Fouracre P. The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 1: c. 500-c. 700

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Church structure and organisation 693

ofﬁcialis (a sacramentary) from the bishop. But clerics were not supposed to

limit themselves to books: they also had to know the psalter, hymns, cantica

and baptism rituals by heart.

Special regulations were supposed to ensure the moral character of clergy-

men. Therefore they were prohibited from certain professions, such as the

management of goods and property, pleading at law, money lending and public

ofﬁce. They were not allowed to be active as theatricus or to practise astrology

or magic. That this detachment from the social environment was very difﬁcult

is indicated by further prohibitions in the sixth and seventh centuries: on

gambling, the carrying of weapons, the ownership of hawks and hunting dogs,

visiting public houses or going around in splendid clothes.

A sure stabilitas

loci was also demanded. Priests and deacons were only allowed to go on jour-

neys with an episcopal pass (litterae formatae). Living with lay people was also

only allowed with episcopal permission.

The legislation of the councils was dominated by the problem of celibacy.

High clergy had not been allowed to marry since the fourth century. Pope

Leo the Great demanded celibacy from all ordained ranks above subdeacon.

Celibacy was the safest guarantee of the ofﬁcials having no heirs, for the latter

could be dangerous for the church’s property. Under Gregory the Great married

men who became high clergy did not have to divorce their wives, but they did

have to live in complete chastity. In Francia the vow of complete chastity

extended to acolytes and exorcists and their wives were obliged to follow it too.

As widows they could not marry again!

Nevertheless it appears that until the

sixth century an unmarried bishop was very rare. The wife of a bishop was

called an episcopa and often undertook an important role in the management

of the diocese. She was mainly in charge of charitable works but was also

engaged in the digniﬁed decoration of the bishop’s church. The Council of

Tours (567) said that a bishop without a wife had to be served by clerics. The

same council also referred to presbytera, diaconissa and subdiaconissa.

All these

married women were recognised by society but they were not allowed to live

in matrimony with their husbands.

The conversion of Arian clergy to Catholicism created fresh problems with

regard to celibacy. These clergymen wanted to continue undisturbed with their

full marriages in the new hierarchy. The Council of Toledo in 589 decided

that such clerics should be demoted to lectors.

In the seventh century the

subdeacons in Spain demanded the right to marry for a second time. They

Rich

e(1962), pp. 324–35; Scheibelreiter (1983), pp. 76–91.

Rich

e(1962), pp. 336–50; Scheibelreiter (1983), pp. 91–8;Heuclin (1998), pp. 190–5.

ii M

acon (585), c.16. This extreme chastity was derived from the word of St Paul (i Corinthians 6:5).

There, however, it is meant only to be temporary: Heuclin (1998), pp. 112–14.

ii M

acon, cc.14 and 20.

iii Toledo (589), c.3.

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argued that they had not received the benedictio at their ordination. This is why

the latter had to be introduced into the ordination ceremony. Concubinage was

punished severely; in 589 it was decided that guilty clerics should be removed

from ofﬁce and sent to a monastery whilst the concubine could be sold into

slavery. Around the middle of the seventh century an attempt was made to stem

the lack of restraint with which children were born to clerics (from subdeacon

upwards) after they had been ordained, and to exclude them from inheritance.

At the same time they were supposed to remain slaves of the church forever.

How far all this was from the church in the East is shown by the Trullanum

legislation of 692 in which priests were given the right to marry.

the rights of the church

As early as the fourth century the special position that the clergy held within the

churchwas recognisedby the state. This must have had an effect on ecclesiastical

jurisdiction. Nevertheless, for a long time, the efforts that the clergy made to

achieve a privilegium fori had little success. Eventually Justinian’s legislation in

the Novels strengthened the powers of the ecclesiastical court, and in the East

after 629 the ecclesiastical court of jurisdiction for clergy was obligatory.

The Germanic leges differed from each other with regard to ecclesiastical

jurisdiction. With the Visigoths the provincial synods competed in matters of

civil law with the secular courts. The latter had in any case been given the right

to operate by the bishop. The Fourth Council of Toledo in 633 established that

criminal matters concerning bishops were the Council’s concern,

a principle

that was however often broken in practice. In Francia the royal court also had

jurisdiction over the clergy, but in the Edict of Paris in 614 civil jurisdiction

over homines ecclesiastici was granted to the church. Clerics’ causae minores were

also assigned to the bishop’s court. With the Lombards, on the other hand, the

settling of disputes by the church was the exception. In internal matters too the

clergy was subject to the king’s court. Even when a bishop was the chairman

the case went before a secular court.

Criminal proceedings against a bishop were at ﬁrst organised according

to Roman law. With priests and deacons co-operation already existed between

secular and ecclesiastical authorities. The lower clergy had to answer to a secular

court if they were caught red handed or produced a confession. As confused as

the situation may have been, Germanic law showed an improved representation

of the clergy in the secular court through the increased protection of the person

(through the wergild) and the special protection of the church’s possessions.

This corresponds to the regulation in which a bishop of the patriarchate of Constantinople had to

answer before the Sinodus Endemousa.

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Church structure and organisation 695

The organisation of the ecclesiastical courts was not uniform: a clear alloca-

tion of responsibilities was lacking. The most important court in the diocese

was the episcopal court, of which the archdeacon was more and more fre-

quently the chairman. The ofﬁcial channel of appeal was to the provincial

synod. In Africa it was to the primate. The proceedings were a simpliﬁed form

of the Roman process of accusation. As well as this model, Germanic law

had also been an inﬂuence since the time of Gregory the Great. The pun-

ishments the church courts could give out were not yet conclusively deﬁned

but the principles, which were developed later, were recognisable. The peo-

ple who were entitled to give out punishments were the bishop, the coun-

cils and the pope, but there were still conﬂicts over the competence of each

authority.

Depositio (dismissal) meant complete loss of ecclesiastical position and dig-

nity, along with all its rights and income and, in addition, it meant exclusion

from the ranks of the clergy and a permanent ban on re-entry (depositio per-

fecta). Ordination remained unaffected but the disgraced cleric was not allowed

to make use of it. External consequences were the removal of religious garments

and signs of status. A milder form was partial deposition. This meant a lowering

of rank but not total exclusion from ecclesiastical status.

Excommunication meant the loss of the right of membership of the church.

It was mainly a punishment for laymen, which was imposed upon clerics

in especially serious cases. Complete excommunication meant total exclusion

from the life of the religious community, but partial excommunication only

meant exclusion from communion services. Excommunication could be per-

manent or limited to a certain period and it could be simply or ceremoniously

pronounced (the anathema).

Suspension was a temporary punishment, which was handed out to clergy-

men mainly to deprive them of practising their ecclesiastical ceremonies or

rights. It concerned either the power of ordination and that of ofﬁce, or just

the latter. Interdict, as an effective local and personal punishment for laymen,

does not, in the sixth and seventh centuries, yet appear to have much impor-

tance. Less severe punishments were: expulsion from the parish, a transfer,

withdrawal or reduction of income, conﬁnement to a monastery, or chastise-

ment. Furthermore they could also be publicly pronounced.

The spreading and strengthening of the church as an organisation led to

an expansion and consolidation of ecclesiastical law-making. Laws were intro-

duced by the emperors, kings, popes and councils. In this the church in the East

had a clear lead. However, its unity began to weaken during the Acacian schism

(484–519). The several Christological disputes in the East became indissolubly

mixed with politics, so it became apparent that there was a growing need to

obtain standardisation through a codiﬁcation of the laws.

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The West was at ﬁrst dependent on the systematic collections of the East.

As part of this came papal decrees and records in which both source collec-

tions were mixed. The reception of the Oriental collections did not signify a

legal acceptance of everything that they contained. They were made up partly

from private works, which were accepted as legally valid. This was regarded

as heretical in the West, and casts light on the ﬂawed spiritual assimilation

of these borrowings. Obviously here much remains unknown and we must

manage with reconstructions and hypotheses.

The oldest collection in the West was the so-called Vetus Romana (between

350 and 410), which recorded the canons of Nicaea and Sardica. To the ﬁrst

half of the ﬁfth century belongs the Versio Isidoriana (or Hispana), which had

originated in Africa or Italy. Younger but more signiﬁcant was the Prisca (or

Itala) which was put together in Rome around 500.Between the pontiﬁcates

of Gelasius I (492–496) and Hormisdas (514–523), collections were started in

Rome, which strove for standardisation and the removal of particularist law

and uncanonical texts, as well as giving a special emphasis to the papal decretal

right. These collections achieved far-reaching recognition, which came from

the inclusion of established and tried canons from the African councils. In

Gaul the well-known Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua attracted the most attention. It

was put together in Arles in about 450 and made use of the acts of Gaulish and

eastern synods and papal laws. Later works in the sixth century were limited

to Francia but they offer valuable insight into the development of laws in the

ecclesiastical West. The Capitula Martini (also: Collectio Martini Bracarensis)

was another of the most important collections of the sixth century. It had been

started around 540 in the circle of the great religious leader Martin of Braga.

He strove speciﬁcally to give the clergy and the lay people better knowledge of

the sources conciliar and papal, a goal that appears to have been particularly

important to him, like an inner mission.

the economy of the church

Until the sixth century the church’s property and income were handled accord-

ing to the principles of Roman law. With the setting up of the Germanic

kingdoms this standardisation was lost in favour of corresponding measures in

the various Leges.InMerovingian Francia the clergy was gradually freed from

the poll tax whilst the property tax was maintained, but numerous privileges

existed. There was the principle that the church’s fortune belonged to it as

an institution and not to the clerics working in separate churches. The rule

was that, with the exception of an individual’s inheritance, everything given

The detail in Pl

ochl (1953), pp. 251–9 is most useful.

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Church structure and organisation 697

to a cleric after his ordination belonged to the church and not to him person-

ally. But the numerous complaints made by councils, against clerics using the

church’s wealth for their own or their relatives’ purposes, show that here no

clear legal separation existed. Bishops were in charge of making inventories in

which the different categories of the wealth were supposed to be stated.

According to the Lex Romana Visigothorum the church’s property was res

divina.How far this concept was followed can be seen by the fact that the

leasing out of church property for money by managers could be regarded as

simony. Every church owned the wealth that was given to it when it was

founded, and to safeguard this an episcopal conﬁrmation was required. In a

petitorium the founder was bound to these provisions and had to relinquish all

his rights over his church. Only then could the church be consecrated. This

sort of church foundation was so common in papal Italy, Spain and Francia,

that the model of the private church (Eigenkirche)eventually declined in the

face of it. The dispute over the origins of the Eigenkirche has produced different

theories, which cannot be expanded on here.

Even at the beginning, in the

pre-Constantinian period, private church services took place. The development

of estates owned by landlords, with its implications for the law of property, also

affected the situation: everything that belonged to a church went to the site of

the altar. Thus much of the explanation for the creation of Eigenkirche lies in the

social structure of the time. It was not only the founders of the churches who

claimed their property and acted in a high-handed manner, but also those who

were protecting the clerici of the church from episcopal discipline. It is clear

that everywhere where authority was publicly and legally exercised over the

land and people, rule was also acquired over the church. So the phenomenon

of the private church corresponded to the contemporary conception of power

and rights. We cannot go further into the religious mentality that gained

further expression through the formation of private monasteries (Eigenkl

oster)

here.

At ﬁrst the church survived on voluntary contributions. Under Pope

Damasus I (366–384) the particular principle of an ecclesiastical tax on proﬁts

was established. Supported by numerous councils it was introduced generally

in the sixth century. An obligatory tax, which the separate churches paid to

the bishop, was the so-called cathedraticum. Whether or not it was a general

arrangement is unclear: it was ﬁrst mentioned at the Third Council of Braga

in 572, and in the seventh century met with repeated opposition at Visigothic

councils. The offerings, which the faithful brought to the church, had been

used by the priests themselves since the sixth century. Now an offering at the

altar was stipulated as an obligation for lay people on Sundays.

Feine (1950), pp. 195–208.

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The person in charge of the church’s wealth was the bishop: without his

agreement no decisions or changes could be made. In the East, Justinian’s

laws established a hierarchy of personnel to manage the wealth. There were

defensores (to protect the rights of the wealth), dioketai (to manage the landed

property) and custodes (to manage the moveable goods), and there were also

secondary assistants. They all had to report to the bishop once a year. In the

West there was not such a variety of management personnel. One person who

is referred to is the oeconomus. King Chlothar II stipulated in the Edict of Paris

(614) that the church’s economic ofﬁcials should be taken from the inhabitants

of the pagi,inwhich the goods concerned lay. Episcopal inﬂuence may have

declined because of increasing specialisation in management of the diocese, but

the pope generally became more active in management matters. This activity

intensiﬁed when Gregory the Great came to power. As an experienced and

practical man he undertook the reorganisation of the patrimonium Petri and

of the economic management of the church in general.

The church’swealth was in principle used for services, for charitable concerns

and for the upkeep of the clergy. Pope Simplicius passed a law in 475 that

divided the wealth into four parts, which as well as for the aforementioned

needs, also provided for the bishop. But in the sixth century there was a return

to division into thirds, in which the services were no longer referred to. In the

sixth century a clergyman no longer received his upkeep from his community

but received instead a wage from the collective wealth. It had to be ensured

that he could live in a manner beﬁtting his rank on this wage. For this reason

precise regulations were made concerning the number of clergy at each church.

Numerous limitations were placed on the alienation of the church’s wealth.

Thus abbots and priests needed episcopal agreement to dispose of it. In Italy

in 483 the praefectus praetorio Basilius issued a ban on the alienation of the

church’s income. This was, however, lifted by a provincial council in 507

because it had been made without the pope and clergy. At the same time a

decision was made in response that publicly declared that lay people had no

right to make such rules. Nevertheless, King Theoderic passed another law

to protect the church’s property. Pope Symmachus (514–523) differentiated

between permanent estrangement and usus fructus (temporary enjoyment of

income) but at the same time he issued a ban on its disposal. The church’s

property could only be used, in usu fructu, for life by clerics, monks, the poor

and foreigners.

The danger of alienation existed because of the frequent loan of the church’s

property to lay people, which was initially in the interest of the church. In

For detail on relationships in Gaul, Lesne (1910), pp. 143–94.Onthe general relationship between

power and possession of property in the church, Ganz (1995).

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Church structure and organisation 699

Francia the instrument of precaria verbo regis (lease of church land to laymen

at the king’s command) did not exist in pre-Carolingian times, although com-

pulsory leasing could occur at the request (petitio)ofthe king or mayor of the

palace. Constant uncertainty surrounded the law of inheritance concerning

clerics: it was limited in favour of the church, which was the natural heir,

but there was hardly a clear division between the church’s goods and personal

property. The church had suffered greatly in disputes over wills, arbitrary gifts

and ruling decisions.

A bishop’s estate, which was often claimed by his wife

in an arbitrary manner, was subjugated to particularly strict regulation.

Non-

Christian relatives were, under these circumstances, completely cut out from

inheritance.

the liturgy

In the period between Leo the Great (440–461) and Gregory II (715–731)the

Roman liturgy was fully developed. The oldest collections of prayers for mass

(sacramentaria) can be traced to popes Leo I, Gelasius I and Gregory I. The

prayers, which were newly formulated by different popes, had been written

down by priests and kept in the Lateran archives.

The Sacramentarium Leonianum (or Veronense)represents the joining

together of separate mass libelli, giving different forms for the same mass,

or other services. The beginning has been lost, the contents only covering the

months April to December. The author was probably a compiler who strove

to include everything that he knew, and because of this he sometimes made

mistakes in the order. The Sacramentarium Gelasianum is a reproduction of

Roman liturgical material, as it was taken up in Francia. The oldest specimen

there comes from the seventh century. For the Sacramentarium Gregorianum

there are two traditions. First there was the so-called Hadrianum, which was

sent to Charlemagne by Pope Hadrian I (772–795) and was added to in Francia

because it missed out the Sunday mass. The other version was the Paduense

(named after the home of the manuscript). This mass formulary was linked

to Gregory the Great because it is the work of a man who possessed clarity,

understanding and openness, and this pope was regarded as an ecclesiasti-

cal organiser. However, because it already included a Gregorian festival on

12 Marchitprobably took on its ﬁnal form in the time of Gregory II. The

ﬁrst redaction was still used in the time of Honorius I (625–638), and since it

also cites the stations of the Roman church it was probably created for papal

worship.

ochl (1953), p. 245.

Gregory of Tours offers a characteristic example from Le Mans: Hist. viii.39.

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The Gelasianum,onthe other hand, only cited the mass times and appears

therefore to have been a priest’s mass book. It is probably not a genuine Roman

work, for it recognises many Campanian saints and mixes their festivals with

those more generally established in ecclesiastical tradition. On the whole it was

concerned with the patron saints of the church who had been established in

the sixth century. Bishop Maximin of Ravenna (546–556) could have been the

author of the Gelasianum, and in any case it is older than the Gregorianum.It

can have reached Francia no earlier than 628 because it already contained the

festival of the Raising of the Cross (14 September), which had been introduced

by the emperor Heraclius on the occasion of the winning back of Jerusalem.

The sacramentaries give insight into the form of the mass, but they contain

no liturgical directions. For these one must fall back on the Ordines Romani.

These are libelli in which rites, ceremonies and liturgical prayers for different

sacramental occasions and holy services (ordination of the clergy, the eucharist

and the liturgy for the holy week) were recorded. Ordo I, for instance, which

appearedat the end of the seventh century, described the external orderof events

in a papal mass in a very exact sequence. A Byzantine inﬂuence is to be assumed

here. Perhaps the ordo was put together in the time of Pope Vitalian (657–672)

who had also introduced new hymns to the Lateran in the schola cantorum

(the Vitaliani). It was a period of new development in rites and hymns, which

differed from the old Roman models owing to Byzantine inﬂuence. Benedict

Biscop strove to bring this new Roman liturgy to England. In 680 he persuaded

Abbot John of St Martin’s in Rome, who was the archicantor of St Peter’s, to

go with him to educate the English clerics in this matter and to write liturgical

books.

The availability of sacramentaries and ordines should not lead one to con-

clude that prayer and song were subject to strict validation. Prayer material was

still freely changeable and bishops were in a position to be creative themselves.

A uniﬁed Gallican liturgy did not yet exist, rather there were characteristic com-

mon features of the local forms. Likewise the numerous benediction formulas

suggest a strongly pastorally organised liturgy.

In Rome on the other hand,

the Byzantine style of the seventh century turned the participants in the services

into mere listeners and spectators. Gaul and Spain did not succumb to this

from a pastoral point of view, as long as the people there could still understand

the language of the liturgy. England followed the direction of Rome. The

So in Gaul and Spain before the middle of the sixth century Gospel readings and sermons came

ﬁrst after the preparation for the offering and the missa catechuminum.In538 Pope Vigilius sent an

ordo precum to Braga which recognised the great ﬂexibility of liturgical possibilities: Heuclin (1998),

pp. 201–5.

In Rome the benediction before the communion was replaced by an oratio ad populum in the sixth

century: Heuclin (1998), pp. 205–10.

Church structure and organisation 701

Gelasianum and Gregorianum were used next to one another and they were

often combined ‘to the taste of the individual cathedrals and monasteries’.

Prayers at certain times throughout the day were also a part of the regu-

lar liturgy. This custom was introduced to the clergy in cathedrals through

monasticism and spread from there to the people. Caesarius of Arles got the

clergy and people to pray throughout the daily ofﬁces. Participation in hourly

prayers was obligatory during the period of fasting, this being regarded as a

pointed sign of piety. In Spain the people did not take part in this, but in rural

churches, as well as in other places, psalms were sung as morning and evening

prayers. The order of reading depended on the beginning of the church year:

in Rome this was a week before the Lenten fasting in spring, whilst in Francia,

Advent marked the beginning. Although the Gelasianum and Gregorianum

had the church year beginning at Christmas, it was said to have started on

1 Marchbyanalogy with the pagan Roman calendar. In Spain, 17 November

was chosen because it was regarded as the beginning of the long preparation for

Christmas.

A separate liturgical garment, which was different from everyday robes, was

evident in the seventh century (in contrast to the usual clerical vestments.) The

deacon wore the dalmatica; all other clergy from the acolyte to the bishop wore

the so-called planeta,avery wide, ﬁne, long robe. It enabled the mass book or

holy equipment to be held with covered hands.

pastoral care

The sermon was the main instrument of pastoral care in the sixth century. It

was also indirectly a missionary device, for it was thought that pagans came

to services out of curiosity and were converted by the preaching, the worth of

which was highly estimated. Caesarius of Arles believed that the word of God

(along with its interpretation by the preachers) was no less important than

the body of Christ. It is evident that this opinion owed much to the highly

valued rhetorical tradition in Gaul but it also indicates a lack of interest among

the people. Already the Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua had threatened people who

left the service during the sermon with excommunication. Caesarius of Arles

forced people to stay by closing the church doors and only opening them after

the benediction. However, signs of participation in the sermon are also attested

to, such as applause or grumbles of disapproval. Moral warnings, which were

purposefully made, occasionally produced unpleasant reactions. Most sermons

lasted only half an hour, and their contents were simple because of the low

level of education among the priests since the sixth century. Nevertheless, in

Mayr-Harting (1977), pp. 272–5.

702 georg scheibelreiter

a period of declining education, a certain degree of understanding could still

be achieved. Caesarius asked all his colleagues to preach on every Sunday and

holiday and even twice a day during Lent. The bishop of Arles himself could

adapt to different levels of understanding. He therefore put his model sermons

at the disposal of his colleagues and sent them out as the ﬁrst ever collection

of sermons.

In general, preaching was tailored to the different festivals of the church

year. But the sermons were used above all to tackle current issues that needed

Christian comment. An essential aim of the sermon was to tear people away

from everyday materialism. People were supposed to think about the next

world and eternity and not to live carefree lives. Gregory the Great demanded

cheering contents, to put new heart into the people who were exhausted by the

misery of daily life. Next, the sermon was supposed to encourage the listeners

to lead actively Christian lives, at the heart of which were appropriate virtues,

social relationships and the promotion of the church. The necessity of keeping

Sunday as a day of rest was also impressed upon the people; this concerned

agricultural work above all and was directed against an exaggeration of the

Jewish sabbath. In missionary areas, respecting Sunday as the day of rest was

seen as a sign of Christianity, because previously Thursday, as the day of Jupiter,

had been the day of rest.

Baptism, as the initiation ritual into Christianity, was correspondingly given

lots of attention. Therefore in Gaul in the sixth century more and more babies

and children were baptised, often in parish churches. Our knowledge of this is

based, however, almost exclusively on Caesarius of Arles. The date for baptisms

was originally Easter night, later, Christmas or festivals of known saints. In the

case of infant baptisms, the long preparation for baptism, which was carried

out during the period of fasting, was shortened. First infants were given the

competentes (laying on of hands and anointing on the forehead with oil). After

this, in Rome, the scrutinia followed. Strict checks of the beliefs and lifestyle of

the candidate (for adults) were made. Earlier, in Africa and Gaul, exorcism was

performed. The godparents made a commitment to give the baptised child

a minimum amount of religious knowledge (the creed, the Lord’s prayer).

At other times in the church year the preparations were shorter and requests

for immediate baptism were not denied. Following the baptism came the

consignatio, the marking with the cross. After the celebratory rejection of

the Devil, a declaration of faith was called for. In Gaul this was followed

by the newly baptised having their feet washed. Unusual features of baptism in

Spain were the strict dates for learning the creed. It was ceremoniously handed

out on Palm Sunday and had to be recited on Maundy Thursday. In contrast

to Gaul, baptism in Spain was performed predominantly on adults.

Penance and reconciliation were, in general, matters for the bishop; only

in Rome were they part of the priest’s responsibilities. On Maundy Thursday