The
Long Waves of Time
Carolingian Reformation
At the early years of the Carolingian Age, the lucid
writings of
Venerable
Bedes (672-735)
and his followers provide insight into the general
obscurity of these times. Venerable
Bedes (672-735) wrote on various topics, such as history (Ecclesiastical
History of the English People), orthography, grammar, and theology. Bede
also composed a summary of the works of Roman naturalists. Bedes legacy was continued by Alcuin
(c.735-804), the intellectual successor of Bede, who established a school at Aix-la-Chapelle with the classical curriculum of the
medieval education: the seven liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, dialectic,
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Alcuins students, such as Rhabanus
Maurus, known for his poetry and De arte grammatica, carried Bedes
legacy into the interior of Europe.
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Charlemagne
(r. 774-814) |
The Carolingian Reformation
proper commences with the ascent of Charlemagne (r. 774-814) who established the Holy Roman Empire in 800. The atmosphere of Charlemagnes
times was told by Emmanuel Roidis in his 1866 novel Pope Joan. In 1960, the Roidis' book was made
into a movie by Lawrence Durrell. Joan was a female Pope who ruled the church
between the pontificates of Leo IV (847-855) and Benedict III (855-858). Her
name was expurgated from the Vatican records
and the resulting gap was filled by the extension of the actual reigns of the
adjacent popes. Joan studied in Athens and after
her arrival to Rome
she disguised herself as a male to get a job as a papal notary. After the death
of Leo IV she was elected Pope. During a papal procession, she gave birth to a
child. Her enraged entourage stoned both Joan and her newborn child to death.
Historians of religious bent
credit Charlemagne with great political, religious, and humanitarian vision.
Other historians describe Charlemagne as religious fanatic. Bernard Bachrac
characterizes Charlemagne as
'a
gluttonous and superstitious illiterate, or semiliterate,
who had a
considerable capacity for brutality.
His accomplishments were due mostly to the
ruthlessness
with which he treated any opponents.'
During the times of Charlemagne, the Byzantine Empire was rocked by the Great Iconoclasm
Controversy. The Old Testament forbids making images (thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image), however, the New Testament does not reiterate this
prohibition. In Greek, eikono-klasmos means image-breaking. This
controversy between Iconoclasts and Iconolaters was among the early
manifestations of the Old-New Testament doctrinal differences that later came
into prominence during the Protestant Reformation. Charlemagne got involved
when the Byzantine Empress Irene asked the hand of Charlemagnes daughter for
her son. Charlemagne at first agreed, but when he learned that Irene does not
support the Iconoclasts, he broke the engagement.
|
Saxony, 782 |
The alienation of the European people from their
native cultures was accelerated during the times of Charlemagne and presaged
what happened to the native people of the Americas
and their indigenous cultures following the voyages of Columbus. Charlemagne's crusade against 'heathens' took place in the course of his Thirty Years' War
(774-804) during which most of the indigenous cultures of Europe
disappeared. The violence and atrocities of Charlemagne's Thirty
Years' War include the executions of thousands who refused to convert to
Christianity and resulted in deaths of about a half and in some regions close
to two thirds of the pre-war population. During Charlemagne's Thirty Years'
War, people who refused to be converted were executed. These executions took place in recurring waves,
reaching its peak in 782 when Charlemagne executed in a single day over 4,000
Saxons who refused to convert to Christianity. During his campaigns against Saxony, in his conversations transcribed by his
biographer Eginhard, Charlemagne often repeated that
'Saxony must be Christianized, or
wiped out.'
During Charlemagne's Thirty Year's War, most
of the Western Europe was converted to
Christianity. Charlemagne, who signed documents as Carolus, Rex and
Sacerdot, the King and the Priest, maintained a close collusion of the secular
and ecclesiastical powers. Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope Leo III as the
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 and
was canonized in 1165. The end of the Charlemagnes Empire can be characterized
by the
Cadaver Synod (896), the bizarre trial of Pope Formosus.
The frequency of warfare during this period was high.
Charlemagne's empire rested almost entirely on the force and after his death
and a prolonged civil war, the empire was divided (887) among his heirs into
three areas, roughly corresponding to present France,
Germany, and Italy, marking
the end of this epoch.
