[229] Cf. ante, Chapter VI.
[230] In those of its lands which were granted immunity from public burdens, the Church gradually acquired a jurisdiction by reason of its right to exact penalties, which elsewhere fell to the king.
[231] The synod of 549 declared (ineffectually) for the election of bishops, to be followed by royal confirmation.
[232] Hauck, Kirchenges. Deutschlands, Bd. I. Buch ii. Kap. ii.; Möller, Kirchengeschichte, Bd. II. p. 52 sqq. (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1893).
[233] Carloman went at first to Rome, and built a monastery, in which he lived for a while. But here his contemptum regni terreni brought him more renown than his monk’s soul could endure. So, with a single companion, he fled, and came unmarked and in abject guise to Monte Cassino. He announced himself as a murderer seeking to do penance, and was received on probation. At the end of a year he took the vows of a monk. It happened that he was put to help in the kitchen, where he worked humbly but none too dexterously, and was chidden and struck by the cook for his clumsiness. At which he said with placid countenance, “May the Lord forgive thee, brother, and Carloman.” This occurring for the third time, his follower fell on the cook and beat him. When the uproar had subsided, and an investigation was called before the brethren, the follower said in explanation, that he could not hold back, seeing the vilest of the vile strike the noblest of all. The brethren seemed contemptuous, till the follower proclaimed that this monk was Carloman, once King of the Franks, who had relinquished his kingdom for the love of Christ. At this the terrified monks rose from their seats and flung themselves at Carloman’s feet, imploring pardon, and pleading their ignorance. But Carloman, rolling on the ground before them (in terram provolutus) denied it all with tears, and said he was not Carloman, but a common murderer. Nevertheless, thenceforth, recognized by all, he was treated with great reverence (Regino, Chronicon, Migne, Pat. Lat. 132, col. 45).
[234] For example, immunity (from governmental taxation and visitation) might attach to the lands of bishops and abbots, as it might to the lands of a lay potentate. On the other hand, the lands of bishops and abbots owed the Government such temporal aid in war and peace as would have attached to them in the hands of laymen. Such dignitaries had high secular rank. The king did not interfere with the appointment and control of the lower clergy by their lords, the bishops and abbots, any more than he did with the domestic or administrative appointments of great lay functionaries within their households or jurisdictions.
[235] There are numerous editions of the Heliand: by Sievers (1878), by Rückert (1876). Very complete is Heyne’s third edition (Paderborn, 1883). Portions of it are given, with modern German interlinear translation, in Piper’s Die älteste Literatur (Deutsche Nat. Lit.), pp. 164-186. Otfrid’s book is elaborately edited by Piper (2nd edition with notes and glossary, Freiburg i. B., 1882). See also Piper’s Die älteste Literatur, where portions of the work are given with modern German interlinear translation. Compare Ebert, Literatur des Mittelalters, iii. 100-117.
[236] The Heliand uses the epic phrases of popular poetry: they reappear three centuries later in the Nibelungenlied.
[237] Ante, Chapter I.
[238] Ante, Chapter VI.