, and Louis, as well as Richelieu and Mazarin before him, regarded +it as a natural boundary of France. A beginning in this direction had +already been made at the close of the Thirty Years' War, when France +gained nearly all of Alsace and secured the recognition of her old claims +to the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun in Lorraine. A treaty which +Mazarin negotiated with Spain in 1659 A.D. also gave France most of +Artois, as well as part of Flanders. Louis thus had a good basis of +further advance through Lorraine and the Netherlands to the Rhine. + +TWO WARS FOR THE RHINE, 1667-1678 A.D. + +The French king began his aggressions by an effort to annex the Belgian or +Spanish Netherlands, which then belonged to Spain. [11] A triple alliance +of Holland, England, and Sweden forced him to relinquish all his +conquests, except a few frontier towns (1668 A.D.). Louis blamed the Dutch +for his setback, and determined to punish them. Moreover, the Dutch +represented everything to which he was opposed, for Holland was a +republic, the keen rival of France in trade, and Protestant in religion. +By skillful diplomacy he persuaded England and Sweden to stand aloof, +while his armies entered Holland and drew near to Amsterdam At this +critical moment William, Prince of Orange, became the Dutch leader. He was +a descendant of that William the Silent, who, a century before, had saved +the Dutch out of the hands of Spain. When urged to submit, seeing that his +country was surely lost, William replied, "I know one way of never seeing +it, and that way is to die on the last dike." By William's orders the +Dutch cut the dikes and interposed a watery barrier to further advance by +the French. Then he formed another Continental coalition, which carried on +the war till Louis signified his desire for peace. The Dutch did not lose +a foot of territory, but Spain was obliged to cede to France the important +province of Franche Comté (1678 A.D.). + +[Illustration: Map, ACQUISITIONS OF LOUIS XIV AND LOUIS XV] + +A THIRD WAR, 1689-1697 A.D. + +Ten years later Louis again sought to gain additional territory along the +Rhine, but again an alliance of Spain, Holland, England, and the Holy +Roman Empire compelled 1689-1697 him to sue for peace (1697 A.D.). [12] +During the course of the war the French inflicted a frightful devastation +on the Rhenish Palatinate, so that it might not support armies for the +invasion of France. Twelve hundred towns and villages were destroyed, and +the countryside was laid waste. The responsibility for this barbarous act +rests upon Louvois who advised it and Louis who allowed it. + +THE SPANISH SUCCESSION + +Thus far the European balance of power had been preserved, but it was now +threatened in another direction. Charles II, the king of Spain, lay dying, +and as he was without children or brothers to succeed him, all Europe +wondered what would be the fate of his vast possessions in Europe and +America. Louis had married one of his sisters, and the Holy Roman Emperor +another, so both the Bourbons and the Austrian Hapsburgs could put forth +claims to the Spanish throne. When Charles died, it was found that he had +left his entire dominions to Philip of Anjou, one of Louis's grandsons, in +the hope that the power of France might be great enough to keep them +undivided. Though Louis knew that acceptance of the inheritance would +involve a war with Austria and probably with England, whose king was now +Louis's old foe, William of Orange, [13] ambition triumphed over fear and +the desire for glory over consideration for the welfare of France. At +Versailles Louis proudly presented his grandson to the court, saying, +"Gentlemen, behold the king of Spain." + +WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION, 1702-1713 A.D. + +In the War of the Spanish Succession France and Spain faced the Grand +Alliance, which included England, Holland, Austria, several of the German +states, and Portugal. Europe had never known a war that concerned so many +countries and peoples. The English ruler, William III, died shortly after +the outbreak of hostilities, leaving the continuance of the contest as a +legacy to his sister-in-law, Queen Anne. [14] England supplied the +coalition with funds, a fleet, and also with the ablest commander of the +age, the duke of Marlborough. In Eugène, prince of Savoy, the allies had +another skillful and daring general. The great victory gained by them at +Blenheim in 1704 A.D. was the first of a series of successes which finally +drove the French out of Germany and Italy and opened the road to Paris. +But dissensions among the allies and the heroic resistance of France and +Spain enabled Louis to hold the enemy at bay, until the exhaustion of both +sides led to the conclusion of the Peace of Utrecht. + +PEACE OF UTRECHT, 1713 A.D. + +This peace ranks with that of Westphalia among the most important +diplomatic arrangements of modern times. First, Louis's grandson, Philip +V, was recognized as king of Spain and her colonies, on condition that the +Spanish and French crowns should never be united. Since this time Bourbon +sovereigns have continued to rule in Spain. Next, the Austrian Hapsburgs +gained most of the Spanish dominions in Italy, as well as the Belgian or +Spanish Netherlands (henceforth for a century called the Austrian +Netherlands). Finally, England obtained from France possessions in North +America, and from Spain the island of Minorca and the rock of Gibraltar, +commanding the narrow entrance to the Mediterranean. England has never +since relaxed her hold upon Gibraltar. + +BRANDENBURG AND PRUSSIA + +Two of the smaller members of the Grand Alliance likewise profited by the +Peace of Utrecht. The right of the elector of Brandenburg to enjoy the +title of king of Prussia was acknowledged. This formed an important step +in the fortunes of the Hohenzollern [15] dynasty, which to-day rules over +Germany. The duchy of Savoy also became a kingdom and received the island +of Sicily (shortly afterwards exchanged for Sardinia). The house of Savoy +in the nineteenth century provided Italy with its present reigning family. + +POSITION OF FRANCE + +France lost far less by the war than at one time seemed probable. Louis +gave up his dream of dominating Europe, but he kept all the Continental +acquisitions made earlier in his reign. And yet the price of the king's +warlike policy had been a heavy one. France paid it in the shape of famine +and pestilence, excessive taxes, heavy debts, and the impoverishment of +the people. Louis, now a very old man, survived the Peace of Utrecht only +two years. As he lay on his deathbed, the king turned to his little heir +[16] and said, "Try to keep peace with your neighbors. I have been too +fond of war; do not imitate me in that, nor in my too great expenditure." +These words of the dying king showed an appreciation of the errors which +robbed his long reign of much of its glory. + +[Illustration: MARLBOROUGH +A miniature in the possession of the Duke of Buccleugh.] + +[Illustration: Map, EUROPE after the Peace of Utrecht, 1713 A.D.]. + + +245. THE ABSOLUTISM OF THE STUARTS, 1603-1642 A.D. + +TUDOR ABSOLUTISM + +During the same century which saw the triumph of absolutism and divine +right in France, a successful struggle took place in England against the +unlimited power of kings. Absolutism in England dated from the time of the +Tudors. Henry VII humbled the nobles, while Henry VIII and Elizabeth +brought the Church into dependence on the crown. [17] These three +sovereigns were strong and forceful, but they were also excellent rulers +and popular with the influential middle class in town and country. The +Tudors gave England order and prosperity, if not political liberty. + +PARLIAMENT UNDER THE TUDORS + +The English Parliament in the thirteenth century had become a body +representative of all classes of the people, and in the fourteenth century +it had separated into the two houses of Lords and Commons. [18] Parliament +enjoyed considerable authority at this time. The kings, who were in +continual need of money, summoned it frequently, sought its advice upon +important questions, and readily listened to its requests. The despotic +Tudors, on the other hand, made Parliament their servant. Henry VII called +it together on only five occasions during his reign; Henry VIII persuaded +or frightened it into doing anything he pleased; and Elizabeth seldom +consulted it. Parliament under the Tudors did not abandon its old claims +to a share in the government, but it had little chance to exercise them. + +JAMES I, KING, 1603-1625 A.D. + +The death of Elizabeth in 1603 A.D. ended the Tudor dynasty and placed the +Stuarts on the English throne in the person of James I. [19] England and +Scotland were now joined in a personal union, though each country retained +its own Parliament, laws, and state Church. The new king was well +described by a contemporary as the "wisest fool in Christendom." He had a +good mind and abundant learning, but throughout his reign he showed an +utter inability to win either the esteem or the affection of his subjects. +This was a misfortune, for the English had now grown weary of despotism +and wanted more freedom. They were not prepared to tolerate in James, an +alien, many things which they had overlooked in "Good Queen Bess." + +JAMES I ON DIVINE RIGHT + +One of the most fruitful sources of discord between James and the English +people was his exalted conception of monarchy. The Tudors, indeed, claimed +to rule by divine right, but James went further than they in arguing for +divine _hereditary_ right. Providence, James declared, had chosen the +principle of heredity in order to fix the succession to the throne. This +principle, being divine, lay beyond the power of man to alter. Whether the +king was fit or unfit to rule, Parliament might not change the succession, +depose a sovereign, or limit his authority in any way. James rather neatly +summarized his views in a Latin epigram, _a deo rex, a rege lex_--"the +king is from God and law is from the king." + +[Illustration: GOLD COIN OF JAMES I. +The first coin to bear the legend "Great Britain".] + +JAMES I AND PARLIAMENT + +Naturally enough, the extreme pretensions of James encountered much +opposition from Parliament. That body felt little sympathy for a ruler who +proclaimed himself the source of all law. When James, always extravagant +and a poor financier, came before it for money, Parliament insisted on its +right to withhold supplies until grievances were redressed. James would +not yield, and got along as best he could by levying customs duties, +selling titles of nobility, and imposing excessive fines, in spite of the +protests of Parliament. This situation continued to the end of the king's +reign. + +JAMES I AND PURITANISM + +A religious controversy helped to embitter the dispute between James and +Parliament. The king, who was Puritanism a devout Anglican, made himself +very unpopular with the Puritans, as the reformers within the Church of +England were called. The Puritans had no intention of separating from the +national or established Church, but they wished to "purify" it of certain +customs which they described as "Romish" or "papist." Among these were the +use of the surplice, of the ring in the marriage service, and of the sign +of the cross in baptism. Some Puritans wanted to get rid of the _Book of +Common Prayer_ altogether. The Puritans were distinguished by their +austere lives. They looked with disfavor on May Day and Christmas +festivities, observed the Jewish Sabbath in all its rigor, and condemned +the Anglicans who played games and danced upon the village green on +Sundays. As the Puritans had a large majority in the House of Commons, it +was inevitable that the parliamentary struggle against Stuart absolutism +would assume in part a religious character. + +[Illustration: A PURITAN FAMILY +Illustration in an edition of the _Psalms_ published in 1563 A.D.] + +CHARLES I, KING, 1625-1649 A.D. + +The political and religious difficulties which marked the reign of James I +did not disappear when his son, Charles I, came to the throne. Charles was +a true Stuart in his devotion to absolutism and divine right. Almost +immediately he began to quarrel with Parliament. When that body withheld +supplies, Charles resorted to forced loans from the wealthy and even +imprisoned a number of persons who refused to contribute. Such arbitrary +acts showed plainly that Charles would play the tyrant if he could. + +PETITION OF RIGHT, 1628 A.D. + +The king's attitude at last led Parliament to a bold assertion of its +authority. It now presented to Charles the celebrated Petition of Right. +One of the most important clauses provided that forced loans without +parliamentary sanction should be considered illegal. Another clause +declared that no one should be arrested or imprisoned except according to +the law of the land. The Petition thus repeated and reinforced two of the +leading principles of Magna Carta. [20] The people of England, speaking +this time through their elected representatives, asserted once more their +right to limit the power of kings. + +PERSONAL RULE OF CHARLES I, 1629-1640 A.D. + +Charles signed the Petition, as the only means of securing parliamentary +consent to taxation; but he had no intention of observing it. For the next +eleven years he managed to govern without calling Parliament in session. +The conduct of affairs during this period lay largely in the hands of Sir +Thomas Wentworth, afterwards earl of Strafford, and William Laud, who +later became archbishop of Canterbury. The king made these two men his +principal advisers and through them carried on his despotic rule. +Arbitrary courts, which tried cases without a jury, punished those who +resisted the royal will. A rigid censorship of the press prevented any +expression of popular discontent. Public meetings were suppressed as +seditious riots. Even private gatherings were dangerous, for the king had +swarms of spies to report any disloyal acts or utterances. + +JOHN HAMPDEN AND "SHIP-MONEY" + +Since Charles ruled without a Parliament, he had to adopt all sorts of +devices to fill his treasury. One of these was the levying of "ship- +money." According to an old custom, seaboard towns and counties had been +required to provide ships or money for the royal navy. Charles revived +this custom and extended it to towns and counties lying inland. It seemed +clear that the king meant to impose a permanent tax on all England without +the assent of Parliament. The demand for "ship-money" aroused much +opposition, and John Hampden, a wealthy squire of Buckinghamshire, refused +to pay the twenty shillings levied on his estate. Hampden was tried before +a court of the royal judges and was convicted by a bare majority. He +became, however, the hero of the hour. The England people recognized in +him one who had dared, for the sake of principle, to protest against the +king's despotic rule. + +[Illustration: CHARLES I +A painting by Daniel Mytens in the National Portrait Gallery. London] + +LAUD'S ECCLESIASTICAL POLICY + +Archbishop Laud, the king's chief agent in ecclesiastical matters, +detested Puritanism and aimed to root it out from the Church of England. +He put no Puritans to death, but he sanctioned cruel punishments of those +who would not conform to the established Church. All that the dungeon and +the pillory, mutilation and loss of position, could do to break their will +was done. While the restrictions on Puritans were increased, those +affecting Roman Catholics were relaxed. Many people thought that Charles, +through Laud and the bishops, was preparing to lead the Church of England +back to Rome. They therefore opposed the king on religious grounds, as +well as for political reasons. + +[Illustration: EXECUTION OF THE EARL OF STRAFFORD +After a contemporary print. The Tower of London is seen in the +background.] + +THE LONG PARLIAMENT, 1640 A.D. + +But the personal rule of Charles was now drawing to an end. In 1637 A.D. +the king, supported by Archbishop Laud, tried The Long to introduce a +modified form of the English prayer book into Scotland. The Scotch, +Presbyterian [21] to the core, drew up a national oath, or Covenant, by +which they bound themselves to resist any attempt to change their +religion. Rebellion quickly passed into open war, and the Covenanters +invaded northern England. Charles, helpless, with a seditious army and an +empty treasury, had to summon Parliament in session. It met in 1640 A.D. +and did not formally dissolve till twenty years later. Hence it has +received the name of the Long Parliament. + +[Illustration: Map, ENGLAND AND WALES--THE CIVIL WARS OF THE 17TH CENTURY] + +REFORMS OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT + +The Long Parliament no sooner assembled than it assumed the conduct of +government. The leaders, including John Hampden, John Pym, and Oliver +Cromwell, openly declared that the House of Commons, and not the king, +possessed supreme authority in the state. Parliament began by executing +Strafford and subsequently Laud, thus emphasizing the responsibility of +ministers to Parliament. Next, it abolished Star Chamber and other special +courts, which had become engines of royal oppression. It forbade the +levying of "ship-money" and other irregular taxes. It took away the king's +right of dissolving Parliament at his pleasure and ordered that at least +one parliamentary session should be held every three years. These measures +stripped the crown of the despotic powers acquired by the Tudors and the +Stuarts. + + +246. OLIVER CROMWELL AND THE CIVIL WAR, 1642-1649 A.D. + +OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT REBELLION, 1642 A.D. + +Thus far, the Long Parliament had acted along the line of reformation +rather than revolution. Had Charles been content to accept the new +arrangements, there would have been little more trouble. But the proud and +imperious king was only watching his chance to strike a blow at +Parliament. Taking advantage of some differences in opinion among its +members, Charles summoned his soldiers, marched to Westminister, and +demanded the surrender of five leaders, including Pym and Hampden. Warned +in time, they made their escape, and Charles did not find them in the +chamber of the Commons. "Well, I see all the birds are flown," he +exclaimed, and walked out baffled. The king's attempt to intimidate the +Commons was a great blunder. It showed beyond doubt that he would resort +to force, rather than bend his neck to Parliament. Both Charles and +Parliament now began to gather troops and prepare for the inevitable +conflict. + +"CAVALIERS" AND "ROUND-HEADS" + +The opposing parties seemed to be very evenly matched. Around the king +rallied nearly all of the nobles, the Anglican clergy, the Roman +Catholics, a majority of the "squires," or country gentry, and the members +of the universities. The royalists received the name of "Cavaliers." The +parliamentarians, or "Roundheads," [22] were mostly recruited from the +trading classes in the towns and the small landowners in the country. The +working people remained as a rule indifferent and took little part in the +struggle. + +[Illustration: OLIVER CROMWELL +A painting by Robert Walker, in the National Portrait Gallery, London.] + +OLIVER CROMWELL, 1599-1658 A.D. + +Both Pym and Hampden died in the second year of the war, and henceforth +the leadership of the parliamentary party fell to Oliver Cromwell. He was +a country gentleman from the east of England, and Hampden's cousin. +Cromwell represented the university of Cambridge in the Long Parliament +and displayed there great audacity in opposing the government. An +unfriendly critic at this time describes "his countenance swollen and +reddish, his voice sharp and untuneable, and his eloquence full of +fervor." Though a zealous Puritan, who believed himself in all sincerity +to be the chosen agent of the Lord, Cromwell was not an ascetic. He +hunted, hawked, played bowls, and other games, had an ear for music, and +valued art and learning. In public life he showed himself a statesman of +much insight and a military genius. + +THE "IRONSIDES" AND THE "NEW MODEL" + +At the outset of the war fortune favored the royalists, until Cromwell +took the field. To him was due the formation of a cavalry regiment of +"honest, sober Christians," whose watchwords were texts from Scripture and +who charged in battle while singing psalms. These "Ironsides," as Cromwell +said, "had the fear of God before them and made some conscience of what +they did." They were so successful that Parliament permitted Cromwell to +reorganize a large part of the army into the "New Model," a body of +professional, highly disciplined soldiers. The "New Model" defeated +Charles decisively at the battle of Naseby, near the center of England +(1645 A.D.). Charles then surrendered to the Scotch, who soon turned him +over to Parliament. + +PRESYBTERIANS AND INDEPENDENTS + +The surrender of the king ended the Great Rebellion, but left the +political situation in doubt. By this time the Puritans had divided into +two rival parties. The Presbyterians wished to make the Church of England, +like that of Scotland, Presbyterian in faith and worship. Through their +control of Parliament, they were able to pass acts doing away with +bishops, forbidding the use of the _Book of Common Prayer_, and requiring +every one to accept Presbyterian doctrines. The other Puritan party, known +as the Independents, [23] felt that religious beliefs should not be a +matter of compulsion. They rejected both Anglicanism and Presbyterianism +and desired to set up churches of their own, where they might worship as +seemed to them right. The Independents had the powerful backing of +Cromwell and the "New Model," so that the stage was set for a quarrel +between Parliament and the army. + +"PRIDE'S PURGE," 1648 A.D. + +King Charles, though a prisoner in the hands of his enemies, hoped to find +profit in their divisions. The Presbyterian majority in the House of +Commons was willing to restore the king, provided he would give his assent +to the establishment of Presbyterianism in England. But the army wanted no +reconciliation with the captive monarch and at length took matters into +its own hand. A party of soldiers, under the command of a Colonel Pride, +excluded the Presbyterian members from the floor of the House, leaving the +Independents alone to conduct the government. This action is known as +"Pride's Purge." Cromwell approved of it, and from this time he became the +real ruler of England. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF WESTMINSTER HALL +Next to the Tower and the Abbey Westminster Hall adjoining the Houses of +Parliament, is the most historic building in London. The hall was begun by +William Rufus in 1097 A.D. and was enlarged by his successors. Richard II +in 1397 A.D. added the great oak roof, which has lasted to this day Here +were held the trials of Stafford and Charles I.] + +EXECUTION OF CHARLES I, 1649 A.D. + +The "Rump Parliament," as the remnant of the House of Commons was called, +immediately brought the king before a High Court of Justice composed of +his bitterest enemies. He refused to acknowledge the right of the court to +try him and made no defense whatever. Charles was speedily convicted and +sentenced to be beheaded, "as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public +enemy to the good of the people." He met death with quiet dignity and +courage on a scaffold erected in front of Whitehall Palace in London. The +king's execution went far beyond the wishes of most Englishmen; "cruel +necessity" formed its only justification; but it established once for all +in England the principle that rulers are responsible to their subjects. + + +247. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE PROTECTORATE, 1649-1660 A.D. + +ENGLAND A REPUBLIC + +Shortly after the execution of Charles I the "Rump Parliament" abolished +the House of Lords and the office of king. It named a Council of State, +most of whose members were chosen from the House of Commons, to carry on +the government. England now became a commonwealth, or national republic, +the first in the history of the world. It is clear that this republic was +the creation of a minority. The Anglicans, the Presbyterians, and the +Roman Catholics were willing to restore the monarchy, but as long as the +power lay with the army, the small sect of Independents could impose its +will on the great majority of the English people. + +SUBJECTION OF IRELAND + +Besides confusion and discontent at home, many dangers confronted the +Commonwealth abroad. In both Ireland and Scotland Prince Charles, the +oldest son of the dead sovereign, had been proclaimed king. But Cromwell +rose to the emergency. Invading Ireland with his trained soldiers, he +captured town after town, slaughtered many royalists, and shipped many +more to the West Indies as slaves. This time Ireland was completely +subdued, at a cost, from fighting, famine, and pestilence, of the lives of +a third of its population. Cromwell confiscated the land of those who had +supported the royalist cause and planted colonies of English Protestants +in Ulster, Leinster, and Munster. The Roman Catholic gentry were compelled +to remove beyond the Shannon River to unfruitful Connaught. Even there the +public exercise of their religion was forbidden them. Cromwell's harsh +measures brought peace to Ireland, but only intensified the hatred felt by +Irish Roman Catholics for Protestant England. [24] + +SCOTLAND SUBDUED + +While Cromwell was still in Ireland, Prince Charles, who had been living +as an exile at the French court, came to Scotland. On his promise to be a +Presbyterian king the whole nation agreed to support him. Cromwell, in two +pitched battles, broke up the Scotch armies and compelled Prince Charles +to seek safety in flight. After thrilling adventures the prince managed to +reach his asylum in France. Cromwell treated the Scotch with leniency, but +took away their Parliament and united their country with England in a +single state. + +[Illustration: Map, IRELAND In the 16th Century] + +DISSOLUTION OF THE "RUMP PARLIAMENT," 1653 A.D. + +Meanwhile, the "Rump Parliament" had become more and more unpopular. The +army, which had saved England from Stuart despotism, did not relish the +spectacle of a small group of men, many of them selfish and corrupt, +presuming to govern the country Cromwell found them "horridly arbitrary" +and at last resolved to have done with them. He entered the House of +Commons with a band of musketeers and ordered the members home. "Come, +come," he cried, "I will put an end to your prating. You are no +Parliament, I say you are no Parliament. I will put an end to your +sitting." Another Parliament, chosen by Cromwell and the army, proved +equally incapable. After a few months' rule it resigned its authority into +the hands of Cromwell. + +[Illustration: GREAT SEAL OF ENGLAND UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH (REDUCED) +The reverse represents the House of Commons in session.] + +THE INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT + +By force of circumstances Cromwell had become a virtual dictator, but he +had no love of absolute power. He therefore accepted a so-called +Instrument of Government, drawn up by some of his officers. It provided +that Cromwell should be Lord Protector for life, with the assistance of a +council and a Parliament. The Instrument is notable as the first written +constitution of a modern nation. It is the only one which England has ever +had. + +CROMWELL AS LORD PROTECTOR, 1653-1658 A.D. + +As Lord Protector in name, though a king in fact, Cromwell ruled England +for five years. He got along with Parliament no better than the Stuarts +had done, but his successful conduct of foreign affairs gave England an +importance in the councils of Europe which it had not enjoyed since the +time of Elizabeth. Cromwell died in 1658 A.D. Two years later the nation, +weary of military rule, restored Charles II to the throne of his +ancestors. + +THE PURITAN REVOLUTION + +It seemed, indeed, as if the Puritan Revolution had been a complete +failure. But this was hardly true. The revolution arrested the growth of +absolutism in England. It created among Englishmen a lasting hostility to +absolute power, whether exercised by King, Parliament, Protector, or army. +And, furthermore, it sent forth into the world ideas of political liberty, +which, during the eighteenth century, helped to produce the American and +French revolutions. + + +248. THE RESTORATION AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION," 1660-1689 A.D. + +REIGN OF CHARLES II, 1660-1685 A.D. + +Charles II, on mounting the throne, pledged himself to maintain Magna +Carta, the Petition of Right, and other statutes limiting the royal power. +The people of England wished to be governed by the king, but they also +wished that the king should govern by the advice of Parliament. Charles, +less obstinate and more astute than his father, recognized this fact, and, +when a conflict threatened with his ministers or Parliament, always +avoided it by timely concessions. Whatever happened, he used to say, he +was resolved "never to set on his travels again." Charles's charm of +manner, wit, and genial humor made him a popular monarch, in spite of his +grave faults of character. One of his own courtiers well described him as +a king who "never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one." + +REACTION AGAINST PURITANISM + +The period of the Restoration was characterized by a reaction against the +austere scheme of life which the Puritans had imposed on society. +Puritanism not only deprived the people of evil pleasures, such as bear- +baiting, Cock-fighting, and tippling, but it also prohibited the Sunday +dances and games, the village festivals, and the popular drama. When +Puritanism disappeared, the people went to the opposite extreme and cast +off all restraint. In this the king, who had lived long at the gay court +of Louis XIV, set the example. England was nevermore merry and never less +moral than under its "Merry Monarch." + +[Illustration: BOYS' SPORTS +From a book of 1659 A.D.] + +THE DISSENTERS + +The Restoration brought back the Church of England, together with the +Stuarts. Parliament, more intolerant than the king, passed an Act of +Uniformity, which made the use of the _Book of Common Prayer_ compulsory +and required all ministers to express their consent to everything +contained in it. Nearly two thousand clergymen resigned their positions +rather than obey the act. Among them were found Presbyterians, +Independents (or Congregationalists), Baptists, and Quakers. These +Puritans, since they did not accept the national Church, were henceforth +classed as Dissenters. [25] They might not hold meetings for worship, or +teach in schools, or accept any public office. For many years the +Dissenters had to endure harsh persecution. + +HABEAS CORPUS ACT, 1679 A.D. + +One of the most important events belonging to the reign of Charles II was +the passage by Parliament of the Habeas Corpus Act. The writ of _habeas +corpus_ [26] is an order, issued by a judge, requiring a person held in +custody to be brought before the court. If upon examination there appears +to be good reason for keeping the prisoner, he is to be remanded for +trial; otherwise he is to be freed or released on bail. This writ had been +long used in England, and one of the clauses of Magna Carta expressly +provided against arbitrary imprisonment. It had always been possible, +however, for the king or his ministers to order the arrest of a person +considered dangerous to the state, without making any formal charge +against him. The Habeas Corpus Act established the principle that every +man, not charged with or convicted of a known crime, is entitled to +personal freedom. Most of the British possessions where the Common law +prevails have accepted the act, and it has been adopted by the federal and +state legislatures of the United States. + +[Illustration: SILVER CROWN OF CHARLES II] + +WHIGS AND TORIES + +The reign of Charles II also saw the beginning of the modern party system +in Parliament. Two opposing parties took shape, very largely out of a +religious controversy. The king, from his long life in France, had become +partial to Roman Catholicism, though he did not formally embrace that +faith until at the moment of death. His brother James, the heir to the +throne, became an open Roman Catholic, however, much to the disgust of +many members of Parliament. A bill was now brought forward to exclude +Prince James from the succession, because of his conversion. Its +supporters received the nickname of Whigs, while those who opposed it were +called Tories. [27] The bill did not pass the House of Lords, but the two +parties in Parliament continued to divide on other questions. They survive +to-day as the Liberals and the Conservatives, and still dispute the +government of England between them. + +REIGN OF JAMES II, 1685-1688 A.D. + +James II was without the attractive personality which had made his brother +a popular ruler; moreover, he was an avowed Roman Catholic and a staunch +believer in the divine right of kings. During his three years' reign, +James managed to make enemies of most of his Protestant subjects. He +"suspended" the laws against Roman Catholics and appointed them to +positions of authority and influence. James also dismissed Parliament and +supported himself with subsidies from Louis XIV. At last a number of Whig +and Tory leaders, representing both parties in Parliament, invited that +sturdy Protestant, William of Orange, [28] to rescue England from Stuart +absolutism. + +ACCESSION OF WILLIAM AND MARY, 1689 A.D. + +William landed in England with a small army and marched unopposed to +London. The wretched king, deserted by his courtiers and his soldiers, +soon found himself Harness alone. He fled to France, where he lived the +remainder of his days as a pensioner at the court of Louis XIV. Parliament +granted the throne conjointly to William and Mary, William to rule during +his lifetime and Mary to have the succession, should she survive him. + +THE BILL OF RIGHTS + +In settling the crown on William and Mary, Parliament took care to +safeguard its own authority and the of Protestant religion. It enacted the +Bill of Rights, which has a place by the side of Magna Carta and the +Petition of Right among the great documents of English constitutional +history. This act decreed that the sovereign must henceforth be a member +of the Anglican Church. It forbade the sovereign to "suspend" the +operation of the laws, or to levy money or maintain a standing army except +by consent of Parliament. It also declared that election of members of +Parliament ought to be free; that they ought to enjoy freedom of speech +and action within the two Houses; and that excessive bail ought not to be +required, or excessive fines imposed, or cruel and unusual punishments +inflicted. Finally, it affirmed the right of subjects to petition the +sovereign and ordered the holding of frequent Parliaments. These were not +new principles of political liberty, but now the English people were +strong enough not only to assert, but also to uphold them. They reappear +in the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States. + +THE TOLERATION ACT + +At this time, also, England took an important step in the direction of +religious liberty. Parliament passed a Toleration Act, conceding to the +Dissenters the right of worship, though not the right of holding any civil +or military office. The Dissenters might now serve their God as they +pleased, without fear of persecution. Unitarians and Roman Catholics, as +well as Jews, were expressly excluded from the benefits of the act. The +passage of this measure did much to remove religion from English politics +as a vital issue. + +THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" + +The revolution of 1688-89 A.D. thus struck a final blow at absolutism and +divine right in England. An English king became henceforth the servant of +Parliament, holding office only on good behavior. An act of Parliament had +made him and an act of Parliament might depose him. It is well to +remember, however, that the revolution was not a popular movement. It was +a successful struggle for parliamentary supremacy on the part of the upper +and middle classes--the nobles, squires, merchants, and clergy. England +now had a "limited" or "constitutional" monarchy controlled by the +aristocracy. Not till the nineteenth century did the common people succeed +in establishing a really democratic government in England. + + +249. ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + +SOCIAL ENGLAND + +The population of England at the close of the seventeenth century exceeded +five millions, of whom at least two-thirds lived in the country. Except +for London there were only four towns of more than ten thousand +inhabitants. London counted half a million people within its limits and +had become the largest city in Europe. Town life still wore a medieval +look, but the increase of wealth gradually introduced many new comforts +and luxuries. Coal came into use instead of charcoal; tea, coffee, and +chocolate competed with wine, ale, and beer as beverages; the first +newspapers appeared, generally in weekly editions; amusements multiplied; +and passenger coaches began to ply between London and the provincial +centers. The highways, however, were wretched and infested with robbers. +The traveler found some recompense for the hardships of a journey in the +country inns, famous for their plenty and good cheer. The transport of +goods was chiefly by means of pack horses, because of the poor roads and +the absence of canals. Postal arrangements also remained very primitive, +and in remote country districts letters were not delivered more than once +a week. The difficulties of travel and communication naturally made for +isolation; and country people, except the wealthy, rarely visited the +metropolis. + +[Illustration: A LONDON BELLMAN +Title-page of a tract published in 1616 A.D. It was part of the duties of +a bellman, or night-watchman, to call out the hours, the state of the +weather, and other information as he passed by.] + +ECONOMIC ENGLAND + +As the population of England increased, old industries developed and new +ones sprang up. The chief manufacture was that of wool, while that of silk +flourished after the influx of Huguenots which followed the revocation +[29] of the Edict of Nantes. The absence of large textile mills made it +necessary to carry on spinning and weaving in the homes of the operatives. +The vast mineral deposits, which in later times became the main source of +England's prosperity, were then little worked. Farming and the raising of +sheep and cattle still remained the principal occupations. But agriculture +was retarded by the old system of common tillage and open fields, just as +industry was fettered by the trade monopoly of the craft guilds. These +survivals of the Middle Ages had not yet disappeared. + +[Illustration: COACH AND SEDAN CHAIR +Title-page of a tract published in 1636 A.D.] + +SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS + +The seventeenth century in England saw a notable advance in science. At +this time Harvey revealed the circulation of the blood. [30] Napier, a +Scotchman, invented logarithms, which lie at the basis of the higher +mathematics. Boyle, an Irishman, has been called the "father of modern +chemistry," so many were his researches in that field of knowledge. Far +greater than any of these men was Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered the law +of gravitation and the differential calculus. During the Civil War a group +of students interested in the natural world began to hold meetings in +London and Oxford, and shortly after the Restoration they obtained a +charter under the name of the Royal Society. It still exists and enrolls +among its members the most distinguished scientists of England. The Royal +Observatory at Greenwich also dates from the period of the Restoration. +Altogether much was being done to uncover the secrets of nature. + +[Illustration: DEATH MASK OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. +In the possession of the Royal Society of London.] + +PROGRESS OF ART + +Seventeenth century England produced no very eminent painters or +sculptors, though foreign artists, such as Rubens and Van Dyck, were +welcomed there. Among architects the most famous was Sir Christopher Wren, +who did much to popularize the Renaissance style of building. [31] A great +fire which destroyed most of old London during the reign of Charles II +gave Wren an opportunity to rebuild about fifty parish churches, as well +as St. Paul's Cathedral. His tomb in the crypt of the cathedral bears the +famous inscription: _Si monumentum requieris, circumspice_: "If you seek +his monument, look around you." + +LITERATURE + +English literature in the seventeenth century covered many fields. +Shakespeare and Bacon, the two chief literary ornaments of the Elizabethan +Age, did some of their best work during the reign of James I. In 1611 A.D. +appeared the Authorized Version of the Bible, sometimes called the King +James Version because it was dedicated to that monarch. The simplicity, +dignity, and eloquence of this translation have never been excelled, and +it still remains in ordinary use among Protestants throughout the English- +speaking world. [32] The Puritan poet, John Milton, composed his epic of +_Paradise Lost_ during the reign of Charles II. About the same time +another Puritan, John Bunyan, wrote the immortal _Pilgrim's Progress_, a +book which gives an equal though different pleasure to children and +adults, to the ignorant and the learned. But these are only a few of the +eminent poets and prose writers of the age. + +POSITION OF ENGLAND + +Thus, aside from its political importance, the seventeenth century formed +a noteworthy period in English history. England until this time had been, +on the whole, a follower rather than a leader of Europe. The defeat of the +Spanish Armada, the overthrow of Stuart absolutism, and the check +administered to the aggressive designs of Louis XIV were so many +indications that England had risen to a place of first importance in +European affairs. During this century, too, the American colonies of +England began to lay the basis for Anglo-Saxon predominance in the New +World. + + +STUDIES + +1. Give dates for (a) Peace of Utrecht, (b) execution of Charles I, (c) +the "Glorious Revolution," and (d) revocation of the Edict of Nantes. + +2. For what were the following men notable: Pym; Bossuet; duke of +Marlborough; Louvois; Hampden; Mazarin; William III; and Colbert? + +3. Explain and illustrate the following terms: (a) balance of power; (b) +budget system; (c) absolutism; (d) writ of _habeas corpus_; (e) +militarism; (f) "ship money," and (g) Star Chamber. + +4. Compare the theory of the divine right of kings with the medieval +theory of the papal supremacy. + +5. In what European countries do kings still rule by divine right? + +6. What is the essential distinction between a "limited" or +"constitutional" monarchy and an "absolute" or "autocratic" monarchy? + +7. Why is it very desirable for the United States to adopt the budget +system? + +8. After what French king was Louisiana named? + +9. Why did the French language in the seventeenth century become the +language of fashion and diplomacy? Is this still the case? + +10. "The age of Louis XIV in France is worthy to stand by the side of the +age of Pericles in Greece and of Augustus in Italy." Does this statement +appear to be justified? + +11. How does the preservation of the balance of power help to explain the +Great European War? + +12. By reference to the map on page 699 show how far the "natural +boundaries" of France were attained during the reign of Louis XIV. + +13. How did the condition of Germany after 1648 A.D. facilitate the +efforts of Louis XIV to extend the French frontiers to the Rhine? + +14. Show that in the Peace of Utrecht nearly all the contestants profited +at the expense of Spain. + +15. Explain: "Rump Parliament"; "Pride's Purge"; the "New Model"; the +"Ironsides"; "Cavalier"; and "Roundhead." + +16. What circumstances gave rise to (a) the Petition of Right; (b) the +Institute of Government; (c) the Habeas Corpus Act; and (d) the Bill of +Rights? + +17. Why were the reformers within the Church of England called "Puritans"? + +18. Contrast the Commonwealth as a national republic with the Athenian and +Roman city-states, the medieval Italian cities, the Swiss Confederation, +and the United Netherlands. + +19. Under what circumstances does the Constitution of the United States +provide for the suspension of the writ of _habeas corpus_? + +20. Why has the Bill of Rights been called the "third great charter of +English liberty"? + +21. Show that the revolution of 1688 A.D. was a "preserving" and not a +"destroying" revolution. + +22. How did the revolution of 1688 A.D. affect the fortunes of Louis XIV? + +23. Why did it prove more difficult to establish a despotic monarchy in +England than in France during the seventeenth century? + +24. What is the present population of England? of "Greater London?" + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter xxv, +"Characters and Episodes of the Great Rebellion"; chapter xxvi, "Oliver +Cromwell"; chapter xxvii, "English Life and Manners under the +Restoration"; chapter xxviii, "Louis XIV and his Court." + +[2] _Hamlet_, iv, Y,123. + +[3] _King Richard the Second_, in, ii, 54-57. + +[4] _Politics as derived from the Very Words of the Holy Scriptures_. This +work was prepared for the use of the young son of Louis XIV, the French +king. + +[5] See pages 682, 684. + +[6] "_L'État, c'est moi._" + +[7] See page 514, 515. + +[8] See page 681. + +[9] See page 597, note 4. + +[10] See page 601. + +[11] See page 573. + +[12] In America the war was known as "King William's War." + +[13] In 1689 A.D. he ascended the English throne as William III. See page +720. + +[14] In America the war was known as "Queen Anne's War." + +[15] See page 315, note 2 + +[16] His great-grandson, then a child of five years. The reign of Louis XV +covered the period 1715-1774 A.D. + +[17] See pages 518-519, 658, 675-676. + +[18] See page 507. + +[19] See page 511, note 1, 676 and note 1. + +[20] See page 505. + +[21] See page 657, 664, note 1, 676. + +[22] So called, because some of them wore closely cropped hair, in +contrast to the flowing locks of the "Cavaliers." + +[23] Also called Separatists, and later known as Congregationalists. + +[24] See pages 511, 676. + +[25] Or Noncomformists. This name is still applied to English Protestants +not members of the Anglican Church. + +[26] A Latin phrase meaning "You may have the body." + +[27] Whig had originally been applied to rebellious Presbyterians in +Scotland; Tory had designated Roman Catholic outlaws in Ireland. + +[28] See page 701. William had married James's eldest daughter, Mary. + +[29] See page 696. + +[30] See page 609. + +[31] See page 597. + +[32] Many important corrections were embodied in the Revised Version, +published in 1881-1885 A.D. by a committee of English scholars. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +TABLE OF EVENTS AND DATES + +Before 1000 B.C., and in some instances even later, nearly all dates must +be regarded as merely approximate. + +(Specially important dates are in italics) + +THE ORIENT + + B.C. + + 3400 _Menes, king of Egypt_ + 3000-2500 The pyramid kings + 2000 _Hammurabi, king of Babylonia_ + 1800-1600 Rule of the Hyksos in Egypt + 1292-1225 Rameses II, king of Egypt + 1035-925 The undivided Hebrew monarchy + Saul, 1035-1015 + David, 985-955 + Solomon, 955-925 + 925-722 Kingdom of Israel + 925-586 Kingdom of Judea + 722-705 Sargon II, king of Assyria + 705-681 Sennacherib, king of Assyria + 606 _Destruction of Nineveh_ + 604-561 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia + 553-465 Persian kings + Cyrus the Great, 553-529 + Cambyses, 529-522 + Darius I, 521-485 + Xerxes I, 485-465 + 539 _Capture of Babylon by Cyrus the Great_ + +GREECE + + B.C. + + 1600-1100 The Aegean Age + 1100-750 Homeric Age + 776 _First recorded Olympiad_ + 750-500 Period of colonial expansion + 594-593 Reforms of Solon + 560-527 Tyranny of Pisistratus + 508-507 Reforms of Clisthenes + 499-493 Ionian Revolt + 490 _Battle of Marathon_ + 480 _Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis_ + 479 _Battles of Plataea and Mycale_ + 477-454 Delian League + 461-429 Age of Pericles + 431-404 _The Peloponnesian War_ + 404-371 Spartan supremacy + 401-400 _Expedition of the "Ten Thousand"_ + 371-362 Supremacy of Thebes + 371 _Battle of Leuctra_ + 362 Battle of Mantinea + 359-336 Philip II, king of Macedonia + 338 _Battle of Chaeronea_ + 336-323 Reign of Alexander the Great + 335 Destruction of Thebes + 334 Battle of the Granicus + 333 Battle of Issus + 332 Siege of Tyre; founding of Alexandria + 331 _Battle of Arbela_ + 323 _Death of Alexander_ + +THE ROMAN REPUBLIC + + B.C. + + 753(?) _Founding of Rome_ + 753(?)-509(?) Legendary Roman kings + 509(?) Establishment of the republic + 449 Laws of the Twelve Tables + 390(?) _Battle of the Allia; capture of Rome by the + Gauls_ + 340-338 Latin War; dissolution of the Latin League + 327-290 Samnite Wars + 281-272 War between Rome and Tarentum; invasion of Pyrrhus + 264-241 _First Punic War_ + 218-201 _Second Punic War_ + 216 Battle of Cannae + 202 _Battle of Zama_ + 201 Peace between Rome and Carthage + 197 Macedonia becomes a dependent ally of Rome + 190 Syria becomes a dependent ally of Rome + 149-146 Third Punic War + 146 _Destruction of Carthage and Corinth; Africa and + Macedonia become Roman provinces_ + 133 Acquisition of the province of Asia; final + subjugation of Spain + 133 Tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus + 123-122 Tribunate of Gaius Gracchus + 112-106 Jugurthine War + 102-101 Invasion of the Germans + 90-88 The Social War + 88-84 War with Mithridates + 83-82 Civil War between Marius and Sulla + 82-79 Dictatorship of Sulla + 70 Impeachment of Verres + 67 Pompey and the war with the pirates + 63 _Conspiracy of Catiline_ + 60-53 First Triumvirate: Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar + 58-50 Conquest of Gaul by Caesar + 53 Defeat of Crassus by the Parthians at Carrhae + 48 Battle of Pharsalus + 44 _Assassination of Caesar_ + 43 Second Triumvirate: Lepidus, Antony, and Octavian + 42 Battles of Philippi + 31 _Battle of Actium_ + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE + + 31 B.C.-68 A.D. The Julian and Claudian Caesars + Augustus, 31 B.C.-I4 A.D. + Tiberius, 14-37 + Gaius (Caligula), 37-41 + Claudius, 41-54 + Nero 54-68 + 27 Octavian receives the title _Augustus_ + 4(?) Birth of Christ + + A.D. + + 43-85 Conquest of Britain + 64 The Great Fire in Rome; Nero's persecution of the + Christians + 68-69 The year of military revolution; Galba, Otho, and + Vitellius emperors + 69-96 The Flavian Caesars + Vespasian, 69-79 + Titus, 79-81 + Domitian, 81-96 + 70 Capture of Jerusalem by Titus + 79 _Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum_ + 96-180 The "Good Emperors" + Nerva, 96-98 + Trajan, 98-117 + Hadrian, 117-138 + Antoninus Pius, 138-161 + Marcus Aurelius, 161-180 + 101-106 Conquest of Dacia by Trajan + 180-284 The "Soldier Emperors" + Commodus, 180-192 + Septimius Severus, 193-211 + Aurelian, 270-275 + 212 _Edict of Caracalla_ + 227 Rise of the Sassanian or New Persian Empire + 284 _Reorganization of the Roman Empire by Diocletian_ + 284-395 The "Absolute Emperors" + /Diocletian, 284-305 + \Maximian, 286-305 + Constantine I, 306-337 + (sole emperor, 324-337) + Julian, 361-363 + Theodosius I (East), 379-395 + 311 Edict of Galerius + 312 Battle of the Milvian Bridge + 313 _Edict of Milan_ + 325 _Council of Nicaea_ + 326 330 Removal of the capital to Constantinople + 376 The Visigoths cross the Danube + 378 Battle of Adrianople + 395 _Death of Theodosius I_ + 410 _Capture of Rome by Alaric_ + 415-711 Visigothic kingdom in Spain (in Gaul, 415-507) + 429-534 Vandal kingdom in Africa + 443-534 Kingdom of the Burgundians + 449 Invasion of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons + 451 _Battle of Châlons_ + 455 Sack of Rome by the Vandals + 476 _Deposition of Romulus Angustulus_ + +THE MIDDLE AGES + + 486 Clovis defeats the Romans at Soissons + 493-553 Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy + 496 _Clovis accepts Christianity_ + 527-565 Justinian, Roman emperor in the East + 529(?) Rule of St. Benedict + 568-774 Lombards in Italy + 590-604 Pontificate of Gregory the Great + 597 Augustine's mission to the Anglo-Saxons + 610-641 Heraclius, Roman emperor in the East + 622 _The Hegira_ + 632-661 The "Orthodox Caliphs" + 661-750 The Ommiad Caliphs + 711 Arabs and Berbers invade Spain + 716-717 Siege of Constantinople by the Arabs + 732 _Battle of Tours_ + 750-1058 The Abbassid Caliphs + 768-814 Reign of Charlemagne + 800 _Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the Romans_ + 829 England united under Egbert + 843 Treaty of Verdun + 862(?) Northmen under Ruric settle in Russia + 870 Treaty of Mersen + 871-901(?) Reign of Alfred the Great + 911 Northmen settle in northwestern France (Normandy) + 962 _Otto the Great crowned Holy Roman Emperor_ + 982 Greenland discovered + 987-996 Reign of Hugh Capet + 988 Christianity introduced into Russia + 1000(?) Vinland discovered + 1016 England conquered by Canute + 1054 Final rupture of Greek and Roman churches + 1066 _Battle of Hastings; Norman conquest of England_ + 1066-1087 William I, the Conqueror, king of England + 1073-1085 Pontificate of Gregory VII + 1077 Humiliation of Henry IV at Canossa + 1090-1153 St. Bernard + 1095-1291 The Crusades + 1095 _Council of Clermont_ + 1099 Capture of Jerusalem + 1147-1149 Second Crusade + 1189-1192 Third Crusade + 1202-1204 Fourth Crusade; sack of Constantinople + 1204-1261 Latin Empire of Constantinople + 1291 _Fall of Acre; end of the crusades_ + 1122 Concordat of Worms + 1152-1190 Reign of Frederick I, Barbarossa + 1154-1189 Henry II, king of England + 1180-1223 Philip II, Augustus, king of France + 1181(?)-1226 St. Francis of Assisi + 1198-1216 Pontificate of Innocent III + 1206-1227 Mongol conquests under Jenghiz Khan + 1215 _Magna Carta_ + 1226-1270 Louis IX, the Saint, king of France + 1230 Union of Léon and Castile + 1237-1240 Mongol conquest of Russia + 1254-1273 The Interregnum + 1261 Fall of Latin Empire of Constantinople + 1271-1295 Travels of Marco Polo + 1272-1307 Edward I, king of England + 1273 _Rudolf of Hapsburg becomes Holy Roman Emperor_ + 1285-1314 Philip IV, the Fair, king of France + 1291 First Swiss Confederation + 1295 "Model Parliament" of Edward I + 1309-1377 "Babylonian Captivity" of the Papacy + 1314 Battle of Bannockburn + 1337-1453 Hundred Years' War + 1346 Battle of Crécy + 1356 Battle of Poitiers + 1429 Joan of Arc appears + 1348-1349 Black Death in Europe + 1378-1417 The "Great Schism" + 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England + 1396 Greek first taught at Florence + 1405 Death of Timur the Lame + 1415 John Huss burned + +TRANSITION TO MODERN TIMES + + 1453 _Constantinople captured by the Ottoman Turks_ + 1455-1485 War of the Roses + 1461-1483 Louis XI, king of France + 1462-1505 Ivan III, the Great, tsar of Russia + 1476 Caxton's printing press set up in England + 1479 Castile and Aragon united under Ferdinand and + Isabella + 1485-1509 Henry VII, king of England + 1488 Cape of Good Hope rounded by Diaz + 1492 _America discovered by Columbus_ + 1497 North America rediscovered by John Cabot + 1498 _Vasco da Gama reaches India_ + 1513 Discovery of the Pacific by Balboa + 1517-1555 Reformation in Germany + 1517 _The Ninety-five Theses_ + 1520 Burning of the papal bull + 1521 Edict of Worms + 1555 Peace of Augsburg + 1519-1521 Mexico conquered by Cortés + 1519-1522 Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe + 1519-1556 Reign of Charles V + 1531-1537 Peru conquered by Pizarro + 1533-1558 Reformation in England + 1534 Jesuit order founded by Loyola + 1545-1563 Council of Trent + 1556-1598 Reign of Philip II + 1558-1603 Elizabeth, queen of England + 1568-1609 Revolt of the Netherlands + 1571 Battle of Lepanto + 1572 Massacre of St. Bartholomew + 1579 Union of Utrecht + 1588 _Defeat of the Spanish Armada_ + 1589-1610 Henry IV, king of France + 1598 _Edict of Nantes_ + 1600 English East India Company chartered + 1603-1625 Reign of James I + 1607 Colonization of Virginia; Jamestown founded + 1611 Authorized Version of the Bible + 1618-1648 Thirty Years' War + 1625-1649 Reign of Charles I + 1628 The Petition of Right + 1630-1640 Puritan exodus to Massachusetts + 1640 Meeting of the Long Parliament + 1642-1649 The Great Rebellion + 1643-1715 Louis XIV, king of France + 1648 _Peace of Westphalia_ + 1649 Execution of Charles I + 1649-1660 The Commonwealth and the Protectorate + 1651 First Navigation Act + 1660 Restoration of Charles II + 1688-1689 _The "Glorious Revolution"_ + 1692 Salem witchcraft persecution + 1702-1713 War of the Spanish Succession + 1713 _Peace of Utrecht_ + 1744-1748 "King George's War" + 1754-1763 "French and Indian War" + 1763 _Peace of Paris_ + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY *** + +This file should be named 7960-8.txt or 7960-8.zip + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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