Charlemagne And Monasticism

The practice of renunciation of normal social life to pursue a life of solitary devotion to the spirit became known as Monasticism and it began as early as the second century. These devotees were known as “monks” because of their solitary life. Monk is the Greek word meaning one. Monks began to organize themselves around the fourth century. The monks began to live in communities together known as monasteries. By the sixth century they were established as places for learning and to escape paganism. Christian monks assumed the life of Christ’s apostles by leaving their families and communities to follow and serve Jesus Christ. By the 700s, Monasteries in Ireland and England became significant centers of evangelism and learning. Charlemagne was …show more content…
194). At the same time, arts, music, literature, and education were revived. Although the death of Charlemagne and the partition of his empire resulted in deterioration of many political and social institutions, the church, arts, and education lived on into the 11th century when they experienced full recovery. Even with the attempts to destroy education during the 10th century including the burning of books and destruction of libraries, they did not result in extinction of literature and education, as was the case in the 7th century. Charlemagne was not only a bold military leader and politician. His enormous interest in arts and learning created the Carolingian renaissance which centralized a lively imperial culture at Charlemagne’s court. Upon Charlemagne’s death, Alcuin of York fostered a general revival of learning, education and literacy. In the age of Charlemagne, the art of life-size sculpture virtually disappeared, in part because of the iconoclastic controversy (Bishop, p. 133). Sculptural decoration was in forms of reliquaries or book …show more content…
However, during the age of Charlemagne, there was a great improvement in the quality of education not only in monastic schools but also in parish and cathedral schools. Some of the subjects offered in cathedral and monastic schools included arithmetic, reading, writing, singing, and scripture studies. In addition to these, some monasteries taught grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. Although these subjects had been studied in earlier schools, they formed the basis for the great intellectual progress especially during the 9th century. It is important to also mention that after Charlemagne’s death, his European empire disintegrated under the force of Muslim and Norse

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