[124] St. Augustine, the greatest of the Church fathers, was born in Numidia in 354. He spent a considerable part of his early life studying in Rome and other Italian cities. The _De Civitate Dei_ ("City of God"), generally regarded as his most important work, was completed in 426, its purpose being to convince the Romans that even though the supposedly eternal city of Rome had recently been sacked by the barbarian Visigoths, the true "city of God" was in the hearts of men beyond the reach of desecrating invaders. When he wrote the book Augustine was bishop of Hippo, an important city of northern Africa. His death occurred in 430, during the siege of Hippo by Gaiseric and his horde of Vandals. [125] The Count of the Palace was one of the coterie of officials by whose aid Charlemagne managed the affairs of the state. He was primarily an officer of justice, corresponding in a way to the old Mayor of the Palace, but with very much less power. [126] When Charlemagne captured Pavia, the Lombard capital, in 774, he found Peter the Pisan teaching in that city. With characteristic zeal for the advancement of education among his own people he proceeded to transfer the learned deacon to the Frankish Palace School [see p. 144]. [127] Alcuin was born at York in 735. He took up his residence at Charlemagne's court about 782, and died in the office of abbot of St. Martin of Tours in 804. [128] During the Napoleonic period many of these columns were taken possession of by the French and transported to Paris. Only recently have they been replaced in the Aix-la-Chapelle cathedral. Most of them came originally from the palace of the Exarch of Ravenna. [129] These statements of Einhard respecting the lavishness of Charlemagne's gifts must be taken with some allowance. They were doubtless considerable for the day, but Charlemagne's revenues were not such as to enable him to display wealth which in modern times would be regarded as befitting a monarch of so exalted rank. [130] In 774, 781, 787, and 800. [131] Charlemagne became joint ruler of the Franks with his brother Karlmann in 768; hence when he died, in 814, he had reigned only forty-six years instead of forty-seven. [132] Ephraim Emerton, _Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages_ (Boston, 1903), p. 189. [133] The war really lasted only thirty, or at the most thirty-one, years. [134] The only notable act of vengeance during the war was the beheading of 4,500 Saxons in a single day at Verden, on the Weser. It was occasioned by a great Saxon revolt in 782, led by the chieftain Widukind. [135] The formula of renunciation and confession generally employed in the Christianizing of the Germans, and therefore in all probability in the conversion of the Saxons, was as follows: Question. Forsakest thou the devil? Answer. I forsake the devil. Ques. And all the devil's service? Ans. And I forsake all the devil's service. Ques. And all the devil's works?