Chapter XX…

Chapter XX

THE OCCIDENT AGAINST THE ORIENT; THE CRUSADES, 1095-1291 A.D. [1]

169. CAUSES OF THE CRUSADES

PLACE OF THE CRUSADES IN HISTORY

The series of military expeditions, undertaken by the Christians of Europe for the purpose of recovering the Holy Land from the Moslems, have received the name of crusades. In their widest aspect the crusades may be regarded as a renewal of the age-long contest between East and West, in which the struggle of Greeks and Persians and of Romans and Carthaginians formed the earlier episodes. The contest assumed a new character when Europe had become Christian and Asia Mohammedan. It was not only two contrasting types of civilization but also two rival world religions which in the eighth century faced each other under the walls of Constantinople and on the battlefield of Tours. Now, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they were to meet again.

NUMBER OF THE CRUSADES

Seven or eight chief crusades are usually enumerated. To number them, however, obscures the fact that for nearly two hundred years Europe and Asia were engaged in almost constant warfare. Throughout this period there was a continuous movement of crusaders to and from the Moslem possessions in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.

PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND

The crusades were first and foremost a spiritual enterprise. They sprang from the pilgrimages which Christians had long been accustomed to make to the scenes of Christ's life on earth. Men considered it a wonderful privilege to see the cave in which He was born, to kiss the spot where He died, and to kneel in prayer at His tomb. The eleventh century saw an increased zeal for pilgrimages, and from this time travelers to the Holy Land were very numerous. For greater security they often joined themselves in companies and marched under arms. It needed little to transform such pilgrims into crusaders.

ABUSE OF PILGRIMS BY THE TURKS

The Arab conquest of the Holy Land had not interrupted the stream of pilgrims, for the early caliphs were more tolerant of unbelievers than Christian emperors of heretics. But after the coming of the Seljuk Turks into the East, pilgrimages became more difficult and dangerous. The Turks were a ruder people than the Arabs whom they displaced, and in their fanatic zeal for Islam were not inclined to treat the Christians with consideration. Many tales floated back to Europe of the outrages committed on the pilgrims and on the sacred shrines venerated by all Christendom. Such stories, which lost nothing in the telling, aroused a storm of indignation throughout Europe and awakened the desire to rescue the Holy Land from the grasp of the "infidel."

THE CRUSADES AND THE UPPER CLASSES

But the crusades were not simply an expression of the simple faith of the Middle Ages. Something more than religious enthusiasm sent an unending procession of crusaders along the highways of Europe and over the trackless wastes of Asia Minor to Jerusalem. The crusades, in fact, appealed strongly to the warlike instincts of the feudal nobles. They saw in an expedition against the East an unequaled opportunity for acquiring fame, riches, lands, and power. The Normans were especially stirred by the prospect of adventure and plunder which the crusading movement opened up. By the end of the eleventh century they had established themselves in southern Italy and Sicily, from which they now looked across the Mediterranean for further lands to conquer. [2] Norman knights formed a very large element in several of the crusaders' armies.

THE LOWER CLASSES AND THE CRUSADES

The crusades also attracted the lower classes. So great was the misery of the common people in medieval Europe that for them it seemed not a hardship, but rather a relief, to leave their homes in order to better themselves abroad. Famine and pestilence, poverty and oppression, drove them to emigrate hopefully to the golden East.

PRIVILEGES OF CRUSADERS

The Church, in order to foster the crusades, promised both religious and secular benefits to those who took part in them. A warrior of the Cross was to enjoy forgiveness of all his past sins. If he died fighting for the faith, he was assured of an immediate entrance to the joys of Paradise. The Church also freed him from paying interest on his debts and threatened with excommunication anyone who molested his wife, his children, or his property.

170. FIRST CRUSADE, 1095-1099 A.D.

OCCASION OF THE FIRST CRUSADE

The signal for the First Crusade was given by the conquests of the Seljuk Turks. [3] These barbarians, at first the mercenaries and then the masters of the Abbasid caliphs, infused fresh energy into Islam. They began a new era of Mohammedan expansion by winning almost the whole of Asia Minor from the Roman Empire in the East. One of their leaders established himself at Nicaea, the scene of the first Church Council, [4] and founded the sultanate of Rum (Rome).

APPEAL OF EMPEROR TO POPE

The presence of the Turks so close to Constantinople was a standing menace to all Europe. The able emperor, Alexius I, on succeeding to the throne toward the close of the eleventh century, took steps to expel the invaders. He could not draw on the hardy tribes of Asia Minor for the soldiers he needed, but with reinforcements from the West he hoped to recover the lost provinces of the empire. Accordingly, in 1095 A.D., Alexius sent an embassy to Pope Urban II, the successor of Gregory VII, requesting aid. The fact that the emperor appealed to the pope, rather than to any king, shows what a high place the Papacy then held in the affairs of Europe.

COUNCIL OF CLERMONT, 1095 A.D.

To the appeal of Alexius, Urban lent a willing ear. He summoned a great council of clergy and nobles to meet at Clermont in France. Here, in an address which, measured by its results, was the most momentous recorded in history, Pope Urban preached the First Crusade. He said little about the dangers which threatened the Roman Empire in the East from the Turks, but dwelt chiefly on the wretched condition of the Holy Land, with its churches polluted by unbelievers and its Christian inhabitants tortured and enslaved. Then, turning to the proud knights who stood by, Urban called upon them to abandon their wicked practice of private warfare and take up arms, instead, against the infidel. "Christ Himself," he cried, "will be your leader, when, like the Israelites of old, you fight for Jerusalem.... Start upon the way to the Holy Sepulcher; wrench the land from the accursed race, and subdue it yourselves. Thus shall you spoil your foes of their wealth and return home victorious, or, purpled with your own blood, receive an everlasting reward."

"GOD WILLS IT!"

Urban's trumpet call to action met an instant response. From the assembled host there went up, as it were, a single shout: "God wills it! God wills it!" "It is, in truth, His will," answered Urban, "and let these words be your war cry when you unsheath your swords against the enemy." Then man after man pressed forward to receive the badge of a crusader, a cross of red cloth. [5] It was to be worn on the breast, when the crusader went forth, and on the back, when he returned.

PRELUDE TO THE FIRST CRUSADE

The months which followed the Council of Clermont were marked by an epidemic of religious excitement in western Europe. Popular preachers everywhere took up the cry "God wills it!" and urged their hearers to start for Jerusalem. A monk named Peter the Hermit aroused large parts of France with his passionate eloquence, as he rode from town to town, carrying a huge cross before him and preaching to vast crowds. Without waiting for the main body of nobles, which was to assemble at Constantinople in the summer of 1096 A.D., a horde of poor men, women, and children set out, unorganized and almost unarmed, on the road to the Holy Land. One of these crusading bands, led by Peter the Hermit, managed to reach Constantinople, after suffering terrible hardships. The emperor Alexius sent his ragged allies as quickly as possible to Asia Minor, where most of them were slaughtered by the Turks.

THE MAIN CRUSADE

Meanwhile real armies were gathering in the West. Recruits came in greater numbers from France than from any other country, a circumstance which resulted in the crusaders being generally called "Franks" by their Moslem foes. They had no single commander, but each contingent set out for Constantinople by its own route and at its own time. [6]

LEADERS OF THE CRUSADE

The crusaders included among their leaders some of the most distinguished representatives of European knighthood. Count Raymond of Toulouse headed a band of volunteers from Provence in southern France. Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin commanded a force of French and Germans from the Rhinelands. Normandy sent Robert, William the Conqueror's eldest son. The Normans from Italy and Sicily were led by Bohemond, a son of Robert Guiscard, [7] and his nephew Tancred.

THE CRUSADERS IN ASIA MINOR AND SYRIA

Though the crusaders probably did not number more than fifty thousand fighting men, the disunion which prevailed among the Turks favored the success of their enterprise. With some assistance from the eastern emperor they captured Nicaea, overran Asia Minor, and at length reached Antioch, the key to northern Syria. The city fell after a siege of seven months, but the crusaders were scarcely within the walls before they found themselves besieged by a large Turkish army. The crusaders were now in a desperate plight: famine wasted their ranks; many soldiers deserted; and Alexius disappointed all hope of rescue. But the news of the discovery in an Antioch church of the Holy Lance which had pierced the Savior's side restored their drooping spirits. The whole army issued forth from the city, bearing the relic as a standard, and drove the Turks in headlong flight. This victory opened the road to Jerusalem.

CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM, 1099 A.D.

Reduced now to perhaps one-fourth of their original numbers, the crusaders advanced slowly to the city which formed the goal of all their efforts. Before attacking it they marched barefoot in religious procession around the walls, with Peter the Hermit at their head. Then came the grand assault. Godfrey of Bouillon and Tancred were among the first to mount the ramparts. Once inside the city, the crusaders massacred their enemies without mercy. Afterwards, we are told, they went "rejoicing, nay for excess of joy weeping, to the tomb of our Savior to adore and give thanks."

171. CRUSADERS' STATES IN SYRIA

LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM

After the capture of Jerusalem the crusaders met to elect a king. Their choice fell upon Godfrey of Bouillon. He refused to wear a crown of gold in the city where Christ had worn a crown of thorns and accepted, instead, the modest title of "Protector of the Holy Sepulcher." [8] Godfrey died the next year and his brother Baldwin, who succeeded him, being less scrupulous, was crowned king at Bethlehem. The new kingdom contained nearly a score of fiefs, whose lords made war, administered justice, and coined money, like independent rulers. The main features of European feudalism were thus transplanted to Asiatic soil.

OTHER CRUSADERS' STATES

The winning of Jerusalem and the district about it formed hardly more than a preliminary stage in the conquest of Syria. Much fighting was still necessary before the crusaders could establish themselves firmly in the country. Instead of founding one strong power in Syria, they split up their possessions into the three principalities of Tripoli, Antioch, and Edessa. These small states owed allegiance to the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.

MILITARY-RELIGIOUS ORDERS

The ability of the crusaders' states to maintain themselves for many years in Syria was largely due to the foundation of two military-religious orders. The members were both monks and knights; that is, to the monastic vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience they added a fourth vow, which bound them to protect pilgrims and fight the infidels. Such a combination of religion and warfare made a strong appeal to the medieval mind.

HOSPITALERS AND TEMPLARS

The Hospitalers, the first of these orders, grew out of a brotherhood for the care of sick pilgrims in a hospital at Jerusalem. Many knights joined the organization, which soon proved to be very useful in defending the Holy Land. Even more important were the Templars, so called because their headquarters in Jerusalem lay near the site of Solomon's Temple. Both orders built many castles in Syria, the remains of which still impress the beholder. They established numerous branches in Europe and, by presents and legacies, acquired vast wealth. The Templars were disbanded in the fourteenth century, but the Hospitalers continued to fight valiantly against the Turks long after the close of the crusading movement. [9]

CHRISTIAN AND INFIDEL IN THE HOLY LAND

The depleted ranks of the crusaders were constantly filled by fresh bands of pilgrim knights who visited Palestine to pray at the Holy Sepulcher and cross swords with the infidel. In spite of constant border warfare much trade and friendly intercourse prevailed between Christians and Moslems. They learned to respect one another both as foes and neighbors. The crusaders' states in Syria became, like Spain [10] and Sicily, [11] a meeting-place of East and West.

172. SECOND CRUSADE, 1147-1149 A.D., AND THIRD CRUSADE, 1189-1192 A.D.

ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CRUSADE

The success of the Christians in the First Crusade had been largely due to the disunion among their enemies. But the Moslems learned in time the value of united action, and in 1144 A.D. succeeded in capturing Edessa, one of the principal Christian outposts in the East. The fall of the city, followed by the loss of the entire county of Edessa, aroused western Europe to the danger which threatened the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and led to another crusading enterprise.

PREACHING OF ST. BERNARD

The apostle of the Second Crusade was the great abbot of Clairvaux, St. Bernard. [12] Scenes of the wildest enthusiasm marked his preaching. When the churches were not large enough to hold the crowds which flocked to hear him, he spoke from platforms erected in the fields. St. Bernard's eloquence induced two monarchs, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, to take the blood-red cross of a crusader.

FAILURE OF THE SECOND CRUSADE

The Second Crusade, though begun under the most favorable auspices, had an unhappy ending. Of the great host that set out from Europe, only a few thousands escaped annihilation in Asia Minor at the hands of the Turks. Louis and Conrad, with the remnants of their armies, made a joint attack on Damascus, but had to raise the siege after a few days. This closed the crusade. As a chronicler of the expedition remarked, "having practically accomplished nothing, the inglorious ones returned home."

SALADIN

Not many years after the Second Crusade, the Moslem world found in the famous Saladin a leader for a holy war against the Christians. Saladin in character was a typical Mohammedan, very devout in prayers and fasting, fiercely hostile toward unbelievers, and full of the pride of race. To these qualities he added a kindliness and humanity not surpassed, if equaled, by any of his Christian foes. He lives in eastern history and legend as the hero who stemmed once for all the tide of European conquest in Asia.

CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM BY SALADIN, 1187 A.D.

Having made himself sultan of Egypt, Saladin united the Moslems of Syria under his sway and then advanced against the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Christians met him in a great battle near the lake of Galilee. It ended in the rout of their army and the capture of their king. Even the Holy Cross, which they had carried in the midst of the fight, became the spoil of the conqueror. Saladin quickly reaped the fruits of victory. The Christian cities of Syria opened their gates to him, and at last Jerusalem itself surrendered after a short siege. Little now remained of the possessions which the crusaders had won in the East.

THIRD CRUSADE ORGANIZED, 1189 A.D.

The news of the taking of Jerusalem spread consternation throughout western Christendom. The cry for another crusade arose on all sides. Once more thousands of men sewed the cross in gold, or silk, or cloth upon their garments and set out for the Holy Land. When the three greatest rulers of Europe--Philip Augustus, [13] king of France, Richard I, king of England, and the German emperor, Frederick Barbarossa [14]--assumed the cross, it seemed that nothing could prevent the restoration of Christian supremacy in Syria.

DEATH OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA, 1190 A.D.

The Germans under Frederick Barbarossa were the first to start. This great emperor was now nearly seventy years old, yet age had not lessened his crusading zeal. He took the overland route and after much hard fighting reached southern Asia Minor. Here, however, he was drowned, while trying to cross a swollen stream. Many of his discouraged followers at once returned to Germany; a few of them, however, pressed on and joined the other crusaders before the walls of Acre.

ACRE CAPTURED BY PHILIP AND RICHARD, 1191 A.D.

The expedition of the French and English achieved little. Philip and Richard, who came by sea, captured Acre after a hard siege, but their quarrels prevented them from following up this initial success. Philip soon went home, leaving the further conduct of the crusade in Richard's hands.

RICHARD IN THE HOLY LAND, 1191-1192 A.D.

The English king remained for fourteen months longer in the Holy Land. His campaigns during this time gained for him the title of "Lion-hearted," [15] by which he is always known. He had many adventures and performed knightly exploits without number, but could not capture Jerusalem. Tradition declares that when, during a truce, some crusaders went up to Jerusalem, Richard refused to accompany them, saying that he would not enter as a pilgrim the city which he could not rescue as a conqueror. He and Saladin finally concluded a treaty by the terms of which Christians were permitted to visit Jerusalem without paying tribute. Richard then set sail for England, and with his departure from the Holy Land the Third Crusade came to an end.

173. FOURTH CRUSADE AND THE LATIN EMPIRE OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 1202-1261 A.D.

INNOCENT III AND THE FOURTH CRUSADE

The real author of the Fourth Crusade was the famous pope, Innocent III. [16] Young, enthusiastic, and ambitious for the glory of the Papacy, he revived the plans of Urban II and sought once more to unite the forces of Christendom against Islam. No emperor or king answered his summons, but a number of knights (chiefly French) took the crusader's vow.

THE CRUSADERS AND THE VENETIANS

The leaders of the crusade decided to make Egypt their objective point, since this country was then the center of the Moslem power. Accordingly, the crusaders proceeded to Venice, for the purpose of securing transportation across the Mediterranean. The Venetians agreed to furnish the necessary ships only on condition that the crusaders first seized Zara on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Zara was a Christian city, but it was also a naval and commercial rival of Venice. In spite of the pope's protests the crusaders besieged and captured the city. Even then they did not proceed against the Moslems. The Venetians persuaded them to turn their arms against Constantinople. The possession of that great capital would greatly increase Venetian trade and influence in the East; for the crusading nobles it held out endless opportunities of acquiring wealth and power. Thus it happened that these soldiers of the Cross, pledged to war with the Moslems, attacked a Christian city, which for centuries had formed the chief bulwark of Europe against the Arab and the Turk.

SACK OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 1204 A.D.

The crusaders--now better styled the invaders--took Constantinople by storm. No "infidels" could have treated in worse fashion this home of ancient civilization. They burned down a great part of it; they slaughtered the inhabitants; they wantonly destroyed monuments, statues, paintings, and manuscripts--the accumulation of a thousand years. Much of the movable wealth they carried away. Never, declared an eye-witness of the scene, had there been such plunder since the world began.

THE LATIN EMPIRE OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 1204-1261 A.D.

The victors hastened to divide between them the lands of the Roman Empire in the East. Venice gained some districts in Greece, together with nearly all the Aegean islands. The chief crusaders formed part of the remaining territory into the Latin Empire of Constantinople. It was organized in fiefs, after the feudal manner. There was a prince of Achaia, a duke of Athens, a marquis of Corinth, and a count of Thebes. Large districts, both in Europe and Asia, did not acknowledge, however, these "Latin" rulers. The new empire lived less than sixty years. At the end of this time the Greeks returned to power.

DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES OF THE FOURTH CRUSADE

Constantinople, after the Fourth Crusade, declined in strength and could no longer cope with the barbarians menacing it. Two centuries later the city fell an easy victim to the Turks. [17] The responsibility for the disaster which gave the Turks a foothold in Europe rests on the heads of the Venetians and the French nobles. Their greed and lust for power turned the Fourth Crusade into a political adventure.

THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE, 1213 A.D.

The so-called Children's Crusade illustrates at once the religious enthusiasm and misdirected zeal which marked the whole crusading movement. During the year 1212 A.D. thousands of French children assembled in bands and marched through the towns and villages, carrying banners, candles, and crosses and singing, "Lord God, exalt Christianity. Lord God, restore to us the true cross." The children could not be restrained at first, but finally hunger compelled them to return home. In Germany, during the same year, a lad named Nicholas really did succeed in launching a crusade. He led a mixed multitude of men and women, boys and girls over the Alps into Italy, where they expected to take ship for Palestine. But many perished of hardships, many were sold into slavery, and only a few ever saw their homes again. "These children," Pope Innocent III declared, "put us to shame; while we sleep they rush to recover the Holy Land."

END OF THE CRUSADES

The crusading movement came to an end by the close of the thirteenth century. The emperor Frederick II [18] for a short time recovered Jerusalem by a treaty, but in 1244 A.D. the Holy City became again a possession of the Moslems. They have never since relinquished it. Acre, the last Christian post in Syria, fell in 1291 A.D., and with this event the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem ceased to exist. The Hospitalers, or Knights of St. John, still kept possession of the important islands of Cyprus and Rhodes, which long served as a barrier to Moslem expansion over the Mediterranean.

174. RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES

FAILURE OF THE CRUSADES

The crusades, judged by what they set out to accomplish, must be accounted an inglorious failure. After two hundred years of conflict, after a vast expenditure of wealth and human lives, the Holy Land remained in Moslem hands. It is true that the First Crusade did help, by the conquest of Syria, to check the advance of the Turks toward Constantinople. But even this benefit was more than undone by the weakening of the Roman Empire in the East as a result of the Fourth Crusade.

WHY THE CRUSADES FAILED

Of the many reasons for the failure of the crusades, three require special consideration. In the first place, there was the inability of eastern and western Europe to cooperate in supporting the holy wars. A united Christendom might well have been invincible. But the bitter antagonism between the Greek and Roman churches [19] effectually prevented all unity of action. The emperors at Constantinople, after the First Crusade, rarely assisted the crusaders and often secretly hindered them. In the second place, the lack of sea-power, as seen in the earlier crusades, worked against their success. Instead of being able to go by water directly to Syria, it was necessary to follow the long, overland route from France or Germany through Hungary, Bulgaria, the territory of the Roman Empire in the East, and the deserts and mountains of Asia Minor. The armies that reached their destination after this toilsome march were in no condition for effective campaigning. In the third place, the crusaders were never numerous enough to colonize so large a country as Syria and absorb its Moslem population. They conquered part of Syria in the First Crusade, but could not hold it permanently in the face of determined resistance.

WHY THE CRUSADES CEASED

In spite of these and other reasons the Christians of Europe might have continued much longer their efforts to recover the Holy Land, had they not lost faith in the movement. But after two centuries the old crusading enthusiasm died out, the old ideal of the crusade as "the way of God" lost its spell. Men had begun to think less of winning future salvation by visits to distant shrines and to think more of their present duties to the world about them. They came to believe that Jerusalem could best be won as Christ and the Apostles had won it--"by love, by prayers, and by the shedding of tears."

INFLUENCE OF THE CRUSADES ON FEUDALISM

The crusades could not fail to affect in many ways the life of western Europe. For instance, they helped to undermine feudalism. Thousands of barons and knights mortgaged or sold their lands in order to raise money for a crusading expedition. Thousands more perished in Syria and their estates, through failure of heirs, reverted to the crown. Moreover, private warfare, that curse of the Middle Ages, [20] also tended to die out with the departure for the Holy Land of so many turbulent feudal lords. Their decline in both numbers and influence, and the corresponding growth of the royal authority, may best be traced in the changes that came about in France, the original home of the crusading movement.

THE CRUSADES AND COMMERCE

One of the most important effects of the crusades was on commerce. They created a constant demand for the transportation of men and supplies, encouraged ship-building, and extended the market for eastern wares in Europe. The products of Damascus, Mosul, Alexandria, Cairo, and other great cities were carried across the Mediterranean to the Italian seaports, whence they found their way into all European lands. The elegance of the Orient, with its silks, tapestries, precious stones, perfumes, spices, pearls, and ivory, was so enchanting that an enthusiastic crusader called it "the vestibule of Paradise."

THE CRUSADES AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE

Finally, it must be noted how much the crusades contributed to intellectual and social progress. They brought the inhabitants of western Europe into close relations with one another, with their fellow Christians of the Roman Empire in the East, and with the natives of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. The intercourse between Christians and Moslems was particularly stimulating, because the East at this time surpassed the West in civilization. The crusaders enjoyed the advantages which come from travel in strange lands and among unfamiliar peoples. They went out from their castles or villages to see great cities, marble palaces, superb dresses, and elegant manners; they returned with finer tastes, broader ideas, and wider sympathies. Like the conquests of Alexander the Great, the crusades opened up a new world.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CRUSADES

When all is said, the crusades remain one of the most remarkable movements in history. They exhibited the nations of western Europe for the first time making a united effort for a common end. The crusaders were not hired soldiers, but volunteers, who, while the religious fervor lasted, gladly abandoned their homes and faced hardship and death in pursuit of a spiritual ideal. They failed to accomplish their purpose, yet humanity is the richer for the memory of their heroism and chivalry.

STUDIES

1. On an outline map indicate Europe and the Mediterranean lands by religions, about 1095 A.D.

2. On an outline map indicate the routes of the First and the Third Crusades.

3. Locate on the map the following places: Clermont; Acre; Antioch; Zara; Edessa; and Damascus.

4. Identify the following dates: 1204 A.D.; 1095 A.D.; 1096 A.D.; 1291 A.D.

5. Write a short essay describing the imaginary experiences of a crusader to the Holy Land.

6. Mention some instances which illustrate the religious enthusiasm of the crusaders.

7. Compare the Mohammedan pilgrimage to Mecca with the pilgrimages of Christians to Jerusalem in the Middle Ages.

8. Compare the Christian crusade with the Mohammedan jihad, or holy war.

9. How did the expression, a "red-cross knight," arise?

10. Why is the Second Crusade often called "St. Bernard's Crusade"?

11. Why has the Third Crusade been called "the most interesting international expedition of the Middle Ages"?

12. Would the crusaders in 1204 A.D. have attacked Constantinople, if the schism of 1054 A.D. had not occurred?

13. "Mixture, or at least contact of races, is essential to progress." How do the crusades illustrate the truth of this statement?

14. Were the crusades the only means by which western Europe was brought in contact with Moslem civilization?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xii, "Richard the Lion-hearted and the Third Crusade"; chapter xiii, "The Fourth Crusade and the Capture of Constantinople."Return to passage

[2] See page 412.Return to passage

[3] See pages 333, 380.Return to passage

[4] See page 235.Return to passage

[5] Hence the name "crusades," from Latin crux, old French crois, a "cross".Return to passage

[6] For the routes followed by the crusaders see the map between pages 478-479.Return to passage

[7] See page 412.Return to passage

[8] The emperor Constantine caused a stately church to be erected on the supposed site of Christ's tomb. This church of the Holy Sepulcher was practically destroyed by the Moslems, early in the eleventh century. The crusaders restored and enlarged the structure, which still stands.Return to passage

[9] The order of Hospitalers, now known as the "Knights of Malta," still survives in several European countries.Return to passage

[10] See page 383.Return to passage

[11] See page 413.Return to passage

[12] See pages 449-450.Return to passage

[13] See page 513.Return to passage

[14] See page 460.Return to passage

[15] In French Coeur-de-Lion.Return to passage

[16] See page 461.Return to passage

[17] See page 492.Return to passage

[18] See page 462.Return to passage

[19] See pages 362-363.Return to passage

[20] See page 423.Return to passage

XXI. THE MONGOLS AND THE OTTOMAN TURKS TO 1463 A.D

175. THE MONGOLS

THE ASIATIC COUNTER-ATTACK

The extensive steppes in the middle and north of Asia have formed, for thousands of years, the abode of nomadic peoples belonging to the Yellow race. In prehistoric times they spread over northern Europe, but they were gradually supplanted by white-skinned Indo-Europeans, until now only remnants of them exist, such as the Finns and Lapps. In later ages history records how the Huns, the Bulgarians, and the Magyars have poured into Europe, spreading terror and destruction in their path. [1] These invaders were followed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the even more terrible Mongols and Ottoman Turks. Their inroads might well be described as Asia's reply to the crusades, as an Asiatic counter-attack upon Europe.

MONGOLIA

The Mongols, who have given their name to the entire race of yellow- skinned peoples, now chiefly occupy the high plateau bounded on the north by Siberia, on the south by China, on the east by Manchuria, and on the west by Turkestan. [2] Although the greater part of this area consists of the Gobi desert, there are many oases and pastures available at different seasons of the year to the inhabitants. Hence the principal occupation of the Mongols has always been cattle breeding, and their horses, oxen, sheep, and camels have always furnished them with food and clothing.

MONGOL LIFE AND CHARACTER

Like most nomads the Mongols dwell in tents, each family often by itself. Severe simplicity is the rule of life, for property consists of little more than one's flocks and herds, clothes, and weapons. The modern Mongols are a peaceable, kindly folk, who have adopted from Tibet a debased form of Buddhism, but the Mongols of the thirteenth century in religion and morals were scarcely above the level of American Indians. To ruthless cruelty and passion for plunder they added an efficiency in warfare which enabled them, within fifty years, to overrun much of Asia and the eastern part of Europe.

MILITARY PROWESS OF THE MONGOLS

The daily life of the Mongols was a training school for war. Constant practice in riding, scouting, and the use of arms made every man a soldier. The words with which an ancient Greek historian described the savage Scythians applied perfectly to the Mongols: "Having neither cities nor forts, and carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go; accustomed, moreover, one and all, to shoot from horseback; and living not by husbandry but on their cattle, their wagons the only houses that they possess, how can they fail of being irresistible?" [3]

176. CONQUESTS OF THE MONGOLS, 1206-1405 A.D.

JENGHIZ KHAN

For ages the Mongols had dwelt in scattered tribes throughout their Asiatic wilderness, engaged in petty struggles with one another for cattle and pasture lands. It was the celebrated Jenghiz Khan, [4] chief of one of the tribes, who brought them all under his authority and then led them to the conquest of the world. Of him it may be said with truth that he had the most victorious of military careers, and that he constructed the most extensive empire known to history. If Jenghiz had possessed the ability of a statesman, he would have taken a place by the side of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.

MONGOL EMPIRE UNDER JENGHIZ, 1206-1227 A.D.

Jenghiz first sent the Mongol armies, which contained many Turkish allies, over the Great Wall [5] and into the fertile plains of China. All the northern half of the country was quickly overrun. Then Jenghiz turned westward and invaded Turkestan and Persia. Seven centuries have not sufficed to repair the damage which the Mongols wrought in this once- prosperous land. The great cities of Bokhara, Samarkand, Merv, and Herat, [6] long centers of Moslem culture, were pillaged and burned, and their inhabitants were put to the sword. Like the Huns the Mongols seemed a scourge sent by God. Still further conquests enlarged the empire, which at the death of Jenghiz in 1227 A.D. stretched from the Dnieper River to the China Sea.

MONGOL EMPIRE UNDER THE SUCCESSORS OF JENGHIZ

The Mongol dominions in the thirteenth century were increased by the addition of Korea, southern China, and Mesopotamia, as well as the greater part of Asia Minor and Russia. Japan, indeed, repulsed the Mongol hordes, but at the other extremity of Asia they captured Bagdad, sacked the city, and brought the caliphate to an end. [7] The Mongol realm was very loosely organized, however, and during the fourteenth century it fell apart into a number of independent states, or khanates.

TIMUR THE LAME, DIED 1405 A.D.

It was reserved for another renowned Oriental monarch, Timur the Lame, [8] to restore the empire of Jenghiz Khan. His biographers traced his descent from that famous Mongol, but Timur was a Turk and an adherent of Islam. He has come down to us as perhaps the most terrible personification in history of the evil spirit of conquest. Such distant regions as India, Syria, Armenia, Asia Minor, and Russia were traversed by Timur's soldiers, who left behind them only the smoking ruins of a thousand cities and abominable trophies in the shape of columns or pyramids of human heads. Timur died in his seventieth year, while leading his troops against China, and the extensive empire which he had built up in Asia soon crumbled to pieces.

177. THE MONGOLS IN CHINA AND INDIA

MONGOL SWAY IN CHINA

The Mongols ruled over China for about one hundred and fifty years. During this period they became thoroughly imbued with Chinese culture. "China," said an old writer, "is a sea that salts all the rivers flowing into it." The most eminent of the Mongol emperors was Jenghiz Khan's grandson, Kublai (1259-1294 A.D.). He built a new capital, which in medieval times was known as Cambaluc and is now called Peking. While Kublai was on the throne, the Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, [9] visited China, and he describes in glowing colors the virtues and glories of the "Great Khan." There appears to have been considerable trade between Europe and China at this time, and Franciscan missionaries and papal legates penetrated to the remote East. After the downfall of the Mongol dynasty in 1368 A.D. China again shut her doors to foreign peoples. All intercourse with Europe ceased until the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. [10]

TIMUR AND BABER IN INDIA

Northern India, which in earlier ages had witnessed the coming of Persian, Macedonian, and Arabian conquerors, did not escape visitations by fresh Asiatic hordes. Timur the Lame, at the head of an innumerable host, rushed down upon the banks of the Indus and the Ganges and sacked Delhi, making there a full display of his unrivaled ferocity. Timur's invasion left no permanent impress on the history of India, but its memory fired the imagination of another Turkish chieftain, Baber, a remote descendant of Timur. In 1525 A.D. he invaded India and speedily made himself master of the northern part of the country.

EMPIRE OF THE MOGULS

The empire which Baber established in India is known as that of the Moguls, an Arabic form of the word Mongol. The Moguls, however, were Turkish in blood and Mohammedans in religion. The Mogul emperors reigned in great splendor from their capitals at Delhi and Agra, until the decline of their power in the eighteenth century opened the way for the British conquest of India.

178. THE MONGOLS IN EASTERN EUROPE

MONGOL CONQUEST OF RUSSIA, 1237-1240 A.D.

The location of Russia [11] on the border of Asia exposed that country to the full force of the Mongol attack. Jenghiz Khan's successors, entering Europe north of the Caspian, swept resistlessly over the Russian plain. Moscow and Kiev fell in quick succession, and before long the greater part of Russia was in the hands of the Mongols. Wholesale massacres marked their progress. "No eye remained open to weep for the dead."

INVASION OF POLAND AND HUNGARY BY THE MONGOLS, 1241 A.D.

Still the invaders pressed on. They devastated Hungary, driving the Magyar king in panic flight from his realm. They overran Poland. At a great battle in Silesia they destroyed the knighthood of Germany and filled nine sacks with the right ears of slaughtered enemies. The European peoples, taken completely by surprise, could offer no effective resistance to these Asiatics, who combined superiority in numbers with surpassing generalship. Since the Arab attack in the eighth century Christendom had never been in graver peril. But the wave of Mongol invasion, which threatened to engulf Europe in barbarism, receded as quickly as it came. The Mongols soon abandoned Poland and Hungary and retired to their possessions in Russia.

THE "GOLDEN HORDE"

The ruler of the "Golden Horde," as the western section of the Mongol Empire was called, continued to be the lord of Russia for about two hundred and fifty years. Russia, throughout this period, was little more than a dependency of Asia. The conquered people were obliged to pay a heavy tribute and to furnish soldiers for the Mongol armies. Their princes, also, became vassals of the Great Khan.

MONGOL INFLUENCE ON RUSSIA

The Mongols, or "Tartars" [12] are usually said to have Orientalized Russia. It seems clear, however, that they did not interfere with the language, religion, and laws of their subjects. The chief result of the Mongol supremacy was to cut off Russia from western Europe, just at the time when England, France, Germany, and Italy were emerging from the darkness of the early Middle Ages.

RISE OF MUSCOVY

The invasion of the Mongols proved to be, indirectly, the making of the Russian state. Before they came the country was a patchwork of rival, and often warring, principalities. The need of union against the common enemy welded them together. The principality of Muscovy, so named from the capital city of Moscow, conquered its neighbors, annexed the important city of Novgorod, whose vast possessions stretched from Lapland to the Urals, and finally became powerful enough to shake off the Mongol yoke.

REIGN OF IVAN III, THE GREAT, 1462-1505 A.D.

The final deliverance of Russia from the Mongols was accomplished by Ivan III, surnamed the Great. This ruler is also regarded as the founder of Russian autocracy, that is, of a personal, absolute, and arbitrary government. With a view to strengthening his claim to be the political heir of the eastern emperors, Ivan married a niece of the last ruler at Constantinople, who in 1453 A.D. had fallen in the defense of his capital against the Ottoman Turks. Henceforth the Russian ruler described himself as "the new Tsar [13] Constantine in the new city of Constantine, Moscow."

179. THE OTTOMAN TURKS AND THEIR CONQUESTS, 1227-1453 A.D.

RISE OF THE OTTOMANS

The first appearance of the Ottoman Turks in history dates from 1227 A.D., the year of Jenghiz Khan's death. In that year a small Turkish horde, driven westward from their central Asian homes by the Mongol advance, settled in Asia Minor. There they enjoyed the protection of their kinsmen, the Seljuk Turks, and from them accepted Islam. As the Seljuk power declined, that of the Ottomans rose in its stead. About 1300 A.D. their chieftain, Othman, [14] declared his independence and became the founder of the Ottoman Empire.

OTTOMAN EXPANSION

The growth of the Ottoman power was almost as rapid as that of the Arabs or of the Mongols. During the first half of the fourteenth century they firmly established themselves in northwestern Asia Minor, along the beautiful shores washed by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. The second half of the same century found them in Europe, wresting province after province from the feeble hands of the eastern emperors. First came the seizure of Gallipoli on the Dardanelles, which long remained the principal Turkish naval station. Then followed the capture of Adrianople, where in earlier centuries the Visigoths had destroyed a Roman army. [15] By 1400 A.D. all that remained of the Roman Empire in the East was Constantinople and a small district in the vicinity of that city.

THE JANIZARIES

The Turks owed much of their success to the famous body of troops known as Janizaries. [16] These were recruited for the most part from Christian children surrendered by their parents as tribute. The Janizaries received an education in the Moslem faith and careful instruction in the use of arms. Their discipline and fanatic zeal made them irresistible on the field of battle.

CONSTANTINOPLE BESIEGED

Constantinople had never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by the freebooters of the Fourth Crusade. [17] It was isolated from western Europe by the advance of the Turks. Frantic appeals for help brought only a few ships and men from Genoa and Venice. When in 1453 A.D. the sultan Mohammed II, commanding a large army amply supplied with artillery, appeared before the walls, all men knew that Constantinople was doomed.

CAPTURE OF THE CITY

The defense of the city forms one of the most stirring episodes in history. The Christians, not more than eight thousand in number, were a mere handful compared to the Ottoman hordes. Yet they held out for nearly two months against every assault. When at length the end drew near, the Roman emperor, Constantine Palaeologus, a hero worthy of the name he bore, went with his followers at midnight to Sancta Sophia and there in that solemn fane received a last communion. Before sunrise on the following day the Turks were within the walls. The emperor, refusing to survive the city which he could not save, fell in the onrush of the Janizaries. Constantinople endured a sack of three days, during which many works of art, previously spared by the crusaders, were destroyed. Mohammed II then made a triumphal entry into the city and in Sancta Sophia, now stripped of its crosses, images, and other Christian emblems, proclaimed the faith of the prophet. And so the "Turkish night," as Slavic poets named it, descended on this ancient home of civilization.

AN EPOCH-MAKING EVENT

The capture of Constantinople is rightly regarded as an epoch-making event. It meant the end, once for all, of the empire which had served so long as the rearguard of Christian civilization, as the bulwark of the West against the East. Europe stood aghast at a calamity which she had done so little to prevent. The Christian powers of the West have been paying dearly, even to our own time, for their failure to save New Rome from infidel hands.

180. THE OTTOMAN TURKS IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

CONTINUED OTTOMAN EXPANSION

Turkey was now a European state. After the occupation of Constantinople the Ottoman territories continued to expand, and at the death of Mohammed II they included what are now Bulgaria, Rumania, Serbia, Albania, and Greece. Of all the Balkan states only tiny Montenegro, protected by mountain ramparts, preserved its independence.

NATURE OF TURKISH RULE

The Turks form a small minority among the inhabitants of the Balkans. At the present time there are said to be less than one million Turks in southeastern Europe. Even about Constantinople the Greeks far outnumber them. The Turks from the outset have been, not a nation in the proper sense of the word, but rather an army of occupation, holding down by force their far more numerous Christian subjects.

THE TURKS A MIXED PEOPLE

The people who thus acquired dominion over all southeastern Europe had become, even at the middle of the fifteenth century, greatly mixed in blood. Their ancestors were natives of central Asia, but in Europe they intermarried freely with their Christian captives and with converts from Christianity to Islam. So far has this admixture proceeded that the modern Turks are almost entirely European in physique.

ISOLATION OF THE TURKS

The Bulgarians, who came out of Asia to devastate Europe, at length turned Christian, adopted a Slavic speech, and entered the family of European nations. The Magyars, who followed them, also made their way into the fellowship of Christendom. Quite the opposite has been the case with the Turks. Preserving their Asiatic language and Moslem faith, they have remained in southeastern Europe, not a transitory scourge, but an abiding oppressor of Christian lands. Every century since 1453 A.D. has widened the gulf between them and their subjects.

TURKISH INFLUENCE IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

The isolation of the Turks has prevented them from assimilating the higher culture of the peoples whom they conquered. They have never created anything in science, art, literature, commerce, or industry. Conquest has been the Turks' one business in the world, and when they ceased conquering their decline set in. But it was not till the end of the seventeenth century that the Turkish Empire entered on that downward road which is now fast leading to its extinction as a European power.

STUDIES

1. Locate these cities: Bokhara; Samarkand; Merv; Herat; Bagdad; Peking; Delhi; Kiev; Moscow; and Adrianople.

2. Who were Baber, Kublai Khan, Othman, Mohammed II, Constantine Palaeologus, and Ivan the Great?

3. Why should the steppes of central and northern Asia have been a nursery of warlike peoples?

4. What parts of Asia were not included in the Mongol Empire at its greatest extent?

5. Trace on the map on page 486 the further expansion of the Mongol Empire after the death of Jenghiz Khan.

6. "Scratch a Russian and you will find a Tartar." What does this mean?

7. Why did the Mongol conquest of Russia tend to strengthen the sentiment of nationality in the Russian people?

8. How did the tsars come to regard themselves as the successors of the Eastern emperors?

9. Compare the Janizaries with the Christian military-religious orders.

10. How was "the victory of the Crescent secured by the children of the Cross"?

11. Why were the invasions of the Mongols and Ottoman Turks more destructive to civilization than those of the Germans, the Arabs, and the Northmen?

12. Enumerate the more important services of the Roman Empire in the East to civilization.

13. On an outline map indicate the extent of the Ottoman Empire in 1453 A.D.

FOOTNOTES

[1] See pages 241, 247, 314, 316, 334.Return to passage

[2] Mongolia has long been a part of the Chinese Empire, but in 1912 A.D., when China because a republic, Mongolia declared its independence.Return to passage

[3] Herodotus, iv, 46.Return to passage

[4] "The Very Mighty King."Return to passage

[5] See page 20.Return to passage

[6] For the location of these cities see the map on page 486.Return to passage

[7] See page 381.Return to passage

[8] Commonly known as Tamerlane.Return to passage

[9] See page 616.Return to passage

[10] See page 622.Return to passage

[11] For the early history of Russia see page 400.Return to passage

[12] The name Tartar (more correctly, Tatar) was originally applied to both Mongol and Turkish tribes that entered Russia. There are still over three millions of these "Tartars" in the Russian Empire.Return to passage

[13] The title Tsar, or Czar, is supposed to be a contraction of the word Caesar.Return to passage

[14] Whence the name Ottoman applied to this branch of the Turks.Return to passage

[15] See page 242.Return to passage

[16] A name derived from the Turkish yeni cheri, "new troops."Return to passage

[17] See page 478.Return to passage

XXII. EUROPEAN NATIONS DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES [1]

181. GROWTH OF THE NATIONS

THE NEW NATIONALISM

The map of western Europe, that is, of Europe west of the great Russian plain and the Balkan peninsula, shows this part of the continent at present divided into no less than thirteen separate and independent nations. Most of them arose during the latter part of the Middle Ages. They have existed so long that we now think of the national state as the highest type of human association, forgetting that it has been preceded by other forms of political organization, such as the Greek republic, the Roman Empire, and the feudal state, and that it may be followed some day by an international or universal state composed of all civilized peoples.

THE NATIONAL STATE AND FEUDALISM

These national states were the successors of feudalism. The establishment of the feudal system in any country meant, as has been seen, its division into numerous small communities, each with a law court, treasury, and army. This system of local government helped to keep order in an age of confusion, but it did not meet the needs of a progressive society. In most parts of Europe the feudal states gradually gave way to centralized governments ruled by despotic kings.

THE NEW MONARCHIES

A feudal king was often little more than a figurehead, equaled, or perhaps surpassed, in power by some of his own vassals. But in England, France, Spain, and other countries a series of astute and energetic sovereigns were able to strengthen their authority at the expense of the nobles. They formed permanent armies by insisting that all military service should be rendered to themselves and not to the feudal lords. They got into their own hands the administration of justice. They developed a revenue system, with the taxes collected by royal officers and deposited in the royal treasury. The kings thus succeeded in creating in each country one power which all the inhabitants feared, respected, and obeyed.

THE SENTIMENT OF NATIONALITY

A national state in modern times is keenly conscious of its separate existence. All its people usually speak the same language and have for their "fatherland" the warmest feelings of patriotic devotion. In the Middle Ages, however, patriotism was commonly confounded with loyalty to the sovereign, while the differences between nations were obscured by the existence of an international Church and by the use of Latin as the common language of all cultivated persons. The sentiment of nationality arose earlier in England than on the Continent, partly owing to the insular position of that country, but nowhere did it become a very strong influence before the end of the fifteenth century.

182. ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, 1066-1087 A.D.; THE NORMAN KINGSHIP

THE LAST INVASION OF ENGLAND

The Normans were the last invaders of England. Since 1066 A.D. the English Channel, not more than twenty-one miles wide between Dover and Calais, has formed a watery barrier against Continental domination. The English people, for eight and a half centuries, have been free to develop their ideals, customs, and methods of government in their own way. We shall now learn how they established a strong monarchy and at the same time laid deep and firm the foundations of constitutional liberty.

WILLIAM'S DESPOTIC RULE

William the Conqueror had won England by force of arms. He ruled it as a despot. Those who resisted him he treated as rebels, confiscating their land and giving it to Norman followers. To prevent uprisings he built a castle in every important town and garrisoned it with his own soldiers. The Tower of London still stands as an impressive memorial of the days of the Conquest. But William did not rely on force alone. He sought with success to attach the English to himself by retaining most of their old customs and by giving them an enlightened administration of the law. "Good peace he made in this land," said the old Anglo-Saxon chronicler, "so that a man might travel over the kingdom with his bosom full of gold without molestation, and no man durst kill another, however great the injury he might have received from him."

WILLIAM AND FEUDALISM

The feudal system on the Continent permitted a powerful noble to gather his vassals and make war on the king, whenever he chose to do so. William had been familiar with this evil side of feudalism, both in France and in his own duchy of Normandy, and he determined to prevent its introduction into England. William established the principle that a vassal owed his first duty to the king and not to his immediate lord. If a noble rebelled and his men followed him, they were to be treated as traitors. Rebellion proved to be an especially difficult matter in England, since the estates which a great lord possessed were not all in any one place but were scattered about the kingdom. A noble who planned to revolt could be put down before he was able to collect his retainers from the most distant parts of the country.

DOMESDAY BOOK, 1085 A.D.

The extent of William's authority is illustrated by the survey which he caused to have made of the taxable property of the kingdom. Royal commissioners went throughout the length and breadth of England to find out how much farm land there was in every county, how many landowners there were, and what each man possessed, to the last ox or cow or pig. The reports were set down in the famous Domesday Book, perhaps so called because one could no more appeal from it than from the Last Judgment. A similar census of population and property had never before been taken in the Middle Ages.

THE SALISBURY OATH, 1086 A.D.

Almost at the close of his reign William is said to have summoned all the landowning men in England to a great meeting on Salisbury Plain. They assembled there to the number, as it is reported, of sixty thousand and promised "that they would be faithful to him against all other men." The Salisbury Oath was a national act of homage and allegiance to the king.

183. ENGLAND UNDER HENRY II, 1154-1189 A.D.; ROYAL JUSTICE AND THE COMMON LAW

HENRY II, PLANTAGENET Henry II, who ascended the English throne in 1154 A.D., was a grandson of William the Conqueror and the first of the famous Plantagenet [2] family, Henry spent more than half of his reign abroad, looking after his extensive possessions in France but this fact did not prevent him from giving England good government. Three things in which all Englishmen take special pride--the courts, the jury system, and the Common law--began to take shape during Henry's reign.

THE KING'S COURT

Henry, first of all, developed the royal court of justice. This had been, at first, simply the court of the king's chief vassals, corresponding to the local feudal courts. [3] Henry transformed it from an occasional assembly of warlike nobles into a regular body of trained lawyers, and at the same time opened its doors to all except serfs. In the king's court any freeman could find a justice that was cheaper and speedier than that dispensed by the feudal lords. The higher courts of England have sprung from this institution.

CIRCUIT JUDGES

Henry also took measures to bring the king's justice directly to the people. He sent members of the royal court on circuit throughout the kingdom. At least once a year a judge was to hold an assembly in each county and try such cases as were brought before him. This system of circuit judges helped to make the law uniform in all parts of England.

TRIAL BY "PETTY JURY"

The king's court owed much of its popularity to the fact that it employed a better form of trying cases than the old ordeal, oath-swearing, or judicial duel. Henry introduced a method of jury trial which had long been in use in Normandy. When a case came before the king's judges on circuit, they were to select twelve knights, usually neighbors of the parties engaged in the dispute, to make an investigation and give a "verdict" [4] as to which side was in the right. These selected men bore the name of "jurors," [5] because they swore to tell the truth. In Henry's time this method of securing justice applied only to civil cases, that is, to cases affecting land and other forms of property, but later it was extended to persons charged with criminal offenses. Thus arose the "petty jury," an institution which nearly all European peoples have borrowed from England.

ACCUSATION BY THE "GRAND JURY"

Another of Henry's innovations developed into the "grand jury." Before his time many offenders went unpunished, especially if they were so powerful that no private individual dared accuse them. Henry provided that when the king's justices came to a county court a number of selected men should be put upon their oath and required to give the names of any persons whom they knew or believed to be guilty of crimes. Such persons were then to be arrested and tried. This "grand jury," as it came to be called, thus had the public duty of making accusations, whether its members felt any personal interest in the matter or not.

THE COMMON LAW

The decisions handed down by the legal experts who composed the royal court formed the basis of the English system of jurisprudence. It received the name Common law because it grew out of such customs as were common to the realm, as distinguished from those which were merely local. This law, from Henry's II's time, became so widespread and so firmly established that it could not be supplanted by the Roman law followed on the Continent. Carried by English colonists across the seas, it has now come to prevail throughout a great part of the world.

184. THE GREAT CHARTER, 1215 A.D.

RICHARD I AND JOHN, 1189-1216 A.D.

The great Henry, from whose legal reforms English-speaking peoples receive benefit even to-day, was followed by his son, Richard, the Lion-hearted crusader. [6] After a short reign Richard was succeeded by his brother, John, a man so cruel, tyrannical, and wicked that he is usually regarded as the worst of English kings. In a war with the French ruler, Philip Augustus, John lost Normandy and some of the other English possessions on the Continent. [7] In a dispute with Innocent III he ended by making an abject submission to the Papacy. [8] Finally, John's oppressive government provoked a revolt, and he was forced to grant the charter of privileges known as Magna Carta.

WINNING OF MAGNA CARTA, 1215 A.D.

The Norman Conquest had made the king so strong that his authority could be resisted only by a union of all classes of the people. The feudal lords were obliged to unite with the clergy and the commons, [9] in order to save their honor, their estates, and their heads. Matters came to a crisis in 1215 A.D., when the nobles, supported by the archbishop of Canterbury, placed their demands for reform in writing before the king. John swore furiously that they were "idle dreams without a shadow of reason" and refused to make any concessions. Thereupon the nobles formed the "army of God and the Holy Church," as it was called, and occupied London, thus ranging the townspeople on their side. Deserted by all except the hired troops which he had brought from the Continent, John was compelled to yield. At Runnimede on the Thames, not far from Windsor, he set his seal to the Great Charter.

CHARACTER OF MAGNA CARTA

Magna Carta does not profess to be a charter of liberties for all Englishmen. Most of its sixty-three clauses merely guarantee to each member of the coalition against John--nobles, clergy, and commons--those special privileges which the Norman rulers had tried to take away. Very little is said in this long document about the serfs, who composed probably five-sixths of the population of England in the thirteenth century.

SIGNIFICANCE OF MAGNA CARTA

But there are three clauses of Magna Carta which came to have a most important part in the history of English freedom. The first declared that no taxes were to be levied on the nobles--besides the three recognized feudal aids [10]--except by consent of the Great Council of the realm. [11] By this clause the nobles compelled the king to secure their consent before imposing any taxation. The second set forth that no one was to be arrested, imprisoned, or punished in any way, except after a trial by his equals and in accordance with the law of the land. The third said simply that to no one should justice be sold, denied, or delayed. These last two clauses contained the germ of great legal principles on which the English people relied for protection against despotic kings. They form a part of our American inheritance from England and have passed into the laws of all our states.

185. PARLIAMENT DURING THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

HENRY III, 1216-1272 A.D.

The thirteenth century, which opened so auspiciously with the winning of the Great Charter, is also memorable as the time when England developed her Parliament [12] into something like its present form. The first steps in parliamentary government were taken during the reign of John's son, Henry III.

THE WITENAGEMOT AND THE GREAT COUNCIL

It had long been the custom in England that in all important matters a ruler ought not to act without the advice and consent of his leading men. The Anglo-Saxon kings sought the advice and consent of their Witenagemot, [13] a body of nobles, royal officers, bishops, and abbots. It approved laws, served as a court of final appeal, elected a new monarch, and at times deposed him. The Witenagemot did not disappear after the Norman Conquest. Under the name of the Great Council it continued to meet from time to time for consultation with the king. This assembly was now to be transformed from a feudal body into a parliament representing the entire nation.

SIMON DE MONTFORT'S PARLIAMENT, 1265 A.D.

The Great Council, which by one of the provisions of Magna Carta had been required to give its consent to the levying of feudal dues, met quite frequently during Henry III's reign. On one occasion, when Henry was in urgent need of money and the bishops and lords refused to grant it, the king took the significant step of calling to the council two knights from each county to declare what aid they would give him. These knights, so ran Henry's summons, were to come "in the stead of each and all," in other words, they were to act as representatives of the counties. Then in 1265 A.D., when the nobles were at war with the king, a second and even more significant step was taken. Their leader, Simon de Montfort, summoned to the council not only two knights from each county, but also two citizens from each of the more important towns.

THE REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM

The custom of selecting certain men to act in the name and on the behalf of the community had existed during Anglo-Saxon times in local government. Representatives of the counties had been employed by the Norman kings to act as assessors in levying taxes. As we have just learned, the "juries" of Henry II also consisted of such representatives. The English people, in fact, were quite familiar with the idea of representation long before it was applied on a larger scale to Parliament.

"MODEL PARLIAMENT" OF EDWARD I, 1295 A.D.

Simon de Montfort's Parliament included only his own supporters, and hence was not a truly national body. But it made a precedent for the future. Thirty years later Edward I called together at Westminster, now a part of London, a Parliament which included all classes of the people. Here were present archbishops, bishops, and abbots, earls and barons, two knights from every county, and two townsmen to represent each town in that county. After this time all these classes were regularly summoned to meet in assembly at Westminster.

HOUSE OF LORDS AND HOUSE OF COMMONS

The separation of Parliament into two chambers came in the fourteenth century. The House of Lords included the nobles and higher clergy, the House of Commons, the representatives from counties and cities. This bicameral arrangement, as it is called, has been followed in the parliaments of most modern countries.

POWERS OF PARLIAMENT

The early English Parliament was not a law-making but a tax-voting body. The king would call the two houses in session only when he needed their sanction for raising money. Parliament in its turn would refuse to grant supplies until the king had corrected abuses in the administration or had removed unpopular officials. This control of the public purse in time enabled Parliament to grasp other powers. It became an accepted principle that royal officials were responsible to Parliament for their actions, that the king himself might be deposed for good cause, and that bills, when passed by Parliament and signed by the king, were the law of the land. England thus worked out in the Middle Ages a system of parliamentary government which nearly all civilized nations have held worthy of imitation.

186. EXPANSION OF ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD I, 1272-1307 A.D.

THE BRITISH ISLES

Our narrative has been confined until now to England, which forms, together with Wales and Scotland, the island known as Great Britain. Ireland is the only other important division of the United Kingdom. It was almost inevitable that in process of time the British Isles should have come under a single government, but political unity has not yet fused English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish into a single people.

WALES

The conquest of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons drove many of the Welsh, [14] as the invaders called the Britons, into the western part of the island. This district, henceforth known as Wales, was one of the last strongholds of the Celts. Even to-day a variety of the old Celtic language, called Cymric, is still spoken by the Welsh people.

CONQUEST OF WALES

In their wild and mountainous country the Welsh long resisted all attempts to subjugate them. Harold exerted some authority over Wales, William the Conqueror entered part of it, and Henry II induced the local rulers to acknowledge him as overlord, but it was Edward I who first brought all Wales under English sway. Edward fostered the building of towns in his new possession, divided it into counties or shires, after the system that prevailed in England, and introduced the Common law. He called his son, Edward II, who was born in the country, the "Prince of Wales," and this title has ever since been borne by the heir apparent to the English throne. The work of uniting Wales to England went on slowly, and two centuries elapsed before Wales was granted representation in the House of Commons.

SCOTLAND

Scotland derives its name from the Scots, who came over from Ireland early in the fifth century. [15] The northern Highlands, a nest of rugged mountains washed by cold and stormy seas, have always been occupied in historic times by a Celtic-speaking people, whose language, called Gaelic, is not yet extinct there. This part of Scotland, like Wales, was a home of freedom. The Romans did not attempt to annex the Highlands, and the Anglo- Saxons and Danes never penetrated their fastnesses. On the other hand the southern Lowlands, which include only about one-third of Scotland, were subdued by the Teutonic invaders, and so this district became thoroughly English in language and culture. [16]

THE SCOTTOSH KINGDOM

One might suppose that the Lowlands, geographically only an extension of northern England and inhabited by an English-speaking people, would have early united with the southern kingdom. But matters turned out otherwise. The Lowlands and the Highlands came together under a line of Celtic kings, who fixed their residence at Edinburgh and long maintained their independence.

SCOTLAND ANNEXED BY EDWARD I

Edward I, having conquered Wales, took advantage of the disturbed conditions which prevailed in Scotland to interfere in the affairs of that country. The Scotch offered a brave but futile resistance under William Wallace. This heroic leader, who held out after most of his countrymen submitted, was finally captured and executed. His head, according to the barbarous practice of the time, was set upon a pole on London Bridge. The English king now annexed Scotland without further opposition.

ROBERT BRUCE AND BANNOCKBURN, 1314 A.D.

But William Wallace by his life and still more by his death had lit a fire which might never be quenched. Soon the Scotch found another champion in the person of Robert Bruce. Edward I, now old and broken, marched against him, but died before reaching the border. The weakness of his son, Edward II, permitted the Scotch, ably led by Bruce, to win the signal victory of Bannockburn, near Stirling Castle. Here the Scottish spearmen drove the English knighthood into ignominious flight and freed their country from its foreign overlords.

SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE

The battle of Bannockburn made a nation. A few years afterwards the English formally recognized the independence of the northern kingdom. So the great design of Edward I to unite all the peoples of Britain under one government had to be postponed for centuries. [17]

IRELAND

No one kingdom ever arose in Ireland out of the numerous tribes into which the Celtic-speaking inhabitants were divided. The island was not troubled, however, by foreign invaders till the coming of the Northmen in the ninth century. [18] The English, who first entered Ireland during the reign of Henry II, did not complete its conquest till the seventeenth century. Ireland by its situation could scarcely fail to become an appanage of Great Britain, but the dividing sea has combined with differences in race, language, and religion, and with English misgovernment, to prevent anything like a genuine union of the conquerors and the conquered.

187. UNIFICATION OF FRANCE, 987-1328 A.D.

PHYSICAL FRANCE

Nature seems to have intended that France should play a leading part in European affairs. The geographical unity of the country is obvious. Mountains and seas form its permanent boundaries, except on the north-east where the frontier is not well defined. The western coast of France opens on the Atlantic, now the greatest highway of the world's commerce, while on the southeast France touches the Mediterranean, the home of classical civilization. This intermediate position between two seas helps us to understand why French history should form, as it were, a connecting link between ancient and modern times.

RACIAL FRANCE

But the greatness of France has been due, also, to the qualities of the French people. Many racial elements have contributed to the population. The blood of prehistoric tribes, whose monuments and grave mounds are scattered over the land, still flows in the veins of Frenchmen. At the opening of historic times France was chiefly occupied by the Celts, whom Julius Caesar found there and subdued. The Celts, or Gauls, have formed in later ages the main stock of the French nation, but their language gave place to Latin after the Roman conquest. In the course of five hundred years the Gauls were so thoroughly Romanized that they may best be described as Gallo-Romans. The Burgundians, Franks, and Northmen afterwards added a Teutonic element to the population, as well as some infusion of Teutonic laws and customs.

THE CAPETIAN DYNASTY

France, again, became a great nation because of the greatness of its rulers. Hugh Capet, who became the French king in 987 A.D., [19] was fortunate in his descendants. The Capetian dynasty was long lived, and for more than three centuries son followed father on the throne without a break in the succession. [20] During this time the French sovereigns worked steadily to exalt the royal power and to unite the feudal states of medieval France into a real nation under a common government. Their success in this task made them, at the close of the Middle Ages, the strongest monarchs in Europe.

FRANCE AND ITS FIEFS

Hugh Capet's duchy--the original France--included only a small stretch of inland country centering about Paris on the Seine and Orléans on the Loire. His election to the kingship did not increase his power over the great lords who ruled in Normandy, Brittany, Aquitaine, Burgundy, and other parts of the country. They did homage to the king for their fiefs and performed the usual feudal services, but otherwise regarded themselves as independent in their own territories.

PHILIP II, AUGUSTUS, 1180-1223 A.D.

The most considerable additions to the royal domains were made by Philip II, called Augustus. We have already referred to his contest with Pope Innocent III and to his participation in the Third Crusade. [21] The English king, John, was Philip's vassal for Normandy and other provinces in France. A quarrel between the two rulers gave Philip an opportunity to declare John's fiefs forfeited by feudal law. Philip then seized all the English possessions north of the river Loire. The loss of these possessions abroad had the result of separating England almost completely from Continental interests; for France it meant a great increase in territory and population. Philip made Paris his chief residence, and that city henceforth became the capital of France.

LOUIS IX, THE SAINT, 1226-1276 A.D.

During the long reign of Philip's grandson, Louis IX, rich districts to the west of the Rhone were added to the royal domains. This king, whose Christian virtues led to his canonization, distinguished himself as an administrator. His work in unifying France may be compared with that of Henry II in England. He decreed that only the king's money was to circulate in the provinces owned directly by himself, thus limiting the right of coinage enjoyed by feudal lords. He restricted very greatly the right of private war and forbade the use of judicial duels. Louis also provided that important cases could be appealed from feudal courts to the king's judges, who sat in Paris and followed in their decisions the principles of Roman law. In these and other ways he laid the foundations of absolute monarchy in France.

PHILIP IV, THE FAIR, 1265-1314 A.D.

The grandson of St. Louis, Philip IV, did much to organize a financial system for France. Now that the kingdom had become so large and powerful, the old feudal dues were insufficient to pay the salaries of the royal officials and support a standing army. Philip resorted to new methods of raising revenue by imposing various taxes and by requiring the feudal lords to substitute payments in money for the military service due from them.

THE ESTATES-GENERAL

Philip also called into existence the Estates-General, an assembly in which the clergy, the nobles, and representatives from the commons (the "third estate") met as separate bodies and voted grants of money. The Estates-General arose almost at the same time as the English Parliament, to which it corresponded, but it never secured the extensive authority of that body. After a time the kings of France became so powerful that they managed to reign without once summoning the nation in council. The French did not succeed, as the English had done, in founding political liberty upon the vote and control of taxation.

188. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND, 1337-1453 A.D.

PRETEXT FOR THE WAR

The task of unifying France was interrupted by a deplorable war between that country and England. It continued, including periods of truce, for over a century. The pretext for the war was found in a disputed succession. In 1328 A.D. the last of the three sons of Philip IV passed away, and the direct line of the house of Capet, which had reigned over France for more than three hundred years, came to an end. The English ruler, Edward III, whose mother was the daughter of Philip IV, considered himself the next lineal heir. The French nobles were naturally unwilling to receive a foreigner as king, and gave the throne, instead, to a nephew of Philip IV. This decision was afterwards justified on the ground that, by the old law of the Salian Franks, women could neither inherit estates nor transmit them to a son. [22]

REASONS FOR THE WAR

Edward III at first accepted the situation. Philip VI, however, irritated Edward by constant encroachments on the territories which the English still kept in France. Philip also allied himself with the Scotch and interfered with English trade interests in the county of Flanders. [23] This attitude of hostility provoked retaliation. Edward now reasserted his claim to the crown of France and prepared by force of arms to make it good.

BATTLES OF CRÉCY, 1346 A.D., AND POITIERS, 1356 A.D.

In 1346 A.D. Edward led his troops across the Channel and at Crécy gained a complete victory over the knighthood of France. Ten years later the English at Poitiers almost annihilated another French force much superior in numbers. These two battles were mainly won by foot soldiers armed with the long bow, in the use of which the English excelled. Ordinary iron mail could not resist the heavy, yard-long arrows, which fell with murderous effect upon the bodies of men and horses alike. Henceforth infantry, when properly armed and led, were to prove themselves on many a bloody field more than a match for feudal cavalry. The long bow, followed later by the musket, struck a deadly blow at feudalism.

THE "BLACK PRINCE"

Edward's son, the Prince of Wales, when only sixteen years of age, won his spurs by distinguished conduct at Crécy. It was the "Black Prince," [24] also, who gained the day at Poitiers, where he took prisoner the French king, John. Toward his royal captive he behaved in chivalrous fashion. At supper, on the evening of the battle, he stood behind John's chair and waited on him, praising the king's brave deeds. But this "flower of knighthood," who regarded warfare as only a tournament on a larger scale, could be ruthless in his treatment of the common people. On one occasion he caused three thousand inhabitants of a captured town--men, women and children--to be butchered before his eyes. The incident shows how far apart in the Middle Ages were chivalry and humanity.

RENEWAL OF THE WAR

The English, in spite of their victories, could not conquer France. The French refused to fight more pitched battles and retired to their castles and fortified towns. The war almost ceased for many years after the death of Edward III. It began again early in the fifteenth century, and the English this time met with more success. They gained possession of almost all France north of the Loire, except the important city of Orléans. Had the English taken it, French resistance must have collapsed. That they did not take it was due to one of the most remarkable women in history--Joan of Arc. [25]

THE "MAID OF ORLÉANS," 1429 A.D.

Joan was a peasant girl, a native of the little village of Domremy. Always a devout and imaginative child, she early began to see visions of saints and angels and to hear mysterious voices. At the time of the siege of Orléans the archangel Michael appeared to her, so she declared, and bade her go forth and save France. Joan obeyed, and though barely seventeen years of age made her way to the court of the French king. There her piety, simplicity, and evident faith in her mission overcame all doubts. Clad in armor, girt with an ancient sword, and with a white banner borne before her, Joan was allowed to accompany an army for the relief of Orléans. She inspired the French with such enthusiasm that they quickly compelled the English to raise the siege. Then Joan led her king to Reims and stood beside him at his coronation in the cathedral.

END OF THE WAR

Though Joan was soon afterwards captured by the English, who, to their lasting dishonor, burned her as a witch, her example nerved the French to further resistance. The English gradually lost ground and in 1453 A.D., the year of the fall of Constantinople, abandoned the effort to conquer a land much larger than their own. They retained of the French territories only the port of Calais and the Channel Islands. [26]

EFFECTS OF THE WAR

Few wars have had less to justify them, either in their causes or in their consequences, than this long struggle between England and France. It was a calamity to both lands. For England it meant the dissipation abroad of the energies which would have been better employed at home. For France it resulted in widespread destruction of property, untold suffering, famines, and terrible loss of life. From this time dates that traditional hostility between the two countries which was to involve them in future conflicts. One beneficial effect the war did have. It helped to make the two nations conscious of their separate existence. The growth of a national feeling, the awakening of a sentiment of patriotism, was especially marked in France, which had fought so long for independence.

ENGLAND AFTER THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR

Shortly after the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War the two branches of the English royal family became involved in desperate struggle for the crown. It was known as the War of the Roses, because the house of York took as its badge a white rose and the house of Lancaster, a red rose. The contest lasted 1485 A.D., when the Lancastrians conquered, and their leader, Henry Tudor, ascended the throne as Henry VII. He married a Yorkist wife, thus uniting the two factions, and founded the Tudor dynasty. The War of the Roses arrested the progress of English freedom. It created a demand for a strong monarchy which could keep order and prevent civil strife between the nobles. The Tudors met that demand and ruled as absolute sovereigns. It was more than a century before Parliament, representing the people, could begin to win back free government. It did this only at the cost of a revolution.

FRANCE AFTER THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR

France also issued from the Hundred Years' War with an absolute government. Strengthened by victory over the English, the French kings were able to reduce both the nobility and the commons to impotence. During the reign of Louis XI (1461-1483 A.D.) the royal domains were enlarged by the addition of Anjou, Provence, and the duchy of Burgundy. His son, Charles VIII (1483-1498 A.D.), made Brittany a possession of the French crown. The unification of France was now almost complete.

189. UNIFICATION OF SPAIN (TO 1492 A.D.)

THE SPANISH PENINSULA

The Spanish peninsula, known to the Romans as Hispania, is sharply separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees Mountains. At the same time the nearness of the peninsula to Africa has always brought it into intimate relations with that continent. Just as Russia has formed a link between Asia and Europe, so Spain has served as a natural highway from Africa to Europe.

THE SPANISH PEOPLE

The first settlers in Spain, of whom we know anything, were the Iberians. They may have emigrated from northern Africa. After them came the Celts, who overran a large part of the peninsula and appear to have mingled with the Iberians, thus forming the mixed people known as Celtiberians. In historic times Spain was conquered by the Carthaginians, who left few traces of their occupation, by the Romans, who thoroughly Romanized the country, by the Visigoths, who founded a Germanic kingdom, and lastly by the Moors, who introduced Arabian culture and the faith of Islam. [27] These invaders were not numerous enough greatly to affect the population, in which the Celtiberian strain is still predominant.

CHRISTIAN STATES OF SPAIN

The Moors never wholly conquered a fringe of mountain territory in the extreme north of Spain. Here a number of small Christian states, including León, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon, came into being. In the west there also arose the Christian state of Portugal. Geographically, Portugal belongs to Spain, from which it is separated only by artificial frontiers, but the country has usually managed to maintain its independence.

RECOVERY OF SPAIN FROM THE MOORS

Acting sometimes singly and sometimes in concert, the Christian states fought steadily to enlarge their boundaries at the expense of their Moslem neighbors. The contest had the nature of a crusade, for it was blessed by the pope and supported by the chivalry of Europe. Periods of victory alternated with periods of defeat, but by the close of the thirteenth century Mohammedan Spain had been reduced to the kingdom of Granada at the southern extremity of the peninsula.

THE CID

The long struggle with the Moors made the Spanish a patriotic people, keenly conscious of their national unity. The achievements of Christian warriors were recited in countless ballads, and especially in the fine Poem of the Cid. It deals with the exploits of Rodrigo Diaz, better known by the title of the Cid (lord) given to him by the Moors. The Cid of romance was the embodiment of every knightly virtue; the real Cid was a bandit, who fought sometimes for the Christians, sometimes against them, but always in his own interest. The Cid's evil deeds were forgotten, however, and after his death in 1099 A.D. he became the national hero of Spain.

UNION OF CASTILE AND ARAGON, 1479 A.D.

Meanwhile the separate Spanish kingdoms were coming together to form a nation. León and Castile in 1230 A.D. combined into the one kingdom of Castile, so named because its frontiers bristled with castles against the Moors. But the most important step in the making of Spain was the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon to Isabella of Castile, leading in 1479 A.D. to the union of these two kingdoms. About the same time the Castilian language began to crowd out the other Spanish dialects and to become the national speech.

CONQUEST OF GRANADA, 1492 A.D.

The new sovereigns of Spain aimed to continue the unification of the peninsula by the conquest of Granada. No effort was made by the Turks, who shortly before had captured Constantinople, to defend this last stronghold of Islam in the West. The Moors, though thrown upon their own resources, made a gallant resistance. At least once Ferdinand wearied of the struggle, but Isabella's determination never wavered. In 1492 A.D. Granada surrendered, and the silver cross of the crusading army was raised on the highest tower of the city. Moslem rule in Spain, after an existence of almost eight centuries, now came to an end.

RULE OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA

Ferdinand and Isabella belong in the front rank of European sovereigns. Like their contemporaries, Henry VII and Louis XI, they labored with success to build up an absolute monarchy. Spain had found, as England and France had found, that feudalism spelled disorder, and that only a strong central government could keep the peace, repress crime, and foster trade and commerce. Ferdinand and Isabella firmly established the supremacy of the crown. By the end of the fifteenth century Spain had become a leading European power. Its importance in the councils of Europe was soon to be increased by the marriage of a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella to the heir of the Austrian house of Hapsburg.

190. AUSTRIA AND THE SWISS CONFEDERATION, 1273-1499 A.D.

RISE OF AUSTRIA

The name Austria--in German Oesterreich--means simply the eastern part of any kingdom. It came to be applied particularly to the territory on the Danube east of Bavaria, which Otto the Great had formed into a mark or border province for defense against the Magyars. [28] This mark, soon to be known as Austria, gained an important place among German states. The frontiers were pushed down the Danube valley and the capital was finally located at Vienna, once a Roman city. Frederick Barbarossa raised Austria to the rank of a duchy. Rudolf of Hapsburg, who became emperor in 1273 A.D., first brought the country into the hands of the Hapsburg family. [29]

GROWTH OF AUSTRIA UNDER THE HAPSBURGS

The Hapsburgs founded the power of the present Austrian monarchy. At the end of the fourteenth century their dominions included a large part of eastern Germany, [30] reaching from beyond the Danube southward to the Adriatic. Early in the sixteenth century they secured Bohemia, a Slavic land thrust like a wedge into German territory, as well as part of the Magyar land of Hungary. The possession of these two kingdoms gave Austria its special character of a state formed by the union under one ruler of several wholly distinct nations. Meanwhile the right of election as Holy Roman Emperor became hereditary in the Hapsburg family.

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland, during the earlier period of the Middle Ages, formed a part of the German duchy of Swabia and belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. [31] About two-thirds of the population of Switzerland remain German in speech and feeling, though now the country includes districts in which French or Italian are spoken. All Swiss laws are still proclaimed in the three languages.

SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

Swiss history is closely bound up with that of Austria. The little mountain communities of Schwyz, [32] Uri, and Unterwalden, on the shores of beautiful Lake Lucerne, were possessions of the counts of Hapsburg. In 1291 A.D., the year when Rudolf of Hapsburg died, these three "Forest Cantons" formed a confederation for resistance to their Hapsburg overlords. Additional cantons joined the league, which now entered upon a long struggle, dear to all lovers of liberty, against Austrian rule. Nowhere did the old methods of feudal warfare break down more conspicuously than in the battles gained by Swiss pikemen over the haughty knights of Austria. The struggle closed in 1499 A.D., when Switzerland became practically a free state. [33]

WILLIAM TELL AND ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED

Switzerland has two heroes of her war for independence. William Tell is a wholly mythical character, for the story of a skillful marksman who succeeds in striking off some small object placed on a child's head is found in England, Norway, Denmark, and other countries. The Swiss have localized it in Uri. Another popular hero has a better claim to historical existence. It is said that at a critical moment in the battle of Sempach, when the Swiss with their short weapons failed to break the Austrian ranks, Arnold von Winkelried, a man of Unterwalden, came to the rescue. Rushing single-handed upon the enemy, he seized all the spears within reach and turned them into his own body. He thus opened a gap in the line, through which the Swiss pressed on to victory. Winkelried's deed might well have been performed, though the evidence for it is very scanty.

THE SWISS CONFEDERATION

Little Switzerland, lying in the heart of the Alps and surrounded by powerful neighbors, is one of the most interesting states in Europe. The twenty-two communities, or cantons, which make up the Swiss Confederation, differ among themselves in language, religion (Roman Catholic or Protestant), and customs, according to their nearness to Germany, France, or Italy. Nevertheless the Swiss form a patriotic and united nation. It is remarkable that a people whose chief bond of union was common hostility to the Austrian Hapsburgs, should have established a federal government so strong and enduring.

191. EXPANSION OF GERMANY

LINES OF GERMAN EXPANSION

An examination of the map shows how deficient Germany is in good natural boundaries. The valley of the Danube affords an easy road to the southeast, a road which the early rulers of Austria followed as far as Vienna and the Hungarian frontier. Eastward along the Baltic no break occurs in the great plain stretching from the North Sea to the Ural Mountains. It was in this direction that German conquests and colonization during the Middle Ages laid the foundation of modern Prussia.

THE GERMAN AND THE SLAV

The Germans, in descending upon the Roman Empire, had abandoned much of their former territories to the Slavs. In the reign of Charlemagne all the region between the Elbe and the Vistula belonged to Slavic tribes. To win it back for Germany required several centuries of hard fighting. The Slavs were heathen and barbarous, so that warfare with them seemed to be a kind of crusade. In the main, however, German expansion eastward was a business venture, due to the need for free land. It was the same need which in the nineteenth century carried the frontiers of the United States from the Alleghanies to the Pacific.

BRANDENBURG AND POMERANIA

German expansion began early in the tenth century, when Henry the Fowler annexed Brandenburg between the Elbe and the Oder. [34] Subsequently much of the territory between the Oder and the Vistula, including Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic, came under German control. The Slavic inhabitants were exterminated or reduced to slavery. Their place was taken by thousands of German colonists, who introduced Christianity, built churches and monasteries, cleared the woods, drained the marshes, and founded many cities destined to become centers of German trade and culture.

PRUSSIA

Between the Vistula and the Niemen lay the lands of the Prussians, a non- Teutonic people closely related to the Slavs. The Prussian language and religion have disappeared, the Prussians themselves have been completely absorbed by the Germans who settled in their country, but the Prussian name is borne to-day by one of the great states of modern Europe.

THE TEUTONIC ORDER

The conquest and conversion of the Prussians was accomplished by the famous order of Teutonic Knights. It had been founded in Palestine as a military-religious order, at the time of the Third Crusade. [35] The decline of the crusading movement left the knights with no duties to perform, and so they transferred their activities to the Prussian frontier, where there was still a chance to engage in a holy war. Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Teutonic Order flourished, until its grand master ruled over the entire Baltic coast from the Vistula to the gulf of Finland. The knights later had to relinquish much of this region to the Slavs, but they sowed there the seeds of civilization. Russia's Baltic provinces [36] are to-day the richest and most advanced in the empire.

POLITICAL GERMANY

Germany at the close of the Middle Ages was not a united, intensely national state, such as had been established in England, France, and Spain. It had split into hundreds of principalities, none large, some extremely small, and all practically independent of the feeble German kings. [37] This weakness of the central power condemned Germany to a minor part in the affairs of Europe, as late as the nineteenth century. Yet Germany found some compensation for political backwardness in the splendid city life which it developed during the later Middle Ages. The German cities, together with those of Italy and other European lands, now call for our attention.

STUDIES

1. On an outline map indicate (a) William the Conqueror's French dominions and (b) additional dominions of the Plantagenet kings in France.

2. Prepare a chart showing the leading rulers mentioned in this chapter. Arrange your material in parallel columns with dates, one column for England, one for France, and one for the other European countries.

3. Locate the following places: Crécy; Calais; Poitiers; Salisbury; Stirling; Edinburgh; Orléans; and Granada.

4. What happened in 987 A.D.? in 1066 A.D.? in 1215 A.D.? in 1295 A.D.? in 1346 A.D.? in 1453 A.D.? in 1485 A.D.?

5. Distinguish between a nation, a government, and a state.

6. Are unity of race, a common language, a common religion, and geographical unity of themselves sufficient to make a nation? May a nation arise where these bonds are lacking?

7. "The thirteenth century gave Europe the nations as we now know them." Comment on this statement.

8. Account for the rise of national feeling in France, Spain, Scotland, and Switzerland.

9. "Good government in the Middle Ages was only another name for a public- spirited and powerful monarchy." Comment on this statement.

10. What advantages has trial by jury over the older forms of trial, such as oaths, ordeals, and the judicial duel?

11. Explain the difference between a grand jury and a trial, or petty jury.

12. Compare the extent of territory in which Roman law now prevails with that which follows the Common law.

13. Why was the Parliament of 1295 A.D. named the "Model Parliament"?

14. Why has England been called "the mother of parliaments"?

15. Distinguish between England and Great Britain. Between Great Britain and the United Kingdom.

16. What were the Roman names of England, Scotland, and Ireland?

17. "Islands seem dedicated by nature to freedom." How does the history of Ireland illustrate this statement?

18. Trace on the map the main water routes in France between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

19. Show that Paris occupies an exceptionally good location for a capital city.

20. What French kings did most to form the French nation?

21. Why have queens never ruled in France?

22. Compare the Hundred Years' War and the Peloponnesian War as needless conflicts.

23. Compare Joan of Arc's visions with those of Mohammed.

24. "Beyond the Pyrenees begins Africa." What does this statement mean?

25. Why was Spain inconspicuous in European politics before the opening of the sixteenth century?

26. Look up in an encyclopedia the story of William Tell and prepare an oral report upon it.

27. Why was the German system of elective rulers politically less advantageous than the settled hereditary succession which prevailed in England and France?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xiv, "St. Louis"; chapter xv, "Episodes of the Hundred Years' War"; chapter xvi, "Memoirs of a French Courtier."

[2] The name comes from that of the broom plant (Latin planta genesta), a sprig of which Henry's father used to wear in his hat. The family is also called Angevin, because Henry on his father's side descended from the counts of Anjou in France.Return to passage

[3] See page 419.Return to passage

[4] Latin verum dictum, "a true statement."Return to passage

[5] Latin juro, "I take an oath."Return to passage

[6] See pages 475-476.Return to passage

[7] See page 514.Return to passage

[8] See page 461.Return to passage

[9] A term which refers to all freemen in town and country below the rank of nobles.Return to passage

[10] See page 418.Return to passage

[11] Made up of the chief lords and bishops.Return to passage

[12] The word "parliament," from French parler, "to speak," originally meant a talk or conference. Later, the word came to be applied to the body of persons assembled for conference.Return to passage

[13] See page 407 and note 1.Return to passage

[14] See page 319.Return to passage

[15] See page 246.Return to passage

[16] See the map, page 321.Return to passage

[17] In 1603 A.D. James VI of Scotland ascended the throne of England as James I. In 1707 A.D. the two countries adopted a plan of union which gave them a common Parliament and one flag.Return to passage

[18] See page 397.Return to passage

[19] See page 403.Return to passage

[20] From 987 A.D. to 1328 A.D. France had only fourteen kings. The average length of their reigns was, therefore, something more than twenty- four years.Return to passage

[21] See pages 461, 475.Return to passage

[22] Hence the name "Salic law" applied to the rule excluding women from succession to the French throne.Return to passage

[23] See page 550.Return to passage

[24] Probably so called from the black armor which he wore. It may still be seen above his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.Return to passage

[25] In French, Jeanne d'Arc.Return to passage

[26] Calais went back to the French in 1558 A.D. The Channel Islands are still English possessions.Return to passage

[27] See pages 164, 169, 244, 378. The Arabs and Berbers who settled in Spain are generally called Moors.Return to passage

[28] See page 316.Return to passage

[29] See page 462.Return to passage

[30] The duchies of Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and the county of Tyrol.Return to passage

[31] See the map facing page 462.Return to passage

[32] From Schwyz comes the name Switzerland.Return to passage

[33] The independence of the country was not formally recognized till 1648 A.D.Return to passage

[34] See page 315.Return to passage

[35] See page 473.Return to passage

[36] Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia.Return to passage

[37] See pages 319, 462.Return to passage

XXIII. EUROPEAN CITIES DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

192. GROWTH OF THE CITIES

THE CIVIC REVIVAL

Civilization has always had its home in the city. [1] The statement applies as well to medieval times as to the present day. Nothing marks more strongly the backwardness of the early Middle Ages than the absence of large and flourishing cities throughout western Europe. The growth of trade in the later Middle Ages led, however, to a civic revival beginning in the eleventh century. This change from rural to urban life was scarcely less significant for European history than the change from the feudal to the national state.

CITIES OF ROMAN ORIGIN

A number of medieval cities stood on the sites, and even within the walls, of Roman municipalities. Particularly in Italy, southern France, and Spain, and also in the Rhine and Danube regions, it seems that some ancient municipia had never been entirely destroyed during the Germanic invasions. They preserved their Roman names, their streets, aqueducts, amphitheaters, and churches, and possibly vestiges of their Roman institutions. Among them were such important centers as Milan, Florence, Venice, Lyons, Marseilles, Paris, Vienna, Cologne, London, and York.

ORIGIN OF THE OTHER CITIES

Many medieval cities were new foundations. Some rose to importance because of advantages of situation. A place where a river could be forded, where two roads met, or where a good harbor existed, would naturally become the resort of traders. Some, again, started as fortresses, behind whose ramparts the peasants took refuge when danger threatened. A third group of cities developed from villages on the manors. A thriving settlement was pretty sure to arise near a monastery or castle, which offered both protection and employment to the common people.

THE CITY AND FEUDALISM

The city at first formed part of the feudal system. It grew upon the territory of a feudal lord and naturally owed obedience to him. The citizens ranked not much higher than serfs, though they were traders and artisans instead of farmers. They enjoyed no political rights, for their lord collected the taxes, appointed officials, kept order, and punished offenders. In short, the city was not free.

REVOLT OF THE CITIES

But the city from the first was the decided enemy of feudalism. [2] As its inhabitants increased in number and wealth, they became Revolt of conscious of their strength and refused to submit the cities to oppression. Sometimes they won their freedom by hard fighting, more often they purchased it, perhaps from some noble who needed money to go on a crusade. In France, England, and Spain, where the royal power was strong, the cities obtained exemption from their feudal burdens, but did not become entirely self-governing. In Germany and Italy, on the other hand, the weakness of the central government permitted many cities to secure complete independence. They became true republics, like the old Greek city-states. [3]

CHARTERS

The contract which the citizens extorted from their lord was known as a charter. It specified what taxes they should be required to pay and usually granted to them various privileges, such as those of holding assemblies, electing magistrates, and raising militia for local defense. The revolt of the cities gradually extended over all western Europe, so that at the end of the fourteenth century hardly any of them lacked a charter.

CIVIC FREEDOM

The free city had no room for either slaves or serfs. All servile conditions ceased inside its walls. The rule prevailed that anyone who had lived in a city for the term of a year and a day could no longer be claimed by a lord as his serf. This rule found expression in the famous saying: "Town air renders free."

RISE OF THE "THIRD ESTATE"

The freedom of the cities naturally attracted many immigrants to them. There came into existence a middle class of city people, between the nobles and clergy on the one side and the peasants on the other side--what the French call the bourgeoisie. [4] As we have [5] learned, the kings of England and France soon began to summon representatives of this middle class to sit in assemblies as the "third estate," by the side of the nobles and the clergy, who formed the first two estates. Henceforth the middle class, the bourgeoisie, the "third estate," distinguished as it was for wealth, intelligence, and enterprise, exerted an ever-greater influence on European affairs.

* * * * *

193. CITY LIFE

A CITY FROM WITHOUT

The visitor approaching a medieval city through miles of open fields saw it clear in the sunlight, unobscured by coal smoke. From without it looked like a fortress, with walls, towers, gateways, drawbridges, and moat. Beyond the fortifications he would see, huddled together against the sky, the spires of the churches and the cathedral, the roofs of the larger houses, and the dark, frowning mass of the castle. The general impression would be one of wealth and strength and beauty.

A CITY FROM WITHIN

Once within the walls the visitor would not find things so attractive. The streets were narrow, crooked, and ill-paved, dark during the day because of the overhanging houses, and without illumination at night. There were no open spaces or parks except a small market place. The whole city was cramped by its walls, which shut out light, air, and view, and prevented expansion into the neighboring country. Medieval London, for instance, covered an area of less than one square mile. [6]

UNSANITARY CONDITIONS

A city in the Middle Ages lacked all sanitary arrangements. The only water supply came from polluted streams and wells. There were no sewers and no sidewalks. People piled up their refuse in the backyard or flung it into the street, to be devoured by the dogs and pigs which served as scavengers. The holes in the pavement collected all manner of filth, and the unpaved lanes, in wet weather, became deep pits of mud. We can understand why the townspeople wore overshoes when they went out, and why even the saints in the pictures were represented with them on. The living were crowded together in many-storied houses, airless and gloomy; the dead were buried close at hand in crowded churchyards. Such unsanitary conditions must have been responsible for much of the sickness that was prevalent. The high death rate could only be offset by a birth rate correspondingly high, and by the constant influx of country people.

CIVIC REGULATIONS

Numerous petty regulations restricted the private life of the townspeople. The municipal authorities sometimes decided how many guests might be invited to weddings, how much might be spent on wedding presents, what different garments might be owned and worn by a citizen, and even the number of trees that might be planted in his garden. Each citizen had to serve his turn as watchman on the walls or in the streets at night. When the great bell in the belfry rang the "curfew," [7] at eight or nine o'clock, this was the signal for every one to extinguish lights and fires and go to bed. It was a useful precaution, since conflagrations were common enough in the densely packed wooden houses. After curfew the streets became deserted, except for the night watch making their rounds and the presence of occasional pedestrians carrying lanterns. The municipal government spent little or nothing on police protection, so that street brawls, and even robbery and murder, were not infrequent.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS

The inhabitants of the city took a just pride in their public buildings. The market place, where traders assembled, often contained a beautiful cross and sometimes a market hall to shelter goods from the weather. Not far away rose the city hall, [8] for the transaction of public business and the holding of civic feasts. The hall might be crowned by a high belfry with an alarm bell to summon citizens to mass meeting. Then there would be a number of churches and abbeys and, if the city was the capital of a bishop's diocese, an imposing cathedral.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

The small size of medieval cities--few included as many as ten thousand inhabitants--simplified the problem of governing them. The leading merchants usually formed a council presided over by a head magistrate, the burgomaster [9] or mayor, [10] who was assisted by aldermen. [11] In some places the guilds chose the officials and managed civic affairs. These associations had many functions and held a most important place in city life.

194. CIVIC INDUSTRY: THE GUILDS

FORMATION OF GUILDS

The Anglo-Saxon word "guild," which means "to pay," came to be applied to a club or society whose members made contributions for some common purpose. This form Of association is very old. Some of the guilds in imperial Rome had been established in the age of the kings, while not a few of those which flourish to-day in China and India were founded before the Christian era. Guilds existed in Continental Europe as early as the time of Charlemagne, but they did not become prominent till after the crusades.

MERCHANT GUILDS

A guild of merchants grew up when those who bought and sold goods in any place united to protect their own interests. The membership included many artisans, as well as professional traders, for in medieval times a man often sold in the front room of his shop the goods which he made in the back rooms. He was often both shopkeeper and workman in one.

COMMERCIAL MONOPOLY

The chief duty of a merchant guild was to preserve to its own members the monopoly of trade within a town. Strangers and non-guildsmen could not buy or sell there except under the conditions imposed by the guild. They must pay the town tolls, confine their dealings to guildsmen, and as a rule sell only at wholesale. They were forbidden to purchase wares which the townspeople wanted for themselves or to set up shops for retail trade. They enjoyed more freedom at fairs, which were intended to attract outsiders.

CRAFT GUILDS

After a time the traders and artisans engaged in a particular occupation began to form an association of their own. Thus arose the craft guilds, composed of weavers, shoemakers, bakers, tailors, carpenters, and so on, until almost every form of industry had its separate organization. The names of the various occupations came to be used as the surnames of those engaged in them, so that to-day we have such common family names as Smith, Cooper, Fuller, Potter, Chandler, and many others. The number of craft guilds in an important city might be very large. London and Paris at one time each had more than one hundred, and Cologne in Germany had as many as eighty. The members of a particular guild usually lived in the same street or quarter of the city, not only for companionship but also for better supervision of their labor. [12]

INDUSTRIAL MONOPOLY

Just as the merchant guild regulated town trade, so the craft guilds had charge of town industry. No one could engage in any craft without becoming a member of the guild which controlled it and submitting to the guild regulations. A man's hours of labor and the prices at which he sold his goods were fixed for him by the guild. He might not work elsewhere than in his shop, because of the difficulty of supervising him, nor might he work by artificial light, lest he turn out badly finished goods. Everything made by him was carefully inspected to see if it contained shoddy materials or showed poor workmanship. Failure to meet the test meant a heavy fine or perhaps expulsion from the guild. Thus the industrial monopoly possessed by the craft guild gave some protection to both producer and consumer.

ORGANIZATION OF CRAFT GUILDS

Full membership in a guild was reached only by degrees. A boy started as an apprentice, that is, a learner. He paid a sum of money to his master and agreed to serve him for a fixed period, usually seven years. The master, in turn, promised to provide the apprentice with food, lodging, and clothing, and to teach him all the secrets of the craft. At the end of the seven years the apprentice had to pass an examination by the guild. If he was found fit, he then became a journeyman and worked for daily wages. As soon as he had saved enough money, he might set up as a master in his own shop. A master was at once workman and employer, laborer and capitalist.

ACTIVITIES OF CRAFT GUILDS

Like the old Roman guilds, those of the Middle Ages had their charitable and religious aspects. Each guild raised large benefit funds for the relief of members or their widows and orphans. Each guild had its private altar in the cathedral, or often its own chapel, where masses were said for the repose of the souls of deceased members, and where on the day of its patron saint religious services were held. The guild was also a social organization, with frequent meetings for a feast in its hall or in some inn. The guilds in some cities entertained the people with an annual play or procession. [13] It is clear that the members of a medieval craft guild had common interests and shared a common life.

DISSOLUTION OF CRAFT GUILDS As the craft guilds prospered and increased in wealth, they tended to become exclusive organizations. Membership fees were raised so high that few could afford to pay them, while the number of apprentices that a master might take was strictly limited. It also became increasingly difficult for journeymen to rise to the station of masters; they often remained wage-earners for life. The mass of workmen could no longer participate in the benefits of the guild system. In the eighteenth century most of the guilds lost their monopoly of industry, and in the nineteenth century they gave way to trade unions.

195. TRADE AND COMMERCE

MARKETS

Nearly every town of any consequence had a weekly or semiweekly market, which was held in the market place or in the churchyard. Marketing often occurred on Sunday, in spite of many laws against this desecration of the day. Outsiders who brought cattle and farm produce for sale in the market were required to pay tolls, either to the town authorities or sometimes to a neighboring nobleman. These market dues still survive in the "octroi" collected at the gates of some European cities.

"JUST PRICE"

People in the Middle Ages did not believe in unrestricted competition. It was thought wrong for anyone to purchase goods outside of the regular market ("forestalling") or to purchase them in larger quantities than necessary ("engrossing"). A man ought not to charge for a thing more than it was worth, or to buy a thing cheap and sell it dear. The idea prevailed that goods should be sold at their "just price" which was not determined by supply and demand but by an estimate of the cost of the materials and the labor that went into their manufacture. Laws were often passed fixing this "just price," but it was as difficult then as now to prevent the "cornering of the market" by shrewd and unscrupulous traders.

FAIRS

Besides markets at frequent intervals, many towns held fairs once or twice a year. The fairs often lasted for a month or more. They were especially necessary in medieval Europe, because merchants did not keep large quantities or many kinds of goods on their shelves, nor could intending purchasers afford to travel far in search of what they wanted. The more important English fairs included those at Stourbridge near Cambridge, Winchester, St. Ives, and Boston. On the Continent fairs were numerous and in some places, such as Leipzig in Germany and Nijni-Novgorod in Russia, they are still kept up.

FAIRS AND COMMERCE

A fair gave opportunity for the sale of commodities brought from the most distant regions. Stourbridge Fair, for instance, attracted Venetians and Genoese with silk, pepper, and spices of the East, Flemings with fine cloths and linens, Spaniards with iron and wine, Norwegians with tar and pitch from their forests, and Baltic merchants with furs, amber, and salted fish. The fairs, by fostering commerce, helped to make the various European peoples better acquainted with one another.

DECLINE OF COMMERCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Commerce in western Europe had almost disappeared as a result of the Germanic invasions and the establishment of feudalism. What little commercial intercourse there was encountered many obstacles. A merchant who went by land from country to country might expect to find bad roads, few bridges, and poor inns. Goods were transported on pack-horses instead of in wagons. Highway robbery was so common that travelers always carried arms and often united in bands for better protection. The feudal lords, often themselves not much more than highwaymen, demanded tolls at every bridge and ford and on every road. If the merchant proceeded by water, he must face, in addition to the ordinary hazards of wind and wave, the danger from the ill-lighted coasts and from attacks by pirates. No wonder commerce languished in the early Middle Ages and for a long time lay chiefly in the hands of Byzantines [14] and Arabs. [15]

COMMERCIAL REVIVAL AFTER THE CRUSADES

Even during the dark centuries that followed the end of the Roman Empire, some trade with the Orient had been carried on by the cities of Italy and southern France. The crusades, which brought East and West face to face, greatly increased this trade. The Mediterranean lands first felt the stimulating effects of intercourse with the Orient, but before long the commercial revival extended to the rest of Europe.

ASIATIC TRADE ROUTES

Before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope the spices, drugs, incense, carpets, tapestries, porcelains, and gems of India, China, and the East Indies reached the West by three main routes. All had been used in ancient times. [16] The central and most important route led up the Persian Gulf and Tigris River to Bagdad, from which city goods went by caravan to Antioch or Damascus. The southern route reached Cairo and Alexandria by way of the Red Sea and the Nile. By taking advantage of the monsoons, a merchant ship could make the voyage from India to Egypt in about three months. The northern route, entirely overland, led to ports on the Black Sea and thence to Constantinople. It traversed high mountain passes and long stretches of desert, and could profitably be used only for the transport of valuable articles small in bulk. The conquests of the Ottoman Turks greatly interfered with the use of this route by Christians after the middle of the fifteenth century.

EUROPEAN TRADE ROUTES

Oriental goods, upon reaching the Mediterranean, could be transported by water to northern Europe. Every year the Venetians sent a fleet loaded with eastern products to Bruges in Flanders, a city which was the most important depot of trade with Germany, England, and Scandinavia. Bruges also formed the terminus of the main overland route leading from Venice over the Alps and down the Rhine. But as the map indicates, many other commercial highways linked the Mediterranean with the North Sea and the Baltic.

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS

It is important to note that until late in the Middle Ages trade existed, not between nations, but between cities. A merchant of London was almost as much a foreigner in any other English city as he would have been in Bruges, Paris, or Cologne. Consequently, each city needed to make commercial treaties with its neighbors, stipulating what were the privileges and obligations of its merchants, wherever they went. It was not until the kings grew strong in western Europe that merchants could rely on the central government, rather than on local authorities, for protection.

196. MONEY AND BANKING

SMALL SCALE OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISE

We have seen that business in the Middle Ages was chiefly of a retail character and was conducted in markets and fairs. The artisan who manufactured the goods he sold and the peddler who carried his goods about from place to place were the leading types of medieval traders. Little wholesale business existed, and the merchant prince who owned warehouses and large stocks of goods was an exceptional figure.

LACK OF MONEY

One reason for the small scale of business enterprise is found in the inadequate supply of money. From the beginning of the Christian era to the twelfth century there seems to have been a steady decrease in the amount of specie in circulation, partly because so much moved to the Orient in payment for luxuries, and partly because the few mines in western Europe went out of use during the period of the invasions. The scarcity of money, as has been shown, [17] helped directly to build up the feudal system, since salaries, wages, and rents could be paid only in personal services or in produce. The money supply increased during the latter part of the Middle Ages, but it did not become sufficient for the needs of business till the discovery of the New World enabled the Spaniards to tap the wealth of the silver mines in Mexico and Peru. [18]

FAULTS OF MEDIEVAL CURRENCY

Medieval currency was not only small in amount but also faulty in character. Many great nobles enjoyed the privilege of keeping a mint and issuing coins. Since this feudal money passed at its full value only in the locality where it was minted, a merchant had to be constantly changing his money, as he went from one fief to another, and always at a loss. Kings and nobles for their own profit would often debase the currency by putting silver into the gold coins and copper into the silver coins. Every debasement, as it left the coins with less pure metal, lowered their purchasing power and so raised prices unexpectedly. Even in countries like England, where debasement was exceptional, much counterfeit money circulated, to the constant impediment of trade.

"USURY" LAWS

The prejudice against "usury," as any lending of money at interest was called, made another hindrance to business enterprise. It seemed wrong for a person to receive interest, since he lost nothing by the loan of his money. Numerous Church laws condemned the receipt of interest as unchristian. If, however, the lender could show that he had suffered any loss, or had been prevented from making any gain, through not having his money, he might charge something for its use. In time people began to distinguish between interest moderate in amount and an excessive charge for the use of money. The latter alone was henceforth prohibited as usurious. Most modern states still have usury laws which fix the legal rate of interest.

THE JEWS AS MONEY LENDERS

The business of money lending, denied to Christians, fell into the hands of the Jews. In nearly all European countries popular prejudice forbade the Jews to engage in agriculture, while the guild regulations barred them from industry. They turned to trade and finance for a livelihood and became the chief capitalists of medieval times. But the law gave the Jews no protection, and kings and nobles constantly extorted large sums from them. The persecutions of the Jews date from the era of the crusades, when it was as easy to excite fanatical hatred against them as against the Moslems. Edward I drove the Jews from England and Ferdinand and Isabella expelled them from Spain. They are still excluded from the Spanish peninsula, and in Russia and Austria they are not granted all the privileges which Christians enjoy.

ITALIAN BANKING

The Jews were least persecuted in the commercial cities of northern Italy. Florence, Genoa, and Venice in the thirteenth century were the money centers of Europe. The banking companies in these cities received deposits and then loaned the money to foreign governments and great nobles. It was the Florentine bankers, for instance, who provided the English king, Edward III, with the funds to carry on his wars against France. The Italian banking houses had branches in the principal cities of Europe. [19] It became possible, therefore, to introduce the use of bills of exchange as a means of balancing debts between countries, without the necessity of sending the actual money. This system of international credit was doubly important at a time when so many risks attended the transportation of the precious metals. Another Florentine invention was bookkeeping by double-entry. [20]

197. ITALIAN CITIES

THE CITY REPUBLICS

The cities of northern Italy owed their prosperity, as we have learned, to the commerce with the Orient. It was this which gave them the means and the strength to keep up a long struggle for freedom against the German emperors.[21] The end of the struggle, at the middle of the thirteenth century, saw all North Italy divided into the dominions of various independent cities. Among them were Milan, Pisa, Florence, Genoa, and Venice.

MILAN

Milan, a city of Roman origin, lay in the fertile valley of the Po, at a point where the trade routes through several Alpine passes converged. Milan early rose to importance, and it still remains the commercial metropolis of Italy. Manufacturing also flourished there. Milanese armor was once celebrated throughout Europe. The city is rich in works of art, the best known being the cathedral, which, after St. Peter's at Rome and the cathedral of Seville, is the largest church in Europe. Though the Milanese were able to throw off the imperial authority, their government fell into the hands of the local nobles, who ruled as despots. Almost all the Italian cities, except Venice, lost their freedom in this manner.

PISA

Pisa, like Milan, was an old Roman city which profited by the disorders of the barbarian invasions to assert its independence. The situation of Pisa on the Arno River, seven miles from the sea, made it a maritime state, and the Pisan navy gained distinction in warfare against the Moslems in the Mediterranean. The Pisans joined in the First Crusade and showed their valor at the capture of Jerusalem. They profited greatly by the crusading movement and soon possessed banks, warehouses, and trading privileges in every eastern port. But Pisa had bitter rivals in Florence and Genoa, and the conflicts with these two cities finally brought about the destruction of its power.

FLORENCE

Florence, Pisa's neighbor on the Arno, was renowned for manufactures. The fine wool, silk cloths, golden brocades, jewelry, and metal work of Florence were imported into all European countries. The craft guilds were very strong there, and even the neighboring nobles, who wished to become citizens, had first to enroll themselves in some guild. It was from banking, however, that Florence gained most wealth. In the fifteenth century the city contained eighty great banking houses, in addition to numerous branches outside of Italy. With their commercial spirit the Florentines combined a remarkable taste for art and literature. Their city, whose population never exceeded seventy thousand, gave birth to some of the most illustrious poets, prose writers, architects, sculptors, and painters of medieval times. It was the Athens of Italy. [22]

GENOA

Genoa, located on the gulf of the same name, possessed a safe and spacious harbor. During the era of the crusades the city carried on a flourishing trade in both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. After the fall of the Latin Empire of Constantinople [23] the Genoese almost monopolized Oriental commerce along the Black Sea route. The closing of this route by the Ottoman Turks was a heavy blow to their prosperity, which also suffered from the active competition of Venice.

SITUATION OF VENICE

Almost alone among Italian cities Venice was not of Roman origin. Its beginning is traced back to the period of barbarian inroads, when fugitives from the mainland sought a new home on the islands at the head of the Adriatic. [24] These islands, which lie about five miles from the coast, are protected from the outer sea by a long sand bar. They are little more than mud-banks, barely rising above the shallow water of the lagoons. The oozy soil afforded no support for buildings, except when strengthened by piles; there was scarcely any land fit for farming or cattle-raising; and the only drinking water had to be stored from the rainfall. Yet on this unpromising site arose one of the most splendid of European cities.

VENETIAN COMMERCE

The early inhabitants of Venice got their living from the sale of sea salt and fish, two commodities for which a constant demand existed in the Middle Ages. Large quantities of salt were needed for preserving meat in the winter months, while fish was eaten by all Christians on the numerous fast days and in Lent. The Venetians exchanged these commodities for the productions of the mainland and so built up a thriving trade. From fishermen they became merchants, with commercial relations which gradually extended to the Orient. The crusades vastly increased the wealth of Venice, for she provided the ships in which troops and supplies went to the Holy Land and she secured the largest share of the new eastern trade. Venice became the great emporium of the Mediterranean. As a commercial center the city was the successor of ancient Tyre, Carthage, Athens, and Alexandria.

VENETIAN POSSESSIONS

Venice also used the crusading movement for her political advantage. The capture of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade extended Venetian control over the Peloponnesus, [25] Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, and many smaller islands in the eastern Mediterranean. Even before this time Venice had begun to gain possessions upon the Italian mainland and along the Adriatic coast. At the height of her power about 1400 A.D. she ruled a real empire. [26]

VENETIAN SEA POWER

The commerce and possessions of Venice made it necessary for her to maintain a powerful fleet. She is said to have had at one time over three thousand merchant vessels, besides forty-five war galleys. Her ships went out in squadrons, with men-of-war acting as a convoy against pirates. One fleet traded with the ports of western Europe, another proceeded to the Black Sea, while others visited Syria and Egypt to meet the caravans from the Far East. Venetian sea power humbled Genoa and for a long time held the Mediterranean against the Ottoman Turks.

THE "QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC"

The greatness of Venice was celebrated by the annual ceremony of "the wedding of the sea." The doge, (that is, "duke.") or chief magistrate, standing in the bows of the state barge, cast a ring of gold into the Adriatic with the proud words, "We have wedded thee, O sea, in token of our rightful and perpetual dominion."

VENICE DESCRIBED

The visitor to modern Venice can still gain a good impression of what the city must have looked like in the fourteenth century, when ships of every nation crowded its quays and strangers of every country thronged its squares or sped in light gondolas over the canals which take the place of streets. The main highway is still the Grand Canal, nearly two miles long and lined with palaces and churches. The Grand Canal leads to St. Mark's Cathedral, brilliant with mosaic pictures, the Campanile, or bell tower, and the Doge's Palace. The "Bridge of Sighs" connects the ducal palace with the state prisons. The Rialto in the business heart of Venice is another famous bridge. But these are only a few of the historic and beautiful buildings of the island city.

198. GERMAN CITIES: THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE

CITIES OF SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL GERMANY

The important trade routes from Venice and Genoa through the Alpine passes into the valleys of the Rhine and Danube were responsible for the prosperity of many fine cities in southern and central Germany. Among them were Augsburg, which rivaled Florence as a financial center, Nuremberg, famous for artistic metal work, Ulm, Strassburg, and Cologne. The feeble rule of the German kings compelled the cities to form several confederacies for the purpose of resisting the extortionate tolls and downright robberies of feudal lords.

CITIES OF NORTHERN GERMANY

It was the Baltic commerce which brought the cities of northern Germany into a firm union. From the Baltic region came large quantities of dried and salted fish, especially herring, wax candles for church services, skins, tallow, and lumber. Furs were also in great demand. Every one wore them during the winter, on account of the poorly heated houses. The German cities which shared in this commerce early formed the celebrated Hanseatic [27] League for protection against pirates and feudal lords.

MEMBERSHIP OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE

The league seems to have begun with an alliance of Hamburg and Lübeck to safeguard the traffic on the Elbe. The growth of the league was rapid. At the period of its greatest power, about 1400 A.D., there were upwards of eighty Hanseatic cities along the Baltic coast and in the inland districts of northern Germany.

HANSEATIC "FACTORIES"

The commercial importance of the league extended far beyond the borders of Germany. Its trading posts, or "factories," at Bergen in Norway and Novgorod in Russia controlled the export trade of those two countries. Similar establishments existed at London, on the Thames just above London Bridge, and at Bruges in Flanders. Each factory served as a fortress where merchants could be safe from attack, as a storehouse for goods, and as a general market.

INFLUENCE OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE

The Hanseatic League ruled over the Baltic Sea very much as Venice ruled over the Adriatic. In spite of its monopolistic tendencies, so opposed to the spirit of free intercourse between nations, the league did much useful work by suppressing piracy and by encouraging the art of navigation. Modern Germans look back to it as proof that their country can play a great part on the seas. The Hanseatic merchants were also pioneers in the half-barbarous lands of northern and eastern Europe, where they founded towns, fostered industry, and introduced comforts and luxuries previously unknown. Such services in advancing civilization were comparable to those performed by the Teutonic Knights. [28]

DECLINE OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE

After several centuries of usefulness the league lost its monopoly of the Baltic trade and began to decline. Moreover the Baltic, like the Mediterranean, sank to minor importance as a commercial center, after the Portuguese had discovered the sea route to India and the Spaniards had opened up the New World. [29] City after city gradually withdrew from the league, till only Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen remained. They are still called free and independent cities, though now they form a part of the German Empire.

199. THE CITIES OF FLANDERS

COUNTY OF FLANDERS

In the Middle Ages the Netherlands, or "Low Countries," now divided between Holland and Belgium, consisted of a number of feudal states, nominally under the control of German and French kings, but really quite independent. Among them was the county of Flanders. It included the coast region from Calais to the mouth of the Scheldt, as well as a considerable district in what is now northwestern France. The inhabitants of Flanders were partly of Teutonic extraction (the Flemings) and partly akin to the French (the Walloons).

FLANDERS AS A COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CENTER

Flanders enjoyed a good situation for commerce. The country formed a convenient stopping place for merchants who went by sea between the Mediterranean and the Baltic, while important land routes led thither from all parts of western Europe. Flanders was also an industrial center. Its middle classes early discovered the fact that by devotion to manufacturing even a small and sterile region may become rich and populous.

FLEMISH WOOL TRADE

The leading industry of Flanders was weaving. England in the Middle Ages raised great flocks of sheep, but lacking skilled workmen to manufacture the wool into fine cloth, sent it across the Channel to Flanders. A medieval writer declared that the whole world was clothed in English wool manufactured by the Flemings. The taxes that were laid on the export of wool helped to pay the expenses of English kings in their wars with the Welsh, the Scotch, and the Irish. The wool trade also made Flanders the ally of England in the Hundred Years' War, thus beginning that historic friendship between the two countries which still endures.

BRUGES, GHENT AND YPRES

Among the thriving communities of Flanders three held an exceptional position. Bruges was the mart where the trade of southern Europe, in the hands of the Venetians, and the trade of northern Europe, in the hands of the Hanseatic merchants, came together. Ghent, with forty thousand workshops, and Ypres, which counted two hundred thousand workmen within its walls and suburbs, were scarcely less prosperous. When these cities declined in wealth, Antwerp became the commercial metropolis of the Netherlands.

FLANDERS AND FRANCE

During the fourteenth century Flanders was annexed by France. The Flemish cities resisted bravely, and on more than one occasion their citizen levies, who could handle sword and ax, as well as the loom, defeated the French armies, thus demonstrating again that foot soldiers were a match for mailed cavalry. Had the cities been able to form a lasting league, they might have established an independent Flanders, but the bitter rivalry of Ghent and Bruges led to foreign domination, lasting into the nineteenth century. [30]

THE CITIES AND CIVILIZATION

The great cities of Flanders, Germany, and Italy, not to speak of those in France, Spain, and England, were much more than centers of trade, industry, and finance. Within their walls learning and art flourished to an extent which had never been possible in earlier times, when rural life prevailed throughout western Europe. We shall now see what the cities of the Middle Ages contributed to civilization.

STUDIES

1. Indicate on the map some great commercial cities of the Middle Ages as follows: four in Italy; three in the Netherlands; and six in Germany.

2. Why does an American city have a charter? Where is it obtained? What privileges does it confer?

3. Who comprised the "third estate" in the Middle Ages? What class corresponds to it at the present time?

4. Why has the medieval city been called the "birthplace of modern democracy"?

5. Compare the merchant guild with the modern chamber of commerce, and craft guilds with modern trade unions.

6. Look up the origin of the words "apprentice," "journeyman," and "master."

7. Why was there no antagonism between labor and capital under the guild system?

8. Compare the medieval abhorrence of "engrossing" with the modern idea that "combinations in restraint of trade" are wrong.

9. Why were fairs a necessity in the Middle Ages? Why are they not so useful now? Where are they still found?

10. Compare a medieval fair with a modern exposition.

11. What would be the effect on trade within an American state if tolls were levied on the border of every county?

12. What is meant by a "robber baron"?

13. How did the names "damask" linen, "chinaware," "japanned" ware, and "cashmere" shawls originate?

14. Why was the purchasing power of money much greater in the Middle Ages than it is now?

15. Why are modern coins always made perfectly round and with "milled" edges?

16. Are modern coins "debased" to any considerable extent? What is the use of alloys?

17. Why was the money-changer so necessary a figure in medieval business?

18. How is it easy to evade laws forbidding usury?

19. Look up in an encyclopedia the legend of the "Wandering Jew." How does it illustrate the medieval attitude toward Jews?

20. Write out the English equivalents of the Italian words mentioned in footnote 20.

21. Compare the Italian despots with the Greek tyrants.

22. Show that Venice in medieval times was the seaport nearest the heart of commercial Europe.

23. Compare the Venetian and Athenian sea-empires in respect to (a) extent, (b) duration, and (c) commercial policy.

24. Why was Venice called the "bride of the sea"?

FOOTNOTES

[1] The word "city" comes through the French from the Latin civilitas, meaning citizenship, state. The word "town" (from Anglo-Saxon tun), which is now often used as a synonym of city, originally meant a village (French ville, Latin villa).Return to passage

[2] See page 437.Return to passage

[3] See page 81.Return to passage

[4] From French bourg, "town."Return to passage

[5] See pages 506, 515.Return to passage

[6] The visitor to Chester in England or Rothenburg in Germany finds the old ramparts still standing and gains an excellent idea of the cramped quarters of a medieval city. Nuremburg in southern Germany is another city which has preserved its medieval monuments.Return to passage

[7] French couvre feu, "cover fire."Return to passage

[8] In French hôtel de ville; in German Rathhaus.Return to passage

[9] German bürgermeister, from burg, "castle."Return to passage

[10] French maire, from Latin major, "greater."Return to passage

[11] Anglo-Saxon ealdorman (eald means "old").Return to passage

[12] A map of London still shows such names as Shoe Lane, Distaff Lane, Cornhill, and many other similar designations of streets.Return to passage

[13] The civic procession in London on Lord Mayor's Day is the last survival in England of these yearly shows.Return to passage

[14] See page 336.Return to passage

[15] See page 382.Return to passage

[16] See pages 47-48.Return to passage

[17] See page 417.Return to passage

[18] See page 640.Return to passage

[19] Lombard Street in London, the financial center of England, received its name from the Italian bankers who established themselves in this part of the city.Return to passage

[20] Among the Italian words having to do with commerce and banking which have come into general use are conto, disconto, risico, netto, deposito, folio, and bilanza.Return to passage

[21] See page 460.Return to passage

[22] See page 590.Return to passage

[23] See page 478.Return to passage

[24] See page 248.Return to passage

[25] Known in the Middle Ages as the Morea.Return to passage

[26] For the Venetian possessions in 1453 A.D. see the map, page 494.Return to passage

[27] From the old German hansa, a "confederacy."Return to passage

[28] See page 526.Return to passage

[29] See page 640.Return to passage

[30] In 1831 A.D. the two provinces of East Flanders and West Flanders became part of the modern kingdom of Belgium.Return to passage

XXIV. MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION [1]

200. FORMATION OF NATIONAL LANGUAGES

THE 12TH AND 13TH CENTURIES

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which in western Europe saw the rise of national states out of the chaos of feudalism and the development of cities, may be regarded as the central period of the Middle Ages. During this time there flourished a civilization which is properly described as "medieval," to distinguish it from classical civilization on the one side and modern civilization on the other side. The various European languages then began to assume something like their present form. A large body of literature, in both poetry and prose, appeared. Architecture revived, and flowered in majestic cathedrals. Education also revived, especially in the universities with their thousands of students. These and other aspects of medieval life will now engage our attention.

LATIN AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

Throughout the Middle Ages Latin continued to be an international language. The Roman Church used it for papal bulls and other documents. Prayers were recited, hymns were sung, and sometimes sermons were preached in Latin. It was also the language of men of culture everywhere in western Christendom. University professors lectured in Latin, students spoke Latin, lawyers addressed judges in Latin, and the merchants in different countries wrote Latin letters to one another. All learned books were composed in Latin until the close of the sixteenth century. This practice has not yet been entirely abandoned by European scholars.

THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES

Each European country during the Middle Ages had also its own national tongue. The so-called Romance languages, [2] including modern French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Rumanian, were derived from the Latin spoken by the Romanized inhabitants of the lands now known as France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Rumania. Their colloquial Latin naturally lacked the elegance of the literary Latin used by Caesar, Cicero, Vergil, and other classical authors. The difference between the written and spoken forms of the language became more marked from the fifth century onward, in consequence of the barbarian invasions, which brought about the decline of learning. Gradually in each country new and vigorous tongues arose, related to, yet different from, the old classical Latin in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.

FRENCH

The indebtedness of the Romance languages to Latin is well illustrated by the case of French. It contains less than a thousand words introduced by the German invaders of Gaul. Even fewer in number are the words of Celtic origin. Nearly all the rest are derived from Latin.

DEVELOPMENT OF FRENCH

The popular Latin of the Gallo-Romans gave rise to two quite independent languages in medieval France. The first was used in the southern part of the country; it was called Provençal (from Provence). The second was spoken in the north, particularly in the region about Paris. The unification of the French kingdom under Hugh Capet and his successors gradually extended the speech of northern France over the entire country. Even to-day, however, one may hear in the south of France the soft and harmonious Provençal.

THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES

The barbarians who poured from the wilds of central Europe into the Roman world brought their languages with them. But the speech of the Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Lombards disappeared, while that of the Franks in Gaul, after their conversion to Christianity, gradually gave way to the popular Latin of their subjects. The Teutonic peoples who remained outside what had been the limits of the Roman world continued to use their native tongues during the Middle Ages. From them have come modern German, Dutch, Flemish, [3] and the various Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic [4]). In their earliest known forms all these languages show unmistakable traces of a common origin.

ANGLO-SAXON

Britain was the only Roman province in the west of Europe where a Teutonic language took root and maintained itself. Here the rough, guttural speech of the Anglo-Saxons so completely drove out the popular Latin that only six words were left behind by the Romans, when they abandoned the island early in the fifth century. More Celtic words remained, words like cradle, crock, mop, and pillow, which were names of household objects, and the names of rivers, mountains, and lakes, which were not easily changed by the invaders. [5] But with such slight exceptions Anglo-Saxon was thoroughly Teutonic in vocabulary, as well as in grammar.

CHANGES IN ANGLO-SAXON

In course of time Anglo-Saxon underwent various changes. Christian missionaries, from the seventh century onward, introduced many new Latin terms for church offices, services, and observances. The Danes, besides contributing some place-names, gave us that most useful word are, and also the habit of using to before an infinitive. The coming of the Normans deeply affected Anglo-Saxon. Norman-French influence helped to make the language simpler, by ridding it of the cumbersome declensions and conjugations which it had in common with all Teutonic tongues. Many new Norman-French words also crept in, as the hostility of the English people toward their conquerors disappeared.

DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH

By the middle of the thirteenth century Anglo-Saxon, or English, as it may now be called, had taken on a somewhat familiar appearance, as in these opening words of the Lord's Prayer: "Fadir ur, that es in heven, Halud thi nam to nevene, Thou do as thi rich rike, Thi will on erd be wrought, eek as it is wrought in heven ay." In the poems of Geoffrey Chaucer (about 1340-1400 A.D.), especially in his Canterbury Tales, English wears quite a modern aspect, though the reader is often troubled by the old spelling and by certain words not now in use. The changes in the grammar of English have been so extremely small since 1485 A..D.--the beginning of the reign of Henry VII [6]--that any Englishman of ordinary education can read without difficulty a book written more than four hundred years ago.

ENGLISH AS A WORLD-LANGUAGE

What in medieval times was the speech of a few millions of Englishmen on a single small island is now spoken by at least one hundred and fifty millions of people all over the world. English is well fitted for the role of a universal language, because of its absence of inflections and its simple sentence-order. The great number of one-syllabled words in the language also makes for ease in understanding it. Furthermore, English has been, and still is, extremely hospitable to new words, so that its vocabulary has grown very fast by the adoption of terms from Latin, French, and other languages. These have immensely increased the expressiveness of English, while giving it a position midway between the very different Romance and Teutonic languages.

201. DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL LITERATURES

LATIN HYMNS

Medieval literature, though inferior in quality to that of Greece and Rome, nevertheless includes many notable productions. In the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries Latin hymns reached their perfection. The sublime Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath") presents a picture of the final judgment of the wicked. The pathetic Stabat Mater, which describes the sorrows of Mary at the foot of the Cross, has been often translated and set to music. These two works were written by a companion and biographer of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Bernard's Jesu Dulcis Memoria ("Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee") forms part of a beautiful hymn nearly two hundred lines in length. Part of another hymn, composed by a monk of Cluny, has been rendered into English as "Jerusalem the Golden." Latin hymns made use of rhyme, then something of a novelty, and thus helped to popularize this poetic device.

LATIN STUDENTS' SONGS

Very unlike the hymns in character were the Latin songs composed by students who went from one university to another in search of knowledge and adventure. Far from home, careless and pleasure-seeking, light of purse and light of heart the wandering scholars of the Middle Ages frequented taverns, as well as lecture rooms, and knew the wine-bowl even better than books. Their songs of love, of dancing, drinking, and gaming, reflect the jovial side of medieval life.

SONGS OF THE TROUBADOURS

Still another glimpse of gay society is afforded by the songs of the troubadours. These professional poets flourished in the south of France, but many of them traveled from court to court in other countries. Their verses, composed in the Provençal language, were always sung to the accompaniment of some musical instrument, generally the lute. Romantic love and deeds of chivalry were the two themes which most inspired the troubadours. They, too, took up the use of rhyme, using it so skillfully as to become the teachers of Europe in lyric poetry.

THE FRENCH EPIC

If southern France was the native home of the lyric, northern France gave birth to epic or narrative verse. Here arose many poems, describing the exploits of mythical heroes or historic kings. For a long time the poems remained unwritten and were recited by minstrels, who did not hesitate to modify and enlarge them at will. It was not until late in the eleventh century that any epics were written down. They enjoyed high esteem in aristocratic circles and penetrated all countries where feudalism prevailed.

THE CHARLEMAGNE LEGEND

Many of the French epics centered about the commanding personality of Charlemagne. After his death he became a figure of legend. He was said to have reigned one hundred and twenty-five years, to have made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and to have risen from the dead to lead the First Crusade. Angels inspired his actions. His sword contained the point of the lance which pierced the Savior's side. His standard was the banner of St. Peter. Though history shows that Charlemagne had little contact with the Moslems, in the popular mind he stood forth as the great champion of Christianity against Islam.

SONG OF ROLAND

The oldest, and at the same time the finest, epic connected with Charlemagne is the Song of Roland. [7] The poem centers around Roland, one of the twelve peers of France. When leading the rearguard of Charlemagne's army out of Spain, Roland is suddenly attacked by the treacherous Moors. He slays the enemy in heaps with his good sword, Durendal, and only after nearly all the Franks have perished sounds his magic horn to summon aid. Charlemagne, fifteen leagues distant, hears its notes and returns quickly. But before help arrives, Roland has fallen. He dies on the field of battle, with his face to the foe, and a prayer on his lips that "sweet France" may never be dishonored. This stirring poem appealed strongly to the martial Normans. A medieval chronicler relates that just before the battle of Hastings a Norman minstrel rode out between the lines, tossing his sword in air and catching it again, as he chanted the song "of Roland and of Charlemagne, of Oliver and many a brave vassal who lost his life at Roncesvalles."

THE ARTHURIAN ROMANCES

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were also important figures in medieval legend. Arthur was said to have reigned in Britain early in the sixth century and to have fought against the Anglo-Saxons. Whether he ever lived or not we do not know. In the Arthurian romances this Celtic king stands forth as the model knight, the ideal of noble chivalry. The Norman conquerors of England carried the romances to France, and here, where feudalism was so deeply rooted, they found a hearty welcome. Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d' Arthur, one of the first books to be printed in England, contains many of the narratives from which Tennyson, in his Idylls of the King, and other modern poets have drawn their inspiration.

THE NIBELINGENLIED

The greatest epic composed in Germany during the Middle Ages is the Nibelungenlied. The poem begins in Burgundy, where three kings hold court at Worms, on the Rhine. Thither comes the hero, Siegfried, ruler of the Netherlands. He had slain the mysterious Nibelungs and seized their treasure, together with the magic cloud-cloak which rendered its wearer invisible to human eyes. He had also killed a dragon and by bathing in its blood had become invulnerable, except in one place where a linden leaf touched his body. Siegfried marries Kriemhild, a beautiful Burgundian princess, and with her lives most happily. But a curse attached to the Nibelung treasure, and Siegfried's enemy, the "grim Hagen," treacherously slays him by a spear thrust in the one spot where he could be hurt. Many years afterwards Kriemhild marries Attila, king of the Huns, on condition that he help her to vengeance. Hagen and his Burgundians are invited to Hunland, where Kriemhild causes them all to be put to death. The name of the poet who compiled and probably wrote much of the Nibelungenlied remains unknown, but his work has a place among the classics of German literature.

REYNARD THE FOX

No account of medieval literature ought to omit a reference to Reynard the Fox. This is a long poem, first written in Latin, and then turned into the chief languages of Europe. The characters are animals: Reynard, cunning and audacious, who outwits all his foes; Chanticleer the cock; Bruin the Bear; Isengrim the Wolf; and many others. But they are animals in name only. We see them worship like Christians, go to Mass, ride on horseback, debate in councils, and amuse themselves with hawking and hunting. Satire often creeps in, as when the villainous Fox confesses his sins to the Badger or vows that he will go to the Holy Land on a pilgrimage. The special interest of this work lies in the fact that it expressed the feelings of the common people, groaning under the oppression of feudal lords.

THE ROBIN HOOD BALLADS

The same democratic spirit breathes in the old English ballads of the outlaw Robin Hood. According to some accounts he flourished in the second half of the twelfth century, when Henry II and Richard the Lion-hearted reigned over England. Robin Hood, with his merry men, leads an adventurous life in Sherwood Forest, engaging in feats of strength and hunting the king's tall deer. Bishops, sheriffs, and gamekeepers are his only enemies. For the common people he has the greatest pity, and robs the rich to endow the poor. Courtesy, generosity, and love of fair play are some of the characteristics which made him a popular hero. If King Arthur was the ideal knight, Robin Hood was the ideal yeoman. The ballads about him were sung by country folk for hundreds of years.

202. ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE; THE CATHEDRALS

TWO ARCHITECTURAL STYLES

The genius of the Middle Ages found its highest expression, not in books, but in buildings. For several hundred years after the barbarian invasions architecture had made little progress in western Europe, outside of Italy, which was subject to Byzantine influence, [8] and Spain, which was a center of Mohammedan culture. [9] Beginning about 800 A.D. came a revival, and the adoption of an architectural style called Romanesque, because it went back to Roman principles of construction. Romanesque architecture arose in northern Italy and southern France and gradually spread to other European countries. It was followed about 1100 A D. by the Gothic style of architecture, which prevailed during the next four centuries.

THE ROMANESQUE CHURCH

The church of the early Christians seems to have been modeled upon the Roman basilica, with its arrangement of nave and aisles, its circular arched recess (apse) at one end, and its flat, wooden ceiling supported by columns. [10] The Romanesque church departed from the basilican plan by the introduction of transepts, thus giving the building the form of a Latin cross. A dome, which might be covered by a pointed roof, was generally raised over the junction of the nave and transepts. At the same time the apse was enlarged so as to form the choir, a place reserved for the clergy.

VAULTING AND THE ROUND ARCH

The Romanesque church also differed from a basilica in the use of vaulting to take the place of a flat ceiling. The old Romans had constructed their vaulted roofs and domes in concrete, which forms a rigid mass and rests securely upon the walls like the lid of a box. [11] Medieval architects, however, built in stone, which exerts an outward thrust and tends to force the walls apart. Consequently they found it necessary to make the walls very thick and to strengthen them by piers, or buttresses, on the outside of the edifice. It was also necessary to reduce the width of the vaulted spaces. The vaulting, windows, and doorways had the form of the round arch, that is, a semicircle, as in the ancient Roman monuments. [12]

THE GOTHIC STYLE

Gothic architecture arose in France in the country around Paris, at a time when the French kingdom was taking the lead in European affairs. Later it spread to England, Germany, the Netherlands, and even to southern Europe. As an old chronicler wrote, "It was as if the whole world had thrown off the rags of its ancient time, and had arrayed itself in the white robes of the churches." The term Gothic was applied contemptuously to this architectural style by writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who regarded everything non-classical as barbarous. They believed it to be an invention of the barbarian Goths, and so they called it Gothic. The name has stuck, as bad names have a habit of doing, but nowadays every one recognizes the greatness of this medieval art. The most beautiful buildings of the Middle Ages are of Gothic architecture.

RIBBED VAULTING AND THE FLYING BUTTRESS

The Gothic style formed a natural development of the Romanesque style. The architects of a Gothic church wished to retain the vaulted ceiling but at the same time to do away with thick, solid walls, which had so little window space as to leave the interior of the building dark gloomy. They solved this problem, in the first place, by using a great number of stone ribs, which gathered up the weight of the ceiling and rested on pillars. Ribbed vaulting made possible higher ceilings, spanning wider areas, than in Romanesque churches. [13] In the second place, the pillars supporting the ribs were themselves connected by means of flying buttresses with stout piers of masonry outside the walls of the church. [14] These walls, relieved from the pressure of the ceiling, now became a mere screen to keep out the weather. They could be built of light materials and opened up with high, wide windows.

THE POINTED ARCH

Ribbed vaulting and the flying buttress are the distinctive features of Gothic architecture. A third feature, noteworthy but not so important, is the use of the pointed arch. It was not Christian in origin, for it had long been known to the Arabs in the East and the Moslem conquerors of Sicily. [15] The semicircular or round arch can be only half as high as it is wide, but the pointed arch may vary greatly in its proportions. The use of this device enabled the Gothic builder to bridge over different widths at any required height. It is also lighter and more graceful than the round arch. [16]

GOTHIC ORNAMENT

The labors of the Gothic architect were admirably seconded by those of other artists. The sculptor cut figures of men, animals, and plants in the utmost profusion. The painter covered vacant wall spaces with brilliant mosaics and frescoes. The wood-carver made exquisite choir stalls, pulpits, altars, and screens. Master workmen filled the stone tracery of the windows with stained glass unequaled in coloring by the finest modern work. Some rigorous churchmen like St. Bernard condemned the expense of these magnificent cathedrals, but most men found in their beauty an additional reason to praise God.

THE CATHEDRAL AS A RELIGIOUS EDIFICE

The Gothic cathedral, in fact, perfectly expressed the religious spirit of the Middle Ages. For its erection kings and nobles offered costly gifts. The common people, when they had no money to give, contributed their labor, each man doing what he could to carry upward the walls and towers and to perfect every part of God's dwelling. The interior of such a cathedral, with its vast nave rising in swelling arches to the vaulted roof, its clustered columns, its glowing windows, and infinite variety of ornamentation, forms the most awe-inspiring sanctuary ever raised by man. It is a prayer, a hymn, a sermon in stone.

THE SECULAR GOTHIC

Gothic architecture, though at first confined to churches, came to be used for other buildings. Among the monuments of the secular Gothic are beautiful town halls, guild halls, markets, and charming private houses. [17] But the cathedral remained the best expression of the Gothic style.

203. EDUCATION; THE UNIVERSITIES

COMMON SCHOOLS

Not less important than the Gothic cathedrals for the understanding of medieval civilization were the universities. They grew out of the monastic and cathedral schools where boys were trained to become monks or priests. Such schools had been created or restored by Charlemagne. [18] The teaching, which lay entirely in the hands of the clergy, was elementary in character. Pupils learned enough Latin grammar to read religious books, if not always to understand them, and enough music to follow the services of the Church. They also studied arithmetic by means of the awkward Roman notation, received a smattering of astronomy, and sometimes gained a little knowledge of such subjects as geography, law, and philosophy. Besides these monastic and cathedral schools, others were maintained by the guilds. Boys who had no regular schooling often received instruction from the parish priest of the village or town. Illiteracy was common enough in medieval times, but the mass of the people were by no means entirely uneducated.

RISE OF UNIVERSITIES

Between 1150 and 1500 A.D. at least eighty universities were established in western Europe. Some speedily became extinct, but there are still about fifty European institutions of learning which started in the Middle Ages. The earliest universities did not look to the state or to some princely benefactor for their foundation. They arose, as it were, spontaneously. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries Europe felt the thrill of a great intellectual revival. It was stimulated by intercourse with the highly cultivated Arabs in Spain, Sicily, and the East, and with the Greek scholars of Constantinople during the crusades. The desire for instruction became so general that the common schools could not satisfy it. Other schools were then opened in the cities and to them flocked eager learners from every quarter.

PETER ABELARD 1079-1142 A.D.

How easily a university might grow up about the personality of some eminent teacher is shown by the career of Abelard. The eldest son of a noble family in Brittany, Abelard would naturally have entered upon a military career, but he chose instead the life of a scholar and the contests of debate. When still a young man he came to Paris and attended the lectures given by a master of the cathedral school of Notre Dame. Before long he had overcome his instructor in discussion, thus establishing his own reputation. At the early age of twenty-two Abelard himself set up as a lecturer. Few teachers have ever attracted so large and so devoted a following. His lecture room under the shadow of the great cathedral was filled with a crowd of youths and men drawn from all countries.

UNIVERSITY OF PARIS

The fame of Abelard led to an increase of masters and students at Paris and so paved the way for the establishment of the university there, later in the twelfth century. Paris soon became such a center of learning, particularly in theology and philosophy, that a medieval writer referred to it as "the mill where the world's corn is ground, and the hearth where its bread is baked." The university of Paris, in the time of its greatest prosperity, had over five thousand students. It furnished the model for the English university of Oxford, as well as for the learned institutions of Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.

UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA

The institutions of learning in southern Europe were modeled, more or less, upon the university of Bologna. At this Italian city, in the middle of the twelfth century, a celebrated teacher named Irnerius gathered about him thousands of pupils for the study of the Justinian code. [19] The university developed out of his law school. Bologna was the center from which the Roman system of jurisprudence made its way into France, Germany, and other Continental countries. From Bologna, also, came the monk Gratian, who drew up the accepted text-book of canon law, as followed in all Church courts. [20] What Roman law was to the Empire canon law was to the Papacy.

UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION

The word "university" [21] meant at first simply a union or association. In the Middle Ages all artisans were organized in guilds, [22] and when masters and pupils associated themselves for teaching and study they naturally copied the guild form. This was the more necessary since the student body included so many foreigners, who found protection against annoyances only as members of a guild.

DEGREES

Like a craft guild a university consisted of masters (the professors), who had the right to teach, and students, both elementary and advanced, who corresponded to apprentices and journeymen. After several years of study a student who had passed part of his examination became a "bachelor of arts" and might teach certain elementary subjects to those beneath him. Upon the completion of the full course--usually six years in length--the bachelor took his final examinations and, if he passed them, received the coveted degree of "master of arts." But as is the case to-day, many who attended the universities never took a degree at all.

THE TEACHERS

A university of the Middle Ages did not need an expensive collection of libraries, laboratories, and museums. Its only necessary equipment consisted in lecture rooms for the professors. Not even benches or chairs were required. Students often sat on the straw-strewn floors. The high price of manuscripts compelled professors to give all instruction by lectures. This method of teaching has been retained in modern universities, since even the printed book is a poor substitute for a scholar's inspiring words.

THE STUDENTS

The universities being under the protection of the Church, it was natural that those who attended them should possess some of the privileges of clergymen. Students were not required to pay taxes or to serve in the army. They also enjoyed the right of trial in their own courts. This was an especially valuable privilege, for medieval students were constantly getting into trouble with the city authorities. The sober annals of many a university are relieved by tales of truly Homeric conflicts between Town and Gown. When the students were dissatisfied with their treatment in one place, it was always easy for them to go to another university. Sometimes masters and scholars made off in a body. Oxford appears to have owed its existence to a large migration of English students from Paris, Cambridge arose as the result of a migration from Oxford, and the German university of Leipzig sprang from that of Prague in Bohemia.

COLLEGES

The members of a university usually lived in a number of colleges. These seem to have been at first little more than lodging-houses, where poor students were cared for at the expense of some benefactor. In time, however, as the colleges increased in wealth, through the gifts made to them, they became centers of instruction under the direction of masters. At Oxford and Cambridge, where the collegiate system has been retained to the present time, each college has its separate buildings and enjoys the privilege of self-government.

FACULTIES

The studies in a medieval university were grouped under the four faculties of arts, theology, law, and medicine. The first-named faculty taught the "seven liberal arts," that is, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. They formed a legacy from old Roman education. Theology, law, and medicine then, as now, were professional studies, taken up after the completion of the Arts course. Owing to the constant movement of students from one university to another, each institution tended to specialize in one or more subjects. Thus, Paris came to be noted for theology, Montpellier, Padua, and Salerno for medicine, and Orléans, Bologna, and Salamanca for law.

204. SCHOLASTICISM

THEOLOGICAL STUDY

Theology formed the chief subject of instruction in most medieval universities. Nearly all the celebrated scholars of the age were theologians. They sought to arrange the doctrines of the Church in systematic and reasonable form, in order to answer those great questions concerning the nature of God and of the soul which have always occupied the human mind. For this purpose it was necessary to call in the aid of philosophy. The union of theology and philosophy produced what is known as scholasticism. [23]

ABELARD AND FREEDOM OF THOUGHT

The scholastics were loyal children of the Church and did not presume to question her teaching in matters of religion. They held that faith precedes reason. "The Christian," it was said, "ought to advance to knowledge through faith, not come to faith through knowledge." The brilliant Abelard, with his keenly critical mind, found what he considered a flaw in this position: on many subjects the authorities themselves disagreed. To show this he wrote a little book called Sic et Non ("Yes and No"), setting forth the conflicting opinions of the Church Fathers on one hundred and fifty-eight points of theology. In such cases how could truth be reached unless one reasoned it out for oneself? "Constant questioning," he declared, "is the key to wisdom.... Through doubting we come to inquiry and through inquiry we perceive the truth." But this reliance on the unaided human reason as a means of obtaining knowledge did not meet with approval, and Abelard's views were condemned as unsound. Abelard, indeed, was a man in advance of his age. Freedom of thought had to wait many centuries before its rights should be acknowledged.

STUDY OF ARISTOTLE

The philosophy on which the scholastics relied was chiefly that of Aristotle. [24] Christian Europe read him at first in Latin translations from the Arabic, but versions were later made from Greek copies found in Constantinople and elsewhere in the East. This revival of Aristotle, though it broadened men's minds by acquainting them with the ideas of the greatest of Greek thinkers, had serious drawbacks. It discouraged rather than favored the search for fresh truth. Many scholastics were satisfied to appeal to Aristotle's authority, rather than take the trouble of finding out things for themselves. The story is told of a medieval student who, having detected spots in the sun, announced his discovery to a learned man. "My son," said the latter, "I have read Aristotle many times, and I assure you there is nothing of the kind mentioned by him. Be certain that the spots which you have seen are in your eyes and not in the sun."

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, 1227-1274 A.D.

There were many famous scholastics, or "schoolmen," but easily the foremost among them was the Italian monk, Thomas Aquinas. He taught at Paris, Cologne, Rome, and Bologna, and became so celebrated for learning as to be known as the "Angelic Doctor." Though Aquinas died at an early age, he left behind him no less than eighteen folio volumes. His Summa Theologiae ("Compendium of Theology"), as the name indicates, gathered up all that the Middle Ages believed of the relations between God and man. The Roman Church has placed him among her saints and still recommends the study of his writings as the foundation of all sound theology.

THE SCHOLASTIC METHOD

Enough has been said to show that the method of study in medieval universities was not that which generally obtains to-day. There was almost no original research. Law students memorized the Justinian code. Medical students learned anatomy and physiology from old Greek books, instead of in the dissecting room. Theologians and philosophers went to the Bible, the Church Fathers, or Aristotle for the solution of all problems. They often debated the most subtle questions, for instance, "Can God ever know more than He knows that He knows?" Mental gymnastics of this sort furnished a good training in logic, but added nothing to the sum of human knowledge. Scholasticism, accordingly, fell into disrepute, in proportion as men began to substitute scientific observation and experiment for speculation.

205. SCIENCE AND MAGIC

SCIENTIFIC INVENTIONS

Not all medieval learning took the form of scholasticism. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were marked by a healthy interest in science. Long encyclopedias, written in Latin, collected all available information about the natural world. The study of physics made conspicuous progress, partly as a result of Arab influence. Various scientific inventions, including magnifying glasses and clocks, were worked out. The mariner's compass, perhaps derived from the Arabs, also came into general use. [25]

ROGER BACON, ABOUT 1214-1294 A.D.

As representative of this scientific interest we may take the Englishman, Roger Bacon. He studied at Paris, where his attainments secured for him the title of the "Wonderful Doctor," and lectured at Oxford. At a period when Aristotle's influence was unbounded, Bacon turned away from scholastic philosophy to mathematics and the sciences. No great discoveries were made by him, but it is interesting to read a passage in one of his works where some modern inventions are distinctly foreseen. In time, he wrote, ships will be moved without rowers, and carriages will be propelled without animals to draw them. Machines for flying will also be constructed, "wherein a man sits revolving some engine by which artificial wings are made to beat the air like a flying bird." Even in Bacon's day it would appear that men were trying to make steamboats, automobiles, and aëroplanes.

GUNPOWDER

The discovery of gunpowder, a compound of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulphur, has often been attributed to Bacon, probably incorrectly. Bacon and other men of his time seem to have been familiar with the composition of gunpowder, but they regarded it as merely a sort of firework, producing a sudden and brilliant flame. They little suspected that in a confined space the expansive power of its gases could be used to hurl projectiles. Gunpowder was occasionally manufactured during the fourteenth century, but for a long time it made more noise than it did harm. Small brass cannon, throwing stone balls, began at length to displace the medieval siege weapons, and still later muskets took the place of the bow, the cross-bow, and the pike. The revolution in the art of warfare introduced by gunpowder had vast importance. It destroyed the usefulness of the castle and enabled the peasant to fight the mailed knight on equal terms. Gunpowder, accordingly, must be included among the forces which brought about the downfall of feudalism.

CHEMISTRY AND ALCHEMY

The study of chemistry also engaged the attention of medieval investigators. It was, however, much mixed up with alchemy, a false science which the Middle Ages had received from the Greeks, and they, in turn, from the Egyptians. The alchemists believed that minerals possessed a real life of their own and that they were continually developing in the ground toward the state of gold, the perfect metal. It was necessary, therefore, to discover the "philosopher's stone," which would turn all metals into gold. The alchemists never found it, but they learned a good deal about the various metals and discovered a number of compounds and colors. In this way alchemy contributed to the advance of chemistry.

ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY

Astronomy in the Middle Ages was the most advanced of any natural science, though the telescope and the Copernican theory [26] were as yet in the future. Astronomy, the wise mother, had a foolish daughter, astrology, the origin of which can be traced back to Babylonia. [27] Medieval students no longer regarded the stars as divine, but they believed that the natural world and the life of men were controlled by celestial influences. Hence astrologers professed to predict the fate of a person from the position of the planets at the time of his birth. Astrological rules were also drawn from the signs of the zodiac. A child born under the sign of the Lion will be courageous; one born under the Crab will not go forward well in life; one born under the Waterman will probably be drowned, and so forth. Such fancies seem absurd enough, but in the Middle Ages educated people entertained them.

MEDIEVAL CREDULITY

Alchemy and astrology were not the only instances of medieval credulity. The most improbable stories found ready acceptance. Roger Bacon, for instance, thought that "flying dragons" still existed in Europe and that eating their flesh lengthened human life. Works on natural history soberly described the lizard-like salamander, which dwelt in fire, and the phoenix, a bird which, after living for five hundred years, burned itself to death and then rose again full grown from the ashes. Another fabulous creature was the unicorn, with the head and body of a horse, the hind legs of an antelope, the beard of a goat, and a long, sharp horn set in the middle of the forehead. Various plants and minerals were also credited with marvelous powers. Thus, the nasturtium, used as a liniment, would keep one's hair from falling out, and the sapphire, when powdered and mixed with milk, would heal ulcers and cure headache. Such quaint beliefs linger to-day among uneducated people, even in civilized lands.

MAGICIANS

Magicians of every sort flourished in the Middle Ages. Oneiromancers [28] took omens from dreams. Palmists read fortunes in the lines and irregularities of the hand. Necromancers [29] professed to reveal the future by pretended communications with departed spirits. Other magicians made talismans or lucky objects to be worn on the person, mirrors in which the images of the dead or the absent were reflected, and various powders which, when mixed with food or drink, would inspire hatred or affection in the one consuming them. Indeed, it would be easy to draw up a long list of the devices by which practitioners of magic made a living at the expense of the ignorant and the superstitious.

206. POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS

FOLK TALES

Many medieval superstitions are preserved in folk tales, or "fairy stories." Every child now reads these tales in books, but until the nineteenth century very few of them had been collected and written down. [30] They lived on the lips of the people, being told by mothers and nurses to children and by young and old about the firesides during the long winter evenings. Story-telling formed one of the chief amusements of the Middle Ages.

FAIRIES

The fairies who appear so commonly in folk tales are known by different names. They are bogies, brownies, goblins, pixies, kobolds (in Germany), trolls (in Denmark), and so on. The Celts, especially, had a lively faith in fairies, and it was from Wales, Scotland, and Ireland that many stories about them became current in Europe after the tenth century. Some students have explained the belief in fairies as due to memories of an ancient pygmy people dwelling in underground homes. But most of these supernatural beings seem to be the descendants of the spirits and demons which in savage fancy haunt the world.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FAIRIES

A comparison of European folk tales shows that fairies have certain characteristics in common. They live in palaces underneath the ground, from which they emerge at twilight to dance in mystic circles. They are ruled by kings and queens and are possessed of great wealth. Though usually invisible, they may sometimes be seen, especially by people who have the faculty of perceiving spirits. To mortals the fairies are generally hostile, leading wanderers astray, often blighting crops and cattle, and shooting arrows which carry disease and death. They are constantly on the watch to carry off human beings to their realm. A prisoner must be released at the end of a certain time, unless he tastes fairy food, in which event he can never return. Children in cradles are frequently snatched away by the fairies, who leave, instead, imps of their own called "changelings." A changeling may always be recognized by its peevishness and backwardness in learning to walk and speak. If well treated, the fairies will sometimes show their gratitude by bestowing on their favorites health, wealth, and long life. Lucky the child who can count on a "fairy god-mother."

GIANTS AND OGRES

Stories of giants are common in folk tales. Giants are often represented as not only big but also stupid, and as easily overcome by keen-witted human foes like "Jack the Giant-killer." It may be that traditions of pre- historic peoples have sometimes given birth to legends of giants. Another source of stories concerning them has been the discovery of huge fossil bones, such as those of the mammoth or mastodon, which were formerly supposed to be bones of gigantic men. The ogres, who sometimes figure in folk tales, are giants with a taste for human flesh. They recall the cannibals of the savage world.

WEREWOLVES

Werewolves were persons who, by natural gift or magic art, were thought to have the power of turning themselves for a time into wild beasts (generally wolves or bears). In this animal shape they ravaged flocks and devoured young children. A werewolf was said to sleep only two nights in the month and to spend the rest of the time roaming the woods and fields. Trials of persons accused of being werewolves were held in France as late as the end of the sixteenth century. Even now the belief is found in out- of-the-way parts of Europe.

THE EVIL EYE

Another medieval superstition was that of the evil eye. According to this belief, certain persons could bewitch, injure, and kill by a glance. Children and domestic animals were thought to be particularly susceptible to the effects of "fascination." In order to guard against it charms of various sorts, including texts from the Bible, were carried about. The belief in the evil eye came into Europe from pagan antiquity. It survived the Middle Ages and lingers yet among uneducated people.

WITCHCRAFT

The superstitions relating to werewolves and the evil eye are particular forms of the belief in witchcraft, or "black magic." The Middle Ages could not escape this delusion, which was firmly held by the Greeks and Romans and other ancient peoples. Witchcraft had, indeed, a prehistoric origin and the belief in it still prevails in savage society.

FEATURES OF EUROPEAN WITCHCRAFT

Witches and wizards were supposed to have sold themselves to the Devil, receiving in return the power to work magic. They could change themselves or others into animals, they had charms against the hurt of weapons, they could raise storms and destroy crops, and they could convey thorns, pins, and other objects into their victims' bodies, thus causing sickness and death. At night they rode on broomsticks through the air and assembled in some lonely place for feasts, dances, and wild revels. At these "Witches' Sabbaths," as they were called, the Devil himself attended and taught his followers their diabolic arts. There were various tests for the discovery of witches and wizards, the most usual being the ordeal by water. [31]

WITCHCRAFT PERSECUTIONS

The numerous trials and executions for witchcraft form a dark page in history. Thousands of harmless old men and women were put to death on the charge of being leagued with the Devil. Even the most intelligent and humane people believed in the reality of witchcraft and found a justification for its punishment in the Scriptural command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." [32] The witch epidemic which broke out in America during the seventeenth century, reaching its height at Salem, Massachusetts, was simply a reflection of the European fear and hatred of witches.

UNLUCKY DAYS

The Middle Ages inherited from antiquity the observance of unlucky days. They went under the name of "Egyptian days," so called because it was held that on one of them the plagues had been sent to devastate the land of Egypt and on another Pharaoh and his host had been swallowed up in the Red Sea. At least twenty-four days in the year were regarded as very unlucky. At such times one ought not to buy and sell, to build a house, to plant a field, to travel or, in fact, to undertake anything at all important. After the sixteenth century the belief in unlucky days declined, but there still exists a prejudice against fishermen starting out to fish, or seamen to take a voyage, or landsmen a journey, or domestic servants to enter a new place, on a Friday.

207. POPULAR AMUSEMENTS AND FESTIVALS

INDOOR GAMES

It is pleasant to turn from the superstitions of the Middle Ages to the games, sports, and festivals which helped to make life agreeable alike for rich and poor, for nobles and peasants. Some indoor games are of eastern origin. Thus chess, with which European peoples seem to have become acquainted as early as the tenth century [33] arose in India as a war game. On each side a king and his general, with chariots, cavalry, elephants, and infantry, met in battle array. These survive in the rooks, knights, bishops, and pawns of the modern game. Checkers is a sort of simplified chess, in which the pieces are all pawns, till they get across the board and become kings. Playing cards are another Oriental invention. They were introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century, either by the Arabs or the gypsies. Their first use seems to have been for telling fortunes.

OUTDOOR GAMES

Many outdoor games are derived from those played in medieval times. How one kind of game may become the parent of many others is seen in the case of the ball-play. The ancients tossed and caught balls as children do now. They also had a game in which each side tried to secure the ball and throw it over the adversary's goal line. This game lasted on into the Middle Ages, and from it football has descended. The ancients seem never to have used a stick or bat in their ball-play. The Persians, however, began to play ball on horseback, using a long mallet for the purpose, and introduced their new sport throughout Asia. Under the Tibetan name of pulu ("ball") it found its way into Europe. When once the mallet had been invented for use on horseback, it could be easily used on foot, and so polo gave rise to the various games in which balls are hit with bats, including tennis, hockey, golf, cricket, and croquet.

BAITING

The difference between our ideas of what constitutes "sport" and those of our ancestors is shown by the popularity of baiting. In the twelfth century bulls, bears, and even horses were baited. Cock-fighting formed another common amusement. It was not till the nineteenth century that an English society for the prevention of cruelty to animals succeeded in getting a law passed which forbade these cruel sports. Most other European countries have now followed England's example.

FESTIVALS

No account of life in the Middle Ages can well omit some reference to the celebration of festivals. For the peasant and artisan they provided relief from physical exertion, and for all classes of society the pageants, processions, sports, feasts, and merry-makings which accompanied them furnished welcome diversion. Medieval festivals included not only those of the Christian Year, [34] but also others which had come down from pre- Christian times.

SEASONAL FESTIVALS

Many festivals not of Christian origin were derived from the ceremonies with which the heathen peoples of Europe had been accustomed to mark the changes of the seasons. Thus, April Fool's Day formed a relic of festivities held at the vernal equinox. May Day, another festival of spring, honored the spirits of trees and of all budding vegetation. The persons who acted as May kings and May queens represented these spirits. According to the original custom a new May tree was cut down in the forest every year, but later a permanent May pole was set up on the village common. On Midsummer Eve (June 23), which marked the summer solstice, came the fire festival, when people built bonfires and leaped over them, walked in procession with torches round the fields, and rolled burning wheels down the hillsides. These curious rites may have been once connected with sun worship. Hallow Eve, so called from being the eve of All Saints' Day (November 1), also seems to have been a survival of a heathen celebration. On this night witches and fairies were supposed to assemble. Hallow Eve does not appear to have been a season for pranks and jokes, as is its present degenerate form. Even the festival of Christmas, coming at the winter solstice, kept some heathen features, such as the use of mistletoe with which Celtic priests once decked the altars of their gods. The Christmas tree, however, is not a relic of heathenism. It seems to have come into use as late as the seventeenth century.

THE MORRIS DANCE

Young and old took part in the dances which accompanied village festivals. Very popular in medieval England was the Morris dance. The name, a corruption of Moorish, refers to its origin in Spain. The Morris dance was especially associated with May Day and was danced round a May pole to a lively and capering step. The performers represented Robin Hood, Maid Marian, his wife, Tom the Piper, and other traditional characters. On their garments they wore bells tuned to different notes, so as to sound in harmony.

MUMMING

Mumming had a particular association with Christmas. Mummers were bands of men and women who disguised themselves in masks and skins of animals and then serenaded people outside their houses. Oftentimes the mummers acted out little plays in which Father Christmas, Old King Cole, and St. George were familiar figures.

MIRACLE PLAYS

Besides these village amusements, many plays of a religious character came into vogue during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The earliest were the miracle plays. They presented in dramatic form scenes from the Bible and stories of the saints or martyrs. The actors at first were priests, and the stage was the church itself or the churchyard. This religious setting did not prevent the introduction of clowns and buffoons. After a time the miracle play passed from the clergy to the guilds. All the guilds of a town usually gave an exhibition once a year. Each guild presented a single scene in the story. An exhibition might last for several days and have as many as fifty scenes, beginning at Creation and ending with Doomsday. [35]

MORALITY PLAYS

The miracle plays were followed by the "moralities." They dealt with the struggle between good and evil, rather than with theology. Characters such as Charity, Faith, Prudence, Riches, Confession, and Death appeared and enacted a story intended to teach moral lessons. [36] Out of the rude "morality" and its predecessor, the miracle play, has grown the drama of modern times.

208. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

DWELLINGS

A previous chapter (Chapter XVIII.) described some features of domestic life in castle and village during the age of feudalism. In England, where the Norman kings discouraged castle building, the manor house formed the ordinary residence of the nobility. Even in Continental Europe many castles were gradually made over into manor houses after the cessation of feudal warfare. A manor house, however, was only less bare and inconvenient than a castle. It was still poorly lighted, ill-ventilated, and in winter scarcely warmed by the open wood fires. Among the improvements of the fourteenth century were the building of a fireplace at one or both ends of the manor hall, instead of in the center, and the substitution of glass windows for wooden shutters or oiled paper.

FURNITURE

People in the Middle Ages, even the well-to-do, got along with little furniture. The great hall of a manor house contained a long dining table, with benches used at meals, and a few stools. The family beds often occupied curtained recesses in the walls, but guests might have to sleep on the floor of the manor hall. Servants often slept in the stables. Few persons could afford rugs to cover the floor; the poor had to put up with rushes. Utensils were not numerous, and articles of glass and silver were practically unknown, except in the houses of the rich. Entries in wills show the high value set upon a single spoon.

COSTUME

The pictures in old manuscripts give us a good idea of medieval dress. Naturally it varied with time and place, and according to the social position of the wearer. Sometimes laws were passed, without much result, to regulate the quality, shape, and cost of the costumes to be worn by different orders of society. The moralists of the age were shocked, then as now, when tightly fitting garments, which showed the outlines of the body, became fashionable. The inconvenience of putting them on led to the use of buttons and buttonholes. Women's headdresses were often of extraordinary height and shape. Not less remarkable were the pointed shoes worn by men. The points finally got so long that they hindered walking, unless tied by a ribbon to the knees.

BEARDS

The medieval noble of the twelfth century as a rule went clean shaven. To wear a beard was regarded as a sign of effeminacy in a man. The Bayeux Tapestry, [37] for instance, shows the Normans mostly clean-shaven, while the English wear only moustaches. The introduction of long beards seems to have been due to contact with the East during the crusading period.

BATHS AND BATHING

Regular bathing was not by any means neglected during the later Middle Ages. In the country districts river, lake, or pool met the needs of people used to outdoor life. The hot air and vapor baths of the Byzantines were adopted by the Moslems and later, through the Moors and crusaders, were made known to western Europe. After the beginning of the thirteenth century few large cities lacked public bathing places.

FOOD

Medieval cookbooks show that people of means had all sorts of elaborate and expensive dishes. Dinner at a nobleman's house might include as many as ten or twelve courses, mostly meats and game. Such things as hedgehogs, peacocks, sparrows, and porpoises, which would hardly tempt the modern palate, were relished. Much use was made of spices in preparing meats and gravies, and also for flavoring wines. Over-eating was a common vice in the Middle Ages, but the open-air life and constant exercise enabled men and women to digest the huge quantities of food they consumed.

TABLE ETIQUETTE

People in medieval times had no knives or forks and consequently ate with their fingers. Daggers also were employed to convey food to the mouth. Forks date from the end of the thirteenth century, but were adopted only slowly. As late as the sixteenth century German preachers condemned their use, for, said they, the Lord would not have given us fingers if he had wanted us to rely on forks. Napkins were another table convenience unknown in the Middle Ages.

DRINKING

In the absence of tea and coffee, ale and beer formed the drink of the common people. The upper classes regaled themselves on costly wines. Drunkenness was as common and as little reprobated as gluttony. The monotony of life in medieval Europe, when the nobles had little to do but hunt and fight, may partly account for the prevailing inebriety. But doubtless in large measure it was a Teutonic characteristic. The Northmen were hard drinkers, and of the ancient Germans a Roman writer states that "to pass an entire day and night in drinking disgraces no one." [38] This habit of intoxication survived in medieval Germany, and the Anglo-Saxons and Danes introduced it into England.

CENTRAL PERIOD OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Our survey of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has now shown us that these two hundred years deserve to be called the central period of the Middle Ages. When the Arabs had brought the culture of the Orient to Spain and Sicily, when the Northmen after their wonderful expansion had settled down in Normandy, England, and other countries, and when the peoples of western Europe, whether as peaceful pilgrims or as warlike crusaders, had visited Constantinople and the Holy Land, men's minds received a wonderful stimulus. The intellectual life of Europe was "speeded up," and the way was prepared for the even more rapid advance of knowledge in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as the Middle Ages passed into modern times.

STUDIES

1. Look up on the map between pages 358-359 the following places where Gothic cathedrals are found: Canterbury, York, Salisbury, Reims, Amiens, Chartres, Cologne, Strassburg, Burgos, Toledo, and Milan.

2. Look up on the map facing page 654 the location of the following medieval universities: Oxford, Montpellier, Paris, Orléans, Cologne, Leipzig, Prague, Naples, and Salamanca.

3. Explain the following terms: scholasticism; canon law; alchemy; troubadours; Provençal language; transept; choir; flying buttress; werewolf; and mumming.

4. Who were St. Thomas Aquinas, Abelard, Gratian, Irnerius, and Roger Bacon?

5. Show how Latin served as an international language in the Middle Ages. Name two artificial languages which have been invented as a substitute for Latin.

6. What is meant by saying that "French is a mere patois of Latin"?

7. In what parts of the world is English now the prevailing speech?

8. Why has Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungenlied, been called the "Achilles of Teutonic legend"?

9. What productions of medieval literature reflect aristocratic and democratic ideals, respectively?

10. Distinguish between the Romanesque and Gothic styles of architecture. What is the origin of each term?

11. Compare the ground plans of a Greek temple (page 291), a Roman basilica (page 284), and a Gothic cathedral (page 562).

12. Contrast a Gothic cathedral with a Greek temple, particularly in regard to size, height, support of the roof, windows, and decorative features.

13. Why is there some excuse for describing a Gothic building as "a wall of glass with a roof of stone"?

14. Do you see any resemblance in structural features between a Gothic cathedral and a modern "sky-scraper"?

15. Mention some likenesses between medieval and modern universities.

16. Mention some important subjects of instruction in modern universities which were not treated in those of the Middle Ages.

17. Why has scholasticism been called "a sort of Aristotelian Christianity"?

18. Look up the original meaning of the words "jovial," "saturnine," "mercurial," "disastrous," "contemplate," and "consider."

19. Show the indebtedness of chemistry to alchemy and of astronomy to astrology.

20. Mention some common folk tales which illustrate medieval superstitions.

21. Why was Friday regarded as a specially unlucky day?

22. Enumerate the most important contributions to civilization made during the Middle Ages.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xvii, "Medieval Tales"; chapter xviii, "Three Medieval Epics."

[2] See pages 203, 322.Return to passage

[3] The language spoken by the natives of Flanders. The country is now divided between France, Belgium, and Holland. See page 549.Return to passage

[4] Icelandic is the oldest and purest form of Scandinavian. Danish and Norwegian are practically the same, in fact, their literary or book- language is one.Return to passage

[5] Two names for rivers--Avon and Ex--which in one form or another are found in every part of England, are Celtic words meaning "water."Return to passage

[6] See page 518.Return to passage

[7] See page 309, note 1.Return to passage

[8] See page 336.Return to passage

[9] See page 386.Return to passage

[10] See pages 284, 344.Return to passage

[11] See page 283.Return to passage

[12] The cathedral, baptistery, and campanile of Pisa form an interesting example of Romanesque architecture. See the illustration, page 544.Return to passage

[13] The interior of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, shows the ribs and the beautiful tracery of the ceiling of a Gothic building. See the plate facin page 570.Return to passage

[14] The flying buttress is well shown in the view of Canterbury Cathedral (page 324).Return to passage

[15] See page 386.Return to passage

[16] For the pointed arch see the view of Melrose Abbey (page 660).Return to passage

[17] See the illustrations, pages 550, 551.Return to passage

[18] See page 310.Return to passage

[19] See pages 207, 331.Return to passage

[20] See page 444.Return to passage

[21] Latin universitas.Return to passage

[22] See page 536.Return to passage

[23] The method of the school (Latin schola).Return to passage

[24] See pages 275 and 383.Return to passage

[25] See page 618.Return to passage

[26] See pages 133 and 608.Return to passage

[27] See page 53.Return to passage

[28] Greek oneiros, "dream."Return to passage

[29] Greek nekros, "corpse."Return to passage

[30] Charles Perrault's Tales of Passed Times appeared at Paris in 1697 A.D. It included the now-familiar stories of "Bluebeard," "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," and "Little Red Riding Hood." In 1812 A.D. the brothers Grimm published their Household Tales, a collection of stories current in Germany.Return to passage

[31] See page 420.Return to passage

[32] Exodus, xxii, 18.Return to passage

[33] See page 428.Return to passage

[34] See page 346.Return to passage

[35] The great Passion Play at Ober Ammergau in Germany is the modern survival and representative of this medieval religious drama.Return to passage

[36] Everyman, one of the best of the morality plays, has recently been revived before large audiences.Return to passage

[37] See the illustration, page 408.Return to passage

[38] Tacitus, Germania, 22.Return to passage