1 58. SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE. 255
bishops and abbots as well as counts, and if a vacancy in the papacy had occurred during the remainder of his life, he would probably have filled it as well- as the ordinary bishoprics. The first act after his coronation was to summon and condemn to death for treason those who had attempted to depose the pope. He thus acted as judge in the case. A Council at Mayence in 813 called him in an official document " the pious ruler of the holy church." '
Charles regarded the royal and imperial dignity as the heredi tary possession of his house and people, and crowned his son, Louis the Pious, at Aix-la-Chapelle in 813, without consulting the pope or the Romans.2 He himself as a Teuton represented both France and Germany. But with the political separation of the two countries under his successors, the imperial dignity was attached to the German crown. Hence also the designation : the holy German Roman empire.
§ 58. Survey of the History of the Holy Roman Empire. The readiness with which the Romans responded to the crown ing act of Leo proves that the rc-establishmeut of the Western empire was timely. The Holy Roman Empire seemed to be the necessary counterpart of the Holy Roman Church. For many centuries the nations of Europe had been used to the concentra tion of all secular power in one head. It is true, several Roman emperors from Nero to Diocletian had persecuted Christianity by fire and sword, but Constantino and his successors had raised the
matters purely ecclesiastical and of matters as clearly secular. Charlemagne was present and presided in the Council of Frankfort. The canons as well as the other statutes were issued chiefly in his name."
1 SanctfK Ecclcsine' tarn pium ac dcvotum in senntio Dei rectorem. Also, in his own language, Devotns Ecdesice, defensor atque adjutor in omnibus apostoliccs sedis. Rettberg I. 425, 439 sqq.
2 Ann. Einhardi, ad. ann. 813 (in Migne's Patrol. Tom. 104, p. 478) : " Evo- Mtum ad se apnd Aquasgrani /ilium suum Illndovicum Aquitanios reycm, coronam illi imposu.it et imperialis nominis sibi consortem fecit " When Stephen IV. visited Louis in 816, he bestowed on him simply spiritual consecration. In the same manner Louis appointed his son Lothair emperor who was afterwards crowned by the pope in Rome (823).
256 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
church to dignity and power, and bestowed upon it all the privi leges of a state religion. The transfer of the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople withdrew from the Western church the protection of the secular arm, and exposed Europe to the horrors of barbarian invasion and the chaos of civil wars. The popes were among the chief sufferers, their territory being again and again overrun and laid waste by the savage Lombards. Hence the instinctive desire for the protecting arm of a new empire, and this could only be expected from the fresh and vigorous Teutonic power which had risen beyond the Alps and Christianized by Roman missionaries. Into this empire " all the life of the ancient world was gathered ; out of it all the life of the modern world arose." *
THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY, THE TWO RULING POWERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
Henceforward the mediaeval history of Europe is chiefly a history of the papacy and the empire. They were regarded as the two arms of God in governing the church and the world. This twofold government was upon the whole the best trainingschool of the barbarian races for Christian civilization and free dom. The papacy acted as a wholesome check upon military despotism, the empire as a check upon the abuses of priestcraft. Both secured order and unity against the disintegrating tenden cies of society ; both nourished the great idea of a commonwealth of nations, of a brotherhood of mankind, of a communion of saints. By its connection with Rome, the empire infused new' blood into the old nationalities of the South, and transferred the remaining treasures of classical culture and the Roman law to the new nations of the North. The tendency of both was ulti mately self-destructive ; they fostered, while seeming to oppose, the spirit of ecclesiastical and national independence. The disci pline of authority always produces freedom as its legitimate result. The law is a schoolmaster to lead men to the gospel.
1 Bryce, p. 396 (8th ed.)