for shew, not use." On some occasions he himself appeared in imperial magnificence, and freely indulged in every luxury; but in general his dress was plain, and his table frugal. His only excess was in the pleasure of the sexes, at once the most natural and the most excusable; and this, it must be owned, he sometimes carried to such a height as to endanger his very athletic constitution, he being almost seven feet high, and proportionably strong. He had his set hours for study, which he sel dom omitted, either in the camp or the court; and, notwithstanding his continual wars, and unremitted attention to the affairs of a great empire, he found leisure to collect the old French poems and historical ballads, with a view to illustrate the history of the monarchy. The loss of this collection is much to be lamented, and could never have happened, if every one had been as well acquainted with its importance as Charles. But he was

the phoenix of his age; and, though not altogether free from its prejudices, his liberal and comprehensive mind, which examined every thing, and yet found time for all things, would have done honour to the most enlightened period. He was fond of the company of learned men, and assembled them about him from all parts of Europe, forming in his palace a kind of academy, of which he himself condescended to become a member. He also established schools, in the cathedrals and principal abbies, for teaching writing, arithmetic, grammar, and church music"; certainly no very elevated sciences, yet considerable at a time when many dignified ecclesiastics could not subscribe the canons of those councils in which they sat as members'2, and when it was deemed a sufficient qualification for a priest to be able to read the Gospels, and understand the Lord's Prayer 3

Alcuin, our learned countryman, was the companion, and particular favourite of Charlemagne; instructed him

11. Id. ibid. 12. Nov. Traite. Diplom. 13. Reg. Brumiens. ap Bruck. Hist. Philos.

im

in the sciences, and was at the head of his Royal Academy. A circumstance so much to the honour of this island should be omitted by no British historian. Three rich abbies were the reward of the learning and talents of Alcuin. This benevolence has been thought to border on profusion; but in that age of darkness, when even an enthusiastic zeal for letters was a virtue, no encouragement could be too great for the illuminators of the human mind.

Had Charles's religious enthusiasm been attended with no worse consequences than his literary ardour, his piety would have been as deservedly admired as his taste. But a blind zeal for the propagation of Christianity, which extinguished his natural feelings, made him guilty, as we have already seen, of severities that shock humanity; and a superstitious attachment to the see of Rome, which mingled itself with his policy, led him to engage in theological disputes and quibbles unworthy of his character. The honours which his father Pepin and he owed to the popes can only render him in any degree excusable. But although the theological side of Charles's character is by no means the brightest, it merits your attention; as it serves to shew the prejudices of the age, the littleness of a great man, and the great effects that frequently proceed from little causes.

As Charlemagne was equally a friend to religion and letters, and as any learning which yet remained among mankind, in our quarter of the globe, was monopolized by the clergy, it is not surprising that they obtained many singular marks of his favour. Even the payment of tithes, then considered as a grievous oppression, but which he ordered as a compensation for the lands withheld from the church; and the consequence which he gave to church-men, by admitting them into the national assemblies, and associating them along with the counts in administration of justice, appear less extravagant than his sitting himself in councils merely ecclesiastical, assembled about the most frivolous points of a vain the

ology.

ology. But, like some princes of later times, Charles seems to have been ambitious to be considered not only as the protector, but the head of the church: and his power and munificence made this usurpation be overlooked, notwithstanding the height at which the papal dig

nity had then arrived. We accordingly find A. D. 794.

him seated on a throne in the council of Frankfort, with one of the pope's legates on each hand, and three hundred bishops waiting his nod.

The purpose of that council was to examine the doctrine of two Spanish bishops; who in order to refute the accusation of polytheism, brought against the Christians by the Jews and Mahometans, maintained that Jesus Christ is the son of God only by adoption. The king opened the assembly himself, and proposed the condemnation of this heresy. The council decided conformably to his will; and in a letter to the churches of Spain, in consequence of that decision, Charles expresses himself in these remarkable words. "You entreat me to judge

"of myself: I have done so: I have assisted as an audi"tor, and an arbiter, in an assembly of bishops; we have "examined, and by the grace of God, we have settled, "what must be believed!" Neither Constantine nor any other of the Greek emperors, so jealous of their theological prerogative, ever used a more positive language. Charlemagne went still farther in the question of ima

ges. Leo IV. the son of Constantine Copronymus as zealous an image-breaker as his father, had banished his wife Irene, because she hid images beneath her pillow. This devout and ambitious princess coming afterward to the government, during the minority of her son Constantine Porphyrogenetus, with whom she was associated in the empire, re-established that worship which she loved from policy no less then piety. The second council of Nice accordingly decreed, That we ought to render to images an honorary worship, but not a real adoration, which is due to God alone. Unfortunately, however, the translation of the acts of this council, which pope Adrian

Adrian sent into France, was so defective, that the sense of the article relating to images was entirely perverted, running thus; "I receive and honour images according

to that adoration which I pay to the Trinity." Charles was so much incensed at this impiety, that he composed, by the assistance of the clergy, and published in his own name, what are called the Carolin Books, in which the Council of Nice is treated with the utmost contempt and abuse. He sent these books to Adrian I. desiring him to excommunicate the empress and her son. The pope prudently excused himself on the score of images, making Charles sensible of the mistake upon which he had proceeded; but he insinuated at the same time, that he would declare Irene and Constantine heretics, unless they restored certain lands, which had belonged to the church: artfully hinting at certain projects, which he had formed for the exaltation of the Roman church and the French monarchy'4. The exaltation of the monarchy was at hand, though Adrian did not live to be the instrument of it.

Leo III. who succeeded Adrian in the papacy, sent A. D. 796. immediately to Charlemagne the standard of Rome, begging him to send some person to receive the oath of fidelity from the Romans,,; a most flattering instance of submission, as well as a proof that the sovereignty of Rome, at that time, belonged to the kings of France. Three years after, Pascal and Campule, two nephews of the late pope not only offered themselves as accusers of Leo, but attacked him in the public A. D. 799. streets; wounded him in several places, and dragged him half dead into the church of St. Mark. He made his escape by the assistance of some friends; and the duke of Spoleto, general of the French forces, sent him under an escort to Charlemagne. Charles received him with all possible marks of respect, sent him back

14. Elemens d'Hist. Gen. par M. Abbe Millot, part II. tom i. 15. Eginhard in Vit.car. Mag.

with a numerous retinue of guards and attendants, and went soon after to Italy in person to do him justice.

A. D. 800.

On the arrival of the French monarch at Rome, he spent six days in private conferences with the pope; after which he convoked the bishops and nobles, to examine the accusation brought against the pontiff. "The apostolic see," exclaimed the bishops, "cannot be judged by man!" Leo, however, spoke to the accusation: he said the king came to know the cause; and, no proof appearing against him, he purged himself by oath.

The trial of a pope was doubtless an uncommon scene, but one soon followed yet more extraordinary. On Christmas-day, as the king assisted at mass in St. Peter's church, in the midst of the ecclesiastical ceremonies, and while he was on his knees before the altar, the supreme pontiff advanced, and put an imperial crown upon his head. As soon as the people perceived it, they cried, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, "crowned by the hand of God!-Long live the great "and pious emperor of the Romans." During these acclamations, the pope conducted him to a magnificent throne, which had been prepared for the purpose; and, as soon as he was seated, paid him those honours which his predecessors had been accustomed to pay to the Roman emperors, declaring that, instead of the title of Patrician, he should henceforth style him Emperor and Augustus. Leo now presented him with the imperial mantle; with which being invested, Charles returned amidst the acclamations of the populace, to his palace',

The pope had surely no right to proclaim an emperor; but Charles was worthy of the imperial ensigns: and although he cannot properly be ranked among the successors of Augustus, he is justly considered as the founder of the New Empire of the West.

16. Anast. in Vit. Leon.

17. Id. ib. Eginhard, in Annal. Charlemagne