suppressed all attempts at spiritual independence, yet the broadening of
men's minds that began with the Crusades, and received a vigorous
impetus from the Renaissance, made its mark even in the fifteenth
century upon ecclesiastical affairs. Three main facts of the moral order
are presented during this period: the ineffectual attempts of the
councils of Constance and Bale to reform the Church from within; the
most notable of which was that of Huss in Bohemia; and the intellectual
revolution that accompanied the Renaissance. The way was thus prepared
for the event that was inaugurated when Luther burnt the Pope's Bull at
Wittenberg in 1520.
The Reformation was not, as its opponents contend, the result of
accident or intrigue; nor was it, as its upholders contend, the outcome
of a simple desire for the reform of abuses. It was, in reality, a
revolt of the human spirit against absolute power in spiritual affairs.
The minds of men were during the sixteenth century in energetic
movement, consumed by desire for progress; the Church had become inert
and stationary, yet it maintained all its pretensions and external
importance. The Church, indeed, was less tyrannical than it had formerly
been, and not more corrupt. But it had not advanced; it had lost touch
with human thought.
The Reformation, in all the lands that it reached, in all the lands
where it played a great part, whether as conqueror, or as conquered,
resulted in general, constant, and immense progress in liberty and
activity of thought, and tended towards the emancipation of the human
spirit. It accomplished more than it knew; more, perhaps, than it would
have desired. It did not attack temporal absolutism; but the collision
between temporal absolutism and spiritual freedom was bound to come, and
did come.
Spiritual movement in European history has always been ahead of temporal
movement. The Church began as a very loose society, without a
properly-constituted government. Then it placed itself under an
aristocratic control of bishops and councils. Then it came under the
monarchical rule of the Popes; and finally a revolution broke out
against absolutism in spiritual affairs. The ecclesiastical and civil
societies have undergone the same vicissitudes; but the ecclesiastical
society has always been the first to be changed.
We are now in possession of one of the great facts of modern society,
the liberty of the human spirit. At the same time we see political
centralisation prevailing nearly everywhere. In the seventeenth century
the two principles were for the first time to be opposed.
_VIII.--The Political Revolt_
Their first shock was in England, for England was a country of
exceptional conditions both civil and religious. The Reformation there
had in part been the work of the kings themselves, and was incomplete;
the Reformers remained militant, and denounced the bishops as they had
formerly denounced the Pope. Moreover, the aspirations after civil
liberty that were stirred up by the emancipation of thought had means of
action in the old institution of the country--the charter, the
Parliament, the laws, the precedents. Similar aspirations in Continental
countries had no such means of action, and led to nothing.
Two national desires coincided in England at this epoch--the desire for
religious revolution and liberty, and the desire for political liberty
and the overthrow of despotism. The two sets of reformers joined forces.
For the political party, civil freedom was the end; for the religious
party, it was only a means; but throughout the conflict the political
party took the lead, and the others followed. It was not until 1688 that
the reformers finally attained their aim in the abolition of absolute
power spiritual and temporal; and the accession of William of Orange in
that year brought England into the great struggle that was raging on the
Continent between the principle of despotism and the principle of
freedom.
England differed from other European countries in that the essential
diversity of European civilisation was more pronounced there than
anywhere else. Elsewhere, one element prevailed over the others until it
was overthrown; in England, even if one element was dominant, the others
were strong and important. Elizabeth had to be far more wary with her
nobles and commons than Louis XIV. with his. For this reason, Europe
lagged behind England in civil freedom. But there was another
reason--the influence of France.
During the seventeenth century, the French Government was the strongest
in Europe, and it was a despotic government. During the eighteenth
century, French thought was the most active and potent in Europe, and it
was unboundedly free thought. Louis XIV. did not, as is sometimes
supposed, adopt as his principles the propagation of absolutism; his aim
was the strength and greatness of France, and to this end he fought and
planned--just as William of Orange fought and planned, not against
despotism, but against France. France presented herself at that age as
the most redoubtable, skilful, and imposing Power in Europe.
Yet, after the death of Louis XIV., the government immediately
degenerated. This was inevitable. No system of government can be
maintained without institutions, and a despot dislikes institutions. The
rule of Louis XIV. was great, powerful, and brilliant, but it had no
roots. The decrepit remains of it were in the eighteenth century brought
face to face with a society in which free examination and free
speculation had been carried to lengths never imagined before. Freedom
of thought once came to grips with absolute power.
Of the stupendous consequence of that collision it is not for me to
speak here; I have reached the end. But let me, before concluding, dwell
upon the gravest and most instructive part that is revealed to us by
this grand spectacle of civilisation. It is the danger, the
insurmountable evil of absolute power in any form--whether in a form of
a despot like Louis XIV. or in that of the untrammelled human spirit
that prevailed at the Revolution. Each human power has in itself a
natural vice, a principle of weakness, to which there has to be assigned
a limit. It is only by general liberty of all rights, interests and
opinions that each power can be restrained within its legitimate bounds,
and intellectual freedom enabled to exist genuinely and to the advantage
of the whole community.
* * * * *
HENRY HALLAM
View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages
Henry Hallam, the English historian, was born on July 9, 1777,
at Windsor, his father being Canon of Windsor, and Dean of
Bristol. Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, he was
called to the English bar, but devoted himself to the study
and writing of history. He received an appointment in the
Civil Service, which, with his private means, placed him in
comfortable leisure for his wide researches. His son, Arthur
Henry, who died at the age of 22, is the subject of Tennyson's
"In Memoriam." Hallam died on January 21, 1859, and was buried
at Clevedon, Somersetshire. The "View of the State of Europe
during the Middle Ages," commonly known as Hallam's "Middle
Ages," was published by the author in 1818. Hallam was already
well known among the literary men of the day, but this was his
first important work. It is a study of the period from the
appearance of Clovis, the creator of the dominion of the
Franks, to the close of the Middle Ages, the arbitrary
dividing line being drawn at the invasion of Italy by Charles
VIII. of France.
_I.--France_
The Frankish dominion was established over the Roman province of Gaul by
Clovis at the opening of the sixth century. The Merovingian dynasty
degenerated rapidly; and the power passed into the hands of the Mayors
of the Palace--an office which became hereditary with Pepin Heristal and
Charles Martel. With the sanction of the Pope the Merovingian king was
deposed by Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who was crowned king and
overthrew the Lombard power in Italy.
Pepin was succeeded by Charlemagne, who completed the conquest of the
Lombards, carried his arms into Spain as far as the Ebro, and extended
his power eastwards over the Saxons as far as the Elbe. In his person
the Roman empire was revived, and he was crowned emperor at Rome on
Christmas Day A.D. 800. The great empire he had built up fell to pieces
under his successors, who adopted the disastrous plan of partition
amongst brothers.
France fell to the share of one branch of the Carlovingians. The
Northmen were allowed to establish themselves in Normandy, and Germany
was completely separated from France. The Carlovingians were displaced
by Hugh Capet. The actual royal domain was small, and the kings of the
House of Capet exercised little control over their great feudatories
until the reign of Philip Augustus. That crafty monarch drew into his
own hands the greater part of the immense territories held by the kings
of England as French feudatories. After a brief interval the craft of
Philip Augustus was succeeded by the idealism of St. Louis, whose
admirable character enabled him to achieve an extraordinary ascendancy
over the imagination of his people. In spite of the disastrous failure
of his crusading expeditions, the aggrandisement of the crown continued,
especially under Philip the Fair; but the failure of the direct heirs
after the successive reigns of his three sons placed Philip of Valois on
the throne according to the "Salic" law of succession in 1328.
On the pretext of claiming the succession for himself, Edward III. began
the great French war which lasted, interrupted by only one regular
pacification, for a hundred and twenty years. The brilliant personal
qualities of Edward and the Black Prince, the great resources of
England, and the quality of the soldiery, account for the English
successes. After the peace of Bretigny these triumphs were reversed, and
the English lost their possessions; but when Charles VI. ascended the
throne disaster followed. France was rent by the rival factions of
Burgundy and Orleans, the latter taking its more familiar name from the
Court of Armagnac. The troubled reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV.
prevented England from taking advantage of these dissensions; but Henry
V. renewed the war, winning the battle of Agincourt in his first
campaign and securing the Treaty of Troyes on his second invasion. After
his death came that most marvellous revolution wrought by Joan of Arc,
and the expulsion of the English from the country.
In France the effect of the war was to strengthen the Crown as against
the Nobility, a process developed by the subtlety of Louis XI. Out of
the long contest in which the diplomatic skill of the king was pitted
against the fiery ambitions of Charles of Burgundy, Louis extracted for
himself sundry Burgundian provinces. The supremacy of the Crown was
secured when his son Charles VIII. acquired Brittany by marrying the
Duchess Anne.
The essential distinction of ranks in France was found in the possession
of land. Besides the National lands, there were lands reserved to the
Crown, which, under the name of benefices, were bestowed upon personal
followers of the king, held more or less on military tenure; and the
king's vassals acquired vassals for themselves by a similar process of
subinfeudation. On the other hand freeholders inclined, for the sake of
protection, to commend themselves, as the phrase was, to their stronger
neighbours and so to assume the relation of vassal to liege lord. The
essential principle was a mutual contract of support and fidelity,
confirmed by the ceremonies of homage, fealty, and investiture, which
conferred upon the lord the right to various reliefs, fines, and rights
capable of conversion into money payments.
Gentility, now hereditary, was derived from the tenure of land; the idea
of it was emphasised by the adoption of surnames and armorial bearings.
A close aristocracy was created, somewhat modified by the right claimed
by the king of creating nobles. Prelates and abbots were in the same
position as feudal nobles, though the duty of personal service was in
many cases commuted for an equivalent. Below the gentle class were
freemen, and the remainder of the population were serfs or villeins. It
was not impossible for villeins to purchase freedom. In France the
privileges possessed by the vassals of the Crown were scarcely
consistent with the sovereignty. Such were the rights of coining money,
of private war, and of immunity from taxation.
Such legislation as there was appears to have been effected by the king,
supported by a Royal Council or a more general assembly of the barons.
It was only by degrees that the Royal ordinances came to be current in
the fiefs of the greater vassals. It was Philip the Fair who introduced
the general assembly of the Three Estates. This assembly very soon
claimed the right of granting and refusing money as well as of bringing
forward grievances. The kings of France, however, sought to avoid
convocation of the States General by obtaining grants from provincial
assemblies of the Three Estates.
The old system of jurisdiction by elected officers was superseded by
feudal jurisdiction, having three degrees of power, and acting according
to recognised local customs, varied by the right to ordeal by combat.
The Crown began to encroach on these feudal jurisdictions by the
establishment of Royal courts of appeal; but there also subsisted a
supreme Court of Peers to whom were added the king's household officers.
The peers ceased by degrees to attend this court, while the Crown
multiplied the councillors of inferior rank; and this body became known
as the Parliament of Paris--in effect an assembly of lawyers.
The decline of the feudal system was due mainly to the increasing power
of the Crown on the one hand, and of the lower ranks on the other; more
especially from the extension of the privileges of towns. But the feudal
principle itself was weakened by the tendency to commute military
service for money, enabling the Crown to employ paid troops.
_II.--Italy and Spain_
After the disruption of Charlemagne's empire the imperial title was
revived from the German, Otto the Great of Saxony. His imperial
supremacy was recognised in Italy; the German king was the Roman
emperor. Italian unity had gone to pieces, but the German supremacy
offended Italy. Still from the time of Conrad of Franconia the election
of the King of Germany was assumed, at least my him, to convey the
sovereignty of Italy. In the eleventh century Norman adventurers made
themselves masters of Sicily and Southern Italy. In Northern Italy on
the other hand the emperors favoured the development of free cities,
owning only the imperial sovereignty and tending to self-government on
Republican lines. The appearance on the scene in the twelfth century of
the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa introduced a period characterised by a
three-fold change: the victorious struggle of the northern cities for
independence; the establishment of the temporal sovereignty of the
Papacy in the middle provinces; and the union of the kingdom of Naples
to the dominions of the Imperial House. The first quarrels with Milan
led to the formation of the Lombard league, and a long war in which the
battle of Legnano gave the confederates a decisive victory. The mutual
rivalries of the States, however, prevented them from turning this to
good account. Barbarossa's grandson, Frederick II., was a child of four
when he succeeded to the Swabian inheritance, and through his mother to
that of Sicily.
It was now that the powerful Pope Innocent III. so greatly extended the
temporal power of the Papacy, and that the rival parties of Guelfs and
Ghibelins, adherents the one of the Papacy, the other of the Empire,
were established as factions in practically every Italian city. When the
young Frederick grew up he was drawn into a long struggle with the
Papacy which ended in the overthrow of the Imperial authority. From this
time the quarrel of Guelfs and Ghibelins for the most part became mere
family feuds resting on no principles. Charles of Anjou was adopted as
Papal champion; the republics of the North were in effect controlled by
despots for a brief moment. Rome revived her republicanism under the
leadership of Rienzi. In the general chaos the principle interest
attaches to the peculiar but highly complicated form of democracy
developed in Florence, where the old Patrician families were virtually
disfranchised. Wild and disorderly as was the state of Florence, the
records certainly point to the conditions having been far worse in the
cities ruled by the Visconti and their like.
Of Genoa's wars with Pisa and with Venice a detailed account cannot be
given. Of all the northern cities Venice achieved the highest political
position; isolated to a great extent from the political problems of the
cities of Lombardy and Tuscany, she developed her wealth and her
commerce by the sea. Her splendour may, however, be dated from the
taking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, when she became
effectively Queen of the Adriatic and Mistress of the Eastern
Mediterranean. In effect her government was a close oligarchy; possessed
of complete control over elections which in theory were originally
popular. The oligarchy reached its highest and narrowest development
with the institution of the famous Council of Ten.
Naples and Sicily came under the dominion of Charles of Anjou when he
was adopted as Papal champion. The French supremacy, however, was
overthrown when the Sicilians rose and carried out the massacre known as
the Sicilian Vespers. They offered the Crown to the King of Aragon. It
was not till 1409, however, that Sicily was definitely united to the
Crown of Aragon and a few years later the same king was able to assert
successfully a claim to Naples.
When the Roman empire was tottering the Visigoths established their
dominion in Spain. In 712 Saracen invaders made themselves masters of
the greater part of the peninsula. The Christians were driven into the
more northern parts and formed a number of small States out of which
were developed the kingdoms of Navarre, Leon and Castille, and Aragon.
Frontier towns acquired large liberties while they were practically
responsible for defence against the Moors. During the thirteenth century
great territories were recovered from the Moors; but the advance ceased
as the Moors were reduced to the compact kingdom of Granada. In the
fourteenth century the struggle for Castille between Pedro the Cruel and
his brother established the house of Trastamare on the throne. The
Crowns of Castille and Aragon were united by the marriage of Isabella
and Ferdinand.
The government of the old Gothic monarchy was through the Crown and a
Council of Prelates and Nobles. At a comparatively early date, however,
the "Cortes" was attended by deputies from the town, though the number
of these was afterwards closely limited. The principle of taxation
through representatives was recognised; and laws could neither be made
nor annulled except in the Cortes. This form of constitutionalism was
varied by the claim of the nobles to assume forcible control when
matters were conducted in a fashion of which they disapproved.
The union of Castille and Aragon led immediately to the conquest of
Granada completed in 1492; an event which in some respects
counterbalanced the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks.
_III.--The German Empire and the Papacy_
When the German branch of the Carlovingian dynasty became extinct the
five German nations--Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony, and
Lorraine--resolved to make the German kingship elective. For some
generations the Crown was bestowed on the Saxon Ottos. On the extinction
of their house in 1024, it was succeeded by a Franconian dynasty which
came into collision with the Papacy under Pope Gregory VII. On the
extinction of this line in 1025 Germany became divided between the
partisans of the Houses of Swabia and Saxony, the Wibelungs and
Welfs,--the origin of the Hibelines and Guelfs. The Swabian House,
the Hohenstauffen, gained the ascendancy in the person of Frederick
Barbarossa. The lineal representatives of the Saxon Guelfs are found
to-day in the House of Brunswick.
The rule of the Swabian House is most intimately connected with Italian
history. In the thirteenth century the principle that the right of
election of the emperor lay with seven electors was apparently becoming
established. There were the Archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne,
the Duke of Saxony, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the King of
Bohemia, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. In all other respects,
however, several other dukes and princes were at least on an equality
with the electors.
In 1272 the election fell on the capable Rudolph of Hapsburg; and for
some time after this the emperors were chosen from the Houses of
Austria, Bavaria, or Luxemburg.
Disintegration was greatly increased by the practice of the partition of
territories among brothers in place of primogeniture. A preponderating
authority was given to the electors by the Golden Bull of Charles IV. in
1355. The power of the emperor as against the princes was increased, as
that of the latter was counterbalanced by the development of free
cities. Considerable reforms were introduced at the close of our period
mainly by Maximilian.
The depravity of the Greek empire would have brought it to utter ruin at
a much earlier date but for the degeneration which overtook
Mohammedanism. Incidentally the Crusades helped the Byzantine power at
first to strengthen its hold on some of its threatened possessions; but
the so-called fourth crusade replaced the Greek Empire by a Latin one
with no elements of permanency. When a Greek dynasty was re-established,
and the crusading spirit of Western Europe was already dead, the
Byzantine Princes were left to cope with the Turks single handed, and
the last of the Cæsars died heroically when the Ottomans captured
Constantinople in 1453.
Throughout the early middle ages the Church acquired enormous wealth and
Church lands were free from taxation. It was not till a comparatively
late period that the payment of tithes was enforced by law. Not
infrequently the Church was despoiled by violence, but the balance was
more than recovered by fraud. By the time of Charlemagne the clergy were
almost exempt from civil jurisdiction and held practically an exclusive
authority in matters of religion. The state, however, maintained its
temporal supremacy. When the strong hand of Charlemagne was removed
ecclesiastical influence increased.
It was under Gregory the Great that the Papacy acquired its great
supremacy over the Provincial Churches. As the power of the Church grew
after the death of Charlemagne, partly from the inclination of weak
kings to lean on ecclesiastical support, the Papal claims to authority
developed and began to be maintained by the penalties of excommunication
and interdict.
A period of extreme laxity in the tenth century was to be brought to a
close in the eleventh partly by the pressure brought to bear on the
Papacy by the Saxon emperors, but still bore by the ambitious resolution
of Gregory VII. This remarkable man was determined to assert the
complete supremacy of the Holy See over all secular powers. He refused
to recognise the right of secular princes to make ecclesiastical
appointments within their own dominions; and he emphasised the
distinction between the priesthood, as a cast having divine authority,
and the laity, by enforcing with the utmost strictness the
ecclesiastical law of celibacy, which completely separates the churchman
from the normal interests and ambitions which actuate the layman.