recognized this,--that Christianity, whatever it be, is the
mightiest power of the world; and he bore his testimony in behalf
of the intellectual dignity of the clergy in comparison with other
classes. He encouraged missions as well as schools.

There was another Germanic tribe at that time which he held in
great alarm, but which he did not attack, since they were not
immediately dangerous. This tribe or race was the Norman, just
then beginning their ravages,--pirates in open boats. They had
dared to enter a port in Narbonensis Gaul for purposes of plunder.
Some took them for Africans, and others for British merchants.
Nay, said Charlemagne, they are not merchants, but cruel enemies;
and he covered his face with his iron hands and wept like a child.
He did not fear these barbarians, but he wept when he foresaw the
evil they would do when he was dead. "I weep," said he, "that they
should dare almost to land on my shores, in my lifetime." These
Normans escaped him. They conquered and they founded kingdoms.
But they did not replunge Europe in darkness. A barrier had been
made against their inundation. The Saxon conquest was that
barrier. Moreover, the Normans were the noblest race of barbarians
which then roamed through the forests of Germany, or skirted the
shores of Scandinavia. They had grand natural traits of character.
They were poetic, brave, and adventurous. They were superior to
the Saxons and the Franks. When converted, they were the great
allies of the Pope, and early became civilized. To them we trace
the noblest development of Gothic architecture. They became great
scholars and statesmen. They were more refined by nature than the
Saxons, and avoided their gluttonous habits. In after times they
composed the flower of European chivalry. It was providential that
they were not subdued,--that they became the leading race in