Medieval Europe from 395 to 1270

Preface

The text-book which is here by permission presented in an English dress is by two of the most distingnished of the modern school of French historians. It is remarkable among text-books on this diflBcnlt period for its great simplicity of statement, and for the fulness with which it treats of topics not usually taken up in detail, notably of the medieval church. Of their purpose in the book the authors say in their introduction : '" We have attempted to give to this volume a certain unity, not to make a simple chronological enumeration of events, but to group the details around the more important facts — the formation of the feudal system in succession to the Germanic invasions, the development of the Catholic Church, the strife of Christian Europe against the Mussulman Orient, the struggle between the Papacy and the Empire leading to the fall of the German power, the formation of strong monarchies in France and in England. We have in particular given a large place to the role and to the history of the Church which dominates all this period, and which has been ordinarily so neglected in our schoolbooks, and have sought to make clear how France obtained in the thirteenth century a sort of political and intellectual hegemony in Europe. We hope those who read will understand what were the great ideas and directive tendencies which determined the historical evolution of the Middle Ages. We have always kept in mind in writing the conclusion to which we were advancing."

The verdict of reader and student alike will be, I am

iii ti\ iv PREFACE.

sure, that these purposes have been realised in an unusual degree.

A few slight revisions have been made in the text and a few notes have been added. Of the bibliographical notes at the beginning of the chapters, those which stood first, relating to the sources, have been left practically as in the original, as furnishing in that form a sufficient introduction to the original material for the purposes of this book. The second in order, dealing with the literature, have been in nearly all cases rewritten, with especial reference to the probable uses of this translation.

George Burton Adams.

Contents

CHAPTER PAOB

I. The Roman Empire at the End op the Fourth

II. The Barbarians, 21

Chapter II

In the first rank of the invaders of the Empire stood those whom Rome called the Germans.

1. Customs and Personal Appearance of the Germans. —

According to Caesar, and Tacitus, who wrote a century and a half later, the Germans were tall and fair; they had blue eyes and a fierce glance. Their training was severe. They bore arms at an early age, and from that time on never laid them aside, for they were buried with them. Cruel in war, they were hospitable among themselves, and respected their sworn faith; but they were proud and would neither obey nor pay tribute.

2. Condition of Persons. — There were several orders of rank among the Germans.

(1) The Nobles. The origin of the Germanic nobility is obscure, but its existence in the time of Tacitus is certain. At first it seems to have been the favoured position of several illustrious families which claimed a divine origin. It was hereditary, and carried with it various

* Sources. — Caesar. "Gallic War"; Tacitus, "Germania"; Ammianus Marcelliuus, " Rerum Gestarum," libri xxxi. In the barbarian codes, like the •' Salic law," are to be found many indications of the social condition of ancient Germany.

Literature. — G. Waitz, "Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte," vol. i. On the bibliography of German history reference should be made to Dahlmann- Waitz, " Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte," sixth edition by Steindorff, 1894. On the bibliography of this chapter see Gross, " Sources and Literature of English- History," pp. 171-173.

privileges. The life of the nobles was considered more precious than that of simple freemen; they usually possessed more land; marriage with persons of another class was sometimes forbidden. The number of noble families does not seem to have been great; it was much reduced in Tacitus's time, and in some tribes nobility had even disappeared.

(2) Tlie Freemen. Although distinguished from freemen^ the nobles were not a separate caste. The H'o orders composed the people and the army, and they exercised together supreme authority in the assembly of the countr}'. The quality of freeman was expressed in the right to bear arms and exercise personal vengeance. Each freeman had his share of the tribal lands, and the idea was early formed that the possession of lands was necessary to full liberty.

(3) The Non-freemen. The Germans had freedmen and slaves. As at Rome, slaves were treated as chattels, not persons; they could not bear arms, and were any found in their possession they were broken over their backs. They might have a dwelling of their own, however, on condition of paying the master a rent in wheat, flocks, or clothing; in this way they resembled the Roman colonus. The slaves were either prisoners of war, or criminals condemned to loss of liberty, or wretched creatures who had lost it through gaming. The master could free them, but a freedman (libertus, letus) held a subordinate position. He could not marry a free woman; he took no part in the affairs of state; and full liberty was only granted to members of the tliird generation.

3. The Germanic Family. — Individuals were grouped in families. Marriage, that is to say, the legitimate unioa of man and woman, constituted the family. Marriage was contracted in the presence of parents and relatives

THE FAMILY IN THE STATE. 23

under the symbol of a purchase; the husband bought, in fact, the right of possession and guardianship over his wife; the price was paid to the parents. The principle of dowry was not known to the Germans, but the wife gave presents to her husband, usually weapons. Tacitus writes: ^' The auspices at her wedding warned her that she should share in work and danger, and that the law, in peace and in combat, was to suffer and dare as much as her husband.'' On the other hand, it was not rare for the husband to make a gift to his wife the day after the wedding, the Morgengaie, which later became obligatory.

4. The Authority of the Head of the Family. The Inheritance. — A simple freeman must content himself with one wife. Polygamy was allowed to the nobles only. In certain tribes a widow could not marry again; " the woman has one husband as she has one body, one life, so that she may love her marriage and not her husband." * The husband might put away his faithless wife; divorce was rare, but permitted. The father cf a family had extended rights over his wife, whom he might sell in case of necessity: over his children, whom he might abandon; and over his freedmen and slaves. This authority did not extend over the son who was of age, or the married daughter. When the father grew old he no longer counted as an active member of society, but was replaced by his son. The Germans made no wills; the nearest blood relatives inherited full rights; women could not inherit land, but their masculine relatives could. Bo3^s were therefore better provided for than girls, but in other ways the two sexes were equal. There is no certain trace of the right of primogeniture.

5. The Family in the State. — The family was not only

* The quotations of this chapter are from Tacitus's *• Germania."— ^ a private association; it had its place and its part in the state. It was a fundamental principle among the Germans that every free man had the right to exact respect forcibly for his liberty, person, and property. If he were restrained in the exercise of his rights, injured in his property or person, he might avenge himself, arms in hand; his family was then expected to help him. The family received the fine paid for murder, or helped to pay it. In a lawsuit the relatives appeared before the judges to swear to the honour of the defendant and strengthen his oath with their own (cojuratores). Lastly the family was the constituent element of the army. The warriors were grouped by families into squadrons of cavalry or triangular battalions of infantry.

6. The Tribe and its Subdivisions. — A certain number of families living on the same territory comprised a village {Dorf, vicus). The territory occupied by the members of a same tribe is designated in Tacitus by the term civitas, and the civitas was divided into pagi (or cantons), which were made up of several vici. It is possible that originally these pagi were formed by the union of one hundred families; whence the name (" hundred" liunderU schaft, centena)y which we find later used among various Germanic peoples to designate a territorial district of small extent. When the tribes were grouped into confederations and kingdoms, the term pagus (in German. gmi) was applied to the former civitates.

7. The Popular Assemblies. — Each of these groups had its own assembly. That of the vici controlled local affairs in particular; that of the pagi, judicial matters. The assembly of the civitas possessed supreme authority; it promulgated the laws, formed alliances, made peace and war, administered criminal justice, ratified enfranchisements and declarations of majority, and decreed the out-

THE CHIEFS OF THE PEOPLE. 25

lawing of individuals. It was variously named ding or thing among the Scandinavians; gemot among the Saxons, mall among the Franks. It was composed of all freemen who had attained their majority who were capable of bearing arms, and who were not excluded because of public crimes. Unless some sudden unforeseen event called them together, they met on fixed days, " when the moon was new or at the full; they believed that affairs could not be discussed under a more fortunate influence." The meeting was held on a hill, in a clearing, or near some locality consecrated to the gods.

To assert their personal independence the Germans took their time in gathering together: " instead of meeting at once, as if obeying an order, they lost two or three days in assembling. When the meeting seemed large enough they opened it, all bearing arms. The priests who maintained order commanded silence." The spokesman stood in the centre. The king, or the one among the chiefs the most noted for his nobility, exploits, age, or eloquence, presided. The freemen, seated around, expressed disapproval by cries, or approval by waving their lances. " This suffrage of arms was the most honourable expression of assent.'*' At stated periods of the year the assembly had unusual import, as when celebrating religious ceremonies or presenting annual gifts to the king. But if a tribe comprised several districts, it is probable that the gathering of all its members was not as frequent; later when tribes were united and became nations, the meetings grew rarer and rarer, and finally disappeared completely.

8. The Chiefs of the People : Kins^ and Dukes. — Kings, dukes, and princes were the tribal leaders. Originally the most of Germanic peoples had no kings, but royalty spread little by little. In many cases it was instituted when the tribes of one same people united under a common authority. The Salian Franks, on the contrary, irho formed but one people, had several kings. The office was elective, but the people rarely chose a king outside of a privileged family, assumed to be of divine origin.

The usurpation of the crown was of rare occurrence, but it was not unusual for a dissatisfied people to dismiss their king. The newly elected king was presented to his subjects, raised on a shield, which was borne on the shoulders of the warriors. The king shared with the priests in the celebration of the worship of the gods. He was acknowledged the supreme judge of his people. Public peace was under his protection. He received and despatched ambassadors; he concluded alliances and treaties, subject to the assent of the people; in war time he led the army, unless superseded by elected chiefs. Among certain peoples, the Bavarians, for instance, who never had kings, hereditary dukes commanded; but the term duke signified ordinarily a military leader chosen by the warriors on the eve of an expedition. " Kings were chosen because of their birth, dukes because of their valour." These chiefs controlled through personal influence rather than through formal orders; the priests only, even in the army, had the right to inflict severe punishment.

9. The " Principes." — The important role in the administration of the tribe or pagus belonged to those whom Tacitus designated principes. The term, taken in its general sense, applied to the richest and most powerful warriors. These, united in an assembW, decided on the current affairs of the tribe; the weighty decisions, after being discussed by the principes, were voted on by the general assembly of the civiias. This assembly selected a princeps to govern the tribe as princeps civitatis, where there was no king; and it assigned a stated number of

JUSTICE. 27

principes, accompanied by one hundred assessors, to administer justice in the pagi. In the assembly of the people the principes proposed resolutions; in religious ceremonies they represented the people or the state. In war they commanded the soldiers from the pagus or the civitas, but subject to the ducal authority. In order to maintain their rank thev received from freemen voluntary offerings, produce of the soil, flocks, etc.; in short, they were surrounded by companions who assured them honour in peace and protection in war.

10. The Comitatus. — The right to have a following of companions {comitatus) belonged also to dukes and kings. There was nothing servile in figuring among the companions, who were often 3'oung men of the best families. *' Illustrious birth or the brilliant deeds of their fathers recommended even very young men for the service of the pHnceps; admitted to his companionship, they became the associates of more powerful young men who had already proved their ability." There might be also men of inferior condition along with these sons of illustrioua families. The engagement was voluntary; though it was of a lasting character, it might be dissolved; it was sealed by a vow of obedience and fidelity. The companions lived with the prince, in his house, at his table. Certain ones controlled the domestic affairs of the house, such as the stable and the kitchen. The prince instituted a ranking system, and hence stimulated them to perform good service. The companions were not numerous, and it is only by a faint analogy that one can compare this comitatus relationship to vassalage. It soon disappeared entirely, and left traces only in the courts of the kings.

11. Justice. The Right of Personal Vengeance. — Kings and princes defended the public peace, " a gift of the gods "; but besides public justice was private justice.

which was exercised by the family. The injured individual could wreak his vengeance, and call in his family to aid him; his adversary might do the same. The Corsicans have to-day like customs. Enmities were not irreconcilable. Vengeance might be compounded for in money, the sum being determined according to the wergeld, or the value of the individual in the eyes of the law. If adversaries preferred to appeal to the courts, the quarrel was laid before the assembly of the pagus or the civitas where the prince or king presided. The assessors of the prince and the members of the assembly were arbitrators rather than judges; their work was less that of punishing the crime than of reconciling the belligerents. Proof was made by the plaintiff's oath, whose good faith was supported by the oath of friends, or by the duel, or by various tests, called ordeals — in which God was supposed to denounce the culprit. The sentence, which was pronounced, not by the king or prince, but by all the members of the assembly, was final. Punishments varied according to the nature of the crime. Traitors and deserters were hanged; cowards were buried in a slough or drowned under a hurdle. In all cases the judges fixed the payment according to the nature of the crime and the rank of the victim; it was made in horses or cattle; the offender had to pay besides to the state the fredum, or peace money. Should the condemned man fail in payment, he lost the benefits of public protection, and was liable to be killed by anyone; that is, he was outlawed.

12. Military Service. The Army.—" No German," says Tacitus, " may bear arms until the civitas has recognised him as capable of so doing. Then one of the princes, or the young man's father, or one of his relatives, equips him, in the midst of the assembly, with shield and javelin." Henceforth he became a part of the army. In

THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF GERM ANT. 29

battle each corps was arranged in the form of a triangle, and was joined to the other corps in such a way as to form a triangle or general " corner." The entire army was led by one chief, duke, or king; at times there were two; yet the army might express its will. There was little discipline; the priests judged offenders. Tactics were rarely used; each body charged as seemed fit, but with great impetuosity. The leaders inspired others by their own example. " On the field of battle it was shameful for the prince to be outdone in courage, shameful for the band of companions to be unequal in courage to their prince. But one shame which could never be effaced was to survive him and return alone from the combat.'^

13. The Weapons. — The arms varied according to the peoples. There was the sword, either the large iron or bronze sword of the Saxons and Cherusci, or the long knife, like the scramasaxus; the framea,^ a weapon with a long head and staff, a kind of javelin peculiar to the Germans; the axe, or among the Franks, the frwicisa; the bow, the javelin, etc. The somewhat short lance was a cavalary weapon. The shield was ornamented with colours and emblems. The helmet was for a long time rarely found. The art of besieging was but slightly developed, although engines of war were not unknown. The Germans had some fortified places, but they preferred to fight in the open country, to assume the offensive rather than the defensive.

14. The Economic Condition of Germany. Property and Agricultural Riches. — The Germans were not nomadic, although loving combats and distant expeditions. They had fixed habitations; each house was enclosed and separated from the neighbouring ones. They raised many flocks and herds, which constituted their riches and.

so to say, their currency; they cultivated also fields of cereals. These fields, in the time of Caesar and Tacitus, did not actually belong to individuals. They seem to have been allotted to each village according to the number of labourers, then subdivided among the latter according to rank. Every year there was a reapportionment. The uncultivated lands were doubtless used for pasturage. Thus the German was owner of his house and enclosure and of the furnishings and implements therein. Hence individual property was recognised, but it was a long time before land became the mark and source of wealth. There were few towns and highways, but immense forests, and hence little or no industry or commerce.

15. Religion. The Gods. — Eeligion was that of the primitive peoples of the Indo-European race. The Germans worshipped the deified forces of nature. The three great gods which Tacitus calls Mercury, Mars, and Hercules were AYodan or Odin, Donar or Thor, Tyr or Zui. Odin was the sun, the mind of nature, which penetrates all, the powerful breath which roars in the tempest, w^hich bursts forth in anger and passion, the god of combat and victory. He is represented wrapped in full blue mantle, bearing sword and lance, mounted on a steed with a golden mane, like the rays of the sun. At times he would dress in rags and come to earth to see if hospitality were always practised. He journeyed also through the sky; the Milky Way was the path of his army or wild chase; his chariot was the Great Bear. As the god of mind, he had discovered the runes, or letters of the alphabet, written on bits of wood, especially the beech {Buchstaben), by means of which the priests and nobles could question fate and divine the future; besides this he was the god of poetry and eloquence. Thor, or the thunder, was beneficial to man. With his hammer, the symbol

THE HEROES AND IMMORTALITY, 31

of the thunderbolt, he would cleave the rocks and fertilise the land. He was the god of agriculture, of marriage, of property, of commerce. His beard was red like the lightning, and animals with red fur, such as the squirrel and the fox, were sacred to him. All the other gods rode on horseback; he alone walked. Ziu, or the " brilliant," was both the god of the sky and of war; he commanded the winds and the tempests; he was armed with a sword. Besides these gods, Tacitus names Isis and the goddess Nertlius, Hertha, the goddess of earth who brought forth Freya, goddess of fecundity, joy^ and abundance; and Tuisco, father of Mann (man), who was the ancestor of the race of Teutsclie, or Germans.

16. The Heroes and Immortality. — These legends were kept in the memory and handed down in the form of epic song, which celebrated the exploits of gods, kings, and heroes. They tell especially of Woden, the supreme god^ preeminently the god of war; in him was incarnate the '^ furor teutonicus "; he had taught men the art of fighting, and fought himself. Those who fell in battle, or who died of their wounds, were admitted to the sky, the home of the elect (wahl-halle); there dwelt the Valkyriae and Frigga, the wife of Woden, who received the heroes and offered them the drinking horn. The shades here passed their days in war and their nights in feasting, and the German wished no worthier reward for his valour. But these gods were no more immortal than the world created by them. They might be corrupted, like men, by evil ways, and would be condemned and perish with the world. But as day succeeds the night, they would be born again, purified, and live forever. The elements of these primitive epics are found, mingled with old Christian traditions, in the Eddas, which are collections of Scandinavian traditions written in Iceland from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries.

17. The Priests. Worship.— In Tacitus's time this religion of nature and morals had scarcely begun to own temples. The priests performed the sacrifices. They: sought to know the will of the gods by means of different signs; the flight of birds, the neighing of sacred horses, the combination of runes. They also maintained order in the army and the assembly, for peace and law were divine gifts. They enjoyed great moral authority, without, however, being a caste apart from the remainder of the people.

18. Conclusion. — Such were, briefly stated, the Germanic institutions, as far as they can be traced in Caesar and Tacitus. The state of perpetual war in which these peoples lived from the end of the second century, modified, without effacing, many essential traits. The Germans took with them to Roman soil their taste for independence; the desire to be as little governed as possible; a social organisation wherein the power of the state was weak and the personal ties between man and man were strong. The Germans were both warlike and agricultural; equally suited to a military or a sedentary life; eager for riches and honours. They greatly modified Roman society, which they penetrated in all its parts, and were in turn transformed under its influence.

Chapter III

THE • GERMANIC INVASIONS THE VANDALS, THE VISI- GOTHS, AND THE HUNS (376-476).*

1. The Romans in Germany. — ISTo sudden invasion cast the barbarian peoples of Germany on the provinces of the Empire at the end of the fourth century. One has only to recall the long exodus of the Cimbri and the Teutones, the destruction of the Suevi by Caesar, the struggles of Drusus, of Germanicus, and of Tiberius against the Chatti, Cherusci, and the Marcomanni. At first the Romans had the advantage. The legions crossed the natural limits even of the Empire, and to control better

* Sources. — Eiisebius of Caesarea, " Historia ecclesiastica "; translated into Latin and continued by Rutinus of Aquileia; edition Heinichen (1868), The " Chrouograpliy " of tlie same author; book i. has been kept in an Armenian transhition, published by Mai (1833); book ii. in a Latin translation by Saint Jerome, who continued the work; edition Schoene (1866). It was still further carried on by Count Marcellinus, by Bishop Idatius, by Prosper, etc. Paul Orosius: " Historiarum, libri vii. adversus paganos"; edition Zangemeister (1882). Ammianus Maj'cellinus : " Rerum gestarum," libri xxxi. ; edition Gardtliausen (1874). Jordanis: " De Getarum origine et rebus gestis"; edition Th. Mommsen in the " Monumenta Germaniae His" torica." Claudian: "De bello getico; de consulatu Stilichonis," etc.; edition Jeep (1876). Works of Sidonius Apollinaris; edition Baret (1879); Ennodius; edition Hartel (1882).

Literature. — Hodgkin, "Italy and Her Invaders," 8 vols.; Bury, " The Later Roman Empire," 2 vols.; Gibbon, " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," edited by Bury, 7 vols.; Gwatkin, "Arianism"; Fustel de Coulanges, " L'Invasion Germauique " (1891).

the peoples whom they could not conquer they built an extended line of entrenchments. This was the limes romanus, or Ffalilgrahen, doubtless begun by Domitian, continued by Trajan, and completed by Hadrian. It extended from the confluence of the Lippe with the Ehine to the confluence of the Altmiihl with the Danube, and protected a vast territory called by the Eomans tithe lands (decumates). This country became rapidly prosperous: it was dotted with rich villas and opulent towns; it adopted entirely the language and the arts of Eome. Eoman influence penetrated beyond this strategic and administrative frontier, and would doubtless have ended by civilising the whole of Germany if fresh invasions had not swept away everything.

2. The Germans in the Empire. — The Germans, on their side, profiting by these almost peaceful conditions, penetrated the Empire as coloni and soldiers. Some embraced agriculture of their own free will; others were driven like herds into the provinces after each great victory and compelled to repeople the places laid waste by war; still others enjoyed the peace of the Eomans under the condition of obeying the orders of the governors, paying taxes, and furnishing soldiers. The latter formed special bodies, called fwderati, or Uti. They were often recruited in their own country and conunanded by native chiefs. They were like colonies of barbarians in the Empire, with their own religion, language, and customs, in the same way as formerly colonies of Eoman citizens had settled in the midst of conquered peoples. This slow infiltration of the Germans into the Empire was previous to the great invasions, and uninterrupted by them; but it left deeper traces than the latter, for the invaders passed away and the coloni remained.

3. Beginning of the Great Invasions.— The causes of

GERMANY IN TEE FOURTH CENTURY. 35

the great invasions are obscure, but their effects were disastrous. The Slavs, urged forward by the Mongols, set the Goths in movement, who from lower Germany, where thev were in Tacitus's time, reached in the second century the borders of the Black Sea. This great tide of emigrants roused up other Germanic peoples not yet rooted to the soil. Then the Romans, who for one hundred and fifty years had always assumed the offensive, were attacked in their turn. The Marcomanni and the Quadi crossed the Danube in 162; this was the opening of the great invasions. In the third century, especially during the epoch of military anarchy and the thirty tyrants, the limes romanus was destroyed, the tithe lands were wasted, the frontiers pushed back to the Rhine and the Danube, which were no longer a sufficient barrier against an ever-renewed enemy.

4. G-ermany in the Fourth Century. — Germany now changed her aspect. Instead of the former tribes, which had only been able to form temporary leagues in the time of Marbod and Arminius, were now nations with their kings who marched to the assault of an empire. Along the Rhine lay first the Franks, divided into Ripuarian Pranks near Cologne, and Salian, on the island of the Batavi and in Toxandria (Zeland, Holland, and Dutch Brabant); then the Alemanni in the valley of the Neckar and the upper courses of the Danube and the Rhine as far as Lake Constance; lastl}^, the Burgundians, between the Rhine and the Neckar. On the left bank of the Danube were the Vandals, who migrated from the Baltic; then to the east the former Marcomanni and the Quadi, the Bavarians, the Longobards or Lombards, on the lower Danube and the Carpathians, and last the Goths. In the interior and on the north the Angles extended as far as the Cimbric peninsula; the Frisians were spread from

36 TUE GERMANIC INVASIONS.

the mouths of the Weser and the Elbe to the Rhine delta; the Saxons occupied all the territory between the Lippe and the Ems as far up as the Elbe and the Saale; they were enemies of years' standing of their neighbours on the West, the Franks. The Goths set in motion the great migration of peoples, which began in 375 with the eastern Germans, and out of which arose modern Europe.