Introductory American History Part 4

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MONASTERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES Abbey of Saint-Germain des Pres as it appeared in 1361 with wall, towers, and moat or ditch]

6. What is the name of the first Roman emperor who became a Christian? What name was soon given to the worshipers of the old Roman G.o.ds?

7. By what t.i.tles were the leaders of the Christians named? What two kinds of clergy were there?

Important date: 325 A.D., when the Roman Empire became Christian.

CHAPTER X.

EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO.

THE MIDDLE AGES. It was more than a thousand years from the time of Constantine to the time of Columbus. This period is called "Mediaeval," or the "Middle Ages." During these long centuries the ancient civilized world of the Roman Empire was much changed. The Roman or Greek cities on the southern sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean were captured by Arabs or Moors. The Moors conquered the larger part of Spain. The eastern lands of Palestine and Asia Minor fell into the hands of the Turks. The Turks, the Moors, and the Arabs were followers of the "prophet" Mohammed, who died in the year 632. The Mohammedans were enemies of the Christians.

WESTERN EUROPE. The other part of the European world was also changed. The countries on the sh.o.r.es of the Atlantic were now more important than those on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean. The names of the different countries were changed. Instead of Gallia or Gaul, there was France; instead of Britannia, England; for Hispania, Spain; for Germania, Deutschland or Germany. Italy, the center of the old empire, was finally divided into several states--city republics like Genoa and Venice, provinces ruled by the pope, and other territories ruled by dukes, princes, or kings.

FATE OF CIVILIZATION. The most important question to ask is, How much of the manner of living or civilization of the Greeks and the Romans did the later Europeans still retain? The answer is found in the history of the Middle Ages. In this history is also found what men added to that which they had learned from the Greeks and the Romans. The emigrants to America were to carry with them knowledge which not even the wisest men of the ancient world had possessed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WALL OF AURELIAN This wall enclosed the ancient city of Rome. It was about thirteen miles in circ.u.mference, fifty-five feet high, and had three hundred towers]

MEDIAEVAL GERMAN EMIGRANTS. The first part of the history of the Middle Ages explains how the German peoples from whom most of our forefathers were descended began to move from the northern forests towards the borders of the Roman Empire. Many thousand men had already crossed the Rhine and the Danube to serve in the Roman armies. Sometimes an unusually strong and skilful warrior would be made a general. Germans had also crossed the Rhine to work as farmers on the estates of the rich Gallic n.o.bles. Other Germans, called Goths, worked in Constantinople and the cities of the East as masons, porters, and water-carriers. The Romans had owned so many slaves that they had lost the habit of work and were glad to hire these foreigners.

STORY OF ULFILAS. Many of the Goths who lived north of the Danube had forsaken their old G.o.ds and become Christians. They were taught by Bishop Ulfilas, once a captive among them, afterward a missionary. He translated the Bible into the Gothic language, and this translation is the most ancient specimen of German that we possess. Many of the other German tribes learned about Christianity from the Goths, and although they might be enemies of the Roman government, they were not enemies of the Church.

THE GOTHS INVADE THE ROMAN EMPIRE. The Roman emperors tried to prevent the northern tribes from crossing the frontier in great numbers, because, once across, if they did not find work and food, they became plunderers. Not many years after Constantine's death, a million Goths had pa.s.sed the Danube and had plundered the country almost to the walls of Constantinople. This was not like the invasion of a regular army, which comes to fight battles and to arrange terms of peace.

The Goths, and the Germans who soon followed their example, moved as a whole people, with their wives and children, their cattle, and the few household goods they owned. Wherever they wished to settle they demanded of the Romans one third, sometimes two thirds, of the land. They soon learned to be good neighbors of the older inhabitants, although at first they were little better than robbers. Alaric, one of the leaders of the Goths, led them into Italy and in the year 410 captured Rome. Alaric did not injure the buildings much, and he kept his men from robbing the churches. Some of the other barbarous tribes who roamed about plundering villages and attacking cities did far greater damage. The Roman government grew weaker and weaker, until one by one the provinces fell into the hands of German kings.

BEGINNINGS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND GERMANY. Britain was attacked by the Angles and Saxons from the sh.o.r.es of Germany across the North Sea. They drove away the inhabitants or made slaves of them and settled upon the lands they had seized. The country was then called Angle-land or England, and the people Anglo-Saxons or Englishmen.

The Roman provinces in Gaul were gradually conquered by the Franks from the borders of the Rhine, and they gave the name France to the land.

At about the same time the other German tribes that had remained in Germany united under one king.

THE RESULT OF BARBARIAN ATTACKS. The part of the ancient world which lay about Constantinople was less changed than the rest during the Middle Ages. The walls of Constantinople were high and thick, and they withstood attack after attack until 1453. Within their shelter men continued to live much as they had lived in Ancient Times. A few delighted to study the writings of the ancient Greeks. In Italy and the other countries of western Europe most of the cities were in ruins. The ancient baths, amphitheaters, aqueducts, and palaces of Rome crumbled and fell. The mediaeval Romans also used huge buildings like the Colosseum as quarries of cut stone and burned the marble for lime. This was done in every country where Roman buildings existed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE AMPHITHEATER AT ARLES]

The amphitheater at Arles in southern France had a still stranger fortune. It was used at one time as a citadel, at another as a prison and gradually became the home of hundreds of the criminals and the poor of the city. "Every archway held its nest of human outcasts. From stone to stone they cast their rotting beams and plaster and burrowed into the very entrails of the enormous building to seek a secure retreat from the pursuit of the officers of the law."

Few persons traveled from Constantinople to Italy or France, and few from western Europe visited Constantinople. The men of Italy and France and England did not know how to read Greek. Many of them also ceased to read the writings of the ancient Romans.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY, ENGLAND This church is on the site of a chapel built in the sixth century. Its walls show some of the bricks of the original chapel]

THE ENGLISH BECOME CHRISTIANS, 597 A.D. Christianity had spread throughout the Roman Empire, and it became the religion of all the tribes who founded kingdoms of their own upon the ruins of the Empire. The Angles and Saxons, when they invaded Britain, were still worshipers of the G.o.ds Wodan and Thor. They had never learned from the Goths of Ulfilas anything about Christianity.

One day in the slave market at Rome three fair-haired boys were offered for sale. Gregory, a n.o.ble Roman, who had become a monk and was the abbot of his monastery, happened to be pa.s.sing and asked who they were. He was told they were Angles. "Angels," he cried, "yes, they have faces like angels, and should become companions of the angels in heaven." When this good abbot became pope, he sent missionaries to Angle-land and they established themselves at Canterbury.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREGORY AND THE LITTLE ENGLISH SLAVES]

MISSIONARIES TO THE GERMANS AND THE SLAVS. The conversion of the English helped in the spread of Christianity on the Continent, for Boniface, an English monk, was the greatest missionary to the Germans. He won thousands from the worship of their ancient G.o.ds and founded many churches. The Slavs, who lived east of the Germans, were taught by missionaries from Constantinople instead of from Rome.

THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE MIDDLE AGES. The missionaries and teachers of the Church had been educated like the older Romans. They read Roman books, and tried to preserve the knowledge which both Greeks and Romans had gathered. Influenced by them, the emigrants and conquerors from the north also tried to be like the Romans. Educated men, and especially the priests of the Church, used Latin as their language. In this way some parts of the old Roman and Greek civilization were preserved, although the Roman government had fallen and many beautiful cities were mere heaps of ruins.

THE VIKINGS. The emigration of whole peoples from one part of Europe to another did not stop when the Roman Empire was overrun. New peoples appeared and sought to plunder or crowd out the tribes which had already settled within its boundaries and were learning the ways of civilization.

One of these peoples came from the regions now known as Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They were called Danes by the English, and Northmen or Normans by other Europeans. They had another name, Vikings, which was their word for sea-rovers.

It was their custom to sail the seas and rivers rather than march on the land. They were a hardy and daring people, who liked nothing better than to fight and conquer and rob in other countries. There was not a land in western Europe, even as far south as Sicily, that they did not visit. Wherever they went they plundered and burned and murdered, leaving a blackened trail.

THE DANES IN ENGLAND. The Danes ravaged the eastern and southern sh.o.r.es of England, and after they were tired of robbery, partly because there was little left to take, they began to settle in the land. Alfred, the greatest of the early English kings, was driven by them into the swamps for a while, but in the year 878 A.D. he conquered an army of them in battle and persuaded one of their kings to be baptized as a Christian. Alfred was obliged to allow them to keep the eastern portion of England, a region called Danelaw, because the law of the Danes was obeyed there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A VIKING SHIP AT SEA]

THE DANES BECOME NORMANS. No more Danes or Northmen came to trouble England for a time, but instead they crossed the Channel to France and rowed up the Seine and tried to capture Paris. A few years later a Frankish king gave them the city of Rouen, further down the Seine, and the region about it which was called Normandy. These Normans also accepted Christianity.

THE VIKINGS BECOME DISCOVERERS. Before another hundred years had pa.s.sed the Northmen performed a feat more difficult than sailing up rivers and burning towns. They were the first to venture far out of sight of land, though their ships were no larger than our fishing boats. These bold sailors visited the Orkney and the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland, and finally reached Iceland. In Iceland their sheep and cattle flourished, and a lively trade in fish, oil, b.u.t.ter, and skins sprang up with the old homeland and with the British islands.

Before long one of the settlers, named Eric the Red, led a colony to Greenland, the larger and more desolate island further west. He called it Greenland because, he said, men would be more easily persuaded to go there if the land had a good name. This was probably in the year 985.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEIF ERICSON From the statue in Boston]

DISCOVERY OF VINLAND. Eric had a son, called Leif Ericson, or Leif the Lucky, who visited Norway and was well received at the court of King Olaf. Not long before missionaries had persuaded Olaf and his people to give up their old G.o.ds and accept Christianity, and Leif followed their example. Leif set out in the early summer of the year 1000 to carry the new religion to his father, Eric the Red, to his father's people, and to his neighbors. The voyage was a long one, lasting all the summer, for on the way his ship was driven out of its course and came upon strange lands where wild rice and grape-vines and large trees grew. The milder climate and stories of large trees useful for building ships aroused the curiosity of the Greenlanders.

They sent exploring expeditions, and found the coast of North America at places which they called h.e.l.luland, that is, the land of flat stones; Markland, the land of forests; and Vinland, where the grape-vines grow. h.e.l.luland was probably on the coast of Labrador, Markland somewhere on the sh.o.r.es of Newfoundland, and Vinland in Nova Scotia.

THE SETTLEMENT IN VINLAND. Thornfinn Karlsefni, a successful trader between Iceland and Greenland, attempted to plant a colony in the new lands. Karlsefni and his friends, to the number of one hundred and sixty men and several women, set out in 1007 with three or four ships, loaded with supplies and many cattle. They built huts and remained three or four winters in Vinland, but all trace of any settlement disappeared long ago.

They found, their stories tell us, swarthy, rough-looking Indians, with coa.r.s.e hair, large eyes, and broad cheeks, with whom they traded red cloth for furs. Trouble broke out between the Northmen and the Indians, who outnumbered them. So many Northmen were killed that the survivors became alarmed and returned to Greenland.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN The American lands they found are marked with diagonal lines]

VINLAND FORGOTTEN. The voyages to Vinland soon ceased and the discoveries of Leif and his followers were only remembered in the songs or "sagas" of the people. They thought of Vinland mainly as a land of flat stones, great trees, and fierce natives. Nor did the wise men of Europe who heard the Northmen's story guess that a New World had been discovered. It was probably fortunate that five hundred years were to go by before Europeans settled in America, for within that time they were to learn a great deal and to find again many things which the Romans had left but which in the year 1000 were hidden away, either in the ruins of the ancient cities or in libraries and treasure-houses, where few knew of them. The more Europeans possessed before they set out, the more Americans would have to start with.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FACSIMILE OF A BIT OF AN OLD SAGA Ma.n.u.sCRIPT]

QUESTIONS.

1. What is meant by the "Middle Ages" or the "Mediaeval" period?

2. Show on the map, what part of the Roman Empire was conquered by the Mohammedans.

3. Mention the Roman names of England, France, Germany, and Spain, Why were they changed to what they are now?

4. What people early in the Middle Ages began to emigrate from their homes to the Roman Empire? What did they do for a living?

5. Where did the Goths live? Who taught them the Christian religion? When the Goths entered the Roman Empire what did they ask of the inhabitants? Did they destroy much? How many years separated the capture of Rome by Alaric from its capture by the Gauls?

6. What tribes conquered England or Britain? What tribes conquered Roman Gaul or France? How long before Constantinople was captured?

7. What was the effect of these raids and wars upon many cities? Who tried to keep fresh the memory of what the Greeks and the Romans had done? Who used the language of the Romans?

8. Tell the story of the way the English became Christians. Who taught the Christian religion to many Germans? From what city did the Slavs receive missionaries?

9. What different names are given to the inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden who became rovers over the seas? Where did they make settlements?

10. Tell the story of how Leif the Lucky discovered America. Why did the Northmen leave Vinland?

EXERCISES.

1. Point out on the map all the places mentioned in this chapter.

2. On an outline map mark the names of the peoples mentioned in the chapter on the countries where they settled.

3. Ask children in school who know some other language than English what are their names for England, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

Important dates: Alaric's capture of Rome, 410 A.D.

Discovery of America by the Northmen, 1000 A.D.

CHAPTER XI.

HOW ENGLISHMEN LEARNED TO GOVERN THEMSELVES.

HEROES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. The Middle Ages, like Ancient Times, are recalled by many interesting tales. Some of them, such as the stories of King Arthur and his Knights, the story of Roland, and the Song of the Niebelungs, are only tales and not history. Others tell us about great kings, Charlemagne and St. Louis of France, Frederick the Redbeard of Germany, or St. Stephen of Hungary. The hero-king for England was Alfred, who fought bravely against the pirate Danes and finally conquered and persuaded many of them to live quietly under his rule.

KING ALFRED BEGAN TO REIGN IN 871. King Alfred was a skilful warrior, but he was also an excellent ruler in time of peace. When he was a boy he had shown his love of books. His mother once offered a beautifully written Saxon poem as a prize to the one of her sons who should be the first to learn it. Alfred could not yet read, but he had a ready memory, and with the aid of his teacher he learned the poem and won the prize.

At that time almost all books were written in Latin and few even of the clergy could read. During the long wars with the Danes many books had been destroyed. Men found battle-axes more useful than books and ceased to care about reading. King Alfred feared that the Saxons would soon become ignorant barbarians, and sent for priests and monks who were learned and were able to teach his clergy. He sent even into France for such men.

EARLY ENGLISH BOOKS. As it would be easier for people to learn to read books written in the language they spoke rather than in Latin, Alfred helped to translate several famous Latin books into English. Among these was a history written by a Roman before the Germans had overthrown the Roman Empire. This history told about the world of the Greeks and the Romans.

Alfred commanded some of his clergy to keep a record from year to year of things which happened in his kingdom. This record was called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and was the first history written in the English language. It was carefully kept for many years after Alfred's death. Another wise thing Alfred did was to collect the laws or "dooms" of the earlier kings, so that every one might know what the law required.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXTRACT FROM THE SAXON CHRONICLE From a copy in the British Museum]

THE BEGINNING OF A NAVY. Alfred has been called the creator of the English navy. He thought that the only way to keep the Danes from plundering his sh.o.r.es was to fight them on the sea. He built several ships which were bigger than the Danish ships, but they were not always victorious, for they could not follow the Danish ships into shallow water. Nevertheless, the Danes could not plunder England as easily as before.

THE NEW ARMY. Alfred organized his fighting men in a better way. In times past the men had been called upon to fight only when the Danes were near, but now he kept a third of his men ready all the time, and another third he placed in forts, so the rest were able to work in the fields in safety. There are good reasons why Englishmen regard Alfred as a hero.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR BEGAN TO RULE ENGLAND IN 1066. About a hundred and fifty years after Alfred died, William, duke of Normandy, crossed the Channel with an army, killed the English king in battle, and seized the throne. This was not altogether a misfortune to the English, for they came under the same ruler as the Normans and they shared in all that the men of the Continent were beginning to learn. For one thing, builders from the Continent taught the English to construct the great Norman churches or cathedrals which every traveler in England sees. Besides, William the Conqueror was a strong king and put down the chiefs or lords that were inclined to oppress the common people.

HENRY II. Henry II, one of William's successors, ruled over most of western France as well as over England. His officers and n.o.bles were tired out by his endless traveling in his lands, which extended from the banks of the river Loire in France to the borders of Scotland. All Englishmen and Americans should remember him with grat.i.tude because of the improvements he made in the ways of discovering the truth when disputes arose and were carried into courts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NORMANS CROSSING THE ENGLISH CHANNEL From the Bayeux Tapestry, embroidered in the time of William the Conqueror. The figures are worked on a band of linen two hundred and thirty feet long, and twenty inches wide. Worsteds of eight colors are used]

ORDEALS AND TRIALS BY BATTLE. Before Henry's reign it was the custom when a man was accused of a crime to find out the truth by arranging a wager of battle or what were called ordeals. The two most common ordeals were the ordeal by fire and the ordeal by water. In the ordeal by fire an iron was heated red-hot, and after it had been blessed by a priest it was put into the hand of the man the truth of whose word was being tested, and he had to carry it a certain number of feet. His hand was then bound up and left for three days. If at the end of that time the wound was healing, men believed he was innocent, for they thought G.o.d would keep an innocent man from being punished.

In the ordeal by water the man was tied and thrown into water which had been blessed by the priest. If he was guilty, the people thought the water would not receive him. If he sank at once, he was pulled out and treated as if he had told the truth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRIAL BY BATTLE After a drawing in an old ma.n.u.script]

A wager of battle was a fight between the two men whose dispute was to be settled, or between a man and his accuser. Each was armed with a hammer or a small battle-axe, and the one who gave up lost his case.

TRIAL BY JURY. King Henry introduced a better way of finding out the truth. He called upon twelve men from a neighborhood to come before the judges, to promise solemnly to tell what they knew about a matter, and then to decide which person was in the right. They were supposed to know about the facts, and they were allowed to talk the matter over with one another before they made a decision.

Later these men from the neighborhood were divided into two groups, one to tell what they knew and the other to listen and decide what was true. Those who told what they knew were called the witnesses, and those who listened and decided were called jurors. The name jurors came from a Latin word meaning to take an oath.

RICHARD THE LIONHEARTED. King Henry had two sons, Richard and John. Richard was the boldest and most skilful fighter of his time. When the news was brought to England that Jerusalem had been captured by the Mohammedans, he led an army to Palestine to recapture it. He failed to take the city, but he became famous throughout the East as a fearless warrior and was ever afterwards called the "Lionhearted." At his death his brother John became king. He was as cowardly and wicked as Richard was brave and generous.

THE GREAT CHARTER. The leaders of the people, the n.o.bles and the clergy, soon grew tired of John's wickedness. In 1215 they raised an army and threatened to take the kingdom from John and crown another prince as king. John was soon ready to promise anything in order to obtain power once more, and the n.o.bles and bishops met him at Runnymede on the river Thames, a few miles west of London, and compelled him to sign a list of promises. As the list contained sixty-three separate promises, it was called the Great Charter or Magna Charta. If John did not keep these promises, the lords and clergy agreed to make war on him, and he even said that this would be their duty.

PROMISES OF THE CHARTER. Many of the articles of the Great Charter were important only to the men of King John's day, but others are as important to us as to them. In these the king promised that every one should be treated justly. He said he would not refuse to listen to the complaints of those who thought they were wronged. The king also promised that he would not decide in favor of a rich man just because the rich man might offer him money. He would put no one in prison who had not been tried and found guilty by a jury. By another important promise the king said he would not levy new taxes without the consent of the chief men of the kingdom. This opened the way for the people to have something to say about how their money should be spent. This right is a very important part of what we call self-government.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A PORTION OF THE GREAT CHARTER]

PROMISES OF THE GREAT CHARTER RENEWED. In after times whenever the English thought a king was doing them a wrong they reminded him of the promises made by King John in the Great Charter and demanded that the promises be solemnly renewed.

In 1265 a great n.o.ble named Simon de Montfort asked many towns to send a number of their chief men to meet with the n.o.bles and clergy to talk over the conduct of the king. Others, even kings, soon followed Simon's example by asking the townsmen for advice about matters of government. After a while this became the custom. Occasionally the king wanted the advice of the clergy, the n.o.bles, and the townsmen at the same time and called them together. The meeting was called a parliament, that is, an a.s.sembly in which talking or discussion goes on.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Parliament House Westminster Hall Westminster Abbey--WHERE PARLIAMENT MET IN LONDON IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY]

THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. Only the most important n.o.bles or lords could go in person to the a.s.semblies, otherwise the meeting would be too large to do any business. The other lords chose certain ones from their number to go in place of all the rest. We call such men representatives. In this way, besides the men who represented the towns, there were present these n.o.bles who represented the landowners of the counties. Gradually these n.o.bles and the townsmen formed an a.s.sembly of their own, while the greater lords, the bishops, and abbots sat together in another a.s.sembly. The two a.s.semblies were called the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and the two made up the parliament.

AN a.s.sEMBLY OF REPRESENTATIVES. This parliament was a great invention. The English had discovered a better way of governing themselves than either the Greeks or the Romans. We call it the representative system. If a Roman citizen who lived far from Rome wanted to take part in the elections, he was obliged to leave his farm or his business and travel to Rome, for only the citizens who were at Rome could have a share in making the laws. It never occurred to the Romans that the citizens outside of Rome could send some of their number as representatives to Rome. The formation of the English parliament was an important step towards what we mean in America by "government of the people, for the people, and by the people."

QUESTIONS.

1. Mention the names of heroes or hero-kings of the Middle Ages. What stories have you learned about these heroes?

2. Who was the hero-king of the English? How did he early show his love of books? What did he do to help his people to a knowledge of books?

3. How did he succeed better than other kings in driving back the Danes? Why has he been called the creator of the English navy?

4. What was the name of the Norman duke who conquered the English and ruled over them? Did this conquest hinder or help them?

5. Why should we remember Henry II gratefully? Explain an ordeal and a trial by battle. How were the first juries formed and what did they do? How were they afterwards divided?