Note 65 — BOOK I CONCERNING THE PIETY OF CHARLES AND HIS CARE OF THE CHURCH

The next six chapters are omitted, because in them the Monk of St Gall is led away, by his desire to tell a good and edifying story, into matter that has no connection of any kind with Charlemagne, and is sometimes offensive to modern taste. The stories are for the most part to the discredit of the Episcopal order. A single phrase in Chapter xxv. may be noted, as indicating the theocratic view of Charles which the writer takes throughout: “the most religious Charles” is called episcopus episcoporum, “the bishop of bishops.”