In our discussion of medieval Western Europe, we noted that Charlemagne, after being crowned a new Roman emperor, became explicitly interested in reviving the glory of the past empire. Part of this program too was an interest in scholarship, and under Charlemagne there continued the establishment of monasteries in Europe, serving as hubs of Christian learning.
The social and economic system in place in Europe at the time was a feudal one, in which different powerful estates throughout the land wielded regional power under the king, and some of the land owners in the time of Charlemagne were monasteries. So in the time period that follows, the monasteries began to wield a notable degree of political and economic power, as well as to become increasingly influential centers of social activity throughout Western Europe. In this way, the monasteries and estates dispersed throughout a kingdom also served as a stabilizing presence, in which economic, political and military power was diffuse, distributed throughout the land. This stability, then, will lead to conditions of increased trade and thus economic growth, and then to a rise in urbanism.
The monasteries benefited from this upsurge in economy as well, and as far as Christian art of the time goes, we’ll see quite a blossoming, too, of the building up and expansion of more monasteries and churches. And one more significant reason for this was the rapidly growing popularity also of Christian pilgrimage, in the region.
