Charles the Great

Today is the 1200th anniversary of the death of Charlemagne.

He, more than any other single human being, cemented the idea in western Europe of a truly universal, Catholic culture. Every ruler who followed him looked to him and to his example.

Even after every political organ he had created was gone, even after every monarchy established by his grandchildren had been overthrown, Europe continues to be haunted by his legacy.

It is no accident that the borders of his Empire became the core of the European Union.

One might protest that the economic union of Europe lacks the magic and poetry of Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire, and you’d be right. But it’s that memory that made the idea of a united Europe even thinkable.

His biographer Einhard assures us that Charlemagne was devoted to the prosperity and happiness of his people and the Church. Even so, he spends a third of his book detailing the Emperor’s conquests in Aquitaine, Lombardy, Saxony, Spain, Brittany, Benevento, Bavaria, and Denmark – not to mention his campaigns against the Slavs and Huns.

And yet, Einhard reports that Charles never expected to be Emperor.

The Romans had inflicted many injuries upon the Pontiff Leo, tearing out his eyes and cutting out his tongue, so that he had been comp lied to call upon the King for help [Nov 24, 800].

Charles accordingly went to Rome, to set in order the affairs of the Church, which were in great confusion, and passed the whole winter there.

It was then that he received the titles of Emperor and Augustus [Dec 25, 800], to which he at first had such an aversion that he declared that he would not have set foot in the Church the day that they were conferred, although it was a great feast-day, if he could have foreseen the design of the Pope.

– Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne.

Once, however, he had been crowned Emperor – an innovation unheard of for a Frank – he threw himself into the role.

It was after he had received the imperial name that, finding the laws of his people very defective (the Franks have two sets of laws, very different in many particulars), he determined to add what was wanting, to reconcile the discrepancies, and to correct what was vicious and wrongly cited in them.

… [H]e caused the unwritten laws of all the tribes that came under his rule to be compiled and reduced to writing. He also had the old rude songs that celebrate the deeds and wars of the ancient kings written out for transmission to posterity. He began a grammar of his native language.

– Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne

Charlemagne’s relationship with the Church was complicated. He was undoubtedly pious, as Einhard tells us:

He cherished with the greatest fervor and devotion the principles of the Christian religion, which had been instilled into him from infancy. Hence it was that he built the beautiful basilica at Aix-la-Chapelle….

He was a constant worshiper at this church as long as his health permitted, going morning and evening, even after nightfall, besides attending mass; and he took care that all the services there conducted should be administered with the utmost possible propriety….

He was at great pains to improve the church reading and psalmody, for he was well skilled in both although he neither read in public nor sang, except in a low tone and with others.

– Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne

However, he also saw the clergy as tools in the service of the Empire.

Since the fall of Rome, literacy had been reduced to the province of a small few. Chiefly among these were the monks and nuns, priests and bishops who needed to read their breviary, missal, and Bible.

Charlemagne figured that these would make the perfect imperial officials. Accordingly, he installed men as bishops who would work for him as judges, administrators, and missi dominici.

The problems that would arise from this system would only become apparent several centuries later. In the meantime, this system created an almost perfect theocracy under lay control – the very idea of a Christian Imperium.

Hundreds of years after Charlemagne’s death, he was venerated as a saint.

Charlemagne was beatified by by Pope Benedict XIV more than a thousand years after the Emperor’s death. Why? The usual: the Church found that he lived a life of heroic virtue, and numerous miracles were ascribed to his intercession. Perhaps as important, Charlemagne is an example of a powerful man – the most powerful man of his time – aspiring to sanctity and achieving it.

Would that we had such political leaders in our day!

So we should refer to him as Blessed Charlemagne, or, I suppose, Blessed Charles the Great if you want to be pedantic.

Therefore, today is not only the 1200th anniversary of his death, it is also his feast day.

Dom Prosper Guéranger O.S.B., one of my personal heroes, composed a prayer to Blessed Charlemagne. I can’t think of a better day to pray it.

Blessed Charlemagne, pray for us!