CHAPTER I. The Roman and Barbarian Worlds at the End of
the Fourth Century.
The End of
Ancient History. New Form of the Roman Empire.—Municipal Government. Curials.—Taxes.—Condition of Persons.—The Army.—Moral and
Intellectual Condition.— The Christian Church.—The Barbarians.—Germanic
Nations. —Slavs and Huns
CHAPTER II. First Period of Invasion (375-476). Alaric, Radagaisus, Gaiseric, and Attila.
First Movement
of the Barbarians before the Death of Theodosius.—Division of the Empire at
the Death of Theodosius (395).—Alaric and the Visigoths (395-419); the Great
Invasion of 406.—Founding of the Kingdom of the Burgundians (413), of the
Visigoths, and qf the Suevi (419).—Conquest of Africa
by the Vandals (431).—Invasion of Attila (451-453).—Taking of Rome by Gaiseric
(455).—End of the Empire of the West (476)
CHAPTER
III. Second Period of Invasion: the
Franks, the Ostrogoths, the Lombards and the Anglo-Saxons (455-569)
PA
A Second Invasion of German Barbarians Successful in founding States.—Clovis
(481-511).—The Sons of Clovis (511-561).— Conquest of
Burgundy (534) and of Thuringia (530). Theodoric and the Kingdom of the
Ostrogoths in Italy (493-526).—The Lombards (568-774).—Foundation of the
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (455-584)
CHAPTER
IV. The Greek Empire from 408 to 705; Temporary Reaction of the Emperors of
Constantinople against the Germanic Invaders.
Theodosius
II, Marcian, Leo I, Zeno, Anastasius, Justin I (408-
527).—Justinian I (527-565).—Wars against the Persians (528-533 and
540-562).—Conquest of Africa from the Vandals (534); of Italy from the
Ostrogoths (535-553); Acquisitions in Spain (552); Justinian’s Administration
of the Interior; Code and Digest.—Justinian II, Tiberius II, Maurice and
Phocas (565-610); Heraclius (610-641); Decline of the Greek Empire
CHAPTER
V. The Renewal of the German Invasion by
the Franks. Greatness of the Merovingians.—Their Decadence (561-687).
Power
of the Merovingian Franks New Character of their History.— Lothaire I, Fredegonda and Brunhilda.— Lothaire II (613-628).— Dagobert (628-638).— Preponderance of Franks in Western
Europe.— Customs and Institutions introduced by the Germans among the
Conquered Peoples.— Laws of the Barbarians.—Decline of the Royal
Authority; the “ Rois Faineants.”—Mayors of the
Palace.—The Mayor Ebroin (660) and Saint Leger;
Battle of Testry(687).—Heredity
of Benefices
CHAPTER
VI. Mohammed and the Empire of the Arabs (622-732).
Arabia
and the Arabs.—Mohammed.—The Hegira(622); Struggle with the Koreishites (624); Conversion of Arabia.—The Koran.—The First Caliphs of Persia
and of Egypt; Conquest of Syria (623-640).—Revolution in the Caliphate,
Hereditary Dynasty of the Ommiads (661-750).—Conquest
of Upper Asia (707) and of Spain (711)
CHAPTER
VII. Dismemberment, Decline and Fall of the
Arabian Empire (755-i°58).
Accession
of the Abbasides (750), and Foundation of the
Caliphate of Cordova (755).—Caliphate of Bagdad (750-105S).— Almanssur, Haroun-al-Rashid, Al-Mamun.— Creation of the Turkish Guards. Decline and
Dismemberment of the Caliphate of Bagdad.—Africa; Fatimite Caliphate (968).—Spain; Caliphate of Cordova.—Arabian Civilization
CHAPTER
VIII. The Mayors of Austrasia and the Papacy,
or the Efforts to Infuse Unity into the State and the Church.
Pippin
of Heristal (687-714).—Charles
Martel (714-741); The Carolingian Family reorganizes the State and its
Authority. —Formation
of Ecclesiastical Society; Elections; Hierarchy; the Power
of the Bishops.—Monks; Monasteries; the Rule of St. Benedict.—The Pope; St.
Leo; Gregory the Great.— The Papacy breaks away from the Supremacy of Constantinople
(726); invokes the Aid of Charles Martel.—Pippin the Short (741-768)
CHAPTER
IX. Charlemagne; Unity of the Germanic
World.—the Church in the State (768-814).
The
Union, and the Attempted Organization A the Whole Germanic World under
Charlemagne.—Wars with the Lombards (771-776).—Wars with
the Saxons (771-804).—Wars with the Bavarians (788), the Avars (788-796),
and the Arabs of Spain (778-812): the Extent of the Empire.—Charlemagne comes
Emperor (800).—Results of his Wars.—Literary Revival
CHAPTER
X. LOUIS the Pious and the
Treaty of Verdun (815-843).
Instability
of Charlemagne’s Work.—Louis the Pious (814-840); his
Weakness; Division of the Empire.—Revolt of the Sons of
Louis the Pious.—Battle of Fontenay (841); Treaty of Verdun
(843)
CHAPTER
XI. Final Destruction of the Carolingian
Empire (845-887).
Internal
Discords; Vain Effort of the Sons of Louis the Pious to reconstitute the
Empire.—Division
of the Royal Authority; Heredity of Benefices and of Offices.—Louis the
Stammerer (877)—Louis III, and Karlmann (879);
Charles the Fat (1884)
CHAPTER
XII. The Third Invasion, in the Ninth and
Tenth Centuries.
The
Norsemen in France and England.—In the Polar Regions and in Russia.—The
Saracens.—The Hungarians.—Difference between the Ninth Century Invasion and
those preceding
CHAPTER
XIII. France and England (8S8-1108); Decline of the Royal Power
in France. Increase of the National Power.—Norman Conquest of England (1066).
The
Struggle of a Century between the Last Carolingians and the First of the
Capetian Dynasty.—The Accession of Hugh Capet (987).—Weakness
of the Capetian Dynasty: Robert (996); Henry I. (1031); Philip I
(1060).—Activity of the French Nation.—Downfall of the Danish Dynasty in
England (1042); Eadward the Confessor.—Harold
(1066).—The French Invasion of England.—Battle of Hastings (1096).—Revolts
of the Saxons aided by the Welsh (1067) and the Norwegians (1069). —Camp of
Refuge (1072); Outlaws.—Spoliation of the Conquered.—Results of
this Conquest
CHAPTER
XIV. Germany and Italy (888-1039).—Revival of the Empire of Charlemagne by the German
Kings.
Extinction
of the Carolingian Family in Germany (911).—Election of Conrad I. (911), and of
Henry the Fowler (919); Greatness of the House of Saxony.—Otto I, or the Great
(936); his Power in Germany; he drives out the Hungarians (955).—Condition
of Italy in the Tenth Century.—Otto re-establishes the Empire (g62).Otto II,
Otto III, Henry II (973-1024), and Conrad II (1024-1039)
CHAPTER
XV. Feudalism.
Beginning
of the Feudal Regime.—Reciprocal Obligations of Vassal and
Lord.—Ecclesiastical Feudalism.—Serfs and Villeins. —Anarchy and
Violence; Frightful Misery of the Peasants; Several Goods Results.—Geographical
Divisions of Feudal Europe
CHAPTER
XVI. Civilization in the Ninth and Tenth
Centuries.
Charlemagne’s
Fruitless Efforts in Behalf of Literature.—Second Renaissance after the Year
1000.—Latin
Language.—Language
of the Common People.—Chivalry, Architecture
CHAPTER XVII. The Quarrel over Investitures (1059-1122).
Complete
Supremacy of the Emperor Henry III. (1039-1056).— Hildebrand’s Effort to
regenerate the Church and emancipate the Papacy; Regulation of 1059.—Gregory
VII. (1073). His Great Plans.—Boldness of his First Acts.—Humiliation of the
Emperor (1077).—Death of Gregory VII. (1085), and of Henry IV. (1106). Henry V
(1106).—The Concordat of Worms (1122); End of the Quarrel over Investitures
CHAPTER
XVIII. Struggle between Italy and Germany (1152-1250).
Three
Epochs in the Struggle between the Papacy and the Empire. —Strength
of German Feudalism; Weakness of Lothar II (1125); the Hohenstaufen
(1138).—Division of Italy; Progress of the Small Nobles and of the Republics.—Arnold
of Brescia (1144).—Frederick I., Barbarossa (1152); Overthrow of Milan (1162);
the Lombard League (1164); Peace of Constance (1183).—Emperor
Henry VI. (1190); Innocent III. (1198); Guelfs and Ghibellines in
Italy.—Frederick II. (1212-1250).— Second Lombard League (1226).—Innocent IV.
(1243); Fall
of German Power in Italy (1250)
CHAPTER
XIX. The First Crusade to Jerusalem (1095-1099).
Condition
of the World before the Crusades; the Greek Empire.— Peter the Hermit; the
Council Of Clermont (1095) and the first Crusaders.—Departure
of the Great Army of Crusaders (1096); Siege of Nicaea and Battle of Dorylaeum.—Siege
and Taking of Antioch (1098); Defeat of Kerboga;
Siege and Taking of Jerusalem (1099).—Godfrey, Baron of the Holy Sepulchre.— Organization of the New Kindgom
CHAPTER
XX. The Last Crusades in the East; Their
Results (1147-1270).
Second
Crusade (1147).—Jerusalem taken by Saladin; Third Crusade (1189).—Fourth Crusade
(1201-1204).—Foundation of an Empire at Constantinople (1204-1261).—The last
Four Crusades in the East; the Mongols of Jenghiz Khan.—Seventh and Eight Crusades (1248 and 1270).—Effects of the Crusades
CHAPTER
XXI. The Crusades of the West.
The
Crusades in Europe; the Teutonic Order (1230).—Conquest and Conversion of
Prussia, Livonia, and Esthonia.—Crusade against the
Albigenses (120S); Union of Southern and Northern France.—The
Spanish Crusade.—Decline of the Caliphate of Cordova during the Ninth Century;
its Renewed Strength during the Tenth Century, and its Dismemberment in the
Eleventh Century. Formation of the Kingdoms of Castile and Leon, of Navarre,
and of Aragon. Taking of Toledo (1085); Founding of the County of Portugal
(1095); the Cid.— Incursions of the Almoravides (1086), and of the Almohades (1146).—Victory
of Las Navas de Tolosa (1211). The Moors driven back upon Granada.—Results of the Spanish Crusade 290
CHAPTER
XXII. Progress of the Cities.
Beginnings
of the Communal Movement —Communes properly so called.—Intervention of Royalty;
Decline of the Communes.— Cities not Communal.—Origin of the Third Estate.—Advancement of
City Populations in England and Germany.—Feudal Rights and Customary Rights
opposed
CHAPTER
XXIII. Civilization of the Twelfth and
Thirteenth Centuries.
Explorations
in the East and the Commerce of the Middle Ages.— New Departures in Industry
and Agriculture.—Corporations. —Condition of the Country Districts.—Lack of
Security.—The Jew and Bills of Exchange.—Intellectual Progress; Universities,
Scholastics, Astrology, Alchemy, Magicians.—National
Literature.—Arts;
Ogival Architecture
BOOK EIGHT
RIVALRY BETWEEN ‘FRANCE AND ENGLAND (1066-14531)
Louis
the Fat (1108-1137); William II and Henry I (1087-1135). —Louis VII (1137-1180)
in France; Stephen and Henry II. (1135-1189) in England.—Abuse of Ecclesiastical
Jurisdiction.—Thomas 4 Becket (1170).—Conquest of Ireland (t 1717; the King of France sustains
the Revolt of the Sons of the English King (1173).—New
Character shown by French Royalty in the Thirteenth Century; Philip Augustus
(1180) and Richard the Lion-hearted (1189).—Quarrels between Philip Augustus
and John Lackland; Conquest of Normandy and of Poitou (1204).—Quarrel between
John Lackland and Innocent III (1207). —Magna Charta
(1215) .
Internal
Administration of Philip Augustus.—Louis VIII (1223) and the Regency of Blanche
of Castile. — Saint Louis, his Ascendency in Europe; Treaties with England
(1259), and with Aragon (1258).—Government of Saint Louis.—Progress of the
Royal Authority.—New Character of Politics; Philip III (1270), Philip IV.
(1285); New War with England (1294).—A New Struggle between the Papacy and the
State (1296-1304).— The Papacy at Avignon (1309-1376).—Condemnation of the
Templars (1307).— Administration of Philip IV; Reign of his Three Sons
(1314-1328)
Pledges made by
the Magna Charta (1215).—Henry III. (1216).— The League of the Barons;
Provisions of Oxford; the Parliament (1258).—Edward I (1272).—Conquest of
Wales (1274- 1284).—War with Scotland (1297-1307); Balliol, Wallace, and
Bruce.—Edward II. (1307); Progress of Parliament
Preliminaries
of the Hundred Years War (1328-1337).—Battle of Sluys (134o); State of Affairs in Brittany.—Crecy (1346) and Calais (1347).—John
(1350); Battle of Poitiers; States General; the Jacquerie; Treaty of Bretigny (1360).—Charles V. (1364); Du Guesclin; the Great
Companies in Spain.—The War with the English renewed (1369); New
Method of Warfare.—Wycliffe.—Wat Tyler and the English King Richard IE (1377)-—Deposition
of Richard II and Accession of Henry IV of Lancaster (1399).—Henry V
(1413).—France under Charles VI (1380-1422); Popular Insurrections.—Insanity of
Charles VI. (1392); Assassination of the Duke of Orleans (1407);
the Armagnacs and the Burgundians.—Henry V reopens the War with the French
(1415).—Battle of Agincourt. —Henry VI and Charles VII, Kings of France (1422);
Joan of Arc (1421-1431).—Treaty of Arras (1435); Charles VII at Paris (1436);
End of the Hundred Years War
Parliament’s
Increasing Power in England.—The English Constitution in the Middle of the Fifteenth
Century.— France: Progress of Royal Authority.—Formation of a Princely
Feudalism by Appanages.—Development of the Old and New institutions
BOOK
NINE
ITALY,
GERMANY, AND THE OTHER EUROPEAN STATES TO THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER
XXIX. Italy from 1250 to 1453.
Italy
after the Investiture Strife; Complete Ruin of all Central power (1250).—Manfred
and Charles of Anjou.—The Principalities in Lombardy; Romagna and the
Marshes.—The Republics: Venice, Florence, Genoa, and Pisa.—Reappearance of the
German Emperors in Italy and the Return of the Popes to Rome.—Anarchy;
the Condottiere.—Splendor of Literature and the
Arts.—Dante,
Petrarch, Boccaccio
.CHAPTER
XXX. Germany from 1250 to 1453,
The Great Interregnum (1250-1273).—Usurpation of Imperial Property and
Rights.—Anarchy and Violence; Leagues of the Lords and of the Cities.—Rudolf of Hapsburg
(1273).—Founding of the House of Austria (1282).—Adolf of Nassau (1291) I and Albert of Austria (1298).—Liberation of Switzerland (1308). -Henry
VII (1308) and Lewis of Bavaria (1314).—The House of Luxemburg (1347-1438); the
Golden Bull.—The House of Austria recovers the Imperial Crown, but not its
Power (1438)
CHAPTER
XXXI. The Spanish, Scandinavian, and Slavic
States.
Spain
from 1252 to 1453.—The Crusade suspended.—The Scandinavian States, Denmark,
Sweden and Norway; their Secondary Role after the Time of the Norsemen.—Slavic
States; Power of Poland; Weakness of Russia.—Peoples of
the Danube Valley; the Hungarians.—The Greek Empire.—The Ottoman Turks and the
Mongols of Timour
BOOK
TEN
CIVILIZATION
IN THE LAST CENTURIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
CHAPTER
.XXXII. The Church from 1270 to 1453.
Foreshadowings of a New Civilization.—The
Papacy from Gregory VII to Boniface VIII.—The Popes at
Avignon (1309—1376) ; Great Schism of the West (1378-1448).—Wycliffe, John
Huss, Gerson; Councils of Pisa (1409), of Constance (1414), and of Basel
(1431); Gallican Doctrines
CHAPTER
XXXIII. The National Literatures.—The
Inventions of the Middle Ages.
The
Italian and French Literatures.—The Literatures of the North. —English, German,
and Scandinavian.—Spanish and Portuguese Literatures.—Renaissance of Classical
Learning.—Printing, Oil-painting, Engraving, and Gunpowder
THE HISTORY
OF
THE MIDDLE AGES
AUTHOR’S
PREFACE.
The term Middle Ages is applied to the time which elapsed between the fall of the
Roman Empire and the formation of the great modern monarchies, between the
first permanent invasion of the Germans, at the beginning of the fifth century
of our era and the last invasion, made by the Turks, ten centuries later, in
1453.
During this
interval between ancient and modern times the pursuit of learning and of the
arts was almost entirely suspended. Instead of the republics of antiquity and
the monarchies of the present day, a special political organization was
developed which was called feudalism : this consisted in the rule of the lords.
Though every country had its king, it was the military leader who was the real
ruler. The central power was unable to assert itself and the local powers were
without supervision or direction. Hence this epoch was different in every
respect from those which preceded and followed it, and it is on account of this
difference in character that we give it a special name and place in universal
history.
The history of
the Middle Ages is generally disliked by those who are obliged to study it, and
sometimes even by those who teach it. It seems to them like a great Gothic
cathedral, where the eye loses itself in the infinite details of an art which
is without either unity or system, or like an immense and confused book which
the reader spells out laboriously but never understands. If, however, we are
content to confine this history to the significant facts which alone are worth
remembering, and to pass over the insignificant men and events, giving
prominence and attention to the great men and great events, we shall find this
period to be as simple as it is generally considered confusing.
In the first
place, we must define its limits. The true history of the Middle Ages does not
extend beyond the ancient Roman Empire and the provinces added to it by Charlemagne
when he brought the whole of Germany under one common civilization. Outside of
these limits all was still barbarism, of which little or nothing
can be known, and whose darkness is only occasionally relieved by a gleam from
the sword of a savage conqueror, a Tchingis-Khan, or
a Timour. The events which interest us and which
exerted an active influence on the development of the modern nations took place
within these limits. And even among these events we need only remember those
which characterize the general life of Europe, not the
individual, isolated life of the thousand petty States
of which the historian as well as the poet can say :
“ Non ragioniam di lor ; ma guarda, e passa.”
The
Middle Ages were built on the ancient foundation of pagan and Christian Rome. Hence our first
task is to study the Roman world and examine the
mortal wounds it
had suffered; to pass in review this empire, with so many
laws but no institutions, with so many subjects but no
citizens, and with an administration which was so elaborate
that it
became a crushing burden ; and, finally, to conjure up before us this
colossus of sand, which crumbled at the touch of paltry foes, because,
though it contained a religious life, eager for heavenly things,
it was inspired by no strong political life such as is necessary for the
mastery of the earth.
Beyond
the Empire lay the barbarians, and in two currents of invasion they rushed
upon this rich and unresisting prey. The Germans seized the provinces of the
north ; the Arabs those of the south. Between these mighty streams,
which flowed from the east and the west, Constantinople, the decrepit daughter
of ancient Rome, alone remained standing, and for ten centuries, like a rocky
island, defied the fury of the waves.
With
one bound the Arabs reached the Pyrenees, with a second the Himalayas, and the
crescent ruled supreme over two thousand leagues of country, a territory of
great length, but narrow, impossible to defend, and offering many points of
attack. The Caliphs had to contend against a mighty force in the geographical
position of their conquests, a force which is often fatal to new-born States,
and which in this case destroyed their Empire and at the same time brought ruin
to their equally brilliant and fragile civilization.
Many
chiefs among the Germans also called into being States which were only
ephemeral, because they arose in the midst of this Roman world, which was too
weak to defend itself but strong enough to Communicate to all with whom it came
in contact the poison which was working in its own veins. To this fact we may
attribute the fall of the kingdoms of Gaiseric, Theodoric, and Aistulf; of the Vandals, the Heruli,
and the eastern and western Goths.
One
people alone fell heir to the many invaders who entered the Empire by means of
the Rhine and the Danube, namely, the Franks. Like a great oak, whose roots
grow deep down in the soil which bears and nourishes it, they kept in constant
communication with Germany and drew thence a barbarian vigor which continually
renewed their exhausted powers.
Though
threatened with an early decline under the last Merovingians, they revived
again with the chiefs of the second dynasty, and Charlemagne tried to bring
order into chaos and throw light into darkness by organizing his dominions
around the throne of the Emperors of the west, and by binding to it Germanic
and Christian society. This was a magnificent project and one which
has made his name worthy to be placed by the side of the few before which the
world bows. But his design, which was incapable of accomplishment, not only
because geography was against it, as it was against the permanence of the
Arabian Empire, but because all the moral forces of the times, both the instincts
and the interests of the people, were opposed to its success. Charlemagne
created modern Germany, which was a great thing in itself, but the day when he
went to Rome to join the crown of the Emperors to that of
the Lombard kings, was a fatal day for Italy. From that time this beautiful
country had a foreign master, who lived far away and only visited her
accompanied by hordes of greedy and barbarous soldiers, who brought ruin in
their train. How much blood was shed during centuries in the attempt to
maintain the impossible and ill-conceived plan of Charlemagne. How many of the
cities and splendid monuments of the country were reduced to ruins, not to
mention the saddest thing of all, the ruin of the people themselves and of
Italian patriotism.
After
the ninth century the Carolingian Empire tottered and fell through the
incompetency of its chiefs, the hatred of the people, and the blows of a new
invasion led by the Norsemen, the Hungarians, and the Saracens. It separated
into kingdoms, and these kingdoms into seignories. The great political
institutions crumbled into dust. The State was reduced to the proportions of a
fief. The horizon of the mind was equally limited ; darkness had fallen upon
the world; it was the night of feudalism.
A few great
names, however, still survived: France, Germany and Italy; and great titles
were still worn by those who were called the kings of these countries. These
men were kings in name but not in truth, and were merely the symbols of a
territorial unity which existed no longer, and not real, active, and powerful
rulers of nations. Even the ancient Roman and Germanic custom of election had
been resumed.
Of these three
royal powers, one, that of Italy, soon disappeared ; the second, that of
France, fell very low ; while the third, that of Germany, flourished vigorously
for two centuries after Otto I had revived the Empire of Charlemagne, though
on a small scale. Just as the sons of Pippin had reigned over fewer peoples
than Constantine and Theodosius, the Henrys, Fredericks, and Ottos reigned
over a smaller territory than Charlemagne and with a less absolute power.
By
the side of and below the kingdoms born of invasion there arose a power of
quite a different character, and one which did not confine itself to any
limits, whether of country or of law. The Church, emerging wounded
but triumphant from the catacombs and the Roman amphitheatres,
had gone out to meet the barbarians, and at her word
the Sicambrian meekly bowed his head. She only sought a spiritual
kingdom ; she also gained an earthly one. Power came to her unsought, as it
comes to every just and righteous cause which aids the advance of humanity
toward a better future. After establishing the unity of her dogma and of her hierarchy,
her chiefs attained the highest eminence in the Catholic world, whence they
watched, directed, and restrained the spiritual movements inspired by them.
The
Church strove to teach mildness to a violent and lawless society, and, opposed
to the feudal hierarchy, the equality of all men; to turbulence, discipline; to
slavery, liberty; and to force, justice. She protected the slave from his
arrogant master, and defended the rights of women, children, and the
family against the fickle husbands who did not draw back even from divorce and
polygamy. The only succession recognized by the States in their public offices
was succession by right of inheritance; the Church set the example of
succession by right of intellectual superiority, by the election of her
abbots, bishops, and even her pontiff, and serfs succeeded to the chair of St.
Peter, thus attaining a dignity higher than that of kings. The barbarians had
demolished the civilization of antiquity ; the Church preserved its fragments
in the seclusion of her monasteries. She was not only the mother of creeds,
but was also the mother of art, science, and learning. Those great scholars who
taught the world to think again, those maîtres es pierres vives, who gave Christianity its most wonderful movements, were sons of the
Church.
The feudal
princes and lords, when freed from feudal slavery, thought themselves above all
law because they had put themselves beyond the reach of resistance; but the
Popes used the weapons of the Church against them. They excommunicated a
usurper of the throne of Norway, a king who falsified the coinage in Aragon,
the treacherous and foresworn John in England and in France Philip Augustus,
when he repudiated his wife the day after his marriage. During the rule of
force the Popes had become the sole guardians of the moral law and they
recalled these princes, who transgressed against it, to their duty by releasing
their people from their oath of fidelity. The pontifical power spoke in the
name and place of popular right.
This great
moral force, however, was not always mistress of herself. Until 726 the
pontiffs had been the subjects of the Emperors of Rome, western or eastern.
Charlemagne claimed and wielded the same authority over them. His successors,
the German emperors, tried to follow his example. Henry III deposed three
Popes and in 1046 the council of Sutri once again
recognized that the election of no sovereign pontiff could be valid without the
consent of the emperor.
But after
Charlemagne’s death the Church constantly grew in power. Her possession of a
large part of the soil of Christian Europe gave her material force ; while the
fact that all, both great and small, obediently received her command, gave her
great moral force; these two forces, moreover, were increased tenfold by the
addition of a third, namely, unity of power and purpose; at the time of the
Iconoclasts and the last Carolingians, the sole aspiration of the Church had
been to escape from the bonds of the State and to live a free life of her own.
When she became stronger and, of necessity, more ambitious, she claimed the right,
after the manner of all powerful ecclesiastical bodies, to rule the lay part of
society and the civil powers.
Two powers,
accordingly, stood face to face at the end of the eleventh century, the Pope of
Rome and the German emperor, the spiritual and the temporal authorities, both
ambitious, as they could not fail to be in the existing state of morals,
institutions, and beliefs. The great question of the Middle Ages then came up
for solution: Was the heir of St. Peter or the heir of Augustus to remain
master of the world ? There lay the quarrel between the priesthood and the
empire.
This quarrel
was a drama in three acts. In the first act the Pope and the emperor disputed
for the supremacy over Christian Europe; in the Concordat of Worms (1122) they
made mutual concessions and a division of powers, which has been confirmed by
the opinion of modern times ; in the second act, the main question to be solved
was the liberty of Italy, which the Popes protected in the interest of their
own liberty; in the third act, the existence of the Holy See was in peril; the
death of Frederick II saved it.
The result of
this great struggle and far-reaching ambition was the decline and almost the
ruin of the two adverse powers. The papacy fell, shattered, at Avignon, and the
Babylonian captivity began, while the German Empire, mortally wounded, was at
the point of disappearing during the Great Interregnum, and only escaped
destruction to drag out a miserable existence.
During the
contest the people, recovering from their stupor, had turned to seek adventure
in new directions. Religious belief, the most powerful sentiment of the Middle
Ages, had led to its natural result; it had inspired the crusades and had sent
millions of men on the road to Jerusalem.
Though the crusade
was successful in Europe against the pagans of Prussia and the infidels of
Spain, and, accompanied by terrible cruelty, against the Albigenses of France,
it failed in its principal object in the East the Holy Sepulchre remained in the hands of infidels and Europe seemed in vain to have poured out
her blood and treasure in the conquest of a tomb which she was not able to
keep. Nevertheless, she had regained her youth ; she had shaken off a mortal
torpor, to begin a new existence, and the roads were now crowded with
merchants, the country covered with fruitful fields, and the cities filled
with evidences of her growth and power. She created an art, a literature and
schools of learning, and it was France which led this movement. The Middle Ages
had come to an end when the successors of Charlemagne and of Gregory VII
became powerless, when feudalism tottered to its fall and when the lower
classes threw off their yoke ; new ideas and new needs arising proclaimed the
advent of Modern times.
These new needs
were represented by the two countries, where they were most fully met, namely,
France and England. The England of today dates from the Magna Charta of King
John, just as the royal power of Louis XIV came directly from Philip Augustus
and St. Louis. We find in these two countries three similar elements : the
king, the nobles, and the people, but in different combinations. From this
difference in combination resulted the difference in their histories.
In England the
Conquest had made the king so strong that the nobles were obliged to unite with
the commons in order to save their honor, their estates, and their heads. The
nobility favored popular franchises, which they found necessary to their cause; the people were attached to their feudal lords, who fought for them. English
liberty, sprung from the aristocracy, has never been unfaithful to its origin,
and we have the curious spectacle of a country in which the greatest freedom
and the greatest social inequalities exist side by side.
In France, it
was the king and the people who were oppressed ; they were the ones to unite,
in order to overthrow the power of feudalism, their common enemy : but the
rewards of victory naturally fell to the share of the leader in battle. This
twofold tendency is evident from the fourteenth century. At the beginning of
that century, Philip the Fair leveled the castles with the ground, called
peasants to participate in his councils, and made every one, both great and
small, equal in the eye of the law ; at the end of it the London parliament
overthrew its king and disposed of the crown.
If these two
countries had not fallen upon each other in the violent struggle which is
called the Hundred Years War, the fourteenth century would have seen them fairly
started in their new life.
Germany and
France have a common-starting point in their histories : each arose from the
ruins of the great Carolingian Empire, and each was originally possessed of a
powerful feudal system ; consequently their subsequent careers might have been
the same. In one, however, the royal power reached its apogee ; in the other it
declined, grew dim, and disappeared. There was no mystery in this ; it was a
simple physiological fact for which no reason can be given. The Capetian
family did not die out. After the lapse of nine centuries it still continued to
exist; by this mere fact of continuance alone the custom of election was not
suffered to become established, as there was no occasion for its use. The
dynasties on the other side of the Rhine, on the contrary, though at first
abler and stronger, seemed to be cursed with barrenness. At the end of two or
three generations they became extinct; eighteen royal houses can be counted in
five centuries ; that is to say, that eighteen times the German people saw the
throne left vacant, and were obliged to choose an occupant from a new family.
Succession by election, which had been one of the customs of Germany and which
the Church had retained, became a regular system. The feudal chiefs were not
slow to understand what advantages the system had for them; at each election,
to use an expression of the day, they plucked a feather from the imperial
eagle, and Germany finally counted a thousand princes; while on the other side
of her great river, the heir of Hugh Capet could say with truth, “ I am the
State.”
Such were the
three great modern nations, as early as the fourteenth century : Great Britain,
with its spirit of public liberty and hereditary nobility ; France, with a
tendency toward civil equality and an absolute monarchy; Germany, toward
independent principalities and public anarchy. Today, the one is virtually an
aristocratic republic, the other a democratic State, and the third was until
lately a confederation of sovereign States ; this difference was the work of
the Middle Ages.
In Spain, the
Goths who had fled to the Asturias had founded there a Christian kingdom;
Charlemagne had marked out two more, by forcing a passage through the Pyrenees
at two points, Navarre and Catalonia. These three States, strongly protected by
the mountains at their back, had advanced together toward the south against the
Moors; but modern times had already begun on the north of the Pyrenees, while
the Spaniards, in the peninsula, had not finished their crusade of eight
centuries. They gave as yet no sign of what was to be their subsequent career.
The other
Neo-Latin people, the Italians, had not been able to find in the Middle Ages
the political unity which alone constitutes the individuality of a great
nation. There were three obstacles in the way of this: the configuration of the
country, which did not offer a geographical center ; the thousand cities which
ancient civilization had scattered over its surface, and which had not yet
learned by bitter experience to surrender a part of their municipal independence
to save the common liberty ; finally, the papacy, which, owning no master, even
in temporal affairs, laid down this principle, very just from its point of view
and entirely legitimate in the Middle Ages, namely, that from the Alps to the
Straits of Messina there should never be one sole power, because such a power
would certainly desire Rome for its capital. This policy lasted for thirteen
centuries. It was the papacy which, as early as the sixth century, prevented
the consolidation of the Italian kingdom of the Goths; and, in the eighth
century, the formation of that of the Lombards ; which summoned Pippin against Aistulf, Charlemagne against Desiderius, Charles of
Anjou against Manfred; as well as later the Spaniards, the Swiss, and the
Imperialists against the French; the French against the Spaniards ; which
finally entered into compacts with all the foreign masters of the peninsula in
order to assure, by a balance of influences and forces,
the independence of her little domain and her authority.
Italy,
having no central power, was covered with republics, most of which, after a
time, developed into principalities. The life there was brilliant, but corrupt,
and the civic virtues were forgotten. Anarchy dwelt in her midst, an infallible
sign that the foreigner would again become her master.
In
the North, utter darkness: Prussia and Russia are of yesterday. But in the
East there appeared a nation, the Turks, which was formidable since it
possessed what Christian Europe no longer had, the
conquering spirit of religious proselytism, which had been the spirit of the
crusades ; and also what Europe did not yet possess, a strong military
organization.
Accordingly
this handful of nomad shepherds, which had so suddenly become a people, or
rather an army, accomplished without difficulty the last invasion ;
Constantinople fell. But at the
very moment when the last remaining fragment of the Roman Empire disappeared,
the genius of ancient civilization arose, torch in hand, from the midst of the
ruins. The Portuguese were on the road to the Cape of Good Hope, while the
artists and authors were opening the way to the Renaissance : Wycliffe
and John Huss had already, prepared the road for Luther and Calvin. The changes
at work in the States corresponded to the change in thought
and belief. Reform was demanded of the Church ; shaken by
schism, she refused it; in a century she had to deal with a revolution.
The
important facts to be noted are :
The
decline of the Roman Empire and the successful accomplishment of two invasions
; the transient brilliancy of the Arabian civilization.
The
attempted organization of a new Empire by Charlemagne,
and its dissolution.
The
rise and prevalence of feudalism.
The
successive Crusades.
The
contest between the Pope and the Emperor for the sovereignty of the world.
We
have here the real Middle Ages, simple in their general outline, and reaching
their highest development in the thirteenth century.
But
even before this period a new phase of the Middle
Ages
had appeared in England and France; which led to a new social organization of
the two countries. Soon a few brave voices were heard discussing the merits of
obedience, of faith, even, and pleading the cause of those who, until that
time, had been of no account, the peasants and the serfs.
Humanity,
that tireless traveler, advances unceasingly, over vale and hill, today
on the heights, in the light of day, tomorrow in the valley, in darkness and
danger, but always advancing, and attaining by slow degrees and weary efforts
some broad plateau, where he pauses a moment to rest and take breath.
These
pauses, during which society assumes a form which suits it for the moment, are
organic periods. The intervals which separate them may be called inorganic
periods or times of transformation. On these lines we may divide the ten
centuries of the Middle Ages into three sections : from the fifth to the tenth
century, the destruction of the past and the transition to a new form ; from
the tenth to the fourteenth, feudal society with its customs, its
institution, its arts, and its literature. This is one of the organic periods
in the life of the world. Then the tireless traveler starts again : this time
he again descends to depths of misery to reach, on the other side, a country
free from brambles and thorns. When the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are
crossed we already perceive from afar the glorious forms of Raphael,
Copernicus, and Christopher Columbus, in the dawn of the new world.
