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AUTHOR: 
 
 MASTERMAN, JOHN 
 HOWARD BERTRAM 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 THE DAWN OF 
 MEDIAEVAL EUROPE, 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DA TE : 
 
 1910 
 
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 Masterman, John Howard Bertram, fcp. oj Plymouth 
 
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 The da^vIl of mediaeval Europe, 476-918, by J. Howard 
 B. Masterman ... with twelve maps. 4 th od* L ondony 
 Meth«en^& co.-4td.-tl9185 New York, Liicinillan, 1910. 
 
 .-.f^*^^.^^^' ^^^ P'J^^^' ^^o"*-' »^^"s. (maps) geneaL tables. 19"". (Half- 
 tUie: Six ages of European history ... vol. i) 
 
 Bibliography : p. xv-xix. 
 
 Restrictions on Use: 
 
 1. Europe— Hist.— 476-1492. i. Title. 
 
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SIX AGES OF EUROPEAN HISTORY 
 
 From A.D. 476 to 1878 
 
 IN SIX VOLUMES 
 General Editor: A. H. JOHNSON, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW OP ALL SOULS* COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 476-918 
 
For the Higher Forms of Schools 
 
 SIX AGES OF EUROPEAN HISTORY 
 
 From A.D. 476 to 1878 
 IN SIX VOLUMES 
 
 Edited by A. H. JOHNSON, M.A. 
 Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford 
 
 Vol. I. THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE. 476- 
 918. By the Rev. J. H. B. Masterman, M.A., Professor of 
 History in the University of Birmingham. 
 
 Vol. II. THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF THE MIDDLE 
 AGE. 918-1273. By Beatrice A. Lees, Resident History 
 Tutor, Somerville College, Oxford. 
 
 Vol. III. THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 1273-1453. 
 By Eleanor C. Lodge, Vice-Principal and Modern History 
 Tutor, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. 
 
 Vol. IV. EUROPE IN RENAISSANCE AND REFOR- 
 MATION. 1453-1660. By Mary A. Hollings, M.A.,. 
 Dublin, Headmistress of hdgbaston Church of England 
 College for Girls. 
 
 Vol. V. THE AGE OF THE ENLIGHTENED DESPOT. 
 1660-1789. By A. H. Johnson, M.A., Fellow of All Souls' 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 Vol. VI. THE REMAKING OF MODERN EUROPE. 
 1789-1878. By J. A. R. Markiott, M.A., Lecturer and 
 Tutor in Modern History and Economics at Worcester 
 College, Oxford. 
 
THE DAWN OF 
 MEDIv^VAL EUROPE 
 
 476-918 
 
 BY 
 
 J. HOWARD B. MASTERMAN 
 
 PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE I'NIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM 
 
 WITH TWELVE MAPS 
 
 « 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1910 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
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 ' * . • • •• 
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 CHAP. PAOl 
 
 Chronological Table xi 
 
 BlBLIOQRAPHT XV 
 
 I. Intboddction 1 
 
 II. The Empire in 476 8 
 
 III. The Rise op Theodobic 16 
 
 IV. The Gothic Kingdom in Italy 26 
 
 V. The Rise op the Franks ...;.. 39 
 
 VI. Justinian 54 
 
 VII. Benedict op Nursia and Columban .... 65 
 
 VIII. The Rise op Mohammedanism 73 
 
 IX. The Lombards in Italy and the Rise of the Papacy 81 
 
 X. The Mayors op the Palace 95 
 
 XI. Charles Martel 104 
 
 XII. Pippin, King op the Franks 113 
 
 XIII. The Pope, the Lombards and the Franks . . . 120 
 
 XIV. The Iconoclastic Emperors 133 
 
 XV. Charles the Great and the Lombard Kingdom . 146 
 
 XVI. The Saxon Wars 164 
 
 XVII. Charles, King op the Franks 160 
 
 XVIII. Carolus Imperator 171 
 
 ▼a 
 

 l\ 
 
 h I 
 
 viii THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 CHAP. PAOB 
 
 XIX. Law and Administration in the Empire . . . 186 
 XX. Alcuin and the Revival op Learning. John Scotus 191 
 
 XXI. The Charlemagne op Romance 200 
 
 XXII. The Reign op Louis the Pious 204 
 
 XXIII. The Break-up op the Carolingian Empire . . 212 
 
 XXIV. The Norsemen, the Saracens and the Magyars . 226 
 XXV. The Dark Ages 237 
 
 XXVI. Some Chroniclers op the Period .... 241 
 
 Appendix . 247 
 
 Index 249 
 
 GENEALOGICAL TABLES 
 
 The Family of Theodoric . .24 
 
 Early Merovingians 48 
 
 The Arnulping House 97 
 
 The Carolingian Dynasty 205 
 
 LIST OF MAPS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 The Western Provinces of the Empire . . . Frontispiece 
 
 Europe, 476 a.d : .... 9 
 
 Gaul in 600 a.d .41 
 
 Italy in the Seventh Century 83 
 
 The Empire in the Eighth Century 135 
 
 Italy, 768-813 151 
 
 Europe in the Time op Charles the Great . . . .173 
 
 The Lower Rhine igg 
 
 Partition op Verdun 214 
 
 Marqravates op Northern Italy 223 
 
 Western Europe in 900 a.d 225 
 
 Northern France 232 
 
 I' i 
 
 I 
 
ft 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 (Events of English history printed in Italics.) 
 
 476. Deposition of Romulus Augustulus. 
 
 Odoacer becomes King of Italy. 
 
 481. Accession of Clovis as King of the Franks. 
 
 489. Theodoric invades Italy. 
 
 493. Fall of Ravenna and death of Odoacer. 
 
 495. Cerdic founds kingdom of Wessex. 
 
 496. Baptism of Clovis after victory over Alemanni at Tolbiao. 
 511. Death of Clovis. 
 
 526. Death of Theodoric. 
 
 528. Accession of Justinian. 
 
 533. Conquest of North Africa by Belisarius. 
 
 536. Capture of Rome by Belisarius. 
 
 543. Death of Benedict of Nursia. 
 
 547. Ida founds kingdom of Northum^ria. 
 
 553. Departure of the Goths from Italy. 
 
 565. Death of Justinian. 
 
 Mission of Columba to lona. 
 
 568. Lombards, under Alboin, migrate into Italy. 
 
 581. Accession of Heraclius as Emperor. 
 
 590. Gregory the Great becomes Pope. 
 
 597. Mission of Augustine to England. 
 
 -614. Death of Brunhilda. 
 
 622. The flight {Heriga) of Mohammed. 
 
 626. Siege of Constantinople by the Persians. 
 
 633. Edwin of Northumhria slain by Penda of Mercia. 
 
 634. Battle of Yermuk— Conquest of Syria by the Moslems. 
 637. Surrender of JerusaleuL to Omar. 
 
 zt 
 
xu 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 Xill 
 
 lii 
 
 639. Death of Pippin of Landen. 
 
 640. Saracen conquest of Egypt. 
 
 656. Unsuccessful attempt of Grimoald to depose the Merovingiam 
 
 King. 
 
 688. Pippin of Heristal becomes Mayor of Austrasia. 
 
 711. Battle of Guadelete — Saracen conquest of Spain. 
 
 715. Death of Pippin. 
 
 717. Accession of Leo the Isaurian as Emperor. 
 
 Charles Martel becomes Mayor of Austrasia and Neustria. 
 
 718. Saracen siege of Constantinople. 
 
 720. Beginning of missionary labours of Boniface. 
 
 726. Iconoclastic edict — Resistance of Gregory II. 
 
 727. Conquest of Exarchate by Liutprand. 
 
 732. Victory of Charles Martel over Saracens at Poictiers. 
 
 735. Death of the Venerable Bede in Northumbria. 
 
 741. Death of Charles Martel — Pippin and Carloman, Mayors. 
 
 747. Abdication of Carloman after Alemannian campaign. 
 
 752. Pippin becomes King of the Franks. 
 
 754. Pippin's campaign against Aistulf. 
 
 Death of Boniface. 
 
 765. Accession of Off a as King of Mercia. 
 
 l&J. Frank conquest of Aquetaine. 
 
 768. Death of Pippin — Accession of Charles and Carloman. 
 
 773. Invasion of Lombardy by Charles. 
 
 774. First visit of Charles to Rome. 
 
 Fall of Pa via and end of Lombard kingdom. 
 
 775. First Saxon campaign. 
 
 778. Spanish campaign, and death of Roland at Roncesvalles. 
 
 782. Alcuin joins the Court of Charles. 
 
 787. First appearance of the Northmen in England. 
 
 788. Fall of Tassilo — Annexation of Bavaria by Charles. 
 790. Avar campaign. 
 
 794. Death of Off a of Mercia, 
 
 795. Death of Pope Hadrian I. — Leo III. succeeds. 
 Norse invasions of Ireland begin. 
 
 797. Irene dethrones Constantine. 
 
 799. First appearance of Northmen in Francia. 
 
 800. Coronation of Charles as Emperor. 
 802. Deposition of Irene. 
 
 814. Death of Charles the Great. 
 
 •822. 
 827. 
 «29. 
 833. 
 
 «40. 
 841. 
 643. 
 845. 
 847. 
 «49. 
 «71. 
 872. 
 «76. 
 877. 
 878. 
 884. 
 886. 
 887. 
 888. 
 
 896. 
 899. 
 
 900. 
 901. 
 911. 
 
 918. 
 
 Birth of Charles the Bald. 
 
 Egbert overlord of all England. 
 
 First Civil War in Francia. 
 
 The Liigenfeld (Field of Lies) — Louis the Pious deposed and 
 
 restored. 
 Death of Louis the Pious. 
 Battle of Fontenay. 
 
 Oath of Strasburg and Partition of Verdun. 
 Sack of Paris by Northmen. 
 Sack of Bordeaux by Northmen. 
 Victory of Leo over Saracens at Ostia. 
 Accession of Alfred in England. 
 Victory of Louis over Saracens at Salerno. 
 Death of Louis the German. 
 Death of Charles the Bald. 
 
 Peace of Wedmore between Alfred and the Danes. 
 Empire reunited under Charles the Fat. 
 Siege of Paris by Northmen. 
 
 Deposition of Charles the Fat — Final break-up of Empire. 
 Odo becomes King of West Francia, Arnulf of Germany, Ber- 
 
 engar of Italy, Rudolph of Upper Burgundy. 
 First appearance of Magyars in the West. 
 Death of Arnulf. 
 
 Charles the Simple, King of West Francia. 
 Berengar sole King of Italy. 
 Death of Alfred — Edward the Elder succeeds. 
 Death of Louis the Child — Conrad elected as King. 
 Treaty of Claire-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and the 
 
 Northmen. 
 Death of Conrad— Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony, elected 
 
 King. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 (For some account of the chief original authorities see pp. 241-6.) 
 
 Students of the period should, if possible, read Einhard's Life of 
 Charles the Great and the latter part of Gregory of Tours. 
 
 Text-books for the Period — 
 
 Church : The Beginning of the Middle Ages. 
 
 Oman : The Dark Ages. 
 
 Lavisse and Rambaud : Histoire O^n^rale, vol. i. 
 
 The Eastern Empire — 
 For Beginners : — 
 
 Oman : The Byzantine Empire (" Story of the Nations " Series). 
 Freeman: The Byzantine Empire in "Historical Essays," 
 First Series. 
 
 For more Advanced Students : — 
 
 Gibbon : Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 
 Bury : History of the Later Rom^n Empire. 
 Finlay : History of Greece. 
 
 XV 
 
XVI 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 xvu 
 
 Church History — 
 
 For Beginners : — 
 
 Milman : History of Latin Christianity. 
 
 For more Advanced Students : — 
 
 Duchesne : Les Premiers temps de VEtat Pontifical. 
 
 Hefele : History of Councils. 
 
 Montalembert ; Monks of the West. 
 
 Dudden: Gregory the Great— His Place in History and 
 
 Thotight. 
 Henderson : Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages 
 
 (for the Rule of St. Benedict). 
 Gregorovius : Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter (of which 
 
 there is an English translation). 
 
 The History of the Gothic kingdom in Italy — 
 For Beginners : — 
 
 Hodgkin : Theodaric (" Heroes of the Nations " Series). 
 Bradley : The Goths ("Story of the Nations" Series). 
 Freeman : The Goths at Ravenna in " Historical Essays," 
 Third Series. 
 
 For more Advanced Students : — 
 
 Hodgkin : Italy and Her Invaders, vols, i.-iv. 
 Article on Theodoric in the " Dictionary of Christian Bio- 
 graphy". 
 
 The Lombards — 
 
 Hodgkin : Italy and B^er Invaders^ vols, v.-vi. 
 
 The Franks — 
 
 For Beginners : — 
 
 Sargeant : The Franks (" Story of the Nations " Series). 
 Freeman : The Franks and the Gauls in " Historical Essays," 
 First Series. 
 
 For more Advanced Students : — 
 
 Kitchin : History of France. 
 
 Freeman : Western Europe in the Fifth Century. 
 
 „ Western Europe in the Eighth Century. 
 
 Kurth : Histoire de Clovis. 
 
 The Empire of Charles the Great— 
 For Beginners : — 
 
 Grant : Early Lives of Charlemagne (translation of Einhard 
 
 and the Monk of St. Gall). 
 Hodgkin : Charles the Great ('* Foreign Statesmen " Series). 
 Davis : Charlemagtve (" Heroes of the Nations " Series). 
 Bryce : Holy Roman Empire. 
 
 For more Advanced Students : — 
 
 Hodgkin : Italy and Her Invaders, vols, vii.-viii. 
 Kleinclausz: U Empire Carolingien, Ses Origines et Se$ 
 
 Transformations. 
 Guizot : History of Civilisation. 
 Jahrbiicher des deutschen Reiches. 
 
 Miihlbacher : Deutsche Geschichte unter den Karolingern. 
 Mullinger : Schools of Charles the Great. 
 Browne : Alcuin of York. 
 
 The Northmen — 
 For Beginners : — 
 
 Johnson : The Normans in Europe. 
 
 Freeman : The Early Sieges of Paris in •' Historical Essays," 
 First Series. 
 
 For more Advanced Students : — 
 
 Palgrave : History of England and Normandy, 
 Freeman : The Norman Conquest. 
 
 Steenstrup : Introduction d V Histoire des Normands et de leurs 
 Invasions. 
 
XVIU 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 The beginnings of French Civilisation — 
 For more Advanced Students : — 
 
 Lavisse : Histoire de France, vol. i. 
 
 Pustel de Coulanges. Several important monographs in the 
 
 Histoire des Institutions Politiques de VAncienne France, 
 Favre : Eudes, Comte de Paris et Roi de France. 
 Rambaud : Histoire de la Civilisation Frangaise. 
 
 The Early History of Germany— 
 For Beginners : — 
 
 Stubbs : Germany in the Early Middle Ages. 
 
 For more Advanced Students : — 
 
 Dahn : Die Koenige der Germanen. 
 Giesebrecht : Geschichte de Deutchen Kaiserzeit. 
 Fisher : The Mediceval Empire. 
 Diimmler : Geschichte des Ostfr&nkischen Reiches. 
 
 For some Special Aspects of the Period : — 
 
 Lecky : History of European Morals. 
 
 Poole : Illustrations of the History of MedicBval Thought. 
 
 Margoliouth : Mahomet. 
 
 Maps : — 
 
 Poole: Historical Atlas. Maps 3, 4, 32, 33, 64, 71, 72. 
 
 (These can be purchased separately.) 
 Putzger : Historischer School Atlas. 
 Wolderman : Plastischer School Atlas. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 XIX 
 
 Historical Novels — 
 The following throw light on various parts of the Period : — 
 
 Kingsley : Hypatia. 
 Dahn : Felicitas. 
 
 „ The Scarlet Banner. 
 
 ,, A Struggle for Rome. 
 Collins^ Antonina. 
 Ebers : The Bride of the Nile. 
 Hfiudy : Passe Rose. 
 Hodgetts : Kormak tlie Viking. 
 
THE 
 DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 476-918 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 T^HE period that we call the Middle Ages extends 
 from the break-up of the Koman Empire in the west 
 in the fifth century to the Kenaissance in the fifteenth — 
 a period of about a thousand years. The night of this 
 great day of human history may be said to last through 
 the first three hundred years (450-750), and the early 
 dawn begins with the events that lead to the estab- 
 lishment of the Empire of Charles the Great. The 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries are the morning, and 
 the thirteenth the high noon, from which it declines to 
 the afternoon of the fourteenth century and the even- 
 ing of the fifteenth. 
 
 The Europe of the fifth century was dominated by The 
 two influences— the influence of Eoman Imperialism ^"'P^'^® 
 land that of the Christian Church. Though the Empire 
 fell to pieces in the west it lived on in the east, gradu- 
 ally changing its character, but retaining in its laws 
 I and ideals of government the traditions of the Imperial 
 organisation that Augustus had founded and Diocletian 
 1 
 
2 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 remodelled on a more despotic basis. It is a great 
 mistake to underestimate the influence of the Eastern 
 Empire on Western Europe. Constantinople was not 
 • only the frontier fortress of Europe in the East, it was 
 also the home of Eoman law and of a civiHsation that 
 had become Greek in its outer dress, but remained largely 
 Koman in its inner character. 
 Influence ^ut the inheritance of Kome passed on to the new 
 onth?'^ world through two other channels. The Teutonic 
 peopieT peoples who poured into the almost depopulated pro- 
 vinces of the west came under the spell of Kome. They 
 marched along the roads that Eome had made, they 
 passed, as friends or foes, by cities that Kome had built. 
 The ambition of their greatest leaders— of men like 
 Alaric or Theodoric— was not to destroy but to rebuild 
 the Koman world of ordered rule and equal justice. In 
 Gaul and in Italy the language and ideas of Kome 
 turned the Frank and Lombard conquerors into French- 
 men and Italians. 
 
 Meanwhile Imperial Kome became Papal Kome. 
 plpacy*^^ When the long centuries of contest between the Church 
 and the Empire closed with the accession of Constantine, 
 the result was not only that the Empire became Chris- 
 tian, but also that the Church became Imperial. Soon 
 after, the transference of the Imperial Court to Con- 
 stantinople left the Bishop of Kome incomparably the 
 greatest figure in the city by the Tiber. And as 
 Christianity spread through Western Europe the 
 authority of the Koman See grew constantly wider. 
 So when the bond of a common political organisation 
 no longer held Western Europe together, the bond 
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 of a common religious organisation began to take its 
 place. As inheritor of the Imperial tradition, the 
 Papacy became not only a religious but also a political 
 power. 
 
 The claims of the Koman See were at first resented 
 by the Teutonic peoples, who had adopted the Arian 
 form of Christianity from the earliest missionaries who 
 had laboured among them. But the conversion of 
 Clovis to Catholic Christianity in 496 marked the be- 
 ginning of the extension of Papal authority over the 
 Teutonic tribes, and the labours of Augustine and his 
 successors in England in the seventh century, and of 
 the great missionary Archbishop Boniface in Germany 
 in the eighth, insured the supremacy of the Pope in the 
 West. Of the Teutonic peoples that remained Arian, the 
 Ostrogoths vanished from history, and the Vandals and 
 Visigoths fell under the sway of the Moslems, the 
 latter soon after they had abandoned the Arian for the 
 Catholic Creed. 
 
 In the East the claims of the Papacy were resisted, 
 not only by the Patriarch of Constantinople, who as 
 Bishop of New Kome claimed to be the equal of the 
 Bishop of Old Kome, but also by the emperors, who 
 asserted their right to exercise over the Church the 
 same autocratic authority that they exercised over the 
 State. The Eastern and Western Churches drifted apart, 
 and before the end of the ninth century the separa- 
 |tion was almost complete. 
 
 The Teutonic invaders brought their own contribution Teutoniq 
 to the life of the Middle Ages. The idea of personal '^^'^ 
 liberty that appears in early Teutonic law, the practice of 
 

 4 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 commendation and the authority of the chief over his 
 comUes, the institutions of elective monarchy and of the 
 assemblies of free warriors, exercised a profound m- 
 fluence over the new world that was shapmg itself out 
 of the fragments of the old. 
 
 The reign of Theodoric was the first attempt to 
 harmonise the old and the new, to blend the Eoman 
 ideals of order and civUUas with the Teutomc spirit of 
 freedom The Arianism of the Goths and the opposition 
 of a party among the Eoman nobles made the task a 
 difficult one, and with the death of Theodoric and the 
 revival of the Empire under Justinian, the Gothic 
 kingdom crumbled away. 
 
 But the Empire, confronted by new dangers m the 
 East, first from the aggressions of the Persian kings and 
 then from the rise of Mohammedanism, could not keep 
 what it had won. Thirteen years before Herachus 
 arose to save the Empire, the Lombards had mhented 
 the lands that the Goths had abandoned. 
 
 The Lombards, contented to rule and extend their 
 
 territories without any effort to assimilate the native 
 
 population, remained an aristocracy of nobles settled 
 
 among a subject people. If the Lombard kings could have 
 
 conquered Eome, as they conquered Eavenna, they might 
 
 have been able to build up an Italian kingdom through 
 
 the fusion of Eoman and Teutonic institutions and 
 
 ideas. But the Lombards produced no great leader 
 
 with enough of the statesman in him to attempt the 
 
 task in which Theodoric had failed. Perhaps in any 
 
 case it would have proved impossible, for by the middle 
 
 of the eighth century Italy was no longer free to shape 
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 her own destiny to supremacy. The central fact of the 
 eighth century was the rise of the Franks in Western Rise of 
 Europe, under the great Mayors of the Palace. The 
 victory of Charles Martel, at Poictiers in 732, rescued 
 the West from the danger of Moslem rule, and the alli- 
 ance of King Pippin with the Pope in 752 associated the 
 fortunes of the Teutonic world of the north with those 
 of Eome. The Ehine and the Tiber were linked 
 together, and the Ehone and the Po passed under their 
 sway. 
 
 At last, just as the eighth century ended, the three 
 influences that had been making the new Europe con- 
 verged, when Charles the Great, as Emperor of the 
 West, became representative in his own person of the 
 union of Eoman, Ecclesiastical and Teutonic ideas. 
 The coronation of Charles was the recognition of the 
 fact that the same man was now the head of the Christian 
 Church, the inheritor of the Eoman Imperial dignity 
 and the master of the Teutonic world. 
 
 But the Empire of Charles the Great had in it the Decay of 
 seeds of dissolution. Its strength lay in its Teutonic gj^n^ Em- 
 military organisation, and as this was founded on the^'^*^ 
 idea of personal service it broke down with the revival 
 of local feeling. It had the unity of a common ecclesi- 
 astical organisation, but the attempt to establish a 
 common administrative system failed through the tribal 
 and local antagonisms that awoke as soon as the great 
 Emperor was dead. The Prankish judicial system, by 
 which every man was judged by the law of his own 
 nation, prevented the development of a common code 
 of law for the Empire. For a time, in the middle of the 
 
6 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL i EUROPE 
 
 tenth century, the Holy Koman Empire of Otho the 
 Great seemed destined to reaHse part at least of the 
 ideal of the Carolingian Empire, but the long struggles 
 of the Papacy with the Empire, and the resistance of the 
 feudal nobihty to the autocratic claims of the kings, 
 supported by Eoman civil law, ended at last in the dis- 
 integration of the mediaeval world. 
 Disintegra- But it was not Only from within that the Empire of 
 nhJth^ Charles was weakened. Enemies from without beset 
 century ^^ q^ every side. Northmen, Magyars, Saracens, fell 
 upon it with eager ferocity, and in the ninth century, 
 as in the sixth, the Teutonic system of equal division 
 of inheritance proved fatal to all hope of united resist- 
 ance. But the partitions of the ninth century differ 
 from those of the sixth in this, that they represent 
 lines of division destined to become permanent. The 
 Romanised West was severed from the more German 
 East. Italy fell away from the North ; Aquetaine and 
 Burgundy became, for a time, partly or wholly inde- 
 pendent. The ninth century was a period of confusion 
 and of immeasurable suffering, but through the anarchy 
 of the time the poUtical life of Europe began to shape 
 itself into the form that it was destined to retain to the 
 end of the Middle Ages. Serfdom superseded the 
 older relation of the free villagers to their overlord ; the 
 mihtary system of Europe began to be territorial instead 
 of personal; great fiefs grew up under dukes and 
 counts almost entirely independent of royal authority ; 
 and feudal castles rose on every hill on the banks of 
 the Rhine and the Seine. 
 
 In this rough age the Church was obliged to fight 
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 for its own possessions and privileges, and while its 
 political power increased its religious enthusiasm de- 
 clined ; learning was kept alive, but could make no pro- 
 gress in days of distraction and danger ; the religion of the 
 people was strangely compounded of superstition and fear. 
 
 As the century drew near its end the clouds began Revival in 
 to lift. The Byzantine Empire weathered the storm century 
 of Moslem attack. With narrowed frontiers, hemmed 
 in by Slavs and Saracens, it lived on as a civiHsing 
 power in the east. In the west also the tide of Sara- 
 cen conquest began to turn, and Southern Italy and 
 Northorn Spain were recovered from their rule. The 
 Northmen, established in the north of England and in 
 the valley of the Seine, were no longer mere agents of 
 destruction; a little later they began to rebuild the 
 churches that they had destroyed and re-establish the 
 order that they had disturbed. Along the eastern 
 frontiers of the Empire the raids of the Magyars began 
 to be checked. 
 
 In 918 the election of Henry Duke of Saxony to 
 the throne of Germany brought the period of disintegra- 
 tion in central Europe to an end, while the rise of the 
 family of Robert the Strong to power in West Franchia 
 gave promise of the development of a new France, with 
 Paris as its capital. Another century was destined to 
 pass before the forces of disorder and disintegration 
 were for a time worsted, but by the opening of the 
 tenth century the old Europe — the Europe of Zeno and 
 Theodoric and Clovis — had dissolved, and the new 
 Europe — the Europe of Otho the Great and Hildebrand 
 and Barbarossa — had begun. 
 
The Em- 
 pire and 
 the Teu- 
 tons 
 
 
 CHAPTEK II 
 
 THE EMPIRE IN 476 
 
 TN the year 476 the last Emperor in the west was 
 deposed, and the Roman provinces in the west 
 became independent Teutonic kingdoms. The deposi- 
 tion of Romulus Augustulus marks the end of a process 
 of change that had been going on for nearly three 
 centuries. At the end of the second century the northern 
 boundaries of the Empire were the Rhine and the 
 Danube. Beyond these rivers lived various Teutonic 
 tribes with whom the Roman Emperors carried on a 
 desultory war, not now for the extension of the frontiers, 
 but to keep back the barbarians from penetrating into 
 the Empire. The last Emperor who extended the 
 northern frontier of the Empire was Trajan, who at 
 the beginning of the second century established the 
 province of Dacia north of the Danube. Under his 
 successors, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, the Empire 
 enjoyed nearly half a century of peace and good govern- 
 ment. But in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180) 
 a change began. The Teutonic peoples had already 
 begun to find their way into the Empire, at first as 
 slaves in Roman households, or as serfs cultivating 
 frontier lands, and a little later as soldiers in the Roman 
 armies. They now tried to break through the frontiers, 
 
 8 
 
10 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 not in isolated companies but in organised tribes, and 
 Marcus Aurelius was the first of a long series of 
 emperors who were obliged to carry on a constant 
 defensive war to hold back tribes of barbarians that were 
 being driven from behind on to the Koman frontiers. 
 In the course of this long contest the barbarians 
 absorbed a good deal of the civilisation and culture of 
 Rome. Many of them enrolled themselves under the 
 standard of the Empire, and did loyal service against 
 their fellow-Teutons across the borders. 
 
 In the year 330 Constantine, the first Christian 
 Emperor, established a new capital at Byzantium, which 
 he called after his own name, Constantinople. From 
 this time there were generally two emperors, one ruling 
 in the East and the other in the West. 
 The Goths The earliest barbarians to gain a foothold in the 
 Empire were the Goths. Early in the third century 
 they appeared in the south of Eussia, having migrated 
 from the north-west of Europe. They gradually fell 
 into two tribes, the Eastern, or Ostrogoths, and the 
 Western, or Visigoths. About the year 250 they began 
 to move southward and westward, and came into contact 
 with the Empire. Twenty years later a body of them 
 settled in the Roman province of Dacia, and inflicted a 
 great defeat on the Emperor Decius, who perished in 
 the battle. The Emperor Aurehan, in the year 270, 
 made peace with them, allowing them to retain Dacia. 
 For nearly a century after this the Goths remained at 
 peace with the Empire. During this time they learned 
 the art of writing, and were converted to the Arian form 
 of Christianity by the efforts of the great missionary 
 
 THE EMPIRE IN 476 
 
 11 
 
 bishop Ulfilas. The fact that most of the Teutonic 
 tribes adopted Arianism ^ is important because it imposed 
 a barrier of separation between them and the Roman 
 peoples, who were orthodox. 
 
 In the year 376 the Visigoths of Dacia were attacked 
 by a vast horde of Huns from Central Asia, and after 
 vainly trying to withstand them, they petitioned the 
 Emperor for leave to cross the Danube and settle in the 
 Empire. Valens allowed them to do so, but his impohtic 
 treatment of them led to hostilities, and to his defeat 
 and death at the battle of Adrianople in 378. His 
 successor, Theodosius, made peace with them, but after 
 his death they began to ravage the Empire, and finally, 
 under their great king, Alaric, they poured into Italy, 
 besieged and sacked Rome, and then, after the death of 
 Alaric, settled in Southern Gaul, where a body of Ostro- 
 goths joined them in 473. They gradually extended 
 their conquests into Spain, whence they drove out an- 
 other Teutonic tribe, the Vandals. 
 
 The Vandals had for a long time been one of the The 
 leading tribes of Germany. They had been driven South *" * ^ 
 by the Goths about the year 330 and had settled in 
 Pannonia. About the year 400 they had marched with 
 allies of Alan and Suevic race into Gaul, and thence, 
 driven perhaps by the Franks, into Spain. When the 
 Visigoths began to advance into Spain the Vandals, 
 
 ^ Arius was a priest of Alexandria, who early in the fourth century 
 taught certain doctrines about the Person of our Lord that were declared 
 at the Council of Nicaea, in 325, to be erroneous. He and all who agreed 
 with him were excommunicated, and after a struggle of nearly a century, 
 in which Athanasius was the chief leader of the orthodox party, the 
 Empire declared for the Nicene view. 
 
 TTTK TTMDTT?!? TXT A'TH 
 
 1Q 
 
12 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE EMPIRE IN 476 
 
 13 
 
 The Bur- 
 gundians 
 
 The 
 Franks 
 
 Italy 
 
 invited by a treacherous Eoman governor, crossed to 
 North Africa, where, under their king, Genseric (or 
 Gaiseric), they ravaged the whole province with merci- 
 less cruelty. After the capture of Carthage, in 439, the 
 Vandals established themselves as the ruling race, and 
 as they were Arians they persecuted the Roman 
 Christians of North Africa. Under Genseric they also 
 became the pirate-masters of the Mediterranean, and 
 ravaged the coasts of Italy, even sacking Rome itself in 
 455. 
 
 Another Teutonic kingdom set up at this time was 
 that of the Burgundians, who under their king, Gundo- 
 bad, established themselves in the valleys of the Rhone 
 and Saone about the year 443. 
 
 Farther North, on the banks of the Rhine, lay the 
 kingdom of the Franks, the latest of the great Teutonic 
 peoples to enter the Empire. Between these two Teu- 
 tonic kingdoms lay a semi-independent Roman province 
 with its capital at Soissons, ruled over by a Roman 
 general, ^Egidius. On his death, in 464, his son Syagrius 
 succeeded. 
 
 Italy had been, ever since 410, the spoil of contending 
 chieftains, who set up and deposed puppet emperors 
 as they pleased. The last of these puppet emperors, 
 a boy of about fourteen, was ruling in Rome in 476, 
 under the protection of his father, Orestes. In this 
 year a dispute between Orestes and his barbarian 
 followers about the allocation of lands led to a revolt, 
 and the soldiers elected a Herule officer, Odoacer (or 
 Odovakar), as their chief. Orestes took refuge in Pavia, 
 but was soon captured and beheaded. His little son, 
 
 who fell into the hands of Odoacer, was spared by the 
 conqueror, and allowed to retire to a palace near Naples 
 with a large pension for his maintenance. Of him we 
 hear no more. 
 
 The year that followed the accession of Odoacer was 
 marked by two events of importance. The first of these 
 was the death of the old pirate chief Genseric the 
 Vandal. With him passed away the greatness of the 
 Vandal kingdom, which declined steadily for half a 
 century, till it fell once more under the sway of the 
 Empire. The other event was the arrival at Constanti- 
 nople of an embassy from the Senate of Rome, who 
 came to inform Zeno, the Emperor now ruling in the 
 East, that ** they did not need a separate Emperor, but 
 that Zeno himself as sole Emperor would suffice for both 
 ends of the earth ; that Odoacer, a prudent statesman 
 and brave warrior, had been chosen to defend their 
 interests, and that they requested Zeno to bestow on 
 him the dignity of Patrician and entrust to his care the 
 Diocese of Italy ". 
 
 To this request Zeno assented and Odoacer, already 
 virtually the independent sovereign of Italy, now became, 
 in name, the Imperial viceroy in the '' Diocese of Italy ". 
 But though the actual authority exercised by the 
 Emperor was little more than nominal, it would be a 
 mistake to suppose that the Empire in the West was 
 regarded as ended. The idea of the Roman Empire 
 had taken such hold of the imaginations of men that 
 it was not regarded as possible that it could end. It 
 lived on as an idea through centuries of contest and 
 confusion, till the time came for an attempt to be made. 
 
14 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE EMPIRE IN 476 
 
 15 
 
 The Em- 
 pire in the 
 East 
 
 % 
 
 Reign of 
 
 Zeno, 
 
 474-91 
 
 by the coronation of Charles the Great, to give the idea 
 once more an outward expression. 
 
 The mention of Zeno takes us from the Western 
 Empire to the east. While the Empire in the west 
 had been slowly crumbling into a group of independent 
 Teutonic kingdoms, the Empire in the east had been 
 successfully resisting the assaults of the barbarians. 
 The great city of Constantinople was impregnable to 
 assault on the land side, and could not be successfully 
 starved into surrender while the Empire retained the 
 command of the sea. The great enemy of the Empire 
 in the east had been the Persian Empire, but in the 
 fifth century Persia was not able to do more than carry 
 on a frontier war at intervals. Though the Empire had 
 lost its western provinces, the wealth of the provinces 
 of what we now call Asia Minor furnished the em- 
 perors with adequate resources till they became im- 
 poverished by maladministration and war. 
 
 In the middle of the fifth century a barbarian ad- 
 venturer, Aspar, occupied at Constantinople a position 
 not unlike that of Orestes or Odoacer in Italy. In 457 
 he raised Leo, an Isaurian ^ official of the Court, to the 
 Imperial throne. Leo repaid his benefactor by procuring 
 his assassination a few years later. On Leo's death, in 
 474, he was succeeded by his son-in-law and fellow- 
 countryman Tarasicodissa, who adopted the name of 
 Zeno. 
 
 Like our English Ethelred the Unready, Zeno is 
 credited with adopting the cowardly policy of buying 
 
 1 Isauria is the mountainous district on the north of Mount Taurus 
 between Cilicia and Phrygia. 
 
 off the enemies of the Empire. Though he seems to 
 have been rather repulsive in personal character, he 
 was not without ability as a ruler. He had constantly 
 to contend with attempts to set rival claimants on the 
 throne, but, partly by good luck and partly by the 
 unscrupulous cunning and cruelty that became from 
 this time a characteristic of the Eastern Court, he 
 succeeded in retaining the throne till his death in 491. 
 
 The history of Constantinople during this period is 
 chiefly the record of religious controversies, in which 
 the people of the city took sides with great vigour. 
 The two chief factions in the city, adopting the colours 
 of the Circus races, called themselves the ** blues " and 
 the ''greens"— the former being the champions of 
 orthodoxy, the latter of the Monophysite i heresy. 
 
 Under Anastasius, who succeeded on the death of 
 Zeno, these factions became more aggressive, while a 
 war with Persia, and inroads of Slavs and Bulgarians 
 from across the Danube, disturbed the peace of the 
 Empire. 
 
 1 The Monophysites held that Our Lord had only one nature, the human 
 nature being absorbed in the Divine. 
 
14 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE EMPIRE IN 476 
 
 15 
 
 The Em- 
 pire in the 
 East 
 
 Reign of 
 
 Zeno, 
 
 474-91 
 
 by the coronation of Charles the Great, to give the idea 
 once more an outward expression. 
 
 The mention of Zeno takes us from the Western 
 Empire to the east. While the Empire in the west 
 had been slowly crumbling into a group of independent 
 Teutonic kingdoms, the Empire in the east had been 
 successfully resisting the assaults of the barbarians. 
 The great city of Constantinople was impregnable to 
 assault on the land side, and could not be successfully 
 starved into surrender while the Empire retained the 
 command of the sea. The great enemy of the Empire 
 in the east had been the Persian Empire, but in the 
 fifth century Persia was not able to do more than carry 
 on a frontier war at intervals. Though the Empire had 
 lost its western provinces, the wealth of the provinces 
 of what we now call Asia Minor furnished the em- 
 perors with adequate resources till they became im- 
 poverished by maladministration and war. 
 
 In the middle of the fifth century a barbarian ad- 
 venturer, Aspar, occupied at Constantinople a position 
 not unlike that of Orestes or Odoacer in Italy. In 457 
 he raised Leo, an Isaurian ^ official of the Court, to the 
 Imperial throne. Leo repaid his benefactor by procuring 
 his assassination a few years later. On Leo's death, in 
 474, he was succeeded by his son-in-law and fellow- 
 countryman Tarasicodissa, who adopted the name of 
 Zeno. 
 
 Like our English Ethelred the Unready, Zeno is 
 credited with adopting the cowardly policy of buying 
 
 ^ Isauria is the mountainous district on the north of Mount Taurus 
 between Cilicia and Phrygia. 
 
 off the enemies of the Empire. Though he seems to 
 have been rather repulsive in personal character, he 
 was not without ability as a ruler. He had constantly 
 to contend with attempts to set rival claimants on the 
 throne, but, partly by good luck and partly by the 
 unscrupulous cunning and cruelty that became from 
 this time a characteristic of the Eastern Court, he 
 succeeded in retaining the throne till his death in 491. 
 
 The history of Constantinople during this period is 
 chiefly the record of religious controversies, in which 
 the people of the city took sides with great vigour. 
 The two chief factions in the city, adopting the colours 
 of the Circus races, called themselves the '' blues " and 
 the "greens" — the former being the champions of 
 orthodoxy, the latter of the Monophysite ^ heresy. 
 
 Under Anastasius, who succeeded on the death of 
 Zeno, these factions became more aggressive, while a 
 war with Persia, and inroads of Slavs and Bulgarians 
 from across the Danube, disturbed the peace of the 
 Empire. 
 
 1 The Monophysites held that Our Lord had only one nature, the human 
 nature being absorbed in the Divine. 
 
ilJ 
 
 THE RISE OF THEODORIC 
 
 17 
 
 CHAPTEE III 
 
 THE RISE OF THEODORIC 
 
 THE Ostrogoths, who had remained in the district 
 north of the Black Sea, while their Visigothic 
 brethren moved southwards, fell in the fifth century 
 under the yoke of the Huns, whom they served for 
 eighty years, till the death of the great Hunnish chief 
 Attila in 454. Then they rose in rebellion, in alliance 
 with the Gepidse and other subject nations, and broke the 
 power of the Huns in a great battle on the banks of the 
 river Netad (probably in Hungary, the situation is not 
 known). Moving southwards, they occupied the pro- 
 vince of Pannonia, apparently by friendly arrangement 
 with the Koman authorities. 
 
 The Ostrogoths were at this time ruled by three 
 brothers, descendants of the old Amal family, Walamir, 
 Theudemir and Widemir. In 454, on the very day 
 on which Walamir repulsed a sudden attack of the Huns 
 and gained a great victory, a son was born to his brother 
 Theudemir, and named Theuda-reiks, the ** ruler of the 
 people "—a name changed by the Eoman chroniclers to 
 
 Theodoric. 
 Theodoric When Theodoric was seven years old a war broke 
 ISfnopieOut between the Goths and the Empire, owing to an 
 
 attempt of the Emperor to withhold the usual subsidies, 
 
 Birth of 
 Theodoric 
 
 After the Goths had ravaged Moesia the Emperor 
 agreed to renew the tribute on condition that the Gotha 
 confined their ravages to the lands north of the Danube. 
 Theudemir was obliged to surrender his little son as a 
 hostage for the fulfilment of the treaty, and so it came 
 to pass that Theodoric spent ten years at the Court of 
 Constantinople, where the Emperor Leo became warmly 
 attached to him. 
 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the influence on Theo- 
 doric's life of this long residence at the Imperial Court. 
 To realise it we must imagine the son of an Indian 
 frontier chief living from the age of seven to seventeen 
 at the British Court, watching the administration of 
 justice, the organisation of war and commerce, the 
 whole system of British life. 
 
 At the time of Theodoric 's stay there, Constantinople 
 was at the height of its splendour — the most magnifi- 
 cent city of the world. There Theodoric could see men 
 of every nation of the earth, bound together by subjection 
 to the majestic Koman law, laying aside their turbulent 
 independence in the realisation of a common citizenship. 
 It was at Constantinople that Theodoric learnt those 
 lessons of the value of orderly rule and legal right that 
 he afterwards strove so hard to teach to his Italian 
 subjects. 
 
 When, at the end of ten years, Theodoric came home, Theodoric 
 
 he found the Goths at war with the neighbouring nation [heToths 
 
 of the Suevi, on whom they inflicted a crushing defeat 
 
 about the year 470. Theodoric celebrated his return 
 
 by leading an expedition against the Sarmatians, from 
 
 whose king, Babai, he wrested the city of Singidunum 
 2 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 18 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 (Belgrade), which lies at the junction of the Save and 
 
 the Danube. 
 
 A tribe like the Goths, who subsisted largely on 
 plunder, and whose Pannonian camping-ground was 
 probably exhausted of supplies, could not remain for 
 long at peace. ** From the diminution of the spoils of 
 the neighbouring nations," says Jordanes, the historian 
 of the Goths, '' the Goths began to lack food and cloth- 
 ing, and to those men to whom war had long furnished 
 all their sustenance peace began to be odious, and all 
 the Goths with loud shouts approached their king, 
 Theudemir, praying him to lead his army whither he 
 would, but to lead it forth to war." 
 
 The Gothic host divided into two armies, one of 
 which followed Widemir westwards to attack Rome, 
 while the other marched south under Theudemir and 
 Theodoric to ravage Macedonia. Of Widemir's expedi- 
 tion little need be said. He died in Italy without 
 achieving any important success, and his son led his 
 host into Gaul, where it was absorbed in the Visigothic 
 kingdom of Southern Gaul. 
 
 Meanwhile Theudemir plundered Macedonia and 
 laid siege to Thessalonica. Peace was then made with 
 Constantinople, the Goths being allowed to settle in six 
 towns of Macedonia and the country around them. 
 Such an arrangement could not last long. Crowded 
 into a little corner of Macedonia, the Goths would be 
 certain to resume, before long, their habits of wander- 
 ing and plunder. 
 
 About 474 Theudemir died, and his son succeeded as 
 King of the Ostrogoths. Soon after, Theodoric's friend, 
 
 THE RISE OF THEODORIC 
 
 19 
 
 the Emperor Leo, died at Constantinople, and was 
 succeeded by his little grandchild Leo, whose death a few 
 months later left Zeno the Isaurian as sole Emperor. 
 
 The history of the next fourteen years of the life of 
 Theodoric is complicated by the presence on the scene Theodoric, 
 of another Theodoric, a Gothic chief related by marriage ^^arLs 
 with the barbarian Aspar who had for years played the 
 part of king-maker at Constantinople, till his murder by 
 Leo in 471. This Theodoric, son of Triarius, first be- 
 comes important about 473, when he wrested a treaty 
 from Leo by which he was to enjoy the title of Magister 
 Equitum et Feditum, and receive a yearly subsidy of 
 2,000 lb. of gold in return for the services of himself 
 and his warriors. Soon after the accession of Zeno a 
 pretender, Basiliscus, rose in revolt, supported by Theo- 
 doric, son of Triarius, but after nearly two years of exile 
 Zeno returned to Constantinople and ousted his rival, 
 who was sent away to die of hunger in a fortress of 
 Cappadocia. Theodoric the Amal, who had supported 
 the cause of Zeno, now became Patrician and Master 
 of the Soldiery, titles of great honour in the Empire. 
 War followed between the two Theodorics, but when 
 their armies came face to face they fraternised instead 
 of fighting, and the two chiefs made common cause 
 against the Emperor. After various negotiations too 
 tedious to relate, Zeno succeeded in detaching Theodoric, 
 son of Triarius, from his alliance with the Amal chief, 
 and Theodoric the Amal led his followers to another 
 raid into Macedonia, which they had abandoned some 
 years before for the lands at the mouth of the Danube. 
 From Macedonia the Gothic host passed over the 
 
 1 1 
 
lili 
 
 ill II 
 
 pi 
 
 20 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE RISE OF THEODORIG 
 
 21 
 
 
 mountains into Epirus, then back again into the Balkan 
 
 district. 
 Wander- It would be too long and too unprofitable a task to 
 ^8^f • follow Theodoric through the wanderings and wars 
 "" °"° of the years that followed. In 481 his namesake and 
 rival died, and soon after the remnant of his followers 
 joined the rest of the Goths under the standard of the 
 Amal chief. For some years after this the Goths 
 wandered aimlessly about the frontiers of the Empire, 
 sometimes at peace with the Emperor, sometimes ravag- 
 ing his territories. The supreme problem was how to 
 find food for the nation in lands gradually growmg 
 depopulated by war and famine. The host moved to 
 and fro with its women and children in the waggons 
 that followed the army. It was a gigantic gipsy caravan 
 —this Gothic nation on the march, hungry, fierce and 
 
 During all this time Odoacer was ruling in Italy. His 
 relations with the Emperor were at first friendly, but 
 the conquest of Dalmatia, which brought the frontiers 
 of the Italian kingdom further eastwards, and still more, 
 help given by Odoacer to an Imperial general, Illus, who 
 rose in unsuccessful insurrection against Zeno, led to 
 the outbreak of hostilities between the Italian king and 
 the Empire. Zeno's first step was to encourage the 
 King of the Eugians, a powerful tribe on the Danube, 
 to attack Odoacer. The attack failed, and the defeated 
 Eugian king, Frederick, fled to the camp of Theodoric. 
 Zeno then turned to Theodoric, who was in nowise 
 unwiUing to lead his people into the fertile lands of Italy. 
 So in the autumn of 498 the Goths set out on this new 
 
 Theodoric 
 in Italy 
 
 adventure. They fought their way along the highlands 
 of Pannonia and Noricum, and closed this part of the 
 expedition with a great battle against the Gepidse— a 
 battle that broke the power of that nation and re- 
 plenished the waggons of the Goths with great stores 
 of provisions. They descended without resistance into 
 the plains of Italy, to find Odoacer and his army drawn 
 up to meet them near Aquileia. They scattered his 
 army in flight and took possession of the whole of North- 
 eastern Italy as far as the Adige, Odoacer falling back 
 on Verona, where he gathered what was left of his 
 army into an entrenched camp. After a terrific contest 
 the Gothic warriors, led by Theodoric in person, broke 
 the forces of Odoacer and drove him back to Eavenna 
 where, among the marshes, the defeated King made his 
 last stand. The siege of Ravenna went on for more 
 than three years, and in the meanwhile Theodoric had 
 to fight more than one enemy to retain his hold over 
 Northern Italy. 
 
 The first of these enemies was Tufa, who had been 
 one of Odoacer's chief Heutenants and who accepted, 
 or appeared to accept, the leadership of Theodoric. 80 
 confident was Theodoric in his fidehty that he entrusted 
 to his command the army he sent to attack Eavenna. 
 Like Marshal Ney, Tufa's new loyalty could not stand 
 the strain of immediate contact with his old leader, and, 
 with most of his troops, he went over to the side of 
 Odoacer. The officers who refused to desert Theodoric 
 were surrendered to Odoacer, who ruthlessly murdered 
 them all. Perhaps encouraged by Tufa's treachery, 
 Frederick, the Eugian king, who had followed the 
 

 K 
 
 f 
 
 Death of 
 Odoacer 
 
 22 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 standards of Theodoric into Italy, broke with his leader 
 and began to ravage Italy on his own account. For a 
 time things looked black for Theodoric, but the allies 
 soon quarrelled, and Tufa was slain in a battle near 
 Verona. Frederick threw himself into Pavia, which he 
 held for two years. His fate we do not know. 
 
 Then from across the Alps, a fresh antagonist 
 appeared to challenge the right of the Ostrogoths to 
 their new kingdom. Gundobad, King of the Bur- 
 gundians, marched into Italy, nominally as the ally of 
 Odoacer Near Milan, Theodoric, with the help of the 
 Visigothic king, Alaric II., met and vanquished the 
 coalition and drove Odoacer back to Kavenna. 
 
 The siege of Ravenna now went on without inter- 
 ruption, and as Theodoric was able to control the 
 harbour by means of his fleet the city was soon in dire 
 
 At last Odoacer was obliged to own himself beaten, 
 and a treaty was made between the two rival kings, by 
 which they were to rule Italy together. Probably 
 neither party intended to hold to so impossible an 
 arrangement, and the chroniclers who desire to justify 
 Theodoric tell us that Odoacer was plotting against the 
 life of his successful rival. Theodoric may have be- 
 lieved that this was so, but nothing can excuse the act 
 that followed and which remains the greatest blot on 
 the character of the great Ostrogoth. Inviting his 
 fallen rival to a banquet on 15th March, 493, he 
 entrusted to some soldiers, hidden in an alcove, the 
 task of murdering him. When their courage failed 
 at the critical moment, Theodoric himself struck down 
 
 THE RISE OF THEODORIC 
 
 23 
 
 the king with one tremendous stroke, shouting, as he 
 smote, " This is what you did to my friends ". 
 
 Thus, by one foul deed, Theodoric rid himself of his 
 last rival, and stood the unchallenged master of the 
 Italy that he had won. After the long strife of contend- 
 ing chiefs the possibility of a new Empire in the West 
 seemed to have returned. 
 
 if i 
 
|y 
 
 M ! 
 
 24 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
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 P? 
 
 O 
 
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 m 
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 03 
 
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 n3 
 
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 fcC 
 
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 --go 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 S3 
 
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 II 
 
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 rrj 
 
 III 
 
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 33 
 
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 ►-I p* iC 
 
 ^ -d 
 
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 fcc 
 
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 ^-^ dS^ 
 
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 3 
 
 OD 
 
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 Cfi 
 
 
 cc 
 
 W5 
 
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 «y .2S >« 
 
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 03 
 
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 to t-i 
 
 d|j^ 
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTEK IV 
 
 THE GOTHIC KINGDOM IN ITALY 
 
 'pHEODOEIC was about forty years of age when he 
 began to reign as sole king in Italy, and he 
 reigned there for rather more than thirty years. After 
 twenty years of wandering and war, the Ostrogoths 
 settled down to thirty years of almost miinterrupted 
 peace. 
 
 It was no easy task that confronted the new master 
 of Italy. Not only had he to repair the ravages of long 
 years of desolating strife, he had also to train Gothic 
 and Eoman subjects to live at peace together, and, 
 Arian as he was, to win the support of the Catholic 
 clergy, on whose goodwill the success of his rule must 
 largely depend. That he succeeded in doing both these 
 things is the most striking evidence of his greatness. 
 
 Though Theodoric had won Italy by right of conquest, Theodoric, 
 he tried to give legal sanction to his rule. He seems J^thstnd 
 to have secured the confirmation of his kingship from Romans 
 his Ostrogothic followers ; he also sent to the Emperor 
 at Constantinople for the ratification of his title. Zeno's 
 death in 491 delayed the negotiations, and it was not 
 till six years later that Anastasius gave a vague recog- 
 nition to Theodoric's kingship. As king of the Goths 
 and Komans (for that was probably his title) Theo- 
 
 25 
 

 26 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 doric was, for all practical purposes, absolute monarch 
 of Italy. But in the background were the undefined 
 claims of the Emperor to supremacy, destined to be 
 reasserted as soon as death had removed the strong 
 hand of the Gothic king from the helm. 
 
 The recognition of his position by the Emperor brought 
 Theodorics strength to Theodoric's rule, because it commended 
 tio?""'""that rule to the Eomans, and so enabled him to secure 
 the help of Koman officials in the difficult work of 
 organising the kingdom. The vigorous initiative that the 
 Goths had learnt in their long fight for subsistence was 
 now linked with the traditions of authority and ordered 
 rule that had lasted on in Italy through all the confused 
 strife of the last hundred years. Under strong and 
 good government Italy began to recover her prosperity. 
 Trade developed, agriculture revived, so that Italy was 
 able to export corn instead of importing it. At Eome 
 and at Eavenna, which Theodoric made his capital, great 
 aqueducts were made to supply fresh water. Eoads were 
 improved, and the great cities of Italy were once more 
 adorned with works of art and defended by strong walls. 
 All this work of administration went on under the 
 eye of Theodoric, who had something of Napoleon's 
 marvellous power of supervising all the details of 
 administration. But he was also served by a well- 
 organised body of officials, from the great officers of 
 State, the " Illustres," as they were called, down to the 
 junior clerks, poHcemen and others who stood on the 
 bottom rung of the ladder, up which they might hope 
 to climb to higher office. 
 
 Of Theodoric's officers of State, the best known is 
 
 THE GOTHIC KINGDOM IN ITALY 
 
 27 
 
 Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus. Sprung from an oldcassio- 
 official family, Cassiodorus entered public life under '^'^'''^ 
 his father, who was Praetorian Prefect, about the year 
 500. He is said to have won the favour of Theodoric by 
 an eloquent oration delivered on the occasion of a visit 
 of the King to Eome, and was appointed as Quaestor, or 
 PubHc Orator. He acted for years as the King's secre- 
 tary, and his legal training and knowledge of Latin 
 literature must have made him a useful adviser. He 
 wrote a history of the Goths, in twelve books, that has 
 perished, and collected his letters and State papers into 
 twelve books of Vari(e, which remain and form one of 
 the most valuable sources of information for the reign of 
 Theodoric. He survived his master, and became Prae- 
 torian Prefect under his successor in 533. After the 
 fall of the Gothic kingdom he retired to the monastery 
 of Viviers, which he founded, and there we lose sight of 
 him. 
 
 During the greater part of Theodoric's reign the in- 
 ternal affairs of the kingdom provide little material for 
 the chroniclers. Eight years after his accession he paid 
 his first and only visit to Eome, where he stayed for six 
 months, and provided splendid entertainments for the 
 pleasure-loving people. But his capital was not Eome 
 but Eavenna. Here he could better keep in touch with 
 his Gothic followers, who settled chiefly in Northern 
 Italy, and was also within easy reach of the northern 
 frontier in case the need arose for meeting a hostile 
 invasion. 
 
 The Gothic warriors were allotted a third of the lands Goths and 
 of Italy— for the most part the same lands that^"""*"" 
 
28 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE GOTHIC KINGDOM IN ITALY 
 
 29 
 
 I '4 
 
 Relations 
 with 
 1. The 
 Church 
 
 2. The 
 
 Visigoths 
 
 Odoacer's followers had held. Liberius, an old officer 
 of Odoacer, was appointed by Theodoric to arrange the 
 allotment of lands. The Goths lived apparently in small 
 groups, not mixing much with the native Italians, with 
 whom, however, their relations seem to have been quite 
 friendly. Special officers— (7omi<6S Goi^orum— admin- 
 istered Gothic law in all cases between Goths. Where 
 any case arose between a Goth and a Koman a Boman 
 lawyer was associated with the Gothic officer in deciding 
 it. Theodoric's Eoman subjects were under Koman law 
 administered by Eoman officials. 
 
 Though Theodoric was an Arian, he remained, till 
 near the end of his reign, on friendly terms with the 
 Catholic clergy. Soon after his accession he was called to 
 decide between two rival candidates for the Papacy, and 
 on his visit to Eome he gave splendid gifts to the shrine 
 of St. Peter. The same spirit of toleration led him to 
 take the Jews under his protection, and when, near the 
 end of his Hfe, the synagogues at Eome and Eavenna were 
 burnt in a riot, he insisted on the punishment of the 
 rioters and the reconstruction of the buildings. 
 
 The external affairs of the reign turn around Theo- 
 doric's relations with the Teutonic kingdoms of the West 
 and with the Empire. Of the kingdoms beyond the Alps, 
 the largest and most important, at the time of Theo- 
 doric's accession, was the Visigothic kingdom that in- 
 cluded Southern France and most of Spain. The ruler 
 of this kingdom was Alaric II., who succeeded to the 
 throne in 485. Though an Arian, he tried, like Theo- 
 doric, to propitiate the CathoHc clergy in his dominions. 
 With Theodoric the Visigoths remained on terms of 
 
 close alliance, and Alaric married a daughter of the 
 Ostrogothic king. This was the beginning of a series 
 of matrimonial alliances between the house of Theodoric 
 and the neighbouring rulers. His sister, Amalafrida, 
 married Thrasamund, the Vandal king of North Africa, 
 and one of his daughters was given in marriage to 
 Sigismund, son of the Burgundian king, Gundobad. 
 Theodoric himself married Augofleda, sister of Clovis, 
 the king of the Franks. 
 
 The story of the rise of Clovis will be told in another 3. The 
 chapter. It only concerns us now in its influence on ^'*"^' 
 the policy of Theodoric. At first he attempted to 
 maintain friendly relations with the Frankish king, but 
 when Clovis began to prepare for an attack on his ally, 
 the king of the Visigoths, he remonstrated in vain. In 
 the war that followed Alaric was defeated and slain 
 before Theodoric's army arrived to help him. Some 
 years of war followed between Theodoric and Clovis, 
 ending in a severe defeat of Clovis by the Ostrogoths.' 
 Theodoric and the Frankish king then agreed to parti- 
 tion the dominions of Alaric, Clovis taking most of 
 Southern Gaul and Theodoric Provence. 
 
 Then Spain, the one remaining Visigothic province, 4. Spain 
 becomes for a time the centre of Theodoric's policy. 
 On the death of Alaric an illegitimate son, Gesalic, was 
 proclaimed as king by some of the Visigoths. He was 
 defeated by the Burgundians and fled to Carthage, 
 where Thrasamund espoused his cause for a time, till 
 Theodoric's protests obliged him to dismiss the fugitive. 
 Ultimately, Gesalic was captured in Gaul by Theodoric's 
 soldiers and put to death. There remained only one 
 
30 
 
 THE DAWk OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE GOTHIC KINGDOM IN ITALY 
 
 31 
 
 5. The 
 
 Empire 
 
 heir of the house of Alaric, his little son Amalaric, 
 grandson of Theodoric. With the consent of the 
 Visigoths Theodoric acted as regent in Spain for the 
 young king, and thus practically added Spain to his 
 other dominions. 
 
 We turn now to Theodoric's relations with the 
 Empire. On the death of Zeno, Anastasius succeeded 
 as Emperor, and though over sixty at the time of his ac- 
 cession reigned for twenty-five years in Constantinople. 
 The theological controversies in which he was involved 
 during the greater part of his reign, and in which he 
 took the side that lost for him the support and sympathy 
 of the Popes, tended to sever the East from the West. 
 A desultory war that broke out between the Gothic 
 kingdom and the Empire, in consequence of Theodoric's 
 annexation of Sirmium, in Illyria, ended in 509, and 
 while Anastasius lived friendly relations were main- 
 tained between the two Courts. But when Justin 
 succeeded as Emperor and became reconciled to the 
 Pope, the fear that the Emperor might manifest his 
 orthodoxy by inaugurating a persecution of the Arians 
 in the east led to friction between him and Theodoric. 
 In the year 525, when this policy of persecution began, 
 Theodoric sent Pope John I. to Constantinople to remon- 
 strate with the Emperor. The Pope was accorded a 
 splendid welcome at Constantinople, and officiated at a 
 magnificent coronation of the new Emperor. How far 
 he succeeded in winning any toleration for the Arian 
 subjects of the Empire is not clear; what is clear is 
 that the result of the visit was to demonstrate the 
 alliance between Pope and Emperor in a way that 
 
 Theodoric never intended. When John returned he 
 found the King passionately indignant, and the Pope 
 was thrown into prison, where he died soon after (25th 
 i I May, 526). 
 
 The closing years of the reign of Theodoric are a Last year 
 rather sad contrast to the prosperity and wise govern- dorTc'^"^" 
 ment of the earlier time. His only child was a daughter, 
 Amalasuentha, and about the year 515 Theodoric married 
 her to a young Goth from Spain, Eutharic. Eutharic 
 was a strong Arian, and his influence over his father-in- 
 law appears to have led him to adopt a less friendly 
 attitude towards his Catholic subjects just at the very 
 time when the Eastern Court was inclined to press more 
 hardly on the Arians. The effect of all this was that 
 the good relations that had for so long subsisted between 
 Theodoric and his Roman subjects began to give place 
 to an attitude of mutual suspicion. 
 
 The Chief of the Senate {Caput Senatus) at thisBoethius 
 time was Symmachus, a Roman noble of illustrious 
 ancestry, great wealth and high reputation. With him 
 was associated a younger man, Boethius, who had been 
 placed under the care of Symmachus in early life and had 
 married his daughter Rusticiana. Boethius enjoyed the 
 confidence of Theodoric, and in 522 his two little sons 
 were made consuls, an honour that Boethius repaid by 
 a great oration in praise of the king. 
 
 But now Theodoric's attitude changed. Throughout 
 Western Europe the Arian cause was losing ground, 
 for the Frankish kingdom was still growing and the 
 Burgundian and Vandal kingdoms had passed into the 
 hands of Catholic rulers. Just at this juncture an 
 
I! i 
 
 i' 
 
 32 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 officer of Theodoric's Court, Cyprian, who held a position 
 not unlike that of pubHc prosecutor, accused a Eoman 
 noble named Albinus of treasonable correspondence 
 with the Emperor. It is impossible to say whether 
 Cyprian was acting from patriotic or personal motives, 
 but his accusation was strongly resented not only by 
 Albinus but by Boethius, who warmly espoused the 
 cause of his friend. '' Whatever Albinus did," he said, 
 **I and the whole Senate of Eome did the same." 
 Cyprian, thus challenged, rephed by charging Boethius 
 with treason and procuring his arrest. 
 
 In the events that followed there is much that is 
 obscure. The exact nature of the charges against 
 Boethius is uncertain ; what is certain is that he was 
 not accorded a fair trial. He was condemned by his 
 fellow-senators without being heard in his own defence, 
 and sentence of death was passed against him. After 
 some months in prison he was executed. 
 The Con. The name of Boethius is remembered now, not only 
 'phiioZ'hy^^ almost the last great Koman, but even more as the 
 ' '''^ '^ author of a book written in prison during the last few 
 weeks of his Hfe, the famous Consolations of Philosophy. 
 The purpose of the book, which is in prose, with poems 
 interspersed here and there, is to explain how, after the 
 Muses had vainly tried to comfort the prisoner. Philo- 
 sophy, appearing in the guise of a tall and beautiful 
 woman, came to him and spoke of the vanity of human 
 hopes, and the satisfaction to be found in resting in 
 God. There is nothing distinctively Christian in the 
 book, though Boethius himself was a Christian ; it is 
 the last word of the old Stoic world of Marcus Aurelius 
 
 THE GOTHIC KINGDOM IN ITALY 
 
 33 
 
 and Seneca. As a text-book of philosophy the book 
 became one of the most cherished possessions of the 
 early Middle Ages ; it was translated into English by 
 Alfred the Great and into most of the other languages 
 of Europe. 
 
 The mission of Pope John followed almost immedi- Death of 
 ately after the death of Boethius, and before the death s"^'"^"""' 
 of the Pope Symmachus had been accused and executed 
 Theodonc had declared war on his Roman subjects, and 
 It is hard to say what the issue of the contest would 
 have been. But before Theodoric could put into execu- 
 tion an edict ordering the churches throughout Italy to 
 be handed over to the Arians, he was stricken with 
 mortal disease, and died on 30th August, 526. He 
 IS said to have bitterly lamented on his death-bed the 
 acts of violence that had stained the last years of his 
 life. Many historians are disposed to account for them 
 by the theory that Theodoric had in these last years 
 become partially insane. Certainly it is not easy, on 
 any other theory, to explain the extraordinary transfor- 
 mation in his character. 
 
 Theodoric was buried at Ravenna, where his tomb 
 still stands. But the porphyry vase that held his re- 
 mains has vanished long ago, like the Gothic kingdom 
 that he tried to establish. The history of the decline 
 and fall of that kingdom can be told only in outline 
 
 Eutharic had died long before his father-in-law, and Keign of 
 the throne passed to his little son Athalaric, for whom,1,™"ih% 
 Amalasuentha acted as regent, with Cassiodorus as chief ^26-34 ' 
 adviser. But Amalasuentha, whose sympathies were 
 with her Roman subjects rather than with the ruder 
 
34 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE GOTHIC KINGDOM IN ITALY 
 
 35 
 
 Imperial 
 interven- 
 tion 
 
 Gothic warriors, alienated the Goths hy attempting to 
 give her son the education of a Eoman lawyer instead 
 of that of a Gothic chief. After a time he escaped from 
 her tutelage, only to ruin himself with self-indulgence 
 and to die at the age of eighteen, in 534. Amalasuentha 
 then invited the only surviving relation of the late King, 
 Theodahad, to become her colleague on the throne. 
 He accepted the offer, and -almost at once deposed 
 Amalasuentha, who soon after perished at the hands of 
 a disaffected party of Gothic nobles. 
 
 But now a new power appears on the scene. The 
 story of the revival of the Empire will be told in a later 
 chapter. By the year 535 Justinian, having completed 
 the conquest of North Africa, was ready to profit by the 
 confusion in Italy, and to make good the claims of the 
 Empire to those Itahan lands that the emperors had 
 never ceased to regard as a part of their dominions. 
 By the year 536 Justinian's generals had wrested Dal- 
 matia from the Goths, and the greatest of his com- 
 manders, Belisarius, had landed in Sicily and captured 
 the island with little difficulty. 
 
 In the spring of this year Belisarius crossed into 
 Southern Italy, and the long death agony of the Gothic 
 kingdom began. With the fall of Naples all Southern 
 Italy passed into the hands of the Imperial general. The 
 Goths then, in a great national assembly, deposed the 
 worthless Theodahad, who was hunted down and slain 
 on the way to Kavenna. In his place a veteran Gothic 
 warrior, Witigis, was raised on the shields of the Goths 
 as their king. But the Imperial cause still prospered. 
 Witigis withdrew northwards, leaving only a small 
 
 garrison in Home, and on the approach of Belisarius 
 this garrison marched out of the city, which Belisarius 
 occupied, fortified and victualled. 
 
 He had rightly judged that the Goths would soon 
 repent of their mistake in abandoning Rome. By the 
 spring of 537 Witigis marched south at the head of the 
 whole Gothic army, and after a tremendous contest 
 outside the walls of the city shut up Belisarius and his 
 forces in Rome. A year's siege followed, marked by 
 infinite resourcefulness on the part of the Imperial 
 general and much strenuous fighting on the part of 
 the Goths, but in March, 538 the Goths broke up their 
 encampments, where they had suffered grievously from 
 disease, and marched north to meet an attack on 
 Ravenna by a fresh Imperial force. 
 
 It took Belisarius two more years of hard fighting to 
 reach Ravenna, which he blockaded. He is said to 
 have won the city by pretending to agree to a proposal of 
 the Goths that he should himself accept the throne of 
 Italy. Witigis was sent as a prisoner to Constantinople, 
 and Ravenna became, and remained for two hundred 
 years, the centre of Imperial rule in Italy. 
 ^ Just at this juncture Belisarius was recalled by the Recall of 
 Emperor, and the administration of the newly recovered mo'"*""'' 
 province of Italy fell into the hands of a body of 
 rapacious and often incompetent Byzantine officials- 
 men who oppressed and robbed with impartial injustice 
 the soldiers of Belisarius and the native nobles of Italy. 
 At this time the position of the Goths seemed desperate. 
 Many of them had submitted to the Empire, and the 
 irreconcilable remnant had retired to the one remaining 
 
36 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE GOTHIC KINGDOM IN ITALY 
 
 37 
 
 Gothic 
 Revival 
 under 
 Totila 
 
 Return of 
 
 Belisarius, 
 
 544 
 
 stronghold in Italy, the city of Ticinum (Pavia). Here 
 they chose Ildibad as their king. After a time his 
 scanty forces began to be augmented by deserters from 
 the Imperial army, and before the end of the year 540 
 he was able to take the offensive and win a great victory 
 at Treviso, which gave back most of Northern Italy to 
 
 the Goths. 
 
 A short period of internal dissensions checked, for a 
 time, the rising tide of Gothic success. Ildibad was 
 murdered by the adherents of a rival faction, and his 
 successor, Eraric, was in his turn slain. Then, in the 
 autumn of 541, the last great hero of the Gothic race 
 was elected as king. He was the nephew of Ildibad, 
 and is known to the Greek chroniclers of the time as 
 Totila, though his real name appears to have been 
 Baduila. His reign of eleven years forms a splendid 
 close to the story of Ostrogothic rule in Italy. 
 
 Totila knew that his chance of regaining Italy de- 
 pended on his securing and retaining the goodwill of 
 the Italian people, alienated by the exactions of the tax- 
 gatherers of Justinian. He therefore repressed plunder- 
 ing among his soldiers, and contented himself with 
 levying from the people the taxes that they would 
 have had to pay to the Imperial officers. So successful 
 was this policy that within two years of his accession 
 he had reconquered the whole of Italy with the excep- 
 tion of a few cities, of which the most important were 
 Ravenna and Rome. 
 
 Alarmed at this sudden change, Justinian sent Beli- 
 sarius, who had for some time been in disfavour at 
 Court, back to Italy, with very inadequate resources, 
 
 to reconquer the lost province. In the five years of 
 desultory war that followed Belisarius did nothing 
 worthy of his great reputation, excepting his occupation 
 and defence of Rome. Totila had blockaded Rome, 
 which was defended by a small Imperial force, and 
 after a brave but unsuccessful attempt by Belisarius to 
 break the boom that Totila had placed across the river 
 Tiber to prevent fresh provisions coming into the city 
 by sea, a part of the garrison betrayed the city to 
 Totila, who entered without any resistance, the Im- 
 perial troops marching out on the other side. It is 
 said that Totila at first proposed to raze the whole city 
 to the ground, but was persuaded by the entreaties of 
 his great antagonist Belisarius to abandon the idea. 
 Instead, he tore large gaps in the walls, so as to make 
 the city indefensible, and then marched away leaving it 
 deserted, and not allowing a single human being to 
 remain behind. 
 
 Into the deserted city Belisarius, with a thousand 
 soldiers, marched about a month later, and within 
 twenty-five days he had rendered it once more defens- 
 ible, with hastily constructed walls rudely heaped to- 
 gether. After one vain effort to regain the city Totila 
 and his Goths marched away, leaving the Imperial 
 general entrenched among the ruins of the city that 
 had once been the mistress of the world. Two years 
 later, when Belisarius had been recalled from Italy, 
 Totila succeeded, through the treachery of part of the 
 garrison, in once more making himself master of Rome, 
 and he now invited the Roman nobles to return to the 
 city, and tried to repair the ravages of war. 
 
38 
 
 THE DAWN OF Mh:DI.EVAL EUROPE 
 
 Expedition 
 of Narses, 
 552 
 
 
 It t 
 
 The end of 
 the Goths, 
 553 
 
 Meanwhile the Emperor determined on one last 
 effort to win back Italy. His Grand Chamberlain, 
 Narses, a man already over seventy years of age, was 
 placed in command of a great host of barbarians, 
 attracted to his standard by the hope of the plunder 
 of Italy. He marched overland, and arrived at Eavenna 
 without encountering any resistance. But a little 
 farther south he met the army of Totila, and a great 
 battle ended in the complete defeat of the Goths, who 
 were outnumbered and perhaps outgeneralled. Totila 
 was slain as he was flying from the field. 
 
 The end of the Goths had come. For a few months 
 a new leader, Teias, strove to make headway against 
 the power of the Empire, but town after town sur- 
 rendered to Narses, and at length the remnant of the 
 Gothic army was hemmed in near Naples, and after 
 vainly seeking refuge in the rocky fastnesses of Mons 
 Lactarius they made one last desperate attack on the 
 Imperial forces. After two days of hand-to-hand com- 
 bat, during which Teias was slain, the Goths offered to 
 leave Italy and find a home in some barbarian kingdom. 
 Their terms were accepted, and they marched across 
 the passes of the Alps and vanished — we know not 
 whither. 
 
 Theodoric's great attempt to build up a kingdom of 
 Italy, by welding together Koman and Teuton under 
 his sway, had failed. Thirteen centuries were destined 
 to pass before the royal House of Savoy achieved the 
 goal that the great Ostrogoth had failed to reach. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE RISE OF THE FRANKS 
 
 A MONG the latest of the Teutonic peoples to cross The 
 
 the frontiers of the Empire was the tribe, or the^Frauks 
 rather confederation of tribes, to whom the Romans 
 gave the name of the Franks.^ They came from the 
 Thuringian forest district, where a river called the Sala 
 (Saale), a tributary of the Maine, flows across the land 
 still known as the Unter Franken. It was probably 
 from this river that they, or a part of them, acquired 
 the name of the Salian Franks. 
 
 We first hear of Frankish inroads across the Rhine 
 about the year 250. From this time they were con- 
 stantly crossing the frontier, either as raiders to plunder 
 the Roman cities, or as allies to enrol themselves in 
 the Imperial armies. 
 
 In the fifth century the Franks fall into three sections. 
 There were the Franks who remained near the cradle- 
 lands of the race, in Thuringia ; those who settled along 
 the middle Rhine, and who were called the Ripuarian 
 Franks ; and those who moved farther north and 
 
 ' The origin of the name is uncertain. The two most probable ex- 
 planations are (1) that the name was derived from a Keltic (Breton) word 
 franc, meaning "open " and so "free," (2) that it was derived from a 
 Teutonic word Franci, meaning " ferocious". 
 
 39 
 
40 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 !« 
 
 occupied those lands north of the Eoman province of 
 Gaul that were afterwards called the Low Countries. 
 
 Early in the fifth century these Northern Franks, 
 under a chief named Clodion, moved southward, and 
 drove the Eoman garrison out of Cambrai in 445, 
 Clodion then seized Toumai, which became the capital 
 of a new Frankish kingdom. His successor, Merowig, 
 who is said to have taken his part in the great battle of 
 Chalons that drove Attila out of Gaul, died about 457, 
 and was succeeded by his son Childeric. 
 
 Legend and history are probably blended in these 
 earlier chapters in the history of the Merovingian house, 
 but with the accession of Childeric's son Clovis,^ in 481, 
 the history of the Frankish kingdom really begins. 
 
 When Clovis succeeded to his father's throne his 
 kingdom was one of four Httle Frankish kingdoms in 
 Northern Gaul. Siegbert was king of the Kipuarian 
 Franks, with his capital at Cologne ; Eagnakar ruled at 
 Cambrai, Cararic at Terouenne and Clovis at Tournai. 
 Farther South, in the valley of the Seine, was the one 
 district of Gaul still under Eoman rule — the independent 
 kingdom of Soissons, which iEgidius had founded, and 
 which was now ruled by his son Syagrius. ^Egidius 
 was an old enemy of the Franks, and it was not long 
 before the young Frankish King found an excuse for 
 Defeat of attacking Syagrius. In alliance with Eagnakar of 
 Syagrius Qg^jj^]^j.g^j^ Clovis marched against him, defeated him in 
 a great battle near Soissons, and drove him out of his 
 kingdom. South of the Loire lay the great kingdom of 
 
 1 His Frankish name was Chlodovech, which in later German becomes 
 Hlodwig and Ludvig, and in its Latinised form Clovis and Louis. 
 
 Accession 
 of Clovis, 
 481 
 
 6;\ULin500.A.D. 
 
 50 100 
 
42 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE RISE OF THE FRANKS 
 
 43 
 
 ! 
 
 Euric the Visigoth, who had died in 485, leaving a son 
 Alaric, a boy of about sixteen years of age, to succeed 
 him. To Alaric Syagrius fled for refuge, but on the 
 demand of Clovis the Visigoths delivered up their guest, 
 who was promptly murdered by the Franks. The 
 whole kingdom of Syagrius, including the city of Paris, 
 fell to Clovis. 
 
 In 491 Clovis marched against and subdued a tribe 
 of Eipuarian Franks, and so extended his dominions to 
 the borders of Siegbert of Cologne, with whom, for the 
 time, he remained on friendly terms. 
 
 This southward extension of Clovis' kingdom brought 
 him into contact with two important tribes — the Bur- 
 gundians in the South and the x\lemanni in the East. 
 With the former of these he entered into friendly 
 relations, and married Clotilda, the niece of the reigning 
 King, Gundobad. Gundobad was an Arian, but his niece 
 had been converted to the Cathohc faith, and Clovis, 
 who was a pagan as yet, was drawn by her influence in 
 the direction of orthodox Christianity. 
 
 The actual conversion of Clovis is connected with an 
 expedition against the Alemanni, a confederation of 
 Teutonic tribes who had settled in the lands watered by 
 the Maine and the Neckar. It is said that Clovis, hard 
 pressed in a fight at Tolbiac, prayed to the Christ whom 
 his wife worshipped to give him victory, and that while 
 he prayed his enemies broke and fled. 
 Conversion Whatever truth there may be in the story, it is certain 
 omovis, ^^^^ .^ ^^^ Clovis was baptised at Eheims, the old 
 
 ecclesiastical capital of Northern Gaul, by the aged 
 Bishop Eemigius. The bishop was attended by most 
 
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44 
 
 * 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 
 
 Struggles 
 with Bur- 
 gundy 
 
 of the bishops of the province, while Clovis brought 
 with him three thousand Frankish warriors to be bap- 
 tised with him. Gregory of Tours has recorded Kemigius' 
 famous speech to the King : " Bow thy neck, Sicambrian ; 
 adore what thou hast burned, and burn what thou hast 
 adored " (Mitis depone colla, Sicamher ; adora quod 
 incendisti, incende quod adorasti). 
 
 The baptism of Clovis is one of the most important 
 turning-points in European history. How much sincere 
 conviction had to do with his acceptance of Christianity 
 it is impossible to say — certainly Christian virtues are 
 not conspicuous in his after-life — but as a political step 
 his alHance with the Catholic Church was a most 
 sagacious move in the struggle for power going on 
 between the various Teutonic chiefs of Western Europe. 
 For it threw all the influence of the Catholic clergy on 
 to the side of the Franks. The kings of the Ostrogoths, 
 Visigoths, Vandals and Burgundians were Arians, and 
 however tolerant they might be, there could be no real 
 co-operation between them and the orthodox clergy. 
 But when Clovis led his people into the fold of the 
 Church a new alliance began between the Frankish 
 kings and the Koman Church — an alliance that was 
 destined, more than any other event of history, to shape 
 the ideas and institutions of Mediaeval Europe. As 
 Bishop Avitus of Vienne said, writing to Clovis soon 
 after his baptism : '* Wherever you fight in these lands, 
 it is we (the Church) who conquer ". 
 
 The first result of Clovis' baptism was the establish- 
 ment of friendly relations with the cities of Brittany, 
 which had hitherto withstood his efforts to gain control 
 
 THE RISE OF THE FRANKS 
 
 45 
 
 over them. Soon after, a domestic quarrel in the 
 Burgundian royal house gave the Frankish King an 
 opportunity. Godegisil, brother of King Gundobad, 
 sent to Clovis offering, as later feudal language would 
 have expressed it, to hold the kingdom of Burgundy 
 of him if he would help him to drive out his brother. 
 Nothing loth, Clovis marched into Burgundy and 
 Gundobad fled to Avignon. But for some reason that 
 is not clear, Clovis withdrew his forces soon after and 
 Gundobad returned, and, having put his brother to death, 
 resumed the kingship. 
 
 But if Clovis failed in Burgundy he soon extended Aiemanni 
 his kingdom in another direction. About the year 503 
 he was again at war with the Aiemanni. He drove 
 them from their lands by the Maine and Neckar, and 
 settled his Frankish followers in their place. The Aie- 
 manni fled into the territories of Theodoric, who took 
 them under his protection and forbade Clovis to pursue 
 them further. They settled in the district that roughly 
 corresponds to the modern states of Wurtemburg and 
 Baden and part of Switzerland — a district of which 
 we shall hear again as the Duchy of Alemannia or 
 Suabia. 
 
 The Burgundian war is important chiefly because it 
 led to an alliance of Arian kings, under the leadership 
 of Theodoric, to check the growing power of the Franks. 
 
 If the allies had joined in an attack on the dominions 
 of Clovis it would have gone hard with the Frankish 
 King, but Theodoric was anxious for peace, and without 
 his help the other kings were not strong enough to at- 
 tack the Franks. 
 
46 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDI.^VAL EUROPE 
 
 THE RISE OF THE FRANKS 
 
 47 
 
 Visigoths 
 
 Last years 
 of Clovis, 
 509-11 
 
 The initiative came from the Franks. In 507 Clovis 
 assembled his warriors and announced to them : ** I take 
 it ill that these Arians should hold any part of Gaul. 
 Let us go out with God's help and overthrow them, 
 and bring their land under our sway." The proposal 
 was promptly welcomed and the Franks marched to 
 attack the Visigoths. Alaric, rashly taking the offen- 
 sive without waiting for Theodoric's troops to come 
 to his help, was defeated and slain in a great battle 
 near Poitiers. The prize of the victory was almost all 
 the Visigothic kingdom north of the Pyrenees, including 
 the great cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse. After this 
 success Clovis returned home, leaving his son Theodoric, 
 in alliance with Gundobad and the Burgundians, who 
 had gone over to his side, to press the siege of Aries, 
 which held out successfully for nearly two years, till 
 relieved by the Ostrogoths in 510. In that year a great 
 army, under the command of Count Ibbas, one of Theo- 
 doric's best generals, crossed the Alps and inflicted a 
 decisive defeat on the Franks and Burgundians. The 
 war ended, as already mentioned, in a compromise be- 
 tween Clovis and Theodoric. 
 
 Meanwhile Anastasius had rewarded Clovis' attack 
 on the Arian kingdom of the Visigoths by bestowing 
 on him the consular office, and at Tours the Prankish 
 King was invested with the purple tunic and mantle of 
 a Koman official. 
 
 The last two years of Clovis' life and reign were, ac- 
 cording to Gregory of Tours, filled with crime and 
 bloodshed. His first victim was the aged King of the 
 Kipuarian Franks, who was murdered by his son Cloderic, 
 
 it is said at Clovis' instigation. Cloderic, in his turn, 
 was slain by some messengers of Clovis, and the king 
 himself then came to Cologne and was elected as ruler 
 of the Kipuarian kingdom. Cararic, king of the Prankish 
 kingdom of Terouenne, was then seized and murdered 
 and his kingdom annexed by Clovis. Ragnakar of 
 Cambrai soon after shared the same fate. 
 
 Thus the whole Prankish district of Northern Gaul 
 passed into the hands of Clovis, who died in Paris in 
 the year 511, at the age of forty-five, leaving his king- 
 dom to be divided between his four sons. 
 
 At this point it will be convenient to say something Frankish 
 about the organisation of the Frankish kingdom. The ^[q^^"^^*' 
 Franks, like the other German tribes who found their 
 way into the Empire, brought with them the same Teu- 
 tonic system of government that Tacitus describes in 
 his Gerinania three hundred years before. At the 
 head of the tribe or nation was the king, elected by the The King 
 armed warriors as their war leader. His person was 
 protected by special penalties, and certain lands were 
 assigned to him for his maintenance. His actual power 
 must have varied much. A king like Clovis, skilled in 
 war and statecraft, was probably nearly autocratic. 
 But a weaker king might easily be little more than a 
 tool in the hands of his nobles. 
 
 One change that followed on the migration of the 
 tribes was that the king gradually came to be thought 
 of as the owner of the territories that he ruled. It 
 followed that the same law of inheritance that held 
 good for the lands of the nobles came to be applied to 
 the kingdoQi. The Frank system of inheritance was 
 
46 
 
 THE DAWN OF MKDI.^VAL EUROPE 
 
 THE RISE OF THE FRANKS 
 
 47 
 
 I 
 
 Visigoths The initiative came from the Franks. In 507 Clovis 
 assembled his warriors and announced to them : ''I take 
 it ill that these Arians should hold any part of Gaul. 
 Let us go out with God's help and overthrow them, 
 and bring their land under our sway." The proposal 
 was promptly welcomed and the Franks marched to 
 attack the Visigoths. Alaric, rashly taking the offen- 
 sive without waiting for Theodoric's troops to come 
 to his help, was defeated and slain in a great battle 
 near Poitiers. The prize of the victory was almost all 
 the Visigothic kingdom north of the Pyrenees, including 
 the great cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse. After this 
 success Clovis returned home, leaving his son Theodoric, 
 in alliance with Gundobad and the Burgundians, who 
 had gone over to his side, to press the siege of Aries, 
 which held out successfully for nearly two years, till 
 relieved by the Ostrogoths in 510. In that year a great 
 army, under the command of Count Ibbas, one of Theo- 
 doric's best generals, crossed the Alps and inflicted a 
 decisive defeat on the Franks and Burgundians. The 
 war ended, as already mentioned, in a compromise be- 
 tween Clovis and Theodoric. 
 
 Meanwhile Anastasius had rewarded Clovis' attack 
 on the Arian kingdom of the Visigoths by bestowing 
 on him the consular office, and at Tours the Prankish 
 King was invested with the purple tunic and mantle of 
 a Koman official. 
 
 The last two years of Clovis' life and reign were, ac- 
 cording to Gregory of Tours, filled with crime and 
 bloodshed. His first victim was the aged King of the 
 Ripuarian Franks, who was murdered by his son Cloderic, 
 
 Last years 
 of Clovis, 
 509-11 
 
 it is said at Clovis' instigation. Cloderic, in his turn, 
 was slain by some messengers of Clovis, and the king 
 himself then came to Cologne and was elected as ruler 
 of the Eipuarian kingdom. Cararic, king of the Prankish 
 kingdom of Terouenne, was then seized and murdered 
 and his kingdom annexed by Clovis. Eagnakar of 
 Cambrai soon after shared the same fate. 
 
 Thus the whole Prankish district of Northern Gaul 
 passed into the hands of Clovis, who died in Paris in 
 the year 511, at the age of forty-five, leaving his king- 
 dom to be divided between his four sons. 
 
 At this point it will be convenient to say something Prankish 
 about the organisation of the Prankish kingdom. The ^[^f^ °^^*' 
 Pranks, like the other German tribes who found their 
 way into the Empire, brought with them the same Teu- 
 tonic system of government that Tacitus describes in 
 his Gerinania three hundred years before. At the 
 head of the tribe or nation was the king, elected by the The King 
 armed warriors as their war leader. His person was 
 protected by special penalties, and certain lands were 
 assigned to him for his maintenance. His actual power 
 must have varied much. A king like Clovis, skilled in 
 war and statecraft, was probably nearly autocratic. 
 But a weaker king might easily be little more than a 
 tool in the hands of his nobles. 
 
 One change that followed on the migration of the 
 tribes was that the king gradually came to be thought 
 of as the owner of the territories that he ruled. It 
 followed that the same law of inheritance that held 
 good for the lands of the nobles came to be applied to 
 the kingdom. The Prank system of inheritance was 
 
48 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE RISE OF THE FRANKS 
 
 49 
 
 Nobles 
 
 Warriors 
 
 Serfs and 
 slaves 
 
 equal division between all the male descendants of the 
 family. Accordingly we shall find that on the death 
 of a Frankish king his kingdom was divided among his 
 sons — an arrangement that gave rise to continual con- 
 tests. 
 
 Even earlier than this the kingly office had generally 
 become restricted to some noble family, descended 
 generally from some hero of the national history— some 
 Amal or Meroving or Cerdic. 
 
 Next in power to the king stood the nobles. In the 
 primitive Teutonic constitutions these formed a council, 
 by whom the king was advised and by whose influence 
 his power was held in check. But migration and war 
 raised to power among the Teutonic peoples a new class 
 of warrior-nobles, the ** thegns " of the king, whose inter- 
 est it was rather to exalt than to curb the power of the 
 king. 
 
 Below the nobles were the free warriors of the tribe, 
 who assembled two or three times a year for consulta- 
 tion over such questions as peace and war and for 
 important judicial business. As the Frankish kingdom 
 grew in extent such meetings must have become less 
 frequent, and the actual share of the armed warrior in 
 the work of government much less. 
 
 Below the armed warrior class there grew up two 
 other classes — the class of serfs, often perhaps conquered 
 peoples who were allowed to retain certain right in re- 
 turn for labour on the land of their overlord — and the 
 class of slaves, whose lot appears to have grown harder 
 when the Teutonic peoples came under the influence of 
 Eoman legal ideas. 
 
 The Franks, like the other Teutonic peoples, brought Frankish 
 with them into the Empire a body of unwritten custo- ^^^ 
 mary law. This law, modified by local conditions, was 
 after a time written in Latin in a number of codes, of 
 which the most famous is the Salian or Salic Law. 
 This code was compiled before the conversion of the 
 Franks to Christianity, but contains later additions by 
 Clovis and his successors. The code consists of regula- 
 tions about judicial procedure and statements of the 
 ** wehrgeld " or compensation payable for various classes 
 of offences. The ''wehrgeld" for slaying a Frankish 
 freeman was 200 solidi, for a serf (letus) 100 solidi. 
 A Roman was reckoned as equal to a serf, with a 
 wehrgeld of 100 solidi, while that of a slave was about 
 30 soHdi. 
 
 The chief officers of the State, next to the king, were 
 the grafio (count), who ruled over a pagus or shire; 
 then the saceharo, or ruler of a hundred, and the 
 thunginus, apparently a popularly elected officer of 
 the hundred. 
 
 The Salian Code also contains regulations for trial by 
 ordeal — a method of trial that the Church, in those early 
 days, encouraged in cases where no evidence of a decisive 
 kind was forthcoming. 
 
 The Salian Law shows us the legal system of the 
 Franks just as it comes into contact with the Roman 
 Law and the Law of the Church. Both these were 
 destined to influence deeply the development of Frankish 
 institutions, as we shall see later. 
 
 In Gaul the Franks found at least two peoples ofTheGanis 
 earlier settlement. The Gauls, a Keltic race, formed R^J^^ns 
 
 
50 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIiEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE RISE OF THE FRANKS 
 
 61 
 
 h 
 
 \^ 
 
 the peasantry of the conquered lands. They were not 
 exterminated or driven out, as the Britons were by the 
 Anglo-Saxon invaders of this country, but became 
 *' hewers of wood and drawers of water" to their con- 
 querors. Above these were the Komanised inhabitants 
 —men of many races, who had settled in the Empire at 
 an earlier time, and had become Eoman in language 
 and ideas. Between these and the newcomers friendly 
 relations gradually grew up, and the influence of this 
 Eoman civiHsation modified by degrees the language 
 and character of the Franks of the West, while those 
 who remained on the other side of the Ehine retained 
 their Teutonic language and customs. 
 Partitions The history of the Frankish kingdoms after the death 
 «f^rankish ^^ ^jQ^-g ^^^ ]^e told Only in outline. His Empire— for 
 "^^''^ such it had really become— was parcelled out by his sons 
 into four kingdoms, having their capitals at Metz, 
 Orleans, Paris and Soissons. The period that follows 
 is marked by the extension of the frontiers of the 
 Merovingian lands and by constant struggles between 
 the members of the royal house— struggles in which 
 murder plays as large a part as open contest. 
 
 Theodoric, Clovis' eldest son, to whom the kingdom 
 of Metz had fallen, carried his frontiers eastwards into 
 Thuringia and to the banks of the Danube. Meanwhile 
 the other three brothers joined in an attack on Burgundy, 
 which was absorbed into the Frankish kingdom in 584. 
 A Httle later Theodebert, son of Theodoric of Metz, 
 overran and conquered from the Ostrogoths the old 
 Eoman province of Provence, and so brought the 
 Frankish realm to the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 A During all this time internal feuds went on between 
 the brothers and nephews, till, in 558, Clotair of Soissons 
 became the sole survivor of the Merovingian house, and 
 reunited under one rule all the possessions of the 
 Frankish family. He died in 561, almost his last public 
 act having been to capture his son Chramnus, who had 
 rebelled against him, and bum him alive, with all his 
 family. 
 
 Clotair left four sons, who again partitioned theBrunhiida 
 Frankish realm. And now two new figures appear upongonda^* ^ 
 the scene where they are destined to play the leading 
 parts in a ferocious and bloodthirsty drama. The first 
 of these was Brunhilda, a daughter of the Visigothic 
 King of Spain, who became the wife of Siegbert of Metz. 
 The other was Fredegonda. Audovera, wife of Chilperic 
 of Soissons, brought her to the Court as her maid, but 
 f I she succeeded in inducing the king to repudiate his wife. 
 He then married Brunhilda's sister, but Fredegonda 
 after a time secured her murder, and succeeded to her 
 place as queen at Soissons. Brunhilda naturally re- 
 garded the upstart murderess with deadly hatred. 
 
 War followed between the two kings, but Fredegonda, 
 having secured the assassination of Siegbert at the 
 moment of victory, murdered one by one all the children 
 of her husband excepting her own son Clotair, and then 
 finally her husband himself. 
 
 Meanwhile a series of events too complicated to tell 
 in detail, placed Childebert, Brunhilda's son, on the 
 thrones of Paris, Orleans and Burgundy in 593. Years 
 of war followed, during which the authority of the sur- 
 viving kings of the Merovingian house over the vassals 
 
 lis 
 

 52 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 declined. Childebert died in 596, leaving Branhilda as 
 recent for his two little sons. Next year Fredegonda 
 also died, just as her plan for uniting all the Franks 
 under her son's rule seemed on the verge of success. 
 Still the contest went on, till the death of Brunhilda, 
 who was brutally done to death by Clotair in 614, left 
 the son of Fredegonda as sole ruler of the Frankish 
 
 realm. . . 
 
 In these long years of contest the Merovmgian kmg- 
 dom gradually fell into three divisions, Austrasia, 
 Neustria and Burgundy, the first comprising the Teu- 
 tonic lands of the east, the second the Latimsed lands 
 west of the Scheldt and Meuse, the last the lands 
 farther south, watered by the Rhone. 
 
 The condition of Western Europe at this penod is 
 well summarised in Milman's History of Latin Chris- 
 
 Condition " It is difficult to conceive a more dark and odious 
 Eulf state of society than that of France under the Mero- 
 vingian kings, the descendants of Clovis, as described 
 by Gregory of Tours. In the conflict or coalition of 
 barbarism with Roman Christianity, barbarism had 
 introduced into Christianity all its ferocity, with none 
 of its generosity or magnanimity. Its energy shows 
 itself in atrocity of cruelty and even of sensuality. 
 Throughout assassinations, parricides and fratricides in- 
 termingle with adulteries and rapes. That King Clotair 
 should burn alive his rebellious son with his wife and 
 daughter is fearful enough, but we are astounded even 
 in these times with a Bishop of Tours burning a man 
 alive to obtain the deeds of an estate which he coveted. 
 
 THE RISE OF THE FRANKS 
 
 53 
 
 Fredegonda sends two murderers to assassinate Childe- 
 bert, and these assassins are clergymen. She causes the 
 Archbishop of Rouen to be murdered while chanting the 
 service in his church ; and in this murder a bishop and 
 an archdeacon are her accomplices. Marriage was a 
 bond contracted and broken on the lightest occasion. 
 Some of the Merovingian kings took as many wives, 
 either together or in succession, as suited either their 
 passion or their politics." 
 
 Devastated by civil war, the lands of Western Europe 
 also suffered, in this sixth century, the horrors of plague 
 and hostile invasion. The chroniclers of the time are 
 full of records of the superstitious terrors awakened by 
 the pestilence that swept across Europe, striking down 
 its victims by thousands, and appearing to the terrified 
 eyes of men as a visible demon armed with a dart. 
 And on the society disorganised by pestilence, wild tribes 
 of Saxons, Huns and other peoples broke, plundering and 
 slaying. Unless there had arisen new leaders to defend 
 the frontiers. Western Europe must have relapsed into 
 barbarism and anarchy. 
 
Justin, 
 518-28 
 
 Accession 
 of Jus- 
 tinian 
 
 CHAPTEE VI 
 
 JUSTINIAN 
 
 rpHE death of Theodoric coincides with the beginning 
 -^ of a revival in the Empire under the great Emperor 
 Justinian. In 518 Anastasius the Emperor died, and 
 Justin, the commander of the lUyrian Imperial guard, 
 was selected by the soldiers as his successor. He was an 
 Illyrian by race, and had served in the armies of the 
 Empire for fifty years. His nine years' rule as Emperor 
 was marked by few events of importance. He was il- 
 literate and unaccustomed to civil business, and adopted 
 his nephew Justinian, for whom he had provided a 
 thorough education, as his colleague. On his death, in 
 528, Justinian succeeded as sole Emperor. 
 
 The Empire of which Justinian now became undis- 
 puted master had been strengthened and enriched by 
 seventy years of almost unbroken peace. Occasional 
 frontier wars gave occupation to the army, without 
 seriously affecting the prosperity of the people, while an 
 efficient body of officials conducted the administration. 
 Justin, by his profession of orthodoxy, had closed a 
 long-standing dispute between the Emperors and the 
 Church authorities, and his nephew was therefore able 
 to exercise autocratic authority both in Church and 
 
 54 
 
 JUSTINIAN 
 
 55 
 
 State. Justinian had already shown himself an eager 
 student of all departments of knowledge, and when he 
 became his uncle's colleague he quickly developed great 
 powers of administration. His industry and grasp of 
 affairs were the wonder of the Court. Unemotional and 
 pitiless, he ruled his Empire with an unwearied diHgence 
 that left little time either for sleep or recreation. While 
 deficient in the highest qualities of statesmanship he was 
 able and ambitious ; and was well served by the officers 
 whom he gathered around him, and to whom the carry- 
 ing out of his schemes was entrusted. 
 
 Before he became Emperor he had married Theodora, 
 a woman of remarkable beauty and force of character, 
 who had been a dancer at the theatre. Whatever her 
 earlier life may have been, she appears, after her 
 marriage, to have given no opportunity for scandal, and 
 to have been forward in promoting charitable works. 
 Soon after Justinian's accession to the throne the 
 celebrated " Nika " riots gave her the opportunity of 
 showing her strength of will. 
 
 Of the two factions in Constantinople, Justinian's 
 dynasty was supported by the "blues," the** greens" 
 being generally hostile. Encouraged by the Imperial 
 patronage, the blues appear to have created something 
 like a reign of terror in the city, till at last Justinian 
 determined to assert his authority. An opportunity for 
 doing so occurred in January, 532, when a faction fight 
 began in the city which ended in the two factions joining 
 together to attack the authorities. After some days of 
 rioting, in the course of which a considerable part of 
 the city was burnt, the people seized Hypatius, a 
 
 The 
 
 "Nika" 
 
 sedition 
 
56 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDI.^VAL EUROPE 
 
 JUSTINIAN 
 
 57 
 
 1 
 
 nephew of Anastasius, and compelled him to be crowned 
 
 as Emperor. 
 
 The fate of Justinian seemed to hang in the balance, 
 and some of his ministers advised him to fly. But 
 Theodora repudiated the suggestion with indignation, 
 and declared that ''Empire is a fair winding-sheet". 
 Emboldened by her words, the Emperor determined to 
 abide the issue. Belisarius, with all the troops that 
 could be got together, was sent to attack the rioters, 
 while Narses, the chamberlain, was sent to bribe the 
 leaders of the blues and sow disaffection between the 
 allied factions. 
 
 Belisarius marched to the Hippodrome, where the 
 people were assembled, and breaking in with his army 
 began a massacre in which, it is said, about 35,000 
 people perished. The blues and the greens still went 
 on and disturbed the peace of the city with their con- 
 tests, but their poHtical importance ceased after the 
 great Nika sedition, and the throne of Justinian was 
 never again menaced by their attacks. 
 
 The reign of Justinian is notable especially for three 
 things — his conquests, his laws and his buildings. 
 Justinian's Justinian's great desire was to restore the ancient 
 conquests ^^oues of the Empire by reconquering the Western 
 provinces that had been lost to it in the previous cen- 
 tury. The time was propitious for such an undertaking. 
 The Teutonic kingdoms in the west were no longer 
 ruled by their first conquerors, but by their degenerate 
 descendants. And, moreover, the Teutonic conquerors 
 had not succeeded in winning the support of the Eoman 
 population in the lands that they had conquered. In 
 
 Italy, especially, they remained practically a garrison in 
 a hostile country. 
 
 The first of the Western kingdoms to be reabsorbed i. North 
 
 Atricft 
 
 was the Vandal kingdom of North Africa. There a 
 Catholic king, Hilderic, was deposed by an Arian rival, 
 Geilamir. The usurper met the protests of Justinian 
 with insult, and in 588 Justinian equipped an expedition 
 under the command of the great general Belisarius. 
 The Koman fleet arrived, after a protracted voyage, to 
 find the Vandals entirely unprepared for defence, and 
 Belisarius marched to within ten miles of Carthage 
 before he met the army that the Vandal king had 
 hastily collected. After a hard fight the Vandal host 
 was broken, and the victorious Eomans entered Carthage 
 amid the cheers of the provincial population, who 
 welcomed the Imperial army as their deliverers from 
 the hated Vandal yoke. One more fight outside the 
 walls of Carthage finally broke the power of the Vandals, 
 and Belisarius came home in 584, bringing great spoils 
 and the Vandal king as a captive to grace his triumph. 
 Geilamir was generously treated by Justinian, and 
 allowed to live in Phrygia in comfort to the end of his 
 life. North Africa became once more an Imperial 
 province. 
 
 The story of the reconquest of Italy has been already 2. Italy 
 told. It began with Belisarius' conquest of Sicily in 
 585, and ended with the victory of Narses in 552. 
 
 Two Persian wars interrupted this campaign in the Persian 
 west. The first of these, lasting from 528 to 581 , was the ^^^^ 
 war in which Belisarius won his first laurels. It ended 
 in an inconclusive peace. The second began in 540, 
 
58 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 JUSTINIAN 
 
 59 
 
 i i 
 
 i ' 
 
 I 
 
 .11 i 
 
 * i I 
 
 i 
 
 !' 
 
 and was due to the fear of the young Persian king, 
 Chosroes, that, as soon as Justinian's campaign in the 
 west was over, he would turn eastwards and overwhelm 
 the Persian power. Kesolving to take the initiative, he 
 marched into Syria and captured and sacked the great 
 city of Antioch, the third city of the Empire in wealth 
 and splendour. BeHsarius was recalled from the west 
 to meet this new danger, and three years of indecisive 
 contest followed, interrupted by the great plague that 
 ravaged the whole East in 542. Soon after, Belisarius, 
 falling into disgrace at Court, was recalled, and the war 
 dragged on for two years longer, ending in a five years' 
 truce in 545. At the end of this time the war was 
 renewed, the centre of contest being the district of 
 Colchis, on the shores of the Black Sea. At last, in 
 555, the Persians made peace, abandoning Colchis in 
 return for a money payment. 
 
 The chief importance of these Persian wars, in their 
 bearing on European history, was that they drained 
 away the military and financial resources of the Empire, 
 and were among the causes that necessitated the heavy 
 burden of taxation that Justinian laid upon his subjects. 
 Justinian's A large sum was also spent in subsidies to Hunnish and 
 buildings Q^YiQv barbarian tribes on the northern frontier to buy 
 off their opposition, while the Imperial armies were 
 occupied with the Italian and Persian campaigns. But 
 it was not only on war that the resources of the Empire 
 were expended. Justinian was a great builder. In all 
 parts of the Empire churches, aqueducts, bridges, fortifi- 
 cations, attested his wealth and energy. Supreme 
 among his architectural triumphs stands the great 
 
 Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople, on the site of 
 Constantino's Church of the Divine Wisdom, which 
 had been twice destroyed by fire. Anthemius of Tralles 
 was the architect of the new church, for the adornment 
 of which the temples of Asia and of Greece were 
 plundered of their richest marbles and columns. When 
 completed, it must have been a spectacle of unparalleled 
 magnificence, with its great dome " in which the sun- 
 light seemed to grow," its hundred columns and its 
 golden altar. St. Sophia became the model to the 
 whole Eastern world for centuries, and remains still the 
 greatest example of the Byzantine style of architecture. 
 
 But of all the works of Justinian, that which ex- The Code 
 
 J .1 X i • n i»i 1 • , . of Roman 
 
 ercised the greatest mnuence on after-times was his Law 
 codification of Roman Law. After the establishment 
 of the Empire, the Imperial constitutions, issued by the 
 authority of the Emperor, took the place of the leges 
 passed in the comitia. From time to time these 
 constitutions had been collected into codes, the last 
 collection having been made in the time of Theodosius 
 (438). But since that time many fresh constitutions 
 had been issued, and Justinian determined to set about 
 the compilation of a new code that should be simpler 
 and more complete than any yet issued. A commission 
 of ten men, of whom the quaestor Tribonian was the 
 most important, undertook the work in 528, and in the 
 following year the Code of Justinian was published. 
 
 This was followed by a much more difficult under- The 
 taking. Much of Roman law was not in the form oi^*^^^^^ 
 constitutions but in the form of opinions given by 
 lawyers of recognised authority — responsa prudentum, 
 
60 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 
 JUSTINIAN 
 
 61 
 
 li 
 
 The Insti- 
 tutions 
 
 as they were called ; very much as English Common 
 Law is based on verdicts given by judges in the past. 
 These responsa had been collected in many large 
 volumes, but they had never been arranged on any 
 system and often contradicted each other. Justinian 
 determined to put this mass of material into order, and 
 he appointed a new commission in 530 for that purpose. 
 
 It took seventeen lawyers three years to read through 
 all the existing collections of responsa, eliminate con- 
 tradictions and superfluous matter, and rearrange the 
 whole in one series of volumes. The code thus 
 drawn up, known as the Digest or Pandects, became 
 henceforth the recognised authority for Koman case 
 law. 
 
 Besides these two great works, Justinian issued a 
 manual of the principles of Roman law in four volumes, 
 specially for students — the Institutions. 
 
 The administrative work of the Empire was well 
 conducted under Justinian, but all other functions of 
 government were subordinated to the supreme necessity 
 of raising funds for Justinian's wars and buildings and 
 the payment of the army of officials who conducted the 
 administration of the provinces. Justinian's expedients 
 for raising money were often discreditable. He is said 
 to have sold offices, to have confiscated the property of 
 private citizens, and once at least to have attempted to 
 debase the coinage — an atteijipt only frustrated by a 
 threat of insurrection. 
 
 Much of Justinian's energies were spent over ecclesi- 
 astical controversies, into which there is no need for us 
 to enter, He claimed the most autocratic authority 
 
 over the Church in the Empire and wrote several 
 treatises and letters on doctrinal questions. 
 
 In December, 565, Justinian died. His reign of 
 nearly forty years, while it had restored Italy and North 
 Africa to the Empire for a time, had exhausted the 
 Eastern provinces that constituted the real strength 
 of the Empire. Even before his death there were omin- 
 ous indications that the resources of the Empire had 
 been overtaxed, and almost immediately after his death 
 the collapse of his system showed on how unsubstan- 
 tial a foundation it rested. Had Justinian, instead of 
 turning his ambitions westward, concentrated his atten- 
 tion to developing the defences of the eastern frontiers 
 of the Empire, the crescent-flag of the Prophet might 
 never have waved over Jerusalem or Antioch, and the 
 course of human history might have been different to a 
 degree almost impossible to exaggerate. 
 
 The latter half of the sixth century was a period of justiuii., 
 misfortune for the Empire. The Persian war broke **' ' 
 out again in the east, while the newly conquered lands 
 in the west were overrun by fresh migrations of bar- 
 barians. Justin II. (565-578), who succeeded his uncle 
 without opposition, declined to continue the subsidies 
 that his predecessor had paid to the Persians and to the 
 Avars and other tribes on the Danube. The result was 
 that the Empire became involved in a war with the 
 Persians that lasted for nearly twenty years, while the 
 Avars began to break through the northern frontiers of 
 the Empire. 
 
 Four years before his death Justin lost his reason, Tiberius 
 and was succeeded by Tiberius II., a distinguished '' '** 
 
I ^ 
 
 : < 
 
 Maurice, 
 582-602 
 
 Phocas, 
 603-610 
 
 62 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 \ 
 
 military officer, whose short reign of eight years was 
 chiefly notable for an attempt to win popularity by 
 remitting many of the most oppressive taxes. But as 
 Tiberius tried at the same time to propitiate the army 
 by rich and frequent donations, he left to his successor 
 a depleted treasury and an impoverished Empire. Just 
 before his death he nominated as his successor one of the 
 best of his generals, Maurice, who reigned for twenty 
 years (582-602), striving manfully but vainly to carry 
 on the affairs of the State with a bankrupt exchequer and 
 an army constantly on the verge of mutiny. Finally, 
 in 602, the Danubian army rose in mutiny against an 
 order to winter in the open, and under their leader, 
 Phocas, marched to Constantinople. Maurice fled with 
 his children, but was pursued and beheaded by order of 
 the usurper, dying, it is said, with the words on his lips, 
 " Just art Thou, Lord God, and just are Thy judg- 
 ments ". 
 
 For seven years Constantinople suffered the brutalities 
 and incompetence of Phocas, and the Empire seemed on 
 the verge of destruction when deliverance came from 
 an unexpected quarter. The exarch Heraclius, who 
 ruled North Africa for the Emperor, rose in rebellion, 
 Heraclius and fitted out a fleet, which he sent under the command 
 of his son, Heraclius, in the spring of 610, to Constan- 
 tinople. Heraclius met with no opposition, and the 
 tyrant Phocas was handed over to him in chains and 
 sent to share the doom of his predecessor. 
 
 One most important series of events of these troubled 
 years remains to be noticed. While the Lombards were 
 pressing into Italy and the Persians ravaging Asia Minor, 
 
 Avar 
 invasious 
 
 JUSTINIAN 
 
 63 
 
 hordes of uncivilised barbarians came across the 
 Danube and settled in the Balkan district. The earliest 
 of these invaders were the Avars. Of the same race as 
 the Huns, they had moved westward from the high- 
 lands of Central Asia, and appeared now in the lands 
 north of the Danube. For a time they received a sub- 
 sidy from Justinian as a kind of frontier-guard ; but 
 soon after the accession of Justin, the Avar chagan, or 
 king, made a treaty of alliance with the Lombards for a 
 joint attack upon the Gepidae, a Teutonic tribe occupy- 
 ing lands north of the Danube. The outcome of the 
 attack was the destruction of the Gepidae, and the 
 acquisition of their lands and the neighbouring province 
 of Pannonia by the Avars, who now became one of the 
 strongest powers of Central Europe. For many years 
 the relations between the Avars and the Empire were 
 generally hostile, intervals of peace being purchased from 
 time to time at the cost of heavy subsidies. 
 
 While these contests were in progress men ofsiav 
 another race were finding their way into the devastated ""^* ^^^^ 
 lands of the Balkan district in ever-increasing numbers. 
 We cannot yet locate with any certainty the primitive 
 home of the Slavonic race. The Slavonic language 
 belongs to the Aryan or Indo-European family of 
 languages, but the early history of it is unknown. All 
 that is certain is that Slavs began to drift into the 
 Empire from beyond the Danube in the third century 
 in the same way that Teutons came into Gaul from 
 beyond the Rhine. The word ** slav " or " slave " appears 
 to be derived either from the root slovo (a word) and so 
 to mean ** the man who speaks intelligibly," or from a 
 
64 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 |i 
 
 I t" 
 
 root slava, meaning '' glory ". But so many people of 
 this race passed into the hands of German tribes as 
 captives in war that the word slave, originally a title of 
 honour, became the name for an " unfree " man. 
 
 The Slav migrations, at first insignificant, gradually 
 grew larger, as the weakness of the Empire and the 
 desire to escape from the Avar yoke at once tempted 
 and drove them across the Danube. They came into the 
 Balkan Peninsula, not as the Ostrogoths or Visigoths had 
 come, to ravage and depart, but to settle there as per- 
 manent occupiers of the land. They were a savage 
 people, primitive alike in their methods of agriculture 
 and war. They settled in small communities, and 
 carried on a constant guerilla war with the Eoman 
 authorities. It was impossible to dislodge them from 
 their shelters among the forests and mountains ; if a body 
 of them were lured into the open and exterminated, the 
 successful army might be assailed among the woods by 
 an ambushed foe armed with poisoned darts. So at last, 
 in all the lands from Belgrade to Adrianople, and from 
 the mouth of the Danube to the frontiers of Greece, 
 the Latin language gave place to the Slavonic, and 
 the Eoman Empire in the east was cut off by a new 
 barrier from her ancient provinces in the west. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII 
 
 BENEDICT OF NURSIA AND COLUMBAN 
 
 A T about the same time that Justinian was drawing 
 up his Code of Eoman Law among the splendours 
 of Constantinople, a lonely monk on an Itahan mountain 
 was drawing up the rule that was destined to regulate 
 the monastic life of Western Europe for seven hundred 
 years. 
 
 Monasticism had its earliest home in the east, where, 
 at the end of the fourth century, Basil of Cappadocia 
 drew up a body of regulations for the hfe of the monas- 
 teries. The monastic idea gradually spread to the west, 
 and in the dark days of the break-up of the Eoman 
 civilisation of Gaul and Italy many men sought refuge 
 in the austerities of the religious life, either in small 
 communities or as hermits in complete isolation. Among 
 all these men one name stands conspicuous — that of 
 Benedict of Nursia. 
 
 He was born about the year 480, just after the Early life 
 accession of Odoacer to the kingship of Italy. The ^^ ^®°®^^^* 
 little town of Nursia, which was his birthplace, lay 
 under the shadow of the Apennines, about twenty miles 
 from Spoleto. His parents were in a good position, 
 and were able to give their son an education at Eome, 
 
 5 65 
 
 N 
 

 66 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Monte 
 
 Cassino, 
 
 528 
 
 whither he was sent while still a boy. Shocked and 
 startled by the wickedness of the city, he determined 
 after a time to abandon his studies and adopt the monastic 
 Hfe. Accompanied by his nurse, he set out in search 
 of a deserted place where he might give himself to medi- 
 tation and prayer, and after staying for a time at Efida, 
 he fled secretly across the hills to Subiaco, where he met 
 a monk named Eomanus, who admitted him to the 
 monastic order and took him to a cave on the hillside, 
 where he stayed for three years hidden from the eyes 
 of men. Here Benedict passed through a time of 
 contest, resisting with difficulty the allurements of the 
 world that he had forsaken. On one occasion, in his 
 determination to conquer unholy desires, he is said to 
 have plunged naked into a thicket of thorns and nettles ; 
 and a beautiful old legend tells how, when St. Francis 
 of Assisi visited the monastery seven hundred years 
 after, the thorn bushes suddenly turned into roses. 
 
 Gradually the fame of the young hermit spread 
 throughout the district, and the monks of the neigh- 
 bouring monastery of Varia requested him to become 
 their abbot. A short experience served to show that 
 his rule was too strict for them, and he returned for a 
 time to his home in the wilderness. 
 
 But now from all parts of Italy men who desired to 
 enter the monastic life flocked to him, so that before 
 long there were no less than twelve monasteries around 
 Subiaco under his rule. About the year 528, moved by 
 a desire for greater solitude, and partly also by the opposi- 
 tion of some of the neighbouring clergy, Benedict, with 
 
 BENEDICT OF NURSIA AND COLUMBAN 
 
 67 
 
 a few friends, left Subiaco and travelled southwards 
 to INIonte Cassino, the celebrated hill about half-way 
 between Kome and Naples that was destined to become 
 the centre of the Benedictine monastic movement. It 
 is characteristic of the confusion of the times that the 
 little party of monks found, on their arrival, that the 
 peasants still offered sacrifice to Apollo at an altar on 
 the hillside. This altar Benedict destroyed, erecting 
 in its place a Christian church. 
 
 For fifteen years Benedict remained at Monte Cassino, 
 and many are the miracles recorded in the life of St. 
 Benedict by Gregory the Great, which is our chief source 
 of information about him. One of the most interesting 
 episodes in Gregory's life is the interview between the Meeting of 
 saint and the great Gothic warrior Totila. Totila first ^d TcJtUa 
 put the powers of the holy man to the test by sending 
 his sword-bearer, disguised in his armour, and attended 
 by his body-servants, to the abbot, who promptly pene- 
 trated the disguise and sent the sword-bearer back to 
 his master. 
 
 '' Then, in his own person, the same Totila approached 
 the man of God, but when he saw him sitting afar off 
 he did not dare to approach him, but cast himself on 
 the ground. Then, when the man of God had twice or 
 thrice said to him * Kise,' but still he did not dare to 
 raise himself from the earth, Benedict the servant of 
 'Tesus Christ condescended to approach the prostrate 
 king and cause him to rise. He rebuked him for his 
 past deeds, and in a few words told him all that should 
 come to pass, saying : — 
 
 ii 
 
68 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDI.^VAL EUROPE 
 
 BENEDICT OF NURSIA AND COLUMBAN 
 
 69 
 
 Much evil hast thou done, 
 Much evil art thou doing, 
 Now at length cease from sin. 
 Thou shalt enter Rome ; 
 Thou shalt cross the sea, 
 Nine years shalt thou reign. 
 In the tenth shalt thou die. 
 
 When he heard these words, the king, vehemently 
 terrified, asked for his prayers, and withdrew ; and from 
 that time forward he was less cruel than aforetime. 
 Not long afterwards he entered Rome, and crossed to 
 Sicily. But in the tenth year of his reign by the 
 judgment of Almighty God, he lost his kingdom with 
 
 his life." ^ 
 
 Soon after this meeting, in 543, Benedict died, leaving 
 his monastery of Monte Cassino as a kind of beacon- 
 light shining through the darkness and confusion of the 
 years that followed. The rule that Benedict drew up 
 for his monks was adopted by other monasteries till 
 it became, and remained for hundreds of years, the 
 monastic rule for all the monks of the west. 
 The Regula Up to this time the monasteries of Western Europe 
 Benedict ^ad adopted rules from the east, but had been very lax 
 in discipline. Benedict's Regula provided a uniform 
 system of monastic hfe, strict enough to curb the hot 
 passions and self-will of the time, yet not so strict as 
 to be impossible to enforce. Benedict himself describes 
 them as ** a school of Divine service, in which nothing 
 too heavy or rigorous will be estabHshed ". The two 
 central principles of the Regula are labour and obedi- 
 ence. Every monk must spend seven hours a day in 
 
 1 Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, iv., 489. 
 
 manual labour and two hours in reading. He must 
 also yield prompt and wilHng obedience to the commands 
 of the abbot, who, however, was not an absolute 
 monarch over his little realm, since he was obliged to 
 consult the monks in chapter about all questions of im- 
 portance affecting the monastery. On the death of an 
 abbot, his successor was to be elected by the monks. 
 Every monastery was to have its own mill, bakery and 
 gardens, so that the monks would not be obliged to de- 
 pend on the outside world for supplies. Hospitality was 
 to be offered freely to strangers and to the poor. *' Let 
 every stranger be received," says the rule, '* as though he 
 were Christ Himself, for it is Christ Himself who shall 
 one day say to us, * I was a stranger, and ye took Me 
 in '." Absolute community of goods existed within the 
 monastery, every monk being obliged, on admission, to 
 renounce all private property. 
 
 The monks were recruited from two sources. There 
 were, first, the children entrusted by their parents to 
 the monastery ; and, secondly, the men of mature age 
 who sought shelter in monastic life from the troubles 
 and temptations of the world. According to Benedict's 
 rule, these candidates were to be subjected to severe 
 tests and a year of probation as novices before they were 
 admitted to membership. Once admitted, they bound 
 themselves by the strictest vows to remain for life in the 
 monastic order. 
 
 The rules regulate the life of the monks in every de- 
 tail. Seven times a day they were to gather in the 
 chapel for services, which consisted largely of Psalms 
 chanted by the monks. At meals, which were simple. 
 
70 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 BENEDICT OF NURSIA AND COLUMBAN 
 
 71 
 
 Irish 
 missions 
 
 Columbau, 
 543-615 
 
 but adequate, each monk served in turn. They slept, 
 not in separate cells, but in one long dormitory, and by 
 the rules of the order were to sleep in their day-clothes 
 and shoes, and to train themselves to do with very little 
 
 sleep. 
 
 So completely did the rule of St. Benedict supersede 
 all other monastic rules in Western Europe that Charles 
 the Great, two hundred and fifty years later, ordered a 
 careful inquiry to be made as to whether there were 
 any monks in his dominions who observed any other 
 rule than that of St. Benedict. And later monastic 
 rules, such as those of Cluny in the tenth century, or 
 of Citeaux in the twelfth, were only attempts to inter- 
 pret, in relation to the needs of later times, the Regida 
 of the Father of Western monasticism. 
 
 The age that followed the death of Benedict was the 
 great missionary age of Western monasticism. 
 
 It would be impossible to tell in detail the story of the 
 labours of the monks who carried the Christian faith to 
 the Teutonic and Slavonic peoples of Western Europe. 
 One of the greatest of them, Columban, may serve as a 
 type for the rest. In the sixth and seventh centuries 
 Ireland became a great centre of Hterary culture and of 
 missionary effort. Its schools helped to keep alive the 
 study of the great Latin authors, whose works were in 
 danger of being forgotten, and its missionaries went out 
 into all lands of Western Europe. 
 
 Columban was born in Ireland in the same year that 
 Benedict died at Monte Cassino. He was educated in 
 the liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric and geometry, and 
 fled to monastic Hfe to escape the allurements of the 
 
 world. He went first to Bangor and then, with twelve 
 monks as his companions, to Gaul, where, finding re- 
 ligion and morality at a low ebb, he set himself to the task 
 of reviving them. He then settled in Burgundy under 
 King Gontram, who gave him a disused castle on the site 
 of an old Koman town at Luxeuil, in the forest country 
 of the Vosges mountains. There a great monastery 
 grew up, over which Columban exercised stern dis- 
 cipline. His rule was much stricter than that of St. 
 Benedict — too strict, indeed, to be kept by any but an 
 elect few. 
 
 Columban's Irish customs soon brought him into 
 contest with the Bishops of Gaul, and to this was 
 added a contest with Brunhilda and her grandson, who 
 had succeeded Gontram in 593 as king in Burgundy. 
 As a result he was expelled from Luxeuil. After visit- 
 ing the kings of Neustria and Austrasia he determined 
 to undertake the directly missionary work to which he 
 had long been drawn and settled at Bregentz among 
 the still heathen Alemanni. His chief helper was Gall 
 — the apostle of Swiss Christianity and founder of the 
 far-famed monastery of St. Gall. The methods of the 
 missionaries were not those best calculated to avert op- 
 position. We read of their throwing the idols of the 
 people into the lake and even burning down the 
 temples. They were reduced to living on such fruits 
 and fish as they could find for themselves. Obliged at 
 last to leave Alemannia, Columban crossed the Alps into 
 Italy, and found his way to the Court of Agilulf, the 
 Lombard king, whose wife, TheodeHnda of Bavaria, 
 had already done much to bring Christianity to the Lom- 
 
72 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Bobbio bards. Agilulf gave Columban some land at Bobbio in 
 the Apennines ; and there he built a monastery which 
 became a great missionary centre for the conversion 
 of the Lombards from Arianism. In his old age he 
 left Bobbio to pass his closing days in solitude at 
 Trebbia, and there he died in 615. 
 
 Columban's rule gradually gave place in the 
 monasteries he had founded to the milder and more 
 practicable rule of St. Benedict, and the three great 
 monasteries of Luxeuil, St. Gall and Bobbio remained 
 for long as centres of light and learning in Burgundy, 
 Switzerland and Northern Italy. From Luxeuil the 
 monastic system spread into Neustria, and a number 
 of daughter monasteries grew up, of which Jumieges 
 and Eemiremont are the most famous. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 
 
 IN an earlier chapter we have traced the history ofneraciius, 
 the Empire to the accession of HeracHus in 610. 
 The new Emperor succeeded to an Empire that seemed 
 on the verge of dissolution. The Slavs were pouring 
 across the Balkans and the Persians had carried their 
 attacks into the heart of Asia Minor. To meet these 
 dangers Heraclius had an army disorganised by mis- 
 management, an empty treasury and a corrupt body of 
 officials. Under these circumstances it is not strange 
 that for the first ten years of his reign he could do little 
 to make headway against the invaders. Disaster fol- 
 lowed disaster. In 613 Damascus fell, and in the 
 following year the capture of Jerusalem by the Persian 
 king, Chosroes, sent a thrill of horror over Christendom. 
 Two years later Egypt fell, almost without resistance, 
 into the hands of the Persians. So hopeless did the 
 prospect appear that Heraclius is said to have considered 
 the plan of moving the capital of the Empire to Carth- 
 age. But the rumour of his intentions roused the 
 people of Constantinople to new energy. A kind of 
 crusade was proclaimed by the clergy, who offered the 
 wealth of the Church to equip the armies of the 
 
 73 
 
74 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Empire. Most important of all, Heraclius resolved no 
 longer to entrust the war to his generals, but to assume 
 Campaigns Supreme command himself. After patching up a treaty 
 622-62?' with the Avars, who had actually penetrated within 
 forty miles of Constantinople itself, Heraclius started 
 for the east, where in six years of strenuous warfare 
 he proved himself the greatest general of his age. It 
 is impossible to tell in detail the story of Heraclius' 
 campaigns, which closed with a great victory at Nineveh 
 and the sack of Chosroes' palace near Ctesiphon. 
 Meanwhile, in 626, the Avars, acting as allies of the 
 Persians, besieged Constantinople, which was splendidly 
 defended by Bonus the patrician and by the Eoman 
 fleet, which guarded the Bosphorus and so prevented 
 the Persians from sending help to their allies. In 028 
 Heraclius came home in triumph, bringing peace to the 
 Empire and the spoils of Jerusalem, including the 
 ** True Cross," which the Persians had been compelled 
 to surrender. 
 Birth and But whilc Persia and the Empire were fighting out 
 Moham-^ "" their long contest, a new power was rising in the east, 
 ^' ^'^' which was destined to sweep both away. In 570, five 
 years after the death of Justinian, and two years after 
 the Lombard invasion of Italy, Mohammed was born, 
 at Mecca, an important commercial town in Southern 
 Arabia. 
 
 The Arabs of this district had attained to a certain 
 measure of civilisation, and lived under a strict system 
 of tribal law. Their religion was a kind of polytheism, 
 each tribe having its own tutelary deities. A supreme 
 God (Allah) was vaguely conceived of behind these 
 
 THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 
 
 75 
 
 tribal gods, but the whole religious system was effete 
 and had little influence over conduct or life. 
 
 Mohammed's family was a poor one, but at the age 
 of twenty-four he entered commercial life as partner 
 with a widow named Khadija, whom he shortly after- 
 wards married. Through some relatives of his wife 
 he came into contact with a body of religious reformers, 
 the ** Hanifs," who sought for the secret of holiness of 
 life in the rejection of polytheism and complete submis- 
 sion {Islam) to the will of Allah. 
 
 Influenced by them, he began to spend long periods 
 in prayer and meditation, till at length he became con- 
 scious of a mission to teach the truths he had learned 
 to the men of his city. His teaching was received 
 with bitter hostility, and those who avowed themselves The 
 
 . . "Heriga " 
 
 his followers were persecuted and in some cases dnven 622 
 out of the city. At last Mohammed resolved on a 
 decisive step, and in 622, having sent his followers on 
 before him, he fled to Medina. This is the celebrated 
 " Heriga " or Flight of Mohammed, from which the 
 followers of the prophet date the rise of the new 
 rehgion. At Medina the new prophet soon found him- 
 self undisputed master of the city, and organised a 
 political commonwealth under laws drawn up by him. 
 His system was designed to bind together all who ac- 
 cepted it in the closest bonds of union, and to sever them 
 from the unbelieving world by a great gulf. He bor- 
 rowed something from Judaism, and something from 
 the corrupt forms of Christianity with which he had 
 come in contact in Southern Arabia. But the funda- 
 mental article of his creed — the unity of God — he had 
 
76 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 learned from the Hanifs. With them it was a truth 
 for quiet meditation, but in the hands of the prophet 
 it became the war-cry of a new contest that shook the 
 Arab world to its foundations. In December, 623, 
 Mohammed and his followers won the battle of Bekr 
 over a force of Arabs from Mecca, and from that time 
 the external history of Mohammedanism is the history 
 of an advancing tide of conquest that swept over all 
 the east, rolled as a devastating wave over the provinces 
 of Egypt and North Africa, and was checked at last in 
 the west only by the barrier of the Pyrenees and the 
 sword of Charles Martel. 
 
 Progress of Before Mohammed died, in 632, all Arabia was under 
 
 medan?sm ^is sway. His succcssor, or " Khalifa," Abu Bekr, after 
 suppressing a rebellion among the Arab followers of the 
 prophet, launched two great armies against the Persians 
 and the Empire. 
 
 Persia, 641 The couqucst of Persia was rapid and complete. By 
 the end of 641 all the lands over which the Persian 
 king had ruled passed under the sway of the Moslem 
 power. In the same year Egypt was overrun and 
 absorbed, almost without resistance, in the ever-growing 
 territories of the Arab conquerors. 
 
 Syria, 634 Meanwhile the invasion of Syria, checked for a few 
 months by the forces of the Empire, went forward under 
 the leadership of the fierce leader Khaled, the ** Sword of 
 God ". In 634 the invaders won the terrific battle of 
 Yermuk, almost exterminating a force of eighty thousand 
 Imperial troops. Damascus was sacked next year, and 
 Heraclius took the field in person, only to find himself 
 helpless against the fierce fanaticism of the new foe. 
 
 THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 
 
 77 
 
 While these conquests were in progress, the Khalifa Jerusalem, 
 died and was succeeded by Omar, the greatest of all 
 the successors of the prophet. Under his wise rule the 
 work of conquest went on. Antioch fell in 637, and in 
 the same year Jerusalem surrendered. So great was 
 the veneration of the Moslems for the city that they 
 accounted second only to Mecca in sacredness, that 
 Omar crossed the desert expressly to receive its surrender 
 in person. On the site of the Temple he built the 
 great mosque that still bears his name. With unusual 
 toleration he granted to the Christians the control of 
 the Holy Places. 
 
 Heraclius lived to see the whole province of Meso- 
 potamia overrun by Saracen^ hordes and the sea- 
 port of Caesarea captured. He died in 641, just before 
 the fall of Alexandria and the beginning of the attack 
 on Asia Minor. 
 
 After a short period of confusion, Heraclius wasconstan- 
 succeeded by his grandson Constantinus, or Constans as 668 
 the Western chroniclers call him. During his boyhood 
 the course of Saracen conquest went on, though more 
 slowly. Alexandria was recaptured by the Empire, and 
 recaptured again and partly destroyed by the Moslems. 
 Part of North Africa fell into their hands. They also 
 began to develop a navy which gradually grew large 
 enough to dispute the mastery of the Mediterranean 
 with the Imperial fleet. They won a great victory in a 
 naval engagement off the coast of Lycia in 652, the 
 Emperor himself only escaping with difficulty. But 
 
 ^ The name Saracen, given by Roman writers to the Arabs, is derived 
 from an Arabic word sharki, meaning eastern. 
 
78 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 soon after this the Empire secured a respite through 
 the outbreak of civil war between two rival candidates 
 for the KaHphate — Muavia of Syria and AH of Meso- 
 potamia. 
 
 Some years passed before the Saracen conquests were 
 resumed. During this time Constantinus made a last 
 attempt to reorganise the sadly diminished provinces of 
 the Empire, now consisting of Asia Minor, the western 
 part of North Africa, a strip of country round the coast 
 of the Balkan Peninsula and some parts of Italy. 
 Constantinus spent the last six years of his life in Italy 
 and Sicily, trying to restore the prestige of the Empire 
 in the West. After a successful campaign in Southern 
 Italy he settled at Syracuse, within accessible reach of 
 North Africa, where, in 668, the Saracens renewed their 
 attacks on the Empire. Before his death, in 668, Asia 
 Minor was also suffering from their ravages. For eight 
 CoDstan- years Constantine Pogonatus (the bearded), who suc- 
 '*Pogo- ceeded, carried on a struggle with the invaders — the 
 668-^678 iiiost notable episode of the war being a great siege of 
 Constantinople by the Saracens, in 673, which ended 
 in their disastrous defeat. The only other event of note 
 in the reign of this Emperor was the arrival in the 
 Balkan Peninsula of a new body of invaders, the Bul- 
 garians. They were a tribe of Hunnish race, but they 
 soon began to unite with the Slav tribes who were al- 
 ready settled in the district into which they came, and 
 gradually lost their Hunnish language and character- 
 istics. 
 Justinian, On his death, in 685, Constantine was succeeded 
 by his son Justinian, a youth of seventeen, who was en- 
 
 THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 
 
 79 
 
 couraged by a successful attack on the Bulgarians, and 
 by the internal feuds that now divided the Moslem world,- 
 to attempt to reconquer Syria. The campaign proved 
 a complete failure, and Justinian developed into a 
 bloodthirsty and cruel tyrant. Finally a palace revolt 
 drove him from the throne and plunged the Empire 
 into twenty years of complete chaos. 
 
 Meanwhile the tide of Moslem conquest rolled on. Moslem 
 In 698 Cartha.ge finally fell, and the whole of North of^Nm-th 
 Africa passed under the sway of the Saracens. The "^*' 
 province had long been divided by religious controversies, 
 and had already been harried by the Vandals, but the 
 ruins that still remain along the coast of North Africa 
 suffice to show how rich and prosperous the great cities 
 that fringed the shore of the Mediterranean had been 
 in the days when Rome dwelt secure and unchallenged. 
 
 Fifteen years later, Sardinia fell into the hands of the 
 Saracens, and Cappadocia and Pontus were overrun in 
 the following years. The doom of the Empire seemed 
 inevitable, and an expedition was already marching 
 against Constantinople when Leo the Isaurian, a general 
 in the Roman army, won the Imperial throne, and 
 began the struggle that was destined to preserve Con- 
 stantinople for centuries as the great bulwark of Europe 
 against the followers of the prophet. 
 
 A little before this check in the east the Saracens Spain, 710 
 had won their last great success in the west. For a 
 century the Visigothic kingdom in Spain had been 
 crumbling into decay. Originally Arian, the Visigothic 
 kings had now become stern champions of orthodoxy, 
 and Jews and Arians alike suffered bitter persecutions. 
 
80 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 About the year 710 the storm of Moslem invasion 
 broke on the disorganised and enfeebled kingdom. A 
 vast horde of Arabs and Moors, landing at the spot 
 (Gibraltar) that still bears the name of their leader, 
 Tarik (Gebel Tarik = the hill of Tarik), smote the last 
 Gothic king, Eoderic, in a great battle on the banks of 
 the Guadelete, and within three years all Spain, ex- 
 cepting the mountainous districts of the North, had 
 passed into their hands. A land that impotent 
 sovereigns, fanatical clergy, turbulent nobles and down- 
 trodden serfs had left helpless in its hour of need, was 
 now destined, under the rule of great Moslem chiefs, to 
 become a centre of art and learning and industry. 
 
 Except for Italy and Greece, and the lands fringing the 
 Balkan Peninsula, the whole of the coast-line of the 
 Mediterranean had now passed under the sway of the 
 Mohammedan power. In the east the battlements of 
 Constantinople still frowned defiance across the Bos- 
 phorus, and in the west the strong nations beyond the 
 Pyrenees were ready to dispute, in one great day of 
 battle, the further advance of the crescent flag. 
 
 The menace of this great advance of Moslem power 
 awakened among the still unconquered peoples of 
 Northern Europe a new sense of common interest. 
 Christianity itself was now in danger, and watching for 
 some champion to arise to organise the forces of resist- 
 ance. Around such a champion there would inevitably 
 gather all the associations of the Eoman Imperial idea. 
 So in less than a hundred years after the Saracen conquest 
 of Spain, Charles the Great was crowned in the great 
 basilica of Kome, and the Holy Koman Empire began. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE LOMBARDS IN ITALY AND THE RISE OF THE PAPACY 
 
 \\^E left Italy cleared of her Gothic invaders and 
 ruled by Imperial officers. But in reality much 
 of Northern Italy had become a depopulated desert, 
 whose empty and uncultivated plains were only broken 
 by an occasional garrison town. Into these ownerless Coming of 
 territories there came, in 568, a new tribe of barbarian bards, 568 
 immigrants, the Lombards. Among the various Teu- 
 tonic tribes they had been almost the last to move 
 southward, and for nearly a century had occupied the 
 lands along the Danube adjoining those of the Ostro- 
 goths and the Gepidae. Their name of Lombards 
 {Langobardi) was probably derived from the long beards 
 that gave a ferocious aspect to these fierce warriors.^ A 
 detachment of them fought as mercenaries under Narses 
 in 552, so gaining their earHest knowledge of Italy; 
 and fifteen years later, after assisting the Avars to ex- 
 terminate the Gepidae, the whole tribe moved south 
 under its king, Alboin, and poured almost unopposed 
 into the plains of Northern Italy. One by one the 
 Roman garrison towns surrendered, till Ravenna alone 
 
 ' other derivations have been suggested, from barta^ an axe, or bord, 
 a shore, so making the name mean •* men of the long axe " or *' long- 
 shoremen ". 
 
 6 81 
 
!' 
 
 
 82 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Death of remained as an Imperial stronghold. But the new 
 Aiboin, 572 j^^^l^^^^ kingdom had scarcely been organised when 
 Alboin died. The story of his death is dramatically 
 told by Paul the Deacon, the historian of the Lombards. 
 After the defeat of the Gepidae, Alboin had the skull of 
 the Gepid King, Cunimund, whose daughter Kosamund 
 he had married, made into a drinking bowl, and in a 
 drunken carouse in Verona, in the year 572, he called 
 for Eosamund and bade her drink joyfully from her 
 father's head. Enraged by the insult, Eosamund pro- 
 cured the assassination of the King. 
 Lombard Deprived of their leader, the Lombards broke up into 
 in Central smaller parties, each under a chief, and spread farther 
 ^^*^^ and farther into Central and Southern Italy. They 
 made no attempt at systematic conquest, but settled 
 wherever fancy led them, so that Central Italy gradually 
 became dotted over with small Lombard settlements, 
 intermixed with those of the native Italians. The 
 native population was probably spared and reduced to 
 a condition of serfdom. Farther south the two great 
 Duchies of Spoleto and Beneventum grew up. Only 
 a few fragments of Italy remained in the hands of the 
 Empire, chiefly along the coast, which possessed no 
 attractions to people like the Lombards unaccustomed 
 to a seafaring life. These scattered possessions of 
 the Empire were ruled by the Exarch of Eavenna, 
 though the actual extent of his authority over Eome 
 or Naples must have been very slight. 
 
 It would be a tedious task to trace in detail the 
 history of the Lombard kingdom, which was re-estab- 
 hshed in 583 by the election of Authari. His marriage 
 
 Authari, 
 683-590 
 
 LOMBARDS IN ITALY AND RISE OF THE PAPACY 83 
 
 with Theodelinda, the daughter of the Duke of Bavaria, 
 brought the Lombards in touch with Christian in- 
 
 ITALY 
 
 in the 7^- Century 
 
 Imperial Territory 
 
 L—j L 
 
 English Miles 
 
 so 2S 
 
 100 
 
 200 
 
 fluences, and about the year 590 the Lombard king, 
 Agilulf, who had succeeded to the kingdom and the 
 
84 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 I I 
 
 Agilulf. 
 590-615 
 
 hand of Theodelinda, was baptised with many of his 
 followers. 
 
 The first half of the seventh century was a time of 
 prosperity and expansion for the Lombard kingdom. 
 District after district was won from the Empire, which 
 was too much occupied in Eastern wars to be able to 
 defend its provinces in the West. Agilulf, who reigned 
 for twenty-five years, was succeeded, after a short in- 
 terval, by another great ruler, Eotharis, who is known 
 in history as the author of the first Code of Lombard 
 Rotharis, Laws, drawn up *' with the counsel and consent of our 
 636-652 advisers, and of all our armed forces ". Rotharis' code 
 shows little trace of Roman influence ; evidently the 
 process of fusion between the races had hardly yet 
 begun. 
 
 While the Lombards were settHng in Northern Italy, 
 Rome was passing slowly out of the hand of the Empire 
 and into the hands of her new rulers, the Popes. 
 Rise of the From the first beginning of the Christian Church, 
 Papacy j^ome, as the capital of the Empire, and as the Church 
 associated with the two great apostles Peter and Paul, 
 gave to its bishop a position of special honour among 
 the bishops of the west. And in the centuries that 
 followed several causes tended to increase the import- 
 ance of the Roman See. In the Arian controversy of 
 the fourth century the bishop of Rome had been the 
 strongest champion of orthodoxy in the west, and when 
 Constantine moved the capital of his Empire to Con- 
 stantinople the bishop became the most important 
 figure in the old capital. In the east the bishops of 
 the three great cities of Constantinople, Antioch and 
 
 LOMBARDS IN ITALY AND RISE OF THE PAPACY 85 
 
 Alexandria were granted the title of Patriarch ^ and a 
 certain primacy of dignity over the other dioceses of 
 the east. In the west the only other bishop whose 
 position could at all rival that of the bishop of Rome 
 was the bishop of Carthage, and when the Vandal in- 
 vasion swept much of the organised Church life of North 
 Africa away, the Roman See became undisputed head 
 of the younger Christian Churches that were gradually 
 growing up in lUyria, Gaul, Britain and elsewhere. 
 
 At this period the bishop of Rome may be regarded as 
 exercising four kinds of authority. As bishop he exer- 
 cised immediate control over the city of Rome ; as 
 metropolitan he superintended the seven bishops whose 
 dioceses lay around the city — the seven *' cardinal- 
 bishops," as they were afterwards called ; as patriarch 
 he had a somewhat undefined authority within the 
 whole of the Prefecture of Italy ; while as the senior 
 Bishop of Western Europe he claimed a general right 
 to intervene in all Church matters where the interests 
 of the whole Church were affected. The emperors of 
 the fifth century, ruling either at Constantinople or 
 Ravenna, were not unwilling to concede large powers 
 of jurisdiction to the Roman bishops, while keeping the 
 Patriarchs of Constantinople more strictly under their 
 own authority. 
 
 The decline of Antioch and Alexandria gradually 
 left the Patriarch of Constantinople as the senior bishop 
 in the east, and in the 28th canon of the Council of 
 Chalcedon an attempt was made to place the two Sees 
 
 ^ The Bishop of Jerusalem was also accorded the title and status of 
 '* Patriarch," but without any defined area of jurisdiction. 
 
il 
 
 86 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 of Constantinople and Kome in a position of equal 
 dignity. But this canon Rome declined to accept, 
 and the long contest between the Eastern and Western 
 Churches may be said to have begun from that point. 
 Leo the Leo the Great (440-461) was, among all the early 
 
 Great 440- • . 
 
 461 ' bishops of Rome, the one who did most to extend the 
 authority of the Roman See, both by the vigour with 
 which he asserted the authority of the bishop of that see 
 as the successor of St. Peter, and by the ability with 
 which he intervened in theological controversies, both 
 in the east, where he led the battle against Euty- 
 chianism,! and in Spain, where he supported the orthodox 
 party against the Priscillianists.^ Leo was incomparably 
 the greatest figure in the ecclesiastical world of his time, 
 and though his successors were men of less striking 
 character they kept most of the ground that he had 
 won. 
 
 With the Arian Theodoric the bishops of Rome 
 generally kept on good terms. We have already seen 
 the only notable exception in the case of John I. whose 
 embassy to Constantinople ended so disastrously for 
 himself and the peace of the world. 
 
 1 The Eutychians were the followers of Eutyches, a monk of the fifth 
 century who asserted that our Lord's human nature was absorbed in the 
 Divine. His opinions were condemned at the Council of Chalcedon, but 
 were revived in the later Monophysite and Monothelite heresies — heresies 
 that taught that our Lord has only one nature, or one will. The Pris- 
 cillianists were a sect that arose in Spain in the fourth century, partly 
 as a reaction against the worldly tendencies of the Church. Their 
 doctrinal teaching appears to have been a sort of Gnosticism. They 
 were ruthlessly stamped out by a policy of persecution, in which their 
 leader, Priscillian, suffered death. 
 
 The Pope 
 and the 
 Empire 
 
 LOMBARDS IN ITALY AND RISE OF THE PAPACY 87 
 
 The Pope,^ as we may now begin to call him, was 
 elected by the ** clergy, Senate and people of Rome," but 
 as elections had not infrequently led to faction fights and 
 disputes, Theodoric tried to introduce a more satisfac- 
 tory method of appointment in 526 by nominating FeHx 
 as Pope ; and Felix, in his turn, issued a letter to the 
 ** clergy and senate " nominating Boniface, the Arch- 
 deacon, as his successor. A period of confusion and 
 party contests followed, and while this was going on the 
 Gothic rule in Italy came to an end, and the Imperial 
 authority again became supreme. For some time the 
 Popes were the nominees of the faction in power at the 
 Byzantine Court. VigiHus (537-555) and Pelagius I. 
 (555-560) were imposed on Rome by the emperors, 
 and they were followed by three insignificant Popes, 
 and then by the restorer of the Papacy, Gregory the 
 Great. 
 
 By this time the Lombard invasions had profoundly The Pope 
 changed the position of the Bishops of Rome towards Lombards 
 the Empire. For not only did the presence in Italy of 
 a common foe draw the Pope and the Emperor into 
 friendly relations, but also the Lombards practically 
 cut ofif the territories around Rome from the Imperial 
 lands round Ravenna, and so threw the Popes on their 
 own resources for defence and organisation. 
 
 For centuries the Bishops of Rome had been re- 
 ceiving grants of lands around Rome and elsewhere. 
 
 1 The title " Papa " (father) was originally given to all Bishops, and 
 is now used in the Greek Church for priests (as the title father is used 
 by the Roman Church). It was not till 1076 that the title of Pope was 
 definitely limited by the Western Church to the Bishop of Rome. 
 
88 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 LOMBARDS IN ITALY AND RISE OF THE PAPACY 89 
 
 Gregory 
 the Great, 
 540-604 
 
 ** Ever since the restriction of the Eastern Empire 
 had emancipated the ecclesiastical potentate from secular 
 control, the first and most abiding object of his schemes 
 and prayers had been the acquisition of territorial wealth 
 in the neighbourhood of the capital. He had indeed a 
 sort of justification, for Rome, a city with neither trade 
 nor industry, was crowded with poor, for whom it de- 
 volved on the bishop to provide " (Bryce) . The revenues 
 of this Patrimonium Petri, as it was called, were ap- 
 plied not only for the relief of the poor but also for the 
 maintenance of the Pope and his clergy, and it was 
 natural that the idea of territorial sovereignty should 
 grow up in connection with it as soon as Imperial au- 
 thority had ceased to be more than nominal. 
 
 Gregory the Great came of a noble Roman family and 
 was born about the year 540. While studying for his 
 father's profession of magistrate, Gregory was taught to 
 love religion by the precepts and example of his mother 
 Silvia. When he was only a little over thirty years of 
 age he was appointed by Justin II. as Pnttor Urbis, 
 an office of great importance and dignity. But on his 
 father's death a few years later, he renounced the secu- 
 lar life, disposed of the considerable sum that he had 
 inherited in founding seven monasteries, and himself 
 became a monk. From austerities that were perman- 
 ently injuring his health he was rescued by Pope 
 Benedict I., who ordained him as deacon and sent him 
 to Constantinople as his envoy. Gregory stayed some 
 time at Constantinople, and then returned to become 
 abbot of the monastery that he had founded in Rome. 
 
 In 590 Pelasius II. died, leaving Rome in dire distress, 
 
 with the Lombards ravaging outside the walls, and the 
 plague and famine destroying within. The general 
 instinct turned to Gregory as the man for the hour, and 
 he was unanimously elected, in spite of his own reluct- 
 ance, as Pope. His first work was to call for a season 
 of repentance, and to institute processional litanies. A 
 monument of these litanies still remains in the name of 
 the Castle of St. Angelo in Rome, for it was said that on 
 the site on which that castle now stands Gregory saw, 
 as the procession went by, the avenging angel sheathing 
 his sword. 
 
 The task that lay before the new Pope was a suffici- Gregory's 
 ently discouraging one. As he himself says, the Roman '"''^*"'"''' 
 Church was *' hke an old and violently scattered ship, 
 admitting water on all sides, its timbers rotten, shaken 
 by daily storms, and sounding of wreck ". Immediately 
 on his accession he set about the work of internal re- 
 form. He regulated the monasteries, placed their 
 business arrangements in the hands of laymen, en- 
 deavoured to enforce a rule of celibacy among the secular 
 clergy, wrote a manual of episcopal duties, the Regula 
 Pastor alis, which remained for centuries a text-book 
 for all bishops of the West. He also introduced those 
 changes in the method of chanting that are still associ- 
 ated with his name, and established schools of ** Gre- 
 gorian " music in Rome. 
 
 He next proceeded to place on a business footing the 
 administration of the '' Patrimony of St. Peter," appoint- 
 ing rectores or defensores to manage the lands that be- 
 longed to the see, in Italy, Africa, Gaul and elsewhere. 
 We see from his letters how carefully he supervised the 
 
 i 
 
90 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Gregory 
 and the 
 Empire 
 
 work of these officers, and how earnestly he tried to 
 guard against oppression or misgovemment on the 
 estates that belonged to the Church. The revenues 
 received from these lands were divided into four equal 
 parts, for the Pope, the clergy, the fabric and services of 
 the churches, and the poor. Gregory's own benevolences 
 were on a colossal scale. 
 
 While this work of internal reform was in progress, 
 external affairs claimed the attention of the Pope. The 
 relations between the Emperor and the Pope needed 
 defining, the raids of the Lombards required to be 
 curbed, and the task of evangelising the still heathen 
 parts of Europe awaited fulfilment. 
 
 Gregory's relations with the Empire need not be 
 considered in detail. While recognising the Imperial 
 authority, Gregory guarded jealously the independence 
 of the Church in spiritual things, and more than once 
 he came into collision with Maurice on such questions 
 as the appointment of bishops. These coUisions may 
 serve to explain the extraordinary letter of congratulation 
 written by Gregory to Phocas after his cold-blooded 
 murder of Maurice and his children. The relations 
 between the Empire and the Pope were further com- 
 plicated by a quarrel that arose between John the 
 Patriarch of Constantinople and Gregory, due to the 
 claim made by the former to the title of "universal 
 bishop" — a claim that Gregory passionately resented, 
 but did not succeed in inducing the Patriarch to sur- 
 render. Gregory's chosen title for himself— a title 
 ever since borne by the Popes — was ** servus servorum 
 Dei ". 
 
 LOMBARDS IN ITALY AND RISE OF THE PAPACY 91 
 
 With the Lombards Gregory tried to establish friendly Gregory 
 relations. The marriage of Theodelinda gave the Pope Lombards 
 a friend at the Lombard Court, but the task of protect- 
 ing Rome from Lombard ravages was made more 
 difficult by the unwillingness of Romanus, the Exarch 
 of Ravenna, to agree to any peace with the invaders. 
 More than once Agilulf threatened to besiege Rome, 
 and the city was reduced to great distress. But in his 
 letters to the Emperor, Gregory represents the exactions 
 of the Imperial officers as more grievous than even the 
 depredations of the Lombards. The Empire could 
 neither defend Rome nor leave it to itself. However, 
 in 599 Gregory succeeded in bringing about a peace be- 
 tween the Lombard king and the exarch. 
 
 It was not only the Lombards from the north who 
 proved a thorn in the side of the Pope. The Dukes of 
 Spoleto and Beneventum were troublesome neighbours, 
 and the exarch practically left to Gregory the task of 
 organising the defence of the Imperial territories in the 
 south of Italy. ** Gregory appointed civil and military 
 officers himself. He nominated Constantius tribune of 
 Naples when that city was hard pressed by the Lom- 
 bards, and entrusted the administration of Nepi, in 
 Southern Tuscany, to Leontius. He made peace on 
 his own account with the Lombards when they were at 
 war with the Imperial representative, and asserted that 
 his own station was higher than that of the exarch." 
 All this greatly enhanced the prestige of the Papacy, 
 and laid the foundation of those territorial claims that 
 were destined to play so large a part in the subsequent 
 history of the Roman Church. 
 
92 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Gregory's Gregory was also a zealous promoter of the mission- 
 missions ^^^ activity of the Church. His most notable achieve- 
 ment in this direction was the mission to England, 
 which had lapsed into paganism after the Anglo-Saxon 
 conquest. It was while he was Abbot and Papal 
 Secretary under Pelagius that the well-known incident 
 is recorded to have occurred of his meeting the North- 
 umbrian children exposed for sale in the Forum of Rome. 
 He is said to have actually started for England when 
 the outcry of the Roman people compelled the Pope 
 to recall him. Eight years after he became Pope, he 
 sent Augustine on the mission to England, the history 
 of which belongs to Enghsh rather than European 
 
 history. . i * 
 
 Gregory's pastoral care extended over the whole ot 
 Western Europe. He wrote letters of congratulation 
 and good advice to Reccared, the Visigothic king, on 
 his renunciation of Arianism at the Council of Toledo 
 in 589 ; he corresponded in friendly fashion with the 
 Bishops of Gaul and their Prankish sovereigns ; he tried 
 to wean the Irish bishops, by peaceable discussion, from 
 the heretical opinions that they held. 
 The Gregory died in 604, having, in his fifteen years ot 
 
 K/eShrule, raised the ''Apostolic See" to a new position ot 
 «*^»t^^^y authority in Europe, and laid the foundation for those 
 claims that reached their full expression nearly five 
 hundred years later. 
 
 For more than a century after the death of Gregory 
 the Papal chair was filled by men of no special import- 
 ance, nominees, for the most part, of the emperor or 
 his exarch. The only important exception was Martin I. 
 
 LOMBARDS IN ITALY AND RISE OF THE PAPACY 93 
 
 (649-653), whose opposition to the efforts of Constan- 
 tinus to induce Monothelites and defenders of orthodoxy 
 to hve together in peace brought him into collision 
 with the Emperor, who lured him to Constantinople, 
 and there arraigned him on a charge of political intrigue, 
 and had him deposed and imprisoned till his death a few 
 months later. 
 
 The anarchy that followed the death of Constantine 
 V. once more threw on the Popes the work of provid- 
 ing for their own defence, and so helped to inaugur- 
 ate a new period of advance in the powers of the 
 Papacy. This new chapter in the history of Rome 
 opens with the election of Gregory II. to the Papal chair 
 
 in 715. 
 
 The latter half of the seventh century is also a period The 
 
 . £ A.U Lombard 
 
 of comparative unimportance in the history ot ttie kingdom 
 Lombards. Rotharis was succeeded by his son, who 
 was shortly afterwards murdered, and a nephew of 
 Theodehnda then reigned for ten years, leaving the 
 throne, on his death, to his two sons. Between the 
 two heirs war soon broke out, and Grimoald, Duke of 
 Beneventum, seized the crown and for nearly ten years 
 kept the Lombard territories intact, in spite of the 
 attempts of Constantinus to re-establish the Imperial 
 authority. On his death the Lombard nobles sum- 
 moned back one of the brothers whom Grimoald had 
 chased from the kingdom, Berthani, whose seventeen 
 years of rule were a time of peace and good government 
 in the kingdom. 
 
 His son Cunibert, who succeeded on his death in 688, 
 was disturbed by rebellions among his nobles, and a 
 
94 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 time of civil wars between rival claimants to the throne 
 lasted till the accession of Liutprand in 712. 
 
 Thus early in the eighth century the Papacy and the 
 Lombard crown passed almost simultaneously into 
 stronger hands, and the history of Italy becomes once 
 more full of interest. 
 
 CHAPTEK X 
 
 THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE 
 
 TN a previous chapter we carried the history of the 
 Frankish kingdom down to the end of the sixth 
 century. After the ferocious record of the rivalries and 
 contests of Brunhilda and Fredegonda the chronicles 
 of the Merovingian kings become a dreary record of 
 ineffective figures that pass over the stage in long suc- 
 cession, decorated with the flowing hair that was the 
 sign of royalty among the Franks, but neither wielding, 
 nor apparently desiring, any real power. 
 
 But as the Merovingian kings degenerated their 
 power passed into the hands of a new body of men — 
 the Mayors of the Palace. 
 
 The title of Major Dovfiiis or Magister Palatii was The Major 
 borrowed from the old Imperial regime. The office ^^'^''"'^ 
 grew up naturally as the Frank government became 
 organised. Originally a household officer of the Court, 
 the Mayor of the Palace became, like the Justiciar in 
 Norman England, the king's right-hand man, control- 
 ling the administration when the king was at the wars, 
 and watching over the relation of the leudes to the 
 crown. Where the supreme power was in the hands 
 of a minor, or of a woman, the power of the mayor was 
 
 necessarily augmented. From the first there seems to 
 
 95 
 
96 
 
 thf: dawn of medieval europe 
 
 THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE 
 
 97 
 
 have been a difference between the Mayors of Neustria 
 and Burgundy, who were the champions of royal 
 authority against the nobles, and those of Austrasia, 
 who appear rather as the champions of the rights of the 
 nobles against the Crown. As a result of this, the 
 mayoralty in Austrasia tended to become an hereditary 
 office, held by the leading noble family of the kingdom, 
 while the Mayor in Neustria is more often than not a 
 man of humble origin raised to power by the favour of 
 
 the Crown. 
 
 Dr. Hodgkin thinks it possible to detect, in the posi- 
 tion of the Mayors of Austrasia, the first beginnings 
 of a protest by the Teutonic eastern division of the 
 Frankish kingdom against the claims of the western 
 kingdom of Neustria to be the true centre of the 
 Frankish Empire. It is attractive to think of the great 
 Austrasian Mayors as the earUest champions of German 
 national independence. 
 Arnuif of The great family with which for centuries the fate of 
 Metz. 580- ^^^ Frankish kingdoms was destined to be associated first 
 appears in history at the moment when Brunhilda was 
 making her last stand against Clotair, son of Frede- 
 gonda. Among the nobles who attached themselves to 
 the cause of Clotair were Pippin, afterwards known 
 as Pippin of Landen, and Arnuif. A year later, the 
 See of Metz falling vacant, the people petitioned for 
 the appointment of Arnuif. Arnuif was still a layman, 
 but he had for some time desired to lay aside secular 
 Hfe and retire into a monastery, as his wife Doda had 
 done, with his consent, some years before. But to this 
 the king would not consent, and as bishop of Metz he 
 
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 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Arnulf of 
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 have been a difference between the Mayors of Neustria 
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 authority against the nobles, and those of Austrasia, 
 who appear rather as the champions of the rights of the 
 nobles against the Crown. As a result of this, the 
 mayoralty in Austrasia tended to become an hereditary 
 office, held by the leading noble family of the kingdom, 
 while the Mayor in Neustria is more often than not a 
 man of humble origin raised to power by the favour of 
 
 the Crown. 
 
 Dr. Hodgkin thinks it possible to detect, in the posi- 
 tion of the Mayors of Austrasia, the first beginnings 
 of a protest by the Teutonic eastern division of the 
 Frankish kingdom against the claims of the western 
 kingdom of Neustria to be the true centre of the 
 Frankish Empire. It is attractive to think of the great 
 Austrasian Mayors as the earliest champions of German 
 national independence. 
 
 The great family with which for centuries the fate of 
 the Frankish kingdoms was destined to be associated first 
 appears in history at the moment when Brunhilda was 
 making her last stand against Clotair, son of Frede- 
 gonda. Among the nobles who attached themselves to 
 the cause of Clotair were Pippin, afterwards known 
 as Pippin of Landen, and Arnulf. A year later, the 
 See of Metz falling vacant, the people petitioned for 
 the appointment of Arnulf. Arnulf was still a layman, 
 but he had for some time desired to lay aside secular 
 hfe and retire into a monastery, as his wife Doda had 
 done, with his consent, some years before. But to this 
 the king would not consent, and as bishop of Metz he 
 
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 THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE 
 
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98 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE 
 
 99 
 
 Pippin of 
 
 Landen, 
 
 622-639 
 
 Grimoald 
 
 was retained among the advisers of the Crown, while 
 administering his diocese with self-denying devotion. 
 At last, in 626, his importunities wrested from the 
 young King Dagobert a reluctant consent to his retire- 
 ment, and he departed, first to the monastery of Ee- 
 miremont, in the Vosges, and then, with a few com- 
 panions, to the deeper solitude of Horemburg, where he 
 spent the last three years of his life, rejoicing to under- 
 take the most menial offices. 
 
 He left two sons, the younger of whom, Ansegisel, 
 married Pippin's daughter Begga, and was the father 
 of Pippin of Heristal. 
 
 Pippin of Landen remained in the world of politics 
 from which his friend had fled, and in 622 became 
 Mayor of the Palace in Austrasia, then under the rule 
 of Dagobert as sub-king. Perhaps his control of the 
 young sovereign was over-strict ; at all events, when 
 his father's death raised Dagobert to the kingship of the 
 whole Frankish realm, and transferred his capital from 
 Metz to Paris, Pippin seems to have been for some 
 time in practical captivity. Dagobert's death in 638 
 set him free to return to Austrasia, but in the fol- 
 lowing year he died, ** lamented by all the men of 
 Austrasia ". 
 
 Pippin left a son, Grimoald, who three years later 
 secured the position of Mayor of Austrasia under Sigi- 
 bert, in spite of the opposition of many of the Austrasian 
 nobles. In Neustria, where Sigibert's brother was 
 king, his mother appointed a relation of the young king 
 as mayor, and so, for a time, averted the danger of the 
 extension of Austrasian supremacy over Neustria. 
 
 In 656 a significant event occurred. In that year 
 Sigibert died, and was succeeded by his son, a boy of 
 eight years old. Grimoald, thinking that the rule of 
 faineant kings had lasted long enough, sent the boy 
 away secretly to an Irish monastery, and raised his own 
 son Childebert to the Austrasian throne. But the change 
 was premature. The Austrasian nobles rose in support 
 of the royal house, and Grimoald was carried off to 
 Paris, where Clovis II. was now ruling. There "he 
 was confined in a dungeon and bound with torturing 
 chains ; and at length, as he was worthy of death for 
 what he had done to his lord, death finished him with 
 mighty torments ". 
 
 Grimoald's premature bid for sovereignty seemed for 
 a time to have ruined the prospects of his house, and 
 the next thirty years of Frankish history is a dreary 
 record of confusion and disintegration. The peoples 
 on the frontiers of the Frankish realm began to shake 
 themselves free from the Frankish yoke, and Thuringia, 
 Bavaria and the Wends beyond the Elbe defied the im- 
 potent rulers who kept the semblance of authority at 
 Metz or Paris. The only strong man of the time was 
 Ebroin, Mayor of Neustria, whose character, as drawn Ebroin, 
 by the possibly biassed ecclesiastical chroniclers of the Neustria^ 
 time, appears as a compound of cruelty, avarice and 
 ambition. After a few years of his rule the nobles of 
 Neustria, led by Leodegar, Bishop of Autun (whose 
 name is still familiar to us as " St. Leger "), called the 
 Austrasian king to their help and seized Ebroin and his 
 puppet-king. Ebroin was compelled to take monastic 
 vows in the monastery of Luxeuil, and for a time 
 
Pippin of 
 
 Heristal, 
 
 681-715 
 
 100 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUBOPE 
 
 Leodegar administered Neustria, till a fresh intrigue 
 sent him to join his late enemy at Luxeuil. 
 
 Next year the king died, and three puppet-claimants 
 were set up by different factions. Taking advantage 
 of the confusion, Ebroin escaped from his monastery, 
 and succeeded in securing the office of Mayor of Neustna 
 again, under his old puppet-king, Theuderich. His first 
 act as mayor was to fetch his rival Leodegar from 
 Luxeuil and cause him to be blinded and, a few years 
 later, beheaded, an act of cruelty that helped to earn for 
 the bishop the title of saint. 
 
 For seven years longer Ebroin ruled Neustria and 
 Burgundy, keeping down with a firm hand all attempts 
 to dispute his authority. His only serious contest was 
 in 679 when the Austrasian nobles, with Pippm of 
 Heristal, grandson of the old Mayor of Austrasia, at 
 their head, dared the issue of battle with the Neustnan 
 " tyrant " ; but they were defeated with cruel slaughter, 
 and their lands laid waste by the victorious Neustrians. 
 At last, in 681, the murder of Ebroin brought his 
 rule to an end, and opened the way for the ascendency 
 of the Austrasian leader. At the head of a vast host 
 of Austrasians, Pippin of Heristal marched against the 
 Neustrian king and a feeble person whom the Neustnan 
 nobles had chosen as mayor, and at a great battle at 
 Testri put to flight the armies of the Western kingdom 
 and estabhshed his authority over the whole Frankish 
 
 The battle of Testri is one of the most important 
 turning-points in the history of Western Europe, for it 
 raised to unchallenged supremacy the great Austrasian 
 
 THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE 
 
 101 
 
 family with whose fortunes those of the Frankish king- 
 dom were to be associated for more than three hundred 
 years, till the death of the last Carohngian king, in 987, 
 severed the last link between East and West Francia, 
 and gave to France a new dynasty and a new destiny. 
 
 Warned by the fate of his uncle. Pippin wisely con- 
 tented himself with the substance of power without 
 laying claim to the name of king. He might probably 
 have set up as independent King of Austrasia, where he 
 seems to have been the unchallenged head of the 
 nobles; but he preferred to attempt the harder task 
 of holding the Frankish kingdom together. Making 
 Austrasia the centre of his rule, he set up his sons, as 
 soon as they were old enough, as Mayors of Neustria 
 and Burgundy. 
 
 The special task that Pippin set himself was the re- 
 duction of the peoples who had taken advantage of the 
 confusion of the period to throw off the Frankish yoke. 
 In a great battle on the northern frontier he defeated 
 Eatbod, the King of Frisia, and compelled him to ac- 
 knowledge the Frankish overlordship, and, as the price 
 of the marriage of the Frisian king's daughter with his 
 son Grimoald, he compelled him to allow Christian 
 missionaries free access to his people. Turning from 
 the Ehine to the Danube, Pippin reduced the Thur- 
 ingians, Suabians and Bavarians to subjection, and so 
 re-established the ancient frontiers of the Frankish 
 kingdom. 
 
 Where the sword had opened the way the cross Wiiii- 
 followed. In 690 a young Northumbrian monk, Willi- 
 brord, moved by missionary zeal, landed with eleven 
 
 
it 
 
 Boniface, 
 718-754 
 
 102 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 companions in Frisia, and finding little encouragement 
 there went south, und at Pippin's request settled at 
 Utrecht as a missionary in the West Frisian territory 
 that had lately been ceded to the Franks. With the 
 approval of the Pope, which he went to Kome to secure, 
 he laboured there for six years, and then went again to 
 Kome to be consecrated as Bishop of Utrecht. A long 
 episcopate gave him the opportunity of carrying the 
 Christian faith not only to the Frisians, but also to the 
 Danes in the North and the unevangelised parts of 
 
 Francia. 
 
 A few years after WiUibrord's consecration, another 
 English monk arrived in Kome to offer himself for work 
 among the heathen tribes of Germany. This was 
 Winfried of Crediton, better known by his later name 
 of Boniface. He had made an unsuccessful attempt to 
 gain access to Frisia, and after two years in England 
 returned to the work, and was sent northward by Pope 
 Gregory II. with a general commission to preach in 
 
 Germany. 
 
 In 728, after a strikingly successful mission among 
 the Hessians and Saxons, he returned to Kome and 
 was consecrated as bishop, taking at the same time an 
 oath of allegiance to the Pope which marks an im- 
 portant step in the subjection of Northern Europe to 
 Papal authority. 
 
 For thirty ;^ears Boniface is the central figure in the 
 histoiy of the German Church, and his influence served 
 to keep that Church in close subjection to Papal 
 authority. He died in 754, slain by some heathen to 
 whom he had gone as a preacher of the Gospel. 
 
 THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE 
 
 103 
 
 "Boniface was statesman and scholar as well as 
 missionary, an able administrator as well as an earnest 
 preacher; and his aim was to civiUse as well as to 
 Christianise the heathen of his fatherland. The sanc- 
 tion of the Papal See was almost indispensable for the 
 success of his efforts ; for the helpless feebleness of the 
 Merovingian kings and the strong self-assertion of the 
 Carolingians were altogether unfavourable to the growth 
 and development of the Church." 
 
 " It is no exaggeration to say that since the days of 
 the great apostle of the Gentiles no missionary of the 
 Gospel has been more eminent in labours, in perils, in 
 self-devotion, and in that tenacity yet elasticity of pur- 
 pose which never loses sight of its aim, even when com- 
 pelled to approach it by some other route than that 
 which it proposed to itself originally." 
 
 
 I 
 
CHARLES MARTEL 
 
 105 
 
 Charles 
 Martel, 
 715-741 
 
 CHAPTEE XI 
 
 CHARLES MARTEL 
 
 'C'EW things are more striking in the history of the 
 period with which we are deahng than the con- 
 trast between the long succession of ineffective and 
 shadowy Merovingians who follow one another on the 
 Frankish throne, and the series of great leaders of the 
 house of St. Arnulf, who for more than a hundred years 
 hold the destinies of Europe in their hands. Even in 
 the declining fortunes of their house, a hundred years 
 later, the Carolingians retained much of the strenuous 
 vigour of their great ancestors, and only when the direct 
 line of succession ended in 987 did the crown of the West 
 Frankish realm fall to another royal house. 
 
 Pippin of Heristal ruled over the Franks for twenty- 
 seven years, and had two sons to whom he hoped to 
 hand on the succession. But in 708 Drogo died, leaving 
 two sons, and shortly after, Grimoald was murdered, 
 leaving one little son Theudwald, now eight years of age. 
 Pippin had now to make fresh provision for the future, 
 and he appointed the little Theudwald as heir, with his 
 own wife Plectrudis as regent. But besides his wife 
 Plectrudis, Pippin, who, like most of the Frankish 
 chiefs, retained in his domestic life traces of the earlier 
 
 polygamous conditions of pre-Christian times, had an- 
 
 104 
 
 other wife, Alphaida, by whom he had one son Charles, 
 now a young man, ambitious and stout of heart, and 
 little likely to acquiesce in any arrangement that ousted 
 him from any share in his father's dominions. 
 
 A striking drama follows. In 715 Pippin died, and 
 the Merovingian king, now aged fifteen, received as his 
 Mayor of the Palace a child of eight, under the guardian- 
 ship of an aged and imperious grandmother. Her first 
 step was to seize and imprison Charles ; her next to 
 raise an army to meet an insurrection of the Neustrian 
 nobles, who having set up a certain Eeginfrid as rival 
 mayor, and allied themselves with the heathen Frisians 
 and Saxons, poured into Austrasia and drove Plectrudis 
 and her grandson into Cologne. In the confusion Charles 
 escaped from prison, and rallied the Austrasian nobles 
 to the support of his house. But Chilperic, King of 
 Neustria, who seems to have had more energy than most 
 of his family, marched against him, and, with the help 
 of old Batbod of Frisia, defeated him near Cologne. 
 Plectrudis was reduced to purchase peace by the sur- 
 render of most of the royal treasures and the acknowledg- Successes 
 ment of the claims of the Neustrian king. But Charles 
 fell upon the Neustrian army as it went homewards in 
 triumph through the Ardennes, and smote it into 
 headlong retreat at Ambleve, the king and his mayor 
 barely escaping with their lives. Next year he broke 
 into Neustria, routed Chilperic at Vincy and chased 
 him to Paris. As the young King of Austrasia had died 
 in the preceding year, Charles now discovered a new 
 puppet-king, Clotair by name, whom he seated on the 
 throne, becoming himself Mayor of the Palace. Then 
 
 of Charles 
 
 n 
 
' I 
 
 The later 
 Mero- 
 vingians 
 
 106 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 followed the series of great blows that earned for 
 Charles the name of Martel (the hammer). He drove 
 the Saxons beyond the frontiers, wrested West Fries- 
 land from Eatbod, and then marched into Neustria. 
 Chilperic and his mayor, Eeginfrid, summoned to their 
 aid Eudo of Aquetaine, who had carved out for himself 
 an independent duchy south of the Loire. But Charles, 
 having detached Eudo from the alliance, crushed the 
 Neustrian forces in a last great battle near Soissons. 
 Eeginfrid maintained for a time the semblance of 
 resistance, while the Neustrian king made terms with 
 his great enemy, and, Charles' puppet-king having con- 
 veniently died, became king of all the Franks, with 
 Charles as mayor of the kingdoms and undisputed 
 master of the Frankish realm. 
 
 Einhard, Charles the Great's biographer, has de- 
 scribed in a well-known passage the position of these 
 Merovingian kings at this closing period of their 
 
 history : — 
 
 '* For many years the house of the Merovingians was 
 destitute of vigour and had nothing illustrious about 
 it except the empty name of king. For the rulers of 
 their palace possessed both the wealth and power of the 
 kingdom, bearing the name of mayor, and had charge 
 of all great matters of State. Nothing remained to the 
 king except the name of king, his flowing locks and 
 long beard. He sat on his throne and played at ruling, 
 gave audience to envoys and dismissed them with the 
 answers that he had been taught, or even commanded, to 
 give. The Mayor of the Palace allowed him to live 
 and bear the title of king, but he had nothing of his 
 
 CHARLES MARTEL 
 
 107 
 
 own save one estate of small value where he had a home 
 and a small body of servants. When he had to travel, 
 he used a covered cart drawn by oxen and driven by a 
 rustic retainer. In this style he travelled to and fro to 
 his palace or to the annual gatherings of the people. 
 The work of administration and all matters of policy at 
 home and abroad were in the hands of the mayor." 
 
 Within a year of the establishment of peace Chilperic 
 died and was succeeded by Theuderich. On his death, 
 about 737, Charles did not trouble to find another 
 Merovingian to fill the vacant throne, but contented 
 himself with dating his official documents " The . . . th 
 year after the death of Theuderich ". 
 
 The special task that lay before Charles, as before 
 each new mayor at his accession, was the restoration of 
 the authority of the Franks over the outlying parts of 
 the ancient Frank dominions that had lapsed into 
 practical independence in the confusion of the previous 
 period. Eelying on the support of his Austrasian 
 warriors, he struck eastward and southward, and restored 
 the old frontiers of the Empire. 
 
 Two provinces in particular claimed his attention, charies 
 The first of these was Bavaria. Originally occupied b^v 
 by a Teutonic tribe, who had subdued the Celtic Boii 
 and taken possession of their land, the territory was 
 ruled by native chiefs who admitted the overlordship 
 of the Frankish kings, but lived in practical independ- 
 ence. Their relations were naturally close with the 
 Lombards on the other side of the Alps, and we have 
 already seen a Bavarian princess married to the Lombard 
 King Agilulf and helping to extend Christianity among 
 
 ana 
 
 
«l 
 
 |i 
 
 I! 
 
 ' 
 
 i| 
 
 Aquetaine 
 
 108 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 the Lombards. Several missionaries had begun to 
 evangehse Bavaria— Eupert of Worms, Emmeran of 
 Poictiers and Corbinian. There is a good deal that is 
 obscure in the story of Bavaria in the early part of the 
 eighth century, but about 725 Charles Martel and the 
 Lombard king Liutprand appear to have invaded the 
 country, and a few years later Charles again attacked 
 Bavaria and carried off a Bavarian princess, Swanahild, 
 whom he married after the somewhat vague Frankish 
 fashion, and by whom he had a son, Grifo, who was 
 destined to play a part in the subsequent history. 
 Bavaria appears to have once more accepted the Frankish 
 
 yoke for a time. 
 
 One result of the reassertion of Frankish supremacy 
 in Bavaria was the organisation of the Bavarian Church 
 by the great missionary Bishop Boniface, acting under 
 instructions from Eome. 
 
 Aquetaine had also drifted away from subjection to 
 the Frankish rulers. We have no record of the process 
 by which this province, which retained more than any 
 other part of the Empire of Clovis its ancient Eoman 
 character, secured the practical independence to which 
 it had attained by the time of Charles Martel. We 
 have already seen Eudo of Aquetaine taking a share in 
 the war between Neustria and Austrasia that raised 
 Charles to power. After this the relations between the 
 Frankish mayor and the Aquetanian duke were for a 
 time friendly. Aquetaine had need of the support and 
 friendship of the Franks, for the duchy was menaced 
 by a danger with which it was not able to cope alone. 
 
 The Moslem conquerors of Spain had contrived to 
 
 CHARLES MARTEL 
 
 109 
 
 make their yoke tolerable to the inhabitants of the The 
 
 , „, . T , 1 J • (.Moslems ill 
 
 country, whom they left m undisturbed possession otgpain 
 their lands and religion, subject to a produce and poll-tax, 
 from the latter of which all Moslems were exempt. But 
 while the subject people accepted their fate with re- 
 signation, quarrels broke out between the tribes of the 
 conquerors, and Spain shared the general tendency to 
 disintegration that throughout the Moslem world fol- 
 lowed on the great period of conquest. The only way 
 to check these internal contests was to continue the 
 work of conquest, and accordingly the leaders of the 
 Spanish Moors began to penetrate beyond the Pyrenees 
 and menace the Duchy of Aquetaine. In 720 they 
 captured the town of Narbonne and overran all the 
 province of Septimania. But Eudo compelled them to 
 retreat from before Toulouse, and so gave the first check 
 to the advance of Moslem conquest in the West. Five 
 years later we find them advancing as far as Autun, 
 in Burgundy. For Eudo had now become involved in a 
 struggle with Charles, due probably to an attempt of 
 the Frankish ruler to reassert his overlordship over 
 the province. Eudo had even gone so far as to give 
 his daughter in marriage to an Arab chief. 
 
 Open war broke out in 731, and Aquetaine had 
 already been ravaged by the Austrasian army, when the 
 domestic feud was suddenly stilled by the tempest of 
 Moslem invasion that burst through the barrier of the 
 Pyrenees. Eudo's son-in-law was slain by the Moorish 
 leader Abdurrahman, and in the spring of 732 he 
 reached the Garonne and laid siege to Bordeaux. Eudo, 
 advancing to the relief of the city, was defeated and 
 
110 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 CHARLES MARTEL 
 
 111 
 
 i% 
 
 i 
 
 
 : \ 
 
 i> 
 
 his army nearly destroyed. The Moslems marched on 
 towards the Loire, while Eudo fled to Charles to 
 implore his aid. 
 The Battle The crisis was grave, for only a Frankish victory 
 732 could save Gaul from falling a prey to the Saracens. 
 
 But Charles and his Austrasian warriors, reinforced 
 probably by levies from the other races under his rule, 
 met the Moslem host between Poictiers and Tours, 
 where Charles took up a strong position and awaited 
 the assault of the enemy. After seven days of re- 
 connoitring, Abdurrahman ordered a frontal attack, and 
 the Moslem soldiers threw themselves against the serried 
 ranks of the Franks, much as the Normans long after 
 charged the Saxon lines on the slopes of Senlac. But 
 the Franks stood firm and with their long swords 
 worked havoc in the ranks of the enemy. Night fell 
 on the scene of carnage, and when the Frank army 
 marched out next day to renew the fight they found 
 the Saracen camp deserted and the enemy fled, leaving 
 rich spoils for the Austrasian warriors to bear home with 
 them. 
 
 Three years later Eudo died, and Charles was obliged 
 to march into Aquetaine to secure from his son Hunold 
 the recognition of the Frank overlordship. Then in 
 737 war again broke out between the Saracens and the 
 Franks. Through the treachery of a certain Duke 
 Maurontus, of Provence, the Moslems gained possession 
 of the two great cities of Aries and Avignon. Charles, 
 busy with a war in the North, sent an army under the 
 command of a half-brother, Childebrand. He himself 
 followed soon after, in time to share in the capture of 
 
 Avignon and the defeat of the invaders in a great 
 battle near Narbonne. According to one chronicler, 
 Liutprand, King of the Lombards, sent a detachment of 
 troops to aid in this struggle, which went on for a 
 year longer and ended in winning back all Provence 
 from the Moslems. 
 
 This campaign closed the warlike activities of the 
 great Mayor of the Palace. Though not much over 
 fifty years of age, his health began to fail, and such 
 fighting as needed to be done against Saxons or Frisians 
 he left to his two sturdy sons. 
 
 The most important incident of these years was the Charles 
 appeal, renewed more than once, from Pope Gregory III. Pope 
 for Charles' help against the Lombards. Liutprand was 
 a trusted friend and ally of the Frankish ruler, and for 
 this reason alone it is easy to understand Charles' 
 reluctance to embark on a campaign against him. It 
 is difficult to know what to make of the story that 
 Gregory offered Charles the office of consul as the 
 price of his intervention. If he really did so, he offered 
 what he had no right to give. 
 
 Another aspect of the policy of Charles deserves 
 attention. In spite of his championship of Christendom 
 on the field of Tours and his support of Boniface and 
 his colleagues, Charles fares ill at the hands of later 
 ecclesiastical chroniclers. The reason for this is that 
 he is accused of having robbed the Church in order to 
 reward his followers. The facts are that, in the con- 
 fusion of the earlier times, the Church had acquired a 
 very large amount of land and that Charles had not 
 enough Crown lands left to reward his officers in the 
 
 ii 
 
 I 
 
I^i 
 
 112 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Ui 
 
 N 
 
 I 
 f 
 
 I 
 |. 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 usual way by grants of land. Charles therefore re- 
 sorted to the expedient of resuming Crown lands that 
 had been alienated into ecclesiastical hands, or appoint- 
 ing his warriors as prelates or abbots so that they 
 might draw the revenues of religious foundations. It 
 is interesting to see emerging already the problem that 
 was destined for ages to disturb the peace of Germany, 
 till the final secularisation of Church lands in the 
 Napoleonic time laid it at last to rest. 
 
 Charles died on 22nd October, 741, and was buried 
 at the great Church of St. Denis near Paris, having 
 ruled the Franks for twenty-five years. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 PIPPIN, KING OF THE FRANKS 
 
 TN accordance with the Frank law of inheritance theCarioman 
 
 dominions of Charles fell, at his death, to his two 741.747^*"' 
 sons, Carloman and Pippin, the former taking Austrasia 
 and the dependent territories of the East, while Neustria 
 and Burgundy fell to Pippin. But so close was the 
 accord between the two brothers that they practically 
 acted as joint rulers of the whole Frank kingdom. For 
 his younger son, Grifo, whose position as the child of an 
 irregular marriage was so like his own, Charles appears 
 to have made some provision by carving out a little area 
 at the frontier of Neustria and Austrasia, with a capital 
 at the city of Laon, which was destined more than 
 two hundred years later to be the last stronghold of the 
 Carolingian house. 
 
 No sooner had the death of Charles become known 
 than disturbances began in all directions. Aquetaine, 
 Suabia and Saxony attempted to throw off the Frankish 
 yoke, and Grifo appears to have headed a rising of 
 malcontent Neustrian nobles. After a siege in Laon 
 he and his mother, the Bavarian Swanahild, were 
 captured. Swanahild was sent to a monastery near Paris, 
 where we lose sight of her, and Grifo kept in prison for 
 years in a fortress of the Ardennes. 
 
 8 
 
 113 
 
'm 
 
 112 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 usual way by grants of land. Charles therefore re- 
 sorted to the expedient of resuming Crown lands that 
 had been alienated into ecclesiastical hands, or appoint- 
 ing his warriors as prelates or abbots so that they 
 might draw the revenues of religious foundations. It 
 is interesting to see emerging already the problem that 
 was destined for ages to disturb the peace of Germany, 
 till the final secularisation of Church lands in the 
 Napoleonic time laid it at last to rest. 
 
 Charles died on 22nd October, 741, and was buried 
 at the great Church of St. Denis near Paris, having 
 ruled the Franks for twenty-five years. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 PIPPIN, KING OF THE FRANKS 
 
 JN accordance with the Frank law of inheritance the Carioman 
 
 dominions of Charles fell, at his death, to his two m-fir'"' 
 sons, Carioman and Pippin, the former taking Austrasia 
 and the dependent territories of the East, while Neustria 
 and Burgundy fell to Pippin. But so close was the 
 accord between the two brothers that they practically 
 acted as joint rulers of the whole Frank kingdom. For 
 his younger son, Grifo, whose position as the child of an 
 irregular marriage was so like his own, Charles appears 
 to have made some provision by carving out a little area 
 at the frontier of Neustria and Austrasia, with a capital 
 at the city of Laon, which was destined more than 
 two hundred years later to be the last stronghold of the 
 Carolingian house. 
 
 No sooner had the death of Charles become known 
 than disturbances began in all directions. Aquetaine, 
 Suabia and Saxony attempted to throw off the Frankish 
 yoke, and Grifo appears to have headed a rising of 
 malcontent Neustrian nobles. After a siege in Laon 
 he and his mother, the Bavarian Swanahild, were 
 captured. Swanahild was sent to a monastery near Paris, 
 where we lose sight of her, and Grifo kept in prison for 
 years in a fortress of the Ardennes. 
 
 8 113 
 
114 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 PIPPIN, KING OF THE FRANKS 
 
 115 
 
 Before turning to the task of repressing the rebeUious 
 provinces the two mayors determined to give technical 
 legaHty to their position by placing a Merovingian on 
 the throne. They found somewhere a certain Childenc 
 who served their purpose, and him they enthroned as the 
 last king of the old royal house of Clovis. 
 Bavarian Then they marched against Odilo, Duke of Bavaria, 
 ex^dition, ^^^ ^^^y ^ gj^Qj.^ ^- j^^g before had married their sister 
 
 Hiltrudis against their wish, but with the approval, and 
 perhaps at the instigation, of Swanahild. In some way 
 that is not very clear this marriage was connected with 
 the rebellion of Odilo against the Frankish overlordship. 
 Odilo appears in some accounts as the organiser of a 
 great aUiance of malcontent provinces — Aquetaine, 
 Alemannia and even the Slavs of the North. But the 
 two mayors marched straight on Bavaria, and met the 
 Bavarian forces on the borders of the duchy, where 
 the river Lech flows to join the Danube. Here, after 
 facing each other for fifteen days, they joined battle, 
 and the Bavarians were broken. Odilo escaped, but 
 was subsequently captured, imprisoned, and then, a 
 year later, restored to his duchy. He died soon after, 
 leaving a httle son Tassilo, of whom we shall hear 
 again, 
 carioman's The next three years (744-746) were years of constant 
 renuncia- ^^j-fare with Saxons, Alemannians and Aquetanians. 
 
 tion 747 
 
 The only episode that needs specific record is the expe- 
 dition of Carloman against the Alemannians in 74(3, 
 when he is said to have invited them to meet him at a 
 gemot, or assembly, at Cannstadt, and then surrounded 
 them with Frankish troops and put a large number to 
 
 the sword. Such acts of treachery are not uncommon in 
 the record of these days, but the sequel is more unusual. 
 Struck with contrition at his own deed, Carloman deter- 
 mined to expiate it by laying down his office and adopt- 
 ing the monastic life. - In this year," says the chronic- 
 ler, *' Carloman laid open to his brother Pippin a thing 
 upon which he had long been meditating, namely, his 
 desire to relinquish his secular life and serve God as 
 a monk." So, in 747, Carloman set out for Eome, 
 where he received the tonsure, and founded a monastery 
 at Mount Soracte. After a time he moved on to Monte 
 Cassino, where he delighted in performing the most 
 menial tasks, till, his name and history being betrayed 
 by his servant, he was accorded a more honourable 
 position. Of him we shall hear again. 
 
 Meanwhile Pippin was left as sole Mayor of Francia, Orifo 
 and his first act was one of ill-judged clemency. He 
 liberated Grifo from captivity and endowed him with 
 " large revenues ". But Grifo proved as intractable as 
 he had been six years before. He fled to the Saxons, 
 whom he stirred up to revolt, and when Pippin marched 
 mto Saxony he escaped into Bavaria, where he succeeded 
 in getting possession of the little Duke Tassilo and his 
 mother. On the advance of Pippin the Bavarians 
 surrendered Grifo, who was then forgiven by his brother 
 and given substantial territories in Neustria, with Le 
 Mans as his capital. But all was in vain, and Grifo 
 continued to stir up trouble for Pippin till the year 753, 
 when in the act of crossing the Alps to join the Lombards, 
 who were on the eve of a war with the Franks, he was 
 intercepted by two counts of Pippin's army, and in the 
 
 • I 
 
116 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 PIPPIN, KING OF THE FRANKS 
 
 117 
 
 
 { 
 
 skirmish that followed all three were killed. *' His 
 death, though he was a traitor to his country, was a 
 cause of grief to Pippin.'* 
 
 Before this event an important change had come 
 to the Frankish kingdom. Since Grimoald's ill-fated 
 attempt to dispossess the Merovingian hne, the house of 
 St. Arnulf had been content with the substance of power, 
 leaving the form of it to the kings whom they set up. 
 It is not possible to say what motives led Pippin to 
 desire to end this anomalous position. Possibly, in a 
 country that the efforts of Boniface and his monks were 
 rapidly making Christian, Pippin felt that the rehgious 
 sanction of a royal consecration might strengthen the 
 authority of his house. Whatever the motive may have 
 been, the facts are thus narrated by the monastic chronic- 
 ler : — 
 Pippin. ** In the year 750 of the Lord's incarnation. Pippin 
 
 Fralks 750 sent ambassadors to Kome to Pope Zacharias, to ask 
 concerning the kings of the Franks who were of the royal 
 line and were called kings, but had no power in the 
 kingdom, save only that charters and privileges were 
 drawn in their names. . . . But on the first day of 
 March in the Campus, according to ancient custom, 
 gifts were offered to these kings by the people, and the 
 king himself sat in the royal seat with the army standing 
 around him, and he commanded on that day whatever 
 was decreed by the Franks, but on all other days he 
 stayed at home. Pope Zacharias therefore in the 
 exercise of his apostohcal authority rephed to their ques- 
 tion that it seemed to him better and more expedient 
 that the man who held power in the kingdom should be 
 
 called king and be king, rather than he who falsely bore 
 that name. Therefore the aforesaid Pope commanded 
 the king and people of the Franks that Pippin, who was 
 exercising the royal power, should be called king, and 
 occupy the royal seat. Which was therefore done by 
 the anointing of the holy Archbishop Boniface in the 
 city of Soissons. There Pippin is proclaimed king, and 
 Childeric, who was falsely called king, is tonsured and 
 sent into a monastery." 
 
 Here then we reach the meeting-place of the old and 
 the new. Pippin is lifted, as Prankish kings had been 
 lifted for unnumbered generations before him, on the 
 shields of the warriors and saluted as king ; but he is 
 also, as no other Prankish king had ever yet been, 
 anointed in the church at Soissons as a Christian king. 
 But what was the share of the Pope in all this ? We 
 may be sure that the inquiry of the Franks was never 
 intended to imply any right over the Prankish throne 
 vested in the Roman bishop. But a change in the 
 royal dynasty was a religious act ; if disapproved by the 
 religious authorities it would be deprived of its value ; and 
 Boniface was likely to use all his influence to persuade 
 the Mayor of the Palace to act in accord with the wishes 
 of the Pope in this important step. The whole incident 
 shows how much more close and harmonious the relations 
 of Pippin were with the ecclesiastical authorities than 
 those of his illustrious father; and it also marks the 
 beginning of a new chapter in the history of Europe, 
 in which the fortunes of the Frank kingdom and the 
 Roman See, which had hitherto had little relation to 
 each other, became so intertwined as to make inevitable 
 
 ft 
 
 
118 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Campaigns 
 
 against 
 
 Saxons 
 
 Saracens 
 
 Aquetaine, 
 759-768 
 
 at last the formal recognition of their mutual dependence 
 in the coronation of Charles the Great fifty years 
 
 later. 
 
 For some years after this time the main interest of 
 Pippin's reign centres in his relations with Italy, which 
 can be more conveniently dealt with in the next 
 chapter. 
 
 It was not till 756 that Pippin was free to turn his 
 attention to the affairs of his own kingdom. His first 
 task was the usual contest with rebellious Saxons. Of 
 this turbulent people we shall have more to say when we 
 deal with their conquest by Charles the Great. Pippin's 
 campaign reduced them to a measure of submission and 
 the promise of annual tribute. 
 
 Shortly after this Pippin completed the work of driv- 
 ing the Saracens out of the province of Septimania. 
 Moslem rule, which depended largely on Gothic dislike 
 for the Franks, had already been undermined, and on the 
 promise that their local independence should be pre- 
 served the Visigoths of Narbonne rose, slew the Saracen 
 garrison and opened the gates to the Prankish king. 
 The Pyrenees became once more the boundary line of 
 Saracen rule. 
 
 The closing years of Pippin's reign were spent in a 
 great struggle with Waiter, Duke of Aquetaine, who 
 made a determined bid for independence. The reduction 
 of the province proved no easy task, and in the middle 
 of the war Pippin's nephew, Tassilo of Bavaria, deserted 
 the army and declared that he would serve under his 
 uncle's flag no more. Pippin was too fully occupied 
 with Aquetaine to punish Tassilo's treachery, and it was 
 
 PIPPIN, KING OF THE FRANKS 
 
 119 
 
 not till 768, after nearly nine years of war, that the 
 death of Waifer brought his duchy once more under the 
 Prankish rule. Pippin's settlement of the province was 
 statesmanlike and wise. He made no attempt to extend 
 the laws of the Franks to a people who still accounted 
 themselves Romans, but enacted '* that all men, Romans 
 and Salians alike, should keep their own laws, and that 
 if any man should come from another province, he 
 should live according to the law of his own country ". 
 
 The settlement of Aquetaine was Pippin's last work. 
 He died in September, 768, at the age of fifty-four, worn 
 out by the labours of a strenuous reign of almost constant 
 fighting. 
 
 Of Pippin's personal character we know scarcely 
 anything. The tradition that he was small of stature 
 is late, but may be true. He is reputed to have been 
 a man of great physical strength, and he was certainly 
 shrewd and brave. His interest in the work of Boniface 
 leads one to think of him as sincerely anxious for the 
 extension of Christianity in his kingdom. His greatest 
 work was the extension of Prankish influence beyond 
 the Alps, in the land that was destined to cast so strange 
 a spell for generations over the rulers of those German 
 lands that he ruled so long and so well. 
 
 V 
 
 ^)i 
 
Liutprand, 
 712-743 
 
 1 B 
 
 ! 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII 
 
 THE POPE, THE LOMBARDS AND THE FRANKS 
 
 pHAELES MAETEL, Liutprand, King of the 
 Lombards, Leo the Isaurian and Gregory II. all 
 begin to play their part in history within a few years of 
 each other, and while Charles declined, as we have seen, 
 to be drawn into Italian affairs, the other three form 
 a group around which Italian history centres. Dr. 
 Hodgkin ingeniously compares the contest of this period 
 to ** the litigation that might go on in an English parish 
 between an absentee landlord, a big Nonconformist 
 farmer, and a cultured but acquisitive parson ". The 
 Emperor is the absentee landlord, represented by the 
 Exarch of Eavenna, the Lombard King is the farmer, 
 and the Pope the parson. 
 
 Liutprand was perhaps the best of all the Lombard 
 kings. It is unfortunate that we are so largely depend- 
 ent for our knowledge of this period on Papal chroniclers 
 and letters, for the unmeasured terms in which the 
 Popes denounce the Lombard kings give us no sort of 
 idea of their real character. But the prosperity of the 
 Lombard kingdom during the thirty years of Liutprand's 
 reign, and his friendship with Charles Martel, who sent 
 his son Pippin to him to be dubbed as a knight, attest 
 the wisdom of his rule. He had been king for fourteen 
 
 120 
 
 THE POPE, THE LOMBARDS AND THE FRANKS 121 
 
 years when the edict of Leo against images, the story 
 of which will be told in another chapter, set all Italy in 
 a blaze. For the edict not only involved a claim on the 
 part of the Emperor to legislate on religious questions 
 without any consultation with the Pope, it also struck 
 at a cherished part of the religious life of the Italian 
 people. 
 
 An attempt of Scholasticus, the Exarch of Eavenna, Gregory ii. 
 to publish the edict led to a riot in Eavenna, and the JJ^tprand 
 Duke of Naples was murdered by a mob when he tried 
 to enforce it in his territories. Gregory put himself at 
 the head of the opposition, and wrote vigorous, outspoken 
 and discourteous letters to the Emperor, warning him of 
 the error of his proceedings. Meanwhile Liutprand 
 seized the opportunity to march into the exarchate, 
 where city after city opened its gates to him, and at 
 length Eavenna itself fell into his hands, the exarch 
 escaping to Venice, which remained loyal to the 
 Emperor. But as soon as Liutprand's back was turned 
 the exarch, aided by a Venetian army, recovered the 
 city, which an outbreak of rebellion by the Dukes of 
 Spoleto and Beneventum prevented Liutprand from 
 attacking again. The recalcitrant dukes were soon 
 reduced to order, but in the meanwhile the exarch, 
 acting on orders from the Emperor, marched to Eome 
 to seize the person of the Pope. While the siege was 
 in progress Liutprand and his army arrived outside the 
 city, and the Pope threw himself on the protection of 
 the Lombard king, who received him with the utmost 
 respect and, constituting himself as arbiter, arranged a 
 general pacification, the exarch retaining the city of 
 
 
122 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Gregory' 
 III., 731- 
 741 
 
 
 ilj 
 
 Kavenna, but surrendering to Liutprand the other cities 
 that were already in his hands. Leo's second and 
 more drastic edict of 730 only served to arouse even 
 stronger opposition in Italy, and almost the last act of 
 Gregory's Hfe was the assembling of a council of Italian 
 bishops to anathematise all who refused to worship 
 images. In the following year he died. He had been 
 the first Pope for a long time who was a Roman by 
 birth, and he is recorded to have been an earnest restorer 
 of churches and monasteries ruined by the contest of 
 the previous period. To his time of office also belongs 
 the visit to Eome of Ina, king of the West Saxons, who, 
 after reigning for thirty-seven years, renounced his 
 kingdom and came with his wife Ethelburga as a pilgrim 
 to Rome, where he stayed for the short remainder of 
 his Hfe, founding, it is said, a Saxon school in Rome for 
 his fellow-countrymen. 
 
 Gregory II. was succeeded by a Syrian Pope, Gregory 
 III., who is said to have been compelled to accept the 
 Papal office while assisting at the funeral of his pre- 
 decessor. He is the last Pope whose election was 
 confirmed by the Exarch of Ravenna, acting for the 
 
 Emperor. 
 
 The first few years of the new Pope were peaceful. 
 The opposition of the Italians to the Iconoclastic decrees 
 cut off Italy almost entirely from the Empire, and the 
 exarch, clinging desperately to his one remaining 
 stronghold of Ravenna, could do nothing to restore 
 Imperial authority. Peace was broken at last through 
 what appears to be a foohsh challenge thrown down to 
 the Lombard king by Gregory. The Duke of Spoleto, 
 
 THE POPE, THE LOMBARDS AND THE FRANKS 123 
 
 having made an unsuccessful attempt to throw off the 
 overlordship of Liutprand, took refuge in Rome, and 
 Gregory refused to surrender him. Liutprand promptly 
 marched against Rome, capturing the Papal towns on 
 his way, and laid siege to the city. Gregory, terrified 
 at the prospect of falling into the hands of the Lom- 
 bards, wrote frantic appeals to Charles Martel, drawing 
 harrowing pictures of the desolation and ruin of the 
 Roman Church, and imploring Charles, as he valued 
 his soul's salvation, to haste to the rescue. But Charles, 
 already drawing near his end, remained unmoved, and 
 within a few months both he and Gregory died (741). 
 
 To the new Pope, Zacharias, Liutprand behaved with 
 the greatest consideration. On his promising that he 
 would give no more help to the Duke of Spoleto he 
 restored all the Papal cities that he had captured and 
 added rich gifts to the Roman Church. Two years later 
 he died, leaving the Lombard kingdom in its highest 
 condition of prosperity, undisturbed by internal divisions 
 and at peace with its great northern neighbour. 
 
 Liutprand was succeeded by a nephew Hildebrand, 
 who, proving himself an incompetent ruler, was deposed 
 in a few months to make room for Ratchis, Duke of itatcWs 
 Friuli. For five years or so Ratchis remained at peace ^eharias 
 with the Pope ; then, for some reason that is not clear, 
 he broke the truce and laid siege to Perugia. Zacharias, 
 who had already exercised his personal influence over 
 Liutprand in the last year of his life, when he dissuaded 
 him from a projected attack on Ravenna, now gave an 
 even more striking evidence of his personal power, for 
 when he visited the Lombard camp, to dissuade Ratchis 
 
124 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 from his warlike design, he so influenced the king that, 
 with his wife and daughters, he repaired to Kome, there 
 took monastic vows, and joined the Benedictines at the 
 great monastery of Monte Cassino. 
 
 He was succeeded by his brother Aistulf , who, while 
 Zacharias lived, appears to have held his restless and 
 turbulent ambition in check. The last important act 
 of Zacharias' pontificate v^as the sanction he gave to the 
 transference of the Frankish crown from the Mero- 
 vingian Hne to Pippin. He died in 752, and after a 
 Pope, Stephen, who only held office for three days, 
 Stephen II. succeeded. 
 The The new Pope was a Koman by birth, and had been 
 
 ^"S^^to^- brought up in the Papal palace under Gregory II. He 
 ^'"^ therefore inherited the traditions of Papal policy. What 
 
 these traditions were can be seen by reference to a 
 celebrated document, which probably first saw the light 
 at about this time. The document is the Donation of 
 Constantine, and purports to be a decree of the first 
 Christian Empire, granting immense dignities and 
 possessions to the Koman bishop. After giving to the 
 occupant of the Papal See supremacy over the Sees of 
 Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Constantinople, 
 and sovereignty over all the priests in the world, and 
 appointing the Church in the Lateran palace as ** the 
 head and summit of all the churches in the whole 
 world," it goes on to grant to the Eoman clergy various 
 ceremonial privileges. They may ride on horses with 
 white saddle-cloths, and wear white shoes, like the 
 senators; and the Pope is to wear an imperial tiara, 
 wherewith the Emperor has in person crowned him. 
 
 i( 
 
 THE POPE, THE LOMBARDS AND THE FRANKS 125 
 
 Then follows the important clause, on which so vast a 
 superstructure was destined to be built :— 
 
 "Wherefore, that the pontifical crown may be 
 adorned with glory and influence beyond the dignity 
 of the earthly empire, we hand over and relinquish our 
 palace, the city of Rome, and all the provinces, places, 
 and cities of Italy and the western region, to the most 
 blessed pontiff and universal Pope Silvester; and we 
 ordain by our pragmatic constitution that they shall be 
 governed by him and his successors, and we grant that 
 they shall remain under the authority of the Holy 
 Roman Church." 
 
 No one now believes that Constantine made any 
 such donation as this, but it does not follow that the 
 document is a mere forgery. It represents a tradition 
 that was growing up at the Papal court at this critical 
 period, when Rome had need of all the weapons, legal 
 as well as material, that she could enlist in her service 
 against the ambition and strength of the Lombards. 
 The Imperial cause in Italy was clearly doomed, and 
 as the power of the Empire decayed the prospect of the 
 establishment of a new Itahan kingdom, as large as, and 
 more stable than, that of Theodoric, began to appear as 
 an imminent danger. 
 
 Under Aistulf 's restless and able leadership the Aistulf, 
 Lombard menace soon grew pressing. In 751 the^^^'^^^ 
 Lombard king marched against Ravenna, which now 
 fell finally into his hands, the last exarch taking refuge 
 in Sicily. Then, after one more campaign against 
 Spoleto, the king began to close in on his destined 
 victim, the Pope. 
 
126 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 U 
 
 As ruler of Kavenna, what more natural than that he 
 should claim the same authority over Kome that previous 
 rulers of Eavenna had exercised? Accordingly the 
 strife began with demands for tribute and recognition 
 from the Pope. In vain embassy after embassy from 
 Rome confronted the Lombard king; in vain holy 
 abbots from the most renowned monasteries of Italy 
 interceded for peace. The king remained inexorable. 
 Then a new figure appears upon the scenes : John, the 
 Imperial silentiarius, bearing a letter from the Emperor 
 demanding from Aistulf the return of the lands he 
 had seized, and charging the Pope to secure their re- 
 storation. To all which Stephen can only reply by a 
 last appeal to the Emperor to come to the deliverance of 
 
 the city. 
 
 But while the Emperor was unable to respond to the 
 appeal there was another power from whom help might 
 be secured, and Stephen sent a private letter to Pippin 
 suggesting that he should invite him to visit the 
 Frankish Court. The Frankish king must have re- 
 cognised that by accepting this proposal he was com- 
 mitting himself to the championing of the cause of the 
 Pope against the ancient allies of his people, but the 
 spell that had drawn Visigoth, Ostrogoth and Lombard 
 from the Danube to the Tiber was now drawing the 
 greatest of the Teutonic peoples towards the same goal. 
 The ten years that had passed since the death of 
 Charles had greatly strengthened the influence of the 
 Papacy in Northern Europe. Boniface, now nearly at 
 the end of his strenuous hfe, had done splendid service 
 for the Papal cause, and the support given by Zacharias 
 
 M 
 
 I, i 
 
 THE POPE, THE LOMBARDS AND THE FRANKS 127 
 
 to the deposition of the last of the Merovingians had 
 forged a new bond of union between Rome and Francia. 
 Pippin sent two messengers to convey his invitation 
 to the Pope, and Stephen sent back two letters— one 
 addressed to the king and the other to the Frankish 
 nobles, who might be expected to show less enthusiasm 
 than the king for a campaign against the Lombards. 
 
 Meanwhile a fresh envoy had come from Constanti- Pippin and 
 nople, charging the Pope to go in person to demand ^^' ^""^^ 
 from the Lombard king the restoration of the Imperial 
 territory. A messenger sent to Aistulf to demand a 
 safe-conduct for the Pope returned with the necessary 
 guarantee just as two distinguished Franks arrived to 
 conduct the Pope across the Alps. These were Duke 
 Autchar and Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, the most im- 
 portant Church leader, next to Boniface, in Francia. 
 Stephen accordingly set out for Pavia, professedly to 
 support the demands of the Imperial envoys, but really 
 to demand permission to visit the Frankish Court, a 
 demand that, backed by the support of Pippin's two 
 representatives, the Lombard king dared not refuse. 
 
 To cross the Great St. Bernard in November was no 
 easy task, but the Pope and his companions safely 
 reached the monastery of St. Maurice at Agaunum, 
 where Fulrad of St. Denis and Duke Roland met the 
 travellers to escort them to the court. 
 
 Pippin himself with his family came south to a royal 
 palace at Ponthion, in Champagne, and the king sent 
 his eldest son Charles, of whom we now hear for the 
 first time, to meet the Pope. So on the 6th of 
 January, 754, king and Pope met outside Ponthion. 
 
128 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 The meeting may rightly be judged one of the most 
 important events in European history. For if Pippin 
 had not decided to espouse the cause of the Pope, no- 
 thing could have saved Kome from faUing into the 
 hands of the Lombards, and while the Prankish kings, 
 free from the entanglement of Italian affairs, would 
 have been able to devote themselves to the building up 
 of their own territories, the Lombards might have united 
 Italy under their rule, and so the work of Bismarck 
 and Cavour might have been forestalled by a thousand 
 
 years. 
 
 But these things were not to be. Having under- 
 taken to support the cause of the Pope, Pippin was 
 solemnly crowned, with his wife and sons, and an 
 anathema pronounced on any who should hereafter 
 attempt to dispossess the family of Pippin, as Pippin 
 had dispossessed the Merovingians. At the same time 
 Stephen conferred on Pippin the title of Patrician— a 
 title that had generally been held by the Exarch of 
 Kavenna, and that, strictly speaking, the Emperor alone 
 had the right to grant. This act, like all Stephen's 
 course of action at this crisis, implied a practical 
 repudiation of Imperial authority in Italy; it was 
 for himself, and not for the Emperor, that the Pope 
 requested from Pippin the sovereignty of the exarchate 
 and its subject lands. 
 
 But however willing Pippin might be to champion 
 the cause of the Pope, questions of peace and war could 
 not, among the Franks, be decided on the mere word 
 of the king, and accordingly a general assembly of the 
 Prankish nobles was held near Soissons, at which Pippin 
 
 « 
 
 THE POPE, THE LOMBARDS AND THE FRANKS 129 
 
 was able, not without considerable difficulty, to persuade 
 his chief men to agree to the war— or at least to the open- 
 ing of such negotiations with Aistulf as might probably 
 end in armed conflict. At this juncture a dramatic scene 
 occurred. Carloman, sent apparently by the Abbot of Carioman's 
 Monte Cassino, suddenly appeared at the court to plead ™'''''''' 
 for peace between his brother and the Lombard king. 
 We do not know what motives led him to this step, 
 which the Papal chronicler attributes to the '' devilish 
 persuasions " of Aistulf. We only know that Pippin 
 turned a deaf ear to his appeals, and sent him to a 
 monastery somewhere in the Prankish kingdom, where 
 he died soon after— a pathetic end for one who had been 
 a great warrior and, in all but name, a king. 
 
 What promises exactly Pippin made to the Pope in 
 regard to the Italian possessions of the Empire is a 
 matter of controversy. If any document was, as later 
 Papal chroniclers believe, drawn up, no trace of it now 
 remains. It is probably true that Pippin intended to 
 secure for the Pope the Exarchate of Kavenna. He cer- 
 tainly did not intend to wrest these lands from Aistulf 
 merely to hand them over to the Emperor, nor did he 
 contemplate, at this stage, the extension of his own 
 rule to the lands beyond the Alps. 
 
 While preparing for his expedition to Italy Pippin 
 made strenuous efforts to secure by negotiation the 
 session of the lands that Aistulf had seized. It was only 
 when all negotiations proved useless that the host 
 gathered near Soissons for the great expedition. An 
 advance guard succeeded in driving Aistulf from Susa, 
 
 where he was watching the passes of the Alps, and the 
 9 
 
130 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 ii 
 
 II 
 
 main army, crossing without any fighting, laid siege 
 to Pavia. Finding resistance useless Aistulf sur- 
 rendered, promising to restore Eavenna and other cities 
 to '' the Pope and the Eoman republic ". 
 
 But no sooner had Pippin and his warriors recrossed 
 the Alps than fresh difficulties arose, and a series of 
 piteous appeals from the Pope reached the Prankish 
 Court. Aistulf, " whose heart the devil has invaded," 
 has restored nothing, but was heaping such insults on 
 the Holy Church that the very stones might weep. 
 
 Pippin might have listened unmoved to these com- 
 plaints if Aistulf had not put himself hopelessly in the 
 wrong by laying siege to Eome and demanding the 
 surrender of the person of the Pope. For three months 
 the siege went on, and the Pope waxed more urgent in 
 his appeals for help. '' On you, after God and St. Peter, 
 depend the lives of all the Eomans. If we perish, all 
 the nations of the earth will say, ' Where is the con- 
 fidence of the Eomans which they placed in the kings 
 and the nation of the Franks ? '" 
 
 When personal appeals seemed in vain, the Pope 
 
 wrote a letter purporting to be addressed by St. Peter 
 
 to the kings, bishops and nobles of the Franks, wherein 
 
 the apostle urges the Franks, as they value their own 
 
 souls, to haste to the rescue of that city of Eome which 
 
 is under the special care of the writer. 
 
 Pippin's Early in 756 Pippin set out for another expedition 
 
 SpTdltioB, into Italy. At Pavia he was met by two envoys from 
 
 ^^^ ' the Emperor, who tried to persuade him to restore the 
 
 exarchate to the Empire— a proposal to which the king 
 
 emphatically refused to consent. 
 
 THE POPE, THE LOMBARDS AND THE FRANKS 131 
 
 Aistulf was soon reduced to submission, and this time 
 the Frankish king took good care to ensure the fulfil- 
 ment of the treaty, by which twenty-three cities in the 
 exarchate were to be handed over to the Pope. The 
 keys of the surrendered cities were placed in the sepul- 
 chre of St. Peter in Eome, and by that act the Pope at 
 once acquired the status of a sovereign prince and re- 
 pudiated his subjection to the Empire. 
 
 In the following year Aistulf died, killed by a fall 
 from his horse while out hunting. For the vacant 
 throne two claimants appeared. One of these was a 
 powerful Lombard lord, Desiderius, Duke of Tuscany 
 a favourite of the late king, but apparently a man of 
 humble birth. The other was Eatchis, who, after seven 
 years of monastic life at Monte Cassino, suddenly es- 
 caped to Pavia and there for three months ruled as 
 king. 
 
 War between the rival claimants seemed inevitable • 
 but Desiderius succeeded in securing the support of the 
 Pope by the promise of Bologna and several other cities 
 that Liutprand had captured long ago from the exar- 
 chate. Eatchis retired from the unequal contest, and 
 part of the promised territory was handed over to the 
 Pope by the new king of the Lombards. Just after this 
 Stephen died and was succeeded by his brother Paul 
 who occupied the Papal chair through ten comparatively 
 uneventful years. The relations between the Pope and 
 the Franks remained close and cordial, though Pippin 
 took no further share in Italian affairs, and Paul con- 
 tnved to live on terms of comparative peace with his 
 Lombard neighbour. 
 
132 THE DAWN OF UKDlJEVAli EUROPE 
 
 The Pope and the Frankish king died within a year 
 of each other, and a new period of confusion and con- 
 test followed in Italy, ending at last in a new Frankish 
 intervention and the final end of the Lombard king- 
 dom. 
 
 
 I! 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV 
 
 THE ICONOCLASTIC EMPERORS 
 
 'J'HE history of the Empire in the eighth century The Empire 
 
 turns ahnost entirely around the Iconoclastic con- l^h^th 
 troversy. After the great siege of Constantinople that^^"*"''^ 
 opened the reign of Leo III. the Saracens did not 
 seriously menace the heart of the Empire, though they 
 continued their attacks on the outlying provinces. Nor, 
 agam, did the emperors make any effective attempt 
 to reassert their authority in Italy. But internally the 
 Empire was taking the form that it was destined to 
 retain for centuries. In language and customs it was 
 losing its Roman character and becoming more definitely 
 Greek. Already the law books of Justinian were unin- 
 telligible to the people, and a Greek handbook of 
 law, the Ecloga, was drawn up under the Emperor's 
 instructions. 
 
 While the European territories of the Emperor were 
 becoming more Greek, the lands of Asia Minor were 
 losing their Greek population, and passing into the hands 
 of men of Eastern race from Syria, Armenia and Persia. 
 
 One beneficial result of the Slavonic settlements in 
 the Balkan district was the disappearance of serfdom in 
 the Empire, the place of the serf being taken by free 
 tenants or village communes. 
 
 133 
 
134 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 In the disturbed conditions of the time it is not 
 strange that hterature and art should have decayed and 
 various fooHsh superstitions grown up. Theology had 
 filled the East with controversy, but religion was at 
 a low ebb, and the moral standard of the clergy was 
 thoroughly unsatisfactory. The task that lay before a 
 reforming emperor was sufficiently discouraging. 
 Siege of But no reform could begin till the great struggle with 
 
 nopCns ^^e Moslems, the impending outbreak of which had 
 called Leo to the throne, was over. Within five 
 months of the apcession of the new Emperor, the 
 Saracen commander Moslemah, with eighty thousand 
 men, had crossed the Hellespont and begun to block- 
 ade the city with a ditch and rampart. On the 1st of 
 September Suleiman arrived with a fleet of eighteen 
 hundred warships. 
 
 In the defence of the city ''Greek fire" plays a 
 leading part. This ''Greek" or "Marine fire," the 
 exact composition of which is not known, was a kind 
 of sticky or viscid substance of a highly inflammable 
 nature that was poured from cauldrons or vomited from 
 tubes on to the ships or engines of the enemy. It is 
 said to have been first used in the siege of Constanti- 
 nople of 673 and the following years. 
 
 Leo's first success was the burning of twenty trans- 
 ports with this Greek fire, an exploit that filled the 
 enemy with fear of this deadly weapon of defence. In 
 the long and severe winter that followed, the besiegers 
 suffered great hardships, but in the spring fresh rein- 
 forcements arrived. Ill-fortune dogged the Saracen 
 cause. A large number of Egyptian Christians, who 
 
136 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 were serving in the Moslem fleet, deserted to the enemy, 
 and emboldened by this, Leo made another attack on the 
 ships, some of which he destroyed and threw the rest 
 into confusion. Then a Saracen army, that was blockad- 
 ing the Asiatic shores of the Bosphorus, was surprised 
 and routed by a body of Eoman soldiers. Famine also 
 began to threaten the besieging army, and finally, in the 
 summer of 718, a Bulgarian army from the north fell 
 upon the Saracens and inflicted severe losses on them. 
 
 On the 15th of August the siege was raised and the 
 Moslem retreat began. The army succeeded in reaching 
 Syria, but the fleet was scattered by a tempest, and only 
 five vessels arrived home of all the great Armada that 
 was to open the gate of Europe to the Moslems. Arab 
 records put the loss on the Saracen side at not less than 
 a hundred and fifty thousand men. 
 
 The defence of Constantinople by Leo deserves to 
 rank with the battle fought by Charles Martel fourteen 
 years later. They represent the two supreme attempts 
 made by the Ommeyad dynasty to break through the 
 great barriers that guarded Christendom from Moslem 
 attack. From this time the tide of battle turned, and 
 the rest of the century saw the gradual decline of Saracen 
 rule both in the east and in the west. In 750 the 
 last Caliph of the Ommeyad dynasty was slain, and 
 Damascus fell into the hands of the new dynasty of the 
 Abbasides. Only in Spain did the Ommeyad party retain 
 power, and the Moslems of the west were henceforth 
 cut off from all connection with those of the east. 
 
 The deliverance of Constantinople was immediately 
 eSX726 followed by the outbreak of the Iconoclastic controversy. 
 
 Icono- 
 clastic 
 
 THE ICONOCLASTIC EMPERORS 
 
 137 
 
 This great contest, which was destined to cause the final 
 severance between Eastern and Western Europe, and 
 so prepare the way for the establishment of a Western 
 Empire, was the outcome of an edict issued by Leo in 
 72G ordering the removal of pictures and images from the 
 churches. It is often said that Leo was moved to this 
 step by the jeers of the Moslems, who charged the 
 Christians with idolatry. But he was probably influenced 
 quite as much by the growth of childish superstitions con- 
 nected with the pictures and coloured figures that adorned 
 the churches. A little before this time a sect had arisen 
 in Asia Minor calling themselves Paulicians (followers 
 of St. Paul), one of whose distinctive tenets was belief 
 in the evil of matter and therefore the repudiation of 
 symbols. There is probably some direct connection be- 
 tween these Paulicians and the Albigenses and Wal- 
 denses of later times, and it is not improbable that they 
 influenced the Isaurian emperors in their religious 
 policy. 
 
 To some extent the Iconoclastic edict was the out- 
 come of the theological controversy that had played so 
 large a part in Byzantine history in the previous century. 
 
 The Monophysites, whom the emperors of the seventh 
 century frequently supported, held the view that our 
 Lord's human nature was absorbed and lost in the 
 Divine, and it seemed to follow from this that any at- 
 tempt to represent the Saviour in human form was to 
 be discouraged as bringing into prominence that human 
 side of His being that was only an illusion. For the 
 same reason image-worshippers claimed to be defenders 
 of the doctrine of the true humanity of Christ. 
 
138 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDI.^VAL EUROPE 
 
 But as the controversy proceeded it broadened out 
 into a general attack by the rationalistic spirit on the 
 ecclesiastical tendencies of the time — a kind of eighth- 
 century Lutheranism. Mariolatry, the worship of 
 saints and the adoration of relics were included in the 
 Imperial condemnation under Constantine V., and mon- 
 asticism itself was attacked by his reforming zeal. 
 
 The chief support of the Imperial policy came from 
 the army, which was recruited to a considerable extent 
 from the same district in the highlands of Asia from 
 which the Isaurian emperors derived their name. Its 
 chief opponents were the monks, who were the leaders 
 of missionary work. Their ground of opposition may 
 be summarised in a saying of Gregory the Great, " Pic- 
 tures are the lesson-books of the unlearned '*. Un- 
 doubtedly the great numbers of unlearned people who 
 had recently passed over from heathenism to Christianity 
 tended to carry image-worship to what men on both 
 sides admitted were excessive and superstitious lengths ; 
 but on the other hand it was urged that without the 
 help provided by these outward symbols many of them 
 would find the new faith impossible to understand. 
 
 But while many thoughtful men regarded the Imperial 
 edict as an attempt to solve by mere force a question that 
 needed much more deHcate handling, the populace raged 
 against the destruction of images, to which the greatest 
 veneration was attached. Eiots broke out even in 
 Constantinople itself, and in Italy it was impossible to 
 enforce the edict at all. Germanus, Patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, resigned rather than assent to the Imperial 
 policy, which involved a claim to interfere in ecclesiastical 
 
 THE ICONOCLASTIC EMPERORS 
 
 139 
 
 questions to which he could not submit. Leo appointed 
 a new patriarch favourable to his policy, but Pope Gre- 
 gory refused to recognise him, and most of the church- 
 men of the Empire repudiated his authority. An 
 unsuccessful attempt was even made to set up a rival 
 emperor. 
 
 On Leo's death, in 741, he was succeeded by his sonConstan- 
 Constantine, who received the opprobrious nickname of nymS!^'*'' 
 Copronymus. Constantine was as resolute an Icono- ^^^"^''^ 
 clast as his father, and much more uncompromising in 
 the measures he took to enforce the edicts. After put- 
 ting down, with considerable difficulty, a rebellion of his 
 brother-in-law Artavasdos, he had to face an even more 
 pressmg peril in a devastating plague that swept through 
 the Empire and practically depopulated Constantinople. 
 Constantine imported fresh families from Greece to fill 
 the almost empty city, leaving Slavs from the north to 
 fill the vacant lands in Greece. It is from this time 
 that Constantinople can be regarded as Greek rather 
 than lioman, though it still jealously kept the Roman 
 name. 
 
 Constantine succeeded in stamping out all public dis- 
 obedience to his father's edicts, but he really only drove 
 the custom of image-worship into secrecy. In 758 he 
 called a great council of three hundred and thirty-eight 
 bishops, which condemned all representations of our Lord 
 and all worship of images of saints. When the leaders of 
 the Church declined to accept the decisions of the 
 council, Constantine practically declared war on the 
 monastic system and demolished a considerable number 
 of monasteries. 
 
140 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE ICONOCLASTIC EMPERORS 
 
 141 
 
 Leo IV., 
 
 775-780 
 
 \Hl 
 
 On the frontiers he defended the Empire efficiently, 
 frequently driving back Saracens in the east and sub- 
 duing Slavs in the north. He waged three successful 
 wars with the Bulgarians and developed the internal 
 resources of the Empire. 
 
 After a reign of thirty-five years, Constantine died and 
 was succeeded by his son Leo IV. — ** the Khazar," as 
 he was called, after the tribe to which his mother be- 
 longed. In 768 he had married an Athenian lady Irene, 
 by whom he had one son Constantine. In 780 Leo died, 
 having in his short reign shown his determination to 
 maintain his father's policy. But the Empress, who 
 now became mistress of the Empire as regent for her 
 son, was secretly in favour of image-worship, and at 
 once set herself to undo the policy of the Isaurian house. 
 As a first step to this end the five half-brothers of the 
 late Emperor were compelled to take holy orders in order 
 to be incapacitated from reigning. When, three years 
 later, the Patriarch Paul resigned, she determined to 
 advance her own secretary, Tarasius, to the vacant office. 
 He agreed on condition that a council should meet to 
 settle the controversy, After some delay, due to the op- 
 position of the army, some regiments of which had to 
 be sent away from the capital, the council met, in Sep- 
 tember, 787, at Nicaea. The issue of its deliberations was 
 never in doubt, and the final decree orders images to be 
 set up in churches for worship {7rpo(TKvvr]cn<;) , but not for 
 the adoration {Xarpka) that belongs only to God, " foras- 
 much as the honour paid to an image passeth on to the 
 original, and he who adoreth an image doth in it adore 
 the person of him whom it doth represent ". It is 
 
 worth remembering that the ** images " here referred 
 to are paintings or mosaics on a flat surface, and statues 
 are still not used in the Greek Church. 
 
 But scarcely had this great success for Irene's policy Irene. 
 been secured before she found herself involved in a con- '^^^'^^^ 
 test for power with her own son. An unsuccessful 
 attack on Southern Italy, due to a rupture of friendly 
 relations with the Prankish King Charles, aroused dis- 
 content with Irene's rule, and Constantine, now grown 
 to man's estate, attempted to throw off his mother's 
 yoke. The plot was discovered, and Constantine was 
 whipped and confined to his room like a schoolboy. 
 Irene then demanded from the soldiers a new oath, in 
 I which they pledged themselves not to accept her son as 
 
 their ruler while she lived. This led to a revolt of the 
 army, already indignant at the Empress' policy, and Con- 
 stantine was liberated and Irene imprisoned in her 
 palace. But in 792 Constantine, now apparently secure 
 on his throne, liberated his mother. Just before this 
 he had, as a punishment for a real or supposed con- 
 spiracy, blinded one of his uncles and spHt the tongues 
 of the others. For four years Irene remained to all 
 outward appearance on friendly terms with her son, but 
 in 795 he laid himself open to attack by repudiating his 
 wife Maria, to whom he had been married against his 
 will after a project for a marriage with a daughter of 
 Charles the Great had fallen through, and marrying 
 Theodote, one of the maids of honour. This step aHen- 
 ated the Church leaders of the Empire, and probably 
 helped Irene to form a party. In 797 Constantine was 
 attacked by some soldiers, fled to Asia, was brought 
 
142 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Nice- 
 
 phonis, 
 
 802-811 
 
 back by some treacherous friends, and was finally blinded 
 by his mother's orders in the very room in the palace 
 in which he had been born. He lingered on for many 
 years in blindness and misery. 
 
 Irene was now sole ruler of the Empire, but the real 
 power was in the hands of two rival eunuchs of the 
 palace, Stauracius and ^tius, who successively gained 
 the patronage of their mistress. The four years of 
 Irene's supremacy are marked in history by the corona- 
 tion of Charles as Emperor in the West, an event prob- 
 ably not unconnected with the fact that the Empire 
 had now passed under the ** monstrous regiment of 
 women ". In 802 the magnates of the Empire deter- 
 mined to bring this condition of things to an end, and 
 chose one of their number, Nicephorus, whom they pro- 
 ceeded to proclaim as emperor. Irene fell undefended 
 and unregretted, and was sent to end her life at Lesbos, 
 where she died a year later. Her crimes did not pre- 
 vent her memory from being held in reverence as the 
 restorer of image-worship. 
 
 The history of the Byzantine Empire in the ninth 
 century need not be told in much detail, as it has little 
 direct bearing on the general course of European affairs. 
 
 Nicephorus, the new Emperor, inherited a war with 
 the Caliph, the celebrated Haroun-al-Easchid, and with 
 the new Emperor of the West, Charles the Great. Both 
 these he brought to an end, the first at the cost of a tribute 
 of thirty thousand solidi, the second without any session 
 of territory or money. But he and his son were killed 
 in 811 in an expedition against the Bulgarians, and a 
 series of emperors successively seized the throne, none 
 
 THE ICONOCLASTIC EMPERORS 
 
 143 
 
 of them holding it long, till Michael the Amorian, a 
 turbulent soldier, was raised to power in 820. His 
 reign is chiefly notable for the loss of Sicily and Crete, 
 which fell into the hands of the Moslems. His son 
 Theophilus, who succeeded on his death in 829, resumed 
 the Iconoclastic pohcy of the Isaurians. But again the 
 work of suppressing image-worship was undone by a 
 woman's influence. Theophilus died in 842, leaving 
 his wife Theodora as regent for their little son Michael. 
 Theodora was secretly a strong partisan of the image- 
 worshipping party, and no sooner was she in office than 
 a fresh reaction began and image-worship was again 
 restored. When Michael grew up he banished his 
 mother and ruled with the advice of his uncle Bardas, 
 a depraved and drunken man, whose influence over the 
 young Emperor was wholly bad. However, in 866 he 
 was slain by the Emperor's orders, and Michael then 
 chose as his colleague an able young officer, Basil the 
 Macedonian, who repaid his patron by murdering him a 
 year later, and so becoming sole Emperor in the East. 
 
 The Macedonian dynasty, thus inaugurated, ruled the 
 Byzantine Empire for two hundred years, on the whole 
 with ability and success. Under Basil the Empire 
 reconquered Southern Italy from the Saracens and 
 carried successful raids into Syria and Mesopotamia. 
 He was succeeded by his son Leo (886-912), who was a 
 student and dabbler in literature, and earned the name 
 of ** the Wise," because he was supposed to be learned 
 in curious arts. It was fortunate for the Empire that 
 the decreasing power of the Caliphs and the confusion 
 of Western Europe insured immunity from external 
 
 Michael 
 "the Drun- 
 kard," 
 842-867 
 
144 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDI.^VAL EUROPE 
 
 attack and even enabled the Imperial frontiers to be ex- 
 tended in Southern Italy and in the East. Leo's son 
 Constantine, '* Porphyrogenitus " as he was called, be- 
 cause he was the first emperor for a considerable time 
 who had been born during his father's reign, carried on 
 his father's habit of interest in literature, while the 
 actual work of government was left to the great officials 
 of State. Among the most important events of the 
 period were the missionary labours of two brothers, 
 Cyril and Methodius, who reduced the language of the 
 Balkan Slavs to writing, and translated the Bible into 
 it. About the middle of the ninth century the Bul- 
 garian King Boris and the Servian King Eadoslav were 
 baptised, and Christianity was formally adopted as the 
 religion of both peoples. So we leave the Byzantine 
 Empire at peace, developing its internal resources and 
 commerce, free at last from theological controversies, 
 and tending more and more to a life of its own outside 
 the main stream of European progress. 
 
 CHAPTEK XV 
 
 CHARLES THE GREAT AND THE LOMBARD KINGDOM 
 
 nnHE accession of Charles, eldest son of Pippin, brings 
 on the scene the central figure of the period 
 covered by this volume. For the period might not 
 inaccurately be described as the period of the rise and 
 fall of Prankish supremacy in Europe. From the first 
 appearance of Clovis as king at Tournai in 481 to the 
 death of Conrad of Franconia in 918 it is the history of 
 the Franks that forms the central thread in the tangle 
 of European affairs. And it was in the person of 
 Charles the Great that the Prankish people made its 
 special contribution to the life and thought of the Middle 
 Ages. In him the free Teutonic spirit submitted itself 
 to the conception of ordered rule that was the inherit- 
 ance of the Roman Empire, and both passed under the 
 consecration of a religious sanction that turned the war- 
 leader of a Teutonic tribe into the crusader and 
 champion of the Christian cause. 
 
 Charles, as he appears in the chronicles of the time, 
 is almost an ideal Teutonic king. Of enormous physi- 
 cal strength, resolute will and untiring energy, he was a 
 bom leader of men. Except when moved by strong 
 passion, he was just and clement in his dealings with 
 his enemies. Even his Saxon antagonists bear testi- 
 10 145 
 
146 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDI.^VAL EUROPE 
 
 mony to his bravery and good faith. Though his poUcy 
 embraced the whole Western Empire, he remained an 
 Austrasian at heart, and retained the language and 
 costume of his native country. 
 
 And against the background of that rough and tur- 
 bulent age he stands out as something not far short of 
 the ideal of a Christian king ; not free from the limita- 
 tions of his own age— an age that had learnt only too 
 well from its Moslem foes how to propagate the 
 faith with the sword— but keeping before him the 
 true ideal of a Christian society bound in the bond of 
 brotherhood by common obedience to the Christian 
 
 law. 
 Chariesand On the death of Pippin the usual division of inherit- 
 768-771^''' ance followed. All the northern and more purely Teu- 
 tonic part of the Frankish kingdom fell to Charles as the 
 eldest son ; the southern lands— Burgundy, Provence, 
 Suabia — passed to his other son, Carloman, a youth 
 about ten years younger. But for some reason that is 
 not very clear, the two sons of Pippin did not succeed 
 in co-operating with the same harmony as had marked 
 the joint rule of their father and uncle. An opportunity 
 for the display of this ill-feeling was afforded soon after 
 their accession by a revolt in Aquetaine, led by Hunold, 
 who, after twenty years of monastic life, returned to the 
 world to avenge the death of his son Waifer. Charles 
 marched into Aquetaine, but Carloman declined to help 
 and left his brother to cope with the rebellion alone. 
 Fortunately it did not prove a very difficult task. 
 Hunold was defeated and surrendered to Charles, who 
 sent him to Kome to be dealt with by the Pope for 
 
 CHARLES THE GREAT AND LOMBARD KINGDOM 147 
 
 breach of his monastic vows. After a short residence 
 in a Roman monastery, he escaped to Pavia, where he 
 was stoned to death. Meanwhile Charles, having built 
 a fortress at Fronsac to overawe the Aquetanians, 
 returned in triumph to Francia. 
 
 The next few years were occupied by Charles in forg- 
 ing alliances with neighbouring states, with a view to a 
 possible conflict with Carloman. Tassilo of Bavaria, 
 Charles' cousin, had been a rebel against Pippin's 
 authority, but Charles overlooked this and entered into 
 friendly relations with him. Several things made the 
 friendship of the Bavarian duke important. Bavaria 
 lay between the Frankish territories of the north and 
 the passes of the Alps, beyond which lay the Italy to- 
 wards which Charles' eyes may already have turned. 
 In another way Tassilo linked Francia and Italy, for he 
 had married a daughter of Desiderius, king of the 
 Lombards, and through him Charles entered into a 
 friendly understanding with the Lombard king. This 
 understanding ripened into a proposal for a twofold 
 marriage alliance between the two houses, Charles 
 espousing Desiderius' daughter Desiderata, and his 
 sister Gisla marrying Desiderius' son Adelchis. 
 
 Even before Queen Bertha reached the Koman Court 
 to announce these marriage arrangements to the new 
 Pope, Stephen II., he had sent an angry letter to the 
 two Frankish kings, denouncing the proposed marriage 
 between the ruler of Francia and the '' leprous brood " 
 of the Lombards. But in spite of Papal opposition the 
 marriage took place, and shortly after, the Pope was 
 himself obliged to appeal for the help of Desiderius 
 
 I a 
 
148 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 in putting down a conspiracy at Eome, the details of 
 which are rather obscure. 
 
 But the marriage of Charles and Desiderata was 
 destined to the same unhappy ending as that of Henry 
 VIII. and Catherine of Arragon seven hundred years 
 later. Desiderata was delicate and bore no child to her 
 husband, and a beautiful Suabian girl, Hildegarde, played 
 the part of Anne Boleyn. So Charles repudiated his 
 wife, in spite of his mother Bertha's protests, and De- 
 siderata returned to her father at Pavia. 
 
 Soon after this the short-lived friendship between the 
 Lombard king and the Pope came to an end. Desiderius 
 felt the toils closing around him, when the death of 
 Carloman threw into his hands a valuable hostage. 
 Gerberga, Carloman's widow, beheving, or affecting to 
 beheve, that her two httle sons were in danger, fled 
 with them to the Lombard Court, where Desiderius 
 gave them a welcome. 
 The fall of Just at this stage Pope Stephen died and was suc- 
 lardthig- ceeded by Hadrian, a stronger and perhaps abler leader, 
 dom.774 ^j^^ threw himself wholly into the policy of alHance 
 with the Franks and hostihty to the Lombards. From 
 that moment the doom of the Lombard kingdom was 
 certain. The special purpose of Desiderius was to sow 
 dissension between Charles and the Pope by inducing 
 Hadrian to crown the two little sons of Carloman. In 
 this he was supported by a Lombard party among the 
 Papal advisors ; and when the Pope discovered a treason- 
 able correspondence going on between his chamberlain 
 Afiarta and Desiderius, and had his officer arrested and 
 executed, the Lombard king set out for Kome, where 
 
 
 CHARLES THE GREAT AND LOMBARD KINGDOM 149 
 
 he might have succeeded in deposing the Pope and 
 setting up a rival in his own interest. But under 
 threat of excommunication he hesitated at the frontier 
 and finally turned back. 
 
 Meanwhile Hadrian sent in hot haste to Charles, 
 appealing to him for help. Charles appears to have 
 tried to avoid a final breach with the Lombard king, 
 and sent commissioners to investigate the causes of 
 quarrel between Hadrian and Desiderius. But when 
 Desiderius refused all recognition of the claims of the 
 Pope to the cities that he had seized in the exarchate, 
 Charles found himself obliged to act. He gathered a 
 great host at Geneva, and sent half, under the com- 
 mand of his uncle Bemhard, through the St. Gothard 
 Pass, while he led the other half through the Mount 
 Cenis, at the end of which he found the Lombards, 
 under the king's son Adelchis, posted in a strong posi- 
 tion, from which they were only dislodged after some 
 stiff fighting. Then, after taking one by one the other 
 cities of Lombardy, Charles gathered all his forces round 
 the capital city of Pavia, where Desiderius, with the 
 remains of his army, had taken refuge. Adelchis fled 
 to Constantinople, where he became a useful pawn in 
 the game that the Eastern Court found it convenient to 
 play. 
 
 In June, 774, Pavia fell, and with its fall the Lom- 
 bards, as a nation, vanish from history. The two little 
 sons of Carloman disappeared from the scene, and 
 Desiderius and his wife ended their days in separate 
 religious houses in Francia, while Charles now adopted 
 the title of Rex Francoruni et Langobardorum. 
 
 i I 
 
150 THE PAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 It is impossible not to feel some regret at the disap- 
 pearance of the last of those rulers of Northern Italy, 
 who might, under happier circumstances, have vindicated 
 their right to the title of King of Italy. The Lombards 
 had come to Italy an uncouth but virile race ; under 
 the genial influence of Italian skies they had lost much 
 of their uncouthness and also not a little of their viriHty. 
 A hardier northern race broke their power at last, and 
 they were slowly merged and lost in the Italian peoples 
 among whom they had made their home. On the ruins 
 of the Lombard kingdom rose the two great powers that 
 were destined to make the history of Western Europe for 
 five hundred years— the Empire and the Papacy. 
 Charles' Before the fall of Pavia, at Easter, 774, Charles paid 
 
 Rome^774 his first visit to Eome. It was the first time that a 
 Prankish king had visited the sacred city, and every 
 effort was made to do honour to his coming. When he 
 met the long procession of the Eoman clergy coming 
 out with banners and songs to greet him, he dismounted 
 from his horse, and so passed into the city. There 
 Hadrian met him and ratified the '* Holy League " that 
 united the Papal destinies with those of the northern 
 kingdom. For seven days Charles stayed in Kome, 
 viewing the wonders of the city and falling under the 
 spell of the ordered splendour of the Church life that 
 he saw around him. One event of this visit has become 
 the centre of great controversy. Let us hear the 
 chronicler in the Liher Pontificalis :— 
 
 '* On the fourth day of the week, the Pope, with his 
 officers, went forth to the Church of St. Peter, and 
 there meeting the king in conference, earnestly en- 
 
 CHARLES THE GREAT AND LOMBARD KINGDOM 151 
 
 treated him, and exhorted him with paternal affection, 
 that he would fulfil completely the promise that his 
 
 i^rennir 
 
 ITALY 
 768-813 
 
 Papal Territoru 
 
 Lombard Kingdom 
 and Duchies 
 
 ^ Byzantine Territory Iv7 
 
 i = ; 11 
 
 Qar'QarigHano 
 
 BV <<SaA>Ustv/ve^O»Wl^^.^ 
 
 father. Pippin of blessed memory, had made, and that 
 he himself with his brother Carloman and all the nobles 
 
 i» 
 
152 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 of the Franks had confirmed to St. Peter and his vicar 
 Pope Stephen II., when he had visited Francia, that 
 they would grant various cities and territories in that 
 province of Italy to St. Peter and his vicar for a per- 
 petual possession. And when the king had caused the 
 promise that had been made in a place called Carisiacum 
 to be read over to him, all its contents were approved 
 by himself and his nobles. And of his own accord, 
 with good and willing mind, the most excellent and 
 Christian king caused another deed of gift to be drawn 
 up like the first, by Etherius his chaplain and notary, 
 and in this he granted the same cities and territories to 
 St. Peter, and promised that they should be conveyed to 
 the Pope with their boundaries set forth as contained 
 in the aforesaid donation, namely: From Luna with 
 the island of Corsica, thence to Surianum, thence to 
 Mons Bardonis, thence to Parma, thence to Ehegium, 
 and from thence to Mantua and Mons Silicis, and also 
 the whole Exarchate of Eavenna, such as it was in old 
 time, and the provinces of Venetia and Istria ; and also 
 the Duchies of Spoleto and Beneventum." 
 
 Many theories have been advanced as to the meaning 
 of this passage, which seems to imply that Charles 
 handed over to the Pope practically all Italy except part 
 of the old Lombard kingdom of the North, and, ap- 
 parently, Calabria. Did he mean that whatever rights 
 the emperors still retained in Italy he now proposed to 
 transfer to the Pope ? That is perhaps the most reason- 
 able explanation of the grant, if the account can be 
 relied upon ; but some are disposed to suspect the hand 
 of the interpolator of a later time, supplying material 
 
 CHARLES THE GREAT AND LOMBARD KINGDOM 153 
 
 on which the Popes of after ages might base claims 
 unforeseen in the days when the Prankish king and 
 the Roman pontiff met. 
 
 One thing at least is clear. Charles never acted as 
 though he had conferred on the Pope a position of inde- 
 pendent sovereignty. "Whatever had been the relation 
 of the Popes to the Byzantine emperors at an earlier 
 time, that he regarded as their relation to himself. 
 They had merely transferred their allegiance to a 
 new overlord, better able to help, but also better able 
 to control. 
 
THE SAXON WARS 
 
 155 
 
 CHAPTEK XVI 
 
 THE SAXON WARS 
 
 A T the time of Charles' accession to the Frankish 
 throne the northern frontier of his kingdom 
 followed the Hne of the Khine as far as Cologne, and 
 then turned due east, parallel with the course of the 
 Main, till a Httle beyond the Weser, where the Thur- 
 ingian Franks fronted the Slavonic tribes farther east. 
 North of this frontier line the territories of the Saxons 
 stretched up to the borders of Denmark and along the 
 Elbe. Like the Franks and the Alemannians, the 
 Saxons were a confederation of Teutonic tribes, whose 
 original home had been in Holstein. From early times 
 they had taken to a seafaring life, and became the 
 terror of the Frisian and British coasts in the last days 
 of the Koman rule. With the fall of Eoman authority 
 in the west many of them had crossed the channel to 
 find new homes in Britain, while others turned south- 
 ward and occupied the district between the Elbe and 
 
 the Ehine. 
 
 Among the Saxons local independence was strong. 
 Each district had its own chief, and it is doubtful 
 whether there was any general assembly of the Saxons 
 like the " Marchfield " of the Franks. A certain bond 
 of union seems to have been supplied by a sacred pole 
 
 154 
 
 called the Irminsul, which had apparently been carried 
 with them in their migrations, and finally placed in the 
 woods at Eresburg, where gatherings for tribal worship 
 were occasionally held. 
 
 For practical purposes the Saxons were at this time 
 divided into four groups — the Nordliudi, north of the 
 Elbe; the OstfaH, on the left bank of the Elbe; the 
 Angrarii in the valley of the Weser; and the Westfah, 
 between the Weser and the Khine. They lived under 
 strict laws, in scattered villages, and were masters of 
 the art of guerilla warfare. No missionary had yet 
 penetrated into their country, and though Pippin had 
 reduced them to a nominal submission they remained 
 still practically independent. 
 
 Charles was moved to undertake the conquest of the 
 Saxons partly to protect the frontier lands from their 
 raids, but even more by a desire to bring these heathen 
 tribes to Christianity. He could hardly have foreseen 
 that by that work of conquest he was preparing the 
 way for the shifting of the centre of gravity of the 
 Eastern kingdom from the Frank to the Saxon — from 
 Aachen on the Ehine to Magdeburg on the Elbe, and 
 so preparing also for the development of the more 
 Eomanised West Francia into a separate kingdom of 
 France. 
 
 Charles' wars with the Saxons lasted for thirty years The Saxon 
 and involved at least eighteen campaigns. In 772 he 772 ^*^^°'^' 
 led his first expedition into Saxony, stormed the fort 
 of Eresburg and destroyed the Irminsul — in much the 
 same spirit of untempered zeal as that in which the 
 Israelites of old destroyed the idols of Canaan. The 
 
 
156 
 
 THE DAWN OF MP:DIiEVAL EUR(JPE 
 
 Saxons pretended submission and gave hostages, and the 
 Frankish army withdrew. 
 
 In the following year, while Charles was in Italy, 
 they had their revenge. Crossing the frontier they 
 burnt the Church of Deventer, while another band 
 raided the Hessian villages and set fire to the Church 
 of St. Boniface at Fritzlar, but, by what was thought 
 to be miraculous intervention, the flames went out. On 
 Charles' return the raiders retreated, followed by some 
 Frankish cavalry who did considerable damage. 
 774-775 In the following spring Charles prepared for revenge, 
 and formulated the policy of offering the Saxons the 
 alternative of death or baptism. He marched into 
 Saxony, seized and fortified the strong positions of Sigi- 
 burg and Eresburg— the first beginning of the network 
 of forts that he gradually constructed throughout Saxony 
 —and received the usual submission of the Ostfali and 
 Angrarii, both of whom agreed, if Charles would waive 
 the condition of forcible conversion, to admit Christian 
 missionaries into their lands. He then turned on the 
 Westfali, who had made an attack on his camp, and 
 compelled them also to submit. 
 
 In the following year Charles was called away by a 
 crisis in Italy, and the Saxons took advantage of the 
 opportunity to break into revolt, and besieged the 
 garrisons of Sigiburg and Eresburg. Charles hastened 
 home, gathered a great army at Worms, and marched 
 into Saxony, only to be met with the usual offers of 
 surrender. He took fresh hostages, organised a more 
 systematic mission, under orfe Sturm of Fulda, and 
 built a palace and church at Paderborn. 
 
 THE SAXON WARS 
 
 157 
 
 The leader of the rising, a Westfalian chieftain named Widukind, 
 Widukind (or Witikind) fled to Denmark, and in 778 ^"^^'^^^ 
 he returned and roused the Saxons to fresh rebellion. 
 They broke into Hesse, ravaging and slaughtering, and 
 even reached Cologne, where they burned the Church 
 of St. Martin. The season was too far advanced for a 
 Frankish campaign that year, but in June, 779, Charles 
 once more led a great army into Saxony and after one 
 pitched battle reduced the Westfali to submission. The 
 king now built a number of forts connected with roads, 
 reaching as far as the Elbe, which now formed the 
 eastern frontier of the Frankish kingdom. He tried 
 to secure the allegiance of the tribal chiefs by giving 
 them Frank titles and large endowments. He also en- 
 deavoured to force Christianity on the Saxons by rigorous 
 laws, and this appears to have been the cause of the re- 
 bellion that broke out as soon as he had withdrawn. 
 Widukind was again the soul of the movement, from 
 which the local chiefs seem to have held off. Many of 
 them, as hostages, had lived in Francia, and had pro- 
 bably become reconciled to the idea of incorporation in 
 the dominions of Charles ; and they were also jealous, 
 apparently, of the power of Widukind over the people. 
 It was this inability to cooperate that was fatal to all the 
 Saxon risings. In many ways the Saxons, in their re- 
 lation with the Franks, remind us of the Highland clans 
 in Scotland in their relations with the Scottish kings of 
 the Lowlands. 
 
 This rebellion of 780 was perhaps the most fierce of 780 
 all. Widukind even invited the help of the Slavs from 
 beyond the Elbe, and the Christian Saxons were treated 
 
 > i 
 
 ,1 
 
 f^ 
 

 1*1 
 
 158 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 with merciless cruelty. The arrival of Charles on the 
 scene led to the usual scattering of the rebels, but when 
 he put four thousand five hundred Saxons to the sword 
 at Verden for complicity in the rising, a general out- 
 break followed, and for three years he was obliged to 
 wage strenuous war, first defeating the enemy in the 
 open field, and then systematically burning the villages 
 and devastating the country. So sternly was the work 
 done that it seemed as though the spirit of resistance 
 was finally broken, and even Widukind abandoned the 
 contest and submitted to baptism at Attigni, after which 
 we hear no more of him in the history of the time. 
 793 A few years of peace followed, and then rebeUion 
 blazed up again. It began with the destruction of some 
 Frankish troops who had been sent to the mouth of 
 the Elbe in 792; and in the following year Count 
 Theodoric, one of Charles' best generals, was slain and 
 his army destroyed near Eustringen. This disaster, the 
 worst that had yet befallen the royal cause in Saxony, 
 was followed by a general repudiation of Christianity. 
 *' As a dog returns to his vomit, so did they return 
 to the paganism which they had aforetime deserted." 
 '^ They laid waste the churches that were within their 
 border with fire and sword ; they rejected the bishops 
 and priests that were set over them ; some they took 
 prisoners and others they slew." 
 
 Charles, who was busy with his Avar campaign, 
 conceived ' the idea of digging a canal between the 
 Eezat and the Altmuhl, by which he could transport 
 his soldiers northwards or eastwards, as occasion required. 
 But after a multitude of men had toiled at the task for 
 
 THE SAXON WARS 
 
 159 
 
 months, the swampy nature of the ground defeated the 
 enterprise. From 794 to 799 each year had its Saxon 
 campaign. Charles now carried out a new policy of 
 transplanting large bodies of Saxons into Francia and 
 filling their vacant lands with Franks, or, in the case 
 of Holstein, with Slavs. He also carried a number of 
 Saxon youths to Francia, and had them brought up 
 there as ecclesiastics, so that he might be able to send 
 missionaries of the Saxon race to evangelise their fellow- 
 countrymen. After 803 the long record of Saxon ris- 
 ings ceases, and Charles was able gradually to modify 
 the strictness of his rule. The three great Sees of 
 Osnabruck, Bremen and Verden became centres of mis- 
 sionary activity, and the Saxons, now incorporated in the 
 Empire, guarded the eastern frontiers against the Sla- 
 vonic tribes beyond. A hundred years later a Saxon 
 duke was destined to supplant the Carolingian house 
 in East Francia, and to found a new dynasty of German 
 sovereigns. 
 
 803 
 
The 
 
 Spanish 
 campaign 
 
 778 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII 
 
 CHARLES, KING OF THE FRANKS, 773-799 
 
 'T^HE story of the Saxon wars has carried us down to 
 -*- nearly the end of Charles' reign. We must now 
 return to the earher years of it and take up the thread 
 of general history. For some time after his conquest 
 of the Lombard kingdom, the affairs of Italy gave the 
 king some anxiety. Hadrian was tactless and some- 
 what grasping in his claims on the neighbouring dukes 
 in Italy, and something like a general conspiracy against 
 pope and king appears to have been hatched in 775, 
 Hrodgaud, Duke of Friuli, the Duke of Beneventum and 
 the Emperor Constantine being all involved. But the 
 Emperor died, the Duke of Beneventum hung back, 
 and Hrodgaud was left to face the Frankish power 
 alone. The course of events that followed is somewhat 
 obscure. Apparently Charles descended on Northern 
 Italy early in 776, slew the revolting duke, dispersed 
 his followers, and so reduced Lombardy once more to 
 subjection. The supporters of Hrodgaud were punished 
 by the confiscation of their property. 
 
 Scarcely had this Italian issue been laid to rest for 
 
 a time when an entirely new direction was given to 
 
 ' Charles' policy by a visit from three rebeUious Saracen 
 
 160 
 
 CHARLES, KING OF THE FRANKS, 773-799 161 
 
 chiefs from Spain, who came to him at Paderborn to 
 ask for his assistance against their overlord. 
 
 In 750 the Ommeyad dynasty at Damascus had been 
 overthrown by the rival faction of the Abbassides, and 
 Abdurrahman, the only survivor of the family of the dis- 
 possessed caliphs, fled to North Africa, and a few years 
 later crossed into Spain, where a series of victories made 
 him master of the country that had been under the rule 
 of several mutually hostile chiefs. At Cordova he estab- 
 lished the capital of a Moslem kingdom that was 
 destined to last for nearly three centuries and to leave 
 an indelible stamp on the history of Spain. It was on be- 
 half of the Abbasside party that Charles was now invited 
 to intervene, and there is no reason to think that the 
 religious motive counted for much in his decision. 
 Perhaps Charles cherished some hope of adding Spain, 
 or at least part of it, to his dominions — perhaps he was 
 led on by the mere love of adventure. Whatever the 
 motive, he agreed to march into Spain, the Abbasside 
 chiefs undertaking to raise forces from Africa and in 
 Spain to assist him — an undertaking that they failed to 
 carry out. With a great army of Franks, Lombards, 
 Bavarians and men of the southern provinces Charles 
 set out in the spring of 778 for Saragossa. It is with 
 some surprise that we find him, on the way, laying 
 siege to Pampeluna, a city belonging to the little 
 Christian kingdom of the Asturias, of which he de- 
 molished the walls. This was the only success of the 
 expedition, of the details of which the chroniclers are 
 strangely silent. All that is clear is that Charles turned 
 
 homeward, taking one of the rebel chiefs with him 
 11 
 
 I 
 
 f^ 
 

 Tassilo of 
 Bavaria 
 
 162 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 in chains, and that on the way through the defile of 
 Koncesvalles his rearguard was attacked by the wild 
 Basques of the Pyrenees, and a number of his nobles, 
 including Koland, the Count of the Breton March, were 
 slain. Around this event later ages wove a tissue of 
 romance, of which we shall say something in a later 
 chapter. The campaign is notable as the only unsuc- 
 cessful attempt of Charles to extend the frontiers of his 
 kingdom. It was left for his son and successor to 
 retrieve his father's failure, and carry the frontiers of 
 the Spanish March as far as the banks of the Ebro. 
 
 After staying a few weeks in Aquetaine, possibly to 
 avert the danger of a rising there, Charles led his army ^ 
 back to Francia, and once more turned his attention to 
 
 Italian affairs. 
 
 These now become entangled with the fortunes and 
 misfortunes of Tassilo of Bavaria. We have already 
 seen him as the rebelHous vassal of his uncle King Pippm 
 and as the ally of Charles at the beginning of his reign. 
 The fortunes of Bavaria were naturally closely connected 
 with those of Lombardy, from which it was only separ- 
 ated by the rampart of the Alps. Tassilo had married a 
 daughter of the deposed Lombard king, and her influence 
 would naturally be exercised to sow dissension between 
 her husband and the king of the Franks. But behind 
 all merely personal questions lay the deep-seated an- 
 tagonism between the Germans of the north and the 
 Germans of the south— an antagonism lasting far into 
 the Middle Ages— if indeed it can be said to have even 
 now entirely disappeared. There are some provinces of 
 Europe that seem to have a natural claim to an mde- 
 
 CHARLES, KING OF THE FRANKS, 773-799 163 
 
 pendent life, and yet that have always found that in- 
 dependence menaced by the expansion of more powerful 
 neighbours. Burgundy and Aquetaine failed to make 
 good their claim to a national life of their own ; Bavaria, 
 more fortunate in the end, only succeeded by centuries 
 of contest in avoiding the danger of absorption in the 
 German kingdom of the north. 
 
 But though Charles might suspect Tassilo of plotting 
 fresh treason, he could not treat a Christian power, 
 ruled by his own first cousin, as he treated heathen 
 Saxony or rebellious Lombardy. 
 
 His first task was to win the Pope to the support of 
 his cause, and for that purpose he visited Kome in 781, 
 taking with him his wife and two of his children. Carlo- 
 man and Louis. Carloman was baptised by the Pope and 
 his name changed to Pippin ; and the two boys were 
 then anointed as Kings of Italy and Aquetaine. Charles 
 may have thought that he could satisfy the local 
 patriotism of these two recently annexed parts of the 
 Frankish kingdom by this recognition of their local 
 independence, and probably hoped that as the boys 
 grew up they might relieve him of the details of ad- 
 ministration in these southern provinces. 
 
 The problem of Bavaria was discussed by the king 
 and the Pope, and Hadrian, whose friendship for 
 Charles had been somewhat cooled by what he re- 
 garded as inadequate support in his claims against the 
 Archbishop of Ravenna and the southern dukes, now 
 agreed to join the king in sending an embassy to Tassilo 
 to require him to remember his oath of allegiance. 
 Tassilo could not afford to quarrel with the Church 
 
 i I 
 
 ! I 
 
 ■ I I 
 
Fall of 
 Tassilo, 
 787, 788 
 
 |i! 
 
 164 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 illi 
 
 authorities, on whose support his power in Bavaria 
 depended, and accordingly ''so greatly was his heart 
 softened that he declared his willingness to proceed to 
 the presence of the king, if such hostages could be 
 given as would leave him no doubt of his safety ". 
 These being furnished, the Bavarian duke repaired to 
 Worms, and there solemnly renewed his oath of allegi- 
 ance and gave hostages for his obedience. 
 
 Six years passed before the affairs of Bavaria again 
 became a cause of anxiety to Charles. The only event 
 of importance in these years, in Italy, was the sub- 
 mission of Arichis, the great Duke of Beneventum, to 
 the Frankish king. In 787 Charles again visited Eome, 
 and the matter of Tassilo's loyalty was once more dis- 
 cussed between the king and the Pope. What new 
 ground for suspicion Tassilo had given we do not know, 
 but something in the attitude of the duke alienated the 
 sympathy of the Pope, who, after a last attempt at 
 reconciliation, left Charles a free hand to deal with his 
 recalcitrant vassal. From all sides Charles poured 
 Frankish armies into Bavaria, and Tassilo, finding 
 resistance hopeless, made submission, handing over to 
 the king, in token of his surrender, '* a wand, the 
 top of which was carved into the likeness of a man " 
 
 an early indication of the growth of the idea of 
 
 homage. 
 
 But within a year Charles believed that Tassilo was 
 renewing his schemes of rebellion, and he was summoned 
 to Ingelheim, where he was placed on trial before the 
 assembled magnates of the " Franks, Bavarians, Lom- 
 bards and Saxons," and adjudged guilty of treason, the 
 
 i| 
 
 CHARLES, KING OF THE FRANKS, 773-799 165 
 
 gravest charge against him being that he had invited the 
 Avars to invade the kingdom. 
 
 With all his family he was condemned to enter the 
 monastic life, and he disappears into the monastery of 
 Jumieges, to reappear for the last time at Frankfort in 
 794, when at the great council he made a final declara- 
 tion of his repentance and renounced all claims on his 
 Bavarian inheritance. Bavaria now passed under the 
 direct rule of the Frankish king. 
 
 The annexation of Bavaria brought the kingdom of The Avars 
 Charles to the borders of the old Eoman province of 
 Pannonia, which was now occupied by the Avars. We 
 have seen already how this tribe from Central Asia 
 disturbed the Byzantine emperors and even attacked 
 Constantinople itself. Since then they had settled in 
 Pannonia, where they occupied themselves with agri- 
 culture and raids on the western provinces of Europe. 
 The Bavarian dukes had been the defenders of the 
 frontier against these heathen marauders and Charles 
 now took up the duty. A raid made by the Avars in 
 788, which was checked by the Count of the Marches, 
 gave him an excuse for organising a great crusade 
 against them. 
 
 The various tribes of the Avars lived in fortified kraals 
 or " rings," the largest of them being that of the Chagan 
 or head chief, west of the Raab. Here, protected by 
 nine concentric ramparts, '*as wide across as from 
 Zurich to Constance," the accumulated treasures of two 
 centuries of plundering were stored. 
 
 After some ineffective attempts at negotiation, prob- 
 ably undertaken merely to gain time for military pre- 
 
 m- 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
166 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 parations, Charles led his army against the Avars. The 
 ground on which the Frankish magnates agreed to the 
 expedition was " the great and intolerable malice which 
 the Avars had shown towards the Holy Church and the 
 791 Christian people ". The campaign, started in 791, was 
 undertaken in something of the spirit of a crusade, 
 opening with three days of fasting and litanies. The 
 Frankish army marched along both banks of the Danube, 
 the commissariat being conveyed down the nver m 
 boats. The expedition was little more than a mihtary 
 parade. The Avars, who were divided among themselves, 
 made no resistance, though Charles penetrated as far as 
 the Eaab, returning to Katisbon in time for Christmas. 
 This was the only campaign against the Avars led by 
 Charles in person. The conduct of the war fell to Eric, 
 795 Duke of Friuh, a devout and noble soldier, who in 795 
 penetrated to the central fortress of the Chagan, took 
 possession of the vast stores of treasure hoarded in this 
 stronghold, and sent them to Charles at Aachen in 
 fifteen great waggons. The king gave rich gifts to his 
 nobles and sent presents to the Pope and others, includ- 
 ing Offa, king of Mercia, who received *' a baldric, a 
 Hunnish sword and two silk cloaks ". In the following 
 year Pippin, king of Italy, completed the destruction of 
 the Avar kingdom and drove the Avars beyond the 
 Theiss. A desultory war went on along the frontier for 
 some years, partly against the remnants of the Avars 
 and partly against Slavonic tribes that pressed in to 
 settle in the vacant lands. In 799 the vaHant Gerold, 
 Duke of Bavaria, brother of Charles' wife Hildegarde, 
 fell in contest with some Avars, and in the same year 
 
 I 
 
 CHARLES, KING OF THE FRANKS, 773-799 167 
 
 the heroic Eric of Friuli died, slain in an ambush laid by 
 the Croatians. Paulinus, Bishop of Aquileia, who had 
 dedicated to him a book of devotional meditations some 
 years before, now wrote a dirge for his friend modelled 
 on David's lament over Saul. 
 
 The remnants of the Avar people accepted Chris- 
 tianity, and settled in the Ostmark, and Slav tribes filled 
 the vacant province of the middle Danube, till a fresh 
 inroad of Turanian people from beyond the confines 
 of Europe — the Magyars — reoccupied the lands from 
 which Huns and Avars had been successively driven. 
 
 While these wars were going on Charles was oc- Domestic 
 cupied with the internal affairs of his kingdom. In the 
 year 788 he lost his wife Hildegarde and his mother 
 Bertha. A few months after, he married Fastrada, 
 the daughter of an Austrasian count, a woman of strong 
 but apparently harsh and vindictive character. To her 
 influence Einhard attributes not a few of Charles' un- 
 popular acts during this period of his reign. An obscure 
 revolt of the Thuringian nobles in 886 is said to have 
 been due to her actions ; and just after the first Avar 
 campaign Charles had to meet a more serious conspiracy, 
 in which the leading part was played by Pippin the 
 Hunchback, Charles' son by an early irregular marriage. 
 The plot was betrayed and the leaders arrested and con- 
 demned to death. Pippin was allowed to enter the 
 monastery of Prum, where he disappears from history. 
 Two years later Fastrada died, and Charles married, as 
 his fourth wife, Liutgarda of Suabia. 
 
 The year 798 was one of disturbance in the kingdom. 
 The Avar war was still going on and the Saxons were, 
 
168 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Charles 
 and Oifa 
 
 as usual, turbulent. In addition to this the Saracens 
 broke into Septimania, which they ravaged, carrying off 
 many of the inhabitants into slavery ; and Grimwald, 
 Duke of Beneventum, whom Charles had held as a 
 hostage during his father's hfetime, but had allowed to 
 return to the duchy after his death, threw off his allegi- 
 ance and became the centre of the anti-Frankish party 
 in Italy. 
 
 A few years before this, a quarrel between Charles 
 and the Empire led to an invasion of Southern Italy by 
 the " Greeks," who were met by a combined Frankish 
 and Lombard force under the Dukes of Spoleto and 
 Beneventum and completely defeated. But after this 
 the young Duke of Beneventum grew more restive under 
 the Frankish yoke, and in 791 Pippin and Louis were 
 ordered by their father to invade the duchy. Beyond 
 devastating part of the territory they do not appear to 
 have achieved much success. The contest with Bene- 
 ventum lingered on for years, resolving itself into a duel 
 between Pippin, king of Italy, assisted by the Duke of 
 Spoleto, and Grimwald. Finally the death of Grim- 
 wald, in 806, led to the secession of hostilities. 
 
 To make the account of these years complete, some- 
 thing must be said about Charles' relations with Offa, 
 king of Mercia, now overlord of the greater part of 
 England. The two kings appear to have become ac- 
 quainted in connection with Offa's scheme for an 
 Archbishopric of Lichfield, and they carried on a cor- 
 respondence for some years. Offa is even said to have 
 invited Charles to join him, in 787, in deposing Hadrian 
 from the Papal chair. A little later a quarrel broke out 
 
 11(1 
 
 CHARLES, KING OF THE FRANKS, 773-799 169 
 
 between the two kings, in connection with a proposed 
 marriage of Offa's daughter with Charles' eldest son 
 and namesake. For some reason, a suggestion by Offa 
 that Charles' daughter Bertha should marry his son 
 aroused the Frankish king's resentment. For some 
 time the relations between the two kings were strained, 
 and an embargo was laid by Charles on English 
 merchants travelling through his kingdom. But the 
 influence of Alcuin was exercised in favour of peace, and 
 in 795 Charles writes in the friendliest terms to his 
 ''beloved friend and brother Offa " :— 
 
 " As for pilgrims, who wish to approach the threshold 
 of the apostles, let them travel in peace without any 
 molestation. Let merchants pay toll.at the accustomed 
 places ; we take them under our protection. If they 
 have any complaints, let them come to us or to our 
 judges, and they shall have justice. We send herewith 
 some dalmatics and palls from our store to your bishops' 
 sees, and to those of Ethelfrid, begging that you will 
 have intercession made for the soul of Pope Hadrian ; 
 also we send you a baldric, a Hunnish sword and two 
 silk cloaks." 
 
 Offa died soon after this, and Charles' further relations 
 with England belong to a later period. 
 
 Charles' ecclesiastical policy, during the pontificate of Ecciesiasti- 
 Hadrian, turns almost entirely around two controversies. " 
 The first of these was the so-called Adoptionist heresy. 
 This was propounded by a Spanish monk, Felix, Bishop 
 of Urgel, who taught that Jesus Christ was a man who 
 was adopted by God as His Son. Having obtained from 
 the Pope a condemnation of this doctrine, Charles held 
 
 ■ 
 
 cal affairs 
 
I> 
 
 * 
 
 (.,1 
 
 l^i 
 
 170 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 a series of councils for its condemnation, Alcuin being 
 specially the champion of orthodoxy. 
 
 The other was the Iconoclastic controversy, in regard 
 to which it was necessary for the Frankish Chm-ch to 
 define its position. At the second Council of Nicaea 
 Irene had secured the restoration of image-worship, 
 and thus brought the policy of the Empire into accord 
 with that of the Pope. But Charles was not disposed 
 to submit to the dictation of the Eastern Court, and in 
 790 he caused to be drawn up an elaborate refutation 
 of image-worship— the celebrated Lihri Garolini. His 
 attitude towards the whole question was one of tolera- 
 tion. '' Let pictures be in the churches if so desired, to 
 preserve in the minds of the people the memory of Bible 
 stories ; but their presence there should be optional, not 
 compulsory, and as to insisting on their being worshipped, 
 as the impertinent and arrogant council at Bithynia 
 had lately done, that could in nowise be tolerated." 
 
 In 794 Charles called a council of Frankish bishops 
 at Frankfort, when the seventh Ecumenical Council 
 was formally condemned as '' neither seventh nor ecu- 
 menical, but absolutely superfluous ". Charles also ad- 
 dressed a letter to the Pope, inviting him to join in the 
 condemnation of the image- worshippers. Hadrian sent 
 a long reply, pointing out what he regarded as the errors 
 of Charles' position, and winding up with the usual ap- 
 peal for the restoration of the ''Patrimonies of St. 
 Peter " in Southern Italy and Sicily. Shortly after this 
 Hadrian died, and with the appointment of his successor 
 begins the course of events that led to the coronation 
 of Charles as Eoman Emperor five years later. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 CAROLUS IMPERATOR 
 
 170 R thirty years Charles had reigned as king of the 
 Franks, and during this period he had extended 
 the frontiers of his kingdom in all directions till it in- 
 cluded, excepting Spain and Britain, all, and more than 
 all, the European lands that had owned the sway of the 
 Roman Empire. But the Empire still lived on in its 
 new capital in the East, and there is no reason to think 
 that Charles ever contemplated, during the first twenty- 
 five years of his reign, the idea of superseding the some- 
 what shadowy authority that the Byzantine rulers 
 exercised over Italy. But, inevitably, his relations 
 with the ecclesiastical world drew him more and more 
 into the position of protector of the Pope, especially as 
 the Iconoclastic controversy had practically severed what- 
 ever bonds of allegiance bound the Popes to the Isaurian 
 Emperors. 
 
 Yet the anomalous condition of Europe might have 
 lasted on for much longer had not Irene's rise to power 
 destroyed whatever respect had been felt in the west 
 for the Imperial house. Europe was, for the first time, 
 without an emperor, and just at this moment a series of 
 events happened that made an emperor specially neces- 
 sary. 
 
 171 
 
 I 
 
 ( 
 
 f 
 
 M 
 
Leo III., 
 
 795-816 
 
 II 
 
 172 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 At the end of the year 795 Hadrian died, and Leo 
 III. was elected in his place. The new Pope was ap- 
 parently the nominee of a party, and there is some 
 reason to think that rumours unfavourable to his in- 
 tegrity and moral conduct had reached Charles. At all 
 events, in signifying his assent to the appointment, the 
 king lays stress on the importance to a Pope of purity of 
 life and honourable conduct. He pictures the relation 
 between the Pope and himself as like that between 
 Moses praying on the mountain and Joshua smiting the 
 enemies of the Lord in the valley below. *' It is ours, 
 with the help of the Divine piety, externally to defend 
 the Holy Church of Christ by our arms from all pagan 
 inroads and infidel devastations, and internally to fortify 
 it by the recognition of the Christian faith. It is yours, 
 holy Father, with hands raised to God like Moses, to 
 help our warfare ; that by your intercession the Chris- 
 tian people may everywhere have the victory over its 
 enemies, and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may 
 be magnified throughout the whole world." 
 
 From the first, difficulties gathered round the path of 
 the new Pope. Two of the nephews of the late Pope, 
 PaschaHs and Campulus, took the lead in opposing his 
 authority.* But four years passed before the conspirators 
 felt strong enough to act, and then, having spread 
 scandalous reports against the character of the Pope, 
 they proceeded to seize him, in April, 799, as he was 
 riding through the streets of Kome. Their purpose was 
 to adopt the barbarous Byzantine custom of Winding 
 their captive and cutting out his tongue, but for some 
 reason the brutal work was only half done, and Leo was 
 
 m 
 
 n 
 
 I 
 
f 
 
 174 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 rescued by some friends and taken to St. Peter's Church, 
 outside the walls, whence he was conducted into safety 
 by the Duke of Spoleto. 
 
 Having driven out the Pope the conspirators appear 
 to have had no further plans. They did not set up an 
 antipope or organise any sort of government in Rome. 
 
 The events that had happened were reported to 
 Charles, then engaged in one of his Saxon campaigns. 
 He instructed his heutenants to send the Pope to Pader- 
 born. Thither accordingly Leo repaired, accompanied by 
 a great train of nobles and ecclesiastics. He was accorded 
 a respectful welcome, and requested to consecrate the 
 new church at Paderborn. He stayed at the Frankish 
 Court for some months, and then returned to Eome, ac- 
 companied by a number of leading Frankish ecclesiastics 
 and counts. These companions of his journey consti- 
 tuted the body of commissioners appointed by Charles 
 to hear the accusations against Leo and give judgment 
 on them. But where, in all this, do the rights of the 
 nominal overiord of the Pope find recognition ? And if 
 the Pope felt it useless to turn to the Byzantine ruler 
 for protection and vindication, did not that fact in itself 
 imply that Rome was free to beget a new Emperor as 
 she had begotten the Augustus of eight hundred years 
 
 before ? 
 
 Leo's return to Rome was a great contrast to his de- 
 parture a few months before. The Romans, anxious 
 to avert the possible vengeance of Charles, or perhaps 
 influenced by a genuine revulsion of feeling, poured 
 out to welcome the returning Pope, who entered the 
 city amid . tumultuous signs of rejoicing. The com- 
 
 CAROLUS IMPERATOR 
 
 175 
 
 I 
 
 missioners summoned Paschalis and Campulus before 
 them, adjudged their accusations as groundless, and sent 
 them to Francia for Charles to deal with. 
 
 In the months that elapsed before Charles was free 
 to visit Rome again an interesting and significant inci- 
 dent occurred in the arrival of an embassy from the 
 Patriarch of Jerusalem, bringing relics and gifts to the 
 Frankish king. A little later a second envoy brought 
 to Charles the banner of Jerusalem and the keys of the 
 Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 It would appear as though the Christians now living 
 under Moslem rule in the East, despairing of help from 
 Constantinople, were turning to the great Western 
 power as the champion of the cause of Christendom. 
 
 Early in the year 800 Charies set out for Rome, stop- charies* 
 ping on the way to visit the great Abbey of St. Martin at S^L^I'soo 
 Tours, where Alcuin was now installed as abbot. It 
 was his first visit to Neustria for more than twenty years. 
 His stay at Tours was prolonged and saddened by the 
 death of his wife Liutgarda. After leaving Tours he 
 travelled to Paris, Aachen and Mainz, and then, in the 
 autumn, moved south with a considerable army and 
 crossed the Alps, arriving at the end of November at 
 Rome, where he was welcomed with much ceremony. 
 His earliest task was to lay finally to rest the charges 
 that had been made against Leo, and at a great assembly 
 of the Roman Church dignitaries a last opportunity was 
 given for any who wished to accuse the Pope. No ac- 
 cusers being forthcoming, Leo solemnly purged himself 
 on oath of all the charges that had been made by his 
 enemies. 
 
1 
 
 176 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Two days later, on Christmas Day, 800, during the 
 mass at St. Peter's, which was attended by the king 
 and his Frankish nobles, the Pope suddenly produced a 
 golden crown which he placed on the head of Charles, 
 while the whole assembled congregation joined in the 
 shout, ** To Charles Augustus, crowned of God, the 
 great and pacific Emperor, long Hfe and victory". 
 Charles was then invested with the Imperial insignia 
 and a solemn litany sung, invoking the protection of 
 the saints on the new Emperor. 
 
 Such a ceremony as this must have been pre- 
 arranged, and it is difficult to believe that the Pope 
 would have conferred the Imperial title on Charles 
 without first ascertaining that he would approve. Yet 
 there is some reason for thinking that Charles was 
 taken by surprise. Einhard says that he afterwards de- 
 clared that he would never have entered the church on 
 that day if he had foreseen the Pope's design. This 
 may be only a sigh of regret from one who found that 
 the Imperial dignity had brought more anxiety than 
 pleasure ; but it may mean that, though the idea of the 
 Imperial restoration had been discussed, the Pope 
 brought the matter prematurely to an issue. 
 Thesignifi- To Charles' Frankish nobles and to the people of 
 imperili^^^ Eome the coronation would have meant Httle more than 
 revival ^^^ recognition of existing facts. For all practical 
 purposes Charles had already succeeded to the rights 
 and responsibihties that the Byzantine rulers could 
 no longer effectively fulfil. And as, fifty years before, 
 Zacharias, on the ground that he who exercised the 
 powers of king should have the name of king, had sanc- 
 
 CAROLUS IMPERATOR 
 
 177 
 
 i' 
 
 tioned the setting aside of the last Merovingian, so 
 now it seemed good that he who exercised Imperial 
 functions and ruled over the Imperial cities in the 
 west should have the title of Emperor. 
 
 To the Pope the crowning of Charles meant the 
 final repudiation of the authority of the Emperor at 
 Constantinople. Any attempt of the Eastern Empire 
 to interfere in Italy would now have to reckon with the 
 power of Charles and his Frankish armies. It probably 
 meant little more. 
 
 In after-ages vast claims were destined to grow out 
 of the Papal share in this restoration of the Western 
 Empire— claims that Leo could only have foreseen very 
 dimly, if indeed he foresaw them at all. 
 
 But what did it mean to Charles? It meant the 
 consecration of his mission as the guardian and pro- 
 tector of the Christian faith— the ratification of the 
 relationship that had been growing up through centuries 
 between the old world and the new. As Con- 
 stantine and his successors had ruled the Empire 
 from Constantinople, so now a new line of emperors 
 would rule it from Aachen. Logically, the transfer 
 of the Imperial title involved the denial of the right 
 of the Byzantine rulers to it; but Charles had no 
 wish to push the theory to this logical issue, and was 
 prepared to admit the authority of the existing Imperial 
 house in the east so long as he might remain un- 
 challenged Emperor in the west. 
 
 The Imperial office, in his conception of it, involved 
 a definite moral responsibility. No Pope interpreted 
 his office as vicegerent of God more strictly than did 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 of 802 
 
 I 
 
 the new Emperor. The spirit in which he tried to rule 
 Capitulary is shown by the Capitulary of 802, which prescribed a 
 new oath on all his subjects. ** It shall be pubhcly 
 explained to all what is the force and meaning of this 
 oath, and how much more it includes than a mere 
 promise of fidelity to the monarch's person. Firstly, it 
 binds those who swear it to live, each and every one of 
 them, according to his strength and knowledge, in the 
 holy service of God ; since the Lord Emperor cannot 
 extend over all his care and discipUne. Secondly, it 
 binds them neither by force nor fraud to seize or molest 
 any of the goods or servants of his crown. Thirdly, to 
 do no violence nor treason towards the Holy Church, or 
 to widows or orphans or strangers, seeing that the Lord 
 Emperor has been appointed, after the Lord and His 
 saints, the protector and defender of all such." 
 
 It was in the ecclesiastical authority that he deemed 
 himself to have as Eoman Emperor that he hoped to 
 find the bond of union that should bind together all the 
 peoples whom the might of the Frankish sword had 
 brought under his sway. Over Franks, Bavarians, 
 Saxons, Lombards, the Church had thrown the mesh- 
 work of a common organisation. This organisation 
 centred in Eome, and as master of Rome Charles might 
 hope to extend his authority wherever the claims of 
 Rome were recognised. 
 
 The great scheme broke down, chiefly because old 
 tribal feelings were too strong and the new bond of union 
 too weak. But the coronation of Charles the Great is 
 not only the beginning of an experiment that failed, it 
 is much more truly the culmination of a process that had 
 
 CAROLUS IMPERATOR 
 
 179 
 
 brought the vigorous and turbulent life of the Teutonic 
 peoples under the sway of those conceptions of ordered 
 rule and discipline that were the greatest legacy that 
 the old Rome of Augustus and Antoninus had be- 
 queathed to the newer Rome of Gregory and Hadrian. 
 
 From Rome Charles returned to Germany in the 
 following year, and the last fourteen years of his reign 
 were spent in organisation and legislation. No fresh 
 lands were added to his Empire, but the existing pro- 
 vinces were bound into closer union. 
 
 It is said that Charles contemplated a marriage with 
 Irene, so uniting East and West. But the story is 
 extremely improbable, and the revolution at Con- 
 stantinople, which was due partly to the revolt of the 
 west, soon brought Irene's period of rule to an end. 
 From the new Emperor Charles succeeded, after tedious 
 negotiations, in securing a partial recognition of his title. 
 The most important events of 804 were the end of the 
 Saxon war and a visit of the Pope to Aachen. 
 
 To Charles' Court came messengers from many Closing 
 lands. There Egbert of Wessex found refuge whencCw 
 expelled from England by Bertric. The extent of^'^ 
 Charles' interference in English affairs is not very 
 clear, but he probably assisted Egbert's return in 802, 
 and perhaps inspired the policy that gave to Wessex 
 twenty-five years later the overlordship of England. In 
 808 another dispossessed English king, Eardulf of North- 
 umbria, came to ask for help at the Imperial Court, 
 and by the joint help of Emperor and Pope was restored 
 to his throne. 
 
 From the far East came an embassy from the 
 
 \ i i 
 
I 
 
 Aachen 
 
 180 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 great Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, bringing an elephant 
 *' Abulahaz " as a gift to the new Emperor. 
 
 But under the outward prosperity of Charles' closing 
 years there were not wanting ominous indications of 
 danger. The northern coasts were already being 
 plundered by Scandinavian pirates, and the Saracens 
 were beginning to harry the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 Danes and Slavs were restive on the frontiers. The 
 story told by the monk of St. Gall of how Charles, 
 sitting at meat in his palace at Narbonne, saw the 
 white sails of a Viking ship, and wept bitterly as he 
 foretold the woes that were coming on his subjects, 
 though probably a later legend, expresses a true fact. 
 Charles' last years must sometimes have been saddened 
 by forebodings of possible disaster. 
 
 They were saddened also by domestic grief. In 810 
 Pippin, the brave and noble young king of Italy, died 
 at the early age of thirty-three while campaigning in 
 Dalmatia. Next year the Emperor's eldest son Charles 
 died, and Louis alone remained to inherit the kingdom. 
 In 818 Charles held a great assembly at Aachen, at 
 which he presented his son to the nobles as his suc- 
 cessor. Early in the following year he died, in the 
 seventy-second year of his age and the forty-seventh of 
 
 his reign. 
 
 Until the accession of Charles the Frankish kingdom 
 had no fixed capital. In the early part of his reign he 
 carried on the administration of his kingdom chiefly 
 from his three palaces at Worms, Ingelheim and 
 Nimuegen. But after 795 he made his home at the 
 city between the Khine and the Meuse that the Eomans 
 
 11 
 
 CAROLUS IMPERATOR 
 
 181 
 
 called Aquae Grani, the German Aachen and the French 
 Aix-la-Chapelle. Charles was attracted to the place 
 by its hot medicinal springs, and there he built a palace 
 and a church, for the adornment of which churches at 
 Kome and Kavenna were plundered of their treasures. 
 Around Aachen stretched wide parks, where Charles 
 and his courtiers rode and hunted. 
 
 Of Charles' personal character and habits his bio- Personal 
 grapher Einhard gives us much interesting information, ot charies 
 He was a mighty eater, with a special love for roast 
 meats, and found the Church's rules of fasting hard to 
 observe. In the matter of drink he was temperate, and 
 strove to discourage drunkenness among his officers and 
 courtiers. He was wont to have books read to him 
 at the evening meal — either history or the works of 
 St. Augustine, whose City of God was his special 
 favourite. He knew Latin and some Greek, but in 
 spite of earnest efforts never succeeded in learning to 
 write. He was interested in the literature of his native 
 land and tried to preserve the old Teutonic ballads 
 of the Franks of which he had a collection made. Un- 
 fortunately his successor, Louis the Pious, deeming 
 them mere relics of paganism, caused the book to be 
 destroyed. 
 
 Of his personal appearance and habits Einhard has 
 much to tell. " His gait was firm, all the habit of his 
 body manly ; his voice clear but scarcely corresponding 
 to his stature ; his health good, except that during the 
 last four years of his life he was often attacked with 
 fever, and at the last he limped with one foot. He 
 guided himself much more by his own fancy than by the 
 
 .. 
 
 M' 
 
182 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 I 
 
 counsel of his physicians, whom he disliked because they 
 tried to persuade him to give up roast meats, to which 
 he was accustomed, and to take to boiled. He kept up 
 diligently his exercises of riding and hunting, in which 
 he followed the custom of his nation. He delighted in 
 the steam of hot-water baths, being a frequent and skil- 
 ful swimmer. Not only did he invite his sons to the 
 bath, but also his friends and nobles, sometimes even a 
 crowd of courtiers and bodyguards, so that at times as 
 many as a hundred men or more would be bathing 
 together. 
 
 ** He loved foreigners, and took the greatest pains to 
 entertain them, so that their number often seemed a 
 real burden, not only to the palace but even to the 
 kingdom. 
 
 ** He was full even to overflowing with eloquence, 
 and could express all his ideas with great clearness. 
 He was in truth so eloquent that he seemed like a pro- 
 fessional rhetorician. 
 
 " He was a devout and zealous supporter of the 
 Christian religion, in which he had been instructed from 
 infancy. He regularly attended the church that he had 
 built at Aquisgranum morning and evening, and also in 
 the hours of the night and at the time of sacrifice, as 
 far as his health permitted ; and he took great pains 
 that all the rites celebrated there should be performed 
 with the greatest decorum, constantly admonishing the 
 ministers of the church that they should not allow any- 
 thing dirty or unbecoming to be brought there. He 
 took great pains to reform the style of reading and sing- 
 ing, in both of which he was highly accomplished." 
 
 THE LOWER RHINE 
 
 
 Verdun 
 
 >«lo<^ 
 
 Scale 
 
 to 
 
 10 20 30 40 bO 
 
 Engl.Miles 
 
184 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Of the genuineness of his piety there can be no doubt. 
 He was anxious not only to further the extension of 
 Christianity but also to purify it of the corruptions that 
 threatened to destroy its vitahty. A certain grim 
 humour appears in some of the stories that tradition has 
 handed down of his dealings with worldly and grasping 
 ecclesiastics. 
 
 "While his sons were provided, as they grew up, with 
 local courts of their own, his daughters remained at 
 home, and travelled with him when he moved about his 
 kingdom. "As those daughters were most beautiful 
 and he loved them dearly, it was strange that he never 
 gave one of them m marriage, either to one of his own 
 people or to a foreigner, but kept them always with him 
 in the house till the day of his death, declaring that he 
 could not dispense with their daily companionship." 
 Einhard hints at scandals that Charles bore with forti- 
 tude ; and no doubt there was a less pleasing side to the 
 Hfe of the Frankish Court. Charles himself was far from 
 immaculate, judged by the standard of strict Christian 
 principle. But the life of courts has seldom proved a 
 training-ground of domestic virtues, and on the whole the 
 court of Charles the Great stands out in the chronicles of 
 the time as an oasis of cheerful home life amid the wars 
 and turbulence of a rough and uncouth age. 
 
 CHAPTEK XIX 
 
 LAW AND ADMINISTRATION IN THE EMPIRE 
 
 QHAKLES inherited from his predecessors the ad- 
 ministrative system that the Frankish rulers had 
 gradually developed out of the primitive Teutonic 
 arrangements that the Franks had brought with them 
 from their northern home. To this he added from time 
 to time, so that by the end of his reign the Empire was 
 governed by a system of administration that appeared 
 adequate and efhcient. But as a matter of fact it was 
 neither, for Charles was unable to develop an efficient 
 and trustworthy body of officials. The Byzantine Em- 
 pire was strong, even when it seemed most weak, because 
 it was served by a body of well-trained and well-paid 
 civil servants ; but the Carolingian Empire was weak, 
 even when it seemed strongest, because Charles had to 
 depend on officers who were untrained and unpaid. 
 But the Byzantine Empire only retained its bureau- 
 cratic system by a burden of taxation such as Charles 
 dared not lay on the shoulders of his free Franks, or 
 even on the subject nations of his Empire. The burden 
 of military service, and the tithes that were levied by 
 royal authority for religious purposes, often provoked 
 strong resentment, and the expense of government had 
 consequently to be kept down at all costs. But this 
 
 185 
 
 i : 
 
" 
 
 186 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 The 
 Emperor 
 
 could only be done by acting through unpaid agents who 
 were likely to prove either inefficient or corrupt. 
 
 At the head of the whole system was the Emperor, 
 who as Emperor recognised no earthly superior, but as 
 king of the Franks was bound to act in consultation 
 with his great nobles and, at least nominally, with the 
 armed warriors who assembled every spring at the 
 annual *' May field ". A smaller gathering was held in 
 the autumn, at which probably only the great magnates 
 attended. It was at these assembhes that fresh laws 
 were promulgated and questions of peace or war de- 
 cided. 
 
 The two most important outlying provinces of the 
 Empire— Italy and Aquetaine— Charles entrusted to his 
 two younger sons, who each had a court of his own and 
 was left free in the administration of his own kingdom, 
 subject to the general control of the Emperor. 
 
 The dukes of the other great provinces had been 
 dispossessed in favour of the direct authority of the 
 Frankish king, but along all the frontier of the Empire 
 a new and important class of officers had grown up in the 
 Margraves Margraves of the Marches. In the South the Duke of 
 Spoleto acted as margrave and carried on a desultory 
 war with the Lombard Duke of Beneventum. The 
 Margrave of Friuli defended the eastern frontiers of 
 Italy, and the province of Istria was also a kind of March 
 on the eastern frontier of the Frankish kingdom. 
 
 Along the Danube the Ostmark, ruled by two mar- 
 graves, kept back the flood of Slavonic invasion from 
 Bavaria, and farther north, in Bohemia, the Empire 
 had driven a wedge of conquest into the Eastern 
 
 LAW AND ADMINISTRATION IN THE EMPIRE 187 
 
 Slavonic world. Along the Elbe, and on the Danish 
 frontier, other margraves kept watch, and the circle of 
 frontier defences was completed by the Breton March, 
 where Eoland was at one time warden, and the Spanish 
 March in the south, where the Count of Toulouse waged 
 almost constant war against the Saracens. 
 
 To complete the defences of the Empire a Frankish 
 fleet was constructed which guarded the channel, for a 
 while, from the raids of the Norsemen. 
 
 Internally the Empire was divided into counties Local 
 (pagits) , each ruled by a count nominally appointed by tion ^"'^ ^^ 
 the Emperor, but really holding the position of a local 
 hereditary magnate. Each count had his court or mallus 
 in the central town of his county. The custom of the 
 Frankish kingdom was that every man should be judged 
 by the law of his own nation. But in practice this re- 
 solved itself into a sort of equitable jurisdiction based 
 partly on common sense, partly on the personal will of 
 the count, from whom impartial justice could hardly be 
 expected in matters where his own interests were af- 
 fected. The pagus was subdivided into hundreds, each 
 under a local officer appointed by the count. 
 
 Into this system the Emperor introduced two changes. The nmsi 
 The Frankish kings were accustomed to send missi on 
 various errands into the provinces of the kingdom. 
 Charles now created a new body of permanent missi 
 dominiciy leading nobles of the kingdom who travelled 
 around definite circuits supervising the local administra- 
 tion and acting as inspectors of all departments of 
 government. But several things rendered their work 
 ineffective. The circuits were too large for effective 
 
 
188 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Central 
 govern- 
 ment 
 
 supervision ; the missi were unpaid and only held office 
 for short periods ; and the local counts appear to have 
 evaded their control in various ways — as, for example, 
 by persuading suitors to hold back their cases till the 
 unwelcome intruders had paid their visit. 
 
 The other change was the creation of a kind of jury 
 of scahini, who were intended to act with the count in 
 the administration of justice. But for various reasons 
 these scahini do not appear to have been an effective 
 body, and local justice continued to depend on the count. 
 
 The central government was nominally a bureaucracy, 
 really an autocracy. Charles had his archchaplain for 
 the management of ecclesiastical business and a body 
 of Counts of the Palace {comes palatii), one for each 
 nation of the Empire, who were supposed to deal with 
 appeals from the local counts, the most important being 
 referred to the Emperor. But in fact the Emperor, 
 partly because of the dearth of competent officers, 
 and partly through the unwillingness of a strong ruler 
 to delegate power, retained in his own hands the 
 actual work of government. A suitor who could secure 
 access to the Emperor could generally count on justice, 
 and at the Mayfield assemblies Charies mixed freely 
 with his subjects; but a system built up around the 
 person of the sovereign was bound to break down when 
 his powers grew enfeebled with age or his sceptre passed 
 into hands less able to wield it. 
 
 The lack of a trained body of secular officials threw 
 Charles back on the support of the great ecclesiastics 
 who were already rising to a position of great wealth and 
 influence. The work of resumption of Church lands, 
 
 LAW AND ADMINISTRATION IN THE EMPIRE 189 
 
 that had cost Charles Martel the goodwill of the monkish 
 chroniclers, now began to be undone. 
 
 Two significant facts appear in the Capitularies ofBegin- 
 the closing years of the reign. One is the growing Feudalism 
 difficulty of securing from the freemen of the Empire 
 the military service that they were liable to furnish. 
 Now that the wars of the Emperor were no longer wars 
 of conquest, in which plunder and glory might be gained, 
 the interruption of ordinary life caused by military ser- 
 vice was resented. To meet this difficulty anew system 
 was adopted that was destined to have far-reaching con- 
 sequences. Liabihty to military service was now made 
 territorial instead of personal; a certain area of land 
 being made responsible for furnishing a warrior to the 
 host, the inhabitants sharing the duty or furnishing a 
 deputy. 
 
 The other significant fact is the growth of the system 
 of vassalage. Freemen began to commend themselves 
 to the local count or ecclesiastic, securing protection 
 in return for certain services. So begins the feudal 
 system, of the development of which more must be said 
 in a later chapter. The Frankish kingdom had held 
 together while the process of conquest had kept alive 
 the sentiment of loyalty ; as soon as the extension of 
 the kingdom ceased, local feeling reasserted itself, and 
 this process of disintegration had begun even before 
 Charles handed on the sceptre to the less masterful 
 hands of his son. 
 
 Charles made no attempt to compile a legal code for Legislation 
 his Empire, but he endeavoured to reduce the various 
 national systems of law, under which the peoples of his 
 
 u 
 
 i 
 
190 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Empire were living, to better order. *^ After his as- 
 sumption of the Imperial title," says Einhard, ** as he 
 perceived that many things were lacking in the laws of 
 his people, he thought to add those things that were 
 wanting, to reconcile discrepancies, and to correct what 
 was bad and ill expressed. But of all this he accom- 
 pHshed nothing, except that he added a few chapters, and 
 those imperfect ones, to the laws of the Franks. All 
 the legal customs, however, of the various nations under 
 his sway, he caused to be committed to writing, if they 
 were not already written." 
 
 But it is in his Capitularies that the legislative activity 
 of Charles shows itself. These Capitularies were edicts 
 issued by the Emperor from time to time (many of them 
 before his acceptance of the Imperial title) , in consulta- 
 tion with his nobles, regulating the affairs of Church and 
 State. They were collected into books in the ninth 
 century, but they are not to be thought of as a code of 
 law. Some of them are royal proclamations, some ordin- 
 ances, some instructions to the missi or answers to their 
 questions. Some appear to be no more than notes, jotted 
 down by the Emperor, of things he wanted to remember. 
 In his History of Civilisation Guizot attempts to 
 classify these Capitularies according to subject-matter. 
 It would be impossible to deal with them in any detail 
 here. They show the wide range of Charles' administra- 
 tive activity and the sincerity of his efforts to enforce the 
 Christian moral standard on his people. In all proba- 
 bility many of them remained pious opinions, pointing 
 to a standard of life far in advance of anything that the 
 Erankish kingdom was capable of reaching. 
 
 CHAPTEE XX 
 
 ALCUIN AND THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING. JOHN SCOTUS 
 
 TN the sixth and seventh centuries learning in Europe 
 was reduced to a very low ebb. Schools were rare, 
 and the Church authorities had already begun to frown 
 on secular studies. as corrupting to the student. 
 
 In the early part of the seventh century Isidore, 
 Bishop of Seville, had a high reputation for learning. 
 He was a voluminous writer, and his books formed the 
 text-books for students in the schools of Western Europe 
 till the tenth century. But there is little in them of 
 real value, and after his death, in 636, no great man 
 of learning appears in Western Europe till the coming 
 of Alcuin. 
 
 While, however, the study of the great writers of the 
 ancient world decayed on the continent, it began in Ire- 
 land, where the coming of Christianity was accompanied 
 by a great Hterary revival. The Irish, or "Scots" as Ireland 
 they are called by contemporary chroniclers, became not 
 only messengers of Christianity but also of culture. 
 Till the Norse invasions of the eighth century Ireland 
 remained a home of literature and of students. 
 
 From Ireland the lamp of learning was passed on 
 to the neighbouring island. England also received 
 educational stimulus from another source, for Theodore nof- 
 
 191 thumbria 
 
 
192 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 of Tarsus, sent from Kome to organise the Church in 
 England, brought with him Hadrian, Abbot of St. 
 Peter's, Eome, under whom a flourishing school began 
 at Canterbury. Under his influence an Enghshman, 
 Benedict Biscop, founded a great library at Wearmouth, 
 in Northumbria, where the influence of the northern 
 missionaries was still strong. At Malmesbury also a 
 Scottish teacher, Mailduf, set up a school, which grew 
 and flourished. But it was at Jarrow, a daughter house 
 of the monastery of Wearmouth, that EngHsh learning 
 found its greatest representative in the scholar whom 
 later ages have loved to call the ''Venerable" Bede. 
 Born in 673, Bede spent his whole Hfe at the monastery 
 of Jarrow. ** While attentive to the rules of my order 
 and the service of the Church, my constant pleasure 
 lay in learning, teaching or writing." Bede had nothing 
 of the hostility towards secular learning that we find 
 in Gregory the Great and other Church leaders on the 
 continent. He loved Virgil and the other Latin poets, 
 and was famihar with Plato and Aristotle. His life was 
 spent in teaching and writing. Crowds of students 
 flocked to him, and over forty works remained after his 
 death to attest his literary activity. On his death, in 
 735, the educational centre of England shifted to York, 
 where Egbert, the bishop (afterwards archbishop), 
 developed the school that Wilfred had founded. Nor- 
 thumbria remained the most important centre of 
 learning in Western Europe till the Danish invasions 
 destroyed its prosperity and peace. 
 
 But before this the revival of learning had passed 
 from Northumbria to the Court of Charles the Great. 
 
 ALCUIN AND THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 193 
 
 The earliest men of learning to arrive at the Prankish 
 Court were "Scots" from Ireland, and they were 
 followed by Alcuin. 
 
 Alcuin or Albinus, as he called himself, was a Nor- Alcuin 
 thumbrian by birth, and had been brought up in Egbert's 
 school at York, where he became the favourite pupil of 
 the archbishop. Ethelbert, who succeeded Egbert as 
 headmaster of the school, used Alcuin on various con- 
 fidential missions, one of which brought him to the Court 
 of Charles the Great about the year 773. On this occa- 
 sion he was apparently sent on by Charles to Eome 
 on some business in which he was concerned. When 
 Ethelbert succeeded as archbishop, Alcuin became 
 practically head of the school, and on the retirement of 
 the archbishop he was sent to Rome for the pall for his 
 successor, Eanbald. On the way he met Charles at 
 Parma and received a pressing invitation to return with 
 him to Francia. He returned home to obtain leave of 
 absence from the archbishop, and then settled down 
 in the dominions of Charles, which he never quitted 
 again except for a short visit of two years to Northumbria, 
 from 791 to 792. At the Prankish Court he became 
 head of the Palace School and practically Minister of 
 Education. 
 
 The Palace School, originally established in the days 
 of the Merovingian kings for the education of the kings' 
 sons and the sons of the nobles of the court, was de- 
 veloped by Charles into a kind of court university of 
 learned men whom he gathered from all parts. He 
 himself attended lectures with his sons, and succeeded 
 
 in learning Latin and Greek. But Charles also desired 
 13 
 
 11 
 
194 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 The court 
 school 
 
 to extend education throughout his realm, and in a 
 famous capitulary of 787 he ordered the establishment 
 of schools in connection with every monastery in his 
 kingdom. In the organisation of these schools, and m 
 providing text-books for them, Alcuin took a leading 
 part. He was endowed by the king with the revenues 
 of the monastery of St. Lupus at Troyes and Bethlehem 
 
 at Ferri^res. 
 
 He also took a leading share in the theological con- 
 troversies of the time. It was the outbreak of the 
 Adoptionist heresy that brought him back from England 
 in 792, and at the Council of Frankfort he was the 
 leading champion of orthodoxy. How large a share he 
 had in the events that led to the coronation of Charles 
 in 800 we do not know ; but some expressions in his 
 letters to the king suggest that the restoration of the 
 Imperial office in the West had been discussed between 
 them. After 792 he settled at the great monastery of 
 St. Martin at Tours, of which he became abbot, and 
 there he spent the rest of his life, carrying on a constant 
 correspondence with Charles and other friends at the 
 
 court. 
 
 The learned men of the court were apparently a 
 merry crew. They bandy jests and exchange riddles, 
 and adopt for epistolary purposes the names of classical 
 or bibhcal characters. Thus Charles becomes David ; 
 Alcuin, Flaccus Albinus ; Angilbert, Homer; and the 
 king's daughters and friends appear similarly disguised. 
 The king himself entered with zest into the battle of 
 wits, and loved to perplex his learned men with con- 
 undrums. 
 
 ALCUIN AND THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 195 
 
 Several other scholars joined the court at about the 
 same time as Alcuin. Peter of Pisa, who had formerly 
 taught at Pavia, came to Francia about 780, already an 
 old man, and taught grammar there till his death some 
 years later. A more notable man reached Aachen a 
 little later in Paul the Deacon, the historian of the 
 Lombards. He came to the court to plead for his brother, 
 who had been imprisoned, and his property confiscated, 
 for his share in some Lombard rising. He became a 
 special favourite with the king, and stayed at the court 
 for a good many years, finally retiring to Monte Cassino, 
 where he died. 
 
 Another literary colleague of Alcuin was Einhard (or Einhard 
 Eginhard), who was educated at the monastery of Fulda 
 and came to the Frankish Court as a young man. He 
 became a close friend of the king, who employed him 
 in various important public works. His skill in all 
 manner of metal work earned him the nickname, in the 
 palace circle, of Bezaleel. About the year 826 he and 
 his wife parted to enter religious houses, and Einhard 
 retired to the monastery of Seligenstadt, where he died 
 about 840. 
 
 Part of Einhard's work appears to have been superin- 
 tending the compilation of the official annals of the reign, 
 but the literary work by which he is now chiefly re- 
 membered is his life of Charles the Great. The De Vita 
 Caroli Magni is modelled on Suetonius' life of Augustus, 
 and is of course warmly eulogistic. But there is no 
 reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of the picture 
 presented to us of the king and his court, as Einhard 
 knew both from personal experience. 
 
 11 
 
196 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 The 
 
 revival of 
 learning 
 
 III 
 
 Though the ultimate aim of the education given in 
 the palace and monastic schools was the study of 
 theology, Alcuin did not discourage the liberal arts, and 
 the attitude of the Koman authorities towards these 
 grew more favourable. But towards the end of his life, 
 Alcuin seems to have felt some fear lest the study of 
 classical literature might take too prominent a place m 
 the educational system. 
 
 One of the most important services that Charles and 
 Alcuin did for sound learning was the collecting and 
 copying of the texts of the classical authors. Many of 
 these had been copied and recopied by ignorant clerks 
 till they had become almost unintelligible. The texts 
 were now revised by competent scholars and then copied 
 in the scriptoria of the monasteries in the beautiful 
 Eoman characters that now superseded the clumsy 
 
 uncial letters. 
 
 The text of the Holy Scriptures and the service books 
 of the Church were also carefully revised, and in the 
 last year of Charles' Hfe we read of him as - correcting, 
 with the assistance of certain learned Greeks and Synans, 
 the four gospels of Jesus Christ ". 
 
 Strenuous efforts were made to encourage sound 
 learning in the monasteries and cathedral schools. In 
 a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz Charles writes : 
 ** You are striving by God's help to conquer souls, and 
 yet you are not anxious to instruct your clergy in letters, 
 at which I cannot be too astonished. You see on all 
 sides those who have submitted to your rule plunged in 
 the darkness of ignorance, and you leave them in their 
 blindness." In a kind of Imperial rescript, addressed 
 
 ALCUIN AND THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 197 
 
 to the bishops and abbots of his realm, he says : *' We 
 have thought fit that, in all bishoprics and monasteries 
 entrusted by Christ's grace to our government, care 
 should be taken not only to live regularly and in con- 
 formity with holy religion, but also to study letters 
 seriously, to teach and to learn, each man according to 
 his ability, and by the help of God, so that the religious 
 rule of life, which brings with it honourable conduct and 
 zeal for teaching and learning, may give regularity and 
 beauty to language ". 
 
 Efforts were also made to improve the services of the 
 Church, and in 78G Charles brought singers from Italy 
 to Metz and Soissons, where they taught the Gregorian 
 method of chanting to Frankish clerks. 
 
 One important result of this Hterary energy was to 
 restore Latin, which was deteriorating in Northern 
 Europe into an almost unintelligible jargon, once more 
 to the level of a literary language. The Latin prose and 
 verse of Angilbert or Alcuin is often crude and ungram- 
 matical, but it is an immense improvement on the scanty 
 fragments that we have left from the previous period. 
 
 Though the mass of the laymen remained unaffected 
 by this literary revival, and could generally neither read 
 nor write, the standard of the education of the clergy 
 was undoubtedly raised, and never again sank as low as 
 it had done in the seventh and eighth centuries. The 
 monastic schools estabhshed at this time went on through 
 the dark century that followed, and though the confusion 
 and contests of the time precluded further progress, the 
 ground won through the efforts of Charles and his 
 literary helpers was never actually lost. 
 
198 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 John 
 
 Scotus 
 Erigena 
 
 Only one thinker of the first rank bridges the gulf 
 that separates Alcuin from the renaissance of the 
 eleventh century. John Scotus Erigena was born just 
 at the date of Alcuin's death. He was apparently a 
 native of Ireland, but of the details of his life very little 
 is known. All that is certain is that he came to the 
 Court of Charles the Bald about the year 847 and re- 
 mained for some years at Paris, where he is said to have 
 presided over the school. Paris was at this time rising 
 into importance as a political and literary centre, partly 
 through its nearness to the great monastery and Church 
 of St. Denis, which was the burial-place of the West 
 Frankish kings. 
 
 One of John's earhest tasks was to translate into Latin 
 a Greek treatise supposed to have been written by 
 Dionysius the Areopagite, the St. Denis who was associ- 
 ated in legend with the first preaching of the Gospel in 
 Gaul. Mr. Poole calls John '* the last representative of 
 the Greek spirit in the West ". His writings, of which 
 the most important is a Philosophical dialogue called 
 De Divisione Naturte, show a speculative mind, bold 
 even to rashness and little disposed to accept the dog- 
 mas of authority. His opinions were pronounced hetero- 
 dox even in his lifetime, and after his death his name 
 became the battle-cry of theological contest. He has 
 been described as the founder of mediaeval scholasticism, 
 but it would probably be more correct to regard scholas- 
 ticism as a reaction from his dangerous speculative 
 
 activity. 
 
 He is said, in later traditions, to have lived on terms 
 of close friendship with Charles the Bald, much as 
 
 ALCUIN AND THE REVIVAL OP LEARNING 199 
 
 Alcuin had done with his great predecessor, and to have 
 returned to England after the death of his patron in 
 877. According to one legend he became head of the 
 school at Malmesbury and was murdered by his scholars. 
 But it is much more Hkely that he died in France soon 
 after 877. 
 
 Hincmar of Eheims, though primarily an ecclesiastical Hincmar of 
 statesman and administrator, ought perhaps to find a^()6!882 
 place beside John Scotus in the records of the ninth 
 century. Bom in 806, he became a favourite adviser 
 of Louis the Pious, and on his death was taken into 
 favour by Charles the Bald, who appointed him, in 
 844, as Archbishop of the great See of Kheims. For 
 nearly forty years Hincmar ruled as Primate of the 
 Church in West Francia, the adviser and friend of a 
 series of CaroHngian monarchs, with whom he corre- 
 sponded on familiar terms. He was jealous in maintain- 
 ing the rights of his order, and did a good deal to 
 strengthen the position of the Church in West Fran- 
 cia. In the literary world he is chiefly known as the 
 author of two treatises on Predestination, written in con- 
 nection with a controversy in which he became involved 
 with a monk named Gottschalk, who was supported by 
 the Archbishop of Lyons, the ecclesiastical head of 
 Southern Gaul. John Scotus had already, at Hincmar 's 
 request, endeavoured to controvert the heresies of 
 Gottschalk, but, in the opinion of the orthodox, had pro- 
 mulgated more heresies than he disproved. Hincmar 
 died in December, 882, at Epernay, whither he had fled 
 from a Norse attack on Rheims. 
 
 ii 
 
THE CHARLEMAGNE OF ROMANCE 
 
 201 
 
 Early 
 legends 
 
 CHAPTEE XXI 
 
 THE CHARLEMAGNE OF ROMANCE 
 
 "VrO account of the reign of Charles the Great would 
 be complete without some notice of the cycle of 
 romance and legend that gathered around the king 
 and his court. In media3val literature Charlemagne 
 and his paladins rival the fame of King Arthur and his 
 Bound Table. 
 
 Very soon after the death of the Emperor, men 
 began to look back to his reign as a kind of golden age. 
 They said of him, as later ages said of his great successor 
 Barbarossa, that he was not dead, and that he would 
 come forth from his tomb, when the appointed time had 
 come, to restore good order and peace. He was reported 
 to have been buried seated on a chair of state, with his 
 sword Joyeuse laid unsheathed across his knees. Otto 
 III. is said to have opened the tomb at Aachen and to 
 have found the body of the Emperor, still undecayed, 
 grasping a sceptre, with a gold chain round the neck, 
 which the young monarch removed and kept as a relic. 
 But history throws doubt on the story. 
 
 The origin of the Charlemagne romances is to be 
 found in the chansons of the minstrels of France, who 
 took floating stories of the heroes of Charles' wars and 
 sang their exploits by the camp fires of the western 
 
 200 
 
 lands where the Romance language was beginning to 
 develop. Gradually these ballads grew, as fresh material 
 from other sources was added to them. In the eleventh 
 century these chansons de gestes were taken in hand by 
 literary men and woven into connected stories. In these 
 stories Charlemagne appears as the great leader of the 
 Christian cause against the Moslems. They centre 
 largely in Charles' Spanish campaign, which becomes 
 a crusade, in which the Christian king and his knights 
 smite the infidel in great contests through years of war. 
 Of these works by far the best known was the Chanson 
 de Roland — not the Song of Roland that Taillefer sang 
 as he led the Norman charge at Senlac, but a much 
 longer and more literary production. Here the Emperor 
 appears as ruler of all Europe, served by a band of heroes, 
 of whom Roland and Oliver are the most famous. 
 
 In the age of the Crusades this aspect of the influence of 
 Emperor's work grows more prominent. All other ^"^^ ^^ 
 parts of the story are subordinated to the crusading 
 idea. Even Widukind and Desiderius, the Saxon and 
 Lombard enemies of Charles, now appear as Saracen 
 leaders, and Charlemagne is described as voyaging to 
 Jerusalem and visiting Constantinople. 
 
 The History of Archbishop Turpin, a prose romance, 
 written in the form of a supposed letter from Archbishop 
 Turpin of Rheims to an archdeacon, adds to the story 
 of Roncesvalles a great war between Charlemagne and 
 an African King Argolander. This book was approved 
 by Pope CaHxtus in 1122, and was widely popular. 
 
 Two things are to be noticed about the Charlemagne charies as 
 legends of this period. They all regard Charlemagne ^jjg^"^ 
 as a great French king. It is interesting to notice that 
 
 It 
 
 M 
 
202 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 1 1 
 
 of the three great monarchs of a later time who deliber- 
 ately set the career of Charles the Great before them as 
 a model— Frederick Barbarossa, St. Louis and Napoleon 
 — two were French. The other point of interest is the 
 strongly ecclesiastical character of the stories. " The 
 peers are hardly knights, but mere fighting monks. 
 Both Charlemagne and his nephew Eoland are the 
 favourites of heaven, who receive miraculous gifts and 
 enjoy the intercourse of angels. Strong and fearless, 
 they slay their thousands ; but they do not joust for the 
 pleasure of it; they do not crave adventures for the 
 honour to be gained ; they want the splendid courtesy 
 of the chevaHer, and, above all, have no sense for the 
 service of women. Eoland does not spare his lady a 
 thought. At his death, he thinks of God and father- 
 land, of the emperor and his former conquests, and 
 the men of his Hne ; he bids his sword a tender fare- 
 well ; but he is undisturbed by any grief for the woman 
 who holds him dear." 
 
 In the thirteenth century the Charlemagne stories 
 change their character. It is not now the Crusades, 
 but the struggles between the feudal barons and the 
 kings, that occupy men's thoughts. So Charlemagne 
 becomes a feudal monarch surrounded by his great 
 vassals, who gradually come to fill the foreground as 
 the king recedes. At last he is little more than a 
 shadowy and ineffective figure, capable only of oc- 
 casional acts of tyranny, while the real heroes of the 
 story are the barons of his court. 
 
 Meanwhile the Charlemagne romances found their 
 way to Iceland, where the great Karlamagnus Saga 
 
 THE CHARLEMAGNE OF ROMANCE 
 
 203 
 
 was published in the thirteenth century. Two centuries 
 later this was translated into Danish as the Kejser Karl 
 Magnus. 
 
 Two final stages follow. The story of Charlemagne 
 passes into Spain, where the Spanish chroniclers, 
 jealous for the honour of their own country, turn 
 Charles' Spanish campaign into a mere marauding ex- 
 pedition, in which the Frankish invaders are driven 
 headlong by the valour of the Spanish leader, Bernard 
 de Carpio. Then the mocking Italian spirit settles on 
 the story, and, in the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, holds 
 up the whole of knight-errantry to ridicule. 
 
 Valueless as it is from a historical point of view, all 
 this mass of legendary matter is of interest as showing 
 how great was the impression made on after-ages by the 
 figure of the great Frankish Emperor as he stood armed 
 and consecrated at the opening of that new chapter of 
 world-history that we call the Middle Ages. 
 
 THE liEiGN ui? LuUL-^ THE PiOUis 
 
CHAPTEK XXII 
 
 THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS 
 
 Louis the 'yHE death of both Charles' elder sons during his 
 Pious, 814- X lifetime averted, for a time, the partition of his 
 Empire, and his surviving son, Louis the Pious, suc- 
 ceeded without dispute to the throne of his father. 
 Almost the last act of Charles' life had been the nomina- 
 tion of Louis as his successor at a great gathering of 
 the nobles at Aachen. As soon therefore as the news 
 of the Emperor's death reached him in Aquetaine, 
 Louis set out for Aachen, and there celebrated his ac- 
 cession by taking the Imperial crown from the altar of 
 the cathedral and crowning himself as Emperor— an 
 act of independence of which the Pope was likely to 
 
 disapprove. 
 
 Louis had for many years ruled in Aquetaine with 
 almost unchecked authority. Though his court there 
 was reputed in Francia to be "more like a monastery 
 than a court," he had proved himself an effective ruler, 
 and, with the help of the Count of Toulouse, had 
 carried on vigorous war along the Spanish frontier. 
 But while he had acquired the culture and refinement 
 of Southern Gaul — a refinement that earned for him in 
 later times the name of Louis le D^honnaire—he had 
 lost much of the virility and self-reliance of the sterner 
 
 204 
 
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206 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 northern lands that were the cradle of his race. There 
 was a certain weak obstinacy in his character that was 
 destined, much more than his religious enthusiasm, to 
 prove fatal to his success. 
 
 His first work was the reform of the court, which in 
 the later years of his father had grown corrupt and 
 dissolute. He dismissed his father's ministers in favour 
 of those he brought with him from Aquetaine, and sent 
 his sisters into convents. The influence of his new ad- 
 visers and of his wife Hermengarda was resented by 
 the Frankish nobles, among whom discontent soon 
 began to grow up. This was fostered by the new 
 monarch's ecclesiastical policy. His efforts were directed 
 to the improvement of the lives of the clergy, especially 
 by checking the tendency to secularisation that already 
 began to show itself among the non-monastic clergy. 
 He granted to most of the monasteries of the kingdom 
 the right to hold their lands free of all condition except 
 that they would ** pray for the welfare of the Emperor 
 and Empire ". This meant that large tracts of lands 
 became immune from the obligation of military service, 
 and the strength of the Empire was proportionally 
 
 weakened. 
 
 When, soon after Louis' accession. Pope Leo died, 
 his successor Stephen was consecrated without the 
 Imperial sanction. Not only did Louis accept this 
 without protest, he also allowed the Pope to visit Kheims 
 and there recrown him as Emperor— thus implying that 
 his previous coronation was irregular, as lacking the 
 sanction of the ecclesiastical authority. 
 
 In the following year, 817, an accident that nearly 
 
 THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS 
 
 207 
 
 cost Louis his life gave a morbid turn to his thoughts, Tiie 
 and led him, in view of the uncertainty of Hfe, to makeo^A^hen, 
 provision for the contingency of his death by arranging ^^'^ 
 a partition of the Empire among his three sons, the 
 oldest of whom, Lothair, was now about nineteen years 
 of age. The division followed the Hnes of Charles' 
 earlier arrangements — Lothair shared with his father 
 the Imperial dignity, ruling the old Frankish lands and 
 the Italian kingdom, while Aquetaine fell to Pippin and 
 Bavaria to the youngest, Louis. The two younger 
 brothers were to recognise their brother's authority and 
 to pay visits of ceremony to him from time to time. 
 
 This partition of Aachen raised one difficult question. 
 Ever since the death of King Pippin his son Bernhard 
 had been ruling in Italy with almost independent 
 authority and with conspicuous success. The young 
 king, seeing in this partition a scheme for ousting him 
 from his inheritance, rose in rebellion. The event that 
 followed was destined to cast a lasting shadow of dis- 
 grace and remorse over the reign of Louis. Enticed 
 into negotiation, Bernhard was induced, trusting to an 
 Imperial safe-conduct, to cross the Alps and appear at 
 Chalons-sur-Saone. There he was arrested, sent to 
 Aachen, tried as a rebel and sentenced to death. Louis 
 commuted the sentence to blinding, but the sentence 
 was carried out with such brutahty that Bernhard 
 died. 
 
 Within a few months of this event Hermengarda 
 died, and her death was regarded by the king as a Divine 
 punishment for his treatment of Bernhard. He sank 
 into a condition of profound melancholy and bitter 
 
 U 
 
208 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Louis and 
 his sons 
 
 remorse, and talked of retiring to expiate his sin in a 
 monastery. To rouse him from this state his ecclesi- 
 astics persuaded him to marry again. He selected as 
 his new consort Judith, daughter of Count Welf of Alt- 
 dorp. Judith was a beautiful, able and ambitious woman, 
 who soon acquired complete mastery over the unstable 
 mind of her husband. In 822 her son Charles the Bald 
 was born, and with him begins the break-up of the 
 Carolingian Empire. 
 
 Soon after the birth of his son, Louis, again plunged 
 into melancholy and self-reproach, unwisely recalled the 
 ministers whom he had banished at the beginning of 
 his reign, and set free those who were imprisoned for 
 their share in Bernhard's rising. Not content with 
 thus surrounding himself with implacable enemies, he 
 determined to do public penance at Attigny, near Sois- 
 sons, for his real and supposed sins. The public self- 
 abasement of the Emperor, who subjected himself to 
 the most humiUating penances, ahenated from him the 
 Frankish nobles who had been accustomed to the 
 rough heartiness and masterful rule of his father. The 
 loyalty of the Franks to their sovereign was already 
 
 undermined when a fatal step let loose the dogs of war 
 
 and plunged the Empire into fifty years of contest. 
 In 829, when Charles the Bald was seven years old, 
 
 the Emperor determined to provide him with a kingdom. 
 
 He therefore announced, at a great council at Worms, 
 
 that he proposed to make the Duchy of Alemannia into 
 
 a kingdom for his youngest son. 
 
 The Emperor's second marriage had been resented by 
 
 bis sons, and Judith had apparently become unpopular 
 
 I 
 
 THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS 
 
 209 
 
 throughout the Empire. The new scheme therefore 
 drew together all the discontented elements in the 
 realm, and a great rising was organised while Louis 
 was engaged in subduing a rebellion in Brittany. Pippin 
 of Aquetaine marched on Paris and rallied the nobles 
 of Neustria, while Lothair crossed the Alps at the head 
 of a great army of Lombards. Hemmed in at Com- 
 pi^gne, Louis was obliged to surrender and was im- 
 prisoned by his sons, while Judith was forced to take 
 the veil at Poictiers. Next spring a great gathering was 
 summoned to Nimuegen, where the Austrasian nobles, 
 loyal still to the Emperor, appeared in such strong 
 force that Lothair was glad to make peace and to appeal 
 for the forgiveness that Louis was only too willing to 
 grant. 
 
 But the interval of peace was of short duration. In 
 832 the war blazed out again, and this time all three 
 brothers joined against their father. Louis' reply was 
 to declare Pippin and Louis deposed, and to add Aque- 
 taine to the lands allotted to Charles the Bald. But 
 while the Emperor gathered forces to enforce this new 
 partition Lothair, who throughout these contests 
 showed himself the most violent and unscrupulous of 
 the brothers, led a great army from Italy, bringing with 
 him Pope Gregory IV., who was completely devoted 
 to his interests. It was on the celebrated Liigenfeld 
 {Field of lies) that the armies met. To avert open con- 
 flict, Louis agreed to negotiate with his sons, and while 
 the Pope went to and fro in the guise of a mediator, 
 the loyalty of Louis' army was undermined by secret 
 intrigues, so that it rapidly melted away. At last Louis 
 14 
 
 'I i 
 
 1 
 
210 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 I' 
 
 i 
 
 found himself completely deserted, and with his wife 
 and child was once more compelled to surrender to his 
 sons. Judith was again consigned to conventual life and 
 the Emperor to prison, while little Charles, protected 
 by his youth, was sent to the monastery of Pruym. 
 Louis, cut off from all intelhgence about wife or child, 
 was in a pitiable state of misery and helplessness. He 
 was at length dragged from prison before a council of 
 Council of ecclesiastics at Compiegne and there compelled to read 
 CompiSgne ^ j^^^ ^^^ humiliating confession of sin and incom- 
 petency and submit to pubHc degradation. 
 
 But this humiliation produced a reaction. The 
 loyalty of Northern Germany to the son of their great 
 king was aroused by the spectacle, and a great Saxon 
 and Austrasian army marched against Lothair, who 
 was compelled to flee across the Alps, where many of 
 the leaders of the rebellion, who accompanied his army 
 in its flight, fell victims to a pestilence that men 
 regarded as the vengeance of heaven. 
 
 Yet Louis' infatuation still persisted. No sooner 
 was peace restored than, at a council at Cremieux, 
 near Lyons, he proposed a new partition, by which 
 Lothair was to be deprived of all his lands except Italy, 
 and the confiscated territories added to the dominions of 
 Charles. War was averted for the moment by a great 
 Danish raid on the Khine, but when this was passed 
 Louis assembled a council at Aachen, in 837, and there 
 crowned his youngest son as king, not only of the lands 
 already promised to him, but also of some lands that 
 were in the dominions of Louis of Bavaria. 
 
 Just at this crisis Pippin of Aquetaine died, and Louis 
 
 THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS 
 
 211 
 
 put the coping-stone to his folly by ignoring the children 
 of the late king and transferring Aquetaine also to 
 Charles. To this the Aquetanians rephed by pro- 
 claiming Pippin, eldest son of their late king, as ruler 
 of Aquetaine. 
 
 In 889 war flared up in every part of the Empire. 
 But now Louis succeeded in buying the support of his 
 eldest son, by promising him all the provinces of the 
 Empire except Neustria and Aquetaine, which he re- 
 served for Charles. With unexpected vigour, the Em- 
 peror himself drove young Pippin and Louis out of their 
 dominions. But the campaign was too much for his 
 enfeebled health, and in the summer of 840 he died. 
 
 His reign of twenty-five years had been disastrous 
 for the Empire. By his self-abasement he had under- 
 mined the respect of the nobles for the Imperial office, 
 while he had encouraged the pretensions of the great 
 ecclesiastics in a way that was dangerous to the welfare 
 of the State. His rather morbid piety and narrow 
 culture were ill-suited to the needs of a rough and iron 
 age. In his personal character he seems a weaker 
 Edward the Confessor; in his struggles with his sons 
 he reminds us of our own Henry II. ; while in his 
 alternations of imprisonment and restoration, and in his 
 subservience to a wife fighting for the rights of her son, 
 he resembles the last Lancastrian king, Henry VI. 
 
 i\\ 
 
 N 
 
Lotbair, 
 840-855 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII 
 
 THE BREAK-UP OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE 
 
 n^HE seventy years that follow the death of Louis the 
 Pious are the most confused, and at first sight the 
 most unprofitable, in all the annals of Europe. The 
 Empire is partitioned and repartitioned, then at last 
 broken into fragments, every one of which seeks to live 
 its own hfe. No unity seems left in Europe at all ex- 
 cept the unity of a common ecclesiastical organisation 
 and the unity of a common danger. 
 
 For while these internal rivalries were going on, the 
 Norseman was burning and pillaging along all the 
 northern rivers, and the Saracen was planting the stan- 
 dards of the prophet on the shores of Sicily. 
 
 Yet under this confusion Europe was taking the 
 shape that she was destined to retain through all the 
 history that followed. The Eomance lands of the west 
 — Neustria and Aquetaine— were gradually drifting 
 farther from the Teutonic lands of the east— Austrasia, 
 Franconia, Saxony— and between grew up the debatable 
 lands— Burgundy and Lotharingia— which, under their 
 later names of Savoy, Franche-Comt^, Alsace, Lorraine, 
 Belgium, have ever since been the battle-ground of the 
 two great peoples. 
 
 The death of Louis left Lothair undisputed emperor, 
 
 212 
 
 THE BREAK-UP OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE 213 
 
 but his authority was scarcely recognised in the outlying 
 kingdoms of Aquetaine, Neustria and Bavaria. Only 
 through war could he hope to put down the practical 
 independence of his brothers. 
 
 The first result of his accession was that Louis of 
 Bavaria — Louis the German as he came to be called — 
 made common cause with Charles the Bald of Neustria, 
 while Lothair called young Pippin and his Aquetanian 
 army to his help. The two forces met at the great 
 battle of Fontenay, and there the Austrasian nobles 
 who followed the Emperor's standard perished, as the 
 Scottish nobles perished at Flodden Field. Louis and 
 Charles won a decisive victory — a victory that shattered 
 for ever the supremacy of Austrasia and left the eastern 
 and western parts of the Empire free to fall apart. In 
 the following spring the two kings renewed their alliance 
 at Strasburg, where the famous **oath of Strasburg'* 
 was taken, by Charles in the ** teudisca lingua," and by 
 Louis in the '* romana lingua " — the first beginnings of 
 the languages that we now call German and French — 
 in order that both armies might understand the terms 
 of alliance. The two brothers then marched straight 
 on Aachen, whence Lothair fled to Lyons. At length 
 Lothair consented to treat with his brothers, and the 
 Partition of Verdun finally severed into independent Partition 
 kingdoms the Empire that Charles had founded. This 843 "^^ ""' 
 treaty was a decisive indication that the destiny of the 
 Franks was fulfilled. They had served as a link be- 
 tween the Romanised lands of the west and the Saxons 
 and Bavarians of the east. But now the link had been 
 broken; east and west went each its own way; and 
 
214 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Lothair was left with an ill-compacted strip of territory, 
 reaching from his northern capital at Aachen to his 
 southern capital at Kome. Though he retained the 
 
 PARTITION of VERDUN 843 
 
 1^.\/.^cuJ»>sW>r*.QM*lV^V-^ ^ 
 
 Kingdom of Charles nmiD Kingdom of Lotharozzi] Kingdom of Louis S2m 
 
 Scale L 
 
 100 
 
 200 
 
 300 
 
 400 
 
 J Engl. Miles 
 
 name of emperor, the title was practically meaningless, 
 and meaningless it remained till the great Otho I. 
 raised it from the dust a hundred years later and made 
 
 THE BREAK-UP OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE 215 
 
 it once more the symbol of authority in Church and 
 State. 
 
 For ten years (848-858) peace was kept between the 
 three brothers. Each had enough to do in defending 
 his frontiers against the ceaseless ravages of the Norse- 
 men, who now poured as a devouring host over Northern 
 Europe. But in 853 a fresh war began between Charles 
 and the people of Aquetaine, aided by his brother Louis. 
 Little fighting actually took place, and Louis soon re- 
 turned to his own kingdom. In the following year 
 Lothair died, and his [three sons, after the approved 
 fashion, divided their father's kingdom, Louis, the 
 eldest, taking Italy, where he ruled well, while Lothair 
 acquired Austrasia, which derived from him its later 
 name of Lotharingia, and Burgundy was allotted to the 
 youngest, Charles. 
 
 At this point we plunge into a confused story, as the 
 family feud broadens with the rise of a new generation. 
 Lothair's three sons followed in their uncles' footsteps 
 and quarrelled about their inheritance. Then Louis 
 the German, the ablest of the three sons of Louis 
 the Pious, divided up his territories among his three 
 sons, Carloman, Louis and Charles the Fat. They 
 showed their gratitude by keeping the kingdom in 
 perpetual disturbance for twelve years with constant 
 rebellions. 
 
 Meanwhile Charles the Bald was dividing his time Charles the 
 between schemes for enlarging his dominions at the 
 cost of his nephews and futile efforts to hold back the 
 Viking hosts that were making West Francia almost 
 a desert. In 867 Lothair II., who had just ended a 
 
216 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 i| 
 
 long struggle of ten years with the Pope by the abandon- 
 ment of a bigamous union into which he had entered, 
 died, and Louis the German and Charles both fell upon 
 his Lotharingian lands like birds of prey. The result 
 was another partition (870) , by which Lotharingia was 
 divided along the line of the Meuse. 
 
 The death of the Emperor Louis II., five years later, 
 gave Charles the Bald an opportunity of showing his 
 usual unscrupulous greed. Hurrying into Italy, he 
 induced the Pope to crown him as Emperor. Just at 
 this time Louis the German died, after a reign of sixty 
 years, during which he had done much to develop the 
 national German feeUng in his kingdom. He may 
 fairly be called the first king of Germany. 
 
 As usual Charles the Bald attempted to seize part 
 of the lands of his brother, but he was completely 
 defeated by Louis of Saxony at Andemach. Soon 
 after, he crossed the Alps on a visit to Italy, and there 
 died, in a hut at the foot of the Mont Cenis pass. 
 He was a cowardly and unprincipled king. 
 
 For two years his son Louis the Stammerer strove 
 manfully to make headway against the Viking raiders, 
 and on his death, in 879, his two elder sons succeeded 
 as joint rulers of his kingdom. 
 
 In the same year the first breach was made in the 
 Carolingian succession by the successful efforts of Boso, 
 an ambitious Burgundian count, who had married 
 the daughter of the Emperor Louis II., to make 
 himself independent sovereign of the valley of the 
 Rhone. 
 
 Within a few years most of the rulers of the Caro- 
 
 THE BREAK-UP OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE 217 
 
 lingian house died, and the most worthless of them all, 
 Charles the Fat, youngest son of Louis the German, Charles 
 succeeded successively to Italy, Germany and West Emperor 
 Francia. But three years of incompetent rule served 
 to undermine whatever loyalty was still felt for the 
 Carolingian dynasty, and West Francia and Germany 
 alike threw off the yoke of the degenerate namesake of 
 the great Emperor, who died in the following year. In 
 Germany Arnulf, Duke of Carinthia, a natural son of 
 Charles' elder brother Carloman, was chosen king, 
 while in West Francia Odo, the heroic defender of 
 Paris, was raised to the vacant throne, and thus, for 
 the time, another breach was made in the continuity of 
 the Carolingian succession. Charles the Simple, the 
 only surviving representative of the West Frankish 
 Carolingians, now a child of eight years old, was sent * 
 to England for safety. 
 
 But the deposition of Charles the Fat gave the 
 signal for a further disintegration of the Empire. In 
 the western part of what we now call Switzerland 
 Count Rudolph, a nephew by marriage of Charles the 
 Bald, set up as king of Upper or Cisjurane Burgundy. 
 Northern Italy, which was now divided into the four 
 great Margravates of Ivrea, Friuli, Turin and Tuscany, 
 was left to be fought for between Berengar of Friuli 
 and Wido of Spoleto. 
 
 During the thirty years that follow, each of these 
 hve kingdoms has an independent history of its own. 
 Of Upper Burgundy nothing need be said, for Eudolph's 
 Itahan ambitions lie just outside our period. In Lower 
 Burgundy or Provence Louis succeeded his father, Boso, 
 
218 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE BREAK-UP OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE 219 
 
 Arnulf, 
 
 887-899 
 
 in 887, and governed peacefully till he was lured to his 
 doom in Italy twelve years later. 
 
 In Germany Arnulf made splendid, and partially 
 successful, attempts to restore order. The other kings 
 in Western Europe gave a shadowy recognition to his 
 supremacy, even though he had not received the Im- 
 perial crown. In 891 he was able to do an important 
 service to Europe by winning a great victory over the 
 Norsemen at Louvain — a victory that practically ended 
 their raids on the Upper Khine. 
 
 From the western frontier Arnulf then turned to the 
 East, where the Slavs were in rebellion and devastating 
 the frontier lands. To keep these in check Arnulf 
 entered into an alliance with Suatopluk, the Christian 
 Prince of Moravia, to whom he granted the overlordship 
 of Bohemia, and who became sponsor to Arnulf 's natural 
 son Zwentibold. But before long ancient enmities 
 reasserted themselves, and Suatopluk rose in rebellion. 
 The incident is of interest chiefly because it brings us 
 for the first time face to face with the Magyars, with 
 whom Arnulf made an alliance against the Moravians. 
 Pressed thus on both frontiers, the Moravian prince was 
 glad to make peace. 
 
 Having thus pacified Germany Arnulf passed, in 894, 
 into Italy, to be recalled by an attack made upon 
 his dominions by Odo of West Francia. In 896 he 
 again crossed the Alps, marched upon Eome, out of 
 which he drove the partisans of the Spoletan faction, 
 and was crowned as Emperor by the Pope. But he 
 dared not stay long enough in Italy to establish any 
 effective authority there, and with his withdrawal the 
 
 country sank back into sixty years of disturbed in- 
 dependence, till another German king, Otho the Great, 
 came to claim the Imperial crown. 
 
 The closing years of Arnulf's reign were troubled by 
 the disloyalty of his son Zwentibold, who had been ap- 
 pointed as Duke of Lotharingia, and whose turbulent 
 misrule there led the nobles of the province to appeal 
 to the West Frankish king for protection. Arnulf was 
 able to drive out the invaders without any actual fight- 
 ing, but in the following year (899) he died. Zwenti- 
 bold continued to rule Lotharingia for a year longer, and 
 then died in battle against his rebellious subjects, and 
 Lotharingia passed for a time into the hands of the West 
 Frankish king, who appointed Eeginar Long-neck, the 
 leader of the rebels, as duke. 
 
 In Germany Arnulf was succeeded by his son Louis Louif? the 
 the Child, a boy of seven years old, in whose name Otho, 899-911 
 Duke of Saxony, and Hatto, Archbishop of Mainz, 
 carried on the government. The whole eastern frontier 
 of Germany was devastated during these years by the 
 Magyars, and internally Germany was divided between 
 the party of Hatto and a body of nobles, of whom Adal- 
 bert of Babenburg, Duke of Franconia, was the leader, 
 who took up arms to deliver the realm from the tyranny 
 of ecclesiastics. Adalbert was treacherously seized and 
 executed by Hatto, and Conrad of Rothenburg, nephew 
 of ( one of Hatto's chief supporters, Eudolf, Bishop of 
 Wurzburg, was made Duke of Franconia. Hatto's 
 treachery caused his name to be execrated in Germany, 
 and hence arose the story of how he burnt the peasants 
 who came to ask him for com in a time of famine, and 
 
 i i 
 
 Ir 
 
220 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 THE BREAK-UP OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE 221 
 
 Conrad of 
 
 Franconia, 
 
 911-918 
 
 West 
 Francia 
 
 how the rats (or mice) who came out of the burning 
 barn pursued him even into the tower of Bingen in the 
 middle of the Rhine and devoured him. 
 
 In 911 the CaroHngian line became extinct in Ger- 
 many by the death of Louis the Child, and the nobles 
 of the kingdom, assembled at Forchheim, elected Conrad 
 of Franconia as king. But the final break in the Caro- 
 lingian succession meant the practical end of kingship, 
 for a time, in Germany. Under a king who was as one 
 of themselves, with no claims of birth to raise him above 
 his fellow-nobles, the great dukes became in all but name 
 independent sovereigns. Erchanger in Suabia, Arnulf 
 in Bavaria, and Henry, son of Duke Otho, in Saxony, 
 waged war against Conrad without scruple, and though 
 the king gained a transient success now and then he 
 came no nearer to any real assertion of royal authority. 
 After a troubled reign of seven years, he died in 918. His 
 last act was to assemble his councillors and advise them 
 to offer the crown to his great rival, Henry, Duke of 
 Saxony. 
 
 The accession of Henry the Fowler opens a new 
 chapter in the history of Germany. The sceptre of 
 German supremacy had now passed finally out of the 
 hands of the Franks into those of the more purely Teu- 
 tonic people farther east, and when the son of Henry 
 established the Holy Roman Empire in imitation of the 
 work of Charles the Great, Magdeburg, not Aachen, 
 was its northern capital. 
 
 The reign of Odo in West Francia resembled in 
 some respects that of Conrad in Germany. He was 
 surrounded with nobles whose territories had gradually 
 
 become hereditary, some of whom could put into the 
 field as large an army as the king. The first few years 
 of the new reign were exclusively devoted to driving back 
 the Norsemen, but as soon as this task was accomphshed 
 the great nobles of the kingdom began to plot against 
 Odo, and brought back Charles the Simple from Eng- 
 land that they might set him up as a puppet-king, under 
 whom they might enjoy practical independence. Six 
 years of confused war followed, ending in the death of 
 Odo in 898. His brother Robert made peace with 
 Charles, and in return for the acknowledgment of his 
 royal title received from him the ** Duchy of France," 
 a new district carved out of the heart of the kingdom 
 with Paris as its capital. 
 
 The origin of the new family that became thus the 
 most powerful in the kingdom is obscure. Robert the 
 Strong first appears as a Count at Angers, carrying on 
 with success the local war with the Norse invaders. 
 He was appointed by Charles the Bald in 8G1 as de- 
 fender of Paris, and on his death was succeeded by his 
 son Odo (or Eudes). The great siege of Paris in 885 
 made Odo famous and secured his election as king on 
 the deposition of Charles the Fat. From this time the 
 Counts of Paris became the most dangerous rivals of the 
 restored Carolingian kings, till, a hundred years later, 
 the death of the last direct Carolingian heir left the 
 throne of West Francia vacant for Hugh of Paris to 
 claim. 
 
 But the West Prankish CaroHngians were by no 
 means faineant kings, as the last of the Merovingians 
 had been. Charles the Simple, though he gained his 
 
222 
 
 THE DAWN OF MKDIJEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Italy, 
 889-924 
 
 nickname from his too trustful attitude towards his great 
 vassals, was a vigorous and ambitious ruler, and though 
 he was compelled to cede the valley of the Lower Seine 
 to the Northmen, he succeeded in acquiring Lotharingia 
 from the German kingdom. After 912 West Francia 
 enjoyed nearly ten years of peace under his rule. After 
 that, civil war broke out again, and though Kobert of 
 Paris, the leader of the rebellion, was slain at Soissons, 
 Charles was entrapped the same year by one of his 
 vassals, Herbert of Vermandois, and ended his days 
 in prison at Peronne. 
 
 In Italy the ninth century is chiefly notable for the 
 long struggle in the South against the Saracens, which 
 will be told in the next chapter. After the deposition 
 of Charles the Fat two claimants arose to dispute the 
 throne of Italy. One of these was Wido, Duke of 
 Spoleto, who also attempted to secure the throne of 
 West Francia, or at least of Burgundy ; the other was 
 Berengar, Margrave of FriuH. Berengar came to an 
 arrangement with his rival by which he agreed to sup- 
 port him in his attempt in Burgundy in return for the 
 renunciation of his claims in Italy. When, however, 
 Wido's candidature for the West Prankish throne failed, 
 he returned to Italy to make war on Berengar, with the 
 support of the Pope and of the Margrave of Tuscany. 
 Berengar had been crowned by the Archbishop of Milan, 
 and the Pope, Stephen V., therefore dechned to recognise 
 his claims and crowned Wido, not only as king of Italy 
 but also as Emperor (891). After four years of war 
 Berengar retired to his margravate and Wido obliged 
 the new Pope, Formosus, to ci*own his son Lambert as 
 
 THE BREAK-UP OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE 223 
 
 joint-emperor with him. Then, on Berengar's invi- 
 tation, Arnulf descended into Italy, and appeared in 
 896 before the walls of Rome. Wido's wife defended the 
 city for some days, then Arnulf stormed the *' Leonine 
 City," and was welcomed by Pope Formosus as a de- 
 
 Margravates of Northern Italy IX Century 
 
 liverer from the Spoletan yoke. But ill-health and the 
 pressure of German afifairs obliged Arnulf to recross the 
 Alps, and as soon as his back was turned the Spoletan 
 cause revived. 
 
 Pope Formosus having died immediately after Arnulf 's 
 departure, the anti-German party elected Boniface VII., 
 
 I 
 
 n 
 
224 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 then, on his death fifteen days later, Stephen VI. 
 Stephen had the body of Formosus disinterred, clothed 
 in papal robes and brought to trial before a council of 
 Koman ecclesiastics. Formosus was condemned and 
 his body flung into the Tiber, whence it was rescued 
 and reinterred when a new Pope had reversed the 
 sentence of his predecessor. 
 
 The death of Wido and of Lambert brought the 
 Spoletan Empire to an end, and Berengar now became 
 undisputed master of Northern Italy, while in Kome a 
 series of phantom Popes rose and fell as one or another 
 faction prevailed. A year later (901) the enemies of 
 Berengar found a new candidate for the Empire in 
 Louis of Provence, who reached Eome and was there 
 crowned by the Pope. Berengar chased him out of 
 Italy, but in 905 he returned and won some successes, 
 only to be finally captured and blinded by Berengar. 
 Louis TAveugle, as he was now called, returned to Prov- 
 ence, and for a few years Berengar ruled unchallenged. 
 In 915 Pope John X. secured his help against the 
 Saracens by offering him the Imperial crown. He did 
 good service in rooting out the Saracen colony on the 
 GarigHano, and ruled with reasonable success till the 
 last year of his life, when Eudolph of Upper Burgundy 
 conceived the idea of securing for himself Italy and the 
 Imperial crown. While besieged in Verona, in 924, 
 Berengar was slain by some of his own followers. 
 
 Through all these contests the Margrave of Tuscany 
 played the part of kingmaker, led by his imperious wife 
 Bertha, daughter of King Lothair. While alternately 
 setting up and deserting emperors, Adalbert of Tuscany 
 
 THE BREAK-UP OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE 225 
 
 also aspired to control the Papacy, which was rapidly 
 sinking into an abyss of degradation unparalleled in its 
 history. Altogether the year 918 shows us the two 
 
 WESTERN EUROPE IN 9 00 A . D. 
 
 'Sv^lqo^ 
 
 Scale I L 
 
 100 so 
 
 100 
 
 200 
 
 1 Engl. Miles 
 
 }00 
 
 great institutions that had led the advance of Europe a 
 hundred years before — the Empire and the Papacy — at 
 the lowest condition of impotence and discredit. Nearly 
 half a century was to pass before they began to be lifted 
 up again by a new intervention from the north. 
 
 15 
 
THE ISrORSEMEN, SARACENS AND MAGYARS 
 
 227 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV 
 
 THE NORSEMEN, THE SARACENS AND THE MAGYARS 
 
 w 
 
 HILE the struggles among the descendants of 
 Charles the Great were helping on the disintegra- 
 tion of his Empire, the whole fabric of civilisation in 
 Western Em-ope was shaken by attacks from north, 
 south and east. From the north came the Norsemen, 
 ravaging and plundering along every river valley up 
 which their long ships could sail ; from the south came 
 the Saracens, the pirates of the Mediterranean, to 
 challenge the control of the Byzantine Empire over 
 the lands in Southern Italy that still remamed m its 
 possession ; and towards the end of the ninth century 
 a foe more fierce and implacable still appeared on the 
 eastern frontier in the Magyars or Hungarians, 
 The At what period Scandinavia became peopled by men 
 
 Norsemen ^^ Teutonic race we do not know. But we know that 
 at the time when other Teutonic tribes were moving 
 south, a hardy race of the same stock was wresting a 
 precarious liveHhood from the fiords and forests of 
 Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Until the end of the 
 eighth century the hfe of these village communities 
 went on with little change ; after that the growth of 
 population and the rise of larger political groups drove 
 the more adventurous spirits to a hfe of piracy. From 
 
 226 
 
 the vies or fiords from which they came, these daring 
 seamen were known as Vikings. Their earliest raids 
 were made on England and Ireland at the end of the 
 eighth century. Their first attack on the Empire of 
 Charles was in 799, when they raided Aquetaine. But, 
 having once discovered the wealth and weakness of the 
 Empire, their attacks grew more and more frequent. 
 During the reign of Louis the Pious they ravaged the 
 coast of Frisia, and in 835 sacked and burnt the great 
 city of Utrecht. In the following year Antwerp shared 
 the same fate, and in 887 they penetrated up the Khine 
 as far as Nimuegen. 
 
 But Ireland suffered more severely at this period. Attacks on 
 With its tribal system, which prevented effective re- ^^*" 
 sistance, and its rich monasteries lying undefended near 
 the coast, it offered a tempting prey to the Norwegian 
 adventurers who poured across the seas to plunder and 
 ravage. Ultimately a number of Norse towns grew up 
 along the shore, from which the Vikings carried on con- 
 stant war with the native Irish. 
 
 In England Danish raids were driven off for a time, England 
 and it was not till 850 that ** the heathen army " wintered 
 for the first time in the Isle of Thanet. After that year 
 England had no rest from their attacks. 
 
 Excepting Ireland, where the Northmen almost Franda 
 destroyed the civilisation of the country, no part of 
 Europe suffered more than West Francia and Aquetaine 
 — the two provinces that make up modern France. 
 Easily navigable rivers like the Seine and the Loire 
 carried the ships of the Vikings into the heart of the 
 country, where undefended cities and monasteries 
 
 it\ 
 
228 THE DiWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 afforded rich plunder. Long before any considerable 
 armed force could be got together to oppose them, they 
 had done their work of destruction and were away with 
 
 their spoil. 
 
 In 841 they sailed up the Seine and burnt Kouen ; a 
 little later they destroyed Nantes, on the Loire. The 
 internal dissensions of the CaroHngians served the pur- 
 pose of the Vikings, who were actually invited mto 
 Aquetaine by young Pippin as auxiharies in his war 
 with Charles the Bald. In 845 they even plundered 
 Paris under the eyes of the king, who was encamped on 
 the heights of Montmartre. Charles the Bald adopted 
 the cowardly expedient of buying them off from time to 
 time— a plan that only gave temporary rehef at the cost 
 of greater injury afterwards. In 847 Bordeaux, the 
 greatest city of Aquetaine, was betrayed into the hands 
 of the Vikings and became a tributary city under a 
 Norse chieftain, Jarl Oscar. 
 
 It would be impossible to enumerate all the districts 
 harried and towns sacked by the Northmen during this 
 period. Sir Francis Palgrave gives some idea of the 
 extent of their ravages : *' Take the map and cover with 
 vermihon the provinces, districts and shores which the 
 Northmen visited, as a record of each invasion, the 
 colouring will have to be repeated more than ninety 
 times successively before you arrive at the conclusion 
 of the dynasty of Charles the Great. Furthermore, 
 mark by the usual symbol of war, two crossed swords, 
 the locaHties where battles were fought by the pirates, 
 where they wer^ defeated or triumphant, or where they 
 
 THE NORSEMEN, SARACENS AND MAGYARS 229 
 
 pillaged, burned, or destroyed, and the valleys and the 
 banks of the Elbe, Khine and Moselle, Scheldt, Meuse, 
 Somme and Seine, Loire, Garonne and Adour, and all 
 the coasts and coast lands between estuary and estuary, 
 all the countries between river and streams, will appear 
 bristling as with chevaux de frise.'* 
 
 About the middle of the ninth century a new chapter Scandi- 
 opens in the history of Scandinavia. In Denmark, 850^* ^^^ 
 Norway and Sweden the local independence of tribal 
 chiefs was overthrown by adventurers who succeeded 
 in establishing themselves as kings of the whole country. 
 Gorm the Old became king of Denmark, and Eric of 
 Sweden, while Harald Harfagr won for himself the 
 throne of Norway. 
 
 The loss of local independence, and the increasing 
 burden of taxation involved in a more settled system of 
 government, led to a change in the character of the 
 Northmen's inroads. Hitherto they had come to 
 plunder and depart, only establishing at the mouth of 
 the rivers forts to which they could retire with their 
 plunder; but now they began to migrate southwards 
 and westwards as permanent settlers, as the other Teu- 
 tonic peoples had done centuries before. 
 
 Within a short time they had established themselves Norse 
 in the whole of Northern and Eastern England, and '""^^""""^ 
 their title was recognised by the Peace of Wedmore in 
 878. They also founded a Norse kingdom in the 
 Orkneys and Shetlands, under the nominal suzerainty of 
 Norway, and planted colonies along the western coast of 
 Scotland. At the end of the ninth century they reached 
 
230 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Iceland, then almost an uninhabited country, and there 
 they settled in little communities, far from the disturb- 
 ances of European contest. 
 
 At about the same time a Swedish chief Euric accepted 
 an invitation from the Slavonic inhabitants of Kussia to 
 come and rule them, and a dynasty of Swedish princes 
 began in Eussia. Early in the tenth century the 
 Byzantine emperors also invited some of these sturdy 
 warriors to Constantinople, where they formed the 
 Varangian guard, the Imperial bodyguard among whose 
 privileges was that of plundering the palace on the death 
 
 of the emperor. 
 
 While the Vikings were occupied with the conquest 
 of Northern England, the coasts of France and Germany 
 enjoyed a brief respite, but after 880 the attacks of the 
 Northmen were renewed with redoubled vigour. In 
 that year a great battle was fought near Hamburg, which 
 ended in a disastrous defeat of the Frankish and Saxon 
 army by the invaders. At the same time another de- 
 tachment of the enemy established itself at the mouth 
 of the Scheldt. Next year they were attacked by the 
 West Frankish king, Louis III., who won the only 
 important victory ever won over the Northmen on 
 Neustrian soil, at Saucourt. The winter of 881 was 
 spent in harrying all the cities of Austrasia, including 
 the great city of Aachen itself, which they plundered 
 and partially destroyed. In the spring, Charles the Fat 
 gathered a great army and marched against the invaders, 
 but when face to face with them he made a treaty by 
 which they were allowed to withdraw unmolested with 
 their plunder and occupy a district at the mouth of the 
 
 THE NORSEMEN, SARACENS AND MAGYARS 231 
 
 Ehine, on condition that their leader did homage and 
 was baptised. Four years later he was treacherously 
 murdered by Charles' orders and his followers dispersed. 
 
 From the Ehine the centre of Norse activity shifted to The siege 
 
 of P&i*is 
 
 the Seine, where already, in 861, Charles the Bald had 885, 886 
 appointed Eobert the Strong as count of a new march 
 which included Paris and the neighbouring district. 
 Fifteen years later the half-mythical hero EoUo the 
 Ganger first appeared in West Francia, and in 885 
 the Northmen laid siege to Paris, which was defended 
 successfully by Odo, son of old Eobert the Strong, and 
 Gozelin the bishop. Forty thousand Vikings are said 
 to have beset the city for nearly a year. At length 
 Charles appeared at the head of a great army, but only 
 to make terms with the enemy, to whom he offered a 
 bribe of 700 lb. of silver and the right to plunder Bur- 
 gundy, which had repudiated his authority and set up 
 Boso as king. It was this disgraceful treaty that led to 
 the fall of Charles the Fat and the election of Odo in 
 his stead. 
 
 After this the Northmen seem to have concentrated Foundation 
 their efforts on the task of making themselves completely mandy, 9ii 
 masters of the valley of the Seine almost up to the very 
 gates of Paris. At last, in 911, Charles the Simple, fol- 
 lowing the policy of Alfred in England, granted to the 
 Viking chief Eollo all the land from the sea to the river 
 Epte, with the hand of his daughter Gisela, on condition 
 of his accepting baptism and doing homage — the latter 
 requirement being fulfilled by deputy. The Norman 
 chroniclers of a later time record how the soldier chosen 
 to kiss the foot of the king in token of vassalage per- 
 
232 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 The 
 
 Saracens in 
 Sicily 
 
 formed his task so rudely that he overturned the royal 
 seat backward. The story of the settlement of Nor- 
 mandy, after the Treaty of Clair-sur-Epte, belongs to 
 the period treated in the next volume. 
 
 While Northern Europe was devastated by the raids 
 of the Northmen the lands of the south were passing 
 
 NORTHERN FRANCE 
 
 Scale L^ 
 
 10 
 
 ri.E"6'M" 
 
 under the sway of the Moslem power. The Saracens 
 were invited into Sicily by a Sicilian governor 
 Euphemius, who was in rebelhon against the Emperor 
 Michael. When his rising was put down, he fled to 
 North Africa, whence he returned with a vast horde 
 of Arabian and Moorish followers of the prophet, who, 
 under their fierce leader Ased, after sweeping away the 
 Imperial army, marched to besiege Syracuse. Disease 
 then broke out in their ranks, and a fresh army from 
 
 „t^t.^^. —-^TiirfniinBiiteiriBH 
 
 THE NORSEMEN, SARACENS AND MAGYARS 233 
 
 Constantinople drove them back. For a moment the 
 prospects of the Imperial cause revived, but a fresh 
 force of Africans seized Palermo, while another party 
 relieved the original force and defeated the Imperial 
 army. 
 
 The Emperor, involved in war in the East, was un- 
 able to do much for the province of Sicily, and though 
 the Byzantine generals stubbornly contested the Moslem 
 advance, they were gradually driven into the south- 
 eastern corner of the island. The conquerors then 
 prepared to carry their arms across to the mainland, 
 whither Kadelchis, one of two rival candidates for the 
 Duchy of Beneventum, invited them in 840. His rival 
 sent to Crete to invite a body of Saracens to come to his 
 aid. For nearly ten years the whole of Southern Italy 
 was devastated by Moslem hordes, who in 846 reached 
 the very walls of Kome, and sacked the churches outside 
 the city. 
 
 The greatness of the danger brought deliverance. Victories of 
 Louis, son of Lothair, who had succeeded his father as 867-87f ' 
 Emperor in 844, now put himself at the head of the 
 Italian forces, and with the help of Pope Leo IV. organ- 
 ised a great campaign against the infidels. In 849 an 
 Italian force, under the personal command of the Pope, 
 won a great victory by land and sea at Ostia. In the 
 following year Louis, having settled the dispute between 
 the rival Dukes of Beneventum, began to prepare for a 
 crusade against the Moslems, who had made their 
 capital at Bari. For a long time disunion among his 
 own followers delayed the Emperor's success, but in 
 867 he began to drive back the invaders, and in 871, 
 
 '5 
 
234 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Byzantine 
 interven- 
 tion, 875 
 
 with the help of a Byzantine fleet lent for a time by 
 the Emperor Basil, he captured Bari, the garrison of 
 which he put to the sword. 
 
 The capture and imprisonment of the Emperor by 
 the Duke of Beneventum, who seems to have feared 
 that he was growing dangerously powerful, was followed 
 by a new Moslem invasion, which the Emperor, set 
 free by his treacherous host, drove off in August, 872. 
 Louis had already begun to prepare for a campaign for 
 the recovery of Calabria and Sicily when he died, in 
 875. Of all the later Carolingians, he inherited most of 
 the quahties that had raised the dynasty to greatness, 
 and his premature death was a fatal blow to the king- 
 dom of Italy. 
 
 Where the Western Emperor had failed, the Eastern 
 Emperor was destined to succeed. Basil sent a splendid 
 fleet in 875 to recover Southern Italy for the Empire, 
 and within ten years the Saracens were driven completely 
 out of the peninsula. For a time Beneventum fell into 
 the hands of the Byzantine Empire, till Wido of 
 Spoleto recovered it in 894. 
 
 But while the Empire was reasserting itself in 
 Southern Italy, Syracuse, the last Christian stronghold in 
 Sicily, was stormed by the Moslems in 878, after nearly 
 a year's siege. By the beginning of the tenth century 
 all Sicily was under Saracen rule. 
 
 Farther north the territories of Capua, Naples and 
 Gaeta suffered much from Saracen raids, and for thirty 
 years a Saracen colony occupied the banks of the Gar- 
 ighano. It was in vain that successive Popes appealed 
 to the emperors to help them. Moslem raids extended 
 
 
 THE NORSEMEN, SARACENS AND MAGYARS 235 
 
 into Provence and even into Upper Burgundy, while in 
 the Vaud districts Moslems and Magyars met in 
 conflict. 
 
 Finally, in 915, Pope John X. gathered all the re- 
 sources of the Italian peninsula together, summoned the 
 Dukes of Beneventum and Spoleto to his aid, and in- 
 duced Berengar, by the gift of the Imperial crown, to 
 join him. The allied armies fell upon the colony at the 
 Garigliano and destroyed it. 
 
 The sea had brought the Vikings from the north and The coming 
 the Saracens from Africa. But, as though to complete Magyars, 
 its record of destruction, the ninth century brought down 
 on inland Europe a foe more savage and ferocious than 
 Viking or Saracen. The Magyars, or Hungarians, first 
 appear on the eastern frontier of the Empire in 884. 
 Five years later, under their chief Arpad, they poured 
 into the district from which their kinsmen the Avars 
 had been driven by Charles the Great a century before. 
 From this basis they carried on a campaign of destruc- 
 tion all along the eastern frontier. Mounted on swift 
 horses, armed with bows, they swept over the country 
 with great rapidity, seldom stopping to besiege a strong- 
 hold or risk a battle, but leaving behind them a trail 
 of burning villages and slaughtered people. In 899 
 they appeared for the first time in Italy, and during the 
 reign of Louis the Child in Germany their raids into 
 Bavaria and Carinthia were incessant and disastrous. 
 Luitpold, Duke of Bavaria, fell in battle against them in 
 907 . Three years later the young king, who took the field 
 against them in person, barely escaped a defeat at their 
 hands. During the reign of Conrad they penetrated 
 
 m 
 
236 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 into all parts of the kingdom, carrying their ravages even 
 into West Francia. 
 
 In our next chapter we shall see how this disastrous 
 century of ravage and destruction affected the social and 
 poHtical constitution of Western Europe. All the work 
 that Charles the Great had done seemed, for the time, 
 wholly lost. Yet it is probable that if that work had not 
 been done Europe would have sunk back into entire 
 disintegration and barbarism, and Constantinople would 
 have remained the sole surviving refuge of Christianity, 
 culture and the traditions of Imperial Kome. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE DARK AGES 
 
 ^HE name *' the Dark Ages," which is often applied 
 to the whole of the period covered by this volume, 
 is specially applicable to the ninth century. Yet in the Tiie ninth 
 obscure records of the time we can see how the outlines Europe 
 of mediaeval Europe are shaping themselves. In place 
 of the union of Western Europe into one Empire, 
 national divisions begin. The middle kingdom dissolves 
 into the independent kingdoms of Boso and Rudolph 
 and the debatable land of Lotharingia, and under Louis 
 III. it seemed as though Italy also might become a 
 kingdom, self-contained and united. In the West the 
 old Latin world absorbs its conquerors, and the very 
 name " Frank " becomes the title of a Romance people, 
 showing little trace of their semi-Teutonic ancestry. 
 The Eastern kingdom, on the other hand, becomes more 
 definitely Teutonic, and finds its strength in the less 
 Romanised Saxons and Bavarians, between whom, 
 though common danger held them together, a deep- 
 seated antagonism existed. 
 
 But these new nations were not organised for common Growth of 
 
 T «. , feudal ideas 
 
 action, and the practical work of deience was leit to 
 each local baron in his own district. What was needed 
 was a body of horsemen ready at any moment to ride out 
 
 237 
 
 
238 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDI.^VAL EUROPE 
 
 in pursuit of Norse or Magyar plunderers. And for the 
 supply of these he naturally turned to the smaller land- 
 owners of his gau. So there grew up a new relation- 
 ship between the smaller freeman and the local noble 
 —a relationship expressed in the idea of homage, by 
 which the overlord undertook to defend his vassal and 
 the vassal became the '* man " of the overlord. As a 
 result of this, the obligation of military service gradually 
 became attached to the ownership of land ; and a new 
 social order based on land grew up in Western Europe. 
 Meanwhile the poorer people must have suffered in- 
 calculably from the raids that destroyed their homes and 
 swept away their harvests. All provision for the future 
 seemed useless, and all attempts at self-improvement 
 were discouraged. The mass of the peasantry in 
 Serfdom Western Europe sank to the condition of serfs, whose 
 miserable hovels clustered around the castle of the over- 
 lord. For the castle is the one architectural creation of 
 the ninth century. Built originally as places of refuge, 
 to which the population could fly when Viking or Mag- 
 yar appeared, they gradually became strongholds from 
 which some local baron tyrannised over the country-side. 
 TheChurch The Church, while gaining in material prosperity, 
 declined in moral influence. Great ecclesiastics were 
 statesmen and often warriors ; the age of missionaries 
 and saints was, for the time, over. Though the Slavs of 
 the East were gradually acquiring some civiHsation, little 
 missionary work had as yet been done among them. 
 Meanwhile the nobles acquired for their children or 
 followers the titles and revenues of bishoprics and abbeys, 
 so that lay abbots abounded, whose only relation to the 
 
 THE DARK AGES 
 
 239 
 
 abbey was a vague duty of defending it and a definite 
 claim on its revenues. But though the monasteries, 
 where laymen often stored their wealth under the pro- 
 tection of the Church, suffered greatly from the attacks 
 of the Northmen, the lamp of learning did not wholly 
 go out even in these troublous times. At some of the 
 great monastic centres, such as Fulda, St. Gall, Old 
 Corbey, Orleans and Rheims, the monastic schools were 
 kept alive, and the beginnings of German literature are 
 to be found in the translations and paraphrases of por- 
 tions of the Bible provided by the monks of this period. 
 
 In the general breakdown of authority in the ninth ThePapacy 
 century, the claims of the Papacy were steadily advanc- 
 ing. The " False Decretals " first appear during this 
 century, and some of the Popes of the time were 
 energetic in maintaining the claims to which these 
 decretals seemed to give their sanction. The most 
 notable of the Popes of the ninth century was Nicolas 
 I. (858-867), who not only humbled King Lothair, but 
 also asserted the supremacy of the Pope over the Arch- 
 bishops of Ravenna, Cologne, Treves, and even the 
 great Hincmar of Rheims. Nicolas is also associated 
 with the beginning of the schism between the Roman 
 and Byzantine Churches, which grew out of a disputed 
 succession to the patriarchate of Constantinople. One 
 of the candidates, Photius, appealed to the Roman 
 Court, and a long contest ensued, in the course of which 
 the Pope ranged himself on the side of Photius' an- 
 tagonist, Ignatius. The question was complicated by 
 a dispute about the newly founded Bulgarian Church, 
 which claimed the right to transfer its allegiance from. 
 
240 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE 
 
 the Patriarch of Constantinople to the Pope. But 
 behind all immediate causes of dispute lay the larger 
 question of the claim of the Popes to supremacy over 
 the whole Church— a claim that the Byzantine Church 
 declined to admit. For nearly two hundred years the 
 relation between the two Churches remained unde- 
 termined, till the final completion of the schism in 
 
 1054. 
 c, ^ .. At the beginning of the tenth century the first step 
 
 Foundation ^^ ^^^^ -^ & e» i i u i.u 
 
 ofciuny, -jj ^Y^Q direction of Church reform was taken by the 
 ^^^ establishment, in 911, of the monastery of Cluny, in 
 
 Burgundy, on land granted by William, Duke of Upper 
 Aquetaine, to Berno, Abbot of Beaume, who was already 
 known as a monastic reformer. The history of how 
 this grain of mustard seed became a great tree belongs 
 to the succeeding century. 
 
 In 918 Europe still had nearly a century of strife to 
 face before the forces of order gained a hardly won 
 victory over the dangers of the time, but with the 
 accession of Henry the Fowler in Germany, the founda- 
 tion of Cluny, and the rise of fortified strongholds along 
 every river valley of Western Europe, the darkest hour 
 was passed and the period of restoration had begun. 
 
 :1 
 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 SOME CHRONICLERS OF THE PERIOD 
 
 JT may be well to close this volume by saying some- 
 thing of a few of the chief original authorities on 
 which we depend for our knowledge of the events of the 
 time. For a considerable part of the period we are de- 
 pendent on a small number of writers, and these not of 
 the first rank ; occasionally we are left almost entirely 
 in the dark about important groups of events. 
 
 Among the chroniclers of the Eastern Empire theProcopius 
 only one deserving of specific mention is Procopius. 
 He came from Caesarea to Constantinople during the 
 reign of Anastasius, and practised for some time as a 
 lawyer. He was advanced by Justinian to various 
 offices of trust, and ultimately became a Senator and 
 Prefect of Constantinople. His eariiest important post 
 was that of secretary to Belisarius, whom he accom- 
 panied in his Persian, African and Italian wars. On 
 his return to Constantinople in 542 he set to work on 
 the writing of a history of these campaigns. When he 
 had completed these, he wrote a book, De ^dificiia 
 Justiniani Imperatoris. A more important work was 
 his Anecdota, a gossipy chronicle full of stories of the 
 Court of Justinian. It gives a very unpleasing picture 
 of the Emperor and his court, and is especially bitter 
 16 241 
 
242 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 
 in dealing with Theodora, against whom Procopius 
 seems to have entertained a strong prejudice. 
 
 Of his historical works the De Bello Gothico is the 
 longest and the most valuable. It is our only source of 
 information for most of the struggle between the Goths 
 and the Empire, and, as the work of a man who was 
 himself in the thick of the contest, it is a record of first- 
 class importance. Gibbon describes Procopius as - the 
 gravest historian of the times," and attaches great value 
 to his work. His book on the buildings of Justinian is 
 full of interest. Though marked by exaggerated lauda- 
 tion of Justinian— a laudation very different from the 
 picture drawn in the Aiiecdota— it gives an accurate 
 account of the buildings that had been erected in all 
 parts of the Empire by the last Emperor who possessed 
 the old Eoman passion for building. Incidentally, 
 Procopius gives some useful accounts of the vanous 
 nations then included in the Empire. 
 Agathias The story of the end of the Gothic war and of other 
 events in the later years of Justinian is told by Agathias, 
 a Eoman lawyer of Constantinople, who was inspired 
 by the example of Procopius to continue his work. He 
 carries the record down to the year 559. After this 
 time we are dependent on chroniclers of inferior kind 
 for the history of the Eastern Empire. 
 Liher For Papal history our great authority is the Liher 
 
 ^^t% Pontificalis, which contains lives of all the Popes, from 
 ' '''''' St. Peter to Stephen VI. (891). The lives become 
 much more valuable after the year 600, when they begin 
 to be founded on contemporary records. The book has 
 sometimes, but apparently incorrectly, been regarded as 
 
 SOME CHRONICLERS OF THE PERIOD 243 
 
 an official chronicle compiled by order of the Popes. 
 The earlier part is marked by a strong tendency to sup- 
 port the later political claims of the Eoman See. 
 
 For the relation of the Papacy to Prankish affairs 
 the Codex Carolinus, a collection of letters written by 
 the Popes to the Prankish kings, is very valuable. We 
 also have twelve books of letters of Gregory the Great, 
 and a large collection of letters written to successive 
 Popes by Archbishop Boniface. 
 
 Paul the Deacon wrote a life of Gregory the Great 
 which provides some useful information about the great- 
 est of the Popes of the period. Of the various lives of 
 the missionary leaders of the Church, the best are the 
 life of Benedict, by Gregory the Great, and that of 
 Columbanus, by Jonas of Bobbio, written about a.d. 650. 
 
 For the history of the Goths our chief authority isjordanes 
 Jordanes, a monk of the sixth century, who wrote a 
 book, De Rebus Geticis, for which he derived the 
 materials from a work of Cassiodorus on The Origin and 
 Acts of the Goths. This fact gives to the work of 
 Jordanes a special interest. Cassiodorus was one of the 
 few Eoman nobles who threw themselves warmly into 
 Theodoric's idea of uniting Eoman and Goth in one 
 political system, and it was probably to further this 
 scheme that the senator collected the traditions of the 
 Gothic people. Jordanes, who was probably of Gothic 
 ancestry, writing his account of the Goths after the fall 
 of the Gothic kingdom, tries to set forth the nobility 
 of the Gothic race, while at the same time celebrating 
 the restoration of the Imperial authority. 
 
 Jordanes himself has no claim to be regarded as a 
 
 jnid£<SCi^HBHMtal>V^ 
 
244 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 historian. He appears to have been a mere transcriber, 
 and often a bad transcriber, of other men's work. But 
 we are almost entirely dependent on him for our mfor- 
 mation as to the early history of the Goths. 
 
 For the reign of Theodoric the letters and Vamcf^ of 
 Cassiodorus are a valuable source of information, and 
 some interesting light is thrown on his pohcy by the 
 Panegyric or Oration addressed to Theodonc by En- 
 nodius, the friend and biographer of Epiphanius, about 
 the year 504 or a little later. A great deal of our mfor- 
 mation about this period is derived from the Annals of 
 Ravenna, which are not themselves extant, but form a 
 source from which several writers derive their facts. 
 Among these the most important is a writer whose 
 work is known as Anonymous Valesii, because it was 
 first pubhshed by Henry de Valois in the seventeenth 
 century. The fragment covers the whole of the reign 
 of Theodoric, and is said by Dr. Hodgkin to show a de- 
 cided bias in favour of the Byzantine Empire. 
 Gregory of For the sixth century in Northern Europe we are 
 almost wholly dependent on the work of Gregory of 
 Tours. Gregory, who was born in 538, belonged to a 
 noble family of Auvergne, of which diocese his uncle 
 was bishop. In 573 he was appointed Bishop of Tours, 
 where he remained till his death in 594. The position 
 of Tours, just at the meeting-place of the three king- 
 doms of Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy, brought it 
 into the thick of the events of the time. It was the 
 darkest hour of Merovingian misrule, before the race of 
 Clovis had sunk to the condition of faineant kings, 
 and through the confusion of the time Gregory had to 
 
 SOME CHRONICLERS OF THE PERIOD 
 
 245 
 
 Tours 
 
 steer himself and his diocese as best he could. His 
 history, beginning from the creation, carries the story 
 of the Franks down to nearly the end of his own life. 
 His narrative is artless and often clumsy in style, but 
 it gives a vigorous and living picture of the fierce and 
 strenuous age in which he lived. He has been accused 
 of painting too dark a picture ; but at least he writes 
 with intimate personal knowledge. 
 
 Our chief authority for the history of the Franks after Frede- 
 the close of Gregory's history is Fredegarius, a chronicler^*""'' 
 of whose life we know nothing, and whose work is a 
 mere record of events with nothing of the personal in- 
 terest that attaches to Gregory's narrative. Fredegarius 
 carries the story of the Franks down to 641. 
 
 For the reign of Charles the Great and the period 
 immediately before it we have much more information. 
 An unknown writer has continued Fredegarius' chronicle 
 to the year 768, and for the latter part of this period 
 the record has a semi-official character, having been 
 apparently supervised by members of the royal house. 
 Another Frankish chronicle, the Annates Laurissenses, 
 covers the period from 741 to 829. There is some 
 reason to believe that Einhard himself supervised the 
 keeping of this chronicle for the latter part of the 
 period. To Einhard we are indebted for the Life of 
 Charles the Great, from which we derive most of our 
 information as to the personal life and character of the 
 king. About half a century after the death of Charles 
 a monk of St. Gall collected a number of facts and 
 legends about the Emperor and his court into a narra- 
 tive which is of doubtful value to the historian, though 
 
246 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Paul the 
 Deacon 
 
 a good deal of it may be true. Of later Frankish 
 chroniclers Nithard, who records the contests of Louis 
 the Pious, is the best. 
 
 Only one other historical work of the period, Paul the 
 Deacon's Historia Langohardorum, deserves specific 
 mention. Paul, who was born near Friuli, in 725, be- 
 longed to a noble Lombard family. He was educated 
 at Pavia, and subsequently became a monk at the great 
 Benedictine house of Monte Cassino. We next find 
 him acting as Hterary adviser to Arichis, Duke of Bene- 
 ventum, the last of the Lombard dukes to retain his in- 
 dependence. He visited the Court of Charles the Great 
 in 782, but returned to Monte Cassino six years later, 
 and died there at about the end of the century. His 
 history of the Lombards takes the story down to 744, 
 and is the source from which we derive most of our 
 knowledge of the early history of the Lombard people. 
 
 Most of the chroniclers mentioned in this chapter 
 will be found in Pertz' great edition of the chroniclers 
 of Germany — the Monumenta Germanirc Historica — 
 or in Migne's Patrologia. Some of them are also in 
 Muratori's Scriptoriim Rerum Italicarum. The 
 Byzantine chroniclers are collected in the Corpus 
 Scriptorum Historice Byzantince, edited by Niebuhr. 
 The best edition of the Liber Pontificalis is that of 
 Duchesne, whose Introduction is valuable. 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 EMPERORS 
 
 Zeno, 474-491. 
 
 Anastasius I., 491-518. 
 
 Justin I., 518-527. 
 
 Justinian, 527-565. 
 
 Justin II., 565-578. 
 
 Tiberius Constantinus, 578-582. 
 
 Maurice, 582-602. 
 
 Phocas, 602-610. 
 
 Heraclius, 610-641. 
 
 Constantinus, 641-668. 
 
 Constantine IV. (Pogonatus), 668 
 
 685. 
 Justinian II., 685-695. 
 Leontius, 695-698. 
 Tiberius, 698-705. 
 Justinian II. (restored), 705-711. 
 Philippicus, 711-713. 
 Anastasius II., 713-715. 
 
 {a) In the East 
 
 Theodosius III., 715-717. 
 
 Leo the Isaurian, 717-741. 
 
 Ck)nstantine Copronymus, 741-775. 
 
 Leo IV. (the Khazar), 775-780. 
 
 Constantine VI., 780-797. 
 
 Irene, 797-802. 
 
 Nicephorus, 802-811. 
 
 Stauracius, 811-812. 
 
 Michael I., 812-813. 
 
 Leo V. (the Armenian), 813-820. 
 
 Michael (the Amorian), 820-829. 
 
 Theophilus, 829-842. 
 
 Michael III. (the Drunkard), 842- 
 
 867. 
 Basil the Macedonian, 867-886. 
 Leo VL, '♦the Wise," 886-912. 
 Constantine VII., 912-959. 
 
 (6) In the West 
 Charles the Great, 800-814. Berengar -v 
 
 Louis the Pious, 814-840. 
 Lothair, 840-855. 
 Louis II., 855-875. 
 Charles the Bald, 875-877. 
 Charles the Fat, 881-887. 
 
 888-896. 
 
 Wido / 
 Arnulf, 896-899. 
 Berengar ^ 
 
 Louis of Provence / ^^^-^^l- 
 Berengar, 916-924. 
 247 
 
248 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 {The 
 
 Simplicius, 468-483. 
 Felix III., 483-492. 
 Gelasius I., 492-498. 
 
 Vigilius, 537-555. 
 Pelagius I., 555-560. 
 John III., 560-574. 
 Benedict I., 574-578. 
 Pelagius II., 578-590. 
 Gregory I., 590-604. 
 
 Gregory II., 715-731. 
 Gregory III., 731-741. 
 Zacharias, 741-752. 
 Stephen II., 752-757. 
 Paul I., 757-768. 
 
 POPES 
 
 less important are omitted.) 
 
 Stephen III., 768-772. 
 Hadrian I., 772-795. 
 Leo III., 795-816. 
 Stephen IV., 816-817. 
 Paschal I., 817-824. 
 
 Leo IV., 847-855. 
 Benedict III., 855-858. 
 Nicolas I., 858-867. 
 
 Stephen V., 885-891. 
 Formosus, 891-896. 
 Bonifacius V., 896. 
 Stephen VI., 896-897. 
 
 John X., 914-928. 
 
 J 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Aachen, 177, 179-81, 204, 207, 210, 
 
 214, 230. 
 — Partition of, 207. 
 Abbassides, 136, 161. 
 Abdurrahman, 109, 110, 161. 
 Adalbert of Tuscany, 224. 
 Adoptionism, 169, 194. 
 Agathias, 242. 
 Agilulf, King of the Lombards, 71, 
 
 83, 91. 
 Aistulf, King of the Lombards, 124- 
 
 31. 
 Alaric, 2, 11. 
 Alaric II., 28, 42-6. 
 AlbinuB, 32. 
 Alboin, 82. 
 Alcuin, 175, 191-8. 
 Alemanni, 42, 45, 71, 114, 154, 208. 
 Amalaric, 30. 
 Amalasuentha, 31, 33. 
 Ambl^ve, 105. 
 Anastasius, 15, 21, 25, 30, 46, 48, 
 
 54. 
 Aquetaine, 6, 108, 110, 114, 118, 
 
 146, 162, 204, 206, 207, 210, 
 
 211, 213, 215, 227. 
 Aquileia, 21. 
 Arianism, 3, 4, 10, 11 n.,25, 28, 30, 
 
 31, 33, 44, 72, 84. 
 Aries, 110. 
 Arnulf of Metz, 96. 
 Arnulf, Emperor, 217-9, 223. 
 Aspar, 14. 
 Athalaric, 33. 
 Attigny, 209. 
 
 Augustine, Mission of, 3, 92. 
 Austrasia, 52, 71, 91, 96, 98, 101, 
 
 113. 
 
 Avars, 61-3, 74, 165-7. 
 Avignon, 110, 111. 
 Avitus, 44. 
 
 Bari, 233. 
 
 Basil the Macedonian, 143. 
 
 Bavaria, 83, 99, 101, 107, 108, 114, 
 
 115, 147, 162-5, 207, 213, 235, 
 
 237. 
 Bede, 192. 
 
 Belisarius, 34-7, 56, 58. 
 Benedict of Nursia, 65-70. 
 Benedict Biscop, 192. 
 Beneventum, Duchy of, 82, 91, 121, 
 
 160, 164, 168, 186, 233, 234. 
 Berengar of Friuli, 222-5. 
 Bernhard, King of Italy, 207, 208. 
 Bobbio, Monastery of, 72. 
 Boethius, 31, 32. 
 Boniface, Archbishop, 3, 102, 103, 
 
 108, 111, 116, 117, 119, 126. 
 Bordeaux, 46, 109. 
 Boso, 216. 
 Brittany, 44. 
 
 Brunhilda, 51, 71, 95, 96. 
 Bulgarians, 78, 79, 136, 140, 142. 
 Burgundy, 6, 12, 15, 31, 45, 50-2, 
 
 71, 101, 146, 163, 215. 
 
 — Cisjurane, 217. 
 
 — Transjurane, 216, 218. 
 
 Cambrai, 40, 47. 
 Capitularies, 189, 190. 
 Carloman L, 113, 115, 129. 
 Carloman IL, 146-8. 
 Carthage, 12, 29, 57, 79, 85, 105. 
 Cassiodorus, 27, 33. 
 
 249 
 
p 
 
 250 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Charles the Great, Administration 
 of, 185-90. 
 Coronation of, 14, 176-9. 
 
 — Donation of, 150-2. 
 
 — Legends of, 200-3. 
 
 Personal character of, 145, 146, 
 
 180-4. 
 Charles Martel, 5, 104-12. 
 Charles the Bald, 198, 208-16, 221, 
 
 228 
 Charles the Fat, 215, 217, 230. 
 Charles the Simple, 217, 221, 231. 
 Chosroes of Persia, 58, 73, 74. 
 Clair-sur-Epte, Treaty of, 232. 
 Clodion, 40. 
 Clotair, 52, 96. 
 Clotilda, 42. 
 Clovis, King of the Franks, 3, 29, 
 
 40-7, 145. 
 Cluny, Foundation of, 240. 
 Colchis, 58. 
 
 Cologne, 40, 42, 46, 105, 154, 157. 
 Columban, 70-2. 
 
 Conrad of Franconia, 145, 219, 220. 
 Consolations of Philosophy, 32. 
 Constantine, Donation of, 124-6. 
 Constantine V., " Copronymus," 
 
 138-40. 
 Constantine (son of Irene), 140-2. 
 Constantine " Pogonatus," 78. 
 Constantinople, Foundation of, 2, 
 
 10, 17. 
 
 — Patriarch of, 3, 85, 86, 90, 138, 
 239, 240. 
 
 — Siege of, 78, 134, 135. 
 
 — Situation of, 14. 
 
 — Theodoric in, 17. 
 
 Dacia, 8, 10. 
 
 Dagobert, 98. 
 ♦' Decretals, False," 239. 
 Desiderata, 147, 148. 
 Desiderius, King of the Lombards, 
 131, 147-9. 
 
 Ebroin, 99, 100. 
 Egbert of Wessex, 179. 
 Einhard, 106, 176, 181, 195, 245. 
 Eresburg, 155, 156. 
 Eric of Friuli, 166, 167. 
 
 Eudo of Aquetaine, 105, 106, 108- 
 
 10. 
 Euric, 42. 
 
 Fastrada, 167. 
 Felix of Urgel, 169. 
 Feudalism, 237. 
 Fontenay, Battle of, 213. 
 Formosufi, Pope, 222-4. 
 Frankfort, Council of, 165, 170. 
 Franks, Rise of, 8, 12, 39. 
 
 — Laws of, 5, 49. 
 
 — Organisation of, 47-9. 
 Fredegarius, 245. 
 Fredegonda, 51, 52, 95. 
 Frederick, King of the Rugians, 20-2. 
 Frisia, 101, 102, 105, 106, 154. 
 Fritzlar, 156. 
 
 Gakioliano, Saracen settlement on, 
 
 234, 235, 
 Gauls, 49. 
 Genseric, King of the Vandals, 12, 
 
 13. 
 Gepidae, 16, 63, 81. 
 Germanus, 138. 
 Gerold, 166. 
 Gesalic, 29. 
 
 Goths, Early History of, 10, 11. 
 Greek fire, 134. 
 Gregory the Great, 88-92. 
 Gregory XL, 93, 102, 120-2, 139. 
 Gregory IIL, 111, 122, 123. 
 Gregory of Tours, 46, 52, 244. 
 Grifo, 113, 115. 
 Grimoald, Mayor of Austrasia, 98, 
 
 99, 116. 
 Grimoald, Duke of Beneventum, 168. 
 Gundobad, King of the Burgundi- 
 
 ans, 12, 22, 29, 42, 45, 46. 
 
 Hadrian, Pope, 148-60, 163-5, 170. 
 Haroun-al-Raschid, 142, 180. 
 Hatto, Bishop, 219. 
 Henry, Duke of Saxony, 7, 220. 
 Heraclius, Emperor, 4, 62, 73, 77. 
 Hermengarda, 206, 207. 
 Hildegarde, 148, 166, 167. 
 Hincmar of Rheims, 199. 
 Hunold, 110, 146, 147. 
 Huns, 11, 16, 58. 
 
 INDEX 
 
 251 
 
 I 
 
 Iceland, 202. 
 
 Iconoclastic controversy, 136-44, 
 
 170. 
 Ildibad, 36. 
 
 Institutions, Justinian's, 60. 
 Ireland, 70, 191, 227. 
 Irene, Empress, 140-2, 171, 179. 
 Irminsul, 155, 156. 
 
 Jerusalem, Captures of, 73, 74, 77. 
 
 — Embassy from, 175. 
 John I., Pope, 30, 33. 
 John X., Pope, 224, 235. 
 John Scotus Erigena, 198, 199. 
 Jordanes, 18, 243. 
 
 Judith, 208, 209. 
 Jumi^ges, 72, 165. 
 Justin L, 30, 54. 
 Justin II., 61, 63, 88. 
 Justinian I., Buildings of, 58. 
 
 — Chnracter of. 54, 55. 
 
 — Conquests of, 34, 56-8. 
 
 — Laws of, 59, 60. 
 Justinian II., 78. 
 
 Khaled, 76. 
 " Khalifa," 76. 
 
 Laon, 113. 
 
 Leo the Great, Pope, 86. 
 
 Leo III., Pope, 172-6, 206. 
 
 Leo IV., Pope, 233. 
 
 Leo the Isaurian, 19, 79, 133-9. 
 
 — Edict of, 121-3, 137-9. 
 Leo IV., 140. 
 
 Leo " the Wise," 143. 
 
 Leodegar, Bishop of Autun, 99, 100. 
 
 Liber Pontificalis, 242. 
 
 Libri Caroliiii, 170. 
 
 Liutgarda, 167-175. 
 
 Liutprand, King of the Lombards, 
 
 108, 111, 120-3. 
 Lombards, 4, 71, 81-94, 107, 111, 
 
 120-32, 147-50. 
 Lothair I., 207, 209-11. 
 Lothair II., 215. 
 
 Lotharingia, 211, 215, 216, 219, 222. 
 Louis the Pious, 163, 168, 181, 199, 
 
 204-11.-227. 
 Louis II., 1 216, 233, 234. 
 
 Louis "the German," 207, 213-6. 
 Louis the Child, 219, 220. 
 Louis I'Aveugle, 217, 224. 
 Liigenfeld, 209. 
 Luxeuil, 71, 99. 
 
 Magdeburg, 155, 220. 
 
 Magyars, 6, 226, 235, 236. 
 
 Margraves, 186. 
 
 Martin I., 93. 
 
 Maurice, 62, 90. 
 
 Mayor of the Palace, 95. 
 
 Merovingians, Later, 95, 106. 
 
 Merowig, 40. 
 
 Metz, 50, 51, 96, 98, 197. 
 
 Michael the Amorian, 143. 
 
 Michael " the Drunkard," 143. 
 
 Milman, quoted, 52. 
 
 Missi Dominici, 187, 188. 
 
 Mohammed, 74-6. 
 
 Monasticism, 65. 
 
 Monophysites, 15, 137. 
 
 Monte Cassino, 66-8, 115, 129, 131. 
 
 Narbonne, 109, 111, 118, 180. 
 
 Narses, 38, 56, 57. 
 
 Neustria, 52, 71, 96, 99, 101, 105. 
 
 113. 
 Nicoea, Council of, 140, 170. 
 Nicephorus, 142. 
 Nicolas I., 239. 
 •• Nika " sedition, 55. 
 Nimuegen, 180. 209, 227. 
 Norsemen, invasions of, 6, 7, 187, 
 
 211. 215, 222. 226. 
 Northumbria, 92. 101, 191, 192. 
 
 Odilo of Bavaria, 114. 
 
 Odo of Paris, 217-18. 220. 231. 
 
 Odoacer, 12, 20-3. 
 
 Offa, 166, 168, 169. 
 
 Omar, 77. 
 
 Orestes, 12. 
 
 Orleans, 50, 51, 239. 
 
 Ostmark, 167, 186. 
 
 Ostrogoths, 10. 16, 44, 64. 
 
 Otho of Saxony, 219. 
 
 Paderborn, 156, 174. 
 Palace School, 193. 
 
252 
 
 THE DAWN OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE 
 
 Palgrave, Sir F., 228. 
 
 Pampeluna, 161. 
 
 Pandects, Justinian's, 59. 
 
 Papacy, Rise of, 2, 85. 
 
 Paris, 42, 47, 50. 51, 98, 99, 105, 
 
 175, 209, 228, 231. 
 Patrimony of St. Peter, 87-9, 170. 
 Paul, Pope, 131. 
 Paul the Deacon, 82, 195, 246. 
 Pavia, 12, 22, 36, 130, 147-50. 
 Persia, 57, 58, 61, 73, 74, 76. 
 Peter of Pisa, 195. 
 Phocas, 62, 90. 
 Pippin of Landen, 96-8. 
 Pippin of Heristal, 100, 101, 104, 
 
 105. 
 Pippin, King of the Franks, 5, 113-9, 
 
 126-32, 146. 
 Pippin the Hunchback, 167. 
 Pippin, King of Italy, 163, 166, 168, 
 
 180, 196. 
 Pippin of Aquetaine, 209, 210. 
 Pi^jpin II. of Aquetaine, 211, 214, 
 
 228. 
 Plectrudis, 104, 105. 
 Ponthion, 127. 
 Procopius, 241. 
 Provence, 50, 146. 
 
 Ratchis, 123, 131. 
 
 Ravenna, 22, 26-8, 33, 35, 36, 38, 
 
 81, 87, 121, 122, 125, 126, 163, 
 
 181. 
 — Exarch of, 120-2, 129. 
 Remigius, 42. 
 Remiremont, 72. 
 Rheims, 42, 239. 
 Robert the Strong, 231. 
 Robert of Paris, 221. 
 Roland, 162, 187. 
 Roland, Song of, 201. 
 Roncesvalles, 162. 
 Rotharis, King of the Lombards, 84, 
 
 93. 
 Rouen, 228. 
 
 Rudolph of Burgundy, 217, 237. 
 Ruric, 230. 
 
 Salian Laws, 49. 
 
 Saracens, 6, 7, 77-80, 108-10, 118, 
 
 135-7, 161, 187, 211, 224, 226, 
 
 232-4. 
 Saucourt, 230. 
 Saxons, 53, 102, 105, 106, 114, 118, 
 
 154-9. 
 Scabini, 188. 
 Septimania, 118, 168. 
 Serfdom, 6, 48, 133, 238. 
 Sicily, 143, 170, 232-4. 
 Slavs, 7, 63, 64, 73, 133, 139, 140, 
 
 157, 159, 186, 218, 238. 
 Soissons, 12, 40, 42, 43, 50, 51, 117, 
 
 128 197 222. 
 Spain, 28, 29, 79, 80, 108, 109, 136, 
 
 161. 
 Spoleto, Duchy of, 65, 82, 91, 121, 
 
 122, 125, 168, 174, 186, 218. 
 Stephen II., 124-31, 147, 148. 
 St. Denis, 112, 198. 
 St. Gall, 71, 239. 
 St. Gall, Monk of, 180, 245. 
 St. Sophia, Church of, 59. 
 Strasburg, Oath of, 214. 
 Suabia, 146. 
 
 Suatopluk of Moravia, 218. 
 Susa, 129. 
 
 Swanahild, 108, 113. 
 Syagrius, 12, 42, 43. 
 Symmachus, 31, 33. 
 
 Tacitus 47. 
 
 Tassilo,'ll4, 118, 147, 162-5. 
 
 Teias, 38. 
 
 Testri, Battle of, 100. 
 
 Theodabad, 34. 
 
 Theodelinda, 71, 83, 84, 91. 
 
 Theodora, 55. 
 
 Theodoric, 4, 16, 38, 45. 
 
 Theodoric, son of Triarius, 19, 20. 
 
 Tiberius II., 61. 
 
 Tolbiac, 42. 
 
 Toledo, Council of, 92. 
 
 Totila, 36-8, 67. 
 
 Toulouse, 109, 204. 
 
 Tournai, 40, 145. 
 
 Tours, Battle of, 169. 
 
 — Monastery of, 175, 194. 
 Tufa, 21. 
 Turjpin, History of Archbishop, 201. 
 
 INDEX 
 
 253 
 
 Utrecht, 102, 227. 
 
 Vandals, 11, 13, 29, 31, 44, 57. 
 Varingians, 230. 
 Vassalage, 164, 238. 
 Verden, 158, 159. 
 Verdun, Partition of, 214. 
 Verona, 21. 
 
 Visigoths, 10, 11, 28, 29, 42, 44, 46, 
 64, 79, 92. 
 
 Waifer, 118, 146. 
 
 Wedmore, Peace of, 229. 
 Wido of Spoleto, 217-22. 
 Widukind, 157-9. 
 Willibrord, 101. 
 Witigis, 34, 35. 
 Worms, 164, 180, 208. 
 
 Yermuk, Battle of, 76. 
 
 Zacharias, 116, 123, 126. 
 Zeno, 14, 15, 19, 20, 25. 
 Zwentibold, 218, 219. 
 
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