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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2025
This article explores how accounts of those living on the periphery of the Carolingian empire were used by authors at the centre as good examples, in order to promote the lessons of religious reform. Scholarship has primarily focused on how early medieval authors elided geographical distance and a lack of moral probity. In many cases, this helped to construct a sense of a geographically bounded Christian people defined by their moral conformity. The cases in this article, however, demonstrate a willingness – especially in the later ninth century – to take lessons from people who were strange and different, and even to use these as critiques of those at the centre who ought to have known better.
I should like to thank the audience at the EHS Winter Conference in January 2024 and the anonymous peer reviewers for their helpful feedback and comments. I should also like to express my gratitude for the help and encouragement provided by Lesley Abrams, Katy Cubitt, Carey Fliener and Sam Ottewill-Soulsby. Any errors remain, as ever, my own.
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4 Kramer, Rutger, Rethinking Authority in the Carolingian Empire: Ideals and Expectations during the Reign of Louis the Pious (813–828) (Amsterdam, 2019), 49–57 Google Scholar; van Rhijn, ‘Introduction’, 26–9.
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21 Reimitz, History, Frankish Identity, and the Framing of Western Ethnicity, 432–3.
22 Nelson, ‘Annals of St. Bertin’, 34.
23 Ibid. 25–8; Reimitz, History, Frankish Identity, and the Framing of Western Ethnicity, 427. On Prudentius, see Wielfaert, Jared, ‘Prudentius of Troyes and the Reception of the Patristic Tradition in the Carolingian Era’ (PhD thesis, University of Toronto, 2015)Google Scholar.
24 Ottewill-Soulsby, Emperor and Elephant, 24.
25 On whom, see Riess, Frank, The Journey of Deacon Bodo from the Rhine to the Guadalquivir: Apostasy and Conversion to Judaism in Early Medieval Europe (London, 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
26 ‘[A]b ipsis paene cunabulis in christiana religione palatinis eruditionibus … aliquatenus inbutum’: AB, s.a. 839 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 27).
27 ‘Alamannica gente progenitum’: ibid.
28 ‘[C]um Iudaeis’: ibid.
29 ‘[H]umani generis hoste pellectum’: ibid. 28.
30 ‘[L]acrimabile nimiumque cunctis catholicae aecclesiae filiis ingemescendam’: ibid. 27
31 ‘[A]ugustis cunctisque christianae fidei gratia redemptis luctuosum extiterit’: ibid.
32 ‘[M]onens etiam curam subiectorum sibi erga animarum salute solicitius impendendam’: ibid. 29
33 Dutton, Paul, The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire (London, 1994), 107–12Google Scholar; although compare de Jong, Penitential State, 136–7: ‘Dutton tends to overestimate the political nature of these dream texts’. On visions more generally, see Keskiaho, Jesse, Dreams and Visions in the Early Middle Ages: The Reception and Use of Patristic Ideas, 400–900 (Cambridge, 2015)10.1017/CBO9781139979610CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
34 ‘[C]uiusdam religiosi praesbiteri … ei rapto a corpore’: AB, s.a. 839 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 29).
35 ‘[D]iversa hominum christianorum peccata … christianorum peccatis et facinoribus’: ibid.
36 ‘[N]isi istae animae sanctorum tam incessanter cum fletu ad Deum clamarent, iam aliquatenus finis tantorum malorum’: ibid.
37 ‘[S]i cito homines christiani … non egerint poenitentiam … cito super eos maximum et intolerabile periculum veniet’: ibid. 30.
38 Story, Joanna, Carolingian Connections: Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia, c.750–870 (Aldershot, 2003), 169–213 Google Scholar.
39 De Jong, Penitential State, 132.
40 Ibid. 162–3.
41 For this embassy, see Grierson, Philip, ‘The Carolingian Empire in the Eyes of Byzantium’, in Nascita dell’ Europa ed Europa Carolingia. Un’equazione da verificare, Settimane 27 (Spoleto, 1981), 885–918, at 912Google Scholar.
42 ‘[C]aelitus … assecutus … in Domino exultatio ferebatur’: AB, s.a. 839 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 30).
43 ‘Datori victoriarum omnium gratias referre’: ibid.
44 Evans, Robert, ‘“Instructing readers’ minds in heavenly matters”: Carolingian History Writing and Christian Education’, in Ludlow, Morwenna, Methuen, Charlotte and Spicer, Andrew, eds, Churches and Education, SCH 55 (Cambridge, 2019), 56–71 Google Scholar.
45 ‘[C]aelestibus auxiliis fulti, victoriam adepti sunt’: AB, s.a. 839 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 33–4).
46 Robert Evans, ‘A Secular Shift in Carolingian History Writing?’, EME 29 (2021), 36–54.
47 ‘Dei auxilio’: AB, s.a. 843 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 45).
48 ‘[A]uxilio domini nostri Ihesu Christi’: AB, s.a. 848 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 55); ‘auxilio domini nostri Ihesu Christi’: AB, s.a. 850 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 60).
49 ‘[P]eccatis nostris divinae bonitatis aequitas nimium offensa taliter christianorum terras et regna attriverit’: AB, s.a. 845 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 50).
50 Meyer-Gebel, Marlene, ‘Zur annalistischen Arbeitsweise Hinkmars von Reims’, Francia 15 (1987), 75–108 Google Scholar. On Hincmar’s career more generally, see Stone, Rachel and West, Charles, eds, Hincmar of Rheims: Life and Work (Manchester, 2015)Google Scholar.
51 ‘Deo inspirante et signis atque afflictionibus in populo regni sui monente’: AB, s.a. 866 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 133). For discussion of this conversion, see Sullivan, Richard, ‘Khan Boris and the Conversion of Bulgaria: A Case Study of the Impact of Christianity on a Barbarian Society’, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 3 (1966), 55–139 Google Scholar; Barford, Peter, The Early Slavs (London, 2001), 221–2Google Scholar; Chadwick, Henry, East and West: The Making of a Rift in the Church from Apostolic Times until the Council of Florence (Oxford, 2003), 113–18Google Scholar.
52 ‘[P]roceres sui moleste ferentes, concitaverunt populum adversus eum’: AB, s.a. 866 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 133).
53 ‘Quotquot igitur fuerunt intra decem comitatus, adunaverunt se circa palatium eius’: ibid. Compare Ziemann, Daniel, ‘The Rebellion of the Nobles against the Baptism of Khan Boris (865–866)’, in Henning, Joachim, ed., Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium, 2: Byzantium, Pliska, and the Balkans (Berlin, 2007), 613–24Google Scholar, who discusses both Hincmar’s sources and complementary Byzantine evidence.
54 ‘[C]um quadraginta tantum octo hominibus … profectus est contra omnem illam multitudinem’: AB, s.a. 866 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 133).
55 ‘[I]nvocato Christi nominee … qui erga christianam devotionem ferventes sibi remanserant’: ibid.
56 Kramer, Rethinking Authority, 41–2. On loyalty, see essays in Sonntag, Jörg and Zermatten, Coralie, eds, Loyalty in the Middle Ages: Ideal and Practice of a Cross-social Value (Turnhout, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
57 ‘[S]eptem clerici, et unusquisque eorum tenebat cereum ardentem in manu sua, sicque praecedebant regem et illos qui cum eo erant’: AB, s.a. 866 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 133).
58 ‘[M]agna villa ardens super eos caderet, et equi eorum qui cum rege errant … erecti incedebant et cum anterioribus pedibus eos percutiebant’: ibid.
59 ‘[A]rma, quibus indutus fuerat, quando in Christi nomine de suis adversariis triumphavit’: ibid. 134.
60 Compare a Frankish example, AB, s.a. 865 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 122).
61 Koziol, Geoffrey, Politics of Memory and Identity in Carolingian Royal Diplomas: The West Frankish Kingdom (840–987) (Turnhout, 2012), 97–211 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
62 Nelson, ‘Annals of St. Bertin’, 37.
63 ‘[S]i Deus cum eis esset’: AB, s.a. 866 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 131).
64 ‘[C]astigari noluerunt, in se ultionem experiri meruerunt’: ibid.
65 On which, see Calvet-Marcadé, Gaëlle, Assassin des pauvres. L’Église et l’inaliénabilité des terres à l’époque carolingienne (Turnhout, 2019).10.1484/M.HAMA-EB.5.114497CrossRefGoogle Scholar
66 Clauß, Jan, ‘Imports and Embargos of Imperial Concepts in the Frankish Kingdom: The Promotion of Charlemagne’s Imperial Coronation in Carolingian Courtly Culture’, in Scholl, Christian et al., eds, Transcultural Approaches to the Concept of Imperial Rule in the Middle Ages (Frankfurt, 2017), 77–116, at 109–10Google Scholar.
67 ‘[U]t imperatori mentem bonam … donaret’: AB, s.a. 864 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 106).
68 ‘[C]lerus et populus Romanus cum crucibus et laetaniis ieiunium celebrantes’: ibid.
69 ‘[U]bi duobus diebus ac noctibus sine cibo ac potu mansit’: ibid.
70 AB, s.a. 866 (ed. Grat, Vielliard and Clémencet, 132).
71 See, for instance, Annales Regni Francorum, s.a. 789, ed. Friedrich Kurze, MGH SRG i.u.s. 6 (Hanover, 1895), 84.
72 ‘[I]n regnum Hludowici regis, in comitatum videlicet Albdagi’: AF, s.a. 873 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 80).
73 Coupland, Simon, ‘Poachers and Gamekeepers: Scandinavian Warlords and Carolingian Kings’, EME 7 (1998), 85–114, at 101–3Google Scholar.
74 ‘[R]espondissent se non debere tributa solvere nisi Hludowico regi eiusque filiis’: AF, s.a. 873 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 80).
75 ‘[I]lli autem Dominum invocantes … qui eos saepius ab hostibus liberaverat’: ibid.
76 AF, s.a. 726 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 2); s.a. 869 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 69).
77 AF, s.a. 849 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 39).
78 ‘[U]nus Nordmannus, qui christianus effectus longo tempore cum eisdem Frisionibus conversatus est et eiusdem certaminis duxerat’: AF, s.a. 873 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 80).
79 Evans, Robert, ‘“Words that supply valour”: God, Warfare, and the Rhetoric of Persuasion in Carolingian History Writing’, in Rowley, Matthew and Hodgson, Natasha, eds, Miracles, Political Authority and Violence in Medieval and Early Modern History (London, 2021), 29–47, at 37–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
80 ‘[Q]uod modo nos pauci contra plurimos praevaluimus hostes, non nostris deputandum est viribus, sed Dei gratiae’: AF, s.a. 873 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 80).
81 See, for instance, AF, s.a. 876 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 87–9); AF, s.a. 900 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 134).
82 Sedulius, De Rectoribus Christianis 15; ET: Sedulius Scottus: De Rectoribus (‘On Christian Rulers’), ed. and transl. Robert Dyson (Woodbridge, 2010), 144–6.
83 Hincmar, De regis persona et regio ministerio 14, PL 125, col. 843.
84 ‘[N]on in se nec in suorum fortitudine … totam confidentiam stabilire debent … sed in Altimissi virtute et gratia totam confidentiam stabilire debent’: Sedulius, De Rectoribus, 14 (ed. Dyson, 137).
85 ‘[I]lli autem miserunt pecuniam multam valde et obsides, quos dederant, receperunt, prius tamen, ut dixi, praestito’: AF, s.a. 873 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 81).
86 Stone, Morality, 94–101.
87 AF [Mainz continuation], s.a. 882 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 97–8); AF [Bavarian continuation], s.a. 891 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 119).
88 Van Renswoude, Rhetoric of Free Speech, 180–205; De Jong, Epitaph for an Era, 71–101.
89 ‘[I]n cum magna confusione ac sui detriment’: AF, s.a. 873 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 81).
90 For a detailed discussion, see MacLean, Simon, ‘Ritual, Misunderstanding, and the Contest for Meaning: Representations of the Disrupted Royal Assembly at Frankfurt (873)’, in Weiler, Björn and idem, , eds, Representations of Power in Medieval Germany, 800–1500 (Turnhout, 2006), 97–119 10.1484/M.IMR-EB.3.3436CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
91 ‘[N]ihil opertum est, quod non reveletur … confitere ergo peccata tua et age poenitentiam et Deum humiliter postula’: AF, s.a. 873 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 77).
92 ‘Domino faciente’: ibid.
93 ‘[A] Deo electum et ordinatum’: ibid.
94 ‘[N]on esse consilium contra Deum’: ibid.
95 ‘[I]gnarus vindictae quae eum de caelo erat secutura’: ibid. 80.
96 ‘[N]unc exili nunc grandi voce clamitans morsum se tenentibus aperto ore minabatur’: ibid. 77.
97 See Airlie, Stuart, Making and Unmaking the Carolingians, 751–888 (London, 2021), 273–318 Google Scholar.
98 Evans, ‘Writing of Annals’.
99 ‘[M]iseri, inscii … ad vestigia vetuli illorum regis Michaelis qui eos primum ad christianae religionis veritatem convertit’: AF [Bavarian continuation], s.a. 896 ((MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 130).
100 ‘[A]uxilium a Deo querendum esse’: ibid.
101 ‘[D]e inlata christianis iniuriae’: ibid.
102 See, for instance, Concilium Triburiense, c. 34, ed. Alfred Boretius and Victor Krause, MGH Capit. 2 (Hanover, 1897), 233.
103 See, for instance, AF [Bavarian continuation], s.a. 893 (MGH SRG i.u.s. 7: 122): ‘malis christianis’.
104 ‘[M]isericordia Dei victoria … christianis concessa est … gentilium Avarorum’: ibid. 130.
105 McKitterick, Charlemagne, 288–91. For the later example of the Vikings, see especially Bauduin, Pierre, Le monde franc et les Vikings, VIIIe–Xe siècle (Paris, 2009)Google Scholar.
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108 Ibid. 8–9; compare O’Brien, ‘Empire, Ethnic Election and Exegesis’, 98–9.
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110 Renswoude, Rhetoric of Free Speech, 133–60.
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