mostly legendary, yet it is generally believed that it was not the work
of special missionaries. It is more likely that the new faith came to
the land as part and parcel of the Roman culture. Indeed this is now the
opinion most generally received. The military operations of the empire
required continual changes of locality on the part of the troops; thus
we find Egyptian, Numidian, and Spanish soldiers quartered on the Rhine
and the Danube, and such as they would most probably be the first to
bring in the new faith.
At first the Roman authorities looked upon Christians as state rebels,
and fierce persecutions followed. The oldest Christian legend of this
country tells of such a conflict between the state officials and the
Christians, and no doubt contains some admixture of truth, as many of
these stories do. A legion levied at Thebes in Egypt--hence called the
_Thebaide_--was sent to Cologne to take the place of troops required to
quell a rising in Britain. Coming to the Valais, they were required by
the Emperor Maximian to sacrifice to the heathen gods (A.D. 280-300),
but being mostly Christians they refused, and were massacred with their
chief, Mauritius. Some, however, escaped for the time, but were called
upon to receive the martyr's crown later on, and in other places. Two
such, Ursus and Victor, came to Soleure with sixty-six companions, and
were put to death by order of Hirtaeus, the Roman governor. Two others,
Felix and his sister Regula, reached Zurich, where their successful
conversions irritated Decius, who put them to the rack, and then
beheaded them. Yet, wonderful to tell, the legend goes on, they seized
their heads that had fallen, and, walking with them to the top of a hill
close by, buried themselves, bodies and heads too. This wonderful feat
was an exact counterpart of that reported to have been performed also by
Ursus and Victor at Soleure. Felix and Regula became the patron saints
of Zurich, and play a conspicuous part in its local history. Tradition
says that Charlemagne himself in later days erected a minster on their
burial spot. Thus, as ever, the blood of martyrs became the seed of the
Church.
[Illustration: GOLD COIN OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY (ST. FELIX, ST.
REGULA-SANCTUS CAROLUS). (_By Dr. Imhoof, Winterthur._)]
The Roman towns Geneva, St Maurice, Augusta Rauracorum, Aventicum,
Vindonissa, and Curia had been episcopal sees since the third century,
though some of these sees were in process of time removed to other
places. Thus, Augusta, Vindonissa, and St. Maurice were removed to
Basel, Constance, and Sion respectively.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] We know little of them, most likely they were but _vici_ (village
settlements). Aquae alone we know from Tacitus was a city-like
watering-place; Kloten had handsome villas, but what it was we do not
know.
IV.
THE ANCESTORS OF THE SWISS NATION.
_THE ALAMANNI; BURGUNDIANS; FRANKS; MEROVINGIANS._
The fifth century was remarkable for what may be called the dislocation
of the peoples of Europe--the migrations of the Germans into the Roman
Empire, and, mightiest movement of all, the irruption of the Huns under
their terrible king Attila, the "Scourge of God." The mere sight of the
hideous Asiatics filled men with horror. Never afoot, but ever on their
ill-shaped but rapid steeds, to whose backs they seemed as if they were
glued, and on which they lived well-nigh day and night, it seemed as if
man and horse had grown into one being. Their large heads ill-matched
their meagre bodies; their tawny faces with deep-set eyes and high,
protruding cheek-bones made them resemble rough-cut figures in stone
rather than human beings. The Goths regarded them as the offspring of
spirits of the desert and of witches. These masses of Asiatic barbarism,
which had burst into Europe, stayed for awhile in Hungary, but soon
rolled towards the West, dislodging all the peoples with whom they came
in contact. Marching to the Rhine, they drove the Burgundians from their
settlements in the district of Worms, a land so rich in song and saga,
and entered Gaul to found a new kingdom. But the doom of the Huns was at
hand, for Aetius the Roman general, and the last defender of the empire,
defeated them, A.D. 451, in a truly gigantic battle on the Catalaunian
Plain, in the Champagne country. The slaughter was so terrible that the
saying went abroad that the river ran high with the blood of 300,000
men.
But it was clear that the tottering empire could not defend itself
against a whole world in commotion. The time had come when Rome was to
leave the stage of history. The great German nation was forming. It
would be tedious and profitless to mention all the German tribes beyond
the Rhine and Danube, a well-nigh endless list of names, impossible to
remember. Besides, the petty tribes and clans gradually formed alliances
with each other for greater security, and, dropping their ancient names,
took collective ones more familiar to our ears--Saxons, Franks,
Thuringi, Burgundians, Alamanni, and Bavarians.
Of these the Alamanni and the Burgundians are those from whom the Swiss
are descended, and thus Switzerland, like England, has to look back to
Germany as its ancestral home. The tall, fair-haired, true-hearted
Alamanni for whom Caracalla had such an admiration that to be like them
he wore a red wig, are said to have been descendants of the Semnones,
who had migrated from Lusatia on the Spree (in Silesia) to the Main. The
name Alamanni is generally held by the learned to be derived from
_alah_, a temple-grove, and implies a combination of various tribes,
"the people of the Divine grove." The Suevi, of whom the Semnones were
the most conspicuous tribe, had a sacred grove in the district of the
Spree, where they met for worship. In the fifth century we find the
Alamanni occupying the district from the Main to the Black Forest, East
Helvetia, and Alsatia as far as the Vosges.
When this formidable horde took possession of Eastern Helvetia they
found but little trouble from the Celto-Roman population, who, thinned
by previous invasions, and unaccustomed to fighting, could offer no
serious resistance, and sank into slaves and servants. The towns were
laid in ruins, the country ravaged, and all culture trodden under foot.
It seemed as if "the hand on the dial of history had been put back by
centuries,"[11] and civilization had once more to begin her work. They
outnumbered the natives, and were not absorbed by them, but on the
contrary on the half-decayed stock of the Roman province the Alamanni
were grafted as a true German people, retaining their old language,
institutions, and mode of living.
The Alamanni did not at once develop into a civilized and cultivated
people, but retained their fondness for war and hunting, and other
characteristics of their ancient life. Their grand and majestic woods
had stamped themselves on the intrepid, dauntless spirits, whose deep
subjectiveness and truthful natures contrasts strongly with the polished
artfulness of the Romans. For the mighty aspects of nature--forest,
mountain, sea--play their part in moulding the character of a nation.
And their impenetrable woods had influenced the destinies of the Germans
in the early periods of their history--had saved them from the Roman
yoke, the labyrinths of swamp and river, defying even the forces of the
well-nigh all-powerful empire. Then, too, when hard fighting was afoot,
and men had burnt their homesteads before the advance of the foe, the
vast forest formed a safe retreat for women and children. The original
house, by the way, was a mere wooden tent on four posts, and could be
carried off on carts that fitted underneath. The next stage was a hut in
the style of the Swiss mountain-shed, but it was still movable--was, in
fact, a chattel the more to be taken along on their wanderings.[12]
Their mode of settling in their new country was curious enough, though
the early settlement of England was very similar in character. Disliking
walled towns of the Roman fashion, the Germans felt their freedom of
movement impeded and their minds oppressed by living within the
prison-like fortifications of strong cities. But loving seclusion and
independence, nevertheless, they built extensive farmsteads, where each
man was his own master. To the homestead were added fields, meadows, and
an extensive farmyard; the whole hedged about so as to keep the owner
aloof from his neighbours. Each farmer pitched his tent wherever "spring
or mead, or sylvan wood tempted him," reports Tacitus. This liking for
seclusion on the part of the Germans is well shown in the case of
Zurich, for at one time the canton had three thousand farm homesteads,
as against a hundred hamlets and twelve villages.
The mode of partitioning the land shows democratic features. It was
divided amongst the community according to the size of families and
herds of cattle, but one large plot was left for the common use. The
large _Allmend_, or common, supplied wood for the community, and there,
too, might feed every man's flocks and herds. The nobleman as such had
no domains specially set apart for him, his position and privileges were
honorary. He might be chosen as a high officer of a district, or even a
duke, or leader of the army, in time of war. Payment for such services
was unknown. Money was scarce, and indeed its use was mainly taught them
by the Romans. Not only did flocks and herds form their chief wealth,
but were the standard of value, each article being estimated as worth so
much in cattle.
Society was from the very first sharply and clearly divided into two
great classes--the landowners and the bondsmen--the "free and the
unfree." The former class was again split into "lesser men," "middle
men," and "first men," or Athelinge (Adelige), these last named being of
noble blood, and owners of most land and the greatest number of slaves
and cattle. The "unfree" were either _Hoerige_ that belonged to the
estate they tilled, and might be sold with it, or slaves who could call
nothing their own, for whatever they saved fell to their lord at their
death, if he so willed. A shire or large district was subdivided into
hundreds. The whole of the free men met on some hallowed spot, under
some sacred tree, with their priests and leaders. Here, besides
performing religious exercises, they discussed war and peace, dispensed
justice, chose their officers of state, and their leader if war was
imminent. War and jurisdiction were the whole, or well-nigh the whole,
of public life at that early stage. The popular assemblies, done away
with by the feudal system, revived later on in the form of the famous
"Landsgemeinde" of the forest district, which are still in use in some
of the cantons. Blood money, or _wergild_, was exacted from wrong-doers
as in Saxon times in England. The tariff drawn up for bodily injuries
reveals the mercenary and brawling temper of a semi-civilized people.
At the time they settled in Switzerland the Alamanni were heathens, and
worshipped nature-deities--in groves, near springs, or mountains--the
names of some of which we still trace in the names of the days of the
week. Their religion, which was that common to all Germany, reveals the
German mind--full of reverie, deep thoughtfulness, and wild romantic
fancy that leads to a tragical issue. Like most heathen people the
Alamanni clothed their gods in their own flesh and blood. Woden and his
attendant deities, shield-maidens--Freyr and Freya, the king and queen
of the elves--dwarfs, giants, spirits--all these are well known to us,
and are indeed the charm of the fairy tales of our youth. The bright
spirits, the _Asen_, war against the spirit of darkness, the giants, and
lose ground, for they have broken the treaties made with them. The Asen
are the benevolent powers of nature, spring sunshine, and fertilizing
rain, and live in bright palaces, in Walhalla, and receive the dead; the
evil spirits are the sterile rock, the icy winter, the raging sea, the
destructive fire. Thor destroys the rocks with his Hammer, pounding them
to earth that man may grow corn. The giants scale the sky to defy the
gods for assisting mankind, but Heimdallr stands watching on the
rainbow-bridge that leads to Asgard--the garden of the _Asen_--and
prevents their entrance. But the gods themselves are stained with guilt,
and in a fight with the Giants before the gates of Walhalla, they
utterly destroy each other. The columns of heaven and the rainbow-bridge
break down, the universe is destroyed and the downfall of the gods is
complete. But the heathen Germans could not bear the notion of entire
annihilation, so in a sort of epilogue the great tragedy is followed by
the dawn of brighter and better times, the gods recover their former
innocence, when they used to play with golden dice without knowing the
value of gold.[13] The _Goetterdaemmerung_, the Divine Dawn, has broken,
and a new epoch has set in for gods and men. One of Wagner's musical
dramas is, as is well known, founded on these myths. . To turn to the
Burgundians. They became the neighbours of the Alamanni in Helvetia
about 443 A.D., after a severe defeat by the Huns. This great battle is
pictured with great power in the "Nibelungenlied." The Burgundians play
a conspicuous part in that grand old epic. A wonderful blending it is of
heroic myth, beautiful romance, and historic sagas attaching to the
great heroes of the early Middle Ages--Theodoric the Great, Gunther of
Burgundy, Attila, King of the Huns. If space permitted, the whole story
might well be told, but in this place let one feat be cited as an
example. Siegfried, the Dragon-slayer, a demigod, invulnerable, like
Achilles, except in one place, and who could make himself invisible,
woos the sweet and lovely maid of Worms. As "invisible champion," he
assists her brother Gunther in his combat with the warlike Brunhilde,
Queen of the North, whom Gunther wishes to obtain to wife. After years
of happy married life the Queen of Worms fell to a quarrel with the
Queen of Xanten on a question of precedence, and the gallant Siegfried
falls a victim to Brunhilde's hatred, and her intrigue with Hagen. To
avenge his death, the disconsolate widow marries the powerful Attila,
and engages in a terrible battle with the Burgundians. In this battle
she and her own kindred were slain. Attila and Dietrich of Verona
(Theodoric the Great) are saved, however.
Aetius gave to the Burgundians as a settlement Sabaudia (Savoy), on
condition that they should protect Gaul and Italy from the incursions of
the Alamanni. One-third of the lands and homesteads were made over to
them by the Romans, and later two-thirds were yielded. Gradually the
Burgundians advanced in the interior of Helvetia, Vaud, Valais, and
Fribourg, and into Southern Gaul. They occupied indeed all the territory
from the Vosges to the Alps and the Mediterranean. They lived on
friendly terms with the previous settlers, differing considerably in
character from the Alamanni. Less numerous, less vigorous, and more
pliant, they were unable to Germanize the West, as the Alamanni did the
East, yet were strong enough to infuse new vital force into the
enervated Roman populations. A readily cultivable race the Burgundians
availed themselves of the Roman civilization and advancement, and
gradually blended with the previous settlers--chiefly of Latin
origin--to form a new people. Thus through Roman influence and German
grafting--with two distinct German grafts--two nationalities sprang up
in Switzerland, and we find, as in our own day, the Germans in the
north-east, and the French in the south-west.
[Illustration: EIGER IN THE BERNESE OBERLAND.]
The Roman influence over the Burgundians was greatly increased by the
policy of King Gundobad (A.D. 500). He had visited Italy, and had been
greatly taken with Roman institutions. There is still extant a letter of
his in which he begs of Theodoric the Great a sun- or water-dial which
he had seen at his Court. Gundobad's code of laws was a blending of
Roman legislation with German jurisdiction. He introduced the Latin
speech and chronology officially, and gave the Romans equal rights and
an equal standing with the German population. Religious differences
arising--the Burgundians were Arians--and conflicts ensuing between king
and people, the Franks took advantage of the turmoils to bring the
subjects of Gundobad under their sway.
There was no love lost between the Alamanni and their neighbours, the
Burgundians; indeed the national antipathy for each other was great, but
the Frankish domination did more than anything else towards bringing
about a union between the hostile peoples. The reports they have left as
to the character of the Franks are not flattering. They said that the
Franks were capable of breaking an oath with a smiling face, and a
saying ran, "Take a Frank for a friend, but never for a neighbour."
Clovis, the Frankish king, had waded to the throne through the blood of
his own kin. He was, however, the first to take more extended views in
politics, and planned a united German kingdom after the type of the
Roman Empire. To his vast scheme the Alamanni fell the first victims. A
great battle was fought in which they suffered defeat. Clovis had vowed
that he would embrace Christianity if he should prevail against the
Alamannic Odin. Victory falling to his side, Clovis and his nobles were
baptized. His conversion was a great triumph for the Church, and
furnished the Merovingian kings with a pretext for the conquest of the
Arian Germans, who had been led astray from the orthodox faith. To crown
the work and enhance his greatness in the eyes of his Roman and German
subjects, the imperial purple, and the title of Roman Patricius was
bestowed on Clovis by the Greek emperor.
The subjection of Burgundy was brought about in the following reign,
under Sigismund, who had been guilty of the murder of his son by the
desire of the stepmother. He fled to St. Maurice, which he endowed so
richly that it gave shelter to upwards of five hundred monks. However,
his piety did not bring him victory, for the Burgundians were defeated
by the Franks at Autun in 532, and Sigismund and his family were hurled
down a well.
In the same year Chur-Rhaetia was yielded to the Franks by the Goths, who
required their help against the East. Rhaetia, which had escaped the
German invasion, had fallen to the share of the Goths of Italy, and had
enjoyed the protection and munificence of their glorious king, Theodoric
the Great. He defended her against her neighbours as a forepost of
Italy, but left intact the Roman institutions.
Thus had Helvetia been formed into a Frankish dependency; not a vestige
was left of the very name Helvetia. Yet the Frankish rule was more
nominal than real. Counts were appointed to govern shires and hundreds,
and, being royal governors, were elected by, and dependent on, the
Frankish kings. Jurisdiction, military command, summoning to war,
raising of taxes--fishing, hunting, coinage, had become royal
prerogatives--and the farmers kicked against the impositions--these were
the functions of the governing counts. None the less the Burgundians
retained their king or patricius, and the Alamanni remained under the
sway of their own duke, to whom alone they gave allegiance. Chur-Rhaetia
was particularly privileged. It was ruled by a royal governor, who was
supreme judge, count, and _praeses_, and the dignity remained for one
hundred and fifty years in one powerful and wealthy native family called
the Victoriden, who held likewise the ecclesiastical livings. On its
extinction in 766, Bishop Tello, the last of the family, bestowed the
immense wealth on the religious-houses of Disentis and Chur.
The promotion of Christianity, and the staunch support given by the
Merovingian kings to the Church, were perhaps the greatest benefits
resulting from the Frankish rule. Knowing the Church to be the sole
means by which in that benighted age culture could be spread and
civilization extended, those monarchs availed themselves of her
services, and bestowed upon her in return great wealth and high
prerogatives. Churches and religious-houses sprang up one could hardly
tell how. In French Switzerland there were founded the bishoprics of
Geneva, Lausanne, and Sion; and in the eastern half of the country those
of Basel, Vindonissa (removed to Constance in the sixth century), and
Chur. St. Maurice, benefited, as we have seen, by Sigismund, was a
flourishing abbey town. Yet many of the Alamanni held tenaciously to
their old gods, and their holy shrines and idols stood side by side with
the Cross; even Christians invoked Woden, for fear he should be offended
by their neglect.
The further amalgamation of heathenism and Christianity was most
effectually stopped by--curious to say--a caravan of Irish monks. In
fact, later tradition attributed to these monks the foundation of
religious-houses, to a number which modern investigation has shown to
have been greatly exaggerated. Ireland, which had so far escaped the
struggle with the great Teutonic race, had given all her energies to the
promotion of the new faith, and ever since the fourth century
Christianity had wonderfully flourished in the island. Filled with
missionary ardour, the Irish Columban conceived an intense desire to
conquer Gaul and Germany, and in 610 set out on his wanderings with a
staff of twelve companions. Equipped with "knotty sticks," a leather
vial, a travelling pouch, a relic case, and with a spare pair of boots
hung round the neck, "tatooed," wearing long waving hair,[14] the
adventurous band arrived in Gaul, and founded monasteries in the Vosges
district. However, they offended Queen Brunhilde by their frankness, and
had to depart. Proceeding to Eastern Helvetia, they arrived at Zurich,
but at length finding nothing more to do there, as we may suppose, they
proceeded to Tuggen, on the Upper Zurich lake. Here they saw people
engaged in an oblation of beer to the national gods. Moved with holy
anger, the monks upset the vessel, and flung the idols into the lake,
and won many to Christianity. We cannot here follow them in their
devoted labours. Columban passed on into Italy, but left his disciple
Gallus in the neighbourhood of Lake Constance. Hence sprang up the
famous monastery bearing his name.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] Green's "Smaller History of England," p. 42.
[12] Dahn, "Urgeschichte der Roemanish-germanischen Voelker."
[13] Dahn
[14] Professor Rahn.
V.
THE CAROLINGIANS--CHARLEMAGNE.
Under the last Merovingian kings, whose character is sufficiently
attested by the name of _Faineants_--sluggards--Alamannia and Burgundy
struggled to shake off the Frankish yoke. Now the wealth and power of
those weak kings were passing from them to their "Mayors of the Palace."
Charles Martel, one of these "Mayors," defeated the Alamanni in a great
battle (A.D. 730), and Carlomann, Charlemagne's brother, had a number of
Alamannic grandees put to the sword, and their lands confiscated (A.D.
746).
Charles Martel remained simple "Mayor of the Palace," but Pepin le Bref
had himself crowned king, at St. Denis, by Stephen II., in 751,
rewarding the Pope for this great service by the gift of a tract of land
around the Holy City. By this _coup d'etat_ were established both the
Carolingian dynasty and the temporal power of the Pope--well-nigh
convertible terms. The new dynasty greatly fostered religion, and
furthered the work begun by the Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks. St. Gall's
cell became an abbey church and monastic school; St. Leodegar's at
Lucerne was incorporated with the abbey of Murbach in Alsatia; and on
the bank of the Limmat at Zurich arose a college of prebends.