Chương Chương 27 · Of Emperor And Tried To Revive The Old Ideal Of World-Empire

The battle of Poitiers had saved Europe from the Mohammedans. But

the enemy within—the hopeless disorder which had followed the

disappearance of the Roman police officer—that enemy remained. It is

true that the new converts of the Christian faith in Northern Europe

felt a deep respect for the mighty Bishop of Rome. But that poor

bishop did not feel any too safe when he looked toward the distant

mountains. Heaven knew what fresh hordes of barbarians were ready to

cross the Alps and begin a new attack on Rome. It was necessary—very

necessary—for the spiritual head of the world to find an ally with a

strong sword and a powerful fist who was willing to defend His Holiness

in case of danger.

And so the Popes, who were not only very holy but also very practical,

cast about for a friend, and presently they made overtures to the most

promising of the Germanic tribes who had occupied north-western Europe

after the fall of Rome. They were called the Franks. One of their

earliest kings, called Merovech, had helped the Romans in the battle of

the Catalaunian fields in the year 451 when they defeated the Huns. His

descendants, the Merovingians, had continued to take little bits of

imperial territory until the year 486 when king Clovis (the old French

word for “Louis”) felt himself strong enough to beat the Romans in the

open. But his descendants were weak men who left the affairs of state

to their Prime minister, the “Major Domus” or Master of the Palace.

Pepin the Short, the son of the famous Charles Martel, who succeeded

his father as Master of the Palace, hardly knew how to handle the

situation. His royal master was a devout theologian, without any

interest in politics. Pepin asked the Pope for advice. The Pope who

was a practical person answered that the “power in the state belonged

to him who was actually possessed of it.” Pepin took the hint. He

persuaded Childeric, the last of the Merovingians to become a monk

and then made himself king with the approval of the other Germanic

chieftains. But this did not satisfy the shrewd Pepin. He wanted to

be something more than a barbarian chieftain. He staged an elaborate

ceremony at which Boniface, the great missionary of the European

northwest, anointed him and made him a “King by the grace of God.”

It was easy to slip those words, “Dei gratia,” into the coronation

service. It took almost fifteen hundred years to get them out again.

Pepin was sincerely grateful for this kindness on the part of the

church. He made two expeditions to Italy to defend the Pope against

his enemies. He took Ravenna and several other cities away from the

Longobards and presented them to His Holiness, who incorporated

these new domains into the so-called Papal State, which remained an

independent country until half a century ago.

After Pepin’s death, the relations between Rome and Aix-la-Chapelle or

Nymwegen or Ingelheim, (the Frankish Kings did not have one official

residence, but travelled from place to place with all their ministers

and court officers,) became more and more cordial. Finally the Pope and

the King took a step which was to influence the history of Europe in a

most profound way.

Charles, commonly known as Carolus Magnus or Charlemagne, succeeded

Pepin in the year 768. He had conquered the land of the Saxons in

eastern Germany and had built towns and monasteries all over the

greater part of northern Europe. At the request of certain enemies of

Abd-ar-Rahman, he had invaded Spain to fight the Moors. But in the

Pyrenees he had been attacked by the wild Basques and had been forced

to retire. It was upon this occasion that Roland, the great Margrave of

Brittany, showed what a Frankish chieftain of those early days meant

when he promised to be faithful to his King, and gave his life and that

of his trusted followers to safeguard the retreat of the royal army.

During the last ten years of the eighth century, however, Charles was

obliged to devote himself exclusively to affairs of the South. The

Pope, Leo III, had been attacked by a band of Roman rowdies and had

been left for dead in the street. Some kind people had bandaged his

wounds and had helped him to escape to the camp of Charles, where he

asked for help. An army of Franks soon restored quiet and carried Leo

back to the Lateran Palace which ever since the days of Constantine,

had been the home of the Pope. That was in December of the year 799. On

Christmas day of the next year, Charlemagne, who was staying in Rome,

attended the service in the ancient church of St. Peter. When he arose

from prayer, the Pope placed a crown upon his head, called him Emperor

of the Romans and hailed him once more with the title of “Augustus”

which had not been heard for hundreds of years.

Once more Northern Europe was part of a Roman Empire, but the dignity

was held by a German chieftain who could read just a little and never

learned to write. But he could fight and for a short while there was

order and even the rival emperor in Constantinople sent a letter of

approval to his “dear Brother.”

Unfortunately this splendid old man died in the year 814. His sons

and his grandsons at once began to fight for the largest share of

the imperial inheritance. Twice the Carolingian lands were divided,

by the treaties of Verdun in the year 843 and by the treaty of

Mersen-on-the-Meuse in the year 870. The latter treaty divided the

entire Frankish Kingdom into two parts. Charles the Bold received the

western half. It contained the old Roman province called Gaul where the

language of the people had become thoroughly romanized. The Franks soon

learned to speak this language and this accounts for the strange fact

that a purely Germanic land like France should speak a Latin tongue.

[Illustration: THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE OF GERMAN NATIONALITY]

The other grandson got the eastern part, the land which the Romans had

called Germania. Those inhospitable regions had never been part of the

old Empire. Augustus had tried to conquer this “far east,” but his

legions had been annihilated in the Teutoburg Wood in the year 9 and

the people had never been influenced by the higher Roman civilisation.

They spoke the popular Germanic tongue. The Teuton word for “people”

was “thiot.” The Christian missionaries therefore called the German

language the “lingua theotisca” or the “lingua teutisca,” the “popular

dialect” and this word “teutisca” was changed into “Deutsch” which

accounts for the name “Deutschland.”

As for the famous Imperial Crown, it very soon slipped off the heads

of the Carolingian successors and rolled back onto the Italian plain,

where it became a sort of plaything of a number of little potentates

who stole the crown from each other amidst much bloodshed and wore it

(with or without the permission of the Pope) until it was the turn of

some more ambitious neighbour. The Pope, once more sorely beset by his

enemies, sent north for help. He did not appeal to the ruler of the

west-Frankish kingdom, this time. His messengers crossed the Alps and

addressed themselves to Otto, a Saxon Prince who was recognised as the

greatest chieftain of the different Germanic tribes.

Otto, who shared his people’s affection for the blue skies and the gay

and beautiful people of the Italian peninsula, hastened to the rescue.

In return for his services, the Pope, Leo VIII, made Otto “Emperor,”

and the eastern half of Charles’ old kingdom was henceforth known as

the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.”

[Illustration: THE MOUNTAIN-PASS]

This strange political creation managed to live to the ripe old age

of eight hundred and thirty-nine years. In the year 1801, (during the

presidency of Thomas Jefferson,) it was most unceremoniously relegated

to the historical scrapheap. The brutal fellow who destroyed the old

Germanic Empire was the son of a Corsican notary-public who had made a

brilliant career in the service of the French Republic. He was ruler of

Europe by the grace of his famous Guard Regiments, but he desired to

be something more. He sent to Rome for the Pope and the Pope came and

stood by while General Napoleon placed the imperial crown upon his own

head and proclaimed himself heir to the tradition of Charlemagne. For

history is like life. The more things change, the more they remain the

same.