It was abbeys [a type of monastery used by members of a religious order] that played the leading cultural role in the Carolingian kingdoms for it was in their scriptoria that manuscripts were produced and studied. Corbie Abbey, pictured left, became a major center of learning and was the royal abbey under Charlemagne, who supported the expansion of the abbey. It was here that the Carolingian script developed. Monks at the monastery of Corbie not only collected and copied books but made their own contributions to the literature of theology, biography, and rhetoric. Charlemagne also placed his aristocratic supporters in abbeys to create a base of royal monasteries, increasing his involvement in outer regions of the empire.

Charlemagne had flawed or incorrect versions of the Vulgate (the Latin Bible) corrected and he increased the education and training of priests, who were responsible for teaching the Bible to their (mostly) illiterate congregations. The scholar Alcuin of York oversaw the corrections to the Vulgate, especially in grammar and spelling, and presented it to Charlemagne in 801.