His name says it all. Charlemagne they called him. Charles the Great, Emperor. He lived from 747-814 and became Emperor of the West, that remnant of the Roman empire the that became the Holy Roman Empire. His star accomplice, Roland, fought a rear-guard action in one of his campaigns that gave rise to a stream of heroic literature, beginning with ‘Chanson de Roland’. A Saxon uprising was later put down ruthlessly by Charlemagne who beheaded 4,500 Saxons. He subdued the Saxons in one campaign after another.
On Christmas Day 800 he was crowned emperor of the Romans by the Pope. His vast empire (in name at least the Holy Roman Empire) stretched from the Ebro to the Elbe. He had his headquarters at Aachen with its notable octagonal church The Englishman Alcuin was one of its outstanding scholars. His reign ended. The Holy Roman Empire survived into the 19t century. It prefigured the E.U. in forming a united Europe. Turkey’s wish to join the E.U. has this historical hangover to contend with.
It is clear from the days of Charlemagne that the idea of a Christian Europe is not without its problems. In the ninth century those problems could be solved in some sense by warfare. The mix of nations, languages and cultures that is today’s Europe calls for something else. We have yet to find it.
The Christianity we know was shaped by European history from the days of Constantine. I could be said that was the common possession of all Europeans. A personal commitment to the Christian faith became an aspect of European understanding as a result of the protestant reformation. This has become more evident as the widespread adoption of Christianity in Europe has withered, to be replaced by a secular version.
ALCUINAND BONIFACE
Born in York in 737, Alcuin was one of the foremost scholars of the age. He became an advise r to Charlemagne and tutor to the royal family. Until his death in 804 he spent his time in scholarly work, a back-room boy of the Frankish empire.
Another key figure in the Frankish empire was Boniface or Wynfrith. Born in Devon in 680, he became known as the apostle of Germany, campaigning through Bavaria, Friesland. Saxony and other regions with the Gospel. Crediton parish church has a striking statue of him.
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