By this means the center of political influence, “The Star of Empire,” took another step westward. His son, Pepin le Bref, or the Short, caused himself to be 752—crowned king of France by the Roman Pontiff, Stephen II., which added to his own prestige, as it also did to that of the pope. It was a sort of league between the rising temporal and spiritual powers in Europe, and set an example long followed. Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, the son of Pepin, ascended the throne in 771, 771—and by his intelligence, energy, and wise statesmanship, by his encouragement of learning, his organizing talents and his success in conquering and civilizing the seething mass of nationalities in Germany, he may be said to have really founded modern civilization during his long reign of forty-three years. He conquered the Lombard kingdom in Italy, and was crowned by the pope, Adrian I, “Emperor of the Romans,” kneeling at the altar in Rome; but he virtually confirmed the temporal authority of the popes, and associated their influence in all his conquests. He thoroughly broke the spirit of the pagan Saxons, in northwestern Germany, by a war of thirty-three years, carried his conquests east over most of the present Austrian empire, civilizing and bringing the barbarians into the pale of Christendom by the aid of Christian missionaries, and conquered some portions of Spain from the Saracens. It seemed as if the history of the western Roman Empire, which had fallen three hundred years before, was to be repeated. That was the hope and dream of both Charlemagne and the Roman Pontiff, who joined hands to realize it. This new western emperor had great abilities and the church was very strong. The centre of Europe had so long been within the reach of civilizing influences, and had attained such a point of development in its various nationalities, that they readily accepted permanent institutions, when presented by a power so strong as that of the mighty Frank ruler.