that is, the chroniclers did not undertake to work out the causes and results and relations of things. They merely recorded year by year such happenings as caught their attention--the succession of a new pope, the death of a bishop, the coronation of a king, a battle, a hail-storm, an eclipse, the birth of a two-headed calf--all sorts of unimportant, and from our standpoint ridiculous, items being thrown in along with matters of world-wide moment. Heterogeneous as they are, however, the large collections of annals that have come down to us have been used by modern historians with the greatest profit, and but for them we should know far less than we do about the Middle Ages, and especially about the people and events of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. The Annals of Xanten here quoted are the work originally of a number of ninth century monks. The fragments from which they were ultimately compiled are thought to have been brought together at Cologne, or at least in that vicinity. They cover especially the years 831-873. Source--_Annales Xantenses_ ["Annals of Xanten"]. Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores_ (Pertz ed.), Vol. II., p. 227. Adapted from translation in James H. Robinson, _Readings in European History_ (New York, 1904), Vol. I., pp. 158-162. =844.= Pope Gregory departed this world and Pope Sergius followed in his place.[209] Count Bernhard was killed by Charles. Pepin, king of Aquitaine, together with his son and the son of Bernhard, routed the army of Charles,[210] and there fell the abbot Hugo. At the same time King Louis advanced with his army against the Wends,[211] one of whose kings, Gestimus by name, was killed; the rest came to Louis and pledged him their fidelity, which, however, they broke as soon as he was gone. Thereafter Lothair, Louis, and Charles came together for council in Diedenhofen, and after a conference they went their several ways in peace. [Sidenote: The Northmen in Frisia and Gaul] =845.= Twice in the canton of Worms there was an earthquake; the first in the night following Palm Sunday, the second in the holy night of Christ's Resurrection. In the same year the heathen[212] broke in upon the Christians at many points, but more than twelve thousand of them were killed by the Frisians. Another party of invaders devastated Gaul; of these more than six hundred men perished. Yet, owing to his indolence, Charles agreed to give them many thousand pounds of gold and silver if they would leave Gaul, and this they did. Nevertheless the cloisters of most of the saints were destroyed and many of the Christians were led away captive.