Medieval France. An Encyclopedia

(Darren Dugan) #1

quelling uprisings and supporting the church’s efforts to spread Christianity in the region.
In 743, they together reestablished a Merovingian, Childeric III, on the throne, vacant
since 737. In 747, Carloman abdicated in favor of his brother in order to become a monk.
He died in 754 in a monastery at Vienne, three years after Pepin had deposed Childeric
and claimed the crown for himself.
The second Carloman was Pepin’s younger son. When Pepin, now king of the Franks,
died in 768, Carloman was given the more central territories and Charles, the future
Charlemagne (742–814), the eldest, received lands encircling those of his brother. The
two rulers did not get along, but Carloman’s death in 771 permitted Charles to reunite the
kingdom. Sometimes called Carloman II to distinguish him from his uncle, the younger
Carloman was the first to reign as king. A century later another Carloman (d. 884), son of
Louis II, reigned briefly. These two Carlomans should not be confused with King
Carloman of Bavaria and Italy (d. 880) or Carloman (d. 876), the son of Charles the Bald.
Celia Chazelle
[See also: CAROLINGIAN DYNASTY]
Hlawitschka, Eduard. “Die Vorfahren Karls des Grossen.” In Karl der Grosse: Lebenswerk und
Nachleben, ed. Wolfgang Braunfels, et al. 5 vols. Düsseldorf: Schwann, 1965–68, Vol. 1, pp.
51–82.
Lot, Ferdinand. Les destinées de l’empire en occident de 395 a 888. Paris: Presses Universitaires de
France, 1928.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751–987. London:
Longman, 1983.
Riché, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe, trans. Michael Allen. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.


CARMELITE ORDER


. The religious order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, popularly known as the Carmelites,
originated in Palestine during the period of the Crusades and under the impetus of
monastic and ascetic reform, although it claimed continuity with earlier hermits living on
Mount Carmel and even with the prophet Elijah and his followers. Founded ca. 1154,
with the earliest rule formulated in 1209 by Albert of Vercelli, Latin patriarch of
Jerusalem, the Carmelites emphasized strict asceticism, abstinence from meat, a semi-
eremitic life, and total poverty, much in line with other 12th-century monastic
foundations and reforms. Their Rule was approved by Pope Honorius III in 1226. With
the collapse of the crusader states and the crusading movement generally, the Carmelites
moved to Europe and reorganized themselves after the pattern of the mendicant orders
(Dominicans and Franciscans). They changed from a movement dedicated to prayer and
solitude into an order centered on an urban ministry, with preaching and care of the poor.
A female branch of the order was established in the Low Countries in the mid-15th
century and has continued as one of the most ascetic and enclosed of the modern female
religious orders. Like other mendicant orders, the Carmelites began to seek a university
education for their members so as to carry out preaching and missionary work, and the
order gradually became clericalized. The quest for education and the acquisition of


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