other monuments of great architectural skill and expense, belong to the
age of Charlemagne, and bear ample testimony to the well-directed
exertions of the monarch, and of some of his descendants, and to their
wise and splendid magnificence.







I. 3.

_Decline of Literature under the Descendants of Charlemagne._

[Sidenote: 800-911]

[Sidenote: I. 3. Decline of Literature under the Descendants of
Charlemagne.]


That literature began to decline immediately after the decease of
Charlemagne, in every part of his extensive dominions, and that its
decline was principally owing to the wars among his descendants, which
devastated every portion of his empire, seems to be universally
acknowledged; yet there are strong grounds for contending that it was
not so great as generally represented. _Abbé le Beuf_,[003] in an
excellent dissertation on the state of the sciences in the Gauls during
the period which elapsed between the death of Charlemagne and the reign
of Robert, king of France, attempts to prove the contrary; and the