. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. ter authority. Missionaries (especially the famousGoth, Ulfilas) had re-cently converted most *.of them to a mannerof Christianity,1 al-though probably thecrude worship of theold nature deities (,Donar, the Storm andThunder God) stilllingered on in manyvillages, and in someentire tribes. Theywere becoming morecontent with the landswhich they possessed,and a little less intentupon roving. Yet re-peatedly their bands had collided with the Romans. In the thirdcentury many German hordes had penetrated into the Empire,and had bee
. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. ter authority. Missionaries (especially the famousGoth, Ulfilas) had re-cently converted most *.of them to a mannerof Christianity,1 al-though probably thecrude worship of theold nature deities (,Donar, the Storm andThunder God) stilllingered on in manyvillages, and in someentire tribes. Theywere becoming morecontent with the landswhich they possessed,and a little less intentupon roving. Yet re-peatedly their bands had collided with the Romans. In the thirdcentury many German hordes had penetrated into the Empire,and had been destroyed with the greatest difficulty. In thefourth century the legions seemed to be preventing any actualarmed invasion; but tens of thousands of Germans themselveswere enlisted in the legions, while many more were entering theEmpire as peaceful settlers. The Germans cheerfully recog-nized the Romans as superior to themselves in everything butwar, and the glitter and splendor of Rome fascinated and luredthem southward. Late in the fourth century came events. DWELLING-HOUSE IN A TOWN OF THE FIFTHCENTURY (Restored. After Gamier and A mmann, Eistoire de Iha-bitation humaine.) Note that the building is largely com-posed of fragments of earlier monuments and structures 1 To Arianism, a kind of Unitarianism, which involved the acceptance ofJesus Christ as a God-Man, but denied his actual divinity. 8 HISTORY OF EUROPE which broke the barriers on the Danube and the Rhine, andlet them into the Empire. GENERAL NOTE ON ORDEALS The Germans had one custom which was not merely a curioususage of barbarous peoples, but which they took with them into theRoman Empire and worked into the legal practices of the earlyMiddle Ages in many parts of Europe. This was the method of set-tling many lawsuits not by a verdict after hearing the evidence, butby an ordeal, a solemn question put to Heaven, which was supposedto answer — according to the result of the ordeal — as to the guiltor innocence o
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