A Summary of the Carolingian Renaissance & Charlemagne | Church History

Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476, Europe became a mosaic of various Germanic states rather than a single entity. The Western Church sent missionaries to these Germanic tribal chiefs to discuss the Gospel with them and invite them to convert to Christianity. Even as the various tribes converted in part or in whole to Christianity, there remained an uneasy tension between the church and state in Europe. 

When the Lombards, who occupied northern Italy, pressed southward toward Rome to attempt to make it their capital, Roman Christians called for help from their counterparts in Constantinople. The eastern half of the Roman Empire became known as the “Byzantine Empire” and retained authority over some parts of Italy. There had already been tension between the eastern and western parts of the church over theological and liturgical matters, so the Byzantine Emperor’s refusal to help defend Rome against the invasion of the Lombards, left the Pope and citizens of Rome in a difficult situation. They turned northward for help to another Germanic group known as the Franks. 

The Franks had slowly overcome neighboring Germanic tribes and set up a kingdom in what is now known as France. These new French rulers formed the Merovingian Dynasty. While the Merovingian Dynasty put kings on the Frankish thrones for three centuries, the real military power rested in the army’s generals who took the title of Mayor of the king’s palace. As the kings grew weaker, the palace mayors grew stronger. The general-mayors were able to repel Frisian and Saxon invasions from the north and Muslim invasions at their southern border especially at the famous Battle of Tours in 732. This halted the Muslim advance further up the continent. 

The general-mayor who stopped the Muslim advance was Charles “the hammer” Martel. He was the first of the Carolingian Dynasty who ended up replacing the Merovingians as Kings of the Franks. When Charles died in 741, his son, Pepin “the Short,” consolidated his family’s rule over the Franks and was anointed by the local bishop, Boniface, to consecrate the occasion. It was to Pepin that Pope Stephen II appealed for help against the Lombards who were poised to invade Rome to set up their capital there. In exchange for Pepin’s protection in 754, the pope granted the Frankish King the title of “Patrician of Rome” (meaning that the Franks would be Rome’s new military protectors). When the Lombards again threatened to invade Rome, the pope appealed to Pepin a second time, promising the latter a long life and glorious mansions in Heaven. This time when Pepin came to the rescue, he granted the pope the right to govern the central portion of Italy, which thereafter became known as the Papal States. This grant was referred to as the Donation of Pepin, and it set the papacy on a much-debated path of secular authority for years to come.

Following the death of Pepin in 768, his son Charlemagne, which is French for “Charles the Great,” ascended to the throne and assumed the role of protector of the Western Church. Charles was the most able ruler of Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. He is often referred to by historians as a second Constantine because of his political, military, and academic skills. He was described as six feet four inches (or 1.93 meters) tall, athletic, and generous to the church. He was a profoundly pious king and remained loyal to his Christian faith in all personal matters and matters of the state. However, he had little patience for his conquered enemies who would not convert to Christianity willingly, so he had thousands of them slaughtered for their lack of belief in the Christian God.

When Pope Leo III was the subject of riots in Rome in the year 799, Charlemagne went down to Rome to judge the situation in person. The result of the trial, which Charlemagne preceded over, exonerated the pope and punished his enemies. On Christmas morning in the year 800, when Charlemagne knelt to pray at the altar of St. Peter, the pope snuck up behind him and placed a jeweled crown on his head and had him proclaimed Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, which included Northern Italy, Germany, and France. 

Historians still debate whether Charlemagne had known about this coronation ahead of time, but it set a noteworthy precedent for interactions between the church and state for the rest of the Middle Ages. On the one hand, the fact that the pope coronated the emperor gave rise to the belief that the church had the right to put secular rulers in power and influence state affairs. On the other hand, the fact that the emperor protected the Western Church and received his divine authority from God to do so gave rise to the belief that the state had the right to put church rulers in power and influence church affairs. Essentially, this rivalry between church and state at all levels was one of the chief characteristics of European history throughout the Middle Ages. It especially manifested itself against the threat of Islamic Invasion in the east and the rearranging of borders and dynasties throughout Europe. When one refers to Carolingian Catholicism, one thinks of the two-pronged effort to consolidate secular authority under the Holy Roman Emperors of the line of Charlemagne and ecclesiastical authority under the Pope in Rome, which included jurisdiction over secular matters in the Papal States of Central Italy.

1.  Ross William Collins, A History of Medieval Civilization in Europe (New York: Ginn and Company, 1936), 184. 
2.  Ross William Collins, A History of Medieval Civilization in Europe (New York: Ginn and Company, 1936), 186.
3.  Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Volume Four—Medieval Christianity, A.D. 590-1073 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1910), 234.
4.  Everett Ferguson, Church History: Volume One—From Christ to the Pre-Reformation, second edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 366.
5.  Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: Volume IV—The Age of Faith (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950), 462.
6.  Justo González, The Story of Christianity: Volume One—The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, revised and updated edition (New York: HarperOne, 2010), 273.
7.  Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: Volume IV—The Age of Faith (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950), 476.
8.  Justo González, The Story of Christianity: Volume One—The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, revised and updated edition (New York: HarperOne, 2010), 315.
9.  Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: Volume IV—The Age of Faith (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950), 469.
10.  Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Volume Four—Medieval Christianity, A.D. 590-1073 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1910), 252.
11.  Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: Volume IV—The Age of Faith (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950), 469.