Introduction• The subject of priests in the Carolingian period is a large one. Priests seem to have been everywhere, in places ranging from royal courts to monasteries and from lay households to small, rural communities. They appear in a wide range of early medieval sources, in a variety of roles. We find them as subjects of decisions recorded in conciliar acts, capitularies and episcopal statutes1, whereas the foundations of the priesthood and various elements of their ministry are discussed in learned tracts.2 They are mentioned, although mostly in passing, in annals and chronicles3; in monastic cartularies they appear as scribes, witnesses or donators.4 There are letters about, as well as for, individual priests5; there are • I would like to thank Mrs Pam McInally for correcting my English in the whole manuscript. The responsibility for remaining funny Dutchisms and all other errors is, of course, my own. 1 Conciliar acts, capitularies and episcopal statutes will be extensively discussed in chapter 1 and 2. Special attention for the contents of episcopal statutes is found in chapters 3 and 4. 2 A few examples of such tracts, in which the priesthood is discussed and which will be discussed below, are: Hrabanus Maurus, De institutione clericorum libri tres, ed. Detlev Zimpel, Freiburger Beiträge zur mittelalterlichen Geschichte 7 (Frankfurt am Main, 1996); Hincmar of Rheims, De presbyteris criminosis de quibus approbatio non est, Migne PL 125, col. 1093B-1110D; Hrabanus Maurus, De universo, Migne PL 111, col 9A–614B. On more specific elements of the priestly ministry see e.g. Leidrad of Lyons, Baptismal exposition (formerly know as Leidradi liber de sacramento baptismi ad Carolum Magnum imperatorum), in: Water and the word. Baptism and the education of the clergy in the Carolingian empire, ed. Susan Keefe, vol. 2 (Notre Dame, 2002), no.25, pp. 353-84, and Theodulf of Orléans, Baptismal exposition (formerly known as Theodulfi Aurelianensis episcopi de ordine baptismi ad Magno Senonensem liber), in: Water and the word, vol. 2, no.16, pp. 280-321. 3 See, for instance, The Annals of St-Bertin, ed. Janet L. Nelson, Ninth-century histories I (Manchester, 1991), s.a. 858, where we encounter a preaching priest whose mass is disturbed by a wolf running around in church. 4 Some examples from Edmund E. Stengel, Urkundenbuch des Klosters Fulda, Erster Band (Die Zeit der Äbte Sturmi und Baugulf) (Marburg, 1958): a priest as scribe e.g. nos.11, 38 and 42; priest as subscriber: nos.160 and 182; a priest as donator: nos. 161, 214 and 220. See also chapter 5. All these charters are late eighth or early ninth century. 5 Letters about priests e.g. Hincmar of Rheims, Ad Adrianum papam, Migne PL 126, col. 641B-648C, of which the second part is about a priest called Trising (see also chapter 5); Hincmar of Rheims, Epistola XXXIV. Ad Joannem episcopum Cameracensen. De Hunoldo et malae famae presbyteri purgatione, Migne PL 125, col. 253B-254C at 253C. Letters written for priests e.g. Ebroini Bituricensis ad Magnonem Senonensem archiepiscopum pro 3 manuscripts used by priests6; and there are many surviving contemporary sermons, some of which were probably written and preached by priests.7 In a lot of these texts, we encounter priests in their primary roles of preachers and teachers, and as those who dispensed the sacraments and pastoral care to the laity. Especially in prescriptive texts, it is clear that, in these ways, the priests of the Carolingian period fulfilled the important task of linking lay people to their God and of showing them the way to salvation. Even in such a quick overview, and fragmented as the information may be, it is clear that priests were firmly embedded in Carolingian society. As a subject of research by modern scholars, however, Carolingian priests have been far from popular. Studies have examined various elements of their ministry, such as preaching, administering penance and baptism8, but so far, only a handful of articles have focused on the subject of priests as an important tranche of Carolingian society.9 Writing a doctoral thesis about the Carolingian priesthood is therefore a challenge: there is a real risk of being swamped by the Dodoberto presbytero, ut in ejus parochia apud Hercambaldum manere possit, Migne PL 129, col. 1389A-C; Joannis episcopi Camaracensis epistola generalis ad omnes episcopos, pro Ursione presbytero, ut in qualibet illorum parochia recipi possit, Migne PL 129, col. 1391D-1392D. 6 See e.g. Yitzhak Hen, 'Knowledge of canon law among rural priests. The evidence of two Carolingian manuscripts from around 800', Journal of theological studies, New series vol. 50, I (1999), pp. 117-34. 7 The vast majority of these sermons remains, unfortunately, unpublished and unedited. See T.L. Amos,`Preaching and the sermon in the Carolingian world' in: idem, E.A. Green and B.L. Kienzle eds., `De ore Domini': preacher and word in the middle ages Studies in Medieval culture 27 (Kalamazoo, 1989), pp. 41-60. 8 On preaching, see a.o. T.L. Amos, `Preaching and the sermon in the Carolingian world'; R. Emmet McLaughlin, `The word eclipsed? Preaching in the early middle ages', Traditio 46 (1991), pp. 77-122. On penance see a.o. R. Kottje, `Busspraxis und Bussritus', Segni e riti nella chiesa altomedievale occidentale, Settimani di studio 33 (Spoleto, 1987), pp. 369-95; Rob Meens, `The frequency and nature of early medieval penance', in: P. Biller and A. Minnis eds., Handling sin. Confession in the middle ages (Woodbridge, 1998), pp. 35-61. On baptism, see chapter 3 with relevant bibliography in the footnotes. 9 Two important examples are Wendy Davies, `Priests and rural communities in east Brittany in the ninth century', Études celtiques 20 (1983), pp. 177-97; Janet L. Nelson, 'Making ends meet: wealth and poverty in the Carolingian Church', in: W.J. Sheils and D. Wood eds., The Church and wealth (Oxford, 1987), pp. 25-35. reprinted in eadem, The Frankish world (London, 1996), pp. 145-53. For the Merovingian period, see: Robert Godding, Prêtres en Gaule 4 sheer abundance and variety of primary material, and there is not a lot of secondary literature to help make sense of it. From the wide range of ways in which one may approach the subject of priests in the Carolingian period, a rather limited one has been decided on as the main focus of this book. Rather than starting from the Carolingian priesthood in general and attempting to find new paths in the jungle of source-material, I have chosen to use a specific group of sources as the window through which to study priests. These are the so-called episcopal statutes, the capitula episcoporum of the ninth and early tenth century. Episcopal statutes When the project for this thesis was first devised in 1997, the three volumes of the MGH Capitula Episcoporum had only recently come out10, opening up a veritable treasure-trove of information about, most prominently, Carolingian priests. These texts had never before been available in a modern edition (or in any edition at all, in some cases11), and had, moreover, been the subject of little research.12 As well as being a manageable corpus of texts which is a relatively mérovingienne (Brussels, 2001). 10 MGH Cap.ep. I, ed. P. Brommer (Hannover, 1984); MGH Cap.ep. II, eds. R. Pokorny and M. Stratmann (Hannover, 1995); MGH Cap.ep. III, ed. Rudolf Pokorny (Hannover, 1995). 11 The MGH Cap.ep. contain first editions of Hildegar II, the Capitula Silvanectensia prima and secunda, the Capitula Cottoniana, the Capitula Frisingensia secunda, and the Capitula Eporediensia. 12 The most important pioneers exploring this material are Carlo de Clercq, `De secundo capitulari Theodulfo aurelianensi adscripto', Apolinaris 3 (1930), pp. 430-7, who also devotes attention to the episcopal statutes in his 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) (Leuven, Paris, 1936). Also very important is Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Church and the Carolingian reforms, 789-895 ((London, 1977), esp. chapter 2; Peter Brommer, `Die Rezeption der bischöflichen Kapitularien Theodulfs von Orléans', Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte, kanonistische Abteilung 61 (1975), pp. 113-60; idem, `Die Quellen der "Capitula" Radulfs von Bourges', Francia 5 (1977), pp. 27-43; idem, 'Capitula episcoporum. Bemerkungen zu den bischöflichen Kapitularien', Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 91 (1980), pp. 207-36 and his ”Capitula episcoporum” Die bischöflichen Kapitularien des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts, Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental 43 5 new subject for modern scholarship, this choice of sources also limits the number of possible approaches to the subject and reduces the 'window' on the priests of the Carolingian period to a workable size. First and foremost, the prescriptive nature of the episcopal statutes opens up questions of episcopal ideas and ideals concerning priests and their ministry, as well as the texts' origins and the bishops' scope to implement them effectively. This is a subject highly relevant in the context of the Carolingian reform-movement, when priests became the channels through which ideals of reform where meant to be passed down to the whole Frankish population at a local level.13 At the same time, a focus on the episcopal statutes steers one's attention towards a specific segment of the priesthood, as these texts were mainly written for local priests, who served the churches in what were often very small communities.14 Evidence for this can be found in the texts themselves when they occasionally refer to circumstances that place their priestly audience firmly outside monasteries and episcopal households, and inside communities of laymen. More will be said about this shortly.