Catherine Smith Fulgham

birth: October 23, 1838
location: Carroll County, Georgia
death: April 30, 1894
location: Van Zandt County, Texas

father:
mother:

spouse: Marquis de Lafayette Fulgham

marriage to Marquis de Lafayette Fulgham: March 13, 1861

1870 census

1880 census

burial

children with Marquis de Lafayette Fulgham:

William Edmond Fulgham - 1861
George Thomas Fulgham
Lou Nettie Fulgham
John M Fulgham

Henry Jackson Fulgham

Wiley de Lafayette Fulgham
James A Fulgham - 1878

Topics in the History of Pre-Modern Europe

Writing Assignments

1. Pirenne Thesis - Book Review

2. The Making of Europe - Book Review

3. Medieval Technology and Social Change - Book Review

4. Plague and the End of Antiquity - Book Review

5. Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages - Book Review

6. Charlemagne - Book Review

7. The Inheritance of Rome - Book Review

8. The Rise of Western Christendom - Book Review

The Making of Europe

The Making of Europe

In The Making of Europe, Christopher Dawson sets out to rewrite European History from a European point-of-view, with the goal of understanding the unity of the common civilization instead of a national identity. He advocates for Europe to develop a common European consciousness and a sense of its historic and organic unity. Dawson argues that there should not be a separate history for each country, but a common history intertwined with all. The Making of Europe adeptly corroborates Dawson’s thesis, while also addressing the reasons behind the fall of The Roman Empire as a result of turmoil in the Empire, classical tradition and Christianity, the Barbarian invasions, and the spread of Islam. Dawson’s book is about the people and cultures of Europe, not just those of the  Roman Empire and Mediterranean. 

Dawson and Henri Pirenne seem to be somewhat on the same page with regards to their notions of civilization. Pirenne gives more responsibility to the fall of the Roman Empire to that of the spread of Islam than does Dawson. But, Dawson seems to be able to see the ‘big picture’ better than Pirenne. Although there were crushing Barbarian invasions, Dawson asserts that the breach with the old tradition of culture was far less sudden and less complete than that which occurred at the beginning of the Iron Age. He goes into much more detail on the Barbarians way of life than does Pirenne. Dawson understands the tribal nature of Barbarian culture, one that was a tribal society with personal freedom, loyalty, self-respect, heroic traditions, devotion towards community, and moral and spiritual development that were far in advance of the material culture known in the Roman Empire.In many ways these tribal society factors are of greater significance than the sheer opulence of the Roman culture. In short, kinship was more important in Barbarian society than citizenship.

In general, Dawson depicts the Barbarians as a group of people with mixed descent and heritage, all with a more or less combined culture. The tribes integrated with and overlapped each other. When one group was dominant for many years, another would be sure to dominate later. Readers are left with a fluid image of the Barbarian culture.

Dawson gives credit to the Ostrogothic kingdom as the direct source of the movement which destroyed the unity of the Roman Empire and created new Barbarian kingdoms in the West. The defeat of the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople by Barbarians forced the Roman capital and government to be moved to Italy. This movement prepared the way for the disintegration of the Western Empire.Dawson shows how the scene was set for the Roman Empire to crumble. The spread of Islam and the awakening of the East were just the icing on the cake to bring the Empire down.

Another important aspect of European culture that Dawson expounds upon is the religious way of life. Unlike other oriental religions, Christianity thrived because “it possessed a system of ecclesiastical organization and a principle of social authority that distinguished it from all the other religious bodies of the age”.Civic institutions, the basis of ancient society, were replaced by the Church.Dawson also points to a reversal of societal roles, where the Bishop would ascend to become the most important figure in the community, instead of the municipal magistracy.Dawson states that Europe owes its political existence to Rome, spiritual unity to the Catholic Church, and intellectual culture to the Classical Tradition.

The literal making of Europe would not be complete without the East. By the third century, Dawson claims that a new culture had arisen due to influences from the East. The beginning of the Persian kingdom belonging to the Sassanids in A.D. 226, was most epoch-making event of the third century. It gave rise to a new oriental world-power, saw a reassertion of native Iranian power, and started the tradition of culture against the hegemony of Hellenistic civilization that would dominate Europe for five hundred years. “The coming of Islam is the great fact which dominates the history of the seventh and eighth centuries, and it affects the subsequent development of Medieval civilization.” The spread of Islam was also “the last act of the thousand years of interaction between East and West, the complete victory of the oriental spirit which had been gradually encroaching on the Hellenistic world since the downfall of the Seleucid monarchy. Mohammed was the answer of the East to the challenge of Alexander.” 

Similarly to Pirenne, Dawson sets the seventh century as the end of the last phase of ancient Mediterranean civilization and the beginning of the Middle Ages. In addition to the spread of Islam the Muslim culture began expanding. Despite the loss of political unity within the Islamic empire, Muslim culture thrived. The tenth century was the beginning of a Persian Renaissance and the golden age of literature and science. Western Europe was not immune to the spread of Islam. Dawson maintains that Western culture “grew up under the shadow of the more advanced civilization of Islam, and it was from the latter rather than from the Byzantine world that medieval Christendom recovered its share in the inheritance of Greek science and philosophy.”

Dawson gives immense attention to Charlemagne and the Carolingian Age. In point of fact, Dawson argues that it was the personal influence of Charlemagne that inspired the greatest achievement of the Carolingian Age: the gathering together of the scattered elements of the classical and Patristic traditions and their reorganization as the basis of a new culture. The Carolingian Age saw a return to scholarship that changed the face of the written word. The revision of scripts and calligraphy are hallmarks of this important era of the Middle Ages. Art and architecture also saw advancements during this time period. Dawson again points to the imperial influence of Charlemagne as the founder of “Holy Roman” architecture. On art, Dawson says, “it is in miniature-painting and illumination that the mixed art of the Carolingian period is seen to best advantage.”

The Carolingian abbey was perhaps the most important aspect in the history of early medieval civilization. The institution was based on a purely agrarian economy, but still embodied the highest spiritual and intellectual culture of the age. Monasteries were also great centers of trade. They fulfilled a primitive idea of banks and insurance societies. “It was owing to the work of the monsters that the Carolingian culture was able to survive the fall of the Carolingian Empire.”

When one considers Dawson’s historical output, consideration of his understanding of totalitarianism’s nature and his opposition to it must be given. This view of totalitarianism has been linked by some researchers as developing in preparatory school when Dawson was a boy. In addition, “one of Dawson’s chief catalytic intellectual and spiritual guides in young adulthood was John Henry Newman,” who Dawson would later credit as foreseeing totalitarianism’s precursors.

Christopher Dawson was likely greatly influenced by his upbringing in England. The grandson of several generations of clergymen, coming of age in a medieval castle-like dwelling, and the actual town in which he was raised, all gave him a “dual perception of reality as both time- and culture-linked.” He was the century’s leading historian of the Catholic Church, so rumination must also be given to his close association of Catholicism. Dawson “saw totalitarianism as part of modernity’s growing secularization of culture,” and concluded that it needed a response. Schwartz points out that “Dawson’s views on totalitarianism molded his attitudes toward topics as diverse as fascism and communism, World War II, the welfare state, decolonization, America’s role in Western civilization, education, European unity, and religious ecumenism.” 

Pirenne Thesis

As a Belgian historian, Henri Pirenne challenged the long-held belief that the decline of civilization occurred because of the Germanic invasions in the Roman Empire. Renaissance and Reformation thinkers, Enlightenment philosophers, and Modernist historians all pointed to the Germanic invasions that begin in the fifth century as giving rise to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Instead, Pirenne points to the swift and surprising spread of Islam as the reason behind the break with traditional antiquity. Islam cut off trade in the Mediterranean, thus making the Mediterranean Sea and Musulman lake. For the first time in history, the center of life shifted northward from the Mediterranean. 

Pierenne states that although there was a flood of Germanic immigration to the Roman Empire, the invaders were simply absorbed into the Empire. The German language died away. The Gothic conception of royalty was lost. All Germanic law was crushed and the organization of the judiciary was entirely Roman. In Spain and Gaul, the Germanic character was modified by Roman manners and Roman institutions. In the Empire, royal insignia went from Germanic to Roman. The agricultural system of the Roman Empire continued without addition after the invasions. Spanish agriculture bore no resemblance to Germanic agriculture. Social classes remained the same. The organization of great estates remained unchanged.With regards to navigation, Pirenne argues that it was just as active under the Empire as after the invasions, an important distinction that will be noted later. Trade was not greatly affected. Pirenne states that the diffusion of spices from the Orient was uninterrupted after the invasions.Instead of declining, the author posits that the Germanic invasions may have revived the prosperity of the slave trade. The Germanic peoples would have been familiar with the slave trade, brought slaves with them, and their wars must have added to their numbers. 

Leaving no room for error, Pirenne emphasizes that imports and exports were extensive in the sixth century.Had there been a fall of civilization, then surely trade would have been the first to noticeably deteriorate. Most importantly to Pirenne, the invasions did not supplant the Empire with a Germanic coin. “Nothing attests more clearly the persistence of the economic unity of the Empire. It was impossible to deprive it of the benefit of monetary unit”. 

In consideration of art, Pirenne states that there was no artistic interruption in the Mediterranean. The Germanic vein of Visigothic art was extinguished by the sixth century. Poets continued to write poetry. Coyly, Pirenne points out that someone had to be reading the poetry that was created. Overall, Piernne deftly reconstructs the economic, social, and cultural practices “Romania” after the invasions, and demonstrates that although the invaders were considerably different, the Germans almost seamlessly assimilated into their new environment and empire. Not a fall or decline of the Empire, but business and life carried on as usual. 

According to Pirenne, the Middle Ages began after the eighth century. “Before the 8^th century what existed was the continuation of the ancient Mediterranean economy. After the 8^thcentury there was a complete break with this economy. The sea was closed. Commerce had disappeared”.Pirenne differs in this respect to previous historians in that prior to Pirenne, the Middle Ages started much sooner. Specifically, Pirenne points to the reign of Charlemagne as the beginning of the Middle Ages. “The Carolingian Empire, or rather, the Empire of Charlemagne, was the scaffolding of the Middle Ages”. As Pirenne pointed to the circulation of money as an indicator that civilization was not dead in the sixth century, he does the opposite in the eighth. “As for the currency, this was in a terrible state of confusion. There was practically no gold in circulation.” Prices were frequently paid in grain or cattle. Navigation degenerated. Pirates infested the waters of the Mediterranean. The class of wealthy merchants had vanished. Aside from a very few, the only group of people to manage trade were the Jews.Pirenne concludes that the degeneration of commerce “resulted in making the soil more than ever the essential basis of economic life”. 

For the most part, McCormick agrees with Pirenne, his thesis, and surrounding details. Agreeably, McCormick also denotes the Middle Ages as beginning around the eighth century after the spread of Islam, not the invasions of the Barbarians in the fifth century. McCormick points out how Pirenne easily denotes papyrus missing from the scribes in Gaul during the seventh century. Even more impressed, McCormick gives Pirenne credit with grasping the next obvious conclusion: the disruption of trade with the Orient because the Islamic world had taken control of the Mediterranean. 

McCormick offers several important additions involving communication to think about regarding Pirenne’s thesis. First, McCormick speculates the reason merchants, and specifically merchants mentioned by name, disappear from record books during the seventh century is not because there simply were no merchants, but because the chroniclers would not have deigned to waste their time recording such information.  However, McCormick points out that just because merchants are quiet in the record books does not mean they did not exist. He counters that what we are left with is communications. Using the movements of people, coinage, goods, and slaves, McCormick deftly adds another element to Pirenne’s thesis. 

Without a bibliography, deciphering Pirenne’s sources is a bit daunting. One of Pirenne’s favorite sources was Gregory of Tours, who was a contemporary Bishop who recorded a history of the Franks, and recorded observations during his time period. Gregory of Tours seems to be an invaluable source to Pirenne. According to the Preface, Henri Pirenne’s son, Jacques Pirenne, completed Mohammed and Charlemagne after the death of Henri. Basing the completed version ofMohammed and Charlemagne on a “rough draft” completed by Henri Pirenne, Jacques Pirenne and a valued pupil of Henri Pirenne’s, M. F. Vercauteren, cited sources. This double-dip of note-taking and referencing no doubt left several assertions incomplete. Nonetheless, Jacques Pirenne is correct when he asserts that Mohammed and Charlemagne contain the “most vital, boldest, and most recent ideas” of the conditions leading up to the fall of the Roman Empire and the spread of Islam in the early Middle Ages.