Christian History Course

ULC Seminary: Master of Christian History Paper

                              Lesson 18

1. Is Charlemagne essential for medieval history? Why or why not?

Answer:

Yes because Clovis' sons were incompetent rulers. This made it necessary to place royal authority into the hands of a regent known as the "mayor of the palace". These mayors of the palace would exercise royal authority in governmental affairs while Clovis' incompetent successors enjoyed life in the palace. As mayors of the palace, these regents would form what would become the Carolingian dynasty. This dynasty would gain its greatest power during the reign of Charlemagne. This made Charlemagne essential for medieval history.

Charlemagne is essential to medieval history. His coronation reconciled and united the people of the former Roman Empire with its Teutonic conqueror. It stopped the Byzantine emperor from regaining those areas lost to the barbarians in the West in the 5 th century A.D. Since the Roman pontiff had crowned Charlemagne, the pontiff's position was strengthened as one to whom the secular monarchs owed their crowns. In return the secular monarchs were bound to aid the Roman pontiff when the latter was in trouble. The reign of Charlemagne was the zenith of Frankish power which began back when Clovis decided to become a Christian.

 

2. What helped the Roman pontiff to become even more powerful and influential in the Carolingian Era?

Answer:

Charlemagne had an additional interest in the Eastern church and the Byzantine Empire, and he even made an effort to unite the East and the West into one empire that would cover most of the former Roman Empire. Since the Byzantine emperors stopped the Muslim hordes in the East from overrunning Europe until the West could recoup from the chaos created by the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the invasion of the barbarians.

The East was plagued by iconoclasm from A.D. 726-843. Emperor Leo III had decreed in A.D. 726 and 730 that images are to be removed from churches and destroyed. Charlemagne issued a statement against image worship around the time Irene became empress of the Byzantine Empire. He offered to marry Irene so that he could unite the former Roman Empire under one crown with the capital in the West. Irene refused him though, and the division started by Constantine when he moved to Constantinople from Rome in A.D. 330 continued. The Second Council of Nicaea in A.D. 787 allowed veneration but not worship of images. John of Damascus (c. A.D. 675-c. 749) also was in favor of venerating icons as part of worship.

Except for the writings of John of Damascus, the Eastern church did not do much for the development of theology from the theological rows of the 4 th to 6 th centuries A.D. until modern times. John of Damascus came up with theological ideas that would become the Eastern version of the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. John's Fountain of Wisdom in three books became the authority for Eastern theologians just like Thomas Aquinas' writings would become the authority for Western theologians. The third book called Of the Orthodox Faith summarizes the theology of the church fathers and councils from the 4 th century A.D. until his time. It became the standard for orthodox theology in the Byzantine Empire. After the middle of the 8 th century A.D. Eastern Christianity was slow to mature possibly because it was subordinate to the Byzantine emperor. It was basically a department of the state which was the opposite of the West where the Roman pontiff was able to be free from the state and later assume superiority over the state.

By A.D. 800, the chaos resulting from the fall of the Western Roman Empire had faded. The Eastern Roman Empire was ruled by Byzantine emperors from Constantinople. The Frankish kingdom of Clovis enlarged into a Christian empire ruled by Charlemagne wherein Christian Teutons were joined with the people of the former Western Roman Empire. The southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, which had been part of the Roman Empire, was overrun by Muslims and governed as an Islamic caliphate. Yet the Muslims were prevented from overrunning Europe from the East and the West by A.D. 732. The former western Roman territories were now divided in three parts. The history of the Christian church between A.D. 800 and 1054 was squarely focused predominately on the standoff between the Roman pontiff and the sovereign of the Frankish Empire.

 

3.     How was Charlemagne's imperial reign a "renaissance"?

Answer:

Charlemagne's imperial reign from A.D. 800-814 has been called the Carolingian Renaissance. This had not been seen since the reign of the Ostrogoth Theodoric in Italy during the 6 th century A.D. He relied on scholars from the English church such as Alcuin of York to set up schools for the education of the royal family and nobles. Miniscule or cursive writing [known today as Carolingian miniscule] was invented at this time. Charlemagne's palace school was the integral link in passing the Roman higher educational curriculum of the 5 th century A.D. Martianus Capella consisting of the trivium and quadrivium to the later medieval universities. Because of Charlemagne, the Germans were able to bring together classical and Christian learning.

Thanks,

Yours in Him,

Ikpenwa, Chizoba Gabriel