[1] In chapters 11-20, immediately preceding the present passage, CÆsar gives a comparatively full and minute description of Gallic life and institutions. He knew more about the Gauls than about the Germans, and, besides, it was his experiences among them that he was writing about primarily.

[2] The Druids were priests who formed a distinct and very influential class among the Gauls. They ascertained and revealed the will of the gods and were supreme in the government of the tribes. Druids existed also among the Britons.

[3] By Vulcan CÆsar means the German god of fire.

[4] Of the Suevi, a German tribe living along the upper course of the Danube, CÆsar says: "They consider it their greatest glory as a nation that the lands about their territories lie unoccupied to a very great extent, for they think that by this it is shown that a great number of nations cannot withstand their power; and thus on one side of the Suevi the lands are said to lie desolate for about six hundred miles."—Gallic War, Bk. IV., Chap. 3.

[5] This statement is an instance of CÆsar's vagueness, due possibly to haste in writing, but more likely to lack of definite information. How large these districts and cantons were, whether they had fixed boundaries, and how the chiefs rendered justice in them are things we should like to know but are not told.

[6] All dates from this point, unless otherwise indicated, are A.D.

[7] In reality iron ore was abundant in the Germans' territory, but it was not until long after the time of Tacitus that much use began to be made of it. By the fifth century iron swords were common.

[8] Coats of mail.

[9] Defensive armor for the head and neck.

[10] See CÆsar's description of this mode of fighting.—Gallic War, Bk. I., Chap. 48.

[11] The canton was known to the Romans as a pagus and to the Germans themselves as a gau. It was made up of a number of districts, or townships (Latin vicus, German dorf), and was itself a division of a tribe or nation.

[12] A later law of the Salian Franks imposed a fine of 120 denarii upon any man who should accuse another of throwing down his shield and running away, without being able to prove it [see p. 64].

[13] Many of the western tribes at the time Tacitus wrote did not have kings, though in eastern Germany the institution of kingship seems to have been quite general. The office, where it existed, was elective, but the people rarely chose a king outside of a privileged family, assumed to be of divine origin.

[14] Evidently these were not images of their gods, for in another place (Chap. 9) Tacitus tells us that the Germans deemed it a dishonor to their deities to represent them in human form. The images were probably those of wild beasts, as the wolf of Woden (or Odin), or the ram of Tyr, and were national standards preserved with religious care in the sacred groves, whence they were brought forth when the tribe was on the point of going to war.

[15] The German popular assembly was simply the periodical gathering of free men in arms for the discussion and decision of important points of tribal policy. It was not a legislative body in the modern sense. Law among the Germans was immemorial custom, which, like religion, could be changed only by a gradual shifting of popular belief and practice. It was not "made" by any process of deliberate and immediate choice. Nevertheless, the assembly constituted an important democratic element in the government, which operated in a measure to offset the aristocratic element represented by the principes and comitatus [see p. 28]. Its principal functions were the declaring of war and peace, the election of the kings, and, apparently, the hearing and deciding of graver cases at law.

[16] This relation of principes (chiefs) and comites (companions) is mentioned by CÆsar [see p. 22]. The name by which the Romans designated the band of companions, or followers, of a German chieftain was comitatus.

[17] Apparently the Germans did not now care much more for agriculture than in the time of CÆsar. The women, slaves, and old men sowed some seeds and gathered small harvests, but the warrior class held itself above such humble and unexciting employment. The raising of cattle afforded a principal means of subsistence, though hunting and fishing contributed considerably.

[18] Compare the Germans and the North American Indians in this respect. The great contrast between these two peoples lay in the capacity of the one and the comparative incapacity of the other for development.

[19] The Germans had no system of taxation on land or other property, such as the Romans had and such as we have to-day. It was not until well toward the close of the Middle Ages that the governments of kingdoms built up by Germanic peoples in western Europe came to be maintained by anything like what we would call taxes in the modern sense.

[20] The lack of cities and city life among the Germans struck Tacitus with the greater force because of the complete dominance of city organization to which he, as a Roman, was accustomed. The Greek and Roman world was made up, in the last analysis, of an aggregation of civitates, or city states. Among the ancient Greeks these had usually been independent; among the Romans they were correlated under the greater or lesser control of a centralized government; but among the Germans of Tacitus's time, and long after, the mixed agricultural and nomadic character of the people effectually prevented the development of anything even approaching urban organization. Their life was that of the forest and the pasture, not that of forum, theatre, and circus.

[21] That is, on the Rhine, where traders from the south brought in wines and other Roman products. The drink which the Germans themselves manufactured was, of course, a kind of beer.

[22] Valens was the Eastern emperor from 364 until his death in the battle of Adrianople in 378. His brother Valentinian was emperor in the West from 364 to 375. Gratian, son of Valentinian, was the real sovereign in the West when the Visigoths crossed the Danube.

[23] That is, upon the writer's people, the Romans.

[24] The Marcomanni and Quadi occupied a broad stretch of territory along the upper Danube in what is now the northernmost part of Austria-Hungary. Pontus was a province in northern Asia Minor.

[25] Moeller (Histoire du Moyen Age, p. 58), estimates that the Goths who now entered Thrace numbered not fewer than 200,000 grown men, accompanied by their wives and children. The Italian Villari, in his Barbarian Invasions of Italy, Vol. I., p. 49, gives the same estimate. The tendency of contemporary chroniclers to exaggerate numbers has misled many older writers. Even Moeller's and Villari's estimate would mean a total of upwards of a million people. That there were so many may well be doubted. The Vandals played practically as important a part in the history of their times as did the Visigoths; yet it is known that when the Vandals passed through Spain, in the first half of the fifth century, they numbered not more than 20,000 fighting men, with their wives and children.

[26] Nice was about thirty miles east of Adrianople.

[27] The Visigoths under Fridigern finally took their position near Adrianople and Valens led his army into that vicinity and pitched his camp, fortifying it with a rampart of palisades. From the Western emperor, Gratian, a messenger came asking that open conflict be postponed until the army from Rome could join that from Constantinople. But Valens, easily flattered by some of his over-confident generals, foolishly decided to bring on a battle at once. Apparently he did not dream that defeat was possible.

[28] After the battle here described, which occurred in the open plain, the victorious Goths proceeded to the siege of the city itself, in which, however, they were unsuccessful. The taking of fortified towns was an art in which the Germans were not skilled.

[29] When both armies were in position Fridigern, "being skilful in divining the future," says Ammianus, "and fearing a doubtful struggle," sent a herald to Valens with the promise that if the Romans would give hostages to the Goths the latter would cease their depredations and even aid the Romans in their wars. Richomeres, the Roman cavalry leader, was chosen by Valens to serve as a hostage; but as he was proceeding to the Gothic camp the soldiers who accompanied him made a rash attack upon a division of the enemy and precipitated a battle which soon spread to the whole army.

[30] The goddess of war, regarded in Roman mythology as the sister of Mars.

[31] Signs of the zodiac, sometimes employed by the Romans to give figurative expression to the time of day.

[32] The number of Romans killed at CannÆ (216 B.C.) is variously estimated, but it can hardly have been under 50,000.

[33] A somewhat indefinite region north and east of the Caspian Sea.

[34] The modern Don, flowing into the Sea of Azof.

[35] One of two constellations in the northern hemisphere, called respectively the Great Bear and the Lesser Bear, or Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The Great Bear is commonly known as the Dipper.

[36] That is, agriculture. The Huns were even less settled in their mode of life than were the early Germans described by Tacitus.

[37] A strange creature of classical mythology, represented as half man and half horse.

[38] The White Sea. It is hardly to be believed that the Huns dwelt so far north. This was, of course, a matter of sheer speculation with the Romans.

[39] St. Martin was born in Pannonia somewhat before the middle of the fourth century. For a time he followed his father's profession as a soldier in the service of the Roman emperor, but later he went to Gaul with the purpose of aiding in the establishment of the Christian Church in that quarter. In 372 he was elected bishop of Tours and shortly afterwards he founded the monastery with which his name was destined to be associated throughout the Middle Ages. This monastery, which was one of the earliest in western Europe, became a very important factor in the prolonged combat with Gallic paganism, and subsequently a leading center of ecclesiastical learning.

[40] Childeric I., son of the more or less mythical Merovius, was king from 457 to 481. Clovis became ruler of the Salian branch of the Franks in this latter year. The tomb of Childeric was discovered at Tournai in 1653.

[41] Ægidius and his son Syagrius were the last official representatives of the Roman imperial power in Gaul; and since the fall of the Empire in the West even they had taken the title of "king of the Romans" and had been practically independent sovereigns in the territory between the Somme and the Loire, with their capital at Soissons, northeast of Paris.

[42] Alaric II., king of the Visigoths, 485-507.

[43] The battle of Soissons in 486, with the defeat and death of Syagrius, insured for the Franks undisputed possession southward to the Loire, which was the northern frontier of the Visigothic kingdom.

[44] The Campus Martius was the "March-field," i.e., the assembling place of the Frankish army. It was not regularly in any one locality but wherever the king might call the soldiers together, as he did every spring for purposes of review. In the eighth century the month of May was substituted for March as the time for the meeting.

[45] In the words of Hodgkin (Charles the Great, p. 12), "the well-known story of the vase of Soissons illustrates at once the German memories of freedom and the Merovingian mode of establishing a despotism. As a battle comrade the Frankish warrior protests against Clovis receiving an ounce beyond his due share of the spoils. As a battle leader Clovis rebukes his henchman for the dirtiness of his accoutrements, and cleaves his skull to punish him for his independence."

[46] The Alemanni were a German people occupying a vast region about the upper waters of the Rhine and Danube. They had been making repeated efforts to acquire territory west of the Rhine—an encroachment which Clovis resolved not to tolerate.

[47] The battle was fought near Strassburg, in the upper Rhine valley.

[48] The ultimate result of the defeat of the Alemanni was that the Frankish kingdom was enlarged by the annexation of the great region known in the later Middle Ages as Suabia, comprising modern Alsace, Baden, WÜrtemberg, the western part of Bavaria, and the northern part of Switzerland. The Alemanni as a people disappeared speedily from history, being absorbed by their more powerful neighbors. Their only monument to-day is the name by which the French have always known the people of Germany—Allemands.

[49] The Loire was the boundary between the dominions of the two kings. There have been many famous instances in history of two sovereigns coming together to confer at some point on the common border of the territories controlled by them, notably the interview of Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I. on the Niemen River in 1807. The Franks and the Visigoths had been enemies ever since by Clovis's defeat of Syagrius their dominions had been brought into contact (486), and the present jovial interview of the two kings did not long keep them at peace with each other.

[50] St. Hilary was bishop of Poitiers in the later fourth century. He was a contemporary of St. Martin of Tours and a co-worker with him in the organization of Gallic Christianity.

[51] The plain of VouillÉ was ten miles west of Poitiers.

[52] This amusing comment of Gregory was due largely to his prejudice in favor of the Franks and against the heretical Visigoths.

[53] The Visigothic kingdom in Spain, with its capital at Toledo, endured until the Saracen conquest of that country in 711 and the years immediately following, but it did not give evidence of much strength. It stood so long only because the Pyrenees made a natural boundary against the Franks and because, after Clovis, for two hundred years the Franks produced no great conqueror who cared to crowd the Visigoths into still closer quarters.

[54] Clovis, particularly after his conversion to Christianity in 496, was the hero of Gregory's history and apparently the enthusiastic old bishop did not lose an opportunity to glorify his career. At any rate it would certainly be difficult to relate anything more remarkable about him than this legend of the walls of AngoulÊme falling down before him at his mere approach.

[55] This notable campaign had advanced Frankish territory to the Pyrenees, except for the strip between these mountains and the Rhone, known as Septimania, which the Visigoths were able to retain by the aid of the Ostrogoths from Italy. No great number of Franks settled in this broad territory south of the Loire, and to this day the inhabitants of south France show a much larger measure of Roman descent than do those of the north. It may be added that Septimania was conquered by Clovis's son Childebert in 531, and thus the last bit of old Gaul—practically modern France—was brought under Frankish control.

[56] This was Cloderic, son of Sigibert the Lame, king of a tribe of Franks living along the middle Rhine. Sigibert was one of the numerous independent and rival princes whom Clovis used every expedient to put out of the way.

[57] Along the Upper Weser, near the monastery of Fulda.

[58] Ragnachar's kingdom was in the region about Cambrai.

[59] The mallus was the local court held about every six weeks in each community or hundred. In early German law the state has small place and the principle of self-help by the individual is very prominent. To bring a suit one summons his opponent himself and gets him to appear at court if he can. Ordinarily the court merely determines the method by which the guilt or innocence of the accused may be tested. Execution of the sentence rests again with the plaintiff, or with his family or clan group.

[60] "The monetary system of the Salic law was taken from the Romans. The basis was the gold solidus of Constantine, 1/72 of a pound of gold. The small coin was the silver denarius, forty of which made a solidus. This system was adopted as a monetary reform by Clovis, and the statement of the sum in terms of both coins is probably due to the newness of the system at the time of the appearance of the law."—Thatcher and McNeal, Source Book for MediÆval History, p. 17. The gold solidus was worth somewhere from two and a half to three dollars, but its purchasing power was perhaps equal to that of twenty dollars to-day, because gold and silver were then so much scarcer and more valuable. Such estimates of purchasing power, however, involve so great uncertainty as to be practically worthless.

[61] The Burgundian law (Chap. 41) contained a provision that if a man made a fire on his own premises and it spread to fences or crops belonging to another person, and did damage, the man who made the fire should recompense his neighbor for his loss, provided it could be shown that there was no wind to drive the fire beyond control. If there was such a wind, no penalty was to be exacted.

[62] The law of the Lombards had a more elaborate system of fines for wounds than did the Salic code. For example, knocking out a man's front teeth was to be paid for at the rate of sixteen solidi per tooth; knocking out back teeth at the rate of eight solidi per tooth; fracturing an arm, sixteen solidi; cutting off a second finger, seventeen solidi; cutting off a great toe, six solidi; cutting off a little toe, two solidi; giving a blow with the fist, three solidi; with the palm of the hand, six solidi; and striking a person on the head so as to break bones, twelve solidi per bone. In the latter case the broken bones were to be counted "on this principle, that one bone shall be found large enough to make an audible sound when thrown against a shield at twelve feet distance on the road; the said feet to be measured from the foot of a man of moderate stature."

[63] The man who had "thrown away his shield" was the coward who had fled from the field of battle. How the Germans universally regarded such a person appears in the Germania of Tacitus, Chap. 6 (see p. 25). To impute this ignominy to a man was a serious matter.

[64] This was the so-called "triple wergeld." That is, the lives of men in the service of the king were rated three times as high as those of ordinary free persons.

[65] Here is an illustration of the personal character of Germanic law. There is one law for the Frank and another for the Roman, though both peoples were now living side by side in Gaul. The price put upon the life of the Frankish noble who was in the king's service was 600 solidi (§3), but that on the life of the Roman noble in the same service was but half that amount. The same proportion held for the ordinary freemen, as will be seen by comparing §§1 and 6.

[66] A leet was such a person as we in modern times commonly designate as a serf—a man only partially free.

[67] This has been alleged to be the basis of the misnamed "Salic Law" by virtue of which no woman, in the days of the French monarchy, was permitted to inherit the throne. As a matter of fact, however, the exclusion of women from the French throne was due, not to this or to any other early Frankish principle, but to later circumstances which called for stronger monarchs in France than women have ordinarily been expected to be. The history of the modern "Salic Law" does not go back of the resolution of the French nobles in 1317 against the general political expediency of female sovereigns [see p. 420].

[68] The wergeld was the value put by the law upon every man's life. Its amount varied according to the rank of the person in question. The present section specifies how the wergeld paid by a murderer should be divided among the relatives of the slain man.

[69] That is, to the king's treasury.

[70] James H. Ramsay, The Foundations of England (London, 1898), I., p. 121.

[71] Bede has just been describing a plague which rendered the Britons at this time even more unable than usual to withstand the fierce invaders from the north; also lamenting the luxury and crime which a few years of relief from war had produced among his people.

[72] This date is evidently incorrect. Martian and Valentinian III. became joint rulers of the Empire in 450; hence this is the year that Bede probably meant.

[73] That is, Thanet, which practically no longer exists as an island. In Bede's day it was separated from the rest of Kent by nearly half a mile of water, but since then the coast line has changed so that the land is cut through by only a tiny rill. The intervening ground, however, is marshy and only partially reclaimed.

[74] This battle was fought between Hengist and Vortimer, the eldest son of Vortigern, at Aylesford, in Kent.

[75] It is by no means probable that the invasion of Britain by the Saxons was followed by such wholesale extermination of the natives as is here represented, though it is certain that everywhere, except in the far west (Wales) and north (Scotland), the native population was reduced to complete subjection.

[76] That is, the throne of the Eastern Empire at Constantinople.

[77] Gregory was a monk before he was elected pope. He held the papal office from 590 to 604 [see p. 90].

[78] Augustine at the time (596) was prior of a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew in Rome.

[79] The missionaries had apparently gone as far as Arles in southern Provence when they reached this decision.

[80] An abbot was the head of a monastery. Should such an establishment be set up in Britain, Augustine was to be its presiding officer.

[81] The Germanic peoples north of the Humber were more properly Angles, but of course they were in all essential respects like the Saxons. Ethelbert was not actually king in that region, but was recognized as "bretwalda," or over-lord, by the other rulers.

[82] For later changes in this part of the coast line, see p. 70, note 1.

[83] This was possible because the Franks and Saxons, being both German, as yet spoke languages so much alike that either people could understand the other without much difficulty.

[84] Bertha was a daughter of the Frankish king Charibert. The Franks had been nominally a Christian people since the conversion of Clovis in 496 [see p. 53]—just a hundred years before Augustine started on his mission to the Angles and Saxons.

[85] Luidhard had been bishop of Senlis; a town not many miles northeast of Paris. Probably Augustine and his companions profited not a little by the influence which Luidhard had already exerted at the Kentish court.

[86] "The present church of St. Martin near Canterbury is not the old one spoken of by Bede, as it is generally thought to be, but is a structure of the thirteenth century, though it is probable that the materials of the original church were worked up in the masonry in its reconstruction, the walls being still composed in part of Roman bricks."—J. A. Giles, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, p. 39.

[87] Thus was established the "primacy," or ecclesiastical leadership, of Canterbury, which has continued to this day.

[88] John Alzog. Manual of Universal Church History (trans, by F. J. Pabisch and T. S. Byrne), Cincinnati, 1899, Vol. I., p. 668.

[89] That is, the passage of Scripture read just before the sermon.

[90] "See" is a term employed to designate a bishop's jurisdiction. According to common belief Peter had been bishop of Rome; his see was therefore that which Leo now held.

[91] The anniversary of Leo's elevation to the papal office.

[92] That is, the body of monks residing in the monastery.

[93] The vow of poverty which must be taken by every Benedictine monk meant only that he must not acquire property individually. By gifts of land and by their own labor the monks became in many cases immensely rich, but their wealth was required to be held in common. No one man could rightfully call any part of it his own.

[94] The converse of this principle was often affirmed by Benedictines in the saying, "To work is to pray."

[95] The Bible and the writings of such Church fathers as Lactantius, Tertullian, Origen, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, Eusebius, and St. Jerome.

[96] The first day of the month.

[97] Thus the ordinary daily programme during the spring and summer months would be: from six o'clock until ten, manual labor; from ten until twelve, reading; at twelve, the midday meal; after this meal until the second one about half past two, rest and reading; and from the second meal until evening, labor. Manual labor was principally agricultural.

[98] Gregory's remarks and instructions in the Pastoral Rule were intended to apply primarily to the local priests—the humble pastors of whom we hear little, but upon whose piety and diligence ultimately depended the whole influence of the Church upon the masses of the people. The general principles laid down, however, were applicable to all the clergy, of whatever rank.

[99] Gregory, bishop of Nazianzus (in Cappadocia), was a noted churchman of the fourth century.

[100] After enumerating quite a number of other contrasted groups in the foregoing fashion Gregory proceeds in a series of "admonitions" to take up each pair and tell how persons belonging to it should be dealt with by the pastor. One of these admonitions is here given as a specimen.

[101] Gregory's attitude toward the "learning of the world," especially the classical languages and literatures, was that of the typical Christian ascetic. He had no use for it personally and regarded its influence as positively harmful. It must be said that there was little such learning in his day, for the old Latin and Greek culture had now reached a very low stage. Gregory took the ground that the churches should have learned bishops, but their learning was to consist exclusively in a knowledge of the Scriptures, the writings of the Church fathers, and the stories of the martyrs. As a matter of fact not only were the people generally quite unable to understand the Latin services of the Church, but great numbers of the clergy themselves stumbled blindly through the ritual without knowing what they were saying; and this condition of things prevailed for centuries after Gregory's day. [See Charlemagne's letter De Litteris Colendis, p. 146.]

[102] That is, more simple and less self-satisfied in their own knowledge.

[103] This prayer of the Mohammedans corresponds in a way to the Lord's Prayer of Christian peoples. It is recited several times in each of the five daily prayers, and on numerous other occasions.

[104] The petition is for guidance in the "right way" of the Mohammedan, marked out in the Koran. By those with whom God is "wroth," and by the "erring," is meant primarily the Jews. Mohammed regarded the Jews and Christians as having corrupted the true religion.

[105] "This chapter is held in particular veneration by the Mohammedans and is declared, by a tradition of their prophet, to be equal in value to a third part of the whole Koran."—Sale, quoted in Lane, Selections from the Kur-Án, p. 5.

[106] This passage, known as the "throne verse," is regarded by Mohammedans as one of the most precious in the Koran and is often recited at the end of the five daily prayers. It is sometimes engraved on a precious stone or an ornament of gold and worn as an amulet.

[107] These are all to be signs of the day of judgment.

[108] The record of his deeds during life on earth.

[109] The three classes are: (1) the "preceeders," (2) the people of the right hand, i.e., the good, and (3) the people of the left hand, i.e., the evil. The future state of each of the three is described in the lines that follow.

[110] "Either the first converts to Mohammedanism, or the prophets, who were the respective leaders of their people, or any persons who have been eminent examples of piety and virtue, may be here intended. The original words literally rendered are, The Leaders, The Leaders: which repetition, as some suppose, was designed to express the dignity of these persons and the certainty of their future glory and happiness."—Sale, quoted in Wherry, Comprehensive Commentary on the Qur-Án, Vol. IV., pp. 109-110.

[111] The luxuries of paradise—the flowing rivers, the fragrant flowers, the delicious fruits—are sharply contrasted with the conditions of desert life most familiar to Mohammed's early converts. Such a description of the land of the blessed must have appealed strongly to the imaginative Arabs. It should be said that in the modern Mohammedan idea of heaven the spiritual element has a rather more prominent place.

[112] Lofty beds.

[113] The "damsels of paradise."

[114] A scrubby bush bearing fruit like almonds, and extremely bitter. It was familiar to Arabs and hence was made to stand as a type of the tree whose fruit the wicked must eat in the lower world.

[115] The date is almost certainly wrong. Pepin was first acknowledged king by the Frankish nobles assembled at Soissons in November, 751. It was probably in 751 (possibly 752) that Pope Zacharias was consulted. In 754 Pepin was crowned king by Pope Stephen III., successor of Zacharias, who journeyed to France especially for the purpose.

[116] Zacharias was pope from 741 to 752.

[117] Einhard, the secretary of Charlemagne [see p. 108], in writing a biography of his master, described the condition of Merovingian kingship as follows: "All the resources and power of the kingdom had passed into the control of the prefects of the palace, who were called the 'mayors of the palace,' and who exercised the supreme authority. Nothing was left to the king. He had to content himself with his royal title, his flowing locks, and long beard. Seated in a chair of state, he was wont to display an appearance of power by receiving foreign ambassadors on their arrival, and, on their departure, giving them, as if on his own authority, those answers which he had been taught or commanded to give. Thus, except for his empty title, and an uncertain allowance for his sustenance, which the prefect of the palace used to furnish at his pleasure, there was nothing that the king could call his own, unless it were the income from a single farm, and that a very small one, where he made his home, and where such servants as were needful to wait on him constituted his scanty household. When he went anywhere he traveled in a wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen, with a rustic oxherd for charioteer. In this manner he proceeded to the palace, and to the public assemblies of the people held every year for the dispatch of the business of the kingdom, and he returned home again in the same sort of state. The administration of the kingdom, and every matter which had to be undertaken and carried through, both at home and abroad, was managed by the mayor of the palace."—Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni, Chap. 1.

[118] See p. 52, note 1.

[119] Thomas Hodgkin, Charles the Great (London, 1903), p. 222.

[120] The German name for Aix-la-Chapelle was Aachen. From Roman times the place was noted throughout Europe for its warm sulphur springs and for centuries before Charlemagne's day it had been a favorite resort for health-seekers. It was about the middle of his reign that Charlemagne determined to have the small palace already existing rebuilt, together with its accompanying chapel. Marbles and mosaics were obtained at Rome and Ravenna, and architects and artisans were brought together for the work from all Christendom. The chapel was completed in 805 and was dedicated by Pope Leo III. Both palace and chapel were destroyed a short time before the Emperor's death, probably as the result of an earthquake. The present town-house of Aix-la-Chapelle has been constructed on the ruins of this palace. The chapel, rebuilt on the ancient octagonal plan in 983, contains the tomb of Charlemagne, marked by a stone bearing the inscription "Carolo Magno." Besides Aachen, Charlemagne had many other residences, as CompiÈgne, Worms, Attigny, Mainz, Paderborn, Ratisbon, Heristal, and Thionville.

[121] A loose, flowing outer garment, or cloak. It was a feature of ancient Greek dress.

[122] Hadrian I., 772-775. Charlemagne's first visit to Rome was in 774.

[123] Leo III., 795-816. The Roman dress was donned by Charlemagne during his visit in 800 [see p. 130].

[124] St. Augustine, the greatest of the Church fathers, was born in Numidia in 354. He spent a considerable part of his early life studying in Rome and other Italian cities. The De Civitate Dei ("City of God"), generally regarded as his most important work, was completed in 426, its purpose being to convince the Romans that even though the supposedly eternal city of Rome had recently been sacked by the barbarian Visigoths, the true "city of God" was in the hearts of men beyond the reach of desecrating invaders. When he wrote the book Augustine was bishop of Hippo, an important city of northern Africa. His death occurred in 430, during the siege of Hippo by Gaiseric and his horde of Vandals.

[125] The Count of the Palace was one of the coterie of officials by whose aid Charlemagne managed the affairs of the state. He was primarily an officer of justice, corresponding in a way to the old Mayor of the Palace, but with very much less power.

[126] When Charlemagne captured Pavia, the Lombard capital, in 774, he found Peter the Pisan teaching in that city. With characteristic zeal for the advancement of education among his own people he proceeded to transfer the learned deacon to the Frankish Palace School [see p. 144].

[127] Alcuin was born at York in 735. He took up his residence at Charlemagne's court about 782, and died in the office of abbot of St. Martin of Tours in 804.

[128] During the Napoleonic period many of these columns were taken possession of by the French and transported to Paris. Only recently have they been replaced in the Aix-la-Chapelle cathedral. Most of them came originally from the palace of the Exarch of Ravenna.

[129] These statements of Einhard respecting the lavishness of Charlemagne's gifts must be taken with some allowance. They were doubtless considerable for the day, but Charlemagne's revenues were not such as to enable him to display wealth which in modern times would be regarded as befitting a monarch of so exalted rank.

[130] In 774, 781, 787, and 800.

[131] Charlemagne became joint ruler of the Franks with his brother Karlmann in 768; hence when he died, in 814, he had reigned only forty-six years instead of forty-seven.

[132] Ephraim Emerton, Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages (Boston, 1903), p. 189.

[133] The war really lasted only thirty, or at the most thirty-one, years.

[134] The only notable act of vengeance during the war was the beheading of 4,500 Saxons in a single day at Verden, on the Weser. It was occasioned by a great Saxon revolt in 782, led by the chieftain Widukind.

[135] The formula of renunciation and confession generally employed in the Christianizing of the Germans, and therefore in all probability in the conversion of the Saxons, was as follows:

Question. Forsakest thou the devil?

Answer. I forsake the devil.

Ques. And all the devil's service?

Ans. And I forsake all the devil's service.

Ques. And all the devil's works?

Ans. And I forsake all the devil's works and words. Thor and Woden and Saxnot and all the evil spirits that are their companions.

Ques. Believest thou in God the Almighty Father?

Ans. I believe in God the Almighty Father.

Ques. Believest thou in Christ the Son of God?

Ans. I believe in Christ the Son of God.

Ques. Believest thou in the Holy Ghost?

Ans. I believe in the Holy Ghost.

"Accepting Christianity was to the German very much like changing of allegiance from one political sovereign to another. He gave up Thor and Woden (Odin) and Saxnot, and in their place took the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."—Emerton, Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages, pp. 155-156. Text of these "Interrogationes et Responsiones Baptismales" is in the Monumenta GermaniÆ Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), Vol. II., No. 107.

[136] That is, the more important offenses, involving capital punishment, as contrasted with the later "lesser chapters" dealing with minor misdemeanors.

[137] The Saxons were to be won to the Church through the protection it afforded, but they were likewise to be made to stand in awe of the sanctity of its property.

[138] The apparent harshness of this whole body of regulations was considerably diminished in practice by the large discretion left to the priests, as in this case. They were exhorted to exercise care and to take circumstances into account in judging a man's guilt or innocence.

[139] From this point the capitulary deals with the "lesser chapters," i.e., non-capital offenses.

[140] For the value of the solidus, see p. 61.

[141] Three classes of society are distinguished—nobles, freemen, and serfs. The ordinary freeman pays half as much as the noble, and the serf half as much as the freeman.

[142] A prominent characteristic of the early Teutonic religion was that its ceremonies were invariably conducted out of doors. Tacitus, in the Germania (Chap. 9), tells us that the Germans had no temples or other buildings for religious purposes, but worshipped in sacred groves. The "Irmensaule," probably a giant tree-trunk, was the central shrine of the Saxon people, and Charlemagne's destruction of it in 772 was the most serious offense that could have been committed against them.

[143] The Germans reckoned by nights rather than by days, as explained by Tacitus, Germania, Chap. 11 [see p. 27].

[144] A sum assessed by the king, in this case against the illegal harboring of criminals.

[145] The counts, together with the bishops, were the local representatives or agents of the king. They presided over judicial assemblies, collected revenues, and preserved order. There were about three hundred of them in Charlemagne's empire when at its greatest extent.

[146] An officer sent out by the king to investigate the administration of the counts and render judgment in certain cases. As a rule two were sent together, a layman and an ecclesiastic [see p. 134].

[147] Under ordinary circumstances the priests were thus charged with the responsibility of seeing that local government in their various communities was just and legal.

[148] BÉmont and Monod, MediÆval Europe (New York, 1902), p. 202.

[149] Chapter 62 is here given out of order because it contains a comprehensive survey of the products and activities upon which the royal stewards were expected to report. The other chapters are more specific. It is likely that they have not come down to us in their original order.

[150] The ordinary estate in this period, whether royal or not, consisted of two parts. One was the demesne, which the owner kept under his immediate control; the other was the remaining lands, which were divided among tenants who paid certain rentals for their use and also performed stated services on the lord's demesne. Charlemagne instructs his stewards to report upon both sorts of land.

[151] Probably payments for the right to keep pigs in the woods. The most common meat in the Middle Ages was pork and the use of the oak forests as hog pasture was a privilege of considerable value.

[152] Fines imposed upon offenders to free them from crime or to repair damages done.

[153] Panic was a kind of grass, the seeds of which were not infrequently used for food.

[154] The serfs were a semi-free class of country people. They did not own the land on which they lived and were not allowed to move off it without the owner's consent. They cultivated the soil and paid rents of one kind or another to their masters—in the present case, to the agents of the king.

[155] A variety of fermented liquor made of salt fish.

[156] A blue coloring matter derived from the leaves of a plant of the same name.

[157] A red coloring matter derived from a plant of the same name.

[158] Burrs of the teasel plant, stiff and prickly, with hooked bracts; used in primitive manufacturing for raising a nap on woolen cloth.

[159] A kind of grain still widely cultivated for food in Germany and Switzerland; sometimes known as German wheat.

[160] The unit of weight was the pound. Charlemagne replaced the old Gallic pound by the Roman, which was a tenth less.

[161] The unit of measure was the muid. Charlemagne had a standard measure (modius publicus) constructed and in a number of his capitularies enjoined that it be taken as a model by all his subjects. It contained probably a little less than six pecks. A smaller measure was the setier, containing about five and two-thirds pints.

[162] Clergymen attached to the church on or near the estate.

[163] "Attached to the royal villa, in the center of which stood the palace or manse, were numerous dependent and humbler dwellings, occupied by mechanics, artisans, and tradesmen, or rather manufacturers and craftsmen, in great numbers. The dairy, the bakery, the butchery, the brewery, the flour-mill were there.... The villa was a city in embryo, and in due course it grew into one, for as it supplied in many respects the wants of the surrounding country, so it attracted population and became a center of commerce."—Jacob I. Mombert, Charles the Great (New York, 1888), pp. 401-402.

[164] An ancient Gallic land measure, equivalent to about half a Roman jugerum (the jugerum was about two-thirds of an acre). The arpent in modern France has varied greatly in different localities. In Paris it is 4,088 square yards.

[165] The same as "pachak." The fragrant roots of this plant are still exported from India to be used for burning as incense.