southern  point  of  Peloponnesus,  bear  witness  to  the  extent  of
the  inroads  of  the  Slavonians,  and  the  length  of  their  period  of
possession.  But  in  the  interior  regions,  among  the  highlands,
in  many  of  the  cities,  in  Athens  for  example,  and  in  most  of  the
islands,  the  Hellenic  people  and  language,  through  all  these
changes,  keep  their  ground,  and  the  race  perishes  not  in  the
Slavonian  flood.
The  language  is  preserved  in  its  general  structure  especially
through  the  influence  of  the  Greek  Church,  although,  after  the
downfall  of  Athens  and  Alexandria,  Byzantium  is  the  principal
seat  of  ecclesiastical  power  and  literary  culture.  The  East  and
the  West  are  divided  in  religion  and  in  politics.  Not  only  are  the
nations  of  Roman  descent,  under  the  general  name  of  Franks,
regarded  as  heretics  by  the  orthodox  Emperors  at  Constanti-
nople, but  the  wars  with  the  Normans  of  Sicily  and  Italy
have  induced  a  general  hostility  between  the  Frank  and  the
Greek  races ;  so  that  when  the  Crusaders  pass  on  their  war-
fare against  the  infidels  who  hold  possession  of  the  Holy  Sep-
ulchre, they  are  regarded  by  the  Greek  Christians  rather  as
old  enemies  than  as  brethren  of  one  common  faith.  The  mis-
chief done  to  the  Eastern  Christians  by  these  pious  marauders
from  the  West  is  incalculable.  The  Orientals,  before  their
appearance,  had  laid  the  foundation  of  a  new  order  of  things
in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  by  freemen.  The  Crusaders  in-
troduced feudal  tenures  and  predial  servitude.
