102 FOUETH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
Fulda received special privileges from Pope Zacharias and his successors,1 and became a centre of German Christianity and civilization from which proceeded the clearing of the forests, the cultivation of the soil, and the education of youths. The number of Benedictine monks was increased by large re-enforcements from Monte Casino, after an Italian journey of Sturm in 747. The later years of his life were disturbed by a controversy with Lullus of Mainz about the bones of Boniface after his martyrdom (755) and by calumniations of three monks who brought upon him the displeasure of King Pepin. He was, however, reinstated in his dignity and received the remains of his beloved teacher which repose in Fulda. Charlemagne employed him as mis sionary among the Saxons. His bones were deposited in the convent church. Pope Innocent II. canonized him, A. D. 1139.2
§ 27. The Conversion of the Saxons. Charlemagne and Alcuin. The Heliandy and the Gospel-Harmony.
FUNK : Die Unterwerfung der Sachsen unter Karl dem Gr. 1833. A. SCHAUMANN: Geschichte des niedersdchs. Vblkes. Getting. 1839. BOTTGER: Die Einfuhrung des Ghristenthums in Sachsen. Hann. 1859. W. GIESEBRECHT; Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Vol. I. (1863), pp. 110 sqq.
Of all the German tribes the fierce and warlike Saxons were the last to accept the Christian religion. They differed in this respect very much from their kinsmen who had invaded and conquered England. But the means employed were also as different: rude force in one case, moral suasion in the other. The Saxons inhabited the districts of modern Hanover, Olden burg, Brunswick, and Westphalia, which were covered with dense forests. They had driven the Franks beyond the Weser and the Rhine, and they were now driven back in turn by Charles Mar-
1 See " Fulda und seine Privilegien " in Jul. Harttung, Diplomatisch-historische Forschungen, Gotha, 1879, pp. 193 sqq.
2 The chief source is the Vita Sturmi by his pupil Eigil, abbot of Fulda, 818 to 822, in Mabillon, "Ada Sanct. Ord. Bened." Saec. VIII. Tom. 242-259.
§ 27. THE CONVERSION OF THE SAXONS. 103
tel, Pepin, and Charlemagne. They hated the foreign yoke of the Franks, and far-oif Koine; they hated the tithe which was imposed upon them for the support of the church. They looked upon Christianity as the enemy of their wild liberty and inde pendence. The first efforts of Ewald, Suidbert, and other mis sionaries were fruitless. Their conversion was at last brought about by the sword from political as well as religious motives, and was at first merely nominal, but resulted finally in a real change under the silent influence of the moral forces of the Chris tian religion.
Charlemagne, who became master of the French kingdom in 7G8, had the noble ambition to unite the German tribes in one great empire and one religion in filial communion with Rome, but he mistook the means. He employed material force, believing that people become Christians by water-baptism, though baptized against their will. He thought that the Saxons, who were the most dangerous enemies of his kingdom, must be either subdued and christianized, or killed. He pursued the same policy tow ards them as the squatter sovereigns would have the United States government pursue towards the wild Indians in the West ern territories. Treaties were broken, and shocking cruelties were committed on both sides, by the Saxons from revenge and for independence, by Christians for punishment in the name of religion and civilization. Prominent among these atrocities is the massacre of four thousand five hundred captives at Verdcn in one day. As soon as the French army was gone, the Saxons destroyed the churches and murdered the priests, for which they were in turn put to death.
Their subjugation was a work of thirty-three years, from 772 to 805. AVidukind (Wittekind) and Albio (Abbio), the two most powerful Saxon chiefs, seeing the fruitlessness of the resist ance, submitted to baptism in 785, with Charlemagne as sponsor.1
1 '' Jctzt war Sachsen bcxiegt" says Giesebrecht (I. c., p. 117), "und mil Blutgcsetzen wurden das Christcnthum und das Konigthum zugkich den Sachxcn aufgcdrungen. J\fit Todesstrafen wurde die Taufe erzwunycn, die heidnischen Gebrauche