The Vita Columbani in Merovingian Gaul

This paper considers the evidence for the dissemination of the Vita Columbani . Using a number of seventh-century texts as well as the Vita itself, it proposes that the Vita Columbani had a wider dissemination in Merovingian Gaul than has hitherto been acknowledged. It suggests that the Vita was not merely confined to monastic and ecclesiastical circles, but was also intended for a royal and aristocratic audience closely linked to the Columbanian communities.     

Letter-writing and literary culture in Merovingian Gaul

This essay discusses Gregory of Tours' claim that literary culture was in decline in light of the considerable quantity of poetry and letters composed by Merovingian authors. Scholars have come to appreciate the importance of letter-writing for historical inquiry, yet the contrast between Gregory's assessment and aristocratic literary activity remains under-explored. This essay discusses fifth-century precedents and examines the continuity and discontinuity that occurred in the literary transition from late Antique to early-medieval Gaul. It examines the place of literary culture within Merovingian elite friendship networks, focusing on the interconnected writings of three Merovingian authors. Venantius Fortunatus was an Italian-born poet who spent most of his career writing for Merovingian elites. The royal officials Dynamius and Gogo composed letters found in a compilation of sixth-century letters called the Epistolae Austrasicae. Using the letters and poetry of these three writers, this essay argues that literary skill facilitated the creation and maintenance of connections across distance and was a necessary part of elite identity. It shows that Gregory of Tours' dramatic rhetorical claim did not reflect the true state of literature in Gaul.     

The cult of Saint Denis and Capetian kingship

Throughout its history, the monastery of Saint-Denis sought to establish a tie with the ruling house, to make the abbey indispensable to the crown as the chief and privileged guardian of the royal presence. Beyond that, as the home of the principal Apostle of Gaul and the first bishop of Paris, it had a symbolic importance for the whole of France, independent of the monarchy itself. The representation of Saint Denis as a national saint, guiding, protecting, and promoting the well-being of the monarchy, was a monastic theme from the ninth century forward. The cult assumed its chief importance, however, in relation to the Capetians when, it is argued, it performed a critical function in the definition of French national identity under the aegis of the monarchy. In its importance for both France and the monarchy, the cult of Saint Denis helped make possible the fusion of two streams of national consciousness that might otherwise have remained distinct. Further, Capetian kings, by identifying themselves with the cult of Saint Denis, were able to tap a significant element of national devotion which contributed to the creation of a royal personality of national scope in France.     

The cult of Saint Denis and Capetian kingship

Throughout its history, the monastery of Saint-Denis sought to establish a tie with the ruling house, to make the abbey indispensable to the crown as the chief and privileged guardian of the royal presence. Beyond that, as the home of the principal Apostle of Gaul and the first bishop of Paris, it had a symbolic importance for the whole of France, independent of the monarchy itself.The representation of Saint Denis as a national saint, guiding, protecting, and promoting the well-being of the monarchy, was a monastic theme from the ninth century forward. The cult assumed its chief importance, however, in relation to the Capetians when, it is argued, it performed a critical function in the definition of French national identity under the aegis of the monarchy. In its importance for both France and the monarchy, the cult of Saint Denis helped make possible the fusion of two streams of national consciousness that might otherwise have remained distinct. Further, Capetian kings, by identifying themselves with the cult of Saint Denis, were able to tap a significant element of national devotion which contributed to the creation of a royal personality of national scope in France.     

The origins of kingship in early medieval Kent

In this article, it is argued that Bede's famous account of the origin and early development of the people and kings of Kent in Historia ecclesiastica (I.15) does not report historical events, but reflects eighth-century concepts of migration-period kingship with mythical links to the Jutes of Scandinavia. Bracteate evidence shows that the veneration of Woden existed in Kent by the sixth century. Support for a contemporary belief in the Scandinavian origin of Kentish kings is found in locally produced bracteates, which imitate Scandinavian styles, and where several recovered from Kentish cemeteries are found in close proximity to places with royal connections. These include the only known Kentish site linked to the veneration of Woden. Evidence suggests that Kentish genealogy reflects a mythical belief in ancestry from Woden, rather than historical descent from Scandinavian Jutes. Finally, it is argued that Kentish bracteates, usually found in exceptionally rich female graves, were worn by high status women. These women may have played a significant role in legitimizing new royal claims.     

The mind of Baddo: Assassination in Merovingian politics

One of the more repellent aspects of the Merovingian age is the apparent ease with which its society resorted to assassination. Ambition, dissimulation, and cupidity all too often found an outlet in political murder. But such behavior may be more than simply the upwelling of pure barbarism. Assassination in Merovingian politics may be the logical, if unhappy, byproduct of an altered world-view.The people of the Merovingian age were prone to take deeds as an accurate sign of inward intention, which brought the ultimate revelation of right and wrong forward to the present. And if the holiness of an action were readily apparent, even disgusting actions such as assassination may be seen, with proper exegesis of the Books of Judges, to produce right results. An examination of the implied conceptual circumstances surrounding assassination, the ‘mind’ of society to the deed, reveals a mixed attitude to these violent acts.The permissibility of assassination in qualified cases coupled with'the immediate establishment of it as holy or unholy, encouraged attempts on the lives of public figures. Once the full taboo had been broken, assassination became a dangerously routine solution to political grievances, and society's response to it became chillingly casual.     

The Merovingian accounting documents of Tours: form and function

A little fewer than thirty Merovingian accounting documents which originated from the Abbey of St Martin of Tours, though fragmentary, provide for the historians of early medieval Europe an unexpected tool with which the latter could cast a new light over actual conditions in tribute collection and the management system for the fiscal administration of the abbey. The present article asks some basic questions about these accounting documents in the hope of casting further light on their form and function: which form did take the documents while they had been used for the collection of dues? At which stage of collecting procedure they served in the abbey as a tool for the keeping of records? When was each document prepared? In which historical context could be placed the birth of fiscal document of the abbey? All of these question are important for an understanding of the history of St Martin's of Tours and of the use of documents in general in the Merovingian era.     

Holy Fire and sacral kingship in post-conquest Jerusalem

ABSTRACT

In 1101 the Holy Fire failed to appear in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Holy Saturday, as tradition and liturgy dictated. Less a failure and more a deliberately precipitated crisis born of a political struggle of wills between Patriarch Daimbert and King Baldwin, the resolution of this event enabled the kings of Jerusalem to establish dominance over the ecclesiastical sphere for most of the kingdom’s history. A reading of the narrative sources against liturgical sources casts light on the intersection between liturgy and government and on how the simulation of miracles could be used to advance political causes.     

Pandora and Hatshepsut: Ancient Archtypes in the iconography of kingship

Greek myths contain iconographic material relating to the legitimacy, power and succession problems of early kingship. They may even represent the relics of kingly liturgies recited at coronations and New Year festivals. This essay analyses Hesiod's Pandora, her presentation and regalia, as an icon of queenly power reflecting the important power of women in the Egyptian royal cult and the great exponent of that role, Queen Hatshepsut. Pandora's veil, crown, name and ‘box’ or ‘jar’ recall both the moment of apotheosis of Egyptian queens and the emblems of the Egyptian royal priestesses who tended the divinity of kings. They also recall the astral and solar imagery of the great goddesses of Mesopotamia, Anath, Ishtar and Astarte—as well as Hesiod's Europa—queenly figures of great power.     

The messiah epithet in the Hebrew Bible

Rather than a reference ''to a present, political and religious leader who is appointed by God, applied predominantly to a king, but also to a priest and occasionally a prophet'' as proposed in 1985 by the first Princeton Symposium of Judaism and Christian origins, the term 'MSH' in the Hebrew Bible is an epithet or title which functions within a literary and mythic but not an historical context. The role of the messiah as played in the Hebrew Bible is not uniquely Jewish, but functions within the symbol system of ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and functions within a theology of divine transcendence and immanence. The coherence of the mythic role of the messiah is identified in relation to concepts of messianic time, as in the functions of expiating and mediating transcendence, of maintaining creation through war against the powers of chaos and the establishment of eternal peace. David's role as messiah in the Psalter is described in his role as ideal representative of piety, and as ruler over destiny bringing the good news expressed in various forms of ''the poor man's song.'' Finally, the role of the messiah myth is integrated with utopian concepts of a new Israel.