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Charlemagne's Renaissance

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The Story of the Middle Ages Charlemagne’s Renaissance The Age of the Carolingians THE END OF THE MEROVINGIANS – BONIFACE - THE OAK OF JUPITER – THE ARCHITECT OF MEDIEVAL REBIRTH - CHARLEMAGNE – ADELCHIS – A DESCRIPTION OF CHARLEMAGNE - CHANGES – CHRISTMAS DAY, 800 – HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR - INSPIRER OF TALES - ROLAND BECOMES A KNIGHT – A FLOURISHING OF LETTERS - CAROLINGIAN VS. MEROVINGIAN SCRIPT - THE BEST MAN ON EARTH - CHARLEMAGNE'S LIFE DRAWS TO A CLOSE - LINDISFARNE - LETTER TO HIGBALD - THE MYTH OF POPE JOAN – THE BOOK OF KELLS H. A. Guerber: “The End of the Merovingians” From The Story of Old France (AD 1910) Charles Martel, having conquered such dreaded enemies as the Saracens, was the most powerful man in the country, and he exercised the royal power unhindered until his death in 741. He made kings at will, but the Merovingian princes were so weak and useless that for five years he actually left the throne vacant and ruled alone. When he died, the realm was divided between his two sons; but they were allies, and before long one of [66] them entered a monastery to do penance for his sins, leaving the other—whose name was Pippin, like his famous grandfather—to rule alone. This Pippin, son of Charles the Hammer, was so small of stature that he is known in history as Pippin the Short (le Bref), but he was nevertheless very strong, brave, and ambitious. It seemed to him so ridiculous to set one idiotic Merovingian prince after another upon the throne that he decided it would be better to become king himself. ... Pippin, therefore, wishing to make sure that none of the clergy would oppose him, sent two men to the Pope to ask who should be king, the man who wore the crown or the man who ruled the people? The Pope sent back word, "That it were better that he should be king who really exercised the royal power." Pippin was sure now of the approval of the priests and monks, and he had secured the good will of the nobles also by his wise and able government. But we are told that the Austrasians—who admired nothing so much as strength and courage—were rather inclined to look down upon him simply because he was so small. One day, it is said, when he and many of his followers were at the circus, watching a fierce fight between a lion and a wild bull, he suddenly asked who would dare to spring down into the pit, and go and rescue the bull, which was getting the worst in the fray. None of the warriors present stirred, so Pippin boldly jumped down in the arena, drew his sword, and with one strong, swift blow struck off the head of the raging lion. Then turning to the spectators, [67] who were applauding him madly, he exclaimed, "There, am I not worthy to be your king?" The people evidently thought he was, for soon after, when assembled at Soissons, they raised him on a shield, thus proclaiming him king over all the Franks. This was in 752. The hair of the last "do-nothing king" was cut off, and the rule of the Merocingians ended, after having family, descended from the Pippins, was to be known as the Carolingians (or Carlovingians), because its greatest men were Charles the Hammer and Charles the Great, and the Latin name for Charles is Carolus. Pippin was so anxious that everyone should consider him a lawful king, that he was actually crowned twice, the second ceremony being performed at Rheims, by the Pope himself. This Pope had come to France to ask Pippin to fight the Lombards in Italy, with whom he had quarreled. Pippin, who had already won many victories over the Saxons, and compelled them to pay tribute and to receive the missionaries kindly, now led a large army southward. He defeated the Lombards and made them give up a tract of land in Italy near Ravenna. This land was bestowed upon the Holy See,—as the bishopric of Rome is called,—so for the next thousand years the Pope was head of a state, as well as head of the Church. He is therefore said to have had temporal as well as spiritual power. Not satisfied with all these triumphs, Pippin next conquered southern France, and before he died his kingdom included nearly all the space between the Elbe and the Pyrenees, the ocean and the Alps. Pippin was a good ruler as well as a brave general, and every year he carefully presided over the assembly, which was now held in May. It was different from the old Field of March, because the clergy were present as well as the warriors, and while the latter still decided all matters of war, the former gave the king good advice concerning the government of the country. Judith M. Bennet and C. Warren Hollister: “Boniface” From Medieval Europe: A Short History (AD 2006) While Charles Martel and Pepin the Short were solidifying the Carolingian dynasty, another sort of consolidation was happening outside the borders of Francia: the expansion of Western Christendom through missionary activity. Anglo-Saxon monasteries, enriched by the dual traditions of Ireland and Rome, were then the most vibrant in the West, and they produced monks – and sometimes nuns – who became the evangelists of the seventh and eighth centuries.... The key figure in this effort was the Anglo-Saxon monk, St. Boniface. Reared in the monasteries of southern Britain, Boniface left his native Wessex in 716 to evangelize among the Frisians. From then until his death in 754, he devoted himself above all to Christianizing the pagans of Frisia, Thuringia, Hesse, and Bavaria. Well over six feet tall (a giant of a man by contemporary standards), he became famous among pagans for chopping down one of their sacred oaks. Judith M. Bennet and C. Warren Hollister, Medieval Europe: A Short History, McGraw Hill, Boston, 2006, pp. 102-103. Willibald: “The Oak of Jupiter” From The Life of Boniface (Mid-Eighth Century AD) Now many of the Hessians who at that time had acknowledged the... faith were confirmed by the grace of the Holy Spirit and received the laying-on of hands. But others, not yet strong in the spirit, refused to accept the pure teachings of the church in their entirety. Moreover, some continued secretly, others openly, to offer sacrifices to trees and springs, to inspect the entrails of victims; some practiced divination, legerdemain, and incantations; some turned their attention to auguries, auspices, and other sacrificial rites; while others, of a more reasonable character, forsook all the profane practices of the Gentiles [i.e., pagans] and committed none of these crimes. With the counsel and advice of the latter persons, Boniface in their presence attempted to cut down, at a place called Gaesmere, a certain oak of extraordinary size called in the old tongue of the pagans the Oak of Jupiter. Taking his courage in his hands (for a great crowd of pagans stood by watching and bitterly cursing in their hearts the enemy of the gods), he cut the first notch. But when he had made a superficial cut, suddenly, the oak's vast bulk, shaken by a mighty blast of wind from above crashed to the ground shivering its topmost branches into fragments in its fall. As if by the express will of God (for the brethren present had done nothing to cause it) the oak burst asunder into four parts, each part having a trunk of equal length. At the sight of this extraordinary spectacle the heathens who had been cursing ceased to revile and began, on the contrary, to believe and bless the Lord. Thereupon the holy bishop took counsel with the brethren, built an oratory from the timber of the oak and dedicated it to Saint Peter the Apostle. Judith M. Bennet and C. Warren Hollister: “The Architect of Medieval Rebirth” From Medieval Europe: A Short History (AD 2006) After Charles Martel's death in 741, Boniface was able to turn his energy to Francia itself... The Frankish Church itself stood in urgent need of reform. Many areas had no priests at all; the beliefs of some peasants veered close to paganism at times; and priests themselves were even reported to have hedged their bets by sacrificing animals to pagan deities. With encouragement from Carloman and Pepin the Short, Boniface called a series of synods to reform the Frankish Church. Working closely with the papacy, [he saw to many of the Church's greatest needs, spiritual, administrative, and educational.] ... In doing so, he also served as the chief architect of the Carolingian cultural revival. Judith M. Bennet and C. Warren Hollister, Medieval Europe: A Short History, McGraw Hill, Boston, 2006, pp. 103. H. E. Marshall: “Charlemagne” From The Story of Europe (AD 1920) Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, became King of the Franks when his father Pippin died. He was the greatest ruler of his time; and for hundreds of years after his death his influence continued to be felt in Western Europe. If Columbus had never been born, America would have been discovered just the same; and if Luther had never lived there would nevertheless have been a Reformation in the church. But if Charlemagne had never been King of the Franks, and made himself Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire,—as we shall see that he did,—the whole history of the Middle Ages would have been very different from what it actually was. At first Charlemagne's brother ruled with him as King; but within three years the brother died, and then Charlemagne ruled as sole King of the Franks.
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