WHILE

CHAPTER IV.

CIVIL PATRONS OF CHRISTIANITY.

ILE the memory of the Roman Empire perpetuated in the times of disruption a high conception of order and of empire, there came at intervals men who had the ambition and the talents to realize in a measure the ideal. Such in a pre-eminent sense were the early Carlovingians.

The Merovingian dynasty reached the natural outcome of luxury and license. The material for real kingship became exhausted. Rois fainéants, do-nothing kings, mere figure-heads, sat upon the throne. A line of able and energetic men, commonly designated Mayors of the Palace, rose in the course of the seventh century to the place of actual sovereignty. Among these a distinguished place was held by Pepin d'Heristal, who became master of France in 687. Shortly after his death in 714, his illegitimate son Charles, to whom the glorious surname of Martel, or Hammer, was added as a memorial of his triumph over the Saracens, took the reins of government.

Charles Martel was not in all respects a wise and generous patron of the Christian Church. Not only did he seize upon church property in order to provide a recompense for his soldiers, but he indulged the utterly

demoralizing expedient of appointing his chief officers to high ecclesiastical trusts, merely for the sake of the ample revenues connected therewith. But after times made little account of this trespass, in consideration of the services of Charles in turning back the tide of Mohammedan invasion. As early as 719 the Saracens of Spain had penetrated beyond the Pyrenees. In 731 they came in full force, purposing nothing less than to extend their rule over the whole of France. Charles Martel chose his ground at a point between Tours and Poitiers. For six days the two hosts confronted each other (October, 732). On the seventh day the battle began in earnest. The stalwart Franks met without recoil the impetuous charge of the Saracens. At length a detachment which had reached the enemy's rear threw them into confusion by an attack in that quarter. The Franks, now charging in their turn, drove the opposing ranks to their tents, and filled them with such alarm that they fled under cover of the night, leaving behind them immense spoils. The victory was decisive, and determined that the crescent should sink behind the Pyrenees as speedily as it had risen above them. Reports of the battle ran up the loss of the Saracens to the incredible figure of three hundred thousand slain. Charles stood now, though without a crown, in the front rank of European princes. The Pope confessed his eminence by seeking his alliance, and promising to bestow upon him the title Patrician of Rome.

Charles Martel died before the results of the negotiations had matured. The proposed scheme, however, was carried out by his son Pepin, who not only secured the

honorary title Patrician of the Romans, but also the acknowledged rank of sovereign of the Franks. By papal consent he took the crown. In answer to the question propounded by the ambassadors of Pepin, the Pope replied that he who wielded the authority and fulfilled the duties of a king should also bear the name. So the helpless Merovingian Childeric was sent to the cloister, and Pepin was crowned at Soissons in 752. In return for favors from Rome, Pepin drove the Lombards from their usurped possession of the exarchate, and made a grant of this territory to the Pope. The nature of this grant, which was renewed by Charlemagne, we shall have occasion to consider in a subsequent connection.

The foundations laid by Charles Martel and Pepin were built upon by a man of much greater breadth and genius than either of them. Charlemagne, the first Germanic ruler of pre-eminent greatness, on the death of his father, Pepin, in 768, shared the kingdom with his brother Carloman. Three years later he became sole ruler.

It was the grandeur of Charlemagne's ambition, that he aimed to restore an image of the Roman Empire. And it must be allowed that he went far toward the fulfilment of his ambition. He pushed out his borders on every side. He gained supremacy over a large part of Italy. He acquired a portion of Spain. He conquered the Saxons, though at the expense of seventeen campaigns and upwards of thirty years of struggle. He gained the sovereignty over Bavaria, penetrated into Pannonia and conquered the Avars, the descendants of the Huns whose invasions had terrified Europe

in the fifth century. In fine, his empire was made to cover a large part of Western Europe, reaching from the Baltic to the Ebro, from the British Channel to the southern part of Italy, from the Atlantic to the Lower Danube and the mountains of Moravia. In order to gain an outward badge suitable to express so great a stretch of authority, Charlemagne received the imperial crown from the hands of the Pope. The ceremonial of coronation took place on Christmas day in the year 800. Thus the ancient order of things was recalled. The West had once more its Christian Cæsar.

Hand in hand with the work of conquest, Charlemagne endeavored to carry on the work of civilization. He patronized scholars, founded schools, collected libraries, and gave to his people in his own habits an example of zeal and industry in study. He endeavored to inform himself about the state and the wants of the people in all parts of his dominions, and was unwearied in efforts to provide them with suitable laws. On the whole, he used a wise discretion in adjusting his attempts to improve his people to their native characteristics. "Other barbarian princes," says Henri Martin, "have cast themselves with ardor into the work of civilization but that which distinguishes among them all the great Charles is that he substituted an intelligent imitation for a servile copying; that he borrowed from Roman traditions only ideas and information, and not impracticable political forms; that he wished finally to civilize the race of Franks and Germans by developing, and not by destroying, its native genius. In that lay its force, and he never forgot the fact."1

1 Histoire de France.

The personal appearance of Charlemagne was well suited to add to the impression made by his magnificent achievements. It is not strange, therefore, that prominent faults were made little of by his contemporaries, especially as they were such as royalty not uncommonly exhibited in that age. History records in particular, to his dishonor, that he gave way to a savage ferocity in executing at one time four thousand and five hundred of the rebellious Saxons; and that in his domestic life he was guilty of concubinage, as well as of an arbitrary use of the prerogative of divorce.1 Such blemishes must be regarded as a serious detraction from true greatness; nevertheless, in eminent respects, the first Germanic Emperor was not unworthy of the title which has become incorporated with his name. Considering his resources, he accomplished an astonishing work. "He stands alone," says Hallam, "like a beacon upon a waste, or a rock in the broad ocean. His sceptre was as the bow of Ulysses, which could not be drawn by any weaker hand. In the dark ages of European history, the reign of Charlemagne affords a solitary resting-place between two long periods of turbulence and ignominy, deriving the advantage of contrast both. from that of the preceding dynasty, and of a posterity for whom he had formed an empire which they were unworthy and unequal to maintain." 2

While the empire of Charlemagne soon went to pieces, the fruits of his labors were not by any means wholly swept away. The pieces were far different from what

1 For a summary of Charlemagne's domestic record see Einhard, Vita et Conversatio Caroli Regis Magni, cap. xviii.

2 Europe during the Middle Ages.