4. Europe and the Byzantine Empire As the political authority of Rome disintegrated, the bishops of the Roman Catholic church stood firm for what they saw as the truth and the ancient order. The only representative of that order in Rome was no longer the emperor or the senate but the pope, holder of the chair of St. Peter. What remained of Roman authority became centred in Constantinople
5. Charlemagne's Empire in 800 Under the rule of Pepin the Short and his son Charlemagne, the Carolingians of the 8th and 9th centuries conquered vast territories and combined large portions of western Europe into a single unit. In 800 Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Empire of the West, a region later known as the Holy Roman Empire. This map portrays the extent of the empire as it stood in the year of Charlemagne’s coronation
