Rethinking Authority in the Carolingian Empire / Rutger Kramer.

• VerfasserIn: Kramer, Rutger,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Early medieval North Atlantic.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (279 pages)

"By the early ninth century, the responsibility for a series of social, religious and political transformations had become an integral part of running the Carolingian empire. This became especially clear when, in 813/4, Louis the Pious and his court seized the momentum generated by their predecessors and broadened the scope of these reforms ever further. These reformers knew they represented a movement greater than the sum of its parts; the interdependence between those wielding imperial authority and those bearing responsibility for ecclesiastical reforms was driven by comprehensive, yet still surprisingly diverse expectations. Taking this diversity as a starting point, this book takes a fresh look at the optimistic first decades of the ninth century. Extrapolating from a series of detailed case studies rather than presenting a new grand narrative, it offers new interpretations of contemporary theories of personal improvement and institutional correctio, and shows the self-awareness of its main instigators as they pondered what it meant to be a good Christian in a good Christian empire"-- Publisher's Web site.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- A Note on Translations, Sources and Names -- Prologue. Great Expectations -- 1. Framing the Carolingian Reforms : The Early Years of Louis the Pious -- 2. A Model for Empire : The Councils of 813 and the Institutio Canonicorum -- 3. Monks on the Via Regia: The World of Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel -- 4. Caesar et abba simul : Monastic Reforms between Aachen and Aniane -- Epilogue. Imperial Responsibilities and the Discourse of Reforms -- Bibliography -- Index