"Renovatio" -- a key word of the Carolingian Age.  One common use of the term, renovatio mundi, meant spring-time -- a joyous renewal of life after the cold, dark, dead, dying-time of medieval winter.   Charlemagne saw himself as renewing political, social and intellectual life in Europe just as a warm spring day brings sun and showers to shivering seeds.  Interestingly, the phrase "renovatio litteris" commonly described the Italian Renaissance, re-birthing Classical literature.

        Carolingian Culture had sprung from many sources, (a Carolingian ivory carving of Gregory I, a Griffin) but it also created new ideas and new practices. The most notable new idea was in a peaceful, ordered, united Europe under the approving power of God which secured life and helped each Christian member to flourish (an idea that has and does haunt, repel and attract Westerners.)  One notable practice by the direct order of Charlemagne was a very readable method of writing called Carolingian Miniscule, especially compared to previous Merovingian scripts.

        The union of religion and state comes in many flavors -- you decide if sweet or sour.  On the one hand, violent conquests, forced conversions, more than one massacre certainly do mar the age.   But the Twelfth Century saw the best in it:  in this Chartres glass, the idea is that the duly crowned Emperor protects the church with his own hands, then offers it up.  Here Carolus sleeps while angels keep an eye on him and an anachronous knight watches his back.  And again, the king takes counsel from a bishop.

       Renewal, reform, re-naissance, rebirth -- the Carolingians saw themselves (and were....?) less as creative and more as reviving the best of the past.  They saw themselves in a line of educational reformers and linked this resurgence in schools and literacy with the Bible and salvation. Again, not a new idea, but at that time, perhaps crucial to Western Civilization.  In Europe, dark times had come and gone, but the darkest storm was still on the horizon, yet to engulf and nearly extinguish the few candles burning in the night.  Even Charlemagne knew of the Northmen -- invaders who spurred the famous litany, "Anything! Anything, but O Lord, save us from the Northmen!" 

         The Carolingian achievements were many -- poetry, art, music, law, literature, book production, philosophy, diplomacy, history, unity, peace -- but the greatest of these is love of learning.  Even the Emperor learned, as best as time and ability allowed him.  The playful re-naming of his inner circle with classical characters, his soaking in the various ideas from the best scholars from around the world (Alcuin from Northumbria, Peter the Grammarian from Pisa and Paul the Deacon also from Italy, Theodulf from Spain, Einhard the Frank -- intellectuals who directly shape imperial policy are always a rarity in political history.

      This scholarly court had come together both during and after  Charlemagne had shown his commitment in his famous Capitulary of 789:   "Let schools be established in every monastery and bishopric...."   These imperial establishments kept learning alive then, and later they would morph into the new universities in the Twelfth and subsequent centuries.  More than once, western education had fallen into the abyss yet would reform, improve, continue -- from Homer and Greeek Paideia to colleges in Utah --  a long, honorable, and worthwhile tradition!  The Carolingian Age transmitted classical learning and ideals as a means of connecting with the divine, a means to achieve what the intellectual historian David Knowles saw as a happy marriage in the title of his book:  The Love of Learning and the Desire for God. (At least in theory....)

       So, yes, of course, the question arises -- not only rises but cannot be put down, capped, hidden or ignored:  How does the Carolingian Age compare with Bede's Saxon Age?  In politics, education, culture (elite and/or popular if that division seems significant to you) -- the whole of PARIS GEM?

      More specifically, how does the Carolingian Age fare when plugged into our questions about the Bede, e.g.:  1.) Einhard vs Bede as historian?  2.)Northumbrian vs Carolingian Renaissances?  3.) Integration?  4.) Advance of culture?  5.) Status of Carolingian women? etc. (Fordham has some added help in sources)

      Some other intriguing questions have probably already occured to you:  for example, to what extent was Saxon and/or Carolingian culture derivative or creative, lasting or ephemeral, elite or widespread?  How did political acts and systems relate to culture? Did societal issues figure in this? Enough food for thought for a double-giant box of Cheeze-Its!