Charles VII. He died in one thousand seven hundred and forty-five, after an unquiet and unfortunate reign.

"Q. Who succeeded him?" 53

Frequently there were books written in dramatic form, with a patriarch or precocious youth as the fount of wisdom, while children of varying ages provided the situation for the intended response. A child, the junior of the others, is often included, for the purpose of asking easy or obvious questions, either for the guidance or the amusement of the student. The opening questions of Dunlap's "History of New York" are quoted as an illustration:

"CHAPTER I.

"The interlocutors are three boys: John, aged 14; William, aged 12; Philip, aged 10; one girl, Mary, aged 8; and their uncle, aged 71.

"WILLIAM. Now, that Uncle Philip has gone away, will you not tell us the history of New York during the war? You know he only told us how the quarrels began between America and England, and the most curious things happened after that. Now, do you tell us, Uncle; you are older than Uncle Philip, and ought to know more.

"UNCLE. That does not follow, my boy; Uncle Philip knows by reading. A man can know but little who does not read; he has read more than I have.

"MARY. But you have seen all the people he told us about.

UNCLE. Oh, no, child. Do you suppose that I saw Henry Hudson?

"JOHN. Hush, Mary. You should remember dates; Uncle Thomas told us he is 71 years old; and, of course, he can only remember what passed fifty or sixty years ago.

"PHILIP. Uncle might remember many things that Uncle Philip could only know from hearsay, or reading them.

"MARY. I am 8 years last June, and I remember a long, long time.

"PHILIP. Now, sir, you will oblige us all very much if you will go on with the stories of old times. You have read all the books as well as Uncle Philip, and know some things of your own besides.

"UNCLE. Well, children, I will do as you wish; but I must first examine in respect to what you have been told. Do you think that you remember the first part of the history of New York sufficiently to understand the second? MARY. Oh, yes, sir; I remember all about Indians"JOHN. Hush, Mary." 54

This method was popular in the New York academies. At Albany in 1837 was used:

"What has been styled the interrogative system, and principally introduced into notice by Mr. Wood, of Edinburgh." 55

In Schenectady in the same year was reported that "It is required of pupils at their recitations to give the ideas of their author in their own language-prompt answers to questions, the test of their understandings." 56

In Gaines Academy at the same time

"The teachers made it their constant aim by familiar illustrations and by alternate questions and answers, to

53 Bingham, op. cit., p. 171.

54 Wm. Dunlap, "A History of New York for Schools," pp.

9-10.

55 New York, op. cit., 1837, p. 82. 56 New York, op. cit., 1837, p. 87.

secure the voluntary exercise of the mind, by thus rendering the recitations pleasing as well as instructive." 57

At Poughkeepsie Female Academy in 1836:

'Analyses are drawn out by the pupils themselves, after having gone over them once in the way of question and answer... Instruction is likewise accompanied with such verbal explanations and remarks on all various studies as the teacher may deem necessary." 58

Jefferson Academy in 1835 reports in a rather complete way one way of prosecution of this method: "To a class of a dozen pupils is given a lesson. They are first required to read the chapter cursorily, marking, however, any passage that strikes the mind very forcibly, with a pencil. They are next required without any concert to write out five (more or less) of the most important questions they can originate by a critical review and study of the chapter, and to deliver these questions to the teacher, at the recitation seat, giving him answers from memory; these answers being the sentiments (not necessarily the words of the author) or the results of their own observations or readings. It is, I imagine, readily seen, that a HIGH ambition is hereby produced between several members of the class to bring forward a better selection of questions, each than any of the rest, as well as necessarily a stimulated exercise of the judgment, and a critical examination of other parts of the lesson than those brought forward. This, of course, does not preclude the teacher from bringing up at the recitation any important topic, unduly neglected by any or all of the class." 59

(To be continued in the February number.)

LOUISIANA UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL RALLY DAY. CONTRIBUTED BY PROF. MILLEDGE L. BENHAM, Jr.

66

In the MAGAZINE for May, 1910, (page 208) is an account of the history exhibit at the annual high school rally of the Louisiana State University. This exhibit consisted of history notebooks prepared by high school pupils and sent to the University. Prizes were given for the best and second exhibits, comprising all the books of a given class. These prizes included an illuminated certificate, framed for hanging, which contained the names of the class, the principal and the teacher, and some valuable historical work, such as Wilson's "American People," Bradford's Robert E. Lee," etc., was also given to the schools winning first and second place. This plan was continued until the rally of May, 1914, when the History Department decided to vary the contest. In the "Rally Bulletin," a pamphlet published by the University in February, it was announced that the contest would consist of a written examination on the political, social, economic and biographical history of Louisiana. A brief bibliography was given, and teachers of history who wished their classes to contest were invited to write for a more complete bibliography, which with an exhaustive list of topics, was prepared by the History Department.

The results were very encouraging. Representatives of schools from all sections of the State entered, and the general average of the contestants was about 92. The winner made 96. The student handing in the poorest paper (which, however, easily made a pass-mark), in answer to the ques(Continued on page 27.)

57 New York, op. cit., 1837, p. 102. 58 New York, op. cit., 1837, p. 102. 59 New York, op. cit., 1835, p. 59.

I. VALUE AND CONTENT.

1. What is mediaeval history?-Mediaeval history is that period of the history of Europe and the Mediterranean countries-Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Africa-which is included between the decline of the Roman Empire and the period of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.

2. Origin of the term "Middle Ages."-The term Middle Ages" was first used by a Belgian scholar named Rausin in 1639. But the popularity of the phrase dates from Christopher Kellar, a Thuringian teacher, who late in the seventeenth century [16851688-1692] published the Compends which introduced into history the threefold division of ancient, mediaeval and modern" (Burr, "Anent the Middle Ages," American Historical Review, XVIII, 714).

The phrase has nothing but popular usage to support it, for its implication is unscientific. "It originated in the seventeenth century when men of letters had drawn deeper and deeper of the charmed draught of classical literature. They felt themselves, so they imagined, at one with the master minds of Greece and Rome. And all that filled the interval from the downfall of the Roman world to their own time, the whole previous history of their own people, seemed to them as a chaotic chasm, an interlude, a middle age of darkness and barbarity. Nothing could be more unhistorical. There never has been such a middle age. The whole history of modern nations presents one continuity from the first appearance of the Germanic peoples on the historic stage. . . . The alleged middle age, therefore, is neither marked off by a clear line, or any kind of a line from modern history, nor does it constitute in any sense a unity in itself" (Keutgen, "On the Necessity in America of the Study of the Early History of Modern European Nations," Annual Report of the American Historical Association, 1904, p. 94).

The student will find suggestive reading on this subject in:

Burr, "Anent the Middle Ages," American Historical Review, XVIII, 710-26.

Adams, "Civilization During the Middle Ages," chaps. i, ii.

Keutgen, "Study of the Early History of Modern European Nations," American Historical Association, 1904, pp. 91-106.

Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History," chaps. ix and x, "Characteristic Differences between Mediaeval and Modern History."

Taylor, "Mediaeval Mind," I, chap. i.

Graves, "History of Education during the Middle Ages," chap. i.

Thatcher and Schevill, "Europe in the Middle Ages," pp. 1-5.

Lodge,"Close of the Middle Ages," pp. 515-18.
Robinson, "History of Western Europe," chap. i.
Robinson, "Readings," I, chap. i.

Munro, "History of the Middle Ages," chap. i. Guizot, "Lectures on the History of Civilization," Series I, pp. 1-35.

Forrest," Development of Western Civilization," chap. ii.

3. Original and progressive elements in mediaeval history. It is false and unscientific to regard the Middle Ages as a lapse into utter barbarism. Whatever humanity lost because of the decline of ancient culture was amply compensated for by what it gained ultimately in the new order of things. It is improbable that much of essential worth developed in antiquity was ever destroyed. On the other hand, what humanity gained in the way of progress during the Middle Ages is of enormous value. In addition to the heritage from antiquity, which is larger than is sometimes appreciated, the gifts of Christianity and the church, despite much in them that has been reactionary or suppressive, mark a very great advance upon antiquity, both socially and ethically.

A similar high valuation may be put upon the contribution of the Germanic race. "Vulgarly described as barbarians though you find them, they possessed cultural conceptions of their own and institutions of the strongest vitality, allowing of the richest further evolution. They implanted in the Roman soil political institutions which were their very own. They brought with them primitive but elastic systems of civil and criminal law and of legal procedure, and likewise an economic system, novel methods of land tenure and agriculture. Their constitutional and legal systems, moreover, were based on conceptions or convictions fundamentally distinct from anything Roman, but furnishing the main root out of which the most modern democratic institutions have sprung. Their German blood mingled with that of the older inhabitants of Gaul, of Italy, of Spain and Britain, and out of this new nations sprang. These, with the people that had remained at home in the old Germanic lands, henceforth formed one group of nations closely allied, not only by blood, but sharing in the main the same institutions and the same mental culture. It was a new world, whatever its debts to an older one that had passed away, and a world that is still in full vigor" (Keutgen, op. cit., p. 95).

In government and law, in social conditions, in culture, the Middle Ages developed institutions and ideas that would have astonished the Greeks and Romans.

66

The state of antiquity was a city state;" even the Roman Empire was a vast aggregation of cities. Mediaeval Europe developed nations and national monarchy. Rome solved the problem of an efficient centralized government. But government which gave simultaneous and due expression to both central and local interests is the inheritance of modern times through the achievement of the Middle Ages. The ancient world rested upon slave labor; the Middle Ages first ameliorated and then abolished slavery in Europe and reduced serfdom almost to the vanishing point. They created the free agriculturalist, the free merchant, the free craftsman. In literature, the Middle Ages witnessed the evolution of new languages which flowered in forms of literature as rich and varied as those of Greek and Latin literature. In science and the mechanical arts, it is to the Middle Ages that we owe the modern system of notation, algebra, the compass, the magnifying glass, gunpowder, the process of distillation, the use of the chief acids, the discovery of gas, the invention of printing, the windmill, and the organ. To material welfare, the Middle Ages contributed the use of silk, sugar, linen paper; and, largely through the influence of the Arabs, many new vegetable products were made serviceable to mankind.

As the mental and moral horizon was broadened, so also was the physical horizon widened far beyond the limits known to the ancient world. No ancient navigator had rounded the African continent as Vasco da Gama did in 1498, or discovered new lands like the Norse discovery of Iceland and Greenland and Columbus' finding of America. No Greek or Roman adventurer, so far as we know, ever crossed Asia as did Marco Polo. In aesthetics the Middle Ages gave birth to Romanesque and the exquisite Gothic architecture, to painting in oils, to line engraving, to a music far in advance of that which antiquity knew. The weakest points in mediaeval civilization are precisely the weakest points in antiquity and in modern times, and they are inseparable from human nature.

4. Essential elements in mediaeval history. The period of mediaeval history was pre-eminently an institutional epoch when forms and customs were in the making. In consequence, the church, administrative and political powers, social structure, town life, war, trade, agriculture, arts and letters, all constitute important elements in mediaeval history.

Mediaeval civilization was formed of three elements: Greek and Roman, Christian, and German. There were other but more incidental factors, such as the Keltic, Mohammedan, Jewish, Slavonic, and Turanian, but these three are the essential ingredients of mediaeval life. In a sense the Middle Ages were a tumultuous laboratory in which these elements in a greater or less degree were melted and fused together to form the civilization of the time. The proportion of the elements or the degree of fusion was never everywhere equal. In Southern Europe, among the Romance nations, Roman survivals predominated. In Northern Europe, on the other hand,

German influences predominated. There is infinite variety in the mass and texture of mediaeval institutions, and part of the charm and value of studying mediaeval history is to determine the relative proportions of the various elements which formed the complex whole.

5. Relation of mediaeval history to ancient and modern history.-The early history of the Middle certain Ages-the period before 800 A.D.-in a sense may be regarded as the epilogue of ancient history. In like manner the later Middle Ages, roughly from 1300 to 1500, may be looked upon as a prologue to modern times. At the end of the fifth century, the history of the Roman Empire almost imperceptibly merged into the period of German ascendancy. By a process as slow as the "weathering "of a great building the Roman Empire disappeared. The migrating Germanic nations replaced the political sovereignty of Rome. Visigoths established themselves in Spain, Vandals in Africa, Lombards in Italy, Franks in Their inGaul, the English and Saxons in Britain. stitutions modified or supplanted those of Rome. There was a transfusion of blood, a change in the nature and content of European civilization. This period of transition, roughly embraced by the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth centuries, is one of darkness and struggle. But gradually out of the dust cloud raised by the horse of the Hun and the confused movement of half-barbarian peoples, the form of the Frank Empire emerges. Coincident with this reorganization of Europe by Charlemagne, the Far East rises into newness of life. The Arabs, welded into a single people by Mohammed, conquered Western Asia, Egypt, the African seaboard, the isles of the Mediterranean, and even part of Spain.

creations.

But fate dealt hard with these vast Feudalism destroyed the empire of Charlemagne; the khalifate fell apart of its own weight; yet in each state a unity of faith partially overcame this political disintegration. In Western Europe the unity of the church saved society from entire dissolution, and gradually the Holy Roman Empire, the French and Spanish monarchies, and the English kingship acquired strength and form. But the nascent states were soon called upon to justify their position by another authority-that of the church. The confusion of Church and State in the Middle Ages would have made antagonism between them inevitable, even if the papacy had not centered at Rome. But the strength of Roman imperial tradition, unity of faith, and of church government, the power of ecclesiastical authority, combined with subtler political and personal causes, made the church a vast ecclesiastical empire. Pope and emperor came into collision, and as a result the fate of Germany and Italy, the two component parts of the mediaeval empire, was conditioned for centuries by the issue. This conflict coincided in time with the Crusades in which the whole of Christian Europe was involved with the Mohammedan Orient and the Byzantine Empire. France was little concerned in the struggle of empire and papacy dur

ing these centuries-the central historic fact of history of Germany and Italy at this time-but she was the chief participant in the conflict of the West and the East―i.e., the Crusades. The history of Spain during this epoch was that of a five centuries' warfare against the Mohammedan in the peninsula. English history in its constitutional aspects was throughout this period largely a thing apart from the main line of European development, although owing to the Norman Conquest, English political history. became intimately related to that of feudal Europe.

These are the main facts of the history of Central and Western Europe between 814-the death of Charlemagne-and 1291-the end of the Crusades. But another history remains to be noticed, that of the Roman Empire of the East. Byzantine history was not German at all nor yet wholly Roman. Nevertheless it is very important.

It must not be forgotten that Constantinople was the immediate and direct heir of antiquity. Constantinople was a new Rome and was the repository of the civilization and culture, the learning and the art of the ancient world. Her material civilization was brilliant when London and Paris were obscure, squalid towns. She possessed libraries and museums in which had been garnered the lore of the GraecoRoman world. Her government was great and strong when Western Europe was a chaos of jarring feudal groups. Much of our inheritance from ancient Greece we owe to its preservation by Constantinople. Moreover, for centuries Constantinople was the great bastion of Europe, protecting it from the Mohammedan East.

6. Educational value of mediaeval history.-The educational value of mediaeval history is very great. The culture and the civilization of Europe and America to-day are largely a heritage from the past. The enormous development in the nineteenth century of invention and the mechanical arts must not blind our eyes to the fact that the real roots of modern life go deep down into the Middle Ages and even beyond to Greece and Rome. Mechanical and material things are not institutions; they may condition living but they do not constitute life. Every nation of today in Europe traces its history for ages back. It finds in its very origins the proofs of its right to be and sees in its past history the promise and security of its future. It is literally true that the history of Europe and the Mohammedan Orient as it is to-day cannot be understood unless one knows the history, not only of their immediate, but of their remote past.

The greatest thinkers, not merely among historians but among philosophers and poets, have perceived the value and the unity of history-Goethe, Carlyle, Browning. "The Past's enormous disarray" is apparent, not real. In "Faust," Goethe has said:

What you the spirit of the ages call
Is nothing but the spirit of you all
Wherein the ages are reflected.

And Browning in "Fra Lippo Lippi" says:

This world's no blot to us,

No blank. . . .

To find its meaning is my meat and drink.

7. Truth in mediaeval history.-Perhaps there is no body of human knowledge that has been more overlaid with falsehood, more distorted from the truth, more perverted by sentiment, more wrenched by prejudice than mediaeval history, and none about

which more credulous and erroneous beliefs obtain. In spite of the labors of accomplished scholars for nearly a century, since the rise of critical historical method, each succeeding generation perpetuates the errors of its predecessor. Every teacher of history knows how persistent and broadcast is the spread of false historical ideas. A considerable portion of the time of every teacher has to be spent in uprooting mistaken notions, and the discouraging feature is that generation after generation of college students come to their classes with these errors in their minds and the ground has to be cleared anew each year.

Modern scholarship has revolutionized the history of the persecution of Christianity by the Roman government and exploded the old idea as to the origin and use of the catacombs; it has revolutionized the interpretation of the history of the barbarian invasions; destroyed the legend of the burning of the Alexandrian Library by Omar and the legend of the terrors of the year 1000; stripped the romance from Richard Lion Heart's captivity; written the story of the Crusades in terms of history and not of fiction; made mediaeval history natural and human instead of being dark or sentimentally romantic. Human affairs," said Richter, "are neither to be laughed at nor wept over, but to be understood." It were well for every student to bear this in mind.

66

8. Point of view.-In order to understand the history of the Middle Ages it is essential that the student free his mind of present-day conceptions and prejudiced interpretation-that he put himself as far as possible, by the exercise of historical imagination, into the time and place of the events about which he is reading.

9. Termini and subdivisions.-In section 5, above, the attempt was made to show that what is called the Middle Ages is only an intellectual convenience; that there is a unity of history which prevails over all dividing lines we may draw, or epochs we may distinguish; that all periodization is more or less arbitrary. With the understanding, then, that every period is one of transition and that every event must be related both to what preceded and what succeeded, it is convenient to distinguish certain dates of more than usual importance as milestones along the road of the past. For the early Middle Ages some of these dates are:

313, recognition of Christianity by Constantine. 378, battle of Adrianople.

395, divison between the East and West.

Each of these dates may be taken as a startingpoint, yet none is wholly satisfactory. The im

fourth century and that the fourth century is the century-the transitional century between the ancient world and the Middle Ages. Nevertheless the student must understand that these division points are more or less arbitrary.

If we are perplexed in the selection of an initial date for the Middle Ages, the difficulty is even greater in choosing a concluding date. The change from mediaeval to modern history is so subtle, so gradual, as to be almost imperceptible. To look for it is like watching for the dawn or the twilight. Nevertheless in spite of this element of doubt and uncertainty, and keeping in mind that all dates have significance only in proportion to the relevance attached to them, in the fifteenth century we encounter a combination of events which are climacteric, such as:

1453, capture of Constantinople by the Turks. 1453, end of the Hundred Years' War between England and France.

1492, expulsion of the Moors from Spain (observe how the map of Europe evens up," for, as Mohammedanism is expelled in the West, it enters Europe in the East).

1492, discovery of America.

1494, French invasion of Italy. 1498, discovery of the southwest passage to India

around the Cape of Good Hope, which revolutionized commerce and changed the front of Europe to the westward.

As to subdivisions of the broad stretch of time between the fourth century and the end of the fifteenth century, again there is great latitude, Lavisse and Rambaud (Histoire générale) distinguish three periods:

395-1095, from the division of the Roman Empire to the Crusades.

1095-1270, from the beginning of the Crusades to the death of St. Louis, "the last Crusader." 1270-1492, from the end of the Crusades to the discovery of America:

But one may quite as reasonably distinguish three periods as follows:

313-814, from the recognition of Christianity by Constantine to the death of Charlemagne.

814-1291, from the death of Charlemagne to the loss of Acre, the last Christian holding in the Holy Land.

WALTER H. CUSHING, EDITOR.

NOTES.

The Louisiana Historical Society is preparing for the commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans and the one hundred years of peace between Great Britain and the United States, which began with the end of that battle. The program for the exercises to be held January 8, 9, 10, 1915, includes a naval parade, the unveiling of a monument, an address by the President of the United States, a military parade and a historical pageant.

The recent meeting of the Kansas History Teachers' Association was attended by about 450 persons. The active membership in the Society is now about 100. The officers are: President, Prof. C. L. Becker, of the University of Kansas; vice-president, Prof. Arthur N. Hyde, of Washburn College; secretary-treasurer, Miss Mary A. Whitney, of the Kansas State Normal School, Emporium, Kansas.

The English Historical Association leaflet No. 36 contains a short bibliography upon the present war for the use of teachers of history. The bibliography is not so comprehensive as that which appeared in the HISTORY TEACHER'S MAGAZINE for November, but it does contain a number of references upon the art of war, poetry of the war and miscellaneous subjects. Copies may be obtained from the secretary, Miss M. B. Curran, 6 South Square, Gray's Inn, London, W. C.

The Iowa Society of Social Science Teachers, after considerable discussion, unanimously agreed that the organization should include the teachers of economics, government and sociology, as well as the teachers of history, and therefore the above name was adopted. The president of the Society for the coming year is Thomas Teakle, Professor of History in the North Des Moines High School, Des Moines, Iowa. All communications addressed to the Society of Social Science Teachers should be sent to Professor Teakle.

A committee of the Indiana State History Teacher's Section has sent out a questionnaire, requesting information and opinions upon the existing course of study in history in the high schools of the State.

Professor Frank M. Anderson, of Dartmouth College, will conduct a course on "The War" during the second half year. The discussion will be based upon a careful study of State documents, newspapers and magazine articles.

A meeting of the Council of the New England History Teachers' Association was held in Boston on Saturday, December 5. It was voted to hold the spring meeting of the association in Worcester, Mass., on Friday and Saturday, April 30 and May 1. The subject for discussion on Saturday, May 1, will be the "Teaching of Recent American History." A special committee on Definitions of the Fields of History was appointed, consisting of Professor George M. Dutcher, chairman; Mr. Archibald Freeman, of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., and Mr. Philip P. Chase, of Milton Academy. Plans for the Friday evening meeting have not yet been completed, but will undoubtedly comprise an address, followed by an informal reception. The following committee appointments were made: On Text-books, Professor Charles R. Lingley, of Dartmouth College, and Miss Nellie Hammond, of Woburn High School, were added. On Historical Material, Professor Arthur I. Andrews, of Tufts College, and Mr. Foster Stearns, of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,