W. Hartmann, Kirche und Kirchenrecht um 900 (Roger E. Reynolds)

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Francia-Recensio 2010/2 Mittelalter – Moyen Âge (500–1500)

Wilfried Hartmann, Kirche und Kirchenrecht um 900. Die Bedeutung der spätkarolingischen Zeit für Tradition und Innovation im kirchlichen Recht, Hannover (Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung) 2008, XXXVI–376 p. (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Schriften, 58), ISBN 978-3-7752-5758-9, EUR 45,00.

rezensiert von/compte rendu rédigé par

Roger Reynolds, Toronto

The tenth century has traditionally been labeled the darkest of the Dark Ages, a period of wars, fighting, intrigue, and intellectual decadence. In the field of canon law studies this period has suffered from this same characterization of canonistic decline. The heady days of canonistic activity associated with the reforms of Charlemagne in the first part of the ninth century and then the compilation of the forged Decretals in the fourth decade gave way, according to this characterization, to a long period of canonistic sterility and gloom, pierced only by a few glimmers of light in such canonical collections as the »Collectio Anselmo dedicata« or the »Libri duo de synodalibus causis« of Regino of Prüm«. Canonistic activity would not revive until the early eleventh century with the compilation of the »Decretum« of Burchard of Worms and the full-blown revival of canonistic activity associated with the so-called Gregorian reform of the late eleventh century.

Over the past decades in the works of Wilfried Hartmann this traditional characterization of the period from the late ninth to the early eleventh centuries has been shown to be not entirely accurate.

Especially was this true for the late ninth century with Hartmann’s study of the Council of Worms (868) and other councils of that period.

In this new work he has carried the study of canonistic activity far into the tenth century and has shown that it was by no means a sterile period. The two parts of the volume are divided into first, a study of the production of canon law texts, and second, the development of modifications and new regulations of canonical principles. In the first part, heavily dependent on canonistic manuscript dating and locating, he has relied heavily on the work of his former assistant, Lotte Kéry, with her lists of canonical collections and manuscripts thereof. In the second part Hartmann presents a detailed, original examination of canonistic development and innovation from the late ninth to the early tenth century.

The first part of the first section presents a short and very useful overview of the ecclesiastical and cultural situation of the second half of the ninth century in various parts of the Carolingian empire.

In the second section he shows how the older traditions and norms of the earlier ninth century, especially in the canonical collections and newer canonistic material such as penitentials, capitularies, and secular law, were spread and used in various parts of Europe. In the third section new norms of the late ninth and early tenth century are described in terms of new synodical decrees, penitentials, the two major collections of the »Collectio Anselmo dedicata« and Regino of Prüm’s »Libri duo«, and the many so-called minor collections (largely those represented in a very few manuscripts) produced throughout Europe.

The second part of the volume presents an examination first of the contents of newer canonistic pieces and then how they were put into practice. Among the major topics discussed are marriage and incest, the place of women, murder and infanticide. Among the practices discussed are episcopal visitation, oaths and God’s judgement, penance, and excommunication. All of these are examined as they are reflected in modifications of the old norms and creation of new. These were, indeed, major concerns in canonistic practice, but one misses discussion of changes in cultual and liturgical life as reflected in these same sources.

A final short part in the second section of the volume deals with both smaller and major canonical collections and penitentials compiled during the later tenth and the early eleventh centuries. Here, naturally, there is a consideration of Burchard’s »Decretum« and the »Collection in Twelve Parts«. One misses, however, a consideration of the south-Italian »Collection in Five Books« almost contemporary with Burchard’s »Decretum«. A final short section deals with the controversial notions of private and public penance and practice thereof as reflected in the recent works of Sarah Hamilton and Rob Meens.

Particularly valuable is the first appendix to the volume, a list of manuscripts of both canonistic and secular law from ca. 850 to the end of the tenth century, listed according to various regions of Europe, west and east Frankish territories, Lotharingia, and Italy.

Although certain liturgical rites and texts are occasionally mentioned in the volume, there is little sensitivity to the role they played in canonistic thought and context. For example, the contents of the »Collectio Anselmo dedicata« are listed, but missing is the tract »De septem ordinibus ecclesiae« found in many of the manuscripts of the collection. This same neglect of the liturgical sources has often been reflected by canonistic scholars in their descriptions of the Carolingian and post-Carolingian collections where liturgical texts are found in the manuscripts of the collections themselves.

The use and citation of canonistic manuscripts is admirable in the volume, but one can quibble with a few details. For example, Rome, Vallicelliana Tom. XVIII was written in Romanesca and Beneventan scripts in the eleventh century, although the texts therein go back to the tenth century. The same is true for Vatican, BAV Vat. lat. 1349 written in Beneventan script. New York, Hispanic Society of America MS HC 380/819 is from the late eleventh century, not earlier, as reflected in the text with the Customary of the canons regular from the Catalan monastery of Santa Maria de l’Estany. Then there are the names of libraries. For Montpellier there is the Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, section médecine, and of course, the great library in St. Petersburg (Russia) has been called for a number of years the Rossiyskaya Natsional’naya Biblioteka or the National Library of Russia.