Concilium Germanicum

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The Concilium Germanicum was the first major Church synod to be held in the eastern parts of the Frankish kingdoms. It was called by Carloman on 21 April 742/743 at an unknown location, and presided over by Boniface, who was solidified in his position as leader of the Austrasian church. German historian Gunther Wolf judges that the Concilium was the high point in Boniface's long career. [1]

Synod council of a church

A synod is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word synod comes from the Greek σύνοδος (sýnodos) meaning "assembly" or "meeting", and it is synonymous with the Latin word concilium meaning "council". Originally, synods were meetings of bishops, and the word is still used in that sense in Catholicism, Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodoxy. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not. It is also sometimes used to refer to a church that is governed by a synod.

Franks Germanic people

The Franks were a group of Germanic peoples, whose name was first mentioned in 3rd century Roman sources, associated with tribes on the Lower and Middle Rhine, on the edge of the Roman Empire. Later the term was associated with later Romanized Germanic dynasties within the collapsing Western Roman Empire, who eventually commanded the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine. They then imposed power over many other post-Roman kingdoms and Germanic peoples, and still later they were given recognition by the Catholic Church as successors to the old rulers of the Western Roman Empire.

Carloman (mayor of the palace) Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia

Carloman was the eldest son of Charles Martel, majordomo or mayor of the palace and duke of the Franks, and his wife Chrotrud of Treves. On Charles's death (741), Carloman and his brother Pepin the Short succeeded to their father's legal positions, Carloman in Austrasia, and Pepin in Neustria. He was a member of the family later called the Carolingians and it can be argued that he was instrumental in consolidating their power at the expense of the ruling Merovingian kings of the Franks. He withdrew from public life in 747 to take up the monastic habit, "the first of a new type of saintly king," according to Norman Cantor, "more interested in religious devotion than royal power, who frequently appeared in the following three centuries and who was an indication of the growing impact of Christian piety on Germanic society".

Contents

Background

Much of the documentation pertaining to the Concilium relies on Boniface and documents associated with his life, and while the saint was prone to rhetorical embellishment and exaggeration in his correspondence, his assessment of the situation in the Frankish church appears to be reliable, [2] although in some details he was off by a few years—the last synod in the Frankish church appears to have been held in 695 in Auxerre. [3] He outlines three main problems in a letter written early in 742 to the newly elected Pope Zachary:

Pope Zachary pope

Pope Zachary reigned from 3 December or 5 December 741 to his death in 752. A Greek from Santa Severina, Calabria, he was the last pope of the Byzantine Papacy. Most probably he was a deacon of the Roman Church and as such signed the decrees of the Roman council of 732, and succeeded Gregory III on 5 December 741.

Boniface had begun his reform attempts of the Frankish church in the 730s, and by the 740s had found a kindred spirit in Carloman, the more religiously oriented of Charles Martel's two sons who divided their father's domain. When Carloman promised Boniface a synod, he saw an opportunity to address two of his main interests in his reform efforts: to protect church property from a rapacious gentry, and to impose stricter guidelines on the clergy. [5]

Charles Martel Frankish military and political leader

Charles Martel was a Frankish statesman and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death. He was a son of the Frankish statesman Pepin of Herstal and Pepin's mistress, a noblewoman named Alpaida. Charles successfully asserted his claims to power as successor to his father as the power behind the throne in Frankish politics. Continuing and building on his father's work, he restored centralized government in Francia and began the series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul. According to a near-contemporary source, the Liber Historiae Francorum, Charles was "a warrior who was uncommonly [...] effective in battle". Much attention has been paid to his success in defeating an Arab raid in Aquitaine at the Battle of Tours. Alongside his military endeavours, Charles has been traditionally credited with a seminal role in the development of the Frankish system of feudalism.

Decisions and outcome

Participation in the Concilium was restricted to Boniface's supporters, and among those invited were the bishops of Carloman's Austrasia. As well as Boniface (who, as archbishop, presided over the synod) the bishops of Cologne, Strasbourg, and Büraburg were present, as was a chorbishop named Willibald and a bishop named Dadan (who was possibly from Erfurt or an auxiliary bishop from Utrecht). Absent were the bishops from Utrecht, Metz, Verdun, Speyer, and Liège. Boniface's main opponents, Milo, bishop of Reims, and Gewilip, bishop of Mainz, failed to appear. [6]

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Germany

The Archdiocese of Cologne is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and northern Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Strasbourg archdiocese

The Archdiocese of Strasbourg is a non-metropolitan archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in France, first mentioned in 343.

Büraburg castle ruin

The Büraburg was a prominent hill castle with historic significance, on the Büraberg hill overlooking the Eder river near the town of Fritzlar in northern Hesse (Germany). Only foundation walls remain, and a church dedicated to St. Brigida.

Strengthened by the absence of his enemies, [6] Boniface succeeded in having stricter guidelines adopted, but the effort to re-appropriate church property was thwarted by bishops and nobility alike. [5] [7]

The measures adopted at the Concilium included: [8]

Many of the Concilium's measures were geared toward a stricter organization of the Frankish church, and to enforce such organization annual synods were called for, as well as real bishops and archbishops and the enforcement of canon law. [10]

Church historian Matthias Schuler, commenting on Boniface's failure to have church property returned to the church, proposes that the time was not yet ripe for Carloman to re-appropriate those properties, which had often been handed (by way of church offices) to various noblemen by his father, Charles Martel, to appease them and strengthen their loyalty. Re-appropriation would have led to widespread anger and distaste for the reform movement. [11] A (partial) redress of the situation was decided on in the next of Boniface's Frankish synods, that of Estinnes, 1 March 743. [11] Whereas Gunther Wolf judged that the Concilium was the high point in Boniface's long career, [12] other scholars such as Matthias Schuler place that high point in 747, Boniface's Frankish synod. [13]

Date

There is still some contention among scholars about the date. Theodor Schieffer (in his 1954 biography of the saint) maintained 743, [14] pace Heinz Löwe, [15] as do Kurt-Ulrich Jäschke [16] and Alain Dierkens. [15] It is still being discussed, [17] but 742 is maintained most notably [15] [18] by Heinz Löwe, [19] and this date was most recently given by Michael Glatthaar [20] and Michael E. Moore. [21]

See also

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References

Notes
  1. ↑ Wolf 4.
  2. ↑ Hartmann 59.
  3. ↑ Schuler 364.
  4. ↑ Tangl, letter 50, 80ff.
  5. 1 2 Wolf 2.
  6. 1 2 Schuler 365.
  7. ↑ Schieffer 217ff.
  8. 1 2 Angenendt 1289ff.
  9. ↑ Schneider 28.
  10. ↑ Hartmann 60.
  11. 1 2 Schuler 366.
  12. ↑ "Ich glaube, man kann den Höhepunkt in des Bonifatius Wirken noch enger fassen [more narrowly than the period 742–747, as cited by Schieffer 214]: Es war das sogenannte Concilium Germanicum vom 21. April 743. Wolf 4.
  13. ↑ "Bonifatius selbst erlebte aber bald nach der Enttäuschung in der Metropolitanfrage [where he was denied the archbishopric of Cologne] eine der größten Freuden seines Lebens und den Höhepunkt seiner Reformarbeit auf der fränkischen Generalsynode vom Frühjahr des Jahres 747". Schuler 369.
  14. ↑ Schieffer, Winfrid-Bonifatius 213, 333ff.
  15. 1 2 3 Dierkens 14 n.25.
  16. ↑ Jäschke passim.
  17. ↑ Parsons, David (1999). "Some Churches of the Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Southern Germany: A Review of the Evidence". EME . 8 (1): 31–67.
  18. ↑ Hartmann 64 n.18.
  19. ↑ Löwe 110ff.
  20. ↑ Schieffer, "Neue Bonifatius" 115-17.
  21. ↑ Moore, Michael E. (2011). A Sacred Kingdom: Bishops and the Rise of Frankish Kingship, 300-850. CUA Press. pp. 222–225. ISBN   9780813218779.
Bibliography
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