Carolingian culture: between world and monastery
This paper focuses on forming of the culture of the Carolingian epoch. Th e process has begun with Charlemagne's educational reform. The palace school and a group of learned clerics, known as the Academy, worked out a unified educational program, combining secular and ecclesiastical elements. Members of the Academy occupied the highest ecclesiastical positions in diff erent parts of Charlemagne's Empire and founded monastic and cathedral schools aft er the pattern of the palace school. In the reign of Louis the Pious the graduates of these schools, who had also a thorough monastic training, held high government posts and at the same time participated in the cultural life of the court. Under Charles the Bald not only the court, but also bishops' cities and major monasteries became important cultural centers, closely connected with each other.