Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/329

* EUROPE. 285 EUROPE. The sovereignty of the Emperor at Constant) nople, which the Roman Pontiffs had theretofore recognized, was from tliis time denied. (See Papacy.) in return for their services to the Church, l lie Carolingians received aid from the popes in political matters. The Papacy helped to transform IV]>in from mayor of the palace into king (A.I). ~5-), and Charles the Great from King of the Franks and the Lombards into Emperor of the Romans (a.d. 800). The tradi- tion of the Roman Empire, the idea that all Christians should be subject to one secular lord, the Emperor, was still a force; and wlien Charle- magne iiacl made himself supreme in the Western Christian world, and the Imperial dignity had passed at Constantinople to a woman (Irene), it seemed to Western Christendom a natural thing that its ruler should be recognized as the successor of the Roman Ca?sars. Through the bar nious cooperation of Church and Slate, in the empire of Charlemagne, the political, reli- gious, and literary influences that had come down from the ancient world were for the last time fo- cused; and from the Frankish Empire these in- fluences were transmitted, with certain per- manent modifications, to the new and separate nations which took its place. Of the new institu- tions that took shape in the Frankish Empire the most important was feudalism. Feudalism had many roots, some of them Roman; but the feudal system obtained its definite legal basis when Charles Mattel, in order to meet the Arab horse with Christian cavalry, began to give bene- fices on the tenure of knight-service. The knight- fees which he created were, to a large extent. carved out of Church lands; and thus the Church was drawn into the feudal system. See Charles the Cheat; Feudalism. Europe at the Time of Charlemagne. (See Map, EimopE 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 ; northwestern 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 in- cluded all the German tribes of central Europe; but it did not include all the territory of modern Germany, since its northeastern frontier ran be- tween the Elbe and the Oder. The only other Euro- pean 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 southern Italy, the principal islands of the Medi- terranean, and the greater part of Asia Minor. The Greeks still had sea-power, and the trade be- tween Europe and the Orient was mainly in their hands. Until after the crusades their coin, the 'Ins,) nt,' w r as the standard of Mediterranean values. South of Christendom, from Spain through North Africa to Syria, curved the cres- cent 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 southeastern Europe it was still to win ground from the Greeks. Placed in touch with the Creek civilization in Syria and in Egypt I lam was de veloping, in letters and in science, a cull which, until nearly the close of the Middle I was superior to thai of western Europ Saracens, Dissolution of hie Frankish Empire. Be- 01 XMM.s. OF l ill VIODER . El ROP1 The power of ( 'harlcs t he Gr< undermined by t he gro i ing indepi nd f 1 he local magnates, particularly of those who held the offices of count or of margrave. Thi as well as the domains thai went with them, • g i" be regai ded as fiefs, and, like other fiefs, were becoming hereditary. Some magnate whose feudal authority extended over many coun- tries were coming to he called duke In the German territories some of these dukes ruled whole 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 secu lar powers of counts. The Empire wa- also by the attacks of Slavs and other barbarians on its eastern frontier, of Arabs in Italy, and of Scandinavian pirates on all its coasts. The im- mediate cause, however, of the disruption of the Empire was the right of all the sons of the Frankish King to succeed to the royal authority. In order to maintain as far as possible the unity of the Empire, a compromise was proposed: Ar- rangements were made by which each son should receive as King a part of the Empire, hut 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 approxi- mately equal shares. (See Verdun, Treaty of.) Although this division lasted but twenty-seven years, the name of the middle kingdom, Lotharin- gia, still survives in the modern Lorraine. Some forty years after the partition of Verdun, all the Carolingian territories were for a short time re- united under Charles the Fat; but after ss7, when Charles the Fat was deposed, France and Germany were permanently separated; there were two independent Burgundian kingdoms and there was a separate but not a united Italy. 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 Lom- bards, Greeks, and Arabs were fighting for su- premacy. In France and in Germany descendants of Charles the Great reigned for a time; but in the tenth century other kings, not of the Carolin- gian stock, were set up by the territorial mag- nates. Of these new kingdoms Germany was by far the strongest. The Norse 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 the territory which they still occupy. The Slavic kingdom of Poland recognized Gei man suzerainty; the Slavic peoples of Bohemia and Carinthia were incorporated into Germany. The debatable land to the west of the Rhine (Lor- raine) 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 reestablishment of German authority in Italy (Oii-2) the German kings as-