Earle Carines, Ph.D.: "Christianity Through the Centuries," 18-Revival o...

The Revival of Imperialism in the West in 590-800 A.D., 196-203. The Roman Empire had collapsed with varied invasions and marauding tribes. Clovis, founder of the Merovingian Dynasty, was the first to unify the Franks in Gaul and pick up the Burgundian territories by a marriage to a Burgundian princess, a Christian. Clovis becomes a Christian. “Mayors of the Palace” begin to dominate Clovis’ government after his death and while his sons and grandson luxuriate themselves. The governing mayors would become Pepin who reunited some previous divisions from the Clovis dynasty. Charles Martel, “The Hammer” and illegitimate son of Pepin, repulses the land-gobbling Islamists at Tours in 732; he had saved Europe for Roman orthodoxy. These Carolingians ruled until the son of Pepin the Short, Charlemagne (742-814) came to the throne. He solidified his holdings, fought 50 battles, ran everything included Italy (saving Rome from the Lombards), was crowned Imperator Romanorum by the pope, in 800 in Rome, and initiated a “Carolingian Renaissance” of learning, literature and culture. He brought Alcuin of York to Aachen Cathedral to run the academic school for the children of Charlemagne and noblemen. A revived unity was at hand—after the fall of Rome with the confusions, now there was a Holy Roman Empire and unity—not Roman, but Teutonic.