[37] The conflict with the Saxons at Eresburg was precipitated by the ill-timed zeal of an Anglo-Saxon missionary named Lebuinus, who forced his way into their sacred assembly. “Arrayed in gorgeous robes and carrying a cross in his hand, the zealous missionary passed through the throng to an open enclosure, peculiarly sacred to the worshippers. The Saxons resented this intrusion as sacrilegious, but suppressed their indignation and for awhile listened to him.” He delivered a fiery and threatening address which so roused their wrath that they came near killing him. More moderate councils prevailed and the missionary was allowed to depart, but the church that Lebuinus had built for the salvation of these heathen, but which they could not be persuaded to use for Christian worship, was burned to the ground. This act of sacrilege was readily used to work on the feelings of Charlemagne. “Idolatry must perish” and Charlemagne was not reluctant to be the instrument of its punishment. In any view of the subject, however, it must be conceded that, human nature being what it is, the conflict between the two peoples, the Christian Franks and the heathen Saxons, was irrepressible, and one or the other was destined to prevail.--See Mombert, _Charles the Great_, book ii., chap. iii.
[38] The words of Einhard, Charlemagne’s biographer, are, ... “_dum aut victi christianæ religioni subicerentur, aut omnino tollerentur_,” “until they were either subdued and converted to the Christian religion, or annihilated.”
[39] The most ferocious and warlike of all the barbarians with whom Charlemagne contended, not even excepting the Avars, were the Saxons. These people seemed to have an inextinguishable hatred of Christianity and of slavery. Almost their only redeeming trait was their respect for womanhood. They roamed the forests, and to some extent sailed the seas; they lived largely by hunting, but they preferred piracy and plunder. They could not be won by kindness. Even their word of honor was not binding upon them, for they continually violated the pledges of their treaties. The only way to deal with them was thoroughly to conquer them and to deal with them with a severity bordering on cruelty. This Charlemagne did. It took eighteen expeditions--though he never lost a battle with them--and thirty-three years to accomplish his purpose, but he was successful at the last. This people became civilized, christianized, and they developed into the best people of Europe, becoming the nucleus of the great German empire, and an important constituent of the English. Beyond almost all others, they have escaped the corruptions and vices attendant upon a luxurious life, and they are to-day among the leaders of industry and enterprise in both hemispheres.