| Sumario: | Charlemagne is known, among other things, for his emphasis on education and the liberal arts in the Carolingian empire. The text Opus Caroli regis contra synodum from the 790s, traditionally called Libri Carolini, is written in opposition to the Byzantine empire and its rulers Irene and Constantine, who organized the Second Nicene Council in 787, regarding the question of images. The Opus Caroli regis, however, does not just deal with questions concerning the theology on images and worship; while the work concludes that images play no part whatsoever in the Christian revelation or salvation, attention is turned towards the word and correct interpretation of scripture, thus making an extensive knowledge of the liberal arts a condition for Christian leadership. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the role of the liberal arts in the Opus Caroli regis, and highlight a polemic construction representing the Carolingians and the Byzantines as opposites; the Carolingians characterized as truthful, humble and educated, the Byzantines as lying, arrogant and ignorant of the liberal arts, a view partly built on the bad Latin of the Nicene Acts. The Carolingians were under the impression that their Latin version originated in Constantinople, a notion which had a devastating effect on the authority of the Opus Caroli regis, because as it turned out the responsible party for the weak Latin translation of the Acts was in fact the Pope in Rome, Charlemagne's spiritual superior.
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