Page images
PDF
EPUB

799

A. D. tine perished by her artifices. She gained over the people by moderating the taxes, and engaged the monks and clergy in her interest, by an apparent piety. At length she was acknowledged sole empress. The Romans despised her government, and applied to Charlemagne, who subdued the Saxons, checked the Saracens, destroyed heresies, protected the popes, won infidel nations to Christianity, restored the sciences, and ecclesiastical discipline, assembled famous councils, where his profound learning was admired; and made the effects of his piety and justice to be felt not only in France and Italy, but in Spain, England, Germany, and every other country.

XII. Epoch. Charlemagne, or the Esta blishment of the New Empire.

AT length, in the 800th year of our Lord, that great protector of Rome and Italy, or, to speak better, of the whole church and of all Christendom, being elected emperor by the Romans, without his thinking of any such thing, and crowned by pope Leo III. who had urged the Roman people to this choice, became the founder of the new empire, and of the temporal greatness of the holy see.

THESE, SIR, are the twelve epochs, which I have followed in this abridgment. I have annexed to each of them, the principal facts that depend upon them. You may

now, without much difficulty, dispose, according to the order of time, the great events of ancient history, and rank them, so to speak, every one under its own standard.

I have not forgotten in this epitome, that celebrated division which chronologers make of the duration of the world into seven ages. The beginning of each age serves us for an epoch; if I intermix some others with them, it is, that things may be the more distinct; and that the order of time may unfold itself before you with the less confusion.

When I speak to you of the order of time, I do not mean, Sir, that you should charge yourself scrupulously with every date; far less, that you should enter into all the disputes of chronologers, which are in general only about a few years. Contentious chronology, that stands so critically upon these minute matters, has, doubtless, its use; but this is not your object, and conduces very little to enlighten the mind of a great prince. I by no means intended to refine upon this discussion of time, and amongst the calculations already made, I have followed that, which to me seemed most probabie, without engaging to warrant it.

Whether in the computation we make of years from the time of the creation down to Abraham, we should follow the Septuagint, which makes the world older, or the Hebrew, which makes it younger by several centuries; though, indeed, the authority

of the original Hebrew seems to deserve the preference, it is a thing so indifferent in itself, that the church, which has followed, with St. Jerom, the computation of the Hebrew in our vulgate, has allowed that of the Septuagint in her martyrology. In fact, what matters it to history to diminish, or multiply vacant centuries, in which there is nothing to relate? Is it not enough, that the times, wherein the dates are important, have fixed characters, and that the distribution of them can be supported upon certain foundations? And though even in these times there should be a dispute about some years, this would seldom create any difficulty. For example, should we be obliged to put a few years sooner or later, either the foundation of Rome, or the birth of JESUS CHRIST, you may have perceived, that this diversity in no wise affects the series of the histories, nor the accomplishment of the counsels of God. You are to shun Anachronisms, that perplex the order of affairs, and leave the others to be disputed among the learned.

Nor would I burden your memory with the computation of Olympiads, although the Greeks, who make use of them, render them necessary for the fixing of times. It is necessary to know what it is, in order to have recourse to it, upon occasion: but for the rest it will be sufficient, to confine your attention to the dates, which I propose, as the most simple, and the most followed, namely, those of the world down to Rome, those of Rome onward to JESUS

CHRIST, and those of JESUS CHRIST in all that remains.

But the true design of this epitome, is, not to explain to you the order of times, though that is absolutely necessary to connect all histories, and to show their mutual relation. I told you, Sir, that my principal intention was to make you consider, in the order of time, the progress of the people of God, and that of great empires.

These two objects run on together in that great movement of ages, in which they have, so to speak, one and the same course; but it will be needful, in order rightly to understand them, to take them apart sometimes from each other, and to consider separately whatever may relate to either of them.

« PreviousContinue »