Faith and politics in early medieval society : Charlemagne and the frustrating failure of an ecclesiological project

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the dialectics which, throughout Charlemagne's reign, dominated the political and ideological discourse in the Capitularia, a unique series of legislative texts in which the sacral ruler himself could express his sentiments on the successes of his mission to introduce the City of God in human society. These documents demonstrate a teleological point of view, which is singular through its fervent directness and intellectual vivacity when confronted with ad-hoc political problems. Especially from the last two decades of the eighth century onward, important steps were taken to persuade several elite groups in society to commit themselves to a reform programme, which at first aimed at an internal reorganisation of the Church, but gradually evolved into a systematic attempt to Christianize social interaction and personal morals, and to reassess standards of national and local government. The reasons of its failure mainly lay with the programme's and the underlying ideology's incompatibility with the principles of Germanic government and rulership, the inertia of social forces to be mobilized against longstanding traditions in early medieval society and the modest means at the disposal of the Church in order to manifest itself as a convincing outlet for a new standard of social interaction