TERMS OF THE TREATY OF VERDUN.—Louis the German took the Eastern and German Franks, and Charles the Bald the Western and Latinized Franks. Lothar, who retained the imperial title, received the middle portion of the Frank territory, including Italy and a long, narrow strip of territory between the dominions of his brothers, and extending to the North Sea. This land took later the name of Lotharingia, or Lorraine. It always had the character of a border-land. While Louis's share comprised only German-speaking peoples, Charles's kingdom was made up almost exclusively of Gallo-Roman inhabitants; while under Lothar the two races were mingled. This division marks the birth of the German and French nations as such. The German-speaking peoples in the East, who were affiliated in language, customs, and spirit, more and more grew together into a nation. In like manner, the subjects of the Western kingdom more and more were resolved into a Franco-Roman nationality. Lothar ruled at Aix-la-Chapelle, and was styled emperor; but each of the other kingdoms was independent, and the empire of Charlemagne was dissolved. Only for a short time, under Charles the Fat (881-887), nearly the whole monarchy of Charlemagne was united under one scepter. When he was deposed it was again broken in pieces; and four distinct kingdoms emerged,—those of the Eastern and Western Franks, "the forerunners of Germany and France," and the kingdoms of Italy and of Burgundy, in South-eastern Gaul, which were sometimes united and sometimes separate. Lotharingia was attached now to the Eastern and now to the Western Frank kingdom. In theory there was not a severance, but a sharing, of the common possession which had been the object of contention.
EASTERN CARLOVINGIANS.—Charles the Fat was a weak and sluggish prince. He offered no effectual resistance to the destructive ravages of the Normans, or Scandinavian Northmen. He was deposed in 887, and died in the following year on an island in the Lake of Constance. His successor, the grandson of Louis the German, Arnulf, duke of Carinthia, became king of the Germans, (887-899) and emperor; and, after his short reign, the line of Louis died out in Louis the Child, the weak son of Arnulf (900-911). The house of Charlemagne survived only among the Western Franks.
During the reign of Louis the Child, Hatto (I.), archbishop of Mentz and primate of Germany, was regent and guardian of the king. He was a bold defender of the unity of the empire. He was charged, truly or falsely, with taking the life of Adalbert, a Frank nobleman whom he had enticed into his castle. There was a popular tradition that the devil seized Hatto's corpse, and threw it into the crater of Mount Ætna. The mistake is often made of connecting the popular legend of the "Mouse-tower" at Bingen on the Rhine, with him. It was told of a later Hatto (Hatto II.), who was likewise archbishop of Mentz (968). He was charged with shutting up the poor in a barn, in a time of famine, and of burning them there. As the story runs, he called them "rats who ate the corn." Numberless mice swam to the tower which he had built in the midst of the stream, and devoured him. Southey has put the tale into a ballad,—"God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop."
KINGDOM OF FRANCE.—In 841 Rouen fell into the hands of the Normans, and Paris lay open to their attacks. In 861 Charles the Bald invested a brave soldier, Robert the Strong, whose descent is not known, with the county of Paris, that he might resist the invaders. He held the country between the Seine and the Loire, under the name of the Duchy of France. The other Francia, east of the Rhine, continued to be an important part of Germany, the district called Franconia. Robert was the greatgrandfather of Hugh Capet, the founder of the kingdom of France. Under the imbecile Charles the Fat, the audacious Northmen (885-886) laid siege to Paris. It was Odo, or Eudes, count of Paris, who led the citizens in their heroic and successful resistance. Him the nobles of France chose to be their king. His family were called "Dukes of the French." Their duchy—Western or Latin Francia—was the strongest state north of the Loire. The feudal lords were growing mightier, and the imperial or royal power was becoming weaker. After Odo of Paris was elected to the Western kingdom, there followed a period of about a hundred years during which there was a king sometimes from his house and sometimes from the family of the Carlovingians. The latter still spoke German, and, when they had the power, reigned at Laon in the northeastern corner of the kingdom. Odo ruled from 888 until 898. He had to leave the southern part of France independent. During the last five years of his life he was obliged to contend with Charles the Simple (893-929), who was elected king by the Carlovingian party of the north. The most noted of the Carlovingian kings at Laon was Louis "from beyond seas" (936-954), Charles's son, who had been carried to England for safety. His reign was a constant struggle with Hugh the Great, duke of the French, the nephew of King Odo. Hugh would not accept the crown himself. On the death of Louis V. (986-987), the direct line of Charlemagne became extinct. The only Carlovingian heir was his uncle, Charles, duke of Lorraine. His claim the barons would not recognize, but elected Hugh Capet, duke of France, to be king, who, on the 1st (or the 3d) of July, 987, was solemnly crowned in the cathedral of Noyon, by the archbishop of Rheims. Just at this juncture, when the contest was between the dukes of the French and Charles of Lorraine, the Carlovingian claimant to the sovereignty, the adhesion and support of Duke Richard of Normandy (943-996) was of decisive effect. The Normans had been on the side of Laon; now they turned the scale in favor of the elevation of the Duke of France. The German party at Laon could not withstand the combined power of Rouen and Paris. Thus with Hugh Capet, the founder of the Capetian line, the kingdom of France began, having Paris for its capital; and the name of France came gradually to be applied to the greater part of Gaul. But when Hugh Capet became king, the great feudal states were almost independent of the royal control. Eight were above the rest in power and extent. "The counts of Flanders, Champagne, and Vermandois, and the dukes of Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, and Aquitaine, regarded themselves as the new king's peers or equals." Lorraine, Arles, and Franche Comté—parts of modern France—"held of the emperor, and were, in fact, German." Hugh Capet's dukedom was divided by the Seine. He was lay abbot of St. Denis, the most important church in France.
THE GERMAN KINGDOM.—With the death of Louis the Child (911) the German branch of the Carlovingian line was extinguished. The Germans had to choose a king from another family. Germany, like France, was now composed of great fiefs. But there were two parties, differing from one another in their character and manners. The one consisted of the older Alemannic and Austrasian unions, where the traces of Roman influence continued, where the large cities were situated, and the principal sees. Here were formed the duchies of Swabia and Bavaria, and Franconia (Austrasian France). To the other, consisting chiefly of the duchy of Saxony, were attached Thuringia and a part of Frisia. In France the royal power, at the start, was so weak, that, not being dreaded, it was suffered to grow. In Germany the royal power was so strong that there was a constant effort to reduce it. Hence in France the result was centralization; in Germany the tendency was to division. In France the long continuance of the family of Hugh Capet made the monarchy hereditary. In Germany the frequent changes of dynasty helped to make it elective.
CONRAD I.—When Louis died, Conrad of Franconia (911-918) was chosen king by the clerical and secular nobles of the five duchies, in which the counts elevated themselves to the rank of dukes,—Franconia, Saxony, Lorraine, Swabia, and Bavaria. Germany thus became an elective kingdom; but since, as a rule, the sovereignty was continued in one family, the electoral principle was qualified by an hereditary element. Conrad began the struggle against the great feudatories, which went on through the Middle Ages. The dukes always chafed under the rule of a king; yet, for the glory of the nation and for their own safety against attacks from abroad, they were anxious to preserve it from extinction. The Hungarians, to whom Louis the Child had consented to pay tribute, renewed their incursions. They marched in force as far as Bremen. Conrad had wished to reduce the power of Saxony, and to detach from it Thuringia. He was constantly at war with his own subjects. Yet on his death-bed he showed his disinterested regard to the interests of the kingdom. He called to him his brother Eberhard, and charged him to carry his crown and crown jewels to his enemy Henry, duke of the Saxons, who was most capable of defending the country against the Hungarian invaders.
ITALY.—After the empire of Charles the Fat was broken up, a strong anti-German feeling was manifest in Italy. The people wanted the king of Italy, and, if possible, the emperor of the Romans, to be of their own nation. But they could not agree: there was a violent contest between the supporters of Berengar of Friuli and the supporters of Guido of Spoleto. Arnulf came twice into Italy to quell the disturbance, and on his second visit, in 896, was crowned emperor. Civil war soon broke out again. Within twenty years the crown had been given to five different aspirants. They were Germans, or were Italians only in name. Berengar I. (888-924) was crowned emperor by the Pope, but had to fight against a competitor, Rudolph, king of Burgundy, whom the turbulent nobles set up in his place. Berengar was finally defeated and assassinated. His grandson, Berengar II. (of Ivrea) (950-961), had to fly to Germany (943) to escape a competitor for the throne, Hugh, count of Provence, brother of Ermengarde, Berengar's step-mother, to whom she had given the crown. His relations with Otto I. (the Great) led to very important consequences, to be narrated hereafter.
STATE OF LEARNING IN THE TENTH CENTURY.—Under Charles the Bald, there were not wanting signs of intellectual activity. John Scotus Erigena,—or John Scot, Erinborn,—who was at the head of his palace-school, was an acute philosopher, who, in his speculations in the vein of New Platonism, tended to pantheistic doctrine. His opinions were condemned at the instance of Hincmar, the eminent archbishop of Rheims. But after the deposition of Charles the Fat (887), there followed a period of darkness throughout the West. The universal political disorder was enough to account for this prevalent ignorance. But, in addition, the Latin language ceased to be spoken by the people, while the new vernacular tongues were not reduced to writing. Latin could only be learned in the schools; and these fell more and more into decay, in the confusion of the times. The mental stimulus which the study of the Latin had communicated, there was nothing, as yet, in the new languages to replace.
THE PAPACY IN THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES.—While Italy was under the rule of Justinian and his successors, the popes were subject to the tyranny of the Eastern emperors. After the Lombard conquest, their position, difficult as it was on account of the small protection afforded them from Constantinople, was favorable to the growth of their influence and authority. By their connection with Pipin and Charlemagne, they were recognized as having a spiritual headship, the counterpart of the secular supremacy of the emperor. The election of the Pope was to be sanctioned by the emperor, and that of the emperor by the Pope. But Charlemagne was supreme ruler over all classes and persons in Italy, as in his own immediate dominions. In the disorder that ensued upon his death, the imperial authority in all directions was reduced. The Frank bishops were frequently appealed to as umpires among the contending Carolingian princes. The growth of the power of the great bishops carried in it the exaltation of the highest bishop of all, the Roman pontiff. A pallium, or mantle, was sent by the Pope to all archbishops on their accession, and was considered to be a badge of the papal authority. In the earlier part of the ninth century, there appeared what are called the pseudo-Isidorian decretals, consisting of forged ecclesiastical documents purporting to belong to the early Christian centuries, which afforded a sanction to the highest claims of the chief rulers of the Church. These are universally known to be an invention; but, in that uncritical day, this was not suspected. They contained not much in behalf of hierarchical claims which had not, at one time or another, been actually asserted and maintained. In the spirit of the decretals Pope Nicholas I. (858-867) acted, when this energetic pontiff overruled the iniquitous decision of two German synods, and obliged Lothar, king of Lotharingia, to take back his lawful wife, Theutberga, whom he had divorced out of regard to a mistress, Waldrada. In the tenth century (904-962), when Italy, in the absence of imperial restraint, was torn by violent factions, the Papacy was for half a century disposed of by the Tuscan party, and especially by two depraved women belonging to it, Theodora, and her daughter Maria (or Marozia). The scandals belonging to this dismal period in the history of the papal institution are to be ascribed to the anarchy prevailing in Italy, and to the vileness of the individuals who usurped power at Rome.