Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/159

741-751] political duty and a wider outlook upon life. In the chansons de geste the two personages were afterwards confused.

Charles' sons, Carloman and Pepin, rendered some service to France. They defeated Hunald duke of Aquitaine, the successor of Eudo, and when Hunald had retired to a monastery in the Île de Rhé they defeated his son Waifar also. They took from the Alemans the last vestiges of their independence. They forced Odilo duke of Bavaria to give up to them a portion of his territories — doubtless the Nordgau — and obliged him to acknowledge their suzerainty. They made a series of incursions into Saxony. But the two brothers were not to govern jointly for long. In 747 came an unexpected change. Carloman, fired by religious zeal, relinquished his throne in order to become a monk. At Rome, which was more and more coming to be considered the capital of Western Europe, he received the priestly vestments from Pope Zachary, and founded on Mount Soracte a monastery dedicated to St Sylvester, a name full of significance since at that time the legend was widely current of the Emperor Constantine's "donation of Italy" to Pope Sylvester. Carloman had children, whom he had committed to the care of his brother; but Pepin gradually got them out of the way and drew all authority into his own hands.

Pepin, now sole Mayor of the Palace, from this time forward aimed still higher. He desired the title of king. For two years a profound peace had reigned — et quievit terra a proeliis annis duobus, says the chronicler, borrowing the expression from the Book of Joshua. The moment seemed propitious for the decisive step. Pepin proceeded with great caution. He was especially desirous of securing the approval of the highest moral authority of the age. He sent to Pope Zachary an embassy consisting of Fulrad, abbot of St Denis, and Burchard, bishop of Worms, a disciple of St Boniface, and laid before him a question regarding the kings who still nominally held the royal authority. The Pope replied that it would be better that he should be king who held the reality of power rather that he who only possessed the semblance of royalty. Pope Zachary gave a written decision — auctoritas — to that effect. Armed with this authoritative pronouncement Pepin called together at Soissons in November 751 an assembly of the Franks. There he was unanimously chosen king; unlike the Merovingians, therefore, he held his throne by right of election. But besides this he had himself, like the Anglo-Saxon kings, consecrated by the bishops, and it may safely be conjectured that St Boniface presided at the ceremony. In virtue of this anointing, Pepin, king by election, became also king "by the Grace of God." King Childeric was shut up in the monastery of St Bertin, and the manner of his death is unknown. The Merovingian dynasty was ended: a new period opened in the history of France.