A History of the Philippines

by David P. Barrows

These eight hundred years had been centuries of cruel struggle, intellectual darkness, and social depression, but also of great religious devotion. Edward Gibbon, one of the greatest historians, speaks of this period as “the triumph of barbarism and religion.”

The population of Europe was largely changed, during the first few centuries of the Christian Era, as the Roman Empire, that greatest political institution of all history, slowly decayed. New peoples of German or Teutonic origin came, fighting their way into western Europe and settling wherever the land attracted them. Thus Spain and Italy received the Goths; France, the Burgundians and Franks; England, the Saxons and Angles or English.

These peoples were all fierce, warlike, free, unlettered barbarians. Fortunately, they were all converted to Christianity by Roman priests and missionaries. They embraced this faith with ardor, at the same time that other peoples and lands were being lost to Christendom. Thus it has resulted that the countries where Christianity arose and first established itself, are now no longer Christian, and this religion, which had an Asiatic and Semitic origin, has become the distinguishing faith of the people of western Europe. For centuries the countries of Europe were fiercely raided and disturbed by pillaging and murdering hordes; by the Huns, who followed in the Germans from the East; by the Northmen, cruel pirating seamen from Scandinavia; and, as we have already seen, by the Mohammedans, or Saracens as they were called, who came into central Europe by way of Spain.

Character of the Life during this Period.—Feudalism.—Life was so beset with peril that independence or freedom became impossible, and there was developed a society which has lasted almost down to the present time, and which we call Feudalism. The free but weak man gave up his freedom and his lands to some stronger man, who became his lord. He swore obedience to this lord, while the lord engaged to furnish him protection and gave him back his lands to hold as a “fief,” both sharing in the product. This lord swore allegiance to some still more powerful man, or “overlord,” and became his “vassal,” pledged to follow him to war with a certain number of armed men; and this overlord, on his part, owed allegiance to the prince, who was, perhaps, a duke or bishop (bishops at this time were also feudal lords), or to the king or emperor. Thus were men united into large groups or nations for help or protection. There was little understanding of love of country. Patriotism, as we feel it, was replaced by the passion of fidelity or allegiance to one’s feudal superior.

Disadvantages of Feudalism.—The great curse of this system was that the feudal lords possessed the power to make war upon one another, and so continuous were their jealousies and quarrelings that the land was never free from armed bands, who laid waste an opponent’s country, killing the miserable serfs who tilled the soil, and destroying their homes and cattle.

Europe about 1400 AD.

There was little joy in life and no popular learning. If a man did not enjoy warfare, but one other life was open to him, and that was in the Church. War and religion were the pursuits of life, and it is no wonder that many of the noblest and best turned their backs upon a life that promised only fighting and bloodshed and, renouncing the world, became monks. Monasticism developed in Europe under such conditions as these, and so strong were the religious feelings of the age that at one time a third of the land of France was owned by the religious orders.

The Town.—The two typical institutions of the early Middle Age were the feudal castle, with its high stone walls and gloomy towers, with its fierce bands of warriors armed in mail and fighting on horseback with lance and sword, and the monastery, which represented inn, hospital, and school. Gradually, however, a third structure appeared. This was the town. And it is to these mediæval cities, with their busy trading life, their free citizenship, and their useful occupations, that the modern world owes much of its liberty and its intellectual light.

The Renaissance.—Changes in Political Affairs.—By 1400, however, the Middle Age had nearly passed and a new life had appeared, a new epoch was in progress, which is called the Renaissance, which means “rebirth.” In political affairs the spirit of nationality had arisen, and feudalism was already declining. Men began to feel attachment to country, to king, and to fellow-citizens; and the national states, as we now know them, each with its naturally bounded territory, its common language, and its approximately common race, were appearing.