Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/680

 CHARLEMAGNE

614

CHARLEMANGE

pendous period of ploughing and sowing that had gone before; and Charles' nature was of a type that appears to best advantage in storm and stress. What was to lie the Western Empire of the Middle Ages was already hewn out in the rough when Wittekind received baptism. From that date until the coronation of Charles at Rome, in 800, his military work was chiefly in suppressing risings of the newly conquered or quell- ing the discontent of jealous subject princes. Thrice in these fifteen years did the Saxons rise, only to be defeated. Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, had been a more or less rebellious vassal ever since the beginning of Ins reign, and Charles now made use of the pope's influ- ence, exercised through the powerful bishops of Freis- ing, Salzburg, and Regensburg (Ratisbon), to bring him to terms. In 786 a Thuringian revolt was quelled by the timely death, blinding, and banishment of its leaders. Next year the Lombard prince, Areghis, having fortified himself at Salerno, had actually been crowned King of the Lombards when Charles de- scended upon him at Beneventum, received his sub- mission, and took his son Grimwald as a hostage, after which, finding that Tassilo had been secretly asso- ciated with the conspiracy of the Lombards, he in- vaded Bavaria from three sides with three armies drawn from at least five nationalities. Once more the influence of the Holy See .settled the Bavarian question in Charles' favour; Adrian threatened Tassilo with excommunication if he persisted in rebellion, and as the Duke's own subjects refused to follow him to the field, he personally made submission, did hom- age, and in return received from Charles a new lease of his duchy (October, 787).

During this period the national discontent with Fastrada culminated in a plot in which Pepin the Hunchback, Charles' son by Himiltrude, was impli- cated, and though his life was spared through his father's intercession, Pepin spent what remained of his days in a monastery. Another son of Charles (Carloman, afterwards called Pepin, and crowned King of Lombardy at Rome in 781, on the occasion of an Easter visit by the king, at which time also his brother Louis was crowned King of Aquitaine) served his father in dealing with the Avars, a pagan danger on the eastern frontier, compared with which the invasion of Septimania by the Saracens (793) was but an insig- nificant incident of border warfare. These Avars, probably of Turanian blood, occupied the territories north of the Save and west of the Theiss. Tassilo had invited their assistance against his overlord; and after the Duke's final submission Charles invaded their country and conquered it as far as the Raab (791). By the capture of the famous "Ring" of the Avars, with its nine concentric circles, Charles came into pos- session of vast quantities of gold and silver, parts of the plunder which these barbarians had been accumu- lating for two centuries. In this campaign King Pepin of Lombardy co-operated with his father, with forces drawn from Italy; the later stages of this war (which may be considered the last of Charles' great wars) were left in the hands of the younger king.

The last stages by which the story of Charles' career is brought to its climax touch upon the exclusive spirit- ual domain of the Church. He had never ceased to

interest himself in the deliberations of synods, and this interest extended (an example that wrought fatal re- sults in after ages! to the discussion of questions which

would now be regarded as purely dogmatic. Charles interfered in favour of orthodoxy in the dispute about the Adoptionist heresy (see Adoptionism; Alctjin; Frankfort, Council op). His interference was less pleasing to Adrian in the matter of (conoclasm, a her- esy with which the Empress-mother Irene and Tara-

Patriarch of Constantinople, had dealt in the

Second Council ol Nicsa. The Synod of Frankfort, wrongly informed, but inspired by Charles, took upon itself to condemn the aforesaid Council, although the

latter had the sanction of the Holy See (see Caroline

Books). In the year 797 the Eastern Emperor Con-

stantine VI, with whom his mother Irene had for

some time been at variance, was by her dethroned,

imprisoned, and blinded. It is significant of Charles'

position as de facto Emperor of the West that Irene

sent envoys to Aachen to lay before Charles her

side of this horrible story. It is also to be noted

that the popular impression that Constantine had

been put to death, and the aversion to committing

the imperial sceptre to a woman's hand, also bore

upon what followed. Lastly, it was to Charles alone

that the Christians of the East were now crying

out for succour against the threatening advance

of the Moslem Caliph Haroun al Raschia. In 795

Adrian I died (25 Dec), deeply regretted by Charles,

who held this pope in great esteem and caused a Latin

metrical epitaph to be prepared for the papal tomb

(Gregorovius-

Ampere, " Les

tombeaux des

papes", Paris,

1859, also "Lib.

Pont.", ed.

Duchesne, Paris,

1886,1,523). In

787 Charles had

visited Rome for

the third time in

theinterestofthe

popeand his secure possession of the Pat rimony of Peter.

Leo III (q. v.), the immediate successor of Adrian I, notified Charles of his election (26 Dec, 795) to the Holy See. The king sent in return rich presents by Abbot Angilbert, whom he commissioned to deal with the pope in all matters pertaining to the royal office of Roman Patrician. While this letter is respectful and even affectionate, it also exhibits Charles' concept of the co-ordination of the spiritual and temporal powers, nor does he hesitate to remind the pope of his grave spiritual obligations (Jaffe, Bibl. Rer. Germ., IV, 354- 56). The new pope, a Roman, had bitter enemies in the Eternal City who spread the most damaging reports of his previous life. At length (25 April, 799) he was waylaid in the streets, maltreated, and left uncon- scious. After escaping to St. Peter's he was rescued by two of the king's missi, who came with a consid- erable force. The Duke of Spoleto sheltered the fugi- tive pope, who went later to Paderborn, where the king's camp then was. Charles received the Vicar of Christ with all due reverence. Leo was sent back to Rome escorted by royal missi; the insurgents, thor- oughly frightened and unable to convince Charles of the pope's iniquity, surrendered, and the missi sent Paschalis and Campulus, nephews of Adrian I and ringleaders against Pope Leo, to the king, to be dealt with at the royal pleasure.

Charles was in no hurry to take final action in this matter. He settled various affairs connected with the frontier beyond the Elbe, with the protection of the Balearic Isles against the Saracens, and of Northern Gaul against Scandinavian sea-rovers, spent most of the winter at Aachen, ami was at St. Riquier for Easter. About this time, too, he was occupied at the deathbed of Liutgarde, the queen whom he had married on the death of fastrada (794). At Tours he con- ferred with Alcuin, then summoned the host of the Franks to meet at Mainz and announced to them his

intention of again proceeding to Home. Filtering Italy by the Brenner Pass, lie travelled by way of Ancona and Perugia to Xoinent uni. where Topi- Leo met him and the two entered bom. together. A synod was held and the charges against Leo pro- nounced false. ' In this occasion the Prankish bishops declared themselves unauthorized to pass judgment on

the Apostolic See. Of his own free will l.eo. under

oath, declared publicly in St. Peter's that he was inno-