Retracing the contours of a bitter controversy over the meaning of sacred architecture that flared up among some of the leading lights of the Carolingian renaissance, Collins explores how ninth-century authors articulated the relationship of form to function and ideal to reality in the ecclesiastical architecture of the Carolingian empire.

Samuel W. Collins is Assistant Professor of History at George Mason University.

Contents List of Illustrations Introduction An Asylum Seeker at the Shrine of St. Martin Christianity and Sacred Places in Antiquity The Study of Place in Modern Historiography Insular sources for a Carolingian Debate Temple and Church in Bede's Exegesis Topography of Holy Places in the Collectio canonum Hibernensis Amalarius of Metz and the Meaning of Place The Early Career of Amalarius Amalarius and Liturgical Exegesis Amalarius and his Opponents Topography and Meaning in Carolingian Monastic Thought The Plan of St. Gall The Commentaries on the Benedictine Rule of Smaragdus of St. Mihiel and Hildemar of Corbie Place, Penance, and Asylum in Alcuin's Tours The Argument of the Letters Theodulf on Sin, Penance, and the Topography of Churches Alcuin and the Meaning of Penance Conclusion: Two Churches Bibliography