The Origins of Europe Author(s): Eric Fernie Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes,

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THE ORIGINS

OF EUROPE*

Eric Fernie This paper begins with an accusation of theft.'The fallof theRoman empire' is a common, indeed standard, phrase used to referto the effectsof events such as the sack ofRome in 4io, and the deposing of Emperor Romulus Augus tulus in 476. Yet these events are relevant only to the fall of thewestern Roman formu empire.Of course everyone knows this; some authors even using the first lation and then changing to the second.What makes this self-deception of 'the fallof theRoman empire' possible, especially as we also all know that the eastern Roman empire continued beyond the fifth century, until via Justinian in the sixth, we-or at least those of us writingwithin I453? Part of theanswer seems tobe that the anglophone tradition-obscure theRoman status of the eastern empire by referring to it as theByzantine empire, a termnever as faras I know used by the rulersof thatempire themselves. The combined effect of using 'Roman empire' for 'western Roman empire' and 'Byzantineempire' for'easternRoman empire' is to ofmy introduction) deprive theeasternRoman empire of its romanitas(the 'theft' West appear the sole inheritor of theRoman tradition. and, in turn,tomake the I have introduced thepaper with thisobservation because the end of antiquity in the West is a fulcrum in arguments about the origins of Europe, and because any discussion of those origins involves well-known termsand phrases which may allowmore thanone meaning. In fact, it is likelythat there isnot a single concept of any importance in thispaper which has not been the subject of debate. This is so not least with theconcept of thecontinentofEurope, sinceEurope isnot a con tinent(in the sense of being separate and contained), but rathera regionofEurasia. Europe isnever referredto as a subcontinent,as India is,despite thevastlygreater barrier representedby theHimalayas thanby theUrals or theDon. with Europe for the last few Taking Europe tomean the culture identified most prominent candidates for itsorigins centuries and in the modern world, the are theBronze Age, ancientGreece, theRoman empire, late antiquity in the West, theCarolingian dynasty, theOttonian dynasty,and finallytheRenaissance (or, after one might say,the prehistory, Greeks, the Romans, thebarbarians, theFranks, All have the Saxons, and the Italians). been proposed as originators at various points over the last century;deciding between them isnot amatter of establishing criteriaagainst one rightanswer and six wrong ones, somuch asweighing different one another. To me theevidence suggests that threecriteriainparticular are crucial, namely (a) cultural characteristics thatare identifiableover an extended lengthof time; (b) an awareness of theconcept ofEurope; and (c) signsof a coherentprocess leading to the culture of present-dayEurope.
* I like to record my gratitude to Sandy would Herren John Onians, JohnMitchell, Michael Heslop, and Roger Stalley for their invaluable help with the text is based on a lecture writing of this paper. The of London in delivered to the Society of Antiquaries February 2008.

39
AND COURTAULD INSTITUTES,LXXI, 2008 JOURNAL OF THEWARBURG

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ORIGINS

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Given the subject of thepaper, it is appropriate to acknowledge at the outset which thehuman past has been divided are the obvious fact that theperiods into entirelyartificial:nothingmore, itcan be said, than tidy impositions on what are in realityinfinitely complex overlapping sequences of events.Periods are no more real than seconds or centuries, but, as Heinrich Wolfflin put it, theyare essential to historians if we are to retainour sanity.' The Bronze Age work ofV.Gordon Childe and ChristopherHawkes, Colin Renfrew Building on the has made a convincing case for the existence of a prehistoric culture identifiable as European.2 By contrastwith the diffusionistargument,which sees Europe as Near East, Renfrew establishes that dependent on the Europe is theonly continent with a trueBronze Age, and thatcharacteristics evident around I500 BC-such as chiefdoms, horse riding, a warrior culture, and a late urbanism-were peculiarly European phenomena. He points out furtherthat aspects of these characteristics help to explain the culture of Europe north of theAlps in themiddle of the first millennium AD, and proposes that the societieswhich emerged afterthe collapse of Roman power in theWestowedmuch more to these 'barbarians' than to romanitas. The origins ofEurope, then, lie in theprehistoricperiod, therebyfulfilling the first which continue into laterperiods. criterionof identifiablecharacteristics The Greeks The Greeks of course changed the terms of the discussion dramatically, by in At an undetermined date before the fifth venting the concept of Europe itself. centuryBC, theynamed the continent afterone of their mythological characters, and defined itas the land north of the Mediterranean and west of theDon. Some around 400 BC), contrast reports,conventionallyattributedtoHippocrates (writing theculture of thepeoples ofEurope with thatof thepeoples ofAsia. In the fourth Aristotle distinguishedbetween the Greeks and theEuropeans, defining centuryBC, the latter as barbarians who were 'fullof spirit,but lacking in intelligence and The Greek intervention therefore marks the inceptionof the idea ofEurope, skill'.3 whether it includes or excludes the Greeks themselves, making itpossible to speak of the second criterion, thatof awareness. At thispoint it may seem obvious thatwe have the answer also as far as the thirdcriterion is concerned: not only did theGreeks inventthe concept ofEurope and its extent, they also provided us with major aspects of our ideas concerning
i. Heinrich W?lfflin, Principles ofArt History. The of Style in Later Art, New of theDevelopment (c.1960 Civilisation. vols, Oxford including, European Its Origins 1934-39,1: and Development, Prehistoric Man, ed. E. Eyre, 7

Problems

York n.d.

'The Ethnology, !994s PP- !53-73J see also J.D. Myres, habitat, linguistic and common culture of Indo-Euro peans up to the time of the migrations', in European

[1915]), p. 227. 2. C. Renfrew, 'The Identity of Europe in Prehis toric Archaeology', Journal ofEuropean Archaeology, u,

3. Hippocrates, Airs, waters and places, xn, xvi, W H. S. Jones, Loeb xxiii, tr. edn, Harvard 1984, pp. 104-19, 133; Aristotle, Politics, vu. 1327b, tr. John London 1959, p. 201. Warrington,

pp. 179-244, facing p. 157, a map of primary types of civilisation in the early Bronze Age.

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politics, philosophy, science, history, medicine, literatureand art. What more do we need?The answer to this is an acknowledgment of the effects of the Hellenistic and Roman empires, spread as they were over all threeof the continents of the ancient world, thusmaking it difficultifnot impossible to establish a coherent process in thehistoryofEurope between the middle of the first millennium BC and the fifth and sixthcenturies AD. The Romans The Greek label and definitionofEurope continued inuse into the Roman period. Thus Strabo in the first centuryAD says of Europe that 'it is both varied in form and admirably adapted by nature to the development of excellence inmen and governments', and he identifies both theGreeks and theRomans as belonging to the continent. By establishing the provinces or prefectures of Italia, Gallia, Hispania, Germania and Britannia, theRomans contributed to the definitionof distinct political sub-entitieswhich lie at the base of themajor political units of laterEurope.4 The Barbarians, Christianity,and the End of West Antiquity in the The barbarian invasions and Christianity's rise in power in the fourthand fifth centurieshave been widely seen as introducinga new dimension to the concept of Europe. Norman Davies, forexample, says that 'It was the fourcenturies following Constantine thatbroughtEurope intobeing', and that 'it was in late antiquity that European history ceased to be an assortment of unrelated events ...and began to take on the characteristics of a more coherent civilizational process'.5 Thus, for example, Frankish rulewas established across the old province ofGaul, thepope replaced theemperor as a figurehead, Benedictine monasticism was largely respon sible forrecordingand handing on the classical literarytradition,and (in the late sixth and seventh centuries) theChristian oikoumene began to be identified with Europe. On the lastpoint,Gregory the Great, for instance, thoughtof thepapacy as the centre towhich the tornparts of Europe gravitated, and he was addressed by St Columban as thehead of all the churches of 'the whole ofEurope'.6 An Irish link to this occurs in thewritings of themonk Fergil who, in the way of thinking seventh century, referredto therebeing two schools of grammatical thought 'in totaEuropa'.7 As faras theChurch was concerned,Europe appears tohave existed as a cultural entity.
4- Strabo, Geography, 11.5, 26, tr.H. Jones, Loeb and New York 1917-32,1, p. 485. edn, London 5. N. Davies, Europe. A History, Oxford, 1996, pp. 15, 218-19, 284; R. A. Brown, The Origins ofEurope, London 1972, pp. 3-16. See also C. Wickham, Framing theEarly Middle Ages. Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800, Oxford 2005, for example, p. 2: 'The early ... is the Middle Ages period when the polities first ancestors formed that are the genealogical of the nation states of today.' See B. Ward-Perkins, The Fall ofRome and theEnd of Civilization, Oxford 2005, for a robust and welcome defence of the unfashionable idea that there was century to the 8th. 6. For Gregory, and a decline seeW in the West from the 4th

The Carolingian Ullmann, ofKingship, London 1969, p. 135; Sancti Columbani Opera, ed. G. S. M.Walker, Dublin omnium totius 1957, p. 36 ('Pulcherrimo Renaissance the Idea Europae ecclesiarum capiti...').

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42
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i.i, in Virgilio Marone 7- Epistolae grammatico, Epitomi ed Epistole, ed. G. Polara, Bari 1979, p. 182.1 am very grateful to Michael Herren for this reference.

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Roman

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c. 395 (archive of the author)

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44

ORIGINS

OF EUROPE

4. The

Carolingian

Empire,

c. 814 (archive of the author)

core of their civilisation. in ways which culminated

Instead

the Franks

in particular

transformed

their state

of Charlemagne, as emperor of a revived western empire, in the year 8oo (Fig. 4) A over the last eighty years. Pirenne's views have been extensively debated in the coronation His arguments concerning the economic effects of the Arab invasions have been in 200I propo especially Michael criticised, as for example by Richard Hodges in the i98os, but a convincing defence of Pirenne's economic

McCormick

mounted

has since accepted.9 Pirenne's other point has been sition, a defence which Hodges much more widely accepted, namely, the shattering change inworld view forced on the inhabitants of western Europe shift in the centre of gravity by the massive

Mediterranean to north of theAlps.'0 Chris of theirpolity and culture from the

8. H. Pirenne, Medieval Cities. Their origins and the revival of trade, New York 1956 (first edn 1925); and Charlemagne, London Pirenne, Mohammed 1968 World History, ed. G. (first edn 1938); Times Atlas of eastern Roman London 1978. The Barraclough, empire is not directly relevant to Pirenne's thesis, as it an unbroken even if disrupted existence. continued Its centre remained in the same place, and it continued 9. R. Hodges and Charlemagne power. and D. Whitehouse, Mohammed, the Origins of Europe. Archaeology and thePirenne Thesis, London 1983, pp. 169-76; The History, ed. to be a maritime P. Horden and N. Purcell, Oxford 2000, pp. 32-34; in After B. Bachrach, 'Pirenne and Charlemagne', Rome's Fall. Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History. Essays Presented to Walter Goffart, ed. A. C. Origins of Murray, 1998, pp. 214-31; M. McCormick, theEuropean Economy. Communications and Commerce AD 300-900, 576-77, 797-98; 2001, passim, especially pp. Cambridge R. Hodges, Goodbye to theVikings? 2006, Early Medieval Archaeology, London latino. La cultura dell'Eu

Re-Reading

pp. 176-86. 10. C. Leonardi, Medioevo ropa cristiana, Florence

2002, p. 761.

Mediterranean Corrupting Sea. A Study of

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Wickham has argued that the Merovingian and Carolingian stateswould have I am not in Mohamed." developed much as theydid, evenwithout the advent of a position to dispute Wickham's assessment, but, as already noted with regard to Merovin barbarian rule and thepower of theChurch, it isdifficultto see how the western Roman antiquity gian state could have developed intoa European polity if had continued as the social, political and economic framework in thewestern Mediterranean. I described the shift fromsouth tonorth as 'massive'advisedly. Eric Hobsbawm has supplied a context: 'Throughout its longhistory thebelt of high cultures that stretched fromeastAsia toEgypt experienced no lasting relapses intobarbarism, in spite of all invasions, conquests and upheavals ...China underMongols and Manchus, Persia, overrun bywhatever conquering invaders from centralAsia, remainedbeacons of high culture in theirregions.So did Egypt andMesopotamia, whether under Pharaohs and Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs or Turks. Invaded for a millennium by the peoples from steppe and desert, all the great Roman Empire was empiresof theold world survived with one exception.Only the permanently destroyed."2 Iwould change only one thing in thatbrilliant formu Roman empire,but ratherthe westernRoman empire. lation:he does notmean the West sees the start of a It has, then,been argued that late antiquity in the coherent process towards the idea ofEurope, the thirdcriterion identifiedabove, especially in the involvementof thebarbarians in the runningof the states of the old western Roman empire, and in the new importance of theChurch, not least in the formof itsexplicitly European perspective.Against these admittedlystrong there is the points over-riding impact of the end ofwestern antiquity. The Carolingian Dynasty Pirenne's thesismakes theCarolingian era, from the 750s to the tenth century, West. In so far as thisproposal can be defended, the first post-antique age in the itprovides extensive support fortheview that theorigins ofEurope can be traced to the period.I3 In other words, the start of the coherent process proposed by
Norman Davies for the fifth to seventh centuries makes more sense if sought in

The evidence that the theeighthand ninth,aftertheend of antiquity in the region. many fundamental ways can be found in Carolingian period marks a beginning in the fivefieldsof politics, religion, law,economics and technology. First, as faras politics is concerned, Charlemagne was referredto as the ruler of thekingdom ofEurope, 'PaterEuropae', 'Europae venerandus apex' and 'Euro pae veneranda pharus'. The division of theCarolingian empire by theTreaty of
ii. Wickham (as in n. 5), pp. 821-22. 12. E. Hobsbawm, 'The curious history of Europe', in E. Hobsbawm, On History, London 1997, pp. 223 24. in favour of the Carolingian 13. For arguments case see, for example, Ullmann (as in n. 6), pp. 135-39; oder Charlemagne?', K.-F. Werner, 'Karl der Grosse inBayerische Akademie derWissenschaften: Philologisch Historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, IV, 1995, pp. 3-62; in Le E. Manest?, 'Le radici medievali dell'"Europa'", radici medievali della civilta europea, ed. E. Manest?, 'Karl der Spoleto 2002, pp. 1-17; and H. Fuhrmann, in Karl Grosse: Versuch einer europ?ischen Ordnung', der Grosse und Europa. 2004, pp. 17-27. Symposium, Frankfurt am Main

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ORIGINS OFEUROPE

Verdun in 843 provided thebases, in amuch closer andmore direct sense than the divisions of theRoman empire and late antiquity,of France and Germany and the states between them,overwhich theyfoughtuntil the middle of the twentieth century (Fig. 5). The treatyitselfidentifiedthe threekingdoms, Gallia, Germania and Italia, as the 'prestantiores Europae species', the dominant parts of Europe, a phrase which would have made littlesense in the centuries ofwestern Roman
antiquity. 4

Secondly, as to the ecclesiastical arguments, for the firstfew centuries of its existence Christianitywas no more associated with Europe thanwith any other part of the Graeco-Roman world, but, as alreadynoted, in the late sixthand seventh centuries a linkbegan to be made between the religion and the continent. In the second half of the eighth century,thisassociation was given political form,at least for theLatin Church, with the establishment of an alliance between it and the Frankish crown. While it is difficultto overestimate the achievement of thepopes in gaining autonomy for the 'Republic of St Peter' in the 730S in themaelstrom ofLombard and Byzantine politics, it is equally true that thepapacy's chances of survival, and with them that of a separate Latin Church, would have been poor without the alliance with the Franks.'5 The Carolingians cemented this alliance through theirpolicy of enforcing theuniform use of theLatin liturgy throughout their lands.As Notker puts it inhis ninth-centurybiography ofCharlemagne, the emperorwas 'greatly grieved by the fact that all his provinces and indeed cities... continued to differin the way they worshipped God, and particularly in the rhythm of theirchanting.'6 Thereafter theLatin Church gradually became the church of all the states ofwestern and centralEurope, and the concept of Europe becomes indistinguishable,until theReformation, from thatof theLatin Church. Thirdly, the legal arguments can be set out in the formof a series of obser vations from Robert Bartlett's incisivebook of I994 on the making ofEurope. As Bartlett argues that 'Europe existed as an identifiable cultural entity'only by I300, and does not discuss the importance or otherwise of theCarolingian period for its origins, it may not be clear why I am calling him in evidence. I do so because his observations gain strengthfortheCarolingian case from thevery fact that theydo not formpart of an argument specificallyabout origins, or in support of the case I ammaking. Bartlett points out thatthe medieval coinages of northernand eastern Europe were modelled on Carolingian precedents; that thepayment of tithes was firstinstitutedby theCarolingians and the Anglo-Saxons; that themost import ant antecedents of the charter, the foundation ofmodern legal structures, were
'Karolus Magnus Pater Euro 14- F.-R. Erkens, pae?', in 79c. Kunst und Kultur derKarolingerzeit. Karl der Grosse und Papst Leo III in Paderborn (exhibition 1999; 1,pp. catalogue, Paderborn, 1999), 3 vols, Mainz The Growth of Papal Govern 2-9, and W. Ullmann, ment in the Middle Ages, London 1955, p. 95, nn. 3 and in reading later history 4. On the need for caution back post-Carolingian kingdoms', Early Medieval Europe,

see R. Bartlett, The Church, Middle Ages. Conquest, Colonization and Making of the Cultural Change 950-1350, London 1994, pp. 18-19, 20, 102-03, 269. 16. Einhard and Notker theStammerer. Two Lives Harmondsworth of

ii3 1993, pp. 153-61. the Latin 15. On

into the ninth century, see Stuart Airlie, 'Review article: After Empire: recent work on the emergence of

ed. and tr.L. Thorpe, Charlemagne, 1974, p. 102 (Notker, 1, ch. 10).

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4'4

5.The

Carolingian

Empire,

843 (archive of the author)

was the model forall thechanceries Carolingian; and thattheCarolingian chancery ofmedieval Europe. If one accepts Bartlett's arguments, then I would contend group of inno thatcoinage, tithes, chartersand chanceries constitutea significant vations with lasting effects.'7 To Bartlett's points can be added Charlemagne's with a new replacement of the degenerate Roman gold-based monetary system This use of silverratherthangold has been taken as indicating one based on silver. the weakness of theCarolingian economy,butMcCormick notes on the contrary centuriesoccurred that 'thegreat rise inEuropean cities in theeleventhand twelfth under the silver standard installed the by Carolingians, not under gold precisely
X i8

modern with regard to the economic arguments, the origins of the Fourthly, been traced economy,which is orwas theEuropean economy, have traditionally back through the IndustrialRevolution to theEnlightenment, and from there to theRenaissance, and no further. Although therehave been exceptions among From I988, historians, thisviewwas widely held up to the late twentieth century.'9 however, there is the curious historiographical fact that the date at which the modern economy is supposed to have begun went into a sharp and consistent
17- Bartlett (as in n. 15), pp. 283-304. 18. For the change from a gold to a silver stan dard, see McCormick (as in n. 9), pp. 576-77, and F. Crouzet, A History of the European Economy, 1000 2000, Charlottesvillle 2001, p. 6. of the case for the 19- For a recent example see J. in the Renaissance, economic revival beginning and Earth. Copernicus and the Henry, Moving Heaven Solar System, Cambridge 2001.

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retreat.In thatyear,Peter Spuffordmoved the startback from theRenaissance to the thirteenth century, in I996 Norman Davies pushed it to the twelfth century, in I998 PatrickGeary to the eleventh, in I999 Robert Fossier to the tenth,and in 200I Francois Crouzet to the seventh. The most fullysupported opinion, thatof Michael McCormick, also of 200I, settled for the eighth century and theCaro lingian age. In 2002, AdriaanVerhulst providedmore support fortheCarolingian case, and in 2004 one reviewerofVerhulst's book offered the opinion that it was difficultto see how anyone could still support any other view.20 Fifthly and finally, as far as technology is concerned, while theCarolingian period had not previously been considered a time of technical advance, in I979 JeanGimpel proposed that the threehundred years fromtheninth century to the eleventhdeserved tobe known as the first industrialage. In his viewmore machines West in thisperiod than at any and techniques were adopted or invented in the timebefore the IndustrialRevolution itself. Among many innovations Gimpel and others singleout thecam, a Greek invention previouslyused in machines foramuse ment or effect, now adapted to form water-driven hammers forforgingand other purposes; theheavy-wheeled plough,which transformedagriculturalproduction; and the collar harness,which increased thepulling power of horses five-fold, aid ingnot only agriculture,but transportand mining as well.2' The building industry also underwent a revolution. In the seventh and eighth centuries, north of the Alps at least, stone buildingswere largelyrestrictedto thepatronage of emperors, kings, queens and high churchmen. From theCarolingian period onwards, by contrast, therewas a broadening of patronage, until by the eleventh century in while many countries the majority of even ruralchurcheswere masonry structures, built of stone.22 dwellings and even shops were increasingly The Carolingian period therefore has numerous points to recommend itas the startof a coherent process identifiableas leading topresent-dayEuropean culture, with the added advantage that itbegins after the end ofwestern antiquity. The Ottonian Dynasty The next contender is theperiod of theOttonian or Saxon dynasty inGermany and adjacent lands from919 to I024.While most scholars have followed Pirenne in opting for the eighth century asmarking the end of antiquity in the West, there is a school of thought which prefers a tenth-century date.23This parallels the case
20. P. Spufford, Money and its Uses inMedieval 1988; Davies (as in n. 5), pp. 291 Europe, Cambridge 92; M. Kishlansky, P. Geary, and P. O'Brien, Civiliza tion in the West, New York 1998 (third revised edn), p. 'Rural economy and country life', in 226; R. Fossier, The New Cambridge Medieval History, III. c. 900-c. 1024, ed. Timothy Reuter, Cambridge 1999, p. 27; Crouzet (as in n. 18), p. 3; McCormick (as in n. 8), and especially pp. 576-77; A. Verhulst, The passim Carolingian Economy, Cambridge review ofVerhulst, Speculum, lxxix, Medieval Europe, xn, 2003, 2002, pp. 132-35; 2004, p. 856; Early pp. 259-323, 'Origins of economy: a debate'. The whole of the at consists of the papers of a discussion Kalamazoo ofMcCormick's book, including an intro duction and conclusion by McCormick himself. the European latter volume 2i. Jean Gimpel, The Medieval Machine, [London] 1979, passim and especially p. 69. 22. The stone is remarkably under industry economic studies. For example, in (as in n. 8), makes only 6 mentions 1000 pages, and P. Spufford, Power and Profit. The in Merchant Medieval 2002, only 2 Europe, London in over 400 pages. mentions McCormick researched inmany

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.1

6. The Ottonian

Empire,

after 962

(archive of the author)

which has been made in favourof an Ottonian ratherthan a Carolingian origin for theEuropean period as a coherent process by, amongst others,Georges Duby, Robert Fossier and most recently,in 2003, by Jacques leGoff. On continuityhe Le Goff's points concern chieflycontinuityand territory. argues that theHoly Roman empire can be traced from the nineteenth century The evidence back tono earlier than the timeofOtto I, emperor from962 to 973.24 against this isby no means decisive, but two relevantpoints are that the core and extentofOtto's empirewere based on thedivisionof theCarolingian empire in 843 Otto I presented himselfas the successor toCharlemagne, (Figs 5 and 6), and that in forexample having himself crowned atAachen according to theCarolingian rites.25 in arguing forthegreater significanceof theOttonians, Le Goff On territory, points out that theCarolingian empire did not include Sicily,which was under Muslim rule; or theChristian states of Britain, Ireland and Spain, which were which were still pagan (Fig. 4).26 I do not know independent;or theSlav countries,
23. For example, M. Zimmermann, de l'art roman: fragmentation politique, social et croissance Michel 'Aux origines encellulement 25- H. Keller, Fr?hmittela?eliche Sch?tte, Ottonen'Die Ottonen und Karl der Grosse'

Les Cahiers Saint ?conomique', de Cuxa, xxiv, 1993, pp. 5-19. 24. J.Le Goff, L'Europe, est-elle n?e au moyen age?, Paris 2003, pp. 47-71.

Studien, xxxiv, 2000, pp. 112-31; B. 'Karl der Grosse in der Historiographie der inKarl der Grosse und das und Salierzeit', ed. F.-R. Erkens, Berlin 2001, pp.

Erbe der Kulturen, 246-56. 26. Le Goff

(as in n. 24), pp. 50-51.

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what tomake of thisargument, for while Sicilywas certainly in Muslim hands in theninth century, it was equally certainly still so in the tenth,at the time of the Ottonians. SimilarlySpain, Britain and Irelandwere asmuch outside theOttonian were outside theCarolingian state in the eighth empire in the tenthcenturyas they and ninth,and,while the majority of theSlavs were converted in the tenthcentury, theBalts, Finns, Lapps and others all remained to be Christianised long afterthat date. There is somethingodd going on,when an argumentpropounded by a scholar of Le Goff's standing can be so easily refuted.Something similar is evident in statements of other scholarswho oppose theCarolingian argument. Fossier, for example, writing in I999, says that 'Contrary towhat is believed by German historians in particular, the role of theCarolingian dynasty is not a particularly interesting topic: itseffects beyond theChannel or thePyrenees, and even the south were non-existent or negligible... "a mere surface ripple", as of France and Italy, Georges Duby put it.'One has to ask,were the effectsof theOttonian empire in theseareas somuch greater? There is a resort to exaggerationherewhich isdifficult to explain.27 Inmy view, themove from western late antiquity to theCarolingians can be seen as a change on the largestscale, and that from theCarolingians to theOtto nians as one of dynasties. The Renaissance The Renaissance is demonstrably part of the history of Europe as a coherent process, and many authors see it as the startof thathistory.28 The most obvious support for thisconclusion is the increased occurrence of the word Europe itself. Between the tenthcentury and fifteenth, thegreatmajority ofwriters in the West used the term 'Christendom' to describe theirsociety, whereas with the Renaissance this came to be replaced by 'Europe'. The writings of Pope Pius II exemplifythe change, in the formof his outline description,De Europa, written in I458, and his mention of a plan to 'freeItaly and all Europe from the fearof the Turk ... .29 At least threepoints can be made against theRenaissance as thebeginning of theprocess. First,while it is true that few writers refertoEurope in thepreceding William ofMalmesbury, writing in the first centuries, at least half of the twelfth century,expresses himself in termsalmost indistinguishablefromthoseof Pius. He
27. Fossier (as in n. 20), p. 29. See J. Fried ('Otto sein Reich und Europa', der Grosse, in Otto der Grosse, Magdeburg und Europa, ed. M. Puhle, 2 vols, Mainz 2001,1, pp. 537-62), for the breadth of Otto's contacts, Cordoba, including those with England, Byzantium and Kiev, and for the judgement that 'Europe' was for 'ohne klare geographischen Dimen contemporaries sion und vollends ohne politische Konnotation' ('lack dimension and completely ing a clear geographical without political connotations').

28. J. R. Hale, The Civilization in the of Europe Renaissance, London 1993, pp. xix and 3-7; Davies (as in n. 5), pp. 7-15; W C. Jordan, '"Europe" in the Middle in The Idea ofEurope from Antiquity to Ages', theEuropean Union, ed. A. Pagden, Cambridge 2002, pp. 74-75; Bartlett (as in n. 15, p. 291) favours c. 1300. 29. Aeneae Sylvii Piccolominei Senensis... opera quae Memoirs P-35I (Basel [1551]), pp. 387-471; de Europa. of a Renaissance Pope. The Commentaries of Pius II, tr.F. A. Gragg, ed. L. C. Gabel, London i960, extant omnia...

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without says, forexample, that theSaracens invadedAfrica and Asia Minor, that the Franks they 'would long ago have overrun Europe as well', and that there remains 'Europe, the thirddivision of theworld, and how small a part of thatdo we Christians live in! ... this small part, then,of our world is threatenedby the Turks and Saracens with war.'30The change, then, is one of quantity,not content. Secondly, thereare thepolitical, ecclesiastical, legal, economic and technological developments already discussed, which appear to start in theCarolingian period and can be traced from there to the time of theRenaissance. what isnow the accepted view that Thirdly, there is the copious evidence for of earlier trends,ratherthan a sharp theRenaissance representsan intensification change of direction.Two quotations from the fieldsof science and manners can be used to illustrate the case. On science, against a supposedly medieval belief advice offered byAlexander that theearthwas flat,there is the late twelfth-century Neckam, in his De naturis rerum,to those constructing a very tall building: 'One must understand that no walls ... are parallel. Suppose that ...walls have been constructed so proportionally that theyare no thickerat thebottom than at the will not be equidistant. For it is inevitable that the farther the top, stillthe surfaces will thedistance between thembe found tobe. walls rise fromtheearth, thegreater For since everyobject naturally gravitates toward a centre,understand that walls gravitatetowards thecentreof theearth,and youwill findthat the walls themselves are joinedwith each other at an angle.'The advice is,of course, practically speak but it is technically ing,absurd, and nothingmore than a vehicle forshowing off, correct,and Neckam takes it forgranted that the earth is a sphere,with no need to justify himself.3I With regard to model contrasted manners, until recentlythe standardhistorical amedieval mode which was formulaicand restrictedto aristocraticsetpieces such as banquets, with a Renaissance mode which considered all aspects of lifeand was recognisablymodern. Against this JohnGillingham in 2002 painted a different picture, at least for England, in that the courts ofHenry I and Henry II had ideals comparable with those of theRenaissance. Thus the Liber Urbani ofDaniel of Beccles of c. II50 begins: 'Reader, read and re-read me if you wish to lead a civi lised life.' He next describes what isneeded not only fora civilised life, but also a to when long,healthyand happy one: what to eat and drink, bathe, how to exercise. You should cultivatean entertainingconversation,avoid quarrels.New clothes can cheer you up. He discourses on how to deal with friendsand enemies, how to live at peace with fellowcitizens: do not always insiston your rights, he says, and love moderation. If yourwife is unfaithful...pretend not to notice; ifyour lord'swife makes a pass at you, pretend to be ill. what has been Gillingham points out that called thenew Renaissance rule 'ofconsideration towardsone's fellows' is thevery basis ofDaniel ofBeccles's whole approach. He concludes by noting that the stan dard pro-Renaissance view derives, as always, from thehumanists,who drew all
Gesta regumAnglorum, of 30. William Malmesbury, and M. ed. and tr.R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson Winterbottom, Oxford 1998, ?? 92 and 347.6. De naturis rerum, ed. T Neckam, 31. Alexander Rolls Series, London 1863, p. 282.

Wright,

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their models of good conduct and stylefromantiquity. Everythingdone or thought between 400 and I400 was simplydumped into a black hole.32 While, therefore, the change in the West late in the first millennium was one which saw the end of western antiquity,theRenaissance can better be described as a cultural explosion within the context of a post-antique culturewith a relativelyconsistent political framework. Perhaps the most importantaspect of theRenaissance period with regard to Europe is that it saw the start of the incorporation of eastern Europe into the concept, bywhich Imean Europe east of theLatin Church. The reason for this region's previous separation is its close identification with the eastern Roman empire. Justas theunitaryRoman empire from the first century BC to the fourth AD extended over threecontinents, so did the eastern Roman empire in the fifth and sixth centuries. Even after theArab conquests of theNear East and North Africa in the seventhand eighthcenturies, itstillextended overparts ofEurope and Asia, retaining footholds on theAsia Minor side of theBosphorus into the four western Roman empire and Whereas theCarolingian revivalof the teenthcentury. its extension in the formof theLatin Church were restrictedentirely toEurope, by contrast the eastern Roman empire, despite shrinkingby stages from three continents to two and from two to one, retained throughout themantle of the Roman empire and with it a character difficultto identify with a single continent. The political units of easternEurope could, then,according to thisargument,only become part of the coherent development of Europe after the fall of the eastern empire in I453. Their absorption was also facilitatedby theReformation and the between 'Europe' and theLatin Church. consequent loss of identification Conclusion Acknowledging the extreme simplification involved in summing up a question of such complexity, the case presented here is that the origins of Europe can, according to different criteria,be said to lie in threeof theperiods discussed. By which distinguish the region over the criterion of the existence of characteristics an extended period of time, the origins of Europe lie in theBronze Age. By the criterionof awareness of the concept, theycan be traced to theGreeks. The third criterionof a coherentprocess leading to modern Europe is,because of its inherent most debated, with strongcases having been made for late antiquity vagueness, the in the West, the linkedCarolingian and Ottonian periods, and theRenaissance. The case for the late antique period isweakened by the effecton any coherent process of the end of antiquity,and the cases for theCarolingian and Ottonian because theyresulted fromthatbreak.The Caro periods converselystrengthened lingian state itselfand its expansion in the formof theLatin Church lay entirely within Europe; its rulers displayed an awareness of the concept of Europe; and there isplentifulevidence fora continuity indevelopment from theninth century
'From Civilitas to Civility: Codes 32. J. Gillingham, in ofManners Medieval and Early Modern England,' Transactions pp. 267-89. of the Royal Historical Society, xii, 2002,

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to theRenaissance, in the fieldsof politics (both secular and ecclesiastical), law, economics and technology. of the origins of Europe Given the character of the subject, an investigation cannot arrive at a firmconclusion, but I hope I have set out at least themain grounds on which choices can be made, and provided a basis forconsidering the most convincing candidate, under the thirdcriterion, for Carolingian period the thebeginning of theEuropean age. Art of Courtauld Institute

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