aptism; 3, relapse to idolatry;
4, the murder of a priest or bishop; 5, human sacrifice; 6, eating meat
in Lent. To the pagan German his sword was a grim, but a convincing
missionary. To the last he observed a savage fidelity to his bond. He
died A.D. 814.

[Sidenote: Course of events after the death of Charlemagne.]

[Sidenote: Social condition of Europe.]

Such was the compact that had been established between the Church and
the State. As might be expected, the succeeding transactions exhibit an
alternate preponderance of one and of the other, and the degradation of
both in the end. Scarcely was Charlemagne dead ere the imbecile
character of his son and successor, Louis the Pious, gave the Church her
opportunity. By the expulsion of his father's numerous concubines and
mistresses, the scandals of the palace were revealed. I have not the
opportunity to relate in detail how this monarch disgracefully
humiliated himself before the Church; how, under his weak government,
the slave-trade greatly increased; how every shore, and, indeed, every
country that could be reached through a navigable river, was open to the
ravages of pirates, the Northmen extending their maraudings even to the
capture of great cities; how, in strong contrast with the social
decomposition into which Europe was falling, Spain, under her Mohammedan
rulers, was becoming rich, populous, and great; how, on the east, the
Huns and Avars, ceasing their ravages, accepted Christianity, and, under
their diversity of interests the nations that had been bound together by
Charlemagne separated into two divisions--French and German--and civil
wars between them ensued; how, through the folly of the clergy, who
vainly looked for protection from relics instead of the sword, the
Saracens ranged uncontrolled all over the south, and came within an
hair's-breadth of capturing Rome itself; how France, at this time, had
literally become a theocracy, the clergy absorbing everything that was
worth having; how the pope, trembling at home, nevertheless maintained
an external power by interfering with domestic life, as in the quarrel
with King Lothaire II. and his wife; how Italy, France, and Germany
became, as Africa and Syria had once been, full of miracles; how,
through these means the Church getting the advantage, John VIII. thought
it expedient to assert his right of disposing of the imperial crown in
the case of Charles the Bald (the imperial supremacy that Charlemagne