Charlemagne
Christian ruler of a "holy" empire
"Our task [as secular ruler] is externally, with God's help,
to defend with our arms the holy Church of Christ against attacks by the
heathen from any side and against devastation by the infidels."
Pepin III, King of the Franks, knelt with his sons to be anointed
by Pope Stephen III in conscious imitation of the anointing of King David by
the prophet Samuel.
And
like David's son Solomon, Pepin's son Charles would preside over a renowned
cultural and religious flowering.
Expanding
borders
Charles received his education from his mother and the monks of
Saint Denis.
He
could speak and read Latin and his native Germanic tongue, but he never learned
to write, though he tried to his entire life.
He
mastered the military and political arts close to his father's throne.
Timeline
|
|
716
|
Boniface
begins mission to the Germans
|
726
|
Controversy
over icons begins in Eastern church
|
732
|
Battle
of Tours
|
742
|
Charlemagne
born
|
814
|
Charlemagne
dies
|
843
|
Treaty
of Verdun divides Carolingian Empire
|
When
Pepin died in 768, Charles was in his mid-20s: vital, energetic, and at six
feet three-and-a-half-inches tall, he towered over his subjects.
When
his brother, Carloman, died in 771, Charles was left as sole ruler of the Franks.
Charles's
early reign was marked by incessant warfare, which expanded his control in all
directions.
His
longest wars (772–785) were in an area just below modern Denmark, against the
Saxons.
As he
conquered, he converted them to Christianity at the point of the sword.
Pope
Hadrian then asked for his help in the south, calling on Charles to deliver him
from the Lombards.
Charles
obliged and quickly compelled the Lombard king to retire to a monastery.
He took
the crown for himself in 774, and now ruled over much of what is modern Italy.
During an Easter visit to Rome that year he was greeted by the
pope with the words; "Behold another
Constantine, who has risen in our times."
Charles's
778 campaign against the Spanish Moors did not go as well and he was forced to
withdraw.
(An
unimportant defeat in the Pyrenees formed the theme of the heroic epic, The Song of Roland, one of the most widely read
poems of the Middle Ages.)
Charles
was determined to establish a secure border south of the Pyrenees, and he finally
did so in 801, when he captured Barcelona.
In the
meantime, he had turned his attention to the southeast border of his lands and
conquered and absorbed Bavaria.
Looking
southeast, he pushed farther east along the Danube River into the territory of the
Avars.
His
defeat of these fierce warriors not only netted him 15 large wagons of gold and
silver but highlighted his political and military superiority to the Byzantine
Empire to the east.
New
Roman emperor
His triumph culminated on Christmas 800, when in one of the best
known scenes of the Middle Ages, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne "Emperor of the Romans."
Charles
told his biographer that he attended the service unaware that the pope was
going to do this, but modern historians discount this as overly modest.
In
addition to complex political reasons for wanting the caption, Charles had
theological reasons.
Charles
was also a great student of Augustine, much taken with his idea of the City of God. He believed the church and state should
be allied as forces in the unification of society.
Charles delineated the roles of state and church in a letter to
Pope Leo: "Our task [as secular
ruler] is externally, with God's help, to defend with our arms the holy Church
of Christ against attacks by the heathen from any side and against devastation
by the infidels and, internally, to strengthen the Church by the recognition of
the Catholic faith. Your share, Most Holy Father, is to support our army with
hands upraised to God, as did Moses in ancient days, so that the … name of our
Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified throughout the world."
Charles, then, believed the caption, "Emperor of the Romans," made him the successor of the
Roman emperors.
(Never
mind that the Byzantine emperors had thought the same of themselves for
centuries!)
Defender
of the Church
Charles took seriously his mission to "internally strengthen
the church."
Indeed,
within his kingdom he was far more influential in church affairs than was the
pope.
Charles
appointed and deposed bishops, directed a revision of the text of the Bible,
instituted changes to the liturgy, set rules for life in the monasteries, and
sent investigators to dismiss priests with insufficient learning or piety.
He had his deacon, Paul, publish a collection of homilies for use
throughout the kingdom, instructing him to "peruse
the writings of the Catholic fathers and, as in a flowery meadow, pick the
choicest blooms and weave a single garland of all that can be put to use."
Charles
also took an active interest in the two main religious controversies of his
era, adoptionism (which held that Jesus was not "God from God" but
was adopted as God's son during his lifetime) and iconoclasm (which condemns
icons as idolatry).
In his
reforms, Charles showed that, like Constantine, he believed he was overlord of
the church.
Education
was also carefully tended.
The partially illiterate Charles believed that success in his
political and religious reforms depended on learning: "although doing right is better than knowledge, knowledge comes
before doing."
Charles
was a patron of scholars, creating a school for his many children in the palace
and accumulating an impressive library.
The
only copy of many classical texts we have today came from the pens of monks he
set to work.
He
required each cathedral and monastery to set up a school and compelled the
children of nobles to attend (who might otherwise have considered this beneath
them).
Charles's
government helped set the feudal system deeply in place.
His
armies were made of nobles, bound to him by oaths and granted tracts of land to
support themselves and their soldiers.
He
published his laws in "capitularies," and sent them throughout the
realm by missi dominici, pairs
of inspectors who made sure his orders were obeyed in castles and churches.
This energetic political, cultural, and religious reform, is today
known as the Carolingian Renaissance and is one reason Charles was given the
appellation, "Great," in Latin, Charlemagne.
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