Levi Roach

A Sacred Kingdom: Bishops and the Rise of Frankish Kingship, 300-850. By Michael Edward Moore. [Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law, Vol. 8.] (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011. Pp. xii, 434. $69.95. ISBN 978-0-8132-1877-9.)What if one were to write a book about a small social group, using almost exclusively sources from that group? What would such a book look like? It might argue that the group thus chosen was a singularly important and influ- ential one, one that affected all aspects of society. It might argue that the group should actually be in charge of society, and when it came closest to holding that position, everything was optimal for everyone. Calling for a "return to [Louis] Duchesne" (p. 13), Michael Edward Moore has cast the bishops of late-antique Gaul and Francia as his central characters, but perhaps more than the renowned French church historian, it is Walter Ullmann whose long shadow is cast across every chapter.The introduction sketches out the major themes of the book-kings and bishops influenced one another, and Christian kingship, which Moore believes dominated western Europe by the sixth century and which reached its apotheosis during the reign of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, can be seen as the royal adoption of episcopal ideals that bishops had formulated in late antiquity; and that the ongoing concern of the Gallo-Roman and Frankish episcopacy was the formulation in canon law of an episcopal "social doc- trine." By this, Moore seems to mean that bishops, in their own law, claimed that the tradition they represented was ancient, going back to the Apostles and beyond; that their authority was incontrovertible; that they had exclusive rights to protect and defend holy places; and that the land and wealth which they and their various churches so assiduously collected was theirs to use and control.The first two chapters trace the formation and development of the late- antique episcopacy in Gaul. Drawing on the work of scholars such as Claudia Rapp, Moore argues that we should take seriously the claims of ascetic prowess that Gallic bishops made and that it was precisely such holiness that imbued them with the authority to create canon law. He fittingly notes that as this new law was developing, it was at the same time being defended as ancient and traditional. Chapters 3,4, and 5 trace the continuing development of the Gallic and Frankish episcopacy through the Merovingian period. Moore argues that throughout this period, bishops made continual efforts to con- ceptualize kingship, and these efforts went hand in hand with their attempts to christianize it and participate in royal governance. In the end, the relation- ship between episcopal and royal power was worked out in Christian law, which saw the two engaged in an alliance and partnership that was, at least to a degree, mutually advantageous. The final four chapters focus on the Carolingians, and Moore sees this period as one when the earlier episcopal social doctrine was transformed into a militant missionary theory of power that called for the use of force to christianize northern and central Europe: under Charlemagne, for example, both the Saxon and the Avar wars were "evangelical movements" (241). …

This article considers the text known as the Sibylla Tiburtina or Tiburtine Sibyl within the context of the Italian opposition to Emperor Otto III. Although the Sibyl itself is first attested in a manuscript of the mid-eleventh century, there are reasons to believe that it was redacted during or shortly after the reign of Otto III in Italy (996–1002). Since it has little good to say about the emperor, Anke Holdenried has plausibly argued that it was produced in the circles hostile to the emperor within the peninsula. Here further thought is given to possible contexts of production, suggesting that the leading candidate may be the monastery of Fruttuaria, which as a foundation favoured by Arduin of Ivrea found itself in opposition to Otto III’s close friend and associate Leo of Vercelli.

Feudalism has a wide variety of meanings. Traditionally it refers to the sociopolitical order of Western Europe in the central and later Middle Ages (c.900–1500), though it has also been used to characterize premodern Asian and African societies displaying similar features. The nature and relevance of feudalism as a model has been a subject of much debate and it is important to distinguish between three distinct (though broadly related) understandings of the term: the Marxist conception of feudalism as an economic system based on the ‘feudal mode of production’, the social historical model of ‘feudal society’ as something approximating a Weberian ideal type, and the legal definition of feudalism as a form of service tenement basedon the fief.

Traditional studies of royal itinerancy have depended on locating the king’s progress through his kingdom(s) as precisely as possible and it should therefore not surprise that the iter regis in pre-Conquest England has received relatively little attention, since Anglo-Saxon diplomas only rarely record their date and place of issue, making the establishment of the royal itinerary all but impossible. However, more recent studies, particularly by German scholars, have moved away from the earlier attention to the concrete details of the royal iter and focus more on the effects of itinerancy as a method of rulership, viewing itinerancy as a central part of royal ritual. This study argues that if we investigate itinerancy in tenth-century England from this standpoint, we can throw new light onto subject. Contemporary sources reveal that in England as in France and Germany the iter regis was of great importance, with symbolic acts of feasting and gift-giving accompanying royal visits. The attention given to these ritualized acts in contemporary sources suggests, moreover, that Anglo-Saxon kingship possessed an important ‘charismatic’ quality, which deserves further investigation.

This paper investigates the symbolic nature of tenth- and eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon diplomas, arguing that they are important witnesses to public rituals of conveyance. Against this background we can more fully appreciate the significance of Æthelred II’s diplomas of the 990s restoring lands to religious houses which had suffered at his hands. It is argued that these documents are witnesses to an important ‘penitential programme’ involving multiple public admissions of wrongdoing.

This paper seeks to shed light on the role of feudo-vassalic relations in Ottonian Germany, approaching the subject from angle of the role which homage played in dispute settlement. Taking as its starting point two descriptions of acts of submission which involved the ritual of homage, it argues that neither can sustain a traditional feudo-vassalic interpretation; it would seem that homage was used in such contexts not because the parties involved were bound by a putative ‘feudal contract’, but rather because it was a flexible rite, which was by no means limited to relations between feudal lords and their enfeoffed vassals. This leads on to a broader reconsideration of feudo-vassalic bonds in the tenth- and early eleventh-century Reich, which argues that though the evidence to hand does not conform well to classic teaching regarding the ‘feudal system’, it nevertheless shows important developments towards something approximating this, which by the second half of the twelfth century comes more fully into view.

This article investigates religious influences on dispute settlement in later Anglo-Saxon England. Starting with the evidence from law-codes, it traces how penance was increasingly integrated into contemporary law, arguing that this process opened the way for ritualized acts of satisfaction to become a feature of dispute settlement. The rituals used in such contexts often borrowed symbols and concepts from the world of penance, with the central idea being that an offender who repented and humbled himself was worthy of pardon. A few detailed accounts of such settlements survive and to these we may add cases of restitution and political reconciliation, which witness a similar logic. This evidence suggests that the stark contrasts often drawn between English and continental (particularly German) disputing in these years may be in need of some revision. Far from being ‘fiercely punitive’, later Anglo-Saxon legal culture seems to have been characterized by a mix of formalized punishments and more informal means of settlement not unlike what is visible in the Ottonian Reich.

This article consists of a detailed study of a series of extraordinary diplomas issued by King Æthelred ‘the Unready’ during the 990s. These diplomas restore lands and rights to churches which had earlier been despoiled by the king and his advisors and their wording indicates that they were intended as a conscious gesture of penitence. As such, these documents were of central political importance and it is argued that they can be fruitfully mined for evidence of Æthelred’s own thoughts and feelings in these years; these diplomas might well be considered to preserve Æthelred’s own ‘voice’.

This article seeks to provide a fresh perspective on long-standing debates about the role of the written word in later Anglo-Saxon legal culture. Using the law codes of King Æthelstan’s reign as a 'case study’, it argues that many of the unusual features of early English law are not so much products of orality, as of a fundamentally different approach to legal norms than is prevalent in the modern Western world. It thus seeks to move beyond recent literacy-orality debates, suggesting that it is more profitable to investigate the attitudes shown towards legal norms (both written and oral) within Anglo-Saxon society.

There has been much controversy over the role of apocalyptic thought at the court of Otto III of Germany (983–1002). This is in no small part a product of modern scholarship discussing the subject almost exclusively with reference to the so-called ‘terrors of the year 1000’, the result being highly polarised ‘all or nothing’ arguments, which run the risk of underestimating both the complexity and dynamism of eschatological expectation in this period. In contrast, the following paper argues that apocalyptic thought played an important part in politics under Otto III – a fact often overlooked by the modern ‘anti-terrors’ school – but one which cannot be explained by the proximity of the first millennium alone.

This paper discusses contemporary responses to the events of the reign of King Æthelred II (‘the Unready’) of England (978–1016). It focuses on two particularly well-evidenced interpretations of the tribulations of the age: the penitential view of these as divine punishment, which might be lifted by an appropriate form of atonement; and the apocalyptic view of them as signs of the approaching Last Judgement and end of time. These have traditionally been treated distinct and mutually exclusive lines of interpretation; however, it is argued that they were, in fact, intimately related. On this basis, it is suggested that a much closer connection existed between penitential and eschatological thought in the early and central Middle Ages than has hitherto been appreciated.

Forgery and Memory at the End of the First Millennium takes a fresh look at documentary forgery and historical memory in the Middle Ages. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, religious houses across Europe began falsifying texts to improve local documentary records on an unprecedented scale. As Levi Roach illustrates, the resulting wave of forgery signaled major shifts in society and political culture, shifts which would lay the foundations for the European ancien régime.

Spanning documentary traditions across France, England, Germany and northern Italy, Roach examines five sets of falsified texts to demonstrate how forged records produced in this period gave voice to new collective identities within and beyond the Church. Above all, he indicates how this fad for falsification points to new attitudes toward past and present—a developing fascination with the signs of antiquity. These conclusions revise traditional master narratives about the development of antiquarianism in the modern era, showing that medieval forgers were every bit as sophisticated as their Renaissance successors. Medieval forgers were simply interested in different subjects—the history of the Church and their local realms, rather than the literary world of classical antiquity.

A comparative history of falsified records at a crucial turning point in the Middle Ages, Forgery and Memory at the End of the First Millennium offers valuable insights into how institutions and individuals rewrote and reimagined the past.

An imaginative reassessment of Aethelred "the Unready," one of medieval England's most maligned kings and a major Anglo-Saxon figure The Anglo-Saxon king Aethelred "the Unready" (978-1016) has long been considered to be inscrutable, irrational, and poorly advised. Infamous for his domestic and international failures, Aethelred was unable to fend off successive Viking raids, leading to the notorious St. Brice's Day Massacre in 1002, during which Danes in England were slaughtered on his orders. Though Aethelred's posthumous standing is dominated by his unsuccessful military leadership, his seemingly blind trust in disloyal associates, and his harsh treatment of political opponents, Roach suggests that Aethelred has been wrongly maligned. Drawing on extensive research, Roach argues that Aethelred was driven by pious concerns about sin, society, and the anticipated apocalypse. His strategies, in this light, were to honor God and find redemption. Chronologically charting Aethelred's life, Roach presents a more accessible character than previously available, illuminating his place in England and Europe at the turn of the first millennium.