ABSTRACT
It is a sound commonplace of the scholarship on the Carolingian era that kings and emperors displayed a profound interest in the promotion, protection and reform of the Church. One could easily cite books and articles in the dozens, perhaps hundreds, testifying to that interest. To the extent that there is any controversy at all, it turns on the questions of how the Carolingians acted and by what right they did so. The existing literature focuses on relations between Carolingian rulers and the Church as an institution. The institutional Church, understood as an entity designed to do God’s work in the world, constitutes one important site for interpretation.
