Abstract The mountains of the Auvergne are where the earliest vestiges of the later Peace of God can be seen. As Carolingian government in the region fell apart between the mid-ninth and mid-tenth centuries, so the dominant picture has it, disorder increased and the proto-Peace of God was developed as a response. This article argues that such a picture takes account neither of the patchy evidence for what Carolingian ‘government’ in the region actually involved, or the political realities of the decades around 950. Consequently, this piece examines the evidence for how Carolingian Auvergne was actually ruled up to the middle of the tenth century, highlighting the informality and disruptiveness of the rule of large-scale hegemons up to and including the kings, and arguing that large-scale hegemony continued to be in place in the region up to the reign of Bishop Stephen II of Clermont, who filled this role. It gives an account of the wars of the 950s and 960s, replacing older narratives and examining the ideological strategies of the actors in these wars, locating the suite of elements that would go on to form the basis of the Peace of God within the context of their time. The final result is to argue that, even though the proto-Peace of God was not revolutionary and came firmly from a mid-tenth century context, it was nonetheless disruptive from its inception.
Abstract The paper examines the correspondence between Pope Gregory the Great ( r. 590–604 ) and Bishop Leander of Seville ( d. c. 600 ) and situates their exchange within the context of contemporary epistolary culture. It focuses on the rhetorical construction of Gregory’s letters, that is, on the verbal articulation of their epistolary relationship and on the performative character of the genre itself. Gregory fashioned his relationship with Leander as an authentic spiritual bond that opened a direct diplomatic channel to the Visigothic king Reccared ( r. 586–601 ) and the elites of the Visigothic kingdom, thoroughly mediated through Leander. The paper illuminates Gregory’s epistolary practices, in particular his formation of interpersonal alliances that are to be understood as negotiated commitments grounded in moral and soteriological dependencies. These affiliations contributed significantly to the consolidation of the authority of the Apostolic See on the Iberian Peninsula, as well as to the positions of Leander and Reccared as bishop and king, respectively.
Abstract This is the first detailed study since the nineteenth century of the ‘Epistolae Arelatenses’, a Merovingian collection of 54 fifth- and sixth-century letters concerning Arles and its role between papal Rome, the Empire, and Gaul. Moving away from narrowly legalistic interpretations, it reframes the collection as a persuasive late sixth-century statement about the place of Arles and Gaul in the recent history of the Mediterranean world. Part I redates the collection to c. 590/595. Its compilers were working from the archives of Arles, selectively assembling documents for a libellus to support a royal petition for a major papal privilege reconnecting Arles – and with it, a partly estranged Merovingian church – to the imperial church of Rome. This was granted with much fanfare by Pope Gregory I in August 595. Part II then explores what we can learn by viewing the collection through the lens of its three contemporary audiences: ( 1 ) papal Rome ( which depended on the curatorship of external archivists and collectors to make sense of papal history and guide future policy ); ( 2 ) the Merovingian court of Childebert II ( which still needed convincing of Rome’s orthodoxy in the wake of the Three Chapters Controversy ); and ( 3 ) the city of Arles ( for whom the collection can be read as an expression of local historiographical traditions about late/post-Roman Gaul – an alternative, Mediterranean perspective from that offered by its contemporary, Gregory of Tours ).
Abstract This study examines how order was maintained in written form in the East Frankish Kingdom during the first half of the tenth century. Relatively few sources have been handed down from this period of a succession of kings of different origins, namely Louis the Child, Conrad I and Henry I. However, we know that royal charters and synodal decrees continued to be issued. Meanwhile, previous research found that the self-image and model of a bishop as guiding the Christian kingdom alongside the king disappeared following the synod of Hohenaltheim in 916, and that the kingdom was consolidated through horizontal personal bonds of friendship and prayer, especially under Henry I. In this regard, it remains an open question how this ( dis )continuity of governmental practice should be evaluated. Here, I explain the mechanisms for this continuity in terms of interactions between the court of the non-Carolingian king, Henry I, and the ruling elites who retained the memory of earlier royal rule.
Abstract The terms “Hochburgund” ( “Upper Burgundy” ) and “Niederburgund” ( “Lower Burgundy” ) are frequently employed, particularly in German-language research, as geographical names describing a landscape and to designate the corresponding kingdoms of the Rudolfian kings of Burgundy and Boso of Vienne. This usage contrasts with the limited examination of the actual medieval usage, about which, apart from individual cases, scant information is available, especially from an overarching perspective. The aim of this article is therefore to analyse and trace the use of the terms in the respective contemporary sources. The resulting synthesis will offer a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of these terms from the 9 th to the early 12 th centuries. This analysis will facilitate a critical examination of the usage in contemporary research and provide a novel perspective on the subject as a whole.
