Charlemagne and Christianization

Through an examination of the fractured source material regarding Charlemagne's Imperial Coronation by Pope Leo III in 800, it is possible to discern that there was indeed a longer-term Imperial Strategy behind Charles' acceptance of the title Holy Roman Emperor.

Charlemagne imposed many linguistic reforms in an effort to restore Latin to what he saw as its original state of purity, thus effectively forcing the separation of the language of the Church from the language of the people. Modern French would be born from the latter.

Many aspects of Charlemagne’s empire still raise central questions. Did it delineate the entire Carolingian domain or only a smaller part of it? Was the denomination and concept of a Romanum imperium adopted from antique tradition, the Byzantine Empire or was the notion behind it a completely new invention? This paper approaches these questions by focussing on the meaning of the term Romanus at the time of Charlemagne’s imperial coronation. To this aim, it establishes what messages the term Romanus conveyed by looking at contemporary concepts of “Roman” identity and Romanness as they emerge from the written sources. It then discusses whether the Carolingian notion of Romanness might help provide a better appreciation of how the meaning of the term Romanum imperium might have been understood from a contemporary perspective. The study exposes a significant semantic shift in the term Romanus from the late seventh century, from a mainly ethnic characterization towards a two-level notion which referred simultaneously to the (restricted) territory of the city of Rome and to the (supra-regional) Catholic Church and community. It argues that this altered understanding of Romanness corresponds with what we know about the Carolingian concept of Romanum imperium, meaning that although the term itself had been borrowed from older tradition, the concept it conveyed was genuinely contemporary.

In Charlemagne’s Survey of the Holy Land, Michael McCormick rehabilitates and reinterprets one of the most neglected and extraordinary sources from Charlemagne’s revival of the Roman empire: the report of a fact-finding mission to the Christian church of the Holy Land. The roll of documents translated and edited in this volume preserves the most detailed statistical portrait before the Domesday Book of the finances, monuments (including exact dimensions), and female and male personnel of any major Christian church.

Setting these documents in the context of economic trends, archaeological evidence, and a comparison of Holy Land churches and monasteries with their contemporaries west and east, this study shows that the Palestinian church was living in decline as its old financial links with Byzantium slackened. In recounting Charlemagne’s move to outflank the Byzantine emperor, McCormick constructs a microhistory of the Frankish king’s ambitions and formidable organizational talents for running an empire.

Supplementing McCormick’s major synthesis, The Origins of the European Economy, this volume will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in medieval rulership and economics, and in the history of the Holy Land, its Christian communities, and its late antique monuments.


"At its worst, microhistory is merely antiquarian button counting. But at its best, as exemplified here, small things serve as touchstones for studies of wider-ranging significance. McCormick examines the Basel Roll, a ninth-century manuscript relating the information gathered by envoys of Charlemagne, who inquired into the financial needs of churches in and around Jerusalem. The roll preserves three documents that provide personnel numbers and sizes of building roofs in area churches and monasteries, as well as partial annual expenditures for the patriarch of Jerusalem...McCormick shows that the Jerusalem church had shrunk since late antiquity; that contemporary Frankish houses were larger and richer; and that Einhard did not exaggerate Charlemagne's interest in faraway Christian communities. Among the many strengths of the book is the full-size facsimile of the Basel Roll included as a stand-alone poster. (C. J. Chandler Choice 2012-11-01)"

Paper deals with the reality of the situation when royalty ruled the world, and when no one but royals were allowed to write under penalty of death. Thus, a 'closed'  or controlled environment with the created illusion of freedom & the unification of royalty to preserve that status quo.

Paper details the descent of King Charlemagne from Lucius Calpurnius Piso, whose daughter had married Julius Caesar. This is one of many of my papers that together prove that Western kings & emperors knew their own royal ancestry going back for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years.

The research that has been done on royalty in general is massive. And, the connections between royal lines once revealed can be amazing, as they will sometimes reveal connections that a) were not supposed to have existed, and even b) that actually contradict the information that was given to the general public by those very royals. This paper gives two different lines of descent of Kaiser Wilhelm II, from Arrius Calpurnius Piso. One is through Arrius Piso's son Justus Piso. And the second line of descent is via Arrius Piso's son Julius Piso. Now, even though these two lines are given here, it should be understood that in reality, these are but two of many extant genealogies extending from Arrius Piso and his family to Kaiser Wilhelm. I plan to write yet another paper giving some of the other lines as well. There are several things that I have noticed as I have researched and studied ancient history and genealogies; things that should provide any good (or with time, potentially great) researcher with valuable information. And, as in my case, perhaps answers to many very important questions, as well as a few epic discoveries. When I began to investigate fully, and with the time and attention required, ancient history and information given within those histories, with regards to particular individuals, I found that certain things appeared to be 'standard' with all of those ancient authors-and those things stood out to me, and appeared to have been missed by other researchers, as I had never seen those certain things ever being noted or mentioned in the work of other researchers. For one thing, I had noted that in the work of one ancient author after another, there were so many instances where those authors could have very easily gave answers and information in a direct and forthright manner; but deliberately chose not to. And, more often than not, avoided very skillfully, giving key information about certain individuals; mainly and particularly, the authors themselves. Also, those authors would make statements which either promised to give answers and/or further information about a particular subject, and then failed to do so. At least, in any known or public work. Now, some researchers have tried to answer this by giving excuses for some of those instances. But, in essence, those explanations or excuses are really simply guesses. And poor ones at that. My work has given some genuine answers. And the true context of the material that was being written and left to future generations by those ancient authors is key to getting at the truth and in finding valid answers to these and other questions. One of the main things to realize is that ancient history (and other material being produced by those authors), was being written within a tightly controlled environment. And that changes the context in which we must now examine that material in order to understand it correctly. It also means that because of this set of circumstances, other things were in play as well. And, one of those is the fact that the authors who were leaving us their works were in fact, all royalty. Which, in turn, means that these authors were related to each other and had the same common ancestry. It also, therefore, means that they had the same or similar vested interests. Because only royals or those of royal blood, were able to write for publication, it meant that what they

Carlomagno, victorioso conquistador de media Europa, fue también el más destacado de los soberanos alto-medievales patrocinadores de la cultura y las artes y acaso también el más consciente de la importancia que la educación tenía si se quería construir una civilización cristiana en el seno de una sociedad barbarizada tras las Invasiones. En el gran imperio que construyó con la punta  de la espada desde el río Ebro al río Elba impulsó con tesón la creación de  escuelas y bibliotecas, llamando a su corte a los intelectuales más importantes del Occidente latino.

Él mismo hizo un enorme esfuerzo personal por cultivarse en todos los saberes a pesar de su analfabetismo inicial, sacando tiempo entre batalla  y cacería para estudiar por las noches el cálculo y la gramática. En efecto, nada muestra más, a juicio de Christopher Dawson, “la grandeza real de su carácter que el celo con que este guerrero inculto se lanzó a la empresa de restaurar la enseñanza en sus dominios”, pero sin intentar “imitar simiescamente las maneras de un césar romano o bizantino” .

Tal y como intentaremos probar en este trabajo, este ingente esfuerzo de mecenazgo cultural que dio origen a las sublimes realizaciones artísticas y literarias del renacimiento carolingio, tuvo su origen en un proyecto ideológico. Un proyecto ideológico cuyo puntal era una teología política sapiencial de la Realeza cristiana. Este paradigma teológico-político partía de una premisa básica: Carlomagno tenía que alcanzar la sabiduría (intelectual, prudencial y moral) si quería alcanzar la dignitas de un verdadero príncipe cristiano y dejar de ser el caudillo coronado de una horda de bárbaros

Grazie a Bonifacio e alle sue missioni giunsero tra i Germani centrali e settentrionali non solo il cristianesimo istituzionalizzato, ma anche la scrittura e la letteratura latina, la legge scritta su modello franco-romano (più applicabile e meno arbitraria di quella consuetudinaria tribale), il grande modello delle fondazioni abbaziali benedettine, che nei secoli successivi si svilupperanno sino a diventare centri di cultura e potere, giungendo a formare la base per grandi città medievali. Se oggi la Germania centro-settentrionale e i Paesi Bassi sono regioni cristiane – almeno culturalmente – lo dobbiamo principalmente all’ardore missionario di Bonifacio e ai suoi discepoli formati nelle sue numerose fondazioni monastiche in Germania, Frisia e Gallia. Egli fu davvero un uomo europeo e medievale, nel senso più nobile della parola – non influenzata da certe storiografie fantasiose di età moderna, negative verso il medioevo, di cui meglio parlerò nel capitolo successivo – ossia cosmopolita, colto letterato, abile diplomatico, evangelizzatore zelante e saggio monaco. Bonifacio fu davvero un ponte tra le culture: britanno di stirpe sassone, viaggiatore in tutta Europa, conoscitore della corte franca, portatore della Chiesa romana nei territori germanici, riuscì a organizzare una missione non debole e isolata – come quelle che erano fallite nei decenni precedenti alla sua opera, per iniziativa dei singoli ordini religiosi, solitamente irlandesi – ma una vera e propria “romanizzazione” della Germania, ossia un’evangelizzazione sotto l’egida della Sede romana e grazie all’aiuto pratico del regno franco, intenzionato ad espandersi ad oriente. A caratterizzare la missione di Bonifacio, oltre allo zelo, fu infatti lo strettissimo legame con i pontefici di Roma, legame che verrà analizzato in questo breve lavoro per sottolineare come non possa esserci vera missione nel medioevo se non con l’appoggio della Sede apostolica, garante a quei tempi non solo di dottrina, ma specialmente unico organismo produttore di cultura e portatore della grande tradizione unificatrice e civilizzatrice dell’Impero Romano.

Paper subject: All Roman Emperors from Antoninus Pius on were descendants of the Piso family of Rome. Also gives links to relevant papers and other information. And, shows supporting information by demonstrating that other leaders were likewise descended from the same common ancestors.

El culto a Carlomagno practicado en la catedral de Gerona a finales de la Edad Media (1345-1484) constituye un hecho sorprendente y fascinante al mismo tiempo. Sorprendente porque es el único de estas características que se constata en la Península Ibérica y, aún más allá, en el Sur de Europa; fascinante porque dio lugar a numerosas y variadas formas de expresión que aún hoy podemos analizar, desde un rico conjunto de oficios litúrgicos hasta una serie de relatos legendarios y una amplia panoplia de manifestaciones visuales. Dichas circunstancias subrayan los particularismos del caso gerundense pero también señalan hasta que punto su estudio puede dar lugar a un paradigma historiográfico, modelo y guía para otras aproximaciones analíticas al tema de la memoria de Carlomagno en diferentes lugares de Europa. Y es que en el caso de la catedral catalana la riqueza de la documentación –ya sea documental o iconográfica- supera con mucho la de la mayoría de los casos europeos. Este estudio pretende resolver esta anomalía historiográfica y contribuir un conocimiento y difusión entre amplios círculos de historiadores de la cultura y la religión e historiadores del arte.

Oleg de Normandie estime que les Carolingiens sont en quelques sortes les précurseurs du Nouvelle Ordre Mondiale, car ils mènent une politique liberticide notamment contre les Saxonx, mais que les Viking, peuple libre s'il en est, interviennent contre ce régime "totalitaire”. Nous entendons dans cette article remettre à plat ces hypothèses inventées par l'auteur, dans le but de créer une fausse histoire et à des fins identitaires.

This paper gives family descent of Pope Gregory V & Frederick Barbarossa from Arrius Calpurnius Piso. Frederick Barbarossa was a Holy Roman Emperor who was instrumental in the Third Crusade of the Holy Roman Empire. Frederick Barbarossa was descended from Henry, the brother of Bruno (aka Pope Gregory V).

The author undertakes an analysis of the ideological foundations of an armed evangelization of the Avars by the Franks in the end of the eighth century, characterized as missionary war. He puts the thesis that the Franks thought that they – by participation in this war – fulfill the obligations of Christ as Good Shepherd, who – through apostles – brings pagan people to the Church and leads them to eternal life. The subjugation of the Avars in 796 by Pepin, the King of the Lombards and son of Charlemagne, is regarded as a manifestation of divine grace showed by Christian God to pagan kingdom. In common opinion, the leader of the military expedition, which aim is to baptize the Gentiles, is in fact Christ Himself. The author argues that the wartime violence was meant to create the right conditions for missionary work among the pagans – after Christians had mastered the lands previously belonging to the heathens, they had to be convinced to voluntarily accept the Christian faith.

"Were there animals in the myths, trickster tales, and fables told by the neolithic people who painted bison and deer on cave walls? Whatever the answer, there can be no doubt that animals have appeared in literature from the ages before Aesop through the decades after Orwell--with no end in sight today or tomorrow. Of the many ways in which this beast literature can be classified, one helpful distinction can be drawn between, on the one hand, those writings in which animals are anthropomorphized so much that they speak and, on the other, those in which the animals are not so thoroughly humanized.

Writings of both sorts exist from many periods: for instance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the animals of Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus and Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books could be contrasted to those of Ernest Thompson Seton and Jack London, in the late Middle Ages the animals of the Renard the Fox cycle to those of the bestiaries. Two Latin poems composed during the reign of Charlemagne are especially interesting because, although closely related to each other, they already embody these same extremes in the literary depiction of animals."

Nella Cappella Palatina di Aquisgrana si traducono e si esaltano, nella forma più efficace e completa, tutte le linee programmatiche della politica di Carlo Magno. Irreparabilmente modificato nelle epoche successive l’edificio palatino testimonia nondimeno la fascinazione gerosolimitana antico e neo testamentaria del mondo franco coronato dalla imperialis dignitas christiana. Un luogo in cui malgrado le superfetazioni, tra pilastri, archi e colonne, sotto la cupola, è ancora possibile leggere il complesso sistema di rappresentazione simbolica del potere e della figura del re elaborate dal sovrano stesso insieme alle personalità che componevano la sua corte in un confronto serrato, quanto problematico, con il mondo latino e bizantino. Cardine del palazzo imperiale di Carlo, la Cappella Palatina doveva rifrarre a specchio da un lato la gloria imperiale della christianitas romana (Ravenna compresa) di matrice costantiniana, dall’altro il fascino lontano della monumentale reggia bizantina della costantinopolitana nova Roma, là dove l’Impero Romano continuava la sua esistenza. Luoghi indiscussi, Roma e Costantinopoli, della Herrschaftssymbolik romano-cristiana, i poli imprescindibili, insieme a Gerusalemme, dell’exemplum costantiniano, di quel vittorioso cristianesimo romano-imperiale così attentamente seguito, studiato, dove possibile imitato, da Carlo e dal suo corteggio nel tentativo di trasferire a proprio vantaggio l’autorità e la legittimità di Costantino, “Christianitas vestra”. Una traslazione di potere, santità e grandezza magnificamente trasfigurata nella sacertà mistico-escatologica della Gerusalemme celeste, la Città inseguita dalle volte dorate della Cappella, la Visio Pacis ritmata e scandita dagli otto pilastri pronti ad evocare con fasto cerimoniale ora Roma, Costantinopoli e Gerusalemme, ora la Gerusalemme celeste, la gloria dell’imperatore cristiano, il fulgore di Dio, le civitates hominum, la Civitas Dei.

This paper studies how Christine places her biography of King Charles V in the line of the Grandes chroniques de France. This official history of the French royal house was commissioned c. 1250 by the future "St Louis" from a monk of St Denis named  Primat. A major model of the GCF was  Charlemagne's use of Augustine's City of God as model for his "holy Roman empire."

This article appeared in: Jeroen Duindam, Jill Harries, Caroline Humfries and Nimrod Hurvitz eds., Law and empire. Ideas, practices, actors (Leiden/Boston/New york, 2013), pp.157-176.

It tries to answer the question how Charlemagne and his advisors devised a system of government that allowed the court to reach all Franks, including those in rural and remote areas. As it turns out, the system hinged on delegation, in which the court instructed the bishops, and bishops instructed the local priests who served rural churches throughout the Empire.

El acercamiento a las comedias caballerescas de Calderón comienza primeramente por el examen del tratamiento del hipotexto novelesco. Por ello, en este trabajo se analiza el proceso de reescritura dramática por el que la Historia del emperador Carlomagno y de los doce pares de Francia se convierte en La puente de Mantible, prestando especial atención a la labor de selección, los cambios en el elenco de personajes y la clave del decoro, entre otros puntos. Finalmente, se añaden unos comentarios sobre las razones de esta comedia y la modalidad teatral en cuestión.
The approach to the chivalric plays of Calderón starts firstly with the examination of the treatment of the novelistic hypotext. Because of that, the process of dramatic rewriting that transforms the Historia del emperador Carlomagno y de los doce pares de Francia into La puente de Mantible is analyzed in this work, focusing on the work of selection, the changes in the characters and the key of decorus, between other subjects. Finally, some comments about the reasons of the play and the dramatic genre are given.

In the early 16th century, the European peoples experienced an extremely dynamic boost to their collective self-reassurance. One particularly important vehicle in this construction of a national consciousness was history as mediated by literature. Interestingly, each of the continent’s nations evolved its own system of references, which might be more or less dominant. For example, while in Italy Roman antiquity developed into a central theme, in France it was the immediate past, i.e., the High Middle and Late Middle Ages, that played a markedly greater role. It was especially the dissociation from England during the Hundred Years’ War that contributed materially to the formation of French self-consciousness. Antiquity, literally the “old time,” here proved to be a serial plural, a succession of historical layers extending from the mythical past into the late 15th century.

The article discusses the baptismal rite as advocated by Alcuin of York and his views on the theological import of the gestures of the celebrant during the liturgy of baptism. The starting point for the analysis is the correspondence of this Anglo-Saxon scholar in which he referred to the theology of baptism and the treatise entitled Primo paganus, which described all elements of the ritual of baptism. It is assumed in the article that this tract, based on the Epistola ad Senarium by John the Deacon (ca. 500), was written by Alcuin. In particular, the article focuses on analysing the successive parts of the ritual of baptism and aims to explain how important they were to Alcuin. Most of all, the triple immersion receives detailed treatment: Alcuin advocated this baptismal custom in preference to the single immersion, a common practice in the Iberian Peninsula, which he condemned as characteristic of the heresy of adoptionists. The arguments of Alcuin are corroborated by the writings of Leo the Great, Jerome, Pseudo-Ambrose and others. The article contends that the necessity of triple immersion resulted from the two principal goals of baptism as seen by Alcuin. The first was the remission of sins committed before baptism, which in his view resulted from three principal causes and in three ways (by concession, by pleasure, by deed). The other was the renewal of mankind to resemble the image of the Creator, i.e. the Holy Trinity. The article reveals the peculiar rationale behind the ritual of baptism, which Alcuin advocated. He placed great emphasis on the representation of particular aspects of faith in the liturgy of baptism. The celebrant was supposed to represent by visible gestures the invisible workings of the Holy Spirit in the human soul. Moreover, Alcuin asserted that the celebrant's gestures were necessary for the Holy Spirit could work towards the spiritual rebirth of the catechumen. It is argued that the concern for the moral and spiritual condition of the neophytes was the reason why Alcuin so fervently insisted on the observance of the baptismal rite in the way he himself prescribed. However, it does not follow that he rejected the validity of the sacrament administered without strict observance of these rules, or by single immersion.
Alcuin's theology of baptism is presented in the larger context of the attempts by the Carolingians to christianise the Avars and Slavs after the defeat of the Avar khaganate by the Franks. The author emphasises Alcuin's three-tiered concept of missionary work. It seems that his views on the sacrament of baptism were fundamental for his concept of the christianisation of pagans and the role of missionaries in this process as God's helpers involved in the divine plan of salvation. Alcuin insisted that prior instruction concerning the principles of faith was as necessary for receiving baptism as the free will of the catechumen for a veritable conversion to Christianity, which was demonstrated by receiving the sacrament.
The article also discusses the reception of Alcuin's writings in the late eighth century with reference to the theology of baptism and the ritual of baptism which he advocated in the context of the missionary work among the Avars and Slavs. The author argues that his works on baptism were widely known among the Bavarian clergy (from the circle of Arno, the archbishop of Salzburg) who considered his writings as particularly useful for planned missionary activities among the Avars and Slavs. This claim is illustrated by the discussion of the contents of Codex Vindobonenńs 195 containing exegetical works of the Church Fathers and Alcuin's treatises and letters on baptism. The author assumes that the codex was commissioned by Arno in 798—799, immediately after the foundation of the archbishopric of Salzburg, which was supposed to exercise pastorał care over the territories of the former Avar khaganate. This codex must have been used by the Bavarian missionaries who were preparing themselves to embark on the mission to convert pagans: the writings of Alcuin contained in the volume served as the intellectual groundwork for the praxis of christianisation.