Charlemagne by Derek Wilson

Author:Derek Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448103256
Publisher: Random House

Notes

1 Halphen, op. cit., p.98

2 N. Machiavelli, The Prince (trs. W. K. Marriott), 1908, p.21

3 Allott, op. cit., p.98

4 Einhard and Notker, p.146

5 cf. Becher, op. cit., p.119

6 cf. Halphen, op. cit., p.107

7 Einhard and Notker, pp.112–13

8 Allott, op. cit., p.93

9 Ibid., p.94

10 Ibid., pp.106–7

11 cf. Duckett, op. cit., pp.291–2

12 Ibid., p.107

8

Renaissance and Requiem

IT MAY SEEM strange to have deferred until this point a consideration of what it has become customary to call the ‘Carolingian Renaissance’. The reason for so doing is simple: the revival of classical studies and the educational reforms that Charles set in hand were not ends in themselves, but must be seen in the light of his desire to establish a Christian empire. The copying and dissemination of books, the establishing of schools and the encouraging of a better understanding of Latin were all elements of a crusade to produce a corpus of clergy who could preach, properly administer the sacraments and staff the imperial administration.

Yet it would be wrong to envisage Charles as a boorish warrior-king with no appreciation of culture, or as a cynical pragmatist interested only in using scholars and scholarship for his own ends. Charles had a deep and genuine love of learning for its own sake and an almost adulatory appreciation of those who had mastered the mysteries of ancient wisdom. From his earliest days at his father’s court he had been in contact with the Christian intelligentsia, that sophisticated brotherhood of scholars who shared arcane wisdom through the magic of the written word and who even had their own language. We get a flavour of that international fellowship from a poem written by Alcuin in 781, shortly before he took up residence at the Frankish court. In eighty-one lines of affectionate banter, which include quotations from Virgil and Ovid, he imagines his verses making a tour of his erudite friends on the continent (most of them bishops or abbots, and some of them referred to by their academic nicknames):

Ask for the house of Samuel the priest,

And be sure to knock on the door with the Muses’ fiddle,

And say in modest poetical voice to the lad that opens the door,

‘Alcuin sent me from England’s side of the world

To bring kind greetings to a well-loved father’.

And if you have the chance to speak to him in person,

Kneel on the ground and kiss his blessed feet …

If as may be

He should think it fit to take you to the palace,

Hurry round all the great ones, fathers, brethren,

Salute them fair, but at the King’s own feet

Sing every song you have.

Say to him over and over, ‘Best of all Kings, all hail!

Be my protector and guardian and thou my defender

From all the envious tongues that will carp at me,

Paulinus and Peter and Alberic and Samuel and Jonas,

Or whoever is minded to set a tooth in my vitals:

For terror of thee they will flee and go harmless away’.

Say in hushed whisper, ‘Greetings, Schoolmaster Peter’.

(He strikes with Hercules’ club when he’s angry, beware!)

But put your arms round master Paulinus’ neck,

And kiss him ten times over, honey sweet.

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