The Archaeology of Frankish Church Councils, AD 511-768 (Medieval Law and Its Practice)

313 Pages·2009·1.71 MB·English

by  Halfond

Archaeology of Frankish Church Councils,
ad 511–768
Medieval Law and Its Practice
Managing Editor
John Hudson (St Andrews)
Editorial Board Members
Paul Brand (All Souls College, Oxford)
Dirk Heirbaut (Ghent)
Richard Helmholz (Chicago)
Caroline Humfress (Birkbeck, London)
Magnus Ryan (Cambridge)
Stephen White (Emory)
VOLUME 6
Archaeology of Frankish
Church Councils, ad 511–768
By
Gregory I. Halfond
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
Th is book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Halfond, Gregory I.
Archaeology of Frankish Church Councils, AD 511–768 / by Gregory I. Halfond.
p. cm. -- (Medieval law and its practice, ISSN 1873–8176 ; v. 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17976-9 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Councils and synods--France--History. 2. France--Church history--To 987. I. Title.
II. Series.
BR200.H35 2009
262'.524409021--dc22
2009033918
ISSN 1873-8176
ISBN 978 90 04 17976 9
Copyright 2010 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, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechani-
cal, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the
publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill pro-
vided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222
Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
Preface ..................................................................................................... vii
Abbreviations and Note on Translations ............................................ xi
Introduction: A Roman Institution in a Post-Roman World ......... 1
Chapter 1. Sources of Conciliar History ......................................... 31
Chapter 2. Th e Physical World of the Frankish Councils ............. 57
Chapter 3. Th e Refl ection of Reality in Conciliar Legislation ...... 99
Chapter 4. Th e Enforcement of Conciliar Rulings ........................131
Chapter 5. From Councils to Canon Law .......................................159
Chapter 6. Continuity and Change in the Eighth Century ..........185
Conclusion .............................................................................................213
Appendices
A. Frankish Councils, 511–768 ....................................................223
B. Contested and Dubious Councils, 511–768 ..........................247
C. Calendar of Councils ................................................................263
Map (Ecclesiastical Provinces And Bishoprics
of Merovingian Gaul) ............................................................................265
Bibliography ...........................................................................................267
Index .......................................................................................................291

PREFACE
Th e processes of nature can therefore be properly described as sequences
of mere events, but those of history cannot. Th ey are not processes of
mere events but processes of actions, which have an inner side,
consisting of processes of thought; and what the historian is looking for
is these processes of thought. All history is the history of thought.
–R. G. Collingwood, Th e Idea of History
As R. G. Collingwood eloquently argues in his classic unfi nished work,
Th e Idea of History (1946), what matters to a historian are not events
per se, but rather human thoughts manifested in events. In so doing,
Collingwood draws a comparison between the geologist and the
archaeologist. In examining the same rock strata, the former is con-
cerned fundamentally with chronology, i.e., the order of events, as dic-
tated by the physical evidence. Th e latter, however, views this same
evidence “as artifacts serving human purposes and thus expressing a
particular way in which men have thought about their own life.”1 Th e
latter’s work is thus “historical,” while the former’s is “quasi-historical.”
Archaeology, by Collingwood’s defi nition, is “history in which the
sources used…are not pre-existing narratives of the events into which
the historian is inquiring.”2 Th e absence of narrative forces a historian
working with archaeological evidence to apply an overtly Baconian
methodology of questioning in order to interpret these artifacts in a
historical manner.
Th e following is a work of institutional history. As such, its purpose
is to explicate the functions and procedures of an administrative body
in order to determine its importance to the community it serves.
Institutional history, particularly of a period in which the survival of
documents coincides only sporadically with the needs of the historian,
requires the scholar to consult a wide variety of sources, most of which
1 R. G. Collingwood, Th e Idea of History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946), 212.
2 R. G. Collingwood, An Autobiography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1939),
133. On archaeology’s place in Collingwood’s philosophy of history, see W. J. van der
Dussen, History as a Science: Th e Philosophy of R. G. Collingwood (Th e Hague: Martinus
Nijhoff Publishers, 1981), 201–53. Collingwood made little distinction between the
methodological and the philosophical principles that guided his work in archaeology
and history respectively.
viii preface
are not directly concerned with the institution being studied or the
questions being posed. In such cases, they are more akin to Colling-
wood’s archaeological sources than to traditional literary ones, lacking
a germane narrative to question or critique. Th ey contain narratives
to be sure, but narratives little concerned with the institution as such.
Th is study’s title, therefore, is not intended to suggest a Foucaultian
approach to the evidence, or the analysis of physical objects recovered
from the strata of the earth. Rather, it is a refl ection of an eff ort to con-
struct a narrative of institutional history from isolated shards of evi-
dence while avoiding the “scissors and paste” methodology despised by
Collingwood.
Th e institution under consideration here is the ecclesiastical coun-
cil, as it appeared in the Frankish kingdoms between Clovis’ convoca-
tion of the First Council of Orléans in 511 and the royal coronation of
Charlemagne in 768. Church councils as a phenomenon have not been
neglected by other historians of the Early Middle Ages. Few, however,
have looked beyond the legislation composed during the course of
these meetings, and have examined the nature of the institution that
produced it. Th is scholarly lacuna has left unanswered a number of
fundamental questions about the role of synods in the regnum
Francorum, not least of all the uncertain legal status of the conciliar
canons and the extent of royal control over the church and its councils.
Th ese questions and others are addressed in this study, which has been
conceived as a monograph rather than as a handbook.
Additionally, I place a special emphasis on contextualizing the
Frankish councils within the physical, political, legal, and religious
world in which they gathered. Th is perspective allows conclusions to
be drawn about the broader social signifi cance of the councils in what
otherwise would have been a mere bureaucratic history. Whenever
possible, I draw attention to the individuals behind the institution.
A council is a collective body of men, who, despite their willingness to
subsume their identities within the greater corporate body, still bring
to the meeting their own histories, agendas, and personalities. Although
many of the prelates and clerics who attended the Frankish councils
are known to us merely as names, and their distinct identities are lost
to history, I emphasize throughout this study the reality of their indi-
viduality. Indeed, their “individual refl ective acts of thought” (to use
Collingwood’s terminology) before and during meetings are what
made each and every council and its agenda unique, and thus are of
fundamental importance to this study.
preface ix
What follows is a revised version of a doctoral dissertation defended
at the University of Minnesota in 2007. Th ere are numerous individuals
to whom I owe a large debt of gratitude for helping me to see this pro-
ject through to completion. Th e members of my doctoral committee—
Bernard S. Bachrach, Ruth Karras, Michael Lower, George Sheets, and
James Tracy—were extraordinarily generous with their time and ad-
vice, and were very patient with an anxious young graduate student.
Special thanks are due to my adviser, Bernard S. Bachrach, whose
devotion to the study of history has inspired generations of students.
His probing questions, encyclopedic knowledge of sources and schol-
arship, and constant encouragement made this project possible.
I would also like to thank Paul Fouracre, Felice Lifshitz, and Joseph
Goering for their helpful comments on individual chapters, and Kathy
Kaiser for her copyediting. It was Paul Hyams and Danuta Shanzer
who initially triggered my interest in the Early Middle Ages, and both
continue to serve as sources of support and inspiration. At Framingham
State College, Jon Huibregtse, Brad Nutting, Tom Krainz, Richard
Allen, Nick Racheotes, and Bridgette Sheridan have been welcoming
and supportive colleagues. Neil Conrad and the other librarians at
Whittemore Library have tirelessly sought out dozens of obscure pub-
lications for use in this project. Dave Merwin and Kathryn Fatherley
have generously provided the map that appears at the end of this vol-
ume. For their friendship and encouragement, I would like to thank
Edward Snyder, Christopher Marshall, and Matthew Lundquist.
Finally, I owe the largest debt of gratitude to my family: Jay and Gayle
H alfond, Rebecca Halfond, Murray and Jeanne Halfond, and my l oving
wife, Larissa, to whom this book is dedicated.