De Partions Saxoniae and the Regulation of Mortuary Custom : a Carolingian Campaign of Christianization Or the Suppression of Sa

Home , Lebuinus, Notker the Stammerer, Widukind

Bonnie Effros

De partions Saxoniae and the Regulation of Mortuary Custom : A Carolingian Campaign of Christianization or the Suppression of Saxon Identity? In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire. Tome 75 fasc. 2, 1997. Histoire medievale, moderne et contemporaine - Middeleeuwse, moderne en hedendaagse geschiedenis. pp. 267-286.

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Effros Bonnie. De partions Saxoniae and the Regulation of Mortuary Custom : A Carolingian Campaign of Christianization or the Suppression of Saxon Identity?. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire. Tome 75 fasc. 2, 1997. Histoire medievale, moderne et contemporaine - Middeleeuwse, moderne en hedendaagse geschiedenis. pp. 267-286.

doi : 10.3406/rbph.1997.4171

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rbph_0035-0818_1997_num_75_2_4171 ARTICLES ET MELANGES ARTIKELEN EN MENGELINGEN

De partibus Saxoniae and the Regulation of Mortuary Custom : A Carolingian Campaign of Christianization or the Suppression of Saxon Identity ? O

Bonnie Effros

In the course of thirty-three years of war against the Saxons in Germany begun in 772, Charlemagne demanded the mass conversion of the people by force upon their defeat, beginning with their leader Widukind in the autumn of 785. This tactic constituted an important symbol of the Frankish king's hegemony over the Saxons, since by sponsoring Widukind's baptism Charle magne became his new patron and superior('). The Saxon's unwilling conversion thus fulfilled a central aspect of Charlemagne's vision of his ideal role as the figurative rex et sacerdos, king and priest(2). Most importantly, however, conversion comprised an integral part of the king's strategy to ensure that the hostile minority population would rapidly

(*) Early versions of this paper were presented and commented upon at Wellesley College, Western Michigan University, and the University of Alberta in February, 1995, and at the Western Association of Women Historians Annual Meeting in May, 1994. Alain Dierkens, Nina Caputo, Mitch Hart, and Michael Wintroub also generously offered their time to critique the manuscript, and Michael Schmauder and Rebecca Winer kindly sent materials to which I would have otherwise had no access. I was thereby able to improve the piece immeasurably. All errors which remain, however, are my own. I would like to acknowledge the support of an Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship and an Edward A. Dickson History of Art Fellowship while writing this article at the University of Alberta and at UCLA, respectively. (1) Fridericus Kurze, ed., Annales qui dicuntur Einhardi, Monumenta Germaniae Historica [M.G.H.]. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in Usum Scholarum [SSRG], 6, Hannover, Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1895, a.785, p. 71. Arnold Angenendt, "The Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons Considered Against the Background of the Early Medieval Mission", Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo 32, 2 (1986), p. 758-766. (2) Heinrich Fichtenau, The Carolingian Empire. The Age of Charlemagne, translated by Peter Munz. New York, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1957, p. 21-22 and 55ff. 268 Β. EFFROS

assimilate and cause no further upheaval within his realm(3). As described by Einhard (d.840), the Saxons represented a particularly ferocious group of pagans devoted to demonic worship(4). To reduce the risks associated with potential Saxon insurrection, Charlemagne therefore exacted cooperation through mandatory baptism, monetary incentives and political rewards (5). With respect to those Saxons defeated by Carolingian armies, conversion was matched by forced settlement in dispersed groups within Frankish territory. Einhard stressed that the Saxons : "...were to give up their devil worship and the malpractices inherited from their forefathers; and then, once they had adopted the sacraments of the Christian faith and religion, they were to be united with the Franks and become one people (tinus populus) with them"(6). Although Christianization would eventually aid the Saxon nobility by increasing their authority over the lower levels of the social hierarchy (7), the Saxons could not have recognized the benefits at the time of their compulsory conversions. A critical component of Charlemagne's policy towards the Saxon people lay in the regulation of their burial custom. Three measures related to this concern were promulgated in 782 in the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, a body of legislation pertaining specifically to the recently conquered people (8). In particular, the Saxon Capitulary forbade the Saxons from either

(3) Donald Bullough, The Age of Charlemagne. London, Paul Elek Limited, 1973, p. 5 Iff and 94-95. Conversion was also thought by Einhard and others to be beneficial in forcing Saxon adhesion to Frankish treaties. Nevertheless, this policy was not entirely effec tive. As late as 841 in the Stellinga revolt, Saxons engaged in a political and religious cam paign against the Franks. Helmut Beumann, "Die Hagiographie 'bewältigt' : Unterwerfung und Christianisierung der Sachsen durch Karl den Grossen", Settimane di Studio del Centre Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo 28, 1 (1982), p. 132 and 137. (4) ...quia Saxones, sicut omnes fere Germaniam incolentes nationes, et natura féroces et cultui daemonum dediti nostraeque religioni contrarii neque divina neque humana iura vel polluere vel transgredi inhonestum arbitrabantur {Q.W. Pertz and G. Waitz, eds., Einhardi Vita Karoli Magni, in M.G.H., SSRG 19, fifth edition, Hannover, Impensis Biblio- polii Hahniani, 1905, c. 7, p. 9). (5) Richard E. Sullivan, "The Carolingian Missionary and the Pagan", Speculum 28 (1953), p. 723-727. (6) ...ut, abiecto daemonum cul tu et relictis patriis caerimoniis, Christ ianae fidei at que religionis sacramenta susciperent et Francis adunati unus cum eis populus efficerentur. (Einhardi Vita Karoli Magni, ed. cit., c. 7, p. 10; English translation from Lewis Thorpe, Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, Two Lives of Charlemagne. Harmondsworth (Middles ex),Penguin Books, 1969, c. 7, p. 61-63). (7) Reinhard Wenskus, "Die ständische Entwicklung in Sachsen im Gefolge der frän kischen Eroberung", Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo 32, 2 (1986), p. 590. For the Merovingian kings' use of religion to enhance their authority, see Ian Wood, "Frankish Hegemony in England", The Age of Sutton Hoo : The Seventh Century in Northwestern Europe, ed. by Martin O.H. Carver, Woodbridge (Suffolk), The Boydell Press, 1992, p. 240. Idem, The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751, London, Longman, 1994, p. 319-321. (8) Wilfried Hartmann has most recently proposed that this legislation was produced at Lippspringe rather than Paderborn (Wilfried Hartmann, Die Synoden der Karolingerzeit im Frankenreich und in Italien. Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 1989, p. 101-102). For the DE PARTIBUS SAXONIAE AND THE REGULATION OF MORTUARY CUSTOM 269 cremating their dead or burying them in tumuli, the latter referring to pagan burial places, in particular grave mounds. Instead, the Saxons were permitted to inter their deceased only in Christian cemeteries. The penalty for violation of these precepts was death(9). Human sacrifice was likewise prohibited(10).

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For the most part, these three measures have been seen solely in the context of the remainder of the Saxon Capitulary, which mandated baptism, con demned attacks on missionaries and churches, as well as forbade pagan worship and divination^ '). Statutes against various pagan and superstitious practices had long been repeated in Merovingian ecclesiastical councils, just as they were condemned in the sermons of Caesarius of Aries (d.542) and Eligius of Noyon (d.66O)(12). On this basis, we might thus easily assume that

longstanding difference of opinion as to the date and provenance of the Saxon capitulary, see François-Louis Ganshof, Was waren die Kapitularien ? Weimar, Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1961, p. 66 and 169; Charles De Clercq, La législation religieuse franque de Clovis à Charlemagne. Étude sur les actes de conciles et les capitulaires, les statuts diocésains et les règles monastiques (507-814). Louvain, Bibliothèque de l'Université, 1936, p. 167-169; Louis Halphen, Etudes critiques sur l'histoire de Charlemagne. Paris, Librairie Félix Alcan, 1921, p. 171-184. (9) The related measures include : 7. Si quis corpus defuncti hominis secundum ritum paganorum flamma consumi fecerit et ossa eius ad einer em redierit, capitae punietur. 22. Iubemus ut corpora chnstianonim Saxanorum ad cimiteria ecclesiae deferantur et non ad tumulus paganorum (Alfredus Boretius, ed., Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, in M.G.H. Leges 2, Capitularia 1, Hannover, Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1883, n. 26, p. 69); also in Karl Joseph von Hefele, Konziliengeschichte 3, second edition, Freiburg im Breisgau Herder'sche Verlagshandlung, 1877, Synode zu Paderborn (785), c. 7 and 22, p. 636-637. Although some scholars have rightly contested the restriction of the definition of tumidi to solely grave mounds, the prevalence of this particular rite among the Saxons makes it a logical subject of Frankish legislation. Jörg Kleeman, Grabfunde des 8. und 9. Jahr hunderts im nördlichen Randgebiet des Karolingerreiches, unpublished doctoral dissertat ion,Bonn, Rheinische Friedrichwilhelms Universität, 1992, p. 191-193. (10) St quis hominem diabulo sacrißeaverit et in hostiam more paganorum daemonibus obtulerit, morte moriatur {Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, ed. cit., c. 9, p. 70). I have included this measure with those pertaining to mortuary practice due to the rare discovery of remains of sacrificial rites in the vicinity of high status burials. (11) Ibidem, c. 1-6, 8, 21 and 23, p. 68-70. Patrick Geary, however, has suggested other wise. I expand upon his argument below. Patrick J. Geary, "The Uses of Archaeological Sources for Religious and Cultural History", in his Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1994, p. 39-40 (originally appeared as "Zur Problematik der Interpretation archäologischer Quellen fur die Geistes- und Religionsgeschichte", Archaeologia Austriaca 64 ( 1 980), p. 1 1 1 - 1 1 8). (12) The following list provides a few representative examples : Charles De Clercq, ed., Concilia Galliae A. 511 - A. 695. Turnholt, Typographi Brepols Editores Pontificii, 1963 (Corpus Christianorum [CC], Series Latina, 148A); Concilium Aurelianense (511) c. 30, p. 12 ; Concilium Aurelianense (533) c. 20, p. 102 ; Concilium Aspasii Episcopi Metropolit ansElusani (551) c. 3, p. 163-164. Germain Morin, ed., Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones 1, revised edition, (CC, Series Latina, 103), Turnholt, Typographi Brepols Editores Pontificii, 1953, Sermons L, LII-LIV, p. 224-227 and 230-240. Bruno Krusch, ed., 270 Β. EFFROS cremation, mound burial, and human sacrifice, constituted direct violations of Christian legislation in this period in Francia(13). Charlemagne's ban of these same practices would then constitute a logical step in the reinforcement of his Saxon conversion campaign. Not only would such legislation serve to ensure a deeper level of Christianization among the Saxons(14), but as Karl Hauck has shown, the king's Saxon policy would play a critical role in his desire to found a new Rome at Aachen(15). Nevertheless, as early as 1880 in his Handbuch der deutschen Alterthums- kunde, Ludwig Lindenschmit suggested that scholars had to recognize that of these rites, only human sacrifice had ever been formally forbidden as pagan in nature prior to the Carolingian period(16). By incorporating archaeological evidence into the investigation, we may observe the continued, albeit very rare, use of incineration and mound graves in western Europe as late as the seventh century (l7). Ritually mutilated human remains have also been dis-

Praedicatio Eligii de Supremo Iudicio, in M.G.H., Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum [SSRM] 4, Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1902, c. 2, p. 751. (13) Rafael von Uslar, "Zu den tumuli paganonim und corpora flamma consumpta", in Festschrift Matthias Zender. Studien zu Volkskultiir, Sprache und Landesgeschichte 1, edited by Edith Ennen and Günter Wiegelmann, Bonn, Ludwig Röhrscheid Verlag, 1972, p. 481-489. I thank Michael Schmauder for his reference to this piece and his helpful dis cussion of this subject with me. (14) Pierre RlCHÉ, Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne, translated, with an intro duction by Jo Ann McNamara, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983, p. 181-182. (15) Karl Hauck, "Die Ausbreitung des Glaubens in Sachsen und die Verteidigung der römischen Kirche als konkurrierende Herrscheraufgaben Karls des Großen", Frühmittel alterlicheStudien 4 ( 1 970), p. 1 62- 1 63 . (16) Ludwig Lindenschmit, Handbuch der deutschen Alter thumskunde. Übersicht der Denkmale und Gräberfunde frühgeschichtlicher und vorgeschichtlicher Zeit 1, Braunsch weig,Druck und Verlag von Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1880, p. 106-107. This sentiment has also been repeated more recently by Geary (see note 1 1 above) and Morris : "The stringent penalties which were attached to pagan customs in Saxony cannot be seen as an accurate measure of the extent to which the Church opposed them ... the Paderborn Capitu laryas a whole is chiefly notable as an expression of the ruthless character of Frankish rule in that region" (Richard Morris, The Church in British Archaeology, London, The Council for British Archaeology, 1983, (CBA Research Report, 47), p. 50). We do have rare evidenc e,however, for the description of cremation as a pagan practice. Arnulf of Metz publically opposed the use of rites of this nature : ...languentis capite amputate, more gentilium cada verignibus comburendum traderetur (Bruno Krusch, ed., Vita Sancti Arnulfi, in M.G.H., SSRM 2, Hannover, Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1888, c. 12, p. 436). I thank Guy Halsall for his kind reference to this passage. (17) With reference to the survival of conflagration rituals related to burial, see Günter P. Fehring, "Missions- und Kirchenwesen in archäologischer Sicht", in Geschichtswissen schaftund Archäologie: Untersuchungen zur Siedlungs-, Wirtschafts- und Kirchen geschichte, edited by Herbert Jankuhn and Reinhard Wenskus (Vorträge und Forschungen 22), Sigmaringen, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 1979, p. 555-557. On grave mounds, see Hermann Ament, "Merowingische Grabhügel", in Althessen im Frankenreich, edited by Walter Schlesinger (Nationes. Historische und philologische Untersuchung zur Entstehung der europäischen Nationen im Mittelalter 2), edited by Helmut Beumann and Werner Schröder, Sigmaringen, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 1975, p. 63-93. DE PARTIBUS SAXONIAE AND THE REGULATION OF MORTUARY CUSTOM 27 1 covered in conjunction with Merovingian cemeteries, although only in exceptional circumstances. The individuals engaging in such practices may have been Christian or must have at least had contact with Christians, and yet the clergy appears to have interceded only rarely (18). In suggesting Charlemagne's motives for suppressing Saxon mortuary rites, we are thus greatly aided by the clues provided by archaeological remains. Such artifacts serve to supplement the meager written sources which docu ment these events, and expose the underlying tensions between hagiographical texts written primarily by the clergy to promote the veneration of local saints, and the religious activities performed by the majority of the Frankish population(19). As a result of the inherent bias of written sources towards the customs promoted by clerics, the official version of the Christian mortuary rite is often significantly different from the extant physical evidence. Clearly, the historian benefits from coopting traditional anthropological modes of questioning in reconstructing the collective mentality regarding such practices(20).

(18) W.A. Van Es, "Grabsitten und Christianisierung in den Niederlanden", Probleme der Küstenforschung im südlichen Nordseegebiet 9 (1970), p. 80 ; Alain Dierkens, "Cimet ièresmérovingiens et histoire du Haut Moyen Âge. Chronologie-société-religion", in Acta Historica Bruxellensia IV : Histoire et méthode, Brussels, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1981, p. 56-59. The Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum, a list of supers titions and pagan practices attached to the Acts of the Council of Estinne (1 March 744), did not specifically forbid incineration, mound graves, or human sacrifice. The legislation, however, did ban sacrilege related to the dead and their graves, perhaps in reference to funerary meals or libations. Boretius, ed., Indiculus superstitionum et paganorum, in M.G.H., Leges 2, Capitularia 1, nr. 108, p. 222-223. Alain Dierkens, "Superstitions, christianisme et paganisme à la fin de l'époque mérovingienne. A propos de l' Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum", in Magie, Sorcellerie, Parapsychologie, edited by Hervé Hasquin (Laïcité, Série Recherches 5), Brussels, Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1984, p. 9ff. (19) There is of course intrinsic difficulty in differentiating between clerical funerary rites and so-called popular mortuary rites such as the employment of grave goods ; here I refer not to any division ofthat nature but rather to distinctions between written descriptions and physical remains of Merovingian funerary ritual. Otto Gerhard Oexle "Die Gegenwart der Toten", in Death in the Middle Ages, edited by Hermann Braet and Werner Verbeke (Mediaevalia Loyvaniensia, Series I, Studia IX), Louvain, Leuven University Press, 1983, p. 57ff ; Donald Bullough, "Burial, Community and Belief in the Early Medieval West", in Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society. Studies Presented to J.M. Wallace- Hadrill, edited by Patrick Wormald, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1983, p. 183-184; Geary, "The Uses", p. 35-39. (20) 1 have adopted this methodology in addressing Merovingian burial in my unpub lished dissertation : Bonnie Effros, From Grave Goods to Christian Epitaphs : Evolution in Burial Tradition and the Expansion of Social Status in Merovingian Society, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Los Angeles, University of California, 1994. Roger Chartier, "Intel lectual History and the History of Mentalités : A Dual Re-Evaluation", in his Cultural History: Between Practices and Representations, translated by Lydia G. Cochrane, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1988, p. 28-34. Nicholas Rogers, "The Anthropological Turn in Social History", in Approaching the Past. Historical Anthropology through Irish Case Studies, edited by Marilyn Silverman and P.H. Gulliver, New York, Columbia University Press, 1992, p. 354-370. 272 Β. EFFROS

In the assessment of a community's mortuary rites, Lewis Binford has suggested the inclusion of two primary characteristics of social structure : the aspects of the deceased's social persona deemed significant at the time of death, and the composition of the social unit responsible for formally acknowledging the deceased's status during the body's disposal. Binford proposes that these two components directly affect the content of funerary ritual, thereby determining the corpse's treatment during its preparation for inhumation, the structure chosen to house it, as well as the goods placed with it in the grave (21). As a consequence of Binford's work, it is useful to interpret burial remains as a means of identifying the composite character of the social bonds which the deceased maintained during his or her lif etime (22). Mortuary rites represent symbolically what the members of a social unit desire to project to their community regarding their deceased relation and themselves as well; we must, however, remember that these rituals present an ideal rather than accurate version of reality. Funerals thus provide an opportunity for a family to emphasize a paradigm of ideal status and religious belief through ceremonies and material objects which reflect such aspirations and values. Written sources from the early medieval period confirm that the symbolic portrayal of mortuary beliefs conveyed certain aspects of the social and religious identity of the deceased. Jonas' vita of St. Wulfram (circa 704/710), archbishop of Sens, contains a description of his encounter with Radbod (d.719), king of the Frisians(23). Wulfram, along with the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord (d.739), was engaged in a campaign to convert the pagan Frisians to the Christian faith. In the course of urging Radbod to step into the baptismal font as many of his subjects had already done, the archbishop proclaimed that conversion would bring him among the group

(21) Moreover, the higher the social status of the deceased, the more individuals i nvolved in and affected by funerary preparations. Lewis R. Binford, "Mortuary Practices : Their Study and Potential", in Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices, edited by James A. Brown (Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 25), Washington, D.C., Society for American Archaeology, 1971, p. 17 and 21. See Arthur Saxe's Hypotheses 3 and 4, in his Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, 1970, p. 69-75. (22) Bailey Young has therefore grouped grave goods into categories of personal goods and funerary offerings. Bailey K. Young, "Paganisme, christianisation et rites funéraires mérovingiens", Archéologie Médiévale 7 (1977), p. 36-37. The intrinsic methodological difficulty underlying Young's proposal stems from the impossibility of determining from archaeological evidence alone whether individual items of attire, adornment, and protection were personal possessions or donations. (23) Stephan Hilpisch, "Wulfram, hl.", Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche 10, Freiburg, Verlag Herder, 1965, p. 1247-1248. A. Legris, "Les vies interpolées des saints de Fonte- nelle", Analecta Bollandiana 17 (1898), p. 287-295. For a discussion of Willibrord' s greater success in preaching to Radbod, see James C. Russell, The Germanization of Early Mediev alChristianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation, New York, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 194-196. DE PARTIBUS SAXONIAE AND THE REGULATION OF MORTUARY CUSTOM 273 of elect that had chosen the salvation of Christianity(24). To increase the persuasiveness of his message, Wulfram mentioned that the preceding leaders of the Frisians, all of whom had died without the benefit of the sacrament of baptism, had certainly by now received eternal damnation. Radbod, in contrast, would rejoice for all eternity with Christ as a direct consequence of his conversion (25). Yet it was at these words that the monastic author of Wulfram's Life recorded a drastic change in Radbod's resolve towards Christian conversion. Jonas noted that the Frisian leader, on the verge of stepping into the bap tismal font, pulled his foot back from the water at the final moment. According to Jonas, Radbod indignantly exclaimed that he could not possibly reside in the heavenly kingdom if it lacked the presence of his predecessors, the former kings of the Frisian people. Such a realm could thereby only be populated by a small number of poor, including those subjects whom he now observed converting ; it would be much easier to rule the Frisians if he remained among those who had served them since time immemorial. This attitude would prevail during the course of two centuries of Frisian rebellion against Frankish subjugation(26). Allegedly, Radbod believed that the afterlife was a place populated by the individuals with whom he was entitled to associate on the basis of his social status. He did not wish to be denied the presence of his ancestral equals

(24) For a discussion of the rhetorical symbolism of baptism among Carolingian mission aries, see Peter Cramer, Baptism and Change in the Early Middle Ages, dOO-cllSO, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 185-197. (25) Praefatus autem princeps Rathbodus, cum ad percipiendum baptisma inbueretur, percunctabatur a sancto episcopo Vulframno, iuramentis eum per nomen Domini astrin- gens, ubi maior esset numerus regum et principum seit nobilium gentis Fresionum, in Uta videlicet caelesti regione, quam si crederet et baptizaretur, percepturum se promittebat, an in ea, quam dicebat tartaream dampnationem. Tunc beatus Vulframnus : 'Noli errare, indite princeps, apud Deum certus est suorum numerus electorum. Nam praedecessores tui principes gentis Fresionum, qui sine baptismi sacramento recesserunt, certum est dampna- tionis suscepisse sententiam ; qui vero abhinc crediderit et baptizatus fuerit, cum Christo gaudebit in aeternum ' (Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm Levison, eds., Vita Vulframni Episcopi Senonici, in M.G.H., SSRM 5, Hannover, Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1910, c. 9, p. 668). Geary, "The Uses", p. 35-36. Frauke Stein, Adelsgräber des achten Jahrhunderts in Deutschland 1 (Germanische Denkmäler der Völkerwanderungszeit, Serie A, vol. 9), Berlin, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1967, p. 121. (26) Haec audiens dux [Rathbodus] incredulus — nam ad fontem processerat, — et, ut fertur, pedem a fonte retraxit, dicens non se carere posse consortio praedecessonim suorum principum Fresionum et cum parvo pauperum numero residere in illo caelesti regno ; quin potius non facile posse novis dictis adsensum praebere, sed potius permansurum se in his, quae multo tempore cum omni Fresionum gente servaveret (Krusch and Levison, eds., Vita Wulframni, in M.G.H., SSRM 5, c. 9, p. 668). Stéphane Lebecq, "Francs contre Frisons (Vle-Vllle siècles)," in La guerre et la paix. Frontières et violences au Moyen Âge, Actes du 101e Congrès National des Sociétés Savantes (Lille, 1976), section de philologie et d'histoire jusqu'à 1610, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1978, p. 61-68. Id., "Les Frisons çemeentre Rencontrepaganisme det 'Histoire christianisme", Religieuse in tenueChristianisation à Fontevraud et déchristianisation. les 3, 4, et 5 octobre Actes de1985, la Angers, Presses de l'Université d'Angers, 1986, p. 22-34. 274 Β. EFFROS stemming from his impending conversion to Christianity. As a result, he preferred to go to hell, and thereby to join the company of the preceding Frisian kings with whom he closely identified himself. In this way, he might better accomplish the difficult task of ruling his subjects, especially if he supposed that he would remain in this place for the duration of eternity. In opposition to Radbod's loosely defined allegiance to the people of the Frisians, one in which status was apparently of greater importance than cul tural identity, Heinrich Harke has recently reopened the subject of the links between ethnicity and mortuary remains in his evaluation of Anglo-Saxon sites. He has concluded that we may determine the ethnicity of human remains from skeletal data and the artifacts derived from the grave. Neverthel ess,although specific features of mortuary practice may be linked to various groups of people, his characterization of Germanic groupings as distinct racial populations is unfounded(27). More acceptable is the British historian Edward James' proposal that early medieval peoples did not represent biolo gical entities or races, but instead were separated, if at all, by language, cultural activities, and their manner of dressing. Thus, Saxon identity was not linked foremost to genetic or ethnic qualities but rather to political develop mentsaffecting tribal groupings(28). More specifically, for the purpose of our discussion, we will identify Germanic identity as a means of distinguishing one's group from political allies and enemies, even if it meant having to create these differences artificially (29). Naturally, such fluid forms of identity and the historical traditions which supported them were heavily laden with ideological content^0). Because such distinctions were not based upon blood, a person

(27) Heinrich Harke, "Changing Symbols in a Changing Society: The Anglo-Saxon Burial Rite in the Seventh Century", in The Age ofSutton Hoo, op. cit., p. 153-155. For the difficulties of this methodological approach, see Reinhard Wenskus, Stammesbildung und Verfassung. Das Werden der frühmittelalterlichen Gentes, Köln/Graz, Böhlau Verlag, 1961, p. 15 and 33-34. Id., "Randbemerkungen zum Verhältnis von Historie und Archäologie, inbesondere mittelalterlicher Geschichte und Mittelalterarchäologie", in Geschichtswissens chaftund Archäologie, op. cit., p. 637ff. (28) Edward James, "The Origins of Barbarian Kingdoms. The Continental Evidence", in The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, London, Leicester University Press, 1989, p. 47-48. For England, see Patrick Wormald, "Engla Lond: The Making of an Allegiance", Journal of Historical Sociology 7 (1994), p. 4 and 13-14. Susan Reynolds, "What do we mean by 'Anglo-Saxon' and 'Anglo-Saxons'?" Journal of British Studies 24 (1985), p. 400-405. (29) Patrick Amory, "The Meaning and Purpose of Ethnic Terminology in the Burgun- dian Laws", Early Medieval Europe 2 (1993), p. 25. Frederik Barth notes that ethnic distinc tions, "...entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation whereby discrete categories are maintained despite changing participation and membership in the course of individual life histories". These cultural differences may become more highly pronounced as a result of contact with other ethnic units (Frederik Barth, "Introduction", in his Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of Culture Difference, Boston, Little Brown and Comp any, 1969, p. 9-10). (30) Wenskus, Stammesbildung und Verfassung, p.54-71. Patrick J. Geary, "Ethnic Identity as a Situational Construct in the Early Middle Ages", Mitteilungen der Anthro- DE PARTIBUS SAXONIAE AND THE REGULATION OF MORTUARY CUSTOM 275 could potentially acquire the customs and goods associated with another people through sustained contact with that culture(31). Assimilation, whether voluntary or requisite, would logically also include the adoption of that people's mortuary rites. We may propose that in the case of a threatened or conquered people, mort uary rites represent an especially powerful avenue of expression^2). Customs perceived as indigenous to an ethnic group constitute a source of self-identification, and may thereby provide a rallying cry against encouraged or mandatory assimilation into the dominant culture. Moreover, such tradi tions become especially significant if the conquerors provoke or are held responsible for the deaths of the individuals commemorated by means of these rites. Through its performance, then, funerary ritual equips surviving members of a community with a highly symbolic language through which they can communicate their personal as well as universal losses. By such means, a process is initiated by which the deceased individual is reincor- porated into the hierarchical structure of human society(33). In the case of the Frisian king Radbod, we may note that the monarch's reluctance to gain admission to the Christian community stemmed from his desire to remain among both his kin and fellow individuals of high status. Likewise, Patrick Geary has suggested that archaeological evidence in Gaul may reveal ritual continuity between pagan and Christian members of the same kin groups. At Flonheim (Rheinhessen), he points to the possibility that small chapels were constructed over pre-Christian graves (34). It seems that the baptism of the mixed Frankish-Roman population in Gaul did not weaken its resolve to retain physical and spiritual contact with pagan ancestors, despite occasional canonical legislation contesting the orthodoxy of these

pologischen Gesellschaß in Wien 113 (1983), p. 15-26. Martin Carver, "Kingship and Material Culture in Early Anglo-Saxon East Anglia", in The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, op. cit., p. 155-157. Id., "Ideology and Allegiance in East Anglia", in Sutton Hoo: Fifty Years After, edited by Richard Farrell and Carol Neuman de Vegvar (American Early Medieval Studies 2), Oxford, Ohio, American Early Medieval Studies, 1992, p. 177-181. (31) John Hines, "The Becoming of the English: Identity, Material Culture and Lan guage in Early Anglo Saxon England", Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 7, edited by William Filmer-Sankey and David Griffiths, Oxford, Oxford University Com- mitte for Archaeology, 1994, p. 51-57. Wenskus takes a more conservative view on this matter, noting that such a transition would be very difficult (Wenskus, Stammesbildung und Verfassung, p. 78). (32) On the significance of funerary rites in a time of instability, see Guy Halsall, Settlement and Social Change: The Merovingian Region of Metz, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 245-261. (33) Robert Hertz, Death and the Right Hand, translated by Rodney and Claudia Needham, with an introduction by E.E. Evans-Pritciiard, Glencoe, Illinois, The Free Press, 1960, p. 76-79. Hertz's original work was published in the Année Sociologique in 1907 and in the Revue Philosophique in 1909. Binford, "Mortuary Practices", p. 17 and 21. Saxe, Social Dimensions, p. 69-75. (34) Geary, "The Uses", p. 37-38. 276 Β. EFFROS

practices^5). We may propose, moreover, that the clergy never challenged many of the pre-Christian survivals in mortuary ritual since they were per formed by family members of the deceased, and thus were not construed as impinging upon the orthodox performance of Christian rites(36). In returning once again to Carolingian measures against the Saxons, we may observe that De partibus Saxoniae sought to exact unity of tradition from all components of the population. Men such as Alcuin recognized that forced baptism was not a sufficient indication of commitment to the Christian faith (37). Charlemagne's legislation therefore would ensure that integration into the community of the living was also reflected in the topography of the resting places of the dead. Moreover, by focusing attention on highly visible forms of mortuary commemoration employed by a restricted number of Saxons of prominent status, the legislation assured that widespread enforce mentwas not necessary (nor would it have been realistically possible). Rather than interpreting these measures as the simple suppression of practices per ceived as idolatrous, we must also look at their implications for the Saxons' ability to express themselves as independent from their Frankish overlords. More specifically, we must ask : of what importance was Charlemagne's control of the inhumation sites of the Saxons residing in areas which he already ruled ? Did his suppression of Saxon mortuary practices affect the Saxons' ability to communicate ethnic and religious identity as separate from that of Frankish members of the community ? As we shall soon see, Charle magne's desire to eliminate highly expressive forms of Saxon burial practice had very clear objectives related to the political dialogue, social organization and religious identity of the defeated people. Because the Saxons would only be permitted to inter their deceased in Christian cemeteries common to all inhabitants, they would not be able to distinguish themselves visibly through their burial rite from the population into which they had been forceably inte grated. The legislation was thus motivated far more by issues related to the expression of power than by spiritual belief. In the remainder of this discussion, I will suggest that Carolingian policy towards the Saxons illustrates the integral nature of mortuary ritual to the

(35) [4.] In aecclesia in qua mortuonim cadavera infidelium sepeliuntur, sanctificare altare non licet ; sed si apta videtur ad consecrandum, inde evulsa et rasis vel lotis lignis eins reaedificetur. [5.] Si autem consecratum prius fuit, missas in eo celebrare licet, si religiosi ibi sepulti sunt ; si veto paganus sit, mundari et jactari foras melius est. Arthur West Haddan and William Stubbs, eds., Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland 3, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1871, Poenitentiale Theodori, Book II, 1,4-5, p. 190-191. (36) Otto Gerhard Oexle "Die Gegenwart der Toten", p. 49-54. Frederick Paxton notes that the late sixth- to mid-eighth-century sacramentaries in Gaul included few or no rites for the dead. This situation would change in the first half of the ninth century. Frederick Paxton, Christianizing Death : The Creation of a Ritual Process in Early Medieval Europe, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1990, p. 61-62 and 134-138. (37) Quomodo potest homo cogi, ut credat quod non credit ? Inpelli potest homo ad baptismum, sed non ad fidem (Alcuin, Epistolae 113, in M.G.H., Epistolae 4, edited by Ernst DüMMLER, Berlin, Apud Weidmannos, 1895, p. 163-166). DE PARTIBUS SAXONIAE AND THE REGULATION OF MORTUARY CUSTOM 277 establishment and maintenance of the social and religious identity of a popul ation. Through his promotion of legislation suppressing rites employed by the Saxons, Charlemagne clearly showed that he found their expression through funerary practice a threat to the success of his military, political, and religious campaign. As a result, motivated by concerns for the security of the realm, he banned the rituals which he felt aided the Saxon cause. Cremation, independent Saxon burial sites (mound graves and otherwise), and human sacrifice, the last of which was already forbidden in the Frankish kingdom, represented highly symbolic forms of visual, ritual communication which might be employed by leading Saxons to resist their complete integration into Frankish society.

In their attempts to convert the Saxons, Christian missionaries often en countered significant resistance to their efforts. Men such as Lebuin (d. circa 780), who sought to convince leading members of the Saxons of the temporal and spiritual benefits of Christianity, were met with disbelief and outrage when they suggested the errors of the pagan faith (38). In fact, the poor treatment of these early agents of Christ contributed to the increasingly harsh polemic against Saxon religious practices(39). Denunciation of the pagan gods as idols served not only to mock the legitimacy of Saxon worship, but sought also to identify the Saxons as members of a faith which relied upon magical powers antithetical to Christian belief and community(40). The missionaries' marginalization and

(38) Ibat [Lebuinus] vicibus per Saxoniam, quaerens, quos posset Christo acquirere, et multis super fide Christi persuasif. Habuitque amicos et familiäres ex nobilissimis, inter quos erat dives homo in pago Sudergo nomine Folcbraht. Cum non posset autem diu latere, qui lumen Christi ferebat, nee semen verbi Dei sine persecutione crescere, coepit inter incrédules oriri murmur, coeperuntque viro Dei comminari, quare quidam illorum ab anti- quo ritu desierunt novorumque fièrent morum (Adolf Hofmeister, ed., Vita Lebuini Anti qua, in M.G.H., Scriptores 30, 2, Leipzig, Impensis Karoli W. Hiersemann, 1934, c. 3, p. 792). M. Van Uytfanghe, "Lebuin", in Lexikon des Mittelalters 5, Munich, Artemis Verlag, 1991, col. 1783. (39) By the tenth century, Hucbald attributed much stronger rhetoric to Lebuin's sermons ; he recorded that Lebuin had denounced the Saxons as having been deceived by the devil into worshipping stone and wood : Simulacra quae deos esse putatis, quosque a diabolo decepti venerando colitis, aurum vel argentum, aes, lapis, aut lignum sunt ; non vivunt, non moventur, neque sentiunt. Opera enim hominum sunt, nee cuiquam alii, nee sibi possunt auxiliari. Hucbaldi Monachi Elnonensis, Vita Sancti Lebwini, in J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae Latinae 132, Turnholt, Typographi Brepols Editores Pontificii, 1849-1851, c. 12, col. 889. Heinrich Löwe, "Entstehungszeit und Quellenwert der Vita Lebuini", Deut sches Archiv fiir Erforschung des Mittelalters 21 (1965), p. 345-355. (40) Richard Kieckhefer, "The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic", American Historical Review 99 (1994), p. 815. Peter Brown, "Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages", in Witchcraft, Confessions and Accusations, edited by Mary Douglas, London, Tavistock Publications, 1970, p. 31-34. 278 Β. EFFROS demonization of non-Christians was enacted in concert with a campaign of destruction of pagan temples, sacred groves, and other sites venerated in pagan worship (41). Cremation, however, condemned by the Saxon Capitulary as pagan, was not very different from inhumation. Among the Anglo-Saxons who settled in Britain, the ashes of the dead were often interred in decorative vases and in more than half the examples in conjunction with burial goods(42). Archaeological evidence thus leads us to believe that in some ways, the ashes of the dead were viewed as not very different from interred corpses : both constituted remains with which one deposited material goods in asserting the deceased individual's identity as a member of the kin group (43). Because this practice was not formally condemned or banned, it was employed in the Anglo-Saxon world as late as the seventh century. In Gaul, the gradual abandonment of cremation in favor of interment began at the close of the third century and continued through the fourth ; although this evolution was not uniform in all regions, it appears to have resulted not primarily from Christianization but rather from a desire to adhere to contem porary Roman funerary usages. We may ascertain that romanitas played a more significant role in this transition than Christian conversion, as many pagans also began to opt for inhumation(44). Nonetheless, certain types of mortuary conflagration rituals in Gaul survived far longer. Édouard Salin has identified these as : purificatory rites preceding burial, ceremonies involving partial incineration of the body or grave subsequent to interment, and funera ryrituals such as meals or offerings near the grave creating burnt matter which was later dispersed into the material fill(45). It appears that in the seventh century, the frequency of evidence for small traces of fire, such as charcoal or burnt stone, increased with the importance of the objects found in

(41) Sullivan, "The Carolingian Missionary", p. 716-721. (42) J.D. Richards, The Significance of Form and Decoration of Anglo-Saxon Cremat ionUrns (BAR British Series 166), Oxford, British Archaeological Reports, 1987, p. 78ff. (43) Caroline Walker Bynum points to a similar understanding of cremated remains in Antiquity (Caroline Walker Bynum, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity 200-1336, New York, Columbia University Press, 1995, p. 52-53). (44) Van Es, "Grabsitten", p. 79-80. (45) Salin identifies his second category with evidence of continued Merovingian interest in former Germanic cults venerating fire and the sun (Édouard Salin, La civilisation mérovingienne, d'après les sépultures, les textes et le laboratoire, 2: Les sépultures, Paris, Éditions A. et J. Picard et Cie., 1952, p. 202-212). Fritz Fremersdorf, Das fränkischen Reihengräberfeld Köln-Müngersdorf 1 : Textband (Germanische Denkmäler der Völkerwanderungszeit 6), Berlin, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1955, p. 34-35. Bailey Κ. Young, Merovingian Funeral Rites and the Evolution of Christianity: A Study in the Historical Interpretation of Archaeological Material, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, 1975, p. 124-131. On funerary meals, see P.-A. Février, "La tombe chrétienne et l'Au-delà", in Le temps chrétien de la fin de l'antiquité au moyen âge IIIe - XIIIe siècles, Paris, 9-12 mars 1981 (Colloque Internati onauxdu Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique n° 604), Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 1984, p. 171-176. DE PARTIBUS SAXONIAE AND THE REGULATION OF MORTUARY CUSTOM 279 a particular grave ; non-extreme remains of fire rituals were most often dis covered in sepulchers containing armament (46). These ceremonies were thus performed at least in part in response to status-linked qualifications in a period when grave goods were prevalent as a form of burial symbolic expres sion^7). In contrast, rites of cremation such as deposits in urns and those made directly in the earth, remained far more predominant in eastern Frisian regions well into the mid-eighth century, but became far less common after 760 (48). Likewise, with reference to the Saxon community, archaeological remains demonstrate that the cremation rite had already been largely abandoned by the late eighth century (49). Why, then, did possible signs of canonical opposition to rites involving fire not appear before the mid-eighth- century Council of Estinne(50) ? Indeed, cremation was not formally out lawed by the Frankish Church prior to 782(51). We may thus conclude that Charlemagne's decree directed against the Saxons was not motivated primarily by Christian orthodoxy but instead by outdated assumptions about traditional Saxon mortuary practices and more practical concerns related to the expression of high social status among Saxons. Only when faced by the rebellious Saxons engaged in cremation in Frankish-held territories, a rite which was already becoming less popular of its own accord, did such mortuary rites merit punitive legislation.

(46) Alain Simmer reports that 17% of the sepulchers at Audun-le-Tiche (Moselle) give evidence of ritual conflagration [Alain Simmer, Le cimetière mérovingien d 'Audun-le-Tiche (Moselle) (Archéologie Aujourd'hui, Moyen Age n° 1 = Association Française d'Archéolog ieMérovingienne, Mémoire 2), Paris, Editions Errance, 1988, p. 139]. Bailey Κ. Young, Quatre cimetières mérovingiens de l'est de la France : Lavoye, Dieue-sur-Meuse, Mézieres- Manchester et Mazerny (BAR International Series 208), Oxford, British Archaeological Reports,Dierkens' 1984,review p. of 123-125.this text inYoung's Revue Belgeconclusions, de Philologie however, et d'Histoire are disputed. 16 (1988), See p. Alain957- 959. See also David Wilson's assessment of similar rites in fifth- and sixth-century Anglo-Saxon England: David Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Paganism, London, Routledge, 1992, p. 123-130. (47) Similarly, pre-conversion horse burials also have strong links to status ; they are usually discovered in the vicinity of the highest status male graves. Judith Oexle "Mero- wingerzeitliche Pferdebestattungen - Opfer oder Beigaben?" Frühmittelalterliche Studien 18 (1984), p. 130ff. On high-status burial chambers, see most recently Frauke Stein, "Grab kammern bei Franken und Alamannen : Beobachtungen zur sozialen Gliederung und zu den Verhältnissen nach der Eingliederung der Alamannen in das merowingische Reich", in Herrschaft, Kirche, Kultur. Beiträge zur Geschichte des Mittelalters. Festschrift für Friedrich Prinz zu seinem 65. Geburtstag (Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 37), Stuttgart, Anton Hiersemann, 1993, p. 341. Young, "Paganisme, christianisation", p. 57-58. (48) Kleemann, Grabfunde, p. 55-59. (49) Such cemeteries often contained a mixture of inhumed and cremated remains. Von Uslar, "Zu den tumuli", p. 487. Kleeman, Grabfunde, p. 191-192. (50) De igne fricato de ligno id est nodfyr. Boretius, ed., M.G.H. , Leges 2, Capitularia 1, nr. 108, c. 15, p. 223. Dierkens, "Superstitions", p. 20. (51) Dierkens, "Cimetières mérovingiens", p. 56-58. Van Es, "Grabsitten", p. 84-85. Fehring, "Missions und Kirchenwesen", p. 555-556. 280 Β. EFFROS

***

Before assessing Frankish insistence that Saxons be buried in Christian cemeteries rather than in grave mounds, we must discuss the significance of the external aspects of mortuary facilities in the expression of social status and religious belief. In the sixth and seventh centuries, with the transition of graves of Merovingian Christian nobility from open row grave cemeteries to private churches, growing emphasis was placed on the appearance of the exteriors of tombs(52). Such a development represented a return to more traditional Gallo-Roman rites, and logically stemmed from the high visibility of graves located in churches where Mass was regularly celebrated(53). While the privilege of burial in a private church was not accessible to any but those of the highest levels of society until the eighth century, a similar evolu tionto interment in the vicinity of parish churches would later take root among the wider population(54). We must recognize the significance of the external aspects of inhumation in highly frequented and restricted burial sites for the commemoration of the deceased(55). Such "a permanently specialized, bounded territorial area" served exclusively for the disposal of the dead members of leading noble families, thereby reaffirming or establishing their special status in the com munity^6). Spatial aspects of burial thus functioned as significant cultural markers, indicating the organizational principles of a particular society or the social relations between fellow members of that society(57). In fact, we may propose that the topography and appearance of disposal facilities represented an enduring feature of the landscape as well as consciousness of that respective culture. As such, structures such as burial mounds and epitaphs constituted a more durable means of conveying social status and religious belief of a kin group than rituals such as the deposition of grave goods.

(52) Guy Halsall, "Social Change around A.D.600 : An Austrasian Perspective", The Age ofSutton Hoo, op. cit., p. 269. (53) Martin Heinzelmann, Translationsberichte und andere Quellen des Reliquienkultes (Typologie des sources du Moyen Âge occidental 33), Turnhout, Brepols, 1979, p. 30ff. (54) Michel Colardelle, Sépultures et traditions funéraires du Ve au XIIIe siècle après J.-C. dans les campagnes des Alpes françaises du Nord (Drame, Isère, Savoie, Haute- Savoie), Grenoble, Publication de la Société Alpine de Documentation et de Recherche en Archéologie Historique, 1983, p. 84-87 and 369. (55) Tertullian (d. circa 220), for instance, condemned engraved monuments as a human attempt to resurrect the dead: Et tarnen Ulis omnibus et statuas defunditis et imagines inscribitis et titulos inciditis in aeternitatem ! Quantum de monumentis potestis scilicet, praestatis et ipsi quodammodo mortuis resurrectionem (Jean-Pierre Waltzing and Albert Severyns, eds. and trans., Tertullien, Apologétique (Collection des Universités de France) Paris, Société d'Édition "Les Belles Lettres", 1929, c. 50, 1 1, p. 107). (56) Saxe, Social Dimensions, p. 119-121. (57) Lynne Goldstein, "One-Dimensional Archaeology and Multi-Dimensional People : Spatial Organisation and Mortuary Analysis", The Archaeology of Death, edited by Robert Chapman, Ian Kinnes, Klavs Randsborg, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, p. 57-61 and 67. This hypothesis is based upon Binford's descriptive categories of mortuary practice (Binford, "Mortuary Practices", p. 21-23). DE PARTIBUS SAXONIAE AND THE REGULATION OF MORTUARY CUSTOM 28 1

Sidonius Apollinaris' (d. circa 480) account of the near desecration of his grandfather Apollinaris' grave in Lyon well illustrates the late antique link between family identity and the appearance of a burial site. The bishop of Clermont wrote a letter to his cousin Secundus, noting that he had come upon grave diggers about to disturb the earth covering the former praetorian prefect's sepulcher. Despite measures taken to distinguish the site, in this case a simple mound of earth piled over the sepulcher of the Christian convert, space was at such a premium that the grave's integrity was threatened by new inhumations(58). To prevent the recurrence of this dishonorable violation of his grandf ather's grave in the future, Sidonius punished the offenders and paid for the restoration of the mound and the erection of an inscribed stone. The metered epitaph he composed proudly noted his responsibility as com- memorator, and praised the deceased profusely (59). With the added pre caution of the grave stone, there would be no further questions regarding the identity and protection of the illustrious individual interred there. We must thus recognize that Sidonius directly linked the ill-treatment of his grandfather's grave to his family's honor and reputation, and for that matter, to his own. In our assessment of the seventh canon of the Saxon Capitulary, then, the insistence that Saxons be buried in Christian cemeteries is a rather striking one. Rather than banning certain Christians and non-Christians from the Christian cemetery, as Merovingian clerics had advocated in the case of heretics, suicides, Jews and the perpetrators of certain crimes(60), the Caro- lingians forcefully directed the newly converted Saxons away from the use of mound graves and included them in the community of the faithful. How should we interpret this seemingly generous gesture ? We must recognize that mound graves represented a form of burial in which external appearance was paramount. Due to the less constrained manner in which grave goods were selected for placement in mound

(58) ...seä tarnen tellus, humans quae super ducitur, redierat in pristinam distenta plani- tiem pondère nivali seu diuturno imbrium fluxu sidentibus acervis... (W.B. Anderson, ed. and trans., Sidonius. Poems and Letters 2 (The Loeb Classical Library 445), Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1965, Book 111, 12.1, p. 40-41. Also in Christia- nus Luetjohann, ed., Apollinaris Sidonii Epistulae et Carmina, in M.G.H., Auctorum Antiquissimorum [AA] 8, Berlin, Apud Wiedmanos, 1887, Book 3, ep. 12.1, p. 47. (59) Anderson, ed., Sidonius 2, Book III, 12.2-5, p. 42-45. Luetjohann, ed., Apollinaris Sidonii, in M.G.H., AA 8, Book 3, ep. 12.2-5, p. 47-48. (60) Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm Levison, eds., Gregorii Episcopi Turonensis, Historia- rum Libri X, in M.G.H., SSRAÎ 1, 1, revised edition Hannover, Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1951, Book IV, 39, p. 170-171 ; Book VII, 38, p. 319. Haddan and Stubbs, eds., Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents 3, Poenitentiale Theodori, Book II, 1, 4-5, p. 190- 191. Bonnie Effros, "Beyond Cemetery Walls: Early Medieval Funerary Topography and Christian Salvation", Early Medieval Europe 6 (1997), p. 1-23. Luce Pietri, "Les sépultures privilégiées en Gaule d'après les sources littéraires", in L 'inhumation privilégiée du IVe au VIIIe siècle en Occident. Actes du colloque tenu à Créteil les 16-18 mars 1984, edited by Yvette Duval and Jean-Charles Picard, Paris, De Boccard, 1986, p. 133-135. 282 Β. EFFROS interments and the extensive resources required by such elaborate burial facilities, the practice appears to have been reserved for members of the highest social rank(61). Besides having access to such goods, those who buried the deceased in such fashion clearly desired to communicate the status of this individual. We should note that the number of women interred in such graves during the bronze age, for example, is only half as common as that of men, whereas children's mound graves are almost non existent (62). Because such man-made or natural facilities in which the deceased were buried could be seen from great distances, especially in more level terrain, they functioned effectively as geographical and boundary markers, and lent credence to a social unit's claim to high status(63). As to the meaning of such rites, it has been suggested that interment mounds may have been linked to cultic practices, since some have been found to contain internal chambers and other boasted external structures which could have accomodated religious ritest64). The use of mound graves remained somewhat uncommon in Gaul during the Merovingian period, as it seems to have been a more conservative practice than a prestige burial in a row-grave cemetery ; nonetheless, remains have been discovered throughout western Europe (65). In contemporary Anglo-Saxon usage, for instance, barrows appear to have taken over some of the symbolism of burial with armament linked to social status(66). Although mound inhumation occurred primarily at isolated locations, far from other burials, in late sixth-, early seventh-century England, it was also employed in the context of cemeteries which contained multiple similar examples(67). These rites survived even longer in regions encountered by the Carolingians. Mound graves appear to have been common in Alemannic regions, in north-

(61) John Shephard, "The Social Identity of the Individual in Isolated Barrows and Barrow Cemeteries in Anglo-Saxon England", in Space, Hierarchy and Society. Inter disciplinary Studies in Social Area Analysis, edited by Barry C. Burnham and John Kjngsbury (BAR International Series 59), Oxford, British Archaeological Report, 1979, p. 67-77. (62) Heiko Steuer, Frühgeschichtliche Sozialstntkturen in Mitteleuropa. Eine Analyse der Auswertungsmethoden des archäologischen Quellenmaterials (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, philologisch-historische Klasse, dritte Folge, Nr. 128), Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982, p. 131-137. (63) Unfortunately, this lasting visibility also led to the barrows' plundering by early antiquaries, thieves, and treasure seekers. They also provided material to fuel the imaginat ionsof those interested in local mythology. See Barry M. Marsden, The Early Barrow- Diggers, Park Ridge, New Jersey, Noyes Press, 1974. (64) Stein, Adelsgräber, p. 123-124. Hilda Ellis Davidson, "Human Sacrifice in the Late Pagan Period in North Western Europe", The Age of Sutton Hoo, op. cit., p. 331-340. (65) Mound burial occurs more frequently in northern Germany than southern Germany, but only until the seventh century. Stein, Adelsgräber 1, p. 121-123. Steuer, Friihge- schichtliche Sozialstrukturen, p. 138-139 and 475-476. Bullough, "Burial, Community", p. 183-185. (66) Harke, "Changing Symbols", p. 152. (67) Shephard, "The Social Identity", p. 67-77. DE PARTIBUS SAXONIAE AND THE REGULATION OF MORTUARY CUSTOM 283 eastern regions of the Harz mountains, in Westfalen, and in the Netherlands as late as 800. While many of these burials represented new constructions, some graves were placed in prehistoric mound structures found in the landscape(68). With respect to grave mounds, we may state that although this type of mortuary disposal site was clearly utilized in pre-Christian communities, it by no means represented a practice limited solely to them. Among Christians, mound burial still existed as late as the mid-seventh century, and was not characterized in Christian legislation as a pagan rite and prohibited as such prior to the reign of Charlemagne(69). At the time of Charlemagne's encounter with groups such as the Frisians and Franks, these practices had already entered a period of decline. We must thus interpret Charlemagne's ban of mound graves and his insistence that the Saxons be buried in Christian cemeteries as part of his effort to stifle the type of expression implicit to this type of burial. Visible from great distances, barrows would signal to the community the presence of individuals of great means. If forced to inter their dead in Christian cemeteries with the rest of the population, the Saxons' ability to distinguish themselves as culturally or politically independent would be greatly hampered.

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Finally, with regards to Charlemagne's ban of human sacrifice, we may sug gest that a noticeable degree of propaganda was evident in Charlemagne's legislation against this practice. At a number of Merovingian cemeterial sites, archaeologists have found occasional examples of skeletons positioned face- downwards or crouching, immobilized with stones, mutilated in the region of their legs, or fastened to the ground with nails(70). As a result, scholars over the past century have proposed that such violent measures were taken by contemporaries in an effort to prevent the dead from haunting the living. More specifically, they account for ritual mutilations and the transfixion of corpses by suggesting that these rites were a product of widespread fear of the dead(71). Despite the attractiveness of theories regarding the fear of the

(68) Hermann Ament, "Merowingische Grabhügel", in Althessen im Frankenreich, op. cit., p. 85-88. Kleeman, Grabfunde, p. 62-65. (69) Ament, "Merowingische Grabhügel", p. 90-93. Geary, "The Uses", p. 39-40. Stein, Adelsgräber, p. 121. For similar campaigns against mound burial in Anglo-Saxon regions, see Helen Geake, "Burial Practice in Seventh- and Eighth-Century England", in The Age ofSutton Hoo, op. cit., p. 90-91. (70) Alain Simmer, "Le prélèvement des crânes dans l'est de la France à l'époque méro vingienne", Archéologie médiévale 12 (1982), p. 43-44. Id., Le cimetière, p. 148-149. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Paganism, p. 72-86. Young, Quatre cimetières, p. 153. Salin, La civilisation mérovingienne 2, p. 217-222. For a recent critique, see Halsall, Seulement and social organization, p. 160-162. (71) For a view of early anthropological interpretations of grave goods as a form of the appeasement of the dead, see James G. Frazer, "On Certain Burial Customs as Illustrative 284 Β. EFFROS dead, we must acknowledge that they contradict most written and archaeolog icalevidence from the Merovingian period(72). Few sentiments of this nature are expressed in contemporary Christian sources, and, in fact, we must recognize that the trend was actually towards the opposite extreme, and manifested itself in the great obsession of the faithful with corporeal relics(73). In an effort to explain such rites for which we have no contemporary written evidence, Hilda Ellis Davidson suggests that some ceremonies of this sort, perhaps even human sacrifice, were linked with high-status burial s (74). Moreover, Martin Carver has noted the ideological content of such mortuary ritual s (75). He believes that in East Anglia, for instance, great expenditure on ship-burial emerged in the late sixth, early seventh centuries. Through such interment rites, the alleged followers of king Raedwald (d. circa 625), who had abandoned the Christian faith, might defiantly express status dia metrically opposed to that of the increasingly powerful Christian kings. Such practices communicated the princely rank as well as territorial aspirations of the social unit linked to the deceased(76). The clerical reaction was one of disgust with what it perceived as barbaric rites. In Gregory Ill's letter to the missionary Boniface in 732, the pope denounced Christians in Germany and Frisia who continued to sell slaves to the pagans for use in human sacrifices, and stated that such crimes would be

of the Primitive Theory of the Soul", Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 15 (1886), p. 74-75. Id., La crainte des morts 1, with an introduction by Paul Valéry, Paris, Emile Nourry, Éditeur, 1934, esp. p. 181-189. (72) Naturally, because literature regarding the return of spirits to the living was com posed by churchmen and was found most frequently in hagiographical accounts, our view of this material is biased in favor of the Merovingian clergy's typical doctrine. Jean-Claude Schmitt notes, however, that in contrast to the later Scandinavian sagas, most negative images of spirits in the early Middle Ages were associated with demons rather than with the spirits of deceased humans. Nonetheless, the two were occasionally conflated, and the antique image of the revenant would grow more common in Christian literature (Jean- Claude Schmitt, Les revenants : Les vivants et les morts dans la société médiévale, Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 1994, p. 25-49). (73) Peter Brown, The Cult of Saints : Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1981, p. 78ff. Id., "Relics and Social Status in the Age of Gregory of Tours", in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1982, p. 236ff. On the central middle ages, see Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages, revised edition, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1990, p. 28ff. Corpses which returned to life were seen as the result of the positive influence of the prayers of the faithful, and thus were usually not regarded with fear. Adalbert De Vogüé, ed., Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues 2, translated by Paul Antin (Sources chrétiennes 260), Paris, Les Éditions du Cerf, 1979, Book I, 10, 18, p. 108-109. (74) Hilda Ellis Davidson, "Human Sacrifice in the Late Pagan Period in North Western Europe", in The Age ofSutton Hoo, op. cit., p. 331-340. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Paganism, p. 165-172. (75) Carver, "Kingship and Material Culture", p. 47-48. (76) Id., "Ideology and Allegiance", p. 177-181. DE PARTIBUS SAXONIAE AND THE REGULATION OF MORTUARY CUSTOM 285 punished in the same manner as culpable homicide(77). Nonetheless, the reaction of Christian leaders was not as strong as it might have been ; it seems that Christians in both Frankish and Anglo-Saxon regions were clearly more accustomed to rites involving human sacrifice than the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae acknowledged(78). As observed in the pope's letter to Boniface, some individuals even supported such activities through economic transactions. The first extant Frankish legislation to ban the custom would appear in Carloman's capitulary of 742(79). Charlemagne, in his desire to suppress all mortuary rituals which he identified as typically Saxon in nature, would thus pass even more stringent legislation in this regard in 782.

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What, then, may we conclude regarding the significance of Charlemagne's interdiction of cremation, mound burial and human sacrifice among the Saxons in 782 ? Clearly, the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae sought to silence effectively any sort of rebellion or unrest which might find expression in particularly impressive forms of mortuary ritual. It appears that the Caro- lingians believed that the survival of expensive or defiant varieties of pagan mortuary ritual would have been interpreted by the Saxons as successful resi stance of the Carolingian integration and conversion efforts (80). In this light, we may interpret Charlemagne's suppression of Saxon mort uary rites as part of an effort not only to subdue and convert the conquered people but also to absorb them forcibly and thus culturally. By forbidding them to practice highly visible forms of burial ritual, Charlemagne sought to stamp out all possible expression of Saxon identity by the conquered people, and thereby to prevent one avenue of possible insurrection. The fierce wolves, once constrained, would soon become lambs(81). Rather than expressing concern with the Christianization of the Saxons, these measures represented an attempt to render the Saxons indistinguishable from and thus ftilly inte-

(77) Michael Tangl, ed., Die Briefe des heiligen Bonifatius und Lullus in M.G.H., Epistolae Selectae 1, second edition, Berlin, Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1955, nr. 28, p. 49-52. C.H. Talbot, ed. and trans., The Correspondence of St. Boniface, in his The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany, London, Sheed and Ward, 1954, nr. 16, p. 84- 87. Davidson, "Human Sacrifice", p. 334. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Paganism, p. 165-172. (78) Alain Simmer suggests that such rituals were conceivable even in cemeteries in which Christians appear to have been buried. Simmer, "Le prélèvement", p. 43-44. Id., Le cimetière, p. 148-149. Young, Quatre cimetières, p. 153. Salin, La civilisation 2, p. 217- 222. (79) Boretius, ed., Karlmanni Principis Capitulare (742), in M.G.H., Leges 2, nr. 10, c. 5, p. 25. (80) Helen Geake notes the effectiveness of utilizing variant burial rites as a sign of independence from the dominant political authority (Geake, "Burial Practice", p. 90-91). (81) Moxque lupos saevos teneros mutavit in agnos... Ernst DOmmler, ed., Carmen de conversione Saxonum, in M.G.H., Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini 1, Berlin, Apud Weidman- nos, 1881, p. 380-381. The poem dates to 777. Hauck, "Die Ausbreitung", p. 162-163. 286 Β. EFFROS grated with the Frankish majority of the Carolingian realm. As suggested by Einhard, by giving up their pagan religion and adopting Christianity, the Saxons had begun the process by which they would be united as one people with the Franks (82).

(82) Pertz and Waitz, eds., Einhardi Vita Karoli Magni, éd. cit., 7, p. 8-9. Wenskus, "Die ständische Entwicklung", p. 588. Beumann, "Die Hagiographie", p. 134-137. This objective of Frankish policy with respect to the Saxons would be repeated more forcefully by Widukind of Corvey (d. after 973) : Ob id qui [Saxones] olim socii et amici erant Francorum iamfratres et quasi una gens ex Christiana fide, veluti modo videmus, facta est (Georgius Waitz, Widukindi, Rerum Gestarum Saxonicarum Libri Tres, third edition, in M.G.H., Scriptores 60, Hannover, Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1882, Book I, 15, p. 15).