e Christian world were the Roman pontiff and the
Frankish king; and when, on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, Pope Leo III
crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans, and in the Holy Roman
Empire restored the Western Empire, extinct since 476, he welded
church and state in what long proved to be indissoluble bonds,
somewhat--it must be added--to the chagrin of the Byzantine
emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople. This was an
event the significance of which only later times could learn to
estimate. The Holy Roman Empire henceforth held a leading part in
the world's affairs, the influence of which is still active in the
survivals of its power among nations.

Charlemagne served the Church and fulfilled his own purposes
through the military subjugation of all whom he could overcome
among the barbarians and heathens of his time. And the powers which
he gained as conqueror he exercised with equal ability and
steadfastness of purpose in his capacity as foremost secular ruler
in the world. By the union of the Teutonic with the Roman
interests, and of northern vigor with the culture of the South, it
is considered by the historians of our own day that Charlemagne
proved himself the beginner of a new era--in fact, as Bryce
declares, of modern history itself.

Gibbon has said that of all the heroes to whom the title of "the
Great" has been given, Charlemagne alone has retained it as a
permanent addition to his name.

The most judicious minds are sometimes led blindly by tradition and
habit, rather than enlightened by reflection and experience. Pepin the
Short committed at his death the same mistake that his father, Charles
Martel, had committed: he divided his dominions between his two sons,
Charles and Carloman, thus destroying again that unity of the
Gallo-Frankish monarchy which his father and he had been at so much
pains to establish. But, just as had already happened in 746 through the
abdication of Pepin's brother, events discharged the duty of repairing
the mistake of men. After the death of Pepin, and notwithstanding that
of Duke Waifre, insurrection broke out once more in Aquitaine; and the
old duke, Hunald, issued from his monastery in the island of Rhe to try
and recover power and independence. Charles and Carloman marched against
him; but, on the march, Carloman, who was jealous and thoughtless,