“It was [Alcuin] who first used the figure of the two swords with reference to the roles of Church and state, and Charlemagne was informed that he was not to use his sword – the political power of the state – to impose religion. Charlemagne admired his great advisor, but did not always heed his counsel. When the emperor listened with relish to the reading of Augustine’s City of God, he was attracted more by the denunciations of paganism than by the excoriation of empire.” (Roland Bainton, Christianity, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987) 149-150

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