Excerpt from A History of the Middle Ages: From the Overthrow of the Western Empire in 46 to the Commencement of the Crusades in 1096 In collecting the materials for this work, I have-sin many instances availed myself of contemporary authorities, and where they were inaccessible to me, I have consulted the best modern works. The book will in one sense be found a complete his tory of the period it embraces, inasmuch as nothing that is of real importance has been entirely passed over in other respects, I aimed at no more than an introduction to he study of medieval history for, not to mention minor points, which are noticed very briefly, even the more important events could not be. Treated with that minuteness of detail so essential to the thorough student of history. My object will be fully attained, if the work shall contribute in any way to create an interest in a department of history which seems to be too much neglected in this country, at least so far as foreign nations are concerned. The present time, when the nations of all Europe are tempted by the extraordinary facilities of inter course, to cultivate a closer acquaintance with one another, and study one another's history, habits, and institutions, more than at any other period, seems urgently to demand that, at least in our higher educational establishments, some attention should be paid to medieval history 5 our age further appears to be more given to historical studies than the past generation, and nothing seems to be wanting but a suitable introduction to lead the student on to a more detailed investigation of medieval his tory, which, to the modern statesman and politician, is of far more importance than the study of Greek and Roman history. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.