The means by which such a conclusion was reached are seriously flawed, permitting one to dismantle the conclusion itself. It is pure speculation to assume that the greater references to social defects in the capitularies indicate a situation of social deterioration. In actuality such evidence can be utilised to indicate something very different; that Charlemagne was tackling the ultimately insoluble problems of medieval society with greater vigour and possibly with greater effect than before. It is possible to regard the recorded, not shmuck, but measures he took, ‘as no more than specific examples of the deeper responsibilities that in Charles’s view followed from his God-given Imperial authority.’
The same evidence thus gives rise to two opposing conclusions, both speculative. Neither can be ultimately accepted as correct and thus neither can be used in support or against an argument concerning an anti-climax in the years following the coronation. For the purpose of this investigation which seeks to dismantle the idea of post-800 failure, this stale-mate argument concerning the empire’s social situation as derived from the capitularies serves only to show that the notion of social decline is a pessimistic speculation that is unsupportable.