February 9 - The Hammer

February 9 – The Hammer

One of those tribes that blasted the Roman Empire apart was the Franks. Their ruler, Charles Martel or The Hammer (Martel means “The Hammer”) decided that the church was there for his work. He allowed Roman missionaries to move throughout Germany as long as he had control of what they were doing.

While he was ruler, the Muslims decided to begin their press into Europe and crossed into his territory. He met them in between Tours and Poitiers and beat them. Finally he pushed them back into Spain and they stopped the move into Europe.

Several years previously, the defense of Constantinople also stopped the press of the Muslims into Europe from the east, but this battle – the Battle of Tours was very important in the history of Western Civilization.

Times had changed radically. From a time when Christians were persecuted for their beliefs there now came a period when people believed that there should be a Christian empire. The question soon became whether a pope would be the leader or a king. The pope had become powerful, but wasn’t powerful enough.

In 754 AD, a document was illegally created … forged … saying that Constantine had moved to Constantinople in order to allow the pope to have control of the West. That he had given that portion of the empire to Rome. This document, called the Donation of Constantine was a powerful item in the hands of the church.

Charles Martel’s son, King Pepin III took lands and using that document gave them to the Pope. However, there wasn’t enough power yet to bring the pope to Imperial power. They were about to get much closer, though.