In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • A Sacred Kingdom: Bishops and the Rise of Frankish Kingship, 300–850 by Michael Edward Moore
  • M. A. Claussen
A Sacred Kingdom: Bishops and the Rise of Frankish Kingship, 300–850. By Michael Edward Moore. [Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law, Vol. 8.] (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011. Pp. xii, 434. $69.95. ISBN 978-0-8132-1877-9.)

What if one were to write a book about a small social group, using almost exclusively sources from that group? What would such a book look like? It might argue that the group thus chosen was a singularly important and influential one, one that affected all aspects of society. It might argue that the group should actually be in charge of society, and when it came closest to holding that position, everything was optimal for everyone. Calling for a “return to [Louis] Duchesne” (p. 13), Michael Edward Moore has cast the bishops of late-antique Gaul and Francia as his central characters, but perhaps more than the renowned French church historian, it is Walter Ullmann whose long shadow is cast across every chapter.

The introduction sketches out the major themes of the book—kings and bishops influenced one another, and Christian kingship, which Moore believes dominated western Europe by the sixth century and which reached its apotheosis during the reign of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, can be seen as the royal adoption of episcopal ideals that bishops had formulated in late antiquity; and that the ongoing concern of the Gallo-Roman and Frankish episcopacy was the formulation in canon law of an episcopal “social doctrine.” By this, Moore seems to mean that bishops, in their own law, claimed that the tradition they represented was ancient, going back to the Apostles and beyond; that their authority was incontrovertible; that they had exclusive rights to protect and defend holy places; and that the land and wealth which they and their various churches so assiduously collected was theirs to use and control.

The first two chapters trace the formation and development of the late-antique episcopacy in Gaul. Drawing on the work of scholars such as Claudia Rapp, Moore argues that we should take seriously the claims of ascetic prowess that Gallic bishops made and that it was precisely such holiness that imbued them with the authority to create canon law. He fittingly notes that as this new law was developing, it was at the same time being defended as ancient and traditional. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 trace the continuing development of the Gallic and Frankish episcopacy through the Merovingian period. Moore [End Page 107] argues that throughout this period, bishops made continual efforts to conceptualize kingship, and these efforts went hand in hand with their attempts to christianize it and participate in royal governance. In the end, the relationship between episcopal and royal power was worked out in Christian law, which saw the two engaged in an alliance and partnership that was, at least to a degree, mutually advantageous. The final four chapters focus on the Carolingians, and Moore sees this period as one when the earlier episcopal social doctrine was transformed into a militant missionary theory of power that called for the use of force to christianize northern and central Europe: under Charlemagne, for example, both the Saxon and the Avar wars were “evangelical movements” (241). Moore argues that the Frankish bishops, who at some earlier (and undisclosed) point seem to have dropped their claims to holiness through ascetic practice, both redirected and sacralized the monarchy. This process reached its zenith during the reign of Louis the Pious, but in it the seeds were sown for eventual catastrophe: it was Louis’s son Charles the Bald who reaped that harvest, favoring his ambitious and powerful aristocrats over the traditional Carolingian episcopal allies.

Moore is at his best when he is engaged in close readings of particular texts. His analysis of works by Ambrose of Milan, Caesarius of Arles and the Lérins authors, Pomerius, Isidore of Seville, Amalarius of Metz, and others are always stimulating, and often provocative and convincing. His arguments about the importance of the Visigothic church for the Franks...

pdf

Share