A Political and Social History of Modern Europe Part 17

(4) There were p.r.o.nounced differences in ecclesiastical government. All the Protestants considerably modified the Catholic system of a divinely appointed clergy of bishops, priests, and deacons, under the supreme spiritual jurisdiction of the pope. The Anglicans rejected the papacy, although they retained the orders of bishop, priest, and deacon, and insisted that their hierarchy was the direct continuation of the medieval Church in England, and therefore that their organization was on the same footing as the Orthodox Church of eastern Europe. The Lutherans rejected the divinely ordained character of episcopacy, but retained bishops as convenient administrative officers. The Calvinists did away with bishops altogether and kept only one order of clergymen-- the presbyters. Such Calvinistic churches as were governed by a.s.semblies or synods of presbyters were called Presbyterian; those which subordinated the "minister" to the control of the people in each separate congregation were styled Independent, or Separatist, or Congregational. [Footnote: This latter type of church government was maintained also by the quasi-Calvinistic denomination of the Baptists.]

(5) In the ceremonies of public wors.h.i.+p the Protestant churches differed. Anglicanism kept a good deal of the Catholic ritual although in the form of translation from Latin to English, together with several Catholic ceremonies, in some places even employing candles and incense.

The Calvinists, on the other hand, wors.h.i.+ped with extreme simplicity: reading of the Bible, singing of hymns, extemporaneous prayer, and preaching const.i.tuted the usual service in church buildings that were without superfluous ornaments. Between Anglican formalism and Calvinistic austerity, the Lutherans presented a compromise: they devised no uniform liturgy, but showed some inclination to utilize forms and ceremonies.

[Sidenote: Significance of the Protestant Revolt]

Of the true significance of the great religious and ecclesiastical changes of the sixteenth century many estimates in the past have been made, varying with the point of view, or bias, of each author. Several results, however, now stand out clearly and are accepted generally by all scholars, regardless of religious affiliations. These results may be expressed as follows:

In the first place, the Catholic Church of the middle ages was disrupted and the medieval ideal of a universal theocracy under the bishop of Rome was rudely shocked.

In the second place, the Christian religion was largely nationalized.

Protestantism was the religious aspect of nationalism; it naturally came into being as a protest against the cosmopolitan character of Catholicism; it received its support from _nations_; and it a.s.sumed everywhere a national form. The German states, the Scandinavian countries, Scotland, England, each had its established state religion.

What remained to the Catholic Church, as we have seen, was essentially for national reasons and henceforth rested mainly on a national basis.

Thirdly, the whole movement tended to narrow the Catholic Church dogmatically. The exigencies of answering the Protestants called forth explicit definitions of belief. The Catholic Church was henceforth on the defensive, and among her members fewer differences of opinion were tolerated than formerly.

Fourthly, a great impetus to individual morality, as well as to theological study, was afforded by the reformation. Not only were many men's minds turned temporarily from other intellectual interests to religious controversy, but the individual faithful Catholic or Protestant was encouraged to vie with his neighbor in actually proving that his particular religion inculcated a higher moral standard than any other. It rendered the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries more earnest and serious and also more bigoted than the fifteenth.

Finally, the Protestant Revolution led immediately to important political and social changes. The power of secular rulers was immeasurably increased. By confiscation of church lands and control of the clergy, the Tudor sovereigns in England, the kings in Scandinavia, and the German princes were personally enriched and freed from fear of being hampered in absolutist tendencies by an independent ecclesiastical organization. Even in Catholic countries, the monarchs were able to wring such concessions from the pope as resulted in shackling the Church to the crown.

The wealth of the n.o.bles was swelled, especially in Protestant countries, by seizure of the property of the Church either directly or by means of bribes tendered for aristocratic support of the royal confiscations. But despite such an access of wealth, the monarchs took pains to see that the n.o.bility acquired no new political influence.

In order to prevent the n.o.bles from recovering political power, the absolutist monarchs enlisted the services of the faithful middle cla.s.s, which speedily attained an enviable position in the princ.i.p.al European states. It is safe to say that the Protestant Revolution was one of many elements a.s.sisting in the development of this middle cla.s.s.

For the peasantry--still the bulk of European population--the religious and ecclesiastical changes seem to have been peculiarly unfortunate.

What they gained through a diminution of ecclesiastical dues and taxes was more than lost through the growth of royal despotism and the exactions of hard-hearted lay proprietors. The peasants had changed the names of their oppressors and found themselves in a worse condition than before. There is little doubt that, at least so far as the Germanies and the Scandinavian countries are concerned, the lot of the peasants was less favorable immediately after, than immediately before, the rise of Protestantism.

ADDITIONAL READING

GENERAL. Good brief accounts of the whole religious revolution of the sixteenth century: Frederic Seebohm, _The Era of the Protestant Revolution,_ new ed. (1904); J. H. Robinson, _Reformation_, in "Encyclopaedia Britannica," 11th ed. (1911); A. H. Johnson, _Europe in the Sixteenth Century_ (1897), ch. iii-v and pp. 272 ff.; E. M. Hulme, _Renaissance and Reformation,_ 2d ed. (1915), ch. x-xviii, xxi-xxiii; Victor Duruy, _History of Modern Times_, trans. and rev. by E. A.

Grosvenor (1894), ch. xiii, xiv. More detailed accounts are given in the _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. II (1904), and in the _Histoire generate_, Vol. IV, ch. x-xvii, and Vol. V, ch. i. All the standard general histories of the Christian Church contain accounts of the rise of Protestantism, naturally varying among themselves according to the religious convictions of their authors. Among the best Protestant histories may be cited: T. M. Lindsay, _A History of the Reformation,_ 2 vols. (1906-1910); Wilhelm Moeller, _History of the Christian Church_, trans. and condensed by J. H. Freese, 3 vols. (1893-1900); Philip Schaff, _History of the Christian Church_, Vols. VI and VII; A.

H. Newman, A Manual of Church History, Vol. II (1903), Period V; G. P.

Fisher, _History of the Christian Church_ (1887), Period VIII, ch. i- xii. From the Catholic standpoint the best ecclesiastical histories are: John Alzog, _Manual of Universal Church History_, trans. from 9th German edition (1903), Vol. II and Vol. Ill, Epoch I; and the histories in German by Joseph (Cardinal) Hergen-rother [ed. by J. P. Kirsch, 2 vols. (1902-1904)], by Alois Knopfler (5th ed., 1910) [based on the famous _Conciliengeschichte_ of K. J. (Bishop) von Hefele], and by F.

X. von Funk (5th ed., 1911); see, also, Alfred Baudrillart, _The Catholic Church, the Renaissance and Protestantism_, Eng. trans. by Mrs. Philip Gibbs (1908). Many pertinent articles are to be found in the scholarly _Catholic Encyclopedia_, 15 vols. (1907-1912), in the famous _Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche_, 3d ed., 24 vols. (1896-1913), and in the (Non-Catholic) _Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics_, ed. by James Hastings and now (1916) in course of publication. For the popes of the period, see Ludwig Pastor, _The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages_, the monumental work of a distinguished Catholic historian, the twelfth volume of which (coming down to 1549) was published in English translation in 1912; and the older but still useful (Protestant) _History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome_ by Mandell Creighton, new ed. in 6 vols. (1899-1901), and _History of the Popes_ by Leopold von Ranke, 3 vols. in the Bonn Library (1885). Heinrich Denziger, _Enchiridion Symbolorum, Definitionum, et Declarationium de rebus fidei el morum,_ 11nth ed. (1911), is a convenient collection of official p.r.o.nouncements in Latin on the Catholic Faith. Philip Schaff, _The Creeds of Christendom,_ 3 vols. (1878), contains the chief Greek, Latin, and Protestant creeds in the original and usually also in English translation. Also useful is B. J. Kidd (editor), _Doc.u.ments Ill.u.s.trative of the Continental Reformation_ (1911). For additional details of the relation of the Reformation to sixteenth-century politics, consult the bibliography appended to Chapter III, above.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY. In the _Cambridge Modern History,_ Vol. I (1902), a severe indictment of the Church is presented (ch. xix) by H. C. Lea, and a defense is offered (ch. xviii) by William Barry. The former opinions are developed startlingly by H.

C. Lea in Vol. I, ch. i, of his _History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages._ An old-fas.h.i.+oned, though still interesting, Protestant view is that of William Roscoe, _Life and Pontificate of Leo X,_ 4 vols. (first pub. 1805-1806, many subsequent editions). For an excellent description of the organization of the Catholic Church, see Andre Mater, _L'eglise catholique, sa const.i.tution, son administration_ (1906). The best edition of the canon law is that of Friedberg, 2 vols.

(1881). On the social work of the Church: E. L. Cutts, _Parish Priests and their People in the Middle Ages in England_ (1898), and G. A.

Prevost, _L'eglise et les campagnes au moyen age_ (1892). The most recent and comprehensive study of the Catholic Church on the eve of the Protestant Revolt is that of Pierre Imbart de la Tour, _Les origines de la Reforme,_ Vol. I, _La France moderne_ (1905), and Vol. II, _L'eglise catholique, la crise et la renaissance_ (1909). For the Orthodox Church of the East see Louis d.u.c.h.esne, _The Churches Separated from Rome,_ trans. by A. H. Mathew (1908).

MOHAMMEDANISM. Sir William Muir, _Life of Mohammed,_ new and rev. ed.

by T. H. Weir (1912); Ameer Ali, _Life and Teachings of Mohammed_ (1891), and, by the same author, warmly sympathetic, Islam (1914); D.

S. Margoliouth, _Mohammed and the Rise of Islam_ (1905), in the "Heroes of the Nations" Series, and, by the same author, _The Early Development of Mohammedanism_ (1914); Arthur Gilman, _Story of the Saracens_ (1902), in the "Story of the Nations" Series. Edward Gibbon has two famous chapters (1, li) on Mohammed and the Arabian conquests in his masterpiece, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire._ The _Koran,_ the sacred book of Mohammedans, has been translated into English by E. H.

Palmer, 2 vols. (1880): entertaining extracts are given in Stanley Lane-Poole, _Speeches and Table Talk of the Prophet Mohammad._

LUTHER AND LUTHERANISM. Of innumerable biographies of Luther the best from sympathetic Protestant pens are: Julius Kostlin, _Life of Luther,_ trans. and abridged from the German (1900); T. M. Lindsay, _Luther and the German Reformation_ (1900); A. C. McGiffert, _Martin Luther, the Man and his Work_ (1911); Preserved Smith, _The Life and Letters of Martin Luther_ (1911); Charles Beard, _Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany until the Close of the Diet of Worms_ (1889). A remarkable arraignment of Luther is the work of the eminent Catholic historian, F. H. S. Denifle, _Luther und Luthertum in der ersten Entwickelung,_ 3 vols. (1904-1909), trans. into French by J. Pasquier (1911-1912). The most available Catholic study of Luther's personality and career is the scholarly work of Hartmann Grisar, _Luther,_ 3 vols.

(1911-1913), trans. from German into English by E. M. Lamond, 4 vols.

(1913-1915). _First Principles of the Reformation,_ ed. by Henry Wace and C. A. Buchheim (1885), contains an English translation of Luther's "Theses," and of his three pamphlets of 1520. The best edition of Luther's complete works is the Weimar edition; English translations of portions of his _Table Talk,_ by William Hazlitt, have appeared in the Bonn Library; and _Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters_ is now (1916) in course of translation and publication by Preserved Smith. J. W. Richard, _Philip Melanchthon_ (1898) is a brief biography of one of the most famous friends and a.s.sociates of Luther.

For the Protestant Revolt in Germany: E. F. Henderson, _A Short History of Germany_ (1902), Vol. I, ch. x-xvi, a brief sketch of the political and social background; Johannes Janssen, _History of the German People,_ a monumental treatise on German social history just before and during the revolt, scholarly and very favorable to the Catholic Church, trans. into English by M. A. Mitch.e.l.l and A. M. Christie, 16 vols.

(1896-1910); Gottlob Egelhaaf, _Deutsche Geschichte im sechzehnten Jahrhundert bis zum Augsburger Religionsfrieden,_ 2 vols. (1889-1892), a Protestant rejoinder to some of the Catholic Janssen's deductions; Karl Lamprecht, _Deutsche Geschichte,_ Vol. V, Part I (1896), suggestive philosophizing; Leopold von Ranke, _History of the Reformation in Germany,_ Eng. trans., 3 vols., a careful study, coming down in the original German to 1555, but stopping short in the English form with the year 1534; Friedrich von Bezold, _Geschichte der deutschen Reformation,_ 2 vols. (1886-1890), in the bulky Oncken Series, voluminous and moderately Protestant in tone; J. J. I. von Dollinger, _Die Reformation, ihre innere Entwicklung und ihre Wirkungen,_ 3 vols. (1853-1854), pointing out the opposition of many educated people of the sixteenth century to Luther; A. E. Berger, _Die Kulturaufgaben der Reformation,_ 2d ed. (1908), a study of the cultural aspects of the Lutheran movement, Protestant in tendency and opposed in certain instances to the generalizations of Janssen and Dollinger; J.

S. Schapiro, _Social Reform and the Reformation_ (1909), a brief but very suggestive treatment of some of the economic factors of the German Reformation; H. C. Vedder, _The Reformation in Germany_ (1914), likewise stressing economic factors, and sympathetic toward the Anabaptists. For additional facts concerning the establishment of Lutheranism in Scandinavia, see R. N. Bain, _Scandinavia, a Political History of Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 1513 to 1900_ (1905), and John Wordsworth (Bishop of Salisbury), _The National Church of Sweden_ (1911). Zwingli, Calvin, and Calvinism. The best biography of Zwingli in English is that of S. M. Jackson (1901), who likewise has edited the _Selected Works of Zwingli_; a more exhaustive biography in German is Rudolf Stahelin, _Huldreich Zwingli: sein Leben und Wirken_, 2 vols.

(1895 1897). Biographies of Calvin: H. Y. Reyburn, _John Calvin: his Life, Letters, and Work_ (1914); Williston Walker, John Calvin, the Organizer of Reformed Protestantism (1906); Emile Doumergue, _Jean Calvin: les hommes et les choses de son temps_, 4 vols. (1899-1910); L.

Penning, _Life and Times of Calvin_, trans. from Dutch by B. S.

Berrington (1912); William Barry, _Calvin_, in the "Catholic Encyclopaedia." Many of Calvin's writings have been published in English translation by the "Presbyterian Board of Publication" in Philadelphia, 22 vols. in 52 (1844-1856), and his _Inst.i.tutes of the Christian Religion_ has several times been published in English. H. M. Baird, _Theodore Beza_ (1899) is a popular biography of one of the best-known friends and a.s.sociates of Calvin. For Calvinism in Switzerland: W. D.

McCracken, _The Rise of the Swiss Republic_, 2d ed. (1901); F. W.

Kampschulte, _Johann Calvin, seine Kirche und sein Staat in Genf_, 2 vols. (1869-1899). For Calvinism in France: H. M. Baird, _History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France_, 2 vols. (1879), and by the same author, a warm partisan of Calvinism, _The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre_, 2 vols. (1886); the brothers Haag, _France protestante_, 2d ed., 10 vols. (1877-1895), an exhaustive history of Protestantism in France; E. Lavisse (editor), _Histoire de France_, Vol. V, Livre IX, by Henry Lemonnier (1904), most recent and best. For Calvinism in Scotland: P. H. Brown, _John Knox, a Biography_, 2 vols. (1895); Andrew Lang, _John Knox and the Reformation_ (1905); John Herkless and R. K.

Hannay, _The Archbishops of St. Andrews_, 4 vols. (1907-1913); D. H.

Fleming, _The Reformation in Scotland: its Causes, Characteristics, and Consequences_ (1910); John Macpherson, _History of the Church in Scotland_ (1901), ch. iii-v.

THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. The eve of the revolution: Frederic Seebohm, _The Oxford Reformers_, 3d ed. (1887), a sympathetic treatment of Colet, Erasmus, and More; F. A. (Cardinal) Gasquet, _The Eve of the Reformation in England_ (1899), and, by the same author, an eminent Catholic scholar, _England under the Old Religion_ (1912).

General histories of the English Reformation: H. O. Wakeman, _An Introduction to the History of the Church of England_, 8th ed. (1914), ch. x-xiv, the best brief "High Church" survey; J. R. Green, _Short History of the English People_, new ill.u.s.t. ed. by C. H. Firth (1913), ch. vi, vii, a popular "Low Church" view; W. R. W. Stephens and William Hunt (editors), _A History of the Church of England_, Vols. IV (1902) and V (1904) by James Gairdner and W. H. Frere respectively; James Gairdner, _Lollardy and the Reformation in England_, 4 vols. (1908- 1913), the last word of an eminent authority on the period, who was convinced of the revolutionary character of the English Reformation; John Lingard, _History of England to 1688_, Vols. IV-VI, the standard Roman Catholic work; R. W. Dixon, _History of the Church of England from the Abolition of the Roman Jurisdiction_, 6 vols. (1878-1902), a thorough treatment from the High Anglican position; H. W. Clark, _History of English Nonconformity_, Vol. I (1911), Book I, valuable for the history of the radical Protestants; Henry Gee and W. J. Hardy, _Doc.u.ments Ill.u.s.trative of English Church History_ (1896), an admirable collection of official p.r.o.nouncements. Valuable special works and monographs: C. B. Lumsden, _The Dawn of Modern England, being a History of the Reformation in England, 1509-1525_ (1910), p.r.o.nouncedly Roman Catholic in tone; Martin Hume, _The Wives of Henry VIII_ (1905); F. A.

(Cardinal) Gasquet, _Henry VIII and the English Monasteries_, 3d ed., 2 vols. (1888), popular ed. in 1 vol. (1902); R. B. Merriman, _Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell_, 2 vols. (1902), a standard work; Dom Bede Camm, _Lives of the English Martyrs_ (1904), with special reference to Roman Catholics under Henry VIII; A. F. Pollard, [Footnote: See also other works of A. F. Pollard listed in bibliography appended to Chapter III, p. 110, above.] _Life of Cranmer_ (1904), scholarly and sympathetic, and, by the same author, _England under Protector Somerset_ (1900), distinctly apologetic; Frances Rose-Troup, _The Western Rebellion of 1549_ (1913), a study of an unsuccessful popular uprising against religious innovations; M. J. Stone, _Mary I, Queen of England_ (1901), an apology for Mary Tudor; John Foxe (1516-1587), _Acts and Monuments of the Church_, popularly known as the _Book of Martyrs_, the chief contemporary account of the Marian persecutions, uncritical and naturally strongly biased; R. G. Usher, _The Reconstruction of the English Church_, 2 vols. (1910), a popular account of the changes under Elizabeth and James I; H. N. Birt, _The Elizabethan Religious Settlement_ (1907), from the Roman Catholic standpoint; G. E. Phillips, _The Extinction of the Ancient Hierarchy, an Account of the Death in Prison of the Eleven Bishops Honored at Rome amongst the Martyrs of the Elizabethan Persecution_ (1905), also Roman Catholic; A. O. Meyer, _England und die katholische Kirche unter Elisabeth und den Stuarts_, Vol. I (1911), Eng. trans. by J. R. McKee (1915), based in part on use of source-material in the Vatican Library; Martin Hume, _Treason and Plot_ (1901), deals with the struggles of the Roman Catholics for supremacy in the reign of Elizabeth; E. L. Taunton, _The History of the Jesuits in England_, 1580-1773 (1901); Richard Simpson, _Life of Campion_ (1867), an account of a devoted Jesuit who suffered martyrdom under Elizabeth; Champlin Burrage, _The Early English Dissenters in the Light of Recent Research, 1550-1641_, 2 vols.

(1912).

THE REFORMATION WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Brief narratives: William Barry, _The Papacy and Modern Times_ (1911), in "Home University Library," ch. i-iii; A. W. Ward, _The Counter Reformation_ (1889) in "Epochs of Church History" Series; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. Ill (1905), ch. xiii by Ugo (Count) Balzani on "Rome under Sixtus V."

Longer accounts: G. V. Jourdan, _The Movement towards Catholic Reform in the Early Sixteenth Century, 1496-1536_ (1914); K. W. Maurenbrecher, _Geschichte der katholischen Reformation_, Vol. I (1880), excellent down to 1534 but never completed; J. A. Symonds, _Renaissance in Italy_, Vols. VI and VII, _The Catholic Reaction_, replete with inaccuracy, bias, and prejudice. The _Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent_ have been translated by J. Waterworth, new ed. (1896), and the _Catechism of the Council of Trent_, by J. Donovan (1829). Nicholas Hilling, _Procedure at the Roman Curia_, 2d ed. (1909), contains a concise account of the "congregations" and other reformed agencies of administration introduced into church government in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The famous _Autobiography of St. Ignatius Loyola_ has been trans. and ed. by J. F. X. O'Conor (1900), and the text of his _Spiritual Exercises_, trans. from Spanish into English, has been published by Joseph Rickaby (1915). See Stewart Rose (Lady Buchan), _St. Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits_, ed. by W. H. Eyre (1891); Francis Thompson, _Life of Saint Ignatius_ (1910); T. A.

Hughes, _Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits_ (1892).

Monumental national histories of the Jesuits are now (1916) appearing under the auspices of the Order: for Germany, by Bernhard Duhr, Vol. I (1907), Vol. II (1913); for Italy, by Pietro Tacchi Venturi, Vol. I (1910); for France, by Henri Fouqueray, Vol. I (1910), Vol. II (1913); for Paraguay, by Pablo Pastells, Vol. I (1912); for North America, by Thomas Hughes, 3 vols. (1907-1910); for Spain, by Antonio Astrain, Vols. I-IV (1902-1913). Concerning the Index, see G. H. Putnam, _The Censors.h.i.+p of the Church of Rome and its Influence upon the Production and Distribution of Literature_, 2 vols. (1907). On the Inquisition, see H. C. Lea, _A History of the Inquisition of Spain_, 4 vols. (1907), and, by the same author, _The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies_ (1908), on the whole a dark picture; and, for a Catholic account, Elphege Vacandard, _The Inquisition: a Critical and Historical Study of the Coercive Power of the Church_, trans. by B. L. Conway (1908).

FOR THE OUTCOME OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLT AND THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION FROM THE THEOLOGICAL STANDPOINT, see Adolph Harnack, _History of Dogma_, Eng. trans., Vol. VII (1900). Charles Beard, _The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in its Relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge_ (1883) is a strongly Protestant estimate of the significance of the whole movement. J. Balmes, _European Civilization: Protestantism and Catholicity Compared in their Effects on the Civilization of Europe_ (1850), though old, is a suggestive resume from the Catholic standpoint.

CHAPTER V

THE CULTURE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

[Sidenote: "Culture"]

"Culture" is a word generally used to denote learning and refinement in manners and art. The development of culture--the acquisition of new knowledge and the creation of beautiful things--is ordinarily the work of a comparatively small number of scientists and artists. Now if in any particular period or among any special people, we find a relatively larger group of intellectual leaders who succeed in establis.h.i.+ng an important educated cla.s.s and in making permanent contributions to the civilization of posterity, then we say that it is a cultured century or a cultured nation.

[Sidenote: Greek Culture]

All races and all generations have had some kind of culture, but within the recorded history of humanity, certain peoples and certain centuries stand out most distinctly as influencing its evolution. Thus, the Greeks of the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ gathered together and handed down to us all manner of speculation about the nature of the universe, all manner of hypothetical answers to the eternal questions--Whence do we come, What are we doing, Where do we go?--and this was the foundation of modern philosophy and metaphysics.

From the same Greeks came our geometry and the rudiments of our sciences of astronomy and medicine. It was they who gave us the model for nearly every form of literature--dramatic, epic, and lyric poetry, dialogues, oratory, history--and in their well-proportioned temples, in their balanced columns and elaborate friezes, in their marble chiselings of the perfect human form, they fas.h.i.+oned for us forever the cla.s.sical expression of art.

[Sidenote: Roman Culture]

Still in ancient times, the Romans developed cla.s.sical architecture in the great triumphal arches and in the high-domed public buildings which strewed their empire. They adapted the fine forms of Greek literature to their own more pompous, but less subtle, Latin language. They devised a code of law and a legal system which made them in a real sense the teachers of order and the founders of the modern study of law.

[Sidenote: Mohammedan Culture]

The Mohammedans, too, at the very time when the Christians of western Europe were neglecting much of the ancient heritage, kept alive the traditions of Greek philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.

From eastern Asia they borrowed algebra, the Arabic numerals, and the compa.s.s, and, in their own great cities of Bagdad, Damascus, and Cordova, they themselves developed the curiously woven curtains and rugs, the strangely wrought blades and metallic ornaments, the luxurious dwellings and graceful minarets which distinguish Arabic or Mohammedan art.