_XXXIII.--CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH._
1. Some time before Gregory became Pope, perhaps about the year 574,
he went one day through the market at Rome, where, among other things,
there were still men, women, and children to be sold as slaves. He saw
there some beautiful boys who had just been brought by a
slave-merchant, boys with a fair skin and long fair hair, as English
boys then would have.
2. He was told that they were heathen boys from the Isle of Britain.
Gregory was sorry to think that forms which were so fair without
should have no light within, and he asked again what was the name of
their nation. "_Angles_," he was told. "_Angles_," said Gregory; "they
have the faces of _angels_, and they ought to be made fellow-heirs of
the angels in heaven. But of what province or tribe of the Angles are
they?" "Of _Deira_," said the merchant. "_De ira!_" said Gregory;
"then they must be delivered from the wrath of God. And what is the
name of their king?" "_Ælla._" "_Ælla_; then _Alleluia_ shall be sung
in his land."
3. Gregory then went to the Pope, and asked him to send missionaries
into Britain, of whom he himself would be one, to convert the English.
The Pope was willing, but the people of Rome, among whom Gregory was a
priest and was much beloved, would not let him go. So nothing came of
the matter for some time.
4. We do not know whether Gregory was able to do anything for the poor
English boys whom he saw in the market, but he certainly never forgot
his plan for converting the English people. After a while he became
Pope himself. Of course, he now no longer thought of going into
Britain himself, as he had enough to do in Rome. But he now had power
to send others. He therefore presently sent a company of monks, with
one called Augustine at their head, who became the first Archbishop of
Canterbury, and is called the Apostle of the English.
5. This was in 597. The most powerful king in Britain at this time was
Æthelbert, of Kent, who is said to have been lord over all the kings
south of the Humber. This Æthelbert had done what was very seldom done
by English kings then or for a long time after; he had married a
foreign wife, the daughter of Chariberth, one of the kings of the
Franks, in Gaul.
6. Now, the Franks had become Christians; so when the Frankish queen
came over to Kent, Æthelbert promised that she should be allowed to
keep to her own religion without let or hindrance. She brought with
her, therefore, a Frankish bishop named Lindhard, and the queen and
her bishop used to worship God in a little church near Canterbury,
called Saint Martin's, which had been built in the Roman times. So you
see that both Æthelbert and his people must have known something
about the Christian faith before Augustine came.
7. It does not, however, seem that either the king or any of his
people had at all thought of turning Christians. This seems strange
when one reads how easily they were converted afterward. One would
have thought that Bishop Lindhard would have been more likely to
convert them than Augustine, for, being a Frank, he would speak a
tongue not very different from English, while Augustine spoke Latin,
and, if he ever knew English at all, he must have learned it after he
came into the island. I can not tell you for certain why this was.
Perhaps they did not think that a man who had merely come in the
queen's train was so well worth listening to as one who had come on
purpose all the way from the great city of Rome, to which all the West
still looked up as the capital of the world.
8. So Augustine and his companions set out from Rome, and passed
through Gaul, and came into Britain, even as Cæsar had done ages
before. But this time Rome had sent forth men not to conquer lands,
but to win souls. They landed first in the Isle of Thanet, which joins
close to the east part of Kent, and thence they sent a message to King
Æthelbert, saying why they had come into his land. The king sent word
back to them to stay in the isle till he had fully made up his mind
how to treat them; and he gave orders that they should be well taken
care of meanwhile.
9. After a little while he came himself into the isle, and bade them
come and tell him what they had to say. He met them in the open air,
for he would not meet them in a house, as he thought they might be
wizards, and that they might use some charm or spell, which he thought
would have less power out-of-doors. So they came, carrying an image
of our Lord on the cross, wrought in silver, and singing litanies as
they came. And when they came before the king, they preached the
gospel to him and to those who were with him.
10. So King Æthelbert hearkened to them, and he made answer like a
good and wise man. "Your words and promises," said he, "sound very
good unto me; but they are new and strange, and I can not believe them
all at once, nor can I leave all that I and my fathers, and the whole
English folk, have believed so long. But I see that ye have come from
a far country to tell us that which ye yourselves hold for truth; so
ye may stay in the land, and I will give you a house to dwell in and
food to eat; and ye may preach to my folk, and if any man of them will
believe as ye believe, I hinder him not."
11. So he gave them a house to dwell in in the royal city of
Canterbury, and he let them preach to the people. And, as they drew
near to the city, they carried their silver image of the Lord Jesus,
and sang litanies, saying, "We pray Thee, O Lord, let thy anger and
thy wrath be turned away from this city, and from thy holy house,
because we have sinned. Alleluia!"
12. Thus Augustine and his companions dwelt at Canterbury, and
worshiped in the old church where the queen worshiped, and preached to
the men of the land. And many men hearkened to them and were baptized,
and before long King Æthelbert himself believed and was baptized; and
before the year was out there were added to the Church more than ten
thousand souls.
_Freeman._
_XXXIV.--LEO THE SLAVE._
1. In A. D. 533, the Franks had fully gained possession of all the
north of Gaul, except Brittany. Clovis had made them Christians in
name, but they still remained horribly savage, and the life of the
Gauls under them was wretched. The Burgundians and Visigoths, who had
peopled the southern and eastern provinces, were far from being
equally violent. They had entered on their settlements on friendly
terms, and even showed considerable respect for the Roman-Gallic
senators, magistrates, and higher clergy, who all remained unmolested
in their dignity and riches. Thus it was that Gregory, Bishop of
Langres, was a man of high rank and consideration in the Burgundian
kingdom, whence the Christian Queen Clotilda had come; and even after
the Burgundians had been subdued by the four sons of Clovis, he
continued a rich and prosperous man.
2. After one of the many quarrels and reconciliations between these
fierce brethren, there was an exchange of hostages for the observance
of the terms of the treaty. These were not taken from among the
Franks, who were too proud to submit to captivity, but from among the
Gaulish nobles, a much more convenient arrangement for the Frankish
kings, who cared for the life of a "Roman" infinitely less than even
for the life of a Frank. Thus many young men of senatorial families
were exchanged between the domains of Theodoric to the south, and of
Hildebert to the northward, and quartered among Frankish chiefs, with
whom at first they had nothing more to endure than the discomfort of
living as guests with such rude and coarse barbarians.
3. But ere long fresh quarrels arose between Theodoric and Hildebert,
and the unfortunate hostages were at once turned into slaves. Some of
them ran away, if they were near the frontier; but Bishop Gregory was
in the utmost anxiety about his nephew Attalus, who had been last
heard of as being placed under the charge of a Frank who lived between
Trèves and Metz. The bishop sent emissaries to make secret inquiries,
and they brought back the word that the unfortunate youth had been
reduced to slavery, and was made to keep his master's herds of horses.
Upon this the uncle again sent off his messengers with presents for
the ransom of Attalus; but the Frank rejected them, saying, "One of
such high race can only be redeemed for ten pounds weight of gold."
4. This was beyond the bishop's means, and, while he was considering
how to raise the sum, the slaves were all lamenting for their young
lord, to whom they were much attached, till one of them, named Leo,
the cook to the household, came to the bishop, saying to him, "If thou
wilt give me leave to go, I will deliver him from captivity." The
bishop replied that he gave free permission, and the slave set off for
Trèves, and there watched anxiously for an opportunity of gaining
access to Attalus; but, though the poor young man, no longer daintily
dressed, bathed, and perfumed, but ragged and squalid, might be seen
following his herds of horses, he was too well watched for any
communication to be held with him.
5. Then Leo went to a person, probably of Gallic birth, and said:
"Come with me to this barbarian's house, and there sell me for a
slave. Thou shalt have the money; I only ask thee to help me thus
far." Both repaired to the Frank's abode, the chief among a confused
collection of clay and timber huts, intended for shelter during eating
and sleeping. The Frank looked at the slave, and asked him what he
could do. "I can dress whatever is eaten at lordly tables," replied
Leo. "I am afraid of no rival; I only tell thee the truth when I say
that, if thou wouldst give a feast to the king, I could send it up in
the neatest manner." "Ha!" said the barbarian, "the Sun's day is
coming. I shall invite my kinsmen and friends. Cook me such a dinner
as may amaze them, and make them say, 'We saw nothing better in the
king's house.'" "Let me have plenty of poultry, and I will do
according to my master's bidding," returned Leo.
6. Accordingly, he was purchased for twelve gold-pieces, and on the
Sunday, as Bishop Gregory of Tours, who tells the story, explains,
that the barbarians called the Lord's day, he produced a banquet after
the most approved Roman fashion, much to the surprise and delight of
the Franks, who had never tasted such delicacies before, and
complimented their host upon them all the evening. Leo gradually
became a great favorite, and was placed in authority over the other
slaves, to whom he gave out their portions of broth and meat. But from
the first he had not shown any recognition of Attalus, and had signed
to him that they must be strangers to one another.
7. A whole year passed away in this manner, when one day Leo wandered,
as if for pastime, into the plain where Attalus was watching the
horses, and sitting down on the ground at some paces off, and with his
back toward his young master so that they might not be seen talking
together, he said: "This is the time for thoughts of home! When thou
hast led the horses to the stable to-night, sleep not. Be ready at the
first call!"
8. That day the Frank lord was entertaining a large number of guests,
among them his daughter's husband, a jovial young man, given to jesting.
On going to rest he fancied he should be thirsty at night, and called
Leo to place a pitcher of hydromel by his bedside. As the slave was
setting it down, the Frank looked slyly from under his eyelids and said
in joke, "Tell me, my father-in-law's trusty man, wilt thou not some
night take one of his horses and run away to thine own home?"
9. "Please God, it is what I mean to do this very night," answered the
Gaul, so undauntedly that the Frank took it as a jest, and answered,
"I shall look out, then, that thou dost not carry off anything of
mine," and then Leo left him, both laughing.
10. All were soon asleep, and the cook crept out to the stable, where
Attalus usually slept among the horses. He was broad awake now, and
ready to saddle the two swiftest; but he had no weapon, except a small
lance, so Leo boldly went back to his master's sleeping hut, and took
down his sword and shield, but not without awakening him enough to ask
who was moving. "It is I, Leo," was the answer; "I have been to call
Attalus to take out the horses early. He sleeps as hard as a
drunkard." The Frank went to sleep again, quite satisfied, and Leo,
carrying out the weapons, soon made Attalus feel like a free man and a
noble once more.
11. They passed unseen out of the inclosure, mounted their horses and
rode along the great Roman road from Trèves as far as the Meuse, but
they found the bridge guarded, and were obliged to wait till night,
when they cast their horses loose, and swam the river, supporting
themselves on boards that they had found on the bank. They had as yet
had no food since the supper at their master's, and were thankful to
find a plum-tree in the wood, with fruit, to refresh them in small
degree, before they lay down for the night. The next morning they went
on in the direction of Rheims, carefully listening whether there were
any sounds behind, until, on the broad, hard-paved causeway, they
heard the trampling of horses. Happily a bush was near, behind which
they crept, and here the riders actually halted for a few moments to
arrange their harness. Men and horses were both those they feared, and
they trembled at hearing one say: "Woe is me that those rogues have
made off, and have not been caught! On my salvation, if I catch them,
I will have one hung, and the other chopped into little bits!"
12. It was no small comfort to hear the trot of the horses resumed, and
soon dying away in the distance. That same night, the two faint, hungry,
weary travelers, foot-sore and exhausted, came stumbling into Rheims,
looking about for some person still awake, to tell them the way to the
house of the priest Paul, a friend of Attalus's uncle. They found it
just as the church-bell was ringing for matins, a sound that must have
seemed very like home to these members of an episcopal household. They
knocked, and in the morning twilight met the priest going to his
earliest Sunday-morning service. Leo told his young master's name, and
how they had escaped, and the priest's first exclamation was a strange
one: "My dream is true! This very night I saw two doves, one white and
one black, who came and perched on my hand."
13. The good man was overjoyed, but he scrupled to give them any food,
as it was contrary to the Church's rules for the fast to be broken
before mass; but the travelers were half-dead with hunger, and could
only say, "The good Lord pardon us, for, saving the respect due to his
day, we must eat something, since this is the fourth day since we have
touched bread or meat." The priest, upon this, gave them some bread
and wine, and after hiding them carefully, went to church, hoping to
avert suspicion. But their master was already at Rheims, making strict
search for them, and learning that Paul the priest was a friend of the
Bishop of Langres, he went to the church, and there questioned him
closely. But the priest succeeded in guarding his secret, and though
he incurred much danger--as the Salic law is very severe against
concealers of runaway slaves--he kept Attalus and Leo for two days,
till the search was over, and their strength restored, so that they
could proceed to Langres. There they were welcomed like men risen from
the dead; the bishop wept on the neck of Attalus, and was ready to
receive Leo as a slave no more, but a friend and deliverer.
14. A few days after, Leo was solemnly led to the church. Every door
was set open as a sign that he might henceforth go whithersoever he
would. Bishop Gregorius took him by the hand, and, standing, before
the archdeacon, declared that for the sake of the good services
rendered by his slave Leo, he set him free, and created him a Roman
citizen. Then the archbishop read a writing of manumission. "Whatever
is done according to the Roman law is irrevocable. According to the
constitution of the Emperor Constantine, of happy memory, and the
edict that declares that whosoever is manumitted in church, in the
presence of the bishops, priests, and deacons, shall become a Roman
citizen under protection of the Church; from this day Leo becomes a
member of the city, free to go and come where he will, as if he had
been born of free parents. From this day forward he is exempt from all
subjection of servitude, of all duty of a freedman, all bond of
clientship. He is and shall be free, with full and entire freedom, and
shall never cease to belong to the body of Roman citizens."
15. At the same time Leo was endowed with lands, which raised him to
the rank of what the Franks called a Roman proprietor, the highest
reward in the bishop's power, for the faithful devotion that had
incurred such dangers in order to rescue the young Attalus from his
miserable bondage.
_Charlotte M. Yonge._
_XXXV.--THE MOORS IN SPAIN._
1. Scarcely had the Arabs become firmly settled in Spain before they
commenced a brilliant career. Adopting what had now become the
established policy of the commanders of the Faithful in Asia, the
caliphs of Cordova distinguished themselves as patrons of learning,
and set an example of refinement strongly contrasting with the
condition of the native European princes. Cordova, under their
administration, at its highest point of prosperity, boasted of more
than two hundred thousand houses, and more than a million inhabitants.
After sunset a man might walk through it in a straight line for ten
miles by the light of the public lamps. Seven hundred years after this
time there was not so much as one public lamp in London. Its streets
were solidly paved. In Paris, centuries subsequently, who ever stepped
over his threshold on a rainy day stepped up to his ankles in mud.
2. Other cities, as Granada, Seville, Toledo, considered themselves
rivals of Cordova. The palaces of the caliphs were magnificently
decorated. Those sovereigns might well look down with supercilious
contempt on the dwellings of the rulers of Germany, France, and
England, which were scarcely better than stables--chimneyless,
windowless, and with a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape, like
the wigwams of certain Indians.
3. The Spanish Mohammedans had brought with them all the luxuries and
prodigalities of Asia. Their residences stood forth against the clear
blue sky, or were embosomed in woods. They had polished marble
balconies, overhanging orange-gardens, courts with cascades of water,
shady retreats provocative of slumber in the heat of the day,
retiring-rooms, vaulted with stained glass, speckled with gold, over
which streams of water were made to gush; the floors and walls were
of exquisite mosaic. Here a fountain of quicksilver shot up in a
glistening spray, the glittering particles falling with a tranquil
sound like fairy bells; there, apartments into which cool air was
drawn from flower-gardens, in summer, by means of ventilating towers,
and in the winter through earthen pipes, or caleducts, imbedded in the
walls--the hypocaust, in the vaults below, breathing forth volumes of
warm and perfumed air through these hidden passages.
4. The walls were not covered with wainscot, but adorned with
arabesques and paintings of agricultural scenes and views of paradise.
From the ceilings, corniced with fretted gold, great chandeliers hung,
one of which, it is said, was so large that it contained one thousand
and eighty-four lamps. Clusters of frail marble columns surprised the
beholder with the vast weights they bore. In the boudoirs of the
sultanas they were sometimes of verd-antique, and incrusted with
lapis-lazuli. The furniture was of sandal and citron wood inlaid with
mother-of-pearl, ivory, silver, or relieved with gold and precious
malachite. In orderly confusion were arranged vases of rock-crystal,
Chinese porcelain, and tables of exquisite mosaic. The winter
apartments were hung with rich tapestry; the floors were covered with
embroidered Persian carpets. Pillows and couches of elegant forms were
scattered about the rooms, which were perfumed with frankincense.
5. It was the intention of the Saracen architect, by excluding the
view of the external landscape, to concentrate attention on his work,
and since the representation of the human form was religiously
forbidden, and that source of decoration denied, his imagination ran
riot with the complicated arabesques he introduced, and sought every
opportunity of replacing the prohibited work of art by the trophies
and rarities of the garden. For this reason the Arabs never produced
artists; religion turned them from the beautiful, and made them
soldiers, philosophers, and men of affairs. Splendid flowers and rare
exotics ornamented the court-yards and even the inner chambers.
6. Great care was taken to make due provision for the cleanliness,
occupation, and amusement of the inmates. Through pipes of metal,
water, both warm and cold, to suit the season of the year, ran into
baths of marble; in niches, where the current of air could be
artificially directed, hung dripping _alcarazzas_. There were
whispering-galleries for the amusement of the women; labyrinths and
marble play-courts for the children; for the master himself, grand
libraries. The Caliph Alhakem's was so large that the catalogue alone
filled forty volumes. He had also apartments for the transcribing,
binding, and ornamenting of books. A taste for caligraphy and the
possession of splendidly illuminated manuscripts seems to have
anticipated in the caliphs, both of Asia and Spain, the taste for
statuary and painting among the later popes of Rome.
7. Such were the palace and gardens of Zehra, in which Abderrahman III
honored his favorite sultana. The edifice had twelve hundred columns
of Greek, Italian, Spanish, and African marble. The body-guard of the
sovereign was composed of twelve thousand horsemen, whose cimeters and
belts were studded with gold. This was that Abderrahman who, after a
glorious reign of fifty years, sat down to count the number of days of
unalloyed happiness he had experienced, and could only enumerate
fourteen. "O man!" exclaimed the plaintive caliph, "put not your trust
in this present world."
8. No nation has ever excelled the Spanish Arabs in the beauty and
costliness of their pleasure-gardens. To them also we owe the
introduction of very many of our most valuable cultivated fruits, such
as the peach. Retaining the love of their ancestors for the cooling
effect of water in a hot climate, they spared no pains in the
superfluity of fountains, hydraulic works, and artificial lakes in
which fish were raised for the table. Into such a lake, attached to
the palace of Cordova, many loaves were cast each day to feed the
fish.
9. There were also menageries of foreign animals, aviaries of rare
birds, manufactories in which skilled workmen, obtained from foreign
countries, displayed their art in textures of silk, cotton, linen, and
all the miracles of the loom; in jewelry and filigree-work, with which
they ministered to the female pride. Under the shade of cypresses
cascades disappeared; among flowering shrubs there were winding walks,
bowers of roses, seats cut out of rock, and crypt-like grottoes hewn
in the living stone. Nowhere was ornamental gardening better
understood; for not only did the artist try to please the eye as it
wandered over the pleasant gradation of vegetable color and form--he
also boasted his success in the gratification of the sense of smell by
the studied succession of perfumes from beds of flowers.
10. In the midst of all this luxury, which can not be regarded by the
historian with disdain, since in the end it produced a most important
result in the south of France, the Spanish caliphs, emulating the
example of their Asiatic compeers, were not only the patrons but the
personal cultivators of human learning. One of them was himself the
author of a work on polite literature in not less than fifty volumes;
another wrote a treatise on algebra. When Taryak, the musician, came
from the East to Spain, the Caliph Abderrahman rode forth to meet him
with honor. The College of Music in Cordova was sustained by ample
government patronage, and is said to have produced many illustrious
professors.
_John W. Draper._
_XXXVI.--CHARLEMAGNE._
1. We come now to one of the greatest men of all times, Charles the
Great, son of Pepin the Short, a man who has left his mark on history
for all time. Charles (called by the French Charlemagne) was great in
many ways, whereas most great men are great in one or two. He was a
great warrior, a great political genius, an energetic legislator, a
lover of learning, and a lover also of his natural language and poetry
at a time when it was the fashion to despise them. And he united and
displayed all these merits in a time of general and monotonous
barbarism, when, save in the church, the minds of men were dull and
barren.
2. From 769 to 813, in Germany and Western and Northern Europe,
Charlemagne conducted thirty-two campaigns against the Saxons,
Frisians, Bavarians, Avars, Slavs, and Danes; in Italy, five against
the Lombards; in Spain, Corsica, and Sardinia, twelve against the
Arabs, two against the Greeks, and three in Gaul itself, against the
Aquitanians and Bretons--in all, fifty-three expeditions in forty-five
years, among which those he undertook against the Saxons, the
Lombards, and the Arabs were long and difficult wars.
3. The kingdom of Charles was vast; it comprised nearly all Germany,
Belgium, France, Switzerland, and the north of Italy and of Spain. He
had, in ruling this mighty realm, to deal with different nations,
without cohesion, and to grapple with their various institutions and
bring them into system.
4. The first great undertaking of Charles was against the Saxons. They
were still heathen, and were a constant source of annoyance to the
Franks, for they made frequent inroads to pillage and destroy their
towns and harvests.
5. In the line of mountains which forms the step from lower into upper
Germany, above the Westphalian plains, is one point at which the river
Weser breaks through and flows down into the level land about three
miles above the town of Minden. This rent in the mountain is called
the Westphalian Gate. The hills stand on each side like red sandstone
door-posts, and one is crowned by some crumbling fragments of a
castle; it is called the Wittekindsberg, and takes its name from
Wittekind, a Saxon king, who had his castle there. Wittekind was a
stubborn heathen, and a very determined man.
6. In 772 Charles convoked a great assembly at Worms, at which it was
unanimously resolved to march against the Saxons and chastise them for
their incursions. Charles advanced along the Weser, through the gate,
destroyed Wittekind's castle, pushed on to Paderborn, where he threw
down an idol adored by the Saxons, and then was obliged to return and
hurry to Italy to fight the Lombards, who had revolted. Next year he
invaded Saxony again. He built himself a palace at Paderborn, and
summoned the Saxon chiefs to come and do homage. Wittekind alone
refused, and fled to Denmark.
[Illustration: _Charlemagne._]
7. No sooner had Charles gone to fight the Moors in Spain than
Wittekind returned, and the Saxons rose at his summons, and, bursting
into Franconia, devastated the land up to the walls of Cologne.
Charles returned and fought them in two great battles, defeated them,
erected fortresses in their midst, and carried off hostages. Affairs
seemed to prosper, and Charles deemed himself as securely master of
Saxony as Varus had formerly in the same country, and under precisely
the same circumstances. Charles then quitted the country, leaving
orders for a body of Saxons to join his Franks and march together
against the Slavs. The Saxons obeyed the call with alacrity, and soon
outnumbered the Franks. One day, as the army was crossing the
mountains from the Weser, at a given signal the Saxons fell on their
companions and butchered them.
8. When the news of this disaster reached Charles he resolved to teach
the Saxons a terrible lesson. Crossing the Rhine, he laid waste their
country with fire and sword, and forced the Saxons to submit to be
baptized and accept Christian teachers. Those who refused he killed.
At Verdun he had over four thousand of the rebels beheaded. At
Detmold, Wittekind led the Saxons in a furious battle, in which
neither gained the victory. In another battle, on the Hase, they were
completely routed.
9. Then Wittekind submitted, came into the camp of Charles, and asked
to be baptized. A little ruined chapel stands on the Wittekindsberg,
above the Westphalian Gate, and there, according to tradition, near
the overturned walls of his own castle, the stubborn heathen bowed the
neck to receive the yoke of Christ. Charles's two nephews, the sons of
Karlomann, were with Desiderius, the Lombard king, and Desiderius
tried to force the Pope to anoint them kings of the Franks, to head a
revolt against Charles. When the great king heard this he came over
the Alps into Italy, dethroned Desiderius, and shut him up in a
monastery. Then he crowned himself with the iron crown of the Lombard
kings, which was said to have been made out of one of the nails that
fastened Christ to the cross.
10. Duke Thassils of Bavaria had married a daughter of Desiderius, and
he refused to acknowledge the authority of Charles. He also stirred up
the Avars who lived in Hungary to invade the Frankish realm. Charles
marched against Thassils, drove him out of Bavaria, subdued the Avars,
and converted the country between the Ems and Raab--that is, Austria
proper--into a province, which was called the East March, and formed the
beginning of the East Realm (Oesterreich), or Austria. Charles also
fought the Danes, and took from them the country up to the river Eider.
11. When we consider what continuous fighting Charles had, it is a
wonder to us that he had time to govern and make laws; but he devoted
as much thought to arranging his realm and placing it under proper
governors as he did to extending its frontiers.
12. Charles constituted the various parts of his vast
empire--kingdoms, duchies, and counties. He was himself the sovereign
of all these united, but he managed them through counts and
vice-counts. The frontier districts were called marches, and were
under march-counts, or margraves. Count is not a German title; the
German equivalent is Graf, and the English is earl. The counties were
divided into hundreds; a hundred villages went to a vice-count. He had
also counts of the palace, who ruled over the crown estates, and
send-counts (_missi_), whom he sent out yearly through the country to
see that his other counts did justice, and did not oppress the people.
If people felt themselves wronged by the counts, they appealed to
these send-counts; and if the send-counts did not do them justice,
they appealed to the palatine-counts.
13. Every year Charles summoned his counts four times, when he could,
but always once, in May, to meet him in council, and discuss the
grievances of the people. As the great dukes were troublesome, because
so powerful, Charles tried to do without them, and to keep them in
check. He gave whole principalities to bishops, hoping that they would
become supporters of him and the crown against the powerful dukes.
14. He was also very careful for the good government of the Church. He
endowed a number of monasteries to serve as schools for boys and
girls. He had also a collection of good, wholesome sermons made in
German, and sent copies about in all directions, requiring them to be
read to the people in church. He invited singers and musicians from
Italy to come and improve the performance of divine worship, and two
song-schools were established, one at Gall, another at Metz. His
Franks, he complained, had not much aptitude for music; their singing
was like the howling of wild beasts or the noise made by the
squeaking, groaning wheels of a baggage-wagon over a stony road!
15. Charles was particularly interested in schools, and delighted in
going into them and listening to the boys at their lessons. One day
when he had paid such a visit he was told that the noblemen's sons
were much idler than those of the common citizens. Then the great king
grew red in the face and frowned, and his eyes flashed. He called the
young nobles before him and said in thundering tones: "You grand
gentlemen! You young puppets! You puff yourselves up with the thoughts
of your rank and wealth, and suppose you have no need of letters! I
tell you that your pretty faces and your high nobility are accounted
nothing by me. Beware! beware! Without diligence and conscientiousness
not one of you gets anything from me."
16. Charles dearly loved the grand old German poems of the heroes, and
he had them collected and copied out. Alas! they have been lost. His
stupid son, thinking them rubbish, burned them all. The great king
also sent to Italy for builders, and set them to work to erect palaces
and churches. His favorite palaces were at Aix and at Ingelheim. At
the latter place he had a bridge built over the Rhine. At Aix he built
the cathedral with pillars taken from Roman ruins. It was quite
circular, with a colonnade going round it; inside it remains almost
unaltered to the present day.
17. He was very eager to promote trade, and so far in advance of the
times was he that he resolved to cut a canal so as to connect the Main
with the Regnitz, and thus make a water-way right across Germany from
the Rhine to the Danube, and so connect the German Ocean with the
Black Sea. The canal was begun, but wars interfered with its
completion, and the work was not carried out till the present century
by Louis I of Bavaria.
18. Charles was a tall, grand looking man, nearly seven feet high. He
was so strong that he could take a horseshoe in his hands and snap it.
He ate and drank in moderation, and was grave and dignified in his
conduct.
19. In the year 800, an insurrection broke out in Rome against Pope
Leo III. While he was riding in procession his enemies fell on him,
threw him from his horse, and an awkward attempt was made to put out
his eyes and cut out his tongue. Thus, bleeding and insensible, he was
put into a monastery. The Duke of Spoleto, a Frank, hearing of this,
marched to Rome and removed the wounded Pope to Spoleto, where he was
well nursed and recovered his eye-sight and power of speech. Charles
was very indignant when he heard of the outrage, and he left the
Saxons, whom he was fighting, and came to Italy to investigate the
circumstance. He assumed the office of judge, and the guilty persons
were sent to prison in France.
20. Then came Christmas-day, the Christmas of the last year in the
eighth century of Christ. Charles and all his sumptuous court, the
nobles and people of Rome, the whole clergy of Rome, were present at
the high services of the birth of Christ. The Pope himself chanted the
mass; the full assembly were rapt in profound devotion. At the close
the Pope rose, advanced toward Charles with a splendid crown in his
hands, placed it upon his brow, and proclaimed him Cæsar Augustus.
"God grant life and victory to the great emperor!" His words were lost
in the acclamations of the soldiery, the people, and the clergy.
21. Charles was taken completely by surprise. What the consequences
would be to Germany and to the papacy, how fatal to both, neither he
nor Leo could see. So Charlemagne became King of Italy and Emperor of
the West--the successor of the Cæsars of Rome.
22. When Charles felt that his end was approaching, he summoned all
his nobles to Aix into the church he had there erected. There, on the
altar, lay a golden crown. Charles made his son Ludwig, or Louis,
stand before him, and, in the audience of his great men, gave him his
last exhortation: to fear God and to love his people as his own
children, to do right and to execute justice, and to walk in integrity
before God and man. With streaming eyes Louis promised to fulfill his
father's command. "Then," said Charles, "take this crown, and place it
on your own head, and never forget the promise you have made this day."
_Sabine, Baring-Gould. "The Story of Germany."_
_Putnam's "Stories of the Nations" Series._