The Holy Roman Empire. Viscount James Bryce

in a charter of Ina the West Saxon king, and in one given by Richard of Normandy in A.D. 1015. Ducange, s. v.

45

After the translatio ad Francos of A.D. 800, the two Empires corresponded exactly to the two Khalifates of Bagdad and Cordova.

46

'Plaudentem cerne senatumEt Byzantinos proceres, Graiosque Quirites.' In Eutrop. ii. 135.

47

Several Emperors during this period had been patrons of images, as was Irene at the moment of which I write: the stain nevertheless adhered to their government as a whole.

48

I should not have thought it necessary to explain that the sentence in the text is meant simply to state what were (so far as can be made out) the sentiments and notions of the ninth century, if a writer in the Tablet (reviewing a former edition) had not understood it as an expression of the author's own belief.

To a modern eye there is of course no necessary connection between the Roman Empire and a catholic and apostolic Church; in fact, the two things seem rather, such has been the impression made on us by the long struggle of church and state, in their nature mutually antagonistic. The interest of history lies not least in this, that it shews us how men have at different times entertained wholly different notions respecting the relation to one another of the same ideas or the same institutions.

49

Monachus Sangallensis, De Gestis Karoli; in Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ Historica.

50

Monachus Sangallensis; ut supra. So Pope Gregory the Great two centuries earlier: 'Quanto cæteros homines regia dignitas antecedit, tanto cæterarum gentium regna regni Francorum culmen excellit.' Ep. v. 6.

51

Alciatus, De Formula imperii Romani.

52

Or rather, according to the then prevailing practice of beginning the year from Christmas-day, A.D. 801.

53

An elaborate description of old St. Peter's may be found in Bunsen's and Platner's Beschreibung der Stadt Rom; with which compare Bunsen's work on the Basilicas of Rome.

54

The primitive custom was for the bishop to sit in the centre of the apse, at the central point of the east end of the church (or, as it would be more correct to say, the end furthest from the door) just as the judge had done in those law courts on the model of which the first basilicas were constructed. This arrangement may still be seen in some of the churches of Rome, as well as elsewhere in Italy; nowhere better than in the churches of Ravenna, particularly the beautiful one of Sant' Apollinare in Classe, and in the cathedral of Torcello, near Venice.

55

On this chair were represented the labours of Hercules and the signs of the zodiac. It is believed at Rome to be the veritable chair of the Apostle himself, and whatever may be thought of such an antiquity as this, it can be satisfactorily traced back to the third or fourth century of Christianity. (The story that it is inscribed with verses from the Koran is, I believe, without foundation.) It is now enclosed in a gorgeous casing of gilded wood (some say, of bronze), and placed aloft at the extremity of St. Peter's, just over the spot where a bishop's chair would in the old arrangement of the basilica have stood. The sarcophagus in which Charles himself lay, till the French scattered his bones abroad, had carved on it the rape of Proserpine. It may still be seen in the gallery of the basilica at Aachen.

56

Eginhard, Vita Karoli.

57

The coronation scene is described in all the annals of the time, to which it is therefore needless to refer more particularly.

58

Before the end of the tenth century we find the monk Benedict of Soracte ascribing to Charles an expedition to Palestine, and other marvellous exploits. The romance which passes under the name of Archbishop Turpin is well known. All the best stories about Charles – and some of them are very good – may be found in the book of the Monk of St. Gall. Many refer to his dealings with the bishops, towards whom he is described as acting like a good-humoured schoolmaster.

59

Baronius, Ann., ad ann. 800; Bellarminus, De translatione imperii Romani adversus Illyricum; Spanhemius, De ficta translatione imperii; Conringius, De imperio Romano Germanico.

60

See especially Greenwood, Cathedra Petri, vol. iii. p. 109.

61

Ann. Lauresb. ap. Pertz, M. G. H. i.

62

Apud Pertz, M. G. H. i.

63

Vitæ Pontif. in Mur. S. R. I. Anastasius in reporting the shout of the people omits the word 'Romanorum,' which the other annalists insert after 'imperatori.' The balance of probability is certainly in his favour.

64

Lorentz, Leben Alcuins. And cf. Döllinger, Das Kaiserthum Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger.

65

See a very learned and interesting tract entitled Das Kaiserthum Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger, recently published by Dr. v. Döllinger of Munich.

66

Ἀποκρισιάριοι παρὰ Καρούλλου καὶ Λέοντος αἰτούμενοι ζευχθῆναι αὐτὴν τῷ Καρούλλῳ πρὸς γάμον καὶ ἑνῶσαι τὰ Ἑωὰ καὶ τὰ Ἑσπερία. – Theoph. Chron. in Corp. Scriptt. Hist. Byz.

67

Their ambassadors at last saluted him by the desired title 'Laudes ei dixerunt imperatorem eum et basileum appellantes.' Eginh. Ann., ad ann. 812.

68

Harun er Rashid; Eginh. Vita Karoli, c. 16.

69

So Pope John VIII in a document quoted by Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungs-geschichte, iii.

70

Pertz, M. G. H. iii. (legg. I.)

71

Pütter, Historical Development of the German Constitution; so too Conring, and esp. David Blondel, Adv. Chiffletium.

72

'Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit,' is repeated in this conquest of the Teuton by the Roman.

73

The notion that once prevailed that the Irminsûl was the 'pillar of Hermann,' set up on the spot of the defeat of Varus, is now generally discredited. Some German antiquaries take the pillar to be a rude figure of the native god Irmin; but nothing seems to be known of this alleged deity: and it is more probable that the name Irmin is after all merely an altered form of the Keltic word which appears in Welsh as Hir Vaen, the long stone (Maen, a stone). Thus the pillar, so far from being the monument of the great Teutonic victory, would commemorate a pre-Teutonic race, whose name for it the invading tribes adopted. The Rev. Dr. Scott, of Westminster, to whose kindness I am indebted for this explanation, informs me that a rude ditty recording the destruction of the pillar by Charles was current on the spot a few years ago. It ran thus: —

'Irmin slad IrminSla Pfeifen sla TrommenDer Kaiser wird kommenMit Hammer und StangenWird Irmin uphangen.'

74

Eginhard, Ann.

75

Most probably the Scots of Ireland – Eginhard, Vita Karoli, cap. 16.

76

Eginhard, Vita Karoli, cap. 23.

77

Aix-la-Chapelle. See the lines in Pertz (M. G. H. ii.), beginning, —

'Urbs Aquensis, urbs regalis,Sedes regni principalis,Prima