The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

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In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries of the Christian
aera, the reign of the gospel and of the church was extended over
Bulgaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Saxony, Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Poland, and Russia. ^78 The triumphs of apostolic zeal were
repeated in the iron age of Christianity; and the northern and
eastern regions of Europe submitted to a religion, more different
in theory than in practice, from the worship of their native
idols. A laudable ambition excited the monks both of Germany and
Greece, to visit the tents and huts of the Barbarians: poverty,
hardships, and dangers, were the lot of the first missionaries;
their courage was active and patient; their motive pure and
meritorious; their present reward consisted in the testimony of
their conscience and the respect of a grateful people; but the
fruitful harvest of their toils was inherited and enjoyed by the
proud and wealthy prelates of succeeding times. The first
conversions were free and spontaneous: a holy life and an
eloquent tongue were the only arms of the missionaries; but the
domestic fables of the Pagans were silenced by the miracles and
visions of the strangers; and the favorable temper of the chiefs
was accelerated by the dictates of vanity and interest. The
leaders of nations, who were saluted with the titles of kings and
saints, ^79 held it lawful and pious to impose the Catholic faith
on their subjects and neighbors; the coast of the Baltic, from
Holstein to the Gulf of Finland, was invaded under the standard
of the cross; and the reign of idolatry was closed by the
conversion of Lithuania in the fourteenth century. Yet truth and
candor must acknowledge, that the conversion of the North
imparted many temporal benefits both to the old and the new
Christians. The rage of war, inherent to the human species,
could not be healed by the evangelic precepts of charity and
peace; and the ambition of Catholic princes has renewed in every
age the calamities of hostile contention. But the admission of
the Barbarians into the pale of civil and ecclesiastical society
delivered Europe from the depredations, by sea and land, of the
Normans, the Hungarians, and the Russians, who learned to spare
their brethren and cultivate their possessions. ^80 The
establishment of law and order was promoted by the influence of
the clergy; and the rudiments of art and science were introduced
into the savage countries of the globe. The liberal piety of the
Russian princes engaged in their service the most skilful of the
Greeks, to decorate the cities and instruct the inhabitants: the
dome and the paintings of St. Sophia were rudely copied in the
churches of Kiow and Novogorod: the writings of the fathers were
translated into the Sclavonic idiom; and three hundred noble
youths were invited or compelled to attend the lessons of the
college of Jaroslaus. It should appear that Russia might have
derived an early and rapid improvement from her peculiar
connection with the church and state of Constantinople, which at
that age so justly despised the ignorance of the Latins. But the
Byzantine nation was servile, solitary, and verging to a hasty
decline: after the fall of Kiow, the navigation of the
Borysthenes was forgotten; the great princes of Wolodomir and
Moscow were separated from the sea and Christendom; and the
divided monarchy was oppressed by the ignominy and blindness of
Tartar servitude. ^81 The Sclavonic and Scandinavian kingdoms,
which had been converted by the Latin missionaries, were exposed,
it is true, to the spiritual jurisdiction and temporal claims of
the popes; ^82 but they were united in language and religious
worship, with each other, and with Rome; they imbibed the free
and generous spirit of the European republic, and gradually
shared the light of knowledge which arose on the western world.

[Footnote 78: Consult the Latin text, or English version, of
Mosheim's excellent History of the Church, under the first head
or section of each of these centuries.]

[Footnote 79: In the year 1000, the ambassadors of St. Stephen
received from Pope Silvester the title of King of Hungary, with a
diadem of Greek workmanship. It had been designed for the duke
of Poland: but the Poles, by their own confession, were yet too
barbarous to deserve an angelical and apostolical crown.
(Katona, Hist. Critic Regum Stirpis Arpadianae, tom. i. p. 1 -
20.)]

[Footnote 80: Listen to the exultations of Adam of Bremen, (A.D.
1080,) of which the substance is agreeable to truth: Ecce illa
ferocissima Danorum, &c., natio ..... jamdudum novit in Dei
laudibus Alleluia resonare ..... Ecce populus ille piraticus
..... suis nunc finibus contentus est. Ecce patria horribilis
semper inaccessa propter cultum idolorum ... praedicatores
veritatis ubique certatim admittit, &c., &c., (de Situ Daniae,
&c., p. 40, 41, edit. Elzevir; a curious and original prospect of
the north of Europe, and the introduction of Christianity.)]

[Footnote 81: The great princes removed in 1156 from Kiow, which
was ruined by the Tartars in 1240. Moscow became the seat of
empire in the xivth century. See the 1st and 2d volumes of
Levesque's History, and Mr. Coxe's Travels into the North, tom.
i. p. 241, &c.]

[Footnote 82: The ambassadors of St. Stephen had used the
reverential expressions of regnum oblatum, debitam obedientiam,
&c., which were most rigorously interpreted by Gregory VII.; and
the Hungarian Catholics are distressed between the sanctity of
the pope and the independence of the crown, (Katona, Hist.
Critica, tom. i. p. 20 - 25, tom. ii. p. 304, 346, 360, &c.)]

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.

Part I.

The Saracens, Franks, And Greeks, In Italy. - First
Adventures And Settlement Of The Normans. - Character And
Conquest Of Robert Guiscard, Duke Of Apulia - Deliverance Of
Sicily By His Brother Roger. - Victories Of Robert Over The
Emperors Of The East And West. - Roger, King Of Sicily, Invades
Africa And Greece. - The Emperor Manuel Comnenus. - Wars Of The
Greeks And Normans. - Extinction Of The Normans.

The three great nations of the world, the Greeks, the
Saracens, and the Franks, encountered each other on the theatre
of Italy. ^1 The southern provinces, which now compose the
kingdom of Naples, were subject, for the most part, to the
Lombard dukes and princes of Beneventum; ^2 so powerful in war,
that they checked for a moment the genius of Charlemagne; so
liberal in peace, that they maintained in their capital an
academy of thirty-two philosophers and grammarians. The division
of this flourishing state produced the rival principalities of
Benevento, Salerno, and Capua; and the thoughtless ambition or
revenge of the competitors invited the Saracens to the ruin of
their common inheritance. During a calamitous period of two
hundred years, Italy was exposed to a repetition of wounds, which
the invaders were not capable of healing by the union and
tranquility of a perfect conquest. Their frequent and almost
annual squadrons issued from the port of Palermo, and were
entertained with too much indulgence by the Christians of Naples:
the more formidable fleets were prepared on the African coast;
and even the Arabs of Andalusia were sometimes tempted to assist
or oppose the Moslems of an adverse sect. In the revolution of
human events, a new ambuscade was concealed in the Caudine Forks,
the fields of Cannae were bedewed a second time with the blood of
the Africans, and the sovereign of Rome again attacked or
defended the walls of Capua and Tarentum. A colony of Saracens
had been planted at Bari, which commands the entrance of the
Adriatic Gulf; and their impartial depredations provoked the
resentment, and conciliated the union of the two emperors. An
offensive alliance was concluded between Basil the Macedonian,
the first of his race, and Lewis the great-grandson of
Charlemagne; ^3 and each party supplied the deficiencies of his
associate. It would have been imprudent in the Byzantine monarch
to transport his stationary troops of Asia to an Italian
campaign; and the Latin arms would have been insufficient if his
superior navy had not occupied the mouth of the Gulf. The
fortress of Bari was invested by the infantry of the Franks, and
by the cavalry and galleys of the Greeks; and, after a defence of
four years, the Arabian emir submitted to the clemency of Lewis,
who commanded in person the operations of the siege. This
important conquest had been achieved by the concord of the East
and West; but their recent amity was soon imbittered by the
mutual complaints of jealousy and pride. The Greeks assumed as
their own the merit of the conquest and the pomp of the triumph;
extolled the greatness of their powers, and affected to deride
the intemperance and sloth of the handful of Barbarians who
appeared under the banners of the Carlovingian prince. His reply
is expressed with the eloquence of indignation and truth: "We
confess the magnitude of your preparation," says the great-
grandson of Charlemagne. "Your armies were indeed as numerous as
a cloud of summer locusts, who darken the day, flap their wings,
and, after a short flight, tumble weary and breathless to the
ground. Like them, ye sunk after a feeble effort; ye were
vanquished by your own cowardice; and withdrew from the scene of
action to injure and despoil our Christian subjects of the
Sclavonian coast. We were few in number, and why were we few?
Because, after a tedious expectation of your arrival, I had
dismissed my host, and retained only a chosen band of warriors to
continue the blockade of the city. If they indulged their
hospitable feasts in the face of danger and death, did these
feasts abate the vigor of their enterprise? Is it by your fasting
that the walls of Bari have been overturned? Did not these
valiant Franks, diminished as they were by languor and fatigue,
intercept and vanish the three most powerful emirs of the
Saracens? and did not their defeat precipitate the fall of the
city? Bari is now fallen; Tarentum trembles; Calabria will be
delivered; and, if we command the sea, the Island of Sicily may
be rescued from the hands of the infidels. My brother,"
accelerate (a name most offensive to the vanity of the Greek,)
"accelerate your naval succors, respect your allies, and distrust
your flatterers." ^4

[Footnote 1: For the general history of Italy in the ixth and xth
centuries, I may properly refer to the vth, vith, and viith books
of Sigonius de Regno Italiae, (in the second volume of his works,
Milan, 1732;) the Annals of Baronius, with the criticism of Pagi;
the viith and viiith books of the Istoria Civile del Regno di
Napoli of Giannone; the viith and viiith volumes (the octavo
edition) of the Annali d' Italia of Muratori, and the 2d volume
of the Abrege Chronologique of M. de St. Marc, a work which,
under a superficial title, contains much genuine learning and
industry. But my long-accustomed reader will give me credit for
saying, that I myself have ascended to the fountain head, as
often as such ascent could be either profitable or possible; and
that I have diligently turned over the originals in the first
volumes of Muratori's great collection of the Scriptores Rerum
Italicarum.]

[Footnote 2: Camillo Pellegrino, a learned Capuan of the last
century, has illustrated the history of the duchy of Beneventum,
in his two books Historia Principum Longobardorum, in the
Scriptores of Muratori tom. ii. pars i. p. 221 - 345, and tom. v.
p 159 - 245.]

[Footnote 3: See Constantin. Porphyrogen. de Thematibus, l. ii. c
xi. in Vit Basil. c. 55, p. 181.]

[Footnote 4: The oriental epistle of the emperor Lewis II. to the
emperor Basil, a curious record of the age, was first published
by Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 871, No. 51 - 71,) from the
Vatican Ms. of Erchempert, or rather of the anonymous historian
of Salerno.] These lofty hopes were soon extinguished by the
death of Lewis, and the decay of the Carlovingian house; and
whoever might deserve the honor, the Greek emperors, Basil, and
his son Leo, secured the advantage, of the reduction of Bari The
Italians of Apulia and Calabria were persuaded or compelled to
acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from Mount
Garganus to the Bay of Salerno, leaves the far greater part of
the kingdom of Naples under the dominion of the Eastern empire.
Beyond that line, the dukes or republics of Amalfi ^5 and Naples,
who had never forfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced in
the neighborhood of their lawful sovereign; and Amalfi was
enriched by supplying Europe with the produce and manufactures of
Asia. But the Lombard princes of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua,
^6 were reluctantly torn from the communion of the Latin world,
and too often violated their oaths of servitude and tribute. The
city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as the metropolis of the
new theme or province of Lombardy: the title of patrician, and
afterwards the singular name of Catapan, ^7 was assigned to the
supreme governor; and the policy both of the church and state was
modelled in exact subordination to the throne of Constantinople.
As long as the sceptre was disputed by the princes of Italy,
their efforts were feeble and adverse; and the Greeks resisted or
eluded the forces of Germany, which descended from the Alps under
the Imperial standard of the Othos. The first and greatest of
those Saxon princes was compelled to relinquish the siege of
Bari: the second, after the loss of his stoutest bishops and
barons, escaped with honor from the bloody field of Crotona. On
that day the scale of war was turned against the Franks by the
valor of the Saracens. ^8 These corsairs had indeed been driven
by the Byzantine fleets from the fortresses and coasts of Italy;
but a sense of interest was more prevalent than superstition or
resentment, and the caliph of Egypt had transported forty
thousand Moslems to the aid of his Christian ally. The
successors of Basil amused themselves with the belief, that the
conquest of Lombardy had been achieved, and was still preserved
by the justice of their laws, the virtues of their ministers, and
the gratitude of a people whom they had rescued from anarchy and
oppression. A series of rebellions might dart a ray of truth
into the palace of Constantinople; and the illusions of flattery
were dispelled by the easy and rapid success of the Norman
adventurers.

[Footnote 5: See an excellent Dissertation de Republica
Amalphitana, in the Appendix (p. 1 - 42) of Henry Brencman's
Historia Pandectarum, (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722, in 4to.)]

[Footnote 6: Your master, says Nicephorus, has given aid and
protection prinminibus Capuano et Beneventano, servis meis, quos
oppugnare dispono .... Nova (potius nota) res est quod eorum
patres et avi nostro Imperio tributa dederunt, (Liutprand, in
Legat. p. 484.) Salerno is not mentioned, yet the prince changed
his party about the same time, and Camillo Pellegrino (Script.
Rer. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 285) has nicely discerned this
change in the style of the anonymous Chronicle. On the rational
ground of history and language, Liutprand (p. 480) had asserted
the Latin claim to Apulia and Calabria.]

[Footnote 7: See the Greek and Latin Glossaries of Ducange
(catapanus,) and his notes on the Alexias, (p. 275.) Against the
contemporary notion, which derives it from juxta omne, he treats
it as a corruption of the Latin capitaneus. Yet M. de St. Marc
has accurately observed (Abrege Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 924)
that in this age the capitanei were not captains, but only nobles
of the first rank, the great valvassors of Italy.]

[Footnote 8: (the Lombards), (Leon. Tactic. c. xv. p. 741.) The
little Chronicle of Beneventum (tom. ii. pars i. p. 280) gives a
far different character of the Greeks during the five years (A.D.
891 - 896) that Leo was master of the city.]

The revolution of human affairs had produced in Apulia and
Calabria a melancholy contrast between the age of Pythagoras and
the tenth century of the Christian aera. At the former period,
the coast of Great Greece (as it was then styled) was planted
with free and opulent cities: these cities were peopled with
soldiers, artists, and philosophers; and the military strength of
Tarentum; Sybaris, or Crotona, was not inferior to that of a
powerful kingdom. At the second aera, these once flourishing
provinces were clouded with ignorance impoverished by tyranny,
and depopulated by Barbarian war nor can we severely accuse the
exaggeration of a contemporary, that a fair and ample district
was reduced to the same desolation which had covered the earth
after the general deluge. ^9 Among the hostilities of the Arabs,
the Franks, and the Greeks, in the southern Italy, I shall select
two or three anecdotes expressive of their national manners. 1.
It was the amusement of the Saracens to profane, as well as to
pillage, the monasteries and churches. At the siege of Salerno,
a Mussulman chief spread his couch on the communion-table, and on
that altar sacrificed each night the virginity of a Christian
nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam in the roof
was accidentally or dexterously thrown down on his head; and the
death of the lustful emir was imputed to the wrath of Christ,
which was at length awakened to the defence of his faithful
spouse. ^10 2. The Saracens besieged the cities of Beneventum and
Capua: after a vain appeal to the successors of Charlemagne, the
Lombards implored the clemency and aid of the Greek emperor. ^11
A fearless citizen dropped from the walls, passed the
intrenchments, accomplished his commission, and fell into the
hands of the Barbarians as he was returning with the welcome
news. They commanded him to assist their enterprise, and deceive
his countrymen, with the assurance that wealth and honors should
be the reward of his falsehood, and that his sincerity would be
punished with immediate death. He affected to yield, but as soon
as he was conducted within hearing of the Christians on the
rampart, "Friends and brethren," he cried with a loud voice, "be
bold and patient, maintain the city; your sovereign is informed
of your distress, and your deliverers are at hand. I know my
doom, and commit my wife and children to your gratitude." The
rage of the Arabs confirmed his evidence; and the self-devoted
patriot was transpierced with a hundred spears. He deserves to
live in the memory of the virtuous, but the repetition of the
same story in ancient and modern times, may sprinkle some doubts
on the reality of this generous deed. ^12 3. The recital of a
third incident may provoke a smile amidst the horrors of war.
Theobald, marquis of Camerino and Spoleto, ^13 supported the
rebels of Beneventum; and his wanton cruelty was not incompatible
in that age with the character of a hero. His captives of the
Greek nation or party were castrated without mercy, and the
outrage was aggravated by a cruel jest, that he wished to present
the emperor with a supply of eunuchs, the most precious ornaments
of the Byzantine court. The garrison of a castle had been
defeated in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the
customary operation. But the sacrifice was disturbed by the
intrusion of a frantic female, who, with bleeding cheeks
dishevelled hair, and importunate clamors, compelled the marquis
to listen to her complaint. "Is it thus," she cried, 'ye
magnanimous heroes, that ye wage war against women, against women
who have never injured ye, and whose only arms are the distaff
and the loom?" Theobald denied the charge, and protested that,
since the Amazons, he had never heard of a female war. "And how,"
she furiously exclaimed, "can you attack us more directly, how
can you wound us in a more vital part, than by robbing our
husbands of what we most dearly cherish, the source of our joys,
and the hope of our posterity? The plunder of our flocks and
herds I have endured without a murmur, but this fatal injury,
this irreparable loss, subdues my patience, and calls aloud on
the justice of heaven and earth." A general laugh applauded her
eloquence; the savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, were moved by
her ridiculous, yet rational despair; and with the deliverance of
the captives, she obtained the restitution of her effects. As
she returned in triumph to the castle, she was overtaken by a
messenger, to inquire, in the name of Theobald, what punishment
should be inflicted on her husband, were he again taken in arms.
"Should such," she answered without hesitation, "be his guilt and
misfortune, he has eyes, and a nose, and hands, and feet. These
are his own, and these he may deserve to forfeit by his personal
offences. But let my lord be pleased to spare what his little
handmaid presumes to claim as her peculiar and lawful property."
^14

[Footnote 9: Calabriam adeunt, eamque inter se divisam
reperientes funditus depopulati sunt, (or depopularunt,) ita ut
deserta sit velut in diluvio. Such is the text of Herempert, or
Erchempert, according to the two editions of Carraccioli (Rer.
Italic. Script. tom. v. p. 23) and of Camillo Pellegrino, tom.
ii. pars i. p. 246.) Both were extremely scarce, when they were
reprinted by Muratori.]

[Footnote 10: Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 874, No. 2) has drawn
this story from a Ms. of Erchempert, who died at Capua only
fifteen years after the event. But the cardinal was deceived by
a false title, and we can only quote the anonymous Chronicle of
Salerno, (Paralipomena, c. 110,) composed towards the end of the
xth century, and published in the second volume of Muratori's
Collection. See the Dissertations of Camillo Pellegrino, tom.
ii. pars i. p. 231 - 281, &c.]

[Footnote 11: Constantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil. c. 58,
p. 183) is the original author of this story. He places it under
the reigns of Basil and Lewis II.; yet the reduction of
Beneventum by the Greeks is dated A.D. 891, after the decease of
both of those princes.]

[Footnote 12: In the year 663, the same tragedy is described by
Paul the Deacon, (de Gestis Langobard. l. v. c. 7, 8, p. 870,
871, edit. Grot.,) under the walls of the same city of
Beneventum. But the actors are different, and the guilt is
imputed to the Greeks themselves, which in the Byzantine edition
is applied to the Saracens. In the late war in Germany, M.
D'Assas, a French officer of the regiment of Auvergne, is said to
have devoted himself in a similar manner. His behavior is the
more heroic, as mere silence was required by the enemy who had
made him prisoner, (Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. c. 33, tom. ix.
p. 172.)]

[Footnote 13: Theobald, who is styled Heros by Liutprand, was
properly duke of Spoleto and marquis of Camerino, from the year
926 to 935. The title and office of marquis (commander of the
march or frontier) was introduced into Italy by the French
emperors, (Abrege Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 545 - 732 &c.)]

[Footnote 14: Liutprand, Hist. l. iv. c. iv. in the Rerum Italic.
Script. tom. i. pars i. p. 453, 454. Should the licentiousness
of the tale be questioned, I may exclaim, with poor Sterne, that
it is hard if I may not transcribe with caution what a bishop
could write without scruple What if I had translated, ut viris
certetis testiculos amputare, in quibus nostri corporis
refocillatio, &c.?]

The establishment of the Normans in the kingdoms of Naples
and Sicily ^15 is an event most romantic in its origin, and in
its consequences most important both to Italy and the Eastern
empire. The broken provinces of the Greeks, Lombards, and
Saracens, were exposed to every invader, and every sea and land
were invaded by the adventurous spirit of the Scandinavian
pirates. After a long indulgence of rapine and slaughter, a fair
and ample territory was accepted, occupied, and named, by the
Normans of France: they renounced their gods for the God of the
Christians; ^16 and the dukes of Normandy acknowledged themselves
the vassals of the successors of Charlemagne and Capet. The
savage fierceness which they had brought from the snowy mountains
of Norway was refined, without being corrupted, in a warmer
climate; the companions of Rollo insensibly mingled with the
natives; they imbibed the manners, language, ^17 and gallantry,
of the French nation; and in a martial age, the Normans might
claim the palm of valor and glorious achievements. Of the
fashionable superstitions, they embraced with ardor the
pilgrimages of Rome, Italy, and the Holy Land. ^! In this active
devotion, the minds and bodies were invigorated by exercise:
danger was the incentive, novelty the recompense; and the
prospect of the world was decorated by wonder, credulity, and
ambitious hope. They confederated for their mutual defence; and
the robbers of the Alps, who had been allured by the garb of a
pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm of a warrior. In one of
these pious visits to the cavern of Mount Garganus in Apulia,
which had been sanctified by the apparition of the archangel
Michael, ^18 they were accosted by a stranger in the Greek habit,
but who soon revealed himself as a rebel, a fugitive, and a
mortal foe of the Greek empire. His name was Melo; a noble
citizen of Bari, who, after an unsuccessful revolt, was compelled
to seek new allies and avengers of his country. The bold
appearance of the Normans revived his hopes and solicited his
confidence: they listened to the complaints, and still more to
the promises, of the patriot. The assurance of wealth
demonstrated the justice of his cause; and they viewed, as the
inheritance of the brave, the fruitful land which was oppressed
by effeminate tyrants. On their return to Normandy, they kindled
a spark of enterprise, and a small but intrepid band was freely
associated for the deliverance of Apulia. They passed the Alps
by separate roads, and in the disguise of pilgrims; but in the
neighborhood of Rome they were saluted by the chief of Bari, who
supplied the more indigent with arms and horses, and instantly
led them to the field of action. In the first conflict, their
valor prevailed; but in the second engagement they were
overwhelmed by the numbers and military engines of the Greeks,
and indignantly retreated with their faces to the enemy. ^* The
unfortunate Melo ended his life a suppliant at the court of
Germany: his Norman followers, excluded from their native and
their promised land, wandered among the hills and valleys of
Italy, and earned their daily subsistence by the sword. To that
formidable sword the princes of Capua, Beneventum, Salerno, and
Naples, alternately appealed in their domestic quarrels; the
superior spirit and discipline of the Normans gave victory to the
side which they espoused; and their cautious policy observed the
balance of power, lest the preponderance of any rival state
should render their aid less important, and their service less
profitable. Their first asylum was a strong camp in the depth of
the marshes of Campania: but they were soon endowed by the
liberality of the duke of Naples with a more plentiful and
permanent seat. Eight miles from his residence, as a bulwark
against Capua, the town of Aversa was built and fortified for
their use; and they enjoyed as their own the corn and fruits, the
meadows and groves, of that fertile district. The report of
their success attracted every year new swarms of pilgrims and
soldiers: the poor were urged by necessity; the rich were excited
by hope; and the brave and active spirits of Normandy were
impatient of ease and ambitious of renown. The independent
standard of Aversa afforded shelter and encouragement to the
outlaws of the province, to every fugitive who had escaped from
the injustice or justice of his superiors; and these foreign
associates were quickly assimilated in manners and language to
the Gallic colony. The first leader of the Normans was Count
Rainulf; and, in the origin of society, preeminence of rank is
the reward and the proof of superior merit. ^19 ^*