CHAPTER SIXTEEN
TOWARDS BETTER ORDER IN EUROPE

Out of the energetic movement of the
Prankish Empire Europe emerges in its medi-
seval shape. Over against the Greek world
ruled from Byzantium, and the Saracen world
governed from Bagdad and Cordova, is the vast
territory of Latin Christianity stretching from
the Ebro to the Carpathians acknowledging
rule of the Prankish Empire and the Pope of
Rome. —H. A. L FISHER

The fall of the Roman Empire is characterised by Gibboa
as " the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene in the his-
tory of mankind." We have described earlier how the
Dark Age followed or rather synchronised with that catas-
trophe. Europe took long to recover from the protracted
agony of the barbarian invasions. They poured into Europe
from the North and the East and seemed to destroy the
entire order created by Rome. The division of the Roman.
Empire was a sign of weakness rather than a measure of
administrative convenience. The Western Empire was vir-
tually extinguished, as we have noticed, in 476 A.D., when
Odoacer drove away Romulus Augustulus. The Eastern
Empire survived, at least in outward appearance, for an-
other thousand years (1453) no doubt. But in reality the
whole of Europe was sunk in chaos. It was owing to this-
weakness that Islam in the course of a century, could deve-
lop into the mightiest power in the Mediterranean. However,