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objectives. We shall return to this below. It is useful, however, first to review in more detail both traditional and revisionist interpretations of this so-called movement in order to have a better understanding of its connection with eleventh-century reform as well as its repercussions for eleventh-century society. Traditionally, the ‘peace of God’ has been seen as something of a ‘war on war’, in other words, as a reaction to the disorder, whether real or perceived, that resulted from the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire during the later ninth and especially
secular components and repercussions, and vice versa.2 In his efforts to further his reforms Charlemagne relied on networks based on trust, loyalty and values shared with his fideles. The two meanings of the word fides, ‘faith’ and ‘fidelity’, exemplify the interwovenness of politics and religion in the Carolingian empire. When it comes to assessing Monte Cassino’s position within Charlemagne’s network of renovatio, important clues are held by Theodemar’s epistolary guide to the world of Benedictine monastic discipline, including his lengthy discussion of fashion. But
literate, the glory of Rome and the Roman Empire was a distant literary memory. More immediate and still resonant for the learned men of western Europe around the year 1000 was the overlordship of the great late eighth- and early ninth-century Frankish king and emperor, Charlemagne, whose empire had stretched over much of western Europe. The Carolingian empire had afforded the West a semblance of political stability, not least through its promotion of ecclesiastical reform, its emphasis on Latin as the political and cultural lingua franca , and its advocacy of monastic
the ‘patrimonialization of the fief’ or, in other words, the restriction of inheritance through the paternal line to one designated heir. This, he argued, arose as a direct result of the disintegration of the Carolingian empire. 6 By at least the mid-tenth century (if not earlier), many great families of the Carolingian empire had been brought to effective ruin by the combined practices of partible inheritance – that is, dividing inheritances among all the children of a generation (including females in some cases) – and extensive monastic endowments that were
for priestly knowledge, we also have the actual books they studied and worked with. Interestingly, it is exactly in these kinds of manuscripts that we find the Dic mihi. 15 Susan Keefe has gathered all Carolingian baptismal expositions and explanations, editing over sixty such texts. See S. Keefe, Water and the Word. Baptism and the Education of the Clergy in the Carolingian Empire, 2 vols, Vol. II (Notre Dame, 2002), passim. Many of these texts, again, survive in manuscripts together with priests’ exams. 16 See, for instance, the first episcopal statute by
Lord’s anointed’, p. 109. 35 Alcuin, Ep. 134, ed. E. Dümmler, MGH Epp. 4, 1–481, pp. 202–3; more recently edited by S. Keefe, Water and the Word. Baptism and the Education of the Clergy in the Carolingian Empire, 2 vols, Vol. II (Notre Dame, 2002), text 9, pp. 238–45; cf. Keefe, Water and the Word, Vol. I, pp. 80–99 for discussion; O. Phelan, ‘Textual transmission and authorship in the Carolingian period. Primo paganus, baptism, and Alcuin of York’, Revue Bénédictine 118 (2008), 262–88. 33 22 Gerda Heydemann and Walter Pohl invoking kingdom and priesthood even
834 (he was formally deposed in 835), rather than to his brief return from 840 to 841.1 The archbishop of Reims is 1 For Ebo’s career, see primarily P. McKeon, ‘Archbishop Ebbo of Reims (816–835): a study in the Carolingian empire and the Church’, Church History 43 (1974), 437–47, although it is in some respects outdated. For Ebo’s deposition, see B. Selten, ‘The good, the bad or the unworthy? Accusations, defense and representation in the case The ruler with the sword 73 regarded as the most likely candidate to have commissioned the manuscript, while Louis
Prüm and Adalbert of Magdeburg (Manchester/New York 2009). On the significance of 908, the year in which Louis turned fifteen, see MacLean, History and Politics, p. 18. 2 S. Airlie, ‘ “Sad stories of the death of kings”: narrative patterns and structures of authority in Regino of Prüm’s Chronicle’, in E. Tyler and R. Balzaretti (eds), Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West (Turnhout, 2006), 105–31, p. 126. See also R. Meens, ‘The rise and fall of the Carolingians. Regino of Prüm and his conception of the Carolingian empire’, in L. Jégou, S. Joye, T
politique de l’Antiquité aux Lumières (Rouen, 2007), 69–86; R. Stone, Morality and Masculinity in the Carolingian Empire (Cambridge, 2012), pp. 36–46. One cannot rule out the possibility that it was prepared with a specific ruler in mind. However, there is no evidence that associates it with either Louis the Pious, or one of his sons. 160 Yitzhak Hen lay on his shoulders as God’s chosen representative.51 This is exactly how Alcuin understood it even before the imperial coronation, when he wrote to Charlemagne: ‘What glory will be yours, most blest king, when all these
career in southern Italy. Although his sphere of influence reached out to the periphery of the Carolingian empire, this very abbot and his sermo played an important role in Charlemagne’s political activities in Italy, for precisely in the zone of influence between two centres of power the performance of an individual may have a decisive impact. Moreover, in such zones innovative ideas may develop more rapidly. The abbot in question was Ambrose Autpertus, a relatively obscure figure in modern scholarship, but a productive and well-connected eighth-century intellectual