King Arnulf, who seems to have possessed as much wisdom as bravery, did not interfere with the pretensions of these new rulers, so long as they forbore to trespass on his German territory, and he thereby secured the friendship of all. He devoted himself to the liberation of Germany from the repeated invasions of the Danes and Norsemen on the north, and the Bohemians on the east. The former had entrenched themselves strongly among the marshes near Louvain, where Arnulf's best troops, which were cavalry, could not reach them. He set an example to his army by dismounting and advancing on foot to the attack: the Germans followed with such impetuosity that the Norse camp was taken, and nearly all its defenders slaughtered. From that day Germany was free from Northern invasion.

Arnulf next marched against his old enemy, Zwentebold (in some histories the name is written Sviatopulk) of Bohemia. This king and his people had recently been converted to Christianity by the missionary Methodius, but it had made no change in their predatory habits. They were the more easily conquered by Arnulf, because the Magyars, a branch of the Finnish race who had pressed into Hungary from the east, attacked them at the same time. The Magyars were called "Hungarians" by the Germans of that day—as they are at present—because they had taken possession of the territory which had been occupied by the Huns, more than four centuries before; but they were a distinct race, resembling the Huns only in their fierceness and daring. They were believed to be cannibals, who drank the blood and devoured the hearts of their slain enemies; and the panic they created throughout Germany was as great as that which went before Attila and his barbarian hordes.

894.

After the subjection of the Bohemians, Arnulf was summoned to Italy, in the year 894, where he assisted Berengar, king of Lombardy, to maintain his power against a rival. He then marched against Rudolf, king of Upper Burgundy, who had been conspiring against him, and ravaged his land. By this time, it appears, his personal ambition was excited by his successes: he determined to become Emperor, and as a means of securing the favor of the Pope, he granted the most extraordinary privileges to the Church in Germany. He ordered that all civil officers should execute the orders of the clerical tribunals; that excommunication should affect the civil rights of those on whom it fell; that matters of dispute between clergy and laymen should be decided by the Bishops, without calling witnesses,—with other decrees of the same character, which practically set the Church above the civil authorities.

The Popes, by this time, had embraced the idea of becoming temporal sovereigns, and the dissensions among the rulers of the Carolingian line already enabled them to secure a power, of which the former Bishops of Rome had never dreamed. In the early part of the ninth century, the so-called "Isidorian Decretals" (because they bore the name of Bishop Isidor, of Seville) came to light. They were forged documents, purporting to be decrees of the ancient Councils of the Church, which claimed for the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) the office of Vicar of Christ and Vicegerent of God upon earth, with supreme power not only over all Bishops, priests and individual souls, but also over all civil authorities. The policy of the Papal chair was determined by these documents, and several centuries elapsed before their fictitious character was discovered.

Arnulf, after these concessions to the Church, went to Italy in 895. He found the Pope, Formosus, in the power of a Lombard prince, whom the former had been compelled against his will, to crown as Emperor. Arnulf took Rome by force of arms, liberated the Pope, and in return was crowned Roman Emperor. He fell dangerously ill immediately afterwards, and it was believed that he had been poisoned. Formosus, who died the following year, was declared "accurst" by his successor, Stephen VII., and his body was dug up and cast into the Tiber, after it had lain nine months in the grave.

899. LUDWIG THE CHILD.

Arnulf returned to Germany as Emperor, but weak and broken in body and mind. He never recovered from the effects of the poison, but lingered for three years longer, seeing his Empire becoming more and more weak and disorderly. He died in 899, leaving one son, Ludwig, only seven years old. This son, known in history as "Ludwig the Child," was the last of the Carolingian line in Germany. In France, the same line, now represented by Charles the Silly, was also approaching its end.

At a Diet held at Forchheim (near Nuremberg), Ludwig the Child was accepted as king of Germany, and solemnly crowned. On account of his tender years, he was placed in charge of Archbishop Hatto of Mayence, who was appointed, with Duke Otto of Saxony, to govern temporarily in his stead. An insurrection in Lorraine was suppressed; but now a more formidable danger approached from the East. The Hungarians invaded Northern Italy in 899, and ravaged part of Bavaria on their return to the Danube. Like the Huns, they destroyed everything in their way, leaving a wilderness behind their march.

The Bavarians, with little assistance from the rest of Germany, fought the Hungarians until 907, when their Duke, Luitpold, was slain in battle, and his son Arnulf purchased peace by a heavy tribute. Then the Hungarians invaded Thuringia, whose Duke, Burkhard, also fell fighting against them, after which they plundered a part of Saxony. Finally, in 910, the whole strength of Germany was called into the field; Ludwig, eighteen years old, took command, met the Hungarians on the banks of the Inn, and was utterly defeated. He fled from the field, and was forced, thenceforth, to pay tribute to Hungary. He died in 911, and Germany was left without a hereditary ruler.