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201-0501: Early Church History – Essay Assignment, Lesson Ten, by Dean Mischewski (Student ID: A-351)
The Importance of the Reign of Charlemagne
By Dean Mischewski
1) Introduction
Charlemagne inherited from his father Pepin and grandfather Charles Martel the mantle of a
new dynasty in Europe. The Merovingian state had fallen into decay and what real power was
left was being wielded not by the kings but by their palace administrators. In AD 752 this state of
affairs was legitimized when St. Boniface, acting as papal legate, anointed Pepin as king, setting
aside the last of Merovingian dynasty. This move not only put in place a new Frankish monarchy
but also united that monarchy with the Papacy, a move with considerable political benefit for both
parties, and which signalled the dependence of the temporal power of the monarchy on the
spiritual power of the Church.
Charlemagne combined the skill of a great warrior and leader with a genuine religious
sensibility. Through a series of successful conquests he was able to extend the boundaries of the
Frankish kingdom into something resembling the extent of modern Europe. Although he did not
always follow the wishes of the Pope he was very concerned with religious matters. He
supported the Church and the clergy and saw himself as responsible for the religious well-being
of his subjects, and as the divinely-appointed leader of the Christian people.
In AD 800 he was crowned in Rome by Pope Leo III as “emperor of the Romans”; the
Kingdom of the Franks was thenceforth the new Holy Roman Empire. This Empire had a very
theocratic flavour – Charlemagne acted as the governor of the Church as well as of the secular
sphere, similar to the way in which the Byzantine Emperors frequently immersed themselves in
Church affairs, although perhaps to an even greater extent. This was reflected in the practical
arrangements for government, where bishops as well as secular officials held important roles.
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201-0501: Early Church History – Essay Assignment, Lesson Ten, by Dean Mischewski (Student ID: A-351)
2) The Importance of Charlemagne’s Reign
Charlemagne’s impact is difficult to overstate:
“his empire… contributed decisively to the eventual reconstitution, in the mind of a
western Europe fragmented since the end of the Roman Empire, of a common intellectual,
religious, and political inheritance on which later centuries could draw. Charlemagne did
not create this inheritance single-handedly, but one would be hard put to imagine it
without him.”1
In briefly reviewing the importance of his reign it may be helpful to consider the three facets
highlighted above: its intellectual, religious and political inheritance.
a) Intellectual Inheritance
Charlemagne was intensely interested in supporting the intellectual development of the
Empire. To a large extent this was connected with his support for the Church, since he wanted to
promote “right faith” through excellence in expressing that faith and through improved accuracy
of the documents that were the sources for the faith, such as the Scriptures and the writings of the
Church Fathers. But the classical tradition of antiquity was also preserved as Charlemagne
strongly encouraged the restoration of learning and the establishment of centres for education.
Under his patronage the “Carolingian Miniscule” became the standard – and improved – style of
writing through most of Western Europe. Art and architecture were also revived.
b) Religious Inheritance
As mentioned above, Charlemagne’s religious inheritance was closely tied to the intellectual
renaissance he fostered. Particularly important in this regard were the revisions that he sponsored
of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible and of other importance religious works.
Charlemagne’s influence also led to the spread of the Roman liturgical rite through the empire,
1
Peter Classen, Charlemagne: Personality and Influence, in Encyclopedia Britannica Standard Edition CD-ROM
(2004).
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201-0501: Early Church History – Essay Assignment, Lesson Ten, by Dean Mischewski (Student ID: A-351)
and that rite came to have almost universal usage throughout the West. This influence is still felt
today, with the prevalence of the Roman rite through most of the Catholic world.
c) Political Inheritance
The alliance between the Papacy and the Empire was an enormously significant political fact.
Charlemagne was a protector of the Papacy against the forces opposed to it, and in return the
recognition that the Pope gave him as Holy Roman Emperor gave his Empire the legitimacy it
needed to be seen as credibly in continuity with the old Roman Empire. Among other things, this
enabled Charlemagne to negotiate realistically with the Byzantine Empire, and it resolved some
of the difficulties associated with the Frankish monarchy being separate and independent from the
Church. With the Emperor being crowned by the Pope there was an implicit admission of the
need for the world’s temporal leadership to be in right relationship with its spiritual leader.
Charlemagne also bequeathed to history the boundaries of Europe, and the splitting of the
empire by his son Louis among Charlemagne’s two surviving grandsons eventually led to the
formation of two of the great states and cultures of Europe: France and Germany.
3) Conclusion
Charlemagne’s dynasty didn’t last particularly long; it didn’t have the systems or
infrastructure capable of sustaining such an empire for much more than a generation after him.
Yet it had a lasting impact on the subsequent history of Europe. It sponsored the collation and
preservation of the cultural heritage that came before it, and saw that heritage reorganized and
enhanced as the foundation of the new culture that followed.
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