The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26

incursions One wave pushed the other further on. The barbarians apparently did not conquer for the purpose of oc- cupying the soil and building up em- pires, but for the purpose of plumber. The condition was consequently one Of continued commotion through several generations. The case of the Vandals is in point They pushed through France and settled for a time in Spain later S0,- eco of them crossed under Generic to Car thage, where a Vandal empire was estab- lished for almost a century, and the Van dals organized as pirates, came down upon the commerce of the Mediterranean and even returned to desolate Rome. At tila inflicted himself as the Scourge of GoH' upon Christian Europe. The North men broke the calm after the other bar harians had subsided, and the Moslem in yasion from the south was only checked by Charles Martel after a desperate bat tie GA. D. 732). The assimilation of 10 successive waves of northern barbarians and the blow such invasions meant to existing and civilizing institutions made the task of medieval society most diff cult and gradual. Civilization had in fact to be begun over. We do not call a boy decrepit because he lacks the strength of man.
 Neither ought we to slur the society of the middle ages because it did not rapidly attain to the standards of our day. There Is no responsibility where the conditions are natural and memorable. The medae- val centuries were constantly forcing the civilization and culture of European so- ciety forward. It was the germinating epoch of the modern world. There was no standing still, no retrogression. There was constant advance. In the epoch that in the retrospect seems most hopeless and unpr6gressive, that is about the close of
 
 ventions were made that the modern world finds of indispensable value Clocks were constructed by the monk Gerbert. the musical scale by the monk Guy, and another monk in 12S5 devised spectacles Arabic notation came into use about the year 1275. Gunpowder was invented about 127S. Paper was manufactured from rags early in the twelfth century. In the same century the mariners compass came into use. Common schools for the masses were founded earlier than this. and some of the great universities of modern Flu rope then had their origin.
 Does not this century of ours go back to the magnificent Gothic architecture that f1ourished in the eleventh century. And the state of architecture has been shrewdly accepted by historians as one of the safest gauges of the progress at- tained in the other arts.
 Out of library of the literature of the middle ages, consisting of great folios o1 the fathers of historical annals. of mon kish chronicles of whole department of poetry and fiction, three great books have come down to us from these cen! turies, each bearing the stamp of immor. tality.
 Thomas Aquinas (1224-74) left to the world the Summa Theological, which has for 600 years been the standard au. thority on the teaching of the greatest church in Christendom.
 Dante (1265-1321) wrote the "Divina Comedia," which has won him a name in the world of literature unsurpassed by any writer of the Christian era Shakespeare alone excepted.
 Thomas A. Kempis. Q3s0-li7) wrot, "The Imitation of Christi which has been translated into more languages than any other book, except the Bible In the Cologne library there are sam ples of 600 editions of this work brought out in the nineteenth century alone.
 i Now lest it be objected that I an giving the viewpoint of Catholic his torians alone, I submit. without com , ment the following quotations iron we'll known non-Catholic writers: | Goldwin Smith: Hume and Robert son have long been consigned to dis grace for their want of accurate erudi' ] tion, especially in relation to the mid dle ages which to them are merely the dark ages, while to the mAdiaeval ist of today, they appear to be spe cial ages of light"
 | Sir Francis Palgrave: "The history O. Napoleon, his generals, and the French ation, collected from congregations O. selfish loyalty. rabid aversion and panic terror. would be the match of ou popular ideas concerning Hildebrand ol Anselm or Becket or Innocent III O. medieval Catholicity in general grounded upon our ancestral tradition ary standard ecclesiastical authorities such as 'Burnett's Reformation ant Fox's Book sof Martyrs
 Never do these writers or their school whether In ErancaN or Great Britain