Biographical writings make up a not inconsiderable part of mediaeval literature, but unfortunately the greater portion of them are to be trusted in only a limited degree by the student of history. Many biographies, especially the lives of the saints and other noted Christian leaders, were prepared expressly for the purpose of giving the world concrete examples of how men ought to live. Their authors, therefore, were apt to relate only the good deeds of the persons about whom they wrote, and these were often much exaggerated for the sake of effect. The people of the time generally were superstitious and easily appealed to by strange stories and the recital of marvelous events. They were not critical, and even such of them as were able to read at all could be made to believe almost anything that the writers of books cared to say. And since these writers themselves shared in the superstition and credulousness of the age, naturally such biographies as were written abounded in tales which anybody to-day would know at a glance could not be true. To all this Einhard's _Life of Charles the Great_ stands as a notable exception. It has its inaccuracies, but it still deserves to be ranked almost in a class of its own as a trustworthy biographical contribution to our knowledge of the earlier Middle Ages. Einhard (or Eginhard) was a Frank, born about 770 near the Odenwald in Franconia. After being educated at the monastery of Fulda he was presented at the Frankish court, some time between 791 and 796, where he remained twenty years as secretary and companion of the king, and later emperor, Charlemagne. He was made what practically corresponds to a modern minister of public works and in that capacity is thought to have supervised the building of the palace and basilica of the temple at Aachen, the palace of Ingelheim, the bridge over the Rhine at Mainz, and many other notable constructions of the king, though regarding the precise work of this sort which he did there is a general lack of definite proof. Despite the fact that he was a layman, he was given charge of a number of abbeys. His last years were spent at the Benedictine monastery of Seligenstadt, where he died about 840. There is a legend that Einhard's wife, Emma, was a daughter of Charlemagne, but this is to be regarded as merely a twelfth-century invention.