Pippin, whose name, for the first and only time in history, the admiration of mankind has indissolubly
blended with the title the Great. By the peculiarity of his position in respect to ancient and modern
times—by the extraordinary length of his reign, by the number and importance of the transactions
in which he was engaged, by the extent and splendor of his conquests, by his signal services to the
Church, and by the grandeur of his personal qualities—he impressed himself so profoundly upon
the character of his times, that he stands almost alone and apart in the annals of Europe. For nearly
a thousand years before him, or since the days of Julius Caesar, no monarch had won so universal
and brilliant a renown; and for nearly a thousand years after him, or until the days of Charles V. of
Germany, no monarch attained any thing like an equal dominion. A link between the old and new,
he revived the Empire of the West, with a degree of glory that it had only enjoyed in its prime;
while, at the same time, the modern history of every Continental nation was made to begin with
him. Germany claims him as one of her most illustrious sons; France, as her noblest king; Italy, as
her chosen emperor; and the Church as her most prodigal benefactor and worthy saint. All the
institutions of the Middle Ages—political, literary, scientific, and ecclesiastical—delighted to trace
their traditionary origins to his hand: he was considered the source of the peerage, the inspirer of
chivalry, the founder of universities, and the endower of the churches; and the genius of romance,
kindling its fantastic torches at the flame of his deeds, lighted up a new and marvellous world about
him, filled with wonderful adventures and heroic forms. Thus by a double immortality, the one the
deliberate award of history, and the other the prodigal gift of fiction, he claims the study of mankind."
II. The Canonization of Charlemagne is perpetuated in the Officium in festo Sancti Caroli
Magni imperatoris et confessoris, as celebrated in churches of Germany, France, and Spain. Baronius
(Annal. ad ann. 814) says that the canonization was, not accepted by the Roman church, because
Paschalis was no legitimate pope, but neither was it forbidden. Alban Butler, in his Lives of Saints,
gives a eulogistic biography of the "Blessed Charlemagne," and covers his besetting sin with the
following unhistorical assertion: "The incontinence, into which he fell in his youth, he expiated by
sincere repentance, so that several churches in Germany and France honor him among the saints."
R
SIGNUM K + S CAROLI GLORIOSISSIMI REGIS.
L
The monogram of Charles with the additions of a scribe in a document signed by Charles
at Kufstein, Aug. 31, 790. Copied from Stacke, l.c.
§ 57. Founding of the Holy Roman Empire, a.d. 800. Charlemagne and Leo III
G. Sugenheim: Geschichte der Entstehung und Ausbildung des Kirchenstaates. Leipz. 1854.
F. Scharpff: Die Entstehung des kirchenstaats. Freib. i. B. 1860.
TH. D. Mock: De Donatione a Carolo Mag. sedi apostolicae anno 774 oblata. Munich 1861.
James Bryce: The Holy Roman Empire. Lond. & N. York (Macmillan & Co.) 6th ed. 1876, 8th ed.
- German translation by Arthur Winckler.
Heinrich von Sybel: Die Schenkungen der Karolinger an die Päpste. In Sybel’s "Hist. Zeitschrift,"
Munchen & Leipz. 1880, pp. 46–85.
Comp. Baxmann: I. 307 sqq.; Vétault: Ch. III. pp. 113 sqq. (Charlemagne, patrice des
Romains-Formation des états de l’église).