led an army into Italy, seized the remnant of Roman territory that had fallen into the hands of the Lombards, and presented it as a gift to the Pope. It was the foundation of the temporal power of the Pope, and Pippin's invasion of Italy may perhaps be looked upon as the beginning of the endless wars waged by the French upon Italian soil.

The son of Pippin and the grandson of Karl Martel was another Karl, the greatest of them all, known to fame as Charlemagne. For a short time he shared the kingdom with his brother, and when the brother retired to a monastery Charlemagne took possession of the whole kingdom and began a remarkable career of conquest and reorganization.

During his long reign, hardly a year passed without an expedition beyond the frontier. The Arabs were defeated, driven beyond the Pyrenees, and a portion of Spain became a Frankish mark. The Lombards, who had seized the territory given to the Pope, were again defeated, and their kingdom was incorporated in the Frankish territory. For a generation Charlemagne carried on a bitter struggle with the Saxons that ended in their overthrow and forced conversion to Christianity. To the north and to the east he extended the boundaries of his kingdom, meeting and driving back the Avars and the Slaves. But he was as great as an organizer as he was as a conquerer. This vast territory

was divided into counties with an official over each, responsible to Charlemagne for the affairs in his charge. Under the protection of his army moved the Christian missionaries, founding churches and monasteries and spreading the seed of Roman civilization that they carried with them.

The Empire of Charlemagne.

But for this man, conquerer and organizer, some title more magnificent than that of King of the Franks was

The

The

fitting. He was a natural successor of the Roman emperors, and what more natural than that the man who ruled over kings should aspire to the imperial crown. In the West the imperial power was but a dream. imperial dignity was still preserved at Constantinople, but a woman sat upon the throne of the Caesars. worthy successor of Caesar and Augustus was found, not in the Grecian east, but in the Frankish west, and it was the most natural thing in the world that on Christmas Eve, in the year 800, as Charlemagne knelt in the Cathedral at Rome, that the Pope should place the imperial crown upon his head and the people should greet him with shouts of "Long live the Emperor."

In theory, the line of Roman emperors was simply continued in Charlemagne; in fact, a Germanic empire had been founded in the west. The power had passed to a new branch of the Aryan race in Europe.

But with the death of Charlemagne the decay of the empire began; the bonds that held it together were too weak to resist the decentralizing influences of rapidly developing feudalism and the assaults of the barbarians from without. And with the middle of the ninth century the empire had fallen to pieces and the feudal system had established itself. The transition was complete and the medieval society had sprung into existence on the ruins of the Roman world.

CHAPTER V.

THE MIDDLE AGES-(814-1215).

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PERIOD.

Transition to the Middle Ages.

With the fall of the empire of Charlemagne the transition was complete, and Europe found itself in the full Middle Ages. During this period, Europe, including the territory south and east of the Mediterranean, was divided among three peoples. In the northwest, the Germans occupied the territory that had been covered by the empire of Charlemagne; in the southeast, the Greek empire still existed with its capital at Constantinople, while the remaining territory from the Pyrenees south and east around the Mediterranean to Constantinople was in the hands of the successors of Mohammed. The history of the Middle Ages is very largely a treatment of the shifting relations between these peoples.

Division between the East and the West.

The Germans ruling over the west, and the legitimate successors of the Latin branch of the Empire, had less and less to do, as time went on, with the eastern or Greek branch. This separation was shown very clearly in the history of the Christian church. Century by century the characteristics that distinguished the Greek civilization in the east from the Latin civilization in the west became more marked, and in spite of the effort made by the Roman popes to maintain ecclesiastical unity, the two parts of Christianity differed evermore in dogma and in form, and the Greek church and the Latin church became more and more clearly outlined,

The Political Divisions of Europe.

So through the medieval period the political boundaries that separated the races shifted back and forth. Disturbing elements were found in the Magyars, who pushed in from Asia and fell upon the Greeks in the south and the Germans in the west. Repulsed by the valor of the Germans and by the walls of Constantinople, they fell back into central Europe, and, taking up permanent settlements along the Danube, became the founders of modern Hungary. The Saracens of northern Africa, under the spell exercised by the possession of Carthage, created a fleet, took possession of Sicily and the other islands of the western Mediterranean,. and fell upon the coasts of France and Italy. From France came the restless Normans to expel the Greeks and to build up a kingdom in southern Italy. From Asia, advanced the Turks into Asia Minor, conquering the Arabs and taking upon themselves the religion of the conquered. In Spain, the Christians fought on during the whole of this period, experiencing both reverses and successes, but gradually driving the Saracens from the peninsula.

The Division of Charlemagne's Empire.

Examining more in detail the fortunes of the Germans, we note that the treaty of Verdun in 843, marked a crisis in the history of the Empire. By that treaty, the possessions of Charlemagne were divided, and from that time dates the history of modern France, Germany, and Italy. For a century after that date, the greatest confusion reigned in western Europe. It seemed as if all the work of Charlemagne was to be undone. The power passed away from the western. Germans to the men in the heart of Germany itself, and it was from these that sprang the line of the Saxon Emperors. In 962 the German Empire-or the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, as it was called, a restoration of the Empire of Charlemagne, although on a smaller scale-came into existence.

During the period of the political supremacy of the central Germans, three problems engaged the attention of the Emperors. A constant struggle was carried on with the peoples lying along the borders of the Empire; in the northwest with the Danes, in the northeast with the Slaves, and in the east with the Magyars. All of these opponents were driven back, and the frontiers of Germany were protected by three great organizations, called the marks of Sleswig, Bradenburg, and Austria. Two of these, Brandenburg and Austria, were destined to develop into two leading German states, Prussia and Austria.

The Struggle between Church and State.

The work of Charlemagne in spreading Christianity, converting the heathen, founding monasteries and bishoprics was continued by the men who looked upon themselves as his successors. During this period, all northern Europe, including the Scandinavian peninsula, was conquered for the church. The emperors were true to their office of "Protector of the Church." But while Christianity grew and flourished all was not harmonious within the borders of Christendom. The deadly seeds that had been sown in the time of Charlemagne had produced a frightful confusion in the affairs of church and state and led to one of the most deadly conflicts of the Middle Ages. So long as the emperors were powerful, were capable of holding their own vassals in subjection, and controlling the affairs of the church, there were but slight signs of the dangerous rivalry that was to develop in the future between popes and emperors. Up to the very eve of the struggle between Gregory VII. and Henry IV., the German emperors of the Holy Roman Empire made and unmade popes at will; but so soon as a strong head was in control of the church, and an infant, Henry IV, ascended the throne, the popes threw off the mask and showed themselves in all the power