CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS 



tar of the Mussulman. But in the West this 

 fatal growth of patriarchal despotism was early- 

 checked by the rise of Christianity as an inde- 

 pendent spiritual power, by the immigration of 

 the German tribes, and by the union of these 

 two circumstances. Europe was in no immedi- 

 ate danger of lapsing into an Oriental condition 

 when an Ambrose could say to a Theodosius, 

 " Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." The 

 German tribes, by their direct coalescence into 

 national aggregates, without passing through the 

 civic stage of organization, furnished, in various 

 degrees of completeness, the principles of repre- 

 sentation and federation — thus adding impor- 

 tant elements of new life to the Empire. While 

 finally the Christianization of these tribes, lead- 

 ing to the famous compact by which the Head 

 of the Church transferred the lordship of the 

 western world from the degenerate Byzantine 

 to the strong-armed Frank, inaugurated a bal- 

 ance of powers which preserved Europe hence- 

 forth from any danger of becoming either a sul- 

 tanate or a caliphate. In this twofold supremacy 

 of Church and Empire during the Middle Ages, 

 we have one of the most remarkable compro- 

 mises between antagonist forces known to his- 

 tory ; for while the tendency of either set of 

 forces acting alone would have been toward ab- 

 solute despotism, either in the spiritual or in the 

 temporal form, on the other hand their joint 



37 



