ancient world were for the last time focused; and from the Frankish Empire these influences were transmitted, with certain permanent modifications, to the new and separate nations which took its place. Of the new institutions that took shape in the Frankish Empire the most important was feudalism. Feudalism had many roots, some of them Roman; but the growing feudal institutions received a great impetus when Charles Martel, in order to meet the Arab horse with Christian cavalry, gave benefices on the tenure of knight service. The knight fees which he created were to a large extent carved out of church lands; and the church was drawn into the feudal system. See CHARLES THE GREAT; FEUDALISM.

(See

Europe at the Time of Charlemagne. Map: EUROPE AT THE TIME OF CHARLEMAGNE.) The Empire of Charles the Great included all Christian Europe except the British Islands, where the German invaders had been converted in the seventh century; northwest Spain, where Christian chieftains of Gothic or Suevic blood were holding out against the Arabs; and the Greek Empire. The Danes and Scandinavians on the north, the Slavs and Avars on the east, were still heathens. The Frankish Empire included all the German tribes of central Europe; but it did not include all the territory of modern Germany, since its northeastern frontier ran between the Elbe and the Oder. The other important European powers were the Greek Empire and the Emirate of Cordova. The territory north of the Balkans had fallen into the hands of Slavic and Asiatic hordes (Servians and Bulgarians); but the Emperor at Constantinople still ruled the rest of the Balkan Peninsula, together with south Italy, some of the islands of the Mediterranean, and the greater part of Asia Minor. The Greeks still had sea power, and the trade between Europe and the Orient was mainly in their hands. Until after the Crusades their coin, the "besant," was the standard of Mediterranean values. South of Christendom, from Spain through north Africa to Syria, curved the crescent of Islam. In the west, where the emirs of Cordova had made themselves independent of the caliphs at Bagdad, Mohammedanism had reached the limit of its forward movement; but in the islands of the Mediterranean, in Asia Minor, and in southeast Europe it was still to win ground from the Greeks. Placed in touch with the Greek civilization in Syria and in Egypt, Islam was developing, in letters and in science, a culture which, until nearly the close of the Middle Ages, was superior to that of western Europe. See SARACENS.

Dissolution of the Frankish Empire. Beginnings of the Modern European Nations. The power of Charles the Great's successors was undermined by the growing independence of the local magnates, particularly of those who held the offices of count or of margrave. These offices, as well as the domains that went with them, were coming to be regarded as fiefs and, like other fiefs, were becoming hereditary. Some magnates whose feudal authority extended over several counties were coming to be called dukes. In the German territories some of these dukes ruled over tribes, like the Bavarians and the Saxons, and were in a sense successors of the tribal kings whom the Franks had suppressed. The great prelates, too, were becoming independent, and in many cases bishops and abbots received the secular powers of counts.

The Empire was weakened also by the attacks of Slavs and other barbarians on its eastern frontier, of Arabs in Italy, and of Scandinavian pirates on all its northern and western coasts. The immediate cause, however, of the disruption of the Empire was the division of the Imperial territory among all the sons of the Emperor. In order to maintain as far as possible the unity of the Empire, a compromise was proposed: Arrangements were made by which each son should receive as King a part of the Empire, but a larger part with a superior authority should go to the eldest son as Emperor. Wars followed, and in these the old Frankish principle triumphed. In 843 the Empire was divided into three shares. (See VERDUN, TREATY OF.) Although this division lasted but 27 years, the name of a part of the middle kingdom, Lotharingia, still survives in the modern Lorraine. Some 40 years after the partition of Verdun, all the Carolingian territories were for a short time reunited under Charles the Fat; but after 887, when Charles the Fat was deposed, France and Germany were permanently separated; there were two independent Burgundian kingdoms, and Italy was separate, but not united. In the north of Italy there were kings, some of whom were crowned emperors; in the middle were the possessions of the papacy; in the south Lombards, Greeks, and Arabs were fighting for control and territories. In France and in Germany descendants of Charles the Great reigned for a time; but in the tenth century other kings, not of the Carolingian stock, were set up by the territorial magnates. Of these new kingdoms Germany was by far the strongest. The Northmen pirates were beaten off from its coasts, and the Danes were pushed back into Jutland. The Hungarians, who had kept central Europe in turmoil during the first half of the tenth century, were defeated and confined to approximately the territory which they still occupy. The Slavic Kingdom of Poland recognized German suzerainty; the Slavic peoples of Bohemia and Carinthia were incorporated into Germany. The debatable land to the west of the Rhine (Lorraine) and the greater part of Italy were brought under the overlordship of the German kings in the tenth century; Burgundy was annexed in the eleventh. With the reëstablishment of German authority in Italy (962) the German kings assumed the Imperial title. See HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.

Second only to Germany's influence during these centuries was that of the Scandinavians. In the latter half of the ninth century the Swede Rurik established among the eastern Slavs the kingdom which became Russia, and the Danes conquered half of England. In the tenth century the Norsemen obtained possession of a part of north France, founding there the Duchy of Normandy. In the first half of the eleventh century the Danish King Canute reigned for a few years over an empire which included all England and the greater part of Scandinavia; and England escaped from the rule of the Danes only to fall, within a score of years, under that of the Normans. In the same century Norman knights gained control of south Italy and Sicily. (See NORMANS; VARANGIANS; GUISCARD.) all the national states that were in process of formation at the close of the eleventh century, England alone had a strong central government, and this only after the Norman Conquest. France and Germany each had a king, but the

Of

king was only the first among his peers; the real power was, in France always, in Germany sometimes, in the hands of the great nobles and prelates. The same was true in Italy and in the Christian states that were taking form in north Spain; and in neither of these peninsulas was there even the nominal unity of a single national kingship. In Spain and in Italy, how ever, as in France, separate and fairly homogeneous nationalities were developing. Goths and Franks, Burgundians and Lombards, had intermarried with the Roman provincials and had adopted their speech; and on the basis of the vulgar Latin of each province, new national languages had already been formed. The Scandinavian conquerors also, who came five centuries later, lost their racial identity and became French in France, Italians in Italy, Russians in Russia. In all the larger countries of west and south Europe, however, there were marked local differences in dialect and in customs, and broader differences between the northern and southern districts. In general, throughout the Middle Ages, national feeling was weak. The strongest ties were those of locality and of class, and the classes were not national, but European. At the close of the eleventh century the peoples of north and east Europe were coming under the influence of Christian civilization. The only important regions not already reclaimed from heathenism at the end of the century were those south and east of the Baltic, inhabited by Pomeranians, Prussians, Lithuanians, Livonians, etc. The Scandinavians, the western Slavs (Poles and Bohemians), and the Hungarians received Christianity from the Roman church, and were thus drawn into the West-European body of nations. The Servians, Bulgarians, and Russians, on the other hand, were converted by Greek missionaries and constitute to this day, with the Greeks, a distinct East-European group.

Increasing Power of the Church. After the disruption of the Frankish Empire the unity of Western Christendom was visibly represented only in the Roman church. The church had supported the Carolingian Empire and had striven to avert its destruction. When this became inevitable, the church naturally secured as much as possible of the Imperial inheritance. The unity for which it stood was in no wise confined to matters of faith and worship. The church represented the learning of the age and had complete control of education. It was the recipient and administrator of charitable trusts; it cared for the sick and infirm and relieved the poor. It interpreted and enforced by penalties rules of morality, and by reason of the intimate connection between morals and law, and between its sacraments and the whole social life, it exercised a somewhat indefinite but very wide jurisdiction over matters which are to-day regarded as legal. (See CANON LAW.) To this jurisdiction every Christian was thought to be subject, from the peasant to the king. The church thus discharged many governmental functions which the mediaval state was too crude and too feeble to undertake. It was in reality an ecclesiastical state, and it possessed a govern mental organization and a governmental personnel far superior to that of any contemporary secular state. For the efficient discharge of its duties the church deemed it necessary that its agents, from pope to parish priest, should be independent of the secular powers. It had par

In

tially succeeded in exempting its clergy from secular jurisdiction, but it had not obtained full freedom in the selection of its officials. The Pope, as Bishop of Rome, was chosen by the clergy and people of Rome. In the tenth cen tury the Roman nobles controlled the papal elections, and the character of the popes whom they selected was such as to deprive the office of much of its dignity and authority. In the eleventh century the German emperors brought about a reform; they secured the deposition of unworthy claimants and the election of worthy German successors; but this Imperial interference was a fresh menace to the independence of the church. The local authorities of the church, the bishops and the abbots, were likewise elected by the clergy of the cathedral chapters and of the monasteries; but as the lands of the church were held as fiefs and the prelates were feudal vassals, the secular overlord naturally endeavored, and usually with success, to control the election of these authorities. The attempt of the great Pope, Gregory VII, to de prive feudal superiors of all influence upon the choice of bishops and abbots brought the papacy into conflict with the German emperors. this conflict the emperors were supported by many of the German prelates whom they had practically appointed, while the popes were sup ported by most of the secular princes of Ger many, who desired to weaken the Imperial power at home. (See INVESTITURE; GREGORY VII; HENRY IV; SAXONY; PAPACY.) The terms on which the conflict was ended (Concordat of Worms, 1122) were a compromise, defining more clearly the ecclesiastical and feudal rights. In the eleventh century, however, the basis was laid for the greatly increased power which the church exercised in the thirteenth century. The selection of the head of the church was intrusted to a body, the College of Cardinals, created by the head of the church. The interest of the feudal superior in the control of church elections was somewhat diminished by renewed prohibition of the sale of ecclesiastical preferments (simony) and by making it more difficult for those prelates who bought preferment to keep it. Finally, the renewal and attempted enforcement of the rules prohibiting the marriage of the clergy sought to secure for the church a body of servants removed as far as possible from all influences except her own. (See CELIBACY.) From the eighth century, when the Roman pontiffs denied the temporal sovereignty of the Emperor at Constantinople, the Eastern church, under the influence of the emperors and already tending to separation on account of disciplinary distinctions, drifted away from the Roman church. The separation became definite and final, in the eleventh century, in consequence of a doctrinal difference concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost. The Eastern church never became independent of the secular authority, and its dependence facilitated the development of national churches. See BYZANTINE EMPIRE; GREEK CHURCH.

Age of the Crusades. In Spain the kings of León had gradually reconquered a fourth part of the peninsula, the Byzantine Empire had regained some of its territory, part of Italy had been wrested from the Moslems; but, on the whole, Christian Europe had remained for nearly three centuries on the defensive against Islam. In the eleventh century a new and ruder people, the Seljuk Turks, became dominant in Moham

medan Asia, maltreated Christian pilgrims, and conquered Asia Minor (1071). At the appeal of the Greek Emperor, Pope Urban II called Christian Europe to arms (1095); and before the close of the century a great host of Crusaders had marched through Asia Minor and occupied part of Syria, establishing there a kingdom of Jerusalem and other principalities. (See CRUSADES.) The struggle thus opened continued for two centuries. The retainers of the Christian princes in Syria and the military monks (see HOSPITALERS; TEMPLARS, KNIGHTS; TEUTONIC KNIGHTS) constituted the standing army of the Christians; repeated crusades from all parts of Europe brought volunteer assistance. This phase of the struggle ended at the close of the thirteenth century with the evacuation of Syria by the Christians. An episode of the Crusades was the temporary overthrow of the Greek Empire (1204) by French Crusaders in alliance with Venice. A Flemish count (see BALDWIN I) was made Emperor at Constantinople, and the European territories of the Empire were divided between Venice and individual leaders. Greek emperors, meanwhile, continued to reign in Asia Minor; and in the latter half of the century, with the aid of the Genoese, one of them recovered Constantinople (1261) and part of the former possessions. The Venetians, however, kept much of the territory they had acquired, and became the leading commercial power in the eastern Levant; although the Genoese, on better terms with the Greeks, had control of trade in the Black Sea. The only permanent gains made by Christendom during these centuries were in Spain and on the Baltic. War against the heathen in these places also was regarded as a crusade. By the middle of the thirteenth century the Christians had conquered all of Spain except Granada; the Teutonic Knights had subdued and converted the Prussians; and another body of military monks, the Brethren of the Sword, were doing the same work in Livonia and Esthonia. In this same century, however, Christendom lost ground in eastern Europe through the conquest of Russia by the Mongols. See MONGOLIAN RACE.

The Papacy and the Western Empire. During these centuries the papacy, which had obtained the leadership of Christendom in the warfare for the Cross, attained its greatest power. The popes made and deposed kings, accepted whole kingdoms as fiefs of the church, and exercised jurisdiction in international controversies. The German emperors of the house of Hohenstaufen (1138-1254) seemed indeed almost as powerful as their predecessors of the eleventh century, who had made and unmade popes; and when by marriage the emperors gained control of the Norman Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the independence of the papacy appeared to be seriously menaced. Among the German princes, however, and in the Lombard cities the popes found trustworthy, because interested, allies; and a century of intermittent conflict ended in the destruction of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. See GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES; Ho

HENSTAUFEN.

Europe at the End of the Crusades. At the close of the thirteenth century Germany and Italy had become aggregations of practically independent principalities, secular or ecclesiastical, and of free cities. Kings were elected in Germany, and these kings called themselves Roman emperors; but they had almost no power in

Italy and little in Germany. Poland and Hungary were no longer even nominally subject to the Empire, and Burgundy was drifting to France. In the northeast, however, Germany had expanded by Saxon conquests and colonization, and the gains thus effected proved more durable than those made by the military monks. The kings of England had retained Normandy through the twelfth century and had acquired by marriage so many other fiefs that they ruled more than half of the French territory; but all these possessions except Guienne had been lost by the unlucky John early in the thirteenth century. In France, as in England, the crown had become hereditary, and at the close of the thirteenth century the power of the French kings was increasing. In Spain the united Kingdom of León-Castile (in which also the royal power was increasing) covered the greater part of the peninsula; but Portugal, independent since 1140, had attained its present boundaries, and all eastern Spain was ruled by the King of Aragon. During these centuries there was a great increase of commerce in west Europe. The control of European trade with the East passed out of the hands of the Greeks into those of the Italians, and a much more active traffic was developed on the trade routes between the Mediterranean and northern Europe, especially on those that ran through Germany. The result was a great increase in the wealth and power of the cities, first in Italy, later in Germany, France, and Spain. Everywhere the citizens bought or fought themselves free from their ecclesiastical or secular lords; in many parts of Europe the cities formed alliances for mutual protection. The league of the Lombard cities played an important part in the struggle between the popes and the emperors; the great league of the Hansa, which soon controlled the trade in the northern seas, was formed before the close of the thirteenth century. (See HANSEATIC LEAGUE.) It was a natural result of the increasing importance of the cities that their representatives were summoned to meet with the other estates of the realm in diets or parliaments. This occurred in the Spanish kingdoms in the twelfth century, in England and in Germany in the thirteenth century, and in France at the beginning of the fourteenth century. In the intellectual life of Europe the universities played an increasingly important part. The age of the Crusades was also the age in which scholasticism reached its highest development. It was also the age in which the study of the law books of Justinian was revived, and in the legists a new learned class appeared from which the kings and princes, heretofore dependent upon the clergy for their administrative officials, were able to draw servants more devoted to their interests. The cities furnished the wealth and power which in the following centuries made the monarchy independent of the feudal nobility; the legists formulated the theories and furnished the trained service which was to make the modern state independent of pope and church.

Changes during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries. The consolidation of France was interrupted by a series of wars in which the English kings strove to make themselves kings of France also. (See HUNDRED YEARS' WAR.) In the fifteenth century, in alliance with Burgundy, Henry V of England came near accomplishing this end. The French dukes of Burgundy had obtained control of the Nether