HIST-102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 48: Varg Vikernes, Rule Of Saint Benedict
13 Oct 2020
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Time of Troubles in the Carolingian World.
• A combination of internal weaknesses and external pressures did the damage, and the
sight was remarkable enough to make several writers at the time wonder whether the
world itself was coming to an end—and they got at least a few people to believe them.
The dramatic downfall serves as a caution against overrating the Carolingian accomplishment in
the first place, but it is clear nevertheless that the troubles that befell Europe in the tenth and
early eleventh centuries were extraordinary in their degree and kind.
Enough of the old world survived from the collapse to maintain a sense of order and tradition,
but the Europe that emerged from the wreckage was a radically re-created and reformed place.
• Latin Europe in the 900s was a vastly different place from the Europe of the 700s, one that
looked to a brighter future even as some of its inhabitants grimly prepared themselves for
The End.
In part, Carolingian luck simply ran out.
For several generations in a row they had produced a single heir who held their lands together
and continued the twin causes of unifying and Christianizing the west.
But after the middle of the ninth century, an abundance of heirs appeared on the scene, and
the empire was gradually carved up among them.
Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious (814–840) had received the empire intact, but he had few of
his father’s gifts for commanding loyalty and obedience.
His reign marked the pinnacle of the Carolingian cultural renewal, the groundwork having been
laid during his father’s time, but on the political and economic level his years on the throne
were, if not a flat-out disaster, at least a miserable muddle.
The fault was not entirely his own. Charlemagne was a tough act to follow, and Louis has always
suffered from the inevitable comparison between them.
He was an earnest, intelligent, and cultivated ruler— a much better educated and “cultured”
man than his father—but he never commanded the type of respect and fear that his father had
inspired and depended upon.
He was rather straitlaced on the moral level (hence his nickname), and he banished from the
court all the dancing girls and professional mistresses who had kept his father busy on sleepless
nights; he also took particular interest in the monastic reforms led by his advisor and friend St.
Benedict of Aniane (d. 822), a mirthless ascetic from Spain.
Document Summary
Enough of the old world survived from the collapse to maintain a sense of order and tradition, but the europe that emerged from the wreckage was a radically re-created and reformed place. Latin europe in the 900s was a vastly different place from the europe of the 700s, one that looked to a brighter future even as some of its inhabitants grimly prepared themselves for. For several generations in a row they had produced a single heir who held their lands together and continued the twin causes of unifying and christianizing the west. But after the middle of the ninth century, an abundance of heirs appeared on the scene, and the empire was gradually carved up among them. Charlemagne"s son louis the pious (814 840) had received the empire intact, but he had few of his father"s gifts for commanding loyalty and obedience.
