Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisited: The History of a Controversy (19 page)

It cannot be stressed too strongly that this apparently complete demographic collapse is found not only in Europe, but also in the Eastern Empire (from the 630s onwards) and in the Islamic lands (also from the 630s onwards). And whether or not there was a massive demographic decline in western Europe in the decades that preceded 600 – as Hodges and Whitehouse suggest – there is no question of any such decline in the East, where bustling and densely populated cities of the 610s and 620s have been excavated. After the 630s these are as depopulated as western Europe.

What, we might ask again, does all this mean? How could the whole of Europe and the Middle East lose virtually its entire population for three centuries? And even worse: how could these regions then, in the mid-tenth century, be re-peopled by settlers whose material culture is strikingly similar to that of their seventh-century predecessors?

This is one of the great puzzles of modern archaeology, and it is one that will be revisited frequently as we proceed through our investigation.

[1]
Thomas F. Glick,
Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages
(Brill Publishers, New York, 2005), pp., 30-1

[2]
Ibid., p. 29

[3]
Leopoldo Torres Balbas,
Ciudades hispano-musulmanas
Vol. 1 (Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, n.d., Madrid), pp. 32-4, 38.

[4]
Glick, op cit., p. 31

[5]
Roger Collins,
Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400 – 1000
, (2nd ed. Macmillan, 1995), p. 88

[6]
Cited from Louis Bertrand and Sir Charles Petrie,
The History of Spain
(2nd ed., London, 1945), p. 7

[7]
Ibid., pp. 17-8

[8]
Roger Collins, op cit., p. 88

[9]
Ibid.

[10]
Ibid., pp. 88-9

[11]
Ibid., p. 90

[12]
According to E. A. Thompson, there were at least four. In addition to Reccopolis, there was Victoriacum (apparently modern Vitoria); Ologicus (modern Olite); and Lugo, or Luceo. E. A. Thompson, “The Barbarian Kingdoms in Gaul and Spain,”
Nottingham Mediaeval Studies
, 7 (1963), pp. 4n, 11

[13]
See eg. Heribert Illig,
Wer hat an der Uhr gedreht?
(Econ Taschenbuch Verlag, 2000), pp. 106-10

[14]
See eg. Louis Bertrand, op cit.

[15]
Roger Collins,
Spain: An Oxford Archaeological Guide to Spain
(Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 23

[16]
Ibid., p. 20

[17]
H. St. L. B. Moss,
The Birth of the Middle Ages; 395-814
(Oxford University Press, 1935), p. 172

[18]
See eg. R. Dozy,
Histoire des Musulmans d’Espagne jusqu’à la Conquête de l’Andalousie par les Almoravides
, Vol. 1 (Paris, 1861)

[19]
Collins,
Spain: An Oxford Archaeological Guide to Spain
, p. 120

[20]
Cited from Bertrand, op cit., p. 65

[21]
Hodges and Whitehouse, op cit., p. 84

[22]
Ibid.

[23]
Ibid.

[24]
See esp. Heribert Illig,
Das erfundene Mittelalter

[25]
H. Lackner, “Multikulti in Ur-Wien. Archäologie. Historiker schreiben die Geschichte Wiens neu: Anders also bisher angenommen, war die Stadt zu Beginn des Mittelalters 300 Jahre lang eine menschenleere Ruinenlandschaft,” in
Profil
, Wien (2010), 31

P
irenne devoted considerable space in
Mohammed and Charlemagne
to an examination of intellectual and cultural life in the western provinces during the fifth and sixth centuries, where he showed a striking continuity of classical attitudes and institutions. There were some towering figures during this epoch, men such as Boethius, Cassiodorus, and Benedict. Furthermore, the general impression conveyed in the literature is of a well-educated populace, where learning was not at all confined to members of the clergy. There was a thriving literature, consisting largely of poetry, which was consumed by an evidently avid reading public. The theatre flourished, even in Vandal North Africa. The philosophers, both Greek and Latin, were discussed and widely known. One of the sons of the Ostrogoth king Theodoric boasted that he was a follower of Plato. And as Christianity spread into those areas never controlled by Rome, such as Ireland, so profane Latin culture followed in its wake. Both Virgil and Homer were known and discussed in the west of Ireland in the sixth century and books were highly valued. In one famous incident a war was fought over the ownership of a book’s copy (the first ever recorded incident of copyright) during the lifetime of Saint Columba, in the late sixth century. A little later Irish thinkers such as Scotus Erigena, a Neoplatonist, were making important contributions of their own.

Perhaps the greatest figure of this age however was Boethius, a man whom we can indisputably place alongside characters like Cicero and Seneca. We are told that “Few men have contributed so much to the intellectual sustenance of posterity as Boethius did.”
[1]
He seems to have been born in Rome in 480 (the same year as Saint Benedict), into the distinguished family of the Anicii. Both his parents counted Roman Emperors among their ancestors. His profound knowledge of Greek has led to the supposition that, as a young man, he studied in Athens and perhaps Alexandria. Since his father is recorded as proctor of a school in Alexandria around 470, the younger Boethius may have received some grounding in the classics from him or another close relative.

Boethius was to be celebrated throughout the Middle Ages, during which time he occupied a central position. His best known work is the
Consolation of Philosophy
, parts of the which are reminiscent of the Socratic method of Plato’s dialogues, as the spirit of philosophy questions Boethius and challenges his emotional reactions to adversity. The
Consolation
was translated into Old English by King Alfred, and into later English by Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth. Many manuscripts survive and it was extensively edited, translated and printed throughout Europe from the 14th century onwards.

Boethius’ stated goal was to translate all the works of Aristotle and Plato from the original Greek into Latin, and then to synthesize the two masters, thus producing a unified philosophy. His completed translations of Aristotle’s works on logic were the only significant portions of Aristotle available in Europe until the twelfth century. However, some of his translations (such as his treatment of the
topoi
in
The Topics
) were mixed with his own commentary, which reflected both Aristotelian and Platonic concepts. He also wrote a commentary on the
Isagoge
by Porphyry, which highlighted the existence of the problem of universals: whether these concepts are subsistent entities which would exist whether anyone thought of them, or whether they exist only as ideas. The ontological nature of universal ideas was one of the most vocal controversies in medieval philosophy.

Besides these advanced philosophical works, Boethius is also reported to have translated important Greek texts for the topics of the
quadrivium
. His loose translation of Nicomachus’ treatise on arithmetic (
De institutione arithmetica libri duo
) and his textbook on music (
De institutione musica libri quinque
, unfinished) became the corner-stone of medieval education. His translations of Euclid on geometry and Ptolemy on astronomy, if they were completed, no longer survive.

In his
De Musica
, Boethius introduced the threefold classification of music, namely: (1)
Musica mundana
— music of the spheres/world. (2)
Musica humana
— harmony of human body and spiritual harmony. (3)
Musica instrumentalis
— instrumental music (incl. human voice). He also wrote theological treatises, which generally involve support for the orthodox position against Arian ideas and other contemporary religious debates. His authorship was periodically disputed because of the secular nature of his other work, until the 19th century discovery of a biography by his contemporary Cassiodorus which mentioned his writing on the subject.
[2]

Boethius has been called by Lorenzo Valla the last of the Romans and the first of the scholastic philosophers. Nonetheless, there is nothing medieval in his thinking: He is entirely a man of classical antiquity, and it is evident that the great transformation which brought Graeco-Roman culture to an end had, in his age, not yet occurred. He was a Christian, and yet, “while accepting the principle of revealed faith, he was not averse to using his own reason to buttress it.”
[3]
Indeed, his thinking is so pervaded by the rationalism of Greece that his Christianity, notwithstanding the fact that the Church considers him a saint, has long been questioned.
[4]
Such hypotheses however are unnecessary. Christian civilization of the fifth and sixth centuries was not the Christian civilization of the Middle Ages, and the influence of the ancients, of the “pagan” thinkers of classical antiquity, had not yet been sidelined. It was still perfectly acceptable for a writer to be a Christian and a follower of Plato. In the words of one author, “… while eager and courageous spirits were contending for the Faith … throughout the Empire, men (and some of them Christian men) were writing and speaking as though no thing as Christianity had come into the world. And the age that witnessed the conversion of Constantine and inherited the benefits of that act was an age that in the East listened to the interminable hexameters of Nonnus’
Dionysiaca
, which contain no conscious reference to Christianity; that laughed over the epigrams of Cyrus; that delighted in many frankly pagan love-stories and saw nothing surprising in the attribution of one of them (the
Aethiopica
) to the Christian bishop Heliodorus; that in the West applauded the panegyrists when they compared emperor and patron to the hierarchy of gods and heroes.”
[5]

The other great mind of the time was Cassiodorus. Cassiodorus was born at Scylletium, near Catanzaro in southern Italy, of a family that was apparently Syrian in origin. He began his career as councilor to his father, the governor of Sicily, and made a name for himself while still very young as learned in the law. During his working life, as
quaestor
between 507 and 511, as a consul in 514, then as
magister officiorum
under Theodoric and his successor, Athalaric, Cassiodorus kept copious records concerning public affairs. At the Gothic court, his literary manner, which appears overly stylized and rhetorical to a modern reader, was accounted so remarkable that, whenever he was in Ravenna, significant public documents were often entrusted to him for drafting. Ultimately he was appointed praetorian prefect for Italy, effectively the prime ministership of the Ostrogothic civil government and a high honor to finish any career. His promotion seems to have coincided with Boethius’ execution, though, understandably enough, he makes no mention of this in his writings.
[6]

Athalaric died in early 534, and the remainder of Cassiodorus’ public career was engulfed by the Byzantine reconquest and dynastic intrigue among the Ostrogoths. His last letters were drafted in the name of Witigis. Around 537-38, he left Italy for Constantinople where he remained almost two decades, concentrating on religious questions. He noticeably met Junilius, the quaestor of Justinian and his experiences in the East may have contributed to an increasing interest in religion and spirituality.

It may be said of Cassiodorus that he spent his career trying to bridge the cultural divides that were causing fragmentation in the sixth century between East and West, Greek culture and Latin, Roman and Goth, and Christian people with their Arian ruler.

His great project, for which he is mainly remembered, was his attempt to create an institution for the preservation, study and duplication of copies of Christian and classical literature.
[7]
He realized his plans “through the establishment at Squillace of a monastery, which he called Vivarium, from the fish ponds (
vivaria
) on its grounds.”
[8]
Here he spent the remainder of his long life with his monks, guiding them in their work. During this time he collected “from Italy and North Africa Greek and Latin manuscripts of such wide variety and scope that his monks had a considerable library to work with.”
[9]
Like his predecessor Boethius, he treasured the intellectual inheritance of Greece and Rome and thus “set a standard and example for the Benedictine monks to follow.”
[10]
And follow they did, as we shall see: Just as he had hoped, the monasteries became the repositories of all knowledge, not just centers of Christian meditation; and the monks of the Benedictine order in particular preserved for us the great bulk of ancient literature that we now possess.

Other important intellects of the period were the following: Arator, who entered the service of the state under the reign of Athalaric, becoming
comes domesticorum
and
comes rerum privatarum
. He entered the Church, apparently during the siege of Rome by Vitiges, and in 544 he publicly recited his poem
De actibus apostolorum
in the Church of San Pietro-in-Vinculi.

Venantius Fortunatus, born between 530 and 540, studied grammar, rhetoric and jurisprudence at Ravenna. In 560 he moved to Gaul, where he came to the attention of Sigebert of Austrasia and other important personages. At Poitiers he made the acquaintance of Saint Radegunda, who had just founded the monastery of the Holy Cross. He became a priest there, and he died Bishop of Poitiers. His poems were mainly panegyrics, the most notable of which he dedicated to Chilperic and Fredegond. He lauds the Roman eloquence of Caribert, and praises Duke Lupus, a Roman who took pleasure in attracting to the court of his master those of his compatriots who, like Andarchius, were distinguished for their learning.

Roman men of letters were also prominent at the court of the Vandals. Dracontius addressed a poem entitled
Satisfactio
to King Gunthamund (484-496). He was a pupil of the grammarian Felicianus, and there is evidence in his work that individual Vandals attended the classes of the grammarians in company with the Romans. His family had retained possession of their estates under the Vandals, but was himself later persecuted by Gunthamund, who had him thrown into prison on account of a poem in which he seems to have celebrated the Emperor to the king’s disadvantage.

Under Thrasamund (496-523) and Hilderic (523-530) flourished the poets of the Anthology: Florentinus, Flavius Felix, Luxorius, Mavortius, Coronatus and Calbulus, who, although Christians, wrote in the style of pagan antiquity. Their poems celebrate the magnificent
termi
of Thrasamund and the monuments erected at Aliana. In these poems Christianity and Christian sentiments are found side by side with frankly pagan sexual innuendo.

This is hardly what we would expect of an intolerant theocracy.

* * *

An extremely important cultural innovation of the East, which was to have a profound impact upon the intellectual life of Europe from the sixth century onwards, was monasticism. Monasticism began in Egypt, where the austerities of Saint Anthony, who took up residence first in the tombs near Thebes and then in a remote part of the Eastern Desert, were imitated by a host of other devout believers. By the mid-fourth century many religious-minded young men, heeding the call of Saint Basil the Great, began to live in monastic communities devoted to the same austere life of prayer as the hermits, yet without the complete isolation of the latter. Living in a community of faith, it was realized, had some distinct advantages over the life of the anchorite.

Initially, monks did not see themselves as educators or men of letters: they were merely followers of Christ who wished to tread the path of spiritual perfection by relinquishing all worldly desires and possessions, as he had instructed. Nonetheless, even by the fourth century we find them involved in study and education. Saint John Chrysostom tells us that already in his day (circa 347 – 407) it was customary for people in Antioch to send their sons to be educated by the monks.

Monasticism probably began in the West during the fourth century, and it made great headway in particular in Ireland. The story of western monasticism however really begins with Benedict of Nursia, Saint Benedict, a contemporary of Boethius and Cassiodorus. Around 525 he established twelve small communities of monks at Subiaco, thirty-eight miles from Rome, before heading fifty miles south to Monte Cassino, where he established the great monastery that would forever be associated with him. It was here that he formulated his famous Rule, the excellence of which was reflected in its almost universal adoption throughout Western Europe in the centuries that followed. Under the Rule of Benedict, the monks lived a life of prayer, work and study, and subsisted at a level comparable to that of a contemporary Italian peasant.

Although the monk’s purpose in retiring from the world was to cultivate a more disciplined spiritual life, in the end the Benedictine Houses would play a much wider and historically-significant role. The monks may not have intended to make their communities into centers of learning, technology and economic progress; yet, as time went on, this is exactly what they became. Indeed, one can scarcely find a single endeavor in the advancement of civilization during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in which the monks did not play a central role.
[11]
It is well-known, of course, that they preserved the literary inheritance of the ancient world (much more completely, in fact, than was previously realized), yet they did much more. According to one scholar, they gave “the whole of Europe … a network of model factories, centers for breeding livestock, centers of scholarship, spiritual fervor, the art of living … readiness for social action – in a word … advanced civilization that emerged from the chaotic waves of surrounding barbarity. Without any doubt, Saint Benedict was the Father of Europe. The Benedictines, his children, were the Fathers of European civilization.”
[12]