Charles Oman. The Dark Ages 476-918. 1898; Digital History Books, digitalhistorybooks.com, 2017. E-book.

This is another Kindle reissue of a history classic. From the title it is clear that it is about the early Medieval times in civilized Europe. It really is organized in three periods: before Charlemagne, Charlemagne, and after Charlemagne (shall we say A.I., “in the year of the Emperor”?)

Of course, it is not simply about Charlemagne. We first read about the various Gothic and Germanic tribes which came south into the Balkans, Italy, Gaul, and Spain. We begin to understand some early religious conflicts between the Goths, who were largely followers of Arius, and the more orthodox Catholics.

We also see the seeds of the schism between the Eastern and Western churches. In some ways, this was simply the two geographical regions of the old Roman Empire going their separate ways, but there was also theological controversy, especially in the East. The Arians were just a small part of that. Later in 866 there was the Synod of Constantinople which declared the Bishop of Rome a heretic.

The author notes that any historian of this time period is challenged by the relative lack of primary sources. Those that have survived are often by people writing a generation to a couple of centuries afterwards. Perhaps they have some perspective, but they also may have some very distinct biases and may be missing a lot detail.

It was really under Charlemagne, with some help from the popes and Eastern emperors, that the concept of Europe as Christendom really developed. One of his precursors, Theodoric, was among the first to recognize that religion and nationality were not necessarily the same, but Charlemagne saw the advantage to have a populace who respected the God of Christianity. Most German tribes south of Scandinavia were converted by the ninth century.

Before Charlemagne, there were numerous kingdoms fighting. The same was more or less true afterwards. There were power plays all over. There were also external threats. The Eastern Roman Empire shrank during this time as various Islamic groups conquered some of its territories. There is a sense that Constantinople would eventually fall, even though it did not happen until the fifteenth century.

The French were able to unite (more or less) under Charlemagne to limit the expansion of the Arabs to the Iberian Peninsula, and even by the end of the ninth century the Moors had been pushed back significantly in Spain. Moors also conquered southern Italy, but only for about fifty years.

Interestingly, one the major developments of this time period which really ended the Dark Ages in Europe was the castellated or walled city. The Arabs from the South and East, the various Asian tribes from the East (Avars, Magyars, and Tartars among them), and the Danes from the North were all rovers. They attacked, pillaged, and then withdrew or resettled the area they had devastated. They were mobile, but when the dukes in Northern France and adjacent territories began building castles and raising local armies or militias, the attackers were stymied. Even if they won a battle, sieges took too long for a mobile army.

“It was the mailed Feudal horseman, and the impregnable walls of the feudal castle, that foiled the attacks of the Dane, the Saracen, and the Hungarian.” (325)

In other words, Feudalism ended the Dark Ages. Once cities were secured, a distinct culture could be developed, and gradually a new identity grew in Europe. The aristocratic system saved Europe. Of course, that would be challenged with the coming of gunpowder and the printing press, but that was centuries later.

Although there is no trace left, in 455 sources tell us that the Emperor Justinian recognized some of the booty brought back after fighting the Vandals in Rome were “the seven-branched candlestick and golden vessels of the temple of Jerusalem, which Titus Caesar had taken to Rome when he conquered Judea four hundred years back.” (54) They were returned to Jerusalem.

Oman notes that it was Justinian who really codified Roman Law in the manner in which it came to be known in later times. Governments gradually were recognizing a need for justice for all. As Theodoric would say, “Even to those who err from the faith.” (17) This is still an issue today, even in the “civil” West.

The Dark Ages presents the origins of Islam fairly sympathetically, but, alas, its beliefs would change.

Then came the fatal moment which turned his teaching from a blessing to Arabia into a curse for the world. When he grew powerful enough, he bade his sectaries to take up the sword, and impose Islam on their neighbors by force of arms. (139, A.D. 624)

The author takes a traditional Western look at the growth of Islam as one of compromise of its original teachings, syncretism with the Arabs’ polytheistic system, and announcing “special mandates of God” which applied only to him.

His conclusion on Mohammed’s sect? “Islam is a good religion to die by, as its fanatics have shown on a thousand battlefields, but not a good religion to live by.” (140)

The book also notes the increasing power of the Bishop of Rome to eventually become the pope, and then under Gregory II and Gregory III to have the popes become a secular ruling power controlling much of central Italy, and whom other governments would be obliged to recognize.

Charlemagne himself took advantage of this. He encouraged not only mission work, but also the establishment of monasteries to teach and write books and promote and keep alive the culture that was developing. Culturally, even today we owe a lot to this Frankish king:

…he had given the Western world a glimpse of new and high ideals such as it had never known under the brutal rule of twelve generations of barbarian kings, nor in those earlier days when it was still held together in the iron grasp of the Caesars of ancient Rome. (245)

Our author is no Gibbon.

Of course, there is a lot more. But this is a good introduction to a piece of history that is often skimmed over, but whose events really established the foundations of much that would persist in both Western culture and the Christian religion.