alue of knowledge. He laboured assiduously
for the elevation and enlightenment of his people. He collected together
learned men; ordered his clergy to turn their attention to letters;
established schools of religious music; built noble palaces, churches,
bridges; transferred, for the adornment of his capital, Aix-la-Chapelle,
statues from Italy; organized the professions and trades of his cities,
and gave to his towns a police. Well might he be solicitous that his
clergy should not only become more devout, but more learned. Very few of
them knew how to read, scarcely any to write. Of the first half of the
eighth century, a period of great interest, since it includes the
invasion of France by the Saracens, and their expulsion, there is
nothing more than the most meagre annals; the clergy understood much
better the use of the sword than that of the pen. The schools of
Charlemagne proved a failure, not through any fault of his, but because
the age had no demand for learning, and the Roman pontiffs and their
clergy, as far as they troubled themselves with any opinion about the
matter, thought that knowledge was of more harm than good.

[Sidenote: Private life of Charlemagne.]

[Sidenote: His relations with the Saracens.]

The private life of Charlemagne was stained with great immoralities and
crimes. He indulged in a polygamy scarcely inferior to that of the
khalifs, solacing himself with not less than nine wives and many
concubines. He sought to increase the circle of the former, or perhaps
it should be said, considering the greatness of his statesmanship, to
unite the Eastern and Western empires together by a marriage with the
Empress Irene. This was that Irene who put out the eyes of her own son
in the porphyry chamber at Constantinople. His fame extended into Asia.
The Khalif Haroun al Raschid, A.D. 801, sent him from Bagdad the keys of
our Saviour's sepulchre as a mark of esteem from the Commander of the
Faithful to the greatest of Christian kings. However, there was
doubtless as much policy as esteem in this, for the Asiatic khalifs
perceived the advantage of a good understanding with the power that
could control the emirs of Spain. Always bearing in mind his engagement
with the papacy, that Roman Christianity should be enforced upon Europe
wherever his influence could reach, he remorselessly carried into
execution the penalty of death that he had awarded to the crimes of, 1,
refusing baptism; 2, false pretence of b