Rome and Religion in the

Medieval World
Studies in Honor of Thomas F.X. Noble

Edited by
VALERIE L. GARVER
Northern Illinois University, USA
AND
OWEN M. PHELAN
Mount Saint Jvlary's University, USA

Thom,is FX. Noble

I\ ~ '-J t: I\ TC:
.\ll rocn·ed. No part of rhis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval Contents
,\ ,c~1n ur tLrnsmirted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
;;>.:
;.,kw L C.ifl'cr and Owen M. Phd.rn have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs List ofPlates :1:z
.. i.d P.m:ms :\n, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work. Notes on Contributors
xv
Acknowledgments
:'t:b]1,hed bv Thomas FX. Noble: An Appreciation
xvii
Publishing Limircd Ashgate Publishing Company Valerie L. Garver ,znd Owen lvl. PheLm
xxi
\\ ·n Court .bsr 110 Cherry Street Bibliograph_y ofthe U'Orks of Thomas FX. Noble, 1974-2013
l 1Jll<'J1 \{,-,,1d Suite 3-1
xxvii
Discipuli Nobifis
f .i:-nh.un Burlington, VT 05401-3818
:i~:rrn', Cl;c) ~PT USA 1 "Whatever Mystery May be Given w My Heart": A Latenr
}_ngLnd 1
Image in Araror's History ofthe Apostles
Giselle de Nie

2 Getting to Know Virgil in the Carolingian Age: The Vit11

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data 21
c;,r.tbgw: record for this book is available from the British Library Publii Virgilii
john J Contreni
Hie Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
lCl.llc .rnJ religion in rhc medieval world; srudies in honor of Thomas F.X. Noble I edited by 3 Why Not to Marry a Foreign Woman: Stephen Ill's Letter
\'.1Lric L. Garver and Owen M. Phelan. 47
to Charlemagne
p.1::;c1 cm. - (Church, faith and culrure in rhe medieval \!;'est)
U7tzlter Pohl
I1k:u,k, bibliogr.iphic.1! references and index.
hBl\ 'rS- l--172+2112-8 (hardcover - ISBN 978-1-4724-2113-5 (ebook) - 65
!SBN cr8-l-F2-t-211+2 (epub) 1. Rome (ltaly)-History-476-1420. 2. Rome (Italy)- 4 Opposition to Pilgrimage in the Reign of Charlemagne?
;-!"t'"' -+76-1-120-Sources. 3. Rome (Italy )-Religious life and customs. 4. Religion-Social Janet L. Nelson
' 1•cd>-!t.1h-·Rome-Hi1rnry-To 1500. 5. Church hisrory-Middle Ages, 600-1500. 6. Papacy-
l-l;,ror\'··1(, I )\lO. -. Rome (lraly)-Inrellecrual life. 8. Material culrure-Iraly-Rome-History- The Sources of Textiles and Vestments in Early Meqieval Rome 83
5
, .; l )ill) '!. Puliric.J culrnrc-Ir.ily-Rome-Hisrory-To 1500. 10. Noble, Thomas F. X. I.
Maureen C. Miller
l " ' " c·r \·.1kric L (V.1lerie Louise), 1972- II. Phelan, Owen Michael.

6 Christening, the Kingdom of the Carolingians, and European

;)(,SJ l.RC.25 201-1 101
·1_;- l)i!-2 0-1-dc23 Humanity
2013045829 john Van Engen
~\u!\ ''-:il-1-2i21128 (hbk) The Astronomer's Life of Louis the Pious 129
l 1,hl\ ,1-si.,-2-121135 (cbk- PDF)
7
1\i.'-'-' •1-s 1-1-2-±211-12 (ebk - cPUB)
David Ganz

8 Paschasius Radbertus and Pseudo-Isidore: The Evidence of the

149
•"°\ MIX Epitaphiu.m Arsenii
,, J~ I~SC'
Paper from
resportis1bl& sources Mayke de Jong
Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Limited,
. Fsc• co13985
,1t the Dorset Press, Dorchester, DTl lHD
 R1m1e .zml Rdigio11 in the ;l,JedievtI! JVorfd

C:.1re of Rdics in Ear11 Medieval Rome

179
Jztl1.i jfJ! Smith .
List of Plates
Rome and the Popes in the Construction of Institutional History
mJ Identity in the Early Middle Ages: The Case of Leiden
Univer~iteitsbibliotheek Scaliger MS 49 207
St. Catherine at Maaseik, Belgium, casuLz of Sts. Harlin dis and
RostZmond .AlcKitterid..:
Relindis, pattern of the "David silk" reconstructed, eighth-early
I I ninth century (Mildred Budny)
l l
\\'.'h,1t's in a Psalm? British Library, MS Arundel 60 and the Stuff
of Prayer 235
2 Vatican City, Museo Sacro of the Biblioteca Aposrolica Vatica1M,
Kuhd Fulton Brozen
Annunciation, compound twill silk from Constantinople,
eighth-early ninth century (Scala/ Art Resource, NY)
Prulegomenon to a Study of the Vienna Coronation Gospels:
Common Knowledge, Scholarship, Tradition, Legend, Myth 253
f_,uura1ce 1Vees
3 Vienna Coronation Gospels, front cover, early sixteenth century
(Welcliche Schatzkammer der Hofburg, Kunsthistorisches
Museum, s.n.) (Photo Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien)
1~"' Toward Evolurion: 1he Structure of Scientific Revolutions and
the Receptions of the Libri Carolini in the Seventeenth Century 275 4 Vienna Coronation Gospels, Evangelist John and op~ning of his
XtZrl F Aforrison
Gospel, first quarter ninth century (Weltliche Scharzkammer der
1,_, • \f.muscrip!.1
Hofburg, Kunsthistorisches Museum, s.n., fols. l 78v- l 79r) (Photo
\" /;u/e_,. 335 Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien)
337
5 Alfred Reth el, fresco in the Kronungsfostsaal of the
Rathaus in Aachen, showing Otto Ill kneeling before the
enthroned corpse of Charlemagne, 1847 (Photo Peter Curlis,
1943, © Zentralinstitut fur Kunsrgeschichte)

6 Adhemar of Chabannes, drawing of Charlemagne's tomb and

palace chapel at Aachen, before 1033 (Vatican, Biblioteca
Apostolica Vaticana, cod. Reg. lat. 263, fol. 235r) (Photo Biblioteca
Apostolica Vaticana)

7 Adhemar of Chabannes, drawing of the head of Charlemagne,

before 1033 (Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, cod. Lat.
5943A, fol. 5r) (Photo Bibliotheque nationale de France)

8 Adhemar of Chabannes, drawing of St. Eparchius of Angouleme

with self-portrait, before 1033 (Paris, Bibliorheque nationale de
France, cod. lat. 3784, fol. 99v) (Photo Bibliotheque nationale de France)
 Chapter 8
Paschasi11s Radbertus and Pseudo-Isidore:
The Evidence of the Epitaphium Arsenii
J\;favke
,/ de Jonab
~

Ihe Field of Lies and Pseudo-Isidore

In June 833, the conflict between Louis the Pious and his three eldest sons that
Jud been building for the past year came to a head. Armies converged upon the
Rorfelt near Colmar, in Alsace, a place that would become known as "the Field of
Lies," because Louis's supporters went over in droves to the camp of his eldest son
Lothar and his brothers. TI1ose on the side of the rebel sons, however, interpreted
this massive desertion as a divine judgment which justified the public penance
that had been imposed on Louis in the autumn of 833. God had obviously
withdrawn his favor from this mighty emperor. 1 One of those who continued
to advocate this view, long after the event, was Paschasius Radbertus~ a monk
of Corbie and a highly accomplished biblical scholar, who was the abbot of this
monastery between 843/44 and 849/53. 2 In retirement, having relinquished his
ab bacy, he embarked on the second book of his Epitaphium Arsenii. Radbert had
already completed the first book of this funeral eulogy in the years immediately
after his abbot Wala's death in 836. A cousin of Charlemagne, Wala had been a
powerful secular magnate until 814, when, denied the favor of the new emperor,
he left the political arena, was tonsured, and entered Corbie, where he none the

Mayke de Jong, 7he Penitenti,zl St,1te. Attthori~y 1md Atonement in the _Age ojLouis the Pious
(8N-8-JO) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 224-49; Courtney M. Booker,
Put Convictimts: The Perltmce rifLouis de Pious ,md the Decline r!/the C1rolingi,1rzs (Philadelphia,
PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), pp. 140-82.
2
On P:1schasius Radberrus' biography, sec Ludwig Traube, Prooemium, MGH
Poetae 3, pp. 39-40 (hereafter, Traube, Prooemium); Henri Peltier, Pascme R,zdbert, ,zbbe de
Corbie. Contribution ,i letude de l,z uie 11zonmtique et de ltz pensee chretienne 1W).· temps ull'olingiens
(Amiens: L.-H. Durhoir, Editeurs, 1938); David Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingimi Rcn,1iss1znce,
Beihefre der Francia 20 (Sigmaringen: Jan 1horbecke Verlag, 1990), pp. 29-33; Henry Mayr-
Harting, "Two Abbots in Politics: \'V'ala of Corbie and Bernard of Clairvaux", 'frrzns,utions r?/
the Ro_v,zl Historic,d Society 5(,±o) (1989): 217-37; Mayke de Jong, "Familiarity Lost: On the
Context of the Second Book of the Epitaphium Arsenii:' in lvbrtin Gravel and Soren Kaschke,
r'ck, Politischc Theologic wzd Gcschichtc :mtcr L11d11'1j, rlcm l+01nmc11/Hi.itOi/'C ct th1 5ologie politiq11cs
011_1 Louis le Pirnx, Relectio, Karolingische Pcrspektiven/Perspectives carolingiennes/Carolingian
P ·ctivcs 2 (Ostfildc1-n: 'TI1mbcckt: '/crbg, frnthcGrning).
150 Rome 1md Religion in the lvfedi~val World

less continued to be a force to be reckoned with; in 821-22, he and his half-

brother Adalhard were reconciled with the emperor; in 826, Wala succeeded
Adalhard as abbot of Corbie. 3 His monastic name was Arsenius.
The Epitaphium is a sophisticated literary work, constructed as a dialogue
between three monks of Corbie, of which Radbert himself (as "Pascasius") was
the narrator. 4 Whereas the first book concentrated on Wala's role as an abbot,
the second explained and justified his conduct during the two rebellions against
Louis the Pious of830 and 833. The main thrust ofRadbert's argument was that,
despite his involvement in these uprisings, Wala had been a model of loyalty to
his emperor. This second book has greatly influenced the modern concept of the
uprising of 830 as a "loyal palace rebellion;' carried out by those committed to
defending the unity of the Christian empire. 5 It is also one of the central sources

3
Karl Heinz Kruger, "Zur Nachfolgereglungvon 826 in den Klostern Corbie und Corvey;'
in Norbert Kamp and Joachim Wollasch, eds., Tradition als historische Kraft: Festschrifi Karl
Htzuck (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982), pp. 181-96. See also Brigitte Kasten,Adttlhard von Corbie. Die
Biographic eines karolingischen Politikers und Klostervorstehers, Studia humaniora 3 (Dusseldorf:
Droste Verlag, 1986); Lorenz Weinrich, TVt:zla, Graf,' Monch und Rebell: Die Biographie eines
Karolingers, Historische Studien 386 (Lubeck and Hamburg: Matthiessen Verlag, 1963 ), pp. 53-9.
4
On the EpitaphiumArsenii, see: Peter von Moos, Consolatio. Studien zur mittellateinischen
Trostliteratur iiber den Tod und zum Problem der christlichen Trauer, 4 vols., Munstersche
Mittelalter-Schrifi:en 3 (Munich: Fink, 1971-72), vol. 1, pp. 140-42, and vol. 2, pp. 100-101;
Walter Berschin, Biographic und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter, vol. 3, Karolingische
Biogr,1phie, 770-920 (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1991), pp. 318-25; David Ganz, "The
Epitaphium Arsenii and Opposition to Louis the Pious;' in Peter Godman and Roger Collins,
eds., Charlemagne's Heir: New Perspectives on the Reign ofLouis the Pious (814-840) (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1990), pp. 537-50; David Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance, 112-20;
Chiara Verri, "II libro primo dell'Epitaphium Arsenii di Pascasio Radberto;' Bulletino dell'Istituto
Storico Italiano peril Medio Evo 103 (2001/2002): 33-131; Booker, Past Convictions, pp. 42-50;
De Jong, Penitential State, pp. 102-11; Mayke de Jong, "Becoming Jeremiah: Radbert on Wala,
Himself and Others;' in Richard Corradini et al., eds., Ego Trouble: Authors and their Identities
in the Early Middle Ages, Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mitttelalters 15 (Vienna: Verlag der
Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschafi:en, 2010), pp. 185-96.; Mayke de Jong, "'Heed
That Saying of Terence': On the Use of Terence in Radbert's Epitaphium Arsenii;' in Carolingian
Scholarship and lvfartianus Capella: Ninth-century Commentary Traditions on lvfartianus's De
nuptiis in Context, Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (CELAMA) 12,
ed. Mariken Teeuwen and Sinead O'Sullivan (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), pp. 273-300; Matthew
Kempshall, Rhetoric and the fVriting ofHistory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011 ),
pp. 196-208. I am currently writing a book-length study of the text: Epitaph far an Era: Paschasius
Radbertus and His L1mentfar yf{zla (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
5
For a pertinent critique of this concept, and an extensive bibliography of the relevant
German historiography, see Steffen Patzold, "Eine 'loyale Palastrebellion' der'Reichseinheitspartei'?
Zur 'Divisio imperii' von 817 und zu den Ursachen des Aufatandes gegen Ludwig den Frommen
im Jahre 830;' Friirnittelzlterlithe Studien 40 (2006): 43-77.
 151

of information on the controversial intervention of Pope Gregory IV in the

conflict between Louis and his rebellious sons in 833, a topic discussed in Tom
Noble's doctoral dissertation. 6
Radbert presented the pope's appearance north of the Alps as a genuine
attempt at mediation, and Louis's rejection of it as the beginning of the road
to his de facto deposition at Soissons. Radbert's is a partisan view, but this is
precisely what interests me here. Central in his vivid narrative is the story of
\Vala and himself traveling, with precious textual baggage, to Lothar's camp near
Colmar. 'There, they met a despondent pontiff who had been threatened with
deposition by bishops loyal to Louis. They supported Gregory by presenting
him with authoritative texts:

\Ve therefore gave him some writings confirmed by the authority of the holy fathers
and his predecessors, on the basis of which nobody could contradict that his was the
power, or rather, God's and the Apostle Peter's, and his the authority to go to and
adjudicate all peoples,~ for the fidelity to Christ and the peace of the churches, for
the preaching of the Gospel and the proclamation of the truth, and that in him rested
all the exalted authority and living power of the blessed Peter, by whom all mankind
ought to be judged, so that he himself should be judged by nobody. He accepted
gratefully and took much courage from these writings. 8

Recently, the idea has been revived that the "some writings" mentioned here were
an early or even more advanced stage of the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals. 9 This

6
Thomas F.X. Noble, Louis the Pious ,md the Pap,zcy: Luu, Politics ,ind the Theor_y ofEmpire
in the Etirly Ninth Century (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1979; diss., Michigan State
University, 1974), pp. 321-52.
Acts 1.5: 17: "ut requirant ceteri hominum Domin um et omnes genres super quas
in_vocarum est nomen meum dicit Dominus faciens haec"; Acts 15:22: "tune placuit apostolis et
senloribus cum omni ecclesia eligere viros ex eis et mittere Antiochiam cum Paulo et Barnaba
~udam qui cognominatur Barsabban et Silam viros primos in fratribus."
8
Paschasius Radbertus, Epitaphium Arsenii, ed. E. Diimrnler, in Abh,zndlungen der
Koniglichen .Ak,idemie der vVissensch,ifien zu Berlin, Phil.-Historische Abh,zndlungen 2 (1900),
c. 16, p. 84 (hereafter EA): "~ibus auditis, pontifex plurimum mirabatur, ac verebatur. Unde et ei
dedimus nonnulla sanctorum patrum auctoritate firmata praedecessorumque suorum conscripta,
quibus null us contradicere possit quod eius esset potestas, immo Dei et beati Petri apostoli, suaque
auctoritas, ire, rnittere ad ornnes genres pro fide Christi et pace ecclesiarum, pro praedicatione
evangelii et assertione veritatis, et in eo esset omnis auctoritas beati Petri excellens et potestas viva,
a quo oportcret _universos iudicari, ita ut ipse a nemine iudicandus esset. ~ibus proftcto scriptis,
gratanter accepit, et valde confortatus est."
9
Johannes Fried, Donlltion ojConst,zntil1e,z1ul Crmstitutiv Cowtdntini: lbe JiisintnprettZtion
o/tl Fiction ,znd its Origin,d j\,fe,zning, ll'ith ,i Crmtrilmhon by Holfimn Br,mdes: "1lx S,zt1izps
o/ Const,mti11t", Millennium-Studien zu Kultur und Geschichte des ersten Jahrtamends
 152 Rome and Religion in the lvledieval J!Vorld

was once a widespread view, but it had already been rejected in 1863 when Paul
Hinschius published his edition of the decretals. 10 In 1905, Emil Seckel warned
that Radbert's "anecdotes" should be kept out of any serious investigation of
the famous forgery. 11 Most scholars have heeded this ever since, and the view
that the false decretals were the product of the late 840s and early 850s has
gained a wide consensus. 12 Accordingly, whether thought of as anecdotal or
not, Radbert's Epitaphium has been left out of account as a relevant witness to
the history of the false decretals, on the grounds that it was concerned with the
events of the 830s. Since the beginning of the new millennium, however, this
consensus established by Seckel and others has been challenged, to begin with
by the influential work of the late Klaus Zechiel-Eckes. 13 It is now argued that
Pseudo-Isidore was already created in the 830s, and that the forgers were located
in Corbie. This historiographical revolution has had paradoxical consequences.
'Not only was the genius behind the false decretals and its precursors recognized
as Radbert, or perhaps Wala himself, but Radbert's Epitaphium came back into
view with a vengeance as a possible witness to this process.
There is a problem, however, of which scholarship on Pseudo-Isidore, old
and new, seems to be largely unaware: namely, that only the second book of
the Epitaphium deals with the rebellions against Louis the Pious, and that it
dates from the mid-850s. It was written after Radbert had been deposed as the
abbot of Corbie. Inevitably, the author's own experiences, including his removal
as abbot of Corbie in 849/853, helped to shape his narrative of the rebellions,
to the extent that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to separate the author

n. Chr. 3 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2007), pp. 99-103; Eric Knibbs, "Pseudo-Isidore on the Field of
Lies: 'Divinis praeceptis' (JE t2579) as a~ Authentic Decretal;' Bulletin ofMedieval Canon Law,
n.s. 29(2011 ): 1-34; Eric Knibbs, "The Interpolated Hispana and the Origins of Pseudo-Isidore:'
Zeitschrifl der Savigny-Stiflungfor Rechtsgeschichte: kanonistische Abteilung 99 (forthcoming).
IO Paul Hinschius, ed., Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianae et Capitula Angilramni (Leipzig:
B. Tauchnitz, 1863), p. cxcvi.
11
Emil Seckel, "Pseudoisidor:' in].J. Herzog, Albert Hauck, and Hermann Caselmann, eds.,
Realenenzyklopediefiirprotestantische 1heologie und Kirche, 3rd edn. (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1905 ),
p. 276: "Auf alle Falle empfiehlr es sich somit, das Historchen des Paschasius aus der Geschichte
der falschen Dekretalen auszuschalten.''
12
Horst Fuhrmann, Einfluss und Verbreitung der Pseudo-lsidorischen Falschungen. Von ihrem
Au.ftauchen bis in die neuere Zeit, 3 vols., Schriften der MG H 24( 1-3) (Stuttgart, 1972-7 4); for a
clear and convenient English summary, see Detlev Jasper and Horst Furhrmann, Papal Letters in
the Early Afiddle Ages (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press, 2001), pp. 138-95. The most
recent update is Horst Fuhrmann, "Stand, Aufgaben und Perspektiven der Pseudoisidorforschung;'
in \V. Hartmann and G. Schmitz, eds., Fortschritt durch Falschungen? Ursprung, Gestlzlt und
TVirkungen der pseudoisidorischen Falschungen, MGH Studien und Texte 31 (Hanover: Hahnsche
Buchhandlung, 2002). Seckel, "Pseudoisidor;' remains a valuable overview.
13
Jasper and Fuhrmann, P,zp,zl Letters, p. 142.
 153

and his subject. 1 ' In other ways as well, this is not a source of factual information
on the rebellions, bur it has much to say on how much alive these controversial
vcars of revolt still were in the minds of Radbert and his audience two decades
later. Taken as a source of the 850s, as it should, this text can be valuable for
Pseudo-Isidorian scholarship in various ways, but not if it is used-in a circular
~1rgumcnt-as conclusive evidence for the origins and development of this
forgery, or for Wala and Radbert being the geniuses behind this enterprise. 1l1is
is not to say that their participation is out of the question, but any hypothesis
would have to be substantiated by other sources, such as Radberr's vast corpus of
biblical commentary. It should be kept in mind that virtually all that we know of
\V1la's own views on the rebellions comes from the Epitt1phium's second book.
Furthermore, this text certainly vaunts papal authority, as does Pseudo-Isidore,
bur the latter's alleged central purpose, the strengthening and protection of
the position of bishops, is conspicuously absent in Radbert's narrative. In fact,
bishops do not play any role of importance in the Epitaphium.
Given the attempts to identify Wala and/or Radbert as the forger(s) in
question, the central issue in this tribute to Tom Noble is the question of
whether the Epitaphium's second book sheds any direct light on the genesis of
Pseudo-Isidore. I very much doubt it, but Radberr's account of the actions of
Gregory IV on and around the Field of Lies is certainly relevant to the vvider
context of the decretals; so is a letter ascribed to this pope, dated to 833, which
addresses the bishops loyal to Louis in no uncertain terms. Together with
Pseudo-Isidore, these texts are important witnesses to the Frankish clergy's
increasing reliance on and identification with papal authority. This gradual
process was perhaps kick-started, and certainly accelerated, by Gregory's
presence north of the Alps in 833.

Pseudo-Isidore On the Afove

Although I refer to "Pseudo-Isidore" for the sake of brevity, the forgeries include
.·four·ma!n collections: the Collectio Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis, Capitula
· Angilramni, the Capitularies of Benedict Levita, and the Pseudo-Isidorian
Decretals. In what follows, I am mainly concerned with the false decretals.
-These contain a mixture of genuine and forged papal letters and conciliar
acts from Anaclerus I (c. 79-90) until Gregory I (590-604), followed by the
Roman synod of Gregory II in 72 I. l'i The consensus that largely prevailed

lt
1his topic is explored in De Jong, "BecomingJcremiah," and De Jong, "Familiarity Lost."
I~
For an infc>rmative discussion of the separate collections, see Fuhrmann, Einjl1us
zmrl I erhreitm1_(;, vol. I, pp. 151-91; see also ibid., pp. 13' -'i9, and the summary in ibid., vol.
fI, pp. 588-95; on the forgeries in general, see also Jasper and Furhrrnann, nzptl! f,etten,
pp. U8-95, 'Vith a detailed survey uf the structure of rhe dccretals and their sources on ibid.,
 154 Rome and Religion in the Medieval fVorld

until end of the end of the last century was that this compilation was only
completed between 847 and 852 in the circle of clerics who had been ordained
by Archbishop Ebo of Rheims during the brief period (840-842) when he
had managed to regain his see. Ebo's successor Hincmar (845-82) refused to
recognize their consecration, and deposed them. 16 This would explain why the
decretals tried to protect suffragan bishops from the might of their archbishops.
By appealing to papal authority to render the procedure of deposing bishops so
complicated as to be nearly impossible, Pseudo-Isidore attempted to curtail the
might of metropolitans, provincial synods, and, to a lesser extent, secular power.
In the process, papal power was enhanced, but not as a goal in itself. Its main
purpose was to protect bishops against arbitrary accusations and depositions. 17
This general aim is not contested, but the date and context of the decretals'
origins are. Klaus Zechiel-Eckes has made a forceful case for the monastery of
.Corbie as Pseudo-Isidore's primary "workshop;' and suggested that Radbert
may well have been the main intellectual force behind the entire enterprise. He
also argued that the decretals' defense of bishops against judicial arbitrariness
should be understood in the context of Louis's restoration in the years 834/36.
Relentlessly cracking down on those who had imposed a public penance on
him in 833, the emperor had driven these churchmen to defend themselves
by forgery. 18

pp. 161-9. Furthermore, see Eric Knibbs, Introduction to Pseudo-Isidore: A BriefIntroduction to the
Pseudo-Isidorian Forgeries, https :/I sites.google.com/ a/yale.edu/ decretumgratiani/introduction-
to-pseudo-isidore (accessed March 26, 2013 ), with extensive references to older literature. For
current research on Benedictus Levita, see Edition derfalschen Kapitularien des Benedictus Levita,
http://www.benedictus.mgh.de/haupt.htm (accessed April 2, 2013).
16
Seckel, "Pseudo-Isidor;' 190, pp. 274-5; the terminus post quem is the completion of the
capitularies of Benedict Levita after April 21, 847, when the decretals were not yet completed;
the terminus ante quem is Hincmar's use of the collection in his Capitula de presbyteris of
November 1, 852; Fuhrmann, Einfluss und Verbreitung, vol. I, pp. 191-4; Jasper and Fuhrmann,
Papal Letters, pp. 170-73.
17
Ibid., pp. 142-2.
18
The main argument is developed in Klaus Zechiel-Eckes, "Zwei Arbeitshandschriften
Pseudoisidors;' Francia 27(1) (2000): 205-10; Klaus Zechiel-Eckes, "Verecundus oder
Pseudoisidor? Zur Genese der Excerptiones de gestis Chalcedonensis concilii;' Deutsch es
Archiv 50 (2000): 413-46; Klaus Zechiel-Eckes, "Ein Blick in Pseudo-Isidors Werkstatt. Studien
zum Entstehungsprozess der falschen Dekretalen. Mit einen exemplarischen Editorischen
Anhang;' Fmncia 28(1) (2001): 37-90; Klaus Zechiel-Eckes, "Auf Pseudoisidors Spur: Oder,
Versuch, einen dichren Schleier zu li.iften;' in Wilfried Hartmann and Gerhard Schmitz,
eds., Fortschritt durch Fiilschungen? Ursprung, Gest,1lt und Wirkungen der pseudoisidorischen
Fdlschungen, MGH Studien und Texte 31 (Hanover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 2002), pp. 1-28,
and Klaus Zechiel-Eckes, "Eine 'unbeugsame' Exterminator? Isidorus Mercator und der Kampf
gegen das Chorepiskopar;' in Oliver Mi.inch and Thomas Zotz, eds., Scientia verit,:ztis. Festschrifi
j!'ir Hubert iVfordek zzmz 65. Gebttrtst,zg ( Ostfildern: Thorbecke Verlag, 2004 ), pp. 173-90.
 l~zsth,zsius R1ulbertus mzd Psmdo-hidore 155

A rather traditional kind of political history runs through most of Zechiel-

Eckes's argument, but at its heart are three manuscripts used by the forger or
forgers; all three bear marks and annotations of passages that ended up in the
Pseudo-Isidorian decretals. Among these manuscripts is the oldest copy of the
HistoriLZ ealesi1zstirn tripmiita, the Latin translation by Cassiodorus-Epiphanus
of a fifth-century compilation of three Church histories, originally written in
Grcek. 1'> Given that two of these manuscripts have Corbie as their provenance,
and the third was annotated in this monastery, Zechiel-Eckes identified Corbie
as the "workshop" in which the celebrated forgery originated, and Radbert, the
monastery's top scholar, as the likely genius behind it. These views have met
with a generally favorable reception, although there have also been reservations. 20
"Tiut Corbie had been central to the forgery was readily accepted, but there
n.'.'mained the question of why a monastery had produced a collection that tried
ro defend bishops against judicial arbitrariness on the part of their archbishops.
Furthermore, given that the earliest complete manuscripts of the decretals date
to c. 860, arguments for an earlier date must remain circumstantial by definition.
For Zechiel-Eckes, the connection with Corbie, a known center of
opposition against Louis the Pious, meant that the forgery's obvious context
was the restoration of Louis the Pious in 834-36, when rebellious bishops were
relentlessly pursued by a vengeful emperor out to punish those who submitted
him to this humiliating penance. Hitting back, these reform-mindS'.d clerics
gathered texts, genuine and forged, which would bolster their authority in the
19
St. Petersburg Codex F.v.I. 11 (a copy of the Historia ecdesit!Stica tnpartita of
C1ssiodorus-Epiphanus dating from the period 814-21, transmitted in Corbie); Paris BN
lat. 11611, a copy of the acts of the Council of Chalcedon in the version of Rusticus; first quarter
of ninth century, probably written in Corbie; BAV Pal. Lat. 1719, early ninth century. All these
manuscripts have passages marked that have been incorporated in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals.
See Steffen Patzold, Episcopus. Hfissen itber Bischofe im Frankenreich des sp1iten 8. bisfi-uhen 10.
]tihrhundert, Mittelalter-Forschungen 25 (Ostfildern: Thorbecke Verlag, 2008), pp. 221-6, for
a succinct survey, with an informative footnote 254 on the manuscripts; Zechiel-Eckes, "Zwei
Arbeitshandschrifi:cn Pseudoisidors"; Zechiel-Eckes, "Ein Blick in Pseudo-Isidors Werkstatt";
Zechiel-Eckes, "Auf Pseudoisidors Spur." ·
20
In favor: Karl-Georg Schon, Die Cttpitula Angilramni. Eine prozessrechtliche Falschung
heudoisidors, MGH Studien und Texte 39 (Hanover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 2006); Karl
Ubl, "De Mehrwert der p~ipstlichen Schliisselgewalt und die Tradition des heiligen Klemens;'
in Andreas Pecar and Kai Trampedach, eds., Die Bibel ,z/s politisches Argument. Vomussetzungen
tmd Folgen biblizistischer Herrsch4islegitirniltion in der Vormoderne, Historische Zeitschrifi:,
Bcihcfi:e 43 (Munich: Oldenbourg Vfrlag, 2007), pp. 189-217; Johannes Fried, "Der lange
Schatten eines schwachen Herrschers: Ludwig dcr Fromme, die Kaiserin Judith, Pscudoisidor
und andere Personen in der Perspcktive neuer Fragen, lvkthoden und Erkentnisse;' Historischc
Ztitsdrrifi 28Lt (20t)7): 103-.)6; Fried, Do11,zt!m1 o/Cmst,zntim, pp. 99-103. Reservations were
voiced by Fuhrmann, "Sund, Aufgaben und l\:rspektivcn:' l-c)i1copw, pp. 221-6, and De Jong,
Pmi!CJJ t/,r/ "'>'t.z!c', PP· 262- 3.
156 Rome and Religion in the Jvfedieval World
l
f

face of the onslaught of secular rulers. This background strengthened the case
for Radbert's important role in this undertaking, for together with Wala, he had
been a prominent member of the group of churchmen who had rebelled against
Louis in 830 and 833. In Zechiel-Eckes's view, Louis's crackdown on these men
in 834-36 was a backlash of the most vicious kind. 21 Four archbishops and
"countless" bishops were duped by Louis and driven off to Italy, where in 836
they died in an epidemic. 22
Yet this image of Louis's restoration as a fierce backlash against rebellious
bishops makes little sense in the light of contemporary sources, and neither
does the notion, still subscribed to by Zechiel-Eckes, that the rebellions of
the 830s represented a struggle between a "party for the unity of the empire"
(Reichseinheitspartei) on the one hand and Louis as the incorporation of an
imperial Staatskirche on the other. 23 There was no strict and inflexible divide
between two "parties;' and even more relevant here, there was no such thing as
a terrible crackdown on Louis's part against the bishops that sided with Lothar. 24
Archbishop Ebo of Rheims became the scapegoat, left by the others to bear
the brunt of the emperor's wrath. 25 The other high-profile prelate who played a
central role in the emperor's public penance, Ago bard of Lyon, failed to appear
at the assembly in Diedenhofen in 835, where he should have accounted for
himself. He was deposed, but finally restored to his archiepiscopal see in 839. 26
Four or possibly five bishops followed Lothar to Italy, as did Abbot Wala. 27 The
latter succumbed to the great epidemic of836, as did the bishops Elias ofTroyes,
Jesse of Amiens, and a number of secular magnates, 28 but unless one credits Louis
with creating an epidemic, not much is left of the imperial revenge of 834-36.

21
Zechiel-Eckes, "Ein Blick in Pseudo-lsidors Werkstatt;' p. SS, calls Louis's reaction a
"Vergelrungsaktion oder Revanchefoul"; see also Zechiel-Eckes, "Auf Pseudoisidors Spur;' p. 19,
for a. head-count of bishops that fled, avoiding a confrontation with Louis. To call bishops to
account at a synod (Diedenhofen, 83S) is not the same thing as Ftihndungsmassnahmen; ibid.
22
Zechiel-Eckes, "Ein Blick in Pseudo-Isidors Werkstan;' p. S6.
23
Zechiel-Eckes, "Auf Pseudoisidors Spur;' pp. 1S-18; but see Zechiel-Eckes, "Ein Blick in
Pseudo-Isidors Werkstatt;' p. S6, n. 61, where the author concedes that the ideal of the "unity of
the empire" was not part of Pseudo-Isidore's ideology.
24
Patzold, "Eine 'loyale Palastrebellion'"; Patzold, Episcopus, p. 222, n. 2SS; De Jong,
Penitentitzl State, pp. 10-12, 112-14.
25
See ibid., pp. 249-S9; Patzold, Episcopus, pp. 193-8, 31S-46, and Booker, Past
Convictions, pp. 186-209. The only other prominent churchman never reconciled with Louis was
Archbishop Bartholomew of Narbonne; cf. Egon Bosho£ Erzbischof Agobard von Lyon: Leben
und rVerk, Koiner historische Abhandlungen 17 (Cologne: Bohlau, 1969), p. 261.
26
Ibid., p. 305.
27
De Jong, Penitentitzl St,zte, pp. 261-2.
28
Astronomer, Vitti Hludowici impemtoris, ed. Ernst Tremp, MGH SRG 64 (Hanover:
Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1995 ), c. S6, p. 512.
 Paschasius R,idbertus rmd Pseudo-Isidore 157

Had Elias and Jesse lived, they might have been restored to their respective sees,
as happened in the case of Herebold of Auxerre. 29 As for Wala, it seems that
by 836 he was sufficiently reconciled with Louis to serve as a mediator between
the emperor and his eldest son. ~ 0 In fact, it is Louis's lack of retaliation that needs
to be explained, not his terrible revenge.
Zechiel-Eckes made little use of the Epitaphium, except to point out that the
fictional late antique context in which the work was situated reminded him of
the fictional early popes of the false decretals.:11 In more recent work that builds
on his discoveries, this has changed. In his study of the Consitutum Constantini,
Johannes Fried argues that this celebrated forgery was not a product of late
eighth-century Rome, as had been thought hitherto, but a concoction that
originated in the West Frankish circles opposed to Louis the Pious. 32 Since
the Constitutmn was transmitted through the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals, the
latter receive a fair amount of attention as well, as does the question of their
authorship. Fried concludes that Pseudo-Isidore's real auctor intellectualis was
Wala himself, while Radbert and other monks from Corbie merely coordinated
and completed their abbot's legacy, assisted by like-minded forgers in St. Denis
and Rheims. 3 ·~ The decretals brought by Wala and Radbert to their meeting
with Pope Gregory "probably included the first elaborate creation from the
forger's workshop, if indeed it wasn't the entire product." 34 In Fried's view, the
Epitaphium's second book was something like a running commentary on the
genesis of Pseudo-Isidore, and an important instrument to determine its date.
In a similar vein, Eric Knibbs has taken Radbert's narrative about Pope Gregory
as evidence for Pseudo-Isidore's early origins in the 830s, arguing that the pope
in 833 took "legal advice from monks from Pseudo-Isidore's home monastery"
who, on the Field of Lies, provided him with an appropriate collection oflaws. 35

29
Philippe Depreux, ~ Prosopographie de !'entourage de Louis le Pieux {781-840).
Instrumenta 1 (Sigmadngen: Thorbecke Verlag, 1997), pp. 241-2.
30
Astronomer, VittI Hludowici, c. SS, p. 506.
31
Zechiel-Eck~s, "Ein Blick in Pseudo-Isidors Werkstatt;' p. 59.
32
Fried, Donation qf Constantine; see the review by Caroline ]. Goodson and Janet
L. Nelson, "111e Roman Context of the 'Donation of Constantine:" Early lvledieval Europe l 8
(2010): 446-67. On Wala, Radbert, and Pseudo-Isidore, see Fried, Donation of Constantine,
pp.91-100.
33
Ibid., p. 93.
34
lb i d .,p. 99 .
35
Knibbs, "Pseudo-Isidore on the Field of Lies;' p. 21. This concerns a letter from Gregory
IV to Bishop Aldcric of Le Mans (ed. Karl Hampe, MGH Epp. 5, pp. 72-81 [JE t2579]). It has
generally been considered a Pscudo-Isidorian concoction, but Knibbs thinks it is an :mrhenric
decretal, issued when the pope was in the rebel camp at the Field of Lies. For an earlier defense of
this letter as genuine, see Walter A. Goffart, "Gregory IV for Aldric of Le Mans (833): A Genuine
or Spurious Decreral ?", Alcch1mzl Studies 28 ( 1966): 22-38.
158 Rome and Religion in the Medieval rVorld

Meanwhile, the origins of Pseudo-Isidore are being looked for even further
back in time. Recently, Steffen Patzold suggested that the aftermath of the first
rebellion against Louis (830-31) may be a more likely context for this forgery
than the second. Not only was Wala exiled, but Bishop Jesse of Amiens, in
whose diocese Corbie was located, was deposed by Archbishop Ebo of Rheims,
which would explain why monks attempted to protect bishops against judicial
arbitrariness on the part of their archbishop. As Patzold suggests, Wala's
involvement in Pseudo-Isidore is all the more likely because he participated in
the synod of Paris (829), which produced the first manifesto of the new kind of
episcopal self-confidence of Carolingian bishops that also inspired the Pseudo-
Isidorian collection. 36
My objection to this in itself attractive hypothesis is that it belongs to a
long and venerable tradition in Pseudo-Isidorian studies, namely the search
for a narrow window of plausible circumstances that might explain why the
forgery was begun in the first place. Such a window then consists of a specific
threat to the authority and position of bishops, which required legal defense
and especially the prevention of arbitrary deposition-the very subjects of
Pseudo-Isidore. As Patzold points out, for Radbert, the rebellion of 830 was
a turning point, and the exile of Abbot Wala, Bishop Jesse, and others in the
winter of 830/31 caused great resentment. But should we perceive the origins
of this huge collection as a sudden and immediate reaction to highly specific
circumstances?. I find this difficult to imagine; a gradual and long-term process
of episcopal emancipation seems a more likely context. 37 In any case, the
second book of Epitaphium Arsenii has much to say on the rebellion of 830,
but nothing whatsoever on bishops suffering in its aftermath. Besides, the
recent early dating of Pseudo-Isidore means that Radbert's narrative should be
handled with extra care, for it was written well over two decades later. More
recent events of the 850s threw their shadow over Radbert's polemical defense
of Wala.

With Hindsight: The Second Book ojthe Epitaphium Arsenii

Radbert lost his abbacy between the springof849 and April 853; by then, Odo
of Beauvais had succeeded him, while he himself had retired to St. Riquier

36
Karl Ubl and Daniel Ziemann, "Falschung als Mittel der Politik? Pseudoisidor im
Licht der neuen Forschung;' March 12, 2013, http://hsozkulr.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/
tagungsberichte/id=4721 (accessed March 28, 2013). I am grateful to Steffen Patzold for sending
me his conference paper. On Pseudo-Isidore's genesis and its connection with the ideas propagated
by the synod of Paris (829), see Patzold, Episwpus, pp. 221-3.
u Cf Fuhrmann, Einfluss und Verbreitung, vol. I, pp. 141-5, and Patzold's own reflections
in Episcop!i.1, pp. 221-6.
 159

w devote himself to completing his huge commentary on l'vfatthew. ;:-: It was

during these years tlut the second book of the E/>ittZphium was written, with
the benefit of much hindsight. 11ut this work only survives in one manuscript
.\hould not lead to the automatic conclusion that this text was only meant for
Jn internal audience of monks in Corbie.;·; Perhaps this could be argued for

chc first book, with its strong emphasis on \vala fulfilling his role as abbot
w perfection, but not for the second. 111is text broaches many issues which
c'xcrcised the great and good outside the monastery as well, such as the question
nf whether \v'ala had maintained the loyalty (fi'des) due to his emperor.
Al though Radbert's focus in this second book is on \vala's stance during
rhe crisis years of 828-34, it is also clear that the text owes much to his own
experience as abbot of Corbie, and especially as the ex-abbot of this monastery.
R,1dbert':, vivid and polemical narrative about the rebellions against Louis
,, ho aimed to justify his own actions in the tumultuous years in which he was
:d-1bot of Corbie, and therefore a significant actor in the corridors of power
of Charles the Bald's kingdom. Wala had been "another Jeremiah" who had
Lric:d to warn his people that divine wrath was impending, but had then
sufFered incarceration and exile, sharing the disasters inflicted by a vengeful
deity with sinners who had refused to heed his warnings.-+ 0 Like Jeremiah
before him, writing in exile, Radbert now looked back at the origins of his
own disastrous day and age. His second book is a lament for a world that was
inexorably destroyed by human blindness and greed, and above all, by the
former and current leadership's inveterate disobedience to divine precepts.
111is retrospective prophecy allowed the author to develop his narrative within
the framework of inevitable decline. Because Wala's admonitions had not
been heeded in the early 830s, everything had gone wrong: "This is why, up

18
Cf De Jong, "Familiarity Lost;' with a new reconstruction of Radbert's biography. In his
prolegomena to Radberr's work, Mabillon maintained that the latter lost his abbacy in 851, but
the first mention of Odo as abbot only dates to April 853; cf Philip Grierson, "Etudes Ier Eveque
de Beauvai.s;' Le A!oyen _dge ,45 ( 1935): 161-98, while Radbert still attended the synod of ~ierzy
(Spring 849).
39
Paris B.N. lat. 13909; see Ganz, Corbie in the C!zrolingi,zn Rm,zissilnce, p. 145, with
references to other literature. TI1is is a copy executed by at least three ninth-century hands. It has
been carefully corrected by a contemporary hand, possibly by the author himself
De Jong, "Becoming Jeremiah." Radbert had Jeremiah on his mind since the 840s,
judging by his commentary on Lamentations. 1his was written not long afrer the Vikings
plundered the Seine valley in 845, an event which Radbert described as both deeply shocking and
quite recent: "not so long ago;' he said, "no earthly king, nor any inhabitant of this earth, could
luvc imagined that the enemy. would invade our Paris [Rnisi11s nostcrJ"; Pasclu\ius Radbenus,
~

;,·,/N1,itio in lm1cl!t.zlirmc.1' Hiffl'l/2/di' li!JJi 1jiiillfJ!i<', IV, c. l-!, ed. Bcda P,1tdus, CCC?\f 85
( Turnhout: Brcpols, 1988), 282, ll. 1,218~221; E. Ann 1\fattcr, '"D1c Lamcnration.-, Commentaries
· t'Hrabanus J\fai1rn~ cmd Pa:,dusius R1dbertm," JJ~1r/itio 38 ( l '18): 13~--63.
 160 Rome tmd Religion in the Medieval World

to the present day, none of the rulers can turn the ways of the commonwealth
toward justice." 41
All this makes it difficult, if not impossible, to extricate the historical Wala
from Radbert's narrative. The default option, therefore, is to treat the second
book as a text from the first half of the 850s, which primarily expresses Radbert's
own ideas at the time. This holds true, for example, for Radbert's discussion of
the integrity of Church property, in the context of the fiery speeches delivered
by Wala at the winter assembly at Aachen (828-29). This bears the clear
imprint of the problems Radbert wrestled with in the late 840s, as an abbot
and a participant in the reform synods in Charles the Bald's kingdoms in the
difficult first years after the partition of Verdun. Although the beginning of
Wala's speech to the winter assembly at Aachen (828-29) is consistent with the
views of the synod of Paris ( 829) on the complementary authority of the ruler
and his bishops, 42 this is then followed by a strongly articulated challenge to the
ruler's right to harness Church property to his military needs by bestowing it as
bemftcia on his lay followers. 43 During the 820s and 830s, there had already been
a subcurrent of resistance to this use of property vowed to God (res sacrata),
but Louis's rights in this respect remained largely accepted. It only became a
real bone of contention during the West Frankish synods of the 840s, when the
strife and competition between Louis's three sons necessitated the royal use of
ecclesiastical resources, and episcopal awareness and self-confidence, at least in
Charles's kingdom, had grown. 44

41
EA, II, c. 6, p. 66, Adeodatus: "Inde est quad adhuc hodie nemo principum explicare
potest reipubliccr vias at iustitiam." This theme is then developed in Pascasius' reply. On the loss of
the via recta as a theme in contemporary writing, see De Jong, Penitential State, pp. 101-2.
42
EA It c. 2, p. 62: "Interea nostis, inquit, quibus ordinibus Christi constat Ecclesia.
Certum quippe quad secundum singulorum officia requirendus est ordo disciplinae, et status
reipublicae. Unde primum considerari oportet intus divina, tum exterius humana: quia procul
dubio his duobus totius ecclesiae status administratur ordinibus." On the ideology of the synod of
p~;is, see Patzold, Episcopus, pp. 149-68; De Jong, Penitential State, pp. 170-84.
43
EA II, c. 2, p. 63: "Habeat igitur rex rempublicam libere in usibus militiae suae ad
dispensandum: habeat et Christus res ecclesiarum, quasi alteram rempublicam, omnium
indigentium et sibi servientium usibus, suis commissam ministris fidelibus: et hoc sit regis
officium, ut talibus committatur, qui et fideliter dispensent, et sapienter provideant: quatenus
omnes glorificent Deum et gaudeant in Christo, non minus ex fururorum promissis, quam et ex
praesentiarum consolationibus." The section on Church property starts halfway through c. 2 with
the words "acrioria sunt, frater, quae tune prolata sum;' and continues throughout c. 3-4; clearly
this was the issue that was most seriously contested.
+
4
Franz J. Felten, Abte und Lllienabte im Frllnkenreich: Studie wm Verhtiltnis ·von St,ltlt
tmd Ki rehe im friiheren JWitte!tilter, MMS 20 (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1980), pp. 292- 304. More
extensively on this topic, see De Jong, "familiarity Lost."
 161

As hH \X/ab's own participation in the synod of Paris in 829, the evidence of

rhc £jJit1zphittm-the only source for this-is problematic at best. For the crisis
meering in the winter of 828-29, Wah drafted a memorandum (sced1tltl) on the
\\av in which the churches had been robbed. He did so merely fc)r his own use, as
R~1dbert pointed out, ~ls an tZide-wr!moire-a defensive remark which probably
means that the text had circulated and caused offense. f'> Tiut \'V:da was one of
rht main spokesmen during that winter meeting in Aachen is clear, but did he
play the same role at the synod of I\1ris in the surnmer of 829? Rad be rt did not
see ht to say anything about this, and his verdict on this synod and the others
L·onvened as a follow-up to the \\'inter meeting was scathing:

\\'hen this had thus been n.:ve1led ro all, from beginning to end, with none of them
bl:ing able to deny it, rhey came up with the idea that synods should be held in
rhree places, 11' where they \Votild most diligently investigate this, not because (as the
outcome proved) they wished to emend these matters, but so they would meanwhile
keep rhe king happy; for already then the human schemes were set in motion that have
bter been revealed; for this reason divine affairs were less well taken care of.-

\Vith hindsight, the synods of 829 are presented as a feeble compromise that
spelled the beginning of the end; in disgust, Wala left Aachen early in 829, gripped
by a violent bout of diarrhea.f 8 ~te possibly Radbert's narrative compressed the
various crisis meetings in 828 and 829, but if this is the case, the message remains
the same: ~'ala's views were ignored, at everyone's peril. Radbert then plunged
<;traight into one of the central sections of his narrative, namely how the "wild
boar" Bernard of Septimania took control of the palace in Aachen, and Wc1.la was
implored·to come to the rescue. 1he intervening synod of Paris in June 829 was
passed over in silence.
Did Radbert ever mention the deposition of bishops, or other threats to their
authority? If one thinks that the Epitaphimn's second book should be read as a
commentary on the genesis of Pseudo-Isidore, this is an obvious question to ask.
TI1e presence of bishops is most marked in \Vala's speeches at the beginning of
'Radbert's narrative about the crisis. Bishops are in charge of the sacred domain,
J)
EAII,c. l,p.61.
16
Actually four synods, in Paris, Mainz, Toulouse and Lyon; Patzold, l:jJi.rmpus, pp. 151-2.
De Jong, Penitmti1d Sttttc, pp. 176-7; Charlemagne's four synods convened in 813 probably
c;erved as an example.
'+ EA II, c. 4, p. 65: "~ibus itaque omnibus ita hinc inde ostensis, cum nullus eorum
ncgarc posset, quod ordo ecclesiasticus in omnibus corruprns non esset, excogitavernnt ut tribus in
lncis ~ ynod i fie rent, in qui bus de hoc d iligenrius <FLlet"r:rent, non quod (quantum exitus prohavi t I
c:rn<:ncbn: talia vellent: scd llt rt gi intc'rdurn r:lVcrellt, c1uoniam iam tune ea quac postca monsrrata
0

s1mt, rnoliebantur humana; idcirco minus procurata sum divina."

!bid., c. G, p. ,.
162 Rome and Religion in the Medieval //Vorld

including Church property; kings should not venture onto this territory,
presuming to dispense benedictions; 49 everyone should remember that they had
the power of the keys. 50 There is also a brief comment to the extent that "then
and now"-that is, in Wala's day and age, and in the authorial present-bishops
were usually appointed in an uncanonical fashion. 51 In the one instance in which
bishops were depicted as victims, they shared this fate with the magnates of
the palace. All were driven out, exiled and humiliated, by "that one impudent
man;' Bernard of Septimania, and they turned to Wala for help. 52 But bishops
also shared part of the burden of guilt in the drama of the 830s, for they took
liberties with the res sacrata. According to Radbert, the key issue addressed by
Wala in his scedula and speeches was the "robbing of churches"-that is, the use
of ecclesiastical, and especially monastic, property for military purposes. There
is nothing that our rulers (principes) like doing so much as this, commented
the forthright monk Theofrasrus in the Epitaphium, so you may well wonder
whether any of them will ever be saved. 53 This provoked an angry outburst on
the part of Pascasius, Radbert's alter ego and the Epitaphium's narrator:

It is true, my brother, and thus God's wrath has descended upon our rulers whom He
has caused to go astray on an impassable track, and not on a road, 54 while secular men
also rushed in to despoil unduly what is divine. However, God's bishops and ministers
of the altar [also] expel themselves from the sacred domain towards the outside world,
together with what belongs to God, and, which is even worse, they transfer this
without shame, although we read in Scripture that no man, being a soldier to God,
ent,zngleth himselfwith secuLzr businesses (II Tim. 2:4). 55

This created the worst kind of confusion between the sacred and the
secular spheres: greed drove ministers of Christ toward riches that were not

49
Ibid., c. 2-3, pp. 62-3.
50
Ibid., c. 3, p. 64: "~od si secundum sententiam veritatis [Mt. 16: 18] quaecunque
ligaverint is ti sancti pontifices super terram ligata erunt et in coelis, timendi sunt tot anathematismi
sanctorum Patrum qui leguntur pro talibus prolati in sacris canonibus: quoniam non minus eorum
viget auctoritas, quantum aestimo, qui iam cum Deo regnant.''
51
Ibid., c. 4, p. 65.
52
Ibid., c. 8, p. 69.
53
Ibid., c. 2, p. 63.
54
\Vo rd play: "in invio, et non in via." Cf Ps. I 06:40: "et effundet despectionem super
principes et errare eos faciet in solitudine de via."
55
EA II, c. 2, pp. 63-4. Pascasius: "Verum, mi frater, et ideo ira Dei effusa est super principes
nostros, qui crrare facit eos in invio, et non in via, dum et saeculares ad divina diripienda indebite
se ingcrunt. Sacerdotes vero Christi et ministri altaris una cum divinis ad cxtcriora de intimis se
eiciunt, iam quod peius est sine pudorc et transfondunt, quamvis scriptum legant, quod nano
mi!itllns Deo impfic,zt se negotiis s,zeml1zribus."
 Ptzschtzsius R1ulhertus mzd Pseudo-Isidore 163

appropriate for them, while laymen, apparently backed up by royal authority,

appropriated property that belonged to God and "the churches." Theofrastus
stood corrected: not only rulers and the greed of their secular fidefes were
accountable, but also the sacerdotes, the leading churchmen, and the priests
and other clerics they governed. This notion of a shared responsibility of the
two orders, one led by the ruler and the other by the bishops, is entirely in
keeping with the central tenets of the synod of Paris (829), 56 but Radbert's
perspective is also a monastic one: the "churches" that were being robbed were
monasteries first and foremost. From this point of view, it was not so much
that bishops were powerful men who were under threat, but that they spelled
danger for monastic communities.

Clreg01y IV on the Field ofLies

The imrnediate background to Radbert's account of his and Wala's encounter

with the pope is the dangerous voyage undertaken by the two monks from
Corbie, where Wala had just returned from two years of exile, to Alsace. 57 Here,
the troops of Louis and his rebellious sons' troops had concentrated. Radbert
and Wala traveled secretly, through enemy territory, for "Justina" (Judith) held
sway once more; had they been discovered by Louis's men, they would have been
locked up and kept in the strictest custody. But with God's help, they managed to
reach the rebel camp, which also harbored a flustered and fearful Pope Gregory,
who had been threatened with deposition by Louis and his men, and even by
bishops loyal to the emperor, because allegedly he had come uninvited. Here,
Wala and Radbert presented the pontiff with some writings that confirmed that
the pope had the right to mediate and adjudicate in the conflict between Louis
and his sons.
What were these (con)scripta? It used to be thought that this referred to an
older canonical collection such as the Symmachian forgeries, produced in the
early sixth century. These include the well-known pronouncement, ascribed
to Pope Innocent I (401-17), that nobody shall judge the apostolic see. This
collection soon became known in Francia, so it seemed likely that this was the
text offered to Gregory. 58 Yet, as we have seen, there is a growing consensus
that Wala and Radbert supplied Gregory with the Pseudo-Isidorian collection,
)6
De Jong, Penitential St11te, pp. 176-84.
57
See the appendix to this chapter for my translation of the relevant passage: EA II, c. 16,
p. 84.
58
Fuhrmann, Ei1ifl,uss ttnd l'Crbreitung 2, pp. 41-242, n. 13; Harald Zimmermann,
l~zpst,1bsetwngen des AfitteLz!ten ( Graz: Hermann Bohlau Nachf, 1968 ), pp. 2-3; sec also
\Vilhelm Pohlkamp, "Memoria Sylvestri. Zur friihen Erinnerungs- und Vcrehnmgsgeschichrc des
T1gesheilige vom 31. Dezember," in Uw-e Ludwig and Thomas Schilp, eds., Nomm ct p·11temitm
I Berlin: \Valter ck Gruyter, 2008), p. 28~L
 164 Rome and Religion in the Jvfedievtd rVorld

either in its entirety, as Fried argued, or, according to Knibbs, at an early stage,
such as the interpolated Hispana. 59 Yet the text of the Epitaphium does not
offer any certainty in this respect, and perhaps deliberately so. All Radbert said
was that the nonnulla ... conscripta had the authority of the holy fathers and
the pope's own predecessors; they effectively proved Gregory's right to judge
anyone in Christendom and forbade the Frankish bishops to judge the pope. It
did not take Pseudo-Isidore to come up with a relevant collection of texts; older
ones in circulation would indeed have served this purpose. The episode becomes
more interesting within the wider context of Radbert's narrative about Pope
Gregory's role in the rebellion of 833. This was absolutely central, to the extent
that Wala's controversial involvement was presented as the result of a written
papal command. More importantly, Louis's refusal to submit to the pope's
mediation was the turning point, and the actual prelude to his downfall. Once
the pope's intervention had been rejected, God's wrath struck, and in one night
everyone left their emperor, flocking to Lothar like chicks to their mother's
wings. At daybreak, Wala and Radbert went to the pope "because of the miracle
that happened, and behold, one of the Romans cried out, singing: the hand of
the Lord has wrought strength, and so on [Ps. 117: 16] ." 60 It took nothing less
than papal authority to verify that this massive desertion had indeed been a
divine judgment. 61
The pope's sudden presence north of the Alps, apparently in league with
Lothar, shook up the Frankish bishops in a way that still reverberated in
the 840s and 850s, when, respectively, the Astronomer wrote his Vita Hludowici
and Radbert his sequel to the Epitaphium. Their positions in this affair were
diametrically opposite. 62 While the Astronomer viewed the pope's mediation
as unwarranted meddling on behalf of Louis's enemies, Radbert claimed that
a submission to papal authority had offered the only solution to the emperor,

59
Knibbs, "Pseudo-Isidore on the Field of Lies"; Knibbs, "The Interpolated Hispanana."
60
EA II, c. 19, p. 89: "... et ad filium, contra quern venerant, et firmarant, circumcirca,
quasi pulli sub alas, rota in nocte convolarent; et mane castra metati, unus populus appareret.
Unde valde diluculo ad eumdem pontificem venimus pro miraculo, quod acciderat: er ecce in
medio unus Romanorum exclamans, ait voce canentis: Dextera Domini ftcit virtutem, et caetera
quae sequuntur."
61
The relevant texts can be found in the appendix to this chapter.
62
Astronomer, Vita Hludowici, c. 48, pp. 474-8; on the different attitudes of the sources
towards Gregory on the Field of Lies, see Noble, Louis the Pious ,znd the Papacy, pp. 321-69; De
Jong, Penitential St,ite, pp. 214-24. See also Johannes Fried, "Ludwig der Fromme, das Papstrurn
und die frankishe Kirche:' in Peter Godman and Roger Coilins, eds., Charlemagne's Heir:
New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (814-840) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990),
pp. 231- 7 4. The best account of Louis's relations with the papacy remains Thomas F.X. Noble,
7he Republic ~fSt. Peter: 7he Birth of the Ptzpal St,ite, 680-825 (Philadelphia, PA: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1984).
 165

but he rejected it. In both cases, the controversy was defined in terms of a
serious breach of protocol. Had Gregory come north without a proper imperial
invitation, or had Louis failed to give the pope the formal welcome (tulventus) he
deserved? It would be hard to exaggerate the shock of the pope's appearance: the
List papal visit north of the Alps had been in 816, when Stephen IV had come
6
to crown Louis in Rheims, with all proprieties punctiliously observed. ' None
of this was the case in 833. According to the Astronomer, Louis rightly blamed
the pope for "not corning to him" (non sibi occurendo ), while Radbert made the
most of the emperor's failure to receive Gregory with the required reverence,
also in the narrative about Wala's and his meeting with the pontiff TI1ere was
much more to it than a quarrel about protocol and precedence, however. The
real issue was the extent to which high-ranking clerics owed their primary loyalty
co papal authority rather than to their emperor. There was a widespread rumor
that Gregory had come to excommunicate Louis and his bishops, so the latter
decided that if the pope dared to do this, they would repay him in kind. As the
Astronomer commented, this was not according to the canones, 6'* but that such
threats were rumored to have been made also emerges from Radbert's version
of events. In his narrative, however, it was the emperor's bishops who took the
initiative in threatening to depose the pope, and all this merely because he "had
come uninvited."
TI1e controversial nature of this visit also becomes clear from an acrimonious
letter sent in the name of Pope Gregory IV to the Frankish bishops. The text
only survives partially, without an exordium or conclusion, in a late ninth- or
early tenth-century manuscript (BnF lat. 2853) that contains most of Ago bard's
work. Here, it figures as part of a small dossier of documents pertaining to the
year 833. 65 There has been much debate about its authenticity; its transmission
as part of Agobard's work has made the archbishop of Lyon the main suspect
of a potential forgery. Recent scholarship tends to follow Egon Boshof, who
argued that the epistle was genuine. 66 Presumably, this was Pope Gregory's own

6J
Astroriomer, Vita Hludowici, c. 26, p. 366; De Jong, Penitenti,zl State, pp. 216-19.
6-t
Astronomer, Vita Hludowici, c. 48, p. 474: "... cum aliter se habeat amiquorum
auctoritas canonum."
65
BN lat. 2853 (s. ix/x); on this manuscript, cf. Agobard of Lyon, Opera omnit1, ed. Lieven
Van Acker, CCCM 52 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1981 ), pp. li-lii. The papal letter is on fols. l 92-6v; it is
followed by the first Liber tZpologeticum ( fols. 197 r-200r), and preceded by nos. 15 (fols. 187-90)
and 16 (fols. 190-92); on this dossier, see also Booker, Ptzst Convictions, p. 133. Di.immler edited
it among Agobard's letters-see Agobardi Lugdunensis tirchiepiscopi epistol,ze 17, ed. E. Di.immler,
MGH Epistol,ze 5, Karol. Aevi 3 (Berlin: Weidmann, 1889), pp. 228-32.-but it is omitted in the
standard edition of Agobard's work: cf Van den Acker, introduction to Agobard's Opertl ol!mid,
pp. xxi~xxii.
66
Egon Bosho( Erzhischo/ Agoh,zrd von Lyon. Leben mu! TFerk (Cologne: Bohl au
\bbg, 1969), pp. 220-28, with a survey of the earlier discussion about the letter's authenticity.
 166 Rome and Religion in the Nfedieval vVorld

response to the Frankish bishops' accusation that he had come to excommunicate

them, undermining their authority and dishonoring imperial power. This is
not the place for an extensive discussion about the letter's authenticity, but the
offensive tone is unlike anything known from genuine papal correspondence
with Frankish bishops at the time; the latter are called deceivers of truth (veri
deceptores), presumptuous, exceedingly stupid, and nauseating. 6'."' The pope's own
v~ice, if it existed, is drowned in this deafening chorus.
The rhetorical strategy of this epistle reveals an author who was aware of the
·.. possibilities of frank speech, and who knew and used Gregory of Nazianzen in
this context. Both Agobard and Radbert qualified, and no doubt other Frankish
clerics, but there is no sign that such knowledge was current in Rome. 68 Even
if this was a case where Gregory availed himself of a Frankish ghost-writer, the
letter should be thought of as originating from an internal Frankish dispute that
was sparked by the unexpected and unnerving papal presence in the summer
of 833. As far as I can see now, it was produced during that tense period when
Gregory was known to be approaching, prior to his actual meeting with Louis
.on the Field of Lies. Rumors were rife, and this letter was a pre-emptive strike on
the part of Frankish clerics who supported the pope's intervention.
'The reason to mention this document here is that there are considerable
similarities between Radbert's view of the papal visit in 833 and the one
presented in this allegedly papal attack on the Frankish bishops. "Gregory"
declared his displeasure about the way the bishops had addressed him in their
earlier letter, as well as their lack of a proper occursus because "sacred imperial
command" had taken precedence. 69 Against this, the pope objected that "the
governance of souls [regimen animarum] is greater than imperial rule, for the
former is pontifical, whereas the latter is temporal." It is worth noting that

Cf. Booker, Past Convictions, pp. 135-6, and De Jong, Penitential State, pp. 220-21, who hedges
her bets.
67
According to Bosho£ Agobard, p. 227, the abrasive tone was set by the Frankish clergy,
and then adopted by the pope. I give a sample in translation, MGH Epistolae 5, pp. 230-31: "Then
something you maintain with great arrogance: that ifl will approach the emperor reverently, I will
learn from him the entire truth of the matter, [namely] why the division has been opportunely and
advantageously altered; the magnitude of your arrogance forces you to speak like this, thinking
that that you are the only ones who can know the cause of events. Truly, I tell you, not only
stupid but also unfortunate is he who does not understand how many and what kind of evils your
obstinacy has brought forth, and from the malignant treasure of whose heart this has proceeded,
and for this reason you are the eulogists and defenders of this wickedness."
68
Cf. Irene van Renswoude, "License to Speak: The Rhetoric of Free Speech in Late
Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages" (PhD, Utrecht University, 2011), pp. 337-50. A book
version is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press; she and I intend to return to this letter.
69
Agobard,£pistoLze, no. 17, p. 228: "... occursum vestrum nobis non negandum, nisi sacra
iussio imperialis pn;venit."
 ;I

RzsL"h,zsiw RtZdbertttS ,znd Pseudo-Isidore 167

pontiji,rnle within a ninth-century context may not have referred exclusively to

the papacy, but also could include bishops.~ 0 As the letter suggests, the Frankish
episcopate had believed that Gregory intended to excommunicate not only
the emperor, but also the bishops loyal to him; they had then retaliated,
threatening to excommunicate the pope, claiming that this only regarded his
person and would not impair the authority of the see of St. Peter, which of
course it did. Furthermore, ·these bishops had accused the pope of perjury,
for he had failed to honor his oath to the emperor.~ 1 The letter refuted this
accusation by pointing out that all that Gregory's so-called perjury consisted
of was his having admonished Louis about his sins-a pastoral duty these loyal
bishops themselves had failed to perform. In other words, they were the real
perjurers, for they had neglected to do their utmost to secure the emperor's
salvation. If only he would approach him reverently, the emperor would
explain to Gregory all the reasons why the original division of Louis's realm
(that is, the Ordin11tio of 817) was no longer opportune; were he to refuse
to do so, however, any authority in the Frankish bishoprics would be denied
to him. 72
In its staunch defense of the supreme authority of St. Peter's successor and
his right to impose a solution to the conflict of 833, the letter largely tallies
with Radbert's views on the matter as outlined in the Epitaphium Arsenii, yet
they seem to represent different stages in a process of growing awareness. Both
attempt to enhance papal authority, but there are also differences; for example,
the letter could have settled the matter by declaring that the apostolic see
(prima sedes) judged others but could not be judged, as Radbert did, but it
refrained from doing so. 73 Gregory's visit in 833 seems to have been a catalyst
that concentrated the minds of Frankish leading clerics on their relation to
the papacy, for decades to come. It served both as a lieu de memoire and as
a convenient context for later forgeries in which a plausible papal presence
needed to be evoked. 74
It should be noted, however, that belonging to the rebel camp and
supporting Lothar's rights did not necessarily imply any such recognition
of the pope's supreme jurisdiction. This clearly transpires from the Relatio
episcoporum of 833, the document by which the bishops who imposed a

70
Ibid, p. 228: "Non ignorare debueratis maius esse regimen animarum, quod est pontitlcale,
quam imperiale, quod est temporale."
71
On the oath required from popes since the Constitutio RonZLZna of 824, see Noble,
RepublicofSt Peter, pp. 308-22, esp. p. 313.
72
Agobard, EpistoLze, no. 17, pp. 228-32.
Bosho( Agob,ml, p, 224.
1
As is the case, in my view, in the letter Diuinispmeceptis (JE t2579) discussed by Knibbs
in "Pseudo-Isidore on the Field of Lies."
 168 Rome and Religion in the Nledieva! fVorld

public penance on Louis publicized and defended their actions. 75 Here, also
in support of Lothar's immediate succession, they presented themselves as the
vicars of Christ who collectively wielded the power of the keys and who, as
"watchmen of Israel" (Ez. 3: 18) had to act in order to prevent others from
sinning, lest the sin in question be on their own heads. Interestingly, failing to
exercise these pastoral duties was precisely what "Gregory" accused the pro-
Louis bishops of, but when it came to the bishop of Rome, the ReLztio took
a radically different position from the alleged papal letter. Within the larger
contingent of the rebels of 833, the band of Frankish clerics who propagated
papal primacy was but a small one; Ago bard of Lyon is the only contemporary
author whose views on the papacy came close to that of the letter ascribed to
Gregory IV. Radbert was even more outspoken on this point, but the problem
is that he wrote two decades later, when Pseudo-Isidore was already circulating
in the West Frankish kingdom. It is from this vantage point, the mid-850s,
that one needs to make sense ofRadbert's story about his encounter with Pope
Gregory on the Field of Lies.

Radhert, Rome, and Pseudo-Isidore

As we have seen, the more literal-minded interpretations of this narrative have

been mainly used to support the thesis ofPseudo-Isidore's origins in the early 830s
on the assumption that the documents offered to Pope Gregory were a version
of the false decretals. Understandably, the consequences of Zechiel-Eckes's
discoveries have dominated recent scholarship, and the search for the identity of
the forger( s) is continuing. But if one treats the second book of the Epitaphium as
a source of the 850s, this text yields different yet equally interesting information
on Pseudo-Isidore. Writing with the hindsight of two decades, Radbert may well
have intended to enhance the status of Corbie as a supplier of such documents
that were in circulation at the time, including Pseudo-Isidorian ones. Corbie
would produce ancient and authoritative precepts of impeccable canonicity, fit
to support the pope in his predicament-this is part of the message conveyed
by Radbert. These precepts, moreover, were to defend a notion of papal primacy
that is much older than Pseudo-Isidore, but that is entirely compatible with the
elevated status of Roman pontiff as propagated by the great forgery.

75
Episcoporumde poenitentia, quamHludowicus imperatorprofessus est, relatio Compendiensis,
ed. A. Boretius, MGH Capit. II/2, pp. 51-5. Translations of the text and commentary can be
found in De Jong, Penitential State, pp. 228-41, 271-9; Booker, Past Convictions, pp. 257-64;
Courtney M. Booker, "The Public Penance of Louis the Pious: A New Edition of the Episcoporum
de poenitentiti, quam Hludowicus imperator projessus est, relatio Compendiensis (833 );' Vi11tor 39(2)
(2008): 1-19. See also Patzold, Episcopus, pp. 188-91.
 I
,\
Pttschasius R,zdbertus and Pseudo-Isidore 169

111is is less obvious than it seems, for the central tenet of modern Pseudo-
I!
[sidorian scholarship is that, at least until the middle of the eleventh century,
the strengthening of papal authority was merely a means to the forgery's actual
end-namely, the protection of bishops against judicial jeopardy inflicted by
Il
i

archbishops and, to a lesser extent, secular rulers. Already in early 1870s, amid
hcrce debates about the recently proclaimed doctrine of papal infallibility, for
which Pseudo-Isidore was. blamed, well-informed discussants such as Ignaz
von Dollinger knew that "the first object of Isidore was to secure the impunity
of bishops." 76 \'Vhatever its ideological background, this "episcopalism" has
prevailed until the present day, and so has the inclination to downplay the role
of the papacy in the first phase of Pseudo-Isidore's history. But there may be
good reasons to observe, as Karl Ubl did recently, that the idea of papal primacy
has been rather more central to Pseudo-Isidore than it has been made out to
be.-- Even if the protection of bishops against deposition was the purpose of
the false decretals, the fact that the Roman pontiff's supreme jurisdiction served
as the chosen instrument did count for something. More generally, the bishops
of Rome are omnipresent in this collection, both through repeated affirmation
of the exalted position of St. Peter and his successors, and through the central
place of the forged letters of early popes, which both implicitly and explicitly
highlight the pontiff's authority.
It is generally accepted that bishops rather lost their taste for Pseudo-Isidore
alter Hincmar of Laon's dismal fate in 871, and that there is no evidence that a
powerful pope such as Nicholas I (858-67) needed the false decretals to impose
his authority. 78 But this means detaching the false decretals from a more general
historical development, namely the increasing participation of various popes,
from the late 840s onwards, in a series of highly public conflicts that usually
involved at leG.st Charles the Bald, Hincmar of Rheims, and various bishops.
111e fact that of the approximately 200 papal letters to Frankish clerics, 50 went
to Hincmar certainly reflects an uneven distribution of the evidence,79 but it
is worth asking whether-Hincmar's superior archival skills apart-this also
reflects a growing demand for papal intervention on the part of the elite in the
76
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Dollinger, The Pope mul the Council (Boston, MA: Roberts
Brothers, 1870), p. 85, an English translation of Der Pabst und das Konzil (1869), a collection of
articles published under the pen name of "Janus."
77
Ubl, 'Der Mehrwert', pp. 202-6, citing (at p. 204, n. 62) Decretales Pseudo-!sidoritlntle,
ed. Hinschius, p. 712. Ubl shifts the entire evidence, including Radbert's, to the 830s, but apart
from this, his observations are pertinent. During the conference in Cologne in February 2013,
Clara Harder argued along similar lines: see Ubl and Ziemann, "Falschuhg als Mittel der Politik?"
-g A convenient summary of this position is found in Jasper and Fuhrmann, Rzp,zl Letters,
pp. 177-81, 186-95.
9
- Thomas F.X. Noble, "Morbidity and Vitality in the History of the Early Medieval
Papacy:' The Cztho!ic Historirt1l Reuicw 81 ( 1995): S] 3.
170 Rome tznd Religion in the Nledieval H/orld

kingdom of Charles the Bald. His father, Louis the Pious, had no need to ask for
papal permission when he appointed or deposed a bishop, but by 866-67 it was
obvious that Nicholas I should endorse Charles's plan to make his court cleric
Wulfad archbishop ofTroyes. 80 At a very different level, there were a significant
number of priests from Hincmar's archdiocese who appealed to Rome in order
to overturn the verdict of their local superiors. 81 Admittedly, none of them can
be proven to have done so with the false decretals in hand, but they are part
of a history of Frankish rtzpprochement to Rome, as is Pseudo-Isidore. l11e false
decretals may not have been widely cited in the intellectual discourse of last
three decades of the ninth century, but the number of manuscripts from this
period has been called "explosive." 82
The precise implications of these numbers-some 30 manuscripts, complete
and partial, up to c. 900-still need to be investigated, but it seems safe to say
that there was a continued interest in what for many must have been a perfectly
useful collection of canonical texts. Rather than joining the search for the culprit
who created Pseudo-Isidore (early, earlier, earliest), I would like to understand
how articulate Frankish clerics appropriated authoritative texts and deemed
them "canonical." Behind this process, there is a discovery of a familiar yet alien
world of pristine Christianity. This necessitated a process of translation, for
ancient concepts and terms were not readily understood within the context of
contemporary practice and meanings. Frankish canonical collections, genuine
or not, all pose this challenge: if a late antique text has sacerdotes or testes, did
the ninth-century readership read priests and witnesses, or bishops and oath
helpers? At a more abstract level, there is an entire world ofpristine and authentic
Christianity that is conveyed by such canonical texts. It is the demand for this,
fueled by genuine collections, that produced the false decretals and related
Pseudo-Isidorian texts. Surely if there were no early papal letters, beginning with
St. Peter's successor, Clement, such documents should be invented, with all the
contemporary connotations of inventio-which did not mean forgery, but, after
Cicero, the discovery of plausible arguments in order to make a case convincing
and probable. 83

80
Wilfried Hartmann, Die Synoden der Karolingerzeit im Frankenreich und ftttlien
(Paderborn: Ferdinand Schoningh, 1989), pp. 316-20.
81
Carine van Rhijn, Shepherds ofthe Lord: Priests and Episcopal Statutes in the Carolingian
Period (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), pp. 200-209; Mayke de Jong, "Hincmar, Priests and Pseudo-
Isidore: The Case of Trising in Context;' in Rachel Stone and Charles West, eds., Hincmtir: Life
ttnd Work (Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming).
87
- Jasper and Fuhrmann, Ripa! Letters, pp. 184-6.
~n
Matthew Kempshall, Rhetoric ,znd the H'riting of History (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2011 ), p. 266; see Kempshall's big and highly informative chapter on invention
and narrative, ibid., pp. 266-349.
 PtZschtZsitts RtZdhertus ,znd Pmtdo-lsiclore 171

It is within this context, rather than that of a literal-minded reading of the

text, that the Epitaphiun/s second book is important for Pseudo-Isidorian
scholarship. Like the fi1lse decretals he may have helped to produce, Radberr's
narrative evoked an authoritative world of ancient Christianity. By using
aliases for his political protagonists, such as Justina (Judith),Justinus (Louis),
and Honorius (Lothar ), Radbert created an eclectic historical fiction that I
refer to as "the world of Ambrose." Wala, the victim of Justina's wiles, is an
Ambrose-like figure, and Ambrose's funeral oration for his brother Satyricus
provided the overall structure of Epitaphiurn, including its division into two
books. 8-+ As Zechiel-Eckes has noted, this imaginative projection into the
ancient world is reminiscent of the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals, 85 but the same
holds true for the entire and massive operation of integrating past canonical
texts into the ninth-century present. This did not just include canon law
compilations, but also narrative sources that evoked a world of early imperial
Christianity. A case in point is the Historia ecclesiastica tripartita, drawn
upon by both Pseudo-Isidore and Radbert. 86 This fifth-century Greek Church
history, translated into Latin by Epiphanius at Cassiodorus' behest, contains
the most elaborate narratives about intrepid churchmen standing up to
emperors. Ambrose's confrontation with Theodosius, and the latter's public
penance, is merely the best-known example. 87 Significantly, the Historia
triprirtita was one of the "working manuscripts" from Corbie that provided
textual ammunition for the false decretals. 88 Is it a coincidence that in the
Epitaplzjum, Wala figured as the embodiment of the fearless prophet who
spoke truth to power, and that the letter ascribed to Gregory IV berated the
bishops loyal to Louis of neglecting their duty of confronting the emperor
with his sins ?89
At this less literal-minded level, and treated as a source for the 8 50s, the
Epitaphium Arsenii can be used as a highly informative source of information
s.J
See Ganz, "The Epitaphium Arsenii;' with references to earlier literature.
85
Zechiel-Eckes, ""Ein Blick in Pseudo-Isidors Werkstatt;' p. 59: "eine
antikisierende Ri.ickprojektion."
86
Fuhrmann, "Stand, Aufgaben und Perspektiven der Pseudoisidorforschung;' p. 257:
"Man ch es, was der Liber Pontihcalis als Entscheidung fri.iheren Papste berichtet, goss Pseudoisidor
in die bi.indige Form einer Dekretale."
87
Epiphanius, Cassiodorus, Historitz ecclesi,zstfrtZ triptirit,z, ed. Walter Jacob and Rudolf
Hanslik, CSEL 71 (Vienna: Hoe!der-Pichler-Tempsky, 1952); Walter Jacob and RudolfHanslik,
Die htzndschr~filiche Ubcrlieferung dcr sogenmmten Histori,z Triptirtit,z des Epiph1znius-Czssiodor,
Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der alrchristlichen Literatur 54 (Berlin: Akademie
Verlag, 1954); De Jong, PenitentiLZ! Stilte, pp. 129-30; Van Renswoude, "Licence to Speak,"
pp. 275-8.
See above, n. 18.
This will be further explored in my t()tThcoming book, EpittZphjor ,m Er,z (see above, n. 4).
172 Rome and Religion in the Medieval World

for the genesis and development of Pseudo-Isidore. Radbert lived and wrote
in an age of Frankish history that was busily rediscovering and redefining
an authoritative Christian past, and the place of the Roman pontiff within
it. The Pseudo-Isidorian decretals sprang from the same fertile soil. To call this
infamous collection of documents a forgery, with all the criminal implications
of this term, is missing the point. A minority of Frankish churchmen began to
look toward Rome as a source of support against local powers, quite possibly as
early as the early 830s. Apart from Scripture, the papacy was the most obvious
connection to a normative Christian past-the world of the Church fathers
in which the dignity of the sacerdotal ministry had been self-evident, as well
as their right to admonish. Pseudo-Isidore resulted from the enthusiastic
discovery of the resources of this past, which were then deployed in order
to guarantee the independence of what Radbert called "the churches": local
religious communities, including the ones controlled by bishops. Even though
protecting bishops may have been the primary purpose of the false decretals,
by definition, these also did much to propagate papal authority. Provided that
it is treated as a source for the 850s rather than the 830s, the second book of
the Epitaphium Arsenii can be a rich source of information with regard to the
mindset of an author who may very well have been involved in the creation of
Pseudo-Isidore, even though it is not yet quite clear when and how.

Acknowledgments

I am most grateful to Eric Knibbs, Rosamond McKitterick, Rob Meens, Jinty

Nelson, Steffen Patzold, Irene van Renswoude, and Giorgia Vocino for their
comments on earlier versions of this chapter. In the normal run of things I would
have sent a version to Tom Noble as well, but this, alas, was impossible.
 Paschasius Ri7dbertus and h·eudo-fodore 173

Appendix: Paschasius Radbertus, Epitaphium Arsenii II, ed. E. Diimmler

(Berlin, 1900), 83-4

(. 15
ADEODATUS:

Not surprising, then, that exhausted by so many exiles and soiled by so much
infamy he resisted at first, because as we have seen and learned, if he had not
been vehemently urged by us all, and if that great authority of the highest
pontiff had not swayed him, he would not have assented any further to
anything of this kind. But now, urged on by the brethren, summoned by the
highest pontiff with oaths, implored by the sons of Augustus, entreated by the
people and the prelates with whom, once upon a time, he had been responsible
for the beginning of this [affair J, in aid of concord and peace he decided,
finally convinced, to go there and obey the highest prelate, and to join forces
with him [Gregory] who had taken upon himself such hardship for the entire
people of God, [to see J whether he could perchance restore the peace in the
realm with him and to remove the discord. Therefore there was no room for
withdrawal; all the more would be the blame if he would desert the command
of such great authority because of the danger of any crisis of this present life,
because it is more praiseworthy to die well or to be put to the test with the good
and the best, than to live badly and to consent with the worst. The punishment
of judgment is one thing, the increase of sin another [p. 84]. And therefore
it was not recklessly, as they say, nor against the profession of true religion
that he exposed himself once more to moral danger, but he offered his most
dutiful self in a praiseworthy manner, and also as a mediator for both parties,
provided that he would receive an equally fair treatment for everyone; and
he could not be deterred by his own dangers, who had so many times exerted
himself on behalf of others. Let us therefore pay attention to Pascasius, who
was the companion in distant places of him, whom no hazard in this present
life could deter from following him whom he loved in Christ, whom he had
declared to imitate; with whom he also, fully aware of this, wished to die for
fidelity to Christ, if the time of mortal danger were imminent.

00
This is the working transbtion I produced in 2009-12. As of September 201-±, Justin
L1ke will become my collaborator in this project. Together we will offer a new edition and English
tL1nsbtion ro the Dumbarton Oaks lvkdicval Latin Library.
 174 Rome ,znd Religion in the .Nledieval vVorld

c. 16
PASCASIUS:

Regardless of the mood in which you say what you say, I completely acknowledge
that it is as you say. This fully proves the voyage which we undertook through the
midst of clusters of ambushes, among armies of men running hither and thither 1·.

who were against us; among them we advanced, in a most dangerous situation, .
with dread and trembling, fearing that it would not be granted to us to reach
or destination, because in any case if he [Louis] would have discovered [us], I
he would have taken us in altogether stricter custody than had previously been
inflicted upon him [Wala]; for at that time with Augustus there was Justina,
who once more wielded the scepter of the entire monarchy (monarchia), roused
the rivers and seas, whipped up the winds and turned the hearts of men to all
that she wished, because in the place from where they had driven [that] most
scandalous man of whom we have spoken [Bernard], others even more utterly
criminal rendered service. Yet we who could not diverge from our route, except
so we would go through their armed forces, propitiously reached the centre,
with God protecting us. When we had arrived there, we were received with the
greatest joy by the kings, the magnates (principes) and the entire people. When
subsequently we presented ourselves to the most holy pontiff, he received us with
great alacrity, with plenty of honor, because he suffered torments, especially in
his mind, because of what that he had discovered, things of a kind that before he
would never have believed possible. Moreover, he was threatened (which is most
regrettable) by Augustus and by all the latter's men, even by bishops, who before
we had come had pledged by their right hands that they would be unanimous in
resisting those who were in opposition: the royal sons, the magnates (principes)
and the people; on top of this they conspired under oath, oh grief, that that
they should depose the apostolic, because he had come uninvited. Phasur91 was
there, and others agreeing with the very same Justina. When he had listened to
them, the pontiff was much astounded and afraid. We therefore gave him many
writings confirmed by the authority of the holy fathers and of his predecessors,
on the basis of which nobody could contradict that his was the power, or rather,
God's and the Apostle Peter's, and his the authority to go and send out to all
peoples for the fidelity to Christ and the peace of the churches, for the preaching
of the gospel and the proclamation of the truth, and that in him rested all the
exalted authority and living power of the blessed Peter, by whom all mankind
ought to be judged, meaning that he himself should be judged by nobody.
Indeed, once these documents had been copied, he accepted them gratefully and
was much encouraged.

91
Jer. 20; this must be Ebo, Judith's old ally and confidant, who only went over to the other
side on the Field of Lies; cf De Jong. Penitential State, p. 253.
 175

fhid., c. 16, p. 88

"f11isindeed was their alternating altercation, 92 this their mutual dispute, this the
c1sc (propositio) of the father and the refutation (re.)ponsio) of the sons. When
rhus rhey could not attain any assent to forgiveness, the holy and highest pontif{
rhc vicar of blessed Peter, was sent as an intercessor I mediator. \\/hen he came
he was not received with any appropriate honor, yet having given the blessing
according to his custom he declared for whom he had come. Says the emperor
ro him: "We have not received you according to the custom of the kings of yore,
holy pontif{ with hymns and lauds and the honor of your rank and religion,
because you have not come summoned, in the way in which your predecessors
used to come to us." Says that one [the pope J to him: "You should know that
\\ e have come in the right manner, because we have come for the peace and
concord which the maker of our salvation has bequeathed us; and I have been
commissioned to preach this to the whole world and to proclaim this to all men.
Thus, emperor, if you receive us and the peace of Christ in a worthy manner, let
this give peace to you and also your kingdom; if not, the peace of Christ will
return to us, as you read in the Gospel, and be with us." 93

TEOFRASTUS:
Oh grief! What happened, that such a most religious and faithful emperor,
more than any of his predecessors acted so foolishly and rashly, and gave honor
neither to God nor to the blessed apostle Peter? I say, evil and utterly bad
obstinacy of mind and hardness of heart, and the wicked feminine persuasion
that deceived our original father [Adam]. This, as one knows, also cast an evil
spell right here, from which we suffer. And therefore we bewail a man of such
authority and sanctity [Louis], much oppressed by [moral] darkness, who did
not remember what Truth says: he, who receives you, receives me; and he who
hears you, hears me. 94 Woe, how great was then the bewitching and blinding of
the mind that so deceived a man of such greatness, amidst so many tribulations
and dangers, amongst so many scandals that he could never be recalled 95 nor be
healed by any counsel from sacred scripture! He seemed to meditate daily on
God's law, and how far did he withdraw from the law of true love by his hardened
heart. Otherwise he would never have provoked his sons so obstinately to anger,

92
Please note the legal connotations oLzlteJvltio and quere!tz (see Niermcycr): we are in the
domain of forensic rhetoric here.
Lk. 10:6.
')-1
Mt. 10:40: "qui recipit vos me recipit et qui me recipit recipit cum qui me misit;
Luke 10.16: qui vos audit me audit ct qui vm spcrnit me spernit qui autem me spernit spernit
•:um qui me rnisit."
Penitential bn~uagc:
U L
"nacnitentia
[
l}Uae ... in gratiarn
~
nos Domino revocat."
176 Rome and Religion in the lvledievtzl fVorld

against God's commandment and would never have pursued them, disinherited,
l
so frequently and cruelly with a hostile sword, while they themselves wished
nothing evil upon him, except that those [arrangements J remained unshaken,
which he himself and the entire people 96 had ordained and confirmed by oath. 9 ~
Tiut is, if he had cherished and taken care of the people, or of the Church of
Christ committed to him by God, or, surely, of the republic (respublic,z), he
would never have allowed so many evils in the kingdom, because of the will or
wiles of one woman. These will perhaps never ever cease, not by ingenuity, nor
by human virtue, nor by counsel, nor by anyone's might. While we much deplore
this, we implore that you expound on what the highest pontiff transacted with
him and what he managed.

c. 18
PASCASIUS:

What you often read is that legates, not having obtained peace, return where
they came from. So this one [the pope] as well returned without success,
without honor, and without reward for such a great effort. All the same, after
the day when he returned, the night thereafter, the hand of God was upon the
entire people by a just divine judgment, and the minds of every one of them
were shaken with fear of God and all were made to tremble. Hence, in that night
they left their Augustus without any (as far as I can remember) persuasion or
exhortation; [p. 89]; they all went, from the smallest to the greatest, they went
over to Honorius, and in the morning all around there appeared the erected
tents of everyone, as if every one of them said, on the part of the sons and
the pontiff: by His hand, which means, this is it. 98 To all whose who did not
fully comprehend that this seemed most miraculous: that those who one day
before were so strong and steadfast, relying on the multitude, on what everyone
promised, of everyone, on the counsel of the bishops (pontiji,cum) and magnates
(senatorum ), on paternal authority, on manifold promises, have been found to
be so fickle and weak, that without anyone's advice or counsel they left Caesar
alone with his Justina and during all that night flocked to the son against whom
they had advanced and sworn, all around [him] like chickens under [his] wings;
in the morning, when the camp was pitched, it appeared to be one people.
And then at first daybreak we went to the said pontiff because of the miracle
that happened, and behold, one of the Romans cried out, singing: the hand of
the Lord has wro~ght strength, 99 and the rest that follows. Then, by the very

96
Populus in the sense of the filieles.
97
Ordintltio irnperii of 817.
98
Ex.16:15.
99
Ps.117:16.
 l~zschrzsius R,zdhertus rmd Pseudo-hidore 177

same holy man and by all who had gathered there, it has been judged that the
'>O illustrious and glorious imperial rule (irnperium) fell from the father's hand,

')O that the August Honorius, who was the heir and had already been made and

created consors by his father and by all, would relieve him and receive it. Anyway,
if he had not done this, all said that they for themselves would elect unanimously
the one who had would bring them aid and protection. When this had been
<>aid Honorius consented and accepted the sole rule of the empire should be the
command of the entire realm (totius mon1zrchi1ze imperium ), taking his father
with him on the basis of some verdict I am not sure of.
When I had observed this, I interceded with Arsenius on their behalf
~rnd held forth that it seemed a bad thing to me that such an accidental event
would, without any counsel from elders and more careful ordination, suddenly
overthrow such a great reign (imperium), [and] that he who had been made co-
cmpcror (consors) by means of fidelity would accidentally claim for himself his
father's royal authority (monarchiam ). To which he said: "It was up to us to come
here, labor for all with good will, give counsel of peace and soothe the internal
war which was imminent; but now, just as nobody listens to us, so there is nobody
who heeds what we said, because all, as you read, either feared, or desired, or
rejoiced, or grieved. 100 Previously they feared what would happen, lest once more
what had been done would be avenged. Yet [now J all and everyone of them is
eager, while there is time, to enlarge what they already possess all the more, or
to acquire what they did not yet have. They greedily rejoice in their honors and
exult, for they all pursue their own [interests J, [yet J very few [pursued J what
belongs to God and to public use (utilia). The others, then, grieve, they fear
to lose-they by whose great audacity and counsel Caesar Augustus did these
things against his sons."

!OO "iaz. VI, p. TB; Pasch~1sius Radbertus, E:cposition in Lm1i::ntt1tirmc5 Hit:rmti1ll' III,
nL B. Paulus, CCCJ\f 85 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1988), p. 159, ll. 591-3: "Habent enim scelera et
peccau quadratum sL1:1m sicut quid~rn1 poetice ait: Hi mctwmt mpi11J1t gt111dentque do!mtrpte."