THE BLACK DEATH.—Germany, like the other countries, was terribly afflicted during the reign of Charles by the destructive pestilence that swept over the most of Europe (p. 319). One effect was an outbreaking of religious fervor. At this time the movement of the "Flagellants," which started in the thirteenth century, reached its height in Germany and elsewhere. They scourged and lacerated themselves for their sins, marching in processions, and inflicting their blows to the sound of music. Another result of the plague was a savage persecution of the Jews, who were falsely suspected of poisoning wells. Many thousands of them were tortured and killed.

ANARCHY IN GERMANY.—The son of Charles IV. (1378-1400), Wenceslaus, or Wenzel, was a coarse and cruel king. Under him the old disorders of the Interregnum sprang up anew. The towns had to defend themselves against the robber barons, and formed confederacies for this purpose. Private war raged all over Germany.

ACCESSION OF SIGISMUND.—Wenceslaus was deposed by the electors in 1400. But Rupert, the Count Palatine, his successor (1400-1410), was able to accomplish little, in consequence of the strife of parties. Sigismund (1410-1437), brother of Wenceslaus, margrave of Brandenburg, and, in right of his wife, king of Hungary, was chosen emperor, first by a part, and then by all, of the electors. The most important events of this period were the Council of Constance (1414-1418) and the war with the Hussites.

JOHN HUSS.—The principal end for which the Council of Constance was called was the healing of the schism in the Church,—in consequence of which there were three rival popes,—and the securing of ecclesiastical reforms. But at this council John Huss, an eminent Bohemian preacher, was tried for heresy. The doctrines of Wickliffe had penetrated into Bohemia; and a strong party, of which Huss was the principal leader, had sprung up in favor of innovations, doctrinal and practical, one of which was the giving of the cup in the sacrament to the laity. Huss made a great stir by his attack upon abuses in the Church. Under a safe-conduct from Sigismund, he journeyed to Constance. There he was tried, condemned as a heretic, and burnt at the stake (1415). Jerome of Prague, another reformer, was dealt with in the same way by the council (1416).

HUSSITE WAR.—The indignation of the followers of Huss was such that a great revolt broke out in Bohemia. The leader was a brave man, Ziska. The imperial troops, after the coronation of Sigismund as king of Bohemia, were defeated, and driven out. The Hussite soldiers ravaged the neighboring countries. The council of Basel (1431-1449) concluded a treaty with the more moderate portion of the Hussites, in which concessions were made to them. The Taborites, the more fanatical portion, were at length defeated and crushed.

SWITZERLAND.—Switzerland, originally a part of the kingdom of Arles, had been ceded, with this kingdom, to the German Empire in 1033. Within it, was established a lay and ecclesiastical feudalism. In the twelfth century the cities—Zuerich, Basel, Berne, and Freiburg—began to be centers of trade, and gained municipal privileges. The three mountain cantons—Uri, Schweitz, and Unterwalden—cherished the spirit of freedom. The counts of Hapsburg, after the beginning of the thirteenth century, exercised a certain indefinite jurisdiction in the land. They endeavored to transform this into an actual sovereignty. Two of the cantons received charters placing them in an immediate relation to the empire. After the death of Rudolph I., the three cantons above named united in a league. Out of this the Swiss Confederacy gradually grew up. There were struggles to cast off foreign control; but the story of William Tell, and other legends of the sort, are certainly fabulous. Albert of Austria left to his successor in the duchy the task of subduing the rebellion. The Austrians were completely defeated at Morgarten, "the Marathon of Switzerland" (1315). The Swiss Confederacy was enlarged by the addition of Lucerne (1332), Zuerich and Glarus (1351), Zug (1352), and of the city of Berne in 1353. The battle of Sempach (1386) brought another great defeat upon the Austrians. There, if we may believe an ancient song, a Swiss hero, Arnold of Winkelried, grasped as many of the spear-points as he could reach, as a sheaf in his arms, and devoted himself to death, opening thus a path in which his followers rushed to victory. Once more the Swiss triumphed at Naefels (1388). From that time they were left to the enjoyment of their freedom.

II. ITALY.

GUELFS AND GHIBELLINES: FREEDOM IN THE CITIES.—The inveterate foes of Italy were foreign interference and domestic faction. After the death of Frederick II., the war of the popes against his successors lasted for seventeen years. After the defeat of Manfred (1266), Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufens, died on the scaffold at Naples. Charles of Anjou lost Sicily through the rebellion of the Sicilian Vespers (1282); and dominion in that island, separated from Naples, passed to the house of Aragon. The papal states, after the election of Rudolph of Hapsburg, became a distinct sovereignty of the pontiffs. The bitter strife of the Guelfs and Ghibellines went on in the Italian cities. The Genoese, who were Guelfic, defeated the Pisans in 1284; and "Pisa, which had ruined Amalfi, was now ruined by Genoa." Florence, which was Guelfic, grew in strength. Genoa and Venice became rivals in the contest for the control of the Mediterranean. In Florence, new factions, the Neri and Bianchi (Blacks and Whites), appeared; the Neri being violent Guelfs, and the Bianchi being at first moderate Guelfs and then Ghibellines. Pope Boniface VIII. invited into Italy Charles of Valois. He was admitted to Florence (1301), and gave the supremacy there to the Guelfic side. The coming of the Emperor Henry VII. into Italy (1310) was marked by a temporary, but the last, revival of imperial feeling. The connection of the popes with the French houses of Anjou and Valois led to the "Babylonian Exile" at Avignon, during which Italy was comparatively free, both from imperial and papal control. During the period of the civil wars, while there was nominally a conflict between the party of the pope and the party of the emperor, the Guelfs were devoted to the destruction of feudalism, and to the building-up of commerce and republican institutions; while the Ghibellines, dreading anarchy, resisted the incoming of the new order of things. It was in this period that Dante produced his immortal poem, which sprang out of the midst of the contest of Guelf and Ghibelline (p. 307). Dante was himself a Ghibelline and an imperialist. In the course of these conflicts, the plebeian class, before without power, is advanced. Older families of nobility die out, or are reduced in influence. New families rise to prominence and power. The burghers band together in arts or guilds; and out of these, in their corporate character, the governments of the cities are formed. "Ancients," and "priors," the heads of the "arts," supersede the consuls. The "podesta" is more and more limited to a judicial function. In some of the Guelf cities, there is "a gonfalonier of justice," to curb the nobility. In Florence, there were also twenty subordinate gonfaloniers.

The final triumph of Guelfs and of republicanism in Florence was in 1253. The body of the citizens established their sovereignty. When, in 1266, citizenship was confined to those who were enrolled in the guilds, the nobles, or Grandi, were wholly excluded from the government. This led them to drop their titles and dignities in order to enroll themselves in these industrial societies. The feuds of factions, especially of the "Whites" and "Blacks," sprang up next. In the latter part of the fourteenth century, strife arose between the "Lesser Arts," or craftsmen whose trades were subordinate to the "Greater Arts," and these last. The mob in Florence drove the "Signory," or chief magistrates, out of the public palace. This was the "Tumult of the Ciompi,"—Ciompi signifying wool-carders, who gave their name to the whole faction. Afterwards, of their own accord, they gave back the government to the priors of the Greater Arts. The effect of these disturbances was to reduce all classes to a level. The way was open for families, like the Albizzi and Medici, to build up a virtual control by wealth and personal qualities.

THE GENERALS IN THE CITIES.—In the cities, there were "captains of the people," who carried on war,—leaders of the Guelfs or Ghibellines, as either might be uppermost. They were persons who were skilled in arms: these were often nobles who had been merged in the body of citizens. In this way, there arose in the cities of Northern Italy ruling houses or dynasties; as the Della Scala in Verona, the Polenta at Ravenna, etc. In Tuscany, where the commercial power of Florence was so great, the communes as yet kept themselves free from hereditary rulers; yet, from time to time, their liberties were exposed to attack from successful generals.

THE TYRANTS.—At the beginning of the fourteenth century, as the fury of the civil wars declined, the cities were left more and more under the rule of masters called "tyrants." Tyranny, as of old, was a term for absolute authority, however it might be wielded. The visits of the emperors Henry VII., and Louis IV. of Bavaria, and of John of Bohemia, son of Henry VII., had no important political effect, except to bring increased power to the Ghibelline despots. Thus, after the interference of Louis IV. (1327), the Visconti established their power in Milan. But the changes in Italy after this epoch gave to the Ghibellines no permanent advantage over their adversaries. The leader of the Guelfs for a long time was Robert, king of Naples (1309-1343).

THE CLASSES OF DESPOTS.—The methods by which the Emperor Frederic II. governed in Italy, and which he had partly learned from the Saracens in Sicily, furnished an example which the Italian despots followed later. He was imitated in his system of taxation, in his creation of monopolies, in the luxury and magnificence of his court, and in his patronage of polite culture. His vicar in the North of Italy, Ezzelino da Romano (1194-1259), who was captain, in the Ghibelline interest, in Verona, Padua, and other cities, was guilty of massacres and all sorts of cruelties, the story of which exercised a horrible fascination over others who came after. At last he was 'hunted down' by Venice and a league of cities, and captured; but he refused to take food, tore his bandages from his wounds, and died under the ban of the Church. The despots of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have been divided by Mr. Symonds into six classes. The first class had a certain hereditary right from the previous exercise of lordship, as the house of Este in Ferrara. The second class, as the Visconti family in Milan, had been vicars of the empire. The third class were captains, or podestas, chosen by the burghers to their office, but abusing it to enslave the cities. Most of the tyrants of Lombardy got their power in this way. The fourth class is made up of the Condottieri, like Francesco Sforza at Milan. The fifth class includes the nephews or sons of popes, and is of later origin, like the Borgia of Romagna. Their governments had less stability. The sixth class is that of eminent citizens, like the Medici at Florence and the Bentivogli of Bologna. These acquired undue authority by wealth, sometimes by personal qualities and noble descent. Among those who are called "despots" were individuals of worth, moderation, and culture. The records of many of them are filled with tragic scenes of violence and crime. To maintain their hated rule, they were impelled to the practice of barbarities hardly ever surpassed. (J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy, vol. i. chap, ii.)

CONDOTTIERI.—With the end of the civil wars, there appear "the companies of adventure," or mercenary troops. The burghers, having put down the nobility and achieved their independence, lay aside their arms. They are busy in manufactures and trade. The despots and the republics prefer to hire foreign adventurers, the "free companies," who were a curse to Italy. Their occupation, which was a profitable one, was taken up by natives. These were the condottieri. Their leaders introduced cavalry and more skillful methods of fighting. But the battles were bloodless games of strategy, and military energy declined. At the same time intrigue and state-craft were the instruments of political aggrandizement. One of these new leaders was Sforza Attendolo, whose son became Duke of Milan.

FIVE STATES IN ITALY.—In the middle of the fifteenth century, we find, as the political result of the changes of the preceding century and a half, five principal communities in Italy. These powers are the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of Milan, the republic of Florence, the republic of Venice, and the principality of the Pope. A brief sketch will be given of each of these states down to 1447, when Nicholas V. reestablished the papacy in its strength at Rome, after the exile at Avignon (1305), and the ecclesiastical convulsions that followed it.

LOWER ITALY.—Robert the Wise (of Anjou) (1309-1343), the successor of Charles II. of Naples and the champion of the Guelfs, could not extend his power over Sicily, where Frederick II. (1296-1337), the son of Peter of Aragon, reigned. Robert's granddaughter, Joan I., after a career of crime and misfortune, was strangled in prison by Charles Durazzo, the last male descendant of the house of Anjou in Lower Italy (1382), who seized on the government. Joan II., the last heir of Durazzo (1414-1435), first adopted Alfonso V. of Aragon, and then Louis III. of Anjou and his brother Rene. Alfonso, who inherited the crown of Sicily, united both kingdoms (1435), after a war with Rene and the Visconti of Milan. By this contest, Italy was divided into two parties, composed of the respective adherents of the houses of Anjou and Aragon, The rights of Rene were to revert later to the crown of France, and to serve as a ground for new wars. For twenty-three years Alfonso reigned wisely and prosperously in Southern Italy. He was a patron of letters, and promoted peace among the Italian states.

THE MILANESE: SFORZA.—Another great power was growing up in the North. The greatness of the Visconti family dates from John, Archbishop of Milan, who reigned there, and died in 1354. Gian Galeazzo Visconti became sole master of Milan in 1385, and extended his dominion over Lombardy. He bought of the Emperor Wenceslaus the ducal title. Twenty-six cities, with their territories, were subject to him. But at Galeazzo's death, his state fell to pieces. The condottieri, whom he had kept under, broke loose from control; and in 1450, one of them, Francesco Sforza, with the help of the Venetians, seized on the supreme power, which his family continued to hold for fifty years.

VENICE.—Venice, in the fourteenth century, was as strong as any Italian state. Its constitution was of gradual growth. The doge, elected by the people, divided power in 1032 with a senate; and in 1172 the Grand Council was organized. This council by degrees absorbed the powers of government, which thus became an aristocracy. In 1297 the Senate became hereditary in a few families. In 1311 the powerful Council of Ten was constituted. For a long period Venice was not ambitious of power in Italy, but was satisfied with her commerce with the East. Her contest with Genoa began in 1352, and lasted for thirty years. In the war of Chioggia,—so called from a town twenty-five miles south of Venice,—the Venetians were defeated by Luciano Doria in a sea-fight on the Adriatic. He blockaded Venice; but Doria, in turn, was blockaded in Chioggia by the Venetians, and forced to surrender. After reducing the naval power of Genoa, they added Verona, Vicenza, and Padua to their territories (1410). Under Francesco Foscari, who was doge from 1423 to 1457, Venice took an active part in Italian affairs.

FLORENCE: THE MEDICI.—In Florence, the Medici family gained an influence which gave them a practical control of the government. In 1378 Salvestro de Medici signalized himself by a successful resistance to an oligarchical faction composed partly of the old nobility. The brilliant period in the history of Florence begins with this triumph of the democracy. Pisa was bought from the Duke of Milan, and forced to submit to Florentine rule (1406). John de Medici, a very successful merchant, was twice chosen gonfalonier (1421). His son Cosmo I., who was born in 1389, was also a merchant, possessed of great wealth. He attained to the leading offices in the state, having overcome the Albizzi family, at whose instigation he was for a while banished. Cosmo ruled under the republican forms, but with not less authority on that account. He was distinguished for his patronage of art and letters. By his varied services to Florence, he earned the title of "Father of his Country," which was given him by a public decree.

THE ROMAN PRINCIPALITY: RIENZI.—After the popes took up their abode in Avignon, in the first half of the fourteenth century, Rome was distracted by the feuds of leading families who built for themselves strongholds in the city. In 1347 the Romans, fired by the enthusiast Rienzi, who sought to restore the old Roman liberty, undertook to set up a government after the ancient model. Rienzi was chosen tribune. He found much favor in other cities of Italy. But his head was turned by the seeming realization of his dreams. He was driven out of Italy by the cardinals and the nobles. He returned afterwards, sent by Pope Innocent VI., to aid in winning back Rome to subjection to the Holy See. But his power was gone. He disgusted the people with his pomps and shows, and, while trying to escape in disguise, was put to death (1354). Cardinal Albornoz succeeded in reuniting the dissevered parts of the papal kingdom. But in the period of the Schism (1378-1417), in the cities old dynasties were revived, and new ones arose; towns and territories were ceded to nobles as fiefs; and a degree of freedom almost amounting to independence was conceded to old republics, as Rome, Perugia, and Bologna. It was the work of Pope Nicholas V. and his successors (from 1477) to regain and cement anew the fragments of the papal principality.

LITERATURE AND ART.—In this period, in the midst of political agitation in Italy, there was a brilliant development in the departments of literature and art. The major part of Dante's life (1265-1321) falls within the thirteenth century. Petrarch (1304-1374), Boccaccio (1313-1375), a master in Italian prose, and Dante, are the founders of Italian literature. They are followed by an era of study and culture, rather than of original production. In the arts, Venice and Pisa first became eminent. The church of St. Mark was built at Venice, in the Byzantine style, in 1071. At about the same time the famous cathedral at Pisa was begun; which was followed, in the twelfth century, by the Baptistery and the Leaning Tower. The Campo Santo, or cemetery, was built in 1278. In the thirteenth century, when architectural industry was so active, numerous high brick towers were built in Florence for purposes of defense. Some of them remain "to recall the bloody feuds of the irreconcilable factions of the nobility. In these conflicts, the strife was carried on from tower to tower, from house to house: streets were barricaded with heavy chains, and homes made desolate with fire and sword." Churches and great public buildings were constructed in this period. At the end of the thirteenth century the church of Santa Croce was built at Florence; and in the century following, Brunelleschi, the reviver of classical art in Italy, placed the great cupola on the Cathedral. The Gothic cathedral of Milan, with its wilderness of statues, was begun in 1346. Cimabue, who died about 1302, and Giotto, who died about 1337, laid the foundations of the modern Italian schools of painting.

TRADE AND COMMERCE.—The seaports, Venice and Genoa, were centers of a flourishing commerce, extending to the far East and to the coasts of Spain and France. The interior cities—Milan with its two hundred thousand inhabitants, Verona, Florence—were centers of manufactures and of trade. The Italians were the first bankers in Europe. The bank of Venice was established in 1171, and the bank of Genoa, although it was projected earlier, was founded in 1407. The financial dealings of Italian merchants spread over all Europe.

MORALITY.—The one thing lacking in Italy was a broader spirit of patriotism and a higher tone of morality. Advance in civilization was attended with corruption of morals.

III. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.—Resistance to the Arabs in Spain began in the northern mountainous region of Cantabria and Asturia, which even the West Goths had not wholly subdued, although Asturia was called Gothia. Asturia, a Christian principality (732), expanded into the kingdom called Leon (916), of which Castile was an eastern county. East of Leon, there grew up the kingdom of Navarre, mostly on the southern, but partly on the northern side of the Pyrenees. On the death of Sancho the Great, it was broken up (1035). At about the same time the Ommiad caliphate was broken up into small kingdoms (1031). After the death of Sancho, or early in the eleventh century, we find in Northern Spain, beginning on the west and moving eastward, the kingdom of Leon, the beginnings of the kingdom of Castile, the reduced kingdom of Navarre, the beginnings of the kingdom of Aragon, and, between Aragon and the Mediterranean, Christian states which had been comprised in the Spanish March over which the Franks had ruled. The two states which were destined to attain to the chief importance were Castile and Aragon. Of these, Castile was eventually to be to Spain what France was to all Gaul. Ultimately the union of Castile and Aragon gave rise to the great Spanish monarchy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The four kingdoms of Leon, Castile, Aragon, and Navarre, after the death of Sancho, as time went on, were joined and disjoined among themselves in many different ways. Castile and Leon were finally united in 1230. Portugal, lying on the ocean, was partly recovered from the Arabs towards the close of the eleventh century, and was a county of Leon and Castile until, in 1139, it became a kingdom. From this time Castile, Aragon, and Portugal were the three antagonists of Moslem rule. Each of these kingdoms advanced. Portugal spread especially along the Atlantic coast; Aragon, along the coast of the Mediterranean; Castile, the principal power, spread in the interior, and included by far the greater part of what is now Spain. In the latter part of the thirteenth century the Moslems were confined to the kingdom of Granada in the South, which was conquered by Castile and Aragon (1492), whose sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, were united in marriage. Their kingdoms were united in 1516. In the latter part of the Middle Ages, Aragon, from its situation on the eastern coast, played an important part in the politics of Europe. Castile and Portugal led the way in maritime exploration.

THE MOORS.—It has been already related (p. 282), that, after the fall of the Ommiad caliphate, African Mohammedans came over to the help of their Spanish brethren. These Moors did not supplant the Arabic speech or culture. The two principal invasions of the Moors were the invasion by the Almoravides (1086-110), and that by the Almohades (1146).

ARAGON: NAVARRE.—The kingdoms of Aragon and Castile existed for centuries side by side. Aragon sought to extend its conquests along the eastern coast; Castile, to enlarge itself toward the south. James I., or James the Conqueror (1213-1276), joined the Moslem state of Valencia, by conquest, to his kingdom of Aragon, to which Catalonia had already been added. The union of these peoples developed a national character of a definite type. In its pride of birth and of blood, its tenacious clinging to traditional rights, and in its esteem of military prowess before intellectual culture, it resembled the old Spartan temper. Peter III.,(1276-1285), the son of James I., united with the three states Sicily, which, though it became a separate kingdom, gave to the house of Aragon its influence in Southern Italy. Nearly the whole of the fourteenth century was taken up by Aragon in the acquisition of Sardinia, which the Pope had ceded, and in the endless wars, connected with this matter, which it waged with the Genoese. In 1410 the ruling house of Barcelona became extinct. In the revolutions that followed, Navarre and Aragon were united under John II., second son of Ferdinand I., king of Aragon. John, by his marriage with Blanche of Navarre, shared her father's throne with her after his death. He was guilty of the crime of poisoning his own son Don Carlos, Prince of Vianne. John was the father of Ferdinand "the Catholic," under whose scepter the kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and Navarre were brought together.

CASTILE.—Ferdinand III. (St. Ferdinand) (1214-1252), in warfare with the Moors extended the kingdom of Castile and Leon over Cordova, Seville, and Cadiz. His son Alfonso X., or Alfonso the Wise (1252-1284), cultivated astronomy and astrology, was fond of music and poetry, enlarged the University of Salamanca, gave a code of laws to his kingdom, and caused historical books to be written; but he wasted his treasures in pomp and luxury, and in ambitious designs upon the German imperial crown. He allowed the Merinides, new swarms of African Saracens, to spread in the South of Spain. Alfonso XI. (1312-1350), after a stormy contest with the nobles during his minority, distinguished himself by the victory of Tarifa over the Moors (1340), and the taking of the city of Algeciras (1344). His enemies respected him; and when he died of the plague, in his camp before Gibraltar, the king of Granada went into mourning (1350). The reign of Peter the Cruel (1350-1369) was filled up with perfidies and crimes. The league of the nobles against him only incited him to fresh barbarities. He committed the most atrocious murders, sometimes with his own hand. Protected by the Black Prince, he was at first victorious against Henry of Transtamare his rival; and Du Guesclin was defeated in the battle of Najara in 1367. Afterwards Peter was obliged to surrender, and was killed by the dagger of Henry in a personal encounter. The power of the nobility in Castile had so increased during the civil troubles that Henry III. (1390-1406) had to sell his cloak to procure for himself a dinner. Roused by this humiliation to assert his authority, he succeeded with the help of the Cortes in humbling the nobility; but John II. (1406-1454) was compelled by the most powerful lords, after a protracted contest, to strike off the head of an unworthy favorite, Alvaro de Luna, under whose despotic control he had placed the government (1454). There was a worse state of anarchy under Henry IV., John's successor (1454-1474).

CONSTITUTIONS OF ARAGON AND CASTILE.—The political institutions of Aragon and Castile are specially worthy of note. The kings of Aragon were very much restricted in their authority by the Cortes, or general assembly, composed of the higher and lower classes of nobles, the clergy, and the cities, which by their trade and manufactures had risen to wealth and power. With the Cortes was lodged the right to make laws and to lay taxes. At Saragassa in 1287, it was likewise ordained that they should enjoy certain important privileges. The concurrence of the estates was to be required in the choice of the king's counselors; and in case the king without the warrant of a judgment of the highest judicial officer, the justiciary, and of the estates, should adjudge to punishment any member of the body, they should have the right to elect another king. These "privileges" were lost under Peter IV. (1336-1387), but the old rights were confirmed. To the justiciary was given the power to determine all conflicts of the estates with the king or with one another. His influence increased as time went on. He was the first magistrate in the kingdom.

In Castile, as early as 1169 the deputies of the cities were admitted into the Cortes. We find the cities, at the end of the thirteenth century, forming a confederation, called a "fraternity," against the nobles. Their deputies at that time had more power in the assemblies than the nobles and clergy. But the power of the nobles increased, especially from the accession of Henry of Transtamare. In the overthrow of Alvaro de Luna, their triumph was complete: they proved themselves to be stronger than the king.

THE CASTILIANS.—The Spanish Mohammedans were superior in refinement to their Christian adversaries. The latter learned much from their enemies, without losing the patriotic and religious ardor which was fostered by the popular minstrelsy, and by the romantic exploits and encounters with the "infidels." The result was the peculiar spirit of Castilian chivalry. The early development of popular government in Castile increased the feeling of personal independence. Outside of Italy, no cities of Europe in the Middle Ages were so rich and flourishing as the cities of Castile, Materials of commerce were afforded by the famous breed of sheep, and by the products of the soil and of manufactures. The nobles gained great wealth, and had vast estates in the country. They held court as petty sovereigns: Alvaro de Luna had twenty thousand vassals. They were inured to war, they were haughty and overbearing, and complaints of their oppressions were frequent on the part of the lower orders. The Castilian ecclesiastics were often lax in their morals. The higher prelates were possessed of great riches and authority. In the beginning of the fifteenth century the people in Castile had more power, compared with the power of the sovereign, than in any other European country. But the representation of the commons was exclusively from the cities, and not, as in England, largely from the landed proprietors.

THE ARAGONESE.—The extraordinary authority exercised by the justiciary, or justice, of Aragon was perhaps the most remarkable feature of its constitution. Dwelling on the ocean, the Aragonese built up a naval power. Barcelona, after its union with Aragon, was the seat of a flourishing commerce, and framed the first written code of maritime law now extant. Its municipal officers were merchants and mechanics. Membership in the guilds was sought by nobles, as rendering them eligible to the magistracy. The burghers became proud and independent. The Catalans did not hesitate to assert their rights against encroachments of the kings. In 1430 the University of Barcelona was founded. "After the genuine race of troubadours had passed away," says Mr. Prescott, "the Provencal or Limousin verse was carried to its highest excellence by the poets of Valencia" (Prescott's History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, Introduction).

PORTUGAL: COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.—About 1095 Alfonso VI., king of Castile and Leon, gave the territory between the Minho and the Douro to his son-in-law, Henry of Burgundy, who assumed the title of Count of Portugal. His son and successor, Alfonso I., who defeated the Moors at Ourique in 1139, was hailed as king by his army, and later was confirmed in the title by the Pope (1185). He was acknowledged as independent by the king of Castile. In a diet at Laimego, he gave an excellent constitution and body of laws to his people (1143). Soon after, he conquered Lisbon, and made it his capital. His son, Sancho I. (1185-1211), was distinguished both for his victories over the Moors and for his encouragement of tillage and of farm-laborers. Until we reach the fifteenth century, Portuguese history is occupied with wars with the Moors and the Castilians, contests of the kings with the nobles, and struggles between rival aspirants for the throne, and between the sovereigns on the one hand and the clergy and the popes on the other. Under Dionysius III. (1279-1325) there began a new era, in which the Portuguese became eminent for industry and learning, and in commerce and navigation. He founded the University of Lisbon. Alfonso IV. (1325-1357) continued on the same path. But he caused Ines de Castro, who had been secretly married to his son, to be murdered (1354); a crime which the son, Peter I. (1357-1367), after his accession, avenged by causing the hearts of the murderers to be torn out. John I. (1385-1433) repelled a great invasion of the Castilians, in a battle near Lisbon, and became at first regent and then king. He was the founder of a new family. By him Ceuta in Africa was captured from the Moors. Madeira was discovered (1419), and by the burning of the forests was prepared for the cultivation of sugar-cane and the vine. In 1432 the Portuguese occupied the Azores. A most active interest in voyages of discovery was taken by Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), fourth son of King John I. and of Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt.

IV. THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES.

THE BALTIC LANDS.—There are three divisions of Europe which neither Charlemagne's Empire nor the Eastern Empire included. The first is Spain, which had been comprised in the old Roman Empire. The second is Great Britain and the adjacent islands. Only a portion of Britain was held as a province by old Rome. The third is the two Scandinavian peninsulas,—Denmark, and Norway and Sweden, with the Slavonic lands to the east and south, which may be said to have had a common relation to the Baltic. The Scandinavians had their period of foreign conquest and settlement, but their settlements abroad remained in no connection with the countries whence they came. Sweden was cut off from the ocean. "The history of Sweden"—as Mr. Freeman, to whom we owe a lucid exposition of this subject, has pointed out—"mainly consists in the growth and the loss of her dominion in the Baltic lands out of her own peninsula. It is only in quite modern times that the union of the crowns, though not of the kingdoms, of Sweden and Norway, has created a power wholly peninsular and equally Baltic and oceanic." The Germans and Scandinavians spread their dominion over the Aryan and non-Aryan tribes on the south and east of the Baltic. Finland, inhabited by a Turanian or Scythic people whose language is akin to that of the Hungarians, was long under Swedish dominion. Now Finland and the east of the Baltic are in Russia, while the southern and south-eastern shore of the Baltic is German. Russia, in modern days, having no oceanic character like Great Britain and Spain, has expanded her dominion westward to the Baltic, but mainly to the east over Central Asia. She has built up a continental, instead of a maritime and colonial, empire.

CONVERSION OF SCANDINAVIA.—In the earlier part of the Middle Ages, the two Scandinavian peninsulas are known only through the piratical expeditions which they send forth upon the two adjacent seas. By the way of the North Sea, the Northmen reached France, England, Greenland, and America; by the way of the Baltic, Russia. The conversion of Denmark to Christianity was completed in the eleventh century, under Canute; that of Norway in the tenth, and of Sweden in the eleventh. After the foreign settlements were made, and with the introduction of the gospel, piracy ceased, and civilization began (p. 239).

DENMARK.—After Canute VI. (1182), Waldemar II., the Victorious, was the prominent personage in Danish history. He conquered Holstein and Pomerania,—in fact, every thing north of the Elbe and the Elde. In 1219 he overran Esthonia, in a crusade for the forcible conversion of the pagans, when the Danish standard, the Dannebrog,—a white cross on a blood-red field,—began to be used. On his return, he was treacherously captured, and with his son was kept in prison in Mecklenburg for three years, by Henry, Count of Schwerin. Waldemar was defeated in 1227, in the war undertaken to recover the conquests which he had given up as the price of his release. He was the author of a code of laws.

UNION OF CROWNS.—Waldemar III. (1340-1375) regained the conquests of Waldemar II. This brought on a general war, in which the Hanseatic League, as well as Sweden, were among his antagonists (1363). Denmark, having control of the entrance to the Baltic, and exacting tolls of vessels, was a second time involved in war with that great mercantile confederacy and its allies, and was worsted in the conflict (1372). Waldemar's second daughter, Margaret, married Hakon VI., King of Norway. Hakon's son Olaf was a child at his father's death, and the regency was held by his mother. Olaf (1376-1387) was elected by the Estates king of Denmark. His mother, now regent in both countries, became queen in both after Olaf's death. In 1388 Margaret accepted the crown of Sweden; the Swedes having revolted against the king, Albert, who was defeated and captured at Falkoeping (1389).

SWEDEN.—War existed for centuries between the Swedes and the Goths, the inhabitants of the southern part of the peninsula. Each race contended for supremacy. Political union began with Waldemar (1250-1275), son of Birger Jarl (Earl Birger). Stockholm was founded in 1255. Private wars and judicial combats were suppressed, commerce was encouraged, and the condition of women improved. Large duchies were established, afterwards a source of discord. Magnus I. (1279-1290) was surnamed Ladulas, or Barnlock, for protecting the granaries of the peasants from the rapacious nobles. His reign was succeeded by war between his sons. As the result of a popular revolt in 1319, Magnus Smek, an infant, became king, and during the regency succeeded, by right of his mother, to the crown of Norway, where he (1350) placed on the throne his son Hakon. But when Magnus attempted to rule without the senate, he was deposed, and Albert of Mecklenburg was elected king (1365). But the nobles were supreme: in 1388 they deposed Albert, and gave the crown to Margaret of Norway and Denmark. Albert was held a prisoner for six years, and then renounced his claim to the throne.

NORWAY.—Magnus III. (1095-1103), called from his Scottish dress Barefoot, united the Hebrides and Orcades into a kingdom for his son Sigurd, and invaded Iceland, where he died. Sigurd inherited the spirit of Harold Fairhair (860-about 933), through whom Norway had been made a united kingdom. He made a voyage to Jerusalem through the Mediterranean, and was a renowned crusader. After his death (1130), there were fierce contests for the throne, the more fierce as illegitimate sons had the same right in law as those born in wedlock. In 1152 a papal legate established a hierarchy in Norway, which interfered in the struggle. Conflicts arose between the clerical party and the national party, in which the latter at length gained the day. Under Hakon VI., Iceland was conquered (1260). Magnus VI. (1263-1280) brought in an era of quiet, without stifling popular freedom. The cities engaged actively in manufactures and commerce. Magnus strengthened and organized the military and naval force. By him the Hebrides were ceded to Scotland. Under Eric (1280-1299), called Priest-hater, there was a struggle to curb the power of the clergy and nobles, in which the king was aided by the peasants. He was worsted in the conflict with the Hanse towns, and compelled to join their League. The accession of Magnus Smek, the son of his daughter, to the throne of Norway (1319), led eventually to the Union of Calmar (1397), in which Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were brought together.

"The situation of Norway, during the Middle Ages, might be shortly described as an absolute monarchy resting almost directly on one of the most democratic states of society in Europe." The greater families, by the partition of their estates, became a part of the class of small land-owners. Between them and the king there was no intermediate class.

AFTER THE UNION OF CALMAR.—After the death of Margaret, who governed the united kingdoms after the union, Eric XIII. of Pomerania succeeded. The union was shaken by the revolt of Schleswig and of Holstein, and was dissolved on the death of Christopher of Bavaria (1448), who had been chosen king. The Swedes broke off, and made Charles Canutson king, under the name of Charles VIII. Denmark and Norway remained united; and under Christian I. of the house of Oldenburg, whom they made king, Schleswig and Holstein were again attached to Denmark (1459).

V. POLAND AND RUSSIA.

THE SLAVONIC TRIBES.—The settlement of the Hungarians (Magyars) in Europe had the effect to divide the Slavonic tribes into three general groups. The northern Slaves were separated from the Slaves south of the Danube,—the inhabitants of Servia, Croatia, Dalmatia, etc. The north-western Slaves bordered on the Western Empire. The states of Bohemia and Poland grew up among them. On the east of this group of Slaves were the Russians. Both Poland and Russia became independent kingdoms. In the course of history, a part of the north Slavonic lands, those which are represented by Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Saxony, were Germanized. Lands in the south-west, as Bohemia and Moravia, remained predominantly Slavonic in speech. A central region formed the kingdom of Poland. On the east were the Slavonic tribes which were the nucleus of modern Russia.

LITHUANIANS AND PRUSSIANS.—Both Poland and Russia were originally cut off from the Baltic by other races. Such were the non-Aryan Fins in Esthonia (Esthland) and Livonia (Livland). Such, also, were the Aryans of the Lettic branch, of whom the Lithuanians and the Prussians were the principal divisions. The Lithuanians formed at one time a strong state. The Prussians finally gave their name to the Teutonic kingdom in which they were absorbed.

THE POLES.—The Poles derive their name from a word meaning plains. They were inhabitants of the plains. They were the strongest of a group of tribes dwelling between the Oder and the Vistula, and holding the coast between their mouths. Between them and the sea, on the east of the Vistula, were the Prussians.

POLAND: ITS CONSTITUTION.—In the tenth century the Lechs, or Poles, on the Vistula, had acquired considerable power, and had a center at Gnesen, which remained the metropolis of Poland. There are legends of a first duke, Piast by name. A dynasty which bore his name continued in Poland until 1370; in Silesia, until 1675. Miecislas I. was converted to Christianity by his wife, a Bohemian princess. He did homage to the Emperor Otto I. (978). Boleslav I. (992) aspired to the regal dignity, and had himself crowned as king by his bishops. Gregory VII. excommunicated him, deprived him of the title of king, and laid Poland under an interdict. Boleslav III., the Victorious (1102-1138), subdued the Pomeranians, and compelled them to receive Christianity. He divided his kingdom among his four sons. Silesia became an independent duchy. A long crusade was carried on against the Prussians, a heathen people, who attacked the Poles, by the "Brethren of the soldiers of Christ," and the "Teutonic knights," two orders which were united (about 1226). The Teutonic knights at length became the enemies of the Poles. The savage Lithuanians assailed them on the north. From the anarchy that reigned, Poland was rescued by Casimir III., the Great (1333-1370), who defeated the Russians, and carried his eastern boundary as far as the Dnieper. Prior to this time, Poland was an important kingdom. Casimir framed a code of written laws for his people, and gave an impulse to commerce. But in order to secure the election of his nephew, Louis king of Hungary (1370-1382), he had to increase the powers and privileges of the nobles. The accession of Louis terminated the long rivalry of Poland and Hungary. He, like Casimir, died without children. The nobles made Jagellon, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, his successor (1386), who took the name of Vladislav II. Under a series of conquering princes, Lithuania had extended its dominion over the neighboring Russian lands, and become a strong state. Vladislav was chosen on the condition that he should espouse the daughter of the last king, and, with his nation, embrace Christianity. This event doubled the territory of Poland. The Teutonic Knights, who ruled from the Oder to the Gulf of Finland, were now overcome. The treaty of Thorn (1466) confined their dominion to Eastern Prussia. The misfortune of Poland was its political constitution. Although the monarchy was not yet completely elective, but hereditary in the house of Jagellon, the election of every king had to be sanctioned by the nobles. They alone took part in the diet, and held the offices and honors. There was no burgher class, no "third estate." Every man who owned and was able to equip a horse was counted as a noble. The burden of taxation fell on the peasants.

NATURAL FEATURES OF RUSSIA.—Russia in Europe comprises at present more than half the territory of that entire continent. Yet it has but a small share of seaboard, and of this a large part is frozen in winter. The surface of Russia is of a piece with the boundless plateaus of Northern and Central Asia. It has been defined as the "Europe of plains, in opposition to the Europe of mountains." The mountains of Russia are chiefly on its boundaries. It is a country subject to extremes of heat and cold. From the scarcity of stone, all buildings were formerly of wood, and hence its towns were all combustible. The rivers of Russia have been of immense importance in its history. "The whole history of this country is the history of its three great rivers, and is divided into three periods,—that of the Dnieper with Kiev, that of the Volga with Moscow, and that of the Neva with Novgorod in the eighth century, and St. Petersburg in the eighteenth."

RUSSIANS AND POLES.—The Russian Slaves in the ninth century occupied but a small part of what is now Russia. There was probably little difference then between them and the Poles; but the one people were molded by the Greek Church and Greek civilization, the other by the Latin Church and by the collective influences of Western Europe.

RUSSIAN HISTORY.—The Northmen under Rurik had founded their dominion in Russia. Novgorod was their center. Thence they pushed their conquests to the south. Their descendants made Kiev, on the Dnieper, their capital. In Russia, as elsewhere, the Scandinavians quickly blended with their native subjects. Under Vladimir I. (980-1015), who was converted to Greek Christianity, with his people, and Iaroslaf I. (1019-1051), they attained to considerable power; but the custom of the sovereigns to divide their dominions among their sons, broke up their territory into a multitude of petty principalities. The result was a monotonous series of fierce contests, without any substantial result. In the midst of the bloody and profitless civil wars occurred the great invasion of the Mongols, who destroyed the principality of Kiev, and made that of Vladimir tributary. For two centuries the Russians continued under the yoke of the "Golden Horde," which the Mongols established on the Volga. They were obliged to pay tribute, and the Russian princes at their accession had to swear fealty to the khan on the banks of the river Amoor. At the time of the Mongol conquest, Novgorod was the center of Russian dominion. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Moscow became a new center of Russian power. From Moscow comes the name Muscovy. "Muscovy was to Russia what France in the older sense was to the whole land which came to bear that name." In the fourteenth century, while Lithuania and Poland were absorbing by conquest the territories of earlier or Western Russia, the Duchy of Moscow was building up a new Russia in the East, out of which grew the Russia of to-day. Ivan I., regarded as the founder of the Russian monarchy, made Moscow his capital in 1328. Most of the other princes were subject to him. Demetrius (or Dimtri) I. gained two great victories over the Mongol horde (1378 and 1380); but in 1382 they burned Moscow, and slew twenty-four thousand of its inhabitants. It was not until the reign of Ivan III., Ivan the Great (1462-1505), that Novgorod submitted to Moscow, and Russia was wholly delivered from the control and influence of the Mongols.

VI. HUNGARY.

THE ARPAD DYNASTY.—The chiefs of the Turanian Magyars, about 889, elected Arpad as successor of the leader under whom they had crossed the Carpathian Mountains. They overran Hungary and Transylvania, and terrified Europe by their invasions (p. 249). After their defeats by the emperors Henry I. and Otto the Great (p. 261), they confined themselves to their own country. The first king, Stephen,—St. Stephen,—was crowned, with the consent of Pope Sylvester II., in the year 1000. He divided the land into counties, organized the Church, and founded convents and schools. He conferred on the bishops high offices. He established a national council, composed of the lords temporal and spiritual, and of the knights, out of which sprung the diets. Ladislaus I. conquered Croatia (1089), and a part of the "Red Russian" land of Galicia (1093). Coloman, "the Learned," a brave and able man, annexed Dalmatia, which he wrested from the Venetians (1102). In the reign of Andrew II. (1205-1235), the "Golden Bull" was extorted by the nobles, which conferred on them extraordinary rights and privileges, including exemption from arrest prior to trial and conviction, and the control of the diet over appointments to office. It even authorized armed resistance on their part to tyrannical measures of the king,—a right that was not abrogated until 1687. Hungary was devastated by the great Tartar invasion (1241-42) (p. 283). The kings of Hungary supported the cause of Rudolph of Austria against Ottocar of Bohemia (p. 332).

INVASIONS OF THE TURKS.—The last king of the Arpad dynasty died in 1301. There was a division of parties in the choice of a successor. Pope Boniface VIII. and the clergy supported the claims of Count Charles Robert of Anjou, who was related to the former reigning family. Under the son of Charles Robert, Louis, who also succeeded Casimir III. as king of Poland (1370), Hungary became a very powerful state. Galicia was regained, Moldavia and Bulgaria were conquered. After the death of Louis, his daughter Maria reigned from 1386 conjointly with Sigismund, afterwards emperor, and king of Bohemia. He established his supremacy over Bosnia. From this time the invasions of the Turks begin. There had been a party in favor of raising to the throne Vladislaus, king of Poland; and after the death of Sigismund's successor, Albert II. of Austria (1437), and the death of the queen, he gained the crown (1442). He was slain at Varna, in the great battle in which the Hungarians were vanquished by the Turks (1444). John Hunyady, who had several times defeated the Turks, and who escaped on the field of Varna, was made for the time "governor;" but on the release of the son of Albert, Ladislaus Posthumus, who had been kept from the throne by the Emperor Frederick III., he was recognized as king (1452). Hun-yady was made general-in-chief. Frederick had also retained in his hands the crown, which had been intrusted to his care, and which Hungarians have always regarded with extreme veneration. A little later, great advantages were gained over the Turks, to be lost again in the sixteenth century.

VII. THE OTTOMAN TURKS.

OSMAN: MURAD I.—Towards the end of the thirteenth century, the Osman (or Ottoman) Turks, warlike nomad hordes, in order to escape from the Mongols, moved from the region east of the Caspian Sea, and conquered in Asia Minor the remnant of the kingdom of the Seljukians (p. 270). Impelled by fanaticism and the desire of booty, Ottoman (or Osman), their leader, advanced into Bithynia, and took Pruse, or Broussa, one of the most important cities of Asia Minor. The Greeks, with their Catalonian auxiliaries, were not able to dislodge him from his new possession. The Byzantine court was disabled from making an energetic effort for this end, by the partisan rancor, and mingled lethargy and cruelty, which characterized the old age of the Greek Empire. Nicomedia, Nicoea, and Ilium were conquered by the Sultan (or Padishah). Murad I. (1361-1389) founded the corps of janizaries, composed of select Christian youth chosen from the captives for their beauty and vigor. These became the most effective soldiers,—sometimes dangerous, however, to the sultans themselves. Adrianople was taken by Murad, and made the seat of his authority. The Christian principalities of Thrace, and the ancient but depopulated cities founded by the Greeks and Romans, were overrun. The Servians and Bulgarians made a stand against the fierce Ottoman warriors, but were beaten in the battle of Kosovo, where Muradwas slain.

BAJAZET.—Bajazet, the son and successor of Murad, outdid his predecessor in his martial prowess. He conquered Macedonia and Thessaly, and Greece to the southern end of Peloponnesus. The Emperor Sigismund and John of Burgundy, with one hundred thousand men, were utterly defeated in the sanguinary battle of Nicopolis (1396). Sigismund escaped by sea; the French counts and knights had to be redeemed from captivity with a large ransom; and ten thousand prisoners of lower rank were slaughtered by Bajazet. Bosnia was now in the hands of the victor. Constantinople had to pay tribute, and seemed likely to become his prey, when a temporary respite was obtained for it by the coming of a host even more powerful than that of Bajazet.

MONGOLIAN INVASION.—Timur, or Tamerlane, a descendant of Genghis Khan (p. 283), revived the fallen Tartar kingdom. At the head of his wandering Tartars, which grew into an army, he left Samarcand, where he had caused himself to be proclaimed sovereign, and, in a rapid career of conquest, made himself master of the countries from the Wall of China to the Mediterranean, and from the boundaries of Egypt to Moscow. Everywhere his path was marked with blood and with the ruins of the places which he destroyed. At Ispahan, in Persia, seventy thousand persons were killed. At Delhi, one hundred thousand captives were slain, that his relative, the "Great Mogul," might reign in security. It was his delight to pile up at the gates of cities pyramids of twenty or thirty thousand heads. Later (1401), at Bagdad, he erected such a pyramid of ninety thousand heads. He gained a great victory over the "Golden Horde" in Russia (p. 283), conquered the unsubdued parts of Persia, entered Bagdad, Bassorah, and Mosul, vanquished the khan of Kaptchak, and penetrated Russia in his devastating progress, as far as Moscow (1396). Then followed the conquest of Hindustan.

TAMERLANE AND BAJAZET.—The two powerful monarchs, Tamerlane and Bajazet, now measured their strength in combat with one another. Trembling ambassadors of the Greek emperor, and of certain Seljukian princes, had waited on Tamerlane in Gengia at the foot of the Caucasus. On the 16th of June, 1402, the two armies—four hundred thousand Turks, and eight hundred thousand Mongols, if one may credit the reports—met at Ancyra. The Ottomans were defeated, and Bajazet was taken prisoner. Led into the presence of Tamerlane, he found the Mongol quietly playing chess with his son. Asia Minor submitted to the conqueror, who penetrated as far as Smyrna. An old man, he was looking towards China as another field for invasion, when he died (1405). Bajazet died soon after his defeat.

TURKISH CONQUESTS: THE GREEKS AND LATINS.—The grandson of Bajazet, Murad II. (1421-1451), took up anew his projects of conquest. The empire of Tamerlane quickly fell to pieces. His course had been like that of a hurricane, terrible in its work of destruction, but soon at an end. The Byzantine dominion was soon confined to Constantinople and small districts adjacent. On all sides the Ottoman power was supreme. The Greek emperor, John VII. (Palaeologus), now endeavored, in imitation of previous attempts, to bring about a union of the Greek and Latin churches, and thus remove a principal obstacle to the obtaining of military help from the West. He went to Italy, attended by the patriarch and many bishops. After long debates and conferences on the abstruse points of doctrinal difference, a verbal agreement was reached between the two parties (1439). But the result was received with so much disfavor and indignation in Constantinople, that the effort to bring the sundered churches together came to naught. The Pope, however, stirred up the Christian princes to engage in war against the Turk. The defeat of Vladislav, king of Hungary, and of Hunyady, at Varna (1444), caused by the rash onset of the king upon the janizaries, was succeeded by another Turkish victory at Kosovo, four years later.

FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.—Murad II. was succeeded by his ambitious and unmerciful son, Mohammed II. (1451-1481), who determined that Constantinople should be his capital. The city had seven thousand defenders, comprising two thousand Genoese and Venetians, who were commanded by an able man, the Genoese Justiniani. The Emperor Constantine XII. worshiped according to the Roman rites; while his court observed the Greek forms, and spurned a union with the hated Latin Christians, whose help the emperor was to the end anxious to obtain. The city was stoutly defended for fifty-three days; and when it could be held no longer against the furious assault of the Turks, the gallant Constantine, casting aside his golden armor, fell, bravely fighting with the defenders on the ramparts (May 29, 1453). Constantinople became the capital of the Turks. The crescent supplanted the cross, and the Church of St. Sophia was turned into a mosque.

TURKISH GOVERNMENT.—The Sultan, or padischah, among the Turks is absolute master, and proprietor of the soil. There is no order of nobles, and there are no higher classes except the priests (imams) and the religious orders (dervishes). In the seraglio of the Sultan, with its palaces and gardens, the harem is separated from the other apartments. The grand vizier presides over the council of ministers (divan). The provinces are governed by pashas with large powers. Beneath them is a gradation of inferior rulers in the subdivisions of the provinces. The mufti with his subordinate associates is a high authority on questions of religion and law.

TURKISH LITERATURE.—The literature of the Ottoman Turks is in merit below the literature of other Mohammedan peoples. It lacks originality, being based on Persian and partly on Arabic models.

CHANGES IN THE MIDDLE AGES.—We have seen great changes gradually taking place in the Middle Ages. One is the centralizing of political authority by the subjection of the local rulers, or lords, to the will of the king. Another is the enfranchisement of the serfs, and the growing power and self-respect of a middle class. The invention of gunpowder took away the superiority of the mail-clad and mounted warrior. The peasant on the battle-field was a match for the knight.

CLERGYY AND LAITY.—There was a change from the time when the clergy were the sole possessors of knowledge, and the exclusive guides of opinion. In the lay part of society, there was an awaking of intellectual activity and a spirit of self-assertion.

A brief sketch of important ecclesiastical changes, some of which have been adverted to, will be here in place.

POPES IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.—From Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII., or from near the end of the eleventh to the beginning of the fourteenth century, the highest authority was claimed and exercised by the popes. Frederick Barbarossa, the greatest of the German emperors, held the stirrup of Hadrian IV., and humbled himself before Alexander III. Innocent III. compared the authority of popes, in contrast with that of kings, to the sun in relation to the moon. He excommunicated Philip Augustus of France, John of England, and other monarchs. He claimed the right to refuse to crown the emperor if he should judge him not worthy of the imperial office. The papacy continued to exert these lofty prerogatives until Boniface VIII. He asserted that "the two swords," the symbols of both secular and spiritual rule, were given to St. Peter and to his successors: the temporal authority must therefore be subject to the spiritual. The body of canon law was framed in accordance with these views. It embraced the right of the Pope to depose kings and princes. To the sovereign pontiff was accorded the right to dispense from Church laws. With the growth of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the different countries, the Pope, as the supreme tribunal in all matters affecting the clergy and covered by the canon law, gained a vast increase of judicial prerogatives.

THE BABYLONIAN EXILE: THE GREAT SCHISM.—During the residence of the popes at Avignon, there was great complaint on account of the dependence of the papacy on France, as well as on account of the heavy taxes levied for the support of the pontifical court, and of the immorality which at times prevailed in it. Gregory XI., to the joy of all good men, returned to Rome (1376). But at his death, two years later, a majority of the cardinals elected an Italian, Urban VI., in his place. The adherents of the French party made a protest, and chose the Cardinal of Geneva, under the name of Clement VII. England, Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, Holland, and almost all Italy, acknowledged Urban. France, Spain, Scotland, Savoy, and Lorraine obeyed Clement. This great schism of the West created sorrow and alarm among well-disposed Christian people. It tended strongly to diminish the reverence felt for the papal office, and to weaken its influence.

THE REFORMING COUNCILS.—The first important effort to terminate the division was made by the University of Paris. Its rector, Nicolas de Clemangis, was prominent in the movement. Gerson and other eminent scholars and ecclesiastics took part in it. Three great councils were held; the first at Pisa (1409), the second at Constance (1414), and the third at Basle (1431). At these assemblies, the French theologians proceeded upon the "Gallican theory" of the constitution of the Church, according to which supreme authority was held to reside in a general council,—not in the Pope, but in the collective episcopate. At the Council of Constance, where it is a significant fact that the votes were taken by nations, there were gathered not only a throng of prelates and inferior clergy, but also the Emperor Sigismund, and a multitude of princes, nobles, and spectators of every rank. "The whole world," it was said, "was there." Three popes, each of whom claimed to be legitimate, were deposed; and under the auspices of the council, which affirmed its own sovereign authority, another pope, Martin V., was elected in the room of them. The results of the two councils of Pisa and Constance, as regards the reformation of the Church "in head and members," disappointed the hopes of those who were disaffected with the existing state of things. The Council of Basle exhibited the same spirit as that of Constance, and passed various measures in the interest of national churches, for the restriction of papal prerogatives, and for practical reforms. The council, however, broke into two parts; and the hopes connected with it were likewise, to a great extent, frustrated. In 1438 the French synod of Bourges issued "the Pragmatic Sanction," containing a strong assertion of the rights and immunities of national churches,—a document which gave occasion to much controversy down to its repeal under King Francis I.

Had it been practicable for good men in the fifteenth century to unite in wholesome measures for promoting the purity and unity of the Church, the religious revolutions of the sixteenth might have been postponed, if not avoided.



CHAPTER III. THE COUNTRIES OF EASTERN ASIA.

I. CHINA.

THE TANG DYNASTY (618-907).—The confusion in China, after the establishment of the three kingdoms, was brought to an end by the Sui dynasty, which, however, was of short duration. Between the Hans and the new epoch beginning with the T'angs, diplomatic intercourse was begun with Japan; Christianity was introduced by the Nestorians; a new impulse was given to the spread of Buddhism; the first traces of the art of printing are found; and the Yang-tse and the Yellow Rivers were connected by a canal.

EVENTS IN THIS PERIOD.—Under the T'angs, the empire was united, peaceful, and prosperous. One of the most remarkable occurrences was the usurpation (649) and successful reign of a woman, the Empress Wu. Her policy was wise, and her generals were victorious. The Emperor Hiuen Tsung had a long reign (713-756), and was an ardent patron of literature, but in his later years fell into immoral ways, as was seen in the character of the poems written under his patronage. Under this dynasty, there were productions in poetry of an excellence never surpassed in China. Buddhism, although resisted by the Confucianists and Taouists, gained ground. A bone of Buddha was brought into China with great pomp and ceremony. Early in the reign of the T'angs, Mohammedanism first appeared in China. In the transition period before the accession of the next dynasty (900-960), the art of printing came more into use. The practice of cramping women's feet is said by some to have originated at this time.

THE SUNG DYNASTY (960-1280).—In the early part of this era, China was prosperous. But the Tartars began their invasions; and it was finally agreed that one of their tribes, which had helped to drive out another, should retain its conquests in the North. These Tartar conquerors, the Kins, were invaded by the Mongol Tartars under Genghis Khan (1213). After a long struggle, both the Kins and the Sungs were conquered by the Mongols, and the empire of Kublai Khan (1259-1294), the ruler of nearly all Asia except Hindustan and Arabia, was established. Under the Sungs, a system of military drill for all the citizens was ordained. Literature flourished; Buddhism and Taouism concluded to live in peace with one another; and the system of competitive examinations and literary degrees was more fully developed. After the complete conquest of China, the dominion of Kublai Khan lasted for about a century. The celebrated Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, visited his court. In this period, mathematics was more studied, and romances were first written. Three out of the "Four Wonderful Books," which are leading novels, were then composed. The Grand Canal was finished by Kublai Khan, and thus Peking was connected with Southern China. His great naval expedition against Japan failed.

THE MING DYNASTY (1368-1650).—Hung-wu, the son of a Chinese laborer, shook off the Mongol yoke, and founded a new dynasty with its capital at Nanking; whence it was afterwards transferred by the third emperor, Yung-lo (1403-1425), to Peking. He conquered and annexed Cochin China and Tonquin, and even portions of Tartary. The Tartars continued their attack; and in 1450 Ching-tung, the emperor, was taken prisoner, and held until he was released in consequence of a Chinese victory.

II. JAPAN.

CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT.—In the seventh century A.D., there began changes in Japan which resulted in a dual government, and eventually in a feudal system which continued until recent times. The Mikados retired from personal contact with their subjects; and the power by degrees fell into the hands of the families related to the Mikado, and combined into clans. Military control was exercised by the generals (Shoguns), and towards the end of the eighth century devolved on the two rival clans of Gen and Hei, or Taira and Minamoto. About the same time (770-780) the agricultural class became distinct from the military, and were compelled to labor hard for their support. One family, the Fujiwara, by degrees absorbed the civil offices. They gradually sank into luxury. From the middle to the end of the twelfth century, there was terrible civil war between the Taira clan and the Minamoto clan, in which the former were destroyed. The military power passed from one family to another; but a main fact is that the Shoguns acquired such a control as the "mayors of the palace" had possessed among the Franks. The Mikados lost all real power, and the Shoguns or Tycoons had the actual government in their hands. In recent times (1868) a revolution occurred which restored to the Mikado the power which had belonged to him in the ancient times, before the changes just related took place.

CIVIL WAR: FEUDALISM.—The final struggle of the two clans, the Hei or Taira, and the Gen or Minamoto, was in the naval battle of Dannoura, in 1185, which was followed by the extermination of the Taira. Yoritomo, the victor, was known as the Shogun after 1192. The supremacy of his clan gave way in 1219 to that of their adherents, the Hojo family, who ruled the Shogun and the emperor both. The invasion of the Mongol Tartars failed, their great fleet being destroyed by a typhoon (1281). The Hojo rule terminated, after a period of anarchy and civil war, in 1333. The "war of the chrysanthemums"—so called from the imperial emblem, the chrysanthemum—was between two rival Mikados, one in the North, and the other in the South (1336-1392). There ensued a period of confusion and internal war, lasting for nearly two centuries. Gradually there was developed a system of feudalism, in which the daimios, or lords of larger or smaller principalities, owned a dependence, either close or more loose, on the Shogun. But feudalism was not fully established until the days of the Tokugama dynasty, early in the seventeenth century.

III. INDIA.

MOHAMMEDAN STATES.—During the Middle Ages, India was invaded by a succession of Mohammedan conquerors. The first invasions were in the seventh and the early part of the eighth centuries. A temporary lodgment was effected in the province of Sind, on the north-west, in 711; but the Moslems were driven out by the Hindus in 750. The next invader was the Afghan sultan, Mahmud of Ghazim, a Turk, who is said to have led his armies seventeen times into India. From his time the Punjab, except for a brief interval, has been a Mohammedan province. The last of his line of rulers, Bahram, was conquered by the Afghan Allah-ud-din of Ghor (1152). Bahram's son fled to Lahore, but the Ghoride dynasty soon absorbed his dominion. One of the Ghoride rulers, Mohammed Ghori, the Shahab-ud-din of the Mohammedan writers, spread his dominion so that it reached from the Indus to the Brahmaputra. After his death, Kutab-ud-din, who had been a Turkish slave, became the founder of the "slave" dynasty (1206-1290), whose capital was Delhi. Allah-ud-din, by whom he was assassinated (1294), had a brilliant reign of twenty years, and conquered Deccan and Guzerat. Of the Togluk dynasty, which gained the throne in 1321, Mohammed Togluk (1325-1351) is said to have had the "reputation of one of the most accomplished princes and most furious tyrants that ever adorned or disgraced human nature." Desiring to remove the seat of empire to the Deccan, he compelled the inhabitants of Delhi to leave their old home, and to make the journey of seven hundred miles.

TAMERLANE.—Revolts in India made the triumph of Timour (Tamerlane) easy (1398). The Mongol leader sacked Delhi, and made a full display of his unrivaled ferocity. A half century of anarchy followed this invasion.

LITERATURE.—On Mediaeval History: The General Subject. (See list of works on Universal History, p. 16.) GIBBON'S Decline and Fall, etc.; "THE STUDENTS' GIBBON" (Smith, 1 vol.); FREEMAN, General Sketch of European History, and Historical Geography of Europe; DURUY, Histoire du Moyen Age, etc. (11th edition, 1882); Hallam. View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale (vols. i.-iii.); Cunningham, Western Civilization (vol. ii); Lavisse, Political History of Europe; Dunham, History of Europe during the Middle Ages (4 vols.); BRYCE, The Holy Roman Empire; Putz and Arnold, Mediaeval History; E. A. FREEMAN, Historical Essays (series 1 and 3).

Works on Church History. The Church Histories of GIESELER, NEANDER; MILMAN, History of Latin Christianity; ALZOG [a Roman Catholic], Manual, etc. (3 vols. 1874-78); Hardwick (vol. i., Middle Ages); Students' History of the Church; STANLEY'S Eastern Church; Fisher, History of the Christian Church.

On Portions of the Mediaeval Period. Froissart, Chronicles, etc.; CURTEIS, History of the Roman Empire [395-800]; R. W. CHURCH, The Beginning of the Middle Ages; A. Thierry, Histoire d'Attila, etc., St. Jerome, etc., St. Jean Chrysostome, etc.; Church, Life of Anselm; MORISON, Life and Times of St. Bernard; Gfroerer, Pabst Gregorius VII. u. sein Zeitalter (1859); Bury, The Later Roman Empire (2 vols.); Oman, The Dark Ages (476-918); TOUT, The Empire and the Papacy (918-1272); Emerton, Mediaeval Europe (800-1300); Pears, The Fall of Constantinople; Sergeant, The Franks; MULLINGER, The Schools of Charles the Great, and the Restoration of Education in the 9th Century (1877); MONTALEMBERT, The Monks of the West (7 vols.); Sartorius, Gesch. des hanseatischen Bundes (3 vols.); Mombert, Charlemagne; Sabatier, Life of Francis of Assisi; Hasse, Leben Anselm; West, Alcuin; Hodgkin, Theodoric the Goth.

General Character of the Period. ROBERTSON, A View of the Progress of Society in Europe from the Subversion of the Roman Empire, etc. (Introduction to the History of Charles V.); Kingsley, C., The Roman and the Teuton: a Series of Lectures, etc.; SULLIVAN, Historical Causes and Effects; from the Fall of the Roman Empire A.D. 476 to 1517; Ozanam, A. F., History of Civilization in the Fifth Century; LAURENT, Etudes, etc. (vol vii.); Sir James Stephen, Ecclesiastical Essays; Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages. Scott's novels,—Ivanhoe, The Talisman, Anne of Geierstein: they are historically much less correct pictures than his romances which relate to Scotland.

Particular Aspects of the Period. SAVIGNY, Gesch. d. roemischen Rechts im Mittelalter (7 vols.); Sismondi, Literature in the South of Europe; Hallam, Introduction to the Study of Literature, etc.; Geffchen, Church and State (2 vols.); GUIZOT, History of the Origin of Representative Government in Europe; Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages; J. E. THOROLD ROGERS, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England [1259-1793] (4 vols., 1866); Amos, Roman Civil Law; Jenks, Law and Politics in the Middle Ages; Gross, The Guild Merchant; Oman, Art of War; VIOLLET-LE-DUC, Annals of a Fortress; H. C. Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy, History of the Inquisition (3 vols.), and Superstition and Force; LACROIX, Works on the Middle Ages, richly illustrated (5 vols., London, 1880); Gautier, Chivalry; Cornish, Chivalry; BULFINCH, Age of Chivalry, or Legends of King Arthur; Legends of Charlemagne, or Romance of the Middle Ages (2 vols.); COX AND JONES, Popular Romances of the Middle Ages; NASSE, On the Agricultural Community of the Middle Ages (1871); Roth, Gesch. d. Beneficialwesens, etc.; Secretan, Essai sur la Feodalite; Smith, T., English Guilds (1870); WILDA, Das Gildenwesen im Mittelalter (1831); Seignobos, The Feudal Regime.

Works on the Crusades. G. W. COX, The Crusades (1878); also, art. Crusades in the Encycl. Brit.; Michaud, History of the Crusades (3 vols.); VON SYBEL, The History and Literature of the Crusades; Mills, A History of the Crusades, etc. (2 vols.); Heeren, in Vermischte historische Schriften (3 vols.); Procter's History of the Crusades; Gray's Children's Crusade; Archer and Kingsford, The Crusades.

For works on Mohammedanism and the Arabic kingdom, see p. 232.

The works here mentioned respecting the several countries either relate to their entire history, or to their history prior to the close of the Middle Ages.

I. ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.—GREEN'S History of the English People (4 vols.), and Short History of England (1 vol.); the "STUDENTS' HUME"; the histories of BRIGHT, Knight, LINGARD, Hume, GUIZOT, Traill, Social England (6 vols., two editions); GAIRDNER, Outline, etc.; Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons; Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth; Palgrave's History of Normandy and of England; FREEMAN'S History of the Norman Conquest (6 vols.), and History of William Rufus; Green, The Making of England, and The Conquest of England; Ramsay, Foundations of England, Angevin Empire, Lancaster and York; STUBBS, The Early Plantagenets; LONGMAN'S History of Edward III.; Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce; Cheyney, Industrial and Social History of England; Seebohm, English Village Community; Life of Wickliffe, by LECHLER, by LOSERTH, by WILSON, by Trevelyan.

Kemble's The Saxons in England; STUBBS'S Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development (3 vols.); STUBBS'S Select Charters; CREASY'S Rise and Progress of the English Constitution; THOMPSON'S Essay on Magna Charta; Bisset, History of the Struggle for Parliamentary Government in England (1877); TASWELL-LANGMEAD'S English Constitutional History, etc.; FREEMAN'S Growth of the English Constitution, etc.; Bagehot, The English Constitution; Macy, The English Constitution.

SCOTLAND.—P. H. Brown, History of Scotland (2 vols.); Miss Macarthur, History of Scotland (1 vol.); E. M. Robertson, Scotland under her Early Kings (2 vols.).

IRELAND.—C. G. Walpole, The Kingdom of Ireland; Morris, Ireland.

II. FRANCE.—General histories by Crowe (5 vols.); DURUY (2 vols.); GUIZOT (to 1789, 5 vols.; 1789-1848, 3 vols.); and Outlines of the History of France (1 vol.); Bonnechose (to 1848); JERVIS (Hassall edition); MARTIN (17 vols.); KITCHIN, LACOMBE, MICHELET (17 vols.); Lavisse, Histoire de France; Adams, Growth of the French Nation; Grant, The French Monarchy; Wallon's St. Louis et son Temps (2 vols.); Sismondi, The French under the Carlovingians (1 vol.), France under the Feudal System (1 vol.); BARANTE'S Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne de la Maison de Valois, 1364-1477; WALLON'S Jeanne d'Arc (2 vols.); Lowell's Joan of Arc; Jameson's Life and Times of Du Guesclin.

COULANGES' Histoire des Institutions politiques de l'Ancienne France (1877); Viollet, Institutions politiques de la France (3 vols.); Luchaire, Manuel des Institutions Francaises; Esmein, Histoire du Droit Francais; GUIZOT'S History of Civilization in France (3 vols.), and Essai sur l'Histoire de France; THIERRY'S The Formation and Progress of the Third Estate in France; Sir James Stephens's Lectures on the History of France.

III. GERMANY.—Henderson, A Short History of Germany (2 vols.); Histories by C. T. LEWIS (founded on D. Mueller), Kohlrausch; Kaufman, Deutsche Geschichte; Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte (6 vols.); Schroeder, Lehrbuch der d. Rechtsgeschichte; Richter, Annalen.

GEISEBRECHT'S Geschichte d. deutschen Kaiserzeit (4 vols.); VON RAUMER'S Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit (6 vols.).

Coxe's History of the House of Austria; KRONES'S Handbuch d. Geschichte Osterreichs (3 vols.); Marlath's Geschichte Osterreichs.

ARNOLD, Ansiedelungun und Wanderungen deutscher Staemme (1875); also, Deutsche Urzeit (1879); Ozanam, Les Germains avant le Christianisme (1872); SOHM, Die altdeutsche Reichs und Gerichtsverfassung; MAURER'S histories of German local institutions (the Marks, the Villages, the Cities); WAITZ, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (8 vols.), Wirth, Die Geschichte der Deutschen (1853); SUGENHEIM, Geschichte d. deutschen Volkes und seiner Kultur, etc.

IV. ITALY.—Cantu, Histoire des Italiens (12 vols., 1859); HUNT'S History of Italy (in Freeman's Series); Butt's History of Italy (2 vols.); LEO'S Geschichte von Italien (5 vols.); SISMONDI'S Histoire des Republiques Italiennes du Moyen Age (10 vols.); SPALDING'S Italy and the Italians; Boscoe and Morell, Compendium of Italian History.

Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders (2 vols.); TESTA, History of the War of Frederic I. against the Communes of Lombardy; HEYD, Geschichte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter (2 vols.); C. HEGEL, Gesckichte der Staedteverfassung von Italien, etc.

Daru, Histoire de la Republique de Venise (9 vols.); BROWN, Venice: an Historical Sketch; Ranke, Zur Venitianer Geschichte; Machiavelli's History of Florence; Napier's Florentine History (6 vols.); PERRENS, Histoire de Florence (4 vols.); REUMONT'S Lorenzo the Magnificent (2 vols.); Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de' Medici; TROLLOPE'S History of Florence; Campbell's Life of Petrarch; GREGOROVIUS' History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages (8 v., from fifth to sixteenth century); Gallenga, History of Piedmont (3 vols.); Amari, History of the War of the Sicilian Vespers (3 vols.); Malleson, Studies from Genoese History (1 vol.); Oliphant, Makers of Florence, etc.; SYMONDS, Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe; TAINE, Florence and Venice, and Rome and Naples; Freeman, Historical and Architectural Studies (chiefly Italian, 1 vol.).

V. RUSSIA.—Bell's History of Russia (3 vols.); Howorth's History of the Mongols; KARAMSIN, Histoire de l'Empire de Russie (11 vols.); Histories of Russia, by Kelly, Lamartine, Levesque; RAMBAUD, History of Russia (2 vols., 1879); RALSTON, Early Russian History.

VI. POLAND.—Histories of Poland, by DUNHAM (12mo), Fletcher, JOACHIM (2 vols.), ROePELL AND CARO.

VII. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.—Lembke und Schaefer, Geschichte von Spanien (3 vols.); MARIANA, The General History of Spain; DUNHAM, History of Spain and Portugal; CRAWFORD, Portugal, Old and New; Burke, History of Spain (2 vols.); Stevens's Portugal; TICKNOR'S History of Spanish Literature (3 vols.); Prescott's History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (introductory chapter).

VIII. SWITZERLAND.—History of Switzerland, in LARDNER'S CYCLOPEDIA (1832); Histories of Switzerland, by MORIN (5 vols.); J. Mueller; Zschokke; Rochholz, Tell und Gessler in Sage und Geschichte (1877).

IX. SCANDINAVIA.—DUNHAM'S History of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway (3 vols.); Dahlmann's Geschichte von Danemark bis zur Reformation (with Norway and Iceland, 3 vols.); Histories of Sweden, by Fryxell, GEIJER AND CARLSON (5 vols.); Laing's History of Norway; MALLET'S Northern Antiquities; MAURER'S History of Iceland; RINK'S Danish Greenland; Sinding's Scandinavia; WHEATON'S History of the Northmen; Worsaac's Danes and Northmen in Great Britain.

X. OTTOMAN TURKS.—HAMMER-PURGSTALL'S Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches (10 vols.); CREASY'S History of the Ottoman Turks; FREEMAN, The Ottoman Power in Europe (1877); ZINKEISEN, Geschichte d. osmanisch. Reiches in Europa (7 vols.).

XI. CHINA, JAPAN, AND INDIA.—(See lists on pp. 25, 32.) Dickson, Japan, etc. (vol. i., 1869); Griffis, The Micado's Empire (1876).

XII. BIBLIOGRAPHIES.—In addition to Adams, Manual; Sonnenschein, The Best Books and A Reader's Guide; Gross, Sources and Literature of English History (to 1485); Gardiner and Mullinger, English History for Students; Monod, Bibliographie de l'Histoire de France; Dahlmann-Waitz, Quellenkunde, der Deutschen Geschichte; lists in Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale.



PART III. MODERN HISTORY.

FROM THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (1453) TO THE PRESENT TIME.

INTRODUCTION.

Modern history as a whole, in contrast with mediaeval, is marked by several plainly defined characteristics. They are such as appear, however, in a less developed form, in the latter part of the Middle Ages.

1. In the recent centuries, there has been an increased tendency to consolidate smaller states into larger kingdoms.

2. There has been a gradual secularizing of politics. Governments have more and more cast off ecclesiastical control.

3. As another side of this last movement, political unity in Europe has superseded ecclesiastical unity. The bond of union among nations, in the room of being membership in one great ecclesiastical commonwealth, became political: it came to be membership in a loosely defined confederacy of nations, held together by treaties or by a tacit agreement in certain accepted rules of public law and outlines of policy.

4. In this system, one main principle is the balance of power. This means that any one state may be prevented from enlarging its bounds to such an extent as to endanger its neighbors. We have seen the action of such a principle among the ancient states of Greece. Even in the Middle Ages, as regards Italy, the popes endeavored to keep up an equilibrium. They supported the Norman kingdom in Southern Italy, or the Lombard leagues in the North, as a counterpoise to the German emperors. In the sixteenth century, there were formed combinations to check the power of Charles V., king of Spain and emperor of Germany, and afterwards to restrain his successor on the Spanish throne, Philip II. In the seventeenth century, there were like combinations against Louis XIV. of France, and, over a century later, against the first Napoleon.