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Engels said: "The Middle Ages developed from a rough primitive state. It sweeps away ancient civilizations, ancient philosophies, politics and laws so that everything starts from scratch. The only things it has inherited from the fallen ancient world are Christianity and some dilapidated and uncivilized cities."
The Middle Ages became "the long and oppressive night in the history of Western culture." In addition to his political skills and strategic talents, Charlemagne spared no effort in promoting culture. Based on his time, Christianity became, or arguably the only religion, that could prevail over all other paganisms and had the power of faith in conquering faith. “
Moreover, it has matured in doctrine, organization and institutions, accumulated experience in governing society, and is the master of culture and moral authority".
Thus, Christianity bore the brunt of his cultural policy.
2.1 Promote the domination of Christian ideology and culture
The period of Charlemagne was a crucial period in the development of Christian culture, which was both a summary of long-term missionary work and the beginning of an innovative Christian theology. In form, Charlemagne's Christian ideological and cultural domination was not only about using force, but also about making the inhabitants of the conquered areas believe in Christianity, donating a lot of money financially, and empowering them politically.
More importantly, he paid special attention to the improvement of Christianity's own norms and other aspects, paid attention to and encouraged the development of Christian cultural undertakings, and promoted the domination of Christian ideology and culture.
The first step in a great cause often means that great people have a long way to go. Just as we live in a society where people worship the mentality of the intellectual class, in the historical era at that time, whether in the city or in the countryside, the world preferred the cultural atmosphere exuded by monks and priests.
But "it was the fruit of the efforts of their religious counterparts in England and Ireland, and religious people on the continent were not entitled to this honor."
Charlemagne strongly encouraged and supported the promotion of the Christian cause, making Christian thought the dominant ideology of the people at that time and occupying a major position in society.
21.1 Develop the reading and writing skills of the clergy
"The critical pamphlets occasionally produced by the clergy who took advantage of the chaos after being deprived of their estate by Charlie Matt, but the dull pen is full of poor words, which completely exposes the priests of the Franks who blasphemed the robes they wore. Some of them did not understand the Bible at all, and when they stood on a stake to preach, they used to make up absurd saint stories to attract the public, and even taught believers to use the internal organs of birds to know the future; And the scribes in the monastery were happy to falsify and confuse,
The works at their disposal are full of fabricated and confused historical materials, so it is difficult to imagine their potential in cultural construction: "Although Charlemagne extended his rule to many places in the name of Christianity, in order for the inhabitants of the places he reached to believe in Christianity and accept Chinese Christian culture, it was necessary to have some educated monks and priests.
In addition, he needed someone who could speak well to promote Christian culture.
But as mentioned above, in the territory he ruled, such literate people could not be found in the first place. "Only in Anglo-Saxon England, Benedictine monks taught people to read and write." Therefore, the first thing Charlemagne had to do was to improve the quality of the clergy. He often reprimanded unlearned priests and informed the crowd that he could not bear the absurdity of the appearance of erroneous passages in the texts.
On one occasion, a bishop of noble origin delayed the court's routine hymn response program because he was drunk at a banquet, and Charlemagne removed him in anger. In every aspect of Charlemagne's regency he encouraged the use of written writing, a cultural policy of his ingenuity.
There are some folklore contents, which have always been passed down orally, but at the request of Charlemagne, they became written form; The administrators of the royal lands are also to write down lists of property, reports and accounts; The court clerk was to write the statutes of the clergy to deal with legal matters, the schedule of meetings and the instructions sent to the kingdoms.
The above situation, which was very novel at the time, reflected the meaning that only when everything was written down could the country be orderly, the regime stable, and the law just. But to write everything down, you need to have enough people who are educated, can write, and can understand its meaning. But during the reign of Charlemagne, there were very few such people.
Therefore, Charlemagne ordered that every bishop and abbot must train a sufficient number of cultural clergy as required, requiring them to take notes, know arithmetic, understand grammar, and set up a special school. With the support of Charlemagne, Alquin established new schools and directed the copying and revision of important Latin writings. Charlemagne played a non-negligible role in the spread of Christian culture,
"Its main achievement was the establishment of a large number of schools to educate the priests in basic knowledge, and the training of a large number of monastic scribes to copy and preserve the main works of Roman Empire literature." "
2.1.2 Uniformly regulate Christian texts, doctrines and religious rites
No one doubted that Charlemagne, Alkien, and their fellow believers wanted to truly understand the Bible and spread the knowledge of the Bible to all the clergy. But at the time of Charlemagne's succession, there was no complete, accurate, and unified biblical text.
Most churches have incomplete Bible readings. Other places may have complete sections, but they exist in a different order and vary greatly.
Moreover, in addition, in the main part, there are also many differences and discrepancies. As one scholar, Samuel Berg, summed it up: "Good texts and inferior texts are sadly mixed together, sometimes two translations of the same book side by side, and older versions are so confused that they are indistinguishable from the only accepted version of the Latin Bible, and the order of the Bible transcribed in each manuscript is different,......."
A letter can only have a definite text for the mind to be comfortable and calm, but the situation was truly shocking.
Therefore, there are many demands for literary reforms. But the initial launch came from Charlemagne. In response to the doctrinal confusion at that time, Charlemagne was determined to establish a single text of the Bible, so he sent Alkian to organize personnel to collate and unify the various biblical texts collected at that time, and translated them into Latin.
Alquin used a variety of manuscripts, which were substantive, or perhaps bold, proofread and revised, influenced by the comments of the elders on the one hand, and grammatical considerations on the other, and contained many excellent readings.
"We were able to calculate that he started his work around 797, settled in Tours shortly after, and ended his work between Easter 800 and Easter 801.
At Charlemagne's coronation of the Roman emperor on Christmas Day 800, Alquin presented his manuscript to Charlemagne, thus marking a wonderful coincidence of the two peaks of Charlemagne's achievements in different fields."
The biblical text thus revised "was universally accepted as the standard Bible translation throughout the Middle Ages." The unification and revision of other Catholic writings was also accomplished at the urging of Charlemagne.
In terms of the provisions of religious ceremonies, Charlemagne required people to perform religious ceremonies and rituals in strict accordance with religious regulations. In general, Christian rituals in Western Europe reflect differences in details such as the order and sequence of the different parts of the Mass, the various sacraments, the prayers for special positions, and a series of religious festivals held throughout the year.
Thus a tradition of caution and rigor was formed, and such corrections spread from Rome to the perimeter, forming the style of the place wherever it went.
For example, the formation of Gaulic liturgies in Gaul was generally more formal and meaningful, and adapted to the Frankish character. However, the Visigothic style of worship that formed in Spain with a multitude of offices and ceremonies also took root in some areas ruled by Charlemagne.
Around 800, Charlemagne demanded the uniform application of the revised sacraments on the lands he ruled, from which the Mass of the Roman Church as we know it today is largely based. In the same way, at the request of Charlemagne, Christian pastors were given a basic compendium, known as "sermons," drawn from many different sources.
At the same time, Alquin's revision made the Benedictine Law the universal norm of people's religious life. In order to manipulate the doctrinal dispute between the Roman Church and the Byzantine Church, Charlemagne formulated the "Carolingian Book", which laid down the doctrine and rituals of the Roman Church.
2.1.3 Decrees for religious control
Charlemagne was undoubtedly motivated by the Christian faith, which led him to do his best to raise the general standard of scholarship in the kingdom, and he also educated himself. "He was often conditioned that his power was entrusted by God to protect the Church and maintain the morality of his subjects, and that he could not only bring them a situation of exemplary living, but also that he had to take care of the growth of their faith and expand the boundaries of this holy kingdom."
Therefore, one of his first tasks was to ensure that all the clergy were knowledgeable about the faith and were able to pass on what they understood to his people in the form of sermons.
Although, such a request may not seem excessive, in fact, it was difficult for that era. For Charlemagne, this goal was always accompanied by a unified idea. In order to overcome the remnants and infiltration of pagan ideas among his subjects, he had to exercise faith control. Indeed, he did.
Charlemagne pursued his Christian cultural policy on the one hand by establishing the orthodox status of Christianity, often accompanied by military conquest. On the other hand, there is control of the Christian faith, and this ideological control is mainly exercised by decree.
Charlemagne reigned for 46 years, constantly waging wars of foreign expansion, and if it were possible to ask Charlemagne what he was most proud of in his life, I am afraid he would say that he greatly expanded the size of the empire.
But at the same time, he is also pursuing his cultural policy. In order to better maintain the unity of a vast empire composed of many races with different languages, economic conditions, laws, and customs, he paid special attention to legislative work, seeking to formulate laws in all aspects of political and social life that could be used throughout the empire, regardless of race.
"It is estimated that the 65 edicts he made contained more than 1,000 statutes, of which 293 were political, 130 were criminal, 110 were civil, 305 were church, 73 were about family affairs, and 87 were moral."
"It's impressive that the statutes cover so much, but it's not hard to see that the statutes on Christianity are the largest. In order to carry out his Christian cultural policy, during the conquest, he forced the people of the conquered areas to adopt Christianity, and those who refused were punished by capital punishment.
In 780 he issued the Edict of Saxony, which stated: "Those who do not wish to be baptized and continue to practice paganism shall be punished by death." Anyone who congregates heretics, conspires, opposes Christianity, kills bishops, clergy or church clerks shall be punished by death. Those who do not send children to churches for baptism are fined and residents are forced to pay a Natithe. The Church has the right to try civil and criminal cases in the region.
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