THIRD MILLENNIUM LIBRARY
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THIRD MILLENNIUM LIBRARY |
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CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY THE
RISE OF THE SARACENS
AND THE
FOUNDATION OF THE WESTERN
EMPIRE
J. P. WHITNEY
CHAPTERS
I.- JUSTINIAN. THE
IMPERIAL RESTORATION IN THE WEST By Charles Diehl
II.- JUSTINIAN'S GOVERNMENT IN THE EAST By Charles Diehl
IV.- GAUL UNDER THE MEROVINGIAN FRANKS By Christian Pfister
V.- THE MEROVINGIAN INSTITUTIONS By Christian Pfister
VI.- SPAIN UNDER THE VISIGOTHS By RafaelAltamira
VII.- ITALY UNDER THE LOMBARDS By L. M. Hartmann
VIII.- IMPERIAL ITALY AND AFRICA By L. M. Hartmann
IX.- THE SUCCESSORS OF JUSTINIAN By Norman H. Baynes
X.- MAHOMET AND ISLAM By A.A. Bevan
XI.- THE EXPANSION OF THE SARACENS - THE EAST By C.H. Becker
XII.- THE EXPANSION OF THE SARACENS - AFRICA AND EUROPE By C.H. Becker
XIII.- THE SUCCESSORS OF HERACLIUS TO 717 By E. W. Brooks
XIV.- THE EXPANSION OF THE SLAVS By T. Peisker
XV.- CELTIC HEATHENISM IN GAUL By Camille Jullian
XVI.- CONVERSION OF THE CELTS AND
TEUTONS By Rev. F. E. Warren and the Rev. J. P.
Whitney
XVII.- ENGLAND (To c. 800) AND ENGLISH INSTITUTIONS By W.
J. Corbett
XVIII.- THE CAROLINGIAN REVOLUTION AND FRANKISH INTERVENTION IN ITALY By G. L. Burr
XIX.- CONQUESTS AND IMPERIAL CORONATION OF CHARLES THE GREAT By Dr Gerhard Seeliger
XX.- FOUNDATIONS
OF SOCIETY (ORIGINS OF FEUDALISM)By Paul Vinogradoff
XXI.- LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHARLES THE GREAT By Dr
Gerhard Seeliger
XXII.-THE PAPACY,
TO CHARLES THE GREAT By the Rev. F. G. Foakes-Jackson
THE present volume of the Cambridge
Medieval History covers the stormy period of about three hundred years from
Justinian to Charles the Great inclusive.
It is a time little known to the general reader, and even students of
history in this country seldom turn their attention to any part of it but the
Conversion of the English. Hence, English books are scarce — Dr Hodgkin's Italy and her Invaders is the brilliant
exception which proves the rule — and the editors have had to rely more on
foreign scholars than in the former volume. Some indeed of the chapters treat
of subjects on which very little has ever been written in English, such as the
Visigoths in Spain, the organization of Imperial Italy and Africa, the Saracen
invasions of Sicily and Italy, and the early history and expansion of the
Slavs.
Professor Diehl begins with two chapters on Justinian, one dealing with the
conquest of Africa and Italy by Belisarius and Narses, and the imperial
restoration in the West, the other devoted to the administration in the East —
the Empress Theodora and her influence, Justinian's buildings and diplomacy,
and government civil and ecclesiastical. The city of Constantinople is reserved
for the same writer in Volume IV.
Dr Roby follows, with a general survey of Roman Law, of its history and
growth, and of its completion by the legislation of Justinian. A survey of this
kind has hardly been attempted since the famous forty-fourth chapter of Gibbon.
Then Professor Pfister takes up the story of the Franks at the accession of
Clovis, where he left it in the first volume, and traces the growth and decline
of the Merovingian kingdom to the deposition of the last of the rois faineants. He then follows it up
with another chapter on the political and social institutions of Gaul in
Merovingian times — the King, the Mayor of the Palace, the Bishop, the origin
of the benefice, the state of literature and commerce.
In the next chapter we turn with Dr Altamira to the Visigoths in Spain, and
follow their stormy history from the defeat at Vouglé, through the Councils of
Toledo, to the times of Count Julian and the Saracen Conquest, and to some
further discussion of Gothic law.
The next writer is Dr Hartmann, who traces the early history of the
Lombards and their settlement in Italy, their conversion and the story of
Theodelinda. After her come Rothari and Grimoald, and the great king Liutprand,
and parallel with the main narrative is traced the history of the duchies of Friuli
and Spoleto. So he comes to the conquests of Aistulf and the Frankish
intervention, and then to the reign of Desiderius, under whom the Lombard power
seemed to reach its height —and vanished in a moment at the touch of Charles
the Great.
The next section, also by Dr Hartmann, is on the Byzantine administration
of Africa and Italy. Its special interest is the development of local powers in
Italy — not only the Pontifical State, but Venice and other cities. We can see
before the fall of the Byzantine power that Italy will be a land of cities.
Then Archdeacon Hutton takes up the life of Gregory the Great. He has to
tell of Gregory's administration and his measures for the defense of Rome from
the Lombards, of his dealings with Emperor and Patriarch, of his relations with
Brunhild and Theodelinda, and of his oversight of all the Western churches,
reserving only the Mission to the English for a later chapter.
Then Mr. Norman Baynes gives a living picture of Justinian's successors —
the unpractical Justin, the pedant Maurice, the crusader Heraclius, and of the
tremendous vicissitudes of the Persian War, with Persians and Avars at one time
besieging Constantinople, and Heraclius within two years winning the battle of
Nineveh, and dictating peace from the heart of Media.
The next three chapters are devoted to Islam. If this is the most brilliant
part of Gibbon's narrative, it is also the part which more than almost any
other needs revision in the light of later research. Professor Bevan begins
with the life of Mahomet, and Dr Becker of Hamburg follows with the expansion
of the Saracens, relating in one chapter their conquest of Syria and Egypt, the
overthrow of Persia, and the rise and fall of the Umayyads. In another he
traces their westward course through Africa and Egypt to Spain till their
defeat at Tours, and then turns to the formation of Muslim kingdoms, their
conquest of Sicily and their attacks on Italy to the coming of the Normans.
Mr. Brooks takes the successors of Heraclius to the coming of Leo the
Isaurian. The chief topics of this chapter are the advance of the Arabs and
their attacks on Constantinople, the history of the Monothelete Controversy,
and the fall of the Heraclian dynasty.
Dr Peisker takes us into a new region, describing the original country of
the Slavs, their society and religion, and their modes of warfare. He then
discusses their place in history, their relations to their German and Altaian
conquerors, their spread on the German border and in the Balkan countries, and
the new social conditions which prevailed when Slav states became independent.
Professor Camille Jullian’s section on Celtic heathenism in Gaul goes back
to the times of Caesar, but it coheres closely with Sir E. Anwyl’s pages on
Celtic heathenism in the British Isles. These are placed here rather than in
the former volume for the purpose of bringing them into connection not only
with Germanic heathenism but with the Christianity which replaced them. Our
material, not rich for Gaul, is scanty for Britain: it is only when we come to
Germanic heathenism—the section taken by Miss Phillpotts that we seem to see
the living power of the religion.
The next is an analogous chapter devoted to Christianity. Mr Warren first
tells us the little that is known of Christianity in Roman Britain, then
relates the story of its spread to Ireland and Scotland.
In another section Mr. Whitney traces first the conversion of the English
from Augustine's landing through the reigns of Edwin and Oswald to the decisive
victory at Winwaedfield, followed by the Synod of Whitby and the coming of
Theodore. He then turns to Germany, where the story gathers round the names of
Columbanus, Willibrord and Boniface, and stops short of Charles the Great's
conversion of the Saxons by the sword.
Mr. Corbett takes up the history and institutions of the English from
Edwin's time to the death of Offa. The thread of his narrative is the growth of
Mercia —the ups and downs of its long struggle under Penda with Northumbria,
the revolt under Wulfhere, and the formation of the commanding power wielded by
Aethelbald and Offa. Its overthrow by Ecgbert belongs to the next volume.
Mr. Burr contributes a short chapter on the eventful reign of Pepin — a man
whose fame is unduly eclipsed by that of the great Emperor who followed him.
Its main lines are the change of dynasty, the intervention in Italy, the
Donation, and the conquest of Aquitaine. Then Dr Gerhard Seeliger surveys the Conquests and Imperial Coronation
of Charles the Great. He begins with the destruction of the Lombard kingdom,
the precarious submission of Benevento and the settlement of Italian affairs:
then come the disaster of Roncevalles and the gradual formation of the Spanish
March. After this the annexation of Bavaria, the break-up of the Avars, and the
long wars with Saxons and Danes. There remain the idea of the Empire, the
events which led to the Coronation and its meaning, and Charles' relations to
the Eastern Empire.
Professor Vinogradoff then discusses the
foundations of society and the origins of Feudalism. He describes the various
forms of kinship, natural and artificial, the organization of society, the
growth of kingship, taxation, the beneficium,
and the fusion of Roman and Germanic influences which resulted in Feudalism.
Dr Seeliger returns to the legislation and
administration of Charles the Great. He marks the theocratic character of the
Carolingian State, and proceeds to describe the king and his court, the royal
revenues, the military system, the assemblies, the legislation, the provincial
officials, the missi dominici, and
the failure of the central power, and of the Empire with it.
Dr Foakes-Jackson concludes with a survey of the
growth of the Papacy, chiefly from Gregory to Charles the Great of its
relations to the Empire and the Lombards, of its negotiations with the Franks,
of the Frankish intervention and the beginnings of the Temporal Power, and of
the circumstances and significance of the Imperial Coronation. He covers much
the same period as Professor Seeliger, but he puts the Papacy instead of the
Franks in the foreground of his picture.
We are indebted to our critics for many hints and some corrections, and we
gratefully acknowledge their appreciation of the splendid work done by Dr
Peisker and others of our valued contributors: but on one important question we
are quite impenitent. The repetitions of which some of them complain are not
due to any carelessness in editing, but to the deliberate belief of the Editors
that some events may with advantage be related more than once by different
writers in different connections and from different points of view. Thus, to
take an instance actually given, the sack of Rome by Gaiseric is a cardinal
event in the history of the Vandals, and a cardinal event in that of the last
days of the Empire in the West. In which chapter would they advise us to leave
it out? Repetitions there must be, if individual chapters are not to be
mutilated. Nor are we much concerned about occasional disagreements of our
contributors, though we have sometimes indicated them in a note. Consistency is
always a virtue in a single writer; not always in a composite work like this.
We have often called the attention of one contributor to the fact that another
is of a different opinion; but we see no advantage in endeavoring to conceal
the fact that students of history do not always come to the same conclusions.
H. M. G.
J. P. W.
April 1913.
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