2 72. FRUITLESS ATTEMPTS AT REUNION. 325
test against. the antichristian usurpation of the papacy and the heretical Filioquc. They could not submit to the Vatican decrees without stultifying their whole history and committing moral suicide. Papal absolutism * and Eastern stagnation are insuperable barriers to the reunion of the divided churches, which can only be brought about by great events and by the wonder-working power of the Spirit of God.
1 Or, as the modern Greeks call it, the papolatria of the" Latins.
CHAPTER VI.
MORALS AND RELIGION.
§ 73. Literature.
I. The chief and almost only sources for this chapter are the acts of
Synods, the lives of saints and missionaries, and the chronicles of monasteries. The Ada Sanctorum mix facts and legends in inextri cable confusion. The most important are the biographies of the Irish, Scotch, and Anglo-Saxon missionaries, and the letters of Boniface. For the history of France during the sixth and seventh centuries we have the Historia Francorum by GREGORY OF TOURS, the Herodotus of France (d. 594), first printed in Paris, 1511, better by Euinart, 1699; best by Giesebrecht (in German), Berlin 1851, 9th ed. 1873, 2 vols. ; and Gregorii Historic Epitomata by his continuator, FREDEGAR, a clergyman of Burgundy (d. about 660), ed. by Ruinart, Paris 1699, and by Abel (in German), Berlin 1849. For the age of Charlemagne we have the Capitularies of the emperor, and the historical works of EINHARD or EGINARD (d. 840). See Ouvres completes d' EGINARD, reuniespour la premiere fois et traduites enfrancais, par A. Teulet, Paris 1840-'43, 2 vols. For an estimate of these and other writers of our period comp. part of the first, and the second vol. of AD. EBERT'S Allgem. Gesch. der Lit. des Mittelalters im Abendlande, Leipz, 1874 and 1880.
II. HEFELE : Conciliengesch. vols. III. and IV. (from A. D, 560-1073),
revised ed. 1877 and 1879. NEANDER : Denkwiirdigkeiten aus der Geschichte des christl. Lebens.
3d ed. Hamburg, 1845, '46, 2 vols. AUG. THIERRY : Recits des temps merovingiens. Paris 1855 (based on
Gregory of Tours). LOEBELL : Gregor von Tours und seine Zeit. Leipz. 1839, second ed.
1868. MONOD: Etudes critiques sur les sources de Vhistoire merovingienne.
Paris 1872. LECKY : History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne,
fifth ed. Lond. 1882, 2 vols. (part of the second vol.). BRACE : Gesta Christi, N. York, third ed. 1883, p. 107 sqq. Comp. GUIZOT (Protest., d. 1874) : Histoire gentrale de la civilisation
$74. GENERAL CHARACTER OF MEDIAEVAL MORALS. 327
en Europe et en France depuis la chute de V empire romainjusqu' a la revolution franyaise, Paris I8i50; seventh ed. 18GO, 5 vols. (one vol. on Europe in general).
BALMEZ, (a Spanish philosopher and apologist of the Roman church, d. 1848): El Protestantismo comparadocon el Catolicismo en susrelaciones con la civilisation curopea. Barcelona, 1842-44, 4 vols. The same in French, German, and English translations. A Roman Catholic counterpart to Guizot.
§ 74. General Character of Mediaeval Morals.
THE middle age of Western Christendom resembles the period of the Judges in the history of Israel when " the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through by-ways," and when "every man did that which was right in his own eyes/71 It was a time of civil and political commotions and upheavings, of domestic wars and foreign invasions. Society was in a chaotic state and bordering on the brink of anarchy. Might was right. It was the golden age of border-ruffians, filibusters, pirates and bold adventurers, but also of gallant knights, genuine heroes and judges, like Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, and Samuel of old. It presents, in striking contrasts, Christian virtues and heathen vices, ascetic self-denial and gross sensuality. Nor were there wanting idyllic episodes of domestic virtue and happiness which call to mind the charming story of Ruth from the period of the Judges.
Upon the whole the people were more religious than moral. Piety was often made a substitute or atonement for virtue. Belief in the supernatural and miraculous was universal ; scepticism and unbelief were almost unknown. Men feared purgatory and hell, and made great sacrifices to gain heaven by founding churches, convents, and charitable institutions. And yet there was a frightful amount of immorality among the rulers and the people. In the East the church had to contend with the vices of an effete civilization and a corrupt court. In Italy, France and Spain the old Roman vices continued and
1 Comp. Judges 5 : 6 j 17 : 6.