Charlemague atid his Empire 373 over by Charlemagne's father, Pippin the Short. Frisia and Bavaria had been Christianized, and their rulers had been in- duced by the efforts of Charlemagne's predecessors and of the missionaries, especially Boniface, to recognize the overlordship ■ of the Franks. Between these two half-independent countries lay the unconquered Saxons. They were as yet pagans and appear still to have clung to much the same institutions as those under which they had lived when the Roman historian Tacitus described them seven centuries earlier. The Saxons occupied the region beginning somewhat east The con- of Cologne and extending to the Elbe, and north to where the saxons great cities of Bremen and Hamburg are now situated. They had no towns or roads and were consequently very difficult to conquer, as they could retreat, with their few possessions, into the forests or swamps as soon as they found themselves unable to meet an invader in the open field. Yet so long as they remained unconquered they constantly threatened the Frankish kingdom, and their country was necessary to the rounding out of its boundaries. Charlemagne never undertook, during his long military career, any other " task half so serious as the subjugation of the Saxons, which occupied many years. Nowhere do we find a more striking example of the influence Conversion of the Church than in the reliance that Charlemagne placed upon it in his dealings with the Saxons. He deemed it quite as essential that after a rebellion they should promise to honor the Church and be baptized, as that they should pledge them- selves to remain true and faithful subjects of the king. He was in quite as much haste to found bishoprics and monasteries as to build fortresses. The law for the newly conquered Saxon lands issued some time between 775 and 790 provides the same death penalty for him who " shall have shown himself unfaithful to the lord king " and him who " shall scorn to come to baptism and shall wish to remain a pagan." Charlemagne believed the Christianizing of the Saxons so important a part of his duty that he decreed that any one should
