King Louis The Medieval Church Summary

The study of the Carolingians can sometimes be daunting based on the vast amount of sources, different languages used in the secondary sources, and the numerous arguments presented. That being said, this work looks at the way the church influenced the monarchy, specifically through the use of the Speculum Principum, followed with a chapter viewing if those ideas made an impact upon King Louis the Pious. The Carolingians were a product of their own demise. By gifting too much power to the church, they enabled themselves to fall by the power they granted. This work is greatly indebted to the works of Mayke de Jong, Thomas Fx Noble, and Rachel Stone for their pivotal works on how monasticism and these writings influenced Louis the Pious’ reign. So many historians have written on the Carolingians since their demise, that there is not enough pages in a book to recount all of them, but this introduction will look …show more content…
In this work she describes the manner in which, Pepin the Short and later Charlemagne with the church began the Carolingian Renaissance. Her description of the revival of the palace schools and many of the reforms in the church that the Carolingians created, helps to paint a picture concerning the importance of the Church to the Carolingian monarchs. M.L.W. Laistner offers one of the very few works in English on Smaragus, one of the most important authors of the Speculum Principum. His work “The Date and the Recipient of Smaragdus’ Via Regia was published in 1928 and still proves an important piece of literature in the historiography. His supposition that the Via Regia, instead of traditionally addressing Charlemagne, addresses Louis the Pious holds great merit. This addressment to Louis confers greater power and importance to Louis because of this