EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

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BULGARIANS

The Bulgarians, a people akin to the Huns and Avars, made their appearance
south of the lower Danube in the seventh century. For more than three
hundred years these barbarians, brutal, fierce, and cruel, were a menace
to the empire. At one time they threatened Constantinople and even killed
a Roman emperor, whose skull was converted into a drinking cup to grace
their feasts. The Bulgarians settled in the region which now bears their
name and gradually adopted the speech and customs of the Slavs. Modern
Bulgaria is essentially a Slavic state.

RUSSIANS

The empire was attacked in southeastern Europe by still other barbarians,
among whom were the Russians. This Slavic people, led by chieftains from
Sweden, descended the Dnieper and Dniester rivers and, crossing the Black
Sea, appeared before the walls of Constantinople. Already, in the tenth
century, that city formed the goal of Russian ambitions. The invaders are
said to have made four attempts to plunder its treasures. Though
unsuccessful, they compelled the emperors from time to time to pay them
tribute.

WORK OF THE EMPIRE IN EUROPE

Christianity reached the invaders of the Balkan peninsula from
Constantinople. The Serbians, Bulgarians, and Russians were converted in
the ninth and tenth centuries. With Christianity they received the use of
letters and some knowledge of Roman law and methods of government.
Constantinople was to them, henceforth, such a center of religion and
culture as Rome was to the Germans. By becoming the teacher of the vast
Slavic peoples of the Balkan peninsula and European Russia, the empire
performed another important service to civilization.

118. BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION

STRENGTH AND WEALTH OF THE EMPIRE

The Roman Empire in the East, though often menaced by barbarian foes, long
continued to be the leading European power. Its highest degree of
prosperity was reached between the middle of the ninth and the middle of
the eleventh century. The provinces in Asia Minor and the Balkan peninsula
produced a vast annual revenue, much of which went for defense. It was
necessary to maintain a large, well-disciplined army, great fleets and
engines of war, and the extensive fortifications of Constantinople and the
frontier cities. Confronted by so many dangers, the empire could hope to
survive only by making itself a strong military state.

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

The merchant ships of Constantinople, during the earlier part of the
Middle Ages, carried on most of the commerce of the Mediterranean and the
Black Sea. The products of Byzantine industry, including silks,
embroideries, mosaics, enamels, and metal work, were exchanged at that
city for the spices, drugs, and precious stones of the East. Byzantine
wares also found their way into Italy and France and, by way of the
Russian rivers, reached the heart of eastern Europe. Russia, in turn,
furnished Constantinople with large quantities of honey, wax, fur, wool,
grain, and slaves. A traveler of the twelfth century well described the
city as a metropolis "common to all the world, without distinction of
country or religion."

CHARACTER OF BYZANTINE ART

Many of the Roman emperors from Justinian onward were great builders.
Byzantine architecture, seen especially in the churches, became a leading
form of art. Its most striking feature is the dome, which replaces the
flat, wooden roof used in the basilican [15] Churches of Italy. The
exterior of a Byzantine church is plain and unimposing, but the interior
is adorned on a magnificent scale. The eyes of the worshiper are dazzled
by the walls faced with marble slabs of variegated colors, by the columns
of polished marble, jasper, and porphyry, and by the brilliant mosaic
pictures of gilded glass. The entire impression is one of richness and
splendor. Byzantine artists, though mediocre painters and sculptors,
excelled in all kinds of decorative work. Their carvings in wood, ivory,
and metal, together with their embroideries, enamels, and miniatures,
enjoyed a high reputation throughout medieval Europe.

INFLUENCE OF BYZANTINE ART

Byzantine art, from the sixth century to the present time, has exerted a
wide influence. Sicily, southern Italy, Rome, Ravenna, and Venice contain
many examples of Byzantine churches. Italian painting in the Middle Ages
seems to have been derived directly from the mosaic pictures of the
artists of Constantinople. Russia received not only its religion but also
its art from Constantinople. The great Russian churches of Moscow and
Petrograd follow Byzantine models. Even the Arabs, in spite of their
hostility to Christianity, borrowed Byzantine artists and profited by
their services. The Mohammedan mosques of Damascus, Cairo, and Cordova,
both in methods of construction and in details of ornamentation, reproduce
Byzantine styles.

LITERATURE AND LEARNING

The libraries and museums of Constantinople preserved classical learning.
In the flourishing schools of that city the wisest men of the day taught
philosophy, law, medicine, and science to thousands of students. The
professors figured among the important persons of the court: official
documents mention the "prince of the rhetoricians" and the "consul of the
philosophers." Many of the emperors showed a taste for scholarship; one of
them was said to have been so devoted to study that he almost forgot to
reign. When kings in western Europe were so ignorant that they could with
difficulty scrawl their names, eastern emperors wrote books and composed
poetry. It is true that Byzantine scholars were erudite rather than
original. Impressed by the great treasures of knowledge about them, they
found it difficult to strike out into new, unbeaten paths. Most students
were content to make huge collections of extracts and notes from the books
which antiquity had bequeathed to them. Even this task was useful,
however, for their encyclopedias preserved much information which
otherwise would have been lost. During the Middle Ages the East cherished
the productions of classical learning, until the time came when the West
was ready to receive them and to profit by them.

119. CONSTANTINOPLE

POSITION OF CONSTANTINOPLE

The heart of Byzantine civilization was Constantinople. The city lies on a
peninsula between the Sea of Marmora and the spacious harbor called the
Golden Horn. Washed on three sides by the water and, like Rome, enthroned
upon seven hills, Constantinople occupies a site justly celebrated as the
noblest in the world. It stands in Europe, looks on Asia, and commands the
entrance to both the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. As a sixteenth
century writer pointed out, Constantinople "is a city which Nature herself
has designed to be the mistress of the world."

[Illustration: Map, VICINITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE]

CONSTANTINOPLE AS A NATURAL CITADEL

The position of Constantinople made it difficult to attack but easy to
defend. To surround the city an enemy would have to be strong upon both
land and sea. A hostile army, advancing through Asia Minor, found its
further advance arrested by the long, winding channel which the Bosporus,
the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles combine to form. A hostile fleet,
coming by way of the Mediterranean or the Black Sea, faced grave
difficulties in attempting to penetrate the narrow strait into which this
waterway contracts at each extremity. On the landward side the line of
defense was so short--about four miles in width--that it could be strongly
fortified and held by a small force against large numbers. During the
Middle Ages the rear of the city was protected by two huge walls, the
remains of which are still visible. Constantinople, in fact, was all but
impregnable. Though each new century brought a fresh horde of enemies, it
resisted siege after siege and long continued to be the capital of what
was left of the Roman Empire. [16]

MONUMENTS OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Constantine had laid out his new city on an imposing scale and adorned it
with the choicest treasures of art from Greece, Italy, and the Orient.
Fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, eight public baths, and several
triumphal arches are assigned to the founder of the city. His most stately
building was the Hippodrome, an immense structure devoted to chariot races
and all sorts of popular gatherings. There new emperors, after their
consecration in Sancta Sophia, were greeted by their subjects; there civic
festivals were held; and there the last Roman triumphs were celebrated.
Theodosius the Great built the principal gate of Constantinople, the
"Golden Gate," as it was called, by which the emperors made their solemn
entry into the city. But it was Justinian who, after Constantine, did most
to adorn the new capital by the Bosporus. He is said to have erected more
than twenty-five churches in Constantinople and its suburbs. Of these, the
most beautiful is the world-famed cathedral dedicated by Justinian to
"Holy Wisdom." On its completion the emperor declared that he had
surpassed Solomon's Temple. Though nearly fourteen hundred years old and
now defaced by vandal hands, it remains perhaps the supreme achievement of
Christian architecture.

[Illustration: SANCTA SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE
Built by Justinian and dedicated on Christmas Day, 538 A.D. The main
building is roofed over by a great central dome 107 feet in diameter and
179 feet in height. After the Ottoman Turks turned the church into a
mosque, a minaret was erected at each of the four exterior angles. The
outside of Sancta Sophia is somewhat disappointing, but the interior, with
its walls and columns of polished marble granite and porphyry, is
magnificent. The crystal balustrades, pulpits, and large metal disks are
Turkish.]

[Illustration: THE THREE EXISTING MONUMENTS OF THE HIPPODROME,
CONSTANTINOPLE.

These three monuments preserve for us the exact line of the low wall or
_spina_, which divided the race course and around which the charioteers
drove their furious steeds. The obelisk was transported from Egypt by
Constantine. Between it and the crumbling tower beyond is a pillar of
three brazen serpents, originally set up at Delphi by the Greeks, after
the battle of Plataea. On this trophy were engraved the names of the
various states that sent soldiers to fight the Persians.]

[Illustration: Map, CONSTANTINOPLE]

HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Excepting Athens and Rome, no other European city can lay claim to so long
and so important a history as Constantinople. Her day came after theirs
was done. Throughout the Middle Ages Constantinople remained the most
important city in Europe. When London, Paris, and Vienna were small and
mean towns, Constantinople was a large and flourishing metropolis. The
renown of the city penetrated even into barbarian lands. The Scandinavians
called it Micklegarth, the "Great City"; the Russians knew of it as
Tsarigrad, the "City of the Caesars." But its own people best described it
as the "City guarded by God." Here, for more than eleven centuries, was
the capital of the Roman Empire and the center of Eastern Christendom.

STUDIES

1. Compare the area of the Roman Empire in the East in 395 A.D. with its
area in 800 A.D. (maps between pages 222-223 and facing page 308).

2. Compare the respective areas in 800 A.D. of the Roman Empire in the
East and Charlemagne's empire.

3. On the map, page 338, locate Adrianople, Gallipoli, Nicaea, the
Bosporus, Sea of Marmora, and Dardanelles.

4. Who were Belisarius, Chosroes II, and Heraclius?

5. In your opinion which of the two rival imperial lines after 800 A.D.
had the better title to represent ancient Rome?

6. Why has Justinian been called the "lawgiver of civilization"?

7. Why was it necessary to codify Roman law? Is the English Common law
codified?

8. Compare the work of Alexandrian and Byzantine scholars in preserving
learning.

9. "The Byzantines were the teachers of the Slavs, as the Romans were of
the Germans." Comment on this statement.

10. The Byzantine Empire was once called "a gigantic mass of mould, a
thousand years old." Does this seem a fair description?

11. "The history of medieval civilization is, in large measure, the
history of the Roman Empire in the East." Comment on this statement.

12. Show that Constantinople formed "a natural citadel."

13. On the map, page 340, trace the successive walls of Constantinople.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The fall of the empire came in 1453 A.D., when Constantinople was
captured by the Ottoman Turks.

[2] See pages 311-312, 317-318.

[3] See page 245.

[4] See page 300.

[5] See page 244.

[6] See the map, page 301.

[7] Roman law still prevails in the province of Quebec and the state of
Louisiana, territories formerly under French control, and in all the
Spanish-American countries.

[8] In Greek, _Hagia Sophia_, "Holy Wisdom."

[9] See page 302.

[10] See page 219.

[11] So named from one of their leaders.

[12] The word _slova_ means "speech"; the Slavs are those who speak the
same language.

[13] See pages 309, 315.

[14] A more accurate designation than Servia. Originally, all Slavic
peoples called themselves Serbs.

[15] See page 284.

[16] Of the eight sieges to which Constantinople was subjected in medieval
times, only two succeeded. In 1204 A.D. it was captured by the Venetians
and in 1453 A.D., by the Ottoman Turks. See pages 477 and 492.

CHAPTER XV

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST TO 1054 A.D. [1]

120. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

A preceding chapter has traced the early history of Christianity. We there
saw how the new religion appeared in the Orient, how it spread rapidly
over the Roman Empire, how it engaged with the imperial government in the
long conflict called the Persecutions, how the emperor Constantine, after
his conversion, placed it on an equality with paganism, and how at the end
of the fourth century the emperor Theodosius made it the state religion.
By this time the Church had become a great and powerful organization, with
fixed laws, with a graded system of officers, and with councils attended
by clergy from all parts of the Roman world. To this organization the word
Catholic, that is, "universal," came to be applied. Membership in the
Catholic Church, secured only by baptism, was believed to be essential to
salvation. As St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, had said, "He can no longer
have God for his Father who has not the Church for his Mother."

THE EPISCOPATE

The first three centuries of Christianity witnessed the development of the
episcopal system in the Church. Each provincial city had its bishop,
assisted by priests and deacons. An archbishop (sometimes called a
metropolitan) presided over the bishops of each province, and a patriarch
had jurisdiction, in turn, over metropolitans. This graded arrangement of
ecclesiastical officers, from the lowest to the highest, helped to make
the Church centralized and strong. It appears to have been modeled, almost
unconsciously, on the government of the Roman Empire. [2]

THE PATRIARCHS

The development of the patriarchate calls for special notice. At the time
of the Council of Nicaea [3] there were three patriarchs, namely, the
bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. These cities ranked among the
most important in the Roman world. It was only natural, therefore, that
the churches established in them should be singled out for preeminence.
Some years after the removal of the capital to Constantinople, the bishop
of that imperial city was recognized as a patriarch at a general council
of the Church. In the fifth century the bishop of Jerusalem received the
same dignity. Henceforth there were five patriarchs--four in the East but
only one in the West.

CLERGY AND LAITY

The Christian Church was a very democratic organization. Patriarchs,
archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons were drawn from all ranks of
life. No special training at first was considered necessary to fit them
for their duties, though the more celebrated ministers were often highly
educated. To eke out their salaries the clergy sometimes carried on
business as farmers and shopkeepers. Where, however, a church had
sufficient funds to support its bishop, his engagement in secular affairs
was discouraged and finally prohibited. In the fourth century, as earlier,
priests and bishops were generally married men. The sentiment in favor of
celibacy for the clergy became very pronounced during the early Middle
Ages, especially in the West, and led at length to the general abandonment
of priestly marriage in those parts of Europe where papal influence
prevailed. Distinctive garments for clergymen did not begin to come into
use until the fifth century, when some of them began to don clothing of a
more sober hue than was fashionable at the time. Clerical vestments were
developed from two pieces of ancient Roman dress--the tunic and the toga.
[4] Thus the clergy were gradually separated from the people, or laity, by
differences in dress, by their celibate lives, and by their abstention
from worldly occupations.

HERESIES

While the Church was perfecting her organization, she was also elaborating
her doctrines. Theologians engaged in many controversies upon such
subjects as the connection of Christ with God and the nature of the
Trinity. In order to obtain an authoritative expression of Christian
opinion, councils of the higher clergy were held, at which the opposing
views were debated and a decision was reached. The Council of Nicaea,
which condemned Arianism, formed the first, and one of the most important,
of these general gatherings of the Church. After the Church had once
expressed itself on any matter of Christian belief, it was regarded as
unlawful to maintain a contrary opinion. Those who did so were called
heretics, and their teachings, heresies. The emperor Theodosius, whose
severe laws finally shattered the ancient paganism, [5] devoted even more
attention to stamping out heresies among his Christian subjects. He
prohibited meetings of heretics, burned their books, and threatened them
with death if they persisted in their peculiar doctrines. During his reign
a Spanish bishop and six of his partisans were executed for holding
unorthodox beliefs. This was the beginning of the persecutions for heresy.

WORSHIP

As soon as Christianity had triumphed in the Roman Empire, thus becoming
the religion of the rich and powerful as well as the religion of the poor
and lowly, more attention was devoted to the conduct of worship.
Magnificent church buildings were often erected. Their architects seem to
have followed as models the basilicas, or public halls, which formed so
familiar a sight in Roman cities. [6] Church interiors were adorned with
paintings, mosaic pictures, images of saints and martyrs, and the figure
of the cross. Lighted candles on the altars and the burning of fragrant
incense lent an additional impressiveness to worship. Beautiful prayers
and hymns were composed. Some of the early Christian hymns, such as the
_Gloria in Excelsis_ and the _Te Deum Laudamus_, are still sung in our
churches. Organs did not come into use until the seventh century, and then
only in the West, but church bells, summoning the worshiper to divine
service, early became attached to Christian edifices.

[Illustration: RELIGIOUS MUSIC
From a window of the cathedral of Bourges, a city in central France. Shows
a pipe organ and chimes.]

SUNDAY

The Christians from the start appear to have observed "the first day of
the week" [7] in memory of Christ's resurrection. They attended public
worship on the Lord's Day, but otherwise did not rigidly abstain from
worldly business and amusements. The Jewish element in some churches, and
especially in the East, was strong enough to secure an additional
observance of Saturday as a weekly festival. Saturday long continued to be
marked by religious assemblies and feasting, though not by any compulsory
cessation of the ordinary occupations. During the fourth century Sunday,
as the Lord's Day was now generally called, came more and more to be kept
as a day of obligatory rest. Constantine's Sunday law [8] formed the first
of a long series of imperial edicts imposing the observance of that day as
a legal duty. In this manner Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath on the
seventh day of the week, was dedicated wholly to the exercises of
religion.

FESTIVALS

The great yearly festivals of the Church gradually took shape during the
early Christian centuries. The most important anniversary to be observed
was Easter, in memory of the resurrection of Christ. A period of fasting
(Lent), which finally lasted forty days, preceded the festival.
Whitsunday, or Pentecost, was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter.
[9] Two other festivals of later adoption were Christmas, the celebration
of which was finally assigned to the 25th of December, [10] and Epiphany
(January 6), commemorating the baptism of Christ. In course of time many
other feasts and fasts, together with numerous saints' days, were added to
the calendar of the "Christian Year."

121. EASTERN CHRISTIANITY

EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST

By the time of Constantine, Christianity had spread widely throughout the
eastern half of the Roman Empire. Asia Minor was then largely Christian.
Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and Greece were all ecclesiastical provinces
with their own metropolitans. Many Christians were found in Syria and
Egypt. Churches also existed in Mesopotamia and Arabia, and even beyond
the boundaries of the empire in Armenia and Persia. Between the time of
Constantine and that of Justinian, Christianity continued to expand in the
East, until the gospel had been carried to such distant regions as
Abyssinia and India.

UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Most of the Christian communities in the Orient owed allegiance to the
patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The
Roman emperor, however, was the supreme religious authority in the East.
He felt it as much his duty to maintain the doctrines and organization of
Christianity as to preserve the imperial dominions against foreign foes.
Since he presided over the Church, there could be no real independence for
its officers. Bishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs were in every respect
subordinate to his will. This union of Church and State formed one of the
most characteristic features of Christianity in the East.

THEOLOGICAL DISPUTES; HERESIES

Eastern Christians, far more than those in the West, devoted themselves to
theological speculations. Constantinople and the great Hellenistic cities
of Antioch and Alexandria contained many learned scholars who had
prolonged and heated arguments over subtle questions of belief. After the
Arian controversy had been settled in the fourth century, other disputes
concerning the true nature of Christ broke out. These gave rise to many
heresies.

NESTORIANISM

The heresy known as Nestorianism, from Nestorius, a patriarch of
Constantinople, spread widely in the East. Nestorian missionaries even
penetrated to India, China, and Mongolia. The churches which they
established were numerous and influential during the Middle Ages, but
since then most of them have been destroyed by the Mohammedans. Members of
this sect are still to be found, however, in eastern lands. [11]

[Illustration: THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT
Evidence of Nestorian missions in China is afforded by the famous monument
at Chang-an, province of Shensi. The stone, which was set up in 781 A.D.,
commemorates by an inscription in Chinese characters and the figure of a
cross the introduction of Christianity into northwestern China. A replica
of the Nestorian monument was taken to the United States in 1908 A.D. and
was deposited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.]

ORTHODOXY

After the formation of the Nestorian and other heretical sects, the
orthodox faith was preserved in the East only by the Greeks of Asia Minor
and Europe. The Greek Church, which calls itself the "Holy Orthodox
Church," for a time remained in unity with the Roman Church in the West.
The final separation of these two churches occurred in the eleventh
century. [12]

122. WESTERN CHRISTIANITY: RISE OF THE PAPACY

THE PAPACY

Christianity in the West presented two sharp contrasts to eastern
Christianity. In the first place, the great heresies which divided the
East scarcely affected the West. In the second place, no union of Church
and State existed among western Christians. Instead of acknowledging the
religious supremacy of the emperor at Constantinople, they yielded
obedience to the bishop of Rome, the head of the Roman Church. He is known
to us as the pope, and his office is called the Papacy. We shall now
inquire how the popes secured their unchallenged authority over western
Christendom.

[Illustration: PAPAL ARMS
According to the well-known passage in _Matthew_ (xvi, 19), Christ gave to
St. Peter the "keys of the kingdom of heaven," with the power "to bind and
to loose." These keys are always represented in the papal arms, together
with the tiara or headdress, worn by the popes on certain occasions.]