E06974
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
Documentary texts - Letter
Privilege of Pope John IV (JE †2048; JH †3305) (excerpts)
Dilectissimis fratribus uniuersis episcopis per Franciam constitutis, papa Iohannes [...] Quoniam igitur Clodoueus, excellentissimus filius noster, rex Francorum, pia et religiosa deuotine prospicuus, suis nos scriptis postulasse dignoscitur, ut apostolicae sedis priuilegium monasterio SS. Petri et Pauli, quod Ierusalem dicitur, quod uiri illustres Ado, Dado, Rado fundasse noscuntur super fluium qui appellatur Rebascus, in pago qui dicitur Meldicus, conferre deberemus [...] Ergo [...] postulata concessimus: interdicentes omnibus episcopis uicinis, uel procul a praedicto monasterio constitutis, nihil usurpare [...] Datum quinto idus Iulias, imperante Constantino, Heraclii filio.
'To his most beloved brothers, all the bishops situated throughout Francia, Pope John... Since therefore our most excellent son Clovis (II), king of the Franks, famous in his pious and religious devotion, is known to have asked us by letters, that we might grant a privilege of the apostolic see to the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul, which is called Jerusalem, which the illustrious men Ado, Dado and Rado are known to have founded over the river which is called Rebais, in the pagus which is called Meaux... Therefore, we have granted what has been asked, forbidding all bishops situated near or far from the aforesaid monstery from usurping anything... Given on the 5 Ides of July, in the reign of Constantine (Constans II), the son of Heraclius.'
Text: Pardessus 1849, ii. 74-6.
Translation: B. Savill.
Cult building - monastic
Places Named after SaintMonastery
Non Liturgical ActivityAwarding privileges to cult centres
Construction of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - Popes
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Aristocrats
Monarchs and their family
Source
This privilege survives only in much later manuscripts. Its authenticity has long been contested, but Anton has argued for its broad underlying trustworthiness.Discussion
Dado (a.k.a. Audoin), named here as the co-founder of the cult site and presumably one of the chief beneficiaries of the privilege, would go on to write the Life of Eligius (E06301) and was eventually culted as a saint in his own right, becoming the subject of his own seventh-century Life (E06275). He also appears in Jonas' Life of Columbanus (I. 26: E07615), a composition almost exactly contemporary to this privilege (if genuine).For apparently contemporary privileges with very similar formulations, see E06971 (Bobbio), E06972 (an unidentifiable women's monastery in Gaul) and E06975 (Rebais).
Bibliography
Edition:Pardessus, J.M., Diplomata, chartae, epistolae, leges aliaque instrumenta ad res Gallo-Francicas spectantia, 2 vols (Paris, 1843).
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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