Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 1 1911.djvu/11



HE present volume covers a space of about two hundred years beginning with Constantine and stopping a little short of Justinian. At its opening the Roman Empire is standing in its ancient majesty, drawing new strength from the reforms of Diocletian and the statesmanship of Constantine : at its dose the Empire has vanished from the West, while the East is slowly recovering from the pressure of the barbarians in the fifth century, and gathering strength for Justinian’s wars of conquest. At its opening heathenism is still a mighty power, society is built up on heathen pride of class, and Rome still seems the centre of the world: at its ending we see Christianity supreme, Constantinople the seat of power, and the old heathen order of society in the West dissolving in the confusion of barbarian devastations. At its opening Caesar’s will is law from the Atlantic to Armenia: at its ending a great system of Teutonic and Arian kingdoms in the West has just been grievously shaken by the conversion of the Franks from heathenism direct to orthodoxy.

In our first chapter we trace the rise of Constantine, his reunion of the Empire, his conversion to Christianity, the political side of the Nicene Council, and the foundation of Constantinople. Then follows Dr Reid’s account of the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine, which fixed for centuries the general outline of the administration. After this Mr Norman Baynes takes up the struggle with Persia under Constantius and Julian, and continues in a later chapter the story of the wars of Rome in East and West in the times of Valentinian and Theodosius. The victory of Christianity is treated by Principal Lindsay; and he describes also the rival systems of Neoplatonism and Mithraism, and gives an account of Julian’s reaction and the last struggles of heathenism. The next chapter is devoted to Arianism. First the doctrine is described, in itself and in some of its relations to modern thought; then the religious side of the Nicene Council is given, and the complicated history of the reaction is traced down to the decisive overthrow of Arianism in the Empire by Theodosius. After this Mr C. H. Turner describes the organisation of the Church—clergy, creeds and worship—looking back to the beginning, but chiefly concerned with its development in the age of the great Councils.