EIGHTH CENTURY, The. The 8th cen tury is a cardinal epoch in modern history be cause it witnessed the culmination of the strug gle in the east and west of Europe by which it was decided that European civilization should be Christian rather than Mohammedan in char acter. The failure of the Saracens to capture Constantinople in the early part of the century (718) and the decisive defeat inflicted upon the Moors at Tours (732) by Charles Martel fol lowed by Charlemagne's successful campaign (777) which pushed Moorish dominion below the Ebro in Spain definitely settled that Chris tianity was to have an opportunity for free development in Europe. It was the fashion a generation or two ago to suggest the possibility that civilization might have advanced more rapidly under Mohammedan dominion than act ually proved to be the case under Christianity. The opinion was dictated primarily by the love of paradox though undoubtedly supported by the tendency to minimize the really great work of the Middle Ages through ignorance of their genuine achievement and to exaggerate the place of the Moors in education, literature and, especially, in science. What actually happened in the Mohammedan countries in spite of the magnificent incentive afforded them by their close touch with Greek civilization in the East is the historical demonstration that their definite repulse in the 8th century was for the benefit of humanity.
At the beginning of the 8th century the caliphs ruled from India over Persia, Arabia, Syria, Armenia, Egypt, Morocco, Spain and what is now France beyond Narbonne, as well as most of the islands of the Mediterranean and not a little of southern Italy. The backward ness in civilization of all of these regions that remained under Mohammedan rule is the an swer of history to the insinuations of Gibbon and his imitators as to the benefits the Arabs might have conferred on humanity. Fortunately in the 8th century there came a division of the caliphates which greatly diminished Moham medan power and reunion never took place. The raising of the siege of Constantinople (718) was due more to one man, Leo, known as the Isaurian, than to any other factor. Leo was the son of a shoemaker who rose by mili tary and administrative genius to be emperor and founded a dynasty. Like self-made men at
all times he was confident that he could solve all problems since he had solved so many, and his interference in Church matters separated Christianity into two parts that in spite of many well-directed attempts have not united again. Leo and his son Constantine Coprony mus declared against the worship of images in religion and encouraged the so-called icon oclasts or image breakers who did so much to disturb both religion and art in the East during this century.
Defeated in their attempts on Constantino ple the Mohammedans forced their way along the northern shore of Africa, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and succeeded in conquer ing Spain. In 711 they won a great victory over the Visigoths which made them masters of the country, and by the end of the first quarter of the century they had overrun the peninsula and were crossing the Pyrenees to menace Gaul. The Duke of Aquitaine held them in check for a time, but they defeated him near Bordeaux in 732 and advanced toward Tours. Between Tours and Poitiers their im mense host was met by Charles Martel (the Hammer) and completely defeated in one of the decisive battles of history. There are few authentic details of the battle though it would seem to have been, as far as we know, the con flict with the greatest numbers engaged ever fought between men at any time in history ex cept in our present Great War. Charles Martel was the mayor of the palace of the western Frankish king. The Merovingians had ruled since Clovis' time, but weaklings ascended the throne and the Prime Minister, who was called the mayor of the palace, became the real ruler. Charles' son Pepin, surnamed the Short, ac quired even more power than his father and finally put to the Pope the question whether the king should reign when his power was gone, received the answer that it seemed better that he who had the power in the state should be king, and so Pepin began the Carolingian dynasty. Pepin was the father of Charlemagne who was destined to consolidate France, con quered the surrounding countries, including a portion of Spain from the Moors, put down the barbarians on the north and acquired dominion over northern Italy.