Class J ) Q6 Book igtei°__a_a COPYRIGHT DEPOSffi Page from a Book of Hours, Fifteenth Century (Original Size) PREFACE This volume is a very careful and thoroughgoing revision of the author's Introduction to the History of Western Europe, which first appeared in 1902. The presentation has been sim- plified so as to adapt the book especially to use in high schools and preparatory schools, although it can readily be employed in colleges as the basis of an introductory course in general European history, when supplemented by outside reading. The treatment of medieval times, especially of the Church, has been considerably reduced with a view of permitting a more adequate discussion of recent times. This saving of space and other condensations and omissions have made it possible to devote a hundred pages more than in the original edition to the developments of the past hundred years. The illustrations have been selected with great care from the standpoint of their educational value. The explanatory legend under each of them serves to add much information which it would have been awkward to include in the general narrative. These numerous cuts have inevitably added to the length of the volume, but it should be noted that the narrative itself is somewhat shorter than that in the original edition. In the revision and expansion of the latter part of the book the author is under great obligations to his friends and col- leagues, Professors Charles A. Beard and James T. Shotwell. A great deal of time and thought has been given to the selection of suitable illustrations, and in this Mr. Edward K. Robinson of Boston has given us constant aid and advice. J. H. K. Columbia University New York City 111 vi Medieval and Modern Times CHAPTER PAGE 25. The Great Charter and the Beginnings of Parliament 125 26. Wales and Scotland . . 128 27. The Hundred Years' War 132 VIII. Popes and Emperors 28. Origin of the Holy Roman Empire 144 29. The Church and its Property 146 30. Powers claimed by the Popes 152 31. Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV 153 32. The Hohenstaufen Emperors and the Popes ... 158 IX. The Crusades 33. Origin of the Crusades 166 34. The First Crusade 170 35. The Religious Orders of the Hospitalers and Templars 174 36. The Second and Later Crusades • . 176 37. Chief Results of the Crusades 178 X. The Medieval Church at its Height 38. Organization and Powers of the Church 181 39. The Heretics and the Inquisition 187 40. The Franciscans and Dominicans 190 41. Church and State 195 XI. Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 42. The Towns and Guilds 203 43. Business in the Later Middle Ages 208 44. Gothic Architecture 215 45. The Italian Cities of the Renaissance 222 46. Early Geographical Discoveries 232 XII. Books and Science in the Middle Ages 47. How the Modern Languages Originated 239 48. The Troubadours and Chivalry 244 49. Medieval Science 247 50. Medieval Universities and Studies 250 51. Beginnings of Modern Inventions 255 52. The Art of the Renaissance 264 XIII. Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 53. Emperor Maximilian and the Hapsburg Marriages . 268 54. How Italy became the Battleground of the European Powers 274 55. Condition of Germany when Charles V became Emperor 280 Contents vii CHAPTER PAGE XIV. Martin Luther and the Revolt of Germany AGAINST THE PAPACY 56. The Question of Reforming the Church : Erasmus 284 57. How Martin Luther revolted against the Papacy . 288 58. The Diet at Worms, 1 520-1 52 1 299 59. The Revolt against the Papacy begins in Germany 302 60. Division of Germany into Catholic and Protestant Countries 306 XV. The Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 61. Zwingli and Calvin 311 62. How England fell away from the Papacy . . . . 314 63. England becomes Protestant 320 XVI. The Wars of Religion 64. The Council of Trent; the Jesuits 325 65. Philip II and the Revolt of the Netherlands . . . 331 66. The Huguenot Wars in France 337 67. England under Queen Elizabeth 345 68. The Thirty Years' War .... 352 69. The Beginnings of our Scientific Age 358 V V XVII. Struggle in England between King and Par- liament 70. James I and the Divine Right of Kings .... 365 71. How Charles I got along without Parliament . . 368 72. How Charles I lost his Head 373 73. Oliver Cromwell : England a Commonwealth . . 376 74. The Restoration 382 75. The Revolution of 1688 384 XVIII. France under Louis XIV 76. Position and Character of Louis XIV 387 77. How Louis encouraged Art and Literature . . . 391 78. Louis XIV attacks his Neighbors 394 79. Louis XIV and his Protestant Subjects 396 80. War of the Spanish Succession 398 XIX. Rise of Russia and Prussia ; Austria 81. Beginnings of Russia 402 82. Peter the Great 404 viii Medieval and Modern Times CHAPTER PAGE 83. Origin of the Kingdom of Prussia 407 84. The Wars of Frederick the Great 411 85. Three Partitions of Poland, 1772, 1793, an< ^ T 795 • 4*5 86. The Austrian Realms : Maria Theresa and Joseph II 419 XX. How England became Queen of the Ocean 87. England after the Revolution of 1688 424 88. How Europe began to extend its Commerce over the Whole World '. .428 89. The Contest between France and England for Colo- nial Empire 431 90. Revolt of the American Colonies from England . . 437 XXI. General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 91. Life in the Country — Serfdom 442 92. The Towns and the Guilds 445 93. The Nobility and the Monarchy 449 94. The Catholic Church 454 95. The English Established Church and the Protestant Sects . 456 XXII. Modern Science and the Spirit of Reform 96. The Development of Modern Science 461 97. How the Scientific Discoveries produced a Spirit of Reform : Voltaire 464 XXIII. The Eve of the French Revolution 98. The Old Regime in France 473 99. How Louis XVI tried to play the Benevolent Despot 486 XXIV. The French Revolution 100. How the Estates were summoned in 1789 .... 492 101. First Reforms of the National Assembly, July to October, 1789 498 102. The National Assembly in Paris, October, 1789, to September, 1791 502 103. France becomes involved in a War with Other European Powers 506 104. Founding of the First French Republic 512 105. The Reign of Terror 516 XXV. Europe and Napoleon 106. General Bonaparte 526 107. How Bonaparte made himself Master of France . . 531 Contents IX CHAPTER PAGE 108. How Bonaparte secured Peace in 1801 and re- organized Germany 535 109. Bonaparte restores Order and Prosperity in France 538 no. How Napoleon destroyed the Holy Roman Empire 541 in. Napoleon at the Zenith of his Power (1808-1812) 549 112. The Fall of Napoleon 554 XXVI. Europe after the Congress of Vienna 113. Reconstruction of Europe by the Congress of Vienna 564 114. France, 1814-1830 568 115. Germany and Metternich 570 116. Revolutionary Tendencies in Italy, 1 820-1 848 . . 574 XXVII. The Industrial Revolution 117. Invention of Machinery for Spinning and Weaving 580 118. The Steam Engine 584 119. Capitalism and the Factory System 587 120. The Rise of Socialism 591 XXVIII. The Revolutions of 1848 and their Results 121. The Second Republic and Second Empire in France 595 122. The Revolution of 1848 in Austria, Germany, and Ital y 599 123. Outcome of the Revolution of 1848 601 XXIX. The Unification of Italy and Germany 124. Founding of the Kingdom of Italy 608 125. How Prussia defeated Austria and founded the North German Confederation 612 126. The Franco-German War of 1870 and the Estab- lishment of the German Empire 619 127. The Final Unification of Italy 622 XXX. The German Empire and the Third French Republic 128. The German Constitution 626 129. Bismarck and State Socialism 628 130. Reign of William II 631 131. Establishment of the Present French Republic . 635 XXXI. Great Britain and her Empire 132. The English Constitution 643 133. The Reform of the Suffrage 644 XXXII. x Medieval and Modem Times CHAPTER PAGE 134. The Cabinet . 648 135. General Reforms in England . 650 136. The Irish Question 657 137. The British Empire : India 661 138. The British Empire: Canada and Australasia . . 665 139. The British Empire : South Africa ...... 669 The Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 140. The Reigns of Alexander I (1801-1825) and Nicholas I (1825-1855) 674 141. The Freeing of the Serfs and the Growth of the Spirit of Revolution 678 142. The Struggle for Liberty under Nicholas II . . 683 XXXIII. Turkey and the Eastern Question 143. The Emergence of Serbia and Greece 689 144. The Crimean War (1854-1856) 691 145. Revolts in the Balkan Peninsula 693 146. Extinction of Turkey in Europe 695 XXXIV. Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Century 147. The Growth of International Trade and Competi- tion : Imperialism 703 148. Relations of Europe with China 710 149. JapanbecomesaWorld Power; Intervention in China 712 150. Russia and Japan .....716 151. Partition of Africa 720 152. The Disruption of the Spanish Empire .... 723 XXXV. Origin of the War of 1914 153. The Armies and Navies of Europe 727 154. Movements for Peace: the Hague Conferences . 730 155. Matters of Dispute : National Rivalries .... 733 156. The Near-Eastern Question . . 736 157. The Outbreak of the War 741 XXXVI. Supplementary Chapter. The Great War 158. Course of the War in 1914 and 191 5 747 159. The Campaigns of 1916 756 16b. The World against Germany, 191 7 759 161. The Question of Peace 766 162. The End of the Great War 781 BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX 1 xix LIST OF PLATES PAGE Page from a Book of Hours, Fifteenth Century (in colors) Frontispiece Street Scene in Cairo (in colors) 68 Interior of the Great Mosque of Cordova 72 Court of the Lions in the Alhambra * . . . 73 Scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry (in colors) 116 Facade of the Cathedral at Rheims 220 Rose Window of Rheims Cathedral 220 Interior of Exeter Cathedral 221 North Porch of Chartres Cathedral 221 Ghiberti's Doors at Florence 264 Holy Family by Andrea del Sarto 265 The Opening of the Estates General 496 The Tennis-Court Oath . . . ' 497 Napoleon I 530 Napoleon in Egypt 531 Charge of the French Cavalry, Friedland, 1807 (in colors) . . . 546 The Congress of Vienna 566 Important Members of the Congress of Vienna 567 Home of the First President of the Parlement of Paris .... 636 The Munition Works, Le Creusot, France 637 Opening of the Opera, Paris (in colors) 642 Queen Victoria notified of her Accession (in colors) 652 Gladstone addressing the House of Commons on the Home Rule Bill 660 The Imperial Durbar, India 661 Church of St. Basil, Moscow (in colors) 674 Chinese Coolies hauling a Boat 710 Chinese Rice Fields on Hillsides 711 The Outcast 737 Marshal Ferdinand Foch (in colors) 747 German Delegates arriving within the French Lines 783 Surrender of the German Fleet . 784 XI LIST OF COLORED MAPS PAGE The Roman Empire at its Greatest Extent 8 The Migrations of the Germans in the Fifth Century 24 Europe in the Time of Charlemagne a. d. 814 . 80 The British «Isles 128 Europe about a. d. iooo 144 Routes of the Crusaders 172 Commercial Towns and Trade Routes of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries 208 A Map of the Globe in the Time of Columbus 236 Europe about the Middle of the Sixteenth Century 276 Europe when Louis XIV began his Personal Government, 1661 . 388 Europe after the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt, 17 13-17 14 . . 400 Northeastern Europe in the time of Peter the Great 404 The Partition of Poland 418 England, Fiance, and Spain in America, 1750 430 India about 1763 434 France during the Revolution 506 Europe at the Time of Napoleon's Greatest Power, about 1810 . . 556 Europe after 1815 '. . . . 568 Italy, 1814-1859 622 The German Empire since 187 1 630 The British Empire 666 Western Portion of the Russian Empire 678 Southeastern Europe, 1914 702 The European Advance (to 1914) in Asia 706 The Partition of Africa 722 Europe in 1914 734 Austria-Hungary 738 MEDIEVAL AND MODERN TIMES CHAPTER I WESTERN EUROPE BEFORE THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS Prelude i. History, in the broadest sense of the word, is all that we object of this know about everything that man has ever done, or thought, or hoped, or felt. It is the study of past human affairs. The present volume deals with only a small, but for us most impor- tant, part of the history of the world. Its object is to give a very brief, clear account of the great changes which have taken place in western Europe since the German barbarians, some fifteen hundred years ago, overcame the armies of the Roman Empire and set up kingdoms of their own, out of which the present countries of France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, and England have grown. History used to be defined as "the record of past events" History no And most of the older textbooks tell about scarcely anything record of* except events — how battles were fought, how kings came to past events " the throne one after another, how treaties were concluded and the boundary lines between states were changed from time to time. But nowadays we are beginning to see that the history of past conditions and institutions is far more important than that of mere events. We want to know how people lived, what kind of buildings they built, what kind of books they read, how much they knew and what they thought about science and religion ; how they were governed, what they manufactured and how they carried on their business. 2 Medieval and Modern Times illustrations It is important to understand clearly what is meant by events, meant by past conditions, and institutions, since history deals with all three, and^nstitu- ^ n event 1S an occurrence, such as the death of Queen Victoria tions or the battle of Gettysburg. A condition is a more or less per- manent state of affairs, such as the scarcity of money in the early Middle Ages or the fact that a hundred years ago only a small part of the English people could read. By institution we usually mean such things as the English Parliament, public schools, or trial by jury. Both conditions and institutions often endure for hundreds of years. Events happen in a short time but often produce great results, as did the invention of printing and the discovery of America. Value of the The newer kind of history, which deals with past conditions newer kind of „ . . .. i i i i history as well as events, enables us really to understand the past and to compare it with the present, and in that way we come to understand the conditions in which we live much better than we should otherwise do. We see where our ideas and beliefs and inventions came from, how slowly most of them developed, and how men have changed their ways of living as they learned more. Impossibility It is impossible to divide the past into distinct, clearly defined the past into periods and prove that one age ended and another began in a clearly de- particular year, such as 476, or 1453, or 1789. Men do not and cannot change their habits arid ways of doing things all at once, no matter what happens. It is true that a single event, such as an important battle which results in the loss of a nation's inde- pendence, may produce an abrupt change in the government. This in turn may either encourage or discourage trade and manufactures, and modify the language and alter the interests All general of a people. But these deeper changes take place only very plac^gradu- 6 gradually. After a battle or a revolution the farmer will sow all y and reap in his old way ; the artisan will take up his familiar tasks, and the merchant his buying and selling. The scholar will study and write as he formerly did, and the household will go on under the new government just as it did under the old. Western Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 3 So a change in government affects the habits of a people but slowly in any case, and it may leave them quite unaltered. This tendency of mankind to do, in general, this year what The unity or it did last, in spite of changes in some one department of life, — hUtory such as substituting a president for a king, traveling by rail in- stead of on horseback, or getting the news from a newspaper instead of from a neighbor, — results in what is called the unity or continuity of history. The truth that no sudden change has ever taken place in all the customs of a people, and that it can- not, in the nature of things, take place, is perhaps the most fundamental lesson that history teaches. Historians sometimes seem to forget this principle, when they General undertake to begin and end their books at precise dates. We noToccuron find histories of Europe from 476 to 918, from 1270 to 1492, fixed dates as if the accession of a capable German king in 918, or the death of a famous French king in 1270, or the discovery of America in 1492, marked a general change in European affairs. In reality, however, no general change took place at these dates or in any other single year. It would doubtless have proved a great convenience to the readers and writers of history if the world had agreed to carry out a definite program and alter its habits at precise dates, preferably at the opening of each cen- tury. But no such agreement has ever been adopted, and the historical student must take things as he finds them. He must recognize that nations retain their old customs while they adopt new ones, and that a small portion of a nation may advance while the greater part of it stays behind. We cannot, therefore, hope to fix any year or event which may Meaning of properly be taken as the beginning of that long period which « Middle followed the break-up of the Roman Empire in western Europe A £ es " and which is commonly called the Middle Ages. Beyond the northern and eastern boundaries of the Roman Empire, which embraced the whole civilized world from the Euphrates to Britain, mysterious peoples moved about whose history before they came into occasional contact with the Romans is practically unknown. 4 Medieval a?id Modern Times Most medie- val notions to be found in the late Ro- man Empire These Germans, or " barbarians," as the Romans called them, were destined to put an end to the Roman Empire in western Europe. They had first begun to make trouble about a hundred years before Christ, when a great army of them was defeated by the Roman general Marius. Julius Caesar narrates in polished Latin, familiar to all who begin the study of that language, how fifty years later he drove back other bands. Five hundred years elapsed, however, before German chieftains succeeded in found- ing kingdoms within the boundaries of the Empire. With their establishment the Roman government in western Europe may be said to have come to an end and the Middle Ages to have begun. Yet it would be a great mistake to suppose that this means that the Roman civilization suddenly disappeared at this time. Long before the German conquest, art and literature had begun to decline toward the level that they reached in the Middle Ages. Many of the ideas and conditions which prevailed after the com- ing of the barbarians were common enough before. Even the ignorance and strange ideas which we associate particularly with the Middle Ages are to be found in the later Roman Empire. The term " Middle Ages " will be used in this volume to mean, roughly speaking, the period of over a thousand years that elapsed between the fifth century, when the disorder of the barbarian invasions was becoming general, and the opening of the sixteenth century, when Europe was well on its way to recover all that had been lost since the break-up of the Roman Empire. Extent of the Roman Empire The Roman Empire and its Government 2. Before we begin our study of the history of western Europe since the break-up of the Roman Empire we must stop to consider briefly the way in which people were living before the German leaders succeeded in establishing their kingdoms. At the opening of the fifth century there were no separate, independent states in western Europe such as we find on the map to-day. The whole area now occupied by England, France. Spain, Western Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 5 and Italy formed at that time only a part of the vast realms ruled over by the Roman emperor and his host of officials. As for Germany, most of it was still familiar only to the half-savage tribes who inhabited it. The Romans had tried in vain to con- quer this part of Europe, but finally had to content themselves with keeping the German hordes out of the Empire by means of fortifications and guards along the Rhine and Danube rivers. SSsr.- - "—* -----«»- Fig. 1. Roman Aqueduct near Nimes This structure was built by the Romans about the year 20 a.d. to supply the Roman colony of Nemausus (now called Nimes) in south- ern France with water from two excellent springs twenty-five miles distant. It is nearly 900 feet long and 160 feet high, and carried the water over the valley of the river Gard. The channel for the water is at the very top, and one can still walk through it. The miles of aque- duct on either side of this bridge have almost disappeared The Roman Empire, which embraced southern and western Europe, western Asia, and even the northern portion of Africa (see map), included the most diverse peoples and races. Egyp- tians, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Italians, Gauls, Britons, Iberians, — all alike were under the sovereign rule of Rome. One great state embraced the nomad shepherds who spread their tents on the borders of Sahara, the mountaineers in the fastnesses of Great diver- sity of races included within the Empire Medieval and Modern Times Bonds which held the Em- pire together The Roman government attempted to regulate everything Wales, and the citizens of Athens, Alexandria, and Rome, heirs to all the luxury and learning of the ages. Whether one lived in York or Jerusalem, Memphis or Vienna, he paid his taxes into the same treasury, he was tried by the same law, and looked to the same armies for protection. At first it seems incredible that this huge Empire, which in- cluded African and Asiatic peoples as well as the most various races of Europe in all stages of civilization, could have held together for five centuries instead of falling to pieces, as might have been expected, long before the barbarians came in sufficient strength to establish their own kingdoms in its midst. When, however, we consider the bonds of union which held the state together, it is easy to understand why the Empire en- dured so long. These were (i) the wonderfully organized gov- ernment with its officials in every pa^t of the realm, watching everything and allowing nothing to escape them ; (2) the wor- ship of the head of the Empire, the emperor; (3) the hardy legions of soldiers who had made Rome's conquests and could be used to put down revolt and keep out the barbarians ; (4) the Roman law in force everywhere ; (5) the admirable roads, which enabled the soldiers to march quickly from place to place ; and, lastly, (6) the Roman colonies and the teachers sent out by the government, for through them the same ideas and ways of doing things were carried to even the most distant parts of the Empire. Let us first glance at the government and the emperor. His decrees were dispatched throughout the length and breadth of the Roman dominions ; whatsoever pleased him became law, according to the well-known principle of the Roman constitution. While the cities were permitted some freedom in the manage- ment of their own affairs, the emperor and his innumerable of- ficials kept an eye upon even the humblest citizen. The Roman government, besides keeping order, settling law cases, and de- fending the boundaries, assumed many other responsibilities. It watched the grain dealers, butchers, and bakers, and saw to it that they properly supplied the public and never deserted their Western Europe before the Barbarian Invasions J occupation. In some cases it forced the son to follow the profes- sion of his father. If it could have had its way, it would have had every one belong to a definite class of society, and his children after him. It kept the unruly poorer classes in the towns quiet by furnishing them with bread, and sometimes with wine, meat, and clothes. It provided amusement for them by expensive en- tertainments, such as races and gladiatorial combats (see Fig. 3). In a word, the Roman government was not only wonderfully organized, so that its power was felt throughout its whole ex- tent, but it attempted to regulate almost every interest in life. Every one was required to join in the worship of the emperor The worship because he stood for the majesty and glory of the Roman domin- ZJ^ em ~ ion. The inhabitants of each province might revere their partic- ular gods, undisturbed by the government, but all were obliged, as good citizens, to join in the official sacrifices to the head of the State, as if he were a god. The early Christians were perse- cuted, not only because their religion was different from that of their fellows, but because they refused to reverence the images of the emperor, and openly prophesied the downfall of the Roman State. Their religion seemed incompatible with good citizenship, since it forbade them to show the usual respect for the government. As there was one government, so there was one law for all The Roman the civilized world. The same principles of reason, justice, and aw humanity were believed to hold whether the Roman citizen lived upon the Euphrates or the Thames. The law of the Roman Empire is its chief legacy to posterity. Its provisions are still in force in many of the states of Europe to-day, and it is one of the subjects of study in our American universities. Wives and children were protected from the cruelty of the head of the house, who, in earlier centuries, had been privileged to treat the members of his family as slaves. The law held that it was better that a guilty person should escape than ttott an innocent person should be condemned. It conceived mankind, not as a group of nations and tribes, each with its own laws, but as one 8 Medieval and Modern Times people included in one great empire and subject to a single svstem of law based upon fairness and reason. R»ads Magnificent roads were constructed, which enabled the mes- sengers of the government and its armies to reach every part of the Empire with what at that time seemed incredible speed. Colonics, public buildings Fig. 2. Roman Bridge at St. Cham as This Roman bridge with its handsome portals, at St. Chamas in southern France, was built in the time of the Emperor Augustus ; that is, about the beginning of the Christian era These highways made trade comparatively easy and encouraged merchants and travelers to visit the most distant portions of the realm. Everywhere they found the same coins and the same system of weights and measures. Colonies were sent out to the confines of the Empire, and the remains of great public buildings, of theaters and bridges, of sumptuous villas and baths at places like Treves, Cologne, Bath, and Salzburg, indicate how thoroughly the influence and civilization of Rome penetrated to the utmost parts of the terri- tory subject to her rule. The illustrations in this chapter will show what wonderfully fine towns the Roman colonies were. The government encouraged education by supporting at least three teachers in every town of any considerable importance. They taught rhetoric and oratory and explained the works of the 50 45 10 35 30 15 10/ /J2K A %, 10 15 i^ \^f VMdobona C »«i . — / "^kCa?thag , e -SICILY / d / W % \-J3,Syracusffl j * r\ L v__ o 25 THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT ITS GREATEST EXTENT (Under Trajan, A. D. 98-117) ipp 200 300 400 SQO 600 *? ( } 10 15 Western Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 9 great Latin and Greek writers, so that an educated man was The same pretty sure to find, even in the outlying parts of the great throughout Empire, other educated men with much the same interests and E^°™ an ideas as his own. Everywhere men felt themselves to be not mere natives of this or that country but citizens of the Roman world. Fig. 3. Roman Amphitheater at Pola Every large Roman town had a vast arena, or amphitheater, in which thousands of spectators could be seated to watch the public fights between professional swordsmen (gladiators) and between men and wild beasts. The emperors and rich men paid the expenses of these combats. The greatest of these arenas was the Coliseum at Rome. The one here represented shows that a Roman town of perhaps 40,000 inhabitants was supplied with an amphitheater, holding no less than 20,000 spectators, who must have assembled from all the region around. The seats have disappeared ; only the outside walls remain During the four centuries from the first emperor, Augustus, Loyalty to to the barbarian invasions we hear of no attempt on the part of a „d convict its subjects to overthrow the Empire or to withdraw from it. The Roman State, it was universally believed, was to endure forever. Had a rebellious nation succeeded in throwing off the rule of the emperor and in establishing its independence, it would simply have placed itself outside the civilized world. tion that it was eternal IO Medieval and Modern Times The Weaknesses of the Roman Empire Reasons why 3. Just why the Roman government, long so powerful and lost its^power so universally respected, finally became unable longer to defend to defend ^ s borders, and gave way before the scattered attacks of the 1 lSGII 9.ff 3.111 St the Germans German peoples, who never combined in any general alliance against it, is a very difficult question to answer satisfactorily. Fig. 4. Roman Temple at NImes This beautiful temple at Nimes, France, was probably built about the year one of the Christian era. It was situated in the forum with other public buildings which have now disappeared. After the break-up of the Roman Empire it was used as a Christian church, then as a town hall, then as a warehouse, and finally as a stable. In 1824 it was restored to its original condition as we now find it We know very little about the times, because the accounts that have come down to us give us no reasons why things happened as they did, and the best we can do is to see what were the conditions in the Empire when the Germans invaded it. The Roman government was in some respects very strong and well organized, but there was no satisfactory way of choosing Western Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 1 1 a new emperor. No candidate could secure the election unless Civil wars he was supported by the army, and the soldiers in the various elections of parts of the Empire often proposed different men for whom the em P erors they were willing to fight. Civil war would then follow, which would come to a close only when one candidate succeeded in getting the better of all his rivals. This brought about frequent disorder, which did its part in weakening the Empire. It required a great deal of money to support the luxurious Oppressive palaces of the emperors at Rome and Constantinople with their innumerable officials and servants, and to supply " bread and circuses " for the populace of the towns. All sorts of taxes and exactions were consequently devised by ingenious officials to make up the necessary revenue. The crushing burden of the great land tax, the emperor's chief source of income, was greatly increased by the bad way in which it was collected. The gov- ernment made a group of the richer citizens in each of the towns permanently responsible for the whole amount due each year from all the landowners within their district. It was their business to collect the taxes and make up any deficiency, it mattered not from what cause. This responsibility, together with the weight of the taxes themselves, ruined so many landowners that the government was forced to decree that no one should desert his estates in order to escape the exactions. Only the very rich could stand the drain on their resources. The middle class sank into poverty and despair, and in this way the Empire lost just that prosperous class of citizens who should have been the leaders in business enterprises. The sad plight of the poorer laboring classes was largely due slavery to the terrible institution of slavery which prevailed everywhere in ancient times. When the Romans conquered a new region they were in the habit, in accordance with the customs of war, of reducing a considerable part of the inhabitants to slavery. In this way the number of slaves was constantly increased. There were millions of them. A single rich landholder might own hundreds and even thousands, and it was a poor man that 12 Medieval and Modern Times did not have several at least. For six or seven centuries before the barbarian invasions every kind of labor fell largely into their hands in both country and town. The villa Land was the only highly esteemed form of wealth in the Roman Empire, in spite of the heavy taxes imposed upon it. Without large holdings of land no one could hope to enjoy a high social position or an honorable office under the government. Consequently the land came gradually into the hands of the rich and ambitious, and the small landed proprietor disappeared. Great estates called " villas " covered Italy, Gaul, and Britain. Fig. 5. Roman Baths at Bath There are hot springs at Bath, England, and here the Roman colonists in Britain developed a fashionable watering place. In recent years the soil and rubbish which had through the centuries collected over the old Roman buildings has been removed and we can get some idea of how they were arranged. The picture represents a model of a part of the ruins. To the right is a great quadrangular pool, 83 by 40 feet in size, and to the left a circular bath. Over the whole, a fine hall was built, with recesses on either side of the big pool where one might sit and talk with his friends These villas were cultivated and managed by armies of slaves, who not only tilled the land, but supplied their master, his house- hold, and themselves with much that was needed on the planta- tion. The workmen among them made the tools, garments, and other manufactured articles necessary for the whole community, or " family," as it was called. Slaves cooked the food, waited on Western Europe befoi'e the Barbarian Invasions 1 3 the proprietor, wrote his letters, read to him, and entertained him in other ways. Although a villa might be as extensive as a large village, all its members were under the absolute control of the proprietor of the estate. Quite naturally, free men scorned to work with their hands Slavery or even to carry on retail business, for these occupations were into disrepute associated in their minds with the despised slave. Fig. 6. Roman Gate at Treves Colonia Augusta Treverorum (now called Trier or Treves) was one of the chief Roman colonies on the German boundaries of the Empire. The Roman emperors often resided there, and the remains of their palace are still to be seen. The great gate here represented was de- signed to protect the entrance of the town, which was surrounded with a wall, for the Romans were in constant danger of attack from the neighboring German tribes. One can also see at Treves the remains of a vast amphitheater in which on two occasions Constantine had several thousand German prisoners cast to be killed by wild animals for the amusement of the spectators. (Cf. Fig. 3.) 14 Medieval and Modern Times Competition of slaves fatal to the free man Improved condition of the slaves and their emancipation Contrast be- tween freed- men and free men The coloni Each great household where articles of luxury were in de- mand relied upon its own host of skillful slaves to produce them. Moreover, the owners of slaves frequently hired them out to those who needed workmen, or permitted them to work for wages, and in this way left little for the free man to do even if he was willing to work. It cannot be denied that a notable improvement in the condition of slaves took place during the centuries immediately preceding the barbarian invasions. Their owners abandoned the horrible subterranean prisons in which the farm hands had once been miserably huddled at night. The law, moreover, pro- tected the slave from some of the worst forms of abuse ; first and foremost, it deprived his master of the right to kill him. Slaves began to decrease in numbers before the German invasions. In the first place, the supply had been cut off after the Roman armies ceased to conquer new territory. In the second place, masters began to free their slaves on a large scale, — for what reasons we do not know. When a slave was freed he was called 2. freed man, but he was by no means in the position of one who had been born free. It was true that he was no longer a mere thing that could be bought and sold, but he had still to serve his former master, — who had now become his patron, — for a certain number of days in the year. He was obliged to pay him a part of his earnings and could not marry without his patron's consent. But, as the condition of the slaves improved, and many of them became freedmen, the state of the poor free man only became worse. In the towns, if he tried to earn his living, he was forced to mingle with those slaves who were permitted to work for wages and with the freedmen, and he naturally tended to sink to their level. In the country the free agricultural laborers became eoloni, a curious intermediate class, neither slave nor really free. They were bound to the particular bit of land which some great proprietor permitted them to cultivate, and remained attached T _jpi%*4 n u < Pi i— i H § O g V ►. n * ^ cd ml 01 1-1 c 3 Tl 08 6 O Cd G o ;- ti 03 o u p. c — i +-> »r« 3 *-> o o JC Cfl _ cd hfl P 03 'u G u 2 ** •§ O T3 3 > co _] CO ~ CO -T CO CO 1h £ o 4 CJ -M -g 3 r4 pq W 03 3. - CO Oh « 3 1 a co .S _- 03 £ c Cd O ,3 cd ? ' 5 03 - 03 co f= bo o u 3 -P co A ^ o 4-> o CO fi 03 cd H TJ O O ■al :?* &S Oh a-" 3 O •V O +J CO 4-> ii C 3 CO X> r& CJ 3 f0 rC co c £ H CO ^jj 03 -3 3 ° J2 CJ o 1 6 Medieval and Modern Times Resemblance to it if it changed hands. Like the medieval serf, 1 they could coioni and the not De deprived of their fields so long as they paid the owner later serfs a cer tain part of their crop and worked for him during a period fixed by the customs of the estate upon which they lived. This system made it impossible for the farmer to become really inde- pendent, or for his son to become better off than he. Depopula- When a country is prosperous the population tends to increase. In the Roman Empire, even as early as Augustus, a falling off in numbers was apparent, which was bound to weaken the State. War, plague, the evil results of slavery, and the outrageous taxation all combined to hasten the depopulation ; for when it is hard to make a living, men are deterred from marrying and find it difficult to bring up large families, infiltration of In order to replenish the population great numbers of the the Empire neighboring German tribes were encouraged to settle within the Empire, where they became coioni. Constantine is said to have called in three hundred thousand of a single people. Bar- barians were enlisted in the Roman legions to help keep out their fellow Germans. Julius Caesar was the first to give them a place among his soldiers. This custom became more and more common, until, finally, whole armies were German, entire tribes being enlisted under their own chiefs. Some of the Germans rose to be distinguished generals ; others attained important positions as officials of the government. In this way it came about that a great many of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire were Germans before the great invasions, and the line divid- ing the citizens of the Roman Empire and the barbarian was already growing indistinct. Decline of As the Empire declined in strength and prosperity and was and art gradually permeated by the barbarians, its art and literature fell far below the standard of the great writers and artists of the golden age of Augustus. Cicero's clear style lost its charm for the readers of the fourth and fifth centuries, and a flowery kind of rhetoric took its place. No more great men of letters 1 See below, section 20. Western Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 1 7 arose. Few of those who understand and enjoy Latin literature to-day would think of reading any of the poetry or prose written in the later centuries of the Roman Empire. During the three hundred years before the invasions those Reliance who studied at all did not ordinarily take the trouble to read the teSbooks 6 best books of the earlier Greek and Roman writers, but relied upon mere collections of quotations, and got their information from textbooks. These textbooks the Middle Ages inherited and continued to use. The great Greek writers were forgotten altogether, and only a few of the better known Latin authors like Cicero, Virgil, and Ovid continued to be copied and read. The Rise of the Christian Church 4. We have still to consider the most important thing that Religious happened in the Roman Empire on the eve of its break-up, Greeks and and that is the establishment of the new Christian religion. The Romans common people among the Greeks and Romans had always believed in a great many gods and had held that the souls of men continued after death to exist in the lower regions, but they thought of the life to come as a dreary existence much less interesting than that in this world. Many of the philosophers, however, had come to believe in a great and good God who ruled all things and whom it was man's duty to obey. Plato and Cicero, for example, held that good men would be rewarded in the next world and bad men punished. Christianity brought with it hope for all kinds of weary and The appeal of discouraged men and women. It proclaimed that God was their father, that he had sent his son to save them, and that if they believed in Christ and tried their best to lead a good life, their sins would be forgiven them, and after death they would find everlasting happiness in heaven. The first Christians looked for the speedy return of Christ before their own generation should pass away. Since all were 18 Medieval and Modern Times Simple or- ganization of early Christians The " Catho- lic," or univer- sal, Church Organization of the Church before Con- stantine Bishops, priests, and archbishops Constantine favors the Church filled with enthusiasm for the Gospel and eagerly awaited the last day, they did not feel the need for much organization. But as time went on the Christian communities greatly increased in size, and many persons joined them who had little or none of the original earnestness and religion. It became necessary to develop a regular system of church government in order to con- trol the sinful and expel those who brought disgrace upon their religion by notoriously bad conduct. Gradually the followers of Christ came to believe in a " Cath- olic " — that is, a universal — Church which embraced all the groups of true believers in Christ, wherever they might be. To this one universal Church all must belong who hoped to be saved. 1 A sharp distinction was already made between the officers of the Church, who were called the clergy, and the people, or laity. To the clergy was committed the government of the Church as well as the teaching of its members. In each of the Roman cities was a bishop, and at the head of the country communities, a priest, who had derived his name from the original elders mentioned in the New Testament. 2 It was natural that the bishops in the chief towns of the Roman provinces should be especially influential in church affairs. They came to be called archbishops, and might summon the bishops of the province to a council to decide important matters. In 3 1 1 the Roman emperor Galerius issued a decree placing the Christian religion upon the same legal footing as the worship of the Roman gods. His successor, Constantine, the first Chris- tian emperor, strictly enforced this edict. Constantine's succes- sors soon forbade the worship of the old pagan gods and began to issue laws which gave the Christian clergy important privileges. 1 " Whoever separates himself from the Church," writes St. Cyprian (died 258) " is separated from the promises of the Church. . . . He is an alien, he is pro- fane, 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 Readmgs in European History, chap. ii. 2 Our word " priest " comes from the Latin word presbyter, meaning " elder.'* Western Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 19 In the last book of the Theodosian Code, — a great collection The Church of the laws of the Empire, which was completed in 438, — all dosian Code the emperors' decrees are to be found which relate to the Chris- tian Church and the clergy. We find that the clergy, in view of their holy duties, were exempted from certain burdensome gov- ernment offices and from some of the taxes which the laity had to pay. They were also permitted to receive bequests. The emperors themselves built churches and helped the Church in many ways (see below, section 10). Their example was fol- lowed by rulers and private individuals all through the Middle Ages, so that the Church became incredibly wealthy and en- joyed a far greater income than any state of Europe. The clergy were permitted to try certain law cases, and they them- selves had the privilege of being tried in their own church courts for minor criminal offenses. The Theodosian Code makes it unlawful 'for any one to differ Heresy from the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Those who dared to S^hJI disagree with the teachings of the Church were called heretics. If heretics ventured to come together, their meetings were to be broken up and the teachers heavily fined. Houses in which the doctrines of the heretics were taught were to be confiscated by the government. The books containing their teachings were to be sought out with the utmost care and burned under the eyes of the magistrate ; and if any one was convicted of concealing a heretical book, he was to suffer capital punishment. It is clear, then, that very soon after the Christian Church was recognized by the Roman government it induced the em- perors to grant the clergy particular favors, to destroy the pagan temples and prohibit pagan worship, and, finally, to persecute all those who ventured to disagree with the orthodox teachings of the Church. We shall find that the governments in the Middle Ages, fol- lowing the example of the Roman emperors, continued to grant the clergy special privileges and to persecute heretics, often in a very cruel manner (see below, section 39). as crime 20 Medieval and Modern Times The Church survives the Empire In these provisions of the Theodosian Code the later medie- val Church is clearly foreshadowed. The imperial government in the West was soon overthrown by the barbarian conquerors, but the Catholic Church converted and ruled these conquerors. When the officers of the Empire deserted their posts, the bishops stayed to meet the oncoming invader. They continued to rep- resent the old civilization and ideas of order. It was the Church that kept the Latin language alive among those who knew only a rude German dialect. It was the Church that maintained some little education even in the times of greatest ignorance, for with- out the ability to read Latin the priests could not have performed the religious services and the bishops could not have carried on their correspondence with one another. The Eastern Empire The Eastern 5 • Although the Roman Empire remained one in law, gov- Empire ernment, and culture until the Germans came in sufficient force to conquer the western portions of it, a tendency may never- theless be noticed some time before the barbarian conquest for the eastern and western portions to drift apart. Constantine, who established his supremacy only after a long struggle with his rivals, hoped to strengthen the vast state by creating a second capital, which should lie far to the east and dominate a region very remote from Rome. Constantinople was accord- ingly founded in 330 on the confines of Europe and Asia. 1 There were Thereafter there were often two emperors, one in the west often two , . , , . , emperors but and one m the east, but they were supposed to govern one em- Empire* P* re c o n J ointly and in " unanimity." New laws were to be ac- cepted by both. The writers of the time do not speak of two states but continue to refer to " the Empire," as if the adminis- tration were still in the hands of one ruler. Indeed, the idea of 1 Constantine built his new capital on the site of an old town, Byzantium which he re-named after himself, Constantinople, that is, Constantine City. The adjective " Byzantine " applied to the eastern part of the Roman Empire is of course derived from the older name " Byzantium." Western Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 21 one government for all civilized mankind did not disappear but continued to influence men during the whole of the Middle Ages. Although it was in the eastern part of the Empire that the Eastern Em- „ pire lasts un- barbarians first got a permanent foothold, the emperors at Con- ti i I453 stantinople were able to keep a portion of the old possessions of the Empire under their rule for centuries after the Germans had completely conquered the West. When at last the eastern capital of the Empire fell, it was not into the hands of the Germans, but into those of the Turks, who have held it ever since 1453. There will be no room in this volume to follow the history of Constanti- the Eastern Empire, although it cannot be entirely ignored in mTst e wealthy studying western Europe. Its language and civilization had ^tyofEurope alwavs been Greek, and owing to this and the influence of during the J ° early Middle the Orient, its civilization offers a marked contrast to that of the Ages Latin West, which was adopted by the Germans. Learning never died out in the East as it did in the West, nor did art reach so low an ebb. For some centuries after the break-up of the Roman Empire in the West, the capital of the Eastern. Empire enjoyed the distinction of being the largest and most wealthy city of Europe. Within its walls could be found a re- finement and civilization which had almost disappeared in the West, and its beautiful buildings, its parks and paved streets, filled travelers from the West with astonishment. QUESTIONS Section i. What do you consider trie chief uses of studying his- tory ? Give examples of events, conditions, and institutions in our own time. Why is it impossible to divide, the past into distinct periods? What is meant by the continuity of history? What were the Middle Ages ? Section 2. Mention some of the peoples included in the bounds of the Roman Empire. What were the bonds that held the vast Roman Empire together? How far is it from York to Babylon? What can you tell about the Roman government and the Roman law ? What kinds of public buildings were to be found in a flourish- ing Roman colony? 22 Medieval and Modern Times Section 3. What troubles did the Roman method of raising taxes produce? Describe a Roman villa. What is a slave? What was the difference between a freedman and a free man? Compare the condition of the slaves with that of the colo?ii in the later Roman Empire. Section 4. Compare the religious beliefs of the pagans with those of the Christians. What privileges are granted to the Christian clergy in the Theodosian Code ? Define heresy ; how were heretics treated according to the Roman law ? Section 5. How did Constantinople happen to be founded? What can you say about the Eastern Empire? CHAPTER II THE GERMAN INVASIONS AND THE BREAK-UP OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE Founding of Kingdoms by Barbarian Chiefs 6. Previous to the year 375 the attempts of the Germans to The Huns force the penetrate into the Roman Empire appear to have been due to Goths into their love of adventure, their hope of plundering their civilized * e Em P ire neighbors, or the need of new lands for their increasing num- bers. And the Romans, by means of their armies, their walls, and their guards, had up to this time succeeded in preventing the barbarians from violently occupying Roman territory. But suddenly a new force appeared in the rear of the Germans which thrust some of them across the northern boundary of the Empire. The Huns, a Mongolian folk from central Asia, swept down upon the Goths, who were a German tribe settled upon the Danube, and forced a part of them to seek shelter across the river, within the limits of the Empire. Here they soon fell out with the Roman officials, and a great Battle of battle was fought at Adrianople in 378 in which the Goths 378 na defeated and slew the Roman emperor, Valens, The Germans 23 24 Medieval and Modern Times Alaric takes Rome, 410 St. Augus- tine's City of God West Goths settle in southern Gaul and Spain had now not only broken through the boundaries of the Empire, but they had also learned that they could defeat the Roman legions. The battle of Adrianople may therefore be said to mark the beginning of the conquest of the western part of the Empire by the Germans. For some years, however, after the battle of Adrianople the various bands of West Goths — or Visigoths, as they are often called — were induced to accept the terms of peace offered by the emperor's officials, and some of the Goths agreed to serve as soldiers in the Roman armies. Among the Germans who succeeded in getting an important position in the Roman army was Alaric, but he appears to have become dissatisfied with the treatment he received from the emperor. He therefore collected an army, of which his country- men, the West Goths, formed a considerable part, and set out for Italy, and finally decided to march on Rome itself. The Eternal City fell into his hands in 410 and was plundered by his followers. Although Alaric did not destroy the city, or even seriously damage it, the fact that Rome had fallen into the hands of an invading army was a notable disaster. The pagans explained it on the ground that the old gods were angry because so many people had deserted them and become Christians. St. Augustine, in his famous book, The City of God, took much pains to prove that the Roman gods had never been able on previous occasions to prevent disaster to their worshipers, and that Christianity could not be held responsible for the troubles of the time. Alaric died before he could find a satisfactory spot for his people to settle upon permanently. After his death the West Goths wandered into Gaul, and then into Spain. Here they came upon the Vandals, another German tribe, who had crossed the Rhine four years before Alaric had captured Rome. For three years they had devastated Gaul and then had moved down into Spain. For a time after the arrival in Spain-©f the West Goths, there was war between them and the Vandals. The West Goths seem to have got the best of their rivals, for ^5" ) * Vi l?i^ 51$ \VoZg« ,8 KHS \ H -& v -o-. 0* sDanube, A3r:antfple °Jy .J), Vol ffci £Pe> t |>y WEST the HUNS "xaS' 1 50-tB 9 > -& GOTHS tf> -^Of A C X ff ^ ^ 3*i. J*" v^' oV ■\e "v?- 4 fe JEXELANATION; LIMITS OF ATTILA'S EMPIRE ABOUT 450 VANDALS WEST GOTHS The German Invasions 25 the Vandals determined to move on across the Strait of Gibraltar into northern Africa, where they established a kingdom and con- quered the neigh- boring islands in the Mediterranean (see map, p. 29). Having rid them- selves of the Van- dals, the West Goths took possession of a great part of the Span- ish peninsula, and this they added to their conquests across the Pyrenees in Gaul, so that their kingdom extended from the river Loire to the Strait of Gibraltar. It is unnecessary to follow the con- fused history of the movements of the innumerable bands of restless barbari- ans who wandered about Europe dur- ing the fifth century. . Scarcely any part of western Europe was left unmolested; even Britain was con- quered by German tribes, the Angles and Saxons. Kingdom of the Vandals in Africa Fig. 8. Roman Mausoleum at St. Remy The Roman town of Glanum (now called St. Remy) in southern France was destroyed by the West Goths in 480. Little remains of the town except a triumphal arch and the great monument pictured here. Above the main arches is the inscription, SEX. L. M. IVLIEI. C. F. PARENTIBUS. SVEIS, which seems to mean " Sextus Julius and [his brothers] Lucius and Marcus, sons of Gaius, to their parents " 26 Medieval and Modern Times Attila and the Huns The " fall " of the Empire in the West, 476 Odoacer Theodoric conquers Odoacer and establishes the kingdom of the East Goths in Italy To add to the universal confusion caused by the influx of the German tribes, the Huns (the Mongolian people who had first pushed the West Goths into the Empire) now began to fill all western Europe with terror. Under their chief, Attila, this sav- age people invaded Gaul. But the Romans and the German inhabitants joined together against the invaders and defeated them in the battle of Chalons, in 45 1 . After this rebuff in Gaul, Attila turned to Italy. But the danger there was averted by a Roman embassy, headed by Pope Leo the Great, who induced Attila to give up his plan of marching upon Rome. Within a year he died and with him perished the power of the Huns, who never troubled Europe again. The year 476 has commonly been taken as the date of the " fall " of the Western Empire and of the beginning of the Middle Ages. What happened in that year was this. Most of the Roman emperors in the West had proved weak and indolent rulers. So the barbarians wandered hither and thither pretty much at their pleasure, and the German troops in the service of the Empire became accustomed to set up and depose emperors to suit their own special interest, very much in the same way that a boss in an American city often succeeds in securing the election of a mayor who will carry out his wishes. Finally in 476, Odoacer, the most powerful among the rival German generals in Italy, banished the last of the emperors of the West and ruled in his stead. 1 It was not, however, given to Odoacer to establish an endur- ing German kingdom on Italian soil, for he was conquered by the great Theodoric, the king of the East Goths (or Ostro- goths). Theodoric had spent ten years of his early youth in- Constantinople and had thus become familiar with Roman life and was on friendly terms with the emperor of the East. The struggle between Theodoric and Odoacer lasted for sev- eral years, but Odoacer was finally shut up in Ravenna and 1 The common misapprehensions in regard to the events of 476 are discussed by the author in The New History, pp. 1 54 ff . The German Invasions 27 surrendered, only- to be treacherously slain a few days later by Theodoric's own hand (493). Theodoric put the name of the emperor at Constantinople The East on the coins which he issued, and did everything in his power It ^ ly s to gain the emperor's approval of the new German kingdom. Fig. 9. Church of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo This church was erected at Ravenna by Theodoric. Although the out- side has been changed, the interior, here represented, remains much the same as it was originally. The twenty-four marble columns were brought from Constantinople. The walls are adorned with mosaics; that is, pictures made by piecing together small squares of brightly colored marbles or glass Nevertheless, although he desired that the emperor should sanction his usurpation, Theodoric had no idea of being really subordinate to Constantinople. The invaders took one third of the land for themselves, but this seems to have been done without causing any serious dis- order. Theodoric greatly admired the Roman laws and insti- tutions and did his best to preserve them. The old offices and titles were retained, and Goth and Roman lived under the same Roman law. Order was maintained and learning encouraged. In 28 Medieval and Modern Times Ravenna, which Theodoric chose for his capital, beautiful build- ings still exist that date from his reign. 1 While Theodoric had been establishing his kingdom in Italy in this enlightened way, Gaul, which we now call France, was - coming under the control of the most powerful of all the bar- barian peoples, the Fra?iks, who were to play a more important role in the formation of modern Europe than any of the other German races (see next section). Besides the kingdom of the East Goths in Italy and of the Franks in Gaul, the West Goths had their kingdom in Spain, the Burgundians had established themselves on the Rhone River, and the Vandals in Africa. Royal alliances were concluded be- tween the various reigning houses, and for the first time in the history of Europe we see something like a family of nations, living each within its own boundaries and dealing with one another as independent powers (see map). It seemed for a few years as if the new German kings who had divided up the western portion of the Empire among themselves would succeed in keeping order and in preventing the loss of such civilization as remained. But no such good fortune was in store for Europe, which was now only at the beginning of the turmoil which was to leave it almost completely barbarized, for there was little to encourage the reading or writing of books, the study of science, or attention to art, in a time of constant warfare and danger. Cassiodoms Theodoric had a distinguished Roman counselor named Cassi- manuals odorus (d. 575), to whose letters we owe a great part of our 1 The headpiece of this chapter represents the tomb of Theodoric. Emperors and rich men were accustomed in Roman times to build handsome tombs for themselves (see Fig. 8). Theodoric followed their example and erected this two- storied building at Ravenna to serve as his mausoleum. The dome consists of a single great piece of rock 36 feet in diameter, weighing 500 tons, brought from across the Adriatic. Theodoric was a heretic in the eyes of the Catholic Church, and not long after his death his remains were taken out of his tomb and scattered to the winds, and the building converted into a church. The picture represents the tomb as it probably looked originally ; it has been somewhat altered in modern times, but is well preserved. SCALE OF MILES i> ' 100 200 300 400 Longitude Map of Europe in the Time of Theodoric It will be noticed that Theodoric's kingdom of the East Goths included a considerable part of what we call Austria to-day, and that the West Gothic kingdom extended into southern France. The Vandals held northern Africa and the adjacent islands. The Burgundians lay in be- tween the East Goths and the Franks. The Lombards, who were later to move down into Italy, were in Theodoric's time east of the Bavarians, after whom modern Bavaria is named. Some of the Saxons invaded England, but many remained in Germany, as indicated on the map. The Eastern Empire, which was all that remained of the Roman Empire, included the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, and the eastern portion of the Mediterranean. The Britons in Wales, the Picts in Scotland, and the Scots in Ireland were Celts, consequently modern Welsh, Gaelic, and Irish are closely related and belong to the Celtic group of languages 29 writers \\o stem '.- i\ ■ Jng the s.\ • ecu ...-. ies llse \ '.-. and the knowledge of this period, and who busied himself in his old ige in preparing textbooks of the "liberal" arts and sciences - ammar, arithmetic, logic, geometry, rhetoric, music, and as- tronomy. His treatment of those seven important subjects, to which he devotes a tew pages each, seems to us very sillv and d enables us mate the low plane to which learn- g had (alien in Italv in the sixth century. Yet these and similar works were regarded as standard treatises and used as textbook. all through the Middle Ages, while the really great Greek and Roman writers of an earlier period were ten. Between the time of Theodoric and that of Charlemagne three hundred years elapsed, during which scarcely a person was to be found who could write out, even in the worst of ■ an account of the events of his day. 1 Everything eon- spired to discourage education. v\ w -ivat centers of learning— ^■■■■'•'••■■^- Rome > Alexandria. Milan — had all been partially destroyed by the invaders. The libraries which had been kept in the temples of the pagan gods were often burned, along with the temples themselves, by Christian enthusiasts who were not sorry to see the heathen books disappear with the ithen reli-ion. Shortly after rheodoric's death the emperor ••neple withdrew the support which the Roman gov- ernment had been accustomed to -ant to public teachers, and it school at Athens. The onlv important historian ol the sixth century was the half-illiterate Gregory, bishop of 1V;: ; S ( d 594), whose whole work is evidence of the sad state ol .--cvs. He at leas: heartily a] ted his own ignorance and exclaims, in bad Latin. « Woe to our time, for the study H ias wished from among us." ar after Theodoric's death one of the greatesl of the s Fthe East, Justinian (527 565), came to the throne at ( s cnople. He undertook to regain for the Empire the - ovinoos in V nd Italv that had been occupied by the Vandals and Fas: Goths, His general, Behsarius, overthrew Sec W-adhigs, chap, iii (« s c :his por . The German Invasions 31 the Vandal kingdom in northern Africa in 534, but it was a more difficult task to destroy the Gothic rule in Italy. How- ever, in spite of a brave resistance, the Goths were so com- pletely defeated in 553 that they agreed to leave Italy with all their movable possessions. What became of the remnants of the race we do not know. The destruction of the Gothic kingdom was a disaster for The Lorn- Italy, for the Goths would have helped defend it against later {^y ( and far more barbarous invaders. Immediately after the death of Justinian the country was overrun by the Lombards, the last of the great German peoples to establish themselves within the bounds of the former Empire. They were a savage race, a considerable part of which was still pagan. The newcomers first occupied the region north of the Po, which has ever since been called " Lombardy " after them, and then extended their conquests southward. Instead of. settling themselves with the moderation and wise statesmanship of the East Goths, the Lombards moved about the peninsula pillaging and massacring. Such of the inhabitants as could, fled to the islands off the coast. The Lombards were unable, however, to conquer all of Italy. Rome, Ravenna, and southern Italy continued to be held by the emperors who succeeded Justinian at Constantinople. As time went on, the Lombards lost their wildness and adopted the habits and religion of the people among whom they lived. Their kingdom lasted over two hundred years, until it was conquered by Charlemagne (see below, p. 80). Kingdom of the Franks 7. The various kingdoms established by the German chief- The Franks; tains were not very permanent, as we have seen.. The Franks, tanceand^ however, succeeded in conquering more territory than any other th r tir method n ° J J of conquest people and in founding an empire far more important than the kingdoms of the West and East Goths, the Vandals, or the Lombards. We must now see how this was accomplished. 32 Medieval and Modern Times When the Franks are first heard of in history they were set- tled along the lower Rhine, from Cologne to the North Sea. Their method of getting a foothold in the Empire was essen- tially different from that which the Goths, Lombards, and Vandals had adopted. Instead of severing their connection with Germany and becoming an island in the sea of the Empire, they conquered by de- grees the territory about them. However far they might ex- tend their control, they re- mained in constant touch with their fellow barbarians behind them. In this way they re- tained the warlike vigor that was lost by the races who were completely surrounded by the luxuries of Roman civil- ization. In the early part of the fifth century they had occupied the district which forms to-day the kingdom of Belgium, as well as the regions east of it. In 486, seven years before Theodoric founded his Italian kingdom, they went forth un- der their great king, Clovis (a name that later grew into Louis), and defeated the Fig. 10. Frankish Warrior It is very hard to find illustrations for a chapter on the barbarian in- vasions, for this period of disorder was not one in which pictures were being painted or buildings erected. From the slight descriptions we have of the costume worn by the Frankish soldiers, we infer that it was something like that repre- sented here. We know that they wore their hair in long braids and carried weapons similar to those in the picture Roman general who opposed them. They extended their control over Gaul as far south as the Loire, which at that time formed the northern boundary of the kingdom of the West Goths. The German Invasions 33 Clovis next enlarged his empire on the east by the conquest of the Alemanni, a German people living in the region of the Black Forest. The battle in which the Alemanni were defeated (496) is in Conversion one respect important above all the other battles of Clovis. Although still a pagan himself, his wife had been converted to Christianity. In the midst of the battle, seeing his troops giving way, he called upon Jesus Christ and pledged himself to be baptized in his name if he would help the Franks to victory over their enemies. When he won the battle he kept his word and was baptized, together with three thousand of his warriors. It is from Bishop Gregory of Tours, mentioned above, that most of our knowledge of Clovis and his successors is derived. In Gregory's famous History of the Franks the cruel and unscrupu- lous Clovis appears as God's chosen instrument for the support of the Christian faith. 1 Certainly Clovis quickly learned to com- bine his own interests with those of the Church, and, later, an alliance between the pope and the Frankish kings was destined to have a great influence upon the history of western Europe. To the south of Clovis's new possessions in Gaul lay the Conquests of kingdom of the West Goths ; to the southeast that of another German people, the Burgundians. Clovis speedily extended his power to the Pyrenees, and forced the West Goths to confine themselves to the Spanish portion of their realm, while the Bur- gundians soon fell completely under the rule of the Franks. Then Clovis, by a series of murders, brought portions of the Frankish nation itself, which had previously been independent of him, under his scepter. When Clovis died in 511 at Paris, which he had made his Bloody chsrsctcr residence, his four sons divided his possessions among them. f Frankish Wars between rival brothers, interspersed with the most horrible hlstor y murders, fill the annals of the Frankish kingdom for over a hun- dred years after the death of Clovis. Yet the nation continued to develop in spite of the unscrupulous deeds of its rulers. 1 See Readings, chap, iii, for passages from Gregory of Tours, 34 Medieval and Modern Times it of Prankish realms about The Frankish kings who followed Clovis succeeded in ex- tending- their power over pretty nearly all the territory that is included today in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as over a goodly portion of western Germany. Half a century after the death of Clovis, their dominions extended from the Bay of Biscay on the west to a point east of Salzburg. The Dominions of the Franks under the Merovingians This map shows how the Frankish kingdom grew up. Clovis while still a young man defeated the Roman general Svagrius in 4S0. near Sois- sons. and so added the region around Paris to his possessions. He added Alemannia on the east in 406. In 507 he made Paris his eapital and conquered Aquitania, previously held by the West Goths. lie also made a beginning in adding the kingdom of the Burgundians to his realms. He died in 511. His successors in the next half century com- pleted the conquest of Burgundy and added Provincia, Bavaria, and Gascony, There were many divisions of the Frankish realms after the time of Clovis, and the eastern and western portions, called Austrasia and Xeustria, were often ruled by different branches of the Men as Clovis's family was called from his ancestor Meroveus The German Invasions 35 Results of the Barbarian Invasions 8. As one looks back over the German invasions it is natural Fusion of to ask upon what terms the newcomers lived among the old ans anc j *£" inhabitants of the Empire, how far they adopted the customs ^°j man popu ' of those among whom they settled, and how far they clung to their old habits ? These questions cannot be answered very sat- isfactorily. So little is known of the confused period of which we have been speaking that it is impossible to follow closely the mixing of the two races. Yet a few things are tolerably clear. In the first place, we The number must be on our guard against exaggerating the numbers in the barians various bodies of invaders. The writers of the time indicate that the West Goths, when they were first admitted to the Empire before the battle of Adrianople, amounted to four or five hundred thousand persons, including men, women, and chil- dren. This is the largest band reported, and it must have been greatly reduced before the West Goths, after long wanderings and many battles, finally settled in Spain and southern Gaul. The Burguncjians, when they appear for the first time on the banks of the Rhine, are reported to have had eighty thousand warriors among them. When Clovis and his army were baptized, Gregory of Tours speaks of " over three thousand " soldiers who became Christians upon that occasion. This would seem to indicate that this was the entire army of the Frankish king at this time. Undoubtedly these figures are very meager and unreliable. But the readiness with which the Germans appear to have adopted the language and customs of the Romans would tend to prove that the invaders formed but a small minority of the population. Since hundreds of thousands of barbarians had been absorbed during the previous five centuries, the invasions of the fifth century can hardly have made an abrupt change in the character of the population. The barbarians within the old Empire were soon speaking the same conversational Latin which was everywhere used by the 36 Medieval and Modern Tivies Contrast be- tween spoken and written Latin The Ger- manic lan- guages No race antipathy The Roman and the German law Romans about them. This was much simpler than the elaborate and complicated language used in books, which we find so much difficulty in learning nowadays. The speech of the common peo- ple was gradually diverging more and more, in the various coun- tries of southern Europe, from the Written Latin, and finally grew into French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. But the barba- rians did not produce this change, for it had begun before they came and would have gone on without them. They did no more than contribute a few convenient words to the new languages. The northern Franks, who did not penetrate far into the Empire, and the Germans who remained in what is now Ger- many and in Scandinavia, had of course no reason for giving up their native tongues ; the Angles and Saxons in Britain also kept theirs. These Germanic languages in time became Dutch, English, German, Danish, Swedish, etc. Of this matter some- thing will be said later (see below, section 47). The Germans and the older inhabitants of the Roman Empire appear to have had no dislike for one another, except when there was a difference in religion. 1 Where there was no religious barrier the two races intermarried freely from the first. The Frankish kings did not hesitate to appoint Romans to impor- tant positions in the government and in the army, just as the Romans had long been in the habit of emploving the barbarians as generals and officials. In only one respect were the two races distinguished for a time — each had its particular law. "The West Goths were probably the first to write down their ancient laws, using the Latin language for the purpose. Their example was followed by the Franks, the Burgundians, and later by the Lombards and other peoples. These codes make up the " Laws of the Barbarians," which form our most important source of knowledge of the habits and ideas of the Germans at the time of the invasions. For several centuries following the 1 The West and East Goths and the Burgundians were heretics in the eyes of the Catholic Church, for they had been taught their Christianity by mission- aries who disagreed with the Catholic Church on certain points. The German Invasions 37 barbarian conquests, the members of the various German tribes appear to have been judged by the laws of the particular people to which they belonged. The older inhabitants of the Empire, on the contrary, continued to have their lawsuits decided according to the Roman law. The German laws did not provide for trials, either in the Medieval Roman or the modern sense of the word. There was no attempt to gather and weigh evidence and base the decision upon it. Such a mode of procedure was far too elaborate for the simple- minded Germans. Instead of a regular trial, one of the parties to the case was designated to prove that his side of the case was true by one of the following methods : 1. He might solemnly swear that he was telling the truth Compurga- and get as many other persons of his own class as the court required, to swear that they believed that he was telling the truth. This was called compurgation. It was believed that God would punish those who swore falsely. 2. On the other hand, the parties to the case, or persons Wagerof , . , . , , . . battle representing them, might meet m combat, on the supposition that Heaven would grant victory to the right. This was the so-called wager of battle. 3. Lastly, one or other of the parties might be required to Ordeals submit to the ordeal in one of its various forms : He might plunge his arm into hot water, or carry a bit of hot iron for some distance, and if at the end of three days he showed no ill effects, the case was decided in his favor. Or he might be ordered to walk over hot plowshares, and if he was not burned, it was assumed that God had intervened by a miracle to establish the right. 1 This method of trial is but one example of the rude civilization which displaced the refined and elaborate organization of the Romans. The account which has been given of the conditions in the Roman Empire, and of the manner in which the barbarians 1 Professor Emerton gives an excellent account of the Germanic ideas of law in his Introduction to the Middle Ages, pp. 73-91. Ages 38 Medieval and Modern Times The igno- occupied its western part, serve to explain why the following order of the centuries — known as the early Middle Ages — were a time of ^Jy Mlddle ignorance and disorder. The Germans, no doubt, varied a good deal in their habits and character. The Goths differed from the Lombards, and the Franks from the Vandals ; but' they were all alike in knowing nothing of the art, literature, and science which had -been developed by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans. The invaders were ignorant, simple, vigorous people, with no taste for anything except fighting, eating, and drinking. Such was the disorder that their coming produced that the declining civiliza- tion of the Empire was pretty nearly submerged. The libraries, buildings, and works of art were destroyed or neglected, and there was no one to see that they were restored. So the western world fell back into a condition similar to that in which it had been before the Romans conquered and civilized it. The loss was, however, temporary. The great heritage of skill and invention which had been slowly accumulated in Egypt and Greece, and which formed a part of the civilization which the Romans had adopted and spread abroad throughout their great Empire, did not wholly perish. It is true that the break-up of the Roman Empire and the centuries of turmoil which followed set everything back, but we shall see how the barbarian nations gradually developed into our modern European states, how universities were established in which the books of the Greeks and Romans were studied. Architects arose in time to imitate the old buildings and build a new kind of their own quite as imposing as those of the Romans, and men of science carried discoveries far beyond anything known to the wisest of the Greeks and Romans. QUESTIONS Section 6. How did the Germans first come into the Roman Empire, and for what reasons ? What is meant by the barbarian in- vasions ? Give some examples. Trace the history of the West Goths. Where did they finally establish their kingdom? Why has the The German Invasions 39 year 476 been regarded as the date of the fall of the Roman Empire ? Tell what you can of Theodoric and his kingdom. Contrast the Lombard invaders of Italy with the East Goths. Section 7. Who were the Franks, and how did their invasion differ from that of the other German peoples? What did Clovis accomplish, and what was the extent of the kingdom of the Franks under his successors ? Compare the numbers of the barbarians who seem to have entered the Empire with the number of people in our large cities to-day. Section 8. On what terms do the Germans seem to have lived with the people of the Roman Empire? Why are the Laws of the Barbarians useful to the historian ? Compare the ways in which the Germans tried law cases with those we use to-day in the United States. Tell as clearly as possible why the Middle Ages were centuries of disorder and ignorance as compared with the earlier period. \ CHAPTER III THE RISE OF THE PAPACY The Christian Church 9. Besides the emperors at Constantinople and the various German kings, there grew up in Europe a line of rulers far more powerful than any of these, namely, the popes. We must now consider the Christian Church and see how the popes gained their great influence. We have already seen how marvelously the Christian com- munities founded by the apostles and their fellow missionaries multiplied until, by the middle of the third century, writers like St. Cyprian came to conceive of a " Catholic," or all-embracing, Church. We have seen how Emperor Constantine favored Christianity, and how his successors worked in the interest of the new religion ; how carefully the Theodosian Code safe- guarded the Church and the Christian clergy, and how harshly those were treated who ventured to hold another view of Christianity from that sanctioned by the government. 1 1 See above, section 4 40 The Rise of the Papacy 41 We' must now follow this most powerful and permanent of all the institutions of the later Roman Empire into the Middle Ages. We must stop first to consider how the Western, or Latin, portion of Christendom, which gradually fell apart from the Eastern, or Greek, region, came to form a separate institution under the popes, the longest and mightiest line of rulers that the world has ever seen. We shall see how a peculiar class of Christians, the monks, appeared ; how they joined hands with the clergy ; how the monks and the clergy met the barbarians, subdued and civilized them, and then ruled them for centuries. One great source of the Church's strength lay in the gen- Contrast be- eral fear of death and judgment to come, which Christianity and Christian had brought with it. The educated Greeks and Romans of the classical period usually thought of the next life, when they thought of it at all, as a very uninteresting existence compared with that on this earth. One who committed some great crime might suffer for it after death with pains similar to those of the hell in which the Christians believed. But the great part of humanity were supposed to lead in the next world a shadowy existence, neither sad nor glad. Religion, even to the de- vout pagan, was mainly an affair of this life ; the gods were worshiped with a view to securing happiness and success in this world. Since no great satisfaction could be expected in the next life, according to pagan ideas, it was naturally thought wise to make the most of this one. The possibility of pleasure ends — so the Roman poet Horace urges — when we join the shades below, as we all must do soon. Let us, therefore, take advan- tage of every harmless pleasure and improve our brief oppor- tunity to enjoy the good things of earth. We should, however, be reasonable and temperate, avoiding all excess, for that endangers happiness. Above all, we should not worry use- lessly about the future, which is in the hands of the gods and beyond our control. Such were the convictions of the majority of thoughtful pagans. 42 Medieval and Modern Times Other- worldliness of medieval Christianity The monks The Church the one means of salvation Miracles a source of the Church's power Christianity opposed this view of life with an entirely differ- ent one. It constantly emphasized man's existence after death, which it declared to be infinitely more important than his brief sojourn on earth. Under the influence of the Church this con- ception of life gradually supplanted the pagan one in the Roman world, and it was taught to the barbarians. The " other-worldliness " became so intense that thousands gave up their ordinary occupations altogether and devoted their entire attention to preparation for the next life. They shut themselves in lonely cells ; and, not satisfied with giving up most of their natural pleasures, they inflicted bodily suffering upon themselves by hunger, cold, and other discomforts. They trusted that in this way they might avoid some of the sins into which they were apt to fall, and that, by self-inflicted punish- ment in this world, they might perchance escape some of that reserved for them in the next. The barbarians were taught that their fate in the next world depended largely upon the Church. Its ministers never wearied of presenting the alternative which faced every man so soon as this short earthly existence should be over, — the alternative between eternal bliss in heaven and perpetual, unspeakable tor- ment in hell. Only those who had been duly baptized could hope to reach heaven ; but baptism washed away only past sins and did not prevent constant relapse into new ones. These, un- less their guilt was removed through the Church, would surely drag the soul down to hell. The divine power of the Church was, furthermore, estab- lished in the eyes of the people by the wonderful works which Christian saints were constantly performing. They healed the sick, made the blind to see and the lame to walk. They called down God's wrath upon those who opposed the Church and invoked terrible punishments upon those who treated her holy rites with contempt. To the reader of to-day, the frequency of the miracles narrated by medieval writers seems astonishing. The lives of the saints, of which hundreds and hundreds have The Rise of the Papacy 43 been preserved, contain little else than accounts of them, and no one appears to have doubted their everyday occurrence. 1 A word should be said of the early Christian church build- The early ings. The Romans were accustomed to build near their market basilicas 3 ' places a species of public hall, in which townspeople could meet one another to transact business, and in which judges could hear cases, and public officials attend to their duties. These buildings were called basilicas. There were several magnificent ones in Rome itself, and there was doubtless at least one to be found in every town of considerable size. The roofs of these spacious halls were usually supported by long rows of columns ; some- times there were two rows on each side, forming aisles. When, after Constantine had given his approval to Christianity, large, fine churches began to be built they were constructed like these familiar public halls and, like them, were called basilicas. During the sixteen hundred years that have passed since Constantine's time naturally almost all the churches of his day have disappeared or been greatly altered. But the beautiful church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome (Fig. 11) was built only a hundred years later, and gives us an excellent notion of a Christian basilica with its fine rows of columns and its hand- some mosaic decorations. In general, the churches were plain and unattractive on the outside. A later chapter will explain how the basilica grew into the Gothic cathedral, which was as beautiful outside as inside. The chief importance of the Church for the student of The Church medieval history does not lie, however, in its religious func- Roman gov- tions, vital as they were, but rather in its remarkable relations ernment to the government. From the days of Constantine on, the Catholic Church had usually enjoyed the hearty support and protection of the government. But so long as the Roman Empire remained strong and active there was no chance for the clergy to free themselves from the control of the emperor, even if they had been disposed to do so. He made such laws for 1 For reports of miracles, see Readings, especially chaps, v, xvi. 44 Medieval and Modern Times the Church as he saw fit, and the clergy did not complain. The government was, indeed, indispensable to them. It undertook to root out paganism by destroying the heathen shrines and preventing heathen sacrifices, and it punished severely those who refused to accept the teachings sanctioned by the Church. Fig. ii. Santa Maria Maggiore This beautiful church at Rome was built shortly after Constantine's time, and the interior, here shown, with its stately columns above which are fine mosaics, is still nearly as it was in the time of St. Augustine, fifteen hundred years ago. The ceiling is of the sixteenth century The Church But as the great Empire began to fall apart, there was a begins to . .. . , , . , Tir seek inde- growing tendency among the churchmen in the West to resent pen ence ^ e interference of the new rulers whom they did not respect. Consequently they managed gradually to free themselves in large part from the control of the government. They then pro- ceeded to assume themselves many of the duties of government, which the weak and disorderly states into which the Roman Empire fell were unable to perform properly. One of the bishops of Rome (Pope Gelasius I, d. 496) briefly stated the principle upon which the Church rested its claims, as The Rise of the Papacy 4 5 follows : " Two powers govern the world, the priestly and the Pope Gela- kingly. The first is assuredly the superior, for the priest is oftfie reta-* 7 responsible to God for the conduct of even the emperors them- £° n °( t f ie selves." Since no one denied that the eternal interests of man- the State kind, which were under the care of the Church, were infinitely more important than those merely worldly matters which the State regulated, it was natural for the clergy to hold that, in case of conflict, the Church and its officers, rather than the king, should have the last word. Gradually, as we have said, the Church began to undertake The Church the duties which the Roman government had previously per- perform°the formed and which our governments perform to-dav, such as functlons of " * J government keeping order, the management of public education, the trial of lawsuits, etc. There were no well-organized states in western Europe for many centuries after the final destruction of the Roman Empire. The authority of the various barbarian kings was seldom sufficient to keep their realms in order. There were always many powerful landholders scattered throughout the kingdom who did pretty much what they pleased and set- tled their grudges against their fellows by neighborhood wars. Fighting was the main business as well as the chief amusement of this class. The king was unable to maintain peace and protect the oppressed, however anxious he may have been to do so. Under these circumstances it naturally fell to the Church to keep order, when it could, by either threats or persuasion; to see that contracts were kept, the wills of the dead carried out, and marriage obligations observed. It took the defenseless widow and orphan under its protection and dispensed charity ; it promoted education at a time when few laymen, however rich and noble, were able even to read. These conditions serve to explain why the Church was finally able so greatly to extend the powers which it had enjoyed under the Roman Empire* and why it undertook duties which seem to us to belong to the State rather than to a religious organization. 4 6 Medieval and Modern Times Origin of the Power of the Popes Origin of papal power Prestige of the Roman Christian community Belief that Peter was the first bishop of Rome io. We must now turn to a consideration of the origin and growth of the supremacy of the popes, who, by raising them- selves to the head of the Western Church, became in many respects more powerful than any of the kings and princes with whom they frequently found themselves in bitter conflict. While we cannot discover in the Theodosian Code any recog- nition of the supreme headship of the bishop of Rome, there is little doubt that he and his flock had almost from the very first enjoyed a leading place among the Christian communities. The Roman Church was the only one in the West which could claim the distinction of having been founded by the immediate followers of Christ, — the "two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul." The New Testament speaks repeatedly of Paul's presence in Rome. As for Peter, there had been from early times a tra- dition, accepted throughout the Christian Church, that he was the first bishop of Rome. This belief appears in the works of Christian writers before the close of the second century. There is, certainly, no conflicting tradition, no rival claimant. The belief itself, whether or not it corresponds with actual events, is a fact of the greatest historical importance. Peter enjoyed a preeminence among the other apostles and was singled out by Christ upon several occasions. In a passage of the New Testa- ment which has affected history more profoundly than the edicts of the most powerful monarch, Christ says : " And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and what- soever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." * 1 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, " Strengthen thy brethren," and John xxi, 15-17, where Jesus said to him, " Feed my sheep." See Readings, chap. iv. The keys always appear in the papal arms (see headpiece of this chapter, p. 40). 47 48 Medieval and Modern Times The. Roman Church the mother church Leo the Great, 440-461 Decree of Valentinian III Separating of Eastern from the Western Church Thus it was natural that the Roman Church should early have been looked upon as the " mother church " in the West. Its doctrines were considered the purest, since they had been handed down from its exalted founders. When there was a difference of opinion in regard to the truth of a particular teaching, it was natural that all should turn to the bishop of Rome for his view. Moreover, the majesty of Rome, the capital of the world, helped to exalt its bishop above his fellows. It was long, how- ever, before all the other bishops, especially those in the large cities, were ready to accept unconditionally the authority of the bishop of Rome, although they acknowledged his leading position and that of the Roman community. We know comparatively little of the bishops of Rome during the first three or four centuries of the Church's existence. It is only with the accession of Leo the Great (440-461) that the history of the papacy may, in one sense, be said to have begun. At his suggestion, Valentinian III, the emperor in the West, issued a decree in 445 declaring the power of the bishop of Rome supreme, by reason of Peter's headship, and the majesty of the city of Rome. He commanded that the bishops throughout the West should receive as. law all that the bishop of Rome ap- proved, and that any bishop refusing to answer a summons to Rome should be forced to obey by the imperial governor. But a council at Chalcedon, six years later, declared that new Rome on the Bosporus (Constantinople) should have the same power in the government of the Church as old Rome on the Tiber. This decree was, however, never accepted in the Western, or Latin, Church, which was gradually separating from the Eastern, or Greek, Church, whose natural head was at Constantinople. Although there were times of trouble to come when for years the claims of Pope Leo appeared an empty boast, still his emphatic assertion of the supremacy of the Roman bishop was a great step toward bringing the Western Church under a single head. 1 1 See Readings, chap, iv, for development of the pope's power. The Rise of the Papacy 49 The name "pope" (Latin, papa, "father") was originally Title of pope and quite naturally given 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 Fig. 13. The Ancient Basilica of St. Peter Of the churches built by Constantine in Rome that in honor of St. Peter was, next to the Lateran, the most important. It was constructed on the site of Nero's circus, where St. Peter was believed to have been crucified. It retained its original appearance, as here represented, for twelve hundred years, and then the popes (who had given up the Lateran as their residence and come to live in the Vatican palace close to St. Peter's) determined to build the new and grander church one sees to-day. (See section 45, below.) Constantine and the popes made constant use in their buildings of columns and stones taken from the older Roman buildings, which were in this way demolished (d. 1085 ; see section 30, below) was the first to declare explicitly that the title should be used only for the bishop of Rome. Not long after the death of Leo the Great, Odoacer put an Duties that end to the Western line of emperors. Then, as we know, uponthe Theodoric and his East Goths settled in Italy, only to be early popes 5o Medieval and Modern Times Gregory the Great, 590-604 Ancient Rome be- comes medi- eval Rome followed by still less desirable intruders, the Lombards. During this tumultuous period the people of Rome, and even of all Italy, came to regard the pope as their natural leader. The Eastern emperor was far away, and his officers, who managed to hold a portion of central Italy around Rome and Ravenna, were glad to accept the aid and counsel of the pope. In Rome the pope watched over the elections of the city officials and directed the manner the public money should be spent. He had to manage and defend the great tracts of land in different parts of Italy which from time to time had been given to the bishopric of Rome. He negotiated with the Germans and even gave orders to the generals sent against them. The pontificate of Gregory the Great, one of the half dozen most distinguished heads that the Church has ever had, shows how great a part the papacy could play. Gregory, who was the son of a rich Roman senator, had been appointed by the emperor to the honorable office of prefect. He began to fear, however, that his proud position and fine clothes were making him vain and worldly. His pious mother and his study of the writings of Augustine and the other great Christian writers led him, upon the death of his father, to spend all his hand- some fortune in founding seven monasteries. One of these he established in his own house and subjected himself to such severe discipline that his health never entirely recovered from it. When Gregory was chosen pope (in 590) and most reluctantly left his monastery, ancient Rome, the capital of the Empire, was already transforming itself into medieval Rome, the capi- tal of Christendom. The temples of the gods had furnished materials for the many Christian churches. The tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul were soon to become the center of religious attraction and the goal of pilgrimages from every part of western Europe. Just as Gregory assumed office a great plague was raging in the city. In true medieval fashion he arranged a solemn procession in order to obtain from heaven a The Rise of the Papacy 5i cessation of the pest. Then the archangel Michael was seen over the tomb of Hadrian (Fig. 14) sheathing his fiery sword as a sign that the wrath of the Lord had been turned away. With Gregory we leave behind us the Rome of Caesar and Trajan and enter upon that of the popes. ■LlWJlHllAllttlltl &%. Fig. 14. Hadrian's Tomb The Roman emperor Hadrian (d. 138) built a great circular tomb at Rome, on the west bank of the Tiber, for himself and his successors. Ifrwas 240 feet across, perhaps 165 feet high, covered with marble and adorned with statues. When Rome was besieged by the Germans in 537, the inhabitants used the tomb for a fortress and threw down the statues on the heads of the barbarians. Since the time when Gregory the Great saw the archangel Michael sheathing his sword over Hadrian's tomb it has been called the Castle of the Holy Angel Gregory enjoyed an unrivaled reputation during the Middle Gregory's Ages as^ a writer. His works show, however, how much less cultivated his period was than that of his predecessors. His most popular book was his Dialogues, a collection of accounts of miracles and popular legends. It is hard to believe that it 52 Medieval and Modem Times Gregory as a statesman Gregory's missionary undertaking's could have been composed by the greatest man of the time and that it was written for adults. 1 In his commentary on Job, Gregory warns the reader that he need not be surprised to find mistakes in Latin grammar, since in dealing with so holy a work as the Bible a writer should not stop to make sure whether his cases and tenses are right. Gregory's letters show clearly what the papacy was coming to mean for Europe when in the hands of a really great man. While he assumed the humble title of " Servant of the servants of God," which the popes still use, Gregory was a statesman whose influence extended far and wide. It devolved upon him to govern the city of Rome, — as it did upon his successors down to the year 1870, — for the Eastern emperor's control had become merely nominal. He had also to keep the Lombards out of central Italy, which they failed to conquer largely on account of the valiant defense of the popes. These duties were functions of the state, and in assuming them Gregory may be said to have founded the " temporal " power of the popes. Beyond the borders of Italy, Gregory was in constant com- munication with the emperor and the Frankish and Burgundian rulers. Everywhere he used his influence to have good clergy- men chosen as bishops, and everywhere he watched over the interests of the monasteries. But his chief importance in the history of the papacy is due to the missionary enterprises he undertook, through which the great countries that were one day to be called England, France, and Germany were brought under the sway of the Roman Church and its head, the pope. As Gregory had himself been a devoted monk it was natural that he should rely chiefly upon the monks in his great work of con- verting the heathen. Consequently, before considering his mission- ary achievements, we must glance at the origin and character of the monks, who are so conspicuous throughout the Middle Ages. 1 He is reckoned, along with Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome, as one of the four great Latin " fathers " of the Church. For extracts from Gregory's writings, see Readings, chap. iv. The Rise of the Papacy 5 3 QUESTIONS Section 9. Why is it essential to know about the history of the Church in order to understand the Middle Ages? Compare the Christian idea of the importance of life in this world and the next with the pagan views. Describe a basilica. Mention some govern- mental duties that were assumed by the Church. Give the reasons why the Church became such a great power in the Middle Ages. Section 10. Why was the Roman Church the most important of all the Christian churches ? On what grounds did the bishop of Rome claim to be the head of the whole Church ? Did the Christians in the eastern portion of the Roman Empire accept the bishop of Rome as their head ? Why did the popes become influential in the governing not only of Rome but of Italy ? Tell what you can of Gregory the Great. ■c«"^>- .-r^Oil*' •rsc ^-^ aL CHAPTER IV THE MONKS AND THEIR MISSIONARY WORK ; THE MOHAMMEDANS Monks and Monasteries Importance of the monks as a class Monasticism appealed to many differ- ent classes ii. It would be difficult to overestimate the-influence that the monks exercised for centuries in Europe. The proud annals of the Benedictines, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits contain many a distinguished name. The most eminent philosophers, scientists, historians, artists, poets, and statesmen may be found in their ranks. Among those whose achievements we shall men- tion later are " The Venerable Bede," Boniface, Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Fra Angelico, Luther, Erasmus — all these, and many others who have been leaders in various branches of human activity, were monks. The life in a monastery appealed to many different kinds of people. The monastic life was safe and peaceful, as well as holy. The monastery was the natural refuge not only of the religiously minded, but of those of a studious or thoughtful dis- position who disliked the career of a soldier and were disinclined to face the dangers and uncertainties of the times. Even the 54 nastic life The Monks mid their Missionary Work 5 5 rude and unscrupulous warriors hesitated to destroy the property or disturb the life of those who were believed to enjoy God's special favor. The monastery furnished, too, a refuge for the friendless, an asylum for the disgraced, and food and shelter for the indolent, who would otherwise have had to earn their living. There were, therefore, many different motives which led people to enter monasteries. Kings and nobles, for the good, of their souls, readily gave land upon which to found colonies of monks, and there were plenty of remote spots in the mountains and forests to invite those who wished to escape from the world and its temptations, its dangers or its cares. Monastic communities first developed on a large scale in Egypt Necessity for in the fourth century. The idea, however, was quickly taken up t j on fmo" in Europe. At the time that the Germans were winning their first great victory at Adrianople, St. Jerome was busily engaged in writing letters to men and women whom he hoped to induce to become monks or hermits. In the sixth century monasteries multiplied so rapidly in western Europe that it became necessary to establish definite rules for these communities which proposed to desert the ordinary ways of the world and lead a holy life apart. Accordingly St. Benedict drew up, about the year 526, a sort of constitution for the monastery of Monte Cassino, in southern Italy, of which he was the head. 1 This was so saga- cious, and so well met the needs of the monastic life, that it was rapidly accepted by the other monasteries and gradually became the " rule " according to which all the Western monks lived. 2 1 The illustration on page 54 shows the monastery of Monte Cassino. It is situated on a lofty hill, lying some ninety miles south of Rome. Benedict selected a site formerly occupied by a temple to Apollo, of which the columns may still be seen in*one of the courts of the present building. The monastery was destroyed by the Lombards not long after its foundation and later by the Mohammedans, so none of the present buildings go back to the time of Benedict. 2 Benedict did not introduce monasticism in the West, as is sometimes sup- posed, 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. 56 Medieval and Modern Times The Rule of The Rule of St. Benedict is as important as any constitution t. ene ict ^^ wag ever ^ rawn U p f or a s t a t e> T t j s f or ^he most part very wise and sensible. It provided that, since every one is not fitted for the monk's life, the candidate for admission to the monastery should pass through a period of probation, called the novitiate, before he was permitted to take the solemn, final vows. The brethren were to elect the head of the monastery, the abbot, as he was called. Along with frequent prayer and meditation, the monks were to do the necessary cooking and washing for the monastery and raise the necessary vegetables and grain. They were also to read and teach. Those who were incapacitated for outdoor work were assigned lighter tasks, such as copying books. The monas- The monk had to take the three vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity. He was to obey the abbot without question in all matters that did not involve his committing a sin. He pledged himself to perpetual and absolute poverty, and every thing he used was the propertv of the convent. He was not permitted to own anything whatsoever — not even a book or a pen. Along with the vows of obedience and poverty, he was also required to pledge himself never to marry. For not only was the single life considered more holy than the married, but the monastic organization would have been impossible unless the monks re- mained single. Aside from these restrictions, the monks were commanded to live reasonable and natural lives and not to destroy their health, as some earlier ones had done, by undue fasting in the supposed interest of their souls. The influence of the Benedictine monks upon Europe is in- calculable. From their numbers no less than twenty-four popes and forty-six hundred bishops and archbishops have been chosen. They boast almost sixteen thousand writers, some of great dis- tinction. Their monasteries furnished retreats during the Mid- dle Ages, where the scholar might study and write in spite of the prevailing disorder of the times. The copying of books, as has been said, was a natural occu- pation of the monks, Doubtless their work was often done The Monks and their Missionary Work 5 7 carelessly, with little heart and less understanding. But, with the The monks great loss of manuscripts due to the destruction of libraries and preserve the the general lack of interest in books, it was most essential that Latm authors new copies should be made. Even poor and incorrect ones were better than none. Almost all the books written by the Romans disappeared altogether during the Middle Ages, but from time to time a monk would copy out the poems of Vergil, Horace, or Ovid, or the speeches of Cicero. In this way some of the chief works of the Latin writers have continued to exist down to the present day. The monks regarded good hard work as a great aid to salva- The monks tion. They set the example of careful cultivation of the lands material d^ about their monasteries and in this way introduced better farm- velopment of J Europe ing methods into the regions where they settled. They enter- tained travelers at a time when there were few or no inns and so increased the intercourse between the various parts of Europe. The Benedictine monks were ardent and faithful supporters The « regu- lor- " Jind of the papacy. The Church, which owes much to them, ex- "secular" tended to them many of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy. cler &y Indeed, the monks were reckoned as clergymen and were called the " regular " clergy, because they lived according to a regula, or rule, to distinguish them from the " secular " clergy, who con- tinued to live in the world (saecidiini) and did not take the monastic vows described above. The home which the monks constructed for themselves was Arrangement called a monastery or abbey. This was arranged to meet their asteiy " particular needs and was usually at a considerable distance from any town, in order to insure solitude and quiet. 1 It was mod- eled upon the general plan of the Roman country house. The buildings were arranged around a court, called the cloister. On The cloister all four sides of this was a covered walk, which made it possible to reach all the buildings without exposing one's self to either the rain or the hot sun. Not only the Benedictines but all the orders which sprang up in later centuries arranged their homes in much the same way. 1 Later monasteries were sometimes built in towns, or just outside the walls. 5: Medieval and Modern Times The abbey church On the north side of the cloister was the church, which always faced west. As time went on and certain groups of monks were given a great deal of property, they constructed very beau- tiful churches for their monasteries. Westminster Abbey was originally the church of a monastery lying outside the city of Fig. 15. Cloisters of Heiligenkreuz This picture of the cloister in the German monastery of Heiligenkreuz is chosen to show how the more ordinary monastery courts looked, with their pleasant sunny gardens London, and there are in Great Britain many picturesque re- mains of ruined abbey churches which attract the attention of every traveler. The refec- On the west side of the cloister were storerooms for pro- and 'dormi-° ry ' visions ; on the south side, opposite the church, was the " re- tory fectory," or dining room, and a sitting room that could be warmed in cold weather. In the cloister near the dining room was a " lavatory " where the monk could wash his hands before meals. To the east of the cloister was the " dormitory," where the monks slept. This always adjoined the church, for the Rule required that the monks should hold services seven times a day. The Monks and their Missionary Work 59 One of these services, called vigils, came well before daybreak, and it was convenient when you were summoned in the dark- ness out of your warm bed to be able to go down a short passage that led from the dormitory into the choir of the church, where the service was held. The Benedictine Rule provided that the monks should so far as possible have everything for their support on their own land. §5%^- 1 ^%^ssl§ Fig. i 6. Monastery of Val di Cristo This monastery in southern Spain has two cloisters, the main one lies to the left. One can see how the buildings were surrounded by vegetable gardens and an orchard which supplied the monks with food. Compare picture of another monastery (Fig. 26, below) So outside the group of buildings around the cloister would be The out- found the garden, the orchard, the mill, a fish pond, and fields t i on | f t h e for raising grain. There were also a hospital for the sick and a monaster y guest house for pilgrims or poor people who happened to come along. In the greater monasteries there were also quarters where a king or nobleman might spend a few nights in comfort. 6o The Monks and their Missionary Work 6 1 Missionary Work of the Monks 12. The first great undertaking of the monks was the con- The monks version of those German peoples who had not yet been won over aries 1SS1 ° n to Christianity. These the monks made not merely Christians, but also dutiful subjects of the pope. In this way the strength of the Roman Catholic Church was greatly increased. The first people to engage the attention of the monks were the heathen German tribes who had conquered the once Christian Britain. The islands which are now known as the kingdom of Great Early Britain Britain and Ireland were, at the opening of the Christian era, occupied by several Celtic peoples of whose customs and re- ligion we know almost nothing. Julius Caesar commenced the conquest of the islands (55 B.C.) ; but the Romans never suc- ceeded in establishing their power beyond the wall which they built, from the Clyde to the Firth of Forth, to keep out the wild tribes of the North. Even south of the wall the country was not completely Romanized, and the Celtic tongue has actually survived down to the present day in Wales (see p. 29, above). At the opening of the fifth century the barbarian invasions Saxons and forced Rome to withdraw its legions from Britain in order to q ulr Britain protect its frontiers on the Continent. The island was thus left to be conquered gradually by the Germans, mainly Saxons and Angles, who came across the North Sea from the region south of Denmark. Almost all record of what went on during the two centuries following the departure of the Romans has disap- peared. No one knows the fate of the original Celtic inhabitants of England. It was formerly supposed that they were all killed or driven to the mountain districts of Wales, but this seems un- likely. More probably they were gradually lost among the dom- inating Germans with whom they merged into one people. The Saxon and Angle chieftains established small kingdoms, of which there were seven or eight at the time when Gregory the Great became pope. 62 Medieval and Modern Times Conversion of Britain Gregory, while still a simple monk, had been struck with the beauty of some Angles whom he saw one day in the slave market at Rome. When he learned who they were he was grieved that such handsome beings should still belong to the kingdom of the Prince of Darkness, and he wished to go as a missionary to their people, but permission was refused him. So when he became tjgff//?*^ Fig. i 8. St. Martin's, Canterbury A church built during the period when the Romans were occupying England had been used by Bertha, the Christian wife of the king of Kent. Augustine found this on his arrival in Canterbury and is said to have baptized the king there. It has been rebuilt and added to in later times, but there are many Roman bricks in the walls, and the lower parts of the church as we now see it may go back to the Roman period pope he sent forty monks to England under the leadership of a prior, named Augustine (who must not be confused with the church father of that name). The heathen king of Kent, in whose territory Augustine and his monks landed with fear and trembling (597), had a Christian wife, the daughter of a Frankish king. Through her influence the monks were kindly received and were given an ancient church at Canterbury, dating from the Roman occupation before the German invasions. Here they The Monks and their Missionary Work 63 established a monastery, and from this center the conversion, first of Kent and then of the whole island, was gradually accom- plished. Canterbury has always maintained its early preeminence and may still be considered the religious capital of England. 1 England thus became a part of the ever-growing territory em- England and braced in the Roman Catholic Church and remained for nearly church" 13 " a thousand years as faithful to the pope as any other Catholic- country. The conversion of England by the missionaries from Rome was Early culture followed by a period of general enthusiasm for Rome and its m ngan literature and culture. The English monasteries became centers of learning unrivaled perhaps in the rest of Europe. A constant intercourse was maintained with Rome. Masons and glass- makers were brought across the Channel to replace the wooden churches of Britain by stone edifices in the style of the Romans. The young English clergy were taught Latin and sometimes Greek. Copies of the ancient classics were brought from the Continent and copied. The most distinguished writer of the seventh and early eighth centuries in Europe was the English monk Baeda (often called "The Venerable Bede," 673-735), "TheVener- able Bede " from whose admirable history of the Church in England most of pur information about the period is derived. 2 In 718 St. Boniface, an English monk, was sent by the pope St. Boniface, as a missionary to the Germans. After four years spent in re- t ^ Germans connoitering the field of his future labors, he visited Rome and was made a missionary bishop, taking the same oath of obedi- ence to the pope that the bishops in the immediate vicinity of Rome were accustomed to take. Indeed, absolute subordination to the pope was a part of his religion, and he became a powerful agent in extending the papal power. Boniface succeeded in converting many of the more remote Conversion German tribes who still clung to their old pagan beliefs. His energetic methods are illustrated by the story of how he cut 1 See Readings, chap, v, for Gregory's instructions to his missionaries. 2 See Readings, chap. v. 6 4 Medieval and Modern Times down the sacred oak of the old German god, Odin, at Fritzlar, in Hesse, and used the wood to build a chapel, around which a monastery soon grew up. In 732 Boniface was raised to the dignity of Archbishop of Mayence and proceeded to establish in the newly converted region a number of German bishoprics, Salzburg, Regensburg, Wiirzburg, and others ; this gives us some idea of the geographical extent of his labors. Arabs before Mohammed Mecca and the Kaaba Mohammed and his Religion 13. Just at the time that Gregory the Great was doing so much to strengthen the power and influence of the popes in Rome, a young Arab camel driver in far away Mecca was med- itating upon the mysteries of life and devising a religion which was destined to spread with astounding rapidity into Asia, Africa, and Europe and to become a great rival of Christianity. And to-day the millions who believe in Mohammed as God's greatest prophet are probably equal in number to those who are faithful to the pope, as the head of the Catholic Church. Before the time of Mohammed the Arabs had played no great part in the world's history. The scattered tribes were constantly at war with one another, and each tribe worshiped its own gods, when it worshiped at all. Mecca was considered a sacred spot, however, and the fighting was stopped four months each year so that all could peacefully visit the Kaaba, a sort of temple full of idols and containing in particular a black stone, about as long as a man's hand, which was regarded as specially worthy of reverence. Mohammed was poor and earned a living by conducting caravans across the desert. He was so fortunate as to find a rich widow in Mecca, named Kadijah, who gave him employ- ment and later fell in love with him and became his wife. She was his first convert and kept up his courage when few of his fellow townsmen in Mecca were inclined to pay any attention to his new religious teachings. The Mohammedans 65 As Mohammed traveled back and forth across the desert with Mohammed's his trains of camels heavily laden with merchandise he had plenty fr J m the An _ of time to think, and he became convinced that God was sending" £ el Gabnel him messages which it was his duty to reveal to mankind. He met many Jews and Christians, of whom there were great num- bers in Arabia, and from them he got some ideas of the Old and New Testaments. But when he tried to convince people that he was God's prophet, and that the Angel Gabriel had appeared to him in his dreams and told him of a new religion, he was treated with scorn. . . Finally, he discovered that his enemies in Mecca were plan- The Hejira, ning to kill him, and he fled to the neighboring town of Medina, where he had friends. His flight, which took place in the year 622, is called the Hejira by the Arabs. It was taken by his followers as the beginning of a new era — the year One, as the Mohammedans reckon time. A war followed between the people of Mecca and those who Islam had joined Mohammed in and about Medina. It was eight years before his followers became numerous enough to enable him to march upon Mecca and take it with a victorious army. Before his death in 632 he had gained the support of all the Arab chiefs, and his new religion, which he called Islam (submission to God), was accepted throughout the whole Arabian peninsula. Mohammed could probably neither write nor read well, but The Koran when he fell into trances from time to time he would repeat to his eager listeners the words which he heard from heaven, and they in turn wrote them down. These sayings, which were col- lected into a volume shortly after his death, form the Koran, the Mohammedan Bible. This contains the chief beliefs of the new religion as well as the laws under which all good Mohammedans were to live. It has been translated into English several times. Parts of it are very beautiful and interesting, while other portions are dull and stupid to a modern reader. The Koran follows the Jewish and Christian religions in pro- claiming one God, " the Lord of the worlds, the merciful and 66 Medieval and Modern Times Islam pro- claims one God and Mohammed as his prophet Chief duties of the Moham- medan The creed and prayers compassionate." Mohammed believed that there had been great prophets before him, — Abraham, Moses, and Jesus among others, — but that he himself was the last and greatest of God's messengers, who brought the final and highest form of religion to mankind. He de- stroyed all the idols in the Kaaba at Mecca and forbade his follow- ers to make any images whatsoever — but he left the black stone. Besides serving the one God, the Moham-' medan was to honor his parents, aid the poor, protect the orphan, keep his contracts, give full measure, and weigh with a just balance. He was not to walk proudly on the earth, or to be wasteful, " for the waste- ful were ever the devil's brothers." He was to avoid, moreover, all strong drink, and this command has saved Mohammed's faithful followers from the terrible degradation which alcohol has made so common in our Western world. Besides obeying these and other commands the Mohammedan who would be saved must do five things : First, he must recite daily the simple creed, " There is no god but God, and Fig. 19. Arabic Writing This is a page from the Koran, with an elaborate decorated border. It gives an idea of the appearance of Arabic writing. The Arabic letters are, next to the Roman alphabet, which we use, the most widely employed in the world The Mohammedans 6 7 The fast of ramadan Mohammed is his prophet." Secondly, he must pray five times a day — just before sunrise, just after noon, before and after sunset, and when the day has closed. It is not uncommon to see in well-furnished houses in this' country the so-called " prayer rugs " brought from Mohammedan countries. These are spread down on the ground or the flat roof of the oriental house, and on them the worshiper kneels to pray, turning his face toward Mecca and bowing his head to the ground. The pattern on the rug indicates the place where the bowed head is to be placed. Thirdly, the Moham- medan must fast during the whole month of ramadan ; he may neither eat nor drink from sun- rise to sunset, for this is the month in which God sent Gabriel down from the seventh heaven to bring the Koran, which he revealed, paragraph by paragraph, to Mohammed. Fourthly, the Mohammedan must give alms to the poor, and, Pilgrimage fifthly, he must, if he can, make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once during his lifetime. Tens of thousands of pilgrims flock to Mecca every year. They enter the great courtyard surrounding the Kaaba, which is a plain, almost cubical, building, supposed to have been built in the first place by Abraham. The sacred black stone is fixed in the outside wall at the southeast corner, and the pilgrims must circle the build- ing seven times, kissing the black stone each time as they pass it (Fig. 21). Fig. 20. Mohammedan kneeling on a Prayer Rug ill w CU h3 4-1 4-3 CJ 3 CU 03 4-> CU CU MH •*-> xs o OS £ CJ CO 4-> CO 4-1 )h o 00 3H 1 OS 03 cu > 13 o 4-1 4-T £ o X! o3 0) O 4-1 2 2 4-1 4J co 03 cj H co }_ rt bfl -J-J 03 03 o3 U XI g 2 u h3 4-) XJ a 03 £ '3 4J B 3 !h CU > o bJO o 4-1 a CU <44 o 4-> bJD w cu c )H 4-> c CU X> Q XS u 4-> .£ XI o cu a o o (U Sh OS 3 CJ 3 O o 4-1 o3 c _bJD "a o c CD cu +J CO CU Sh bo C) 03 03 3 X) co 3 3 ^ (0 T3 X) 3 o CO CU Jh CI 03 CJ o g o Ch 4-> c3 o +J CJ 3 3 4-> rt 3 co c 'w CD > ^S X Ih o 4- 1 CO o CJ S o Ih ^ H 68 Street Scene in Cairo The Mohammedans 69 The Koran announces a day of judgment when the heavens Moham- shall be opened and the mountains be powdered and become me like flying dust. Then all men shall receive their reward. Those who have refused to accept Islam shall be banished to hell to be burned and tormented forever. " They shall not taste therein coolness or drink, save scalding water and running sores," and the scalding water they shall drink like thirsty camels. Those, on the other hand, who have obeyed the Koran, Heaven especially those who die fighting for Islam, shall find themselves in a garden of delight. They shall recline in rich brocades upon soft cushions and rugs and be served by surpassingly beautiful maidens, with eyes like hidden pearls. Wine may be drunk there, but "their heads shall not ache with it, neither shall they be confused." They shall be content with their past life and shall hear no foolish words ; and there shall be no sin but only the greeting, " Peace, peace." The religion of Mohammed was much simpler than that of The mosque the medieval Christian Church ; it did not provide for a priest- hood or for any great number of ceremonies. The Moham- medan mosque or temple is a house of prayer and a place for reading the Koran ; no altars or images or pictures of any kind are permitted in it. The mosques are often very beautiful build- ings, especially in great Mohammedan cities, such as Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, and Constantinople. They have great courts surrounded by covered colonnades and are adorned with beau- tiful marbles and mosaics and delightful windows with bright stained glass. The walls are adorned with passages from the Koran, and the floors covered with rich rugs. They have one or more minarets from which the muezzi?i, or call to prayer, is heard five times a day. The Mohammedans, like other Eastern peoples, are very Women and particular to keep the women by themselves in a separate part of the house, called the harem, or woman's quarters. They may not go out without the master's permission and even then not without wearing a veil ; no man must ever. see a respectable 70 Medieval and Modern Times Slaves woman's face, except her father, brother, or husband. The Koran permits a man to have as many as four wives, but in practice only the men of the richer classes have more than one. For a woman to attempt to escape from the harem is a crime punish- able with death. Sometimes the women seem to lead pleasant lives, but, for the most part, their existence is very monotonous. 1 Slaves are very common in Mohammedan countries, but once they are freed they are as good as any one else and may then hold the highest places in the government. The Arabs' conquests. Caliphs at Damascus Caliphs at Bagdad Conquests of the Mohammedans ; the Caliphate 14. Mohammed had occupied the position of pope and king combined, and his successors, who took the title of caliph (which means "successor" or "representative"), were regarded as the absolute rulers of the Mohammedans. . Their word was law in both religious and worldly matters. Mohammed's father-in-law was the first caliph. His successor, Omar (634-644), led the Arabs forth to conquer Syria, Egypt, and the great empire of Persia. The capital of the caliphate was then transferred from Medina to Damascus, which occupied a far better position for governing the new realms. Although the Mohammedans were constantly fighting among themselves, they succeeded in extending their territory so as to include Asia Minor and the northern coast of Africa. A great part of the people whom they conquered accepted the new religion of the prophet. Something over a hundred years after Mohammed's death a new line of caliphs came into power and established (762) a new capital on the river Tigris near the site of ancient Babylon. This new city of Bagdad became famous for its wealth, magnifi- cence, and learning. It was five miles across and at one time is supposed to have had two millions of inhabitants. In the 1 The colored plate (opp. p. 68) shows the minarets of a great mosque in Cairo. One can also see the gratings of the upper stories of the houses, through which the women can look out of their harem without being seen from the street. 7i 72 Medieval and Modern Times The Arabian Nights' Enter- tainments Moham- medans attempt to invade Europe The Arabs in Spain Arabs in- vade Gaul ninth century it was probably the richest and most splendid city in the world. The most entertaining example of Arabic literature which has been translated into English is the Thousand and One Nights^ or The Arabian NigJits- Entertainments > as it is com- monly called. These include the story of " Sindbad the Sailor," " Aladdin and the Lamp," " Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," and other famous tales. The great collection was got together in Egypt, perhaps in the fifteenth century, but many of the stories are very much older and were translated by the Arabs from the Persian, when the caliphs of Bagdad were at the height of their power. Some of these stories give one 'a lively idea of Moham- medan manners and customs. The Mohammedans made two or three attempts to cross over from Asia into Europe and take Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Empire, but failed. It was more than eight hundred years after Mohammed's death that the Turks, a Mohammedan people, succeeded in this, and' Constantinople is now a Mohammedan city and the Sultan of Turkey is the nominal head of Islam. Long before the Turks captured Con- stantinople, however, the Arabs at the other end of the caliph's empire had succeeded in crossing the Strait of Gibraltar from Africa and possessing themselves of Spain. The kingdom of the West Goths was in no condition to defend itself when a few Arabs and a much larger number of Berbers, inhabitants of northern Africa, ventured to invade Spain. Some of the Spanish towns held out for a time, but the invaders found allies in the numerous Jews, who had been shame- fully treated by their Christian countrymen. As for the innumer- able serfs who worked on the great estates of the aristocracy, a change of landlords made very little difference to them. In 7 1 1 the Arabs and Berbers gained a great battle, and the peninsula was gradually overrun by new immigrants from Africa. In seven years the Mohammedans were masters of almost the whole region south of the Pyrenees. They then began to as o H S5 W u as H w H aS «J Ph ai W H H < > O Q as O u o w p o» o *5 W o w a H O aS o l-t as w H 55 The Mokammedafis 73 cross into Gaul. For some years the Duke of Aquitaine kept them in check; but in 732 they col- lected a large army, defeated the duke near Bordeaux, advanced to Poitiers, and then set out for Tours. Here they met the army of the Franks which Charles the Hammer (Martel), the king's chief minister, had brought to- gether to meet the new danger. We know very little indeed of this famous battle of Tours, ex- cept that the Mohammedans were repulsed, and that they never again made any serious attempt to conquer western Europe beyond the Pyrenees. They retired to Spain and there developed a great and prosper- ous kingdom, far in advance of the Christian kingdoms to the north of them. Some of the buildings which they erected soon after their arrival still stand. Among these is the mosque at Cordova with its forest of columns and arches. 1 They also erected a great tower at Seville (Fig. 22). This has been copied by the architects of 1 The great mosque, which the Mo- hammedan rulers built at Cordova on the site of a Christian church of the West Goths, was second in size only to the FlG. 22. GlRALDA This tower, called the Giralda, was originally the great minaret of the chief mosque at Seville. It was built, 1184-1196, out of Roman and West Gothic mate- rials, and many Roman inscrip- tions are to be seen on the stones used for the walls. Orig- inally the tower was lower than it now is. All the upper part, including the story where the bells hang, was rebuilt by the Christians after they drove the Moors out of the city 74 Medieval and Modern Times Madison Square Garden in New York. The Mohammedans built beautiful palaces and laid out charming gardens. One of these palaces, the Alhambra, built at Granada some centuries after their arrival in Spain, is a marvel of lovely detail. They also founded a great university at Cordova, to which Christians from the North sometimes went in search of knowledge. Moors far Historians commonly regard it as a matter of great good luck the Franks that Charles the Hammer and his barbarous soldiers succeeded in defeating and driving back the Mohammedans at Tours. But had they been permitted to settle in southern France they might have developed science and art far more rapidly than did the Franks. It is difficult to say whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that the Moors, as the Mohammedans in Spain were called, did not get control of a portion of Gaul. QUESTIONS Section i i . What various reasons led men to enter monasteries ? When and where did Christian monasteries originate? Give some of the chief provisions of St. Benedict's Rule. What is meant by the "regular" and the "secular" clergy? Why did the monks some- times devote part of their time to copying books? Describe the general plan of a monastery. Section i 2. Tell about the conversion of the king of Kent. Did England become a part of the medieval Catholic church ? Section 13. Give a short account of Mohammed's life. Define Kaaba, Islam, Koran. What does the Mohammedan religion require of its adherents ? Section 14. What countries did the Mohammedans conquer during the century following Mohammed's death ? Where is Mecca, Bagdad, Damascus, Cordova? Tell what you can of the Moorish buildings in Spain. Kaaba at Mecca (Fig. 21). It was begun about 785 and gradually enlarged and beautified during the following two centuries, with the hope that it would rival Mecca as a place of pilgrimage. The part represented in the illustration was built by Caliph Al-Hakim, who came to the throne in 961. The beautiful holy of holies (the entrance of which may be seen in the background) is richly adorned with magnificent mosaics. The whole mosque is 570 by 425 feet; that is, about the size of St. Peter's in Rome. CHAPTER V CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS EMPIRE Conquests of Charlemagne 15. We have seen how the kings of the Franks, Clovis and How Pippin his successors, conquered a large territory, including western f the Franks, Germany and what is called France to-day. As time went on, Wlth f he the king's chief minister, who was called the Mayor of the proval, 752 Palace, got almost all the power into his hands and really ruled in the place of the king. Charles Martel, who defeated the Mohammedans at Tours in 732, was the Mayor of the Palace of the western Frankish king. His son, Pippin the Short, finally determined to do away altogether with the old line of kings and put himself in their place. Before taking the decisive step, how- ever, he consulted the pope. To Pippin's question whether it was right that the old line of kings should continue to reign when they no longer had any power, the pope replied : " It seems better that he who has the power in the State should be king, and be called king, rather than he who is falsely called king." With this sanction, then (752), the Frankish counts and dukes, in accordance with the old German ceremony, raised Pippin on their shields, in somewhat the way college boys now- adays carry off a successful football player on their shoulders. He was then anointed king by St. Boniface, the apostle to the Germans, of whom we have spoken, and received the blessing of the pope. 1 It would hardly be necessary to mention this change of dynasty in so short a history as this, were it not that the calling in of the 1 The old line of kings which was displaced by Pippin are known as the Merovingians. Pippin and his successors are called the Carolingian line. 75 76 Medieval and Modern Times The coronation of Pippin a religious ceremony Origin of kings " by the grace of God " Charle- magne, ca. 742-814 pope brought about a revolution in the ideas of kingship. The kings of the German tribes had hitherto usually been successful warriors who held their office with the consent of the people, or at least of the nobles. Their election was not a matter that concerned the Church at all. But when, after asking the pope's opinion, Pippin had the holy oil poured on his head, — in ac- cordance with an ancient religious custom of the Jews, — first by Bishop Boniface and later by the pope himself, he seemed to ask the Church to approve his usurpation. As the historian Gib- bon puts it, "A German chieftain was transformed into the Lord's anointed." The pope threatened with God's anger any one who should attempt to supplant the consecrated family of Pippin. It thus became a religious duty to obey the king and his succes- sors. He came to be regarded by the Church, when he had received its approval, as God's representative on earth. Here we have the beginning of the later theory of kings " by the grace of God," against whom it was a sin to revolt, however bad they might be. We shall see presently how Pippin's famous son Charlemagne received his crown from the hands of the pope. Charlemagne, who became king of all the Frankish realms in 771, is the first historical personage among the German peoples of whom we have any satisfactory knowledge. 1 Compared with 1 " Charlemagne " is the French form for the Latin Carolus Magnus (Charles the Great). We must never forget, however, that Charlemagne was a German, that he talked a German language, namely Frankish, and that his favorite palaces at Aix-la-Chapelle, Ingelheim, and Nimwegen were in German regions. Fig. 23. Charlemagne This bronze figure of Charle- magne on horseback was made in his time, and the artist may have succeeded in reproducing the general appearance of the emperor Charlemagne and his Empire 77 him, Theodoric, Clovis, Charles Martel, Pippin, and the rest are but shadowy figures. The chronicles tell us something of their deeds, but we can make only the vaguest inferences in regard to their appearance or character. Charlemagne's looks, as described by his sec- retary, so exactly corre- spond with the character of the king as exhibited in his reign that they are worthy of attention. He was tall and stoutly built ; his face was round, his eyes were large and keen, his nose somewhat above the common size, his expression bright . and cheerful. The good pro- portions and grace of his body prevented the ob- server from noticing that his neck was rather short and his person somewhat too stout. His voice was clear, but rather weak for his big body. He delighted in riding and hunting, and was an ex- pert swimmer. His ex- cellent health and his physical endurance can alone explain the astonishing swiftness with which he moved about his vast realm and conducted innumerable campaigns against his enemies in widely distant regions in rapid succession. Fig. 24. Charlemagne and his Wife There is no picture of Charlemagne that we can be sure looked like him. The rather comical one here given occurs in a law document of about the year 820 and shows what passed for a picture in those days. It may be meant for Charlemagne and his wife, but some think that it is a religious painting representing the Angel Gabriel announcing the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary 78 Medieval and Modern Times His educa- tion, his atti- tude toward learning, and his public spirit The Charle- magne of romance Charle- magne's idea of a great Christian empire Charles was an educated man for his time, and one who knew how to appreciate and encourage scholarship. While at dinner he had some one read to him ; he delighted especially in history, and in St. Augustine's City of God. He tried to learn writing, which was an unusual accomplishment at that time for any but churchmen, but began too late in life and got no farther than signing his name. He called learned men to his court and did much toward reestablishing a regular system of schools. He was also constantly occupied with buildings and other public works calculated to adorn his kingdom. He himself planned the remarkable cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle and showed the greatest interest in its furnishings. He commenced two palaces, one near Mayence and the other at Nimwegen, in Holland, and had a long bridge constructed across the Rhine at Mayence. The impression which his reign made upon men's minds con- tinued to grow even after his death. He became the her© of a whole series of romantic adventures which were as firmly be- lieved for centuries as his real deeds. In the fancy of an old monk in the monastery of St. Gall, 1 writing of Charlemagne not long after his death, the king of the Franks swept over Europe surrounded by countless legions of soldiers who formed a very sea of bristling steel. Knights of superhuman valor formed his court and became the models of knighthood for the following centuries. Distorted but imposing, the Charlemagne of poetry meets us all through the Middle Ages. A study of Charlemagne's reign will make clear that he was a truly remarkable person, one of the greatest figures in the world's records and deservedly the hero of the Middle Ages. . It was Charlemagne's ideal to bring all the German peoples together into one great Christian empire, and he was wonder- fully successful in attaining his end. Only a small portion of what is now called Germany was included in the kingdom ruled 1 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. Charlemagne and his Empire 79 over by Charlemagne's father, Pippin the Short. Frisia and Bavaria had been Christianized, and their rulers had been in- duced by the efforts of Charlemagne's predecessors and of the missionaries, especially Boniface, to recognize the overlordship of the Franks. Between these two half-independent countries lay the unconquered Saxons. They were as yet pagans and appear still to have clung to much the same institutions as those under which they had lived when the Roman historian Tacitus described them seven centuries earlier. The Saxons occupied the region beginning somewhat east The con- of Cologne and extending to the Elbe, and north to where the Saxons great cities of Bremen and Hamburg are now situated. They had no towns or roads and were consequently very difficult to conquer, as they could retreat, with their few possessions, into the forests or swamps as soon as they found themselves unable to meet an invader in the open field. Yet so long as they remained unconquered they constantly threatened the Frankish kingdom, and their country was necessary to the rounding out of its boundaries. Charlemagne never undertook, during his long military career, any other task half so serious as the subjugation of the Saxons, which occupied many years. Nowhere do we find a more striking example of the influence Conversion of the Church than in the reliance that Charlemagne placed upon it in his dealings with the Saxons. He deemed it quite as essential that after a rebellion they should promise to honor the Church and be baptized, as that they should pledge them- selves to remain true and faithful subjects of the king. He was in quite as much haste to found bishoprics and monasteries as to build fortresses. The law for the newly conquered Saxon lands issued some time between 775 and 790 provides the same death penalty for him who " shall have shown himself unfaithful to the lord king " and him who " shall scorn to come to baptism and shall wish to remain a pagan." Charlemagne believed the Christianizing of the Saxons so important a part of his duty that he decreed that any one should So Medieval and Modem limes Cooperation of the civil government and the Church Foundation of towns in northern Germany Charle- magne hecomes king of the Lombards Foreign policy of Charle- magne suffer death who broke into a church and carried off anything by force. No one, under penalty of heavy fines, was to make vows, in the pagan fashion, at trees or springs, or partake of any heathen feasts in honor of the demons (as the Christians termed the heathen gods), or fail to present infants for baptism before they were a year old. These provisions are characteristic of the theory of the Middle Ages according to which the government and the Church went hand in hand in ordering and governing the life of the people. Disloyalty to the Church was regarded by the State as quite as serious a crime as treason against itself. While the claims of the two institutions sometimes conflicted, there was no question in the minds either of the king's officials or of the clergy that both the civil and ecclesiastical governments were absolutely neces- sary ; neither of them ever dreamed that they could get along without the other. Before the Frankish conquest the Saxons had no towns. Now, around the seat of the bishop, or about a monastery, men be- gan to collect, and towns and cities grow up. Of these the chief was Bremen, which is still one of the most important ports of Germany. Summoned by the pope to protect him from his old enemies the Lombards, Charlemagne invaded Lombardy in 773 with a great army and took Pavia, the capital, after a long siege. The Lombard king was forced to become a monk, and his treasure was divided among the Frankish soldiers. Charlemagne then took the extremely important step, in 774, of having himself recognized by all the Lombard dukes and counts as king of the Lombards. So far we have spoken only of the relations of Charlemagne with the Germans, for even the Lombard kingdom was estab- lished by the Germans. He had, however, other peoples to deal with, especially the Slavs on the east (who were one day to build up the kingdoms of Poland and Bohemia and the vast Russian empire) and, on the opposite boundary of his dominion, the / EUROPE in the time of CHARLEMAGNE A. D. 814 I ~~| Original Possessions I I Conquest by Charlemagne A00 200 300 400 500 » Z-* . 1 1 ■ Scale ofJVIiles. Longitude Eas.l from Greenwich Charlemagne and his Empire 8 1 Moors in Spain. Against these it was necessary to protect his realms, and the second part of Charlemagne's reign was devoted to what may be called his foreign policy. A single campaign in 789 seems to have sufficed to subdue the Slavs, who lay to the north and east of the Saxons, and to force the Bohemians to acknowledge the supremacy of the Frankish king and pay tribute to him. The necessity of protecting the Frankish realms against any The new uprising of these non-German nations led to the establish- mar graves ment, on the confines of the kingdom, of marches, that is, districts under the military control of counts of the march, or margraves} Their business was to prevent any invasion of the interior of the kingdom. Much depended upon the efficiency of these men ; in many cases they founded powerful families and later helped to break up the empire by establishing themselves as practically independent rulers. At an assembly that Charlemagne held in 777, ambassadors Charlemagne appeared before him from certain dissatisfied Mohammedans in Spain. They had fallen out with the emir of Cordova 2 and now offered to become the faithful subjects of Charlemagne if he would come to their aid. In consequence of this embassy he undertook his first expedition to Spain in the following year. After some years of war the district north of the Ebro was con- quered by the Franks, and Charlemagne established there the Spanish march. In this way he began that gradual expulsion of the Mohammedans from the peninsula, which was to be car- ried on by slowly extending conquests until 1 49 2 , when Granada, the last Mohammedan stronghold, fell. 1 The king of Prussia had, among other titles, that of Margrave of Bran- denburg. The German word Mark is often used for " march " on maps of Germany. In English and French the title is " Marquis." 2 The Mohammedan caliphate broke 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. 82 Medieval and Modern Times Charlemagne crowned emperor by the pope Charlemagne merited the title of emperor Establishment of a Line of Emperors in the West 16. But the most famous of all the achievements of Charle- magne was his reestablishment of the Western Empire in the year 800. It came about in this wise. Charlemagne went to Rome in that year to settle a dispute between Pope Leo III and his enemies. To celebrate the satisfactory settlement of the dispute, the pope held a solemn service on Christmas Day in St. Peter's. As 'Charlemagne was kneeling before the altar during this service, the pope approached him and set a crown upon his head, saluting him, amid the acclamations of those present, as " Emperor of the Romans." The reasons for this extraordinary act, which Charlemagne insisted took him completely by surprise, are given in one of the Frankish histories, the Chronides of Lorsck, as follows : " The name of Emperor had ceased among the Greeks, for they were under the reign of a woman [the Empress Irene], where- fore it seemed good both to Leo, the apostolic pope, and to the bishops who were in council with him, and to all Christian men, that they should name Charles, King of the Franks, as Emperor. For he held Rome itself, where the ancient Caesars had always dwelt, in addition to all his other possessions in Italy, Gaul, and Germany. Wherefore, as God had granted him all these dominions, it seemed just to all that he should take the title of Emperor, too, when it was offered to him at the wish of all Christendom." Charlemagne appears to have accepted gracefully the honor thus thrust upon him. Even if he had no right to the imperial title, it was obviously proper and wise to grant it to him under the circumstances. Before his coronation by the pope he was only king of the Franks and of the Lombards ; but his con- quests seemed to give him a right to a higher title which should include all his outlying realms. The empire thus reestablished in the West was considered to be a continuation of the Roman Empire founded by Augustus. Charlemagne and his Empire 8 3 Charlemagne was reckoned the immediate successor of the em- Continuity of peror at Constantinople, Constantine VI, whom Irene had de- Empire posed and blinded. Yet, it is hardly necessary to say that the position of the new emperor had little in common with that of Augustus or Constantine. In the first place, the eastern em- perors continued to reign in Constantinople for centuries, quite regardless of Charlemagne and his successors. In the second place, the German kings who wore the imperial crown after Charlemagne were generally too weak really to rule over Ger- many and northern Italy, to say nothing of the rest of western Europe. Nevertheless, the Western Empire, which in the twelfth century came to be called the Holy Roman Empire, endured for over a thousand years. It came to an end only in 1806, when Napoleon reconstructed southern Germany and the last of the emperors laid down the crown. The assumption of the title of emperor was destined to make The title of the German rulers a great deal of trouble. It constantly led sourceof them into unsuccessful efforts to keep control over Italy, which Q°^ n to the really lay outside their natural boundaries. Then the circum- rulers stances under which Charlemagne was crowned made it possible for the popes to claim, later, that it was they who had transferred the imperial power from the old eastern line of emperors to Charlemagne and his family, and that this was a proof of their right to dispose of the crown as they pleased. The difficulties which arose necessitated many a weary journey to Rome for the emperors, and many unfortunate conflicts between them and the popes. How Charlemagne carried on his Government 17. The task of governing his vast dominions taxed even the Difficulty highly gifted and untiring Charlemagne ; it was quite beyond so i arge an the power of his successors. The same difficulties continued to em P ire exist that had confronted Charles Martel and Pippin — above all, a scanty royal revenue and overpowerful officials, who were apt to neglect the interests and commands of their sovereign. 84 Medieval and Modem Times Charie- Charlemagne's income, like that of all medieval rulers, came farms * chiefly from his royal estates, as there was no system of general taxation such as had existed under the Roman Empire. He consequently took the greatest care that his numerous planta- tions should be well cultivated, and that not even a turnip or an egg which was due him should be withheld. An elaborate set of regulations for his farms is preserved, which sheds much light upon the times. 1 Origin of The officials upon whom the Frankish kings were forced to nobility rer y chiefly were the counts, the " hand and voice of the king " wherever he could not be in person. They were expected to maintain order, see that justice was done in their district, and raise troops when the king needed them. On the frontier were the counts of the march, or margraves (marquises), already mentioned. These titles, together with that of duke, still exist as titles oi nobility in Europe, although they are no longer asso- ciated with any governmental duties except in cases where their holders have the right to sit in the upper House of Parliament. Charlemagne held assemblies of the nobles and bishops of his realm each spring or summer, at which the interests of the empire were considered. With the sanction of his advisers he issued an extraordinary series of laws, called t\i/*itithines i a num- ber of which have been preserved. With the bishops and abbots he discussed the needs of the Church, and, above all, the neces- sity of better schools for both the clergy and laity. The reforms which he sought to introduce give us an opportunity of learning the condition in which Europe found itself after four hundred years of disorder. The dark Charlemagne was the first important king since Theodoric before Charie- to pay any attention to book learning. About 650 the supply magne ^f papyrus — a kind of paper that the Greeks and Romans used — had been cut off, owing to the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs, and as our kind of paper had not yet been invented, 1 Sec extracts from these regulations, and an account of one of Charlemagne's farms, in Readmgs^ chap. vii. ( harlemagne and his Empire 8 5 there was only the very expensive parehment to write upon. While this had the advantage of being more durable than papy- rus, its high eost discouraged the copying of books. The eighth century — that immediately preceding Charlemagne's coronation — is commonly regarded as the most ignorant, the darkest, and the most barbarous period of the Middle Ages. Yet, in spite of this dark picture, there was promise for the The elements future. It was evident, even before Charlemagne's time, that preserved g by Europe was not to continue indefinitely in the path of ignorance. the Church Latin could not be forgotten, for that was the language of the Church, and all its official communications were in that tongue. ( Jonsequently it was absolutely necessary that the Church should maintain some sort of education in order that there might be persons who knew enough to write a Latin letter and conduct the church services. Some of those who learned Latin must have used it to read the old books written by the Romans. Then the textbooks of the later Roman Empire 1 continued to be used, and these, poor as they were, contained something about grammar, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and other subjects. It seemed to Charlemagne that it was the duty of the Church not only to look after the education of its own officers but to provide the opportunity of at least an elementary education for the people at large. In accordance with this conviction, he issued (789) an order to the clergy to gather together the children of both freemen and serfs in their neighborhood and establish schools " in which the boys may learn to read." 2 It would be impossible to say how many of the abbots and Establish- bishops established schools in accordance with Charlemagne's monastery recommendations. It is certain that famous centers of learning fu hc ^I s u nd < o the " School existed at Tours, Fulda, Corbie, Orleans, and other places during of the his reign, ("harlemagne further promoted the cause of education by the establishment of the famous " School of the palace " for the instruction of his own children and the sons of his nobles. He placed the Englishman Alcuin at the head of the school, 1 See above, p. 30. 2 s ee Readings, chap. vii. 86 Medieval and Modem Times and called distinguished men from Italy and elsewhere as teachers. The best known of these was the historian Paulus Diaconus, who wrote a history of the Lombards, to which we owe most of what we know about them. Charlemagne Charlemagne appears to have been particularly impressed Interested in w ^ n tne constant danger of mistakes in copying books, a task religious frequently turned over to ignorant and careless persons. He thought it very important that the religious books should be carefully copied. It should be noted that he made no attempt to revive the learning of Greece and Rome. He deemed it quite sufficient if the churchmen would learn their Latin well enough to read the church services and the Bible intelligently. Discourage- The hopeful beginning that was made under Charlemagne cation after " i n the revival of education was destined to prove disappointing Charle- m j ts immediate results. It is true that the ninth century magne's time _ J produced a few noteworthy men who have left works which indicate acuteness and mental training. But the break-up of Charlemagne's empire, the struggles between his descendants, the coming of new barbarians, and the disorder caused by the unruly feudal lords, who were not inclined to recognize any master, all combined to keep Europe back for at least two cen- turies more. Indeed, the tenth and the first half of the eleventh century seem, at first sight, little better than the seventh and the eighth. Yet ignorance and disorder never were quite so prevalent after, as they were before, Charlemagne. QUESTIONS Section 15. Explain the importance of the coronation of Pippin. Describe Charlemagne's appearance and character. How did the Church cooperate with Charlemagne in his efforts to incorporate the Saxons in his empire? Section 16. What led to Charlemagne's becoming emperor? What modern countries did his empire include ? Section 17. What were the chief sources of Charlemagne's revenue? How did titles of nobility originate in medieval Europe? What did Charlemagne do for education? CHAPTER VI THE AGE OF DISORDER; FEUDALISM The Disruption of Charlemagne's Empire 18. It was a matter of great importance to Europe whether Charlemagne's extensive empire held together or fell apart after his death in 814. He does not seem to have had any expectation that it would hold together, because some years before his death he arranged that it should be divided among his three sons. But as two of these died before he did, it fell into the hands of the only surviving son, Louis, who succeeded his august father as king of all the various parts of the Frankish domains and was later crowned emperor. Louis, called the " pious," proved a feeble ruler. He tried all sorts of ways of dividing the empire peaceably among his rebellious and unruly sons, but he did not succeed, and after his death they, and their sons as well, continued to fight over the question of how much each should have. It is not neces- sary to speak of the various temporary arrangements that were made. Finally, it was agreed in 870, by the Treaty of Mersen. 87. . Division of Charle- magne's empire Division of Frankish empire into three king- doms at Mersen, 870 88 Medieval and Modern Times that there should be three states, a West Frankish kingdom, an East Frankish kingdom, and a kingdom of Italy. The West Frankish realm corresponded roughly with the present bound- aries of France and Belgium. Its people talked dialects derived from the spoken Latin, which the Romans had introduced after their army, under the command of Julius Caesar, conquered Gaul. The East Frankish kingdom included the rest of Charle- magne's empire outside of Italy and was German in language. Map of Treaty of Mersen This map shows the division of Charlemagne's empire made in 870 by his descendants in the Treaty of Mersen Obstacles to maintaining, order Each of the three realms established by the Treaty of Mersen was destined finally to grow into one of the powerful modern states which we see on the map of Europe to-day, but hundreds of years elapsed before the kings grew strong enough to con- trol their subjects, and the Treaty of Mersen was followed by several centuries of constant disorder and local warfare. Let us consider the difficulties which stood in the way of peace. The Age of Disorder ; Feudalism 89 In the first place, a king found it very hard to get rapidly Bad roads from one part of his realms to another in order to put down rebellions, for the remarkable roads which the Romans had so carefully constructed to enable their armies to move about had fallen into disrepair. To have good roads one must be constantly working on them, for the rains wash them out and the floods carry away the bridges. As there was no longer a body of engineers employed by the government to keep up the roads and repair the bridges, they often became impassable. In the East Frankish kingdom matters must have been worse than in the West Frankish realm, for the Romans had never conquered Germany and consequently no good roads had ever been constructed there. Besides the difficulty of getting about quickly and easily, the Lack of king had very little money. This was one of the chief troubles government of the Middle Ages. There are not many gold or silver mines officials in western Europe, and there was no supply of precious metals from outside, for commerce had largely died out. So the king had no treasury from which to pay the many officials which an efficient government finds it necessary to employ to do its business and to keep order. As we have seen, he had to give his officers, the counts and margraves, land instead of money, and their land was so extensive that they tended to become rulers themselves within their own possessions. Of course the king had not money enough to support a stand- No perma- ing army, which would have enabled him to put down the con- nen army stant rebellions of his distant officers and of the powerful and restless nobility whose chief interest in life consisted in fighting. In addition to the weakness and poverty of the kings there New was another trouble, — and that the worst of all, — namely, the constant new invasions from all directions which kept all three parts of Charlemagne's empire, and England besides, in a con- stant state of terror and disaster. These invasions were almost as bad as those which had occurred before Charlemagne's time ; they prevented western Europe from becoming peaceful and invasions 90 Medieval and Modem Times prosperous and serve to explain the dark period of two hundred years which followed the break-up of Charlemagne's empire. The Moham- We know how the Mohammedans had got possession of attadTitaiy northern Africa and then conquered Spain, and how Charles and southern Martel had frustrated their attempt to add Gaul to their pos- France sessions. But this rebuff did not end their attacks on southern Europe. They got control of the island of Sicily shortly after Fig. 25. Amphitheater at Arles in the Middle Ages The great Roman amphitheater at Aries (built probably in the first or second century) is about fifteen hundred feet in circumference. During the eighth century, when the Mohammedans were invading southern France, it was converted into a fortress. Many of the inhabitants settled inside its walls, and towers were constructed, which still stand. The pic- ture shows it before the dwellings were removed, about 1830 Charlemagne's death, and then began to terrorize Italy and southern France. Even Rome itself suffered from them. The accompanying picture shows how the people of Aries, in southern France, built their houses inside the old Roman amphitheater in order to protect themselves from these Moham- medan invaders. Slavs and On the east the German rulers had constantly to contend with the Slavs. Charlemagne had defeated them in his time, as Hungarians Fig. 26. Monastery of St. Germain des Pres, Paris This famous monastery, now in the midst of Paris, was formerly outside of the walls when the town was much smaller, and was fortified as shown in the picture, with a moat (C) and drawbridge (Z>). One can see the abbey church (A), which still stands; the cloister (B) ; the refectory, or dining room (E) ; and the long dormitory (G). It was common in the age of disorder to fortify monasteries and sometimes even churches, as nothing was so sacred as to protect it from the danger of attack 9 1 92 Medieval and Modern Times The North- men Growing power and independ- ence of the great land- owners mentioned above, but they continued to make much trouble for two centuries at least. Then there were also the Hungarians, a savage race from Asia, who ravaged Germany and northern Italy and whose wild horsemen penetrated even into the West Frankish kingdom. Finally, they were driven back eastward and settled in the country now named after them — Hungary. And lastly there came the Northmen, bold and adventurous pirates from the shores of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. These skillful and daring seamen not only attacked the towns on the coast of the West Frankish kingdom but made their way up the rivers, plundering and burning the villages and towns as far inland as Paris. In England we shall find them, under the name of Danes, invading the country and forcing Alfred the Great to recognize them as the masters of northern England. 1 So there was danger always and everywhere. If rival nobles were not fighting one another, there were foreign invaders of some kind devastating the country, bent on robbing, maltreat- ing, and enslaving the people whom they found in towns and villages and monasteries. No wonder that strong castles had to be built and the towns surrounded by walls ; even the mon- asteries, which were not of course respected by pagan invaders, were in some cases protected by fortifications. In the absence of a powerful king with a well-organized army at his back, each district was left to look out for itself. Doubt- less many counts, margraves, bishops, and other great landed proprietors who were gradually becoming independent princes earned the loyalty of the people about them by taking the lead in defending the country against its invaders and by estab- lishing fortresses as places of refuge when the community was hard pressed. These conditions serve to explain why such government as continued to exist during the centuries following the death of Charlemagne was necessarily carried on mainly, not by the king and his officers, but by the great landholders. 1 These Scandinavian pirates are often called vikings, from their habit of leav- ing their long boats in the vik : which meant, in their language, " bay " or " inlet." The Age of Disorder ; Feudalism 93 The Medieval Castle 19. As one travels through England, France, or Germany The medie- to-day he often comes upon the picturesque ruins of a medieval castle perched upon some rocky cliff and overlooking the sur- rounding country for miles. As he looks at the thick walls often surrounded by a deep, wide trench once filled with water, Fig. 27. A Medieval Castle near Klagenfurt, Austria It was not uncommon in mountainous regions to have fortresses perched so high on rocky eminences that it was practically- impossible to capture them and observes the great towers with their tiny windows, he can- not but wonder why so many of these forts were built, and why people lived in them. It is clear that they were never intended to be dwelling places for the peaceful households of private citizens ; they look rather like the fortified palace of a ruler. Obviously, whoever lived there was in constant expectation of being attacked by an army, for otherwise he would never have 94 Medieval and Modern Times gone to the trouble and expense of shutting himself up in those dreary, cold, stone rooms, behind walls from ten to twenty feet thick. We can picture the great hall of the castle crowded with the armed followers of the master of the house, ready to fight for him when he wished to make war on a neighbor; or if he himself were attacked, they would rush to the little windows and shoot arrows at those who tried to approach, or The Roman castnim Fig. 28. Machine for Hurling Stones This was a medieval device for throwing stones and bolts of iron, which were often heated red hot before they were fired. It consisted of a great bow (A) and the beam (B), which was drawn back by the windlass (6") turned by a crank applied at the point {D). Then a stone was put in the pocket (F) and the trigger pulled by means of the string (£). This let the beam fly up with a bang against the bumper, and the missile went sailing against the wall or over it among the defenders of the castle pour lighted pitch or melted lead down on their enemies if they were so bold as to get close enough to the walls. The Romans had been accustomed to build walls around their camps, and a walled camp was called ca strum ; and in such names as Rochester, Winchester, Gloucester, Worcester, we have reminders of the fact that these towns were once fort- resses. These camps, however, were all government fortifica- tions and did not belong to private individuals. The Age of Disorder ; Feudalism 95 But as the Roman Empire grew weaker and the disorder Early castles caused by the incoming barbarians became greater, the various counts and dukes and even other large landowners began to build forts for themselves, usually nothing more than a great round mound of earth surrounded by a deep ditch and a wall made of stakes interwoven with twigs. On the top of the mound was a wooden fortress, surrounded by a fence or palisade, Fig. 29. Medieval Battering-ram This is a simple kind of a battering ram which was trundled up to the walls of a besieged castle and then swung back and forth by a group of soldiers, with the hope of making a breach. The men were often protected by a covering over the ram similar to the one at the foot of the mound. This was the type of " castle " that prevailed for several centuries after Charle- magne's death. There are no remains of these wooden castles in existence, for they were not the kind of thing to last very long, and those that escaped being burned or otherwise destroyed, rotted away in time. About the year 1100 these wooden buildings began to be re- placed by great square stone towers. This was due to the fact that the methods of attacking castles had so changed that wood was no longer a sufficient protection. The Romans when they about noo besieged a walled town were accustomed to hurl great stones and heavy-pointed stakes at the walls and over them. They had ingenious machines for this purpose, and they also had ways of Improved methods of attack lead to use of stone towns Fig. 30. Movable Tower This attacking tower was rolled up to the wall of the besieged town after the moat had been filled up at the proper point. The soldiers then swarmed up the outside and over a bridge onto the wall. Skins of ani- mals were hung on the side to prevent the tower from being set on fire 96 The Age of Disorder ; Feudalism 97 protecting their soldiers when they crept up to the walls with their battering-rams and pickaxes in the hope of making a breach and so getting into the town. But the Ger- man barbarians who overran the Roman Empire were unaccus- tomed to these ma- chines which therefore had fallen into disuse. But the practice of taking towns by means of them was kept up in the Eastern Empire, and during the Cru- sades, which, as we shall see, began about i ioo (see Chapter IX, below), they were in- troduced once more into western Europe, and this is the reason why stone castles be- gan to be built about that time. A square tower (Fig. 31) can, how- ever, be more easily attacked than a round tower, which has no corners, so a century later round towers be- came the rule and continued to be used until about the year 1500, when gunpowder and cannon had become so common that even the strongest castle could no longer be defended, Fig. 3.1. Tower of Beaugency This square donjon not far from Orleans, France, is one of the very earliest square towers that survive. It is a translation into stone of the wooden donjons that prevailed up to that time. It was built about 1 100 just after the beginning of the First Crusade. It is about 76 by 66 feet in size and 1 1 5 feet high 9 8 Medieval and Modern Times General arrangement of a castle for it could not withstand the force of cannon balls. The accompanying pictures give an idea of the stone castles built from about uoo to 1450 or 1500. They also show how a stone-throwing machine, such as was used before the invention of cannon, was constructed (Fig. 28). As we have no remains or good pictures of the early wooden castles on a mound, we must get our notions of the arrangement of a castle from the / later stone fortresses, many of which can still be found in Europe. When the castle was not on a steep rocky hill, which made it very hard to approach, a deep ditch was con- structed outside the walls, called the moat. This was filled with water and crossed by a bridge, which could be drawn up when the castle was attacked, leaving no way of getting across. The doorway was further protected by a grating of heavy planks, called the portcullis, which could be quickly dropped down to close the entrance (Fig. 32). Inside the castle walls was the great donjon, or chief tower, which had several stories, although one would not suspect it from its plain exterior. There was sometimes also a fine hall, as at Coucy (Fig. 33), and handsome rooms for the use of the lord and his family, but sometimes they lived in the donjon. There were buildings for storing supplies and arms, and usually a chapel. Fig. 32. Fortified Gate of a Medieval Castle Here one can see the way in which the entrance to a castle was protected : the moat (A) ; the drawbridge (B) ; the port- cullis (C) Fig. 33. Coucy le Chateau This castle of Coucy le Chateau was built by a vassal of the king of France in the thirteenth century. It is at the end of a hill and protected t)n all sides but one by steep cliffs. One can see the moat (A) and the double drawbridge and towers which protected the portal. The round donjon is probably the largest in the world, 100 feet in diameter and 210 feet high. At the base its walls are 34 feet thick. At the end of the inner court (C) was the residence of the lord (D). To the left of the oourt was a great hall, and to the right the quarters of the garrison 99 ioo Medieval and Modern Times The Serfs and the Manor The manor 20. Obviously the owner of the castle had to obtain supplies to support his family and servants and armed men. He could not have done this had he not possessed extensive tracts of land. A great part of western Europe in the time of Charlemagne appears to have been divided into great estates or plantations. The manor, These medieval estates were called vils, or manors, and closely resembled the Roman villas described in an earlier chapter. 1 The peasants who tilled the soil were called villains, a word derived from vil. A portion of the estate was reserved by the lord for his own use ; the rest of the plowed land was divided up among the peasants, usually in long strips, of which each peasant had several scattered about the manor. Condition The peasants were generally serfs who did not own their of the serfs r b j fields, but could not, on the other hand, be deprived of them so long as they worked for the lord and paid him certain dues. They were attached to the land and went with it when it changed hands. The serfs were required to till those fields which the lord reserved for himself and to gather in his crops. They might not marry without their lord's permission. Their wives and daughters helped with the indoor work of the manor house. In the women's buildings the women serfs engaged in spinning, weaving, sewing, baking, and brewing, thus producing clothes, food, and drink for the whole community. The obliga- We get our clearest ideas of the position of the serfs from tions of the , .... r , . , serfs the ancient descriptions of manors, which give an exact account of what each member of a particular community owed to the lord. For example, we find that the abbot of Peterborough held a manor upon which Hugh Miller and seventeen other serfs, mentioned by name, were required to work for him three days in each week during the whole year, except one week at Christmas, one at Easter, and one at Whitsuntide. Each serf was to give the lord abbot one bushel of wheat and eighteen 1 See above, p. 12. The Age of Disorder ; Feudalism IOI sheaves of oats, three hens, and one cock yearly, and five eggs at Easter. If he sold his horse for more than ten shillings, he was to give the said abbot fourpence. Five other serfs, mentioned by name, held but half as much land as Hugh and his companions, by paying and doing in all respects half as much service. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the manor was its independence of the rest of the world. It produced nearly 1P1P* 8 Fig. 34. PlERREFONDS This castle of Pierrefonds, not very far from Paris, was built by the brother of the king of France, about 1400. It has been very carefully restored in modern times and gives one a good idea of the way in which the feudal lords of that period lived. Within the walls is a hand- some central courtyard and magnificent apartments everything that its members needed, and might almost have con- tinued to exist indefinitely without communication with those who lived beyond its bounds. Little or no money was necessary, for the peasants paid what was due to the lord in the form of labor and farm products. They also rendered the needful help to one another and found little occasion for buying and selling. 102 Medieval and Modern Times The monot- ony and misery of the peasants' lives Barter re- placed by money transactions There was almost no opportunity to better one's condition, and life must have gone on for generation after generation in a weary routine. And the life was not merely monotonous, it was wretched. The food was coarse and there was little variety, as the peasants did not even take pains to raise fresh vegetables. The houses usually had but one room, which was ill-lighted by a single little window and had no chimney. The increased use of money in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which came with the awakening trade and industry, tended to break up the manor. The old habit of trading one thing for another without the intervention of money began to disappear. As time went on, neither the lord nor the serf was satisfied with the old system, which had answered well enough in the time of Charlemagne. The serfs, on the one hand, began to obtain money by the sale of their products in the markets of neighboring towns. They finally found it more profitable to pay the lord a certain sum instead of working for him, for they could then turn their whole attention to their own farms. The landlords, on the other hand, found it to their advantage to accept money in place of the services of their tenants. With this money the landlord could hire laborers to cultivate his fields and could buy the luxuries which were brought to his notice as commerce increased. So it came about that the lords gradually gave up their control over the peasants, and there was no longer very much difference between the serf and the freeman who paid a regular rent for his land. A serf might also gain his lib- erty by running away from his manor to a town. If he remained undiscovered, or was unclaimed by his lord, for a year and a day, he became a freeman. 1 1 The slow extinction of serfdom in western Europe appears to have begun as early as the twelfth century. A very general emancipation had taken place in England and France during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, though there were still some serfs in France when the revolution came in 1789. Germany was far more backward in this respect. We find the peasants revolting against their hard lot in Luther's time (1524-1525), and it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that the serfs were freed in Prussia. The Age of Disorder ; Feudalism 103 These manors served to support their lords and left them free to busy themselves fighting with other landowners in the same position as themselves. Feudal System 21. Landholders who had large estates and could spare a Lord and portion of them were accustomed to grant some of their manors to another person on condition that the one receiving the land would swear to be true to the giver, should fight for him on certain occasions, and should lend him aid when particular diffi- culties arose. It was in this way that the relation of lord and vassal originated. The vassal who received the land pledged himself to be true to his lord, and the lord, on the other hand, not only let his vassal have the land but agreed to protect him when it was necessary. These arrangements between vassals The feudal and lords constituted what is called the feudal system. The feudal system, or feudalism, was not established by Gradual de- . ... • • , c i ^ 1 velopment oi any decree of a king or in virtue or any general agreement be- feudalism tween all the landowners. It grew up gradually and irregularly without any conscious plan on any one's part, simply because it seemed convenient and natural under the circumstances. The owner of vast estates found it to his advantage to par- cel them out among vassals, that is to say, men who agreed to accompany him to war, guard his castle upon occasion, and assist him when he was put to any unusually great expense. Land granted upon the terms mentioned was called a fief. One The fief who held a fief might himself become a lord by granting a portion of his fief to a vassal upon terms similar to those upon which he held his lands of his lord, or suzerain. The vassal of a vassal was called a subvassal. There was Vassal and SUOV3.SS31 still another way in which the number of vassals was increased. The owners of small estates were usually in a defenseless con- dition, unable to protect themselves against the attacks of the great nobles. They consequently often deemed it wise to put 104 Medieval and Modern Times Homage and fidelity, or "Fealty" Obligations of the vassal. Military service Other feudal obligations their land into the hands of a neighboring lord and receive it back from him as a fief. They thus became his vassals and could call upon him for protection. The one proposing to become a vassal knelt before the lord and rendered him homage * by placing his hands between those of the lord and declaring himself the lord's " man " for such and such a fief. Thereupon the lord gave his vassal the kiss of peace and raised him from his kneeling posture. Then the vassal swore an oath of fidelity upon the Bible, or some holy relic, solemnly binding himself to fulfill all his duties toward his lord. This act of rendering homage by placing the hands in those of the lord and taking the oath of fidelity was the first and most essential duty of the vassal (Fig. 35). For a vassal to refuse to do homage for his fief when it changed hands amounted to a declaration of revolt and independence. The obligations of the vassal varied greatly. 2 He was ex- pected to join his lord when there was a military expedition on foot, although it was generally the case that the vassal need not serve at his own expense for more than forty days. The rules in regard to the length of time during which a vassal might be called upon to guard the castle of his lord varied almost infinitely. Besides the military service due from the vassal to his lord, he was expected to attend the lord's court when summoned. There he sat with other vassals to hear and pronounce upon those cases in which his fellow vassals were involved. Moreover 1 " Homage " is derived from the Latin word homo, meaning " man." 2 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 commis- sioners 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 cer- tain 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." The Age of Disorder ; Feudalism 105 he had to give the lord the benefit of his advice when required, and attend him upon solemn occasions. Under certain circumstances vassals had to make money Money pay- i • 1 1 r • 111 ments payments to their lord ; as, for instance, when the lord was put to extra expense by the necessity of knighting his eldest son or providing a dowry for his daughter, or when he was captured by an enemy and was held for ransom. Lastly, the vassal might have to entertain his lord should he be passing his castle. There are amus- ingly detailed accounts in some of the feudal contracts of exactly how often the lord might come, how many fol- lowers he might bring, and what he should have to eat. There were fiefs of all kinds and of all grades of importance, from that of a duke or count, who held directly of the king and exercised the powers of a practi- cally independent prince, down to the holding of the simple knight, whose bit of land, cultivated by peasants or serfs, was barely sufficient to enable him to support himself and provide the horse upon which he rode to perform his military service for his lord. It is essential to observe that the fief was not granted for a certain number of years, or simply for the life of the grantee, to go back at his death to the owner. On the contrary, it became Fig. 35. Ceremony of Homage This is a modern picture of the way in which the ceremony of homage took place. The new vassal is putting his hands be- tween those of his lord. To the left are retainers in their chain armor, and back of the lord and his lady is the jester, or court fool, whose business it is to amuse his master when he needs entertainment its conse quences 106 Medieval and Modern Times The heredi- hereditary in the family of the vassal and passed down to the of fiefs and eldest son from one generation to another. So long as the vassal remained faithful to his lord and performed the stipu- lated services, and his successors did homage and continued to meet the conditions upon which the fief had originally been granted, neither the lord nor his heirs could rightfully regain possession of the land. The result was that little was left to the original owner of the net except the services and dues to which the practical owner, the vassal, had agreed in receiving it. In short, the fief came really to belong to the vassal, and only the shadow of owner- ship remained in the hands of the lord. Nowadays the owner of land either makes some use of it himself or leases it for a definite period at a fixed money rent. But in the Middle Ages most of the land was held by those who neither really owned it nor paid a regular rent for it, and yet who could not be deprived of it by the nominal owner or his successors. Subvassals of Obviously the great vassals who held directly of the king under his became almost independent of him as soon as their fiefs were control granted to them and their descendants. Their vassals, since they had not done homage to the king himself, often paid little attention to his commands. From the ninth to the thirteenth century, the king of France or the king of Germany did not rule over a great realm occupied by subjects who owed him obedience as their lawful sovereign, paid him taxes, and were bound to fight under his banner as the head of the State. As a feudal landlord himself, the king had a right to demand fidel- ity and certain services from those who were his vassals. But the great mass of the people over whom he nominally ruled, whether they belonged to the nobility or not, owed little to the king directly, because they lived upon the lands of other feudal lords more or less independent of him. The Age of Disorder ; Feudalism 1 07 Neighborhood Warfare in the Middle Ages 22. One has only to read a chronicle of the time to discover The feudal that brute force governed almost everything outside of the tafned^only" Church. The feudal obligations were not fulfilled except when b y force the lord was sufficiently powerful to enforce them. The oath of fidelity was constantly broken, and faith was violated by both vassal and lord. It often happened that a vassal was discontented with his The breaking lord and transferred his allegiance to another. This he had bon/ a right to do under certain circumstances, as, for instance, when his lord refused to see that justice was done him in his court. But such changes were generally made merely for the sake of the advantages which the faithless vassal hoped to gain. The records of the time are full of accounts of refusal to do homage, which was the commonest way in which a vassal re- volted from his lord. So soon as a vassal felt himself strong enough to face his lord's displeasure, or when the lord was a helpless child, the vassal was apt to declare his independence by refusing to recognize as his lord the one from whom he had received his land. We may say that war, in all its forms, was the law of the War the law feudal world. War formed the chief occupation of the restless wor id nobles who held the land and were supposed to govern it. An enterprising vassal was likely to make war upon each of the lords to whom he had done homage ; secondly, upon the bishops and abbots with whom he was brought into contact, and whose control he particularly disliked ; thirdly, upon his fellow vassals ; and lastly, upon his own vassals. The feudal bonds, instead of offering a guarantee of peace and concord, appear to have been a constant cause of violent conflict. Every one was bent upon profiting by the permanent or temporary weakness of his neigh- bor. This chronic fighting extended even to members of the same family ; the son, anxious to enjoy a part of his heritage immediately, warred against his father, younger brothers against ioS Medieval and Modern Times older, and nephews against uncles who might seek to deprive them oi their rights. In theory, the lord could force his vassals to settle their dis- putes in an orderly manner before his court ; but often he was neither able nor inclined to bring about a peaceful adjustment, and he would frequently have found it hard to enforce the decisions of his own court. So the vnssals were left to fight out their quarrels among themselves, and they found their chief interest in life in so doing. War was practically sanctioned by law. This is shown by two striking examples. The great French code of laws of the thirteenth century and the Golden Bull, a most important body of law drawn up for Germany in 1356, did not prohibit neighborhood war, but merely provided that it should be conducted in what was considered a decent and gentlemanly way. justs and Justs and tourneys were military exercises — play wars — to fill out the tiresome periods which occasionally intervened be- tween real wars. They were, in fact, diminutive battles in which whole troops of hostile nobles sometimes took part. These rough plays called down the condemnation of the popes and even of the kings. The latter, however, were much too fond of the sport themselves not to forget promptly their own prohibitions. The " Truce The horrors of this constant fighting led the Church to try to check it. About the year 1000 several Church councils in southern France decreed that the fighters were not to attack churches or monasteries, churchmen, pilgrims, merchants, and women, and that they must leave the peasant and his cattle and plow alone. Then Church councils began to issue what was known as the " Truce of God," which provided that all warfare was to stop during Lent and various other holy days as well as on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of every week. During the truce no one was to attack any one else. Those besieging castles were to refrain from any assaults during the period of peace, and people were to be allowed to go quietly to and fro on their business without being disturbed by soldiers of God" The Age of Disorder ; Feudalism 109 If any one failed to observe the truce, he was to be excom- municated by the Church — if he fell sick no Christian should dare to visit him, and on his deathbed he was not to receive the comfort of a priest, and his soul was consigned to hell if he had refused to repent and mend his ways. It is hard to say how much good the Truce of God accomplished. Some of the bishops and even the heads of great monasteries liked fighting pretty well themselves. It is certain that many disorderly lords . paid little attention to the truce, and found three days a week altogether too short a time for plaguing their neighbors. Yet we must not infer that the State ceased to exist altogether The kings during {lie centuries of confusion that followed the break-up of the better of Charlemagne's empire, or that it fell entirely apart into little j he feudal local governments independent of each other. In the first place, a king always retained some of his ancient majesty. He might be weak and without the means to enforce his rights and to compel his more powerful subjects to meet their obligations toward him. Yet he was, after all, the king, solemnly anointed by the Church as God's representative on earth. He was always something more than a feudal lord. The kings were destined to get the upper hand before many centuries in England, France, and Spain, and finally in Italy and Germany, and to destroy the castles behind whose walls their haughty nobles had long defied the royal power. QUESTIONS Section 18. What led to the breaking up of Charlemagne's em- pire ? What is the importance of the Treaty of Mersen ? What were the chief obstacles that prevented a king in the early Middle Ages from really controlling an extensive realm ? What invasions occurred in western Europe after Charlemagne's time ? Tell what you can of the Northmen. SECTION 19. Describe the changes that took place during the Middle Ages in the method of constructing castles. Describe the arrangement of a castle. no Medieval and Modern Tunes Section 20. What was a manor, and what Roman institution did it resemble? What was a serf? What were the chief services that a serf owed to his master? What effect did the increased use of money have upon serfdom? Section 21. Define "lord," "vassal," "fief," "homage," "feudal- ism." What services did a vassal owe to his lord? What effects did feudalism have upon the power of the kings? Section 22. What is meant by neighborhood warfare ? Why was it very common in the Middle Ages ? What was the Truce of God ? CHAPTER VII ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES The Norman Conquest 23. The country of western Europe, whose history is of importance greatest interest to English-speaking peoples, is, of course, Eng- m t he g htstory land. From England the United States and the vast English ° f western ° Europe colonies have inherited their language and habits of thought, much of their literature, and many of their laws and institutions. In this volume it will not, however, be possible to study Eng- land except in so far as it has played a part in the general development of Europe. This it has greatly influenced by its commerce and industry and colonies, as well as by the example it was the first to set in modern times of permitting the people to share with the king in the government. The conquest of the island of Britain by the German Angles Overlordship 01 Wcsscx and Saxons has already been spoken of, as well as the con- version of these pagans to Christianity by Augustine and his monks. 1 The several kingdoms founded by the German invaders were brought under the overlordship of the southern kingdom of Wessex by Egbert, a contemporary of Charlemagne. But no sooner had the long-continued invasions of the Ger- invasion of the Dsnes mans come to an end and the country been partially unified Their defeat than the Northmen (or Danes, as the English called them), who ty A Q^ t were ravaging France (see above, p. 92), began to make incur- 871-901 sions into England. Before long they had conquered a large district north of the Thames and were making permanent set- tlements. They were defeated, however, in a great battle by Alfred the Great, the first English king of whom we have any 1 See above, pp. 61 sq. Ill 112 Medieval and Modern Times England from the death of Alfred the Great to the Norman Conquest, 901-1066 France in the Middle Ages Formation of small independent states in France Normandy satisfactory knowledge. He forced the Danes to accept Christi- anity, and established, as the boundary between their settlements and his own kingdom of Wessex, a line running from London across the island to Chester. But more Danes kept coming, and the Danish invasions con- tinued for more than a century after Alfred's death (901). Sometimes they were bought off by a money payment called the Danegeld, which was levied on the people of England like any other tax. But finally a Danish king (Cnut) succeeded in making himself king of England in 1017. This Danish dynasty main- tained itself, however, for only a few years. Then a last weak Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, reigned for twenty years. Upon his death one of the greatest events in all English history occurred. The most powerful of the vassals of the king of France crossed the English Channel, conquered England, and made himself king. This was William, Duke of Normandy. We have seen how Charlemagne's empire broke up, and how the feudal lords became so powerful that it was difficult for the king to control them. The West Frankish kingdom, which we shall hereafter call France, was divided up among a great many dukes and counts, who built strong castles, gathered armies and fought against one another, and were the terror alike of priest, merchant, and laborer. (See above, sections 18 and 22.) In the tenth century certain great fiefs, like Normandy, Brit- tany, Flanders, and Burgundy, developed into little nations, each under its line of able rulers. Each had its own particular cus- toms and culture, some traces of which may still be noted by the traveler in France. These little feudal states were created by certain families of nobles who possessed exceptional energy or statesmanship. By conquest, purchase, or marriage they in- creased the number of their fiefs, and they insured their control over their vassals by promptly destroying the castles of those who refused to meet their obligations. Of these subnations none was more important or interesting than Normandy. The Northmen had been the scourge of those England in the Middle Ages 1 1 3 who lived near the North Sea for many years before one of their leaders, Rollo (or Hrolf), agreed in 911 to accept from the West Frankish king a district on the coast, north of Brit- tany, where he and his followers might peacefully settle. Rollo assumed the title of Duke of the Normans, and introduced the Christian religion among his people. For a considerable time the newcomers kept up their Scandinavian habits and language. Gradually, however, they appropriated such culture as their neighbors possessed, and by the twelfth century their capital, Rouen, was one of the most enlightened cities of Europe. Nor- mandy became a source of infinite perplexity to the French kings when, in 1066, Duke William added England to his pos- sessions and the title of " the Conqueror " to his name ; for he thereby became so powerful that his overlord, the king of France, could hardly hope to control the Norman dukes any longer. William of Normandy claimed that he was entitled to the The struggle English crown, but we are somewhat in the dark as to the basis h °h cr o W n g " of his claim. There is a story that he had visited the court of b f tw een Earl J Harold Edward the Confessor and had become his vassal on condition and Duke that, should Edward die childless, he was to declare William his Normandy successor. However this may be, Harold of Wessex assumed the crown upon Edward's death and paid no attention to William's demand that he should surrender it. William thereupon appealed to the pope, promising that if he The pope came into possession of England, he would see that the English wi u clergy submitted to the authority of the Roman bishop. Conse- quently the pope, Alexander II, condemned Harold and blessed in advance any expedition that William might undertake to secure his rights. The conquest of England therefore took on the character of a sort of holy war, and as the expedition had been well advertised, many adventurers flocked to William's standard. During the spring and summer of 1066 ships were building in the various ^Norman harbors for the purpose of carrying William's army across the Channel. iam's claim 114 Medieval and Modern Times Unfavorable position of Harold Harold, the English king, was in a very unfavorable position to defend his crown. In the first place, while he was expecting William's coming, he was called to the north of England to repel a last invasion of the fierce Norse- men, who had again landed in England and were devastating the coast towns. He was able to put them to flight, but as he was cele- brating his victory by a banquet news reached him that William had actu- ally landed with his Normans in southern England. It was autumn now and the peas- ants, who formed a large part of Harold's forces, had gone home to harvest their crops, so he had to hurry south with an insuffi- cient army. The English occupied the hill of Senlac, west of Hastings, and Fig. 36. Abbaye aux Dames, Caen William the Conqueror married a lady, Matilda, who was remotely related to him. This was against the rules of the Church, and he took pains to get the pope's sanction to his marriage. But he and his queen were afraid that they might have committed a sin in marrying, so William built a monastery for men and Matilda a nunnery for women as a penance. The churches of these monasteries still stand in the Norman city of Caen. William was buried in his church. The picture represents the interior of Matilda's church and is a good example of what the English called the Norman style of architecture England in the Middle Ages 115 awaited the coming of the enemy. They had few horses and Battle of fought on foot with their battle-axes.- The Normans had horses, October^, which they had brought across in their ships, and were supplied Io66 with bows and arrows. The English fought bravely and re- pulsed the Normans as they tried to press up the hillside. But at last they were thrown into confusion, and King Harold was killed by a Norman arrow which pierced his eye. William thus destroyed the English army in this famous battle William of Hastings, and the rightful English king was dead, But the at London Norman duke was not satisfied to take possession of England as a conqueror merely. In a few weeks he managed to induce a number of influential nobles and several bishops to agree to accept him as king, and London opened its gates to him. On Christmas Day, 1066, he was chosen king by an assembly in Westminster Abbey (where Harold had been elected a year before) and was duly crowned. In the Norman town of Bayeux a strip of embroidery is pre- The Bayeux served some two hundred and thirty feet long and eighteen inches wide. If it was not made by Queen Matilda, William's wife, and her ladies, as some have supposed, it belongs at any rate to the time of the Norman conquest of England, which it pictures with much detail. The accompanying colored repro- duction of two scenes shows the Normans landing with their horses from their ships on the English coast and starting for the battlefield of Hastings, and, in the second scene, the battle in actual progress ; the English are on their hill, trying to drive back the invaders. While the ladies could not draw very well, historians are able to get some ideas of the time from their embroidery. We cannot trace the history of the opposition and the revolts of the great nobles which William had to meet within the next few years. His position was rendered doubly difficult by troubles which he encountered on the Continent as Duke of Normandy. Suffice it to say, that he succeeded in maintaining himself against all his enemies. Tapestry n6 Medieval and Modern Times William's policy in England He insures his suprem- acy without interference with English customs William re- quires oath of fidelity from his subvas- sals William's policy in England exhibited profound statesman- ship. He introduced the Norman feudalism to which he was accustomed, but took good care that it should not weaken his power. The English, who had refused to join him before the battle of Hastings, were declared to have forfeited their lands, but were permitted to keep them upon condition of receiving them back from the king as his vassals. The lands of those who actually fought against him at Hastings, or in later rebel- lions, including the great estates of Harold's family, were seized and distributed among his faithful followers, both Norman and English, though naturally the Normans among them far outnumbered the English. William declared that he did not propose to change the Eng- lish customs but to govern as Edward the Confessor, the last Saxon king, had done. He maintained the Witenagemot, a council made up of bishops and nobles, whose advice the Saxon kings had sought in all important matters. But he was a man of too much force to submit to the control of his people. He avoided giving to any one person a great many estates in a single region, so that no one should become inconveniently powerful. Finally, in order to secure the support of the smaller landholders and to prevent combinations against him among the greater ones, he required every landowner in England to take an oath of fidelity directly to him, instead of having only a few great landowners as vassals who had their own subvassals under their own control, as in France. We read in the Anglo-Saxon Chronide (108 6) : "He came, on the first day of August, to Salisbury, and there came to him his wise men (that is, counselors), and all the land-owning men of property there were over all England, whosoever men they were ; and all bowed down to him and became his men, and swore oaths of fealty to him that they would be faithful to him against all other men." It is clear that the Norman Conquest was not a simple change of kings, but that a new element was added to the English Ur I Kb ■§ \ if \i$C^ ■ By '■ England in the Middle Ages nj people. We cannot tell how many Normans actually emigrated General re- across the Channel, but they evidently came in considerable Norman Con- numbers, and their influence upon the English habits and gov- quest ernment was very great. A century after William's conquest the whole body of the nobility, the bishops, abbots, and govern- ment officials, had become practically all Norman. Besides these, the architects who built the castles and fortresses, the cathe- drals and abbeys, came from Normandy. Merchants from the Norman cities of Rouen and Caen settled in London and other English cities, and weavers from Flanders in various towns and even in the country. For a short time these newcomers remained a separate people, but by the year 1200 they had become for the most part indistinguishable from the great mass of English people amongst whom they had come. They had nevertheless made the people of England more energetic, active- minded, and varied in their occupations and interests than they had been before the conquest. Henry II and the Plant agenets 24. William the Conqueror was followed by his sons, William William Rufus and Henry I. Upon the death of the latter the country j^'J 7 ~ went through a terrible period of civil war, for some of the Heni 7 J > .•".'■ uoo-1135 nobility supported the Conqueror's grandson Stephen, and some Civil war end- his granddaughter Matilda. After the death of Stephen, when ing in the ac- Henry II, Matilda's son, 1 was finally recognized in 1 154 by all HennTn as king, he found the kingdom in a melancholy state. The u54- Il8 9 nobles had taken advantage of the prevalent disorder to erect castles without royal permission and to establish themselves as independent rulers, and many disorderly hired soldiers had been brought over from the Continent to support the rivals for the throne. Henry II at once adopted vigorous measures. He destroyed t the illegally erected fortresses, sent off the foreign soldiers, and 1 See genealogical table below, p. 122. n8 Medieval and Modem Times Henry's diffi- culties and his success in meeting them Trial by jury deprived many earls who had been created by Stephen and Matilda of their titles. Henry's task was a difficult one. He had need of all his tireless energy and quickness of mind to restore order in England and at the same time rule the wide realms on the Continent which he had either inherited or gained through his marriage with a French heiress. In order to avoid all excuse for the pri- vate warfare which was such a persistent evil on the Continent, he undertook to im- prove and reform the law courts. He ar- ranged that his judges should make regular circuits throughout the country, so that they might try cases on the spot at least once a year. We find, too, the begin- ning of our grand jury in a body of men in each neighborhood who were to be duly sworn in, from time to time, and should then bring accusations against such malefactors as had come to their knowledge. As for the " petty " or smaller jury of twelve, which actually tried the accused, its origin and history are obscure. Henry IPs juries left the verdict for Heaven to pronounce in the ordeal ; but a century later we find the jury of twelve itself rendering verdicts. The plan of delegating to twelve men the duty of decid- ing on the guilt or innocence of a suspected person was very Fig. 37. NoRxMAN Gateway at Bristol, England This beautiful gateway was originally the entrance to a monastery, begun in 1142. It is one of the finest examples of the Norman style of building to be seen in England England in the Middle Ages 119 different from the earlier systems. It resembled neither the Roman trial, where the judges made the decision, nor the medieval compurgation and ordeals (see above, p. 37). The decisions of Henry's judges were mainly drawn from old English custom, instead of from Roman law as in France, and they be- came the basis of the common law which is still used in all English- speaking countries. Henry's reign was em- bittered by the famous struggle with Thomas Becket, which illustrates admirably the peculiar dependence of the monarchs of his day upon the churchmen. Becket was born in London and became a churchman, but he grew up in the service of the king and was able to aid IJenry in gaining the throne. Thereupon the new king made him his chancellor. Becket proved an excellent Fig. 38. Choir of Canterbury Cathedral The choir- of Canterbury Cathedral was destroyed by fire four years after Thomas Becket was murdered there. The picture shows how it was rebuilt under Henry II during the years 117 5-1 184. The two lower rows of arches are the round kind that had been used up to that time, while the upper row shows how the pointed arch was coming in. (See below, section 44) 120 Medieval and Modern Times Thomas Becket chancellor Made Arch- bishop of Canterbury, Becket defends the cause of the Church against the king Murder of Becket and Henry's remorse minister and defended the king's interest even against the Church. He was fond of hunting and of war and maintained a brilliant court from the revenues of the numerous church positions which he held. It appeared to Henry that there could be no better head for the English clergy than his sagacious and worldly chancellor. He therefore determined to make him Archbishop of Canterbury. In securing the election of Becket as Archbishop of Canter- bury, Henry intended to insure his own complete control of the Church. He proposed to punish churchmen who committed crimes, like other offenders, to make the bishops meet all the feudal obligations, and to prevent appeals to the pope. Becket, however, immediately gave up his gay life and opposed every effort of the king to reduce the independence of the Church. After a haughty assertion of the supremacy of the Church over the king's government, 1 Thomas fled from the wrathful and disappointed monarch to France and the protection of the pope. In spite of a patched-up reconciliation with the king, Becket proceeded to excommunicate some of the great English prelates and, as Henry believed, was conspiring to rob his son of the crown. In a fit of anger, Henry exclaimed among his followers, " Is there no one to avenge me of this miserable churchman ? " Unfortunately certain knights took the rash expression literally, and Becket was murdered in his own cathedral of Canterbury, whither he had returned. The king really had no wish to resort to violence, and his sorrow and remorse when he heard of the dreadful deed, and his terror at the consequences, were most genuine. The pope proposed to excommunicate him. Henry, however, made peace with the papal legates by the solemn as- sertion that he had never wished the death of Thomas and by promising to return to Canterbury all the property which he had confiscated, to send money to aid in the capture of the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem, and to undertake a crusade himself. 1 See below, section 30. * The Plantagenet Possessions in England and France 121 124 Medieval and Modern Times English kings still continued to hold south- western France John of Eng- land becomes a vassal of the pope homage for his continental possessions, Philip caused his court to issue a decree confiscating almost all of the Plantagenet lands, leaving to the English king only the southwest corner of France. Philip found little difficulty in possessing himself of Normandy itself, which showed no disinclination to accept him in place of the Plantagenets. Six years after Richard's death the English kings had lost all their continental fiefs except Guienne. It should be observed that Philip, unlike his ancestors, was no longer merely suzerain of the new conquests, but made himself duke of Normandy, and count of Anjou, of Maine, etc. The boundaries of his domain — that is, the lands which he himself controlled directly as feudal lord — now extended to the sea. St. Louis, Philip's successor, arranged with John's successor in 1258 that the English king should do him homage for Guienne, Gascony, and Poitou and should surrender every claim on all the rest of the former possessions of the Plantagenets. So it came about that the English kings continued to hold a portion of France for several hundred years. John not only lost Normandy and other territories which had belonged to the earlier Norman kings but he actually consented to become the pope's vassal, receive England as a fief from the papacy, and pay tribute to Rome. This strange proceeding came about in this wise : The monks of Canterbury had (1205) ventured to choose an archbishop — who was at the same time their abbot l — without consulting King John. Their appointee hastened off to Rome to gain the pope's confirmation, while the irritated John forced the monks to hold another election and make his treasurer archbishop. The pope at that time was no less a person than Innocent III, one of the greatest of medieval rulers. 2 Innocent rejected both the men who had been elected, sent for a new deputation of monks from Canterbury, and bade them choose Stephen Langton, a man of great ability. John then angrily drove the monks of Canterbury out of the kingdom. 1 See above, p. 63. 2 See below, p. 163. England in the Middle Ages 125 Innocent replied by placing England under the interdict ; that England un- is to say, he ordered the clergy to close all the churches and diet suspend all public services — a very terrible thing to the people of the time. John was excommunicated, and the pope threatened that unless the king submitted to his wishes he would depose him and give his crown to Philip Augustus of France. As Philip made haste to collect an army for the conquest of England, John humbly submitted to the pope in 12 13. He went so far as to hand England over to Innocent III and receive it back as a fief, thus becoming the vassal of the pope. Pie agreed also to send a yearly tribute to Rome. The Great Charter and the Beginnings of Parliament 25. We must now turn to the most important event in John's reign — the drawing up of the Great Charter of English liberties. When, in 12 13, John proposed to lead his English vassals The gran t- i , • i i-i i n g of the across the water in order to attempt to reconquer his lost pos- Great Char- sessions in France, they refused to accompany him on the ground ter ' I215 that their feudal obligations did not bind them to fight outside of their country. Moreover, they showed a lively discontent with John's tyranny and his neglect of those limits of the kingly power which several of the earlier Norman kings had solemnly recognized. In 12 14 a number of the barons met and took a solemn oath that they would compel the king, by arms if neces- sary, to sign a charter containing the things which, according to English traditions, a king might not do. As John would not agree to do this, it proved necessary to get together an army and march against him. The insurgent nobles met him at Runnymede, not far from London. Here on the 15th of June, 1 2 15, they forced him to swear to observe what they believed to be the rights of his subjects, which they had carefully written out. 126 imes The pwti- lhe Ureat t_ barter is perhaps the most famous document in sions of the ., , • . ,- ■■ . . . -.,,..„ Charter thc history oi government; 1 its provisions turnish a briet and importance comprehensive statement of the burning governmental questions of that period. The nobles, who concluded this great treaty with a tyrannous ruler, saw that it was to their interest to have the rights of the common freeman safeguarded as well as their own. The king promises to observe the rights of his vassals, and the vassal* in turn agree to observe the rights oi their men. The towns are not to be oppressed. The merchant is not to be deprived of his goods for small offenses, nor the farmer of his wagon and implements. The king is to impose no tax, besides the three stated feudal aids," except with the consent of the great council of the nation. This is to include the prelates and greater barons and all who hold directly o!" the king. There is no more notable clause in the (.'barter than that which provides that no freeman is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property, unless he be immediately sent before a court of his peers for trial. To realize thc importance of this, we must recollect that in France, down to 1780, — nearly six hundred years later, — the king exercised such unlimited powers that he could order the arrest of any one he pleased, and could imprison him for any length oi time without bringing him to trial, or even informing him of the nature oi his offense. The Great Charter provided further that the king should permit merchants to move about freely and should observe thc privileges of the various towns ; nor were his officers longer to be allowed to exercise despotic powers over those under them. Permanent In spite of his solemn confirmation of the Charter, John, the Charter with ms accustomed treachery, made an unsuccessful attempt to break his promises in the Charter ; but neither he nor his suc- cessors ever succeeded in getting rid of the document. Later there were times when the English kings evaded its provisions 1 Extracts from the Great Charter are given in the ReaeSHgs } chap. xi. 1 rhese 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. l.ngland in the Middle Ages 12 J and tried to rule as absolute monarehs. But the people always sooner or later bethought them of the Charter, whieh thus con- tinued to form a barrier against permanent despotism in England. During the long reign of John's son, Henry III, England Henry ill, began to construct her Parliament, an institution which has not only played a most important role in English history, but has also served as the model for similar bodies in almost every civilized state in the world. The Great Council of the Norman kings, like the older Wite- nagemot of Saxon times, was a meeting of nobles, bishops, and abbots, which the king summoned from time to time to give him advice and aid, and to sanction important governmental undertakings. During Henry's reign its meetings became more frequent and its discussions more vigorous than before, and the name Parliament began to be applied to it. In 1265 a famous Parliament was held, where a most impor- The Com- tant new class of members — the commons — were present, who mone d to were destined to give it its future greatness. In addition to the ^l iament ' nobles and prelates, two simple knights were summoned from each county and two citizens from each of the more flourishing towns to attend and take part in the discussions. Edward I, the next king, definitely adopted this innovation. The Model He doubtless called in the representatives of the towns because EdwardT l the townspeople were becoming rich and he wished to have an I2 95 opportunity to ask them to make grants of money to meet the expenses of the government. He also wished to obtain the approval of all classes when he determined upon important measures affecting the whole realm. Ever since the so-called " Model Parliament" of 1295, the commons, or representatives of the people, have always been included along with the clergy and nobility when the national assembly of England has been summoned. The Parliament early took the stand that the king must agree Redress of to " redress of grievances " before they would grant him any grievances money. This meant that the king had to promise to remedy any 128 Medieval and Modern Times Growth of powers of Parliament House of Lerds and House of Commons acts of himself or his officials of which Parliament complained before it would agree to let him raise the taxes. Instead of fol- lowing the king about and meeting wherever he might happen to be, the parliament from the time of Edward I began to hold its sessions in the city of Westminster, now a part of London, where it still continues to meet. Under Edward's successor, Edward II, Parliament solemnly declared in 1322 that important matters relating to the king and his heirs, the state of the realm and of the people should be con- sidered and determined upon by the king " with the assent of the prelates, earls and barons, and the commonalty (that is, com- mons) of the realm." Five years later Parliament showed its power by deposing the inefficient king, Edward II, and declared his son, Edward III, the rightful ruler of England. The new king, who was carrying on an expensive war with France, needed much money and consequently summoned Par- liament every year, and, in order to encourage its members to grant him money, he gratified Parliament by asking their advice and listening to their petitions. He passed no new law without adding " by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and of the commons." At this time the separation of the two houses of Parliament took place, and ever since the " lords spiritual and temporal " - J — that is, the bishops and higher nobles — have sat by themselves in the House of Lords, and a House of Commons, including the country gentlemen (knights) and the representatives elected by the more important towns, have met by themselves. Parliament thus made up is really a modern, not a medieval, institution, and we shall hear much of it later. Wales and Scotland 26. The English kings who preceded Edward I had ruled over only a portion of the island of Great Britain. To the west Ed^d i f ° re °^ tne * r kingdom lay the mountainous district of Wales, in- (1272-1307) habited by that remnant of the original Britons which the Extent of the king of England's England in the Middle Ages 1 29 German invaders had been unable to conquer. To the north of England was the kingdom of Scotland, which was quite inde- pendent except for an occasional recognition by the Scotch kings of the English kings as their feudal superiors. Edward I, however, succeeded in conquering Wales permanently and Scotland temporarily. For centuries a border warfare had been carried on between The Welsh the English and the Welsh. William the Conqueror had found b an j s it necessary to establish a chain of fortresses on the Welsh fron- tier, and Chester, Shrewsbury, and Monmouth became the out- posts of the Normans. While the raids of the Welsh constantly provoked the English kings to invade Wales, no permanent con- quest was possible, for the enemy retreated into the mountains about Snowden, and the English soldiers were left to starve in the wild regions into which they had ventured. The Welsh were encouraged in their long and successful resistance against the English by the songs of their bards, who promised that their people would sometime reconquer the whole of England, which they had possessed before the coming of the Angles and Saxons. When Edward I came to the throne he demanded that Edward 1 Llewellyn, prince of Wales, as the head of the Welsh clans was walesf ? called, should do him homage. Llewellyn, who was a man of ability and energy, refused the king's summons, and Edward marched into Wales. Two campaigns were necessary before the Welsh finally succumbed. Llewellyn was killed (1282), and with him expired the independence of the Welsh people. Edward divided the country into shires and introduced English laws and customs, and his policy of conciliation was so successful that there was but a single rising in the country for a whole century. He later presented his son to the Welsh as their prince, and from that time down to the present the title of " Prince of Wales " The title of has usually been conferred upon the heir to the English throne, wales " The conquest of Scotland proved a far more difficult matter than that of Wales. 130 Medieval and Modem Times Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland At the time when the Angles and Saxons conquered Britain, some of them wandered north as far as the Firth of Forth and occupied the so-called Lowlands of Scotland. The mountainous region to the north, known as the Highlands, con- tinued to be held by wild tribes related to the Welsh and Irish and talking a language similar to theirs, namely Gaelic. There was constant warfare between the older inhabitants themselves and between them and the newcomers from Germany, but both Highlands and Lowlands were finally united under a line of Fig. 39. Conway Castle Edward built this fine castle in 1284 on the north coast of Wales, to keep the Welsh in check. Its walls are 12 to 15 feet in thickness. There were buildings inside, including a great banqueting hall 130 feet long Scottish kings, who moved their residence down to Edinburgh, which, with its fortress, became their chief town. It was natural that the language of the Scotch Lowlands should be English, but in the mountains the Highlanders to this day continue to talk the ancient Gaelic of their forefathers. Edward inter- It was not until the time of Edward I that the long series of Scotch affairs troubles between England and Scotland began. The death of the last representative old line of Scotch kings in 1290 was fol- lowed by the appearance of a number of claimants to the crown. England in the Middle Ages 131 In order to avoid civil war, Edward was asked to decide who should be king. He agreed to make the decision on condition that the one whom he selected should hold Scotland as a fief from the English king. This arrangement was adopted, and the crown was given to John Baliol. But Edward unwisely made demands upon the Scots which aroused their anger, and their king renounced his homage to the king of England. The Scotch, moreover, formed an alliance with Edward's enemy, Alliance be- Philip the Fair of France ; thenceforth, in all the difficulties \l^^° between England and France, the English kings had always France to reckon with the disaffected Scotch, who were glad to aid England's enemies. Edward marched in person against the Scotch (1296) and Edward at- speedily put down what he regarded as a rebellion. He declared C o3> r ate "*" that Baliol had forfeited his fief through treason, and that con- Sc ° tla n d with England sequently the English king had become the real ruler of Scot- land. He emphasized his claim by carrying off the famous Stone of Scone (now in Westminster Abbey), upon which the kings of Scotland had been crowned for ages. Continued resist- ance led Edward to attempt to incorporate Scotland with Eng- land in the same way that he had treated Wales. This was the beginning of three hundred years of intermittent war between England and Scotland, which ended only when a Scotch king, James VI, succeeded to the English throne in 1603 as James I. That Scotland was able to maintain her independence was mainly due to Robert Bruce, a national hero who succeeded in bringing both the nobility and the people under his leadership. Edward I died, old and worn out, in 1307, when on his way north to put down a rising under Bruce, and left the task of dealing with the Scotch to his incompetent son, Edward II. The Scotch acknowledged Bruce as their king and decisively defeated Edward II in the great battle of Bannockburn, the Battle of most famous conflict in Scottish history. Nevertheless, the Bannockburn, English refused to acknowledge the independence of Scotland until forced to do so in 1328. 132 Medieval and Modern Times The Scottish nation differs from the English In the course of their struggles with England the Scotch people of the Lowlands had become more closely welded to- gether, and the independence of Scotland, although it caused much bloodshed, first and last, served to develop certain per- manent differences between the little Scotch nation and the rest of the English race. No Scotchman to the present day likes to be mistaken for an Englishman. The peculiarities of the lan- guage and habits of the people north of the Tweed have been made familiar to all readers of good literature by the novels of Sir Walter Scott and Robert L. Stevenson and by the poems of Robert Burns. The Hundred Years' War The Hun- dred Years' War Edward III claims the French crown Edward III invades France 27. England and France were both becoming strong states in the early fourteenth century. The king in both of these countries had got the better of the feudal lords, and a parliament had been established in France as well as in England, in which the towns- people as well as the clergy and nobility were represented. But both countries were set back by a long series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years' War, which was especially disastrous to France. The trouble arose as follows : It will be remembered that King John of England had lost all the French possessions of the Plantagenets except the duchy of Guienne (see above, pp. 123-124). For this he had to do hom- age to the king of France and become his vassal. This arrange- ment lasted for many years, but in the times of Edward III the old French line of kings died out, and Edward declared that he himself was the rightful ruler of all France because his mother, Isabella, was a sister of the last king of the old line (see table on the next page). The French lawyers, however, decided that Edward had no claim to the French throne and that a very distant relative of the last king was the rightful heir to the crown (Philip VI). Edward, nevertheless, maintained that he was rightfully king of England in the Middle Ages 133 France. 1 He added the French emblem of the lilies (fleur-de- lis) to the lions on the English coat of arms (Fig. 40). In 1346 he landed in Normandy with an English army, devas- tated the country and marched up the Seine toward Paris. He met the troops of Philip at Crecy, where a celebrated battle was Battle of fought, in which the English with their long bows and well- re§y ' I34 directed arrows put to rout the French knights. Ten years later the English made another incursion into France and again defeated the French cavalry. The French king (John II) was himself captured and carried off to London. The French Parliament, commonly called the Estates Gen- The French eral, came together to consider the unhappy state of affairs. (Estates" The members from the towns were more numerous than the General) representatives of the clergy and nobility. A great list of 1 The French kings during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries : Louis IX (St. Louis) (1226- 12 70) I Philip III (1270-1285) Philip IV, the Fair (1285-1314) Charles of Valois, ancestor of the house of Valois Louis X (1314-1316) daughter 1 John (1316), an infant who died when but a few days old Isabella, m. Edward II I Edward III of England Philip V Charles IV (1316-1322) (1322-1328) daughters daughter Philip VI (1328-1350)' John II (1350-1364) Charles V Philip, (1364-1380) founder of the power- Charles VI ful house (1380-1422) of Bur- I gundy Charles VII (1422-1461) I Louis XI (1461-1483) Charles VIII (1483-1498) 134 Medieval a?id Modern Times Contrast between the position of the Estates General and the English Parliament reforms was drawn up. These provided among other things that the Estates General should meet regularly even when the king failed to summon them, and that the collection and expenditure of the public revenue should be no longer entirely under the- control of the king but should be supervised by the representa- tives of the people. The city of Paris rose in support of the revolutionary Estates, but the violence of its allies discredited rather than helped the move- ment, and France was soon glad to accept the unrestricted rule of its king once more. The history of the Estates General forms a curious con- trast to that of the English Parliament, which was laying the foundation of its later power during this very period. While the French king occasionally summoned the Estates when he needed money, he did so only in order that their approbation of new taxes might make it easier to collect them. He never admitted that he had not the right to levy taxes if he wished without consulting his subjects. In England, on the other hand, the kings ever since the time of Edward I had repeatedly agreed that no new taxes should be imposed without the consent of Parliament. Edward II, as we have seen, had gone farther and accepted the representatives of the people as his advisers in all important matters touching the welfare of the realm. While the French Estates gradually sank into insignificance, the English Parliament soon learned to grant no money until the king had redressed the grievances which it pointed out, and thus it insured its influence over the king's policy. Fig. 40. Royal Arms of Edward III On the upper left-hand quarter and the lower right-hand are the lilies as represented in heraldry England in the Middle Ages 135 Edward III found it impossible, however, to conquer France, Edward 111 and the successor of the French King, John II, managed before possibieTo Edward died in 1377 to get back almost all the lands that ^?^" er the English had occupied. For a generation after the death of Edward III the war with Miserable France was almost discontinued. France had suffered a great France deal more than England. In the first place, all the fighting had been done on her side of the Channel, and in the second place, the soldiers, who found themselves without occupation, wandered about in bands maltreating and plundering the people. The famous Italian scholar, Petrarch, who visited France at this period, tells us that he could not believe that this was the same kingdom which he had once seen so rich and flourishing. " Nothing presented itself to my eyes but fearful solitude and extreme poverty, uncultivated land and houses in ruins. Even about Paris there were everywhere signs of fire and destruction. The streets were deserted ; the roads overgrown with weeds." The horrors of war had been increased by the deadly bubonic The bubonic plague which appeared in Europe early in 1348. In April it 1*348-1349, had reached Florence ; by August it was devastating France calkd'thlf and Germany ; it then spread over England from the south- bla ck death west northward, attacking every part of the country during the year 1349. This disease, like other terrible epidemics, such as smallpox and cholera, came from Asia. Those who were stricken with it usually died in two or three days. It is impossible to tell what proportion of the population perished. Reports of the time say that in one part of France but one tenth of the people survived, in another but one sixteenth ; and that for a long time five hundred bodies were carried from the great hospital of Paris every day. A careful estimate shows that in England toward one half of the population died. At the Abbey of New- enham only the abbot and two monks were left alive out of twenty-six. There were constant complaints that certain lands were no longer of any value to their lords because the tenants were all dead. 136 Medieval and Modern Times Conditions of English labor The Statutes of Laborers issued in 1351 and fol- lowing years Breaking up of the medi- eval manors in England The peasant revolt of 1 38 1 In England the growing discontent among the farming classes may be ascribed partly to the results of the great pesti- lence and partly to the new taxes which were levied in order to prolong the disastrous war with France. Up to this time the majority of those who cultivated the land belonged to some particular manor, paid stated dues to their lord, and performed definite services for him. Hitherto there had been relatively few farm hands who might be hired and who sought employ- ment anywhere that they could get it. The black death, by greatly decreasing the number of laborers, raised wages and served to increase the importance of the unattached laborer. Consequently he not only demanded higher wages than ever before but readily deserted one employer when another offered him more money. This appeared very shocking to those who were accustomed to the traditional rates of payment ; and the government under- took to keep down wages by prohibiting laborers from asking more than had been customary during the years that preceded the pestilence. Every laborer, when offered work at the estab- lished wages, was ordered to accept it on pain of imprisonment. The first "Statute of Laborers" was issued in 135 1 ; but apparently it was not obeyed and similar laws were enacted from time to time for a century. The old manor system was breaking up. Many of the labor- ing class in the country no longer held land as serfs but moved from place to place and made a living by working for wages. The villain, as the serf was called in England, began to regard the dues which he had been accustomed to pay to his lord as unjust. A petition to Parliament in 1377 asserts that the vil- lains are refusing to pay their customary services to their lords or to acknowledge the obligations which they owe as serfs. In 138 1 the peasants rose in revolt against the taxes levied on them to carry on the hopeless war with France. They burned some of the houses of the nobles and of the rich ecclesiastics, and took particular pains to see that the registers were destroyed England in the Middle Ages 137 which were kept by the various lords enumerating the obligations of their serfs. Although the peasants met with little success, serfdom de- Final disap- cayed rapidly. It became more and more common for the serf serfdom in to pay his dues to the lord in money instead of working for him, En s land and in this way he lost one of the chief characteristics of a serf. The landlord then either hired men to cultivate .the fields which he reserved for his own use, or rented the land to tenants. These tenants were not in a position to force their fellow tenants on the manor to pay the full dues which had formerly been exacted by the lord. Sixty or seventy years after the Peasants' War the English rural population had in one way or another become free men, and serfs had practically disappeared. The war between England and France almost ceased for Renewal of nearly forty years after the death of Edward III. It was re- Years' War newed in 141 5, and the English king won another great victory in I4I 5 at Agincourt, similar to that won at Crecy. Once more the English bowmen slaughtered great numbers of French knights. Fifteen years later the English had succeeded in conquering all of France north of the Loire River ; but a considerable region to the south still continued to be held by King Charles VII of France. He was weak and indolent and was doing nothing to check the English victories. The English were engaged in be- sieging the great town of Orleans when help and encourage- ment came to the French from a most unexpected quarter. A peasant girl put on a soldier's armor, mounted a horse, and led the faint-hearted French troops to victory. To her family and her companions Joan of Arc seemed only Joan of Arc " a good girl, simple and pleasant in her ways," but she brooded much over the disasters that had overtaken her coun- try, and a " great pity on the fair realm of France " filled her heart. She saw visions and heard voices that bade her go forth to the help of the king and lead him to Rheims to be crowned. It was with the greatest difficulty that she got anybody to believe in her mission or to help her to get an audience with 138 Medieval and Modern Times Relief of Orleans by Joan, 1429 Execution of Joan, 143 1 England loses her French possessions her sovereign. But her own firm faith in her divine guidance triumphed over ail doubts and obstacles. She was at last ac- cepted as a God-sent champion and placed at the head of some troops dispatched to the relief of Orleans. This city, which was the key to southern France, had been besieged by the English for some months and was on the point of surrender. Joan, who rode at the head of her troops, clothed in armor like a man, had now become the idol of the soldiers and of the people. Under the guidance and inspiration of her courage, sound sense, and burning enthusiasm, Orleans was relieved and the English completely routed. The Maid of Orleans, as she was hence- forth called, was now free to conduct the king to Rheims, where he was crowned in the cathedral (July 17, 1429). The Maid now felt that her mission was accomplished and begged permission to return to her home and her brothers and sisters. To this the king would not consent, and she continued to fight his battles with success. But the other leaders were jealous of her, and even her friends, the soldiers, were sensitive to the taunt of being led by a woman. During the defense of Compiegne in May, 1430, she was allowed to fall into the hands of the Duke of Burgundy, who sold her to the English. They were not satisfied with simply holding as prisoner that strange maiden who had so discomfited them ; they wished to discredit everything that she had done, and so declared, and undoubtedly believed, that she was a witch who had been helped by the devil. She was tried by a court of clergymen, found guilty, and burned at Rouen in 1431. Her bravery and noble con- stancy affected even her executioners, and an English soldier who had come to triumph over her death was heard to ex- claim : " We are lost — we have burned a saint." The English cause in France was indeed lost, for her spirit and example had given new courage and vigor to the French armies. The English Parliament became more and more reluctant to grant funds when there were no more victories gained. From this time on the English lost ground steadily. They were England in the Middle Ages 139 expelled from Normandy in 1450. Three years later, the last vestige of their possessions in southern France passed into the hands of the French king. The Hundred Years' War was over, and although England still retained Calais, the great ques- tion whether she should extend her sway upon the Continent was finally settled. The close of the Hundred Years' War was followed in Eng- land by the Wars of the Roses, between the rival houses which were struggling for the crown. The badge of the house of Lancaster was a red rose, and that of York was a white one. 1 Each party was supported by a group of the wealthy and pow- erful nobles whose conspiracies, treasons, murders, and execu- tions fill the annals of England during the period which we have been discussing. The nobles no longer owed their power as they had in pre- vious centuries to vassals who were bound to follow them to war. Like the king, they relied upon hired soldiers. It was easy to find plenty of restless fellows who were willing to become the retainers of a nobleman if he would agree to clothe them and keep open house, where they might eat and drink their fill. Their master was to help them when they got into trouble, and End of the Hundred Years' War, 1453 The Wars of the Roses be tween the houses of Lancaster and York, 1455-1485 Retainers 1 Descent of the rival houses of Lancaster and York : Edward III (1327-1377) Edward, the Black Prince (d. 1376) John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster Richard II Henry IV (1399-1413) John Beaufort (1377-1399) I • I Henry V (1413-1422) John Beaufort Henry VI (1422-1461) Edmund, duke of York 1 Richard I Richard n Edward IV Richard III (1461-1483) (1483-1485) Edmund Tudor, m. Margaret Henry VII, m. Elizabeth of York Edward V, (1485-1509) murdered in first of the the Tower, Tudor kings 1483 140 Medieval and Modern Times Accession of Henry VII, 1485 The despot- ism of the Tudors France estab- lishes a stand- ing army, H39 they on their part were expected to intimidate, misuse, and even murder at need those who opposed the interests of their chief. It is needless to speak of the several battles and the many skirmishes of the miserable Wars of the Roses. These lasted from 1455, when the Duke of York set seri- ously to work to dis- place the weak-minded Lancastrian king (Henry VI), until the accession of Henry VII, of the house of Tudor, thirty years later. (See table on page 139.) The Wars of the Roses had important results. Nearly all the powerful families of England had been drawn into the war, and a great part of the nobility, whom the kings had formerly feared, had perished on the battlefield or lost their heads in the ruthless executions carried out by each party after it gained a victory. This left the king far more powerful than ever before- He could now control Parliament, even if he could not do away with it. For a century and more after the accession of Henry VII the Tudor kings enjoyed almost despotic power. England ceased for a time to enjoy the free government for which the foundations had been laid under the Edwards, whose embarrassments at home and abroad had made them constantly dependent upon the aid of the nation. In France the closing years of the Hundred Years' War had witnessed a great increase of the king's power through the establishment of a well-organized standing army. The feudal Fig. 41. Portrait of Henry VII England in the Middle Ages 141 army had long since disappeared. Even before the opening of the war the nobles had begun to be paid for their military services and no longer furnished troops as a condition of hold- ing fiefs. But the companies of soldiers found their pay very uncertain, and plundered their countrymen as well as the enemy. As the war drew to a close, the lawless troopers became a terrible scourge to the country and were known 2J$> flayers, on account of the horrible way in which they tortured the peasants in the hope of extracting money from them. In 1439 tne Estates General approved a plan devised by the king, for putting an end to this evil. Thereafter no one was to raise a company without the permission of the king, who was to name the captains and fix the number of the soldiers. The Estates agreed that the king should use a certain tax, Theperma- TIP Tit" T?5"5C called the faille, to support the troops necessary for the pro- f ata i t0 the tection of the frontier. This was a fatal concession, for the P owers °f the ' Estates Gen- king now had an army and the right to collect what he chose to eral consider a permanent tax, the amount of which he later greatly increased ; he was not dependent, as was the English king, upon the grants made for brief periods by the representatives of the nation. Before the king of France could hope to establish a compact, The new weli-organized state it was necessary for him to reduce the power of his vassals, some of whom were almost his equals in strength. The older feudal families had many of them succumbed to the attacks and the diplomacy of the kings of the thirteenth century, especially of St. Louis. But he and his successors had raised up fresh rivals by granting whole provinces to their younger sons. In this way new and powerful lines of feudal nobles were established, such, for example, as the houses of Orle'ans, Anjou, Bourbon, and, above all, Burgundy. The process of reducing the power of the nobles had, it is true, been begun. They had been forbidden to coin money, to maintain armies, and to tax their subjects, and the powers of the king's judges had been 142 Medieval a?id Modern Times Work of Louis XI "England and France estab- lish strong national gov- ernments extended over all the realm. But the task of consolidating France was reserved for the son of Charles VII, the shrewd and treacherous Louis XI (i 461-1483). The most powerful and dangerous of Louis XI's vassals were the dukes of Burgundy, and they gave him a great deal of trouble. Of Burgundy something will be said in a later chapter. Louis XI had himself made heir to a number of provinces in central and southern France, — Anjou, Maine, Provence, etc., — which by the death of their possessors came under the king's immediate control (1 481). He humiliated in various ways the vassals who in his early days had combined against him. The Duke of Alencon he im- prisoned; the rebellious Duke of Nemours he caused to be executed in the most cruel manner. Louis's aims were worthy, but his means were generally despicable. It some- times seemed as if he gloried in being the most rascally among rascals, the most treacherous among the traitors. Both England and France emerged from the troubles and desolations of the Hundred Years' War stronger than ever before. In both countries the kings had overcome the menace of feudalism by destroying the power of the great families. The royal government was becoming constantly more powerful. Commerce and industry increased the people's wealth and sup- plied the monarchs with the revenue necessary to maintain gov- ernment officials and a sufficient army to keep order throughout their realms. They were no longer forced to rely upon the uncertain fidelity of their vassals. In short, England and France were both becoming modern states. Fig. 42. Louis XI of France England in the Middle Ages 143 QUESTIONS Section 23. Tell what you can about England before the Nor- man Conquest. How did Normandy come into existence? How did William of Normandy get possession of England? What was William's policy after he conquered England? SECTION 24. Mention some of the reforms of Henry II. Describe Henry's troubles with Thomas k Becket. What was the extent of the possessions of the Plantagenets in France? In what way did the French king succeed in getting a considerable part of the Plantagenet possessions into his own hands? Describe the chief events in the reign of King John of England. SECTION 25. How was the Great Charter granted, and what were some of its main provisions? What is the English Parliament? When was it formed ? What were its powers ? Section 26. When was Wales conquered by the English kings ? What are the Highlands and the Lowlands of Scotland? Tell of the attempts of Edward I to get possession of Scotland. Section 27. Give the origin and general course of the Hundred Years' War under Edward III. Why did not the Estates General become as powerful as the English Parliament? Tell about the black death. What led to the disappearance of serfdom in England? Give an account of Joan of Arc. What were the great causes of disorder in England during the generation before the accession of Henry VII ? Why did feudalism revive in France? What was accomplished by Louis XI ? CHAPTER VIII POPES AND EMPERORS Origin of the Holy Roman Empire 28. Charlemagne's successors in the German part of his empire found it quite as hard as did the kings of the western, or French, kingdom to keep control of their vassals. Germany, like France, was divided up into big and little fiefs, and the dukes and counts were continually waging war upon each other and upon their king. The general causes of this chronic disorder in the Middle Ages have been described in a previous chapter. Otto the The first German ruler whom we need to notice here was 973) Otto the Great, who came to the throne in the year 936. He got as many of the great fiefs as possible into the hands of his relatives in the hope that they would be faithful to him. He put an end forever to the invasions of the Hungarians who had been ravaging Germany. He defeated them in a great battle near Augsburg and- drove them out of his realms. As has already been said (see above, p. 92), they finally settled in eastern Europe and laid the foundations of what became the State of Hungary 144 '%sS^ Hip N 1 >r»ich ,S* Bo "Jegne " D'Y OFJ''CAPa o CO. OFp-/ ,. ./ VGAsooNr C -V T PI o u sT ^>^/ ,. X0J 'Su3a r X. op •Toulouse 3iKarbonne c co."op 'BARCELONA o -Lerida 'Barcelo ries Marseille J " Sen< "V, \- jNlzza CNfce) ° * A o AValenoia ^-v>/ |\ Se w/ e *!&!£ M.-N. 'ENG., BUFFALO. Longitude ■ West 5 from Greenwich EMPIRE OF THE FATIJrt rGDOM 3 oS^Kugeii ' UmeraN-ia (To Poland) VL.. ' lie* .^ ^V\.,~° Bamberg'. 8 \MABKOF \ B \" d | /> .4^ A> ml (NORDGAU/v \ .'b^o^T ^/ ? TJlm/FreIsinY*> T^vl \ A ^- 8 -!*, ; "^ 'AugBburg^^/ ^-yySfabe 53 / J oSalzburK-l - - jonstance/ B AYJ AB I A <^>~^ I \ gtuhlwelaseriburg 1 ^ Bali 80 \ETlau/ }Gran Brixen N P^Q S \l\x\ * tRA' igtt** > 44' rgamJ^T Ban ,FurifklrchetfJ Jfa 1 ^ ^ anna 0o O? •*£ Modena° /^O Bolognsrr>> "** iquileja. Zagrabv, '~ N «"V.Agram) ' K. F '^ ^^OCROATIA .Sirs tvenna yj> Anoona *? « ■VTldin' Spalato g E %! --Bag" 31 -Bioe) 1 */, ^ R?rOT""'"^ > :BENEV , E / NT. CHURCH /'B oV0 5t» u «. t O N s t|hem\E O F C alabb' A B 0*5 K^g. *g io . CEPHALGIA* Catania ,-c^fiF 1SEJN<\\ »\ Longitude .^ast 15 from Greenwich Popes and Emperors 145 But the most noteworthy of Otto's acts was his interference in Italian affairs, which led to his winning for the German kings the imperial crown that Charlemagne had worn. We have seen how Charlemagne's successors divided up his realms into three parts by the Treaty of Mersen in 870 (see above, p. 88). One of these parts was the kingdom of Italy. We know but little of what went on in Italy for some time after the Treaty of Mersen. There was incessant warfare, and the disorder was increased by the attacks of the Mohammedans. Various power- ful nobles were able to win the crown for short periods. Three at least of these Italian kings were crowned emperor by the pope. Then for a generation there was no emperor in the west, until Otto the Great again secured the title. It would seem as if Otto had quite enough trouble at home, Otto the but he thought that it would make him and his reign more CO mes king of glorious if he added northern Italy to his realms. So in 951 Ital y? nd 1 3. L c r IS he crossed the Alps, married the widow of one of the Italian crowned kings, and, without being formally crowned, was generally ac- knowledged as king of Italy. He had to hasten back to Ger- many to put down a revolt organized by his own son, but ten years later he was called to Rome by the pope to protect him from the attacks of his enemies. Otto accepted the invitation, and the grateful pope in return crowned him emperor, as Charlemagne's successor (962). The coronation of Otto was a very important event in Ger- man history ; for, from this time on, the German kings, instead of confining their attention to keeping their own kingdom in order, were constantly distracted by the necessity of keeping hold on their Italian kingdom, which lay on the other side of a great range of mountains. Worse than that, they felt that they must see to it that a pope friendly to them was elected, and this greatly added to their troubles. The succeeding German emperors had usually to make sev- eral costly and troublesome journeys to Rome, — a first one to be crowned, and then others either to depose a hostile pope or 146 Medieval and Modern Times The Holy Roman Empire to protect a friendly one from the oppression of neighboring lords. These excursions were very distracting, especially . to a ruler who left behind him in Germany a rebellious nobility that always took advantage of his absence to revolt. Otto's successors dropped their old title of king of the East Franks as soon as they had been duly crowned by the pope at Rome, and assumed the magnificent and all-embracing designa- tion, " Emperor Ever August of the Romans." 1 Their " Holy Roman Empire," as it came to be called later, which was to endure, in name at least, for more than eight centuries, was obviously even less like that of the ancient Romans than was Charlemagne's. As kings in Germany and Italy they had prac- tically all the powers that they enjoyed as emperors. The title of emperor was of course a proud one, but it gave the German kings no additional power except the fatal right that they claimed of taking part in the election of the pope. We shall find that, instead of making themselves feared at home and building up a great state, the German emperors wasted their strength in a long struggle with the popes, who proved themselves in the end far stronger, and eventually reduced the Empire to a mere shadow. The Church and its Property Wealth of the Church 29. In order to understand the long struggle between the emperors and the popes, we must stop a moment to consider the condition of the Church in the early Middle Ages. It seemed to be losing all its strength and dignity and to be falling apart, just as Charlemagne's empire had dissolved into feudal bits. This was chiefly due to the vast estates of the clergy*. Kings, princes, and rich landowners had long con- sidered it meritorious to make donations to bishoprics and 1 Henry II (1002-1024) and his successors, not venturing to assume the title of emperor till crowned at Rome, but anxious to claim Rome as attached to the German crown, began to call themselves, before their coronation, King of the Romans. feudal system Popes and Emperors 1 47 monasteries, so that a very considerable portion of the land in western Europe had come into the hands of churchmen. A king, or other landed proprietor, might grant fiefs to The Church churchmen as well as to laymen. The bishops became the j nto t h e vassals of the king or of other feudal lords by doing homage for a fief and swearing fidelity, just as any other vassal would do. An abbot would sometimes secure for his monastery the protection of a neighboring lord by giving up his land and receiving it back again as a fief. One great difference, however, existed between the Church Fiefs held lands and the ordinary fiefs. According to the law of the m y e n not Church, the bishops and abbots could not marry and so could heredltar y have no children to whom they might transmit their property. Consequently, when a landholding churchman died, some one had to be chosen in his place who should enjoy his property and perform his duties. The rule of the Church had been, from time immemorial, that the clergy of the diocese should choose the bishop, their choice being ratified by the people. As for the abbots, they were, according to the Rule of St. Benedict, to be chosen by the members of the monastery. In spite of these rules, the bishops and abbots had come, Bishops in the tenth and eleventh centuries, to be selected, to all intents practically and purposes, by the various kings and feudal lords. It is true ^feudal that the outward forms of a regular election were usually per- lords mitted ; but the feudal lord made it clear whom he wished chosen, and if the wrong person was elected, he simply refused to hand over to him the lands attached to the bishopric or abbey. The lord could in this way control the choice of the prelates, for in order to become a real bishop or abbot, one had not only to be elected, he had also to be solemnly " in- vested " with the appropriate powers of a bishop or abbot and with his lands. When a bishop or abbot had been duly chosen, the feudal investiture lord proceeded to the investiture. The new bishop or abbot first became the " man " of the lord by doing him homage, and then 148 Medieval and Modem Times Attitude of the Church toward its property Attitude of the king Difficult position of the bishops in Germany and else- where the lord transferred to him the lands and rights attached to the office. No careful distinction appears to have been made between the property and the religious powers. The lord often conferred both by bestowing upon a bishop the ring and the crosier (see headpiece to Chapter X, p. 181), the emblems of religious authority. It seemed shocking enough that the lord, who was often a rough soldier, should dictate the selection of the bishops ; but it was still more shocking that he should assume to confer religious powers with religious emblems. Yet even worse things might happen, since sometimes the lord, for his greater convenience, had himself made bishop. The Church itself naturally looked at the property attached to a church office as a mere incident and considered the religious prerogatives the main thing. And since the clergy alone could rightly confer these, it was natural that they should claim the right to bestow the lands (" temporalities ") attached to them, upon whomsoever they pleased without consulting any layman whatever. Against this claim the king might urge that a simple minister of the Gospel, or a holy monk, was by no means necessarily fitted to manage the interests of a feudal state, such as the great archbishoprics and bishoprics, and even the abbeys, had become in Germany and elsewhere in the eleventh century. In short, the situation in which the bishops found themselves was a very complicated one. (1) As an officer of the Church, the bishop saw to it that parish priests were properly selected and ordained, he tried certain cases in his court, and performed the Church ceremonies. (2) He managed the lands which be- longed to the bishopric, which might, or might not, be fiefs. (3) As a vassal of those who had granted lands to the bishopric upon feudal terms, he owed the usual feudal dues, including the duty of furnishing troops to his lord. (4) Lastly, in Germany, the king had found it convenient, from about the beginning of the eleventh century, to confer upon the bishops in many cases the authority of a count in the districts about them. In this Popes and Emperors 1 49 way they might have the right to collect tolls, coin money, and perform other important governmental duties. When a prelate took office he was invested with all these various functions at once, both spiritual and governmental. To forbid the king to take part in the investiture was, con- sequently, to rob him not only of his feudal rights but also of his authority over many of his government officials, since bishops, and sometimes even abbots, were often counts in all but name. He therefore found it necessary to take care who got possession of the important church offices. Still another danger threatened the wealth and resources of The marriage the Church. During the tenth and eleventh centuries the rule threatenslhe of the Church prohibiting the clergy from marrying appears to r^ alth h of the have been widely neglected in Italy, Germany, France, and England. To the stricter people of the time this appeared a terrible degradation of the clergy, who, they felt, should be unencumbered by family cares and should devote themselves wholly to the service of God. The question, too, had another side. It was obvious that the property of the Church would soon be dispersed if the clergy were allowed to marry, since they would wish to provide for their children. Just as the feudal lands had become hereditary, so the church lands would become hereditary unless the clergy were forced to remain unmarried. Besides the feudalizing of its property and the marriage of Buying and the clergy, there was a third great and constant source of church offices weakness and corruption in the Church, at this period, namely, the temptation to buy and sell Church offices. Had the duties and responsibilities of the bishops, abbots, and priests always been heavy, and their income slight, there would have been little tendency to bribe those who could bestow the offices. But the incomes of bishoprics and abbeys were usually considerable, and sometimes very great, while the duties attached to the office of bishop or abbot, however serious in the eyes of the right-minded, might easily be neglected by the unscrupulous. ISO Medieval and Modern Times Origin of the term"simony' Simony not really the sale of Church offices Minonv cor- rupts the lower clergy The revenue from a great landed estate and the high rank that went with the office were enough to induce the members of the noblest families to vie with each other in securing Church positions. The king or prince who possessed the right of inves- titure was sure of finding some one willing to pay something for important benefices. The sin of buying or selling Church offices was recognized as a most serious one. It was called "simony," l a name derived from Simon the Magician, who, according to the account in the Acts of the Apostles, offered money to the Apostle Peter if he would give him the power of conferring the Holy Spirit upon those upon whom he should lay his hands. As the apostle- denounced this first simonist, — " Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money " (Acts viii. 20), — so the Church has continued ever since to denounce those who propose to purchase its sacred powers. Doubtless very few bought positions in the Church with the view of obtaining the " gift of God," that is to say, the religious office. It was the revenue and the honor that were chiefly coveted. Moreover, when a king or lord accepted a gift from one for whom he procured a benefice, he did not regard him- self as selling the office ; he merely shared its advantages. No transaction took place in the Middle Ages without accompany- ing gifts and fees of various kinds. The evil of simony was, nevertheless, very demoralizing, for it spread downward and infected the whole body of the clergy. A bishop who had made a large outlay in obtaining his office naturally expected something from the priests, whom it was his duty to appoint. Then the priest, in turn, was tempted to exact too much for baptizing and marrying his parishioners, and for burying the dead* So it seemed, at the opening of the eleventh century, as if the Church was to be dragged down by its property into the anarchy of feudalism described in a preceding chapter. 1 Pronounced slm'o-ny. Popes and Emperors 151 The popes had therefore many difficulties to overcome in the gigantic task which they undertook of making the Church a great international monarchy, like the Roman Empire, with its capital at Rome : The control exercised by kings and feudal lords in the selection of Church officials had to be done away with. Simony with its degrading effects had to be abolished. The marriage of the clergy had to be checked, for fear that the property and wealth of the Church would go to their families and so be lost to the Church. The first great step toward the freeing of the Church from Pope Nicho- the control of the kings and feudal lords was taken by Pope the election 5 Nicholas II. In iocq he issued a remarkable decree which ?f the popes J s in the hands took the election of the head of the Church once for all out of of the cardi- the hands of both the emperor and the people of Rome, and placed it definitely and forever in the hands of the cardinals, who represented the Roman clergy. 1 Obviously the object of this decree was to prevent all interference, whether of the dis- tant emperor, of the local nobility, or of the Roman mob. The college of cardinals still exists and still elects the pope. The reform party which directed the policy of the popes Opposition to had, it hoped, freed the head of the Church from the control of reforms worldly men by putting his election in the hands of the Roman clergy. It now proposed to emancipate the Church as a whole from the base entanglements of earth : first, by strictly for- bidding the married clergy to perform religious functions and by exhorting their flocks to refuse to attend their ministrations ; and secondly, by depriving the kings and feudal lords of their influence over the choice of the bishops and abbots, since this 1 The word "cardinal" (Latin, cardinalis^ principal ") was applied to the priests of the various parishes in Rome, to the several deacons connected with the Laterari, — which was the cathedral church of the Roman bishopric, — and, lastly, to six or seven suburban bishops who officiated in turn in the Lateran. The title became a very distinguished one and was sought by ambitious foreign prelates and ecclesiastical statesmen, like Wolsey, Richelieu, and Mazarin. If their official titles were examined, it would be found that each was nominally a cardinal bishop, priest, or deacon of some Roman Church. The number of cardinals varied until fixed, in 1586, at six bishops, fifty priests, and fourteen deacons. 152 Medieval and Modern Times influence was deemed the chief cause of worldliness among the prelates. Naturally these last measures met with far more general opposition than the new way of electing the pope. The magnitude of the task which the popes had undertaken first became fully apparent when the celebrated Gregory VII ascended the papal throne, in 1073. Powers claimed by the Popes The Dktatus 30. Among the writings of Gregory VII there is a very brief vii statement, called the Dictatus, of the powers which he believed the popes to possess. Its chief claims are the following: The pope enjoys a unique title ; he is the only universal bishop and may depose and reinstate other bishops or transfer them from place to place. No council of the Church may be regarded as speaking for Christendom without his consent. The Roman Church has never erred, nor will it err to all eternity. No one may be considered a Catholic Christian who does not agree with the Roman Church. No book is authoritative unless it has received the papal sanction. Gregory does not stop with asserting the pope's complete supremacy over the Church. He says that " the Pope is the only person whose feet are kissed by all princes " ; that he may depose emperors and " absolve subjects from allegiance to an unjust ruler." No one shall dare to condemn one who appeals to the pope. No one may annul a decree of the pope, though the pope may declare null and void the decrees of all other earthly powers ; and no one may pass judgment upon his acts. Gregory vii Immediately upon his election as pope, Gregory began to nes of 'the eC put mto practice his high conception of the role that the reli- mto a p?a°cdce gious head of Christ endom should play. He dispatched legates throughout Europe, and from this time on these legates became a powerful instrument of the Church's government. He warned the kings of France and England and the youthful German ruler, Henry IV, to forsake their evil ways, to be upright and Popes and Emperors 153 just, and to obey his admonitions. He explained, kindly but firmly, to William the Conqueror that the papal and kingly pow- ers are both established by God as the greatest among the authorities of the world, just as the sun and moon are the greatest of the heavenly bodies. But the papal power is obvi- ously superior to the kingly, for it is responsible for it ; at the Last Day Gregory would have, he urged, to render an account of the king as one of the flock intrusted to his care. The king of France was warned to give up his practice of simony, lest he be excommunicated and his subjects freed from their oath of allegiance. All these acts of Gregory appear to have been dictated not by worldly ambition but by a fervent con- viction of their righteousness and of his heavy responsibility toward all men. Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV 31. Obviously Gregory's plan of reform included all the states of western Europe, but conditions were such that the most striking conflict took place between him and the emperor. The trouble came about in this way. Henry IV 's father had died in 1056, leaving only his good wife Agnes and their little son of six years to maintain the hard-fought prerogatives of the German king in the midst of ambitious vassals whom even the strong Otto the Great had found it difficult to control. In 1065 the fifteen-year-old lad, Henry IV, was declared of Accession of age, and his lifelong difficulties began with a great rebellion of I0 6^Trouble the Saxons. They accused the young king of having built castles Wlth the pope in their land and of filling them with rough soldiers who preyed upon the people. Pope Gregory felt it his duty to interfere. To him the Saxons appeared a people oppressed by a heedless youth guided by evil counselors. But Henry continued to asso- ciate with counselors whom the pope had excommunicated and went on filling important bishoprics in Germany and Italy, regardless of the pope's prohibitions. 154 Medieval and Modern Times New prohibi- tion 01 lav in- vestiture Henry IV angered by the language pf the papal legates G regory V 1 1 deposed by a council of German bishops at Worms, io/6 The popes who immediately preceded Gregory had more than once forbidden the churchmen to receive investiture from laymen. Gregory reissued this prohibition in 1075, just as the trouble with Henry had begun. Investiture was, as we have seen (see above, p. 147)1 tno ^ e S^ transfer by the king, or other lord, to a newly chosen Church official, of the lands and rights attached to the office.. In forbidding lay investiture Gregory attempted nothing less than a revolution. The bishops and abbots were often officers of government, exercising in Germany and Italy powers similar in all respects to those of the counts. The king- not only relied upon them for advice and assistance in carrying on his government, but they were among his chief allies in his constant struggles with his vassals. Gregory dispatched three envoys to Henry (end of 1075) with a fatherly letter 1 in which he reproached the king for his wicked conduct. Hut he evidently had little expectation that mere expostulation would have any effect upon Henry, for he gave his legates instructions to use threats, if necessary. The legates were to tell the king that his crimes were so numer- ous, so horrible, and so well known, that he merited not only excommunication but the permanent loss of all his royal honors. The violence of the legates' language not only kindled the wrath of the king but also gained for him friends among the bishops. A council which Henry summoned at Worms (in 1076) was attended by more than two thirds of all the Ger- man bishops. Here Gregory was declared deposed, and many terrible charges oi immorality brought against him. The bishops publicly proclaimed that he had ceased to be their pope. It ap- pears very surprising, at first sight, that the king should have received the prompt support of the German churchmen against the head of the Church. But it must be remembered that the prelates really owed their offices to the king and not to the pope. Gregory's reply to Henry and the German bishops who had deposed him was speedy and decisive. " Incline thine ear to 1 To be found in the AV.:.:Vv s -.<-. chap. xiii. Popes and Emperors 1 5 5 us, O Peter, chief of the Apostles. As thy representative and Henry iv by thy favor has the power been granted especially to me excommJnV by God of binding and loosing in heaven and earth. On the c ^^ hythe strength of this, for the honor and glory of thy Church, in the name of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I with- draw, through thy power and authority, from Henry the King, son of Henry the Emperor, who has risen against thy Church with unheard-of insolence, the rule over the whole kingdom of the Germans and over Italy. I absolve all Christians from the bonds of the oath which they have sworn, or may swear, to him ; and I forbid anyone to serve him as king." 1 For a time after the pope had deposed him everything went Attitude of _ i r -i 5 • r the German against Henry. Instead of resenting the pope s interference, pr inces the discontented Saxons, and many other of Henry's vassals, believed that there was now an excellent opportunity to get rid of Henry and choose a more agreeable ruler. The pope was even invited to come to Augsburg to consult with the princes as to whether Henry should continue to be king or another ruler should be chosen in his stead. It looked as if the pope was, in truth, to control the civil government. Henry decided to anticipate the arrival of the pope. He Henry sub- hastened across the Alps in midwinter and appeared as an p0 pe at Ca- humble suppliant before the castle of Canossa, 2 whither the nossa ' Io77 pope had come on his way to Augsburg. For three days the German king presented himself before the closed door, barefoot and in the coarse garments of a pilgrim and a penitent, and even then Gregory was induced only by the expostulations of his influ- ential companions to admit the humiliated ruler. The spectacle of this mighty prince of distinguished appearance, humiliated and in tears before the little man who humbly styled himself the 1 Gregory's deposition and excommunication of Henry may be found in the Readings, chap. xiii. 2 The castle of Canossa belonged to Gregory VII's ally and admirer, the Countess of Tuscany. It was destroyed by the neighboring town of Reggio about two centuries after Gregory's time, and only the ivy-clad ruins, represented in the hc\-id piece of this chapter, remain. 1 5 6 Medieval and Modern Times A new king chosen Henry again excommuni- cated Henry triumphs over Gregory Death of Gregory Henry IV's further troubles " servant of the servants of God," has always been regarded as most completely typifying the power of the Church and the potency of her curses, against which even the most exalted of the earth found no weapon of defense except abject penitence. 1 The pardon which Henry received at Canossa did not satisfy the German princes. They therefore proceeded to elect another ruler, and the next three or four years was a period of bloody struggles between the adherents of the rival kings. Gregory remained neutral until 1080, when he again "bound with the chain of anathema " Henry, " the so-called king," and all his followers. He declared him deprived of his royal power and dignity and forbade all Christians to obey him. The new excommunication had precisely the opposite effect from the first one ; it seemed to increase rather than decrease Henry's friends. The German clergy again deposed Gregory VII. Henry's rival for the throne fell in battle, and Henry be- took himself to Italy with the double purpose of installing a pope of his own choice and winning the imperial crown. Gregory held out for no less than two years ; but at last Rome fell into Henry's hands, and Gregory withdrew and soon after died. His last words were, " I have loved justice and hated iniquity, there- fore I die an exile," and the fair-minded historical student will not question their truth. The death of Gregory did not, however, put an end to Henry's difficulties. He spent the remaining twenty years of his life in trying to maintain his rights as king of Germany and Italy against his rebellious subjects on both sides of the Alps. In Germany his chief enemies were the Saxons and his discon- tented vassals. In Italy the pope was now actively engaged as a temporal ruler, in building up a little state of his own, and he was always ready to encourage the Lombard cities in their opposition to the German emperors. All his life long Henry was turning from one enemy to another. Finally, his discontented German vassals induced his 1 For Gregory's own account of the affair at Canossa, see Readings, chap. xiii. Popes and Emperors 157 son, whom he had had crowned as his successor, to revolt against his father. Thereupon followed more civil war, more treason, and a miserable abdication. In 1106 death put an end to perhaps the saddest reign that history records. The achievement of the reign of Henry IV's son, Henry V, which chiefly interests us was the adjustment of the question of investitures. Pope Paschal II, while willing to recognize those bishops already chosen by the king, provided they were good Death of Henry IV, 1 106 Henry V, 1106-1125 Fig. 43. Medieval Pictures of Gregory VII These pictures are taken from an illustrated manuscript written some decades after Gregory's death. In the one on the left Gregory is rep- resented blowing out a candle and saying to his cardinals, "As I blow out this light, so will Henry IV be extinguished." In the one on the right is shown the death of Gregory (1085). He did not wear his crown in bed, but the artist wanted us to be sure to recognize that he was pope men, proposed that thereafter Gregory's decrees against inves- titure by laymen should be carried out. The clergy should no longer do homage by laying their hands, consecrated to the service of the altar, in the bloodstained hands of the nobles. Henry V, on the other hand, declared that unless the clergy took the oath of fealty the bishops would not be given the lands, towns, castles, tolls, and privileges attached to the bishoprics. After a succession of troubles a compromise was at last reached in the Concordat of Worms (1122), which put an end i 5 8 Medieval and Modern Times Settlement of the ques- tion of lay investiture in the Con- cordat of Worms, 1 122 Frederick I (Barbarossa) of Hohen- staufen (i 152-1190) to the controversy over investitures in Germany. 1 The emperor promised to permit the Church freely to elect the bishops and abbots and renounced his old claim to invest with the religious emblems of the ring and the crosier. But the elections were to be held in the presence of the king, and he was permitted, in a separate ceremony, to invest the new bishop or abbot with his fiefs and his governmental powers bv a touch of the scepter. In this way the religious powers of the bishops were obviously conferred by the churchmen who elected him : and although the king might still practically invalidate an election bv refusing to hand over the lands, nevertheless the direct appointment of the bishops and abbots was taken out of his hands. As for the em- peror's control over the papacy, too many popes, since the advent of Henrv IV, had been generallv reeognized as properlv elected without the sanction of the emperor, for any one to believe any longer that his sanction was necessarv. The Hohenstaufen Emperors and the Popes 32. A generation after the matter of investitures had been arranged bv the Concordat of Worms the most famous of Ger- O J man emperors, next to Charlemagne, came to the throne. This was Frederick I, commonlv called Barbarossa, from his red beard. He belonged to the family of Hohenstaufen, so called from their castle in southern Geraianv. Frederick's ambition was to restore the Roman Empire to its old glory and influence. He regarded himself as the successor of the Caesars, as well as of Charlemagne and Otto the Great. He believed his office to be quite as truly established by God himself as the papacy. When he informed the pope that he had been recognized as emperor bv the German nobles, he too took occasion to state quite clearly that the headship of the Empire had been " be- stowed upon him by God " and he did not ask the pope's sanction as his predecessors had done. 1 See Readings, chap. xiii. Popes and Emperors 159 In his lifelong attempt to maintain what he thought to be his Frederick's rights as emperor he met, quite naturally, with the three old difficulties. He had constantly to be fighting his rivals and rebellious vassals in Germany ; he had to face the opposition of the popes, who never forgot the claims that Gregory VII had made to control the emperor as well as other rulers. Lastly, Fig. 44. Ru-ins of Barbarossa's Palace at Gelnhausen Frederick Barbarossa erected a handsome palace at Gelnhausen (not far east of Frankfort). It was destroyed by the Swedes during the Thirty Years War (see section 68 below), but even what now remains is impos- ing, especially the arcade represented in the picture in trying to keep hold of northern Italy, which he believed to belong to his empire, he spent a great deal of time with but slight results. One of the greatest differences between the early Middle Ages and Frederick's time was the development of town life. Up to Tn human this period we have heard only of popes, emperors, kings, bishops, P ro S ress and feudal lords. From now on we shall have to take the towns and their citizens into account. No nation makes much progress Importance of the towns i no Medieval o/ t ' t; fl rt 2 -c * .J bo 73 ;- (4 "4-1 TJ 2 H, - ' "* tf .S J3 S rS <~ ^ '- 1 i) o Swa$£iPKr'fa Info mllipl I t »'— MMmS v-;-"~'Ji as Q W as H u -t d i— i * 5 13 ^ «; p "•£ "5 - ° 2 rt .- P -¥ u fe- D rt o ° P ^ O * v .°. jx [fl "H '"" ^ «i o *— ' ^ 5 £ "5 'o X> « t: i« it u K r « c > £ c Ph u m o H H 161 162 Medieval and Modern Times The Hohen- staufens extend their claims to southern Italy Frederick II and Innocent III with a modern city they were very disorderly, for sometimes the poor revolted against the rich, and often the nobles, who had moved in from the country and built fortified palaces in the towns, fought among themselves. And then the various towns were always fighting one another. But in spite of all the warfare and disorder, the Italian cities became wealthy and, as we shall see later, were centers of learning and art similar to the ancient cities of Greece, such as Athens and Corinth. They were able to combine in a union known as the Lombard League to oppose Frederick, for they hated the idea of paying taxes to a German king from across the Alps. Frederick made several expeditions to Italy, but he only succeeded, after a vast amount of trouble, in getting them to recognize him as a sort of overlord. He was forced to leave them to manage their own affairs and go their own way. They could, of course, always rely upon the pope, when it came to fighting the emperor, for he was quite as anxious as the towns to keep Frederick out of Italy. So Frederick failed in his great plans for restoring the Roman Empire ; he only succeeded in adding a new difficulty for his descendants. In spite of his lack of success in conquering the Lombard cities, Frederick tried to secure southern Italy for his descendants. He arranged that his son should marry Constance, the heiress of Naples and Sicily. This made fresh trouble for the Hohenstaufen rulers, because the pope, as feudal lord of Naples and Sicily, was horrified at the idea of the emperor's controlling the territory to the south of the papal possessions as well as that to the north. After some forty years of fighting in Germany and Italy Frederick Barbarossa decided to undertake a crusade to the Holy Land and lost his life on the way thither. His son was carried off by Italian fever while trying to put down a rebellion in southern Italy, leaving the fate of the Hohenstaufen family in the hands of his infant son and heir, the famous Frederick II. It would take much too long to try to tell of all the attempts of Popes and Emperors 163 rival German princes to get themselves made king of Germany and of the constant interference of the popes who sided now with this one and now with that. It happened that one of the greatest of all the popes, Innocent III, was ruling during Fred- erick II's early years. After trying to settle the terrible disorder in Germany he decided that Frederick should be made emperor, hoping to control him so that he would not become the dan- gerous enemy of the papacy that his father and grandfather had been. As a young man Frederick made all the promises that Innocent demanded, but he caused later popes infinite anxiety. Frederick II was nearsighted, bald, and wholly insignificant Character of in person ; but he exhibited the most extraordinary energy and Frederick il ability in the organization of his kingdom of Sicily, in which he I2I2 ~ 12 S° was far more interested than in Germany. He drew up an elaborate code of laws for his southern realms and may be said to have founded the first modern well-regulated state, in which the king was indisputably supreme. He had been brought up in Sicily and was much influenced by the Mohammedan culture which prevailed there. He appears to have rejected many of the opinions of the time. His enemies asserted that he was not even a Christian, and that he declared that Moses, Christ, and Mohammed were all alike impostors. We cannot stop to relate the romantic and absorbing story His bitter of his long struggle with the popes. They speedily discovered the U papacy that he was bent upon establishing a powerful state to the south of them, and upon extending his control over the Lombard cities in such a manner that the papal possessions would be held as in a vise. This, they felt, must never be permitted. Consequently almost every measure that Frederick adopted aroused their suspicion and opposition, and they made every effort to destroy him and his house. His chance of success in the conflict with the head of the Frederick Church was gravely affected by the promise which he had asTrngof made before Innocent Ill's death to undertake a crusade. J erusalem He was so busily engaged with his endless enterprises that he the medieval empire 164 Medieval and Modem Times kept deferring the expedition, in spite of the papal admoni- tions, until at last the pope lost patience and excommunicated him. While excommunicated, he at last started for the East. He met with signal success and actually brought Jerusalem, the Holy City, once more into Christian hands, and was himself recognized as king of Jerusalem. Extinction of Frederick's conduct continued, however, to give offense to staufens' the popes. He was denounced in solemn councils, and at last power deposed by one of the popes. After Frederick died (1250) his sons maintained themselves for a few years in the Sicilian kingdom ; but they finally gave way before a French army, led by the brother of St. Louis, Charles of Anjou, upon whom the pope bestowed the southern realms of the Hohenstaufens. 1 Frederick's With Frederick's death the medieval empire may be said the close of to have come to an end. It is true that after a period of " fist law," as the Germans call it, a new king, Rudolf of Hapsburg, was elected in Germany in 1273. The German kings continued to call themselves emperors. Few of them, however, took the trouble to go to Rome to be crowned by the pope. No serious effort was ever made to reconquer the Italian territory for which Otto the Great, Frederick Barbarossa, and his son and grandson had made such serious sacrifices. Germany was hope- lessly divided and its king was no real king. He had no capital and no well-organized government. Division of By the middle of the thirteenth century it becomes apparent Italy into an that neither Germany nor Italy was to be converted into a S end m t. de ~ strong single kingdom like England and France. The map of states Germany shows a confused group of duchies, counties, arch- bishropics, bishropics, abbacies, and free towns, each one of which asserted its practical independence of the weak king and emperor. In northern Italy each town, including a certain district about its walls, had become an independent state, dealing with its 1 An excellent account of Frederick's life is given by Henderson, Germany in the Middle Ages, pp. 349-397. Popes and Emperors 165 neighbors as with independent powers. The Italian towns were destined to become the birthplace of our modern culture during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Venice and Florence, in spite of their small size, came to be reckoned among the most important states of Europe (see section 45, below). In the cen- tral part of the peninsula the pope maintained more or less control over his possessions, but he often failed to subdue the towns within his realms. To the south Naples remained for some time under the French dynasty, which the pope had called in, while the island of Sicily drifted into Spanish hands. QUESTIONS Section 28. Describe the way in which the German kings gained the title of emperor. Why did they think that they ought to control the election of the pope? What do you understand by the Holy Roman Empire? Section 29. What were the sources of wealth of the Church? What was the effect of the vast landholdings of the Church ? What was investiture, and why did it raise difficulties between the popes and emperors? Why did the pope oppose the marriage of the clergy? How is the pope elected? What is a cardinal ? Section 30. What was the Dictatus, and what claims did it make ? Section 31. Describe the conflict between Henry IV and Gregory VII. What were the provisions of the Concordat of Worms ? Section 32. What new enemies did Frederick Barbarossa find in northern Italy ? How did the German kings establish a claim to southern Italy? Give some facts about Innocent III. Narrate the struggle between Frederick II and the popes and its outcome. How many years elapsed between the death of Otto the Great and the accession of Henry IV? between the death of Henry IV and that of Frederick Barbarossa ? between the death of Barbarossa and that of Frederick II? vSkM* 5->, M,?^#-^4 r /I ■'■ - jf»> ' - V * V CHAPTER IX THE CRUSADES Origin of the Crusades 33. Of all the events of the Middle Ages, the most romantic and fascinating are the Crusades, the adventurous expeditions to Syria and Palestine, undertaken by devout and adventurous kings and knights with the hope of permanently reclaiming the Holy Land from the infidel Turks. All through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries each generation beheld at least one great army of crusaders gathering from all parts of the West and starting toward the Orient. Each year witnessed the departure of small bands of pilgrims or of solitary soldiers of the cross. For two hundred years there was a continuous stream of Europeans of every rank and station — kings and princes, powerful nobles, simple knights, common soldiers, ecclesias- tics, monks, townspeople, and even peasants — from England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, making their way into western Asia. If they escaped the countless dangers which beset them on the journey, they either settled in this distant land and devoted themselves to war or commerce, or returned home, bringing with them tales of great cities and new peoples, of skill, knowledge, and luxury unknown in the West. 166 The Crusades 167 Our sources of information in regard to the Crusades are Natural so abundant and so rich in picturesque incidents that writers to^verrate have often yielded to the temptation to give more space to the im P° r - these expeditions than their consequences really justify. They Crusades were, after all, only one of the great foreign enterprises which have been undertaken from time to time by the European peoples. While' their influence upon the European countries was doubtless very important, — like that of the later conquest of India by the English and the colonization of America, — the details of the campaigns in the East scarcely belong to the history of western Europe. Syria had been overrun by the Arabs in the seventh century, The Holy shortly after the death of Mohammed, and the Holy City of queredfiret Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of the infidels. The Arab, b ? , th , e Ar , abs 7 and then by however, shared the veneration of the Christian for the. places the Turks associated with the life of Christ and, in general, permitted the Christian pilgrims who found their way thither to worship un- molested. But with the coming of a new and ruder people, the Seljuk Turks, in the eleventh century, the pilgrims began to bring home news of great hardships. Moreover, the eastern emperor was defeated by the Turks in 107 1 and lost Asia Minor. The presence of the Turks, who had taken possession of the fortress of Nicaea, just across from Constantinople, was of course a standing menace to the Eastern Empire. When the energetic Emperor Alexius (1081-1118) ascended the throne he endeavored to expel the infidel. Finding himself unequal to Eastern the task, he appealed for assistance to the head of Christendom, appwSsto Pope Urban II. The first great impetus to the Crusades was th, r po P e for 01 aid against the call issued by Urban at the celebrated church council which the infidel met in 1095 at Clermont in France. In an address, which produced more remarkable immediate results than any other which history records, the pope exhorted knights and soldiers of all ranks to give up their usual wicked business of destroying their Christian brethren in private warfare (see section 2 2 , above) and turn, instead, to the succor i68 Medieval and Modern Timss Urban II issues the call to the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont, 1095 The motives of the crusaders of their fellow Christians in the East. He warned them that the insolent Turks would, if unchecked, extend their sway still more widely over the faithful servants of the Lord. Urban urged, be- sides, that France was too poor to support all its people, while the Holy Land flowed with milk and honey. " Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulcher; wrest the land from the wicked race and subject it to yourselves." When the pope had finished, all who were present exclaimed, with one accord, " It is the will of God." This, the pope declared, should be the rallying cry of the crusaders, who were to wear a cross upon their bosoms as they went forth, and upon their backs as they returned, as a holy sign of their sacred mission. 1 The Crusades are ordinarily represented as the most striking examples of the simple faith and religious enthusiasm of the Middle Ages. They appealed, however, to many different kinds of men. The devout, the romantic, and the adventurous were by no means the only classes that were attracted. Syria held out inducements to the discontented noble who might hope to gain a principality in the East, to the merchant who was look- ing for new enterprises, to the merely restless who wished to avoid his responsibilities at home, and even to the criminal who enlisted with a view of escaping the results of his past offenses. It is noteworthy that Urban appeals especially to those who had been " contending against their brethren and relatives," and urges those " who- have hitherto been robbers now to become soldiers of Christ." And the conduct of many of the crusaders indicates that the pope found a ready hearing among this class. Yet higher motives than a love of adventure and the hope of conquest impelled many who took their way eastward. Great numbers, doubtiess, went to Jerusalem " through devotion alone, and not for the sake of honor or gain," with the sole object of freeing the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infidel. To such as these the pope promised that the journey itself should take the place of all penance for sin. The faithful 1 For the speech of Urban, see Readings, chap. xv. The Crusades 1 69 crusader, like the faithful Mohammedan, was assured of immedi- Privileges ate entrance into heaven if he died repentant. Later, the Church crusaders exhibited its extraordinary authority by what would seem to us an unjust interference with business contracts. It freed those who " with a pure heart " entered upon the journey from the payment of interest upon their debts, and permitted them to mortgage property against the wishes of their feudal lords. The crusaders' wives 'and children and property were taken under the immediate protection of the Church, and he who troubled them incurred excommunication. These various con- siderations help to explain the great popularity of undertakings that, at first sight, would seem to have promised only hardships and disappointment. The Council of Clermont met in November. Before spring Peter the (1096) those who set forth to preach the Crusade, — above all, his army™ the famous Peter the Hermit, who was formerly given credit for having begun the whole crusading movement, — had col- lected, in France and along the Rhine, an extraordinary army of the common folk. Peasants, workmen, vagabonds, and even women and children answered the summons, all blindly intent upon rescuing the Holy Sepulcher, two thousand miles away. They were confident that the Lord would sustain them during the weary leagues of the journey, and that, when they reached the Holy Land, he would grant them a prompt victory over the infidel. This great host was got under way in several divisions under the leadership of Peter the Hermit, and of Walter the Penni- less and other humble knights. Many of the crusaders were slaughtered by the Hungarians, who rose to protect them- selves from the depredations of this motley horde in its passage through their country. Part of them got as far as Nicaea, only to be slaughtered by the Turks. This is but an example, on a large scale, of what was going on continually for a century or so after this first great catastrophe. Individual pilgrims and adventurers, and sometimes considerable bodies of crusaders, i/o Medieval and Modern Times were constantly falling a prey to every form of disaster — starvation, slavery, disease, and death — in their persistent endeavors to reach the far away Holy Land. The First Crusade The First 34- The most conspicuous figures of the long- period of the iootf* e ' Crusades arc not, however, to be found among the lowly fol- lowers of Peter the Hermit, but are the knights, in their long- coats of flexible armor. A year after the summons issued at Clermont great armies of righting men had been collected in the West under distinguished leaders — the pope speaks oi three hundred thousand soldiers. Of the various divisions which were to meet in Constantinople, the following were the most important : the volunteers from Provence under the papal legate and Count Raymond of Toulouse ; inhabitants of Ger- many, particularly of Lorraine, under Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin, both destined to be rulers of Jerusalem ; and lastly, an army of French and of the Normans of southern Italy under Bohemond and Tancred. 1 The distinguished noblemen who have been mentioned were not actually in command of real armies. Each crusader under- took the expedition on his own account and was only obedient to any one's orders so long as he pleased. The knights and men naturally grouped themselves around the more noted lead- ers, but considered themselves free to change chiefs when they pleased. The leaders themselves reserved the right to look out for their own special interests rather than sacrifice themselves to the good of the expedition. Hostilities Upon the arrival of the crusaders at Constantinople it quickly GreekTancT became clear that they had not much more in common with the the crusaders -Greeks'" 2 than with the Turks. Emperor Alexius ordered 1 For the routes taken by the different crusading armies, see the accompanying- map. 2 The people of the Eastern Empire were called Greeks because the Greek language continued to be used in Constantinople. The Crusades 171 his soldiers to attack Godfrey's army, encamped in the suburbs of his capital, because their chief at first refused to take the oath of feudal homage to him. The emperor's daughter Anna, in her history of the times, gives a sad picture of the outrageous conduct of the crusaders. They, on the other hand, denounced the Greeks as traitors, cowards, and liars. The eastern emperor had hoped to use his western allies to reconquer Asia Minor and force back the Turks. The leading knights, on the contrary, dreamed of carving out principalities for themselves in the former dominions of the emperor, and proposed to control them by right of conquest. Later we find both Greeks and western Christians shamelessly allying themselves with the Mohammedans against each other. The relations of the eastern and western enemies of the Turks were well illustrated when the cru- saders besieged their first town, Nicaea. When it was just ready to surrender, the Greeks arranged with the enemy to have their troops ad- mitted first. They then closed the gates against their western confeder- ates and invited them to move on. The first real allies that the crusaders met with were the Dissension Christian Armenians, who gave them aid after their terrible L™de?s oTthe march through Asia Minor. With their help Baldwin got possession of Edessa, of which he made himself prince. The chiefs induced the great body of the crusaders to postpone the march on Jerusalem, and a year was spent in taking the Fig. 46. Knight of the First Crusade In the time of the Crusades knights wore a coat of inter- woven iron rings, called a hauberk, to protect them- selves. The habit of using the rigid iron plates, of which later armor was constructed, did not come in until the Crusades were over crusaders 1 -J Modem 7i rich and important city of Antioch. A bitter strife then broke out. especially between the Norman Bohemond and the count of Toulouse, as to who should have the conquered town. After the most unworthy conduct on both sides. Bohemond won. and Raymond was forced to set to work to con- quer another prin- cipality for himself on the coast about Tripoli. In the spring of iooo about twenty thousand warriors were at last able to move upon Jerusalem. They found the city well walled. in the midst of a desolate region where neither food nor water nor the materials to construct the apparatus neces- sarv for the cap- ture of the town were to be found. However, the opportune arrival at Jaffa of galleys from Genoa furnished the besiegers with supplies, and. in spite of all the difficulties, the place was taken in a couple of months. The crusaders, with shocking barbarity, massacred the inhabitants. Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen ruler of Jerusalem and took the modest title of " Defender of the Holy Sepulcher." He soon Map of the Crusaders 1 States ix Syria M E 2> T T '° CRETE M.-N. ENG.. BUFFALO. The Crusades 173 died and was succeeded by his brother Baldwin, who left Edessa in 1 1 00 to take up the task of extending the bounds of the kingdom of Jerusalem. It will be observed that the " Franks," as the Mohammedans Founding called all the western folk, had established the centers of four doms in Syria principalities. These were Edessa, Antioch, the region about Tripoli conquered by Raymond, and the kingdom of Jerusalem. The last was speedily increased by Baldwin ; with the help of the mariners from Venice and Genoa, he succeeded in getting possession of Acre, Sidon, and a number of other less impor- tant coast towns. The news of these Christian victories quickly reached the West, and in 1 1 o 1 tens of thousands of new crusaders started eastward. Most of them were lost or dispersed in passing through Asia Minor, and few reached their destination. The original conquerors were consequently left to hold the land against the Saracens and to organize their conquests as best they could. This was a very difficult task — too difficult to accomplish under the circumstances. The permanent hold of the Franks upon the eastern bor- ders of the Mediterranean depended upon the strength of the colonies which their various princes were able to establish. It is impossible to learn how many pilgrims from the West made their permanent homes in the new Latin principalities. Cer- tainly the greater part of those who visited Palestine returned home after fulfilling the vow they had made — to kneel at the Holy Sepulcher. ' Still the princes could rely upon a certain number of soldiers who would be willing to stay and fight the Mohammedans. The Turks, moreover, were so busy fighting one another that they showed less energy than might have been expected in attempting to drive the Franks from the narrow strip of terri- tory — some five hundred miles long and fifty wide — which they had conquered. The map on the opposite page shows the extent of situation of the crusaders' states. 174 Medieval and Modern Times Military reli- gious orders The Religious Orders of the Hospitalers and Templars 35. A noteworthy outcome of the crusading movement was the foundation of several curious orders, of which the Hospi- talers and the Templars were the most important. These orders combined the two dominant inter- ests of the time, those of the monk and of the soldier. They permitted a man to be both at once ; the knight might wear a monkish cowl over his coat of armor. The Hospitalers grew out of a monastic association that was formed before the First Crusade for the succor of the poor and sick among the pilgrims. Later the society admitted noble knights to its membership and became a mili- tary order, at the same time con- tinuing its care for the sick. This charitable association, like the earlier monasteries, received gen- erous gifts of land in western Europe and built and controlled many fortified monasteries in the Holy Land itself. After the evacu- ation of Syria in the thirteenth century, the Hospitalers moved their headquarters to the island of Rhodes, and later to Malta. The order still exists, and it is considered a distinction to this day to have the privilege of wearing its emblem, the cross of Malta. Before the Hospitalers were transformed into a military order, a little group of French knights banded together in 11 19 Fig. 47. Costume of the Hospitalers The Hospitaler here repre- sented bears the peculiar Maltese cross on his bosom. His crucifix indicates his reli- gious character, but his sword and the armor which he wears beneath his long gown enabled him to fight as well as pray and succor the wounded The Crusades 175 to defend pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem from the attacks The of the infidel. They were assigned quarters in the king's palace emp ars at Jerusalem, on the site of the former Temple of Solomon; hence the name " Templars," which they were destined to render famous. The " poor soldiers of the Temple " were enthusiasti- cally approved by the Church. They wore a white cloak adorned with a red cross, and were under a very strict monastic rule which bound them by the vows of obedience, poverty, and celibacy. The fame of the order spread throughout Europe, and the most exalted, even dukes and princes, were ready to renounce the world and serve Christ under its black and white banner, with the legend Non nobis, Domine. The order was aristocratic from the first, and it soon became incredibly rich and independent. It had its collectors in all parts of Europe, who dispatched the " alms " they received to the Grand Master at Jerusalem. Towns, churches, and estates were given to the order, as well as vast sums of money. The king of Aragon proposed to bestow upon it a third of his kingdom. The pope showered privileges- upon the Templars. They were exempted from tithes and taxes and were brought under his immediate jurisdiction ; they were released from feudal obliga- tions, and bishops were forbidden to excommunicate them for any cause. No wonder they grew insolent and aroused the jealousy and Abolition of hate of princes and prelates alike. Even Innocent III violently Templars ° upbraided them for admitting to their order wicked men who then enjoyed all the privileges of churchmen. Early in the four- teenth century, through the combined efforts of the pope and Philip the Fair of France, the order was brought to a terrible end. Its members were accused of the most abominable prac- tices, — such as heresy, the worship of idols, and the systematic insulting of Christ and his religion. Many distinguished Tem- plars were burned for heresy ; others perished miserably in dun- geons. The once powerful order was abolished and its property confiscated. i;6 Medieval and Modern Times The Second Crusade The Second and Later Crusades 36. Fifty years after the preaching of the First Crusade, the fall of Edessa (1144), an important outpost of the Christians in the East, led to a second great expedition. This w'as forwarded by no less a person than St. Bernard, who went about using his unrivaled eloquence to induce volunteers to take the cross. Fig. 48. Krak des Chevaliers, restored This is an example of the strong castles that the crusaders built in Syria. It was completed in the form here represented about the year 1200 and lies halfway between Antioch and Damascus. It will be noticed that there was a fortress within a fortress. The castle is now in ruins (see headpiece of this chapter) In a fierce hymn of battle he cried to the Knights Templars : " The Christian who slays the unbeliever in the Holy War is sure of his reward, the more sure if he himself be slain. The Christian glories in the death of the infidel, because Christ is glorified." The king of France readily consented to take the cross, but the emperor, Conrad III, appears to have yielded only after St. Bernard had preached before him and given a vivid picture of the terrors of the Judgment Day. The Crusades 177 In regard to the less distinguished recruits, a historian of the time tells us that so many thieves and robbers hastened to take the cross that every one felt that such enthusiasm could only be the work of God himself. St. Bernard himself, the chief promoter of the expedition, gives a most unflattering description of the " soldiers of Christ." " In that countless multitude you will find few except the utterly wicked and impious, the sacri- legious, homicides, and perjurers, whose departure is a double gain. Europe rejoices to lose them and Palestine to gain them ; they are useful in both ways, in their absence from here and their presence there." It is unnecessary to describe the movements and fate of these cru- saders ; suffice it to say that, from a military stand- point, the so-called Second Crusade was a miserable failure. In the year 1 187, forty years later, Jerusalem was recaptured by Saladin, the most heroic and distinguished of all the Moham- medan rulers of that period. The loss of the Holy City led to the most famous of all the military expeditions to the Holy Land, in which Frederick Barbarossa, Richard the Lion-Hearted of England, and his political rival, Philip Augustus of France, all took part (see above, p. 123). The accounts of the enterprise show that while the several Christian leaders hated one another heartily enough, the Christians and Mohammedans were coming to respect one another. We find examples of the most courtly Fig. 49. Tomb of a Crusader The churches of England, France, and Germany contain numerous figures in stone and brass of crusading knights, reposing in full armor with shield and sword on their tombs 1 78 Medieval and Modern Times The Fourth and subse- quent Crusades relations between the representatives of the opposing religions. In 1 192 Richard concluded a truce with Saladin, by the terms of which the Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit the holy places in safety and comfort. In the thirteenth century the crusaders began to direct their expeditions toward Egypt as the center of the Mohammedan power. The first of these was diverted in an extraordinary manner by the Venetians, who induced the crusaders to con- quer Constantinople for their benefit. The further expeditions of Frederick II (see above, p. 163) and St. Louis need not be described. Jerusalem was irrevocably lost in 1 2 44, and although the possibility of recovering the city was long considered, the Crusades may be said to have come to a close before the end of the thirteenth century. Chief Results of the Crusades Settlements of the Italian merchants Oriental luxury intro- duced into Europe 37. For one class at least, the Holy Land had great and per- manent charms, namely, the Italian merchants, especially those from Genoa, Venice, and Pisa. It was through their early inter- est and by means of supplies from their ships, that the conquest of the Holy Land had been rendered possible. The merchants always made sure that they were well paid for their services. When .they aided in the successful siege of a town they arranged that a definite quarter should be assigned to them in the cap- tured place, where they might have their market, docks, church, and all that was necessary for a permanent center for their com- merce. This district belonged to the town from which the mer- chants came. Venice even sent governors to live in the quarters assigned to its citizens in the kingdom of Jerusalem. Marseilles also had independent quarters in Jerusalem, and Genoa had its share in the county of Tripoli. This new commerce had a most important influence in bring- ing the West into permanent relations with the Orient. Eastern products from India and elsewhere — silks, spices, camphor, The Crusades 1 79 musk, pearls, and ivory — were brought by the Mohammedans from the East to the commercial towns of Palestine and Syria ; then, through the Italian merchants, they found their way into France and Germany, suggesting ideas of luxury hitherto scarcely dreamed of by the still half-barbarous Franks. Moreover, the Crusades had a great effect upon the methods Effects of of warfare, for the soldiers from the West learned from the war fare Greeks about the old Roman methods of constructing machines for attacking castles and walled towns. This led, as has been pointed out in a previous chapter, to the construction in west- ern Europe of stone castles, first with square towers and later with round ones, the remains of which are so common in Ger- many, France, and England. The Crusades also produced heraldry, or the science of coats of arms. These were the badges that single knights or groups of knights adopted in order to distinguish themselves from other people. Some of the terms used in heraldry, such as gules for red, and azur for blue, are of Arabic origin. Some of the results of the Crusades upon western Europe Results of the Crus&dcs must already be obvious, even from this very brief account. Thousands and thousands of Frenchmen, Germans, and Eng- lishmen had traveled to the Orient by land and by sea. Most of them came from hamlets or castles where they could never have learned much of the great world beyond the confines of their native village or province. They suddenly found them- selves in great cities and in the midst of unfamiliar peoples and customs. This could not fail to make them think and give them new ideas to carry home. The Crusade took the place of a liberal education. The crusaders came into contact with those who knew more than they did, above all the Arabs, and brought back with them new notions of comfort and luxury. Yet in attempting to estimate the debt of the West to the Crusades it should be remembered that many of the new things may well have come from Constantinople, or through the Mohammedans of Sicily and Spain, quite independently of the 180 Medieval mid Modern Times armed incursions into Syria. Moreover, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries towns were rapidly growing up in Europe, trade and manufactures were extending, and the universities were being founded. It would be absurd to suppose that with- out the Crusades this progress would not have taken place. So we may conclude that the distant expeditions and the con- tact with strange and more highly civilized peoples did no more than hasten the improvement which was already perceptible before Urban made his ever-memorable address at Clermont. QUESTIONS Section 33. What led to the Crusades? Describe Urban's speech. What was the character of Peter the Hermit's expedition ? Section 34. Who were the leaders of the First Crusade? Describe the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders. Section 35. Who were the Hospitalers? What was the order of the Temple and what became of the Templars ? Section 36. What was the Second Crusade? Give some par- ticulars in regard to the Third Crusade and its leaders. Section 37. Give as complete an account as you can of the chief results of the Crusades. CHAPTER X THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH AT ITS HEIGHT Organization and Powers of the Church 38. In the preceding pages it has been necessary to refer 1 constantly to the Church and the clergy. Indeed, without them medieval history would become almost a blank, for the Church was incomparably the most important institution of the time, and its officers were the soul of nearly every great enterprise. We have already learned something of the rise of the Church and of its head, the pope, as well as the mode of life and the work of the monks as they spread over Europe. We have also watched the long struggle between the emperors and the popes in which the emperors were finally worsted. We must now consider the Medieval Church as a completed insti- tution at the height of its power in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 181 182 Medieval and Modern Times Ways in which the Medieval Church dif- fered from modern churches Membership in the Medieval Church compulsory The wealth of the Church The tithe Resemblance of the Church to a State We have already had abundant proofs that the Medieval Church was very different from our modern churches, whether Catholic or Protestant. i. In the first place, every one was required to belong to it, just as we all must belong to some country to-day. One was not born into the Church, it is true, but he was ordinarily bap- tized into it when he was a mere infant. All western Europe formed a single religious association, from which it was a crime to revolt. To refuse allegiance to the Church, or to question its authority or teachings, was regarded as treason against God and was punishable with death. 2. The Medieval Church did not rely for its support, as churches usually must to-day, upon the voluntary contributions of its members. It enjoyed, in addition to the revenue from its vast tracts of lands and a great variety of fees, the income from a regular tax, the tithe. Those upon whom this fell were forced to pay it, just as we all must now pay taxes imposed by the government. 3. It is clear, moreover, that the Medieval Church was not merely a religious body, as churches are to-day. Of course it maintained places of worship, conducted devotional exercises, and cultivated the religious life ; but it did far more. It was, in a way, a State, for it had an elaborate system of law, and its own courts, in which it tried many cases which are now settled in our ordinary courts. 1 One may get some idea of the business of the Church courts from the fact that the Church claimed the right to try all cases in which a clergyman was involved, or any one connected with the Church or under its special protection, such as monks, students, crusaders, widows, orphans, and the helpless. Then all cases where the rites of the Church, or its prohibitions, were involved came ordinarily before the Church courts, as, for example, those concerning marriage, wills, sworn 1 The law of the Church was known as the canon law. It was taught in most of the universities and practiced by a great number of lawyers. It was based upon the "canons," or rules, enacted by the various Church councils, from that of Nicaea down, and, above all, upon the decrees and decisions of the popes. The Medieval Church at its Height 183 contracts, usury, blasphemy, sorcery, heresy, and so forth. The Church even had its prisons, to which it might sentence offenders for life. 4. The Church not only performed the functions of a State'; Unity of it had the organization of a State. Unlike the Protestant min- ^ g ^ e u ^ tlon isters of to-day, all churchmen and religious associations of Church medieval Europe were under one supreme head, the pope, who made laws for all and controlled every Church officer, wherever he might be, whether in Italy or Germany, Spain or Ireland. The whole Church had one official language, Latin, in which all communications were written and in which its services were everywhere conducted. The Medieval Church may therefore properly be called a The Medi- „n ,, £ , eval Church monarchy in its government. The pope was its all-powertul a monarchy and absolute head. He was the supreme lawgiver. He might ^ s r ^ nt of set aside or repeal any law of the Church, no matter how ancient, so long as he did not believe it to be ordained by the Scriptures or by Nature. He might, for good reasons, make pispensa- exceptions to all merely human laws ; as, for instance, permit cousins to marry, or free a monk from his vows. Such exceptions were known as dispensations. The pope was not merely the supreme lawgiver ; he was the The pope ... , . the supreme supreme judge. Any one, whether clergyman or layman, in any j ud g e of part of Europe could appeal to him at any stage in the trial of Christendom a large class of cases. Obviously this system had serious draw- backs. Grave injustice might be done by carrying to Rome a case which ought to have been settled in Edinburgh or Cologne, where the facts were best known. The rich, moreover, always had the advantage, as they alone could afford to bring suits before so distant a court. The control of the pope over all parts of the Christian Church was exercised by his legates. These papal ambassadors were intrusted with great powers. Their haughty mien sometimes offended the prelates and rulers to whom they brought home the authority of the pope, — as, for instance, when the legate 184 Medieval and Modern Times The Roman Sources of the pope's income The arch- bishops The impor- tance of the bishops Pandulf grandly absolved all the subjects of King John of England, before his very face, from their oath of fealty to him (see p. 125, above). The task assumed by the pope of governing the whole western world naturally made it necessary to create a large body of officials at Rome in order to transact all the multiform business and prepare and transmit the innumerable legal documents. 1 The cardinals and the pope's officials constituted what was called the papal curia, or court. To carry on his government and meet the expenses of pal- ace and retinue, the pope had need of a vast income. This he secured from various sources. Heavy fees were exacted from those who brought suits to his court for decision. The arch- bishops, bishops, and abbots were expected to make generous contributions when the pope confirmed their election. In the thirteenth century the pope himself began to fill many benefices throughout Europe, and customarily received half the first year's revenues from those whom he appointed. For several centuries before the Protestants finally threw off their allegiance to the popes, there was widespread complaint on the part of both clergy and laymen that the fees and taxes levied by the curia were excessive. Next in order below the head of the Church were the arch- bishops and bishops. An archbishop was a bishop whose power extended beyond the boundaries of his own diocese and who exercised a certain control over all the bishops within his province. . There is perhaps no class of persons in medieval times whose position it is so necessary to understand as that of the bishops. They were regarded as the successors of the apostles, whose powers were held to be divinely transmitted to them. They represented the Church Universal in their respective dioceses, under the supreme headship of their " elder brother," the 1 Many of the edicts, decisions, and orders of the popes were called bulls, from the seal (Latin, bulla) attached to them. The Medieval Church at its Height 185 bishop of Rome, the successor of the chief of the apostles. Their insignia of office, the miter and crosier, are familiar to every one. 1 Each bishop had his especial church, which was called a -cathedral, and usually surpassed the other churches of the diocese in size and beauty. Fig. 50. Canterbury Cathedral The bishop's church was called a cathedral, because in it stood the bishop's chair, or throne (Latin, cathedra). It was therefore much more imposing ordinarily than the parish churches, although sometimes the abbey churches belonging to rich monasteries vied with the bishop's church in beauty (see below, section 44) In addition to the oversight of his diocese, it was the bishop's The bishop's business to look after the lands and other possessions which duties 1 belonged to the bishopric. Lastly, the bishop was usually a feudal lord, with the obligations which that implied. He might have vassals and subvassals, and often was himself a vassal, not only of the king but also of some neighboring lord. 1 The headpiece of this chapter represents an English bishop ordaining a priest and is taken from a manuscript of Henry IPs time. The bishop is wearing his miter and holds his pastoral staff, the crosier, in his left hand while he raises his right, in blessing, over the priest's head. i86 Medieval and Modem Times f he parish priest and his duties The exalted position of the clergy Nature of penance Only clergy- men ordi- narily knew how to read and write The lowest division of the Church was the parish. At the head of the parish was the parish priest, who conducted services in the parish church and absolved, baptized, married, and buried his parishioners. The priests were supposed to be supported by the lands belonging- to the parish church and by the tithes. But both of these sources of income were often in the hands of lay- men or of a neighboring monastery, while the poor priest re- ceived the merest pittance, scarcely sufficient to keep soul and body together. The clergy were set apart from the laity in several ways. The higher orders — bishop, priest, deacon, and subdeacon — were required to remain unmarried, and in this way were freed from the cares and interests of family life. The Church held, moreover, that the higher clergy, when the)- had been properlv ordained, received through their ordination a mysterious imprint, the " indelible character," so that they could never become simple laymen again, even if they ceased to perform their duties altogether. Above all, the clergy alone could ad- minister the sacraments upon which the salvation of every individual soul depended. The punishment for sin imposed by the priest was called penance. This took a great variety of forms. It might consist in fasting, repeating prayers, visiting holy places, or abstaining from one's ordinary amusements. A journey to the Holy Land was regarded as taking the place of all other penance. Instead, however, of requiring the penitent actually to perform the fasts, pilgrimages, or other sacrifices imposed as penance by the priest, the Church early began to permit him to change his penance into a contribution, to be applied to some pious enterprise, like building a church or bridge, or caring for the poor and sick. The influence of the clergv was gTeatly increased by the fact that they alone were educated. For six or seven centuries after the overthrow of the Roman government in the west, very few outside of the clergy- ever dreamed of studying, or even of learn- ing to read and write. Even in the thirteenth century an offender The Medieval Church at its Height 187 who wished to prove that he belonged to the clergy, in order that he might be tried by a Church court, had only to show that he could read a single line ; for it was assumed by the judges that no one unconnected with the Church could read at all. It was therefore inevitable that all the teachers were clergy- men, that almost all the books were written by priests and monks, and that the clergy was the ruling power in all intellectual, artistic, and literary matters — the chief guardians and promoters of civilization. Moreover, the civil government was forced to rely upon churchmen to write out the public documents and proclamations. The priests and monks held the pen for the king. Representatives of the clergy sat in the king's councils and acted as his ministers ; in fact, the conduct of the govern- ment largely devolved upon them. The offices in the Church were open to all ranks of men, and offices in the many of the popes themselves sprang from the humblest classes. to ^classes The Church thus constantly recruited its ranks with fresh blood. No one held an office simply because his father had held it before him, as was the case in the civil government. No wonder that the churchmen were by far the most power- Excommu- __, „ , 11.1 nication and ful class in the Middle Ages. 1 hey controlled great wealth ; they interdict alone were educated; they held the keys of the kingdom of heaven and without their aid no one could hope to enter in. By excommunication they could cast out the enemies of the Church and could forbid all men to associate with them, since they were accursed. By means of the interdict they could sus- pend all religious ceremonies in a whole city or country by closing the church doors and prohibiting all public services. The Heretics and the Inquisition 39. Nevertheless, in spite of the power and wonderful organi- Rebels r i • i. v against the zation of the Church, a few people began to revolt against it as church early as the time of Gregory VII ; and the number of these rebels continued to increase as time went on. Popular leaders iSS Medieval and Modem Times Heresy The Walden- sians The Albi- gensians arose who declared that no one ought any longer to rely upon the Church for his salvation ; that all its elaborate ceremonies were worse than useless ; that its Masses, holy water, and relics were mere money-getting devices of a sinful priesthood and helped no one to heaven. Those who questioned the teachings of the Church and pro- posed to cast off its authority were, according to the accepted view of the time, guilty of the supreme crime of heresy. Heretics were of two sorts. One class merely rejected the practices and some of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church while they remained Christians and endeavored to imitate as nearly as possible the simple life of Christ and the apostles. Among those who continued to accept the Christian faith but refused to obey the clergy, the most important sect was that of the Waldensians, which took its rise about 1175. These were followers of Peter Waldo of Lyons, who gave up all their property and lived a life of apostolic poverty. They went about preaching the Gospel and explaining the Scriptures, which they translated from Latin into the language of the people. They made many converts, and before the end of the twelfth cen- tury there were great numbers of them scattered throughout western Europe. ■ On the other hand, there were popular leaders who taught that the Christian religion itself was false. They held that there were two principles in the universe, the good and the evil, which were forever fighting for the victory. They asserted that the Jehovah of the Old Testament was really the evil power, and that it was, therefore, the evil power whom the Cath- olic Church worshiped. These heretics were commonly called Albigensians, a name derived from the town of Albi in southern France, where they were very numerous. It is very difficult for us who live in a tolerant age to under- stand the universal and deep-rooted horror of heresy which long prevailed in Europe. But we must recollect that to the orthodox The Medieval Church at its Height 189 believer in the Church nothing could exceed the guilt of one who committed treason against God by rejecting the religion which had been handed down in the Roman Church from the immediate followers of his Son. Moreover, doubt and unbelief were not merely sin ; they were revolt against the most power- ful social institution of the time, which, in spite of the sins of some of its officials, continued to be venerated by people at large throughout western Europe. The story of the Albigensians and Waldensians, and the efforts of the Church to suppress them by persuasion, by fire and sword, and by the stern court of the Inquisition, form a strange and terrible chapter in medieval history. In southern France there were many adherents of both the Albigensians and the Waldensians, especially in the county of Toulouse. At the beginning of the thirteenth century there was in this region an open contempt for the Church, and bold heretical teachings were heard even among the higher classes. Against the people of this nourishing land Innocent III Albigensian preached a crusade in 1208. An army marched from northern France into the doomed region and, after one of the most atrocious and bloody wars upon record, suppressed the heresy by wholesale slaughter. At the same time, the war checked the civilization and destroyed the prosperity of the most enlightened portion of France. The most permanent defense of the Church against heresy was The inqui the establishment, under the headship of the pope, of a system of courts designed to ferret out secret cases of unbelief and bring the offenders to punishment. These courts which devoted their whole attention to the discovery and conviction of heretics were called the Holy Inquisition, which gradually took form after the Albigensian crusade. The unfairness of the trials and the cruel treatment to which those suspected of heresy were sub- jected, through long imprisonment or torture, — inflicted with the hope of forcing them to confess their crime or to implicate others, — have rendered the name of the Inquisition infamous. IQO Medieval and Modem Times Fate of the convicted heretic Without by any means attempting to defend the methods employed, it may be remarked that the inquisitors were often earnest and upright men, and the methods of procedure of the Inquisition were not more cruel than those used in the secular courts of the period. The assertion of the suspected person that he was not a heretic did not receive any attention, for it was assumed that he would naturally deny his guilt, as would any other criminal. A person's belief had, therefore, to be judged by outward acts. Consequently one might fall into the hands of the Inquisition by mere accidental conversation with a heretic, by some unin- tentional neglect to show due respect toward the Church rites, or by the malicious testimony of one's neighbors. This is really the most terrible aspect of the Inquisition and its procedure. If the suspected person confessed his guilt and abjured his heresy,' he was forgiven and received back into the Church ; but a penance of life imprisonment was imposed upon him as a fitting means of wiping away the unspeakable sin of which he had been guilty. If he persisted in his heresy, he was " relaxed to the secular arm " ; that is to say, the Church, whose law for- bade it to shed blood, handed over the convicted person to the civil power, which burned him alive without further trial. The Franciscans and Dominicans Founding of the mendi- cant orders 40. We may now turn to that far more cheerful and effective method of meeting the opponents of the Church, which may be said to have been discovered by St. Francis of Assisi. His teachings and the example of his beautiful life probably did far more to secure continued allegiance to the Church than all the harsh devices of the Inquisition. We have seen how the Waldensians tried to better the world by living simple lives and preaching the Gospel. Owing to the disfavor of the Church authorities, who declared their teach- ings erroneous and dangerous, they were prevented from The Medieval Church at Us Height 191 publicly carrying on their missionary work. Yet all conscientious men agreed with the Waldensians that the world was in a sad plight, owing to the negligence and the misdeeds of the clergy. St. Francis and St. Dominic strove to meet the needs of their time by inventing a new kind of clergyman, the begging brother, or "mendicant friar " (from the Latin f rater, " brother "). He was to do just what the bishops and parish priests often failed to do — namely, lead a holy life of self-sacrifice, defend the Church's beliefs against the attacks of the heretics, and awaken the people to a new religious life. The founding of the mendicant orders is one of the most interesting events of the Middle Ages. There is no more lovely and fascinating figure in all history St. Francis than St. Francis. He was born (probably in 1182) at Assisi, a H82-1226 little town in central Italy. He was the son of a well-to-do merchant, and during his early youth he lived a very gay life, spending his father's money freely. He read the French romances of the time and dreamed of imitating the brave knights whose adventures they described. Although his com- panions were wild and reckless, there was a delicacy and chivalry in Francis's own make-up which made him hate all things coarse and heartless. When later he voluntarily became a beggar, his ragged cloak still covered a true poet and knight. The contrast between his own life of luxury and the sad state Francis for- o o]/ pc his Li 1 g of the poor early afflicted him. When he was about twenty, G f luxury after a long and serious illness which made a break in his gay ^hedtance life and gave him time to think, he suddenly lost his love for the and becomes old pleasures and began to consort with the destitute, above all with lepers. His father does not appear to have had any fond- ness whatever for beggars, and the relations between him and his son grew more and more strained. When finally he threatened to disinherit the young man, Francis cheerfully agreed to sur- render all right to his inheritance. Stripping off his clothes and giving them back to his father, he accepted the worn-out garment of a gardener and became a homeless hermit, busying himself in repairing the dilapidated chapels near Assisi. 192 Medieval and Modem Times Francis begins to preach and to attract followers Seeks and obtains the approval of the pope Missionary work under- taken Francis did not desire to found a powerful order He soon began to preach in a simple way, and before long a rich fellow townsman resolved to follow Francis's example — sell his all and give to the poor. Others soon joined them, and these joyous converts, free of worldly burdens, went barefoot and penniless about central Italy preaching the Gospel instead of shutting themselves up in a monastery. When, with a dozen followers, Francis appealed to the pope in 12 10 for his approval, Innocent III hesitated. He did not believe that any one could lead a life of absolute poverty. Then might not these ragged, ill-kempt vagabonds appear to condemn the Church by adopting a life so different from that of the rich and comfortable clergy ? Yet if he disapproved the friars, he would seem to disapprove at the same time Christ's directions to his apostles. He finally decided to authorize the brethren to continue their missions. Seven years later, when Francis's followers had greatly in- creased in numbers, missionary work was begun on a large scale, and brethren were dispatched to Germany, Hungary, France, Spain, and even to Syria. It was not long before an English chronicler was telling with wonder of the arrival in his country of these barefoot men, in their patched gowns and with ropes about their waists, who, with Christian faith, took no thought for the morrow, believing that their Heavenly Father knew what things they had need of. As time went on, the success of their missionary work led the pope to bestow many privileges upon them. It grieved Francis, however, to think of his little band of companions being converted into a great and powerful order. He foresaw that they would soon cease to lead their simple, holy life, and would become ambitious and perhaps rich. "I, little Brother Francis," he writes, " desire to follow the life and the poverty of Jesus Christ, persevering therein until the end ; and I beg you all and exhort you to persevere always in this most holy life of poverty, and take good care "never to depart from it upon the advice and teachings of anyone whomsoever." The Medieval Church at its Height 193 After the death of St. Francis (1226) many of the order, Change in which now numbered several thousand members, wished to ©Ahe Fran^ maintain the simple rule of absolute poverty; others, including c j sca norder^ the new head of the order, believed that much good might be death done with the wealth which people were anxious to give them. Fig. 51. Church of St. Francis at Assisi Assisi is situated on a high hill, and the monastery of the Franciscans is built out on a promontory. The monastery has two churches, one above the other. The lower church, in which are the remains of St. Francis, was begun in 1228 and contains pictures of the life and mira- cles of the saint. To reach the upper church (completed 1253) one can go up by the stairs, seen to the right of the entrance to the lower church, to the higher level upon which the upper church faces They argued that the individual friars might still remain abso- lutely possessionless, even if the order had beautiful churches and comfortable monasteries. So a stately church was imme- diately constructed at Assisi (Fig. 51) to receive the remains of their humble founder, who in his lifetime had chosen a deserted 194 Medieval and Modern Times St. Dominic Founding of the Domini- can order hovel for his home ; and a great chest was set up in the church to receive the offerings of those who desired to give. St. Dominic (b. 1 170), the Spanish founder of the other great mendicant order, was not a simple layman like Francis. He was a churchman and took a regular course of instruction in theology for ten years in a Spanish university. He then (1208) accompanied his bishop to southern France on the eve of the Albigensian crusade and was deeply shocked to see the preva- lence of heresy. His host at Toulouse happened to be an Albi- gensian, and Dominic spent the night in converting him. He then and there determined to devote his life to fighting heresy. By 12 14 a few sympathetic spirits from various parts of Europe had joined Dominic, and they asked Innocent III to sanction their new order. The pope again hesitated, but is said to have dreamed a dream in which he saw the great Roman Church of the Lateran tottering and ready to fall had not Dominic supported it on his shoulders. He interpreted this as meaning that the new organization might sometime become a great aid to the papacy, and gave it his approval. As soon as possible Dominic sent forth his followers, of whom there were but sixteen, to evangelize the world, just as the Franciscans were undertaking their first missionary journeys. By 122 1 the Dominican order was thoroughly organized and had sixty monasteries scattered over western Europe. " Wandering on foot over the face of Europe, under burning suns or chilling blasts, rejecting alms in money but receiving thankfully whatever coarse food might be set before the way- farer, enduring hunger in silent resignation, taking no thought for the morrow, but busied eternally in the work of snatching souls from Satan and lifting men up from the sordid cares of daily life" — in this way did the early Franciscans and Dominicans win the love and veneration of the people. The Dominicans were called the " Preaching Friars " and were carefully trained in theology in order the better to refute the arguments of the heretics. The pope delegated to them " The Medieval Church at its Height 195 especially the task of conducting the Inquisition. They early Contrast began to extend their influence over the universities, and the Dominicans two most distinguished theologians and teachers of the thirteenth * nd th . e & & Franciscans century, Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, were Domini- cans. Among the Franciscans, on the other hand, there was always a considerable party who were suspicious of learning and who showed a greater desire to remain absolutely poor than did the Dominicans. Yet as a whole the Franciscans, like the Dominicans, accepted the wealth that came to them, and they too contributed distinguished scholars to the universities. Church and State 41. We have seen that the Medieval Church was a single The State great institution with its head, the pope, at Rome and its a id e d the officers in all the countries of western Europe. It had its laws, Ch i 1 J h :h ' law courts, taxes, and even prisons, just like the various kings churchmen and other rulers. In general, the kings were ready to punish government every one who revolted against the Church. Indeed, the State de- pended upon the churchmen in many ways. It was the church- men who wrote out the documents which the king required; they took care of the schools, aided the poor, and protected the weak. They tried, by issuing the Truce of God, to discourage neighborhood warfare, which the kings were unable to stop. But as the period of disorder drew to an end and the Chief sources kings and other rulers got the better of the feudal lords and between" ty established peace in their realms, they began to think that g t h ^ rch and the Church had become too powerful and too rich. Certain difficulties arose of which the following were the most important : 1. Should the king or the pope have the advantage of select- Filling ing the bishops and the abbots of rich monasteries. Naturally both were anxious to place their friends and supporters in these influential positions. Moreover, the pope could claim a con- siderable contribution from those whom he appointed, and the king naturally grudged him the money. 196 Medieval and Modern Times Taxing of Church property Church courts Right of pope to interfere in government Edward I and Philip the Fair attempt to tax the clergy 2 . How far might the king venture to tax the lands and other property of the Church ? Was this vast amount of wealth to go on increasing and yet make no contribution to th*e support of the government ? The churchmen usually maintained that they needed all their money to carry on the Church services, keep up the churches and monasteries, take care of the schools and aid the poor, for the State left them to bear all these necessary burdens. The law of the Church permitted the churchmen to make voluntary gifts to the king when there was urgent necessity. 3. Then there was trouble, over the cases to be tried in the Church courts and the claim of churchmen to be tried only by clergymen. Worst of all was the habit of appealing cases to Rome, for the pope would often decide the matter in exactly the opposite way from which the king's court had decided it. 4. Lastly there was the question of how far the pope as head of the Christian Church had a right to interfere with the govern- ment of a particular state, when he did not approve of the way in which a king was acting. The powers of the pope were very great, every one admitted, but even the most devout Catholics differed somewhat as to just how great they were. We have seen some illustrations of these troubles- in the chapter on the Popes and Emperors. A famous conflict between the king of France, Philip the Fair, and Pope Boniface VIII, about the year 1300, had important results. Philip and Edward I of England, who were reigning at the same time, had got into the habit of taxing the churchmen as they did their other subjects. It was natural after a monarch had squeezed all that he could out of the Jews and the towns, and had exacted every possible feudal due, that he should turn to the rich estates of the clergy, in spite of their claim that their property was dedicated to God and owed the king nothing. The extensive enterprises of Edward I (see pp. 128 sqq., above) led him in 1296 to demand one fifth of the personal property of the clergy. Philip the Fair exacted one hundredth and then one fiftieth of the possessions of clergy and laity alike. The Medieval Church at its Height 197 Against this impartial system Boniface protested in the famous The .j™^.^ bull, Clericis laicos (1296). He claimed that the laity had always D f Boniface been exceedingly hostile to the clergy, and that the rulers were VIII » T29 ramaa m totmtdmc Cavvfo -*be. Fig. 52. Page from Wycliffe's Translation of the Bible This is the upper half of the first page of the Gospel according to Mark and contains verses 1-7 and 15-23. The scribe of the time made i, y, and th in something the same way. The page begins : " The bigyn- ninge of the gospel of ihusu crist, the sone of god. As it is writen in isaie, the prophete, Loo, I send myn aungel bifore thi face, that schal make thi weie redi bifore thee. The voice of one crying in deseert, make thee redi the weie of the lord, make thee his pathis ryghtful Joon was in deseert baptizinge and prechinge the baptism of penaunce in to remissioun of sinnes." While the spelling is somewhat different from ours it is clear that the language used by Wycliffe closely resembled that used in the familiar authorized version of the New Testament, made two centuries and a half later from flowing to Avignon, and at the meeting of the English Parliament held in 1376 a report was made to the effect that the taxes levied by the pope in England were five times those raised by the king. The Medieval Church at its Height 20 1 The most famous and conspicuous critic of the pope at this John time was John Wycliffe, a teacher at Oxford. He was born yc about 1320, but we know little of him before 1366, when Urban V demanded that England should pay the tribute prom- ised by King John when he became the pope's vassal. 1 Parlia- ment declared that John had no right to bind the people without their consent, and Wycliffe began his career of oppo- sition to the papacy by trying to prove that John's agreement was void. About ten years later we find the pope issuing bulls against the teachings of Wycliffe, who had begun to assert that the state might appropriate the property of the Church, if it was misused, and that the pope had no authority except as he acted according to the Gospels. Soon Wycliffe went further and boldly attacked the papacy itself, as well as many of the Church institutions. Wycliffe's anxiety to teach the people led him to have the Wycliffe the ,. , TT . , father of Bible translated into English. He also prepared a great num- Eng ii sh ber of sermons and tracts in English. He is the father of P rose English prose, 2 for we have little in English before his time, except poetry. Wycliffe and his " simple priests " were charged with encour- influence of , ,. - , . , , • 1 • ,1 Wycliffe's aging the discontent and disorder which culminated m the teaching Peasants' War. 3 Whether this charge was true or not, it caused many of his followers to fall away from him. But in spite of this and the denunciations of the Church, Wycliffe was not seriously interfered with and died peaceably in 1384. Wycliffe is remarkable* as being the first distinguished scholar and re- former to repudiate the headship of the pope and those prac- tices of the Church of Rome which a hundred and fifty years after his death were attacked by Luther in his successful re- volt against the Medieval Church. This will be discussed in a later chapter. 1 See above, p. 124. 2 For extracts, see Readings, chap. xxi. 8 See above, pp. 136-137. 202 Medieval and Modern Times QUESTIONS Section 38. In what ways did the Medieval Church differ from the modern churches with which we are familiar? In what ways did the Medieval Church resemble a State ? What were the powers of the pope ? What were the duties of a bishop in the Middle Ages ? Why was the clergy the most powerful class in the Middle Ages ? Section 39. What were the views of the Waldensians? of the Albigensians ? What was the Inquisition? Section 40. Narrate briefly the life of St. Francis. Did the Franciscan order continue to follow the wishes of its founder? Contrast the Dominicans with the Franciscans. Section 41. What were the chief subjects of disagreement between the Church and the State ? Describe the conflict between Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair. How did the Babylonian Captivity come about? What were some of the results of the sojourn of the* popes at Avignon ? What were the views of John Wycliffe? CHAPTER XI MEDIEVAL TOWNS -THEIR BUSINESS AND BUILDINGS The Towns and Guilds 42. In discussing the Middle Ages we have hitherto dealt mainly with kings and emperors, and with the popes and the Church of which they were the chief rulers; we have also described the monks and monasteries, the warlike feudal lords and their castles, and the hard-working serfs who farmed the manors ; but nothing has been said about the people who lived in the towns. Towns have, however, always been the chief centers of Towns the progress and enlightenment, for the simple reason that people of progress^ must live close together in large numbers before they can develop business on a large scale, carry on trade with foreign countries, establish good schools and universities, erect noble public buildings, support libraries and museums and art galleries. One does not find these in the country, for the people outside the towns are too scattered and usually too poor to have the things that are common enough in large cities. One of the chief peculiarities of the early Middle Ages, from the break-up of the Roman Empire to the time of William the Conqueror, was the absence of large and flourishing towns in western Europe, and this fact alone would serve to explain why there was so little progress. 203 204 Medieval and Modem Times Unimpor- tance of town life in the early Middle Ages Reappear- ance of towns in the eleventh century Origin of the medieval towns Compactness of a medi- eval town The Roman towns were decreasing in population before the German inroads. The confusion which followed the invasions hastened their decline, and a great number of them disappeared altogether. Those which survived and such new towns as sprang up were, to judge from the chronicles, of very little importance during the early Middle Ages. We may assume, therefore, that during the long period from Theodoric to Frederick Barbarossa by far the greater part of the population of England, Germany, and northern and central France were living in the country, on the great estates belonging to the feudal lords, abbots, and bishops. 1 It is hardly necessary to point out that the gradual reappear- ance of town life in western Europe is of the greatest interest to the student of history. The cities had been the centers of Greek and Roman civilization, and in our own time they dominate the life, culture, and business enterprise of the world. Were they to disappear, our whole life, even in the country, would neces- sarily undergo a profound change and tend to become primitive again, like that of the age of Charlemagne. A great part of the medieval towns, of which we begin to have some scanty records about the year iooo, appear to have originated on the manors of feudal lords or about a monastery or castle. The French name for town, ville, is derived from " vill," the name of the manor, and we use this old Roman word when we call a town Jacksonville or Harrisville. The need of protection was probably the usual reason for establishing a town with walls about it, so that the townspeople and the neighbor- ing country people might find safety within it when attacked by neighboring feudal lords (Fig. 53). The way in which a medieval town was built seems to justify this conclusion. It was generally crowded and compact com- pared with its more luxurious Roman predecessors. Aside from the market place there were few or no open spaces. There 1 In Italy and southern France town life was doubtless more general than in northern Europe. Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 205 were no amphitheaters or public baths as in the Roman cities. The streets were often mere alleys over which the jutting stories of the high houses almost met. The high, thick wall that sur- rounded it prevented its extending easily and rapidly as our cities do nowadays (see headpiece and Figs. 54, 77). ■r\ R'.'.V,' „ S J )k ■v.,. :i> ... v ^ i -£jV? "■!■ , \ r J t&l£fb?r&^M'M''^'^ J ^ Y:"\^i&iiiiK,,,. . '"' .''"' "" >: : ^v -^1^-^=1- Fig. 53. A Castle with a Village below it A village was pretty sure to grow up near the castle of a powerful lord and might gradually become a large town All towns outside of Italy were small in the eleventh and Townsmen twelfth centuries, and, like the manors on which they had serfs"* grown up, they had little commerce as yet with the outside world. They produced almost all that their inhabitants needed except the farm products which came from the neighboring country. There was likely to be little expansion as long as the 206 Medieval and Modem Times Increase of trade pro- motes the growth of the towns Town charters town remained under the absolute control of the lord or monas- tery upon whose land it was situated. The townspeople were scarcely more than serfs, in spite of the fact that they lived within a wall and were traders and artisans instead of farmers. They had to pay irritating dues to their lord, just as if they still formed a farming community. With the increase of trade (see following section) came the longing for greater freedom. For when new and attractive com- modities began to be brought from the East and the South, the people of the towns were encouraged to make things which they could exchange at some neighboring fair for the products of .distant lands. But no sooner did the townsmen begin to en- gage in manufacturing and to enter into relations with the out- side world than they became conscious that they were subject to exactions and restrictions which rendered progress impossible. Consequently, during the twelfth century there were many insurrections of the towns against their lords and a general demand that the lords should grant the townsmen charters in which the rights of both parties should be definitely stated. These charters were written contracts between the lord and the town government, which served at once as the certificate of birth of the town and as its constitution. The old dues and services which the townspeople owed as serfs (see above, section 20) were either abolished or changed into money payments. As a visible sign of their freedom, many of the towns had a belfry, a high building with a watchtower, where a guard was kept day and night in order that the bell might be rung in case of approaching danger. 1 It contained an assembly hall, where those who governed the town held their meetings, and a prison. In the fourteenth century the wonderful town halls began to be erected, which, with the exception of the cathedrals and other churches, are usually the most remarkable buildings which the traveler sees to-day in the old commercial cities of Europe. 1 At the beginning of this chapter there is a picture of the town of Siegen in Germany, as it formerly looked, with its walls and towers. Fig. 54. Street in Quimper, France None of the streets in even the oldest European towns look just as they did in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but here and there, as in this town of Brittany, one can still get some idea of the narrow, cramped streets and overhanging houses and the beautiful cathedral crowded in among them 207 system 208 Medieval and Modern Times Craft guilds The tradesmen in the medieval towns were at once manu- facturers and merchants ; that is, they made, as well as offered for sale, the articles which they kept in their shops. Those who belonged to a particular trade — the bakers, the butchers, the sword makers, the armorers, etc. — formed unions or guilds to protect their special interests. The oldest statutes of a guild in Paris are those of the candle makers, which go back to 106 1. The number of trades differed greatly in different towns, but the guilds all had the same object — to prevent any one from practicing a trade who had not been duly admitted to the union. The guild A young man had to spend several years in learning his trade. During this time he lived in the house of a "master workman " as an " apprentice," but received no remuneration. He then became a " journeyman " and could earn wages, although he was still allowed to work only for master workmen and not directly for the public. A simple trade might be learned in three years, but to become a goldsmith one must be an apprentice for ten years. The number of apprentices that a master workman might em- ploy was strictly limited, in order that the journeymen might not become too numerous. The way in which each trade was to be practiced was care- fully regulated, as well as the time that should be spent in work each day. The system of guilds discouraged enterprise but main- tained uniform standards everywhere. Had it not been for these unions, the defenseless, isolated workmen, serfs as they had formerly been, would have found it impossible to secure freedom and municipal independence from the feudal lords who had formerly been their masters. Business in the Later Middle Ages 43. The chief reason for the growth of the towns and their in- creasing prosperity was a great development of trade throughout western Europe. Commerce had pretty much disappeared with COMMERCIAL, TOWNS ANJ> TRADE ROUTES of the 13th and 14th Centuries Land Routes {Venetian Genoese Hanse Syracuse +4-+++-H+ 100 200 300 400 500 600 I I i i ■ i Scale of Miles Longitude East Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 209 the decline of the Roman roads and the general disorganization Practical dis- produced by the barbarian invasions. In the early Middle Ages of Commerce there was no one to mend the ancient Roman roads. The great 1 ". t J h J e 1 ea . rly b Middle Ages network of highways from Persia to Britain fell apart when inde- pendent nobles or poor local communities took the place of a world empire. All trade languished, for there was little demand for those articles of luxury which the Roman communities in the North had been accustomed to obtain from the South, and there was but little money to buy what we should consider the com- forts of life ; even the nobility lived uncomfortably enough in their dreary and rudely furnished castles. In Italy, however, trade does not seem to have altogether Italian cities ceased. Venice, Genoa, Amalfi, and other towns appear to have ^ a e orient developed a considerable Mediterranean commerce even before the Crusades (see map above, p. 160). Their merchants, as we have seen, supplied the destitute crusaders with the material necessary for the conquest of Jerusalem (see above, p. 172). The passion for pilgrimages offered inducements to the Italian merchants for expeditions to the Orient, whither they transported the pilgrims and returned with the products of the East. The Italian cities established trading stations in the East and carried on a direct traffic with the caravans which brought to the shores of the Mediterranean the products of Arabia, Persia, India, and the Spice Islands. The southern French towns and Barcelona entered also into commercial relations with the Mohammedans in northern Africa. This progress in the South could not but stir the lethargy of Commerce the rest of Europe. When commerce began to revive, it encour- Sstr^ aged a revolution in industry. So long as the manor system prevailed and each man was occupied in producing only what he and the other people on the estate needed, there was nothing to send abroad and nothing to exchange for luxuries. But when merchants began to come with tempting articles, the members of a community were encouraged to produce a surplus of goods above what they themselves needed, and to sell or exchange this 2IO Medieval and Modem Times The luxuries of the East introduced into Europe Some of the important commercial centers Obstacles to business Lack of monev surplus for commodities coming from a distance. Merchants and artisans gradually directed their energies toward the production of what others wished as well as what was needed by the little group to which they belonged. The romances of the twelfth century indicate that the West was astonished and delighted by the luxuries of the East — the rich fabrics, oriental carpets, precious stones, perfumes, drugs, silks, and porcelains from China, spices from India, and cotton from Egypt. Venice introduced the silk industry from the East and the manufacture of those glass articles which the traveler may still buy in -the Venetian shops. The West learned how to make silk and velvet as well as light and gauzy cotton and linen fabrics. The Eastern dyes were introduced, and Paris was soon imitating the tapestries of the Saracens. In exchange for those luxuries which they were unable to produce, the Flemish towns sent their woolen cloths to the East, and Italy its wines. The Northern merchants dealt mainly with Venice and brought their wares across the Brenner Pass and down the Rhine, or sent them by sea to be exchanged in Flanders (see map). By the thirteenth century important centers of trade had come into being, some of which are still among the great commercial towns of the world. Hamburg, Liibeck, and Bremen carried on active trade with the countries on the Baltic and with England. Augsburg and Nuremberg, in the south of Germany, became im- portant on account of their situation on the line of trade between Italy and the North. Bruges and Ghent sent their manufactures everywhere. English commerce was relatively unimportant as yet compared with that of the great ports of the Mediterranean. It was very difficult indeed to carry on business on a large scale in the Middle Ages, for various reasons. In the first place, as has been said, there was little money, and money is essential to buying and selling, unless people confine themselves merely to exchanging one article for another. There were few gold and silver mines in western Europe and consequently the kings and feudal lords could not supply enough coin. Moreover, the coins Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 2 1 1 were crude, with such rough, irregular edges (Fig. 55) that "Clipping" many people yielded to the temptation to pare off a little of the precious metal before they passed the money on. " Clipping," as this was called, was harshly punished, but that did not stop the practice, which continued for hundreds of years. Nowadays our coins are perfectly round and often have "milled" edges, so that no one would think of trying to appro- priate bits of them as they pass through his hands. It was univer- sally believed that everything had a "just" price, which was merely enough to cover the cost of the ma- terials used in its manufacture and to remunerate the maker for the work he had put into it. It was considered outrageous to ask more than the just price, no matter how anxious the purchaser might be to obtain the article. Every manufacturer was' required to keep a shop in which he Difficulties offered at retail all that he made. Those who lived near a town were permitted to sell their products in the market place within the walls on condition that they sold directly to the consumers. They might not dispose of their whole stock to one dealer, for fear that if he had all there was of a commodity he might raise Fig. 55. Medieval Coins The two upper coins reproduce the face and back of a silver penny of William the Conqueror's reign, and below is a silver groat of Edward III. The same ir- regularities in outline, it may be noted, are to be observed in Greek and Roman coins in the way of wholesale trade 212 Medieval and Modem Times Payment of interest on money forbidden The Jews as money lenders . The Lom- bards as bankers the price above the just one. These ideas made wholesale trade very difficult. Akin to these prejudices against wholesale business was that against interest. Money was believed to be a dead and sterile thing, and no one had a right to demand any return for lending it. Interest was considered wicked, since it was exacted by those who took advantage of the embarrassments of others. " Usury," as the taking of even the most moderate and reasonable rate of interest was then called, was strenuously forbidden by the laws of the Church. We find church councils ordering that im- penitent usurers should be refused Christian burial and have their wills annulled. So money lending, which is necessary to all great commercial and industrial undertakings, was left to the Jews, from whom Christian conduct was not expected. This ill-starred people played a most important part in the economic development of Europe, but they were terribly mal- treated by the Christians, who held them guilty of the supreme crime of putting Christ to death. The active persecution of the Jews did not, however, become common before the thirteenth century, when they first began to be required to wear a peculiar cap, or badge, which made them easily recognized and exposed them to constant insult. Later they were sometimes shut up in a particular quarter of the city, called the Jewry. As they were excluded from the guilds, they not unnaturally turned to the business of money lending, . which no Christian might practice. Undoubtedly this occupation had much to do in causing their unpopularity. The kings permitted them to make loans, often at a most exorbitant rate ; Philip Augustus allowed them to exact forty-six per cent, but reserved the right to extort their gains from them when the royal treasury was empty. In England the usual rate was a penny a pound for each week. In the thirteenth century the Italians — Lombards, as the English called them 1 — began to go into a sort of banking 1 There is a Lombard Street in the center of old London where one still finds banks. Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 213 business and greatly extended the employment of bills of ex- change. They lent for nothing, but exacted damages for all de- lay in repayment. This appeared reasonable and right even to those who condemned ordinary interest. Another serious disadvantage which the medieval merchant Tolls, duties, had to face was the payment of an infinite number of tolls and annoyances duties which were demanded by the lords through whose domains to wl } lch J ° merchants his road passed. Not only were duties exacted on the highways, were sub- bridges, and at the fords, but those barons who were so fortunate land as to have castles on a navigable river blocked the stream in such a way that the merchant could not bring his vessel through without a payment for the privilege. The charges were usually small, but the way in which they were collected and the repeated delays must have been a serious source of irritation and loss to the merchants. For example, a certain monastery lying between Paris and the sea required that those hastening to town with fresh fish should stop and let the monks pick out what they thought worth three pence, with little regard to the condition in which they left the goods. When a boat laden with wine passed up the Seine to Paris, the agent of the lord of Poissy could have three casks broached, and, after trying them all, he could take a measure from the one he liked best. At the markets all sorts of dues had to be paid, such, for example, as fees for using the lord's scales or his measuring rod. Besides this, the great variety of coinage which existed in feudal Europe caused infinite perplexity and delay. Commerce by sea had its own particular trials, by no means Dangers confined to the hazards of wind and wave, rock and shoal. y sea Pirates were numerous in the North Sea. They were often Pirates organized and sometimes led by men of high rank, who appear to have regarded the business as no disgrace. The coasts were dangerous and lighthouses and beacons were few. Moreover, natural dangers were increased by false signals which wreckers used to lure ships to shore in order to plunder them. 214 Medieval and Modern Times The Han- seatic League Trade regu- lated by the towns (thirteenth to fifteenth century), not by nations or individuals With a view to mitigating these manifold perils, the towns early began to form unions for mutual defense. The most famous of these was that of the German cities, called the Hanseatic League. Liibeck was always the leader, but among the seventy towns which at one time and another were included in the confederation, we find Cologne, Brunswick, Danzig, and other centers of great importance. The union purchased and controlled settlements in London, — the so-called Steelyard near London Bridge, — at Wisby, Bergen, and the far-off Novgorod. in Russia. They managed to monopolize nearly the whole trade on the Baltic and North Sea, either through treaties or the influence that they were able to bring to bear. 1 The League made war on the pirates and did much to reduce the dangers of traffic. Instead of dispatching separate and defenseless merchantmen, their ships sailed out in fleets under the protection of a man-of-war. On one occasion the League undertook a successful war against the king of Denmark, who had interfered with their interests. At another time it declared war on England and brought her to terms. For two hundred years before the discovery of America, the League played a great part in the commercial affairs of western Europe ; but it had begun to decline even before the discovery of "new routes to the East and West Indies revolutionized trade. It should be observed that, during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, trade was not carried on between nations, but by the various towns, like Venice, Liibeck, Ghent, Bruges, Cologne. A merchant did not act or trade as an independent individual but as a member of a particular merchant guild, and he enjoyed the protection of his town and of the treaties it arranged. If a merchant from a certain town failed to pay a debt, a fellow-townsman might be seized if found in the town where the debt was due. At the period of which we have been speaking, an inhabitant of London was considered as much of a foreigner in Bristol as was the merchant from Cologne or 1 The ships of the Hanseatic League were very small (see below, Fig. 102). Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 215 Antwerp. Only gradually did the towns merge into the nations to which their people belonged. The increasing wealth of the merchants could not fail to raise The business them to a position of importance which earlier tradesmen had town^be- 6 not enjoyed. They began to build fine houses and to buy the fl°^ t 2f m " various comforts and luxuries which were finding their way into class western Europe. They wanted their sons to be educated, and so it came about that other people besides clergymen began to learn how to read and write. As early as the fourteenth century many of the books appear to have been written with a view of meeting the tastes and needs of the business class. Representatives of the towns were summoned to the councils of the kings — into the English Parliament and the French Estates General about the year 1300, for the monarch was obliged to ask their advice when he demanded their money to carry on his government and his wars (see above, p. 128). The rise of the business class alongside of the older orders of the clergy and nobility is one of the most momentous changes of the thirteenth century. Gothic Architecture 44 . Almost all the medieval buildings have disappeared in the Disappear- ancient towns of Europe. The stone town walls, no longer ade- me dieval quate in our times, have been removed, and their place taken buildin s s by broad and handsome avenues. The old houses have been torn down in order to widen and straighten the streets and permit the construction of modern dwellings. Here and there one can still find a walled town, but they are few in number and are merely curiosities (see Fig. 77). Of the buildings erected in towns during the Middle Ages The churches only the churches remain, but these fill the beholder with wonder simved 6 and admiration. It seems impossible that the cities of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which were neither very large nor very rich, could possibly find money enough to pay for 2l6 Medieval and Modem Times them. It has been estimated that the bishop's church at Paris (Notre Dame) would cost at least five millions of dollars to re- produce, and there are a number of other cathedrals in France, England, Italy, Spain, and Germany which must have been almost as costly. No modern buildings equal them in beauty Fig. 56. Romanesque Church of ChAtel-Montagne in the Department of Allier, France This is a pure Romanesque building with no alterations in a later style, such as are common. Heavy as the walls are, they are reenforced by buttresses along the side. All the arches are round, none of them pointed and grandeur, and they are the most striking memorial of the religious spirit and the town pride of the Middle Ages. The construction of a cathedral sometimes extended over two or three centuries, and much of the money for it must have been gathered penny by penny. It should be remembered that every one belonged in those days to the one great Catholic Church, so that the building of a new church was a matter of Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 217 interest to the whole community — to men of every rank, from the bishop himself to the workman and the peasant. Up to the twelfth century churches were built in what is The Roman- called the Romanesque, or Roman-like, style because they re- esque s y e sembled the solid old basilicas referred to in an earlier chapter (see p. 43 above). These Romanesque churches usually had stone ceilings (see Figs. 36, 38, 56), and it was necessary to make the walls very thick and solid to support them. There was a main aisle in the center, called the nave, and a narrower aisle on either side, separated from the nave by massive stone pillars, which helped hold up the heavy ceiling. These pillars were con- nected by round arches of stone above them. The tops of the windows were round, and the ceiling was constructed of round vaults, somewhat like a stone bridge, so the round Fig. 57. Figures on Notre Dame, Paris Such grotesque figures as these are very common adornments of Gothic build- ings. They are often used for spouts to carry off the rain and are called gar- goyles, that is, " throats " (compare our words "gargle" and "gurgle"). The two here represented are perched on a parapet of one of the church's towers arches form one of the striking features of the Romanesque style which distinguishes it from the Gothic style, that followed it. The windows had to be small in order that the walls should not be weakened, so the Romanesque churches are rather dark inside. The architects of France were not satisfied, however, with The Gothic this method of building, and in the twelfth century they invented sty e a new and wonderful way of constructing churches and other buildings which enabled them to do away with the heavy walls 218 Medieval and Modern Times Fig. 58. Cross Section of Amiens Cathedral It will be noticed that there is a row of rather low windows opening under the roof of the aisle. These constitute the so-called triforium (£). Above them is the clerestory (F), the windows of which open between the flying buttresses. So it came about that the walls of a Gothic church were in fact mainly windows. The Egyptians were the first to invent the clerestory and put high, wide, graceful windows in their place. This new style of architecture is known as the Gothic, 1 and its underlying prin- ciples can readily be understood from a little study of the ac- companying diagram (Fig. 58), which shows how a Gothic cathedral is supported, not by heavy walls, but by buttresses. The architects dis- covered in the first place that the concave stone ceiling, which is known as the vaulting (A), could be supported by ribs (B). These could in turn be brought together and supported on top of pillars which 1 The inappropriate name " Gothic " was given to the beautiful churches of the North by Italian architects of the sixteenth century, who did not like them and pre- ferred to build in the style of the ancient Romans. The Italians with their " classical " tastes assumed that only German barbarians — whom they carelessly called Goths — could admire a Gothic cathedral. Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 219 rested on the floor of the church. So far so good ! But the builders knew well enough that the pillars and ribs would be pushed over by the weight and outward " thrust " of the stone vaulting if they were not firmly supported from the outside. Instead of erecting heavy walls to insure this support they had recourse to but- tresses (D), which they built quite out- side the walls of the church, and con- nected them by means of " flying " buttresses (C) with the points where the pillars and ribs had the most tendency to push outward. In this way a vaulted stone ceiling could be supported without the use of a massive wall. This ingen- ious use of but- tresses instead of walls is the funda- mental principle of Gothic architecture, and it was discovered for the first time by the architects in the medieval towns. The wall, no longer essential for supporting the ceiling, was The pointed used only to inclose the building, and windows could be built as high and wide as pleased the architect. By the use of pointed instead of round arches it was possible to give great variety to Fig. 59. Flying Buttresses of Notre Dame, Paris The size of the buttresses and the height of the clerestory windows of a great cathedral are well shown here 220 Medieval and Modem Times the windows and vaulting. So pointed arches came into general use, and the Gothic is often called the " pointed " style on this account, although the use of the ribs and buttresses is the chief peculiarity of that form of architecture, not the pointed arch. The light from the huge windows (those at Beauvais are fifty to fifty-five feet high) would have been too intense had it not been softened by the stained glass, set in exquisite stone mmw^r Fig. 60. Grotesque Heads, Rheims Cathedral Here and there about a Gothic cathedral the stone carvers were accus- tomed to place grotesque and comical figures and faces. During the process of restoring the cathedral at Rheims a number of these heads were brought together, and the photograph was taken upon which the illustration is based tracery, with which they were filled. The stained glass of the medieval cathedral, especially in France, where the glass workers brought their art to the greatest perfection, was one of its chief glories. By far the greater part of this old glass has of course been destroyed, but it is still so highly prized that every bit of it is now carefully preserved, for it has never since been equaled. A window set with odd bits of it pieced together like crazy patchwork is more beautiful, in its rich and jewel-like coloring, than the finest modern work. Facade of the Cathedral at Rheims (Thirteenth Century) Rose Window of Rheims Cathedral, nearly Forty feet in Diameter, from the Inside — _ Interior of Exeter Cathedral (Early Fourteenth Century) North Porch of Chartres Cathedral (Fourteenth Century) Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 221 As the skill of the architects increased they became bolder Gothic and bolder and erected churches that were marvels of lightness scu p and delicacy of ornament, without sacrificing dignity or beauty of proportion. The facade of Rheims cathedral is one of the most famous examples of the best work of the thirteenth century, with its multitudes of sculptured figures and its gigantic rose window, filled with ex- quisite stained glass of great brilliancy. The interior of Exeter cathedral, although by no means so spacious as a number of the French churches, affords an excel- lent example of the beauty and impres- siveness of a Gothic interior. The porch before the north entrance of Chartres cathedral is a magnificent example of fourteenth-century work (see the accom- panying illustrations). One of the charms of a Gothic build- ing is the profusion of carving — statues of saints and rulers and scenes from the Bible, cut in stone. The same kind of stone was used for both constructing the building and making the statues, so they harmonize perfectly. A fine example of medieval carving is to be seen in Fig. 6 1 . Here and there the Gothic stone carvers would introduce amusing faces or comical animals (see Figs. 57, 60). In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Gothic buildings Gothic used other than churches were built. The most striking and impor- tant of these were the guild halls, erected by the rich corpora- tions of merchants, and the town halls of important cities. But the Gothic style has always seemed specially appropriate for churches. Its lofty aisles and open floor spaces, its soaring Fig. 61. Eve and the Serpent, Rheims mainly in churches 222 Medieval and Modern Times arches leading the eye toward heaven, and its glowing windows suggesting the glories of paradise, may well have fostered the faith of the medieval Christian. The Italian Cities of the Renaissance 45. We have been speaking so far of the town life in northern Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. We must now see how the Italian towns in the following two centuries reached a degree of prosperity and refinement undreamed of north of the Alps. Within their walls learning and art made such ex- traordinary progress that a special name is often given to the period when they flourished — the Renaissance} or new birth. The Italian towns, like those of ancient Greece, were each a little state with its own peculiar life and institutions. Some of them, like Rome, Milan, and Pisa, had been important in Roman times ; others, like Venice, Florence, and Genoa, did not become conspicuous until about the time of the Crusades. The map of Italy at the beginning of the fourteenth century was still divided into three zones, as it had been in the time of the Hohenstaufens. 2 To the south lay the kingdom of Naples. Then came the states of the Church, extending diagonally across the peninsula. To the north and west lay the group of city- states to which we now turn our attention. Of these none was more celebrated than Venice, which in the history of Europe ranks in importance with Paris and London. This singular town was built upon a group of sandy islets lying in the Adriatic Sea, about two miles from the mainland. It was protected from the waves by a long, narrow sand bar similar to those which fringe the Atlantic coast from New Jersey south- ward. Such a situation would not ordinarily have been delib- erately chosen as the site of a great city ; but it was a good 1 This word, although originally French, has come into such common use that it is quite permissible to pronounce it as if it were English, — re-na 'sens. 2 See map above, p. 160. Medieval Towns- — their Business and Buildings 223 place for fishermen, and its very desolation and inaccessibility recommended it to those settlers who fled from their homes on the mainland during the barbarian invasions. As time went on, the location proved to have its advantages commercially, and even before the Crusades Venice had begun to engage in foreign m 1 Fig. 62. A Scene in Venice Boats, called gondolas, take the place of carriages in Venice ; one can reach any point in the city by some one of the numerous canals, which take the place of streets. There are also narrow lanes along the canals, crossing them here and there by bridges, so one can wander about the town on foot trade. Its enterprises carried it eastward, and it early acquired possessions across the Adriatic and in the Orient. The influ- ence of this intercourse with the East is plainly shown in the celebrated church of St. Mark, whose domes and decorations suggest Constantinople rather than Italy (Fig. 63). It was not until early in the fifteenth century that Venice found it to her interest to extend her sway upon the Italian 224 Medieval and Modern Times mainland. She doubtless believed it dangerous to permit her rival, Milan, to get possession of the Alpine passes through which her goods found their way north. It may be, too, that she Fig. 63. St. Mark's and the Doge's Palace in Venice One sees the facade of St. Mark's to the left, and that of the doge's palace beyond. The church, modeled after one in Constantinople, was planned before the First Crusade and is adorned with numerous colored marble columns and slabs brought from the East. The interior is covered with mosaics, some of which go back to the twelfth and the thirteenth century. The facade is also adorned with brilliant mosaics. St. Mark's " is unique among the buildings of the world in respect to its unparalleled richness of material and decoration." The doge's palace contained the government offices and the magnificent halls in which the senate and Council of Ten met. The palace was begun about 1300, and the facade we see in the picture was commenced about a hundred years later. It shows the influence of the Gothic style, which penetrated into northern Italy preferred to draw her food supplies from the neighborhood in- stead of transporting them across the Adriatic from her eastern possessions. Moreover, all the Italian cities except Venice al- ready controlled a larger or smaller area of country about them. Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 225 In the fifteenth century Venice reached the height of its pros- perity. It had a population of two hundred thousand, which was very large for those days. It had three hundred seagoing vessels which went to and fro in the Mediterranean, carrying wares from the East to the West. It had a war fleet of forty- five galleys, manned by eleven thousand marines ready to Fig. 64. Senate Chamber in the Doge's Palace This is an example of the magnificent decoration of the rooms used by the Venetian government. It was adorned by celebrated painters in the sixteenth century, when Venice became famous for its artists fight the battles of the republic, and had agents in every im- portant city of Europe. But when the route to India by sea was discovered (see next section), Venice could no longer keep control of the trade with the East, and while it remained an important city, it no longer enjoyed its former influence and power. Although Venice was called a republic, it was really gov- erned by a very small group of persons. In 131 1, after a 2 26 . Times •mem of \\- Position and despots The .-.-'.•- lion, the famous Council of Ton was created as a son of committee of public safety. The whole government, domestic as placed in its hands, in conjunction with the s^ and the doge (that is. duke), the nominal head of the republic. The government, thus concentrated in the hands of a very few, was carried on with great secrecy, so that public discussion, such as prevailed in Florence and led to innumerable revolu- tions there, was unheard of in Venice. The Venetian merchant was such a busy person that he was quite willing that the State should exercise its functions without his interference. Venice often came to blows with other rival cities, especially \i. but its citizens lived quietly at home under the govern- ment of its senate, the Council of Ten. and the doge. The other Italian towns were not only fighting one another much of the time, but their government was often in the hands somewhat Bk< Id Greek tyrants, who got control oi towns and managed them in their own interest. There are many stories of the incredible ferocity exhibited by the Italian despots. It must be remembered that they were very rarely legitimate rulers, but usurpers, who could only hope to retain their power so long as they could keep their subjects in check and defend themselves against equally illegitimate usurpers in the neighboring cities. This situation developed a high degree of sagacity, and many of the despots found it to their interest to govern well and even to give dignity to their rule by patronizing artists and men of letters. But the despot usually made many bitter enemies and was almost necessarily suspicious of treason on the part of those about him. lie was ever conscious that at any moment he might fall a victim to the dagger or the poison cup. The Italian towns carried on their wars among themselves largely by means of hired troops. When a military expedition was proposed, a bargain was made with one of the professional leaders (c who provided the necessary force. As the soldiers had no more interest in the conflict than did those whom Medieval 7 owns — their Business and Building* 227 they opposed, who were likewise hired for the occasion, the fight was not usually very bloody ; for the object of each side was to capture the other without unnecessarily rough treatment It sometimes happened that the leader who had conquered a town for his employer appropriated the fruits of the vic- tory for himself. This occurred in the case of Milan in 1450. The old line of despots (the Viscontij having died out, the citizens hired a certain captain, named Francesco Sforza, to assist them in a war against Venice, whdse possessions now extended al- most to those of Milan. When Sforza had repelled the Venetians, the Milanese found it impossible to get rid of him, and he and his succes- sors became rulers over the town. Fig. 65. Tomb of an Italian Despot The family of the Visconti maintained them- selves many years as despots of Milan. Gian Galeazzo Visconti began in 1396 a magnificent Carthusian monastery not far from Milan, one of the most beautiful structures in Italy. Here, long after his death, a monument was erected to him as founder of the monastery. The monu- ment was begun about 1500 but not completed for several decades 228 Medieval and Modern Times Machiavelli's Florence The Medici Lorenzo the Magnificent An excellent notion of the position and policy of the Italian despots nun- be derived from a little treatise called The Prince^ written by the distinguished Florentine historian, Maehiavelli. The writer appears to have intended his book as a practical manual for the despots of his time. It is a cold-blooded discus- sion of the ways in which a usurper may best retain his control over a town after he has once got possession of it. The author even takes up the questions as to how far princes should con- sider their promises when it is inconvenient to keep them, and how many of the inhabitants the despot may wisely kill. Maehiavelli concludes that the Italian princes who have not observed their engagements overscrupulously, and who have boldly put their political adversaries out oi the way, have fared better than their more conscientious rivals. The history of Florence, perhaps the most important of the Italian cities, differs in many ways from that of Venice and of the despotisms of which Milan was an example. Florence was a republic, and all classes claimed the right to interest themselves in the government. This led to constant changes in the constitu- tion and frequent struggles between the different political parties. When one party got the upper hand it generally expelled its chief opponents from the city. Exile was a terrible punishment to a Florentine, for Florence was not merely his native city — it was his country, and loved and honored as such. By the middle of the fifteenth century Florence had come under the control of the great family of the Medici, whose members played the role of very enlightened political bosses. By quietly watching the elections and secretly controlling the selection of city officials, they governed without letting it be suspected that the people had lost their power. The most dis- tinguished member of the House of Medici was Lorenzo the Magnificent (d. 1402") ; under his rule Florence reached the height of its glory in art and literature. As one wanders about Florence to-day, he is impressed with the contradictions of the Renaissance period. The streets are Medieval Towns — their Business and Btrildings 229 lined with the palaces of the noble families to whose rivalries much of the continual disturbance was due. The lower stories of these build- ings are con- structed of great stones, like for- tresses, and their windows are barred like those of a prison (Fig. 66); yet within they were often furnished with the great- est taste and luxury. For in spite of the dis- order, against which the rich protected them- selves by mak- ing their houses half strongholds, the beautiful churches, noble public build- ings, and works of art which now fill the mu- seums indicate that mankind has never, per- haps, reached a higher degree of perfection in the arts of peace than amidst the turmoil of this restless town (see below, section 52). Fig. 66. The Palace of the Medici in Florence This was erected about 1435 by Cosimo dei Medici, and in it Lorenzo the Magnificent conducted the government of Florence and entertained the men of letters and artists with whom he liked best to as- sociate. It shows how fortresslike the lower por- tions of a Florentine palace were, in order to protect the owner from attack 230 Medieval and Modem Times Rome, the During the same period in which Venice and Florence became papacy° ie leaders in wealth and refinement, Rome, the capital of the popes, likewise underwent a great change. After the popes returned from their seventy years' resi- dence in France and Avignon (see above, p. 199) they found the town in a dilapidated state. For years they were able to do little to restore it, as there was a long period during which the papacy was weakened by the exist- ence of a rival line of popes who continued to live at Avignon. When the " great schism " was over and all the Euro- pean nations once more acknowledged the pope at Rome (141 7), it be- came possible to improve the city and revive some of its ancient glory. Architects, painters, and men of letters were called in and handsomely paid by the popes to erect and adorn magnificent build- ings and to collect a great library in the Vati- can palace. Fig. 6y. Cathedral and Bell Tower at Florence The church was begun in 1 296 and com- pleted in 1436. The great dome built by the architect Brunelleschi has made his name famous. It is 300 feet high. The fa9ade is modern but after an old design. The bell tower, or campanile, was begun by the celebrated painter Giotto about 1335 and completed about fifty years later. It is richly adorned with sculpture and colored marbles and is considered the finest structure of the kind in the world Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 231 The ancient basilica of St. Peter's (Fig. 13) no longer satis- fied the aspirations of the popes. It was gradually torn down, and after many changes of plan the present celebrated church with its vast dome and imposing approach (Fig. 68) took its St Peter's rebuilt Fig. 68. St. Peter's and the Vatican Palace This is the largest church in the world. It is about 700 feet long, includ- ing the portico, and 435 feet high, from the pavement to the cross on the dome. The reconstruction was begun as early as 1450 but it proceeded very slowly. Several great architects, Bramante, Raphael, Michael Angelo, and others were intrusted with the work. After many changes of plan the new church was finally in condition to consecrate in 1626. It is estimated that it cost over $50,000,000.' The construction of the vast palace of the popes, which one sees to the right of the church, was carried on during the same period. It is said to have no less than eleven thousand rooms. Some of them are used for museums and others are celebrated for the frescoes which adorn their walls, by Raphael, Michael Angelo, and other of Italy's greatest artists place. The old palace of the Lateran (Fig. 12), where the The Vatican government of the popes had been carried on for a thousand years, had been deserted after the return from Avignon, and the new palace of the Vatican was gradually constructed to the right of St. Peter's. It has thousands of rooms great and small, 232 Medieval and Modern Times some of them adorned by the most distinguished of the Italian painters, and others filled with ancient statuary. As one visits Venice, Florence, and Rome to-day he may still see, almost perfectly preserved, many of the finest of the build- ings, paintings, and monuments which belong to the period we have been discussing. Early Geographical Discoveries Medieval 46. The business and commerce of the medieval towns was ^commerce on 1 . u , ,1 11 i tl h. small scale on wn at would seem to us a rather small scale. 1 here were no great factories, such as have grown up in recent times with the use of steam and machinery, and the ships which sailed the Mediterranean and the North Sea were small and held only a very light cargo compared with modern merchant vessels. The gradual growth of a world commerce began with the sea voyages of the fifteenth century, which led to the exploration by Europeans of the whole globe, most of which was entirely unknown to the Venetian merchants and those who carried on the trade of the Hanseatic League. The Greeks and Romans knew little about the world beyond southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, and much that they knew was for- gotten during the Middle Ages. The Crusades took many Europeans as far east as Egypt and Syria. About 1260 two Venetian merchants, the Polo brothers, visited China and were kindly received at Pekin by the emperor of the Mongols. On Marco Polo a second journey they were accompanied by Marco Polo, the son of one of the brothers. When they got safely back to Venice in 1295, after a journey of twenty years, Marco gave an account of his experiences which filled his readers with wonder. Nothing stimulated the interest of the West more than his fabulous description of the abundance of gold in Zipangu (Japan) x and of the spice markets of the Moluccas and Ceylon. 1 See below, p. 236, 233 234 Medieval and Modern Times The dis- coveries of the Portu- guese in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries The spice trade About the year 13 18 Venice and Genoa opened up direct communication by sea with the towns of the Netherlands. Their fleets, which touched at the port of Lisbon, aroused the commercial enterprise of the Portuguese, who soon began to undertake extended maritime expeditions. By the middle of the fourteenth century they had discovered the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Azores. Before this time no one had ven- tured along the coast of Africa beyond the arid region of Sahara. The country was forbidding, there were no ports, and mariners were, moreover, discouraged by the general belief that the torrid region was uninhabitable. In 1445, however, some adventurous sailors came within sight of a headland beyond the desert and, struck by its luxuriant growth of tropical trees, they called it Cape Verde (the green cape). Its discovery put an end once for all to the idea that there were only parched deserts to the south. For a generation longer the Portuguese continued to venture farther and farther along the coast, in the hope of finding it coming to an end, so that they might make their way by sea to India. At last, in i486, Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Twelve years later (1498) Vasco da Gama, spurred on by Columbus's great discovery, after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and northward beyond Zanzibar, aided by an Arab pilot steered straight across the Indian Ocean and reached Calicut, in Hindustan, by sea. Vasco da Gama and his fellow adventurers were looked upon with natural suspicion by the Mohammedan spice merchants, who knew very well that their object was to establish direct trade between the Spice Islands (Moluccas) and western Europe. Hitherto the Mohammedans had had the monopoly of the spice trade between the Moluccas and the eastern ports of the Med- iterranean, where the products, were handed over to Italian mer- chants. The Mohammedans were unable, however, to prevent the Portuguese from concluding treaties with the Indian princes and establishing trading stations at Goa and elsewhere. In 1 5 1 2 Medieval Towns — — their Business and Buildings 235 a successor of Vasco da Gama reached Java and the Moluccas, where the Portuguese speedily built a fortress. By 15 15 Por- tugal had become the greatest among sea powers ; and spices reached Lisbon regularly without the intervention of the Moham- medan merchants or the Italian towns, which, especially Venice, were mortally afflicted by the change (see above, p. 225). K^?°~ \AMBOYNA *.' \ BANDA*" The Malay Archipelago The outline of the United States has been drawn in to make clear the vast extent of the region explored by the Portuguese at the opening of the sixteenth century. It is not far from 2000 miles from Ceylon to Malacca Strait, and as far from there on to the Spice Islands as from Denver to Richmond, Virginia There is no doubt that the desire to obtain spices was at importance this time the main reason for the exploration of the globe. ofs P lces . in 1 o encouraging This motive led European navigators to try in succession every navigation possible way to reach the East — by going around Africa, by sailing west in the hope of reaching the Indies (before they knew of the existence of America), then, after America was discovered, by sailing around it to the north or south, and even sailing around Europe to the north. 236 Medieval and Modem Times Idea of reaching the Spice Islands by sailing westward Columbus discovers America, 1492 Magellan's expedition around the world It is hard for us to understand this enthusiasm for spices, for which we care much less nowadays. One former use of spices was to preserve food, which could not then as now be carried rapidly, while still fresh, from place to place ; nor did our con- veniences then exist for keeping it by the use of ice. Moreover, spice served to make even spoiled food more palatable than it would otherwise have been. It inevitably occurred to thoughtful men that the East Indies could be reached by sailing westward. All intelligent people knew, all through the Middle Ages, that the earth was a globe. The chief authority upon the form and size of the earth con- tinued to be the ancient astronomer Ptolemy, who had lived about 150 a.d. He had reckoned the earth to be about one sixth smaller than it is ; and as Marco Polo had given an exaggerated idea of the distance which he and his companions had traveled eastward, and as no one suspected the existence of the Amer- ican continents, it was supposed that it could not be a very long journey from Europe across the Atlantic to Japan. 1 In 1492, as we all know, a Genoese navigator, Columbus (b. 1 451), who had had much experience on the sea, got together three little ships and undertook the journey westward to Zipangu, — the land of gold, — which he hoped to reach in five weeks. After thirty-two days from the time he left the Canary Islands he came upon land, the island of San Salvador, and believed himself to be in the East Indies. Going on from there he dis- covered the island of Cuba, which he believed to be the main- land of Asia, and then Haiti, which he mistook for the longed-for Zipangu. (see p. 232). Although he made three later expedi- tions and sailed down the coast of South America as far as the Orinoco, he died without realizing that he had not been exploring the coast of Asia. After the bold enterprises of Vasco da Gama and Columbus, an expedition headed by the Portuguese Magellan succeeded in circumnavigating the globe. There was now no reason why 1 See accompanying reproduction of Behaim's globe. A Map of the Globe in the Time of Columbus In 1492 a German mariner, Behaim, made a globe which is still preserved in Nuremberg. He did not know of the existence of the American continents or of the vast Pacific Ocean. It will be noticed that he places Japan (Cipango) where Mexico lies. In the reproduction many names are omitted and the outlines of North and South America are sketched in so as to make clear the misconceptions of Columbus's time Medieval Towns — their Business and Buildings 237 the new lands should not become more and more familiar to the European nations. The coast of North America was ex- plored principally by English navigators, who for over a century pressed northward, still in the vain hope of finding a northwest passage to the Spice Islands. Cortes began the Spanish conquests in the western world by The Spanish undertaking the subjugation of the Aztec empire in Mexico America Sm in 15 19. A few years later Pizarro established the Spanish power in Peru. Spain now superseded Portugal as a mari- time power, and her importance in the sixteenth century is to be attributed largely to the wealth which came to her from her possessions in the New World — mainly gold and silver. By the end of the century the Spanish main — that is, the The Spanish northern coast of South America — was much frequented by adventurous seamen, who combined in about equal parts the occupations of merchant, slaver, and pirate. Many of these hailed from English ports, and it is to them that England owes the beginning of her commercial greatness. It is hardly necessary to say that Europeans exhibited an utter disregard for the rights of the people with whom they came in contact and often treated them with contemptuous cruelty. The exploration of the globe and the conquest by European nations of peoples beyond the sea led finally to the vast colonization of modern times, which has caused many wars but has served to spread European ideas throughout the world. QUESTIONS Section 42. Why are towns necessary to progress ? How did the towns of the eleventh and twelfth centuries originate ? What was the nature of a town charter ? Describe the guild organization. Section 43. Describe the revival and extending of commerce in the Middle Ages. What were some of the obstacles to business? Describe the Hanseatic League. 238 Medieval and Modern Times Section 44. What are the chief characteristics of Romanesque churches? What were the principles of construction which made it possible to build a Gothic church ? Tell something about the decora- tion of a Gothic church. Section 45. Describe the map of Italy in the fourteenth century. What are the peculiarities of Venice? Who were the Italian despots? What is the interest of Machiavelli's Prince ? Contrast Florence with Venice. Section 46. What geographical discoveries were made before 1500? How far is it by sea from Lisbon to Calicut around the Cape of Good Hope? What was the importance of the spice trade? What led Columbus to try to reach the Indies by sailing westward? CHAPTER XII BOOKS AND SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES How the Modern Languages originated 47. We should leave the Middle Ages with a very imperfect notion of them if we did not now stop to consider what people were thinking about during that period, what they had to read, and what they believed about the world in which they lived. To begin with, the Middle Ages differed from our own time General use in the very general use then made of Latin, in both writing and £f 5£ tin speaking. The language of the Roman Empire continued to be Middle Ages used in the thirteenth century, and long after; all books that made any claim to learning were written in Latin; 1 the pro- fessors in the universities lectured in Latin, friends wrote to one another in Latin, and state papers, treaties, and legal documents were drawn up in the same language. The ability of every edu- cated person to make use of Latin, as well as of his native tongue, was a great advantage at a time when there were many obstacles to intercourse among the various nations. It helps to explain, for example, the remarkable way in which the pope kept in touch with all the clergymen of western Christendom, and the ease with which students, friars, and merchants could wander from one' country to another. There is no more interesting or important revolution than that by which the languages of the people in the various European countries gradually pushed aside the ancient tongue and took its place, so that even scholars scarcely ever think now of writing books in Latin. 1 In Germany the books published annually in the German language did not exceed those in Latin until after 1690. 239 240 Medieval and Modern Times The Ger- manic lan- guages derived from the dialects of the German barbarians The Romance languages derived from the spoken Latin In order to understand how it came about that two languages, the Latin and the native speech, were both commonly used in all the countries of western Europe all through the Middle Ages, we must glance at the origin of the modern languages. These all fall into two quite distinct groups, the Germanic and the Romance. Those German peoples who had continued to live outside of the Roman Empire, or who, during the invasions, had not set- tled far enough within its bounds to be led, as were the Franks in Gaul, to adopt the tongue of those they had conquered, natu- rally adhered to the language they had always used; namely, the particular Germanic dialect which their forefathers had spoken for untold generations. From the various languages used by the German barbarians, modern German, English, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic are derived. The second group of languages developed within the terri- tory which had formed a part of the Roman Empire, and includes modern French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. It has now been clearly proved, by a very minute study of the old forms of words, that these Romance languages were one and all derived from the spoken Latin, employed by the soldiers, merchants, and people at . large. This differed considerably from the elaborate and elegant written Latin which was used, for example, by Cicero and Caesar. It was undoubtedly much simpler in its grammar and varied a good deal in different regions ; a Gaul, for instance, could not pronounce the words like a Roman. Moreover, in conversation people did not always use the same words as those employed in books. For example, a horse was commonly spoken of as caballus, whereas a writer would use the word equus ; it is from caballus that the word for " horse " in Spanish, Italian, and French is derived (caballo, cavallo, cheval). As time went on the spoken language diverged farther and farther from the written. Latin is a troublesome speech on account of its complicated inflections and grammatical rules, Books and Science in the Middle Ages 241 which can be mastered only after a great deal of study. The people of the more remote Roman provinces and the incoming barbarians naturally paid very little attention to the niceties of syntax and found easy ways of saying what they wished. 1 Yet several centuries elapsed after the German invasions be- fore there was anything written in the language used in con- versation. So long as the uneducated could understand the correct Latin of the books when they heard it read or spoken, there was no necessity of writing anything in their familiar daily speech. But by the time Charlemagne came to the throne the gulf between the spoken and the written language had become so great that he advised that sermons should be given thereafter in the language of the people, who, apparently, could no longer follow the Latin. Although little was written in any German language before Charlemagne's time, there is no doubt that the Germans pos- sessed an unwritten literature, which was passed down by word of mouth for several centuries before any of it was written out. The oldest form of English is commonly called Anglo-Saxon Ancient nd is so different from the language which we use that, in order Anfio-s'JSn to be read, it must be learned like a foreign language. We hear of an English poet, as early as Bede's time, a century before Charlemagne. A manuscript of an Anglo-Saxon epic, called Beowulf, has been preserved which belongs perhaps to the close of the eighth century. The interest which King Alfred displayed in the English language has already been mentioned. This old form of our language prevailed until after the Norman Con- quest; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which does not close until 1 154, is written in pure Anglo-Saxon. Here is an example : " Here on thissum geare Willelm cyng geaf Rodberde eorle thone eorldom on Northymbraland. Da komon tha landes menn 1 Even the monks and others who wrote Latin in the Middle Ages often did not know enough to follow strictly the rules of the language. Moreover, they introduced many new words to meet the new conditions and the needs of the time, such as imprisonare, " to imprison " ; utlagare, " to outlaw " ; bapttzare, " to baptize " ; foresta, " forest " ; feudum, " fief," etc. 242 Medieval and Modern Times An example of English in the thirteenth century (from A Metrical Version of Genesis) togeanes him & hine ofslogen, & ix hund manna mid him." 1 In modern English this reads : "In this year King William gave the Earl Robert the earldom of Northumberland. Then came the men of the country against him and slew him, and nine hundred men with him." By the middle of the thirteenth century, two hundred years after the Norman Conquest, English begins to look somewhat familiar": And Aaron held up his hond To the water and the more lond ; Tho cam thor up schwilc froschkes here The dede al folc Egipte dere ; Summe woren wilde, and summe tame, And tho hem deden the moste schame ; In huse, in drinc, in metes, in bed, It cropen and maden hem for-dred. . . . Modernized version And Aaron held up his hand To the water and the greater land ; Then came there up such host of frogs That did all Egypt's folk harm ; Some were wild, and some were tame, And those caused them the most shame ; In house, in drink, in meats, in bed, They crept and made them in great dread. ... Chaucer (about 13 40- 1400) was the first great English writer whose works are now read with pleasure, although one is some- times puzzled by his spelling and certain words which are no longer used. This is the way one of his tales opens : A poure wydow somdel stope in age, Was whilom dwellyng in a narwe cotage, 1 In writing Anglo-Saxon two old letters are used for tk, one (J?) for the sound in " thin " and the other (ft) for that in " father." The use of these old letters serves to make the language look more different from that of to-day than it is. Books and Science in the Middle Ages 243 Bisyde a grove, stondyng in a dale. This wydwe of wichh I telle yow my tale, Syn thilke day that sche was last a wif, In pacience ladde a ful symple lyf. In the Middle Ages, however, French, not English, was the most important of the national languages of western Europe. In France a vast literature was produced in the language of the people during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries which profoundly affected the books written in Italy, Spain, Germany, and England. Two quite different languages had gradually developed in French and France from the spoken Latin of the Roman Empire. To the roven S a north, French was spoken ; to the south, Provencal. 1 Very little in the ancient French language written before the Medieval year 11 00 has been preserved. The West Franks undoubtedly romances began much earlier to sing of their heroes, of the great deeds of Clovis and Charles Martel. These famous rulers were, how- ever, completely overshadowed later by Charlemagne, who be- came the unrivaled hero of medieval poetry and romance. It was believed that he had reigned for a hundred and twenty-five years, and the most marvelous exploits were attributed to him and his knights. He was supposed, for instance, to have led a crusade to Jerusalem. Such themes as these — more legend than history — were woven into long epics, which were the first written literature of the Frankish people. These poems, com- bined with the stories of adventure, developed a spirit of patriotic enthusiasm among the French which made them regard " fair France " as the especial care of Providence. The famous Song of Roland, the chief character of which was one of Charlemagne's captains, was written before the First 1 Of course there was no sharp line of demarcation between the people who used the one language or the other, nor was Provencal confined to southern France. The language of Catalonia, beyond the Pyrenees, was essentially the same as that of Provence. French was called langue d'o'i/, and the southern language langue cFoc, each after the word used for "yes." 244 Medieval and Modem Times Romances of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table The fabliaux and the fables Crusade. In the latter part of the twelfth century the romances of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table begin to appear. These enjoyed great popularity in all western Europe for centuries, and they are by no means forgotten yet. Arthur, of whose historical existence no one can be quite sure, was supposed to have been king of Britain shortly after the Saxons gained a foothold in the island. 1 In other long poems of the time, Alexander the Great, Caesar, and other ancient worthies appear as heroes. The absolute dis- regard of historical facts and the tendency to represent the warriors of Troy and Rome as medieval knights show the in- ability of the medieval mind to understand that the past could have been different from the present. All these romances are full of picturesque adventures and present a vivid picture of the valor and loyalty of the true knight, as well as of his ruthlessness and contempt for human life. Besides the long and elaborate epics, like Roland, and the romances in verse and prose, there were numberless short stories in verse (the fabliaux), which usually dealt with the incidents of everyday life, especially with the comical ones. Then there were the fables, the most famous of which are the stories of Reynard the Fox, which were satires upon the customs of the time, particularly the weaknesses of the priests and monks. The trou- badours The Troubadours and Chivalry 48. Turning now to southern France, the beautiful songs of the troubadours, which were the glory of the Provencal tongue, reveal a gay and polished society at the courts of the numerous feudal princes. The rulers not merely protected and encouraged the poets — they aspired to be poets themselves and to enter the ranks of the troubadours, as the composers of these elegant 1 Malory's Mori d' Arthur, a ^collection of the stories of the Round Table made in the fifteenth century for English readers, is the best place to turn for these famous stories. Books and Science in the Middle Ages 245 verses were called. These songs were always sung to an accom- paniment on some instrument, usually the lute. The troubadours traveled from court to court, not only in France, but north into Germany and south into Italy, carrying with them the southern French poetry and customs. We have few examples of Provencal before the year 11 00, but from that time on, for two centuries, countless songs were written, and many of the troubadours en- joyed an international reputation. The terrible Albigensian cru- sade brought misery and death into the sprightly circles which had gathered about the Count of Toulouse and other rulers who had treated the heretics too leniently. For the student of history, the chief interest of the long poems Chivalry of northern France and the songs of the South lies in the in- sight that they give into the life and aspirations of this feudal period. These are usually summed up in the term chivalry, or knighthood, of which a word may properly be said here, since we should know little of it were it not for the literature of which we have been speaking. The knights play the chief role in all the medieval romances ; and, since many of the troubadours belonged to the knightly class, they naturally have much to say of it in their songs. Chivalry was not a formal institution established at any par- ticular moment. Like feudalism, with which it was closely con- nected, it had no founder, but appeared spontaneously throughout western Europe to meet the needs and desires of the period. When the youth of good family had been carefully trained to ride his horse, use his sword, and manage his hawk in the hunt, he was made a knight by a ceremony in which the Church took part, although the knighthood was actually conferred by an older knight. The knight was a Christian soldier, and he and his fellows Nature of were supposed to form, in a way, a separate order, with high order" 6 ty ideals of the conduct befitting their class. Knighthood was not, however, membership in an association with officers and a definite constitution. It was an ideal, half-imaginary society 240 Medieval and Modern Times The ideals of the knight The German minne- singers — a society to which even those who enjoyed the title of king or duke were proud to belong. One was not born a knight as he might be born a duke or count, and could become one only through the ceremony mentioned above. Although most knights belonged to the nobility-, one might be a noble and still not belong to the knightly order, and, on the other, hand, one who was basebom might be raised to knighthood on account of some valorous deed. The knight must, in the first place, be a Christian and must obey and defend the Church on all occasions. He must respect all forms of weakness and defend the helpless wherever he might find them. He must fight the infidel Mohammedans ceaselessly, pitilessly, and never give way before the enemy. He must perform all his feudal duties, be faithful in all things to his lord, never lie or violate his plighted word. He must be generous and give freely and ungrudgingly to the needy. He must be faithful to his lady and be ready to defend her and her honor at all costs. Even- where he must be the champion of the right against injustice and oppression. In short, chivalry was the Christianized profession of arms. In the stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table there is a beautiful picture of the ideal knight. The dead Lancelot is addressed by one of his sorrowing companions as follows : " Thou wert the courtliest knight that ever bare shield, and thou wert the truest friend to thy lover that ever bestrode horse, and thou wert the truest lover among sinful men that ever loved woman, and thou wert the kindest man that ever struck with sword, and thou wert the goodliest person that ever came among the crowd of knights, and thou wert the meekest man and the gentlest that ever ate in hall among ladies, and thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in breast." The Germans also made their contribution to the literature of chivalry. The German poets of the thirteenth century are called minnesingers. Like the troubadours, whom they greatly Books and Science in the Middle Ages 247 admired, they usually sang of love, hence their name (German, Waither Minne). The most famous of the minnesingers was Waither vogeiweide von der Vogeiweide (d. about 1228), whose songs are full of charm and of enthusiasm for his German fatherland. Wolfram von Eschenbach (d. about 1225) in his story of Parsifal gives the long and sad adventures of a knight in search of the Holy Grail — the sacred vessel which had held the blood of Christ, which only a person perfectly pure in thought, word, and deed could hope to behold. Medieval Science 49. So long as all books had to be copied by hand, there were, of course, but few of them compared with those of modern times. The literature of which we have been speaking was not in general read, but was only listened to, as it was sung or recited by those who made it their profession. Wherever the wandering troubadour or minnesinger appeared he was sure of a delighted audience for his songs and stories, both serious and light. People unfamiliar with Latin could, however, learn little of the General past, for there were no translations of the great classics of J^hTpast Greece and Rome, of Homer, Plato, Cicero, or Livy. All that they could know of ancient history was derived from the fan- tastic romances referred to above, which had for their theme the quite preposterous deeds ascribed to Alexander the Great ./Eneas, and Caesar. As for their own history, the epics relating to the earlier course of events in France and the rest of Europe were hopelessly confused. For example, the writers attributed to Charlemagne a great part of the acts of the Frankish kings from Clovis to Pippin. Of what we should call scientific books there were practically Medieval none. It is true that there was a kind of encyclopedia in verse sdencT which gave a great deal of misinformation about things in general. Every one continued to believe, as the Greeks and Romans had done, in strange animals like the unicorn, the dragon, and the 248 Medieval and Modern Times The salamander Medieval idea of the eagle's habits Moral lessons derived from the habits of animals phenix, and in still stranger habits of real animals. A single example will suffice to show what passed for zoology in the thirteenth century. " There is a little beast made like a lizard and such is its nature that it will extinguish fire should it fall into it. The beast is so cold and of such a quality that fire is not able to burn it, nor will trouble happen in the place where it shall be." This beast signifies the holy man who lives by faith, who " will never have hurt from fire nor will hell burn him. . . . This beast we name also by another name, salamander. It is accustomed to mount into apple-trees, poisons the apples, and in a well where it falls it poisons the water." "The eagle [we are told by a learned writer of the time of Henry II], on account of its great heat, mixeth very cold stones with its eggs when it sitteth on them, so that the heat shall not destroy them. In the same way our words, when we speak with undue heat, should later be tempered with discretion, so that we may conciliate in the end those whom we offended by the beginning of our speech." It will be noticed that the habits of the animals were sup- posed to have some moral or religious meaning and carry with them a lesson for mankind. It may be added that this and similar stories were centuries old and are found in the encyclo- pedias of the Romans. The most improbable things were re- peated from generation to generation without its occurring to any one to inquire if there was any truth in them. Even the most learned men of the time believed in astrology and in the miracu- lous virtues of herbs and gems. For instance, Albertus Magnus, one of the most distinguished thinkers of the thirteenth century, says that a sapphire will drive away boils and that the diamond can be softened in the blood of a stag, which will work best if the stag has been fed on wine and parsley. From the Roman and early Christian writers the Middle Ages got the idea of strange races of men and manlike creatures of various kinds. We find the following in an encyclopedia of the Books and Science in the Middle Ages - 249 thirteenth century : " Satyrs be somewhat like men, and have Strange crooked noses, and horns in the forehead, and are like to goats Seations in their feet. St. Anthony saw such an one in the wilderness. . . - and races J of men These wonderful beasts be divers ; for some of them be called Cynocephali, for they have heads as hounds, and seem beasts rather than men ; and some be called Cyclops, and have that name because each of them hath but one eye, and that in the middle of the forehead ; and some be all headless and noseless and their eyes be in the shoulders ; and some have plain faces without nostrils, and the nether lips of them stretch so that they veil therewith their faces when they be in the heat of the sun. Also in Scythia be some with so great and large ears, that they spread their ears and cover all their bodies with them, and these be called Panchios. ..." "And others there be in Ethiopia, and each of them have only one foot, so great and so large that they beshadow themselves with the foot when they lie gasping on the ground in strong heat of the sun ; and yet they be so swift that they be likened to hounds in swiftness of running, and therefore among the Greeks they be called Cynopodes. Also some have the soles of their feet turned backward behind the legs, and in each foot eight toes, and such go about and stare in the desert of Lybia." Two old subjects of study were revived and received great attention in Europe from the thirteenth century onwards until recent times. These were astrology and alchemy. Astrology was based on the belief that the planets influence the Astrology make-up of men and consequently their fate. Following an idea of the Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle, it was believed that all things were compounded of " the four elements " earth, air, fire, and water. Each person was a particular mixture of these four elements, and the position of the planets at the time of his birth was supposed to influence his mixture or "temperament." By knowing a person's temperament one could judge what he ought to do in order to be successful in life, and what he should 250 Medieval and Modern Times • avoid. For example, if one were born under the influence of Venus he should be on his guard against violent love and should choose for a trade something connected with dress or adornment ; if he were born under Mars he might make armor or horseshoes or become a successful soldier. Many common words are really astrological terms, such as " ill-starred," " disastrous," " jovial," " saturn jne," " mercurial " (derived from the names of the planets). Astrology was taught in the universities because it was supposed to be necessary for physicians to choose times when the stars were favorable for particular kinds of medical treatment. Alchemy Alchemy was chemistry directed toward the discovery of a method of turning the baser metals, like lead and copper, into gold and silver. The alchemists, even if they did not succeed in their chief aim, learned a great deal incidentally in their laboratories, and finally our modern chemistry emerged from alchemy. Like astrology, alchemy goes back to ancient times, and the people of the thirteenth century got most of their ideas through the Mohammedans, who had in turn got theirs from the Greek books on the subjects. Medieval Universities and Studies 50. All European countries now have excellent schools, col- leges, and universities. These had their beginning in the later Middle Ages. With the incoming of the barbarian Germans and the break-up of the Roman Empire, education largely disappeared and for hundreds of years there was nothing in western Europe, outside of Italy and Spain, corresponding to our universities and colleges. Some of the schools which the bishops and abbots had established in accordance with Charlemagne's commands (see above, p. 85) were, it is true, maintained all through* the dark and disorderly times which followed his death. But the little that we know of the instruction offered in them would indicate that it was very elementary. Books and Science in the Middle Ages 251 About the year 1100 an ardent young man named Abelard Abelard, started out from his home in Brittany to visit all the places ( II42 where he might hope to receive instruction in logic and phi- losophy, in which, like all his learned contemporaries, he was especially interested. He reports that he found teachers in several of the French towns, particularly in Paris, who were attracting large numbers of students to listen to their lectures upon logic, rhetoric, and theology. Abelard soon showed his superiority to his teachers by defeating them several times in debate. So he began lecturing on his own account, and such was his success that thousands of students flocked to hear him. Abelard did not found the University of Paris, as has some- times been supposed, but he did a great deal to make the dis- cussions of theological problems popular, and by his attractive method of teaching he greatly increased the number of those who wished to study. Before the end of the twelfth century the teachers had be- Origin of the come so numerous in Paris that they formed a union, or guild, of'paris 1 y for the advancement of their interests. This union of professors was called by the usual name for corporations in the Middle Ages, universitas ; hence our word " university." The king and the pope both favored the university and granted the teachers and students many of the privileges of the clergy, a class to which they were regarded as belonging, because learning had for so many centuries been confined to the clergy. About the time that we find the beginnings of a university or study of the guild of professors at Paris, another great institution of learning can^rfiaw in was growing up at Bologna. Here the chief attention was given, Bol °g na not to theology, as at Paris, but to the study of the law, both Roman and church (canon) law. Students began to stream to Bologna in greater and greater numbers. In order to protect themselves in a town where they were regarded as strangers, they also organized themselves into unions, which became so powerful that«they were able to force the professors to obey the rules which they laid down. 252 Medieval and Modem Times other uni- The University of Oxford was founded in the time of Henry II, founded probably by English students and masters who had become dis- contented at Paris for some reason. The University of Cambridge, as well as numerous universities in France, Italy, and Spain, were founded in the thirteenth century. The German universities, were established somewhat later, most of them in the latter half of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth century. The northern institutions generally took the great mother university on the Seine as their model, while those in southern Europe usually adopted the methods of Bologna. . The academic When, after some years of study, a student was examined egree - by the professors, he was, if successful, admitted to the cor- poration of teachers and became a master himself. What we call a degree to-day was originally, in the medieval universi- ties, nothing more than the right to teach ; but in the thirteenth century many who did not care to become professors in our sense of the word began to desire the honorable title of master or doctor (which is only the Latin word for "teacher "). 1 Simple The students in the medieval universities were of all ages, Ssttuctioif from tnirteen to fort Y' and even older - Tnere were ^° univer- sity buildings, and in Paris the lectures were given in the Latin Quarter, in Straw Street, so called from the straw strewn on the floors of the hired rooms where the lecturer explained the text- book, with the students squatting on the floor before him. There were no laboratories, for there was no experimentation. All that was required was a copy of the textbook. This the lecturer explained sentence by sentence, and the students listened and sometimes took notes. The most striking peculiarity of the instruction in the medieval university was the supreme deference paid to Aristotle. Most 1 The origin of the bachelor's degree, which comes at the end of our college course nowadays, may be explained as follows: The bachelor in the thirteenth century was a student who had passed part of his examinations in the course in " arts," as the college course was then called, and was permitted to teach certain elementary subjects before he became a full-fledged master. So the A.B. was inferior to the A.M. then as now. Books and Science in the Middle Ages 253 of the courses of lectures were devoted to the explanation of Aristotle's some one of his numerous treatises — his Physics, his Meta- become physics, his treatises on logic, his Ethics, his minor works J^West upon the soul, heaven and earth, etc. Only his Logic had been known to Abelard, as all his other works had been forgotten. But early in the thirteenth century all his comprehensive con- tributions to science reached the West, either from Constantinople or through the Arabs, who had brought them to Spain. The Latin translations were bad and obscure, and the lecturer had enough to do to give some meaning to them, to explain what the Arab philosophers had said of them, and, finally, to reconcile them to the teachings of Christianity. Aristotle was, of course, a pagan. He was uncertain whether Veneration the soul continued to exist after death ; he had never heard of °' the Bible and knew nothing of the salvation of man through Christ. One would have supposed that he would have been promptly rejected with horror by the ardent Christian believers of the Middle Ages. But the teachers of the thirteenth cen- tury were fascinated by his logic and astonished at his learn- ing. The great theologians of the time, Albertus Magnus (d. 1280) and Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), did not hesitate to prepare elaborate commentaries upon all his works. He was called " The Philosopher " ; and so fully were scholars convinced that it had pleased God to permit Aristotle to say the last word upon each and every branch of knowledge that they humbly accepted him, along with the Bible, the church fathers, and the canon and Roman law, as one of the unquestioned authorities which together formed a complete guide for humanity in conduct and in every branch of science. The term " scholasticism " is commonly given to the beliefs and Scholas- method of discussion of the medieval professors. To those who later outgrew the fondness for logic and the supreme respect for Aristotle, scholasticism, with its neglect of Greek and Roman literature, came to seem an arid and profitless plan of education. Yet, if we turn over the pages of the wonderful works of 254 Medieval and Modem Times Course of study Petrarch tries to learn Greek Chrysoloras begins to teach Greek in Florence, 1396 Thomas Aquinas, we see that the scholastic philosopher might be a person of extraordinary insight and learning, ready to recognize all the objections to his position and able to express himself with great clearness and cogency. 1 The training in logic, if it did not increase the sum of human knowledge, accustomed the student to make careful distinctions and pre- sent his arguments in an orderly way. No attention was given to the great subject of history in the medieval universities, nor was Greek taught. Latin had to be learned in order to carry on the work at all, but little time was given to the Roman classics. The new modern languages were considered entirely unworthy of the learned. It must, of course, be remembered that none of the books which we consider the great classics in English, French, Italian, or Spanish had as yet been written. Although the medieval professors paid the greatest respect to the Greek philosopher Aristotle and made Latin translations of his works the basis of the college course, very few of them could read any Greek and none of them knew much about Homer or Plato or the Greek tragedians and historians. In the fourteenth century Petrarch (1304-137 4) set the example in Italy of care- fully collecting all the writings of the Romans, which he greatly admired. He made an unsuccessful effort to learn Greek, for he found that Cicero and other Roman writers were constantly referring with enthusiasm to the Greek books to which they owed so much. Petrarch had not the patience or opportunity to master Greek, but twenty years after his death a learned Greek prelate from Constantinople, named Chrysoloras, came to Florence and found pupils eager to learn his language so that they could read the Greek books. Soon Italian scholars were going to Constanti- nople to carry on their studies, just as the Romans in Cicero's time had gone to Athens. They brought back copies of all the 1 An example of the scholastic method of reasoning of Thomas Aquinas may be found in Translations and Reprints, Vol. Ill, No. 6. Books and Science in the Middle Ages 255 ancient writers that they could find, and by 1430 Greek books Greek were once more known in the West, after a thousand years of b^ough?to S neglect. Ital y In this way western Europe caught up with ancient times ; The scholars could once more know all that the Greeks and Romans umanists had known and could read in the original the works of Homer, Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, and other philosophers, historians, orators, and tragedians. Those who devoted their lives to a study of the literature of Greece and Rome were called Humanists. The name is derived from the Latin word humanitas, which means " culture." In time the colleges gave up the exclusive study of Aristotle and substituted a study of the Greek and Latin literature, and in this way what is known as our " classical " course of study originated. Beginnings of Modern Inventions 51. So long, however, as intellectual men confined them- selves to studying the old books of Greece and Rome they were not likely to advance beyond what the Greeks and Romans had known. In order to explain modern discoveries and inventions we have to take account of those who began to suspect that Aris- totle was ignorant and mistaken upon many important matters, and who set to work to examine things about them with the hope of finding out more than any one had ever known before. Even in the thirteenth century there were a few scholars who Roger criticized the habit of relying upon Aristotle for all knowledge, ^ck on The most distinguished faultfinder was Roger Bacon, an English s . cholas - ° . °. ticism Franciscan monk (d. about 1290), who declared that even if Aristotle were very wise he had only planted the tree of knowl- edge and that this had " not as yet put forth all its branches nor produced all its fruits." " If we could continue to live for end- less centuries we mortals could never hope to reach full and complete knowledge of all the things which are to be known. No one knows enough of nature completely to describe the 256 Medieval and Modem Times Bacon foresees great inventions Discoveries of the thirteenth century peculiarities of a single fly and give the reason for its color and why it has just so many feet, no more and no less." Bacon held that truth could be reached a hundred thousand times better by experiments with real things than by poring over the bad Latin translations of Aristotle. " If I had my way," he declared, " I should burn all the books of Aristotle, for the study of them can only lead to a loss of time, produce error and increase ignorance." Roger Bacon declared that if men would only study common things instead of reading the books of the ancients, science would outdo the wonders which people of his day thought could be produced by magic. He said that in time men would be able to fly, would have carriages which needed no horses to draw them and ships which would move swiftly without oars, and that bridges could be built without piers to support them. All this and much more has come true, but inventors and modern scientists owe but little to the books of the Greeks and Romans, which the scholastic philosophers and the Humanists relied upon. Although the Greek philosophers devoted consider- able attention to natural science, they were not much inclined to make long and careful experiments or to invent anything like the microscope or telescope to help them. They knew very little indeed about the laws of nature and were sadly mistaken upon many points. Aristotle thought that the sun and all the stars revolved about the earth and that the heavenly bodies were per- fect and unchangeable. He believed that heavy bodies fell faster than light ones and that all earthly things were made of the four elements — earth, air, water, and fire. The Greeks and Romans knew nothing of the compass, or gunpowder, or the printing press, or the uses to which steam can be put. Indeed, they had scarcely anything that we should call a machine. The thirteenth century witnessed certain absolutely new achievements in the history of mankind. The compass began to be utilized in a way to encourage bolder and bolder ventures out upon the ocean (see above, section 46). The properties of the lens were discovered, and before the end of the century Books and Science in the Middle Ages 257 spectacles are mentioned. The lens made the later telescope, microscope, spectroscope, and camera possible, upon which so much of our modern science depends. The Arabic numerals began to take the place of the awkward Roman system of using letters. One cannot well divide XLVIII by VIII, but he can easily divide 48 by 8. Roger Bacon knew of the explosive nature of a compound of sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal, and a generation after his death gunpow- der began to be used a little for guns arid artillery. A document is still preserved referring to the making of brass cannon and balls in Florence in the year 1326. By 1350 powder works were in ex- istence in at least three German towns, and French and Eng- lish books refer now and then to its use. At least a hundred and fifty years elapsed, however, before gunpowder really began to supplant the old ways of fighting with bows and arrows and axes and lances. By the year 1500 it was becoming clear that the old stone castles were insufficient protection against cannon, and a new type of unprotected castle began to be erected as residences of the kings and the nobility (see below, p. 276). Gunpowder has done away with armor, bows and arrows, spears and javelins, castles and walled towns. Arabic numerals Fig. 69. Effects of Cannon on a Medieval Castle 258 Medieval and Modern Times Advantages of printing with mova- ble type Excellent work of medieval copyists It may be that sometime some such fearfully destructive com- pound may be discovered, that the nations may decide to give up war altogether as too dangerous and terrible a thing to resort to under any circumstances. The inventions of the compass, of the lens, and of gunpowder have helped to revolutionize the world. To these may be added the printing press, which has so facilitated and encouraged read- ing that it is nowadays rare to find anybody who cannot read. The Italian classical scholars of the fifteenth century suc- ceeded, as we have seen (pp. 254-255, above), in arousing a new interest in the books of the Greeks as well as of the Romans. They carefully collected every ancient work that they could lay hands on, made copies of it, edited it, and if it was in Greek, translated it into Latin. While they were in the midst of this work certain patient experimenters in Germany and Holland were turning their attention to a new way of multiplying books rapidly and cheaply by the use of lead type and a press. The Greeks and Romans and the people of the Middle Ages knew no other method of obtaining a new copy of a book except by writing it out laboriously by hand. The professional copyists were incredibly dexterous with their quills, as may be seen in Fig. 70 — a page from a Bible of the thirteenth cen- tury which is reproduced in its original size. 1 The letters are 1 On pages 260 and 261 are reproductions, exactly the size of the original, of two pages in a manuscript Bible of the thirteenth century (in Latin) belonging to the library of Columbia University. The first of the two was chosen to illustrate the minuteness and perfection of the best work ; the second to show irregularities and mistakes due to negligence or lack of skill in the copyists. The first of the two pages is taken from 1 Maccabees i, 56-ii, 65 (a por- tion of the Scriptures not usually included in the Protestant Bibles). It begins, "... ditis fugitivorum locis. Die quintadecima mensis Caslev, quinto et quadra- gesimo et centesimo anno aedificavit rex Antiochus abominandum idolum desola- tionis super altare Dei ; et per universas civitates Juda in circitu aedificaverunt aras et ante januas domorum, et in plateis incendebant thura, et sacrificabant et libros legis Dei com[busserunt]. ? ' The scribes used a good many abbrevia- tions, as was the custom of the time, and what is transcribed here fills five lines of the manuscript. The second less perfect page here reproduced is from the prophet Amos, iii, 9-vii, 16. It begins, "vinearum vestrarum : oliveta vestra et ficeta vestra comedit eruca et non redistis ad me, dicit Dominus." Books and Science in the Middle Ages 259 as clear, small, and almost as regular as if they had been printed, illuminated The whole volume containing the Old and New Testaments is manus about the size of this book. After the scribe had finished his work the volume was often turned over to the illuminator, who would put in gay illuminated initials and sometimes page borders, which were delightful in design and color. 1 Books de- signed to be used in the church services were adorned with pic- tures as well as with ornamented initials and decorative borders. The frontispiece is a reproduction of a page from a Book of Hours in the library of Columbia University. It is the same size as the original. The written books were, in short, often both compact and Slow process beautiful, but they were never cheap or easily produced in by hand" great numbers. When Cosimo, the father of Lorenzo the Magnificent, wished to form a library just before the in- vention of printing, he applied to a contractor who engaged forty-five copyists. By working hard for nearly two years they were able to produce only two hundred volumes for the new library. Moreover, it was impossible before the invention of printing to Errors of have two copies of the same work exactly alike. Even with the greatest care a scribe could not avoid making some mistakes, and a careless copyist was sure to make a great many. The universi- ties required their students to report immediately any mistakes discovered in their textbooks, in order that the error might not be reproduced in another copy and so lead to a misunderstand- ing of the author. With the invention of printing it became possible to produce in a short time a great many copies of* a given book which were exactly alike. Consequently, if suffi- cient care was taken to see that the types were properly set, the whole edition, not simply a single copy, might be relied upon as correct. copyists 1 The word " miniature," which is often applied to them, is derived iromminium, that is, vermilion, which was one of the favorite colors. Later the word came to be applied to anything small. I east afttofciHw«mJm^mmtt;mimu&^r-ft£tt»truntl9 _ (fimntf amif»^«t»cwWart^quc«^litot^6a&m^ . ^^tmttt6nrfllucqwmi» at^ g e 4nttadpttt-t» Ujattfamfttttf feasants ^Hft^m^attcf ^t» tm tiLmiultcvtUttUMtrmarf a dtaftn«utta««o»tniigti4 d«cnC iDtttmrtfui eriamtyii ? tggtf ihmicnfteftar imtuma'ett p^me&fijgtr tf»*f ttt'cmf staiqitftiimrirt mMtn*tttituiaaitmf (ftwmmthd r- himrmmmattnEuncMteitei^rmutoquatmd^udtci t fettuttf t%tTf n JosM3tati«»t»Smi T4t»tflmr pJlt-taofmlt . tffem«tjttt, , «ian'pja-tt>g.S^Oftwg Tttuttt4Mn *». . Ivittrfeant-feSt uteitt* vs^zumettCttoxetntt&jigtyt if jbtmtiC nt eaaniif uerlmtn tftpr tt»p>flm«tgf aimi atttpsn>rt'fe ^n> i ^) i ii yfc ncratunsU^fiiiA 9juttpt£ttCgb&itttt8Qttvo$i'TtWtti'i wttutti^' ftHWf 'fft'lPwittutf wyutu jwtfCff patcrtti^/ tafa/ittaptt lp&n&et tu'&JUta tnfiamtt »tifttutttf| rtrf cd-w^ltrtTU'ctnanwf Jiitt.^ Ttnilwi ( BwttwC ttfariit t^LtmtnO'tpnffCsiittctnntni ntnfmwartiiBcxuMmji'fCC togmto cmfym''^|tf»g--flltttottfetaw m tTntt6tm % t r ifidttBtttonj Fig. 70. Page from a Copy of the Bible made in the Thirteenth Century, showing Perfection of the Best Work (see note p. 258) 260 '4tttQSi< _ utn oay t tta^t. (Duttetg ivS-t ftcerjun'A«j^' m run**? uvaf' tiTr^fatftv? A^tne^tc^o?^ubttnM»>f jtoity f tMp^txr incm>to^ft^t(Vi£rt>tMeVw*njj. i _ c c avanfu w^T4iinMtm^jbtfVc^^juwtm. , ^_^j^ ««muu nom*2 %tfettc&bum ijrufc ^ ego ; llcutf (Uy viaf ■ utAttctumfran&frfr ^eti>tr ri~a$ut&tf_ taoct ye-^et^t 1 ! o^ngrilffaiAnoivtc-tnnw^-^tedi. -' lb «• nwnnKfcmT* ttttA. Su«ctuV«? 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J?J£ctiutA"t AMuckj. ffy]^!i*bl^»l^y«l|y^pU"«a«t'c!-jBr itt^mi.'tyuv- ' frfojFe wc ylanct ttfTatua gmniUw itmi«&i« tuifctc P*?f <*'u.t(ht tcnAtrt tt ixvt' 0-itornebo (tfujsutr! — UtraT^utstf^nCAy>«Arn olwi«"cccu-utt/uintua. ferjkmjicutm obtulifkf m4n>ef«to^-An«tj[iem tfin«t-ii yaoWi uray foup»7 nit cjue-fba/U^ nob W." ^tntgiw*itoff4^tA"«^f>A«^fmbiFr nunc mtatabr' ir««c»»l«tjinfncf 'u>(cp^^-UA M>r nunc mtgt^bT' . b^wn«/jttt*ui^rtf<5 tn AiifuA.>t« ^Sr 6 *, 1 ^ *V ^ VirUunt-lDowdaM. ^o {UjtVxAm ia«j6 • -j wmofev owe JU««tw^s«^ttmtttfeotn<>-urtA,.'i-igvttt«**tituiHdf' faniniiifamtet'aJin^tr/imtxtpArtem.^rSttvt- ^ fSiutbju «i^S2f Attuff fe->«ft IvrtiVtAvA wmowtai-tif tusitiiveyaifk yJoli. ^fc(Sli»butttlU'?' Liat^cmtnttnrAtni>ftnitt^>w^<»ttliifi??. tvpottcri'x| »^tlfu4. (£c>t>rAWd.fi4f i)) ratuo aomuent one artiftriofe imprint* nOi ar raratfm^anOt: abfi^t)Uaralami fjraratonerurfftgiatae-trati lautxtn teiar Jjmo*efandi ^at0bitttoCimat9,per5lo^m fuft riufmagmmu-rtjibara^ fmn ofiipllefmio mt^i^^Oir-mfufio^uguft^ Fig. 72. Closing Lines of the Psalter of 1459 ' (Much reduced) The closing lines (that is, the so-called colophon) of the second edition of the Psalter, which are here reproduced, are substantially the same as those of the first edition. They may be translated as follows : " The present volume of the Psalms, which is adorned with handsome capitals and is clearly divided by means of rubrics, was produced not by writing with a pen but by an ingenious invention of printed characters ; and was completed to the glory of God and the honor of St. James by John Fust, a citizen of Mayence, and Peter Schoifher of Gernsheim, in the year of our Lord 1459, on the 29th of August" of, before paper was introduced into Europe by the Moham- medans. 1 Paper began to become common in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was already replacing parchment before the invention of printing. The earliest book of any considerable size to be printed was the Bible, which appears to have been completed at Mayence in the year 1 456. A year later the famous Mayence Psalter was fin- ished, the first dated book (Fig. 72). There are, however, earlier 1 The Arabs seem to have derived their knowledge of paper-making from the Chinese. Books and Science in the Middle Ages 263 examples of little books printed with engraved blocks and even with movable types. In the German towns, where the art spread rapidly, the printers adhered to the style of letters which the scribe had found it convenient to make with his quill — the so- called Gothic, or black letter. In Italy, however, where the first Black letter printing press was set up in 1466, a type was soon adopted which resembled the letters used in ancient Roman inscriptions. This was quite similar to the style of letter commonly used to-day. The Italians also invented the com- pressed italic type, which enabled them to get a great many words on a page. The early printers generally did their work conscientiously, and the very first book printed is in most respects as well done as any later book. By the year 1500, after printing had been used less than half a century, there appear to have been at least forty printing presses to be found in va- rious towns of Germany, France, Italy, the ' Netherlands, and England. These presses had, it is estimated, already printed eight millions of volumes. So there was no longer any danger of the old books being again lost, and the encouragement to write and publish new books was greatly increased. From that date our sources for history become far more voluminous Fig. 73. An Old-fashioned Printing Office Until the nineteenth century printing was carried on with very little machin- ery. The type was inked by hand, then the paper laid on and the form slipped under a wooden press operated by hand by means of a lever 264 Medieval and Modern Times than those which exist for the previous history of the world ; we are much better informed in regard to events and con- ditions since 1500 than we ever can be respecting those of the earlier periods. Development of art in Italy- Florence the art center of Italy Rome becomes the center of artistic activity The Art of the Renaissance 52. We have already described briefly the work of the medi- eval architects and referred to the beautiful carvings that adorned the Gothic cathedrals and to the pictures of saints and angels in stained glass which filled the great church windows. But in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries art developed in a most astonishing manner in Italy and set new standards for all of western Europe. Florence was the great center of artistic activity during the fifteenth century. The greatest sculptors and almost all of the most famous painters and architects of the time either were natives of Florence or did their best work there. During the first half of the century sculpture again took the lead. The bronze doors of the baptistery at Florence by Ghiberti, which were completed in 1452, are among the finest products of Renaissance sculpture (see illustration). 1 Florence reached the height of its preeminence as an art center during the reign of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was a devoted patron of all the arts. With his death (1492), this preeminence passed to Rome, which was fast becoming one of the great capitals of Europe. The art-loving popes, Julius II and Leo X, took pains to secure the services of the most dis- tinguished artists and architects of the time in the building and adornment of St. Peter's and the Vatican ; that is, the papal church and palace (see above, p. 231). 1 Opposite the cathedral at Florence (Fig. 67) stands the ancient baptistery. Its northern bronze doors, with ten scenes from the Bible, surrounded by a very lovely border of foliage, birds, and animals, were completed by Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1452, after many years of labor. Michael Angelo declared them worthy to be the gates of heaven. Ghiberti's Doors at Florence Holy Family by Andrea del Sarto Books and Science in the Middle Ages 265 During the sixteenth century the art of the Renaissance Height of reached its highest development. Among all the great artists of art _ this period three stand out in heroic proportions — Leonardo da ^^1°' Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Raphael. The first two not only Angelo, & r , . , . Raphael practiced, but achieved distinction in, the three arts of archi- tecture, sculpture, and painting. 1 It is impossible to give in a few lines any idea of the beauty and significance of the work of these great geniuses. Both Raphael and Michael Angelo left behind them so many and such magnificent frescoes and paint- ings, and in the case of Michael Angelo statues as well, that it is easy to appreciate their importance. Leonardo, on the other hand, left but little completed work. His influence on the art of his time, which was probably greater than that of either of the others, came from his many-sidedness, his originality, and his unflagging interest in the discovery and application of new methods. He was almost more experimenter than artist. Whiie Florence could no longer boast of being the art center The Venetian of Italy, it still produced great artists, among whom Andrea del Sarto may be especially mentioned (see illustration). But the most important center of artistic activity outside of Rome in the sixteenth century was Venice. The distinguishing characteristic of the Venetian pictures is their glowing color. This is strik- Titian ingly exemplified in the paintings of Titian, the most famous (I477_I57 ' of all the Venetian painters. 2 It was natural that artists from the northern countries should Painting in be attracted by the renown of the Italian masters and, after Europe learning all that Italy could teach them, should return home to practice their art in their own particular fashion. About a century after painting began to develop in Italy two Flemish brothers, Van Eyck by name, showed that they were not only able to paint quite as excellent pictures as the Italians of their day, but they also discovered a new way of mixing their colors superior to that employed in Italy. Later, when painting had reached Diirer its height in Italy, Albrecht Diirer and Hans Holbein the ^47 I-I 5 2 ) 1 Leonardo was engineer and inventor as well. 2 See Fig. 74. j', J/. em Times Younger 1 in Germany vied with even Raphael and Michael Angelo in the mastery of their art. Outer is especially cele- brated for his wonderful woodcuts and copperplate engravings, in which held he has perhaps never been excelled. - Rubens When, in the seventeenth century, painting had declined south o) of the Alps. Dutch and Flemish masters — above all Rubens and Rembrandt — developed a new and admirable school of 07-1669) painting-. To Van Dyck, another Flemish master, we owe many Van Dyck noble portraits of historically important persons." Spain gave in^his l0 me world in the seventeenth century a painter whom some portraits would rank higher than even the greatest artists of Italy, namely, Velasquez Velasquez (.1599-1660), His genius, like that of Van Dyck, is especially conspicuous in his marvelous portraits. QUESTIONS SECTION 4". Why was Latin used by learned men. churchmen, scholars, and lawyers in the Middle Ages? What is the origin of the Germanic languages: of the Romance tongues? When does English become sufficiently modern for us to read it easily without special study ? What is the character of the French romances of the Middle Ages? SECTION 4.8. Who were the troubadours? Describe chivalry and the ideal knight. SECTION 40. Whv did people know little of history in the Middle Ages? Give some examples of the beliefs in regard to the habits oi animals and the existence of strange races of men. What value was supposed to come from studying the habits of animals? Define astrology. What words do we use that recall the beliefs of the Middle Ages in regard to the influence of the stars on man? What was alchemy ? nox 50, Who was Abelard? What was a "university" originally? Mention some early universities. What was the origin of our degrees? What subjects were studied in a medieval univer- sity? Whv was Aristotle so venerated by the medieval scholars? What was scholasticism? How and when were Greek books again brought into western Europe? Who were the Humanists? Whv did not the Humanists make any discoveries? 1 See below, Fig. ~S. - See below. Fig. So. ;; See below. Figs. 00 and oS Hooks and Science in tJic Middle Ages 267 SECTION 51. Why did Roger Bacon criticize the enthusiasm for Aristotle? What great inventions did he foresee? What great new discoveries were made in the thirteenth century? What effects did the introduction of gunpowder have? How were books made before the invention of printing? What are the dis- advantages of a book copied by hand? What is the earliest large printed book? I low rapidly did printing spread? What do you consider the chief effects of the introduction of printing? SECTION 52. Say something of the chief artists of the Renais- sance in Italy and their work. Name some of the artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who lived outside of Italy. Charles V*s empire Reasons why the German kings failed to establish a strong state CHAPTER XIII EMPEROR CHARLES V AND HIS VAST REALMS Emperor Maximilian and the Hapsburg Marriages 53. In the year 1500 a baby was born in the town of Ghent who was destined before he reached the age of twenty to rule, as Emperor Charles V, over more of Europe than any one since Charlemagne. He owed his vast empire not to any conquests of his own but to an extraordinary series of royal marriages which made him heir to a great part of western Europe. These marriages had been arranged by his grandfather, Maximilian I, one of the most successful match- makers that ever lived. Maximilian belonged to the House of Hapsburg, and in order to understand European history since 1500 we must learn something of Maximilian and the Hapsburg line. The German kings had failed to create a strong kingdom such as those over which Louis XI of France and Henry VII of England ruled. Their fine title of emperor had made them a great deal of trouble and done them no good, as we have seen. 1 Their attempts to keep Italy as well as Germany under their rule, and the alliance of the mighty bishop of Rome with their enemies had well-nigh ruined them. Their position was further weakened by the fact that their office was not strictly hereditary. Although the emperors were often succeeded by their sons, each new emperor had to be elected, and those great vassals who controlled the election naturally took care to bind the candidate by solemn promises not to interfere with their 1 See above, sections 16, 28-32. 268 ouse Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 269 privileges and independence. The result was that, after the downfall of the Hohenstaufens, Germany fell apart into a great number of practically independent states, of which none were very large and some were extremely small. After an interregnum, Rudolf of Hapsburg had been chosen Rudolf of emperor in 1273 (see above, p. 164). The original seat of the g e a t s S pos7es- Hapsburgs, who were destined to play such a great part in sion of „ «. . • , ' Austria European affairs, was in northern Switzerland, where the ves- tiges of their original castle may still be seen. Rudolf was the first prominent member of the family ; he established its posi- tion and influence by seizing the duchies of Austria and Styria, which became, under his successors, the nucleus of the extensive Austrian possessions. About a century and a half after the death of Rudolf the The imperial German princes began regularly to choose as their emperor the ^ta\c^^ % ruler of the Austrian possessions, so that the imperial title became, her editary 1 'in the Hoi to all intents and purposes, hereditary in the Hapsburg line, of Austria The Hapsburgs were, however, far more interested in adding to their family domains than in advancing the interests of the German Empire as a whole. Indeed, the Holy Roman Empire was nearly defunct and, in the memorable words of Voltaire, it had ceased to be either holy, or Roman, or an empire. Maximilian, while still a very young man, married Mary of Burgundy, the heiress to the Burgundian realms, which included what we now call Holland and Belgium and portions of eastern France. In this way the House of Austria got a hold on the shores of the North Sea. Mary died in 1482 and her lands were inherited by her infant son, Philip. Maximilian's next matri- monial move was to arrange a marriage between his son Philip and Joanna, the heiress to the Spanish kingdoms, and this makes it necessary for us to turn a moment to Spain, of which little or nothing has been said since we saw how the kingdom of the Visigoths was overthrown by the Mohammedan invaders, over seven hundred years before Maximilian's time (section 14). 270 Medieval anil Modern limes Arab civiliza- tion in Spain The rise of new Chris- tian king- doms in Spain Granada and Castile The Mohammedan conquest served to make the history of Spain very different from that of the other states of Europe, One of its first and most important results was the conversion of a great part of the inhabitants to Mohammedanism. During the tenth century, which was so dark a period in the rest of Europe, the Arab civilization in Spain reached its highest de- velopment. The various elements in the population. Roman, Gothic, Arab, and Berber, appear to have been thoroughly amalgamated. Agriculture, industry, commerce, art, and the sciences made rapid progress. Cordova, with its half million of inhabitants, its stately palaces, its university, its three thou- sand mosques and three hundred public baths, was perhaps unrivaled at that period in the whole world. There were thou- sands of students at the University of Cordova at a time when, in the North, only clergymen had mastered even the simple arts of reading and writing. This brilliant civilization lasted, however, for hardly more than a hundred years. By the middle of the eleventh century the caliphate of Cordova 'had fallen to pieces, and shortly afterwards the country was overrun by new invaders from Africa. But the Christians were destined to reconquer the peninsula. As early as the year iooo 1 several small Christian kingdoms — Castile, Aragon, and Navarre — had come into existence in the northern part of Spain. Castile, in particular, began to push back the Mohammedans and, in 10S5, reconquered Toledo from them. Aragon also widened its bounds by incorporating Barce- lona and conquering the territory watered by the Ebro. By 1250 the long war of the Christians against the Mohammedans, which fills the medieval annals of Spain, had been so success- fully prosecuted that Castile extended to the south coast and included the great towns of Cordova and Seville. The Christian kingdom of Portugal was alreadv as large as it is to-day. The Moors, as the Spanish Mohammedans were called, main- tained themselves for two centuries more in the mountainous 1 See map above, p. 140. Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 271 kingdom of Granada, in the southern part of the peninsula. During this period Castile, which was the largest of the Spanish kingdoms and embraced all the central part of the peninsula, was too much occupied by internal feuds and struggles over the crown to wage successful war against the Moorish kingdom to the south. The first Spanish monarch whose name need be mentioned Marriage of here was Queen Isabella of Castile, who, in 1469, concluded castiieand an all-important marriage with Ferdinand, the heir of the crown F erdinand of of Aragon. It is with this union of Castile and Aragon that the great importance of Spain in European history begins. For the next hundred years Spain was to enjoy more military power than any other European state. Ferdinand and Isabella undertook to complete the conquest Granada, the of the peninsula, and in 1492, after a long siege, the city of str onghoid, Granada fell into their hands, and therewith the last vestige of falls Moorish domination disappeared. 1 In the same year that the conquest of the peninsula was com- Spain's in- pleted, the discoveries of Columbus, made under the auspices the New of Queen Isabella, opened up sources of undreamed-of wealth ^i 0rlc i en t beyond the seas. The transient greatness of Spain in the six- become a teenth century is largely to be attributed to the riches which po wer poured in from her American possessions. The shameless and cruel looting of the Mexican and Peruvian cities by Cortes and Pizarro (see above, p. 237), and the products of the silver mines of the New World, enabled Spain to assume, for a time, a posi- tion in Europe which her internal strength and normal resources would never have permitted. Unfortunately, the most industrious, skillful, and thrifty Persecution among the inhabitants of Spain, that is, the Moors and the Jews, and Moors who well-nigh supported the whole kingdom with the products 1 No one can gaze upon the great castle and palace of the Alhambra, which was built for the Moorish kings, without realizing what a high degree of culture the Moors had attained. Its beautiful and impressive arcades, its magnificent courts, and the delicate tracery of its arches represent the highest achievement of Arabic architecture (sec illustration, p. 71). sition 272 Medieval and Modern Times The revival of their toil, were bitterly persecuted by the Christians. So ciHnn 6 iqui anxious was Isabella to rid her kingdom of the infidels that she revived the court of the Inquisition. 1 For several decades its tribunals arrested and condemned innumerable persons who were suspected of heresy, and thousands were burned at the stake during this period. These wholesale executions have served to associate Spain especially with the horrors of the Inquisition. Finally, in 1609, a century after Isabella's death, the Moors were driven out of the country altogether. The per- secution diminished or disheartened the most useful and enter- prising portion of the Spanish people, and permanently crippled the country.. It was no wonder that the daughter and heiress of Ferdinand and Isabella seemed to Maximilian an admirable match for his son Philip. Philip died, however, in 1506, — six years after his eldest son Charles was born, — and his poor wife, Joanna, became insane with grief and was thus incapacitated for ruling. So Charles could look forward to an unprecedented accumula- tion of glorious titles as soon as his grandfathers, Maximilian of Austria and Ferdinand of Aragon, should pass away. 2 He was soon to be duke of Brabant, margrave of Antwerp, count of Holland, archduke of Austria, count of Tyrol, king, of Castile, Aragon, and Naples, 3 and of the vast Spanish possessions in America — to mention a few of his more important titles. 1 See above, pp. 1S9-190. 2 Austria Burgundy Castile Aragon Naples, etc. (America) Maximilian I = Mary (d. 1482), . Isabella = Ferdinand (d. 15 16) (d. 15 19) dau. of Charles (d. 1504) I the Bold (d. 1477) Philip (d. 1506) Joanna the Insane (d. 1555) Charles V (d. 155S) Ferdinand (d. 1564) = Anna, heiress to kingdoms Emperor, 15 19-1556 Emperor, 1556-1564 of Bohemia and Hungary 3 Naples and Sicily were in the hands of the king of Aragon at this time (P- 165). Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 273 Ferdinand died in 15 16, and Charles, now a lad of sixteen, who had been born and reared in the Netherlands, was much bewildered when he first landed in his Spanish dominions. The Burgundian advisers whom he brought with him were distasteful Charles and his Spanish possessions Fig. 74. Charles V at the Age of 48, by Titian to the haughty Spaniards, to whom, of course, they were for- eigners; suspicion and opposition awaited him in each of his several Spanish kingdoms, for he found by no means a united Spain. Each kingdom demanded special recognition of its rights and proposed important reforms before it would acknowledge Charles as its king. 274 Medieval and Modern Times Charles elected em- peror, 1 5 19 It seemed as if the boy would have his hands full in assert- ing his authority as the first kk king of Spain " ; nevertheless, a still more imposing title and still more perplexing responsibilities were to fall upon his shoulders before he was twenty years old. It had long been Maximilian's ambition that his grandson should succeed him upon the imperial throne. After his death, in 15 19, the electors finally chose Charles as emperor — the fifth of that name — instead of the rival candidate, Francis I of France. By this election the king of Spain, who had not yet been in Germany and who never learned its language, became its ruler at a critical juncture, when the teachings of Luther (see next chapter) were adding a new kind of trouble to the old disorders. How Italy became the Battleground of the European Powers • 54. In order to understand the Europe of Charles V and the constant wars which occupied him all his life, we must turn back and review the questions which had been engaging the attention of his fellow kings before he came to the throne. It is particularly necessary to see clearly how Italy had suddenly become the center of commotion — the battlefield for Spain, France, and German}-. Charles vin Charles VIII of France (J4S3-149S) possessed little of the 01 Fi"tinpf* invades Italy practical sagacity of his father, Louis XI (pp. 142-143). He dreamed of a mighty expedition against the Turks and of the conquest of Constantinople. As the first step he determined to lead an army into Italy and assert his claim, inherited from his father, to the kingdom of Naples, which was in the hands of the House of Aragon. 1 While Italy had everything to lose by 1 It will be remembered that the popes, in their long struggle with Frederick 1 1 and the Hohenstaufens, finally called in Charles of Anjou, the brother of St. Louis, and gave to him both Naples and Sicily (see above, pp. 162 ff.). Sicily revolted in 1282 and was united with the kingdom of Aragon, which still held it when Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 275 permitting a powerful foreign monarch to get a foothold in the South, there was no probability that the various little states into which the peninsula was divided would lay aside their animosities and combine against the invader. On the contrary, Charles VIII was urged by some of the Italians themselves to come. Had Lorenzo the Magnificent still been alive, he might have Savonarola 3T1Q C^n3rlf*s organized a league to oppose the French king, but he had died vin in 1492, two years before Charles started. Lorenzo's sons failed to maintain the influence over the people of Florence which their father had enjoyed ; and the leadership of the city fell into the hands of the Dominican friar, Savonarola, whose fervid preaching attracted and held for a time the attention of the fickle Florentine populace. He believed himself to be a prophet and proclaimed that God was about to scourge Italy for its iniquities. When Savonarola heard of the French invasion, it appeared Charles vn I to him that this was indeed the looked-for scourge of God, which might afflict, but would also purify, the Church. As Charles approached Florence, the people rose in revolt against the Medici, sacked their palaces, and drove out the three sons of Lorenzo. Savonarola became the chief figure in the new republic which was established. 1 Charles was admitted into Florence, but his ugly, insignificant figure disappointed the Florentines. They soon made it clear to him that they did not regard him in any sense as a conqueror, and would oppose a prolonged occupation by the French. So, after a week's stay, the French army left Florence and proceeded on its southward journey. Charles V came to the Spanish throne. Naples also was conquered by the king of Aragon, and was in his family when Charles VIII undertook his Italian expedition. Louis XI, although he claimed the right of the French to rule in Naples, had prudently refused to attempt to oust the Aragonese usurpers, as he had quite enough to do at home. 1 The fate of Savonarola was a tragic one. He lost the confidence of the Florentines and aroused the opposition of the pope. Three years after Charles VIII's visit he was accused of heresy and executed. 276 Medieval and Modern Times Attitude of The next power with which Charles had to deal was the pope, e pope who ruled over the states of the Church. The pope was greatly perturbed when he realized that the French army was upon him. He naturally dreaded to have a foreign power in control of southern Italy just as his predecessors had dreaded the efforts of the Hohenstaufen to add Naples to their empire. He was unable, however, to oppose the French and they proceeded on their way. Charles vni The success of the French king seemed marvelous, for even unconquered Naples speedily fell into his hands. But he and his troops were demoralized by the wines and other pleasures of the South, and meanwhile his enemies at last began to form a combination against him. Ferdinand of Aragon was fearful lest he might lose Sicily, and Emperor Maximilian objected to having the French control Italy. Charles's situation became so dangerous that he may well have thought himself fortunate, at the close of 1495, to escape, with the loss of only a single battle, from the country he had hoped to conquer. Results of The results of Charles VIII's expedition appear at first sight expedition trivial ; in reality they were momentous. In the first place, it was now clear to Europe that the Italians had no real national feeling, however much they might despise the " barbarians " who lived north of the Alps. From "-this time down to the latter half of the nineteenth century, Italy was dominated by foreign nations, especially Spain and Austria. In the second place, the French learned to admire the art and culture of Italy (section 52). The nobles began to change their feudal castles, which since the invention of gunpowder were no longer im- pregnable, into luxurious palaces and country houses. The new scholarship of Italy also took root and flourished not only in France but in England and Germany as well, and Greek began to be studied outside of Italy. Consequently, just as Italy was becoming, politically, the victim of foreign aggressions, it was also losing, never to regain, that intellectual leadership which it had enjoyed since the revival of interest in Latin and Greek literature. 40° 45* 50° 55° 60* V o \y A $H y* 0\ ■^o \ ° <$• y-' \ ? ^o\e»T- % V \ * .--V \j ">\ \ 1 \\ A/ / \\ \ lV '^XL '* s &\ ! \ 4V\ ^. _L- — -""7 ^'tf\-' / i \ ■«• \ ^^^> * ^ \ V. c* $*o* EUROPE about the middle oi'the SIXTEENTH CENTURY Hapslmrg Possessions SCALE OF MILES I I I I 100 200 300 400 T3aBt 20° from Greenwich 25° Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 277 It would be wearisome and unprofitable to follow the at- tempts of the French to get a foothold in Milan. Suffice it to say that Charles VIII soon died and that his successor Louis XII laid claim to the duchy of Milan in the north as well as to Naples in the south. But he concluded to sell his claim to K-CJifiJiC UHJI-. Fig. j$. Francis I Naples to Ferdinand of Aragon and centered his attention on holding Milan, but did not succeed in his purpose, largely owing to the opposition of the Pope. Francis I, who came to the French throne in 1 5 1 5 at the age of twenty, is one of the most famous of the French kings. He was gracious and chivalrous in his ideas of conduct, and his proudest title was " the gentleman king." Like his contempo- raries, Pope Leo X, son of Lorenzo de' Medici, and Henry VIII of England, he helped artists and men of letters and was interested in fine buildings (Fig. 76). 278 Medieval and Modern Times Francis I in Italy Francis opened his reign by a very astonishing victory. He led his troops into Italy over a pass which had hitherto been regarded as impracticable for cavalry and defeated the Swiss — who were in the Pope's pay — at Marignano. He then Fig. 76. Court of the Palace at Blois The expedition of Charles VIII to Italy called the attention of French architects to the beautiful Renaissance style used there. As cannon had by this time begun to render the old kind of castles with thick walls and towers useless as a means of defense, the French kings began to construct magnificent palaces of which several still exist. Charles VIII's successor, Louis XII, began a handsome structure at Blois, on the Loire River, and Francis I added a wing, the inner side of which is here reproduced. Its magnificent open staircase and wide, high windows have little in common with the old donjons of feudal times The republic of Florence becomes the grand duchy of Tuscany occupied Milan and opened negotiations with Leo X, who was glad to make terms with the victorious young king. The pope agreed that Francis should retain Milan, and Francis on his part acceded to Leo's plan for turning over Florence once more to the Medici, of which family the pope himself was a member. This was done, and some years later this wonderful republic Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 279 became the grand duchy of Tuscany, governed by a line of petty princes under whom its former glories were never renewed. Friendly relations existed at first between the two young Sources of sovereigns, Francis I and Charles V, but there were several bSween circumstances which led to an almost incessant series of wars Fn J nce and the between them. France was clamped in between the northern Hapsburgs and southern possessions of Charles, and had at that time no natural boundaries. Moreover, there was a standing dispute over portions of the Burgundian realms, for both Charles and Francis claimed the duchy of Burgundy and also the neighboring county of Burgundy — commonly called Franche-Comte' (see ac- companying map). Charles also believed that, through his grand father, Maximilian, he was entitled to Milan, which the French kings had set their hearts upon retaining. For a generation the rivals fought over these and other matters, and the wars be- tween Charles and Francis were but the prelude to a conflict lasting over two centuries between France and the overgrown power of the House of Hapsburg. In the impending struggle it was natural that both monarchs Henry vni should try to gain the aid of the king of England, whose friend- ^-f^' ship was of the greatest importance to each of them, and who was by no means loath to take a hand in European affairs. Henry VIII had succeeded his father, Henry VII, in 1509 at the age of eighteen. Like Francis, he was good-looking and graceful, and in his early years made a very happy impression upon those who came in contact with him. He gained much popularity by condemning to death the two men who had been most active in extorting the " benevolences " which his father had been wont to require of unwilling givers. With a small but important class, his learning brought him credit. He married, for his first wife, an aunt ofJfe^^ V, Catherine of Aragon, and chose as his chief advi« \ Bias Wolsey, whose career and sudden downfall were toJ^^Wran^ely associated with the fate of the unfortunate Spanish princess. 1 1 See below, pp. 315-317. 280 Medieval and Modern Times Charles V goes to Germany In 1520 Charles V started for Germany to receive the imperial crown at Aix-la-Chapelle. On his way he landed in England with the purpose of keeping Henry from forming an alliance with Francis. He judged the best means to be that of freely bribing Wolsey, who had been made a cardinal by Leo X, and who was all-powerful with Henry. Charles there- fore bestowed on the cardinal a large annuity in addition to one which he had granted him somewhat earlier. He then set sail for the Netherlands, where he was duly crowned king of the Romans. From there he proceeded, for the first time, to Germany, where he summoned his first diet at Worms. The German Empire The " Ger- manies " of the sixteenth century Weakness of the Emperor Condition of Germany when Charles V became Emperor 55. Until the close of the war of 19 14 Germany meant to us the German federation, one of the four largest of the European states. It was a compact federation, made up of twenty-two monarchies and three little city-republics. Each member of the union managed its local affairs quite independent of any other member, but left all questions of national importance to be settled by the central government at Berlin. This federation was, however, less than half a century old. In the time of Charles V there was no such Germany as this, but only what the French called the " Germanies " ; that is, two or three hundred states, which differed greatly from one another in size and character. This one had a duke, that a count, at its head, while others were ruled over by archbishops, bishops, or abbots. There were many cities, like Nuremberg, Frankfort, and Cologne, which were just as independent as the great duchies of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Saxony. Lastly there were the knights, whose possessions might consist of no more than a single strong castle with a wretched village lying at its foot. As for the emperor, he no longer had any power to control his vassals. He could boast of unlimited pretensions and great Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 281 traditions, but he had neither money nor soldiers. At the time of Luther's birth the poverty-stricken Frederick III (Maxi- milian's father) might have been seen picking up a free meal at a monastery or riding behind a slow but economical ox team. The real power in Germany lay in the hands of the more important vassals. First and fore- most among these were the seven electors, so called be- cause, since the thirteenth cen- tury, they had enjoyed the right to elect the emperor. Three of them were arch- bishops — kings in all but name of considerable terri- tories on the Rhine, namely, the electorates of Mayence, Treves, and Cologne. Near them, to the south, was the region ruled over by the elector of the Palatinate ; to the northeast were the territories of the electors of Brandenburg and of Saxony ; the king of Bohemia made the seventh of the group. Fig. 77. The Walls of rothenburg One town in Germany, Rothen- burg, on the little river Tauber, once a free imperial city, retains its old walls and towers intact and many of its old houses. It gives the visitor an excellent idea of how the smaller imperial towns looked two or three hundred years ago Beside these states, the do- minions of other rulers scarcely less important than the electors appear on the map. Some of these territories, like Wurtemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, and Baden, are familiar to us to-day as members 282 Medieval and Modern Times The towns No central power to maintain order Neighbor- hood war of the German Empire, but all of them have been much enlarged since the sixteenth century by the absorption of the little states that formerly lay within and about them. The towns, which had grown up since the great economic revolution that had brought in commerce and the use of money in the thirteenth century, were centers of culture in the north of Europe, just as those of Italy were in the south. Nuremberg, the most beautiful of the German cities, still possesses a great many of the extraordinary buildings and works of art which it produced in the sixteenth century. Some of the towns were immediate vassals of the emperor and were consequently in- dependent of the particular prince within whose territory they were situated. These were called free, or imperial, cities and must be reckoned among the states of Germany (Fig. 77). The knights, who ruled over the smallest of the German territories, had earlier formed a very important class, but the introduction of gunpowder and new methods of fighting put them at a disadvantage, for they clung to their medieval tra- ditions. Their tiny realms were often too small to support them, and they frequently turned to robbery for a living and proved a great nuisance to the merchants and townspeople whom they plundered now and then. It is clear that these states, little and big, all tangled up with one another, would be sure to have disputes among themselves which would have to be settled in some way. The emperor was not powerful enough to keep order, and the result was that each ruler had to defend himself .if attacked. Neighborhood war was permitted by law if only some courteous preliminaries were observed. For instance, a prince or town was required to give warning three days in advance before attacking another member of the Empire (see above, section 22). Germany had a national assembly, called the diet, which met at irregular intervals, now in one town and now in another, for Germany had no capital city. The towns were not permitted to send delegates until 1487, long after the townspeople were Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 283 represented in France and England. The restless knights and other minor nobles were not represented at all and consequently did not always consider the decisions of the diet binding upon them. It was this diet that Charles V summoned to meet him on the Rhine, in the ancient town of Worms, when he made his first visit to Germany in 1520. The most important business of the assembly proved to be the consideration of the case of a uni- versity professor, Martin Luther, who was accused of writing heretical books, and who had in reality begun what proved to be the first successful revolt against the seemingly all-powerful Medieval Church. QUESTIONS Section 53. When and how did the House of Hapsburg become important? What marriages were arranged by Maximilian I which affected the history of Europe ? How did Spain become a powerful kingdom? Over what countries did Ferdinand and Isabella rule? What was the extent of Charles V's dominions? Section 54. Describe the Italian expedition of Charles VIII. What were its results? What were the causes of trouble between the French kings and the Hapsburgs? What are your impressions of Francis I ? of Henry VIII ? Section 55. Contrast Germany in Charles V's time with the later German Empire. Who were the knights? the electors? What was the German diet ? Why was the emperor unable to maintain order in Germany ? CHAPTER XIV Break-up of the Medieval Church Europe divided into Catholic and Protestant countries Sources of discontent with the Church, especially in Germany MARTIN LUTHER AND THE REVOLT OF GERMANY AGAINST THE PAPACY The Question of Reforming the Church : Erasmus 56. By far the most important event during the reign of Charles V was the revolt of a considerable portion of western Europe against the popes. The Medieval Church, which was described in a previous chapter, was in this way broken up, and Protestant churches appeared in various European countries which declared themselves entirely independent of the pope and rejected a number of the religious beliefs which the Church had held previously. With the exception of England all those countries that lay within the ancient bounds of the Roman Empire — Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, as well as southern Germany and Austria — continued to be faithful to the pope and the Roman Catholic Church. On the other hand, the rulers of the northern German states, of England, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, sooner or later became Protestants. In this way Europe was divided into two great religious parties, and this led to terrible wars and cruel persecutions which fill the annals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The revolt began in Germany. The Germans, while good Catholics, were suspicious of the popes, whom they regarded as Italians, bent upon getting as much money as possible out of the simple people north of the Alps. The revenue flowing to the popes from Germany was very large. The great German prelates, like the archbishops of Mayence, Treves, and Cologne, 284 The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 285 were each expected to contribute no less than ten thousand gold guldens to the papal treasury upon having their election confirmed by the church authorities at Rome. The pope en- joyed the right to fill many important church offices in Germany, and frequently appointed Italians, who drew the revenue with- out performing the duties attached to the office. A single per- son frequently held several church offices. For example, early in the sixteenth century, the archbishop of Mayence was at the same time archbishop of Magdeburg and bishop of Halberstadt. There were instances in which a single person had accumulated over a score of benefices. It is impossible to exaggerate the impression of widespread discontent with the condition of the Church which one meets in the writings of the early sixteenth century. The whole Ger- man people, from the rulers down to the humblest tiller of the fields, felt themselves unjustly used. The clergy were denounced as both immoral and inefficient. While the begging friars — the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians x — were scorned by many, they, rather than the ordinary priests, appear to have carried on the real religious work. At first, however, no one thought of withdrawing from the Church or of attempting to destroy the power of the pope. All that the Germans wanted was that the money which flowed toward Rome should be kept at home, and that the clergy should be upright, earnest men who should conscientiously perform their religious duties. Among the critics of the Church in the early days of Charles V's Erasmus, reign the most famous and influential was Erasmus. He was H 5_I53 a Dutchman by birth, but spent his life in various other coun- tries — France, England, Italy, and Germany. He was a citizen of the world and in correspondence with literary men every- where, so that his letters give us an excellent idea of the feeling of the times. He was greatly interested in the Greek 1 The Augustinian order, to which Luther belonged, was organized in the thirteenth century, a little later than the Dominican and the Franciscan, 286 Medieval and Modern Times and Latin authors, but his main purpose in life was to better the Church, lie was well aware of the bad reputation of many of the clergymen of the time audi he especially disliked the Fig. 78. Portrait of Erasmus, by Holbein This wonderful picture by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) hangs in the Louvre gallery at Paris. We have every reason to suppose that it is an excellent portrait, for Holbein lived in Basel a considerable part of his life and knew Erasmus well. The artist was, moreover. celebrated for his skill in catching the likeness when depicting the human face. He later painted several well-known Englishmen, including Henry VIII and his little son Edward VI (see Fig. S3) monks, for when he was a boy he had been forced into a monastery, much against his will. It seemed to Erasmus that if everybody could read the Bible, especially the New Testament, for himself, it would bring about a great change for the better. He wanted to have the Gospels and the letters of Paul translated into the language The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 287 of the people so that men and women who did not know Latin could read them and be helped by them. Erasmus believed that the two arch enemies of true religion Erasmus' were (1) paganism, into which many of the more enthusiastic re iigion r Italian Humanists fell in their admiration for the Greek and Latin writers ; and (2) the popular confidence in outward acts and ceremonies, like visiting the graves of saints, the mere repetition of prayers, and so forth. He claimed that the Church had be- come careless and had permitted the simple teachings of Christ to be buried under myriads of dogmas introduced by the theo- logians. " The essence of our religion," he says, " is peace and harmony. These can only exist where there are few dogmas and each individual is left to form his own opinion upon many matters.' ' In a litde book called The Praise of Folly, Erasmus has much in his Praise to say of the weaknesses of the monks and theologians, and of % r Jm US the foolish people who thought that religion consisted simply in atta cks the 11 & & l J evils in the . pilgrimages, the worship of relics, and the procuring of indul- Church gences. Scarcely one of the abuses which Luther later attacked escaped Erasmus' pen. The book is a mixture of the lightest humor and the bitterest earnestness. As one turns its pages one is sometimes tempted to think Luther half right when he declared Erasmus " a regular jester who makes sport of every- thing, even of religion and Christ himself." Yet there was in this humorist a deep seriousness that cannot be ignored. Erasmus believed, however, that revolt from the pope and the Church would produce a great disturbance and result in more harm than good. He preferred to trust in the slower but surer effects of education and knowledge. Supersti- tions and the undue regard for the outward forms of religion would, he argued, be outgrown and quietly disappear as man- kind became more cultivated. He believed, moreover, that the time was favorable for reform. Erasmus As he looked about him he beheld intelligent rulers on the times favor- thrones of Europe, men interested in books and art and ready ab ! e for 1 J reform to help scholars and writers. There was Henry VIII of England 288 Mi and Modern Times and Francis I of France, Then the pope himself, Leo X, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was a friend and admirer o\ Erasmus and doubtless sympathized with many of his views, The youthful Charles V had advisers who believed Erasmus to be quite right and were ready to work toward a reform o\ the Church, Charles was a devout Catholic, but lie too agreed that there were many evils to be remedied. So it seemed to Erasmus that the prospects were excellent for a peaceful reform ; but, in- stead of its coming, his latter years were embittered by Luther's revolt and all the ill-feelings and dissensions that it ereated. How Martin Luther kfyoi rED against the Papacy Early years 57. Martin Luther was born in 1483. lie was the son o( a poor miner, and he often spoke in later life of the poverty and superstition in which his boyhood was spent. His father, how- ever, was determined that his son should be a lawyer, and so Martin was sent to the University of Erfurt, After he finished his college course and was about to take tip the study of the law he suddenly decided to become a monk. He summoned his college friends for a last evening together, and the next morn- ing he led them to the gate of a monastery, bade them and the world farewell, and became a begging friar. Luther He was much worried about his soul and feared that nothing professo/ no could do would save him from hell. He finally found comfort in the thought that in order to be saved he had only to believe sincerely that Cod would save him, and that he could not possibly save himself by trying to be good. He gained the re- spect of the head of the monastery, and when Frederick the Wise of Saxony (Fig, 80) was looking about for teachers in his new university at Wittenberg, Luther was recommended as a good person to teach Aristotle ; so lie became a professor. Luther As time went on Luther began to be suspicious of some of Aristotle the things that were taught in the university. He finally deeided AeTHERNA IRSE SVAE MENTIS SIAAVLACHRA D/THEFV5 BxPIRlAA.1T AT WIT VS CERA LVCAE OCCIDVOS Fig. 79. Luther as a Monk, by Cranach, [520 None of the portraits of Luther are very satisfactory. His friend Cranach was not, like Holhein the Younger, a great portrait painter. This cut shows the reformer when his revolt against the Church was just beginning. He was thirty-seven years old and still in the dress of an Augustinian friar, which he soon abandoned 289 290 Medieval and Modern Times Luther's idea of salvation Collection for rebuild- ing St. Peter's Indulgences that Aristotle was after all only an ancient heathen who knew nothing about Christianity and that -the students had no business to study his works. He urged them to rely instead upon the Bible, especially the letters of St. Paul, and upon the writings of St. Augustine, who closely followed Paul in many respects. Luther's main point was that man, through Adam's sin, had become so corrupt that he could, of himself, do nothing pleas- ing to God. He could only hope to be saved through faith in God's promise to save those who should repent. Consequently " good works," such as attending church, going on pilgrimages, repeating prayers, and visiting relics of the saints, could do nothing for a sinner if he was not already " justified by faith," that is, made acceptable to God by his faith in God's promises. If he was "justified," then he might properly go about his daily duties, for they would be pleasing to God without what the Church was accustomed to regard as " good works." Luther's teachings did not attract much attention until the year 15 17, when he was thirty-four years old. Then something occurred to give him considerable prominence. The fact has already been mentioned that the popes had undertaken the rebuilding of St. Peter's, the great central church of Christendom (see above, p. 231). The cost of the enterprise was very great, and in order to collect contributions for the purpose, Pope Leo X arranged for an extensive distribution of indulgences in Germany. In order to understand the nature of indulgences and Luther's opposition to them, we must consider the teaching of the Catholic Church in regard to the forgiveness of sin. The Church taught that if one died after committing a serious (" mortal ") sin of which he had not repented and confessed, his soul would cer- tainly be lost. If he sincerely repented and confessed his sin to a priest, God would forgive him and his soul would be saved, but he would not thereby escape punishment. This punishment might consist in fasting, saying certain prayers, going on a pil- grimage, or doing some other " good work," It was assumed, The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 29 1 however, that most men committed so many sins that even if they died repentant, they had to pass through a long period in purgatory, where they would be purified by suffering before they could enter heaven. Now an indulgence was a pardon, issued usually by the pope himself, which freed the person to whom it was granted from a part or all of his suffering in purgatory. It did not forgive his sins or in any way take the place of true repentance and confession ; it only reduced the punishment which a truly contrite sinner would otherwise have had to endure, either in this world or in purgatory, before he could be admitted to heaven. 1 The contribution to the Church which was made in return for indulgences varied greatly ; the rich were required to give a con- siderable sum, while the very poor were to receive these pardons gratis. The representatives of the pope were naturally anxious to collect all the money possible, and did their best to induce every one to secure an indulgence, either for himself or for his deceased friends in purgatory. In their zeal they made many claims for the indulgences, to which no thoughtful churchman or even layman could listen without misgivings. In October, 15 17, Tetzel, a Dominican monk, began granting Luther's indulgences in the neighborhood of Wittenberg, and making indulgence claims for them which appeared to Luther wholly irreconcilable with the deepest truths of Christianity as he understood and taught them. He therefore, in accordance with the custom of the time, wrote out a series of ninety-five statements in regard to indulgences. These theses, as they were called, he posted on the church door and invited any one interested in the matter to enter into a discussion with him on the subject, which he believed was very ill understood. 1 It is a common mistake of Protestants to suppose that the indulgence was forgiveness granted beforehand for sins to be committed in the future. There is absolutely no foundation for this idea. A person proposing to sin could not pos- sibly be contrite in the eyes of the Church, and even if he secured an indulgence, it would, according to the theologians, have been quite worthless. 292 Medieval and Modem Times Fig. 80. Portrait of Frederick the Wise, by Albrecht Durer Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, was very proud of the univer- sity that he founded at Wittenberg, and, while he was a devout Catholic and seems hardly to have understood what Luther stood for, he pro- tected his professor and did not propose to have him tried for heresy by the Church. The portrait is a fine example of the work of the artist who distinguished himself as both a painter and an engraver In posting these theses, Luther did riot intend to attack the Church, and had no expectation of creating a sensation. The theses were in Latin and addressed, therefore, only to learned men. It turned out, however, that every one, high and low, learned and unlearned, was ready to discuss the perplexing theme of the TJie Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 293 nature of indulgences. The theses were promptly translated into Contents of German, printed, and scattered abroad throughout the land. In theses* S these ni?iety-five theses Luther declared that the indulgence was very unimportant and that the poor man would better spend his money for the needs of his household. The truly repentant, he argued, do not flee punishment, but bear it willingly in sign of their sorrow. Faith in God, not the procuring of pardons, brings forgiveness, and every Christian who feels true sorrow for his sins will receive full remission of the punishment as well as of the guilt. Could the pope know how his agents misled the people, he would rather have St. Peter's burn to ashes than build it up with money gained under false pretenses. Then, Luther adds, there is danger that the common man will ask awkward questions. For example, " If the pope releases souls from purgatory for money, why not for charity's sake ? " or, " Since the pope is rich as Croesus, why does he not build St. Peter's with his own money, instead of taking that of the poor man ? " Luther now began to read church history and reached the Luther conclusion that the influence of the popes had not been very S uspickms of great until the times of Gregory VII (sections 30-31), and the P a P ac y therefore that they had not enjoyed their supremacy over the Church for more than four hundred years before his own birth. He was mistaken in this conclusion, but he had hit upon a line of argument that has been urged by Protestants ever since. They assert that the power of the Medieval Church and of the papacy developed gradually, especially during the Middle Ages, and that the apostles knew nothing of masses, indulgences, pil- grimages, purgatory, or the headship of the bishop of Rome. The publication of Luther's theses brought him many sympa- Wide diftv thizers in Germany. Some were attracted by his protests against Luther's the ways in which the popes raised money, and others liked him works for attacking Aristotle and the scholastic theologians. Erasmus' publisher at Basel agreed to publish Luther's books, of which he sent copies to Italy, France, England, and Spain, and in this 294 Medieval and Modern Times Erasmus' attitude toward the Lutheran movement Contrast between Luther and Erasmus Luther begins to use violent language way the Wittenberg monk began before long to be widely known outside of Germany as well as within it. But Erasmus himself, the mighty sovereign of the men of letters, refused to take sides in the controversy. He asserted that he had not read more than a dozen pages of Luther's writings. Although he admitted that " the monarchy of the Roman high priest was, in its existing condition, the pest of Christendom," he believed that a direct attack upon it would do no good. Luther, he urged, would better be discreet and trust that as mankind became more intelligent they would outgrow their false ideas. To Erasmus, man was capable of progress ; cultivate him and extend his knowledge, and he would grow better and better. He was, moreover, a free agent, with, on the whole, upright tendencies. To Luther, on the other hand, man was utterly cor- rupt, and incapable of a single righteous wish or deed. His will w T as enslaved to evil, and his only hope lay in the recogni- tion of his absolute inability to better himself, and in a humble reliance upon God's mercy. By faith , and not by doing "good works," could he be saved. Erasmus was willing to wait until every one agreed that the Church should be reformed. Luther had no patience with an institution which seemed to him to be leading souls to destruc- tion by inducing men to rely upon their good works. Both men realized that they could never agree. For a time they expressed respect for each other, but at last they became involved in a bitter controversy in which they gave up all pretense to friend- ship. Erasmus declared that Luther, by scorning good works and declaring that no one could do right, had made his follow- ers indifferent to their conduct, and that those who accepted Luther's teachings straightway became pert, rude fellows, who would not take off their hats to him on the street. By 1520, Luther, who gave way at times to his naturally violent disposition, had become threatening and abusive and suggested that the German rulers should punish the church- men and force them to reform their conduct. " We punish The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 295 thieves with the gallows, bandits with the sword, heretics with fire ; why should we not, with far greater propriety, attack with every kind of weapon these very masters of perdition, the cardi- nals and popes." " The die is cast," he writes to a friend ; " I despise Rome's wrath as I do her favor ; I will have no recon- ciliation or intercourse with her in all time to come. Let her condemn and burn my writings. I will, if fire can be found, publicly condemn and burn the whole papal law." Luther had gained the support of a German knight named Luthers and Ulrich von Hutten, who was an ardent enemy of the popes. appeaHothe He and Luther vied with one another during the year K20 in GenT ) an ° J ° people attacking the pope and his representatives. They both pos- sessed a fine command of the German language, and they were fired by a common hatred of Rome. Hutten had little or none of Luther's religious fervor, but he was a born fighter and he could not find colors dark enough in which to picture to his coun- trymen the greed of the papal curia, which he described as a vast den, to which everything was dragged which could be filched from the Germans. Of Luther's popular pamphlets, the first really famous one Luthers was his Addi'ess to the German Nobility, in which he calls upon \ he German the rulers of Germany, especially the knights, to reform the Nobilit y abuses themselves, since he believed that it was vain to wait for the Church to do so. He explains that there are three walls behind which the papacy had been wont to take refuge when any one proposed to remedy its abuses. There was, first, the claim that the clergy formed a separate class, superior even to the civil rulers, who were not permitted to punish a churchman, no matter how bad he was. Secondly, the pope claimed to be superior even to the great general assemblies of the Church, called councils, so that even the representatives of the Church itself might not correct him. And, lastly, the pope assumed the sole right, when questions of belief arose, to interpret with authority the meaning of the Scriptures ; consequently he could not be refuted by arguments from the Bible. 296 Medieval and Modern Tunes Luther advo- cates social as well as religious reforms Luther undertook to cast down these defenses by denying, to begin with, that there was anything especially sacred about a clergyman except the duties which he had been designated to perform. If he did not attend to his work, it should be possible to deprive him of his office at any moment, just as one would turn off an incompetent tailor or farmer, and in that case he should become a simple layman again. Luther claimed, more- over, that it was the right and duty of the civil government to punish a churchman who does wrong just as if he were the humblest layman. When this first wall was destroyed the others would fall easily enough, for the dominant position of the clergy was the very cornerstone of the Medieval Church. The Address to the German Nobility closes with a long list of evils which must be done away with before Germany can become prosperous. Luther saw that his view of religion really implied a social revolution. He advocated reducing the monas- teries to a tenth of their number and permitting those monks who were disappointed in the good they got from living in them freely to leave. He would not have the monasteries prisons, but hospitals and refuges for the soul-sick. He points out the evils of pilgrimages and of the numerous church holidays, which interfered with daily work. The clergy, he urged, should be permitted to marry and have families like other citizens. The universities should be reformed, and "the accursed heathen, Aristotle," should be cast out from them. It should be noted that Luther appeals to the authorities not in the name of religion chiefly, but in that of public order and prosperity. He says that the money of the Germans flies ' feather-light " over the Alps to Italy, but it immediately be- comes like lead when there is a question of its coming back. He showed himself a master of vigorous language, and his denunciations of the clergy and the Church resounded like a trumpet call in the ears of his countrymen. 1 1 Luther had said little of the doctrines of the Church in his Address to the German Nobility, but within three or four months he issued a second work, in excommum- The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 297 Luther had long expected to be excommunicated. But it was Luther not until late in 1520 that John Eck, a personal enemy of his, cated* arrived in Germany with a papal bull (Fig. 81) condemning many of Luther's assertions as heretical and giving him sixty days in which to recant. Should he fail to return to his senses within that time, he and all who adhered to or favored him were to be excommunicated, and any place which harbored him should fall under the interdict. Now, since the highest power in Christendom had pronounced Luther a heretic, he should un- hesitatingly have been delivered up by the German authorities. But no one thought of arresting him. The bull irritated the German princes ; whether they liked The German Luther or not, they decidedly disliked to have the pope issuing re iuctant to commands to them. Then it appeared to them very unfair that b^aeainst Luther's personal enemy should have been intrusted with the Luther publication of the bull. Even the princes and universities that were most friendly to the pope published the bull with great reluctance. In many cases the bull was ignored altogether. Luther's own sovereign, s the elector of Saxony, while no con- vert to the new views, was anxious that Luther's case should be fairly considered, and continued to protect him. One mighty prince, however, the young Emperor Charles V, promptly and willingly published the bull ; not, however, as emperor, but as ruler of the Austrian dominions and of the Netherlands. Luther's works were publicly burned at Louvain, Mayence, and Cologne, the strongholds of the old theology. The Wittenberg professor felt himself forced to oppose him- Luther defies self to both pope and emperor. " Hard it is," he exclaimed, emperor, " to be forced to contradict all the prelates and princes, but bun ^ s t buii there is no other way to escape hell and God's anger." Late 15 20 which he sought to overthrow the whole system of the sacraments, as it had been taught by the theologians. Four of the seven sacraments — ordination, marriage, confirmation, and extreme unction — he rejected altogether. He re- vised the conception of the Mass, or the Lord's Supper. The priest was, in his eyes, only a minister, in the Protestant sense of the word, one of whose chief functions was preaching. 298 Medieval and Modern Times in 1520 he summoned his students to witness what he called "a pious religious spectacle." He had a fire built outside the walls of Wittenberg and cast into it Leo X's bull condemning him, t>ttitettMm to tceMhmmitmhen etfcqmmm. Fig. 81. The Papal Bull directed against Luther, 1521 This is a much-reduced reproduction of the title-page of the pope's bull " against the errors of Martin Luther and his followers " as it was printed and distributed in Germany. The coat of arms with its "balls" is that of the Medici family to which Leo X belonged and a copy of the Laws of the Church, together with a volume of scholastic theology which he specially disliked. Yet Luther dreaded disorder. He was certainly sometimes reckless and violent in his writinars and often said that bloodshed The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 299 could not be avoided when it should please God to visit his Luther's judgments upon the stiff-necked and perverse generation of towarcfa " Romanists," as the Germans contemptuously called the sup- vl0 . lent reali- 1 J r zation of his porters of the pope. Yet he always discouraged hasty reform, reforms He was reluctant to make changes, except in belief. He held that so long as an institution did not actually mislead, it did no harm. He was, in short, no fanatic at heart. The Diet at Worms, 1 520-1 521 58. The pope's chief representative in Germany, named Ale- views of the ander, wrote as follows to Leo X about this time : "I am sentetive >re pretty familiar with the history of this German nation. I know on .P ubllc r J J opinion in their past heresies, councils, and schisms, but never were affairs Germany so serious before. Compared with present conditions, the struggle between Henry IV and Gregory VII was as violets and roses. . . . These mad dogs are now well equipped with knowledge and arms ; they boast that they are no longer ignorant brutes like their predecessors ; they claim that Italy has lost the monopoly of the sciences and that the Tiber now flows into the Rhine. Nine-tenths of the Germans are shouting ' Luther,' and the other tenth goes so far at least as ' Death to the Roman curia.' " Among the enemies of Luther and his supporters none was Charles V's more important than the young emperor. It was toward the patoy°with m ~ end of the year K20 that Charles came to Germany for the th ? German J ° J reformers first time. After being crowned King of the Romans at Aix- la-Chapelle, he assumed, with the pope's consent, the title of Emperor elect, as his grandfather Maximilian had done. He then moved on to the town of Worms, where he was to hold his first diet and face the German situation. Although scarcely more than a boy in years, Charles had already begun to take life very seriously. He had decided that Spain, not Germany, was to be the bulwark and citadel of all his realms. Like the more enlightened of his Spanish subjects, he realized the need of reforming the Church, but he had no ;^v Luthei - \\ orms Luther be- •o diet sympathy whatever with any change of religious belief. He proposed to live and die a devout Catholic of the old type, such as his orthodox ancestors had been, lie Pelt, moreover, that he must maintain the same religion in all pans of his heterogeneous ninions. If he should permit the Germans to declare their independence of the Church, the next step would be for them to claim that they had a right to regulate their government rardless of their emperor. Upon arriving at Worms the case of Luther was at once ced upon Charles's attention by .Meander, the papal repre- sentative, who was indefatigable in urging him to outlaw the heretic without further delay. While Charles seemed convinced Luther's guilt, he could not proceed against him without serious danger. The monk had become a sort of national hero and had the support of the powerful elector of Saxony. Other princes, who had ordinarily no wish to protect a heretic, felt that Luther's denunciation of the evils in the Church and of the actions of the pope was very gratifying. After much dis- cussion it was finally arranged, to the great disgust of the Jous Aleander. that Luther should be summoned to Worms and be given an opportunity to face the German nation and or, and to declare plainly whether he was the author of the heretical books ascribed to him. and whether he still adhered to the doctrines which the pope had condemned. The emperor accordingly wrote the "honorable and respected " Luther a very polite letter, desiring him to appear at Worms '. granting him a safe-conduct thither. It was not. however, proposed to give Luther an opportunity to defend his beliefs before the diet. When he appeared he was simply asked if a pile of his Latin and German works were really his, and. if so. whether he revoked what he had said in them. To the first question the monk replied in a low voice that he had written these and more. As to the second question, which involved the welfare of the soul and the Word of God. he asked that he might have a little while to consider. 'J he Revolt of Germany against the Papacy The following fh Latin acb which he repeated in German, he admitted t.- ad been dent in his attac upon hi aid thai vjld deny that, through the pop':-. nee* of faithful Chris- tians had been tormented, and their >ns, ecially in Gerrn;; Jd he recant those thh which he had said again/ nduct, r d only the papal tyranny 2 ".unity for new usurpations. If. ho v/e -gurnents ac- tion could be found in the Scriptun Jd gladly and willingly recant. J here wa* now nothing for the eror to do but to outlaw The emperor Luther, who had denied the binding character of the commands ^ to oJti^ of the head of the Church, Aioander was accordingly assigned Luther the agreeable duty of drafting the famous Edict of Worms. This document declared Luther an outlaw on the following The Edict of mds: that he questioned the recognized number and char- -r of the sacraments, impeached the regulations in regard to the marriage of the clerg corned and vilified the pope, d the priesthood and stirred up the laity to dip their hands in the blood of the cler; ied free will, taught licen- tiousness, c- authority, advocated a brutish existence, and was a menace to Church and State alike. Every one was for- bidden to give the heretic food, drink, or shelter, and required to seize him and deliver him to the emperor. Moreover, the decree pn that "no one shall dare to buy, sell, read, preserve, copy, print, or cause to be copied or printed, any books of the aforesaid Martin Luther, condemned by our holy father the pope, as aforesaid, or any other writings in German or Latin hitherto composed by him, since they are foul, noxious, suspected, and published by a notorious and stiff- necked heretic. Neither shall anyone dare to affirm his opinions, or proclaim, defend, or advance them in any other way that human ingenuity can invent, — notwithstanding that he may have put some good into his writings in order to deceive the simple man." 302 Medieval and Modern Times " I am becoming ashamed of. my fatherland," Hutten cried when he read the Edict of Worms. So general was the dis- approval of the edict that few were willing to pay any attention to it. Charles V immediately left Germany, and for nearly ten years was occupied outside it with the government of Spain and a succession of wars. Luther be- gins a new translation of the Bible in the Wartburg Luther's Bible the first impor- tant book in modern German General dis- cussion of public ques- tions in pamphlets and satires The Revolt against the Papacy begins in Germany 59. As Luther neared Eisenach upon his way home from Worms he was kidnaped by his friends and conducted to the Wartburg, a castle belonging to the elector of Saxony. Here he was concealed until any danger from the action of the emperor or diet should pass by. His chief occupation during several months of hiding was to begin a new translation of the Bible into German. He had finished the New Testament before he left the Wartburg in March, 1522. Up to this time, German editions of the Scriptures, while not uncommon, had been poor and obscure. Luther's task was a difficult one. He was anxious above all that the Bible should be put into language that would seem perfectly clear and natural to the common folk. So he went about asking the mothers and children and the laborers questions which might draw out the expression that he was looking for. It sometimes took him two or three weeks to find the right word. But so well did he do his work that his Bible may be regarded as a great land- mark in the history of the German language. It was the first book of any importance written in modern German, and it has furnished an imperishable standard for the language. Previous to 1 5 1 8 there had been very few books or pamphlets printed in German. The translation of the Bible into language so simple that even the unlearned might read it was only one of the signs of a general effort to awaken the minds of the common people. Luther's friends and enemies also commenced The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 303 to write for the great German public in its own language. The common man began to raise his voice, to the scandal of the learned. Hundreds of pamphlets, satires, and cartoons have come down to us which indicate that the religious and other ques- tions of the day were often treated in somewhat the same spirit in which our comic papers deal with political problems and discussions now. We find, for instance, a correspondence between Leo X and the devil, and a witty dialogue between a well-known knight, Franz von Sickingen, and St. Peter at the gate of heaven. Hitherto there had been a great deal of talk of reform, but Divergent as yet nothing had actually been done. There was no sharp {J ov J the line drawn between the different classes of reformers. All Church should actu- agreed that something should be done to better the Church ; ally be few realized how divergent were the real ends in view. The rulers listened to Luther because they were glad of an excuse to get control of the church property and keep money from flowing to Rome. The peasants listened because he put the Bible in their hands and they found nothing there that proved that they ought to go on paying the old dues to their lords. While Luther was quietly living in the Wartburg, translating The revolt the Bible, people began to put his teachings into practice. The egm monks and nuns left their monasteries in his own town of Wittenberg. Some of them married, which seemed a very wicked thing to all those that held to the old beliefs. The students and citizens tore down the images of the saints in the churches and opposed the celebration of the Mass, the chief Catholic ceremony. Luther did not approve of these sudden and violent changes Luther and left his hiding place to protest. He preached a series of violent 1 sermons in Wittenberg in which he urged that all alterations reform in religious services and practices should be introduced by the government and not by the people. He said, however, that those who wished might leave their monasteries and that those who 304 Medieval and Modern Times chose to stay should give up begging and earn their living like other people. He predicted that if no one gave any money to the Church, popes, bishops, monks, and nuns would in two years vanish away like smoke. Revolt of the" But his counsel was not heeded. First, the German knights knights organized a movement to put the new ideas in practice. Franz von Sickingen and Ulrich von Hutten, admirers of Luther, at- tacked the archbishop of Treves and proclaimed that they were going to free his subjects from " the heavy unchristian yoke of the ' parsons ' and lead them to evangelical liberty." But the German princes sided with the archbishop and battered down Franz von Sickingen's castle with cannon, and Franz was fatally injured by a falling beam. Twenty other castles of the knights were destroyed and this put an end to their revolt ; but Luther and his teachings were naturally blamed as the real reason for the uprising. Luther's rash The conservative party, who were frankly afraid of Luther, the princes received a new and terrible proof, as it seemed to them, of the noxious influence of his teachings. In 1525 the serfs rose, in and nobles serves to en- courage the the name of " God's justice," to avenge their wrongs and estab- revoltofthe ... J . & . . peasants lish their rights. Luther was not responsible for the civil war which followed, though he had certainly helped to stir up dis- content. He had asserted, for example, that the German feudal lords were hangmen, who knew only how to swindle the poor man. " Such fellows were formerly called rascals, but now must we call them ' Christian and revered princes.' " Yet in spite of his harsh talk about the princes, Luther really relied upon them to forward his movement, and he justly claimed that he had greatly increased their power by attacking the authority of the pope and subjecting the clergy in all things to the government. The demands Some of the demands of the peasants were perfectly rea- ants in the sonable. The most popular expression of their needs was the Articles^' dignified "Twelve Articles." 1 In these they claimed that the 1 The " Twelve Articles " may be found in Readings, Vol. II, chap. xxvi. The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 305 Bible did not sanction any of the dues which the lords de- manded of them, and that, since they were Christians like their lords, they should no longer be held as serfs. They were willing to pay all the old and well-established dues, but they asked to be properly remunerated for extra services demanded by the lord. They thought too that each community should have the right freely to choose its own pastor and to dismiss him if he proved negligent or inefficient. There were, however, leaders who were more violent and Luther urges who proposed to kill the " godless " priests and nobles. Hun- menf^sup- dreds of castles and monasteries were destroyed by the frantic pres ? . the peasantry, and some of the nobility were murdered with shock- ing cruelty. Luther tried to induce the peasants, with whom, as the son of a peasant, he was at first inclined to sympathize, to remain quiet; but when his warnings proved vain, he turned against them. He declared that they were guilty of the most fearful crimes, for which they deserved death of both body and soul many times over. They had broken their allegiance, they had wantonly plundered and robbed castles and monasteries, and lastly, they had tried to cloak their dreadful sins with ex- cuses from the Gospels. He therefore urged the government to put down the insurrection without pity. Luther's advice was followed with terrible literalness by the The peasant German rulers, and the nobility took fearful revenge on the down with peasants. In the summer of 1525 their chief leader was de- & reat cruelt y feated and killed, and it is estimated that ten thousand peasants were put to death, many with the utmost cruelty. Few of the rulers or landlords introduced any reforms, and the misfortunes due to the destruction of property and to the despair of the peasants cannot be imagined. The people concluded that the new gospel was not for them, and talked of Luther as Dr. Liigner, that is, " liar." The old exactions of the lords of the manors were in no way lightened, and the situation of the serfs for centuries following the great revolt was worse rather than better. 306 Medieval and Modern Times Southern Germany remains Catholic, the northern princes become Protestant Action of diet of Speyer, 1526 Hopes of uniting all religious parties Division of Germany into Catholic and Protestant Countries 60. Charles V was occupied at this time by his quarrels with Francis I (see p. 279) and was in no position to return to Germany and undertake to enforce the Edict of Worms against Luther and his followers. Germany, as we have seen, was divided up into hundreds of practically independent countries, and the various electors, princes, towns, and knights naturally could not agree as to what would best be done in the matter of reforming the Church. It became apparent not long after the Peasant War that some of the rulers were going to accept Luther's idea that they need no longer obey the pope but that they were free to proceed to regulate the property and affairs of the churchmen in their respective domains without regard to the pope's wishes. Other princes and towns agreed that- they would remain faithful to the pope if certain reforms were intro- duced, especially if the papal taxation were reduced. Southern Germany decided for the pope and remains Catholic down to the present day. Many of the northern rulers, on the other hand, adopted the new teachings, and finally all of them fell away from the papacy and became Protestant. Since there was no one powerful enough to decide the great question for the whole of Germany, the diet which met at Speyer in 1526 determined that pending the summoning of a church council each ruler should " so live, reign, and conduct himself as he would be willing to answer before God and His Imperial Majesty. 55 For the moment, then, the various German governments were left to determine the religion of their subjects. Yet everybody still hoped that one religion might ultimately be agreed upon. Luther trusted that all Christians would some- time accept the new gospel. He was willing that the bishops should be retained, and even that the pope should still be regarded as a sort of presiding officer in the Church. As for his enemies, they were equally confident that the heretics The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 307 would in time be suppressed, as they had always been in the past, and that harmony would thus be restored. Neither party was right ; for the decision of the diet of Speyer was destined to become a permanent arrangement, and Germany remained divided between different religious faiths. New sects opposed to the old Church had also begun to Charles v appear. Zwingli, a Swiss reformer, was gaining many followers, *§|J™ in the and the Anabaptists were rousing: Luther's apprehensions by rell g lous . con - r ° l L J troversy in their radical plans for doing away with the Catholic religion alto- Germany gether. The emperor, finding himself again free for a time to attend to German affairs, commanded the diet, which again met at Speyer in 1529, to order the enforcement of the Edict of Worms against the heretics. No one was to preach against the Mass, and no one was to be prevented from attending it freely. This meant that the " Evangelical " princes would be forced Origin of to restore the most characteristic of the Catholic ceremonies. « Protestant " As they formed only a minority in the diet, all that they could do was to draw up a protest, signed by John Frederick, elector of Saxony, Philip of Hesse, and fourteen of the imperial towns (Strassburg, Nuremberg, Ulm, etc.) . In this they claimed that the majority had no right to abrogate the edict of the former diet of Speyer, which had been passed unanimously, and which all had solemnly pledged themselves to observe. They there- fore appealed to the emperor and a future council against the tyranny of the majority. Those who signed this appeal were called from their action Protestants. Thus originated the name which came to be generally applied to those who do not accept the rule and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Ever since the diet at Worms the emperor had resided in Preparations Spain, busied with a succession of wars carried on with the ^ Augsburg king of France. It will be remembered that both Charles and Francis claimed Milan and the duchy of Burgundy, and they sometimes drew the pope into their conflicts. But in 1530 the emperor found himself at peace for the moment and came to 3oS Medieval and Modern Times The Augs- burg Con- fession Charles V ? s attempt at pacification Germany to hold a brilliant diet of his German subjects at Augsburg in the hope of settling the religious problem, which, however, he understood very imperfectly. He ordered the Prot- estants to draw up a statement of exactly what they believed, which should serve as a basis for discussion. Melanchthon, Luther's most famous friend and colleague, who was noted for his great learning and moderation, was intrusted with this delicate task. The Augsburg- Confession, as his declaration was called, is a historical document of great importance for the student of the Protestant revolt. 1 M elanchthon's gentle disposition led him to make the differences between his belief and that of the. old Church seem as few and slight as possible. He showed that both parties held the same fundamental views of Christianity. But he defended the Protestants' rejection of a number of the practices of the Roman Catholics, such as the celibacy of the clergy and the observance of fast days. There was little or nothing in the Augsburg Confession concerning the organization of the Church. Certain theologians who had been loud in their denunciations of Luther were ordered by the emperor to prepare a refutation of the Protestant views. The statement of the Catholics ad- mitted that a number of Melanchthon's positions were perfectly orthodox ; but the portion of the Augsburg Confession which dealt with the practical reforms introduced by the Protestants was rejected altogether. Charles V declared the Catholic statement to be " Christian and judicious " and commanded the Protestants to accept it. They were to cease troubling the Catholics and were to give back all the monasteries and church property which they had seized. The emperor agreed, however, to urge the pope to call a council to meet within a year. This, he hoped, would be able 1 It is still accepted as the creed of the Lutheran Church. Copies of it in English may be procured from the Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia, for ten cents each. The Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 309 to settle all differences and reform the Church according to the views of the Catholics. It is unnecessary to follow in detail the progress of Protestant- Progress of ism in Germany during the quarter of a century succeeding the is ™ ^p to the diet of Augsburg. Enough has been said to show the character ^ e u ac ^ b ^ of the revolt and the divergent views taken by the German 1555 princes and people. For ten years after the emperor left Augs- burg he was kept busy in southern Europe by new wars ; and in order to secure the assistance of the Protestants, he was forced to let them go their own way. Meanwhile the number of rulers who accepted Luther's teachings gradually increased. Finally, there was a brief war between Charles and the Protestant princes, but there was little fighting done. Charles V brought his Spanish soldiers into Germany and captured both John Frederick of Saxony and. his ally, Philip of Hesse, the chief leaders of the Lutheran cause, whom he kept prisoners for several years. This episode did not, however, check the progress of Prot- estantism. The king of France promised them help against his enemy, the emperor, and Charles was forced to agree to a peace with the Protestants. In 1555 the religious Peace of Augsburg was ratified. Its The Peace of provisions are memorable. Each German prince and each town and knight immediately under the emperor w r as to be at liberty to make a choice between the beliefs of the venerable Catholic Church and those embodied in the Augsburg Confession. If, however, an ecclesiastical prince — an archbishop, bishop, or abbot — declared himself a Protestant, he must surrender his possessions to the Church. Every German was either to con- form to the religious practices of his particular state or emi- grate from it. Every one was supposed to be either a Catholic or a Lutheran, and no provision was made for any other belief. This religious peace in no way established freedom of con- science, except for the rulers. Their power, it must be noted, was greatly increased, inasmuch as they were given the control of religious as well as of secular matters. This arrangement Augsburg 3io Medieval KH O > , 0) m >K CO CO MH 0) O £ 3 rt o - o ID <4-l CO " a) £ rt 13 ■^ 3 CD bfl — -a W :« fc X co js§ ,3 u CO ^ 2 ^ co vo 3 CJ ^ .tJ J3 fn w? t: o 3 C/2 (72 <+-! O" x) "^ 3 "fl 1-1 o ±J ^ . CD >. CD X! W ^ § H frf O 1—1 3 'C X « £ ^ OX> 1-1 t^ O -§> PT-j .co •— • > > rt co X bb'§ 3 CD O >-• -1 «> x) X 73 3 rt T3 (J 3 <-> C f-+ rr, rt CD £ 3 XU - in M B m (i ^ W >>.2 M r O^ ri o s ^ CD cd jh 3^4 00 00 u « >> CO SI The Wars of Religion 341 belonged to a side line of the French royal house, known as The the Bourbons, who were later to occupy the French throne (see genealogical table, opposite). It was inevitable that the Huguenots should try to get control of the government, and they consequently formed a political as well as a religious party and were often fighting, in the main, for worldly ends. Catherine tried at first to conciliate both Catholics and Hu- Catherine guenots, and granted a Decree of Toleration (1562) suspending fSonaf 01 the former edicts against the Protestants and permitting them J ol ^ atlon to assemble for worship during the daytime and outside of the Protestants, towns. Even this restricted toleration of the Protestants ap- peared an abomination to the more fanatical Catholics, and a savage act of the Duke of GTuise precipitated civil war. As he was passing through the town of Vassy on a Sunday The massa- he found a thousand Huguenots assembled in a barn for wor- anc j t ^ e ship. The duke's followers rudely interrupted the service, and opening of r J r i thg wars f a tumult arose in which the troops killed a considerable num- religion ber of the defenseless multitude. The news of this massacre aroused the Huguenots and was the beginning of a war which continued, broken only by short truces, until the last weak descendant of the House of Valois ceased to reign. As in the other religious wars of the time, both sides exhibited the most inhuman cruelty. France was filled for a generation with burnings, pillage, and every form of barbarity. The leaders of both the Catholic and Protestant parties, as well as two of the French kings themselves, fell by the hands of assassins, and France renewed in civil war all the horrors of the English invasion in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In 1570 a brief peace was concluded. The Huguenots were Coligny's 1 ■, ■, , . • i 1 influence and to be tolerated, and certain towns were assigned to them, p i an f or a where they might defend themselves in case of renewed attacks "T^nst war from the Catholics. For a time both Charles IX and his mother, Philip II Catherine of Medici, were on the friendliest terms with the Hu- guenot leader Coligny, who became a sort of prime minister. He was anxious that Catholics and Protestants should join in 342 Medieval and Modern Times Plot against Coligny Massacre of St. Bartholo- mew, 1572 The Holy League Question of the succes- sion to the French throne a great national war against France's old enemy, Spain. In this way the whole people of France might sink their religious dif- ferences in a patriotic effort to win Franche-Comte (see above, p. 279), which seemed naturally to belong to France rather than to Spain. The strict Catholic party of the Guises frustrated this plan by a most fearful expedient. They easily induced Catherine of Medici to believe that she was being deceived by Coligny, and an assassin was engaged to put him out of the way ; but the scoundrel missed his aim and only wounded his victim. Fearful lest the young king, who was faithful to Coligny, should discover her part in the attempted murder, Catherine invented a story of a great Huguenot conspiracy. The credu- lous king was deceived, and the Catholic leaders at Paris ar- ranged that at a given signal not only Coligny, but all the Huguenots, who had gathered in great numbers in the city to witness the marriage of the king's sister to the Protestant Henry of Navarre, should be massacred on the eve of St. Bartholomew's Day (August 23, 1572). The signal was duly given, and no less than two thousand persons were ruthlessly murdered in Paris before the end of the next day. The news of this attack spread into the prov- inces, and it is probable that, at the very least, ten thousand more Protestants were put to death outside of the capital. Civil war again broke out, and the Catholics formed the famous Holy League, under the leadership of Henry of Guise, for the advancement of their interests, the destruction of the Hugue- nots, and the extirpation of heresy. Henry III (15 7 4-1 589), the last of the sons of Henry II, who succeeded Charles IX, had no heirs, and the great question of succession arose. The Huguenot Henry of Navarre was the nearest male relative, but the League could never consent to permit the throne of France to be sullied by heresy, espe- cially as their leader, Henry of Guise, was himself anxious to become king. The Wars of Religion 343 Henry III was driven weakly from one party to the other, and it finally came to a war between the three Henrys — Henry III, Henry of Navarre, and Henry of Guise (i 585-1 589). It ended in a way characteristic of the times. Henry the king had Henry of Guise assassinated. The sympathizers of the War of the three Henrys, 1^85-1589 Fjg. 89. Henry IV of France This spirited portrait of Henry of Navarre gives an excellent impression of his geniality and good sense League then assassinated Henry the king, which left the field to Henry of Navarre. He ascended the throne as Henry IV in 1589 and is an heroic figure in the line of French kings. The new king had many enemies, and his kingdom was Henry IV, devastated and demoralized by years of war. He soon saw that becomes a' he must accept the religion of the majority of his people if he Cathohc wished to reign over them. He accordingly asked to be read- mitted to the Catholic Church (1593), excusing himself on the 344 Medieval and Modern Times ground that " Paris was worth a mass." He did not forget his old friends, however, and in 1598 he issued the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of By this edict of toleration the Calvinists were permitted to an es, 159 ^^ services in all the towns and villages where they had pre- viously held them, but in Paris and a number of other towns all Protestant services were prohibited. The Protestants were to enjoy the same political rights as Catholics, and to be eligible to government offices. A number of fortified towns were to remain in the hands of the Huguenots, particularly La Rochelle, Montauban, and Nimes. Henry's only mistake lay in granting the Huguenots the right to control fortified towns. In the next generation this privilege aroused the suspicion of the king's minister, Richelieu, who attacked the Huguenots, not so much on religious grounds as. on account of their independent position in the state, which suggested that of the older feudal nobles. Ministry of Henry IV chose Sully, an upright and able Calvinist, for his y chief minister. Sully set to work to reestablish the kingly power, which had suffered greatly under the last three brothers of the House of Valois. He undertook to lighten the tremendous burden of debt which weighed upon the country. He laid out new roads and canals, and encouraged agriculture and commerce ; he dis- missed the useless noblemen and officers whom the government was supporting without any advantage to itself. Had his ad- ministration not been prematurely interrupted, it might have brought France unprecedented power and prosperity ; but reli- gious fanaticism put an end to his reforms. Assassination In 1 6 1 o Henry IV, like- William the Silent, was assassinated 16 1 o^^ ' J ust m tne m idst of his greatest usefulness to his country. Sully could not agree with the regent, Henry's widow, and so gave up his position and retired to private life. Richelieu Before many years Richelieu, perhaps the greatest minister France has ever had, rose to power, and from 1624 to his death in 1642 he governed France for Henry IV's son, Louis XIII (16 1 0-1643). Something will be said of his policy in connec- tion with the Thirty Years' War (see section 68). The Wars of Religion 345 England under Queen Elizabeth 67. The long and disastrous civil war between Catholics and England Protestants, which desolated France in the sixteenth century, beth, 1558- had happily no counterpart in England. During her long reign l6 ° 3 Queen Elizabeth succeeded not only in maintaining peace at home, but in frustrating the conspiracies and attacks of Philip II, which threatened her realm from without. Moreover, by her interference in the Netherlands, she did much to secure their independence of Spain. Upon the death of Catholic Mary and the accession of her Elizabeth restores the sister Elizabeth in 1558, the English government became once p ro testant more Protestant. The new queen had a new revised edition serviceand ^ establishes issued of the Book of Common Prayer which had been pre- the Church of England pared in the time of her brother, Edward VI. This contained the services which the government ordered to be performed in all the churches of England. All her subjects were required to accept the queen's views and to go to church, and ministers were to use nothing but the official prayer book. Elizabeth did not adopt the Presbyterian system advocated by Calvin but retained many features of the Catholic church, including the bishops and archbishops. So the Anglican church followed a middle path halfway between Lutherans and Calvinists on the one hand and Catholics on the other. The Catholic churchmen who had held positions under Queen Mary' were naturally dismissed and replaced by those who would obey Elizabeth and use her Book of Prayer. Her first Parlia- ment gave the sovereign the powe?'s of supreme head of the Church of England, although the title, which her father, Henry VIII, had assumed, was not revived. The Church of England still exists in much the same form in The English which it was established in the first years of Elizabeth's reign and surv iv es in the prayer book is still used, although Englishmen are no longer ^ ^ nginal required to attend church and may hold any religious views they please without being interfered with by the government. ;4<5 Medieval iinii Modern Times Presbyterian While England adopted a middle course in religious matters established Scotland became Presbyterian, and this led to much trouble for in Scotland Elizabeth. There, shortly after her accession, the ancient Cath- olic Church was abolished, for the nobles were anxious to l6 3 2 its hero, for the Swedish king ventured too far into the lines of the enemy and was surrounded and killed. The Swedes did not, however, retire from Germany, but Murder of Wallenstein continued to participate in the war, which now degenerated into a series of raids by leaders whose soldiers depopulated the land by their unspeakable atrocities. Wallenstein, who had long been detested by even the Catholics, was deserted by his soldiers and murdered (in 1634), to the great relief of all parties. Just at this moment Richelieu * decided that it would be to Richelieu the interest of France to renew the old struggle with the Haps- struggle of burgs by sending troops against the emperor. France was still 5jj^st the shut in, as she had been since the time of Charles V, by the Hapsburgs Hapsburg lands. Except on the side toward the ocean her boundaries were in the main artificial ones, and not those estab- lished by great rivers and mountains. She therefore longed to weaken her enemy and strengthen herself by winning Roussillon on the south, and so make the crest of the Pyrenees the line of demarcation between France and Spain. She dreamed, too, of ex- tending her sway toward the Rhine by adding the county of Bur- gundy (that is, Franche-Comte) and a number of fortified towns which would afford protection against the Spanish Netherlands. Richelieu declared war against Spain in May, 1635. He had Richelieu's already concluded an alliance with the chief enemies of the pro iongs House of Austria. So the war was renewed, and French, thewar 1 See above, p. 344. 35^ Medieval and Modern Times Swedish, Spanish, and German soldiers ravaged an already exhausted country for a decade longer. The dearth of provi- sions was so great that the armies had to move quickly from place to place in order to avoid starvation. After a serious de- feat by the Swedes, the emperor (Ferdinand III, 1637-1657) France suc- ceeds Spain in the military supremacy of western Europe Fig. 91. Portrait of Cardinal Richelieu, from a Contemporaneous Painting sent a Dominican monk to expostulate with Cardinal Richelieu for his crime in aiding the German and Swedish heretics against Catholic Austria. The cardinal had, however, just died (December, 1642), well content with the results of his diplomacy. The French were in possession of Roussillon and of Lorraine and Alsace. The military exploits of the French generals, especially Turenne and Conde', during the opening years of the reign of Louis XIV The Wars of Religion 357 (1643-17 1 5), showed that a new period had begun in which the military and political supremacy of Spain was to give way to that of France (see Chapter XVIII). The participants in the war were now so numerous and their close of the objects so various and conflicting that it is not strange that it war^s"^ required some years to arrange the conditions of peace, even after every one was ready for it. It was agreed (1644) that France and the Empire should negotiate at Miinster, and the emperor and the Swedes at Osnabriick — both of which towns lie in Westphalia. For four years the representatives of the several powers worked upon the difficult problem of satisfying every one, but at last the treaties of Westphalia were signed late in 1648. The religious troubles in Germany were settled by extending Provisions the toleration of the Peace of Augsburg so as to include the treaties of Calvinists as well as the Lutherans. The Protestant princes ^' est P halia were to retain the lands which they had in their possession in the year 1624, regardless of the Edict of Restitution, and each ruler was still to have the right to determine the religion of his state. The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire was practi- cally acknowledged by permitting the individual states to make treaties among themselves and with foreign powers ; this was equivalent to recognizing the practical independence which they had, as a matter of fact, already long enjoyed. While portions of northern Germany were ceded to Sweden, this territory did not cease to form a part of the Empire, for Sweden was thereafter to have three votes in the German diet. The emperor also ceded to France three important towns — Metz, Verdun, and Toul — and all his rights in Alsace, although the city of Strassburg was to remain with the Empire. Lastly, the independence both of the United Netherlands and of Switzer- land was acknowledged. The accounts of the misery and depopulation of Germany Disastrous caused by the Thirty Years' War are well-nigh incredible. [hTwar^n Thousands of villages were wiped out altogether ; in some German y 353 Medieval and Modern Times regions the population was reduced by one half, in others to a third, or even less, of what it had been at the opening of the conflict. The flourishing city of Augsburg was left with but sixteen thousand souls instead of eighty thousand. The people were fearfully barbarized by privation and suffering and by the atrocities of the soldiers of all the various nations. Until the end of the eighteenth century Germany remained too exhausted and impoverished to make any considerable contribution to the culture of Europe. The new science The dis- covery of Copernicus The Beginnings of our Scientific Age 69. The battles of the Thirty Years' War are now well-nigh forgot, and few people are interested in Tilly and Wallenstein and Gustavus Adolphus. It seems as if the war did little but destroy men's lives and property, and that no great ends were accom- plished by all the suffering it involved. But during the years that it raged certain men were quietly devoting themselves to scientific research which was to change the world more than all the battles that have ever been fought. These men adopted a new method. They perceived that the books of ancient writers, especially Aristotle, which were used as textbooks in the univer- sities, were full of statements that could not be proved. They maintained that the only way to advance science was to set to work and try experiments, and by careful thought and investi- gation to determine the laws of nature without regard to what previous generations had thought. The Polish astronomer Copernicus published a work in 1543 in which he refuted the old idea that the sun and all the stars revolved around the earth as a center, as was then taught in all the universities. He showed that, on the contrary, the sun was the center about which the earth and the rest of the planets revolved, and that the reason that the stars seem to go around the earth each day is because our globe revolves on its axis. Although Copernicus had been encouraged to write his The Wars of Religion 359 book by a cardinal and had dedicated it to the pope, the Catholic- as well as the Protestant theologians declared that the new theory did not correspond with the teachings of the Bible, and they therefore rejected it. But we know now that Copernicus was Fig. 92. Galileo right and the theologians and universities wrong. The earth is a mere speck in the universe, and even the sun is a relatively small body compared with many of the stars, and so far as we know the universe as a whole has no center. The Italian scientist Galileo (1564-1642), by the use of a Galileo little telescope he contrived, was able in 1610 to see the spots 360 Medieval and Modern Times on the sun ; these indicated that the sun was not, as Aristotle had taught, a perfect, unchanging body, and showed also that it revolved on its axis, as Copernicus had guessed that the earth did. Galileo made careful experiments- by dropping objects from Fig. 93. Rene Descartes the leaning tower of Pisa (Fig. 45), which proved that Aristotle was wrong in assuming that a body weighing a hundred pounds fell a hundred times as fast as a body weighing but one. To Galileo we owe, besides, many new ideas in the science of me- chanics. He wrote in Italian as well as Latin, and this, too, gave offense to those who pinned their faith to Aristotle. They would The Wars of Religion 361 have forgiven Galileo if he had confined his discussions to the learned who could read Latin, but they thought it highly dan- gerous to have the new ideas set forth in such a way that the people at large might find out about them and so come to doubt what the theologians and universities were teaching. Galileo was finally summoned before the Inquisition and some of his theories condemned by the church authorities. Just as the Thirty Years' War was beginning, a young French- Descartes man by the name of Descartes had finished his education at a Jesuit college and decided to get some knowledge of the world by going into the war for a short time. He did much more thinking than fighting, however. Sitting by the stove during the winter lull in hostilities, deep in meditation, it occurred to him one day that he had no reason for believing anything. He saw that everything that he accepted had come to him on the authority of some one else, and he failed to see any reason why the old authorities should be right. So he boldly set to work to think out a wholly new philosophy that should be entirely the result of his own reasoning. He decided, in the first place, that one thing at least was true. He was thi?iking, and therefore he must exist. This he expressed in Latin in the famous phrase Cogito, ergo sum, " I think, therefore I am." He also decided that God must exist and that He had given men such good minds that, if they only used them carefully, they would not be deceived in the conclusions they reached. In short, Descartes held that clear thoughts must be true thoughts. Descartes not only founded modern philosophy, he was also Work of greatly interested in science and mathematics. He was impressed by the wonderful discovery of Harvey in regard to the circulation of the blood (see below, p. 367), which he thought well illustrated what scientific investigation might accomplish. His most famous book, called An Essay on Method, was written in French and addressed to intelligent men who did not know Latin. He says that those who use their own heads are much more likely to reach the truth than those who read old Latin books. Descartes 362 Medieval and Modern Times wrote clear textbooks on algebra and that branch of mathematics known as analytical geometry, of which he was the discoverer. Francis Bacon, an English lawyer and government official, spent his spare hours explaining how men could increase their Fig. 94. Francis Bacon Francis knowledge. He too wrote in his native tongue as well as in Latin. Bacon's tt 1 • New Atlantis ^e was the most eloquent representative of the new science which renounced authority and relied upon experiment. " We are the ancients," he declared, not those who lived long ago when the world was young and men ignorant. Late in life he wrote a little book, which he never finished, called the The Wars of Religion 363 New Atlantis. It describes an imaginary state which some Euro- peans were supposed to have come upon in the Pacific Ocean. The chief institution was a " House of Solomon," a great laboratory for carrying on scientific investigation in the hope of discovering new facts and using them for bettering the condi- tion of the inhabitants. This House of Solomon became a sort of model for the Royal Academy, which was established in London some fifty years after Bacon's death. It still exists and still publishes its proceedings regularly. The earliest societies for scientific research grew up in Italy. ■ Scientific Later the English Royal Society and the French Institute were ^ established, as well as similar associations in Germany. These were the first things of the kind in the history of the world. Their object was not, like that of the old Greek schools of philosophy and the medieval universities, merely to hand down the knowledge derived from the past, but to find out what had never been known before. » We have seen how in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries new inventions were made, such as the compass, paper, specta- cles, gunpowder, and, in the fifteenth century, the printing press. But in the seventeenth century progress began to be much more rapid, and an era of invention opened, in the midst of which we still live. The microscope and telescope made it pos- sible to discover innumerable scientific truths that were hidden to the Greeks and Romans. In time this scientific advance produced a spirit of reform, also new in the world (see below, Chapter XIX). QUESTIONS Section 64. What were the chief results of the Council of Trent? Why did the Protestants refuse to take part in it? Give an account of the life of Loyola. What were the objects of the lesuit order? What accusations did the Protestants bring against the society ? Section 65. What are your impressions of Philip II ? How did it come about that the Netherlands belonged to Spain? Describe 364 Medieval and Modern Times Philip's policy in dealing with the Netherlands. How did the United Netherlands gain their independence ? Section 66. What were the religious conditions in France when Charles' IX and Catherine of Medici came into power? What was the character of the Huguenot party? Describe the massacre of St. Bartholomew. How did Henry IV become king? What was the Edict of Nantes ? Section 6y. What measures did Queen Elizabeth take in reli- gious matters? How did the English Church originate? Tell the story of Mary Queen of Scots. What was the policy of Philip II in regard to Elizabeth? What were the general results of Philip IPs reign ? Section 68. What was the origin of the Thirty Years' War? What led the Swedish king to intervene ? What did the Swedes gain by the intervention ? Why did Richelieu send troops to fight in the war? What were the chief provisions of the Treaty of Westphalia? What were the other results of the war ? Section 69. What is the difference between modern scientific research and the spirit of the medieval universities? Describe the discoveries of Copernicus. What did Galileo accomplish? Give the views of Descartes. What was the position of Francis Bacon in regard to scientific research? What was the " House of Solomon"? What societies were established for scientific investigation ? Can you think of some of the effects that modern science has had on the lives of mankind? CHAPTER XVII STRUGGLE IN ENGLAND BETWEEN KING AND PARLIAMENT James I and the Divine Right of Kings 70. On the death of Elizabeth in 1 603, James I, the first of the Accession of « .... James VI of Scotch family of Stuart, ascended the throne. It will be remem- Sco tland as bered that he was the son of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and g^j^ through her a descendant of Henry VII (see table, p. 340). In 1603 Scotland he reigned as James VI ; consequently the two king- doms were now brought together under the same ruler. This did not, however, make the relations between the two countries much more cordial than they had been in the past. The chief interest of the period of the Stuarts, which began Chief interest j . , , -j. , of the period with the accession of James I in 1603 and ended with the night G f the Stuarts from England of his grandson, James II, eighty-five years later, is the long and bitter struggle between the kings and Parlia- ment. The vital question was, Should the Stuart kings, who claimed to be God's representatives on earth, do as they thought fit, or should Parliament control them and the government of the country ? We have seen how the English Parliament originated in the The attitude .of the Tudors time of Edward I and how his successors were forced to pay toward attention to its wishes (see above, pp. 127 ff.). Under the Tudors— that is, from the time of Henry VII to Elizabeth — the monarchs had been able to manage Parliament so that it did, in general, just what they wished. Henry VIII was a heartless tyrant, and his daughter Elizabeth, like her father, had ruled the nation in a high-handed manner, but neither of them had been accustomed to say much of their rights. 365 James I loved to discuss the king's claims 366 Medieval and Modern Times James I, on the other hand, had a very irritating way of dis- cussing his claim to be the sole and supreme ruler of England. "It is- atheism and blasphemy," he declared, "to dispute what God can do ; . . . so it is presumption and high contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can do, or say that a king cannot do this or that." James was a learned man and fond of writing Fig. 95. James I books. Among them he published a work on monarchs, in which he claimed that the king could make any law he pleased without consulting Parliament ; that he was the master of every one of his subjects, high and low, and might put to death whom he pleased. A good king would act according to law, but is not bound to do so and has the power to change the law at any time to suit himself. Struggle in England betzveen King and Parliament 367 These theories seem strange and very unreasonable to us, but The " divine James was only trying to justify the powers which the Tudor kmgs" monarchs had actually exercised and which the kings of France enjoyed down to the French Revolution of 1789. According to the theory of " the divine right of kings " it had pleased God to appoint the monarch the father of his people. People must obey him as they would God and ask no questions. The king was responsible to God alone, to whom he owed his powers, not to Parliament or the nation (see below, p. 388). It is unnecessary to follow the troubles between James I and Parliament, for his reign only forms the preliminary to the fatal experiences of his son Charles I, who came to the throne in 1625. The writers of James's reign constituted its chief glory. They Great writers of Tsrnp^ s outshone those of any other European country. Shakespeare is rei g n _ generally admitted to be the greatest dramatist that the world Shakespeare has produced. While he wrote many of his plays before the death of Elizabeth, some of his finest — Othello, King Lear, and The Tempest, for example — belong to the time of James I. During the same period Francis Bacon (see above, p. 362) was Francis writing his Adva?icement of Learnifig, which he dedicated to James I in 1605 and in which he urged that men should cease to rely upon the old textbooks, like Aristotle, and turn to a careful examination of animals, plants, and chemicals, with a view of learning about them and using the knowledge thus gained to improve the condition of mankind. Bacon's ability to Write English is equal to that of Shakespeare, but he chose to write prose, not verse. It was in James's reign that the King James authorized English translation of the Bible was made which t h e Bible is still used in all countries where English is spoken. An English physician of this period, William Harvey, exam- William ined the workings of the human body more carefully than any previous investigator and made the great discovery of the man- ner in which the blood circulates from the heart through the arteries and capillaries and back through the veins — a matter which had previously been entirely misunderstood. H arvey 363 Medieval and Modern Times Charles I, 1625-1649 Charles's ex- actions and arbitrary acts The Petition of Risrht How Charles I got along without Parliament 71. Charles I, James I's son and successor, was somewhat more dignified than his father, but he was quite as obstinately set upon having his own way and showed no more skill in winning the confidence of his subjects. He did nothing to remove the disagreeable impressions of his father's reign and began im- mediately to quarrel with Parliament. \Yhen that body refused to grant him any money, mainly because they thought that it was likely to be wasted by his favorite, the Duke of Bucking- ham, Charles formed the plan of winning their favor by a great military victory. He hoped to gain popularity by prosecuting a war against Spain, whose king was energetically supporting the Catholic League in the Thirty Years' "War. Accordinglv, in spite of Parliament's refusal to grant him the necessary funds, he em- barked in war. With only the money which he could raise by irregular means, Charles arranged an expedition to capture the Spanish treasure ships which arrived in Cadiz once a year from America, laden with gold and silver ; but this expedition failed. In his attempts to raise money without a regular grant from Parliament, Charles resorted to vexatious exactions. The law- prohibited him from asking for gifts from his people, but it did not forbid his asking them to lend him money, however little prospect there might be of his ever repaying it. Five gentlemen who refused to pay such a forced loan were imprisoned by the mere order of the king. This raised the question of whether the king had the right to send to prison those whom he wished without any legal reasons for their arrest. This and other attacks upon the rights of his subjects aroused Parliament. In 1628 that body drew up the celebrated Petition of Right, which is one of the most important documents in the history of the English Constitution. In it Parliament called the king's attention to his unlawful exactions, and to the acts of Struggle in England between King and Parliament 369 his agents who had in sundry ways molested and disquieted the people of the realm. Parliament therefore "humbly prayed." the king that no man need thereafter " make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge " without consent of Parliament ; that no free man should be imprisoned or suffer any punishment except according to the laws and statutes of the realm as presented in the Great Charter ; and that soldiers should not be quartered upon the people on any pretext whatever. Very reluctantly Charles consented to this restatement of the limitations which the English had always, in theory at least, placed upon the arbitrary power of their king. The disagreement between Charles and Parliament was ren- dered much more serious by religious differences. The king had married a French Catholic princess, and the Catholic cause seemed to be gaining on the Con- tinent. The king of Denmark had just been defeated by Wallenstein and Tilly (see above, p. 353), and Richelieu had succeeded in de- priving the Huguenots of their cities of refuge. Both James I and Charles I had shown their readiness to enter into agreements with France and Spain to protect Catholics in England, and there was evidently a growing inclination in England to revert to the older ceremonies of the Fig. 96. Charles I of England This portrait is by one of the greatest painters of the time, Anthony Van Dyck, 1 599-1 641 (see Fig. 98) 37o Medieval and Modern Times Charles dis- solves Parlia- ment (1629) and deter- mines to rule by himself Charles's financial exactions John Hampden Church, which shocked the more strongly Protestant members of the House of Commons. The communion table was again placed by many clergymen at the eastern end of the church and became fixed there as an altar, and portions of the service were once more chanted. These " popish practices," as the Protestants called them, with which Charles was supposed to sympathize, served to widen the breach between him and the Commons, which had been caused by the king's attempt to raise taxes on his own ac- count. The Parliament of 1629, after a stormy session, was dis- solved by the king, who determined to rule thereafter by himself. For eleven years no new Parliament was summoned. Charles was not well fitted by nature to run the government of England by himself. He had not the necessary tireless energy. Moreover, the methods resorted to by his ministers to raise money without recourse to Parliament rendered the king more and more unpopular and prepared the way for the trium- phant return of Parliament. For example, Charles applied to his subjects for " ship money." He was anxious to equip a fleet, but instead of requiring the various ports to furnish ships, as was the ancient custom, he permitted them to buy themselves off by contributing money to the fitting out of large ships owned by himself. Even those living inland were asked for ship money. The king maintained that this was not a tax but simply a pay- ment by which his subjects freed themselves from the duty of defending their country. John Hampden, a squire of Buckinghamshire, made a bold stand against this illegal demand by refusing to pay twenty shillings of ship money which was levied upon him. The case was tried before the king's judges, and he was convicted, but by a bare majority. The trial made it tolerably clear that the country would not put up long with the king's despotic policy. In 1633 Charles made William Laud Archbishop of Canter- bury. Laud believed that the English Church would strengthen Struggle in England between King and Parliament 371 both itself and the government by following a middle course, William which should lie between that of the Church of Rome and that A?chbSho 6 of Calvinistic Geneva. He declared that it was the part of of Canterbury good citizenship to conform outwardly to the services of the Fig. 97. John Hampden state church, but that the State should not undertake to oppress the individual conscience, and that every one should be at liberty to make up his own mind in regard to the interpretation to be given to the Bible and to the church fathers. As soon as he became archbishop he began a series of visitations through his province. Every clergyman who refused to conform to the 372 Medieval and Modem Times prayer book, or opposed the placing of the communion table at the east end of the church, or declined to bow at the name of Jesus, was, if obstinate, to be brought before the king's special Court of High Commission to be tried and, if convicted, to be deprived of his position. The different Laud's conduct was no doubt gratifying to the High Church Protestants— P ar ty among the Protestants, that is, those who still clung to High Church some f the ancient practices of the Roman Church, although Church they rejected the doctrine of the Mass and refused to regard the pope as their head. The Low Church party, or Puritans, on the contrary, regarded Laud and his policy with aversion. While, unlike the Presbyterians, they did not urge the abolition of the bishops, they disliked all " superstitious usages," as they called the wearing of the surplice by the clergy, the use of the sign of the cross at baptism, the kneeling posture in partaking of the communion, and so forth. The Presbyterians, who are often confused with the Puritans, agreed with them in many respects, but went farther and demanded the introduction of Calvin's system of church government. The Lastly, there was an ever-increasing number of Separatists, epen en s ^ independents. These rejected both the organization of the Church of England and that of the Presbyterians, and desired that each religious community should organize itself independ- ently. The government had forbidden these Separatists to hold their little meetings, which they called conventicles, and about The Pilgrim 1600 some of them fled to Holland. The community of them which established itself at Leyden dispatched the Mayflower, in 1620, with colonists — since known as the Pilgrim Fathers — to the New World across the sea. 1 It was these colonists who laid the foundations of a New England which has proved a worthy offspring of the mother country. The form of worship which they established in their new home is still known as Congregational. 1 The name " Puritan," it should be noted, was applied loosely to the English Protestants, whether Low Churchmen, Presbyterians, or Independents, who aroused the antagonism of their neighbors by advocating a godly life and opposing popular pastimes, especially on Sunday. Fathers Struggle in England between King and Parliament 373 How Charles I lost his Head 72. In 1640 Charles found himself forced to summon Par- Charles I's liament, for he was involved in a war with Scotland which he ^Scotch* 1 could not carry on without money. There the Presbyterian Presbyterians system had been pretty generally introduced by John Knox in Elizabeth's time (see above, p. 346). An attempt on the part of Charles to force the Scots to accept a modified form of the English prayer book led to the signing of the National Covenant The National in 1638. This pledged those who attached their names to it to f 6 ° 3 8 enant ' reestablish the purity and liberty of the Gospel, which, to most of the Covenanters, meant Presbyterianism. Charles thereupon undertook to coerce the Scots. Having Charles no money, he bought on credit a large cargo of pepper, which thTLon 8 had just arrived in the ships of the East India Company, and Parliament, sold it cheap for ready cash. The soldiers, however, whom he * 4 ° got together showed little inclination to fight the Scots, with whom they were in tolerable agreement on religious matters. Charles was therefore at last obliged to summon a Parliament, which, owing to the length of time it remained in session, is known as the Long Parliament. The Long Parliament began by imprisoning Archbishop Laud The meas- in the Tower of London. They declared him guilty of trea- L r e n g ofthe son, and he was executed in 1645, in s P ite of Charles's efforts to Parliament save him. Parliament also tried to strengthen its position by kmgS passing the Triennial Bill, which provided that it should meet at tyranny least once in three years, even if not summoned by the king. In fact, Charles's whole system of government was abrogated. Parliament drew up a " Grand Remonstrance " in which all of Charles's errors were enumerated and a demand was made that the king's ministers should thereafter be responsible to Parlia- ment. This document Parliament ordered to be printed and circulated throughout the country. Exasperated at the conduct of the Commons, Charles at- tempted to intimidate the opposition by undertaking to arrest 174 Medieval and Modern Times five of its most active leaders, whom he declared to be traitors. But when he entered the House of Commons and looked around for his enemies, he found that they had taken shelter Charles's attempts to arrest five members of the House of Commons in London, whose citizens later brought them back in tnumph to Westminster, where Parliament held its meetings. Fig. 98. Children of Charles I This very interesting picture, by the Flemish artist Van Dyck, was painted in 1637. The boy with his hand on the dog's head was des- tined to become Charles II of England. Next on the left is the prince, who was later James II. The girl to the extreme left, the Princess Mary, married the governor of the United Netherlands, and her son became William III of England in 1688 (see below, p. 384). The two princesses on the right died in childhood The begin- Both Charles and Parliament now began to gather troops warf 1642 1 — f° r tne inevitable conflict, and England was plunged into civil Cnvahers and war Those who supported Charles were called Cavaliers. Kotmaneaas l r They included not only most of the aristocracy and the Catholic party, but also a number of members of the House of Com- mons who were fearful lest Presbyterianism should succeed in Struggle in England between King and Parliament 375 doing away with the English Church. The parliamentary party was popularly known as the Roundheads, since some of them cropped their hair close because of their dislike for the long locks of their more aristocratic and worldly opponents. The Roundheads soon found a distinguished leader in Oliver Oliver Cromwell (b. 1599), a country gentleman and member of Parlia- Cromwe11 merit, who was later to become the most powerful ruler of his time. Cromwell organized a compact army of God-fearing men, who were not permitted to indulge in profane words or light talk, as is the wont of soldiers, but advanced upon their enemies singing psalms. The king enjoyed the support of northern England, and also looked for help from Ireland, where the royal and Catholic causes were popular. The war continued for several years, and a number of Battles of battles were fought which, after the first year, went in general Moored against the Cavaliers. The most important of these were the Naseb Y battle of Marston Moor in 1644, and that of Naseby the next year, in which the king was disastrously defeated. The enemy came into possession of his correspondence, which showed The losing them how their king had been endeavoring to bring armies tTekitTg from France and Ireland into England. This encouraged Par- liament to prosecute the war with more energy than ever. The king, defeated on every hand, put himself in the hands of the Scotch army which had come to the aid of Parliament (1646), and the Scotch soon turned him over to Parliament. During the next two years Charles was held in captivity. There were, however, many in the House of Commons who Pride's still sided with the king, and in December, 1648, that body de- Purge clared for a reconciliation with the monarch, whom they had safely imprisoned in the Isle of Wight. The next day Colonel Pride, representing the army, — which constituted a party in it- self and was opposed to all negotiations between the king and the Commons, — stood at the door of the House with a body of soldiers and excluded all the members who took the side of the king. This outrageous act is known in history as " Pride's Purge." 376 Medieval and Modern Times Execution of Charles, 1649 In this way the House of Commons was brought completely under the control of those most bitterly hostile to the king, whom they immediately proposed to bring to trial. They declared that the House of Commons, since it was chosen by the people, was supreme in England and the source of all just power, and that consequently neither king nor House of Lords was neces- sary. The mutilated House of Commons appointed a special High Court of Justice made up of Charles's sternest oppo- nents, who alone would consent to sit in judgment on him. They passed sentence upon him, and on January 30, 1649, Charles was beheaded in front of his palace of Whitehall, London. It must be clear from the above account that it was not the nation at large which demanded Charles's death, but a very small group of extremists who claimed to be the repre- sentatives of the nation. Oliver Cromwell : England a Commonwealth England becomes a common- wealth, or republic. Cromwell at the head of the govern- ment Ireland and Scotland subdued 73. The " Rump Parliament," as the remnant of the House of Commons was contemptuously called, proclaimed England to be thereafter a " commonwealth," that is, a republic, without a king or House of Lords. But Cromwell, the head of the army, was nevertheless the real ruler of England. He derived his main support from the Independents ; and it is very surprising that he was able to maintain himself so long, considering what a small portion of the English people was in sympathy with the religious ideas of that sect and with the abolition of kingship. Even the Presbyterians were on the side of Charles I's son, Charles II, the legal heir to the throne. Cromwell was a vigorous and skillful administrator and had a well-organized army of fifty thousand men at his command, otherwise the republic could scarcely have lasted more than a few months. Cromwell found himself confronted by every variety of diffi- culty. The three kingdoms had fallen apart. The nobles and Catholics in Ireland proclaimed Charles II as king, and Ormond, Struggle in England between King and Parliament 377 a Protestant leader, formed an army of Irish Catholics and Eng- lish royalist Protestants with a view of overthrowing the Com- monwealth. Cromwell accordingly set out for Ireland, where, after taking Drogheda, he mercilessly slaughtered two thousand of the " barbarous wretches," as he called them. Town after Fig. 99. Oliver Cromwell This portrait is by Peter Lely and was painted in 1653 town surrendered to Cromwell's army, and in 1652, after much cruelty, the island was once more conquered. A large part of it was confiscated for the benefit of the English, and the Catholic landowners were driven into the mountains. In the meantime (1 650) Charles II, who had taken refuge in France, had landed in Scotland, and upon his agreeing to be a Presbyterian king, the whole Scotch nation was ready to support him. But Scotland was subdued by Cromwell even more promptly than Ireland had been. 378 Medieval and Modern Times So completely was the Scottish army destroyed that Cromwell found no need to draw the sword again in the British Isles. Fig. ioo. Great Seal of England under the Commonwealth, 1651 This seal is reduced considerably in the reproduction. It gives us an idea of the appearance of a session of the House of Commons when England was for a short period a republic. It is still to-day the custom for members to sit with their hats on, except when making a speech The Naviga- Although it would seem that Cromwell had enough to keep ' l him busy at home, he had already engaged in a victorious foreign war against the Dutch, who had become dangerous commercial rivals of England. The ships which went out from Struggle in England between King and Parliament 379 Amsterdam and Rotterdam were the best merchant vessels in the world and had got control of the carrying trade between Europe and the colonies. In order to put an end to this, the English Parliament passed the Navigation Act (1651), which permitted only English vessels to bring goods to England, unless the goods came in vessels belonging to the country which had produced them. This led to a commercial war be- Commercial tween Holland and England, and a series of battles was fought HdlandTand between the English and Dutch fleets, in which sometimes one En & land and sometimes the other gained the upper hand. This war is notable as the first example of the commercial struggles which were thereafter to take the place of the religious conflicts of the preceding period. Cromwell failed to get along with Parliament any better than Cromwell Charles I had done. The Rump Parliament had become very Lo^ V plri£ unpopular, for its members, in spite of their boasted piety, me d n * ( l6 53) accepted bribes and were zealous in the promotion of their Lord Pro- , relatives in the public service. At last Cromwell upbraided his own 7 them angrily for their injustice and self-interest, which were Parhament injuring the public cause. On being interrupted by a mem- ber, he cried out, " Come, come, we have had enough of this ! I '11 put an end to this. It 's not fit that you should sit here any longer," and calling in his soldiers he turned the members out of the House and sent them home. Having thus made an end of the Long Parliament (April, 1653), he summoned a Parliament of his own, made up of ". God-fearing " men whom he and the officers of his army chose. This extraordinary body is k nown as Barebone's Parliament, from a distinguished mem- ber, a London merchant, with the characteristically Puritan name of Praisegod Barebone. Many of these godly men were unpractical and hard to deal with. A minority of the more sen- sible ones got up early one winter morning (December, 1653) and, before their opponents had a chance to protest, declared Parliament dissolved and placed the supreme authority in the hands of Cromwell. 38o Medieval and Modem Times For nearly five years Cromwell was, as Lord Protector, — a title equivalent to that of Regent, — practically king of England, although he refused actually to accept the royal insignia. He did not succeed in permanently organizing the government at Fig. ioi. Dutch War Vessel in Cromwell's Time This should be compared with Fig. 102 to realize the change that had taken place in navigation since the palmy days of the Hanseatic League. (See above, p. 214) home but showed remarkable ability in his foreign negotiations. He formed an alliance with France, and English troops aided the French in winning a great victory over Spain. England gained thereby Dunkirk, and the West Indian island of Jamaica. Struggle in England between King and Parliament 381 The French king, Louis XIV, at first hesitated to address Crom- well, in the usual courteous way of monarchs, as " my cousin," but soon admitted that he would have even to call Cromwell " father " should he wish it, as the Protector was undoubtedly the most powerful person in Europe. Indeed, he found himself forced to play the part of a monarch, and it seemed to many persons that he was quite as despotic as James I and Charles I. In May, 1658, Crom- well fell ill, and as a great storm passed over Eng- land at that time, the Cavaliers asserted that the devil had come to fetch home the soul of the usurper. Cromwell was dying, it is true, but he was no instrument of the devil. He closed a life of honest effort for his fellow beings with a last touching prayer to God, whom he had con- sistently sought to serve : " Thou hast made me, though very unworthy, a mean instrument to do Thy people some good and Thee service : and many of them have set too high a value upon me, though others wish and would be glad of my death. Pardon such as desire to trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they are Thy people too ; and pardon the folly of this short prayer, even for Jesus Christ's sake, and give us a good night, if it be Thy pleasure. Amen." Fig. 102. A Ship of the Hanseatic League This is taken from a picture at Cologne, painted in 1409. It, as well as other pic- tures of the time, makes it clear that the Hanseatic ships were tiny compared with those used two hundred and fifty years later, when Cromwell fought the Dutch 382 Medieval and Modem Times The Restoration The Resto- ration Charles II welcomed back as king, 1660 Character of Charles II Religious measures adopted by Parliament 74. After Cromwell's death his son Richard, who succeeded him, found himself unable to carry on the government. He soon abdicated, and the remnants of the Long Parliament met once more. But the power was really in the hands of the soldiers. In 1660 George Monk, who was in command of the forces in Scotland, came to London with a view of putting an end to the anarchy. He soon concluded that no one cared to support the Rump, and that body peacefully disbanded of its own accord. Resistance would have been vain in any case with the army against it. The nation was glad to acknowledge Charles II, whom every one preferred to a government by soldiers. A new Parliament, composed of both houses, was assembled, which welcomed a messenger from the king and solemnly resolved that, " according to the ancient and fundamental laws of this kingdom, the government is, and ought to be, by king, lords, and commons." Thus the Puritan revolution and the short-lived republic was followed by the Restoration of the Stuarts. Charles II was quite as fond as his father of having his own way, but he was a man of more ability. He disliked to be ruled by Parliament, but, unlike his father, he was too wise to arouse the nation against him. He did not propose to let anything happen which would send him on his travels again. He and his courtiers were fond of pleasure of a light-minded kind. The immoral dramas of the Restoration seem to indicate that those who had been forced by the Puritans to give up their legitimate pleasures now welcomed the opportunity to indulge in reck- less gayety without regard to the bounds imposed by custom and decency. Charles's first Parliament was a moderate body, but his second was made up almost wholly of Cavaliers, and it got along, on the whole, so well with the king that he did not dissolve it for eighteen years. It did not take up the old question, which was still unsettled, as to whether Parliament or the king was really Struggle in England between King and Parliament 383 supreme. It showed its hostility, however, to the Puritans by a series of intolerant acts, which are very important in English history. It ordered that no one should hold a town office who had not received the communion according to the rites of the Church of England. This was aimed at both the Presbyterians and the Independents. By the Act of Uniformity (1662) every The Act of clergyman who refused to accept everything contained in the Book of Common Prayer was to be excluded from holding his benefice. Two thousand clergymen thereupon resigned their positions for conscience' sake. These laws tended to throw all those Protestants who refused The Dis- S£)lt€TS to conform to the Church of England into a single class, still known to-day as Dissenters. It included the Independents, the Pres- byterians, and the newer bodies of the Baptists and the Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers. These sects aban- doned any idea of controlling the religion or politics of the coun- try, and asked only that they might be permitted to worship in their own way outside of the English Church. Toleration found an unexpected ally in the king, who, in Toleration „ , . ■ , ,,.,■,. , .. v . favored by spite of his dissolute habits, had interest enough in religion to the king have secret leanings toward Catholicism. He asked Parliament to permit him to moderate the rigor of the Act of Uniformity by making some exceptions. He even issued a declaration in the interest of toleration, with a view of bettering the posi- tion of the Catholics and Dissenters. Suspicion was, however, aroused lest this toleration might lead to the restoration of "popery," — as the Protestants called the Catholic beliefs, — and Parliament passed the harsh Conventicle Act (1664). The Conven- Any adult attending a conventicle — that is to say, any reli- gious meeting not held in accordance with the practice of the English Church — was liable to penalties which might culminate in transportation to some distant colony. Samuel Pepys, who saw some of the victims of this law upon their way to a terrible exile, notes in his famous diary: "They go like lambs without any resistance. I would to God that they would conform, or be 3§4 Medieval and Modem Times more wise and not be catched." A few years later Charles II issued a declaration giving complete religious liberty to Roman Catholics as well as to Dissenters. Parliament not only forced him to withdraw this enlightened measure but passed the Test Act, which excluded every one from public office who did not accept the views of the English Church. The old war with Holland, begun by Cromwell, was renewed under Charles' II, who was earnestly desirous to increase Eng- lish commerce and to found new colonies. The two nations were very evenly matched on the sea, but in 1664 the English seized some of the West Indian Islands from the Dutch and also their colony on Manhattan Island, which was re-named New York in honor of the king's brother, the Duke of York. In 1667 a treaty was signed by England and Holland which confirmed these conquests. The Revolution of 1688 75. Upon Charles II's death he was succeeded by his brother, James II, who was an avowed Catholic and had' married, as his second wife, Mary of Modena, who was also a Catholic. He was ready to reestablish Catholicism in England regardless of what it might cost him. Mary, James's daughter by his first wife, had married her cousin, William III, Prince of Orange, the head of the United Netherlands. The nation might have tolerated James so long as they could look forward to the accession of his Protestant daughter. But when a son was born to his Catholic second wife, and James showed unmistakably his purpose of favoring the Catholics, messengers were dispatched by a group of Protestants to William of Orange, asking him to come and rule over them. William landed in November, 1688, and marched upon Lon- don, where he received general support from all the English Protestants, regardless of party. Tames II started to oppose Wil- liam, but his army refused to fight and his courtiers deserted Straggle in England between King and Parliament 385 him. William was glad to forward James's flight to France, as he would hardly have known what to do with him had James in- sisted on remaining in the country. A new Parliament declared the throne vacant, on the ground that King James II, " by the advice of the Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated the government." Charles I, m. Henrietta Maria of France (1625-1649) I Charles II Mary, m. William II, Anne Hyde, m. James II, m. Mary of Modena (1660-1685) Prince of Orange (1685-1688) William III, m. Mary Anne James Francis Edward, (1688-1702) (1702-1714) the Old Pretender A Bill of Rights was then drawn up, condemning James's The Bill of violation of the constitution and appointing William and Mary Rlghts joint sovereigns. The Bill of Rights, which is an important monument in English constitutional history, once more stated the fundamental rights of the English nation and the limitations which the Petition of Right and Magna Charta had placed upon the king. By this peaceful revolution of 1688 the English rid themselves of the Stuarts and their claims to rule by divine right, and once more declared themselves against the rule of the pope. A bill of toleration was passed by Parliament which freed Dissenters from all penalties for failing to attend services in Anglican churches and allowed them to have their own meet- ings. Even Catholics, while not included in the act of toleration, were permitted to hold services undisturbed by the government. QUESTIONS Section 70. What was the great issue during the period of the Stuarts ? What were the views of kingship held by James I ? Men- tion some of the books of his time. Section 7 1 . What policy did Charles I adopt in regard to Par- liament? What was the Petition of Right? What were the chief 386 Medieval and Modern Times religious parties in England in the time of Charles I ? Who was John Hampden ? Mention some of the religious sects that date from that time which still exist in the United States. Section 72. What measures did the Long Parliament take against the king ? Describe the civil war. What led to the execution of Charles I ? Section 73. What were the chief events during Cromwell's ad- ministration ? What are your impressions of Cromwell ? Section 74. What led to the restoration of the Stuarts ? W T hat was the attitude of Charles II toward the religious difficulties? Who were the Dissenters ? Section j$. Why was James II unpopular? Give an account of the revolution which put William and Mary on the English throne. CHAPTER XVIII 3*?ANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV Position and Character of Louis XIV 76. Under the despotic rule of Louis XIV (1643-17 15) France at the France enjoyed a commanding influence in European affairs. Louis xiv After the wars of religion were over, the royal authority had been l6 43~ I 7i5 reestablished by the wise conduct of Henry IV. Later, Riche- lieu had solidified the monarchy by depriving the Huguenots of the exceptional privileges granted to them for their protection by Henry IV ; he had also destroyed the fortified castles of the nobles, whose power had greatly increased during the turmoil of the Huguenot wars. His successor, Cardinal Mazarin, who conducted the government during Louis XIV's boyhood, was able to put down a last rising of the discontented nobility. When Mazarin died, in 166 1, he left the young monarch with What Riche- a kingdom such as no previous French king had enjoyed. The Mazarin had nobles, who for centuries had disputed the power with the king, J, one ^° r the were no longer feudal lords but only courtiers. The Huguenots, archy whose claim to a place in the State beside the Catholics had led to the terrible civil wars of the sixteenth century, were reduced in numbers and no longer held fortified towns from which they could defy the king's officers. Richelieu and Mazarin had suc- cessfully taken a hand in the Thirty Years' War, and France had come out of it with enlarged territory and increased impor- tance in European affairs. Louis XIV carried the work of these great ministers still The govern- farther. He gave that form to the French monarchy which it Louis xiv retained until the French Revolution. He made himself the very mirror of kingship. His marvelous court at Versailles became 387 ;88 Medieval and Modern Times the model and the despair of other less opulent and powerful princes, who accepted his theory of the absolute power of kings but could not afford to imitate his luxury. By. his incessant wars he kept Europe in turmoil for over half a century. The dis- tinguished generals who led his newly organized troops, and the wily 'diplomats who arranged his alliances and negotiated his Fig. 103. Louis XIV treaties, made France feared and respected by even the most powerful of the other European states. The theory Louis XIV had the same idea of kingship that James I had "divine right tried in vain to induce the English people to accept. God had Francf S " "* g* ven kings to men, and it was His will that monarchs should be regarded as His lieutenants and that all those subject to them. should obey them absolutely, without asking any questions or making any criticisms ; for in submitting to their prince they were really submitting to God Himself. If the king were good Sreeuwich France under Louis XIV 389 and wise, his subjects should thank the Lord ; if he proved foolish, cruel, or perverse, they must accept their evil ruler as a punishment which God had sent them for their sins. But in no case might they limit his power or rise against him. 1 Louis XIV had two great advantages over James I. In the Different first place, the English nation has always shown itself far more t ^ e English reluctant than France to place absolute power in the hands of its an ^ French rulers. By its Parliament, its courts, and its various declarations toward of the nation's rights, it had built up traditions which made it monarchy impossible for the Stuarts to establish their claim to be absolute rulers. In France, on the other hand, there was no Great Charter or Bill of Rights ; the Estates General did not hold the purse strings, and the king was permitted to raise money without asking their permission or previously redressing the grievances which they chose to point out. They were therefore only sum- moned at irregular intervals. When Louis XIV took charge of the government, forty-seven years had passed without a meet- ing of the Estates General, and a century and a quarter was still to elapse before another call to the representatives of the nation was issued in 1789. Moreover, the French people placed far more reliance upon a powerful king than the English, perhaps because they were not protected by the sea from their neighbors, as England was. On every side France had enemies ready to take advantage of any weakness or hesitation which might arise from dissension between a parliament and the king. So the French felt it best, on the whole, to leave all in the king's hands, even if they suffered at times from his tyranny. Louis had another great advantage over James. He was a Personal handsome man, of elegant and courtly mien and the most ex- f st fcs of " quisite perfection of manner ; even when playing billiards he Louis XIV is said to have retained an air of world mastery. The first of 1 Louis XIV does not appear to have himself used the famous expression " /am the Stated usually attributed to him, but it exactly corresponds to his idea of the relation of the king and the State. 390 Medieval a?id Modern Times The strenu- ous life of a despotic ruler the Stuarts, on the contrary, was a very awkward man, whose slouching gait, intolerable manners, and pedantic conversation were utterly at variance with his lofty pretensions. Louis added, moreover, to his graceful exterior a sound judgment and quick apprehension. He said neither too much nor too little. He was, for a king, a hard worker and spent several hours a day attending to the business of government. It requires, in fact, a great deal of energy and application to be a real despot. In order thoroughly to understand and to solve 3X«U Fig. 104. Facade of the Palace of Versailles the problems which constantly face the ruler of a great state, a monarch must, like Frederick the Great or Napoleon, rise early and toil late. Louis XIV was greatly aided by the able min- isters who sat in his council, but he always retained for himself the place of first minister. He would never have consented to be dominated by an adviser, as his father had been by Richelieu. "The profession of the king," he declared, "is great, noble, and delightful if one but feels equal to performing the duties which it involves," — and he never harbored a doubt that he himself was born for the business. France under Louis XIV 391 How Louis encouraged Art and Literature 77. Louis XIV was careful that his surroundings should suit The king's the grandeur of his office. His court was magnificent beyond Versailles anything that had been dreamed of in the West. He had an enormous palace constructed at Versailles, just outside of Paris, with interminable halls and apartments and a vast garden Fig. 105. One of the Vast Halls of Versailles stretching away behind it. About this a town was laid out, where those who were privileged to be near his majesty or supply the wants of the royal court lived. This palace and its outlying buildings, including two or three less gorgeous residences for the king when he occasionally tired of the cere- mony of Versailles, probably cost the nation about a hundred million dollars, in spite of the fact that thousands of peasants and soldiers were forced to turn to and work without pay. The furnishings and decorations were as rich and costly as the palace was splendid and still fill the visitor with wonder. For 392 Medieval mid Modern Times jLife at Louis XIV's court over a century Versailles continued to be the home of the French kings and the seat of their government. This splendor and luxury helped to attract the nobility, who no longer lived on their estates in well-fortified castles, plan- ning how they might escape the royal control. They now dwelt in the effulgence of the king's countenance. They saw him to bed at night and in stately procession they greeted him in the morning. It was deemed a high honor to hand him his shirt as Fig. 106. Facade of the Palace of Versailles toward the Gardens The reforms of Colbert he was being dressed or, at dinrier, to provide him with a fresh napkin. Only by living close to the king could the courtiers hope to gain favors, pensions, and lucrative offices for them- selves and their friends, and perhaps occasionally to exercise some little influence upon the policy of the government. For they were now entirely dependent upon the good will of their monarch. The reforms which Louis XIV carried out in the earlier part of his reign were largely the work of the great financier Colbert, to whom France still looks back with gratitude. He early France under Louis XIV 393 discovered that the king's officials were stealing and wasting vast sums. The offenders were arrested and forced to disgorge, and a new system of bookkeeping was introduced, similar to that employed by business men. He then turned his attention to increasing the manufactures of France by establishing new in- dustries and seeing that the older ones kept to a high standard, which would make French goods sell readily in foreign markets. He argued justly that if foreigners could be induced to buy French goods, these sales would bring gold and silver into the country and so enrich it. He made rigid rules as to the width and quality of cloths which the manufacturers might produce and the dyes which they might use. He even reorganized the old medieval guilds ; for through them the government could keep its eye on all the manufacturing that was done ; this would have been far more difficult if every one had been free to carry on any trade which he might choose. It was, however, as a patron of art and literature that Art and liter- ,. , . n , • ,, V \ i l ature in the Louis XIV gained much of his celebrity. Moliere, who was at reig n G f once a playwright and an actor, delighted the court with come- Loms XIV dies in which he delicately satirized the foibles of his time. Corneille, who had gained renown by the great tragedy of The Cid in Richelieu's time, found a worthy successor in Racine, the most distinguished, perhaps, of French tragic poets. The charm- ing letters of Madame de Sevigne' are models of prose style and serve at the same time to give us a glimpse into the more refined life of the court circle. In the famous memoirs of Saint-Simon, the weaknesses of the king, as well as the numberless intrigues of the courtiers, are freely exposed with inimitable skill and wit. Men of letters were generously aided by the king with pen- The govem- sions. Colbert encouraged the French Academy, which had Se^eveioph been created by Richelieu. This body gave special attention to p^endf law- making the French tongue more eloquent and expressive by guage and determining what words should be used. It is now the greatest honor that a Frenchman can obtain to be made one of the forty members of this association. A magazine which still exists, 394 Medieval mid Modern Times the Journal des Savants, was founded for the promotion of science at this time. Colbert had an astronomical observatory built at Paris ; and the Royal Library, which only possessed about sixteen thousand volumes, began to grow into that great collection of two and a half million volumes — by far the largest in existence — which to-day attracts scholars to Paris from all parts of the world. In short, Louis XIV and his ministers be- lieved one of the chief objects of any government to be the pro- motion of art, literature, and science, and the example they set has been followed by almost every modern state. Louis XIV's warlike enterprises He aims to restore the " natural boundaries ' of France Louis XIV attacks his Neighbors 78. Unfortunately for France, the king's ambitions were by no means exclusively peaceful. Indeed, he regarded his wars as his chief glory. He employed a carefully reorganized army and the skill of his generals in a series of inexcusable attacks on his neigh- bors, in which he finally squandered all that Colbert's economies had accumulated and led France to the edge of financial ruin. Louis XIV's predecessors had had, on the whole, little time to think of conquest. They had first to consolidate their realms and gain the mastery of their feudal dependents, who shared the power with them ; then the claims of the English Edwards and Henrys had to be met, and the French provinces freed from their clutches ; lastly, the great religious dispute was only settled after many years of disintegrating civil war. But Louis XIV was now at liberty to look about him and consider how he might best realize the dream of his ancestors and perhaps rees- tablish the ancient boundaries which Caesar reported that the Gauls had occupied. The " natural limits " of France appeared to be the Rhine on the north and east, the Jura Mountains and the Alps on the southeast, and to the south the Mediterranean and the Pyrenees. Richelieu had believed that it was the chief end of his ministry to restore to France the boundaries deter- mined for it by nature. Mazarin had labored hard to win Savoy France under Louis XIV 395 and Nice and to reach the Rhine on the north. Before his death France at least gained Alsace and reached the Pyrenees, "which," as the treaty with Spain says (1659), "formerly divided the Gauls from Spain." Louis XIV first turned his attention to the conquest of the Louis XIV . . . - -J 18.VS CleUITT TO Spanish Netherlands, to which he laid claim through his wile, the the Spanish " . , , • ^-.1 1 tt / re \ Tr, Netherlands elder sister of the Spanish king, Charles II (1665-1700). In 1667 he surprised Europe by publishing a little treatise in which he set forth his claims not only to the Spanish Netherlands, but even to the whole Spanish monarchy. By confounding the king- dom of France with the old empire of the Franks he could main- tain that the people of the Netherlands were his subjects.- Louis placed himself at the head of the army which he had The mvawon re-formed and reorganized, and announced that he was to under- landS5 16 6 7 take a " journey," as if his invasion was only an expedition into another part of his undisputed realms. He easily took a num- ber of towns on the border of the Netherlands and then turned south and completely conquered Franche-Comte. This was an outlying province of Spain, isolated from her other lands, and a most tempting morsel for the hungry king of France. 1 These conquests alarmed Europe, and especially Holland, which could not afford to have the barrier between it and France removed, for Louis XIV would be an uncomfortable neighbor. A Triple Alliance, composed of Holland, England, and Sweden, was accordingly organized to induce France to make peace with Spain. Louis contented himself for the moment with the dozen border towns that he had taken and which Spain ceded to him on condition that he would return Franche-Comte'. The success with which Holland had held her own against Louis xiv ii- r -1- breaks up the navy of England and brought the proud king ot France the Triple to a halt produced an elation on the part of that tiny country ^g%£* which was very aggravating to Louis XIV. He was thoroughly g^^ of vexed that he should have been blocked by so trifling an England obstacle as Dutch intervention. He consequently conceived a 1 See above, pp. 279 and 355. !9 6 Medieval and Modem Times Louis XIV's invasion of Holland, 1672 Peace of Nimwegen, 167S Louis XIV seizes Strassburg strong dislike for the United Provinces, which was increased by the protection that they afforded to writers who annoyed him with their attacks. He broke up the Triple Alliance by inducing Charles II of England to conclude a treaty which pledged England to help France in a new war against the Dutch. Louis XIV then startled Europe again by seizing the duchy of Lorraine, which brought him to the border of Holland. At the head of a hundred thousand men he crossed the Rhine (1&72) and easily conquered southern Holland. For the moment the Dutch cause appeared to be lost. But William of Orange showed the spirit of his great ancestor "William the Silent ; the sluices in the dikes were opened and the country flooded, so the French army was checked before it could take Amsterdam and advance into the north. The emperor sent an army against Louis, and England deserted him and made peace with Holland. When a general peace was concluded at the end of six years, the chief provisions were that Holland should be left intact, and that France should this time retain Franche-Comte', which had been conquered by Louis XIV in person. This bit of the Burgundian heritage thus became at last a part of France, after France and Spain had quarreled over it for a century and a half. For the ten years following there was no open war, but Louis seized the important free city of Strassburg and made many other less conspicuous but equally unwarranted ad- ditions to his territory. The emperor was unable to do more than protest against these outrageous encroachments, for he was fully occupied with the Turks, who had just laid siege to Vienna. Situation of the Hugue- nots at the beginning of Louis XIV's reign Louis XIV and his Protestant Subjects 79. Louis XIV exhibited as woeful a want of statesmanship in the treatment of his Protestant subjects as in the prosecution of disastrous wars. The Huguenots, deprived of their former military and political power, had turned to manufacture, trade, France under Louis XIV 397 and banking ; " as rich as a Huguenot " had become a proverb in France. There were perhaps a million of them among fifteen million Frenchmen, and they undoubtedly formed by far the most thrifty and enterprising part of the nation. The Catholic clergy, however, did not cease to urge the complete suppression of heresy. Louis XIV had scarcely taken the reins of government into Louis's .... policy of sup- his own hands before the perpetual nagging and injustice to pre ssion which the Protestants had been subjected at all times took a more serious form. Upon one pretense or another their churches were demolished. Children were authorized to renounce Prot- estantism when they reached the age of seven. Rough dragoons were quartered upon the Huguenots with the hope that the in- sulting behavior of the soldiers might frighten the heretics into accepting the religion of the king. At last Louis XIV was led by his officials to believe that prac- Revocation tically all the Huguenots had been converted by these harsh G f Nantes and measures. In 1685, therefore, he revoked the Edict of Nantes, lts results and the Protestants thereby became outlaws and their ministers subject to the death penalty. Even liberal-minded Catholics, like the kindly writer of fables, La Fontaine, and the charming letter writer, Madame de Sevigne', hailed this reestablishment of " religious unity " with delight. They believed that only an insignificant and seditious remnant still clung to the beliefs of Calvin. But there could have been no more serious mistake. Thousands of the Huguenots succeeded in eluding the vigi- lance of the royal officials and fled, some to England, some to Prussia, some to America, carrying with them their skill and industry to strengthen France's rivals. This was the last great and terrible example in western Europe of that fierce religious intolerance which had produced the Albigensian Crusade, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Louis XIV now set his heart upon conquering the Palatinate, Louis's a Protestant land, to which he easily discovered that he had a JheRhenish claim. The rumor of his intention and the indignation occasioned Palatinate 398 Medieval and Modern Times in Protestant countries by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes resulted in an alliance against the French king headed by William of Orange. Louis speedily justified the suspicions of Europe by a frightful devastation of the Palatinate, burning whole towns and destroying many castles, including the exceptionally beautiful one of the elector at Heidelberg. Ten years later, however, Louis agreed to a peace which put things back as they were before the struggle began. He was preparing for the final and most ambitious undertaking of his life, which precipitated the longest and bloodiest war of all his warlike reign. War of the Spanish Succession The question 80. The king of Spain, Charles II, was childless and brother- ish succession l ess > an d Europe had long been discussing what would become of his vast realms when his sickly existence should come to an end. Louis XIV had married one of his sisters, and the emperor, Leopold I, another, and these two ambitious rulers had been considering for some time how they might divide the Spanish possessions between the Bourbons and the Hapsburgs. But when Charles II died, in 1700, it was discovered that he had left a will in which he made Louis's younger grandson, Philip, the heir to his twenty-two crowns, but on the condition that France and Spain should never be united. Louis's grand- It was a weighty question whether Louis XIV should permit his becomes 1P ' grandson to accept this hazardous honor. Should Philip become king of king of Spain, Louis and his family would control all of south- western Europe from Holland to Sicily, as well as a great part of North and South America. This would mean the establish- ment of an empire more powerful than that of Charles V. It was clear that the disinherited emperor and the ever watchful William of Orange, now king of England (see above, p. 384), would never permit this unprecedented extension of French influence. They had already shown themselves ready to make great sacrifices in order to check far less serious aggressions on France under Louis XIV 399 the part of the French king. Nevertheless, family pride and personal ambition led Louis criminally to risk the welfare of his country. He accepted the will and informed the Spanish ambassador at the French court that he might salute Philip V as his new king. The leading French newspaper of the time boldly proclaimed that the Pyrenees were no more. King William soon succeeded in forming a new Grand Alii- The War of ance (1701) in which Louis's old enemies, England, Holland, succession and the emperor, were the most important members. William himself died just as hostilities were beginning, but the long War of the Spanish Succession was carried on vigorously by the great English general, the Duke of Marlborough, and the Austrian commander, Eugene of Savoy. The conflict was more general than the Thirty Years' War ; even in America there was fighting between French and English colonists, which passes in American histories under the name of Queen Anne's War. All the more important battles went against the French, and after ten years of war, which was rapidly ruining the country by the destruction of its people and its wealth, Louis XIV was willing to consider some compromise, and after long discussion a peace was arranged in 17 13. The Treaty of Utrecht changed the map of Europe as no The Treaty previous treaty had done, not even that of Westphalia. Each i;i3 ' of the chief combatants got his share of the Spanish booty over which they had been fighting. The Bourbon Philip V was per- mitted to retain Spain and its colonies on condition that the Spanish and French crowns should never rest on the same head. To Austria fell the Spanish Netherlands, hereafter called the Austrian Netherlands, which continued to form a barrier between Holland and France. Holland received certain for- tresses to make its position still more secure. The Spanish possessions in Italy, that is, Naples and Milan, were also given to Austria, and in this way Austria got the hold on Italy which it retained until 1866. From France, England acquired Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Hudson Bay region, and so 400 Medieval and Modern Times began the expulsion of the French from North America. Besides these American provinces she received the rock and fortress of Gibraltar, which still gives her command of the narrow entrance to the Mediterranean. The develop- The period of Louis XIV is remarkable for the development temational °f international law. The incessant wars and great alliances law embracing several powers made increasingly clear the need of well-defined rules governing states in their relations with one another both in peace and in war. It was of the utmost importance to determine, for instance, the rights of ambassa- dors and of the vessels of neutral powers not engaged in the war, and what should be considered fair conduct in warfare and in the treatment of prisoners. Grotius's War The first great systematic treatise on international law was published by Grotius in 1625, when the horrors of the Thirty Years' War were impressing men's minds with the necessity of finding some means other than war of settling disputes between nations. While the rules laid down by Grotius and later writers have, as we must sadly admit, by no means put an end to war, they have prevented many conflicts by increasing the ways in which nations may come to an understanding with one another through their ambassadors without recourse to arms. Louis XIV outlived his son and his grandson and left a sadly demoralized kingdom to his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV (1715-1774). The national treasury was depleted, the people were reduced in numbers and were in a miserable state, and the army, once the finest in Europe, was in no condition to gain further victories. QUESTIONS Section 76. What did Richelieu accomplish in strengthening the French monarchy? What were Louis XIV's ideas of kingship? Why did the French view the " divine right of kings " differently from the English? Contrast Louis XIV with James I. France under Louis XIV 401 Section 77. Describe the palace of Versailles. What were the chief reforms of Colbert? Mention some of the great writers of Louis XIV's time. How did the government aid scholarship and science ? Section 78. What led Louis XIV to attack his neighbors ? What are the " natural " boundaries of France ? What country did Louis first attack ? What additions did he make to French territory ? Section 79. What was the policy of Louis XIV toward the Huguenots? Who were Louis XIV's chief enemies? Section 80. What were the causes of the War of the Spanish Succession ? What were the chief changes provided for in the Treaty of Utrecht? CHAPTER XIX RISE OF RUSSIA AND PRUSSIA ; AUSTRIA Beginnings of Russia 81. We have had little occasion hitherto, in dealing with the history of western Europe, to speak of the Slavic peoples, to whom the Russians, Poles, Bohemians, and many other nations of eastern Europe belong. Together they form the most nu- merous race in Europe, but, as has been well said, " they occupy a greater place on the map than in history." In the eighteenth century, however, Russia began to take an increasingly im- portant part in European affairs, and it is now a great force in the politics of the world. The realms of the Tsar in Europe exceeded in extent those of all the other rulers of the Continent put together, and yet they were scarcely more than a quarter of his whole dominion, which embraced northern and central Asia, and formed together an empire occupying nearly three times the area of the United States. Movements The Slavs were settled along the Dnieper, Don, and Vistula during the S rivers long before the Christian era. After the East Goths had period of the p ene trated into the Roman Empire the Slavs followed their German inva- r r sions example and invaded, ravaged, and conquered the Balkan Penin- sula, which they held for some time. When the German Lom- bards went south into Italy, about 569, 1 the Slavs pressed behind them into the eastern Alps, where they still live within the bounds of the Austrian Empire. Other Slavic hordes had driven the Germans across the Oder and the upper Elbe. Later the German emperors, beginning with Charlemagne, 1 See above, pp. 23, 31. 402 Rise of Russia and Prussia ; Attstria 403 began to push them back, but the Bohemians and Moravians, who are Slavs, still hold an advanced position on the borders of Germany. In the ninth century some of the Northmen invaded the Beginnings districts to the east of the Baltic, while their relatives were causing grievous trouble in France and England. 1 It is gen- erally supposed that one of their leaders, Rurik, was the first to consolidate the Slavic tribes about Novgorod into a sort of state, in 862. Rurik's successor extended the bounds of the new empire to the south as far as the Dnieper River. The word " Russia " is probably derived from Rous, the name given by the neighboring Finns to the Norman adventurers. Before the end of the tenth century the Greek form of Christianity 2 was introduced and the Russian ruler was baptized. The fre- quent intercourse with Constantinople might have led to rapid advance in civilization had it not been for a great disaster which put Russia back for centuries. Russia is geographically nothing more than an extension of The Tartar the vast plain of northern Asia, which the Russians were jn V the° n destined finally to conquer. It was therefore exposed to the thlrteenth J > r century- great invasion of the Tartars, or Mongols, who swept in from the east in the thirteenth century. The powerful Tartar ruler, Genghis Khan (1 162-1227), conquered northern China and central Asia, and the mounted hordes of his successors crossed into Europe and overran Russia, which had fallen apart into numerous principalities. The Russian princes became the dependents of the Great Khan, and had frequently to seek his far-distant court, some three thousand miles away, where he freely disposed of both their crowns and their heads. The Tartars exacted tribute of the Russians but left them undis- turbed in their laws and religion. Of the Russian princes who went to prostrate themselves influence of at the foot of the Great Khan's throne, none made a more occupation on favorable impression upon him than the prince of Moscow, in ma " ners and 1 r r ' customs 1 See above, p. 92. 2 See above, p. 48. 404 Medieval and Modern Times whose favor the Khan was wont to decide all cases of dispute between the prince and his rivals. When the Mongol power had begun to decline in strength and the princes of Moscow had grown stronger, they ventured to kill the Mongol ambas- sadors sent to demand tribute in 1480, and thus freed them- selves from the Mongol yoke. But the Tartar occupation had left its mark, for the princes of Moscow -imitated the Khans rather than the Western rulers, of whom, in fact, they knew Ivan the Ter- nothing. In 1 5 47 Ivan the Terrible assumed the title of the title of " Tsar," x which was the Russian equivalent of the title " king," "Tsar" or « em peror." The costumes and etiquette of the court were also Asiatic. The Russian armor suggested that of the Chinese, and their headdress was a turban. It was the task of Peter the Great to Europeanize Russia. Peter the Great Peter the 82. At the time of Peter's accession, in 1672, Russia, which I7 25 ' had grown greatly under Ivan the Terrible and other enterpris- ing rulers, still had no outlet to the sea. In manners and cus- toms the kingdom was Asiatic, and its government was like that of a Tartar prince. Peter had no objection to the despotic power which fell to him, but he knew that Russia was very much behind the rest of Europe and that his crudely equipped soldiers could never make head against the well-armed and well-disciplined troops of the West. He had no seaport and no ships, and without these Russia could never hope to take part in the world's affairs. His two great tasks were therefore to introduce Western habits and to " make a window," as he expressed it, through which Russia might look abroad. 2 1 The word " Tsar," or " Czar," is derived from " Caesar" (German, Kaiser), but was used in Slavic books for the title of the kings of antiquity as Well as for the Roman emperors. Peter the Great called himself " Imperator," that is, " emperor." The Tsar was also known as "Autocrat of all the Russias." . 2 For contemporaneous accounts of Peter the Great, see Readings in £ur which was separated from Brandenburg by Polish Brandenburg territory. Prussia was originally the name of a region on the Baltic inhabited by heathen Slavs. These had been conquered in the thirteenth century by one of the orders of crusading knights (the Teutonic order), who, when the conquest of the Holy Land was abandoned, looked about for other occupation. After the German knights had conquered Prussia it began to fill up with German colonists. In Luther's day (1525) the Rise of Russia and Prussia ; A?istria 409 knights were converted to Protestantism and dissolved their order. They then formed their lands into the duchy of Prussia, and their Grand Master, who was a relative of the elector of Brandenburg, became their first duke. About a hundred years later (16 18) this branch of the Hohenzollerns died out, and the duchy then fell to the elector of Brandenburg. Notwithstanding this substantial territorial gain, there was The territo- little promise that the hitherto obscure electorate would ever Great Elector become a formidable power when, in 1640, Frederick William, ( l6 4°- l68S ) known as the Great Elector, came to the throne of Branden- burg. His territories were scattered from the Rhine to the Vis- tula, his army was of small account, and his authority disputed by powerful nobles. The center of his domain was Branden- burg. Far to the west was Mark, bordering on the Rhine val- ley, and Cleves, lying on both banks of that river. Far to the east, beyond the Vistula, was the duchy of Prussia (see map). The Great Elector was, however, well fitted for the task of character of welding these domains into a powerful state. He was coarse Elector by nature, heartless in destroying opponents, treacherous in diplomatic negotiations, and entirely devoid of the refinement which distinguished Louis XIV and his court. He unscrupu- lously set to work to increase his territories and his power. By shrewd tactics during the closing days of the Thirty Years' The Great War he managed to secure, by the Treaty of Westphalia, the makes impor- bishoprics of Minden and Halberstadt and the duchy of Farther J^SrJT * Pomerania, which gave him a good shore line on the Baltic. Knowing that the interests of his house depended on military Reforms of strength, he organized, in spite of the protests of the taxpayers, E1 e Ct or a ■■ an army out of all proportion to the size and wealth of his dominions, and this was the beginning of that great Prussian war machine which showed its horrible efficiency in the conflict of 19 1 4. He succeeded in creating an absolute monarchy on the model furnished by his contemporary, Louis XIV. He joined with England and. Holland in their alliances against Louis, and the army of Brandenburg began to be known and feared. 4io Medieval and Modem Times Huguenots received in Brandenburg Though a good Protestant, the Great Elector permitted religious freedom to a remarkable degree. He made Catholics eligible to office and, on the other hand, gave asylum to the persecuted Huguenots of France, even offering them special inducements to settle in his realms. Brandenburg becomes the kingdom of Prussia, 1701 Fig. 109. Military Punishment The armies of the old regime were mostly made up of hired soldiers or serfs, and the officers maintained discipline by cruel punishments. In this picture of a Prussian regiment one soldier is being flogged while half suspended by his wrists ; another is forced to walk between two files of soldiers who must beat his bared back with heavy rods. It has been said that Prussian soldiers found war a relief from the terrors of peace, since in war time the punishments were lessened It was accordingly an enriched legacy which the Great Elector left in 1688 to his son, Frederick, and although the career of the latter was by no means so brilliant as that of his father, he induced the emperor to permit him to change his title from "elec- tor" to "king" and so to transform his electorate into a kingdom} 1 As king of Prussia his title was Frederick I. Rise of Russia and Prussia ; Austria 411 The title " King in Prussia " was deemed preferable to the Frederick 11 1, more natural "King of Brandenburg" because Prussia lay Brandenburg, wholly without the bounds of the empire, and consequently its ^d^Sk T g ruler was not in any sense subject to the emperor but was of Prussia entirely independent. 1 • The second ruler of the new kingdom, Frederick William I, Government of Frederick the father of Frederick the Great, was a rough and boorish William I king who devoted himself entirely to governing his realm, col- ( I 7 I 3~ I 74o) lecting tall soldiers, drilling his battalions, hunting wild game, and smoking strong tobacco. He was passionately fond of Frederick military life from his childhood. He took special pride in stal- the p russ i an wart soldiers and collected them at great expense from all parts arm y of Europe. He raised the Prussian army, which numbered twenty-seven thousand in the days of the Great Elector, to eighty-four thousand, making it almost equal to that maintained by France or Austria. He was constantly drilling and review- ing his men, of whose military appearance he was inordinately proud. Moreover, by strict management, miserly thrift, and entire Miserly indifference to luxury, Frederick William treasured up a huge finance? ™ sum of money. He discharged a large number of court serv- ants, sold at auction many of the royal jewels, and had a great portion of the family table silver coined into money. Conse- quently he was able to leave to his son, Frederick II, not only a strengthened army but an ample supply of gold. Indeed, it was his toil and economy that made possible the warlike achievements of his far better-known son. The Wars of Frederick the Great 84. In his early years Frederick II grieved and disgusted his Accession of boorish old father by his dislike for military life and his interest f p russ ia in books and music. He was a particular admirer of the French ^ le ^," the 1786 ' 1 He was not king of all of Prussia. Frederick the Great changed it to " King of Prussia " after the incorporation of the rest, in the partition of Poland. 412 Medieval ct7id Modern Times and wrote all his works in their tongue. No sooner had he become king, however, than he suddenly developed marvelous energy and ruthlessness in warlike enterprises. Chance favored his de- signs. The emperor Charles VI, the last representative of the direct male line of the Hapsburgs, died in 1740, just a few months before Frederick ascended the throne, leaving only a daughter, Maria Theresa, to inherit his vast and miscellaneous Fig. 1 10. Frederick II of Prussia, commonly called "the Great" dominions. He had induced the other European powers to promise to accept the " pragmatic sanction," or solemn will, in which he left everything to the young Maria Theresa ; but she had no sooner begun to reign than her greedy neighbors prepared to seize her lands. Her greatest enemy was the newly crowned king of Prussia, who at first pretended friendship for her. Frederick's Frederick determined to seize Silesia, a strip of Hapsburg territory Silesia UP ° n ty m g to tne southeast of Brandenburg. In true Prussian fashion he marched his army into the coveted district and occupied the Rise of Russia and Prussia ; Austria 413 important city of Breslau without declaring war or offering any excuse except a vague claim to part of the land. 1 Within a short time France had joined with Bavaria in The War of the attack upon Maria Theresa. It seemed for a time as if succession 11 her struggle to keep her realm intact would be vain, but the loyalty of all the various peoples under her scepter was roused by her extraordinary courage and energy. The French were driven back, but Maria Theresa was forced to grant Silesia to Frederick in order to induce him to retire from the war. Finally, England and Holland joined in an alliance for main- taining the balance of power, for they had no desire to see France annex the Austrian Netherlands. A few years later (1748) all the powers, tired of the war, — which is known as the War of the Austrian Succession, — laid down their arms and agreed to what is called in diplomacy the status quo ante bellum, which simply means that things were to be restored to the con- dition in which they had been before the opening of hostilities. Frederick, however, retained possession of Silesia, which in- Frederick creased his dominions by about one third of their former extent, materia?* 5 the He now turned his attention to making his subjects happier and development J rr of r'russia more prosperous, by draining the swamps, promoting industry, and drawing up a new code of laws. He found time, also, to gratify his interest in men of letters, and invited Voltaire 2 to Frederick make his home at Berlin. It will not seem strange to any one and Voltaire who knows anything of the character of these two men, that they quarreled after two or three years, and that Voltaire left the Prussian king with very bitter feelings. Maria Theresa was by no means reconciled to the loss The Seven of Silesia, and she began to lay her plans for expelling the 1 As no woman had ever been elected empress, the Duke of Bavaria managed to secure the Holy Roman Empire, as Emperor Charles VII. Upon his death, however, in 1745, Maria Theresa's husband, Francis, duke of Lorraine, was chosen emperor. Their son, Joseph II, succeeded his father in 1765, and upon his death, in 1790, his brother Leopold II was elected. When he died, in 1792, the empire fell to his son Francis II, who was the last of the " Roman" emperors but assumed the new title " Emperor of Austria." See below, p. 545. 2 See below, pp. 465 ff. Years' War 414 Medieval and Modern Times The alliance against Prussia Frederick's victorious defense Frederick finally tri- umphs over Austria perfidious Frederick and regaining her lost territory. This led to one of the most important wars in modern history, in which not only almost every European power joined but which in- volved the whole world, from the Indian rajahs of Hindustan to the colonists of Virginia and New England. This Seven Years' War (i 756-1 763) will be considered in its broader aspects in the next chapter. We note here only the part played in it by the king of Prussia. Maria Theresa's ambassador at Paris was so skillful in his negotiations with the French court that in 1756 he induced it, in spite of its two hundred years of hostility to the House of Hapsburg, to enter into an alliance with Austria against Prussia. Russia, Sweden, and Saxony also agreed to join in a concerted attack on Prussia. Their armies, coming as they did from every point of the compass, threatened the complete annihilation of Austria's rival. It seemed as if the new kingdom of Prussia migHt disappear altogether from the map of Europe. However, it was in this war that Frederick earned his title of " the Great," and because of his successes he has often been classed with the ablest generals the world has seen. Learning the object of the allies, he did not wait for them to declare war against him, but occupied Saxony at once and then moved on into Bohemia, where he nearly succeeded in taking the capital, Prague. Here he was forced to retire, but in 1757 he defeated the French and his German enemies in the most famous, perhaps, of his battles, at Rossbach. A month later he routed the Austrians brilliantly at Leuthen, not far from Breslau. Thereupon the Swedes and the Russians retired from the field and left Frederick for the moment master of the situation. England now engaged the French and left Frederick at liberty to deal with his other enemies. While he exhibited great mili- tary skill, he was by no means able to gain all the battles in which he engaged. Money paid him by the English government helped him to stay in the field, but for a time it looked as if he might, after all, be vanquished. But the accession of a new PRUSSIA at tlie Deatli of FREDERICK THE GREAT in 1786 SCALE OF MILES Rise of Russia and Prussia ; Austria 415 Tsar, who was an ardent admirer of Frederick, led Russia to conclude peace with Prussia, whereupon Maria Theresa reluc- tantly agreed to give up once more her struggle with her in- - veterate enemy. Shortly afterwards England and France came to terms, and a general settlement was made at Paris in 1763. Three Partitions of Poland, 1772, 1793, and 1795 85. Frederick's success in seizing and holding one of Austria's finest provinces did not satisfy him. The central portions of his kingdom — Brandenburg, Silesia, and Pomerania — were com- pletely cut off from East Prussia by a considerable tract known as West Prussia, which belonged to the kingdom of Poland. The map will show how great must have been Frederick's temptation to fill this gap, especially as Poland was in no condition to defend its possessions. With the exception of Russia, Poland was the largest king- Mixed P o P u- dom in Europe. It covered an immense plain with no natural discordant boundaries, and the population, which was very thinly scattered, reli g ions in J Poland belonged to several races. Besides the Poles themselves, there were Germans in the cities of West Prussia and Russians in Lithuania. The Jews were very numerous everywhere, forming half of the population in some of the towns. The Poles were usually Catholics, while the Germans were Protestants and the Russians adhered to the Greek Church. These differences in religion, added to those of race, created endless difficulties and dissensions. The government of Poland was the worst imaginable. Instead The defective of having developed a strong monarchy, as her neighbors— ernmTnf 8 ^ Prussia, Russia, ajid Austria— had done, she remained in a state of feudal anarchy, which the nobles had taken the greatest pains to perpetuate by binding their kings in such a way that they had no power either to maintain order or to defend the country from attack. The king could not declare war, make peace, impose taxes, or pass any law, without the consent of the diet. As the 416 Medieval and Modem Times The liberum veto The elective kingship diet was composed of representatives of the nobility, any one of whom could freely veto any measure, — for no measure could pass that had even one vote against it, — r most of the diets broke up without accomplishing anything. The kingship was not hereditary in Poland, but whenever the ruler died, the nobles assembled and chose a new one, commonly Fig. hi. The Election of a Polish King in the Eighteenth Century This is an eighteenth-century engraving of a Polish diet, meeting in the open country outside of Warsaw, whose churches are just visible, in order to elect a king. In the center of the picture a ditch sur- rounds the meeting place of the senators, who are holding a solemn public session out in from of their little house. On the plain there are processions of nobles and various indications of a celebration The Polish nobles and neasants a foreigner. These elections were tumultuous, and the various European powers regularly interfered, by force or bribery, to secure the election of a candidate whom they believed would favor their interests. The nobles in Poland were numerous. There were perhaps a million and a half of them, mostly very poor, owning only a trifling bit of land. There was a saying that the poor noble's dog, even if he sat in the middle of the estate, was sure to have Rise of Russia and Prussia ; Austria 4*7 his tail upon a neighbor's land. There was no middle class ex- cept in the few German towns. The peasants were miserable indeed. They had sunk from serfs to slaves over whom their lords had the right of life and death. It required no great insight to foresee that Poland was in danger of falling a prey to her greedy and powerful neighbors, Fig. 112. A Cartoon of the Partition of Poland Catherine II, Joseph II, and Frederick II are pointing out the part of the map of Poland they each propose to take. The king of Poland is trying to hold his crown from falling off his head. What is left of Poland on the map ? Russia, Prussia, and Austria, who clamped in the unfortunate Catherine 1 1 kingdom on all sides. They had long shamelessly interfered in erklfiTagree its affairs and had actually taken active measures to oppose all on Polish , J rr matters, 1764 reforms of the constitution in order that they might profit by the chronic anarchy. The ruler of Russia was the famous Catherine II, who arranged with Frederick the Great to prevent any improvement in Poland 4i8 Medieval and Modern Times First parti- tion of Poland, 1772 Revival of Poland, 1772-1791 The new Polish constitution of 1 791 Second parti- tion, 1793 and to keep up and encourage the disorder. Finally, Poland's kind neighbors, including Austria, agreed, in 1772, each to take a slice of the unhappy kingdom. Austria was assigned a strip inhabited by almost three million Poles and Russians, and thus added two new kinds of people and two new languages to her already varied collection of races and tongues. Prussia was given a smaller piece, but it was the coveted West Prussia, which she needed to fill out her boundaries, and its inhabitants were to a considerable extent Germans and Protestants. Russia's strip, on the east, was inhabited entirely by Russians. The Polish diet was forced, by the advance of Russian troops to Warsaw, to approve the partition. Poland seemed at first, however, to have learned a great lesson from the disaster. During the twenty years following its first dismemberment there was an extraordinary revival in edu- cation, art, and literature. Historians and poets sprang up to give distinction to the last days of Polish independence. The constitution which had made Poland the laughingstock and the victim of its neighbors was abolished, and an entirely new one worked out. It did away with the free veto of the nobles, made the crown hereditary, and established a parliament somewhat like that of England. Russia had no desire that Poland should become a strong monarchy, and it sent soldiers to help the enemies of the new constitution on the ground that Russia could not bear to see any changes in the government " under which the Polish com- monwealth had flourished for so many centuries." Russia and Prussia, having secured the continuance of disorder in Poland, declared that they could not put up with such a dangerous neighbor and proceeded to a second partition in 1793. Prussia cut deep into Poland, added a million and a half of Poles to her subjects, and acquired the towns of Thorn, Danzig, and Posen. Russia's gains were three millions of people, who at least be- longed to her own race. On this occasion Austria was put off with the promises of her confederates, Russia and Prussia, that THE PARTITION OF POLAND 50 I .1 i i I I Scale o£ Miles. □ Territories taken r— i Territories taken by Russia I 1 by Austria- d] Territories taken by Prussia, 2 f Rise of Russia and Prussia ; Austria 419 they would use their good offices to secure Bavaria for her in exchange for the Austrian Netherlands. At this juncture the Poles found a national leader in the brave Revolt of Kosciusko, who had fought under Washington for American Kosciusko liberty. With the utmost care and secrecy he organized an in- I794 surrection in the spring of 1794 and summoned the Polish people to join his standard of national independence. The Poles who had been incorporated into the Prussian monarchy thereupon rose and forced Prussia to withdraw its forces. Russia was ready, however, to crush the patriots. Kosciusko Third and was wounded and captured in battle, and by the end of the t ion ; 1795 year Russia was in control of Warsaw. The Polish king was compelled to abdicate, and the remnants of the dismembered king- dom were divided, after much bitter contention, among Austria, Russia, and Prussia. In the three partitions which blotted out the kingdom of Poland from the map of Europe, Russia received nearly twice the combined shares of Austria and Prussia. The Austrian Realms : Maria Theresa and Joseph II 86. While the Hohenzollerns of Prussia from their capital The Haps at Berlin had been extending their power over northern Ger- Austria" many, the great house of Hapsburg, established in the south- eastern corner of Germany, with its capital at Vienna, had been, grouping together, by conquest or inheritance, the vast realm over much of which they still rule. It will be remem- bered that Charles V, shortly after his accession, ceded to his brother, Ferdinand I, the German or Austrian possessions of the house of Hapsburg, 1 while he himself retained the Spanish, Burgundian, and Italian dominions. Ferdinand, by a fortunate marriage with the heiress of the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, greatly augmented his territory. 2 Hungary was, 1 For the origin of the Austrian dominions, see above, pp. 268 ff. 2 See above, p. 331. 420 Medieval and Modem Times Conquests of the Turks in Europe The defense of Europe against the Turks however, almost completely conquered by the Turks at that time, and till the end of the seventeenth century the energies of the Austrian rulers were largely absorbed in a long struggle against the Mohammedans. A Turkish tribe from western Asia had, at the opening of the fourteenth century, established themselves in western Asia Minor under their leader Othman (d. 1326). It was from him that they derived their name of Ottoman Turks, to distinguish them from the Seljuk Turks, with whom the crusaders had come into con- tact. The leaders of the Ottoman Turks showed great energy. They not only extended their Asiatic territory far toward the east, and later into Africa, but they gained a footing in Europe as early as 1353. They gradually conquered the Slavic peoples in Macedonia and occupied the territory about Constantinople, although it was a hundred years before they succeeded in cap- turing the ancient capital of the Eastern Empire. This advance of the Turks naturally aroused grave fears in the states of western Europe lest they too might be deprived of their independence. The brunt of the defense against the com- mon foe devolved upon Venice and the German Hapsburgs, who carried on an almost continuous war with the Turks for nearly two centuries. As late as 1683 the Mohammedans col- lected a large force and besieged Vienna, which might very well have fallen into their hands had it not been for the timely assist- ance which the city received from the king of Poland. From this time on, the power of the Turks in Europe rapidly decreased, and the Hapsburgs were able to regain the whole territory of Hungary and Transylvania, their possessions of which was formally recognized by the Sultan in 1699. »The conquest of Silesia by Frederick the Great was more than a severe blow to the pride of Maria Theresa ; for, since it was inhabited by Germans, its loss lessened the Hapsburg power inside the empire. In extent of territory the Hapsburgs more than made up for it by the partitions of Poland, but since the Poles were an alien race, they added one more difficulty to Rise of Russia and Prussia ; Austria 421 the very difficult problem of ruling so many different peoples, Peoples each of whom had a different language and different customs [h^HapT y and institutions. The Hapsburg possessions were inhabited by bur s s Germans in Austria proper, a Slav people (the Czechs) mixed with Germans in Bohemia and Moravia, Poles in Galicia, Hun- garians or Magyars along with Roumanians and smaller groups of other peoples in Hungary, Croats and Slovenes Fig. 113. Maria Theresa (both Slavs) in the south, Italians in Milan and Tuscany, and Flemish and Walloons in the Netherlands. Maria Theresa ruled these races with energy and skill. She Enlightened patiently attended to all the tiresome matters of State, read ThereL^nT long documents and reports, and conferred with the ambassa- J° se P h n dors of foreign powers. .After her long reign of forty years her son Joseph, who had already been elected emperor as Joseph II, tried in the ten years of his rule (1 780-1 790) to modernize these backward states of southeastern Europe by a series of sweeping reforms. He was a very enlightened man and 422 Medieval and Modern Times with something of the impetuous zeal of Peter the Great tried to sweep away at once the old abuses of feudalism, to introduce more general education, and to lessen the power of the clergy. Joseph IPs He even abolished six hundred monasteries. Besides this he attempted to govern more and more from one center where he could oversee matters himself, a scheme which also seemed to promise greater unity to his realms. But his peoples did not understand his ideas or feared the growth of his own power, Fig. 114. Joseph II and he was opposed on every hand. He died just as the Revolu- tion in France was beginning to show that a nation could do for itself in a few months what a king could not do in a lifetime. It must be admitted, however, that the problems which con- fronted Maria Theresa and Joseph II were much more diffi- cult than those of France or England. Poles, Italians, Magyars, and Germans could never be united into one state by such common interests as Englishmen or Frenchmen have felt so keenly in the last two centuries. Instead of fusing together to Rise of Russia and Prussia ; Austria 423 form a nation, the peoples ruled over by the Hapsburgs were why Austria on such bad terms with each other that it often seemed as if ve i op as a " they would split apart, forming separate nations. Moreover, sm g^ na - since some of these peoples, especially the Slavs, Poles, and Roumanians, lived in neighboring states as well, the Hapsburg monarchy was always much concerned in what happened out- side its borders. The immediate cause of the terrible European war of 1914-1918 was trouble between Austria and her neigh- bor Serbia. So if one hopes to understand the great questions of our own time, he must follow carefully the complicated history of Austria and her ever-changing realms. QUESTIONS Section 81. In what portions of eastern Europe were the Slavs settling during the barbarian invasions ? What is supposed to be the origin of the name " Russia " ? Give some of the results of the domination of Russia by the Mongols. Section 82. What were the boundaries of Russia upon the acces- sion of Peter the Great ? What territories did he add ? What were some of Peter's reforms ? Section 83. Explain how the elector of Brandenburg came to have the title of " King of Prussia." Mention some of the chief rulers of the Hohenzollern line. What had been accomplished toward making Prussia a great European power before the accession of Frederick the Great? Section 84. Give an account of the War of the Austrian Suc- cession. What were the chief events of the Seven Years' War? What have you learned of Frederick the Great? Why was he a great admirer of the French? Section 8$. Describe the conditions in Poland in the eighteenth century. How was the first partition of Poland arranged ? When did the second partition take place and why was Austria left out ? Under what conditions did the third partition take place? Section 86. Explain m the relations of Austria and the Turks. What was the extent of the Hapsburg dominions when Maria Theresa came to the throne? Compare the reign of Joseph II with those of Peter the Great and of Frederick II. Why is Austria speci- ally interesting to us to-day ? CHAPTER XX England es- tablishes her supremacy on the sea Questions settled by the accession of William and Mary HOW ENGLAND BECAME QUEEN- OF THE OCEAN England after the Revolution of 1688 87. In the last chapter we reviewed the progress of affairs in eastern Europe and noted the development of two new European powers, Prussia and Russia, which have for the past two centuries played a great part in the affairs of the world. In the west, England was rapidly becoming the most important state. While she did not greatly influence the course of the wars on the Continent she was already beginning to make her- self mistress of the seas — a position which she still holds, owing to her colonies and her unrivaled fleet. At the close of the War of the Spanish Succession her navy was superior to that of any other power, for both France and Spain had been greatly weakened by the long conflict. Fifty years after the Treaty of Utrecht, England had succeeded in driving out the French both from North America and from India and in planting her vast empire beyond the seas, which still gives her the commercial supremacy of the world. With the accession of William and Mary in. 1688 1 England may be said to have settled the two great questions that had produced such serious dissensions during the previous fifty years. In the first place, the nation had clearly shown that it proposed to remain Protestant in spite of the Catholic sympathies of her Stuart kings ; and the relations between the Church of England and the dissenters were gradually be- ing satisfactorily adjusted. In the second place, the powers of the king had been carefully defined, and from the opening 1 See above, pp. 384 f. 424 How England became Que en of the Ocean 425 1702-1714 of the eighteenth century to the present time no English monarch has ventured to veto an act of Parliament. 1 William III was succeeded in 1702 by his sister-in-law, Anne, Queen Anne, a younger daughter of James II. Far more important than the war which her generals carried on against Spain was the final union of England and Scotland. As we have seen, the difficulties between the two countries had led to much blood- shed, and suffering ever since Edward I's futile attempt to con- quer Scotland. 2 The two countries had, it is true, been under England (St. George) Scotland (St. Andrew) Ireland (St. Patrick) Great Britain Great Britain and Ireland Fig. 115. The Union Jack 3 the same ruler since the accession of James I, but each had maintained its own independent parliament and system of gov- ernment. Finally, in 1707, both nations agreed to unite their governments into one. Forty-five members of the British House of Commons were to be chosen thereafter in Scotland, and six- teen Scotch lords were to be added to the British House of Lords. In this way the whole island of Great Britain was placed 1 The last instance in which an English ruler vetoed a measure passed by- Parliament was in 1707. 2 See above, pp. 130 ff. 3 The flag of Great Britain, combining the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, was called the Union Jack from Jacques, the French form of James I, the first king of Great Britain. The cross of Ireland was added upon its union with Great Britain in 1801. Upright lines indicate red ; horizontal lines, blue. The union of England and Scotland, 1707 426 Medieval and Modern Times Accession of George I (1714-1727), the first of the house of Hanover under a single government, and the occasions for strife were thereby greatly reduced. Since none of Anne's children survived her, she was suc- ceeded, according to an arrangement made before her accession, by the nearest Protestant heir. This was the son of James I's granddaughter Sophia. She had married the elector of Han- over 1 ; consequently the new king of England, George I, was also elector of Hanover and a member of the Holy Roman Empire. James I (1603-1625) England and the " balance of power " Elizabeth, m. Frederick V, Elector of the Palatinate (Winter King of Bohemia) Charles II (1) Anne Hyde, m. James II, m (2) Mary of Sophia,' m. Ernest ' (1685-1689) Modena Augustus, Charles I (1625-1 ~n (1660-1685) William III, m. Mary Anne (1689-1702) (1689-1694) (1702-1714) James (the Old Pretender) Charles Edward (the Young Pre- tender) elector of Hanover George I (1714-1727) George II (1 727-1 760) Frederick, Prince of Wales (d. 1751) I George III (1760-1820) William of Orange had been a continental statesman before he became king of England, and his chief aim had always been to prevent France from becoming overpowerful. He had joined in the War of the Spanish Succession in order to maintain the " balance of power " between the various European countries. 2 During the eighteenth century England continued, for the same 1 Originally there had been seven electors (see above, p. 281), but the Duke of Bavaria had been made an elector during the Thirty Years' War, and in 1692 the father of George I had been permitted to assume the title of " Elector of Hanover." 2 Wolsey, it will be recalled, advanced the same reason in Henry VIII's time for England's intervention in continental wars. See above, p. 315. How England became Queen of the Ocean 427 reason, to engage in the struggles between the continental powers, although she had no expectation of attempting to ex- tend her sway across the Channel. The wars which she waged in order to increase her own power and territory were carried on in distant parts of the world, and more often on sea than on land. For a quarter of a century after the Treaty of Utrecht, Eng- Peace under land enjoyed peace. 1 Under the influence of Walpole, who for p^ p e ole as twenty-one years directed the government and who was the first minist er, - . 1 721-1742 to be called prime minister, peace was maintained within and without. Not only did Walpole avoid going to war with other countries, but he was careful to prevent the ill feeling at home from developing into civil strife. His principle was to "let sleeping dogs lie " ; so he strove to conciliate the dissenters and to pacify the Jacobites, 2 as those were called who still desired to have the Stuarts return. When, in 1740, Frederick the Great and the French attacked England in Maria Theresa, England's sympathies were with the injured the Austrian queen. As elector of Hanover, George II (who had succeeded Succession his father in 1727), led an army of German troops against the French and defeated them on the river Main. Frederick then declared war on England ; and France sent the grandson of James II, 8 the Young Pretender, as he was called, with a fleet to invade England. The attempt failed, for the fleet was dispersed by a storm. In 1745 the French defeated the Eng- lish and Dutch forces in the Netherlands ; this encouraged the Young Pretender to make another attempt to gain the English « Prince crown. He landed in Scotland, where he found support among youn^Pre- 6 the Highland chiefs, and even Edinburgh welcomed "Prince tender, in Charlie." He was able to collect an army of six thousand men, 1 Except in 1718-1720, when she joined an alliance against Spain, and her admiral, Byng, destroyed the Spanish fleet. 2 Derived from Jacobus, the Latin for James.' The name was applied to the adherents of James II and of his son and grandson, the elder and younger pretenders to the throne. 3 It will be remembered that the children of James II by his second and Catholic wife, Mary of Modena, were excluded from the throne at the accession of William and Mary. 428 Medieval and Modern Times with which he marched into England. He was quickly forced back into Scotland, however, and after a disastrous defeat on Culloden Moor (1746) and many romantic adventures, he was glad to reach France once more in safety. Soon after the close of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748, England entered upon a series of wars which were destined profoundly to affect not only her position, but also the fate of distant portions of the globe. In order to follow these changes intelligently we must briefly review the steps by which the various European states had extended their sway over regions separated from them by the ocean. The history of Europe only to be explained by the history of Europe's colonies Vast extent of the Euro- pean colonial dominion How Europe began to extend its Commerce over the Whole World 88. The long and disastrous wars of the eighteenth century were much more than merely quarrels of monarchs. They were also caused by commercial and colonial rivalries, and they ex- tended to the most distant parts of the world. In the War of . the Spanish Succession, the trade of Spain was at stake as well as the throne. From the seventeenth century on, the internal affairs of each country have been constantly influenced by the , demands of its merchants and the achievements of its sailors and soldiers, fighting rival nations or alien peoples thousands of miles from London, Paris, or Vienna. The great manu- facturing towns of England — Leeds, Manchester, and Bir- mingham — owe their prosperity to India, China, and Australia. Liverpool, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, with their long lines of docks and warehouses and their fleets of merchant vessels, would dwindle away if their trade were confined to the demands of their European neighbors. Europe includes scarcely a twelfth of the land upon the globe and yet over three fifths of the world is to-day either occupied by peoples of European origin or ruled by European states. The possessions of France in Asia and Africa exceed the entire How England became Qtieen of the Ocean 429 area of Europe; even the little kingdom of the Netherlands administers a colonial dominion three times the size of the Ger^ man Empire. The British Empire, of which the island of Great Britain constitutes but a hundredth part, includes one fifth of Fig. 116. A Naval Battle between Sailing Ships This is the way the rival navies of Holland, France, and England fought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Note how the ships sail right up to the foe and fire broadsides at close range. The large ship in front has rammed an enemy ship ; this was often done, not with the idea of sinking it, since the heavily timbered wooden ships did not sink so easily as ironclads will, but in order that a boarding party could clamber over onto its decks. Thus naval warfare still re- sembled somewhat the method of fighting of the Greeks and Romans the world's dry land. Moreover, European peoples have popu- lated the United States (which is nearly as large as all of Europe), Mexico, and South America. The widening of the field of European history is one of the Nmowfirits most striking features of modern times. Though the Greeks and and me dieval Romans carried on a large trade in silks, spices, and precious 43Q Medieval and Modern Times Colonial policy of Portugal, Spain, and Holland in the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries Settlements of the French and English in North America stones with India and China, they really knew little of the world beyond southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, and much that they knew was forgotten during the Mid- dle Ages. Slowly, however, the interest in the East revived, and travelers began to add to the scanty knowledge handed down from antiquity. The voyages which had brought America and India within the ken of Europe during the fifteenth and early sixteenth cen- turies were, as we know, mainly undertaken by the Portuguese and the Spaniards. Portugal was the first to realize the advan- tage of extending her commerce by establishing stations in India after Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 5 1 and later by founding posts on the Brazilian coast of South America ; then Spain laid claim to Mexico, the West Indies, and a great part of South America. These two powers later found a formidable rival in the Dutch, who succeeded in expelling the Portuguese from a number of their settlements in India and the Spice Islands, and brought Java, Sumatra, and other tropical regions under Dutch control. In North America the chief rivals were England and France, both of which succeeded in establishing colonies in the early part of the seventeenth century. Englishmen settled at James- town in Virginia (1607), then in New England, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. The colonies owed their growth in part to the influx of refugees, — Puritans, Catholics, and Quakers, — who exiled themselves in the hope of gaining the right freely to enjoy their particular forms of religion. 2 On the other hand, many came in order to better their fortunes in the New World, and thousands of bond servants and slaves were brought over as laborers. Just as Jamestown was being founded by the English the French were making their first successful settlement in Nova Scotia and at Quebec. Although England made no attempt to oppose it, the French occupation of Canada progressed very 1 See above, pp. 232 ff. 2 See above, p. yj2. ENGLAND FRANCE and SPAIN IN AMERICA 1750 100 200 SOO 400 500 t — I 1 1 — -I 1 1 1_ Scale of_Miles THE M-N. WORKS Hoiv England became Queen of the Ocean 431 slowly. In 1673 Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, and Joliet, a merchant, explored a part of the Mississippi River. 1 La Salle sailed down the great stream and named the new country which he entered, Louisiana, after his king. The city of New Orleans was founded, near the mouth of the river, in 17 18, and the French established a chain of forts between it and Montreal. The Contest between France and England for Colonial Empire 89. The contest between England and France for the supremacy in North America was responsible for almost con- tinuous border war, which burst out more fiercely with each war in the Old World. Finally, England was able, by the Treaty of Utrecht, to establish herself in the northern regions, for France thereby ceded to her Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the borders of Hudson Bay. While the English in North America at the beginning of the Seven Years' War numbered over a million, the French did not reach a hundred thousand. The rivalry of England and France was not confined to the wildernesses of North America, occupied by half a million of Extent of savage red men. At the opening of the eighteenth century both countries had gained a firm foothold on the borders of the vast Indian empire, inhabited by two hundred millions of people and the seat of an ancient and highly developed civilization. One may gain some idea of the extent of India by laying the map of Hindustan upon that of the United States. If the southern- most point, Cape Comorin, be placed over New Orleans, Cal- cutta will lie nearly over New York City, and Bombay in the neighborhood of Des Moines, Iowa. A generation after Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape, a Mongolian conqueror, Baber, had established his empire in The Mongo- India. The dynasty of Mongolian rulers which he founded was f FnndusTan able to keep the whole country under its control for nearly 1 For Marquette's account, see Readings In European History, Vol. 1 1, pp. 345 ff. 43^ Medieval and Modern Times two centuries ; then after the death of the Great Mogul Aurung- zeb, in 1707, their empire began to fall apart in much the same way as that of Charlemagne had done. Like the counts and dukes of the Carolingian period, the emperor's officials, the subahdars and nawabs (nabobs), and the rajahs (Hindu princes Fig. 117. The Taj Mahal This mausoleum of a princess was built at Agra, India, in 1632. It has been described as " the most splendidly poetic building in the world ... a dream in marble, which justifies the saying that the Moguls designed like Titans but finished like jewelers." The entire building is of white marble, inlaid with precious stones. Although this is regarded as the most perfect monument, India has many others of great magnificence, witnesses of the power and wealth of her princes who had been subjugated by the Mongols) had gradually got the power in their respective districts into their own hands. Although the emperor, or Great Mogul, as the English called him, continued to maintain himself in his capital of Delhi, he could no longer be said to rule the country at the opening of the eighteenth century when the French and English were beginning to turn their attention seriously to his coasts. How England became Queen of the Ocean- 433 In the N time of Charles I (1639) a village had been pur- English and chased by the English East India Company on the southeastern m e nts in coast of Hindustan, which grew into the important English India station of Madras. About the same time posts were established in the district of Bengal, and later Calcutta was fortified. Bom- bay was already an English station. The Mongolian emperor of India at first scarcely deigned to notice the presence of a few foreigners on the fringe of his vast realms, but before the end of the seventeenth century hostilities began between the English East India Company and the native rulers, which made it plain that the foreigners would be forced to defend themselves. The English had to face not only the opposition of the natives, but that of a European power as well. France also had an East India Company, and at the opening of the eighteenth century Pondicherry was its chief center, 'with a population of sixty thou- sand, of which two hundred only were Europeans. It soon became apparent that there was little danger from the Great Mogul ; moreover the Portuguese and Dutch were out of the race, so, the native princes and the French and English were left to fight among themselves for the supremacy. Just before the clash of European rulers, known as the Seven England Years' War, came, in 1756, the French and English had begun £g struggle their struggle in both America and India. In America the so- ^ s ^ prem " called French and Indian War began in 1754 between the America English and French colonists. General Braddock was sent from England to capture Fort Duquesne, which the French had es- tablished to keep their rivals out of the Ohio valley. Braddock knew nothing of border warfare, and he was killed and his troops routed. Fortunately for England, France, as the ally of Austria, was soon engaged in a war with Prussia that prevented her from giving proper attention to her American possessions. A famous William Pitt , , , ^. 1 1 1 j r **. -c r i ( Earl of statesman, the elder Pitt, 1 was now at the head of the English Chatham) ministry. He was able not only to succor the hard-pressed king 1 So called to distinguish him from his son, prime minister later. 434 Medieval and Modern Times Dupleix and Clive in India of Prussia with money and men, but also to support the militia of the thirteen American colonies in their attacks upon the French. The French forts at Ticonderoga and Niagara were taken; Quebec was won in Wolfe's heroic attack, 1759; and the next year all Canada submitted to the English. England's supremacy on the sea was demonstrated by three admirals, each of whom destroyed a French fleet. In India conflicts between the French and the English had occurred during the War of the Austrian Succession. The M si^ffia 1 , : ; t;,.;? isj i v_ iix-.^- oiiiii Fig. 1 18. Quebec Wolfe's army climbed the cliff (over 300 feet high) to the west of the city (left of the picture) and fought there on the plain known as the Heights of Abraham governor of the French station of Pondicherry was Dupleix, a soldier of great energy, who proposed to drive out the Eng- lish and firmly establish the power of France over Hindustan. His chances of success were greatly increased by the quarrels among the native rulers, some of whom belonged to the earlier Hindu inhabitants and some to the Mohammedan Mongolians who had conquered India in 1526. Dupleix had very few French soldiers, but he began the enlistment of the natives, a Hozv England became Queen of the Ocean 435 custom eagerly adopted by the English. These native-soldiers, whom the English called Sepoys, were taught to fight in the manner of Europeans. But the English colonists, in spite of the fact that they were Robert Clive mainly traders, discovered among the clerks in Madras a leader na tive troops equal in military skill and energy to Dupleix himself. Robert Clive, who was but twenty-five years old at this time, organized a large force of Sepoys and gained a re- markable ascendancy over them by his astonishing bravery. At the moment that the Seven Years' War was beginning, bad news reached Clive from the English settlement of Calcutta, about a thousand miles to the northeast of Madras. The nawab of Bengal had seized the property of some English merchants and imprisoned one hun- dred and forty-five Englishmen in a little room, — the " black hole " of Calcutta, — where most of them died of suffocation before morning. 1 Clive hastened to Bengal, and with a little army of nine hundred Euro- peans and fifteen hundred Sepoys he gained a great victory at Plassey, in 1757, over the nawab's army of fifty thousand men. Clive then replaced the nawab of Bengal Clive renders by a man whom he believed to be friendly to the English, ^supreme Before the Seven Years' War was over, the English had in India won Pondicherry and deprived the French of all their former influence in the region of Madras. 1 See Readings in European History, Vol. II, pp. 339 ff. 2 See Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, p. 107. Fig. 119. Monument on the Site of the Black Hole The prison where one hun- dred and forty-five men and one woman were confined was only 18 feet by 14 feet, with two small windows 2 436 Medieval and Modern Times England's When the Seven Years' War was brought to an end, in leveVyears' T 7^3? by tne Treaty of Paris, it was clear that England had War gained far more than any other power. She was to retain her two forts commanding the Mediterranean — Gibraltar, and Port Mahon on the island of Minorca ; in America, France ceded to her the vast region of Canada and Nova Scotia, as well as Fig. 120. William Pitt Pitt, more than any other one man, was responsible for the victories of England in the Seven Years' War. A great orator, as well as a shrewd statesman, he inspired his country with his own great ideals. He boldly upheld in- Parliament the cause of the American colonists, but died before he could check the policy of the king several of the islands in the West Indies. The region beyond the Mississippi was ceded to Spain by France, who thus gave up all her claims to North America. In India, France, it is true, received back the towns which the English had taken from her, but she had permanently lost her influence over the native rulers, for Clive had made the English name greatly feared among them. How England became Queen of the Ocean 437 Revolt of the American Colonies from England 90. England had, however, no sooner added Canada to her possessions and driven the French from the broad region which lay between her dominions and the Mississippi than she lost the better part of her American empire by the revolt of the irritated colonists, who refused to submit to her interference in their government and commerce. The English settlers had been left alone, for the most part, For a long . by the home government and had enjoyed far greater freedom S^Tleft her in the management of their affairs than had the colonies of France colonies very free and Spain. Virginia established its own assembly in 16 19, and Massachusetts became almost an independent commonwealth. England had been busied during the seventeenth century with a great struggle at home and with the wars stirred up by Louis XIV. After the Peace of Utrecht, Walpole for twenty years prudently refused to interfere with the colonies. The re- sult was that by the end of the Seven Years' War the colonists numbered over two millions. Their rapidly increasing wealth and strength, their free life in a new land, and the confidence they had gained in their successful conflict with the French — all combined to render the renewed interference of the home government intolerable to them. During the war with the French, England began to realize for England the first time that the colonies had money, and so Parliament colonies decided that they should be required to pay part of the ex- penses of the recent conflict and support a small standing army of English soldiers. The Stamp Act was therefore passed, Stamp Act which taxed the colonists by requiring them to pay the English government for stamps which had to be used upon leases, deeds, and other legal documents in order to make them binding. The colonists were indignant, for, while they were not unwilling to contribute to the mother country, they declared that according to the principles of the English constitution, a Parliament in which they were not represented had no right to tax them. of 1765 438 Medieval and Modem Times Representatives of the colonies met in New York in 1765 and denounced the Stamp Act as indicating " a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonies." More irritating than the attempts of Great Britain to tax the colonists were the vexatious navigation and trade laws by which, like the other nations of the time, she tried to keep all the benefits of colonial trade and industry to herself. The early navigation laws passed under Cromwell and Charles II were specially directed against the enterprising Dutch traders. They provided that all products grown or manufactured in Asia, Africa, or America should be imported into England or her colonies only in English ships. But if the laws were directed against the Dutch, they worked hardships to the colonists as well. Thus if a Dutch merchant vessel laden with cloves, cinna- mon, teas, and silks from the Far East anchored in the harbor of New York, the inhabitants could not lawfully buy of the ship's master, no matter how much lower his prices were than those offered by English shippers. Furthermore, another act pro- vided that no commodity of European production or manu- facture should be imported into any of the colonies without being shipped through England and carried in ships built in England or the colonies. So if a colonial merchant wished to buy French wines or Dutch watches, he would have to order through English merchants. Again, if a colonist desired to sell to a European merchant such products as the law permitted him to sell to foreigners, he had to export them in English ships and even send them by way of England. Trade laws What was still worse for the colonists, certain articles in which they were most interested, such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, and indigo, could be sold only in England. Certain other things they were forbidden to export at all or even to produce. For instance, though they possessed the finest furs in abundance, they could not export any caps or hats to England or to any foreign country. They had iron ore in inexhaustible quantities at their disposal, but by a law of 1750 they were forbidden to Hozu England became Queen of the Ocean 439 erect any rolling mill or furnace for making steel, in order that English steel manufactures might enjoy a monopoly of that trade. The colonists naturally evaded these laws as far as possible ; The colonists they carried on a prosperous smuggling trade and built up English industries in spite of them. Tobacco, sugar, hemp, flax, and restnctl0ns cotton were grown, and cloth was manufactured. Furnaces, foundries, nail mills and wire mills supplied pig iron and bar iron, chains, anchors, and other hardware. It is clear that where so many people were interested both in manufacturing and in commerce a loud protest was sure to be raised against the continued attempts of England to restrict the business of the colonists in favor of her own merchants. Parliament withdrew the unpopular stamp tax, but declared Taxes with- , . , , r • i ii- 11 drawn except that it had a perfect right to tax the colonies as well as to that on tea make laws for them. Soon new duties on glass, paper, and tea were imposed, and a government board was established to se- cure a firm observance of the navigation laws and other restric- tions. But the protests of the colonists finally moved Parliament to remove all the duties except that on tea, which was retained to prove England's right to tax the colonists and was later used to benefit the English East India Company. The effort to make the Americans pay a very moderate import Opposition to duty on tea and to force upon Boston markets the company's w i t h ut rep- tea at a low price produced trouble in 1773. The young men resentatlon " of Boston seditiously boarded a tea ship in the harbor and threw the cargo into the water. Burke, perhaps the most able member of the House of Commons, urged the ministry to allow the Americans to tax themselves, but George III, and Parlia- ment as a whole, could not forgive the colonists for their oppo- sition. They believed that the trouble was largely confined to New England and could easily be overcome. In 1774 acts were passed prohibiting the landing and shipping of goods at Boston ; and the colony of Massachusetts was deprived of its former right to choose its judges and the members of the upper house of its legislature, who were thereafter to be selected by the king. 440 Medieval and Modern Times The Conti- nental Con- gress Declaration of Independ- ence, July 4, The United States seeks and receives aid from France Close of the war, 1783 These measures, instead of bringing Massachusetts to terms, so roused the apprehension of the rest of the colonists that a congress of all the colonists was held at Philadelphia in 1774. This congress decided that all trade with Great Britain should cease until the grievances of the colonies had been redressed. The following year the Americans attacked the British troops at Lexington and made a brave stand against them in the battle of Bunker Hill. The second congress decided to prepare for war, and raised an army which was put under the command of George Washington, a Virginia planter who had gained some distinction in the late French and Indian War. Up to this time the colonies had not intended to secede from the mother country, but the proposed compromises came to nothing, and in July, 1776, Congress declared that "these United States are, and of right ought to be, free and independent." This occurrence naturally excited .great interest in France. The outcome of the Seven Years' War had been most lamen- table for that country, and any trouble which came to her old enemy, England, could not but be a source of congratulation to the French. The United States therefore regarded France as their natural ally and immediately sent Benjamin Franklin to Versailles in the hope of obtaining the aid of the new French king, Louis XVI. The king's ministers were uncertain whether the colonies could long maintain their resistance against the over- whelming strength of the mother country. It was only after the Americans had defeated Burgoyne at Saratoga that France, in 1778, concluded a treaty with the United States in which the independence of the new republic was recognized. This was tantamount to declaring war upon England. The enthusiasm for the Americans was so great in France that a number of the younger nobles, the most conspicuous of whom was the Marquis de Lafayette, crossed the Atlantic to fight in the American army. In spite of the skill and heroic self-sacrifice of Washington the Americans lost more battles than they gained. It is extremely doubtful whether they would have succeeded in bringing the How England became Queen of the Ocean 441 war to a favorable close, by forcing the English general, Corn- ^ngland^ac- wallis, to capitulate at Yorktown (1781), had it not been for the independ. the aid of the French fleet. The chief result of the war was ^nTtedslSes the recognition by England of the independence of the United States, whose territory was to extend to the Mississippi River. To the west of the Mississippi the vast territory of Louisiana still remained in the hands of Spain, and Spain also held Florida, which England had held since 1763 but now gave back. Spain and Portugal were able to hold their American pos- g^°£ h °* *° sessions a generation longer than were the English, but in the n i es the be- end nearly all of the western hemisphere, with the exception f^emanci- of Canada, completely freed itself from the domination of the P^° e n rn °^ European powers. Cuba, one of the last vestiges of Spanish sphere rule in the West, gained its independence with the aid of the United States, in 1898. QUESTIONS Section S7. What important questions did the accession of Wil- liam and Mary settle ? When and on what terms were England and Scotland united? When and why did the House of Hanover come to the English throne? What do you understand by the "balance of power " ? Who was the Young Pretender and what attempts did he make to gain the English throne ? Section 88. Why must we study the European colonies in order to understand European History ? What countries preceded England in acquiring colonies ? Give the possessions of Spain, England, and France, in North America previous to the Seven Years' War. Section 89. Tell something of the extent and population of India. How did England get its first foothold in India ? Where were the French settlements? What was the result of the French and Indian War in America? in India? Enumerate England's colonial posses- sions at the end of the war. Section 90. Describe England's navigation and trade laws. Give the chief events leading to the revolt of England's colonies in America. Why did France favor the colonies ? Summarize the chief results of the European wars from the Treaty 'of Utrecht to the close of the American Revolution. -^ v<^ CHAPTER XXI GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Life in the Country — Serfdom 91. If a peasant who had lived on a manor in the time of the Crusades had been permitted to return to earth and travel about Europe at the opening of the eighteenth century, he would have found much to remind him of the conditions under which, seven centuries earlier, he had extracted a scanty living from the soil. It is true that the gradual extinction of serfdom in western Europe appears to have begun as early as the twelfth century, but it proceeded at very different rates in different countries. In France the old type of serf had largely disappeared by the fourteenth century, and in England a hundred years later. In Prussia, Austria, Poland, Russia, Italy, and Spain, on the con- trary, the great mass of the country people were still bound to the soil in the eighteenth century. Survivals of Even in France there were still many annoying traces of the tem in France old system. The peasant was, it is true, no longer bound to a par- m the eight- ticular manor ; he could buy or sell his land at will, could marry eenth century ' •> ' • J without consulting the lord, and could go and come as he pleased. Many bought their land outright, while others disposed of their holdings and settled in town. But the lord might still require all those on his manor to grind their grain at his mill, bake their bread in his oven, and press their grapes in his wine press. The peasant might have to pay a toll to cross a bridge or ferry which was under the lord's control, or a certain sum for driving his flock past the lord's mansion. Many of the old arrangements still forced the peasant occupying a particular plot of land to 442 General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 443 turn over to the lord a certain portion of his crops, and, if he sold his land, to pay the lord a part of the money he received for it. In England in the eighteenth century the prominent features Practical dis- of serfdom had disappeared much more completely than in of serfdom France. The services in labor due to the lord had long been m En s land commuted into money payments, and the peasant was thus transformed into a renter or owner of his holding. m tern Fig. i2i. The Oven of the Manor The oven at which those on the manor had to bake their bread was some- times a large stone structure in the open air. The one in the picture has fallen into ruins since now the country people bake at home and so avoid paying the owner of the oven a part of the flour or bread for its use In central, southern, and eastern Europe the medieval system Condition of •11 -ill i- .1 1 f 1 1 tne serfs in still prevailed ; the peasant lived and died upon the same manor, a grea t part and worked for his lord in the same way that his ancestors had °he^ght- e m worked a thousand years before. Everywhere the same crude eenth century agricultural instruments were still used, and most of the im- plements and tools were roughly made in the village itself. The wooden plows commonly found even on English farms were 444 Medieval and Modem Times Wretched houses of the peasants constructed on the model of the old Roman plow ; wheat was cut with a sickle, grass with an unwieldy scythe, and the rickety cart wheels were supplied with only wooden rims. The houses occupied by the country people differed greatly from Sicily to Pomerania, and from Ireland to Poland ; but, in general, they were small, with little light or ventilation, and often Fig. 122. Interior of Peasant's Hut The house consists of one room. Milk jugs, kettles, and pails stand around the fireplace, where the cooking is done. In the corner stands the bed, curtained off from the room to secure privacy. Notice the heavy beam supporting the ceiling they were nothing but wretched hovels with dirt floors and neglected thatch roofs. The pigs and the cows were frequently as well housed as the people, with whom they associated upon very familiar terms, since the barn and the house were commonly in the same building. The drinking water was bad, and there was no attempt to secure proper drainage. Fortunately every one was out of doors a great deal of the time, for the women General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 445 as well as the men usually worked in the fields, cultivating the soil and helping to gather in the crops. Country life in the eighteenth century was obviously very Unattractive arduous and unattractive for the most part. The peasant had countr y life no newspapers to tell him of the world outside his manor, nor could he have read them if he had had them. Even in England not one peasant in five thousand, it is said, could read at all ; and in France the local tax collectors were too uneducated to make out their own reports. Farther east conditions must have been still more cheerless, for a Hungarian peasant complains that he owed four days of his labor to his lord, spent the fifth and sixth hunting and fishing for him, while the seventh belonged to God. The Towns and the Guilds 92. Even in the towns there was much to remind one of the Towns still Middle Ages. The narrow, crooked streets, darkened by the over- the eight- hanging buildings and scarcely lighted at all by night, the rough eenth centul 7 cobblestones, the disgusting odors even in the best quarters — - all offered a marked contrast to the European cities of to-day, which have grown tremendously in the last hundred years in size, beauty, and comfort. In 1760 London had half a million inhabitants, or about London a tenth of its present population. There were of course no street cars or omnibuses, to say nothing of the thousands of automobiles which now thread their way in and out through the press of traffic. A few hundred hackney coaches and sedan chairs served to carry those who had not private convey- ances and could not, or would not, walk. The ill-lighted streets were guarded at night by watchmen who went about with lanterns, but afforded so little protection against the roughs and robbers that gentlemen were compelled to carry arms when passing through the streets after nightfall. Paris was somewhat larger than London and had outgrown p ar is its medieval walls. The police were more efficient there, and 446 Medieval mid Modern Times German towns the highway robberies which disgraced London and its suburbs were almost unknown. The great park, the " Elysian fields," and many of the boulevards which now form so distinguished a feature of Paris were already laid out ; but, in general, the streets were still narrow, and there were none of the fine broad avenues which now radiate from a hundred centers. There were few sewers to carry off the water which, when it rained, flowed through the middle of the streets. The filth and the bad smells of former times still remained, and the people re- lied upon easily polluted wells or the dirty River Seine for their water supply. In Germany very few of the towns had spread beyond their medieval walls. They had, for the most part, lost their former prosperity, which was still attested by the fine old houses of the merchants and of the once flourishing guilds. Berlin had a pop- ulation of only about two hundred thousand. Vienna, the largest city in Austria, was slightly larger. This city then employed from thirty to a hundred street cleaners and boasted that the street. lamps were lighted every night, while many towns contented themselves with dirty streets and with light during the winter months, and then only when the moon was not scheduled to shine. Even the famous cities of Italy, — Milan, Genoa, Florence, Rome, — notwithstanding their beautiful palaces and public buildings, were, with the exception of water-bound Venice, crowded into the narrow compass of the town wall, and their streets were narrow and crooked. Another contrast between the towns of the eighteenth century conducted on an d those of to-day lay in the absence . of the great wholesale a small scale ware houses, the vast factories with their tall chimneys, and the attractive department stores which may now be found in every city from Dublin to Budapest. Commerce and industry were in general conducted upon a very small scale, except at the great ports like London, Antwerp, or Amsterdam, where goods coming from and going to the colonies were brought together. 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M rt jS cu cu - 13 43 ^3 bp 43 ^ « -a £^ Dh CU co o o 43 J £ .2 ^ .S S 447 448 Medieval and Modem Times The trades organized into guilds The growth of industry under the influence of the various machines which were being invented during the latter part of the eighteenth century will form the subject of a later chapter. It is clear, however, that before the introduction of railroads, steamships, and machine-equipped factories, all business opera- tions must have been carried on in what would seem to us a slow and primitive fashion. A great part of the manufacturing still took place in little shops where the articles when completed were offered for sale. Generally all those who owned the several shops carrying on a particular trade, such as. tailoring, shoe- making, baking, tan- ning, bookbinding, hair cutting, or the mak- ing of candles, knives, hats, artificial flowers, swords, or wigs, were organized into a guild — a union — the main object of which was to prevent all other citizens from making or selling the articles in which the members of the guild dealt. The number of master workmen who might open a shop of their own was often limited by the guild, as well as the num- ber of apprentices each master could train. The period of apprenticeship was long, sometimes seven or even nine years, on the ground that it took years to learn the trade properly, but really because the guild wished to maintain its monopoly by keeping down the number who could become masters. Fig. 124. Public Letter Writer Since most common people could not read or write, they had to employ letter writers, who often had stalls like this along the street General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 449 When the apprenticeship was over, the workman became a " journeyman " and might never perhaps become a master workman and open a shop of his own. Everywhere a workman had to stick to his trade ; if a cob- Strife among bier should venture to make a pair of new boots, or a baker should roast a piece of meat in his oven, he might be expelled from the guild unless he made amends. In Paris a hatter, who had greatly increased his trade by making hats of wool mixed with silk, had his stock destroyed by the guild authorities on the ground that the rules permitted hats to be made only of wool and said nothing of silk. The guilds differed from the modern trade unions in several im- Three -r 1 r- 1 11 i important portant respects. In the first place, only the master workmen, differences who owned the shops, tools, or machines, belonged to them. The guHdTaVd C apprentices and journeymen, that is, the ordinary workmen, were the modern ■> J J trade unions excluded and had no influence whatever upon the policy of the organization. In the second place, the government enforced the decisions of the guilds. Lastly, the guilds were confined to the old- established industries which were still carried on, as they had been during the Middle Ages, on a small scale in the master's house. In spite, however, of the seeming strength of the guilds, they Decline of the ^uilds were really giving way before the entirely new conditions which had arisen. Thoughtful persons disapproved of them on the ground that they hampered industry and prevented progress by their outworn restrictions. In many towns the regulations were evaded or had broken down altogether, so that enter- prising workmen and dealers carried on their business as they pleased. Then, as we have said, it was only the old industries that were included in the guild system. The Nobility and the Monarchy 93. Not only had the medieval manor and the medieval guilds maintained themselves down into the eighteenth century, but the successors of the feudal lords continued to exist as a 45o Medieval and Modern Times Fig. 125. A Noble Family of the Old Regime Extravagance in dress, of which the men were as guilty as the women, was largely due to the influence of court life, where so many nobles were rivaling each other in display. This brought hardship to the people on their estates in the country, since they had to support their masters' expenses conspicuous and powerful class. They enjoyed various privi- leges and distinctions denied to the ordinary citizen, although they were, of course, shorn of the great power that the more important dukes and counts had enjoyed in the Middle Ages, when they ruled over vast tracts, could summon their vassals General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 451 to assist them in their constant wars with their neighbors, and dared defy even the authority of the king himself. The English, French, and Spanish kings had gradually sub- The former jugated the turbulent .barons and brought the great fiefs directly JJ th?feudaf under royal control. The monarchs met with such success that cobles lost J ' by the in the eighteenth century the nobles no longer held aloof but eighteenth eagerly sought the king's court. Those whose predecessors had once been veritable sovereigns within their own domains, had declared war even against the king, coined money, made laws for their subjects, and meted out justice in their castle halls, had, by the eighteenth century, deserted their war horses and laid aside their long swords ; in their velvet coats and high- heeled shoes they were contented with the privilege of helping the king to dress in the morning and attending him at dinner. The battlemented castle, once the stronghold of independent chieftains, was transformed into a tasteful country residence where, if the king honored the owner with a visit, the host was no longer tempted, as his ancestors had been, to shower arrows and stones upon the royal intruder. The French noble, unlike the English, was not fond of the The French country but lived with the court at Versailles whenever he * * y could afford to do so, and often when he could not. He liked the excitement of the court, and it was there that he could best advance his own and his friends' interests by obtaining lucrative offices in the army or Church or in the king's palace. By their prolonged absence from their estates the nobles lost the esteem of their tenants, while their stewards roused the hatred of the peasants by strictly collecting all the ancient manorial dues in order that the lord might enjoy the gayeties at Versailles. The unpopularity of the French nobility was further increased The French by their exemptions from some of the heavy taxes, on the privileged ground that they were still supposed to shed their blood in class fighting for their king instead of paying him money like the unsoldierly burghers and peasants. They enjoyed, moreover, the preference when the king had desirable positions to grant 452 Medieval and Modern Times They also claimed a certain social superiority, since they were excluded by their traditions of birth from engaging in any ordinary trade or industry, although they might enter some professions, such as medicine, law, the Church, or the army, or even participate in maritime trade without derogating from their rank. In short, the French nobility, including some one hundred and thirty thousand or one hundred and forty thou- sand persons, constituted a privileged class, although they no longer performed any of the high functions which had been exercised by their predecessors. The ennobled To make matters worse, very few of the nobles really be- longed to old feudal families. For the most part they had been ennobled by the king for some supposed service, or had bought an office, or a judgeship in the higher courts, to which noble rank was attached. Naturally this circumstance served to rob them of much of the respect that their hereditary dignity and titles might otherwise have gained for them. Peculiar In England the feudal castles had disappeared earlier even theEngHsh ^an m France, and the English law did not grant to any one, peerage however long and distinguished his lineage, special rights or privileges not enjoyed by every freeman. Nevertheless there was a distinct noble class in England. 1 The monarch had for- merly been accustomed to summon his earls and some of his barons to take council with him, and in this way the peerage developed; this included those whose title permitted them to sit in the House of Lords and to transmit this honorable pre- rogative to their eldest sons. But the peers paid the same taxes as every other subject and were punished in the same manner if they were convicted of an offense. Moreover only the eldest surviving son of a noble father inherited his rank, while on the Continent all the children became nobles. In this way the number of the English nobility was greatly restricted, and their social distinction roused little antagonism. 1 For Voltaire's account of the English nobility, see Readings in Modem European History, Vol. I, p. 146. General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 453 In Germany, however, the nobles continued to occupy very The German much the same position which their ancestors held in the resembled Middle Ages. There had been no king to do for Germany "^eval what the French kings had done for France ; no mighty man had risen strong enough to batter down castle walls and bend all barons, great and small, to his will. The result was that there were in Germany in the eighteenth century hundreds of nobles dwelling in strong old castles and ruling with a high hand domains which were sometimes no larger than a big American farm. They levied taxes, held courts, coined money, and maintained standing armies of perhaps only a handful of soldiers. In all the countries of Europe the chief noble was of course The chief the monarch himself, to whose favor almost all the lesser nobles k ing owed their titles and rank. He was, except in a few cases, always despotic, permitting the people no share in the man- agement of the government and often rendering them miser- His arbitrary able by needless wars and ill-advised and oppressive taxes. He p commonly maintained a very expensive court and gave away to unworthy courtiers much of the money which he had wrung from his people. He was permitted to imprison his subjects upon the slightest grounds and in the most unjust manner; nevertheless he usually enjoyed their loyalty and respect, since they were generally ready to attribute his bad acts to evil councilors. On the whole, the king merited the respect paid him. He The services it was who had destroyed the power of innumerable lesser even despotic despots and created something like a nation. He had put a kmgs stop to the private warfare and feudal brigandage which had disgraced the Middle Ages. His officers maintained order throughout the country so that merchants and travelers could go to and fro with little danger. He opened highroads for them and established a general system of coinage, which greatly facil- itated business operations. He interested himself more and more in commerce and industry and often encouraged learning. 454 Medieval and Modem Times Finally, by consolidating his realms and establishing a regular system of government, he prepared the way for the European State of to-day in which the people are either given more or less control over lawmaking and the disposition of the public revenue, or, as in the case of France, the monarch has been discarded altogether as no longer needful. Democracy and political equality would, in fact, have been impossible if mon- archs had not leveled the proud and mighty nobles who aspired to be petty kings in their domains. The Catholic Church Importance 94. The eighteenth century had inherited from the Middle val Church in Ages the nobility with their peculiar privileges. At the same modemTrob- ^ me ' ^ c ^ er gY' especially in Catholic countries, still possessed lems privileges which set them off from the nation at large. They were far more powerful and better organized than the nobility and exercised a great influence in the State. The Catholic Church did not rely for its entire support upon the voluntary contributions of its members, but still enjoyed the revenue from vast domains which kings, nobles, and other land- holders had from time to time (especially during the Middle Ages) given to the churches and monasteries. In addition to the income from its lands, the Church had the right, like the State, to impose a regular tax which was called the tithe. All who were subject to this were forced to pay it, whether they cared anything about religion or not, just as we are all com- pelled to pay taxes imposed by the government under which we live. 1 Great powers In spite of the changes which had overtaken the Church by the Cath- since the Middle Ages, it still retained its ancient external ap- in 1 the l Sffht- P earance m the eighteenth century — its gorgeous ceremonial, eenth century its wealth, its influence over the lives of men, its intolerance of those who ventured to differ from the conceptions of* Christianity 1 See above, Chapter X, for a description of the Church in the Middle Ages. General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 455 which it held. The Church could fine and imprison those whom it convicted of blasphemy, contempt of religion, or heresy. The clergy managed the schools in which, of course, the children were brought up in the orthodox faith. Hospitals and other charitable institutions were under their control. They registered all births and deaths, and only the marriages which they sanctified were regarded by the State as legal. The monasteries still existed in great numbers and owned vast tracts of land. A map of Paris made in 1789 shows no less than sixty-eight monasteries and seventy-three nunneries within the walls. Both the Catholic and the Protestant churches were still in- intolerance tolerant, and in this were usually supported by the government, ii cs an( j which was ready to punish or persecute those who refused to Protestants conform to the State religion, whatever it might be, or ventured to speak or write against its doctrines. There was none of that freedom which is so general now, and which permits a man to worship or not as he pleases, and even to criticize religion in any or all its forms without danger of imprisonment, loss of citizenship, or death. In France, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in Position of 1685, Protestants had lost all civil rights. According to a tants in decree of 1724, those who assembled for any form of worship France other than the Roman Catholic were condemned to lose their property ; the men were to be sent to the galleys and the women imprisoned for life. Books and pamphlets were carefully examined in order to see Censorship whether they contained any attacks upon the orthodox Catholic beliefs or might in any way serve to undermine the authority of the Church or of the king. The king of France, as late as 1757, issued a declaration establishing the death penalty for those who wrote, printed, or distributed any work which appeared to be an attack upon religion. A considerable num- ber of the books issued in France in the eighteenth century, which ventured to criticize the government or the Church, were condemned by either the clergy or the king's courts, and 456 Medieval and Modern Times were burned by the common hangman or suppressed. Not infrequently the authors, if they could be discovered, were imprisoned. Censorship Nevertheless, books attacking the old ideas and suggesting reforms in Church and State constantly appeared and were freely circulated. 1 The writers took care not to place their names or those of the publishers upon the title-pages, and many such books were printed at Geneva or in Holland, where great freedom prevailed. strength of In Spain, Austria, and Italy, however, and especially in the Spain, Aus- Papal States, the clergy, particularly the Jesuits, were more tna, and Italy powerful and enjoyed more privileges than in France. In Spain the censorship of the press and the Inquisition consti- tuted a double bulwark against change until the latter half of the eighteenth century. Peculiar situ- In Germany the position of the Church varied greatly, great German The southern states were Catholic, while Prussia and the prelates northern rulers had embraced Protestantism. Many of the archbishops, bishops, and abbots ruled as princes over their own lands. The English Established Church and the Protestant Sects The Anglican 95 . In England Henry VIII had thrown off his allegiance established to the Pope and declared himself the head of the English under Queen Church. Under his daughter, Queen Elizabeth (it C8-1603), Elizabeth & ' ^- V 00 o;-> (1558-1603) Parliament had established the Church of England. It abol- ished the mass and sanctioned the Book of Common Prayer, which has since remained the official guide to the services in the Anglican Church. The beliefs of the Church were brought together in the Thirty-Nine Articles, from which no one was to vary or depart in the least degree. The system of government of the Roman Catholic Church, with its archbishops, bishops, 1 See following chapter. General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 457 and priests, was retained, but the general charge of religious matters and the appointment of bishops were put in the hands of the monarch or his ministers. All clergymen were required to subscribe solemnly to the Thirty-Nine Articles. All public religious services were to be conducted according to the Prayer Book, and those who failed to attend services on Sunday and holydays were to be fined. Those who loyally adhered to the Roman Catholic faith Persecution fared badly, although happily there were no such general ° ics ^ Eng-°" massacres as overwhelmed the Protestants in France. Some land of the English Catholics were accused of plotting against the Protestant queen, Elizabeth, who had been deposed by the pope. These alleged " traitors " were in some instances exe- cuted for treason. Indeed, any one who brought a papal bull to England, who embraced Catholicism, or converted a Protes- tant was declared a traitor. Fines and imprisonment were inflicted upon those who dared to say or to hear mass. 1 But there were many Protestants who did not approve of the The Puritans Anglican Church as established by law. These " Dissenters " developed gradually into several sects with differing views. By .far the most numerous of the Dissenters were the Baptists. They spread to America, and were the first Protestant sect to undertake foreign missions on a large scale, having founded a society for that purpose as early as 1792. Another English sect which was destined also to be conspicu- The Friends, ous in America was the Society of Friends, or Quakers, as they are commonly called. This group owes its origin to George Fox, who began his preaching in 1647. The Friends were distin- guished by their simplicity of life and' dress, and their rejection 1 It may be noted here that the Catholics found a refuge in America from their Protestant persecutors, as did the Huguenots who fled from the oppression of the Catholic government in France. The colony of Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore in 1634 and named after the French wife of Charles I. In the nine- teenth century the number of Catholics in the United States was vastly increased by immigration from Ireland, Italy, and other countries, so that there are over thirteen millions to-day who have been baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. 458 Medieval mid Modem Times The Friends and the Peace Movement of all ceremonial and sacraments, including even the Lord's Supper. The chief stronghold of the Quakers in America has always been Pennsylvania, more particularly Philadelphia and its neighborhood, where they settled under the leadership of William Penn. The Quakers were the first religious sect to denounce war ever and always, and they should have the credit of beginning the movement against war which had gained much headway before the outbreak of the war in 1914. John Wesley and the Methodists Fig. 126. John Wesley The last of the great Protestant sects to appear was that of the Methodists. Their founder, John Wesley (d. 1791), when at Oxford had established a religious society among his fellow students. Their piety and the regularity of their habits gained for them the nickname of " Methodists." 1 Only gradually did the Methodists separate themselves' from the Church of England, of which they at first considered 1 For extracts from Wesley's famous Journal, see Readings in Modern European History ', Vol. I, p. 168. General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 459 themselves members. In 1784 the numerous American Metho- dists were formally organized into the Methodist Episcopal Church, and early in the nineteenth century the English Metho- dists became an independent organization. At the time of Wesley's death his followers numbered over fifty thousand, and there are now in the United States over six millions, including the various branches of the Church. Parliament under Charles II showed itself very intolerant Persecution toward all Dissenters alike — Presbyterians, Independents, se nters under Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians. Charles 1 1 Upon the accession of William and Mary the Act of Toleration Legal i-i • it^- iii • intolerance was passed in 1 689, which permitted Dissenters to hold meetings ; i n England but " Papists and such as deny the Trinity " (namely, Unitarians) were explicitly excluded, so England still continued to maintain an intolerant system in the eighteenth century. It had a State Church (which still exists) with a particular form of belief and of services established by the government in Elizabeth's time. Even if the Dissenters were permitted to hold services in their own way, they were excluded from government offices, nor could they obtain a degree at the universities. Only the members of The privi- lc£fcs of the the Anglican Church could hold a Church benefice. Its bishops Anglican had seats in the House of Lords and its priests enjoyed a social cler §y preeminence denied to the dissenting ministers. Roman Catholics were forbidden to enter England. The Existence of • r -i i -i • 1 a n it Catholics not celebration of the mass was strictly prohibited. All public recognized in offices were closed to Catholics and of course they could not En s lan sit in Parliament. Indeed, legally, they had no right whatever to be in England at all. Nevertheless, in spite of the old intolerant laws and the special Freedom of privileges of the Anglican Church, men were very free in the G f the press eighteenth century in England to believe what they wished and m Eng 3Xi say what they wished. One desiring to publish a book or pam- phlet did not have to obtain the permission of the government, as was required in France. The result was that there was a vast amount of discussion of religious, scientific, and political matters 460 Medieval and Modern Times beyond anything that went on in any other European country. The books of the English reformers had a great influence upon the French, as will become apparent in the following section. England was celebrated throughout Europe for its parlia- mentary government. The English sovereign did not enjoy the despotic powers of the French, Prussian, or Russian monarch but was controlled by the House of Lords and the House of Commons. He left the management of affairs largely in the hands of the cabinet, which was really a committee of the House of Commons. This important matter of England's government will be taken up later in Chapter XXXI. QUESTIONS Section 91 . What was the condition of a medieval serf (see above, section 20)? In what countries did serfdom still exist in the eight- eenth century ? Compare country life in the eighteenth century with what you know of it to-day. Section 92. What can you say of London and Paris in the eight- eenth century ? Contrast business of that day with that of our own time. How did the guilds originate ? What was their condition in the eighteenth century? Contrast the guild with the modern trade union. Section 93. How did the European nobility originate? What was the difference in their position in the eighteenth century from that in the Middle Ages ? What privileges did they enjoy in France ? Describe the English peerage ; the German knights. What was the position of the king in continental countries ? What do we owe to the development of kingship ? Section 94. Describe the general powers and organization of the Medieval Church (see Chapter X). What was the position of the Church in Catholic countries in the eighteenth century ? What was the censorship of the press ? Section 95. How did the Church of England originate ? What was its nature ? Who were the Dissenters ? How were they treated by the English government? Give the chief Protestant sects that originated in England. What were the peculiar beliefs of the Quakers? To what extent did England tolerate other beliefs than those of the State Church in the eighteenth century? CHAPTER XXII MODERN SCIENCE AND THE SPIRIT OF REFORM The Development of Modern Science 96. A thoughtful observer in the eighteenth century would, The spirit of as we have seen, have discovered many medieval institutions re orm which had persisted in spite of the considerable changes which had taken place in conditions and ideas during the . previous five hundred years. Serfdom, the guilds, the feudal dues, the nobility and clergy with their peculiar privileges, the declining monastic orders, the confused and cruel laws — these were a part of the heritage which Europe had received from what was coming to be regarded as a dark and barbarous period. People began to be keenly alive to the deficiencies of the past, and to look to the future for better things, even to dream of prog- ress beyond the happiest times of which they had any record. They came to feel that the chief obstacles to progress were the outworn institutions, the ignorance and prejudices of their fore- fathers, and that if they could only be freed from this burden, they would find it easy to create new and enlightened laws and institutions to suit their needs. This attitude of mind seems natural enough in our progres- Veneration sive age, but two centuries ago it was distinctly new. Mankind «° t he he od St: has in general shown an unreasoning respect and veneration old da y s " for the past. Until the opening of the eighteenth century the former times were commonly held to have been better than the present ; for the evils of the past were little known, while those of the present were, as always, only too apparent. Men looked backward rather than forward. They aspired to fight as well, or be as saintly, or write as good books, or paint as beautiful 461 462 Medieval and Modern Times How the scientists have created the spirit of progress and reform The impor- tance of experiment pictures, as the great men of old. That they might excel the achievements of their predecessors did not occur to them. Knowledge was sought not by studying the world about them but in some ancient authority. In Aristotle's vast range of works on various branches of science, the Middle Ages felt that they had a mass of authentic information which it should be the main business of the universities to explain and impart rather than to increase or correct by new investigations. Men's ideals centered in the past, and improvement seemed to them to consist in reviving, so far as possible, the "good old days." It was mainly to the patient men of science that the west- ern world owed its first hopes of future improvement. It is they who have shown that the ancient writers were mistaken about many serious matters and that they had at best a very crude and imperfect notion of the world. They have gradually robbed men of their old blind respect for the past, and by their discoveries have pointed the way to indefinite advance, so that now we expect constant change and improvement and are scarcely astonished at the most marvelous inventions. In the Middle Ages the scholars and learned men had been but little interested in the world about them. They devoted far more attention to philosophy and theology than to what we should call the natural sciences. They were satisfied in the main to get their knowledge of nature from reading the works of the ancients — above all, those of Aristotle. We have seen how early in the seventeenth century men like Lord Bacon, Galileo, and Descartes advocated a new kind of science. They were tired of all the talk about things of which people knew very little and proposed that natural objects and changes should be examined with great care so as to discover exactly what happened in any given case. But the new scientists were not contented with the mere observation of what they saw around them, they began to perform experiments and so made things happen in ways that they could conveniently watch and study. Nowadays experimentation is, of course, constantly used Modern Science and the Spirit of Reform 463 by scientific investigators who establish specially equipped labora- tories for the purpose. In this way they learn many things that the most careful observation of what takes place naturally in the world would not reveal. Lastly, in order to carry on experiments and make careful ob- The new servations and measurements, appai'atus had to be devised, such the scientists as microscopes, telescopes, r~ f. '■; - J ' A • v . -J i. m ft': ' i.l r .:-: : :.-"'.l • thermometers, barometers, accurate clocks and bal- ances. The Greeks and Romans and the pro- fessors in the medieval universities had none of these things. They were all either invented or used for the first time on a large scale in the seven- teenth century. This new way of study- ing the world led to the most wonderful discover- ies, so that now we can do things that even magicians never claimed to do in the Middle Ages. Our modern machinery has changed the world more than all the battles that ever happened. Our locomotives and steamships take us swiftly to all parts of the globe ; our telegraphs and telephones enable us to communicate with people at great dis- tances ; our cameras and phonographs can reproduce the faces and voices of the dead or absent. And these are but very few of the marvels of modern scientific invention, which were wholly unknown to people in the eighteenth century. 1 The first successful experiments were made near Paris a few months earlier. Fig. 127. Balloon Ascension, 1783 The crowds along paths of the garden of the Tuileries palace in Paris, on December 1, 1783, saw for the first time two men ascend 2000 feet in a balloon 1 The new era of invention 464 Medieval and Modern Times Opposition to scientific discoveries Hostile atti- tude of theologians The path of the scientific investigator has not always been without its thorns. Mankind has changed its notions with reluc- tance. The churchmen and the professors in the universities were wedded to the conceptions of the world which the medieval theologians and philosophers had worked out, mainly from the Bible and Aristotle. They clung to the textbooks which they and their predecessors had long used in teaching, and had no desire to work in laboratories or to keep up with the ideas of the scientists. Many theologians looked with grave suspicion on many of the scientific discoveries of the day, on the ground that they did not harmonize with the teachings of the Bible as commonly accepted. It was naturally a great shock to them, and also to the public at large, to have it suggested that man's dwelling place, instead of being God's greatest work, to which he had subordinated everything and around which the whole starry firmament re- volved, was after all but a tiny speck in comparison with the whole universe, and its sun but one of an innumerable host of similar glowing bodies of stupendous size, each of which might have its particular family of planets revolving about it. The bolder thinkers were consequently sometimes made to suffer for their ideas, and their books prohibited or burned. How the Scientific Discoveries produced a Spirit of Reform : Voltaire Effects of scientific dis- coveries on religious belief 97. Those who accepted the old views of the world and of religion, and opposed change, were quite justified in suspecting that scientific investigation would sooner or later make them trouble. It taught men to distrust, and even to scorn, the past which furnished so many instances of ignorance and supersti- tion. Instead of accepting the teachings of the theologians, both Catholic and Protestant, that mankind through Adam's fall was rendered utterly vile, and incapable (except through God's special grace) of good thoughts or deeds, certain thinkers Modern Science and the Spirit of Reform 465 began to urge that man was by nature good ; that he should freely use his own God-given reason ; that he was capable of becoming increasingly wise by a study of nature's laws, and that he could indefinitely better his own condition and that of his fellows if he would but free himself from the shackles of error and tradition. In the year 1726 there landed in England a young and How Voltaire gifted Frenchman, who was to become the great prophet of i an( j I72 6 ng this new view. Voltaire, who was then thirty-two years old, had already deserted the older religious beliefs and was con- sequently ready to follow enthusiastically the more radical of the English thinkers, who discussed matters with an openness which filled him with astonishment. He became an ardent admirer of the teachings of Newton, whose stately funeral he attended shortly after his arrival. He regarded the discoverer of universal gravitation as greater than an Alexander the Great or a Caesar, and did all he could to popularize Newton's work in France. "It is to him who masters our minds by the force of truth, not to those who enslave men by violence ; it is to him who understands the universe, not to those who disfigure it, that we owe our reverence." Voltaire was deeply impressed by the Quakers — their simple Voltaire life and their hatred of war. He admired the English liberty of th^English speech and writing ; he respected the general esteem for the g re e e e ^ m of merchant class. In France, he said, "the merchant so constantly hears his business spoken of with disdain that he is fool enough to blush for it ; yet I am not sure that the merchant who enriches his country, gives orders from his countinghouse at Surat or Cairo, and contributes to the happiness of the globe is not more useful to a state than the thickly bepowdered lord who knows exactly what time the king rises and what time he goes to bed, and gives himself mighty airs of greatness while he plays the part of a slave in the minister's anteroom." Voltaire proceeded to enlighten his countrymen by a volume of essays in which he sets forth his impressions of England ; but 466 Medieval and Modern Times Voltaire's wide influ- ence and popularity Voltaire's attack upon the Church Weaknesses of Voltaire Real great- ness of Vol- taire the high court of justice (the parlenieni) of Paris condemned these Letters on the English to be publicly burned, as scandalous and lacking in the respect due to the kings and governments. Voltaire was not discouraged and remained, during the rest of a long life, the chief advocate throughout Europe of reliance upon reason and of confidence in progress. He was interested in almost everything; he wrote histories, dramas, philosophic treatises, romances, and innumerable letters to his innumerable admirers. The vast range of his writings enabled him to bring his views to the attention of all sorts and conditions of men — not only to the general reader but even to the careless playgoer. 1 While Voltaire was successfully encouraging free criticism in general, he led a relentless attack upon the most venerable, probably the most powerful, institution in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church. The absolute power of the king did not trouble him, but the Church appeared to him to be opposed to a free exercise of reason and hostile to reform, and he declared that it interfered with human progress. The Church, as it fully realized, had never encountered a more deadly enemy. Were there space at command, a great many good things, as well as plenty of bad ones, might be told of this extraordinary man. He was often superficial in his judgments, and some- times jumped to unwarranted conclusions. He saw only evil in the Church and seemed incapable of understanding all that it had done for mankind during the bygone ages. He attributed to evil motives teachings which were accepted by honest and good men. He bitterly ridiculed cherished religious ideas, along with the censorship of the press and the quarrels of the theologians. He could, and did, however, fight against wrong and oppression. The abuses which he attacked were in large part abolished by the French Revolution. It is unfair to notice only Voltaire's mistakes and exaggerations, as many writers, both 1 For extracts from Voltaire's writings, see Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, pp. 179 ff. Fig. 128. Leaders of the Revolution in Thought 467 468 Medieval and Modern Times Diderot's Encyclopedia The Encyclo- pedia rouses the hostility of the theolo- gians Catholic and Protestant, have done ; for he certainly did much to prepare the way for great and permanent reforms which every one would now approve. 1 Voltaire had many admirers and powerful allies. Among these none were more important than Denis Diderot and the scholars whom Diderot induced to cooperate with him in preparing articles for a new Encydopcedia, which was de- signed to spread among a wide range of intelligent readers a knowledge of scientific advance and rouse enthusiasm for reform and progress. An encyclopaedia was by no means a new thing. Diderot's plan had been suggested by a proposal to publish a French translation of Chambers's Cydopcedia. Be- fore his first volume appeared, a vast Universal Dictionary 11 had been completed in Germany in sixty-four volumes. But few people outside of that country could read German in those days, whereas the well-written and popular articles of Diderot and his helpers, ranging from "abacus," "abbey," and " abdication " to " Zoroaster," " Zurich," and " zymology," were in a language that many people all over Europe could understand. Diderot and his fellow editors endeavored to rouse as little opposition as possible. They respected current prejudices and gave space to ideas and opinions with which they were not per- sonally in sympathy. They furnished material, however, for refuting what they believed to be mistaken notions, and Diderot declared that " time will enable people to distinguish what we have thought from what we have said." But no sooner did the first two volumes appear in 1752 than the king's min- isters, to please the officials of the Church, suppressed them, 1 Voltaire repudiated the beliefs of the Protestant churches as well as of the Catholic Church. He was, however, no atheist, as his enemies — and they have been many and bitter — have so often asserted. He believed in God, and at his country home, near Geneva, he dedicated a temple to him. Like many of his con- temporaries, he was a deist, and held that God had revealed himself in nature, and in our own hearts, not in Bible or Church. 2 See Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, p. 185, for an extract from Diderot's preface to the last installment of the Encyclopedia. Modern Science and the Spirit of Reform 469 as containing principles hostile to royal authority and religion, although they did not forbid the continuation of the work. As volume after volume appeared, the subscribers increased ; Diderot but so did the opposition. The Encyclopaedists were declared completes the to be a band bent upon the destruction of religion and the Enc y clo J >(sdia undermining of society; the government again interfered, withdrew the license to publish the work, and prohibited the sale of the seven volumes that were already out. Nevertheless seven years later Diderot was able to deliver the remaining ten volumes to the subscribers in spite of the government's prohibition. The Encyclopedia attacked temperately, but effectively, Value of the religious intolerance, the bad taxes, the slave trade, and the nc y £0 P a m atrocities of the criminal law ; it encouraged men to turn their minds to natural science with all its possibilities. The article " Legislator," written by Diderot, says : "All the men of all lands have become necessary to one another for the exchange of the fruits of industry and the products of the soil. Commerce is a new bond among men. In these days every nation has an interest in the preservation by every other nation of its wealth, its industry, its banks, its luxury, its agriculture. The ruin of Leipzig, of Lisbon, of Lima, has led to bankruptcies on all the exchanges of Europe and has affected the fortunes of many millions of persons." The English statesman, John Morley, has given us an enthusiastic account of Diderot and his com- panions, declaring that " it was this band of writers, organized by a harassed man of letters, and not the nobles swarming around Louis XV, nor the churchmen singing masses, who first grasped the great principle of modern society, the honour that is owed to productive industry. They were vehe- ment for the glories of peace and passionate against the brazen glories of war." Next to Voltaire, the writer who did most to cultivate dis- content with existing conditions was Jean Jacques Rousseau 1 1 Extracts from his writings are to be found in the Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, pp. 187 ff. Rousseau attacks civili- zation 470 Medieval and Modern Times (17 1 2— 1778). Unlike Voltaire and Diderot, Rousseau believed that people thought too much, not too little ; that we should trust to our hearts rather than to our heads, and may safely rely upon our natural feelings and sentiments to guide us. He declared that Europe was overcivilized', and summoned men to return to nature and simplicity. His first work was a prize Fig. 129. Jean Jacques Rousseau The Social Contract essay written in 1750, in which he sought to prove that the de- velopment of the arts and sciences had demoralized mankind, inasmuch as they had produced luxury, insincerity, and arro- gance. He extolled the rude vigor of Sparta and denounced the refined and degenerate life of the Athenians. Rousseau's plea for the simple life went to the heart of many a person who was weary of artificiality. Others were attracted by his firm belief in the natural equality of mankind and the right of every man to have a voice in the government. In his Modern Science and the Spirit of Reform 471 celebrated little treatise, The Social Contract, he takes up the question, By what right does one man rule over others ? The book opens with the words': " Man is born free and*yet is now everywhere in chains. One man believes himself the master of others and yet is after all more of a slave than they. How did this change come about ? I do not know. What can render it legitimate ? I believe that I can answer that question." It is, Rousseau declares, the will of the people that renders govern- ment legitimate. The real sovereign is the people. Although Popular they may appoint a single person, such as a king, to manage ' ™ the government for them, they should make the laws, since it is they who must obey them. We shall find that the first French constitution accepted Rousseau's doctrine and defined law as "the expression of the general will" — not the will of a king reigning by the grace of God. About the middle of the eighteenth century a new social The science science was born, namely, political economy. Scholars began economy^e- to investigate the sources of a nation's wealth, the manner in v ? l °? s m the eighteenth which commodities were produced and distributed, the laws de- century termining demand and supply, the function of money and credit, and their influence upon industry and commerce. Previous to the eighteenth century these matters had seemed to most people unworthy of scientific discussion. The first great systematic work upon political economy was Adam Smith's published by a Scotch philosopher, Adam Smith, in 1776. His Nations Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations ( x 77 6 ) became the basis of^all further progress in the science. While the economists in France and England by no means The econo- agreed in details, they brought the light of reason to bear, for ^tw ac example, upon the various bungling and iniquitous old methods abuses of taxation then in vogue, and many of them advocated a single tax which should fall directly upon the landowner. They wrote treatises on practical questions, scattered pamphlets broadcast, and even conducted a magazine or two in the hope of bringing home to the people at large the existing economic evils. 472 Medieval and Modern Times The eight- eenth cen- tury a period of rapidly increasing en- lightenment It is clear from what has been said that the eighteenth cen- tury was a period of unexampled advance in general enlighten- ment. New knowledge spread abroad by the Encyclopaedists, the economists, and writers on government led people to see the vices of the existing system and gave them at the same time new hope of bettering themselves by abandoning the mistaken beliefs and imperfect methods of their predecessors. The spirit of reform penetrated even into kings' palaces, and we must now turn to the events which led up to the French Revolution. QUESTIONS Section 96. Contrast our modern spirit of reform with the older point of view. Why do men so frequently venerate the past ? What kind of scientific research did Lord Bacon and Descartes advocate? Mention some things that can be seen with the microscope that can- not be learned with the naked eye. Give some of the facts that the telescope reveals. What is the purpose of a thermometer? of a ba- rometer ? What do you understand by experimental science ? What kinds of scientific apparatus are you familiar with? What is a law of nature ? Give illustrations. Why did some theologians oppose scientific teaching? Section 97. What effects had scientific discoveries on older be- liefs ? Who was Voltaire ? Why did he admire the English, and the Quakers in particular? Why did he attack the Church so bitterly? What were some of the weaknesses of Voltaire ? What was the pur- pose and character of Diderot's Encyclopaedia! Why did certain powerful classes oppose its publication? What were some of the ideas which Diderot defended ? What were the views of Rousseau ? What do you understand by political economy? CHAPTER XXIII THE EVE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION The Old Regime in France 98. It was France that first carried out the great reforms How the that did away with most of the old institutions and confusion ac^ompHshed that had come down from the Middle Ages. It is true that J^5^ ich some of the monarchs of the time (" benevolent despots," as the benevo- _, . lent despots they are called), especially Frederick the Great, and Cather- ine II of Russia, and the Emperor Joseph II, introduced some reforms, largely in their own interests, but even in England little was done in the eighteenth century to remedy the great abuses of which the reformers complained. But in 1789 the king of France asked his people to submit their grievances to him and to send representatives to Versailles to confer with him upon the state of the realm and the ways in which the government might be improved so as to increase the general happiness and the prosperity of the kingdom. And then the miracle happened ! The French National Assembly swept away the old abuses with an ease and thoroughness which put the petty reforms of the benevolent despots to shame. It accomplished more in a few months than the reforming kings had done in a century; for the kings had never dreamed of calling in their people to aid them. Instead of availing themselves of the great forces of the nation, they had tried to do everything alone by royal decrees, and so had failed. The unique greatness of the reformation accomplished by the French Assembly is, however, often obscured by the disorder which accompanied it. When one meets the words " French Revolution," he is pretty sure to call up before his mind's eye 473 474 Medieval and Modern Times The real French Revo- lution not to be confused with the Reign of Terror Meaning of the term "the old regime " the guillotine and its hundreds of victims, and the Paris mob shouting the hymn of the Marseillais as they paraded the streets with the heads of unfortunate " aristocrats " on their pikes. Every one has heard of this terrible episode in French history even if he knows practically nothing of the permanent good which was accomplished at the time. Indeed, it has made so deep an impression on posterity that the Reign of Terror is often mistaken for the real Revolution. It was, however, only a sequel to it, an unhappy accident which will seem less and less important as the years go on, while the achievements of the Revolution itself will loom larger and larger. The Reign of Terror will be explained and described in good time, but it is a matter of far greater importance to understand clearly how the fundamental and permanent reforms were wrought out, and how France won the proud distinction of being the first nation to do away with the absurd and vexatious institutions which weighed upon Europe in the eighteenth century. We- have already examined these institutions which were common to most of the European countries, — despotic kings, arbitrary imprisonment, unfair taxation, censorship of the press, serfdom, feudal dues, friction between Church and State, — all of which the reformers had been busy denouncing as contrary to reason and humanity, and some of which the benevolent despots and their ministers had, in a half-hearted way, at- tempted to remedy. The various relics of bygone times and of outlived conditions which the Revolution abolished forever are commonly called 'in France the old ^regime. 1 In order to see why France took the lead of other European countries in modernizing itself, it is necessary to examine somewhat care- fully the particular causes of discontent there. We. shall then see how almost every one, from the king to the peasant, came to realize that the old system was bad and consequently re- solved to do away with it and substitute a more rational plan of government for the long-standing disorder. 1 From the French ancien regime, the old or former system. The Eve of the French Revolution 475 Of the evils which the Revolution abolished, none was more France not a important than the confusion in France due to the fact that it ^ e( j st f te j n was not in the eighteenth century a well-organized, homogene- the eight- ° J ° ' ° eenth century ous state whose citizens all enjoyed the same rights and privi- leges. A long line of kings had patched it together, adding bit L A, "NO ^T>^^ / V* .t p 7. f l ART0IS \ v/> >%, $ ' ' t r A$$ E L I ^"^Arral V\ AV , t S " 'fynM J$*^ -', P I C A R 'D Y / V7\ y* ^. f-NORMAND yS^is$^-~^; X. .n\1 V '-'V",~/ it. ^!aiii£rj\' is ^ M l 4^w-^ : ° v* rasburi /' • lS^ — 3\ '" ( /I Nancy" ~1 "*? J > BRITTANY I '"' 1 ,'/ \ ; fa Woyes.X'YJ ; ' Bennes* / MAINE ,,=> •..__ 71 Q "V., „\ V / 1 -y f'"'\he Mans ''' Orleans^^ ""''"V- ''X',,!. V^-^.J^ ' <<^ \"»iSr/ ^Tjouraine' Bourses \ *& ) v //^Xi.esancou ' \ f • \* » '•

^H-V V Clermont^ ^ ***• iJ |lB.+>.; ,LIMOUSIN','Y \ £ JL ,-K n vl- \ ^3 # al*' * *,' * ^-v ^ V ' V J Grenoble v *2^ M Bouro|aus I"V_ ^ fei-.(y--y" V^V ZdaUPHINyV v «Vt — ^^*^.ar h \ • \"'"'^— >-^' v ' enlvENAJSSrN <■ \Toulouse'" 'i ^ ^^ CM 0T " CE Pau >l ^, ():"•- jy ^^ Marseilles SPAIN \«iih; j rjf\*o\*» scale of m.les — .^ ^--^oWL MEDITER RA NKAN SEA 6 50 10O 20 **-~— -~-A The Provinces of France in the Eighteenth Century, showing Interior Customs Lines by bit as they could. By conquest and bargain, by marrying heiresses, and through the extinction of the feudal dynasties, the original restricted domains of Hugh Capet about Paris and Orleans had been gradually increased by his descendants. We have seen how Louis XIV gained Alsace and Strassburg and softie towns on the borders of the Spanish Netherlands. 476 Medieval and Modern Times The old provinces of France Louis XV added Lorraine in 1766. Two years later the island of Corsica was ceded to France by Genoa. So when Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774 he found himself ruler of practically the whole territory which makes up France to-day. But these different parts had different institutions. Some of the districts which the kings of France brought under their sway, like Languedoc, Provence, Brittany, and Dauphiny, were considerable states in themselves, each with its own laws, cus- toms, and system of government. When these provinces had come, at different times, into the pos- session of the king of France, he had not changed their laws so as to make them correspond with those of his other domains. He was satisfied if a new province paid its due share of the taxes and treated his officials with re- spect. In some cases the provinces re- tained their local assemblies, and controlled, to a certain extent, their own affairs. The provinces into which France was divided before the Revolution were not, therefore, merely artificial divi- sions created for the purposes of convenience, like the modern French departments^- but represented real historical differences. While in a considerable portion of southern France the Roman law still prevailed, in the central parts and in the west 1 See below, p. 500. S P A I n'~' v -- '"•"■ 1 jp5,toS MED1TERRANEA N SEA The Salt Tax Showing the different amounts paid in the vari- ous parts of France in the eighteenth century for a given amount of salt The Eve of the French Revolution 477 and north there were no less than two hundred and eighty-five Various sys- different local codes of law in force ; so that one who moved from his own to a neighboring town might find a wholly un- familiar legal system. One of the heaviest taxes was that on salt. This varied greatly, so greatly in different parts of France that the govern- ment had to go to great expense to guard the boundary lines between the yarious districts, for there was every inducement to smugglers to carry salt from those parts of the country where it was cheap into the regions where it sold for a high price on account of the tax. Besides these unfortunate local differences, there were class The privi- lcsrcd. cIhsscs differences which caused great discontent. All Frenchmen did not enjoy the same rights as citizens. Two small but very important classes, the nobility and the clergy, were treated differently by the State from the rest of the people. They did not have to pay one of the heaviest of the taxes, the notorious taille; and on one ground or another they escaped other burdens which the rest of the citizens bore. For instance, they were not required to serve in the militia or help build the roads. We have seen how great and powerful the Medieval Church The church was. In France, as in other Catholic countries of Europe, it still • retained in the eighteenth century a considerable part of the power that it had possessed in the thirteenth, and it still performed important public functions. It took charge of edu- cation and of the relief of the sick and the poor. It was very wealthy and is supposed to have owned one fifth of all the land in France. The clergy claimed that their property, being dedicated to God, was not subject to taxation. They consented, however, to help the king from time to time by a " free gift," as they called it. The Church still collected the tithes from the people, and its vast possessions made it very independent. A great part of the enormous income of the Church went The clergy to the higher clergy — the bishops, archbishops, and abbots. Since these were appointed by the king, often from among his 4 ;8 Medieval and Modern Times The privi- leges of the nobility The feudal dues The hunting rights courtiers, they tended to neglect their duties as officers of the Church and to become little more than "great lords with a hundred thousand francs income." But while they were spend- ing their time at Versailles the real work was performed — and well performed — by the lower clergy, who often received scarcely enough to keep soul and body together. This explains why, when the Revolution began, the parish priests sided with the people instead of with their ecclesiastical superiors. The privileges of the nobles, like those of the clergy, had originated in the medieval conditions described in an earlier chapter. A detailed study of their rights would reveal many survivals of the institutions which prevailed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when the great majority of the people were serfs living upon the manors. While serfdom had largely dis- appeared in France long before the eighteenth century, and the peasants were generally free men' who owned or rented their land, it was still the theory of the French law that there was "no land without its lord." Consequently the lords still enjoyed the right to collect a variety of time-honored dues from the inhabitants living within the limits of the former manors. The privileges and dues enjoyed by the nobles varied greatly in different parts of France. It was quite common for the noble landowner to have a right to a certain portion of the peas- ant's crops ; occasionally he could still collect a toll on sheep and cattle driven past his house. In some cases the lord main- tained, as he had done in the Middle Ages, the only mill, wine press, or oven within a certain district, and could require every one to make use of these and pay him a share of the product. Even when a peasant owned his land, the neighboring lord usually had the right to exact one fifth of its value every time it was sold. The nobles, too, enjoyed the exclusive privilege of hunting, which was deemed an aristocratic pastime. The game which they preserved for their amusement often c[id great damage to the crops of the peasants, who were forbidden to interfere The Eve of the French Revolution 479 with hares and deer. Many of the manors had great pigeon houses, built in the form of a tower, in which there were one or two thousand nests. No wonder the peasants detested these, for they were not permitted to protect themselves against the innumerable pigeons and their progeny, which spread over the fields devouring newly sown seed. These dovecotes con- stituted, in fact, one of the chief grievances of the peasants Fig. 130. A Chateau and Pigeon House The round tower at the right hand in front is a pigeon house. The wall inside is honeycombed with nests, and the pigeons fly in and out at the side of the roof The higher offices in the army were reserved for the nobles, offices at as well as the easiest and most lucrative places in the Church the church and about the king's person. All these privileges were vestiges r^rvVf of the powers which the nobles had enjoyed when they ruled nobles their estates as feudal lords. Louis XIV had, as we know, induced them to leave their domains and gather round him at Versailles, where all who could afford it lived for at least a part of the year. 480 Medieval and Modern Times Only a small Only a small part of the nobility in the eighteenth century nobles bV were, however, descendants of the ancient and illustrious feudal longed to families of France. The greater part of them had been enno- old families ° l bled in recent times by the king, or had purchased or inherited Fig. 131. Court Scene at Versailles The king is surrounded by princes of the royal family and the greatest nobles of France while he dresses and shaves upon rising in the morn- ing (the levee). Similar ceremonies were performed when the king went to bed at night (the couchee). The bed, hung with rich tapes- tries, is behind the railing. The door at the left leads into a small room — called the Bull's Eye Room {Salon de VCEil de Bceuf) from the round window above the door — where the ambassadors and other dignitaries waited to be admitted, and while waiting often planned and plotted how to win the king's favor. Louis XIV's bedroom at Ver- sailles is still preserved, in much of its old-time splendor; 1 for the palace is now a museum a government office or judgeship which carried the privileges of nobility with it. This fact rendered the rights and exemptions claimed by the nobility even more odious to the people at large than they would otherwise have been. 1 Its windows are shown in Fig. 104, on the second floor, at the bottom of the courtyard, under the flag. The Eve of the French Revolution 48 1 Everybody who did not belong to either the clergy or the The third nobility was regarded as being of the third estate. The third estate was therefore really the nation at large, which was made up in 1789 of about twenty-five million souls. The privileged classes can scarcely have counted altogether more than two hun- dred or two hundred and fifty thousand individuals. A great part of the third estate lived in the country and tilled the soil. Most historians have been inclined to make out their condition as very wretched. They were certainly oppressed by an abomi- nable system of taxation and were irritated by the dues which they had to pay to the lords. They also suffered frequently from local famines. Yet there is no doubt that the evils of their situation have been greatly exaggerated. When Thomas Jefferson traveled through France in 1787 he reports that the country people appeared to be comfortable and that they had plenty to eat. Arthur Young, a famous English traveler who has left us an admirable account of his journeys in France during the years 1787 and 1789, found much prosperity and contentment, although he gives, too, some forlorn pictures of destitution. The latter have often been unduly emphasized by historical Favorable writers ; for it has commonly been thought that the Revolution the peasant was to -be explained by the misery and despair of the people, m Franc ^ r J J r r r ' compared who could bear their burdens no longer. If, however, instead with other r -n 1 ii countries or comparing the situation of the rrench peasant under the old regime with that of an English or American farmer to-day, we contrast his position with that of his fellow peasant in Prussia, Russia, Austria, Italy, or Spain, in the eighteenth cen- tury, it will be clear that in France the agricultural classes were really much better off than elsewhere on the Continent. In almost all the other European countries, except England, the peasants were still serfs : they had to work certain days in each week for their lord; they could not marry or dispose of Urease of their land without his permission. Moreover, the fact that the population in the eight- population of France had steadily increased from seventeen eenth century 482 Medieval and Modern Times Popular dis- content, not the excep- tionally miserable condition of the French people, accounts for the Revolu- tion France still a despotism in the eight- * eenth century The king's control of the govern- ment funds millions after the close of the wars of Louis XIV to about twenty-five millions at the opening of the Revolution indicates that the general condition of the people was improving rather than growing worse. The real reason why France was the first among the Euro- pean countries to carry out a great reform and do away with the irritating survivals of feudalism was not that the nation was miserable and oppressed above all others, but that it was suffi- ciently free and enlightened to realize the evils and absurdi- ties of the old regime. Mere oppression and misery does not account for a revolution ; there must also be active discontent ; and of that there was a great abundance in France, as we shall see. The French peasant no longer looked up to his lord as his ruler and protector, but viewed him as a sort of legalized robber who demanded a share of his precious harvest, whose officers awaited the farmer at the crossing of the river to claim a toll, who would not let him sell his produce when he wished, or permit him to protect his fields from the ravages of the pigeons which it pleased his lord to keep. In the eighteenth century France was still the despotism that Louis XIV had made it. Louis XVI once described it very well in the following words : " The sovereign authority resides exclusively in my person. To me solely belongs the power of making the laws, and without dependence or coop- eration. The entire public order emanates from me, and I am its supreme protector. My people are one with me. The rights and interests of the nation are necessarily identical with mine and rest solely in my hands." In short, the king still ruled "by the grace of God," as Louis XIV had done. He needed to render account to no man for his governmental acts ; he was responsible to God alone. The following illustra- tions will make clear the dangerous extent of the king's power. In the first place, it was he who levied each year the heavi- est of the taxes, the hated taille, from which the privileged classes were exempted. This tax brought in about one sixth The Eve of the French Revolution 483 of the whole revenue of the State. The amount collected was kept secret, and no report was made to the nation of what was done with it or, for that matter, with any other part of the king's income. Indeed, no distinction was made between the king's private funds and the State treasury, whereas in England the monarch was given a stated allowance. The king of France could issue as many drafts payable to bearer as he wished ; the royal officials must pay all such orders and ask no questions. Louis XV is said to have spent no less than seventy million dollars in this irresponsible fashion in a single year. But the king not only controlled his subjects' purses ; he had Lettres de cciclisi a terrible authority over their persons as well. He could issue orders for the arrest and arbitrary imprisonment of any one he pleased. Without trial or formality of. any sort a person might be cast into a dungeon for an indefinite period, until the king happened to remember him again or was reminded of him by the poor man's friends. These notorious orders of arrest were called lettres de cachet, that is, sealed letters. They were not diffi- cult to obtain for any one who had influence with the king or his favorites, and they furnished a particularly easy and effica- cious way of disposing of an enemy. These arbitrary orders- lead one to appreciate the importance of the provision of Magna Carta, which runs : " No freeman shall be taken or im- prisoned except by the lawful judgment of his peers and in accordance with the law of the land." Some of the most eminent men of the time were shut up by the king's order, often on account of books or pamphlets written by them which displeased the king or those about him. The distinguished statesman, Mirabeau, when a young man, was imprisoned sev- eral times through lettres de cachet obtained by his father as a means of checking his reckless dissipation. Yet, notwithstanding the seemingly unlimited powers of the Limitations French king, and in spite of the fact that France had no written oTtheVrench constitution and no legislative body to which the nation sent km & representatives, the monarch was by no means absolutely free 4 8 4 Medieval aiid Modern Times The parle- ments and their protests to do just as he pleased. In the first place, the high courts of law, the so-called parlements, could often hamper the king. These resembled the English Parliament in almost nothing but name. The French parlements — of which the most im- portant one was at Paris and a dozen more were scattered about the provinces — did not, however, confine themselves solely to Fig. 132. A Royal Session of Parlement, at Versailles, 1776 The name lit de justice (bed of justice) is supposed to come from the fact that the king once reclined on a couch, but here he is seated on a throne. The members of the parlement, with long gowns and caps, can be distinguished from the nobles and princes in their richer court dress. Each person had his exact place assigned him, in order of rank the business of trying lawsuits. They claimed, and quite prop- erly, that when the king decided to make a new law he must send it to them to be registered, for how, otherwise, could they adjust their decisions to it ? Now although they acknowledged that the right to make the laws- belonged to the monarch, they nevertheless often sent a " protest " to the king instead of registering an edict which they disapproved. They would urge The Eve of the French Revolution 485 that the ministers had abused his Majesty's confidence. They would also take pains to have their protest printed and sold on the streets at a penny or two a copy, so that people should get the idea that the parlement was defending the nation against the oppressive measures of the king's ministers. When the king received one of these protests two alterna- tives were open to him. He might recall the distasteful decree altogether, or modify it so as to suit the court; or he could summon the parlement before him and in a solemn session (called a lit de justice) command it with his own mouth to register the law in its records. The parlement would then re- luctantly obey ; but as the Revolution approached it began to claim that a decree registered against its will was not valid. Struggles between the parlements and the king's ministers The park- were very frequent in the eighteenth century. They prepared the t o prepare way for the Revolution, first, by bringing important questions J[jg ^ O for to the attention of the people; for there were no newspapers, lution and no parliamentary or congressional debates, to enable the public to understand the policy of the government. Secondly, the parlements not only frankly criticized the proposed meas- ures of the king and his ministers, but they familiarized the nation with the idea that the king was not really at liberty to alter what they called " the fundamental laws " of the State. By this they meant that there was an unwritten constitution, which limited the king's power and of which they were the guar- dians. In this way they promoted the growing discontent with a government which was carried on in secret and which left the nation at the mercy of the men in whom the king might for the moment repose confidence. In addition to the parlements public opinion often exercised Public a powerful check upon the king, even under the autocratic old opmion regime. It was, as one of Louis XVI's ministers declared, " an invisible power which, without treasury, guards, or an army, ruled Paris and the court, — yes, the very palace of the king." The latter half of the eighteenth century was a period of 486 Medieval and Modern Times Attempts to check the discussion of public questions outspoken and acrid criticism of the whole existing social and governmental system. Reformers, among whom many of the king's ministers were counted, loudly and eloquently discussed the numerous abuses and the vicious character of the govern- ment, which gradually came to seem just as bad to the intelli- gent people of that day as it does to us now. Although there were no daily newspapers to discuss public questions, large numbers of pamphlets were written and circu- lated by individuals whenever there was an important crisis, and they answered much the same purpose as the editorials in a modern newspaper. We have already seen how French philos- ophers and reformers, like Voltaire and Diderot, had been en- couraged by the freedom of speech which prevailed in England, and how industriously they had sown the seeds of discontent in their own country. We have seen how in popular works, in poems and stories and plays, and above all in the Encydoficedia, they explained the new scientific discoveries, attacked the old beliefs and misapprehensions, and encouraged progress. How Louis XVI tried to play the Benevolent Despot Death of 99. In 1774 Louis XV 1 died, after a disgraceful reign of andtheacces- which it has not seemed necessary to say much. His unsuc- sion of Loms cess f u i W ars, which had ended with the loss of all his American XVI (1774) ' possessions and the victory of his enemies in India, had brought France to the verge of bankruptcy ; indeed in his last years his ministers repudiated a portion of the government's obligations. The taxes were already so oppressive as to arouse universal discontent, and yet the government was running behind seventy millions of dollars a year. The king's personal conduct was scandalous, and he allowed his mistresses and courtiers to meddle in public affairs and plunder the royal treasury for themselves 1 He came to the throne in 1715 as a boy of five, on the death of Louis XIV, his great-grandfather. The Eve of the French Revolution 487 and their favorites. When at last he was carried off by smallpox every one hailed, with hopes of better times, the accession of his grandson and successor, Louis XVI. The new king was but twenty years old, ill educated, indo- Character of lent, unsociable, and very fond of hunting and of pottering about in a workshop, where he spent his happiest hours. He was a well-meaning young man, with none of his grandfather's vices, who tried now and then to attend to the disagreeable business of government, and would gladly have made his people happy if that had not required more energy than he possessed. He had none of the restless interest in public affairs that we found in Frederick the Great, Catherine II, or his brother-in-law, Joseph II ; he was never tempted to rise at five o'clock in the morning in order to read State papers. His wife was the beautiful Marie Antoinette, daughter of Marie Maria Theresa. The marriage had been arranged in 1770 with a view of maintaining the alliance which had been concluded be- tween France and Austria in 1756. 1 The queen was only nine- teen years old when she came to the throne, light-hearted and on pleasure bent. She disliked the formal etiquette of the court at Versailles and shocked people by her thoughtless pranks. She rather despised her heavy husband, who did not care to share in the amusements which pleased her best. She did not hesitate to interfere in the government when she wished to help one of her favorites or to make trouble for some one she disliked. At first Louis XVI took his duties very seriously. It seemed Turgor, con for a time that he might find a place among the benevolent Jrai C1774-" despots who were then ruling in Europe. He almost immedi- I776 ) ately placed the ablest of all the French economists, Turgot, in the most important of the government offices, that of con- troller general. Turgot was an experienced government official as well as a scholar. The first and most natural measure was economy, for only in that way could the government be saved from bankruptcy 1 See above, p. 414. 488 Medieval and Modern Times Turgot advocates economy and the burden of taxation be lightened. Turgot felt that the vast amount spent in maintaining the luxury of the royal court at Versailles should be reduced. The establishments of the efit/c^/4 *te>t£c£- b^&ttwL^ Fig. 133. A Letter of Marie Antoinette A page of a letter written July 12, 1770, to her mother, Maria Theresa. The handwriting, mistakes in spelling, and general carelessness show what an undeveloped girl she was when she came to the gay court of Versailles. She says in the letter that she has no other time to write than while she is dressing and cannot reply exactly to the last letter because she has burned it. Now she must stop in order to dress and go to mass in the king's chapel. She adds in postscript that she is sending a list of the wedding presents, thinking that that will entertain (amuser) her mother king, the queen, and the princes of the blood royal cost the State annually about twelve million dollars. Then the French king had long been accustomed to grant " pensions " in a The Eve of the French Revolution 489 reckless manner to his favorites, and this required nearly twelve million dollars more. Any attempt, however, to reduce this amount would arouse How the courtiers the immediate opposition of the courtiers, and it was the governed courtiers who really governed France. They had every oppor- France tunity to influence the king's mind against a man whose economies they disliked. They were constantly about the monarch from the moment when he awoke in the morning until he went to bed at night; therefore they had an obvious advantage over Turgot, who only saw him in business hours. 1 An Italian economist, when he heard of Turgot's appoint- Turgot's ment, wrote to a friend in France as follows : "So Turgot is controller general ! He will not remain in office long enough to carry out his plans. He will punish some scoundrels ; he will bluster about and lose his temper; he will be anxious to do good, but will run against obstacles and rogues at every turn. Public credit will fall ; he will be detested ; it will be said that he is not fitted for his task. Enthusiasm will cool; he will retire or be sent off, and we shall have a new proof of the mistake of filling a position like his in a monarchy like yours with an upright man and a philosopher." The Italian could not have made a more accurate statement Turgot dis- of the case had he waited until after the dismissal of Turgot, ^g 6 ' ay ' which took place in May, 1776, much to the satisfaction of the court. Although the privileged classes so stoutly opposed Turgot's reforms that he did not succeed in abolishing the abuses himself, 2 he did a great deal to forward their destruc- tion not many years after his retirement. Necker, who after a brief interval succeeded Turgot, con- Neckersuc- • ceeds Turcot tributed to the progress of the coming revolution in two ways. He borrowed vast sums of money in order to carry on the war 1 See Turgot's letter to the king, August, 1774, in Readings in European History, Vol. II, pp. 386 ff. 2 Turgot succeeded in inducing the king to abolish the guilds and the forced labor on the roads, but the decrees were revoked after Turgot's dismissal. Necker's financial report 49O Medieval and Modern Times which France, as the ally of the United States, had undertaken against England. This greatly embarrassed the treasury later and helped to produce the financial crisis which was the imme- diate cause of the Revolution. Secondly, he gave the nation its first opportunity of learning what was done with the public funds, by presenting to the king (February, 1781) a report on the financial condition of the kingdom ; this was publicly printed Fig. 134. Turgot Calonne, controller general, 1783-1787 and eagerly read. There the people could see for the first time how much the taille and the salt tax actually took from them, and how much the king spent on himself and his favorites. Necker was soon followed by Calonne, who may be said to have precipitated the French Revolution. He was very popular at first with king and courtiers, for he spent the public funds far more recklessly than his predecessors. But, naturally, he 'soon found himself in a position where he could obtain no more money. The parlements would consent to no more loans in a The Eve of the French Revolution * 49 1 period of peace, and the taxes were as high as it was deemed Calonne possible to make them. At last Calonne, finding himself des- Engthat perately put to it, informed the astonished king that the State F rance 1S on was on the verge of bankruptcy and that in order to save it a bankruptcy, radical reformation of the whole public order was necessary. This report of Calonne's may be taken as the beginning of the French Revolution, for it was the first of the series of events that led to the calling of a representative assembly which abolished the old regime and gave France a written constitution. QUESTIONS Section 98. How should the French Revolution be distinguished from the Reign of Terror ? What is the meaning of ancient regime ? Why was France so ill organized in the eighteenth century? Give some examples of the differences which existed between the various provinces. Who were the privileged classes, and what were their privileges ? Give examples of the feudal dues. In what respects was the French peasant more happily situated than his fellows in other parts of Europe? What were the chief powers of the French monarch? What were lettres de cachet? What limitations were placed upon the king's power ? What did the ftarlements do to for- ward the coming revolution ? What is meant by public opinion, and what chances does it have to express itself to-day that it did not have in France before the Revolution ? Section 99. Who was Louis XVI ? Tell something of his wife. Why did Turgot fail to remedy any of the abuses ? What happened under Necker to forward the Revolution ? Why was Calonne forced to admit that he could not carry on the government unless reforms were introduced? CHAPTER XXIV THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Reforms proposed by Calonne Summoning of the Nota- bles, 1786 How the Estates were summoned in 1789 100. It was necessary, in order to avoid ruin, Calonne claimed, " to reform everything vicious in the state." He pro- posed, therefore, to reduce the taille, reform the salt tax, do away with the interior customs lines, correct the abuses of the guilds, etc. But the chief reform, and by far the most difficult one, was to force the privileged classes to surrender their im- portant exemptions from taxation. He hoped, however, that if certain concessions were made to them they might be brought to consent to a land tax to be paid by all alike. So he pro- posed to the king that he should summon an assembly of per- sons prominent in Church and State, called Notables, to ratify certain changes which would increase the prosperity of the country and give the treasury money enough to meet the necessary expenses. The summoning of the Notables in 1786 was really a revolu- tion in itself. It was a confession on the part of the king that he found himself in a predicament from which he could not escape without the aid of his people. The Notables whom he selected — bishops, archbishops, dukes, judges, high government officials — were practically all members of the privileged classes ; but they still represented the nation, after a fashion, as distinguished from the king's immediate circle of courtiers. At any rate it proved an easy step from calling the Notables to summoning the ancient Estates General, and that, in its turn, speedily became a modern representative body. 492 The French Revolution 493 In his opening address Calonne gave the Notables an idea of Calonne the sad financial condition of the country. The government was t h e abuses running behind some forty million dollars a year. He could not continue to borrow, and economy, however strict, would not suffice to cover the deficit. " What, then," he asked, " remains to fill this frightful void and enable us to raise the revenue to the desired level? The Abuses! Yes> gentlemen, the abuses offer a source of wealth which the state should appropriate, and which should serve to reestablish order in the finances. . . . The abuses which must now be destroyed for the welfare of the people are the most important and the best guarded of all, the very ones which have the deepest roots and the most spreading branches. For example, those which weigh on the laboring classes, the privileges, exceptions to the law which should be common to all, and many an unjust exemption which can only relieve certain taxpayers by embittering the condition of others ; the general want of uniformity in the assessment of the taxes and the enormous difference which exists between the contribu- tions of different provinces and of the subjects of the same sovereign ; " — all these evils, which public-spirited citizens had long deprecated, Calonne proposed to do away with forthwith. The Notables, however, had no confidence in Calonne, and Calonne and refused to ratify his program of reform. The king then dismissed e dismissed him and soon sent them home, too (May, 1787). Louis XVI then attempted to carry through some of the more pressing financial reforms in the usual way by sending them to the parlements to be registered. The parlement of Paris resolved, as usual, to make the The park- king s ministry trouble and gain popularity for itself. This time refuses to it resorted to a truly extraordinary measure. It not only refused [afesand^ to register two new taxes which the king desired but asserted calls for the Estcitcs that " Only the natwi assembled in the Estates General can give General the consent necessary to the establishment of a permanent tax" " Only the nation," the parlement continued, " after it has learned the true state of the finances can destroy the great 494 Medieval and Modem Times The Estates General summoned General ignorance in regard to the Estates General The old system of voting by classes in the Estates General Objections to this system abuses and open up important resources." This declaration was followed in a few days by the humble request that the king assemble the Estates General of his kingdom. The parlements not only refused to register taxes but continued during the fol- lowing months to do everything that they could to embarrass the king's ministers. There seemed no other resort except to call the representatives of the people together. The Estates General were accordingly summoned to meet on May i, 1789. It was now discovered that no one knew much about this body of which every one was talking, for it had not met since 1 6 1 4. The king accordingly issued a general invitation to schol- ars to find out all they could about the customs observed in the former meetings of the Estates. The public naturally became very much interested in a matter which touched them so closely, and there were plenty of readers for the pamphlets which now began to appear in great numbers. The old Estates General had been organized in a way appropriate enough to the feudal conditions under which they originated. 1 All three of the estates of the realm — clergy, nobility, and third estate — were accus- tomed to send an equal number of representatives, who were expected to consider not the interests of the nation but the special interests of the particular social' class to which they re- spectively belonged. Accordingly, the deputies of the three estates did not sit together, or vote as a single body. The members of each group first came to an agreement among themselves, and then a single vote was cast for the whole order. It was natural that this system should seem preposterous to the average Frenchman in 1788. If the Estates should be con- voked according to the ancient forms, the two privileged classes would be entitled to twice the number of representatives allotted to the nation at large. What was much worse, it seemed impos- sible that any important reforms could be adopted in an assem- bly where those who had every selfish reason for opposing the most necessary changes were given two votes out of three. 1 See above, pp. 133, 134. The French Revolution 495 Necker, whom the king had recalled in the hope that he might succeed in adjusting the finances, agreed that the third estate might have as many deputies as both the other orders put together, namely six hundred, but he would not consent to having the three orders sit and vote together like a modern representative body. Besides the great question as to whether the deputies should The cahiers vote by head or by order, the pamphlets discussed what reforms the Estates should Undertake. We have, however, a still more interesting and important expression of public opinion in France at this time, in the cahiers} or lists of grievances and suggestions for reform which, in pursuance of an old custom, the king asked the nation to prepare. Each village and town throughout France had an opportunity to tell quite frankly exactly what it suffered from the existing system, and what reforms it wished that the Estates General might bring about. These cahiers were the " last will and testament " of the old regime, and they consti- tute a unique historical document, of unparalleled completeness and authenticity. No one can read the cahiers without seeing that the whole nation was ready for the great transformation which within a year was to destroy a great part of the social and political system under which the French had lived for centuries. Almost all the cahiers agreed that the prevailing disorder and Desire of the the vast and ill-defined powers of the king and his ministers were con?titu° r * perhaps the fundamental evils. One of the cahiers says : " Since ! ional > , J instead of arbitrary power has been the source of all the evils which afflict an absolute, the state, our first desire is the establishment of a really national constitution, which shall define the rights of all and provide the laws to maintain them." No one dreamed at this time of dis- placing the king or of taking the government out of his hands. The people only wished to change an absolute monarchy into a limited, or constitutional, one. All that was necessary was that the things which the government might not do should be solemnly 1 Pronounced ka-ya'. monarchy 496 Medieval and Modern Times and irrevocably determined and put upon record, and that the Estates General should meet periodically to grant the taxes, give the king advice in national crises, and expostulate, if necessary, against any violations of the proposed charter of liberties. The Estates With these ideas in mind, the Estates assembled in Versailles MayT^** and held their first session on M §Y_iiiJ[7 8 9- The king had ordered the deputies to wear the same costumes that had been worn at the last meeting of the Estates in 1614 ; but no royal edict could call back the spirit of earlier centuries. In spite of the king's commands the representatives of the third estate re- fused to organize themselves in the old way as a separate order. They sent invitation after invitation to the deputies of the clergy and nobility, requesting them to join the people's representa- tives and deliberate in common on the great interests of the nation. Some of the more liberal of the nobles — Lafayette, for example — and a large minority of the clergy wished to meet The repre- with the deputies of the third estate. But they were outvoted, of the third and the deputies of the third estate, losing patience, finally de- themsdvesT 6 c ^ re ^ themselves, on J une 1 7, a " National Assembly." They a " National argued that, since they represented at least ninety-six per cent of the nation, the deputies of the privileged orders might be neglected altogether. This usurpation of power on the part of the third estate transformed the old feudal Estates, voting by orders, into the first modern national representative assembly on the continent of Europe. The "Tennis- Under the influence of'his courtiers the king tried to restore the old system by arranging a solemn joint session of the three orders, at which he presided in person. He presented a long program of excellent reforms, and then bade the Estates sit apart, according to the old custom. But it was like bidding water to run up hill. Three days before, when the commons had found themselves excluded from their regular place of meeting on ac- count of the preparations for the royal session, they had betaken themselves to a neighboring building called the " Tennis Court." Here, on June 20, they took the famous " Tennis-Court " oath, T3 :=: +-> w « " X -a 6 3 SH X XI o (U «s cd IS «* .s M-l rt Cd h_T X o c 3 m d Oh cd cd X o X 3 ■ -3 .2 5 Oh Oh r- o h T3 j-h > as X Pi, The French Revolution 497 " to come together wherever circumstances may dictate, until the constitution of the kingdom shall be established." Consequently, when the king finished his address and com- The nobility manded the three orders to disperse immediately in order to force/tcF resume their separate sessions, most of the bishops, some of the j^d^t parish priests, and a great part of the nobility obeyed ; the rest estate iriG. 135. Louis XVI Louis was a well-meaning man, but not clever. He enjoyed working with tools like a locksmith or going hunting, but did not understand the needs oi France. His clever, strong-willed queen, Marie Antoinette, was responsible for most of the few things he did to try to stop the Revolution, and she was too headstrong to listen to wise advice sat still, uncertain what they should do. When the master of ceremonies ordered them to comply with the king's commands, Mirabeau, the most distinguished statesman among the deputies, told him bluntly that they would not leave their places except at the point of the bayonet. The weak king almost immediately gave in and a few days later ordered all the deputies of the privileged orders who had not already done so to join the commons. 498 Medieval and Modern Times First Reforms of the National Assembly, July to J October, 1789 The fall of i oi. The National Assembly now began in earnest the great July 14, 1789 task of preparing a constitution and regenerating France. It was soon interrupted, however, by events at Paris. The king had been advised by those about him to gather together the Swiss and German troops who formed the royal guard, so that if he decided to send the insolent deputies home he would be able to put down any disorder which might result. He was also induced to dismiss Necker, who enjoyed a popularity that he had done little to merit. When the people of Paris saw the troops gathering and when they heard of the dismissal of Necker, there was general excitement and some disorder. On July 14 crowds of people assembled, determined to pro- cure arms to protect themselves and mayhap to perform some daring " deed of patriotism." One of the bands, led by the old Parisian guards, turned to the ancient fortress of the Bastille, on the parapets of which guns had been mounted which made the inhabitants of that part of the city very nervous. The castle had long had a bad reputation as a place of confinement for prisoners of State and for those imprisoned by lettres de cachet. When the mob demanded admission, it was naturally denied them, and they were fired upon and nearly a hundred were killed. After a brief, courageous attack the place was surren- dered, and the mob rushed into the gloomy pile. They found only seven prisoners, but one poor fellow had lost his wits and another had no idea why he had been kept there for years. The captives were freed amidst great enthusiasm, and the people soon set to work to demolish the walls. Formation of The anniversary of the fall of the Bastille is still celebrated as gutrd^ 10 ™ 1 tne g reat national holiday of France. The rising of the people to protect themselves against the machinations of the king's associates who, it was believed, wished to block reform, and the The French Revolution 499 successful attack on a monument of ancient tyranny appeared to be the opening of a new era of freedom. The disorders of these July days led to the formation of the " national guard." This was made up of volunteers from among the more pros- perous citizens, who organized themselves to maintain order and Fig. 136. The Taking of the Bastille This picture of the capture of the Bastille, by a contemporary artist, shows the mob assisting the attacking party, who have passed the outer works by the drawbridge on the right and are already crowding into the stronghold itself by the inner drawbridge so took from the king every excuse for calling in the regular troops for that purpose. Lafayette was put in command of this body. The government of Paris was reorganized, and a mayor, Establish- chosen from among the members of the National Assembly, was communes put at the head of the new Commune, as the municipal govern- ^^"itSf ment was called. The other cities of France also began with one accord, after the dismissal of Necker and the fall of the 5oo Medieval and Modern Times The decree abolishing the survivals of serfdom and feudal- ism, August, 1789 Unification of France through the abolition of the ancient provinces and the creation of the present departments Bastille, to promote the Revolution by displacing or supple- menting their old royal or aristocratic governments by commit- tees of their citizens. These improvised communes, or city governments, established national guards, as Paris had done, and thus maintained order. The Commune of Paris later played a very important role in the Reign of Terror. About the first of August news began to reach the National Assembly of the serious disorders in the provinces. In some cases the peasants burned the "country houses of the nobles so as to destroy the registers enumerating the feudal dues. This led to the first important reforms of the Assembly. A momen- tous resolution abolishing the survivals of serfdom and other institutions of feudalism was passed in a night session (August 4-5) 1 amid great excitement, the representatives of the privi- leged orders vying with each other in surrendering the ancient privileges they could no longer keep. The exclusive right of the nobility to hunt artd to maintain pigeon houses was abolished, and the peasant was permitted to kill game which he found on his land. The tithes of the Church were done away with. Ex- emptions from the payment of taxes were abolished forever. It was decreed that " taxes shall be collected from all citizens and from all property in the same manner and in the same form," and that " all citizens, without distinction of birth, are eligible to any office or dignity." Moreover, " all the peculiar privileges, pecuniary or otherwise, of the provinces, principalities, districts, cantons, cities and communes, are once for all abolished and are absorbed into the law common to all Frenchmen." This decree established the equality and uniformity for which the French people had sighed so long. The injustice of the former system of taxation could never be reintroduced. All France was to have the same laws, and its citizens were henceforth to be treated in the same way by the State, whether they lived in Brittany or Dauphiny. The Assembly soon went 1 The formal decree was drawn up a week later, August 11. See Readings in Modem European History ■, Vol. I, p. 256. The French Revolution 501 a step farther in consolidating and unifying France. It wiped out the old provinces altogether, by dividing the whole country into districts of convenient size, called departments. These were much more numerous than the ancient divisions, and were named after rivers and mountains. This obliterated from the map all reminiscences of the feudal disunion. Many of the cahiers had suggested that the Estates should The Declara draw up a clear statement of the rights of the individual citizen. t jj e Rights The National Assembly consequently determined to prepare of Man such a declaration in order to reassure the people and to form a basis for the new constitution. This Declaration (completed August 26) is one of the most notable documents in the history of Europe. It not only aroused general enthusiasm when it was first published, but it appeared over and over again, in a modified form, in the suc- ceeding French constitutions down to 1848, and has been the model for similar declarations in many of the other continental states. It was a dignified repudiation of the abuses described in the preceding chapter. Behind each article there was some crying evil of long standing against which the people wished to be forever protected. The Declaration sets forth that " Men are born and remain Contents equal in rights. Social distinctions can only be founded upon Declaration the general good." " Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate, personally or through his representative, in its formation. It must be the same for all." " No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned ex- cept in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law." " No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided that their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law." " The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, being responsible, how- ever, for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by 502 Medieval and Modern Times law." " All citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representative, as to the necessity of the public con- tribution, to grant this freely, to know to what uses it is put, and to fix the proportion, the mode f of assessment and of col- lection, and the duration of the taxes." " Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administra- tion." Well might the Assembly claim, in its address to the people, that " the rights of man had been misconceived and in- sulted for centuries," and boast that they were " reestablished for all humanity in this declaration, which shall serve as an everlasting war cry against oppressors." Suspicion aroused against the court A Paris mob invades the king's palace and carries him off to Paris The National Assembly in Paris, October, 1789, to September, 1791 102. The king hesitated to ratify the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and about the first of October rumors became current that, under the influence of the courtiers, he was calling together troops and preparing for another attempt to put an end to the Revolution, similar to that which the attack on the Bastille had frustrated. It was said that the new national colors — red, white, and blue — had been trampled under foot at a banquet at Versailles. These things, along with the scarcity of food due to the poor crops of the year, aroused the excitable Paris populace. On October 5 several thousand women and a number of armed men marched out to Versailles to ask bread of the king, in whom they had great confidence personally, however sus- picious they might be of his friends and advisers. Lafayette marched after the mob with the national guard to keep order, but did not prevent some of the rabble from invading the king's palace the next morning and nearly murdering the queen, who had become very unpopular. She was believed to be still an Austrian at heart and to be in league with the counter-revolutionary party, The French Revolution 503 The mob declared that the king must accompany them to Paris, and he was obliged to consent. Far from being disloyal, they assumed that the presence of the royal family would insure plenty and prosperity. So they gayly escorted the " baker and the baker's wife and the baker's boy," as they jocularly termed the king and queen and the little dauphin, to the Palace of the Tuileries, where the king took up his residence, practically a prisoner, as it proved. The National Fig. 137. March of the Women to Versailles Assembly soon followed him and resumed its sittings in a riding school near the Tuileries. This transfer of the king and the Assembly to the capital was the first great misfortune of the Revolution. At a serious crisis the government was placed at the mercy of the leaders of the disorderly elements of Paris. We shall see how the municipal council of Paris finally usurped the powers of the national government. As we have seen, the Church in France was very rich and Unjustappor- retained many of its medieval prerogatives and privileges. 1 t h e revenue Its higher officials, the bishops and abbots, received very large oftheChurch 1 See above, p. 454. 504 Medieval and Modern Times The property of the Church confiscated by the government The assig- nats, or paper currency revenues and often a single prelate held a number of rich bene- fices, the duties of which he utterly neglected. The parish priests, on the other hand, who really performed the manifold and important functions of the Church, were scarcely able to live on their incomes. This unjust apportionment of the vast revenue of the Church naturally suggested the idea that, if the State confiscated the ecclesiastical possessions, it could see that those who did the work were properly paid for it, and might, at the same time, secure a handsome sum which would help the government out of its financial troubles. Those who sympa- thized with Voltaire's views were naturally delighted to see their old enemy deprived of its independence and made subservient to the State, and even many good Catholics could not but hope that the new system would be an improvement upon the old. The tithes had been abolished in August along, with the feudal dues. That deprived the Church of perhaps thirty million dollars a year. On November 2 a decree was passed providing that " All the ecclesiastical possessions are at the dis- posal of the nation on condition that it provides properly for the expenses of maintaining religious services, for the support of those who conduct them and for the succor of the poor." * This decree deprived the bishops and priests of their benefices and made them dependent on salaries paid by the State. The monks, monasteries, and convents, too, lost their property. The National Assembly resolved to issue a paper currency for which the newly acquired lands should serve as security. Of these assignats, as this paper money was called, about forty billions of francs were issued in the next seven years. But since so much land was thrown on the market, they were worth less and less as time went on, and ultimately a great part of them was repudiated. The Assembly set to work completely to reorganize the Church. The anxiety for complete uniformity shows itself in 1 This property never reverted to the Church again. Consequently even cathedrals and churches remained national property. The French Revolution 505 the reckless way that it dealt with this most venerable institu- The Civil , ,, , , Constitution tion of France, the customs of which were hallowed by age f t h e clergy and religious veneration. The one hundred and thirty-four ancient bishoprics, some of which dated back to the Roman Empire, were replaced by the eighty-three new departments into which France had already been divided. 1 Each of these became the diocese of a bishop, who was looked upon as an BomcdnesmaiionaMJX. pavable^atuporteur. Serie 6329 we Fig. 138. Assignat .This piece of paper money, which resembled the bank note of to-day, was of the face value of 10 livres\ but before the Revolution was over it was almost worthless. So many were printed, however, that one can still find copies in old curiosity shops, costing only a few cents officer of the State and was to be elected by the people. The priests, too, were to be chosen by the people, and their salaries were much increased, so that even in the smallest villages they received over twice the minimum amount paid under the old regime. This Civil Constitution of the Clergy was the first serious mistake on the part of the National Assembly. While the half- feudalized Church had sadly needed reform, the worst abuses might have been remedied without shocking and alienating 1 See above, p. 500. 5o6 Medieval and Modern Times Harsh treat- ment of the " nonjuring ' clergy- thousands of those who had hitherto enthusiastically applauded the great reforms which the Assembly had effected. Louis XVI gave his- assent to the changes, but with the feeling that he might be losing his soul by so doing. From that time on, he became at heart an enemy of the Revolution. The discontent with the new system on the part of the clergy led to another serious error on the part of the Assembly. It required the clergy to take an oath to be faithful to the law and " to maintain with all their might the constitution decreed by the Assembly." Only six of the bishops consented to this and but a third of the lower clergy, although they were much better off under the new system. Forty-six thousand parish priests refused to sacrifice their religious scruples, and before long the pope forbade them to take the required oath to the constitution. As time went on, the " nonjuring " clergy were dealt with more and more harshly by the government, and the way was prepared for the horrors of the Reign of Terror. France becomes involved in a War with Other European Powers The perma- nent reforms of 1789 The second revolution 103. We have now studied the progress and nature of the revolution which destroyed the old regime and created modern France. Through it the unjust privileges, the perplexing irreg- ularities, and the local differences were abolished, and the peo- ple admitted to a share in the government. This vast reform had been accomplished without serious disturbance and, with the exception of some of the changes in the Church, it had been welcomed with enthusiasm by the French nation. This permanent, peaceful revolution, or reformation, was fol- lowed by a second revolution of unprecedented violence, which for a time destroyed the French monarchy. It also intro- duced a series of further changes, many of which were absurd and unnecessary and could not endure since they were approved J D E erpignairi KNEES >.1AI.K.V EDITERBAN3A f Longitude East <5* from Greenwich 8 The French Revolution 5°7 by only a few fanatical leaders. France, moreover, became involved in a war with most of the powers of western Europe. The weakness of her government which permitted the forces of disorder and fanaticism to prevail, combined with the immi- nent danger of an invasion by the united powers of Europe, produced the Reign of Terror. While practically the whole of the nation heartily rejoiced in The emigra- the earlier reforms introduced by the National Assembly and nobles celebrated the general satisfaction and harmony by a great national festival held at Paris on the first anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, some of the higher nobility refused to remain in France. The king's youngest brother, the count of Artois, set the example by leaving the country. He was followed by others * who were terrified or disgusted by the burning of their country houses, the loss of their privileges, and the unwise abolition of hereditary nobility by the National Assembly in June, 1790. Before long these emigrant nobles (emigres), among whom were many military officers, organized a little army across the Rhine, and the count of Artois began to plan an invasion of France. He was ready to ally himself with Austria, Prussia, or any other foreign government which he could induce to help undo the Revolution and give back to the French king his former abso- lute power and to the nobles their old privileges. The threats and insolence of the emigrant nobles and their The conduct shameful negotiations with foreign powers discredited the mem- gVant^obles bers of their class who still remained in France. The people discredits suspected that the plans of the runaways met with the secret and queen approval of the king, and more especially of the queen, whose brother was now emperor and* ruler of the Austrian dominions. This, added to the opposition of the nonjuring clergy, produced a bitter hostility between the so-called " patriots " and those who, on the other hand, were supposed to be secretly hoping for a counter revolution which would reestablish the old regime. The worst fears of the people appeared to be justified by the secret flight of the royal family from Paris, in June, 1791. 5o8 Medieval and Modem Times The flight to Varennes, June 21, 1791 Ever since the king had reluctantly signed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, flight had seemed to him his only resource. There was a body of French troops on the northeastern boundary ; if he could escape from Paris and join them he hoped that, aided by a demonstration on the part of the queen's brother, Leopold II, emperor of Germany, he might march back and check the further progress of the revolutionary move- ment with which he could no longer sympathize. He and the queen were, however, arrested on the way, at Varennes, and speedily brought back to Paris. The desertion of the king ap- pears to have terrified rather than angered the nation. The grief of the people at the thought of losing, and their joy at regaining, a poor weak ruler like Louis XVI clearly shows that France was still profoundly royalist in its sympathies. The National As- sembly pretended that the king had not fled, but that he had been carried off. This gratified France at large ; still in Paris there were some who advocated the deposition of the king, and for the first time a republican party appeared, though it was still small. The National Assembly at last put the finishing touches to the new constitution upon which it had been working for two years, and the king readily swore to observe it faithfully. All Fig. 139. Caricature: Louis XVI as Consti- tutional Monarch 1 1 The formerly despotic king is represented as safely caged by the National Assembly. When asked by Marie Antoinette's brother, the Emperor Leopold, what he is doing, Louis XVI replies, " I am signing my name," — that is, he had nothing to do except meekly to ratify the measures which the Assembly chose to pass. This condition of a king was intolerable to other monarchs of the Continent. The French Revolution 509 the discord and suspicion of the past months were to be for- The consti- gotten. The National Assembly had completed its appointed pi e ted, C i79i task, perhaps the greatest that a single body of men ever under- took. It had made France over and had given her an elaborate constitution. It was now ready to give way to the regular Leg- islative Assembly provided for in the constitution. This held its first session October 1, 1791. In spite of the great achievements of the National Assembly Sources of it left France in a critical situation. Besides the emigrant nobles opening* abroad, there were the nonjuring clergy at home and a king ° f * e who was secretly corresponding with foreign powers with the Assembly, 1 r ■ • ' 1 • -i ,tn 1 r 1 r October, l'JOl hope of securing their aid. When the news 01 the arrest of the king and queen at Varennes reached the ears of Marie Antoinette's brother Leopold, he declared that the violent arrest of the king sealed with unlawfulness all that had been done in France and " compromised directly the honor of all the sover- eigns and the security of every government." He therefore proposed to the rulers of Russia, England, Prussia, Spain, Naples, and Sardinia that they should come to some under- standing among themselves as to how they might " reestablish the liberty and honor of the most Christian king and his family, and place a check upon the dangerous excesses of the French Revolution, the fatal example of which it behooves every government to repress." On August 27 Leopold had issued, in conjunction with the TheDeclara king of Prussia, the famous Declaration of Pillnitz. 1 In this pmnitz the two sovereigns state that, in accordance with the wishes of Au s ust 2 7> fc> J jjrg! the king's brothers (the leaders of the emigrant nobles), they are ready to join the other European rulers in an attempt- to place the king of France in a position to establish a form of govern- ment " that shall be once more in harmony with the rights of sovereigns and shall promote the welfare of the French nation." In the meantime they promised to prepare their troops for active service. 1 See Readings in Modem Eur of can f/isfojy, Vol. I, p. 282. 5io Medieval and Modern Times Effect of the Declaration The news- papers The Jacobins The Declaration was little more than an empty threat; but it seemed to the French people a sufficient proof that the mon- archs were ready to help the seditious French nobles to reestablish the old regime against the wishes of the nation and at the cost of infinite bloodshed. The idea of foreign rulers intermeddling with their internal affairs would in itself have been intolerable to a proud people like the French, even if the permanence of the new reforms had not been endan- gered. Had it been the object of the allied monarchs to hasten instead of to prevent the deposition of Louis XVI, they could hardly have chosen a more efficient means than the Declara- tion of Pillnitz. The political excitement and the enthusiasm for the Revolu- tion were kept up by the newspapers which had been estab- lished, especially in Paris, since the meeting of the Estates General. The people did not need longer to rely upOn an oc- casional pamphlet, as was the case before 1789. Many journals of the most divergent kinds and representing the most diverse opinions were published. Some were no more than a periodical editorial written by one man ; for example, the notorious " Friend of the People," by the insane Marat. Others, like the famous Moniteur, were much like our papers of to-day and contained news, reports of the debates in the Assembly, announcements of theaters, etc. Some of the papers were illustrated, and the representations of contemporaneous events, especially the numerous caricatures, are highly diverting. Of the numerous political clubs, by far the most famous was that of the " Jacobins." When the Assembly moved into Paris, some of the representatives of the third estate rented a large room in the monastery of the Jacobin monks, not far from the building where the National Assembly itself met. The aim of this society was to discuss questions which were about to come before the National Assembly. The club decided beforehand what should be the policy of its members and how they should vote ; and in this way they successfully combined to counteract The French Revolution 511 the schemes of the aristocratic party in the Assembly. The club rapidly grew and soon admitted some who were not depu- ties to its sessions. In October, 1791, it decided to permit the public to attend its discussions. Gradually similar societies were formed in the provinces. 1 These affiliated themselves with the " mother " society at Paris and kept in constant communication with it. In this way the Jacobins of Paris stimulated and controlled public opinion throughout France, and kept the opponents of the old regime alert. When the Legislative Assembly met, the Jacobins had not as yet become republicans, but they believed that the king should have hardly more power than the president of a republic. The growing discord in the nation was increased by the severe The emigrant edicts that the Legislative Assembly directed against the emi- ciared^nStors grant nobles and the non-juring clergy. "The Frenchmen as- sembled on the frontier" were declared under suspicion of conspiring against their country. If they did not return to France' by January 1, 1792,. they were to be regarded as con- victed traitors, to be punished, if caught, with death; their property was to be confiscated. The harsh treatment of the emigrant nobles was perhaps jus- Harsh meas tified by their desertion and treasonable intrigues ; but the con- Assembly 6 duct of the Assembly toward the clergy was both unstatesmanlike tow ? rd . J oy nonjunng and iniquitous. Those who had refused to take the oath to sup- clergy port the Civil Constitution of the Clergy were commanded to do so within a week on penalty of losing their income from the State and being watched as suspects. As this failed to bring the clergy to terms, the Assembly later (May, 1792) ordered the de- portation from the country of those who steadily persisted in their refusal. In this "way the Assembly aroused the active hos- tility of a great part of the most conscientious among the lower clergy, who had loyally supported the commons in their fight against the privileged orders. It also lost the confidence of the great mass of faithful Catholics, — merchants, artisans, and 1 By June, 1791, there were four hundred and six of these affiliated clubs. 512 Medieval and Modern Times The Legis- lative Assembly precipitate a war with Europe peasants, — who had gladly accepted the abolition of the old abuses, but who would not consent to desert their religious leaders. By far the most important act of the Legislative Assembly during the one year of its existence was its starting a war be- tween France and Austria. It little dreamed that this was the beginning of a war between revolutionary France and the rest of western Europe which was to last, with slight interruptions, for over twenty years. To many of the leaders in the Assembly it seemed that the existing conditions were intolerable. The emigrant nobles were forming little armies on the boundaries of France and had, as we have seen, induced Austria and Prussia to consider inter- fering in French affairs. The Assembly suspected that Louis was negotiating with foreign rulers and would be glad to have them intervene and reestablish him in his old despotic power. The deputies, argued, therefore, that a war against the hated Austria would unite the sympathies of the nation and force the king to show his true character ; for he would be obliged either to become the nation's leader or show himself the traitor they suspected him to be. Founding of the First French Republic France de- 104. It was with a heavy heart that the king, urged on by the upon Austria, clamors of the Assembly, declared war upon Austria in April, April, 1792 1792. The unpopularity of the king only increased, however. He refused to ratify certain popular measures of the Assembly and dismissed the ministers who had been forced upon him by the Assembly. In June a mob of Parisians invaded the Palace of the Tuileries, and the king might have been killed had he not consented to don the " cap of liberty," the badge of the " citizen patriots." When France declared war, Prussia immediately allied itself with Austria. Both powers collected their forces and, to the The king suspected and his life threatened The FrencJi Revolution 5 1 3 great joy of the emigrant nobles, who joined them, prepared to Growth of march upon France. The early attempts of the French to get feSing"* a footing in the Austrian Netherlands were not successful, :md the troops and people accused the nobles, who were in com- mand of the French troops, of treason. As the allies approached the boundaries it became clearer and clearer that the king was utterly incapable of defending France, and the Assembly began to consider the question of deposing him. The Duke of Bruns- wick, who was at the head of the Prussian forces, took the very worst means of helping the king, by issuing a manifesto in which he threatened utterly to destroy Paris should the king suffer any harm. Angered by this declaration and aroused by the danger, the insurrection populace of Paris again invaded the Tuileries, August 10, 1792, 1?i)2 and the king was obliged to take refuge in the building in which the Assembly was in session. Those who instigated the attack were men who had set their heart upon doing away with the king altogether and establishing a republic. A group of them had taken possession of the city hall, pushed the old members of the municipal council off from their seats, and taken the gov- ernment in their own hands. In this way the members of the Paris Commune became the leaders in the new revolution which established the first French republic. The Assembly agreed with the Commune in desiring a France pro- republic. If, as was proposed, France was henceforth to do republic a sep without a king, it was obviously necessary that the monarchi- tember 22 » cal constitution so recently completed should be replaced by a republican one. Consequently, the Assembly arranged that the people should elect delegates to a constitutional Con- vention, which should draw up a new system of government. The Convention met on September 21, and its first act was to abolish the ancient monarchy and proclaim France a re- public. It seemed to the enthusiasts of the time that a new era of liberty had dawned, now that the long oppression by <4 despots " was ended forever. The twenty-second day 5M Medieval and Modern Times September massacres, 1792 of September, 1792, was reckoned as the first day of the Year One of French liberty. 1 Meanwhile the usurping Paris Commune had taken matters into its own hands and had brought discredit upon the cause of liberty by one of the most atrocious acts in history. On the pretext that Paris was full of traitors, who sympathized with the Aus- trians and the emigrant nobles, they had filled the prisons with some three thousand citizens. On September 2 and 3 hun- dreds of these were ex- ecuted with scarcely a pretense of a trial. The members of the Commune who perpetrated this deed probably hoped to terrify those who might still dream of returning to the old sys- tem of government. Late in August the Prus- sians crossed the French boundary and on Septem- ber 2 took the fortress of Verdun. It now seemed Fig. 140. Louis XVI on the Roof of his Prison The prison to which the royal family- was taken on August 13 was known as the Temple, because it had been part of the building of the Knights Templar in Paris. It was a gloomy tower with massive walls. It was torn down in 181 1 as if there was nothing to prevent their marching upon Paris. The French general, 1 A committee of the Convention was appointed to draw up a new republican calendar. The year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each. The five days preceding September 22, at the end of the year, were holidays. Each month was divided into three decades, and each " tenth day " {decadt) was a holiday. The days were no longer dedicated to saints, but to agricultural imple- ments, vegetables, domestic animals, etc. The French Revolution 515 Dumouriez, blocked their advance, however, and without a Progress of pitched battle caused the enemy to retreat. Notwithstanding Austria and the tears of the French, the king of Prussia had but little Prussia interest in the war; the Austrian troops were lagging far behind, and both powers were far more absorbed in a second partition of Poland, 1 which was approaching, than in the fate of the French king. The French now invaded Germany and took several important towns on the Rhine, including Mayence, which gladly opened its gates to them. They also occupied the Austrian Netherlands and Savoy. Meanwhile the new Convention was puzzled to determine Trial and what would best be done with the king. A considerable party of the king, felt that he was guilty of treason in secretly encouraging the J anuai 7> J 793 foreign powers to come to his aid. He was therefore brought to trial, and when it came to a final vote, he was, by a small majority, condemned to death. He mounted the scaffold on January 21, 1793, with the fortitude of a martyr. Nevertheless, one cannot but feel that through his earlier weakness and indecision he brought untold misery upon his own kingdom and upon Europe at large. The French people had not dreamed of a republic until his absolute incompetence forced them, in self-defense, to abolish the monarchy in the hope of securing a more efficient government. 2 The exultation of the Convention over the conquests which The Conven- their armies were making, encouraged them to offer the assist- to^cTother 655 ance of the new republic to any country that wished to establish c ° un t nes to its freedom by throwing off the yoke of monarchy. They even selves of proposed a republic to the English people. One of the French archs ministers declared, " We will hurl thither fifty thousand caps of .liberty, we will plant there the sacred tree of liberty." France FebruaryL-iy-jt-T^Jj France greatly added to her embarrassments o^Enrfand by declaring war on England, a country which proved her Februar y h most inveterate enemy. 1 See above, p. 418. 2 For interesting documents on this, see Readings in Modern European History , Vol. I, pp. 295-309. 516 Medieval and Modern Times The allies settle their differences and renew the war against France French driven from the Netherlands ; desertion of Dumouriez The war now began to go against the French. The allies had hitherto been suspicious of one another and fearful lest Russia should take advantage of their preoccupation with France to seize more than her share of Poland. They now came to an agreement. The adjustment of the differences between the allies gave a wholly new aspect to the war with France. When in March, 1793, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire joined the coalition, France was at war with all her neighbors. The Austrians de- feated Dumouriez at Neerwinden and drove the French out of the Netherlands. Thereupon Dumouriez, disgusted by the failure of the Convention to support him and by their execution of the king, deserted to the enemy with a few hundred soldiers who consented to follow him. French gov- ernment put in the hands of the Com- mittee of Public Safety, April, 1793 The Giron- dists The Reign of Terror 105. The loss of the Netherlands and the treason of their best general made a deep impression upon the members of the Convention. If the new French Republic was to defend itself against the " tyrants " without and its many enemies within, it could not wait for the Convention to draw up an elaborate, permanent constitution. An efficient government must be devised immediately to maintain the loyalty of the nation to the Republic and to raise and equip armies and direct their com- manders. The Convention accordingly put the government into the hands of a small committee, consisting originally of nine, later of twelve, of its members. This famous Committee of Public Safety was given practically unlimited powers. " We must," one of the leaders exclaimed, " establish the despotism of liberty in order to crush the despotism of kings." Within the Convention itself there were two groups of active men who came into bitter conflict over the policy to be pursued. There was, first, the party of the Girondists, so called because their leaders came from the department of Gironde, in which The French Revolution 517 the great city of Bordeaux lay. They were moderate republi- cans and counted among their numbers some speakers of re- markable eloquence. The Girondists had enjoyed the control of the Legislative Assembly in 1792 and had been active in bringing on the war with Austria and Prussia. They hoped in that way to complete the Revolution by exposing the bad Fig. 141. Maximilien Robespierre Robespierre was an honest, though narrow-minded, man. It was his intense love of liberty and equality that made him a dangerous fanatic. He sanctioned using terror to force upon France an ideal democracy, with the sad results that for a long time to come, Jacobinism and de- mocracy in France suffered from the memory of his acts faith of the king and his sympathy with the emigrant nobles. They were not, however, men of sufficient decision to direct affairs in the terrible difficulties in which France found herself after the execution of the king. They consequently lost their influence, and a new* party, called the Mountain from the high seats that they occupied in the Convention, gained the ascendancy. Si8 Medieval and Modern Times The extreme republicans, called the " Mountain " Girondist leaders ex- pelled from the Conven- tion, June 2, 1793 This was composed of the most vigorous and uncompromis- ing republicans. They believed that the French people had been depraved by the slavery to which their kings had subjected them. Everything, they argued, which suggested the former rule of kings must be wiped out. A new France should be created, in which liberty, equality, and fraternity should take the place of the tyranny of princes, the insolence of nobles, and the exactions of the priests. The leaders of the Mountain held that the mass of the people were by nature good and upright, but that there were a number of adherents of the old system who would, if they could, undo the great work of the Revolu- tion and lead the people back to slavery, as formerly under the king. All who were suspected by the Mountain of having the least sympathy with the nobles or persecuted priests were branded as counter-revolutionary. The Mountain was willing to resort to any measures, however shocking, to rid the nation of those suspected of counter-revolutionary tendencies, and its leaders relied upon the populace of Paris, which had been disappointed that " liberty" had not bettered the hard conditions of life as it had hoped, to aid them in reaching their ends. The Girondists, on the other hand, abhorred the furious Paris mob and the cruel fanatics who composed the Commune of the capital. They argued that Paris was not France, and that it had no right to assume a despotic rule over the nation. They proposed that the Commune should be dissolved and that the Convention should remove to another town where they would not be subject to the intimidation of the Paris mob. The Mountain thereupon accused the Girondists of an attempt to break up the republic, " one and indivisible," by questioning the supremacy of Paris and the duty of the provinces to follow the lead of the capital. The mob, thus encouraged, rose against the Girondists. On June 2 it surrounded the meeting place of the Convention, and deputies of the Commune demanded the expulsion from the Convention of the Girondist leaders, who were placed under arrest. The French Revolution 519 The conduct of the Mountain and its ally, the Paris Com- France ., .... c threatened mune, now began to arouse opposition in various parts 01 with civil war France, and the country was threatened with civil war at a time when it was absolutely necessary that all Frenchmen should combine in the loyal defense of their country against the in- vaders who were again approaching its boundaries. The first The revolt of and most serious opposition came from the peasants of Brittany, o^Bnttany S especially in the department of La Vendee. There the people r^ 118 ^ 6 still loved the monarchy and their priests and even the nobles ; they refused to send their sons to fight for a republic which had killed their king and was persecuting the clergymen who declined to take an oath which their conscience forbade. The Vendean royalists defeated several corps of the national guard which the Convention sent against them, and it was not until autumn that the distinguished general Kleber was able to put down the insurrection. The great cities of Marseilles and Bordeaux were indignant Revolt of trie cities at the treatment to which the Girondist deputies were sub- against the jected in Paris, and organized a revolt against the Convention. In the manufacturing city of Lyons the merchants hated the Jacobins and their republic, since the demand for silk and other luxuries produced at Lyons had come from the nobility and clergy, who were, now no longer in a position to buy. The prosperous classes were therefore exasperated when the commis- sioners of the Convention demanded money and troops. The citizens gathered an army of ten thousand men and placed it under a royalist leader. The Convention, however, called in troops from the armies on the frontier, bombarded and cap- tured the city, and wreaked a terrible vengeance upon those who had dared to revolt against the Mountain. Frightened by the experience of Lyons, Bordeaux and Marseilles decided that resistance was futile and admitted the troops of the Convention. The Convention's Committee of Public Safety showed itself far more efficient than the scattered and disunited opponents who questioned its right to govern France. Convention 520 Medieval and Modern Times The French repulse the English and Austrians While the Committee of Public Safety had been suppressing the revolts within the country, it had taken active measures to meet its foreign enemies. The distinguished military organizer, Carnot, had become a member of the committee in August and immediately called for a general levy of troops. He soon had seven hundred and fifty thousand men ; these he divided into thirteen armies and dispatched them against the allies. The Fig. 142. The Palace of Justice (Law Courts) in Paris 1 English and Hanoverians, who were besieging Dunkirk, were driven off and the Austrians were defeated, so that by the close of the year 1793 all danger from invasion was past, for the time being at least. 1 In the thirteenth century part of the royal palace on the island in the Seine was made over to the lawyers of the court, and it has remained ever since the seat of the chief law courts of France. The square clock tower at the corner, the round towers and the chapel (Sainte-Chapelle, just visible at the left), all date from the old palace — also the lower floor and cellar facing the river, made over into the prison of the Conciergerie. In it Marie Antoinette and many other illustrious prisoners were kept when tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. The French Revolution 5 21 In spite of the marvelous success with which the Committee The Reign of Public Safety had crushed its opponents at home and repelled the forces of the coalition, it continued its policy of stifling all opposition by terror. Even before the fall of the Girondists a special court had been established in Paris, known as the Revo- The Revo- lutionary Tribunal. Its duty was to try all those who were sus- Tribunal pected of treasonable acts. At first the cases were very carefully considered, and few persons were condemned. In September, after the revolt of the cities, two new men, who had been implicated in the September massacres, were added to the Committee of Public Safety. They were selected with the particular purpose of intimidating the counter-revolutionary party by bringing all the disaffected to the guillotine. 1 A ter- rible law was passed, declaring all those to be suspects who by their conduct or remarks had shown themselves enemies of liberty. The former nobles, including the wives, fathers, mothers, and children of the " emigrants," unless they had constantly manifested their attachment to the Revolution, were ordered to be imprisoned. In October the queen, Marie Antoinette, after a trial in Execution which false and atrocious charges were brought against her, 2 Antoinette was executed in Paris, and a number of high-minded and dis- 0ctober > J ?93 tinguished persons suffered a like fate. But the most horrible acts of the Reign of Terror were perpetrated in the prov- inces where deputies of the Committee of Public Safety were sent with almost absolute military power to crush rebellions. A representative of the Convention had thousands of the people of Nantes shot down or drowned. The Convention proposed to destroy the great city of Lyons altogether, and, 1 In former times it had been customary to inflict capital punishment by de- capitating the victim with the sword. At the opening of the Revolution a certain Dr. Guillotin recommended a new device, which consisted of a heavy knife slid- ing downward between two uprights. This instrument, called, after him, the guillotine, which is still used in France, was more speedy and certain in its action than the sword in the hands of the executioner. 2 She had, like the king, been guilty of encouraging the enemies of France to intervene. 522 Medieval and Modern Times Schism in the party of the Mountain Robespierre as dictator Fall of Robespierre, July 27, 1794 though this decree was only partially carried out, thousands of its citizens were executed. 1 Soon the radical party which was conducting the government began to disagree among themselves. Danton, a man of fiery zeal for the republic, who had hitherto enjoyed great popularity with the Jacobins, became tired of bloodshed and believed that the system of terror was no longer necessary. On the other hand, Hebert, the leader of the Commune, felt that the revolu- tion was not yet complete. He proposed, for example, that the worship of Reason should be substituted for the worship of God, and arranged a service in the great church of Notre Dame, where Reason, in the person of a handsome actress, took her place on the altar. The most powerful member of the Committee of Public Safety was Robespierre, who, although he was insignificant in person and a tiresome speaker, enjoyed a great reputation for republican virtue. He disapproved alike of Danton's moderation and of the worship of Reason advo- cated by the Commune. Through his influence the leaders of both the moderate and the extreme party were arrested and executed (March and April, 1794). It was, of course, impossible for Robespierre to maintain his dictatorship for long. When he had the Revolutionary Tri- bunal divided into sections and greatly increased the rapidity . of the executions with a view of destroying all his enemies, his colleagues in the Convention began to fear that he would demand their heads next. A coalition was formed against him, and the Convention ordered his arrest. 2 He called upon the Commune to defend him, but the Convention roused Paris 1 It should not be forgotten that very few of the people at Paris stood in any fear of the guillotine. The city during the Reign of Terror was not the gloomy place that we might imagine. Never did the inhabitants appear happier, never were the theaters and restaurants more crowded. The guillotine was making away with the enemies of liberty, so the women wore tiny guillotines as ornaments, and the children were given toy guillotines and amused themselves decapitating the figures of " aristocrats." 2 The date of Robespierre's fall is generally known as»the Ninth of Ther- midor, the day and month of the republican calendar. The French Revolution • 5 2 3 against the Commune, which was no longer powerful enough to intimidate the whole city, and he and his supporters were sent to the guillotine. In successfully overthrowing Robespierre, the Convention and Committee of Public Safety had rid the country of the Fig. 143. D anton Danton was in favor of a policy of terror only so long as France was really in peril. He thought that the Terror was necessary in order to suppress rebellion and conspiracies ; but when he tried to stop it, Robespierre's party claimed that he had himself turned traitor to the Jacobin ideal, since that was not yet attained only man, who, owing to his popularity and his reputation for Reaction * d -s 3.ftcr the uprightness, could have prolonged the Reign of Terror. There over throw of was an immediate reaction after his death, for the country was Robespierre weary of executions. The Revolutionary Tribunal henceforth convicted very few indeed of those who were brought before it. Indeed, it turned upon those who had themselves been the 5 24 Medieval and Modern Times leaders in the worst atrocities, for example, as the public prose- cutor, who had brought hundreds of victims to the guillotine in Paris, and the brutes who had ordered the massacres at Nantes and Lyons. Within a few months the Jacobin Club at Paris was closed by the Convention, and the Commune abolished. Constitution The Convention now at last turned its attention to the great Year^Three work for which it had originally been summoned, and drew up a constitution for the republic. This provided that the law- making power should be vested in a legislative assembly con- sisting of two houses. The lower house was called the Council of the Five Hundred, and the upper chamber the Council of the Elders. Members of the latter were required to be at least forty years of age. The executive powers were put in the hands of a Directory of five persons, to be chosen by the two chambers. The dissolu- In October, 1795, the Convention finally dissolved itself, tion of the , .. , . . c Convention, having governed the country during three years 01 unprece- its acWeve- 95 ' dented excitement, danger, and disorder. While it was respon- ments sible for the horrors of the Reign of Terror, its committees had carried France through the terrible crisis of 1793. The civil war had been brought to a speedy end, and the coalition of for- eign powers had been defeated. Meanwhile other committees appointed by the Convention had been quietly working upon the problem of bettering the system of education, which had been taken by the State out of the hands of the clergy. Progress had also been made toward establishing a single system of law for the whole country to replace the old confusion. The new republican calendar was not destined to survive many years, but the metric system of weights and measures introduced by the Convention has now been adopted by most European countries, and is used by men of science in England and America. On the other hand, the Reign of Terror, the depreciated paper currency, 1 and many hasty and unwise laws passed by 1 See above, p. 505. There were about forty billions of francs in assignats in circulation at the opening of 1796. At that time it required nearly three hundred francs in paper money to procure one in specie. The French Revolution 525 the Convention had produced all sorts of disorder and uncer- tainty. The Directory did little to .better conditions, and it was not until Napoleon's strong hand grasped the helm of government in the year 1800 that order was really restored, QUESTIONS Section 100. What were Calonne's plans, and why did they fail? How did the Estates General come to be summoned in 1789? What were the chief questions raised in regard to their organization ? What were the cahiers, and upon what main points did they agree? By what process did the Estates General turn into a national assembly ? Section 10 i. What were the causes and results of the attack on the Bastille ? What does the word " commune " mean ? What were the chief provisions of the decree abolishing the feudal system? Give an account of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Why were these decrees drawn up? Section 102. Under what conditions was the National Assembly moved to Paris? What were the reforms made in the organization of the French Church ? What immediate results did they have on the course of the Revolution? Section 103. Who were the emigrant nobles, and what was their plan ? What were the results of the king's attempted flight in June, 1 79 1? What was the Declaration of Pillnitz? Who were the Jacobins? What various kinds of matter do we find in a modern newspaper ? What measures were taken against the emigrant nobles and the nonjuring clergy? Why did the Legislative Assembly declare war on Austria ? Why did Prussia enter the war ? Section 104. How was the First French Republic established? Do you see any good reasons for the execution of Louis XVI ? Why did France declare war on England? With what European powers was France at war by the spring of 1 793 ? Section 105. What was the need of a Committee of Public Safety? Who were the Girondists? the Mountain? What- led to civil war in France, and what was the outcome of it ? What do you understand by the Reign of Terror? Can you give any justification of the harsh measures taken by the Convention and its committees ? What were Robespierre's views? What were the reasons for his fall? Describe the constitution of the Year Three. Review the chief acts of the Convention. -\i CHAPTER XXV The Napo- leonic period Napoleon Bonaparte (b. 1769), a Corsican by birth, an Italian by descent The young Bonaparte in a French military school EUROPE AND NAPOLEON General Bonaparte 106. The aristocratic military leaders of Old France had either run away or been discredited along with the noble class to which they belonged. Among the commanders who, through exceptional ability, arose in their stead, one was soon to dom- inate the history of Europe as no man before h:':n had ever done. For fifteen years his biography and the political his- tory of Europe are so nearly synonymous that the period that we are now entering upon may properly be called after him, the Napoleonic Period. Napoleon Bonaparte was hardly a Frenchman in origin. It is true that the island of Corsica, where he was born August 15, 1 769, had at that time belonged to France for a year. But Napo- leon's native language was Italian, he was descended from Italian ancestors who had come to the island in the sixteenth century, and his career revives, on a magnificent scale, the ambitions and the policy of a co?idottiere despot of the fifteenth century. 1 When he was ten years old he was taken to France by his father. After learning a little of the French language, which he is said never to have mastered perfectly, he was put into a military school, where he remained for six years. He soon came to hate the young French aristocrats with whom he was associated. He wrote to his father, " I am tired of exposing my poverty and seeing these shameless boys laughing over it, who are superior to me only in their wealth, but infinitely 1 See above, pp. 226. 526 Europe and Napoleon 527 beneath me in noble sentiments." Gradually the ambition to free his little island country from French control developed in him. On completing his course in the military school he was made His political second lieutenant. Poor and without influence, he had little Corsica hope of any considerable advance in the French army, and he was drawn to his own country by a desire both to play a politi- cal role there and to help his family, which had been left in straitened circumstances by his father's death. He therefore absented himself from his command as often and as long as he could, and engaged in a series of intrigues in Corsica with The Bona- ' a hope of getting control of the forces of the island. He fell banished out, however, with the authorities, and he and his family were from Corsica > banished in 1793 and fled to France. The following three years were for Bonaparte a period of Napoleon great uncertainty. He had lost his love for Corsica and as mandeTin vet he had no foothold in France. He managed, however, to chief °5 the J ° ' army of demonstrate his military skill and decision on two occasions Italy, 1796 and gained thereby the friendship of the Directory. In the spring of 1796 he was made by the Directory commander in chief of the army of Italy. This important appointment at the age of twenty-seven forms the opening of a military career which in extent and grandeur hardly finds a parallel in history, except that of Alexander the Great. And of all Bonaparte's campaigns, none is more interesting perhaps than his first, that in Italy in 1 796-1 797. After the armies raised by the Committee of Public Safety Prussia and had driven back their enemies in the autumn of 1793, the dE peace French occupied the Austrian Netherlands, Holland, and that ™ ith t] ? e portion of Germany which lies on the left, or west, bank of the republic, 1795 Rhine. Austria and Prussia were again busy with a new, and this time final, partition of Poland. As Prussia had little real interest in the war with France, she soon concluded peace with the new republic, April, 1795. Spain followed her example and left Austria, England, and the kingdom of Sardinia to carry on 528 Medieval and Modern Times The cam- paign in Italy, 1 796-1 797 The treaty of Campo- Formio, 1797 Creation of the Cisalpine republic the war. General Bonaparte had to face the combined armies of Austria and of the king of Sardinia. By marching north from Savona he skillfully separated his two enemies, forced the Sardinian troops back toward their capital, Turin, and com- pelled the king of Sardinia to conclude a truce with France. 1 This left him free to advance against the Austrians. These he outflanked and forced to retreat. On May 15, 1796, he entered Milan. The Austrian commander then shut himself up in the impregnable fortress of Mantua, where Bonaparte promptly besieged him. There is no more fascinating chapter in the his- tory of warfare than the story of the audacious maneuvers by v/hich Bonaparte successfully repulsed four attempts on the part of the Austrians to relieve Mantua, which was finally forced to capitulate at the beginning of February of the following year. As soon as he had removed all danger of an attack in the rear, the young French general led his army to within a hundred miles of Vienna, and by April, 1797, the Austrian court was glad to sign a preliminary peace. The provisions of the definitive peace, which was concluded at Campo-Formio October 17^1797, illustrate the unscrupulous manner in which Austria and the French Republic disposed of the helpless lesser states. It inaugurated the bewilderingly rapid territorial redistribution of Europe, which was so characteristic of the Napoleonic Period. Austria ceded to France the Austrian Netherlands and secretly agreed to use its good offices to secure for France a great part of the left bank of the Rhine. Austria also recognized the Cisalpine republic which Bonaparte had created out of the smaller states of northern Italy, and which was under the " protection " of France. This new state included Milan, Modena, some of the papal dominions, and, lastly, a part of the possessions of the venerable and renowned but defenseless 1 The island of Sardinia had in 1720 been given to the Duke of Savoy, who was also ruler of Piedmont. The duke thereupon assumed the title King of Sardinia, but Piedmont with its capital remained the most important part of the kingdom of Sardinia. Europe and Napoleon 529 republic of Venice, which Napoleon had iniquitously destroyed. Austria received as a partial indemnity the rest of the posses- sions of the Venetian republic, including Venice itself. While the negotiations were going on at Campo-Formio, the young general had established a brilliant court. " His salons," Central Europe, to illustrate Napoleon's Campaigns, 1 796-1 801 an observer informs us, " were filled with a throng of generals, General officials, and purveyors, as well as the highest nobility and the holds P coS most distinguished men of Italy, who came to solicit the favor of a glance or a moment's conversation." He appears already to have conceived the role that he was to play later. We have 53° Medieval and Modern Times Bonaparte's idea of the French char- acter and his Personal character- istics Sources of power in Napoleon's character a report of a most extraordinary conversation which occurred at this time. " What I have done so far," he declared, " is nothing. I am but at the opening of the career that I am to run. Do you sup- pose that I have gained my victories in Italy in order to advance the lawyers of the Directory ? . . . Do you think either that my object is to establish a republic ? What a notion ! . . . What the French want is glory and the satisfaction of their vanity; . . . Let the Directory attempt to deprive me of my command and they will see who is the master. The nation must have a head, a head who is rendered illustrious by glory and not by theories of government, fine phrases, or the talk of idealists." There is no doubt whom General Bonaparte had in mind when he spoke of the needed head of the French nation who should be " rendered illustrious by glory." This son of a poor Corsican noble, but yesterday a mere unlucky adventurer, had arranged his program ; two years and a half later, at the age of thirty, he was the master of the French Republic. Bonaparte was a short man, at this time extremely thin, but his striking features, quick, searching eye, abrupt, animated gestures and rapid speech, incorrect as it was, made a deep impression upon those who came in contact with him. He possessed in a supreme degree two qualities that are ordinarily incompatible. He was a dreamer, and at the same time a man whose practical skill and mastery of detail amounted to genius. He once told a friend that he was wont, when a poor lieutenant, to allow his imagination full play and fancy things just as he would have them. Then he would coolly consider the exact steps to be taken if he were to try to make his dream come true. At the age of twenty-eight he had become the chief general of France ; at that of thirty he was to become master of the country. In order to explain Bonaparte's success it must be remem- bered that he was not hampered or held back by the fear of doing wrong. He was utterly unscrupulous, whether dealing Napoleon I * H o o w o Europe and Napoleon 53 1 with an individual or a nation, and appears to have been abso- lutely without any sense of moral responsibility. Affection for his friends and relatives never stood in the way of his personal aggrandizement. To these traits must be added unrivaled mili- tary genius and the power of intense and almost uninter- rupted work. But even Bonaparte, unexampled as were his abilities, could The political never have extended his power over all of western Europe, had w hich it not been for the peculiar political weakness of most of the Napoleon's states with which he had to deal. There was no strong German wonderful successes empire in his day, no mighty Prussian army ; Austria was possible already humbled, and its defeat had opened Italy to the French. In short, the French Republic was surrounded by small states almost defenseless against an unscrupulous invader. How Bonaparte made himself Master of France 107. After arranging the Peace of Campo-Formio, General Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris. He at once perceived that France, i^ ea f Egypt an in spite of her enthusiasm for him, was not yet ready to accept ^^ t ltlon t0 him as her ruler. He saw, too, that he would soon sacrifice his prestige if he lived quietly in Paris like an ordinary person. His active mind soon conceived a plan which would forward his in- terests. France was still at war with England, its most perse- vering enemy during this period. Bonaparte convinced the Directory that England could best be ruined in the long run by seizing Egypt and threatening her commerce through the Mediterranean, and perhaps ultimately her dominion in India. * The expedition to Egypt did not establish a new empire, but it led to the opening up of thousands of years of ancient history. A band of French scholars accompanied the army and started collecting the remains of monuments and tombs. In the picture the artist has imagined Napoleon by the cemetery at the Pyramids, watching the investigators at work. The tombs were covered with hieroglyphs which no one could read ; but in the spoil collected — and captured by Nelson so that it is now in the British Museum — was a stone with both Greek text and hieroglyphs, which a French scholar used, a few years later, as a key to unlock the literature of ancient Egypt. See Robinson and Breasted, Outlines of European History, Part I, chap. ii. 532 Medieval and Modern Times The cam- paign in Egypt, 1798-1799 Nelson destroys the French fleet Syrian campaign M E D I T E R R A N E A N 1^ SEA f^!^^^^ Bonaparte, fascinated by the career of Alexander the Great, pictured himself riding to India on the back of an elephant and dispossessing England of her most precious colonial de- pendencies. He had, however, still another, and a characteristic, reason for undertaking the expedition. France was on the eve of a new war with the European powers. Bonaparte foresaw that, if he could withdraw with him some of France's best offi- cers, the Directory might soon find itself so embarrassed that he could return as a national savior. And even so it fell out. The French fleet left Toulon May 19, 1798. It was so for- tunate as to escape the English squad- ron under Nelson, which sailed by it in the night. Bona- parte arrived at Alex- andria July 1, and easily defeated the Turkish troops in the famous battle of the Pyramids, near Cairo. Meanwhile Nelson, who did not know the destination of the enemy's fleet, had returned from the Syrian coast, where he had looked for the French in vain. He dis- covered Bonaparte's ships in the harbor of Alexandria and an- nihilated them in the first battle of the Nile (August 1, 1798). The French troops were now completely cut off from Europe. The Porte (that is, the Turkish government) declared war against France, and Bonaparte resolved to attack Turkey by land. He accordingly marched into Syria in the spring of 1799, but was repulsed at Acre, where the Turkish forces were aided by the English fleet. Pursued by pestilence, the army regained Cairo Egyptian Campaign Europe and Napoleon 533 in June, after terrible suffering and loss. It was still strong enough Bonaparte to annihilate a Turkish army that landed at Alexandria ; but J^ 1 e news now reached Bonaparte from Europe which convinced him E syP t and 1 A returns to that the time had come for him to hasten back. Northern Paris Italy, which he had won, was lost ; the allies were in arms again and were about to invade France, and the Directory was com- pletely demoralized. Bonaparte accordingly secretly deserted his army and managed, by a series of happy accidents, to reach France with a few of his best officers by October 9, 1799. The Directory, one of the most corrupt and inefficient gov- The coup ernmental bodies that the world has ever seen, had completely the*i8th disgraced itself. Bonaparte readily found others to join with Brumaire, him in a conspiracy to overthrow it. A plan was formed for 1799 abruptly destroying the old government and replacing it by a new one. This is a procedure so familiar in France during the past century that it is known even in English as a coup d'etat (literally translated, a " stroke of state "). The conspirators had a good many friends in the two assemblies, especially among the "Elders." 1 Nevertheless, Bonaparte had to order his sol- diers to invade the hall in which the Assembly of the Five Hun- dred was in session and scatter his opponents before he could accomplish his purpose. A chosen few were then reassembled under the presidency of Lucien Bonaparte, one of Napoleon's brothers, who was a member of the assembly. They voted to put the government in the hands of General Bonaparte and two others, to be called Consuls. These were to proceed, with the Bonaparte aid of a commission and of the " Elders," to draw up a new consuf irSt constitution. The new constitution was a very cumbrous and elaborate The consti- one. It provided for no less than four assemblies, one to pro- Ye^rVighT pose the laws, one to consider them, one to vote upon them, and one to decide on their constitutionality. But Bonaparte saw to it that as First Consul he himself had practically all the power in his own hands. 1 See above, p. 524. 534 Medieval and Modern Times The adminis- trative system insti- tuted by Napoleon The new government accepted by a plebiscite Bonaparte generally acceptable to France as First Consul In each department he put an officer called a prefect \ in each subdivision of the department a subprefed. These, together with the mayors and police commissioners of the towns, were all appointed by the First Consul. The prefects, " little First Con- suls," as Bonaparte called them, resembled the intendants — the king's officers under the old regime. Indeed, the new govern- ment suggested in several important respects that of Louis XIV. The new ruler objected as decidedly as Louis XIV had done to the idea of being controlled by the people, who, he believed, knew nothing of public affairs. It was enough, he thought, if they were allowed to say whether they wished a certain form of government or not. He therefore introduced what he called a plebiscite. The new constitution when completed was sub- mitted to the nation at large, and all were allowed to vote " yes " or " no " on the expediency of its adoption. Over three million voted in favor of it and only fifteen hundred and sixty-two against it. This did not necessarily- mean, however, that practically the whole nation wished to have General Bona- parte as its ruler. A great many may have . preferred what seemed to them an objectionable form of government to the risk of rejecting it. Herein lies the injustice of the plebiscite. There are many questions that cannot be answered by a simple " yes " or " no." Yet the accession of the popular young general to power was undoubtedly grateful to the majority of citizens, who longed above all for a stable government. The Swedish envoy wrote just after the coup tftfat : " A legitimate monarch has perhaps never found a people more ready to do his bidding than Bona- parte, and it would be inexcusable if this talented general did not take advantage of this to introduce a better form of government upon a firmer basis. It is literally true that France will perform impossibilities in order to aid him in this. The people (with the exception of a despicable horde of anarchists) are so sick and weary of revolutionary horrors and folly that they believe that any change cannot fail to be for the better. . . . Even the Europe and Napoleon 535 royalists, whatever their views may be, are sincerely devoted to Bonaparte, for they attribute to him the intention of gradually restoring the old order of things. The indifferent element cling to him as the one most likely to give France peace. The en- lightened republicans, although they tremble for their form of government, prefer to see a single man of talent possess himself of the power than a club of intriguers." Upon becoming First Consul, General Bonaparte found Necessity of renewing France at war with England, Russia, Austria, Turkey, arid the war Naples. These powers had formed a coalition in December, 1798, had defeated the armies that the Directory sent against them, and undone Bonaparte's work in Italy. It now devolved upon him to reestablish the prestige of France abroad, as well as to restore order and prosperity at home. Besides, he must keep himself before the people as a military hero if he wished to maintain his supremacy. How Bonaparte secured Peace in 1801 and REORGANIZED GERMANY 108. Early in the year 1800 Bonaparte began secretly to col- Napoleon lect an army near Dijon. This he proposed to direct against Alps and an Austrian army which was besieging the French in Genoa. ^Ttrian thG Instead of marching straight into Italy, as would have been most natural, the First Consul resolved to take the Austrian forces in the rear. Emulating Hannibal, he led his troops over the famous Alpine pass of the Great St. Bernard, dragging his cannon over in the trunks of trees which had been hollowed out for the purpose. He arrived safely in Milan on the second of June to the utter astonishment of the Austrians, who were taken completely by surprise. Bonaparte now moved westward and defeated the Austrians The battle of in the famous battle of Marengo (June 1 4), and added one more j U ne "^T'iSoo to the list of his great military successes. A truce was signed next day, and the Austrians retreated behind the Mincio River, 536 Medieval and Modern Times A general pacification, 1801 Two most important provisions of the treaties of 1801 Bonaparte sells Louisi- ana to the United States, 1803 Cession of the left bank of the Rhine to France and the results for Germany leaving Bonaparte to restore French influence in Lombardy The districts that he had "freed" had to support his army, and the reestablished Cisalpine republic was forced to pay a monthly tax of two million francs. A second victory gained by the French in December of the same year brought Austria to terms, and she agreed to con- clude a separate peace with the French Republic. This was the beginning of a general pacification. During the year 1801 treaties were signed with all the powers with which France had been at war, even with England, who had not laid down her arms since war was first declared in 1793. Among many merely transitory results of these treaties there were two provisions of momentous import. The first of these, Spain's cession of Louisiana to France in exchange for certain advantages in Italy, does not concern us here directly. When war again broke out, Bonaparte sold the district to the United States, and among the many transfers of territory that he made during his reign, none was more important than this. We must, however, treat with some detail the second of the great changes, which led to the complete reorganization of Germany and ultimately rendered possible the establishment of the later German Empire. In the treaty signed by Austria at Luneville in February, 1 80 1, the emperor agreed, on his own part and on the part of the Holy Roman Empire, that the French Republic should thereafter possess in full sovereignty the territories lying on the left bank of the Rhine which belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, and that thereafter the Rhine should form the boundary of France from the point where it left Switzerland to where it flowed into Dutch territory. As a natural consequence of this cession, various princes and states of the empire found them- selves dispossessed, either wholly or in part, of their lands. The empire bound itself to furnish the hereditary princes who had lost possessions on the left bank of the Rhine with " an in- demnity within the empire." Europe and Napoleon 537 This provision implied a veritable transformation of the old Seculariza- Holy Roman Empire, which, except for the development of church lands Prussia, was still in pretty much the same condition as in Luther's time. 1 There was no unoccupied land to give the dis- possessed princes ; but there were two classes of states in the empire that did not belong to hereditary princes ; namely, the ecclesiastical states and the free towns. As the churchmen, — archbishops, bishops, and abbots, — who ruled over the ecclesi- astical states, were forbidden by the rules of the Church to marry, they could of course have no lawful heirs. Should an ecclesiastical ruler be deprived of his realms, he might, there- fore, be indemnified by a pension for life, with no fear of any injustice to heirs, since there could be none. The transfer of the lands of an ecclesiastical prince to a lay, that is, hereditary, prince was called secularization. The towns, once so powerful and important, had lost their former .influence and seemed as much of an anomaly in the German Confederation as the ecclesiastical states. Reichsdeputationshauptschluss was the high-sounding German Decree of the name of the great decree issued by the imperial diet in 1803, re distribut- redistributing the territory so as to indemnify the hereditary * n g German princes dispossessed by the cession of the left bank of the Rhine 1803 to France. All the ecclesiastical states, except the electorate of Mayence, were turned over to lay rulers. Of the forty- eight imperial cities, only six were left. Three of these still Disappear- exist as republican members of the present German federa- imperial tion; namely, the Hanseatic towns — Hamburg, Bremen, and Clties Liibeck. Bavaria received the bishoprics of Wiirzburg, Bam- berg, Augsburg, Freising, and a number of the imperial cities. Baden received the bishoprics of Constance, Basel, Speyer, etc. The knights who had lost their possessions on the left bank Fate of the were not indemnified, and those on the right bank were nig deprived of their political rights within the next two or three years, by the several states within whose boundaries they lay. 1 See above, p. 280. 538 Medieval and Modern Times Importance of the ex- tinction of the smaller German states Extension of French territory French dependencies The final distribution was preceded by a bitter and undigni- fied scramble among the princes for additional bits of terri- tory. All turned to Paris for favors, since the First Consul, and not the German diet, was really the arbiter in the matter. Germany never sank to a lower degree of national degradation than at this period. But this amalgamation was, nevertheless, the beginning of her political regeneration ; for without the consolidation of the hundreds of practically independent little states into a few well-organized monarchies, such a union as the later German Empire would have been impossible, and the country must have remained indefinitely in its traditional impotency. Thus Germany owes to a French ruler, not to any of its emperors or to Prussia, the first measures which resulted in the German Empire ! The treaties of 1801 left France in possession of the Austrian Netherlands and the left bank of the Rhine, to which increase of territory Piedmont was soon added. Bonaparte found a further resource in the dependencies, which it was his consistent policy to create. Holland became the Batavian re- public, and, with the Italian (originally the Cisalpine) republic, came under French control and contributed money and troops for the forwarding of French interests. The constitution of Switzerland was improved in the interests of the First Consul and, incidentally, to the great advantage of the country itself. Bonaparte restores Order and Prosperity in France The demor- alized con- dition of France, and Bonaparte's reforms 109. The activity of the extraordinary man who. had placed himself at the head of the French republic was by no means confined to the important alterations of the map of Europe described in the previous chapter. He was indefatigable in carrying out a series of internal reforms, second only in impor- tance to those of the great Revolution of 1789. The Reign of Terror and the incompetence of the Directory's government Europe and Napoleon 539 had left France in a very bad plight. 1 Bonaparte's reorgani- zation of the government has already been noticed. The finances were in a terrible condition. These the First Consul adjusted with great skill, quickly restored the national credit, and established the Bank of France. He then set about settling the great problem of the non- The adjust- juring clergy, who were still under suspicion for refusing to ™ons with 6 & " sanction the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. 2 Under the slack S e P° pe f nd °- / the Church rule of the Directory persecution had ceased and priests were again officiating in thousands of parishes. Their churches were now formally given back to them. All imprisoned priests were now freed, on promising not to oppose the constitution. Their churches were given back to them, and the distinction between " nonjuring " and " constitutional " clergymen was obliterated. Sunday, which had been abolished by the repub- lican calendar, was once more observed, and all the revolu- tionary holidays, except July 14 — the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille — and the first day of the republican year, were done away with. A formal treaty with the Pope, the Concordat The Concor- of 1 80 1, was concluded, which revoked some of the provisions of the Civil Constitution, especially the election of the priests and bishops by the people, and recognized the Pope as the head of the Church. It is noteworthy, however, that Bonaparte did not restore to the Church its ancient possessions and that he reserved to himself the right to appoint the bishops, as the former kings had done. As for the emigrant nobles, Bonaparte decreed that no more The emigrant names should be added to the lists. The striking of names fitted to *~ from the list and the return of confiscated lands that had not return already been sold, he made favors to be granted by himself. Parents and relatives of emigrants were no longer to be 1 The roads were dilapidated and the harbors rilled with sand ; taxes were unpaid, robbery prevailed, and there was a general decay in industry. A manu- facturer in Paris who had employed from sixty to eighty workmen now had but ten. The lace, paper, and linen industries were as good as destroyed. 2 See above, p. 524. 54Q Medieval and Modern Times Old habits resumed The grateful reliance of the nation on Bonaparte The Code Napoleon regarded as incapable of holding public offices. In April, 1802, a general amnesty was issued, and no less than forty thousand families returned to France. There was a gradual reaction from the fantastic innovations of the Reign of Terror. The old titles of address, " Monsieur " and " Madame," were again used instead of the revolutionary "Citizen." Streets which had been rebaptized with republican names resumed their former ones. Old titles of nobility were revived, and something very like a royal court began to develop at the Palace of the Tuilleries ; for, except in name, Bonaparte was already a king, and his wife, Josephine, a queen. It had been clear for some years that the nation was weary of political agitation. How great a blessing after the anarchy of the past to put all responsibility upon one who showed himself capable of concluding a long war with unprecedented glory for France and of reestablishing order and the security of person and property, the necessary conditions for renewed prosperity ! How natural that the French should welcome a despotism to which they had been accustomed for centuries, after suffering as they had under nominally republican institutions ! One of the greatest and most permanent of Bonaparte's achievements still remains to be noted. The heterogeneous laws of the old regime had been much modified by the legislation of the successive assemblies. All this needed a final revision, and Bonaparte appointed a commission to undertake this great task. Their draft of the new code was discussed in the Council of State, and the First Consul had many suggestions to make. The resulting codification of the civil law — the Code Napoleon — is still used to-day, not only in France but also, with some modifications, in Rhenish Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and even in the state of Louisiana. The crim- inal and commercial law was also codified. These codes car- ried with them into foreign lands the principles of equality upon which they were based, and thus diffused the benefits of the Revolution beyond the borders of France. Europe and Napoleon 54 l Bonaparte was able gradually to modify the constitution so Napoleon that his power became more and more absolute. In 1802 he for life, 1802 ; was appointed consul for life and given the right to name his * n ^ em P eror > successor. Even this did not satisfy his insatiable ambition, which demanded that his actual power should be clothed with all the attributes and surroundings appropriate to an hereditary ruler. In May, 1804, he was accordingly given the title of " Emperor," and (in December) crowned, as the successor of Charlemagne, with great pomp in the cathedral of Notre Dame. He at once proceeded to establish a new nobility to take the place of that abolished by the first National Assembly in 1790. From this time on he became increasingly tyrannical and Napoleon's T .. ... * i 1 ci' 1 • • censorship of hostile to criticism. At the very beginning 01 his admmistra- the press tion he had suppressed a great part of the numerous political newspapers and forbidden the establishment of new ones. As emperor he showed himself still more exacting. His police furnished the news to the papers and carefully omitted all that might offend their suspicious master. He ordered the journals to " put in quarantine all news that might be dis- advantageous or disagreeable to France." His ideal was to suppress all newspapers but one, which should be used for official purposes. How Napoleon destroyed the Holy Roman Empire no, A great majority of the French undoubtedly longed for Napoleon on peace, but Napoleon's position made war a personal necessity f war f or 1 y for him. No one saw this more clearly than he. " If," he said to his Council of State in the summer of 1802, " the European states intend ever to renew the war, the sooner it comes the better. Every day the remembrance of their defeats grows dimmer and at the same time the prestige of our victories pales. . . . France needs glorious deeds, and hence war. She must be the first among the states, or she is lost. I shall put France 542 Medieval and Modern Times Napoleon dreams of becoming emperor of Europe Reasons for England's persistent opposition to Napoleon War between France and England renewed in 1803. Napo- leon insti- tutes a coast blockade up with peace as long as our neighbors can maintain it, but I shall regard it as an advantage if they force me to take up my arms again before they are rusted. ... In our position I shall look on each conclusion of peace as simply a short armistice, and I regard myself as destined during my term of office to fight almost without intermission." On another occasion, in 1804, Napoleon said, "There will be no rest in Europe until it is under a single chief — an emperor who shall have kings for officers, who shall distribute kingdoms to his lieutenants, and shall make this one king of Italy, that one of Bavaria; this one ruler of Switzerland, that one governor of Holland, each having an office of honor in the imperial household." This was the idqal that he now found himself in a situation to carry out with marvelous exactness. There were many reasons why the peace with England (con- cluded at Amiens in March, 1802) should be speedily broken, especially as the First Consul was not averse to a renewal of the war. The obvious intention of Napoleon to bring as much of Europe under his control as he could, and the imposition of high duties on English goods in those territories that he already controlled, filled commercial and industrial England with apprehension. The English people longed for peace, .but peace appeared only to offer an opportunity to the Corsican usurper to ruin England by a continuous war upon her com- merce. This was the secret of England's pertinacity. All the other European powers concluded peace with Napoleon at some time during his reign. England alone did. not lay down her arms a second time until the emperor of the French was a prisoner. War was renewed between England and France in 1803. Bonaparte promptly occupied Hanover, of which it will be re- membered that the English king was elector, 1 and declared the coast blockaded from Hanover to Otranto. Holland, Spain, Portugal, and the Ligurian republic — formerly the republic of 1 See above, p. 426. Europe and Napoleon 543 Genoa — were, by hook or by crook, induced to agree to fur- nish each their contingent of men or money to the French army and to exclude English ships from their ports. To cap the climax, England was alarmed by the appearance Napoleon of a French army at Boulogne, just across the Channel. A j nva d e great number of flatboats were collected, and troops trained to En § land embark and disembark. Apparently Napoleon harbored the firm purpose of invading the British Isles. Yet the transpor- tation of a large body of troops across the English Channel, trifling as is the distance, would have been very hazardous, and by many it was deemed downright impossible. No one knows whether Napoleon really expected to make the trial. It is quite possible that his main purpose in collecting an army at Boulogne was to have it in readiness for the continental war which he saw immediately ahead of him. He succeeded, at any rate, in terrifying England, who prepared to defend herself. The Tsar, Alexander I, had submitted a plan for the recon- Coalition of ciliation of France and England in August, 1803. The rejec- Austria tion of this and the evident intention of Napoleon to include England, and r Sweden the eastern coast of the Adriatic in his sphere of influence led Russia to join a new coalition which, by July, 1805, included Austria, Sweden, and, of course, England. Austria was espe- cially affected by the increase of Napoleon's power in Italy. He had been crowned king of Italy in May, 1805, had created Napoleon a little duchy in northern Italy for his sister, and had annexed ing ° a y the Ligurian republic to France. There were rumors, too, that he was planning to seize the Venetian territories which had been given to Austria. War was declared against Austria, August 23, and four days The war later the army at Boulogne was ordered eastward. One of the * ° 5 Austrian commanders exhibited the most startling incapacity in allowing himself to be shut up in Ulm, where he was forced to capitulate with all his troops (October 20). Napoleon then marched down the Danube with little opposition, and before the middle of November Vienna was in the possession of French 544 Medieval and Modern Times Occupation of troops. Napoleon thereupon led his forces north to meet the Battled allied armies of Austria and Russia; these he defeated on Austeriitz, December 2, in the terrible winter battle of Austerlitz. Russia December 2, ' 1805 then withdrew for a time and signed an armistice ; and Austria was obliged to submit to a humiliating peace, the Treaty of Pressburg. The Treaty By this treaty Austria recognized all Napoleon's changes in s urg Italy, and ceded to his kingdom of Italy that portion of the Venetian territory that she had received at Campo-Formio. Moreover, she ceded Tyrol to Bavaria, which was friendly to • . Napoleon, and other of her possessions to Wurttemberg and Baden, also friends of the French emperor. She further agreed to ratify the assumption, on the part of the rulers of Bavaria and Wurttemberg, of the titles of " King." Napoleon was now in a position still further to reorganize western Europe, with a view to establishing a great international federation of which he should be the head. The dissolu- Napoleon had no desire to unify Germany ; he merely wished H°oly°Roman to maintain a certain number of independent states, or groups of Empire, 1806 s t a tes, which he could conveniently control. He had provided, in the Treaty of Pressburg, that the newly created sovereigns should enjoy the " plentitude of sovereignty " and all the rights derived therefrom, precisely as did the rulers of Austria and Prussia. This treaty, by explicitly declaring several of the most impor- tant of the German states altogether independent of the emperor, rendered the further existence of the Holy Roman Empire impossible. The emperor, Francis II, accordingly abdicated, August 6, 1806. Thus the most imposing and enduring political office known to history was formally abolished. Francis II Francis II did not, however, lose his title of Emperor. tSe"©! 33 Shortly after the First Consul had received that title, Francis AusS? C " >r ° f a d°pted the formula " Emperor of Austria," to designate him as the ruler of all the possessions of his house. 1 Hitherto he had been officially known as King of Hungary, Bohemia, 1 Thus Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire became Francis I of Austria. Europe and Napoleon 545 Dalmatia, Croatia, (jalicia, and Laodomeria, Duke of Lorraine, Venice, Salzburg, etc., Grand Duke of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia, etc. Meanwhile Napoleon had organized a union of the southern The Confei German states, called the Confederation of the Rhine, and had t he Rhine assumed its headship as " Protector." This he had done, he »S %: Fig. 144. Francis I of Austria assured Europe, " in the dearest interests of his people and ©f his neighbors," adding the pious hope that the French armies had crossed the Rhine for the last time, and that the people of Germany would witness no longer, " except in the annals of the past, the horrible pictures of disorder, devastation, and slaughter that war invariably brings with it." In reality, however, Napo- leon was enlarging his empire by erecting dependent states east of the Rhine. Immediately after the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon pro- claimed that the king of Naples, who had allied himself with 54t> Medieval and Modern Times Prussia forced into war with France Napoleon's insolent behavior toward Prussia Campaign of Jena, 1806 the English, had ceased to reign, and French generals were ordered to occupy Naples. In March, «i8o6, he made his brother Joseph king of Naples and Sicily, his brother Louis king of Holland, and his brother-in-law, Murat, duke of Cleves and Berg. These states and those of his German allies consti- tuted what he called " the real French Empire." One of the most important of the continental states, it will have been noticed, had taken no part as yet in the opposition to the extension of Napoleon's power. Prussia, the first power to conclude peace with the new French Republic in 1795, had since that time maintained a strict neutrality. Had it yielded to Tsar Alexander's persuasions and joined the coalition in 1805, it might have turned the tide at Austerlitz, or at any rate have encouraged further resistance to the conqueror. The hesitation of Frederick William III cost him dear, for Napoleon now forced him into war at a time when he could look for no efficient as- sistance from Russia or the other powers. The immediate cause of the declaration of war was the disposal of Hanover. This electorate Frederick William had consented to hold provision- ally, pending its possible transfer to him should the English king give his assent. Prussia was anxious to get possession of Hanover because it lay just between her older possessions and the terri- tory which she had gained in the redistribution of 1803. 1 Napoleon, as usual, did not fail either to see or to use his advantage. His conduct toward Prussia was most insolent. After setting her at enmity with England and promising that she should have Hanover, he unblushingly offered to restore the electorate to George III. His insults now began to arouse the national spirit in Prussia, and the reluctant Frederick William was forced by the party in favor of war, which included his beautiful queen Louise and the great statesman Stein, to break with Napoleon. Her army was, however, as has been well said, " only that of Frederick the Great grown twenty years older"; one of 1 See above, p. 537, Europe and Napoleon 547 Frederick's generals, the aged duke of Bruns- wick, who had issued the famous manifesto in 1 792, 1 was its leader. A single defeat, near Jena (October 14, 1806), put Prussia completely in the hands of her enemy. This one disaster pro- duced complete demor- alization throughout the country. Fortresses were surrendered without re- sistance, and the king fled to the uttermost parts of his realm on the Russian boundary. Napoleon now led his army into Poland, where he spent the winter in operations against Rus- sia and her feeble Prus- sian ally. He closed an arduous campaign by a signal victory at Fried- land (June 14, 1807), which was followed by the treaties of Tilsit with Russia and Prussia (July 7 and 9). Prussia was thoroughly defeated. Frederick William III lost all his possessions 1 See above, p. 513. Fig. 145. Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square, London The English regard Nelson as the man who safeguarded their liberty by the victories of the fleet. Nelson was killed at Trafalgar and buried with great ceremony in the crypt of St. Paul's, under the very' center of the dome. Some years later, " Trafalgar Square " was laid out at the point where the street leading to the Parliament build- ings joins a chief business street — the Strand — and a gigantic column to Nelson erected, surmounted by a statue of the admiral. In the distance one can see the towers of the Parliament buildings 54 8 Medieval and Modern Times Treaty of Tilsit, 1807 The grand duchy of Warsaw and the kingdom of Westphalia The con- tinental blockade The Berlin decree and Napoleon's " paper " blockade to the west of the Elbe and all that Prussia had gained in the second and third partitions of Poland. The Polish territory Napoleon made into a new subject kingdom called the grand duchy of Warsaw, and chose his friend, the king of Saxony, as its ruler. Out of the western lands of Prussia, which he later united with Hanover, he created the kingdom of Westphalia for his brother Jerome. Russia, on the other hand, was treated with marked consideration. The Tsar finally consented to recognize all the sweeping territorial changes that Napoleon had made, and secretly agreed to enforce the blockade against England should that country refuse to make peace. Napoleon's most persevering enemy, England, still remained unconquered and inaccessible. Just as Napoleon was under- taking his successful campaign against Austria in 1805, Nelson had annihilated a second French fleet in the renowned naval engagement of Trafalgar, off the coast of Spain. It seemed more than ever necessary, therefore, to ruin England commer- cially and industrially, since there was obviously no likelihood of subduing it by arms. In, May, 1806, England had declared the coast from the Elbe to Brest to be blockaded. Napoleon replied to this with the Berlin decree (November 21, 1806), in which he proclaimed it a monstrous abuse of the right for England to declare great stretches of coast in a state of blockade which her whole fleet would be unable to enforce. He retaliated with a " paper " 1 blockade of the British Isles, which forbade all commerce with them. Letters or packages directed to England or to an Eng- lishman or written in the English language were not to be permitted to pass through the mails in the countries he con- trolled. Every English subject in countries occupied by French troops or in the territory of Napoleon's allies was to be regarded as a prisoner of war and his property as a lawful prize. All trade in English goods was forbidden. 1 That is, a blockade too extensive to be really carried out by the ships at the disposal of the power proclaiming it. Europe and Napoleon 549 A year later England established a similar paper blockade of Disastrous effects of the the ports of the French Empire and its allies, but permitted the blockades on ships of neutral powers to proceed, provided that they touched ^he^ted at an English port, secured a license from the English govern- States ment, and paid a heavy export duty. Napoleon promptly de- clared all ships that submitted to these humiliating regulations to be lawful prizes of French privateers. The ships of the United States were at this time the most numerous and important of the neutral carriers. The disastrous results of these restrictions led to the various embargo acts (the first of which was passed by Congress in December, 1807), and ultimately to the destruc- tion of the flourishing carrying trade of the United States. Napoleon tried to render Europe permanently independent of Napoleon's the colonial productions brought from English colonies and by '- ma ke 1 the English ships. He encouraged the substitution of chicory for dependent coffee, the cultivation of the sugar beet, and the discovery of new of English . ... colonial dyes to replace those coming from the tropics. But the distress products caused by the disturbance in trade produced great discontent, especially in Russia; it rendered the domination of Napoleon more and more distasteful, and finally contributed to his downfall. Napoleon at the Zenith of his Power (1808-18 12) in. France owed much to Napoleon, for he had restored Napoleon's order and guaranteed many of the beneficent achievements of F ran ce the Revolution of 1789. His boundless ambition was, it is true, sapping her strength by forcing younger and younger men into his armies in order to build up the vast international fed- eration of which he dreamed. But his victories and the com- manding position to which he had raised France could not but fill the nation with pride. He sought to gain popular approval by great public improve- Public works ments. He built marvelous roads across the Alps and along the Rhine, which still fill the traveler with admiration. He beautified Paris by opening up wide streets and quays and .550 Medieval and Modern Times The new nobility and the Legion of Honor building magnificent bridges and triumphal arches that kept fresh in the people's mind the recollection of his victories. By these means he gradu- ally converted a medieval town into the most beau- tiful of modern capitals. The whole educational system was reorganized and made as highly cen- tralized and as subser- vient to the aims of the emperor as any depart- ment of government. Na- poleon argued that one of the chief aims of educa- tion should be the forma- tion of loyal subjects who would be faithful to the emperor and his succes- sors. An imperial cate- chism was prepared, which not only inculcated loyalty to Napoleon but actually threatened with eternal perdition those who should fail in their obligations to him, including military service. 1 Napoleon created a new nobility, and he endeav- ored to assure the sup- port of distinguished individuals by making them members of the Legion of Honor which he founded. The " Princes " 1 See Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, p. 351 ; Readings in European History, Vol. II, p. 505. Fig. 146. Arch of Triumph Begun by Napoleon in 1806, this largest arch of triumph in the world was not completed until 1836. It is 160 feet high and stands on a slight hill, with streets radiating from all sides, so that it is known as the Arch of Triumph of the Star. It is therefore visible from all over the western part of the city. The monument recalls the days of the Roman Empire, upon which so many of the institutions and ideas of Republican and Napoleonic France were based Europe and Napoleon 551 whom he nominated received an annual income of two hundred thousand francs. The ministers of state, senators, members of his Council of State, and the archbishops received the title of "Count" and a revenue of thirty thousand francs, and so on. The army was not forgotten, for Napoleon felt that to be his chief support. The incomes of his marshals were enormous, and brave actions among the soldiers were rewarded with the decoration of the Legion of Honor. As time went on Napoleon's despotism grew more and more oppressive. No less than thirty-five hundred prisoners of state were arrested at his command, one because he hated Napoleon, another because in his letters he expressed sentiments adverse to the government, and so on. No grievance was too petty to attract the attention of the emperor's jealous eye. He ordered the title of a History of Bonaparte to be changed to the History of the Campaigns of Napoleon the Great} He forbade the performance of certain of Schiller's and Goethe's plays in German towns, as tending to arouse the patriotic discontent of the people with his rule; Up to this time Napoleon had had only the opposition of the several European rulers to overcome in the extension of his power. The people of the various states which he had con- quered showed an extraordinary indifference toward the political changes. It was clear, however, that as soon as the national spirit was once awakened, the highly artificial system created by the French emperor would collapse. His first serious reverse came from the people and from an unexpected quarter. 1 Napoleon was never content with his achievements or his glory. On the day of his coronation, December, 1806, he complained to his minister Decres that he had been born too late, that there was nothing great to be done any more. On his minister's remonstrating he added : " I admit that my career has been brilliant and that I have made a good record. But what a difference is there if we compare ours with ancient times. Take Alexander the Great, for example. After announcing himself the son of Jupiter, the' whole East, except his mother, Aristotle, and a few Athenian pedants, believed this to be true. But now, should I nowadays declare myself the son of the Eternal Father, there is n't a fishwife who would not hiss me. No, the nations are too sophisticated, there is nothing great any longer possible." Napoleon's despotism in France Napoleon's European power threat- ened by the growth of national opposition to him 552 Medieval and Modern Times Napoleon makes his brother Joseph king of Spain Napoleon decided, after Tilsit, that the Spanish peninsula must be brought more completely under his control. Portugal was too friendly to the English, and Spain, owing to serious dissensions in the royal family, seemed an easy prey. In the spring of 1808 Napoleon induced both the king and the crown prince of Spain to meet him at Bayonne. Here he was able to persuade or force both of them to surrender their rights to Fig. 147. The Duke of Wellington Revolt in Spain against the foreign ruler the throne ; on June 6 he appointed his brother Joseph king of Spain, making Murat king of Naples in his stead. Joseph entered Madrid in July, armed with excellent inten- tions and a new constitution. The general rebellion in favor of the crown prince which immediately broke out had an ele- ment of religious enthusiasm in it, for the monks stirred up the people against Napoleon, on the ground that he was oppress- ing the pope and depriving him of his dominions. One French army was captured at Baylen, and another capitulated to the English forces which had landed in Portugal. Before the end Europe and Napoleon 553 of July, Joseph and the French troops had been compelled to retreat behind the Ebro River. In November the French emperor himself led a magnificent Spain sub- army into Spain, two hundred thousand strong, in the best of y a condition and commanded by his ablest marshals. The Span- ish troops, perhaps one hundred thousand in number, were ill clad and inadequately equipped ; what was worse, they were overconfident in view of their late victory. They were of course defeated, and Madrid surrendered December 4. Napo- leon immediately abolished the Inquisition, the feudal dues, the internal customs lines, and two thirds of the cloisters. This is typical of the way in which the French Revolution went forth in arms to spread its principles throughout western Europe. The next month Napoleon was back in Paris, as he saw that The Penin- he had another war with Austria on his hands. He left Joseph on his insecure throne, after assuring the Spanish that God had given the French emperor the power and the will to overcome all obstacles. 1 He was soon to discover, however, that these very Spaniards could maintain a guerrilla warfare against which his best troops and most distinguished generals were powerless. The English army under the Duke of Wellington slowly but surely drove the French back over the Pyrenees. His ultimate downfall was in no small measure due to this Peninsular War. In April, 1809, Austria ventured to declare war once more War with on the " enemy of Europe," but this time she found no one to I gJ> s Q . n Battle aid her. The great battle of Wagram, near Vienna (July 5-6), of Wa s ram was not perhaps so unconditional a victory for the French as that of Austerlitz, but it forced Austria into just as humiliat- ing a peace as that of Pressburg. Austria's object had been 1 " It depends upon you alone," he said to the Spanish in his proclamation of December 7, " whether this moderate constitution that I offer you shall hence- forth be your law. Should all my efforts prove vain, and should you refuse to justify my confidence, then nothing remains for me but to treat you as a con- quered province and find a new throne for my brother. In that case I shall my- self assume the crown of Spain and teach the ill-disposed to respect that crown, for God has given me power and will to overcome all obstacles." 5 54 Medieval and Modern Times to destroy Napoleon's system of dependencies and " to restore to their rightful possessors all those lands belonging to them respectively before the Napoleonic usurpations." Instead of accomplishing this end, Austria was obliged to cede more terri- tory to Napoleon and his allies, and he went on adding to his dependencies. After incorporating into France the kingdom of Etruria and the papal dominions (1S0S-1S09), Napoleon Extension of was encouraged by his victory over Austria to annex Holland l ariesof an d the German districts to the north, including the Hanseatic France towns. Consequently, in 1S10 France stretched from the con- fines of Naples to the Baltic. One might travel from Liibeck to Rome without leaving Napoleon's realms. Napoleon was anxious to have an heir to whom he could transmit his vast dominions. As Josephine bore him no chil- dren, he decided to divorce her, and, after considering a Russian princess, he married the Archduchess Maria Louisa, the daughter of the Austrian emperor and a grandniece of Marie Antoinette. In this way the former Corsican adventurer gained admission to one of the oldest and proudest of reigning families, the Hapsburgs. His new wife soon bore him a son, who was styled King of Rome. The Fall of Napoleon Relations between Napoleon and Alex- ander I of Russia 112. Among the continental states Russia alone was entirely out of Napoleon's control. There were plenty of causes for misunderstanding between the ardent young Tsar Alexander I and Napoleon. Up to this time the agreement of Tilsit had been maintained. Napoleon was, however, secretly opposing Alexander's plans for adding the Danubian provinces and Finland to his possessions. Then the possibility of Napoleon's Poland as a national kingdom which reestablishing might 1 Louis Bonaparte, the father of Napoleon II I, and the most conscientious of the Bonaparte family, had been so harassed by his imperial brother that he had abdicated as king of Holland. Europe and Napoleon 555 threaten Russia's interests was a constant source of appre- hension to Alexander. By 1812 Napoleon believed himself to be in a condition to subdue this doubtful friend, who might at any moment become a dangerous enemy. Against the advice of his more far-sighted counselors, the emperor col- lected on the Russian frontier a vast army of four hundred Fig. 148. Music Room in the Palace of Compiegne Napoleon used the various palaces erected by the previous rulers of France. That at Compiegne, 50 miles from Paris, was built by Louis XV. The smaller harp was made, it is said, for Napoleon's heir, " The King of Rome," as his father called him. The boy was but three years old, however, when Napoleon abdicated in 1814, and was carried off to Austria by his Austrian mother, Maria Louise. He was known by the Bonapartists as Napoleon II, but never ruled over France thousand men, composed to a great extent of young con- scripts and the contingents furnished by his allies. The story of the fearful Russian campaign which followed Napoleon's cannot be told here in detail. Napoleon had planned to take Ru^si^iVi" three years to conquer Russia, but he was forced on by the necessity of gaining at least one signal victory before he closed the season's campaign. The Russians simply retreated and led him far within a hostile and devastated country before they 556 Medieval and Modern Times Napoleon collects a new army Social condi- tions in Prussia before 1806 offered battle at Borodino (September 7). Napoleon won the battle, but his army was reduced to something over one hundred thousand men when he entered Moscow a week later. The town had been set on fire by the Russians before his arrival ; he found his position untenable and had to retreat as winter came on. The cold, the want of food, and the harassing attacks of the people along the route made that retreat the most signal military tragedy on record. Napoleon regained Poland early in December with scarcely twenty thou- sand of the four hundred thousand with which he had started less than six months before. Napoleon hastened back to Paris, where he freely misrepre- sented the true state of affairs, even declaring that the army was in a good condition up to the time that he turned it over to Murat in December. While the loss of men in the Russian campaign was enormous, just those few had naturally survived who would be most essential in the formation of a new army ; namely, the officers. With their help, Napoleon soon had a force of no less than six hundred thousand men with which to return to the attack. This contained one hundred and fifty thou- sand conscripts who should not have been called into service until 18 1 4, besides older men who had been hitherto exempted. By the end of February, 18 13, the timid Frederick William had been induced by public sentiment in Prussia to break with his oppressor and join Russia. On March 17, he issued a fam- ous address " To my People," in which he called upon them to assist him in the recovery of Prussian independence. Up to the defeat of Jena, Prussia was far more backward in its social organization than France had been before 1789. The agricul- tural classes were serfs, who were bound to the land and com- pelled to work a certain part of each week for the lord without remuneration. 1 The population was divided into strict social castes. Moreover, no noble could buy citizen or peasant land ; no citizen, noble or peasant land ; no peasant, noble or citizen land. 1 See above, p. 442. 15" Longitui: Westl* irom Greer.--.'-, j AT THE TIME OF NAPOLEONS GREATEST POWER ABOUT 1810 SCALE OF MILES 50 100 200 ^Empire of France 3 Dependencies »a7 a | la «c a G Sju 'vnl T\a iji<$~ }J?: s D l So SS3 f 0i 'to sa ^eloua coi Ajacci O ^ K [ale llt-!;- ^do,,, *&i "5M* AJU ants BALEA Q X> oh S|I i J/ JS H r a «ad a Ca rtcn %^ eiia Hfcr ■uta t e n 8 E *h a r(« "S'Hs/i) le East 10° from Greenwich 16° Europe and Napoleon 557 The overwhelming defeat of the Prussian army at Jena and Prussia the provisions of the Treaty of Tilsit, which reduced Prussia to undertake territorial insignificance, forced the leaders of that old-fashioned reforms country to consider whether its weakness was not partly due to its medieval institutions. Neither the king nor his usual advisers were ready for thoroughgoing reform, but there were some more progressive spirits, among whom Baron vom Stein and Prince Hardenberg were conspicuous, who induced the government to alter the old system. The first step was taken in October, 1807, when a royal Serfdom decree was issued which declared its purpose to be nothing I s 07 ' less than " to remove every obstacle that has hitherto prevented the individual from attaining such a degree of prosperity as he is capable of reaching." Serfdom was abolished, and the old class system done away with, so that any one, regardless of social rank, was legally free to purchase and hold landed property, no matter to whom it had formerly belonged. It is important to note that while serfs had practically dis- Continued appeared in England and France hundreds of years earlier, it p ru ssia of was not until the opening of the nineteenth century, and then ^J ^^ under the stress of dire calamity, that Prussia sufficiently mod- ernized herself to abolish the medieval manor and free the peasants until then bound to the soil and sold with it. But the manorial lords, the so-called Junkers, remained rich and influ- ential, and have continued down to this day, with their ancient notions of kingship by the grace of God and military prowess, to exercise a fatal influence on the Prussian government. More- over, the mass of the Prussian people seem to retain something of their old servile attitude toward their masters. The old army of Frederick the Great had been completely Origin of discredited, and a few days after the signing of the Treaty of Prussian Tilsit, a commission for military reorganization was appointed. army The object of the reformers was to introduce universal military service. Napoleon permitted Prussia to maintain only a small force of not more than forty-two thousand men, but the 558 Medieval and Modern Times Fichte's addresses, 1S07-1S0S Fatal effects of the teach- ing of Fichte and other German writers reformers arranged that this army should be continually recruited by new men, while those who had had some training should retire and form a reserve. In this way, in spite of Napoleon's restrictions on the size of the regular Prussian army, there were before long as many as a hundred and fifty thousand men sufficiently trained to fight when the opportunity should come. This system was later adopted by other European states and was the basis of the great armies of the Continent at the outbreak of the Great War in 19 14. While serfdom and the old system of social classes were being abolished in Prussia, attempts were being made to rouse the national spirit of the Germans and prepare them to fight against their French conquerors. A leader in this movement was the well-known philosopher Fichte. He arranged a course of public ■ addresses in Berlin, just after the defeat at Jena, in which he laid the foundation for the modern German arrogance from which the world has suffered so much. He told his auditors, with impressive warmth and eloquence, that the Germans were the one really superior people in the whole world. All other nations were degraded and had, he was confident, seen their best days ; but the future belonged to the Germans, who would in due time, owing to their supreme natural gifts, come into their own and be recognized as the leaders of the world. The German language was, he claimed, infinitely stronger than the feeble speech of the French and Italians, borrowed from ancient Latin. Unhappily, later German writers, as we shall see, have followed Fichte's lead in cultivating the Germans' self-esteem and their contempt for every other race. Napoleon had to face now not only the kings and the cabinets of Europe and the regular armies that they directed but a people who were being organized to defend their country. The campaign which followed is known in Prussia as the War of Liberation. His soldiers were, however, still triumphant for a time. He met with no successful opposition, and on May 14, 18 13, he occupied Dresden in the territory of his faithful ally, the king Europe and Napoleon 559 of Saxony. This he held during the summer, and inflicted Battle of several defeats upon the allies, who had been joined by Aus- ber^-io tria in August. He gained his last great victory, the battle l813 of Dresden, August 26-27. Finding that the allied armies of the Russians, Prussians, and Austrians, which had at last learned the necessity of cooperating against their powerful common enemy, were preparing to cut him off from France, he retreated early in October and was totally defeated in the +- £ s Fig. 149. The Abdication of Napoleon — the Document in his own Handwriting 1 tremendous " Battle of the Nations," as it has since been called, in the environs of Leipzig (October 16-19). As the defeated emperor crossed the Rhine with the rem- nants of his army, the whole fabric of his political edifice in 1 The document reads as follows : " Les puissances alliees ayant proclame que l'Empereur Napoleon etait le seul obstacle au retablissement de la paix en Europe, l'Empereur, fidele a son serment, declare qu'il renonce, pour lui et pour ses successeurs, aux tr&nes de France et d'ltalie, et qu'il, fidele a son serment, n'est aucun sacrifice personnel, meme celui de la vie, qu'il ne soit pret a faire aux interets de la France." " The allied powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the reestablishment of peace in Europe, the Emperor, faithful to his oath, proclaims that he renounces, for himself and his successors, the thrones of France and of Italy, and that, faithful to his oath, there is no personal sacrifice, even that of life, that he is not ready to make for the interests of France." 56o Medieval and Modem Times Germany, Holland, and Spain throw off the Napo- leonic yoke Germany and Holland collapsed. The members of the Con- federation of the Rhine joined the allies. Jerome Bonaparte fled from his kingdom of Westphalia, and the Dutch drove the French officials from Holland. During the year 1813 Occupation of Paris by the allies, March 31, 1814 Fig. 150. The Return of Napoleon from Elba Napoleon landed almost alone in France, but had a triumphal march to Paris. The old soldiers of the armies of the empire responded to his call, and even those sent against him yielded to the spell of his person- ality and joined his small but growing army. Louis XVIII fled from Paris and took refuge with the allies, until Waterloo ended this last great adventure of Napoleon, one hundred days later. The period is often known as " The Hundred Days " the Spanish, with the aid of the English under Wellington, had practically cleared their country of the French intruders. In spite of these disasters, Napoleon refused the propositions of peace made on condition that he would content himself henceforth with his dominion over France. The allies conse- quently marched into France, and the almost superhuman Europe and Napoleon 561 activity of the hard-pressed emperor could not prevent their Napoleon occupation of Paris (March 31, 18 14). Napoleon was forced to abdicate, and the allies, in seeming derision, granted him full sover- eignty over the tiny island of Elba and per- mitted him to retain his imperial title. In reality he was a prisoner on his island kingdom, and the Bourbons reigned again in France. Within a year, en- couraged by the dissen- sions of the allies and the unpopularity of the Bourbons, he made his escape, landed in France (March 1, 18 15), and was received with en- thusiasm by a portion of the army. Yet France as a whole was indif- ferent, if not hostile, to his attempt to reestab- lish his power. Cer- tainly no one could place confidence in his talk of peace and liberty. More- over, whatever disagree- ment there might be among the allies on other matters, there Return of was perfect unanimity in their attitude toward " the enemy and ap ° Fig. 151. Tomb of Napoleon Napoleon died at Saint Helena in 1821. The body was brought to Paris in 1840 and placed with great military splendor in this sarcophagus of reddish-brown gran- ite, which was hewn in Finland as a solid block, weighing 67 tons. Around it in the pavement are inscribed the names of Napoleon's greatest victories, while some 60 captured banners stand beside colos- sal statues of victory. The whole tomb is under the gilded dome of the church of the old soldiers' hospital, known as the Invalides, which rises 161 feet above it 1 1 The interior of General Grant's tomb in New York was obviously suggested by that of Napoleon. 5°- Jfc\ lit 'vd I and Modern 7 im t s Battle of Waterloo, June, 1S15. Exile to Saint Helena destroyer of the world's peace." They solemnly proclaimed him an outlaw and devoted him to public vengeance. Upon learning that English troops under Wellington, the hero of the Peninsular War, and a Prussian army under Bliicher, the hero of the War of Liberation, had arrived in the Netherlands, Napoleon decided to attack them with such troops as he could collect. In the first engagements he defeated and drove back the Prussians. Wellington then took his station south of Brus- sels, at Waterloo. Napoleon advanced against him (June 18, 1S15) but was unable to defeat the English and was finally routed when Bliicher's Prussians arrived to aid Wellington. Thus Napoleon lost the most memorable of modern battles. Yet, even if he had not been defeated at Waterloo, he could not long have opposed the vast armies which were being con- centrated to overthrow him. This time he was banished to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he could only brood over the past and prepare his Memoirs, in which he carefully strove to justify his career of ambition. QUESTIONS Section 106. Tell something of the early life of Napoleon Bonaparte. What powers were at war with France when Bonaparte took command of the Italian army? With what success did Bona- parte meet in Italy? Describe Bonaparte's character. W T hat were the chief sources of his power? Section 107. What were Bonaparte's motives in going to Egypt? Describe the Egyptian and Syrian expeditions. How did Bonaparte become First Consul? What is the origin of the word "consul"? Why was Bonaparte popular? What were his first measures? Section 108. Describe Bonaparte's second expedition to Italy and its results. How did Louisiana come into the hands of the United States? Describe the general nature of the Holy Roman Empire. Had the emperors tried in previous centuries to strengthen Germany? What were the circumstances that led to the consolida- tion of Germany in 1 803 ? What is meant by " secularization " ? Give some examples. Europe and Napoleon 563 Section 109. How did Bonaparte adjust the relations of France to the Church ? What did he do about the runaway nobles ? What was the Code Napoleonl Why did Bonaparte want to be called Napoleon I? Why do despotic monarchs dislike a free press? Section iio. Why did Napoleon believe that he would be con- stantly involved in war? What was the extent of French territory when war was renewed in 1 803 ? What were the sources of Napoleon's dislike for England? Describe the final dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. How did Prussia become involved in war with France in 1806, and what were the results? What was the con- tinental blockade? How did Napoleon hope to make the Continent independent of English commerce? Section hi. What did Napoleon do for Paris? What were Napoleon's ideas of education? Do you know of any modern state that has similar views? What was the result of Napoleon's attempt to add Spain to his empire? How were the French boundaries ex- tended after the war with Austria in 1809? Why did Napoleon marry an Austrian princess? Section i i 2. Why did Napoleon undertake his Russian expedi- tion? What reforms were carried through in Prussia as a result of her defeat by Napoleon? Tell something of the campaign of 18 13. Why is the battle of Leipzig called the " Battle of the Nations " ? What was the end of Napoleon's career in Europe? What does Europe owe to Napoleon ? CHAPTER XXVI EUROPE AFTER THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA Reconstruction of Europe by the Congress of Vienna Problem of the recon- struction of Europe after Napo- leon's fall Provisions of the Congress of Vienna in regard to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany 113. There is no more important chapter in the political his- tory of Europe than the reconstruction of the map after Napo- leon's abdication. The allies immediately reinstated the Bourbon dynasty on the throne of France in the person of Louis XVI 's younger brother, the count of Provence, who became Louis XVIII. 1 They first restricted France to the boundaries that she had had at the beginning of 1792, but later deprived her of Savoy as a punishment for yielding to the domination of Napo- leon after his return from Elba. A great congress of the Euro- pean powers was summoned to meet at Vienna, where the allies proposed to settle all those difficult problems that faced them. They had no idea of reestablishing things just as they were be- fore the Napoleonic cataclysm, for the simple reason that Austria, Russia, and Prussia all had schemes for their own advantage that precluded so simple an arrangement. The Congress of Vienna began its sessions November 1,1814. The allies quickly agreed that Holland should become an hereditary kingdom under the house of Orange, which had long played so conspicuous a role in the nominal republic. In order that Holland might be the better able to check any new encroachments on the part of France, she was given the former Austrian Netherlands. Switzerland was declared independent, 1 The son of Louis XVI had been imprisoned and maltreated by the terrorists. He died while still a boy in 1795, but nevertheless takes his place in the line of French kings as Louis XVII. 5^4 Europe after the Congress of Vienna 565 as were all the small Italian states which had existed prior to the changes made by Napoleon, except the ancient re- publics of Venice and Genoa, neither of which was restored. Genoa was given to the king of Sardinia ; Venetia to Austria, as an indemnity for her losses in the Netherlands. Austria also received back her former territory of Milan, and became, by reason of her control of northern Italy, a powerful factor in de- termining the policy of the whole Italian peninsula. As to Ger- many, no one desired to undo the great work of 1803 and restore the old anarchy. The former members of the Rhine Confed- eration were bent upon maintaining the " sovereignty " which Napoleon had secured for them ; consequently the allies deter- mined that the several states of Germany should be independent, but " united in a federal union." , So far all was tolerably harmonious. Nevertheless, serious Dispute over differences of opinion developed at the congress, which nearly the P PoHsh brought on war among the allies themselves, and encouraged territory and Napoleon's return from Elba. These concerned the disposi- the kingdom tion of the Polish territory that Napoleon had converted into the grand duchy of Warsaw. Prussia and Russia were agreed that the best way would be to let the Tsar make a separate state of this territory, and unite it in a personal union with his Rus- sian realms, Prussia was then to be indemnified for her losses in the East by annexing the lands of the king of Saxony, who, it was argued, merited this retribution for remaining faithful to Napoleon after the other members of the Confederation of the Rhine had repudiated him. Austria and England, on the other hand, were bitterly Sagacity of opposed to this arrangement. They approved neither of dis- a eyKm possessing the king of Saxony nor of extending the Tsar's influ- ence westward by giving him Poland. The great diplomatist, Talleyrand, who represented Lv uis XVIII at the congress, now saw his chance, The allies had resolved to treat France as a black sheep and permit the other four great powers to arrange matters to suit themselves. But they were now hopelessly at 566 Medieval and Modern Times The com- promise Changes in the map of Europe since 1815 odds, and Austria and England found France a welcome ally in their opposition to the northern powers. So in this way France, which had stood apart for the last quarter of a century, was received back into the family of nations. A compromise was at last reached. The Tsar, Alexander, was allowed to create a kingdom of Poland out of the grand duchy of Warsaw, but only half of the possessions of the king of Saxony were ceded to Prussia. As a further in- demnity, Frederick William III was given certain districts on the west bank of the Rhine which had previously belonged to ecclesiastical and petty lay princes before the Treaty of Luneville. The great importance of this arrangement we shall see later when we come to trace the development of the German Empire. If one compares the map of Europe in 18 15 with that a hundred years later, in 1915, 1 he will be struck with the follow- ing differences. In 18 15 there was no German Empire, and Prussia was a much smaller and less compact state than now. It had evidently grown at the expense of its neighbors, as sev- eral of the lesser German states of 18 15 do not appear on the later map. It will be noted that Germany in 19 15 did not in- clude any part of the Austrian countries, as did the Confedera- tion of 18 1 5, and that, on the other hand, it did include all of Prussia. The kingdom of Poland had become an integral part of the Russian dominions. Austria, excluded from the German union, had entered into a dual union with Hungary. There was no kingdom of Italy in 18 15. By 19 15 Austria had lost all hold on Lombardy and Venetia ; and all the little states reestablished by the Congress of Vienna, including the Papal States, had disappeared. A new kingdom, Belgium, was created out of the old Austrian Netherlands which the Congress gave to the king of Holland. France, now a republic again, had recovered Savoy, but had lost all her possessions on the Rhine by the forced cession of Alsace and Lorraine to the German 1 Compare the accompanying map with that below, p. 734. 568 Medieval and Modern Times France, 18 14-1830 The restora- 114. The French had aroused themselves in 1 793-1 794 Bourbons in to repel the foreign powers, Austria and Prussia, who threat- ened to intervene in the domestic concerns of the country and to reestablish the old regime. Twenty years later, in 1 8 1 4, when the allies entered Paris, there was no danger either of a popular uprising or of the reestablishment of the old abuses. It is true that the Bourbon line of kings was restored ; but France had always been monarchical at heart. It was only the ill-advised conduct of Louis XVI in the peculiar circumstances of 1791-1792 that had led to his deposition and the establish- ment of a republic, which Napoleon had easily converted into Policy of a monarchy. The new king, Louis XVIII, left intact the won- 1814-1824 ' derful administrative system of Napoleon and made no effort to destroy the great achievements of the Revolution. He granted the nation a constitution called the Charter, 1 which was in force, slightly changed in 1830, until 1848. The Charter The Charter of 1 8 1 4 furnishes us with a statement of the permanent results of the Revolution. The concessions that Louis XVIII found it expedient to make, " in view of the expectations of enlightened Europe," help us to measure the distance that separates his time from that of Louis XVI. All Frenchmen are declared by the Charter to be equal before the law, and equally eligible to civil and military posi- tions. Personal and religious liberty is insured, and all citi- zens, without distinction of rank, are required to contribute to the taxes in proportion to their means. In short, almost all the great reforms proclaimed by the first Declaration of the Rights of Man are guaranteed. The laws are to be made by the king in cooperation with a parliament, consisting of a House of Peers and of a Chamber of Deputies elected by the nation; the latter may impeach the king's ministers. 1 So called to indicate that it was a gift from the king to the nation, thus em- phasizing the royalist claim that the king, not the nation, was the source of law. o '4- Nicotfolis Sis\ova ^ S'_ ^levnalu /0^33 ■- Pass Bourgas^ K.azanlik J o 24" 28" Europe after the Congress of Vienna 569 In spite of these enlightened provisions, attempts were made by the old emigrant nobles — still led by their original leader, the king's brother, the count of Artois — and by the clergy to further a reaction in France. This party induced the French parliament to pass certain oppressive measures, and, as we shall see, persuaded Louis XVIII to cooperate with the other reactionary rulers in interfering to quell the revo- lutionary movements in Italy and Spain. In 1824 Louis XVIII died and was succeeded by the count of Artois, who took the title of Charles X. Under his rule the reactionary policy of the government naturally became more pronounced. A bill was passed voting the nobility a large sum of money for the property they had lost during the Revolution. Then, by royal decrees, a close censorship of the press was established, the suffrage was limited to a small, wealthy class and only the king was to initiate laws. These un- just and tyrannical measures led to the dethronement of the unpopular king by a revolution in Paris in 1830. Louis Philippe, the descendant of Henry IV through the younger, or Orleans, branch of the Bourbon family, was put upon the throne. 1 Policy of the reactionary party in France Charles X deposed in 1830 and replaced by Louis Philippe 1 The Last Bourbon Kings Henry IV Louis XIII (d. 1643) Louis XIV (d. 1 7 15) Louis XV (d. 1774), great-grandson of Louis XIV Louis the Dauphin (d. 1765) Louis XVI (d- *793) Louis XVII (d. 1795) Louis XVIII (d. 1824), Count of Provence Philip, Duke of Orleans Charles X (deposed 1830), Count of Artois Louis Philippe I (great-great-grandson of Philip), deposed 1848 57° Medieval and Modern Times Germany and Metternich Three chief 115. The chief effects of the Napoleonic occupation of Napoleon's Germany were three in number. First, the consolidation of influence m territory that followed the cession of the west bank of the Germany J Rhine to France had, as has been explained, done away with the ecclesiastical states, the territories of knights, and most of Disappear- the free towns. Only thirty-eight German states, including four of the little" towns,- were left when the Congress of Vienna took up the states question of forming a confederation to replace the defunct Holy Roman Empire. Advanta- Second, the external and internal conditions of Prussia had of Prussia been so changed as to open the way for it to replace Austria as the controlling power in Germany. A great part of the Slavic possessions gained in the last two partitions of Poland had been lost, but as an indemnity Prussia had received half of the kingdom of Saxony, in the very center of Germany, and also the Rhine provinces. Prussia now embraced all the various types of people included in the German nation and was com- paratively free from the presence of non-German races. In this respect it offered a marked contrast to the mixture of races of its great rival, Austria. The internal changes were no less remarkable. The reforms carried out after Jena by the distinguished minister Stein and his successor, Hardenberg, had done for Prussia somewhat the same that the first National Assembly had done for France. The abolition of the feudal social castes and the liberation of the serfs made the economic development of the country possible. The reorganization of the whole military system prepared the way for Prussia's great victories in 1866 and 1870, which led to the formation of a new German empire under her headship. Demand for Third, the agitations of the Napoleonic Period had aroused government the national spirit. The appeal to the people to aid in freeing their country from foreign oppression, and the idea that they should have a government based upon a written Europe after the Congress of Vienna 571 constitution in which they could participate, had produced wide- spread discontent with the old absolute monarchy. When the form of union for the German states came up The German for discussion at the Congress of Vienna, two different plans t ion of 1815 were advocated. Prussia's representatives submitted a scheme for a firm union, in which the central government should con- trol the individual states in all matters of general interest. This idea was successfully opposed by Austria, supported by the other German rulers. Austria realized that her possessions, as a whole, could never be included in any real German union, for even in the western portion of her territory there were many Slavs, while in Hungary and the southern provinces there were practically no Germans at all. On the other hand, she felt that she might be the leader in a very loose union in which all the members should be left practically independent. Her ideal of an international union of sovereign princes under her own headship was almost completely realized in the constitution adopted. The confederation was not a union of the various countries Character of involved, but of "The Sovereign Princes and Free Towns of constitution Germany," including the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia for such of their possessions as were formerly included in the German empire ; the king of Denmark for Holstein ; and the king of the Netherlands for the grand duchy of Luxembourg. The union thus included two sover- eigns who were out-and-out foreigners, and did not include all the possessions of its two most important members. 1 The diet which met at Frankfort was composed (as was per- fectly logical), not of representatives of the people, but of the rulers who were members of the confederation. The mem- bers reserved to themselves the right of forming alliances of all kinds, but pledged themselves to make no agreement prejudicial to the safety of the union or of any of its members, or to make 1 Observe the boundary of the German Confederation as indicated on the map, p. 568. 57 2 Medieval and Modern Times war upon any member of the confederation on any pretense whatsoever. The constitution could not be amended without the approval of all the governments concerned. In spite of its obvious weaknesses, the confederation of 1 8 1 5 lasted for a half a century, until Prussia finally expelled Austria from the union by arms and incorporated the rest of Germany in the German Empire. Disappoint- The liberals in Germany were sadly disappointed that the liberals Congress of Vienna had failed to weld Germany into a modern national state ; they were also troubled because the king of Prussia broke his promise to give Prussia a constitution. But Frederick William III was a weak person and had lived through such a period of revolutionary disorder that he was quite willing to listen to the advice of the Austrian chief minister Metter- nich, who hated progress in any form and who had become the leader of those who fought all tendencies toward democracy and constitutional government. The Karlsbad A series of laws, the Karlsbad Resolutions, 1 were passed by the German diet, at Metternich's instigation, with the aim of suppressing all revolutionary talk in Germany. The professors and students were to be watched lest they might be " prop- agating harmful doctrines hostile to the public order or sub- versive of existing governmental institutions." Moreover, no newspaper, magazine, or pamphlet was to go to press without the previous approval of government officials, who were to determine whether it contained anything tending to foster discontent with the government. Liberal The attack upon the freedom of the press, and especially the Germany interference with the liberty of teaching in the larger institutions suppresse £ i earn j [ri g j w hich were already beginning to pride themselves on their scholarship and science, scandalized such progressive spirits as Germany possessed. Yet no successful protest was raised, and 1 So called because Metternich and his sympathizers drafted them at that famous watering place. The immediate occasion was the murder, by a student, of the man held to be responsible for turning the Tsar from liberal ideas. Europe after the Congress of Vienna 573 Germany as a whole acquiesced for a generation in Metternich's system of discouraging reform of all kinds. Nevertheless, important progress was made in southern The southern Germany. As early as 1818 the king of Bavaria granted his states receive people a constitution in which he stated their rights and C 3 n g! 1 ] t s2 lonS, admitted them to a share in the government by establishing NOR T H SWITZERLAND Scale of Miles 50 100 160 The Union in 1834 pp] Later additions The German Customs Union a parliament. His example was followed within two years by the rulers of Baden, Wurttemberg, and Hesse. Another change of importance was the gradual formation of Formation a customs union, which permitted goods to be sent freely from uniorTwith" 8 one German state to another without the payment of duties at ? ru ^ sia at its each boundary line. This yielded some of the advantages of a political union. This economic union, of which Prussia was the head, and from which Austria was excluded, was a harbinger of the later German Empire. 574 Medieval and Modern Times Metternich opposes revo- lutionary movements in Italy Italy only " a geograph- ical expres- sion " in 1820 Reforms introduced in Italy during the Napoleonic occupation Revolutionary Tendencies in Italy, 1 820-1 848 116. Metternich had met with signal success in his efforts to keep Germany at a standstill. When, in 1820, the kings of Spain and Naples were compelled by popular uprisings to accept constitutions and so surrender their ancient right to rule their subjects despotically, it was but natural that Metternich should urge the European powers to unite for the purpose of suppressing such manifestations. He urged that revolts of this kind set a dangerous example and threatened the tranquillity and security of all the other absolute monarchs. Italy was at this time what Metternich called only " a geographical expression " ,• it had no political unity whatever. Lombardy and Venetia, in the northern part, were in the hands of Austria, and Parma, Modena, and Tuscany belonged to members of the Austrian family. In the south, the con- siderable kingdom of the Two Sicilies was ruled over by a branch of the Spanish Bourbons. In the center, cutting the peninsula in twain, were the Papal States, which extended north to the Po. The presence of Austria, and the apparent impossibility of inducing the pope to submit to any govern- ment but his own, seemed to preclude all hope of making Italy into a true nation. Yet fifty years later the kingdom of Italy, as it now appears on the map of Europe, came into existence through the final exclusion of Austria from the peninsula and the extinction of the political power of the pope. Although Napoleon had governed Italy despotically he had introduced a great many important reforms. He had estab- lished political equality and an orderly administration, and had forwarded public improvements ; the vestiges of the feudal regime had vanished at his approach. Moreover, he had held out the hope of a united Italy, from which the foreign powers who had plagued and distracted her for centuries should be banished. But his unscrupulous use of Italy to advance his personal ambitions disappointed those who at first had placed Europe after the Congress of Vienna 575 their hopes in him, and they came to look for his downfall as eagerly as did the nobility and the dispossessed clergy, whose hopes were centered in Austria. It became clear to the more, thoughtful Italians that Italy must look to herself and her own resources if she were ever to become an independent .European state. The downfall of Napoleon left Italy seemingly in a worse Reaction in state than that in which he had found it. The hold of Austria N^poieoSs was strengthened by her acquisition of Venice. The petty downfall despots of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany, reseated on their thrones by the Congress of Vienna, hastened to sweep away the reforms of the Corsican and to reestablish all the abuses of the old regime, now doubly conspicuous and obnoxious by reason of their temporary abolition. The lesser Italian princes, moreover, showed themselves to be heartily in sympathy with. the hated Austria. Popular discontent spread throughout the peninsula and led to the formation of numerous secret societies, which assumed strange names, practiced mysterious rites, and plotted darkly in the name of Italian liberty and independence. By far the most noted of these associations was that of the Carbonari ; that is, charcoal burners. Its objects were individual The Carbo- liberty, constitutional government, and national independence nan and unity , these it undertook to promote by agitation, con- spiracy, and, if necessary, by revolution. The Neapolitans made the first attempt on the part of the Austria Italian people to gain constitutional liberty by compelling their •„ i^y 116 king to agree to grant them a constitution (July, 1820). Upon (i8»i),msup hearing this terrible news the alert Metternich invited Russia, lutism Prussia, France, and England to unite in order to check the development of " revolt and crime." He declared that the liberal movements, if unrestrained, would prove " not less tyrannical and fearful " in their results than that against which the allies had combined in the person of Napoleon. Revolution appeared to him and his sympathizers as heresy appeared to Philip II — it was a fearful disease that not only destroyed 576 Medieval and Modern Times Hopeful signs in Italy Maaeini, \305-1872 those whom it attacked directly but spread contagion wherever it appeared and justified prompt and sharp measures of quaran- tine and even violent intervention with a view of stamping out the devastating plague. To the great joy of the king of Naples, Austria marched its troops into his territory (March, 182 1) and, meeting but an ill- organized opposition, freed him from the limitations which his subjects had for the moment imposed upon him. An attempt on the part of the subjects of the king of Sardinia to win a constitution was also repressed by Austrian troops. The weakness of the liberal movement in both southern and northern Italy appeared to be conclusively demonstrated. A new attempt ten years later, in Piedmont, Modena, and the Papal States, to get rid of the existing despotism was quite as futile as the revolution of 1820-1821. Yet there were two hopeful signs. England protested as early as 1820 against Metternich's theory of interfering in the domestic affairs of other independent states in order to prevent reforms of which he disapproved, and France, on the accession of Louis Philippe in 1830, emphatically repudiated the doctrine of intervention. A second and far more important indication of progress was the increasing conviction on the part of the Italians that their country ought to be a single nation and not, as hitherto, a group of small independent states under foreign influence. A great leader arose in the person of the sensitive and highly endowed Mazzini. He quickly became disgusted with the inefficiency and the silly mystery of the Carbonari, and founded a new association, called Young Italy. This aimed to bring about the regeneration of Italy through the education of the young men in lofty republican principles. Mazzini had no confidence in princes and treaties and foreign aid. " We are of the people and will treat with the people. They will understand us," he said. He was not the man to organize a successful revolution, but he inspired the young Italians with an almost religious enthusiasm for the cause of Italy's liberation. Etirope after the Congress of Vienna S77 There was a great diversity of opinion among the reformers Plan of as to the best way to make Italy into a nation. Mazzini's party under^he* y saw no hope except in republican institutions, but others were h ^dship confident that an enlightened pope could form an Italian federa- tion, of which he should be the head. And when Pius IX, Early reforms upon his accession in 1846, immediately began to consult the (pope, 1846- interests and wishes of his people by subjecting priests to taxa- l878 ) tion, admitting laymen to his councils and tribunals, granting Fig. 152. Pius IX greater liberty of the press, and even protesting against Aus- trian encroachments, there seemed to be some ground for the belief that the pope might take the lead in the regeneration of Italy. But he soon grew suspicious of the liberals, and the out- come furnished one more proof of the sagacity of Machiavelli, who had pointed out over three centuries earlier that the tem- poral possessions of the pope constituted the chief obstacle to Italian unity. 1 1 See above, p. 228. 578 Medieval and Modern Times Reason of Austria's influence after the Congress of Vienna Creation of the kingdom of Greece, 1829 Belgium becomes an independent kingdom in 1831 From 18 1 5 to 1848 those who believed in keeping things as they were at any cost were able, under the leadership of Metternich, to oppose pretty successfully those who from time to time attempted to secure for the people a greater control of the government and to satisfy the craving for national life. This did not mean, of course, that no progress was made during this long period in realizing the ideals of the liberal party in the various European states, or that one man can block the advance of nations for a generation. The very fact that Austria had, after the Congress of Vienna, assumed the leading role in Europe which France had played during the period following the Revolution of 1789, is a sufficient in- dication that Metternich's aversion to change corresponded to a general conviction that it was best, for the time being, to let well enough alone. Two events, at least, during the period of Metternich's influ- ence served to encourage the liberals of Europe. In 182 1 the inhabitants of Greece had revolted against the oppressive government of the Turks. The Turkish government set to work to suppress the revolt by atrocious massacres. It is said that twenty thousand of the inhabitants of the island of Chios were slaughtered. The Greeks, however, succeeded in arousing the sympathy of western Europe, and they held out until England, Russia, and France intervened and forced the Sultan to recognize the independence of Greece in 1829. Another little kingdom was added to the European states by the revolt of the former Austrian Netherlands from the king of Holland, to whom they had been assigned by the Congress of Vienna. The southern Netherlands were still as different from the northern as they had been in the time of William the Silent. 1 Holland was Protestant and German, while the south- ern provinces, to whom the union had always been distasteful, were Catholic and akin to the French in their sympathies. Encouraged by the revolution at Paris in 1830, the people of 1 See above, p. 332. Europe after the Congress of Vienna 579 Brussels rose in revolt against their Dutch king, and forced his troops to leave the city. Through the influence of Eng- land and France the European powers agreed to recognize the independence of the Belgians, who established a kingdom and introduced an excellent constitution providing for a limited monarchy modeled upon that of England. The neutrality of Belgium was solemnly guaranteed by the European powers, but this did not prevent Germany's violating Belgian territory and making it a battleground in 19 14. In Spain the despotism of the restored Ferdinand VII brought a revolution in 1820, which the French troops of Louis XVIII savagely repressed. But the Spanish- American colonies, which had freed themselves during Napoleon's rule, were saved from a similar repression by the threats of England and America (see below, p. 724). QUESTIONS Section 113. Upon what points did the Congress of Vienna easily agree? Upon what two points was there serious discord? What have been the main changes in the map of Europe during the hundred years following the settlement at Vienna ? Section i i 4. Who were the Bourbons, and how did they come to sit on the throne both in France and in Spain? What was the Charter of 181 4? Give the French monarchs from Henry IV to Louis Philippe. Contrast Charles X with Louis XVIII. Section 115. What were the chief results of the Napoleonic Period in Germany? How was Prussia strengthened as a result of Napoleon's intervention in Germany ? Describe the German Con- federation of 1 81 5. Who was Metternich, and what were his views? What were the Karlsbad Resolutions ? Do you think that the gov- ernment ought to prevent criticism of its policy? Section 116. Of what states was Italy composed after 1815? Who were in favor of a united Italy ? What were the chief obstacles in the way of union ? How did the pope come to be the ruler of an Italian state? Who was Mazzini? Explain why Metternich was able to oppose successfully the tendencies toward revolution. What two new kingdoms were added to the map between 181 5 and 1848? What do you understand by neutrality ? CHAPTER XXVII THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The Indus- trial Revolu- tion due to mechanical inventions Invention of Machinery for Spinning and Weaving 117. In the preceding chapters we have reviewed the startling changes and reforms introduced by the leaders of the French Revolution and by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the reconstruction of Europe at the Congress of Vienna. These were mainly the work of statesmen, warriors, and diplomats — who have cer- tainly done their part in making Europe what it is to-day. But a still more fundamental revolution than that which has been described had begun in England before the meeting of the Estates General. The chief actors in this never stirred an assembly by their fiery denunciation of abuses, or led an army to victory, or con- ducted a clever diplomatic negotiation. On the contrary, their attention was concentrated upon the homely operations of every- day life — the housewife drawing out her thread with distaff or spinning wheel, the slow work of the weaver at his primitive loom, the miner struggling against the water which threatened to flood his mine. They busied themselves perseveringly with wheels, cylinders, bands, and rollers, patiently combining and recombining them, until, after many discouragements, they made discoveries destined to alter the habits, ideas, and prospects of the great mass of the people far more profoundly than all the edicts of the National Assembly and all the conquests of Napoleon taken together. The Greeks and Romans, notwithstanding their refined civi- lization, had, as has been pointed out, shown slight aptitude for 580 The Industrial Revolution 5 8i mechanical invention, and little had been added to their stock of human appliances before the middle of the eighteenth century. Up to that time the people of western Europe for the most part continued to till their fields, weave their cloth, and saw and plane their boards by hand, much as the ancient Egyptians had done. Merchandise was still transported in slow, lumbering carts, and letters were as long in passing from London to Rome as in the reign of Constantine. Could a peasant, a smith, or a weaver of the age of Caesar Augustus have visited France or England eighteen hundred years later, he would have recognized the familiar flail, forge, distaff, and hand loom of his own day. Suddenly, however, a series of ingenious devices were in- vented, which in a few genera- tions eclipsed the achievements of ages and revolutionized every branch of business. This Indus- trial Revolution serves to explain the world in which we live, with its busy cities, its gigantic factories filled with complicated machinery, its commerce and vast fortunes, its trade-unions and labor parties, its bewildering variety of plans for bettering the lot of the great mass of the people. This story of mechanical invention is in no way inferior in importance to the more familiar history of kings, parliaments, wars, treaties, and constitutions. The revolution in manufacture which has taken place in the last hundred and fifty years can be illustrated by the improve- ment in making cloth, which is. so necessary to our comfort and welfare. In order to produce cloth one must first spin (that is, Fig. 153. Distaff and Spindle Few new inventions added to the old stock before the eighteenth century Improve- ments in spinning and weaving 582 Medieval and Modern Times twist) the wool, cotton, or flax into thread ; then by means of a loom the thread can be woven into a fabric. A simple way of spinning thread was discovered thousands of years ago, but it was possible by the old methods for a person to make only a single thread at a time. 1 By 1767 James Hargreaves, an Eng- lish spinner, invented what was called a spinning jenny, which enabled a single workman, by turning a wheel, to spin eight or ten threads at once, and thus do the work of eight or ten spinners. A year later a barber, Richard Arkwright, patented a device for drawing out thread by means of rollers, arid made a large fortune — for his time — by establishing a great factory filled with power-driven ma- chines. In 1779 Samuel Crompton made a happy com- bination of Har- greaves 's spinning jenny and Ark- Fig. 154. The First Spinning Jenny wnght's roller ma- chine, which was called the mule. Before the end of the eighteenth century, machines spinning two hundred threads simultaneously had been invented, and as they were driven by power and required only one or two watchers, the hand workers could by no means compete with them. Such inventions as these produced the factoiy system of manufacture. 1 The hand spinner had bunches of wool, which had been combed into loose curls, on the end of a stick, or distaff, and then pulled and twisted this with her fingers into a yam, which she wound on the spindle. Bv whirling the spindle around she could help twist. The spinning wheel was invented to give a better twist to the spindle. It was used by our great-grandmothers, and became common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By means of the spinning wheel it was possible in some cases for one person to make two threads, one in one hand and the other in the other. The Industrial Revolution 583 The enormous output of thread and yarn on these new The power machines made the weavers dissatisfied with the clumsy old J^ton"? hand loom, which had been little changed for many centuries until the eighteenth century. At length, in 1784, Dr. Cart- wright, a clergyman of Kent, patented a new loom, which auto- matically threw the shuttle and shifted the weft. This machine was steadily improved during the nineteenth century until now Fig. 155. Spinning Mule This huge frame is in principle much like Hargreaves's, though now the long row of spindles — which the boy is touching — moves in and out instead of the spinner with the wool. The combed wool is held on the frame behind, to be pulled out and spun from the spindle tops a single machine watched by one workman can do as much weaving in a day as two hundred weavers could do with old- fashioned hand looms. Other inventions followed. The time required for bleaching was reduced from several months to a few days by the use of acids, instead of relying principally upon the sunlight. In 1792 Eli Whitney, in the United States, invented a power "gin," which enabled one man to take the seeds out of over a thousand pounds of cotton a day instead of five or six pounds, which had been the limit for the hand worker. 58 4 Medieval and Modern Times The effect of these inventions in increasing the amount of cloth manufactured was astonishing. In 1764 England im- ported only about four million pounds of raw cotton, but by 1 84 1 she was using nearly five hundred million pounds annually. At the close of the Napoleonic wars Robert Owen, a distin- guished manufacturer and philanthropist (see below), declared Fig. 156. Richard Arkwright that his two thousand workmen at New Lanark could do as much work with the new machinery which had been invented dur- ing the past forty years as all the operators of Scotland could do without it. The Steam Engine iron and 118. In order that inventions could further develop and sary for the become widely useful, two things were necessary : In the first of mlSery P lace ' there must be available a sufficiently strong material out of which to construct the machinery, and for this purpose The Industrial Revolution 585 iron and steel have, with few exceptions, proved the most sat- isfactory. In the second place, some adequate power had to be found to propel the machinery, which is ordinarily too heavy to be run by hand or foot. Of course windmills were common, and waterfalls and running streams had long been used to turn water wheels, but these forces were too restricted and uncertain to suffice for the rapid development of machinery which re- sulted from the begin- nings we have described. Consequently while Ark- wright, Hargreaves, and Crompton were success- fully solving the prob- lem of new methods of spinning and weav- ing, other inventors were improving the ways of melting and forging iron for the machines and of using steam to run them. Although iron had been used for tools, weapons, and armor for hundreds of years, the processes of reducing the iron from the ore and of working it up were very crude. It was not until 1750 that coal began to be used instead of charcoal for melting, or softening, the metal. The old-fashioned bellows gave way to new ways of producing the blast necessary for melting iron, and steam hammers were invented to pound out the iron instead of doing it by hand. Fig. 157. Newcomen's Steam Engine Newcomen's steam engines were run by condensing the steam in the cylinder (a) by cold water (g), so that the air on the piston (s) pressed it down on the vacuum. Watt covered both ends of the cylinder and used steam instead of air to push the piston 586 Medieval and Modern Times Watt im- proves the steam engine Contrary to popular impression, James Watt did not invent the steam engine. Important parts of the engine — the boiler, the cylinder, and the piston — had been invented before he was born, and crude engines had been employed for a long time in pumping water. Indeed, Watt's interest in the steam engine seems to have been awakened first during the winter of 1763- 1764, when, as an instrument maker in Glasgow, he was called upon to repair the model of a steam engine which had been Fig. 158. James Watt invented sixty years before by an ingenious mechanic named Newcomen. Watt, however, was a brilliant and industrious experimenter, and, building upon the work of Newcomen and other men, he was able to make the steam engine a practical machine for furnishing power to the. new factories. In 1785 the steam engine was first applied to run spinning machinery in a factory in Nottinghamshire. Arkwright adopted it in 1790, and by the end of the century steam engines were becoming as common as wind and water mills. The Industrial Revolution 587 England was the first country to develop the modern use of The Indus- machinery for manufacturing. It was not until after the estab- tion in France lishment of peace in 18 15 that the Industrial Revolution really began in France. Napoleon endeavored to foster and protect French industries and stimulate the employment of machinery in manufacturing ; but in spite of his best efforts, French indus- try remained in a backward state. On the eve of his downfall there was only one small steam engine employed in French in- dustry — at a cotton factory in Alsace ; but by 1847 France had nearly five thousand steam engines with a capacity of sixty thou- sand horse power. Germany was also much behind England. The consumption of raw cotton was multiplied fivefold in thirty years, and in 1847 there were over one hundred thousand spinning machines with three and a half million spindles at work. By 1848 France had many important manufacturing centers. * Paris alone had three hundred and forty-two thousand working people, and other cities, such as Lyons, Marseilles, Lille, Bor- deaux, and Toulouse, had their great factories and whole quar- ters peopled by factory laborers. And the working class had begun by that time to form unions and organize strikes against their employers for the purpose of increasing wages and reducing the hours of labor. Capitalism and the Factory System 119. Having seen how machinery was introduced into Eng- The. "domes- land in the latter part of the eighteenth century and how steam of inSStty came to be utilized as a motive power, we have now to consider the important results of these inventions in changing the con- ditions under which people lived and worked. Up to this time the term " manufacture " still meant, as it did in the original Latin (manu facere), " to make by hand." Artisans carried on trades with their own tools in their own homes or in small shops, as the cobbler does to-day. Instead of working with hundreds of others in great factories and being entirely dependent upon 588 Medieval and Modern Times Growth of great manu- facturing towns Appearance of a capitalist class The workman becomes dependent upon the capitalist Women and children in the factories his wages, a workman, in England at least, was often able to give some attention to a small garden plot, from which he de- rived a part of his support. This old method of manufacture is known as the domestic system. For example, the cutlers of Sheffield (already famous in Chaucer's day) lived in cottages with small plots of land around them, and in dull seasons, or to change their occupation, engaged in gardening. The " factory system " put an end to all this. The workmen now had to live near their work ; long rows of houses, without gardens or even grassplots, were hastily built around the fac- tory buildings, and thus the ugly tenement districts of our cities came into existence. This great revolution in the methods of manufacturing pro- duced also a sharp distinction between two classes of men in- volved. There were, on the one hand, the capitalists who owned the buildings and all the mechanism, and, on the other, the workmen whom they hired to operate the machines. The work- ingman necessarily became dependent upon the few who were rich enough to set up factories. He could no longer earn a live- lihood in the old way by conducting a small shop to suit himself. The capitalist owned and controlled the necessary machinery, and so long as there were plenty of workmen seeking employ- ment in order to earn their daily bread, the owner could fix a low wage and long hours. While an individual employee of special ability might himself become a capitalist, the ordinary workman would have to remain a workman. The destruction of the domestic system of industry had also a revolutionary effect upon the work and the lives of women and children. In all except the heaviest of the mechanical industries, such as ironworkjng or shipbuilding, the introduc- tion of simple machines tended greatly to increase the num- ber of women and children employed compared with the men. 1 1 For example, in the textile industry in England during the fifty years from 1S41 to 1891, the number of males employed increased fifty-three per cent, and the number of females two hundred and twenty-one per cent. The Industrial Revolution 589 Before the invention of the steam engine, when the simple machines were worked by hand, children could be employed only in some of the minor processes, such as preparing the cotton for spinning. But in the modern factory, labor is largely confined to watching machines, piecing broken threads, and working levers, so that both women and children can be utilized as effectively as men, and much more cheaply. Doubtless the women were by no means idle under the old The Indus- system of domestic industry, but their tasks were varied and ™ n re Heves performed at home, whereas under the new system they must som , e ™ men flock to the factory at the call of the whistle and labor monot- former duties onously at a speed set by the foreman. This led to many grave abuses which, as we shall see, the State had been called upon to remedy by factory legislation, which has served w to save the women and children from some of the worst hardships, although a great deal still remains to be done. The Industrial Revolution, in addition to changing the old Effect of the methods of living, traveling, and working, gave an entirely new Revolution on direction to European politics and to theories of government governments r r ° and politics and industry. The two great classes created by the Industrial Revolution — namely, the capitalist class and the working class — each entered politics on its own account, and each had a theory of government. The capitalists and business classes maintained that the gov- The capitai- ernment should not attempt to regulate the prices of goods or Economy 1C& their quality. Neither should it interfere with the employer and his workmen, except to protect either from violence ; it should not fix the hours of work or the conditions in the factories. Prices, they maintained, would be kept down by competition among the manufacturers, and wages would be fixed by the supply and demand. Every one should have the greatest free- dom to do what he was able to do. If he was a person of ability he would prosper; if he had no special ability he could only hope to get the wages that the employer found it ad- vantageous to pay him. 59Q Medieval and Modern Times Sad results of the Industrial Revolution Attempts to secure laws to help the working classes Origin of trade-unions The chief trouble with this political economy was that it did not work well in practice. On the contrary, the great manu- facturing cities, instead of being filled with happy and prosper- ous people, became the homes of a small number of capitalists who had grown rich as the owners and directors of the factories and multitudes of poor working people with no other resources than their wages, which were often not enough to keep their families from starvation. Little children under nine years of age working from twelve to fifteen hours a day and women forced to leave their homes to tend the machines in the fac- tories were now replacing the men workers. After their long day's work they returned to miserable tenements in which they were forced to live. After the close of the Napoleonic wars as things got worse rather than better, there were increasing signs of discontent in England. This led to various attempts to improve matters. On the one hand there were those who hoped to secure reforms by extending the right to vote, in order that the working classes might be represented in Parliament and so have laws passed to remedy the worst evils at least. In this movement some of the wealthier class often joined, but the working people were naturally chiefly interested and they embodied their ideas of reform in a great " people's charter," which is described below in Chapter XXXI. In addition to this attempt to secure reform by political, action, the workingmen formed unions of their own in the various trades and industries, in order to protect themselves by dealing in a body with their employers. This trade-union movement is one of the most important things in modern times. It began in the early part of the nineteenth century. 1 At first the formation of unions was forbidden by English law, 1 The craft guilds described in a previous chapter (see above, pp. 448 f.) some- what resembled modem labor unions, but they included both capitalists and laborers. Our labor unions did not grow out of the medieval guilds but were organized to meet conditions that resulted from the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution 591 and it was regarded as a crime for workingmen to combine together to raise wages. Men were sentenced to imprisonment or deportation as convicts because they joined such " combina- tions," or unions. In 1824 Parliament repealed this harsh law, and trade-unions increased rapidly. They were hampered, how- ever, by various restrictions, and even now, although they have spread widely all over the world, people are by no means agreed as to whether workingmen's unions are the best means of improving the conditions of the laboring classes. The third general plan for permanently bettering the situation Socialism of the working people is what is known as socialism. As this has played a great role in the history of Europe during the past fifty years we must stop to examine the meaning of this word. The Rise of Socialism 120. Socialism teaches that "the means of production" The social should belong to society and not be held as the private property S^means of of individuals. " The means of production " is a very vague P roductl o n phrase, and might include farms and gardens as well as tools ; but when the socialist uses it he is generally thinking of the machines which the Industrial Revolution has brought into the world and the factories and mines which house and keep them going as well as the railroads and steamships which carry their goods. In short, the main idea of the socialists is that the great industries which have arisen as a result of the Industrial Revo- lution should not be left in private hands. They claim that it is not right for the capitalists to own the mills upon which the workingman must depend for his living ; that the attempt of labor unions to get higher wages does not offer more than a temporary relief, since the system is wrong which permits the wealthy to have such a control over the poor. The person who works for wages, say the socialists, is not free ; he is a " wage slave " of his employer. The way to remedy this is to turn over the great industries of the capitalists to national, state, or. 59 2 Medieval and Modern Times local ownership, so that all should have a share in the profits. This ideal state of society, which, they say, is sure to come in the future, they call the Cooperative Commonwealth. The early The first socialists relied on the kind hearts of the capitalists socialists to bring the change, once the situation was made clear. Of these early socialists the most attractive figure was Robert Owen, a rich British mill owner, who had much influence in England in the period of hard times after Waterloo. To him, probably, is due the word " socialism." Later social- Modern socialists, however, regard these early socialists as class move 1 -^" dreamers and their methods as impracticable. They do not think that the rich will ever, from pure unselfishness, give up their control over industries. So they turn to working people only, point out the great advantage to them of socialism, and call upon them to bring it about in the face of the opposition of the capitalists. They claim that wealth is produced by labor, for which capital but furnishes the opportunity, and that laboi is justified in taking what it produces. 1 Karl Marx The great teacher of this modern doctrine of socialism was Karl Marx, a German writer who lived most of his life in Lon- don. He was a learned man, trained in philosophy and political economy, and he came to the conclusion from a study of history that just as the middle class or capitalists 2 had replaced feudal nobles, so the working class would replace the capitalists in the future. By the working class he meant those who depend upon their work for a living. The introduction of the factory system had reduced the vast majority of artisans to a position in which the capitalist was able to dictate the conditions upon which this work should be done. Marx, in an eloquent appeal to them in 1847, 8 called upon the members of this "proletariat," "who 1 This does not mean that socialists would divide up all private property. Socialists claim only that there shall be no unearned wealth in private hands, con- trolling, as now, the industries of the country. Brain workers are also " workers." 2 The French term bourgeoisie is often used by socialists for this class. 3 The Communist Manifesto^ written jointly with Frederick Engels. Marx used the word " communism " to distinguish his plan from the socialism of Owen and the " dreamers " who looked to capitalists to help. The Industrial Revolution 593 have nothing to lose but their chains," to rise and seize the means of production themselves. His appeal had no effect at the time, but it has been an inspiration to latei generations of socialists. Modern, or "Marxian," socialism is therefore a movement Socialism and of the working class. As such, it must be viewed as part of Fig. 159. Karl Marx 1 the history of democracy. It is never satisfied with partial re- forms so long as the conditions remain which make possible the control of the work of one man by another for the latter's benefit. So it insists that the workers shall keep one aim clearly 1 Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Treves, reared in an enlightened home, and educated at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. He had early decided upon the career of a university professor, but the boldness of his speech and his rad- ical tendencies barred his way and consequently he entered journalism. His attacks on the Prussian government led to the suppression of his paper in 1843, and he soon migrated to Paris. He was, however, expelled from France, and after some wanderings he finally settled in London, where he studied and wrote until his death in 1S81 594 Medieval and Modern Times in mind and not be drawn into other political parties until the Cooperative Commonwealth is gained. Socialism in There is one other important element in socialism. It is inter- ihternational -it i i r i • -,-rr movement national. It regards the cause ot workers in different countries as a common cause against a common oppressor — capitalism. In this way socialism was a force for peace between nations until the war of 19 14. QUESTIONS Section 117. What do you understand by the "Industrial Revo- lution "? What is spinning? weaving ? Give some account of the way in which our modern way of spinning and weaving by machinery grew up. Section i i 8. What conditions were necessary for the development of modern machinery? Do you understand just what makes a steam engine run ? When did steam engines begin to be used in factories ? Section i 19. What was the domestic system of industry? What is the principle of the factory system ? Give all the results you can of the introduction of machinery and the growth of factories. What do you understand by "capital"? Contrast the theories of the capitalist with those of the factory hand. Why were trade-unions formed ? Why do some business men oppose them ? Section 120. Describe the theories of the socialists of the first half of the nineteenth century. Why do modern socialists regard these theories as impracticable? Who was Karl Marx? What advantages do the socialists claim would come if our present system were abolished ? Why do a great many people fear and hate the socialists? CHAPTER XXVIII THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 AND THEIR RESULTS The Second Republic and Second Empire in France 121. In 1848 the gathering discontent and the demand for The general reform suddenly showed their full strength and extent; it seemed movemenT^ for a time as if all western Europe was about to undergo as com- ]? u ™o Stern plete a revolution as France had experienced in 1789. With in 1848 one accord, and as if obeying a preconcerted signal, the liberal parties in France, Italy, Germany, and Austria, during the early months of 1848, gained control of the government and pro- ceeded to carry out their program of reform in the same thor- oughgoing way in which the National Assembly in France had done its work in 1789. The general movement affected almost every state in Europe, but the course of events in France, and in that part of central Europe which had so long been domi- nated by Metternich and Austria, merits especial attention. In France there were various causes of discontent with the Unpopularity government of Louis Philippe. The Charter of 18 14 had been Philippe only slightly modified after the Revolution of 1830, in spite of J^ubficans the wishes of the republicans who had been active in bringing about the deposition of Charles X. They maintained that the king had too much power and could influence the French parlia- ment to make laws contrary to the wishes of the people at large. They also protested against the laws which excluded the poorer classes from voting (only two hundred thousand among a popu- lation of thirty million enjoyed that right), and demanded that every Frenchman should have the right to vote so soon as he reached maturity. As Louis Philippe grew older he became 595 596 Medieval and Modej-n Times The second French republic proclaimed, February 27, 1848 more and more suspicious of the liberal parties which had helped him to his throne. He not only opposed reforms him- self but also did all he could to keep the parliament and the newspapers from advocating any changes which the progres- sive parties demanded. Nevertheless, the strength of the republicans gradu- ally increased. They found allies in the new group of socialistic writ- ers who desired a fun- damental reorganization of the State (see previous chapter). On February 2 4, 1 8 48, a mob attacked theTuile- ries. The king abdicated in favor of his grandson, but it was too late; he and his whole family were forced to leave the country. The mob in- vaded the Assembly, as in the time of the Reign of Terror, crying, " Down with the Bourbons, old and new ! Long live the Republic I " A provi- sional government was established which included the poet and historian Lamartine, Louis Blanc, a prominent socialist, two or three editors, and several other politicians. The first decree of this body, ratifying the establishment of a French republic, was solemnly proclaimed on the former site of the Bastille, February 27. Thus the second French Republic came into existence. Fig. 160. Conflict between Work- ingmen and the troops in paris, June, 1848 The Revolutions of 1 848 and their Results 597 The provisional government was scarcely in session before The social it was threatened by the "red republic." Its representatives, a ndthe"ied the social democrats, desired to put the laboring classes in con- re P ubllc ' trol of the government, let them conduct it in their own in- terests, and wished to substitute the red flag x for the national colors. The government went so far as to concede the so-called National "right to labor" — that is, the duty of the government to established see that every one had work. National workshops were estab- lished, in which all the unemployed were given an opportunity to work. A National Assembly had been convoked whose members The insurreo were elected by the votes of all Frenchmen above the age of June, 1848 ' twenty-one. Since the majority of Frenchmen were country people who were not interested in the victims of the factory system, the result of the election was an overwhelming defeat for the social democrats. Their leaders then attempted to overthrow the new Assembly on the pretext that it did not represent the people; but the national guard frustrated the attempt. The number of men now enrolled in the national workshops had reached one hundred and seventeen thou- sand, each of whom received two francs a day in return for either useless labor or mere idleness. No serious attempt was made to make the experiment pay, and it was abolished in June. The result was a terrific battle in the streets of Paris for three days, June 23-25, and over ten thousand persons were killed. 2 This desperate outbreak of the forces of revolution resulted Louis Napo- in a general conviction that a strong hand was essential to the president maintenance of peace. The new constitution decreed that the president of the republic should be chosen by the people at large. Their choice fell upon the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1 Socialists use red as a symbol of their appreciation of the common blood of the brotherhood of man. 2 One can gather some idea of the suffering of the working class in Paris owing to the new industrial system when one realizes that more people perished in this struggle for the red republic than in the whole Reign of Terror. 598 Medieval and Modem Times Establish- Louis Napoleon, who had already made two futile attempts theSecond to ma ke himself the ruler of France. Before the expira- Empire, 1852 ^ on f j^jg f our years* term he succeeded, by a coup cTHat (December 2, 185 1), in setting up a new government He next obtained, by means of a plebiscite, 1 the consent of the people to his remaining president for ten years. A year later Fig. 161. Napoleon III 2 (1852) the Second Empire was established, and Napoleon III became " Emperor of the French by the grace of God and the will of the people." 1 See above, p. 534. 2 Few monarchs of Europe have had such a romantic career as this nephew of Napoleon I. An exile, a conspirator against Louis Philippe, prisoner of state, escaping to return and to be elected President of the Second Republic, he was one of the shrewdest politicians, of the nineteenth century. As emperor, he gratified French pride with beautiful buildings and other showy public works, but the " Napoleonic tradition " of glory kept involving him in foreign wars which mostly turned out badly for France and finally led to his own overthrow. See below, p. 620. The Revolutions 0/184.8 and their Results 599 The Revolution of 1848 in Austria, Germany, and Italy 122. When Metternich heard of the February Revolution of Austria's 1848 in France, he declared that " Europe finds herself to-day poSrion \x^ in the presence of a second 1793." This was not true, however. g"^ al It was no longer necessary for France to promote liberal ideas by force of arms, as in 1793. For sixty years ideas of reform had been spreading in Europe, and by the year 1848 they were accepted by a great majority of the people, from Berlin to Palermo. The Europe of 1848 was no longer the Europe of 1793. The overthrow of Louis Philippe encouraged the opponents Position of of Metternich in Germany, Austria, and Italy to attempt to make an end of his system at once and forever. In view of the important part that Austria had played in central Europe since the fall of Napoleon I, it was inevitable that she should appear the chief barrier to the attainment of national unity and liberal government in Italy and Germany. As ruler of Lom- bardy and Venetia she practically controlled Italy, and as pre- siding member of the German Confederation she had been able to keep even Prussia in line. It is not strange that Austria felt that she could make no concessions to the spirit of nation- ality, for the territories belonging to the house of Hapsburg, some twenty in number, were inhabited by four different races — Germans, Slavs, Hungarians, and Italians. 1 The Slavs (espe- cially the Bohemians) and the Hungarians longed for national independence, as well as the Italians. On March 13 the populace of Vienna rose in revolt against Overthrow of tvt pttgrTi ich their old-fashioned government. Metternich fled, and all his March, 1848 schemes for opposing reform appeared to have come to naught. Before the end of the month the helpless Austrian emperor had given his permission to the kingdoms of Hungary and 1 See above, p. 423, and map, p. 739, below. 6oo Medieval and Modern Times Beginning of Italian war of inde- pendence The liberal movement in Germany Frederick William IV (1840-1861) of Prussia takes the lead in the reform move- ment in Germany Bohemia to draw up constitutions for themselves incorporating the longed-for reforms (equality of all classes in the matter of taxation, religious freedom, liberty of the press, and the rest) and providing that each country should have a parliament of its own, which should meet annually. The Austrian provinces, however, showed no desire to throw off their allegiance to the Austrian ruler. Austria's possessions in northern Italy naturally took this favorable opportunity to revolt against the hated " Germans." Immediately on the news of Metternich's fall the Milanese ex- pelled the Austrian troops from their city, and soon Austria was forced to evacuate a great part of Lombardy. The Venetians followed the lead of Milan and set up a republic once more. The Milanese, anticipating a struggle, appealed to Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, for aid. By this time a great part of Italy was in revolt. Constitutions were granted to Naples, Rome, Tuscany, and Piedmont by their rulers. The king of Sardinia was forced by public opinion to assume the leadership in the attempt to expel Austria from Italy and ultimately, per- haps, to found some sort of an Italian union which should satisfy the longings for national unity. The Pope and even the Bourbon king of Naples were induced to consent to the arming and dis- patch of troops in the cause of Italian freedom, and Italy began its first war for independence. The crisis at home and the Italian war made it impossible for Austria to prevent the progress of revolution in Germany. The opportunity seemed to have come, now that Austria was hope- lessly embarrassed, to reorganize the German Confederation. The king of Prussia, seeing his opportunity, suddenly reversed his policy of obedience to the dictates of Austria, and deter- mined to take the lead in Germany. He agreed to summon an assembly to draw up a constitution for Prussia. Moreover, a great national assembly was convoked at Frankfort, com- posed of many of the most distinguished Germans of the day, to draft a constitution for Germany at large. The Revolutions of 1 8 4.8 and their Results 601 By the end of March, 1848, the prospects of reform were Bright bright indeed. Hungary and Bohemia had been guaranteed ^form^n ° constitutional independence; Lombardy and Venetia had de- March > l8 4S clared their independence of Austria; four Italian states had obtained their longed-for constitutions, and all were ready for a war with Austria; Prussia was promised a constitution, and lastly, the national assembly at Frankfort was about to prepare a constitution for a united Germany. Outcome of the Revolution of 1848 123. For the moment Austria's chief danger lay in Italy, Defeat of which was the only one of her dependencies that had actually un der Charles taken up arms against her. The Italians had, however, been Albert of unable to drive the Austrian army out of Italy. Under the July, 1848 indomitable general Radetzky it had taken refuge in the neighborhood of Mantua, where it was protected by four great fortresses. Charles Albert of Sardinia found himself, with the exception of a few volunteers, almost unsupported by the other Italian states. The best ally of Austria was the absence of united action upon the part of the Italians, and the jealousy and indifference that they showed as soon as war had actually begun. The pope, Pius IX, decided that his mission was one of peace and that he could not afford to join in a war against Austria, the stoutest ally of the Roman Church. The Bourbon king of Naples easily found a pretext for recalling the troops that public opinion had compelled him to send to the aid of the king of Sardinia. Charles Albert was defeated at Custozza, July 25, and compelled to sign a truce with Austria and withdraw his forces from Lombardy. The Italian republicans did not like kings, of course, and Policy of the had no confidence in Charles Albert. So they went ahead republicans regardless of him. Florence, as well as Venice, proclaimed itself a republic. The pope fled from Rome and put himself under the protection of the king of Naples. A constitutional 602 Medieval and Modern Times Hostility between the Germans and Czechs in Bohemia The Pan- Slavic Con- gress of 1848 Beginnings of revolt in Bohemia suppressed, June 18, 1848 The Slavic peoples revolt against Hungary assembly was then convoked by the revolutionists, and under the influence of Mazzini, in February, 1849, it declared the temporal power of the pope abolished and proclaimed a Roman republic. Meanwhile the conditions in Austria began to be favorable to a reestablishment of the emperor's former influence. Race rivalry defeated the reform movement in the Austrian domains just as republicanism stood in the way of the success of the Italian revolt. Each of the various peoples under Austrian rule determined to make itself largely independent, and great was the confusion that ensued. The Czechs 1 in Bohemia hated the Germans in 1848, as they had hated them ever since they came under the Haps- burgs. The German part of the population naturally opposed the plan of making Bohemia practically independent of the government at Vienna, for it was to German Vienna that they were wont to look for protection against the enterprises of their Czechish fellow countrymen. The Czechs determined to summon a Pan- Slavic Congress, which should bring together the various Slavic peoples com- prised in the Austrian empire. To this assembly, which met in Prague in June, 1848, came delegates from the Czechs, Moravians, Ruthenians, and Poles in the north, and the Ser- vians and Croatians in the south. Its deliberations were inter- rupted by an insurrection that broke out among the people of Prague and gave General Windischgratz, the commander of the Austrian forces, a sufficient excuse for intervening. He established a military government, and the prospect of inde- pendence for Bohemia vanished. This was Austria's first real victory. The eastern and southern portion of the Hapsburg domains were not more homogeneous than the west and north. When a constitution was granted to Hungary it was inevitable that the races which the Hungarians (Magyars) had long dominated 1 The Slavic inhabitants of Bohemia. The Revolutions of 1848 and their Results 603 m should begin to consider how they might gain the right to govern themselves. The Slavs inhabiting Carniola, Carinthia, Istria, Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia, and Servia had long meditated upon the possibility of a united Slavic kingdom in the south. Both the Servians and Croatians now revolted against Hungary. In October, 1848, the radical party rose in Vienna itself, as it had in Paris after the deposition of Louis Philippe. The Fig. 162. Francis Joseph 1 minister of war was brutally murdered and the emperor fled. Insurrection The city was, however, besieged by the same commander who h Vienna"* 15 had put down the insurrection in Prague, and was forced to su PP ressed surrender. The imperial government was now in a position still further to strengthen itself. The emperor, a notoriously, inefficient person, was forced to abdicate (December 2, 1848) 1 Francis Joseph was born in 1830, so that he witnessed the revolutions of 1848 at the age of 18 and the Great War of 19 14 at the age of 84. Pictures of him as an old man are familiar ; but this one of him at his accession recalls to • us his long reign. (See last chapter.) 604 Medieval and Modern Times Accession of Francis Joseph I, 1848-1916 Suppression of Hungarian republic Final peace- ful union between Austria and Hungary, 1867 Austria defeats the king of Sardinia at No vara, March, 184c Accession of Victor Emmanuel as king of Sardinia Austria reestablishes the former conditions in Italy, except in Piedmont in favor of his youthful nephew, Francis Joseph I, who ruled as emperor until his death in 19 16. Moreover, a new Metternich appeared in the person of Schwarzenberg. A vigorous campaign was begun against Hungary, which, under the influence of the patriotic Kossuth, had deposed its Hapsburg king and declared itself an independent republic under the presidency of Kossuth. The Tsar placed his forces at the disposal of Francis Joseph, and with the aid of an army of one hundred and fifty thousand Russians, who marched in from the east, the Hungarians were compelled, by the middle of August, to surrender. Austria took terrible vengeance upon the rebels. Thousands were hung, shot, and imprisoned, and many, including Kossuth, fled to the United States or else- where. But within a few years Hungary won its independ- ence by peaceful measures, and became the equal of Austria in the dual federation, which from that time was officially known as Austria-Hungary. It remained for Austria to reestablish her power in Italy. In March, 1849, Charles Albert renewed the war which had been discontinued after the defeat at Custozza. The campaign lasted but five days and closed with his crushing and definitive defeat at Novara (March 23), which put an end to the hopes of Italian liberty for the time being. Charles Albert abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel, who was destined before many years to become king of Italy. After bringing the king of Sardinia to terms, Austria pushed southward, reestablishing the old order as she went. The ephemeral Italian republics were unable to offer any effectual resistance. The former rulers were restored in Rome, Tuscany, and Venice, and the constitutions were swept away from one end of the peninsula to the other, except in Piedmont, the most important part of the king of Sardinia's realms. There Victor Emmanuel not only maintained the representative government introduced by his father, but, by summoning to his councils leaders known throughout Italy for their liberal The Revolutions 0/1848 and their Results 605 sentiments, he prepared to lead Italy once more against her foreign oppressors. (See below, Chapter XXIX.) In Germany, as elsewhere, Austria profited by the dissen- Question of f-j^p extent sions among her opponents. On May 18, 1848, the national of the pro- assembly, consisting of nearly six hundred representatives of P oseduru °n the German people, had met at Frankfort. It immediately began the consideration of a new constitution that should satisfy the popular longings for a great free German state, to be governed by and for the people. But what were to be the confines of this new German state ? The confederation of 18 1 5 did not include all the German inhabitants of Prussia, and did include the heterogeneous western possessions of Austria — Bohemia and Moravia, for example, where a great part of the people were Slavs. There was no hesitation in deciding that all the Prussian territories should be admitted to the new union. As it appeared impossible to exclude Austria altogether, the assembly agreed to include those parts of her territory which had belonged to the confederation formed in 18 1 5. This decision rendered the task of founding a strong impossibility German state practically impossible ; for the new union was state wn i c h to include two great European powers who might at any s | 10 ( J llc l 11 Jj 1 moment become rivals, since Prussia would hardly consent to Austria and Prussis. be led forever by Austria. Such a union could only continue to be, as it had been, a loose confederation of practically independent princes. In spite of her partiality for the old union, Austria could not The assem- prevent the assembly from completing its new constitution. ki ng f This provided that there should be an hereditary emperor at J >r " ssia r J r to become the head of the government, and that exalted office was emperor of tendered to the king of Prussia. Frederick William IV was, however, timid and conservative at heart; he hated revolution Frederick and doubted if the national assembly had any right to confer re f US es the the imperial title on him. He also greatly respected Austria, im P enal and felt that a war with her, which was likely to ensue if he accepted the crown, would not only be dangerous to Prussia, 606 Medieval and Modern Times since Francis Joseph could rely upon the assistance of the Tsar, but dishonorable as well, in Austria's present embarrass- ment. So he refused the honor of the imperial title and announced his rejection of the new constitution (April, 1849). The national This decision rendered the year's work of the national dispersed and assembly fruitless, and its members gradually dispersed, the old diet Austria now insisted upon the reestablishment of the old diet, is restored r 7 and nearly came to war with Prussia over the policy to be pur- sued. Hostilities were only averted by the ignominious sub- mission of Prussia to the demands of Schwarzenberg in 185 1. Results of While the revolutions of 1848 seem futile enough when tions of 1848 viewed from the standpoint of the hopes of March, they left some important indications of progress. The king of Prussia, as a result of a purely Prussian revolution, which brought street fighting in Berlin, had granted his country a constitution, which, with some modifications, has served Prussia down to the present day. Piedmont also had obtained a constitution. The internal reforms, moreover, which these countries speedily introduced, prepared them to head once more, and this time with success, a movement for national unity, issues of It will be noted that the revolutionists of 1848 aimed to do from thosef 11 more than those of the French Revolution of 1789. Not only of J 7 8 9 was the race and national question everywhere an important one, but there were plans for the economic reorganization of society. It was no longer simply a matter of abolishing the remnants of feudalism and insuring equal rights to all and the participation of the more prosperous classes in the government. Those who lived by the labor of their handstand were employed in the vast industries that had developed with the application of steam machinery to manufacture also had their spokesmen. The relation of the State to the working classes and of capital to labor had become, as they still are, the great problems of modern times. The Revolutions of 1848 and their Results 607 QUESTIONS Section 121. How was the Second French Republic established in 1 848 ? What difficulties did the government have to meet ? Who was Napoleon III, and how did he become emperor? Section i 22. What was the position of Austria when the Revo- lution of 1848 began? How did the revolution in Italy begin? Why were the prospects of the reformers in Italy and Germany bright in March, 1 848 ? What did they hope to achieve ? Section 123. Trace the course of events in Italy during 1848. Review the obstacles that stood in the way of uniting Italy into a single kingdom. What led to the emperor's government winning the victory in Austria ? What was the outcome of the revolutionary movement in Austria and Hungary? How were matters settled in Italy? Why did the German national assembly fail to establish a firmer union of the German states ? CHAPTER XXIX THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY AND GERMANY Founding of the Kingdom of Italy Italy through 124. From the time of the break-up of the Roman Empire Ages down to the year i860 Italy had never been an independent nation under its own ruler. We have seen how the German emperors from the time of Charlemagne to that of Frederick Barbarossa tried to conquer the Italian peninsula and how separate states grew up over which France, Spain, and Austria fought after the invasion of the French king Charles VIII in 1495. We shall now trace the steps by which an Italian king- dom was created shortly after the unsuccessful attempts of 1848-1849. Development Under Victor Emmanuel and his great minister, Count under Cavour Cavour, Piedmont had rapidly developed into a modern state. It sent a contingent to the aid of the western powers in the Crimean War Waged by France and England against Russia (1853-1856); it developed its resources, military and eco- nomic, and at last found an ally to help it in a new attempt to expel Austria from Italy. Position and Napoleon III, emperor of the French, like his far more dis- Napoieoniii tinguished uncle, was a usurper. He knew that he could not rely upon mere tradition, but must maintain his popularity by deeds that should redound to the glory of France. A war with Austria for the liberation of the Italians, who like the French were a Latin race, would be popular; especially if France could thereby add a bit of territory to her realms and perhaps become the protector of the proposed Italian confederation. A conference was arranged between Napoleon and Cavour. 608 The Unification of Italy and Germany 609 Just what agreement was reached we do not know, but Napo- leon no doubt engaged to come to the aid of the king of Sardinia should the latter find a pretense for going to war with Austria. Should they together succeed in expelling Aus- tria from northern Italy, the king of Sardinia was to reward France by ceding to her Savoy and Nice, which belonged to her geographically and racially though not historically. Fig. 163. Cavour By April, 1859, Victor Emmanuel had managed to involve victories himself in a war with Austria. The French army promptly Emmanuel joined forces with the Piedmontese, defeated the Austrians at f nd ? T a P°~ leon III over Magenta, and on June 8 Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel Austria entered Milan amid the rejoicings of the people. The Aus- trians managed the campaign very badly and were again defeated at Solferino (June 24). Suddenly Europe was astonished to hear that a truce had Napoleon ill been concluded, and that the preliminaries of a peace had Jh^Ttaliarf been arranged which left Venetia in Austria's hands, in spite successes 610 Medieval and Modern Times of Napoleon Ill's boast that he would free Italy to the Adriatic. The French emperor had begun to fear that, with the growing enthusiasm which was showing itself throughout the peninsula for Piedmont, there was danger that it might Fig. 164. Garibaldi Garibaldi shares with Victor Emmanuel the national enthusiasm of Italy, and his monument, one of the finest in Rome, looks proudly over the Eternal City from a high hill. He was a republican, a convert of Mazzini, and had lived a restless life, having fought in South America and lived for a time in New York (where his house is preserved as a memorial). At the head of his " legion " of volunteers, clad in their gay red blouses, he was a most picturesque figure, and his rapid success in the south lent an element of romance to the unification of Italy succeed in forming a national kingdom so strong as to need no French protector. By leaving Venetia in possession of Austria, and agreeing that Piedmont should only be increased by the incorporation of Lombardy and the little duchies of Parma arid Modena, Napoleon III hoped to prevent the consolidation of Italy from proceeding too far. The Unification of Italy and Germany 6 1 1 He had, however, precipitated changes which he was power- The forma- less to check. Italy was now ready to fuse into a single state, kingdom of Tuscany, as well as Modena and Parma, voted (March, i860) Ital y> l86 ° to unite with Piedmont. Garibaldi, a famous republican leader, sailed for Sicily, where he assumed the dictatorship of the island in the name of Victor Emmanuel, "King, of Italy." After Map of Unification of Italy expelling the troops of the king of Naples from Sicily, he crossed to the mainland, and early in September he entered Naples itself, just as the king fled from his capital. Garibaldi now proposed to march on Rome and proclaim Napoleon in the kingdom of Italy. This would have imperiled all the previ- preV ent the ous gains, for Napoleon III could not, in view of the strong ann f xatlon Catholic sentiment in France, possibly permit the occupation of the kingdom Rome and the destruction of the political independence of the 6l2 Medieval and Modern Times Italian unifi- cation only partial pope. He agreed that Victor Emmanuel might annex the out- lying papal possessions to the north and reestablish a stable government in Naples instead of Garibaldi's dictatorship. But Rome, the imperial city, with the territory immediately sur- rounding it, must be left to its old master. Victor Emmanuel accordingly marched southward and occupied Naples (October). Its king capitulated, and all southern Italy became a part of the kingdom of Italy. In February, 1861, the first Italian parliament was opened at Turin, and the process of really amalgamating the heterogene- ous portions of the new kingdom began. Yet the joy of the Italians over the realization of their hopes of unity and national independence was tempered by the fact that Austria still held one of the most famous of the Italian provinces, and that Rome, which typified Italy's former grandeur, was not included in the new kingdom. Within a decade, however, both these districts became a part of the kingdom of Italy through the action of Prussia. William I and his adviser, Bismarck, were about to do for Germany what Victor Emmanuel and Cavour had accomplished for Italy. Prussia first dominates Germany and then becomes a menace to the world How Prussia defeated Austria and founded the North German Federation 125. We must now follow the story of modern Prussia and see how its ruling classes, by means of three wars, made them- selves masters of Germany and then developed such strength that its military leaders ventured, in the fatal year 19 14, to risk further bloodshed to make Germany a " world power " by attempting to crush England, its great maritime rival. In one sense Germany is the youngest of the larger European states ; at the same time it became far the most dangerous by reason of its warlike ambitions ; and nearly the whole world, including the United States, was finally forced to join in a terrific struggle with the Kaiser and his armies in order to The Unification of Italy and Germany 613 defend democratic institutions from the menace of Prussian autocracy. The third German emperor, William II, was born in 1859, Review of and it was during his boyhood that the empire over which he history" ruled as Kaiser was created. All the efforts of the medieval emperors from Otto to Frederick Barbarossa to unify Ger- many had proved vain. Under the long line of Hapsburg emperors from Rudolph of Hapsburg to the last ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Francis II, the German states became even more independent of one another than they had been in earlier centuries. Finally, the first step toward German unifi- cation was made by Napoleon when, under his auspices, many of the little states were swallowed up by the larger ones in 1803 and the following years. The old Holy Roman Empire of the German nation came to an end in 1806, and Germany was completely under French influence for several years. After Napoleon's downfall a loose union of the surviving states into which Germany had been consolidated was formed at the Congress of Vienna. The attempt of the constitutional assembly of Frankfort in 18 48-1 8 49 to form a strong demo- cratic empire under Prussia failed, because the king of Prussia refused to accept the crown, on the ground that the assembly had no right to offer it to him and that should he accept it he would, as he timidly feared, become involved in a war with Austria, which was excluded from the proposed union. With the accession of William I in 1858, 1 a new era dawned William 1 for Prussia. An ambitious king came into power, whose i86i™888 great aim was to expel Austria from the German Confedera- tion, and out of the remaining states to construct a firm union, under the domination of Prussia, which should take its place among the more important states of Europe. He saw that war would come sooner or later, and his first business was to develop the military resources of his realms. 1 He ruled until 1861 as regent for his brother, Frederick William IV, who was incapacitated by disease. 614 Medieval and Modem Times Role of Prussia in Germany The Prussian army Bismarck becomes the leader of Prussia, 1862 In a previous chapter (XIX) we have seen how the electorate of Brandenburg developed into the dangerous kingdom of Prussia in the hands of the House of Hohenzollern. For three things are noteworthy in the history of the Hohenzollerns — their evil enthusiasm for maintaining a great army, for acquir- ing other people's territory, and for keeping up the old tradition of monarchy by the grace of God. It was Prussia and the Hohenzollerns who created the German Empire and made it the most autocratic and ruthless state in Europe. The war of independence fought against Napoleon in 18 13 had led the Prussian king to summon the whole nation to arms, and a law was passed in Prussia making service in the army obligatory upon every able-bodied male subject. The first thing that William I did was to increase the annual levy from forty to sixty thousand men and to see that all the soldiers remained in active service three years. They then passed into the reserve, according to the existing law, where for two years more they remained ready at any time to take up arms should it be necessary. William wished to increase the term of service in the reserve to four years. In this way the state would claim seven of the years of early manhood and have an effective army of four hundred thousand without in- cluding men who were approaching middle life. The lower house of the Prussian parliament refused, however, to vote the necessary money for increasing the strength of the army. The king proceeded, nevertheless, with his plan, and in 1862 called to his side Otto von Bismarck, a Prussian statesman who would carry out that plan despite opposition. The new minister was a Prussian of the Prussians, and he dedicated his great abilities to the single object of Prussianizing all Germany. He believed firmly in the divine right of the Hohenzollern rulers ; he hated parliaments and expressed contempt for the liberal party which had striven to create a democratic Germany in 1848. He had every confidence in the mailed fist and shin- ing sword by which he foresaw that he must gain his ends. He The Unification of Italy and Germany 615 belonged to the highly conservative group of Prussian landed pro- prietors — the so-called Junkers — the same class that assumed so much responsibility in precipitating the world war in 19 14. In order to raise Prussia to the position of a dominating Four items European power, Bismarck perceived that four things were program 10 necessary: (1) The Prussian army must be greatly strength- ened, for without that he could not hope to carry out his audacious program. (2) Austria, hitherto so influential in German affairs, must be pushed out of Germany altogether, leaving the field to Prussia. (3) Prussian territory must be enlarged and consolidated by annexing those German states that separated the eastern possessions of the Hohenzollerns from their important holdings on the Rhine. (4) And, lastly, the large South German states, who disliked Prussia and sus- pected her motives, must in some way be induced to join a union under her headship. The first obstacle Bismarck met was the. refusal of the lower Bismarck house of the Prussian parliament to grant the money necessary Jhe Prussian for increasing the army. After some attempts to conciliate the P arliament representatives of the people, Bismarck frankly told them that the great questions of the time had to be decided " not by speeches and votes of majorities but by blood and iron." So he went on with his plan of strengthening the army without waiting for legal appropriations. Prussia now had a military force that appeared to justify the The Schies- hope of victory should she undertake a war with her old rival. ^|- r In order to bring about the expulsion of Austria from the Ger- man Confederation, Bismarck took advantage of a situation that had already caused trouble in Germany, and which was known as the Schleswig-Holstein affair. The provinces of Schleswig and Holstein, although inhabited largely by Germans, had for centuries belonged to the king of Denmark. They were allowed, however, to retain their provincial assemblies, and were not considered a part of Denmark, any more than Hanover was a part of Great Britain in the last century. 6i6 Medieval mid Modern Times The action of Denmark War against Denmark, 1864 Prussia declares the German Con- federation dissolved In 1847, just when the growing idea of nationality was about to express itself in the Revolution of 1848, the king of Den- mark proclaimed that he was going to make these German provinces an integral part of the Danish kingdom. This aroused great indignation throughout Germany, especially as Holstein was a member of the German Confederation. In 1863 the king of Denmark ventured, in spite of the opposition of Prussia, to incorporate Schleswig into his kingdom. Bismarck's first step was to invite Austria to cooperate with Prussia in settling the Schleswig-Holstein difficulty. As Den- mark refused to make any concessions, the two powers de- clared war, defeated the Danish army, and forced the king of Denmark to cede Schleswig-Holstein to the rulers of Prussia and Austria jointly (October, 1864). They were to make such disposition of the provinces as they saw fit. There was now no trouble in picking a quarrel with Austria. Bismarck suggested the nominal independence of Schleswig and Holstein, but that they should become practically a part of Prussia. This plan was of course indignantly rejected by Austria, and it was arranged that, pending an adjustment, Austria should govern Holstein, and Prussia, Schleswig. Bismarck now obtained the secret assurance of Napoleon III that the French emperor would not interfere if Prussia and Italy should go to war with Austria. In April, 1866, Italy agreed that, should the king of Prussia take up arms during the fol- lowing three months with the aim of re-forming the German union, it too would immediately declare war on Austria, with the hope, of course, of obtaining Venice. The relations be- tween Austria and Prussia grew more and more strained until finally, in June, 1866, Austria was compelled to call out the forces of the confederation to protect herself against Prussia. This act Prussia declared put an end to the existing union between the two countries. On June 12 Prussia formally declared war on Austria. With the exception of Mecklenburg and the small states of the The Unification of Italy and Germany 617 north all Germany sided with Austria against Prussia. Bis- War declared marck immediately demanded of the rulers of the larger North p^siTand German states — Hanover, Saxony, and Hesse-Cassel — that Austna they stop their warlike preparations and agree to accept Prus- sia's plan for reforming the Germanic Confederation. On their refusal Prussian troops immediately occupied these territories, and war actually began. Territory seized by Prussia in 1866 The entire Prussian army was ready for immediate action so Prussia that, in spite of the suspicion and even hatred which the liberal vlctonous party in Prussia entertained for the autocratic Bismarck, all resistance on the part of the states of the north was promptly prevented, Austria was defeated on July 3 in the decisive battle of Sadowa, and within three weeks after the breaking off of diplomatic relations the war was practically over. Austria's in- fluence was at an end, and Prussia had established her power to do with Germany as she pleased. 6i8 Medieval and Modern Times The North German Federation The consti- tution of the Federation Austria- Hungary Prussia was aware that the larger states south of the Main River were not ripe for the union that she desired. She therefore organized a so-called North German Federation, which included all the states north of the Main. Prussia had grasped the opportunity to increase her own boundaries and round out her territory by seizing the North German states, with the exception of Saxony, that had gone to war against her. Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, and the free city of Frankfort, along with the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, all were added to the kingdom of the Hohenzollerns. Prussia, thus enlarged, summoned the lesser states about her to confer upon a constitution for the North German Federation. This constitution provided that there should be a national as- sembly made up of representatives of all the people included in the union, which corresponded roughly to our House of Representatives. The king of Prussia was assigned the presi- dency of the union. A peculiar body was provided for, called the Federal Council (Bundesraf), to which all the state govern- ments, that is, the monarchs and free towns included in the union, were to send agents who were not to vote according to their own notions but as directed by the particular government they represented. Each government was assured at least one vote in the Federal Council, but Prussia successfully demanded that she be assigned no less than seventeen votes out of a total of forty-three. To sum up, the people at large were per- mitted to elect members of the chamber of representatives ; the monarchs included in the federation each had one or more votes in the Federal Council, and, finally, the overwhelming power of Prussia was recognized by giving its king the presi- dency of the union and permitting him to control personally over a third of the votes in the Federal Council. Austria, excluded from Germany, sought to erect a strong state in southeastern Europe. In 1867 the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was formed, the Magyars being granted almost all they had fought for under Kossuth. Most Slavic subjects of the The Unification of Italy and Germany 619 Hapsburgs, however, remained hostile to this joint govern- ment, and this furnished fuel for the war of 19 14. (See below, pp. 737 f.J The Franco-German War of 1870 and the Estab- lishment of the German Empire 126. No one was more chagrined by the abrupt termination Disappoint- of the war of 1866 and the speedy and decisive victory of hopes of Prussia than Napoleon III. He had hoped that the combatants Na P oleon ni might be weakened by a long struggle, and that at last he might have an opportunity to arbitrate and incidentally to extend the boundaries of France, as had happened after the Italian war. But Prussia came out of the conflict with greatly increased power and territory, while France had gained nothing. An effort of Napoleon's to get a foothold in Mexico had failed, owing to the recovery of the United States from the Civil War and their warning that they should regard his continued inter- vention there as a hostile act. His hopes of annexing Luxem- bourg as an offset for the gains that Prussia had made were also frustrated. One course remained for the French emperor, namely, to France de- permit himself to be forced into a war with Prussia, which had U ponVrussia, especially roused the jealousy of France. The nominal pretext J ul ^ l 9t l8 7° for hostilities was relatively unimportant. 1 Bismarck eagerly 1 In 1869 Spain was without a king, and the crown was tendered to Leopold of Hohenzollern, a very distant relative of William I of Prussia. This greatly excited the people of Paris, for it seemed to them only an indirect way of bringing Spain under the influence of Prussia. The French minister of foreign affairs declared that the candidacy was an attempt to " reestablish the empire of Charles V." In view of this opposition, Leopold withdrew his acceptance of the Spanish crown early in July, 1870, and Europe believed the incident to be at an end. The French ministry, however, was not satisfied with this, and demanded that the king of Prussia should pledge himself that the candidacy should never be renewed. This William refused to do. Bismarck did not hesitate to falsify the actual circumstances in the German newspapers in such a way that it appeared as if the French ambassador had insulted King William. The Parisians at the same time received the impression that their ambassador had received an affront, and demanded an immediate declaration of war. 620 Medieval and Modern Times encouraged war with France, for he believed that if the South German states were to unite under Prussia against a common enemy, they would later join the North German Federation. On the other hand, the hostility which the South German states had formerly shown toward Prussia encouraged Napoleon III to believe that as soon as the French troops should gain their first victory, Bavaria, Wiirttemberg, and Baden would join him. That first victory was never won. War had no sooner been declared than the Germans laid all jealousy aside and ranged themselves as a nation against France. The French army, moreover, was neither well equipped nor well commanded. The Germans hastened across the Rhine, and within a few days were driving the French before them. In a series of bloody encounters about Metz one of the French armies was defeated and finally shut up within the fortifications of the town. Seven weeks had not elapsed after the beginning of the war before the Germans had captured a second French army and made a prisoner of the emperor himself in the great battle of Sedan, September i, 1870. 1 Siege of Paris The Germans then surrounded and laid siege to Paris. the Franco- Napoleon III had been completely discredited by the disasters Prussian War about Metz and at Sedan, and consequently the empire was abolished and France for the third time was declared a repub- lic. 2 In spite of the energy which the new government showed in arousing the French against the invaders, prolonged resist- ance was impossible. The French capital surrendered Janu- ary 28, 187 1, an armistice was arranged, and the war was to all intents and purposes over. Cession of Bismarck deeply humiliated France, in arranging the treaty Lorraine to of peace, by requiring the cession of two French provinces Germany t0 w hi c h the Germans had no just claim whatever — Alsace and northeastern Lorraine. This was a terrible mistake for which the Germans had to pay dearly in the Great War 1 The French fought heroically at the battle of Sedan but were outgeneraled and overcome by superior forces. 2 See below, p. 635. The Unification of Italy and Germany 621 of 19 1 4. 1 When Bismarck concluded the war with Austria he prudently took precautions to leave as little bitterness behind as possible. With France it was different. The Germans wished for a visible sign that they had had their revenge on the French. Many of the Alsatians, it is true, spoke a German dialect, but the provinces had no desire to become a part of the Ger- man Empire. The people felt themselves to be an integral part of the French nation, and rather than submit to the hated rule of the Germans many of them left their homes and settled in France. Those who remained never ceased to pro- test against the harsh attempts of the German government to Germanize them and to prevent them from expressing their natural resentment. The Germans exacte'd a heavy war indemnity from France Fatal results — a billion dollars — and proclaimed that German troops would f ee ling remain in France until the sum was paid. The French people jJ^vSrof made pathetic sacrifices to hasten the payment of the indemnity 1870-1871 in order to free their country from the presence of the detested " Prussians." The bitter feeling between France and Germany dates from this war. The natural longing of the French for their " lost provinces " and the suspicions of the Germans not only prevented the nations from becoming friends but had much to do with the sudden and inexcusable attack which Germany made on France in August, 19 14. The fate of Alsace-Lorraine has been from the first one of the crucial issues of the Great War. Whether or not its lost provinces shall be returned to France is one of the most troublesome questions that will have to be decided at the peace table now the awful struggle is over. !*Alsace had, with certain exceptions, — especially as regarded Strassburg and the other free towns, — been ceded to the French king by the Treaty of Westphalia (see above, p. 357). During the reign of Louis XIV all of Alsace had been annexed to France (1681). The duchy of Lorraine had upon the death of its last duke fallen to France in 1766. It had previously been regarded as a part of the Holy Roman Empire. The part of Lorraine demanded by Germany in 1871 included about one third of the original duchy of Lorraine, in which was the fortified city of Metz. 622 Medieval and Modern Times Contrast between the attitude of the world in 1870 and in 1914 Final unifi- cation of Germany Proclamation of the Ger- man Empire, January 18, 1871 French politicians and newspaper men certainly played into Germany's hands when they urged a declaration of war against their neighbor in 1870. France had to pay for this terrible error by losing her Rhine provinces and watching Germany increase in population and wealth until Prussian ambition and insolence reached such a point that forty-four years later the German armies once more swept into France, this time without any plausible excuse whatsoever. In 1870 Europe and the United States had observed strict neutrality during the conflict. In 19 14, on the contrary, the despicable conduct of Germany speedily aroused the hostility of most of the nations of the world, and they gradually formed a. gigantic alliance against her and her allies. The war between France and Prussia in 1870, instead of hindering the development of Germany as Napoleon III had hoped it would, only served to consummate the work of 1866. The South German states, — Bavaria, Wiirttemberg, Baden, and south Hesse, — having sent their troops to fight side by side with the Prussian forces, consented after their common victory over France to join the North German Federation. Surrounded by the German princes, William, King of Prussia and President of the North German Federation, was proclaimed German Emperor in the palace of Versailles, January, 187 1. In this way the German Empire came into existence. With its victorious army and its wily, chancellor, Bismarck, it immediately took an important place among the western powers of Europe and sought to increase its power. Rome added to the king- dom of Italy, 1870 The Final Unification of Italy 127. The unification of Italy was completed, like that of Germany, by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. After the war of 1866 Austria had ceded Venetia to Italy. Napoleon III had, however, sent French troops in 1867 to prevent Garibaldi from seizing Rome and the neighboring districts, which had been held by the head of the Catholic Church for more than a thousand years. In August, 1870, the reverses of the war The Unification of Italy and Germany 623 compelled Napoleon to recall the French garrison from Rome, and the pope made little effort to defend his capital against the Italian army, which occupied it in September. The people of Rome voted by an overwhelming majority to join the king- dom of Italy ; and the work of Victor Emmanuel and Cavour was completed by transferring the capital to the Eternal City. Although the papal possessions were declared a part of the Position of kingdom of Italy, a law was passed which guaranteed to the pope the rank and privileges of a sovereign prince. He was to have his own ambassadors and court like the other European powers. No officer of the Italian government was to enter the Lateran or Vatican palaces upon any official mission. As head of the Church the pope was to be entirely independent of the king of Italy, and the bishops were not required to take the oath pi allegiance to the government. A sum of over six hundred thousand dollars annually was also appropriated to aid the pope in defraying his expenses. The pope, however, refused to recognize the arrangement. He still regards him- self as a prisoner and the Italian government as a usurper who has robbed him of his possessions. He has never ac- cepted the income assigned to him, and still maintains that the independence which he formerly enjoyed as ruler of the Papal States is essential to the best interests of the head of a great international church. In order to maintain the dignity of her new position, Italy Italy becomes rapidly increased her army and navy. Universal military serv- p OW er° pe ' ice was introduced as in other European states and modern warships were built. Then the Italians set about gaining colonies in Africa and in 1887 sent an army into Abyssinia; but after some fifteen years of intermittent warfare they were Colonial able to retain only a strip along the coast of the Red Sea, about twice the size of the state of Pennsylvania. Again, in 1911, by a war with Turkey, they took Tripoli on the south shore of the Mediterranean. 1 1 See below, p. 720. enterprise 624 Medieval and Modern Times The cost of armaments has made Italy almost bankrupt at times, and as, it is not a rich country, taxes are very high. As these fall largely upon the poor, hundreds of thousands of Italians have left their land as emigrants, preferring the United States or Argentina to their own colonies. Many of those who Fig. 165. Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, at Rome On the northwestern slope of the Capitoline Hill the Italians have erected the most imposing monument in Europe, to commemorate the unification of Italy. Its size is indicated in the picture by the relative size of people and buildings. A colossal statue of Victor Emmanuel adorns the center, while a vast colonnade surmounts the hill. The Forum of ancient Rome lies just behind it ; but it faces in the opposite direction down a broad, busy street of the modern city, which is grow- ing rapidly. Electric cars now connect the seven hills, and arc lights shine beside the Colosseum stayed at home have been discontented with the government, some becoming socialists, others, especially the old followers of Mazzini, favoring a republic, while the party wishing to see the papal power restored has used the situation to advance its conservative ideas. Still, most critics admit that the present monarchy is much better than the old governments which it replaced. Much of the revenue has been spent on other things Italy The Unification of Italy and Germany 625 than armaments. Railroads have been built by the state to open up the country, and Italy has begun to develop inter- nally. Manufactures have grown up in the northern part, so that Milan is to-day one of the great manufacturing cities of Europe. National schools are bringing improvement in educa- tion, although the peasants in the mountainous districts are still very ignorant and superstitious. Victor Emmanuel died in 1878. His son Humbert was assas- Kings of sinated by an anarchist in 1900 and was succeeded by his son, the present king, Victor Emmanuel III, who is regarded as an enlightened man desirous of ruling within the limits of the con- stitution. The monarchy is in practice, as in form, quite similar to that of England. ■ QUESTIONS Section i 24. Review briefly the history of Italy from the break-up of the Roman Empire to 1859. What was the importance of Sardinia in Italy? What was the policy of Cavour? Why was Napoleon III ready to intervene in Italian affairs? What was the result of his intervention ? How was the kingdom of Italy founded, and what Italian territories were not included in the union of 1861 ? Section 125. Why is Germany called the youngest of the Euro- pean powers? How did the unification of Germany really begin? Why did Prussia play such an important role in Germany? What was the policy of William I and Bismarck ? What do you know of the German army? What had the Schleswig-Holstein affair to do with the war of 1 866 ? What were the results of that war ? Review the growth of Prussia from the Great Elector to 1866. What was the North German Federation? Section 126. How did France become involved in war with Germany in 1870? What was the course of the war? W T hat were the terms of peace? Why did these prove disastrous not only to Germany but to the world at large? How did the final unification of Germany take place? Section' 127. When and how was Italy finally unified ? What is the position of the pope? Sketch the main lines of the history of the kingdom of Italy. Why do Italian emigrants go to America in preference to their own colonies? CHAPTER XXX The war of 19 14 makes the German government a world issue The predom- inance of Prussia in the German Empire Powers of the Kaiser THE GERMAN EMPIRE AND THE THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC The German Constitution 128. Few persons outside of Germany knew much about the German constitution and methods of government before the opening of the Great War in 19 14. Then suddenly these became a matter of world-wide interest. The ravaging of a helpless, blameless little country like Belgium, with no further excuse than that it suited the interests of the German high mili- tary command to pass through that country in order to crush France, woke other nations to the dangers that lurked in the German system. In the North German Federation of 1866 Prussia, with the German states she had just seized, constituted nearly the whole union. After the South German states joined the federation and so formed the German Empire, Prussia still formed nearly two thirds of the whole empire, and her citizens amounted to nearly two thirds of the entire population of Germany. We may be sure that Bismarck, with his Prussian autocratic ideas and his confidence in armies and kings, would see to it that the new constitution for the empire insured the control of Germany by Prussia and the Junker class to which he himself belonged. The constitution of 1866 had, however, been drawn up with a hope that the South German states would later join the union ; accordingly few changes were necessary when the federation was formed in 1871. The dominating position of Prussia and her king was so cleverly disguised that it some- times seemed to escape Germans themselves. The " presidency " of the empire was vested in the king of Prussia, but he was not, in theory, the monarch of Germany, in 626 German Empire and Third French Republic 627 spite of his august title of " emperor " {Kaiser). Emperor William II, it is true, always talked as if he ruled by the grace of God, but he had no constitutional right to such a claim. He did, however, according to Prussian law, rule Prussians by " divine right," and they, as we have seen, constituted a great part of the German people. The emperor did not have a right directly to veto the measures passed by the imperial parliament, but he exercised many of the powers which would fall to an absolute monarch. He appointed and dismissed the chancellor of the empire, who was, with his " all-highest " self, the chief official spokesman of Germany. What was most dangerous for the rest of the world, the Kaiser commanded the unconditional obedience of all German soldiers and sailors and appointed the chief officers in the army and navy. He had only to say that the Fatherland was " attacked," and he could hurl the German armies against any innocent neighbor he chose without asking any one's approval. This he did when he ordered the invasion of Belgium and the attack on France in 1 9 1 4. The real sovereignty, however, according to the constitution, The Bundes- • • rat resided in the whole body of all the German rulers in the union, and therefore more especially in the Federal Council, or Bun- desrat yto which the various governments sent their represent- atives. This council was much more important than the Senate of the United States or any other upper house in Europe. It initiated the important laws and was presided over by the imperial chancellor. Prussia's influence in it was secured by assigning her king a sufficient number of votes to enable him to veto any measure he wished. The House of Representatives, or Reichstag, consisting of The Reichs- ■ about - four hundred members, was elected by universal male suffrage for a term of five years. The emperor, however, might dissolve it at any time with the consent of the Bundesrat, arid- did so on occasions when it refused to pass the measures of the government. Since such measures — espe- cially money bills — ordinarily came to it from the Bundesrat 628 Medieval and Modern Times The chancel- lor The federal system ready-made, the Reichstag was little more than a critic of the propositions placed before it. This placed it at a great dis- advantage as compared with the House of Commons, the French Chamber of Deputies, or the American House of Representatives. Moreover, since the election districts were not changed after 187 1, cities which had grown rapidly had no adequate representation, 1 so that the Reichstag was in this respect somewhat like the old English House of Com- mons as it existed before 1832. The chief minister of the empire was the chancellor, who was appointed by the emperor and was responsible to him alone. Although there was much agitation in recent years, espe- cially among the socialists, to secure responsibility to the Reichstag, 2 Germany never introduced the cabinet system. The Kaiser exercised, through the chancellor and in view of his position as king of Prussia, a personal power far exceeding that of any of the constitutional rulers of Europe. In the German federal system the imperial government had wide powers in regulating many economic matters instead of re- serving these entirely to the states. In addition to the regulation of commerce, and the control of the banking system and of the railways, telegraph, and post office, it introduced new and uni- form criminal-law and civil-law codes 3 throughout the empire and reorganized the courts, while a new imperial currency re- placed, in 1873, the bewildering variety of coins and paper money of the separate states. 4 From this description it will be seen that the new German Empire was vastly different from the old Holy Roman Empire. 1 Berlin, for instance, with two million inhabitants, had only six members in the Reichstag, although it should, proportionately, have had twenty. The reason for not redistributing the seats was that this reform would increase the socialist membership of the Reichstag. 2 In 1909 Prince Biilow, the chancellor, resigned when the Reichstag refused to vote his budget, partly to teach the conservatives, who turned against him, a lesson. 3 The criminal law was revised in 1871, the civil code put into effect in 1900, and the courts were reorganized in 1877. 4 The basis of this is the mark, of about the value of twenty-five cents. German Empire and Third French Republic 629 Bismarck and State Socialism 129. The first chancellor of the new German Empire was The Kuitur- naturally the man who had created it, Prince Bismarck. The kam $f first three years of his government were largely taken up with a struggle with the authorities of the Catholic Church, over which he wished to assert the supremacy of the State in Germany. Education, even of priests, was to be under close government supervision. The Jesuits and other orders were expelled for their opposition to what Bismarck called "a struggle for civilization," * and the pope's protests were unheeded. The effect upon the Catholics was to drive them into a solid political party ; and soon Bismarck found it to his advantage to stop his anticlerical policy in order to win the support of this party, 2 which was naturally conservative, against a new and disturbing element, the socialists. Socialism, as we have seen, 3 grew out of the Industrial Revo- Rise of the lution. This did not get fully under way in Germany until after era? Dem °" the middle of the nineteenth century, but in the period we are describing, Germany was undergoing a rapid and profound change. Large manufacturing towns sprang up ; railways were built ; and the working classes began to feel themselves in need of defense against the power of the new factory owners. In addition to the formation of labor unions a new political party appeared, known as the Social Democratic Labor party, which based its platform upon the teachings of Karl Marx. In 1875 this platform was boldly published, 4 and in the elections of that year the Social Democrats polled some four hundred and forty thousand votes. 1 In German, Kulturkampf. 2 This was known as the party of the Center, from the fact that it was seated in the center of the Reichstag. The real Conservative party was the Agrarian Union, representing large landowners. The Liberals found their support in the cities. There were various groups of these: some — National Liberals — were for strong foreign policy, and most had given up their former attachment to free trade. There were also smaller groups. 3 See above, p. 591. 4 Given in Readings in Modern European History, Vol II, p. 493. 630 Medieval and Modern Times Their sup- pression State insur- ance against accident and sickness Insurance for the aged and incapacitated Bismarck, naturally very conservative, grew alarmed, and in 1878 had a law passed to suppress socialistic agitation alto- gether. It prohibited meetings, publications, and associations having for their purpose " the subversion of the public order " and threatened to call out the soldiers to put down labor disturbances. Leading socialists were imprisoned, and the political activities of the socialists were crushed for the next twelve years. Yet secretly the socialists kept up their propaganda, and Bismarck became convinced that the only way to render the movement harmless was for the government to " steal the socialist thunder." In 1885, after some two years of discus- sion, he had two bills passed, providing for the insurance of working people against accident and sickness. In the case of accident insurance the employers were obliged to provide a fund to insure their employees against accidents. From this fund the workmen were to be compensated when partially or totally disabled, and, in the case of death, provision was made for the family of the deceased. The sickness insurance law compels working men and women to insure themselves against sickness, but helps them to bear the burden by requiring the employer to pay a portion of the premium and to be responsible for carrying out the law. These measures were supplemented, in 1889, after the accession of William II, by an old-age insurance law which compels every employee with an income under five hundred dollars a year to pay a certain proportion into a state fund which provides an annual pension for him after he has reached the age of seventy years. In case he is incapacitated earlier in life he may begin to draw the pension before he reaches that age. As in other forms of workingmen's insurance, the em- ployers pay a portion of the premium; and the State also makes a regular contribution to every annuity paid. 1 In 19 13 over twenty-five million persons were insured under these laws. 1 See Readings in Modern European History, Vol. II, pp. 189 ff. " P * T ffl 5 -J Bremen TheHagi Ie y- 62 Z aider Zee k«> MQf MEC'Kl 5N]| S^afik-,,. &£» •Schwefin ,rg r^£^-<£/ s c H vv ? R *' v ; -tin a ;«!."■ v/ ^-^ ./-k'W ...-Locliaunibu/ir. '-.■J ® I ( Chin * ^IP^"' Miiuster ,' OMUiVufck Lil)pefxr( Brunswfck> *i$ v /^Brancl i\ ©/Magde'l «hiv i.ijipe^j ^ urunswickj* ^\\ / v i (® v 1 ' r B'-ajwA^V' "~ • Halber .? tad iH-»^C : (P^ra li a; f •;::.- vH^H, mud ^jy V A>M^or -s a &0 M< Halh \ -.>~^T'' u "^v- A?. ri g i ui] O R e h e *''«».\l ,^. * . s s ), iff? Ir a ~V Snellen „ a «P e ,vt s e )^ r TTSk 2 ^"^ />'-•> ^-M^,.- •p»W — - ,r /I V\ j! F a " kfoi- t"iV --• ••>s 1 I \/ y ^/ 48 , y^ \ r-'P^latiliate/He^lelbeig J ^ (To Bavaria) A ^ ^ !3Ietz >f • .. -W /^ ..-/' /•Heilbrom ) V S\ Worth. W» Karlsruhe, > -. "% 4> [/ ^fiyPforzi.eim s*NancX tr ,; , O JT ^ U ^tuttgar \ '-* & trassbui a- ./7 .- ■ ■ ) > i vffl ?"" WUK^MBEl s ^//~T I ^^^ l -^lI(Freib U1 ^\ X £» furzbur 4 Augsburi THE Belfurt.) ^JlhausL r *$i — "Nj ^V^-H^^^jConslaiice. X'-^ J « .7 MATTHEWS-NORTHRUP WORKS ; " ^tia sel S W I T / F D V,-^ * 'J "\> vS' lick Ratisl + \ German Empire and Third French Republic 631 These measures, by which the government assumes a large " State social- ism " criti~ degree of responsibility for the welfare of the working class, con- cized by stitute what is known as "state socialism." Socialists, however, sociahsts insist that the one most important element of socialism is lacking ? namely, democratic control. The German system is a revival and extension of the paternalism so familiar to Prussia in the days of Frederick the Great, and, however important as philanthropy, socialists claim that it still leaves capitalist ownership untouched, which keeps the poor from a fair share of what they earn. How- ever, the State has kept enlarging its ownership of railways and of mines and has engaged in other forms of productive employment. 1 In foreign affairs Bismarck was very prudent. Russia had Bismarck been a valued friend during the period of German unification, affairs and for some years afterwards the three emperors of Germany, Russia, and Austria stood together against any chance of a war between France and Germany. But in 1878 Austria turned against Russia to check the latter's successful career in the Balkans. 2 Bismarck then sided with Austria, with the result that the two central empires formed an alliance the next year. The Triple This alliance was joined by Italy 3 in 1882, and was known as the Triple Alliance. It lasted till the war of 19 14. In addition to thus safeguarding the German Empire by Protection -r.. , . , , . . . rr and colonial treaties, Bismarck introduced m 1879 a protective tariff to expansion help the new manufactures which were so rapidly changing the country. Five years later he began vigorously to support schemes of colonization, especially in Africa, which had been mainly begun by private merchants and travelers. This policy of expansion was, as we shall see, 4 one of the causes of the war in 19 14. 1 The total value of state-owned productive property before the Great War was about $7,000,000,000, and the annual income about $300,000,000. The most important state-owned industry is that of the railways, but the government is the largest mine owner in Prussia, and " natural resources " are conserved by state ownership everywhere. 2 See below, p. 695 . 3 See below, p. 735. * See Chapter XXXV. 632 Medieval and Modem Times Reign of William II Accession of William II, 1888 Bismarck resigns 130. With the accession of the third emperor, William II, 1 in 1888, Prince Bismarck lost his power. He had been im- plicitly trusted by the old Kaiser, William I, who had been content to leave the practical management of the empire largely in the hands of the chancellor. The new emperor proved a very different man. He was fond of making speeches 2 in which he had much to say of the power which God had given him ; indeed, he proved a stout adherent of that con- ception of kingship which Bossuet extracted from the Holy Scriptures and urged upon the willing Louis XIV. 3 On his accession to power he expressed himself as follows : " Summoned to the throne of my fathers, I have taken up the reins of government, looking for aid to the King of kings. I have sworn to God to follow the example of my fathers and be to my people a just and firm ruler, to nurture piety and the fear of God, to cherish peace, and to be a helper of the poor 'and oppressed, and a faithful guardian of justice." It is not strange that Bismarck, who had guided the Prussian ship of state through troubled waters for over a quarter of a century, should have found it hard to tolerate the intervention of the inexperienced young emperor. In March, 1890, he pre- sented his resignation, and amid a great demonstration of popu- lar feeling the " Iron Chancellor " retired to private life. He had assumed no responsibility for the policies of William II, and may have cherished some bitterness against him. At any rate, after his death in 1898 these simple words were carved upon his tomb, " Here lies Prince Bismarck, a faithful servant of Emperor William I." Upon the announcement of Bismarck's resignation William II declared, with his usual pompous oratory : 1 William II is the eldest son of Frederick (who succeeded his father, William I, in March, 1888, and died in June of the same year) and Victoria, the daughter of Queen Victoria of England. 2 See Readings in Modern European History, Vol. II, pp. 193 ff., 199 ff. 3 See Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, pp. 5 ff. German Empire and Third French Republic 633 " I am as much afflicted as if I had lost my grandfather anew, but we must endure whatever God sends us, even if we should have to die for it. The post of officer of the quarterdeck of the ship of state has fallen to me. The course remains unchanged. Forward, with full steam ! " For a time it seemed as if William II proposed to conciliate Attitude of the socialist party, although he could not possibly have had any toward" real sympathy with its aims. He pledged himself to continue sociallsm the social legislation begun by his grandfather, since he deemed it one of the duties of the State to relieve poverty ; and he declared that the welfare of the workingman lay close to his heart. Irritated, however, at his failure to check the expression of discontent on the part of the working classes, he grew angry and pronounced the social democrat as " nothing better than an enemy of the empire and his country." His officials frankly admitted that they did all they could to prevent the election of socialists to the Reichstag. United Germany, like united Italy, embarked upon a colonial German policy. In the later years of Bismarck's administration the Germans got control of large provinces (Togo and Kamerun) on the western coast of Africa. They moreover carved out a protectorate called German Southwest Africa, far larger than the whole- area of the German Empire, and they established themselves in German East Africa, which was even more exten- sive (see map, p. 722, below). But few Germans cared to emigrate to the new colonies, and their treatment of the natives made them a good deal of trouble. The enterprise cannot be said to have paid very well. In 1897 the Germans seized the port of Kiaochow in China and began to exhibit great jealousy in regard to the colonial expansion of England and France. When the Great War began Germany speedily lost all her colonies. It is impossible to say whether or no they will be returned to her. During the reign of William II Germany grew rapidly, in wealth and population. The population in 1870 was about 634 Medieval and Modern Times Growth of 40,000,000 ; in 19 14 it was almost 68,000,000, a larger increase G umbere "* tnan YXi an y otner country in western Europe. Vast new cities and wealth grew up ; old ones tore down their narrow streets, destroyed their slums, and spread out along miles of boulevards, as new as those of Chicago. German steamship lines, heavily subsidized by the government, developed rapidly and their vessels were soon sailing on every sea. The farmers and manufacturers flourished owing to the new markets throughout the world opened by the new German merchant marine. Work- men stopped emigrating to the United States and South America because times were good at home and it was easy to get enough to do. The German But Germany did not play the game fairly. Individual contxoUe^by Englishmen and individual English companies had built up the State England's world commerce. But German business men were generally backed by the German government, which put its power and money at their disposal. So they did not work simply for themselves, but the State saw to it that they worked for the aggrandizement of the German government. Ugly spirit From a relatively poor country in 187 1 Germany became competition ricn and insolent. Commercial spies were everywhere on the alert to gain some advantage for Germans as Germans. Instead of acting in a spirit of decent competition they formed a sort of gigantic conspiracy utterly regardless of the rights of others. Although the Germans were freely received by all other nations, including England and France, they abused the hospitality granted them by their neighbors. They judged others by them- selves. They imagined that they were surrounded on all sides by an " iron ring " of enemies. When by peaceful means they were becoming a highly important commercial nation they began to denounce England as a pirate and to talk of making "a place in the sun" for themselves by crushing her as their chief enemy. HowtheGer- The German people were told that the world was against were deceived them. They were encouraged by their government to think of other peoples with contempt and hate, and to look forward to German Empire and Third French Republic 635 the time when Germany would be strong enough to make her- self the chief world power. Unfortunately the other nations did not take this German How the talk seriously. Few imagined that the old Prussian spirit of the happened Great Elector, Frederick the Great, and Bismarck and the silly talk of Fichte and other German philosophers, historians, and economists about German superiority would take the form of an armed attempt to put the theories into practice. Neverthe- less this happened. The German conception of the State was The Germans quite different from that which "prevails in democratic coun- Jeverethe tries. Lincoln once defined democracy as " the government State and J ° its officials of the people, by the people, for the people." But in Germany the people were taught by their officials that the State is .' something more precious than the interests of all those who compose it. And it is the duty of the people not to control the State in their own interests but to obey the government officials and believe what the government tells them. There was no large liberal party in Germany to oppose ancient Prussian des- potism and militarism. The Social Democrats, it is true, often talked against autocracy and militarism. But few of them were proof against the war spirit when the Kaiser and his advisers precipitated the great conflict in 19 14. Establishment of the Present French Republic 131. When the news reached Paris of the surrender of The insur- Napoleon at Sedan, a group of republicans at once proclaimed ^Paris* a republic. A provisional government was hastily set up to Commune carry on the war, and when it was over a National Assembly was elected, in February, 187 1, to make peace with Germany. But peace was hardly made before this temporary government was called upon to subdue an insurrection of the Parisian popu- lace. The insurgents were afraid that the Assembly, which was largely composed of Royalists, wished to reestablish monarchy, so they organized a city government like the Commune of the 636 Medieval and Modern Times The surpris- ingly rapid recovery of France The French army The consti- tution of the present French Republic Revolution, 1 and prepared to defend Paris against the national troops. The struggle that followed was terrible. The rebels were guilty of atrocities, such as the murder of the Archbishop of Paris and other prisoners, and the army which was sent against them gave them no quarter. When, after two months of disorder, the forces of the commune were completely routed in a series of bloody street fights, in desperation they burned part of the city including two important public buildings, the Palace of the Tuileries and the city hall. The victorious government showed no mercy ; hundreds were shot after hasty court-martial, and the rebellion was put down in blood. More persons were killed than in the whole Reign of Terror. The National Assembly, under the presidency of the veteran statesman Thiers, then proceeded to get rid of the German garrisons by paying the huge indemnity to Germany. To the surprise of every one France paid the five billion francs in three years, and the country gradually recovered from the terrible loss and demoralization caused by the war. France also began to reorganize its army, requiring every Frenchman to serve five years in the active army 2 and fifteen in the reserve. The National Assembly had the further task of drawing up a constitution for France. There was much uncertainty for several years as to just what form the constitution would per- manently take. But the monarchists quarreled among them- selves and had no good candidate for the throne. 3 As a result, 1 See pp. 499 and 513. 2 This was gradually reduced later to two years' active service and eleven years in the reserve. In 1913, however, the term of active service was length- ened to three years, in order to keep pace with the increasing German army. See below, section 156. ' 8 The monarchical party naturally fell into two groups. One, the so-called legitimists, believed that the elder Bourbon line, to which Louis XVI and Charles X had belonged, should be restored in the person of the count of Chambord, a grandson of Charles X. The Orleanists, on the other hand, wished the grandson of Louis Philippe, the count of Paris, to be king. In 1873 the Orleanists agreed to help the count of Chambord to the throne as Henry V, but that prince frustrated the plan by refusing to accept the national colors, — red, white, and blue, — which had become so endeared to the nation that it appeared dangerous to exchange them for the ancient white flag of the Bourbons. ' '-V, An Interesting View of Old Paris, showing the Home of the First President of the Parlement of Paris The Munition Works, Le Creusot, France France has relied much upon its artillery for defense, since Germany has more soldiers, but in the great war of 19 14 the Germans had pre- pared more heavy cannon than the French who used mainly a lighter gun. The Creusot works are next to the German Krupp works in im- portance in Europe. This picture of them is from an etching by the American artist Mr. Joseph Pennell German Empire and Third French Republic 637 those who advocated maintaining the republic prevailed, and in 1875 tne Assembly passed a series of three laws organizing the government. These have since served France as a constitution. The president is elected for seven years by both Senate and President Chamber of Deputies meeting together. The real head of the m6nt government, however, is the prime minister, who, with the other ministers form a cabinet, responsible to parliament, as in England. 1 As one reviews the history of France since the establish- Permanent ment of the First Republic in 1792, it appears as if revolutionary the French changes of government had been very frequent. As a matter j^spke^oT* of fact, the various revolutions produced far less change in the changes in r ° , the consti- system of government than is usually supposed. They neither tution called in question the main provisions of the Declaration of the Rights of Man drawn up in 1789, nor did they materially alter the system of administration which was established by Napoleon immediately after his accession in 1800. So long as this was the case and the representatives of the nation were permitted to control the ruler, it really made little difference whether France was called an " empire," a " constitutional monarchy," or a " republic." After the republicans had got control of parliament and had The republic elected a republican president in 1879, there were still two e rmy centers of Royalist influence, the army and the Church. Most of the higher officers in the army came from aristocratic fami- lies, as in other European countries, and they were naturally 1 The parliament of France differs from the Congress of the United States or the Parliament of Great Britain in the way it works. Instead of having two great parties there are about ten groups of members, each representing certain ideas. A few monarchists still sit on the seats at the extreme right of the speaker's desk, or tribune. Next to them sit very conservative republicans. The largest group is that of the " radicals," or reformers, while at the left are quite a number of socialists, representing the working classes. The cabinet must have the support of a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, as the house of representatives is called, which is elected every four years by uni- versal male suffrage. The Senate is elected for nine years by a more compli- cated system, one hundred being elected every third year, and tends to be more conservative than the Chamber. 638 German Empire and Third French Republic 639 ready to side against the republic if the Royalist leaders should Boulanger's give them a chance. This was made clear in two incidents, the overturn die " Boulanger affair" and the "Dreyfus case." About 1890 re P ublic General Boulanger, a popular officer, began courting the favor of the army and the workingmen in much the same way that Napoleon III had done when he was planning to make himself master of France. The monarchists supported him in the hope of overthrowing the republic. He was elected by a huge ma- jority to the Chamber of Deputies, and for a time it seemed as though he might make himself a dictator. He was accused of conspiring against the State, however, and fled from France, leaving the monarchists chagrined and the republic secure. Some four years later a Jewish officer from Alsace, Captain The " Drey flic sffflir " Alfred Dreyfus, was convicted by court-martial of being a spy for the German army. His friends claimed that he had not had a fair trial ; the heads of the army took this as an attack upon their honor, and the nation became much aroused over the controversy. After a second trial by court-martial in which he was again declared guilty, Dreyfus was finally pronounced innocent by the highest court in France, in 1906. The impor- tance of " the affair" politically was that the government finally * Paris is regarded by many as the most beautiful city in Europe. It was largely rebuilt in the nineteenth century, mainly according to the plans of Napoleon Ill's engineers, who laid out broad, shaded streets and added many fine public buildings. South of the river is the Latin Quarter, where are the University and the art schools. Along the north- ern bank stretches the vast palace of the Louvre, the greatest art gallery in the world, from the roof of which this picture was taken. On the island, beyond the chapel of the Palace of Justice (see p. 520), rises the majestic cathedral of Notre Dame. The colored picture opposite page 642 shows the grand staircase of the Opera House, which stands in the center of the city. It is the most magnificent building devoted to music in the world, and was be- gun by Napoleon III but completed by the Third Republic. The pic- ture shows an opening night when the high officials of the government come in state. Once a month free performances by the best artists are given, which are open to the people of Paris ; for the French government, like other European governments, supports art by national subsidies. 640 Medieval and Modern Times The republic and the Church The school question The clergy as salaried officials of the State determined to get rid of the Royalist army officers so that the army could be relied upon to be republican. It also produced an alliance, called the bloc, or " block," of republicans of all shades, from socialists to conservatives, for- the purpose of lessening the political importance of the army and the Church. The Catholic clergy from the first had been hostile to the republic, for the republicans stood for such things as a national public-school system free from Church control, liberty of the press, and other ideas which seemed to be undermining the authority of the Church. 1 A public-school system was estab- lished in which clergymen were forbidden to teach, and the private schools, which had been mainly run by religious orders, were placed under strict government inspection. As the monastic orders opposed the carrying out of this and similar laws, which they regarded as persecution, parliament finally closed their schools and forced the orders to disband. As a result many monks and nuns left France. The next step was more far-reaching. By the treaty, or "Concordat," of 1801 between Napoleon and the pope, the bishops were appointed by the government, and the salaries of all the clergy were paid by the State, 2 much as had been the case in the old regime. The clergy, therefore, naturally a very influential class because of their religious duties, were also gov- ernment officials. Their opposition to the policies of the repub- licans led the latter to demand that the Concordat should be ended and the government stop paying some forty million francs a year to clergymen who seemed to them to be mainly intent upon stirring up hostility to the republic. 1 The treatment of the clergy in the great Revolution was never forgotten. In the period of the Restoration it was commonly stated that Throne and Altar were inseparable institutions. Napoleon III had been a strong defender of the papacy. Hence the hostility of the clergy to the Third Republic was largely political. 2 Although the Catholic religion was recognized as that of the majority of Frenchmen, the State also recognized the Reformed (Calvinist) and Lutheran churches and the Jewish religious community. These readily accepted the separation of Church and State, however. German Empire and Third French Republic 64 1 Many of these republicans had ceased, in any case, to be- The separa- lieve in what the Church taught, and finally a law was passed church and in 1905 to separate Church and State in France. The Church State buildings had belonged to the State since the first revolution, in 1789, and there was some trouble as to how they were to be turned over to the clergy for religious services when the latter refused to accept the settlement. Finally, in 1906, the govern- ment placed the churches and their furniture at the disposal of the priests. On the other hand, in order to punish the clergy for not obeying the law, palaces of bishops and seminaries have been turned into schools, hospitals, and other public in- stitutions. It is said that the Catholic Church in France is now prospering, although dependent, as in America, upon voluntary support. . France under the Third Republic has steadily advanced in Progress wealth, the French people being noted for their thrift and Thircf Re- economy. The savings of French peasants have enabled the P ubllc great banks to loan money to other nations, particularly Russia, so that Paris has grown to rival London as the money center of the world. France has been somewhat slow in adopting governmental measures for improving the condition of working- men, although in recent years it has perfected many plans for social insurance. The slowness with which it has taken up these ideas is mainly due to the fact that the peasants and the richer classes can combine to control a majority of votes in the parliament, and as they derive little benefit from such laws, while on the other hand they pay most of the taxes, they are inclined to refuse to make the necessary appropriations. France is therefore a relatively conservative nation. The result of this is that the working classes in the cities have The syndi- ceased to hope for very much help by way of laws. Although unions they still send socialists to represent them in parliament, they rely rather upon trade-unions. These are called syndicats by the French, and the more determined of these unions propose to win their way by strikes until they can force the capitalists to 642 Medieval and Modern Times turn their capital over to the laborers. Such a method of attack upon employers is known as " syndicalism " — a name applied to it in England and America as well. In spite of recurring troubles of this kind, however, France has prospered, especially in recent years. It has also entered upon a policy of expansion in Africa and Asia, which involved it in trouble with Germany, as we shall see later. 1 QUESTIONS Section 128. How did the North German Federation grow into the German Empire? What are the powers of the Kaiser? Con- trast the position of the Bundesrat with that of the United States Senate. Where are important laws initiated in the German parlia- ment? Describe the Reichstag. What reform is it in greatest need of? What important reforms has the federal system brought to Germany? Section 129. What permanent effects came from Bismarck's struggle with the Catholic Church? Why did socialism appear in Germany at about the period of unification? What effect did persecution have upon socialism in Germany? Give the terms of Bismarck's laws of state insurance. Why did socialists refuse to accept state socialism? How did the Triple Alliance come into being? When did Bismarck begin a colonial policy? Section 130. Compare the characters of Frederick the Great and William II. Why did Bismarck resign? Describe the growth of Germany since unification. Describe German commercial methods. How are Germans taught to view the State? Section 131. How did the present French republic originate? What events in Paris in 1870 suggest the Reign of Terror? What is the nature of the present French constitution ? What parties existed in France after 1871 ? Review the main changes in the form of the French government since the assembling of the Estates General in 1789. How could the army endanger the existence of the republic? How did the army become republican ? Why was the Church against the republic ? What did the Church lose when the Concordat was ended? What are the ideas of the syndicalists? Is France a progressive nation ? 1 See p. 735. 4 ' Opening of the Opera, Paris CHAPTER XXXI great britain and her empire The English Constitution 132. in the eighteenth century England seemed to have, in Position of comparison with other countries, a model of free government. 1 p a e ,ij^f en Y By the Bill of Rights (1689) a the king was forbidden to make any new laws, or neglect any old ones, or lay any taxes, or keep a standing army without the consent of Parliament. He was not to interfere with freedom of speech, or refuse to receive respectful petitions from his subjects. Even the right that the king of England had formerly enjoyed of vetoing bills passed by Parliament fell into disuse and was exercised for the last time by Queen Anne in 1707. In short, the power of mak- ing laws was taken over by the English Parliament, at a time when Continental countries were ruled by benevolent despots. The English king could not arbitrarily arrest and punish his The king of subjects. The Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 provided that any notVontro! one who was arrested should be informed of the reason and t} ] e courts 01 law should be speedily tried by a regular tribunal and dealt with according to the law of the land. In France, down to the Revolution, there were none of these restrictions placed upon the king, who could arrest his subjects on hit res de cachet > im- prison them indefinitely without assigning a reason, and could interfere in any suit and decide it as he chose. The English had, therefore, won two important safeguards for their liberties — a parliament to make their laws, and a 1 For the rise of Parliament see above, pp. 127 f., 365 f. 2 See above, p. 385. 643 644 Medieval and Modern Times good system of courts of justice to see that the laws were properly carried out. 1 But in the nineteenth century it became apparent that there was great need of reform in both branches of the government. Necessity of reforms in England Origin of the " rotten boroughs " Few persons permitted to vote ; many seats controlled by members of the House of Lords Prevalence of bribery The Reform of the Suffrage 133. The reform of Parliament was the most pressing need, for Parliament had ceased to represent the nation at large and had become a council of wealthy landlords and nobles. This was due to two things. In the first place, there were the so-called " rotten boroughs." Such towns as had in earlier times sent their two representatives each to Parliament continued still to do so, regardless of the number of their .inhabitants, and no new boroughs had been added to the list since the reign of Charles II. 2 On the other hand, towns which had developed under the influence of the Industrial Revolution, like Birming- ham, Manchester, and Leeds, had no representatives at all. In the second place, few persons had a right to vote even in the towns which were permitted to send representatives to the House of Commons. Many of the boroughs were owned out- right by members of the House of Lords or others, who easily forced the few voters to -choose any candidate they proposed. 3 Bribery was prevalent and was fostered by the system of public balloting. 4 By long-established custom the price of a vote at Hull was two guineas (something over ten dollars), at Stafford, seven. The reform of the suffrage proved a very difficult matter. Those in control of the elections managed to prevent any 1 The English constitution is an unwritten one and therefore can be changed readily if necessary, but the English have been, upon the whole, very slow to make any important changes. 2 Dunwich, which had been buried under the waters of the North Sea for two centuries, was duly represented, as well as the famous borough of Old Sarum, which was only a grassy mound where a town had once stood. 3 A very cautious scholar of our own day estimates that not more than one third of the representatives in the House of Commons were fairly chosen. 4 Secret ballot was not established until 1872. Great Btitain and her Empire 645 change for years in spite of the demands made not only by How the the working classes but by rich business men for the right to of i^^L vote. Finally, in 1832, after two years of debate, a reform P assed bill was forced through in spite of the firm opposition of the House of Lords. 1 According to its provisions fifty-six " rotten boroughs," each Provisions of containing less than two thousand inhabitants, were entirely B m f T g 32 deprived of representation ; thirty-two -more, with less than four thousand inhabitants, lost one member each ; and forty- three new boroughs were created with one or two members each, according to their respective populations. The suffrage was given in the towns to all citizens who owned or rented houses worth ten pounds a year (about fifty dollars), and to renters as well as owners of lands of a certain value in the country. In this way the shopkeepers and manufacturers and some of the more prosperous people in the country were given the right to vote ; but nearly all workingmen and agricultural laborers were still excluded from the franchise. The great Reform Bill of 1832 was therefore not really a The Reform triumph for democracy. The disappointment among the poorer f ar f° on J 1 2 classes over their exclusion from the vote was great and»wide- democratlc measure spread. The reformers at last agreed on pressing six demands, which they embodied in a charter ; to wit : universal suffrage, vote by secret ballot, parliaments elected annually, payment of members of Parliament, abolition of property qualifications for members of Parliament, and equal electoral districts. This charter soon won thousands of adherents, to whom the name The chartist of " Chartists " was given. Great meetings and parades were held all over England ; the charter was transformed into a petition to which it was- claimed that over a million signatures were obtained. This petition was presented to Parliament in 1839, on ty t0 be rejected by a large vote. 1 The king allowed the prime minister " to create such a number of peers as will insure the passage of the bill." The Lords, afrajd of sugh a wholesale change, yielded. 646 Medieval and Modern Times Some of the Despairing of securing reforms by peaceful means, some of advocate the leaders began openly to advocate revolutionary violence, violence anc j r i ting spread to such an extent that the government had to resort to extraordinary police measures to suppress it. Final Chart- ist petition of 1848 # ^4w ^ . -■■■-■■ - : 177 $ Jr.-- -v irrepTPTTiin mrwnrti» ferKir?iilii!iilil!! : K! : SliF ""Sails™ ^^ Fig. 167. The Parliament Buildings, London This massive pile stands on the site of an old royal palace, between Westminster Abbey, which is not shown but is just across the street at the right, and the river Thames, which runs along the other side. The House of Commons met in the chapel of this palace — St. Stephens — from the middle of the sixteenth century until 1834, when the palace was burned down, with the exception of the great hall with the plain roof in the foreground. The new building, completed in 1867, is richly ornamented. From its main tower, 340 feet high, a flag is flown by day when Parliament is in session, and by night a light shines over the clock tower, in which is hung the bell called " big Ben " The Revolution of 1848 in France gave the signal for the last great outburst of Chartist enthusiasm. Owing to the hard times in that year thousands of workmen were unemployed, and the poor were roused to bitter hatred for a government that replied to demands for reform by calling out the police. Great Britain and her Empire 647 Preparations were made to present another gigantic petition to the House of Commons, to which it was claimed that six mil- lion names had been secured, and the Chartist leaders deter- mined to overawe Parliament by a march on London. This show of force was frustrated by the aged duke of Wellington, then commander of the troops policing London. Parliament refused to take action and the movement collapsed. In spite of the failure of the Chartists the demand for a Reform bills more democratic government spread and, finally, in 1867, the jgg 1 . 7 an House of Commons passed a reform bill which doubled the number of voters. In 1884 the Liberal party under Gladstone succeeded in further increasing the number by two millions. These various measures served to establish something ap- proaching the manhood suffrage already common on the Con- tinent, although many men were still excluded from voting, especially the unmarried laborers who, owing to the low rents in England, did not pay as much as ten pounds a year for unfurnished lodgings. For twenty years the matter of the franchise excited little at- The questior tention, for the Conservatives were in power and were satisfied suffrage" 1 to leave things alone. But when the Liberal party was again called to the helm in 1906, it had to face not only the ques- tion of including more men among the voters but the much more novel demand that women also should be allowed to vote. The Industrial Revolution, by opening up new employ- ments to women, has given them a certain kind of inde- pendence which they never before had. During the latter part of the nineteenth century women were admitted to universities, and colleges began to be established for them as well, as for men. All these things have produced the demand that women he given the right to vote. In 1870 the women of England were given the right to vote steady exter* for members of the newly created school boards, and in 1888 suffr^eto and 1894 they were admitted to the franchise in certain local women government matters. In 1893 women were enfranchised in 648 Medieval mid Modern Times New Zealand. Shortly after the establishment of the new Com- monwealth of Australia in 190 1 full parliamentary suffrage was granted to them. In 1906 the women of Finland, and in 1907, 19 1 2, and 19 1 5 the women of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark respectively, were given the vote on the same terms as men. The British government, however, steadily refused to grant woman suffrage. As a result, some leaders of the suffrage movement, notably Mrs. Pankhurst, resorted to violent demon- strations, but this apparently alienated lukewarm supporters, and Parliament finally, in 19 13, rejected a bill proposing a general reform of the suffrage, in which women should share. The Cabinet English polit- 1 34. Since the Civil War, in the seventeenth century, there ica par ies h ave been two great political parties in England: (1) the Tories, — in recent times called Conservatives^- — the successors of the Cavaliers, as the supporters of Charles I were named (they believed in defending the powers claimed by the king and the English Church) ; (2) the Whigs, or Liberals, the suc- cessors of the Roundhead, or parliamentary, party of Gharles I's time (this party had overthrown the Stuarts, gained the Bill of Rights, and in the nineteenth century won the name of Reform party, from the kind of laws which it advocated). Party govern- The party which happens to have the majority of votes in the House of Commons claims the right to manage the govern- ment of the country as long as they retain their majority. - The leader of the party in power is accepted by the monarch as his prime minister, or premier. He and his associates form a cabinet which for the time being is the real ruler of the British empire. The cabinet This device of cabinet government under a premier was put into operation in the time of George I, a German unable to 1 When Gladstone introduced his Home Rule Bill for Ireland in 1886, many Liberals who opposed it deserted to join the Conservatives, who have since generally been called Unionists. Great Britain and her Empire 649 speak English, who did not attend the meetings of his ministers. The little group of ministers constituting the cabinet got into the habit of holding its sessions and reaching its decisions without the presence of the king. Since the House of Commons will not vote the money neces- The cabinet sary to carry on the government after it has lost confidence in ^ent ** ™~ ' the cabinet, the cabinet has to -resign as soon as it is convinced by the defeat of any of its measures that it no longer controls a majority of votes. The king then appoints the leader of the opposite .party as premier and asks him to form a cabinet. It may happen, however, that the defeated cabinet believes that the country is on its side. In this case it will ask the king to dissolve Parliament and have a new election, with the hope that it will gain a majority in that way. So it is clear that the cabinet regards itself as responsible not merely to Parliament but to the nation at large. As the members of the House of Commons are not elected Parliament for a definite term of years (though, according to a law passed responsible in 19 1 1, a new general election must be held at least every tothe nation five years), that body may be dissolved at any time for the purpose of securing an expression of the popular will on any important issue. It is thus clear that the British government is more sensitive to public opinion than are governments where the members of the legislatures "are chosen for a definite term of years. 1 1 The English sovereign is still crowned with traditional pomp ; coins and proclamations still assert that he rules " by the grace of God " ; and laws pur- port to be enacted "by the king's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in the present Parliament assembled in ac- cordance with the provisions of the Parliament Act, 19 11." But the monarch reigns rather than rules ; he is still legally empowered to veto any bill passed by Parliament, but he never exercises this power. He has in reality only the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn. He cannot per- manently oppose the wishes of the majority in Parliament, for should he venture to do so, Parliament could always bring him to terms by cutting off the appro- priations necessary to conduct his government. 650 Medieval and Modern Times Freedom of speech Laws affect- ing Dis- senters repealed, 1828 Catholic Emancipa- tion Act, 1829 Public schools General Reforms in England 135. In addition to the reforms in their Parliament the English have gradually altered their laws with a view of giving the people greater freedom and of improving their condition in important respects. One of the most important conditions of a free people is the right of free speech, free press, and liberty to meet for political discussions. Although during the eighteenth century English laws were less oppressive than those on the Continent, 1 it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that full liberty of speech was attained. Now England is very proud of this necessary institution of democracy.' 2 - England was a country of religious freedom in the eighteenth century, but Catholics and those Protestants who disagreed with the State Church — namely, the Dissenters — were ex- cluded from public offices. After long agitation this restriction was removed. In 1828 the old laws directed against Dissenters were repealed on condition that those seeking office should take an oath not to use their influence to injure or weaken the established Church of England. The following year the Catho- lics were put on the footing of other citizens by the passage of the Emancipation Act, which admitted them to both houses of Parliament and to almost all public offices upon condition that they would renounce their belief in the right of the Pope to interfere in temporal matters, and would disclaim all intention of attacking the Protestant religion. In the early part of the nineteenth century there was still a good deal of illiteracy in England. Since 1870 the govern- ment has been providing for the founding of free public schools, and as a result almost all Englishmen now learn to read and write. As newspapers may now be had for a cent, or two 1 See above, pp. 455, 459, and 465. 2 A somewhat amusing illustration of the extent of this tolerance is the way the British police will protect from his audience an anarchist or a republican attacking the monarchy. Great Britain and her Empire 651 cents, almost every one who cares to do so is in a position to buy, read them, and learn what is going on in the world. The English criminal law was very harsh at the opening of Reform of the nineteenth century. There were no less than two hundred i aw and fifty offenses for which the penalty of death was established. By a gradual process of abolishing one death sentence after another the long list of capital offenses was at last reduced to three in 186 1. In 1835, after a parliamentary investigation had revealed the Prison horrible conditions of prisons, a law was passed providing for government inspection and the improvement of their adminis- tration, and this marked the beginning of prison reform, which includes sanitary buildings, separation of the sexes, and of the hardened criminals from the younger offenders, and a more enlightened treatment of criminals generally, with a view to reform them and protect society rather than to wreak vengeance upon them. The cruelty of the criminal law had its origin in the Middle Wretched- ncss of life Ages, but with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, in the m t h e reign of George III, new forms of inhumanity had arisen. English These were the result of the factory system, which brought un- told misery to the working classes of England. Great factory buildings were hastily erected by men ignorant of the most ele- mentary principles of sanitary science. Around the factories there sprang up long, dreary rows of grimy brick cottages where the workmen and their families were crowded together. The introduction of steam-driven machinery had made pos- General sible the use of child labor on a large scale. The conditions of ^tory hands adult labor, save in the most skilled classes, were almost as a . nd opera- tives in the wretched as those of child labor. Dangerous machinery was mines not properly safeguarded, and the working time was excessively prolonged. The misery of the poor is reflected in Mrs. Browning's poem, " The Cry of the Children," in the bitter scorn which Carlyle poured out on the heads of the factory owners, and in the vivid word pictures of Dickens. 652 Medieval and Modem Times Report of factory com- mission of 1833; agna- tion for a ten-hour day for women and children England's free trade Finally, in 1833, Parliament, after much investigation, re* duced the hours of child labor in cotton and woolen mills to nine a day, and in 1842 women and children were forbidden to work in the mines. It was not until 1847 that a bill was passed restricting the labor of women and children in mills to ten hours per day exclusive of mealtime. With this great victory for the reformers the general resist- ance to State interference was broken down, and year after year, through the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) and those of her successors, new measures were carried through Parliament, revising and supplementing earlier laws, until to-day England does more than any other European country to protect the factory operatives. England is famous for its free trade, while almost all other countries protect their , manufacturers by a tariff imposing cus- toms duties on most articles imported from foreign countries. England believed heartily in protection and shipping laws until about the middle of the nineteenth century, when English manu- facturers decided that they could compete with the world on a free-trade basis. First, all duties on grain (the Corn Laws) were abolished, and then, between 1852 and 1867, all * Queen Victoria was much beloved by the British, and her name is connected with the proudest age of the British Empire. English literature and art of the last half of the nineteenth century is often spoken of as belonging to the Victorian age, and it was in her reign that the colonies became self-governing " dominions." The celebra- tion of the Diamond Jubilee of the queen's reign in 1897 was the most magnificent spectacle of modern times. It was attended by prac- tically all the other sovereigns of Europe, including Victoria's grandson, the German emperor, and it brought together, for the first time, the statesmen of the widely scattered " dominions beyond the seas." One should have in mind all this splendor and power of the empress-queen when one looks at this picture of the young girl who was roused from her sleep on June 20, 1837, by the Archbishop of Canterbury and another official, to be told of the death of her uncle, William IV, and her accession to the throne. Victoria received them with quiet dignity, although clad in wrapper and shawl, with her hair falling over her shoulders and her feet hurriedly thrust into slippers. Queen Victoria notified of her Accession* Great Britain and her Empire 653 navigation laws and protective duties were done away with. In recent years there has been a growing agitation in favor of deserting free trade and of restoring protective duties, on the ground that English goods have to pay duties when they reach foreign lands where protective tariffs are in force. Fig. 168. William Ewart Gladstone The Conservatives — or, as they had come to be called, the Unionists — were (except for a short period) in power for twenty years, from 1886 to 1906, and interest in general reform seemed to have died out in England. But in 1906 a general The Liberals election took place and the Liberals, reenforced by a new labor ^06-1914 party and the Irish Nationalists, came into control of the House 6 S 6 Medieval and Modem Times The House of Lords humbled Social insurance money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalid ness. I cannot help hoping and believing that before this gen- eration has passed away we. shall have advanced a great step towards that good time when poverty and wretchedness and human degradation, which always follow iri its camp, will be as remote to the people of this country as the wolves which once infested its forests." 1 The budget advocated by Lloyd George passed the House of Commons but was rejected by the indignant House of Lords. Parliament was dissolved and a new election held to show that the voters were on the side of the ministry. Then the Lords yielded ; but the Liberals had been so exasperated at their op- position that, by the Parliament Act of 191 1, they took away the power of the Lords to interfere effectively in future with the will of the people as expressed in the elections. 2 The following year (191 1) Lloyd George introduced a national insurance bill which should provide against sickness, disability for work, and unemployment. One part of this law required the compulsory insurance of nearly all employees (see above, p. 630). The payments for the insurance were to be made by the employer, the worker, and the State, each con- tributing a certain part. The Liberal party was able to force the bill through, and it became a law. It was at first very 1 It will be noticed that Lloyd George and his supporters, before imposing taxes, not only asked how much a man had but how he got his income. Those who work their lands or conduct mines or factories are to be treated with more consideration than those who owe their incomes to the efforts of others. In this way they introduced a new principle of taxation, which was vigorously denounced by the Conservatives as revolutionary and socialistic: 2 According to the terms of this important act, any bill relating to raising taxes, or making appropriations, which the House of Commons passes and sends up to the House of Lords at least one month before the close of a session, may become a law even if the House of Lords fails to ratify it. Other bills passed by the Commons at three successive sessions and rejected by the Lords may also be presented to the king for his signature and become laws in spite of their rejection by the upper house. In this way control of the financial policy of the government is practically taken out of the hands of the House of Lords, and in the case of all other laws the House of Commons is able, by a little patience and waiting a couple of years, to do vhat jt pleases withqyt regard to the sentiments gi the peers. Great Britain and her Empire 657 unpopular, however — the employers disliked the additional bur- den, the workmen and servants did not like to have their wages taken for the benefit of others, and the doctors resented the terms upon which they had to treat the sick under the new law. But when the payments began to be made the dissatisfaction died down. The Irish Question 136. Among the most serious problems that have constantly The English agitated Parliament during the past century is the Irish ques- tion. As early as the time of Henry II (1154-1189) Ireland began to be invaded by the English, who seized lands from which they enjoyed the revenue. The Irish revolted under Elizabeth and again under Cromwell. They were cruelly pun- ished, and more estates were confiscated. In 1688 the Irish sided with the Catholic king, James II, and were again subdued and more land was taken. Now the English landlords, to whom these estates were Absentee given, and their descendants, for the most part, lived in Eng- land. In the nineteenth century millions of pounds yearly were drained away from Ireland to pay absentee landlords, who rarely set foot in that country and took little or no interest in their tenants beyond the collection of their rents. If the tenants did not pay or could not pay, they were speedily evicted from their cottages and lands. It was estimated in 1847 that about one third of the entire rental of Ireland was paid to absentee landlords. Throughout large portions of Ireland the peasants were The condi- constantly on the verge of starvation. They were deprived of peasantry nearly all incentive to improve their little holdings, because they were liable to be evicted and lose the results of their labors. Whenever there was a failure of the potato crop, on which from one third to one half the population depended for food, there were scenes of misery in Ireland which defy description. This was the case in the " Black Year of Forty-Seven," when 658 Medieval a7id Modern Times Question of the Irish Catholics Irish land question Home Rule the potato crop failed almost entirely and thousands died of starvation in spite of the relief afforded by the government. It was in the midst of this terrible famine that the stream of emigration began to flow toward America. Within half a cen- tury four million emigrants left the shores of Ireland for other countries, principally the United States, taking with them their bitter resentment against England. When England became Protestant she attempted to convert Ireland, but the Irish remained faithful to the pope and the Roman Catholic Church. The English then set up their own Church in Ireland, drove out the Catholic priests, and substi- tuted for them .clergymen of the Church of England. Although the Protestants in Ireland numbered only one in ten of the population, the Catholics were forced to support the English churchmen by paying tithes from their scanty incomes. When Catholics were admitted to Parliament in 1829 they set to work to get rid of the old system, and in 1869, after a long struggle of a generation, the English Church was disestablished in Ireland and the tithes abolished. After gaining this important point the Irish members in Par- liament, under the leadership of Parnell, forced the Irish land question on the attention of Parliament. From 1881 to 1903 a series of acts was passed securing the Irish peasants a fair rent and advancing them money to buy their holdings, if they wished, on condition that they would pay back the money in install- ments to the government. It would seem as if the land question was now being adjusted to the satisfaction of the Irish farmers. In addition to their demand for fair treatment in the matter of religion and land, the Irish leaders have unceasingly clamored for Home Rule. This question has divided the English Parlia- ment for years. Until 1801 Ireland had maintained a separate parliament of her own ; but in that year the English govern- ment determined to suppress it because it enjoyed a larger degree of independence than was deemed compatible with the security of English rule. The Act of Union of 1801, abolishing Great Britain and her Empire 659 the Irish parliament, provided that Ireland should be repre- sented by one hundred members in the House of Commons and, in the House of Lords, by twenty-eight peers chosen by the Irish nobles. This Act of Union was really forced upon the Irish by gross bribery of members of their parliament, and consequently the Irish patriots resented it. Accordingly, they at once began agitating for Home Rule, that is, for a parliament Fig. 171. Irish Cottages The pictures show the contrast between the quaint, but filthy and un- sanitary, old thatched cottages of Ireland and the clean and comfortable, if unpicturesque, new ones. The American traveler often regrets the disappearance of these old houses from the landscape of the Old World, but wherever the peasantry of Europe is prosperous, as in Ireland now, it is replacing picturesqueness by comfort. Hence much of the Old World looks as new as America of their own in which they might legislate on their own affairs in- stead of being forced to rely upon the British Parliament, where the English and the Scotch have an overwhelming majority. In 1-882 a decided impetus to the movement was given by Gladstone the shocking murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas cau se of Irish Burke, the undersecretary for Ireland, in Phoenix Park, Dublin. This deed aroused the horror of the civilized world and con- vinced the Liberal statesman Gladstone that nothing short of Home Rule could solve the perennial Irish problem. He under- took, in 1886, to secure the repeal of the Act of Union. Many Home Rule, 1S86 66o Medieval and Modern Times The Home Rule Bill of 1914 The protest of Ulster of the Liberals, who did not believe in the policy of Home Ruie, broke away from his leadership and formed the party of the Liberal Unionists, thus defeating the bill by about thirty votes. Seven years later Gladstone brought forward a new Home Rule bill providing that the Irish should have a parliament of their own at Dublin and also retain representation in that of the United Kingdom. This bill, though passed by the Commons, was rejected by the House of Lords. For some years thereafter the issue almost dropped out of English politics, but the majority of the Irish members of Par- liament continued to agitate the question, and in 19 14 the Liberal government passed a Home Rule bill which almost threatened to plunge Ireland into civil war. The inhabitants of Ulster, in northern Ireland, are mainly Protestant and they have' been the bitterest opponents of Home Rule, fearing the rule of a Catholic majority. When the bill was on the point of becoming law they prepared to rebel, and openly armed and drilled a small army of volunteers. Protestant army officers declared that they would refuse to put down the " Ulsterites," and the government, to avoid bloodshed, modified the bill so as to allow the various divisions of Ulster to decide for themselves whether they would send their members of parliament to London or to Dublin. 1 This did not suit extreme Home Rulers or extreme Unionists, but the Liberals sought to calm them by proposing a federal system for other parts of the United 1 At the end of six years all should send members to Dublin, and so Home Rule would be gradually established. * W. E. Gladstone was one of the greatest orators and statesmen of England. He began as a Tory, but grew more and more liberal and forced along much reform legislation. The picture shows him, at the age of eighty- two, introducing the Home Rule Bill of 1893. The House of Commons is crowded with the most distinguished men of the day. Note how it is divided into opposing rows of benches, the party in power holding those on the right, the opposition party those on the left of the Speaker, who sits in the thronelike chair, clad in quaint robes and wearing a wig, as do the clerks in front of him. On this occasion the aisle in the foreground is as crowded as the benches. Gladstone addressing the House of Commons on the Home Rule Bill* The Imperial Durbar, India* Great Britain and her Empire 66 1 Kingdom as well, with parliaments for Wales and Scotland, much like the system in use in Canada. The European war, however, put an end to these plans, and Home Rule, along with other such schemes, has been postponed. Meanwhile, although the old discontent burst out in the Revolt of spring of 191 6 into a revolt which was not crushed without 9 serious damage to Dublin and heavy loss of life, new prosperity has come to the island since the British government, some half-dozen years ago, voted money to aid the Irish peasant to buy his land instead of holding it as a tenant. Much prog- New pros- ress has been made in establishing cooperative dairies and Ireland* 1 farmers' banks. Ireland is now probably more prosperous than she has ever been before. The British Empire : India 137. No other country has ever succeeded as England has in The British building up a vast empire scattered all over the globe. This is raid failed and the Boers < he insurg< ts iuI Kruger. the president c . frans aal Republic, the Bo< - bo make military part d their. s< es alliance with thei: . r - &e State to the - :h of them. The English now begun to claim that the s would not satis ed until they had g E all the British. sses sions in South sars with more reason, as seemed to the rest the world, declared that Eng - only try g nd an excuse for aniw g the two republics which the Ehitch rarmers >uilt up in the e sa ages Finally, in 185 treak Transvaal and the Orange .. S By declared war on 1 The Boers made a brave tight and the English managed the idly. Many Englishmen thought 5 be righting Paul Kruger and his fellow farmers, and although the greater num- ber of foreign - syn athy with the F s one .: . ars tervened. Finally England, after some humiliat- ing 3, was s rnnexed the two With a wise liberality . . srs, Britain African pr; g ; them <. -_ eminent like other p - the empire. In 1910 an act ament formed South African Ur the mode strata. This inch: the flourishing Cape Colony, with Its g . about Kimberley, Natal lortheast, and the two Boer re- publics- — the Orange Fret State and the Transvaal. These are now managed as a sing e federation by a representative of British ruler and a parliament which makes laws for the whole union. When war broke out between England and Germany Union ( j re at Britain and Jicr Umpire Gyi in 19 14 the Germans expected the Boers to rise against Eng- land, but they were disappointed. The prime minister .of the South African Union, General Botha, who had been the best Boer general in the war against England fifteen years before, not only easily suppressed a rising of some of his old eornrades, but conquered German West Afriea for the British empire. The Fig. 174. General Louis Botha possessions in Africa British look with mueh pride upon this tribute to their wisdom in granting freedom and self-government to the Boers. 1 In addition to these colonies Great Britain has three enor- Other British mous provinces in Africa occupied almost entirely by negroes. North of the Cape lies the Bechuanaland protectorate, inhabited by peaceful native tribes. Next beyond Bechuanaland and the 1 There are about six millions of people in the South African Union, but a large portion of these are colored. The white population, including both those of English and those of Dutch descent, do not equal in number the inhabitants of Philadelphia. 672 Medieval and Modern Times Transvaal is Rhodesia, which was acquired through the British South Africa Company by two annexations in 1888 and 1898 and, with subsequent additions, brought under the protection of the British government. On the east coast, extending inland to the great lakes at the source of the Nile, lies the valuable ranching land of British East Africa. It is of especial value as controlling the southern approach to the Sudan arid Egypt, which are so important to Britain. 1 TABLE OF BRITISH POSSESSIONS In Europe: The United Kingdom, Gibraltar, and Malta. In Asia : Aden, Perim, Sokotra, Kuria Muria Islands, Bahrein Islands, British Borneo, Ceylon, Cyprus, Hongkong, India and depend- encies, Labuan, the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, Weihaiwei. In Africa : Ascension Island, Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protecto- rate, British East Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Nyasaland Protectorate, Zanzibar, Mauritius, Natal, Orange River Colony, Rhodesia, St. Helena, Tristan da Cunha, Seychelles, Somaliland, Transvaal Colony, Swaziland, West African Colonies of Nigeria, Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Gambia, Sierra Leone. In North and South America : Bermudas, Canada, Falkland Islands, British Guiana, British Honduras, Newfoundland and Labrador, the West Indies, including Bahama, Barbados, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad, and Windward Islands. In Australasia and the Pacific Islands : The Commonwealth of Australia (including New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, West Australia, and Tasmania), New Zealand, New Guinea (British), Fiji Islands, Tonga or Friendly Islands, and other minor islands in the Pacific. Total area, 11,447,954 square miles. Population, 419,401,371. 1 In addition to these colonies in southern and central Africa, British Somali- land was secured on the Straits of Bab el Mandeb in 1884 in connection with the establishment of the English power in Egypt. Along the west coast Great Britain has five centers, Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Lagos, and Nigeria — the beginnings of which date back to the days of Drake and Haw- kins, when the British were ravaging the coast for slaves to carry to the New World. The English now, however, are trying to make atonement for the past by helping the natives to become civilized. Great Britain and her Empire 673 QUESTIONS Section 132. Why do the English regard the Bill of Rights as embodying a "glorious revolution"? Contrast the powers of the kings of England with those of the Continental countries in the eighteenth century. Section 133. Describe the ways in which Parliament did not represent the nation prior to 1832. From the conditions just described, do you think that political life has become better or worse since Parliament became more representative? Outline the provi- sions of the Reform Bill of 1832. What did the Chartists want? How did the question of woman suffrage arise? Section 134. What is cabinet government? How has it been connected with party government? How is the English government responsible to the people? Section 135. Why is freedom of speech an important part of self- government ? Trace the growth of religious liberty in England from the seventeenth century. Can you imagine any arguments for and against a stern criminal law ? for keeping prisons horrible ? What was the effect of factory work upon children ? Why did economists oppose shorter hours of labor? When did England accept free trade? Describe the work of the Liberal government from 1906. Section 136. What were the roots of Ireland's misery? What were the conditions of the union of 1801? What effect did Glad- stone's support of Home Rule have on English politics? Outline the political situation in Ireland in 191 4. What were the terms of the Home Rule Bill? Describe conditions in Ireland to-day. Section 137. How did England conquer India (answer with the map)? What different races are there in India? What was the cause of the mutiny? How did Victoria become Empress of India? What have the British done for India? Section 138. Outline the history of Canada in the nineteenth century. Why was the Durham report an important event in world history? How is Canada governed? How was Australia settled? When were the colonies united ? What political .experiments is New Zealand famous for? Section 139. Sketch the early history of South Africa. How did the Transvaal originate? What right had the British to interfere in it? What was the settlement of the struggle in South Africa? Does this teach any lesson as to the value of free government? CHAPTER XXXII Relations between Russia and western Europe becoming more intimate Participation of Alex- ander I in European affairs THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The Reigns of Alexander I (i 801-182 5) and Nicholas I (1825-1855) 140. During the past century Russia has been coming into ever closer relations with western Europe. Although still a back- ward country in many respects, she has been busily engaged for fifty years in modernizing herself. The works of some of her writers are widely read in foreign lands, especially those of Leo Tolstoy. The music of Rubinstein and Tschaikowsky is as highly esteemed in London or New York as in Petrograd or Moscow. Even in the field of science such names as that of Mendelyeev, the chemist, and of Metchnikoff, the biologist, are well known to their fellow workers in Europe and America. And among the vast millions of Russians many more are sure to contribute to our civilization in the future. It becomes, therefore, a matter of vital interest to follow the changes which are turning the tide of modern civilization into eastern Europe. When, in 18 15, Tsar Alexander I returned to his capital after the close of the Congress of Vienna, he could view his position and recent achievements with pride. Alexander had participated in Napoleon's overthrow, and was the undisputed and autocratic ruler of more than half of the continent of * The cities of Russia are full of churches. They generally are built after Byzantine and oriental models, with many domes and much color. The church of St. Basil, in the picture, is an extreme example. It was built by Ivan the Terrible in 1 554-1 557, and an old but untrue legend related that the architect's eyes were put out that he might not build another like it. 674 1 1 1 1 I Church of St. Basil, Moscow * Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 675 Europe, not to speak of vast reaches of northern Asia which lay beneath his scepter. Under his dominion there were many races and peoples, dif- Heterogene- . . ous character fenng in customs, language, and religion — rinns, Germans, oftheRus- Poles, Jews, Tartars, Armenians, Georgians, and Mongols. 1 sian Em P ire The Russians themselves had colonized the southern plains of European Russia and had spread even into Siberia. They made up a large proportion of the population of the empire, and their language was everywhere taught in the schools and used by the officials. The people of the grand duchy of Finland, speaking Swedish and Finnish, did not like their incorporation with Russia ; and the Poles, recalling the time when their king- dom far outshone the petty duchy of Moscow among the Euro- pean powers, still hoped that the kingdom of Poland might form an independent nation with its own language and constitution. In the time of Alexander I the Russians had not begun to flock to the cities, which were small and ill-constructed com- pared with those of western Europe. The great mass of the population still lived in the country, and more than half of them were serfs, as ignorant and wretched as those of France or England in the twelfth century. Alexander I had inherited, as " Autocrat of all the Russias," Absolute a despotic power over his subjects as absolute as that to which the Tsar Louis XIV laid claim. He could make war and conclude peace at will, freely appoint or dismiss his ministers, order the arrest, imprisonment, exile, or execution of any one he chose, without consulting or giving an account to any living being. Even the Russian national church was under his personal control. There was no thought of any responsibility to the people, and the tyranny which the Tsar's officials were able to exercise will become apparent as we proceed. 1 The Cossacks, or light cavalry, who constitute so conspicuous a feature of the Russian army, were originally lawless rovers on the southern and eastern frontiers, composed mainly of adventurous Russians with some admixture of other peoples. Certain districts are assigned to them by the government, on the lower Don, near the Black Sea, the Urals, and elsewhere, in return for military service. 6y6 Medieval and Modern Times How Tsar Alexander became the enemy of revolution and of liberal ideas The "Decem- brist" revolt of 1825 Polish rebellion, 1830-1831 Nicholas crushes the revolt and deprives Poland of its constitution During his early years Alexander entertained liberal ideas, 1 but after his return from the Congress of Vienna he became as apprehensive of revolution as his friend Metternich, and threw himself into the arms of the " Old-Russian " party, which obstinately opposed the introduction of all Western ideas. The attraction of the new ideas was, however, so strong that the Tsar could not prevent some of his more enlightened subjects from reading the new books from western Europe dealing with scientific discoveries and questions of political and social reform. Alexander I died suddenly on December 1, 1825. The revo- lutionary societies seized this opportunity to organize a revolt known as the " December conspiracy." But the movement was badly organized ; a few charges of grapeshot brought the insurgents to terms, and some of the leaders were hanged. Nicholas I never forgot the rebellion which inaugurated his reign, and he proved one of the most despotic of all the long list of autocratic rulers. His arbitrary measures speedily pro- duced a revolt in Poland. Secret societies began to promote a movement for the reestablishment of the ancient Polish republic which Catherine II and her fellow monarchs had destroyed. Late in 1830 an uprising occurred in Warsaw; the insurgents secured control of the city and drove out the Russian officials, and proclaimed the independence of Poland, January 25, 1831. Europe made no response to Poland's appeals for assistance. The Tsar's armies were soon able to crush the rebellion, and when Poland lay prostrate at his feet Nicholas gave no quarter. He revoked the constitution, abolished the diet, suppressed the national flag, and transferred forty-five thousand Polish families to the valley of the Don and the mountains of the Caucasus. To all intents and purposes Poland became henceforth merely a Russian province, governed, like the rest of the empire, from St. Petersburg. 2 1 See above, p. 567. 2 Thirty years later, in 1863, the Poles made another desperate attempt to free themselves from the yoke of Russia, but failed. Napoleon III refused to assist them, and Bismarck supported the Tsar in the fearful repression which followed, Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 6yy Nicholas I sincerely believed that Russia could only be saved from the " decay" of religion and government, which he believed to be taking place in western Europe, by maintaining autocracy, for this alone was strong enough to make head against the de- structive ideas which some of his subjects in their blindness mis- took for enlightenment. The Russian-Greek Church 1 and all its beliefs must be defended, and the Russian nation preserved as a separate and superior people who should maintain forever the noble beliefs and institutions of the past. 2 Certainly a great many of his advisers were well content with the system, and his army of officials were as loath to recommend reform as any band of corrupt politicians in the world. Accordingly, in the name of Russian nationality, the Tsar adopted strong measures to check the growth of liberalism. The officials bestirred themselves to prevent in every way the admission into Russia of Western ideas. Books on religion and science were carefully examined by the police or the clergy ; foreign works containing references to politics were either con- fiscated or the objectionable pages were blotted out by the cen- sors. The government officials did not hesitate freely to open private letters committed to the post, even when there was no reason to suspect their writers. It may be said that, except for a few short intervals of freedom, this whole system continued down to the revolution of 191 7. Nicholas I's belief that autocracy alone could save Russia Stern efforts of Nicholas to check liberalism 1 The Russians had been converted to Christianity by missionaries from Con- stantinople, the religious capital of the Eastern, or Greek, Church, which had gradually drifted away from the Latin, or Roman Catholic, Church in the seventh and eighth centuries. For many centuries the Russian Church remained in close relations with the patriarch of Constantinople, but after that city fell to the infidel Turks the Tsars asserted that they were the successors of the Eastern emperors. Old Rome, on the Tiber, and new Rome, on the Bosporus, had both fallen on account of their sins. Russia thus became the " third Rome," and the Tsar the head of all true Christians who accepted the only orthodox faith, that of the Greek Church. Under Peter the Great the Russian Church was brought completely under the control of the government. 2 Nicholas introduced into the schools a catechism which recalls that of Napoleon I : " Question. What does religion teach us as to our duties to the Tsar? Anszver. Worship, fidelity, the payment of taxes, service, love, and prayer" — the whole being comprised in the words "worship and fidelity." 6yS Medieval and Modern Times Accession of Alexander II, 1855 Situation of the Russian serfs Peasant revolts Emancipa- tion of the serfs, March, 1861 The Freeing of the Serfs and the Growth of the Spirit of Revolution 141. In 1854 the efforts of Russia to increase her influence in Turkey led to a war with France and England. The Rus- sians were defeated, and their strong fortress of Sebastopol, in the Crimea, captured by the allies. 1 Nicholas I died in the midst of the reverses of this Crimean War, leaving to his son, Alexander II, the responsibility of coming to terms with the enemy, and then, if possible, strengthening Russia by reducing the political corruption and bribery which had been revealed by the war and by improving the lot of the people at large. Nearly one half of the Tsar's subjects were serfs whose bondage and wretched lives seemed to present an insurmount- able barrier to general progress and prosperity. The landlord commonly reserved a portion of his estate for himself and turned over to his serfs barely enough to enable them to keep body and soul together. They usually spent three days in the week cultivating their lord's fields. He was their judge as well as their master and could flog them at will. The serf was viewed as scarcely more than a beast of burden. From time to time the serfs, infuriated by the hard condi- tions imposed upOn them, revolted against their lords. Under Nicholas I over five hundred riots had occurred, and these seemed to increase rather than decrease, notwithstanding the vigilance of the police. Alexander II, fearful lest the peasants should again attempt to win their liberty by force, decided that the government must undertake the difficult task of freeing forty millions of his sub- jects from serfdom. After much discussion he issued an eman- cipation proclamation, March 3, 1861, 2 on the eve of the great 1 See next chapter, § 144. 2 According to the Russian calendar the date is February 19, for Russia has never followed the example of the western nations and rectified her mode of indicating dates by adopting the Gregorian calendar. WESTERN PORTION OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE x^ l""' m "_|l Boundary of the Russian Empire f' 100 200 300 400 500 50° NOTE : Finland, the Baltic Provinces, Poland and Caucasus are all, except Finland, integral portions of the Russian Empire ; they have nevertheless been assigned a special color in the map on account of certain peculiarities in the re- lation of each to the Russian government. Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Ce?itnry 679 Civil War which was to put an end to negro slavery in the United States. In his anxiety to prevent any loss to the land- owners, who constituted the ruling class in the Russian govern- ment, the Tsar did his work in a very half-hearted manner. It is true the government deprived the former lord of his right to force the peasants to work for him and to pay him the old dues ; he could no longer flog them or command them to marry against Fig. 175. Russian Peasant's Home their will; but the peasants still remained bound to the land, for they were not permitted to leave their villages without a government pass. The landlords surrendered a portion of their The village estates to the peasants, but this did not become the property £J wS-"" ^ of individual owners, but was vested in the village community as a whole. The government dealt very generously with the landlords, as might have been anticipated. It not only agreed that the peasants should be required to pay for such land as their former masters turned over to them, but commonly fixed the 68o Medieval and Modern Times Eman- cipation a hardship Change in method of landholding Origin of terrorism Terrorism, 1878-1881 price at an amount far greater than the real value of the land — a price which the government paid the landlords and then began to collect from the serfs in installments. His new free- dom seemed to the peasant little better than that enjoyed by a convict condemned to hard labor in the penitentiary. Although the peasant lived constantly on the verge of starva- tion, he fell far behind in the payment of his taxes, so that in 1904 the Tsar, in a moment of forced generosity, canceled the arrears, which the peasants could, in any case, never have paid. Two years later the Tsar issued an order permitting the peas- ants to leave their particular village and seek employment else- where. They might, on the other hand, become owners of their allotments. This led to the practical abolition of the ancient mir, or village community. The government officials regarded all reformers with the utmost suspicion and began to arrest the more active among them. The prisons were soon crowded, and hundreds were banished to Siberia. The Tsar and his police seemed to be the avowed enemies of all progress, and any one who advanced a new idea was punished as if he had committed a murder. It seemed to the more ardent reformers that there was no course open to them but to declare war on the government as a body of cruel, corrupt tyrants who would keep Russia in darkness for- ever merely in order that they might continue to fill their own pockets by grinding down the people. They argued that the wicked acts of the officials must be exposed, the government intimidated, and the eyes of the world opened to the horrors of the situation by conspicuous acts of violent retribution. So some of the reformers became terrorists, not because they were depraved men or loved bloodshed, but because they were con- vinced that there was no other way to save their beloved land from the fearful oppression under which it groaned. The government fought terrorism with terrorism. In 1879 sixteen suspected revolutionists were hanged and scores sent to the dungeons of St. Petersburg or the mines of Siberia. Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 68 1 The terrorists, on their part, retaliated by attacks on the Tsar Assassination and his government ; and Alexander II finally yielded, conced- der ii^ggj ing a constitution for Russia. It was too late, however. On the afternoon that he gave his assent, he was assassinated as he was driving to his palace (March, 1881). The reign of Alexander II had not been entirely given up The Balkan to internal reforms and repression, however. In 1877 Russia ^g * 77 ~ Fig. 176. Alexander II was again at war with Turkey, aiding the "south Slavs" — Serbians, Montenegrins, and Bulgarians in their attempt to throw off the Turkish yoke. Successful in arms, Russia was, however, obliged to relinquish most of her gains and those of her allies by a congress of the European powers held at Berlin in 1878. But this is all described in the next chapter. 1 The reign of Alexander III (1881— 1894), son and successor Alexanderin of Alexander II, was a period of quiet, during which little 1 See below, p. 695. 6S2 Medieval and Modern Times Belief of the reactionaries that Russia must be kept "frozen " The Indus- trial Revolu- tion overtakes Russia Rapid growth of Russian industries, I 887-1897 Railway construction in Russia The Trans- Siberian railroad progress seemed to be made. The terrorists realized that noth- ing was to be gained by further acts of violence. The people suffered the oppression of the government officials without active opposition. Their occasional protests were answered by imprisonment, flogging, or exile, for Alexander III and his intimate advisers believed quite as firmly and religiously in autocracy as Nicholas I had done. Freedom and liberalism, they agreed, could onlv serve to destroy a nation. It became increasingly difficult, however, to keep Russia "frozen." for during the last quarter of the nineteenth century the spread of democratic ideas had been hastened by the coming of the steam engine, the factor} 7 , and the railroad, all of which served to unsettle the humdrum agricultural life which the great majority of the people had led for centuries. The liberation of the serfs, with all its drawbacks, favored the growth of factories, for the peasants were sometimes per- mitted to leave their villages for the manufacturing centers which were gradually growing up. If Napoleon could come once more to Moscow, he would not recognize^ the city which met his gaze in 181 2. It has now become the center of the Russian textile industries, and the sound of a thousand looms and forces announces the creation of a new industrial world. Along with this industrial development has gone the con- struction of great railway lines built largely by the government with money borrowed from capitalists in western Europe i^see map, p. 67SY The greatest of all Russian railway undertakings was the Trans-Siberian road, which was rendered necessary for the transportation of soldiers and military supplies to the eastern boundary of the empire. Communication was established between St. Petersburg and the Pacific in 1900, and a branch line southward to Port Arthur was soon -finished. 1 One can now travel with few changes of cars from Havre to Vladivostok, via Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Irkutsk, on Lake Baikal, and Harbin, a distance of seventy-three hundred miles. 1 See map below, p. 706, Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 683 The Struggle for Liberty under Nicholas II 142. When Nicholas II succeeded his father, Alexander III, Nicholas 11 in 1 89 4 * he was but twenty-six years old, and there was some chspels^the reason to hope that he would favor reform. Nicholas, however, [ipPf.?. of , 1 ' 7 the liberals quickly dispelled any illusions which his more liberal subjects entertained. The repressive policy of this despotic government became Harsh policy worse as time went on. In 1902 an unpopular minister of the pi e hve interior had been assassinated, and the Tsar had appointed a still more unpopular man in his place, namely, von Piehve, who was notorious for his success in hunting down those who criticized the government. . Von Piehve connived at the persecution of those among the Massacres Tsar's subjects who ventured to disagree with the doctrines of the Russian official church, to which every Russian was sup- posed to belong. The Jews suffered especially. There were massacres at Kishineff and elsewhere in 1903 which horrified the western world and drove hundreds of thousands of Jews to foreign lands, especially to the United States. There is good rea- son to believe that von Piehve actually arranged these massacres. Von Piehve was mistaken, however, in his belief that all the trouble came from a handful of fanatics. Among those who 1 Genealogical table of the Tsars. Catherine II (the Great) ( 1 762-1 796) I Paul I (1796-1801) Alexander I Nicholas I (1801-1825) (1 825-1855) Alexander II (1855-1881) Alexander III (1881-1894) I Nicholas II (1894- 19 1 7) 684 Medieval and Modern Times The liberals, or constitu- tional demo- crats Great unpop- ularity of the war with Japan which began in Feb- ruary, 1904 Russian reverses Assassina- tion of von Plehve, July, 1904 General disorder detested the cruel and corrupt government which he repre- sented were the" professional men, the university professors, the enlightened merchants and manufacturers, and the public- spirited nobility. The more von Plehve sought to stamp out all protest against the autocracy, the more its enemies increased, and at last, in 1904, the open revolution may be said to have begun. On February 5 of that year a war commenced with Japan, which was due to Russia's encroachments in Korea and her evident intention of permanently depriving China of Manchuria. The liberals attributed the conflict to bad management on the part of the Tsar's officials, and declared it to be inhuman and contrary to the interests of the people. The Japanese succeeded in pressing back the Russians, destroying their vessels, and besieging their fortress of Port Arthur, which they had cut off from any aid or supplies. 1 The liberal-minded among the Russians regarded these disasters with a certain satisfaction. The reverses, they held, were due to the incompetence and corruption of the Tsar's officials and served to make plain how very badly autocracy really worked in practice. Von Plehve continued, however, in spite of the rising indig- nation, to encourage the police to break up scientific and literary meetings, in which disapprobation of the government was pretty sure to be expressed, and to send men eminent in science and literature to prison or to Siberia, until, on July 28, 1904, a bomb was thrown under the minister's carriage by a former student in the University of Moscow and his career was brought to an abrupt close. Meanwhile disasters and revolt met the government on every hand. The Japanese continued to force back the Russians in Manchuria in a series of terrific conflicts south of Mukden. In one long battle on the Sha-ho River sixty thousand Russians perished. Their fleets in the East were annihilated, and on 1 See p. 717, below. Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 685 January 1, 1905, Port Arthur fell, after the most terrible siege on record. In Russia the crops failed and the starving peasants burned and sacked the houses and barns of the nobles, arguing that if the buildings were destroyed, the owners could not come back and the Tsar's police could no longer make them their headquarters. On Sunday, January 22, 1905, a fearful event occurred. The workingmen of St. Petersburg had sent a petition to the Tsar Fig. 177. The Winter Palace, Petrograd The massacre took place just in front of the palace and had informed him that on Sunday they would march to the " Red Sun- palace humbly to pray him in person to consider their suffer- a ry22, 1905 ings, since they had no faith in his officials or ministers. When Sunday morning came, masses of men, women, and children, wholly unarmed, attempted to approach the Winter Palace in the pathetic hope that the " Little Father," as they called the Tsar, would listen to their woes. Instead, the Cossacks tried to disperse them with their whips, and then the troops which guarded the palace shot and cut down hundreds and wounded thousands in a conflict which continued all day. "Red Sunday" 686 Medieval and Modern Times A Duma promised General strike of October, 1905 The Tsar promises (October 29, 1905) that no law shall go into force without the Duma's assent The Duma received by the Tsar, May 10, 1906 The Duma freely dis- cusses the vices of the Tsar's government was, however, only the most impressive of many similar en- counters between citizens and the Tsar's police and guards. Some months after this tragedy the Tsar at last yielded to public opinion and on August 19, 1905, agreed to summon a Russian parliament, Duma, which should thereafter give Russia's autocratic ruler advice in making the laws. He and his advisers were soon pushed somewhat farther along the path of reform by a general strike which began in the following October. All the railroads stopped running ; in all the great towns the shops, except those that dealt in provisions, were closed ; gas and electricity were no longer furnished ; the law courts ceased their duties, and even the apothecaries refused to prepare prescriptions until reforms should be granted. The situation soon became intolerable, and on October 29 the Tsar announced that he had ordered " the government " to grant the people freedom of conscience, speech, and association, and to permit the classes which had been excluded in his first edict to vote for members of the Duma. Lastly, he agreed " to establish an immutable rule that no law can come into force without the approval of the Duma." The elections for the Duma took place in March and April, 1906. The deputies assembled in no humble frame of mind. They were determined to give Russia an enlightened, liberal, and righteous constitutional government. Like the members of the Estates General in 1789, they felt that they had the nation be- hind them. They listened stonily to the Tsar's remarks at the opening session, and it was clear from the first that they would not agree any better with their monarch than the French deputies had agreed with Louis XVI and his courtiers. The Tsar's ministers would not cooperate with the Duma in any important measures of reform, and on July 21 Nicholas II declared that he was " cruelly disappointed " because the depu- ties had not confined themselves to their proper duties and had commented upon many matters which belonged to him. He Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century 68? accordingly dissolved the Duma, as he had a perfect right to do, and fixed March 5, 1907, as the date for the meeting of a new Duma. The revolutionists made an unsuccessful attempt in August Atrocities to blow up the Tsar's chief minister in his country house and continue continued to assassinate governors and police officials. The bands known as the "Black Hundreds," on the other hand, went on massacring Jews and liberals, while the government established courts-martial to insure the speedy trial and imme- diate execution of revolutionists. In the two months, September and October, 1906, these courts summarily condemned three hundred persons to be shot or hanged. During the whole year some nine thousand persons were killed or wounded for political reasons. A terrible famine was afflicting the land at the end of the Famine year, and it was discovered that a member of the Tsar's minis- t ^ e ot h er try had been stealing the money appropriated to furnish grain dlsasters to the dying peasants. An observer who had traveled eight hundred miles through the famine-stricken district reported that he did not find a single village where the peasants had food enough for themselves or their cattle. In some places the peasants were reduced to eating bark and the straw used for their thatch roofs. The Tsar continued to summon the Duma regularly, but so The Dumas changed suffrage that only the conservative sections of the the P Tsar's nation were represented, and his officials did all they could to ministers keep out liberal deputies. In spite of this the fourth Duma, elected in 19 12, showed much independence in opposing the oppressive rule of the Tsar's ministers. Although parliamentary government was by no means won in Russia, many important reforms were achieved. The Tsar retained the title of " Autocrat of all the Russias " until his abdication in 191 7, and his officials went on violating all the principles of liberty and persecuting those who ventured to criticize the government. 688 Medieval and Modern Times QUESTIONS Section 140. What different peoples make up the Russian em- pire ? Prepare a list of the Tsars of the nineteenth century with their dates. How did Alexander I rule? How had Poland been left by the Congress of Vienna ? What resulted from its rebellion in 1 83 1 ? State the arguments for and against autocracy in Russia. What did Nicholas I do to stem the growth of liberalism ? Section 141. What was the main event in the internal history of Russia under Alexander II ? Why did many serfs oppose emanci- pation ? State the arguments of the terrorists. W T hat did they accom- plish? Did they really help or retard self-government? When did the Industrial Revolution affect Russia? How did it affect it? Section 142. How did the reign of Nicholas II begin? W T hy were the Jews persecuted and massacred? W T hat was the effect of the Japanese war at home ? Outline the war itself. When and what was "Red Sunday"? What -caused the general strike of 1905? State the extent to which the first Duma represented the nation. What attitude did it assume? Describe the condition of Russia at the close of 1906. W T ho was to blame for the disorders? CHAPTER XXXIII TURKEY AND THE EASTERN QUESTION The Emergence of Serbia and Greece 143. In the course of our narrative something has been said The rise and of the coming of the Turks into Europe, their capture of Con- the Turkish stantinople in 1453, their extension westward into Hungary em P ire and toward the Adriatic, their siege of Vienna in 1683; their defeat, and their final expulsion from Hungary 1 about the year 1700. It is necessary now to trace the further breaking up of their empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ; and the subject has a tragic interest for us, since it helped to pre- cipitate the terrible European war in 191 4. Although from the eighteenth century Turkey ceased to be Catherine the a grave menace to the Christian states, she was able for several ^rhory on decades to resist the efforts of Russia and Austria to deprive the Black Sea her of further territory. In 1774 Catherine the Great managed to secure the Crimea and the region about the Sea of Azov, thus giving Russia a permanent foothold on the Black Sea. Moreover, the " Porte," as the Turkish government is com- monly called, conceded to Russia the right to protect the Sultan's Christian subjects, most of whom were adherents of the Orthodox Greek Church, the State church of Russia. 2 These and other provisions seemed to give the Russians an Russian excuse for intervening in Turkish affairs, and offered an oppor- j£ Turkey tunity for stirring up discontent among the Sultan's Christian subjects. In 18 12, just before Napoleon's march on Moscow, Alexander I forced Turkey to cede to him Bessarabia on 1 See above, p. 420. 2 See above, p. 677, note. 689 690 Medieval a?id Modern Times Serbia be- comes a tributary principality in 1S17 The national spirit is awakened in Greece The inde- pendence of Greece de- clared, Janu- ary, 1822 Sympathy of western Europe for the cause of Greek inde- pendence the Black Sea, which, down to the present day, is the last of Russia's conquests toward the southwest. Shortly after the Congress of Vienna the Serbians, who had for a number of years been in revolt against the Turks, were able to establish their practical independence (18 17), and Ser- bia, with Belgrade as its capital, became a principality tributary to Turkey. This was the first of a series of Balkan states which have reemerged, during the nineteenth century, from beneath the Mohammedan inundation. The next state to gain its independence was Greece, whose long conflict against Turkish despotism aroused throughout Europe the sympathy of all who appreciated the glories of ancient Greece. The inhabitants of the land of Plato, Aristotle, and Demosthenes were, it is true, scarcely to be regarded as descendants of the Greeks, and the language they spoke bore little resemblance to the ancient tongue. At the opening of the nineteenth century, however, the national spirit once more awoke in Greece, and able writers made modern Greek a literary language and employed it in stirring appeals to the patriotism of their fellow countrymen. In 182 1 an insurrection broke out in Morea, as the ancient Peloponnesus is now called. The revolutionists were supported by the clergy of the Greek Church, who proclaimed a savage war of extermination against the infidel. The movement spread through the peninsula ; the atrocities of the Turk were rivaled by those of the Greeks, and thousands of Mohammedans — men, women, and children — were slaughtered. On January 27, 1822, the Greek national assembly issued a proclamation of independence. To Metternich this revolt seemed only another illustration of the dangers of revolution, but the liberals throughout Europe enthusiastically sympathized with the Greek uprising, since it was carried on in the name of national liberty. Intellectual men in England, France, Germany, and the United States held meet- ings to express sympathy for the cause. Soldiers and supplies Turkey and the Eastern Qtiestion 691 poured into Greece. Indeed, the Greeks could scarcely have freed themselves had the European powers refused to intervene. It is needless to follow the long negotiations between the The powers various European courts in connection with Greek affairs. In t ^ e war for 1827 England, France; and Russia signed a treaty at London Gre ekmde- ' & ' ' < ° J pendence providing for a joint adjustment of the difficulty, on the ground that it was necessary to put an end to the bloody struggle which left Greece and the adjacent islands a prey " to all the disasters of anarchy, and daily causes fresh impediments to the commerce of Europe." The Porte having refused to accept The Turks the mediation of the allies, their combined fleets destroyed that Navarino of the Sultan at Navarino in October, 1827. Thereupon the m l82 7 Porte declared a " holy war " on the unbelievers, especially the Russians. But the latter were prepared to push the war with Wallachia vigor, and they not only actively promoted the freedom of (R 0U mania) Greece, but forced the Sultan to grant practical independence to the Danubian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which Establish- came thereby under Russian influence. Turkey was no longer kingdom of able to oppose the wishes of the allies, and in 1832 Greece Greece > l8 3 2 became an independent state, choosing for its king Prince Otto of Bavaria. 1 The Crimean War (18 54-1 8 56) 144 . A fresh excuse for interfering in Turkish affairs was The interna- . ill- 1 /~ri • tional contro- afforded the Tsar m 1853. Complaints reached him that Chris- V ersy over the tian pilgrims were not permitted by the Turks (who had long ^sSns il been in possession of the Holy Land and Jerusalem) freely to Turkey visit the places made sacred by their associations with the life of Jesus. Russia seemed the natural protector of those, at least, who adhered to her own form of Christianity, and the Russian ambassador rudely demanded that the Porte should grant the Tsar a protectorate over all the Christians in Turkey. 1 Otto was forced to grant a parliament, in 1844, based on universal suffrage. He was driven out by a revolution in 1863, and a Danish prince, George I, became king. He was assassinated in 191 3 and was succeeded by his son Con- stantine I, who was expelled in 19 17 and succeeded by his second son, Alexander. France and England declare war on Russia 692 Medieval and Modern Times When news of this situation reached Paris, Napoleon III, who had recently become emperor, declared that France, in virtue of earlier treaties with the Porte, enjoyed the right to protect Catholic Christians. He found an ally in England, who was fearful that Russia might wrest Constantinople from the Turks Fig. 178. Florence Nightingale The most famous of nurses was a wealthy Englishwoman who, having studied medicine and directed a hospital of her own, took with her some forty nurses to the Crimea, where the soldiers were suffering from cholera as well as from wounds. Her heroic work won her the devotion of the soldiers. The Red Cross organization for nursing soldiers dates only from an international convention at Geneva in 1864, which arranged that such nurses should not be fired on in battle '1 he Crimean War, 1854 and so get control of the Dardanelles and the eastern Medi- terranean. When the Tsar's troops marched into the Turkish dominions, France and England came to the Sultan's assistance and declared war upon Russia in 1854. The war which followed was fought out in the southern part of the Crimean peninsula. Every victory won by the allies was Turkey and the Eastern Question 693 dearly bought. Both the French and the English suffered great hardship and losses. Russia was, however, disheartened by the sufferings of her own soldiers, the inefficiency and corrup- tion of her officials, and the final loss of the mighty fortress of Sebastopol. She saw, moreover, that her near neighbor, Austria, was about to join her enemies. The new Tsar, Alexander II, therefore, consented in 1856 to the terms of a treaty drawn up at Paris. 1 This treaty recognized the independence of the Ottoman Terms of Empire and guaranteed its territorial integrity. The " Sublime f p ar i Sj Porte " was taken into the family of European powers, from 1 5 which it had hitherto been excluded as a barbarous government, and the other powers agreed not to interfere further with the domestic affairs of Turkey. In short, Turkey was preserved and strengthened by the intervention of the powers as a bul- wark against Russian encroachment into the Balkan peninsula, but nothing was really done to reform the Turkish administration or to make the lot of the Christian subjects more secure. Revolts in the Balkan Peninsula 145. Some idea of the situation of the people under the Terrible con- Sultan's rule may be derived from the report of an English Bosnia under traveler in 187 5. 2 In the Turkish province of Bosnia he found Turkishrul e that outside the large towns, where European consuls were present, neither the honor, property, nor lives of the Christians were safe, because the authorities were blind to any outrage committed by a Mohammedan. The Sultan's taxes fell prin- cipally on the peasants, in the form of a tenth of their prod- uce. It was a common custom for the collectors (who were often not Mohammedans but brutal Christians) to require the peasant to pay the tax in cash before the harvesting of the ripe 1 It will be remembered that Sardinia had joined the allies against Russia, and in this way forced the powers to admit it to the deliberations at Paris, where Cavour seized the opportunity to plead the cause, of Italy. See above, p. 6o8.. 2 Mr. Arthur Evans, the famous archaeologist. 694 Medieval and Modern Times The Bulga- rian atroci- ties (1876) Gladstone pleads with his country- men to aid the Balkan Christians crop, and if he could not meet the charges, the taxgatherer simply said, " Then your harvest shall rot on the ground till you pay it." When this oppression was resisted, the most cruel tortures were meted out to the offenders. The people were also subject to three kinds of cattle tax and to a tax for exemption from military service, which was levied on every male at birth. Further, the Turkish soldiers who were quartered in the villages were guilty of "countless outrages. In 1874 a failure of crops aggravated the intolerable condi- tions and an insurrection broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina which set the whole Balkan peninsula aflame. The Bulgarians around Philippopolis, incited to hopes of independence by the events in the states to the west, assassinated some of the Turk- ish officials, and gave the Turks a pretext for the most terrible atrocities in the history of Turkish rule in Europe, murdering thousands of Bulgars in revenge. While the European powers, in their usual fashion, were exchanging futile diplomatic notes on the situation, Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the Sultan, and the Christians in the Balkan region made a frantic appeal to the W T est for im- mediate help. A good deal naturally depended on the position taken by England, which was in alliance with Turkey. Glad- stone, then leader of the Liberals, urged his countrymen to break the unholy alliance between England and " the unspeak- able Turk." But Gladstone's party was not in power, and Lord Beaconsfield, then at the head of the English government, was fearful that English encouragement to the Slavic rebels in. the Sultan's dominions would only result in their becoming independent and allying themselves with England's enemy, Russia. Beaconsfield believed that in the interest of English trade he must continue to resist any movement which might destroy the power of the Sultan, who was less likely than Russia to interfere with England's Eastern commerce. The negotiations of the powers having come to nothing, Russia determined, in 1877, to act alone. Although the Turks Turkey and the Eastern Question 695 fought well, Russia was victorious, and in 1878 a Russian Russia over army entered Adrianople. The Sultan was forced to sign a sultan in a treaty with the Tsar and to recognize the independence of ^^l^g Serbia, Montenegro, Roumania, 1 and Bulgaria. England and Austria had naturally serious objections to this The Berlin treaty which increased the influence of Russia in the Balkan j n ^78 peninsula. They accordingly forced Tsar Alexander II to sub- mit the whole matter to the consideration of a general European congress at Berlin. After prolonged and stormy sessions the Congress of Berlin agreed that Serbia, Roumania, and little Montenegro should be regarded as entirely independent of Turkey, and that Bulgaria should also be independent, except for the payment of a tribute to the Sultan. Bosnia, where the insurrection had begun, and the small province of Herzegovina were practically taken from the Sultan and turned over to Austria to be occupied and administered by her. Russia was given a tract east of the Black Sea. A few years after the con- gress Bulgaria quietly annexed the neighboring province of - Eastern Roumelia, thus adding to her own importance and further decreasing what little remained of Turkey in Europe. Extinction of Turkey in Europe 146. All that was left of the Turkish empire in Europe was Turkish a narrow strip of territory — less in extent than the state of Europe re- Missouri — extending from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, to ^ c ^ ^ which the name " Macedonia" was generally applied. This area donian region . , , . , . . . . , . ; ,* . inhabited by is broken everywhere by mountain ranges, and is inhabited by Greeks, Bui- such a complicated mixture of races that it has been aptly called ffan^Turics " a perfect museum of human races." Along the coast of the a ? d Alba - r ° mans yEgean Sea and the borders of Greece, the Greeks, numbering 1 In 1862 the so-called " Danubian Provinces " of Moldavia and Wallachia (see above, p. 691) had formed a voluntary union under the name " Roumania." In 1866 the Roumanians chose for their ruler a German prince, Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who in 188 1 was proclaimed king of Roumania as Carol I. He died in 1914 and was succeeded by his son Ferdinand. 6g6 Medieval and Modern Times The massa- cres in Macedonia The Turkish revolution of 1908 roughly three hundred thousand, predominate. In the north- central regions are the Serbs, a nation of sturdy peasants own- ing their little farms ; they resemble the thrifty Bulgars of the northeast in somewhat the same way as the Irish resemble the Scotch, and both claim as their kindred the Macedonians of the Balkan region. Scattered through the central districts are a certain number of Turks. In the west, bordering on the Adriatic, are the Albanians, a wild people, primitive in their civilization and lawless in their habits. Turkey was naturally anxious to hold on to this last remnant of her once large dominion in Europe, but she did not mind the subject people fighting one another when they were so in- clined. The European powers were well aware of the horrible local massacres, assassinations, and robberies that were con- stantly going on in Macedonia, but they dreaded the general war that might come if any attempt was made to take the region from Turkey and divide it up among the independent Balkan states, — Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria, — for each of these countries declared that Macedonia rightfully belonged to it. Indeed, Greece made a futile attempt in 1897 to conquer part of it in a brief and disastrous war with Turkey. In recent years a small party of reformers, known as Young Turks, developed, especially in the army, for as officers they had had to study the methods of Western nations. In 1908 a so-called " Committee of Union and Progress " was formed in the Turkish port of Salonica. In July this committee declared that Turkey must have a constitution and that the reformers would march on Constantinople if the Sultan did not yield. The aged Sultan, Abdul Hamid, did not feel himself in a posi- tion to oppose the movement, and so even Turkey got a consti- tution at last. The election of representatives to the Turkish parliament took place, and the assembly was opened by the Sultan with great pomp in December, 1908. This "bloodless revolution " attracted the attention of Europe, and every one wondered whether the Young Turks, who were few in number Turkey and the Eastern Question 697 and impracticable in their notions of government, would really succeed in reforming such a thoroughly corrupt government as that of Abdul Hamid, who had hated and cruelly suppressed every tendency toward betterment during his long reign. Bulgaria immediately seized the occasion to declare itself Austria onri f* X6*S entirely independent of Turkey. Next Austria proclaimed the Bosnia and annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, two Slavic provinces of Herze g° vina Fig. 179. Turkish Parliament Buildings A representative parliament in Turkey would naturally include Arme- nians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, and Arabs. But the Young Turk party managed it so that the Turks should rule Turkey which she had been managing since the settlement of 1878 at the Congress of Berlin. She set to work to Germanize them as completely as possible and suppress all tendencies to join their Slavic relatives in Serbia. A glance at the map will show how important these provinces are for Austria, since they connect her other main possessions with Dalmatia and her ports on the Adriatic. It was in the capital of Bosnia that the event occurred which gave the pretext for the great war. 698 Medieval and Modern Times Difficulties The Young Turks encountered ever-increasing difficulties. Young Turks They naturally thought that it would be a wise thing to deprive the unruly populations of Albania and Macedonia of their arms. This led to a vast amount of trouble, for the people were at- tached to their guns and swords, and besides they might need them any minute either to kill their neighbors or defend them- selves. The Albanians had always been willing to fight for the Turks, but on their own terms, and they had no inclination to join the regular army or to pay taxes, as the new government wished. So there were successive revolts in Albania and Mace- donia, and the disorder under the new constitution was worse than under the old despotism. Then the officials and politicians who liked the old ways of doing things organized a revolt in Constantinople which had to be put down. Old Abdul Hamid was deposed, imprisoned, and his brother made Sultan under the title of Mohammed V. In spite of this the Young Turks found it increasingly difficult to maintain their position against their many opponents. War between In September, 191 1, Italy determined to declare war on Turkey Turkey, on the ground that Italian subjects in Tripoli were not properly treated. All Europe protested' against this " high- handed " action by Italy ; but Italy replied that she was merely following the example set by other countries — protecting the lives and property of- her citizens by annexing a .country beset by chronic disorders. Turkey was no match for Italy. There was not a great deal of fighting, but Italy took possession of such portions of Tripoli as she could hold with her troops, and also captured the island of Rhodes. The Young Turks did not feel that they could face the unpopularity of ceding these to Italy, but after the war had dragged on for a year they were forced in October, 19 12, by the oncoming of a new Balkan war, to cede Tripoli, reserving only a vague Turkish suzerainty. Italy continued to hold Rhodes too. Venizelos, who had been reorganizing Greece with the ability of a Cavour, secretly arranged an alliance with Bulgaria, Serbia, Turkey and the Eastern Question 699 and little Montenegro for a war with Turkey, which began in The Balkan October, 19 12. The Turkish army disappointed every one, and against the Bulgarians were able in a few days to defeat it, invest the Turke y important fortress of Adrianople, and drive the Turkish forces back close to Constantinople. The Greeks advanced into The Rival Claims of the Balkan Powers Each of the Balkan powers claims that it should hold the land where members of its nation or race live. Since these are intermingled, there is constant source of quarrel, especially in Macedonia, where Bulgars, Serbs, and Greeks are all found, along with Turks. The JEge&n islands and parts of the coast of Asia Minor are also claimed by Greece Macedonia and Thrace, and the Montenegro and Serbian army The first defeated the Turkish army sent against ^em and attacked Ig a I2 an ar ' Albania. Austria now began to get very nervous lest the Serbians Austria should establish themselves on the Adriatic. She forbade Serbia to hold the port of Durazzo. Had Russia been inclined to sup- port Serbia at that moment the general European war would balks Serbia yoo Medieval and Modem Times Treaty of London Second Balkan War, I9 X 3 probably have broken out at the end of 19 12 instead of two years later. Serbia, however, backed down. A truce was ar- ranged and representatives of the Balkan States and of Turkey met in London to see if peace could be arranged. The powers advised Turkey to give up everything in Europe except Con- stantinople and the region immediately to the west. The Young Turks decided, however, to fight a little longer, and the war was Fig. 180. Trees from which War Victims have eaten the Bark Most of the atrocities of the Balkan wars are too horrible even to repeat. This grove of trees, on a small island, was stripped of bark by the starving victims imprisoned there without food. Each side seems to have been guilty of cruelty and murder resumed in January. Everything went against them, and in May preliminaries of peace were signed in London in which Turkey turned over Macedonia and Crete 1 to the Balkan allies. But Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece were all jealous of one an- other, and the division of the booty led immediately to Bulgaria's turning around to wage war on Greece and Serbia, There was a month of frightful war (July, 19 13) and then the Bulgarians, 1 This island had revolted from Turkey in 1909 and raised the Greek flag. Turkey and the Eastern Question 701 defeated on all sides, — for even the Turks recovered Adrianople and the Roumanians invaded on the east, — agreed to consider peace, and delegates met in Bucharest, the capital of Roumania. Here the partition of Macedonia was agreed upon. The treaties concluded at Bucharest between the Balkan kingdoms disposed of practically all of Turkey's possessions in Europe. The Sultan was left with Constantinople and a small Fig. 181. The Bosporus Looking across to Asia from Robert College (American). These "towers of Europe," about five miles above Constantinople, were erected by the Turks in their campaign against the city in the fifteenth century area to the west including the important fortress of Adrianople. The great powers, particularly Austria, had insisted that Albania should be made an independent state, so as to prevent Serbia's getting a port on the Adriatic. The rest of the former Turkish possessions were divided up between Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro. Greece got the important port of Salonica and the island of Crete as well as a considerable area in Macedonia. Bulgaria was extended to the ./Egean Sea on the south. Serbia was nearly doubled in area, and Montenegro as well. (See map.) Treaty of Bucharest 702 Medieval and Modern Times QUESTIONS Section 143. Review the rise of the Turkish empire in Europe. Why was it not on a stable footing ? Why has Russia been so anx- ious to overthrow the Turks? Why did not the governments of Europe hasten to the aid of the Greek patriots? What statesmen were directing the governments of Europe at that time? Section 144. How did the Turks treat the Christians in Turkey? Why should Napoleon III not have left the protection of Christians in Palestine to the Tsar? Had France ever played much of a role in Palestine before ? Give the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Did the Crimean War accomplish permanent results ? Section 145. Where did the new troubles in Turkey begin? Why did not the powers of Europe stop the Turkish massacres? Were the English all agreed on this? How near to Constantinople did the Russian armies get in 1878? How was the Balkan situation arranged by the Congress of Berlin ? Why is it important to study these details ? Go over the section carefully, studying the map. Section 146. Describe the Balkan races. What was the reason for the Young Turk revolution? Why would it be difficult for a Turkish parliament to be truly representative of the people ? Point out the importance of Austria's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Is there anything to be said against the policy of the Young Turks? Could Turkey be made over easily into a modern nation ? How did the first Balkan alliance come about? Sketch the history of the Balkans through both wars. How did Bulgaria come out of it? Who received Macedonia in the Treaty of Bucharest? Why has the Balkan situation been for years a great menace to the peace of Europe? CHAPTER XXXIV THE EXPANSION OF EUROPE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The Growth of International Trade and Competition : Imperialism 147. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, Europe has The foreign become a busy world of shops and factories, which produce Europe much more than Europeans can use. So new markets are con- stantly sought in distant parts of the world. The trade with the Far East, which, as we have seen, led to the discovery of America, has grown in the nineteenth century to enormous extent, scattering the wares of London, Paris, or Hamburg through China and India and the islands of the Pacific. This world trade is one of the great facts of history ; for it has led the European nations to plant new colonies and to try to monopolize markets in Asia and Africa and wherever else they could. This has brought rivalries between the nations at home, and it was one of the causes of the Great European War. This prodigious expansion of commerce was made possible by Beginnings the discovery that steam could be used to carry goods cheaply navigation and speedily to all parts of the earth. Steamships and railways have made the world one great market place. The problem of applying steam to navigation had long occu- Robert pied inventors, but the honor of. making the steamship a success commercially belongs to Robert Fulton. In the spring of 1807 he launched his Clermont at New York, and in the autumn of that year the "new water monster" made its famous trip to Albany. Transoceanic steam navigation began in 18 19 with 703 704 Medieval and Modern Times Steady increase in the size and speed of ocean vessels the voyage of the steamer Savannah from Savannah to Liver- pool, which took twenty-five days, sails being used to help the engine. The Great Western, which startled the world in 1838 by steaming from Bristol to New York in fifteen days and ten hours, was a ship of 1378 tons, 212 feet long, with a daily consumption of 36 tons of coal. 1 Now a commercial map of the world shows that the globe is crossed in every direction by Fig. 182. The Savannah The Suez Canal com- pleted in definite routes which are followed by innumerable freight and passenger steamers passing regularly from one port to another, and few of all these thousands of ships are as small as the famous Great Western. The East and the West have been brought much nearer together by the piercing of the Isthmus of Suez, which for- merly barred the way from the Mediterranean Sea to the 1 Compare this with the Lusitania, which had a tonnage of 32,500 tons, engines of 68,000 horse power, was 785 feet long, and carried a supply of over 5000 tons of coal for its journey across the Atlantic, which lasted less than five days. A German vessel, the. Inifierator, was launched in 1912, having a tonnage of over 50,000 tons. Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Century 705 Indian Ocean. This enterprise was carried out under the direction of the great French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps. After ten years of work the canal was opened to traffic in November, 1869. The construction of a canal through the Isthmus of Panama Panama was undertaken in 1881 by a French company organized by ana de Lesseps; but the company failed, and in 1902 the Congress of the United States authorized the President to purchase for forty million dollars the property in which the French investors had sunk so much money. Arrangements with the republic of Colombia for the construction of the canal by the United States having come to naught, the state of Panama, through which the line of the proposed canal passes, seceded from Colombia in 1903, and its independence was immediately recognized by President Roosevelt. A treaty in regard to the canal zone was then duly concluded with the new republic, and after some delays the work of the French company was resumed by the United States and practically completed in 19 15. Just as the gigantic modern steamship has taken the place The begin- of the schooner for the rapid trade of the world, so, on land, stelmbco- the merchandise which used to be dragged by means of horses j 110 *- 1011 on and oxen or carried in slow canal boats is being transported in long trains of capacious cars, each of which holds as much as fifteen, or twenty large wagons. The story of the locomotive, like that of the spinning machine or steam engine, is the history of many experiments and their final combination by a successful inventor, George Stephenson. In 18 1 4 Stephenson built a small locomotive, known as "Puff- George ing Billy," which was used at the mines, and in 1825, with the (1781-184S) authorization of Parliament, he opened between Stockton and an , d the de ~ , r velopment of Darlington, in the northern part of England, a line for the con- railways in veyance of passengers and freight. About this time a road was being projected between Liverpool and Manchester, and in an open competition, in which five locomotives were entered, Stephenson's " Rocket " was chosen for the new railroad, which 706 Medieval and Modern Times Spread of railways The possibil- ity of world " news " was formally opened in 1830. This famous engine weighed about seven tons and ran at an average speed of thirteen miles an hour — a small affair when compared with the giant loco- motive of our day, weighing a hundred tons and running fifty miles an hour. 1 Within fifteen years trains were running regu- larly between Liverpool, Manchester,. Birmingham, and London, and at the close of the century Great Britain had twenty-two thousand miles of railway carrying over a billion passengers annually. The first railway was opened in France in 1828, the first in Germany in 1835, but the development of the system was greatly hindered by the territorial divisions which then existed. Now Europe is bound together by a network of nearly two hundred thousand miles of railway, but railway construction is rapidly advancing in Africa and Asia, preparing cheap outlets for the products of Western mills and mines. As we have seen, the Trans-Siberian road has connected Europe overland with the Pacific, 2 and Russia has also pushed lines southward toward Persia and Afghanistan ; British India has over thirty thousand miles, and the importance of the new railroads in China and Turkey is so great as to involve rival European nations and so contribute a cause of war. 3 Quite as essential to the world market as railway and steam- ship lines are the easy and inexpensive means of communica- tion afforded by the post, telephone, telegraph, and cable. The English " penny post " is now so commonplace as no longer to excite wonder, but to men of Frederick the Great's time it would have seemed impossible. Until 1839, in England the postage on an ordinary letter was a shilling for a short distance. In that 1 It will be noted that this is the average speed on regular runs. For short distances the " Rocket " made thirty-five miles an hour, while the modern loco- motive, as is well known, sometimes runs over a hundred miles an hour. 2 See above, p. 682. 3 The Japanese and Russians have used the railways of Manchuria to estab- lish themselves along the route. The German concession from Turkey of a railroad from Constantinople to Bagdad was very unwelcome to English and Russians. rfe i«?r '•»-s **. JSf '--> r> c^^iuolmskl -•-v < V- y "Jev *w **e &■ 1 \ i/nr\ i ^ivhe]; ->s ^ *i& THE EUROPEAN ADVANCE (TO 1 9 1 4) IN A S I A o too :oo sop -too :. qp poo too SCALE OF MILES British Territory j, J German Territory |~~~) Russian Territory E3 Portuguese Territory I ~1 French Territory 1 1 Uuited States Territory I 1 Railroads — _____ Proposed Railroads ■ — . Longitude 50° E«st i'ivni 60° Greenwich Bombay Colombo 1 *A- MJL" 4$ B V \l3* «t Barnaul \ ? ^ f^^ ts K, I**** wsl t«8 .4 ^ ^ •o. Pe.s \G« i* * ■ <-' L.:i#2jL o-0\^^'" ***** % (,to » -* r I ° £J B j.; .V « A L O-C*^ Ban] fcoty (fr.) ANDAMAN^' , **<* lS " Perunsuja • 4 ^ Pe« 90° s/C 120° Ol£ s, l loo^p-^^q Si uS»P<> re Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Century Joj year a reform measure long advocated by Rowland Hill was Penny- carried, establishing a uniform penny post throughout Great pos ge Britain. Other European countries have followed the example of Great Britain in reducing postage, and now the world is moving rapidly in the direction of a universal two-cent rate. No less wonderful is the development of the telegraph sys- Telegraph tern. Distant and obscure places in Africa and Asia are being S n| e " brought into close touch with one another and with Europe. China now has lines connecting all the important cities of the republic and affording direct overland communication between Peking and Paris. In October, 1907, Marconi established regular communication across the Atlantic by means of the wireless system of telegraphy discovered some years before ; and now the wireless telephone can carry the voice from Washington to Paris. The industrial revolution which enables Europe to produce Competition far more goods than it can sell in its own markets, and the markets^ rapid transportation which permits 'producers to distribute their commodities over the whole surface of the globe, have com- bined to produce a keen competition for foreign markets. The European nations have secured the control of practically all the territory occupied by defenseless peoples in Africa and Asia, and have introduced Western ideas of business into China and Japan, where steamships now ply the navigable rivers and railroads are being rapidly built. The process of colonization and of Westernizing the oriental Foreign peoples has been further hastened by European and American capitalists investing in railroads and mines in backward coun- tries. Great Britain alone is said to have about ten billion dollars invested abroad ; one fifth of Russian industrial enter- prises are financed by foreigners, who are also to a consider- able extent constructing the railroads in China. The Germans supply the money for large banking concerns in Brazil, Buenos Aires, and Valparaiso, which in turn stimulate industry and the construction of railways. >o$ •; Timrs - s Markets .md se< x ig • . estment — ure shaping th< com* . es oi v-\ MJ L< a pc i - ... - S DCS. Sou* es this imp* sin « - the .• ■■ w e desire o Am ■ . es sax s the aa s o: . . . . s es .;. ssumes of a nation .... - - . . . . . all the .-\ So iie: :*.« " •. - ' .:;> v sea fissions undeveloped count: ^gners have obtained una or citizens of . . - es Hex* sukhan \oothed mission- . . - . - - .... . slOSVe'. Vs... - . ■ court- ss onaries ttk traders and soldiers, rica > discv >< . ...... . . ; .• : . . \- ? . : ... - ; \; •-.. • C.i:>./.:c .' ; > . ? :.•;•. ... • - \ • .'• ."-"'. '. : > - . 5 and th. ssis - .d schools missionaries are Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Century 709 trained for their work and taught the requisite languages. The Roman Catholic Church now reckons millions of adherents in Turkey, IVisi.i, Ai.ihia, India, Siam, I iulo ( hina, Malaysia, the Chinese Republic, ECorea, Japan, Africa, and Polynesia. For a long time after the Protestant Revolt the reformed Protestant churches showed little ardor for foreign missions. Among the earliest Protestant missionary associations was the Society for the Promotion o( Christian Knowledge, founded in 1695 and conducted under the auspices oi the Church of Englandi In the eighteenth century the- Methodists and Baptists joined in the efforts to convert the heathen. The United States entered the field in 1810, when the American Board of Foreign Missions was organized. As time went on, practically all the Protestant denominations established each its board of foreign missions, and the United States has rivaled Europe in the dis- tinction and energy of the missionaries it has sent out and in the generous support its people have given them. Bible soci- eties have been engaged in translating the Scriptures into every known language and scattering copies of them broadcast. Missionaries have not alone spread the knowledge of the Missionaries Christian religion, but have carried with them modern scientific and teachers ideas and modern inventions. They have reduced to writing the languages of peoples previously ignorant of the existence of an alphabet Their physicians have introduced rational methods of treating the sick, and their schools have given an education to millions who without them would have been left in complete bar- barism. Finally, they have encouraged thousands of Japanese, Chinese, and representatives of other peoples to visit Europe and America, and thus prepare themselves to become apostles of Western ideas among their fellows. The explorations and investigations carried on by the missionaries have vastly in- creased the knowledge of the world and its inhabitants. Their maps and their scientific reports on languages and customs have often proved of the highest value. They have also created a demand for Western goods and opened the way for trade. JlO Medieval and Modern Times Relations of Europe with China Early knowl- edge of China Europeans excluded from China The "Opium War" 148. The relations of Europe to China extend back into ancient times. Some of the Roman emperors, including Mar- cus Aurelius, sent embassies to the Chinese monarch, and in the Middle Ages some missionaries labored to introduce Christianity into China. It was not, however, until after the opening of the water route around the Cape of Good Hope that European trade with China became important. Early in the sixteenth century Portuguese merchants appeared in Chinese harbors, offering Western merchandise in exchange for tea and silks. In 1537 the Portuguese rented a trifling bit of land of Macao, off Canton — a post which they hold to-day. However, the Chinese did not welcome foreign interference. Their officials regarded the European merchants as barbarians. When, in 1655, the Dutch sent two envoys to the Chinese em- peror, they were only received on condition that they would prostrate themselves before his throne and strike their heads nine times on the earth as evidence of their inferiority. . In spite of this treatment Dutch and English merchants flocked to Canton, the sole port at which the Chinese emperor permitted regular commerce with foreign countries. Repeated efforts were made, particularly by the English, to get into direct communication with the government at Peking, but they were steadily rebuffed and were only able to establish the commercial relations which they sought by an armed con- flict in 1840, known as the " Opium War." The Chinese had attempted to prevent all traffic in this drug, but the English found it so profitable that they were unwilling to give up the * The picture opposite gives an example of cheap Chinese labor. The coolies received one fourteenth of one cent for hauling the ship up the rapids. Now the rocks have been cleared away by dynamite, and steamboats have displaced the coolies. The other picture shows how the thrifty Chinese have terraced the hills so that not a drop of water is wasted nor a foot of the fertile ground left uncultivated. Chinese Coolies hauling a Boat* Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Century 7 1 1 trade. When, in 1839, the Chinese government seized many thousand chests of opium and informed the British that the traffic would have to stop, war broke out. The British, of course, with their modern implements of war- fare, were speedily victorious, and the Chinese were forced to Fig. 183. The Great Wall of China at the Nankow Pass This great wall, 15 to 30 feet high and 15 to 25 feet broad, extends for 1400 miles along the northern borders of China. Part of it was built in the third century b. c, part in the fourteenth century A. D., as a barrier to the Tartar tribes. The civilization of China is very old and the Chinese have been proudly disdainful of Western ways and inventions until recently, when nations supplied with these inventions have been threatening the very independence of China agree, in the Treaty of Nanking, to pay a heavy indemnity, to The opening cede to the British the island of Hongkong, which lies at the ports'" 7 mouth of the Canton River, and to open to foreign commerce the ports of Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai on the same terms as Canton. The United States, taking advantage of this war, secured similar commercial privileges in 1844. 712 Medieval and Modem Times The French From the Opium War to the present date China has been in China troubled with foreign invasions. Napoleon III, supported by the English, waged war on China in 1858 and forced the em- peror to open new ports to European trade, including Tientsin, which was dangerously near the imperial city of Peking. Re- cently China has been thrown open to the foreign merchants to a very great extent, and the " concessions " demanded by the great powers have caused some fear that the whole country might be divided among them. 1 Japan becomes a World Power ; Intervention in China • The extraor- 149. To the northeast of China lies a long group of islands of Japan 0iy which, if they lay off the eastern coast of North America, would extend from Maine to Georgia. This archipelago, comprising four main islands and some four thousand smaller ones, is the center of the Japanese Empire. Fifty years ago Japan was still almost completely isolated from the rest of the world ; but now, through a series of extraordinary events, she has become one of the conspicuous members of the family of nations. American newspapers deal as fully with her foreign policy as with that of France or Germany ; we are familiar with the portraits of her statesmen and warriors, and her exquisite art has many enthusi- astic admirers in England and America. Her people, who are somewhat more numerous than the inhabitants of the British Isles, resemble the Chinese in appearance and owe to China the beginnings of their culture and their art. Peny forces During the sixteenth century Dutch and English traders car- open pons ried on some business in Japan, but they as well as the mission- aries became unpopular and were all driven out. For nearly two centuries Japan cut herself off almost entirely from the outer world. In 1853 Commodore Perry landed in Yokohama and asked that United States ships be allowed to dispose of 1 See below, p. 715. Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Century 713 their cargoes at one or two ports at least. This was allowed, and soon other powers got the right to trade with Japan, and the Japanese decided that they must acquaint themselves with European science and inventions if they hoped to protect them- selves against European encroachments. In 187 1 feudalism was abolished, serf- dom was done away with, and the army and navy were rap- idly remodeled on a European pattern. In 1889 a constitution was established pro- viding for a parlia- ment. Factories were built, several thou- sand miles of railroads were constructed, and Japan was pretty thoroughly modern- ized within a gen- eration. Japan, having be- come a manufactur- ing people, wished to extend her trade and was specially anxious to get control of the neighboring Korea, which was claimed by China. The Japanese easily defeated the Chinese in a short war (1894-1895). Korea was declared independent (which practi- cally meant opening it up to Japan), but Russia intervened to prevent the Japanese from getting a foothold on the mainland. She induced China instead to permit her to build a railroad across Manchuria and to lease Port Arthur to her. This she fortified and connected by rail with the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Rapid adop- tion of Eu- ropean ideas Fig. 184. Japanese Warriors The men who led the Japanese armies in the great war with Russia had learned, as boys, to fight in armor with sword and spear, like these warriors War with China Russia profits by Japanese , victory 714 Medieval and Modern Times Germans take Kiaochow Meanwhile the Germans found an excuse for strengthening themselves in the same region. A German missionary having been murdered in the province of Shantung, which lies oppo- site Korea, a German squadron appeared in Kiaochow Bay, in November, 1897, landed a force of marines, and raised the German flag. As a compensation for the murder of the Japanese capture it, 1914 Fig. 185. Japanese Feudal Castle Contrast this stronghold of feudal days in Japan with the grim castles of Europe in the Middle Ages. Rival parties among the Japanese nobles now contend only in parliament missionary, Germany demanded a long lease of Kiaochow, with the right to build railways in the region and work mines. Upon acquiring Kiaochow the Germans built harbors, constructed forts, military barracks, machine shops, etc. In short, a model German town was constructed on the Chinese coast, which, with its defenses, was designed to form a base for further extension of Germany's sphere of influence. It was captured by the Japanese, however, in 19 14. Expansion of Europe in Nineteenth Century 715 Great Britain, learning of the negotiations, sent a fleet north- Britain leases ward from Hongkong to the Gulf of Pechili, and induced China Weihaiwei to lease to her Weihaiwei, which lay just between the recent acquisitions of Germany and Russia. England, moreover, be- lieved it to be for her interest to be on good terms with Japan, and in 1902 an offensive and defensive alliance was concluded between the two powers, binding each to assist the other in case a third party joined in a conflict in which either was involved. For example, England, under the provisions, would have to aid Japan in a war with Russia, should France or Germany intervene. The foreigners were by no means content with establishing China open trading posts in China; they longed to develop the neglected a g g ressfon natural resources of the empire, to open up communication by railroads and steamships, and to Westernize the orientals, in order that business might be carried on more easily with them and new opportunities be found for profitable investments. The Chinese at first opposed the building of railroads, but Signs of during the past twenty years several thousand miles of track china brings have been laid and many other lines are planned. Telegraphs B u X ?[- and post offices of the European type have been established. In 1898, after the war with Japan, China began to remodel her army and to send her students to study in foreign universities. These reforms aroused the violent opposition of a party known as the " Boxers," who hated the missionaries and business men from the Western countries. They declared that the new ideas would ruin China and that the European powers would tear China to pieces like tigers, if given a chance. In June, 1900, the Boxers killed the German ambassador and European besieged the Europeans in Peking, and appeared to be on the f rom its sup- point of massacring them all. The foreign powers — Japan, P ression Russia, Great Britain, the United States, France, and Germany — immediately collected a joint army which fought its way from the coast to Peking and brought relief to their imperiled fellow countrymen in the Chinese capital. The European troops looted the palace of the Chinese emperor, and the conduct of the yi6 Medieval and Modern Times Chinese parliament established German troops disgraced the Christian world. China was forced to pay an indemnity of three hundred and twenty millions of dollars and pledge itself to suppress the Boxers and every society that was opposed to the presence of foreigners. 1 After the trouble in Peking was over, the Chinese government took up the reforms once more, and in 1906 a proclamation was issued promising that a Chinese parliament should be es- tablished and the old system of absolute rule abandoned forever. Russia in Manchuria angers Japan Japan well organized Russo- Japanese War Russia and Japan 150. Scarcely had the Boxer rising been put down when it became apparent that Japan and Russia were drifting into war. Russia refused to evacuate Manchuria and insisted on getting a hold in Korea, even sending Cossacks to build forts there. Japan declared that Russia had repeatedly promised to withdraw her troops from Manchuria and had agreed that Korea should be independent. As the Tsar's government gave the Japa- nese no satisfaction, they boldly went to war with Russia in February, 1904. Japan was well prepared for war and was, moreover, within easy reach of the field of conflict. The Russian government, on the contrary, was rotten to the core and was already engaged in a terrible struggle with the Russian nation. 2 The eastern boundary of European Russia lay three thousand miles from Port Arthur, and the only means of communication was the single line of badly constructed railroad that stretched across Siberia to the Pacific. Three days after the war opened, the Japanese fleet surprised the Russian battleships lying off Port Arthur, sank four of them, and drove the rest into the harbor, where they succeeded, in the main, in keeping them "bottled up." A second fleet which had been stationed at Vladivostok was defeated early in 1 The United States returned its share of the indemnity, and China, in grati- tude, is spending it to educate students in America. 2 See above, pp. 685 f. Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Century 717 May, thus giving Japan control of the seas. At the same time Japanese the Russians were driven back in Korea, and the Japanese under General Oku landed on the Liaotung peninsula, cut off Port Arthur from communication with Russia, and captured the town of Dalny, which they made their naval headquarters. General Oku then began pushing the Russians northward toward Mukden, while General Nogi was left to besiege Port Port Arthur Arthur. For months the world watched in suspense the heroic attacks which the Japanese, at deadly cost to themselves, made upon the Russian fortress. In October the Japanese were vic- torious in a fearful battle which raged south of Mukden for days, thus putting an end to General Kuropatkin's designs for relieving Port Arthur. As winter came on, the Japanese redoubled their efforts and the fortress at last surrendered, on January 1, 1905, after a siege of seven months, the horrors of which are perhaps without a parallel. The conduct of the war on the part of the Japanese affords Japanese one of the most extraordinary examples on record of military * ciency organization and efficiency. By means of an ingenious system of telephones they kept every division of the army in direct communication with the war office in Tokyo, and by the strict- est discipline they checked disease and contagion in the hospi- tals. The Russian sanitary service was also of high order, as compared with previous wars. Late in February fighting again Battle of began, and for three weeks the Russians struggled against the u en combined Japanese armies ; but on March 9 they deserted Mukden and moved northward, after forty thousand of them had been killed and over a hundred thousand wounded. Russia meanwhile dispatched its Baltic squadron to the Orient. Russian fleet After some strange adventures, which aroused both amusement es roye and disgust, 1 it arrived in May in the strait of Korea, where 1 As the squadron was passing through the North Sea the Russians fired upon a fishing fleet off Dogger Bank, and alleged later that they mistook the poor fishermen for Japanese. This is but one of numerous examples of the incompetence which was shown by the Russians throughout the war. 7 i8 Medieval mid Modern Times Admiral Togo was waiting for it. In a few hours he sank twenty-two of the Russian vessels and captured six. The Tsar's fleet was practically annihilated, with terrible loss of life, while the Japanese came out of the conflict almost unscathed. Lest the war should drag on indefinitely, President Roosevelt, acting under the provisions of the Hague Convention, took measures which brought about a peace. After consulting the representatives of Japan and Russia, he dispatched notes to the Tsar and the Mikado, urging them to open negotiations. This invitation was accepted, the conference was held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and on September 5 the Treaty of Ports- mouth was signed. This recognized the Japanese influence as paramount in Korea, which, however, was to remain independ- ent. 1 Both the Japanese and Russians were to evacuate Man- churia; the Japanese were, however, given the rights in the Liaotung peninsula and Port Arthur which Russia had formerly enjoyed. Lastly, the southern part of the Russian island of Sakhalin was ceded to Japan. Thus this great conflict produced by the friction of the powers in the East was brought to an end, but the wealth of China and the fact that it has not yet organized a strong army or navy leave it as a tempting prize for further aggression. Nevertheless, China has been changing as rapidly during the last five years as Japan ever did. Students of western coun- tries returning home determined to overthrow the Manchu (or Manchurian) dynasty, which had ruled for two hundred and sixty-seven years, and their corrupt officials. After a heroic and bloody struggle they forced the court, on February 12, 191 2, to declare the abdication of the boy-emperor then on the throne and the creation of a republic. But the emperor's prime minis- ter, Yuan Shih-kai, skillfully had himself granted full power to 1 The Japanese have not left Korea independent. They immediately took control of the administration, and in the summer of 1907 forced the Korean emperor most unwillingly to abdicate. Finally, by the treaty of August 23, 1910, Korea was annexed to the Japanese empire. Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Century 719 establish the republic which the revolutionists had won. In this President way he prevented the ardent republicans, who had done the kai attempts fighting, from carrying out their program of immediate reform. Juit fMifto^' Instead, he secretly thwarted their plans, and when he had a become emperor sufficient pretext he lessened the powers of the new Chinese parliament so that it was unable to oppose his will. Having thus prepared the way for a coup d'etat, he announced in the Fig. 186. Yuan Shih-kai autumn -of 19 14 that he would assume the title of "Emperor of China." The protest of Japan, and possibly of other powers, against this move led him to postpone the actual assumption of the crown ; for Japan feared that with a strong emperor China might defend itself successfully, and even become a dangerous rival. Then the republicans revolted, and Yuan Shih-kai finally, March, 19 16, fearing to lose all, declared that he would never accept the title "emperor," and that the whole incident had been a mistake. 720 *td Modern 7. Partition of Africa - tan 5 7 :.—::;- :■ Africa, Africa 151. The last great region to attract th^jmention of Euro- peans looking for trade was Africa. Little was known of the interior before 187c ~: : ;:ween 1S50 and 1SS0 many explorers bra - m torrid heat and the dangers from disease, savages, and wild beasts :: discover the sources of the Nile and to trace the courses of the Zambesi and the upper [ rivers. Of these Livingstone and Stanley are best known. Stanley's famous High the hear: of -'Da: Africa" naturally aroused the intense interest of all the Euro- pean powers, and \vithin ten ; ears after his triumphant return to Marseilles in 1S7S the entire surface of Africa had been divided among I he powers, or marked out into "spheres of in- fluence. " A general ago a map of Africa was for the most part mere conjecture, except along the coast To-day it is traversed by boundary fines surveyed almost as carefully as those which separ. various European countries France has almost the : :: me northwestern shoulder ;:' the continent, from the mouth of the Congo to Tunis. To be sure considerable portion of the French claim is nothing bu: a desert; totally useless in its present state. On the east coas: of Africa France controls French Somaliland, and her port ::' Jibuti, v .rich lies at the mouth of the Red Sea, gives her somewhat the same advantages mat Aden affords the English. The French also hold the island of Madagascar. Between i>>4 and 1 8 g q Germany acquired four considerable a:-: ;.5 ::' which include together nearly a mil- lion square miles: Togoland, Kamenm, German Southwest Africa, and German East Africa. The Germans attempted to elop these regions by building railways and schools and expending enormous sums in other ways, but the wars with es and the slight commerce which was established left the experiment one of doubtful value. 1 * The African colonies of Italy are referred to above, p. 6a ;. Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Century *]2\ Wedged in between German East Africa and the French Belgium and Congo is the Belgian Congo. King Leopold of Belgium organ- Fr g e state ized a company in 1876 to explore this region, and later announced that he regarded himself as the ruler of the vast territories of the company. The conduct of this company illus- trates the way in which the European invaders were tempted to force the natives to work. The savage natives, accustomed to a free life in the jungle, did not relish driving spikes on railways or draining swamps for Belgian capitalists. The government therefore required native chiefs to furnish a certain number of workmen, and on their failure to supply the demand their villages were often burned. The government also required the natives to furnish a certain quantity of rubber each year ; failure to comply with these demands was cruelly punished. Protests in Europe and America led the Belgian ministry, in 1908, to assume complete ownership of the Free State, which then took the name of the Belgian Congo. South Africa, as has already been explained, 1 has fallen to the British Africa English. They also hold important territories on the east coast running inland to the great lakes of Africa. But more important, in some ways, is their control over Egypt. That ancient seat of Egypt civilization had, as we have seen, 2 been conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century. Through the late Middle Ages it was ruled by a curious military class known as the Mamelukes, and only fell to the Ottoman Turks in 15 17. With the decline of the Sultan's power the country fell under the domination of the Mameluke Beys, or leaders ; and it was against these that Bonaparte fought in 1798. Shortly after Nelson and the Eng- lish had frustrated Bonaparte's attempt to bring Egypt under French rule, a military adventurer from Albania, Mehemet Ali, compelled the Sultan to recognize him as governor of Egypt in 1805. A few years later he brought about the massacre of the Mamelukes and began a series of reforms. He created an army and a fleet, and not only brought all Egypt under his 1 See above, pp. 669 ff. 2 See above, p. 70. 722 Medieval and Modern Times sway, but established himself at Khartum where he could con- trol the Sudan, 1 or region of the upper Nile. Before his death in 1849 he had induced the Sultan to recognize his heirs as rightful rulers, Khedives, 2 of Egypt. The English The importance of Egypt for the Western powers was greatly increased by the construction of the Suez Canal begun in 1859, 3 for both Port Said on the Mediterranean and Suez on the Red Sea are Egyptian ports. The English were able to get a foothold in Egypt through the improvidence of the Egyptian ruler, Ismail I, who came to the throne in 1863 and by reckless extravagance involved his country in a heavy debt which forced him to sell a block of his canal shares to the British govern- ment. Still heavily in debt, however, Ismail was forced by his English and French creditors to let them oversee his financial administration. This foreign intervention aroused discontent in Egypt, and the natives revolted in 1882, demanding " Egypt for the Egyptians." Inasmuch as France declined to join in suppress- ing the rebellion, England undertook it alone, and after putting down the uprising assumed a temporary occupation of the coun- try and the supervision of the army and finances of Egypt. After the rebellion of 1882 the British continued their "temporary" occupation, until shortly after the opening of the war of 19 14, when England assumed a permanent protectorate over Egypt. Conquest of Soon after the British conquest of Egypt, trouble arose in the Sudan, where a revolt against the Khedive's government was organized under the leadership of Mohammed Ahmed, who claimed to be the Messiah and found great numbers of fanat- ical followers who called him El Mahdi, " the leader." General Gordon was in charge of the British garrison at Khartum. Here he was besieged by the followers of the Mahdi in 1885, and after a memorable defense fell a victim to their fury, thus 1 The term " Sudan " (see map) was applied by the Mohammedans to the whole region south of the Sahara Desert, but as now used it commonly means Anglo-Egyptian Sudan only. 2 This title was assumed by the ruler of Egypt with the consent of the Sultan. 8 See above, p. 704. the Sudan Showing: the Colonies, Dependencies, Protectorates, and Spheres of Influence of the different European States until 1914. XEGEND British CZZ1 Fr ench man German CZ] Portuguese !=J ItalianCZD Regions not under European control are uncolored Longitude 20 West from 10 Greenwich f Cape Tovvn\j C. of Good Hope Port Elizabeth Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Ce?itury 723 adding a tragic page to the military history of the British empire. This disaster was avenged twelve years later, when in 1897-1898 the Sudan was reconquered and the city of Khartum was taken by the British under General Kitchener. During the occupation of Egypt by the English the progress Prosperity of the country has been unquestioned ; industry and commerce ° gyp are growing steadily, public works have been constructed, and \ic^mms^^mmm t Vol. II, p. 42. States Expansion of Europe in the Nineteenth Centttry 725 capture of the city of Manila in May, the Philippine Islands also fell to the United States. Peace was reestablished in August, and representatives were shortly sent to Paris to arrange the Spain loses final terms. Cuba was declared independent ; Porto Rico, with colonks the adjoining islands of Vieques and Culebra, and the Philip- pines were ceded to the United States. 1 The following year the Caroline and Pelew islands were transferred to Germany, and thus the territory of Spain was reduced to the Spanish peninsula, the Balearic and Canary islands, and her small holdings in Africa. By the Spanish-American War, therefore, Spain lost its colonial empire and the United States began its career as a world power. QUESTIONS Section 147. Compare the relative progress of the European nations in commerce and industry. How did the Industrial Revolu- tion open world trade ? Compare steamship and railroad as factors in the spread of commerce. What change in the routes of trade was made by the Suez Canal ? the Panama Canal ? How were railroads built in Europe? Look up, in some work of reference, the progress of railroads just before and during the European war. How does foreign commerce stimulate imperialism? Sketch the work of the Catholic and Protestant missionaries. What effects do they have in spreading European culture? Section 148. Why should the Chinese object to Europeans entering China? When did Europeans enter it? What isa" treaty port"? Why is a "railroad concession ". in a backward country likely to bring international disputes? What power in the East is most dangerously situated with regard to China? Section 149. Explain why the Japanese were able to pass from feudal to modern conditions so much more rapidly than the nations of Europe. How was Japan deprived of the fruits of its victory over China? What pretexts did the powers of Europe have in seizing Chinese territory ? Explain the causes of the Boxer uprising. What revenge did the Western nations take for their losses ? 1 Spain also ceded to the United States the island of Guam in the Ladrone Archipelago. 726 Medieval and Modern Times Section 150. By a study of the map, show where the interests of Russia and Japan clashed. Outline the Russo-Japanese War. Why has China been a prey to the European nations ? Would it be easy for China to become a republic before it became Westernized? How did Yuan Shih-kai try to turn the republic into an empire ? Section 151. When was Africa opened up to colonization ? Why has it been so behind America? Mark on an outline map the pos- sessions of the European powers prior to the European war of 191 4. Sketch the history of Egypt to the middle of the nineteenth century. How did the English get control of Egypt? How have they used their control? Section 152. Review the part played by Spain in the history of Europe prior to 1648. What effect did Napoleon have on the for- tunes of Spain ? Describe the situation which produced the Monroe Doctrine. What part has been played by the United States in the decline of the empire of Spain? CHAPTER XXXV ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1914 The Armies and Navies of Europe 153. In August, 19 14, the most terrible and destructive war The incredi- in the history of the world broke out. Never before had mil- \ l g™ aroi lions and millions of men been ready at a moment's notice to march against an enemy ; never before had any European army been supplied with such deadly weapons ; never before had any war, however serious, so disturbed the affairs of the whole globe. The war confronted most thoughtful people as a horri- ble surprise. They could not believe that the European govern- ments would dare take the fearful responsibility of entering upon a war which they all knew would involve untold woe and destruction. Nevertheless war was declared, and since it is, perhaps, the most important single event in the whole history of the world, we must endeavor to see how it came about and what were the great questions involved. After Germany defeated France in 1870-187 1, nearly fifty The growth years passed without any of the Western powers coming to ° n Europe 5 ™ blows with one another. This was a long and hopeful period of peace ; but meanwhile all the powers had been spending vast sums each year to train soldiers and supply them with arms. Prussia was the chief promoter of militarism. As we have seen, it began to aspire more than two hundred years before to become a great power through the might of its army. Frederick the Great was the chief military aggressor of the eighteenth century ; but the modern Prussian army dates from the period when Napoleon defeated Prussia at Jena, for after that her statesmen had to rely upon " the nation in arms " 727 728 Medieval and Modern Times The origin of rather than an old-fashioned standing army. This had to be army system done at first in some way that would not arouse the suspicions of the Corsican, for it was important for the success of Prussia's plan that Napoleon should not realize that she had a large army in process of training. So she hit upon the idea of giving her men a brief period of training in the army and then sending them into the reserve forces. In this way, without increasing the number of troops under the colors at any one time, she secured a very much larger force upon which she could call when war came. The defeat at Jena revealed also to the leaders in Prussia the need for officers who should be trained for their duties and not chosen for their positions because of their family or their wealth, as many had been up to that time. Military schools were established where the future Prussian officers underwent careful and intensive training after the manner of officers of other nations. The army of As we know, this army of Prussia was able to take an im- " bioodfand portant part in the conflict which led to Napoleon's final defeat, iron" policy jj er j^ea f "the nation in arms" was not forgotten. The law passed in Napoleon's time making every able-bodied male subject of Prussia liable to military service in the army was not repealed. When, fifty years later, William I and Bismarck were preparing to Prussianize all Germany and foresaw a war with Austria, the annual levy of recruits was increased, the period of active service lengthened from two to three years, and the term of service in the reserve to four years. Thus Prussia secured an effective army of four hundred thousand troops, and with these she defeated Austria in 1866, led in the success- ful war against France, and gained her end of consolidating Germany into the German Empire, of which the king of Prussia became the head. 1 Other nations Not long after the war of 1870-187 1 all the European versalmili- powers, except England, adopted the plan of building up an tary service arm y by requiring all able-bodied men that the government 1 See above, sections 125-126. Origin of the War of 1914 729 could afford to train to enter the army for two or three years, after which they were sent into the reserve to be ready in case of war. A large number of permanent officers had to be main- tained to see that the military education of the soldiers was properly conducted, and a vast amount had to be spent on rifles, cannon, and other arms, which were being constantly improved and rendered more and more deadly. The result of this competition in armaments was a tremen- The burden dous increase in the size of the continental armies and a fearful ° mi ! ansm burden of taxation, which the people had to bear. When the war broke out, Germany and France had each over four millions of men in their armies, Russia had six or seven millions, and Austria-Hungary had over two and a half millions. England's forces, on the other hand, numbered less than two hundred thousand, and of these only a very small number were kept in the British Isles. Her army was needed mainly as a source of protection for her distant colonies. The English army, like that of the United States, was recruited by voluntary enlistment and not built up by national conscription. England, however, relied for her protection upon her un- England's fleet rivaled navy, which she maintained at a strength equal to that of any two other powers. There are two reasons for this great navy. England has a much larger population than it is possible to feed from her own farms, and so has to import most of her food. Then, too, England is almost wholly a manufacturing country, and her industrial welfare is vitally dependent upon her commerce. If, therefore, England should be defeated at sea, she would be utterly overcome. Germany especially was unwilling to grant this supremacy of The naval England at sea, although it was essential to her existence. Germany For years Germany was jealous of the ability of England to plant and maintain such widely scattered dominions, and was as anxious as the English to capture the commerce of distant markets and to protect that commerce by powerful fleets. She spent millions in her vain endeavor to surpass England 730 Medieval and Modern Times commercially. Kaiser William II was from the first interested in the navy, and repeatedly declared that Germany's future lay upon the ocean. So in 1897 a bill was passed for the develop- ment of the German navy, which was built up so rapidly that it became a menace to the commercial peace and security of all other nations, and they, for protection, had to increase their navies. So to the crushing cost of armies European nations added the cost of navies, in which the rapid progress of inven- tion made battleships and armaments almost worthless if they were but a few years old. Movements for Peace : the Hague Conferences Movements for peace 154. The enormous cost of armaments, combined with hor- ror at the thought of a war in which so many millions would be fighting provided with such terrible weapons as modern science and invention had perfected, led many earnest people to try to prevent war altogether. Although their efforts proved fruitless in 19 1 4, no one can say that they have been entirely in vain. The first notable movement toward arranging for a universal lessening of armaments originated with the Tsar, Nicholas II, when in 1898 he proposed a conference of all the great powers at The Hague to discuss the problem. 1 Unlike the Congress of Vienna or the Congress of Berlin, this Peace Conference of 1899 did not meet to bring a war to a close; it came together in a time of European peace to consider how the existing peace might be maintained and military expenditures reduced. The Hague Conference did nothing to limit armaments. It andhtoo; * s significant in view of later events that Germany strongly and successfully opposed any such action. The Conference did, however, in spite pi German opposition, establish a permanent Court of Arbitration to which difficulties arising between nations The Tsar calls a con- ference to lessen mili- tarism, at The Hague Hague conferences, 1" 1 For the Tsar's rescript calling the conference, see Readings in 'Modem European History, Vol. II, pp. 463 ff. Origin of the War of IQI4 731 " involving neither honor nor vital interests " might be sub- mitted. But there was no way of compelling a nation to submit its grievances, and just those very sources of war that make most trouble were excluded from consideration. At the second conference, held in 1907, the question of 'the limitation of arma- ments was again proposed and championed by England, but - s ,'iiuyl II iilll MiIMIISbIIu; imllllllj . Fig. 188. The Peace Palace at The Hague, Holland This magnificent building was inaugurated as a center for the peaceful settlement of international disputes, in August, 19 13 — just a year before the war broke out. Mr. Carnegie contributed #1,500,000 to pay for it the opposition to such a movement shown by Germany at the earlier conference had not diminished in the meantime. That country and Austria, for reasons much more clearly revealed to the entire world seven years later, again caused a postpone- ment of any action on this # question. However, certain rules were ^established in regard to laying mines, the bombardment of unfortified towns, and the rights of neutrals in war, — to 732 Medieval and Modern Times Peace treaties between nations Socialism as an inter- national movement which no attention was paid by Germany after the war began, when she repeatedly violated her pledged word. Since the first Hague Conference more than one hundred and thirty treaties have been made between nations, by which they have pledged themselves to submit to arbitration all dis- putes which "do not affect the vital interests, the independ- ence, or the honor of the contracting parties, and do not concern the interests of third parties." Recently some nations have gone further and proposed treaties binding themselves to submit to arbitration " all questions which are in their nature justiciable in character." There were many other signs besides the Hague conferences and the different arbitration treaties which encouraged the hope that there would not be another great European conflict. The number of international societies and congresses was steadily increasing before the war, and there was a general recognition by the peoples of different nations that they had innumer- able common interests which they should help one another to promote. Among the other forces making for international peace, one of the strongest has been socialism, which is an international movement of working people with the common aim of getting rid of the private ownership of the " means of production." * The socialists have had great international congresses and refer to each other as " comrades." They have constantly criticized governments which have embarked on " imperialistic " policies, 2 for they claim that only the rich man profits from investments in distant lands and that the wars which ensue are not the affair of the working class, although it is the working class that has to form the armies. Above all, socialists have insisted that the poor suffer most in war, and for this reason extreme socialists have been antimilitarist. This means that they have objected to serving in the armies of Europe, and so have sometimes been imprisoned for what was viewed as treason. 1 See above, p. 594. 2 See above, p. 708. Origin of the War of 1914 733 However, a great majority of the socialists of all countries were carried away by the ardor of the vast conflict which began in 19 1 4, and while in many cases they still profess to detest imperialism and wars of conquest, they nevertheless supported their respective governments and fought against each other in the Great War. Matters of Dispute : National Rivalries 155* Two of the conditions which made the Great War "imperial- possible have been outlined in the last two chapters — on "Near-East- the one hand "imperialism," and on the other the "Near- er n question" Eastern question." We have seen how the nations of Europe began in the latter part of the nineteenth century, as rivals for the world's trade, to seize colonies and trading posts in Africa and Asia, and we have also seen how they stood eying each other suspiciously as to which was to profit most from the decline of Turkey. Now we must see how these conditions — which for almost fifty years had somehow been adjusted peacefully — helped, in the summer of 19 14, to precipitate the war. First, let us recall the exploration and partition of Africa. Review of France has taken most of the Mediterranean shore, and in so p ™Hc£s in 1C doing has incurred, at different times, the rivalry of Italy, Eng- Afnca land, and Germany. Its province of Algeria, conquered in 1830 and thoroughly subdued in 18 70-1 874, had two native states as neighbors — Tunis and Morocco. Claiming that the Tunisian tribesmen were raiding the border, France conquered Tunis in France turns 1 88 1 and thus forestalled Italy, which had intended taking the her by taking site of ancient Carthage for itself. This threw Italy into the Tums hands of Bismarck, and it became a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria. France and England fell out, as we have seen, 1 over Egypt. France and France backed out when England got financial control in Egypt, i n n Egypt and this was bitterly resented by the French. When the English, 1 See above, p. 722. 734 Medieval and Modern Times The « Fa- shoda affair " Edward VII and the entente cordiale France to have free hand in Morocco Alliance of England and Japan under General Kitchener, had conquered the Sudan in 1898, at the cost of many lives, a French explorer, Colonel Marchand, rapidly crossed the heart of Africa from the west and planted the French tricolor at Fashoda, in the upper Sudan, before Kitchener could reach there. When word of this reached Paris and London, war seemed inevitable, and it would have come had not the French given way. The " Fashoda affair " made English and French still more bitter enemies — a fact emphasized by outspoken French sympathy with the Boers in their war with England two years later. There was a great deal of war talk, but more judicial minds triumphed. Inside of four years the change in feeling was complete. King Edward VII, who had succeeded to the throne of England upon the death of his mother, Victoria, in i^oi, was personally fond of France — and the French, of him. Skillful statesmen made the most of the new situation, and in 1904 France and England came to a " cordial understanding " — or, to use the French phrase, entente cordiale — concerning all their outstanding sources of quarrel. This Entente, as it is generally called, has turned out to be one of the most important facts in the world's history. France was to recognize British interests in Egypt, and England those of France in Morocco — which country France had begun to penetrate from the Algerian border. 1 The Entente was hailed with great delight upon both sides ; Englishmen cheered French marines marching on a friendly visit through London streets, and Frenchmen began to admire traits of character in the Anglo-Saxon which they had not appreciated before. England's isolation had been ended even before the entente with France, by an alliance with Japan in 1902. 2 Then, when after the Russo-Japanese War the Japanese and Russians decided 1 In addition, fishery troubles off the coast of Newfoundland were adjusted. 2 According to this alliance England was to support Japan if attacked by a third power. The alliance was, therefore, strictly limited, but was strengthened in 1905, after the Russo-Japanese War, to be a mutually defensive alliance to safeguard the integrity of eastern Asia and India. Origin of the War of 1914 735 instead of fighting over Manchuria to join together and help each other "penetrate" it, and so became friends, England too made terms with Russia. This seemed almost incredible, for England had long been suspicious of Russian designs upon India, where it had detected Russian agents causing border uprisings. More- over, the English bitterly hated Russian autocracy, and London was a place of refuge for Russian revolutionists. The incredi- Entente ble happened, however. In 1907 England and Russia settled their Asian boundary disputes by agreeing to limit their ambitions in Persia. 1 In addition to its alliance with Japan and its entente with The small France and Russia, England had as friends Denmark — resent- ful of Germany since the war of 1864 — and Portugal, 2 while English princesses became queens of Norway and Spain. 3 One great power did not become a member of this circle Germany of friends — ^ Germany. Although the Kaiser, William II, was the P «S°«L° the nephew of King Edward VII, 4 the two monarchs were per- sonally never on cordial terms, and the two nations, rivals in wealth and power, distrusted each other also. The Germans thought that the group of alliances and e?itentes which Edward had encouraged was formed with designs hostile to the Triple Alliance of the central powers, — Germany, Austria, and Italy, — and resolved if possible to break them up. In 1905, therefore, Germany, supported by Austria, objected Germany op- to the agreement between England and France by which the fn Morocco* latter was to have a free hand in Morocco. Germany claimed 1 See map, p. 706. Britain was to have as its " sphere of influence " a south- ern zone, Russia a northern, and neither was to interfere in the center. This left Persia itself only the central strip. There was much protest in both Eng- land and America over the cruel way in which the Russians treated the natives, but Sir Edward Grey, the British foreign minister, refused to interfere, since the only way to keep the Russians out of the boundary he had taken was for the English to stay out of Russian Persia. 2 Its tyrannical king, Carlos I, and the crown prince were murdered in Lisbon in 1908, and Portugal became a republic, but this has not altered its foreign policy. 3 On the other hand, the royal houses of Sweden, Roumania, Greece, and Bulgaria were closely connected with the Hohenzollerns. 4 Edward died in 1910 and was succeeded by George V. 736 Medieval and Modern Times Algeciras Conference, 1905 The Agadir incident, 1911 Europe on the brink ©f war to have interests there too, and the Kaiser spoke in such a way as to bring on a general " war scare." France agreed to the conference at Algeciras, which gave the French police power in Morocco but guaranteed the latter's independence. In 191 1 Germany interfered again in Morocco. Because there were a few Germans in that country sfye sent a cruiser to Agadir and boldly demanded that France consult her in Moroccan matters and change her policy of policing the country. War was very narrowly averted. France gave up some of its possessions on the Congo to Germany in order to be allowed a free hand in Morocco. The Agadir incident alarmed statesmen in England as well. Every one saw how near Europe had come to the brink of war. Imperialists in Germany said the Agadir incident had been a failure for Germany, since France was left in possession of Morocco, and they demanded stronger action in future. Im- perialists in France and England were angered at the bold way Germany had apparently tried to humble them before the world and disgusted that Germany got any satisfaction at all. The result was that all nations increased their warlike preparations. The Near-Eastern Question 156. Although war between Germany and England and France over the occupation of Morocco was avoided in 191 1, another great danger appeared in the strained relations between Austria and Russia. The wars in the Balkan region described in a previous chapter (section 146) had revived old rivalries between these two great powers and speedily precipitated a general European conflict. In order to understand the situ- ation we must first briefly review the history of Austria since she was defeated by Prussia in 1866 (see above, pp. 617-618). It will be remembered that Bismarck excluded her from his new North German Confederation and left her to arrange her affairs as best she could. From Punch, February 10, 191 5 The Outcast A Place in the Shadow Origin of the War of 1914 737 The Hapsburg dynasty with its capital at Vienna ruled The races of over a great number of countries and provinces which it had dominions brought together since the days of Rudolph of Hapsburg in the thirteenth century. One of its greatest difficulties was to reconcile the interests of the German population in Austria proper (and the regions to the west) with those of the Hun- garians on the one hand and of the various Slavic peoples — such as the Bohemians, Poles, and Croats — on the other. It will be recollected that this difficulty had caused revolts in 1848 which led to civil war, in which both the Bohemians and the Hungarians were defeated (see above, p. 602). In 1867, Formation the year after the unsuccessful war with Prussia, an arrange- Hungary ment was made between Austria and Hungary which divided the Hapsburg empire into two practically independent parts. The western provinces, together with Galicia and Dalmatia form- ing the Austrian Empire (the regions colored red on the map), were to have their government carried on in Vienna ; the south- eastern portion, consisting of the kingdom of Hungary and some outlying provinces (colored green on the map), was to have its capital in Budapest. The emperor of Austria was also king of Hungary, but there were to be two parliaments — one meeting in Vienna, the other in Budapest. In this way a fed- eration of two states was created — the so-called dual mon- archy of Austria-Hungary. The common interest of these two states in matters of tariff, negotiations with foreign nations, and military arrangements were in the hands of a curious sort of joint house, known as the "Delegations." 1 Even this arrange- ment was made only for a few years at a time. For the great feudal lords of Hungary — a proud, unyielding nobility — saw in Austria's necessity their opportunity, and they not only gained their own independence but generally aimed to control as well the policy of the dual monarchy. 1 The three ministers of finance, war, and foreign affairs were responsible to the Delegations, which sat as separate bodies of sixty members each, one debating in German, the other in Hungarian, and ordinarily communicated with each other in writing. If they disagreed they could meet together and vote, but without debate. 738 Medieval and Modern Times Discontent of the Slavs in Austria- Hungary The " South Slav " neigh- bors of Austria aided by Russia Austria checks Russia Austria an- nexes Bosnia and Herze- govina, 1908 Serbia angry, but Russia acquiesces The Slavic subjects of the Hapsburgs bitterly resented this arrangement, which kept them in an inferior political position. 1 Moreover, since these Czechs, Croats, Ruthenians, and Slove- nians cannot understand one another's language, it was a favorite policy for the government to play one over against another, or, as the phrase goes, " divide and rule." The result was great racial bitterness. This difficult situation at home was made still more difficult by the fact that the " South Slav " peoples (Jugo-Slavs) extended beyond the borders of Austria-Hungary and formed the majority of the population of the whole Balkan region. With the decline of the Turkish Empire, Russia came forward as the rightful protector of these Balkan peoples, and so she naturally came into conflict with the policies of Austria-Hungary. This was especially clear in 1878 when Austria, supported by England and Germany, checked victorious Russia by the Congress of Berlin. As a result of that congress Austria was allowed to occupy the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Austria governed these provinces well for the next thirty years, while the rest of Turkey continued to suffer from misrule. When the Turkish revolution took place in 1908, however, and there seemed to be some chance of a new and strong Turkey, Austria determined to prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina from ever entering into it, and so boldly annexed them to the Austro- Hungarian Empire. The neighboring state of Serbia was alarmed and indignant at this, since the annexed provinces were peopled with South Slavs, 2 and the Serbians had cherished the ambition of uniting with them and the Montenegrins in a new south Slavonic state which would reach from the Danube to the Adriatic. Russia also was angered, but when Germany, Austria's ally, declared that it would support Austria, in arms if need be, Russia, which had not yet recovered from the war 1 See above, p. 695. 2 They are mainly Croats, professing the Catholic religion, while the Serbs are of the Orthodox Greek Church, but they have common traditions. Gmiiacl [■"Olmutz, m \o it 4 V ] I O TfE R ^fu fC _A %,\^1 . f--^ A L » J K. T A ^v 4 J Qf™^} Pressbuig i/ Papa' ci"V Stub] weissei Flatten m Greenwich *>{)" ~\ Maria-. -Thevesiopel Petenvardein SemlinV Bel :r» l "Weisskirohen [an-, 4 7 yirajevo^, II V\I A ^\ ,K O \3 Bukliarestf C^ V s MONTENEGRO ' NOV1B \J^XV\ \ ...US / 09 Cet/uje .-V" r- / AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SCALE OF MILES 10 20 30 40 50 100 Pi < H CO & O Ah < U a < oi o o & a w 739 740 Medieval and Modem Times Serbia, victor in Balkan wars, is thwarted again by Austria Serbia's gains in the Balkan wars Critical con- dition at the close of the Balkan wars, I9 J 3 Germany's position with Japan and its own revolutions, was obliged to submit to the humiliation, as she viewed it, of being unable to protect those of her own race in the Balkans. For Serbia, indeed, the annexation was a serious blow. It was now apparently shut in from the sea for all time to come, and so would be dependent for a market for its farm products upon its enemy across the Danube — Austria-Hungary. This would reduce it to the condition of a weak and somewhat dependent state, which was what Austria wanted. In the wars of 19 12-19 13, however, Serbia burst its bound- aries upon the south and all but reached the Adriatic through Albania. Again Austria interfered, and had an independent prince set up in Albania to shut Serbia in. The Serbians felt that the natural rewards of their victories had been denied them by their powerful but jealous neighbor, and bitter hatred resulted. The situation at the end of the Second Balkan War augured ill for the peace of Europe. Although Austria had managed to frustrate Serbia's hope of getting a port on the Adriatic and had succeeded in having Albania made an independent princi- pality under a German prince, 1 Serbia had nearly doubled her territory, and there was every probability that she would under- take to carry out her former plan of uniting the discontented Southern Slavs in the neighboring provinces of Austria-Hungary . — Bosnia, Croatia, and Slavonia. Germany was in hearty sym- pathy with the plans of Austria, while Russia was supposed to be ready to support Serbia and the Southern Slavs, their distant kinsmen. Germany pretended to be much afraid that Russia would dominate the Balkan regions and perhaps seize Constantinople. This would put an end to a cherished plan of Germany — a rail- road from Berlin to Bagdad and the Persian Gulf, which would control a vast trade with the Orient. The political aspects of 1 William of Wied, who was soon driven out by insurrections of the inhabitants. Origin of the War of 1914 74 1 such a controlling line through Middle Europe were strikingly The Bagdad revealed after the outbreak of the Great War. Germany had already arranged a " concession " from Turkey to construct this road, which was well under way when Serbia, through whose territory the trains from Germany must pass, became a danger. Pan-Germanism, which is perhaps best explained as an ex- Pan-German- aggerated self-consciousness of the German people, had been for some time an active though unofficial force in German im- perialism, and all its energies seemed now to be marshaled to oppose the rising Pan-Slavic feeling. The year 19 13, therefore, brought renewed activity in mili- Feverish tary " preparedness." Germany took the lead by increasing its arations, 1913 standing army, and the Reichstag voted about a billion marks for unusual military expenses (June, 191 3). France replied by increasing the term of active service in the army from two to three years. Russia made heavy appropriations, and General Joffre, the French commander in chief, was called in to make sug- gestions in regard to reorganizing the Russian army. Austria- Hungary strengthened herself with improved artillery ; England devoted heavy sums to her navy ; and even Belgium introduced universal military service on the ground that Germany had been constructing railroad tracks up to her borders, which could only be explained by her purpose to pass through Belgium when the fight began. The Outbreak of the War 157. Meanwhile the friends of peace did not despair. The Last efforts English statesmen did all they could to end the misunderstand- ^4 eace ' ings between the great powers. England was willing to agree to let Germany develop its railroad to Bagdad and thus dispel the impression, common in Germany, that England was weav- ing her ententes with a view of hemming in and weakening that country. Some of Germany's statesmen, including their am- bassador at London, seemed anxious to reach a peaceful settle- ment, but they were frustrated by the German war party, who 742 Medieval and Modern Times The murder of the Aus- trian arch- duke, Francis Ferdinand, June 28, 1914 The Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, July 23, 1914 Germany's attitude toward the Austria- Serbian conflict were eager for a conflict. Had it not been for their criminal activity peace might have been maintained indefinitely. On June 28, 19 14, an event happened which destroyed all hope of peace. Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife were assassinated while upon a visit to Bosnia. The Serbian government had warned the archduke notto go there, because it feared that hot-headed pro- Serbian conspirators might attempt an assassination. Austria nevertheless asserted that Serbia had favored such conspiracies and was therefore responsible for the assassination. It allowed a month to pass, however, before making formal protest. Then, on July 23, it sent to Serbia not a protest but an ultimatum. It gave Serbia forty-eight hours in which to agree to suppress anti-Austrian propaganda in press, schools, or by societies ; to dismiss from the army or civil office any one obnoxious to Austria ; and to allow Austrian officials to sit in Serbian courts in order to bring the guilty to justice. Serbia agreed to all these humiliating conditions except the last, and offered to refer even that to the Hague Tribunal. This Austria refused to do, and this decision was cheered in Vienna. The last week of July, 1 9 1 4, was perhaps the most momen- tous in the world's history. It was clear that Russia would not stand by and see Serbia conquered by Austria. Germany, on the other hand, declared that she would assist Austria in every way if attacked by Russia. She resisted the efforts of the Russian, French, and English diplomats, who urged that the difficulties between Austria and Serbia be referred to the Hague Tribunal, and insisted that it was Austria's affair, which she must be allowed to settle for herself. In short, Germany's unused war machine was beginning to be a burden, and Serbia offered an ex- cuse to put it into action. She did nothing to stop the impend- ing war as she might have done. Her leaders seem to have felt that they were ready for war, no matter on how large a scale ; and they well knew that Russia had not finished her preparations, nor France either. As for England, she had only a trifling army. Origin of the War of igi^f 743 As soon as Austria declared war on Serbia, July 28, Russia How Ger- began rapidly to mobilize, and Germany, pretending this to be S^worid war an attack on her, declared war on Russia, August 1. On the same day she demanded of France, Russia's ally, what she pro- posed to do. The French government replied that France would take such action as her interests might require ; where- upon Germany declared war on France, August 3. But Germany was in such a hurry to strike first that her troops were marching on France a day before war was declared. On August 2 they occupied the neutral country of Luxemburg, in spite of the pro- tests of its ruler. Germany issued an ultimatum to Belgium, ultimatum giving her twelve hours, from 7 p. m. to 7 A. m., to decide whether AugS^™' she would permit the German troops to cross the little kingdom T 9 J 4 on their way to France. If she consented, Germany promised to respect her territory and people ; if sne refused, Germany would treat her as an enemy. Now others as well as the Belgians could see why Germany had constructed such an abundance of railroad sidings close to the Belgian boundary. The Belgian government replied to the German demand with great firmness and dignity, urging that her neutrality had been at once decreed and guaranteed by the powers, including Germany, and that she should resist any attempt to violate it. It was almost inevitable that Great Britain should be drawn How Great into the conflict. She was not pledged to come to the assistance feredAewar, of France and Russia, but on August 2 she informed Germany Au ^ ust 4. that she could not permit the German fleet to attack the coasts of France, — for this would bring war close home to England. Two days later, when it was learned that German troops were making their way into Belgium, Sir Edward Grey, in charge of foreign affairs, sent an ultimatum to Germany demanding assur- ances within twelve hours that she would respect Belgian neu- trality. The German chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, replied that military necessity required that the German armies cross Belgium. He told the English ambassador in Berlin that Eng- land ought not to enter the war just for the sake of " a scrap of 744 Medieval and Modern Times paper." This contemptuous reference to the solemn treaties by which the European powers had guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium roused the anger of the entire world. It was the in- vasion of Belgium which arrayed the English people solidly behind the government in entering the war, although England had made no financial preparations, had but a tiny army, and was forced at first to rely almost solely on her vast sea power. Belligerents Japan speedily declared war on Germany, and early in No- vember Turkey decided to join the Central Powers. So within three months Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey were pitted against Serbia, Russia, France, Belgium, England, Mon- tenegro, and Japan. Italy declared herself neutral and not bound to help Austria and Germany, since in the Triple Alliance of 1882 she had pledged her aid to her allies only in case they were attacked ; she considered that they were the aggressors in the existing war and that she was consequently free to keep out of the struggle as long as she desired to do so. The Germans Immediately upon the -public announcement that a state of England was war existed between England and Germany, the Germans for P the S world turned all their pent-up hatred upon England and accused her war of being responsible for the war. Even German statesmen supported the absurd lie. 1 Bethmann-Hollweg informed the Reichstag that England could have made the war impossible if she had plainly told the Russians that she would not permit the trouble between Austria and Serbia to involve the rest of Europe. Because England upheld her honor and her pledged word to a smaller nation, Germany tried desperately to shove onto England her own criminal responsibility for all the incal- culable loss of life and property in the war. lOn September 5, 1917, the German chancellor, Michaelis, said, "Germany was obliged to enter a most serious struggle for the defense of her existence, be- cause she was threatened by her neighbors France and Russia, who were eager for bpoty and power, who were bent on destroying her, and who were urged on by the Island Empire." This is Germany's official explanation of the cause of the war, as repeatedly stated by her government. Origin of the War of 1 9 14 7 AS In regard to this statement the London Times observed, De- The English cember 5, 19 14: "If the British government had made the declaration to the Russians [which the Germans desired] it would have meant simply that England declared for Germany and Austria against Russia. But according to that argument all of the great powers at war are equally responsible because they did not do something different from what they did do. France, for instance, could have prevented the war if she had declined to support Russia; Russia could have prevented it if she had taken no interest in the fate of Serbia; and finally Germany could have prevented it if she had refused to sup- port Austria; while, as for Austria, she could have prevented it if she had never presented her ultimatum [to Serbia]." The assertions of German leaders that England desired war a German and was responsible for it may now safely be regarded by the refuter^ rest of the world as clear and well-planned lies. Certain brave accusation of 1 the German Germans have dared to confess this freely. Indeed the chief war party witness against the Kaiser and his advisers is no less a person than the German ambassador in London at the time that the war began, Prince Lichnowsky. He published in 19 18 an ac- count of his negotiations with English statesmen during the fatal days just preceding the outbreak of the war, and makes his own country, together with Austria, not England or France, responsible for the criminal decisions which produced it. Lichnowskv found the English statesmen highly reasonable English dip- J ° lomats did all and eager by every means to adjust matters without recourse they could to to the sword. He says that England had harbored no ideas of P revent war fighting Germany either because she was increasing her fleet or extending her trade, and that English diplomats left no stone unturned to prevent the war when it became imminent. In a remarkable passage he sums up the whole ancient Prus- Lichnowsky's , , r /"« j • 1 , denunciation , sian spirit as eloquently as any enemy or Germany s mignt : of the Ger . " Is it not intelligible that our enemies declare that they will not man military & J spirit rest until a system is destroyed which constitutes a permanent threatening of our neighbors ? Must they not otherwise fear 746 Medieval and Modern Times that in a few years they will again have to take, up arms, and again see their provinces overrun arid their towns and villages destroyed ? Were these people not right who prophesied that the spirit of Treitschke and of Bernhardi dominated the Ger- man people — the spirit which glorifies war as an aim in itself and does not abhor it as an evil ; that among us it is still the feudal knights and Junkers and the caste of warriors who rule and who fix our ideals and our values — not the civilian gentle- man ; that the love of dueling, which inspires our youths at the universities, lives on in those who guide the fortunes of the people ? " QUESTIONS Section 153. Sketch the history of the Prussian army system. Review from the previous chapter the policy of Bismarck with refer- ence to the army. What advantage has America had over Europe, owing to European militarism ? How strong does England keep her fleet? Discuss the naval policy of Germany. Section i 54. Why did the Tsar call a peace conference ? What resulted from the first Hague Conference ? from the second ? What movements are. there making for peace ? Why are socialists generally pacifists ? Section 155. Review the story of the partition of Africa. How has this bred international rivalries ? What was the significance of the " Fashoda affair"? What change did Edward VII make in the foreign affairs of England ? What countries were friendly to England in 19 14? Sketch the history of the Triple Alliance. Trace the history of the Morocco affair. Section 156. What interests has Russia in the Balkans? What interests has Austria there? Describe the Austro- Hungarian Empire.. Sketch the history of Serbia in the twentieth century. How did the Balkan wars of 191 2-1 91 3 affect Germany, France, and Russia? Section 157. Trace the events of the summer of 1914. Discuss the German accusations against England. Ginn and Company Marshal Ferdinand Foch From a painting by Sergeant Robert Lortac, of the French Army SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER CHAPTER XXXVI THE GREAT WAR Section 158. Course of the War in 19 14 and 191 5 The vast German army advanced on France in three The Germans divisions, one through Belgium, one through Luxemburg (also sep^embe^i,' a neutral state) down into Champagne, and the third approached x 9 2 4 from Metz toward Nancy. The Belgians offered a determined resistance to the advance of the northern division and hindered it for ten days — a delay of vital importance to the French. But the heavy German guns proved too much for the forts around Liege, which were soon battered to pieces, and Brussels was occupied by the enemy, August 20. The central army advancing down the Meuse met with no serious opposition. The French, reenforced by English forces hastily dispatched across the Channel, made their first stand around Namur. This famous fortress however immediately collapsed, and the French and English rapidly retreated southward. The western division of the German army had come within twenty-five miles of Paris by September 1. The French government fled to Bordeaux, and the capital prepared for a siege. South of the Marne the French general, Joffre, halted his Battle of the ■ retreating forces, added to them a fresh army which had been tember, 1^4. quietly collected around Paris and rushed to his support, and attacked the Germans on the west. This now famous battle of the Marne put an end to the danger that threatened Paris, and Joffre became the idol of his country, which bestowed on him the baton of a marshal of France in recognition of his services to her. The Germans, under Von Kluck, were now compelled to retreat to a line of hills running from Soissons to Rheims, 747 748 Medieval and Modern Times Conquest and ill-treatment of Belgium The German occupation of northeast- ern France Permanence of the battle line in France There they intrenched themselves before the French and English could drive them farther back. After the Germans had given up their hope of surround- ing Paris they proceeded to overrun Belgium. They captured Antwerp, October 10, and conquered the whole country, except a tiny corner southwest of Ostend. It was their hope to push on to Calais and occupy this port nearest to England as a base of attack against the British Isles, but they were checked at the Yser River. They treated the Belgians as a conquered people, exacted huge tributes, partially burned the city of Louvain, brutally executed many civilians, and seized any machinery or supplies that they desired. This treatment of a peaceful little neighbor, whose safety from invasion they themselves had solemnly guaranteed, did more to rouse the anger of the rest of the world than any other act of the German government. The southernmost of the German armies, and the only one which had ventured to advance directly on France without taking the unfair advantage of a neutral boundary line, was at first unable to make much headway. But before long it succeeded in establishing its lines within French territory just east of the Meuse on a line running east of Verdun and St. Die (see map). The' French, however, invaded southern Alsace and occupied a little German territory there. Thus the first three months of the war saw the Germans in practically complete pos- session of Belgium and Luxemburg, together with a broad strip of northeastern France, filled with prosperous manufacturing towns, farms and vineyards, and invaluable coal and iron mines. The lines established after the battle of the Marne and the check on the Yser did not change greatly in four years, in spite of the constant fighting and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of men on both sides. The Germans were not able to push very much farther into France, and the Allied forces were almost equally unsuccessful in their repeated at- tempts, at terrible sacrifice of life, to force the Germans more than a few miles back. Both sides " dug themselves in " and h-l ON hi I ON O w H W 749 7$o Medieval and Modern Times The Russians fail in Galicia and lose Poland and Lithuania, 1915 trench warfare went on almost incessantly, with the aid of machine guns, shells, and huge cannon.. Airplanes flew hither and thither, observing the enemy's positions and operations and dropping bombs in his midst. Poisonous gases and liquid fire, introduced by Germany, added their horrors to the situation. On • the Eastern Front the Russians at first advanced far more rapidly^ than had been expected. They succeeded in invading East Prussia but were soon driven out by Hindenburg and his army. They made their main attack on the Austrians in Galicia but were forced to withdraw, owing to the operations of the German and Austrian armies in Poland. These had com- bined in a drive on Warsaw and thus threatened the Russians on the north. During the winter of 19 15 the Russians made fierce attempts to pass the Carpathians and invade Austria- Hungary. They failed, however, on account of lack of supplies, and hundreds of thousands of lives were sacrificed in vain. In August, 19 1 5, Russia was forced to surrender Warsaw and other large Polish towns to the Germans, who pushed on beyond Poland and occupied Courland, Livonia and Esthonia. They therefore held, August, 19 18, very important Russian territories in addition to their control of Poland. 1 1 Inasmuch as the fate of Poland is one of the problems raised by the war we may recall the following facts : At the end of the eighteenth century the ancient kingdom of Poland disappeared in a series of three partitions arranged by Prussia, Russia, and Austria. (See above, section 85, The Three Partitions of Poland.) After Napoleon succeeded in defeating both Austria and Prussia, 1805-1806, he erected the Grand Duchy of Warsaw out of the territory which Austria and Prussia had received in the third partition of Poland and what Prussia had acquired in the second. As he was on good terms with Russia at that time he left her in undisturbed possession of her part of the old Polish kingdom. At the Congress of Vienna the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was turned over to the Tsar, who promised to give it a constitutional form of government. But the region around Posen was given back to Prussia, and the Prussian government has roused constant irritation and opposition by its efforts to stamp out the Polish language in the province of Posen and to Germanize the people. As for the Kingdom of Poland created by the Congress of Vienna, that has given the Russians much trouble. The term " Poland," as now used, includes but a small part of the ancient kingdom of Poland as it existed before the three par- titions. It comprises Napoleon's Grand Duchy of Warsaw, less Posen, and, to the south, Cracow, which has fallen into Austrian hands. ] Germany- Austria-Hungary and their Allies V/////////A Countries at War with Teutonic Allies The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 75i 752 Medieval and Modern Times Germany loses all her colonies Turkey joins the Central Powers, November, 1914 The Gallipoli disaster The war early began to show an irresistible tendency to envelop the whole world. Japan quickly captured the German port of Kiau Chau and took possession of the German stations in the northern Pacific, while the Australians and New Zealanders captured those in the southern Pacific. Troops from the South African Union, with the hearty cooperation of the Boers, Britain's late enemies, occupied German Southwest Africa. The remaining German colonies, Togoland, Kamerun, and German East Africa, gradually fell into the hands of the Eng- lish or French. So while Germany was able, as we shall see, to conquer important portions of central Europe as the war proceeded, she lost all her colonies. The question whether she should have them back or be indemnified for them was one of the great problems developed by the war. In November, 19 14, the Teutonic allies were reenforced by Turkey. The Sultan issued a call to all faithful Mohammedans to wage a Holy War on the " enemies of Islam." But, con- trary to the hopes of Germany, there was no general rising of the Mohammedans in India and Egypt against the British rule. Nor were the plans announced for capturing the Suez Canal carried out. England seized the opportunity to declare Egypt altogether independent of Turkey, December, 19 14, and estab- lished a new ruler, who was given the title of Sultan of Egypt and accepted an English protectorate over his country. The English also invaded Mesopotamia and later Syria, and finally captured the famous old city of Bagdad, in March, 191 7, and then the holy city of Jerusalem, in December, 191 7. An attempt of the English and French in 19 15 to take Constantinople proved, however, a terrible failure. In April of that year their forces, greatly strengthened by contingents from Australia and New Zealand, who had come to the Mediter- ranean by way of the Red Sea, tried to force their way up the Dardanelles. The Turks, well supplied with German com- manders and equipment, defended themselves with such success that the Allies, in spite of the sacrifice of a hundred thousand The Great War 7 S3 men, killed and wounded, were unable to hold their positions on the peninsula of Gallipoli, where they had secured a footing. After some months the English government was obliged to recognize that it had made a tragic mistake, and the attempt was given up. In Mav, ioiS, Italy finally decided that she could no longer Italy enters , , ,• -, • i • • i the war, 19 1 5 remain out of the war. Her people believed in the principles for which the Allies were fighting and had no love for Austria. Then, too, it seemed that the opportunity had come to win " Italia Irredenta," — those portions of the Italian people still unredeemed from Austrian rule, who live around Trent, in Istria and the great seaport of Trieste, and along the Dalmatian coast. So this added another " front " which the Central Powers had to defend. So the line-up at the opening of the second year of the war The beiiig- consisted of the Central Powers, — Germany, Austria-Hungary, Se^pening and Turkey, — opposed to Russia, France, Italy, Great Britain J^ f s ^° nd (including Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South war Africans, and East Indian troops, all ready to shed their blood in the cause of the British Empire), Belgium, Serbia, Japan, and* the tiny countries of Montenegro and San Marino, — twelve belligerents in all, scattered over the whole globe. But the war was not destined to stop at this point. Hundreds of millions of people who were at that time still neutral later took up arms against German Kultur. It was the war on the sea that raised the chief problems Extinction . . of German for the world at large. At the beginning of the war many commerce people supposed that there would soon be a great and perhaps decisive naval engagement between the German and British fleets, but no such thing happened. 1 The Germans kept their dfeadnaughts safe in their harbors, protected by cruisers and 1 On May 31, 19 16, a portion of the German fleet ventured out of the Baltic and fell in with a strong detachment of the British fleet. After a few hours the mist, smoke, and darkness put an end to the fight. The Germans claimed a vic- tory, but the fact that their ships retired to a fortified base, from which no one of them came forth again until the entire fleet came out to surrender to the English fleet after the signing of the armistice, successfully repudiates any claim they may assert to a victory at the battle of Jutland. 754 Medieval and Modern Times mines. The German merchant ships took shelter at home or in neutral ports, and the few cruisers that remained at large, and for a time scoured the seas and sunk English vessels, were Role of the captured or sunk. So German commerce was soon cut off su marine altogether, and England ruled the ocean. Had it not been for -the recently discovered and rapidly improved submarines, or U-boats, as they are popularly called, the Germans would have been helpless against the British control of the seas. It is this new kind of warfare that has largely determined the course of the conflict of the nations. It was easy for England to block the German ports of Ham- burg and Bremen, the egress from the Kiel Canal, and the out- let from the Baltic without violating the established principles of international law. But the German submarines could still steal out and sink English merchant ships and manage now and then to torpedo a great war vessel. Great Britain claimed the right under these new conditions of naval warfare to force all neutral ships bound for the neutral ports of Holland, Norway, and Sweden to stop and be inspected at Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands, to see if they were carrying contraband of war — namely, munitions and materials to be used directly or indirectly for military ends — and if their cargoes were really des- tined for Germany. When, February i, 19 15, the German gov- ernment ordered the confiscation of all grain in private hands with a view of keeping its great armies well fed, England declared that thereafter all shipments of foodstuffs to Germany would be deemed absolute contraband of war, since feeding her fighting men was even more necessary than supplying them with munitions. The Germans This was regarded by the Germans as an obvious attempt fend the zone " through starvation to doom an entire nation to destruction." of marine The German government thereupon declared that the waters around England should be regarded as within the zone of war, that within this zone all enemy merchant vessels would be sunk, whether it were possible to save the passengers and war The Great War 755 crews or not. Neutrals were warned that they would be in great danger if they entered the zone. In former days it was possible for a man-of-war to hold up a vessel, and if the- cargo was found to be contraband to capture or sink the vessel after taking off the people on board. But the submarine has no room for extra persons, and the Germans found it much more convenient to torpedo vessels without even the warning necessary to enable the passengers and crew to take to the lifeboats. In February, 19 15, German submarines began to sink not Sinking of . i 1 . , 1 11 mi ■ • • • tne Lusita- only enemy vessels but neutral ones as well, sometimes giving ^1^,1915 the people on board warning, but often not. The most terrible example of the ruthlessness of the U-boats was the sinking, without warning, of the great liner Lusitania, May 7, 19 15, involving the loss of nearly 1200 men, women, and children, including over a hundred American citizens. The Germans hailed this as a heroic deed. They claimed that the vessel was armed and laden with shells, and that the Americans had no business to be on it, since a notice in the New York papers had warned them against traveling on the fated boat. But after careful investigation an American court decided that the vessel was not armed and did not carry any explosives and that her destruction was nothing less than an act of piracy. This crime aroused the greatest horror and indignation not only in England and the United States but throughout the rest of the world. 1 On the Western Front the English forces had steadily in- English creased, until, by the end of September, 19 15, Sir John French autumn, 1915 had a million men under his command. The English had also been very busy producing arms and , munitions of war, in which they had been sadly deficient at the opening of the war, and they had greatly added to their supplies by purchases in the United States. They therefore resolved, upon a drive northeast of Arras. After a period of terrific fighting they succeeded in 1 The questions of the rights of neutrals, of contraband, and the rights of search, are very complicated, and only the main issues in the long and heated discussions can be suggested here. 756 Medieval and Modern Times Invasion of Serbia, Octo- ber, 1915 Bulgaria joins in the war Neutrality of Greece The attempt to break through at Verdun, Feb- ruary-July, 1916 forcing back the German lines two or three miles on a front of fifteen or twenty miles. This gave the world some notion of the difficulty the Allies would have to meet in their attempt to oust the German armies from France and Belgium. In spite of the English drive, the Germans, who had suc- ceeded in forcing back the Russians in Galicia, now undertook the invasion of Serbia. This encouraged Serbia's bitter enemy, Bulgaria, to declare in favor of the Central Powers and join vigorously in the cruel punishment of her neighbor. In spite of heroic resistance on the part of the Serbians, their country, at- tacked on two sides, quickly fell into the hands of their enemies. From this time on they were able to regain very little of their lost territory. The British and French had landed troops at the Greek port of Salonica but were unable to prevent the disaster. There was a grave difference of opinion in Greece as to the proper atti- tude for it to take. The royal family was strongly pro-German, but many, especially Greece's chief statesman, Venizelos, favored siding with the Allies. King Constantine managed to maintain the nominal neutrality of his country until the year 19 1 7, when his well-known German sympathies and intrigue led to his expulsion from Greece. Section 159. The Campaigns of 1916 After the small success of the English drive at the end of 19 1 5 the Germans resolved to show what they could do on the Western Front. They decided to attack the ancient fortress of Verdun, the loss of which would greatly discourage the French, for it was popularly regarded as one of the country's chief strongholds. The fact that Metz, a very important center .of German supplies, lies not far east of Verdun served to increase the German chances for breaking through the French lines at this point. Great masses of troops, under the general command of no less a personage than the German Crown Prince, were brought together, and the attack began February 21, 19 16. The Great War 757 For a time the French lines gave way, and those throughout Repulse oi the world who favored the Allies held their breath, for it seemed prince^ as if the Germans were about to crush the French defense Verdun and again threaten Paris. But the French recovered and held their own once more. The English troops were now numerous enough to hold the lines to the north. A series of terrible en- counters followed, but the French under General Joffre were able during May and June to push the Germans back from the points occupied in the first onrush. The danger of a German victory was now past, and by July all danger of collapse at that point seemed to be over. It was a great source of satisfaction to the Allies and their sympathizers to behold the insolent Crown Prince repulsed after a supreme effort to distinguish himself in the longest and bloodiest of all the fearful combats that had yet occurred. At the opening of the war England had an available force of England less than a hundred thousand men, " a contemptible army," as sc°iption° n * the Kaiser is reported to have scornfully denominated it. Ger- Ma y> X 9 J 6 many, Russia, France, had their millions of trained men, owing to their long-established system of universal military service, — conscription, as it is called — which makes every able-bodied man liable to service. For a time England tried to increase its army by voluntary enlistments, and on the whole succeeded very well. But after much discussion and opposition she introduced (May, 1 9 1 6) a system of universal compulsory military service, which in- cluded all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 41. (The limits were extended later to include men from 18 to 50 years of age, with limited service also for those between 50 and 55.) Shortly after, the long-talked-of Anglo-French drive, the Battle of the battle of the Somme, began, which was fought for four months, November 1 y from July to November, east and northeast of Amiens. Here a z 9 l6 new English military invention made its first appearance, the so- called " tanks," — huge heavily armored motor cars so built as to break through barbed-wire entanglements and crawl over great holes and trenches, The English had also their fifteen-inch 758 Medieval and Modern Times mortars for hurling- big shells. The Germans retreated a few- miles, but the cost was terrible, since each side lost six or seven hundred thousand men in killed or wounded. The Italians While the battle of Verdun was raging, the Italians, who had repulse the . . ,. . . , . . _ . , Austrian made but little progress against the strong Austrian lortihea- JSJ^Goring ti° ns > were suddenly pushed back by a great Austrian drive in August. 1916 May, 10l0 . By the middle of June they had not only lost the little they had gained but had been forced to evacuate some of Russian their own territory. At this point the Russians, in spite of the loss of Poland, attacked Austria once more and again threatened to press into Hungary. So Austria had to give way in Italy in order to defend her Galician boundary, and the Italians were able not only to regain what they had lost but to capture the important town of Gorizia on their way, as they hoped, to Trieste. Roumania The Russians had sacrificed more than a million men, yet Allies and is treaeherv in the government made it impossible for them to invaded hold their conquests, but their momentary success encouraged Roumania to join in the war on the side of the Allies, who seemed to be getting the better of the Central Powers. She invaded TraYisylvania, which she had long claimed as properly hers. The Germans immediately, notwithstanding the pressure on the Somme, sent two of their best generals and with the help of the Bulgarians attacked Roumania from the west and south and captured Bucharest, the capital, in December, 1010. About two thirds of Roumania was soon in possession of her enemies. and the Germans could supplement their supplies from her rich fields of grain and abundant oil wells. Estimated It is estimated that by January 1. 1017, somewhere between losses of men _ . .... ' . * , ' . , , .., . . up to January tivo and seven millions 01 men had been killed, and a tar greater number had been wounded or taken prisoner. Russia had lost the greatest number, but France the greatest in proportion to her population. The casualty lists in the war wee enormous; yet. owing to the excellently organized medical care now possible on the battlefield, a greater proportion of those wounded in this war will be cured than has been possible in earlier wars. The Great War 759 For the first time in the history of war men have been able Aerial to fly high above the contending forces, making observations uar are and engaging in aerial battles. Airplanes are now among the essentials of war, and they bring new horrors in their train. The Germans made repeated air raids on England, apparently with the foolish notion that they were going to intimidate the people. They first used the huge dirigible balloons called Zeppelins ; but these were later replaced by airplanes of various kinds. They killed two or three thousand English civilians — men, women, and children — in town and country and destroyed some prop- erty. Without accomplishing any important military aims, they increased their reputation for needless brutality and forced the English for the safety of their unfortified towns to make reprisals. English and French airmen dropped bombs on the more acces- sible German towns, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, and Mannheim, and many other military places. Section 160. The World against Germany, 19 17 Early in the year 19 17 Germany's submarine policy and Division of reckless sinking of neutral ships finally involved her in war with united States a new antagonist, the great, and powerful republic across the Atlantic. The government of the United States had been very patient and long-suffering. When the war broke out President Wilson declared that the government would observe strict neutrality, and he urged American citizens to avoid taking sides in a conflict that did not directly concern them. But it was impossible to remain indifferent when such tremendous events were being reported day by day. The German newspapers in the United States eagerly defended the Central Powers and laid the responsibility for the war at England's door. On the other hand, the great body of the American people were deeply shocked by the invasion of Belgium, by the burning of Louvain, by the needless destruction of Rheims Cathedral by German guns. They disliked the arrogant talk of the Kaiser, and they ybo Medieval and Modern Times Activity of German agents President Wilson ex- postulates with Ger- many felt a quick sympathy for France, who had lent such essential aid in the American Revolution. Those of English descent naturally found themselves drawn to her side in the great struggle. So the bitter feelings engendered by war began to show themselves immediately in the United States. German agents and spies were everywhere active, eagerly misrepresenting the motives of England and her allies and doing everything in their power to prejudice the people of the United States against Germany's foes. The German government stooped to the most shameful expedients. It even sent to its ambassador, Count von Bernstorff, funds with which to attempt to bribe Congress. The minister of Austria-Hungary had to be sent off at the opening of the war for informing his home government that he had a plan for so disorganizing the great steel factories that they would be unable for months to supply England and France with arms and ammunition. 1 As time went on President Wilson dispatched note after note to Germany expostulating against the merciless and indiscrimi- nate manner in which the submarines sent vessels to the bottom, not only British ships, like the Lusitania, carrying American pas- sengers but American ships and those of other neutral nations. There was often no warning until the torpedo actually struck the ship, and no sufficient time* even to take to the lifeboats and face the hazards of a troubled sea. The anger of the American people as a whole against Germany became hotter and hotter, and President Wilson began to be denounced for tolerating any diplomatic relations with the German imperial government. 1 There was a very bitter difference of feeling between the pro-Germans and the friends of the Allies in regard to the exportation of arms and munitions. Since Germany had no way of getting supplies from the United States, owing to the English control of the Atlantic, she maintained that it was unneutral for the manufacturers in the United States to sell arms to the Allies. Yet it has always been considered the right of neutrals to sell to any belligerent anything they are in a position to furnish. When the Germans succeeded in getting a freight submarine, the Deutsc/i/and, over to New London, Connecticut, the captain found people willing enough to sell warlike supplies to Germans. But the German government's idea of " neutrality " is taking sides with it. The Great War 761 In January, 19 17, England, in order completely to cut off sup- intensifi- plies from Germany, extended the area which she declared to be submarine in a state of blockade. Germany then proclaimed to the world warfare > Feb - . . ruary, 1917 that in order to make head against "British tyranny" and Eng- land's alleged plan to starve Germany she proposed to establish a vast barred zone extending far to the west of Great Britain, in which sea traffic with England would be prevented by every available means. In this way she flattered herself that England, who draws much of her food from distant regions, would soon be reduced to starvation and the war brought to a speedy end. One of the most insulting features of Germany's plan was that a narrow lane was to be left through which the United States was to be permitted to send one ship a week provided it was painted with bright stripes of color and carried no contraband. By these measures Germany reserved a vast area of the high seas for her murderous enterprises, utterly regardless of every recognized right of neutral nations (see map, p. 762). On February 1, 19 17, the Germans opened their unrestricted The United submarine warfare in this great barred zone, and many vessels relations with were sunk. President Wilson broke off diplomatic relations Germany, r February 3, with the German government February 3, and Count von i9 x 7 Bernstorff was sent home, to the great relief of those who had criticized the President for being too patient. The sinkings went on, and popular opinion was more and more aroused against Germany. The hostility was intensified by the publication of a letter from the German minister of foreign affairs to the Mexi- can government, which proposed that if war broke out between the United States and Germany, Mexico should attack the United States and should take Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona as its reward. It was finally evident that war was unavoidable. President The United Wilson summoned a special session of Congress and on April 2, States de ~ 19 1 7, read a memorable address to its members in which he April 6,1917 said that Germany had to all intents and purposes declared war on the United States. " Our object," he maintained, " is to 762 Medieval and Modern Times vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world, as against selfish and autocratic power." The free and self-governed peoples of the world must combine, he urged, " to German War Zone of February i, 191 7 Late in the year 19 17 and early in 19 18 the German government ex- tended the barred zone so as to include the islands off the coast of Africa, Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, and the Azores, in order to cut the routes between Europe and South America make the world safe for democracy," for otherwise no perma- nent peace is possible. He proposed that the United States should fight side by side with Germany's enemies and aid them with liberal loans. Both houses of Congress approved by large The Great War 763 majorities the proposed resolution that the United States had The United been forced into war. Provisions were made for borrowing vast SS^c 68 " 18 sums ; old forms of taxation were greatly increased and many P re P ar ations new ones added. In May, 19 17, conscription was introduced, and all able-bodied men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one were declared liable to military service. Preparations were made for training great bodies of troops to be sent across the Atlantic to aid the cause of the Allies and measures taken for building ships to replace those destroyed by German sub- marines. The people of the United States showed themselves eager to do their part in the war on autocracy and militarism. 1 One result of the entrance of the United States into the war The conflict ,i_ 1 p r^ , • becomes a was a great increase m the number of Germany s enemies wor ldwar during the year 191 7. Cuba and Panama immediately followed I9 * 7 the example set by the great North American Republic ; Greece, after much internal turmoil and dissension, finally, under the influence of Venizelos, joined the Allies ; in the latter half of the year Siam, Liberia, China, and Brazil proclaimed war on Germany. The war had become literally a world conflict. The governments of nearly a billion and a half of the earth's popula- tion were involved in the amazing struggle. Thirteen hundred and forty millions of people were committed by their rulers to the side of the Allies, and the countries included in the Central European alliance had a total population of about one hundred and sixty millions. So nearly seven eighths of the population of the globe were nominally at war, and of these nine tenths were arrayed against one tenth, led by Prussia. Of course the vast population of India and China play a great part in these figures but had little or no part in the active prosecution of the war. And after the Russian revolution destroyed the old 1 When the unrestricted submarine sinkings began, February i, 191 7, the German newspapers informed their readers that England would speedily be brought to her knees. But while hundreds of ships were sunk, thousands came and went from English ports, managing in various ways to escape the U-boats. Then by economy, raising more food, and building more ships England, with America's help, successfully offset the damage done by the Germans. 764 Medieval and Modem Times government, that country, with its millions of inhabitants, by the end of 19 1 7 could no longer be reckoned an active factor. Keep- ing these facts in mind, the following tables will make the situation clear. THE WORLD WAR AT THE OPENING OF 1918 The Allies and their Colonies and Dependencies Country Date of Entrance Population Men under Arms 1 1914 Serbia .... July 28 4,550,000 300,000 Russia .... August 1 1 7 5,000,000 9,000,000 2 France .... August 3 87,500,000 6,000,000 Belgium . . . August 4 22,500,000 300,000 British Empire . August 4 440,000,000 5,000,000 Montenegro . . August 7 516,000 40,000 Japan .... August 23 i9 J 5 74,000,000 1,400,000 Italy May 23 37,000,000 3,000,000 San Marino . . June 2 igi6 12,000 1,000 Portugal . . . March 10 I 5,000,000 200,000 Roumania . . August 27 1Q17 7,500,000 320,000 United States April 6 113,000,000 i,ooo,ooo(?) Cuba .... April 8 2,500,000 11,000 Panama . . . April 9 427,000 Greece .... July 16 5,000,000 300,000 Siam July 22 8, 1 50,000 36,000 Liberia .... August 7 1,800,000 400 China .... August 14 320,000,000 540,000 Brazil .... October 26 25,000,000 25,000 i>339>455> 000 27>473>40o 1 The population is only approximate and in round numbers. The strength of the armies given is based on an estimate of the United States War Depart- ment, October, 19 17. 2 The Russian armies at the end of 19 17 were in a state of complete dissolution. The Great War 765 Central Powers, with Colonies and Dependencies at the Opening of the War Country Date of Entrance Population Men under Arms Austria- Hungary Germany . . . Turkey .... Bulgaria. . . . 1914 July 28 August 1 November 3 i9 z 5 October 4 50,000,000 80,600,000 21,000,000 5,000,000 3,000,000 7,000,000 300,000 300,000 1 56,600,000 10,600,000 Front, 19 1 7 As for the countries which remained neutral, they included Position of a population of perhaps one hundred and ninety millions. Hoi- neu tral land, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were far too countries close to Germany to risk breaking with her, although it would seem that many of their people abhorred her conduct. Spain and a number of Latin-American states, including Mexico and Chile, held aloof. But no country could escape the burdens and afflic- tions of a war of such magnitude. Real neutrality was almost impossible. Everywhere taxes and prices rose, essential sup- plies were cut off, and business was greatly dislocated. In addition to the increase in Germany's enemies the chief The Western military events of 19 17 were the following: In March the Germans decided to shorten their lines on the Western Front from Noyon on the south to Arras on the north. They with- drew, devastating the land as they went, and the French and English were able to reoccupy about one eighth of the French territory that the enemy had held so long. The Germans were disturbed by fierce attacks while establishing their new line of defense, but in spite of great sacrifices on the part of the French and English, and especially of the Canadians, this "Hindenburg" line was so well fortified that it held, and with slight exceptions continued to hold during the year. The English made some progress in forcing back the enemy on 766 Medieval and Modern Times Russia out of the war by the end of 1917 the Belgian coast, with the hope of gaining Zeebrugge, the base from which German submarines made their departure to prey on English commerce. Attempts to take St. Quentin, the important mining town of Lens, and the city of Cambrai were not successful for another year, but the terrible slaughter went on and tens of thousands were killed every week. On the Eastern Front it will be remembered that the Russian attack in the summer of 1 9 1 6 failed and that the Central Powers got control of two thirds of Roumania. After the great Russian revolution of March, 1917, 1 in which the Tsar was deposed, the new popular leader, Kerensky, made a last attempt to rally the Russian armies, but his efforts came to naught. He was sup- planted in November, 1917, by the leaders of the extreme socialists, the Bolsheviki, 2 who were opposed to all war except that on capital. They took immediate steps to open negotiations with the Germans and their allies (see below, p. 779). Grave prob- lems ante- dating the war Section 161. The Question of Peace The war rendered acute every chronic disease which Europe had failed to remedy in the long period of general peace. France had never given up hopes of regaining Alsace-Lorraine, which had been wrested from her after the war of 1870-1871. The Poles continued to aspire to appear on the map as an independent nation. Both the northern Slavs of Bohemia and the southern Slavs in Croatia, Bosnia, and Slavonia were discontented with their relations to Austria-Hungary, of which they formed a part. The Irredentists of Italy had long laid claim to important coast lands belonging to Austria. Serbia and Bulgaria were bitterly at odds over the arrangements made at the close of the Second Balkan War. 3 Roumania longed for 1 See below, p. 776. 2 This name, meaning " majority men," was given to the faction at an earlier time, when they constituted the majority of the Russian socialists. It was at first wrongly explained in the American press as " those who want more," and mistranslated " Maximalists." 3 See above, p. 700 "Middle Europe," under the Control of the Teutonic Allies at the End of 191 7 767 768 Medieval arid Modern Times New prob- lems due to the war War on war Transylvania and Bukowina. Then there were the old ques- tions as to whether Russia should have Constantinople, what was to be done with the remaining vestiges of the Turkish empire, and who was to control Syria and Mesopotamia. In the far East, Japan's interests in China offered an unsolved problem. The Germans emphasized the necessity of meeting the discontent with British rule in India and Ireland. The progress of the war added new territorial perplexities. The Central Powers at the end of 19 17 were in military pos- session of Belgium, Luxemburg, northeastern France, Poland, Lithuania, Courland, Serbia, Montenegro, and Roumania (see map, p. 767). Great Britain had captured Bagdad and Jerusalem. In Africa all the German colonies were in the hands of her enemies, and in Australasia her possessions had been taken over by Japan and Australia. Were all these regions conquered by one or the other of the belligerent groups to be given back or not ? Then what about Belgium, whose people were mulcted and abused and pillaged by their conquerors ; and what of northeastern France wantonly devastated ? Was not reparation due to these unhappy victims of the war ? But all these questions seem of minor importance compared with the overwhelming world problem. How shall mankind conspire to put an end to war forever? The world of to-day, compared with that of Napoleon's time, when the last great international struggle took place, is so small, the nations have been brought so close together, they are so dependent on one another, that it would seem as if the time had come to join in a last, victorious war on war. It required a month or more to cross the Atlantic in 18 15 ; now less than six days are neces- sary, and airplanes may soon be soaring above its waves far swifter than any steamer. Formerly the oceans were great bar- riers separating America from Europe, and the Orient from America ; but, like the ancient bulwarks around medieval cities, they have now become highways on which men of all nations hasten to and fro. Before the war, express trains were The Great War 769 regularly traversing Europe from end to end at a speed of forty to fifty miles an hour, and the automobile vies with the locomo- tive in speed ; whereas at the time of the Congress of Vienna no one could get about faster than a horse could travel. The telegraph and telephone enable news to be flashed to the most distant parts of the earth more quickly than Louis XVIII could send a message from one part of Paris to another. The wire- less apparatus keeps vessels, no matter how far out at sea, in constant touch with the land. Nations depend on one another for food, clothes, and every interdepend- sort of necessity and refinement. Britain hoped to end the war £ the by cutting off Germany from her usual communication with other countries ; and Germany flattered herself she could starve England by sinking the thousands of vessels which supplied her tables with bread and meat. Even the rumor of war upsets the stock exchanges throughout the world. Nations read one another's books, profit by one another's scientific discoveries and inventions, and go to one another's plays. Musicians and composers of every nation contribute to musical programs lis- tened to in New York, Valparaiso, or Sydney. We continue to talk of itidependent nations ; but only a few isolated, squalid savage tribes can be said any longer to be independent of other peoples. In an ever-increasing degree America is a part of Europe and Europe a part of America ; and their histories tend to merge into the history of the whole world. The war only greatly emphasized all these things, which international were being recognized in the previous quarter of a century. The ^dlmer- 8 Hague conferences, the establishment of the Hague interna- prises before tional tribunal, the various arbitration treaties, had all been directed toward the suppression of the ancient plague of war. International arrangements in regard to coinage, postal service, commerce, and transportation had encouraged good understand- ing and cooperation. Innumerable international societies, con- gresses, and expositions had brought foreign peoples together and illustrated their manifold common interests. 770 Medieval and Modern Times Cost of pre- paredness greatly in- creased by recent inven- tions Issue of " militarism " fundamental The German view of Germany The old problem of armaments, the possibility of getting rid of the crushing burden and constant peril of vast standing armies and the competition in dreadnaughts and cruisers, has assumed a somewhat new form. The progress of the deadly art of killing one's fellow men has advanced so rapidly, with the aid of scientific discovery and the stress of the world war, that what was considered adequate military preparedness before the war now seems absurdly inadequate. Giant guns, air craft, " tanks," and poisonous gases have, among other things, been added to the older devices of destruction, and the submarine suggests a complete revolution in naval strategy. So there is some hope in the fact that, since no nation can longer afford the luxury of military preparedness, it is clearer than ever before that war as a means of settling international disputes must become a thing of the past. The great issue of the war was really "militarism," which includes two closely associated problems : first, shall diplomats be permitted any longer to carry on secret negotiations and pledge their respective nations to secret agreements which may involve war ? and, secondly, shall a government be permitted to declare war without the approval of the great mass of its citizens ? Now those opposed to Germany are all in hearty agree- ment in regarding her as representing the most dangerous form of militarism, which plunged the whole world into a horrible war and would, unless destroyed, remain a constant menace to future peace. Let us first see how the Germans seem to view their own institutions and ideals and then we shall be in a better position to understand the attitude of their adversaries. The Germans have been taught, during the past hundred years, by their philosophers, teachers, clergymen, and govern- ment officials to regard themselves as the leading nation of the world. They have been told that their natural ability, virtue, insight, and prowess exceed those of all other peoples, whom they were taught to look upon as decadent, barbarians, or hypocrites. German leaders declared an invincible army must The Great War JJi be built up to protect the empire from its neighbors, and a powerful navy must be developed to be used when the right moment should come 1 to extend Germany's confines at the expense of England and to enable her to spread her vaunted Kultur. In spite of this militaristic teaching the Germans per- sisted in claiming to be a peace-loving people with a peace- loving emperor, who had done everything to avoid war ! Yet no one denied that their army was an essential part of their national constitution and that unqualified obedience and un- questioning deference to military authority was part and parcel of their bounden duty to the State. No interest of the individ- ual subject was allowed to conflict with its claims, since it was "of infinitely more value than the sum of all the individuals within its jurisdiction." 2 The visible head of the State, the king of Prussia as em- Position of peror of Germany, demanded the absolute fidelity of every zo ii e rn rulers German. He was descended from the Hohenzollern line of German y under which first Prussia and then the German Empire was laboriously built up, under the Great Elector, Frederick the Great, Kaiser William I, and William II. These were the officially accepted views in regard to the Crime of lese German nation, the German State, the German army, and the ma]es y German Kaiser. Those who, before the war, indiscreetly ques- tioned the claims of the Kaiser frequently found themselves imprisoned for lese majesty, the crime of insulting " the All- Highest." At the beginning of the war the popularity of the Kaiser appeared to have greatly increased ; but it is impossible to say whether the socialists and other critics of the government really changed their opinion of the Hohenzollern rule or merely 1 German officers were accustomed to drink to this future moment as " The Day" (Der Tag). 2 So writes Eduard Meyer, a well-known historian. He adds, "This concep- tion of the State, which is as much a part of our life as is the blood in our veins, is nowhere to be found in the English Constitution, and is quite foreign to Eng- lish thought, and to that of America as well." Quoted by Veblen, On the Nature of Peace, p. 86 n. 7 7 '2 Medieval and Modern Times kept still from patriotic and prudential motives. There can be no doubt that the great landholders of Prussia 1 and the mili- tary class are still ardent supporters of the ancient monarchy. When the war broke out the Germans and their " peace-loving" emperor assumed no responsibility for it. On the contrary, the Kaiser declared that his enemies had forced the sword into his reluctant hand. View of It is needless to say that the rest of the world entertains a very taken bT different notion of the Germans and of the origin of the war other peoples from that just given. It is generally recognized that Germany has been in some respects a progressive country ; that its scien- tists and scholars have played their part in modern investigation and discovery. But other nations have made vast contributions too in all the sciences ; and in ingenious inventions, literature, and art other peoples outshine the Germans. Ruthlessness Before the war the utterances of the Kaiser and his talk militarism about his German God merely amused or disgusted foreigners. The plans of the Pan-Germanists were known to few, but a book by the German general, Bernhardi, called Germany and the Next War, which appeared in 191 1, made clear their pro- gram. " We must not," Bernhardi says, " hold back in the hard struggle for the sovereignty of the world." 2 France and Eng- land had grown increasingly suspicious of German power, but nevertheless the war came as a hideous surprise to even the best informed people. Every one knew that Germany had the strongest and best organized and equipped army in Europe, but when it was suddenly hurled against Belgium, in August, 19 14, the world was aghast. The spoliation of Belgium, the shooting down of civilians, the notorious atrocities of the German sol- diers, the cold-blooded instructions to the officers to intimi- date the civil population by examples of cruel punishments 1 These are popularly known as the Junkers (pronounced "yoonkers"), or country squires. They are the successors of the manorial lords who controlled the land until the abolition of serfdom in Prussia at the opening of the nine- teenth century. They do not confine themselves to agriculture but invest their money in industries and so merge into the capitalistic class. 2 English translation, p. 79. The Great War 773 (Schrecklichkeif), the scandalous and criminal activities of German spies, the ruthless submarines, the slaughter of noncombatants in the air raids over England, the destruction of the noble cathedral of Rheims by German gunners, the " Song of Hate " in which a German poet summoned his fellow countrymen to execrate England with undying animosity, — all these things combined to produce world-wide horror and apprehension. To their adversaries the Germans were " Huns " led by a modern Attila, 1 ready to deluge the world in blood in order to realize the dream of world domination. The fatal readiness of the German military force for instant " Militarism " action was also thproughly impressed on the world. The r acy » Kaiser had but to say, " the country is attacked," — and he was the judge of what constituted an attack, — posters appeared everywhere ordering those liable to service to be at a certain railroad station at a given hour, under penalty of imprison- ment or death, to be dispatched anywhere the general staff ordered. When mobilization was proclaimed, the civil govern- ment immediately gave way to military rule throughout the length and breadth of the land. At the opening of August the German people knew that they were going to war with Russia, but the soldiers sent to the Belgian boundary had no idea where they were going. This is what the world calls militarism and autocracy. The great difficulty of reestablishing peace between the two Germany's great hostile alliances is well brought out in the various peace December"' suggestions made during the third year of the war. In Decern- *9 l6 ber, 19 1 6, after the Central Powers had occupied Poland, 1 When a German expedition was starting for China in July, 1900, after the Boxers had killed the German ambassador, the Kaiser addressed the troops as follows : " You know very well that you are to fight against a cunning, brave, well-armed and terrible enemy. If you come to grips with him, be assured quar- ter will not be given. Use your weapons in such a way that for a thousand years no Chinese shall dare to look upon a German askance. Be as terrible as Attila's Huns." While the last sentence was deleted in the later official issues of the speech, the public did not forget the impressions they got from the Kaiser's exhortation to act like Huns. And the German soldiers by no means neglected his suggestions when they reached Peking. 774 Medieval and Modern Times Serbia, and Roumania, and Germany seemed to be victorious on all hands, she made what she called a peace offer. She pro- posed that the belligerents send representatives to some point in a neutral country to consider the terms of settlement. The German government must have known well enough that the Allies could not possibly consider making peace at a time when their enemies were at the height of military success. The prop- osition was scornfully rejected, but it served in German eyes'to throw the burden for continuing the fearful conflict upon the Allies. Whoever might have been responsible for beginning the war, Germany had been the first to propose to end it. The Kaiser proclaimed exultantly that the Allies had at last cast off the mask of hypocrisy and plainly revealed their " lust of conquest." The refusal of their adversaries to consider peace also furnished an excuse for a resort to the unrestricted and brutal submarine warfare which Germany was contemplating. She argued that if her enemies really proposed to " crush " Germany, no means of self-defense on her part could be too ruthless. President Before the Allies had replied to the German peace suggestion peace "ug- President Wilson intervened (December 18) with a circular note gestions, sent to the belligerents, calling attention to the fact that both December 18, ° ° . 1916 sides seemed to agree that there should be a league for main- taining peace, and small states should be protected, but neither side, he said, had stated the " concrete objects " for which they were fighting. He accordingly suggested a conference on the essential conditions of peace. Germany expressed herself as ready for a meeting of delegates to consider peace terms. The Allies, however, declined to negotiate, but went so far in replying to President Wilson, January 10, 19 17, as to give a definition of the oft-used terms " restoration," " restitution," and " guarantees." Aims of the The Central Powers were to evacuate all the regions they January 1917 na cl conquered during the course of the war; indemnities were to be paid for damage and loss caused by the war ; moreover " provinces or territories wrested in the past from the Allies by The Great War 775 force or against the will of their populations " were to be re- turned. The principle of nationality was to be recognized, and the Italians, southern and northern Slavs, and Roumanians were to be freed from foreign domination ; the populations subject to " the bloody tyranny of the Turks " were to be liberated and the Turk expelled altogether from Europe. Poland was to be united under the sovereignty of the Tsar. Finally, the " reorgan- ization of Europe was to be guaranteed by a stable regime." As for the German colonies, high officials in both England and Japan said that they would be retained by their conquerors. This meant that the Central Powers should acknowledge The terms of their guilt and pay for the damage they had done; that Pe a r absurd*" Germany should give up Alsace-Lorraine, Austria-Hungary to their . ■'<=>'■ o j adversaries should make serious concessions to meet " the principle of nationality," Bulgaria should give up her dreams of annexing Serbian territory, and Turkey should leave Europe and lose control over her Asiatic peoples. In view of the extraordinary military achievements of the Central Powers and Germany's claim to have been acting from the first in sheer self-defense, these conditions were immediately condemned by the Teutonic allies as intolerable and not to be considered. On January 22, 19 17, President Wilson, in addressing the President Senate, said that peace must, among other things, provide for essentials of equality of right for both great and small nations, security for P eace > * J ° ° 1 j January 22, subject " peoples," direct outlet to the sea for every great 19 1 7 people, " freedom of the seas," * and limitation of armaments. 1 In time of peace the high seas — that is, the ocean outside of the three-mile limit drawn along the coast — are free to all and are not supposed to be under the control of any particular government. It is in time of war that the question of " the freedom of the seas " arises. England was in a position at the opening of the war to cut off Germany's maritime commerce. Germany immediately established vast barred zones, in which she sank not only her enemies' vessels but those of neutrals which ventured to neglect her warnings. So the ocean was anything but free during the conflict. Another element in the freedom of the seas is the control of such narrow passages as the Dardanelles, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Suez and Panama Canals, and the entrances to the Baltic. It is hard to imagine any arrangement that will keep the seas open and safe so long as wars continue to take place among maritime powers. J76 Medieval and Modern Times Principle of " No peace can last," he declared, " or ought to last, which does Democracy nQt rec0 g n i ze an( j accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property." Armaments a " There can be no sense of safety and equality among the rnenace* nations if great preponderating armaments are henceforth to continue here and there to be built up and maintained. The statesmen of the world must plan for peace, and nations must adjust and accommodate their policy to it as they have planned for war and made ready for pitiless contest and rivalry. The question of armaments, whether on land or sea, is the most immediately and intensely practical question connected with the future fortunes of nations and of mankind." The Russian In March, 19 1 7, one of the chief belligerent countries, Russia, Son ^arch underwent such a great internal change as greatly to modify the J 9*7 course of the war and the problem of peace. We must now con- sider the astonishing revolution which led to the overthrow of the old Russian despotism and the retirement of Russia from the war. The Tsar The world conflict had hardly opened in 19 14 before it attempts a revealed the corruption, the weakness, the inefficiency, indeed December- the treason, of the Tsar's court and his imperial officials. The March, 1916- . . . r 191 7 millions of Russians who perished m the trenches of the Eastern Front in vain endeavors to advance into Germany and Austria- Hungary or to stem the tide of German invasion were ill sup- ported by their government. The Duma became unmanageable, and in December, 191 6, it passed a resolution declaring that Dark " dark forces " were paralyzing the government and betraying the nation's interests. This referred especially to the German wife of the Tsar, and the reactionary influence exercised over her and at court by a monk named Rasputin, who opposed every modern reform. He was murdered, and the angry Tsar proceeded to dis- miss the liberals from the government and replace them by the most unpopular bureaucrats he could find. He seemed to be declaring war on every liberal movement and reverting to the forces The Great War 777 methods of Nicholas I. .Meantime the country was becoming more and more disorganized. There was a distressing scarcity of food in the cities and a growing repugnance to the continuance of the war. Bread riots broke out in Petrograd 1 in March, 19 17, but the Outbreak of troops refused to fire on the people, and the Tsar's government t ; on found itself helpless. When ordered to adjourn, the Duma defied the Tsar and ordered the establishment of a provisional govern- ment. The Tsar, hastening back to Petrograd from the front, was stopped at Pskov by representatives of the new provisional gov- ernment on March 15, 19 17, and induced to sign his own and his son's abdication in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Michael. But Michael refused the honor unless it were authorized by a constitutional assembly ; this amounted to an abdication of the Romanoffs, who had ruled Russia for more than three centuries. There was no longer any such thing in the world as " the autocrat of all the Russias." The Tsar's relatives renounced their rights, his high officials were imprisoned in the very fortress of Peter and Paul where they had sent so many revolutionists, and political prisoners in Russia and Siberia received the joyous tidings that they were free. The world viewed with astonishment this abrupt and complete collapse of the ancient system of tyranny. A revolutionary cabinet was formed of men of moderate views The moder- on the whole, but Alexander Kerensky, a socialist and repre- to t he mod- sentative of the Workingmen's and Soldiers' Council, was made minister of justice. The new cabinet declared itself in favor of many reforms, such as liberty of speech and of the press ; the right to strike ; the substitution of militia for the old police ; universal suffrage, including women. But the socialists were not content, and through their Council of Workingmen's and Soldiers' Delegates began to exercise great power. Large incomes were taxed 60 per cent ; a state coal monopoly was established ; it was proposed to have the government manufac- ture and supply the food and clothing where there was a erate social- ists 1 The name of the Russian capital was changed from its German form, St. Petersburg, to Petrograd at the opening of the war. 77% Medieval and Modern Times shortage ; in Petrograd the six-hour day was introduced into one hundred and forty factories. By July, 191 7, all the more moderate members of the provisional government had been forced out and their places taken by socialists. The con- gress of Workingmen's and Soldiers' Delegates and the na- Kerensky tional Peasants' Congress chose Kerensky as dictator, July 23. jSy) 19 1 7 Opposed on one hand by the reactionaries, on the other by the extreme socialists, or Bolsheviki, Kerensky declared that if necessary Russia must be beaten into unity " by bloo. and iron." , Kerensky had earlier made a desperate attempt to lead the flagging Russian troops to victory, but as time went on the demand for immediate peace "without annexations or indemnities " became louder and louder. The Pope's On August 1, Pope Benedict XV sent forth a peace message sage^nd m which he urged Christendom to cease from its fratricidal car- wnson? na S e ? l a y down its arms, and revert in general to the status quo reply, August, ante. This was answered by President Wilson (August 27). He 1917 ■ maintained that no peace was possible with the existing irrespon- sible government of Germany. " This power is not the German people. It is the ruthless master of the German people. . . . We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guar- antee of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supported by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people themselves as the other peoples of the world would be justified in accepting. Without such guarantees for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration in the place of war, territorial adjustments, reconstitution of small nations, if made with the German government, no man, no nation could now depend on." President's In his message on the opening of Congress, December 4, 1 9 1 7 , December, President Wilson was still clearer : " The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permit to deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for the very life and existence of their Empire, a war of desperate self- defense against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonly false, and we must seek by the utmost The Great War 779 openness and candor as to our real aims to convince them of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for their emancipation from fear ... of unjust attack by neighbors, or rivals or schemers after world empire. No one is threatening the existence or independence or the peaceful enterprise of the German Empire. . . . We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interfer- ence with her internal affairs." Lloyd George reiterate^ this last senti ,r ».ent in a speech before the House of Commons. G Mrnany's leaders, in order to keep up the war spirit, con- Attitude of stantly proclaimed that the sole aim of the Allies was to andrtid^ anS " crush " the fatherland. But it was the German militaristic kaiser government that had to be crushed by forcing Germany so far to alter her system as to secure democratic control of the power to declare war ; in other respects she might go her own way. The kaiser's reply may be gathered from his address to the soldiers of the Western Front, December 22, 19 17 ; " The year 19 1 7 has proved that the German people has in the Lord of Creation above an unconditional and avowed ally on whom it can absolutely rely. ... If the enemy does not want peace, we must bring peace by battering down with the mailed fist and shining sword the portals of those who will not have peace ! " At the very end of 191 7 peace negotiations were opened Peace con- between representatives of the " Quadruple Alliance " — Ger- Brest- 6 at many, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey — and the repre- Lit °vsk, De- sentatives of the Bolsheviki, who had control at that time of the Soviets, or local assemblies that sprang up throughout Russia after the disappearance of the old autocratic government of the Tsar. They met at Brest-Litovsk, on the eastern Polish boundary, late in December. The Russian delegation submitted their program of no annexations and no indemnities, and complained that the Teutonic allies did not express themselves clearly in regard to the evacuation of Russian territory and reestablishing the violated rights of small and oppressed nationalities. But the Bolsheviki were helpless in the face of the German demands. Finland and the Ukraine, which comprises a great 780 Medieval and Modern Times part of southern Russia, declared themselves independent, and established governments of their own, under German influence, it is supposed. So on March 3, 19 18, the representatives of the Bolsheviki concluded a peace with the Central Powers in which they agreed to " evacuate " the Ukraine and Finland, and surrendered Poland, Lithuania, Courland,- Livonia, and certain districts, in the Caucasus (see map, p. 751), all of which were to exercise the right of establishing such government as they pleased. Shortly after, the capital of Russia was transferred from Petrograd to Moscow. The result was that Russia was dismembered, and all the western and southern regions were, for the time being, under the strong influence of the Germans. A new problem was thus added to the overwhelming perplexb ties of the situation, namely, the question of the restoration of Russia. It is estimated that by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Russia lost about a third of her population, a third of her railways, nearly three fourths of her iron mines, about 90 per cent of her coal mines, and her chief industrial towns and richest fields. President On January 8, 19 18, President Wilson stated a program of teen po'inte Ur ~ wor ^ peace which embraced fourteen points. The chief of these January 8, were no secret international understandings or treaties ; absolute freedom of navigation in peace and war, except when portions of the sea might be closed by international understanding ; re- moval of economic barriers and reduction of armaments ; impar- tial adjustment of all colonial claims ; restoration of Belgium and evacuation of territories occupied by Teutonic allies during the war; righting of the wrong done to France when Alsace-Lorraine was seized by Germany; freeing of Asiatic dependencies of Turkey ; and the formation of a general association of nations for the purpose of insuring the independence of great and small states alike. This program was heartily and unreservedly approved by the representatives of the English workingmen, and made clearer than any previous declaration the purposes of the world alliance against Germany. The Great War 7% l Section 162. The End of the Great War On March 21, 19 18, the Germans began a great drive on the WhytheGer- Western Front with the hope of gaining a decisive victory and ™s£eedy g forcing the Allies to sue for peace. Germany was in a hurry, decisi0n for she knew that hef U-boat warfare was not bringing England to her knees, that the United States troops were beginning to arrive in ever-increasing numbers, and that the German plans for getting supplies from Russia were meeting with little suc- cess. Moreover, the German people were undergoing all sorts of bitter hardships, and might at any time begin to complain that the final victory which the Kaiser had been promising from the first was long in coming. The southern and eastern portion of the Western Front The German was held by French armies, the northern line by the British, begins, Hindenburg and the other German generals decided to strike March21 at the southernmost of the British armies, in the region of the Somme. If they could defeat it, they would thereby separate the French and British and so prevent their helping one another. For several days the Germans were victorious and were able to push back the British almost to Amiens. But the French rushed to the aid of their allies ; the drive was checked and Amiens, with its important railroad connections, was saved. No previous conflict of the war had been so terrible as this, and it is estimated that over four hundred thousand men were killed, wounded, or captured. The Germans, however, only regained the devastated territory from which they had retired a year before, and their fierce efforts to advance further failed. The grave danger in which the Allies found themselves finally Foch made convinced them that their safety lay in putting all their forces j n c hi e f of — French, British, Italian, and the newry arriving troops from the Alhed ' ' ' j & r armies America — under a single commander in chief. All agreed that the French general, Ferdinand Foch (appointed March 28, 19 18), was the most likely to lead them all to victory ; and their confi- dence was justified. Almost immediately matters began to mend. 782 - Medieval and Modern Times Efforts of the Every one knew that the Germans would soon make a second reach cXais drive somewhere on the long front of one hundred and fifty and Paris miles, but at what point the Allies could only conjecture. The new blow came April 9, when the Kaiser's armies attempted to break through the British defenses between Arras and Ypres, with the intention of reaching Calais and the English Channel. The suspense was tense for a time, but after retreating a few miles the British made a stand and were ordered by their com- mander to die, if necessary, at their posts. This checked the second effort of the Germans to break through. In the latter part of May the German armies attempted a third great attack, this time in the direction of Paris. They took Soissons and Chateau-Thierry, which brought them within about forty miles of the French capital. In June they made a feebler effort to extend to the south the territory gained in the first drive. Here they were opposed for the first time by the American troops, who fought with great bravery and ardor. And here the German successes came to an end. Arrival of The first contingent of United States troops had arrived in troops; Gen- France in June, 19 17, under the command of General Pershing, eral Pershing w j 1Q j ia( j a \ 0Xi g anc i honorable record as a military commander. He had, in his younger days, fought Indians in the West ; he served in the Spanish War, and later subdued the fierce Moros in the Philippine Islands. By the first of July, 19 18, about a million American troops had reached France and were either participating actively in the fierce fighting or being rapidly and efficiently trained. They had taken their first town by the end of May, 1918, and gained great distinction for themselves by cooperating with the French in frustrating the German attempt to break through at Chateau- Thierry. Northwest of that town they forced back, early in June, the picked troops of the Kaiser sent against them. In these conflicts the American marines were especially conspicuous. During the following weeks the Germans lost tens of thou- sands of men in minor engagements, and finally, on July 15, The Great War 783 19 18, made a last great effort to take Rheims and force their Rapid Ger- way to Paris, but this drive was speedily turned into a retreat, during July During; the following; month the combined efforts of the and Au S ust > & ° 1918 French and Americans served to drive the Germans far back from the Marne and put an end to their hopes of advancing on Paris. The French general, Mangin, warmly praised the valor of the Americans during these " splendid " days when it was his privilege to fight with them " for the deliverance of the world." Then the British began an offensive on the Somme, east and south of Amiens. By the end of September the Germans had been pressed back to the old Hindenburg line ; this was even pierced at some points, and the Allied troops were within a few miles of the Lorraine boundary. The American troops in France, numbering slightly over Active par- two million men before the armistice was signed, on Novem- ticipation of ' " the Amen- ber 11, 19 18, were scattered along the whole Western Front, can troops and it is estimated that nearly one million four hundred thousand actually took part in the fearful struggle against the Germans. 1 It is impossible to mention here all the battles in which they fought valiantly, side by side with the French or British, as the hosts of the enemy were rapidly pushed back. In the middle of September the Americans distinguished themselves by tak- ing the St. Mihiel salient and bringing their lines within range of the guns of the great German fortress of Metz. Reenforc- ing the British, they performed prodigies of valor in the capture of the St. Quentin canal tunnel far to the north, where thou- sands of lives were sacrificed. In the Argonne Forest, and especially in the capture of Sedan, on November 7, the United States troops played a conspicuous part. In the months from June to November, 19 18, the battle casualties of the American expeditionary forces — killed, wounded, missing, and prisoners — amounted to nearly a quarter of a million. The American 1 The United States proposed to have at least four million men in France by June 30, 1919. The limits of the draft were extended so as to include all able- bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. ;8 4 Medieval and Modern Times Conditions in Russia Bulgaria capitulates, September 29, 1918 soldiers made it clear that men could fight with the greatest bravery and gain rapid victories without the prolonged training to which the German troops had been subjected. Meanwhile, on the other fronts the fortunes of war were turning in favor of the Allies. Germany, instead of being able to get supplies from demoralized Russia, met resistance at every point. The people of the Ukraine resented her domination and began to look to the Allies to assist them in forming their new republic. In Finland civil war raged between the "white" guard (Nationalist) and the " red " guard (Bolshevik-German), while English and American troops on the Murmansk coast to the north cooperated with the anti-Bolsheviki to oppose the extremists then in power. At Vladivostok, far away across Siberia, English, Japanese, and American forces landed with the object of working west- ward through Siberia and, as they hoped, restoring order. Among the enemies of the Bolsheviki was a Czecho- Slovak army, composed of former Austrian subjects, who had deserted to fight in Russia for the Allies. As a part of the great forward movement organized by Gen- eral Foch, the combined Serbian, Greek, English, and French forces in the Balkans once more became active in Serbia and rapidly pushed back the Bulgarians, who, with the help of the Germans and Austrians, had overrun the country three years before. Neither Germany nor Austria could send aid to their ally, and on September 29, 19 18, the Bulgarians threw up their hands and asked for an armistice. This was granted on condi- tion of absolute surrender. The Bulgarians retired from the war, having agreed to disband their army and give the Allies the right to use their territory, supplies, and railroads in con- tinuing the fight against Austria-Hungary and Turkey. The defection of Bulgaria proved decisive, and it' was clear that Turkey could not keep up the fight when cut off from her western allies, and that Austria-Hungary, open to invasion through Bulgaria, must soon yield. German Delegates arriving within the French Lines, to secure Terms of the Armistice from Marshal Foch (From a Drawing by a French Official Artist) One of the most dramatic events in history occurred when the German delegates, traveling in automobiles bearing the white flag, made their way to the headquarters of the Allied Generalissimo. There the Ger- mans made their final advance, not as conquerors, as they had arro- gantly boasted that they would, but as suppliants for peace, admitting their overwhelming defeat li'i;'4: ^444- ,.;,?:# o 73 g .2 ^ c/3 re 1 » u TO t-H a; re CD ^ 8 to 17 15, chaps, ix-xi, xiv-xv. Duruy, History of rea dmg France, Thirteenth Period. Adams, Growth of the French Nation. Readings, Vol. II, chap. xxxi. Memoirs of the period are often obtain- B. Source able in translation at reasonable prices. The greatest of these, those of matena l Saint Simon, are condensed to a three-volume English edition. Perkins, Fra?ice tinder the Regency, one of several valuable books C. Additional by this author. Taine, The Ancient Regime, a brilliant picture of life rea m ^ in France in the eighteenth century. Lowell's Eve of the French Revolution is also general ; it is less picturesque but gives a fairer idea of conditions. CHAPTER XIX Cambridge Modern History, Vol. V, chaps, xvi, xx-xxi ; Vol. VI, chap. xx. Henderson, A Short History of Germany, Vol. I, pp. 148-218. Rambaud, History of Russia, Vols. I - II, the best treatment of Russia. Schwill, Modern Europe, pp. 215-247, good outline. Tuttle, History of Prussia, 4 vols. Robinson, Readings hi European History, Vol. II, chap, xxxii. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, chap. iv. Bright, Maria Theresa. Carlyle, Frederick the Great, a classic. Eversley, The Partitions of Poland. Phillips, History of Poland, good short account in Home University Library. Hassall, European His- tory, 1737-1789. Kluchevsky, A History of Russia, 3 vols. Schevill, The Making of Modern Germany. Schuyler, Peter the Great, standard English biography. Waliszewski, Life of Peter the Great. A. Genera] reading B. Source material C. Additional reading CHAPTER XX Robinson and Beard, Development of Modem Europe, Vol. I, chaps, vi-vii. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. V, chap, xxii ; Vol. VI, chaps, vi, xv. Cross, A History of England and Greater Britain, chap, xli, detailed manual. Egerton, A Short History of British Colojiial Policy, best treatment. Cheyney, A Short History of England, chap. xvii. Gibbins, History of Commerce in Europe. Lyall, The Rise of British Dominion in India. Pollard, Factors in Modern Histoiy, chap, x, a most suggestive treatment of the rise of nationalism in modern Eng- land. Woodward, A Short History of the Expansion of the British Empire, bes* introduction. A. General reading X Medieval and Modern Times B. Source material C. Additional reading Robinson, Readings in European History, Vol. II, chap. ~ xxxiii. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, chaps, vi-vii. Cheyney, Readings in English History, chaps, xiii, xvii. Muzzey, Readings in American History. Hart, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. I. Cheyney, European Background of American History, an excellent survey. Edgar, The Struggle for a Continent. Hunter, A Brief History of the Indian Peoples. Lucas, A Historical Geography of the British Colo- nies, 5 vols., the most extensive treatment. Macaulay, Essay on Clive. Mahan, The Infuence of Sea- Power tcpon History, 1660-1783, a classic. Morris, A History of Colonization, 2 vols. Parkman, A Half- Century of Conflict, 2 vols. Seeley, The Expansion of England, a. well-known gen- eral survey. Thwaites, The Colonies. Trail, Social England, Vol. V. B. Source material C. Additional reading CHAPTER XXI A. General AsHTON, Social Life in the Time of Queen Anne. Gibbins, Industry reading ^ n E n gi an d, chaps, xvii-xx. Lowell, The Eve of the French Revolution, sane and reliable. Prothero, English Farming, Past and Present, chaps, v-xi, excellent. Sydney, England and the English in the Eight- eenth Century, 2 vols., admirable. Henderson, Short History of Ger- many, chaps, iii-vii. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, chap. viii. Translations and Reprints, Vol. V, No. 2; Vol. VI, No. 1. Young, Arthur, Travels in France, 1787-7789, a first-hand source of great importance. Cunningham, Grozvth of English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times, Part I, the standard manual of economic history ; conservative. De Tocqueville, The State of Society in France before the Revolution, a careful analysis of conditions. Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, 8 vols., a work of high order. McGiffert, Protes- tant Thought before Kant, excellent for religious thought. Overton, The English Chitrch in the Eighteenth Century. Taine, The Ancient Rigime, a brilliant but somewhat overdone analysis of social conditions in France. CHAPTER XXII A. General Bury, A History of the Freedom of Thought, chap, vi, admirable. reading Cambridge Modern History, Vol. V, chap, xxiii. Dunning, A History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu, chaps, x-xii, admirable summary of political doctrines to 1750. McGiffert, Protestant Thought before Kant, chap, x, splendid treatment of the religious aspects of rationalism. MARVIN, The Living Past, chap, viii, a stimulating outline. Bibliography XI Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, chap. ix. Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (Nugent's translation). Rousseau, Discourses, Emile, and Social Contract (Everyman's Series). Smith, The Wealth of Nations. Stephens, The Life and Writings of Turgot. Gide and Rist, A History of Economic Doctrines (Richards's trans- lation). Lecky, A History of the Rise and Lnfluence of Rationalism in Europe, a general survey. MoRLEY, Critical Miscellanies, Rousseau, Voltaire, eloquent and stimulating essays. Perkins, France under Louis XV, Vol. II. Robertson, A Short History of the Freedom of Thought, 2 vols. An excellent summary of the history of the various sciences is to be found in The History of the Sciences Series published by Putnam. CHAPTER XXIII Lowell, The Eve of the French Revolution, the best treatment in English. Machlehose, The Last Days of the French Monarchy, excel- lent. Matthews, The French Revolution, the best short survey. Robinson, Readings in European History, Vol. II, chap, xxxiv. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, chap. xi. Translations and Reprints, Vol. IV, No. 5, for " Cahiers " ; Vol. V, No. 2, for " Protest of the Cours des Aides of 1775 " 5 Vol. VI, No. 1, for "Philosophers." Young, Arthur, Travels in France. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VIII, chaps, ii-iv. De Tocqueville, The State of Society in France before the Revolution of 7789. Rocquain, The Revolutionary Spirit before the Revolution. Taine, The Ancient Regime. B. Source material C. Additional reading A. General reading B. Source material C. Additional reading CHAPTER XXIV Robinson, The New History, chap. vii. Belloc, The French Revolu- tion (Home University Series), suggestive. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VIII, especially chaps, i, hi, xii. Matthews, The French Revolu- tion. Rose, The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Period. Stephens, Europe 7789-7875, excellent. Stephens, A History of the French Revo- lution, 2 vols., detailed treatment of the early years of the Revolution, replacing Carlyle and earlier literary historians. Robinson, Readings in European History, Vol. II, chaps, xxxv-xxxvi. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, chaps, xii-xiii. Anderson, Constitutions and Other Select Documents Lllustrative of the History of France, 7789-1907, a valuable collection for modern French history. Burke, Reflections on the French Revolution A. General reading B. Source material Xll Medieval and Modern Times C. Additional reading (Everyman's), a bitter criticism of the whole movement. Gouverneur Morris, Diary and Letters, 2 vols., contains some vivid description by an American observer. Paine, The Rights of Man., an effective answer to Burke. Aulard, The French Revolution, 4 vols., a great political history. Belloc, Danton, Robespierre. Bourne, The Revolutionary Period in Europe, a recent manual. Taine, The French Revolution, 3 vols., brilliant but unsympathetic. Carlyle, French Revolution, a literary masterpiece but written from insufficient materials. CHAPTER XXV A. General reading B. Source material C. Additional reading Cambridge Modern History, Vol. IX. Fisher, Napoleon (Home Uni- versity Series). Fournier, Napoleon the First, excellent. Johnston, Napoleon, the best brief account in English. Rose, The Life of Napoleon the First, the most scholarly account in English. Robinson, Readings in Furopeaji History, Vol. II, chaps, xxxvii- xxxviii. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, chaps, xiv-xv. Anderson, Constitutions and Select Documents. Bingham, A Selection from the Letters and Despatches of the First Na- poleon,^ vols. Las Casses, The fournal of St. Helena. Lecestre, New Letters of Napoleon L. Memoirs of Bourrienne, Napoleon's private sec- retary, spiteful but spicy. Memoirs of Madame de Remtisat. Memoirs of Miot de Melito. Bigelow, A History of the German Struggle for Liberty. Seeley, The Life and Times of Stein, an exhaustive study of Prussia under Stein. Sloane, Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 4 vols., monumental, with very complete illustrations. Taine, The Modern Rigime, 2 vols., keen analysis of Napoleon. CHAPTER XXVI A. General reading B. Source material Robinson and Beard, The Development of Modem Europe, Vol. I, chap, xvi ; Vol. II, chap. xvii. Cambridge Modem History, Vol. X. Hazen, Europe since i8/j, chaps, i-vii, excellent. Fyffe, A History of Modern Europe, Vol. II. Phillips, Modern Europe, chaps, i-ix, especially good sections. Seignobos, Political History of Europe since 1814, chaps, viii-x, most comprehensive single manual of the century. Robinson, Readings in European History, Vol. II, chap, xxxix. Rob- inson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. I, chap, xvi ; Vol. II, chap. xvii. Bibliography xin Andrews, The Historical Development of Modern Europe, 2 vols. C. Additional Hume, Modern Spain. Stillman, The Unity of Italy. Sybel, The readin S Founding of the German Empire, Vol. I. Phillips, The Confederation of Europe, an excellent survey of congresses and the plans of the Tsar. CHAPTER XXVII Robinson and Beard, The Development of Modern Europe, Vol. II, chap, xviii. Allsopp, An Introduction to English Industrial History, Part IV, excellent book for young students. Cheyney, Industrial and Social History of England, chap. viii. Gibbins, Industry in England, chaps, xx-xxi. Pollard, History of England (Home University Series), chap. vii. Slater, The Making of Modern England (American edition), especially the introduction, excellent. Warner, landmarks in Eng- lish Industrial History, chaps, xv-xviii. Marvin, The Living Past, chaps, ix-x. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. II, chap. xviii. Cheyney, Readings in English History, chap, xviii. The Com- munist Manifesto, the most important pamphlet in the history of social- ism ; it can be easily procured for a few cents. Engels, Condition of the Working Class in 1844, largely drawn from official sources and observation. Byrn, Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Centicry. Thurston, A History of the Steam Engine. Woolman and McGowan, Textiles. Cochrane, Modern Industrial Progress. Cunningham, Growth of Eng- lish Industry and Commerce, Modern Times, Part II. Hobson, The Evolution of Modern Capitalism, excellent. Kirkup, The History of Socialism, well written and fair. Spargo and Arner, The Elements of Socialism. Walling, Socialism as it is. A. General reading B. Source- material C. Additional reading CHAPTER XXVIII Robinson and Beard, The Development of Modern Europe, Vol. II, A. General chaps, xix-xx. Andrews, Historical Development of Modern Europe, rea m ^» Vol. I, excellent. Fyffe, History of Modern Europe, Vol. Ill, chaps, xi- xiii. Hazen, Europe since 1815, chaps, viii-ix, xxiv-xxvi. Phillips, Modem Europe, chaps, xi-xiii. Seignobos, Political History of Modern Europe since 1814, chaps, v-vi, xii-xiv. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modem European History, Vol. II, B. Source chaps, xix-xx. Anderson, Constitutions and Select Documents. The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, of great interest to American students. Karl Marx, Revolution and Counter Revolution in Germany, keen analysis, formerly articles in the New York Tribune, material XIV Medieval and Modern Times C. Additional Cambridge Modern History, Vol. XI. Evans, The Second French Em* reading p ire% Maurice, The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-18^. Murdock, The Reconstruction of Europe. A. General reading B. Source material C. Additional reading CHAPTER XXIX Cambridge Modern History, Vol. XI, chaps, xv-xvi, xix. Hazen s Europe since 1815, chaps, x, xi, xiii, xvii. Ogg, The Governments of Europe, chaps, xix-xxi. Barry, The Papacy and Modern Times (Home University Series), chap. vii. Seignobos, Political History of Europe since 1814, chaps, xi-xvi. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. II, chaps, xxi-xxii. Bismarck, Bismarck, the Man and the Statesman, an Autobiography, of prime importance but to be used with care. Maurice Busch, Bismarck, Some Secret Pages of his History, the memoirs of a private secretary. Garibaldi, Autobiography, 3 vols. Mazzini, Duties of Man (Everyman's Library). Andrews, Historical Development of Modern Europe, Vol. II. Munroe Smith, Bismarck and German Unity, the best short account. Guil- LAND, Modern Germany and her Historians, shows their importance in molding the ideas of modern Germany. Treitschke, History of Germany in the Nineteenth Century, of great importance. Headlam, The Foundation of the German Empire, 1815-1871 ; Bismarck and the Founding of the German Empire. Thayer, Cavour, a fine biography. Cesaresco, Cavour; The Liberation of Italy. King, A History of Italian Unity, 2 vols. King and Okey, Italy To-day, very readable, but a little out of date. Stillman, The Unity of Italy. A. General reading B. Source material CHAPTER XXX Robinson and Beard, The Development of Modern Europe, Vol. II, chaps, xxv-xxvii. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. XI, chaps, i, xii, xxvii; Vol. XII, chap. iii. Cheyney, A Short History of England, chaps, xix-xx. Cross, A History of England and Greater Britain, chaps. 1-lv. Hazen, Europe since 1815, chaps, xviii-xxii, excellent. Macy and G an n away, Comparative Free Government, Part II, chaps, xxx-xli. Ogg, The Governments of Europe, chaps, i-viii. Oman, Eng- land in the Nineteenth Century, best brief account. Slater, The Making of Modern England (American edition), excellent, with select bibli- ography. Story, The British Empire. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. II, chaps, xxv-xxvii. Cheyney, Readings in English History, chaps, xix-xx. Hayes, British Social Politics, a collection of speeches Bibliography xv covering the most recent period. Kendall, A Source Book of English History. Lee, Source Book of English History, Part VIII. Statesmen's Year Book. White and Notestein, Source Problems in English His- tory, Part VIII, sources dealing with the Parliament Act of 191 1. Winbolt, English History Source Books (Bell & Sons), Nos. 13-20, parts of a long series of cheap source books. Medley, English Constitutional History, a good reference manual. C. Additional Lowell, The Government of England, 2 vols., a standard work. Bage- readm g HOT, The English Constitution. BoURlNOT, Canada under British Rule. DlLKlE, Problems of Greater Britain, 2 vols. Egerton, A Short History of English Colonial Policy. Fraser, British Rule in India. Hobson, The War in South Africa. Hutch ins and Harrison, A History of Factory Legislation. Innes, A History of England and the British Empire, Vol. IV. Jenks, A History of the Australasian Colonies. McCarthy, A History of our Own Times, 4 vols. Walpole, A History of England since 1815, 5 vols. Webb, Problems of Modern Industry. Paul, A History of Modern England, 5 vols., liberal in politics. Goldwin Smith, Irish History and the Irish Question. Three famous biographies are Morley, Life of Gladstone; Trevely an, Life of Bright-, and Monypenny and Buckle, ' Life of Beaconsfield. CHAPTER XXXI Robinson and Beard, Development of Modern Europe, Vol. II, A. General chaps, xxiii-xxiv. Barker, Modern Germany. Cambridge Modern His- readin S toiy, Vol. XII, chaps, v-vi. Hazen, Europe since 1815, chaps, xiv-xv. Kruger, Government and Politics of the German Empire, excellent. Macy and Gannaway, Comparative Free Government, Part II, chaps, xlvi-li. Ogg, The Goverjiments of Europe, Parts II-III, best brief analysis. Seignobos, Political History of Europe since 18 14, chaps, vii, xii-xvi. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. II, B. Source chaps, xxiii-xxiv. Anderson, Constitutions and Select Documents. matenal Dodd, Modern Constitutions. Andrews, Contemporaneous Europe. Coubertin, The Evolution of C. Additional France under the Third Republic. Bodley, France, by an English con- readm g servative. Honotaux, Contemporaneous France, 3 vols., the standard history. Howard, The German Constitution. Lowell, Governments and Parties in Continental Europe, 2 vols. Schevill, The Making of Modern Germany, very enthusiastic. Wendell, The France of To-day, very good book. Vizetelly, Republican France, a readable, gossipy volume. Bracq, The Third Republic, good short survey, laudatory. Dewey, German Philosophy and Politics, a notable work. Dawson, The Economic Evolution of Modern Germany. XVI Medieval and Modern Times CHAPTER XXXII A. General Robinson and Beard, The Development of Modern Europe, Vol. II, reading chap, xxviii. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. X, chap, xiii; Vol. XI, chap, xxii ; Vol. XII, chap. xiii. Hazen, Europe since 181J, chaps, xxix- xxxi. Seignobos, Political History of Europe since i8i.f, chap. xix. Skrine, Tht Expansion of Russia, best brief survey. B. Source Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. II, material chap, xxviii. Kennan, Siberia and the Exile System, 2 vols. Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist. C. Additional ALEXINSKY, Modern Russia. Krausse, Russia in Asia. Mavor, A?i reading Economic History of Russia, 2 vols., elaborate and excellent. Milyou- KOV, Russia and its Crisis, a valuable work by a leader in Russian thought and politics. Rambaud, History of Russia, Vol. Ill ; Expansion of Rtissia. Sarolea, Great Russia. Wallace, Russia, 2 vols., readable and thorough survey. Wesselitsky, Russia and Democracy. A. General reading B. Source material C. Additional reading CHAPTER XXXIII Robinson and Beard, The Development of Modern Europe, Vol. II, chap. xxix. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. XII, chap. xiv. Hazen, Europe since 1815, chap, xxviii. Seignobos, Political History of Europe since 1814, chaps, xx-xxi. Sloane, The Balkans, a recent study. Gibbons, The New Map of Europe, very readable. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modem European History, Vol. II, chap. xxix. Holland, The European Concert in the Eastern Question. Davey, The Sultan and his Subjects, 2 vols. Lord Courtney (Editor), Nationalism and War in the Near East. Miller, The Ottoman Empire; The Balkans. Poole, Turkey. Rose, Development of the Modem- European Natio?ts, Vol. I. Buxton, Turkey in Revolution. Abbott, Turkey in Transition. A. General reading B. Source material CHAPTER XXXIV Cambridge Modem History, Vol. XII, chaps, xv-xxii. Douglas, Europe and the Far East, excellent. Hazen, Europe since 1815, chaps, xxiii, xxx. Holderness, The Peoples and Problems of India (Home University Series). Johnston, The Opening up of Africa (Home University Series). Reinsch, World Politics. Rose, The Devel- opment of the Modern European Nations, 2 vols. Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. II, °.hap. xxx. Annual Register. Statesman's Year Book. Bibliography xvn Dennis, Christian Missions and Social Progress. Foster, Arbitration and the Hague Court. Giles, The Civilization of China (Home Univer- sity Series) ; China and the Chinese. Hunter, The Indian Empire. Knox, Japanese Life in Town and Country. Harris, Intervention and Colonization in Africa, a recent, reliable guide. Keltie, The Partition of Africa. Weale, The Reshaping of the Far East, 2 vols. C. Additional reading CHAPTER XXXV A. General reading B. Source material Angell, The Great Illusion, a criticism of the whole militaristic system. Stow ell, The Diplomacy of the War of IQ14, the best and most thorough analysis of the diplomacy involved. Gibbons, The New Map of Europe, well written. Collected Diplomatic Documents relating to the Outbreak of the European War, London, 191 5, contains the publications of the various nations relative to their diplomatic exchanges preceding the outbreak of the war. The documents were reprinted by the New York Times and the Association for International Conciliation. The New York Times, Current History of the European War, contains valuable current material. Stowell's volume analyzes the documents. The Association for International Conciliation (Secretary at Columbia C. Additional University) distributes free pamphlets which are often of great value. readin S Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War, an example of German mili- taristic views. Dewey, German Philosophy and Politics, a survey of thought in the last century. Humphrey, International Socialism and the War. Labberton, Belgium and Germany. Ogg, The Governments of Europe, chaps, xxiv-xxvii. Price, The Diplomatic History of the War. VON Mach, Germany's Point of View. Sarolea, The Anglo- German Problem, a suggestive book by a Belgian. Schmitt, England and Germany, ij^o-igi^.. INDEX Marked letters sound as in ask, far, her, there, move, orb, hour, full ; French boh, menu ; K like German ch in ich, ach Abbeys, dissolution of, in Eng- land, 319 Abdul Hamid, Sultan of Turkey, 696 f. Ab'e lard, 251 Academy, French, 393 Act of Supremacy, 317 Act of Uniformity, 383 Ad'ri an o'ple, battle of, 23 f. Advancement of Learning, 367 Africa, exploration and partition of, 720 f. Agadir incident, the, 736 Agincourt (aj'in court, Eng. pron.), battle of, 137 Al'a ric takes Rome, 24 Albertus Magnus, 195, 253 Al bi gen'sians,. 188 f. AFche my, 250 Al'cuin, 85 Alemanni, 33 Alexander I of Russia, 543 f., 674 f. Alexander II of Russia, 678 f. ; assassination of, 681 Alexander III of Russia, 681 f. Alexius, Emperor, 167, 170 Alfred the Great, 1 1 1 f . Algeciras (al jese'ras) Conference, the, 736 Al ham'bra, the, 74 Alsace (al saV) and Lorraine, 356, 620 f. Alva, Duke of, 334 f. Amiens, peace of, 542 Anabaptists, 307 Andrea del Sarto (an dre'a del saVto), 265 Angles in Britain, 61 Anglican Church, the, 456 f. Anglo-Japanese, alliance of, 735 Anglo-Saxon, 241 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 116 Anjou (an'jo, Eng. pron.), 122, 124 ; House of, 141 ; Charles of, 164 Anne, Queen, 425 Antioch (an'ti ok), Latin kingdom of, 173 A qui'nas, Thomas, 195, 253 f. Arabian Nights' 1 Entertainments, The, 72 Ar'abic numerals, 257 Ar'abs, condition of, before Mo- hammed, 64; conquests of, 72 ff., 167 ; civilization of, in Spain, 270 Ar'a gon, 270 Archbishops, powers of, 184 Architecture, medieval, 215 ff.; Renaissance, 227 f. Aristotle, medieval veneration for, 253 ; revolt against, 358 Ark wright, 582 Ar ma'da, 337, 350 Armies and navies of Europe in 1914, 727 f. Asquith, prime minister, 654 f. Assignats (a se nya'), 504 As'sou an, great dam at, 723 Astrology, 249 Afti la, 26 Augsburg, battle of, 144, 155, 210; diet of, 307 ; Confession of, 308 ; Peace of, 309, 352 Aug'ust Ine, bishop of Hippo, 24 Austerlitz, battle of, 544 Australia, 667 f. Austria, origin of, 269; in eight- eenth century, 419 f.; in 1848, 599 f.; war with Prussia in 1866, 616; since 1866, 737 f. ; rela- tions with Serbia, 738 f. See Hapsburgs Austria-Hungary, formation of J 867, 737 f. Avignon (av en yon'), 199 xix XX Medieval and Modem Times Babylonian captivity, 199 Bacon, Francis, 362 f., 367 Bacon, Roger, 255 Basda. See Venerable Bede Bagdad, 70 Balance of power, 315 Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, 170 f., J 73 BaTi ol, John, 131 Balkans, conditions in, 693 f . ; wars in the, 698 f., 700 f. Bannockburn, battle of, 131 Baptists, 383 " Barbarians, Laws of the," 36 Barbarossa. See Frederick I Bards, Welsh, 129 Ba sil'i ca, the, 43 Bastile, fall of the, 498 f. Battering-rams, 97 Bayeux (bayeh') tapestry, 115 Becket, Thomas, 1 19 f. Belgium, kingdom of, 578 f. Benedict, St., 55 ; rule of, 55 f. Benedictine order, 55 and note; influence of, 56 Berlin, Congress of 1878, 695 ; Decree, 548 Bible, Luther's translation of the, 302 ; English translation of the, 318; King James version of the, 367 Bill of Rights, 385 Bishop of Rome, early claims of, 46; leading position of, 46-48, 147 f., i84f. See Popes Bismarck, 614 f., 628 f. Black death, 135 Blanc, Louis, 596 f. Boers in South Africa, 669 f. Bohemia, 81, 281 f., 352, 402 Boleyn (boorin), Anne, 316 f., 320 Bolivar, General, 724 Bologna (bo lon'ya), University of, 251 Bonaparte, Joseph, 546, 552 f. Bonaparte, Napoleon. See Napoleon Boniface, St., apostle to the Ger- mans, 63 f. Boniface VIII, Pope, 196, 198 Books in Middle Ages, 258 f. Borodino, battle of, 556 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 695, 697, 738 Boulanger (bo lahzha'), General, 639 f. Bourbon, House of, 141 ; Spanish, 398 f. Brandenburg, elector of, 281, 408 f. Bremen (bra'men), 80, 210 Britain conquered by the Angles and the Saxons, 61 British empire, 424 f., 643 f., 665 f., 672 Bruce, Robert, 131 Brumaire, 533 Bubonic plague, 135 Buch a rest', Treaty of, 701 Bulgaria, atrocities in, 694 ; be- comes independent, 695 Bundesrath, powers of, 626 f. Burgundians, 28, 33 ; number of, entering the Empire, 35 Burgundy, 138, 142, 279, 396 Burma, 663 f. Business in later Middle Ages, 208 ff. Buttress, 218 f. Cabinet government in England, 648 f . Cahiers (kaya'), 495 f. Calais (kaTa), 139 Caliph (ka'lif), title of, 70 Caliphate transferred from Medina to Damascus, 70; to Bagdad, 70, 81 Calonne, 490 f. Calvin, 313 f., 338 Campo-Formio, Treaty of, 528 f. Canada, formation of, 666 f. Canon law, 182 (note) Canossa, 155 Capitalism, 587 f. Capitularies, 84 Carbonari, the, 575 Cardinals, origin of, 151 and note Carnot, 520 Carolingian line, 75 (note) Cartwright, 583 Cas si o do'rus, his treatises on the liberal arts and sciences, 28 f. Castles, medieval, 93 ff. Cathedral, 216 f. Catherine of Aragon, 316 f. Catherine of Medici (med'e che), 338 ff- Index xxi Catherine II of Russia, 407 Catholic Church, early conception of, 40 ; in eighteenth century, 454 f. See Church, Clergy Catholic emancipation in Eng- land, 650 Catholic League, 353 f. Cavaliers, 374 Cavour, 608 f. Celts, 61 ; in Britain, 61 Chalcedon (kal se'don), act of the council of, 48 Chalons (sha loh'), battle of, 26 Charlemagne (shar'le man), 75 ff.; disruption of Empire of, 87 Charles I, 368 ff. Charles II of England, 382 ff., 395 Charles V, Emperor, 268, 272 ff., 2 99 f -» 33 1 Charles VIII of France, Italian invasion of, 274 ff. Charles IX of France, 338 f. Charles X of France, 569 Charles XII of Sweden, 406 f. Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, 600 f . Charles Martel, 73, 75 Charter, Great, 125 f. Charters, town, 206 Chartists, 645 f. Chartres (shartr), cathedral of, 221 Chaucer, 242 China, 710 ff. Chivalry, 244 f. Christian Church, rise of, 17 ff. Christianity, promises of, 41 ; contrast with paganism, 41 f. Chrysoloras (kris 5 lo'ras), 254 Church, greatness of, 40 ; sources of power of, 41 ff . ; relation of, to the civil government, 43 ; begins to perform civil func- tions, 44 f. ; in time of Charle- magne, 80, 85 ; property of, 146 ff. ; character and organiza- tion of, 181 ff . ; relation of, to State, 195; break-up of, 284. See Clergy, Popes Church of England, 317, 345 City-states, 222 ff. Civil war in England, 374 f. Clergy, position of, in Middle Ages, 149 f., 186 ff. ; Civil Constitution of the, in France, 505 f. Clei'icis laicos, 197 Clermont, Council of, 167 Clipping, 210 Clive, 435 Cloister, 57 Clovis, conquests of, 32 f. ; con- version of, 33; baptized, 35; number of soldiers of, 35 Cnut (knoot), 112 Code Napoleon, 540 Coinage, medieval, 211 Colbert (kol beV), 392 f. Coligny (ko len'ye), 341 f. Columbus, 236 Commerce in the Middle Ages, 209 ff. Common law, 119 Commons, House of. See Parlia- ment Commonwealth in England, 376 ff. Commune of Paris, 635 f. Commitnist Manifesto, The, 592 (note) Compurgation, 37 Concordat of 1801, 539 Condottieri (kon dot tya/re), 226 f. Confederation of the Rhine, 545 f - Con'stan tine, 18 Constantinople, 20, 170, 178!. Conventicle Act, 383 Conversion, of the Germans, 63^; of the Saxons, 79 f. Co per'ni cus, 358 f. Cor'do va, mosque at, 73 ; univer- sity at, 74, 270 Coronation, religious ceremony, j6 Cossacks, 675 f. Council of Five Hundred, 524 Country life in eighteenth cen- tury, 442 ff. Covenant, National, 373 Crecy (kra'se or Eng. prom kres'sy), battle of, 133 Crimean War, 691 ff. Crompton, 582 Cromwell, Oliver, 375 ff. Crusades, i66ff. Curia, papal, 184 Custozza, battle of, 601 f. XX11 Medieval and Modern Times Danegeld, 112 Danes, invasion of England by, 411 ff. Danton, 522 Dark ages, 38, 85 "Decembrist " revolt in Russia, 676 Declaration of Independence, 440 Declaration of Pillnitz, 509 f. Declaration of Rights of Man, 501 f. Degrees, university, explained, 252 and note " Delegations " of Austria-Hun- gary, 738 Denmark in Thirty Years' War, 3 53 Descartes (da kart'), 361 ff. Diderot, 468 f. Diet, of Germany, 282; at Worms, 299 Directory, French, 524 Discoveries, geographical, 232 ff. ; of the Portuguese, 234 f., 430 Disorder, age of, 87 Dispensations, 183 Dissenters, 383, 457 Divine right of kings, 76, 365 f., 388 ff. Dominicans, 194 Don'jon, 98 Drake, Sir Francis, 348 Dresden, battle of, 559 " Dreyfus (dra'fus) affair," 639 f. Duma, Russian, 686 f. Dupleix (dii pleks'), 434 Diirer, Albrecht, 265 Dutch, explorations of, 430. See Holland East, luxuries of, introduced into Europe, 210 East Frankish kingdom, 88 East Goths, 26 f., 30 East India Company, 664 Eastern Church. See Greek Church Eastern Question, the, 689 ff.; the Near, 737 ff. Eck, John, 297 Edessa, 171, 173; fall of, 176 Edict of Nantes (nant), 344 ; rev- ocation of, 397, 455 Edict of Restitution, 353 Education, 85, 86, 247 ff. Edward the Confessor, 112 f. Edward I, 127, 129 f., 196 Edward II, 128, 131 Edward III, 128, 132 Edward VI, 320 Edward VII, 734 f. Egbert, in Egypt, since 1500, 721 Electors in the Empire, 281 Elizabeth, Queen, 317, 345 ff. Emigres (a me gra'), 507 f. Emir of Cordova, 81 Empire, Holy Roman, 82, 145 f., 158 ff., 164 Encyclopedia of Diderot, 468 f. England, reconversion of, 63 ; in the Middle Ages, in ff.; rela- tions with Scotland, 131 ; con- ditions of labor in, 136 f. ; Prot- estant revolt in, 314 ff.; under Elizabeth, 345 ff.; constitutional struggle in, 365 ff. ; since 1688, 424 ff., 643 ff. English Church, 370 f. English constitution, 643 f. English language, 241 f. Entente cordiale, the, 734 f. Erasmus, 285 ff. ; attitude of, to- wards Luther, 294, 314; Praise of Folly of, 315 Estates General, 133 f., 141, 198, 389, 492 ff. European war of 1914, 727 f. Excommunication, 187 Exeter, cathedral of, 221 Fabliaux (fab le 5'), 244 Factory system, 587 ff. " Fashoda affair," the, 734 Ferdinand, Emperor, 331 and note Ferdinand of Aragon, 271 Feudal system. See Feudalism Feudalism, 103 ff. ; warfare, 107 f. ; introduction of, into England, 116; introduction of, into France, 141 ; relation of, to Church, 147 Fiefs. See Feudalism Flanders, 117, 210 Flayers, 141 Fleur-de-lis (fler de le'), 133 Florence, 165, 222, 228, 264, 275, 278 France, 135, 140 ff.; natural bound- aries of, 335, 394; under Louis XIV, 387 ff.; since Louis XIV. Index xxm 430, 440, 474 ft'., 568 if., 636 ff., 641 if. P'ranche-Comte (frohsh kohta'), 342, 355> 395 Francis I, 277 ; persecution under, 337 Francis II, 338 f. Francis Ferdinand, Archduke, murder of, 742 f. Francis Joseph of Austria, 603 f. Franciscans, 190 ff. Franco-German War of 1870, 619 ff. Frankfort, Diet of, 571 Franks, conquests of, 28, 31 f . ; conversion of, 33, 75, 87 Frederick I, Emperor, 158 f., 162, 177 Frederick II, Emperor, 162 f. Frederick the Great, 412 ff. Frederick William, the Great Elec- tor, 409 f . Frederick William I of Prussia, 411 f. Frederick William IV of Prussia, " 600 ff. Frederick the "winter king," 35 2 f- Frederick the Wise, 288, 297 Free Trade in England, 653 Freedom of Speech, 459 f. French language, 243 and note French medieval romances, 243 Friedland, battle of, 547 Fritzlar, sacred oak of Odin at, 64 Gaelic (ga'lik), 130 Ga le'ri us, 18 Gal ile'o, 359 f. Garibaldi, 610 f. Gascony (gas'ko ni), 124 Gelasius (je la'shi us), Pope, his opinion of the relations of the Church and the civil govern- ment, 45 Geneva, reformation at, 313 Genghis Khan, 403 Genoa, 178, 209, 222 Geographical discoveries, 232 if., 430 George I, 426 1 George II, 427 f. George III, 426, 439 f. German Confederation, 571 f. German Empire, formation of, 622 Germanic languages, origin of, 36, 240 Germans, objects of, in invading the Empire, 23 ; number of, in- vading, 35; fusion of, with the Romans, 35 ; character of early, 38 ; conversion of, 61 ff. Germany, 145 if.; division of, into small states, 164, 268; universi- ties of, 252; in the sixteenth century, 280 ff. ; religious divi- sion of, 306; constitution of modern. 626 ff. ; since 1870, 633 if.; attitude towards Triple Entente, 736; army budget of 1913, 74i_ Ghiberti (ge ber'te), 264 Gibraltar, 400 Girondists, 516 f. Gladstone, 659 f. Godfrey of Bouillon (bo yon'), 170 f. Golden Bull, 108 Gordon, General, 722 Gothic architecture, 217 ff. Gothic sculpture, 221 f. Grana'da, the Alhambra at, 74; fall of, 81 Grand Remonstrance, 373 " Great schism," 230 Greece, 578, 690 Greek, study of, in the Middle Ages, 253 f. Greek Church tends to separate from the Latin, 48 Gregory VII, Pope, 1526°. Gregory the Great, 50 f. ; writings of, 51; missionary work of, 52, 62 Gregory of Tours, 30, 33 Grotius, 400 Guienne (ge en 7 ), 122, 124 Guilds, in the Middle Ages, 208 ; of teachers, 251 ; in eighteenth century, 448 ff. Guise (gez), House of, 337, 340 ff. Gunpowder, 257 f. Gustavus Adolphus, 353 ff. Hague, conferences at, 731 f. Hamburg, 210 Hampden, John, 370 f. Hanseatic League, 214 XXIV Medieval and Modern Times Hapsburg, Rudolph of, 164, 269; House of, 268 ff., 419 f. ; races in dominions of, 737 f. Hardenberg, 570 Ha'rem, 69 Hargreaves, 582 Harold, Earl of Wessex, ii3f. Harvey, William, 367 Hastings, battle of, 115 Hebert, 522 f. He ji'ra, the, 359 Henry I of England, 117 Henry II of England, 117 Henry III of England, 127 Henry VII of England, 140 Henry VIII of England, 279, 315 ff.; divorce case \>f, 31 6 f . ; revolt of, against- papacy, 3 1 7 f . Henry II of France, 338 Henry III of France, 342 f. Henry IV of Germany, 153 ; con- flict of, with Gregory VII, i53ff- Henry V of Germany, 157 Henry IV of Navarre, 343 ff. Heresy, 175, 187 f. High Church party, 372 Highlands, 130 History, continuity or unity of, 3 Hohenstaufens, 1 58 f . See Fred- erick I, Frederick II Hohenzollerns, 614 f. Holbein (horbln), Hans, 265 Holy Roman Empire, 83, 144 ff., 269, 357, 545 Homage, 104 Hospitalers, 174 Hrolf, 113 Huguenots, 339 ff ., 396 ff. Humanists, 255 Humbert, King, 625 Hundred Years' War, 132 ff., 139 Hungarians, invasions of, 92, 144, 169 Huns, 23, 26 Imperialism, origin and nature of, 708 f. Independents, 372 Index of prohibited books, 326 India, 431 ff., 661 ff. Indulgences, 290 and note Industrial Revolution, 580 ff. Innocent III, Pope, 125, 175, 192, 194; struggle of, with the Hohenstaufens, 162 ff. Inquisition, 109 f. ; in Spain, 272 ; in the Netherlands, 333 f. Institute, French, 363 Institutes of Christianity, Calvin's, 313^338 Interdict, 125, 187 Interest, attitude towards, in the Middle Ages, 212 International law, 400 International trade, growth of, in nineteenth century, 703 f . Invasions in the ninth and tenth centuries, 89 f. Inventions, modern, 255 f., 363, 580 ff. Investiture, 147. ff., 164; question of, settled, 158 Ireland, 348 f., 376 f., 657 ff. Irene, Empress, 82 Isabella, queen of Castile, 271 Italian cities, trade of, with Orient, 209 ; of the Renaissance, 222 ff. ; in eighteenth century, 446 Italian despots, 232 Italy, in the Middle Ages, 88, 222 ff. ; art of, 264 ff.; becomes battleground of Europe, 274 ff. ; since 18 15, 574 ff., 608 ff., 622 ff. Ivan the Terrible, 404 Jacobins, 510 f. James I, 365 ff., 389 James II, 384^ James VI of Scotland (James I of England), 131 Jameson's raid, 670 Japan, 717 ff. Jefferson, Thomas, 481 Jena, battle of, 547 Jerome, St., advocate of the mo- nastic life, 55 Jerusalem, 167, 172, 177*; king- dom of, 173 Jesuits, 326 ff., 352 Jews, economic importance of, 212; persecution of, 271 f . ; massacres of, in Russia, 683 f. Joan of Arc, 137 f. John of England, 1236°., 132 John Frederick of Saxony, 309 Index xxv Joseph II of Austria, 421 f. Journal des Savants (joor naT da sav on'), 394 Jubilee of 1300, 197 Julius II, Pope, 264 Jury, trial by, 1 18 "Just" price, 211 Justinian, 30 f. Justs and tourneys in the Middle Ages, 108 Kaaba (ka'ba), 64, 67 Kadijah (ka de'ja), wife of Moham- med, 64 Kaiser of Germany, powers of, 626 Karlsbad Resolutions, 572 Kiaochow (kyou ch5'), 714 Kiel Canal, 742 (note) Kitchener, General, 723 Knighthood, 245 f. Knights in Germany, 282 Knox, John, 346 K5 ran', the, 65 f. Kosciusko, 419 Kuropatkin, General, 717 Lamartine, 596 Lancaster, House of, 139 f. Land, ownership of, in the Middle Ages, 89, 92 Langton, Stephen, 124 Lateran, palace of the, 231 Latin kingdoms in Syria, 173 Latin language, 36, 239 ff . Latin literature, extinction of, 30 Laud, William, 370 f. La Vendee (von da'), 519 Learning preserved by the Church, 85 Legates, papal, 183 Leipzig, battle of, 559 f. Leo X, 264, 277, 288 ff. Leo the Great, 26, 48 Leonardo da Vinci (la on ar'do da vin'che), 265 Leopold II, 508 f. Lettres de cachet, 483 Leuthen (Loy'ten), 414 Livingstone, David, 720 Llewellyn, 129 Lloyd-George, 654 ff. Lombard League, 162 Lombard towns, 160 Lombards, in Italy, 31 ; as bankers, 212 Lombardy conquered by Charle- magne, 80 London, Treaty of, 700 Lord, medieval, 102 Lords, House of, 128 Lorenzo the Magnificent, 228, 264 Louis XI of France, 142 Louis XIV of France, 387 ff. Louis XV of France, 486 Louis XVI of France, 486 ff. Louis XVIII of France, 568 ff. Louis Philippe, 569 f., 595 f. Louis the Pious, 87 Louisiana, sale of, 536 Low Church party, 372 Lowlands of Scotland, 130 L5 yo'la, 3266°. Lii'beck, 210, 214 Lu'ne ville, Treaty of, 536 Luther, Martin, 288 ff. Lutheran revolt, 303 ff. Macedonia, massacres in, 696 Machiavelli (ma kya vel'le), The Prince, by, 228 Magdeburg, destruction of, 354 Magellan, expedition of, 236 Magenta, battle of, 609 Mahratta Confederacy, 662 f. Maine, 122, 142, 186 Malta, 174 Mamelukes, in Egypt, 721 f. Manor, medieval, 100 ff.; in Eng- land, 136 Marches, 81 Marconi, 707 Marco Polo, 232 Marengo, battle of, 535 Margraves, 81 Maria Theresa, 421 Marie Antoinette, 487, 521 Marignano (ma ren ya/no), battle of, 278 Marston Moor, battle of, 375 Marx, Karl, 592 f. Mary of Burgundy, 269 Mary of England, 317, 322 f. Mary Queen of Scots, 338, 347 f. Matilda, 115, 117 Max i mil'ian I, Emperor, 268 f. XXVI Medieval and Modern Times Mayence, elector of, 281 ; arch- bishop of, 285 Mayflower, 372 Mayor of the Palace, 75 Mazarin (ma za ran'), 387 Mazzini (matse'ne), 576 f., 602 Mecca, 64, 65 ; pilgrimage to, 67 Medici (mecTe che), the, 228 Medina, 65, 70 Melanchthon (me langk'thon), 308 Mendicant orders, 190 f. Merovingian line, 34, 75 (note) Mer'sen, Treaty of, 87, 145 Methodists, 458 f. Metternich, 570 f., 599 f. Metz, battles of, 620 Michael Angelo, (mi'kelan'je 15), 265 Middle Ages, meaning of the term, 3 f. ; character of, 38 Mil'an, 160, 277, 278; despots of, . 227 Militarism, 727 f. Minnesingers, 246 f. Mirabeau, 497 Miracles, frequency of, in Middle Ages, 42 f. Missions, of Jesuits, 329 f.; foreign, in nineteenth century, 708 f. Model Parliament, 127 Modern inventions, 255 ff., 363, 580 ff. Modern languages, 239 ff. Mo ham'med, 64 f. Mohammedanism, 65 ff. Mohammedans, 64 ff. ; expelled from Spain, 81 ; in Sicily, 90 Monasteries, arrangement of, 57 ff. Monasticism, attraction of, for many different classes, 54 f. Money, lack of, in Middle Ages, 89 ; replaces barter, 102, 105 Mongols, 403, 431 f. Monks, 42 ; origin and distin- guished services of, 54 f. ; mis- sionary work of, 61 ff. " Monroe Doctrine," 724 Mon'te Cassino (kas se'no), found- ing of, 55 Montenegro, 695 Moors, 374, 270 f. ; expelled from Spain, 272, 351 More, Sir Thomas, 314, 318 Morocco, Franco-German dispute in, 736 Moscow, 403 Mosque, 69 Mukden, battle of, 717 Nantes (nant), Edict of, 344, 397, 455 Naples, kingdom of, 274 (note), 277 Napoleon I, 526 ff. Napoleon III, 597 ff. Nase'by, battle of, 375 National Assembly in France, 496 ff., 502 f . National Covenant, 373 National workshops, 597 Natural boundaries of France, 355, 394 Navarino, battle of, 691 Navarre, 339 Navigation Act, 378 f. Necker, 489 f . Neighborhood war in the Middle Ages, 107, 282 Netherlands, revolt of the, 332 ff.', Louis XIV's invasion of the, 395 New Atlantis, 362 f. New York, 384 New Zealand, colonization of, 668 f. Nicaea (nise'a), 161, 169, 171 Nicholas I, 676 ff. Nicholas II, 683 f., 730 f. Nicholas II, Pope, 151 Nightingale, Florence, 692 Nimes (nem), 10 Nobility, origin of titles of, 84 Nogaret, 198 Nogi, General, 717 Norman Conquest of England, in ff. ; results of, 116 f. Normandy, 112 f., 122, 124 North German Confederation, 613 f., 618 Northmen, 386 ; invasion of Eng- land by, in, 114 Notables, French, 492 f. Notre Dame (no'trdam), 216 Novgorod, 403 Nuremberg, 210 ^ Index xxvn O do a'cer, 26 "Opium War" of 1840, 710 f. Orange, William of, 335 ff. Ordeals, 37 Orient, European relations with, 178 f., 209 Orleans, House of, 141 ; Maid of, 137 * Os'tro goths. See East Goths Otto I, the Great, of Germany, 144 ff. Owen, Robert, 584 Oxford, University of, 252 Palatinate, elector of the, 281 ; Rhenish, 397 Panama Canal, 705 Pankhurst, Mrs., 648 Pan-Slavic Congress of 1848, 602 f. Papacy, origin of, 46 f. See Pope Papal states, 222 Paper and paper-making, introduc- tion of, into western Europe, 262 Pa py'rus, 84 Parchment, use of, 85 Paris, University of, 251 ; Treaty of, 415; in eighteenth century, 445 f. ; Commune of, 635 f. ; re- cent conditions of, 638 f. Parlement, French, 484 f. Parliament, English, 127 f., 200, 460 ; " Kneeling," 323 ; struggle of, with Stuarts, 365 f. ; Long, 373 Parsifal, 247 Paschal II, Pope, 157 Paulus Di ac'o nus, 86 Pavia (p'ave'a), battle of, 314 Peace, movements for, 730 f. Peasants, medieval, iooff. ; revolt of, in England, 136, 201 ; revolt of, in Germany, 304 f . ; in eight- eenth century, 444 f. Peasants' Revolt, 136, 201 Penance, 186 Peninsular War, 553 f. Persecution in England, 324 and note Peter, St., regarded as first bishop of Rome, 46 Peter the Great, 404 ff. Peter the Hermit, 169 Petition of Right, 368 f . Petrarch, 254 Philip Augustus, 122 f., 177 Philip the Fair, 131, 175, 196 f. Philip of Hesse, 309 Philip II of Spain, 323 ff., 348 f. Pilgrim Fathers, 372 Pippin the Short, 75 Pirates in the Middle Ages, 213 Pitt, the elder, 433 ff. Pius IX, Pope, 577 Plantagenets, 122 ff. Poitou (pw'a to'), 124 Poland, 415 ff.; rebellion in, 676 Political economy, rise of, 471 Pope, 46 ; origin of the title of, 49 ; relation of, with Otto the Great, 145; position of, in Mid- dle Ages, 183 f. ; since 1870, 622 f. Popes, duties of the early, 49 f. ; origin of the "temporal" power of, 52, 75; election of, 151; claims of, 152 f. ; at Avignon, 199 Port Arthur, capture of, 716 f. Portcullis, 98 Portsmouth, Treaty of, 718 Portuguese discoveries, 234 f., 430 Praise of Folly, by Erasmus, 287 Prayer book, English, 321 f., 345 Prayer rugs, 67 Presbyterian Church, 313 f. Pressburg, Treaty of, 544 Pretender, the Young, 427 f. Pride's Purge, 375 Priest, duties of, 186 Prince of Wales, 129 Printing, invention of, 258, 262 f. Protestant, origin of the term, 307 Protestant revolt, in Germany, 288 ff. ; in Switzerland, 311 ff. r in England, 314 ff. Protestantism, progress of, 309 Provencal (pro von sal'), 243 Provence (pro vons'), 142 Punjab, the, 663 f. Puritans, 372 and note Pyramids, battle of, 532 Quakers, 383, 457 f. XXV111 Medieval and Modem Times Railways, origin and development of, 705 f. Ramadan (ra ma dan'), month of, 67 Raphael, 265 Ravenna, interior of a church at, 27 ; tomb of Theodoric at, 28 Raymond, Count, 170, 172 Redress of grievances, 127 Reform, spirit of, 363, 461 f. Reform bills, in England, 645, 647 Regular clergy, defined, 57 Reichstag, powers of, 627 f. Reign of Terror, 507, 516 f. Rembrandt, 266 Renaissance (re na sons'), cities of the, 222 ff . ; buildings of, 228 f. ; art of, 264 ff. Restoration in England, 382 ff. Retainers, 139 Revolution of 1688, 384 f. Rheims (remz), 137, 138; cathe- dral of, 221 Rhodes, island of, 174 Richard I, the Lion-Hearted, 123, 177 Richelieu, 344>355 f - Rising in the north of England, 347 f- Roads in the Middle Ages, 89 Robespierre (ro bes pyer'), 522 f. Rollo, 113 Roman art and architecture, 12 ff. Roman Church, the mother church, 46 f. Roman Empire, and its govern- ment, 4ff.; "fall" of, in the West, 26 ; relation of, with the Church, 43 ; continuity of, 83 Roman law, 7 f., 27, 37 Romance languages, 240 Romances in the Middle Ages„243, 244 Romanesque architecture, 217 Rome, city of, in Middle Ages, 24, 50, 230 f., 264 Rouen (ro oh'), 113, 138 Roumania, 695 Roundheads, 375 Rousseau, 469 ff. Roussillon (ro se yon'), 355 f. Royal Society, English, 363 Rubens, 266 Rudolf of Hapsburg, 164, 269 Runnymede, 125 Russo-Japanese War, 684 f., 716 f. Russo-Turkish war of 1877, 681, 694 f. Sadowa, battle of, 617 St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 342 St. Benedict, Rule of, 147 St. Bernard, 176 f. St. Boniface anoints Pippin, 75 St. Dominic, 194 St. Francis, 190 f. St. Peter's, rebuilding of, 290, 291 St. Petersburg (Petrograd), found- ing of, 406 Saint-Simon (sah se moh'), 393 Sal'a din takes Jerusalem, 177 Saracens, 173, 210 Savannah, the, 704 Sav ft na ro'la, 275 Saxons, settle in England, 61 ; con- quest of, by Charlemagne, 79 ; rebellion of, 156 Saxony, elector of, 281 Schleswig-Holstein affair, 615 f. Scholasticism, 253; attack of Roger Bacon on, 255 School of the palace, 85 f. Schwarzenberg, 606 Science, medieval, 247 ff. ; begin- nings of modern, 358 ff. ; oppo- sition to modern, 464 Scone, Stone of, 131 Scotch nation, language of, 130; differs from England, 132 Scotland, 130 ff., 373, 377; Pres- byterian Church in, 346 Secular clergy defined, 57 Sedan, battle of, 620 Seljuk Turks, 167 Senlac, 114 Separation of Church and State in France, 640 1. Separatists, 372 Sepoy rebellion, 664 Serbia, 690, 738 ff. Serfdom, 100 ff., 442 f. ; extinction of, 102 (note) ; in England, 137; in Prussia, 558 ; in Russia, 678 f. Serfs, medieval, 100 ff. Index xxix Seven Years' War, 414 f., 433 f. Sev'ille, tower at (Giralda), 73, 270 Shakespeare, 367 Ship money, 370 Shires, 129 Sicily, 163, 165, 179 Sidon,- 173 Sigismund, Emperor, 407 Simony (sim'o ny), 150 Slavs, subdued by Charlemagne, 81 ; invasion of, 92 ; form Russia, 402 f. Smith, Adam, 471 Social Democratic party, 626 f. Socialism, 591 ff., 731 Solferino, battle of, 609 Song of Roland, 243 Sorbonne, 337 South African Union, 670 f. Spain, 24, 81, 237, 270 f., 273; exhaustion of, 337, 350 f. Spanish-American War, 724^ " Spanish fury," 336 Spanish Inquisition, 272 Spanish main, 237 Spanish Succession, War of, 398 Speyer, diet of, 306 Spice trade in the Middle Ages, 234 ff. Spinning and weaving, 580 ff. Stained glass, medieval, 220 Stamp Act, 437 Stanley, in Africa, 720 States ■ of the Church. See Papal states Statute of provisors, 199 Statutes of Laborers, 136 Steam engine, 584 f. Stein, 557, 570 Stephen, 117 Stephenson, George, 705 f. Strassburg, 396 Stuarts, 365 ff. Subvassal, 103 ; not under control of king, 106 Suez Canal, 704 f. Suffrage, reform of, in England, 644 f. Sully, 344 Suzerain, 103 Sweden in Thirty Years' War, 353 «. Switzerland, origin of, 31 iff.; Prot- estant revolt in, 312 ff.; merce- naries, 313 (note) Syndicalism, 641 Syria, Latin kingdoms in, 173 Tacitus, 79 Taille (ta'ye), 141, 477 Talleyrand, 565 f. ' Tancred, in First Crusade, 170 Tartars, 403 Templars, 1741., 199 " Temporalities," 148 Tennis-Court" oath, 496 Terrorism in Russia, 680 f. Test Act, 384 Tetzel, 291 Textbooks, 403 ff. The od'o ric, 26 ff. Theodosian (the o dS'shi an) Code, 19 Theses of Luther on indulgences, 291 f. Third estate in France, 481 Third French Republic, 635 ff. Thirty-Nine Articles, 322, 456 f. Thirty Years' War, 352 ff. Thomas Aquinas, 195 Thomas of Canterbury, 319 Tilly, 354 f. Tilsit, treaties of, 547 f. Tithe, 182 Titian, 265 Togo, Admiral, 718 Tolls in the Middle Ages, 213 Tolstoy, 674 Tourneys in the Middle Ages, 108 Tours, battle of, 73 Towns, of Germany* 80, 282;- in the Middle Ages, 1591., 165, 203 ff., 215, 222 ff.; in eighteenth century, 445 ff. ; recent develop- ment of, 588 Trade, medieval, 206, 208 ff. ; regu- lated by the towns, 214; spice, 224 ff.; growth of international, 703 f. Trade-unions, 449, 590 f. Trafalgar, battle of, 548 Treaty of Mersen, 87 Trent, Council of, 325 ff. Treves, elector of, 2S1 ; archbishop of, 304 XXX Medieval and Modern Times Triple Alliance, the, 631 Triple Entente, the, 735 Tripoli, 172, 173, 178 Troubadours, 244 f. Truce of God, 108 f. Tsar, power of, 675 Tudor, House of, 140 f., 365 Turgot, 487 f. Turkey and the Eastern Question, 689 ff. Turks, 167, 168, 173, 407, 420, 696 "Twelve Articles" of the peasants, 3°4 Ulrich von Hutten, 295, 304 Unification of Italy and Germany, 608 ff. United Netherlands, 335 ff., 384 Unity of history, 3 Universities, medieval, 250 ff., 2 54 Urban II, Pope, 167 Usury, doctrine of, 212 Utrecht, Union of, 336 ; Treaty of, 399 Valentinian III, decree of, 48 Vandals, 24 f., 30 Van Dyck, 266 Van Eyck, the brothers, 265 Vasa (va'sa), Gustavus, 354 Vassal, medieval, 103 ff. Vassy, massacre of, 341 Vatican, 231 Velasquez (vel ask'eth), 266 Venerable Bede, the, 54, 63 Venetian school of painting, 265 Venice, 165, 178,209, 210, 222 ff.; government of, 225 f.; war with Turks, 420 Versailles (versalz'; Fr. versay'), palace of, 390 f. Victor Emanuel II, 608 ff. Victor Emanuel III, 625 Victoria, Queen, 652 ff. and note Vikings (vi'kings), 92 (note) Vil. See Manor Villains, 100 Ville, 204 Visigoths. See West Goths Voltaire, 465 f. Vulgate, 323 Wager of battle, 37 Wagram, battle of, 553 s Waldensians, 188 Waldo, Peter, 188 Wales, I28ff. Wallenstein, 353 f. Walpole, prime minister of Eng- land, 427 Walter the Penniless, 169 Walther von der Vogelweide, 247 War of 1914, 727 ff., 742 ff. War of Liberation in Prussia, 558 ff. Wars of the Roses, 139 f. Wartburg (vart'biirk), translation of Bible at, by Luther, 302 Waterloo, battle of, 562 Watt, James, 586 Weihaiwei (wa'hrwa') obtained by England, 715 Wesley, John, 458 Wessex, 405 West Prankish kingdom, 88, 112 West Goths, 24 f., 33, 35 Westminster, city of, 128 Westminster Abbey, 115 Westphalia, Treaty of, 357 Whitney, Eli, invents cotton gin, 583 William the Conqueror, 1 13 ff. William Rufus, 117 William III (William of Orange), 384 f., 396 ; and Mary, 385, 424 William I, king of Prussia and emperor of Germany, 613 f. William II of Germany, accession of, 631 f . ; relations with Bis- marck, 632 f.; attitude towards socialism, 633 William the Silent, 335 ff. Wind'ischgratz, General, 602 Wit'e na ge mot, 116 Wittenberg, 288, 291, 298 Wolfram von Eschenbach, 247 Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal, 279, 315 f - , \ Woman suffrage in England, 647 f. . Women in factories, 588 f. Index xxxi Worms, 154 ; Concordat of, 157 f . ; Yuan Shih-kai (yu an' she kf) at- diet at, 299 ; Edict of, 301 tempts to become "Emperor of Wyc'liffe, John, 201 China," 718L Xavier (zav'i er), Francis, 329 York, House of, 139 f. Young, Arthur, 481 Zollverein, 573 Zurich, reformation at, 313 Zwingli, 307, 312 f.