The Historians' History of the World 07

The tenth century, more than others, has been called an age of barbarism, and its beginnings do indeed betray a decay of all that the Carlovingian period had accomplished in the way of art and literature. But already in the middle of the century we may detect new seeds of culture in the German countries, and it was really from them that a civilisation first developed which penetrated more deeply into the northern districts and became acclimated there. It was, to be sure, a civilisation which at first affected only the highest ranks of society—the court, the clergy, and the nobility which had been drawn into the vicinity of the court; but it was practically instrumental in gradually reforming all the conditions of German life. No one more than the historian of the German people perceives what a change took place at that time in the cultural conditions. After he has emerged from the darkness of tradition into the light of history already in the Carlovingian period, at the beginning of the tenth century he is again surrounded by a twilight in which it is impossible to distinguish fact from fable; tradition is confused, contradictory, incomplete, and disconnected. But with the middle of the century, contemporary, reliable sources are again opened up to him, which on the whole permit him to follow the course of events clearly; the ground becomes firm beneath his feet and only seldom is he compelled to tread the uncertain path of supposition.

The king’s chapel, however, was not only a school of learning, it was at the same time a plant-house for church and state, in that nearly all the priests went out from it who in the following period were raised to the seats of the German bishoprics by Otto and his successors. It is a new generation of princes of the church very unlike that which the later Carlovingian period had brought forth. These bishops, permeated as they are with the dignity of their ecclesiastical position, are yet truly submissive to the central power of the state; they willingly take part in the king’s battles and cheerfully go from one country to another in his interest and for his advantage. Hierarchic-theocratic ideas are far from their minds, no less so the thought of a slavish obedience to Rome, although they respect the rights of St. Peter; they are, however, permeated with the feeling of a free independent authority which God has given them over their bishoprics, and they rule their dioceses with a patriarchal, all-comprehending power. Their first duties they consider to be the organisation of ecclesiastical discipline, reformation of the cloisters and chapters, and the awakening of a scholastic life; but they feel it to be equally their calling to fortify their cities with walls, to gain or to secure for them privileges of markets and coinage, to elevate commerce, to cultivate waste regions, to clear away forests, to regulate the service of their dependents legally, to preserve right and justice within their immunities. They are throughout practical tasks which they set themselves and they believe that they are serving God and their fellow-men in performing them.

The Roman church has placed not a few of these bishops on the calendar of its saints, but the German people also owe these men the deepest gratitude. They have contributed not a little towards raising the oppressed part of the nation, towards reviving city life, and towards promoting agriculture, indeed one might say that even the more definite development of the national spirit is due largely to them. From one centre they went into all parts of the realm; wherever they went they spread the same culture, the same principles of administration, the same ecclesiastical-political views, and they themselves remained, although separated, in a close, often an intimate, relationship with each other. It might be said that among them for the first time, the firm outlines of a national policy were established, which remained untouched by the attitude of the person who happened to hold the chief power in the state. In this rank of bishops we meet a large number of the most worthy men, who showed themselves almost throughout filled with the same love for their German fatherland until the struggle concerning the investiture brought unholy discord into all ranks of life.c

THE STRENGTHENING OF THE MARKS

[936-955 A.D.]