Henri Pirenne Quotes

#1. The Germanic invasions in the West could not and did not in any way alter this state of affairs.

Henri Pirenne

#2. The cause of the break with the tradition of antiquity was the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam. The result of this advance was the final separation of East from West, and the end of the Mediterranean unity.

Henri Pirenne

#3. The Germanic invasions destroyed neither the Mediterranean unity of the ancient world, nor what may be regarded as the truly essential features of the Roman culture as it still existed in the 5th century, at a time when there was no longer an Emperor in the West.

Henri Pirenne

#4. One thing is certain - that there was an active circulation of money. We must repudiate the idea that the people of the Merovingian epoch lived under a system of natural economy.

Henri Pirenne

#5. If I were an antiquarian, I would have eyes only for old stuff, but I am a historian. Therefore, I love life.

Henri Pirenne

#6. There happened in the Middle Ages what has happened so often since then. Those who were the beneficiaries of the established order were bent on defending it, not so much, perhaps, because it guaranteed their interests, as because it seemed to them indispensable to the preservation of society.

Henri Pirenne

#7. Pirenne was quite right that the ancient trading economy continued after the first invasions and the establishment of the mixed Romano-barbarian successor kingdoms. Some kind of connectivity by sea endured continuously, even if at very low levels (Horden and Purcell 2000).

Henri Pirenne