Noble Lord, Good Shepherd: Episcopal Power and Piety in Aquitaine, 877-1050

277 Pages·2009·1 MB·English

by  Anna Trumbore Jones

Noble Lord, Good Shepherd
Brill’s Series on the
Early Middle Ages
(continuation of Th e Transformation
of the Roman World)
Managing Editor
Bonnie Eff ros
State University of New York, Binghamton
Editorial Board
Deborah Deliyannis, Indiana University
Edward James, University College Dublin
Walter Pohl, Austrian Academy of Sciences
VOLUME 17
Noble Lord, Good Shepherd
Episcopal Power and Piety in Aquitaine,
877–1050
By
Anna Trumbore Jones
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
Cover illustration: Chauvigny, France. © Photo by Anna Trumbore Jones
Th is book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jones, Anna Trumbore.
Noble lord, good shepherd : episcopal power and piety in Aquitaine, 877–1050 / by
Anna Trumbore Jones.
p. cm. — (Brill’s series on the early Middle Ages ; v. 17)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17786-4 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Aquitaine (France)—Church history—To 1500. 2. Bishops—France—
Aquitaine—History—To 1500. I. Title.
BR847.A7J66 2009
274.4’7103—dc22
2009026638
ISSN 1386-4165
ISBN 978 90 04 17786 4
Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
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Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
For mom and dad, and for Larry and Olivia

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ............................................................................... ix
Abbreviations ...................................................................................... xiii
I. Introduction: In Bishops We Honor or Deny the Lord ..... 1
II. Ad locum sanctum, ad stipendia fratrum: Th e Bishop and
His Cathedral ............................................................................. 27
III. If the Count Should Send a Bishop: Lay Authority and the
Bishops of Aquitaine................................................................... 61
IV. Episcopal Authority at Religious Communities .................. 105
V. Episcopal Foundation, Restoration, and Reform of
Religious Houses ......................................................................... 145
VI. Aiding the Servants of Faith: Bishops and Donations to
Religious Houses ....................................................................... 183
VII. Conclusion: Ideals of Episcopal Power in Tenth-Century
Aquitaine .................................................................................... 219
Bibliography ......................................................................................... 229
Index ..................................................................................................... 253

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Th is book began life as a dissertation for the Columbia University
department of history. My fi rst debts, therefore, are to my teachers in
New York, and in particular to Robert Somerville, an extraordinary
advisor who will always remain my model of rigorous scholarship and
involved teaching. Adam Kosto sparked my interest in charters, acted
as a scrupulous and challenging second reader, and has remained a
friend and sounding-board. Th omas Head fi rst suggested Aquitaine as
an area of study and has been an invaluable resource ever since. Th e
work of Caroline Walker Bynum brought me to Columbia; her teaching,
advice, and good will made her a formative infl uence and a continuing
inspiration. Carmela Franklin taught me Latin and then helped me
wrestle with the at times opaque version of that language found in tenth-
century charters. I also thank Consuelo Dutschke and Roger Bagnall
for sharing their knowledge and their friendship. Columbia University
generously off ered years of fi nancial support in the form of the Richard
Hofstadter Fellowship and President’s Fellowship. Looking back to my
undergraduate education, I wish to acknowledge the crucial infl uence
of David d’Avray, whose inspired teaching and warm encouragement
made me decide to pursue medieval history; of Rachel Fulton, whose
courses deepened my interest in medieval Christianity; and of Steven
Pincus, who supervised my senior thesis at the University of Chicago
and encouraged me to pursue graduate study in history.
I conducted archival research for this project during a year spent in
France, at the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale
in Poitiers, with the support of the Bourse Chateaubriand en Sciences
Sociales from the French Cultural Services. I found at the CESCM a
remarkable community of scholars who were more than welcoming
to an American in their midst. I thank in particular Professors Martin
Aurell, Eric Palazzo, Georges Pon, and Cécile Treff ort. I am also grateful
to Sylvie Refalo and Jérôme Dinet for their help and friendship during
that year. I also thank those involved with a Mellon seminar held at the
Huntington Library during the summer of 2002: the organizers, War-
ren Brown and Jason Glenn; the visiting professors (especially Barbara
Rosenwein); and the other participants all contributed to the remarkably
stimulating and amicable atmosphere of those weeks.