Chapter IX · THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE

15. Charlemagne the Man

Biographical writings make up a not inconsiderable part of mediæval literature, but unfortunately the greater portion of them are to be trusted in only a limited degree by the student of history. Many biographies, especially the lives of the saints and other noted Christian leaders, were prepared expressly for the purpose of giving the world concrete examples of how men ought to live. Their authors, therefore, were apt to relate only the good deeds of the persons about whom they wrote, and these were often much exaggerated for the sake of effect. The people of the time generally were superstitious and easily appealed to by strange stories and the recital of marvelous events. They were not critical, and even such of them as were able to read at all could be made to believe almost anything that the writers of books cared to say. And since these writers themselves shared in the superstition and credulousness of the age, naturally such biographies as were written abounded in tales which anybody to-day would know at a glance could not be true. To all this Einhard's Life of Charles the Great stands as a notable exception. It has its inaccuracies, but it still deserves to be ranked almost in a class of its own as a trustworthy biographical contribution to our knowledge of the earlier Middle Ages.

Einhard (or Eginhard) was a Frank, born about 770 near the Odenwald in Franconia. After being educated at the monastery of Fulda he was presented at the Frankish court, some time between 791 and 796, where he remained twenty years as secretary and companion of the king, and later emperor, Charlemagne. He was made what practically corresponds to a modern minister of public works and in that capacity is thought to have supervised the building of the palace and basilica of the temple at Aachen, the palace of Ingelheim, the bridge over the Rhine at Mainz, and many other notable constructions of the king, though regarding the precise work of this sort which he did there is a general lack of definite proof. Despite the fact that he was a layman, he was given charge of a number of abbeys. His last years were spent at the Benedictine monastery of Seligenstadt, where he died about 840. There is a legend that Einhard's wife, Emma, was a daughter of Charlemagne, but this is to be regarded as merely a twelfth-century invention.

The Vita Caroli Magni was written as an expression of the author's gratitude to his royal friend and patron, though it did not appear until shortly after the latter's death in 814. "It contains the history of a very great and distinguished man," says Einhard in his preface, "but there is nothing in it to wonder at, besides his deeds, except the fact that I, who am a barbarian, and very little versed in the Roman language, seem to suppose myself capable of writing gracefully and respectably in Latin." It is considered ordinarily that Einhard endeavored to imitate the style of the Roman Suetonius, the biographer of the first twelve Cæsars, though in reality his writing is perhaps superior to that of Suetonius and there are scholars who hold that if he really followed a classical model at all that model was Julius Cæsar. Aside from the matter of literary style, there can be no reasonable doubt that the idea of writing a biography of his master was suggested to Einhard by the biographies of Suetonius, particularly that of the Emperor Augustus. Despite his limitations, says Mr. Hodgkin, the fact remains that "almost all our real, vivifying knowledge of Charles the Great is derived from Einhard, and that the Vita Caroli is one of the most precious literary bequests of the early Middle Ages."[119] Certainly few mediæval writers had so good an opportunity as did Einhard to know the truth about the persons and events they undertook to describe.

Source—Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni ["Life of Charles the Great"], Chaps. 22-27. Text in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Scriptores (Pertz ed.), Vol. II., pp. 455-457. Adapted from translation by Samuel Epes Turner in "Harper's School Classics" (New York, 1880), pp. 56-65.

22. Charles was large and strong, and of lofty stature, though not excessively tall. The upper part of his head was round, his eyes very large and animated, nose a little long, hair auburn, and face laughing and merry. His appearance was always stately and dignified, whether he was standing or sitting, although his neck was thick and somewhat short and his abdomen rather prominent. The symmetry of the rest of his body concealed these defects. His gait was firm, his whole carriage manly, and Personal appearance his voice clear, but not so strong as his size led one to expect. His health was excellent, except during the four years preceding his death, when he was subject to frequent fevers; toward the end of his life he limped a little with one foot. Even in his later years he lived rather according to his own inclinations than the advice of physicians; the latter indeed he very much disliked, because they wanted him to give up roasts, to which he was accustomed, and to eat boiled meat instead. In accordance with the national custom, he took frequent exercise on horseback and in the chase, in which sports scarcely any people in the world can equal the Franks. He enjoyed the vapors from natural warm springs, and often indulged in swimming, in which he was so skilful that none could surpass him; and hence it was that he built his palace at Aix-la-Chapelle, and lived there constantly during his later years....[120]

23. His custom was to wear the national, that is to say, the Frankish, dress—next his skin a linen shirt and linen breeches, and above these a tunic fringed with silk; while hose fastened by bands covered his lower limbs, and shoes his feet. In winter he protected his shoulders and chest by a close-fitting coat of otter or marten skins. Over all he flung a blue cloak, and he always had a sword girt about him, usually one with a gold or silver hilt and belt. He sometimes carried a jeweled sword, but only on Manner of dress great feast-days or at the reception of ambassadors from foreign nations. He despised foreign costumes, however handsome, and never allowed himself to be robed in them, except twice in Rome, when he donned the Roman tunic, chlamys,[121] and shoes; the first time at the request of Pope Hadrian,[122] the second to gratify Leo, Hadrian's successor.[123] On great feast-days he made use of embroidered clothes, and shoes adorned with precious stones; his cloak was fastened with a golden buckle, and he appeared crowned with a diadem of gold and gems; but on other days his dress differed little from that of ordinary people.

24. Charles was temperate in eating, and especially so in drinking, for he abhorred drunkenness in anybody, much more in himself and those of his household; but he could not easily abstain from food, and often complained that fasts injured his health. He gave entertainments but rarely, only on great feast-days, and then to large numbers of people. His meals consisted ordinarily of four courses, not counting the roast, which his huntsmen were accustomed to bring in on the spit; he was more fond of this than of any other dish. While at table, he listened to reading or music. The subjects of the readings were the stories and deeds of olden time. He was fond, too, of St. Augustine's books, and especially of the one entitled The City of God.[124] He was so moderate in the use of wine and all sorts of drink that he rarely allowed himself more than three cups in the course of a Every-day life meal. In summer, after the midday meal, he would eat some fruit, drain a single cup, put off his clothes and shoes, just as he did for the night, and rest for two or three hours. While he was dressing and putting on his shoes, he not only gave audience to his friends, but if the Count of the Palace[125] told him of any suit in which his judgment was necessary, he had the parties brought before him forthwith, heard the case, and gave his decision, just as if he were sitting in the judgment-seat. This was not the only business that he transacted at this time, but he performed any duty of the day whatever, whether he had to attend to the matter himself, or to give commands concerning it to his officers.

25. Charles had the gift of ready and fluent speech, and could express whatever he had to say with the utmost clearness. He was not satisfied with ability to use his native language merely, but gave attention to the study of foreign ones, and in particular was such a master of Latin that he could speak it as well as his native tongue; but he could understand Greek better than he could speak it. He was so eloquent, indeed, that he might have been taken for a teacher of oratory. He most zealously cherished the liberal arts, held those who taught them in great esteem, and conferred great honors upon them. He took lessons in grammar of the deacon Peter of Pisa, at that time an aged man.[126] Another deacon, Albin of Britain, surnamed Alcuin, a man of Saxon birth, who was the greatest scholar of the day, was his teacher in other Education and accomplishments branches of learning.[127] The king spent much time and labor with him studying rhetoric, dialectic, and especially astronomy. He learned to make calculations, and used to investigate with much curiosity and intelligence the motions of the heavenly bodies. He also tried to write, and used to keep tablets and blanks in bed under his pillow, that at leisure hours he might accustom his hand to form the letters; however, as he began his efforts late in life, and not at the proper time, they met with little success.

26. He cherished with the greatest fervor and devotion the principles of the Christian religion, which had been instilled into him from infancy. Hence it was that he built the beautiful basilica at Aix-la-Chapelle, which he adorned with gold and silver and lamps, and with rails and doors of solid brass. He had the columns and marbles for this structure brought from Rome and Ravenna, for he could not find such as were suitable elsewhere.[128] He was a constant worshipper at this church as long as his health permitted, going morning and evening, even after nightfall, Interest in religion and the Church besides attending mass. He took care that all the services there conducted should be held in the best possible manner, very often warning the sextons not to let any improper or unclean thing be brought into the building, or remain in it. He provided it with a number of sacred vessels of gold and silver, and with such a quantity of clerical robes that not even the door-keepers, who filled the humblest office in the church, were obliged to wear their everyday clothes when in the performance of their duties. He took great pains to improve the church reading and singing, for he was well skilled in both, although he neither read in public nor sang, except in a low tone and with others.

27. He was very active in aiding the poor, and in that open generosity which the Greeks call alms; so much so, indeed, that he not only made a point of giving in his own country and his own kingdom, but when he discovered that there were Christians living in poverty in Syria, Egypt, and Africa, at Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Carthage, he had compassion on their wants, and used to send money over the seas to them. The reason that he earnestly strove to make friends with the kings beyond seas was that he might get help and relief to the Christians living Generosity and charities under their rule. He cared for the Church Of St. Peter the Apostle at Rome above all other holy and sacred places, and heaped high its treasury with a vast wealth of gold, silver, and precious stones. He sent great and countless gifts to the popes;[129] and throughout his whole reign the wish that he had nearest his heart was to re-establish the ancient authority of the city of Rome under his care and by his influence, and to defend and protect the Church of St. Peter, and to beautify and enrich it out of his own store above all other churches. Nevertheless, although he held it in such veneration, only four times[130] did he repair to Rome to pay his vows and make his supplications during the whole forty-seven years that he reigned.[131]

16. The War with the Saxons (772-803)

When Charlemagne became sole ruler of the Franks, in 771, he found his kingdom pretty well hemmed in by a belt of kindred, though more or less hostile, Germanic peoples. The most important of these were the Visigoths in northern Spain, the Lombards in the Po Valley, the Bavarians in the region of the upper Danube, and the Saxons between the Rhine and the Elbe. The policy of the new king, perhaps only dimly outlined at the beginning of the reign but growing ever more definite as time went on, was to bring all of these neighboring peoples under the Frankish dominion, and so to build up a great state which should include the whole Germanic race of western and northern continental Europe. Most of the king's time during the first thirty years, or two-thirds, of the reign was devoted to this stupendous task. The first great step was taken in the conquest of the Lombards in 774, after which Charlemagne assumed the title of King of the Lombards. In 787 Bavaria was annexed to the Frankish kingdom, the settlement in this case being in the nature of a complete absorption rather than a mere personal union such as followed the Lombard conquest. The next year an expedition across the Pyrenees resulted in the annexation of the Spanish March—a region in which the Visigoths had managed to maintain some degree of independence against the Saracens. In all these directions little fighting was necessary and for one reason or another the sovereignty of the Frankish king was recognized without much delay or resistance.

The problem of reducing the Saxons was, however, a very different one. The Saxons of Charlemagne's day were a people of purest Germanic stock dwelling in the land along the Rhine, Ems, Weser, and Elbe, and inland as far as the low mountains of Hesse and Thuringia—the regions which now bear the names of Hanover, Brunswick, Oldenburg, and Westphalia. The Saxons, influenced as yet scarcely at all by contact with the Romans, retained substantially the manner of life described seven centuries earlier by Tacitus in the Germania. They lived in small villages, had only the loosest sort of government, and clung tenaciously to the warlike mythology of their ancestors. Before Charlemagne's time they had engaged in frequent border wars with the Franks and had shown capacity for making very obstinate resistance. And when Charlemagne himself undertook to subdue them he entered upon a task which kept him busy much of the time for over thirty years, that is, from 772 to 803. In all not fewer than eighteen distinct campaigns were made into the enemy's territory. The ordinary course of events was that Charlemagne would lead his army across the Rhine in the spring, the Saxons would make some little resistance and then disperse or withdraw toward the Baltic, and the Franks would leave a garrison and return home for the winter. As soon as the enemy's back was turned the Saxons would rally, expel or massacre the garrison, and assert their complete independence of Frankish authority. The next year the whole thing would have to be done over again. There were not more than two great battles in the entire contest; the war consisted rather of a monotonous series of "military parades," apparent submissions, revolts, and re-submissions. As Professor Emerton puts it, "From the year 772 to 803, a period of over thirty years, this war was always on the programme of the Frankish policy, now resting for a few years, and now breaking out with increased fury, until finally the Saxon people, worn out with the long struggle against a superior foe, gave it up and became a part of the Frankish Empire."[132]

It is to be regretted that we have no Saxon account of the great contest except the well-meant, but very inadequate, history by Widukind, a monk of Corbie, written about the middle of the tenth century. However, the following passage from Einhard, the secretary and biographer of Charlemagne, doubtless describes with fair accuracy the conditions and character of the struggle. A few of the writer's strongest statements regarding Saxon perfidy should be accepted only with some allowance for Frankish prejudice.

Source—Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni, Chap. 7. Text in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Scriptores (Pertz ed.), Vol. II., pp. 446-447. Adapted from translation by Samuel Epes Turner in "Harper's School Classics" (New York, 1880), pp. 26-28.

No war ever undertaken by the Frankish nation was carried on with such persistence and bitterness, or cost so much labor, because the Saxons, like almost all the tribes of Germany, were a fierce people, given to the worship of devils and hostile to our religion, and did not consider it dishonorable to transgress and violate all law, human and divine. Then there were peculiar circumstances that tended to cause a breach of peace every day. Except in a few places, where large forests or mountain-ridges Lack of a natural frontier intervened and made the boundaries certain, the line between ourselves and the Saxons passed almost in its whole extent through an open country, so that there was no end to the murders, thefts, and arsons on both sides. In this way the Franks became so embittered that they at last resolved to make reprisals no longer, but to come to open war with the Saxons.

Accordingly, war was begun against them, and was waged for thirty-three successive years[133] with great fury; more, however, to the disadvantage of the Saxons than of the Franks. It could doubtless have been brought to an end sooner, had it not been for the faithlessness of the Saxons. It is hard to say how often they were conquered, and, humbly submitting to the king, Faithlessness of the Saxons promised to do what was enjoined upon them, gave without hesitation the required hostages, and received the officers sent them from the king. They were sometimes so much weakened and reduced that they promised to renounce the worship of devils and to adopt Christianity; but they were no less ready to violate these terms than prompt to accept them, so that it is impossible to tell which came easier to them to do; scarcely a year passed from the beginning of the war without such changes on their part. But the king did not suffer his high purpose and steadfastness—firm alike in good and evil fortune—to be wearied by any fickleness on their part, or to be turned from the task that he had undertaken; on the contrary, Charlemagne's settlement of Saxons in Gaul and Germany he never allowed their faithless behavior to go unpunished, but either took the field against them in person, or sent his counts with an army to wreak vengeance and exact righteous satisfaction.[134] At last, after conquering and subduing all who had offered resistance, he took ten thousand of those who lived on the banks of the Elbe, and settled them, with their wives and children, in many different bodies here and there in Gaul and Germany. The war that had lasted so many years was at length ended by their acceding to The terms of peace the terms offered by the king; which were renunciation of their national religious customs and the worship of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the Christian religion,[135] and union with the Franks to form one people.

17. The Capitulary Concerning the Saxon Territory (cir. 780)

Just as the Saxons were the most formidable of Charlemagne's foes to meet and defeat in open battle, so were they the most difficult to maintain in anything like orderly allegiance after they had been tentatively conquered. This was true in part because of their untamed, freedom-loving character, but also in no small measure because of the thoroughgoing revolution which the Frankish king sought to work in their conditions of life, and especially in their religion. Before the Saxon war was far advanced it had very clearly assumed the character of a crusade of the Christian Franks against the "pagans of the north." And when the Saxon had been brought to give sullen promise of submission, it was his dearest possession—his fierce, heroic mythology—that was first to be swept away. By the stern decree of the conqueror Woden and Thor and Freya must go. In their stead was to be set up the Christian religion with its churches, its priests, its fastings, its ceremonial observances. Death was to be the penalty for eating meat during Lent, if done "out of contempt for Christianity," and death also for "causing the body of a dead man to be burned in accordance with pagan rites." Even for merely scorning "to come to baptism," or "wishing to remain a pagan," a man was to forfeit his life. The selections which follow are taken from the capitulary De Partibus Saxoniæ, which was issued by Charlemagne probably at the Frankish assembly held at Paderborn in 780. If this date is correct (and it cannot be far wrong) the regulations embodied in the capitulary were established for the Saxon territories when there perhaps seemed to be a good prospect of peace but when, as later events showed, there yet remained twenty-three years of war before the final subjugation. From the beginning of the struggle the Church had been busy setting up new centers of influence—some abbeys and especially the great bishoprics of Bremen, Minden, Paderborn, Verden, Osnabrück, and Halberstadt—among the Saxon pagans, and the primary object of Charlemagne in this capitulary was to give to these ecclesiastical foundations the task of civilizing the country and to protect them, together with his counts or governing agents, while they should be engaged in this work. The severity of the Saxon war was responsible for the unusually stringent character of this body of regulations. In 797, at a great assembly at Aix-la-Chapelle, another capitulary for the Saxons was issued, known as the Capitulum Saxonicum, and in this the harsh features of the earlier capitulary were considerably relaxed. By 797 the resistance of the Saxons was pretty well broken, and it had become Charlemagne's policy to give his conquered subjects a government as nearly as possible like that the Franks themselves enjoyed. The chief importance of Charlemagne's conquests toward the east lies in the fact that by them broad stretches of German territory were brought for the first time within the pale of civilization.

These capitularies, like the hundreds of others that were issued by the various kings of the Franks, were edicts or decrees drawn up under the king's direction, discussed and adopted in the assembly of the people, and published in the local districts of the kingdom by the counts and bishops. They were of a less permanent and fixed character than the so-called "leges," or laws established by long usage and custom.

Source—Text in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), Vol. I., No. 26, pp. 68-70. Translated by Dana C. Munro in University of Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints, Vol. VI., No. 5, pp. 2-5.

First, concerning the greater chapters it has been enacted:[136]

It is pleasing to all that the churches of Christ, which are now being built in Saxony and consecrated to God, should not have less, but greater and more illustrious honor than the shrines of the idols have had.

2. If any one shall have fled to a church for refuge, let no one presume to expel him from the church by violence, but he shall The churches as a place of refuge be left in peace until he shall be brought to the judicial assemblage; and on account of the honor due to God and the saints, and the reverence due to the church itself, let his life and all his members be granted to him. Moreover, let him plead his cause as best he can and he shall be judged; and so let him be led to the presence of the lord king, and the latter shall send him where it shall seem fitting to his clemency.

3. If any one shall have entered a church by violence and shall have carried off anything in it by force or theft, or shall have burned the church itself, let him be punished by death.[137]

4. If any one, out of contempt for Christianity, shall have Offenses against the Church despised the holy Lenten feast and shall have eaten flesh, let him be punished by death. But, nevertheless, let it be taken into consideration by a priest, lest perchance any one from necessity has been led to eat flesh.[138]

5. If any one shall have killed a bishop or priest or deacon let him likewise be punished capitally.

6. If any one, deceived by the devil, shall have believed, after the manner of the pagans, that any man or woman is a witch and eats men, and on this account shall have burned the person, or shall have given the person's flesh to others to eat, or shall have eaten it himself, let him be punished by a capital sentence.

7. If any one, in accordance with pagan rites, shall have caused the body of a dead man to be burned, and shall have reduced his bones to ashes, let him be punished capitally.

8. If any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter, concealed among them, shall have wished to hide himself unbaptized, Refusal to be baptized and shall have scorned to come to baptism, and shall have wished to remain a pagan, let him be punished by death.

9. If any one shall have sacrificed a man to the devil, and, after the manner of the pagans, shall have presented him as a victim to the demons, let him be punished by death.

10. If any one shall have formed a conspiracy with the pagans against the Christians, or shall have wished to join with them Conspiracy against Christians in opposition to the Christians, let him be punished by death; and whosoever shall have consented fraudulently to this same against the king and the Christian people, let him be punished by death.

11. If any one shall have shown himself unfaithful to the lord king, let him be punished with a capital sentence.

13. If any one shall have killed his lord or lady, let him be punished in a like manner.

14. If, indeed, for these mortal crimes secretly committed any one shall have fled of his own accord to a priest, and after confession shall have wished to do penance, let him be freed by the testimony of the priest from death....[139]

18. On the Lord's day no meetings or public judicial assemblages shall be held, unless perchance in a case of great necessity, Observance of the Sabbath and of festival days or when war compels it, but all shall go to church to hear the word of God, and shall be free for prayers or good works. Likewise, also, on the special festivals they shall devote themselves to God and to the services of the Church, and shall refrain from secular assemblies.

19. Likewise, it has been pleasing to insert in these decrees that all infants shall be baptized within a year; and we have Baptism of infants decreed this, that if any one shall have refused to bring his infant to baptism within the course of a year, without the advice or permission of the priest, if he is a noble he shall pay 120 solidi[140] to the treasury; if a freeman, 60; if a litus, 30.[141]

20. If any one shall have contracted a prohibited or illegal marriage, if a noble, 60 solidi; if a freeman, 30; if a litus, 15.

21. If any one shall have made a vow at springs or trees or Keeping up heathen rites groves,[142] or shall have made an offering after the manner of the heathen and shall have partaken of a repast in honor of the demons, if he shall be a noble, 60 solidi; if a freeman, 30; if a litus, 15. If, indeed, they have not the means of paying at once, they shall be given into the service of the Church until the solidi are paid.

22. We command that the bodies of Saxon Christians shall be carried to the church cemeteries, and not to the mounds of the pagans.

23. We have ordered that diviners and soothsayers shall be handed over to the churches and priests.

24. Concerning robbers and malefactors who shall have fled from one county to another, if any one shall receive them into Fugitive criminals his protection and shall keep them with him for seven nights,[143] except for the purpose of bringing them to justice, let him pay our ban.[144] Likewise, if a count[145] shall have concealed them, and shall be unwilling to bring them forward so that justice may be done, and is not able to excuse himself for this, let him lose his office.

26. No one shall presume to impede any man coming to us to seek justice; and if anyone shall have attempted to do this, he shall pay our ban.

34. We have forbidden that Saxons shall hold public assemblies in general, unless perchance our missus[146] shall have caused them to come together in accordance with our Public assemblies command; but each count shall hold judicial assemblies and administer justice in his jurisdiction. And this shall be cared for by the priests, lest it be done otherwise.[147]

18. The Capitulary Concerning the Royal Domains (cir. 800)

The revenues which came into Charlemagne's treasury were derived chiefly from his royal domains. There was no system of general taxation, such as modern nations maintain, and the funds realized from gifts, fines, rents, booty, and tribute money, were quite insufficient to meet the needs of the court, modest though they were. Charlemagne's interest in his villas, or private farms, was due therefore not less to his financial dependence upon them than to his personal liking for thrifty agriculture and thoroughgoing administration. The royal domains of the Frankish kingdom, already extensive at Charlemagne's accession, were considerably increased during his reign. It has been well said that Charlemagne was doubtless the greatest landed proprietor of the realm and that he "supervised the administration of these lands as a sovereign who knows that his power rests partly on his riches."[148] He gave the closest personal attention to his estates and was always watchful lest he be defrauded out of even the smallest portion of their products which was due him. The capitulary De Villis, from which the following passages have been selected, is a lengthy document in which Charlemagne sought to prescribe clearly and minutely the manifold duties of the stewards in charge of these estates. We may regard it, however, as in the nature of an ideal catalogue of what the king would like to have on his domains rather than as a definite statement of what was always actually to be found there. From it may be gleaned many interesting facts regarding rural life in western Europe during the eighth and ninth centuries. Its date is uncertain, but it was about 800—possibly somewhat earlier.

Source—Text in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), Vol. I., No. 32, pp. 82-91. Translated by Roland P. Falkner in Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. III., No. 2, pp. 2-4.

62.[149] We desire that each steward shall make an annual statement of all our income, with an account of our lands cultivated by the oxen which our plowmen drive, and of our lands which the tenants of farms ought to plow;[150] an account of the pigs, of the rents,[151] of the obligations and fines; of the game taken in our forests without our permission; of the various compositions;[152] of the mills, of the forest, of the fields, and of the bridges and ships; of the freemen and the districts under obligations to our treasury; Report to be made to the king by his stewards each Christmas-tide of markets, vineyards, and those who owe wine to us; of the hay, fire-wood, torches, planks, and other kinds of lumber; of the waste-lands; of the vegetables, millet, and panic;[153] and of the wool, flax, and hemp; of the fruits of the trees; of the nut trees, larger and smaller; of the grafted trees of all kinds; of the gardens; of the turnips; of the fish-ponds; of the hides, skins, and horns; of the honey and wax; of the fat, tallow and soap; of the mulberry wine, cooked wine, mead, vinegar, beer, wine new and old; of the new grain and the old; of the hens and eggs; of the geese; of the number of fishermen, smiths, sword-makers, and shoe-makers; of the bins and boxes; of the turners and saddlers; of the forges and mines, that is iron and other mines; of the lead mines; of the colts and fillies. They shall make all these known to us, set forth separately and in order, at Christmas, in order that we may know what and how much of each thing we have.

23. On each of our estates our stewards are to have as many Domestic animals cow-houses, pig-sties, sheep-folds, stables for goats, as possible, and they ought never to be without these. And let them have in addition cows furnished by our serfs[154] for performing their service, so that the cow-houses and plows shall be in no way diminished by the service on our demesne. And when they have to provide meat, let them have steers lame, but healthy, and cows and horses which are not mangy, or other beasts which are not diseased and, as we have said, our cow-houses and plows are not to be diminished for this.

34. They must provide with the greatest care that whatever is prepared or made with the hands, that is, lard, smoked meat, Cleanliness enjoined salt meat, partially salted meat, wine, vinegar, mulberry wine, cooked wine, garns,[155] mustard, cheese, butter, malt, beer, mead, honey, wax, flour, all should be prepared and made with the greatest cleanliness.

40. That each steward on each of our domains shall always have, for the sake of ornament, swans, peacocks, pheasants, ducks, pigeons, partridges, turtle-doves.

42. That in each of our estates, the chambers shall be provided with counterpanes, cushions, pillows, bed-clothes, coverings Household furniture for the tables and benches; vessels of brass, lead, iron and wood; andirons, chains, pot-hooks, adzes, axes, augers, cutlasses, and all other kinds of tools, so that it shall never be necessary to go elsewhere for them, or to borrow them. And the weapons, which are carried against the enemy, shall be well-cared for, so as to keep them in good condition; and when they are brought back they shall be placed in the chamber.

43. For our women's work they are to give at the proper time, as has been ordered, the materials, that is the linen, wool, woad,[156] vermilion, madder,[157] wool-combs, teasels,[158] soap, grease, vessels, and the other objects which are necessary.

44. Of the food products other than meat, two-thirds shall be sent each year for our own use, that is of the vegetables, fish, Supplies to be furnished the king cheese, butter, honey, mustard, vinegar, millet, panic, dried and green herbs, radishes, and in addition of the wax, soap and other small products; and they shall tell us how much is left by a statement, as we have said above; and they shall not neglect this as in the past; because from those two-thirds, we wish to know how much remains.

45. That each steward shall have in his district good workmen, namely, blacksmiths, gold-smith, silver-smith, shoe-makers, Workmen on the estates turners, carpenters, sword-makers, fishermen, foilers, soap-makers, men who know how to make beer, cider, berry, and all the other kinds of beverages, bakers to make pastry for our table, net-makers who know how to make nets for hunting, fishing and fowling, and the others who are too numerous to be designated.

19. An Inventory of One of Charlemagne's Estates

In the following inventory we have a specimen of the annual statements required by Charlemagne from the stewards on his royal domains. The location of Asnapium is unknown, but it is evident that this estate was one of the smaller sort. Like all the rest, it was liable occasionally to become the temporary abiding place of the king. The detailed character of the inventory is worthy of note, as is also the number of industries which must have been engaged in by the inhabitants of the estate and its dependent villas.

Source—Text in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Leges (Pertz ed.), Vol. I., pp. 178-179.

We found in the imperial estate of Asnapium a royal house Buildings on the estate of Asnapium built of stone in the very best manner, having 3 rooms. The entire house was surrounded with balconies and it had 11 apartments for women. Underneath was 1 cellar. There were 2 porticoes. There were 17 other houses built of wood within the court-yard, with a similar number of rooms and other fixtures, all well constructed. There was 1 stable, 1 kitchen, 1 mill, 1 granary, and 3 barns.

The yard was enclosed with a hedge and a stone gateway, and above was a balcony from which distributions can be made. There was also an inner yard, surrounded by a hedge, well arranged, and planted with various kinds of trees.

Of vestments: coverings for 1 bed, 1 table-cloth, and 1 towel.

Of utensils: 2 brass kettles; 2 drinking cups; 2 brass cauldrons; 1 iron cauldron; 1 frying-pan; 1 gramalmin; 1 pair of andirons; 1 lamp; 2 hatchets; 1 chisel; 2 augers; 1 axe; 1 knife; 1 large plane; 1 small plane; 2 scythes; 2 sickles; 2 spades edged with iron; and a sufficient supply of utensils of wood.

Of farm produce: old spelt[159] from last year, 90 baskets which can be made into 450 weight[160] of flour; and 100 measures[161] of Supplies of various sorts barley. From the present year, 110 baskets of spelt, of which 60 baskets had been planted, but the rest we found; 100 measures of wheat, 60 sown, the rest we found; 98 measures of rye all sown; 1,800 measures of barley, 1,100 sown, the rest we found; 430 measures of oats; 1 measure of beans; 12 measures of peas. At 5 mills were found 800 measures of small size. At 4 breweries, 650 measures of small size, 240 given to the prebendaries,[162] the rest we found. At 2 bridges, 60 measures of salt and 2 shillings. At 4 gardens, 11 shillings. Also honey, 3 measures; about 1 measure of butter; lard, from last year 10 sides; new sides, 200, with fragments and fats; cheese from the present year, 43 weights.

Of cattle: 51 head of larger cattle; 5 three-year olds; 7 two-year olds; 7 yearlings; 10 two-year old colts; 8 yearlings; 3 stallions; 16 cows; 2 asses; 50 cows with calves; 20 young bulls; 38 yearling calves; 3 bulls; 260 hogs; 100 pigs; 5 boars; 150 Kinds and number of animals sheep with lambs; 200 yearling lambs; 120 rams; 30 goats with kids; 30 yearling kids; 3 male goats; 30 geese; 80 chickens; 22 peacocks.

Also concerning the manors[163] which belong to the above mansion. In the villa of Grisio we found domain buildings, where there are 3 barns and a yard enclosed by a hedge. There were, besides, 1 garden with trees, 10 geese, 8 ducks, 30 chickens.

In another villa we found domain buildings and a yard surrounded by a hedge, and within 3 barns; 1 arpent[164] of vines; 1 garden with trees; 15 geese; 20 chickens.

In a third villa, domain buildings, with 2 barns; 1 granary; 1 garden and 1 yard well enclosed by a hedge.

We found all the dry and liquid measures just as in the palace. We did not find any goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, huntsmen, or persons engaged in other services.

The garden herbs which we found were lily, putchuck,[165] mint, parsley, rue, celery, libesticum, sage, savory, juniper, leeks, garlic, Vegetables and trees tansy, wild mint, coriander, scullions, onions, cabbage, kohlrabi,[166] betony.[167] Trees: pears, apples, medlars, peaches, filberts, walnuts, mulberries, quinces.[168]

20. Charlemagne Crowned Emperor (800)

The occasion of Charlemagne's presence in Rome in 800 was a conflict between Pope Leo III. and a faction of the populace led by two nephews of the preceding pope, Hadrian I. It seems that in 799 Leo had been practically driven out of the papal capital and imprisoned in a neighboring monastery, but that through the planning of a subordinate official he had soon contrived to escape. At any rate he got out of Italy as speedily as he could and made his way across the Alps to seek aid at the court of Charlemagne. The Frankish king was still busy with the Saxon war and did not allow the prospect of a papal visit to interfere with his intended campaign; but at Paderborn, in the very heart of the Saxon country, where he could personally direct the operations of his troops, he established his headquarters and awaited the coming of the refugee pope. The meeting of the two dignitaries resulted in a pledge of the king once more to take up the burden of defending the Roman Church and the Vicar of Christ, this time not against outside foes but against internal disturbers. After about a year Charlemagne repaired to Rome and called upon the Pope and his adversaries to appear before him for judgment. When the leaders of the hostile faction refused to comply, they were summarily condemned to death, though it is said that through the generous advice of Leo they were afterwards released on a sentence of exile. During the ceremonies which followed in celebration of Christmas occurred the famous coronation which is described in the two passages given below.

Although the coronation has been regarded as so important as to have been called "the central event of the Middle Ages,"[169] it is by no means an easy task to determine precisely what significance it was thought to have at the time. We can look back upon it now and see that it marked the beginning of the so-called "Holy Roman Empire"—a creation that endured in fact only a very short time but whose name and theory survived all the way down to Napoleon's reorganization of the German states in 1806. One view of the matter is that Charlemagne's coronation meant that a Frankish king had become the successor of Emperor Constantine VI., just deposed at Constantinople, and that therefore the universal Roman Empire was again to be ruled from a western capital as it had been before the time of the first Constantine. It will be observed that extract (a), taken from the Annals of Lauresheim, and therefore of German origin, at least suggests this explanation. But, whether or not precisely this idea was in the mind of those who took part in the ceremony, in actual fact no such transfer of universal sovereignty from Constantinople to the Frankish capital ever took place. The Eastern Empire lived right on under its own line of rulers and, so far as we know, aside from some rather vague negotiations for a marriage of Charlemagne and the Empress Irene, the new western Emperor seems never to have contemplated the extension of his authority over the East. His great aspiration had been to consolidate all the Germanic peoples of western continental Europe under the leadership of the Franks; that, by 800, he had practically done; he had no desire to go farther. His dominion was always limited strictly to the West, and at the most he can be regarded after 800 as not more than the reviver of the old western half of the Empire, and hence as the successor of Romulus Augustulus. But even this view is perhaps somewhat strained. The chroniclers of the time liked to set up fine theories of the sort, and later it came to be to the interest of papal and imperial rivals to make large use, in one way or another, of such theories. But we to-day may look upon the coronation as nothing more than a formal recognition of a condition of things already existing. By his numerous conquests Charlemagne had drawn under his control such a number of peoples and countries that his position had come to be that which we think of as an emperor's rather than that of simple king of the Franks. The Pope did not give Charlemagne his empire; the energetic king had built it for himself. At the most, what Leo did was simply to bestow a title already earned and to give with it presumably the blessing and favor of the Church, whose devoted servant Charlemagne repeatedly professed to be. That the idea of imperial unity still survived in the West is certain, and without doubt many men looked upon the ceremony of 800 as re-establishing such unity; but as events worked out it was not so much Charlemagne's empire as the papacy itself that was the real continuation of the power of the Cæsars. Conditions had so changed that it was impossible in the nature of things for Charlemagne to be a Roman emperor in the old sense. The coronation gave him a new title and new prestige, but no new subjects, no larger army, no more princely income. The basis of his power continued to be, in every sense, his Frankish kingdom. The structural element in the revived empire was Frankish; the Roman was merely ornamental.

Sources—(a) Annales Laureshamensis ["Annals of Lauresheim"], Chap. 34. Text in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Scriptores (Pertz ed.), Vol. I., p. 38.

(b) Vitæ Pontificorum Romanorum ["Lives of the Roman Pontiffs"]. Text in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Vol. III., pp. 284-285.

(a)

And because the name of emperor had now ceased among the Greeks, and their empire was possessed by a woman,[170] it seemed both to Leo the pope himself, and to all the holy fathers who were present in the self-same council,[171] as well as to the rest of the Christian people, that they ought to take to be emperor Charles, king of the Franks, who held Rome herself, where the Cæsars had always been wont to sit, and all the other regions which he ruled through Italy and Gaul and Germany; and inasmuch as God had given all these lands into his hand, it seemed right that with the help of God, and at the prayer of the whole Christian people, he should have the name of emperor also. [The Pope's] petition King Charles willed not to refuse,[172] but submitting himself with all humility to God, and at the prayer of the priests, and of the whole Christian people, on the day of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, he took on himself the name of emperor, being consecrated by the Pope Leo.... For this also was done by the will of God ... that the heathen might not mock the Christians if the name of emperor should have ceased among them.

(b)

After these things, on the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, when all the people were assembled in the Church of the blessed St. Peter,[173] the venerable and gracious Pope with his own hands crowned him [Charlemagne] with an exceedingly precious crown. Then all the faithful Romans, beholding the choice of such a friend and defender of the holy Roman Church, and of the pontiff, did by the will of God and of the blessed Peter, the key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom, cry with a loud voice, "To Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned of God, the great and peace-giving Emperor, be life and victory." While he, before the altar of the church, was calling upon many of the saints, it was proclaimed three times, and by the common voice of all he was chosen to be emperor of the Romans. Then the most holy high priest and pontiff anointed Charles with holy oil, and also his most excellent son to be king,[174] upon the very day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

21. The General Capitulary for the Missi (802)

Throughout the larger part of Charlemagne's dominion the chief local unit of administration was the county, presided over by the count. The count was appointed by the Emperor, generally from among the most important landed proprietors of the district. His duties included the levy of troops, the publication of the royal decrees or capitularies, the administration of justice, and the collection of revenues. On the frontiers, where the need of defense was greatest, these local officers exercised military functions of a special character and were commonly known as "counts of the march," or dukes, or sometimes as margraves. In order that these royal officials, in whatever part of the country, might not abuse their authority as against their fellow-subjects, or engage in plots against the unity of the empire, Charlemagne devised a plan of sending out at stated intervals men who were known as missi dominici ("the lord's messengers") to visit the various counties, hear complaints of the people, inquire into the administration of the counts, and report conditions to the Emperor. They were to serve as connecting links between the central and local governments and as safeguards against the ever powerful forces of disintegration. Such itinerant royal agents had not been unknown in Merovingian times, and they had probably been made use of pretty frequently by Charles Martel and Pepin the Short. But it was Charlemagne who reduced the employment of missi to a system and made it a fixed part of the governmental machinery of the Frankish kingdom. This he did mainly by the Capitulare Missorum Generale, promulgated early in 802 at an assembly at the favorite capital Aix-la-Chapelle. The whole empire was divided into districts, or missaticæ, and each of these was to be visited annually by two of the missi. A churchman and a layman were usually sent out together, probably because they were to have jurisdiction over both the clergy and the laity, and also that they might restrain each other from injustice or other misconduct. They were appointed by the Emperor, at first from his lower order of vassals, but after a time from the leading bishops, abbots, and nobles of the empire. They were given power to depose minor officials for misdemeanors, and to summon higher ones before the Emperor. By 812, at least, they were required to make four rounds of inspection each year.

In the capitulary for the missi Charlemagne took occasion to include a considerable number of regulations and instructions regarding the general character of the local governments, the conduct of local officers, the manner of life of the clergy, the management of the monasteries, and other things of vital importance to the strength of the empire and the well-being of the people. The capitulary may be regarded as a broad outline of policy and conduct which its author, lately become emperor, wished to see realized throughout his vast dominion.

Source—Text in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), Vol. I., No. 33, pp. 91-99. Translated by Dana C. Munro in Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. VI., No. 5, pp. 16-27.

1. Concerning the embassy sent out by the lord emperor.

Therefore, the most serene and most Christian lord emperor Charles has chosen from his nobles the wisest and most prudent The missi sent out men, both archbishops and some of the other bishops also, and venerable abbots and pious laymen, and has sent them throughout his whole kingdom, and through them he would have all the various classes of persons mentioned in the following chapters live in accordance with the correct law. Moreover, where anything which is not right and just has been enacted in the law, he has ordered them to inquire into this most diligently and to inform him of it. He desires, God granting, to reform it. And let no one, through his cleverness or craft, dare to oppose or thwart the written law, as many are wont to do, or the judicial sentence passed upon him, or to do injury to the churches of God, or the poor, or the widows, or the wards, or any Christian. But all shall live entirely in accordance with God's precept, honestly and under a just rule, and each one shall be admonished to live in harmony with his fellows in his business or profession; the canonical clergy[175] ought to observe in every respect a canonical life without heeding base gain; nuns ought to keep diligent watch over their lives; laymen and the secular clergy[176] ought rightly to observe their laws without malicious fraud; and all ought to live in mutual charity and perfect peace.

And let the missi themselves make a diligent investigation whenever any man claims that an injustice has been done him by any one, just as they desire to deserve the grace of omnipotent God and to keep their fidelity promised to Him, so that in all cases, in accordance with the will and fear of God, they shall administer the law fully and justly in the case of the holy churches of God and of the poor, of wards and widows, and of the whole people. And if there be anything of such a nature that they, The duties of the missi together with the provincial counts, are not able of themselves to correct it and to do justice concerning it, they shall, without any reservation, refer it, together with their reports, to the judgment of the emperor; and the straight path of justice shall not be impeded by any one on account of flattery or gifts, or on account of any relationship, or from fear of the powerful.[177]

2. Concerning the fidelity to be promised to the lord emperor.

He has commanded that every man in his whole kingdom, whether ecclesiastic or layman, and each one according to his Oath to be taken to Charlemagne as emperor vow and occupation, should now promise to him as emperor the fidelity which he had previously promised to him as king; and all of those who had not yet made that promise should do likewise, down to those who were twelve years old. And that it shall be announced to all in public, so that each one might know, how great and how many things are comprehended in that oath; not merely, as many have thought hitherto, fidelity to the lord emperor as regards his life, and not introducing any enemy into his kingdom out of enmity, and not consenting to or concealing another's faithlessness to him; but that all may know that this oath contains in itself the following meaning:

3. First, that each one voluntarily shall strive, in accordance with his knowledge and ability, to live completely in the holy What the new oath was to mean service of God, in accordance with the precept of God and in accordance with his own promise, because the lord emperor is unable to give to all individually the necessary care and discipline.

4. Secondly, that no man, either through perjury or any other wile or fraud, or on account of the flattery or gift of any one, shall refuse to give back or dare to take possession of or conceal a serf of the lord emperor, or a district, or land, or anything that belongs to him; and that no one shall presume, through perjury or other wile, to conceal or entice away his fugitive fiscaline serfs[178] who unjustly and fraudulently say that they are free.

5. That no one shall presume to rob or do any injury fraudulently to the churches of God, or widows, or orphans, or pilgrims;[179] for the lord emperor himself, under God and His saints, has constituted himself their protector and defender.

6. That no one shall dare to lay waste a benefice[180] of the lord emperor, or to make it his own property.

7. That no one shall presume to neglect a summons to war from the lord emperor; and that no one of the counts shall be so presumptuous as to dare to excuse any one of those who owe military service, either on account of relationship, or flattery, or gifts from any one.

8. That no one shall presume to impede at all in any way a ban[181] or command of the lord emperor, or to tamper with his work, or to impede, or to lessen, or in any way to act contrary to his will or commands. And that no one shall dare to neglect to pay his dues or tax.

9. That no one, for any reason, shall make a practice in court of defending another unjustly, either from any desire of gain when the cause is weak, or by impeding a just judgment by his skill in reasoning, or by a desire of oppressing when the cause is Justice to be rendered in the courts weak. But each one shall answer for his own cause or tax or debt, unless any one is infirm or ignorant of pleading;[182] for these the missi, or the chiefs who are in the court, or the judge who knows the case in question, shall plead before the court; or, if it is necessary, such a person may be allowed as is acceptable to all and knows the case well; but this shall be done wholly according to the convenience of the chiefs or missi who are present. But in every case it shall be done in accordance with justice and the law; and no one shall have the power to impede justice by a gift, reward, or any kind of evil flattery, or from any hindrance of relationship. And no one shall unjustly consent to another in anything, but with all zeal and good-will all shall be prepared to carry out justice.

For all the above mentioned ought to be observed by the imperial oath.[183]

10. [We ordain] that bishops and priests shall live according to the canons[184] and shall teach others to do the same.

11. That bishops, abbots, and abbesses who are in charge of others, with the greatest veneration shall strive to surpass their Obligations of the clergy subjects in this diligence and shall not oppress their subjects with a harsh rule or tyranny, but with a sincere love shall carefully guard the flock committed to them with mercy and charity, or by the examples of good works.

14. That bishops, abbots and abbesses, and counts shall be mutually in accord, following the law in order to render a just judgment with all charity and unity of peace, and that they shall live faithfully in accordance with the will of God, so that always everywhere through them and among them a just judgment shall be rendered. The poor, widows, orphans, and pilgrims shall have consolation and defense from them; so that we, through the good-will of these, may deserve the reward of eternal life rather than punishment.

19. That no bishops, abbots, priests, deacons, or other members of the clergy shall presume to have dogs for hunting, or hawks, falcons, and sparrow-hawks, but each shall observe fully the canons or rule of his order.[185] If any one shall presume to do so, let him know that he shall lose his office. And in addition he shall suffer such punishment for his misconduct that the others will be afraid to possess such things for themselves.

27. And we command that no one in our whole kingdom shall dare to deny hospitality to rich, or poor, or pilgrims; that is, let no one deny shelter and fire and water to pilgrims traversing our country in God's name, or to any one traveling for the love of God, or for the safety of his own soul.

28. Concerning embassies coming from the lord emperor. That the counts and centenarii[186] shall provide most carefully, as The missi to be helped on their way they desire the good-will of the lord emperor, for the missi who are sent out, so that they may go through their territories without any delay; and the emperor commands all everywhere that they see to it that no delay is encountered anywhere, but they shall cause the missi to go on their way in all haste and shall provide for them in such a manner as they may direct.

32. Murders, by which a multitude of the Christian people perish, we command in every way to be shunned and to be The crime of murder forbidden.... Nevertheless, lest sin should also increase, in order that the greatest enmities may not arise among Christians, when by the persuasions of the devil murders happen, the criminal shall immediately hasten to make amends and with all speed shall pay to the relatives of the murdered man the fitting composition for the evil done. And we forbid firmly that the relatives of the murdered man shall dare in any way to continue their enmities on account of the evil done, or shall refuse to grant peace to him who asks it, but, having given their pledges, they shall receive the fitting composition and shall make a perpetual peace; moreover, the guilty one shall not delay to pay the composition....[187] But if any one shall have scorned to make the fitting composition, he shall be deprived of his property until we shall render our decision.[188]

39. That in our forests no one shall dare to steal our game, which we have already many times forbidden to be done; and Theft of game from the royal forests now we again strictly forbid that any one shall do so in the future; just as each one desires to preserve the fidelity promised to us, so let him take heed to himself....

40. Lastly, therefore, we desire all our decrees to be known in the whole kingdom through our missi now sent out, either among the men of the Church, bishops, abbots, priests, deacons, canons, all monks or nuns, so that each one in his ministry or profession may keep our ban or decree, or where it may be fitting to thank the citizens for their good-will, or to furnish aid, or where there may be need still of correcting anything.... Where we believe there is anything unpunished, we shall so strive to correct it with all our zeal and will that with God's aid we may bring it to correction, both for our own eternal glory and that of all our faithful.

22. A Letter of Charlemagne to Abbot Fulrad

In Charlemagne's governmental and military system the clergy, both regular and secular, had a place of large importance. From early Frankish times the bishoprics and monasteries had been acquiring large landed estates on which they enjoyed peculiar political and judicial privileges. These lands came to the church authorities partly by purchase, largely by gift, and not infrequently through concessions by small land-holders who wished to get the Church's favor and protection without actually moving off the little farms they had been accustomed to cultivate. However acquired, the lands were administered by the clergy with larger independence than was apt to be allowed the average lay owner. Still, they were as much a part of the empire as before and the powerful bishops and abbots were expected to see that certain services were forthcoming when the Emperor found himself in need of them. Among these was the duty of leading, or sending, a quota of troops under arms to the yearly assembly. In the selection below we have a letter written by Charlemagne some time between 804 and 811 to Fulrad, abbot of St. Quentin (about sixty miles northeast of Paris), respecting the fulfilment of this important obligation. The closing sentence indicates very clearly the price exacted by the Emperor in return for concessions of temporal authority to ecclesiastical magnates.

Source—Text in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), Vol. I., No. 75, p. 168.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Charles, most serene, august, crowned of God, great pacific Emperor, who, by God's mercy, is King of the Franks and Lombards, to Abbot Fulrad.

Let it be known to you that we have determined to hold our general assembly[189] this year in the eastern part of Saxony, on the River Bode, at the place which is known as Strassfurt.[190] Therefore, we enjoin that you come to this meeting-place, with all your men well armed and equipped, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of July, that is, seven days before the festival of St. John the Baptist.[191] Come, therefore, so prepared with your men to the aforesaid place that you may be able to go thence well equipped in any direction in which our command shall direct; that is, with arms and accoutrements also, and other provisions for war in the way of food and clothing. Each horseman will be expected to have a shield, a lance, a sword, a dagger, a bow, and quivers with arrows; and in your carts shall be implements of various kinds, that is, axes, planes, augers, boards, spades, iron shovels, and The troops to be brought: their equipment other utensils which are necessary in an army. In the wagons also should be supplies of food for three months, dating from the time of the assembly, together with arms and clothing for six months. And furthermore we command that you see to it that you proceed peacefully to the aforesaid place, through whatever part of our realm your journey shall be made; that is, that you presume to take nothing except fodder, wood, and water. And let the followers of each one of your vassals march along with the carts and horsemen, and let the leader always be with them until they reach the aforesaid place, so that the absence of a lord may not give to his men an opportunity to do evil.

Send your gifts,[192] which you ought to present to us at our assembly in the middle of the month of May, to the place where Gifts for the Emperor we then shall be. If it happens that your journey shall be such that on your march you are able in person to present these gifts of yours to us, we shall be greatly pleased. Be careful to show no negligence in the future if you care to have our favor.

23. The Carolingian Revival of Learning

One of Charlemagne's chief claims to distinction is that his reign, largely through his own influence, comprised the most important period of the so-called Carolingian renaissance, or revival of learning. From the times of the Frankish conquest of Gaul until about the middle of the eighth century, education in western Europe, except in Ireland and Britain, was at a very low ebb and literary production quite insignificant. The old Roman intellectual activity had nearly ceased, and two or three centuries of settled life had been required to bring the Franks to the point of appreciating and encouraging art and letters. Even by Charlemagne's time people generally were far from being awake to the importance of education, though a few of the more far-sighted leaders, and especially Charlemagne himself, had come to lament the gross ignorance which everywhere prevailed and were ready to adopt strong measures to overcome it. Charlemagne was certainly no scholar, judged even by the standards of his own time; but had he been the most learned man in the world his interest in education could not have been greater. Before studying the selection given below, it would be well to read what Einhard said about his master's zeal for learning and the amount of progress he made personally in getting an education [see pp. 112—113].

The most conspicuous of Charlemagne's educational measures was his enlarging and strengthening of the Scola Palatina, or Palace School. This was an institution which had existed in the reign of his father Pepin, and probably even earlier. It consisted of a group of scholars gathered at the Frankish court for the purpose of studying and writing literature, educating the royal household, and stimulating learning throughout the country. It formed what we to-day might call an academy of sciences. Under Charlemagne's care it came to include such men of distinction as Paul the Deacon, historian of the Lombards, Paulinus of Aquileia, a theologian, Peter of Pisa, a grammarian, and above all Alcuin, a skilled teacher and writer from the school of York in England. Its history falls into three main periods: (1) from the middle of the eighth century to the year 782—the period during which it was dominated by Paul the Deacon and his Italian colleagues; (2) from 782 to about 800, when its leading spirit was Alcuin; and (3) from 800 to the years of its decadence in the later ninth century, when Frankish rather than foreign names appear most prominently in its annals.

It was Charlemagne's ideal that throughout his entire dominion opportunity should be open to all to obtain at least an elementary education and to carry their studies as much farther as they liked. To this end a regular system of schools was planned, beginning with the village school, in charge of the parish priest for the most elementary studies, and leading up through monastic and cathedral schools to the School of the Palace. In the intermediate stages, corresponding to our high schools and academies to-day, the subjects studied were essentially the same as those which received attention in the Scola Palatina. They were divided into two groups: (1) the trivium, including grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic (or philosophy), and (2) the quadrivium, including geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music. The system thus planned was never fully put in operation throughout Frankland, for after Charlemagne's death the work which he had so well begun was seriously interfered with by the falling off in intellectual aggressiveness of the sovereigns, by civil war, and by the ravages of the Hungarian and Norse invaders [see p. 163]. A capitulary of Louis the Pious in 817, for example, forbade the continuance of secular education in monastic schools. Still, much of what had been done remained, and never thereafter did learning among the Frankish people fall to quite so low a stage as it had passed through in the sixth and seventh centuries.

Charlemagne's interest in education may be studied best of all in his capitularies. In the extract below we have the so-called letter De Litteris Colendis, written some time between 780 and 800, which, though addressed personally to Abbot Baugulf, of the monastery of Fulda, was in reality a capitulary establishing certain regulations regarding education in connection with the work of the monks. To the Church was intrusted the task of raising the level of intelligence among the masses, and the clergy were admonished to bring together the children of both freemen and serfs in schools in which they might be trained, even as the sons of the nobles were trained at the royal court.

Source—Text in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), Vol. I., No. 29, pp. 78-79. Adapted from translation by Dana C. Munro in Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. VI., No. 5, pp. 12-14.

Charles, by the grace of God, king of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans.[193] To Abbot Baugulf, and to all the congregation—also to the faithful placed under your care—we have sent loving greetings by our ambassadors in the name of all-powerful God.

Be it known, therefore, to you, devoted and acceptable to God, that we, together with our faithful, have deemed it expedient Men of the Church charged with the work of education that the bishoprics and monasteries intrusted by the favor of Christ to our control, in addition to the order of monastic life and the relationships of holy religion, should be zealous also in the cherishing of letters, and in teaching those who by the gift of God are able to learn, according as each has capacity. So that, just as the observance of the rule[194] adds order and grace to the integrity of morals, so also zeal in teaching and learning may do the same for sentences, to the end that those who wish to please God by living rightly should not fail to please Him also by speaking correctly. For it is written, "Either from thy words thou shall be justified or from thy words thou shalt be condemned" [Matt., xii. 37]. Although right conduct may be better than knowledge, nevertheless knowledge goes before conduct. Therefore each one ought to study what he desires to accomplish, in order that so much the more fully the mind may know what ought to be done. as the tongue speeds in the praises of all-powerful God without the hindrances of mistakes. For while errors should be shunned Even the clergy often unable to speak and write correctly by all men, so much the more ought they to be avoided, as far as possible, by those who are chosen for this very purpose alone.[195] They ought to be the specially devoted servants of truth. For often in recent years when letters have been written to us from monasteries, in which it was stated that the brethren who dwelt there offered up in our behalf sacred and pious prayers, we have recognized, in most cases, both correct thoughts and uncouth expressions; because what pious devotion dictated faithfully to the mind, the tongue, uneducated on account of the neglect of study, was not able to express in the letter without error. Whence it happened that we began to fear lest perchance, as the skill in writing was less, so also the wisdom for understanding the Holy Scriptures might be much less than it rightly ought to be. And we all know well that, although errors of speech are dangerous, far more dangerous are errors of the understanding.

Therefore, we exhort you not only not to neglect the study of letters, but also with most humble mind, pleasing to God, to Education essential to an understanding of the Scriptures study earnestly in order that you may be able more easily and more correctly to penetrate the mysteries of the divine Scriptures. Since, moreover, images [similes], tropes[196] and like figures are found in the sacred pages, nobody doubts that each one in reading these will understand the spiritual sense more quickly if previously he shall have been fully instructed in the mastery of letters. Such men truly are to be chosen for this work as have both the will and the ability to learn and a desire to instruct others. And may this be done with a zeal as great as the earnestness with which we command it. For we desire you to be, as the soldiers of the Church ought to be, devout in mind, learned in discourse, chaste in conduct, and eloquent in speech, so that when any one shall seek to see you, whether out of reverence for God or on account of your reputation for holy conduct, just as he is edified by your appearance, he may also be instructed by the wisdom which he has learned from your reading or singing, and may go away gladly, giving thanks to Almighty God.