On the limits of the Carolingian renaissance
Janet L. Nelson
Einhard tells us that Charlemagne had a special liking for ‘those books of St Augustine called The City God ’. If only he told why. Did demand readings from book 5 on the happy Christian emperors? Or was he, as Ladner suggests, particularly attracted by ‘the idea society embracing earth and heaven, which man could join through personal renewal’? is right, then, us, we should talk not Carolingian renaissance—‘secondary classicising features notwithstanding’—but reform ‘as just one phase in unfolding history realisation Reform history’ specifically ‘an attempt to recreate religious culture fourth fifth centuries’. But Lander right about Charlemagne? I have my doubts: perhaps what really enjoyed most 22’s meaty chapter resurrection flesh or its rattling good miracle-story.
Studies in Church History