DOCSLIB.ORG

The Formation of Christian Europe: the Carolingians, Baptism, and the Imperium Christianum

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Formation of Christian Europe: the Carolingians, Baptism, and the Imperium Christianum THE FORMATION OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE The Formation of Christian Europe The Carolingians, Baptism, and the Imperium Christianum OWEN M. PHELAN 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Owen M. Phelan 2014 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2014 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2014934284 ISBN 978–0–19–871803–1 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. For Lauren, you make me happy every day. Acknowledgments Only after the long process of bringing forth my own project have I come to appreciate (and to devote more time to reading) the paeans to family, friends, and colleagues that preface the many books I pick up. I hope these few words, which even fewer people will ever read, convey, however inadequately, my deep appreciation and gratitude for the undeserved support and unwarranted kind- nesses I have received from so many for so long. I first wish to acknowledge the many teachers who offered me training and advice. This project would not have been possible without the generous sup- port of many people and, as my parents remind me, a long time in college. I would especially like to thank the challenging and encouraging professors from my alma mater, the College of William & Mary. I am especially grateful for my two superb undergraduate advisors, Sara Lipton in History and Thomas M. Finn in Religion. Without their examples I would not have been inspired to pursue graduate studies and without their support I could not have advanced to graduate school. During doctoral studies at the University of Notre Dame I had the opportunity to work with guiding lights in several fields of medieval studies, scholars who are as personally generous as they are erudite. I owe tre- mendous debts to John Cavadini, Olivia Constable, Brian Daley S.J., Michael Driscoll, Patrick Geary, Stephen Gersh, Michael Lapidge, Howard Louthan, Frank Mantello, Daniel Sheerin, Michael Signer, and John Van Engen. Most importantly, a young scholar could not ask for a better advisor than Thomas F.X. Noble, once and always my teacher. His encouragement, criticism, insight, and careful reading always challenged, but never demoralized. A talented researcher and gifted teacher, Professor Noble perfectly tempers his sharp intellect with his gentle touch. During research for my project, I encountered many kind and learned schol- ars, librarians, and archivists. The community of international medievalists brought together for the Texts & Identities seminars made my time abroad both more enjoyable and profitable than I could have dreamed. I would like to thank Rob Meens for sharing with me his insights on early medieval religion both during the seminars and in subsequent correspondence. To Mayke De Jong who offered indispensable advice during the seminars, I owe a special word of thanks. My chapter divisions first took shape in her den after enjoying a fish meal peculiar to my American palate. My whole project would not have been successful without the generous care and aid of Walter Pohl and the “Pohliani” at the Institut für Mittelalterforschung of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, with whom I spent a Fulbright year. The value to me of the manuscript work and theoretical discussions conducted there cannot be viii Acknowledgments overemphasized. I would like to single out Helmut Reimitz and Max Diesen- berger especially for the many hours they spent walking me through Bavarian manuscripts and explaining to me the intricacies of their fascinating scholarly work. Through the long course of revising a dissertation into a book, a process always more abandoned than completed, many kind people offered to read, sometimes re-read, and on occasion re-re-read sections and chapters. I would like to thank Martin Claussen, Neil Dhingra, and Ellen Poteet who served as targets of my remorseless petitions for advice. I am grateful to Tim Schaad for his editorial eye, which helped me identify and avoid some of my most infelici- tous formulations. I also wish to thank the anonymous readers for Oxford Uni- versity Press whose careful reading and thoughtful responses helped me strengthen my work in several areas. I deeply appreciate the professionalism of Tom Perridge, Karen Raith, and Elizabeth Robottom at Oxford University Press for helping to shepherd this project into print. All remaining errors of fact, interpretation, or English are mine alone. Finally, I thank my family and friends. I have been blessed with loving par- ents, Merrill and Kathleen, who gave me the courage and the confidence to pursue an academic career despite everyone’s better sense. Every day I am grateful for the love and joy of my children, Declan, Therese, Ciaran, Michael, Gemma, and Felicity. Though I may not have always shown it, they were almost always welcome distractions from reading, writing, and other scholarly tasks most often practiced alone. In this spirit, I would also like to thank the many soccer players of Fairfield, PA AYSO. In addition to the obvious delight of working with young people, their exuberance often lifted my spirits and ener- gized me during those frustrating times that beset all academics. Most pro- foundly, I wish to recognize my wife, Lauren, whose love and support undergird anything good that I do, who sacrificed personally to benefit me, and to whom I dedicate this work. I am forever grateful. Feast of St. Agatha, 2014 Contents Introduction 1 1. Sacramentum: An Ordering Concept from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages 8 2. The Articulation of Polity: Baptism as the Foundation of an Imperium Christianum 48 3. The Carolingian Subject: TheSacramentum of Baptism and the Formation of Identity in Alcuin of York 94 4. The Carolingian Machinery of Christian Formation: Charlemagne’s Encyclical Letter on Baptism from 811/812 and Its Implications 147 5. The Sacramental Assumption: Baptism and Carolingian Society in the Ninth Century 207 Conclusion: Loss and Legacy 262 Bibliography 279 Index 309 Introduction Around the turn of the ninth century, political and religious reformers worked to establish an imperium christianum—a Christian empire—a society whose most basic organizing principle was the sacramentum of baptism. This study explores why they did this, how they did it, and with what consequences. Toward the end of the eighth century Charlemagne’s court attracted intellectu- als interested in a reform for Frankish Europe. As a sacramentum, baptism was an especially useful tool for Carolingian thinkers pursuing reform: not only could reformers draw on baptism’s substantial tradition filled with legal, moral, social, political, and theological ideas, but also its nearly universal familiarity to all Christians rendered it a useful starting point for conversations about beliefs and behaviors.1 The sacramentum of baptism was not merely an abstract con- cept; it was a widely practiced ritual of initiation and inclusion affirming each individual’s place in a community. Thus, baptism offered a medium for the communication and popularization of beliefs, ideas, and goals. The ritual pro- vided a framework for the formation of people throughout the expanding Frankish world. It supplied a medium through which people could understand, internalize, and propagate a vision of how sacramental principles theologically, politically, culturally, and socially supported an imperium christianum. The Carolingian Renewal of the late eighth and ninth centuries set in place basic assumptions about Christianity decisive for medieval Europe. The vigorous activities of Carolingian leaders bequeathed to medieval Europeans the vision of an imperium christianum and embedded in cultural and intellectual life a number of conventions for organizing their lives and their world. The title,The Formation of Christian Europe, reflects the complicated and overlapping pro- cesses involved. Four complementary frames contextualize this study. First, I situate my work in the context of the history of early medieval Europe, particularly the 1 The literature on baptism in the first several hundred years of the Christian era is vast. A good starting point is Everett Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009). 2 The Formation of Christian Europe Carolingian Renewal.2 In my view, the Carolingian Renewal consists in Frankish leaders, ecclesiastical and secular, forging consensus on a common vision of an integrated society—the imperium christianum—and then attempting to cultivate intellectual, social, political, and legal tools for imple- menting their vision.3 This study recenters understanding of a key develop- ment in the course of Western Civilization, the Carolingian imperium christianum, around the ordering concept of the sacramentum of baptism.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Preliminary Investigation of the Iconography of the Woman with the Skull from the Puerta De Las Platerías of Santiago De Compostela
    PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE WOMAN WITH THE SKULL FROM THE PUERTA DE LAS PLATERÍAS OF SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA By KAREN FAYE WEBB A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2004 Copyright 2004 by Karen Faye Webb To Dan and Judy Webb ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to many individuals for their support and guidance in my physical and conceptual pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. I would most like to thank Dr. David Stanley who has been my constant supporter as my toughest critic and my most caring mentor. Dr. Carolyn Watson’s medieval art class at Furman University introduced me to the complex beauty of the south transept portal. My parents indulged my awe of this portal and physically and metaphorically climbed the steps leading to the Puerta de las Platerías with me to pay homage to the Woman with the Skull. Without them, this study would not have been possible. I would like to thank my reader, Dr. John Scott, for his insightful comments, and Jeremy Culler, Sarah Webb and Sandra Goodrich for their support, friendship, and unwavering faith in me. Finally, I would like to thank the Woman with the Skull, who brought me on this pilgrimage and has given me a new awareness about art and myself. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES ..........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • History 7: Medieval Europe March 23-27 Student Name
    History 7: Medieval Europe March 23-27 Time Allotment: 30 minutes per day Student Name: __________________________ Teacher Name: __________________________ History 7: Medieval Europe March 23-27 Packet Overview Date Objective(s) Page Number Monday, March 23 1. Describe how the people of Britain became Christian. 2 Tuesday, March 24 1. Describe the necessary qualities and duties of the 11 pastor as outlined in Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Rule. Wednesday, March 25 1. Tell the main achievements of Clovis and why they 15 were important for the development of Europe. 2. Compare and contrast the conversion of Clovis to that of Ethelbert. Thursday, March 26 1. Evaluate the ways in which Charles Martel protected 20 his people from outside threats. Friday, March 27 1. Explain why/how the Merovingian line of kings came 24 to an end and was replaced by the Carolingian line of Kings beginning with Pepin the Short. 2. Quiz: Using what you’ve learned from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday’s lessons, explain how the Frankish kingdom came to be a powerful force on the European stage. Academic Honesty I certify that I completed this assignment I certify that my student completed this independently in accordance with the GHNO assignment independently in accordance with Academy Honor Code. the GHNO Academy Honor Code. Student signature: Parent signature: ___________________________ ___________________________ 1 History 7: Medieval Europe March 23-27 Monday, March 23 History Unit: The expansion and development of the Early Medieval Christian Church (400-700) Lesson 5: Gregory and Augustine’s Mission to England Lesson 1 Socratic Question: Keep these questions in mind as you study this lesson! What makes a new religion attractive to a people group? What are the opportunities or dangers of a political leader changing his religion? What are the advantages and disadvantages of religious toleration? Objective: Be able to do this by the end of this lesson.
    [Show full text]
  • Doctrinal Controversies of the Carolingian Renaissance: Gottschalk of Orbais’ Teachings on Predestination*
    ROCZNIKI FILOZOFICZNE Tom LXV, numer 3 – 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18290/rf.2017.65.3-3 ANDRZEJ P. STEFAŃCZYK * DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSIES OF THE CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE: GOTTSCHALK OF ORBAIS’ TEACHINGS ON PREDESTINATION* This paper is intended to outline the main areas of controversy in the dispute over predestination in the 9th century, which shook up or electrified the whole world of contemporary Western Christianity and was the most se- rious doctrinal crisis since Christian antiquity. In the first part I will sketch out the consequences of the writings of St. Augustine and the revival of sci- entific life and theological and philosophical reflection, which resulted in the emergence of new solutions and aporias in Christian doctrine—the dispute over the Eucharist and the controversy about trina deitas. In the second part, which constitutes the main body of the article, I will focus on the presenta- tion of four sources of controversies in the dispute over predestination, whose inventor and proponent was Gottschalk of Orbais, namely: (i) the concept of God, (ii) the meaning of grace, nature and free will, (iii) the rela- tion of foreknowledge to predestination, and (iv) the doctrine of redemption, i.e., in particular, the relation of justice to mercy. The article is mainly an attempt at an interpretation of the texts of the epoch, mainly by Gottschalk of Orbais1 and his adversary, Hincmar of Reims.2 I will point out the dif- Dr ANDRZEJ P. STEFAŃCZYK — Katedra Historii Filozofii Starożytnej i Średniowiecznej, Wy- dział Filozofii Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II; adres do korespondencji: Al.
    [Show full text]
  • The Heirs of Alcuin: Education and Clerical Advancement in Ninth-Century Carolingian Europe
    The Heirs of Alcuin: Education and Clerical Advancement in Ninth-Century Carolingian Europe Darren Elliot Barber Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds Institute for Medieval Studies December 2019 ii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. iii Acknowledgements I wish to thank my supervisors, Julia Barrow and William Flynn, for their sincere encouragement and dedication to this project. Heeding their advice early on made this research even more focused, interesting, and enjoyable than I had hoped it would be. The faculty and staff of the Institute for Medieval Studies and the Brotherton Library have been very supportive, and I am grateful to Melanie Brunner and Jonathan Jarrett for their good advice during my semesters of teaching while writing this thesis. I also wish to thank the Reading Room staff of the British Library at Boston Spa for their friendly and professional service. Finally, I would like to thank Jonathan Jarrett and Charles West for conducting such a gracious viva examination for the thesis, and Professor Stephen Alford for kindly hosting the examination. iv Abstract During the Carolingian renewal, Alcuin of York (c. 740–804) played a major role in promoting education for children who would later join the clergy, and encouraging advanced learning among mature clerics.
    [Show full text]
  • 1Ba704, a NINETEENTH CENTURY SHIPWRECK SITE in the MOBILE RIVER BALDWIN and MOBILE COUNTIES, ALABAMA
    ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF 1Ba704, A NINETEENTH CENTURY SHIPWRECK SITE IN THE MOBILE RIVER BALDWIN AND MOBILE COUNTIES, ALABAMA FINAL REPORT PREPARED FOR THE ALABAMA HISTORICAL COMMISSION, THE PEOPLE OF AFRICATOWN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY AND THE SLAVE WRECKS PROJECT PREPARED BY SEARCH INC. MAY 2019 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF 1Ba704, A NINETEENTH CENTURY SHIPWRECK SITE IN THE MOBILE RIVER BALDWIN AND MOBILE COUNTIES, ALABAMA FINAL REPORT PREPARED FOR THE ALABAMA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 468 SOUTH PERRY STREET PO BOX 300900 MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA 36130 PREPARED BY ______________________________ JAMES P. DELGADO, PHD, RPA SEARCH PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY DEBORAH E. MARX, MA, RPA KYLE LENT, MA, RPA JOSEPH GRINNAN, MA, RPA ALEXANDER J. DECARO, MA, RPA SEARCH INC. WWW.SEARCHINC.COM MAY 2019 SEARCH May 2019 Archaeological Investigations of 1Ba704, A Nineteenth-Century Shipwreck Site in the Mobile River Final Report EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Between December 12 and 15, 2018, and on January 28, 2019, a SEARCH Inc. (SEARCH) team of archaeologists composed of Joseph Grinnan, MA, Kyle Lent, MA, Deborah Marx, MA, Alexander DeCaro, MA, and Raymond Tubby, MA, and directed by James P. Delgado, PhD, examined and documented 1Ba704, a submerged cultural resource in a section of the Mobile River, in Baldwin County, Alabama. The team conducted current investigation at the request of and under the supervision of Alabama Historical Commission (AHC); Alabama State Archaeologist, Stacye Hathorn of AHC monitored the project. This work builds upon two earlier field projects. The first, in March 2018, assessed the Twelvemile Wreck Site (1Ba694), and the second, in July 2018, was a comprehensive remote-sensing survey and subsequent diver investigations of the east channel of a portion the Mobile River (Delgado et al.
    [Show full text]
  • The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity
    The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Wilkinson, Ryan Hayes. 2015. The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467211 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity A dissertation presented by Ryan Hayes Wilkinson to The Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2015 © 2015 Ryan Hayes Wilkinson All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Michael McCormick Ryan Hayes Wilkinson The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity Abstract In the fifth and sixth centuries CE, the Roman Empire fragmented, along with its network of political, cultural, and socio-economic connections. How did that network’s collapse reshape the social and mental horizons of communities in one part of the Roman world, now eastern France? Did new political frontiers between barbarian kingdoms redirect those communities’ external connections, and if so, how? To address these questions, this dissertation focuses on the cities of two Gallo-Roman tribal groups.
    [Show full text]
  • Lesson 18 - the Situation in the West After the Fall of Rome
    Church History Lesson 18 - The Situation in the West After the Fall of Rome 1. Introduction - A Crumbling Empire 1.1. In the last session we looked at a number of Christological controversies which embroiled the church, and consequently the Empire, up until the council of Chalcedon in 451. 1.2. As we saw, these controversies involved both the East and the West, but there were of far greater concern in the East than in the West, and the majority of bishops attending the various councils were overwhelmingly from the East. 1.3. Although there were a number of reasons for this, one of the major reasons was the rapidly changing situation in the West. After Rome was sacked for the first time in 410 AD, it sent shockwaves through the whole empire, but especially in the West. Although the Eastern part of the Empire continued in one form or another for over 1,000 years more, the situation in the West was far different. 1.4. Today we will take a brief look at what happened in the West after the first sacking of Rome in 410, and see how this affected life and the church in the West for the next 300 years or so. 2. The Barbarian Invasions 2.1. The events that most affected life and the church in the West were a series of invasions by “barbarian” tribes. 2.2. Obviously the first major invasion was when Alaric and his band of Visigoths, who invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 410. It was the shockwaves from this event that caused Augustine to write his opus City of God.
    [Show full text]
  • Prudentius of Troyes (D. 861) and the Reception of the Patristic Tradition in the Carolingian Era
    Prudentius of Troyes (d. 861) and the Reception of the Patristic Tradition in the Carolingian Era by Jared G. Wielfaert A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Jared Wielfaert 2015 Prudentius of Troyes (d. 861) and the Reception of the Patristic Tradition in the Carolingian Era Jared Gardner Wielfaert Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2015 ABSTRACT: This study concerns Prudentius, bishop of Troyes (861), a court scholar, historian, and pastor of the ninth century, whose extant corpus, though relatively extensive, remains unstudied. Born in Spain in the decades following the Frankish conquest of the Spanish march, Prudentius had been recruited to the Carolingian court under Louis the Pious, where he served as a palace chaplain for a twenty year period, before his eventual elevation to the see of Troyes in the 840s. With a career that moved from the frontier to the imperial court center, then back to the local world of the diocese and environment of cathedral libraries, sacred shrines, and local care of souls, the biography of Prudentius provides a frame for synthesis of several prevailing currents in the cultural history of the Carolingian era. His personal connections make him a rare link between the generation of the architects of the Carolingian reforms (Theodulf and Alcuin) and their students (Rabanus Maurus, Prudentius himself) and the great period of fruition of which the work of John Scottus Eriugena is the most widely recogized example. His involvement in the mid-century theological controversy over the doctrine of predestination illustrates the techniques and methods, as well as the concerns and preoccupations, of Carolingian era scholars engaged in the consolidation and interpretation of patristic opinion, particularly, that of Augustine.
    [Show full text]
  • Depictions of Damnation in the Beatus Manuscripts: Painting Adoptionism As Heresy Kristin A
    Lake Forest College Lake Forest College Publications Lake Forest Papers Student Publications Fall 2018 Depictions of Damnation in the Beatus Manuscripts: Painting Adoptionism as Heresy Kristin A. Rawlings Lake Forest College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://publications.lakeforest.edu/lake_forest_papers Part of the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Islamic Studies Commons Recommended Citation Rawlings, Kristin A., "Depictions of Damnation in the Beatus Manuscripts: Painting Adoptionism as Heresy" (2018). Lake Forest Papers. https://publications.lakeforest.edu/lake_forest_papers/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Publications at Lake Forest College Publications. It has been accepted for inclusion in Lake Forest Papers by an authorized administrator of Lake Forest College Publications. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Depictions of Damnation in the Beatus Manuscripts: Painting Adoptionism as Heresy Kristin Rawlings ARTH 383: Hell, Damnation, and Romanesque Art Prof. Beth Woodward Depictions of Damnation in the Beatus Manuscripts 1 Depictions of Damnation in the Beatus Manuscripts: Painting Adoptionism as Heresy Early scholarship on the Beatus manuscripts can best be classified as orientalist. Believed1 to be created first2 in medieval Spain by Beatus of Liébana, a monk at the Abbey of Santo Toribio, the Beatus manuscript (also Commentary on the Apocalypse or Apocalypse
    [Show full text]
  • Gender and Moral Authority in the Carolingian Age (2016)
    NOTICE: The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of reproductions of copyrighted material. One specified condition is that the reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses a reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. RESTRICTIONS: This student work may be read, quoted from, cited, for purposes of research. It may not be published in full except by permission of the author. 1 INTRODUCTION The common people call the place, both the spring and the village, Fontenoy, Where that massacre and bloody downfall of the Franks [took place]: The fields tremble, the woods tremble, the very swamp trembles… Let not that accursed day be counted in the calendar of the year, Rather let it be erased from all memory, May the sun’s rays never fall there, may no dawn ever come to [end its endless] twilight. -Englebert, 8411 The Battle of Fontenoy in 841 left the Carolingian Empire devastated. It was the only battle of a three-year civil war that left too many dead and the survivors, shattered. During this period of unrest, from 840-843, an aristocratic woman, Dhuoda, endured the most difficult years of her life. The loyalty of her absentee husband, Bernard of Septimania, was being questioned by one of the three kings fighting for an upper-hand in this bloody civil war. To ensure his loyalty, his and Dhuoda’s 14-year old son, William, was to be sent to King Charles the Bald as a hostage.
    [Show full text]
  • The Collections of Patristic Extracts That Are Frequently Found in Medieval
    The Constitution and Functions of Collections of Patristic Extracts: The example of the Eucharistie Controversy (9th-11th centuries) Stephane Gioanni The collections of patristic extracts that are frequently found in medieval manuscripts1 are one of the main modes of transmission of the Church Fathers2 in the Middle Ages: these collections ( called in tables of con­ tents florilegia, flores, analecta, col/ecta, compendia, dicta, sententiae and also miscellanea ...) deliberately bring tagether texts which are chrono­ logically, geographically, and generically diverse.3 But they are not sim­ ple receptacles: their organisation brought about connections, recon­ figurations and rewritings that had a decisive influence on the trans­ mission, perception and reception of the documents contained within them. Grouping them into collections responded to the desires of readers in a position to develop or modify them. These carefully composed miscel/anea came also to have a particular importance for the transmission of ancient texts because, on one hand, they demonstrated the auetoritos attributed to certain authors and, on the other hand, they I arn very gratefui to rnycolleague Robert jones for the insightful Supervision of this paper. Richard H. Rouse and Maty A. Rouse, "Fiorilegia of Patristic Texts," in Les Genres Iittemires dans /es sources theologiques et philosophiques medievales. Definition, critique et exp loitation. Actes du Col/oque international de Louvain-la-Neuve, 25- 27 mai 1981 (Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut des etudes rnedil�vales, 1982), 165-80. The term "Church Fathers" was used for influentialwriters and eminent teachers of the Church, especially after the Lateran Council of 649. This expression was not unknown in late Antiquity but it indicates rnostly, inthe 5'"-6'h centuries, the "318 fathers" of the Council of Nicaea of 325 and, rnore widely, participants in the EcurnenicalCouncils.
    [Show full text]
  • Meanings of Community Across Medieval Eurasia
    Meanings of Community across Medieval Eurasia Eirik Hovden, Christina Lutter and Walter Pohl - 9789004315693 Heruntergeladen von Brill.com07/19/2018 09:47:35AM via free access <UN> Brill’s Series on the Early Middle Ages Continuation of The Transformation of the Roman World Managing Editor Bonnie Effros (University of Florida) Editorial Board Deborah Deliyannis (Indiana University) Edward James (University College Dublin) Eduardo Manzano (cchs-csic Madrid) Walter Pohl (Austrian Academy of Sciences) Andrea Sterk (University of Minnesota) VOLUME 25 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsem Eirik Hovden, Christina Lutter and Walter Pohl - 9789004315693 Heruntergeladen von Brill.com07/19/2018 09:47:35AM via free access <UN> Meanings of Community across Medieval Eurasia Comparative Approaches Edited by Eirik Hovden Christina Lutter Walter Pohl leiden | boston Eirik Hovden, Christina Lutter and Walter Pohl - 9789004315693 Heruntergeladen von Brill.com07/19/2018 09:47:35AM via free access <UN> This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported (cc-by-nc-nd 3.0) License, which permits any noncommercial use, and distribution, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Cover illustration: The monastic complex of Gongkar Dorjeden. Wall painting by Yeshe Tendzin, Gongkar Dorjeden Monastery, Tibet; 1940s. ©Photograph by Jampel Shedrub. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hovden, Eirik, editor. | Lutter, Christina, editor. | Pohl, Walter, editor. Title: Meanings of community across medieval Eurasia : comparative approaches / edited by Eirik Hovden, Christina Lutter, Walter Pohl. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2016] | Series: Brill’s series on the Early Middle Ages ; volume 25 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
    [Show full text]