§ 5. Periods of the Middle Age.
§ 5. Periods of the Middle Age.
The Middle Age may be divided into three periods:
1. The missionary period from Gregory I. to Hildebrand or Gregory VII., a.d. 590–1073. The conversion of the northern barbarians. The dawn of a new civilization. The origin and progress of Islam. The separation of the West from the East. Some subdivide this period by Charlemagne (800), the founder of the German-Roman Empire.
2. The palmy period of the papal theocracy from Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII., a.d. 1073–1294. The height of the papacy, monasticism and scholasticism. The Crusades. The conflict between the Pope and the Emperor. If we go back to the rise of Hildebrand, this period begins in 1049.
3. The decline of mediaeval Catholicism and preparation for modern Christianity, from Boniface VIII. to the Reformation, a.d. 1294–1517. The papal exile and schism; the reformatory councils; the decay of scholasticism; the growth of mysticism; the revival of letters, and the art of printing; the discovery of America; forerunners of Protestantism; the dawn of the Reformation.
These three periods are related to each other as the wild youth, the ripe manhood, and the declining old age. But the gradual dissolution of mediaevalism was only the preparation for a new life, a destruction looking to a reconstruction.
The three periods may be treated separately, or as a continuous whole. Both methods have their advantages: the first for a minute study; the second for a connected survey of the great movements.
According to our division laid down in the introduction to the first volume, the three periods of the middle ages are the fourth, fifth and sixth periods of the general history of Christianity.
keltoivor Kevltai, Celtae, Galavtai, Galatae or Galati, Galli, Gael. Some derive it from celt, a cover, shelter; others from celu (Lat. celo) to conceal. Herodotus first mentions them, as dwelling in the extreme northwest of Europe. On these terms see Diefenbach, Celtica, Brandes, Kelten und Germanen, Thierry, Histoire des Gaulois, the art. Galli in Pauly’s Realencyclopädie, and the introductions to the critical Commentaries on the Galatians by Wieseler and Lightfoot (and Lightfoot’s Excursus I). The Galatians in Asia Minor, to whom Paul addressed his epistle, were a branch of the Keltic race, which either separated from the main current of the westward migration, or, being obstructed by the ocean, retraced their steps, and turned eastward. Wieseler (in his Com. and in several articles in the "Studien und Kritiken, " and in the "Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte," 1877 No. 1) tries to make them Germans, a view first hinted at by Luther. But the fickleness of the Galatian Christians is characterristic of the ancient Gauls and modern French.
Römische Geschichte, Vol. I., p. 329, 5th ed., Berlin, 1868.
The word is of uncertain origin. Some derive it from a Keltic root, garm or gairm, i.e. noise; some from the old German gere (guerre), a pointed weapon, spear or javelin (so that German would mean an armed man, or war-man, Wehrmann); others, from the Persian irman, erman, i.e. guest.
From the Gothic thiudisco, gentiles, popularis; hence the Latin teutonicus, and the German deutsch or teutsch (which may also be connected with diutan, deutsch deutlich). In the English usage, the term German is confined to the Germans proper, and Dutch to the Hollanders; but Germanic and Teutonic apply to all cognate races.
The term Slav or Slavonian is derived by some from slovo, word, by others, from slava, glory. From it are derived the words slave and slavery (Sclave, esclave), because many Slavs were reduced to a state of slavery or serfdom by their German masters. Webster spells slave instead of slav, and Edward A. Freeman, in his Historical Essays (third series, 1879), defends this spelling on three grounds: 1) No English word ends in v. But many Russian words do, as Kiev, Yaroslav, and some Hebrew grammars use Tav and Vav for Tau and Vau. 2) Analogy. We write Dane, Swede, Pole, not Dan, etc. But the a in Slav has the continental sound, and the tendency is to get rid of mute vowels. 3) The form Slave perpetuates the etymology. But the etymology (slave = dou'lo") is uncertain, and it is well to distinguish the national name from the ordinary slaves, and thus avoid offence. The Germans also distinguish between Slaven, Sclaven.