Archbishop Hincmar of Rheims (d. 882) is a crucial figure for all those interested in early medieval European history in general, and Carolingian history in particular. For forty years he was an advisor to kings and religious controversialist; his works are a key source for the political, religious and social history of the later ninth century, covering topics from papal politics to the abduction of women and the role of parish priests. For the first time since Jean Devisse’s biography of Hincmar in the 1970s, this book offers a three-dimensional examination of a figure whose actions and writings in different fields are often studied in isolation. It brings together the latest international research across the spectrum of his varied activities, as history-writer, estate administrator, hagiographer, canonist, pastorally engaged bishop, and politically minded royal advisor. The introduction also provides the first substantial English-language survey of Hincmar’s whole career.

The Carolingian 'Renaissance' of the late eighth and ninth centuries, in what is now France, western Germany and northern Italy, transformed medieval European culture. At the same time it engendered a need to ensure that clergy, monks and laity embraced orthodox Christian doctrine. This book offers a fresh perspective on the period by examining transformations in a major current of thought as revealed through literature and artistic imagery: the doctrine of the Passion and the crucified Christ. The evidence of a range of literary sources is surveyed - liturgical texts, poetry, hagiography, letters, homilies, exegetical and moral tractates - but special attention is given to writings from the discussions and debates concerning artistic images, Adoptionism, predestination and the Eucharist.

This book examines a pivotal period in ancient human history: the fall of the Roman Empire and the birth of a new European civilization in the early Middle Ages. The Early Medieval World: From the Fall of Rome to the Time of Charlemagne addresses the social and material culture of this critical period in the evolution of Western society, covering the social, political, cultural, and religious history of the Mediterranean world and northern Europe. The two-volume set explains how invading and migrating barbarian tribes—spurred by raiding Huns from the steppes of Central Asia—contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and documents how the blending of Greco-Roman, Germanic, and Christian cultures birthed a new civilization in Western Europe, creating the Christian Church and the modern nation-state. A-Z entries discuss political transformation, changing religious practices in daily life, sculpture and the arts, material culture, and social structure, and provide biographies of important men and women in the transitional period of late antiquity. The work will be extremely helpful to students learning about the factors that contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire—an important and common topic in world history curricula.

In these essays Carolingian government is explored through the workings of courts and assemblies; through administrative texts; through contemporaries' historical writing; through the rituals, looking back to Roman times and reflecting the long continuity of administration in the areas constituting Francia that supplemented and reinforced social and political solidarities; and through the ideological and material dilemmas confronted by ninth-century churchmen: the material wealth of the church, a necessary precondition to its influence, attracted a variety of private interests that inhibited its ability to perform its public duty. Janet Nelson extends her perspective to include the settlement of disputes, often without recourse to courts or to conflict, and the application of law. An introduction sets Francia in context and outlines its main features. More recent work on gender history is represented here by studies of the political, intellectual and religious activities of women in the Frankish world. Although circumscribed, the activities of women acting on their own will can be clearly detected. While the male authorship of nearly all early medieval texts has usually been taken for granted, Janet Nelson makes a case for the possibility that a number were written by women.