To enlarge still further the bounds of his kingdom was the task to
which the young monarch at once addressed himself, and upon which
he entered with all the advantages of family prestige, a commanding
and engaging personality, proven courage and skill in war, as well
as talent and accomplishments in civil affairs.
The central purpose of Charlemagne, to the service of which all his
policies and his conduct were directed, was the maintenance of the
Christian religion as embodied in the Western Church, whose great
champion he became, and in that character occupies his lofty place
in the history of Europe and of the world. At this period the two
great powers in the Christian world were the Roman pontiff and the
Frankish king; and when, on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, Pope Leo III
crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans, and in the Holy Roman
Empire restored the Western Empire, extinct since 476, he welded
church and state in what long proved to be indissoluble bonds,
somewhat--it must be added--to the chagrin of the Byzantine
emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople.
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