A substantially authentic Merovingian diploma of Theudebert II, king of the Franks, confirms the foundation and endowment of an oratory within the walls of Le Mans (north-west Gaul) dedicated to *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050), by the priest Eoladius and nun Baudomalla. Written in Latin, probably at Chatou or Châtenay (northern Gaul), 596.
E06141
Documentary texts - Donation document
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
MGH, DD Mer. 25 (excerpt)
Theodebertus rex Francorum vir[is] a inlust[ribus]. Si petitionibus ancillarum Dei vel sacerdotibus, in quo nostris auribus fuerint prolata, ad effectum perducimus, hoc nobis ad aeterna salute vel stabilitate regni nostri in Dei nomen pertinere confidimus. Igitur vir inluster Eoladius presbiter et Baudomalla Deo devota directa petitione clementiae regni nostri detulerunt in notitia, eo quod ante hos dies in area ipsorum infra murania Cenomannis oratorio in honore sancti Martini contruxerunt [...] Datum die octo facit <presens> mens[is] Iuni[us], anno VII regni nostri, Captiniaco, in Christo nomine feliciter <amen>.
'Theudebert, king of the Franks, to his illustrious men. If we bring into effect the petitions of the handmaidens of God or priests which come to our ears, we are sure that these pertain to our eternal salvation and to the stability of our kingdom, in God's name. Therefore, the illustrious man Eoladius, priest, and Baudomalla, devoted to God, brought to the notice of our clemency a petition, concerning an oratory they had built in previous days, on a plot within the walls of Le Mans, in honour of Saint Martin ... Given on the eighth day of the month of June, in the 7th year of our reign, at Captiniacum [?Chatou/?Châtenay], happily in Christ's name.'
Text: Kölzer 2001, 68-70.
Translation: B. Savill.
Construction of cult buildings
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Monarchs and their family
Aristocrats
Source
According to the judgement of their most recent editor, 54 authentic or substantially authentic royal diplomas/charters survive from Merovingian Gaul which are dated or datable to the period up to AD 700. Of these, 36 appear to relate directly to the cult of saints, and are included in our database. All but one, possibly two (E06133, E06141), of the charters included here date from the 7th century, mostly its final quarter. Although a number of these diplomas have come down to us only in later cartulary copies, a remarkably large proportion (21 of our 36) survive as single-sheet, original manuscripts, the great majority of which come from the monastery of Saint-Denis. Due to the nature of western archival survivals, all these documents concern either land, legal immunities, or rights to tolls, and are preserved exclusively through interested religious institutions. For a sense, however, of the kind of Merovingian documents we may have lost, the scribal templates found in the Formulary of Marculf are suggestive (see e.g. E06231, E06233).The text of Eoladius and Baudomalla's confirmation charter is known to us through having been copied into the Acts of the Bishops of Le Mans (Actus pontificum Cenomannis in urbe degentium) written in 857/62. The Actus was compiled to justify the claims of the ninth-century bishops of Le Mans to extensive properties and rights. It quotes in full 86 royal, episcopal or private charters, including this one. Many of these documents are obvious forgeries, while others, almost certainly containing a genuine core, have clearly been altered and interpolated to favour the ninth-century bishops' claims. Eoladius and Baudomilla's charter, however, is accepted by modern scholarship as substantially authentic. For a full introduction to the Actus and the texts it purports to quote, see Goffart 1966; and, for a detailed discussion of Eoladius and Baudomilla's charter (and the arguments in favour of its authenticity), see Havet 1896, 365-78.
Discussion
The priest/founder Eoladius is almost certainly the same 'Abbot Eoladius' who would later be mentioned as a vendor of land to Bishop Bertram of Le Mans, in the latter's will of 616 (E06095; Weidemann 1996, 21).Bibliography
Editions:Kölzer, T., Die Urkunden der Merowinger, 2 vols. (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata; Hannover, 2001).
Further reading:
Biarne, J., 'Le Mans', in N. Gauthier and J.-Ch. Picard (eds), Topographie chrétienne des Cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, V Province ecclésiastique de Tours (L. Pietri and J. Biarne), Paris (De Boccard 1987), 41-56, at p. 51, no. 5.
Brühl, C., Studien zu den merowingischen Königsurkunden, ed. T. Kölzer (Cologne, 2001).
Havet, J., 'Les actes des évêques du Mans', in J. Havet, Oeuvres de Julien Havet (1853-1893), I Questions Mérovingiennes, Paris 1896, 271-445.
Kölzer, T., Merowingerstudien, 2 vols (Hannover, 1998-1999).
Pietri, L. and Heijmans, M., Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614), 2 vols. (Paris 2013), 331-32, 'Baudomalla', and 631 'Eoladius.
M. Weidemann, Das Testament des Bischofs Berhtramn von Le Mans. Untersuchungen zu Besitz und Geschichte einer Fränkischen Familie im 6. und 7. Jahrhundert (Mainz, 1996).
Benjamin Savill
22/08/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Benjamin Savill, Cult of Saints, E06141 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06141