ges that followed new forces were
forming unobserved by the contemporary historian--forces which should
give a new awakening to the mind of all Europe.

Charlemagne re-established the unity of government which {350} had been
lost in the decline of the old Roman government; he enlarged the
boundary of the empire, established an extensive system of
administration, and promoted law and order. He did more than this: he
promoted religion by favoring the church in the advancement of its work
throughout the realm. But unfortunately, in the attempt to break down
feudalism, he increased it by giving large donations to the church, and
so helped to develop ecclesiastical feudalism, and laid the foundation
of subsequent evils. He was a strong warrior, a great king, and a
master of civil government.

Charlemagne believed in education, and insisted that the clergy should
be educated, and he established schools for the education of his
subjects. He promoted learning among his civil officers by
establishing a school all the graduates of which were to receive civil
appointments. It was the beginning of the civil service method in
Europe. Charlemagne was desirous, too, of promoting learning of all
kinds, and gathered together the scattered fragments of the German
language, and tried to advance the educational interests of his
subjects in every direction. But the attempts to make learning
possible, apparently, passed for naught in later days when the iron
rule of Charlemagne had passed away, and the weaker monarchs who came
after him were unable to sustain his system. Darkness again spread
over Europe, to be dispelled finally by other agencies.

_The Attitude of the Church Was Retrogressive_.--The attitude of the
Christian church toward learning in the Middle Ages was entirely
arbitrary. It had become thoroughly institutionalized and was not in
sympathy with the changes that were taking place outside of its own
policy. It assumed an attitude of hostility to everything that tended
toward the development of free and independent thought outside the
dictates of the authorities of the church. It found itself, therefore,
in an attitude of bitter opposition to the revival of learning which
had spread through Europe. It was unfortunate that the church appeared
so diametrically opposed to freedom of {351} thought and independent
activity of mind. Even in England, when the new learning was first
introduced, although Henry VIII favor