Carolingian Civilization: Marginal?

That's the title of an undergraduate research paper I wrote for Richard Sullivan at Michigan State in 1971 or 1972. The paper is still around somewhere, but I can't put my hands on it, and I don't remember how I answered the question. I am writing a survey of the Middle Ages and I've got up to the 8th century. That means I've got to wrestle with the significance of Pepin and Charlemagne.

The manuscript so far focuses the creation of new communities (through conquest mainly) and religious movements that sometimes changed the whole cultural and political scene. Charlemagne is obviously significant in both aspects, but it is easy for me to see him as one of the most successful warlords (emphasis on war). Of course that's far from being the sum total of Charlemagne. I have already included in my outline a section called "Ruling Like an Emperor" as opposed to ruling like a king. Kings were a big deal but Emperors, and Caliphs for that matter, had a wider conception of their powers and responsibilities. (See "Mandate of Heaven.") So I was sensitive to that dimension of Charlemagne before I read today's review by Francesco Veronese of Rankin, Susan. Sounding the Word of God: Carolingian Books for Singers. Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2022. Pp. 490. $95.00. ISBN: 978-0-268-20343-6.

The review is in the extraordinarily useful Medieval Review, which is distributed digitally. This allows reviewers to write long reviews if they think it appropriate, and encourages them to introduce the field they are discussing to people who know little or nothing about it. I would never take the time to read a book on Carolingian books for singers, but Professor Veronese begins his review by showing that there is a lot to learn from this aspect of this "marginal civilization."

The calls for the improvement of the morality and the religious practices of Christian society voiced by Carolingian rulers, as well as the resulting struggles made by local communities to achieve those improvements, have been the objects of hot debate and intense scholarly work in recent years. What was once perceived as an essentially top-down, royally-driven endeavour aiming at the establishment of standardized texts, beliefs, and practices for the devotional and religious life of the whole Carolingian world, especially by the means of authoritative texts mostly of Roman origins, is now understood and described in very different ways. [1] Standardization and homogeneity were never fully accomplished, and most probably never were the goal pursued by all those involved--in the first instance, the rulers. The Carolingian kings were more concerned with establishing a general consensus around the idea that religious things needed to be done better in order to win and maintain God’s approval toward his people and its rulers. Everyone’s eternal salvation was at stake. The Christian faithful entrusted to the spiritual care of the Carolingians were to be properly taught about the pillars of their faith, the practices they were to perform during rites, the very words they were to hear and say, and their correct meaning. Those intellectuals closest to kings actively promoted and spread models that could be used locally to improve liturgical practices and amend texts, but these models were never formally imposed as the only authoritative and acknowledged ones by the royal power. Negotiations and crossings between them and previous local traditions could bring about very different results and solutions. This is the reason why, despite a strong emphasis by Carolingian authors on an ideal authority attributed to Roman texts (or texts presented as coming from Rome), Roman liturgy, texts, and books were always only one of the possibilities available and accepted for the performance of Christian rites in the Carolingian world. As long as the words of Scripture and the key concepts of the faith were correctly transmitted to the people by a spiritual army of well-trained priests, the practicalities of how all of that was done were the matter of local, even individual choice.

Don't you feel smarter already?