Heroes of Modern Europe | Page 2

Menzel) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
THE MEETING OF VICTOR EMMANUEL AND GARIBALDI
(Pietro Aldi) 204

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Heroes of Modern Europe
Chapter I
The Two Swords
In the fourth century after Christ began that decay of the Roman
Empire which had been the pride of the then civilized world. Warriors
of Teutonic race invaded its splendid cities, destroyed without remorse
the costliest and most beautiful of its antique treasures. Temples and
images of the gods fell before barbarians whose only fear was lest they
should die "upon the straw," while marble fountains and luxurious
bath-houses were despoiled as signs of a most inglorious state of
civilization. Theatres perished and, with them, the plays of Greek
dramatists, who have found no true successors. Pictures and statues and
buildings were defaced where they were not utterly destroyed. The
Latin race survived, forlornly conscious of its vanished culture.
The Teutons had hardly begun to impose upon the Empire the rude

customs of their own race when Saracens, bent upon spreading the
religion of Mahomet, bore down upon Italy, where resistance from
watchtowers and castles was powerless to check their cruel
depredations. Norman pirates plundered the shores of the
Mediterranean and sailed up the River Seine, {10} always winning
easy victories. Magyars, a strange, wandering race, came from the East
and wrought much evil among the newly-settled Germans.
From the third to the tenth century there were incredible changes
among the European nations. Gone were the gleaming cities of the
South and the worship of art and science and the exquisite refinements
of the life of scholarly leisure. Gone were the flourishing manufactures
since the warrior had no time to devote to trading. Gone was the love of
letters and the philosopher's prestige now that men looked to the
battle-field alone to give them the awards of glory.
Outwardly, Europe of the Middle Ages presented a sad contrast to the
magnificence of an Empire which was fading to remoteness year by
year. The ugly towns did not attempt to hide their squalor, when dirt
was such a natural condition of life that a knight would dwell boastfully
upon his contempt for cleanliness, and a beauty display hands innocent
of all proper tending. The dress of the people was ill-made and scanty,
lacking the severe grace of the Roman toga. Furniture was rudely hewn
from wood and placed on floors which were generally uneven and
covered with straw instead of being paved with tessellated marble.
Yet the inward life of Europe was purer since it sought to follow the
teaching of Christ, and preached universal love and a toleration that
placed on the same level a mighty ruler and the lowest in his realm.
Fierce spirits, unfortunately, sometimes forgot the truth and gave
themselves up to a cruel lust for persecution which was at variance with
their creed, but the holiest now condemned warfare and praised the
virtues of obedience and self-sacrifice.
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Whereas pagan Greek and Rome had searched for beauty upon earth, it
was the dreary belief of the Middle Ages that the world was a place

where only misery could be the portion of mankind, who were bidden
to look to another life for happiness and pleasure. Sinners hurried from
temptation into monasteries, which were founded for the purpose of
enabling men to prepare for eternity. Family life was broken up and all
the pleasant intercourse of social habits. Marriage was a snare, and
even the love of parents might prove dangerous to the devoted monk.
Strange was the isolation of the hermit who refused to cleanse himself
or change his clothes, desiring above all other things to attain to that
blessed state when his soul should be oblivious of his body.
Women also despised the claims of kindred and retired to convents
where the elect were granted visions after long prayer and fasting. The
nun knelt on the bare stone floor of her cell, awaiting the ecstasy that
would descend on her. When it had gone again she was nigh to death,
faint and weary, yet compelled to struggle onward till her earthly life
came to an end.
The Crusades, or Wars of the Cross, had roused Europe from a state of
most distressful bondage. Ignorance and barbarism were shot with
gleams of spiritual light even after the vast armies were sent forth to
wrest the possession of Jerusalem from the infidels. Shameful stories of
the treatment of pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre had moved the hearts of
kings and princes to a passionate indignation. Valour became the
highest, and all men were eager to be ranked with Crusaders--those
soldiers of heroic courage whose cause was Christianity and its defence.
At the close