EUROPE
609
EUROPE
family in Russia, and to the former territories of the
Ottoman Empire ; among the Mohammedans are a large
portion of the Albanians, some of the Serbs in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and a part of the Bulgarians. The
Jews of Europe number 9,000,000 or 2'2 per cent;
they are to be found chiefly in Russia, in the Austro-
Hungarian Monarcliy, Rumania, and Turkey. (The
above figures are based on Hettner, op. cit. infra.)
Christianity. — European civilization is founded on that of the East; from Western Asia and Egj-pt Eu- rope received its food-plants, domestic animals, method of writing, numerals, the beginnings of art and science; and the higher forms of state organization and re- ligion. The various States of Greece, the European neighbour of Asia, transmitted these by trade and the foundation of colonies to the countries lying on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean and to Southern Italy. Rome from its central position imparted them to Western and Northern Europe and united the civilized parts of the continent into a great empire. At the time of its greatest extent imperial Rome in- cluded, on European soil, the present countries of Italy, Spain, France, England, Germany west of the Rhine and south of the Danube, the countries border- ing on the Danube as far as the Black Sea, and the whole Balkan Peninsula, besides all the islands of the Mediterranean. Christianity, too, came from the East by way of Greece and Rome. The connexion e.xisting between the various Roman provinces and the wide prevalence of the Latin and Greek tongues were most favourable to its spread. When the structure erected by the Ca?sars fell to pieces, the Christian Faith not only entered into its inheritance, but also subdued all those barbarian peoples that had up to then defied the imperial power. The Gospel was brought to Rome by colonies of Jewish Christians who kept up close rela- tions with Palestine, their mother country. St. Paul brought Christianity to Greece on his second journey (49-52 A.D.) when he founded, with the aid of Silas, Timothy, and Luke, Christian communities in PhO- ippi, Thessalonica, Bercea, Athens, and Corinth. St. Paul's great letters and his journeys to Italy, perhaps also to Spain, prepared the way tor the close connexion between the Roman and Greek Christians and strengthened them for the work of spreading the Gospel. In fact the first persecution under Xero in 64 was not able to crush the new movement, and the same is true of the many other later persecutions.
Towards tlie end of the first century, under Clement, the head of the Church at that time, there was a close bond between Rome and Corinth. It is also to be assumed that in the meantime all the commercial cities on the coasts of the Mediterranean had Christians in their midst, and that before long the regions adjoining these cities acceptetl the Gospel. According to tradi- tion the Church in Gaul was founded by Trophimus, who was sent there by St. Paul; to Crescentius, a dis- ciple of the Apostles, is ascribed the preaching of the Gospel in Vienne and Mainz ; and to Dionysius the .\reo- pagite, the founding of the Church of Paris. To Eu- charius and Maternus, two disciples of St. Paul, are attributed the founding of the Churches of Trier and Cologne. It is certain that flourishing dioce-ses arose in Lyons and Vienne during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-80). At the beginning of the third centurj', ac- cording to the testimony of TertuUian (Adv. Juda-os, i), various tribes of Gaul had accepted Christianity. At about the same date Irena-us (Adv. h^reses) speaks of Churches in Germany, and the new faith had at that time spread into all the provinces of the Spanish Peninsula. According to the Venerable Bede (Histor. gentis Angl., I, iii), the first missionaries came to England during the reign of Pope Eleutherius (177-90). By the opening of the third century the British Church had spread beyond the Roman possessions in Britain and may even have embraced Ireland. In the mean- time the barbarians living along the northern bound- V.— 39
aries of the Roman Empire had begun their migra-
tions and predatory incursions. Along this border
lived the tribes of the Teutonic family, divided by the
Oder into the East Germans and West Germans.
The East Germans included the Ostrogoths and Visi-
goths, Burgundians, Vandals, Heruh, Rugii, and
Scyrri. The West Germans were divided into the Ing-
vaeones or Germans on the sea-coast, incluiling the
later Frisians and Anglo-Saxons; the IstvEeones or the
Germans of the Rhine, including the Franks between
the Weser and Rhine; the Hermiones, among whom
were the later Thuringians and the upper German
tribes of the Alamanni and Bavarians (Bajuvarii).
As early as the years 161-80 the Marcomanni, a West
German tribe, advanced as far as Aquileia; they were
defeated, but introduced northern elements into the
population. After this failure the current of the mi-
gration divided into two streams: one to the south-
east, the migration of the East Germans; one to the
south-west, the migration of the West Germans. Of
the East Germans, the Goths reached the lower Dan-
ube and the Black Sea and divided, according to these
respective positions, into the Ostrogoths and Visi-
goths. In 375, on account of the pouring in of Asiatic
hordes through the gateway of the nations between
the Urals and the Caspian, the Ostrogoths came under
the pow-er of the Huns. The Visigoths, w-ho were also
hard pressed, retreated towards Transylvania and re-
ceived land somewhat south of this from the Em-
perors Valens and Theodosius. When, after the death
of Theodosius, the Roman Empire was divided in 395
into the Western and Eastern Empires, ruled respec-
tively by his sons Honorius and Arcadius, the Visi-
goths under Alaric plundered Thrace and Greece and,
with the permission of Arcadius, settled in lUyria.
From here they presseds toward Italy and in 410 even
entered Rome. They then turned towards South-
Eastern Gaul and in 419 founded the first German
kingdom on Roman soil, its capital being Toulouse;
they also conquered a large part of Spain. In 507 the
Visigoths were forced to give up their possessions in
Gaul to the Franks, and in 531 the capital of the Visi-
gothic Kingdom was transferred to Toledo.
The recall from the Rhine of the Roman legions needed for the struggle against Alaric left the way to the south-west open to two other East German peo- ples, the Burgundians and the Vandals. The Bur- gundians, who had formerly lived between the Oder and the Vistula, crossed the Rhine in 406 and founded a kingdom having its capital at Worms; in 437 this kingdom was broken up by the Roman governor Aetius, but another arose in 443 around Geneva and Lyons; this, however, in 532, was absorbed into the Kingdom of the Franks. In 406 the Vandals left their home on the northern slope of the mountains called Riesengebirge, and in union with the Alani and Suevi passed through Gaul into Spain; the Visigoths drove them out of Spain into the Roman provinces in Africa, whence for a long time they controlled the Mediter- ranean and in 455 ravaged Rome. In 476 Odoacer, the leader of the mercenaries made up of Heruli, Rugii, and Scyrri, seized the government and called himself King of Italy. At almost the same time the Ostrogoths in Pannonia were again free, as the power of the Huns was broken in the great battle on the Catalaunian Fields near Chalons-sur-Marne in 451. Theodoric, the King of the Ostrogoths, conquered Odoacer in 489 and created a kingdom (493-526) that embraced Italy, Sicily, a part of Pannonia, Rhajtia, and the Province; this kingdom went to pieces in 553. The Ostrogoths were followed by the Lombards, a tribe of the lower Elbe, who, passing through Pannonia, reached Italy in 568 under their King Alboin; it was not until 774 that the Lombards were brought under subjection by the Franks. .Ml these peoples were to disappear in order, by their absorption into the civiliza- tion of Rome, to bring about the union of Christianity,
