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at first he was so much opposed tbat
he affirmed that, even lhough it was
an important feast day, he would
nol have entered the church that
day if he had known in advance lhe
plan of lhe pope." This statemenl
will cause confusion among hislo–
rians of later centuries.
Sorne feel the papacy simply en–
gineered the coronation with
Charlemagne's probable approval.
One historian, F.
L.
Ganshop, will
claim thal Leo III has probably
played a crooked game. The play
Leo III and Charlemagne have writ–
ten is edited at the last momenl by
Leo. By crowning Charlemagne
himself, in fronl of Lombard and
Frankish witnesses, Leo has given
the impression lhat il is he who in–
vesls Charlemagne wilh the impe–
rial crown. "There lies, in my
opinion," historian Ganshop will
say. "the reason for the great dis–
pleasure shown by Charlemagne,
the reason for which he hesitated
during severa! months lo adorn
himself with the imperial title
... the one which had appeared in
the acclamations:
imperator Ro–
manorum."
This view sees the papacy as hav–
ing learned a bitter lesson. As an
institution, the Church is powerless;
it needs a strong protector and de–
fender. The Catholic church had
gained its preeminence while the
old Roman Empire was yet strong.
But in another sense, the strength of
the empire had severely limited the
power of the Church.
In the ninth century, circum–
stances are such that the papacy can
both extricate itself from the limita–
tions of the imperial framework and
find a worthy protector and de–
fender. The Frankish kings are to be
the too!. But the papacy is soon to
find that exchanging the Byz.antines
for the Franks might be a bad bar–
gain.
Year 800: Life at Charlemagne's
Court.
Charlemagne wants to build
a second Rome at Aix-la-Chapelle.
1t
is also dear lhat the king plans lo
PLAIN TRUTH November 1973
MAPS CONTINUED
wheu Cbarlemague, greatest of the
Fraukish kings, was crowned as a
new, European-style Roman em–
peror.
The old Romau Empire's
siclmess
and wounds were
tempo–
rarily eliminated,
aud
the empire
was resurrected to a position of
power
iD
Westem Europe.
The Frankish
realm
continued to
expand uutil
about A.D. 830,
when
hidden
sigus of disiutegration
be–
came evident. lu A.D. 843, the
(Continued on page 27)
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