Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/414

402 to the disherison of their lawful heirs. It is accordingly enacted that no real property, or money to be laid out in the purchase of real property, shall be transferred in any way in trust for the benefit of any charitable use whatso ever, unless such gift be executed by deed at least twelve months before the donor s death, and enrolled in the Court of Chancery within six months of its execution. Gifts to the universities and colleges are excepted under the Act. Gifts to uses which are superstitious within the Acts of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. are still held to be void. Many Acts have bsen passed within the present century for the better regulation of charities. The Lord Chan cellor was always understood to have a prerogative juris diction, as representing the king, who is parens patrice, over these public trusts. The Act of Elizabeth, as we have seen, gave him authority to appoint commissioners of inquiry, and under that Act the Court of Chancery developed some very important doctrines regarding charities, The chancellor s commissions fell into disuse, and it was found more convenient to proceed by way of information on the part of the Attorney-General. It will be easily understood that great abuses must have sprung up under a system of control which was by its very nature casual, litigious, and intermittent. In the case of charitable cor porations with visitors of their own, the power of the court to interfere was to a certain extent restricted by the visitatorial jurisdiction. In 1818 began a series of public investigations into charitable funds, which has by no means yet come to an end. At the instance of Lord Brougham, a commission was appointed to inquire into the educational charities, but the universities and large schools were exempted from its operation. A second commission with further powers was appointed under the 59 Geo. III. c. 81, and continued until 1830. Charities under special visitors were still exempted, but this exemption was discon tinued when the third commission, under 1 and 2 Will. IV. c. 34, was appointed. In the reports of the commis sion it is stated that the worst cases of abuse and malad ministration were found in charities having special visitors. Grammar schools in that position are described as being especially deplorable. A fourth commission was appointed in 1835. The reports of these various commissions, and of a House of Commons committee on the same subject, called public attention to the abuses of charity administra tion. After many efforts the Charitable Trusts Act of 1853 was passed. By this and the amending Acts, perma nent commissioners were appointed with extensive powers. It is their duty to inquire into the management of charities, and to insist on accounts being laid before them, and they are now enabled to undertake the administrative business in respect of charities which belonged to the Court of Chancery. Contentious business is still remitted into court, but the rest is carried through in the office of the commissioners. In cases requiring such intervention, they send a certificate to the Attorney-General, who takes such proceedings thereon as he may think proper. The universities and their colleges, cathedrals, and generally all charities connected with religious worship, or supported solely by voluntary contributions, are exempted from the jurisdiction of the commissioners. Endowed schools were, by the Endowed Schools Act 1869, handed over to a separate commission, and the powers of the Court of Chancery and Charity Commissioners were restricted with respect to them. More recently the Endowed Schools Commission has been allowed to expire, and its duties have been assigned to the Charity Commission. There are still many chanties in England which the powers of the Charity Commissioners do not seem to be able to reach.  CHARITON, of Aphrodisias in Caria, probably one of the last of the Greek erotic writers, lived about the 5th century A.D., and was the author of a romance entitled The Loves of Chtxreas and Callirrhoe. It has been translated into German and French. The best edition is that by D Orville, reprinted by Beck, Lips., 1783.  CHARLEMAGNE, or, was born in 742, succeeded his father Pepin as king of the Franks in 768, was crowned emperor of the Romans in 800, and died in 814 after an eventful and beneficent reign of forty-six years. His father had divided the Frankish kingdom between him and his younger brother Carloman, but the latter dying in 771, Charlemagne was proclaimed sole ruler. The monarchy he thus inherited was a very extensive one ; for, in addition to the Frankish territory, stretching from the Loire to the east of the Rhine, there were Burgundy and Allemania, which had been incorporated by his ancestors, while almost all round the direct empire of the Franks stretched a group of vassal nations. Aquitaine, Brittany, Frisia, Thuringia, and Bavaria were in more or less close subjection to them. They were, moreover, the pro tectors of the popes against the Greeks and Lombards, and the champions of Christianity against the Saracens on the south-west and the heathen Saxons of the north-east. In fact, before the accession of Charlemagne the Franks had attained to a real supremacy over most of the Germanic nations, and were the bulwark of the Christianity of the West. This many-sided and lofty position imposed a corresponding complexity of duty on the new king, which he fulfilled with an energy and success almost unexampled in the history of the world, maintaining and extending on all hands the influence of Christian culture, and taking the first steps towards converting the military monarchy of the Franks into an organized polity. His first task was to suppress a rising in Aquitaine. In 772 commenced the great mission of his life, the conquest and conversion of the Saxons, a work which could be effected only after thirty- two years of the fiercest and most passionate warfare. With the doubtful exception of the Frisians, the Saxons were the last remnant of the old Germanic resistance to the military supremacy of the Franks, and the last Germanic champions of the religion of Odin against the onward progress of Christianity. Charlemagne never had much difficulty in vanquishing the badly-organized Saxon forces, and in com pelling a temporary or partial submission ; but with a loose confederation like the Saxons, which had no definite organization and no properly recognized representative, it was difficult to make a fixed and universally accepted arrangement. Hence the incessant renewal of an apparently decided conflict, and the outcry of the Franks against the treachery of their enemies. The encroachments of the Saxons on his eastern frontier was the occasion of his first expedi tion, which was directed into the ancient forest of Teutoburg, famous as the scene of the old Germanic resistance to the Romans. Here he stormed the fortress of Ehresburg, overthrew the Irminsul, a mysterious column-shaped idol much revered among the Saxons, destroyed the sanctuary of Odin, and compelled the Westphalian Saxons to submit. Events in Italy now summoned Charlemagne to the other side of the Alps, in order to chastise the Lombards who were invading the possessions of the Pope. The Frankish king was victorious, dethroned Desiderius the Lombard king, and placed the Lombard crown on his own head (774). Meanwhile, the Saxons had profited by his absence to expel the Frankish garrisons, and even to renew their old ravages. Charlemagne immediately set out against them, and in two campaigns enforced the submission of the entire Saxon confederation. In a great Champ-de-Mai at Paderborn the Frankish king, surrounded by his chiefs and by ambassadors from distant nations, received the homage of the Saxon warriors, many thousands of whom submitted to be baptized (111). The Saxons apparently 