Common use of Research Question Clause in Contracts

Research Question. ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇’▇ ▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ Dei would seem, at first sight, an unpromising starting-point for rulers of ‘states’1 in search of ideological support, since – strictly and theoretically speaking – it ultimately predicts failure, whatever their earthly endeavours may be. Nevertheless, ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇’s imperial plan for a Carolingian ‘state’ and ‘church’2 as well as his cultural reform have tempted some historians to propose that his scheme involved the realisation of ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇’▇ civitas Dei.3 After all, ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ maintains in his ▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇ that the emperor particularly enjoyed listening to ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇’▇ text De civitate Dei.4 However, although it may have become standard practice in medieval scholarship to relate the Carolingian empire to ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇’▇ civitas Dei, a comprehensive investigation of how ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ was perceived in the Carolingian period and of those parts of Augustinian thinking which had the greatest impact on Carolingian ideas of ‘state’, rulership and Christian ethics, is still outstanding. This is the aim of my research. Since it is not possible in a doctoral thesis to look for Augustinian influence in the entire 1 The use of the modern term ‘state’ in scholarship concerned with the Early Middle Ages is problematic in various ways. See ▇▇▇▇ 2006, pp. 9-38. A more detailed treatment of my use of the concept of ‘state’ in my research can be found in this chapter under ‘State’ and ‘Church’.