THE PRESENT PROBLEMS OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY 



BY GEORGE BURTON ADAMS 



[George Burton Adams, Professor of History, Yale University, since 1888. b. 

 Fairfield, Vermont, June 3, 1851. A.B. Beloit, 1873; A.M. ibid. 1876; Divinity 

 and Graduate Schools, Yale, 1873-77; B.D.Yale, 1877; Ph.D. Leipzig, 1886 ; 

 Litt.D. Beloit, 1903; Instructor, Beloit College Academy, 1874-75; Profes- 

 sor of History and English, Drury College, 1877-88; Member American His- 

 torical Association, American Antiquarian Society. Author of Civilization dur- 

 ing the Middle Ages; European History; and manv other works and articles on 

 history.! 



IN the recorded history of the human race the period known as 

 medieval history occupies, as its name indicates, an intermediate 

 place. If we leave out of account that portion of our long past which 

 must be reconstructed by inference from a study of surviving primi- 

 tive man, or from monuments and archaeological remains, and limit 

 the meaning of the term " recorded history " to that history which 

 has been recorded in books and written documents, then the period 

 of the Middle Ages occupies what may be called the middle third of 

 recorded history. The general problem which this portion of the 

 field presents to students of medieval history is obvious. The results 

 of ancient civilization furnish our starting-point. With these in 

 hand it is our business to show how they were transformed under 

 the influence of new conditions, how new forces entered the field, 

 what new institutions arose, in what way and to what extent civiliza- 

 tion recovered its losses by the way and became more diversified and 

 enriched, and finally to put. our results in such shape that they may 

 serve to explain the beginnings of modern history and to furnish 

 the key to many of its difficulties. It is our business first of all to 

 find out the facts as they actually were, in so far as this can be done, 

 to indicate carefully the exact degree of our knowledge, and finally 

 on the basis of this knowledge to construct a continuous and com- 

 prehensive narrative of the whole period in order to set forth the 

 results which have been reached. 



But looked at more specifically as a field of investigation medieval 

 history, or at least the first half of it, has enjoyed one great advantage 

 over other periods. The history of the Teutonic tribes, and especially 

 of the great race the Franks, who dominated Europe for some cen- 

 turies and whose institutions native and acquired lie at the founda- 

 tion of all later constitutions, belongs at once to the national history 

 of the two peoples who have been the leaders of modern historical 

 scholarship, Germany and France. It has followed from this fact 

 that the history of that large portion of the continent which was 

 included in the Empire of the Franks has been explored with micro- 



