Charles presided over the trial and the Pope was acquitted.
Two days later, Charles rose from prayer at Christmas Mass and Leo placed a crown on his head and proclaimed him Holy Roman Emperor.
Here we have all three threads together: Roman, German, Christian.
Historians debate how much Charles was complicit with this little ceremony.
CYNICAL VIEW:
Some say that Charles arranged the whole thing. His advisors had been looking into ways to gain him an imperial title. They also frequently said that he should treat the Byzantine emperor as an equal, not a superior.
Charles was very ambitious after all.
Others think that Charles was genuinely surprised.
Leo needed a permanent protector against a growing number of enemies. He also needed someone to help him retain control over the Papal States, which had been under Byzantine control. By crowning the emperor himself, he set a precedent for Popes to be involved in the business of making kings, which might just come in handy.
Charles was, however, not pleased. He probably didn?t mind being an emperor, but he never used the title given to him by the Pope. He called himself ?Emperor, King of the Franks and Lombards.? He did not like the Pope?s direct involvement at all.
He even told one of his advisors that had he known it was going to happen, he would not have attended Mass that day.
From then on, there was an increase in tension between the high officials in the church and the emperor.
CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE
Charles did some good things. He kept the Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims at bay and out of central Europe.
He did establish a rudimentary system of administration.
He set up administrative offices that a lot to do with how Europe looks even now.
He tried to establish central coinage, it didn?t last long put the British system (pounds, shilling, pence) is based on it.
He also was responsible for bringing a little culture into the Dark Ages.
He was not an intellectual, but he liked literature and appreciated scholarship.
His biographer said that when he couldn?t sleep at night, he would pull out a notebook from under his bed and practice writing.
He never did quite learn to write well, so he signed his name using a stencil.
CYNICAL VIEW: He knew that Christianity was the only thing a lot of the people in his empire had in common. He had to try to promote it in order to promote loyalty to him.
Sympathetic monks and bishops could provide key personnel in watching over the affairs of the empire. It would be good to boost their ranks, prestige, and importance.
He saw that culture and education were dying in Europe and thought that part of his legacy as a ruler would be to stem the tide of deterioration.
He spearheaded a movement now referred to as the CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE in an effort to preserve older culture and to create a common bond of Christian culture among the people under his rule.
-He had all of the greatest scholars in the kingdom come to court and he sponsored their research and writing efforts. This is why we know so much about Charlemagne-one of them became his biographer.
-He thought that learning was important, especially for priests, his cultural ambassadors. He issued a decree saying that every cathedral and monastery had to establish a school and to provide a free education to every boy who had the perseverance and intelligence to follow it. It was not fully carried out, but the ones that were established continued through the hard times that followed Charlemagne?s death. These church schools emphasized [medieval] Latin grammar, rhetoric, and logic.
-Reformed handwriting. CAROLINGIAN MINISCULE.
He wanted to increase legibility and also words per page.
Basis of our modern lower-case letters.
-Standardized the language. Many people in his kingdom spoke different local dialects. He wanted a common scholarly language that could also be used by govt officials.
Medieval Latin. Same grammatical rules as classical Latin, but more flexible and open, and very different from spoken Latin.
Spoken Latin becomes Romance languages: French, It, Port, Rom, Sp
-Not so many new ideas. He tried to boost monasteries and support them in their efforts to recopy ancient texts. As many as 90% of the Roman works?over 8000? still in existence today are preserved in the form of 8th and 9th century manuscripts copied in a Carolingian monastery.
They switched from papyrus to parchment or sheepskin. They lasted longer, but were considerably more expensive.
But very little of any of his accomplishments outlasted his death.
He was a bright light in a sea of darkness.
Charlemagnes? efforts don?t last long. Things get divided even worse after his death.
The Franks believed in dividing land among their heirs, instead of giving it all to the oldest son. This split the realm up into smaller chunks.
Loyalty waned because offices became hereditary instead of appointed.
Checks and balances waned, no more Missi Domini, no more assemblies.
Very little to tie anyone to the central government.
A brief bit of centralization, but can?t outlast the Greatness of the leader.