Town and Monastery in the Carolingian Period
Rosamond McKitterick
Although there were both urban and rural monastic communities in the Frankish kingdoms Carolingian period, far more is known about landed monasteries countryside regarding their internal organisation relationship between them community which they lived over lords. The statutes of Adalhard Corbie for example provide information concerning monastery within on its estates, show us abbey as centre an agricultural region. towns other hand are much less well-documented evidence themselves sparse difficult to interpret. If a town understood be ‘a concentration population larger than neighbouring settlements substantial non-agricultural may concerned with defence, administration, religion, commerce or industry’, not very many centres enough survives justify being called towns. Valenciennes example, described recently une ville carolingienne, mentioned sources occasionally portus seems have succeeded Farrars importance region sometime eighth century. In time Charles Bald it had mint, Charlemagne, Bald, Lothar I II all issued charters from royal palatium at Valenciennes. There several churches St Salvius settlement, likely that some trading activity went on. But was settlement carried sort economic activity, little known. Amand, nine miles Valenciennes, achieved influential important position kingdom ever did.
Studies in Church History