CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE, 800 A.D.
Charlemagne, the champion of Christendom and the foremost ruler in Europe, seemed to the men of his day the rightful successor of the Roman emperors. He had their power, and now he was to have their name. In the year 800 A.D. the Frankish king visited Rome to investigate certain accusations made against the pope, Leo III, by his enemies in the city. Charlemagne absolved Leo of all wrong-doing and restored him to his office. Afterwards, on Christmas Day Charlemagne went to old St. Peter's Church, where the pope was saying Mass. As the king, dressed in the rich robes of a Roman patrician, knelt in prayer before the high altar, the pope suddenly placed on his head a golden crown, while all the people cried out with one voice, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, the great and pacific emperor of the Romans, crowned by God!"
REASONS FOR THE CORONATION
Although Charlemagne appears to have been surprised by the pope's act, we know that he wished to become emperor. The imperial title would confer upon him greater dignity and honor, though not greater power, than he possessed as king of the Franks and of the Lombards. The pope, in turn, was glad to reward the man who had protected the Church and had done so much to spread the Catholic faith among the heathen. The Roman people also welcomed the coronation, because they felt that the time had come for Rome to assume her old place as the capital of the world. To reject the eastern ruler, in favor of the great Frankish king, was an emphatic method of asserting Rome's independence of Constantinople.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CORONATION
The coronation of Charlemagne was one of the most important events in medieval history. It might be thought a small matter that he should take the imperial title, when he already exercised imperial sway throughout western Europe. But Charlemagne's contemporaries believed that the old Roman Empire had now been revived, and a German king now sat on the throne once occupied by Augustus and Constantine. Henceforth there was established in the West a line of Roman emperors which lasted until the opening of the nineteenth century. [16]
CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE
Charlemagne's empire was not in any true sense a continuation of the Roman Empire. It did not include the dominions over which the emperors at Constantinople were to reign for centuries. Moreover, Charlemagne and his successors on the throne had little in common with the old rulers of Rome, who spoke Latin, administered Roman law, and regarded the Germans as among their most dangerous enemies. Charlemagne's empire was, in fact, largely a new creation.