Charlemagne's court as a governing institution in Archbishop Hinkmar of Rheims' "DE ORDINE PALATII" (882)

Abstract

This study analyzes an important and still under-researched problem of the early medieval Frankish state - the development of its administrative and governmental structures at the time of Charlemagne (768-814). The source used is the work of Abbot Adalard of Lyon “De ordine palatii et reipublicae dispositione” (“On the order in the palace and the state of the state”), preserved only in the copy of Archbishop Hinkmar of Reims (806-882) under the popular name 'De ordine palatii'. The treatise was written in 882, when the kingdom was shaken by internal and external attacks in difficult times.
The publication consists of two thematically different parts. The first part (chapters I-III) deals with the question of social organization, the origin of the episcopate and the origin and duties of royal power. In the first part, Hinkmar/Adalard presents the nature of and demands on the monarchy. He emphasizes its divine origin (insisting on the priority of the sacerdotium), and in accordance with the ecclesiastical authorities, and in particular with Pseydo - Cyprian, considers regnum and sacerdotium more as separate spheres of the ecclesia, each with its own characteristics. Hinkmar sees in the monarchy the leader, rector, and the defender, defensor, of society, and in the clergy - the corrector of monarchical power.