Religion and power in the Frankish Kingdoms: Studies in honour of Mayke de Jong

This volume in honour of Mayke De Jong offers twenty-five essays focused upon the importance of religion to Frankish politics, a discourse to which De Jong herself has contributed greatly in her academic career. The prominent and internationally renowned contributors offer fresh perspectives on various themes such as the nature of royal authority, the definition of polity, unity and dissent, ideas of correction and discipline, the power of rhetoric and the rhetoric of power, and the diverse ways in which power was institutionalised and employed by lay and ecclesiastical authorities. As such, this volume offers a uniquely comprehensive and valuable contribution to the field of medieval history, in particular the study of the Frankish world in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Reviews

'The authors who have contributed to this volume must be particularly praised for the clarity and lucidity with which they present some often very obscure and esoteric topics. A tome of nearly six hundred pages can appear a daunting prospect, but the contributors make reading it nothing less than an intellectually stimulating pleasure that I hope many more scholars will experience.'
Richard Broom, University of Leeds, Early Medieval Europe 2018

'The editors and contributors to this volume should be applauded for gathering such a timely collection of essays to honor Mayke de Jong's important contributions to the field. Readers interested in familiarizing themselves with some of the current questions and approaches in this period's religious and political history should find their way to this Festschrift.?'
The Medieval Review

'Diverse and exceptionally coherent.'
Rezensionen im Deutschen Archiv 75-2 (2019)

Introduction - Rosamond McKitterick
Part I: Defining royal authority: religious discourse and political polemic
1 The rhetoric of election: 1 Peter 2.9 and the Franks - Walter Pohl and Gerda Heydemann
2 Adopt, adapt and improve. Dealing with the Adoptionist controversy at the court of Charlemagne - Rutger Kramer
3 The ruler as referee in theological debates: Reccared and Charlemagne - Janneke Raaijmakers and Irene van Renswoude
4 The ruler with the sword in the Utrecht Psalter - Bart Jaski
Part II: Royal Power in action: Correctio
5 Reform and the Merovingian Church - Ian Wood
6 "... but they pray badly using corrected books": errors in early Carolingian copies of the Admonitio generalis- Marco Mostert
7 Emendatio and effectus in Frankish prayer traditions - Els Rose
8 Alcuin, Seneca, and the Brahmins of India - Yitzhak Hen
9 'Et hoc considerat episcopus, ut ipsi presbyteri non sint idiothae'. Carolingian local correctio and an unknown priests' exam from the early ninth century - Carine van Rhijn
10 Religious Saxons: paganism, infidelity and biblical punishment in the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae - Robert Flierman
11 An admonition too far? The sermon De cupiditate by Ambrose Autpertus - Max Diesenberger
12 Three annotated letter manuscripts: scholarly practices of religious Franks in the margin unveiled - Mariken Teeuwen
Part III: Monastic powerhouses and centres of leaning
13 The Carolingians and the Regula Benedicti - Albrecht Diem
14 Reichenau and its amici viventes: competition and cooperation? - Regine Le Jan
15 Monte Cassino and Carolingian politics around 800 - Sven Meeder
16 A mirror of princes who opted out. Regino of Prüm and royal monastic conversion - Erik Goosmann and Rob Meens
Part IV: Powerful bishops
17 Merovingian Gospel readings in Northumbria: the legacy of Wilfrid? - David Ganz
18 Bishops in the mirror. From self-representation to episcopal model: the case of the eloquent bishops, Ambrose of Milan and Gregory the Great - Giorgia Vocino
19 Charlemagne and the bishops - Janet Nelson
20 The Penance of Attigny (822) and the leadership of the bishops in amending the Carolingian society - Philippe Depreux
21 From Justinian to Louis the Pious: inalienability of church property and the sovereignty of a ruler in the ninth century - Steffen Patzold and Stefan Esders
22 Incest, penance and a murdered bishop: the legend of Frederic of Utrecht - Bram van den Hoven van Genderen
Part V: Franks and Rome
23 Pippin III and the sandals of Christ. The making and unmaking of an early medieval relic - Julia Smith
24 Rulers, popes and bishops: the historical context of the ninth-century Cologne Codex Carolinus manuscript (Codex Vindobonensis 449) - Dorine van Espelo
25 Pope Nicholas I and the Franks: politics and ecclesiology in the ninth century - Tom Noble
Index

Editors

Dorine van Espelo is Researcher and Lecturer in the Department of History at Radboud University Nijmegen

Bram van den Hoven van Genderen is Lecturer in the Department of History and Art History at Utrecht University

Rob Meens is Lecturer in the Department of History and Art History at Utrecht University

Janneke Raaijmakers is Lecturer in the Department of History and Art History at Utrecht University

Irene van Renswoude is Researcher in the Department of History of Science at Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands (ING - KNAW), The Hague

Carine van Rhijn is Lecturer in the Department of History and Art History at Utrecht University