He ordered that the old
barbaric poems, in which the deeds and wars of the ancient kings were
celebrated, should be collected for posterity. He gave Germanic names to
the twelve months of the year. He distinguished the winds by twelve
special terms, whereas before his time they had but four designations.
He paid great attention to astronomy. Being troubled one day at no
longer seeing in the firmament one of the known planets, he wrote to
Alcuin: "What thinkest thou of this _Mars_, which, last year, being
concealed in the sign of Cancer, was intercepted from the sight of men
by the light of the sun? Is it the regular course of his revolution? Is
it the influence of the sun? Is it a miracle? Could he have been two
years about performing the course of a single one?"
In theological studies and discussions he exhibited a particular and
grave interest. "It is to him," say Ampere and Haureau, "that we must
refer the honor of the decision taken in 794 by the council of Frankfort
in the great dispute about images; a temperate decision which is as far
removed from the infatuation of the image-worshippers as from the frenzy
of the image-breakers.
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