vicegerent of God, even though the sword must be applied to them for
that purpose for thirty years.

The pope revolted against his Byzantine sovereign on the question of
images; but that was a fictitious issue. He did not revolt against his
new ally, who fell into the same heresy. He broke away from a weak and
cruel master, and attached himself on terms of equality to a
confederate. But from the first his eventual ascendancy was assured. The
representative of a system which is immortal must finally gain supremacy
over individuals and families, who must die.

[Sidenote: The conversion of Europe.]

Though we cannot undervalue the labours of the monks, who had already
nominally brought many portions of Europe to Christianity, the passage
of the centre of the Continent to its Age of Faith, was, in an enlarged
political sense, the true issue of the empire of the Franks. The fiat of
Charlemagne put a stamp upon it which it bears to this day. He converted
an ecclesiastical fiction into a political fact.

[Sidenote: Three points for consideration.]

To understand this important event, it is necessary to describe, 1st,
the psychical state of Central Europe; 2nd, the position of the pontiff
and his compact with the Franks. It is also necessary to determine the
actual religious value of the system he represents, and this is best
done through, 3rd, the biography of the popes.

[Sidenote: The psychical change of Europe.]

1st. As with the Arabs, so with the barbarians of Europe. They pass from
their Age of Credulity to their Age of Faith without dwelling long in
the intermediate state of Inquiry. An age of inquiry implies
self-investigation, and the absence of an authoritative teacher. But the
Arabs had had the Nestorians and the Jews, and to the Germans the
lessons of the monk were impressively enforced by the convincing
argument of the sword of Charlemagne.

[Sidenote: Labours and successes of the monks.]

[Sidenote: Influence of devout women.]

[Sidenote: Conversion of Europe.]

The military invasions of the south by the barbarians were retaliated by
missionary invasions of the north. The aim of the former was to conquer,
that of their antagonists to convert, if antagonists those can be called
who sought to turn them from their evil ways. The monk penetrated
through their most gloomy forests unarmed and defenceless; he found his
way alone to their fortresses. Nothing touches the heart of a savage so
profoundly as th