E06971
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
Documentary texts - Letter
Privilege of Pope Theodore (JE 2053; JH ?3319) (excerpts)
☩ Theodorus episcopus seruus seruorum Dei. Uenerabili Bobuleno presbitero et abbati uenerabilis monasterii beati Petri apostolorum principis Ebobio constituti eiusque congregationi in perpetuum [...] Dum igitur excellentissimus filius noster Rotharith rex et gloriosissima filia nostra Gundiberga regina gentis Langobardorum, pia et religiosa deuotione perspicui, nos scriptis postulasse noscuntur, ut Apostolice Sedis priuilegium monasterio Beatissimorum Petri et Pauli, in loco qui dicitur Ebbobio constituto [...] Dum profecto cuncte ecclesie usque ad fines terre et occeani terminum sub beati Petri principis apostolorum dicione consistunt, opportet omnes omnino medulitus obedire, que per beati Petri auctoritatem Apostolica Sedes dinoscitur indulgere. Et ideo [...] postulata concessimus, interdicentes omnibus episcopis uicinis uel procul ab ipso monasterio constitutis nichil usurpare [...] Datum .IIII. nonas maii, inperii domini piisimi augusti Constantini anno .II. consultatus primo, indicione prima.
'☩ Theodore, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Bobolenus, venerable priest and abbot of the venerable monastery of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, established at Bobbio, and to his community, forever... Since therefore our most excellent son Rotharic and our daughter Gundiberga, king and queen of the people of the Lombards, famous in their pious and religious devotion, are known to have asked us by letters for a privilege of the apostolic see for the monastery of the most blessed Peter and Paul, established in the place which is called Bobbio... (And) since indeed all the churches up to the ends of the earth and the border of the ocean exist under the authority of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, it is fitting to obey absolutely and most thoroughly all those things which the apostolic see is known to grant through the authority of blessed Peter. And therefore... we grant what has been asked, forbidding all bishops situated near or far from that monastery from usurping anything... Given on the 3 nones of May, in the second year of the reign of the most pious lord augustus Constantine (Constans II), in his first consulship, in the first indiction.'
Text: Tosi 1992-3, 20-23.
Translation: B. Savill.
Cult building - monastic
Places Named after SaintMonastery
Non Liturgical ActivityAwarding privileges to cult centres
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - Popes
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - abbots
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Monarchs and their family
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations about the hierarchy of saints
Using saints to assert ecclesiastical/political status
Source
The privilege survives through a notarial copy made in 1172. The authenticity of the document has sometimes been disputed, but more detailed studies of the past few decades (Anton, Tosi) have been more positive about the trustworthiness of the text. Some sections are nevertheless probably later interpolations, but those marked as such in Tosi's edition are not anyway included in our database's excerpts.For Bobbio's earlier privilege of 628 from Pope Honorius, see E06908; for other documents from the Bobbio archive, E07376.
Discussion
Bobolenus, the recipient of the privilege, is also a dedicatee of Jonas' Life of Columbanus (E07615) and may be the author of the Martyrdom of Germanus of Grandval (E06316).For apparently contemporary privileges with very similar formulations, see E06972 (an unidentifiable women's monastery in Gaul), E06973 (Luxeuil) and E06974 (Rebais).
Bibliography
Edition and study:Tosi, M., 'I monaci colombaniani del sec. VII portano un rinovamento agricolo-religioso nella fascia littorale Ligure,' Archivum Bobiense, 14-15 (1992-3), 5-246.
Further reading:
Anton, H.H., Studien zu den Klosterprivilegien der Päpste im frühen Mittelalter unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Privilegierung von St. Maurice d'Agaune (Berlin and New York, 1975).
Anton, H.H., ‘Der Liber Diurnus in angeblichen und verfälschten Papstprivilegien der früheren Mittelalters,’ in Fälschungen im Mittlelalter: Internationaler Kongreß der Monumenta Germaniae Historica, München, 16.-19. September 1986, 5 vols (Hannover, 1988), 3. 115-42.
Benjamin Savill
13/10/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00008 | Paul, the Apostle | Paulus | Certain | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus | Certain |
|---|
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