The World's Greatest Books — Volume 11 — Ancient and Mediæval History
History
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 11 — Ancient and Mediæval History
History, Ancient; Middle Ages
Henry Hart Milman, D.D., was born in London on February 10,
1791, died on September 24, 1868, and was buried in St. Paul's
Cathedral, of which for the last nineteen years of his life he
was Dean. He was the youngest son of Sir Francis Milman,
physician to George III, and was educated at Greenwich, Eton
and Oxford. Although as a scholarly poet he had a considerable
reputation, his literary fame rests chiefly on his fine
historical works, of which fifteen volumes appeared, including
the "History of the Jews," the "History of Christianity to the
Abolition of Paganism in the Roman Empire," and the "History
of Latin Christianity to the Pontificate of Nicholas V." The
appearance of the "History of the Jews" in 1830 caused no
small consternation among the orthodox, but among the Jews
themselves it was exceptionally well received. Dean Milman
wrote several hymns, including "Ride on, ride on in majesty,"
"When our heads are bowed in woe." Although this history
carries the Jewish race down to modern times, it is included
in the section of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS treating of
ancient history, as it is the history of an ancient race, not
of a definite country.
_I.--Dissolution of the Jewish States_
By the destruction of Jerusalem and of the fortified cities of Machærus
and Masada, which had held out after it, the political existence of the
Jewish nation was annihilated; it was never again recognised as one of
the states or kingdoms of the world. We have now to trace a despised and
obscure race in almost every region of the world. We are called back,
indeed, for a short time to Palestine, to relate new scenes of revolt,
ruin, and persecution. Not long after the dissolution of the Jewish
state it revived again in appearance, under the form of two separate
communities--one under a sovereignty purely spiritual, the other partly
spiritual and partly temporal, but each, comprehending all the Jewish
families in the two great divisions of the world. At the head of the
Jews on this side of the Euphrates appeared the Patriarch of the West;
the chief of the Mesopotamian communities, assumed the striking but more
temporal title of Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity.
That Judaism should have thus survived is one of the most marvellous of
historic phenomena. But, for the most part, the populous cities beyond
the Jordan, the dominions of Agrippa, and Samaria escaped the
devastation; and, according to tradition, the sanhedrin was spared in
the general wreck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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