Charlemagne dominated the Dark Ages. He ruled over the largest territorial swath since Rome’s collapse. While he conquered and consolidated, the Roman church turned to him for protection and alliance. After 32 years in power, Pope Leo II crowned him Emperor of the Romans. This ceremonial action transformed the nature of church and state. Charlemagne’s Christmas coronation meant that secular power, and the right to rule, derived from the church.
In 769, Pope Adrian I requested the Franks military assistance. The Lombard King Desiderius decided to test the new pontiff, conquered a few Papal States, and marched toward Rome. The Frankish King Charlemagne sided with Adrian and ordered Desiderius to withdraw. The Lombard refused not expecting the strong Frankish response. Charlemagne chased Desiderius and his forces and laid siege at Pavia. In 774, the Lombards surrendered and Charlemagne assumed their throne. Charlemagne continued to pacify Italy as needed and put down a rebellion in 776. Eleven years later, he ended the last of the resistance.
Pope Leo III remembered Charlemagne’s efforts on behalf of his predecessor and knew his reputation as a warrior. The king spent most of his reign fighting battles and waging war. In 799, Leo fled Rome for Charlemagne’s protection when the people tried to rip out his tongue and tear out his eyes. Charlemagne agreed to restore Leo to power. In November 800, he marched to Rome and held council restoring Leo to the papacy.
In return for Charlemagne’s sponsorship, Leo III crowned the Frankish King “Emperor of the Romans” on Christmas Day. This had the practical effect of alienating Rome from Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire, founded by Constantine the Great, represented the rightful heir to Rome. However, relations between east and west degraded over the ascension of Empress Irene to the throne. Leo refused to recognize a woman emperor, so there was little she could do to prevent the coronation.
Charlemagne claimed ignorance regarding Leo’s intentions. Supposedly, he did not wish the crown when the Pope “forced” him into the ceremony. In reality, Charlemagne knew what Leo planned and portrayed himself as the man to renew the old Roman Empire. However, Charlemagne’s Frankish kingdom was not the same as the Augustan Empire and fractured following his death.
The coronation set an important precedent. Even if Charlemagne was aware of Leo’s plans, the fact the church crowned the emperor meant that religious authority took precedence over secular. Since the church chose the leader, the right to rule derived from the divine. Therefore, the Vatican held ultimate decision-making power.
Church and state formally linked around 400 years earlier. However, the coronation unambiguously formalized church authority. Monarchs fought for nearly a millennia to restore their prerogatives. The precedent proved so powerful, that Napoleon crowned himself in the pope’s presence formally declaring secular supremacy. Since that moment, the pendulum has swung completely away from the Vatican and religious authority.
Charlemagne died in 814. It took nearly three years before another Holy Roman Emperor officially emerged. Although Charlemagne crowned his son Louis the Pious in 813, the church did not recognize it until October 5, 816. Louis assumed full power upon his coronation by Pope Stephen IV.
Church and state merged in the latter Roman Empire. Church supremacy emerged because of the collapse of government in the west. However, Pope Leo III reaffirmed church supremacy until the early modern period when he crowned Charlemagne. The coronation affirmed religious prerogatives over secular rulers. This arrangement remained in place until monarchs grew powerful and bold. It did not truly end until Napoleon’s rise to power.
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