The Formulary of Marculf includes a template for a document outlining a procedure whereby oaths are to be sworn to the Merovingian kings, both at the shrines of unidentified saints and over relics brought by a royal official. Written in Latin in Gaul, probably c. 650/730, perhaps based on a text first composed in 632.
E08351
Documentary texts - Letter
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
The Formulary of Marculf, I. 40
Ut leudesamio promittantur rege
Ille rex ille comis. Dum et nos cum consensu procerum nostrorum in regno nostro illo glorioso filio nostro illo regnare precipemus, adeo iubemus, ut omnes paginsis uestros, tam Francos, Romanos uel reliqua natione degentibus, bannire et locis congruis per ciuitates, uicos et castella congregare faciatis, quatenus presente misso nostro, inlustris uero illo, quem ex nostro latere illuc pro hoc direximus, fidelitatem precelso filio nostro uel nobis et leudesamio per loca sanctorum uel pignora, quas illuc per eodem direximus, dibeant promittere et coniurare.
'In order for the people to swear submission to the king
King A to Count B. Since, with the unanimous consent of our great men, we decided that our glorious son C should rule in our kingdom of D, we therefore order you to summon all your pagenses, Franks, Romans and those of any other origin, and to have them assemble in appropriate places in cities, villages and strongholds, in order that they promise and swear fidelity and submission to our excellent son and to our ourselves, in the presence of our agent, the illustrious man E, whom we have sent out from our side for this purpose, in the places of the saints and on the relics which we have sent there through the same person.'
Text: Zeumer 1886, 68.
Translation: Rio 2008, 174-5.
Cult building - unspecified
Non Liturgical ActivityOath
Visiting graves and shrines
RelicsUnspecified relic
Transfer/presence of relics from distant countries
Reliquary – institutionally owned
Reliquary – privately owned
Privately owned relics
Oath made on a relic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMonarchs and their family
Aristocrats
Officials
Other lay individuals/ people
Source
Marculf is the longest, most famous, and best attested of the surviving early medieval Latin formularies (collections of formulae, template documents for scribes). It is preserved in seven Carolingian manuscripts, although scholars have dated its original compilation considerably earlier, proposing various points in the second half of the 7th century, or at least no later than the 720s. The contents of Marculf should, however, be thought of as occupying a considerably wider time-span than simply c. 650/730: many of the original documents upon which its formulae are based probably date back to several decades before its compilation, while the collection’s continued copying and re-editing well into the 9th, even 10th centuries points to a living, fluid text, that well outlasted late antiquity.Marculf is of major importance to historians, not least since its formulae effectively preserve diverse documents concerning matters of only transitory value (e.g. letters of recommendation, sales of slaves, Christmas greetings), which archivists would have otherwise seen little purpose in keeping beyond the interested parties’ lifetimes (for full discussion see Rio 2008, 2009).
Discussion
It has been argued that this text was originally composed in 632, for the elevation of the Merovingian king Dagobert I's son Sigibert III as (sub-)king of Austrasia (north-east Gaul). It is of particular interest that this document refers to the relics being brought out to the designated province by a royal official (missus), indicating that these items belonged to the royal palace, and were perhaps seen as more appropriate for oaths of royal allegiance than the relics of local saints (see the commentary of Rio 2008, 175).Bibliography
Edition:Zeumer, K., Marculfi Formulae, in: Formulae Merowingici et Karolini aevi (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Leges V; Hannover, 1886), 32-112.
Translation, introduction and commentary:
Rio, A. The Formularies of Angers and Marculf: Two Merovingian Legal Handbooks (Translated Texts for Historians 46; Liverpool, 2008).
Further reading:
Rio, A., Legal Practice and the Written Word in the Early Middle Ages: Frankish Formulae, c. 500-1000 (Cambridge, 2009).
Benjamin Savill
30/09/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | sancti | Certain |
|---|
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