Alcuin writes hopefully in his letters of an "Imperium Christianum" ("Christian Empire"), wherein, "just as the inhabitants of the Empire had been united by a common Roman citizenship", presumably this new empire would be united by a common Christian faith. This is the view of Pirenne when he says "Charles was the Emperor of the "ecclesia" as the Pope conceived it, of the Roman Church, regarded as the universal Church". The "Imperium Christianum" was further supported at a number of synods all across Europe by Paulinus of Aquileia.