41
Nightfall
Itwas 500 o’clock by History Time.
Night was coming on.
The Dark Ages had begun.
At least, that is what people call it now. But people didn’t call it so then.
Crazy people don’t think they are crazy.
Ignorant people don’t think they are ignorant.
So the Dark Ages didn’t think they were dark.
The ignorant Teutons were ruling over the pieces of the Western Empire.
They couldn’t read; they couldn’t write.They didn’t know much except to fight.They didn’t know ’twas dark as night.
They couldn’t read; they couldn’t write.They didn’t know much except to fight.They didn’t know ’twas dark as night.
They couldn’t read; they couldn’t write.They didn’t know much except to fight.They didn’t know ’twas dark as night.
They couldn’t read; they couldn’t write.
They didn’t know much except to fight.
They didn’t know ’twas dark as night.
At Constantinople, however, a Roman was still ruling over the Eastern Empire. This Roman was named Justinian. Now, up to this time there had been a great many rules or laws by which the people were governed. But there were so many of these rules and they were so mixed up that one law would tell you you coulddo one thing and another would tell you you couldn’t. It was as if your mother said you could stay up till nine o’clock to-night and your father said you must go to bed at eight. It was hard for people to tell, therefore, what one must do and what one must not do.
In order to untangle this snarl, Justinian had a set of laws made for the government of his people, and many of these were so good and so just that they are still the law to-day. If you notice that Justinian begins with “Just,” this will help you to remember that he was the one who madejustlaws.
Another thing Justinian did that has lasted to the present time. He built in Constantinople a very beautiful church called Santa Sophia. Though it is no longer a church, it is still standing after all these years and is a beautiful sight to see. Still another thing he did which you could never guess. It had nothing to do with war or law or buildings.
Travelers from the Far East, where China now is, had brought back tales of a wonderful caterpillar that wound itself up with a fine, thin thread over a mile long, and they told stories of how the Chinese unwound this thread and wove it into cloth of the finest and smoothest kind. This thread, as you might guess, was called silk, and the caterpillar that made it was called thesilkworm. People in Europe had seen this beautiful silk cloth, but how it was made had been a mystery—a secret. They thought it so wonderfully beautiful that it was supposed to have been made by fairies or elves or even sent down from heaven. Justinian found out about these caterpillars and had men bring these silkworms into Europe so that his people also might make silk cloth and have silk ribbons and fine silk garments, and therefore we give him the honor of starting the manufacture of silk in Europe.
Outside of Justinian’s empire the ignorant Teutons were living. It took them nearly a thousand years to learn as much as any school-boy now knows, and the first thing they learned was not reading, nor writing, but the Christian religion.
About the same time that Justinian lived there was a king in France named Clovis. Clovis, of course, was a Teuton and belonged to the tribe called the Franks, which gave the name “France” to that country. Clovis believed in Thor and Woden as all of his people did. Clovis had a wife named Clotilda, whom he loved very dearly. Clotilda, though a Teuton, thought all the fighting and cruelty which her people seemed to like was wrong. She had heard about the religion of Christ,which did not believe in quarreling and fighting, and she thought she would like to be a Christian. So she was baptized. Then she tried to persuade her husband, Clovis, to become a Christian, also.
Clovis was just then going to war—the very thing the Christians preached against. But, just to please his wife, he promised her, if he won the battle, he would become a Christian. He did win, and he kept his word and was baptized and had his soldiers baptized, also. Clovis made Paris his capital, and Paris is still the capital of France.
It was about this same time, also, that a king named Arthur was ruling in England. Many stories and poems have been written about him, which, however, we know are fairy-tales and not history. But although we know these stories are not true, they are, nevertheless, interesting—like those tales that are told about the heroes of the Trojan War.
It was said that there was a sword called Excalibur stuck so fast in a stone that no one could draw it out except the man who should be king of England. All the nobles had tried without success to draw the sword, when one day a young boy named Arthur pulled it out with the greatest ease, and he was accordingly proclaimed king.
King Arthur chose a company of the nobles to rule with him, and as they sat with him at a Round Table, they were known as the Knights of the Round Table. Tennyson, the great English poet, has written in verse an account of all the doings of King Arthur and his knights in a long poem called “The Idylls of the King,” which you will have to read yourself, for we must go on to the next story.