Empire and Papacy in the Middle Ages. An introduction to the study of mediaeval history for use in schools

Introduction

TO THE STUDY OF MEDIÆVAL HISTORY FOR USE IN SCHOOLS BY ALICE D. GREENWOOD Assistant-Hist -,-ess in North Manchester High School fox' Girls, axid late of the Cliftoxi Sigh School 1.0nti0n SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. NEW YORK : MACMLLLAN & CO. Butlee & Tan-nee, The Selwood Printing Wobes. Feome, and London.

Preface

. This little book is written for the use of those who have not yet made acquaintance with the history of the Mediæval Empire in the West. It aims, there fore, at giving broadly faithful pictures of the more important and interesting scenes and persons through out a very long period, and, as I have preferred omitting many facts and details to crowding the pages with mere names, a long series of events must sometimes be summed up in one paragraph. But I have attempted to observe due proportions, and I hope that, should the book ever be used in schools, teachers will find it to be so arranged as to lend itself easily to further expansion. In so small a book it would have been inappropriate to discuss vexed questions of history. If I have appeared to assume too much as proven, it is partly because in an introductory sketch I have thought clearness as important as correctness of detail.

For the insertion of certain famous traditions I do not apologise : if not actually true, they usually give a truthful picture, and at least show us how, for centuries, men re- V Preface. VI garded certain deeds and heroes; they are a part of historical literature which only the scholar can afford to disregard, because he already knows them. I make no claim to originality, or (except for the epoch of Gregory VII.) to have investigated con temporary authorities, but have compiled principally from the standard works of Giesebrecht, Gregorovius Raumer, Sybel, Martin, Sismondi, Gibbon, Creighton, Milman, Finlay, Bryce, and Glaister's translation of Eginhard ; from George's Genealogical Tables, and the atlases of Droysen and Spruner Menke. I beg to acknowledge with gratitude my great indebtedness to the lectures of Mr. A. L. Smith, of Balliol College, Oxford.

A. D. GREENWOOD. Shorter Books of Reference : A good summary of German history may be found in Lewis' History of Germany ; of the Italian Republics in Sismondi's Italian Republics (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclo pædia) ; the philosophy of the great struggle in Bryce's Holy Roman Empire ; a general survey of Europe in Duruy's Histoire du Moyen Age. Mr. Glaister's Egin hard's Life of the Emperor Karl the Great is very in teresting, as is Mr. Hodgkin's Theodoric (Heroes of the Nations). CONTENTS. PAGE Preface v Introduction is,

Chapter I

— The Ancient Boman Empire and its Fall . 1 II. — Theodoric and Belisarius in Italy . . .11 III. — Bome and the Unity of the Church . . 17 IV.— The Franks 24 V. — Charles the Great 29 VI.— The Fall of the Carolingians .... 43 VII. — The German Tribes Preserve Unity — Saxon Emperors 57 VIII. — First Strife of Empire and Papacy — Hildebrand 73 IX. — Gregory VII. and Henry IV.— Investitures . 84 X. — The First and Second Crusades ... 96 XI. — The First Guelfs and Ghibelines . . . 107 XII. — Frederick Barbarossa and Italy . . . 115 XIII. — Might of the Papacy — Innocent III. . . 131 XIV. — The Fall of the Hohenstaufen . . . 141 Contents. Vlll CHAPTEB PAGE XV.— Chivalry 155 XVI. — The Break-up of Germany .... 163 XVII. — The Avignon Captivity 171 XVIII. — The Last Guelfs and Ghibelines . . . 180 XIX. — The Last Mediæval Emperors . . . 194 XX. — The Schism and the Council of Constance 205 XXI. — Benaissance and Beformation . . . 213 Genealogical Tables 221 Parallel Tables of Mediæval Monarchs . . . 223 Summary

INTRODUCTION.

. Nothing in the world's history is more beautiful than the immortality of great ideals ; the forms which they inspire do indeefl change, but the ideals themselves reappear from age to age, and are but rarely forgotten or replaced. The history of the Mediæval Empire is the story of a brave attempt to maintain an ancient ideal — the ideal first presented to Europe by the Romans, of widespread order and peace, springing from the union of many people under one supreme and impartial sceptre; we may call it the ideal of unity. The ancient Roman Empire did not, indeed, realize this ideal for very long ; but the glorious epoch of the Antonines seemed to prove it possible to do so, and so deeply did the strength of the empire and the splendour of its world-famous capital, Rome, impress man kind, that the very barbarians who shattered it to pieces hoped and strove for its restoration.

So there arose the empire of Charlemagne (a.d. 800), built up by a sturdy German race, the Franks, yet regarded by its subjects as the heir Introduction. X and representative of the ancient empire, despite the contempt of the haughty Byzantine Empire in the East, whose ancient traditions were to remain unbroken, though uninspired by fresh life, until the sixteenth century. Charlemagne's con struction was, however, too vast for its weak foundations ; in its integrity it lasted only during his own lifetime, and fell to pieces under his grandsons. But it remained the standard of the future ; unforgotten during the century of con fusion which followed Chai'lemagne's death, his magnificent conception was again realized by a second German tribe — the Saxons (tenth century). But the German emperors were met by a new force, to which the classical world afforded no parallel.

Christianity had now spread over the greater part of Europe, and a single faith replaced the various beliefs of ancient times. At first sight this might seem to strengthen the unity of the empire ; and indeed the " Holy Roman Empire " was regarded as almost hal lowed, and the sanction of religion bestowed on the monarch. But just because the tendency of the times was to seek a supreme ruler in everything, the Christian Church became the danger of the empire. It had a great organisa tion, and it must also have a Supreme Head ; the Introduction. XI Bishop of Rome (still in imagination the world's capital) became naturally Head of the Church, and in the interests of religion sought to separate it from the State. So the popes, at first the subjects of the emperors, became their equals, then their foes, and at last their conquerors.

The earlier Middle Ages (fifth to eleventh cen turies) are taken up with the slow construction of the Western Empire ; the succeeding period (eleventh to thirteenth centuries) with the fierce struggle of the empire and the Papacy ; the four teenth and the fifteenth centuries see the rapid decline of the Empire into a German chaos, and the moral ruin of the Papacy, which provoked the great crisis of the Protestant Reformation when, amid the stormy life of the Renaissance, the Middle Ages give way to the Modern. Fifth Century A.D. EMPIRE AND PAPACY IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

CHAPTER I. THE ANCIENT ROHAN EMPIEE AND ITS FALL.

To imagine what Europe was like at the beginning of the fifth century we must sweep away all modern political divisions. The mountains and rivers were then much harder to cross ; the cities had sonorous names we can scarcely recognise, though Aquisgranum and Mediolanum stood on the sites of Aachen and Milan. Wide forests, peopled by bear, boar, and wolf, spread barriers to travel in spite of the straight roads with their frequent posting-houses. Over more than half of Europe one official language was spoken, one civilisation spread, and one government ruled — that of Rome. Europe, indeed, formed but one-third of her empire, which stretched east and south into Asia and Africa ; in Europe its northern boundaries were, roughly speaking, the Danube and Rhine, which sepa- I! A.D. 324 rated the civilised and wealthy Roman provinces from the lands of the barbarians.

It proved difficult to manage the whole of this vast empire from Rome, and the Emperor Constantine founded a new capital at Byzantium, in the centre of his dominions. It marked the fact that Rome, though still in men's thoughts the centre of the empire and the world, was no longer the one source of strength. Another change was sanctioned by Constan tine ; he adopted the Christian faith, and thus ensured its ultimate triumph over heathenism. Eventually Christianity formed a bond of union among various peoples, when it became the universal religion ; but at first it introduced another and a very strong element of discord among the population of the empire, who, already swayed by different interests in the different provinces where Roman civilisation received impressions from the characteristics of the conquered natives, saw in the foundation of Constantinople only a token of disunion.

The eastern portion of the empire, in fact, was Græcised, and when the empire was divided for purposes of government into two halves and ruled by joint emperors, one in the East and the other in the West, disunion only increased, and fierce internal quarrels gave opportunities of attack to the barbarians outside The Bar barians destroy the Western Empire : the Goths. 378 the Roman pale, who had often before disturbed the peace of the empire, but had not yet seemed to threaten its existence. It was on the East that the flood of destruction first broke, though it was the Western Empire which was doomed to be swept away. The Emperor Valens, fighting with invaders in Syria, received a humble petition from the Goths on the north shore of the Danube to be allowed to flee into the empire from the terrible Huns who were attacking their country.

These Goths were not wholly barbarians, many of them were Christians, though of the Arian creed, which no orthodox Roman allowed to be true Christianity. Valens was equally afraid to give or refuse permission, but at last the Goths were brought over to the Roman side of the Danube, aud then, with the perfidy already characteristic of the Byzantines, were so ill - treated, their children even being taken as slaves, that they rose in arms, cut to pieces the imperial army at Adrianople, and slew Valens himself. They were turned back, however, from Constantinople, and bided their time during the reign of Theodosius ; but on his death they flew to arms under a great leader, Alaric. He first swept down on the still splendid temples and cities of Greece, and then turned westwards for richer spoil.

Hurrying Siege of Rome. up the coast of Dalmatia, these Visigoths, or West Goths, entered the fertile Italian plain, studded with wealthy cities. Honorius, the feeble Western Emperor, fled from Milan towards the Alps, but would have been caught by Alaric save for the loyalty of a brave barbarian com manding the imperial army (for the Romans now usually hired barbarians to fight for them). Stilicho, who had already faced Alaric in Greece, now came with the legions recalled from Britain and Gaul, and with the barbarians won to his banner by his personal valour. Swimming the Adda to save time, he defeated Alaric at Pollentia, and hastened his retreat by negotia tions, -while Honorius, explaining that his own heart had never known fear, celebrated his general's victory by the last triumph which passed beneath the arches of Rome and the last fight of gladiators seen in the Colosseum.

But before three years had passed the suspicious Emperor, having found a safe retreat at Ravenna, accused Stilicho of treason. The general was treacherously arrested, and, loyally refusing to let his devoted troops rescue him, was conveyed to a mock trial and secret execution. As soon as Alaric heard of Stilicho's death he was back in Italy ; Honorius, only concerned with his pet poultry, remained in impregnable Sack of Rome. 410 Ravenna and Rome was left defenceless. Alaric encamped outside the walls, which had but lately been renewed in the very circuit which they occupy to this day, and soon reduced the populous city to starvation. The inhabitants implored his mercy : " The thicker the hay the easier mown," replied Alaric, but he consented to take a huge ransom, perhaps half afraid to attack the wonderful city, hitherto believed invincible.

"What will you leave us then?" cried the Roman officers, as the king, it is said, flung his sword into the scale that weighed light against the gold. " Your lives," he con temptuously answered. The respite gained was brief, for the next year he was back again to insult the majesty of the empire by setting up a creature of his own as emperor, only to degrade him again. A third time he came and showed no mercy ; the sacred, imperial city was stormed and sacked. The Goths not only carried off treasures accumu lated during centuries, but woke the terror of the civilised world. Christian and Pagan alike had believed in the eternal spell of Rome ; it seemed to them that the world must be drawing to its end, that without Rome there could be no empire, and without the empire all was chaos. It was little comfort, though men saw in it the Other Bar harians. finger of Heaven, that Alaric died that very year.

His Goths dug his grave in the bed of a river that none might disturb his bones ; then they chose Athaulf their new king, secured him the sister of Honorius for a bride, and marched to the wealthy provinces of Aquitaine and Spain, where they hoped to renovate the empire by their own skill and strength, admiring the majesty of the organisation they had themselves destroyed. And there, indeed, they founded a kingdom which for a while retained a tincture of Roman civilisation, until fresh invaders in time destroyed it ; but to restore the empire was beyond the strength of even this talented race. The " Volkerwanderung," or wandering of the nations, was now in full progress, and this general advance westwards and southwards of hitherto barbaric peoples transferred, in an in credibly short space of time, a new and vigorous population to the old civilised provinces.

In spite of desperate resistance and occasional defeats, the barbarians overran the empire in a single generation. Thirty-five years after Adrianople the Goths were seated in Aquitaine and Spain; at the same time, and within seven years of setting out, the Burgundians from the Oder were settling in the Rhone valley ; and in little more than twenty years the Vandals over- The Huns. 450 ran Gaul and Spain, and were thrust thence by the Goths into the North of Africa. While they were ravaging this fertile province and scouring the Mediterranean in their pirate barques, the Eastern Empire was threatened by the very savages who had first driven the Goths across the Danube. Hideous and brutal, the Huns were the abhorrence of every people they attacked; their bestial customs, their cruelty, and their appearance — short, flat-nosed, with long, black hair and evil, piercing eyes — seemed to warrant the belief that they were of diabolical origin, and their King Attila, " the Sword of God," as he is said to have called himself, pretended to magical power.

Mounted on little horses which seemed almost a part of themselves, the Huns would sweep over some rich district and turn it into a desert ; the men they slew, the women and children they enslaved, what property they could not carry off they destroyed, and carried their booty to their home in the wilds beyond the Theiss. After experiencing such horrors the Eastern Emperor made an ignominious but prudent treaty, paid an enormous ransom, and left Attila to turn against the defenceless west. He first reached wealthy Gaul, already torn between the Visigoths in the south, the Franks and Bur gundians on the Rhine and Rhone, and the struggling Roman provincials in the centre under the last of the Roman generals, Aetius. But Goth and Roman united before the Huns and defeated them in the terrible battle of Chalons on the Marne, where, says the legend, the spirits of Goth and Hun fled from the body but to rise into the air and there renew an end less, spectral struggle.

Thus repulsed, Attila turned upon Italy. Sweeping over the easterly passes of the Alps, he destroyed city after city, such of the inhabit ants as could escape fleeing to the marshy islands at the mouth of the Adige, there in misery to lay the foundations of the future Venice. In 452 Attila reached Rome, still wealthy and still defenceless, in spite of the Gothic attack. All men expected death ; the Bishop Leo alone resolved to make an effort for his people. He went out unarmed to the camp and besought or commanded Attila to show mercy, and it was told later how the Apostles Paul and Peter appeared at his side and awed the barbarian conqueror. At any rate Attila listened to the venerable bishop ; possibly he was moved by such dignity and courage, possibly, like the other barbarians, he was almost afraid to harm the Final Attacks. 476 sacred city.

Taking a great ransom, he led his troops back to Hungary, and there next year he died — the second barbarian, men said, who had paid for his daring with his life. Rome was only saved from the Huns to be the prey of the Vandals, who sacked it in 455, and spread anarchy over Italy. Other barbaric hordes flocked into the country, titular emperors were made and deposed, Rome was sacked a third time, and at last a chieftain bolder than the rest, Odovakar or Odoacer, put an end to the wretched mockery of empire. Assembling the Roman Senate, still the nominal government of Rome, he obtained from it the formal aboli tion of the Empire of the West. " It is not necessary nor desirable to continue the suc cession in Italy," said the Senate, " because one sovereign monarch can rule and protect both the East and the West ; " and they consented to remove " the seat of the world's empire " to Constantinople.

The Eastern Emperor was powerless, and making a virtue of necessity empowered Odoacer to act as his vicegerent in Italy ; but " the patrician," as he was called, strove in vain to make a compact realm there. The Western Empire was then at an end. Political strength must henceforth be found among the new conquering races ; half barbaric as they were, they would grow into nations, and settle into kingdoms marked by those natural boundaries of sea and mountain which the Ancient Empire alone could disregard. The barbarians used the roads of the Romans, and by-and-by dwelt in their cities ; they admired the civilisation they had themselves wrecked, and in time they came to adopt the two great ideas which Rome had left to Europe — Christianity and political unity. Theodoric and the Ostro goths. 489-493

Chapter II. Theodokic And Belisarius In Italy

In spite of the formal ending of the Western Roman Empire, Italy still seemed to be the only place whence the unity of the West could be restored, and the reorganisation of Italy itself did not as yet seem hopeless. Odovakar tried to fuse into one people the degenerate native Italians (who still called themselves " Romans ") and the different barbaric tribes ; but he could not succeed, nor could he hinder the ruin, famine, and pestilence resulting from so many invasions. After fourteen years of comparative peace Odovakar's plans were in terrupted by another invasion. Theodoric the Amal, king of the Ostrogoths, a man of genius and noble temper, who had been brought up among the Byzantines, and had learnt to admire their order and civilisation, procured authority from the Eastern Emperor to " restore Italy to his obedience," and led his whole tribe to settle in the West.

His attack n was bravely met, but he defeated Odovakar and besieged him for three years in the stronghold of Ravenna, a city so well protected by rivers, sea, and morass that it could not be attacked openly, but had to be taken by blockade. At last it surrendered, the two monarchs making an agreement to rule jointly; but though Theodoric treated the conquered soldiers and citizens mercifully, he soon brought a charge of treachery against Odovakar, and with his own hand slew him suddenly. Theodoric was now undisputed king over Goths and " Romans " alike, and though he maintained a show of deference to the distant Eastern Emperor, he began to settle Italy in his own way. Perceiving the weakness of the conquered natives, he kept his Goths distinct from them as a kind of garrison, but settled each family on its portion of land amongst the natives ; all alike were treated with strict justice.

Theodoric himself was ever ready to hear complaints, and tried to appoint as officers only trustworthy men, both of Goths and Romans, a task in which he was helped by his friend and servant Boethius, " the last of the Romans," and Cassiodorus, another Roman, who wrote a history of the Goths. He was the first ruler for many a year who cared for the peasantry, or repaired the ancient monu- Theodoric and Belisarius in Italy. 13 493-526 ments and the aqueducts, so necessary in hot and marshy districts. Abroad, Theodoric was honoured by all the other barbarian kings ; he married the sister of Clovis, king of the Franks, and as head of the Gothic race provided for the government of Spain, whose king was a minor ; he became so celebrated that his name passed into legend, and songs were made about him as " Dietrich," which made him famous for cen turies.

Italy prospered under his rule for more than thirty years, although there was a discord which the king could never heal, and which at last caused much trouble : the Goths though Chris tians were of the Arian creed, and though Theodoric tolerated the native Catholic Chris tians, these could not but regard him as a heretic, and were besides angry at his protection of the Jews. At last Theodoric, irritated at some riots, became harsh, and even imprisoned the bishop of Rome in so cruel a manner as to cause his death. Having thus given way to his fiercer mood he grew hasty, and on a spiteful accusation condemned to death his friend Boethius the philosopher, and his aged father-in-law Sym machus. Boethius died with the resignation of a philosopher,1 and in his prison wrote a work 1 It is not certain -whether he was a Christian or not.

Belisarius re-conquers Italy. 535 537 " Of the Consolation of Philosophy," which became a favourite book of devotion in the Middle Ages. Not long after this Theodoric died, consumed by remorse for his unjust cruelty, and with him died the hope of a united Italy. His successors were too selfish and violent to be able to carry out his plans, and their dissensions gave an opportunity to the heroic general of the Emperor Justinian, Belisarius, to win back the land for the empire. Fresh from his rapid conquest of Northern Africa from the Vandals, and renowned for courage, loyalty, and nobility, as great as his success, Belisarius soon recaptured Sicily. Next year he crossed to Italy, drove the Goths northwards from post to post, seized Naples by mak ing his men creep through a disused aqueduct into the city, and reached Rome just as the Goths abandoned it, to be received with joy by the bishop and the people.

He now victualled and repaired the city as quickly as possible, knowing that the Goths would come back to attack him, as they indeed did next spring, under their bold king Witigis. For a whole year the Goths besieged Rome, building wooden towers to scale the walls from, which Belisarius rendered useless by shooting the beasts that Theodoric and Belisarius in Italy. 15 552 drew them, and breaking down the great aqueducts which supplied the citizens with water, so that they had henceforth to use the less pure and convenient Tiber. Many brave deeds were done in the siege, and Belisarius won the name of a hero, till at last the Goths, worn out with weariness and the fevers of the now pestiferous Campagna around the city, sullenly withdrew northwards to their final refuge, Ravenna. Slowly but steadily Belisarius followed them, and attacked the city ; in mingled despair and admiration the Goths actually offered to submit if he would become their king and reig-n on the throne of Theodoric.

Seeming to assent, he was admitted into the fortress with his tiny army, and only then showed the Goths that his loyalty to Justinian forbade him to keep faith with them. Witigis was sent a captive to Byzantium, and the war was thus almost over when the unworthy suspicions of Justinian rewarded the great general with a recall in the moment of victory and a long disgrace. For a time king Totila restored the fortunes of the Goths ; then another Eastern general, Narses, completed the work of Belisarius, and the kingdom of the Goths was ruined for ever. Under Narses Italy became a mere province, ruled by an Exarch whose seat was not at Rome, The Lombards in Italy. but at Ravenna ; but the Exarch had little power to protect the land which he taxed for his master. One barbarian had been destroyed only to make room for another; and when the imperial sus picions were again roused and Narses in his turn recalled, it was told how he prepared revenge by inviting a fresh invader to come and take the land which lay so easy a prey.

The old general died at Rome on his way to Byzantium, and the next year saw the commencement of the plunder and conquest of the greater part of the peninsula by the savage Alboin, king of the Lombards, whose people have bequeathed their name to this day to the fertile northern plain of Lombardy. Condition os Italy. The Church.

Chapter III. Rome And The Unity Of The Church

The last remains of the old civilisation of Italy which Theodoric had tried to preserve were now swept away by the Gothic war and the conquests of the Lombards ; the customs of the people were changing as the constant dread of war or famine made the old luxury impossible ; culture was disappearing, the arts decayed, the very language was changing. Nevertheless the destruction of the old did not bring a mere relapse into barbarism ; the Teutons in Italy and elsewhere admired much that they had ruined, and would fain imitate it ; wherever they wandered they found the tokens of the empire — walled cities, stately buildings, great roads — while in the cities local authorities dealt justice according to written codes of law. But more impressive than all this was the new religion, whose missionaries went fearlessly forth through out the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries to cod vert the new lords of the earth to the faith 17 C of Christ.

It was the clergy who taught the destroyers of Rome how to imitate, rudely and imperfectly indeed, what was best in her; and this adoption of ancient traditions and a loftier creed by the sturdy races from the north laid the foundation of a new order in Europe, a mediæval civilisation as distinctively Christian as that of the classical world had been heathen. Some, indeed, of the " new nations " were at first Arian, and therefore to the orthodox were heretics ; but the Catholic faith had one great advantage which doubtless aided its speedy triumph : it had a centre of organisation, and that, too, at Rome, destined henceforth to sway, not men's temporal fortunes, but their minds. Rome from the earliest Christian centuries had been an almost sacred place ; there were the graves of SS. Peter and Paul; the bishop was regarded as the successor of St. Peter, and the imperial dignity of his see naturally glorified his position still further.

During the miserable years that Rome had lain forsaken by Emperor and even by Exarch, the only person of influence in the city had been the bishop : he alone was sure to be directed by lofty principles, and enjoyed an authority independent of the Eastern Emperor at Byzantium or of the barbarians in Italy. More over he had wealth, for the pious would entrust Rome and the Unity of the Church. 19 Died, 543 Monks. Gregory the Great. to him money, goods, or even land for the use of the poor, whose stewards the clergy were now become. Nor was loftier comfort or example lacking to the wretched people. Already while the Gothic war was raging St. Benedict of Nursia had drawn up the first monastic rule for the hitherto scattered and unregulated monks. Monks were at first simply hermits, men who fled from the wickedness of the world to live a life of prayer ; often colonies of them dwelt close together, and Benedict, himself from boyhood an ardent hermit, gave them a rule or system, and gathered them together in small communities or convents, each under a head whom the monks were bound to obey, and to the obedience, poverty, and chastity which they vowed to observe were added diligent labour, usually in the fields, and prayer, praise, and study.

Monasteries soon sprang up all over Italy and Western Europe, every where setting an example of cheerful labour, careful tillage, and a pure, peaceful, orderly life, offering a refuge to the unhappy, preserving the relics of letters, and in general forming centres of lofty and refining influence. Half a century after the death of Benedict there arose a great man whose genius and nobility made Rome the centre of the Christian Church in the West, and thus founded the spiritual power 590-604 of the Popes, as the bishops of Rome were then called. Gregory the Great came of a noble and wealthy Roman family. He was early noted for his up right life ; and after serving as an official of the city, at length founded several monasteries, and became a monk in one of them. He soon became famous for his sanctity and charity, and in spite of his own modest reluctance was chosen Abbot.