esearching the life and times of Charlemagne, as well as his expansive legal, religious, and educational reforms, one begins to realize the complexity of the man who conquered Western Europe—the devoted churchman in whom was conferred the titles “Emperor” and “Augustus,” thus signifying that his empire was not only Roman, but holy. To confine Charlemagne to a mere retelling of events would be to miss the deep and rich historical treasures that lay beneath the historical record; and most of all, it would be to miss the driving spiritual forces that motivated this legend of European history—a man who has been referred to as the father of the Holy Roman Empire.
To this day, and especially to many who are even vaguely acquainted with the historical record, Charlemagne stands out as the personification of everything that is unselfish and noble, a conqueror who visualized himself as the champion of European unity with the purpose of saving Europe through imperial conquest—an evangelist with a sword. As it turns out, Charlemagne did see himself as the Conqueror of everything pagan and heterodox and the divinely destined builder of Augustine’s City of God—of “one God, one emperor, one pope, one city of God.”[2] It was as if Charlemagne consciously sought to fulfill Plato’s vision of the ideal philosopher king. After all, Europe badly needed a conquering strong man like David of old, who could exercise wisdom and discernment in the sustainment of God’s new Jerusalem on earth.
This research effort will also endeavor to uncover the motivational factors and purposes underlying Charlemagne’s conquests. This includes understanding his father’s devotion to the Church and military defense of the same, as well as his Donation. Directly linked to these events are the Church-State and East-West ramifications of Charlemagne’s coronation by Pope Leo III. As is the case with most significant historical developments, the fruits of Charlemagne’s coronation would not be seen until a few hundred years after his death in 814. Yet the developmental seeds would be planted in Charlemagne’s application of Church and State, particularly in the administrative roles of bishops. Charlemagne, and especially Alcuin,[3] were convinced that it was not enough to establish Augustine’s City of God through imperial conquest alone. The most efficient way to save souls was to reform the Church—those who professed to know how.
Charlemagne’s imperial reforms would not only combine the strictly traditional spiritual roles of bishops with the innovative ideological construct of having them function as civil servants (and sometimes as provincial governors throughout the realm), this practice would eventually sow the seeds of transforming the Church into a civil institution as well. This would give the Church an added dimension and would greatly augment the development of an ecclesiastical empire: where the authority of the Church would dominate the State. Although this was not Charlemagne’s intent, his determination to demonstrate his loyalty and devotion to the Church bore seeds of their own, even the seeds of later European inquisitions. This was not because this was somehow an evil conspiracy cooked up by Charlemagne, or even by the Church for that matter; but rather, it was a natural outgrowth of these initial civil administrative, and ecclesiastical policies. This seems to have originated, once again, with Charlemagne’s well-intentioned understanding of the Augustinian notion that the king was responsible to God for his subjects’ spiritual welfare.[4]