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that a genius caine to preside over it, as far superior to the dumb, dull lares of antiquity, as the worship of the invisible God was to their pagan sacrifices.

We have seen what great use both Pepin and Clovis made of the church in establishing their power. It was the church alone that could then enable royalty to lift itself on the shoulders of the aristocracy. Charles, surnamed the Great, and better known under the appellation of Charlemagne, succeeded to his father Pepin in the year 768, at first conjointly with his brother Carloman, whose death, which took place soon after, left the elder brothor sole monarch of the Franks. The first act of Charles showed the warrior eager for conquest. He raised an army, and advanced with it beyond the Loire. For centuries barbarism had been continually making war upon civilization, conquering, destroying, or blending with it. The contest was not yet over, the amalgamation not perfect. The rude Austrasians of the Rhine had lately subdued the more polite Neustrians of the banks of the Seine. But Aquitaine and the southern provinces were, with respect to Neustria, what Neustria had been to Austrasia, far more civilized and Latinized; and the hate on one side equalled the desire of conquest and domination on the other. Pepin had vanquished the Aquitanians. Upon his death they rebelled, rallying round one of the family of their ancient dukes. But the courage of the southerns failed before the approach of Charles and his northern army; their troops dispersed, and their chief remained a prisoner. Charles, ere he retired, built the strong castle of Fronsac, on the banks of the Dordogne, and garrisoned it, to keep the malcontent province in subjection. The Franks had hitherto a hatred of towns, and a contempt of fortifications. This is the first instance amongst them of dominating a country by means of a fortress, and marks how advanced were the views of Charles beyond those of his time.

Charlemagne's next enemies were the Saxons-the most formidable and obstinate that he encountered during his reign. For the present, however, after a successful campaign in their wild country, his attention was called away towards Italy, where his conquests and alliances produced events as important in their consequences, perhaps, as any to be found in modern history.

If we contemplate the church from the fall of the Roman empire, we shall perceive that in the dark ages its struggle was unceasingly for dominion, authority, and wealth. Unable, perhaps, to make the barbarians feel the superiority of their sacred character, of their creed, and the morals that they taught by eloquence or argument alone, the priesthood felt i

requisite to gain temporal power, in order that their spiritual influence might be greater and more salutary. Some wealth was certainly necessary for them, as was some power. But this portion proved but a bait for the avarice and violence of the barbarians, and could only be rendered secure by its being rendered equal or superior to that possessed by the lay aristocracy.

As Rome was considered superior to all western cities, so was its bishop placed above other bishops. An imperial edict sanctioned this supremacy, which the Romanists vainly sought to found upon the text of the Gospel. Like other prelates, the pope endeavored to support his spiritual authority by temporal power; but whilst their position allowed them only to acquire territorial wealth and judicial independence, he aimed at sovereignty. When the head of the empire abandoned or was driven from the dominion which he exercised over Rome, as over other cities, the bishops, from the absence of other magistrates, and the total ruin of respectable families, laid hold of the authority thus abdicated, and ruled as delegates or inheritors of the imperial rights. Such was the claim put forth by the early popes. They aimed at sovereignty not only in Rome, but in the Imperial province or Exarchate, as the territory attached to Ravenna was called. The Lombard kings, however, sternly resisted these claims; and themselves, or their vassals, the dukes of Nepi or Spoleto, were in the habit of plundering, enslaving, of making or unmaking pontiffs, according as their interest prompted, or the fortune of war allowed.

In vain did the popes, with all their sacred character, struggle against the power of the sword. When Pepin, however, thought fit to apply to Rome for a title to his crown, the prospect of gaining so powerful an ally was eagerly laid hold on. Every wish of Pepin was granted, and in return his aid was sought against the Lombards. The grateful monarch led an army into Italy, and obliged Astolphus, their king, to yield up not only the territory round Rome, but the Exarchate, to the pope. We may suppose how reluctantly and imperfectly these stipulations were performed, especially after the departure of Pepin, who never afterwards found eisure to turn again his attention or arms towards Italy.

After the death of Pepin, the solicitations of the pope were renewed to his son, whose youthful ambition and piety were soon inflamed. Charles summoned his captains to meet him in the spring at Geneva. Under the Merovingians, these assemblies were the Champs de Mars,-March being the month of meeting. But as the Franks, from serving on foot, became cavaliers under the second race, the time was changed

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to May, for the sake of forage, and the assemblies were called Champs de Mai. From Geneva, Charlemagne passed the Alps, routing the Lombards, who opposed his passage. Their king, Desiderius, did not dare to meet the German monarch in the open field, but shut himself up in his capital, Pavia. The Franks invested it; but, unskilled in the art of attacking fortified places, they contented themselves with a strict blockade. Whilst it lasted, Charles advanced to visit the ancient seat of empire. He was received by pope Adrian with such honors as were paid to the Patrician or viceroy of the emperors. Every homage and attention were lavished, and Charles gratefully confirmed the gifts of Pepin to the church,-gifts, however, which he considered more in the light of a fief or benefice than as an absolute cession. He then returned to Pavia, which surrendered, together with its king. Thus ended the kingdom of the Lombards, and Italy became a province of the empire of the Franks.

No sooner was Italy conquered, than we find Charlemagne engaged with the Saxons, routing and slaughtering their armies, overrunning their country, and summoning his warriors to the Champ de Mai at Paderborn, and other remote places far within the German borders. Some historians consider this inveterate thirty years' war, which Charlemagne carried on against the Saxons, as proceeding from his hatred of barbarism, and his ardent desire to extend the pale of civilization. But this is too advanced and statesman-like an idea for the age. It seems to have been more from a wish to propagate Christianity that Charles wielded his sword so ruthlessly against the Saxons. The exploits and example of the Saracens had a great influence over him; and his wish to rival them is far more manifest in his acts and character than has been noticed.

It was long since the Saracens had completed the conquest of Spain, extended their dominions beyond the Pyrenees, and menaced even the empire of the Franks. Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, in a bloody victory gained over them near Poitiers, put a final check to the advance of the Saracens in that direction, and introduced the rival nations to the dread and esteem of each other. In that campaign, the Franks suffered greatly from the light horsemen of the Arabs; and it is very probable that the circumstance led them to adopt the mode of fighting on horseback, which soon after became general, and laid an essential foundation of the chevaleresque spirit.

The love of letters, and of those who cultivated them, with the ambition of founding learned institutions, was another trait of Charlemagne's character, caught in part, though not

exclusively, from the Saracens. And his system of propa gating Christianity by the sword, such as he practised against the Saxons, may be regarded as another principle of conduct and of glory imitated from the warlike votaries of the caliphs

The same motive would induce him still more, no doubt to direct his arms against the Saracens themselves. Such an expedition he did undertake. In 778, he passed the Py renees, took and dismantled the towns of Pampluna and Sar agossa, and compelled all the Arab princes of that region to swear fealty to him. On his return across the Pyrenees, nevertheless, they prepared an ambuscade. The Basques and Gascons, more hostile to the Franks than to the Saracens, joined their aid to the latter; and the united forces awaited Charlemagne and his victorious army as they traversed the valley of Roncesvaux. There never was a combat of which history has given so few details, and fable and poesy so many, as that of Roncesvaux. It appears that the rear-guard of Charlemagne was attacked and cut off. With it perished some of his bravest captains, or, as the romancers afterwards called them, his paladins. Amongst them was his nephew, the famous Roland, the hero of Ariosto, precisely chronicled by Eginhard, as prefect of the frontiers of Britany. The bad success of this expedition inspired Charlemagne with a disgust of warring against the Saracens. Their frontier was far from Charles's Austrasian province on the Rhine, which furnished his best and most attached soldiers, whilst he could expect nothing save disaffection and treachery from his subjects of Aquitaine.

The land of the Saxons bordered, on the contrary, upon his native dominions, and was not far from his chosen capital, Aix-la-Chapelle. This it behoved him to make the centre of his monarchy, and to repel from it by force of arms the dangerous vicinity of pagans and barbarians. Charlemagne had already led two expeditions against them. In the first, he had overthrown their great idol, and ruined his temple. In the next, he established fortresses and garrisons, compelling the people to be baptized, and to swear fealty to him. The Saxons, however, were not to be quelled by the same facile means as the civilized citizens of Gaul. Again and again they rose in insurrection, headed by Witikind, a hero worthy of being the rival of Charlemagne. As long as Witikind found the spirit of independence alive amongst the Saxons, or as often as he could awake it, he led them against the Franks; and when his vanquished countrymen submitted to the conqueror, he alone disdained to stoop, and fled across the Baltic, from whence he returned more than once to excite the Saxons against Charlemagne. The monarch of the Franks vowed

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to extirpate the stubborn pagans altogether, and for many successive years he wasted their country, that is, its population and cattle, with fire and sword. Even the proud spirit of Witikind was forced to bow before the conqueror; the Saxon hero appeared at the Champ de Mai, and vowed obedience to Charles. The latter, however, could not trust the Saxons. He transported immense numbers of them from the banks of the Elbe to the interior of his dominions, and at the same time divided their country into benefices, which he distributed to his prelates, that the remnant of the Saxons might become Christian as well as subject.

This is a fit place to mark an important point in Charlemagne's policy. As he conquered himself the greater part of his empire, he had to appoint the rulers or lords of provinces and districts; in other words, counts and dukes. He dreaded the aristocracy, which had raised his family on the ruins of the Merovingians; and his object was to prevent the great charges of the empire, and the governments of provinces, from becoming hereditary. He wanted to form a monarchy on the oriental plan, in which the nobles, enjoying privileges attached to their persons, not to their race, were unable to perpetuate and consolidate their power. This plan, obviously tending to despotism, was fortunately frustrated. Charlemagne's views in this respect led him to lean so much to the church, as to prefer bestowing territorial commands upon prelates rather than upon lay nobles. And the same principle governed both him and Pepin in their unaccountable generosity to the pope of Rome.

The year 800 is the date of a ceremony which, though but a ceremony, and produced in a great measure by accident, has had more influence upon the state of Europe than all the victories of the century. A conspiracy broke out in Rome against pope Leo III. : he was taken prisoner, maltreated, but contrived to escape. He fled for protection to Charlemagne ; and that monarch, receiving the fugitive with his wonted piety, led him back to Rome at the head of an army, rein stated him, and took vengeance upon his enemies. It was on the following Christmas that Charles, accompanied by his court and an immense assemblage, heard mass performed by Leo in the church of St. Peter's. At its conclusion, the pope advanced in procession towards the monarch, placed on his head a crown of gold, and saluted him by the titles of Emperor and Augustus. Thus was the empire of the west restored in the person of Charlemagne. The Frank was seated on the throne of the Cæsar. Nor was the ceremony, as we might deem it, an idle pomp;-it gave rights, and dignity, and power. Precedent and authority were the only logic of the