Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 21. Charles Martel; Battle of Tours. — Never was this power more needed than during the latter part of the Merovingian dynasty. In the eighth century the Saracens, or followers of Mohammed, had set out with the determination of conquering all nations. They had already subdued Egypt, The Prankish Kingdom of the Merovingians The heavy eastern boundary of Brittany indicates the virtual independence of that province at this period. northern Africa, and Spain. They now planned the subjugation of France, Germany, Italy, and Constantinople, that they might unite them into one vast empire. As the Roman Empire had been ravaged by the northern barbarians, so now Europe was threatened by the Saracens. Many trembled lest every Bible should be destroyed, every church leveled, every cr trampled under foot, and lest all men should be forced to bow in adoration before the Koran and the crescent.1 But the truth was that the Mohammedans gave those whom they conquered the choice of conversion, death, or tribute. In 732 the Saracens crossed the Pyrenees and raided the country in all directions, pillaging and burning many rich towns, and carrying off thousands of captives. No power seemed able to stop their career, and multitudes gave themselves up to despair, believing the end had come, and that Mohammedanism would triumph. In this crisis a new Mayor of the Palace, Charles, an illegitimate son of Pepin of Austrasia, came to the rescue. He represented the stalwart courage and steadfast endurance that had characterized the Franks in their best days. But he lacked warriors; and as his predecessors, together with the Sluggard Kings,3 had given away a great part of the royal domain, Charles did not hesitate to seize the Church lands — which were usually the finest in the country — and...