The Relationship Between Monarchs and the Church

Paper Summary:

Compares and contrasts how two writers treat the issue of the Church and kings within a social system. Books are THE LIFE OF CHARLEMAGNE and HISTORY OF THE FRANKS. How the religioius feelings of rulers shaped Church-State relationships.. Interaction of the secular and the religious for mutual advantage. Church-State power conflicts.

From the Paper:

"The purpose of this brief essay is to compare and contrast the treatment of the relationship between monarch(s) and the Church in The Life of Charlemagne by Einhard and Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks. The two writer describe an interdependent Church and monarchy in which the religious or spiritual intensity of a given ruler was often less significant in shaping Church-State relationships than other matters. Both books demonstrate that Church and kings interacted for mutual advantage and because, in the wake of the dissolution of the Roman Empire and throughout the so-called "Dark Ages," the monarchy and the Church emerged as the only two normative institutions in a fragmented social system.


Gregory (p. 33) has commented that among the early kings of the Franks, Childeric was "excessively wanton." Though a ruler, this early king was in no sense as religious as his son Clovis..."

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