| Before this tomb became the sarcophagus of Charlemagne, it was that of Augustus, begging the obvious question: what did they do with Augustus (who they previously deified as a Roman god)? In 1166, Frederick Barbarossa had the remains of the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire exhumed. The Church claimed the imperial skeleton, and, separating the bones, made each a holy relic. In the adjoining sacristy a vicar would show the people (for three francs seventy-five centimes) "the arm of Charlemagne"—that arm which held for a time the reins of the world.
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