FOOTNOTES:
[1] There is a short description of Roman society in Hodgkin, Dynasty of Theodosius, Chapter II.
[2] Reference, Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages, Chapter II, "What the Middle Ages started with."
[3] There are a number of editions of this work in English, and selections from Epictetus are issued by several publishers. See Readings, Chapter II.
[4] There is an English translation of this published by Stock ($1.20).
[5] Whoever separates himself from the Church, writes Cyprian, is separated from the promises of the Church. "He is an alien, he is profane, he is an enemy, he can no longer have God for his father who has not the Church for his mother. If anyone could escape who was outside the Ark of Noah, so also may he escape who shall be outside the bounds of the Church." See Readings in European History, Chapter II.
[6] Reference, Adams, Civilization, Chapter III, "The Addition of Christianity."
[7] See Readings in European History, Chapter II, for extracts from the Theodosian Code.
[8] An older town called Byzantium was utilized by Constantine as the basis of his new imperial city.
[9] St. Augustine, who was then living, gives us an idea of the impression that the capture of Rome made upon the minds of contemporaries, in an extraordinary work of his called The City of God. He undertakes to refute the argument of the pagans that the fall of the city was due to the anger of their old gods, who were believed to have withdrawn their protection on account of the insults heaped upon them by the Christians, who regarded them as demons. He points out that the gods whom Æneas had brought, according to tradition, from Troy had been unable to protect the city from its enemies and asks why any reliance should be placed upon them when transferred to Italian soil. His elaborate refutation of pagan objections shows us that heathen beliefs still had a strong hold upon an important part of the population and that the question of the truth or falsity of the pagan religion was still a living one in Italy.
[10] Reference, Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages, Chapter III.
[11] Reference, Emerton, Introduction, Chapter V.
[12] Reference, Oman, Dark Ages, Chapter I.
[13] Reference, Oman, Dark Ages, Chapter II.
[16] For Justinian, who scarcely comes into our story, see Oman, Dark Ages, Chapters V–VI.
[17] Reference, Oman, Dark Ages, Chapter IV.
[19] Reference, Emerton, Introduction, 68–72.
[20] Reference, Oman, Dark Ages, Chapter XV.
[21] The northern Franks, who did not penetrate far into the Empire, and the Germans who remained in Germany proper and in Scandinavia, had of course no reason for giving up their native tongues; the Angles and Saxons in Britain also adhered to theirs. These Germanic languages in time became Dutch, English, German, Danish, Swedish, etc. Of this matter something will be said later. See below, § 97.
[22] Extracts from the laws of the Salian Franks may be found in Henderson's Historical Documents, pp. 176–189.
[23] Professor Emerton gives an excellent account of the Germanic ideas of law in his Introduction, pp. 73–91; see also Henderson, Short History of Germany, pp. 19–21. For examples of the trials, see Translations and Reprints, Vol. IV, No. 4. A philosophical account of the character of the Germans and of the effects of the invasions is given by Adams, Mediæval Civilization, Chapters IV-V.
[24] Tacitus' Germania, which is our chief source for the German customs, is to be found in Translations and Reprints, Vol. VI, No. 3. For the habits of the invading Germans, see Henderson, Short History of Germany, pp. 1–11; Hodgkin, Dynasty of Theodosius, last half of Chapter II.
[26] For reports of miracles, see Readings, especially Chapters V and XVI.
[27] Matt. xvi. 18–19. Two other passages in the New Testament were held to substantiate the divinely ordained headship of Peter and his successors: Luke xxii. 32, where Christ says to Peter, "Stablish thy brethren," and John xxi. 15–17, where Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep." See Readings, Chapter IV.
[28] The name pope (Latin, papa = father) was originally and quite naturally applied to all bishops, and even to priests. It began to be especially applied to the bishops of Rome perhaps as early as the sixth century, but was not apparently confined to them until two or three hundred years later. Gregory VII (d. 1085) was the first to declare explicitly that the title should be used only for the Bishop of Rome. We shall, however, hereafter refer to the Roman bishop as pope, although it must not be forgotten that his headship of the Western Church did not for some centuries imply the absolute power that he came later to exercise over all the other bishops of western Europe.
[29] The great circular tomb was later converted into the chief fortress of the popes and called, from the event just mentioned, the Castle of the Angel (San Angelo).
[31] Benedict did not introduce monasticism in the West, as is sometimes supposed, nor did he even found an order in the proper sense of the word, under a single head, like the later Franciscans and Dominicans. Nevertheless, the monks who lived under his rule are ordinarily spoken of as belonging to the Benedictine order. A translation of the Benedictine rule may be found in Henderson, Historical Documents, pp. 274–314.
[32] Cunningham, Western Civilization, Vol. II, pp. 37–40, gives a brief account of the work of the monks.
[35] There is a Life of St. Columban, written by one of his companions, which, although short and simple in the extreme, furnishes a better idea of the Christian spirit of the sixth century than the longest treatise by a modern writer. This life may be found in Translations and Reprints, Vol. II, No. 7, translated by Professor Munro.
[37] An admirable brief description of the culture of the Arabs and their contributions to European civilization will be found in Munro, Mediæval History, Chapter IX.
[38] One of the most conspicuous features of early Protestantism, eight hundred years later, was the revival of Leo's attack upon the statues and frescoes which continued to adorn the churches in Germany, England, and the Netherlands.
[39] Charlemagne is the French form for the Latin, Carolus Magnus, i.e., Charles the Great. It has been regarded as good English for so long that it seems best to retain it, although some writers, fearful lest one may think of Charles as a Frenchman instead of a German, use the German form, Karl.
[40] Professor Emerton (Introduction, pp. 183–185) gives an example of the style and spirit of the monk of St. Gall, who was formerly much relied upon for knowledge of Charlemagne.
[41] These decrees lose something of their harshness by the provision: "If after secretly committing any one of these mortal crimes any one shall flee of his own accord to the priest and, after confessing, shall wish to do penance, let him be freed, on the testimony of the priest, from death." This is but another illustration of the theory that the Church was in the Middle Ages a governmental institution. It would be quite out of harmony with modern ideas should the courts of law, in dealing with one who had committed a crime, consider in any way the relations of the suspected criminal to his priest or minister, or modify his sentence on account of any religious duties that the criminal might consent to perform.
[42] The king of Prussia still has, among other titles, that of Margrave of Brandenburg. The German word Mark is often used for "march" on maps of Germany.
[43] The Mohammedan state had broken up in the eighth century, and the ruler of Spain first assumed the title of emir (about 756) and later (929) that of caliph. The latter title had originally been enjoyed only by the head of the whole Arab empire, who had his capital at Damascus, and later at Bagdad.
[44] As Charlemagne was crossing the Pyrenees, on his way back from Spain, his rear guard was attacked in the Pass of Roncesvalles. The chronicle simply states that Roland, Count of Brittany, was slain. This episode, however, became the subject of one of the most famous of the epics of the Middle Ages, the Song of Roland. See below, § 99.
[45] Reference, for Charlemagne's conquests, Emerton, Introduction, Chapter XIII; Oman, Dark Ages, Chapters XX–XXI.
[47] See extracts from these regulations, and an account of one of Charlemagne's farms, in Readings, Chapter VII.
[50] These lines are taken from a manuscript written in 825. They form a part of a copy of Charlemagne's admonition to the clergy (789) mentioned below. The part here given is addressed to the bishops and warns them of the terrible results of disobeying the rules of the Church. Perhaps the scribe did not fully understand what he was doing, for he has made some of those mistakes which Charlemagne was so anxious to avoid. Then there are some abbreviations which make the lines difficult to read. They ought probably to have run as follows: ... mereamini. Scit namque prudentia vestra, quam terribili anathematis censura feriuntur qui praesumptiose contra statuta universalium conciliorum venire audeant. Quapropter et vos diligentius ammonemus, ut omni intentione illud horribile execrationis judicium ...
[52] References for the reign of Louis the Pious, Henderson, Germany in the Middle Ages, Chapter VI; Oman, Dark Ages, Chapter XXIII.
[53] Named for Lothaire II.
[54] For the text and translation of the Strasburg oaths, see Emerton, Mediæval Europe, pp. 26–27, or Munro, Mediæval History, p. 20. A person familiar with Latin and French could puzzle out a part of the oath in the lingua romana; that in the lingua teudisca would be almost equally intelligible to one familiar with German.
[55]The following table will show the relationship of the descendants of Charlemagne:
[56 Charles the Simple][56] Who was too young to be considered in 884, but afterwards became king of France and progenitor of the later Carolingian rulers.
[57] Reference, Henderson, Germany in the Middle Ages, Chapter VII; Oman, Dark Ages, Chapter XXV.
[58] Reference, Munro, Mediæval History, pp. 34–39. The Northmen extended their expeditions to Spain, Italy, and even into Russia. In England, under the name of Danes, we find them forcing Alfred the Great to recognize them as the masters of northern England (878). The Norse pirates were often called vikings, from their habit of leaving their long boats in the vik, i.e., bay or inlet. A goodly number of the Northmen settled in Iceland, and our knowledge of their civilization and customs comes chiefly from the Icelandic sagas, or tales. Some of these are of great interest and beauty; perhaps none is finer than The Story of Burnt Njal. This and others may be read in English. See Readings, Chapter VIII.
[59] An account of the manor will be given later, Chapter XVIII.
[60] See an example of an immunity granted by Charlemagne to a monastery, in Emerton, Introduction, pp. 246–249, also Munro, Mediæval History, p. 44. Other examples are given in the Readings, Chapter IX.
[61] Extracts from the chronicles of the ninth century illustrating the disorder of the period will be found in the Readings, Chapter VIII.
[63] See an example of this form of grant in the seventh century in Readings, Chapter IX. The reader will also find there a considerable number of illustrations of feudal contracts, etc.
[64] See formula of "commendation," as this arrangement was called, in Readings, Chapter IX. The fact that the Roman imperial government forbade this practice under heavy penalties suggests that the local magnates used their retainers to establish their independence of the imperial taxgatherers and other government officials.
[65] See Adams, Civilization, pp. 207 sqq.
[66] Lord is dominus, or senior, in mediæval Latin. From the latter word the French seigneur is derived. Suzerain is used to mean the direct lord and also an overlord separated by one or more degrees from a subvassal.
[67] A relic of the time when fiefs were just becoming hereditary was preserved in the exaction by the lord of a certain due, called the relief. This payment was demanded from the vassal when one lord died and a new one succeeded him, and from a new vassal upon the death of his predecessor. It was originally the payment for a new grant of the land at a time when fiefs were not generally held hereditarily. The right did not exist in the case of all fiefs and it varied greatly in amount. It was customarily much heavier when the one succeeding to the fief was not the son of the former holder but a nephew or more distant relative.
[68] Homage is derived from the Latin word for man, homo.
[69] The conditions upon which fiefs were granted might be dictated either by interest or by mere fancy. Sometimes the most fantastic and seemingly absurd obligations were imposed. We hear of vassals holding on condition of attending the lord at supper with a tall candle, or furnishing him with a great yule log at Christmas. Perhaps the most extraordinary instance upon record is that of a lord in Guienne who solemnly declared upon oath, when questioned by the commissioners of Edward I, that he held his fief of the king upon the following terms: When the lord king came through his estate he was to accompany him to a certain oak. There he must have waiting a cart loaded with wood and drawn by two cows without any tails. When the oak was reached, fire was to be applied to the cart and the whole burned up "unless mayhap the cows make their escape."
[70] The feudal courts, especially those of the great lords and of the king himself, were destined to develop later into the centers of real government, with regular judicial, financial, and administrative bodies for the performance of political functions.
[71] In the following description of the anarchy of feudalism, I merely condense Luchaire's admirable chapter on the subject in his Manuel des Institutions Françaises. The Readings, Chapters X, XII, XIII, XIV, furnish many examples of disorder.
[72] The gorgeous affairs of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were but weak and effeminate counterparts of the rude and hazardous encounters of the thirteenth.
[73] References, for the mediæval castle, the jousts, and the life of the nobles, Munro, Mediæval History, Chapter XIII, and Henderson, Short History of Germany, pp. 111–121.
[74] See the famous "Truce of God" issued by the Archbishop of Cologne in 1083, in Readings, Chapter IX.
[76] Reference, Emerton, Mediæval Europe, pp. 405–420. Readings, Chapter X.
[79] Henry's family owes its name, Plantagenet, to the habit that his father, Geoffrey of Anjou, had of wearing a bit of broom (planta genista) in his helmet on his crusading expeditions.
[80] Geoffrey, the eldest of the three sons of Henry II mentioned above, died before his father.
[81] The Estates General were so called to distinguish a general meeting of the representatives of the three estates of the realm from a merely local assembly of the provincial estates of Champagne, Provence, Brittany, Languedoc, etc. There are some vague indications that Philip had called in a few townspeople even earlier than 1302.
[82] For the French monarchy as organized in the thirteenth century, see Emerton, Mediæval Europe, pp. 432–433; Adams, Civilization, pp. 311–328.
[83] In spite of the final supremacy of the West Saxons of Wessex, the whole land took its name from the more numerous Angles.
[84] References, Green, Short History of the English People (revised edition, Harper & Brothers), pp. 48–52; extracts from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle may be found in Readings, Chapter XI.
[85] The shires go back at least as far as Alfred the Great, and many of their names indicate that they had some relation to the earlier little kingdoms, e.g., Sussex, Essex, Kent, Northumberland.
[87] Often called the battle of Hastings from the neighboring town of that name.
[88] For contemporaneous accounts of William's character and the relations of Normans and English, see Colby, Sources, pp. 33–36, 39–41; Readings, Ch. XI.
[89] Reference, for the Conqueror and his reign, Green, Short History, pp. 74–87, and Gardiner, Students' History, pp. 86–114.
[92] References, Green, pp. 104–112; Gardiner, pp. 138–158. A contemporaneous account of the murder is given by Colby, Sources, pp. 56–59.
[94] For John's reign, see Green, pp. 122–127.
[95] The text of the Great Charter is given in Translations and Reprints, Vol. I, No. 6; extracts, in the Readings, Chapter XI.
[96] These were payments made when the lord knighted his eldest son, gave his eldest daughter in marriage, or had been captured and was waiting to be ransomed.
[97] See map following p. 152 for the names and position of the several duchies.
[98] Arnulf, the grandson of Louis the German, who supplanted Charles the Fat, died in 899 and left a six-year-old son, Louis the Child (d. 911), who was the last of the house of Charlemagne to enjoy the German kingship. The aristocracy then chose Conrad I (d. 918), and, in 919, Henry I of Saxony, as king of the East Franks.
[99] See Readings, Chapter XII.
[100] See Emerton, Mediæval Europe, Chapter IV, for a clear account of the condition of the papacy, the struggles between the rival Italian dynasties, and the interference and coronation of Otto the Great.
[101] Henry II (1002–1024) and his successors, not venturing to assume the title of emperor till crowned at Rome, but anxious to claim the sovereignty of Rome as indissolubly attached to the German crown, began to call themselves before their coronation rex Romanorum, i.e., King of the Romans. This habit lasted until Luther's time, when Maximilian I got permission from the pope to call himself "Emperor Elect" before his coronation, and this title was thereafter taken by his successors immediately upon their election.
[102] For Otto II, Otto III, and Henry II, see Emerton, Mediæval Europe, Chapter V; and Henderson, Germany in the Middle Ages, pp. 145–166.
[103] These grants of the powers of a count to prelates serve to explain the ecclesiastical states,—for example, the archbishoprics of Mayence and Salzburg, the bishopric of Bamberg, and so forth,—which continue to appear upon the map of Germany until the opening of the nineteenth century.
[104] From the beginning, single life had appealed to some Christians as more worthy than the married state. Gradually, under the influence of monasticism, the more devout and enthusiastic clergy voluntarily shunned marriage, or, if already married, gave up association with their wives after ordination. Finally the Western Church condemned marriage altogether for the deacon and the ranks above him, and later the sub-deacons were included in the prohibition. The records are too incomplete for the historian to form an accurate idea of how far the prohibition of the Church was really observed throughout the countries of the West. There were certainly great numbers of married clergymen in northern Italy, Germany, and elsewhere, in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Of course the Church refused to sanction the marriage of its officials and called the wife of a clergyman, however virtuous and faithful she might be, by the opprobrious name of "concubine."
[105] Pronounced sĭm'o-ny.
[106] Reference, Emerton, Mediæval Europe, pp. 201–209.