CHARLEMAGNE
617
CHARLEMAGNE
Bavaria, and Southern Alcmannia. But Pepin and
Charles pre-deceased the emperor, and in 813 the
magnates of the empire did homage at Aachen to
Louis the Pious as King of the Franks, and future sole
ruler of the great imperial state. Thus it was that the
Carlovingian Empire, as a dynastic institution, ended
with the death of Charles the Fat (SS8), while the
Holy Roman Empire, continued by Otto the Great
(968-973), lacked all that is now France. But the
idea of a Europe welded together out of various
races under the spiritual influence of one Catholic
Faith and one Vicar of Christ had been exhibited in
the concrete.
It remains to say something of the achievements of Charles the Great at home. His life was so full of movement, so made up of long journeys, that home in his case signifies little more than the personal environ- ment of his court, wherever it might happen to be on any given day. There was. it is true, a general prefer- ence for Austrasia, or Frankland (after Aachen, Worms. Nymwegen, and Ingleheim were favourite residences). He took a deep and intelligent interest in the agricultural development of the realm (see the "Capitularede villis", ed. Guerard, Paris, 1853) and in the growth of trade (see "Capitulare of N). r > ", in " Mon. Germ. Hist.: Leges", I, 133, also Ronciere, "Charle- magne et la civilisation maritime au IX siecle". in "Moyen Age", 1S97, 1, 201-23),bothdomesticand foreign. The civil legislative work of Charles consisted principally in organizing and codifying the principles of Prankish law handed down from antiquity; thus in 802 the laws of the Frisians. Thuringians, and Saxons were reduced to writing. Among these principles, it is important to note, was one by which no free man could be deprived of life or liberty without the judgment of his equals in the state. The spirit of his legislation was above all religious; he recognized as a basis and norm the ecclesi- astical canons, was wont to submit his projects of law to the bishops, or to give civil authority to the decrees of synods. More than once he made laws at the sug- gestion of popes or bishops. For administrative pur- ( State was divided into counties and hun- dreds, for the government of which counts and hun- dred-men were responsible. Side by side with the counts in the great national parliament {Reichstag, I in - which normally met in the spring, sat the bish- ii 1 the spiritual constituency was so closely inter- twined with the temporal that in reading of a "coun- cil" under Charles, it is not always easy to ascertain whether the particular proceedings are supposed to be those of a parliament or of a synod. Nevertheless this parliament or diet was essentially bicameral (civil and ecclesiastical), and the foregoing description applies to the mutual discussion of >• mixta or subjects per- taining to both orders. (See Hincmar, "De online palatii", ed. Prou, Paris. L885, ui "Biblioth. de l'ecole des Chartes, fasc. 58.) The one Frankish administra- tive institution to which Charles gave an entirely new character was that of the missi dominici, representa- tives (civil and ecclesiastical) of the royal authority. who from being royal messengers assumed under him functions much like those of papal legates, i. e. they were partly royal commissioners, partly itinerant gov- ernors. There were usually two for each provini ecclesiastic and a lay lord), and they were bound to visit their territory our times each year.
Between these missi and the local governors or counts the power of the former great cro\vn-\ (dukes, Herzdgi I was parcelled out. Local justice was administered by the aforesaid count [comet I in his court, held three times each year [pUtcitun erale), with the aid of sevi cdbini, rach-
imbwrgi), but there was a graduated appeal ending in the person of theemperor(seeFustcldeCoulanges. Ii gouvernement de Charlemagne ", in " Revue des deux -". Paris, 1876; also his "Transformations de la royaute* pendant l'lpoque carolingienne ", Paris. 1892,
and the classic work of G. Waitz. "Deutsche Verfas-
sungsgeschichte ", 3d ed., Berlin, 1882).
While enough has been said above to show how ready he was to interfere in the Church's sacred domain, it does not appear that this propensity arose from motives discreditable to his religious character. It would be absurd to pretend that Charles the Great was a consistent lifelong hypocrite ; if he was not, then his keen practical interest in all that pertained to the services of the Church, his participation even in the chanting of the choir (though, as his biographer says, "in a subdued voice"), his fastidious attention to questions of rites and ceremonies (Monachus Sangal- lensis), go to show, like many other traits related of him, that his strong rough nature was really im- pregnated with zeal, however mistaken at times, for the earthly glory of God. He sought to elevate and perfect the clergy, both monastic and secular, the latter through the enforcement of the I Ua Canonica or common life (Bartoli, "La polizia ecclesiastica nella legislazione carolingica ", Rome, 1899). Tithes were strictly enforced for the support of the clergy and the dignity of public worship. Ecclesiastical immunities (q. v.) were recognized and pro- tected, the bishops held to frequent visitation of their dioceses, a regular religious instruction of the people provided for, and in the ver- nacular tongue. Through Alcuin he caused corrected copies of the Scriptures to be placed in the churches ("Monumenta Alcuiniana", ed. Jafte, 1873, VI, 529), and earned great credit for G B ^ T ° P N ^DootSt his improvement of the much given at Aachen, 9 May, depraved text of the Latin 813
Vulgate (S. Berger, "Hist, de la Vulgate pen- dant les premiers siecles du moyen age". Paris, 1893). Education, for aspirants to the priesthood at least, was furthered by the royal order of 787 to all bishops and abbots to keep open in their cathedrals and mon- asteries schools for the study of the seven liberal arts and the interpretation of the Script ures. He did much also to improve ecclesiastical music, and founded schools of church-song at Metz, Soissons, and St. Gall. For the contemporary development of Christian civilization through Alcuin, Einhard, and other scholars, Italian and Irish, and for the king's personal attainments in literature, see Cahi.ovincian
» ii .s;Alccjin; Einhard. He spoke Latin well, and
loved to listen to the reading of the works of St. Augus- tine, especially "The City of God". He understood Greek, but was especially devoted to his Frankish (Old-German) mother tongue; its terms for the months and the various winds are owing to him. He attempted also to produce a German grammar, and Einhard tells us that he caused the ancient folk-songs and hero-tales (barbara atque aniiquissima enrmina) to be collected; unfortunately this collection ceased to be appreciated and was lost at a later date.
From boyhood Charles had evinced strong domes- tic affections. Judged, perhaps, by the mon fectly developed Christian standard's of a later day, his matrimonial relations were far from blameless; but it would be unjust to criticize by any such ethical rules the obscurely transmitted accounts of his
domestic life which have come down to us. For a
defence of his reputation in this respect, see Weber in " kirchenlexikon".VII,ir>7 70;cf."CiviltaCattolica", 1863, V, 40, and Liechty, "Les Pemmes de Charle- magne", in "Revue du Monde Cathohque" (Paris, 1880). What ascertain (and pleasant er to contemplate) is the picture, which his contemporaries have left us. of
