INTRODUCTION.

THE

1073-1294

HE mediæval stage of Christian history came to its climax between Gregory VII. and Boniface VIII. /6 The pontificate of the former urged toward this result with powerful agency. As we pass from the pontificate of the latter, we are still, it is true, within the mediæval horizon. But the prophecy of a new order of things meets our gaze. The horizon begins to be tinged with the dawning of that great revolution which two centuries later was to accomplish the transition to the modern world.

The period, therefore, appears remarkably well defined. A number of great and relatively complete developments meet our attention. We see the causes which for centuries had been working toward papal supremacy at length bearing their perfect fruit. A theocracy is set over the nations. The most far-reaching sovereignty ever known in Europe rules from the chair of Peter. Mediævalism culminates on its hierarchical side. No less also it culminates on its intellectual side. Learning and logic show what they can do from a preconceived standpoint. As the servants of the Church, as the handmaids of the hierarchy, they

elaborate the gigantic system known as Scholasticism. Still further, mediævalism culminates on the side of monastic eccentricity and enthusiasm. Great apostles of poverty, of beggary, make their appearance, and orders of mendicants take their place as favored sons of the Church, and carry their influence into every corner of Latin Christendom. Once more, mediæ valism culminates on the side of romantic feeling and enterprise. The fire of devotion and the love of adventure find equal satisfaction in the Crusades. All those great movements for the recovery of the Holy Land, which so enlisted the heart and commanded the resources of Europe, fell within the present period.

The preceding paragraph will serve to indicate our principal topics. With respect to Scholasticism, however, it should be noticed that its consideration belongs more especially to the History of Doctrine. We can award it only a passing glance as a feature in the civilization of the times. Among subsidiary themes a place is properly given to a view of the chief political developments of the era.

CHAPTER I.

POLITICAL STATUS OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNTRIES OF EUROPE.

IN

Na brief glance at the political condition of Italy we shall find it of advantage to divide the country into three different sections, the Northern, the Central, and the Southern. In the Northern or Lombard region an important development was in progress at the opening of the period. Everywhere the cities were successfully contending for their liberties, and gaining for themselves a republican type of government. "Before the death of Henry V., in 1125, almost all the cities of Lombardy, and many of those of Tuscany, were accustomed to elect their own magistrates, and to act as independent communities in waging war and in domestic government." 1 But this republican constitution was not of long continuance. Before the end of the thirteenth century the sovereignty in many of the Lombard republics had been concentrated in the hands of some leading citizen, and by the middle of the next century scarcely a trace of self-government remained. The flourishing condition of these cities would have made them a formidable power, had they been disposed to act the part of faithful allies and confederates. But this was prevented by their mutual jealousies and rival1 Hallam, Europe in the Middle Ages.

ries. So the German Emperors kept up the claim to sovereignty over this region which had been asserted by Otho the Great, and found a general acquiescence in their pretensions. Not till Frederic Barbarossa had shown a disposition to destroy their liberties were the cities driven to concerted action. The issue showed their strength when united in a common cause. The defeated Emperor was constrained to accept a truce in 1177, and six years later, at the peace of Constance, he guaranteed to the cities the full measure of selfgovernment which they had previously claimed for themselves. In the next century three of the Italian republics, Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, began to win a high distinction for naval enterprise and commercial prosperity.

The struggle between the Empire and the Papacy naturally wrought divisions within the Lombard communities. Choice between the cause of the Popes and that of the Emperors gave rise to the celebrated party names of Guelfs and Ghibellines. These names were imported from Germany, where the rivalry of the Bavarian and the Swabian houses (the former of which was an ally of the Saxon house) had given them an association with zealous partisanship. The Guelfs favored the Popes, and the Ghibellines the Emperors. But while this general antagonism lay back of the names, they seem often to have been used merely to give direction to an aimless and senseless love of faction.

In Rome and Central Italy the Popes claimed the sovereignty in virtue of the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne, not to mention the appeal often made. to the fictitious bestowments of the first Christian Em