There was a great uproar at
Constantinople, and many profane things were done and said, which
shocked the western branch of the Church. At last the Greeks made a rule
that there might be pictures of sacred subjects in their churches, but
no images, and to this they have kept ever since. The Latins would not
agree to this, and kept both images and pictures; and thus began a
feeling of distrust between the two branches.
The great Frank king, Charles le Magne, grandson of Charles Martel, was
a very religious man, and did a great deal to convert the heathens in
Germany, and spread the power of the Church. He saved Rome from some
dangerous enemies, and made the Pope a sort of prince over the city; and
the Pope, in return, crowned him Emperor of Rome, though without any
right to give away that title. He died in 814, and after his time all
the Christian west suffered horribly from the Teuton heathens, who lived
in Norway and Denmark, and who used to come down in their ships and ruin
and ravage all the countries round, especially England and France. They
loved nothing so well as burning a convent; and such a number of learned
monks and their books perished under their hands, that the world was
growing more ignorant than ever, when our good King Alfred rose up in
880, taught himself first, and then his people; and though he died
early, left such good seed behind him, that at last his Saxons converted
their enemies themselves, and Norway and Denmark became Christian too,
through kings who had learnt the faith in England.
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