It may be superfluous to remind the reader at the beginning of the difficulties inherent in the presentation of medieval history. The appreciation of this fact, however, may serve somewhat to compensate the conscientious teacher who looks back upon his successive efforts to present the subject with anything but a feeling of satisfaction. When the German schoolmaster admits, as does Dr. Jaeger, after the reading of thousands of pages in preparation for his work that “the medieval world is essentially alien to our comprehension, and that vivid and realistic description—the most fruitful part of our instruction—is only possible here to a very moderate extent,[2]” the teacher on this side of the Atlantic has no reason to feel chagrined over his own failures. On the contrary he can approach his task with the satisfaction which comes from the feeling that he is assisting others in the solution of a most difficult problem. It must also be remembered that the German teacher has this advantage—of which he makes full use—that he is presenting the middle ages as the American teacher presents the colonial period, to furnish a background for the proper understanding of his own history.
Medieval Culture.
The middle ages do not require the elaborate, detailed treatment of later periods; and yet it must be admitted that much time will often be consumed in securing anything like an intelligent comprehension of the rudiments or elements of the subject. The period may be approached from many points of view. Possibly the most fruitful are the culture side and the idealistic side. It is indeed possible to combine these two ideas. So much of our literature pictures medieval society, especially as it has to do with the castle and the monastery, that the first phase cannot fail to prove attractive. Dr. Jaeger further points out that the men of this period, intellectually so narrow minded, so uncultured and so limited, would go to any extreme, sacrificing their personal comfort, aye, even their lives in their devotion to an idea. At one extreme stands the warrior, at the other the monk, and yet how much they resemble each other. The monk penetrates the forests of Germany and braves unknown dangers in his devotion to mother church; the crusader, no less of a devotee, lays down his life under a foreign sky, far removed from home and friends. There is then much that is attractive in the period if we follow it with this second thought in mind. Although these men were living embodiments of ideas which may be “alien to our comprehension,” their very ardor and enthusiasm become contagious, once the teacher catches a little of the spirit which animated them. Around some of these great personalities, too, can be woven much of the life of the times. A Charlemagne not only becomes the embodiment of the imperial idea, but behind him looms the shadowy outlines of the imperial system; a Richard I suggests the castle, the tournament, the flower of chivalry, the knight-errant; finally a Gregory VII becomes the incarnation of a great ecclesiastical hierarchy, more terrible with its anathemas maranathas than the bloodiest battlefields. The culture phase is admirably presented in the recent text-books, e. g., in Robinson, Munro, West, Harding, and Myers. When once the teacher becomes saturated with the life and habits of thought of these times, it will not prove such a difficult task to point out and emphasize the ideals of the men of the period, many of which should enter into the warp and woof of American character. In this connection the teacher will find Professor Emerton’s address before the New England History Teachers’ Association on the Teaching of Mediæval History in the Schools most helpful and inspiring.[3]
The Old Empire and the New.
The discussion for the first few weeks of the course must of necessity center largely about the new field upon which history is in the process of making, the empire of Charlemagne, its disruption as the result of its own inherent weaknesses and the renewed attacks of the barbarians and the growth of feudalism as a partial result of these and other forces which have been at work in the Europe of the early middle ages.
Three points will call for special emphasis: the field, the essential forces at work in this field, and the people who are responsible for their development. The student can best realize conditions in 800 A.D. by contrasting this new empire with the old Roman empire with which he is already familiar. Two maps might be made, one of the Roman empire at its greatest extent, the other of Charlemagne’s possessions, showing its Slavic neighbors on the east and its Saracenic on the south. The student should then grasp the fact that for the next five hundred years, with the exception of tiny England, the history of European progress is circumscribed by the narrow limits of this new empire, which although including portions of the old, has transferred the center of interest to the plains of central Europe. To the east and southeast are the Slavs and the remains of the eastern half of the Roman empire, which having played its part in history, remains merely as the storehouse of the intellectual, literary and artistic treasures of the remote past; to the south are the Saracens who one hundred years before had threatened to place the crescent above the cross, but were beaten back upon the sunny plains of France.
Out of this empire are to emerge the France, Germany and Italy of the distant future. Spain is not to be rescued from her infidel conquerors until a new and far distant era dawns, that of Columbus, Cortez and Pizarro. Christendom, as it is known will have no interests beyond these confines except as it is obliged to beat off the daring Northmen or to admit them as unwelcome guests; or as it forces its way eastward throwing out its outposts to check the Slavic tide moving westward; or as its enthusiasm is kindled by mother church to undertake the rescue of Palestine from heathen hands; or as the zeal of its traders, who even at this early date begin to long for new fields to conquer, stimulates them to open communication with the strange and distant East.
The two great forces at work are the two ideas of a universal church and a universal empire. The rise of the Christian church, its relations with Rome and the German invaders might profitably be reviewed here, especially its connection with the founding of this new empire, which differs from the old in its dependence on and union with the papal power. These are the ideals which men set before them; this will o’ the wisp of universal dominion was destined to lead many a man to his own ruin and that of the power upon which he relied to attain his end.
Charlemagne.
The personality of Charlemagne, so naïvely portrayed by Einhard, his desire not only to conquer but to serve the higher ideal of establishing a Christian state, cannot fail to attract the student, especially if the teacher emphasizes the fact that he was the hero par excellence of the middle ages. Ample material for a study of his arrangements can be found in the source books, and his system can easily be compared with the organization of the older empire.