A Little History of the World

Gombrich continues his metaphor of a passing storm to describe the advent of the Middle Ages: “You will probably agree that the peoples’ migrations were a sort of thunderstorm. But you may be surprised to hear that the Middle Ages were like a starry night” (110). The infrastructure, knowledge, and culture of Rome and Greece had collapsed, and the people, unable to read or write, had become superstitious. Gombrich argues that, while the period is often known as the Dark Ages, the darkness was permeated with the light of the new Christian faith. Their belief in a righteous God led them to think more about their actions and their place in the afterlife. Many chose to retreat from the world and commit fully to their faith, focusing on seeking penance, becoming the first Christian monks.

One Italian monk named Benedict did not believe that penitence was enough to serve Christ. He believed that you must also do good through labor. He formed a community of monks, called an order, to build a monastery and live according to the Benedictine tenets: to own nothing, to remain unmarried, and to obey the head of the monastery. Benedictine monks read and copied the writings of antiquity, preserving them. They learned ancient methods of agriculture so that they could cultivate grain for themselves and for the poor. Monks began building monasteries all over Western Europe, teaching and converting the populace. In Germany, the king of the Franks, Clovis, was baptized as a Christian, and monks became influential in the Frankish kingdom. As monasteries spread, paganism waned, and they became very wealthy and powerful institutions despite the simple and modest lifestyle of the monks living within them.

Gombrich now turns his attention to the region of Arabia to describe the advent of Islam. Around the year 600, a man named Muhammed lived in the oasis town of Mecca. After multiple visions of the Archangel Gabriel, Muhammed believed that he was the prophet of God. When he began preaching in Mecca, the priests of the old religion saw Muhammed as a threat. He was sentenced to death, and when he heard of his condemnation, he fled in 622 in what is known as the “hegira,” or the Emigration (118). Muhammed’s followers count time from that date, just as Christians use the year of Christ’s birth. He fled to the neighboring, rival town, which later became known as Medina, “the City of the Prophet” (118). Muhammed preached that all must submit to the will of God and that our fates are preordained. Submission to the will of God translates to “Islam” in Arabic. He preached that his followers must fight for these teachings and that it was not a sin to kill a nonbeliever.

When Muhammed died in 632, he had conquered Mecca, and within six years of his death, his followers had conquered Palestine, Persia, and Egypt. Soon after, they took Sicily, Cyprus, and Spain. The Arab army then advanced on the kingdom of the Franks, ruled by the Merovingians. Their ruler, Charles Martel, or Charles the Hammer, defeated the Arabs in 732, preserving Frankish rule. Still, in the 100 years since his death, Mohammed’s followers had built a formidable empire. They learned of beautiful art, textiles, and buildings from the Persians. Muslims were forbidden to portray people or animals as a prevention of idol worship. Thus, they decorated their temples and palaces with intricate patterns and linework that became known as “arabesques.” From the Greeks, they studied philosophy, math, and science, particularly Aristotle. Thanks to the Arabic Empire, we have our number system. They learned to make paper from Chinese prisoners of war. Through conquering many great civilizations, they brought together many of their greatest accomplishments and inventions.

Gombrich acknowledges that one may get the impression that conquering the world or building an empire is an easy thing to do. Truthfully, he says, it was easier than it would be today. To explain why, he asks the reader to imagine a world with no newspaper or mail: “If an army of several thousand men happened to turn up in a valley or clearing, there was little anyone could do” (124). Gombrich makes a quick distinction, however: “If conquest was easier than it is today, ruling was much harder” (124).

Gombrich emphasizes the challenge of being a good ruler in these times in order to introduce the life of a good ruler: Charlemagne, a grandson of Charles Martel, the man who had driven the Arab forces out of the Merovingian Frankish kingdom. When Charlemagne became king in 768, he drew on these allegiances to expand his kingdom and pursue his goal of uniting all Germanic peoples. First, he conquered all of France. Next, he drove the Lombards out of Italy and gave that land to the pope. Next, he moved east and defeated the Asiatic Avars, who had invaded Austria. He then conquered the Slavs, who had been driven out by the Avars. The Saxons occupied the eastern half of Germany. They put up great resistance but were ultimately defeated, and Charlemagne had over 4,000 of them put to death and the rest baptized. Now, Charlemagne set about ruling his kingdom. He organized the systems of law and order, established schools, and regulated the price of goods. In the year 800, the pope crowned him Holy Roman Emperor.

Charlemagne wanted to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory, but when he died in 814, it quickly fell apart. The empire was split into three regions: France, Germany, and Italy. The Slavs declared themselves free, and Charlemagne’s schools disappeared. The Danes and the Normans, Germanic tribes from the north, founded kingdoms in eastern France. The Germanic Holy Roman Empire was no more.

Gombrich now laments that often the worst aspects of history repeat themselves. Gombrich explains that the pattern of invasion from Eastern warriors arose from the practical advantage of crossing the steppes to attack the West over attacking China, a powerful empire protected by a powerful wall. One hundred years after the death of Charlemagne, an Eastern horde called the Magyars conquered modern-day Austria and Hungary and invaded Germany. The tribal duchies decided to unite in defense against these invaders, and ultimately, a king named Otto forced them back into Hungary.

In order to explain how Otto held power, Gombrich describes the structure of the feudal system. Tracts of land, as well as laborers, were granted to princes and lords. The king, though the rightful owner of all lands in his domain, would give these properties in exchange for support in time of battle. The laborers on these lands were called serfs, the land grants themselves fiefs. Because of this system, Otto’s defeat of the Magyar forces in Hungary compelled the Slavic, Bohemian, and Polish princes to acknowledge him as the ultimate owner of their lands and therefore privy to their armies. The pope crowned Otto as Holy Roman Emperor in 962. However, the king and the pope both believed that they should be in charge of appointing archbishops, who possessed both spiritual power and the king’s lands. Gombrich summarizes this tension as a paradox of power: “the lord of all priests is the pope, but the lord of all lands is the emperor” (133). In 1073, the struggle intensified when a new pope, Gregory VII, came to power. Both Gregory and the new king, Henry IV, believed that they were the rightful rulers of Christendom. Though eventually Henry had Gregory deposed, the pope ultimately succeeded in claiming the sole right to select bishops.

Gombrich concludes the chapter by noting that meanwhile, the seafaring Normans had learned to speak French and had set on conquest. William the Conqueror defeated the English king in 1066, starting a lasting dynasty of Norman rulers in England.