The Age of Faith Read online

  BY WILL DURANT

  The Story of Philosophy

  Transition

  The Pleasure of Philosophy

  Adventures in Genius

  BY WILL AND ARIEL DURANT

  THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION

  1. Our Oriental Heritage

  2. The Life of Greece

  3. Caesar and Christ

  4. The Age of Faith

  5. The Renaissance

  6. The Reformation

  7. The Age of Reason Begins

  8. The Age of Louis XIV

  9. The Age of Voltaire

  10. Rousseau and Revolution

  11. The Age of Napoleon

  The Lessons of History

  Interpretation of Life

  A Dual Autobiography

  COPYRIGHT 1950 BY WILL DURANT

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION

  IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM

  PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER

  A DIVISION OF GULF & WESTERN CORPORATION

  SIMON & SCHUSTER BUILDING

  ROCKEFELLER CENTER

  1230 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS

  NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  SIMON AND SCHUSTER AND COLOPHON ARE TRADEMARKS OF SIMON & SCHUSTER

  ISBN 0-671-01200-1

  eISBN-13: 978-1-45164-761-7

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 35-10016

  MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  TO ETHEL, GORDON, AND JIM

  To the Reader

  THIS book aims to give as full and fair an account of medieval civilization from A.D. 325 to 1300, as space and prejudice will permit. Its method is integral history—the presentation of all phases of a culture or an age in one total picture and narrative. The obligation to cover the economic, political, legal, military, moral, social, religious, educational, scientific, medical, philosophic, literary, and artistic aspects of four distinct civilizations—Byzantine, Islamic, Judaic, and West European—has made unification and brevity difficult. The meeting and conflict of the four cultures in the Crusades provides a measure of unity; and the tired reader, appalled by the length of the book, may find some consolation in learning that the original manuscript was half again longer than the present text.* Nothing has been retained except what seemed necessary to the proper understanding of the period, or to the life and color of the tale. Nevertheless certain recondite passages, indicated by reduced type, may be omitted by the general reader without mortal injury.

  These two volumes constitute Part IV of a history of civilization. Part I, Our Oriental Heritage (1935), reviewed the history of Egypt and the Near East to their conquest by Alexander about 330 B.C., and of India, China, and Japan to the present century. Part II, The Life of Greece (1939), recorded the career and culture of Hellas and the Near East to the Roman Conquest of Greece in 146 B.C. Part III, Caesar and Christ (1944), surveyed the history of Rome and Christianity from their beginnings, and of the Near East from 146 B.C., to the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. This book continues the study of the white man’s life to the death of Dante in 1321. Part V, The Renaissance and the Reformation, covering the period from 1321 to 1648, should appear in 1955; and Part VI, The Age of Reason, carrying the story to our own time, should be ready by 1960. This will bring the author so close to senility that he must forgo the privilege of applying the integral method to the two Americas.

  Each of these volumes is designed as an independent unit, but readers familiar with Caesar and Christ will find it easier to pick up the threads of the present narrative. Chronology compels us to begin with those facets of the quadripartite medieval civilization which are most remote from our normal interest—the Byzantine and the Islamic. The Christian reader will be surprised by the space given to the Moslem culture, and the Moslem scholar will mourn the brevity with which the brilliant civilization of medieval Islam has here been summarized. A persistent effort has been made to be impartial, to see each faith and culture from its own point of view. But prejudice has survived, if only in the selection of material and the allotment of space. The mind, like the body, is imprisoned in its skin.

  The manuscript has been written three times, and each rewriting has discovered errors. Many must still remain; the improvement of the part is sacrificed to the completion of the whole. The correction of errors will be welcomed.

  Grateful acknowledgment is due to Dr. Use Lichtenstadter, of the Asia Institute of New York, for reading the pages on Islamic civilization; to Dr. Bernard Mandelbaum, of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, for reviewing the pages on medieval Jewry; to Professor Lynn Thorndike, of Columbia University, for the use of his translation of a passage from Alexander Neckham; to the Cambridge University Press for permission to quote translations from Edward G. Browne’s A Literary History of Persia; to the Public Library of Los Angeles, and specifically to its Hollywood Branch, and to the Library of Congress, for the loan of books; to Miss Rose Mary DeWitte for typing 50,000 notes; to Dr. James L. Whitehead, Dr. C. Edward Hopkin, and Mrs. Will Durant for their learned aid in classifying the material; to Misses Mary and Flora Kaufman for varied assistance; and to Mrs. Edith Digate for her high competence in typing the manuscript.

  This book, like all its predecessors, should have been dedicated to my wife, who for thirty-seven years has given me a patient toleration, protection, guidance, and inspiration that not all these volumes could repay. It is at her prompting that these two volumes are dedicated to our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson.

  WILL DURANT

  November 22, 1949

  Table of Contents

  BOOK I: THE BYZANTINE ZENITH: A.D. 325–565

  Chronological Table

  Chapter I. JULIAN THE APOSTATE: 332–63

  I. The Legacy of Constantine

  II. Christians and Pagans

  III. The New Caesar

  IV. The Pagan Emperor

  V. Journey’s End

  Chapter II. THE TRIUMPH OF THE BARBARIANS: 325–476

  I. The Threatened Frontier

  II. The Savior Emperors

  III. Italian Background

  IV. The Barbarian Flood

  V. The Fall of Rome

  Chapter III. THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY: 364–451

  I. The Organization of the Church

  II. The Heretics

  III. The Christian West

  1. Rome

  2. St. Jerome

  3. Christian Soldiers

  IV. The Christian East

  1. The Monks of the East

  2. The Eastern Bishops

  V. St. Augustine

  1. The Sinner

  2. The Theologian

  3. The Philosopher

  4. The Patriarch

  VI. The Church and the World

  Chapter IV. EUROPE TAKES FORM: 325–529

  I. Britain Becomes England

  II. Ireland

  III. Prelude to France

  1. The Last Days of Classic Gaul

  2. The Franks

  3. The Merovingians

  IV. Visigothic Spain

  V. Ostrogothic Italy

  1. Theodoric

  2. Boethius

  Chapter V. JUSTINIAN: 527–65

  I. The Emperor

  II. Theodora

  III. Belisarius

  IV. The Code of Justinian

  V. The Imperial Theologian

  Chapter VI. BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION: 337–565

  I. Work and Wealth

  II. Science and Philosophy

  III. Literature

  IV. Byzantine Art

  1. The Passage from Paganism

  2. The Byzantine Artist

  3. St. Sophia

  4. Fro
m Constantinople to Ravenna

  5. The Byzantine Arts

  Chapter VII. THE PERSIANS: 224–641

  I. Sasanian Society

  II. Sasanian Royalty

  III. Sasanian Art

  IV. The Arab Conquest

  BOOK II: ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION: A.D. 569–1258

  Chronological Table

  Chapter VIII. MOHAMMED: 569–632

  I. Arabia

  II. Mohammed in Mecca

  III. Mohammed in Medina

  IV. Mohammed Victorious

  Chapter IX. THE KORAN

  I. Form

  II. Creed

  III. Ethics

  IV. Religion and the State

  V. Sources of the Koran

  Chapter X. THE SWORD OF ISLAM: 632–1058

  I. The Successors

  II. The Umayyad Caliphate

  III. The Abbasid Caliphate

  1. Harun al-Rashid

  2. Decline of the Abbasids

  IV. Armenia

  Chapter XI. THE ISLAMIC SCENE: 632–1058

  I. The Economy

  II. The Faith

  III. The People

  IV. The Government

  V. The Cities

  Chapter XII. THOUGHT AND ART IN EASTERN ISLAM: 632–1058

  I. Scholarship

  II. Science

  III. Medicine

  IV. Philosophy

  V. Mysticism and Heresy

  VI. Literature

  VII. Art

  VIII. Music

  Chapter XIII. WESTERN ISLAM: 641–1086

  I. The Conquest of Africa

  II. Islamic Civilization in Africa

  III. Islam in the Mediterranean

  IV. Spanish Islam

  1. Caliphs and Emirs

  2. Civilization in Moorish Spain

  Chapter XIV. THE GRANDEUR AND DECLINE OF ISLAM: 1058–1258

  I. The Islamic East

  II. The Islamic West

  III. Glimpses of Islamic Art

  IV. The Age of Omar Khayyam

  V. The Age of Sa’di

  VI. Moslem Science

  VII. Al-Ghazali

  VIII. Averroës

  IX. The Coming of the Mongols

  X. Islam and Christendom

  BOOK III: JUDAIC CIVILIZATION: A.D. 135–1300

  Chronological Table

  Chapter XV. THE TALMUD: 135–500

  I. The Exiles

  II. The Makers of the Talmud

  III. The Law

  1. Theology

  2. Ritual

  3. Ethics of the Talmud

  IV. Life and the Law

  Chapter XVI. THE MEDIEVAL JEWS: 500–1300

  I. The Oriental Communities

  II. The European Communities

  III. Jewish Life

  1. Government

  2. Economy

  3. Morals

  4. Religion

  IV. Anti-Semitism

  Chapter XVII. THE MIND AND HEART OF THE JEW: 500–1300

  I. Letters

  II. The Adventures of the Talmud

  III. Science Among the Jews

  IV. The Rise of Jewish Philosophy

  V. Maimonides

  VI. The Maimonidean War

  VII. The Cabala

  VIII. Release

  BOOK IV: THE DARK AGES: A.D. 566–1095

  Chronological Table

  Chapter XVIII. THE BYZANTINE WORLD: 566–1095

  I. Heraclius

  II. The Iconoclasts

  III. Imperial Kaleidoscope

  IV. Byzantine Life

  V. The Byzantine Renaissance

  VI. The Balkans

  VII. The Birth of Russia

  Chapter XIX. THE DECLINE OF THE WEST: 566–1066

  I. Italy

  1. The Lombards

  2. The Normans in Italy

  3. Venice

  4. Italian Civilization

  II. Christian Spain

  III. France

  1. The Coming of the Carolingians

  2. Charlemagne

  3. The Carolingian Decline

  4. Letters and Arts

  5. The Rise of the Dukes

  Chapter XX. THE RISE OF THE NORTH: 566–1066

  I. England

  1. Alfred and the Danes

  2. Anglo-Saxon Civilization

  3. Between Conquests

  II. Wales

  III. Irish Civilization

  IV. Scotland

  V. The Northmen

  1. The Kings’ Saga

  2. Viking Civilization

  VI. Germany

  1. The Organization of Power

  2. German Civilization

  Chapter XXI. CHRISTIANITY IN CONFLICT: 529–1085

  I. St. Benedict

  II. Gregory the Great

  III. Papal Politics

  IV. The Greek Church

  V. The Christian Conquest of Europe

  VI. The Nadir of the Papacy

  VII. The Reform of the Church

  VIII. The Great Eastern Schism

  IX. Gregory VII Hildebrand

  Chapter XXII. FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY: 600–1200

  I. Feudal Origins

  II. Feudal Organization

  1. The Slave

  2. The Serf

  3. The Village Community

  4. The Lord

  5. The Feudal Church

  6. The King

  III. Feudal Law

  IV. Feudal War

  V. Chivalry

  BOOK V: THE CLIMAX OF CHRISTIANITY: A.D. 1095–1300

  Chronological Table

  Chapter XXIII. THE CRUSADES: 1095–1291

  I. Causes

  II. The First Crusade

  III. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

  IV. The Second Crusade

  V. Saladin

  VI. The Third Crusade

  VII. The Fourth Crusade

  VIII. The Collapse of the Crusades

  IX. The Results of the Crusades

  Chapter XXIV. THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION: 1066–1300

  I. The Revival of Commerce

  II. The Progress of Industry

  III. Money

  IV. Interest

  V. The Guilds

  VI. The Communes

  VII. The Agricultural Revolution

  VIII. The Class War

  Chapter XXV. THE RECOVERY OF EUROPE: 1095–1300

  I. Byzantium

  II. The Armenians

  III. Russia and the Mongols

  IV. The Balkan Flux

  V. The Border States

  VI. Germany

  VII. Scandinavia

  VIII. England

  1. William the Conqueror

  2. Thomas à Becket

  3. Magna Carta

  4. The Growth of the Law

  5. The English Scene

  IX. Ireland—Scotland—Wales

  X. The Rhinelands

  XI. France

  1. Philip Augustus

  2. St. Louis

  3. Philip the Fair

  XII. Spain

  XIII. Portugal

  Chapter XXVI. PRE-RENAISSANCE ITALY: 1057–1308

  I. Norman Sicily

  II. The Papal States

  III. Venice Triumphant

  IV. From Mantua to Genoa

  V. Frederick II

  1. The Excommunicate Crusader

  2. The Wonder of the World

  3. Empire vs. Papacy

  VI. The Dismemberment of Italy

  VII. The Rise of Florence

  Chapter XXVII. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: 1095–1294

  I. The Faith of the People

  II. The Sacraments

  III. Prayer

  IV. Ritual

  V. Canon Law

  VI. The Clergy

  VII. The Papacy Supreme

  VIII. The Finances of the Church

  Chapter XXVIII. THE EARLY INQUISITION: 1000–1300

  I. The Albigensian Heresy

  II. The Background of the
Inquisition

  III. The Inquisitors

  IV. Results

  Chapter XXIX. MONKS AND FRIARS: 1095–1300

  I. The Monastic Life

  II. St. Bernard

  III. St. Francis

  IV. St. Dominic

  V. The Nuns

  VI. The Mystics

  VII. The Tragic Pope

  VII. Retrospect

  Chapter XXX. THE MORALS AND MANNERS OF CHRISTENDOM: 700–1300

  I. The Christian Ethic

  II. Premarital Morality

  III. Marriage

  IV. Woman

  V. Public Morality

  VI. Medieval Dress

  VII. In the Home

  VIII. Society and Sport

  IX. Morality and Religion

  Chapter XXXI. THE RESURRECTION OF THE ARTS: 1095–1300

  I. The Esthetic Awakening

  II. The Adornment of Life

  III. Painting

  1. Mosaic

  2. Miniatures

  3. Murals

  4. Stained Glass

  IV. Sculpture

  Chapter XXXII. THE GOTHIC FLOWERING: 1095–1300

  I. The Cathedral

  II. Continental Romanesque

  III. The Norman Style in England

  IV. The Evolution of Gothic

  V. French Gothic

  VI. English Gothic

  VII. German Gothic

  VIII. Italian Gothic

  IX. Spanish Gothic

  X. Considerations

  Chapter XXXIII. MEDIEVAL MUSIC: 326–1300

  I. The Music of the Church

  II. The Music of the People

  Chapter XXXIV. THE TRANSMISSION OF KNOWLEDGE: 1000–1300

  I. The Rise of the Vernaculars

  II. The World of Books

  III. The Translators

  IV. The Schools

  V. Universities of the South

  VI. Universities of France

  VII. Universities of England

  VIII. Student Life

  Chapter XXXV. ABÉLARD: 1079–1142

  I. Divine Philosophy

  II. Héloïse

  III. The Rationalist

  IV. The Letters of Heloise

  V. The Condemned

  Chapter XXXVI. THE ADVENTURE OF REASON: 1120–1308

  I. The School of Chartres

  II. Aristotle in Paris

  III. The Freethinkers

  IV. The Development of Scholasticism

  V. Thomas Aquinas

  VI. The Thomist Philosophy

  1. Logic

  2. Metaphysics

  3. Theology

  4. Psychology

  5. Ethics

  6. Politics

  7. Religion

  8. The Reception of Thomism

  VII. The Successors

  Chapter XXXVII. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE: 1095–1300

  I. The Magical Environment

  II. The Mathematical Revolution