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NOTES IN HISTORY. 
 
 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
 OF 
 
 MODERN EUROPEAN NATIONS. 
 
 BY y- 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WARD, Ph. D., 
 
 Pi-ofessor of History in the Western Maryland College, 
 
 BALTIMORE : 
 
 JOHN MURPHY COMPANY. 
 
 I 900. 
 
,^0 COPIES «>^CE.V BO. 
 
 y^f^ist&t of Copyrt'ghtSr" 
 
 60101 
 
 Copyright, 1900, by Gkorge W. Ward. 
 
 Sec J. ^ J oOPV, 
 
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
 OF 
 
 MODERN EUROPEAN NATIONS. 
 
 Part I.-THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES 
 INVADE THE EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER 1.— DECLINE OF THE KOMAN 
 
 EMPIRE. 
 
 1. Introductory. — Perhaps no better illustration of 
 the law that cessation of progress is decline can be found 
 than the Roman Empire. From the day that Rome 
 began the subjugation of the Samnites and the acquisition 
 of territory by conquest, Roman legions were almost 
 continuously adding new lands, till in the time of 
 Pladrian (117-138 A. D.) the boundaries of the Roman 
 Empire extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
 Euphrates (over 3,000 miles), and from Britain (Wall 
 of Antoninus,) to the deserts of Africa (nearly 2,000 
 miles). (Tacitus, Annales 1, 2. Gibbous, end Ch. I.) 
 
 2. Greatest Extent of the Empire. — With the 
 change from republic to empire, Rome changed also her 
 policy. Augustus advised the Romans to cease from 
 
 3 
 
4 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 
 
 conquest and devote themselves to the peaceful govern- 
 ment of their world empire. Britain was the only 
 province added during the first century. Then in the 
 reign of Trajan (98-117 A. D.) Dacia (where?) was 
 added. (Column of Trajan.) But with the conquest of 
 the Parthians in the East by the same emperor, the 
 boundaries of the empire reached their utmost limit. 
 (Gibbon, Ch. II.) 
 
 3. First Loss of Territory. — The first act of 
 Trajan's successor (Hadrian 117-138 A. D.) was to 
 restore the independence of the Parthians. It was then 
 a new thing for Rome to lose territory to her enemies ; 
 soon this became her continual and ever-increasing neces- 
 sity. Thus Rome reached her climax under the Antonines. 
 With the accession of Com modus, decline goes on apace. 
 Moral depravity complete. (Gibbon, Ch. IV. Capes's 
 The Age of the Antonines.) 
 
 4. What was the Roman Empire. — An empire is, 
 in theory, a confederation of kingdoms more or less inde- 
 pendent, according as they are powerful enough to defy 
 the empire or weak enough to be held by it in complete 
 subjugation. This definition the world learned from 
 Rome. Alexander might have taught the lesson 300 
 years earlier but what would have become an empire 
 died in infancy at the death of its creator, no one being 
 found powerful enough to hold the member-kingdoms in 
 even nominal subjection. (Bryce's Holy Roman Empire^ 
 Chs. I, II.) 
 
THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 5 
 
 5. Member-Kingdoms of Rome. — Among the king- 
 doms (provinces) over which the Roman Empire exer- 
 cised authority — sometimes very feeble, sometimes almost 
 complete — may be mentioned Spain, France (Gaul), Eng- 
 land (Britain), Austria-Hungary as far as the Danube, 
 Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Persia, Egypt, 
 Tunis, Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco. Germany was 
 never conquered by the Roman arms or Roman law, 
 and but imperfectly subjected to the Roman Church. 
 (Mommsen's The Provinces, c&c., Emerton's Jntrodudion 
 to the Study of the Middle Ages, Ch. I.) 
 
 CHAPTER II. -APPEARANCE OF THE 
 
 TEUTONS. 
 
 1. The Teutones and the Cimbri, B. C. 102, 
 101.— See '^Rome,'' Chapter XIX, Sec. 7. 
 
 2. C^SAR AND THE TEUTONS. — About half a cen- 
 tury after Marius had crushed the Teutones and Cimbri, 
 who had probably wandered from the northern shores of 
 Germany, the German chief so celebrated in Caesar's 
 writings crossed the Rhine into Gaul. Ariovistus had 
 been invited over by the Sequani to aid them against the 
 ^dui. Having performed this service well, Ariovistus 
 declined to leave his new friends, and the Sequani in 
 terror applied to Csesar. Ariovistus was overthrown 
 and soon died of a wound, but Caesar was never able to 
 gain a footing on the German side of the Rhine. Ger- 
 mans from this time greatly influenced by Rome. Ger- 
 man Soldiers Enlist in the Roman Armies. 
 
b THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 
 
 3. The Battle of Teutoburg Forest, 9 A. D. — 
 Rome liacl repelled with ease the infrequent invasions 
 made by the restless tribes from the unknown forests 
 beyond the Rhine and the Danube. At last a systematic 
 attempt was to be made to conquer Germany. It was 
 Rome's turn to invade. Her territory had never before 
 been invaded by any people that did not sooner or later 
 pay for its insolence by submission to her. Augustus 
 sent Tiberius to subdue the Germans. The attempt had 
 nearly succeeded when Tiberius died. Then arose the 
 great German leader, Hermann, who once more united 
 the quarreling tribes, led the Roman general, Varus, 
 into an ambush in the Teutoburg Forest (wdiere?), 
 destroyed his three legions almost to a man, and saved 
 the German peoples forever from Roman domination. 
 (Creasy, ch. V.) 
 
 4. Invasions under Germanicus, 14-16 A. D. — 
 The Romans soon raised other legions, and in 14 A. D. 
 Germanicus was sent to push the invasion. The next 
 year, Thusnelda, wife of Hermann, was captured and 
 sent a prisoner to Rome. Again the young chief 
 sought the captors of his wife in Teutoburg Forest, but 
 this time Hermann was defeated. Germanicus lost so 
 heavily in the two victories which he gained the next 
 year that he was compelled to leave Germany. End of 
 Roman invasion. Romans steadily gain influence and 
 some territory east of the Rhine. 
 
 5. Germans become Acquainted with Rome. — 
 Communication between the Romans and the Teutons 
 
THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 7 
 
 coDstantly increased, especially by way of the numerous 
 military stations and trading posts established by the 
 Romans on the frontier. Many flourishinpj German 
 towns of the present day owe their origin to such Roman 
 establishments. Number of Germans in the Roman 
 armies steadily increased. (Caesar's Commentaries). 
 
 6. The Marcomanni return the Compliment, 
 166-180 A. D. — It was now the turn of the Germans to 
 invade. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius the pow- 
 erful Marcomanni made war on the Empire for thirteen 
 years. It was during his camp life in these wars that 
 Marcus Aurelius wrote his immortal " Meditations.'^ 
 (" Rome," Chap. XXIV., 7.) He died before the frontier 
 was secured, and his worthless son, Com modus, bought 
 off the Germans with tribute. With this act bes^ins the 
 conflict which ends in the territorial supremacy of the 
 barbarians — the barbarian conquest of Roman territoj^y^ 
 the institutional supremacy of Rome. (Gibbon, Ch. III.) 
 
 CHAPTER HI.— THE GERMANS. 
 
 1. The ^'Germania." — We are introduced to the 
 Germans in their native forests by Csesar. About 1 50 years 
 later Tacitus wrote his " Treatise on the Situation, Man- 
 ners, and Inhabitants of Germany.'^ (Read his treatise : 
 Harper's Tacitus, II, 286. 25 pp). In spite of the 
 severe criticisms of this work, the Germauia, with a few 
 reasonable qualifications, must be accepted as a correct 
 
8 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 
 
 picture of German life and institutions at the end of the 
 first century of our era. 
 
 2. Germany. — Germany is pretty nearly a natural 
 division. With the ocean on the north, the Rhine on the 
 west, the Alps and Danube on the south, it was only in 
 the east that Germany could gain or lose very much 
 territory. Rome proved unable to break these natural 
 barriers behind which the Germans have held their posi- 
 tion from the earliest times. Germany's protracted and 
 desperate eifort to do so ended in complete failure — and 
 worse : the successful unification of both Germany and 
 Italy was delayed more than 600 years, having been 
 accomplished only one generation ago. (Chap. XX, 6.) 
 
 3. The Germans. — (a) The name (from Weh?- manriy 
 warrior (?), first adopted by a small tribe to terrify its 
 enemies, afterwards spread to the whole race {Germania, 
 2). Germans rarely intermarried with any other races, 
 hence their distinct type: "eyes stern and blue, ruddy 
 hair; large bodies, powerful in sudden exertions, but 
 impatient of toil and labor, least of all capable of sustain- 
 ing thirst and heat. (Ch. IV.) (b) Elected a king by 
 raising him on a shield. Women had great influence. 
 Important matters settled in meeting of whole com- 
 munity. All business done under arras. Leader dis- 
 graced if surpassed in valor. (c) Pure family life ; 
 " almost singly among the barbarians, they content them- 
 selves with one wife." " The wife does not bring a 
 dowry to her husband, but receives one from him." 
 *^ Men and women are alike unacquainted with clandestine 
 
THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. » 
 
 correspondence." ^^Adultery is extremely rare ; its pun- 
 ishment is instant.'^ " Late marriages insisted upon — 
 scandalous to marry before age of twenty." (Caesar's 
 Gallic Wars,Yl, 21.) (f/) No distinction between free 
 and slave children. " They lie together amidst the 
 same cattle, upon the same ground, till age separates, and 
 valor marks out the free born." " As soon as they rise 
 from sleep, which they usually protract till late in the 
 day, they bathe, usually in warm water, as cold weather 
 chiefly prevails there. After bathing they take their 
 meal, each on a distinct seat, and at a separate table. 
 Then they proceed, armed, to business; and not less 
 frequently to convivial parties, in which it is no disgrace 
 to pass days and nights, without intermission, in drink- 
 ing. The frequent quarrels that arise among them when 
 intoxicated, seldom terminate in abusive language, but 
 more frequently in blood." (e) ''Their funerals are 
 without parade. The only circumstance to which they 
 attend is to burn the bodies of eminent persons with some 
 particular kind of wood. The arms of the deceased, and 
 sometimes his horse, are given to the flames. The tomb 
 is a mound of turf." (/) Among the Catti valor is so 
 much admired that they do not shave the beard or trim 
 the hair till they have proved their manhood by slaying an 
 enemy in battle Some wear an iron ring or chain till 
 they merit liberty by slaying an enemy, {g) Tacitus 
 scouts the stories current among the Germans that two of 
 their tribes, the Hellusii and the Oxionse, had "human 
 faces, with the bodies and limbs of wild beasts," and 
 many other like fables. (Emerton, Ch. II. Gibbon, 
 Ch. IX.) 
 
10 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.-FKOM COMMODUS TO THE 
 GREAT MIGRATIONS. 
 
 1. Power of the Army.— From the accession of 
 the dissolute Commodiis, the power of the army rapidly 
 increased. The army had been the foundation of the 
 empire; it was rapidly becoming the empire itself. 
 Upon the assassination of Commodus the Praetorians 
 offer the empire for sale. From this time the army 
 becomes the real power, the Emperor only the instrument. 
 Septimus Severus (193 A. D.) led the army on the 
 frontiers, leaving the Prefect of the Praetorians to rule in 
 Rome. The chief, supported by the legions, was nominal 
 emperor— title, Imperator. (Gibbon, Ch. V., VL, VII.) 
 
 2. Renewed Invasions.— About fifty years later 
 the Germans were again pressing into the Empire in 
 considerable numbers, the Franks in Gaul, the Goths 
 (now first known to the Romans) on the Danube, and 
 the Alamanni in Italy itself. They were driven back 
 now, but under Aurelian (270-275 A. D.) Rome was 
 stripped of Dacia, and the Teutons pushed as far south 
 as the Metarus. Claudius Gothicus. (Gibbon, Ch. 
 
 yiiL, X., XI.) 
 
 3. Division of the Empire. — With the accession 
 of Diocletian (284 A. D.), the old republican offices lose 
 all significance and the Empire is modeled after the 
 oriental despotism. Now begins the separation between 
 Rome and the East, issuing in the discredit of the pagan 
 religions, the establishment of a new religion and Empire 
 
THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 11 
 
 at Constantinople, and the complete subjection of Rome 
 to the Praetorians. (Gibbon, XII.) 
 
 4. Fall of Eome. — Henceforth the Emperor in the 
 West is a pu{)})et ; the general of the army rules Italy. 
 If Rome fell this was her fall. The East had ever been 
 the center of civilization ; when Rome ceased to be the 
 military center of the world, therefore, " her fall was 
 deep and rapid. She ceased to be mistress even of the 
 West, and sank, politically at least, into the rank of a 
 mere provincial city." (Merivale.) (Gibbon, Ch. XIV., 
 XVII., XVIII., XIX.) 
 
 5. Decline of Military Power. — The seat of 
 Empire had been changed because Constantinople had 
 become not only the center of civilization but was also 
 the natural defence of the Empire against the Persians or 
 the Goths. Under this false notion of security Rome 
 gave herself up to luxury and ease. From this time 
 the army was composed chiefly of barbarians. Rome 
 henceforth supported by barbarians under Roman institu- 
 tions and forms against barbarians under Teutonic insti- 
 tutions and forms. Separation of East and West complete 
 by 364 A. D. — Valentinian I. Emperor in the West, 
 Valens in the East. The Romans with difficulty hold 
 in check the Germans from the north. (Gibbon, XXII., 
 XXIII., XXIV., XXV.) 
 
 6. The Papacy. — On the ruins of the old imperial 
 power the church rapidly built up the papacy. Rome 
 rarely saw the emperor ; she was in daily contact with 
 
12 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 
 
 the Bishop (called Pope from about 400 A. D.) Gibbon, 
 XV, XYL,XX.,XXI.) 
 
 CHAPTEK V,— THE GREAT MIGRATIONS, 
 
 375 A. r>. 
 
 1. Causes.— (a) HuDger. It has been estimated that 
 people in the pastoral stage require for subsistence an 
 average of 50,000 acres per individual. But whether 
 from necessity or not, the Teutons of the fourth century 
 appear to have been a restless, roving, warlike people. 
 With such habits, a rapidly increasing population, and 
 scant food supply from crops, it may be that the bounti- 
 fully fed empire became an attraction too strong to be 
 resisted. (6) Migratory Wave. Perhaps it would be 
 difficult to say what sets in motion the first tribe ; but 
 after that, each tribe driven out in turn drives out 
 another. This wavelike motion will probably continue 
 till a tribe either finds unoccupied land or a weaker tribe 
 which may be subjugated and its lands appropriated. 
 ('^ Eastern Civilizations and Greece,'' Chap. VIII., 3-5.) 
 (c) Plunder. The Goths had perhaps learned enough of 
 the empire to understand and crave its wealth. Among 
 the strongest incentives to war in ancient times was 
 plunder. As compared with the poverty-stricken tribes 
 of the Russian and German plains, the old and wealthy 
 civilization of the empire offered a prize not to be neglected. 
 
 2. Situation of the Barbarians in the Fourth 
 Century.— (Consult map, pp. 24, 25, Thatcher and 
 
THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 13 
 
 Schwill.) The Alani (probably Teutonic) lay on the 
 Black Sea, the East Goths came next in southwestern 
 Russia, then the West Goths in the Danube bow — eastern 
 Hungary — with the Vandals to the northwest, i. e., in 
 southern Germany. Far to the east and just entering 
 Europe lay the Huns. 
 
 3. The Huns. — A Mongolian people whose origin is 
 not certainly known. They appear to have crossed Asia 
 all the way from China. (Cf. DeQuincey's Revolt of the 
 Tartai's,) They are described as the most repulsive 
 creatures of that dark and repulsive age. Small of 
 stature, hideously ugly — even to deformity — living on 
 horse flesh (whether killed or found dead mattered not), 
 spending nearly all their time on horse-back, and stop- 
 ping at no cruelty in war, the Huns might well be called 
 by the priests of a little later time ^' the Scourge of 
 God.'^ (Gibbon, Ch. XXVI. Ammianus Marcellinus.) 
 
 4. The West Goths Attacked by the Huns. — 
 For more than a century the restless barbarians north 
 of the Danube had been making forays into the eastern 
 empire. During this long time it seems that they must 
 have discovered not only the wealth of the plunder 
 offered by the empire, but also its inherent weakness. 
 
 The fall of the Roman Empire may justly be dated 
 from the reign of Valens '' (364-378 A. D.). It was in 
 this reign that the storm so long gathering on the 
 northern horizon burst in all its destructive fury upon 
 the institutions and civilization of the empire. The 
 Huns crossing the Volga, conquered the Alani, and all 
 
 a 
 
14 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 
 
 together fell upon the East Goths who, more in terror 
 than in attack, burst into the territory of the West 
 Goths. These, on account of the pressure from the 
 north, could only move in one direction— into the 
 empire. 
 
 5. Crossing the Danube, 376 A. D.— The Goths 
 sent an embassy to Valens begging for land. It was 
 granted on the hard conditions that the barbarians (1) 
 give up their arms, and (2) give up their children to be 
 held as hostages in Asia Minor and educated by the 
 Romans. (Gibbon, III, 31.) The asking was a mere 
 form, the granting a necessity. Though the Danube was 
 a mile wide and the crossing effected with great difficulty, 
 probably not less than a million barbarians— women, 
 children, and slaves included— entered the empire at this 
 time. 
 
 6. Battle of Adrianople, 378 A. D.— The condi- 
 tions were soon violated. Roman officers meddling and 
 Gothic wariors resenting. Soon a general uprising. At 
 Adrianople (where ?) the Goths were met by Valens. 
 The Goths were victorous. Valens was slain, and the 
 Empire was henceforth little more than a name. The 
 so-called Emperor, Theodosius L, made peace with the 
 Goths and absolute destruction was postponed indefinitely. 
 
THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 15 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— THE GOTHS. 
 
 1. Who Were the Goths? — Teutonic — origiDally 
 from Scandinavia (?) First mentioned in history about 
 the time of Alexander the Great. Tacitus knew them as 
 the Gothones (Germania, ch. 43,) living not far from the 
 Baltic Sea. (Not the Gothoni, a non-Germanic people 
 living farther south.) When or how they reached the 
 shores of the Black Sea where they next appear over two 
 centuries later is not known. 
 
 2. Early History of the Goths. — Early in the 
 third century they invaded Dacia (where?) then a 
 Roman province. From that time the Empire was 
 never secure. The Goths soon built a fleet (500 vessels?) 
 with which they patrolled the ^gean Sea, took Pirsecus, 
 and threatened to make themselves masters of the East. 
 Before the end of the century (272) they had driven the 
 Romans out of Dacia. For the next hundred years they 
 gave little trouble, but by 367 they have been stirred up 
 by the Huns and soon after enter the Empire by permis- 
 sion, 376 A. D. It was about this time that the 
 division into the East Goths and West Goths became 
 generally recognized. {De Rebus Geticis of Jordanes. 
 Art. " Goths,'' by Freeman, in Encyc. Brit. X., 846-854.) 
 
 3. Jordanes. Time of Justinian — middle of the 
 sixth century. Historian of the Goths. He was secre- 
 tary to the chief of a barbarian confederation on the 
 lower Danube. Later he became a monk. Spent his 
 
16 THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 
 
 decliniDg years in Italy, but was not bishop of Ravenna 
 as so often stated. His most important work— a sort of 
 compendium of Cassidorus's The Origin and Actions of 
 the Goths, now lost, is known as the Be Rebus Geticis, 
 The oldest known manuscript of this book perished by 
 fire in the house of Professor Mommsen. Jordanes is 
 much of a sycophant, currying favor with both Romans 
 and Goths by praising first one, then the other. (Art. 
 *' Jordanes/' Encyc. Brit.) 
 
 4. Ulfilas (Wulfilas, Little Wolf), 311-381 
 A. D. The apostle to the Goths. Converted to Chris- 
 tianity. Made a bishop. Translated the Bible (except 
 the Samuels and the Kings, Why ?) into Gothic. This 
 Gothic Bible is the oldest writing in the Teutonic 
 language. Hence Ulfilas has been called " the father of 
 Teutonic literature." Ulfilas had also great political 
 influence among the Goths which he exerted for Rome. 
 Through his Bible and his preaching Christianity spread 
 rapidly through most of the Teutonic tribes before they 
 entered Rome. It is to this fact more than any other 
 that we owe the preservation of so much of the Roman 
 civilization as survived the invasions which broke up the 
 Empire to found on its ruins the modern nations of 
 Europe. (Waitz, Das Leben des Ulfilas. Art. " Ulfilas," 
 Encyc. Brit.) 
 
 5. The Gothic Bible of Ulfilas. Till the ninth 
 century this sacred and national work accompanied the 
 Goths in all their migrations. But from that period 
 
THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 17 
 
 nothing was known of it beyond what was found 
 stated in the ancient ecclesiastical accounts, until the 
 end of the eleventh century when Arnold Mercator 
 discovered in the Abbey of Werden the gospels of 
 Ulfilas. Then the manuscript found its way to Prague, 
 where it remained till 1648, when the Swedes took it as 
 a spoil to Upsal, where it still remains in the University 
 Library, under the name of Codex Argenteus (because 
 written in silver letters on purple parchment). In 1818 
 further remnants of the work — a great portion of the 
 letters of St. Paul — were discovered by A. Mai and 
 Castiglioni, on palimpsests, (what?) in a TiOmbardian 
 monastery, which, added to a few minor fragments, bring 
 the New Testament somewhat near completion. " But 
 hardly anything — except a few passages from Ezra and 
 Nehemiah — has survived of the Old Testament." 
 
 6. Arianism.— The form of Christianity which Ulfilas 
 adopted and taught was called Arianism, from its founder 
 Arius. Arius had been first deacon, then presbyter in 
 the church of Alexandria, Egypt. He studied and 
 expounded the Bible. In a conference, Alexander, 
 bishop of Alexandria, remarked that the Trinity con- 
 tained one essence only. Arius retorted that such a 
 conception was impossible. From this chance conversa- 
 tion matters grew worse and worse till Arius declared 
 that the Son was not co-equal with the Father (Homo- 
 ousious, same substance) but that he was only the highest 
 of God's finite creatures (Homoiousious, like substance), 
 and that the Holy Ghost was not God. This idea of 
 
l^ THE TEUTONIC PEOPLES. 
 
 Jesus as only the leader of men powerfully affected the 
 warlike barbarians when presented to them by Ulfilas 
 who appears to have been an Arian. This little qu^uTel 
 of two Alexandrian churchmen had a mighty effect upon 
 the future course of the world's history. Was it responsi- 
 ble for the Papacy ? For the division of the Church 
 into Eastern and Western? (Gibbon, Ch. XXXVII, 
 p 540-548) Was John Milton an» Arian? (Art. 
 "Arius,'' Encyc. Brit. Gibbon, XXVIl, XXVIII. 
 Emerton's Introd. III.) 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 19 
 
 Part II. BEGINNINGS OF MODERN 
 
 NATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— THE WEST GOTHS. 
 
 1. Theodosius, 376-395 A. D. — Last to rale over 
 tlie empire of the Csesars. At his death the empire was 
 given to his sons — Arcadius in the East, Honorius in the J 
 West. Theodosius was a Spaniard by birth, received a i 
 military education under his father who was for years 
 
 the ablest general of the West. Made Emperor of the 
 East by Gratian after the defeat and death of Yalens. 
 Theodosius beat the West Goths by stirring them up to 
 internal war. Next he led an army of Alans, Goths 
 and Huns against the West. The usurper, Maximus, 
 with an army of Gauls and Germans, was defeated by 
 Theodosius with West Goths and Huns. Thus had the 
 empire already become barbarian though still retaining 
 the old forms and ideas. It is to the son of Theodosius 
 the Great that we owe the Theodosian code. 
 
 2. Stilicho. — A Vandal ; general of Theodosius the 
 Great. Sent to Persia on a diplomatic mission, which 
 was performed with honor to the state. Married the 
 adopted daughter of Theodosius. Made protector of the 
 two sons of Theodosius. One of these, Honorius, mar- 
 ried (398) Stilicho's daughter, and (408) his sister. 
 Stilicho was the last, if not the greatest, of the barbarian 
 
20 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 
 
 generals who had been the support of the Empire for a 
 century and a-half. Soon after the death of Theodosius 
 he defeated Alaric and the West Goths, driving them out 
 of Peloponnesus. A little later Alaric entered Italy, 
 but was again met by Stilicho, who defeated the West 
 Goths at Pollentia (402), Verona (403), and the East 
 Goths under Radagaisus at Fiesole (405). Then the 
 foolish Houorius listened to charges of treason, and the 
 bravest of Rome's barbarian generals was politically 
 murdered in violation of a sacred oath. 
 
 3. Alaric. — One of the ablest of the earlier invaders 
 of Italy was Alaric, who became king of the West Goths 
 395 A. D., soon after the death of Theodosius. The 
 Goths had been quiet for near a dozen years, but Alaric 
 at once headed a general uprising. We have seen (Sec. 2) 
 how he was driven back by Stilicho from both Greece 
 and Italy. But the Gothic appetite for plunder had 
 grown too keen for restraint since their taste of Roman 
 wealth, and Stilicho was scarcely dead before Alaric was 
 leading a new army into Italy. This time he marched 
 straight on Rome. 
 
 4. Sack of Rome by Alaric, 410 A. D. — Alaric 
 complained that the Romans had not kept their engage- 
 ments, and, after crossing the Po and plundering several 
 cities in northern Italy, he laid siege to Rome 409. 
 Ambassadors asked his terms. They were too hard. 
 " The closer hay is pressed the easier it is mown,'^ said 
 Alaric, and soon the starving people had to promise a 
 large treasure and extensive lands in north Italy. Alaric 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 21 
 
 withdrew. The simple Honorius, who had fled to 
 Ravenna, refused assent. Siege renewed. Alaric's 
 moderation. More bad faith. City taken by storm 
 (410) and given over to six days of plunder. Alaric 
 appoints an Emperor in place of Honorius. 
 
 5. West Goths Established in Spain. — From 
 ruined Rome Alaric moved southwards, but was pre- 
 vented from invading Africa by the destruction of his 
 fleet. His death. Burial in the channel of the Busento 
 (?). Succeeded by his brother-in-law, Athaulf, who 
 marries the Emj)eror's sister, Placidia. Peace con- 
 cluded. Southern Gaul and S})ain given to the West 
 Goths on condition of driving out the Alani, the Suevi, 
 and the Vandals. Founding of West Gothic kingdom, 
 415 A. D. (Gibbon, XXIX-XXXII.) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— SPAIN IIS^ THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 1. First of the Modern Nations Established 
 ON Roman Territory. — With the establishment of the 
 West Goths in southern Gaul and northern Spain the 
 ancient history of the third great peninsula of southern 
 Europe closes and a new period begins. The capital of 
 the West Goths was at Toulouse (location ?) with Toledo 
 (where?) as the Spanish center. From the first the 
 dependence of the West Goths upon the Empire was 
 little more than nominal ; by the sixth century Spain 
 was fairly consolidated and independent. In 711 A. D. 
 the Mohammedans (Chap. XVIII, 5) overran the penin- 
 
22 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 
 
 sula, crossed the Pyrenees, and for the last time 
 threatened to fasten Eastern Civilization and ideas upon 
 the individualistic, aggressive West. (Ibid. 1. Irving's 
 Conquest of Spain.) The struggle with the Moors in 
 Spain went forward actively for five hundred years, and 
 they were not finally driven out (Granada) till the year in 
 which Columbus discovered America. (Irving's Con- 
 quest of Granada, The Alhamhra.) Portugal about 
 1000 A. D. won independence through good service 
 against the Moors. From that time the rest of Spain 
 came gradually to recognize the two kingdoms of Castile 
 and Aragon. The union of these was prepared by the 
 marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella (1469) (Prescott's 
 Ferdinand and Isabella), and Spain soon became the 
 foremost nation of the world. Her decline may be 
 dated from the defeat of the Armada, 1588. (Creasy, X. 
 Irving's Spanish Voyages.) The world is indebted to 
 Spain for much of the learning of the Middle Age, 
 especially in medicine, possibly even for the university 
 spirit (Salamanca?) and for the discovery of America. 
 On the other hand Spain gave the world the Inquisition 
 (Lea's History of the Inquisition), and her downfall may 
 be credited to her systematic efforts to crush every spark 
 of individual liberty. (Art. "Spain," Part II, Encyc. 
 Brit. XXII, 304-346. Good historical map opp. 
 p. 304.)^ 
 
 ^ In 1588 Spain represented the Latin spirit — suppression of indi- 
 vidual liberty ; England, the Teutonic spirit — liberty of thought and 
 action. Note in the attitude of Spain and the United States now 
 (1898) these two principles once more in conflict. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 23 
 
 2. The Vandals in Europe, 100-429. — From the 
 shores of the Baltic (time of Tacitus) the Vandals 
 moved southward into Bohemia, and finally, after many 
 defeats, settled as Koman subjects in Pannonia (region 
 between the Drave and the Danube). Of Teutonic stock, 
 closely related to the Goths. In 406, time of the weak 
 Honorius, the Vandals invaded Gaul. (One of the 
 charges against Stilicho, Honorius' advisor, was that 
 being himself a Vandal, he had winked at this invasion. 
 Chap. VII. sec. 2). In Gaul they suffered defeat and 
 severe loss by the Franks, and in 409 made their way 
 across the Pyrenees. Here, for twenty years, they 
 waged continual war with Romans or Goths indifferently, 
 and in 429 crossed to Africa, leaving no more than their 
 name to mark one of the most delightful districts of 
 Spain (V) Andalusia. 
 
 3. The Vandals in Africa, One Century. 
 429-534 A. D. — Invited to Africa by Boniface, the 
 Governor, Geiseric had no sooner acted upon the invita- 
 tion than he was besought to depart. Instead of doing 
 so Geiseric besieged Hippo, which fell after a year of 
 stubborn resistance. Carthage was left to Boniface, but 
 ten years after (439) Geiseric, without declaring war, 
 took Carthage, and Africa became a Vandal state. 
 
 4. "Vandalism." — Vandals appear to have been a 
 restless, marauding sort of people (nation of bandits?). 
 In 405, in response to the invitation of Eudoxia, widow 
 of Valentinian, Geiseric sailed up the Tiber (first Teutonic 
 
24 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 
 
 people to foster a navy ? But see Chap. YI., 2.), took 
 Rome, ^' and for fourteen days, in a calm and business- 
 like manner, emptied it of all its movable wealth " 
 (including the vessels brought by Titus from the Temple 
 at Jerusalem?). The common report of their wanton 
 destruction of temples and art treasures is false. Our 
 word, ^' Vandalism," probably arose from the severity of 
 the persecution of Roman Catholics waged by the Arian 
 (meaning?) Vandals. This deadly persecution formed 
 the chief business of the remaining eighty years of Van- 
 dal history. In 533, Justinian (Chap. XL, 2), the Eastern 
 emperor, sent his great general, Belisarius {Ibid.), to end 
 the cruelties of the Vandals. Their king, Gelimer, was 
 captured, and with great numbers of his subjects taken to 
 Constantinople. The Vandals disappear from history. 
 " Justinian sowed that Mahommed might reap." (Art. 
 " Vandals," Encyc. Brit.) 
 
 5. Burgundy, 443-534. — About the middle of the 
 third century the Burgundians passed from the Vistula 
 and Oder to the Rhine and Main. District about Worms. 
 The Roman general, Aetius, moved them (443) to the 
 Rhone south of Lake Geneva. Almost without a history 
 during its brief century of independent existence. Bur- 
 gundy disappeared from the maps, having become (534) 
 part of the Frankish Empire. (Emerton's Introd. ch. IV.) 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 25 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— ATTILA ANI> THE HUNS. 
 
 1. Attila, King of the Huns. — Chap. V., 3.) 
 Born probably about 406 A. D. Became King of the 
 Huns 434 A. D. Killed his brother Bleda in order to 
 make himself supreme. He ruled over a motley host of 
 many tribes. His dominions are said to have extended 
 at one time from the Rhiue to China. Soon after becom- 
 ing king he invaded the Eastern Empire, but was defeated 
 in three battles. He laid waste the whole country around 
 Constantinople (445) and Theodosius had to make terms. 
 Plot to assassinate Attila. Plot discovered. Christian 
 Emperor upbraided by the heathen for want of honor. 
 About to renew war. Attila finally moved west instead. 
 
 2. Invasion of the Huns. — It seems a little remark- 
 able that so wild a man ruling so barbarous a people 
 should have dreamed, as had Alexander, Csesar, and 
 others before him, Karl the Great, and Napoleon after 
 him, of a world empire. Yet he did. Under his leader- 
 ship the Huns had soon pushed as far as Pesth on the 
 Danube. Declining Rome bought peace with a heavy 
 tribute. Honoria, a Roman princess, offered to marry 
 Attila. Meanwhile he prepared to push still to the West. 
 
 3. Battle of Chalons. " Catalaunian Fields." 
 451 A. D. — (Time of the English invasions of Britain.) 
 The precise location of the battle field is not known, but 
 it was not far from Chalons in the northeastern Gaul. 
 (See Map, Emerton's Introd.) The Roman forces in 
 
26 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 
 
 Gaul were commanded by Aetiiis. They bad tbe power- 
 ful West Gotbs under Tbeodoric for allies. Attila 
 crossed the Rhine near its mouthy passed Paris then an 
 insignificant village on a little island in the Seine, and 
 moved on to Orleans on the Loire. Here he was turned 
 back. Aetius and Tbeodoric followed. Near Chalons 
 Attila turned and fought. From three o'clock in the 
 afternoon till dark the battle raged. Great numbers fell 
 on both sides. Neither seemed to have won a victory, 
 but in the morning it was discovered that Attila had 
 continued his flight. Has the battle of Chalons been 
 greatly exaggerated both as to its fierceness and its remote 
 effects? (Creasy, ch. VI.) 
 
 4. Venice Founded. — Turning southward Attila 
 entered Italy 452, overran Lombardy, and took Aquileia 
 (where?). Jt is to this event that Venice owes its origin. 
 Fleeing from the fierceness of the Huns many of the people 
 found refuge in the islands of the northern Adriatic, lay- 
 ing there the foundations of one of the most important 
 cities of the Middle Ages. 
 
 5. What Became of the Huns. — Attila conquered 
 all Italy north of the Apennines. Rome seemed sure to 
 fall into his hands when there came one day to Attila's 
 camp the venerable Roman bishop (Pope?) Leo at the 
 head of an embassy to beg for mercy. What effect this 
 strange embassy had upon Attila is not known, but one 
 of the most inexplicable things in history now happened. 
 With the certain and easy conquest of all Italy with its 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 27 
 
 wealth and power in full view, Attila turned from Italy, 
 leaving " nothing but the terror of his name." He was 
 long remembered as the "Scourge of God/^ but later 
 German legends make a great hero of him. Within a 
 year after leaving Italy Attila " died like a dog, ... in 
 drunken sleep." With the fall of Attila the Huns are 
 scattered, to be known no more in history as a nation. 
 (Emerton's InfrocL, Ch. IV.) 
 
 CHAPTER X,— THE EAST GOTHS. ITALY. 
 
 1. East Goths, 376-493 A. D. When the West 
 Goths were admitted by Valeus the like application of 
 the East Goths was refused. (Chap. Y , 4.) Hence they 
 made frequent incursions into Roman territory. Attempt- 
 ing to cross the Danube in 386 A. D., they were attacked 
 by the Romans and many thousands are said to have 
 perished either by the sword or the river. Henceforth 
 they were ready to join any force hostile to Rome. Thus 
 they fought at Chalons with Attila and his Huns against 
 their brethren, the West Goths, who had sided with the 
 Romans. (Chap. IX, 3.) Under Theodoric, the greatest 
 of their kings (there was another Theodoric king of the 
 West Goths a little earlier. Chap. IX, 3), 475 A. D., 
 they again attacked the Eastern Empire. Received some 
 of the richest provinces. Planned with Zeno (488) an 
 attack on Odovaker (" Rome.'^ Chap. XXY, 5) in Italy. 
 Odovaker defeated and slain (by Theodoric's own hand ?) 
 and the kingdom of the East Goths established in Italy. 
 
28 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 
 
 2. Theodoeic, the East Goth. — Born near present 
 site of Vienna. Greatest in the line of the great Amah'. 
 At age of eight he was given as a hostage to Leo, emperor 
 of the East. Educated by the Romans at Constantinople. 
 Learned war, scorned science. Refused to learn to write 
 his name. Made his mark — literally as well as figura- 
 tively. Returned to his people at age of eighteen. Led 
 a successful expedition against Belgrade (Singidunum). 
 Became king 475 A. D. Then came his fourteen years 
 of war against Zeno, and the invasion of Italy (488). 
 
 3. East Goths in Italy, 493-553 A. D. With 
 the overthrow of Odovaker (493) Theodoric, the East 
 Goth, became king of Italy. Recall the establishment of 
 a Teutonic nation — West Goths — in Spain 415 A. D. 
 (Chap. VII, 5.) Now the very seat itself of the nation 
 which had endured more than 1200 years is occupied by 
 a barbarian nation. (In what sense barbarians ?) Theo- 
 doric himself was a Roman by education (Sec. 2,) and he 
 did all in his power to preserve Roman civilization. The 
 East Goths made not Rome but Ravenna (where?) their 
 capital. Peace. Prosperity. Corn exported instead of 
 imported. Religious liberty. But Theodoric had Boetius, 
 author of '' The Consolations of Philosophy,'^ put to 
 death — suspected of plotting to restore Rome to the 
 Eastern Empire. 
 
 4. What Became of the East Goths. — After the 
 death of Theodoric (526) the Roman Catholic and Arian 
 faiths clashed. Besides Justinian had come to the throne 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 29 
 
 of the Eastern Empire in 527. Justinian dreamed of 
 restoring the empire to its original boundaries. The 
 Vandals were the first to fall before his general, Beli- 
 sarius. (Chap. VIII, 3.) Belisarius then crossed to 
 Italy, received the support of all the discontented, and 
 strove for five years without success to drive the East 
 Goths from Italy. But Theodoric's efforts to weld 
 Romans and Goths had failed. Rome had been too long 
 without an emperor, and the Bishop of Rome (Pope?) 
 had become too powerful to submit tamely to a people 
 regarded as barbarians and — what was far worse, heretics. 
 Still took hard fighting when Belisarius returned after 
 several years to drive out the Goths. It was not finally 
 done till Narses hired other Germans with whose aid he 
 defeated the Goths in 553. The East Goths soon dis- 
 appeared from history. Italy was nominally united with 
 the empire, but was practically independent. Growth of 
 the power of the Pope. 
 
 5. The Lombards in Italy, 568 A. D. — ISarses 
 was given the title of Exarch, and from Ravenna he 
 ruled Italy for the empire. Justinian's successors 
 angered Narses, who, in revenge, invited the Lombards 
 into Italy. Accordingly, under Alboin, their king, the 
 Lombards (Langobardi, long beards), took Pavia after a 
 three years' siege, made it their capital, established 
 themselves in the Po Valley (Lombardy to this day) and 
 rapidly overran the rest of Italy, which they governed 
 by Lombard dukes. The Lombards were at first ruder 
 than the Goths, but they gradually improved, gave up 
 
30 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 
 
 Arianism for the orthodox faith and systematized their 
 laws for the use of the courts. By the middle of the 
 eighth century, when the Popes first appealed to the 
 Franks, the Lombards had become a powerful nation. 
 (Emerton's Introd. ch. V., VI. Paul us Diaconus, His- 
 tory of the Lombards. Gibbon, XXXIX., XLII., 
 XLIII.) 
 
 6. Italy had thus early become the football of the 
 nations. Owing to the acquisition of temporal power by 
 the Popes, it remained disunited almost to our own day 
 (1861), Garibaldi, Cavour, Victor Emmanuel. The 
 papacy appears still to yearn for temporal power, and 
 the future of Italy cannot yet be regarded as fully 
 assured. 
 
 CHAPTER XI.— THE EASTER:N^ EMPIRE A5^D 
 
 THE FRANKS. 
 
 1. Division of the Roman Empire. — (Review.) — 
 Empire first divided by Diocletian (284-305 A. D.) 
 Eastern capital Nicomedia (where ?) ; Western capital, 
 Milan (Midiolanum) (when did Rome fall?). Constan- 
 tine (306-337) made Byzantium the real seat of the 
 whole empire. After Constantiue a period of anarchy. 
 United for a short time under Theodosius (379-395) the 
 Empire was finally divided, at his death, into the Em- 
 pire of the East and the Empire of the West, 395 A. D. 
 Twenty years before this the Goths had begun their 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 31 
 
 invasions in earnest, and we have seen what became of 
 the Empire of the West. (Chap. X, 1 .) 
 
 2. Justinian. 527-565 A. D. — Justinian was born 
 in the wilds of what is now Bulgaria, '^ of an obscure 
 race of barbarians." His uncle, Justin, had traveled on 
 foot to Constantinople, had risen rapidly — Tribune, 
 Count, General, Senator, Chief of the Guards, and finally, 
 at the age of sixty-eight. Emperor. Justinian was 
 brought to Constantinople, educated and made his uncle's 
 heir. Justinian, shrewd and ambitious, got himself 
 made Emperor before his uncle's death. Justinian was 
 not truly great ; the morals of his age cannot be depicted 
 in decent company ; his wife, Theodora, had been one of 
 the most depraved women that ever disgraced the pages 
 of history. (See Gibbon, ch. XL., pp. 49-51), though 
 her life was reformed before she became queen. Recon- 
 quest of the West by Belisarius and Xarses. (Chap. X, 
 4, 5). Justinian '' was neither beloved in his life nor 
 regretted in his death." 
 
 3. The ^' Blues and the Greens." — Names of the 
 two political parties at Constantinople. These names 
 had come from the Roman circus, where the charioteers 
 were distinguished by blue and green liveries. The pop- 
 ular effect was the same as that of college or class colors. 
 Whoever attended the games, even the Emperor himself, 
 was either a "blue" or a "green." This was all repro- 
 duced in the Hippodrome at Constantinople. Here, 
 however, at least from the time of Justinian, the Em- 
 
32 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 
 
 perors sided with the Blues. So violent was the hatred 
 between these parties that murders were frequent. Just 
 before Justinian's reign the " Greens '' had concealed 
 stones and daggers in baskets of fruit and massacred at 
 one time 3,000 " Blues ^' at a festival. These factions 
 became permanent and it is chiefly to their violence that 
 the final overthrow of the Empire by the Turks (1453) 
 is to be attributed. (Gibbon, ch. XL., pp. 56-64.) 
 
 4. Roman Law. — Notwithstanding his many other 
 services, it is probably for his success in preserving the 
 Roman law that later ages have been most indebted to 
 Justinian. The '' Laws of Justinian," so called, are to 
 this day a great storehouse for the student of jurispru- 
 dence. Justinian himself was both a lawyer and a 
 legislator, yet he did not make all or any considerable 
 number of the laws called by his name. He did not 
 even make the compilation himself. What he did 
 accomplish — through Tribonian and others learned in the 
 law — was the codification, and hence the preservation of 
 all the laws of Rome in force in his time. Unfortun- 
 ately, after this several older codes — Ulpian, Paulus, 
 Gaius — fell into disuse and have been lost. 
 
 5. Code of Justinian. — This was a collection in 
 twelve books of all the laws of Rome then in force, 
 made by Tribonian, who did not scruple to alter or 
 adapt, as the need of his own age required. A second 
 edition soon appeared containing a large number of laws 
 and edicts made by Justinian himself. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 33 
 
 6. The Pandects, or Digest. — Celebrated collec- 
 tioD of " opinions, explanations and decisions '^ which 
 served in Justinian's time as precedents. Made also by 
 Tribonian, who, with fifteen assistants, was engaged three 
 years in making a great collection of extracts, in fifty 
 books from thirty-nine writers. Of these, one-third of 
 the entire work is from Ulpian alone, while Paulus and 
 Papinian come next in importance. " By far the most 
 precious monument of the legal genius of the Komans.^' 
 
 7. The Institutes of Justinian. — A treatise on 
 the general principles of the Roman law. This was a 
 text-book prepared also by Tribonian, with the assistance 
 of the Professor of law in the University of Constanti- 
 nople and the Professor of Law in the great law school 
 at Beyrout. 
 
 Note. — There was a later unauthorized collection of 
 contributions called the Codex Novellae, (Gibbon, Ch. 
 XL., XLL, XL IV. For the Germanic ideas of Law, 
 see Emerton's Introd. Ch. VIII.) 
 
 CHAPTER XII.— EARLY HISTORY OF 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 1. Gaul.— '' The name given by the Romans to the 
 country lying between the Rhine and the Pyrenees." As 
 early as B. C. 600 Greeks had settled Massilia. (Where?) 
 They had first called the whole of Southwestern Europe 
 " Celtice,'^ later " Gallia." Gaul is formally introduced 
 to the world in Caesar's ^' Gallic Wars," though fifty 
 2 
 
34 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 
 
 years earlier a portion of Gaul lying on the Rhone had 
 been made a Roman province. The Gauls imposed their 
 manners and customs upon a subject race (Iberians?) just 
 as they in turn were themselves thoroughly Romanized. 
 Caesar's conquest (B. C. 58-50) the beginning of this 
 process. After Caesar little attention paid to the coun- 
 try till the Empire was established. Gaul was then 
 divided into four provinces, which, in the fourth century, 
 were further divided into seventeen. 
 
 2. Invasions of the Franks. — (See map — Encyc. 
 Brit. IX., 723 — and notice that the Salian (sala, an 
 inheritance?) Franks lie west of the Rhone near its 
 mouth, and the Ripuarian (bankmen, or bank defenders,) 
 Franks also west of the Rhine farther inland.) In 241 
 A. D. the name " Franks " first appears in '^ a rough 
 barrack song^' — 
 
 •* Mille Sarmatas, mille Francos, semel et semel occidimus ; 
 Mille, mille, mille, mille, mille, Persas quaerimus!" 
 
 It is known that Franks lived also on the German 
 side of the Rhine. They are soon at war with Rome ; 
 defeated by Julian (358 A. D.) ; many take service in the 
 Roman armies, and by the end of the fourth century they 
 had made Northern Gaul practically independent. They 
 as often fought for the Romans as against them, however, 
 (e. g., the battle of Chalons), till under Chlodwig (Clovis 
 — 481-511) an independent Frankish kingdom was 
 established. Chlodwig founded the Merwing (Mero- 
 vingian) house — the beginning of France proper. (Gui- 
 zot's France f I., 108.) 
 
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 35 
 
 3. Chlodwig. — It must be remembered that the 
 Franks were Germanic, and Chlodwig was a German in 
 the same sense that the conquerors of Britain were Ger- 
 mans. Chlodwig was only fifteen years old when, by the 
 death of his father, he became king of the Salian Franks. 
 
 4. The Vase of Soisson. — Soon after Chlodwig 
 ascended the throne of the Franks he defeated the West 
 Goths, whose kingdom extended far up into France (See 
 Map, T. and S., pp. 72, 73), and took Soisson. In a 
 marauding expedition they had taken from the church 
 of Rheims '^ a vase of marvelous size and beauty.'^ The 
 bishop, who knew Chlodwig slightly, sent to ask the return 
 at least of this vase. The messenger was invited to Sois- 
 son, where the division of spoil would take place, and was 
 promised that when the lots had given Chlodwig the vase 
 it should be returned. The booty was piled in the midst, 
 and Chlodwig asked, in addition to his lot, the vase, 
 which was cheerfully granted by his warriors. Then a 
 silly, jealous soldier struck the vase with his axe, crying, 
 " Thou shalt have naught of all this save what the lots 
 shall truly give thee." Chlodwig gave the vase to the 
 messenger and " bore the insult with sweet patience, . . . 
 hiding his wound in the recesses of his heart.'^ A whole 
 year after, having drawn up his warriors for review, he 
 passed down the line till he came last to the fellow who 
 had struck the vase. Chlodwig reproved him sharply 
 for his poor arms, and snatching his battle-axe threw it 
 on the ground. As the soldier stooped to pick it up the 
 king buried his own axe in the fellow's skull, saying, 
 
36 BEGINNINGS OF MODERN NATIONS. 
 
 " Thus didst thou to the vase of Soisson." " By this act 
 he made himself greatly feared.'^ (Guizot's France^ I, 
 109, 110.) 
 
 5. Chlodwig's Conversion. — Chlodwig had married 
 Clotilde, niece of the Burgundian king. She was a 
 Christian, and Chlodwig came gradually toward her 
 religion. In 496 A. D. Chlodwig was on the point of 
 defeat in a great battle with the Allemans ; then he 
 prayed to '' the Lord of heaven, whom the queen 
 preached.'' (See this prayer. Guizot's France^ I, 115.) 
 Immediately the tide of battle turned. Chlodwig 
 declared himself converted and was baptized with his 
 followers. This act led eventually to the establishment 
 of the Holy Roman Empire. (Chap. XV., 6.) 
 
 6. Death of Chlodwig, 511 A. D. — The reign of 
 Chlodwig had consolidated and greatly enlarged the 
 territories of the Franks. Chlodwig had overthrown, 
 *' often by the foulest means," all the little independencies 
 around him. Still because he protected the bishops they 
 praised him extravagantly. He was even regarded as a 
 sort of David, and Gregory of Tours said, '' Thus every 
 day God put down the enemies of Chlodwig and increased 
 his kingdom, because he walked with a heart that was 
 right before God and did that which was pleasing in His 
 eyes!" At the death of Chlodwig his kingdom was 
 divided among his four sons, and for more than a 
 century France was to grope in the da-rk ^under the 
 "do-nothing kings." (Emerton's Introd.y ch. VII. 
 Gregory of Tours. Historia Francorum,) 
 
PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 37 
 
 Part III. -THE NATIONS ASSUME 
 THEIR PRESENT TERRI- 
 TORIAL LIMITS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— FRANCE UNDER THE 
 "DO-NOTHING KINGS." 
 
 1. France and the Papacy. — During the long 
 period of troubles in Rome which followed Constautine's 
 desertion, the church of Rome grew apace. The bishop 
 of Rome was till that time, in no way superior to the 
 bishops of other great cities like Antioch, Alexandria, 
 Constantinople, if not indeed distinctly inferior to some 
 of them. Constant! ne had brought an obscure, very 
 imperfectly organized sect into sudden prominence and 
 power. Defects in organization had to be suddenly 
 supplied and the church molded itself consciously on the 
 forms of the Empire. Rome had been head of the 
 Empire; the bishops of Rome at once insisted that it 
 should be the head of the church. So vigorously was the 
 assumption attacked that the bishops had to fortify their 
 claims with the assertion that Peter had been the first 
 bishop of Rome and his successors should be accorded 
 first place in the church. In their frantic race for power 
 the bishops of Rome turned from the Arians of Italy to 
 the orthodox Franks, who from the time of Chlodwig 
 were firm allies of the Pa})acy. This alliance deter- 
 mines the course of political affairs in the Middle Age. 
 
38 PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 
 
 (Eraerton's Introd., ch. IX. Gibbon, ch. XV., XVI. 
 
 Among the most famous chapters in Gibbon.) 
 
 2. Neustria. — Half a century after the death of 
 Chlodwig his kingdom was divided. Neustria was the 
 western side of the Frankish dominion. Romanized 
 Kelts greatly outnumbered Franks. 
 
 3. AusTRASiA. — The eastern side of the Frankish 
 dominions. Franks greatly outnumbered Kelts; thor- 
 oughly German. (See map, pp. 96, 97; also Emerton's 
 Inirod.^ pp. 114, 115. Notice that the battle of Soisson 
 extended the Frankish territory no farther south than 
 Loire. 
 
 4. Fredegonda, Queen of Neustria. — Chilperic's 
 favorite concubine. She was of peasant birth ; a power- 
 ful, coarse, and incredibly cruel woman ; " beautiful, 
 dexterous, ambitious, and bold." When in 566 Chilperic 
 married Galswintha, a West Gothic princess, he put 
 away his concubines. Galswintha brought vast treasures, 
 but never won the king's love which Fredegonda had 
 managed to hold. Galswintha became jealous and offered 
 the king all her treasure if he would send her home free. 
 Upon this Chilperic murdered (had her strangled in bed 
 by a slave) the princess whom he had sought to be his 
 wife, and " when he had mourned for her death, he 
 espoused Fredegonda after an interval of a few days ! " 
 Fredegonda had caused Chilperic to banish and then 
 murder one queen before this. The long story of her 
 unbridled license and murders cannot be rehearsed here. 
 
PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 39 
 
 It culminates in an intrigue with a household officer. 
 She had Chilperic slain to prevent his discovery of it. 
 She had Gregory, bishop of Tours, tried for treason, but 
 the old historian escaped conviction, ^^She died quietly 
 at Paris, in 597 or 598, powerful and dreaded.'' (See 
 Guizot's France, I, 134-137.) 
 
 5. Brunhilda, Queen of Austrasia. — Of noble 
 birth, sister to Galswintha, and wife to Sigebert, king of 
 Austrasia. The murder of Galswintha made Brun- 
 hilda the mortal and life-long enemy of the barbarous 
 Neustrasian Queen. War at once broke out. Sige- 
 bert was victorious, but was just then assassinated by 
 Fredegonda's emissaries. Brunhilda fell into the hands 
 of Chilperic. Saved by asylum in Paris Cathedral. 
 (Explain this.) Sent to Rouen. Chilperic's son was at 
 Rouen on a mission, was smitten with Brunhilda's beauty 
 and married her. Brunhilda thus became heir to Frede- 
 gonda's throne ! But the Austrasians would not give up 
 their queen. Fredegonda's fury pursued her stepson so 
 relentlessly that he had himself killed. At last (614) 
 Brunhilda, at the age of eighty fell into the hands of 
 Fredegonda's son and successor, Clothar 11, who had her 
 *'tied by the hair, one foot and one arm to the tail of an 
 unbroken horse, that carried her away, and dashed her 
 to pieces as he galloped and kicked, beneath the eyes of 
 the ferocious spectators " (Clothar's army). 
 
 Note. — These stories must not be taken too seriously, 
 though they are gravely related by Gregory of Tours, 
 the historian of this period. 
 
40 PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 
 
 6. Major Domus. — '^ Chief among the Frankish 
 nobles were those who held an office near the person of 
 the kings'^ — something like that of a prime minister; 
 very much the sort of person that Prince Bismarck was 
 for so long in the State of Prussia. This major domus, 
 master or mayor of the palace became the most powerful 
 prince at a Frankish court. Strong major domus, weak 
 king. Office of major domus becomes hereditary ; the 
 kings become puppets. (Cf. Odovaker and the last 
 Roman Emperors in the West. ^' Rome,'' Chap. XXV, 
 5.) Very much in the same way the Merwing Kings 
 of France — '' Les rois faineants'' — were displaced by 
 the energetic mayors of the palace, who presently had 
 themselves declared king, thus founding the mighty 
 Karling dynasty. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— ALLIANCE BETWEEN 
 THE POPES AND THE FRANKS. 
 
 1. Karl Martel. (Circa 689-741.)— Son of Pip- 
 pin of Heristal, duke of Austrasia and major domus of 
 the kings of France. He was disinherited by his father, 
 but was made duke, nevertheless, by the popular voice. 
 Karl Martel was a ruler by nature, and a conqueror. 
 He laid the foundations of the vast empire of his grand- 
 son, Karl the Great. He subdued Neustria and Aquitaine, 
 drove back the Saxons, and — what meant far more than 
 all these to Europe — he met and defeated the Moham- 
 medans in their career of world conquest between Tours 
 and Poitiers in 732 A. D. (Creasy, Ch. VII.) From 
 
PEESENT TEREITORIAL LIMITS. 41 
 
 the heavy blows he here dealt the Saracens comes his 
 surname — Martel, Hammer. Neglecting the puppet 
 king who had been brought from a monastery and com- 
 pelled to reign (?) Karl at his death divided his hard 
 won territories between his two sons. Carloman died. 
 Pippin became sole ruler and left the kingdom to his 
 son, the greatest of the Karlings. 
 
 2. From Major Domus to King. — When Pippin 
 le Bref succeeded Karl Martel it was indeed as real ruler, 
 but not with the title of king. It was still thought 
 wise to retain a phantom king. But Pippin le Bref was 
 as active and able as his father had been, and he at last 
 determined to assume the dignity as well as the responsi- 
 bility of his office. Pippin accordingly addressed to 
 Pope Stephen III (whose pretensions Pippin had sup- 
 ported) this question : " Should he have the title of 
 king who has inherited it without power, or should he 
 who has long been the real king?" The Pope in grati- 
 tude could send but one answer. The puppet king, 
 Chilperic, was deposed and sent to a monastery while 
 Pippin was anointed and crowned king of the Franks 
 752. Karlidng ynasty founded. (See map, T. and S., 
 pp. 96, 97.) 
 
 3. The Papacy. — We have seen how the Bishop of 
 Rome profited by the removal of the Emperor to Con- 
 stantinople. (Chap. XIII, 1.) From that time it 
 might almost be said that there were two worlds, each 
 with its church and each with its empire. No sooner 
 did the empire wane in Kome that the church sprang 
 ambitiously into its place. No sooner did the empire 
 
42 PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 
 
 flourish in Constantinople than the church so felt its 
 dignity that it refused to yield precedence to the Roman 
 bishop. If, therefore, the empire survived in Constanti- 
 nople (1) it must actually rule the Roman Bishop, or (2) 
 he would rule the Eastern church, or (3) there must be 
 two churches. The Eastern church could never rule the 
 Roman bishop until the imperial power should be felt 
 at Rome, nor could the Eastern church submit to the 
 Roman bishop while the empire flourished at Constanti- 
 nople. What this curious situation actually evolved 
 was two churches and two empires. The nominal 
 separation in the church came first. The question of the 
 of the worship of images was raised. The West declared 
 for images ; the East declared against them. After a 
 long, fierce struggle, the East was excommunicated, and 
 a final separation took place. The images still have a 
 place in the worship of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 4. The Bishop of Rome Independent of the 
 Empire. — Tliis conflict about images (Iconoclasm) had 
 another important result in the complete independence of 
 the Roman bishop. Naturally the emperor at Constanti- 
 nople sided with the East against images. At last the 
 Roman bishop went so far as to excommunicate the 
 Emperor himself. This was equivalent to a declaration 
 of war. Both parties prepared. (It was just about this 
 time that far off in Asia Mohammed was teaching another 
 church, called heathen, to extend its dominion by the 
 sword.) A fleet sent to take the Pope was wrecked. 
 ^^The rebellion of the Pope had succeeded, and the Eastern 
 Emperor never again received his allegiance." (Ch. XII.) 
 
PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 43 
 
 5. The Popes Turn to the Franks. — But the 
 Pope had escaped one master only to find himself exposed 
 to another more dano;erous, because nearer — the Lom- 
 bards. (Chap. X., 5.) Tlie King of the Lombards had 
 caused the Pope much trouble and was now again 
 threatening Rome. In his distress the successor of St. 
 Peter appealed to Pippin. (Letter from St. Peter him- 
 self.) The Lombards were driven back and the conquered 
 cities given to the Pope. Beginning of the territorial 
 (temporal) power of the Papacy. 
 
 CHAPTEK XV.-KARL THE GREAT. 
 
 1. Karl Becomes King of the Franks, 771 
 A. D. — In 768 Pippin died. — His dominions — according 
 to the fatal rule of the Franks — were divided among his 
 sons, Carloman and Karl. Carloman soon died and 
 Karl the Great became sole monarch of the Franks in 
 77L 
 
 2. An Important Divorce Case. — Karl married 
 a daughter of the Lombard king, but within a year di- 
 vorced her and sent her back. Upon this divorce perhaps 
 turns the course of events for the Middle Age. Had the 
 alliance between the Popes and Franks (Chap. XIV., 5,) 
 been broken, as it must have been had this marriage 
 united the Franks and the Lombards, the Popes could 
 scarely have held out against this combined force. There 
 could then have been no Holy Roman Empire, (Sec. 6,) 
 and future events must have taken a wholly different course. 
 
44 PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 
 
 3. Conquest of the Lombards, 773 A. D. — As it 
 was the Franks and the Lombards, were raade mortal 
 enemies. The Popes called upon Karl for protection. 
 He marched into Italy, (773,) beat the Lombards, spent 
 Easter with the Pope, and confirmed the donations of 
 Pippin. (Chap. XIV., 5.) A few years later Karl com- 
 pleted his conquest and placed the iron crown upon his 
 own head. 
 
 4. Conquest of the Saxons. — For more than 
 thirty years the Saxons held out against Karl. They 
 would submit when Karl led an army among them, but 
 refused obedience as soon as he was gone. Pagans. 
 Karl bent upon their conversion. At last Karl, driven 
 to despair by the continual uprisings of the Saxons, had 
 4,500 Saxon prisoners massacred in cold blood. Saxons 
 finally submit. Baptized. They were held in the 
 water, or were given their choice between baptism and the 
 sword (See cut in Guizot's France, opp. p. 143). Even 
 this did not subdue the fierce spirit of our own savage 
 ancestors, and Karl had to resort to deportation. Thou- 
 sands of Saxon families were scattered throughout his 
 dominions. 
 
 5. Karl's Attitude Towards Learning. — Karl 
 was more than conqueror. He engaged the most learned 
 men of his time to come to his court and teach. His 
 very court was a sort of University — when it was not on 
 an expedition, or engaged in the chase. Schools were 
 founded throughout his kingdom. Alcuiu (Who?) was 
 the head of the court University. Karl gave German 
 
PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 45 
 
 names to the months, was interested in Astronomy, and 
 compelled the priests to study. He recommended that 
 there be made " no difference between the sons of serfs 
 and of freemen, so that they might come and sit on the 
 same benches to study grammar, music, and arithmetic. 
 
 6. Karl Becomes Emperor. Holy Roman Em- 
 pire. 800 A. D. — When Karl was in Italy, (on his 
 second expedition against the Lombards ?) 800 A. D., he 
 went on Christmas Day to worship in the church of 
 St. Peter. While he was kneeling at the altar the Pope, 
 Leo III., came behind without KarPs knowledge and 
 placed upon his head the crown of the Caesars. By this act 
 the Roman Empire in the West was restored ; the Holy 
 Roman Empire (which was " neither holy nor Roman 
 nor an Empire '') was created ; the West could never be 
 re-united with the East; the course of affairs for the 
 Middle Age was sketched, at least in bold outline. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI.— THE HOL.Y ROMAN 
 
 EMPIRE TO THE TREATY OF 
 
 VERDUN. 843 A. I>. 
 
 1. Two Empires. — The logic of events led to two 
 churches. (Chap. XIY., 3) With the crowning of 
 Karl by Leo III., in return for his own restoration, the 
 the Western church effected in theory the restoration of 
 the Western Empire. Why did not the Eastern Empire 
 treat this as a revolt, as it really was? Because the 
 separation had gradually taken place long before in fact 
 
46 PRESENT TERRITORIAL IJMITS. 
 
 and needed only this completion in theory to make it 
 perfect. The People of the West had long been practi- 
 cally without an Emperor. In Karl they had found a 
 man worthy to fill that high office. 
 
 2. Three Theories of the Origin of the 
 Holy Roman Empire. — (1) ^'The imperial party 
 declared that Karl had won the crown by his conquests 
 and was indebted to no one for it but himself." (2) 
 " The Papal party said that the Pope, by virtue of his 
 authority as successor to St. Peter, had deposed the Em- 
 peror at Constantinople and conferred the crown on Karl." 
 (3) '' The people of Rome also advanced a theory to the 
 effect that they had elected Karl, and that they had 
 revived their ancient right of electing the Emperor." 
 (Criticise these theories.) It was almost three centuries 
 after the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire before 
 any theories about it became necessary. 
 
 3. The Holy Roman Empire. 800-1806 A. D.— 
 It would appear that a divorce led to the establishment 
 of the Holy Roman Empire. (Chap. XV., 2.) It was 
 actually inaugurated by the crowning of Karl on Christ- 
 mas day, 800 A. D. More than a thousand years were 
 to pass before Europe was to see another Karl. By that 
 time the Empire had become too feeble to be of use, and 
 Napoleon, choosing to rest his Empire on other theories, 
 deposed Francis II, and brought the affairs of the Holy 
 Roman Empire to a close in 1806. 
 
 4. What was the Holy Roman Empire? — An 
 institution rather than a State such as we now understand 
 
PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 47 
 
 the word " Empire " to mean. At the time of its establish- 
 ment it was really a State ruled by Karl the Great. It in- 
 cluded, roughly, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, 
 Italy, with indefinite pagan countries to the northeast 
 waiting to be added by conquest. The prospect was 
 indeed dazzling. Was the world empire nearly reached 
 by Alexander, and realized by the Romans for a brief 
 time, at last to be permanently established? No; if 
 that dream of the ages is ever to be realized it must be 
 under a federal representative government which shall 
 guarantee local freedom to its members. Like the great 
 bow of Odysseus KarPs great empire could be bent only 
 by the master's hand. Within a single generation after 
 Karl's death (843) his vast empire had been divided into 
 three parts. The Holy Roman Empire embraced hence- 
 forth only Germany and Italy. In its disregard of 
 natural boundaries it ruined both countries. Italy, 1869, 
 Germany, 1871. (Chap. X., 6. Bryce's Holy Roman 
 Empire.) 
 
 5. The Treaty of Verdun. August, 843 A. D. 
 — Karl was succeeded by his son Ludwig the Pious. 
 Ludwig was too lazy and worthless (pious?) to rule. 
 So he divided up his kingdom among his three sons, 
 817. Afterwards Ludwig had a fourth son by a later 
 marriage, while one of the older sons died. Ludwig now 
 tried to favor the youngest son, and the two older 
 rebelled. (What was the ^' Field of Lies? '^) Ludwig's 
 indecision brought misery to himself and ruin to the 
 Empire. Upon Ludwig's death in 840, the oldest son, 
 Lothar, claimed the Empire. Ludwig and Charles 
 
48 PRESENT TERRITOEIAL LIMITS. 
 
 fought and defeated him at Fontenay. Lothar retired to 
 Italy. Next spring Charles and Ludwig met near Strass- 
 burg and made an alliance. Each took the oath in the 
 other's language. Both preserved. Oldest documents 
 showing divergence of French and German. (Emerton's 
 Mediceval Europe, p. 27.) After another year of war 
 the three brothers agreed to the famous Treaty of Verdun : 
 Lothar, Italy and Aachen as Emperor ; Charles, France; 
 Ludwig, Germany. Territorial origin of these countries. 
 (See map, pp. 146, 147.) 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— FRANCE IN THE 
 MIODL.E AGE. 
 
 1. Last of the Karlings. — After the treaty of 
 Verdun the Karling line came first to an end in Italy. 
 Lothar's sons fought over his dominions, and at their 
 deaths left no offspring. Succeeded by French and 
 German lines. In France Charles the Bald succeeded to 
 the imperial honor, but his successors were weak, and in 
 884 the only Karling left in France was a boy five 
 years old. The crown was given to Karl the Fat of 
 Germany who had already the imperial crown. This 
 was the last time the three crowns were united. With 
 the death of Karl the Fat (887) the three countries 
 became nearly what they have since remained, and it 
 became customary for the imperial crown, with Italy, 
 to go to the king of the Germans. " 
 
 2. Beginning of the French Monarch v^. — At 
 the death of Karl the Fat the French nobles elected 
 
PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 49 
 
 Count Odo of Paris, who became King of France, 888. 
 He iiad to fight the Northmen who continued their 
 invasions, (settled under Rolf (911) Normandy,) while 
 the powerful nobles cared more for their own indepen- 
 dence than for the nation's prosperity. At Odo's death 
 he named Charles the Simple to succeed him. Odo's 
 son, Robert, did homage to Charles ^' and received the 
 duchy of France." (^'Isle of France.'' See map, p. 
 487.) Robert's son, Hugo, Duke of Paris, might have 
 become King, but declined. Hugo's son, Hugo Capet, 
 was, upon the extinction of the Karling line, in 986, 
 elected king of France. First of the Capetian dynasty. 
 
 3. The French King Both a Sovereign and an 
 Overlord, — As an overlord "he could deal directly 
 only with the members of the feudal hierarchy." As a 
 sovereign " he dealt directly with all the inhabitants of 
 the kingdom." Hugh Capet was sovereign in the Isle 
 of France and in Burgundy. He was overlord of the 
 remainder of what is now France, and more. (Flanders, 
 (where?) Poitou, Anjou, Poitiers, Gascony, and Aqui- 
 taine.) The problem for the French monarchy was, 
 therefore, to bring the great countries under the imme- 
 diate sway of the King — extend the sovereignty. The 
 history of France is really an account of this process of 
 centralization. But how had these great counts become 
 so nearly independent ? What was the counter process 
 to that of centralization ? It was feudalism. 
 
 4. What Was Feudalism ? — In a rude transitional 
 age feudalism served instead of firmly established, well- 
 
50 PKESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 
 
 regulated governments. The sort of imperfect govern- 
 ment called Feudalism required two things, land and 
 allegiance. The extensive conquests of the Teutons 
 furnished the land ; the personal character of their law 
 and organization — comitatus, (what?) made the tie of 
 allegiance familiar. It was, therefore, among Teutonic 
 peoples on Roman territory, as in France, that feudalism 
 reached its most perfect development. Land at the dis- 
 posal of the King. Distributed in large areas to his 
 great lords on condition of furnishing troops for war — 
 (allegiance.) Each lord might distribute his own area in 
 the same way and so on indefinitely (subinfeudation). If 
 now a weak King arises, the great lords disregard him 
 and become practically independent. Precisely this had 
 happened before Hugh Capet came to the throne, and it 
 was a long (nearly three centuries) and difficult process 
 to reduce these powerful hereditary lords again to 
 submission. (Ch. XI.) 
 
 5. The King's Sovereign Territories En- 
 larged. — Henry I. (1031-1060) added Sens at the 
 death of its feudal lord. Conflict with William, Duke 
 of Normandy. That the Duke proved stronger than 
 the King is the best commentary on the character of 
 overlordship. Henry's successor, Philip I., added the 
 Vexin (north) by its owners going into a monastery ; 
 most of Vermandois by the death of its Count, and the 
 city of Bourges (where?) by purchase. Then follow 
 Aquitaine by marriage, Louis VII., (afterwards lost but 
 recovered by Philip II.) ; Normandy, Anjou and Maine 
 
PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS. 51 
 
 by force of arms from John of England by Philip II. ; 
 Artois he obtained by his wife, Auvergne by war, Poitou 
 by forfeiture from John, and Toulouse by marriage. 
 Louis IX. acquired ^' Carcassonne, Beziers, Nisraes, and 
 Macon in the south, and the counties of Perche, Blois, 
 Chartres, Sancene in the north. '^ Philip III. (1270- 
 1285), by the marriage of his son added Navarre, 
 Champagne, and Brie. Henceforth the Capetians were 
 Kings in fact as well as in name. Centralization had 
 overcome feudalism. (Ch, VII. and XVIII. to p. 510. 
 For the struggle between France and England, see 
 Gardiner on the Hundred Years' War.) 
 
52 CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 PART IV.-CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII THE MOHAMMEDANS. 
 
 1. The Eastern Question. — The so-called Eastern 
 Question dates back at least to Marathon. There are 
 three peninsulas in Southern Europe. The first great 
 conflict between East and West took place in the most 
 eastern peninsula — Marathon. The second, in the mid- 
 dle peninsula — Hannibal's Campaign in Italy. The 
 third, in the western peninsula — the Mohammedans — 
 Tours. Since Mohammed's time the Eastern Question 
 has had four phases. (1) Expansion of the East from 
 Mohammed to the Crusades (632-1096.) (2) Reaction 
 of the West— the Crusades (1096-1270.) (3) Moham- 
 medans push into Europe from the East (1270-1683.) 
 (4) Decline of Mohammedanism since 1683 — "The Sick 
 Man of Europe." 
 
 2. Mohammed's Early Life. — Of tribe of Koreish, 
 keepers of Caaba, or temple of Mecca. Father, Abdallah, 
 noted for beauty — when he married, two hundred maidens 
 died of disappointment and jealousy (?) Mohammed 
 born four years after the death of Justinian, Emperor of 
 the East. Early deprived of father, grandfather, and 
 mother. Poor. Camel driver to Cadijah, a rich widow. 
 At age of twenty-five married Cadijah. Lived sober and 
 virtuous life. At age of forty assumed title of Prophet 
 
CHURCH AND STATE. 53 
 
 and proclaimed the religion of the Koran. Journeys 
 into Syria brought him into contact with Jews, and gave 
 him some knowledge of Hebrew Scriptures. 
 
 3. The Hegira. — Mohammed's first disciple was his 
 wife ; the next, a young cousin. Number grew slowly. 
 Relatives remonstrated. Hostility in Mecca grew. His 
 tribe denounced his family and refused to have inter- 
 course with them till they delivered the person of 
 Mohammed to the justice of the gods. Mohammed's 
 death was resolved. Heads of tribes agreed that a 
 sword from each tribe should be buried in his heart to 
 divide the guilt of his blood and to baffle vengeance. 
 Mohammed warned. At dead of night he and a faithful 
 friend, Abubeker, fled from Mecca. Hid in a cave for 
 three days, then went on to Medina. This flight, known 
 as The Hegira, is the beginning of the calendar for the 
 Mohammedans. 
 
 4. The Koran. — Sacred book of the Mohammedans. 
 '' A paper copy in a volume of silk and gems was brought 
 down to the lowest heaven by the angel Gabriel ; '' he 
 revealed it bit by bit to Mohammed. Written down on 
 " palm leaves and shoulder blades of mutton." The 
 pages were cast pell-mell into a chest which was put in V 
 the care of one of Mohammed's wives. Two years after ^ \ 
 the death of Mohammed the sacred volume was collected 
 
 and published by Abubeker. " The faith which, under 
 the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation, 
 is compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary fiction : 
 That there is only one God, and that Mohammed is the 
 apostle of God." (Gibbon, eh. L). 
 
54 CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 5. Spread of Mohammedanism. — After the Hegira, 
 Mohammed preached at Medina. Was there received as 
 a prophet. Made war od Mecca and captured the city. 
 After Mohammed's death (632) his followers conquered 
 Arabia ; Persia (637-650) ; took Jerusalem (637) ; 
 invaded Egypt ; captured Alexandria and burned its 
 great library. (Answer of Omar. Gibbon, Ch. LI.) 
 Conquered Africa. Descended on Spain, 710 A. D. 
 '' The Arabian empire extended from the confines of 
 Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.'' 
 Invaded France. They were finally checked by Karl 
 Martel, and defeated " in the center of France between 
 Tours and Poitiers." (Chap. XIV, 1.) 
 
 6. Arab Learning and Universities. — The Fati- 
 mites of Africa and the Ommiades of Spain were patrons 
 of learning. Emulation among them diffused learning. 
 The vizier of a Sultan founded the University at Bag- 
 dad. Private citizens collected books. The royal library 
 of the Fatimites contained 100,000 volumes, and that of 
 the Ommiades contained 600,000 volumes. There were 
 seventy public libraries in the Andalusian kingdom alone. 
 Their libraries contained orators and poets, general and 
 partial history, codes and commentaries of jurisprudence, 
 theological works of all kinds, and four classes of science. 
 (1) Philosophy. (2) Mathematics. (3) Astronomy. (4) 
 Physics. They made great progress in medicine — in 
 anatomy, botany, and Chemistry. The age of Arabian 
 learning continued about five hundred years. They dis- 
 dained the study of any foreign tongue, and were igno- 
 rant of the Greek and Roman classics. They established 
 
CHURCH AND STATE. 55 
 
 universities at Bagdad, Cairo, and Cordova. The intel- 
 lectual life of ancient Greece carried to Asia by 
 Alexander the Great thus returned in refreshing streams 
 upon the barren wastes of the ^' Dark Ages.'^ Prepared 
 the way for the Renaissance. 
 
 7. The Crusades. 1096-1270.— The most remark- 
 al)le events of the Middle Age. Under the growing 
 influence of the church, pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre 
 had become very luunerous. Strong desire of Christians 
 to free Jerusalem from Mohammedan rule. Pope's 
 influence gained by Peter the Hermit and for two hun- 
 dred years Christian. Europe })oured itself in vast 
 streams into Mohammedan Asia. 1. Led by Walter the 
 Penniless, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Robert, son of 
 William the Conqueror. Jerusalem taken — massacre — 
 1099. Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. 11.1147-1149. 
 Perished in Asia Minor. III. 1189-1192. Richard L 
 Philip IL Acre (where?) captured. IV. 1202-1204. 
 Led by Baldwin of Flanders for Pope Innocent. Directed 
 against Egypt. Established Latin Empire at Constanti- 
 nople, with Baldwin as Emperor. Children's Crusade 
 (1212). Thousands of Children perished. Re-action. 
 v., VI., and VII. came to nothing. Results: 1. 
 Greatly increased the power and influence of the church. 
 2. Strengthened Princes, weakened lords. 3. Developed 
 commerce — Italian Republics. 4. Intellectual growth. 
 5. Orders of Knighthood : Hospitalers, Templars, Teu- 
 tonic. (See map, p. 344-5 ; Cox's The Crusades.) 
 
56 CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— THE EMPIRE (GERMANY) 
 AM> THE PAPACY (ITALY). 
 
 1. Growth of Germany. — The Karling line 
 became extinct in Germany in 911 (death of Ludwig, 
 the cliild). Already the Germans had fallen into four 
 great divisions. (1) Bavaria, (2) Swabia, (3) Franconia, 
 (4) Saxony. These all united, however, to elect a king. 
 Conrad of Franconia was chosen. (Conrad L, 911-918.) 
 Conrad's problem was the same as that of Hugh Capet 
 had been — to strengthen the monarchy at the expense of 
 the great independent duchies. Conrad failed. Instead 
 of cultiv^ating patiently the growth of the royal domains 
 as the Capetians did (Chap. XVIII. , 5,) he insisted 
 upon the complete submission of the great dukes at 
 once. This roused the jealousy of the duchies before 
 the monarch was able to use force, thus rendering future 
 union difficult if not impossible. 
 
 2. OrTO THE Great. 936-973. — The next chance 
 for the union of Germany came to Otto the Great. His 
 father, Henry the Fowler, had a long and prosperous 
 reign during which many of the evil effects of Conrad's 
 indiscretion were overcome. Henry had been judicious, 
 advancing only such claims as he could enforce. Otto 
 proved to be a powerful ruler, able to support far greater 
 pretensions. After fourteen years of conflict he forced 
 the dukes to submit, and it looked as if Germany was to 
 become a nation. 
 
 3. Decline of the Papacy. — Under Nicholas I. 
 (868-867) the Papacy had reached its full maturity — 
 
CHURCH AND STATE. 57 
 
 the vicar of God on earth with kings and emperors for 
 subjects. Nicholas showed himself superior to local 
 councils and synods, made himself the supreme power 
 in Italy, and forced the Emperor, Lothar II., (KarPs 
 great-grandson) to submit to his decisions. But in this 
 complete victory of the Papacy lay its defeat. It failed 
 to recognize that it must depend for supremacy on the 
 variety and universality of its interests. It should have 
 allied itself with the Empire and made Italy and local 
 matters secondary. But in the arrogancy of its preten- 
 sions it refused to recognize the Emperor except as a 
 subject. (Cf. the silly pretensions of Conrad L, sec. 1.) 
 The successor of Nicholas was friendly to the Empire, 
 but tlie Roman church would hear of no such thing. 
 The Papacy became local and rapidly sank to the lowest 
 depths of moral degradation. 
 
 4. Tkial of Pope Formosus. — Upon the death of 
 Nicholas's successor, Formosus, " a pope rushed hastily 
 into office, died in a fortnight. Another set up by 
 Roman factions lent himself to the unheard-of scheme of 
 putting the dead Formosus through the form of a trial. 
 The corpse of the pope, already eight months in the 
 grave, was dug up and dragged to St. Peter's before a 
 synod of the Roman clergy. Dressed in full pontificals 
 it was placed upon the papal throne and furnished with 
 an advocate for its defense. The advocate of the new 
 pope, Stephen, then called upon the dead to declare why 
 he had dared to ascend the throne of St. Peter while still 
 holding the office of Bishop of Pontus. The advocate of 
 
58 CHtTRCH AND STATE. 
 
 Formosus made what feeble defense he dared, but the 
 assembly representing the voice of God on earth, declared 
 Formosus guilty and deposed him from office. The 
 papal garments were torn from the corpse, the three 
 fingers with which he had given divine blessing were 
 chopped off, and the body dragged out of the church by 
 the heels, and thrown into the Tiber.'^ 
 
 5. Otto the Great Called to Italy. — Under 
 such a papacy Italy^s condition was pitiable indeed. 
 Neither the local king nor the pope was able to keep 
 the peace, and in 951 Otto marched to Pavia and was 
 crowned king of Italy. Before he could reach Rome he 
 had to return home and spend ten years in repelling 
 invasions and securing his authority in Germany. In 
 the summer of 961, however, Otto is again in Italy. 
 Mutual protestations of friendship. Otto admitted by 
 the Pope to Rome to be crowned Emperor. But Otto 
 charged his sword bearer : ^' While I am praying in St. 
 Peter^s keep your sword close to my head. When once 
 we reach Monte Mario again you shall have time to 
 pray as much as you like.'^ It was not likely such a 
 friendship would last. Soon the Pope displeased Otto 
 and a war began. 
 
 6. Otto's Prime Mistake. — The policy of the 
 Empire should just now have been the reverse of the 
 papal policy outlined above (Sec. 3). Otto should have 
 remained in Germany till his own dominions were 
 thoroughly welded. Then with a powerful and united 
 Germany at his back an Emperor might have withstood 
 
CHURCH AND STATE. 59 
 
 the Papacy. Otto forsook his real support, Germany, 
 for an imaginary one, the Empire, and German unity 
 was put off nearly a thousand years. (Chap. XXV, 6.) 
 
 CHAPTER XX.— THE STRUGGLE FOR 
 POL.ITICAL1 SUPREMACY. 
 
 1. Peeparations for the Struggle. — ^'As we 
 enter upon the history of the great conflict of the Middle 
 Ages, the struggle between the religious and the secular 
 powers for the mastery in European affairs, it becomes 
 important above all things to get a clear idea of the con- 
 ditions under which this conflict was begun." The 
 immediate successors of Otto the Great (especially Otto 
 III) continued his policy — neglected Germany for the 
 Empire. Tlie Roman factions, at last worn out, asked 
 Otto to name a Pope. First German to become pope 
 (Bruno) as Gregory V. Empire and Papacy at peace. 
 Within a few months Sylvester II. became pope and 
 immediately pushed the claim to papal supremacy. 
 Christianization of Hungary and the northeast. Otto 
 III. wished to make Rome his capital, and imagined 
 wild things about an empire that was never to be — 
 because it must depend not upon the imagination but 
 upon the sword. Otto's successor, Henry II. (1002- 
 1024) of Bavaria saw that Germany was really to be 
 controlled through the great bishoprics. These, there- 
 fore, Henry determined to conciliate and control. 
 
 2. "The Papal Platform.'^ — It was during the 
 reign of Henry II. that the three points on which the 
 
60 CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 papacy made i ts great fight for political power came into vie w. 
 
 (1) Celibacy of the parish clergy through all its orders. 
 
 (2) Purity of election to ecclesiastical positions — simony 
 forbidden. (3) Papal investiture — " the bishop should 
 receive the right to perform the duties of his office from 
 no layman whomsoever, but from the Pope alone." It 
 was the third which was aimed directly at the Empire, 
 and it was around this question of investiture that 
 Church and State waged a devastating war for more than 
 two hundred years. 
 
 3. HiLDEBRAND, PoPE GREGORY VII. — Henry II. 
 appointed bishops nevertheless, both in Germany and in 
 Italy. But in making a strong national church he forgot 
 that these men might in a final issue put Church before 
 State. Henry's successors (Conrad II., 1024-1039, and 
 Henry III, 1039-105')) pushed the same policy with 
 success. The German episcopacy stood by the Empire, 
 and Henry III. made himself practically independent of 
 the Popes. Henry IV. was but an infant at his accession, 
 and the Pope, Victor 11. was made his guardian. Victor 
 was a German and did not use this opportunity to over- 
 throw the Empire. Victor's death, with the Empire in 
 the hands of a child, brought back the Roman factions 
 and produced a Roman Pope, Stephen X. Soon died — 
 poisoned. (?) Lateran Synod (1059) established college 
 of bishops for election of Popes — constitution for an 
 independent church. Fifteen years later Hildebrand 
 caused himself to be hastily elected Pope as Gregory 
 VII. (1073) without consulting the Emperor. 
 
CHUECH AND STATE. 61 
 
 4. Henry IV and Gregory VII. — A rebellion of 
 the Saxons allowed Gregory at once to begin open war- 
 fare against Henry IV. Gregory allied himself with 
 Henry's rebellious subjects, and in 1075 called a synod 
 in which Lay Investiture (what?) was first prohibited. 
 From the '^ Dictatus Papae '' " it is clear that the aim of 
 Gregory's policy was nothing short of a complete subju- 
 gation of every earthly power to the final arbitrament of 
 Kome." Henry paid no attention to these pretensions 
 of the Pope. The Pope remonstrated ; Henry invested 
 bishops. The Pope excommunicated Henry's officers ; 
 Henry retained them in his service. Then came mes- 
 sengers to say to Henry that he must dismiss these 
 officers and cease to invest bishops or he would be 
 excommunicated. Immediately Germany was in a fever 
 of excitement. National Council at Worms declared 
 independence of the Pope and called on the Italians to 
 do likewise. Henry was deposed and excommunicated. 
 At first no attention was paid to either, but slowly the 
 Pope gathered power. Agreement reached that Henry 
 should be practically a prisoner at Speier, and unless he 
 could free himself from the excommunication by the next 
 February his people should be absolved from allegiance. 
 
 5. Canossa. 1077. — Henry now saw that he must 
 escape the excommunication at any cost. Journeyed in 
 winter across the Alps. Outwitted the Pope who was 
 hastening to Germany to turn his advantage to full 
 account. " Gregory was fairly caught." He kept the 
 king waiting three days, (Henry stood barefoot iu the 
 
62 CHURCH AND STATE. 
 
 snow without the gate?), then restored him to favor. 
 The Pope had gone too far, and for several years every- 
 thing turned once more in favor of the Empire. Gregory 
 exiled to Salerno where he died 1085. *' ^ I have loved 
 justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile,' were 
 the last words of the greatest man of his time, one of 
 the greatest of all time." 
 
 6. End of the Struggle. — Soon after Henry's 
 son rebelled and the Pope became supreme. Henry IV 
 died defeated. Concordat of Worms (1122). Com- 
 promise (what?) Still the struggle dragged on. Ger- 
 many falling into jealous, independent states. The Popes 
 pursued their policy till the extinction of the Hoheustauffen 
 House in 1254, when they became completely victorious 
 and Germany was left without a ruler. The Great 
 Interregnum. 
 
CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 63 
 
 Part V. -CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL 
 TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI.— THE NORTHMEN. 
 THE CITIES. 
 
 1. Who were the Northmen? — "The bold sea- 
 rovers and pirates of Scandinavia and Denmark.'' As 
 early as 787 the coast of England had been attacked by 
 pirates from the continent. Alfred the Great finally 
 beat these back and restricted them to the Danelaw. 
 (Treaty of Chippenham, 878). After a century and a 
 quarter of struggle, however, England was forced to 
 yield and these hardy seamen ruled the country from 
 1016 to 1042. 
 
 2. Northmen in France. — The Northmen are said 
 to have appeared in France as early as the time of Karl 
 the Great. Karl wept when he saw one of their swift 
 ships in the Seine, " because," said he, '' I foresee the 
 misery they will bring my country.'' Charles the Sim- 
 ple settled Hollo and his followers on the Lower Seine 
 (911). Normandy. William the Conqueror. Four cen- 
 turies of desolation for France ending with close of the 
 Hundred Years' War, 1451. (Ch. IX.) 
 
 5. Northmen in Italy and Elsewhere. — South- 
 ern Italy was held partly by the Saracens and partly by 
 
64 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 
 
 the Eastern Emperor. In 1016 a band of Norman 
 pilgrims was shipwrecked at Salerno (where?). They 
 immediately began war on the Saracens. By 1081 they 
 were secure in Italy and ready under their brave leader, 
 Robert Guiscard, to attack the Eastern Empire. Robert 
 would probably have overthrown the Eastern Empire 
 had not Gregory VII. recalled him to help against 
 Henry IV. (Chap. XX., 4). Kingdom of the Two 
 Sicilies founded. The Northmen had also pushed east- 
 ward through Russia as far as Novgorod. They had 
 settled Iceland (874?), discovered America (1000), and, 
 as we have seen, established themselves firmly in Eng- 
 land, France, and Italy. (Chap. X. : also Wheaton's 
 History of the Northmen ; Arts. " Normauds" and " Nor- 
 mans,'' in Encyc. Brit.) 
 
 4. Development of the Cities in the Twelfth 
 Century. — As governments became more stable the 
 peasant class gained rapidly in importance. Began to 
 form communities, villages, cities, which could make 
 better terms with the lord than could individuals. 
 (Guilds. Find what these were.) Did medieval cities 
 have an independent origin, or did they spring from 
 Roman corporations? Probably both. Cities soon be- 
 came centers of wealth. (Why ?) Kings and lords 
 granted them liberties in return for money furnished. 
 Free cities. 
 
 5. The Hanseatic League, 1330 — Circa 1500. — 
 At first a league of merchauts to protect trade when 
 government was little more than the right to defend 
 
CHANGE FKOM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 65 
 
 oneself against the Robber Barons. (Who were these?) 
 Later a league of eighty-five or more cities of Germany 
 and the Baltic for the control of commerce in their own 
 interest. Conquest of Denmark — Treaty of Stralsund. 
 From 1361 the League was a political power able to 
 dictate to some neighboring states. Federal government. 
 Assemblies met once a year, usually at Lubeck. Their 
 Recesse (laws) have been preserved. During the 
 fifteenth century the Hansa became gradually weaker 
 through — (1) jealousy, (2) stronger governments — pro- 
 tection no longer needed, (3) geographical discoveries, 
 (4) loss of independence by the towns as feudal privileges 
 disappeared. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII.— THE RENAISSANCE AND 
 THE UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 1. What Was the Renaissance? — That revival 
 of interest in the life and literature of ancient Greece 
 and Rome which came to its full flower in the age of 
 Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. It has no date, but is 
 usually associated with the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries. It will be best understood by a glimpse of 
 the men who led in the new learning. 
 
 2. Dante Alighieri. — Born 1265, i. e., just about 
 the end of the great struggle between the Empire and 
 the Papacy, and the close of the Crusades. Forerunner 
 of the Renaissance, but not himself a Humanist. (One 
 who cultivated the " humanities,^' i. e., classical life and 
 literature, as distinguished from the theological subjects 
 
 3 
 
QQ CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 
 
 which had been all the fashion.) Studied all the feraous 
 poets, also Philosophy, Theology, Astrology, Arithmetic, 
 Geometry, and History. Skilful draughtsman. Became 
 embroiled with the political factions of Florence — the 
 "Blacks" and the '' Whites." Dante banished the 
 heads of both factions, but was afterwards himself 
 condemned to pay 5,000 lire in three days or suffer con- 
 fiscation of his property. He was soon after condemned 
 to be burned. Escaped, and in his wanderings probably 
 went to England and visited Oxford University. Last 
 days spent in poverty. Died at Ravenna, 1321. 
 
 3, Petrarch. Francesco Petr arc a. 1304-1374. 
 — A leading Humanist, a lover of the New Learning. 
 His father had been a notary in the Florentine Court 
 but was expelled. Petrarch disliked law, his father's 
 profession, but loved the works of the classical writers. 
 His father was angered and threw his books of poetry 
 and rhetoric into the fire, but relented on account of his 
 son's entreaties in time to save a Virgil and a half- 
 burned Cicero. (How were books made in those days? 
 What was their value?) Left in poverty at his 
 father's death. Took orders. Traveled and won fame 
 as a poet. Honored by University of Paris — offered 
 him the poet's laurel crown which, however, he accepted 
 from King Robert of Naples. Declined papal secretary- 
 ship and many other honors. A lover of learning and 
 made it the fashion to love learning. Petrarch brought 
 the men of his time into intelligent contact with antiquity. 
 Was found dead in his library among his books. 
 
CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 67 
 
 4. Boccaccio, Giovanni. 1313-1375. — Illegitimate 
 son of a wealthy merchant. Wrote poetry at the age of 
 seven. Hated commerce ; tried law, but preferred to 
 write. First work of Boccaccio was a prose tale. His 
 poetry severely criticized. The young queen Giovanna 
 of Naples showed him favor, and it was to please her 
 that he wrote the Decameron — a distinctly human work, 
 strongly opposed to the theological mold in which pre- 
 vious learning had been cast. Offered a chair in Flor- 
 ence University to interpret Dante's Divina Commedia. 
 Accepted. Died poor, leaving his books to his father 
 confessor. 
 
 5. Study and report these earlier lovers of learning : 
 Gregory of Tours, historian of the Franks ; Karl the 
 Great, Alcuin, Paulus. Diaconus (Paul the Deacon, the 
 historian of the Lombards), Berengar of Tours, Anselm, 
 Abelard (1079-1142), Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas 
 Aquinas, Duns Scotus. Also topics like Karling Renais- 
 sance, Transubstantiatiou, Predestination, Asceticism, 
 Cluny, The Cluniac Reforms, Scholasticism, Nominal- 
 ism, Realism, Mysticism, The Mendicant Scholars, St. 
 Francis of Assissi, St. Dominic, the " Wandering 
 Scholars." 
 
 6. The University of Paris. — One of the oldest 
 of the Universities, dating back perhaps to the eleventh 
 century. The rise of universities in the Middle Age 
 points to the emancipation of scholarship and teaching 
 from monastic control. One expression of the Revival 
 of Learning. The universities were at first no more 
 
68 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 
 
 than associations of teachers and learners — usually a 
 great leader of thought (as William of Champeaux at 
 Paris) with his followers gathered to his lectures. Usually 
 in important centres. Frequent collisions between " town '' 
 and " gown.'^ Among the early universities Paris came 
 to stand for Theology, Bologna for Law, Salerno for 
 Medicine (The ^' three learned professions " to this day). 
 (Find origin and meaning of degrees A. B., A. M., Ph.D.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII.— THE GREAT PROTEST- 
 ANT REFORMATION. 
 
 1. Wycliffe. (1320 (?)-1384.)— Perhaps the rela- 
 tion (or distinction) between the Revival of Learning 
 and the Reformation may be best understood by noticing 
 that Wycliffe, the forerunner of the Reformation, was 
 born almost in the very year in which Dante, the fore- 
 runner of the Revival of Learning, died. The Renais- 
 sance means the breaking away from the orthodox modes 
 of thought; the Reformation, the breaking away from 
 the orthodox modes of life and action. Wycliffe was an 
 Oxford man ; one of the ablest preachers of his time. 
 His first writing was political ; denied the right of the 
 church to meddle in temporal affairs ; finally denied the 
 right of the church to any temporal possessions what- 
 ever. (See seven points of his creed, Encyc. Brit., Art. 
 " Wycliffe.") Wycliffe made first complete English ver- 
 sion of the Bible, and sent '* plain men " to preach the 
 truth as found in it. Denied doctrine of transubstantia- 
 
CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 69 
 
 tion ; tried for heresy ; supported by Oxford ; cited to 
 Rome by Urban VI ; refused to go. Died in Leicester- 
 shire. The Council of Constance (1415) ordered his re- 
 mains to be dug up and burned. Order executed (1428.) 
 
 3. John Huss. — A Bohemian. Born 1369. Learned 
 and then taught the doctrines of Wycliffe. Pope issued 
 a bull (1409) ordering the abjuration of all Wycliffite 
 heresies and the surrender of all his books. Four hun- 
 dred Wycliffe books burned in courtyard of palace of 
 Archbishop of Prague. Henceforth Huss publicly 
 defended Wycliffe. Excommunicated. Huss then de- 
 nounced sale of " Indulgences.^' Sent for to attend 
 Council of Constance (1418). Went under the solemn 
 promise of the Emperor Sigismund that his life should 
 be protected. Basely betrayed. Burned July 6th, 1415. 
 ^' He was the chief intermediary in handing on from 
 Wycliffe to Luther the torch which kindled the 
 Reformation. '' 
 
 3. Erasmus Desiderius. (1466-1536). Born out 
 of wedlock at Rotterdam. Cared for by his father, but 
 both father and mother died young. Erasmus was a 
 humanist, not a reformer, but his great learning and 
 writings were in both time and form so perfectly suited 
 to the needs of the Reformers that he is regarded 
 as belonging to the Reformation. The Pope said : 
 " Erasmus laid the egg, Luther hatched it." He was 
 destined for a monastic life but loathed it. Made his 
 way to Paris, afterward to Oxford, England. Always 
 miserably poor. A prodigious worker. Most noted for 
 
70 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 
 
 a Greek version of the New TestameDt, with copious 
 notes which the church found most hateful. ^* The 
 purpose of his life was to fight the battle of sound 
 learning and plain common sense against the powers of 
 ignorance and superstition.'^ 
 
 4. Martin Luther. (1483-1546). — Enough has 
 been said to show that although Luther has come to be 
 known as the Great Reformer; he was by no means the 
 Reformation. Luther succeeded mainly because the 
 return to the simple truths of the Bible as taught by 
 Wycliffe and Huss had gained rapidly in force, and the 
 Pope found himself unable to burn all who had the 
 courage to stand for truth against churchism. Luther 
 denied transubstantiation ; WyclifFe's decayed body had 
 been dug from the ground and burned because Wycliffe 
 had preached against transubstantiation. Luther revolted 
 and nailed his "Theses'' to the door of Wittenburg 
 Church because the open, shameless sale of indulgences 
 to get money to build St. Peter's at Rome had insulted 
 him ; Huss had been betrayed and burned because he 
 had dared to raise his voice against the sale of indul- 
 gences. Luther was warned, then excommunicated; but 
 Germany had come to his side. Tried at the great Diet 
 at Worms, Luther, like Huss, refused to recant ; but in 
 Luther's case the treacherous effort to betray him in 
 spite of the Emperor's safe conduct (what ?) failed. The 
 Reformation had become a fact. Not Luther but Ger- 
 many had revolted from " the Church." The effort of 
 Spain to crush political liberty was defeated by England 
 
CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 71 
 
 — Armada, 1588. (Creasy, Ch. X.) The effort of the 
 church to crush religious liberty was doomed to utter 
 defeat from the day that Luther's safety became assured, 
 and was acknowledged by the Treaty of Westphalia, 1648. 
 
 5. Calvin. 1509-1564. — A Frenchman by birth. 
 Led the Reformation in France (where it failed practi- 
 cally), and also (with Zwingle) in Switzerland (where it 
 succeeded). Calvin differed with Luther on some 
 doctrinal points and a meeting was arranged to adjust 
 differences. Failed : Luther refused the proffered hand 
 of friendship. The English church founded by Henry 
 VIII. became Calvinistic through religious exiles who 
 learned Calvin's doctrines in the Netherlands and carried 
 them back to England. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV.— THE FRENCH REVOLU- 
 TION. 1789. 
 
 1. France Before the Revolution. — We left 
 France at the end of the Hundred Years' War (1451) 
 with her territory at last pretty well consolidated. With 
 Louis XII. (1498) the House of Orleans came to the 
 throne. This dynasty won back Calais, the last English 
 possession in France. The Huguenot Wars (1 562-1 598), 
 caused by cruel persecution. Civil wars continually 
 through the reign of Henry III. House of Bourbon — 
 Henry IV. King of IS"avarre, a Protestant. Life in 
 danger till he became a Catholic. He issued Edict of 
 Nantes (1598) giving Huguenots equal political rights 
 
72 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 
 
 with Catholics. His great minister was Sully. Then 
 came Louis XIII., under whom the States General 
 called for last time (1614) before the Revolution. 
 Richelieu. Louis' sister became wife of Charles I, of 
 England and gave her name to Maryland. Mary 
 de'Medici. Louis XIV. (1643-1715). Five years old. 
 France reduced to absolute dependence on the king. 
 " L'etat, c'est moi." Mazarin. Colbert. Madame de 
 Maintenon. Edict of Nantes revoked 1688. Huguenots 
 flee to America. Louis XV. "The Well-beloved.^' 
 "After us the Deluge." Louis XVI. became king of a 
 starving people. The Revolution could be put off no 
 longer. 
 
 2. Outbreak of the Revolution. — Louis XVI. 
 had neither the courag-e to reform the State nor the 
 strength to rule it as it was. Maurepas, Turgot, Necker, 
 and Calonne successively called to the task of reform. 
 Failed. Assembly of Notables summoned (1787). Soon 
 dissolved without effecting anything. As a last resort 
 States General summoned for first time in 175 years, 
 May 5, 1789. Vote by orders or by individuals? Tiers 
 etat at last revolted, assumed title of National (Constituent) 
 Assembly, June 17, 1789. Hall locked. Met in tennis 
 court — President Bailly. " Oath of the Tennis Court " 
 not to separate till they had made a constitution. Clergy 
 and nobility join the commons. Rumors of dissolving 
 the Assembly, dismissal of Necker, and concentration of 
 troops around Paris, led to the Destruction of Bastile, 
 July 14th, 1789. The Revolution had begun in earnest. 
 
CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 73 
 
 3. Execution of Louis XVI., January 21, 1793. 
 — The National Assembly continued its work of con- 
 stitution-making in the midst of the worst disorders. 
 Paris practically in the hands of a mob all the time. 
 Hunger. March of the mob of women to Versailles. 
 Insurrections in the districts. (What were the Assig- 
 nats?) Constitution adopted on the anniversary of the 
 destruction of the Bastile, 1790. Jacobin and other 
 clubs organized. New constitution went into effect with 
 the meeting of the Legislative Assembly, October 1, 1791. 
 The Girondists. The Mountain. Prussia and Austria 
 unite against the Revolutionists. Defeated. Tuilleries 
 stormed. Massacre of the Swiss Guards. (Thorwald- 
 sen's Lion, Lake Lucerne, Switzerland.) Jacobins in 
 power. Jail deliv^ery. Danton Minister of Justice. 
 National Convention composed entirely of Republicans, 
 September 21, 1792. Monarchy abolished. Louis XVI. 
 tried before this assembly and condemned ; sentenced to 
 be beheaded. 
 
 4. Reign of Terror. — Reaction. Committee of 
 Public Safety (9 then 12), headed by Danton and Robe- 
 spierre. Reign of Terror ended with the fall of 
 Robespierre, July 27, 1794. Moderate Party in con- 
 trol. By the Constitution of 1795, Paris established the 
 Government of the Directory. (1) Executive directory of 
 five persons. (2) Legislative, Council of Elders (250), 
 and a Council of Five Hundred. 
 
74 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV.— NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 1. The Italian Campaign. — Napoleon was born 
 August 15, 1769, in Corsica. Family probably noble 
 but very poor. Was sent to military school of Brienne, 
 Paris. Led his comrades in mock battles and read 
 Plutarch's Lives. At the age of twenty-six the Directory 
 put him in command of the troops in Paris. Turned his 
 cannon on the mob and reduced the city to order. Direc- 
 tory sent three armies against Austria. Jourdan and 
 Moreau on the north. Napoleon in Italy. Defeated the 
 Austrians in a series of battles. Note Lodi : Siege of 
 Mantua, and Areola. Took the Pope prisoner. Peace 
 of Campo Formio, October 17, 1797. Austria lost the 
 Belgian provinces, Ionian Islands, Cisalpine Republic. 
 
 2. Napoleon, First Consul. 1799-1804. — Napo- 
 leon's Egyptian Campaign (1798-1799) followed his 
 brilliant achievements in Italy. Battle of the Pyramids: 
 ''Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you." Failure 
 of his attempt upon Akko. (Where ?) French fleet 
 destroyed by Nelson at Aboukir (where ?) 1798. Novem- 
 ber 9, 1799, the Council of Five Hundred overthrew the 
 Directory and made Bonaparte, who had just arrived 
 from Egypt without orders, First Consul for ten years. 
 New constitution ; Senate of Eighty elected for life ; 
 tribunate of One Hundred to discuss measures without 
 voting; legislative chamber of Three Hundred with 
 power only to accept or reject measures without debate. 
 Executive in hands of First Consul with a council of 
 State. Legislature had no initiative. 
 
CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 75 
 
 3. Peace of Luneville. — February 9th, 1801. 
 Napoleon offered peace ; refused by Austria, but Russia 
 was won over. Napoleon in Italy, Moreau in Germany. 
 Austria ground between the upper and nether mill stones. 
 Massena defeated. Genoa taken by siege, passage of the 
 Alps (Great St. Bernard Pass), Marengo (1800). Just 
 before Marengo, Moreau had defeated the Austrians at 
 Hohenlinden, and the next year, February 9, 1801, 
 Peace of Luneville (where ?) Austria thoroughly humili- 
 ated. Lost Tuscany, the left bank of the Rhine, and 
 acknowledged the Batavian, Helvetian, Cisalpine, and 
 Ligurian Republics. The next year the Peace of Amiens 
 (where ?), March 27, 1802, with England. Napoleon then 
 caused himself to be elected Consul for life. On the 18th 
 May, 1804, he was proclaimed Emperor as Napoleon I. 
 
 4. The Russian Campaign. — Soon England, Prussia, 
 Austria and Russia united against Napoleon. Battle of 
 Trafalgar (1805). Nelson : " England expects every 
 man to do his duty.^' Austerlitz. Truce with Austria. 
 Treaty of Presburg. Prussia humbled. Confederation 
 of the Rhine (1806). End of the Holy Roman Empire 
 by the abdication of Francis II., Emperor of Austria 
 since 1804. War again with Prussia and Russia. Jena 
 and Auerstadt (1806) ; Eylau and Friedland (1807). 
 Peace of Tilsit — meeting of Alexander, Napoleon and 
 Frederick William on a raft in the Niemen. Russia 
 forced to consent to the dismemberment of Prussia. 
 Duchy of Warsaw formed out of her eastern possessions, 
 while she was compelled to cede all her territory between 
 the Rhine and the Elbe. But peace could not be main- 
 
76 CHANGE FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN CONDITIONS. 
 
 taiiied, and after Napoleon's failure in Spain backed by 
 England — Wellington — and another defeat of Austria — 
 Wagram (1809), followed by the peace of Vienna — an 
 invasion of Russia was undertaken 1812. The march 
 on Moscow — Borodino ; Moscow burned (by the Rus- 
 sians ?). The retreat — Passage of the Berezina. 
 
 5. Battle of Waterloo. — After the terrible failure 
 of the campaign in Russia, Napoleon's enemies once 
 more united against him.— War of Liberation (1813). 
 A long series of battles culminating in the battle of 
 Leipzig. {" Battle of the Nations,") October 16, 18, 19, 
 1813. Napoleon totally defeated and his army nearly 
 destroyed on the retreat — premature destruction of the 
 bridge over the Elster. Allies cross the Rhine and enter 
 Paris after hard fighting, March 31, 1814. Napoleon 
 made a futile attempt to poison himself. Was sent to 
 Elba. Soon escaped. The Hundred Days. Defeated 
 at Waterloo, June 18, 1815, by Wellington and Blucher, 
 and died at St. Helena (where?) 1821. 
 
 6. Establishment of the German Empire, 
 January 18, 1871. — Prussia rapidly recovered after 
 Napoleon's fall — Confederation of the Rhine came to an 
 end 1813 (sec. 4). German Confederation with Austria 
 and Prussia as leaders 1815-1866. Six weeks' war 
 thrust Austria out. Prussia formed the North German 
 Confederation 1866. German unity finally achieved 
 through the Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871. King 
 of Prussia proclaimed at Versailles Emperor of the 
 Germans as William I., January 18, 1871. The King 
 of Prussia is always to be the Emperor. 
 
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