ence of the stronger tie of a common interest between Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento, CHAP. I. СНАР. Four centuries later, Rome had become an abstract conception personifying the ideas of thoughtful and § 12. Ab- beneficent government. Imperceptibly, as another poet, himself of Gaulish origin, then sang, the city had melted into the world. stract Con ception of Rome. $ 13. The Individual sacrificed to the Society. Exaudi, regina tui pulcherrima mundi, Inter sidereos Roma recepta polos; Exaudi, genetix hominum genetrixque deorum Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam; No great result is achieved without considerable cost. The action of the government of the empire had bound men more closely together than they had ever been bound before. It had taught them to consider themselves as members of a great society, which claimed their loyalty because it studied their real interests. But it had done nothing to employ them as co-operators in the work. The individual energies of each particular citizen had been weakened in the process of amalgamation. They were left to concentrate themselves on selfish and material, or, at the best, on purely local objects. The bloody spectacles of the gladiatorial combats and the enervating representations of a profligate drama were the staple amusements of the multitude. The Gaulish tribesman, the Roman burgher of olden days, had known that his own temperance, and valour, and prudence, would count for something in advancing the fortunes of the community to which he belonged. The Gaulish or Italian subject of the empire was but a drop in the ocean. Government was regarded by him as something external to himself, something which he was powerless to influence, even in the most infinitesimal degree. The em pire, therefore, had at its service skilled legislators and rulers, taking in hand the management of an acquiescent population. What it lacked was the spontaneity of individual public spirit diffused over the whole body, and the moral earnestness of individual aspiration after a higher and better life. Though the empire did not care to encourage by its institutions either individual vitality or the development of popular control, another society arose in its midst which occupied the ground which the empire had left untouched. The gospel of the Christian missionaries went straight to the heart of the individual convert. Christ, it told him, had died for his personal salvation, that he might be snatched from sin and the consequences of sin. It invited him not merely to obey laws imposed by some distant authority, but to be pure and righteous and merciful as the spotless model which was ever set before his eyes. Upon this foundation it built up an edifice of universal benevolence. Do what it would, the empire could not abolish slavery or serfdom, could not set aside the distinction between citizens within its limits. and the hostile populations without. In Christ Jesus there was neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. The Christian theory started from the very opposite pole of thought from that from which the empire had started, though it is true that its desire to provide for the life to come rather than for the life of this world, prevented the Church from drawing forth all the practical consequences which were involved in its most cherished ideas. СНАР. I. $14. The Christian Church. of the The organisation of the Church proceeded in the same § 15. Ordirection as its creed. The bishops who with the rest of ganisation the clergy were the instruments of collective acts of Church. charity, and who, as a moral and intellectual aristocracy, maintained the standard of doctrine to deviate from CHAP. I. § 16. The Empire and the Church. which was heresy, had gained their position by the direct For a long time the empire and the church pursued their several paths side by side. Different as their organisations were, they were saved from collision by the difference of their aims. After some vain attempts, the emperors, at least in the west, refrained from promulgating creeds. The clergy had no wish to take part in the direction of armies. Nor were the materials of a conflict to be found in the domain of justice, afterwards so fruitful of quarrels between the lay and the ecclesiastical authorities. If the emperors sometimes interfered with the occupant of the important See of Rome, they showed no disposition to hamper the general relations between the clergy and their flocks, and the clergy were too good Romans themselves to find fault with the working of the Roman law in other matters. It was one thing to offer no positive opposition to the empire; it was another thing to support it actively in its day of trial. The empire at last suffered the fate of all institutions which do not root themselves in the active support of those for whose benefit they arise. As the danger from its Teutonic assailants grew more formidable, the pressure of taxation grew heavier till it was almost unendurable. The material wants of the people were not provided for. Its distresses were not alleviated. A population without enthusiasm could not be called upon to furnish men for the military defence of its rulers. The evil counsel prevailed of entrusting the defence of the frontier to Germans, trained and disciplined to the habits of Roman warfare. At last the time came when those who had been admitted as servants claimed to be masters, and their brethren from the forests of Germany poured in at the gaps left undefended. In Western Europe the empire melted away before so dire a succession of calamities. CHAP. $17. Fall pire in the of the Em West. Church and the con querors. The church rapidly transferred its allegiance to the $18. The numerous Teutonic kings who sprung up on what had once been Roman soil. It was too universal in its Teutonic sympathies, and too independent in its action to be fettered by devotion to the frame-work of any existing government. The clergy, however, soon found that a new position had been created for them. If they had been less Roman than the emperors, they were more Roman than the new rulers. A political position, and that too an antagonistic position, was forced upon the bishops. They were the depositaries of a tradition of equal law and universal justice in the face of conquerors who understood none of these things. Occupying sees |