Shepherds of the Lord : Priests and episcopal statutes in the Carolingian period

Abstract

This thesis aims to shed light on two, linked phenomena of the Carolingian period that have thusfar been largely ignored. The first is a group of low clergy, the priests who worked and lived in the many rural settlements of the empire, while the second consists of a recently edited corpus of texts written by diocesan bishops for the use of these same local priests. Two groups of episcopal statutes are identified: a first one written between ca. 800 and 820, and a second one produced between ca. 850 and 880. Between 820 and 850, hardly anything new was written, the explanation for which should be sought in the turbulent days the empire lived through, for which reason attention was diverted in other directions. In the first two chapters are about primary sources. The episcopal statutes, in no way a uniform corpus of texts to begin with, are placed in the context of contemporary prescriptive texts in order to, as it were, give them a place of their own. Whereas both capitularies and conciliar decrees consist the upper stratum of prescriptive activity in this period, it is argued that the episcopal statutes, as it were, translated the relevant subject-matter for local use. This not only means that the decisions taken by Carolingian reformers were selected for use at the lower levels of the ecclesiastical (and thereby lay) hierarchy, it also shows how bishops began to take their local priests more seriously than ever before. In the eyes of the Carolingian reformers, all inhabitants of the realm should be turned into perfect Christians in order to guarantee God's grace for the empire as a whole, and they realised that priests as local representatives of the church were essential in reaching this goal. The two next chapters (3 and 4) deal with the changing perception of the Carolingian priesthood during the late eighth and ninth centuries. The priesthood became a ministry in this period, but especially in the second group of statutes, new themes also surface which are directly connected with the changing position of Carolingian bishops. In a final chapter, the position of local priests is reconstructed from many, framentary sources. Priests, it turns out, were not automatically loyal to their bishops because of their privileged position of free land-holders within local society. Contrary to all kinds of presciptions and also to current scholarly insights, they can be seen to accumulate wealth and property. The stereotype poor priests seems to have been rather the exception than the rule. What is more, groups of local priests can be seen to have protected eachother's interests vis-à-vis their diocesan bishop, who was virtually powerless in such situations. All in all, this thesis opens up a relatively new field of study into the lowest accessible levels of Carolingian society, and for the first time explores a fascinating field of research that has so far been largely ignored.