Clan Carruthers Int Society CCIS Promptus et Fidelis
ESSAY ON THE
Countries, Religion, Learning, Numbers, Forms of Government, and the chief’ Cause of the Succefles of| the Nations,
By which the ROMAN EMPIRE Was pulled Down.
This was written in 1714, and though interesting, not accurate as the information that we have today.
TH E Saxom, having been by the Greeks and Romans reckoned Superiour to all other barbarous Nations, as they were pleased to call them, for Wit, for Strength of Body, and the Enduring of the Toils of War, I should be unjust to our Ancestors, if I did not give them the Precedency here.
They were Originally a People in the CmIncus Cbersotiefus, and did live all along the Eastern Coast of the German, and the Southern Coast of the Baltick Seas. They were divided into several Nations, as the Attgliy who lived in the Country where the City of Slefwick Sleswick is now; the Juta, the Heruli, the Vemi, the Vandali, the Longobardi; and to which, the tfcofi, may, I believe, be added.
The Saxons having more Wit and Courage than their Neighbours, might think it hard that the wisest and bravest Men should have the worst Countries; so they invaded the Frifijt and having made themselves Masters of their Country, which was, Freezland, Holland, slanders, &c. or of all the Sea Coast at least, they wisely incorporated themselves with that Nation, and by that means they became stronger than they were before. And which the greatest Conquests do never make any People, but rather the Weaker, if the Natives be totally destroy’d, or drove away, or be preserved, but still as a distinct People, from those that conquered them.
The Saxons finding, that the employing of their Strength by Land against their Neighbours the Gauls, who were supported by the Romans, did turn to no Account, they applied themselves wholly to the Sea, of which they had now a very long Coast. And on that Element, Orofius saith, they were terrible, both for their Courage and their Agility; and being absolute Masters at Sea, they frequently visited the Coasts of Gaul and Britain; where having made Descents, they plundred the Country, returned Home, laden den with Spoils. And tho’ they now and then met with Blows ashore, at Sea they were in no Danger but from Storms j by this Means the Sea-Coast of Britain was better known to the Saxons than to the Britains themselves, long before they were invited by the Britains into it.
Of all the Saxons, or at least of all those that conquered the Southern Part of Britain, the Angli were the most considerable; and which Conquest, was, for that Reason called England, after their Name.
The Scoti are generally believed to be Irish, and to have come from Ireland into Britain. But tho’ it is certainly true of the High-Land Scots, who to this Day speak the Irijb Language, the Low-Land Scots do seem to have been a Saxon, or German, and not an Irish Nation. And that for three Reasons:
The First is, Its being manifest from the Notitia Imperii, that there was a German Nation called Acchaeni, and who are by Ammianus Marce Bintts said to have together with the Scoti much molested Britain. Now, besides the Affinity which there is betwixt these two Names, the Scoti and Acchaeni are spoke of by that Contemporary Learned Historian, as Neighbours and Confederates.
Secondly, The Scoti are by Giraldus Cam’ Irenfis, believing them to be a German People, called Goths. ( *** Carruthers *** )
Goth Warrior
But the Last, and chief Reason is, The Saxon Language being spoken all over the Low-lands of Scotland, to the most Northern Part of the Ifland. The very Name Scotland, and the Names of its Metropolis, and of its other great Towns and Counties, are plainly Saxon; and which could not have been, if that Country had not been Peopled by a Saxon Nation; no, not if they had conquered it, if they had not peopled it too: For tho* a Conquering Sword can change the Religion, the Government, and the Laws in its Conquests, their Languages will not be changed by it, whilst the Conquered do continue to be the Body of the People. So the Britains having been all either destroyed, or driven into a Corner of the Ifland, and their Country Peopled by Saxons, the Saxon Language came of course into it; whereas the Normans, who did likewise conquer England, and did all that was in their Power to have brought the French Language into it, were not able to do it; and the Reason was, because the English did, under the Norman Government, still continue to be the Body of the Nation; few Normans, besides those that were in their Armies, having come to settle themselves in England.
So,for the same Reason the Goths, sandals, and Suevi, tho’ they conquered Spain, were not able to bring their Language into it ;. nor the Franci into Gaul, nor the Longobardi into Italy, their Languages, in defiance of their Swords, having been vanquished so by the Languages which they found in those Countries, as to be quite lost in the Second Generation. And in truth, the Saxons were the only Conquerors that brought their Language to be the Language of their Conquests, and to which they gave their Name also; as all the rest have done, except the Gcthi and Suevi. Gaul having been called France, from the Franks; the Southern Part of Spain, Andalufia, or Vandalufia, from the Vandals; the Cisalpine Gaul, Lombard) from the Longobards; one Part of Pannonia, Hungary, from the Huns; and another Part of it Sclavonia, from the Sclavi: The Normans likewise gave the Name of Normandy to that Part of France which they conquered, but were not able to change the Name of England. The Saxons gave the Name of Walish, that is Gaulish, to the Britains that remained, and from thence they came to be called Welch, and their Country Wales. The same Name was given to the Cisalpine Gauls by the Lombards when they conquered them ; and to this Day the People of that Country are called Walsh by the Germans,
But if the Britains were by the Saxons called Welch, or WaUaish, to signifie they were Foreigners or Strangers, as many say they were; it is a notable Instance of how I i little little a Superiour Power is concerned, whether what it saith be reasonable or not.
Goth Lowland Warrior
Tho’ we are not told when the Low-lands of Scotland were Conquered and Peopled by a Saxon Nation, call’d Scoti; yet since \*e do no where read of the Saxons, by whom the Southern Parts of Britain were Conquered, having ever Conquered, and much less Peopled those Northern Parts of it; there is great Reason to believe that it must have been done before the Time of that Southern Saxon Conquest; and that the Scoti spoken of in Britain before that time, were those Saxons who having destroy’d the Ficli, whom I do reckon to have been the Northern Britains, did, in process of time possess themselves of those Low lands.
Neither is Ireland having been formerly called Scotia Major, any Proof to the contrary: For as it is by later Historians that Ireland is called so, (o it is most probable that Ireland in latter times had that Name given it to distinguish it from the Scots High-lands which retained its Language, Habit, and Customs, and which having been conquered, tho* not Peopled by the Scoti, had come to be called Scotland. ( The Carruthers ancestors of Gutland/Gotland are now know to have lived and battled in Ireland, Scotia Major and Lowlands of Scotland, Scoti prior to 400 A. D.)
But tho’ I am at present fully perswaded that this is the true Account of the Origine ot the Low land Scots; yet if any of the Learned Persons that are of another Opinion, will but (hew’ how the Saxon Language could be brought into that Country without its having been Peopled by Saxons, it will go a great way towards the bringing me over to them. The Time when the Scott came first into the Low-lanJs, and the Irish into the High-lands being unknown to me, I shall leave the Settling of that time to those who have looked into the Ancient Records of that Kingdom; tho’ I cannot but say, that Genuin Records, reaching to their Origine, are scarce Commodities in all Nations, tho’ there are few or none that do not pretend to have them.
(*** The Carruthers ancestors came before the time of the Saxons )
The Goths were a People of Scythia, on the North-side of the Euxine Sea; but having in Process of Time flitted, or removed from thence to Boryflenis, and the Mouths of the Ifter, they were there divided into Ostro-Gotbi, or Eastem-Goths, and Vifi-Gothi, or WellernGoths; and having been driven from those Seats by the Huns and Alans, they had leave from the Emperor Valence to settle themselves in Thracia and the adjacent Countries, as Confederates of the Roman Empire 5 and it was out of those Parts that the Goths did come, who made that Name so Famous by their great Conquests. I know there is a Royal Argument for the Conquering Goths having been a People of Denmark, and of Sweden, and of the adjacent Islands. The Sovereign Princes of those two Kingdoms, having upon that Supposition, taken upon I i z them the Title of the King of the Goths. But tho’ Crowns are great Things, Truth is greater, and which being more likely to be found in Contemporary Historians, than in Heralds, it must not, being met with in them, be sacrificed to any Deferences: Not that there might not be a People in those Northern Countries which were called Goths; but supposing there was, it is pretty certain that they were not the Famous Goths who erected the Great Monarchy in Spain and Gaul; and of this Magma Got bus was so sensible, that without any tolerable Authority he. will have his Country Gothsy to have Conquered and Peopled Scythia to^he very Palus Meotis, and to have been the Ancestors of the Goths, which came many Ages after from those Parts, and did raise that Name so high. Besides, that there is no Authority for all this, it has a natural Improbability in it, that renders it almost incredible: Which is, That People should go so sar, and toil and fight so much for no other purpose, but that they might settle themselves in worse Countries than their own, which they left. And if Gotht be a Corruption of Getœ, as probably it is, their first Country will be found about the Euxine, and not near the Baltick Sea, notwithstanding the Island that is in it, and the Country that is near it, called Gotland, or Gutland, for so they are called by their Inhabitants. Now, whether Goty or
Gut, Gut, in the beginning of those Names, was derived from the Goths, or from some other Word, I shall leave to the Enquiry of those who understand the SweJi/h Tongue: But this I am sure of, that in English there are Names that begin with Goth and Got, as Gotheridge, Gothill, and Gotacre, that were not called so from that People, but were, I suppose, called so from the Word God, or the Word Good.
The Vandals, of whom the two fore-mentioned Princes do likewise stile themselves • Kings, were not of any of their Countries, tho’ they were much nearer to them than the Goths; the Vandals being a Nation of the Saxens, and did all live on the South Side of the Baltick Sea.
The Franci were several German Nations, who lived on the East-fide of the Lower-Rhine; and who having Confederated together, did all take upon them the Name of Franci, or Freemen; thereby declaring, That they were resolved to perish, rather.than become Tributaries to the Romans, as their Neighbours the Gauls were.
The Suevi were a great German People oil the Upper-Rhine; reaching from the top of that River, to the River Albis; they and their neighbouring Nations did take on them the Name of Alamans, much about the same time, and with the same generous Intention that the German Nations on the Lower-Rine, took on them the Name of Fraud; and as , if they reckoned, that a conquered People did not deserve the Name of Men, by that new Name of Alamans, or All men, they declared they would die, rather than be conquered.
The Longobardi, called so by the Romans, for their Long Beards, were a Saxon Nation, who lived in that Country which is now called Brandenburg; and who having in Italy conquered G a Ilia Cisalpina, did give it the Name of Longobardi, now Lombardy.
Besides these I have mentioned, there were Twenty German Nations more, but which having all long ago funk into some of the fore-mentioned, I thought it was needless to name them here.
The Sclavi were a People that lived in the Countries, which are now called Poland and Lithuania; and it is very plain from their Language, and which is spoke to this Day in those Countries, that they were no German Nation; in process of time they either conquered, or dipt into Sclavonia, and the Countries about it; when the former Inhabitants had left them in a manner, and were gone with the Goth in quest of better Countries: Many of the Sclavi having been taken, and made Bond-men in the Time of Charles the Great, did in France, and in other Parts, give the Name of Slaves to- all Bond’ men.
The
The Huns were an Afiatick Scythian Nation, who lived beyond the Palus Mœotis, as did the Alans also, who having been beat by the • Huns, joyned with them when they swarmed into the European Scythia • where driving the Gotbs before them, they advanced as sar as Fannonia, and having fixed their Seat there, did give it the Name of Hungary.
The Gauls were for Numbers and Extent of Land, the greatest People we read of any where; for of that Nation I do reckon the Spaniards, Britains and Irish, to have been, no less than the Inhabitants of the two GalHas, one of which is now called Lombardy, and the other which is now called France, did reach from the Atlantick Ocean, to the Western Banks of the Rhine. And whose Language is spoke no where now but in Wales, Ireland^ and the Highlands of Scotland, and in those Countries in Dialects so different, that I am told the Welsh and Irish do not understand one another.
Of the Religion and Learning of these Countries.
SU C H of these Nations as Were German, did all speak the same Language, and worship the same Gods 5 the Memory of four of which Gods is still preserved, in all Parts where the German Tongue is spoke, in the Names of Four of the Days of the Week; to wit, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Verfi ‘tgan will have the other three Days of the Week to have had their Names likewise from the Three German Gods, Sun, Moon and Seater: But considering, that these Days among the Romans, did bear the Names of the same Three Gods; it is more probable that the Germans had those Names from the Romans, than that the Romans had them from the Germans.
In their Worship they were all involved in the Inhumanity of offering Men, Women and Children alive in Sacrifice to their Gods,• in which, tho’ it was an abominable Barbarity, they were so sar from being singular, that it was the Practice of the Gauls likewise, and at one time or another of all the Idolatrous Nations on the Earth; and we fee that to keep the Jews from it, was not an easy Matter.
For Learning it does not appear that they had any, no not so much as the Knowledge of Letters; tho’ a certain Romantick Writer, will have them to have been great Masters in the Vithagorean Philosophy; but tho* they had among them no Clergy or Learning, it appears from their excellent Constitution of Government, that they wanted not Mother-Wit, or true Wisdom. The Laws brought by them into their Conquests, which were the Feudal, are likewise a plain Proof, that tho’ they wanted Learning, and for that Reason were called Barbarians, by the4 Nations that abounded with it; yet that they wanted not Policy.
The Huns and Alans who were A/iaticks, are by Jornandes said to have had no Religion nor Superstition, or if they did worship any God, that it was their Sword to which, sticking it in the Ground, they did use to pay some Reverences.
The First of these Nations that turned Christian, were the Goths and Suevi; but they having been converted to that Faith by Arian Bishops, sent to them by the Emperor Vaknsy who was himself an. Arian, did long adhere to that Heresy, but were converted from it about an hundred Years before their great Monarchy in Spain was destroy’d by the Moors. The Franks were likewise converted early, and in Process of Time the Saxws, and all the rest of these Nations; and notwithstanding before several of their Conversions, Christianity was corrupted with a Mixa Mixture of divers Heathenish Superstitions; its true and genuine Doctrines, were nevertheless so powerful, as to mollifie their natural Ferity and Savagenefs very much, and to civilize their Manners in all the Relations of Life.
Of these Nations great Numbers.
IT has been long a Matter of some Wonder, how the barren Countries out of which the Swarms of Men came, that lighted lo heavy on the Roman Empire, should then be so much more fertil of People, than they have ever been since; and this prodigious Fertility having been looked on as a thing certain, there have been divers Speculations about the Causes of it. It is by Mariana attributed to two Things, the one is the Northern People being, by reason of the Cold of their Climate, more prolifick than the Southern; and the other is promiscuous Veneries having been in use among them. The First is no Realon at all, for those Countries being then more populous than they are now, the Climate being still the same, and as cold as ever it was. And the Second, however it may appear in Speculation, does seem to have Experience against it. The Countries in which Plurality of Wives, and pro: promiscuous Venery are allowed, being observed not to be so populous, as the Countries where both those Liberties are prohibited.
It was the finding it not to be easy, to give a satissactory Reason for this supposed extraordinary Fertility, that first led me to examine the Evidences upon which it has been so generally believed; and upon as severe an Enquiry as I was able to make, those Evidences did not appear to me to be strong enough, to make that Matter indubitable, and that for the three following Reasons.
First, Because unless we knew the certain Bounds of those Countries, and which we are very sar from knowing, we cannot judge by the great Armies that went out of them, whether they were extraordinary populous, or no: For tho’ a Country that is certainly known to be small, having sent forth great Armies, is a Proof of its being very populous at that Time; it is no Evidence at all, of a vast Country’s being so.
Secondly, Because tho the chief Nation in those Expeditions did bear the Name of the whole, yet since several neighbouring Nations, the Extent of whose Lands is not known, might joyn with them in the forming of those great Armies; as in Fact they did, their having cast such great Swarms, can be no Evidence of their having been extraordinary populous.
Thirdly, If in tjiose Countries, all that were fit to bear Arms went into the Armies, as it is very probable they did, their Armies might be as great ,as any of them are said to have been, and yet their Countries not have been very populous: Considering, how by reason of their simple, rustick, and frousy Way of living, they had few or no Artificers or Trades-men among them; and who in polite Countries, are a great Part of the People; so that they had none among them, that had Strength enough to carry Arms, that were not fit to use them; having been all bred up to Hunting, and to other man-like Exercises, which fitted them for Soldiers. Besides, great Multitudes of Women, and who are said to have been as warlike as the Men, went along with those Armies; and who, whether they fought or not, would to the Eye make them look more numerous, than they would have looked otherwise. Neither have we any Reason to think, that the Persons from whom we have the Accounts of the Numbers that were in those Armies, did ever either muster them, or tell them, but did guess at their Numbers by their own, or other Peoples Eyes; and there is not any thing our Eyes so grofly impose on us in, as in Numbers, which if great, are judged by the Eye to be double to what they are. Now adding to all this, that those Countries have in them at this Time, many great great Cities and Towns, filled with Artificers and Trades-Men, and which they had not then; one may, I think, venture to affirm, that it was not unlikely that they have more People in them now, than they had in those Days, tho’ not so many that are fit for Soldiers: For it must be no great Country now, that has not zooooo Men in it, strong enough to carry Arms, and that was the Number of one of the greatest of thoseeA.rmies, and which we have Reason to believe was taken by the Eye, and not by the Poll, and that Provinces were emptied so by their having gone out of them, that if double that Number of People went out of the lame Provinces now, they would leave more behind them. So the High-lands of Scotland, tho’ they are by much the least populous Parts of that Kingdom, yet by Reason of the same simple and course way of Living, and their Peoples being bred up to the same Exercises, will in Proportion to their Numbers, presently furnish more that are fit to be Soldiers, than the more populous Low-lands; and it is for the same Reason the same with the Irish, and the Provinces in which they are planted.
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