History

During the Medieval times the two most important factors that affected daily life were religion and the rulers of kingdom’s. They were the two most powerful entities in the world and most of the time they were forced to work together in order to accomplish both their personal and mutual goals for the kingdom. Both of the sources The Life of Charlemagne by Einhard and The Annals of Flodoard of Reims are great sources that exemplify how church and state had to work together to maintain the kingdom. Both sources, however, show signs of possible bias by the author.

Flodoard’s Annal’s was a leisurely book written carefully, picking only what he felt were the most significant events of the year to input into his yearly logs. It was written between the years 919 to 966 during a time of territorial and political conflict. Flodoard is a rare witness in a time that little is known about. The most paramount themes Flodoard discusses are religion, power and how they work hand in hand. The Church played an influential and guiding role to the people who assumed the positions of power within the 10th century and vice versa the people in power worked in accordance with the central figures of the Church in order to fulfill political and personal agendas.

Flodoard believed God worked through humans in order to affect the world we live in. Flodoard shows the reader the power of religion within the century, in fact, the Church was the most abundant source of Medieval documents and record keeping in an otherwise “dark period”. Flodoard was a priest at Reims so there is the possibility that the detailed chronicles of what he felt was important could have been biased. The fact that Flodoard played an important role within the Church helps the reader to understand why he chose to strongly emphasize on certain people or events. The Church controlled vast amounts of wealth, was the largest landowner in Europe, and controlled education and learning. Bishops and abbots could, and many times did, act as advisors to kings.

The Pope could use his power to excommunicate rulers and to free the peasantry from obedience to him, these are powerful gestures in a time that is so focused on religion. People looked to Church authority for leadership as much as their king. The Church even had its very own army called militia ecclesie, or soldiers of the church which are briefly referred to when Flodoard discusses how “King Raoul and Hugh [the Great], Boss and other of his men besieged the urbs of Reims. After the siege had lasted for three weeks, those who were in the civitas opened it to the besiegers”. Flodoard specified that it was the soldiers of the church who gave themselves up to the besiegers.

Flodoard’s bias also shows itself in the way he negatively portrays those who wrong the church. “Flodoard’s broadly based system of values is clearly evident in his positive treatments of some protagonists in this ongoing story and his negative treatment of others.” The circumstances of Flodoards life had a profound effect on how he chose to write The Annal’s and the priorities that he took above anything else. In fact his main concern “was preserving the integrity and, indeed, the autonomy of the Church of Reims”. Flodoard’s priority was the Church and any topic that had any relevant relations to the Church was considered plenty important to be recorded in his Annals. Though Flodoards chronicles were likely honestly written, reflecting on what he chose to include within the text plays a significant role in being able to properly analyze The Annals.

Flodoard discusses the importance of King Louis and his journeys to many different regions and kingdoms, creating allies and implementing his political power. Readers can see Louis’s important and strategic relationship with Pope Stephen when the pope threatens to and eventually does excommunicate Hugh [the Great] for not accepting King Louis as his ruler “Count Hugh [the Great], the enemy of King Louis, was excommunicated because of the evils that he perpetrated”. King Louis’ relationship with Pope Stephen is one of many examples of the political/religious connections within this text.

Flodoard was a friend of Archbishop Artoldus whom had a big role in shaping the diocese of Reims. Flodoard’s account of Archbishop Artoldus is a unique one to analyze because it shows the influence of the church within the royal hierarchy. “In the year 938, King Louis took by force the castrum of Montigny Lengrain, which Serlus, who had been acting as a brigand, had been holding. King Louis spared the life of Serlus at the request of Archbishop Artoldus.” Although the example is only a brief summary of the event, the reader is able to take from this that Kings were influenced in one way or another by the central figures of the Church.

Flodoard shows the reader how both parties work together, yet still had their own separate agendas. The King had a personal agenda of territorial advances and the Church’s was to keep its firm image in place by correlating with the King but still having control over essential governing issues “The King captured by force what had been committed to him by the monks and, at the request Lord Archbishop Artoldus [of Reims], he allowed Heribert’s men who were in it to depart”. King Louis even granted “Archbishop Artoldus, and thus to the church of Reims, the mint of the orbs of Reims” and since the King also made the entire county belong to the same church, Reims, the “church county” had their own currency as well.

Throughout Flodoards text the conflict between Hugh the Great and King Louis, as well as Archbishop Artoldus and Bishop Hugh continues to grow. “Count Heribert (of Vermandois) called a synod to settle the dispute [over the archbishopric of Reims] between his song Hugh and Archbishop Artoldus. However, Hugh [The Great] obstructed the process and was active to stop it lest those who would attend it should do so for the fidelity and aid of King Louis, and the synod did not meet”. These conflicts are accurate examples of the primary agendas of the governing bodies and the attempts to mediate the disputes. “On 7 June the synod was convened by the command of Pope Agapitus [II] in the royal palace of Ingelheim at the Church of Blessed Remigius, to deal with the serious dispute between King Louis and the princeps Hugh [the Great], and between Archbishop Artoldus of Reims and Archbishop Hugh, who had been illicitly substituted for him in the same urbs. These conflicts greatly disturbed the entire kingdom of the Franks”. The dispute between Hugh and Artoldus was settled when “The synod decreed, praised, and confirmed that according to the meaning of the canons and the decrees of the holy fathers, the diocese of Reims should be retained by and handed over to Bishop Artoldus, who had been present at every synod and had not