V WITNESS TO THE MIRACULOUS 161 



who appears to have been born about A.D. 770, 

 and spent his youth at the court, being educated 

 along with Charles's sons. There is excellent 

 contemporary testimony not only to Eginhard's 

 existence, but to his abilities, and to the place 

 which he occupied in the circle of the intimate 

 friends of the great ruler whose life he subse- 

 quently wrote. In fact, there is as good evidence 

 of Eginhard's existence, of his official position, and 

 of his being the author of the chief works attribut- 

 ed to him, as can reasonably be expected in the 

 case of a man who lived more than a thousand 

 years ago, and was neither a great king nor a 

 great warrior. The works are 1. " The Life of 

 the Emperor Karl." 2. " The Annals of the 

 Franks." 3. " Letters." 4. " The History of the 

 Translation of the Blessed Martyrs of Christ, SS. 

 Marcellinus and Petrus." 



It is to the last, as one of the most singular 

 and interesting records of the period during which 

 the Roman world passed into that of the Middle 

 Ages, that I wish to direct attention. 1 It was 

 written in the ninth century, somewhere, appar- 

 ently, about the year 830, when Eginhard, ailing 

 in health and weary of political life, had with- 

 drawn to the monastery of Seligenstadt, of which 

 he was the founder. A manuscript copy of the 

 work, made in the tenth century, and once the 



1 My citations are made from Teulet's Einhardi omnia qua 

 extant opera, Paris, 1840-1843, which contains a biography of the 

 author, a history of the text, with translations into French, and 

 many valuable annotations. 



