The Penitential State: Authority and Atonement in the Age of Louis the Pious, 814–840

by Mayke de Jong

• ISBN13: 9780521881524
• ISBN10: 0521881528
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In 833 emperor Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son, submitted to a public penance in the wake of a rebellion by his three elder sons. This penance amounted to a deposition, for Louis was to atone for his sins for the rest of his life. However, only half a year later, he was back on the throne again. In this major re-evaluation of Louis' reign, Mayke de Jong argues that his penance was the outcome of a political discourse and practice in which the accountability of the Frankish ruler to God played an increasingly central role. However heated their debates, this was a moral high ground Louis shared with churchmen and secular magnates. Through a profound re-reading of texts by contemporary authors who reflected on legitimate authority in times of crisis, this book reveals a world in which political crime was defined as sin, and royal authority was enhanced by atonement.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
A note on annotation, citation and translation	p. xi
List of abbreviations	p. xii
The Carolingian world in the first half of the ninth century	p. xvi
Louis's succession arrangement of 817 (the so-called Ordinatio imperii)	p. xviii
Pippin and Charlemagne	p. xix
The descendants of Louis the Pious I	p. xx
The descendants of Louis the Pious II	p. xxi
Introduction: The Penitential state	p. 1
Louis the Pious (778-840)	p. 14
A boy who became a king	p. 14
Adolescentia	p. 16
The conquest of Aachen	p. 19
Dynasty	p. 24
Procreation	p. 31
Hludowicus Augustus	p. 34
Scapegoats and rebels	p. 38
Intermezzo	p. 44
833 and all that	p. 46
Restoration	p. 50
'The last years'	p. 52
Ninth-century narratives	p. 59
The court and its narratives	p. 59
The message from inside: annals	p. 63
Imperial imagery: Einhard	p. 67
A bishop's view: Thegan	p. 72
The corridors of power: the Astronomer	p. 79
Poetic praise: Ermold the Black	p. 89
With hindsight: Nithard on Louis the Pious	p. 96
Looking back in anger: Radbert on Wala	p. 102
Admonitio, correptio, increpatio	p. 112
Criticising rulers	p. 112
The watchman for the house of Israel	p. 114
The vocabulary of admonition and sin	p. 118
Exaltation by admonition: Attigny, 822	p. 122
Royal admonition	p. 131
Admonition from beyond the grave	p. 135
From admonitio to increpatio	p. 142
The wages of sin (828-829)	p. 148
Scapegoats: Matfrid and Hugh	p. 148
Clades: the offended deity	p. 153
The winter assembly of 828-829	p. 157
Letters from the palace	p. 170
A penitential council: Paris, 829	p. 176
Purity and danger (830-831)	p. 185
The reputation of the palace	p. 185
The one and only queen	p. 188
Sexual slander	p. 195
Purity and danger	p. 200
Rebellion and restoration	p. 205
Scandal and satisfaction (832-834)	p. 214
An unexpected visitor	p. 214
Debates on the Field of Lies	p. 224
Public sin and public penance	p. 228
The bishops argue their case	p. 234
The case against the bishops	p. 241
Penance and public humiliation	p. 245
Turning the tables	p. 249
Epilogue: The penitential state after Louis the Pious	p. 260
Appendix	p. 271
Bibliography: primary sources	p. 280
Bibliography: secondary sources	p. 283
Index of biblical references	p. 305
General index	p. 306
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