Law, Liturgy, and Sacred Space in Medieval Catalonia and Southern France, 800-1100
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Law, Liturgy, and Sacred Space in Medieval Catalonia and Southern France, 800-1100 Adam Christopher Matthews Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2021 1 ©2021 Adam Christopher Matthews All Rights Reserved 2 Abstract Law, Liturgy, and Sacred Space in Medieval Catalonia and Southern France, 800-1100 Adam Christopher Matthews With the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom, the judges of Catalonia and southern France worked to keep the region‘s traditional judicial system operable. Drawing on records of judicial proceedings and church dedications from the ninth century to the end of the eleventh, this dissertation explores how judges devised a liturgically-influenced court strategy to invigorate rulings. They transformed churches into courtrooms. In these spaces, changed by merit of the consecration rite, community awe for the power infused within sacred space could be utilized to achieve consensus around the legitimacy of dispute outcomes. At the height of a tribunal, judges brought litigants and witnesses to altars, believed to be thresholds of Heaven, and compelled them to authenticate their testimony before God and his saints. Thus, officials supplemented human means of enforcement with the supernatural powers permeating sanctuaries. This strategy constitutes a hybridization of codified law and the belief in churches as real sacred spaces, a conception that emerged from the Carolingian liturgical reforms of the ninth century. In practice, it provided courts with a means to enact the mandates from the Visigothic Code and to foster stability. The result was a flexible synthesis of law, liturgy, and sacred space that was in many cases capable of harnessing spiritual and community pressure in legal proceedings. 1 Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi List of Maps .................................................................................................................................. vii Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................... xviii Dedication ........................................................................................................................................x Bibliographic Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... xi Introduction: The use of sacred space in the legal world of the Province of Narbonne ..................1 0.1. The setting for the condiciones strategy .......................................................................4 0.1.1. The history of the Province of Narbonne .......................................................6 0.1.2. The judicial system and its record production ...............................................8 0.2. Defining the condiciones strategy ...............................................................................10 0.3. Sources for the condiciones strategy...........................................................................13 0.3.1. Court disputes featuring the condiciones strategy .......................................14 0.3.2. Church dedication records: Dotalia .............................................................16 0.4. The frequency of the condiciones strategy and a judge-centered approach ...............17 0.5. The condiciones strategy as a means for connecting scholarly discourses .................20 0.5.1. Dispute culture .............................................................................................20 0.5.2. Documentary ritual ......................................................................................21 0.5.3. Sacred space .................................................................................................26 0.5.4. Regional change ...........................................................................................27 0.6. The condiciones strategy: structure and ―ideal‖ practice ...........................................28 0.6.1. The Rite of the Guarantor, 1002 ..................................................................29 0.6.2. Testimony and oaths at Vilanant, 1018 ........................................................38 i 0.7. Chapter organization ...................................................................................................45 Chapter 1: Creating and Using Sacred Space in the Province of Narbonne ..................................49 1.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................49 1.1.1. Community belief in sacred space ...............................................................50 1.2. Defining Sacred Spaces ..............................................................................................54 1.2.1. The debate over sacred space .......................................................................61 1.2.2. Ritual exegesis at Sant Benet de Bages, 972 ...............................................65 1.2.3. Conceptions of space in the Province of Narbonne .....................................75 1.3. Creating sacred space ..................................................................................................78 1.3.1. The structure and formulaic features of dotalia ...........................................79 1.3.2. Sant Climent de Ardòvol .............................................................................82 1.3.3. Sant Pere d‘Eroles ........................................................................................83 1.3.4. Santa Maria de Guissona .............................................................................85 1.3.5. The proprietary and administrative concerns of dotalia ..............................86 1.3.6. Dotalia and the shape of the community belief in sacred space ..................88 1.3.7. The heavenly tribunal ..................................................................................91 1.3.8. Consecration and conflict at Sant Andreu de Baltarga ................................94 1.3.9. Summing up community belief ..................................................................100 1.4. Judges at church dedications .....................................................................................102 1.4.1. Prevailing themes .......................................................................................105 1.4.2. Judge as celebrant ......................................................................................107 1.4.3. Judge as founder ........................................................................................109 1.4.4. Judge as scribal commentator ....................................................................111 ii 1.5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................113 Chapter 2: Visigothic foundations and the early practice of the condiciones strategy ................116 2.1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................116 2.2. Space and authority in Gothic law ............................................................................119 2.2.1. The use of oaths, altars, and churches in Gothic Iberia .............................120 2.2.2. Authority in law before 711 .......................................................................130 2.3. The early history of the condiciones strategy ...........................................................138 2.3.1. The emergence of the condiciones strategy and model uses .....................141 2.3.2. The condiciones strategy before the missi dominici, 817 ..........................142 2.3.3. Searching for authority in the Narbonés, 834 ............................................147 2.4. Contentious Cases .....................................................................................................154 2.4.1. Dueling magnates in a time of civil war, 842 ............................................156 2.5. Non-contentious cases ..............................................................................................163 2.5.1. Court anxieties, 898 ...................................................................................165 2.6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................172 Chapter 3: The condiciones strategy and the political world of the tenth century ......................176 3.1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................176 3.1.1. Tenth-century cases ...................................................................................179 3.2. The plight of the weak, 900-949 ...............................................................................184 3.2.1. Public power and servicium regis ..............................................................184 3.2.2. Comital and episcopal presidencies ...........................................................187 3.2.3. Victorious presidents and avoiding the condiciones strategy ....................191 3.2.4. Using the condiciones strategy ..................................................................197