This link has been bookmarked by 11 people . It was first bookmarked on 01 Jul 2008, by Pagans ChristiansHeretics.
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19 Sep 14
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20 Jun 13
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04 Nov 10
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revival of learning in his kingdom.
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19 Aug 10
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From Greece came Hellenistic culture and all that culture had to offer in terms of art, architecture, philosophy, science and literature. From Rome came the much more practical details of law and administration. It was Justinian (c.482-565) who best represented this assimilation of Roman law. And, of course, added to the Greco-Roman tradition was Christianity -- the great unifying agent of the early Middle Ages both east and west. Islamic civilization also benefited from the Greco-Roman tradition, especially in the areas of Greek science and philosophy.
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Boethius
"The last of the Roman philosophers, and the first of the scholastic theologians," Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c.475-524) -
The Venerable Bede
The other scholar I'd like to mention was the Venerable Bede (c.673-735). -
The Kingdom of the Franks
It was during the early Middle Ages, roughly 500-1000, that a new form of government appeared. This government was Germanic in origin. Rome had built her government around an emperor and his elaborate and extensive administrative bureaucracy. The Germans had a different idea. What developed were kingdoms -- the king had to constantly move around his land in order to show and prove himself to his subjects. While all this was going on, the Church became controlled by members of the educated elite. These elites provided the bureaucrats and administrative officials necessary to maintain religious authority. While the Church preserved Roman and Latin culture, the Germans literally changed the Church in order to incorporate it into their own society. -
It is to Bede, furthermore, that we received the expression "A.D." or anno domini ("from the Lord's incarnation").
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Frankish society was entirely rural and was composed of three classes or orders: (1) the peasants - those who work, (2) the nobility - those who fight, and, (3) the clergy - those who pray
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When Charlemagne took the throne in 771, he immediately implemented two policies. The first policy was one of expansion. Charlemagne's goal was to unite all Germanic people into one kingdom. The second policy was religious in that Charlemagne wanted to convert all of the Frankish kingdom, and those lands he conquered, to Christianity. As a result, Charlemagne's reign was marked by almost continual warfare.
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Toward the end of the year 800, Pope Leo III asked Charlemagne to come to Rome. On Christmas Day Charlemagne attended mass at St. Peters. When he finished his prayers, Pope Leo prostrated himself before Charlemagne and then placed a crown upon his head. Pope Leo then said "life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by God, the great and peaceful emperor of the Romans." This was an extremely important act. Charlemagne became the first emperor in the west since the last Roman emperor was deposed in 476. Charlemagne's biographer, Einhard (c.770-840), has recorded that Charlemagne was not very much interested in Pope Leo's offering. Had Charlemagne known what was to happen on that Christmas day, he never would have attended the mass. The bottom line is this -- Charlemagne had no intention of being absorbed into the Roman Church. From the point of view of Pope Leo, the CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE signified the Pope's claim to dispense the imperial crown. It was Leo's desire to assert papal supremacy over a unified Christendom and he did this by coronating Charlemagne.
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Clovis compared himself to Constantine -- another ruler who had experienced a conversion. His followers and loyal subjects followed suit and embraced Roman Christianity. Such an act further explains just how and why Europe was Christianized.
Clovis turned his wars of aggression and conquest into holy wars.
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Charlemagne returned to France as emperor and began a most effective system of rule. He divided his kingdom into several hundred counties or administrative units. Along the borders of the kingdom, Charlemagne appointed military governors.
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In terms of commerce, Charlemagne standardized the minting of coins based on the silver standard. This also actively encouraged trade, especially in the North Sea. The Franks manufactured swords, pottery and glassware in northern France which they exported to England, Scandinavia and the Lowlands. He also initiated trade between the Franks and the Muslims and made commercial pacts with the merchants of Venice who traded with both Byzantium and Islam.
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The most durable and significant of all Charlemagne's efforts was the revival of learning in his kingdom.
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Above all, Charlemagne wanted unity in the Frankish Church, a Church wholly under his supervision.
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What Charlemagne did was institute a standard writing style. Remember, previous texts were all uppercase, without punctuation and there was no separation between words. The letters of the new script, called the Carolingian minuscule, were written in upper and lower case, with punctuation and words were separated. It should be obvious that this new script was much easier to read, in fact, it is the script we use today.
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It has been said that it was during the reign of CHARLEMAGNE (742-814) that the transition from classical to early medieval civilization was completed. He came to the throne of the Frankish kingdom in 771 and ruled until 814. His reign spans more than 40 years and it was during this time that a new civilization -- a European civilization -- came into existence. If anything characterizes Charlemagne's rule it was stability. His reign was based on harmony which developed between three elements: the Roman past, the Germanic way of life, and Christianity. Charlemagne devoted his entire reign to blending these three elements into one kingdom and by doing this, he secured a foundation upon which European society would develop.
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One of the most important consequences of the Carolingian Renaissance was that Charlemagne encouraged the spread of uniform religious practices as well as a uniform culture. Charlemagne set out to construct a respublica Christiana, a Christian republic. Despite the fact that Charlemagne unified his empire, elevated education, standardized coins, handwriting and even scholarly Latin, his Empire declined in strength within a generation or two following his death in the year 814. His was a hard act to follow. His rule was so brilliant, so superior, that those emperors who came after him seemed inferior. We've seen this before with Alexander the Great, Augustus Caesar, Constantine, Justinian and Mohammed.
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Alcuin (c.735-804) lived in York where there was a library which contained a vast collection of manuscripts. Charlemagne persuaded Alcuin to come to Aachen in order to design a curriculum for the palace school. Alcuin devised a course of study that was intended to train the clergy and the monks. Here we find the origins of the seven liberal arts: the trivium comprised grammar (how to write), rhetoric (how to speak) and logic (how to think) while the quadrivium was made up of the mathematical arts, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music. All of this meant a classical and literary education. Students read Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal, Plato and Cicero.
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05 Jun 09
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18 Mar 09
Elizabeth SaulThis lecture is very useful in that it gives a good background to the renaissance and the reasons behind it. Although it is limited on detail, it is a good starting point for understanding the period and the effects that Charlemagne had upon the Empire. The site is also useful as it provides similar analysis for other periods which are linked into the Carolingian renaissance
Renaissance Carolingian Charlemagne Europe Christianity Church Rome Franks Expansion Religion
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15 Apr 08
Jamie WoodA lecture giving a good overview of Charlemagne's reign and achievements. Only problem is it only touches on important subjects but does provide a base for further studying.
imported history medieval HST114 teaching Bookmarks charlemagne CarolingianRenaissance secondarysource 3star 2010 delicious
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