A hagiocentric early middle ages? Theodulf of Orleans' theologies of res sacratae and relics in the Opus Caroli as a test of the paradigm

The cult of saints dominates the modern study of the early Middle Ages. For the reign of Charlemagne (768-814) this preoccupation with hagiocentricism is often buttressed by references to the Opus Caroli regis contra synodum (OC). Written by Theodulf of Orleans in response to the iconodule Byzantine council of II Nicaea (787), the OC denied any comparability between the Greeks' manufactured images and those objects that did have an appropriate place in Latin devotional praxis. Studies of the OC's attitudes towards these other, holy objects have invariably become focussed upon saints' relics in particular. Such an emphasis in OC scholarship neglects the separate category of essential devotional objects which Theodulf labelled as res sacratae and, in so doing, reinforces the OC's use as a buttress for hagiocentric interpretations of Charlemagne and his court. Theodulf's res sacratae included the Ark of the Covenant, the eucharistic elements, the sign of the cross, liturgical vessels and Scripture, but crucially not saints' relics. By elucidating the place Theodulf envisioned for the res sacratae within his broader theology, how they differed not only from the Greek images, but also from other holy objects like saints' relics, this study seeks to nuance the hagiocentric interpretations of Carolingian religion that have hitherto been endorsed by OC scholarship. An alternative picture will emerge of Theodulf's fundamentally Christocentric attitude towards devotional objects, yet one that nonetheless admitted saints' relics and, thus, the cult of saints.