purity of life is prescribed to the monks; homicide, the neglect of
hospitality, and other offences are denounced, the notions of sin and
crime being intermingled and almost identified in a way to which no
parallel can be found, unless it be in the Mosaic code. There God, the
invisible object of worship, is also, though almost incidentally, the
judge and political ruler of Israel; here the whole cycle of social
and moral duty is deduced from the obligation of obedience to the
visible autocratic head of the Christian state.
In most of Charles's words and deeds, nor less distinctly in the
writings of his adviser Alcuin, may be discerned the working of the
same theocratic ideas. Among his intimate friends he chose to be
called by the name of David, exercising in reality all the powers of
the Jewish king; presiding over this kingdom of God upon earth rather
as a second Constantine or Theodosius than in the spirit and
traditions of the Julii or the Flavii. Among his measures there are
two which in particular recall the first Christian Emperor. As
Constantine founds so Charles erects on a firmer basis the connection
of Church and State. Bishops and abbots are as essential a part of
rising feudalism as counts and dukes. Their benefices are held under
the same conditions of fealty and the service in war of their vassal
tenants, not of the spiritual person himself: they have similar rights
of jurisdiction, and are subject alike to the imperial _missi_. The
monarch tries often to restrict the clergy, as persons, to spiritual
duties; quells the insubordination of the monasteries; endeavours to
bring the seculars into a monastic life by instituting and regulating
chapters. But after granting wealth and power, the attempt was vain;
his strong hand withdrawn, they laughed at control. Again, it was by
him first that the payment of tithes, for which the priesthood had
long been pleading, was made compulsory in Western Europe, and the
support of the ministers of religion entrusted to the laws of the
state.
[Sidenote: Influence of the imperial title in Germany and Gaul.]
[Sidenote: Action of Charles on Europe.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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