No More Learning

St Benedict was born in Nursia, near Spoleto, probably about the
year 480; he was of a noble Umbrian family, and he was sent to Rome
to follow the courses in the schools. The licentiousness there prevalent
made him determine to withdraw not only from Rome, but also from
the world, and to become a monk. Full of this idea he fled away from
Rome to the Sabine hills, and buried himself in a cave overlooking Nero's
artificial lake on the Anio at Subiaco, forty miles from Rome. It is
probable that he was not a mere boy, but a youth old enough to have
become enamoured with a lady in Rome : consequently the date was within
years
of 500. There can be no doubt that the Sacro Speco at
Subiaco is the cave inhabited by St Benedict during the first years of
his monastic life; its solitude was complete, and the wild severe grandeur
of the surrounding scenery was well calculated to inspire his young heart
with deep religious feeling. In this cave he lived for three years, only a
single monk of a monastery in the neighbourhood knowing of his
existence and supplying him with the necessaries of life. It is not a
little remarkable that he who was destined to turn Western monasticism
a
a few


## p. 537 (#567) ############################################

St Benedict's Life
537
a
a
definitely away from the eremitical ideal, should himself, as a matter of
course, have gone to live as a hermit on determining to become a monks
it was only after very thorough personal experience of the hermit's life
that St Benedict decided it was not to be for his disciples.
In another matter also did he turn his back on his own early ideas:
after passing three years of solitude in his cave, his existence gradually
became known and disciples flocked to him in such numbers that he was
able to establish not only a monastery ruled over by himself, but also
twelve others in the neighbourhood, over which he exercised the sort
of control which the superior-general of a group or congregation of
monasteries would now be said to exercise. But when he was compelled
to leave Subiaco, and migrated to Monte Cassino, he confined himself
exclusively to the government of his own community there, without
continuing to exercise control over the other monasteries he had founded.
And so his Rule is concerned with the government of a single monastery
only, without any provision for the grouping of monasteries into congrega-
tions or orders, as became the vogue later on in the West. This
continued the Benedictine practice for many centuries ; during the
greatest period of Black Monk history the great Benedictine houses
stood in isolation, each self-governed and self-contained. It was not till
the thirteenth century that, under the inspiration of Cluny and Citeaux,
the policy was adopted of federating the Benedictine abbeys of the
different ecclesiastical provinces; and to this day the essential autonomy
of each house is the foundation stone and central idea of Black Monk
polity.
It is impossible to fix the date at which St Benedict founded his
monastery at Monte Cassino-probably about 520. He lived there
till his death, and Monte Cassino is the place above all others associated
with his name. The rest of his life was quite uneventful; in 543 he was
visited by Totila, and he died about the middle of the century.
As Benedictine life soon became, and for well-nigh seven centuries
continued to be, the norm of monastic life in the Latin Church, it will
be to the point to give a rough picture of the daily life that obtained in
St Benedict's monasteries, as it may be reconstructed from the Rule.
St Benedict's monks rose early in the morning—usually about 2, but
the hour varied with the season of the year. They had had, however,
an ample period of unbroken sleep, usually not less than 8 hours: the
midnight office between two periods of sleep, so common a feature of
later monasticism in the West, had no place in Benedictine life as
conceived by St Benedict. The monks repaired to the church for the
night office, which consisted of fourteen psalms, and certain readings
from Scripture; it was chanted throughout, and must have taken from
an hour to an hour and a half. It was followed by a break, which
varied from a few minutes in the summer to a couple of hours at mid-
winter, and which was devoted to private reading of Scripture, or
!
CA. XVIII.


## p. 538 (#568) ############################################

538
Daily Life in St Benedict's Monasteries
prayer. The Matin office, now called Lauds, was celebrated at dawn,
and Prime at sunrise ; each took about half an hour. Prime was
followed by work-i. e. field work for most of the monks-or reading,
according to the time of the year; and these exercises filled up the time
till dinner, which was at 12 or at 3, the short offices of Tierce, Sext and
None being celebrated in the church at the appropriate hours. In
summer, when the night sleep was short, the usual Italian siesta was
allowed after dinner. The afternoon was passed in work and reading,
like the forenoon. Vespers or Evensong was sung some time before
sunset, and in the summer was followed by an evening meal. Before dark,
while there yet was enough light to read by, they assembled once again
in the church, and after a few pages had been read, Compline was said,
and they retired to rest in the dusk, before there was need of an artificial
light. On Sundays there was no work, and the time assigned to the
church services and to reading was considerably lengthened.
According to St Benedict's scheme of the monastic life, work
occupied notably more time daily than either the church services or
reading; and this work was manual, either in the fields or garden, or
about the house. This element of work was intended to be an integral
part of the life; not a mere occupation, but a very real factor of the
monk's service of God, and from six to seven hours were devoted to it
daily. These long hours of manual labour, coupled with the unbroken
fast till midday, or 3 p. m. , or even till sunset during Lent, and the
perpetual abstinence from flesh meat, may convey the impression that,
after all, the life in St Benedict's monastery was one of great bodily
austerity. But it has to be remembered that though members of
patrician families were to be found in his community, still the great
majority was recruited from the ranks of the Italian peasantry, or from
those of the Goths and other barbarians who were then overrunning
Italy. Neither the fasting nor the abstinence from meat would appear
to Italian peasants in the present day, and still less in the sixth century,
so onerous as they do to us in northern climes.
The other exercise of the monks, outside the direct worship of God,
was reading, to which from three to five hours were assigned daily,
according to the season. There can be little doubt that this reading
was wholly devotional, confined to the Bible and the writings of the
fathers, St Basil and Cassian being recommended by name. Out of this
germ grew in the course of ages those works of erudition and of historical
science with which the Benedictine name in later ages became associated :
the first step forward along the path of monastic studies was taken not
by St Benedict, but by his younger contemporary Cassiodorus in his
Calabrian monastery at Squillace.
But the chief work of the monk was, in St Benedict's eyes, neither
field work nor literary work : all the services of Benedictines to civilisa-
tion and education and letters have been but by-products. Their


## p. 539 (#569) ############################################

Benedictine Work and Government
539
primary and essential work is what St Benedict calls the “Work of
God "--Opus Dei—the daily chanting of the canonical Office in the
choir. To this work he says nothing is to be preferred, and this principle
has been the keynote of Benedictine life throughout the ages.
The
daily “course” of psalmody ordinarily consisted of 40 psalms with
certain canticles, hymns, responses, prayers, and lections from Scripture
and the fathers. It was divided into the eight canonical hours, the
Vigils or night office being considerably the longest. It is probable that
this daily common prayer took some 4 to 44 hours, being chanted
throughout, and not merely recited in a monotone. Mass was celebrated
only on Sundays and holy-days. Private prayer was taken for granted,
and was provided for, but not legislated for, being left to personal
devotion.
The abbot governed the monastery with full patriarchal authority.
He was elected by the monks, and held office for life. All the officials
of the monastery were appointed by him, and were removable at his
will. He should take counsel with his monks—in matters of moment
with the whole community, in lesser matters with a few seniors. He
was bound to listen to what each had to say; but at the end, it rested
with him to decide what was to be done, and all had to obey. The
great-in a sense it might be said, the only-restraining influence upon
the abbot to which St Benedict appeals, was that of religion—the abiding
sense, impressed on him again and again by St Benedict, that he was directly
and personally responsible, and would have to answer before the judg-
ment seat of God for all his actions, for all his judgments, nay, even for
the soul of each one of his monks as well as for his own. But his
government must be according to the Rule, and not at his own mere
will and pleasure, as had been the case in the earlier forms of monachism;
and he is warned not to overburden his monks, or overdrive them, but
to be considerate always and give no one cause for just complaint. The
chapters specially written for the abbot (2, 3, 27, 64) are the most
characteristic in the Rule, and form a body of wise counsel, not easily to
be surpassed, for anyone in office or authority of any kind. This forma-
tion of a regular order of life according to rule, this provision for the
disciplined working of a large establishment, was St Benedict's great
contribution to Western monachism, and also to Western civilisation.
For as Benedictine abbeys came gradually to be established more and
more thickly in the midst of the wild Teutonic populations that were
settling throughout Western Europe, they became object-lessons in
disciplined and well-ordered life, in organised work, in all the arts of
peace, that could not but impress powerfully the minds of the surround-
ing barbarians, and bring home to them ideals of peace and order and
work, no less than of religion.
Another point of far-reaching consequence was that St Benedict laid
upon the monk the obligation of abiding till death, not only in the
ze
CH. XVIII.


## p. 540 (#570) ############################################

540
St Benedict's Theory and Rule
monastic life, but in his own monastery in which he was professed. This
special Benedictine vow of stability cut off what was the very common
practice of monks, when they grew dissatisfied in one monastery, going
to another. St Benedict bound the monks of a monastery together
into a permanent family, united by bonds that lasted for life. This
idea that the monks of each Benedictine monastery form a permanent
community, distinct from that of every other Benedictine monastery,
is a characteristic feature of Benedictine monachism, and a chief dis-
tinction between it and the mendicant and other later Orders; without
doubt it has also been the great source of the special influence and
strength of the Benedictines in history.
Another distinction lies in the fact that St Benedict, in common with
the early monastic legislators, set before his monks no special object or
purpose, no particular work to be done, other than the common work of
monks-the living in community according to the “evangelical counsels,"
and thereby sanctifying their souls and serving God. " A school of the
service of the Lord” is St Benedict's definition of a monastery, and the
one thing he requires from the novice is that “in very deed he seek
God. " Nothing probably was further from his thoughts than that his
monks were to become apostles, bishops, popes, civilisers, educators,
scholars, men of learning. His idea simply was to make them good):
and if a man is good, he will do good. The ascetical side of the training
in the Rule lies chiefly in obedience and humility. The very definition
of a monk is “ one who renounces his own wishes, and comes to fight for
Christ, taking up the arms of obedience”; it is the temper of renuncia-
tion and obedience rather than the actual obeying that is of value. The
chapter on humility (7), the longest in the Rule, has become a classic in
Christian ascetical literature; it embodies St Benedict's teaching on the
spiritual life. The general spirit of the Rule is beautifully summed
up in the short chapter “on the good zeal which monks ought to have”
(72): “ As there is an evil and bitter emulation which separates from
God and leads to hell, so there is a good spirit of emulation which frees
from vices and leads to God and life everlasting. Let monks therefore
practise this emulation with most fervent love; that is to say, let them
in honour prefer one another. Let them bear most patiently with each
other's infirmities, whether of body or of character. Let them contend
with one another in their obedience. Let no one follow what he thinks
most profitable to himself, but rather what is best for another. Let
them shew brotherly charity with a chaste love. Let them fear God
and love their abbot with sincere and humble affection, and set nothing
whatever before Christ, Who can bring us unto eternal life'. "
In view of the great influence exercised on the course of European
history and civilisation in things both ecclesiastical and civil, from the
· Abbot Gasquet's translation.


## p. 541 (#571) ############################################

--
Spread of the Benedictine Rule
541
sixth century to the thirteenth, by St Benedict and his sons, it seemed
proper to supply the foregoing somewhat detailed account of the Bene-
dictine Rule and life. With an outline sketch of the steps whereby
St. Benedict's supremacy in Western monachism was achieved, this
chapter will be concluded.
Though the Rule was written as a code of regulations for the
government of one monastery, it is evident that St Benedict contemplated
the likelihood of its being observed in different monasteries, and even in
different countries. Besides Monte Cassino, his own monastery at Subiaco,
and perhaps the twelve others, continued after he had left them; and
there is mention of one founded by him from Monte Cassino, at Terracina.
These are the only Benedictine monasteries of which there is any
record
as existing in St Benedict's lifetime, for the stories of the missions of
St Placidus to Sicily and St Maurus to Gaul must be regarded as
apocryphal. It is said of Simplicius, the third abbot of Monte Cassino,
that “he propagated into all the hidden work of the master"; and this
has been understood as indicating that the spread of the Rule to other
monasteries began in his abbacy. But the historical determining point
was the sacking of Monte Cassino by the Lombards about 580-590,
when the monks fled to Rome, and were placed in a monastery attached
to the Lateran Basilica, in the heart of Latin Christendom, under the
eyes of the Popes. It is now generally agreed by critical students of the
period that the monachism which St Gregory the Great established in his
palace on the Coelian Hill, wherein he himself became a monk, was in an
adequate and true sense Benedictine, being based on that Rule which
St Gregory eulogises as “conspicuous for its discretion. ” From the
Coelian Hill it was carried to England by Augustine, the prior of the
monastery, and his companions (596), and it is probable that the monastery
of SS. Peter and Paul, later St Augustine's, Canterbury, was the first
Benedictine monastery out of Italy. As has been said above, it was not
till the seventh century that Benedictine monachism got a foothold
in Gaul; but during that century it spread steadily and at last rapidly
throughout Gaul and England, and from England it was carried into
Friesland and the other Germanic lands by the great English Benedictine
missioners, Willibrod, Boniface, and the rest. Being well adapted to
the spirit and character of the Teutonic peoples then overrunning Western
Europe, the Benedictine Rule inevitably and quickly absorbed and sup-
planted all those previously in vogue—so completely that Charles the
Great could ask the question, if there had ever been any other monastic
Rule than St Benedict's? The Benedictines shared fully in the effects of
the Carolingian revival, and from that date, for three centuries, St Bene-
dict's spirit ruled supreme throughout Western monachism, Ireland alone
excepted.
All through the Benedictine centuries, Benedictine nuns flourished
no less than Benedictine monks, and nowhere more than in England.
CH, XVIII.


## p. 542 (#572) ############################################

542
Benedictine Nuns. Conclusion
St Boniface's correspondence with several Anglo-Saxon nuns, both in
England and in Germany, reveals the high standards of education
and of life that prevailed in the English nunneries. Communities of
Benedictine nuns have in all ages been predominantly ladies, recruited
from the upper classes, and the life is specially adapted for them.
Naturally it has been a more secluded life than that of the monks; but
the great Benedictine nunneries have always exercised considerable
religious and social influence.
In the foregoing pages the ideals of the various phases of early
monasticism have been set forth. It is not pretended that these ideals
have always been realised by monks. But it is right to estimate a
system in large measure by its ideals, except where failure adequately
to realise them has predominated. That this has been the case with
Christian monachism as a whole will hardly now be contended by any
historian.
1


## p. 543 (#573) ############################################

543
CHAPTER XIX.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE ROMAN
EMPIRE IN THE FOURTH CENTURY.
THE ancients saw in the stupendous destiny of the Roman State the
clue to the history of the Universe and a revelation of the plans of
Providence in regard to the world. “ Italy," wrote Pliny the elder in
the time of Vespasian, “has been selected by Deity in order to collect
dispersed power, to soften customs and to unite by the communion of one
language the various and barbarous dialects of so many nations, to
bestow on men the intercourse of ideas and humanity, in a word—that
all the races of the world should have one fatherland” (Hist. Nat. 11. 6).
For Christians the conquest of the world by Rome had even a deeper
meaning. “Jesus was born in the reign of Augustus, who as it were
associated in one monarchy the immense multitude of men dispersed
about the earth, because a plurality of kingdoms would have been an
obstacle to the diffusion of Christ's doctrine through the whole world"
(Origen, c. Celsum, 11. 30). But Augustus was a heathen and his
a
successors persecuted Christianity, so that the Roman Empire served the
Gospel for a long while unconsciously and in spite of its desires. This
conception of universal history made a further stride when Constantine
the Great proclaimed Christianity the religion of the State. “In
ancient times," says Eusebius of Caesarea, “the world was divided
according to countries and nations into a multitude of commonwealths,
tyrannies, principalities. Hence constant wars and the devastations and
depredations following thereon. . . . The origin of these divisions may
certainly be ascribed to the diversity of the gods worshipped by men.
But when the instrument of salvation, the most holy body of Christ. . .
was raised. . . against the demons, forthwith the cause of demons has
vanished and states, principalities, tyrannies, commonwealths have passed
away. . . . One God has been announced to the whole of mankind, one
empire obtained sway over all men—the Roman Empire” (Eusebius,
Panegyric of Constantine, c. 16).
But the unification of the inhabited world (oikovuévn) which forms
the meaning and the greatness of the Roman Empire, is a process pre-
a
CH. XIX.


## p. 544 (#574) ############################################

544
Barbarians in the Empire
common
senting two different sides to the observer. Kelts, Iberians, Rhaetians,
Moors, Illyrians, Thracians were to some extent civilised by the culture of
Greece and Rome, and achieved by its help a great advance in economic
and civic organisation as well as in education ; Syrians, Egyptians, the
inhabitants of Asia Minor only modified to a certain extent their manners
and views in order to meet the requirements of the Empire. But if the
intermixture of tribes and their permeation by Graeco-Roman culture
was in one sense a great progress, it was at the same time, but from
another point of view, a decline; it was accompanied by a lowering of
the level of the culture which exerted the civilising influence. While
conquering barbarism and native peculiarities, Graeco-Roman culture
assumed various traits from its vanquished opponents, and became gross
and vulgar in its turn. In the words of a biographer of Alexander
Severus : good and bad were promiscuously thrust into the Empire,
noble and base, and numbers of barbarians (Hist. Aug. Alex. Sev. 64).
The unification and transformation of tribes standing on low grades
of civilisation leads to consequences characterised by one
feature, the simplification of aims—degeneration. This process is
concealed for a while by the political and economic advantages follow-
ing on the establishment of the Empire. The creation of a central
authority, upholding peace and intercourse (Pax Romana), the con-
junction of the different parts of the world into one economic system
enlivened by free trade, the spread of citizenship and civil culture in
wider and wider circles of population—all these benefits produced for a
time a rise of prosperity which counterbalanced the excess of barbarous,
imperfectly assimilated elements.
But a series of political misfortunes set in rather rapidly in the
third century :' invasions of barbarians, conflicts between rival can-
didates to the throne, competition between armies and provinces put
an end to order and prosperity and threatened the very existence of the
Empire. In these calamities the barbarisation of Roman culture became
more and more manifest, a backward movement began in all directions,
a backward movement, however, which was by no means a mere falling
back into previous conditions, but gave rise to new and interesting
departures.
It suffices to glance at the names of the Roman citizens of the
Empire in order to notice that we are in very mixed company. Instead
of the nomina and cognomina of earlier days we find strange barbaric
appellations hardly whitewashed by the adjunction of us or er at the end.
A T. Tammonius Saeni Tammoni filius Vitalis, and a Blescius Diovicus
do not look very pure “Quirites. " Such barbarians had first of all to
learn Latin as the common tongue of the Western Empire, and they did
learn to use Latin. But what Latin ! As St Jerome has it: “ Latin
language gets transformed according to countries and to epochs. ” Com-
mon speech, the lingua vulgaris, with a former Kelt, Iberian or Rhaetian
&
a
a


## p. 545 (#575) ############################################

Romance Languages
545
became gradually a new Romance language, the sounds and forms of
which were deflected from the original Latin in consequence of the
physiological and intellectual peculiarities of Kelts, Iberians, Rhaetians.
We may be allowed to give a few instances of this curious process of
transformation from the well-known history of French phonetics and
grammar. The Latin u was kept up in Italian but softened into the
French u (ü), e. g. durus-duro-dur, and we cannot wonder at that,
because the population of Gaul when yet speaking Keltic sounded u as ü
and not somewhat like the English oo in “poor. " The French“ liaison,"
”
the habit of sounding the otherwise mute consonant at the end of a
word before a vowel in order to avoid a “hiatus,” may be traced to the
Keltic habit of joining separate words into compounds. In Keltic
dialects the accent makes one or the other syllable so prominent that
other syllables become indistinct and may get slurred over. This stress
put on the accentuated syllable has called forth in French a charac-
teristic deterioration of unaccentuated parts of words. Sometimes whole
groups of sounds disappear, as in “ Août ” (Augustus), sometimes they
are represented only by a mute e as in “ vie" (vita). The French habit
of marking the last syllable by an accent even in the pronunciation of
Latin goes back ultimately to this trait. In reading the Latin text of
the Salic Law we are struck by the complete dislocation of the system
of declensions—the ablative case is constantly used instead of the accusa-
tive, the accusative instead of the nominative, etc. But this degeneration
was prepared by the practice of vulgar Latin even in the first and
second centuries when the genitive case disappeared. The dative followed
suit somewhat later.
It is not however to be supposed that Latin was imposed even in its
vulgarised forms on the entire population of the Empire. It is needless
to remind the reader of the fact that in the whole eastern half Greek
was the language of the educated classes. But both in the East and in
the West there were many backward regions in which vernacular speech
held its own stubbornly against Greek and Latin. The Copts, Arabs,
Syrians, Armenians never gave up their native languages, and the
oriental undercurrents continued to play an important part in the
social life of Asia and Egypt. There are many vestiges of a similar
persistency of barbarian custom and speech in the West. Roman law
admitted expressly that valid deeds could be executed in Punic and,
judging from the story about a sister of Septimius Severus, Punic must
have been very prevalent among well-to-do families of knightly rank in
Africa : when the lady in question came to visit her brother in Rome,
the Emperor had often to blush on account of her imperfect knowledge
of Latin. The letters and sermons of St Augustine shew that this state
of things had by no means disappeared in romanised Africa in the fifth
century: the great African bishop repeatedly urged the necessity for
dignitaries of the Church to be acquainted with Punic, and he had
C. MED, H. VOL. I. CH. XIX.
35


## p. 546 (#576) ############################################

546
National Survivals and Revivals
2
а
66
а
Pila
d
recourse himself to illustrations drawn from this language. In Spain and
Gascony one living remnant of pre-Roman civilisation has survived to
our days in the “ Es-c-aldunac" speech of the Basques, the offspring of
the Iberian race, while Brittany exhibits another block of pre-Roman
custom in the speech and manners of its Breton population. St Jerome
testifies to the fact that in the neighbourhood of Trèves, one of the
mightiest centres of Roman civilisation, a Keltic dialect was spoken by
the peasants in the fourth century, so that a person reared there pos-
sessed a clue to the speech of the Galatians, the Keltic tribe of Asia
Minor. In the Latinised north-west of the Balkan peninsula the
vernacular Illyrian was never driven out or destroyed, and the present
speech of the Albanians is directly derived from it in spite of a sprinkling
of Latin words and expressions. In the west of England Keltic speech
and custom runs on uninterruptedly through the ages of Roman, Saxon
and Norman conquest. Not to speak of Welsh, which has borrowed
many Latin words, especially technical terms, but remains a purely
Keltic language, Cornish was spoken in Cornwall up to the eighteenth
century, while in Cumberland and Westmorland the custom of shep-
herds to count their sheep in Keltic numerals was the last vestige of the
separate existence of
Welsh ” population.
These traces of stubborn national life forming a kind of barbarian
subsoil to Roman culture are important in many ways: they help us not
only to understand the history of dialects and of folklore, but they
account for a good many spontaneous outbursts of barbarism in the
seemingly pacified and romanised provinces of the Empire at a time
when the iron hand of the rulers began to relax its grip over the con-
quered populations. Berber, Punic, Iberian, Illyrian and Keltic tribes
come forward again in the calamitous years of the fourth and fifth
centuries. Usurpers, riotous soldiers and brigands gather strength from
national aspirations, and in the end the disruption of the Empire becomes
inevitable on account of internal strife as well as of foreign invasions.
Nowhere perhaps has this subliminal life of the province to account for so
much as in England, where the arts and crafts of Rome were introduced
in the course of three centuries and a half of gradual occupation and
Latin itself was widely spoken by the upper classes, but where never-
theless the entire fabric of Roman rule crumbled down so rapidly during
the fifth century, and Kelts were left to fight with the Teutons for the
remnants of what had been one of the fair provinces of Rome.
A transformation similar to that expressed in language is clearly
perceivable in the history of Art. Christianity introduced into the
world a powerful new factor, the strength of which may be gauged in
the paintings of the Catacombs and in the rise of new styles of archi-
tecture-the Byzantine and the Romanesque. Thus we have to deal not
with mere deterioration and decay, but also with the lowering of the level
of culture and the barbarisation of art which make themselves felt in
lonel


## p. 547 (#577) ############################################

Barbarisation of culture. Commercial Intercourse
547
a
various ways. When Rome had to raise a triumphal arch to the con-
queror of Maxentius, a great part of the reliefs for its adornment were
carried over from the Arch of Trajan, while some sculptures were added
by contemporary artists. And the latter perpetuate the decay of art
and of aesthetic taste. The figures are distorted, the faces deformed.
On the so-called discus of Theodosius the symbolical figures of the lower
part were copied from ancient originals and are handsome. The upper
half was filled with representations of living people, and it is evident
that the gross, flat, ugly faces, the heavy embroidered uniforms were
reproduced with fidelity, while the handling of the figures strikes the
observer by its clumsiness and faulty designs. The chief thing in the
pictorial and plastic arts of the third and fourth centuries is not beauty
or expression, but size and costly material. Gallienus, whose unfortunate
reign was nicknamed the “period of the thirty tyrants,” ordered a statue
of himself 200 feet in height: it was planned on such a scale that a child
was able to ascend by a winding staircase to the top of the Emperor's
lance. Instead of marble, precious porphyry, a stone exceedingly difficult
to cut, was used for plastic purposes ; the contractor and polisher were
more important persons than the sculptor for the purpose of making
statues of this material.
It is of special importance for us to notice the gradual degeneration
or rather transformation of economic life. Towards the beginning of
our era a great circuit of industrial and commercial intercourse is formed
under the protection of the Empire: it reminds us in some ways of the
world-market of the present time. The different provinces exchanged
goods and developed specialities fitting into one whole through mutual
support; the excellent roads made quick exchanges possible, considerable
capital sought employment in productive enterprises, firm political
power and mutual confidence fostered the growth of credit. From the
third century onwards the picture changes. The subjection of conquered
peoples by Roman citizens ceases and the greater part of the population
of the Empire is admitted to the rights of citizenship. This meant that
masses of people, over whom governors, publicans and contractors had exer-
cised almost uncontrolled sway, were enabled to come forward with their
interests and legal claims. Provincial forces began to assert themselves,
and in husbandry local needs and the requirements of small people made
themselves more and more felt. As a consequence, the wide organisation
of world intercourse gives way before more direct and modest economic
problems—each social group has to look out primarily for itself in
regard to food, clothing, housing, furniture. On the other hand the
supply of slaves gets more and more hampered by the fact that wars of
conquest cease. In the beginning of the third century we hear already
of a price of 200 aurei or 500 denarii of full ancient coinage for a slave
(Dig. iv. 4, 51)-a very high price indeed, which shews indirectly how
a
CA. XIX.
35_2


## p. 548 (#578) ############################################

548
Commercial Intercourse
a
In an
difficult it was to get slaves. During the protracted defensive wars
which had to be fought on all the frontiers prisoners were frequently
made, but these Germans, Slavs, Huns were difficult to manage and
made clumsy labourers when settled for agricultural purposes : it was
more profitable to leave them a certain independence on their plots, and
therefore to cut up large estates into small holdings. Lastly, the rise
of provincial and local interests and the change in the condition of the
labouring classes coincided with the terrible political calamities which I
have already had occasion to mention. The dislocation of the com-
monwealth rendered all widely extended economic plans insecure and
contributed by itself to the tendency of each separate locality to live its
own life and to work for its own needs without much help from the
outside. As a result of the working of these different causes society falls
back from a complicated system of commercial intercourse to the simpler
forms of “natural economy. ” This movement is not arrested by the
restoration of the Empire in the fourth century, but rather strengthened
by it. Political power is indeed restored, but it has to be maintained
by straining every nerve in social life, and this straining hampers free
movement and free contract, fastens every one to a certain place and to a
certain calling
Exposition of the whole world and of nations” translated
from Greek in the time of Constantius (soon after 345) much attention
is still paid to the economic intercourse between the different parts of
the Empire. Greece itself is said to be unable to satisfy its own needs,
but in regard to many of the other provinces it is expressly noted that
they are sufficient unto themselves. Besides, most of them produce
goods which are exported to other places. Ascalon and Gaza, for
example, are said to provide excellent wine for Syria and Egypt;
Scythopolis, Laodicea (in Syria), Byblus, Tyre, Berytus send out linen
wares all round the world, while Caesarea, Tyre, Sarepta and Neapolis
are famous in the same way for their purple-dyed tissues. Egypt
supplies Constantinople and the Eastern provinces with corn and has
a monopoly in the production of papyrus. From Cappadocia furs are
obtained, from Galatia different kinds of clothing. Laodicea in Phrygia
has given a name to garments of a special kind. Asia and the Helles-
pont produce corn, wine and oil; in Macedonia and Dalmatia, iron
and lead mines are noted ; in Dardania (Illyria) pastoral pursuits are
prevalent and bacon and cheese are sent to market, while Epirus is
distinguished by its large fishing trade. The Western provinces are not
described in such a minute way but fine Italian wines are mentioned,
the trade of Arles for imports into Gaul is noted, and Spain is extolled
on account of its oil, cloth, bacon and mules. Oil is also said to be
largely supplied by the African province, while clothing and cattle come
from Numidia. Pannonia and Mauretania are the only provinces
mentioned as carrying on the slave trade.


## p. 549 (#579) ############################################

Diocletian's Edict as to Prices
549
Some forty-five years before this commercial geography of the
Empire was drawn up, another curious document shews the imperial
authorities engaged in a wearisome struggle in order to protect easy
intercourse and to ward off the rise of prices—I mean the famous edict
of Diocletian and of his companion Emperors establishing maximum
prices in the Empire. Such measures are not taken without cogent
reasons and, indeed, we are told that prices had risen enormously,
although it is hardly probable that the reason of the dearth had to be
sought in the iniquities of the rulers (Lactantius, de mortibru perse-
cutorum, c. 7). The enactment itself dilates on the evil greed of
avaricious producers and vendors, and declares in the name of the
“fathers of human kind” that justice has to arbitrate and to intervene.
The Emperors are especially incensed at the hard bargains which are
extorted from soldiers quartered in the provinces or moving along the
roads : prices are screwed up on such occasions not to four or eight
times the ordinary value, but to an extent that could not be expressed
in words. If such things happen in times of abundance what is to be
expected from seasons when actual want is experienced? Without
attempting to fix normal prices the Emperors threaten with capital
punishment merchants engaged in supplying the different provinces
with wares : Lactantius reports that blood flowed and that the
impossibility of enforcing cheapness by the hands of executioners was
only recognised after fruitless attempts to terrorise tradesmen into
submission.
Let us look, however, at some of the details of the edict, fragments
of which have been preserved in several copies in the Balkan peninsula,
Asia Minor and Egypt, viz. , in the provinces under the direct sway of
Diocletian.
Traces of commercial intercourse of the same kind as that described
in the Expositio frequently meet the eye. We hear again of the high
class wines of Italy, of linen vestments from Laodicea, Scythopolis,
Byblus, of purple-dyed garments manufactured on the Syrian coast and
fetching very high prices, and of somewhat less expensive kinds from
Miletus : a piece of purple linen for ornamental stripes (clavi) weighing
six ounces may be sold for 13,000, 23,000 and even 32,000 denarii,
50,000 of the latter corresponding to one pound of gold' Cloth
garments came from Laodicea in Phrygia, from Modena in Italy and in
the shape of coarse, warm mantles from Flanders. In a word the lines
of commercial intercourse are clearly traced, but the difficulties en-
countered by trade under new conditions are also very
visible. Some
comparisons with extant valuations of goods ordered for soldiers enable
us to form a judgment as to the Auctuations of prices which Diocletian's
enactment tried to moderate. We hear, e. g. , that in one
case 80
1 Roughly equivalent to £46 present coinage.
a
CH. XIX.


## p. 550 (#580) ############################################

550
Economic Compulsion
pounds of bacon were estimated at 1 solidus (6000 copper denarii) and
in another instance 20 pounds at 1000 denarii. According to the tariff
of Diocletian the maximum price for bacon of the best kind would have
been in the first instance 96,000, and in the second 16,000 copper
denarii, the latter being about 16 times more than the ordinary
price.
It is important to notice that while the ordinary agricultural
labourer is not allowed to receive higher wages than 25 silver denarii
(about 120 copper denarii) per day besides board, the maximum price of
a double sextarius (roughly, about a quart) of wheat was fixed at 100
silver denarii, and that of a pound of pork at 12 silver denarii.
One cannot wonder at the failure of Diocletian's attempt, which
according to contemporary testimony only increased the evils it was
meant to suppress, the penalties against the merchants leading to
concealment of goods and interruptions of trade. But it is charac-
teristic of the methods of compulsory legislation constantly employed
by the emperors of the fourth century that Julian made a similar and
quite as unsuccessful attempt to coerce the citizens of Antioch into
fair trade.
It is impossible to suppose that such measures were dictated by a
kind of “ Caesar madness," prompting the rulers of the civilised world to
affirm their will and wisdom as against economic laws. However faulty
in its conception, the policy indicated by the edicts of Diocletian and
Julian had its roots in a well-meaning though ineffectual desire to
regulate trade and to protect fair intercourse. It may be likened, as
most attempts to impose maximum limits to prices, to the police super-
vision of trade in necessaries of life practised in besieged cities. The
emperors and their bureaucracy had come to look on the whole civilised
world subject to their authority as upon a besieged city, in which all
civil professions had to conform to military rule.
The same kind of evolution from free intercourse to compulsion may
be observed in the legislation on commercial and industrial corporations.
Roman law passed through several stages in this respect. At the time
of the Republic guilds of artisans and merchants could be formed by
private agreement if their statutes and activity did not infringe the
laws of the State (Gaius in Dig. XLVII. 22, 4). During the civil con-
ficts of the last years of the Republic and in the early Empire organised
corporations were several times dissolved and forbidden on account of
the political agitation carried on by their members, and from Augustus'
time concession by the Senate and confirmation by the Prince had to be
applied for when a new college or guild had to be formed. But police
supervision by the State did not alter the main feature of the cor-
porations, namely their spontaneous origin in the needs of society and
the wish of private persons to carry on profitable trade and to form
unions for mutual support and social intercourse. The imperial Govern-


## p. 551 (#581) ############################################

Corporations
551
ment was often inclined to repress these spontaneous tendencies, as we
may gather, e. g. , from Trajan's correspondence with Pliny.
The first indication of a further change in the relations between
government and corporations may be noticed in the reign of Alexander
Severus. This Emperor, instead of restricting the rise of trade guilds,
actually favoured the formation of corporations of wine merchants,
grocers, shoemakers and other crafts (Lampridius, Alexander Severus,
33). We may suspect that at this time, that is in the second quarter
of the third century, the Government began to perceive a slackening in
the energy of trade and commerce and chose to exert its authority in
patronising trade guilds. The restoration of imperial power under
Aurelian brought about another and more powerful attempt in the same
direction. One of the measures of this Emperor was the assumption of
a wide-reaching guardianship over the alimentation of Rome. The
supply of corn from Egypt was increased ; lists of paupers (proletarii)
entitled to be fed by the State were drawn up, and the privilege of
living at the cost of the commonwealth was made hereditary; instead of
corn bread was distributed, and along with bread-oil, salt and pork.
In connexion with this system of alimentation of the poorer classes in
Rome Aurelian reorganised the service of the merchants responsible for
the transport of corn on the Nile and on the Tiber. This throws light
on the immediate reason for the transformation of corporations in the
ensuing age: trades and crafts which had a bearing on vital needs of
social intercourse were taken under the tutelage of the Empire and
carried on henceforth, not as free professions but as compulsory services.
This is clearly seen in the legislation of Constantine and remains
characteristic of the legal treatment of trade during the whole of the
fourth and of the fifth century.
In the Lex Julia of 747 u. c. enacted by Augustus the principle
was already formulated that a combination of individual workmen or
traders into a college had to be warranted not only by their wishes and
interests but by public utility. The public element assumes now a
preponderating influence. Bakers are authorised to form a craft guild
not because they see an advantage in being organised in this way, but
because the State wants their services in regulating the trade in bread
and providing for the needs of the inhabitants of cities. The result
of this enlisting of trades and crafts into public service is a system
entirely at variance with our conceptions of supply and demand, and of
economic intercourse.
To begin with, all freedom in the choice of professions came to an
end. Corporations are required to hold their members to their occupa-
tions all through life. All attempts of single members to leave their
place of abode and customary work are considered as a flight from duty
and severely forbidden. In 395, e. g. , Arcadius and Honorius decree
heavy fines against powerful people who conceal and protect fugitive
CH. XIX.


## p. 552 (#582) ############################################

552
The Navicularii
corn.
members of curiae and collegia. For each one of the latter the patron
has to pay a fine of a pound of gold (C. Th. xn. 1, 147). The codices
are full of enactments against fugitives of this kind, and such legislation
would prove, by itself, that a régime of caste was being gradually
established in the Empire. It is certain that the invasions of barbarians,
such as those of Alaric for example, contributed powerfully to scatter
the working population, but, apart from these, one of the motives of
Alight was the heavy burden of taxation'. It is probable that the
initiative in regard to the measures of stern compulsion came not from
the bureaucrats of the Empire, but from the corporations themselves
which were made liable to the requirements of the State in case of the
flight of their members. Of course, the consistent enforcement of such
a policy actually blocked the natural selection of professions and the
development of independent enterprise.
Let us, to take a concrete example, attend somewhat closer to the
discipline imposed on the important college of navicularii. During the
first two centuries of our era the term designated all shipowners
engaged in the carrying trade by sea; gradually it came to mean
shippers employed by the State for the transport of goods, especially of
Most of the corn necessary for the population of Rome was
derived from Egypt and Africa, and we hear of a large fleet starting
from Alexandria for the purpose of carrying over the supply. There is
good evidence to shew that during the second century A. D. the college
was composed of men who had joined it as voluntary members and sought
the privileges which were conceded to it in return for its services to the
State. All this appears changed in the fourth century. The navicularii
are to devote themselves primarily to the transport of goods belonging
to the State, more particularly corn and oil for Rome and Constanti-
nople, while African navicularii were bound to bring wood for fuel to
the public baths of Rome. The Egyptian navicularii received their
cargo from the collectors of the annona, the corn tribute in the province.
The season for the
voyages of their ships was reckoned from the first of
April to the 15th of October, the other months being held free on
account of stormy weather. Each navicularius had to send his ships to
the feet once in two years. When the ship weighed anchor it had to
proceed by the shortest route and not to stop anywhere without absolute
necessity. Should one of the ships of the corn fleet be delayed in a port
the governor and Senate of the place were bound, if necessary, to use
force, in order to send the merchants out to sea again. Outside these
official journeys they had the right to move on their own behalf, but
evidently their right did not outweigh the uncomfortable limitations
imposed on them during their service period, as we find the emperors
endeavouring in every way to keep the navicularii to their task and to
prevent them from slipping out of the college. A curious letter of
1 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxxi. 6, § 6.


## p. 553 (#583) ############################################

Decay of Municipal Institutions
553
.
St Augustine tells how the bishop refused to accept the bequest of a
certain Bonifacius, an African navicularius, on behalf of the see of
Hippo. Bonifacius had disinherited his son and wanted to pass over
his property to the Church. St Augustine refuses to accept the gift,
because he does not wish to entangle the Church with the dealings of the
navicularii. In case of shipwreck the Government would order an inquiry,
the sailors rescued from the wreck would be put to torture, the Church
would have to pay for the lost cargo, etc. The members of the college
evidently had to be rich men and, sometimes, if there were gaps to be
filled, the State would compel rich men to join the corpus naviculari-
orum. The service was hereditary, and if any member absconded, his
property was forfeited to the college. These facts may be sufficient to
shew to what extent the commerce of those days suffered under the
stringent discipline imposed by the requirements of the State, and what
a queer mixture of a business man and of an official a shipowner of those
days was. I may add that, although we know most about navicularii,
bakers, purveyors of pork and similar merchants engaged in supplying
the capitals with food. The provisioning of the smaller towns and the
management of all crafts and trades were carried on more or less on
similar principles.
An important chapter in the history of the decline and fall of the
Empire is constituted by the gradual decay of municipal institutions.
The ancient world took a long time to exchange its organisation of free
cities for that of a great power, governed by a centralised bureaucracy.
Even after the conquest of its provinces the Roman commonwealth
remained substantially a confederation of cities, and municipal auto-
nomy prospered for a long while. We see the cities of the first
and second centuries vying one with the other in local patriotism,
in the munificence of leading citizens, in generous contributions of
private men towards the welfare of poorer classes, public health and
order. The economic progress brought about by the establishment
of the Empire made itself felt primarily in the increased activity
and prosperity of city life. But threatening symptoms begin to
appear even in the second century A. D. Municipal self-government
bereft of its political significance, restricted to the sphere of local
interests and local ambitions, is apt to degenerate into corrupt and
spendthrift practices : the wealthier provincial citizens ruin themselves
by lavish expenditure on pageants and distributions, municipal enter-
prise in matters of building and philanthropy often turns out to be
extravagant and inefficient. The emperors find no other means of
remedying such defects than the institution of curators of different kinds
--curatores rei publicae, curatores kalendari—commissioners for the cor-
rection of the condition of free cities (ad corrigendum statum liberarum
civitatum). In the correspondence between Pliny and Trajan the
.
imperial commissioner is already seen to interfere in the most minute
CH. XIX.


## p. 554 (#584) ############################################

554
Growth of Centralisation
questions of city administration and, at the same time, he is constantly
applying for direction to his imperial master. The ideal of centralisation
is clearly expressed in this intimate intercourse of two well-meaning and
talented statesmen : the Emperor appears in the light of an omniscient
and all-powerful Providence watching over all the dealings and doings
of his innumerable subjects. In order to embody such an ideal the
central power had to surround itself with helpers and executive officers,
and Hadrian laid the foundations of a Civil Service more comprehensive
and better organised than the rudimentary administrative institutions
of the Commonwealth and of the early Empire. Later on Diocletian
and Constantine multiplied the number of bureaucratic organs and com-
bined them into one whole by the bands of constant supervision and
iron discipline. But even before this ultimate completion of bureaucracy
in the fourth century, in the very beginnings of the system of central
tutelage, a kind of vicious circle formed itself: central authority was
called upon to interfere on account of the deplorable defects of munici-
pal administration, while municipal life was disturbed and atrophied by
constant interference from above. It is impossible to say precisely what
was cause and what was effect in this case : the process was, as it happens
in many diseases, a constant flow of action and reaction. The jurists of
the third century find already a characteristic formula for corporative
town organisation in an analogy with the condition of a minor under
tutelage, and this analogy is followed up into all sorts of particulars as
to rights and duties. No wonder that for many citizens municipal life
loses its interest, that they try to eschew the burdens of unremunerated
and costly local administration, and that as early as the time of the
Severi compulsion has sometimes to be used to bring together a sufficient
number of unwilling magistrates and members of municipal senates
(Dig. , L. 1, 38, 6; L. 2, 2, 8).
A circumstance which in itself would have hardly been sufficient
to overthrow municipal organisation, certainly contributed to divert
people's minds from the customary trend of local patriotism and to make
the performance of certain duties difficult-I mean the spread of Chris-
tianity. Municipal institutions were intertwined with cults of Roman
and local gods including religious devotion to the Deity of the Emperors.
The new faith, on the other hand, did not admit of sacrifices or prayer
to the false gods of heathendome hence a conflict which did not admit of
a ready solution. Let us listen to the somewhat exaggerated statement
of Tertullian—“We concede,” he says, “ that a Christian may without
endangering salvation assume the honour and title of public functions-
if he does not offer sacrifices nor authorise sacrifices, if he does not
furnish victims, if he does not entrust anybody with the upkeep of
temples, if he does not take part in the management of their income, if
he does not give games either at his own or at the public expense, if he
does not preside at them, if he does not announce or arrange any festival,


## p. 555 (#585) ############################################

Christianity and Municipal Functions
555
if he avoids all kinds of oath and abstains, while exercising power, from
giving sentence in regard to the life or the honour of men, decisions as to
money matters being excepted; if he does not proclaim edicts, nor act
as a judge, nor put people into prison or inflict torture on them. But
is all this possible? " As a matter of fact the heathen State did certainly
not go out of its way to make all these exceptions possible, and conflicts
between law and religious conviction arose every day. On many occasions
Christians of a softer mould submitted to what they considered to be
inevitable, and performed most of the duties challenged by the fiery
African. The Church had to work out a penitentiary code for those
among its members who had sullied themselves by heathen practices (see
e. g. the canons of the Synod of Elvira in Spain). Sometimes again the more
firm among the Christians made a stubborn stand and were martyrised
for their protest as enemies of the Roman State. Altogether there can
.
be no doubt that the inherent contradiction between Christian religion
and the pagan practices of municipal life did put an extra strain on the
latter and could not but increase the disorder which was setting in.
The bold step taken by Constantine in recognising Christianity as a
state religion saved the situation to some extent, but it could not do
away at a stroke with all the pagan elements of municipal life: the
strife between religions assumed a new aspect, and as the vital connexion
between local self-government and local cults was never restored, that
unity of conception which marked antiquity when at its best had to
be replaced by a deep dualism tending towards new solutions of
political and moral problems. The greatest representative of conquering
Christianity, St Augustine, recognises the defeat of the material world
of antiquity and has to fashion his ideals according to a scheme of
two cities in which only the heavenly one appeals to his devotion and
energy.
Apart from this complication arising out of peculiarities of religious
history, the middle class of the citizens was undergoing a transformation
similar to that of the merchants and craftsmen. When the chaotic con-
ditions of the second half of the third century were arrested by the
statesmanship and military power of Aurelian and Diocletian, the policy
of compulsion was brought to bear with full weight on the well-to-do
inhabitants of cities. They were mostly not only houseowners in our
sense, but also owners of lands in the vicinity of the towns, although
distinctions which it is somewhat difficult for us at the present time to
formulate in detail were drawn between them and the possessores or land-
owners properly so called. However, the bulk of the well-to-do townsmen
was considered as a separate class, the curiales, out of which the actual
members of city senates, the decuriones, as well as its executive officials
and justices, were selected. Yet the connexion between the curiales
group and the actual office-holders was so close, there were so few
members of the former who had not to serve in one way or the other,
CH. XIX.


## p. 556 (#586) ############################################

556
The Curiales
that the enactments of the Codes currently confuse the two distinct
terms-curiales and decuriones. This confusion of itself points to
the overburdening of the middle class in the towns with service. And
we find indeed that its members are compelled to take over without
salary the various personal munera, or charges, of local government, to
administer the town, to act as petty justices, to take part in deputations,
to arrange games, to inspect public buildings, to provide fuel for baths,
to superintend postal and transport service (cursus publicus), to collect
rates, etc.
The most burdensome of their obligations were connected with the
collection of taxes. They were chiefly responsible for assessing the
town population, and out of their number were selected the inspectors
of public stores (horrea) and the decemprimi (Sexám potoi), who had
to collect the land tax and the tribute in kind (annona). Both
heathen and Christian authors testify to the crushing burden of taxation
during the fourth and fifth centuries, and the unfortunate curiales, who
were made the instruments of collection under the watchful and extor-
tionate supervision of state officials, were not only suffering from the
unpopularity of their functions, but had constantly to fall back on their
own resources in order to make good deficiencies and arrears. The
decemprimi were primarily responsible as collectors, and when they
vacated their office they had to nominate their successors and to
stand surety for their good behaviour.