Charlemagne Vs Augustine

First and foremost, there is already one major discordance from the very beginning between Charlemagne’s rule and that of Augustine’s City of God. The “City of God”, of course, is not a man-made institution, but more an abstract concept denoting the optimal way of life under God’s rule: love for God and love for neighbor. From the text City of God Augustine states, “a city surpassingly glorious, whether we view it as it still lives by faith in this fleeting course of time, and sojourns as a stranger in the midst of the ungodly, or as it shall dwell in the fixed stability of its eternal seat.” Indeed, the city is no actual citadel, with law codes and kings, but a city in spirit represented through the faith of the body of believers. This is the first instance

According the Explanation and Analysis of the text, “He issued these decrees in the context of an environment in which many people believed that the church was becoming corrupt and that it was as much a secular as a religious institution; in some ways it was.” Charlemagne, indeed, expresses grave concern for living in a manner of which God would find acceptable. Considering this, if the church were truly struggling in sin, such legislation is somewhat reasonable. Charlemagne’s desire for righteous si well illustrated in the first paragraph of his Capitulary; there it is stated, “He did order them, moreover, that, where anything is contained in the law that is otherwise than according to right and justice, they should inquire into this most diligently, and make it known to him: and he, God granting, hopes to better it… But all should live together according to the precept of God in a just manner and under just judgment…” Charlemagne clearly was for a moralistic and God-fearing law; however, concrete legislation simply isn’t quite in line with the concept of willfully loving God and neighbor as in Augustine’s “City of