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landscape was complicated by the interests of a powerful monastic institution, although one might say it was already complicated by the interests, and presence, of a powerful landowner. Here, in north-west Iberia, far beyond the reach of the legacy of the Carolingian Empire, we have elements of many of the themes that have recurred in this book. It hardly needs saying that the source material available for the early Middle Ages does not allow reconstruction of the feelings and the nuances of personal relationships of individual peasants. There is a limit to what can be
objectives. We shall return to this below. It is useful, however, first to review in more detail both traditional and revisionist interpretations of this so-called movement in order to have a better understanding of its connection with eleventh-century reform as well as its repercussions for eleventh-century society. Traditionally, the ‘peace of God’ has been seen as something of a ‘war on war’, in other words, as a reaction to the disorder, whether real or perceived, that resulted from the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire during the later ninth and especially
came to be recognised in France. Their triumph was rapid and bright.’ 28 Jean-François Lemarignier employed the same thunderous language, defining the dominant historical discourse on monastic exemption, arguing that it produced a new form of liberty that experienced its ‘première application éclatante’ 29 in the wake of a crumbling Carolingian Empire. The ‘singularités françaises’ 30 in the ecclesiastical history of the Middle Ages, it is argued, can be found most readily in the relations between the papacy and the Church in France. The
administrative institutions did not begin to develop significantly until the eleventh century. Portugal did not acquire an independent political identity before the later eleventh century. In the far north-east, in the Pyrenees and their southern and western hinterland, lay Catalonia, subject to Frankish expeditions in the late eighth century and established as a march of the Carolingian Empire in the early ninth. Initially comprising seven counties, more were added before the more prominent counts began to absorb the lesser counties; these counts continued to look to the
Europe. The latter were expected to follow different sets of norms, such as those set out in the Carolingian episcopal normative texts issued by bishops, exclusively meant for the clergy, and they were subject to different courts. There were also marked differences between lay office holders and priests regarding marriage and inheritance. The sources mention a bewildering range of titles for subordinate office holders: in the Carolingian Empire alone we find gastaldi , centuriones , centenarii , sculdhaizi , tribuni , vicarii , vicecomites , decani , actores
the formation of national feeling in the embryonic France and Germany, a theme sometimes dealt with under the more neutral guise of the formation of the idea of a transpersonal state. 8 In this debate, 978 is examined for whether it betrays an increasing feeling of separation between the two successor kingdoms of the Carolingian Empire. 9 With exceptions, the consensus seems to be that it does not. 10 The retelling of the
controversy represent a remarkable case of defiance of episcopal authority and an unusual occurrence of heresy in the Carolingian world, both of which exposed Hincmar’s limitations as a defender of doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline in his own archdiocese. A missionary of grace Theological controversy came to the archdiocese of Rheims in 848 when Gottschalk, a priest from the archdiocese and former monk of the abbey of Orbais, returned after a decade of travels through the Carolingian empire, Dalmatia, Bulgaria and
. It is mainly from Hincmar’s own writings that Flodoard constructed his history of Rheims. Our own view of the Carolingian empire is also greatly shaped by Hincmar’s work. Hincmar was born within a decade of Charlemagne’s acceptance of the imperial title in 800; he died in 882, six years before the death of the last undisputed Carolingian emperor, Charles the Fat. His long life therefore encompassed the greater part of the Frankish empire’s existence. But Hincmar was not just a witness to the Carolingian ninth century. As archbishop of Rheims, he was one of its
examples of Ambrose and Martin. Like Ambrose, Martin stayed in his city and faced the usurper Maximus. 40 Their examples are supported by two quotations from Augustine to show firstly that communication with a king without being contaminated by his sin is possible, and secondly that it is not his usurpation that is held against him, but the sacrileges of which it is the cause. 41 As the Carolingian Empire was Christian, there was little risk of bishops being prosecuted and led to martyrdom. As a consequence, Martin and Ambrose are more effective examples because they
. 13 The archdiocese was divided: 14 the bishopric of Cambrai, held by Theoderic, a supporter of Lothar, lay within the Middle Kingdom, while Rheims itself and Hincmar’s other suffragans – some of whom, like Prudentius, had reservations about the new archbishop 15 – were in Charles the Bald’s kingdom. Moreover, Rheims held lands right across the newly divided Carolingian empire, from Aquitaine (largely under Pippin II’s de facto control in 845) to the Wormsgau. Many were in lay hands as a result of royal grants, by Lothar and Charles the Bald among others