MIRACULA, SAINTS’ CULTS AND SOCIO-POLITICAL LANDSCAPES BOBBIO, CONQUES AND POST-CAROLINGIAN SOCIETY Faye Taylor, MA Thesis submitted for examination to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy JULY 2012 ii ABSTRACT Despite the centrality of monastic sources to debates about social and political transformation in post-Carolingian Europe, few studies have approached the political and economic status of monasteries and their saints’ cults in this context, to which this thesis offers a comparative approach. Hagiography provides an interesting point of analysis with respect to the proposition of mutation féodale, and more importantly to that of the mutation documentaire and its relation to monastic ‘reform’, which Part I discusses. Parts II and III consider Bobbio and Conques, and their miracula (dedicated to San Colombano and Sainte Foy) within their respective socio-political environments, since the best of the recent scholarship concerning the millennial period has emphasized the specificity of regional experience. At Bobbio the closeness of the king physically and some continuity in royal practices between the tenth and eleventh centuries shaped monastic experience. It directed and sometimes restricted monastic discourse, which maintained an older tradition of general service to the kingdom, although innovations in relic usage helped monastic negotiations with the sovereign. At Conques, the waning of royal control created space for literary and cultic advances that served to bolster the monastery’s position within local power structures. In this landscape older forms of public authority were purposefully minimized and hierarchy and landownership were negotiated between aristocrats, including Sainte Foy at the head of Conques. Whilst the categories of the ‘feudal transformation’ debate can offer a useful framework for the analysis of two very different monasteries and their local societies, the comparison demonstrates that placing monasteries at the centre of our debate is crucial to understanding the documents they produce, and therefore questions the potential that these have to shed light on wider societal change. Concerns over land and autonomy were central to both institutions, although these operated on different conceptual planes, because of different bases of landed patrimony dating back much further than the tenth century. Each monastery negotiated hierarchy and clientele through their miracula and according to local socio-political rules. Therefore, whilst related documentary and cultic transformations were inseparable from socio-political pressures, these were not necessarily pressures simply reacting to mutation féodale, but were formative processes in the direction and shape of social change. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many for help in the research and completion of this thesis. I received generous grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and School of History at the University of Nottingham, as well as travel grants from the AHRC and the Royal Historical Society. I thank wholeheartedly my supervisors Claire Taylor and Ross Balzaretti. Claire, for asking (rhetorically) during my undergraduate degree how the Miracles of Sainte Foy fitted in to the ‘feudal transformation’, and her unfaltering support ever since; likewise Ross, for his searching and concise questions that resulted in interesting new directions for my research. I am also grateful to my examiners, Chris Wickham and Julia Barrow, for their thorough appraisals and helpful suggestions. Several others have helped me along the way, who I am pleased to have the opportunity to thank. Grégory Cattaneo and Alex O’Hara provided useful historiographical insights. Moral support came from many quarters, particularly Stefan Gordon, Ellie Clarke and Simon Quinn, and (in the form of tea, cake, generous hospitality and long chats) from Rachel Middlemass and Theresa Tyers, my compatriots in the thesis adventure. My research abroad was facilitated and made much more enjoyable by the kindness of Kim and Léo Marty, Elisabetta Pastori and Emilie Boube. Roland Viader, Hélène Débax and especially Jean-Loup Abbé at the Université de Toulouse II - Le Mirail were incredibly accommodating. In the last frantic stages, Matthew Phillips and Bryan Taylor helped immensely with proof reading. Further help with formatting and bibliography chores came from Faith Widdowson, Lucy Lynch and Helen Taylor. Jemma Hey’s enthusiasm and generous time sacrifices made it possible to produce the maps herein; I thank her for my newfound love for GIS technologies and the possibilities they offer for medieval history. Of course, all errors are my own. The greatest thanks go to my family, to whom I dedicate the work. My sister Chloe and Ben Albu provided me with a bolthole to escape to, huge amounts of love and encouragement and, recently, my beautiful niece Alice who I look forward to regaling with tales of Sainte Foy’s mischief. My mother and father Helen and Bryan were an incredible support in the practicalities but also in so many other ways, driven by their bottomless patience, generosity and love. I will never be able to repay them, but will attempt to nevertheless. ii CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABBREVIATIONS vi PLATES viii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. MIRACLES AND MIRACULA 2 2. ‘FEUDALISM’, ‘MILLENARIANISM’ AND POST-CAROLINGIAN SOCIETY 14 3. HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE ‘FEUDAL REVOLUTION’ 16 JUSTICE AND DISPUTE SETTLEMENT 19 LORDS, CASTLES AND MILITES 20 CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE 25 FIDELITY AND RELATIONSHIPS TO LAND 27 ‘Royal’ monasteries and land tenures 31 Monasteries and donated land 35 4. HAGIOGRAPHY AND THE MUTATION DOCUMENTAIRE 38 PART II: SAN COLOMBANO DI BOBBIO & SOCIO-POLITICAL LANDSCAPES 5. CULTIC MATERIALS AT BOBBIO 49 6. THE MIRACULA SANCTI COLUMBANI 51 MANUSCRIPT TRADITION 52 SUBSEQUENT RELEVANCE OF THE MIRACULA 54 AUTHORSHIP AND DATING 55 MIRACLE COMPOSITION 58 7. BOBBIO, PUBLIC AUTHORITY AND LANDHOLDING 62 THE FOUNDATION OF BOBBIO AND ITS PATRIMONY 63 CAROLINGIAN LORDSHIP AND THE PARTITION OF PATRIMONY 65 POST-CAROLINGIAN KINGS AND THE ABBOTS 68 8. THE CULT OF SAN COLOMBANO, PUBLIC AUTHORITY & LAND-HOLDING 71 THE TRANSLATIO, BISHOP GUY OF PIACENZA AND THE EVENTS OF 929 72 ABBOT-BISHOP GISEPRAND AND THE MID-TENTH CENTURY 81 THE MIRACULA AND THE ABBOT-BISHOP GISEPRAND 84 AFTER GISEPRAND 89 iii THE MIRACULA AND THE TERRA SANCTI COLUMBANI 91 9. JUSTICE AND DISPUTE PROCESSING 97 THE TRANSLATIO AND THE COURT 102 THE MIRACULA AND ROYAL JUSTICE 106 10. VIOLENCE, MILITES & CASTLES 109 VIOLENCE 109 MILITES AND NOBILITY 110 CASTLES 111 11. FIDELITY AND TENURESHIP 113 PART III: SAINTE-FOY DE CONQUES AND SOCIO-POLITICAL LANDSCAPES 12. CULTIC MATERIALS AT CONQUES 117 13. THE LIBER MIRACULORUM SANCTE FIDIS 118 MANUSCRIPT TRADITION 120 PHASES OF AUTHORSHIP 126 X1 - Bernard of Angers 126 X2 130 X2a - Book iii 131 X2b - Book iv and C miracles 132 Later miracle narratives 135 MIRACLE COMPOSITION 136 Positive miracles 136 Punishment miracles 137 14. CONQUES AND PROPERTY 138 FOUNDATION 138 OUTSIDE LORDSHIP 139 ABBOTS 141 CULTIC CHANGES AND PATRONAGE 144 15. PUBLIC AUTHORITY 150 PUBLIC AUTHORITY AND THE ROUERGUE 150 CONQUES AND ROYAL AUTHORITY 153 16. JUSTICE AND DISPUTE PROCESSING 158 THE MONASTERY AS A CENTRE OF JUSTICE 162 17. VIOLENCE 164 ‘HORIZONTAL’ VIOLENCE 165 ‘VERTICAL’ VIOLENCE 175 SAINTE FOY AND THE PEACE OF GOD 175 18. LORDSHIP AND FIDELITY TO THE SAINT 180 19. CASTLES 183 20. MILITES AND ARISTOCRATS 190 21. THE ‘COMMON PEOPLE’ 193 PART IV: CONCLUSION 195 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 204 MANUSCRIPT SOURCES 204 PRIMARY SOURCES IN PRINT 204 SECONDARY WORKS 206 UNPUBLISHED WORKS 228 v ABBREVIATIONS AASS Bolland, J. et al (ed.), Acta Sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur original ed. 67 vols. (Antwerp and Brussels, 1643-1940; rep. Brussels, 1965) AB Archivum Bobiense AM Annales du Midi Annales: E.S.C. Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations Antichi Vescovi Savio, F. (ed.), Gli antichi vescovi d’Italia (Bologna, 1913) ASWF Ashley, K. M. and Sheingorn, P., Writing Faith: Text, Sign, & History in the Miracles of Sainte Foy (Chicago, 1999) Beaulieu Deloche, M. (ed.), Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Beaulieu en Limousin (Paris, 1859) Bibl. Naz. Torino Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino BoSF Sheingorn, P., Book of Sainte Foy (Philadelphia, 1995) BSP Bollettino storico piacentino CDSCB Cipolla, C. and Buzzi, G. (eds.), Codice diplomatico del monastero di San Colombano di Bobbio fino all’anno MCCVIII, 3 vols., Fonti per la storia d’Italia, 52-54 (Rome, 1918) CDL Bruhl, C., Codice Diplomatico Longobardo, vol iii.1 (Rome, 1973) Châlons-sur-Marne Le chantre Warin, Cartulaire du chapitre de l’église cathédrale de Châlons-sur- Marne, ed. by P. Pélicier (Paris, 1897) Conques Desjardins, G., Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Conques en Rouergue (Paris, 1879) DBI Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (Milan, 1960- ) EHR English Historical Review EME Early Medieval Europe JMH Journal of Medieval History JMS Journal of Medieval Studies Le Monastier Chevalier, U. (ed.), Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Saint-Chaffre du Monastier, Ordre de Saint-Benoît: 570-1370 (Paris, 1884) Lézat Ourliac, P. and Magnou, A.-M. (eds.), Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Lézat (Paris, 1984) Mansi, SC Mansi, G. D. (ed.), Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio (54 vols, Florence and Venice, 1758-1798; second reprint Graz, 1960-1961) MGH Capit. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Capitularia regum Francorum vi MGH Const. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Constitutiones et acta publica imperatorum et regum