A Morning in Aachen: The Prelude to a Holy Scandal

On a late January morning in 828, Einhard found Ilduin of Saint-Denis waiting outside Emperor Louis the Pious’s bedchamber in Aachen. As palace chamberlain, Ilduin controlled access to the emperor—but Einhard had come for Ilduin himself. Their conversation unfolded beneath a towering window, one that—according to Notker the Stammerer—Charlemagne had designed decades earlier to survey his entire palace complex. Yet this was no casual exchange. Einhard had come to confront Ilduin over a sacred theft that would expose the tangled web of piety, politics, and prestige in the Carolingian world.

The Relic Trade: From Rome to the Rhineland

The crisis began in 826 when Ilduin acquired the relics of St. Sebastian from Rome, installing them at his Medard Abbey in Soissons. This sparked a frenzy among Frankish elites to procure holy remains from the Eternal City. Not to be outdone, Einhard enlisted Deusdona, a Roman deacon and professional relic smuggler, to secure the bones of Saints Marcellinus and Peter. After a clandestine exhumation from Rome’s catacombs, Einhard’s notary Ratleig orchestrated a triumphant procession through Germany, culminating in their enshrinement at Michelstadt.

But the saints had other plans. Through visions, they demanded relocation to Seligenstadt, where miracles soon proliferated—until Ilduin’s servant Hunus stole fragments of Marcellinus’s remains. Rumors swirled that both saints now resided at Medard, threatening Einhard’s spiritual authority. By 830, after intense negotiations (and Ilduin’s political fall), the relics were returned amid imperial fanfare. Louis and Empress Judith personally venerated them, cementing Einhard’s triumph.

The Palace as Political Theater

This episode reveals the Carolingian court as a vortex of ritual and rivalry. Charlemagne’s architectural vision—embodied by that surveillant window—mirrored his successors’ need to control both space and narrative. As Hincmar’s On the Organization of the Palace details, hierarchies governed every interaction: from archchaplains overseeing ecclesiastical affairs to huntsmen managing the royal chase.

The palace functioned as:
– A judicial hub where petitioners sought royal justice
– A moral compass, with Louis the Pious embodying priestly kingship
– A stage for political theater, where hunting expeditions signaled stability

Yet beneath the ordered surface lurked factionalism. The 833 deposition of Louis—preceded by his very public penance at Attigny—demonstrated how rituals could be weaponized. As Paschasius Radbertus noted, even voluntary acts of contrition could be reinterpreted as coercion by opponents.

Intellectuals as Power Brokers

Einhard’s career epitomized the scholar-statesman’s role. Though never holding formal office, his three decades at court—and authorship of Vita Karoli Magni—granted immense influence. The Carolingian renaissance created a pan-European intellectual network, with centers like Tours, Fulda, and Saint Gall producing:
– Bilingual elites (like Louis, who spoke Latin and Germanic dialects)
– Theological disputants, from predestinationist Gottschalk to liturgy reformer Amalarius of Metz
– Political theorists such as Hincmar, whose On the Person and Ministry of the King fused biblical exegesis with statecraft

Education became a hallmark of nobility. Even aristocratic women like Dhuoda, author of the Handbook for William, participated in this literate culture. Yet knowledge remained an elite privilege—village priests might know psalters, but peasant worlds lay beyond the reformers’ gaze.

The Papacy and the Politics of Divorce

Carolingian engagement with Rome oscillated between reverence and frustration. While Charlemagne maintained cordial relations with Hadrian I, later emperors struggled with papal assertiveness. The divorce crisis of Lothar II (857–869) proved pivotal:

1. Lothar accused Queen Theutberga of incestuous abortion
2. After surviving trial by ordeal, she was coerced into a monastic retreat
3. Pope Nicholas I nullified the divorce, excommunicating Lothar’s bishops

This clash revealed shifting dynamics—where once Carolingians dictated to popes, now papal decretals could unravel royal schemes.

Comparative Legacies: Carolingians, Byzantines, Abbasids

Unlike the Byzantine bureaucracy or Abbasid ulama, Carolingian intellectuals derived authority from moral persuasion rather than institutional roles. Their unique contributions included:

| Realm | Carolingian Innovation | Lasting Impact |
|—————-|————————————–|————————————|
| Governance | Synodal legislation | Episcopal-royal collaboration model|
| Education | Monastic scriptoria networks | Preservation of classical texts |
| Ritual | Public penance ceremonies | Medieval kingship’s sacred dimension|

Though the dynasty collapsed in 887, its fusion of scholarship and statecraft inspired later reformers—from Ottonian Germany to Capetian France. The vision of a morally accountable ruler, advised by learned clergy, endured as Europe’s political lodestar.

Miracles and Memory

Einhard’s Translation and Miracles of Marcellinus and Peter immortalized his relic saga, but its true significance lay in exposing Carolingian power’s sacred scaffolding. When his friend Gerward heard courtiers marveling at the Seligenstadt miracles, it affirmed a profound truth: in the 9th century, authority flowed as much from control of saints as control of armies. The window in Aachen’s palace may have let kings observe subjects—but relics let heaven observe kings.