PROBLEMS IN EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION!

THE PIRENNE THESIS

Analysis,

Criticism, and

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PROBLEMS IN EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION

THE PIRENNE THESIS

Analysis, Criticism., and Revision

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

Alfred F. Havighurst, AMHERST COLLEGE

D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY BOSTON Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 58-12572

COPYRIGHT 1958 BY D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY

No part of the material covered lay this copyright may "he reproduced in any form -without -written permission of the publisher. (6 B 2)

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Table of Contents

C. DEL1SLE BURNS

The First Europe i

M . RO STOVTS EFF

The Terms "Decay" and "Decline and Fall" 9

HENRI PIRENNE

from Medieval Cities 1 1

from Mohammed and Charlemagne 28

J. LESTOCQUOY

Origins of Medieval Civilization and the Problem of Continuity 43

H . ST. L. B. MOSS

Economic Consequences of the Barbarian Invasions 48

NOR MAN H. BAYN ES

M. Pirenne and the Unity of the Mediterranean World 54

ROBERT S. LOPEZ

Mohammed and Charlemagne: A Revision 58

East and West in the Early Middle Ages 74

PUBLIC UBRAKt""** <^<3L(MQ.)4 O M ~-f\ T s^JLJ J. U X viii Table of Contents LYNN WHITE, JR.

Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages 79

DANIEL C, DENNETT, JR. Pirenne and Muhammad 84

ANNE RIISING

The Fate of Henri Pirenne's Theses on the Consequence of the Islamic Expansion 1 02

Suggestions for Additional Reading 1 07 Introduction

the a sub- materials of the to past generation past returned life, yield- stantial literature has accumu- DURING ing greater knowledge and leading to new lated of the central of round one problems understanding. European history the transition from the To force re-examination of established ancient to medieval civilization." of world ways historical thinking requires power- These the sentence of ful words, introductory and original minds, and for the study of one of the selections in this problem, were the Middle Ages there have been many but the re-exam- written twenty years ago, such in the twentieth century: Ch, Diehl of the ination early Middle Ages, which (French), Norman H. Baynes (British), continued. they suggest, has A. A. Vasiliev (Russian and American), The older view gave isolated and per- among Byzantine scholars; Philip Hitti functory treatment to Byzantium and to (Lebanese and American) and E. Levy- Islam and then turned wholeheartedly to Provengal (French) on the Arabs and the West: the Merovingians and Clovis, Islam; Alfons Dopsch, brilliant medievalist Charlemagne and the Carolingians, then of Austria whose views made him a center the the stem duchies in Germany and of controversy; Marc Bloch, a hero of the the Capetians in France, and rest. The French Resistance in World War II, who in rural Cambridge Medieval History (8 v., 1911- was a pioneer French history; and 1936), which brought together the scholar- so on. But if there was any one individual

of medievalists in f L the of whg ^i' f ship distinguished many i |>%^^^^'upset tranquility lands, did recognize the importance of* the'fflSttSiSs? wcod" and with whose name still treated the is associated it Eastern Europe but Byzan- special prestige, was Henri tine and Arab worlds quite apart from the Pirenne (1862-1935), celebrated national West, and the emphasis throughout re- historian of Belgium and long associated the of encoun- mained political and religious. Moreover, with university Ghent. One its character was encyclopedic with no ters him wherever one turns in the histori- cal of the on the interpretation integrating the enterprise writing past thirty years / a whole. The abridged version (1952) was early Middle Ages. out of date at publication and it was then Put in the most general terms the ques- observed that the appearance of this tion which Pirenne faced, and which as a of Shorter Cambridge Medieval History prob- consequenceVof his writing the whole has ably marked the end of medieval history medieval scholarship confronted since, written as is that of the relation of past politics organized around Roman Antiquity the First dynastic periods. For, under quite different to the medieval vwrld of Europe. historians at least had been aware of controlling assumptions, the story of the Some in were when divided early Middle Ages had long since been what they doing they of of western civilization into fee ^ihe process of revision and by many the the story very historians who had contributed to the Ancient World, "the Middle Ages> and conventional framework of the Cambridge Modern Times. They realized of were that history. As new questions asked the such artificial periodi^trat

IX Introduction

d'Islam et le essential continuity of human experience. read a paper on "L'expansion And it was well known that the very idea commencement du moyen ge." A pro- of the Middle Ages was the historical crea- longed and animated discussion ensued tion of another "period," that of the Renais- French, German, Polish, Italian, Dutch, and sance, when humanist writers, at pains to Hungarian scholars participating. Pirenne's and documented in identify their era with Antiquity, attributed views were amplified a uniqueness to the centuries between. Yet Mahomet et Charlemagne, finished in man- a few months before his repetition tends to influence thought. It uscript form only never came to be taken for granted that the "An- death in 1935 and, unfortunately, cient World" and the "Middle Ages" were subject to a final revision by him. This work, the in 1937 and translated into easily distinguished the one from other, published Eng- and that a distinct break came in the fifth lish in all of Pirenne's 1939, brings'together century with the disappearance of the "Ro- research on this theme^But Medieval Cities in the the since e circulation to man" emperors West, appearance had long given wklx of Germanic "barbarian" kingdoms, and the "Pirenne Thesis/' "No volume dLsimi- in the triumph of Christianity. These devel- lar size," wrote Professor Gray C. Boyce historical opments, with a slight accommodation, 1941, "has so affected medieval 1 could be treated as simultaneous and dram- scholarship in marry generations." X atized in a comparatively brief span of For economic historians of western Eu- years, and were considered sufficient to set rope, Pirenne's views have had perhaps off another. one "period" of the past from special significance. But the impact has Such became the textbook point of view been almost as great on a and, with some qualifications, controlling (for Pirenne lengthened the essential unity assumption of scholars as well. of the Roman Mediterranean world), upon A quite radically different concept came historians of Germany (for Pirenne rather out of the investigations of Pirenne. He minimized the Germanic contribution to concluded that the Roman world eco- European -development), upon historians nomically, culturally, and even, in essence, of Islam whose story now assumed greater in all politically continued important par- significance, and upon philosophers of his- ticulars the centuries of the through Ger- tory, such as Toynbee, especially concerned man invasions. It was rather the impact of with theories of change. Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries The issues raised by Pirenne may be which, by destroying the unity of the Medi- summarized as follows: terranean, ended the Roman world and led to a different civilization in the 1. strikingly What developments distinguish Antiq- era. "Without Islam the Carolingian Prank- uity from the Middle Ages? When do ish would Empire probably never have we properly cease to speak of the Roman existed and Charlemagne, without Moham- world and begin to think in terms of the would be met, inconceivable," he wrote in First Europe? a famous sentence. 2. What was the impact of Islam and the His tell us that this idea countrymen Arabs upon the West, and what that of in his appeared lectures at Ghent as early the Germans? as 1910. It was first form given published 3. What is the relation between the Mero- in articles in the Revue de beige Philologie era 5th to 8th centu- et vingian (roughly d'Histoire, in 1922. Pirenne popularized ries) and the Carolingian era (the 8th his concept the same year in a series of and 9th centuries)? Do lectures delivered in American universities they present essential or are in and as Medieval in 1925. continuity they sharp published Cities, contrast? At the Sixth International Congress of His- i torical Sciences at Oslo in 1928, Pirenne Byzantion, XV, 460, n. 25. Introduction

4. What can Jiistorians say about trade and Byzantine studies, and from one of his asso- industry-m the West, 400-1000? ciates, H. St. L. B. Moss, we have forth- right criticism. An American scholar now It is to Pirenne's conclusions on these at Yale, Professor Robert S. Lopez, who has the matters, to controversy which his views undertaken research in one of the most to precipitated and the new vitality of early difficult of fields medieval economic his- medieval studies to so which they power- tory makes a thorough analysis of the evi- fully contributed that the attention of the dence. One of these extracts is from a paper student is directed in this problem. read at the Tenth International Congress Our selections begin with brief introduc- of Historical Sciences convening in tory statements, in fresh and vigorous form, in 1955. calculated to free the reader from any nec- The writings of Pirenne have done much adherence to essary conventional attitudes to stimulate research in directions quite toward the period under consideration. different from those of his own investiga- One is from "The Formation of the First tions. Early medieval currencies, for exam- the of is Europe," opening chapter a stimu- ple, now a very active field of investiga- lating treatment by C. Delisle Burns in his tion. And consideration of the shift of The First Europe (1947). The other is an civilization from the Mediterranean to evaluation of the words "decay" and "de- northern Europe led Lynn White, Jr. to cline" when used with reference to the examine technological development. His , from an article by M. article, "Technology and Invention in the Rostovtzeff, one of the most important of Middle Ages," illustrates the extent to Roman historians of the twentieth century. which Pirenne helped rescue historical Pirenne's own exposition is best studied, scholarship from rather narrow and paro- initially, in the popular and attractive chial concerns. From Daniel C. Dennett, Jr. Medieval Cities. This is the book which for we have an analysis of "Pirenne and Mu- well over a Islamic generation has made Pirenne's hammad," by a specialist in history. familiar to name undergraduate students And finally from a Danish scholar, Anne of medieval history. Then from the more Riising, we have in her article, "The Fate technical and more complete Mohammed of Henri Pirenne's Theses," an up-to-date and Charlemagne, we have his conclusions, consideration of the whole problem in the of in summary form, on the significance of light of historical commentary the past the German invasions of Rome, a brief twenty-five years. statement of the nature of the Islamic inva- All together, these extracts present in sion of the Mediterranean and the West, sufficient detail for fairly close study the and then a more elaborate examination of essentials of the "Pirenne Thesis." They "Poetical Organization" and "Intellectual also provide evidence and ideas against to test its does the Civilization" in the Merovingian and which validity. Where Carolingian periods. matter now stand? ^Rather clearly Pirenne medi- The remaining selections consisting of has left a permanent imprint upon discussion and criticism of the "Pirenne eval studies. Nearly every historian thinks of him. his central Thesis" are chosen from a large body of differently because And commentary available. Some noted names contribution, it would be generally agreed, are included, and from various national has been this: to emancipate medieval in western and in the backgrounds. A French historian, J. Les- historians Europe tocquoy of Arras, examines the economy of United States from historical interests too if and in the tenth century to determine it will exclusively political, legal, religions support Pirenne. From Professor Norman nature; to gain recognition of the impor- H. Baynes, an eminent British scholar in tance of Islam and of the role of Byzantium xu Introduction

in the of to never all be for can never be story western civilization; and collected, they make historians more aware of the limits known. Problems cannot all be solved, for, are of understanding and the errors in inter- as they are solved, new aspects perpetu- revealed. The historian the pretation which follow from easy periodiza- ally opens way; 3 he does not close it." tion of European history/"Nothing is better proof of Pirenne's/ brilliant eloquence," :The statements in the writes Anne "than the fact that he [NOTE Conflict of Opinion Riising, on page xv are from the following sources: Charles has been able to his formula- impose own Oman, The Dark Ages, 476-918 (1898), pp. 3, 5; Michael Economic tion of the problems upon even his oppo- Postan, ^Cambridge History 2 vol. H (1952), p. S. nents." of Europe, 157;_R. Lopez, Relazioni del X Congresso Internazionale di in research Yet, particulars, has generally Scienze Storiche, vol. Ill, p. 129; Henri Pirenne, and Medi- refuted Pirenne. This in itself would not Mohammed and Charlemagne, p. 284, eval Cities, p. 27; J. Lestocquoy, "The Tenth disturb him for he had no notion that he Century," Economic History Review, vol. XVII had entire historical truth. In 1932, as he (1947), p. 1; Alfons Dopsch, quoted by H. St. L. B. Economic vol. VII finished the seventh and final volume of Moss, History Review, (1936-1937), p. 214; R. S. Lopez, Relazioni del his Histoire de he insisted great Belgique, X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, vol. Norman H. upon the value of works of historical synthe- Ill, p. 130; Baynes, Byzantine Studies and other Essays (1955), pp. 315, 316; sis which would suggest fresh hypotheses, Lynn White, Jr., "Technology and Invention in establish new connections and pose different the Middle Ages," Speculum, vol. XV (1940), 152-153; Daniel C. Dennett, Jr., "Pirenne problems. At the same time he frankly ad- pp. and Muhammad," Speculum, vol. XXIII (April mitted that was any synthesis necessarily 1948), pp. 168, 189-190.] provisional "The materials [of history] can 3 As paraphrased hy F. M. Powicke, Modern His- 2 "The Fate of Henri Pirenne's Theses," Classica torians and the Study of History (London, 1955), et Mediaevalia, XIII (1952), p. BO. p. 104. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

Empire A.D. 284-305 , Roman Emperor 306-337 CONSTANTINE I (THE GREAT), Roman Emperor 330 Byzantium rebuilt as 379-395 THEODOSIUS I (THE GREAT), Roman Emperor 395 Permanent division of Empire, East and West 474-491 , East Roman Emperor 527-565 JUSTINIAN, East Roman Emperor 610-641 I, East Roman Emperor 71 7 741 LEO III (THE ISAURIAN), East Roman Emperor

Germania

ca. 370 Pressure of Huns on Goths in Eastern Europe 378 Battle of Adrianople; Visigoths defeat Romans 395 Huns (ATTILA) on the Danube 451 Final Defeat of Huns at Chalons (') 395-408 Visigothic Revolt (ALARIC) against Eastern Empire 4 1 Visigothic "Sack of Rome' ca. 400-600 Visigothic Kingdom in Southern Gaul and (Continues in Spain until 7 1 1 ) ca. 420 Beginnings of Anglo-Saxon Invasions of Britain ca. 400-430 , Burgundians, cross the Rhine into Gaul ca. 400600 Burgundian Kingdom in Rhone Valley (Absorbed by Franks, end of 6th century) ca. 429-534 Vandal Kingdom in North Africa

(Reconquered lay JUSTINIAN) - 455 Vandals (GAISERIC) plunder Rome ca. 400-751 Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks in Gaul 48 1-5 1 1 CLOVIS, Merovingian King of the Franks 538594 GREGORY, Bishop of Tours (History of the Franks) 639-751 Rois Faineants, Merovingian Kingdom of Franks in Gaul

Romania 476 Deposition of ROMULUS AUGUSTUS, last Roman-bom Emperor of West

476493 ODOACER, King of the Romans 489 leads THEODORIC Ostrogoths from Eastern Empire into 493526 THEODORIC, Ostrogothic King of Italy (') ca. 480575 CASSIODORUS, Roman statesman and scholar 480-525 BOETHIUS, Roman statesman and philosopher 5 3 5-5 5 3 JUSTINIAN'S Reconqiiest (under BELISARIUS) of Africaf Italy, Sicily, and portions of Spain 539751 Byzantine Exarchy in Ravenna 552 First appearance of Lombards (federated with Eastern Empire against the Ostrogplhz) 568 Lombards conquer Po Valley xm xiv Chronological Table

Christianity

313 Edict of Milan, Toleration of Christianity 325 Council of Nicaea 354-430 SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

379 Death of ST. BASIL 440-461 LEO I (THE GREAT), Bishop of Rome ("") 480-534 ST. BENEDICT ca. 590 ST. COLUMBAN (IRISH) comes to Gaul 590-604 POPE GREGORY I (THE GREAT) 597 ST. AUGUSTINE (BENEDICTINE) lands in Britain ca. 673-735 THE VENERABLE BEDE ca. 675-754 ST. BONIFACE

Islam

ca. 570-632 MOHAMMED

632 Beginning of Caliphate (Asu BAKR) 634-644 OMAR CALIPH and Conquest of Syria, Persia, and Egypt 661750 OMAYYAD Caliphate at Damascus

661-680 MUAWTYA, first Omayyad Caliph 68 5-705 ABDU-L-MALIK, Caliph 711 Islam reaches Spain 732 Battle of Tours 750-1258 ABBASID Caliphate at Bagdad 786-809 HARUN-AL-RASCHID, Caliph at Bagdad

Carolingian Prankish Kingdom

687-714 PEPIN OF HERISTAL, Mayor of the Palace 714-741 CHARLES MARTEL, Mayor of the Palace 741-768 PEPIN THE SHORT, Mayor of the Palace and (751) King of the Pranks 751 Lombards take Ravenna

768-8 1 4 CHARLEMAGNE, King of the Franks, King of the Lombards, Emperor of the Romans 782 ALCUIN OF YORK comes to Palace School at Aachen

800 Coronation of CHARLEMAGNE as Emperor 814-840 Louis THE Pious, Emperor 843 Peace of Verdun, beginning of breakup of Carolingian Empire Conflict of Opinion

into 1. How was the world of antiquity which we call Roman transformed of the medieval society which we call European? From the days Edward historians little Gibbon to the early twentieth century, this question gave trouble.

If we must select any year as the dividing line between ancient history and the Middle Ages, it is impossible to choose a better date than 476 [the year in which the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by the German Odoacer]. ... It is ... in every way correct, as well as convenient to treat his to style him [Odoacer] as the first German king of Italy and reign as the commencement of a new era. CHARLES OMAN

With this conclusion, economic development seemed to provide no difficulty.

Without careful examination, historians could take it more or less for granted that the irruption of the barbarians meant a complete break with the economic civilization of the Roman Empire. MICHAEL POSTAN

2. However, twentieth century historians have submitted the role of the Germans and the whole story of the transition to medieval society to reappraisal. the fifth Virtually nobody believes any more that the barbarian invasions of century marked a sharp turn in economic history, although most historians will admit that the meeting of German immaturity with Roman decrepitude first can be traced accelerated the process of disintegration whose symptoms as far back as the age of the Antonines. R. S. LOPEZ

3. A brilliant contribution was made by Henri Pirenne, who put forth the view that the Moslems, not the Germans, destroyed the Roman world.

The Germanic invasions destroyed neither the Mediterranean unity of the of ancient world, nor what may be regarded as the truly essential features tradition Roman culture. . . . The cause of the break with the of antiquity was the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam. Without Islam, the Prankish Empire would probably never have existed and Charlemagne, without Mahomet, would be inconceivable.

Can- 4. In more general terms Pirenne opened up a much larger question. not much of the complexity of the transition from the Roman World to the Medieval World be understood through an analysis of economic change? Hence, it was essential to establish the relationship between the well-known Carolingian period (broadly the eighth and ninth centuries) and that which came before and that which followed. This is in itself a

matter of some controversy. xv xvi Conflict of Opinion

The view which is at present the most widely accepted is that of Henri Pirenne. According to him, medieval civilization began to take shape at the end of the tenth century after the Viking and the Hungarian invasions had ceased. The end of the ancient world had come much earlier [with] the triumph of Islam . . . and the Carolingian period was one of full decline.

J. LESTOCQUOY

The Carolingian development is a link in the unbroken chain of living con- tinuity which leads, without any cultural break, from the late antiquity to the German middle ages. ALFONS DOPSCH

5. However, the ideas of both Pirenne and Dopsch have been sharply questioned.

Henri Pirenne made the Arabs squarely and directly responsible for pulling an iron curtain which separated the Believers from the Infidels and left Europe an economic and cultural dead end. His superb pleading and his personal charm won many converts. Nevertheless, a large number of scholars . . . were not convinced. For the last twenty years nearly all that has been written on early medieval economic history has reflected the heat of the controversy on "les theses d'Henri Pirenne." R. S. LOPEZ

It is misleading to state that for the Franks of the sixth century, the Mediter- ranean still remained "mare nostrum." . . . My own belief is that the unity of the Mediterranean world was broken by the pirate fleet of Vandal and that the shattered unity was never restored. NORMAN H. BAYNES

Pirenne is only the most recent of many historians to speculate as to why the reign of Charlemagne witnessed the shift of the center of European civiliza- the tion, change of the focus of history, from the Mediterranean to the plains of Northern Europe. The findings of agricultural history, it seems, have never been applied to this central problem. . . . For obvious reasons of climate the agricultural revolution of the eighth century was confined to Northern Europe.

LYNN WHITE, JR.

6. And in recent our increased years, knowledge suggests once again a fresh appraisal.

We must affirm that ... [in no authoritative statements in Islam] is there any prohibition against trading with the Christians or unbelievers, . . . Islam was hostile to Christianity as a rival, not as a completely alien faith, and the Muslims were invariably more tolerant than the Christians. The whether man he be a Pirenne or a Dopsch who attempts to under- stand and to interpret either the Merovingian or Carolingian period in terms of purely an economic interpretation of history will be certain to fail, for the reason that economic simple factors play a subsidiary role and present merely in aspects the great causative process, DANTEL C. DENNETT, JR. THE FIRST EUROPE

C. DELIS LE BU RNS

Cecil Delisle Burns (18791942) had a varied and Interesting career as an official in the British Ministry of Reconstruction created during official in of World War I, as a party the Joint Research Department the British Labor Party and Trades Union Congress, as an officer in the Labor Office of the League of Nations, and as a lecturer in Ethics and Social Philosophy In the University of London. His interests, as a writer, were in a sense equally diverse, for he ranged over all periods of history. But his books had a common theme that of the relation of force and moral authority during periods of social transition. It is this theme which dominates The First Europe, the book from which a brief selection follows.

FIKST Europe came into existence Charles the Great at his death "had left all the four hundred from in the TEduring years Europe greatest happiness." Europe not from other the beginning of the fifth century to the is thus distinguished, only the tradition of the Greek- end of the eighth century of the Christian lands, but from coun- Churches and and from era. It included, geographically, the speaking Empire, was "the tries now known as France, England, Ire- Islam. From that time Europe land and southern Scotland, western Ger- West" not merely a different place but a and different many, central and northern Italy spirit. had never been northern Spain. Its peoples spoke Ger- The Roman Empire in the modern sense manic languages in the North and East, European or Western, words. It had united the and variations of Latin in the South and of these always united in a Chris- countries the eastern Mediter- WestAThey were socially surrounding tendonTwhich excluded the older eastern ranean, from which it drew its chief wealth, countries of the forms of ChristianityTJbut they were di- with the less developed northern Gaul and Britain, vided by local lordships. This First Europe West, including at the of the fourth was, indeed, dependent in its earlier years And when, beginning first and then Constan- upon the older cultures of the Mediter- century, Diocletian the the central administration ranean, which had produced finally tine removed it had become ob- Roman Empire; but it was a new type of from Rome eastwards, as civilization. Thus, the word Europe be- vious to Roman generals and lawyers, as to the adherents of came, after the collapse of the Roman Em- well Christianity, a that the real centre of the at pire in the West, more than geographical Empire lay in of Asia and The expression; and it was used the new the junction Europe. sense for the first time in the ninth cen- Roman Empire was based upon the control for Nithard the ninth- of the trade routes in the basin of the Medi- tury, example, by terranean. It inherited the of the century historian, when he wrote that conquests

From C. Delisle Burns, The First Euro} ei A Study of the Establishment of Medieval AD. 400-800 (London; 1947), pp. 23-3 6. By pennissioii of George Alleia & UnwinL&fc C. DELISLE BURNS

Greek successors of Alexander in Egypt, medieval civilization is regarded here as a first in the of a Syria and Asia Minor. And although it only stage development ' had also succeeded to the conquests of the pattern of culture, whose later forms were Roman Republic in the West, these were the second Europe of the sixteenth to nine- of less importance, three centuries after teenth centuries, and the third Europe now the Augustus, than the rich and populous cities being established. To compare Roman of what is now called the "Near East." system at its best under the Antonines, or The civilization of the First Europe was in its later years under Constantine or the First Eu- quite distinct from the Roman. It did not Theodosius the Great, with depend upon the Mediterranean. It was rope in the days of Charles the Great, is the creation of the Latin Churches, and not like comparing a great river, losing itself in of any one military or civil power. Its intel- the sands at the end of its course, with a lectual centres were in northern France, mountain torrent from which a still greater the Rhine and northern stream arises. Or to the meta- country, England , again, change Its architecture other arts of the First Italy. and plastic \ phor, the early history Europe were original experiments to meet new treats of the roots of that great tree which needs. Its music came out of popular songs. has now expanded into modern science, Its organizations of a learned caste, the modern music and arts, and modern skill of monasteries and of the universi- roots of that clergy, in government. But the tree, ties later r ere of which were established, w new if exposed to the light history, may not social inventions. Thus, the First Europe appear so attractive as the latest faded flow- of the so-called Middle Ages, was an origi- ers of Greek and Roman culture. nal in of experiment new ways living and Although medieval civilization, through- thinking. Medieval civilization was more out its whole course until the Renaissance, than the in be- its primitive Roman externals, and certainly in first years, was more cause it lacked, for example, baths and primitive than the Roman, its roots struck and in culture it roads; was more primitive, far deeper among all classes of the com- because it lacked that natural intercourse munity; and it contained forces much more between educated men and women, which powerful than the Roman Empire had ever existed in the Roman villas and city man- included. The doctrine and practice of the sions. But in other it aspects was an ad- Christian Churches, based upon the belief vance upon Mediterranean civilization; for that each human being had an immortal in example, its moral and religious ideals, soul to be saved, and that all were in some in its community of feeling between the sense equal as Christians this was one of rich and the poor and in its widespread the most important influences in the forma- sense of social responsibility. If character tion of what is now known as democracy. and conduct in different are to be as an ideal a social ages Democracy means sys- St. Francis was not more civil- of compared, tem liberty, equality and fraternity for ized than but he had Seneca, wider and all men, and not a system in which a few more subtle sympathies; and Abelard, share freedom among themselves in order Aquinas and Occam were better thinkers the better to control the rest. And democ- than Cicero and Pliny, although their ob- racy as a system of government, by which servation and were experience more limited. the ideal may be approached, means at feast The of ancient greater philosophers some control by the "plain people" over cannot be to add credit to the their rulers supposed and agents and some right of Roman the culture and social or- discussion Empire, public concerning public policy. ganization of which retained few traces of But even in this sense, the sources of some their teaching in the fifth century of the elements in the democratic tradition of to- Christian era. To avoid misunderstanding, day are to be found in the election of it should be therefore, clearly stated that bishops in the earliest Christian Churches The First Europe

and in the meeting of bishops as repre- included all the lands from northern Brit- sentatives in Synods, rather than in an- ain to the borders of Iraq, and from the cient Athens or Rome. Rhine and Danube to the Sahara. In A.D. The word "democracy" in Greek did not 800, on the other hand, the same institu- refer to slaves and women as members of tion, still called the Roman Empire, in- the as in political community, although, cluded only part of the Balkan peninsula the case of cattle, their owners and masters and of Turkey, within easy reach of its care for them. the other might On hand, capital at Constantinople. But in western the Athenians the developed and Roman Europe separate kingdoms under Germanic Republic preserved the power to criticize chieftains were established in Gaul, then and remove public authorities and the free called western France, and Germany, then discussion of all citizens. in in public policy by called eastern France, Italy, England But neither criticism nor discussion sur- and in northern Spain.^The most striking vived in the Christian Churches; and the feature of the change is the localization of democracy of early Christianity had passed, government. Many different and independ- before the fifth century, into a form of des- ent centres of power and authority had potism under the control of the bishops and taken the place of one; although all these clergy. The democratic tendency of Chris- countries were felt to be united against the tianity in medieval Europe survived only in outer world, as Latin Christendom. Africa the sacraments and ceremonies, which were north of the Sahara and southern Spain equally shared by all, and in early Chris- were ruled by Mohammedan Caliphs. In tian documents which served at times to the East were unknown tribes; and in the

support protests against despotism, political West, the Ocean. or clerical. Nevertheless, democracy in the In A.D. 400 the Roman Emperors, who of modern sense that word, did in fact arise were Christian and Catholic, were legis- within the Christian tradition and not else- lating on doctrine and Church discipline, where. Medieval civilization was also the with the advice of bishops, who were them- of source of the great European literatures selves largely under the control imperial and of modern European music and plastic officials. But by A.D. 800 there was an im- arts. Even modern experimental science perial Church, outside the surviving Roman can be traced to the practices of magic, both Empire in the East, subject to the bishops for sacred and secular, in the Middle Ages. of Rome, legislating itself, and some- But in social institutions the early years of times using the power of local kings for the First Europe were still more important civil as well as ecclesiastical organization. of united ^for the future. At that time the system A large part of western Europe was of the nation-States had its origin in the barbarian again, but now by the organization kingdoms which replaced the Roman prov- Latin Churches, which had lost contact inces in the West. The Roman organiza- with the Christianity of the eastern Medi- tion of Christian communities spread from terranean. Less obvious, but more impor- in and Italy and Gaul into England, Ireland and tant than the great changes political in Germany. The great monastic system of the ecclesiastical institutions, was the change West was established; and pilgrimage con- the system of production and distribution. nected the common people of all Europe. In A.D. 400 the Roman Empire depended These are the roots of the First Europe. . . . upon the organization of great cities Rome, Constantinople, , Car- THE CONTRAST BETWEEN A.D. 400 thage, Aries and the rest, whose popula- AND A.D. 800 tions obtained food and clothing from dis- Of the most obvious institutions in A.D. tant sources of supply. There was a trade 400 the Roman Empire is the best known. n slaves, food-stuffs and raw materials It was one system of government which throughout the Mediterranean basin, ex- C. DELISLE BURNS

northern the more western tending also to the Rhine country, among simple-minded Tas divided into different sects Gaul and Britain. A cultured, city-bred, races, w Priscillianists and others. rich class provided administrators for a Arians, Donatists, of customs and It was in local or single system economic organized congregations A.D. 800 all this had dis- each of the other, political laws. By Churches, independent but connected a common literature and appeared from western Europe. The great by of Roman cities were in ruins; and their di- ritual, and by the Councils bishops. in A.D. in western Chris- minished populations continually suffered Later, 800, Europe the of armed had become Christendom. from plague, famine or raids tianity Every- the East and the one was assumed to be Christian and Cath- gangs. Trade between West of the Mediterranean basin had al- olic. The Latin Churches of the West had most come to an end. The slave-trade coalesced into one imperial Church con- road trolled a caste of monks hardly existed; and neither ships nor by separate clergy, most of them under the traffic were able to carry raw materials and and nuns, celibates, at least in of the foodstuffs for long distances. Distribution, government, theory, therefore, had become local. It was organ- bishops of Rome. ized by local landowners, controlling serfs AND GERMANS tied to the soil, but possessed of customary ROMANS for a few of The contrast between A.D. 400 and A.D. rights. The ruling class, except consisted of 800 is What is here is the higher clergy, ignorant, startling. attempted and the oc- illiterate, country-bred "sportsmen," whose to explain how why change curred. In its earliest the chief enjoyment, when not killing or rob- stages change be as due to a conflict be- bing their neighbours, was hunting game may regarded and in the forests. In the four centuries that tween a particular type of civilization de- a of barbarism. It is assumed followed the fifth, a great process of particular type in follows that the of cul- urbanization was taking place. The popu- what "pattern the lation was more evenly spread over the ture" called Greek-Roman civilization, whole area of north-western Europe. Thus, embodied in the late Roman Empire, was medieval Europe was embodied in the only one of many possible forms of civil- civilization in but primitive castles and the abbeys and not, at ized life. Not general, in in any rate in its first phase, in the houses or only Roman civilization was question of the churches of merchants and craftsmen in the fifth century, although most the towns. writers of that time thought of their own Again, in A.D. 400 the centres of intel- tradition as civilization itself. In the same writers of lectual activity, of the arts and of trade, way, some and speakers to-day were the sea-ports of the Mediterranean who lament the danger to "civilization," basin Constantinople, Alexandria, Car- fail to perceive that an earlier pattern of thage, Aries and Rome. By the ninth cen- culture may be replaced by a better. The the of First last of the tury centres activity in the Roman system was the great Europe lay in the North-West Paris, predatory Empires based upon slavery; but later culture Tours, Fulda, and, in years, Antwerp it brought unity and extended London. in basin of and Thus the geographical setting throughout the countries the for the new type of civilized life lay in the Mediterranean. Its best products were countries on the border of the great ocean, regarded by eighteenth-century historians which proved eventually to be, not the as standards for all civilized men; and they limit of the earth, but the pathway to a were therefore unable to understand or new world. Finally in A.D. 400 Christianity appreciate the new forms of civilization was a proselytizing religion, fighting long- which took its place. But they were not established customs and beliefs of many wrong in supposing that any form of civil- ^lifferent types; and Christianity itself, even ized life is better than any barbarism, al- The First Europe though it is always difficult to distinguish than at other times, precisely because the the first signs of a new civilization from displacement of ancient customs compels the barbarism by which it is surrounded. them to think and act for themselves. This book is concerned with the transi- Again, the transition from a long-estab- tion from one type of civilization, the Ro- lished social system to the crude beginning man, to another the European. Any form of a new Order, must not be rendered in of civilization is a complex of social rela- terms of good and bad. French is not bad tionships, more varied and more intricate Latin. But from the fifth to the ninth cen- than those of barbarism. civilized Amongo tury, when the transition from Latin to and tastes men women opinions and differ, French was taking place, the finer qualities and social customs are of the continually adjusted new language were not so easily individual by experiment. Occupations are perceived, especially by the educated, as differentiated in what is called the division the mummified elegance of the Latin of of the labour, and political and economic the vanished past. As in the history of lan- "interests" of the of members any com- guage, so in that of the plastic arts, the munity, and of different communities, are splendid temples of ancient Rome were different and interdependent. In barbar- more magnificent than the Christian basili- ism, on the other hand, all the members of cas of the fourth century and their the community are as far as possible alike decoration. But in the study of the transi- in opinions, tastes, occupations and inter- tion to a new type of civilization it is neces- ests. Society is homogeneous. Established sary to foresee in the colours of the custom and belief control daily life and the future development of the decoration prevent variation. One man, or one caste of the Christian Churches in the glass of of magicians or lords, provides the rules for the cathedrals of Chartres and of York. action. therefore in the transition from the thought and And even Thus, Roman sys- civilized communities the simplicity of bar- tem of civilization must not be regarded barism has an attraction for minds weak- primarily as the spread of barbarism. ened by personal distress or confused by On the other hand, the barbarism by social unrest, as it had for the Cynics in which the Roman system was faced in the ancient and the hermits of the third fifth century, was not barbarism in general, and fourth centuries of the Christian era. but a particular form of it. It was the bar- Although civilization and barbarism are barism of the Gothic and Germanic tribes face to face, the chief purpose of our dis- introduced at first into the heart of the cussion is to show, not how an old civiliza- Roman world as its defenders. Historians tion disappeared, but how a new civiliza- of the nineteenth century, however, were tion arose. Social relations change when a as mistaken in their estimate of Germanic child becomes a man, when acquaintances barbarism as their predecessors had been in become husband and wife, or when lovers their view of Roman culture. By the later use telephones instead of writing. When historians, the Germanic barbarians were such changes occur, it is misleading to taken to be pure-souled, loyal and valiant think of them as a decay or decline of an supplanters of an effete social and political earlier system. It would be absurd to treat system. This astonishing mistake was, no as due to a a change in social custom, such the doubt, partly misunderstanding wearing of trousers instead of tunics in the of the prejudices of the Christian Fathers, but fifth century, as a decay or decline of any- partly to the Romantic Movement, uncontrolled of thing whatever. Biological metaphors ap- chiefly to the imagination it is clear from con- plied to types of civilization or patterns of sedentary scholars. As culture misrepresent the facts. Indeed, in temporary records, the Germanic barbari- times of social transition there is greater ans, with a few noble exceptions, were and tin-- vitality among ordinary men and women drunken, lecherous, cowardly quite C. DELISLE BURNS

of food were carried on in a characteristic trustworthy, even among those for whom did not as it is still evident in the Roman they professed friendship. They form, has served indeed suffer from such vices of luxury as dress of the fifth century, which costume and may be due to fine clothes, baths and good as a model for ecclesiastical even vestments into modern times. cooking. Simplicity has its attractions, surviving it fine arts in the fifth were when, as Sidonius Apollinaris says, The century 1 derivative. Writers lived stinks. But the Vandals in Africa in the superficial and the of other since fifth century showed that the so-called vir- upon pages writers, long to their and artists in the arts tues of barbarians were largely due dead; plastic spent of civil- their ornament rather than ignorance of the more subtle tastes energies upon function. But the fine arts ized men. And it is an absurdity to treat structure and a in Theodoric the Ostrogoth or Clovis the had recognized place society. or Germanic on the other Frank as examples of nobility valour. barbarism, hand, his the characteristic of a number The first, with his own hand, killed was common the skull of a of disconnected small tribes, dia- guest; the second split open speaking subordinate, when his back was turned. lects hardly yet developed into languages. the Each of these tribes was as if not These men were savages. But particu- much, lar form of barbarism which can be con- more, hostile to its neighbours than to the The men of these trasted with the Roman type of civilization Roman Empire. young with some in the fifth century, was certainly Ger- tribes, camp-followers, eagerly historian has said left the tribal settlements to seek or manic. A great German booty the service in war under Roman commanders. that "the process of barbarization of were without skill Roman Empire was a process of Germani- They simple folk, any 2 or other useful zation/' The barbarism, therefore, with in agriculture, building arts, wr hich this book is concerned, is not bar- whose social relationships, as expressed in barism in general, but only one tvpe of it. their customs, were troubled O ' > * legal chiefly murder and In very general terms, the characteristics by personal violence, stealing. in that situation of Roman civilization and of Germanic That is to say, they were describe as a transition barbarism may be described as follows. which sociologists Under the Roman system the relations be- from the pastoral to the agricultural stage tween men, women and children were of social development. In their entertain- some customs and complicated and various. A long-established ments and their religion, a still of system of slavery had been somewhat modi- beliefs survived from earlier stage Christian that of the hunters. fied, under Stoic and influence, ^ocial development to the advantage of the slaves. But the Thus, even when the barbarians had en- r even sol- into territories hitherto sla\ e population was large; and tered Roman, they diers had slaves. Legal rights of ownership, preserved the pleasures of the chase and marriage, inheritance and trade were clearly their belief in the magic of woods and official bar- defined; and an administration made sacred places. The members of a small them effectual. The mechanisms of pro- barian community were, no doubt, more duction and transport were well developed. closely united in the simplicity of their Public buildings and aqueducts still remain \minds, and in loyalty to their chieftains, to prove the existence of applied sciences than were the men and women of the more of barbarians are life. have which ignorant. The complex Roman city This may minor arts of clothing and the preparation been the basis of the idea of romantic his- torians that loyalty and honour were bar- 1 Felicemque libet vocare nasum, etc. (Carm. xxii. barian virtues. But any barbarian com- 13). "Happy the nose which cannot smell a bar- faced two if it took barian." Tins was written about A.D. 455 in Gaul. munity dangers. First, service under one Roman it 2 Mommsen, Romische Geschichte (1885), Part general, might v, bk. viii, en. 4. be reduced to slavery by the victory of The First Europe

another; and, secondly, if It remained out- Gaul did not attempt to destroy the Roman side the Roman frontiers, it might suffer social system or the Roman Empire which from the slave-raids it. which had been essen- maintained They desired only to plunder tial for centuries before the fifth in a many building which was already falling into order to the supply Roman world with ruins. And on the other hand, the policy cheap labour. No doubt, this is the basis of the later Roman Emperors was that for the idea that Germanic barbarians stood called "appeasement" in modern times. For for "freedom." Tacitus wrote in the second example, the Visigoths and Burgundians a brilliant century political pamphlet on were granted leave to retain their conquests, the "noble savage," the Germania. This at- in the hope that they would not take any tack upon the political opponents of Taci- more. The Vandals were invited into Africa tus in has in Rome been used, even modern by a Roman General. The Ostrogoths, un- as evidence of the situation times, among der Theodoric, conquered Italy with the the German tribes three hundred years after acquiescence and perhaps the approval of Tacitus wrote. But the Germanic barbari- the Roman Emperor at Constantinople. It ans were, like other barbarians, entangled is probably true, as was supposed at the in social continually changing situations, time, that the Lombards entered Italy at the with their own defects and advantages. The request of a Roman Exarch. And after same situations existed, in the main, among "appeasement" had allowed the establish- non-Germanic barbarians of the North, ment of barbarian kingdoms in Gaul, Spain, with the came whom Roman populations Africa and Italy, Justinian's attempt in the into contact the Huns, the Avars, and the sixth century to adopt the opposite policy ; but no Tacitus has made political proved to be quite futile. It came too late capital out of these savages. Neither Ger- to save the Roman provinces in the West. man nor other barbarians in the second or From the point of view of the governing in the fifth century can be used by a mod- class in the Roman Empire, there was no historian as of ern models morality, with hostility to the Germanic barbarians. The which to contrast the decadence of the Emperors and the Roman generals desired Roman upper class. But the very simplicity to use them. They welcomed them as sol- of the barbarian mind in a barbarian so- diers, and found them useful and also deco- ciety has its uses, if a new step is to be rative as slaves. The imperial Authorities, made in the history of civilized life. At in fear of civil war, had forbidden men of least a futile culture will be brought down senatorial rank to join the army, and were to common earth. not eager to recruit the legions from the warriors the tribes The barbarian and city populations, which had various other from which they came, were not opposed duties to perform in industry and transport. to Roman civilization, and certainly did not In consequence the majority of the Roman- to it. in mean destroy Indeed, they asked ized city and country population western nothing better than to be allowed to share Europe was demilitarized; and the best re- in its products food, wealth, security and cruits for the armed forces were found more refined pleasures. Barbarian warriors among the barbarian tribes. Thus, in the sought pay or booty; and in the later fifth fifth century, the word "soldier" (miles) century discovered that they could obtain was equivalent in meaning to the word a civilized situation thus more wealth by settling among "barbarian" (barbarus). The population than by looting and moving created may be regarded as an attempt to from place to place. There were barbarian civilize the barbarians, by using them for settlements within the Roman frontiers, the only services for which they were com- and thousands of Germanic slaves there, petent within the Roman system. But to before there were barbarian invasions. But the minds of men of the fifth century, to even the barbarians who invaded Italy and civilize meant to Romanize; and the bar- C. DELISLE BURNS barians themselves accepted this idea. The lieved that Germanic barbarians could be result was obvious. While it became more useful only as slaves or soldiers. And, on doubtful in what institution or persons the other hand, some Africans, in their at- moral to the authority was be found, clearly tempt to escape from pastoral and agri- armed force, and the wealth and power cultural stages of social development into which it could obtain, fell more completely what they believe to be civilization, have into the hands of the barbarians as the contrived to become Europeanized. The to years went by. The barbarians were not result is satisfactory neither Africans nor soldiers fifth in only of the line and cavalry, but Europeans. As in the century west- and even Emperors. The Emperor ern Europe, a particular type of civilization feneralsustin, the uncle of the great Justinian, has not proved flexible enough to meet new could neither read nor write. Here again, strains and pressures. The Roman crisis has then, it must be repeated that the problem come to an end; and that in modern Africa was not that of civilization in general, but has hardly begun. But it is still possible of the Roman form of it. A similar problem that modern European civilization will be in the modern world exists in Africa. Euro- more successful than the Roman in adapt- peans desire to civilize the Africans; and ing itself to new experiences and alien the Africans desire to be civilized. But be- influences. From this point of view, the cause both assume that the only form of Middle Ages were centuries during which, civilization in is the after to question European, the failure adjust the Roman sys- Europeans attempt to Europeanize the tem to the play of new forces, these forces Africans. Some Europeans believe that built up a new kind of civilized life and

Africans . . can be used only as cheap labour, culture in its first form. . exactly as Romans of the fifth century be- The Terms "DECAY" and "DECLINE AND FALL"

M. ROSTOVTSEFF

M. Rostovtseff (18701952) was already well known as a classicist at St. Petersburg in his native Russia before he came to the United States in 1920. He was professor of ancient history at Wisconsin until !925 and subsequently professor of ancient history and archaeology at Yale until his retirement in 1944. The last few years he was also Director of Archaeological Studies and was In charge of the work at Dura near ancient Babylon. As a scholar and as a teacher he ranks among the most important ancient historians of the twentieth century. His honors were many, including the presidency of the American Historical Association in 1935. His greatest contribution was made as an economic historian of the ancient world; his most important works were Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (1926) and Social and. Economic History of the Hellenistic World, 3 vols. (194!). The extract below is from a scholarly article in which he discussed various economic explanations for the age-old question of the decline of Rome.

I discarded them as futile and often DEFINE briefly what mean was by of view is LMEby the Gibbonian term "decay" or detrimental. Since our point of the classical "decline and fall" We are learning gradu- more or less that peoples, term can be we such an attitude of mind as a ally that the "decay" hardly regard in the ancient into which in fact it applied to what happened relapse barbarism," world in the time of the late Roman Empire is not Let some and the beginning of the so-called Middle me quote striking examples. that there I am not to the Ages. Historians do not recognize referring gradual disintegra- tion of the Roman it was anything like "decay" of civilization in Empire. Politically was a slow be called the "Fall" of the Roman these periods. What happened might values in that of that form of and gradual change, a shifting of Empire is, govern- the consciousness of men. What seemed to ment which had for some centuries united a of the classical almost the whole of the civilized world into be all-important to Greek to an educated one state. Whether the creation of the or Hellenistic period, or in itself was a for Roman of the time of the Republic and of Roman Empire blessing the human race is a under debate. the Early Empire, was no longer regarded question historians think that it as vital by the majority of men who lived Many prominent less a It is still in the late Roman Empire and the Early was more or of calamity. more whether the Middle Ages. They had their own notion problematic disintegra- tion of the Roman was detrimental of what was important, and most of what Empire the world or not. Without this disinte- was essential in the classical period among for civilization we should not other the constituent parts of ancient gration have, among The Eco- From M. Rostovtseff, "The Decay of the Ancient World and Its Economic Explanations," Rostovtseff and nomic History Review, II (January, 1930), 197-199. By permission of Mrs. Sophie The Economic History Review. 10 M. ROSTOVTSEFF

of ancient cities birth to fresh . . . national states of the heirs things, the great to-day gave of a new civilization, (if not of to-morrow). From the point of and vigorous germs with view of "ancient" civilization the late both different and similar if compared the in the East the same classical Roman Empire was no doubt a period of old, barbarization as we civilization in its modified Christian great simplification aspect the reduction was still alive and and in the call it or, better, a period of thriving, long of ancient civilization to some essential period of its life experienced many tempo- brilliant revivals. elements which survived while the rest rary declines and many Even in the not disappeared. West, everything during and the centuries after the crisis of the This process of disintegration simpli- great of the third was and ruin. The fication is, however, only one aspect century misery While fourth witnessed a revival phenomenon we are dealing with. century strong the and the economic the fabric of the ancient Roman Empire both from political of and this revival was not of was disintegrating, the Christian Church, point view, short duration. whose organization was more or less repro- and Thus to to events in the ancient ducing that of the State, was thriving apply world in the centuries after Diocletian and gaining in ecumenic powers. While philo- and scientific endeavours Constantine the term or "decline" sophical thought j "decay" is unfair and If, however, in of the Greek type were gradually dying out, misleading. the formula of ancient civilization" theology took an unprecedented develop- "decay "ancient" not on ment and satisfied the needs of the majority we lay stress on and of those who cared for intellectual life. "civilization," the formula hits the point. And in the field of art there was, in this No doubt "ancient" that is, "Greco- the civilization of time of supposed decay, one triumph after Roman" civilization, of Greco-Roman of the another>-We are gradually learning to the world cities, force of the Greek and Roman was appreciate the originality and "politai" "cives," reduced to late Roman "pagan" art, and we have gradually simplified, barbarized, its and the bearers of this civiliza- already learned to admire the early products elements, of Christian art both in architecture and tion, the cities and their inhabitants, gradu- in or their in sculpture and especially painting ally disappeared changed aspect (including the mosaics). almost completely. . . . And, last but not least, while in the West From MEDIEVAL CITIES

HENRI PIREN N E

THE MEDITERRANEAN

ROMAN EMPIRE, at the end of the deterioration does not seem to have appre- :hird had one affected the maritime commerce of TE century, outstanding ciably It continued to be general characteristic: it was an essentially the Mediterranean. con- Mediterranean commonwealth. Virtually all active and well sustained, in marked the that charac- of its territory lay within the watershed of trast with growing apathy the Trade con- that great land-locked sea; the distant terized inland provinces. frontiers of the Rhine, the Danube, the tinued to keep the East and the West in other. There was Euphrates and the Sahara, may be regarded close contact with each commercial merely as an advanced circle of outer no interruption to the intimate those diverse climes defenses protecting the approaches. relations between the sea. Both The Mediterranean was, without ques- bathed by one and same manufactured and natural were tion, the bulwark of both its political and products dealt in: textiles from economic unity. Its very existence depended still extensively and Alex- on mastery of the sea. Without that great Constantinople, Edessa, , and from trade route, neither the government, nor andria; , oils, spices Syria; the defense, nor the administration of the papyrus from Egypt; wheat from Egypt, and wines from Gaul orbls romanus would have been possible. Africa, and Spain; and There was even a reform of As the Empire grew old this fundamen- Italy. character the based on the tally maritime was, interestingly monetary system still which served to encour- enough, not only preserved but was , materially commercial them more sharply defined. When the former age operations by giving its the benefit of an excellent uni- inland capital, Rome, was abandoned, currency, not as an instrument of ex- place was taken by a city which only versally adopted at the and as a means of served as a capital but which was same change quoting prices. the two of the time an admirable seaport Constantinople. Of great regions Empire, East and the the first far sur- The Empire's cultural development, to the West, the both in of be sure, had clearly passed its peak. Popu- passed second, superiority of civilization and in a much level of lation decreased, the spirit enterprise higher waned, barbarian hordes commenced to economic development. At the beginning there were no threaten the frontiers, and the increasing of the fourth century longer cities save in the East expenses of the government, fighting for its any really great a fiscal The center of the trade was in very life, brought in their train export Syria and in Asia and here also was con- system which more and more enslaved men Minor, in the textile to the State. Nevertheless this general centrated, particular, industry

Trade From Henri Pirenne, Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of (Princeton, 1925), and the Oxford Press. pp. 3-55. By permission o the Princeton University Press, University

11 12 HENRI PIRENNE

skill and for which the whole Roman world was the sible. Despite the extraordinary determination with which the market and for which Syrian ships were Empire the outcome the carriers. sought to stave off disaster, was inevitable. The commercial prominence of the facts At the of the fifth century, all Syrians is one of the most interesting beginning It was over. The whole West was invaded. iri the history of the Lower Empire. Roman were transformed into undoubtedly contributed largely to that pro- provinces of which was Germanic The Vandals were gressive orientalization society kingdoms. installed in Africa, the in due eventually to end in Byzantinisrn. And Visigoths Aqui- in the in the this orientalization, of which the sea was taine and Spain, Burgundians of the Rhone, the in the vehicle, is clear proof of the increasing Valley Ostrogoths ac- importance which the Mediterranean Italy. This nomenclature is It in- quired as the aging Empire grew weak, significant. the cludes Mediterranean countries, and gave way in the North beneath pressure only that the of the barbarians, and contracted more and little more is needed to show objec- more about the shores of this inland sea. tive of the conquerors, free at last to settle of the Germanic tribes down where was the sea The persistence they pleased, the of the that sea which for so a time the in striving, from very beginning long to reach these same Romans had called, with as much affection period of the invasions, as mare nostrum. Towards the sea, shores and to settle there is worth special pride, all turned their notice. When, in the course of the fourth as of one accord, they steps, for the first to settle its shores and to century, the frontiers gave way impatient along time under their blows, they poured south- enjoy its beauty. the If"the Franks did not reach the Mediter- xvard in a living flood. The Quadi and ranean at their first it is because, Marcomanni invaded Italy; the Goths attempt, the come too found the marched on the Bosporus; the Franks, having late, they ground But too in Suevi, and the Vandals, who by now had already occupied. they persisted for a foothold there. One of Clovis's crossed the Rhine, pushed on unhesitatingly striving towards and had no earliest ambitions was to conquer Provence, Aquitaine Spain. They "' the intervention of Theodoric thought of merely colonizing the provinces and only kept from the frontiers of his they coveted. Their dream was rather to him extending Yet this settle down, themselves, in those happy kingdom as far as the Cote d'Azur. climate first lack of success was not due to discour- regions where the mildness of the his successors. A of a and the fertility of the soil were matched age quarter century Franks made use of by the charms and the wealth of civilization. later, in 536, the good the This initial attempt produced nothing Justinian's offensive against Ostrogoths more permanent than the devastation which and wrung from their hard-pressed rivals It is it had caused. Rome was still strong enough the grant of the coveted territory. the to drive the invaders back beyond the Rhine interesting to see how consistently and the Danube. For a century and a half Merovingian dynasty tended, from that date in its turn a Mediterranean she succeeded in restraining diem, but at on, to become the cost of exhausting her armies and her power. finances. Childebert and Clotaire, for example, More and more unequal became the ventured upon an expedition beyond the balance of power. The incursions of the Pyrenees in 542, which, however, proved to barbarians grew more relentless as their be ill-starred. But it was Italy in particular of Prankish increasing numbers made the acquisition that aroused the cupidity the of new territory more imperative, while the kings. They formed an alliance, first with

1 decreasing population of the Empire made the Byzantines and then with the Lombards, a successful resistance constantly less pos- in the hope of setting foot south of the From Medieval Cities 13

Alps. Repeatedly thwarted, they persisted the mare nostrum. The sea had had such in fresh that attempts. By 539, Theudebert had great importance in the political order crossed the Alps, and the territories which the deposing of the last Roman Emperor he had occupied were reconquered by in the West (476) was not enough in itself Narses in 553. Numerous efforts were made to turn historical evolution from its time- in 584-585 and from 588 to 590 to get honored direction, It continued, on the anew. possession contrary, to develop in the same theater and The appearance of the Germanic tribes under the same influences. No indication the shore of the on Mediterranean was by yet gave warning of the end of that com- no means a critical point marking the monwealth of civilization created by the advent of a new era in the history of Empire from the Pillars of Hercules to the Europe. Great as were the consequences , from the coasts of Egypt and which it entailed, it did not sweep the Africa to the shores of Gaul, Italy and boards clean nor even break the tradition. Spain. In spite of the invasion of the bar- The aim of the invaders was not to destroy barians the new world conserved, in all the Roman Empire but to occupy and enjoy essential characteristics, the physiognomy it. By and large, what they preserved far of the old. To follow the course of events exceeded what they destroyed or what they from Romulus Augustulus to Charlemagne brought that was new. It is true that the it is necessary to keep the Mediterranean kingdoms they established on the soil of constantly in view. the latter the the Empire made an end of in so All great events in political history far as being a State in Western Europe. are unfolded on its shores. From 493 to 526 From a political point of view the orbis Italy, governed by Theodoric, maintained the all romanus, now strictly localized in East, a hegemony over the Germanic king- lost that ecumenical character which had doms, a hegemony through which the power made its frontiers coincide with the frontiers of the Roman tradition was perpetuated of Christianity. The Empire, however, was and assured. After Theodoric, this power far from becoming a stranger to the lost was still more clearly shown. Justinian Its civilization there outlived its failed but little of provinces. ^ by restoring imperial authority. By the Church, by language, by unity (527-565). Africa, Spain, and Italy be- the superiority of its institutions and law, were reconquered. The Mediterranean it prevailed over the conquerors. In the came again a Roman lake. Byzantium, it is midst of the troubles, the insecurity, the true, weakened by the immense effort she misery and the anarchy which accompanied had just put forth, could neither finish nor the invasions there was naturally a certain even preserve intact the astonishing work decline, but even in that decline there was which she had accomplished. The Lombards preserved a physiognomy still distinctly took Northern Italy away from her (568); Roman. The Germanic tribes were unable, the Visigoths freed themselves from her and in fact did not want, to do without it. yoke. Nevertheless she did not abandon did not con- her ambitions. She for a time They barbarized it, but they retained, long sciously germanize it. to come, Africa, Sicily, Southern Italy. Nor assertion she loose on the thanks Nothing is better proof of this did her grip West last of to the the of which her fleets than the persistence in the days sea, mastery the Empire from the fifth to the eighth so securely held that the fate of Europe century of that maritime character pointed rested at that moment, more than ever, on out above. The importance of the Mediter- the waves of the Mediterranean. true of the situation ranean did not grow less after the period of What was political the invasions. The sea remained for the held equally well for the cultural. It seems Germanic tribes what it had been before hardly necessary to recall that Boethius their arrival the very center of Europe, (480-525) and Cassiodorus (477-c. 562) 14 HENRI PIRENNE

the extreme were Italians as were St. Benedict (480- reality has given the lie. If, on certain towns were 534) and Gregory the Great (590-604), frontiers of the Empire, and it and that Isidorus of Seville (570-636) was put to the torch, destroyed pillaged, the less true that the immense a Spaniard. It was Italy that maintained is none the last schools at the same time that she majority survived the invasions. A statistical of cities in existence at the was fostering the spread of monachism survey present that in in and even on the north of the Alps. It was in Italy, also, day France, Italy what was left of the ancient culture flour- banks of the Rhine and the Danube, gives for the most these cities ished side by side with what was brought proof that, part, forth anew in the bosom of the Church. now stand on the sites where rose the and that their names are All the strength and vigor that the Church Roman cities, very of often but a transformation of Roman names. possessed was concentrated in the region the Mediterranean. There alone she gave The Church had of course closely pat- ca- terned the districts after the ad- evidence of an organization and spirit religious ministrative districts of the As a pable of initiating great enterprises. An Empire. is the fact that each diocese to interesting example of this general rule, corresponded a civitas. Since the ecclesiastical Christianity was brought to the Anglo- organiza- Saxons (596) from the distant shores of tion suffered no change during the era of shores of the Germanic the result was that Italy, not from the neighboring invasions, Gaul. The mission of St. Augustine is there- in the new kingdoms founded by the con- it intact this characteristic fore an illuminating sidelight on the historic querors preserved influence retained by the Mediterranean. feature. In fact, from the beginning of the sixth the word civitas took the And it seems more significant still when century of the cen- we recall that the evangelization of Ireland special meaning "episcopal city/' was due to missionaries sent out from ter of the diocese. In surviving the Empire it the Church therefore Marseilles, and that the apostles of Belgium, on which was based, St. Amand (689-693) and St. Remade contributed very largely to the safeguarding (c. 668), were Aquitanians. of the existence of the Roman cities. the A brief survey of the economic develop- But it must not be overlooked, on that cities in themselves ment of Europe will give the crowning other hand, these touch to the substantiation of the theory long retained a considerable importance. which has here been put forward. That Their municipal institutions did not sud- the arrival of the development is, obviously, a clear-cut, direct denly disappear upon but also continuation of the economy of the Roman Germanic tribes. Not only in Italy, Empire. In it are rediscovered all the latter's in Spain and even in Gaul, they kept their principal traits and, above all, that Mediter- decuriones a corps of magistrates provided ranean character which here is unmistak- with a judicial and administrative authority, able. To be sure, a general decline in social the details of which are not clear but whose activity was apparent in this region as in existence and Roman origin is a matter of all others. By the last days of the Empire record. There is to be noticed, moreover, there was a clearly marked decline which the presence of the defensor civitatis, and the catastrophe of the invasions naturally the practice of inscribing notarized deeds helped accentuate. But it would be a in the gesta municipalia. decided mistake to imagine that the arrival It is also well established that these cities of the tribes result Germanic had as a the were the centers of an economic activity substitution of a purely agricultural econ- which itself was a survival of the preceding and a in trade for omy general stagnation civilization. Each city was the market for urban life commercial and activity. the surrounding countryside, the winter The supposed dislike of the barbarians home of the great landed proprietors of the for towns is an admitted fable to which neighborhood and, if favorably situated, From Medieval Cities 15 the center of a commerce the more highly the shipping which was carried on from the in to its developed proportion nearness to coasts of Spain and Gaul to those of Syria the shores of the Mediterranean. A perusal and Asia Minor, the basin of the Mediter- of of that the Gregory Tours gives ample proof ranean did not cease, despite political in the Gaul of his time there was still a subdivisions which it had seen take place, professional merchant class residing in the to consolidate the economic unity which it towns. He cites, in some thoroughly char- had shaped for centuries under the imperial acteristic passages, those of Verdun, Paris, commonwealth. Because of this fact, the Orleans, Clermont-Ferrand, Marseilles, economic organization of the world lived Nimes, and Bordeaux, and the information on after the political transformation. which he supplies concerning them is all In lack of other proofs, the monetary the more significant in that it is brought system of the Prankish kings would alone into his narrative only incidentally. Care establish this truth convincingly. This sys- should of course be taken not to exaggerate tem, as is too well known to make necessary its value. An equally great fault would be any lengthy consideration here, was purely to undervalue it. the Certainly economic Roman or, strictly speaking, Romano- order of Merovingian Gaul was founded on Byzantine. This is shown by the that agriculture rather than on any other form were minted: the solid^ls, the triens, and of activity. More certainly still this had the denarius that is to say, the soit, the already been the case under the Roman third-sou and the denier. It is shown further Empire. by the metal which was employed: gold, But this does not preclude the fact that used for the coinage of the solidus and the inland traffic, the import and export of triens. It is also shown by the weight which carried to a goods and merchandise, was on was given to specie. It is shown, finally, considerable extent. It was an important by the effigies which were minted on the factor in the maintenance of society. An coins. In this connection it is worth noting indirect proof of this is furnished by the that the mints continued for a long time, institution of market-tolls. Thus were called under the Merovingian kings, the custom the tolls set up by the Roman administra- of representing the bust of the Emperor on tion along the roads, in the ports, at bridges the coins and of showing on the reverse and fords, and elsewhere. The Prankish of the pieces the Victoria Augusti and that, kings let them all stay in force and drew carrying this imitation to the extreme, when from them such copious revenues that the the Byzantines substituted the cross for the collectors of this class of taxes figured symbol of that victory they did the same. their among most useful functionaries. Such extreme servility can be explained The continued commercial activity after only by the continuing influence of the the disappearance of the Empire, and, like- Empire. The obvious reason was the neces- the survival of the towns that local cur- wise, were sity of preserving, between the the centers thereof and the merchants who rency and the imperial currency, a conform- its is the if were instruments, explained by ity which would be purposeless the most continuation of Mediterranean trade. In all intimate relations had not existed between the chief characteristics it was the same, Merovingian commerce and the general from the fifth to the eighth centuries, as it commerce of the Mediterranean. In other had been just after Constantine. If, as is words, this commerce continued to be the decline probable, was the more rapid closely bound up with the commerce of after the Germanic invasions, it remains the . Of such ties, more- none the less true that there is presented a over, there are abundant proofs and it will picture of uninterrupted intercourse be- suffice to mention merely a few of the most tween the East the Byzantine and West significant. dominated by the barbarians. By means of It should be borne in mind, first of all, 16 HENRI PIRENNE

that at the start of the eighth century as of Quentovic and Duurstede, on the Marseilles was still the great port of Gaul. shores of the North Sea, was sustained by The terms employed by Gregory of Tours, the ramifications of the export traffic from in the numerous anecdotes in which he far-off Marseilles.

to of that it it the of the happens speak city, make seem But was in south country a singularly animated economic center. A that this effect was the most appreciable. active it very shipping bound to Constanti- All the largest cities of Merovingian Gaul nople, to Syria, Africa, Egypt, Spain and were still to be found, as in the days of the the of the Loire. Italy. The products of East papyrus, Roman Empire, south The spices, costly textiles, and oil were details which Gregory of Tours supplies the basis of a regular import trade. Foreign concerning Clermont-Ferrand and Orleans merchants, Jews and Syrians for the most show that they had within their walls veri- part, had their residence there, and their table colonies of Jews and Syrians, and if nationality is itself an indication of the it was so with those towns which there is close relations kept up by Marseilles with no reason for believing enjoyed a privileged Byzantium. Finally, the extraordinary status, it must have been so also with the quantity of coins which were struck there much more important centers such as during the Merovingian era gives material Bordeaux or Lyons. It is an established proof of the activity of its commerce. The fact, moreover, that Lyons still had at the of population the city must have comprised, Carolingian era a quite numerous Jewish aside from the merchants, a rather numer- population. ous class of artisans. In it is every respect Here, then, quite enough to support seems, then, to have accurately preserved, the conclusion that Merovingian times under the government of the Prankish knew, thanks to the continuance of Medi- the kings, clearly municipal character of terranean shipping and the intermediary of Roman cities. Marseilles, what we may safely call a great The economic development of Marseilles commerce. It would certainly be an error naturally made itself felt in the hinterland to assume that the dealings of the oriental of the Under its all the merchants of port. attraction, Gaul were restricted solely to commerce of Gaul was oriented toward the articles of luxury. Probably the sale of Mediterranean. The most important market- jewelry, enamels and silk stuffs resulted in tolls of the Prankish were kingdom situated handsome profits, but this would not be in the of the at neighborhood town Fos, at enough to explain their number and their at Aries, Toulon, at Sorgues, at Valence, extraordinary diffusion throughout all the at Vienne, and at Avignon. Here is clear country. The traffic of Marseilles was, above that merchandise landed in the all proof city else, supported by goods for general was to the interior. the course such as expedited By consumption wine and oil, spices of the Rhone and of the Saone, as well as and papyrus. These commodities, as has the Roman it reached the north been by roads, already pointed out, were regularly of the country. The charters are still in exported to the north. existence by which the Abbey of Corbie The oriental merchants of the Prankish of obtained (Department Pas-de-Calais) Empire were virtually engaged in wholesale from the an from tolls trade. kings exemption at Their boats, after being discharged Fos on a number of on the of commodities, among quays Marseilles, certainly carried which be remarked a may surprising variety back, on leaving the shores of Provence, of of eastern as well as not spices origin, papy- only passengers but return freight. Our rus. In these circumstances it does not seem sources of information, to be sure, do not unwarranted to assume that the commercial tell much about the nature of this freight. of the of Rouen and activity ports Nantes, Among the possible conjectures, one of the on the shores of the Atlantic as well most is Ocean, likely that it probably consisted, at From Medieval Cities 17

in least good part, in human chattels that The Edict of Theodoric contained a quan- is to in slaves. Traffic in slaves did not say, tity of stipulations relative to merchants. cease to be carried on in the Prankish Carthage continued to be an important port until the end of the ninth in close Empire century. relations with Spain, and her ships, The wars the waged against barbarians of apparently, went up the coast as far as and the Slavic Saxony, Thuringia regions Bordeaux. The laws of the Visigoths men- provided a source of supply which seems tioned merchants from overseas. to have been abundant enough. Gregory In all of this is clearly manifest the of Tours of speaks Saxon slaves belonging vigorous continuity of the commercial to a merchant of it Orleans, and is a good development of the Roman Empire after that guess this Samo, who departed in the the Germanic invasions. They did not put first half of the seventh with a band an to century end the economic unity of antiquity. of companions for the country of Wends, By means of the Mediterranean and the whose he king eventually became, was very relations kept up thereby between the West more than an adventurer probably nothing and the East, this unity, on the contrary, trafficking in slaves. And it is of course was preserved with a remarkable distinctive- obvious that the slave to the trade, which ness. The great inland sea of Europe no still Jews assiduously applied themselves in longer belonged, as before, to a single State. the ninth must have had its century, origin But nothing yet gave reason to predict that in an earlier era. it would soon cease to have its time-honored If the bulk of the commerce in Mero- importance. Despite the transformations vingian Gaul was to be found in the hands which it had undergone, the new world had of oriental merchants, their influence, how- not lost the Mediterranean character of the ever, should not be exaggerated. Side by old. On the shores of the sea was still side with them, and according to all indica- concentrated the better part of its activities, tions in constant relations with them, are No indication yet gave warning of the end mentioned indigenous merchants. Gregory of the commonwealth of civilization, created of Tours does not fail to supply information by the Roman Empire from the Pillars of concerning them, which would undoubt- Hercules to the Aegean Sea. At the begin- edly have been more voluminous if his ning of the seventh century, anyone who narrative had had more than a merely sought to look into the future would have incidental interest in them. He shows the been unable to discern any reason for not king consenting to a loan to the merchants believing in the continuance of the old of Verdun, whose business prospers so well tradition. that they soon find themselves in a position Yet what was then natural and reasonable to reimburse him. He mentions the exist- to predict was not to be realized. The world- ence in Paris of a domus negociantum order which had survived the Germanic that is to say, apparently, of a sort of market invasions was not able to survive the inva- or bazaar. He speaks of a merchant profit- sion of Islam. eering during the great famine of 585 and It is thrown across the path of history getting rich. And in all these anecdotes he with the elemental force of a cosmic cata- is dealing, without the least doubt, with clysm. Even in the lifetime of Mahomet professionals and not with merely casual (571-632) no one could have imagined the buyers or sellers. consequences or have prepared for them. The picture which the commerce of Yet the movement took no more than fifty Merovingian Gaul presents is repeated, years to spread from the China Sea to the naturally, in the other maritime Germanic Atlantic Ocean. Nothing was able to with- kingdoms of the Mediterranean among stand it. At the first blow, it overthrew the the of the It took from Ostrogoths Italy, among Vandals Persian Empire (637-644). of Africa, among the Visigoths of Spain. the Byzantine Empire, in quick succession, 18 HENRI PIRENNE

in its fundamental charac- Syria (634-636), Egypt (640-642), Africa turies, social life, the (698). It reached into Spain (711). The teristics, had been the same; religion, resistless advance was not to slow down same; customs and ideas, the same or very invasion of the barbarians until the start of the eighth century, when nearly so. The the on the one from the North had modified nothing side (713) and the soldiers of Charles essential in that situation, Martel on the other (732) broke that But now, all of a sudden, the very lands had been born were torn great enveloping offensive against the two where civilization the substi- flanks of Christianity. away; the Cult of Prophet was law But if its force of expansion was ex- tuted for the Christian Faith, Moslem hausted, it had none the less changed the for Roman law, the Arab tongue for the face of the world. Its sudden thrust had Greek and the Latin tongue. destroyed ancient Europe. It had put an The Mediterranean had been a Roman end to the Mediterranean commonwealth lake; it now became, for the most part, a this time it in which it had gathered its strength. Moslem lake. From on sepa- The familiar and almost "family" sea rated, instead of uniting, the East and the which once united all the parts of this West of Europe, The tie which was still commonwealth was to become a barrier binding the Byzantine Empire to the Ger- between them. On all its shores, for cen- manic kingdoms of the West was broken.

THE NINTH CENTURY

The tremendous effect the invasion of prior condition the overthrow of the tradi- Islam had upon Western Europe has not, tional world-order. The Carolingians would perhaps, been fully appreciated. never have been called upon to play the Out of it arose a new and unparalleled part they did if historical evolution had not situation, unlike anything that had gone been turned aside from its course and, so before. Through the Phoenicians, the to speak, "de-Saxoned" by the Moslem in- and the Greeks, finally Romans, Western vasion. Without Islam, the Prankish Empire Europe had always received the cultural would probably never have existed and stamp of the East. It had lived, as it were, Charlemagne, without Mahomet, would be by virtue of the Mediterranean; now for inconceivable. the first time it was forced to live is by its This made plain enough by the many own resources. center The of gravity, here- contrasts between the Merovingian era, tofore on the shore of the Mediterranean, during which the Mediterranean retained was shifted to the north. As a result the its time-honored historical importance, and Prankish Empire, which had so far been the Carolingian era, when that influence a playing only minor role in the history ceased to make itself felt. These contrasts of was to become the arbiter Europe, of were in evidence everywhere: in religious destinies. Europe's sentiment, in political and social institu- There is obviously more than mere - tions, in literature, in language and even cidence in the of the simultaneity closing in handwriting. From whatever standpoint of the Mediterranean by Islam and the it is studied, the civilization of the ninth of the entry Carolingians on the scene. century shows a distinct break with the There is the distinct relation of cause and civilization of antiquity. Nothing would effect between the two. The Prankish be more fallacious than to see therein a was fated to the Empire lay foundations of simple continuation of the preceding cen- the of the Middle Europe Ages. But the turies. The coup d'etat of Pepin the Short mission which it fulfilled had as an essential was considerably more than the substitution From Medieval Cities 19 of one dynasty for another. It marked a To be sure, the transition from one era new orientation of the course hitherto fol- to the other was not clear-cut. The trade of lowed At first by history. glance there seems Marseilles did not suddenly cease but, from reason to believe that Charlemagne, in the middle of the seventh century, waned the title assuming of Roman Emperor and gradually as the Moslems advanced in the of wished to restore the ancient Augustus, Mediterranean. Syria, conquered by them tradition. In in himself in reality, setting up 633-638, no longer kept it thriving with the of against Emperor Constantinople, he her ships and her merchandise. Shortly broke that tradition. His Empire was afterwards, Egypt passed in her turn under Roman in so far the only as Catholic the yoke of Islam (638-640), and papyrus Church was Roman. For it was from the no longer came to Gaul. A characteristic and the Church that Church, alone, came consequence is that, after 677, the royal its The forces which he inspiration. placed chancellery stopped using papyrus. The at her service forces of the were, moreover, importation of spices kept up for a while, north. His principal collaborators, in reli- for the monks of Corbie, in 716, believed gious and cultural matters, were no longer, it useful to have ratified for the last time as they had previously been, Italians, their privileges of the tonlieu of Fos. A half or Aquitanians, Spaniards; they were Anglo- century later, solitude reigned in the port Saxons a St. Boniface or an Alcuin or of Marseilles. Her foster-mother, the sea, they were Swabians, like Einhard. In the was shut off from her and the economic life affairs of the State, which was now cut off of the inland regions which had been from the Mediterranean, southerners played nourished through her intermediary was scarcely any role. The Germanic influence definitely extinguished. By the ninth cen- commenced to at the very moment tury Provence, once the richest country of when the Prankish Empire, forced to turn Gaul, had become the poorest. away from the Mediterranean, spread over More and more, the Moslems consoli- Northern Europe and pushed its frontiers dated their domination over the sea. In tLe as far as the Elbe and the mountains of course of the ninth century they seized the 1 Bohemia. Balearic Isles, Corsica, , Sicily. On the In field of economics the contrast, the coasts of Africa they founded new ports: which the Carolingian period shows to Tunis (698-703); later on, Mehdia to the is of this then in Merovingian times, especially striking. south city; Cairo, 973. Pa- In the days of the Merovingians, Gaul was lermo, where stood a great arsenal, became still a maritime country and trade and traffic their principal base in the Tyrrhenian Sea. flourished because of that fact. The Empire Their fleets sailed it in complete mastery; of Charlemagne, on the contrary, was essen- commercial flotillas transported the products tially an inland one. No longer was there of the West to Cairo, whence they were re- any communication with the exterior; it dispatched to Bagdad, or pirate fleets devas- was a closed State, a State without foreign tated the coasts of Provence and Italy ernd markets, living in a condition of almost put towns to the torch after they had been complete isolation. pillaged and their inhabitants captured to be sold as slaves. In 889 a band of these 1 The objection may be raised that Charlemagne plunderers even laid hold of Fraxinetum conquered in Italy the kingdom of the Lombards in the and in Spain the region included between the (the present Garde-Frainet, Depart- Pyrenees and the Ehro. But these thrusts towards ment of the Var) not far from Nice, the the south are no means to be a by explained Ly of for a desire to dominate the shores of the Mediterra- garrison which, nearly century nean. The expeditions against the Lombards were thereafter, subjected the neighboring popu- provoked by political causes and especially by the lace to continual raids and menaced the alliance with the Papacy. The expedition in Spain roads which led across the from France had no other aim than the establishing of a solid Alps frontier the against Moslems, to Italy. 20 HENRI PIRENNE

The efforts of Charlemagne and his suc- vanished, near Etaples in the Department of and Duurstede the cessors to protect the coasts from Saracen Pas-de-Calais) (on which under raiders were as impotent as their attempts Rhine, southwest of Utrecht) were to oppose the invasions of the Norsemen in the Merovingian monarchy already the north and west. The hardihood and trading with England and Denmark, seem to been centers of a extended seamanship of the Danes and Norwegians have widely is that because made it easy for them to plunder the coasts shipping. It a safe conjecture of the Friesians of the Carolingian Empire during the \vhole of them the river transport the Scheldt and the Meuse of the eleventh century. They conducted along the Rhine, that T as matched their raids not only from the North Sea, enjoyed an importance w the Channel, and the Gulf of Gascony, by no other region during the reigns of but at times even from the Mediterranean. Charlemagne and his successors. The cloths Every river which emptied into these seas woven by the peasants of Flanders, and was, at one time or another, ascended by which contemporary texts designate by the of Friesian with the their skilfully constructed barks, splendid name cloaks, together to wines of Rhenish to specimens whereof, brought light by Germany, supplied recent excavations, are now preserved at that river traffic the substance of an export Oslo. Periodically the valleys of the Rhine, trade which seems to have been fairly regu- the Meuse the the the lar to the when the Norsemen took ? Scheldt, Seine, up day Loire, the Garonne and the Rhone were possession of the ports in question. It is that the deniers the scene of systematic and persistent pillag- known, moreover, coined at a extensive circula- ing. The devastation was so complete that, Duurstede had very in many cases indeed, the population itself tion. They served as prototypes for the disappeared. And nothing is a better illus- oldest coins of Sweden and Poland, evident tration of the essentially inland character proof that they early penetrated, no doubt of the Prankish Empire than its inability to at the hands of the Norsemen, as far as the organize the defense of its coasts, against Baltic Sea. Attention may also be called, either Saracens or Norsemen. For that as having been the substance of a rather defense, to be effective, should have been extensive trade, to the salt industry of a naval defense, and the Empire had no Noirmoutier, where Irish ships were to be fleets, or hastily improvised ones at best. seen. Salzburg salt, on the other hand, was Such conditions wrere incompatible with shipped along the Danube and its affluents the existence of a commerce of first-rate to the interior of the Empire. The sale of importance. The historical literature of the slaves, despite the prohibitions that were ninth it century contains, is true, certain laid down by the sovereigns, was carried references to merchants (mercatores, negoti- on along the western frontiers, where the atores), but no illusion should be cherished prisoners of war taken from among the as to their importance. Compared to the pagan Slavs found numerous purchasers. number of texts which have been preserved The Jews seem to have applied them- from that era, these references are extremely selves particularly to this sort of traffic. rare. The capitularies, those regulations They were still numerous, and were found touching upon every phase of social life, in every part of Francia. Those in the south are remarkably meagre in so far as applies of Gaul were in close relations with their to commerce. it From this may be assumed coreligionists of Moslem Spain, to whom that the latter played a role of only second- they are accused of having sold Christian ary, negligible importance. It was only in children. the north of Gaul first that, during the half It was probably from Spain, or perhaps of the ninth century, trade showed any also from Venice, that these Jews obtained of signs activity. the spices and the valuable textiles in which The of ports Quentovic (a place now they dealt. However, the obligation to From Medieval Cities 21

which were they subjected of having their monetary system, initiated by Pepin the children must have a baptized caused great Short and completed by Charlemagne. That number of them to south emigrate of the reform abandoned gold coinage and substi- at an and their com- tuted Pyrenees early date, in its place. The solidus which mercial importance steadily declined in the had heretofore, conforming to the Roman course of the ninth century. As for the tradition, constituted the basic monetary were no Syrians, they longer of importance unit, was now only nominal money. The at this era. only real coins from this time on were the It is, most that the commerce silver then, likely deniers, weighing about two grams, of Carolingian times was very much re- the metallic value of which, compared to duced. in the of Except neighborhood that of the dollar, was approximately eight Quentovic and Duurstede, it consisted only and one-half cents. The metallic value of in the of transport indispensable commodi- the Merovingian gold solidus being nearly such as wine and in ties, salt, the prohibited three dollars, the importance of the reform traffic of a few and in the slaves, barter, can be readily appreciated. Undoubtedly the of the through intermediary Jews, of a it is to be explained only by a prodigious small number of the products from East. falling off of both trading and wealth. Of a regular and normal commercial If it is admitted, and it must be admitted, of activity, steady trading carried on by a that the reappearance of gold coinage, with class of professional merchants, in short, of the florins of Florence and the ducats of all that constitutes the very essence of an Venice in the thirteenth century, charac- of economy exchange worthy of the name, terized the economic renaissance of Europe, no traces are to be found after the closing the inverse is also true: the abandoning of off of the Mediterranean by the Islamic gold coinage in the eighth century was the invasion. The great number of markets, manifestation of a profound decline. It is which were to be found in the ninth cen- not enough to say that Pepin and Charle- tury, in no way contradicts this assertion. magne wished to remedy the monetary dis- They were, as a matter of fact, only small order of the last days of the Merovingian local marketplaces, instituted for the weekly era. It would have been quite possible for provisioning of the populace by means of them to find a remedy without giving up the retail sale of foodstuffs from the country. the gold standard. They gave up the stand- a As proof of the commercial activity of the ard, obviously, from necessity that is to Carolingian era, it would be equally beside say, as a result of the disappearance of the the point to speak of the existence of the yellow metal in Gaul. And this disappear- street occupied by merchants at Aix-la- ance had no other cause than the interrup- Chapelle near the palace of Charlemagne, tion of the commerce of the Mediterranean. or of similar streets near certain great abbeys The proof of this is given by the fact that such for that St. as, example, of Riquier. Southern Italy, remaining in contact with The merchants with whom we have to do Constantinople, retained like the latter a here were not, in fact, professional mer- gold standard, for which the Carolingian chants but servitors charged with the duty sovereigns were forced to substitute a silver of supplying the Court or the monks. They standard. The very light weight of their were, so to speak, employees of the sei- deniers, moreover, testifies to the economic gnorial household staff and were in no isolation o their Empire. It is inconceivable respect merchants. that they would have reduced the monetary There is, moreover, material proof of the unit to a thirtieth of its former value if economic decline which affected Western there had been preserved the slightest bond Europe from the day when she ceased to between their States and the Mediterranean belong to the Mediterranean common- regions where the gold solidus continued wealth. It is furnished by the reform of the to circulate. 22 HENRI PIRENNE

But this is not all. The monetary reform mately bound up with the general system of the ninth century not only was in keep- of regulation and control which was typical is true ing with the general impoverishment of the of Carolingian legislation. The same the measures taken era in which it took place, but with the regarding against usury of circulation of money which \vas noteworthy and the prohibition enjoining members in business. Their for both lightness and inadequacy. In the the clergy from engaging to combat disorder and absence of centers of attraction sufficiently purpose was fraud, to a Christian powerful to draw money from afar, it indiscipline and impose the a remained, so to speak, stagnant. Charle- morality on people. Only prejudiced magne and his successors in vain ordered point of view can see in them an attempt that deniers should be coined only in the to stimulate the economic development of royal mints. Under the reign of Louis the the Empire. consider the Pious, it was necessary to give to certain We are so accustomed to churches authorization to coin money, in reign of Charlemagne as an era of revival view of the difficulties, under which they that we are unconsciously led to imagine labored, of obtaining cash. From the second an identical progress in all fields. Unfor- of half of the ninth century on, the authoriza- tunately, what is true of literary culture, tion to establish a market was almost always the religious State, of customs, institutions accompanied by the authorization to estab- and statecraft is not true of communications that lish a mint in the same place. The State and commerce. Every great thing could not retain the monopoly of minting Charlemagne accomplished was accom- coins. It was consistently frittered away. plished either by his military strength or And that is again a manifestation, by no by his alliance with the Church. For that means equivocal, of the economic decline. matter, neither the Church nor arms could History shows that the better commerce is overcome the circumstances in virtue of sustained, the more the monetary system is which the Prankish Empire found itself centralized and simplified. The dispersion, deprived of foreign markets. It was forced, the variety, and in fact the anarchy which in fact, to accommodate itself to a situation it manifests as we follow the course of the which was inevitably prescribed. History is ninth century, ends by giving striking obliged to recognize that, however brilliant confirmation to the general theory here put it seems in other respects, the cycle of forward. Charlemagne, considered from an economic There have been some attempts to attrib- viewpoint, is a cycle of regression. ute to a Charlemagne far-seeing political The financial organization of the Prank- This is to lend ish economy. him ideas which, Empire makes this plain. It was, indeed, however his great we suppose genius to as rudimentary as could be. The poll tax, have it is been, impossible for him to have which the Merovingians had preserved in had. No one can submit with any likeli- imitation of Rome, no longer existed. The hood of truth that the projects which he resources of the sovereign consisted only in commenced in 793, to join the Rednitz to the revenue from his demesnes, in the the Altmuhl and so establish communica- tributes levied on conquered tribes and in tion between the Rhine and the Danube, the booty got by war. The market-tolls no could have had any other purpose than longer contributed to the replenishment of the of or that transport troops, the wars the treasury, thus attesting to the commer- the Avars were the cial decline the against provoked by of period. They were noth- desire to a commercial route to open up ing more than a simple extortion brutally Constantinople. The stipulations, in other levied in kind on the infrequent merchan- of the respects inoperative, capitularies dise transported by the rivers or along the regarding coinages, weights and measures, roads. The sorry proceeds, which should the market-tolls and the were inti- have served to markets, keep up the bridges, the From Medieval Cities 23 docks and the highways, were swallowed new fact. It existed in a very distinct form up by the functionaries who collected them. in the Roman era and it continued with missi The dominici, created to supervise increasing strength in the Merovingian era. their administration, were impotent in As early as the close of antiquity, all the the abolishing abuses which they proved west of Europe was covered with great to exist because the State, unable to pay its demesnes belonging to an aristocracy the agents, was likewise unable to impose its members of which bore the tide of senators. authority on them. It was obliged to call More and more, property was disappearing the on aristocracy which, thanks to their in a transformation into hereditary tenures, social status, alone could give free services. while the old free farmers were themselves But in so doing it was constrained, for lack undergoing a transformation into "cultiva- of money, to choose the instruments of tors" bound to the soil, from father to son. power from among the midst of a group The Germanic invasions did not noticeably of men whose most evident interest was to alter this state of things. We have definitely diminish that power. The recruiting of the given up the idea of picturing the Germanic from functionaries among the aristocracy tribes in the light of a democracy of peas- was the fundamental vice of the Prankish ants, all on an equal footing. Social distinc- Empire and the essential cause of its dis- tions were very great among them even solution, which became so rapid after the when they first invaded the Empire. They death of Charlemagne. Surely, nothing is comprised a minority of the wealthy and a more fragile than that State the sovereign majority of the poor. The number of slaves of which, all-powerful in theory, is depend- and half-free was considerable. ent in fact of of in upon the fidelity his inde- The arrival the invaders the Roman over- pendent agents. provinces brought wdth it, then, no The feudal system was in embryo in this throw of the existing order. The newcomers contradictory situation. The Carolingian preserved, in adapting themselves thereto, Empire would have been able to keep going the status quo. Many of the invaders only if it had possessed, like the Byzantine received from the king or acquired by force Empire or the Empire of the Caliphs, a tax or by marriage, or otherwise, great demesnes system, a financial control, a fiscal centrali- which made them the equals of the "sena- zation and a treasury providing for the tors." The landed aristocracy, far from dis- salary of functionaries, for public works, appearing, was on the contrary invigorated and for the maintenance of the army and by new elements. the navy. The financial impotence which The disappearance of the small free pro- its It in that caused downfall was a clear demonstra- prietors continued. seems, fact, tion of the impossibility it encountered of as early as the start of the Carolingian of maintaining a political structure on an period only a very small number them economic base which was no longer able to still existed in Gaul. Charlemagne in vain support the load. took measures to safeguard those who were That economic base of the State, as of left. The need of protection inevitably made individuals society, was from this time on theJ&nded them turn to the more powerful their proprietor. Just as the Carolingian Empire to whose patronage they subordinated was an inland State without foreign mar- persons and their possessions. it more kets, so also was an essentially agricultural Large estates, then, kept on being State. The traces of commerce which were and more generally in evidence after the still to be found there were negligible. period of the invasions. The favor which There was no other property than landed the kings showed the Church was an addi- property, and no other work than rural tional factor in this development, and the had the work. As has already been stated above, religious fervor of the aristocracy this predominance of agriculture was no same effect. Monasteries, whose number 24 HENRI PIRENNE

of a form of multiplied with such remarkable rapidity bility patriarchal government. after the seventh century, were receiving The ninth century is the golden age of r e have calied the closed domestic bountiful gifts of land. Everywhere eccle- what w with siastical demesnes and lay demesnes were economy and which we might call, the of no markets. mixed up together, uniting not only culti- more exactitude, economy vated ground, but woods, heaths and waste- This economy, in which production had lands. no other aim than the sustenance of the The organization of these demesnes demesnial group and which in consequence to the idea of remained in conformity, in Prankish Gaul, was absolutely foreign profit, with what it had been in Roman Gaul. can not be considered as a natural and It is clear that this could not have been spontaneous phenomenon. It was, on the otherwise. The Germanic tribes had no contrary, merely the result of an evolution motive for, and were, furthermore, incapa- which forced it to take this characteristic did ble of, substituting a different organization. form. The great proprietors not give up It consisted, in its essentials, of classifying selling the products of their lands of their all the land in two groups, subject to two own free will; they stopped because they distinct forms of government. The first, the could not do otherwise. Certainly if com- less extensive, was directly exploited by merce had continued to supply them regu- the proprietor; the second was divided, larly with the means of disposing of these under deeds of tenure, among the peasants. products abroad, they would not have neg- of the villae not sell Each of which a demesne was lected to profit thereby. They did composed comprised both seignorial land because they could not sell, and they could and censal land, divided in units of cultiva- not sell because markets were wanting. The tion 7 held by hereditary right by manants or closed demesnial organization, w hich made villeins in return for the prestation of rents, its appearance at the beginning of the ninth in money or in kind, and statute-labor. century, was a phenomenon due to compul- As long as urban life and commerce sion. That is merely to say that it was an flourished, the great demesnes had a market abnormal phenomenon. for the disposal of their produce. There is This can be most effectively shown by no room for that doubt during all the comparing the picture, which Carolingian era it Merovingian was through them that Europe presents, with that of Southern the city groups were provisioned and that Foissia at the same era. the merchants were it supplied. But could We know that bands of sea-faring Norse- not be otherwise trade that is to help when disap- men, say of Scandinavians origi- peared and therewith the merchant class nally from Sweden, established their domi- the and municipal population. The great nation over the Slavs of the watershed of estates suffered the same fate as the Prankish the Dnieper during the course of the ninth Like Empire. it, they lost their markets. century. These conquerors, whom the con- The of possibility selling abroad existed no quered designated by the name of Russians, because of the lack longer of buyers, and it naturally had to congregate in groups in became useless to continue to produce more order to insure their safety in the midst of than the indispensable minimum for the the populations they had subjected. subsistence of the men, proprietors or ten- For this purpose they built fortified en- on the estate. ants, living closures, called gorods in the Slavic tongue, For an of economy exchange was substi- where they settled with their princes and tuted an of economy consumption. Each the images of their gods. The most ancient in of to deal demesne, place continuing Russian cities owe their origin to these with the constituted from this outside, time entrenched camps. There were such camps on a little world of its It own. lived by at Smolensk, Suzdal and Novgorod; the itself and for in itself, the traditional immo- most important and the most civilized was From Medieval Cities 25

at Kiev, the prince of which ranked above Charlemagne was kept in isolation after the all the other princes. The subsistence of the closing of the Mediterranean, Southern invaders was assured by tributes levied on Russia on the contrary was induced to sell the native population. her products in the two great markets which It was therefore possible for the Russians exercised their attraction on her. The to live off the land, without seeking abroad paganism of the Scandinavians of the to the the supplement resources which Dnieper left them free of the religious in country gave them abundance. They scruples which prevented the Christians of would have done so, without doubt, and the west from having dealings with the content to been use the prestations of their Moslems. Belonging neither to the faith of subjects if they had found it impossible, like Christ nor to that of Mahomet, they only their in contemporaries Western Europe, to asked to get rich, in dealing impartially communicate with the exterior. But the with the followers of either. position which they occupied must have The importance of the trade which they led to early them practise an economy of kept up as much with the Moslem Empire exchange. as with the Greek, is made clear by the Southern Russia was placed, as a matter extraordinary number of Arab and Byzan- of fact, between two regions of a superior tine coins discovered in Russia and which civilization. To the east, beyond the Caspian mark, like a golden compass needle, the Sea, extended the Caliphate of Bagdad; to direction of the commercial routes. the south, the Black Sea bathed the coasts In the region of Kiev they followed to of the Byzantine Empire and pointed the the south the course of the Dnieper, to the way towards Constantinople. The barbar- east the Volga, and to the north the direc- ians felt at once the effect of these two tion marked by the Western Dvina or the strong centers of attraction. To be sure, they lakes which abut the Gulf of Bothnia. were in the highest degree energetic, enter- Information from Jewish or Arab travellers prising and adventurous, but their native and from Byzantine writers fortunately qualities only served to turn circumstances supplements the data from archaeological to the best account. Arab merchants, Jews, records. It will suffice here to give a brief and Byzantines were already frequenting resume of what Constantine Porphyrogene- the Slavic took 2 regions when they posses- tus reports in the ninth century. He shows sion, and showed them the route to follow. the Russians assembling their boats at Kiev They themselves did not hesitate to plunge each year after the ice melts. Their flotilla along it under the spur of the love of gain, slowly descends the Dnieper, whose numer- quite as natural to primitive man as to ous cataracts present obstacles that have to civilized. be avoided the barks the byJ draggingOO O alongO The country they occupied placed at banks. The sea once reached, they sail their disposal products particularly well before the wind along the coasts towards trade rich accus- suited for with empires Constantinople, the supreme goal of their to the of life. Its immense tomed refinements long and perilous voyage. There the Russian forests furnished them with a of quantity merchants had a special quarter and made honey, precious in those days when sugar commercial treaties, the oldest of which was still unknown, and furs, sumptuousness dates back to the ninth century, regulating in which was a requisite, even in southern their relations with the population. Many climes, of luxurious dress and equipment. of them, seduced by its attractions, settled Slaves were easier still to procure and, down there and took service in the Imperial thanks to the Moslem harems and the great houses or had a sale Byzantine workshops, 2 Byzantine Emperor (912-959) and scholar who as sure as it was remunerative. Thus as early wrote or inspired several works which provide as the ninth century, while the Empire of much of our knowledge of his time. [Editor's note] 26 HENRI PIRENNE

Guard, as had done, before that time, the of finding themselves isolated from the out- Germans in the legions of Rome. side world like Western Europe were on The City of the Emperors (CzarogracT) the contrary pushed or, to use a better word, had for the Russians a fascination the drawn into contact with it from the begin- influence of which has lasted across the ning. Out of this derive the violent contrasts centuries. It was from her that they received which are disclosed in comparing their Christianity (957-1015); it was from her social state with that of the Carolingian that they borrowed their art, their writing, Empire: in place of a demesnial aristocracy, the use of money and a good part of their a commercial aristocracy; in place of serfs administrative organization. Nothing more bound to the soil, slaves considered as is needed to demonstrate the role played instruments of work; in place of a popula- by Byzantine commerce in their social life. tion living in the country, a population It so essential a therein that in occupied place gathered together in towns; place, finally, without it their civilization would remain of a simple economy of consumption, an inexplicable. To be sure, the forms in which economy of exchange and a regular and it is found are but the very primitive, permanent commercial activity. important thing is not the forms of this That these outstanding contrasts were traffic; it is the effect it had. the result of circumstances which gave Among the Russians of the late Middle Russia markets while depriving the Caro- it determined the constitution Ages actually lingian Empire of them, history clearly of contrast with society. By striking what demonstrates. The activity of Russian trade has been shown to be the case with their was maintained, indeed, only as long as the contemporaries of Carolingian Europe, not routes to Constantinople and Bagdad re- only the importance but the very idea of mained open before it. It was not fated to real estate was unknown to them. Their withstand the crisis which the Petchenegs notion of wealth comprised only personal brought about in the eleventh century. The of which property, slaves were the most invasion of these barbarians along the shores valuable. were They not interested in land of the Caspian and the Black Seas brought in so far their control of except as, by it, in their train consequences identical to they were able to appropriate its products. those which the invasion of Islam in the And if this was that of a class conception Mediterranean had had for Western Europe of there is but little warrior-conquerors, in the eighth century. doubt that it was held for so long because Just as the latter cut the communications these warriors were, at the same time, between Gaul and the East, the former cut merchants. We might, incidentally, add the communications between Russia and that the concentration of the Russians in her markets. foreign And in both quarters,

the t motivated in the the gorods beginning by results of this interruption coincide with military necessity, is itself found to fit a singular exactitude. In Russia as in Gaul, in with commercial needs. An admirably when means of communication disappeared created barbarians for the and towns were organization by depopulated and the popu- purpose of keeping conquered populations lace forced to find near at hand the means under the was well to the sort of their yoke adapted subsistence, a period of agricultural of life which theirs became after they gave economy was substituted for a period of heed to the economic attraction of Byzan- commercial economy. Despite the differ- tium and Their shows ences in Bagdad. example details, it was the same picture in that a does not have to society necessarily both cases. The regions of the south, ruined an before and troubled pass through agrarian stage giving by the barbarians, gave way itself over to commerce. Here commerce in importance to the regions of the north. appears as an original phenomenon. And if Kiev fell into a decline as Marseilles had this is so, it is because the Russians instead fallen, and the center of the Russian State From Medieval Cities 27

trade at an era when the Carolin- was removed to Moscow just as the center living by the demesnial of the Prankish State, with the Carolingian gian Empire knew only the and she in turn this dynasty, had been removed to watershed regime, inaugurated moment of the Rhine. And to end by making the form of government at the very still more there when Western found new parallel conclusive, arose, Europe, having broke from it. We shall in Russia as in Gaul, a landed aristocracy, markets, away break was accom- and a demesnial system was organized in examine further how this or of It will suffice for the moment to which the impossibility of exporting plished. to be limited to have the of Russia, the selling forced production proved, by example that the of the the needs of the proprietor and his peasants. theory economy Carolingian era was not the result of an internal evolu- So, in both cases, the same causes pro- tion but must be attributed to the duced the same effects. But they did not closing date. Russia was of the Mediterranean Islam. produce them at the same by From MOHAMMED AND CHARLEMAGNE

HENRI PIRENNE

WESTERN EUROPE BEFORE ISLAM

XDM whatever standpoint we regard it, the fundamental character of its life re- hen, the period inaugurated by the mained the same. These States, which have establishment of the Barbarians within the been described as national States, were not Empire introduced no absolute historical really national at all, but were merely frag- 1 innovation. What the Germans destroyed ments of the great unity which they had was not the Empire, but the Imperial gov- replaced. There was no profound transfor- ernment in 'parties occidentis. They them- mation except in Britain. selves acknowledged as much by installing There the Emperor and the civilization themselves as . Far from seeking of the Empire had disappeared. Nothing to replace the Empire by anything new, remained of the old tradition. A new world established themselves within it and had made its The old law and they 7 appearance. although their settlement was accompanied language and institutions were replaced by by a process of serious degradation, they those of the Germans. A civilization of a did not introduce a new scheme of govern- new type was manifesting itself, which we ment; the ancient palazzo, so to speak, was may call the Nordic or Germanic civiliza- divided up into apartments, but it still sur- tion. It was completely opposed to the vived as a building. In short, the essential Mediterranean civilization syncretized in character of "Romania" still that remained the Late Empire, last form of antiquity. Mediterranean. The frontier territories, Here was no trace of the Roman State with which remained its Germanic, and England, legislative ideal, its civil population, and no in it as it is a mistake its played part yet; Christian religion, but a society which to regard them at this period as a point of had preserved the blood tie between its departure. Considering matters as they members; the family community, with all actually were, we see that the great novelty the consequences which it entailed in law of the was a fact: in epoch political the and morality and economy; a paganism like Occident a plurality of States had replaced that of the heroic poems; such vere the the of the Roman State. that unity And this, things constituted the originality of of was a course, very considerable novelty. these Barbarians, who had thrust back the The of was aspect Europe changing, but ancient world in order to take its place. In Britain a new was which 1 age beginning, These were retained : the the things language, did not towards the South. The currency, writing (papyrus), weights and meas- gravitate ures, the lands of foodstuffs in common use, the man of the North had conquered and taken social the classes, religion the role of for his own this extreme corner of that has been exaggerated art, the law, the admin- "Romania" of which he had no istration, the taxes, the economic organization. memories, [Pirenne's note] whose majesty he repudiated, and to which

From Henri Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne (London, 1939), pp. 140-144, 147-150, 265- 285. By permission of George Allen & Unwin Ltd.

28 From Mohammed and Charlemagne 29 he owed nothing. In every sense of the Bavarians. They have also extended to the word he and in it replaced it, replacing he period which preceded the Carolingians destroyed it. what is true only of the latter. Moreover, The Anglo-Saxon invaders came into the they have exaggerated the role of Merovin- Empire fresh from their Germanic environ- gian Gaul by allowing themselves to be ment, and had never been subjected to the governed by the thought of what it later influences of Rome. Further, the province became, but as yet was not. of Britain, in which they had established What was Clovis as compared with The- themselves, was the least Romanized of all odoric? And let it be noted that after Clovis the In provinces. Britain, therefore, they the Prankish kings, despite all their efforts, themselves: the remained Germanic, Nor- could neither establish themselves in Italy, dic, Barbarian soul of peoples whose cul- nor even recapture the Narbonnaise from ture almost be called might Homeric has the Visigoths. It is evident that they were the essential factor in the been history of tending towards the Mediterranean. The this country. object of their conquest beyond the Rhine the But spectacle presented by this was to defend their kingdom against the Anglo-Saxon Britain was unique. We Barbarians, and was far from having the should seek in vain for anything like it on effect of Germanizing it. But to admit that the Continent. There "Romania" still ex- under the conditions of their establishment isted, except on the frontier, or along the in the Empire, and with the small forces Rhine, in the decumate lands, and along which they brought with them, the Visi- the Danube that is to say, in the prov- goths, Burgundi, Ostrogoths, Vandals and inces of Germania, Raetia, Noricum and Franks could have intended to Germanize Pannonia, all close to that Germania whose the Empire is simply to admit the inhabitants had overflowed into the Empire impossible. and driven it before them. But these border Moreover, we must not forget the part regions played no part of their own, since played by the Church, within which Rome they were attached to States which had had taken refuge, and which, in imposing been established, like that of the Franks or itself upon the Barbarians, was at the same the Ostrogoths, in the heart of "Romania." time imposing Rome upon them. In the And there it is plain that the old state of Occident, in the Roman world which had affairs still existed. The invaders, too few become so disordered as a State, the Ger- in number, and also too long in contact manic kings were, so to speak, points of with the Empire were inevitably absorbed, political crystallization. But the old, or shall better. the classic social still and they asked nothing What may we say, equilibrium well surprise us is that there was so little existed in the world about them, though it Germanism in the new States, all of which had suffered inevitable losses. other the Mediterranean were ruled by Germanic dynasties. Lan- In words, unity art was the essential feature of this an- "guage, religion, institutions and were which of cient was maintained in all its vari- entirely, or almost entirely, devoid Ger- world manism. We find some Germanic influ- ous manifestations. The increasing Helleni- ences in the law of those countries situated zation of the Orient did not prevent it from to the north of the Seine and the Alps, but continuing to influence the Occident by its of its until the Lombards arrived in Italy these commerce, its art, and the vicissitudes life. a as did not amount to very much. If some have religious To certain extent, we held a contrary belief, it is because they have seen, the Occident was becoming have followed the Germanic school and Byzantinized. this of have wrongly applied to Gaul, Italy, and And explains Justinian's impulse - Spain what they find in the Leges Bartjaro- reconquest, which almost restored the Med rum of the Salians, the Ripuarians and the iterranean to the status of a Roman lake. 30 HENRI PIRENNE

And regarding it from our point of view, art which seemed destined to become the it is, o course, plainly apparent that this art of the Occident, as it had remained that Empire could not last But this was not the of the Orient. view of its contemporaries. The Lombard There was as yet nothing, in the 7th cen- invasion was certainly less important than tury, that seemed to announce the end of has of civilization established been supposed. The striking thing the community about it is its tardiness. by the Roman Empire from the Pillars of

- Justinian's Mediterranean policy and it Hercules to the Aegean Sea and from the a of really was Mediterranean policy, since he shores of Egypt and Africa to those Italy, sacrificed to this policy his conflicts with Gaul, and Spain. The new world had not the Persians and the Slavs was in tune lost the Mediterranean character of the an- with the of cient world. All its activities were concen- Mediterranean spirit European civilization as a whole from the 5th to the trated and nourished on the shores of the 7th century. It is on the shores of this mare Mediterranean. nostrum that we find all the specific mani- There was nothing to indicate that the festations of the life of the epoch. Com- millenary evolution of society was to be merce gravitated toward the sea, as under suddenly interrupted. No one was antici- the Empire; there the last representatives pating a catastrophe. Although the imme- of the ancient literature Boetius, Cassio- diate successors of Justinian were unable dorus WTOte their works; there, with to continue his work, they did not repudi- Caesarius of Aries, and Gregory the Great, ate it. They refused to make any concession the new literature of the Church was born to the Lombards; they feverishly fortified and began to develop; there writers like Africa; they established their themes there Isidore of Seville made the inventory of as in Italy; their policies took account of civilization from which the Middle Ages the Franks and the Visigoths alike; their obtained their fleet knowledge of antiquity; controlled the sea; and the Pope of there, at Lerins, or at Monte Cassino, mo- Rome regarded them as his Sovereigns. nasticism, coining from the Orient, was The greatest intellect of the Occident, acclimatized to its Occidental environment; Gregory the Great, Pope from 590 to 604, from the shores of the Mediterranean came saluted the Emperor , in 603, as the missionaries who converted England, reigning only over free men, while the and it that was there arose the characteristic kings of the Occident reigned only over

monuments of that Hellenistico-Oriental slaves. . . .

THE EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN

THE ISLAMIC INVASION themselves to become absorbed in it, and as could be Nothing more suggestive, noth- far as possible they maintained its civiliza- ing could better enable us to comprehend tion, and entered into the community upon the expansion of Islam in the 7th century, which this civilization was based. than to compare its effect upon the Roman On the other hand, before the Moham- with that of the Germanic inva- the Empire medan epoch Empire had had practi- sions. These latter invasions were the cally no dealings with the Arabian penin- climax of a situation which as old as sula. It was contented itself with building a the Empire, and indeed even older, and wall to protect Syria against the nomadic which had weighed upon it more or less bands of the desert, much as it had built a heavily throughout its history. When the wall in the north of Britain in order to Empire, its frontiers penetrated, abandoned check the invasions of the Picts; but this the the invaders allowed struggle, promptly Syrian limes, some remains of which may From Mohammed and Charlemagne 31 still be seen on the crossing desert, was in nated in the victory of Heraclius over no way comparable to that of the Rhine or Chosroes (d. 627). the Danube. Byzantium had just reconquered its pres- The had never this as its the Empire regarded tige, and future seemed assured by one of its vulnerable nor it points, had ever fall of the secular enemy and the restora- massed there of its tion any large proportion to the Empire of Syria, Palestine and forces. It was a frontier of military inspec- Egypt. The Holy Cross, which had long which was crossed the tion, by caravans ago been carried off, was now triumphantly that and brought perfumes spices. The restored to Constantinople by the con- Persian another of Empire, Arabia's neigh- queror. The sovereign of India sent his taken the bours, had same precaution. After felicitations, and the king of the Franks, there was to all, nothing fear from the Dagobert, concluded a perpetual peace with nomadic of the Bedouins Peninsula, whose him. After this it was natural to expect that civilization still in the tribal was stage, Heraclius would continue the Occidental whose religious beliefs were hardly better policy of Justinian. It was true that the than and who their time fetichism, spent Lombards had occupied a portion of Italy, in war one or making upon another, pillag- and the Visigoths, in 624, recaptured from the caravans that travelled ing from south Byzantium its last outposts in Spain; but to north, from Yemen to Palestine, Syria what was that compared with the tremen- and the Peninsula of Sinai, passing through dous recovery which had just been accom- Mecca and Yathreb (the future Medina). plished in the Orient"? Preoccupied by their secular conflict, However, the effort, which was doubt- neither the Roman nor the Persian Empire less excessive, had exhausted the Empire. to seems have had any suspicion of the The provinces which Persia had just sur- propaganda by which Mohammed, amidst rendered were suddenly wrested from the the confused conflicts of the tribes, was on Empire by Islam. Heraclius (610-641) the of his reli- point giving own people a was doomed to be a helpless spectator of gion which it would presently cast upon the first onslaught of this new force which the world, while imposing its own do- was about to disconcert and bewilder the minion. The Empire was already in deadly Western world. danger when John of Damascus was still The Arab conquest, which brought con- regarding Islam as a sort of schism, of much fusion upon both Europe and Asia, was the same character as previous heresies. without precedent. The swiftness of its When Mohammed died, in 632, there victory is comparable only with that by as of the of was yet no sign peril which was which the Mongol Empires Attila, to manifest itself in so overwhelming a Jenghiz Khan and Tamerlane were estab- fashion a couple of years later. No meas- lished. But these Empires were as ephem- ures had been taken to defend the frontier. eral as the conquest of Islam was lasting. It is evident that whereas the Germanic This religion still has its faithful today in menace had always attracted the attention almost every country where it was imposed of the Emperors, the Arab onslaught took by the first Caliphs. The lightning-like ra- them by surprise. In a certain sense, the pidity of its diffusion was a veritable mira- expansion of Islam was due to chance, if cle as compared with the slow progress of we can give this name to the unpredictable Christianity. consequence of a combination of causes. By the side of this irruption, what were is of the The success of the attack explained by the conquests, so long delayed., Ger- the exhaustion of the two Empires which mans, who, after centuries of effort, had marched with Arabia, the Roman and the succeeded only in nibbling at the edge of Persian, at the end of the long struggle "Romania"? between them, which had at last culmi- The Arabs, on the other hand, took pos- 32 HENRI PIRENNE

session of whole sections of the crumbling by the disorder of the Byzantine armies, a Empire. In 634 they seized the Byzantine disorganized and surprised by new and fortress of Bothra (Bosra) in Transjordania; method of fighting, by the religious in 635 Damascus fell hefore them; in 636 national discontent of the Monophysites of to the Em- the battle of Yarmok gave them the whole and Nestorians Syria, whom refused to make of Syria; in 637 or 638 opened pire had any concessions, of the Church of and its gates to them, while at the same time and Coptic Egypt, their Asiatic conquests included Mesopo- by the weakness of the Persians. But all tamia and Persia. Then it was the turn of these reasons are insufficient to explain so the a The of the Egypt to be attacked; and shortly after complete triumph. intensity death of Heraclius (641) Alexandria was results were out of all proportion to the 2 taken, and before long the whole country numerical strength of the conquerors. . . . was occupied. Next the invasion, still con- 2 tinuing, submerged the Byzantine posses- For further analysis of the Arab conquest the sions in North Africa. student is referred to the selections from Medieval Cities which summarize the more comprehensive All this doubtless be may explained by treatment in Mohammed and Charlemagne. [Edi- the fact that the invasion was unexpected, tor's note]

MEROVINGIANS AND CAROLINGIANS

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION cadence that the Carolingian period had its historians Many regard what they call origin. The ancestors of the Carolingians the Prankish as epoch constituting an un- were not Merovingian kings, but the broken whole, so that they describe the mayors of the palace. Charlemagne was 3 Carolingian period as the continuation and not in any sense the successor of Dagobert, development of the Merovingian. But in but of Charles Martel and Pippin. this they are obviously mistaken, and for 4th. We must not be confused by the several reasons. identity of the name regnum Francomm. 1st. The Merovingian period belongs to The new kingdom stretched as far as the a milieu different from that of the entirely Elbe and included part of Italy. It con- Carolingian period. In the 6th and 7th cen- tained almost as many Germanic as Ro- turies there still was a Mediterranean with manic populations. which the were Merovingians constantly in 5th. Lastly, its relations with the Church and the touch, Imperial tradition still sur- were completely modified. The Merovin- vived in domains of life. many gian State, like the Roman Empire, was 2nd. The Germanic influence, confined secular. The Merovingian king was rex to the of the Northern vicinity frontier, Francorum. The Carolingian king was Dei was 4 very feeble, and made itself felt only gratia rex Francormn, and this little addi- in certain branches of the law and of tion indicates a profound transformation. procedure. So great was this transformation that later 3rd. Between the more glorious Mero- generations did not realize the significance which vingian period, lasted until nearly the middle of the 7th and the 3 century, Dagobert, Franldsh king, ca. 629-639, was the there was a full last of Carolingian period, cen- the Merovingians to rule as well as reign. tury of turbid decadence, in the course of [Editor's note] 4 which many of the features of the ancient This had not yet become the regulation formula under Pippin, hut it was always employed from civilizations disappeared, while others were the beginning of Charlemagne's reign. Giry, further and it was in this elaborated; de- Manuel de Diplomatique, p. 318. [Pirenne's note] From Mohammed and Charlemagne 33 of the Later Merovingian usage. copyists peoples did not revolt. Ambitious men com- and embellished what seemed to forgers mitted murder, but there were no popular them the inadmissible title of the Merovin- risings. with a Dei gian kings gratia. The cause of the Merovingian decadence Thus, the two monarchies the second was the increasing weakness of the royal of as I have which, endeavoured to show power. And this weakness, by which the in these was due in some sort to the pages, Carolingians profited, was due to the dis- submersion of the European world by order of the financial administration, and Islam were far from being continuous, this again was completely Roman. For, as but were have mutually opposed. we seen, the king's treasury was nour- In the crisis which led to the great col- ished mainly by the impost. And with the of the State founded the lapse by Clovis, disappearance of the gold currency, during Roman foundations crumbled to the away great crisis of the 8th century, this nothing. impost also disappeared. The very notion of The first to was the the go very conception public impost was forgotten when the of the of in the royal power. This, course, curiales of the cities disappeared. form which it assumed under the Merovin- The monetarii who forwarded this im- was not a mere of the gians, transposition post to the treasury in the form of gold absolutism. I am Imperial quite willing to solidi no longer existed. I think the last admit that the to a royal power was, great mention of them refers to the reign of a de extent, merely facto despotism. Never- Pippin. Thus the mayors of the palace no for the as for his theless, king, subjects, the longer received the impost. The monarchy whole of the State was power concentrated which they established by their coup d'etat in the monarch. was a monarchy in which the Roman con- All that belonged to him was sacred; he ception of the public impost was abolished. could himself above the put law, and no The kings of the new dynasty, like the one could he gainsay him; could blind his kings of the Middle Ages long after them, enemies and confiscate their estates under had no regular resources apart from the the that pretext they were guilty of Use- revenues of their domains. There were still There was majeste. nothing, there was no prestations, of course, which dated from the one that he need consider. The power most Roman epoch, and in particular the tonlieu. his own resembling was that of the Byzan- But all these were diminishing. The droit tine if we take into Emperor, account the de gite was exercised by the functionaries enormous differences due to the rather than the 5 As for the tonlieu unequal by king. ? levels of the two civilizations. which brought in less and less as the circu- All the Merovingian administrations pre- lation of goods diminished, the kings made for or the served, good ill, bureaucratic donations of it to the abbeys and the grandi. character of the Roman administration. The Some writers have attempted to prove Merovingian chancellery, with its lay refer- the existence of an impost under the Caro- was endars, modelled upon that of Rome; lingians, As a matter of fact, there was a the his king picked agents where he chose, custom of annual "gifts" in the Germanic even from among his slaves; his bodyguard portion of the Empire. And, further, the of antrustions was reminiscent of the Pre- kings decreed collections and levies of silver torian guard. And to tell the truth, the at the time of the Norman invasions. But populations over whom he reigned had no these were expedients which were not con- of other form of conception any govern- tinued. In reality, it must be repeated, the ment. It was the of all the government basis of the king's financial power was his of the kings period, Ostrogothic, Visigothic, Vandal. It should be noted that even when 5 The tonlieu was a market toll; the droit de gtte the kings assassinated one another the was the feudal right of lodging. [Editor s note] 34 HENRI PIRENNE

6 be cited. "It is domain, his fisc, if you will. To this, at two texts of Hincmar may least, in the case oF Charlemagne, we must to the unction, an episcopal and a spiritual add the booty taken in time of war. The act," he wrote to Charles the Bald in 868; this far more than to ordinary basis of the royal power was purely "it is to benediction, that owe the rural. This was why the mayors of the your earthly power, you royal in the Acts of palace confiscated so many ecclesiastical dignity." We read further, estates. The king was, and had to remain, the Council of Sainte-Macre : "The dignity is above that of the if he was to maintain his power, the great- of the pontiffs kings: est landowner in the kingdom. No more for the kings are consecrated by the pon- the cannot be conse- surveys of lands, no more registers of taxes, tiffs, while pontiffs no more financial functionaries; hence no crated by the kings." After consecration more archives, no more offices, no more the king owed certain duties to the Church. accounts. The kings no longer had any According to Smaragdus, he had to en- finances; this, it will be realized, was some- deavour with all his might to remedy any into it. he thing new. The Merovingian king bought defects that had crept But had to it to see that the tithe or paid men with gold; the Carolingian also protect and king had to give them fragments of his was paid to it. domain. This was a serious cause of weak- It will be understood that under these ness, which was offset by booty as long conditions the monarchy acted in associa- as the country was at war under Charle- tion with the Church. We have only to magne, but soon after his reign the conse- read the Capitularies to realize that these quences made themselves felt. And here, were as much concerned with ecclesiastical let it be repeated, there was a definite break discipline and morality as with secular with the financial tradition of the Romans, administration. To this first essential difference between In the eyes of the Carolingian kings to the Merovingians and the Carolingians an- administer their subjects meant to imbue other must be added. The new king, as we them with ecclesiastical morality. We have have seen, was king by the grace of God. already seen that their economic concep- The rite of consecration, introduced under tions were dominated by the Church. The Pippin, made him in some sort a sacerdotal bishops were their councillors and officials. personage. The Merovingian was in every The kings entrusted them with the func- r sense a secular king. The Carolingian w as tions of missi and filled their chancellery with clerics. is a crowned only by the intervention of the Here striking contrast with the Church, and the king, by virtue of his con- Merovingians, who rewarded their lay secration, entered into the Church. He had referendaries by making them bishops. now a religious ideal, and there were limits From the time of Hitherius, the first eccle- to his power the limits imposed by Chris- siastic to enter the chancellery under Char- tian morality. We see that the kings no lemagne, no more laymen were employed longer indulged in the arbitrary assassina- there for centuries. Bresslau is mistaken in tions and the excesses of personal power his belief that the invasion of the palace which were everyday things in the Mero- offices by the Church is explained by the vingian epoch. For proof we have only to fact that the first Carolingians wished to read the De rectoribus Christianis of Se- replace the Roman personnel of the Mero- dulius of Liege, or the De via regia of vingians by an Austrasian personnel, and Smaragdus, written, according to Ebert, be- that they had to engage Austrasian clerics tween 806 and 813. as being the only Austrasians who could Through the rite of consecration the Church obtained a hold over the king. 6 Hincmar was a celebrated of Henceforth the secular character of the Archbishop Rheims, 845-882; Charles the Bald was the West Prankish State was kept in the background. Here King, 840-877. [Editor's note] From Mohammed and, Charlemagne 35 read and write. No: wanted to make or to the churches they any of the rights of the sure of the collaboration of the Church. crown. As a matter of fact, he had at his dis- However, it is true that had to seek two terrible they posal weapons against it: prose- men of education the clerics. Dur- for among cution lese-majeste and confiscation. the crisis the education of was But in order to ing laymen hold his own against this discontinued. The themselves were it mayors aristocracy is obvious that the king had unable to write. The platonic efforts of to remain extremely powerful: in other to education Charlemagne spread among words, extremely wealthy. For the aristoc- the came to people nothing, and the palace racy-like the Church, for that matter had a few A was academy only pupils. period constantly increasing its authority over was in which "cleric" and the commencing people. This social development, which "scholar" were hence the im- synonymous; began in the days of the late Empire, was of the Church, in a portance which, king- continuing. The grandi had their private dom where hardly anyone had retained any soldiers, numerous vassi who had recom- of Latin, was able for centuries mended knowledge themselves to them (had applied to its on the administra- impose language to them for protection), and who consti- tion. We have to make an effort to under- tuted a formidable following. stand the true of this it In the significance fact; Merovingian period the seigneu- was tremendous. Here we the perceive ap- rial authority of the landowners was mani- pearance of a new medieval characteristic: fested within the limits of their only pri- here was a caste which vate religious imposed rights. But in the period of anarchy its influence upon the State. and decadence, when war broke out be- And in addition to this tween the religious caste, mayors of the palace, who were the had to reckon with the king military backed by factions of aristocrats, the insti- which the whole of the class, comprised lay tution of vassalage underwent a transforma- and all such freemen as had tion. aristocracy, It assumed an increasing importance, remained Of course, we have and its character independent. military became plainly of the rise of this class glimpses military apparent when the Carolingian triumphed the under Merovingian kings. But the aris- over his rivals. From the time of Charles of the was Martel tocracy Merovingian epoch the power exercised by the king was unlike that of the based strangely Carolingian essentially on his military vassals in era. The great Roman landowners, the the North. senatores, whether resided in the cities He them benefices they gave that is to say, or in the do not one the im- estates country, give in exchange for military service, pression that they were primarily soldiers. and these estates he confiscated from the were educated. Above all churches. 7 They things, "Now," says Guilhiermoz, owing in the they sought employment palace or to their importance, these concessions to the Church. It is that the probable king vassals were henceforth found to tempt, not recruited his army leaders and the soldiers only persons of mean or moderate condi- of his more bodyguard particularly among tion, but the great" . his Germanic antrustions. It is certain that And this was entirely in the interest of the lost no time in the landowning aristocracy grantor, who henceforth gave large attempting to dominate him. But it never benefices "on the condition that the conces- succeeded in so. doing sionaire served him, not only with his own do not find that the We king governed person, but with a number of vassals in means of this nor that by aristocracy, he proportion to the importance of the bene- allowed it share in the any government as fice conceded," It was undoubtedly by such long as he remained powerful. And even

he conferred it, he 7 though immunity upon Guilhiermoz, Essai sur les origines de la noblesse. did not surrender either to the aristocracy p. 125. HENRI PIRENNE

means that Charles Martel was able to re- king was that of the vassal to his suzerain. cruit the powerful Austrasian following They collected the regalia for the king; and to the combined several counties with which he went war. And sys- sometimes they 8 tem was continued after his time. into one. The monarchy lost its adminis- In the 9th century the kings exacted an trative character, becoming transformed oath of vassalage from all the magnates of into a Hoc of independent principalities, the kingdom, and even from the bishops. attached to the king by a bond of vassalage his It became increasingly apparent that only which he could no longer force vassals the those were truly submissive to the king who to respect. The kings allowed royal to him. the to their had paid homage Thus subject power slip through fingers. was disappearing behind the vassal, and And it was inevitable that it should be Hincmar went so far as to warn Charles so. We must not be misled by the prestige the Bald of the consequent danger to the of Charlemagne. He was still able to rule royal authority. The necessity in which the the State by virtue of his military power, first mayors of the palace found themselves, his wealth, which was derived from booty, of providing themselves with loyal troops, and his de facto pre-eminence in the consisting of sworn beneficiaries, led to a Church. These things enabled him to reign profound transformation of the State. For without systematic finances, and to exact the be to henceforth king would compelled obedience from functionaries who, being reckon with his wrho constituted the all vassals, one and great landowners, could very military strength of the State. The organi- well have existed in independence. But zation of the counties fell into disorder, what is the value of an administration since the vassals were not amenable to the which is no longer salaried? How can it be of the count. In the field jurisdiction they prevented from administering the country, commanded their own vassals themselves; if it chooses, for its own benefit, and not the count led the freemen to battle. It only for the king's? Of what real use were such is that their possible domains were exempt inspectors as the missi? Charles undoubt- from taxation. were as to administer the They known opti- edly intended kingdom, mates regis. but was unable to do so. When we read the The chronicle of in called Moissac, 813, capitularies, we are struck by the difference them senatus or natu majores Franco-rum, between what they decreed and what was and with the ecclesiastics together high and actually effected. Charles decreed that the counts did indeed the they form king's everyone should send his sons to school; council. The allowed them king, therefore, that there should be only one mint; that to of his The State partake political power. usurious prices should be abolished in time was on the contrac- of famine. becoming dependent He established maximum prices. tual bonds established between the king But it was impossible to realize all these and his vassals. things, because to do so would have pre- This was the of beginning the feudal supposed the obedience which could not period. be assured of the grandi, who were con- All still have been well if the might king scious of their independence, or of the could have retained his vassals. But at the bishops, who, when Charlemagne was close of the 9th from those century, apart dead, proclaimed the superiority of the of his own had become sub- domain, they spiritual over the temporal power. ject to the suzerainty of the counts. For as The economic basis of the State did not the from the time of royal power declined, correspond with the administrative charac- the civil wars which marked the end of the ter which Charlemagne had endeavoured reign of Louis the Pious, the counts became 8 In this connection the of the formation more and more independent. The only rela- history of the county o Flanders is highly characteristic. tion between and the which existed them [Pirenne's note] From Mohammed and Charlemagne

to of preserve. The economy the State was gions, where the Germans were numerous. based upon the great domain without com- Even more rapid was the Romanization mercial outlets. of the Burgundi, Visigoths. o ' o 7 Ostrogoths,o The landowners had of to no need security, Vandals and Lombards. According since not they did engage in commerce. Gamillscheg, nothing was left of the Gothic Such a form of property is perfectly con- language when the Moors conquered Spain sistent with anarchy. Those who owned the but the names of persons and places. soil of had no need the king. On the other hand, the confusion into Was this why Charles had endeavoured which the Mediterranean world was to preserve the class of humble freemen^ thrownjby the invasion of Islam resulted in He made the attempt, but he was unsuc- a profound transformation where language cessful. The great domain continued to ex- was concerned. In Africa Latin was re- pand, and liberty to disappear. placed by Arabic. In Spain, on the other When the Normans began to invade the hand, it survived, but was deprived of its country, the State was already powerless. foundations: there were no more schools It was incapable of taking systematic meas- or monasteries, and there was no longer ures of and of armies defence, assembling an educated clergy. The conquered people which their could have held own against made use of a Roman patois which was not the invaders. There was no agreement be- a written language. Latin, which had sur- tween the defenders. One may say with vived so successfully in the Peninsula until Hartmann: Heer und Staat warden durch the eve of the conquest, disappeared; die Grundherrschaft und das Lehnwesen people were beginning to speak Spanish. zersetzt. it resisted In Italy, on the other hand, left of the What was king's regalia he more successfully; and a few isolated misused. He relinquished the tonlieu, and schools survived in Rome and Milan. the right of the mint. Of its own accord the But it is in Gaul that we can best observe monarchy divested itself of its remaining the extent of the confusion, and its causes. inheritance, which was little enough. In The Latin of the Merovingian epoch the end, royalty became no more than a was, of course, barbarously incorrect; but form. Its evolution was completed when it was still a living Latin. It seems that it in France, with Hugh Capet, it became was even taught in the schools where a elective. practical education was given, while here and there the bishops and senators still read INTELLECTUAL CIVILIZATION and sometimes even tried to write the As we have seen, the Germanic invasions classic Latin. had not the effect of abolishing Latin as The Merovingian Latin was by no means the language of "Romania," except in a vulgar language. It showed few signs of those territories where Salic and Ripuarian Germanic influence. Those who spoke it Franks, Alamans, and Bavarians had estab- could make themselves understood, and un- lished themselves en masse. Elsewhere the derstand others, in any part of "Romania/* German immigrants became Romanized It was perhaps more incorrect in the North with surprising rapidity. of France than elsewhere, but nevertheless, The conquerors, dispersed about the it was a spoken and written language. The country, and married to native wives who Church did not hesitate to employ it for the continued to speak their own language, all purposes of propaganda, administration,, the learned Latin tongue. They did not and justice. modify it in any way, apart from introduc- This language was taught in the schools. it. Its relation ing a good many terms relating to law, the Laymen learned and wrote the like that of chase, war, and agriculture, which made to the Latin of Empire was their way southwards from the Belgian re- the cursive in which it was written to the HENRI PIRENNE

of the since it it writing Roman epoch. And the Latin religion, and profited by the was still written and extensively employed enthusiasm felt for the latter. No sooner for the purposes of administration and were they converted, under the influence commerce, it became stabilized. and guidance of Rome, than the Anglo- But it was destined to disappear in the Saxons turned their gaze toward the Sacred course of it the great disorders of the 8th cen- City. They visited continually, bringing tury. The political anarchy, the reorganiza- back relics and manuscripts. They sub- tion of the Church, the disappearance of mitted themselves to its suggestive influ- the cities and of commerce and administra- ence, and learned its language, which for tion, especially the financial administration, them was no vulgar tongue, but a sacred and of the secular schools, made its sur- language, invested with an incomparable vival, with its Latin soul, impossible. It be- prestige. As early as the 7th century there came debased, and was transformed, accord- were men among the Anglo-Saxons, like ing to the region, into various Romanic the Venerable Bede and the poet Aldhelm, dialects. The details of the process are lost, whose learning was truly astonishing as but it is certain that Latin ceased to be measured by the standards of Western spoken about the year 800, except by the Europe. clergy. The intellectual reawakening which took Now, it was precisely at this moment, place under Charlemagne must be attrib- when Latin ceased to be a living language, uted to the Anglo-Saxon missionaries. Be- and was replaced by the rustic idioms from fore them, of course, there were the Irish the national are which languages derived, monks, including the greatest of all, Saint that it became what it was to remain Columban, the founder of Luxeuil and through the centuries: a learned language: Bobbio, who landed in Gaul about 590. a novel mediaeval feature which dates from They preached asceticism in a time of the Carolingian epoch. religious decadence, but we do not find It is curious to note that the of this origin that they exercised the slightest literary phenomenon must be sought in the only influence. Romanic in country which the Germanic It was quite otherwise with the Anglo- invasion had completely extirpated Roman- Saxons; their purpose was to propagate ism: in the Britain, among Anglo-Saxons. Christianity in Germany, a country for The conversion of this country was or- which the Merovingian Church had done as we have on the ganized, seen, shores of little or nothing. And this purpose coin- the and not in the Mediterranean, neigh- cided with the policy of the Carolingians; bouring country of Gaul. It was the monks hence the enormous influence of Boniface, of Augustine, despatched by Gregory the the organizer of the Germanic Church, Great in 596, who promoted the movement and, by virtue of this fact, the intermediary already commenced by the Celtic monks between the Pope and Pippin the Short. of Ireland. Charlemagne devoted himself to the task In the 7th Saint Theodore of century of literary revival simultaneously with that Tarsus and his Adrian companion enriched of the restoration of the Church. The prin- the which with religion they brought them cipal representative of Anglo-Saxon cul- by the Graeco-Roman traditions. A new ture, Alcuin, the head of the school of culture immediately began to evolve in the York, entered Charlemagne's service in a fact which island, Dawson rightly con- 782, as director of the palace school, and siders "the most important event which oc- henceforth exercised a decisive influence curred between the of epoch Justinian and over the literary movement of the time. that of Charlemagne." Among these purely Thus, by the most curious reversal of Germanic the Latin culture affords the Anglo-Saxons affairs, which most striking proof was introduced suddenly, together with of the rupture effected by Islam, the North From Mohammed and Charlemagne in Europe replaced the South both as a this had other agents in such men as Paulus 9 literary and as a political centre. Diaconus, Peter of Pisa, and Theodulf. It was the North that now proceeded to But it is important to note that this Renais- diffuse the culture which it had received sance was purely clerical. It did not affect from the Mediterranean. Latin, which had the people, who had no understanding of a been living language on the further side it. It was at once a revival of the antique of the Channel, was for the Anglo-Saxons, tradition and a break with the Roman tra- from the beginning, merely the language of dition, which was interrupted by the seiz- the Church. The Latin which was taught ure of the Mediterranean regions by Islam. to the Anglo-Saxons was not the incorrect The lay society of the period, being purely business and administrative language, agricultural and military, no longer made adapted to the needs of secular life, but the use of Latin. This was now merely the still of language which was spoken in the language the priestly caste, which mo- Mediterranean schools. Theodore came nopolized all learning, and which was con- from Tarsus in Cilicia, and had studied at stantly becoming more divorced from the Athens before coming to Rome. Adrian, people whose divinely appointed guide it an African by birth, was the abbot of a considered itself. For centuries there had monastery near , and was equally been no learning save in the Church. The learned in Greek and in Latin. consequence was that learning and intel- It was the classic tradition that they lectual culture, while they became more propagated among their neophytes, and a assertive, were also becoming more excep- correct Latin, which had no need, as on the tional. The Carolingian Renaissance coin- to with the of the continent, make concessions to common cided general illiteracy laity. usage in order to be understood, since the Under the Merovingians laymen were still people did not speak Latin, but Anglo- able to read and write; but not so under the Saxon. Thus, the English monasteries re- Carolingians. The sovereign who instigated ceived the heritage of the ancient culture and supported this movement, Charle- without intermediary. It was the same in magne, could not write; nor could his the Short, must not at- the 15th century, when the Byzantine father, Pippin We tach real to his ineffectual scholars brought to Italy, not the vulgar any importance to bestow this culture his Greek, the living language of the street, attempts upon but the classical Greek of the schools. court and his family. To please him, a few In this way the Anglo-Saxons became courtiers learnt Latin. Men like Eginhard, 10 simultaneously the reformers of the lan- Nithard and Angilbert were passing lumi- guage and also the reformers of the naries. Generally speaking, the immense Church. The barbarism into which the majority of the lay aristocracy were un- a interested Church had lapsed was manifested at once affected by movement which by its bad morals, its bad Latin, its bad 9 Paulus Diaconus the wrote the singing, and its bad writing. To reform it (Paul Deacon) very important History of the Lombards; Peter o at all meant to reform all these things. Pisa was a grammarian first at Pavia and then at Hence questions of grammar and of writ- the Palace School at Aachen; THeodulf was a Spanish Goth who became Bishop of Orleans and ing immediately assumed all the signifi- is as the best of the "Carolingian cance of an of recognized poet apostolate. Purity dogma Renaissance." All were contemporaries of Charle- and purity of language went together. Like magne. [Editor's note] 10 d. was a and one the Anglo-Saxons, who had immediately Angilbert, 814, poet probably of the authors of tie "Royal Annals" of Charle- it, the Roman rite made its adopted way magne's period, drawn up in the monastery at into all parts of the Empire, together with Lorscn. Nithard was a son of Angilbert and a the Latin culture. This latter was the in- grandson of Charlemagne, who wrote several his- tories of trie first naif of the ninth century; these strument excellence of what is known far contain the famous OatL. of Strasbourg (842) in as the Carolingian Renaissance, although both French and German. [Editor's note] 40 HENRI PIRENNE

only those of its members who wished to perfected or Caroline minuscule was de- make a career in the Church. rived at the beginning of the 9th century. first of this minus- In the Merovingian epoch the royal ad- The dated example ministration called for a certain culture on cule is found in the evangelary written by at the of Charle- the part of those laymen who wished to Godescalc in 781, request enter it. But now, in so far as it still re- magne, who was himself unable to write. literate recruits as it did for ex- Alcuin made the of Tours a cen- quired 7 monastery ample, for the chancellery it obtained tre of diffusion for this new writing, which them from the Church. For the rest, since was to determine the whole subsequent it no longer had a bureaucracy, it had no graphological evolution of the Middle Ages. further need of men of education. The A number of monasteries, which might of the immense majority of the counts were no be compared to the printing-offices the doubt illiterate. The type of the Merovin- Renaissance, provided for increasing gian senator had disappeared. The aristoc- demand for books and the diffusion of these racy no longer spoke Latin, and apart from new characters. In addition to Tours, there Saint a very few exceptions, which prove the rule, were Corbie, Orleans, Saint Denis, it could neither read nor write. Wandrille, Fulda, Corvey, Saint Gall, A final characteristic of the Carolingian Reichenau, and Lorsch. In most of them, Renaissance was the reformed handwriting and above all in Fulda, there were Anglo- that which was introduced at this period. This Saxon monks. It will be noted nearly reform consisted in the substitution of the all these monasteries were situated in the the minuscule for the cursive script: that is to North, between the Seine and Weser. a say, deliberate calligraphy for a current It was in this region, of which the original hand. As long as the Roman tradition sur- Carolingian domains formed the centre, vived, the Roman cursive was written by that the new ecclesiastical culture, or, shall all the the at- peoples of Mediterranean basin. we say, the Carolingian Renaissance, 7 It w as, in a certain sense, a business hand, tained its greatest efflorescence. or, at all events, the writing of a period Thus we observe the same phenomenon when writing was an everyday necessity. in every domain of life. The culture which And the diffusion of papyrus was simul- had hitherto flourished in the Mediter- taneous with this constant need of corre- ranean countries had migrated to the sponding and recording. The great crisis of North. It was in the North that the civili- the 8th century inevitably restricted the zation of the Middle Ages was elaborated. of It it that of practice writing. was hardly required And is a striking fact the majority any longer except for making copies of the writers of this period were of Irish, books. for this the Now, purpose majuscule Anglo-Saxon or Prankish origin: that is, and the uncial were employed. These they came from regions which lay to the scripts were introduced into Ireland when north of the Seine. . . . the country was converted to Christianity. Thus we see that Germany, being con- And in Ireland, not later than the close of verted, immediately began to play an essen- the 7th the century, uncial (semi-uncial) tial part in the civilization to which she rise to the gave minuscule, which was al- had hitherto been a stranger. The culture in the ready employed antiphonary of which had been entirely Roman was now Bangor (680-690). The Anglo-Saxons'took becoming Romano-Germanic, but if truth these manuscripts, together with those be told it was localized in the bosom of the which were brought by the missionaries de- Church. riving from Rome, as their example and Nevertheless, it is evident that a new pattern. It was from the insular minuscule orientation was unconsciously effected in and the Roman scriptoria, in which the Europe, and that in this development Ger- semi-uncial was much employed, that the manism collaborated. Charlemagne's court, From Mohammed and Charlemagne 41

the to which an and Charlemagne himself, were certainly their way into vocabulary attributed? much less Latinized than were the Mero- earlier origin has often been Barbarians. vingians. Under the new dispensation There were no longer any many functionaries were recruited from There was one great Christian community, Germany, and Austrasian vassals were set- coterminous with the ecclesia. This ecclesia, tled in the South. Charlemagne's wives of course, looked toward Rome, but Rome were all German women. Certain judicial had broken away from Byzantium and was reforms, such as that of the sheriffs, had bound to look toward the North. The Occi- birth its life. It was their origin in the regions which gave dent was now living own the its its vir- to the dynasty. Under Pippin clergy preparing to unfold possibilities, became Germanized and under Charle- tualities, taking no orders from the outer magne there were many German bishops in world, except in the matter of religion. a of civiliza- Romanic regions. Angelelmus and Heri- There was now community bald, at Auxerre, were both Bavarians; tion, of which the Carolingian Empire was while Bern old, at Strasbourg, was a Saxon; at the symbol and the instrument. For Mans there were three Westphalians in the Germanic element collaborated in this succession; Hilduin, at Verdun, was a civilization, it was a Germanic element German; Herulfus and Ariolfus, at Lan- which had been Romanized by the Church. from at There of differences within gres, came Augsburg; Wulferius, were, course, Vienne, and Leidrad, at Lyons, were Bava- this community. The Empire would be dis- rians. And I do not think there is any evi- membered, but each of its portions would the would dence of a contrary migration. To appreci- survive, since feudality respect culture which ate the difference we have only to compare the monarchy. In short, the 11 to be that of the from Chilperic, a Latin poet, with Charle- was period extending to the Renaissance magne, at whose instance a collection was the early Middle Ages 12th and this was a true made of the ancient Germanic songs! of the century All this was bound to result in a break renaissance bore, and would continue to with the Roman and Mediterranean tradi- bear, the Carolingian imprint. There was but an interna- tions. And while it made the West more an end of political unity, it an aris- tional of culture survived. as the and more self-sufficing, produced unity Just inheritance. States founded in the West in the 5th cen- tocracy of mixed descent and Barbarian retained the Was it not then that many terms found tury by the kings Roman so France, and 11 Chilperic was King of the Franks, 561-584. imprint, Germany, [Editor's note] Italy retained the Carolingian imprint.

GENERAL CONCLUSION

neither in the economic or From the foregoing data, it seems, we appearance; may draw two essential conclusions: social order, nor in the linguistic situation, What civili- 1. The Germanic invasions destroyed nor in the existing institutions. Mediterranean. It was neither the Mediterranean unity of the an- zation survived was the sea that culture was cient world, nor what may be regarded as in the regions by of the Roman and it was from them that the the truly essential features preserved, the monasti- culture as it still existed in the 5th century, innovations of age proceeded: of the at a time when there was no longer an cism, the conversion Anglo-Saxons, Emperor in the West. the ars Barbarica, etc. de- The Orient was the factor: Despite the resulting turmoil and fertilizing their the centre of the world. In struction, no new principles made Constantinople, 42 HENRI PIRENNE

600 the physiognomy of the world was not mans, could no longer protect him. And it so the allied itself with the new different in quality from that which had Church and in the revealed in 400. order of things. In Rome, Em- it it had no rival. 2. The cause of the break with the tra- pire which founded, And its was all the inasmuch as dition of antiquity was the rapid and un- power greater of expected advance of Islam. The result of the State, being incapable maintaining allowed itself to be ab- this advance was the final separation of its administration, the inevitable se- East from West, and the end of the Medi- sorbed by the feudality, of the economic All the terranean unity. Countries like Africa and quel regression. the of this became Spain, which had always been parts of consequences change glar- after Western community, gravitated henceforth ingly apparent Charlemagne. Europe, the Church and the feudal- in the orbit of Baghdad. In these countries dominated by assumed a new another religion made its appearance, and ity, physiognomy, differing in different The Middle an entirely different culture. The Western slightly regions. traditional term were Mediterranean, having become a Musul- Ages to retain the The transitional was man lake, was no longer the thoroughfare beginning. phase pro- that it lasted a whole of commerce and of thought which it had tracted. One may say from 650 to 750. It was always been. century during The West was blockaded and forced to this period of anarchy that the tradition of while the ele- live upon its own resources. For the first antiquity disappeared, new life shifted to the surface. time in history the axis of was ments came northwards from the Mediterranean. The This development was completed in 800 decadence into which the Merovingian by the constitution of the new Empire, monarchy lapsed as a result of this change which consecrated the break between the inasmuch as it to gave birth to a new dynasty, the Carolin- West and the East, gave r the a the mani- gian, w hose original home was in Ger- the West new Roman Empire manic North. fest proof that it had broken with the old With this new dynasty the Pope allied Empire, which continued to exist in himself, breaking with the Emperor, who, Constantinople. engrossed in his struggle against the Musul- ORIGINS OF MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION AND THE PROBLEM OF CONTINUITY

J. LESTOCQU OY

Jean a Francois Lestocquoy (1903- ), French medievalist, has been associated since 1931 with the institution of Saint-Joseph of Arras and has been active in various historical societies of the department of Pas- de-Calais. is Lestocquoy now recognized as the chief authority on the of this history region, which, in the early Middle Ages, became a posses- sion of the Count of Flanders and then, as now, had special importance reason its by of strategic situation near the English Channel.

E BIRTH of a the civilization, changes enough; the origins of medieval civilization in ideas and outward forms, maybe in are to be sought in the development of the Tlthe of the which themselves. very appearance country, peoples such an event involves, must always be of The view which is at present the most the deepest interest to historians. Hence widely accepted is that of Henri Pirenne. the general preoccupation with that obscure According to him, medieval civilization for or period, which, good ill, has been began to take shape at the end of the tenth termed the Dark Ages. Where are the century after the Viking and Hungarian origins of medieval civilization to be found"? invasions had ceased. The end of the The theory that first held the field looked ancient world had come much earlier. The for its answers to Rome: certain elements triumph of Islam shattered the unity of of Roman civilization had always survived, the Mediterranean and severed those rela- of particularly in the organization the tions with the east and with ancient civili- towns. Then there was a reaction, and the zation which had still been maintained Roman theory was rejected, in a manner under the Merovingians. There had then too the the perhaps sweeping. With single been a sudden breach with past, and reservation that in Italy alone some mem- the Carolingian period was one of full ories of Roman civilization might have decline. Charlemagne was thrown back on survived, all was attributed to the Germans, the resources of northern Europe, and life the true founders of medieval civilization. became self-centred as never before. Civili- Both theories are open to the same criti- zation became completely rural, with the cism, that they view the problem too great domain as its normal expression. the exclusively from the juridical point of view. Towns, or at least towns worthy of Life is not so simple as lawyers would make name, no longer existed, and merchants it, and juridical concepts alone cannot sank to the level of common pedlars. This provide an explanation of medieval civiliza- retrogression of economic life was accentu- tion. Neither Rome nor the barabarians are ated by the Viking invasions. Only at the

From J. Lestocquoy, "The Tenth Century," The Economic History Review, XVII (No. 1, 1947), pp. 1-6. By permission of the author and The Economic History Review. 43 44 J. LESTOCQUOY very end of the tenth century did Europe between the Merovingian and Carolingian ninth there begin to revive, and then under influences periods. In the century must still merchants and coming from the east by way of Venice. have been professional In A merchant class came into being and gave a certain amount of commerce. the of the Prankish importance to the towns, gradually replac- northern regions empire life even have continued to ing the pedlars and Jews who for three economic may the first centuries had maintained such little com- progress when invasions, Norman merce as had continued to exist. At first and Hungarian afterwards, took place. these merchants were wanderers without With the invasions the problem of con- there a any permanent home, adventurers thrown tinuity comes up again. Was really break between the up by the surplus population of the country- sharp period preceding invasions that which followed side. It was only gradually that they settled the and the down. Towns came into existence in spots them"? Must one regard development favoured by nature, either at natural har- of towns in the eleventh century as a kind of 5 For such is in bours or at points inland where rivers ceased spontaneous generation: the of Pirenne. For him the to be navigable. In these settlements mer- fact theory their chants were all-important and were able to towns were something entirely new; create for themselves their own law, the inhabitants were adventurers coming from a of a jus mercatorum. places unknown, surplus population in num- The theory is attractive enough, and the countryside which was increasing at a rate. Thus from a class last part of it at least has been generally bers prodigious there that merchant admitted. But the first part has been widely of ruthless men sprang was in time to birth to questioned. Many historians have refused class, which give and to to the to admit that the growth of Islam was so the urban patriciate impart decisive a factor in the development of towns of the Middle Ages their peculiar Europe. The studies of M. Sabbe on the character. commerce in precious stuffs appeared to show that the Mediterranean trade was n interrupted less completely than Pirenne These questions could only be answered had thought. It was even possible to argue by a more elaborate study of tenth-century that the Carolingian period saw an advance conditions than is possible in this short in commerce and not a decline. F. L. essay. Such a study would have to include Ganshof showed that there was still some not only Flanders, where documentary evi- commerce in the ports of Provence between dence, save for the south, is very scanty, but 1 the the tenth centuries. is still eighth and R. S. also Germany and Italy. For there Lopez, looking at the question from the another question that one must ask, and point of view of the east, sought to explain that is, whether the development of these the decline by the weakening of the rela- regions was independent or interconnected? tions with Constantinople: a process which Were their towns and merchants unique was chronologically independent of the specimens, or did they form part of a western expansion of Islam. whole"? My own feeling is that these regions it therefore Would not be right to admit were only at slightly different stages of that although the career of Mohammed development, and that the less fortunate of must have had a considerable influence on the newest regions, such as Flanders, were developments in Europe it was less decisive constantly tending to catch up with the and less easy to define than Pirenne social development of those regions which believed? Nor was there a sharp contrast were more advanced. One has the impres- sion that the government of towns by the 1 was a kind of norm in the Sabbe and Ganshof are Belgian historians. [Edi- bourgeoisie tor's note] Middle Ages. It was the goal to which Origins of Medieval Civilization and the Problem of Continuity 45

3 everything was tending, although the point is not a historian. Einhard and Raoul of departure in different regions might not Glaber do not merely relate the succession always be the same. of events; they give form to their material their The lines of demarcation between region and try to interpret it, they give us the other and region were never sharp. Above all, own views, in short. Flodoard, on of inde- the merchant 'bourgeoisie, without being hand, describes a mere succession vagrant, was extremely well-travelled and pendent events. His precision is something far from ignorant about affairs of other we must be grateful for; but his want of countries, however distant. Guilland, in his ideas betrays the decadence of his age. lectures at the Sorbonne in 1940, called At the same time the production of annals attention to the remarkable similarities be- was entirely suited to the period. Men were as Lot has tween the organization of the silk industry compelled to live in the present, 4 at Constantinople and that of the cloth observed. The students of the history of of tenth industry at Florence and Douai in the tenth the early Middle Ages, and the will the and eleventh centuries, and that of England century in particular, be struck by of clear-cut in the later centuries. This influence must total absence of political ideas, have been disseminated by the famous intellectual schemes, of all notion of con- or Livre du Prefet. In the realm of art the tinuity. We cannot attribute political eastern derivation of Romanesque is gener- economic aims to the rulers of the period should similar influences without a anachronism. ally admitted; why committing grave of the have been absent from the field of ideas In the sparsely populated regions seems to and social organization? north, the only object of policy territorial which The literature on the origins of our civili- have been that of conquest, zation will reveal to what a surprising extent is surely not a sign of mature political tenth cen- a historian in search of the fog of silence envelops the thought. To political as if renounce ideas or economic can be tury. It almost seems we must policies, nothing all hope of ever knowing all that happened more disconcerting than the general history a few illu- of the a mere record of during that period. Apart from period: petty per- little rivalries. France was a to con- minated manuscripts, it has left behind sonal prey civil and Count Arnulf in the way of works of art, and this lacuna stant war, although of the in a in is the more significant in view succeeded building up strong power brilliant achievements of the Carolingian Flanders in the middle of the tenth century, of the his death was followed a into period and the amazing triumphs by relapse under the Saxon em- eleventh century, "le siecle des grandes anarchy. Germany 2 has called it. Nor alone the of experiences," as Focillon perors gives impression any of real did this period produce anything impor- political organization. tance in the way of literature. Its most Why this should have been so is easy to valuable writer was Flodoard: what could understand, for the state of insecurity pre- we have done without him? Yet for him, vailed over the greater part of Europe. One the as for most of his contemporaries, annals is tempted to forget how long scourge terms. He and history were interchangeable in the most 3 the lines up his facts precise fashion, Einhard (ca. 770-840) was associated with school at Aachen and was the author of a so to speak, end to end, without bothering palace celebrated Life of Charlemagne. Raoul Glaher about their interrelations. to at Compared (ca. 1000-1050) was a Benedictine chronicler Einhard in the ninth century and Raoul St. Germain dAuxerre and wrote a kind o history of the world, from 900 to 1045. Flodoard (10th Glaber in the eleventh century, Flodoard century) wrote a history of the church of Kheims, valuable mainly for the documents included. [Edi- 2 tor's note] Henri Focillon, French historian, was the author 4 of an important book, L'an mil (The Year One Ferdinand Lot, Les demiers carolingiens (Paris, Thousand'), Paris, 1952. [Editor's note] 1891), p. 168. 46 J. LESTOCQUOY

the west of the invasions continued, and to assume which differentiates most sharply that those of the Northmen ceased in 883 from the east. There one characteristic of and were followed by a period of peace. is, however, the that must be for it But, if we merely turn over the pages of period emphasized, illusion is not in the Flodoard, we can easily see what an always immediately apparent in and becomes if viewed this is. The Normans occupied Brittany texts, only apparent in in the of centuries. This is the 921. The Hungarians devastated Italy perspective the minute of 922 and sacked Pavia, one of the most remarkable weakness, scale, all Let us take for the important towns in Europe, in 924. During things. example continued their towns and as measured the same years the Normans military operations the scale of the fortified We find devastations in Aquitaine and Auvergne. by places. the that Montreuil-sur-Mer (which recent In 925 they invaded the valley of have had an unex- Somme and advanced as far as Noyon. In studies have shown to Robert of France in the Middle the single year 926, King pected importance Ages) between defeated the Normans at Fauquembergue was constantly an object of dispute and But the in Artois, there was a Norman invasion of Flanders Normandy. frag- there were two ments of the town wall, now in the valley of Loire, and surviving can still be and its Hungarian invasions. The very rumour of private gardens, seen, was suffi- towers are so small that make one the approach of the Hungarians they of the think of children's rather than of cient to cause a general flight country- games 7 Senlis suc- folk with their relics to the shelter of the military operations. Similarly, Louis d'Ou- towns. The terrible raids of the Hungarians cessfully resisted capture by were continued in 933 and 935, and on a tremer and Otto I in 946, and the texts refer

after a devasta- to the of its walls. . . . But these vaster scale in 955. In Italy strength were Roman walls which had tion by Berengar in 962 somewhat more already but even then existed for six centuries. Amiens had also peaceful conditions returned, one. retained its Roman walls. When in 950, the peace was only a comparative at war with Herbert Bands of Saracens watched over the Alpine Arnulf of Flanders was until 973 or 983 blocked of the latter took of passes, where they Vermandois, possession the route and killed travellers or held them a tower already occupied by the Bishop of the two to ransom, thus impeding communications of Amiens, so that each belliger- ents was installed in a each between Italy and the rest of Europe. How tower, serving could trade survive under such conditions? as a diminutive fortress. There is something it in almost comic about a war on this scale. More especially, how could proceed in 949 a lands where Norman raids appear to have Laon, which was captured only by more redoubtable. reduced the towns to petty insignificance? stratagem, was scarcely Besides the circumstances, the men them- All this indicates that the armies were a of selves must be taken into account. We feeble, the towns petty; certainly place inhabitants would take know that the economy of the period was several thousand as a even mainly rural, but unfortunately we know rank great city. And so, great almost nothing about the rural life of the towns of this kind were mostly to be found of the in that of France period. This is the more unfortunate since north Seine, part the intense local urban life, which charac- which still retained some vitality. What do terized the later Middle Ages and lasted we know of the future great cities of the until the appearance of powerful and cen- Middle Ages; of Florence, Siena, Pisa and were all little too tralized states with capital cities had reduced Lucca? These townships, to be mentioned. is true of other towns to positions of secondary impor- small The same tance, was not yet born. In the tenth cen- Ghent and St-Omer; the silence of our tury the countryside and the manor took authorities is not pure accident. Almost the precedence over the towns a circumstance only places mentioned in those regions Origins of Medieval Civilization and the Problem of Continuity 47 which were to be the scene of intense certain that in this respect the west was economic activity in the eleventh century sharply differentiated from the east. The are Rheims, Arras and Verdun in France, west has nothing comparable to a city like and Pavia, Milan and Venice in Italy. Constantinople. We need not perhaps give Indeed it is possible to develop this theme credence to the tale that Constantinople had further and to argue that urban life in the a population of a million and Thessalonica west had been reduced to the minimum. of five hundred thousand, but there can be This has in fact often been done, and no doubt that the cities were on a scale no

Pirenne makes it one of the main bases of longer known in Europe. . . . his argument. Whatever view we take, it is ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS

H. ST. L. B. MOSS

Henry St. Lawrence Beaufort Moss has been associated in historical writing with Professor Norman H. Baynes. In Britain they have greatly 1 opened up the study of Byzantine history. Among Mr. Moss publications is an excellent text, The Birth of the Middle Ages, 395-814. The selection which follows reprints in its entirety an article by Mr. Moss in a series on "Revisions In Economic History," In the British journal, The Economic History Review. Mr. Moss wrote this article in 1937 as a summary of historical investigation at that time. For his extensive documentation the student is referred to the original article.

the past generation a sub- subdivision of historiography. A revaluation DURINGstantial literature has accumulated of many historical judgments followed, round one of the central problems of based on a fresh sifting of the sources. 7 European history the transition from the But an important obstacle to the new ancient world to medieval civilisation. By studies, so far as the "dark ages" are con- the end of the nineteenth century what cerned, soon made its appearance. Deficient may be called the "catastrophic" view had in general as the sources for these centuries been definitely abandoned. Since then the are, nowhere is their poverty more thread- complexity of the change has become bare than in the economic data which they steadily more apparent. How distant any provide. Scanty references, often of purely general agreement still is, even on its main local application, in the writings of annal- features, was shown by the debates of the ists, orators, monkish chroniclers or theo- Historical Congress at Oslo in 1928; and logians must be collected, interpreted, and detailed re-examination its of many aspects assessed in the light of a background which proceeds unceasingly in a score of periodi- is often only too obscure, before any general cals and a steady flow of monographs. A picture can be formed. Population statistics, and of cursory superficial survey some of estimates of money-values, even, in many the principal points of controversy is all cases, identification of place-names these, that will be attempted in the following and much else, are highly problematical. pages. Epigraphic and archaeological evidence is The economic approach to history is a notably insufficient, as compared with that comparatively recent development. Ancient of the preceding centuries. It is no disserv- and medieval writers were ice seldom directly to the results achieved by recent scholar- concerned wdth the subject, and not till the ship to point out that the material at its last did it century emerge as a definite disposal is lamentably small in proportion

From H. St. L. B. Moss, "The Economic Consequences of the Barbarian Invasions," The Economic History Review, VII CMay, 1937), 209-216. Published for The Economic History Society by A. & C. Black, Ltd., London. Reprinted by permission of the Economic History Society and Mr. Moss.

48 Economic Consequences of the Barbarian Invasions 49 to the and extent difficulty of the problem. century; it is from this period, in F. Lot's 1 This being so, it is arguable that compre- view, that the Middle Ages should properly hensive theories should be regarded at be dated. The pace of regression was there- present rather as working hypotheses to be fore slow; and the continued contact and tested and possibly modified by gradually gradual fusion of the Roman and Germanic as definite accumulating data, than solu- worlds, which was made possible by the tions to which all such data must necessarily survival, until the opening of the fifth conform. century, of the Roman Empire in the West "Barbarian Invasions" is a wide term, thanks largely to the measures of Dio- covering more than a millennium. For our cletian and Constantine enabkd many present purpose we may define it as the Roman institutions to pass into the structure Germanic settlements which, during the of the barbarian kingdoms. fifth and sixth centuries A. D., led to The details of this fusion have received the breakdown of Roman government in much attention. Early German settlements the western provinces. This will exclude within the frontiers have been noticed; the such later developments as the Slavs, the careers of Germans in Roman service have Northmen, the Magyars, and (except inci- been traced. Economic and cultural rela- dentally) the Arabs. The eastern Mediter- tions between the Empire and the barbar- ranean, where Roman administration con- ians have been studied. . . . The agrarian tinued to operate, is also excluded, though systems of the later Roman Empire and of it was undoubtedly, during the whole of the Teutonic peoples have given rise to contrast this period, the commercial focus of Europe. much controversial literature. The Spain and Africa, owing to the Islamic formerly drawn between the free association of the of conquests, stand apart; and evidence con- "Mark" primitive German agri- cerning them is in any case insufficient for culture and the despotic control of the great or seri- any brief generalisations. Britain is also, at Roman estates had been abandoned, this time, removed from the main course of ously modified, by the end of last century, is laid certain writers western European history, and its special and emphasis now by problems will not be entered upon here. on the inequalities of German social classes in The economic significance of the inva- and the essential continuity landholding the ancient to the medi- sions has been presented in a fresh light by arrangements, from eval the the results of recent investigation, which worlds. Thus H. See, developing has led to a general softening down of teaching of Fustel de Coulanges, claims that climaxes and contrasts. Kulturcasur, an in France "le personnel des proprietaires abrupt break of cultural continuitv, is no pourra changer au cours des temps, mais longer in question: for Rostovtzeff "what la villa et le manse subsisteront pendant souvent avec leur dimensions happened was a slow and gradual change, des siecles, 2 Italian authorities have simi- a shifting of values in the consciousness of primitives." the survivals in their men," though he admits the virtual dis- larly dwelt on Roman appearance of the Graeco-Roman city 1 organisation, and a reduction of ancient This view was developed by Ferdinand Lot in his The End of the Ancient 'World and the Begin- civilisation to some essential elements. nings of the Middle Ages, London, 1931. [Editor's he this "coincides Chronologically, adds, note] 2 with the political disintegration of the "the personnel of the owners will change in time, but the villa and the 'manse' will for centu- Roman Empire, and with a great chan.ee persist ries, often with their original boundaries." Henri in its social and economic life." This simpli- See (1864-1930) was a leading French economic fication of the complex structure of the historian. Fustel de Coulanges Q830-1889) de- ancient world can be traced from the un- veloped a theory of Roman origins of feudalism, which though not generally accepted had a signifi- settled conditions which succeeded the cant influence on historical interpretations in his Antonine Age, at the close of the second day. [Editor's note] 50 H. ST. L. B. MOSS country, not only in the organisation of the turies, and the denial of any decisive eco- great estates, but in the city-centered life of nomic change caused by the barbarians has the Lombards, and, as has been suggested, involved the theory that commerce and in the continued existence, even so late as finance suffered no serious setback. the tenth century, of "artisan corporations" Two celebrated theories must be men- akin to those which characterised the indus- tioned in this connection, those of H. trial system of the later Roman state. Pirenne and A. Dopsch, though space for- of Examination the conditions prevailing bids more than a brief description. In in the 4 Romano-German kingdoms has Pirenne's view, the economic organisation shown a compromise rather than a conquest, of the provinces where the Germans settled varying in the degree with the different underwent no appreciable change. The peoples, but such is the trend of much Mediterranean unity of the ancient world recent theory with a considerably larger continued unbroken until the Islamic con- admixture of elements that Roman was quests. Merovingian Gaul, in this respect, formerly believed. Legal codes, marriage presented no contrasts xvith Roman Gaul. customs social and divisions exhibit many During the most flourishing period of examples of interaction and even, perhaps, Roman rule, Belgium had been in close convergence of similar institutions, while contact xvith the Mediterranean world, im- the role the played by Church in the preser- porting, for instance, for her villas marble vation of Roman legal and juridical methods from Illyria and Africa and objets d'art of has been into lately brought full promi- Italian or Oriental origin, and exporting nence. Nor has the view of an unbroken hams and geese to the Imperial capital, and economic regression, a steady drift towards pottery and woollen cloaks over the Alpine "natural from the third roads to "In of economy" century Italy. spite the scanty evi- onwards, been left unchallenged. It had dence, xve know for certain that up to about already been noticed that the currency the year 700, Mediterranean commerce was reforms of Constantine I were followed still by spreading all kinds of Oriental spices a return to the monetary conditions of the over the country. Papyrus, imported from earlier and Empire, G. Mickwitz has shown Egypt, was so plentiful that it could be that these continued to exist the throughout regularly bought at the market of Cambrai, fourth even the State in and no doubt in century; itself, many other places." In whose interests it was to the maintain pay- little more than a generation, all this was ments in kind stabilised by Diocletian, had changed. At the beginning of the Carolin- to before the demands of r finally capitulate gian period, the adx ance of Islam closed up the and civil army service. The Ostrogothic the Mediterranean along the coast of Gaul, in as Hartmann3 had and kingdom Italy, proved, severed Gallic relations xvith Syria and was still on a organised money basis, the Egypt? drying up the stream of commerce details of which have recently been eluci- from Marseilles. Under these conditions, dated H. and Italian writers have by Geiss, an economy of regression, of decadence, even maintained that no real breach is rapidly set in. The result was the extinction observable between the financial of arrange- commerce, industry, and urban life, the ments of the later Roman Empire and those disappearance of the merchant class, and of the Lombard government. Stress, in fact, the substitution for the "exchange economy" is in laid on the general prevalence of a which had previously functioned of an these cen- ''money economy" throughout economy occupied solely with the cultiva- tion of the soil and the consumption of its M. Hartmann a the oxvners. (1865-1924), German products by Even Italy and historian who applied the evolutionary approach. to the 4 problem of the transition from Rome to The remainder of this paragraph is a summary Europe. Other historians mentioned in this para- of Pirenne's views with quotations from his writ- are graph more recent writers. [Editor's notej ings, [Editor's note] Economic Consequences of the Barbarian Invasions 51

of the Netherlands, though at first presenting Roman Empire from within, by a kind the of "a striking contrast with essentially agri- peaceful penetration; with the coming cultural civilisation to which the closing of the German kingdoms, the old-established the Mediterranean had reduced western firm, as it were, changed its name to that con- Europe/' were finally forced to adopt this of the long predominant partner. The land- retrogressive economy, in \vhich payments tinuity is worked out in great detail; in were largely rendered kind. A species of holding, social classes, political organization Kulturcasur accompanied these develop- are traced in the various kingdoms up to ments in France. The Roman lay schools the time of the Carolingian ascendancy in had existed in Merovingian times, and western Europe. Industry and commerce merchants must have been literate to handle are likewise held to show no hiatus, save the complicated transactions of Mediter- for the temporary disturbances caused by ranean trade. Commercial culture, however, the invasions. Trade still circulated along the disappeared in the course of the eighth the Roman roads, carrying not only century; credit and contracts were no longer luxuries, but the necessities of life. The in use; writing was no longer needed, tallies nobility may have retreated to their country or chalk marks sufficing for the deals of the estates, but they remained in contact with local market, and the "mercator" of the the towns (which continued for the most ninth-century sources is no longer an edu- part to exist) and produced for the local cated man of affairs, but a peasant carrying market. The whole theory of a regression the doctrine of a eggs and vegetables once a week to the to "natural economy" and neighbouring township. "closed domestic economy" must therefore of be abandoned. Germans had for cen- To summarise briefly the work Dopsch The is an even more hazardous task in view of turies been accustomed to the handling of the wide range of his theories and the con- money, and even in the invasion period had siderable development which they have carried on extensive trading activities. The con- undergone. Covering the whole field of Germanic kingdoms were therefore economic life from Caesar to Charlemagne, ducted on a currency basis, and financial formed of their Dopsch has surveyed in detail the evidence policy part political pro- for the relations between the German and grammes. The Carolingian period, far from Roman worlds, the importance of which showing a decline, as in Pirenne's view, had been first brought into full prominence witnessed a considerable extension of trade 5 in O. Seeck's brilliant work. Emphasis is and industry, and even the dissolution of not followed laid on the recent findings of archaeology, Charlemagne's Empire was by of to autarchic conditions. "The especially in the districts the Rhine and any regression the upper Danube, as showing continuity on Carolingian development is a link in chain of which the occupied sites, and on the smallness of unbroken living continuity the difference in cultural level which, it is leads, without any cultural break, from the late to the German middle claimed, separated the German from the antiquity ages." it be has become of Roman population at the time of the inva- What, may asked, "the in social and economic sions. It is no longer possible to regard the great change to RostovtzefT refers"? From the German as a mere peasant, or a follower of life" which have been it nomad raiding chiefs; he was also a settled studies which we analyzing, farmer, a seafarer, a skilled merchant, even would seem that nothing of the sort took and that the Middle a city-dweller. The general conclusion, place, early Ages which resembles that of Seeck, is reached preserved intact the fabric of later Roman Some reservations that the German peoples pervaded the economic organization. may be suggested as regards the theories 5 Otto Seeck (1850-1921) wrote an important outlined above. In the first none of six-volume work on the period from Diocletian to place, a economic 476. [Editor's note] the attempts to provide general 52 H. ST. L. B. MOSS

of the self- "pattern" for these centuries has succeeded world-empire. The organism to the new in establishing itself beyond the reach of governing city-state gave way and controversy. M. Weber and others had bureaucracy, supporting supported by whose pointed to the recession to conditions of the central Imperial power, origin the old but rather in "natural Economy" which took place in the lay not in polis world, economies" of the Hellen- third century A. D., and to the settlement the great "private the final the constitu- of nobles on country estates which supplied istic rulers. In stage,

. . Diocletian the all their own needs. . Trade was only tion of and Constantine, the became the executive of the thinly spread, and the requirements of bureaucracy State were not met, on the whole by mone- absolutist central government in all branches this of administration. itself to tary means. K. Bucher, building on Society adapted of the new and the land- position, then formed his theory stages, conditions, great a measure of control in which three main phases of development owners ogained largeo were traced in the economic history of over their dependents. Trade and industry, as Rostovtzeff has were Europe. The first, most primitive, stage, shown, progressively that of a "closed house-economy," covered subordinated to the public services. . . . in the east the the whole ancient world, and persisted until But whereas centralizing the the tenth century A. D. His view was based, bureaucracy prevailed, in west, through the and final of the as regards ancient history, on an incomplete weakness, breakdown, the it was the decentralis- analysis, which examined principally imperial government, the hand. early Greek and late Roman periods. Sub- ing landowners who gained upper the sequent work by Beloch and Ed. Meyer, Indeed, in western Europe decline may among others, invalidated his conclusions. have set in long before; but the immense It was shown that the economic life of the contrast, which recent studies have not ancient world, especially in the Hellenistic weakened, between the east Roman world and Roman periods, attained a complexity with its highly developed administration of organisation which was not reached again and civil service, its complex, and largely till many centuries had passed. These views State-controlled, organisation of trade and have been reinforced by epigraphic and commerce and the chaotic conditions, archaeological research, and especially by localised governments and decline of cul- the papyrus evidence from Egypt. Thus the tural standards in western Europe indicates theory of Bucher, as regards the Graeco- more surely than anything else the changes Roman world, has long ceased to find any wrought by the barbarian invasions. general acceptance. Dopsch, however, com- The onus of proof, therefore, lies on plains that its influence continues to domi- those who would seek to show that industry nate the outlook of historical students upon and trade suffered no vital and permanent 6 the period under discussion. setback when the fall of the Empire in the Yet the character of the later Roman West had removed the unified framework organisation precludes any unhesitating of civil and military defense, and left in acceptance in their entirety of Dopsch's its place a number of different, and often views. Perhaps the greatest administrative antagonistic, governmental units. Such in the change European history was replace- proof, if it is to cover the economic life of ment of the folis system by the Roman western Europe, must be not only extensive, but representative, and typical of whole countries. The of the later Roman 6 provinces Historians mentioned in this paragraph: Max exhibited marked variations, Weber (1864-1920) ranks as one of the most pro- Empire already found of German historians of his day; today we and the circumstances of the barbarian would call him a social scientist Karl Bucher was settlements increased them. In a German economic historian. Beloch (1854- greatly Italy, the 1929) and E. Meyer (1855-1930) were German contrasting conditions of the Byzantine authorities on the ancient world. [Editor's note] exarchate and the Lombard districts are Economic Consequences of the Barbarian Invasions 53 well known, and for the latter the unsatis- amber, jewels, beads were carried enor- but factory nature of the sources has often heen mous distances in prehistoric times, emphasised. ... In France, regional differ- such commerce belongs rather to the ences are equally remarkable, and the un- romance than to the everyday realities of the equal and scanty nature of the evidence economic life. Finally, the evidence for forms an inadequate basis for the far-reach- continuance of the Roman educational ing conclusions of Pirenne' s theory. The system under the Merovings, to which Germanic districts, for example, of the Pirenne has devoted several studies, is not, Merovingian realm rarely find mention in in the opinion of the present writer, the sources, and the survival of Rhineland convincing. trade in the fifth and sixth centuries is Dopsch's theory has developed from his in it be incapable of proof. A principal part that criticism of opposing views, and may theory is played by the statements of suggested that this circumstance has led to the Gregory of Tours, but the striking criticism a somewhat one-sided presentation of of N. H. Baynes has gone far to invalidate facts, and not infrequently to over-state- evi- the interpretation placed upon them, and ment. The quality of his voluminous his suggestion that the unity of the Medi- dence varies considerably, and much of it In terranean world was broken, not by the has already been called in question. fleet of attention to the advance o Islam, but by the pirate drawing immense variety Vandal Carthage, seems more in accordance of conditions which prevailed in western in face of the these and in with probability. Moreover, Europe during centuries, the conditions the which have general picture of barbarous modifying generalisations in France delineated by Gregory of Tours, been put forward concerning its social and has an stronger proofs than Pirenne has been able economic life, Dopsch performed modifica- to adduce are required before we can be invaluable service. Whether these confident of the survival of a highly devel- tions are sufficiently far-reaching to establish of oped machinery of trade. It is not sufficient a new and authoritative "pattern" is a more doubtful to point to examples of exotic imports as economic development evidence of this. Easily portable luxuries matter. M. PIRENNE AND THE UNITY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

NORMAN H . BAYNES

877- Britain's scholar Norman H. Baynes (1 ), outstanding Byzantine middle in our day, came to the field of history as he was approaching

I confronted with a age. A barrister-at-law, during World War he was to choice of continuing in the teaching and practice of law, or turning his the teaching and writing of history. For English historical scholarship of decision was a happy one; for close to thirty years he was a member the teaching staff of University College, London, where he was held in great affection and high esteem. His scholarly work, extensive and arresting, which brought him many honors, including honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, was largely devoted to Byzantine studies, The selection which or, as he preferred to call it, East Roman History. follows is from a book review, published in 1929, of the French edition of Pirenne's Medieval Cities.

the of the M. PIRENNE the unity of the Medi- and in particular question part of the West EIRerranean world was maintained un- played by the Syrian merchants era: in the economic life of the broken into the eighth century of our Merovingian Here of Tours1 of that unity was only shattered as a result kingdom. Gregory is, our The His- of the Arab conquest of Africa. Upon the course, principal authority. the Franks is an extensive work and continent that theory has been vigorously tory of it will be admitted that it has its canvassed and directly challenged; it gave probably reader can rise, I understand, to the debate which most longueurs: the most blood-thirsty of become sated the of incessant assas- successfully enlivened the proceedings by story it be that the the International Congress of Historical sinations. Thus may suspected is more often consulted than it is Studies at Oslo. To it British scholarship History read from to end. Yet it has paid little attention a disquieting sign through beginning in the is such a that one can of that general lack of interest early only by reading gain an of the of in- European Middle Age which is now preva- impression range Gregory's terests and contacts. After such a lent in this country. Yet the problem raised reading I should like to take this to by M. Pirenne is of the greatest significance opportunity record own M. alike for the history of the later Roman my personal impressions. Pirenne writes "La Mediterranee ne Empire and for the understanding of the perd whole period of transition which separates 1 539-594. His the the of Theodosius the Great from the Gregory of Tours, History of reign Franks is regarded as one of the most important The central issue at age of Charlemagne. historical works of the early Middle Ages. [Edi- tor's stake is the position of Merovingian Gaul, note] From "M. Pirenne and the Unity of the Mediterranean World," in Norman H. Baynes, Byzantine Studies and Other Essays (University of London, The Athlone Press, London, 1955), pp. 310-316. Reprinted from Journal of Roman Studies, XIX (1929), by permission of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. 54 M. Pirenne and the Unity of the Mediterranean World 55

son pas importance apres la periode des mation? Of affairs in Visigothic Spain he invasions. Elle reste les pour Germains ce was fully informed: embassies were fre- etait avant leur qu'elle arrivee: le centre quent, and he himself questioned Chil- meme de le mare nostrum." 1'Europe, ["The peric's envoys to Leuvigild on the condition Mediterranean did not lose its importance of the Spanish Catholics. Agilan, Leuvi- after the of the invasions. It re- period gild's envoy, passed through Tours and dis- mained for the Germans it what had been puted with Gregory, and the bishop was before their arrival: the very center of present at the banquet given by Oppila. the mare In what sense Europe, nostrum."} Of N. Italy Gregory naturally knew some- and to what extent is this true"? How far thing owing to the Prankish invasions of can we direct contact let us prove between, the country, but of S. Italy he seems to have say, Antioch or Alexandria and the ports of known little: he can make the remarkable Gaul? statement that 4 Merovingian Buccelin captured Sicily In the first place two remarks must be and exacted tribute from it. Of Rome and of made: Students of economics have been (i) the of the time we hear nothing, save tempted to give to terms used in our medi- of the appeal to John III in the case of the eval sources a modern which significance bishops Salonius and Sagittarius. [In the is foreign to their context. If a "merchant" next book] however, we are given a long is tend to mentioned, they presume that he account of affairs in Rome, showing Greg- is in transma- engaged far-reaching, even ory's readiness to be interested in the sub-

transactions. . . . rine, [But] the merchant ject when information could be obtained. may be solely concerned with local trade. The reason for this sudden extension of the the of GO From mention "Syrians" in the range of Gregory's vision lies in the fact Western sources during the early Middle that a deacon of Tours, who had been sent there is Ages not infrequently drawn the on a mission to Rome to acquire relics of inference that these eastern re- the immigrants saints, had just returned from Italy. If mained in close commercial relations with the reader will consider the character of the their of that the country origin, or popula- information there recorded, and Gregory's tion of these colonies was being constantly general silence on Roman matters he will, reinforced by new arrivals from the East . . . I think, infer that Gaul was at this time this underlies all Bre- not in contact with I presupposition M. regular Italy. myself 2 hier's work upon the subject. That there cannot believe that ships and traders were the was such commercial intercourse under customarily passing between Italy and 5 early Empire cannot be doubted: this it was Merovingiano Gaul. which brought the Orientals to Western If we pass to the history of the Roman Europe. . . . Such intercourse continued Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean the through the fourth and into the early fifth result is curiously similar. Of Justinian we century, but its persistence into the Middle 4 Buccelin was a German he and his Age of Merovingian Gaul cannot simply be chieftain; men were crushed by Narses (one of Justinian's assumed; the prior question must be asked: generals), near Capua in 554. [Editor's note] is there for such an any justification 5 Individuals mentioned in this and subsequent assumption? paragraphs: Leuvigild was king of the Visigoths, 568-586. and were sons of the Perhaps the best method of approach is Chilperic Sigebert Merovingian king of the Franks, Chlotar I; they to of study Gregory's knowledge foreign and their two brothers waged civil war over the 3 countries: what is the range of his infor- division of the kingdom following their father's death in 561. Tiberius II (578-582) and Maurice were Eastern Roman Chil- 2 (582602) Emperors. Louis Brehier is a French on authority Byzantine debert II, son of Sigebert and of die famous His best known work is Le Monde history. Byzan- Brunhild (Visigoth princess) was king of the tin, 3 vols. (Paris, 1947-1950). [Editors note] Franks, 575596. Gundovald, illegitimate son of 3 The references to The History of the Franks, Chlotar I, revolted against Childebert IE and was supplied by Baynes, are omitted. [Editor's note] crushed by Brunhild, [Editor's note] 56 NORMAN H. BAYNES

out that Gundovald left hear nothing save the appointment of Constantinople and arrived at Marseilles. True, Narses in place of Belisarius in Italy and ultimately but no hint of his route; did the campaign in Spain. But of Justin's Gregory gives of his of he travel of reign we learn more: character, ? too, by way Carthage? Anti- far does own narrative the capture by the Persians of Syrian How Gregory's this inference? There is och Anrioch is placed in Egypt! of the support negative merchant at Bordeaux who Persian War and of the association by a Syrian pos- sessed a relic of St. but at a time Justin of Tiberius as colleague. This sud- Sergius, to when and relic were den expansion of the narrative is due the pilgrimages hunting familiar who shall how this of fact that envoys of Sigebert returned at say finger Bordeaux? There were this time to Gaul from an embassy to the the saint reached the Svrians and in Paris, and one of them, imperial court at Constantinople. From Jews of a name Eusebius, secured reign of Tiberius we are given legends ^merchant, by by account of the bribes the a of Tours the emperor's liberality, an bishopric; Syrian of to translate into Latin the plot to dethrone him in favour Justinian, helped Gregory of the Seven of Justin's nephew, and of his Persian War; legend Sleepers Ephesus, but of the stubborn defence of Sirmium but there is nothing to connect them with their homeland. In against the Avars Gregory knows nothing. Syrian Merovingian of a The source of his information and the rea- Gaul the Bretons had ships; we hear owned a from Nice son for his silence may be conjectured from ship by Jew coasting to the of the fact that Chilperic's embassy to Tibe- Marseilles; Visigoths Spain pos- sessed a from "with rius returned to Gaul, it would appear, in ships, ship sailing Spain the the usual merchandise" arrives at Mar- the year 580. The operations against while from Gaul to Avars belong to the years 580-582. We take seilles, ships sailing more with the Galicia are No- up the eastern story once plundered by Leuvigild. death of Tiberius and the accession of where, so far as I can see, in the work of of Tours is there Maurice. Here again the information Gregory any suggestion of a direct contact of Gaul doubtless came through the imperial en- Merovingian with the eastern Mediterranean. If voys who brought a subsidy of 50,000 Justin- ian was constrained to resort to measures of pieces of gold to induce Childebert to at- inter- fiscal to to tack the Lombards in Italy. Gregory's oppression compel shipowners est in the affairs of the East when he could trade with the new imperial conquests in and it is that East obtain first-hand knowledge of happenings Italy Africa, hardly likely merchants would sail to the there is shown from his account of the cap- Roman readily of Gaul. That from the East ture of Antioch by the Persians derived ports products reached Gaul is but the from the refugee bishop Simon, the Ar- Merovingian clear, menian. The conclusion which would seem problem is whence did they come directly? Was it from in or to result from this analysis is that Gregory imperial territory Spain from had no regular source of information for Carthage. eastern affairs such as would have been fur- My own belief is that the unity of the Mediterranean world was broken the nished by traders had they been in con- by fleet of Vandal and that tinued relation with the ports of the eastern pirate Carthage the shattered was never restored. A empire. unity Further, it is remarkable that Childe- Merovingian might have pepper to his the wine of Gaza be a bait to bert's envoy to Constantinople, Grippo, did meat, might lure a man to his assassination but Gaul not sail directly to the East, but went to of the so far as vital contacts Carthage and there awaited the praefect's Merovingians, with the were was from pleasure before he was allowed to proceed empire concerned, the first marooned. with all his to the imperial court. M. Brehier points Gregory M. Pirenne and the Unity of the Mediterranean World 57

6th even into the 7th advantages only gained occasional frag- subsisted into the and at a that ments of information upon the doings of century"; it is only true remove Romania. . . . "of Byzantium, of Asia Minor and of Egypt If, then, the view which I have endeav- Jewish merchants, but more especially oured to set forth has any foundation, it is Syrian merchants continued to supply it misleading to state that for the Franks of (Gaul) with luxury goods, with precious 6 the sixth century the Mediterranean still fabrics, with fine wines." remained "mare nostrum"; we can only ac- with the statement that cept qualifications 6 The quotations are from F. Vercauteren (an- "the Mediterranean commerce which great other Belgian historian) and from Pirenne. flourished in Gaul during the Late Empire Baynes quotes them in French. [Editor's note] MOHAMMED AND CHARLEMAGNE: A Revision

ROBERT S. LOPEZ

to the United Robert S. Lopez, born and educated in Italy, came conflict he served with States shortly before World War II; during that the Italian Section of the Office of War Information. He has since of the become recognized as one of the most active and competent younger medievalists in this country. He has taught at Brooklyn College and at Columbia and is presently at Yale. One of his many research interests has been in the field of medieval trade in the Mediterranean and he has accordingly been much involved in the Pirenne controversy. One of his early contributions, an important one, appeared in Speculum the in 1943 and this article is here reproduced in its entirety, save for omission of a few foreign terms. Professor Lopez now considers this more paper only "a pioneer effort in a direction which was explored thoroughly since its publication." It Is nonetheless valuable in illustrating the character of the controversy fifteen years ago. It is also a clear expression of many of the fundamental issues in the problem, and if certain of the answers he then gave have been since superseded it is in part from further research by Professor Lopez himself. Some of this he sets forth in the second extract which is taken from a paper which he read at the Tenth International Congress of Historical Sciences conven- ing in Rome in 1955.

break the is not my purpose to challenge the neither wanted to nor could ITcore of Pirenne's conclusions. Maho- moral unity of the Western Empire, and met et Charlemagne, and Dopsch's Grund- its connections with the East. They only a to those lagen however much one may disagree gave political expression particu- the on point of details and on range of implica- larisms which were already cracking tions have helped historians to realize that surface of the old Roman edifice without Latin their traditional division of ages was wrong: breaking its deep foundations. The Germanic invasions did not mark the be- language and Latin literature, however ginning of a new era; Arab invasions did. much their already advanced barbarization This is undoubtedly true in so far as may have been precipitated by the impact history of culture is concerned. The great of rude invaders, remained as the common push of the Germans had been preceded background of European culture. The by long interpenetration, and was followed greatest achievements of the mediaeval by thorough fusion of the newcomers into "Germanized" world, the Church and the the mass of the conquered people. The fol- Empire, were either a heritage or an imi- lowers of Alaric, Theodoric and Clovis tation of Roman institutions. As soon as

From "Mohammed and Charlemagne : A Revision," Speculum, XVIII (January, 1943), 14-38. By permission of the Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge, Mass.

58 Mohammed and Charlemagne 59

was able to Europe again produce some- was manufactured exclusively in Egypt, and thing great original, Roman peoples and this province was conquered by the again took the lead. Niebelungennot and Arabs between 639 and 641. But it was the wooden buildings of the Germans were only in 692 that the Merovingian chancery forgotten for Romanesque and French ceased to use papyrus for its official docu- ("Gothic") architecture, and for the Italian ments. Other powers of the Christian world Divina Corn-media. (as we shall see better later) continued to On the other hand, wherever the Arabs use papyrus for several centuries after- stepped on Romanic soil (except in Spain wards. Gold money ceased to be struck in and Sicily, outposts which they held for in France, apparently, only in the second too short a eradicated the classic half of the it time), they eighth century; in Italy, came roots forever. A slow but sweeping revolu- to an abrupt end in or about 800 a date tion won over the masses in Syria, Egypt, of no importance for the Caliphate, but a and North Africa to a new civilization, great date for Europe. Furthermore, there whose language and religion (these typical was a brilliant resumption of gold currency expressions of a people's soul) were the under Louis the Pious; and gold kept an language and the religion of the conquer- important place among the means of ex- ors. There was no Arab archi- at least Romanesque change, in Italy and in England, tecture, and no Arab Imperium. Even under the form of foreign and imitated there metallic where was imitation, an original coins, dust, and ingots. A Belgian blend was formed out of three cultures scholar, Sabbe, has recently proved that Graeco-Roman, Persian, and Semitic. there was still a current of importation of However, neither Pirenne nor Dopsch Oriental cloth during the ninth and tenth lays as much stress on cultural relations as centuries. Although his essay does not cover they do on economic and social conditions. specifically the trade in spices, occasional I shall not discuss here the views of references to it lead us to draw a similar Dopsch. Let us remark only that, while his conclusion. thesis cannot be slighted as an element in In the presence of these circumstances, it the of the understanding early Middle seems difficult to maintain a "catastrophic" Ages, his documentation has been recog- thesis, and to envisage Arab conquests as as too for nized scanty and questionable the the cause of a sudden collapse in interna- wide inferences which many followers of tional trade which, in turn, would have Dopsch have drawn. Are the foundations produced sweeping social and economic in- of Pirenne's economic theory more solid? ternal revolutions. In other words, there At first, one cannot but be struck by the were no sudden changes as an immediate four "disappearances" which he pointed out and direct repercussion of the Arab con- as the of a of the symptoms disruption eco- quests. International trade was not swept nomic unity of the Mediterranean coun- away at one stroke, and "closed economy" tries after the Arabic invasions. Papyrus, did not spring up at once in the regions Oriental luxury cloths, spices, and gold cur- outside the gleam of the Moslem Crescent. rency shrank gradually to the Eastern part However, new trends slowly asserted them- of the Mediterranean; under the Carolin- selves in the economy of the Western gians, Europe had almost entirely aban- world. These trends should be related to doned their use. Pirenne's documentation conditions existing in the Arab or Byzantine is striking. world, for any disturbance in the European a close it is to And yet, on examination, ap- supply of Oriental wares likely orig- pears that the four "disappearances" were inate in events occurring somewhere in the not contemporary either with the Arab East. advance or with each other; indeed, it is not We shall have a first clue if we take into exact to speak of disappearances. Papyrus account a circumstance which Pirenne and 60 ROBERT S. LOPEZ his followers seem to have overlooked: ent from those of the state currency, were Three of the "disappearing" goods gold allowed to some autonomous municipalities currency, luxury fabrics, and papyrus for local use; but gold was never struck in were state monopolies, and their sale had local mints. The Senate of the Republic been subjected to special restrictions ever struck every sort of money; but after the since the Roman Empire, A short survey rise of Augustus, it was left with the right of these restrictions will be necessary to to strike copper only. Gold and silver state understand the whole problem. coinage became a monopoly of the Em- still also struck Currency has been, and is, a public peror, who had coppers occa- monopoly in almost all civilized states. This sionally in the provinces. the depends chiefly on two causes. On the one When "Principate" was transformed hand, it is felt that issuing the most tangi- into a "Dominate," both Senate coppers and ble and popular symbol of wealth should be autonomous municipal coinage of silver a prerogative of the sovereign power. On and copper were driven out in a few years the other hand, it is deemed that state con- by the extraordinary emissions of debased trol is the best means to give to the para- coins in the imperial mints. No definite mount instrument of exchanges universal order of dissolution seems to have been en- credit, a stable standard, and a surety acted; but the mint of the Senate was never against counterfeiting. Thus currency is at reopened (except under the Ostrogoths), the same time a sovereign function what and local coinage had only sporadic and a the Middle Ages called "regale" and a short-lived reappearances, as long as the device of public interest. Roman and the Byzantine Empires lasted. Besides, money can become a source of This extension of imperial monopoly to public income (in other words, a fiscal mo- every kind of money and every metal must nopoly) if the state can make the people be connected with the progress of absolut- accept coins at a higher price than the ism. Forging coins, striking them in private actual content of their bullion plus cost of workshops, refusing old and worn imperial coinage. But this development of currency, money was regarded as a "sacrilegium," or no matter how often a state can resort to it, an act of "laesa maiestas," because it im- is a which to the pathologic phenomenon sooner plied an outrage effigy of the sov- or later defeats the very aims of currency, ereign impressed on the coins. But motives and makes it unfit as a means of exchange. of public interest were almost as influential In the Roman Republic and Empire, as this new stress on the sacred character money had always been both a symbol of of money-regale, for in the fourth, fifth, and sovereign power and a device for public sixth centuries there was such an increase interest. Debasements had taken re- that place in forgeries, the only remedy seemed but peatedly, the notion that coinage might to be a thorough and undiscriminating state a be mere source of income for the state, monopolization. variable at the will of the rulers, was never The rise of barbaric autonomous states accepted. formally subjected to imperial suzerainty there was a distinction a However, and again raised the problem of local currency. of hierarchy metals, the origins of which Once more, the view of the Emperors (as can be traced back to similar regulations of stated by Procopius and confirmed by the the Persian and Seleucid monarchies. The extant coins) was that barbarian kings state mints for copper and silver were some- should be entided to strike both copper and times leased at least until a law silver with their out, (393 own effigies and names; such a A.D.) prohibited practice and re- but gold could be lawfully struck only with voked all the earlier grants; but gold mints the portrait and name of the Roman Em- were never leased out. Silver and copper peror. Along with this pretension went the with both standard and differ- money, types Byzantine claim that no foreign prince Mohammed and Charlemagne 61 could call himself Emperor () on amount, and silver was more suitable for terms with the autocrat of equal Constan- the common needs. Finally, the title of tinople. "rex" had an equivalent in all the Indo- u these Altogether, pretensions suffered no European languages, while that of impera- serious for a time. challenge long The tor" was proper to Latin only. Vandals and the Ostrogoths never struck Nonetheless, it is an undoubted fact that coins with the of their sover- gold effigies the early Germanic rulers recognized some the eigns. The Visigoths and Lombards be- moral hierarchic superiority of the Emper- to issue with their gan gold king's portrait ors in several other respects. As for gold only very late, when they had no longer currency, we cannot say that German kings anything to fear from the Emperor's wrath. did not care about it because they had no Theodebert I, the Merovingian, while at "regalian" notion. On the contrary, the bar- war against Justinian the Great, struck some baric states of Western Europe as a rule personal gold coins which roused the in- maintained a state monopoly of money. dignation of Procopius; it is true that Jus- Even more, both Visigoths and Lombards tinian, on his side, hurt the feelings of the apparently followed closely the develop- Prankish ruler by assuming the title of ments of eastern Roman law on that matter. "Francicus," which amounted to a claim to As soon as the Byzantine Empire changed a triumph over him. After Theodebert, no the penalty to be enforced on money- Merovingian king struck gold with his own counterfeiters, the same modification was in portrait for some years. When this "usurpa- introduced by Receswinth Spain and by 1 to tion" was committed again, the Emperor Rothari in Italy. Besides, Rothari seems needed Prankish alliance against the Lom- have re-organized the Lombard mints ac- bards, too badly to raise complaints. A cording to an administrative reform of similar calculation must have led the emperor Heraclius. Only the Merovingian Basileis not only to overlook the gold coin- state followed an opposite course: the very age of the Ethiopian kings of Aksum, but notion of state monopoly was slowly for- to bestow on them the title of Basileis in gotten, and private moneyers began to the official correspondence. The common strike on private order coins bearing no rival of Byzantium and Aksum, the Sa- other marks than the moneyer's signature, sanian "Shahan Sha" (King of the Kings), the customer's name, and the place of emis- was also called Basileus and regarded as an sion. This was because the Merovingian equal by the Basileus of Constantinople. monarchies during the seventh century But he eventually abandoned gold cur- underwent a steady decline of internal co- international relations. rency, to the great satisfaction of the Byzan- hesion and of kinds of cloths tine court. His pride could find a compen- The inclusion some sation in the yearly tribute that the Empire and jewelry in the "regalian" monopolies had to pay to him. will not seem surprising, if we remember The success of Constantinople in matters that in the late Roman and Byzantine Em- the the of money-regale was not entirely due to the pires sovereign impersonated state, himself a to prestige and the power of the Emperors. and- made superhuman being of the even his ex- In Western Europe not only gold, but even the eyes populace, by the less valuable metals continued to be terior appearance. Thus imperial garments of the struck in large amounts with the portrait of and jewelry were symbols nation, like our offense the Emperor, because the populace, accus- almost flag. An against a threat to the of tomed to the traditional types, was reluctant them was really stability to accept coins of an unusual appearance* 1 Receswindi was of the In Persia and in some of the barbaric states, Cd. 672) king Visigoths; Rothari Cd. 652) was king of the Lombards, par- was of little use because the gold anyway, ticularly important for his codification of Lombard exchanges were generally of a modest customary law. [Editor s note] 62 ROBERT S. LOPEZ

extended to the and clothiers of the Barbar- the regime, and the protection goldsmiths were often skilled in their own them could be regarded as a matter of pub- ians very could not the lic interest. This notion had already ap- way, but they reproduce pat- terns of Roman aulic art. Thus the peared in the Oriental monarchies, where Empire a of the worship of the sovereign was taken as a had practically monopoly production of matter of course. But the Romans were and supply. Control exportation was to Barbarian leaders from proud of their personal freedom and dig- sufficient prevent as were themselves in which nity. As long they allowed, they robing garments they were not to wear. Not spoke of "our plebeian purple" (as opposed supposed only with but a to the other peoples' "royal purple") "regalian" considerations, "premer- cantilistic" outlook led the to en- a satisfaction similar to our pride in free Emperors force on even more drastic restric- speech and popular government. exporters enforced at home. It was Only the Late Empire introduced the tions than those and de- not convenient to allow worship of the living autocrat, gold, precious of and secrets of textile industries to stroyed even the exterior forms liberty. stones, be taken out of the state. Purple-dyed and gold-embroidered cloths, the other the them- and jewelry of several categories were On hand, Emperors selves used to off Barbarian rulers brought under "regalian" restrictions. A buy by of ceremonial and hierarchy of materials, parallel to the hier- garments jewels, this fiftsuch were dealt lest archy of offices, was established in gifts cautiously out, value no im- monopoly, as it had been established in their depreciated. Besides, mantles and crowns were but currency. A certain kind of purple and perial given, to ornaments allowed to some special jewels were allowed only only Byzantine high the donors could feel that God, to the saints, and to the sovereigns. officers. Thus Barbarians in the Other ceremonial garments were reserved they were enlisting army of officers and while the to high officers; by that means, they shared Byzantine vassals, in the veneration owed to the Emperor. grantees usually felt pleased and exalted with with the the of re- Other cloths even some dyed pur- gifts. Likewise, gift ornaments to churches and ple or embroidered with gold and silk- galian clergy of continued to be permitted to the common- in the West was one of the weapons the ers. This arrangement was subject to fluc- Byzantine ecclesiastic diplomacy. But the tuations, for, in the fifth century, there amount of objects obtained by that means, were innumerable crimes of "majesty" captured as war prizes, or smuggled into with the of bribed that is, private use of imperial garments and Western Europe help jewels. The only remedy appeared to be to imperial manufacturers and customs-officers, extend the state monopoly to a much larger could never be very large. Furthermore, of the Barbaric not field than the strictly "tabooed" objects. some peoples (although all of cared little for the Little by little, as the citizens made up their them) shining, minds to reserve some ornaments to the but somewhat effeminate apparel of the sacred person of the sovereign and to his Basil eis. They took more pride in their the dignitaries, unnecessary restrictions were national fur garments, spurned by lifted. Romans, and in Germanic parade armors. When the Western Empire was dismem- The situation was different in Persia and bered, the Byzantine Emperors were able in Ethiopia, where both raw materials and to defend their monopoly of ceremonial finished objects could be secured without garments better than that of gold currency. Byzantine intermediaries. In these coun- As a matter of fact, some of the raw mate- tries, the local ceremonial costumes were rials (silk, several qualities of purple-dyes, similar to those of the Eastern Empire; in- pearls and other precious stones) could not deed, the latter repeatedly borrowed Persian be found in Western Europe. Furthermore, aulic fashions. Apparently the Basileis were Mohammed and Charlemagne 63

wise not to forward enough put any monop- state control the drawing of legal docu- olistic claims as and Persia. ments. regards Ethiopia The right of selling state papyrus At it was less to see any rate, wounding apparently had been leased out to private the of those ancient states sovereigns very citizens in the provinces; now such leases dressed in purple than the unpedigreed were revoked. Justinian ordered that no rulers of provinces recently belonging to notarial instrument drawn in Constanti- the Romans. nople should be recognized as authentic, Papyrus had also been subject to restric- unless each roll of papyrus had an un- tions under the Ptolemies, but on a differ- touched first sheet, which contained the ent In Hellenistic all ground. Egypt nearly subscription of the state officers attached to the wares of value were some under fiscal papyrus administration. Another guarantee no matter whether the monopoly, stability of authenticity was the heading, to be com- of the or the welfare regime public required piled according to a definite formula, with it or not. While some of these goods were the names of both the ruling sovereign directly produced and sold by state agents, and the consuls. Particular cautions were more often private entrepreneurs leased out adopted for state documents: Purple ink of the in portions monopolistic rights one must be used for the signature of the Em- or more There was no absolute of provinces. peror; golden seals, with an effigy the monopoly on papyrus production, although sovereign like that on golden coins, were many fields were directly cultivated and also attached to the most important im- the exploited by crown. But the private perial documents. Again, for state docu- producers, apparently, could sell only to the ments issued by members of the imperial best of officers a king the qualities papyrus ("basilike family or by subordinate special, charte," royal papyrus). Moreover, public but inferior set of precautions was adopted. notaries were expected to write their instru- Silver ink, silver, leaden or clay seals, and ments on this kind of papyrus, and to pay a other exterior features pointed out the im- tax on every deed. portance of the various writs, in proportion It seems that these provisions did not aim to the authority of the writer. that a field of at protecting against forgeries of docu- By way new monopolies ments; they were only one of the number- was opened. Obviously their aim could be less restrictions by which the Ptolemies qualified as one of public interest. The fact fleeced their flock. This is why the Romans, that the Emperor, and his officers, lent in systematically opposed to fiscal monopolies, different ways the prestige of their names restrictions and cau- seem to have removed the obstacles against and portraits, caused free commerce. But they maintained the tions concerning state and notarial instru- to the character of duty on notarial instruments as a sort of ments take on regales. certification fee. Forging imperial documents signed with This tax, however, contained the germ purple ink, or even using such an ink foi as a crime of of the elements for the later growth of a private writing, was regarded and state monopoly with a purpose of public majesty, committed "tyrannico spiritu," of less interest. As a matter of fact, during the liable to capital penalty. Forgeries fifth and sixth centuries the increasing for- solemn charters were punished by maiming to of a geries of documents led the Emperors hand. taken issue a set of provisions which revived and These laws apparently were over, the completed the ancient restrictions. Notaries in a simplified form, both by Visigoths at the same time as public were obliged again to use only and the Lombards, "basilike charte" for their deeds. This time, Heraclius* legislation on currency. The followed Ro- the restrictions did not aim primarily at Pope and the bishops, who seem to have uniformed their securing an outlet for the state production man law, the rules set in Constan- of papyrus, but rather at bringing under correspondence to 64 ROBERT S. LOPEZ tinople. Since the production of papyrus was rency would not have lasted so long, but reasons. strictly localized in the Byzantine province for peculiar delaying All the of Egypt, whoever used papyrus (even out- moneys in use at the time of the Arab con- side the of borders of the Empire) had to bow quest bore some representations living to the imperial monopoly. On the other objects, and such figures were unwelcome hand, as the monopoly was one of produc- (although not altogether prohibited) be- tion, and not of use like the clothing mo- cause of the Islamic religious principles. On nopoly, the supply of lawful writing mate- the other hand, it would have been almost rial to the Western chanceries and notaries impossible to get the subject peoples to went on unhampered. accept suddenly money with simple in- J 2 the of the The appearance of the Arabs among the scriptions. Ali, champion old great powers of the Mediterranean did not, indigenous orthodoxy, tried to put out some his died at first, bring about such a revolution in the non-figured coins but attempt with system of regalian monopolies as it could him. have. To be sure, the conquerors could The simplest solution by far was tolerat- seize in Egypt and in Syria two Byzantine ing the maintenance of the traditional, un- state mints, a number of dye-houses for official currency. Thus the blame for the ceremonial garments, and the whole output figures could fall upon the foreign rulers of papyrus. But work was carried on almost and the unauthorized private moneyers as usual, with unchanged staff and un- who had struck the coins. At the most, altered standard of production. The Arabs, some emblems of the Gentile religion were as a rule, conserved the existing state of completed (or replaced after erasure) with things wherever they had no definite rea- legends praising Allah and Mohammed. sons to change it. They were slow in setting Moreover, even this practice was not alto- up regalian monopolies, for they had none gether immune from the censure of the coins at home. When they did, however, they most rigid lawyers, because such with were not awkward and half-hearted imi- their sacred formula were exposed to falling tators, like the Germans. On the contrary, into the hands of men legally impure. At 3 the Arabs built a solid state organization out last, under Caliph Mu'awiyah, a few cop- of an original blend of Byzantine, Persian pers were issued on which the portrait of and national institutions. the Basileus holding a cross was replaced According to an early tradition, the by that of the Caliph brandishing a sword. Prophet praised himself for having "left to But gold currency, the pride of the Empire, Mesopotamia its dirhem and its hafiz, to was not affected; and Mu'awiyah gave a Syria its mudd and its dinar, to Egypt its greater satisfaction to the Emperor, by bind- ardeb and its dinar." As a matter of fact, ing himself to the payment of a yearly the bulk of circulation in the early Arab tribute. Caliphate was formed by pre-Arabic Sasan- While the currency, destined mainly to ian, Byzantine and a few Himyarite (South- be handled by the Gentile subjects, was not Arabic) coins, plus new money of the Em- modified for a long time, the Arabs soon pire which was currently imported by conformed the drawing of their own state merchants. This currency of foreign origin documents to the precepts of Islam. Seals soon was augmented with domestic imita- had been largely used, even for private tions, privately struck, of Persian and By- correspondence, before Mohammed; there- zantine coins. 2 *Ali was a son-in-law of Mohammed and was have remarked that the same We already caliph, 655-661. [Editor's note] 3 phenomenon occurred with the Germans. Mu'awiyah was the first Omayyad caliph (661- and one of the Moslem statesmen. He But in the Arab Empire, where civilization 680) great a centralized autocratic was older and were developed administration, money exchanges with, headquarters at Damascus, which unified the larger, the period before autonomous cur- Moslem world. [Editor's note] Mohammed and Charlemagne 65 fore we may cast some doubt on a tradition, worked out for embroidered ceremonial according to which the Prophet had a seal cloths. It was an Arabic use modeled, when he was told engraved only that the apparently, on a Persian custom, for no evi- would not read his letters if un- of Emperor dence a similar practice can be found on sealed. At we have full any rate, evidence Byzantine cloths before the so-called Byzan- that the seal of the Caliphate was protected tine Middle Ages that a "tiraz" with the a as as of by special "regalian" notion, early name the Caliph and religious sentences the time of 4 the 'Umar I, conqueror of Syria should be embroidered on all ceremonial and Egypt. A little later, Mu'awiyah or- cloths. But on the tissues which were ex- an Office of the State on the ganized Seal, ported into Christian countries only an in- model of a similar Sasanian institution. The vocation to the Trinity was applied. Byzantine papyrus manufacturers in Egypt This unwritten compromise was broken were maintained under state control, al- by the real founder of the Arab adminis- it is not clear whether or not 5 though the trative machinery, 'Abd al-Malik. He could for of the not think imperial regulation monopoly of reforms in the first years of his best of was enforced qualities papyrus by reign, for he was engaged in an all-out civil the Arabs without modifications. war against 'Abdallah ibn-az-Zubair; in- For internal use the Arabs adapted the deed, for the sake of peace he had even to of materials and preparation chancery increase the yearly tribute to the Emperor records to the needs of their own state and (686 or 687 A.D.). But, as soon as the It is true that some religious organization. danger was overcome, the Caliph resolutely of animals even figures (and, occasionally, inaugurated a new policy, with the double of as well as the were left men), cross, on aim of consolidating the central power, and the seals and the as protocols, merely deco- of offering some satisfaction to the orthodox rative adornments. But the name of the Arab element, from which came the main Basileus and the Christian formulae were support of the enemies of his dynasty. The soon replaced by the name of the Caliph brother of ibn-az-Zubair had coined a num- and Islamic sentences. However, on the ber of small silver dirhems; 'Abd al-Malik which were to papyri exported the Empire ordered them to be broken up, thus show- the Christian workers of the fac- papyrus ing a decidedly "regalian" viewpoint. Then tories the of the replaced name Basileus, he ordered the invocation to the Trinity which could obviously not be written on and the cross on the "tiraz" of the papyri the Arabic protocol (in "tiraz"), by an in- and cloths destined for export replaced by vocation to the Trinity. This arrangement, Moslem formulae. Emperor Justinian II, worked out or tolerated by the Islamic offi- who evidently did not want to break the was for both the cers, advantageous Empire advantageous treaty of 686-687, tried re- the and Caliphate. The former secured the peatedly to obtain the withdrawal of those usual of a material to the he supply necessary provisions by large gifts; always met chancery and the notaries for Justinian's with a refusal. Finally his rash and violent laws, which ordered the use of papyrus character prevailed over diplomatic tact He with untouched protocols, were still in threatened the Caliph with putting an out- force. The Arabs, on their side, drew large rageous inscription against the Prophet on profits from this exportation, and, in that his gold coins, which (as he thought) the a way, secured continuous inflow of that Arabs could not help using. Byzantine gold which formed the bulk of But the Caliph was now the stronger. their currency. As a reprisal, he entirely prohibited the An arrangement of the same kind was exportation of papyrus, and inaugurated a

4 'Umar I was the caliph (634-644) under whom 5 Islam expanded religiously and politically over 'Abd al-Malik was caliph 685-705. [Editor's Syria, Egypt, and Persia. [Editor's note] note] 66 ROBERT S. LOPEZ

national gold and silver currency, of the for the set-up of its own sacred formulae same type as the figured coppers of and sovereign prerogatives. A few years Mu'awiyah. He thought of making the later, when the successor of Justinian, new coins acceptable to the Byzantine pride Philippicus, inaugurated a religious policy it 3 to the the (or was a refinement of jest: ) by sending sharply hostile Pope, Romans the first as the latter specimen of this new money a showed their solidarity with by part of the yearly tribute; besides, he prom- rejecting all the documents and the coins ised to keep accepting the Byzantine gold bearing the seal or the portrait of the im- currency in his own states. But when Jus- pious Basileus. This proves that now the tinian saw his own humiliation brought respect for the regalian character of moneys home to him, under the form of the coins was not merely an artificial imposition of let a bearing the name and the portrait of 'Abd the rulers, but us repeat it popular al-Malik, he decided that the only issue left feeling comparable with our reverence for was war. Unfortunately, he was abandoned the national flag. on the battlefield by the contingent of The regalian notion of currency and of Slavs, on whom he relied. The Arabs, who "tiraz" (both on ceremonial cloths and on had hoisted on their lances the broken public documents) almost at once took a roots in the in the vari- treaty, gained complete victory. deep Caliphate, and Nevertheless, the pretensions of the By- ous Moslem states which sprang up on its zantine rulers were satisfied in a way. The farthest provinces. Monopolistic state fac- portrait of a Caliph on coins hurt the feel- tories were established everywhere, with ings of the orthodox "fukaha" as much as the same functions as those of the Byzan- those of the Basileus, although the reasons tine Empire. The sovereign, and some for complaint were different. 'Abd al-Malik members of his family or of his court ap- had succeeded in introducing into circula- pointed by him, reserved to themselves the tion a national type of coin; he soon took right to put their names on the inscriptions a further of step, and had money coined like of regalian objects. A hierarchy mate- that of 'Ali, without any figure or personal rials in each kind of monopolies, corre- symbol. After a short period of transition, sponding to the hierarchy of officers, was when both figured and non-figured coins established by custom if not, perhaps, by circulated for together, the new type, bearing law: Gold silver copper coins; differ- only pious inscriptions, affirmed itself. ent qualities of garments; probably, also Ever since, the currency of Moslem dynas- different kinds of charters. To be sure, ties has restrictions as as in been without figures, with only a were never extended few exceptions. Even the recollection that the Empire. To give only some instances, there had been Islamic figured coins was mints were often leased out; in Egypt, state eventually lost. textile manufacturies were set up only to It be to would incautious dismiss the give the finishing touch to cloths prepared whole this history of "regalian" war by in private workshops; the maiming penalty it to the "foolishness" ascribing of Justinian for infringers of regalian monopolies was and to the "diabolic shrewdness" of 'Abd suggested and enforced on several occa- as do some later it al-Malik, Byzantine chroni- sions, but could never prevail against the adverse to the clers, bitterly Emperor. To stubborn hostility of nationalistic lawyers. be sure, Justinian II was one of the worst But, altogether, the new regalian policy of men who ever sat on the Byzantine throne. Moslem rulers after 'Abd al-Malik stressed But the war was more than a collision be- the same points which so far had been tween a hot and cool head. It was a chal- maintained by the Greeks. lenge between an old civilization, proud As regards papyrus, the Arabs were in of its tradition religious and world power, the same position as the Byzantine Empire and a new which to state, had make room before the loss of Egypt. They had the Mohammed and Charlemagne 67

of if the other coun- monopoly production; ment, is extremely perishable except in a tries wanted at any papyrus all, they had dry climate. In conclusion, we can well to it as it was the accept produced by say that wherever the Roman regulation Moslem factories. Rather than waive the old was observed, the disappearance of papyrus laws on and notarial chancery instruments, was not caused by the Arab conquests, but the Basileis seem to have them- adapted by the victory of paper three centimes later. selves to the situation. new They continued In the barbaric states, however, Roman to use as is demonstrated papyrus, by the law was melting away. No consular dates earliest letter of a Byzantine Emperor of are found in the secular documents of which an has come down original fragment Lombard, Italy, France, and Germany. In to us of the ninth (beginning century). a few private charters the words "sub die the But, since manufacturers no longer consule," without any indication of the inscribed on the the protocols invocation to consul's name, are the only relics of a the the Trinity, Emperors transferred this forgotten formula, added by sheer force of to the invocation heading of the documents. habit. Force of habit led the Merovingian in the tenth Only century, when Egypt royal chancery to use imported papyrus itself ceased to manufacture papyrus be- until 692, although parchment, which could cause had it all over the be paper replaced easily produced at home, began occasion- it for Arab states, was necessary the Greek ally to be used from 670 on. But in 692 } chancery to adopt parchment. the embargo enforced by Abd al-Malik cut Roman for the The regulation drawing the supply entirely for some time. When of authentic documents was generally this embargo was lifted, the Merovingian observed the the by Popes, Church, and chancery did not go back to a costly material the territories of . For in- which had been purchased only out of the consular stance, date is found on most respect to a vanishing tradition. of the Papal documents, and on many Unfortunately, no original documents of private sources of the Roman region, until the Lombard chancery have come down to the first years of the tenth century. Papyrus us. But all our knowledge of them, although was the only material used for formal Papal indirect, leads us to think that not only charters until the end of that century the royal charters, but even those of the with only one exception and did not dis- dukes were written on papyrus. This may until 1057. bull of appear entirely A John explain why they all have perished. On VII (year 876), which has been preserved the other hand, the earliest Italian private with parts of the original protocol, bears on document on parchment which has come it the invocation to Allah, according to the down to us, a notarial deed from Piacenza, of al-Malik. regulation 'Abd Papyrus was dates from 716 that is, twenty-eight years also widely used by bishops until the late later than the Arab embargo. We may infer eighth century; indeed, we know at least that the tradition of Roman law was still one letter that in episcopal written on material the stronger in Italy, so far as state and as late as 977. We know many Roman church documents were concerned. But private documents on papyrus of the same the reform of 'Abd al-Malik probably period; the last one is of 998. Urban docu- affected private instruments in Italy in the of it in ments Ravenna, a Byzantine city until same way as affected royal charters 751, and, later a center of studies in Roman France. In Germany, too, the earliest docu- Law, are on papyrus until the middle of ments on parchment which have been the tenth century. Those are the instances preserved are of the second quarter of the which we can ascertain; on the other hand, eighth century. Thus it would seem that the the very largest part of papyri from Western where Roman legal traditions declined, Europe has certainly not come down to us, introduction of parchment for royal or because this writing material, unlike parch- notarial documents was not brought about 68 ROBERT S. LOPEZ

the to the directly by Arab conquest of Egypt, trends, and suppress altogether fig- fait relics of a })y the organization of Arab state ured golden coins, dying past. later. artistic and economic renais- monopolies, fifty years The political, When we compare Merovingian and sance under Charlemagne and Louis I was Carolingian currency, we are naturally led incomplete and ephemeral; so was the to regard those two periods as separated by revival of figured and golden currency a sharp contrast. First we have mainly during their reigns. These observations take into no account golden coins with a portrait; then we find the influence of Arab chiefly silver coins with an inscription. possible invasions, exclude that there have However, the transition took place over a but do not may long time. The output of silver coins became been such an influence. However, we must remark a circumstance that Pirenne abundant in France as early as the last years again to have overlooked: of the sixth century long before Moham- and his followers seem in the med and the decline of the Merovingians. the period of Arab conquest East, On the other hand, it is true that the and even in Spain, is not one of sudden the proportion of gold in circulation decreased changes in Merovingian currency. occurred steadily under the late Merovingians, and Comparatively sweeping changes took that no gold at all seems to have been struck only \vhen an autonomous dynasty had by Pepin the Short (though we cannot power over Spain. This region gold exclude that some such coin may be even- currency under both the Visigoths and the of the central But the tually yielded by a new find); but gold officers Caliphate. money was struck under Charlemagne and, first independent Cordovan ruler, 'Abd al- even more, under Louis the Pious. Like- Rahman I a contemporary of Pepin the to have refrained both from wise, the shift from figured to non-figured Short seems and from the title money was gradual and progressive during striking gold assuming the sixth and seventh centuries. We have of Caliph, because another man ruled as over the no figured coins of Pepin, but we have Caliph (although unlawfully) many of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. Holy Cities of the Moslems. Only in the after the Eastern A connection of this gradual, though tenth century, Caliphate dominated the Turkish interrupted decrease of gold coins with a was practically by III assume the steady decrease in the volume of exchanges guard, did 'Abd al-Rahman cannot be doubted. On the other hand, the title of Caliph at Cordova. At the same to strike It decline of portraiture on coins must be time, he began regularly gold. that influence of the connected with both the general decline of is quite possible the art, and the decadence of the sovereign silver standard in a neighbor state led Pepin power. Silver is more convenient than gold to carry out the complete abandonment of for small exchanges; unskilled moneyers the gold standard in his own kingdom. the of the will prefer easy epigraphic types, unless a Likewise, example epigraphic encour- sovereign insists on advertising his own currency of the Arabs very likely to abandon portrait on coins. These trends, let us repeat aged Prankish moneyers entirely of inasmuch as it, appeared earlier than the Arab invasions, the striking figured coins, and therefore cannot have been caused these coins were struck mainly in Provence, influence directly and exclusively by them. Pepin at the doorstep of Spain. This the Short was the first who tried to bring could not be felt before the second quarter the back some uniformity in currency, and to of the eighth century, for in Spain restore did not at the partially the regalian monopoly, Arabs suppress once figured which the "rois faineants" had allowed to coins. To sum up, we may assume that the melt away. The easiest path towards uni- new trends in Prankish currency, begun to stress the the Arab were not formity obviously was existing "before conquests, influ- Mohammed and Charlemagne 69

the trade enced by disruption that these emissions took place more than once in have but conquests may caused, by 'parallel England from the time of Offa to that of trends of Arab currency in Spain. Edward the Confessor. Thus we may con- Islamic epigraphic currency not only clude that the new trends in Merovingian silver and in influenced copper coinage the and early Carolingian currency were only barbaric states of Western Europe, but even local phenomena. those gold coins, which had been regarded It must be pointed out that Lombard gold as the paramount show-place for the royal coinage after Rothari did not bear the coins of this metal that of the effigy. The only portrait Byzantine Emperor (except Charlemagne struck in France (at Uzes, for the local currency of the dukes of are not far from the Arab border) epi- Benevento), but that of the national king. graphic. His contemporary, Offa, the Therefore, it constituted a challenge to the Mercian king, struck gold with his name in imperial regalian pretensions the only a in Latin letters and legend Arabic, copied challenge still existing since the Arabs and the date from an Abasside dinar; even was the Franks had adopted epigraphic types, that of the Hegira, 157 (774 A.D.). Imita- and the Visigothic kingdom had been over- tions of this kind grew more and more run. This challenge was not removed by thirteenth abundant until the century. Thus Charlemagne when he conquered Italy. the Arab dinar partly replaced the Byzan- Lombard mints merely replaced on golden the tine nomisma as a model for the currency coins the portrait and the name of of Western Europe. Now this phenomenon national king with those of the new ruler. in is certainly not the symptom of a crisis in Meanwhile, France, only epigraphic trade brought about by the Arabs; on the coinage was carried on as before. But there after contrary, it shows that the Arab merchants was a sudden change Charlemagne was for some time surpassed the Greeks. was crowned emperor. Gold currency all over his for Once more, the Lombard kingdom pre- discontinued states, except the coins of which were sented a different picture. While the Arabic epigraphic Uzes, in states had no common borders with it, the still in circulation 813, despite some Byzantine Empire enveloped it from almost complaints of a council. The epigraphic of silver and was with- every side, and even wedged into its central currency copper a continuous of and coins part. There was exchange drawn, replaced everywhere by the influences between the barbaric and the of classic inspiration, bearing portrait the mint of of the crowned with his Byzantine mints of Italy; Emperor laurels, the title. Ravenna passed from the Greeks to the name, and imperial Lombards a few months before Pepin began There can be no doubt that the establish- his work of restoration of state control on ment of uniform standards for the whole money in France. State control was never empire was a step towards centralization. waived in the Lombard kingdom, and coin- But it remains to be explained why the was chosen for silver age remained faithful to the figured type, Byzantine figured type and such little as was although, here too, artistic decadence caused and copper, why gold still in circulation the legends to cover a larger and larger part of kept epigraphic type. to find a clue in the coins. Furthermore, the predominance We are more likely relations with the of the gold standard was never challenged; Charlemagne's Byzantine than in the of Arab indeed, the quantity of silver in circulation Empire, consequences invasions which occurred one seems to have been very scanty, as it was century more! In as- in the Empire. On the other hand, figured earlier or fact, Charlemagne's of the title was coins and the gold standard had remained sumption imperial certainly a hard blow to the paramount also in the Visigothic kingdom Byzantine pretensions. of the Sasanian until it was conquered by the Arabs. Gold Since the disappearance 70 ROBERT S. LOPEZ and Aksumite monarchies, no foreign ruler and Byzantine) took the place of the old all over the had yet dared to style himself an Emperor. Lombard currency peninsula. the relations with the All the contemporary sources agree in point- In 806, when ing out that Charlemagne realized the Eastern Empire were at their worst, Charle- not even mention the gravity of his act. He made every possible magne did imperial in division of his states effort to appease the Byzantine pride, and dignity his among to secure some recognition of his title from his sons. But an understanding, implying the legitimate emperor of Constantinople. the recognition of Charlemagne as "impera- On the other hand, it has been remarked tor et basileus" by the Byzantine ambassa- that he did not call himself "Romanorum dors, was finally reached in 812 at Aix- In the same in imperator," like the Basileus, but "Impera- la-Chapelle. place (not

. . the old tor . Romanorum gubernans imperium." Rome!), one year later, emperor than the on the of Louis the This title, being a little more modest placed crown head to be called the other one, could possibly sound more Pious and ordered him "imper- a for- et In 814 Louis succeeded acceptable to Constantinople than ator Augustus/' to the he maintained mula implying absolute parity. throne; passably good relations with the of It may be suggested that the abandon- diplomatic Emperors re- to a ment of figured gold currency, which the East. The Basileis were drawn moved the last challenge to the Byzantine friendly attitude by their hope of securing monopoly, was another good-will move, the help of the second Carolingian "em- intended to pave the way for an under- peror" against the Arabs and the Bulgarians; standing. A similar arrangement had been but this hope was not realized. Much worse worked out between Byzantium and Persia, (at least, worse to the eyes of the cere- and its memory had not been forgotten. monial-conscious Byzantine Emperors), felt to strike coins Thus, in Italy, gold coinage was abandoned Louis bold enough gold his altogether, for it would have been difficult with own name and portrait, of the to persuade Italians to accept unusual non- same type as Charlemagne's imperial silver figured coins. In France, epigraphic golden and copper. The obverse of these coins bore money was not a new thing; still, even a crown with the words "minus divinum," there, it aroused complaints, apparently implying that Louis was emperor by the because it lent itself to forgery. grace of God, and not a sort of a cadet of If our interpretation may be accepted, we his Eastern brother. It is true that this shall infer that Charlemagne's monetary affirmation of power was not made from reforms were not prompted by the progress an Italian mint, even though Italy would Arab con- have been the most soil on of invasions, hut, primarily, loy appropriate siderations of good-neighbor policy towards which to start gold currency again. The the Byzantine Empire. Obviously this does gold coinage of Louis was struck in that not imply that the economic background part of his empire which was the farthest had nothing to do with these reforms. from the Byzantine border, and the nearest Probably Charlemagne would not have to those uncivilized Germanic tribes which sacrificed figured gold coinage to reconcilia- were still likely to be dazzled by the prestige tion with the Basileis unless the prestige of figured gold money. But, on their side, and the economic usefulness of gold had the Basileis Michael and Theophilus called already lost so much ground in France; to themselves, in a letter to Louis, "in ipso Deo a large extent, his reforms were the comple- imperatores Romanorum." They branded tion of those of Pepin. But in Italy the him as "regi Francorum et Langobardorum situation the economic did not justify aban- et vocato eorum Imperatori!" donment of gold. Since no new coins of The ecclesiastic conflict for the parity of this metal were produced at home after Constantinople with Rome, and for the Charlemagne, foreign gold coins (Arabic Bulgarian church, gave the last blows to Mohammed and Charlemagne 71 the of Aix-la-Cha- crumbling compromise definitive abandonment of the gold stand- When the balance of was ard the pelle. powers after Louis Pious -was not directly definitely broken by the partition of the connected with the Arab invasions, hut de- Western and the accession of Empire, by fended on the insufficient prestige of the the Macedonian in the Western monarchs. energetic dynasty Only when the prestige East, formally withdrew the Byzan- of both the Greeks and Arabs declined, in tine of the rank of the the thirteenth recognition imperial century was it possible to Carolingian monarchs. Louis II could only resume the striking of gold in Western n & & a send diplomatic note, where he reminded Jburope. Basil at the title of "basileus" that, any rate, If neither the "disappearance" of papyrus had been in the to granted past many rulers nor that of gold currency is connected with both heathen and Christians. But his a sudden regression in trade caused by the protest remained unanswered. Under these Arab conquests, the thesis of Pirenne has Louis II could well circumstances, have little support left. As a matter of fact, the retaliated by resuming gold currency. The evidence collected in the above-mentioned of princes Benevento struck regularly gold essay of Sabbe is more than sufficient to and we know that for some money, years prove that the trade of Oriental purple- Louis II had silver struck in Benevento dyed and embroidered cloths was never in- his and title. with own name imperial No terrupted in Western Europe. At the most, golden coins of Louis have come down to we can suppose that this trade suffered a but cannot make much of a us; we proof temporary depression although there are "ex since his over silentio," power Benevento no grounds for this supposition, and, at any lasted seven years only. Afterwards, Bene- rate, no comparative statistics can be drawn vento recognized Byzantine overlordship; it when sources are casual, scant, and far be- is remarkable that no gold seems to have tween. Nevertheless, for the sake of a fur- been struck there after this recognition. ther demonstration, we shall assume that At any rate, gold has always been essen- there was a depression. Must such a hypo- the instrument of international tially trade thetical trend be connected with a general

1 as Marc Bloch has pointed out. For local disruption of trader trade silver was usually sufficient. Gold First of all, we should take into account if a coins, internationally accepted, were the trends in matters of etiquette and cos- vehicle of prestige for the ruler whose name tumes. Let us repeat that the value of a and effigy they bore; but not every ruler's symbol does not reach farther than the con- name could give international credit to vention on which the symbol is based. A coins. in golden Already the eighth century, flag would have been a scrap of cloth in the long intermission of gold coinage in the Roman Republic. The Huns and most France had caused Prankish money to dis- of the early Germans did not care for im- appear from those internationally accepted. perial purple. Now we may agree with Louis the Pious tried to go against the Halphen in discounting as a sheer inven- stream; but only the Frisians and the Saxons tion the witty anecdote of the Monk of were impressed by his prestige enough to Saint Gall, where Charlemagne is shown use widely his golden coins, and even to playing a cunning trick on his officers, who carry on for some time domestic imitations had preferred refined Oriental garments to of them. But the powerless successors of the simple national costumes. Still the Louis, who were not even able to maintain anecdote is doubtless evidence of a wide- the sovereign monopoly of currency, could spread attitude of the Franks when the half of have no hope of persuading international Monk was writing, in the second merchants to carry along Prankish gold the ninth century. Another source relates instead of the famous Byzantine nomismata that Charles the Bald, after being crowned and Moslem dinar. In conclusion, the by John III, wore a Byzantine ceremonial 72 ROBERT S. LOPEZ

of amounts. of the (such as dress, and drew upon himself the blame Subjects Empire of the Venetians and the citizens of some his subjects for spurning "the tradition Southern Italian cities) and merchants of the Prankish kings for the Greek vanity." al- some allied countries as Again the source is unfair to Charles (such Bulgarians and facilities though the "Hellenism" of this sovereign, Russians) enjoyed special by is an un- But in no case was unlimited ex- expecially in regalian matters, treaty. Even churches and mon- doubted fact. But the ground chosen to portation granted. an if located in put blame on Charles must express asteries, foreign countries, ceremonial actual sentiment. could not get Byzantine objects In conclusion, the diminished use of for their shrines without special permission ambassadors had Oriental cloths among the laymen (if there by the Basileus. Foreign to the visit of the was a diminution) depended to a great ex- to submit their luggage whose final tent on a change in fashions. The Church "kommerkiarioi," inspection the the control of did not change fashions, and, in fact, completed usual, permanent the evidence the cloth market and of the largest 'part of existing of jewelry-shops Oriental cloths in Western Europe relates entrusted to special city officers. to the Church. Under these circumstances, the largest On the other hand, we must remember source of supply for Western Europe prob- of cloths and was the mentioned custom of that the regalian monopoly ably already of cur- the' of ceremonial ob- jewelry unlike the monopolies Emperors sending as Some rency and papyrus did not cover only jects diplomatic gifts. Emperors such both to manufacturing and trade, but the use itself dispensed gifts lavishly foreign of these The ex- and to churches. But those monarchs of many qualities objects. princes 'Itommerldarioi" who felt little to win over allies pressions of the Byzantine necessity 6 the Western Church for (customs-officers), as related by Liudprand or to conciliate the in the tenth century, are significant. The instance, great Iconoclasts, contempo- and the Short Greeks maintained that the wearing of rary of Charles Martel Pepin of were much stricter. As late as the tenth cloths dyed with special qualities purple Constantinus (including some which were not reserved century, Porphyrogenitus with the to the emperor and to the high officers) warned his son against complying stoles and should be allowed only to the Byzantine requests for imperial crowns, were so advanced nation, "as we surpass all other nations in cloths, which frequently wealth and wisdom." Thus the monopoly by the Mongolic and Slavonic neighbors of the stoles and he of cloths, like that of gold currency, had Empire. These crowns, almost believed were not ceased to be an arbitrary imposition of the said (and he it) but sent from government, and had taken roots in popu- made by human hands, the themselves. lar feelings. Heaven by Angels there was another source of A very meticulous and complex set of To be sure, and numerous provisions (which we know in detail only supply: smuggling. Vigilant the controllers could not see for the tenth century, but based to a large as they were, extent on laws of the late Roman Empire) everything; and they were only too often will. If should believe the established various categories of cloths, ac- bribable at we to size. unfair of at the time cording to qualities of dye and account Liudprand, of even the Some categories could be exported without Constantine Porphyrogenitus on them- restrictions, some were vetoed to exporters, prostitutes in Italy could bestow some could be purchased only in limited selves the very ornaments which the Angels had intended for the august Basileus only. 6 (ca. 922-972), Bishop of Cremona Liudprand But Liudprand grossly exaggerates. The and an important historian. The work here cited itself of Oriental cloths, the cost of is an account of his mission (for Otto I) to Con- price stantinople in 968. [Editor's note] transportation, and the bribe for the com- Mohammed and Charlemagne 73

officers must have reserved to plaisant very fond of spiced food as the Romans and the few Westerners the pleasure of bootlegged men of the Renaissance? We know that even under as weak an as the latter were a goods, emperor persons of nice palate. The Constantlne VII. When the was in power gastronomic history of the early Middle the hands of a man with a has "tachucheir," Ages not been expounded as yet in reach as long (such Nicephorus Phocas), detail, but the hypothesis of a coarser taste must have been be not smuggling practicallv} may altogether LI unlikely. the other impossible. On hand, the spices arrived Oriental cloths could be from countries so However, pur- different and far apart, chased in Arabic-ruled countries, too. It is that it is not enough to connect the fluc- true that since 'Abd al-Malik a monopoly tuations in supply with the general rela- had been established, and that Moslem tions between the zArab world and Western rulers, in were general, more sparing than Europe. Revolutions which occurred in the the Basileis in their of Asiatic Far diplomatic gifts East, or in Dark Africa, may cloths. as a the restrictions en- have But, rule, affected the spice trade very deeply. forced Islamic were not as by princes tight In 1343, according to an Italian chronicler, as those of the Eastern Empire. This ex- a war between the Golden Horde and the of West- Genoese plains why many great personages colonies in Crimea caused spices ern and cru- to rise from to Europe including clergymen fifty one hundred per cent saders on occasions in displayed many glow- price. It should be expected that crises ceremonial where the of r ing garments, praise the same kind w ere caused by Asiatic of Allah was embroidered in the in of "tiraz," wars the early Middle Ages. Now the words luckily unintelligible to most of the eighth century, which saw the rise of the bearers of such a cloth! Carolingians in Western Europe, was an To sum up, any fluctuation which may epoch of troubles for Eastern Asia. India be noticed in the supply of Oriental cloths was going through the crisis which fol- is likely to stem from a fluctuation in the lowed the defeat of Buddhism and the tri- efficiency of state control or in the system umph of Rajput "feudalism." While the of alliances of the Byzantine and Arab gov- Arabs invaded the Sindh in 712, Hindu- ernments. rise the stan The of Aral? "Empire, far was being split into a great number made it a little less of states. The Chinese 7 from curtailing supply, petty T'ang dynast} , to obtain after the its difficult cloth, because of the reaching peak of power in the Arabs looser notion of regalian monopoly. seventh century, suffered severe blows. In Of fluctuations in the trade of spices we 751 the Arabs stopped the Chinese expan- know but little. Some of the documents sion in Central Asia (battle of Talas). Be- quoted by Sabbe show that spices too were tween 755 and 763 the emperors, driven of their occasionally imported into Western Europe, out capital by a revolution, asked at the time Pirenne of the of the to retake the right when speaks help Uighurs city disappearance. But, unfortunately, we have a remedy worse than the sore. In 758, the no specific essay on that question, I shall Moslems sacked and burned Canton. These give only a few general remarks, which are do not seem very favorable circumstances a suggestion of fields for investigation, for the continuity of trade relations. But rather than matter-of-fact statements. the situation gradually improved in the Once more, the evolution of taste should ninth century, and, in fact, evidence of be taken into account. in less scant Were the tough spices Western Europe grows noblemen and the rough ecclesiastic gran- in that century. dees of early medieva^ Western Europe as EAST AND WEST IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

ROBERT S. LOPEZ

E SECOND POINT we have to investi- ern barbarians rebuilt a network of commu- is the of gate problem continuity. nications with one another, ultimately Granted that alternations of better and leading to the more refined East. Countries worse periods are unavoidable in any pro- which in antiquity had been almost un- tracted economic activity, and that large touched by Rome, such as Ireland and the scale in commerce early mediaeval Catholic Baltic regions, now began to look toward Europe cannot be expected at any period, Constantinople. What commerce has lost can we assume that commercial relations in intensity was partly compensated for by with the Byzantine and Muslim world were gains in geographic expansion. never interrupted, or do we have to look for Paradoxically, the absolution of the back- a total at a eclipse certain moment? ward Germans paved the way for an indict- For the fifth, sixth, and early seventh ment of the progressive Arabs. While some centuries the question does not arise. Vir- scholars were content with mild accusations tually nobody believes any more that the and roundabout charges the Arabs weak- barbarian invasions of the fifth century ened the international trade of the Mediter- marked a in sharp turn economic history, ranean by moving the economic center of most historians will admit that although the gravity eastwards to Irak and Persia, or by of German with off a meeting immaturity Roman touching Byzantine reprisal blockade decrepitude accelerated the process of dis- across the traditional sea routes Henri whose first be integration symptoms can Pirenne made the Arabs squarely and traced as far back as the of the age directly responsible for pulling an iron Antonines. The sixth century culminated curtain which separated the Believers from the in partial restoration of Mediterranean the Infidels and left Europe an economic under Astride unity Byzantine auspices. and cultural dead end. His superb pleading that and the one century following the and his personal charm won many converts. letters of I us a full Gregory give docu- Nevertheless, a large number of scholars mentation of continuing, if thinned out, the majority, I should say were not con- intercourse between the Mediterranean East vinced. For the last twenty years nearly all and all of that virtually parts Europe. Under has been written on early mediaeval China had its Justinian, unwittingly made economic history has reflected the heat of earliest contribution to the economic equip- the controversy on 'les theses d'Henri ment of the silkworm and in Pirenne." Europe Probably the law of diminishing the time of Heraclius1 Egyptian ships again returns should persuade us to move on to crossed the strait of Gibraltar to obtain equally controversial and less belabored tin. but the English Slowly steadily, West- fields. This does not exempt us, however, 1 from the main issues. Heraclius, a Byzantine Emperor, 610-641. [Edi- recalling briefly Inas- tor's note] much as I have long been an admirer of

From R. S. Lopez, "East and West in the Early Middle Ages: Economic Relations." Paper read in 1955 at Tenth International Congress of Historical Sciences, convening in Rome. Printed in Relazioni del X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, vol. Ill, pp. 129-137. G. C. Sansoni Editore, Firenze. Reprinted by permission of G. C. Sansoni and Professor Lopez. 74 East and West in the Early Middle Ages 75

Pirenne but an of "Mahomet et med was a opponent heretic, not a pagan; in the words I shall not of Charlemagne/' pretend imparti- Muslim lawyers, the Christians were a ality. "people of the Book," not heathens who It has been that argued Arab regular ought to be either converted or killed. Of fleets and piratical parties made the Medi- course there was mutual hatred and name terranean for Christian at impassable ships calling, though probably not as much as one time or another. For short intervals and during and after the ; but hatred in areas, this is an undeniable fact. does not occur specific solely between peoples of a To the instances cited Pirenne and different creed. It many by certainly did not prevent his followers I would like to add a testimony political and economic intercourse. To cite overlooked: the Life of St. a few they Gregory only illustrations from the Carolingian It describes Decapolites (780-842). the period, in 813 the ambassadors of the and sailors of as 2 Byzantine ships Ephesus Aghlabid emir aboard a Venetian convoy bottled in the for fear of Islamic aided the Christian up port crew in attacking a a of Enos as chased a of pirates, ship along convoy Spanish Muslims. Then they river Slavic and from to by pirates, navigation proceeded Sicily, to renew with the Corinth to Rome as extremely dangerous Byzantine governor the agreement which on account of Sicilian pirates. Still it is ensured to the citizens of each country the obvious that could not pirates have multi- right to travel and trade in the other. A few and survived without trade to plied prey years later, the Bishop and Duke of Naples There were calmer upon. always interludes a Christian port which had welcomed and safe and even the worst fairly detours; Muslim ships as early as 722 joined the hurdles could be leaped over by fast block- rulers of Amalfi and Gaeta in an alliance ade runners or smashed with through by heavily the Muslims against Pope John VIII. To be all of this The alliance protected convoys. sure, was so profitable that the Pope made the cost of still was unable high transportation to win back the support of but the cost was not the higher; main Amalfi either by threatening excommunica- consideration in the international trade of tion or by offering total customs exemption the middle which both early ages, before in Rome and a subsidy of no less than and after the of the Arabs consisted silver mancusi a coming 10,000 year. Ironically, above all of wares and war the luxury materials. mancusi in all probability were Islamic At war hazards are far from in- any rate, coins, and the papyrus used by the Pope with commercial compatible expansion and for his diplomatic campaign was made in trade in In the thirteenth and bore at its cheaper goods. Egypt top an Arab inscrip- both war risks and the volume of tion century praising Allah. Should one suggest that trade in the Mediterranean world to the grew capital of Christianity was too near the amounts. unprecedented Islamic border to be typical of Christian It has been or claimed, openly by impli- attitudes, we might recall the friendship of cation, that the conflict between Muslims Charlemagne and Mohammed's Successor, and Christians 3 differed from other collisions Harun al-Rashid. It resulted not only in in the Mediterranean because it the was an foundation of an inn for pilgrims in "antagonism between two creeds" or, in- Jerusalem, but also in the establishment of a between "two worlds deed, mutually foreign market across the street, where the pilgrims and hostile." Even on theoretical grounds, this contention is Their 2 questionable. paths The Aghlabids were a ninth century dynasty in diverged more and more with time, but Africa which became virtually independent [Edi- tor's note] originally both the Arabs and the Germans 3 Harun al-Rashid was the most were wanderers who adopted Greco-Roman (ca. 764-809) famous of the Abbasid and a of arts institutions and Hebraic monotheism. In caliphs patron and letters under whom Bagdad reached its height. the eyes of Christian theologians, Moham- [Editor's note] 76 ROBERT S. LOPEZ

by paying two dinars a year could carry on Atlantic trade. The passing of economy their business. primacy from one people to another is a Indirect proofs of the purportedly cata- normal trait of the historical process. Again, strophic effects of the Arab expansion have the decrease and cessation of the imports of been sought for in a supposed aggravation Palestinian wine, Egyptian papyrus and (to of the general symptoms of economic and a lesser extent) some other Oriental com- intellectual depression in Catholic Europe. modities does not necessarily stern from We cannot discuss these symptoms without general difficulties in trade. Specific changes changing our theme to a general investiga- in taste, fashions, traditions, and methods tion of early mediaeval economy and cul- of production may be responsible for a wane ture. Personally, I do not believe that the in the demand or the offer of individual depression was more acute in the Carolin- wares. To all this I shall return very soon; gian than in the Merovingian period. The here a passing mention of the problem will earlier centuries of the early middle ages be sufficient. benefited from the fact that Roman roads We still have to consider the possibility and towns, institutions and traditions had that trade between East and West came to not entirely disintegrated, and that dis- a virtual end not because of the Arab heartened Roman personnel still lent a hand invasions but owing to the gradual exhaus- to inexperienced barbarians. The later cen- tion of the gold and silver stocks of Catholic turies benefited from the fact that the Europe. The problem has been studied by further shrinking of the legacy of antiquity some of the greatest historians of the last forced the new world to make its first generation Marc Bloch and Michael clumsy attempts at reorganizing roads, Rostovtzeff among others but it is still towns, institutions and traditions with a obscure: monetary phenomena always are of personnel mixed blood and rudimental hard to interpret, and for the early middle training. Whether this pale dawn was better ages information is desperately scant. We or worse than the previous pale dusk is do know that the later Roman emperors anybody's guess: judgments on cultural already expressed alarm at the double drain- achievements depend largely on personal age of currency through private hoarding taste, and exact economic comparisons and the export of coins or bullion to Persia, between two adjoining and similar periods India, and China in exchange for luxury cannot be made without some statistical goods. To be sure, mercantilistic instincts base. But even if Carolingian inferiority and traditional dislike for extravagant ex- were it ascertainable could not be pinned penditure and foreign manners may have a on the -priori impact of Arab invasions added emphasis to their words; moreover, rather than the on lingering inability of the they found greedy hoarders and selfish mer- West to reverse an old downward trend. chants good scapegoats to share the blame It be still to would more rash draw gen- for inflation, taxation and economic misery. eral inferences from ascertained changes of Still, there is archaeologic confirmation of a limited scope. The fact that during the their claims hoards within the empire and Carolingian period the ports of Provence Roman coins scattered through Asia. The and Languedoc lost trade to those of north- Byzantine Empire made conservation of its eastern and southwestern or that Italy, stocks of precious metals a cardinal point and Greek merchants in the of its Syrian West economic policies. The stockpile had their yielded prominence to Jews and ups and downs, but in the early middle Scandinavians does not by itself prove a ages it never was depleted so much that breakdown of Mediterranean commerce any it was not possible to maintain a stable and more than the of Seville displacement and fairly abundant currency in gold, silver and Lisbon by Antwerp and Amsterdam in the copper. The Islamic countries were blessed modern early age denotes a collapse of with sensational discoveries of osold and East and West in the Early Middle Ages 77 silver mines. Catholic Europe, however, like any other backward country that does fell heir to the poorer half of the formerly not crave for many outlandish manufactured rich Roman territory, which had no mines goods and has an excess of raw materials and no thriving trades. Hoarding was car- available for export. Ordinarily in such cases ried out in abnormally high proportions. the balance of payments is favorable to Coinage declined in quality and quantity the backward country. The more advanced until the only local currency consisted of nations have to offset their commercial puny silver deniers struck in modest deficit by remitting gold and silver, unless are to scales the amounts. Could this not be an indication they ready tip the with that Catholic Europe had practically used sword and impose upon the "inferior" or or up its precious metals and no longer had "infidel" race some sort of tributary the means to pay for imports from the East? colonial regime. The latter method was not The answer is not as simple as one might unknown in the early middle ages; Byzan- tine Arab raids often extorted think at first. Probably Catholic Europe fiscality and would have been unable to carry out large from one or another underdeveloped and in the and Muslim weak for purchases Byzantine European country many goods markets with the small amount of coinage which no adequate payment was offered. it struck and maintained in circulation, or But the Venetians and the Vikings, the with the Byzantine and Muslim coins that Franks and the Jews were too strong or too war or trade channeled to its coffers. But crafty to yield to sheer force. They must there is no reason to assume that Catholic have been paid good cash. Europe desired to purchase more goods than Any guess is open to challenge. Let us the that our was and that it could easily afford. Remarkably, lay assume guess wrong, and ecclesiastic lords who were the best Catholic Europe for a few centuries or for of Eastern the whole duration of the middle potential customers luxury goods early un- cash to for the Oriental also were the greatest hoarders. Their ages exported pay wealth frozen commodities it wanted to would this spent and cumbersome lay import; artistic force us to that its stock of in bars, rings, jewels, and other postulate the tenth when metals was exhausted? objects. From century on, precious eventually the revival of trade and culture caused the I do not believe it would. The quantities involved were so small that the local demand for Eastern goods to skyrocket, pro- those treasures were melted down; nothing duction of gold and silver was more than to meet the current demand without would have prevented their owners from enough from the reserve. A certain amount melting them sooner if they had needed drawing of it is had to be set aside for cash. Quite to the contrary, what evidence silver, true, of was we have conveys the impression that hoards the striking deniers; gold, however, not used Western mints for grew in size during the eighth and ninth by except centuries. occasional emissions of ceremonial coins or and Islamic There is no direct way to calculate the for imitations of Byzantine coins. rest was available for balance of payments in the trade of Catholic The hoarding, and trade. The same Europe with the Byzantine and Muslim adornment foreign handed out so East, but all that we know about the vast princes and prelates who to smiths in order to have economic and cultural gulf which separated much gold goblets could well deliver to these worlds and about the goods which and reliquaries gold merchants in for Oriental were prevalent in the exchanges between exchange spices all Their would have them enables us to venture a guess. In and perfumes. purchases with its sufficed to trade with the East probability early mediaeval Europe, keep going a small but a rude society of affluent lords and penniless trickle, perhaps, stirring, the refined and incessant reminder to and coun- peasants, behaved towards provincial there were other worlds complex societies of Byzantium and Islam trified Europe that 78 ROBERT S. LOPEZ with a quicker, broader and richer way of able proportions. Yet we have good reasons life. to believe that the exports of Catholic to world were increas- Eventually not economic stagnation, but Europe the Eastern to use the richer evidence of economic growth made the monetary stock ing. We have that of of Europe inadequate. In the tenth century the tenth century to supplement the laborious search for gold in the Italian, earlier centuries on which so little is known, French and German rivers was intensified, but we ought to remember that a new era and that and the discovery of rich silver mines near was already in the making, early 4 Goslar started a "silver rush" of consider- mediaeval stagnation was about to yield to the Commercial Revolution of the later 4 Goslar is in central Germany, at the northern edge of the Harz Mountains. [Editor's note] middle ages. TECHNOLOGY AND INVENTION IN THE MIDDLE AGES

LYNN WHITE, JR.

Educated at Stanford and Harvard, Lynn White, Jr., taught history at Princeton and Stanford before becoming president of Mills College in 1943. As a historian one of his areas of research has been the badly neglected field of medieval technology; the article, excerpted below, received wide attention. Dr. White was interested not so much in ques- tioning the Pirenne Thesis as in suggesting that in agricultural improve- ments there is a parallel explanation for the transference of European Civilization from the Mediterranean to the North.

E HISTORY of technology and inven- Perhaps the chief reason why scholars ion, especially that of the earlier have been hesitant to explore the subject is has been left unculti- the of its boundaries: T.periods, strangely difficulty delimiting vated. Our vast technical institutes continue technology knows neither chronological nor at an ever-accelerating pace to revolutionize geographic frontiers. the world we live in; yet small effort is The student of the history of invention being made to place our present technology soon discovers that he must smash the con- in the time-sequence, or to give to our ventional barriers between Greek and bar- technicians that sense of their social respon- barian, Roman and German, oriental and from an exact occidental. For mediaeval is sibility which can only come technology understanding of their historical function found to consist not simply of the technical of their inherited from the Roman- one might almost say, apostolic equipment succession. By permitting those who work Hellenistic world modified by the inventive of the western but also in shops and laboratories to forget the past, ingenuity peoples, we have impoverished the present and en- of elements derived from three outside dangered the future. In the United States sources: the northern barbarians, the By- zantine Near and the this neglect is the less excusable because we and Moslem East, Americans boast of being the most techni- Far East. of inventive The of the first of the cally progressive people an age. importance these, But when the historian of American tech- barbarian influence, has been far too little have dabbled nology tries to probe the medieval and understood even by those who Students of renaissance roots of his subject he runs into in the history of technology. difficulties: the materials available to him the fine arts have only recently led the way of the essential are scanty and often questionable; for pro- towards an appreciation of that vast northern fessional mediaevalists have left unrnined unity and originality this vein in the centuries on which they world of so-called "barbarians" which, in its focal on the have staked their claim. . . . ancient times, had point

From Lynn White, Jr., "Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages," Speculum, XV (April 1940), pp. 141, 143-144, 149-150, 151-156. By permission of Tne Medieval Academy o America, Cam- bridge, Mass. 79 80 LYNN WHITE, JR. plains of Russia and of Western Siberia, our judgment should be cautious. Few will but which extended from the Altai Moun- dispute that the Irish illumination and the tains to Ireland: we are beginning to learn Scandinavian jewelry of the seventh and how profoundly it affected the aesthetic eighth centuries stand among the supreme expressions of the Middle Ages. But even arts of all time; yet they are far from classi- before the Germanic these bar- cal canons of rooted in an an- migrations, taste,7 beingo barians had begun to influence Roman cient, and quite separate, tradition of technology, and in later centuries they con- Northern art. So in the history of tech- tributed many distinctive ingredients to nology we must be discriminating. Chang- mediaeval life: trousers and the habit of ing tastes and conditions may lead to the wearing furs, the easily-heated compact degeneration of one technique while the house as contrasted with the Mediterranean technology of the age as a whole is advanc- of patio-house, cloisonne jewelry, feltmaking, ing. The technology torture, for exam- the ski, the use of soap for cleansing, and ple, which achieved such hair-raising per- of butter in place of olive oil, the making fection during the Renaissance, is now of barrels and tubs, the cultivation of rye, happily in eclipse: viewed historically, our oats, spelt, and hops, perhaps the sport of modem American "third degree" is barbaric falconry and certain elements of the num- only in its simplicity. ber-system. Above all, the great plains in- Indeed, a dark age may stimulate rather vented the stirrup, which made the horse than hinder technology. Economic catastro- etymologically responsible for chivalry, and, phe in the United States during the past perhaps even more important, the heavy decade has done nothing to halt invention plow which, as we shall see, is the tech- quite the contrary; and it is a common- nological basis of the typical mediaeval place that war encourages technological manor. . . . advance. Confusion and depression, which The student of European technics, then, bring havoc in so many areas of life, may is compelled to follow his subject far be- have just the opposite effect on technics. yond the usual geographical limits of medi- And the chances of this are particularly aeval research. Similarly he finds that for good in a period of general migration, when his the divi- purposes customary tripartite peoples of diverse backgrounds and in- sion of history into ancient, mediaeval and heritances are mixing. modern is completely arbitrary. In particu- There is, in fact, no proof that any im- lar he finds no evidence of a break in the portant skills of the Graeco-Roman world continuity of technological development were lost during the Dark Ages even in following the decline of the Western Ro- the unenlightened West, much less in the man Empire. flourishing Byzantine and Saracenic Orient. The Dark Ages doubtless deserve their To be sure, the diminished wealth and

name : economic de- of the political disintegration, power Germanic kings made engi- the debasement of pression, religion and the neering on the old Roman scale infrequent; of collapse literature surely made the bar- yet the full technology of antiquity was barian kingdoms in some ways unimagin- available when required: the 276-ton mon- dismal. ably Yet because many aspects of olith which crowns the tomb of Theodoric civilization were in decay we should not the Ostrogoth was brought to Ravenna assume too quickly that everything was from Istria; while more than two centuries Even back-sliding. an apparent coarsening later Charlemagne transported not only indicate a shift of interest: in sizable may merely columns but even a great equestrian modern painting we recognize that Van statue of Zeno from Ravenna across the technical methods were not those Gogh's Alps to Aachen. Incidentally, we should of David; so, when we contrast a Hellenis- do well to remember that the northern tic carved with a gem Merovingian enamel, peoples from remote times were capable of Technology and Invention in the Middle Aes 81 managing great weights, as witness Stone- of the origin fully developed heavy plow, and the . . . henge dolmens. its effects were supplemented and 'greatly Indeed, the technical skill of classical enhanced in the later eighth century by times was not simply maintained: it was the invention of the three-field system, an considerably Our view of improved. history improved rotation of crops and fallow has heen too top-lofty. We have been daz- which increased the greatly efficiency of zled by aspects of civilization which are in agricultural labor. For example, by switch- the of an and in every age property elite, ing 600 acres from the two-field to the which the common man, with rare three-field a excep- system, community of peasants tions, has had little The so-called could 100 acres part. plant more in crops each "higher" realms of culture with 100 might decay, year acres less of plowing. Since government fall into and fallow land was might anarchy, plowed twice to keep down trade be reduced to a but the trickle, through weeds, the old plan required three acres it in all, the fact of turmoil and hard times, of for acre in plowing every crops, whereas the and artisan carried and the peasant on, new plan required only two acres of even their lot. In at improved technology, plowing for every productive acre. least, the Dark Ages mark a and In a steady society overwhelmingly agrarian, uninterrupted advance over the Roman the result of such an innovation could be Evidence is to show less than Empire. accumulating nothing revolutionary. Pirenne is that a serf in the turbulent and insecure only the most recent of many historians to tenth a standard of century enjoyed living speculate as to why the reign of Charle- than that of a considerably higher prole- magne witnessed the shift of the center of tarian in the of reign Augustus. European civilization, the change of the The basic of of occupation was, course, focus history, from the Mediterranean We have at to the agriculture. passed through plains of Northern Europe. The least two revolutions: that of agricultural findings agricultural history, it seems, which with Townshend began "Turnip" have never been applied to this central and Tull in the Jethro early eighteenth problem in the study of the growth of the and another, in northern century, equally important, races. Since the spring sowing, the Dark Ages. which was the chief novelty of the three- The of the and problem development field system, was unprofitable in the south diffusion of the northern wheeled of plow, because the scarcity of summer rains, the with horizontal share and equipped colter, three-field system did not spread below the is too moldboard, thorny to be discussed Alps and Loire, For obvious reasons of here. seem Experts generally agreed: (1) climate the agricultural revolution of the that the new increased plow greatly pro- eighth century was confined to Northern duction the of by making possible tillage Europe. It would appear, therefore, that it rich, river-bottom heavy, badly-drained was this more efficient and productive use soils; (2) that it saved labor of by making land and labor which gave to the north- and thus ern cross-plowing superfluous, pro- plains an economic advantage over the duced the northern typical strip-system of Mediterranean shores, and which, from land as division, distinct from the older Charlemagne's time onward, enabled the dictated the block-system by cross-plowing Northern Europeans in short order to sur- with the Mediterranean necessary lighter pass both in prosperity and in culture the most of plow; (3) important all, that the peoples of an older inheritance* needed such that In less heavy plow power peas- ways immediately significant the ants their oxen and pooled plowed together, Dark Ages likewise made ingenious im- thus the basis for the mediaeval laying provements. One of the most important of the these a cooperative agricultural community, was contribution to practical me- manor. But whatever may be the date and chanics. There are two basic forms of mo- 82 LYNN WHITE, JR.

three inven- tion: reciprocal and rotary. The normal almost simultaneously, major device for connecting these a device with- tions appear: the modern horse-collar, the out which our machine civilization is in- tandem harness, and the horseshoe. The a conceivable is the crank. The crank is an modern harness, consisting of rigid horse- of the invention second in importance only to the collar resting on the shoulders beast, wheel itself; yet the crank was unknown to permitted him to breathe freely. This was the Greeks and the Romans. It appears, connected to the load by lateral traces even in rudimentary form, only after the which enabled the horse to throw his whole It has been ex- Invasions: first, perhaps, in hand-querns, body into pulling. shown that this 7 so then on rotary grindstones. The later Mid- perimentally new apparatus the animal dle Ages developed its application to all greatly increased effective power sorts of machinery. that a team which can pull only about one Clearly there are nuggets in this stream thousand pounds with the antique yoke for anyone to find. Perhaps the most suc- can pull three or four times that weight cessful amateur student of early mediaeval when equipped with the new harness. technology was the Commandant Lefebvre Equally important was the extension of the r des Noettes, who after his retirement from traces so that tandem harnessing w as possi- active service in the French cavalry, de- ble, thus providing an indefinite amount voted himself to his hobby, the history of of animal power for the transport of great horses. He died in 1936, having made dis- weights. Finally, the introduction of the coveries which must greatly modify our nailed horseshoe improved traction and of judgment of the Carolingian period. From greatly increased the endurance the his investigations Lefebvre des Noettes con- newly available animal power. Taken to- cluded that the use of animal powr er in gether these three inventions suddenly gave antiquity was unbelievably inefficient. The Europe a new supply of non-human power, ancients did not use nailed shoes on their at no increase of expense or labor. They did animals, and broken hooves often rendered for the eleventh and twelfth centuries w7hat beasts useless. Besides, they knew only the the steam-engine did for the nineteenth. yoke-system of harness. While this was ade- Lefebvre des Noettes has therefore offered quate for oxen, it was most unsatisfactory an unexpected and plausible solution for for the more rapid horse. The yoke rested the most puzzling problem of the Middle on the withers of a team. From each end Ages: the sudden upswing of European of the flexible yoke ran two straps: one a vitality after the year 1000. girth behind the forelegs, the other circling However, Lefebvre des Noettes failed to the horse's neck. As soon as the horse be- point out the relation between this access to the flexible gan pull, front strap pressed of energy and the contemporary agricul- on his windpipe, and the harder he pulled tural revolution. He noted that the new the closer he to came strangulation. More- harness made the horse available for agri- over the ancient harness was mechanically cultural labor: the first picture of a horse defective: the yoke was too high to permit so engaged is found in the Bayeux Tapes- the horse to exert his full force in pulling try. But while the horse is a rapid and by flinging his body-weight into the task. efficient power engine, it burns an expen- the ancients Finally, were unable to har- sive fuel grain as compared with the ness one animal in r front of another. Thus slow er, but cheaper, hay-burning ox. Under all great had to be drawnn bv the two-field the weights > 5gangse> system peasants' margin r 7 i or since animal slaves, power was not tech- of production was insufficient to support a available in nically sufficient quantities. work-horse; under the three-field system the According to Lefebvre des Noettes this horse gradually displaced the ox as the condition remained unchanged until the normal plow and draft animal of the north- later ninth or tenth early century when, ern plains. By the later Middle Ages there Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages 83 is a clear correlation on the one hand be- a rapid replacement of human by non- tween the horse and the three-field human of system energy wherever great quantities and on the other between the ox and the power were needed or where the required two-field The contrast is system. essentially motion was so simple and monotonous that one between the standards of and of a could living man be replaced by a mechanism. of the northern and the The chief labor-productivity glory of the later Middle Ages southern the ox saves the was not its peasantry: food; cathedrals or its epics or its horse saves man-hours. The new agricul- scholasticism: it was the building for the enabled the north to first time in of a ture, therefore, exploit history complex civilization the new more than the which power effectively rested not on the backs of sweating Mediterranean and slaves or regions could, thereby coolies but primarily on non- the northerners increased their prosperity human power. still further. The study of mediaeval technology is Lefebvre des Noettes made therefore far Naturally more than an aspect of eco- mistakes: when his work receives the nomic it only history: reveals a chapter in the it deserves will these be recti- recognition conquest of freedom. More than that, it is fied. His use of the monuments is not im- a of the of hu- part history religion. The his almost exclusive concern peccable; with manitarian technology which our modern led him to the world has pictures neglect texts, par- inherited from the Middle Ages s assertion that at times Ital- was not rooted in for ticularly Pliny economic necessity; ian in the Po this is inherent in 7 peasants (presumably valley) "necessity" ever} society, with several of has plowed yokes oxen; and he yet found inventive expression only in overlooks the of the complex question eight- the Occident, nurtured in the activist or ox as a basis for land division in voluntarist tradition of plow-team Western theology. times. Moreover an It is ideas conscious. pre-Carolingian ety- which make necessity has shown that the mologist recently word The labor-saving power-machines of the for "horse-collar" in the Teutonic and later Middle Ages were produced by the Slavic is derived tongues (English: hames) implicit theological assumption of the infi- from Central-Asiatic sources, implying a nite worth of even the most degraded hu- diffusion of the modern harness westward an instinctive man personality, by repug- from the nomadic Doubt- steppe-culture. nance towards subjecting any man to a less criticism will eventually show that monotonous drudgery which seems less Lefebvre des Noettes' three inventions it than human in that requires the exercise rather more than he of of It developed slowly neither intelligence nor choice. has thought. But that they grew and spread often been remarked that the Latin Middle the Dark and that first discovered the and during Ages, they pro- Ages dignity spir- affected seems itual value of labor that to labor is to foundly European society,

. . . the already proved, pray. But Middle Ages went further: The cumulative effect of the newly avail- they gradually and very slowly began to able and wind the es- animal, water, power upon explore practical implications of an the culture of has not been care- Europe sentially Christian paradox: that just as the studied. But from the twelfth fully and Heavenly Jerusalem contains no temple, so even from the eleventh, century there was the goal of labor is to end labor. PIRENNE AND MUHAMMAD

DANIEL C. DENNETT, JR.

Editorial note attached to the article in Speculum: "The author of this article was killed when the plane in which he was travelling on govern- ment service crashed over Ethiopia on 22 March 1947. An able scholar, expert in the languages and history of the Near East, Dr. Dennett had served as instructor in history at Harvard previous to his appointment in 1942 as Cultural Relations Attache at the American Legation in Beirut, a post he held until his untimely death at the age of thirty-seven."

PIRENNE summarized the re- the result that the only positive element in the influence of the HENRIsults of a distinguished career in history was Empire his last work, Mohammed and Charle- which "continued to be Roman, just as the of magne (New York, 1939), published post- United States North America, despite humously by his executors and unfortu- immigration, have remained Anglo Saxon." this best of the of Ro- nately without revision by author. In The proof persistence book, which restates without appreciable mania is to be found in the flourishing of to traders alteration, despite wide and sometimes bit- commerce Gaul which Syrian the ter controversy, the conclusions reached in on the free Mediterranean brought a series of well-known articles, the author spices of the Orient, the wines of Gaza, the oil of sets forth the following thesis: papyrus of Egypt, and the North Because the Germanic invaders had Africa. This commerce played a crucial role neither the desire, nor the unity of purpose, in the economic, social, and political life of to destroy the Roman Empire, "Romania" Gaul, which was chiefly supported by its existed as both concept and fact for more influence. Nor was it small commerce, than two centuries after 476. The Emperor since "I think we may say that navigation had abdicated nothing of his universal sov- was at least as active as under the Empire." of the ereignty and the barbarian rulers of the Because of it, the monetary system West acknowledged his primacy. Thus "the barbarians was that of Rome, and the cur- Empire subsisted, in law, as a sort of mys- rency was gold in contrast to the system of tical presence; in fact and this is much silver monometallism which was that of the more important it was 'Romania' that Middle Ages. survived." Inasmuch as the invaders repre- The Muslim expansion in the seventh sented a bare five per cent of the popula- century placed two hostile civilizations on tion, they were Romanized. The language the Mediterranean, and "the sea which had of Gaul was Latin, the system of govern- hitherto been the centre of Christianity be- ment and administration remained un- came its frontier. The Mediterranean unity changed, Roman law still survived, the was shattered.". . . This was the most essen- Empire was the only world power and its tial event of European history that had foreign policy embraced all Europe, with occurred since the Punic Wars. It was the

From Daniel C. Dennett, Jr., "Pirenne and Muhammad," Speculum, XXHI (April, 1948), pp. 165- 190. By permission of The Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge, Mass. [Dr. Dennett's exten- sive documentation, save for a few references for quotations, has been omitted.l 84 Pirenne and Muhammad 85 end of the classic tradition. It was the be- the Carolingian epoch the minting of gold of the Middle The sea was had ginning Ages." ceased, that lending money at interest closed to Gaul about the 650, since the was year prohibited, that there was 'no longer a first raid on came two Sicily years later. class of professional merchants, that Orien- As a result, the last text oils tal mentioning products (papyrus, spices, silk) were no and is dated 716 and be a spices may hasty longer imported, that the circulation of of a recopy charter of 673-675. There is not money was reduced to the minimum, that a mention of in document single spices any laymen could no longer read and write, of the The wines of that the taxes were Carolingian period. no longer organized, Gaza and the of and that the papyrus Egypt disappeared, towns were merely fortresses, silk was and entirely unknown, North Afri- we can say without hesitation that we are can oil was cut off, with the result that confronted with a civilization which had churches turned from to candles. to the lamps retrogressed purely agricultural stage; The was debased and which coinage gold yielded no longer needed commerce, credit, to silver. The Merovingian merchant, de- and regular exchange for the maintenance fined as a who "lent at of the social negotiator money fabric." The Muslim conquest was interest, buried in a sarcophagus, and had transformed the economic world from of his to the churches and the gave goods the money economy of the Merovingians ceased to exist. to the natural poor," economy of the Middle Ages. Inasmuch as Pirenne has based his en- A critic of Pirenne's theses must begin by tire thesis on the influence of the commerce, asking following six questions: he is to a somewhat novel 1. it the compelled give Was policy and the practice of of the explanation political disintegration the Arabs to prohibit commerce either at of Merovingian Gaul under the rois its source or on the normal trade routes of faineants. He argues that the commercial the Mediterranean? Can we indicate an decline due to the Arabs about the began approximate date, accurate within twenty- that this almost five year 650, epoch corresponds years, for the ending of commerce exactly with the progress of anarchy in between the Christian Occident and the that the Gaul, only source of the king's Orient"? was which was de- 2. Is it power money, money possible to find another explana- rived in measure from the largest indirect tion for the disappearance of the wines of taxes (tonlieu) on that the the of commerce, royal Gaza, papyrus Egypt, and the spices power, weakened by loss of revenue, had of the Orient? to with the church and the 3. Is it true that compromise Gaul had no apprecia- that immunities were therefore not ble nobility, foreign commerce after the beginning the cause of the king's weakness but in of the Carolingian period? a reality were consequence of it, and that 4. Is it true that the civilization of Mer- thus the of progress Islam destroyed the ovingian Gaul, considered in its broadest Merovingians. social and political aspects, was determined the of Furthermore, shattering Mediter- by trade? Is it possible that internal factors ranean restricted the unity authority of the conversely may have been of importance in to Western and the Pope Europe, conquest determining the prosperity of industry and of Spain and Africa by the Arabs left the trade? How extensive was Mediterranean king of the Franks the master of the Chris- commerce before 650? tian Occident. This king was the only tem- 5. Was "Romania" in fact a true cul- to whom the could tural of poral authority Pope unity ideas, law, language, foreign and therefore "it is turn, strictly correct to policy, common interest"? that without say Mohammed, Charlemagne 6. What is the real significance and true would have been inconceivable." cause of the transition from a gold to a In summation, "If we consider that in silver coinage? 86 DANIEL C. DENNETT, JR.

following the conquest. In Egypt, at least, We must affirm that neither in the the change of rule brought an improvement Koran, nor in the sayings of the Prophet, in the social and economic life of the popu- of nor in the acts of the first caliphs, nor in the lation, and the church Alexandria en- it hitherto opinions of Muslim jurists is there any pro- joyed a liberty of faith which had hibition against trading with the Christians not experienced. or unbelievers. Before Muhammad, the In consideration of the fact that it has Arabs of the desert lived by their flocks and formerly been believed that internal causes those of the town by their commerce. To produced a decline of industry and trade these two sources of livelihood the conquest in Gaul, the burden of proof in Pirenne' s added the income of empire and the yield thesis must show that the Arab raids were career of agriculture, but the mercantile of a frequency and intensity in themselves remained the goal of many, as the caravan to destroy the commerce of the western still crossed the desert and the trading vessel Mediterranean. It is not a just argument skirted the coast line of the Red Sea, the merely to assert that these raids were dis- Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. astrous because commerce in Gaul declined. Pirenne had asserted that "it is a proven We have already noticed that in order to fact that the Musulman traders did not connect the decline of the Merovingian instal the frontiers of themselves beyond monarchy with the activity of the Arabs, Islam. If they did trade, they did so among Pirenne has been obliged to assign the date themselves." statement is a serious This 650 as that point when Arab naval activity misrepresentation of fact. Arab merchants became formidable. What are the facts? colonies had established trading which There may have been a raid on Sicily in were centers not only for the exchange of 652. We are told that it was led by Muawia goods but the propagation of the faith in ibn Hudaij and resulted in taking much 7 India, Ceylon, the East Indies, and even booty from unfortified places, but was China, by the close of the eighth century, called off when plague threatened the in- if one wishes to did not and know why they vaders. As Amari shows, there is a great establish similar centers in Gaul, let him deal of confusion among the Muslim ask the question would Charlemagne authorities both as to the date (for an have a in Marseilles? permitted mosque alternative, 664 A.D. is given), as to the In this the themselves respect Muslims leader (since it is highly probable that not were more tolerant and placed few obsta- Muawia but his lieutenant Abdallah ibn cles in the of Christian traders who path Qais commanded the actual expedition), came to their Within the lands territory. and as to the port of embarkation (either that had submitted to the Em- formerly Tripoli in Syria or Barka in North Africa). the Christians were now of peror, subjects Becker does not accept the date 652 and the Muslim were state, yet they protected argues that the first raid took place only in and in return for the of by law, pavment 664, but it is possible that there were two their taxes and the of discharge obligations different expeditions, one in 652, the sec- 1 stipulated in the original terms of capitula- ond in 664. were and tion, they specifically formally Three years after the presumed earliest the freedom of Christian wor- assault guaranteed on Sicily, the Emperor Constans II, the of Christian ship, jurisdiction bishops in 655, received a serious blow to his pres- in cases not and the involving Muslims, tige when the Byzantine fleet was beaten of trades and The civil pursuit professions. in the Aegean by the new Muslim navy in service and the language of administration 1 remained Greek, and Arabic did not uni- Amari is an Italian historian and C. H. Becker was Professor of Oriental History in the Colonial displace Greek in the versally government Institute o Hamburg. Dennett's references to bureaus until the of the first end century their writings have been omitted. [Editor's note] Pirenne and Muhammad 87 the first real test of sea The Arabs 698 that the power. Arabs had a fleet strong did not follow their but its con- up victory, enough to operate at Carthage, and that demonstrated to the the sequence Emperor they had not yet seized the straits of Gibral- need for a naval al- vigorous policy, for, tar or occupied Spain, we are bound to and the though Constantinople straits acknowledge the absence of any evidence be held the to indicate might against siege, strategi- the closing of the Mediterra- cally vulnerable point of the was nean the Empire thereby weakening basis of royal not in the but Aegean, in the West, since power in Gaul before 700. Pirenne himself (as events were to show two centuries later) acknowledges this fact by admitting that once the had a base in South and enemy Sicily, spices papyrus could be procured by the would then be within and monks of Italy easy grasp, Corbie in 716. Indeed, anyone if South were held, im- who reads Italy securely only Pirenne closely will notice 'that mense naval exertions could Greece he is protect careless with chronology and mentions and if Greece fell under Muslim proper, results which were produced by the Arab control, a combined blockade land and as by conquest beginning at various points sea of the imperial city would be possible. within a of 150 2 period years. holds that this the What Bury consideration, progress was made in the eighth of the rear attack the guarding against from century? In 700 the Arabs took Pantellaria was a West, strong motive in inducing and constructed a naval base in Tunis with Constans to concentrate naval in the the intention of power undertaking the conquest West and to himself to in of but go Sicily 662, Sicily, after some preliminary raids where he for six reigned years until his in 703-705, for the purpose of reconnoiter- assassination in 668. ing, the new governor, Musa ibn Nusair, The Arabs took of the chaos advantage turned westwards and launched a campaign the assassination to raid the coasts which following was to culminate in the Spanish con- of the next but Sicily year, when order quest, begun in 711. was reestablished remained at Sicily peace Papyri dated 710 to 718 give us consider- for able information again thirty-five years. about ship building in the Meanwhile the Greek fleet itself was far Nile delta, where vessels were constructed from in 673 inactive, raiding Egypt and, in for service not only in Egypt but in the a successful attack on Barka in 689, putting West and in Syria as well, and mention the Arabs to rout in which the of governor raids of which, unfortunately, we know North Africa, Zuheir ibn Qais, perished. neither the destination nor the results. We to take were frus- do not know of raids Early attempts Carthage any against Sicily trated because the Greeks had control of until 720. Thereafter there were attacks in the and the seas, city fell in 698 only be- 727, 728, 730, 732, and 734. It must be cause the Arabs had constructed a fleet for emphasized that these were not attempts at the and the Greek naval force was nor were purpose conquest they successful against in the Aegean. Following Bury's argument, fortified ports. A raid in 740 was recalled if the had established a when civil to tribal Emperor permanent war, due and religious naval base at the Carthage, city would factions, broke out throughout the entire never have been taken. territory under Muslim sway, a war which in view of Therefore, the facts that the ended all hopes of an Arab offensive and Arabs made only two, (possibly three) resulted in the destruction of the Umayyad raids on before Sicily 700, that these raids Caliphate at Damascus. In the meantime resulted in a vigorous naval policy of the the Greek fleet led attacks on Egypt in 720 Greeks in the that it was not until West, and 739, won a naval victory in 736, and 2 annihilated the principal Arab force off J. B. Bury (d. 1927) was a distinguished British in 747. three Arab historian, an authority on the later Roman Empire Only ships and the Byzantine era, [Editor's note] escaped this disaster. DANIEL C. DENNETT, JR.

After 751 the new Arab capital was 700 people inhabiting the Amanus mountains miles from the sea, and the Abbasids ne- in Northwest Syria, broke out in a series of glected the navy. Spain became independ- attacks which secured for them all the stra- ent a rival to Pales- under Umayyad, and the politi- tegic points from northern Syria cal control of North Africa weakened sensi- tine. It is presumed that Muawia, after bly. Henceforth naval operations could be being recognized as caliph, had ceased to undertaken only by virtually independent pay tribute, but this new situation made it governors who lacked the organization and impossible to defend the Syrian ports collective resources of the Caliphate. A last should the Greek fleet determine to attack, abortive assault on Sicily in 752-753 was and again the caliph, to secure his position, frustrated the fleet. resumed the of tribute. by Greek A fifty years payment peace followed, perpetuated in 805 in a During the years 674-680 men witnessed treaty signed by Ibrahim ibn Aghlab for a the first "siege" of Constantinople. The term of ten years and renewed by his son Arab fleet established a winter base at Cyzi- for a similar period in 813. The Arab con- cus in the Propontis and raided the Aegean quest of Sicily did not commence until in the summer. We have no evidence that 827 and then only on invitation of a rebel their operations severed communications Greek who had assassinated the ogovernor. between Constantinople and the West, Sardinia was first raided in 710 and Cor- which could be maintained by land any- sica in control of the latter trade 713. The Arab way, and with the East was still pos- ended with its reconquest by Charlemagne sible via the Black Sea port of Trebizond. in 774, and the Arab occupation of Sardinia Armenia during the Sassanid rule of was never have no evidence Persia complete. We was obligatory neutral territory for that these islands were used as bases for the exchange of goods between East and raids on commerce. West, inasmuch as a national of the one Pirenne that after 717 there was grants country was prohibited from setting foot on of no question Arab superiority in the the territory of the other. Trebizond on the but that before that Aegean argues time Black Sea was the port of entry, and Dwin, Arab naval serious conse- activity had among other towns, was a principal mart that quences. We have already noted dur- of the interior. After the Muslim conquest, ing the seventh century the Greeks for Armenia, the friend of the Greeks and the much of the time were sure enough of their vassal of the Arabs, continued to remain a to conduct raids Aegean position against center for the exchange of goods. Egypt and North Africa and to operate In 685, Abdul Malik, faced with a civil in the West. Let us review the in briefly war Iraq, resumed payment of the trib- situation. ute of Muawia to protect his western flank, In 655, an Arab fleet routed the Greeks and the agreement was renewed for a five led by Constans II. This was the first and year period in 688 with the condition, only important naval defeat. The following among others, that the tribute from the year the caliph Uthman was murdered, and island of Cyprus, which had been recov- in the for ensuing struggle power between ered by the Greeks, should be equally di- Ali and Muawia, the latter, to secure his vided between the Greeks and the Arabs. rear and the coasts Syrian against a Greek The truce was violated in 691-692 by the entered into an assault, arrangement in 659 Emperor when he declined to accept the with the Emperor by which he agreed to new Arab coinage and violated the Cyprus tribute. In to convention. pay 666, according The- The last great assault on Con- 3 the an the ophanes, Mardaites, unconquered stantinople was siege of 716-718. terrified the enemy, and the fail- 3 ure of the Arab fleet to the Theophanes, 758817, a Byzantine chronicler. provision be- [Editor's note] siegers resulted in catastrophe. Only five Pirenne and Muhammad 89

Muslim vessels destruction escaped and but economic blockade played as principal a a remnant of the reached army Syria. role in the warfare of antiquity and the When we consider that the three at- Middle Ages as it does today, unless there on all that is tempts Constantinople failed, a positive testimony to that effect, as for only during the years 774-780 did a Mus- example, the instance when the Persians lim fleet dominate the that the Aegean, cut the Greeks off from the supply of Greeks had recovered and that for Eastern silk. Cyprus, With the exception of two the two most long periods powerful caliphs, brief intervals, the Byzantine fleet was Muawia and Abdul Malik, paid tribute to master of the Aegean and the eastern Medi- the Greeks to the not preserve Syrian ports terranean only in the seventh century from we are not in attack, justified saying but in the following centuries. This same that Arab naval broke the supremacy up fleet defended the West so well that only of Greek lines communication in the two raids are known to have been attempted the seventh Aegean during century. against Sicily before 700. After the con- let us consider the Finally, possibility quest of Spain had been accomplished, the that Gaul was cut off from the East by Arabs embarked in 720 on an ambitious military occupation. policy which took them for one brief year Arabs crossed the in to The Pyrenees 720, the Rhone, and exactly coinciding in occupied Narbonne, and controlled the ex- time with these military attacks came a treme southern of the border- series of raids on but 740 dismal part country Sicily; by ing on the Mediterranean Septimania. In failure was the reward everywhere, and 726 Carcassonne. next last they occupied The throughout the fifty years of the cen- great advance, coming in 732, was turned tury the Arabs were either at peace or on back by Charles Martel in the celebrated the defensive. battle of Tours. In 736 they reached the We cannot admit that this evidence per- for the at to it Rhone first time Aries and Avig- mits one say, "Thus, may be asserted non but were hurled back the next year by that navigation with the Orient ceased Charles. We have already mentioned the about 650 as regards the regions situated of after all in the half period chaos 740 which shelved eastward of Sicily, while second plans of aggression; when domestic order of the 7th century it came to an end in the was restored, a new power existed in Gaul; whole of the Western Mediterranean. By Pippin recaptured Narbonne in 759. the beginning of the 8th century it had Pirenne himself says, "This victory marks, completely disappeared." if not the end of the expeditions against The synchronization of land and sea at- Provence, at least the end of the Musulman tacks, between 720 and 740, was repeated expansion in the West of Europe/' Charle- a hundred years later, for, as Sicily was magne, as is well known, carried the war being reduced, the invaders again crossed with indifferent success across the Pyre- the Pyrenees. There is little probability that but on nees, but the Arabs did not again renew such synchronization was deliberate, their assaults until after his death. In 848 this second occasion it was terribly effective. they raided Marseilles for the first time, Then, if ever, Pirenne's thesis ought to and later, spreading out from the base at apply; for once the enemy held the south- Fraxinetum, pushed into Switzerland, ern coast of France and Sicily in full con- as as Southern and the where in 950 they held Grenoble and the quest, well Italy a threat to St Bernard Pass. The consequences of this port of Bari, thus constituting fall after the in the one would activity, however, long period any navigation Adriatic, under discussion and need not be consid- imagine that all commerce must have ered here. ceased. The remarkable fact is that this is To summarize: It is not correct to as- the very period when we begin to have full records of the commerce sume, as Pirenne does, that a policy of comparatively 90 DANIEL C. DENNETT, JH.

the between the Arabs on one side, and Naples, Papyrus was traditionally employed by Still on are Amalfi, Sorrento, Gaeta, and the rising state papacy. preserved papyrus with of Venice on the other side. This com- numerous papal documents, together a letter of Constantin V to and a merce prospered despite all efforts of Pope Pippin of Peter VI (927- and Emperor to suppress it. Jules Gay, the breviary Archbishop the of the eminent authority on the history of South- 971) describing possessions observed: Church of Ravenna. That was the ern Italy in this epoch, has truly papyrus material used the seems "In these last years of the ninth century customary by popes when the Arab domination furnished the to be indicated by numerous references, the the of the of Ber- conquest of the Island [Sicily], hegem- e.g., glossator panegyrist comments on the word ony of Islam in the Mediterranean already engar papyrus in had found its limit in the restoration of "secundum Romanum morem elicit, qui scribere solent." Byzantine power in the south of Italy papiro there can be no on the shores of the Ionian Sea at the In light of the evidence, entrance of the Adriatic. But let us not other conclusion than that "the conquest of of the the Arabs no immediate forget that a conquest, quite recent, Egypt by brought of been The of greater part Sicily had necessary change. manufacturing papyrus remain- continued." on a statement of Ibn to establish this hegemony. Sicily, Relying until succeeded Haukal who referred to the cultivation of ing entirely Byzantine 830, its former in in some have held in maintaining in a large measure pappus Sicily 977, that in the tenth and eleventh centuries, relations between the two parts of the obtained its in Mediterranean world. To suppose that the the papal chancery supplies and not in In this connection conquest of Syria and of Egypt between Sicily Egypt. that the of mak- 630 and 640 had been responsible for the it is worth noting process was introduced from China severing of the ancient Mediterranean ing rag paper into the Eastern after unity, the closing of the sea, the isolating Caliphate shortly of the Orient from the Occident, as Pirenne 750, and we hear of a paper factory in About this time there was seems to believe, is to exaggerate singularly Bagdad in 794. of the consequence and the extent of the first a decline in Egyptian production papy- disturbances in the coun- Arab victories .... The final overthrow rus, and political it so interfered with a which was not the work of a single generation; try supply paper that the took place more slowly than one w^ould had not yet made dispensable, to establish his own imagine. Carthage remained Byzantine till caliph was forced papy- in 836. T. Allen 698 and a century yet had to pass for the rus factory at Samarra W. as the earliest Arab navy to affirm its preponderance in suggests that inasmuch the Western basin of this sea." known Greek minuscule occurs in the Uspensky Gospels of 835, one may accept as a hypothesis that a known temporary Did the Arab conquest of Egypt in 640- shortage of papyrus may have induced the 642 end the exportation of papyrus? The world of the Isaurian monarchy to give up to write on evidence is to the contrary. It was not until the use of papyrus, vellum only, both in a small hand 677 that the royal chancery of Gaul adopted in book form, on sides, parchment and it would be difficult to permitting the most to be made of the continued to be imagine that the Prankish government had space. Papyrus produced of de- a supply on hand to last for thirty-seven until the competition paper finally in the middle of the years. Actually, papyrus was employed in stroyed the industry Gaul until a much later epoch, since the eleventh century, and the fact that the last rolls to a bull of monks of Corbie obtained fifty in 716, Western document employ it, but the last specimen, dated 787, discovered Victor II, is dated 1057 and coincides with in the of in leads us to in the country, had been written Italy. end production Egypt, Pirenne and Muhammad 91

believe that it was on Egypt, and not on ing connections with Alexandria, since the that the Sicily, papacy depended. Doge issued an edict in conjunction with of was not - Parchment, course, unknown Leo V (813-820) forbidding this trade in Merovingian Gaul. Gregory of Tours an edict which had little effect in view of as mentions it, Pirenne points out. It was the fact that Venetian merchants translated regularly employed in preference to papy- the body of St Mark in 827. Venice ex- rus in from the earliest times. Germany ported armor, timber for shipbuilding, and Since the Arab of conquest Egypt did slaves the latter despite the interdicts of not cut off the supply of papyrus at its Charlemagne and Popes Zacharias and source, because this material was still found Adrian I and imported all the usual Eastern in Gaul a later and was century regularly products: spices, papyrus, and silks, large the employed by papacy until the eleventh quantities of which were purchased by the century, it is difficult to say that its dis- Papacy. appearance in Gaul is a conclusive proof Confronted with the alternative of de- that the Arabs had cut the trade routes. In fending Christendom or cooperating with the absence of all direct evidence one the Saracens in return for way trading rights, or it another, would appear that as a pos- Naples, Amalfi, Salerno, and Gaeta chose sible hypothesis one might conclude that the latter course. because parchment could be locally pro- North of Gaul, the Scandinavian coun- duced, because it was preferable as a writ- tries and the region about the Baltic main- ing material, and because, owing to a de- tained an active intercourse with Persia via preciated coinage, it may not have been the water routes of Russia. The Arabs pur- more expensive than papyrus, the people chased furs (sable, ermine, martin, fox, and of Gaul preferred to employ it. beaver), honey, wax, birch bark (for me- of The wines Gaza undoubtedly were dicinal purposes), hazel nuts, fish glue, no longer exported, or even produced on a leather, amber, slaves, cattle, Norwegian large scale, since it is a not unreasonable falcons, and isinglas (made from sturgeons' assumption that the Arabs, following the bladders), and they sold jewelry, felt, metal well known Koranic injunction against mirrors, luxury goods, and even harpoons wine, discouraged its manufacture. Some for the whale fisheries, besides exporting vineyards certainly remained, for the Chris- large quantities of silver coin to balance an tian churches of Palestine and Syria still unfavorable trade. The evidence for the in of this is used wine celebrating the mass, and cer- really great prosperity commerce tain of the later Umayyad Caliphs were to be found in the enormous coin hoards, notorious drunkards. But inasmuch as the contents of tombs excavated in Scandi- papyrus and (as we shall presently show) navia, the accounts of Arab geographers, spices were still exported, the argumentum and the incidental references in the writ- lives of like of ad vinum cannot be seriously advanced. ings and men Adam Bremen 4 and St Ansgar. Pirenne testifies to the m importance of commerce in this period for Is it true that with the Carolingians the the Netherlands. former commerce of Gaul came to an end We now come to the crucial point. If and the importation of Eastern luxuries Gaul was surrounded by neighbors actively ceased? engaged in commerce, did not some of their as well? Pirenne de- Everyone agrees even Pirenne that activity embrace Gaul Gaul was surrounded countries by actively 4 Adam of Bremen (llth century) wrote The in commerce. In for exam- Deeds the a engaged Italy, of Bishops of Hamburg-Bremen, valuable source for North German history. St. ple, Venetian traders were selling velvet, Ansgar (9th century) was the first Christian and in Pavia 780. silk, Tyrian purple by missionary to the Swedes; his life was written by Early in the ninth century they had trad- Rimbert, a contempoiaiy. [Editor's note] 92 DANIEL C. DENNETT, JR.

nies this and asserts that no mention of of the Mediterranean. Such a reason is

spices is to be found after 716 in Gaul and inadmissible. traded with her that no negotiator of the Merovingian type That Carolingian Gaul from a a man who lent money at interest, was neighbors we may gather capitula- in 805 buried in a sarcophagus, and bequeathed tion issued by Charlemagne regu- with the East in which property to the poor and the church lating commerce where mer- existed. specific towns were named chants Louis the Pious confirmed Now spices could be obtained at the time might go. at a accord- the of Marseilles as collector of tariff of Charlemagne, but high price, bishop at the An edict of Charles III in 887 ing to a statement of Alcuin, "Indica pig- port. mentions merchants at Passau on the Dan- mentorum genera magno emenda pretio." were from customs duties. Augsburg, from the beginning of the tenth ube who exempt of Lothar in 840 trade century, imported oriental products via A pact regulated of a of with Venice. Venice. In 908 we read gift Tyrian Charles the Bald in a charter of im- purple by the bishop of Augsburg to the

. . to St Denis in S'84 monastery of St Gall. . munity given exempted Einhard, in his account of the translation from all exactions boats belonging to the of the blessed martyrs, Marcellinus and monks engaged in trade or to their com-

mercial . . . Peter, mentions that the holy relics on agents, has discovered an of at arrival were placed on neiv cushions of silk Sabbe example died in and that the shrine was draped with fine least one negotiator who in Bonn of a estate a linen and silk. Abbo, in his epic of the 845 and disposed large man who would seem to be included in siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885- certainly 886, scorned those whose manners were Pirenne's definition of a Merovingian mer- chant. a record of softened by Eastern luxuries, rich attire, We have continuous as a center from the ninth Tyrian purple, gems, and Antioch leather. Mainz trading Similar references are to be found in the to the eleventh century: Einhard mentions 5 work of the celebrated monk of St Gall. grain merchants who were accustomed Are we certain that this credulous retailer (solebant) to make purchases in Germany. of myth completely falsified the local color The Annales Fuldenses, for the famine year as well? of mention the of there. A far more interesting example is 850, price grain a list of Frisian merchants founded a in the long spices to be found appended colony to in 866. I a a manuscript of the statutes of Abbot city Otto sent wealthy merchant Adalhard. of as ambassador to These statutes are certainly dated Mainz Constantinople in 822, but the manuscript is a copy of 986, in 979. An Arab geographer of the next so scholars have the "It is assumed the possibility that century describing city says, the list of spices may have been inserted at strange, too, that one finds there herbs any period between 822 and 986. If this which are produced only in the farthest were Orient: true, Pirenne's case would certainly pepper, ginger, cloves, etc." Sabbe be shaken and he has not hesitated to deny has collected much evidence, from which the authenticity of the document, which he he concludes that in the ninth and tenth in the centuries there places Merovingian period. But he were merchants, men of can not a produce single argument to sup- fortune, making long voyages, transporting his view in port except the usual one the cargoes ships they owned personally and document could not date from 822 or after speculating on the rise of prices. , . . because the notion Arabs had cut the trade routes Any that Gaul was separated from commercial contacts with the East in the 5 These were the Annals of St. Gaul, written in ninth and tenth centuries can be contra- the famous monastery in Switzerland. dicted by irrefutable evidence. Pirenne and Muhammad 93

rv the Sicilian important ports. Another in- Is it true that the culture and o stability scription found in Beirut, dated 201, con- Merovingian Gaul was determined tains a letter of the largely prefect to representa- by its commerce? The answer to this tives of ques- the five corporations of navicularii tion is to be found in a brief survey of the of Aries. It should be noted that economic especially history of the country. From the all the commodities mentioned above have Roman conquest until the end of the sec- one characteristic in common: they are ond of our era, Gaul an century enjoyed either bulky or of low intrin- immense heavy objects prosperity based on natural sic value which of prod- depend necessity for ucts. Wheat and barley were in on produced profitable export cheap transportation Flax and exportable quantities. wool were and relative freedom from onerous tariffs. woven into textiles famous throughout the The accession of Commodus in 180 Mediterranean world. Cicero tells us marks the (De beginning of serious civil dis- Republica, in, 9, 16) that Rome, to safe- turbances in Gaul. Robber bands pillaged Italian interests from guard competition, the country. After his assassination in 192, forbade the of wine and the production olives, struggle between Clodius and Septimus but the prohibition was ineffective as vine- Severus was settled in the battle of Lyon, yards and olive orchards The in the course of multiplied. which the city was sacked wine of Vienne was especially prized in and burned. Political disorder in this and Rome and in the middle of the second cen- ensuing periods was always an invitation Gaul tury exported both oil and olives. for the barbarians to cross the frontier. Forests yielded timber which was sawed now came in They bands, inflicting damage into or to feed the fires planking exported everywhere, Alexander Severus restored of the baths of the imperial city. In Bel- some semblance of order and initiated a horses were bred for the Roman cav- of gium policy settling the new arrivals in mili- and the of alry. Ham, game birds, oysters tary colonies on the frontier, but assassina- Medoc were Roman prized by gourmets. tion stayed his hand and the infamous Mines yielded copper, lead, and iron, Maximin, who dominated the scene after and in the marble. quarries Pyrenees, Espe- 235, systematically confiscated all property famous was Gallic and within cially pottery glass, his grasp. He reduced the most of which have been found illustrious families large quantities to poverty, seized the at and in and Rome. Pompeii Naples The property of the different societies and chari- names of hundreds of free workers are table foundations, and stripped the temples known from autographs on sherds. The of their valuables. A treasure hoard uncov- industries were textiles and iron- ered in principal 1909 in Cologne, of 100 gold aurei ware, for Gallic swords, armor, and metal and silver 20,000 pieces, dating from Nero utensils were highly valued. Leather and to 236, testifies to the unhappy fate of the skin containers for oil were manu- widely owner, who preserved his goods but doubt- factured. One fact is of the utmost less lost his life. impor- Maximin shortly was slain, tance: the merchants and shipowners who but civil war continued from 238 to 261, carried this commerce were of Gallo-Roman with new invasions of Franks and Alemans 6 birth. The merchants of Narbonne had a in 253-257. In 267 the German soldiery schola at Ostia as did those of Aries. An murdered the emperor, who had forbidden in Narbonne tells us that a na- inscription them the sacking of Mainz. When Aurelian tive merchant of that city who traded in died in 275 more barbarians entered Gaul, Sicily was an honorary magistrate of all to be checked until Probus died in 282,

6 when Alemans and Narbonne, in southern France, in the Middle Burgundians ravaged the and harried the coasts. Ages had a port on the Mediterranean. [Editor's country pirates note] At the same time the terrible Bagaudes, 94 DANIEL C. DENNETT, JR.

robber bands of wreaked havoc peasants, the dominating class of the great landhold- wherever went. It is ers of the senatorial they highly significant aristocracy and a gen- that in the debris scattered about Roman eral of all weakening imperial authority. ruins in France are to be found coins today One would imagine that the final prod- and scattered but uct of inscriptions dating about, these disturbances and regulations the second half of the third rarely after, would be the serious, if not catastrophic de- thus the date of the of century, fixing greatest terioration the once flourishing economic Adrian in a of damage. Blanchet, study activity of the country, and our information 871 coin hoards uncovered in Gaul 'and leads us to believe that such was the case. northern Italy, by tabulating the results in Some cloth was still made at Treves, Metz, and chronological geographical form has and Reims; but, if we except the beautiful concluded that there is a remarkable cor- of the jewelry Merovingian age, the glass between the respondence places and pe- industry alone may be said to have flour- riods of disorder and the loca- invasion, and ished, although the pieces that have sur- and size of the hoards. tion, numbers, vived are poor in quality and design and When order was restored in the fourth characterized by imperfect purification of the cities had been reduced to a the Technical skill in century, glass. masonry was size which could be fortified and de- easily limited, and the crudity of lettering on in- and became fended, they important rather scriptions bears witness to a decline of as centers with a of offi- military population craftsmanship. During the earlier period of and a few cials, soldiers, clerics, merchants, the empire, there were frequent references than as the once thriving, proud, free cities to Gallic sailors, as we have shown, but in of eras. An was happier attempt made at the fourth century we hear only of African, as in the case of rav- reconstruction, Autun, Spanish, Syrian, and Egyptian sailors, and in 269 and restored in the after it of aged years is, course, well known that Syrians 296. to the lack of skilled labor Testifying and Orientals henceforth play an increas- was the of masons importation from Britain ingly dominant role in trade and commerce. to assist in the Yet when Con- It be a rebuilding. would serious mistake to exaggerate stantine visited Autun in 311 it was still this decline. Aries was still a busy port for and while the poor sparsely settled, citizens the entrance of Eastern commodities, as an who survived of the complained crushing edict of Honorius of 418 testifies, and some taxation. possessors of large estates were extremely Renewed civil war followed the death of not in wealthy only land, but in large sums Constantine in in the 337, culminating of gold; however, the accumulative testi- Prankish invasion of 355. cam- of Julian's mony writers, archaeology, and legisla- paigns and a revitalized life, tion indicates a far smaller scale brought peace of activity but the his year following death, 363, the in industry and commerce then two cen- Alemans again invaded the country and in turies earlier. 368 sacked Mainz. After 395 Gaul" was vir- Consequently, if after the Gothic inva- abandoned the sions of tually by Empire. North Italy, Southern Gaul, and In addition to these civil disturbances, Spain, and the Vandal conquest of North the of the Roman in depreciation coinage Africa and pirate raids in the western Medi- the third was a factor in terranean century powerful in the fifth century, we wish to to the institution of the colonnate of leading speak commerce as a determining factor and services of compulsory the fourth cen- in Merovingian Gaul, we would have to tury with attendant on the show that hardships poor the reigns of Clovis and his suc- and middle classes. The severity of their cessors produced a considerable economic circumstances them to seek relief urged revival, rather than that they maintained through the of the the status relationship precarium purely quo. This is, of course, and as the result one of patrocinium, producing the major parts of Pirenne's thesis: Pirenne and Muhammad 95

that there was an in all important identity administration, but after the death of Jus- the of significant aspects life, government, tinian, Greek replaced Latin in the East. and culture between East and a true Let us West, compare the position of King and which effected a real survival in- unity Emperor. The sovereign of the East was deed revival of until the Mus- prosperity the chief of a hierarchy of subordinate mag- lim conquest. Consequently, a comparison istrates. He was not above the law, but of West and East is if necessary, and possi- held himself bound to conform to the ac- ble an attempt should be made to show cumulated tradition of Roman law and to whether acted to Merovingian government his own edicts. As ruler, his main preoccu- or commerce. encourage discourage pation was the preservation of his empire and its administrative machinery from at- tacks without and within the state, but he The government of Merovingian Gaul did not hesitate to introduce innovations was a absolute in all monarchy, respects, when circumstances warranted a change. and if one from the conduct may judge of He maintained a standing army and fleet its rulers as revealed in the of history commanded by professional officers whose of the monarch had a Gregory Tours, very sworn duty it was to keep the empire secure of the notion of imperfect grasp "antique" from all threats. To accomplish all these the state as an instrument to designed pro- ends the empire was organized into an ad- mote the common welfare. Clovis j True, ministrative bureaucracy, carefully regu and his successors of the preserved many lated, of extraordinary complexity and features of the Roman administrative sys- detail. the method of of temparticularly deriving The King Gaul, on the contrary, but there was not revenue, certainly the thought of himself rather less as a magis- reason for the slightest altering machinery trate and rather more as a proprietor. The of an institution to raise the designed maxi- imperial office in the East was in theory of taxes when the mum principal aim of elective, but the King in the West divided the ruler was to acquire as much wealth as his kingdom after his death by rules of in- But the possible. even operation of this heritance among his several sons without, of the became as Lot part government increasingly has observed, any regard for geogra- inefficient, particularly in the collection of phy, ethnography, or the desires of the the taxes on for the land, registers were in people. Before 476 the unity of East and the disorder and greatest rarely revised, and West, despite the presence of two emper- the powerful did not pay at all. Thus, it ors, was not only theory but fact, for both came about that the easiest imposts to col- emperors issued laws under their joint lect were the indirect tolls on commerce, names, and a general law promulgated by for officers could be stationed on bridges, at one emperor and transmitted to the other cross in the roads, ports, and along the for publication was universally valid, but principal waterways to waylay all who the division of Gaul among the King's sons All the old levies of later all passed. the em- shattered legislative unity within the pire remained or were multiplied, . . . The separate kingdoms, and such unity was re- internal free trade of a bygone era was a stored only when and if a more powerful of it thing the past, and should be obvious son succeeded in overwhelming and mur- that while such tariffs could be borne by dering his brothers. Furthermore, an edict goods of high intrinsic value and small issued in Constantinople was neither valid bulk, or by goods going short distances, nor binding in Merovingian Gaul indeed, heard of. In they would certainly put an intolerable was probably never Gaul burden on those products which once con- the army cost little or nothing, for it was stituted the basis of Gaul's prosperity. neither professional nor standing, but was True, Latin was still the language of recruited by compulsion and without pay 96 DANIEL C. DENNETT, JR.

when the occasion or warranted. It emergency is, of course, true that the Byzantine Because a third of the proceeds of judg- Emperor was a layman in the sense that his ment went to the the courts were not King, power did depend upon any religious more as a regarded source of profit than as ceremony. Ever since Leo I was crowned in instruments of justice. In contrast to the 457 by the Patriarch, that ecclesiastic usu- of the in Gaul the act of complex bureaucracy East, ally performed coronation, yet, the King confided local administration to a he did so as an important individual not few officials who combined executive, finan- as a representative of the church so that and functions in their one cial, judicial his presence was not legally indispensable. who their person, commonly purchased The church, however, was most certainly office, and who exercised it to to the in a commonly subject state, manner utterly their own profit and the destruction and unlike that in Gaul, and the union of of the inhabitants submitted to their despair church and state which became always authority. closer as time went on profoundly affected Pirenne is greatly impressed by the fact the character of both. It will be recalled that the barbarian states had three features that Constantine had established the prin- in common with the were it Empire: they ciple that was the emperor's duty and were and the in- absolutist, they secular, right to summon and preside over general struments of government were the fisc and councils of the church, and the later em- the This seems to be a treasury. similarity perors considered themselves competent without or value. Most states even to all significance legislate in religious questions. ruled one man are by absolutist, secular, Justinian, who was a complete Erastian, and on the that did so. dependent treasury yet He issued edicts regulating the does not a derived and intentional election of prove bishops, the ordination of priests, with identity Byzantium. The personal role the appointment of abbots, and the man- cf Charles I before the of the summoning agement of church property, nor did he Parliament Long was absolutist; like the hesitate to pronounce and define his own Charles was the Byzantine Emperor, head views, on matters of faith. , . . of the and his was church, power exclu- If the Emperor, then, played a major role on the sively dependent treasury, but surely in church affairs, it is also true that the no one would dream of that maintaining bishops assumed an increasing importance there was a valid between identity Stuart in the civil administration of cities, and and England the Eastern Roman Empire. Justinian added to their civil functions. What reason would Clovis and his had the earthly They right of acting as judges in successors have had for other civil suits setting up any when both parties agreed to sub- kind of state? mit to their arbitration, and judgment once But, still more is this important, supposed given was not subject to appeal. In munici- even if true? had the of identity, insignificant, really palities they duty protecting the We have indicated that the absolut- the already poor against tyranny either of the agents ism of the was different in some of the Emperor Emperor or the nobles, and they from that of the Were both respects King. could appeal directly over the heads of the secular in the same sense and governments administrative hierarchy to the Emperor spirit? Pirenne defines a secular himself. the govern- Throughout territory of the ment as one conducted without the aid or , the bishops were intervention of the church and its of officials, general supervisors the baths, granaries, and one in which the was a King pure lay- aqueducts, and municipal finance. They man whose did not power depend upon any protected the poor, prisoners, and slaves. religious ceremony, although the King They nominated to the Emperor the candi- nominate and other dates for might bishops clergy provincial magistracies and as- and even summon sisted at the synods. installation of new governors. Pirenne and Muhammad 97

examined for traces of the They illegality instrument for the very preservation and acts of civil officials. received notice of They well-being society, and to this concept before of all new laws. In of publication short, living under law administered by the had the they recognized power of continual officials of government both ruler and ruled intervention in all matters of secular policy. paid homage and acknowledged the obli- Whereas the of the Franks inter- King gation. Thus there was a community of fered in the of church for appointment officers, thought self-preservation. Unfortu- he did not to settle pretend larger matters nately in the West the same sentiments which were reserved for the of had not been a authority sufficient bulwark to keep the and whereas Pope, the Pope's compe- out the invaders, and the newcomers to tence was in the and acknowledged West, power, however much of the paraphernalia his claim to be the chief of all was of bishops the previous government they may have admitted in the East, we have seen already taken over, certainly failed to absorb, or that his was chal- authority frequently absorbed but imperfectly, the old notions lenged and defied by the Emperor, so that of the nature of the state and the value of a closer examination reveals that far from its traditions. The principal fact of the the and in- Pope Emperor being mutually Merovingian period was the decomposition as Pirenne the dispensable, asserts, Pope of public power. The refinements of state- the intervention recognized Emperor's and craft were an unappreciated art to the definition of doctrine when the tem- only wielders of a purely personal power, and of the Exarchs was sufficient this poral authority blindness to realities led the kings to to compel obedience, or an alliance and co- take those measures which resulted in the with the were essential of their operation Emperor sapping own authority. The grant- for an immediate so that as a of papal aim, ing immunities has long been recognized it would be more correct to general thing as a short-sighted act, productive of decay that from the time of the say Gregory of royal absolutions. Inasmuch as we have the submitted Great, Popes when they already demonstrated that the Arabs did must, but asserted their independence not cut off the trade routes at a time when when they could. Thus, by Pirenne's own the effects of their acts could have resulted definition of it will be secular, seen that in the granting of immunities due to weak- there was a very great difference between ening of power by the loss of revenue, the state of the Franks that of and the Pirenne's interpretation of the proper se- of cause Emperor. quence and effect may be rejected. No is more than this: first problem important Indeed, we learn of the granting of did the why Romans preserve the Empire immunities in the sixth century, and after in the East and lose it to the barbarians in 623 the instances become increasingly nu- the West? Various answers have been merous; the practice was well established given: the impregnable situation of Con- long before anyone knew who Muhammad stantinople and the more strongly fortified was, and Fustel de Coulanges has well re- towns of the the East, more favorable geo- marked, "Immunity does not date from the graphical factors, the occupation of the decadence of the Merovingian; it is almost throne of 7 by men real ability in times of as ancient as the Prankish monarchy itself." crisis, and the purely fortuitous turn of In a wild and bloody period where one events at many times. Of the many factors Merovingian fought another, the reckless one should not underestimate two: the expenditure of money, the destruction of character of the emperors and of the citizen property, the escape of the nobility from population in the East. Both ruler and taxation, the conciliation of partisans by ruled composed a society which through the traditions of centuries had become ac- 7 Fustel de Coulanges, Les Origines du Systeme customed to the idea of the State as an Feodal (Paris, 1907), 345. [Dennett's note] 98 DANIEL C, DENNETT, JR.

lavish similar factors Is gifts, these, and there any connection between these weakened the royal authority. three facts and the internal political and Pirenne asserts that "the foreign policy social condition of the country? of the Empire embraced all peoples of First: There is a physical factor in trans- Europe, and completely dominated the portation too often ignored. Goods of high policy of the Germanic State." The fact value and small compass may be trans- that on certain occasions embassies were ported long distances, in face of hardship sent still be sold for a to Constantinople or that the Emperor and peril, and profit. This at one time hired the Franks to attack the circumstance alone accounts for the sur- Lombards is the chief basis of this assertion. vival and prosperity of the land route of five Clovis may have been honored by the title thousand miles across Central Asia, since of "consul," but would anyone maintain tightly baled silk carried by camel and other that he considered himself answerable to pack animals was valuable enough to offset the will of the Emperor? Insofar as for the cost of transportation. For the same much of the time the conduct of the kings reason, spices \vhich had already passed either in their domestic or foreign affairs through the hands of at least three or four 7 can hardly be honored by the term "policy/ middlemen before reaching a Mediter- it would be probably true to say that the ranean port could be taken to Gaul, either Emperor was the only one to have a foreign by sea or by land, and yield a satisfactory policy. return to those who made the effort. What Again, Pirenne makes a great point of was true of spices was also true of papyrus the fact that the Merovingians for a long and of silk from Byzantium. A merchant time employed the image of the Emperor with capital enough to purchase a few hun- on their coins. So did the Arabs, until dred pounds of pepper, or of cinnamon, or Abdul Malik's reform, and for the same of silk even though he had to make wide reason. detours, cover difficult terrain, take consid- In fact, in matters of law, of policy do- erable risks, and pay innumerable tolls mestic still and foreign, of language, of culture, might expect to make a profit. of statecraft and political vision, the king- But we have already had occasion to dom of the Franks and the empire of the point out that during the flourishing years Greeks were as independent of one another of the late Republic and early Empire, the as two different sovereign states can be, and commercial prosperity of Gaul was founded if one is reduced to speaking of the mystical principally upon the export of the natural "unity of Romania" as a dominant histori- products of the country: food stuffs, cal one has reduced itself to fact, history cheaper textiles, timber, pottery, glass, skin mysticism. bags, and so forth. These commodities to Now return again, after this digres- could either be produced in the other parts sion, to the problem of commerce in Mero- of the empire, or could be dispensed with Gaul. It be vingian must clear that there is altogether. To compete favorably in the which one can nothing indicate as calcu- imperial marts their export depended on lated to the economic secure improve prosperity and relatively cheap transportation of the country. Furthermore, three charac- and the absence of oppressive tolls and re- teristics dominate the picture: strictive legislation. Therefore, when we 1. of Oriental People origin appear to consider the destruction wrought by the play the chief role in commerce. barbarian invasions, the civil turmoil, the 2. These are Syrians dealing in luxury depreciation of the coinage, and the im- of eastern goods origin: spices, papyrus, poverishment of the empire in the third wines. century, we should expect the foreign mar- 3. have at all We practically no mention kets for Gallic products would be tempo- of from Gaul to the East. exports rarily lost, and it would appear reasonable Pirenne and Muhammad 99 to conclude that the economic and But we do rigid not find anything of the sort." social of the after Dio- He legislation emperors argues that when the Muslim conquest cletian's restoration, the collection of taxes closed the trade routes, gold became a rarity in the kind, multiplication of indirect tolls and was abandoned for silver as a medium and tariffs, the compulsory services, fiscal of exchange. The employment of silver was of the Prankish and the ab- the policy kings, real beginning of the Middle Ages and sence of any policy to promote commerce is a witness of a reversion to natural econ- and economic would have made enterprise, omy. When gold reappeared, the Middle it even if the desire virtually impossible, Ages were over, and "Gold resumed its had existed, to recover and reestablish lost in the place monetary system only when or markets. disorganized spices resumed theirs in the normal diet." These have, in com- A natural assumptions fact, question arises. If gold re- been held most economic histori- mained the monly by medium of currency, unim- ans of the period, and no one has ever in due to a paired quantity favorable export sufficient evidence to produced seriously balance until the Arabs cut the trade routes, threaten their validity. They are, of course, what happened to it then? It could not inconvenient for Pirenne's thesis. He have flowed East very after the catastrophe on but unfortu- the consequently challenges them, assumption that exports suffered before has been unable to find more than nately imports, because Pirenne is insistent, and one direct of evidence: that all the evidence piece Gregory he has collected is designed the Great some woollen cloth in purchased to show that it was the import of Eastern Marseilles and had some timber sent to which first products disappeared. If gold Alexandria. He also is "rather inclined" to could, not flow East, why did it not remain believe that the Germanic invasions revived in Gaul as a medium of local exchange? the prosperity of the slave trade. There are at least three factors in the problem. VI 1. the From earliest times small quanti- Since this evidence is scarcely convinc- ties of gold were found in the beds of cer- and since it would be difficult to find ing, tain streams flowing from the Pyrenees, and more, Pirenne turns to the problem of even in the sands of the Rhine, but the and "In the abun- money says, any case, supply was so negligible that one may assert dant circulation of us to con- that the gold compels West produced no gold. On the clude that there was a considerable other very hand, there were substantial deposits trade." export Now, in the absence of any of silver, and there were silver mines at for banking system settling by the shipment Melle in Poitou and in the Harz mountains. of bullion an accumulated 2. disparity be- It should be unnecessary to point out tween and one cer- that exports imports, would we have not the slightest idea of the be to believe it total of tainly prepared quite possi- amount gold in Gaul at any period. ble that the of export some products would We occasionally hear of an amount con- into the al- bring foreign gold country, fiscated by a king, of a loan given by a the total though supply might be diminish- bishop, of a sum bequeathed the church due to ing larger imports, and this was un- by a landholder or merchant, of the size of the but doubtedly case, Pirenne goes much booty or tribute, of a subsidy of 50,000 farther and makes it very plain that he be- solidi sent by the Emperor, but that is all. lieves the from Gaul in In or exports early Mero- many cases, without doubt, a figure vingian days exceeded in value, or at least instance is mentioned, not because it was the of equalled, imports eastern products, usual, but because it was extraordinary. since "if it [gold] had been gradually The number and importance of coin finds drained away by foreign trade we should are not in any proportion to the probable find that it diminished as time went on. facts and may not be relied on. Therefore 100 DANIEL C. DENNETT, JR.

when Pirenne of of to silver a speaks 'large'' amounts from gold meant change from gold, he is merely guessing. Furthermore, money to natural economy. The numerous as is well known, there was in general cir- instances which prove conclusively that culation a bronze and silver currency for money continued as a medium of exchange use in smaller transactions. have been diligently collected by Dopsch 3. Gregory the Great (590-604) testifies and need not be repeated. It is not clear that Gallic gold coins were so bad that they why silver coinage should equal natural did not circulate in use silver to- Italy, and an examina- economy. China and Mexico tion of coins shows a progressive debase- day, and the coins of Arab mintage found ment before the Arab conquest. Since these in the Baltic regions are also silver, yet no coins did not come from the royal mint, but one would pretend that in these instances were struck by roving minters for people we are dealing with a system of natural in more than a hundred known localities, economy. Had a system of natural economy one has evidence of the chaotic decen- prevailed we might have expected an ab- tralization of the government and lack of sence of all kinds of money, and the fact interest in orderly financial administration, that the Carolingians introduced a pure, a of a together with possible indication standard, centrally minted silver coinage growing scarcity of gold. would seem logically to prove just the con- If in dis- gold disappeared Gaul, this trary of Pirenne's thesis. But Pirenne takes appearance could be due to the following as a point the circumstance of the monas- causes : teries in those regions of Belgium where a. It might have been hoarded, buried, the soil will not support vineyards. "The and lost. fact that nearly all the monasteries in this b. It might have been exchanged or used region where the cultivation of the vine is for the of silver. purchase impossible, made a point of obtaining c. It might have been drained off in pur- estates in the vine-growing countries, chase of in a commodities one sided trade, either in the valleys of the Rhine and or in tribute. or as paid Moselle in that of the Seine, gifts d. Through the operation of Gresham's from their benefactors, proves that they law, foreign merchants might have hoarded were unable to obtain wine by ordinary 8 and removed the good gold coinage, leaving commercial means." Pirenne has drawn a debased coinage in local circulation. his information from an article of Hans There is no to 9 evidence support the first van Werveke. The latter appears to have two hypotheses, and considerable evidence been a collaborator of Pirenne's and asserts, for the last two both of which to amount "The phenomenon which we signal is so this same fact: was drained out of the gold general that we can say that it responds to This is country. hypothesis strongly sup- an economic law." Now a superficial ob- the best known and ported by authority server, intent on discovering for himself the Bloch reasons for it. gives good accepting likeliest place to observe the functioning of did not dis- of a of natural Gold, course, completely system self-sufficing econ- in the as the appear West, manufacture of omy, might very reasonably turn to a mon- and occasional references as jewelry show, astery the logical place of all places, be- and it would be interesting to possess the cause of monastic rules themselves, to find full facts about the gold coin counterfeiting the Arab dinar the mancus. it However, 8 Pirenne, "The Place of the Netherlands in the is difficult to accept the thesis advanced by Economic History of Medieval Europe," Economic that History Review, H (1929), 23. [Dennett's Dopsch there was enough gold to con- note] stitute Hans van "Comment les etablisse- with silver a truly bimetallic cur- Werveke, ments religieux beiges se procuraient-ils du vin rency. But it is even more difficult to accept au haut moyen age/' Revue Eelge de Philologie et the of Pirenne that proposition the change d'Histoire, H (1923), 643-662. [Dennett's note] Pirenne and Muhammad 101

a in the such system operation. On con- preserve the state and the culture they took it is a well known fact that in trary, the by conquest, while the Arabs on the con- a monasteries Middle Ages good many were trary not only preserved what they took but than something more self-sufficing and created from it a culture which the world turned to advantage surplus commodities had not known for centuries, and which which they disposed of, or profited as toll was not to be equalled for centuries more. collectors, if rivers, bridge, or roads were This culture was based on that of the Hel-

their . . . within property. lenized Eastern Mediterranean in one part conclude: There is no evidence to To and on that of Persia strongly permeated prove that the Arabs either desired to close, with both Hellenic and Indian elements, did close the or actually Mediterranean to on the other. Arab theology, Arab philoso- the commerce of the West either in the phy, Arab science, Arab art none was seventh or eighth centuries. Islam was hos- in opposition to late antique culture, as tile to Christianity as a rival, not as a com- Pirenne seems to imagine, but was a new, alien and the pletely faith, Muslims were fertile, virile, and logical development of invariably more tolerant than the Chris- long established forms. The decadence of tians, but Islam as a culture, as the com- the West the so-called Middle Ages mon faith of those who submitted and who was due to a complexity of causes, mostly not spoke Arabic, though necessarily by any internal, and largely connected with social means of Arab blood, had far more in com- and political institutions. Rostovtzeff, writ- mon with the Hellenized East and with ing of economic conditions of the later the Byzantium than did Gaul of Pirenne's Roman Empire, frequently warns against Romania. Much of what he says of Gaul mistaking an aspect for a cause, and most was true of Islam. The Merovingians took of the economic factors of the Middle Ages over the administrative and particularly the are aspects and not causes. Thus, the man taxation system of Rome intact. So did the whether he be a Pirenne or a Dopsch Arabs. The Merovingians preserved Latin who attempts to understand and to inter- as the language of administration. The pret either the Merovingian or Carolingian Arabs used Greek. Western art was influ- period in terms purely of an economic inter- enced by Byzantine forms. So was Arab. pretation of history will be certain to fail, But these are smaller matters. The crude for the simple reason that economic factors Western barbarians were not able to de- play a subsidiary role and present merely velopindeed, they were too ignorant to aspects in the great causative process. THE FATE OF HENRI PIRENNE'S THESES ON THE CONSEQUENCE OF THE ISLAMIC EXPANSION

ANNE R1IS1NG

Anne Rilsing's article in a Danish journal is a generally successful attempt to summarize the controversy which has developed over the years. She states briefly the essentials of the Pirenne Thesis and then proceeds to an analysis of the evidence and a summary of the views of various historians with respect to that evidence. If is a very compre- hensive treatment. The extracts below provide her own statement of the problem and her own conclusions concerning the status of the contro- versy at the time she writes. There are some slight changes in the order of her material to bring together on particular points her summary questions and her summary conclusions. The student is warned that her essential purpose is merely to bring together the results of research over the years. He should not necessarily adopt her conclusions and should note carefully her own statement, "the last word has certainly not yet been said," and especially her appeal for clearer definitions and for an entire revision of the formulation of the problem itself.

MEDIEVALIST is acquainted with merce. The secular classical civilization EVERYHenri Pirenne's theses on the con- likewise remained unchanged. But the sequences of the Islamic expansion, put Islamic expansion crushed the Mediter- forward in the 1922-35. years According ranean unity and heralded the middle ages. to these the Roman empire was neither de- From the middle of the 7th century two stroyed nor germanized by the Germanic hostile civilizations faced each other across invasions, and "Romania" remained a cul- the Mediterranean, the sea was closed, and tural and economic unity. The best proof at the beginning of the 8th century all of this is to be in found the flourishing com- Oriental commerce had come to an end. merce of to which Gaul, Syrian merchants, The urban life and the professional mer- resident in the Occident, imported Oriental chants disappeared, gold yielded to silver, wines of spices, Ghaza, oil, papyrus, and money to natural economy, and the king's cloths. This luxury commerce brought vast power collapsed. The Carolingians took the of quantities gold to the country, and this consequences, founded their power on the was the money foundation of political life, land, and moved the economic, cultural, in as much as the king's power was derived and political centre towards the north. The from the income obtained by taxes on com- Carolingian kingdom was a purely conti-

From Anne Riising, "The Fate of Henri Pirenne's Theses on tne Consequence of the Islamic Expan- sion, Classica et Mediaevalia, XIII O952), 87-130. Published by Librairie Gyldendal, Copenhagen, 1952, and used with their permission. 102 The Fate of the Henri Pirenne Theses 103 nental state, dominated the Germanic as to be the by foundation of society and whose influence was population, strength- civilization? . . . ened the active mission heathen by among To sum up. An extensive Oriental com- Germanic The character of civili- merce and a peoples. general internal prosperity in zation from secular to edu- the changed clerical, Merovingian age has not been proved cation became an ecclesiastical and monopoly, hardly rendered probable. The eco- and the cursive was nomic and easy quick replaced by political development since the the minuscule. calligraphic Furthermore, 3rd century, combined with the decline of the Islamic restricted the author- a expansion population, suggest progressive deca- of the to Western and so ity pope Europe, dence, that the burden of proof must rest since Byzantium could no longer defend on those who think otherwise. Since no- Rome the Lombards, the has shouldered this against pope body burden yet, it is called in the Franks. Thus it is correct to reasonable to assume that the commerce that without say Mohammed, Charlemagne with the Orient was far too small to be the would have been inconceivable. factor in determining Gallic society, and The thesis is divided into two distinct this that means a great part of Pirenne's one the continuation of parts, showing the thesis has collapsed. ... classical tradition in the Merovingian age, the other demonstrating the fundamental n of in the Change society Carolingian age. How and when could the Arabs break It is, in fact, a new off Mediterranean catastrophe theory, trade, and why did they a novel giving explanation of the beginning want to do so? of the middle and the ages making of Euro- The first question to be asked is: Had pean civilization. But as the entire thesis the Arabs power to cut off the commerce is based on the influence of the at all? commerce, They might do so by stopping ex- discussion literary has mainly concentrated port from the Moslem countries and block- on the of the Oriental problem commerce, ading the routes; or they and a few works have shut out only important ap- might Western Europe by military on the cultural peared development. occupation of the Mediterranean coasts; or, the Saracen finally, piracy, though hardly ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT an intended phenomenon, might paralyze But in no To judge the importance of the Oriental navigation. possible way could commerce and its fate after the Islamic ex- they cut off land intercourse between By- zantium and Western pansion three essential problems must be Europe. solved: These different possibilities give differ- ent answers to the next the i. Is it true that Merovingian Gaul had question, fixing of the date when the Mediterranean com- an Oriental commerce of such dimen- merce could cease. If the imme- sions as to be the foundation of Caliphate society embarked on an economic and civilization? diately policy with this end in view, it n. How and when could the Arabs break might perhaps have been partly accomplished by the end off Mediterranean trade, and why did of the 7th century, provided sufficient naval they want to do so? strength was created. A military occupa- in. the Had Carolingian age no foreign tion could not be effective until the 8th commerce at all and in no particular century, and the piracy was of no real im- Oriental commerce? portance until the 9th century. But apart from these aspects we must ask one funda- mental question: Is it reasonable to assume Is it true that Merovingian Gaul had that the Arabs did intend to cut off Medi- an Oriental commerce of such dimensions terranean commerce, and, if so, what was 104 ANNE RIISING

the reason"? If the answer is in the negative, sive economic decadence, and its Oriental it must be if the mak- finally investigated, commerce decreased steadily, because the of the ing Caliphate perhaps brought about passive balance of trade drained the gold such profound changes of international reserves. The Islamic expansion did not economic conditions that these by them- bring ruin, for the Arabs neither wanted to selves led to the end of the commerce be- nor could destroy the commerce. On the

tween the Orient and the . . . Occident contrary, the immense prosperity within To sum up. There is no reason to sup- the Caliphate created a demand for Occi- that the Arabs pose intended to destroy the dental commodities, and by a surplus of Mediterranean commerce, or that they did exports Western Europe acquired Arabian so either by blockade, military occupation, gold and silver. This enabled the Occident or piracy. But this does not prove an exten- to resume the import from Byzantium, sive commerce in the Carolingian kingdom. which incidentally contributed to the eco- the earlier Considering development, it was nomic revival of this empire. to be expected that the commerce between But the shape of the international com- the Orient and Western merce of the Europe, steadily Carolingian age was certainly because of decreasing the passive balance very different from that of the Merovingian of would die a natural death in trade, the age. France itself had hardly any direct Carolingian age. A closer scrutiny of this communication with the Levant, but traded is necessary. through Moslem Spain and Byzantine Italy ni and had an indirect contact via the Baltic Had the no Carolingian age foreign and Russia and through Central Europe. commerce at all and in particular no Orien- The whole of Europe had been involved in tal commerce:5 the international commerce, which for the It is that or first hardly probable political time in history had taken shape of a contrasts have religious may caused the true interchange. However, the real cen- Christian Occident to refuse economic re- tre of the Oriental commerce in the Occi- lations with the Moslems. Nor could the dent was no doubt Italy, while France was ecclesiastical of and of disapproval luxury secondary importance, but that was only scant of commerce as a whole natural. appreciation After all, the Carolingian kingdom the commercial seriously impede activity, was mainly a continental state, and the in- and though some Oriental products might ternal trade and even more the Northern be replaced by European ones, e.g. papyrus Frisian commerce were no doubt of far and oil fat by parchment by and butter, greater importance than the Oriental com- the demand for spices and luxury cloths merce. Though this may have been more never ceased. extensive than in the Merovingian age, its But to the extent of the commerce relative judge importance was certainly much between the Orient and the Christian Occi- smaller, and it must not be forgotten that dent a number of must be an- both internal questions and foreign commerce were swered: Is it true that the far less than Carolingian age important agriculture. Italy, did not know Oriental Did the on the other products? hand, was naturally turned merchants without Syrian disappear being towards the Mediterranean, and the Byzan- others? Were sea and land tine replaced by provinces were particularly suited to routes to the Orient cut off? Was the Caro- deal in Byzantine commodities. The Italian lingian kingdom on the whole character- commerce with Oriental countries was ized a closed without of dimensions by economy money, probably larger and certainly without or other means of of especially gold far greater relative importance than the

an from the Orient? . . . paying import French, and it was natural that the Italians, To sum Since the later em- rather up. Roman than anyone else, should seize on the Occident was in state pire a of progres- the Oriental commerce. The Fate of the Henri Pirenne Theses 105

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT the reason was probably that the weaken- Many historians have ventured to of the Greek judge ing empire and the reorgani- what have been the influence of the may zation of the Prankish kingdom had created Islamic expansion on the cultural the actual develop- necessary basis for the new papal ment of Western Europe, but most of them policy. Furthermore, the Carolingian con- confine themselves to some consid- general quests included new regions that had had erations, and few studies have no very primary part in the classical civilization, and, The entire appeared. discussion turns on what is more important, the Irish-Anglo two central questions: Saxon a civilization, based on distinctly i. Was the Mediterranean sphere a true Latin tradition, came to dominate the cul- cultural until the unity beginning of the tural life; this counteracted the Oriental 7th and was this century, unity destroyed influence and deepened the contrast to the by Islam? Eastern countries, which in the same period ii. Was the civilization of the Carolin- were acquiring a still more markedly Orien- gian age fundamentally different from that tal character. The Oriental influence in of the . . . was Merovingian age? Italy certainly strengthened by the To sum In fact little has up. very light immigrations, but the immigrants sided been shed on the immediate effect of the with the papal policy, and that is even truer Islamic on the cultural of the expansion develop- iconodulic refugees in the 8th ment of Western and it is Europe, unfortu- century. nately unlikely that certain results will ever Thus the most essential influence of the be established, since after all it remains a Islamic expansion on the cultural develop- matter of whether one ment of subjective judgment the Occident is probably to be will of a cultural or not. From found speak unity in the fact that the weakening of the later Roman a Empire growing differ- Byzantium forced this empire to withdraw ence between the Eastern and the Western and leave the Occident peace to pursue its Mediterranean but at indubitably existed, own independent development. the same time they had .still much in com- mon compared to that which was outside SUMMARY the orbis romanus. But the Islamic Research until expan- now had definitely tended sion caused no rupture; certainly nobody towards refuting Pirenne's theses, but the can that from the view it limited last deny long word has certainly not yet been said. civilization to European Europe proper, but It is, of course, the lack of sources that has the islamization was a slow process. The made possible so many different views, and Arabs were a small in minority proportion though it is preferable to let the sources to the in the conquered peoples; Eastern speak for themselves, they cannot do so. countries assumed the they Hellenistic- One may quote authorities in support of Oriental and in the civilization, Western any theory, and the final judgment of the entered into the Latin they heritage, economic development must consequently this of much smaller though proved depend on a general estimation of the effect importance. which the joint historical course of events Nor did Islam break the evolution of may be assumed to have had on the eco- Western and a Europe, continuity between nomic conditions. Regarding the conse- the and the of the Islamic Merovingian Carolingian age quences expansion specially, can be refuted. But hardly evidently the the judgment of this problem must, in the witnessed the outbreak of Carolingian age end, rest on more or less vague speculations the east-western antagonism, expressed by on what would have happened if the Cali- the detachment of the papacy and the re- phate had not come into existence. construction of the western empire. But if But of course primary examinations of a the did come in the 8th rupture century, great many subjects are still needed. Writ- 106 ANNE RIISING

ten and sources no archaeological may Orient and the Occident as respectively the doubt yield much more information of the Eastern and the Western empire. But 1 kind collected by Sabbe, and the numis- through Justinian's conquests the Orient matical material is far from nor took of exhausted, large parts the Occident into pos- is the true role of ex- not money satisfactorily session, only politically, but to a certain The cultural has plained. development degree also culturally and economically. been the of the and that step-child discussion, This means the cultural, particularly this field offers vast for re- opportunities the religious contrast before the 7th cen- search. It might prove important to ascer- tury, was not a contrast between the Orient tain if trends of or new art, literature, phi- and the Occident, but between two parties losophy spread quickly from one region to within the Orient. Greece had a consider- another, and it would be valuable to ex- able orthodox party, and the pope still re- amine \vhat knowledge of Oriental affairs garded the Byzantine emperor as the true is displayed by European authorities, as secular head of the world and dated all Baynes and lorga have done in some cases. letters by the imperial years of reign until This must then be supplemented by similar 787. Furthermore, most of the was examinations of Oriental sources, for it subject to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of must not be forgotten that an economic and Rome. cultural intercourse has always two sides; The Islamic expansion incorporated the Oriental side has definitely been grossly Africa and Spain into the Moslem Orient, and historians neglected, many entirely and the Balkans and Sicily came under the lack of Oriental knowledge conditions. For Constantinopolitan patriarch during the this we must turn to specialists in Islamic iconoclastic conflict, while at the same time and and Byzantine history, very likely they Byzantine Italy was truly hellenized. This will get the last word. development confined the Occident to the But more than anything else a revision domain of the Roman church, and West- of the very formulation of the problems is ern unity was further emphasized by Char- needed. and Much vagueness many possi- lemagne's conquests, which brought all bilities of conflict have been caused by the Roman Catholic countries, except the Brit- lack of clear definitions. This is true of the ish Isles, together under one ruler. Thus in cultural history, since nobody takes the the age of Charlemagne the Occident stood trouble to define precisely what they mean out as a definite conception in contrast to a cultural and within by unity, economic the Orient, but at the same time it enjoyed history many speak in vague general terms an intimate contact with both the Moslem about natural and without the money economy and Byzantine Orient via respectively these The de- defining conceptions. greatest Spain and Italy, for wheresoever Allah was the lack of ficiency is, however, definitions worshipped, or the Greek emperor obeyed, of the Orient and the Occident. Most par- the Orient was present. Such a conception in the discussion seem to localize in the ticipants highest degree simplifies the prob- the Orient in the Levant proper and the lem of the economic and cultural relations Southern Balkans, while the Occident is between the Orient and the Occident, since identified with and the Prankish Italy king- the western parts of the Islamic and Byzan- dom. But though this may seem obvious, it tine Orient were never without connexion is in fact a fatal evoked ^ bias, by modern with the eastern parts. v notions. For the later s geographical Roman Nothing is better proof of Pirenne's bril- it should empire be natural to define the liant eloquence than the fact that he has been able to impose his own formulation 1 E. a Sabbe, Belgian historian, has brought to of the even his light considerable evidence of trade between East problems upon opponents, but now the time should be for and West in the Carolingian period. [Editor's by ripe jan note] unbiased revision. SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READING

An attempt to draft a list of which are supplemen- fairly comprehensive and yet references on the "Pirenne Thesis" en- within tary manageable compass are found in counters two fundamental difficulties. In J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Barbarian the first so wide are the place, ramifications West, 400-1000 (London, 1952) and in and so broad are the of Pi- H. St. implications L. B. Moss, The Birth of the Middle renne's ideas that a bibliography might well Ages, 395-814 (London, 1935). An ambi- embrace the entire of the Middle history tious student will be rewarded by consult- In the Ages. second place, the issues are of the mass of information in ing the early concern to primary European historians, volumes of the Cambridge Medieval His- more especially French, German, and Ferdinand tory. Lot, much influenced by and most of their Belgian, contributions Pirenne, was the author of a brilliant treat- in book (whether form or in articles) are ment of the transition from the Roman Em- not available in English translation and pire to Germanic kingdoms in his The End indeed be consulted in a few the Ancient may only of World and the Beginnings American libraries. A list of references for of the Middle Ages (New York, 1931). use in the United undergraduate States The difficult problem of the relation of must, therefore, be the necessarily arbitrary. Merovingian period to the Carolingian The of the which era be purpose suggestions may pursued in several distinguished follow is two-fold: to some works. (1) suggest One of the most important of recent material which introductory may be help- years is that of E. Salin, La Civilisation ful to the student and to beginning provide merovingienne d'apres les sepultures, les him with a context for the larger analysis textes et le laboratoire (2 vols., Paris, 1950- of this problem; (2) to indicate to the stu- a French 1953). Salin, mining engineer dent where he will find further elaboration turned archaeologist, has framed novel of the issues raised Pirenne and more and by significant theories concerning the extensive criticism than is found in the Merovingian period. His first volume is a selections in this booklet. provided general treatment of the German invasions; For the student, to find the second is an of just beginning analysis grave findings. his in the the can best the best way period, problem Easily work on the Carolingian era be studied in with is Louis initially conjunction Halphen, Charlemagne et I' empire some standard of the Middle survey early carolingien (Paris, 1947). The leading Ages. If this survey is conventional in Austrian medievalist of the twentieth cen- nature and moderate in interpretation, so tury has been the late Alfons Dopsch. He much the better, for then the impact of held to the notion of unbroken cultural and Pirenne will be all the There are greater. economic continuity from the later Roman such available in excellent many surveys Empire through the Merovingian period texts. A serviceable very introduction in into the Carolingian era. His views have even briefer is found in R. been compass Joseph accepted only in part and should be Western in the Middle Strayer, Europe studied with caution; they may be followed Ages: A Short History (New York, 1955). in his The Economic and Social Founda- The the context larger the student can tions of European Civilization (condensed provide for himself, the better. It would and translated from the second German be well for him to become thoroughly edition; New York, 1937). Arthur Jean with the acquainted political story of the Kleinclausz, Charlemagne (Paris, 1934) is barbarian invasions and the formation of the best book in any language on its sub- Germanic in the West. kingdoms Analyses ject, but a very readable and dependable 107 108 Suggestions for Additional Reading

is available in Richard Winston's has biography (2nd ed., Chicago, 1953) much to say the Charlemagne, from Hammer to the concerning Moslem ideas and institutions Cross (New York, 1955). which is relevant to the controversy over Byzantine studies are now enjoying a Pirenne. renaissance and provide another vantage The most elusive problems raised by point from which to assess the ideas of Pirenne are those which concern economic Pirenne. A introduction is offered good development trade, industry, towns, and in M. The J. Hussey, Byzantine World cities. Until very recently, in these matters (London, 1957). A standard work is A. A. the state of our knowledge made the early Vasiliev, the History of Byzantine Empire medieval period indeed a "dark age." Con- (2 vols., Madison, Wis., 1928-1929). temporary sources on economic history are Vasiliev was a Russian scholar came far who scantier than for political or for church to the United States in 1925 and was long history. Only a few documents before 800 associated with the University of Wiscon- are found in a recent collection of materials sin and with the Dumbarton Oaks Research put together by Robert S. Lopez and Irving Library. His book was also published in W. Raymond (.Medieval Trade in the Russian, French, Spanish, and Turkish. Mediterranean World, New York, 1955). Less detailed but somewhat more abreast But medieval economic history is now a of latest is a work the scholarship by very active field; the works already cited by Serbian His scholar, Georg Ostrogorsky' Lot, Dopsch, Salin, and Halphen incorpo- History of the Byzantine State (Oxford, rate results of recent research. The most is a translation from the second 1956) useful summaries in English, as well as German edition of but 1954, incorporates extensive bibliographies, will be found in results of research even in the brief interim. vol. I-II of the Cambridge Economic His- An of the issues of interesting presentation tory (Cambridge, 1941, 1952). But the Byzantine history is afforded by compara- best book on economic development in the tive of the views of a French study histo- early Middle Ages is now Robert Latouche, Ch. Diehl rian, (1859-1944) and those Les Origines de I'economie occidentale of a British scholar, Norman H. Baynes (Paris, 1956). student (1877- ). A seeking more gen- The serious student interested in trends eral of cultural his- of treatment, particularly current scholarship will soon become will do well to consult the aware of the rich tory, essays by resources in scholarly in various fields col- specialists conveniently periodicals concerned with the early Middle lected Norman H. and H. St. L. by Baynes Ages; the journal most readily available to B. Moss, in An Introduction to Byzantium: undergraduates will be Speculum: A Jour- East Roman Civilization (Oxford, 1948). nal of Medieval Studies, published by the It is a valuable and fascinating book. A Medieval Academy of America. At the useful treatment of the same material, but same time he will do well to become ac- more in popular tone, is provided in Steven quainted with the contributions of histo- Civilisation Runciman, Byzantine (Lon- rians of other days. In this connection, don, 1933). Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline For the Islam, important contribution of and Fall of the Roman Empire (Bury edi- K. an Philip Hitti, Arab scholar at Prince- tion, 7 v., London, 1896-1900) is of course ton since will 1926, provide ample mate- a work apart and should still be read both rial. His The Arabs: A Short for History its information and its interpretation. (Princeton, 1943) is a highly successful For Henri Pirenne himself, the essentials of a compression much larger work, History for the examination of his ideas and the the Arabs (5th of edition, London, 1953). controversy they generated are found in the Gustav E. von Grunebaum in Medieval selections of this book. Further amplifica- Islam: A in Cultural Orientation tion and illustration Study can, however, readily Suggestions for Additional Reading 109

found. Professor be Gray C. Boyce provides Theses," Classica et Mediaevalia, XIII some interesting biographical details, in- (1952). The more important items, with cluding Pirenne's poignant experience dur- citations to reviews of Pirenne's books, are the first World in his ing War, article, "The found in Daniel C. Dennett, Jr., "Pirenne of Henri Legacy Pirenne," Byzantion, vol. and Muhammad," S'peculwn, XXIII XV (1940-1941), pp. 449-464. A full (April, 1948). A careful defense of Pi- of reading the Mohammed and Charle- renne is provided in Pierre Lambrechts, will magne provide fairly complete knowl- "Les Theses de Henri Pirenne sur la fin of Pirenne's edge contribution. A compre- du monde antique et les debuts du moyen hensive of Pirenne's bibliography writings age," Byzantion, XIV (1939), 513-536.' A is found in Henri "Les recent Laurent, Travaux analysis is that by Anne Riising (in de M. Henri Pirenne sur la fin du monde the article cited above); she cites and sum- et les debuts du marizes the antique moyen age," important commentary which Byzantion, VII (1932), 495-509, and in has accumulated over the years. Anne Riising, "The Fate of Henri Pirenne's

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