Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-mggfc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-23T18:34:33.723Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

EINHARD: THE SINNER AND THE SAINTS1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2003

Julia M.H Smith
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay offers a major reassessment ofthe career of Einhard, biographer of Charlemagne, and an analysis ofelite lay piety in the Carolingian era. Einhard's life(c. 770–840) is discussed in terms of childhood, youth, marriageand old age, with emphasis on the significance of his wife, Imma. His personalrelationship with the relics which he had translated from Rome to Seligenstadtand his self-description as a ‘sinner’ offer insights into hisreligiosity. Einhard and Imma are also situated in a broader discussion ofthe religious activities of other elite married couples of their day. Monasticfoundations, relic collecting, Christian household morality and close engagementwith the Psalter characterise a distinctive conjugal Christianity in the Carolingianperiod.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 13 , December 2003 , pp. 55 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 I dedicate this paper with affection to the memory of Donald Bullough, whose help with an early version it is a pleasure to acknowledge. I am also grateful to Peter Brown, John Contreni, Mayke de Jong, David Ganz, Matthew Innes, Guy Halsall, Jinty Nelson, Janneke Raaijmakers, Barbara Rosenwein and Sidney Tibbetts for comments and advice. Preliminary versions of this paper were delivered at Loyola University, Chicago, and the Davis Center at Princeton University.