Over a period of some five centuries, Europe was transformed by the
emergence of barbarian kingdoms in the regions of the former Roman
Empire. In the turbulent post-Roman world, the Christian church and its
bishops had considerable sway, as these kingdoms developed new
institutions such as Christian kingship. Warlike kingdoms competed with
each other and took on projects of political consolidation, religious
accommodation, and conversion. Religious imperatives shaped the
understanding of political culture, alongside aristocratic consensus and
cooperation. The Franks ultimately dominated Europe and built a great
empire, pursuing a doctrine of missionary warfare. Carolingian kings and
nobles were mobilized by a religiously saturated ideology and by the
appeal of an aggressive and expansionist political order.
Throughout these changes, bishops played a guiding role. Their special
garments, liturgies, and hairstyle indicated their character as a
priestly brotherhood, set apart from the rest of society, whose task was
to regulate the affairs of men and ensure the benevolence of God. The
function of bishops as a cohesive religious order, and their
collaboration with kings, meant that their ideas had a special prestige.
By their blessings bishops could protect crops, houses, and even the
kingdom and its warriors. By their mastery of laws--canon, Roman, and
barbarian--the bishops grasped the right nature of the social order and
indicated to others God's plan for the world.
Drawing on the records of nearly 100 bishops' councils spanning the
centuries, alongside royal law, edicts, and capitularies of the same
period, this study details how royal law and the very character of
kingship among the Franks were profoundly affected by episcopal
traditions of law and social order.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Edward Moore is associate professor of medieval and European
history at the University of Iowa.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
"A masterly survey of the five hundred years in Gaul/Francia after the
dissolution of the Roman Empire. It is elegantly and beautifully
written, and Moore's impressive mastery of scholarship in some seven
languages attests to his impressive command of the field. This book
comprises a major new interpretation of the genesis of Frankish culture
through the thought and actions of a Gallic episcopacy."--Sally N.
Vaughn, professor of history, University of Houston
"Moore's emphasis on the role of episcopal models for royal office is
both novel and engaging. His command of the secondary literature is
impressive and his readings of primary sources are nuanced . . . This is
a subtle, well-argued monograph that will greatly enrich our
understanding of the early Middle Ages; it should be required reading
for anyone interested in the religion and politics of the era."
--Journal of Ecclesiastical History
"The book presents an excellent and nuanced understanding of early
medieval kingship that situates it firmly in an ecclesiastical tradition
stretching back to the Roman Empire. Michael Edward Moore is a legal
historian at heart . . .yet this is no mere history of ecclesiastical
law." -The Historian
