in the tenth. The Germans, under their leader Odoacer in 476, deposed Romulus Augustulus—the
shadow of old Romulus and Augustus—and overthrew the West Roman Empire, thus fulfilling the
old augury of the twelve birds of fate, that Rome was to grow six centuries and to decline six
centuries. Wherever they went, they brought destruction to decaying institutions. But with few
exceptions, they readily embraced the religion of the conquered Latin provinces, and with childlike
docility submitted to its educational power. They were predestinated for Christianity, and Christianity
for them. It curbed their warlike passions, regulated their wild force, and developed their nobler
instincts, their devotion and fidelity, their respect for woman, their reverence for all family-relations,
their love of personal liberty and independence. The Latin church was to them only a school of
discipline to prepare them for an age of Christian manhood and independence, which dawned in
the sixteenth century. The Protestant Reformation was the emancipation of the Germanic races
from the pupilage of mediaeval and legalistic Catholicism.
Tacitus, the great heathen historian, no doubt idealized the barbarous Germans in contrast
with the degenerate Romans of his day (as Montaigne and Rousseau painted the savages "in a fit
of ill humor against their country"); but he unconsciously prophesied their future greatness, and
his prophecy has been more than fulfilled.
- The Slavonic or Slavic or Slavs^6 in the East and North of Europe, including the Bulgarians,
Bohemians (Czechs), Moravians, Slovaks, Servians, Croatians, Wends, Poles, and Russians, were
mainly converted through Eastern missionaries since the ninth and tenth century. The Eastern Slavs,
who are the vast majority, were incorporated with the Greek Church, which became the national
religion of Russia, and through this empire acquired a territory almost equal to that of the Roman
Church. The western Slavs, the Bohemians and Poles, became subject to the Papacy.
The Slavs, who number in all nearly 80,000,000, occupy a very subordinate position in the
history of the middle ages, and are isolated from the main current; but recently, they have begun
to develop their resources, and seem to have a great future before them through the commanding
political power of Russia in Europe and in Asia. Russia is the bearer of the destinies of Panslavism
and of the, Eastern Church. - The Greek nationality, which figured so conspicuously in ancient Christianity, maintained
its independence down to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453; but it was mixed with Slavonic
elements. The Greek Church was much weakened by the inroads of Mohammedanism) and lost
the possession of the territories of primitive Christianity, but secured a new and vast missionary
field in Russia.
§ 4. Genius of Mediaeval Christianity.(^6) The term Slav or Slavonian is derived by some from slovo, word, by others, from slava, glory. From it are derived
the words slave and slavery (Sclave, esclave), because many Slavs were reduced to a state of slavery or serfdom by their German
masters. Webster spells slave instead of slav, and Edward A. Freeman, in his Historical Essays (third series, 1879), defends
this spelling on three grounds: 1) No English word ends in v. But many Russian words do, asKiev, Yaroslav, and some Hebrew
grammars use Tav and Vav for Tau and Vau. 2) Analogy. We write Dane, Swede, Pole, not Dan, etc. But the a in Slav has the
continental sound, and the tendency is to get rid of mute vowels. 3) The form Slave perpetuates the etymology. But the etymology
(slave =δου̑λος) is uncertain, and it is well to distinguish the national name from the ordinary slaves, and thus avoid offence.
The Germans also distinguish between Slaven, Sclaven.