The Birth of the West, Paul Collins, c. 2013 -- IN PROGRESS

Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century. 

Wow, this is going to be a great book. I have just finished the Prologue and the first few pages of Part One: The City and the World.

Prologue

Fear of the Vikings; superstitious about the weather.

Mentions Priscian of Caesarea's monumental Institutiones Grammaticae (Principles of Grammar), in Latin but written in Irish script.  An Irish monk was studying Greek and Latin grammar. The manuscript had been copied between 845 and 850 in the monastery's scriptorium, and eventually made its way to the Stiftsbibliothek, St Allen, Switzerland. It is filled with glosses, marginalia by the monk(s) who read it to aid readers in understanding the text.

Paul Collins starts his story in 851, or thereabouts. For 75 years the Irish monasteries had been raided by the Vikings. Meanwhile, Saracen Muslim pirates had been terrorizing the Italian coastline, and the Magyars (Hungarians) had terrorized much of Germany. France was broken up into small areas of control, controlled by thugs; France was perhaps more dangerous than Ireland, Germany, and Italy despite the attacks by foreigners.

Collins references Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West.

Collins argues that our culture (Western culture) is the product of two sources: the Frankish-Germanic of northwestern Europe, and Rome. [To this, one needs to add Scotland, How The Scots Invented The World; though one could argue Scotland's heritage is tied up with France; and of course, England is Frankish (William the Conqueror) and Germanic (Saxon).]

The ninth century was chaotic and dangerous. But by the end of the century, according to Collins, "order had been restored in Germany, owing almost entirely to the recently converted Saxons, who were the first ot bring some political organization of the heartland of Europe. In fact, this books' subtitle might well have been "How the Germans Saved Civilization" by restoring a working central government." Order had been restored when the marauders had been converted to Christianity, and Catholicism, specifically.

"The birth of the West had come about because the German-Saxon rulers -- Henry the Fowler, the three Ottos, and the Greek-born Empress Theophano (wife of the second Otto) -- were able to bring order out of chaos and imagine, and then realize, a new and better way of governing society."

"Sylvester II: the greatest genius ever to be pope."

Medieval Warming Period: 750 - 1200. 

Part One

The City and the World

Chapter 1

The Physical Landscape of the Tenth Century

Sea-level rise was transforming mainland Europe. The example of Bruges, p. 15.

By the early 900s, forests were the dominant form of European vegetation.

The original meaning of forest, as "a royal forest reserved for hunting," p. 19. A nice discussion for silva, woodland, forestae, hunting, usage, and property rights.

The term for forestland in the tenth century: "fisc." -- p. 20.

Fiscs were often transferred to the clergy, the abbeys, monasteries. The idea of private property was a late development. In the Scottish Highlands, the concept of private property came as late as the early 19th century.

Forests (fiscs) could be used by ordinary folks, for almost everything, but NOT hunting. -- p. 21

Population:

• at its peak, the Roman Empire, 36 million; unsustainable; collapsed with the fall
• nadir of European population came in 6th/7th centuries; by 600 AD -- 18 - 22 million
• by beginning of 8th century, population increasing again; perhaps because of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), numbers reached about 29 million by 800, and close to 36 - 39 by the millenium
• the population of Rome, max and min, was even more remarkable, during this period -- p. 23
• bubonic plague particularly prevalent in mid-6th century
• central Italy afflicted by food shortages, warfare between the Ostrogoths and Byzantines; quickly followed by the Lombard invasion of Italian peninsula, 568 - 569
• warmer weather in the 10th century helped stop the spread of the bubonic plague

During this period, there was no concept of "Europe." People defined their identity by family and locality; if any broad definition, it was belonging to Christianitas, Christendom.

Then a nice discussion of the physical layout of the continent:

Four aspects of topography:

• fertile, well-watered Great European Plain
• the Mediterranean
• the rivers of Europe
• mountain barriers (Pyrenees, Apennines, the Alps)

The great rivers:

• Volga, Dnieper, and Don -- far eastern Europe; not relevant to this book
• Rhine, Danube -- very influential to the story at hand
• Others: Tagus (Spain); Loire, Seine, Rhone (France); Elbe (Germany); Oder (German-Polish border); Po (Italy), Thames (England); Shannon (Ireland) -- important waterways as highways for the Vikings into the interior

Alps: major barrier for non-Italians to get to Rome

The passes over the Alps discussed, p. 29

Horses: first-class travel; mules: for the rest, p. 29

Christian pilgrimage: very few made it to Jerusalem. Many more able to get to Rome. Unfortunately, Rome, in the 10th century was "awful."

"... Archbishop of Canterbury ... on his retrn from Rome to England ... after receiving his pallium." -- p. 30.

Chapter 2

Roman "Harlots" -- From the Cadaver Synod to the Fall of Marozia

A description of papal regalia. -- p . 33.  The pallium: a band of white lamb's wool hung over the right shoulder with the ends hanging down the left side and reaching to the knees; archbishops received this from the Pope when elevated to Archbishop status.

897 AD: Pope Stephen VI. The story of Pope Formosus (the only pope of that name). The story was immortalized by the English poet Robert Browning (1812 - 1889) in The Ring and the Book.

Pilgrims had come to Rome over the centuries to pay respects to saints/apostles Peter and Paul who were buried there.

Pope Stephen VI (896 - 897): mentally unstable, vicious, ambitious

Pope Formosus (891 - 896): unembalmed; in a sarcophagus ("flesh eater": it was believed that stone, particularly limestone, decomposed corpses quickly).

A few weeks after this travesty, a huge earthquake leveled the basilica. Superstition: God was unhappy with Pope Stephen VI. He was soon imprisoned, and eventually strangled, 897.

Example of blood feuds. Author cites Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the Montague vs the Capulet clans as an example.

A discussion of the city of Rome. Famous place names discussed. Who owned all this real estate: the papacy -- p . 42.

Land inside the city was leased for "three generations," similar to one-hundred-year leases granted on government-owned land in common law countries, p. 42. 

The political/church hierarchy during this time, p. 43. 

"The cubicularii illustrate the fact that, despite the pervasive presence of married clergy, the clerical world had for centuries been a somewhat closed milieu and that young men were initiated into this somewhat homoerotic world of all-male communities." -- p. 43

Entry into the clerical state or ordination to the priesthood ... did not require celibacy. -- p. 43. Practice continued well into the 12th century.

Papal revenue: p. 44

The pope had become "Rome's grocer" by this time, p. 44.

Papal estates (source of income and agricultural products) were privatized in the 10th century, leaving the Roman church with little support for its ministry to the poor and dispossessed. -- p. 45

Flashback to 846: the Muslin Saracen raid on the Vatican.

No concept of a separation of church and state, but the pope's control was not absolute. -- p. 50

A pope named Hadrian II -- p. 51. The story leading up to Pope Formosus, and Stephen VI.

Stephen V preceded Pope Formosus. Stephen VI followed Pope Formosus. Popes in between.

Rome: long-term struggle between the popes and the family-based clans. The Theophylacts were the first clan to gain complete control of the city, which they governed until 960. Ruled from Castel Sant'Angelo, the key to controlling Rome militarily and remained so for a thousand years.

Marozia: Theophylact's oldest daughter; considered by some to be the most notorious woman in papal history (this author disagrees).

The chapter ends with Marozia, outliving her husband(s), waiting for her too-young son to perhaps be come pope.

Chapter 3: The Nadir of the Papacy

Nice map of Italy in the 10th century:

• Rome inside the Patrimonium Petri
• Spoleto to the west
• Capua to the south of Patrimonium Petri
• Byzantine Territory at the toe and heel
• Muslim Sicily
• Tuscany, north of Patrimonium Petri
• Papal State (Romagna) -- extend from northern Italy on the east all the way to south of Rome; a dotted line separates Papal State (Romagna) from Patrimonium Petri

The papacy was a dangerous office to hold.

Marozia in control, but her son, John, at age 20, to old to be pope; a minimum of 25 years old required; stop-gap popes; under her direction, two popes elected (Leo VI, and Stephen VII).

The looks among the clergy (east and west) were diverging:

• Eastern Byzantine: beards -- Christ had a beard; man's virility and dignity in contrast to women
• Western (Rome): shaved, and tonsured; St Peter had been beardless

Stephen VII conveniently dies, and though her son is still young, he is elected pope. Marozia is now in total control.