George Eliot - "How Lisa Loved the King"

Juliana Horatia Ewing - "The Peace Egg and Other tales"

Erasmus Roterodamus - "Selections from Erasmus"

Voltaire - "Candido, o El Optimismo"

Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

A General History for Colleges and High Schools

P >> P. V. N. Myers >> A General History for Colleges and High Schools




A second valuable result of the Roman victory was the hastening of the
political unity of England through its ecclesiastical unity. The Celtic
Church, in marked contrast with the Latin, was utterly devoid of capacity
for organization. It could have done nothing in the way of developing
among the several Anglo-Saxon states the sentiment of nationality. On the
other hand, the Roman Church, through the exercise of a central authority,
through national synods and general legislation, overcame the isolation of
the different kingdoms, and helped powerfully to draw them together into a
common political life.

THE CONVERSION OF GERMANY.--The conversion of the tribes of Germany was
effected by Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Frankish missionaries,--and the sword
of Charlemagne (see p. 406). The great apostle of Germany was the Saxon
Winfred, or Winifred, better known as St. Boniface. During a long and
intensely active life he founded schools and monasteries, organized
churches, preached and baptized; and at last died a martyr's death (A.D.
753).

The christianizing of the tribes of Germany relieved the Teutonic states
of Western Europe from the constant peril of massacre by their heathen
kinsmen, and erected a strong barrier in Central Europe against the
advance of the waves of Turanian paganism and Mohammedanism which for
centuries beat so threateningly against the eastern frontiers of Germany.
[Footnote: The conversion of Russia dates from about the close of the
tenth century. Its evangelization was effected by the missionaries of
Constantinople, that is, of the Greek, or Eastern Church. Of the Turanian
tribes, only the Hungarians, or Magyars, embraced Christianity. All the
other Turanian peoples that appeared on the eastern edge of Europe during
the Middle Ages, came as pagan or Moslem enemies.]

CHRISTIANITY IN THE NORTH.--The progress of Christianity in the North was
slow: but gradually, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the
missionaries of the Church won over all the Scandinavian peoples. One
important effect of their conversion was the checking of their piratical
expeditions, which previously had vexed almost every shore to the south.

By the opening of the fourteenth century all Europe was claimed by
Christianity, save a limited district in Southern Spain held by the Moors,
and another in the Baltic regions possessed by the still pagan Finns and
Lapps.

MONASTICISM.--It was during this very conflict with the barbarians that
the Church developed the remarkable institution known as Monasticism,
which denotes a life of seclusion from the world, with the object of
promoting the interests of the soul. The central idea of the system is,
that the body is a weight upon the spirit, and that to "mortify the flesh"
is a prime duty.

The monastic system embraced two prominent classes of ascetics: 1.
Hermits, or anchorites, persons who, retiring from the world, lived
solitary lives in desolate places; 2. Cenobites, or monks, who formed
communities and lived under a common roof.

St. Antony, an Egyptian ascetic, who by his example and influence gave a
tremendous impulse to the strange enthusiasm, is called the "father of the
hermits." The persecutions that arose under the Roman emperors, driving
thousands into the deserts, contributed vastly to the movement. The cities
of Egypt became almost emptied of their Christian population.

About the close of the fourth century the cenobite system was introduced
into Europe, and in an astonishingly short space of time spread throughout
all the western countries where Christianity had gained a foothold.
Monasteries arose on every side, in the wilds of the desert and in the
midst of the crowded city. The number that fled to these retreats was
vastly augmented by the disorder and terror attending the invasion of the
barbarians and the overthrow of the empire in the West.

With the view of introducing some sort of system and uniformity among the
numerous communities, fraternities or associations were early organized
and spread rapidly. The three essential vows required of their members
were poverty, chastity, and obedience. The most celebrated of these
fraternities was the Order of the Benedictines, so called from its founder
St. Benedict (A.D. 480-543). This order became immensely popular. At one
time it embraced about 40,000 abbeys.

ADVANTAGES OF THE MONASTIC SYSTEM.--The early establishment of the
monastic system in the Church resulted in great advantages to the new
world that was shaping itself out of the ruins of the old.

The monks became missionaries, and it was largely to their zeal and
devotion that the Church owed her speedy and signal victory over the
barbarians; they also became teachers, and under the shelter of the
monasteries established schools which were the nurseries of learning
during the Middle Ages; they became copyists, and with great care and
industry gathered and multiplied ancient manuscripts, and thus preserved
and transmitted to the modern world much classical learning and literature
that would otherwise have been lost; they became agriculturists,
especially the Benedictines, and by skilful labor converted the wilderness
about their retreats into fair gardens, thus redeeming from barrenness
some of the most desolate districts of Europe; they became further the
almoners of the pious and the wealthy, and distributed alms to the poor
and needy. Everywhere the monasteries opened their hospitable doors to the
weary, the sick, and the discouraged. In a word, these retreats were the
inns, the asylums, and the hospitals, mediaeval Europe. Nor should we fail
to mention how the asceticism of the monks checked those flagrant social
evils that had sapped the strength of the Roman race, and which
uncounteracted would have contaminated and weakened the purer peoples of
the North; nor how, through its requirements of self-control and self-
sacrifice, it gave prominence to the inner life of the spirit.

CONCLUSION.--With a single word or two respecting the general consequences
of the conversion to Christianity of the Teutonic tribes, we will close
the present chapter.

The adoption of a common faith by the European peoples drew them together
into a sort of religious brotherhood, and rendered it possible for the
continent to employ its undivided strength, during the succeeding
centuries, in staying the threatening progress toward the West of the
colossal Mohammedan power of the East. The Christian Church set in the
midst of the seething, martial nations and races of Europe an influence
that fostered the gentler virtues, and a power that was always to be found
on the side of order, and usually of mercy. It taught the brotherhood of
man, the essential equality in the sight of God of the high and the low,
and thus pleaded powerfully and at last effectually for the freedom of the
slave and the serf. It prepared the way for the introduction among the
barbarians of the arts, the literature, and the culture of Rome, and
contributed powerfully to hasten the fusion into a single people of the
Latins and Teutons, of which important matter we shall treat in the
following chapter.




CHAPTER XXXIV.

FUSION OF THE LATIN AND TEUTONIC PEOPLES.


INTRODUCTORY.--Having seen how the Hebrew element, that is, the ideas,
beliefs, and sentiments of Christianity, became the common possession of
the Latins and Teutons, it yet remains to notice how these two races, upon
the soil of the old empire, intermingled their blood, their language,
their laws, their usages and customs, to form new peoples, new tongues,
and new institutions.

THE ROMANCE NATIONS.--In some districts the barbarian invaders and the
Roman provincials were kept apart for a long time by the bitter antagonism
of race, and a sense of injury on the one hand and a feeling of disdainful
superiority on the other. But for the most part the Teutonic intruders and
the Latin-speaking inhabitants of Italy, Spain, and Gaul very soon began
freely to mingle their blood by family alliances. It is quite impossible
to say what proportion the Teutons bore to the Romans. Of course the
proportion varied in the different countries. In none of the countries
named, however, was it large enough to absorb the Latinized population; on
the contrary, the barbarians were themselves absorbed, yet not without
changing very essentially the body into which they were incorporated. By
the close of the ninth century the two elements had become quite
intimately blended, and a century or two later Roman and Teuton have alike
disappeared, and we are introduced to Italians, Spaniards, and Frenchmen.
These we call Romance nations, because at base they are Roman. [Footnote:
Britain did not become a Romance nation on account of the nature of the
barbarian conquest of that island. The Romanized provincials, as has been
seen, were there almost destroyed by the fierce Teutonic invaders.]

THE FORMATION OF THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES.--During the five centuries of
their subjection to Rome, the natives of Spain and Gaul forgot their
barbarous dialects and came to speak a corrupt Latin. Now in exactly the
same way that the dialects of the Celtic tribes of Gaul and of the
Celtiberians of Spain had given way to the more refined speech of the
Romans, did the rude languages of the Teutons yield to the more cultured
speech of the Roman provincials. In the course of two or three centuries
after their entrance into the empire, Goths, Lombards, Burgundians, and
Franks had, in a large measure, dropped their own tongue, and were
speaking that of the people they had subjected. But of course this
provincial Latin underwent a great change upon the lips of the mixed
descendants of the Romans and Teutons. Owing to the absence of a common
popular literature, the changes that took place in one country did not
exactly correspond to those going on in another. Hence, in the course of
time, we find different dialects springing up, and by about the ninth
century the Latin has virtually disappeared as a spoken language, and its
place been usurped by what will be known as the Italian, Spanish, and
French languages, all more or less resembling the ancient Latin, and all
called Romance tongues, because children of the old Roman speech.

PERSONAL CHARACTER OF THE TEUTONIC LEGISLATION.--The legislation of the
barbarians was generally personal instead of territorial, as with us; that
is, instead of all the inhabitants of a given country being subject to the
same laws, there were different ones for the different classes of society.
The Latins, for instance, were subject in private law only to the old
Roman code, while the Teutons lived under the rules and regulations which
they had brought with them from beyond the Rhine.

Even among themselves the Teutons knew nothing of the modern legal maxim
that all should stand equal before the law. The penalty inflicted upon the
evil-doer depended, not upon the nature of his crime, but upon his rank,
or that of the party injured. Thus slaves and serfs could be beaten and
put to death for minor offences, while a freeman might atone for any
crime, even for murder, by the payment of a fine, the amount of the
penalty being determined by the rank of the victim. Among the Saxons the
life of a king's thane was worth 1200 shillings, while that of a common
free man was valued only one-sixth as high.

ORDEALS.--The modes by which guilt or innocence was ascertained show in
how rude a state was the administration of justice among the barbarians.
One very common method of proof was by what were called ordeals, in which
the question was submitted to the judgment of God. Of these the chief were
the _ordeal by fire_, the _ordeal by water_, and the _ordeal by battle_.

The _ordeal by fire_ consisted in taking in the hand a red-hot iron,
or in walking blindfolded with bare feet over a row of hot ploughshares
laid lengthwise at irregular distances. If the person escaped without
serious harm, he was held to be innocent. Another way of performing the
fire ordeal was by running through the flame of two fires built close
together, or by walking over live brands; hence the phrase "to haul over
the coals."

The _ordeal by water_ was of two kinds, by hot water and cold. In the
hot-water ordeal the accused person thrust his arm into boiling water, and
if no hurt was visible upon the arm three days after the operation, the
person was considered guiltless. When we speak of one's being "in hot
water," we use an expression which had its origin in this ordeal.

In the cold-water trial the suspected person was thrown into a stream or
pond: if he floated, he was held guilty; if he sank, innocent. The water,
it was believed, would reject the guilty, but receive the innocent into
its bosom. The practice common in Europe until a very recent date of
trying supposed witches by weighing them, or by throwing them into a pond
of water to see whether they would sink or float, grew out of this
superstition.

The _trial by combat_, or _wager of battle_, was a solemn judicial duel.
It was resorted to in the belief that God would give victory to the right.
Naturally it was a favorite mode of trial among a people who found their
chief delight in fighting. Even religious disputes were sometimes settled
in this way. The modern duel may probably be regarded as a relic of this
form of trial.

The ordeal was frequently performed by deputy, that is, one person for
hire or for the sake of friendship would undertake it for another; hence
the expression "to go through fire and water to serve one." Especially was
such substitution common in the judicial duel, as women and ecclesiastics
were generally forbidden to appear personally in the lists. The champions,
as the deputies were called, became in time a regular class in society,
like the gladiators in ancient Rome. Religious houses and chartered towns
hired champions at a regular salary to defend all the cases to which they
might become a party.

THE REVIVAL OF THE ROMAN LAW.--Now the barbarian law-system, if such it
can be called, the character of which we have simply suggested by the
preceding illustrations, gradually displaced the Roman law in all those
countries where the two systems at first existed alongside each other,
save in Italy and Southern France, where the provincials greatly
outnumbered the invaders. But the admirable jurisprudence of Rome was
bound to assert its superiority. About the close of the eleventh century,
there was a great revival in the study of the Roman law as embodied in the
_Corpus Juris Civilis_ of Justinian (see p. 358), and in the course of a
century or two this became either the groundwork or a strong modifying
element in the jurisprudence of almost all the peoples of Europe.

What took place may be illustrated by reference to the fate of the
Teutonic languages in Gaul, Italy, and Spain. As the barbarian tongues,
after maintaining a place in those countries for two or three centuries,
at length gave place to the superior Latin, which became the basis of the
new Romance languages, so now in the domain of law the barbarian maxims
and customs, though holding their place more persistently, likewise
finally give way, almost everywhere and in a greater or less degree, to
the more excellent law-system of the empire. Rome must fulfil her destiny
and give laws to the nations.




CHAPTER XXXV.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST.


THE REIGN OF JUSTINIAN (A.D. 527-565).--During the fifty years immediately
following the fall of Rome, the Eastern emperors struggled hard and
doubtfully to withstand the waves of the barbarian inundation which
constantly threatened to overwhelm Constantinople with the same awful
calamities that had befallen the imperial city of the West. Had the new
Rome--the destined refuge for a thousand years of Graeco-Roman learning and
culture--also gone down at this time before the storm, the loss to the
cause of civilization would have been incalculable.

Fortunately, in the year 527, there ascended the Eastern throne a prince
of unusual ability, to whom fortune gave a general of such rare genius
that his name has been allotted a place in the short list of the great
commanders of the world. Justinian was the name of the prince, and
Belisarius that of the soldier. The sovereign has given name to the
period, which is called after him the "Era of Justinian."

It will be recalled that it was during this reign that Africa was
recovered from the Vandals and Italy from the Goths (see p. 372). These
conquests brought once more within the boundaries of the empire some of
the fairest lands of the West.

But that which has given Justinian's reign a greater distinction than any
conferred upon it by brilliant military achievements, is the collection
and publication, under the imperial direction, of the _Corpus Juris
Civilis_, or "Body of the Roman Law." This work is the most precious
legacy of Rome to the modern world. In causing its publication, Justinian
earned the title of "The Lawgiver of Civilization" (see p. 358).

In the midst of this brilliant reign an awful pestilence, bred probably in
Egypt, fell upon the empire, and did not cease its ravages until about
fifty years afterwards. This plague was the most terrible scourge of which
history has any knowledge, save perhaps the so called Black Death, which
afflicted Europe in the fourteenth century. The number of victims of the
plague has been estimated at 100,000,000.

THE REIGN OF HERACLIUS (A.D. 610-641).--For half a century after the death
of Justinian, the annals of the Byzantine empire are unimportant. Then we
reach the reign of Heraclius, a prince about whose worthy name gather
matters of significance in world-history.

About this time Chosroes II., king of Persia, wrested from the empire the
fortified cities that guarded the Euphratean frontier, and overran all
Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor. What was known as the True Cross was torn
from the church at Jerusalem and carried off in triumph to Persia. In
order to compel Chosroes to recall his armies, which were distressing the
provinces of the empire, Heraclius, pursuing the same plan as that by
which the Romans in the Second Punic War forced the Carthaginians to call
Hannibal out of Italy (see p. 264), with a small company of picked men
marched boldly into the heart of Persia, and in revenge for the insults
heaped by the infidels upon the Christian churches, overturned the altars
of the fire-worshippers and quenched their sacred flames.

The struggle between the two rival empires was at last decided by a
terrible combat known as the Battle of Nineveh (A.D. 627), which was
fought around the ruins of the old Assyrian capital. The Persian army was
almost annihilated. In a few days grief or violence ended the life of
Chosroes. With him passed away the glory of the Second Persian Empire. The
new Persian king negotiated a treaty of peace with Heraclius. The articles
of this treaty left the boundaries of the two empires unchanged.

THE EMPIRE BECOMES GREEK.--The two combatants in the fierce struggle which
we have been watching, were too much absorbed in their contentions to
notice the approach of a storm from the deserts of Arabia,--a storm
destined to overwhelm both alike in its destructive course. Within a few
years from the date of the Battle of Nineveh, the Saracens entered upon
their surprising career of conquest, which in a short time completely
changed the face of the entire East, and set the Crescent, the emblem of a
new faith, alike above the fire-altars of Persia and the churches of the
Empire. Heraclius himself lived to see--so cruel are the vicissitudes of
fortune--the very provinces which he had wrested from the hands of the
fire-worshippers, in the hands of the more insolent followers of the False
Prophet, and the Crescent planted within sight of the walls of
Constantinople.

The conquests of the Saracens cut off from the empire those provinces that
had the smallest Greek element and thus rendered the population subject to
the emperor more homogeneous, more thoroughly Greek. The Roman element
disappeared, and the court of Constantinople became Greek in tone, spirit,
and manners. Hence, instead of longer applying to the empire the
designation _Roman_, we shall from this on call it the _Greek_, or
Byzantine empire.

We shall trace no further as a separate story the fortunes of the Eastern
emperors. In the eighth century the so-called Iconoclastic controversy
[Footnote: See p. 417.] will draw our attention to them; and then again in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Crusades will once more bring
their affairs into prominence, and we shall see a line of Latin princes
seated for a time (from 1204 to 1261) upon the throne of Constantine.
[Footnote: See p. 446.] Finally, in the year 1453, we shall witness the
capture of Constantinople by the Turks, [Footnote: See p. 462.] which
disaster closes the long and checkered history of the Graeco-Roman empire
in the East.




CHAPTER XXXVI.

MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS.


[Illustration: AN ARAB RIDER.]

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT.--The Arabs, or Saracens, who are now about to play
their surprising part in history, are, after the Hebrews, the most
important people of the Semitic race. Secure in their inaccessible
deserts, the Arabs have never as a people bowed their necks to a foreign
conqueror, although portions of the Arabian peninsula have been repeatedly
subjugated by different races.

RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF ARABIA BEFORE MOHAMMED.--Before the reforms of
Mohammed, the Arabs were idolaters. Their holy city was Mecca. Here was
the ancient and most revered shrine of the Caaba, where was preserved a
sacred black stone believed to have been given by an angel to Abraham.

But though the native tribes of the peninsula were idolaters, still there
were many followers of other faiths; for Arabia at this time was a land of
religious freedom. The altar of the fire-worshipper rose alongside the
Jewish synagogue and the Christian church. The Jews especially were to be
found everywhere in great numbers, having been driven from Palestine by
the Roman persecutions. It was from the Jews and Christians, doubtless,
that Mohammed learned many of the doctrines that he taught.

MOHAMMED.--Mohammed, the great prophet of the Arabs, was born in the holy
city of Mecca, about the year 570 of our era. He sprang from the
distinguished tribe of the Koreishites, the custodians of the sacred
shrine of the Caaba. Like Moses, he spent many years of his life as a
shepherd.

[Illustration: MOSQUE AND CAABA AT MECCA. (From a photograph.)]

Mohammed possessed a deeply religious nature, and it was his wont often to
retire to a cave a few miles from Mecca, and there spend long vigils in
prayer. He declared that here he had visions, in which the angel Gabriel
appeared to him, and made to him revelations which he was commanded to
make known to his fellow-men. The sum of the new faith which he was to
teach was this: "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet."

Mohammed communicated the nature of his visions to his wife, and she
became his first convert. At the end of three years his disciples numbered
forty persons.

THE HEGIRA (622).--The teachings of Mohammed at last aroused the anger of
a powerful party among the Koreishites, who feared that they, as the
guardians of the national idols of the Caaba, would be compromised in the
eyes of the other tribes by allowing such heresy to be openly taught by
one of their number, and accordingly plots were formed against his life.
Barely escaping assassination, he fled to the city of Medina.

This Hegira, or Flight, as the word signifies, occurred in the year 622,
and was considered by the Moslems as such an important event in the
history of their religion that they adopted it as the beginning of a new
era, and from it still continue to reckon their dates.

THE FAITH EXTENDED BY THE SWORD.--His cause being warmly espoused by the
inhabitants of Medina, Mohammed threw aside the character of an exhorter,
and assumed that of a warrior. He declared it to be the will of God that
the new faith should be spread by the sword. Accordingly, the year
following the Hegira, he began to attack and plunder caravans. The flames
of a sacred war were soon kindled. The reckless enthusiasm of his wild
converts was intensified by the assurance of the Apostle that death met in
fighting those who resisted the true faith ensured the martyr immediate
entrance upon the joys of Paradise. Within ten years from the time of the
assumption of the sword by Mohammed, Mecca had been conquered, and the new
creed established among all the tribes of Arabia.

Mohammed died in the year 632. No character in all history has been the
subject of more conflicting speculations than the Arabian Prophet. By some
he has been called a self-deluded enthusiast, while others have denounced
him as the boldest of impostors. We shall, perhaps, reconcile these
discordant views, if we bear in mind that the same person may, in
different periods of a long career, be both.

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