he ordered that there should be a school in every cathedral and monastery, open not only to the servile class (from which the clergy were usually taken), but to the freeborn; that instruction should be given in psalmody, music, grammar, and computum (a term which denoted the art of reckoning in general, but more especially the calculation of the calendar) ; and that care should be taken for the correct writing of the service-books. He employed Paul Warnefrid to compile a book of homilies from the fathers, and published it with a preface in his own name. These homilies were arranged according to the ecclesiastical seasons. It seems to have been at first intended that they should be read in Latin, the language of both the church and the state; and that it was a concession to national feeling when councils of the emperor's last year directed the clergy, in using them, to render them into a tongue intelligible to the people-whether the "rustic Roman' of Gaul, or the Teutonic. As the manuscripts of the Scriptures had been generally much corrupted by the carelessness of copyists, Charlemagne, with Alcuin's assistance, provided for the multiplication of correct copies. While the pupils of the schools were employed in transcribing the less important books for churches, none but persons of mature age were allowed to write the gospels, the psalter, or the missal." Manuscripts were acquired for libraries from England, Italy, and Greece. Presbyters were before ordination to be examined as to their faith, as to their knowledge of the creed and the Lord's prayer, of the canons, the penitential, the gospels, the homilies, the public services, the rites of baptism and the eucharist, and their power of instructing their flocks.P In addition to the education of the clergy, a new feature appears in the Articles of Theodulf, bishop of Orleans, where it is ordered that in every parish the clergy should provide a school for freeborn children as well as for serfs. The payment for instruction was to be only such as the parents of the pupils should freely give. • Lorenz, 56. A Rheims Pontifical of the 9th century, in the coronation service, directs the archbishop to pray, "Ut [Deus] regale solum, videlicet Saxonum, Merciorum, Nordanhymbrorumque sceptra non deserat"-a curious evidence as to the quarter from which the office was borrowed (Rock's 'Church of our Fathers,' i. 283; comp. Martene, ii. 217, 225), although it gives no warrant for Ozanam's opinion as to the coronation of Pipin. (See p. 116, note m.) P Capit. A.D. 802 (Pertz, Leges, i. 107). Cf. Capit. A.D. 811 (ib. 171). The bishop also invites the clergy to send their relations to the monastic schools. But the attempt to establish parochial schools does not appear to have been carried far even in the diocese of Orleans, and there is no evidence of its having been imitated elsewhere.' t S Charlemagne paid much deference to the usages of Rome, as the most venerable church of the West. He obtained from Adrian the Roman code of canons (which was founded on the collection of Dionysius Exiguus), and in 789 he published such of them as he considered necessary for his own dominions. The Roman method of chanting had been already introduced into Gaul. Pope Paul had sent books of it to Pipin, and had endeavoured to procure its establishment; but, although he was supported by Pipin in the attempt, the Gallican chant still prevailed. During Charlemagne's third visit to Rome, in 787, disputes arose between the Frankish and the Roman clergy on the subject of the liturgy and the chant. The Franks relied on the king's protection; but, to their dismay, he asked them, "Which is purer-the stream or the source?"—a question which admitted but of one answer; and on this answer he acted." He carried back into France two skilful clerks to teach the Roman chant, and stationed one of them at Metz, while the other was attached to the court. He also established the sacramentary of Gregory the Great in the Frankish church ; it is even said that, in his zeal for conformity to Rome, he endeavoured to suppress the Ambrosian forms at Milan, by destroying the servicebooks, or carrying them "as if into exile" across the Alps; but that miracles came to the rescue of the venerable ritual, so that Pope Adrian, who had instigated the attempt against it, was brought to acquiesce in the local use of it." Charlemagne paid 4 Theodulph. Capit. 19-20 (A.D. 797), Hard, iv. 916. r R X Guizot, ii. 259; Giesel. II. i. 90. Comp. Hard. iii. 2033, seqq., with iv. 826, or Pertz, Leges, i. 54. Sirmond thinks that the canons were procured on his third visit to Rome in 787, rather than (as is most commonly said) on his first visit, in 774. Patrol. lxvii. 135-8. * See Capit. 789. 79, ap. Pertz, Leges, i. 60; Pagi, xii. 645; Ducange, s. v. Cantus Romanus. of Angoulême tells us that they learnt the Roman chant, "excepto quod tremulas vel vinnulas sive collisibiles vel secabiles voces in cantu non poterant perfecte exprimere Franci, naturali voce barbarica frangentes in gutture voces potius quam exprimentes." (Pertz, i. 171.) The editor shows, from Isidore of Seville (Etymol. III. xx. 13), that the epithet vinnulus or vinnulatus comes from vinnus, a curl-cincinnus molliter flexus. y Adrian. in Patrol. xcviii. 436. The only authority for this is the elder Landulf, a Milanese chronicler who wrote about A.D. 1070 (Hist. Mediol. ii. 10-2; Patrol. cxlvii.). He says that many of the Milanese clergy were slain in defence of their books. C special attention to the solemnity of divine worship. The cathedral which he built at his favourite place of residence, Aix-la-Chapelle, was adorned with marble pillars from Rome and Ravenna, and was furnished with vestments for all its clergy, down to the meanest of the doorkeepers." He diligently frequented the services of his chapel both by day and by night, and took great pains to improve the reading and the singing; " for," says Einhard, “he was very skilful in both, although he neither read publicly, nor sang, except in a low voice and together with others." A biographer of more questionable authority tells us that he used to point with his finger or with his staff at any person whom he wished to read; and when thus ordered to begin, or when warned by a cough from the emperor to stop, the reader was expected to obey at once, without any regard to sense or to the division of sentences. Thus, it is said, all were kept in a state of continual attention, because each might be called on at any moment. No one could mark his own portion with his nail or with wax; and all became accomplished readers, whether able or not to understand the language and the matter. Charlemagne himself is said to have composed hymnsamong them the "Veni Creator Spiritus ;" but as to that hymn, at least, the statement appears to be groundless." m e Charlemagne's ecclesiastical legislation was carried on by his own authority. He regarded it as the duty of a sovereign to watch over the spiritual and moral well-being of his subjects; he alleges the reforms of Josiah as a scriptural precedent for the part which he took in the regulation of the church. Ecclesiastical subjects occupy more than a third of his capitularies. The ecclesiastical as well as the other laws were proposed in the assemblies which were held yearly in March and in autumn, and which bore at once the character of synods and of malls or diets. The clergy and the laity sat together or separately, as was most convenient, according to the nature of the subjects. proposed to them." Discussion was Einhard, 17, 26; Adrian. ad Carol. Patrol. xcviii. 371; Poëta Saxo, 1. v. (Patrol. xcix. 731-2); Gibbon, vi. 420. b The chapel of the Frank kings was so called from the cappa or cloak of St. Martin, which was kept in it (Walafr. Strabo, De Reb. Eccl. 31, Patrol. cxiv.; Ducange, s. v. Capella). Thomassin, however (I. ii. 109), identifies the word with capsa, a reliquary. C Einhard, 26. The writer's language seems to imply that he means to speak of the household in general, and not of the clergy only. e "Sono gutturis." h It rests on the authority of Ekkehard's Life of Notker the Stammerer (c. 18, ap. Canis. III. ii.). Against it, see Mabill. in Patrol. cxxxi. 990. k Capit. Aquisgr. A.D. 789 (Pertz, Leges, i. 54). m 415 out of 1126; Guizot, ii. 198. On the character of the capitularies, see Guizot, p. 230. n Thus, in 813, assemblies were convened at Arles, Mentz, Tours, and Châlons-sur-Saône. In these the bishops allowed; but both the initiative and the decision belonged to the sovereign, and in his name the decrees were published.° The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor, although it did not add to the power which he before possessed over his subjects, invested him with a new and indefinite majesty. He was no longer the chief of a nation of warriors, but the representative of the ancient Roman traditions and civilisation, the anointed head of Western Christendom. The empire was to be a consecrated state, with the same ruler in ecclesiastical as in civil affairs, and this ruler directing all to the glory of God. In 802 an oath of allegiance to him as emperor was required of those who had already sworn to him as king; and whereas such oaths had not before been imposed among the Franks, except on persons who held office or benefice under the crown, all males above the age of twelve were now required to swear. The civil hierarchy in all its grades corresponded to the ecclesiastical; and forthwith a new system of commissioners (Missi Dominici) was set on foot. These were chosen partly from the higher ecclesiastics and partly from the laity. They were to be men superior to all suspicion, fear, or partiality; they were to make circuits for the inspection of both secular and spiritual matters; they were to control the local administrations; to take care of churches, of widows, orphans, and the poor; to exercise a censorship of morals; to redress wrongs, or to refer to the emperor such as were beyond their power; to see to the due execution of the laws which were passed in the national assemblies. In spiritual as well as in temporal affairs, the emperor was regarded as the highest judge, beyond whom no appeal could be made;" in authorising the canons of Adrian's collection, he omitted that canon of Sardica which prescribed in certain cases a reference to the bishop of Rome. While he cultivated friendly relations with the popes, while he acknowledged them as the highest treated on matters of faith and discipline, the monks and abbots on monastic life, and the counts and judges on secular questions. See Hard. iv. 1008; Luden, v. 148. • De Marca, VI. xxv. 5; Baluz. Præf. ad Capitular. (Patrol. xcvii.); Pagi, xiii. 119; Guizot, ii. 194-6; Giesel. II. i. 57; Martin, ii. 276; Milman, ii. 223; Rettb. i. 424. For some strong expressions of synods as to Charlemagne's ecclesiastical position, see Ellendorf, i. 234-5. Hallam, i. 10, and Suppl. Notes, 27; Sismondi, ii. 383; Rettb. i. 432-5; Pal X grave, Norm. and Eng. i. 27-8; Milman, ii. 207. Pfister, i. 436; Palgrave, i. 397; Milman, ii. 211. Pertz, Leges, i. 91; Martin, ii. 344. Pfister, i. 452-3; Ellendorf, i. 257. See the instructions to them when first sent out, April 802, in Pertz, Leges, i. 197. Comp. De Marca, IV. vii. 6-8; Guizot, ii. 192; Rettb. i. 433-4, 456. Gfrörer, Karolinger,' i. 74. * See vol. i. p. 304, and compare the Roman with the Frank code (Patre!. 1xvii. 178; xcvii. 152, seqq. ; Giesel. II. i. 63). 150 ECCLESIASTICAL POSITION OF CHARLEMAGNE. BOOK III. of bishops, and often consulted them and acted on their suggestions, the authority by which these were enforced on his subjects was his own; nor did the popes attempt to interfere with the powers which he claimed. On the conquest of Italy, he assumed the same control over the eeclesiastical affairs of that country which he had been accustomed to exercise in his hereditary kingdom, and the popes submitted to him as their lord and judge. Lofty titles and flattering language were, indeed, often addressed by bishops and others of the Franks to the successors of St. Peter; but the real amount of the authority which these enjoyed during this period is to be measured by the facts of history, not by the exaggerations of rhetorical or interested compliment." y Giesel. II. i. 40-2; Rettb. ii. 439. M. Lehuerou, however, argues that he held his superiority over the Roman church in the character of its Defensor, like the advocates or Vidames of lesser churches. (See below, c. IX. iii. 10.) Instit. Mérov. et Carolingiennes, ii, 358360. See Planck, ii. 769, 785, 797-8; Giesel. II. i. 60-1. |