ound an influence over the politics of the Middle Age.

[Sidenote: The Emperors and missions.]

The work which S. Boniface began was continued by weapons other than
his own. When the Empire of the Romans was revived (as we shall tell
in the next chapter) by the chiefs of the Arnulf house, when a Catholic
Caesar was again acclaimed in the Roman churches, the ideas on which
the new monarchy was to rest were decisively Christian and Catholic.
Charles the son of Pippin was a student of theology, among many other
things. He believed firmly that it was a real kingdom of God which he
was called to form and govern upon earth. The spirit which inspired
the followers of {140} Muhammad inspired him too. He was determined
not to leave to priests and popes the propagation of the faith which he
believed.

[Sidenote: Charles and the Saxons.]

For thirty-two years Charles the Great, as his people came to call him,
was engaged in a war which claimed to be waged for the spread of the
Christian faith. Charles was before all things in belief (though not
always in life) a Christian, and it was intolerable to him that within
the German lands should remain a large and powerful body of heathens.
In 772 he marched into the land of the Angarii and destroyed the
Irminsul, a column which was representative of the power which the
Saxons worshipped. It was destroyed, and the army after its victories
returned in triumph. In 774 the Saxons turned the tables and burnt the
abbey of Fritzlar which had been founded by S. Boniface. In 775
Charles resolved to avenge this loss, but made little progress. In 776
he was more successful, and a great multitude of Saxons submitted and
were baptized. In 777 there was another great baptism, but, says the
chronicler, the Saxons were perfidious. In 778 when Charles was in
Spain the Saxons devastated a vast tract of land, and even for a time
stole the body of S. Boniface from its tomb at Fulda. Charles crushed
the resistance, and from 780 he set himself to organise the Church in
the Saxon lands, issuing severe edicts which practically enforced
Christianity on the conquered Saxons with the penalty of death for the
performance of pagan rites, and even for eating meat in Lent. A law
was also decreed that all men should give a tenth of their substance
and work to the churches and priests. Still the conquest was not {141}
durable, for a terrible insurrection in 782 slew a whole army of the
Germans and mass