BOOK II

CONCERNING THE WARS AND MILITARY EXPLOITS OF CHARLES

As I am going to found this narrative on the story told by a man of the

world, who had little skill in letters, I think it will be well that I

should first recount something of earlier history on the credit of

written books. When Julian,[73] whom God hated, was slain in the Persian

war by a blow from heaven, not only did the transmarine provinces fall

away from the Roman Empire, but also the neighbouring provinces of

Pannonia, Noricum, Rhaetia, or in other words the Germans and the Franks

or Gauls. Then too the kings of the Franks (or Gauls) began to decay in

power because they had slain Saint Didier, Bishop of Vienna, and had

expelled those most holy visitors, Columban and Gall. Whereupon the race

of the Huns,[74] who had already often ravaged Francia and Aquitania

(that is to say the Gauls and the Spains), now poured out with all their

forces, devastated the whole land like a wide-sweeping conflagration,

and then carried off all their spoils to a very safe hiding-place. Now

Adalbert, whom I have already mentioned, used to explain the nature of

this hiding-place as follows:--"The land of the Huns," he would say,

"was surrounded by nine rings."[75] I could not think of any rings

except our ordinary wicker rings for sheepfolds; and so I asked: "What,

in the name of wonder, do you mean, sire?" "Well," he said, "it was

fortified by nine hedges." I could not think of any hedges except those

that protect our cornfields, so again I asked and he answered: "One ring

was as wide, that is, it contained as much within it, as all the country

between Tours and Constance. It was fashioned with logs of oak and ash

and yew and was twenty feet wide and the same in height. All the space

within was filled with hard stones and binding clay; and the surface of

these great ramparts was covered with sods and grass. Within the limits

of the ring shrubs were planted of such a kind that, when lopped and

bent down, they still threw out twigs and leaves. Then between these

ramparts hamlets and houses were so arranged that a man's voice could be

made to reach from one to the other. And opposite to the houses, at

intervals in those unconquerable walls, were constructed doors of no

great size; and through these doors the inhabitants from far and near

would pour out on marauding expeditions. The second ring was like the

first and was distant twenty Teutonic miles (or forty Italian) from the

third ring: and so on to the ninth: though of course the successive

rings were each much narrower than the preceding one. But in all the

circles the estates and houses were everywhere so arranged that the peal

of the trumpet would carry the news of any event from one to the other."

For two hundred years and more the Huns had swept the wealth of the

western states within these fortifications, and as the Goths and Vandals

were disturbing the repose of the world at the same time the western

world was almost turned into a desert. But the most unconquerable

Charles so subdued them in eight years that he allowed scarcely any

traces of them to remain. He withdrew his hand from the Bulgarians,

because after the destruction of the Huns they did not seem likely to do

any harm to the kingdom of the Franks. All the booty of the Huns, which

he found in Pannonia, he divided most liberally among the bishoprics and

the monasteries.

2. In the Saxon war in which he was engaged in person for some

considerable time, two private men (whose names I know, but modesty

forbids me to give them) organised a storming party, and destroyed with

great courage the walls of a very strong city and fortification. When

the most just Charles saw this he made one of them, with the consent of

his master Kerold, commander of the country between the Rhine and the

Italian Alps and the other he enriched with gifts of land.

3. At the same time there were the sons of two nobles whose duty it was

to watch at the door of the king's tent. But one night they lay as dead,

soaked in liquor; while Charles, wakeful as usual, went the round of the

camp, and came back to his tent without anyone having noticed him. When

morning came he called to him the chiefs of his kingdom, and asked them

what punishment seemed due to those who betrayed the King of the Franks

into the hands of the enemy. Then these nobles, quite ignorant of what

had occurred, declared that such a man was worthy of death. But Charles

merely upbraided them bitterly and let them go unharmed.

4. There were also with him two bastards, the children of a concubine.

As they had fought in battle most bravely, the emperor asked them whose

children they were, and where they were born. When he was informed of

the facts, he called them to his tent at midday and said: "My good

fellows, I want you to serve me, and me only." They exclaimed that they

were there for no other purpose than to take even the lowest place in

his service. "Well then," said Charles, "you must serve in my chamber."

They concealed their indignation and said they would be glad to do so;

but soon they seized the moment when the emperor had begun to sleep

soundly, and then rushed out to the camp of the enemy and, in the fray

that followed, wiped out the taint of servitude in their own blood and

that of the enemy.

5. But occupations such as these did not prevent the high-souled emperor

from sending frequent messengers, carrying letters and presents, to the

kings of the most distant regions; and they sent him in turn whatever

honours their lands could bestow. From the theatre of the Saxon war he

sent messengers to the King of Constantinople; who asked them whether

the kingdom of "his son Charles" was at peace or was being invaded by

the neighbouring peoples. Then the leader of the embassy made answer

that peace reigned everywhere, except only that a certain race called

the Saxons were disturbing the territories of the Franks by frequent

raids. Whereupon the sluggish and unwarlike Greek king answered: "Pooh!

why should my son take so much trouble about a petty enemy that

possesses neither fame nor valour? I will give you the Saxon race and

all that belong to it." When the envoy on his return gave this message

to the most warlike Charles, he smiled and said: "The king would have

shown greater kindness to you if he had given you a leg-wrap for your

long journey."

6. I must not conceal the wise answer which the same envoy gave during

his embassy to Greece. He came with his companions to one of the royal

towns in the autumn; the party was divided for entertainment, and the

envoy of whom I speak was quartered on a certain bishop. This bishop was

given up to fasting and prayer, and left the envoy to perish of almost

continuous hunger: but, with the first smile of spring, he presented the

envoy to the king. The king asked him his opinion of the bishop. Then

the envoy sighed from the very bottom of his heart and said: "That

bishop of yours reaches the highest point of holiness that can be

attained to without God." The king was amazed, and said: "What! can a

man be holy without God?" Then said the envoy: "It is written, 'God is

love,' and in that grace he is entirely lacking."

Thereupon the King of Constantinople invited him to his banquet and

placed him among his nobles. Now these had a law that no guest at the

king's table, whether a native or a foreigner, should turn over any

animal or part of an animal: he must eat only the upper part of whatever

was placed before him. Now, a river fish, covered with spice, was

brought and placed on the dish before him. He knew nothing of the custom

and turned the fish over whereupon all the nobles rose up and cried:

"Master, you are dishonoured, as no king ever was before you." Then the

king groaned and said to our envoy: "I cannot resist them: you must be

put to death at once: but ask me any other favour you like and I will

grant it." He thought awhile and then in the hearing of all pronounced

these words: "I pray you, lord emperor, that in accordance with your

promise you will grant me one small petition." And the king said: "Ask

what you will, and you shall have it: except only that I may not give

you your life, for that is against the law of the Greeks." Then said the

envoy: "With my dying breath I ask one favour; let everyone who saw me

turn that fish over be deprived of his eyes." The king was amazed at the

stipulation, and swore, by Christ, that he had seen nothing, but had

only trusted the word of others. Then the queen began to excuse herself:

"By the beneficent Mother of God, the Holy Mary, I noticed nothing."

Then the other nobles, in their desire to escape from the danger, swore,

one by the keeper of the keys of heaven, and another by the apostle of

the Gentiles, and all the rest by the virtue of the angels and the

companies of the saints, that they were beyond the reach of the

stipulation. And so the clever Frank beat the empty-headed Greeks in

their own land and came home safe and sound.

A few years later the unwearied Charles sent to Greece a certain bishop

remarkable both for his physical and mental gifts, and with him the most

noble Duke Hugo. After a long delay they were at last brought into the

presence of the king and then sent about to all manner of places. But at

last they got their dismissal and returned, after paying heavily for

their journey by sea and land.

Soon afterwards the Greek king sent his envoy to the most glorious

Charles. It so happened that the bishop and the duke whom I have

mentioned were just then with the emperor. When it was announced that

the envoys were coming they advised the most wise Charles to have them

led round through mountains and deserts, so that they should only come

into the emperor's presence when their clothes had been worn and wasted,

and their money was entirely spent.

This was done; and, when at last they arrived, the bishop and his

comrade bade the count of the stables take his seat on a high throne in

the midst of his underlings, so that it was impossible to believe him

anyone lower than the emperor. When the envoys saw him they fell upon

the ground and wanted to worship him. But they were prevented by the

ministers and forced to go farther. Then they saw the count of the

palace presiding over a gathering of the nobles and again they thought

it was the emperor and flung themselves to earth. But those who were

present drove them forward with blows and said: "That is not the

emperor." Next they saw the master of the royal table surrounded by his

noble band of servants; and again they fell to the ground thinking that

it was the emperor. Driven thence they found the chamberlains of the

emperor and their chief in council together; and then they did not doubt

but that they were in the presence of the first of living men. But this

man too denied that he was what they took him for; and yet he promised

that he would use his influence with the nobles of the palace, so that

if possible the envoys might come into the presence of the most august

emperor. Then there came servants from the imperial presence to

introduce them with full honours. Now Charles, the most gracious of

kings, was standing by an open window leaning upon Bishop Heitto, for

that was the name of the bishop who had been sent to Constantinople. The

emperor was clad in gems and gold and glittered like the sun at its

rising: and round about him stood, as it were the chivalry of heaven,

three young men, his sons,[76] who have since been made partners in the

kingdom; his daughters and their mother decorated with wisdom and beauty

as well as with pearls; leaders of the Church, unsurpassed in dignity

and virtue; abbots distinguished for their high birth and their

sanctity; nobles, like Joshua when he appeared in the camp of Gilgal;

and an army like that which drove back the Syrians and Assyrians out of

Samaria. So that if David had been there he might well have sung: "Kings

of the earth and all people; princes and all judges of the earth; both

young men and maidens; old men and children let them praise the name of

the Lord." Then the envoys of the Greeks were astonished; their spirit

left them and their courage failed; speechless and lifeless they fell

upon the ground. But the most kindly emperor raised them, and tried to

cheer them with encouraging words. At last life returned to them; but

when they saw Heitto, whom they had once despised and rejected, now in

so great honour, again they grovelled on the ground in terror; until the

king swore to them by the King of Heaven that he would do them no harm.

They took heart at this promise and began to act with a little more

confidence; and so home they went and never came back again.

7. And here I must repeat that the most illustrious Charles had men of

the greatest cleverness in all offices. When the morning lauds had been

celebrated before the emperor on the octave of the Epiphany, the Greeks

proceeded privately to sing to God in their own language psalms with the

same melody and the same subject matter as "_Veterem hominem_" and the

following words in our missal. Thereupon the emperor ordered one of his

chaplains, who understood the Greek tongue, to adopt that psalm in Latin

to the same melody, and to take special care that a separate syllable

corresponded to every separate note, so that the Latin and Greek should

resemble one another as far as the nature of the two languages allowed.

So it came to pass that all of them have been written in the same

rhythm, and in one of them _conteruit_ has been substituted for

"_contrivit._"

These same Greek envoys brought with them every kind of organ, as well

as other instruments of various kinds. All of these were covertly

inspected by the workmen of the most wise Charles, and then exactly

reproduced. The chief of these was that musicians' organ, wherein the

great chests were made of brass: and bellows of ox-hide blew through

pipes of brass, and the bass was like the roaring of the thunder, and in

sweetness it equalled the tinkling of lyre or cymbal. But I must not,

here and now, speak of where it was set up, and how long it lasted, and

how it perished at the same time as other losses fell upon the state.

8. About the same time also envoys of the Persians were sent to him.

They knew not where Frankland lay; but because of the fame of Rome, over

which they knew that Charles had rule, they thought it a great thing

when they were able to reach the coast of Italy. They explained the

reason of their journey to the Bishops of Campania and Tuscany, of

Emilia and Liguria, of Burgundy and Gaul and to the abbots and counts of

those regions; but by all they were either deceitfully handled or else

actually driven off; so that a whole year had gone round before, weary

and footsore with their long journey, they reached Aix at last and saw

Charles, the most renowned of kings by reason of his virtues. They

arrived in the last week of Lent, and, on their arrival being made known

to the emperor, he postponed their presentation until Easter Eve. Then

when that incomparable monarch was dressed with incomparable

magnificence for the chief of festivals, he ordered the introduction of

the envoys of that race that had once held the whole world in awe.[77]

But they were so terrified at the sight of the most magnificent Charles

that one might think they had never seen king or emperor before. He

received them however most kindly, and granted them this privilege--that

they might go wherever they had a mind to, even as one of his own

children, and examine everything and ask what questions and make what

inquiries they chose. They jumped with joy at this favour, and valued

the privilege of clinging close to Charles, of gazing upon him, of

admiring him, more than all the wealth of the east.

They went up into the ambulatory that runs round the nave of the

cathedral and looked down upon the clergy and the nobles; then they

returned to the emperor, and, by reason of the greatness of their joy,

they could not refrain from laughing aloud; and they clapped their hands

and said:--"We have seen only men of clay before: here are men of gold."

Then they went to the nobles, one by one, and gazed with wonder upon

arms and clothes that were strange to them; and then came back to the

emperor, whom they regarded with wonder still greater. They passed that

night and the next Sunday continuously in church; and, upon the most

holy day itself, they were invited by the most munificent Charles to a

splendid banquet, along with the nobles of Frankland and Europe. There

they were so struck with amazement at the strangeness of everything that

they had hardly eaten anything at the end of the banquet.

"But when the Morn, leaving Tithonus' bed,

Illumined all the land with Phoebus' torch"

then Charles, who would never endure idleness and sloth, went out to the

woods to hunt the bison and the urochs; and made preparations to take

the Persian envoys with him. But when they saw the immense animals they

were stricken with a mighty fear and turned and fled. But the undaunted

hero Charles, riding on a high-mettled charger, drew near to one of

these animals and drawing his sword tried to cut through its neck. But

he missed his aim, and the monstrous beast ripped the boot and

leg-thongs of the emperor; and, slightly wounding his calf with the tip

of its horn, made him limp slightly: after that, furious at the failure

of its stroke, it fled to the shelter of a valley, which was thickly

covered with stones and trees. Nearly all his servants wanted to take

off their own hose to give to Charles, but he forbade it saying: "I mean

to go in this fashion to Hildigard." Then Isambard, the son of Warin

(the same Warin that persecuted your patron Saint Othmar),[78] ran after

the beast and not daring to approach him more closely, threw his lance

and pierced him to the heart between the shoulder and the wind-pipe, and

brought the beast yet warm to the emperor. He seemed to pay no attention

to the incident; but gave the carcass to his companions and went home.

But then he called the queen and showed her how his leg-coverings were

torn, and said: "What does the man deserve who freed me from the enemy

that did this to me?" She made answer: "He deserves the highest boon."

Then the emperor told the whole story and produced the enormous horns of

the beast in witness of his truth: so that the empress sighed and wept

and beat her breast. But when she heard that it was Isambard, who had

saved him from this terrible enemy, Isambard, who was in ill favour with

the emperor and who had been deprived of all his offices--she threw

herself at his feet and induced him to restore all that had been taken

from him; and a largess was given to him besides.

These same Persian envoys brought the emperor an elephant, monkeys,

balsam, nard, unguents of various kinds, spices, scents and many kinds

of drugs: in such profusion that it seemed as if the east had been left

bare that the west might be filled. They came by-and-by to stand on very

familiar terms with the emperor; and one day, when they were in a

specially merry mood and a little heated with strong beer, they spoke in

jest as follows:--"Sir emperor, your power is indeed great; but much

less than the report of it which is spread through all the kingdoms of

the east." When he heard this he concealed his deep displeasure and

asked jestingly of them: "Why do you say that, my children? How did that

idea get into your heads?" Then they went back to the beginning and told

him everything that had happened to them in the lands beyond the sea;

and they said:--"We Persians and the Medes, Armenians, Indians,

Parthians, Elamites, and all the inhabitants of the east fear you much

more than our own ruler Haroun.[79] And the Macedonians and all the

Greeks (how shall we express it?) they are beginning to fear your

overwhelming greatness more than the waves of the Ionian Sea. And the

inhabitants of all the islands through which we passed were as ready to

obey you, and as much devoted to your service, as if they had been

reared in your palace and loaded with your favours. But the nobles of

your own kingdom, it seems to us, care very little about you except in

your presence: for when we came as strangers to them, and begged them to

show us some kindness for the love of you, to whom we desired to make

our way, they gave no heed to us and sent us away empty-handed." Then

the emperor deposed all counts and abbots, through whose territories

those envoys had come, from all the offices that they held; and fined

the bishops in a huge sum of money. Then he ordered the envoys to be

taken back to their own country with all care and honour.

9. There came to him also envoys from the King of the Africans, bringing

a Marmorian lion and a Numidian bear, with Spanish iron and Tyrian

purple, and other noteworthy products of those regions. The most

munificent Charles knew that the king and all the inhabitants of Africa

were oppressed by constant poverty; and so, not only on this occasion

but all through his life, he made them presents of the wealth of Europe,

corn and wine and oil, and gave them liberal support; and thus he kept

them constantly loyal and obedient to himself, and received from them a

considerable tribute.

Soon after the unwearied emperor sent to the emperor of the Persians

horses and mules from Spain; Frisian robes, white, grey, red and blue;

which in Persia, he was told, were rarely seen and highly prized. Dogs

too he sent him of remarkable swiftness and fierceness, such as the King

of Persia had desired, for the hunting and catching of lions and tigers.

The King of Persia cast a careless eye over the other presents, but

asked the envoys what wild beasts or animals these dogs were accustomed

to fight with. He was told that they would pull down quickly anything

they were set on to. "Well," he said, "experience will test that." Next

day the shepherds were heard crying loudly as they fled from a lion.

When the noise came to the palace of the king, he said to the envoys:

"Now, my friends of Frankland, mount your horses and follow me." Then

they eagerly followed after the king as though they had never known toil

or weariness. When they came in sight of the lion, though he was yet at

a distance, the satrap of the satraps said to them: "Now set your dogs

on to the lion." They obeyed and eagerly galloped forward; the German

dogs caught the Persian lion, and the envoys slew him with swords of

northern metal, which had already been tempered in the blood of the

Saxons.

At this sight Haroun, the bravest inheritor of that name, understood the

superior might of Charles from very small indications, and thus broke

out in his praise:--"Now I know that what I heard of my brother Charles

is true: how that by the frequent practice of hunting, and by the

unwearied training of his body and mind, he has acquired the habit of

subduing all that is beneath the heavens. How can I make worthy

recompense for the honours which he has bestowed upon me? If I give him

the land which was promised to Abraham and shown to Joshua, it is so far

away that he could not defend it from the barbarians: or if, like the

high-souled king that he is, he tried to defend it I fear that the

provinces which lie upon the frontiers of the Frankish kingdom would

revolt from his empire. But in this way I will try to show my gratitude

for his generosity. I will give that land into his power; and I will

rule over it as his representative. Whenever he likes or whenever there

is a good opportunity he shall send me envoys; and he will find me a

faithful manager of the revenue of that province."

Thus was brought to pass what the poet spoke of as an impossibility:--

"The Parthian's eyes the Arar's stream shall greet

And Tigris' waves shall lave the German's feet":

for through the energy of the most vigorous Charles it was found not

merely possible but quite easy for his envoys to go and return; and the

messengers of Haroun, whether young or old, passed easily from Parthia

into Germany and returned from Germany to Parthia. (And the poet's words

are true, whatever interpretation the grammarians put on "the river

Arar,"[80] whether they think it an affluent of the Rhone or the Rhine;

for they have fallen into confusion on this point through their

ignorance of the locality). I could call on Germany to bear witness to

my words; for in the time of your glorious father Lewis the land was

compelled to pay a penny for every acre of land held under the law

towards the redemption of Christian captives in the Holy Land; and they

made their wretched appeal in the name of the dominion anciently held

over that land by your great-grandfather Charles and your grandfather

Lewis.

10. Now as the occasion has arisen to make honourable mention of your

never-sufficiently-praised father,[81] I should like to recall some

prophetic words which the most wise Charles is known to have uttered

about him. When he was six years old and had been most carefully reared

in the house of his father, he was thought (and justly) to be wiser than

men sixty years of age. His father then, hardly thinking it possible

that he could bring him to see his grandfather, nevertheless took him

from his mother, who had reared him with the most tender care, and began

to instruct him how to conduct himself with propriety and modesty in the

presence of the emperor; and how if he were asked a question he was to

make answer and show in all things deference to his father. Thereafter

he took him to the palace; and, on the first or second day, the emperor

noted him with interest standing among the rest of the courtiers. "Who

is that little fellow?" he said to his son; and he had for answer: "He

is mine, sire; and yours if you deign to have him." So he said: "Give

him to me"; and, when that was done, he took the little fellow and

kissed him and sent him back to the place where he had formerly stood.

But now he knew his own rank; and thought it shame to stand lower than

any one who was lower in rank than the emperor; so with perfect

composure of mind and body he took his place on terms of equality with

his father. The most prophetic Charles noticed this; and, calling his

son Lewis, told him to find out the name of the boy; and why he acted in

this way; and what it was that made him bold enough to claim equality

with his father. The answer that Lewis got was founded on good reason:

"When I was your vassal," he said, "I stood behind you and among

soldiers of my own rank, as I was bound to do: but now I am your ally

and comrade in arms, and so I rightly claim equality with you." When

Lewis reported this to the emperor, the latter gave utterance to words

something like these:--"If that little fellow lives he will be something

great." (I have borrowed these words from the Life of Saint Ambrose,[82]

because the actual words that Charles used cannot be translated directly

into Latin. And it seems fair to apply the prophecy which was made of

Saint Ambrose to Lewis; for Lewis closely resembled the saint, except in

such points as are necessary to an earthly commonwealth, as for instance

marriage and the use of arms; and in the power of his kingdom and his

zeal for religion, Lewis was, if I may say so, superior to Saint

Ambrose. He was a Catholic in faith, devoted to the worship of God, and

the unwearied ally, protector, and defender of the servants of Christ.

Here is an instance of this. When our faithful Abbot Hartmuth--who is

now your hermit--reported to him that the little endowment of Saint

Gall, which was due not to royal munificence but to the petty offerings

of private people, was not defended by any special charter such as other

monasteries have, nor even by the laws that are common to all people,

and so was unable to procure any defender or advocate, King Lewis

himself resisted all our opponents, and was not ashamed to proclaim

himself the champion of our weakness in the presence of all his nobles.

At the same time too he wrote a letter to your genius directing that we

should have licence to make petition, after taking a special vote, for

whatever we would through your authority. But alas, what a stupid

creature I am! I have been probably drawn aside by my personal gratitude

for the special kindness he showed us, away from his general and

indescribable goodness and greatness and nobleness.)

11. Now Lewis, King and Emperor of all Germany, of the provinces of

Rhaetia and of ancient Francia, of Saxony too and of Thuringia, of the

provinces of Pannonia and of all northern nations, was of large build

and handsome; his eyes sparkled like the stars, his voice was clear and

manly. His wisdom was quite out of the common, and he added to it by

constantly applying his singularly acute intellect to the study of the

scriptures. He showed wonderful quickness too in anticipating or

overcoming the plots of his enemies, in bringing to an end the quarrels

of his subjects, and in procuring every kind of advantage for those who

were loyal to him. More even than his ancestors he came to be a terror

to all the heathen that stood round about his kingdom. And he deserved

his good fortune; for he never defiled his tongue by condemning, nor his

hands by shedding Christian blood: except once only, and then upon the

most absolute necessity. But I dare not tell that story until I see a

little Lewis or a Charles standing by your side.[83] After that one

slaughter, nothing could induce him to condemn anyone to death. But the

measure of compulsion which he used against those who were accused of

disloyalty or plots was merely this: he deprived them of office, and no

new circumstance and no length of time could then soften his heart so as

to restore them to the former rank. He surpassed all men in his zealous

devotion to prayer, religious fasting and the care of the service of

God; and like Saint Martin, whatever he was doing, he prayed to God as

though he were face to face with Him. On certain days he abstained from

flesh and all pleasant food. At the time of litanies he used to follow

the cross with unshod feet from his palace as far as the cathedral; or

if he were at Regensburg as far as the church of Saint Hemmeramm.[84] In

other places he followed the customs of those whom he was with. He built

new oratories of wonderful workmanship at Frankfurt and Regensburg. In

the latter place, as stones were wanting to complete the immense fabric,

he ordered the walls of the city to be pulled down; and in certain holes

in the wall they found bones of men long dead, wrapped in so much gold,

that not only did it serve to decorate the cathedral, but also he was

able to furnish certain books that were written on the subject with

cases of the same material nearly a finger thick. No clerk could stay

with him, or even come into his presence, unless he were able to read

and chant. He despised monks who broke their vows, and loved those who

kept them. He was so full of sweet-tempered mirth, that, if anyone came

to him in a morose mood, merely to see him and exchange a few words with

him sent the visitor away with raised spirits. If anything evil or

foolish was done in his presence, or if it happened that he were told of

it, then a single glance of his eyes was enough to check everything, so

that what is written of the eternal Judge who sees the hearts of men

(viz. "A King that sitteth on the throne of judgment, scattereth away

all evil with His eyes") might be fairly said to have begun in him,

beyond what is usually granted to mortals.

All this I have written by way of digression, hoping that, if life lasts

and Heaven is propitious, I may in time to come write much more

concerning him.

12. But I must return to my subject. While Charles was detained for a

little at Aix by the arrival of many visitors and the hostility of the

unconquered Saxons and the robbery and piracy of the Northmen and Moors,

and while the war against the Huns was being conducted by his son

Pippin, the barbarous nations of the north attacked Noricum and eastern

Frankland and ravaged a great part of it. When he heard of this he

humiliated them in his own person; and he gave orders that all the boys

and children of the invaders should be "measured with the sword"; and if

anyone exceeded that measurement he should be shortened by a head.

This incident led to another much greater and more important. For, when

your imperial majesty's most holy grandfather departed from life,

certain giants (like to those who, Scripture tells us, were begotten by

the sons of Seth from the daughters of Cain), blown up with the spirit

of pride and doubtless like to those who said, "What part have we in

David and what inheritance in the son of Esau?"--these mighty men, I

say, despised the most worthy children of Charles, and each tried to

seize for himself the command in the kingdom and themselves to wear the

crown. Then some of the middle class were moved by the inspiration of

God to declare that, as the renowned Emperor Charles had once measured

the enemies of Christianity with the sword, so, as long as any of his

progeny could be found of the length of a sword, he must rule over the

Franks and over all Germany too: thereupon that devilish group of

conspirators was as it were struck with a thunderbolt, and scattered in

all directions.

But, after conquering the external foe, Charles was attacked at the

hands of his own people in a remarkable but unavailing plot.[85] For on

his return from the Slavs into his own kingdom he was nearly captured

and put to death by his son, whom a concubine had borne to him and who

had been called by his mother by the ill-omened name of the most

glorious Pippin. The plot was found out in the following manner. This

son of Charles had been plotting the death of the emperor with a

gathering of nobles, in the church of Saint Peter; and when their debate

was over, fearful of every shadow, he ordered search to be made, to see

whether anyone was hidden in the corners or under the altar. And behold

they found, as they feared, a clerk hidden under the altar. They seized

him and made him swear that he would not reveal their conspiracy. To

save his life, he dared not refuse to take the oath which they dictated:

but, when they were gone, he held his wicked oath of small account and

at once hurried to the palace. With the greatest difficulty he passed

through the seven bolted gates, and coming at length to the emperor's

chamber knocked upon the door. The most vigilant Charles fell into a

great astonishment, as to who it was that dared to disturb him at that

time of night. He however ordered the women (who followed in his train

to wait upon the queen and the princesses) to go out and see who was at

the door and what he wanted. When they went out and found the wretched

creature, they bolted the door in his face and then, bursting with

laughter and stuffing their dresses into their mouths, they tried to

hide themselves in the corners of the apartments. But that most wise

emperor, whose notice nothing under heaven could escape, asked straitly

of the women who it was and what he wanted. When he was told that it was

a smooth-faced, silly, half-mad knave, dressed only in shirt and

drawers, who demanded an audience without delay, Charles ordered him to

be admitted. Then he fell at the emperor's feet and showed all that had

happened. So all the conspirators, entirely unsuspicious of danger, were

seized before the third hour of the day and most deservedly condemned to

exile or some other form of punishment. Pippin himself, a dwarf and a

hunchback, was cruelly scourged, tonsured, and sent for some time as a

punishment to the monastery of Saint Gall; the poorest, it was judged,

and the straitest in all the emperor's broad dominions.

A short time afterwards some of the Frankish nobles sought to do

violence to their king. Charles was well aware of their intentions, and

yet did not wish to destroy them; because, if only they were loyal, they

might be a great protection to all Christian men. So he sent messengers

to this Pippin and asked him his advice in the matter.

They found him in the monastery garden, in the company of the elder

brothers, for the younger ones were detained by their work.[86] He was

digging up nettles and other weeds with a hoe, that the useful herbs

might grow more vigorously. When they had explained to him the reason of

their coming he sighed deeply, from the very bottom of his heart, and

said in reply:--"If Charles thought my advice worth having he would not

have treated me so harshly. I give him no advice. Go, tell him what you

found me doing." They were afraid to go back to the dreaded emperor

without a definite answer, and again and again asked him what message

they should convey to their lord. Then at last he said in anger:--"I

will send him no message except--what I am doing! I am digging up the

useless growths in order that the valuable herbs may be able to develop

more freely."

So they went away sorrowfully thinking that they were bringing back a

foolish answer. When the emperor asked them upon their arrival what

answer they were bringing, they answered sorrowfully that after all

their labour and long journeying they could get no definite information

at all. Then that most wise king asked them carefully where they had

found Pippin, what he was doing, and what answer he had given them; and

they said: "We found him sitting on a rustic seat turning over the

vegetable garden with a hoe. When we told him the cause of our journey

we could extract no other reply than this, even by the greatest

entreaties: 'I give no message, except--what I am doing! I am digging up

the useless growths in order that the valuable herbs may be able to

develop more freely.'" When he heard this the emperor, not lacking in

cunning and mighty in wisdom, rubbed his ears and blew out his nostrils

and said: "My good vassals, you have brought back a very reasonable

answer." So while the messengers were fearing that they might be in

peril of their lives, Charles was able to divine the real meaning of the

words. He took all those plotters away from the land of the living; and

so gave to his loyal subjects room to grow and spread, which had

previously been occupied by those unprofitable servants. One of his

enemies, who had chosen as his part of the spoil of the empire the

highest hill in France and all that could be seen from it, was, by

Charles's orders, hanged upon a high gallows on that very hill. But he

bade his bastard son Pippin choose the manner of life that most pleased

him. Upon this permission being given him, he chose a post in a

monastery then most noble but now destroyed.[87] (Who is there that does

not know the manner of its destruction! But I will not tell the story of

its fall until I see your little Bernard with a sword girt upon his

thigh.)

The magnanimous Charles was often angry because he was urged to go out

and fight against foreign nations, when one of his nobles might have

accomplished the task. I can prove this from the action of one of my own

neighbours. There was a man of Thurgau,[88] of the name of Eishere, who

as his name implies was "a great part of a terrible army"[89] and so

tall that you might have thought him sprung from the race of Anak, if

they had not lived so long ago and so far away. Whenever he came to the

river Dura and found it swollen and foaming with the torrents from the

mountains, and could not force his huge charger to enter the stream

(though stream I must not call it, but hardly melted ice), then he would

seize the reins and force his horse to swim through behind him, saying:

"Nay, by Saint Gall, you must come, whether you like it or not!"

Well, this man followed the emperor and mowed down the Bohemians and

Wiltzes and Avars as a man might mow down hay; and spitted them on his

spear like birds. When he came home the sluggards asked him how he had

got on in the country of the Winides; and he, contemptuous of some and

angry with others, replied: "Why should I have been bothered with those

tadpoles? I used sometimes to spit seven or eight or nine of them on my

spear and carry them about with me squealing in their gibberish. My lord

king and I ought never to have been asked to weary ourselves in fighting

against worms like those."

13. Now about the same time that the emperor was putting the finishing

touch to the war with the Huns, and had received the surrender of the

races that I have just mentioned, the Northmen left their homes and

disquieted greatly the Gauls and the Franks. Then the unconquered

Charles returned and tried to attack them by land in their own homes, by

a march through difficult and unknown country. But, whether it was that

the providence of God prevented it in order that, as the Scripture says,

He might make trial of Israel, or whether it was that our sins stood in

the way, all his efforts came to nothing. One night, to the serious

discomfort of the whole army, it was calculated that fifty yoke of oxen

belonging to one abbey had died of a sudden disease. Afterwards when

Charles was making a prolonged journey through his vast empire,

Gotefrid, king of the Northmen, encouraged by his absence, invaded the

territory of the Frankish kingdom and chose the district of the Moselle

for his home.[90] But Gotefrid's own son (whose mother he had just put

away and taken to himself a new wife) caught him, while he was pulling

off his hawk from a heron, and cut him through the middle with his

sword. Then, as happened of old when Holofernes was slain, none of the

Northmen dare trust any longer in his courage or his arms; but all

sought safety in flight. And thus the Franks were freed without their

own effort, that they might not after the fashion of Israel boast

themselves against God. Then Charles, the unconquered and the

invincible, glorified God for His judgment; but complained bitterly that

any of the Northmen had escaped because of his absence. "Ah, woe is me!"

he said, "that I was not thought worthy to see my Christian hands

dabbling in the blood of those dog-headed fiends."

14. It happened too that on his wanderings Charles once came

unexpectedly to a certain maritime city of Narbonensian Gaul. When he

was dining quietly in the harbour of this town, it happened that some

Norman scouts made a piratical raid. When the ships came in sight some

thought them Jews, some African or British merchants, but the most wise

Charles, by the build of the ships and their speed, knew them to be not

merchants but enemies, and said to his companions: "These ships are not

filled with merchandise, but crowded with our fiercest enemies." When

they heard this, in eager rivalry, they hurried in haste to the ships.

But all was in vain, for when the Northmen heard that Charles, the

Hammer, as they used to call him, was there, fearing lest their fleet

should be beaten back or even smashed in pieces, they withdrew

themselves, by a marvellously rapid flight, not only from the swords but

even from the eyes of those who followed them. The most religious, just

and devout Charles had risen from the table and was standing at an

eastern window. For a long time he poured down tears beyond price, and

none dared speak a word to him; but at last he explained his actions and

his tears to his nobles in these words:--"Do you know why I weep so

bitterly, my true servants? I have no fear of those worthless rascals

doing any harm to me; but I am sad at heart to think that even during my

lifetime they have dared to touch this shore; and I am torn by a great

sorrow because I foresee what evil things they will do to my descendants

and their subjects."

May the protection of our Master Christ prevent the accomplishment of

this prophecy; may your sword, tempered already in the blood of the

Nordostrani, resist it! The sword of your brother Carloman will help,

which now lies idle and rusted, not for want of spirit, but for want of

funds, and because of the narrowness of the lands of your most faithful

servant Arnulf.[91] If your might wills it, if your might orders it, it

will easily be made bright and sharp again. These and the little shoot

of Bernard form the only branch that is left of the once prolific root

of Lewis, to flourish under the wonderful growth of your protection. Let

me insert here therefore in the history of your namesake Charles an

incident in the life of your great-great-grandfather Pippin: which

perhaps some future little Charles or Lewis may read and imitate.

15. When the Lombards and other enemies of the Romans were attacking

them, they sent ambassadors to this same Pippin, and asked him for the

love of Saint Peter to condescend to come with all speed to their help.

As soon as he had conquered his enemies he came victoriously to

Rome,[92] and this was the song of praise with which the citizens

received him. "The fellow-citizens of the apostles and the servants of

God have come to-day bringing peace, and making their native land

glorious, to give peace to the heathen and to set free the people of the

Lord." (Many people, ignorant of the meaning and origin of this song,

have been accustomed to sing it on the birthdays of the apostles.)

Pippin feared the envy of the people of Rome (or, more truly, of

Constantinople) and soon returned to Frankland.

When he found that the nobles of his army were accustomed in secret to

speak contemptuously of him, he ordered one day a huge and ferocious

bull to be brought out; and then a savage lion to be let loose upon him.

The lion rushed with tremendous fury on the bull, seized him by the neck

and cast him on the ground. Then the king said to those who stood round

him: "Now, drag off the lion from the bull, or kill the one on the top

of the other." They looked on one another, with a chill at their hearts,

and could hardly utter these words amidst their sobs:--"Lord, what man

is there under heaven, who dare attempt it?" Then Pippin rose

confidently from his throne, drew his sword, and at one blow cut through

the neck of the lion and severed the head of the bull from his

shoulders. Then he put back his sword into its sheath and sat again upon

his throne and said: "Well, do you think I am fit to be your lord? Have

you not heard what the little David did to the giant Goliath, or what

the child Alexander did to his nobles?" They fell to the ground, as

though a thunderbolt had struck them, and cried: "Who but a madman would

deny your right to rule over all mankind?"

Not only was his courage shown against beasts and men; but he also

fought an incredible contest against evil spirits. The hot baths at Aix

had not yet been built; but hot and healing waters bubbled from the

ground. He ordered his chamberlain to see that the water was clean and

that no unknown person was allowed to enter into them. This was done;

and the king took his sword and, dressed only in linen gown and

slippers, hurried off to the bath; when lo! the Old Enemy met him, and

attacked him as though he would slay him. But the king, strengthened

with the sign of the cross, made bare his sword; and, noticing a shape

in human form, struck his unconquerable sword through it into the ground

so far, that he could only drag it out again after a long struggle. But

the shape was so far material that it defiled all those waters with

blood and gore and horrid slime. But even this did not upset the

unconquerable Pippin. He said to his chamberlain: "Do not mind this

little affair. Let the defiled water run for a while; and then, when it

flows clear again, I will take my bath without delay."

16. I had intended, most noble emperor, to weave my little narrative

only round your great-grandfather Charles, all of whose deeds you know

well. But since the occasion arose which made it necessary to mention

your most glorious father Lewis, called the illustrious, and your most

religious grandfather Lewis, called the pious, and your most warlike

great-great-grandfather Pippin the younger, I thought it would be wrong

to pass over their deeds in silence, for the sloth of modern writers has

left them almost untold. There is no need to speak of the elder Pippin,

for the most learned Bede in his ecclesiastical history has devoted

nearly a whole volume to him. But now that I have recounted all these

things by way of digression I must swim swan-like back to your

illustrious namesake Charles. But, if I do not curtail somewhat his

feats in war, I shall never come to consider his daily habits of life.

Now I will give with all possible brevity the incidents that occur to

me.

17. When after the death of the ever-victorious Pippin the Lombards were

again attacking Rome, the unconquered Charles, though he was fully

occupied with business to the north of the Alps, marched swiftly into

Italy. He received the Lombards into his service after they had been

humbled in a war that was almost bloodless, or (one might say), after

they had surrendered of their own free will; and to prevent them from

ever again revolting from the Frankish kingdom or doing any injury to

the territories of Saint Peter, he married the daughter of Desiderius,

chief of the Lombards. But no long time afterwards, because she was an

invalid and little likely to give issue to Charles, she was, by the

counsel of the holiest of the clergy, put aside, even as though she were

dead: whereupon her father in wrath bound his subjects to him by oath,

and shutting himself up within the walls of Pavia, he prepared to give

battle to the invincible Charles, who, when he had received certain news

of the revolt, hurried to Italy with all speed.

Now it happened that some years before one of the first nobles, called

Otker, had incurred the wrath of the most terrible emperor, and had fled

for refuge to Desiderius. When the near approach of the dreaded Charles

was known, these two went up into a very high tower, from which they

could see anyone approaching at a very great distance. When therefore

the baggage-waggons appeared, which moved more swiftly than those used

by Darius or Julius, Desiderius said to Otker: "Is Charles in that vast

army?" And Otker answered: "Not yet." Then when he saw the vast force of

the nations gathered together from all parts of his empire, he said with

confidence to Otker: "Surely Charles moves in pride among those forces."

But Otker answered: "Not yet, not yet." Then Desiderius fell into great

alarm and said, "What shall we do if a yet greater force comes with

him?" And Otker said, "You will see what he is like when he comes. What

will happen to us I cannot say." And, behold, while they were thus

talking, there came in sight Charles's personal attendants, who never

rested from their labours; and Desiderius saw them and cried in

amazement, "There is Charles." And Otker answered: "Not yet, not yet."

Then they saw the bishops and the abbots and the clerks of his chapel

with their attendants. When he saw them he hated the light and longed

for death, and sobbed and stammered, "Let us go down to hide ourselves

in the earth from the face of an enemy so terrible." And Otker answered

trembling, for once, in happier days, he had had thorough and constant

knowledge of the policy and preparations of the unconquerable Charles:

"When you see an iron harvest bristling in the fields; and the Po and

the Ticino pouring against the walls of the city like the waves of the

sea, gleaming black with glint of iron, then know that Charles is at

hand." Hardly were these words finished when there came from the west a

black cloud, which turned the bright day to horrid gloom. But as the

emperor drew nearer the gleam of the arms turned the darkness into day,

a day darker than any night to that beleaguered garrison. Then could be

seen the iron Charles, helmeted with an iron helmet, his hands clad in

iron gauntlets, his iron breast and broad shoulders protected with an

iron breastplate: an iron spear was raised on high in his left hand; his

right always rested on his unconquered iron falchion. The thighs, which

with most men are uncovered that they may the more easily ride on

horseback, were in his case clad with plates of iron: I need make no

special mention of his greaves, for the greaves of all the army were of

iron. His shield was all of iron: his charger was iron-coloured and

iron-hearted. All who went before him, all who marched by his side, all

who followed after him and the whole equipment of the army imitated him

as closely as possible. The fields and open places were filled with

iron; the rays of the sun were thrown back by the gleam of iron; a

people harder than iron paid universal honour to the hardness of iron.

The horror of the dungeon seemed less than the bright gleam of iron. "Oh

the iron! Woe for the iron!" was the confused cry that rose from the

citizens. The strong walls shook at the sight of the iron; the

resolution of young and old fell before the iron. Now when the truthful

Otker saw in one swift glance all this which I, with stammering tongue

and the voice of a child, have been clumsily explaining with rambling

words, he said to Desiderius: "There is the Charles that you so much

desired to see": and when he had said this he fell to the ground half

dead.

But as the inhabitants of the city, either through madness or because

they entertained some hope of resistance, refused to let Charles enter

on that day, the most inventive emperor said to his men: "Let us build

to-day some memorial, so that we may not be charged with passing the day

in idleness. Let us make haste to build for ourselves a little house of

prayer, where we may give due attention to the service of God, if they

do not soon throw open the city to us." No sooner had he said it than

his men flew off in every direction, collected lime and stones, wood and

paint, and brought them to the skilled workmen who always accompanied

him. And between the fourth hour of the day and the twelfth they built,

with the help of the young nobles and the soldiers, such a cathedral, so

provided with walls and roofs, with fretted ceilings and frescoes, that

none who saw it could believe that it had taken less than a year to

build. But, how on the next day some of the citizens wanted to throw

open the gate; and some wanted to fight against him, even without hope

of victory, or rather to fortify themselves against him; and how easily

he conquered, took and occupied the city, without the shedding of blood,

and merely by the exercise of skill;--all this I must leave others to

tell, who follow your highness not for love, but in the hope of gain.

Then the most religious Charles marched on and came to the city of

Friuli, which the pedants call Forum Julii. Now it happened just at this

time that the bishop of that city (or, to use a modern word, the

patriarch) was drawing near to the end of his life. Charles made haste

to visit him, in order that he might designate his successor by name.

But the bishop, with remarkable piety, sighed from the bottom of his

heart and said: "Sire, I have held this bishopric for a long time

without any use or profit; and now I leave it to the judgment of God and

your disposal. For I do not wish, at the point of death, to add anything

to the mountain of sin that I have heaped together during my life, for

which I shall have to make answer to the inevitable and incorruptible

Judge." The most wise Charles was so pleased with these words, that he

rightly thought him the equal in virtue of the ancient fathers.

After Charles, of all the energetic Franks the most energetic, had

stayed in that country for a short time, while he was appointing a

worthy successor to the deceased bishop, one festal day after the

celebration of mass he said to his retinue: "We must not let leisure

lead us into slothful habits: let us go hunting and kill something; and

let us all go in the very clothes that we are wearing at this moment."

Now the day was cold and rainy and Charles was wearing a sheepskin, not

much more costly than the cloak which Saint Martin wore when with bare

arms he offered to God a sacrifice that received divine approval. But

the others--for it was a holiday and they had just come from Pavia,

whither the Venetians had carried all the wealth of the east from their

territories beyond the sea--the others, I say, strutted in robes made of

pheasant-skins and silk; or of the necks, backs and tails of peacocks in

their first plumage. Some were decorated with purple and lemon-coloured

ribbons; some were wrapped round with blankets and some in ermine robes.

They scoured the thickets; they were torn by branches of trees, thorns,

and briars; they were drenched with rain; they were defiled with the

blood of wild beasts and the filth of the skins; and in this plight they

returned home. Then the most crafty Charles said: "No one of us must

take off his dress of skins before he goes to bed; they will dry better

upon our bodies." Then everyone, more anxious about his body than his

dress, made search for fire and tried to warm himself. Then they

returned and remained in attendance upon Charles far into the night

before they were dismissed to their apartments. Then when they began to

draw off their dresses of skins and their slender belts, the creased and

shrunken garments could be heard even from a distance cracking like

sticks broken when they are dry: and the courtiers sighed and groaned

and lamented that they had lost so much money on a single day. They had

received however a command from the emperor to appear before him next

day in the same skin-garments. When they came it was no longer the

splendid show of yesterday; for they looked dirty and squalid in their

discoloured and rent clothes. Then Charles, full of guile, said to his

chamberlain: "Give my sheepskin a rub and bring it to me." It came quite

white and perfectly sound and Charles took it and showed it to all those

who were there and spoke as follows:--"Most foolish of mortal men! which

of these dresses is the most valuable and the most useful, this one of

mine which was bought for a piece of silver, or those of yours which you

bought for pounds, nay for many talents?" Their eyes sank to the ground

for they could not bear his most terrible censure.

Your most religious father imitated this example of the Great Charles

all through his life, for he never allowed anyone, who seemed to him

worthy of his notice or his teaching, to wear anything when on campaign

against the enemy except the military accoutrements, and garments of

wool and linen. If any of his servants, ignorant of this rule, happened

to meet him with silk or silver or gold upon his person, he would

receive a reprimand of the following kind and would depart a better and

a wiser man. "Here's a blaze of gold and silver and scarlet! Why, you

wretched fellow, can't you be satisfied with perishing yourself in

battle if Fate so decides? Must you also give your wealth into the hands

of the enemy; which might have gone to ransom your soul, but now will

decorate the temples of the heathen?"

But now, though you know it better than I do, I will tell again how,

from early youth up to his seventieth year, the unconquered Lewis

delighted in iron; and what an exhibition of his fondness for iron he

made in the presence of the legates of the Northmen!

18. When the kings of the Northmen sent gold and silver as witness of

their loyalty and their swords as a mark of their perpetual subjection

and surrender, the king gave orders that the precious metals should be

thrown upon the floor, and should be looked upon by all with contempt,

and be trampled upon by all as though they were dirt. But, as he sat

upon his lofty throne, he ordered the swords to be brought to him that

he might make trial of them. Then the ambassadors, anxious to avoid the

possibility of any suspicion of an evil design, took the swords by the

very point (as servants hand knives to their masters) and thus gave them

to the emperor at their own risk. He took one by the hilt and tried to

bend the tip of the blade right back to the base; but the blade snapped

between his hands which were stronger than the iron itself. Then one of

the envoys drew his own sword from its sheath and offered it, like a

servant, to the emperor's service, saying: "I think you will find this

sword as flexible and as strong as your all-conquering right hand could

desire." Then the emperor (a true emperor he! As the Prophet Isaiah says

in his prophecy, "Consider the rock whence ye were hewn": for he out of

all the vast population of Germany, by the singular favour of God, rose

to the level of the strength and courage of an earlier generation)--the

emperor, I say, bent it like a vine-twig from the extreme point back to

the hilt, and then let it gradually straighten itself again. Then the

envoys gazed upon one another and said in amazement: "Would that our

kings held gold and silver so cheap and iron so precious."

19. As I have mentioned the Northmen I will show by an incident drawn

from the reign of your grandfather in what slight estimation they hold

faith and baptism. Just as after the death of the warrior King David,

the neighbouring peoples, whom his strong hand had subdued, for a long

time paid their tribute to his peaceful son Solomon: even so the

terrible race of the Northmen still loyally paid to Lewis the tribute

which through terror they had paid to his father, the most august

Emperor Charles. Once the most religious Emperor Lewis took pity on

their envoys, and asked them if they would be willing to receive the

Christian religion; and, when they answered that always and everywhere

and in everything they were ready to obey him, he ordered them to be

baptised in the name of Him, of whom the most learned Augustine says:

"If there were no Trinity, the Truth would never have said: 'Go and

teach all peoples, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and

Holy Ghost.'" The nobles of the palace adopted them almost as children,

and each received from the emperor's chamber a white robe and from their

sponsors a full Frankish attire, of costly robes and arms and other

decorations.

This was often done and from year to year they came in increasing

numbers, not for the sake of Christ but for earthly advantage. They made

haste to come, not as envoys any longer but as loyal vassals, on Easter

Eve to put themselves at the disposal of the emperor; and it happened

that on a certain occasion they came to the number of fifty. The emperor

asked them whether they wished to be baptised, and when they had

confessed he bade them forthwith be sprinkled with holy water. As linen

garments were not ready in sufficient numbers he ordered shirts to be

cut up and sewn together into the fashion of wraps. One of these was

forthwith clapped upon the shoulders of one of the elder men; and when

he had looked all over it for a minute, he conceived fierce anger in his

mind, and said to the emperor: "I have gone through this washing

business here twenty times already, and I have been dressed in excellent

clothes of perfect whiteness; but a sack like this is more fit for

clodhoppers than for soldiers. If I were not afraid of my nakedness, for

you have taken away my own clothes and have given me no new ones, I

would soon leave your wrap and your Christ as well."

Ah! how little do the enemies of Christ value the words of the Apostle

of Christ where he says:--"All ye that are baptised in Christ, put on

Christ"; and again: "Ye that are baptised in Christ are baptised in His

death"; or that passage which is aimed especially at those who despise

the faith and violate the sacraments: "Crucifying the Son of God afresh

and putting Him to an open shame!" Oh! would that this were the case

only with the heathen; and not also among those who are called by the

name of Christ!

20. Now I must tell a story about the goodness of the first Lewis, and

then I shall come back to Charles. That most peaceable emperor Lewis,

being free from the incursions of the enemy, gave all his care to works

of religion, as, for instance, to prayer, to works of charity, to the

hearing and just determinations of trials at law. His talents and his

experience had made him very skilful in this latter business; and when

one day there came to him one, who was considered a very Achitophel by

all, and tried to deceive him he gave him this answer following, with

courteous mien and kindly voice, though with some little agitation of

mind. "Most wise Anselm," he said, "if I may be allowed to say so, I

would venture to observe that you are deviating from the path of

rectitude." From that day the reputation of that legal luminary sank to

nothing in the eyes of all the world.

21. Moreover the most merciful Lewis was so intent on works of charity

that he liked not merely to have them done in his sight, but even to do

them with his own hand. Even when he was away he made special

arrangements for the trial of cases in which the poor were concerned. He

chose one of their own number, a man of small bodily strength, but

apparently more courageous than the rest, and gave orders that he should

decide offences committed by them; and should see to the restoration of

stolen property, the requital of injuries and wounds, and in cases of

greater crimes to the infliction of mutilation, decapitation, and the

exposure of the bodies on the gallows. This man established dukes,

tribunes, centurions and their representatives, and performed his task

with energy.

Moreover the most merciful emperor, worshipping Christ in the persons of

all the poor, was never weary of giving them food and clothing: and he

did so especially on the day when Christ, having put off His mortal

body, was preparing to take to Himself an incorruptible one. On that day

it was his practice to make presents to each and every one of those who

served in the palace or did duty in the royal court. He would order

belts, leg coverings and precious garments brought from all parts of his

vast empire to be given to some of his nobles; the lower orders would

get Frisian cloaks of various colours; his grooms, cooks and

kitchen-attendants got clothes of linen and wool and knives according to

their needs. Then, when according to the Acts of the Apostles there was

no one that was in need of anything, there was a universal feeling of

gratitude. The ragged poor, now decently clad, raised their voices to

heaven with the cry of "'Kyrie Eleison' to the blessed Lewis" through

all the wide courts and the smaller openings of Aix (which the Latins

usually call porches); and all the knights who could embraced the feet

of the emperor; and those who could not get to him worshipped him afar

off as he made his way to church. On one of these occasions one of the

fools said in jest: "O happy Lewis, who on one day hast been able to

clothe so many people. By Christ, I think that no one in Europe has

clothed more than you this day except Atto."[93] When the emperor asked

him how it was possible that Atto should have clothed more, the jester,

pleased to have secured the attention of the emperor, said with a grin:

"He has distributed to-day a vast number of new clothes." The emperor,

with the sweetest possible expression on his face, took this for the

silly joke it was, and entered the church in humble devotion, and there

behaved himself so reverently that he seemed to have our Lord Jesus

Christ Himself before his bodily eyes.

It was his habit to go to the baths every Saturday, not for any need

there was of it, but because it gave him an opportunity of making

presents; for he used to give everything that he took off, except his

sword and belt, to his attendants. His liberality reached even to the

lowest grades: insomuch that he once ordered all his attire to be given

to one Stracholf, a glazier, and a servant of Saint Gall. When the

servants of the barons heard of this, they laid an ambuscade for him on

the road and tried to rob him. Then he cried out: "What are you doing?

You are using violence to the glazier of the emperor!" They answered:

"You can keep your office but ..."

[_Here the MS. ends, and the further adventures of Stracholf are left to

conjecture._]

NOTES

[1] Walafridus Strabo was abbot of a Frankish monastery from 842 to

849.

[2] The Emperor Lewis I. (Lewis the Pious, 814-840) was the son and

successor of Charles the Great. His weakness and pietism did much

to wreck the imperial structure of Charles.

[3] Neither the headings nor the decorations (incisiones) are given in

the present translation. The decorations necessarily disappear,

and the various headings to the paragraphs, not being the work of

Eginhard, are not usually printed with the text. But Walafridus

Strabo was personally known to Eginhard, and his Preface seems,

therefore, to deserve reproduction.

[4] That is, though there are many who would be ready to write

Charles's life, Eginhard thinks that he has peculiar

qualifications for the task which make it obligatory on him to do

so.

[5] The Latin of Eginhard's Life is much superior to the general

monkish Latin of his period. _See_ Introduction.

[6] This is King Childeric III., who was deposed in 751 by a National

Council, with the approval of the Pope. Pippin the Short was then

elected king, and crowned by Boniface. With Childeric the

Merovingian dynasty ends, and gives place to the curiously-named

Carolingian, of which Charlemagne was the greatest representative.

[7] Eginhard here makes a mistake. The Pope was not Stephen, who held

the Papal See from 752 to 757, but Zacharias, who was Pope from

741 to 752. Eginhard's mistake is, perhaps, due to the fact that

the decision of Zacharias was confirmed by his successor.

[8] Mr Carless Davis remarks on this passage: "Eginhard errs in

representing this as an indignity. Religious usage demanded that

the king of the race should make his progresses in this primitive

vehicle. The Merovingians were a national priesthood. Here also we

have the explanation of their flowing locks and beard. The touch

of steel--a metal unknown to the Frankish nation in its

infancy--would have profaned their persons. Similarly the

priesthood of ancient Rome were forbidden to remove the hair from

their faces except with bronze tweezers." ("Life of Charlemagne,"

p. 28.)

[9] This is Charles Martel--Charles the Hammer--who "reigned" as Mayor

of the Palace from 715 to 741. His great victory (variously known

as the Battle of Poitiers, or the Battle of Tours, though the

former is the more accurate title) was fought in 732, and is

regarded as the "Salamis of Western Europe." It was the first

serious blow that the Mohammedan advance had received, and its

effects were decisive. The second battle, fought near Narbonne,

completed the work of the first.

[10] Pippin, father of Charles Martel, and grandfather of Pippin the

Short, was Mayor of the Palace from 687 to 714.

[11] Pippin's reign really lasted for rather more than sixteen

years--from 751 to 768.

[12] This statement, as is clear from other sources, does not

correspond with the facts. Charles took Austrasia, and the greater

part of Neustria, with the lands lying between the Loire and the

Garonne. Burgundy, Provence, Alsace, Alemannia, and the

south-eastern part of Aquitaine fell to Carloman.

[13] Carloman died in December 771. His death removed from the path of

Charles one of the most serious obstacles. The custom of the

Frankish monarchy was equal inheritance of all the sons. It was

this which contributed so much to the disruption of the Frankish

power on the death of Charles; but for the death of Carloman the

"Empire" would never have been founded, or founded only after

bitter civil war. Eginhard again makes a mistake in dates. The two

brothers had administered the realm in common for more than three

years.

[14] This reticence of Eginhard's about his hero's early life, about

which it would have been quite easy to procure information, has

seemed to many to lend colour to a report that Charles was born

before the Church had sanctioned the marriage of his parents.

[15] Hunold was the father of Waifar, and had for twenty years lived as

a monk in the Island of Rhe, but upon the death of his son he left

his monastic retreat in the hope of re-establishing the fortunes

of his family in Aquitaine.

[16] The Saxon war--the greatest task of Charles's whole reign--lasted

with some intermissions for more than thirty years (from 772 to

804). By his conquest and conversion of the fierce and heathen

Saxons--who occupied the lands in the valleys of the Ems and the

Weser and reached as far as the Elbe--he laid the foundations of

mediaeval and modern Germany.

[17] For an account of the religious beliefs and practices of the

Saxons, _see_ Davis's "Charlemagne," p. 95.

[18] The "conversion" of Saxony by Charles was of the most forcible

kind. No Mohammedan ever offered the choice between the Koran and

the edge of the sword more clearly than Charles put death or

baptism before the Saxons. The "Saxon Poet," who in the next

century wrote in honour of the King who had destroyed the

independence of his land, tells how Charles used the whole force

of his army to drag the Saxons from the devil's power; and

remarks, as a matter of course, that persuasion and argument are

not sufficient to turn the heathen from their faith.

[19] The river Hasa is near Osnabrueck.

[20] This is the famous defeat of Roncesvalles, where later legends

affirmed that "Charlemagne with all his peerage fell at

Fontarabia," and where Roland wound his horn, whose sound is still

heard in the verse of Milton. By a strange chance this incident

becomes one of the most famous in the cycle of mediaeval

Charlemagne legends; and Roland, evermore transfigured from the

historical warden of the Breton march, becomes, after long

wanderings, the Orlando of the "Orlando Furioso" of Ariosto. But

the historical Roland seems mentioned here, and here only.

[21] The Duchy of Beneventum embraced a large part of the Italian

peninsula south of Rome. It had been for a long time connected, in

loose feudal dependence, with the Lombard monarchy of North Italy,

and, since that had been overwhelmed and annexed by Charles, was

now regarded as a dependency of the Carolingian monarchy.

[22] Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, had offended Charles by claiming

independent sovereignty and refusing to recognise Charles in any

way as his overlord. From the beginning of Charles's reign there

had been friction between them, but for some time a hollow truce

had existed. War came in 787, in spite of the efforts of the

Papacy at mediation, and ended swiftly, as described in the text,

owing to the overwhelming strength of the armies brought against

Tassilo by Charles. But the past of Bavaria was too great to allow

its Duke to accept the position of inferiority, and in the next

year Tassilo was deposed, tonsured, and imprisoned in a monastery.

[23] It was part of Charles's general policy to displace the dukes of

his realm, with their undefined and dangerous powers, and to

administer his dominions by a large number of counts, who were to

begin with quite dependent officials executing the orders of the

King over a limited area. "Count" was not yet the great title of

nobility which it became later.

[24] The Wiltzes lived on the shores of the Baltic between the Elbe and

the Oder.

[25] This "gulf" of Eginhard's presents geographical difficulties. The

direction indicated and the approximate measurements suggested

make it impossible to apply his words to the whole of the Baltic

Gulf. The south-eastern part of the Baltic will correspond fairly

well to the description.

[26] The war against the Avars was due to the alliance which had

existed between them and Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria. The Avars,

though allied in race to the ancient Huns and the modern Magyars,

were, nevertheless, a distinct people. Charles's war entirely

broke their power, and removed a great danger from western Europe.

[27] "The Monk of St Gall" (II. i.) gives an interesting description of

the vast concentric earthworks by which the power of the Kagan was

defended, and his account rests on better authority than much of

his strange chronicle. _See_ also Dr Hodgkin's "Life of Charles

the Great," p. 155.

[28] The vast treasure of the Avars had an important influence on the

course of Charles's career. This great influx of the precious

metals into Germany depreciated the value of the coinage and

raised the price of commodities.

[29] This is Tersatz, a town of Istria.

[30] These Northmen (or Danes, as they are usually called when they

appear in English history) proved themselves the most terrible

enemies of civilisation during the next century. "The Monk of St

Gall" makes Charles prophesy the ruin that would come eventually

on his Empire from these northern sea-rovers. The attacks of the

Northmen were among the most direct causes of the subsequent

disruption of the Empire of Charles.

[31] This is an exaggeration of Eginhard's. Charles did, indeed,

greatly extend the Frankish dominions; but he strengthened them

still more decisively by the improvements which he introduced into

the internal order and administration.

[32] The Balearic Sea is the western Mediterranean.

[33] "Non aliter quam proprium suum." Feudalism in any strict sense of

the word was not yet established; but Alfonso was, in effect,

"commending" himself to a feudal superior.

[34] The spelling of the original is retained; but the "Aaron" of

Eginhard is the great Caliph Harun-al-Raschid, the Abassid Caliph

of Bagdad, whose actions play so large a part in fiction as well

as in history.

[35] It is strange, in view of the friendly relations of Charles with

the Mohammedan ruler of the East, that later legend so

persistently represented Charles as a Crusader, driving the Paynim

from the Holy City. The height of unreality is reached when, as in

Ariosto, we find Charlemagne relieving the city of Paris, which is

being besieged by the Mohammedans.

[36] This elephant caused a great sensation in Europe. His arrival,

life, and death are carefully noted by the chroniclers.

[37] The exact meaning of the original is far from clear (ne qua hostis

exire potuisset). The ingress rather than the egress is what

Charles must have wished to prevent, but there seems no doubt

about the reading.

[38] "The Monk of St Gall" says that the cause of this repudiation was

the constant illness of his wife, and her incapacity to bear him

children.

[39] This Hildigard was only thirteen years of age at the time of her

marriage with Charles. Besides the children mentioned by Eginhard

she bore to Charles three others--Lothaire, Adelais, and

Hildigard.

[40] Fastrada is regarded by Eginhard elsewhere as the evil influence

on Charles's life, urging him against the natural bent of his

character to acts of cruelty and violence. Dr Hodgkin, however,

points out that the most cruel act of his reign--the massacre of

4500 Saxons--took place before his marriage with Fastrada.

[41] The betrothal of Hruotrud to the Eastern Emperor, and the rupture

of the marriage contract, is a somewhat obscure thread in the

diplomacy of the reign of Charles. Note that the betrothal took

place in 781, during the residence of Charles at Rome, but

nineteen years before he had assumed the imperial title. Religious

difference and political jealousies probably both played their

part in the rupture. Both Frankish and Greek chroniclers are

anxious to maintain that the repudiation came from their side.

[42] If scandal is to be believed, the Court of Charles, in spite of

his devotion to the Church and his anxiety to maintain a high

standard of morals, was the scene of much licence and disorder.

[43] This conspiracy of Pippin took place in the years 785 and 786.

[44] We have here the natural and simple beginnings of the ceremony

that afterwards reached such great proportions in the _lever_ and

_coucher_ of the French kings.

[45] This reference to Greek at the Court of Charlemagne is interesting

in view of the exaggerated views sometimes held on the

disappearance of Greek in the Middle Ages.

[46] This is Alcuin of York, one of the greatest of Englishmen;

undoubtedly, as Eginhard says, the most learned man of his time.

His letters form a valuable source of information for the inner

life of Charlemagne and his Court.

[47] This passage has been closely scrutinised and commented on. Do

Eginhard's words imply that Charlemagne could not write at all?

This seems a very improbable interpretation of them. _Parum

successit_ would rather mean that "he made but little headway." It

may well be that the King was able to write roughly and in an

ordinary way but failed to acquire the elegant and delicate

calligraphy that was aimed at by the scribes of the time.

[48] Eginhard passes very lightly over these epoch-making events of

Christmas Day in the year 800, when the imperial title was again

assumed by a ruler of the West, and the Mediaeval Empire was

launched with all its vast consequences, both for the theory and

practice of the Middle Ages.

Charlemagne's expressed regret for what occurred (of which we hear

from other sources) has been variously interpreted. It can hardly

refer to the imperial title altogether; for this certainly was not

unexpected, nor was it due merely to the decision of the Pope.

Charles had himself decided to adopt it: it was the coping-stone

to all his policy and his whole career, for in power Charles was

Emperor before the consecration of that famous Christmas Day. The

regret expressed by Charles more probably refers to the method in

which the title was bestowed: it came to him too much as a grant

from the Papacy, too little as the result of his own power and

will. His heart may well have foreboded something of the long

struggle between Empire and Papacy, which agitated the eleventh,

twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, which caused so much bloodshed

on both sides of the Alps, and which in the end ruined the power

of both Emperor and Pope: for this struggle had its roots in the

indefinite basis of the imperial title. The regrets of Charlemagne

are probably in close relation to the wars of Henry IV., of

Frederick Barbarossa, and of Frederick II. Had the Papacy the

right to give or to withhold the imperial title? That was the

great underlying problem of the imperial position.

[49] The Roman Emperors are the Emperors at Constantinople.

[50] That is to say, the legal systems of the Salian and Ripuarian

Franks.

[51] Nothing in all the policy of Charles gives such an impression of

enlightenment as the actions alluded to here. A collection of

German sagas, and a grammar of the German language as it was in

the year 800--what would not posterity give for these? The

disappearance of the former is due to the policy of his son and

successor Lewis the Pious, whose piety had little in common with

the robust and broad views of his father. The biographer of Lewis

tells us that Lewis "rejected the national poems, which he had

learnt in his youth, and would not have them read or recited or

taught."

[52] Their names (in the original) are as follows:--Wintarmanoth,

Hornung, Lentzinmanoth, Ostarmanoth, Winnemanoth, Brachmanoth,

Hewimanoth, Aranmanoth, Witumanoth, Windumemanoth, Herbistmanoth,

Heiligmanoth.

[53] This curt and definite statement of Eginhard disposes at once of

the well-known story of Otto III.'s visit to Charlemagne's grave

in the year 1000, and his remarkable discovery there. But the

story is so famous that it may be given in the words of the

chronicler of Novalese, who is our chief authority for it.

"After the passage of many years the Emperor Otto III. came into

the district where the body of Charles was lying duly buried. He

descended into the place of burial with two bishops and Otto,

Count of Lomello; the Emperor himself completed the party of four.

Now, the Count gave his version of what happened much as

follows:--'We came then to Charles. He was not lying down, as is

usual with the bodies of the dead, but sat on a sort of seat, as

though he were alive. He was crowned with a golden crown; he held

his sceptre in his hands, and his hands were covered with gloves,

through which his nails had forced a passage. Round him there was

a sort of vault built, strongly made of mortar and marble. When we

came to the grave we broke a hole into it and entered, and

entering, were aware of a very strong odour. At once we fell upon

our knees and worshipped him, and the Emperor Otto clothed him

with white garments, cut his nails, and restored whatever was

lacking in him. But corruption had not yet taken anything away

from his limbs; only a little was lacking to the very tip of his

nose. Otto had this restored in gold; he then took a single tooth

from his mouth, and so built up the vault, and departed.'"

----

[54] The reference is to the Book of Daniel ii. 33.

[55] The pilgrimage is, of course, life.

[56] The visit of Albinus (or Alcuin) of York to the court of King

Charles is alluded to in Eginhard's Life of Charles, Ch. xxv. His

arrival in Frankland occurred in 781, and was of the utmost

importance in stimulating and guiding the intellectual renascence

of Charles's reign.

[57] "Lord, if I am still useful to thy people I will willingly take on

myself this labour on their behalf. Thy will be done" is the full

versicle, which comes on the 11th November (St Martin's Day). The

story in the text is made intelligible when we find that more than

one of the responses that follow end with the words "Thy will be

done." The poor clerk knew that, and started off, therefore, on

the Lord's Prayer, which he knew would bring him to the right

ending.

[58] Grimald was Abbot of St Gall from 841 to 872. It will be noticed

all through the piece that the narrative becomes more full and

definite, though not necessarily more truthful, when it touches on

the writer's own monastery.

[59] The whole of this statement is a tissue of absurdities, which are,

however, worth a moment's attention, as giving some indication of

the value that is to be attached to the Monk of St Gall's

testimony. The Pope Stephen here alluded to must be Stephen II.,

who occupied the Papal throne from 752 to 757. He it was who

crowned Pippin King of the Franks in 754. He can have had nothing

to do with Charlemagne, who did not reign until 768; but the words

of the text (_se ad gubernacula regni perunxit_) can only refer to

Charles. It must have been Pope Stephen III. (768-772) to whom

Charlemagne appealed if there is any truth in the story at all;

and Pope Stephen III. can, of course, have had nothing to do with

Hilderich.

[60] Pope Leo III. did not succeed Pope Stephen until after an interval

of twenty-three years. Pope Leo III.'s date is 795-816.

[61] For Drogo _see_ Eginhard's Life, Ch. xv. But again the

unhistorical character of the narrative is shown by the fact that

Drogo was made Bishop of Metz, _after the death of Charles,_ and

against his own will.

[62] A curious display of trivial learning! But it is interesting to

note the mention of Greek as of a language not wholly unknown to a

monk of the ninth century.

[63] _See_ Eginhard's Life, Ch. xxiv., for the difficulties found by

Charles in observing the fasts of Lent.

[64] Here is another notorious error. Hildigard died in 783. Fastrada

was queen when, in 791, Charles advanced to the war against the

Avars.

[65] The next six chapters are omitted, because in them the Monk of St

Gall is led away, by his desire to tell a good and edifying story,

into matter that has no connection of any kind with Charlemagne,

and is sometimes offensive to modern taste. The stories are for

the most part to the discredit of the Episcopal order. A single

phrase in Chapter xxv. may be noted, as indicating the theocratic

view of Charles which the writer takes throughout: "the most

religious Charles" is called _episcopus episcoporum,_ "the bishop

of bishops."

[66] Our author here again handles events of the most general notoriety

in a spirit completely independent of historical accuracy. Leo

III. was, it is true, the Pope to whose assistance Charlemagne

came; but no Michael was ruling at that time in Constantinople.

Michael II. reigned from 820-829, and Michael III. from 842-867.

Thus the name was associated, in the mind of the Monk of St Gall,

with the imperial throne of the east--and that was more than

enough. The sentiment attributed to the Emperor is as impossible

as his name is inaccurate.

[67] St Pancras is one of the saints given by the persecution of the

Emperor Diocletian to the calendar of the Church. He is said to

have been executed in his fourteenth year in the year 295. The

following extract from the Golden Legend will explain the

reference in the text:--"Of him said Gregory of Tours, Doctor:

That if there be a man that will make a false oath in the place of

his sepulchre, tofore or he came to the chancel of the quire he

shall be travailed with an evil spirit and out of mind, or he

shall fall on the pavement all dead. It happed on a time that

there was a great altercation between two men, and the judge wist

not who had wrong. And, for the jealousy of justice that he had,

he brought them both unto the altar of Saint Peter for to swear,

praying the apostle that he would declare who had right. And when

he that had wrong had sworn and had none harm the judge who knew

the malice of him said all on high: This old Peter here is either

over-merciful, or he is propitious to this young man, but let us

go to Pancrace and demand we of him the truth; and when they came

to the sepulchre, he that was culpable swore and stretched forth

his hand, but he might not withdraw his hand again to him, and

anon after he died there, and therefore unto this day, of much

people it is used that for great and notable causes men make their

oaths upon the relics of S. Pancrace."

[68] This celebrated coronation took place on Christmas Day of the year

800, and marks the foundation of the Mediaeval Empire. Charles is

known to have expressed regret either at the fact or the manner of

the presentation of the imperial crown; and the Monk of St Gall is

not so wide of the point as usual in the account he gives of the

causes of his hesitation.

[69] Giants figure largely in the stories which are told of St Antony's

temptation. The Golden Legend says: "S. Anthony recordeth of

himself that he had seen a man so great and so high that he

vaunted himself to be the virtue and the providence of God and

said to me: 'Demand of me what thou wilt, and I shall give it to

thee.' And I spit in the midst of his visage, and anon I armed me

with the sign of the cross, and ran upon him, and anon he vanished

away. And after this the devil appeared to him in so great stature

that he touched the heaven, etc." Gigantic appearances figure,

too, elsewhere in the story of St Antony's trials.

[70] Two motives are to be detected in most of these stories beyond the

general purpose of moral and religious edification. There is the

jealousy of the bishops, so usually felt by the monks, and there

is the scorn felt by the northern peoples for the refinements of

the Italian population.

[71] I have inserted the passage in brackets, which seems necessary to

give meaning to the following instances.

[72] This King of the Franks is, of course, not Charlemagne, but

Charles the Third, called the Fat, who in 883 spent three days in

the Monastery of St Gall.

[73] Julian's death took place in 367. It need scarcely be pointed out

that the Monk's historical narrative is here of the very wildest

description.

[74] It is unnecessary to disentangle the Monk's strange perversion of

history; but it may be noted that he identifies the Avars, whom

Charlemagne subdued, with the Huns who followed Attila. But the

Huns and the Avars, though allied in race, were two quite distinct

nationalities.

[75] It would be an interesting inquiry whether archaeological or

historical research corroborates in any way this interesting

account which Adalbert gives of the Hunnish fortifications.

[76] These three sons are--Charles, who died in 811; Pippin, who died

in 810; and Lewis, who succeeded to the undivided dominions of

Charlemagne, and is usually known as Lewis the Pious.

[77] The Persians of the ninth century are by the Monk identified with

the Persians of the period of Marathon and Salamis.

[78] It must be remembered that the whole of the Monk's narrative is

nominally addressed to Charles the Fat, great-grandson of

Charlemagne.

[79] This is the famous Haroun al Raschid already mentioned in

Eginhard's Life of Charlemagne.

[80] There is really no doubt about the identification of the Arar. It

is the Saone, the most important of the tributaries of the Rhone.

[81] This is Lewis of Bavaria, who was King of Germany from 843-876,

the son of Lewis the Pious, and the father of Charles the Fat.

[82] The Monk's method here is not difficult to understand. The words

of St Ambrose and the parallel between the Saint and Charles are

clearly introduced to give evidence of the writer's wide learning.

[83] Charles the Fat had no children; but he had a brother, Carloman,

King of Bavaria, and another, Lewis, King of Saxony.

[84] St Hemmeramm (or Emmeran, as the name is now usually written) was

first a bishop in some Frankish see (possibly Poitiers) who about

649 went as a missionary to the idolaters of Bavaria. He was

assassinated in 652 near Munich, on his road to Rome. A church in

Regensburg is still called by his name.

[85] This conspiracy is given in Eginhard's Life, Chap, xx., but

without the Monk's picturesque details, and with the substitution

of Prumia (in the Moselle country) for the Monastery of St Gall.

Eginhard's authority must, of course, be preferred, and we have,

therefore, a striking instance of the monkish chronicler's desire

to turn everything to the honour of his own cloister.

[86] This story has a long history. It is first told of Thrasybulus,

tyrant of Miletus; it was then adapted by Livy (1-54) to Tarquin,

King of Rome, with slight alterations. The same story, which is

here told somewhat clumsily, and applied to Charlemagne, is given

by Ekkehard as belonging to the reign of Charles III.

[87] The reference is to the Monastery of Prumia, which was destroyed

by the Northmen in 882.

[88] Thurgau is in Switzerland.

[89] "Eis," meaning terrible; and "here" an army.

[90] No Northman made any permanent settlement on the Moselle either in

the reign of Charles or at any other time. At most this can refer

only to the boast, or design, of some such chief as Gotefrid.

[91] The allusion to the Nordostrani fixes this reference to the year

882, when the Northmen were a terrible and increasing danger to

all Frankland. The Arnulf here mentioned was the son of Charles

the Fat, and, later, Emperor.

[92] This story of King Pippin's visit to Rome is entirely legendary.

It is repeated by later chroniclers, but is certainly without

basis of any kind.

[93] I confess myself unable to make anything out of the jester's

references to Atto.

INDEX

Aaron, King of Persia, 28. _See_ also Haroun.

Abodriti, 23; reduced by Northmen, 26.

Adalbert, xxi.; 104, 106.

Adalgis, 15.

Africans, envoys to Charles, 121.

Aix, Charles's palace at, 38; cathedral at, 42; buildings of, 92.

Albinus. _See_ Alcuin.

Alcuin of York, xiii.; 41, 61; success of his pupils, 71, 72.

Aldefonsus of Gallaecia, 28.

Aquitania, war in, 13.

Aragis, Duke of Beneventum, 21.

Ariosto, xxiv.

Atto, 157.

Avars, war against, 24; seizure of their store, 25, 107; their rings,

106.

Baugulfus, Abbot, xii.

Bavarian war, 22.

Beneventum, 21.

Bertrada, mother of Charles, 33.

Bishops, how appointed by Charles, 64, 66; luxury of, 66; folly of, 76;

arrogance of, 77; cleanliness rewarded, 78; the bishop's cheeses, 79;

pride rebuked, 80; the adventure of the painted mouse, 82; vanity

reprimanded, 83; preaching enjoined on, 84; luxury of, 86; churlishness

in Greece, 110.

Bobbio, monastery of, 71.

Boniface, xii.

Bretons, conquest of, 20.

Carloman, brother of Pippin, 10; retires to Monte Cassino, 11.

Carloman, brother of Charles, 11; dies, 12.

Centumcellae, 31.

Chanting, Charles's care for, 72.

Charlemagne. _See_ Charles the Great; the legend of his life, xxiii.

Charles the Great, xvii.; sole king, 12; extent of his conquests, 26;

buildings, 30; fleet, 30; private life of, 32, etc.; family of, 33;

treatment of his daughters, 35; love of foreigners, 37; personal

appearance, 37; dress, 38; knowledge of Latin and Greek, 41; fails to

learn to write, 41; reforms reading and singing, 42; fondness for Rome,

43; becomes Emperor, 44, 91; reforms the legal system of the Franks, 44;

changes the names of winds and months, 45; death, 47; burial, 47 (_see_

also 169); will, 50.

Charles, Martel, 9.

Cicero, 6.

Clement the Scot, 61, 62.

Constantinople, Emperors of, 29; embassy to, 109; strange banqueting

laws, 111.

Dante, xxiv.

Deacon "who followed the Italian custom," strange death of, 100.

Desiderius, King of the Lombards, 12, 15, 22, 144; alarm at the iron

host of Charles, 145.

Drogo, Bishop of Metz, 75.

Eginhard, xii.; career, xiii.; writings, xvi.; his life of Charlemagne,

xvi.; birth and education, 1; motives for writing, 4.

Eishere of Thurgau, 136.

Eric, Duke of Friuli, 25.

Fasting, Charles's difficulty with, 39, 76.

Fastrada, wife of Charles, 33; cruelty of, 36.

Franks, national dress of, 38, 102.

Frisian garments, 103.

Friuli, the Bishop of, 148; hunting party at, 149.

Gascons defeat Charles, 19.

Gerold, Governor of Bavaria, 25.

Godofrid the Dane, 25; killed, 26, 48, 137.

Gotefrid. _See_ Godofrid.

Greek, knowledge of, 41, 75.

Greeks jealous of Charles, 91; outwitted by Franks, 111; envoys at

Charles's court, 113; terror of, 115; music of, 115; envy of, 141.

Grimald, Abbot of St Gall, 71.

Hadrian, Pope, 14, 16; Charles's sorrow at death of, 35, 39.

Haistulf, King of Lombards, 14.

Haroun al Raschid, 28; cedes the holy places to Charles, 29, 121;

Charles's presents to, 122; praises Charles, 123; gives the Holy Land to

Charles, 124.

Hartmuth, Abbot of St Gall, 127.

Hasa, battle of, 18.

Heitto, Bishop, 114.

Hilderich the Merovingian, 8, 72.

Hildigard, 32, 64, 77, 82, 119.

Holy places, the, given to Charles, 29, 124.

Hugo, Duke, 112.

Hunold, 13.

Huns, war against, 24. _See_ Avars.

Imperial title assumed by Charles, 29, 44, 91.

Isambard, 119, 120.

Julian, 105.

Kerold, xxi.; 108.

Leo, Pope, 39; outrage upon, 44, 88, 74.

Lewis of Bavaria, 125, 126; reprimands luxury, 151.

Lewis the Pious, 2; declared Emperor by Charles, 46, 56, 126, 128; his

conversion of the Northmen, 153, 155; his care for the poor, 156; his

universal charity, 156.

Liutfrid, the knavish steward, 97. Liutgard, wife of Charles, 33.

Lombards, war with, 14.

Lupus, Duke of the Gascons, 13.

Mainz, the great bridge of, 48, 96.

Mayors of the Palace, 8.

Merovingian kings, 8.

Michael, Emperor of Constantinople, 89.

Miracles, 98, 100, 102, 142.

Monks, ignorance of, 70.

Moors, precautions against, 31.

Mulinheim, xv.

Northmen, 23, 25; Charles's measures against, 30; rigorous punishment

of, 131; Charles's prophesies concerning them, 139; they send envoys to

Lewis of Bavaria, 152; accept conversion from Lewis the Pious, 153;

their deceit, 154.

Organ, the Greek, 116.

Osning, battle of, 18.

Otker at Pavia, 144, 146.

Paris, Gaston, xxiii.

Pavia, siege of, 144, 147, 148.

Persians, envoys of, 116; hunting party provided for them, 118.

Peter of Pisa, 41.

Pippin the younger, 9; death, 11; war against Lombards, 14; legend of

his march on Rome, 140; slays a bull and a lion, 141; his encounter with

the devil, 142.

Pippin, son of Charles, 15; fights against Avars, 24, 32.

Pippin, Charles's illegitimate son, conspires against him, 36, 132; sent

to the monastery of St Gall, 133; gives advice to Charles, 134; moves to

another monastery, 135.

Pluralists, Charles's dislike of, 77.

Portents foretelling Charles's death, 48.

Prumia, monastery of, 36.

Reading, how practised at Charles's court, 69.

Regensburg, Lewis's buildings at, 129.

Roland, Praefect of the Breton frontier, 20.

Rome, Charles's fondness for, 43; Roman jealousy of the Franks, 73.

St Augustine, 40.

St Columban, xx.

St Gall, xx.

St Gall, Monk of, xix.; character of his narrative, xxii.

St Gall, monastery of, 75, 127.

St Pancras, 90 (and note).

St Peter of Ghent, xv.

St Wandrille, xv.

Saxons, war with, 16, 108; perfidy of, 17; transplantation of, 18; end

of war, 18; opinion of the Emperor of Constantinople, 110.

Scotch and Charles, 28; visit Frankland, 59.

Slavs, war with, 23.

Spain, expedition to, 19.

Stephen, Pope, 8, 72.

Stracholf of St Gall, 158.

Tancho, the bell-founder, 94.

Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, 22.

Tours, 61.

Waifar, Duke of Aquitania, 11.

Walafrid, 1.

Welatabi, 23.

Werinbert, xxi.; 104.

Wilzi, 23.

_The Riverside Press Limited, Edinburgh._