Home › CHAPTER VIII › CHAPTER VIII: Mahomet

CHAPTER VIII: Mahomet

This, then, was the very nick of time most favorable for such a revolution in the world as was undertaken by the wily and daring Mahomet (or Mohammed), who foreseeing the power and glory that awaited him if success should crown his efforts, assumed the title of "prophet," and professed to have received a direct commission from God to become the founder of a new religion, A.D. 622. This forms a marked epoch in chronology, and is designated the Hejira, or Flight of Mahomet. He at first endeavored by the force of his persuasive eloquence alone to make proselytes; but finding himself ere long at the head of many thousand warlike followers, who acknowledged that " there was but one God and that Mahomet was his prophet," he took advantage of their enthusiasm, and proceeded in the work of conquest. With a celerity truly surprising, the armies of the prophet and his successors overran all Syria, Palestine, Persia, Bukharia, and India. On the west their empire soon extended over Egypt, Barbary, Spain, Sicily, etc. But Mahomet, who died in the 63d year of his age, did not secure the succession, or give any directions concerning it; and the consequence was, that the caliphate was seized by many usurpers; dissensions broke out among the "true believers;" and in the course of time this great empire, like the others which we have noticed, declined in importance. The religion, however, still exists, and the temporal power of those who profess it is by no means trifling.

While this extraordinary revolution was going on in the East, and the Arabian arms were conquering " in the name of God and the prophet," the western nations as zealously upheld the doctrines promulgated by the pope. From the days of Constantine the Roman pontiffs had been gradually extending their power, temporal as well as spiritual; and at the period of which we are now speaking, not only was their sacerdotal dominion firmly established, but their political influence was often exerted for or against those princes of surrounding states as best suited the interests of the church. When, in 726, Luitprand, king of the Lombards, had taken Ravenna, and expelled the exarch, the pope undertook to restore him, and his restoration was accordingly speedily effected. The authority of the Byzantine emperors in Rome was, indeed, little more than nominal; and the interference of the popes in the temporal concerns of the different European monarchies was of the most obnoxious and intolerable kind.

We have seen that the reduction of Gaul was effected by Clovis, the Frank, who is styled the founder of the French monarchy. That kingdom, it may be observed, was subsequently divided into several petty sovereignties; and while the princes weakened each other by their contests, the nobles increased in power, leaving their kings little more than the shadow of royalty. At length they gave themselves up to a life of idolence and ease, and abandoned the reins of government to officers called mayors of the palace; of whom the most celebrated were Charles Martel, and his son Pepin the Little, who deposed Childeric, and became the founder of the Carvolingian or second royal race in France. Of the princes of this race we shall here only have to speak of Carolus Magnus, afterwards called Charlemagne, on account of the extent of his conquests, his restoration of the western empire, and the splendor of his reign. Very soon after his accession to the throne, the Saxons, who had long been tributaries to France, revolted, and bravely and obstinately contended for their freedom; but they were at last obliged to submit. In 774, after the reduction of Pavia, and the capture of Didier, the last king of the Lombards, Charlemagne repaired to Milan, and was there crowned king of Italy. From this time he was engaged in an almost unceasing warfare against the Moors in Spain, the Saxons and Huns in Germany, the party of the eastern emperor in Italy, and the Normans, who infested his maratime provinces. Having subdued his enemies, he repaired to Rome, in the year 800, for the fourth and last time; and on Christmas day, while assisting at the celebration of mass, the pope, Leo III., suddenly and unexpectedly crowned him emperor of the Romans, from which time he was honored with the title of Charlemagne, or Charles the Great. At the time of his death, which occurred in 814, he had reduced all that part of Spain which lies between the Pyrenees and the Ebro; seized Italy, from the Alps to the borders of the Calabria; and also added to his dominions all Germany south of the Eyder and Pannonia. The world was therefore once more shared among three great powers. The empire of the Arabs or Saracens extended from the Ganges to Spain; comprehending almost all of Asia and Africa which has ever been known to Europeans, China and Japan excepted. The eastern Roman empire was reduced to Greece, Asia Minor, and the provinces adjoining Italy. And the empire of the west, under Charlemagne, comprehended France, Germany and the greatest part of Italy. The son and successor of Charlemagne was Louis I., at whose death the restored empire of the west was divided, in 840, among his four sons: Lotharius was emperor; Pepin king of Aquitaine; Louis II. king of Germany; and Charles II., surnamed the Bald, king of France, a division that proved the source of perpetual contentions. The French retained the imperial title under eight sovereigns, till 912, when Louis III., the last king of Germany, of the race of Charlemagne, dying without male issue, his son-in-law, Conrad, count of Franconia, was elected emperor of Germany. Thus the empire passed to the Germans, and became elective, by the suffrages of the princes, lords, and deputies of cities, who assumed the title of electors.

During the period we have been describing, the union of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was effected by Egbert, the king of Wessex, A. D. 827. The pirates of Scandinavia, too, about this time began to make their appearance in large fleets, and spread devastation on the shores of France and other kingdoms of continental Europe. In England, where they were called Danes, these Northmen harassed the coast in a similar manner; and, though frequently repulsed, in the course of time they had the satisfaction of seeing monarchs of their own nation seated on the throne of England. The Saxon race, was, however, restored in 1041, in the person of Edward, surnamed the Confessor, who, dying without issue, nominated William, duke of Normandy, to be his successor. Here we may just remark, that the predatory tribes of Northmen, of whom we have before spoken, at different times overran and ravaged most countries of Europe; and a party having entered France, under their leader Rollo, Charles the Simple ceded to them, in 912, the province of Neustria. On this occasion Rollo embraced Christianity, changed his own name to Robert, and that of his duchy to Normandy. From him was William the Conqueror descended.

At no period of the history of the world do we find it in a more confused and distracted state than at the epoch to which we have now arrived. It appears, indeed, like one vast battle-field . Our attention, however, is principally attracted by the preponderating influence of Germany, in the west; the decline of the Byzantine empire, and the increase of that of the Turks, in the east; the divisions among the Saracens of Spain, and their subjugation by those of Africa. Civilization was taking a retrograde course, and while the feudal system and the spirit of chivalry, assisted by the papal superstitions, were riveting the chains of barbarism in one part of the world, the conquests and spoliations of the Turks, like those of the Goths and Huns before noticed, were fast obliterating the faint traces of human science and learning that remained in the other. At last the Crusades (though they must ever be deplored as the wretched offspring of enthusiasm and misguided zeal), by directing the attention of Europeans to one particular object, made them in some measure suspend the slaughter of one another, and were the means of extricating Christendom from a state of political and moral bondage.