A history of mediæval and modern Europe for secondary schools

Front matter

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Preface

The main purpose of this book is to tell the story of the building of Europe, in a way useful for students in the secondary schools, or, in other words, to answer the question how the European nations, especially the prime units in civihzation, — England, France, Germany, and Italy, — came to be what they are to-day. There has been an earnest effort not to take too much for granted in the way of previous information, not to overload the student with facts and names of which so little can be told that they cannot " body-out " in his imagination, and not to cover any but the essential features of the main subjects.

While our story must for completeness go back to the fall of the Roman Empire, common sense dictates that for most students the medieval era is of relatively less importance than the last four centuries. The amount of space allotted to given events is, therefore, increasingly ample as recent times are approached : thus, there is a much longer discussion of Napoleon than of Charlemagne. On the other hand, it has seemed needful to keep the treatment of even the modern period within fair limits, especially by adhering closely to the study of Europe only. Thus there is merely an allusion to many of the events which created the British Empire, and the student will have to go elsewhere to learn how France acquired a great dominion in North Africa, and how Russia was checked by Japan in the Far East. This is a misfortune, for such a process as the opening of China may prove to be a matter of more importance in universal history than the whole Thirty Years' War, but the limitations on the time of most students and the need of adhering to the main thread of what is at best a very long narrative, seem to forbid the treatment of many fascinating as well as valuable problems.

IV

PREFACE

In including or excluding an event, a name, or an institution, in or from this history, the tests have been usually these, — (i) Is this matter really important historically.'' (2) If so, can it be stated clearly, and so as to appeal to the imagination and understanding of an immature student in a relatively short number of words? For example, the institutions of the Anglo- Saxons have high significance for advanced scholars in English history, but such details cannot be made to have any real meaning for young students unless explained at very considerable length ; and rather than have a mass of dry and probably meaningless statements cast into the learner's teeth, the whole subject has been almost ignored. On the other hand, the French wars of Edward III have been traced with clear details, because a very few statements about Crecy and Poitiers will make those names assume a real meaning in the mind of any red-blooded student, and make the Hundred Years' War seem a vital period of history. For this reason, too, more has sometimes been said about men than about institutions. " Parliament " is an abstraction that probably means little to many high-school students: John Pym, lighting the battle for human liberty in the name of the vindication of Parliament, can become a very genuine figure, indeed.

In this process of inclusion and exclusion the author has been obliged in every sentence to exercise his own personal judgment. Literally thousands of more or less important facts and names have been omitted. The excuse has to be that the length of a textbook of this kind is strictly limited by the many demands of the modern curriculum upon a student's time and energy, and that this history, therefore, if it is not to fall into the capital error of being a dry-as-dust compendium, must resign any pretension of putting a full quart into a pint pot.

If in the end of the study the reader has gained some consciousness of the " increasing purpose," which has led the nations onward, from Roman degeneracy and Germanic dark-

PREFACE V

ness, through the long twilight into the present brightness of promise; if he has come to recognize how the brotherhood of civihzed men owes its enlightenment and hope not to the deeds of one age or nation only, but to a long, painful, often agonizing process of building, stretching across the centuries; if, in short, he has learned that " history is the continuous record of human achievement," and that the man of to-day is infinitely the debtor to the man of yesterday, — this little history will have fulfilled its modest purpose.

In preparing this textbook the collaborating author, Mr. McKendrick, has revised the entire manuscript with helpful scrutiny, suggesting many improvements of every kind. He has also been the originating author of all the questions, analyses, bibhographies, maps, tables, etc., which will probably be considered among the most important features of the work. Indeed, the preparation of the volume as a working textbook would have been quite impossible without his always friendly and faithful cooperation.

Professor J. T. Shotwell, of Columbia University, has given the entire volume the benefit of a searching criticism from the standpoint of up-to-date, advanced scholarship, and has added many practical suggestions of very pronounced value. Mr. M. T. Sadler, formerly of Oxford University, has performed a like kindly and extremely helpful service. Last, but not least, mention must be made of the publishers of this book. It was at their suggestion that the work was originally undertaken, and through the long process of its development they have never failed with patient supervision, with fertile and stimulating suggestion, and with a painstaking attention to all the excellent mechanical details which it is beheved this book will be found to possess.

WILLIAM STEARNS DAVIS.

University of INIinnesota, Minneapolis, May, 1914.

Contents

Suggestions to Teachers xlv

I. The Dying Empire and the Forest Peoples .... i

I. The greatness of the Roman Empire. 2. Why the Empire was declining. 3. The German tribes beyond the Rhine and the Danube.

Chapter I The Dying Empire And The Forest Peoples

I. The greatness of the Roman Empire. In the fourth century of the Christian era the Roman Empire embraced almost every land then civilized. All the country now bordering upon the Mediterranean was subject to it, and also Britain (modern England). The intelligence and wisdom not merely of ancient Italy, the home land of the conquering Romans, but of old Greece and older Egypt and Syria had been absorbed by the men of the Empire. A traveler from the Euphrates River to Londinium (London) would not as to-day have had to pass through half a score of different countries with varying languages, laws, customs, religions, often sorely hostile one to another; he would have been moving continuously within a single vast empire, all under one firm government, with the same law, the same general manner of religion, the same general social conventionalities. The same money passed current everywhere. If he had had to transact any official business he could always have dispatched it in Latin, though in the Eastern Provinces the more usual language was Greek; and in various rural districts the old local dialects were still in use. The only books he would have read would have been either in Latin or in Greek, He would have found a vast commerce passing over a magnificent road system. On the great frontier rivers, the Euphrates (where the Empire fronted the Kingdom of Persia), the Danube, and the Rhine (whence the Romans looked out against the German tribes), he would have discovered highly disciplined armies ready to cast themselves upon any invader.

At short intervals in his travel he would have entered stately cities with magnificent palaces, theaters, forums (public squares), triumphal arches, and especially amphitheaters where the multitude sought the gladiatorial games wherein they so delighted. Everywhere there was a profusion of splendid sculptures, statues, bas-reliefs, and paintings. Life in these cities was highly cultured : there were numerous literary men, and scholars were held in high esteem. Some of these cities were of notable size: besides Rome,^ which was undoubtedly an exceedingly large city even from a modern standpoint, there were Carthage in North Africa, Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch in Syria, and especially the new capital, Constantinople (founded in 330 a.d. by the Emperor Constantine as a counterpoise to old Rome), which rivaled the '' Queen of the Tiber," in magnitude and splendor. In the open country were great landed estates, where the fortunate owners lived in their villas amid refined ease and luxury.

By about 375 a.d. the religion of this huge empire was nominally Christian. The days of the martyrs were over: Constantine (died 337), the first Christian Emperor, had begun the official discouragement of paganism, and since his day — despite some reactions — the old heathen religion had steadily declined. In a few generations more it was to be almost dead, and " Rome " and " Christianity " were to become practically synonyms.

2. Why the Empire was declining. And yet this stately, almost universal empire was declining, and was doomed to a slow, lingering, but certain death. Among the causes of this

^ The safest guess as to the population of Imperial Rome seems to put it at over 1,000,000; possibly up to 1,500,000. The student must remember that until decidedly modern times reliable census figures are lacking.

THE DYING EMPIRE AND THE FOREST PEOPLES 3

"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," — ^ which constitutes some of the most significant chapters of history, — are these : —

(a) The government of the Empire was that of a despotism. Once the Roman Emperors had tried to veil their power under a decent show of maintaining some kinds of popular liberties, but now the Cassars were for all substantial purposes as absolute autocrats as if they had called themselves " Shahs " or "Sultans."^ The sole thing they really dreaded was the mutiny of the army. The Empire was suffering from the numbing effects of an absolute monarchy, one of the most destructive things possible to private ambition and effort.

(b) Along with this despotism went a grasping and grinding system of taxation. To pay for the expensive court and the increasing demands of the army it was necessary to tax the

' subjects of the Roman Empire as few people have been taxed. This taxation swept off all the surplus wealth, and left the multitude hopeless, discontented, and often starved.

(c) The army was ceasing to protect the frontiers properly. The long years of peace had given the men of the Empire a distaste for the military life. Most of the soldiers were recruits from the German tribes. These troops were brave but unreliable. By their mutinies they raised and destroyed emperors. The bonds of discipline were becoming relaxed. Very soon this demoralized army would cease to be able to hold back the invaders.

(d) As a canker at the heart of the Empire was the evil of slavery, A great proportion of the people were still slaves, although the spirit of Christianity was opposed to the slave system. Slavery was brutal to its victims: but its effect on the masters was still worse. It taught them to be pitiless and

^ At this period the Empire had been divided, usually, into a western and an eastern portion, each with its own emperor. But the Empire was always in theory one, and the two sovereigns were expected to work in harmony.

tyrannical and to despise all fonns of toilsome labor as fit only for bondsmen. No great country ever contained such a proportion of dishonest idlers as the later Roman Empire. For this evil, slavery was largely responsible. The men of the fourth century had hardly an idea of the dignity of labor.

(e) Along with slavery, as its disastrous counterpart, went the great disproportion in the distribution of wealth. Most of the landed property was in the hands of a relatively small number of immensely wealthy magnates of the " Senatorial Class." The masses were either the actual slaves toiling on the magnate's estates, or colon i, — a kind of serfs,- with some nominal rights, but whose actual condition was not a great deal better than that of the slaves. When the Empire stood in sore peril, these down-trodden millions would not feel a great deal of interest in preserving a system in which their rights were so little considered. In their last fights for existence the Caesars could not appeal to the patriotism of their people as can a modern government in a great crisis.

(/) Besides these evils, we meet the fact that the old Graeco- Roman civilization had almost spent itself. Its philosophers and poets had spoken their last word. Its sculptors could not surpass their former creations. Literature had ceased to be creative. Art was becoming florid and over-elaborate. There was still much refinement and learning in the old world, but also much artificiality and absolutely no originality.

(g) The spirit of Christianity had come too late to save a civilization already condemned. There were many noble individual Christians, but too many men accepted the new religion with their lips, while they continued pagan and selfish in their hearts. To teach the nations the true Gospel of Love was to be the work of long ages.

3. The German tribes beyond the Rhine and the Danube. Beyond the northern frontiers of this great but decadent empire lay a swarm of barbarous peoples commonly called by

THE DYING EMPIRE AND THE FOREST PEOPLES 5 the general name of the Germans. The Franks, Alemanni, and Saxons were some of the tribes nearest the Rhine, while north of the Danube lay particularly the powerful Gothic nations, divided into the Ostrogoths (East Goths) and the Visigoths (West Goths).

These Germans were decidedly inferior to the men of the Empire in most of the essentials of civilization, but they were far from being absolute savages. In the vast forests, the swamp lands, or the plains of their northern homes they were slowly developing something like settled agricultural life, although hunting and grazing still furnished their 'chief means of subsistence. They were a tall, blond, blue -eyed race, — " Northern Giants " the weaker races of the Empire anxiously called them ; and in battle only the superior discipline of the Roman armies had flung back the rushes of their sword phalanxes and of their terrible battle-axes. War, both with the Romans and with their fellow Germans of neighboring tribes, was the only real pursuit enjoyed by "men of spirit." The hunting of bears and wild boars would suffice to employ a northern chief during the intervals of "inglorious peace." Most of the real toil of life, outside of fighting or the chase, fell on the women. The villages of low wattled huts were separated by wide intervals of forest land. There were no roads through the woodland; only forest trails. Life in a German hamlet

KOAIAXS DESTROYING A VILLAGE OF THE GERMANS {Relief from the Column of Marcus Aurelins at Rome.) Observe the circular huts constructed of wickerwork, without windows and having but a single narrow door doubtless seemed brutal and sordid enough to any unlucky Roman who came as an explorer or a prisoner.

Nevertheless amoijg these rude peoples were distinct evidences of better things. Manly purity and female honor were better observed than in the gay but sinful cities of the Empire. There were slaves: but they were neither very numerous, nor treated (according to German standards) with great severity. At a carousal in his village the German warrior would drink himself immoderately drunk, but on the campaign he might exhibit all the sober virtues. Germans as a rule kept their oaths : and they were remarkably faithful to any chief they had sworn to follow. Indeed, the loyalty a comitatus (band of picked fighting men) had for its war chief was probably far greater than the loyalty its members bore toward the common tribe. For a band to come back from the battle where its chief had fallen unavenged, was a disgrace almost impossible to wipe away. The whole company would sooner perish.

The political organization of the Germans was loose and primitive. In times of peace each little village community governed itself, or rather, the elders among the nobles managed its simple affairs. In times of threatened war, there would be assemblies of deputies from the villages, perhaps in some forest glade under a ''sacred oak," to consider the weal of the common folk and to plan the campaign. Some tribes had no permanent " king," and only elected a special leader for each war: but usually each tribe had its own " king," who, however, exercised little power save while on the warpath, when he would be obeyed with reasonable diligence.

A GERMAN WAR CHIEF

(Restored. From the Musee d'Artillerie at Paris)

THE DYING EMPIRE AND THE FOREST PEOPLES 7

There seems to be evidence that by the fourth century the Germans were becoming more civilized. They were learning the arts of peace from the Romans and developing internally. Their governments were becoming firmer: their kings had greater authority. Missionaries (especially the famous Goth, Ulfilas) had recently converted most of them to a manner of Christianity/ although probably the crude worship of the old nature deities (e.g., Donar, the Storm and Thunder God) still lingered on in many villages, and in some entire tribes. They were becoming more content with the lands which they possessed, and a little less intent upon roving. Yet repeatedly their bands had collided with the Romans. In the third century many German hordes had penetrated into the Empire, and had been destroyed with the greatest difficulty. In the fourth century the legions seemed to be preventing any actual armed invasion ; but tens of thousands of Germans themselves were enlisted in the legions, while many more were entering the Empire as peaceful settlers. The Germans cheerfully recognized the Romans as superior to themselves in everything but war, and the glitter and splendor of Rome fascinated and lured them southward. Late in the fourth century came events

DWELLING-HOUSE IN A TOWN OF THE FIFTH CENTURY

(Restored. After Gamier and A mmann, Uistoire dc I'habitalion hnmaine.) Note that the building is largely com^ posed of fragments of earlier monuments and structures

' To Arianism, a kind of Unitarianism, which involved the acceptance of Jesus Christ as a "God-Man," but denied his actual divinity.

which broke the barriers on the Danube and the Rhine, and let them into the Empire.

GENERAL NOTE ON ORDEALS

The Germans had one custom which was not merely a curious usage of barbarous peoples, but which they took with them into the Roman Empire and worked into the legal practices of the early Middle Ages in many parts of Europe. This was the method of settling many lawsuits not by a verdict after hearing the evidence, but by an ordeal, a solemn question put to Heaven, which was supposed to answer — according to the result of the ordeal — as to the guilt or innocence of the accused.

Ordeals might take two general forms: among a certain class of German warriors, and between mediaeval noblemen who imitated their example, the favorite method was the wager by battle. In this the two litigants, after due precautions to secure fair play, literally "fought it out" with proper weapons, until one of them was slain, or — if spared — the defeated man "confessed himself recreant," that is, owned his guilt or retracted his charges.

The second form was more directly a query addressed to God. In the "Ordeal by Boiling Water" the accused was obliged to take a stone out of a deep boiling hot caldron. The condition of the accused's hand after the trial determined his fate. Or there might be a "Fire Ordeal" — e.g., the accused might be obliged to walk nine feet blindfolded over red-hot ploughshares. If he were badly burned, clearly he was guilty. Would not Heaven protect the innocent? There were a good many other possible tests. One much in vogue after the Germans became Christians was the "Ordeal of the Morsel," — when, after a priest had solemnly consecrated the bread in the sacrament, the accused partook of the holy element, calling on God to strike him dead if he swore falsely to his innocence.

Owing to the simple faith and the belligerent spirit of the early Middle Ages it was long before these usages were replaced by more rational forms of trial. In fact some dead traces thereof lingered in the law-books down to modern times. A person accused of murder in England demanded trial by wager of battle as late as 1818, but the court promptly disallowed his demand, and the formal right was soon legally abolished.

THE DYING EMPIRE AND THE FOREST PEOPLES g

1. Explain briefly, or state concisely the important facts connected with the following names or topics — Coloni — Comitatus — Ullilas — Arianism — Constantine — Ordeals.

2. Compare the map facing page i with the front linings, and locate on a blank map of Europe the modern nations within the boundaries of the Roman Empire.

3. In what ways was the Roman Empire "great"?

4. Make a list of the causes of the decline of the Empire.

5. Compare the Germans with the Romans as to their respective elements of strength and weakness.

1. For what were Carthage, Alexandria, and Antroch noted?

2. Do any of the conditions marking the decline of the Empire exist in the United States at present? For what conditions are there no parallels here?

Sources. Ogg: Chapter i. Robinson: vol. i, no. 8.

Modern Accounts. Emerton: Introduction: pp. 1-26. Seignobos: pp. 3-11, 16-18. Bemont and Monod: pp. 1-36.

^ For this and all the subsequent chapters the questions marked "Review" are based upon the text of the book, and are intended to bring out from various angles the facts and inferences which ought to be gathered from a careful study of each chapter. In the geographical questions, to be studied always with due use of the maps, important locah'ties which are mentioned for the first time are given. It is assumed that places which have been prominent in earlier chapters are already familiar.

The questions marked "Exercises" are of the "seek-further" variety. They cannot be answered properly from the text, and must be studied by reference to some or all of the books mentioned under "Readings." A large part of the value of the work should come from, the frequent use of these "Exercises," teaching the student to pass beyond the bare statements of the text, to clothe the facts of history with enough detail to give them real life, and to train the student in that use of judgment and inference from conflicting evidence which is one of the mort valuable gains from historical study. — See " Suggestions to Teachers " (pp xiv-xv) for more complete directions.

Chapter II The Germans In The Old Empire

4. The Huns drive the Germans southward. Far away in the heart of Asia lay barbarous tribes of warrior nomads, commonly called the Huns .^ They were as far below the Germans in civilization as the latter were below the Romans: this, however, did not prevent them from being almost invincible in battle. About 350 a.d. their hordes were roHing westward seeking new fields of conquest. Meeting the Germanic Goths in what is to-day southern Russia, they enslaved the Ostro-

GERMANIC SWORD {in sheath)

goths, and drove the whole people of the Visigoths before them in a panic toward the Danube, where lay the Roman barrier forts and the protecting legions (375). At the bank of the great river the Visigoths begged Valens, the Emperor of the Eastern Provinces, to admit them to his dominions, promising faithful service against his enemies, and especially against the Huns who were pressing at their heels. In an evil hour Valens consented. The whole Visigothic folk — men, women, and children — were ferried across, avowedly to settle quietly in the Roman provinces. But almost immediately disputes arose with the imperial officials: and alleging unjust treatment the Visigoths soon took up amis against those who had harbored

^ The best short formula wherewith to describe the Huns is to rename them "Tartars." They were certainly very like the least civilized of the bands that still traverse the steppes of Mongolia and Turkestan, although our information about many of their traits is scanty.

THE GERMANS IN THE OLD EMPIRE ii

them. Valens called out a large part of the whole imperial army. At Adrianople (378) he staked everything on a great battle. He lost his army and his life. The victors wandered ravaging through the Balkan peninsula. The spell of Roman invincibility was broken. Valens's successor in the East, Theodosius, made a new treaty, indeed, with the Goths and induced them to remain peaceably for some years near the Danube. They actually aided him to conquer the western provinces, and he became Emperor of the whole Roman world: but in 395 he died. To one feeble son, Arcadius, he gave the East; to another, Honorius, the West. The Empire was divided, never to be united again. The ministers of these purple-clad youths were for the most part inefficient and corrupt.^ The opportunity of the Germans was come.

5. The sack of Rome by the Visigoths. In 400, Alaric, King of the Visigoths, with his valorous people, set forth from Illyricum^ to invade Italy.' Their first attempt ended, however, at the great battle of Pollentia (402) , when for about the last time the old legions won a notable victory. Alaric returned to Illy ri cum and slowly recruited his swordsmen.

In 408, he again invaded Italy. No effective army now barred his path. With a kind of awe and trembling, but with bold daring and resolve in their hearts, the Visigoths pressed on. The tale runs that Alaric believed a divine voice was saying to him, " Thou shalt reach the City!" and he knew that "the City " was august Rome, " Mother of Empire," which no victorious foe had approached for many centuries. He blockaded the great capital, and presently hunger pinched the vast multitude within the gates. "Give me all your gold, all your silver, all your movable property, and all your barbarian

^ Stilicho, the prime minister of Honorius, was a brave and capable warrior, and until he was murdered (408) the Goths made no great headway. It is worth noticing, however, that Stilicho was descended from a chief of the Vandals, one of the German tribes.

* Modern Servia, Bosnia, and Croatia.

slaves — then I will raise the siege," — so he told a deputation of trembhng senators. " What, then, will you leave us? " " Your lives," was the grim answer. However, the invaders presently agreed upon a more reasonable ransom. But two years later, Alaric returned (410), and this time Rome did not escape. Terror spread through the world as men told one another with bated breath how the "Eternal City " had been sacked by the Gothic barbarians, even as Roman amiies, in days now past, had sacked a score of capitals. If Rome could be violated, what hope for any lesser city? The very end to civilized life seemed come!

The Visigoths did not long remain in Italy. Alaric himself soon succumbed to the hot, unfamiliar southern climate. Even in her weakness the majesty of Rome and the superiority of her civilization impressed itself upon the invaders. Said Athaulf, Alaric 's successor, " My first wish was to destroy the Roman Empire, [but now] I choose the glory of renewing and maintaining by Gothic strength the fame of Rome, desiring to go down to posterity as the preserver of that Roman power which it is beyond my power to replace."

The Visigoths presently made a kind of treaty with the feeble Western Emperor by which they were permitted to occupy Spain and Southern Gaul: and here they estabUshed a permanent dominion, their king lording it over his own folk and also over the Romanized provincials, who as a rule found their new Gothic lords more just and less exacting than the former imperial officials. This Gothic kingdom in Spain lasted till 711.

6. The Germanic kingdoms within the falling Empire. Alaric had shown the way for many another (jcrmanic war chief to enter the Empire. To make the last stand in Italy against the Visigoths, the Roman Government had been obliged to recall the legions guarding the Rhine and the distant province of Britain. Over the undefended frontiers soon

THE GERMANS IN THE OLD EMPIRE

DECORATIVE METAL-WORK

{In the Cabinet dcs Medaillcs at Ike Bibliotiieque Nationale, Paris)

poured one barbarian tribe after another — all seeking the lands and booty which the helpless provinces seemed so able to supply. The fifth century witnessed the utter rending of the Western Roman Empire. Centuries of peace had made the provincials forget the use of arms and trust for all protection to the professional amiy, and now this army was practically no more.

Sometimes the barbarians came in a comparatively inoffensive manner; respected the Romans' private rights and superior culture; contented themselves with merely a fair share of the products of the soil and reasonable

taxes. Sometimes the reverse was the case; the invasions meant blood, sack, slavery — the ruin, in short, of all the arts of peace, of all civilized life. At best the fifth century was a time when men of intelligent instincts must have believed the real progress of the world turned backward, all the accumulated refinements and learning of the past centuries almost hopelessly lost.

To trace the progress of these invasions in a few words is difficult, indeed. One can only name and locate the principal Gemianic kingdoms which spring into view after the period of wandering and warfare is somewhat over. Besides the Visigoths in Spain and South Gaul, the Vandals ^ (a very untamed and oppressive folk) seized northern Africa and spread their piratical naval power oxer the Mediterranean. In east central Gaul settled the Burgundians, in North Gaul the Franks (of whom more hereafter) .