Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/684

 EUROPE

610

EUROPE

the state religion of Rome since tlie time of Constan- tine the Great, with a. more stable power, the united West Germans.

The West Germans, although their migrations were not very extended, had changed their habitations as follows: in the fourth century the Alamanni advanced into Alsace and in the fifth century took entire posses- sion of it, spreading towards the north as far as Co- blenz. The Franks were divided into the Ripuarian and Salian Franks; the former settled on both sides of the middle and lower Rhine, the latte:»iidvanced from the Scheldt to the Sorame. Towards the entl of the third century the Saxons advanced from the Elbe to the Rhine; in the fifth century, with the aid of the Angles, they conquered Britain; the former inhabit- ants of Britain took refuge in Wales and France and gave their name to Brittany. The Frisians settled on thecoast and islands of Schleswig-Holstein; the Thu- ringians spread from the lower Elbe to the southern bank of the Main. The Bajuvarii went farthest south. At the time of the birth of Christ they lived in modern Bohemia; about 500 their territory extemled from the Lech to the Enns and from the Danube to the junction of the Eisack and the Atlige. The region occupied by the tribes just named enlarged the scene of European history; all that was now needed was the political and spiritual union of tiiese peoples to make them the lead- ing people of Europe. The political union was brought about by the Franks, the spiritual union bj' Christianity. In the end these were comljineil into a form of theocracy which, by a rapid series of victories, conquered not only Southern Europe, but also Middle and Eastern Europe as well.

Just as the fifth century passed into the sixth (481— 511) Clovis, King of the Salian Franks, forcibly sub- dued the most important of the surrountling tribes; he led them to embrace Christianitj^ after his own conversion. Clovis first united what was left of the Roman Empire on the Seine and Loire with his own domain and made Paris his capital. After this he sub- dued the Alamanni on the Rhine, Mosel, Lower Main, and Neckar; as the champion of the doctrines of Ro- man Christianity, he conquered the King of the Arian Visigoths near Poitiers (507) and seized the A'isigothic territory between the Loire and the Garonne. By overthrowing the petty SaUan chiefs and the royal family of the Ripuarian Franks, he made himself the ruler of aO the Frankish tribes. The work was com- pleted by liis fom' sons, who seized the territories of the Thuringians and Burgundians, forced the Ostrogoths to give up Provence and Rhaetia, and obtained by treaties sovereignty over the Bajuvarii.

Thus was laid the foundation of the Franco-Chris- tian Empire which opened to Christianity a new mis- sionary field to be won over to the Faith onlj' by properly trained apostles. The training was given in the monastic institutions which, in imitation of the East, had now spread over all of Western Europe. One of the chief factors in the conversion of the heathen was the Order of St. Benedict of Nursia, en- couraged by Gregory the Cireat. The precursors of the Benedictines wereSt. Patrick (482) and St. Columba (about 550), who converted Ireland and Scotland, while the Anglo-SaxonsreceivedCliristianity from the Benedictine Augustine (.596), who had been specially sent by Rome. At the death of St. Patrick there were in Ireland several bishops, numerous priests ami many mona.steries; his own see was Armagh. Columba founded the celebrated monastery on the Island of lona, between Ireland and Scotland, which was the centre of the Scotcli missions and dioceses. The .\l>- bot .\ug:ustine and his coni))anions erected the metro- politan Sees of Canterbtiry (I)uroveriuun), York (Eboracum), and the sec of London; in the course of the seventh century the succes.sors of .\ugvistine, Mellitus and Theodore of Tarsus, completed Iiis work.

A glorious band of self-sacrificing apostles of the

Faith, from Coltmibanus and Gallus to Boniface, car- ried Christianity from the British Isles to the Conti- nent. They founded their work on what scanty re- mains of Clu-istianity still existed in the former Roman provinces. In the fifth century Severinus and ^'alen- tinus laboiu'ed in south-eastern Germany. They found the remains of nearly obliterated sees in Lorch, Pettau, Windisch in Switzerland, Chur, Basle, Stras- burg, .\venches in Switzerland, Martigny, and Geneva, but the Teutonic migrations and the disorders conse- quent on them had almost destroyed the life of the Church. About 610 Cohmibanus crossed the \'osges mountains, where he had founded the monasteries of Annegray and LuxeuU, anil came to Lake Constance; here from Bregenz as a centre he preached Christianity, while his companion St. Gall liecame the founder of the celebrated monastery of St. Gall. In the early part of the seventh century the monks Agilus and Eustasius, of the monastery of LiLxeuil, preached the Ciospel in Bavaria; they were followed by Rupert of Worms and Emmeram of Aquitaine. St. Corbinian laboured as the first Bishop of Freising. and KOian in Wiirzburg. Ecclesiastical life on the Rhine was largely developed by Bishops Xicetius of Trier, Ctmibert of Cologne, Dragobodo of Speyer, Amandus, Lambert, and Hugo of Maastricht. The Gospel was brought to the Fri- sians by Wilfrid of York and Willibrord of Korthum- bria; the latter erected a see at L'trecht. Willibrord's companion, Suidbert, went into the countship of Mark m the region of the Weser, Lippe, and Ruhr Rivers; the brothers Ewald laboured with little success among the Saxons. An organization including all these countries was not establisheti imtil the appearance of the greatest of the apostles of the Germans, St. Boni- face. He entered on his career in the time of the Car- lovingian Mayors of the Palace, who were destined to realize the union of Church and State in Western Europe.

Repeated divisions of the kingdom, disputes as to succession, civO wars, and the power of the nobles almost brought the great Frankish kingdom to dis- solution. It was saved from utter ruin by Pepin of Heristal, Mayor of the Palace (Major donuis), who gradually took control of the government. In 687 Pepin won for himself the position of Mayor of the Palace of Xeustria and Burgundy, in addition to that for .\ustrasia which he already held; in this way he re- united the kingdom. He then undertook the con- quest of the tribes which had broken loose from the Frankish rule and encouraged the missions to the W'est Frisians. His son Charles Martel, who was not less active, held a position of such power that he was able, in the great battle of Poitiers, 732, to protect Chris- tian German civilization against the attempt of Islam to conquer the world. Pepin the Short, the son of Charles, brought about the union of Church and State which had so great an influence on the history of the world. Having obtained the title of king in 752, his first task was to defend Pope Stephen II, who had ap- peale<l to him for aid, from the attacks of the Lom- bards; this was followed by the so-called " Donation of Pepin ", a grant of territory to the pope which was the foundation of the later States of the Church Their mutual engagements fixed not only their ow-n policy but also that of their successors. Like Pepin, his famous son Charlemagne lent his support to the Holy See, and all his conquests were undertaken for the good of the Church and Christianity. By successful campaigns against Aquitaine, the Lombards, .\vars, Saxons, and Danes, and by treaties with the Slavic peoples, Charlemagne increased his domain luitil it extemled from the Eliro and the Apennines to the Eider River in Schleswig-Holstein, and from the At- lantic to the Elbe and the Raab. His kingdom be- came a world-empire and he him.self one of the great rulers of history, worthy of reviving the Western Ro- man Empire. He was crowned, Christmas Day, 800,