Germany in the Early Middle Ages (Illustrated‪)‬

The Germany of modern history, the Germany of the Holy Roman Empire, lies partly within and partly without the general limits of the ancient or unholy Roman Empire. Taking as a rough limit the line of the Rhine and the Danube as the boundaries of the actual possessions of imperial Rome, it will be seen that all Germany east of the Rhine and north of the Danube remained practically unsubdued, or if partially subdued, unconsolidated. Great part of modern Germany lay outside the empire, and the part that lay inside it was counted to belong to provinces not in themselves radically German; the portion of Germany west of the Rhine was accounted a part of Gaul; and the German regions south of the Danube were for the most part regarded as Illyrian. The Germans of the heart of Germany had withstood successfully the attacks of Rome, although they had, it would seem almost of necessity, been leavened by her civilisation, and affected, after the adoption of Christianity in the empire, by the influences of her religion. Cologne, Trier, and Mainz, the three great metropolitical sees of later Germany, were Roman cities, sometimes the seats of emperors themselves; and all had churches, founded long before the general evangelisation of Germany by Roman Christians. They were akin in habit and institutions to the churches of Gaul, and continued to be leavened by the same secular spirit throughout the Middle Ages; the Archbishops of the three great Roman cities were the spiritual electors of the heads of the Holy Roman Empire...