E08405
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
MGH DD Mer. 99 (excerpt)
Childericus rex Francorum viris illustribus ducibus seu et comitibus. In hoc regni nostri terrena spacia sub tranquillitate manere censemus et ad eternam misericordiam nobis pertinere confidemus, si oportunitatibus ecclesiarum aut sacerdotum perducemus ad effectum. Atque ideo [co]gnoscat magnitudo seu utilitas vestra, quo[d] nos ad suggestionem apostolicis viris patribus nostris Chlodolfo, Chrothario <archi>episcopis vel viris illustribus Amelrico, Bonefacio ducibus seu et per consilium Emnehilde regine <convenit, ut> nos ad ecclesiam domne Marie vel domni Sthephani Nimetensis ecclesie, ubi apostolicus [vir] pater noster Dragobodus episcopus esse dinoscitur, v[isi fu]emus concecisse, ut nullus iudex publicus [...]
'Childeric, king of the Franks, to his illustrious men, dukes and counts. In this, our earthly kingdom, we judge that peace will be maintained, and we trust it will pertain to our eternal mercy, if we bring things to the advantage of priests and churches to effect. And so for this reason, let your magnitude and utility know, that we, upon the suggestion of our apostolic fathers, Bishops Chlodulf and Chrothar, with the illustrious men Dukes Amalric and Boniface, and upon the counsel of Queen Emnehild, have been seen to have granted the following to the cathedral church (ecclesia) of Lady Mary and Lord Stephen at Speyer, where our father, the apostolic man Bishop Dragobod, is known to preside: that no public judge...'
Text: Kölzer 2001, 253-4.
Translation: B. Savill.
Cult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Awarding privileges to cult centres
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Women
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).This diploma survives in three manuscript copies of 13th-14th centuries; it appears to have been only slightly interpolated by later copyists.
Discussion
This is the earliest extant reference to the episcopal church of Speyer (Kölzer 2001, 254).Bibliography
EditionKölzer, T., Die Urkunden der Merowinger, 2 vols. (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata; Hannover, 2001).
Further reading
Brühl, C., Studien zu den merowingischen Königsurkunden, ed. T. Kölzer (Cologne, 2001).
Kölzer, T., Merowingerstudien, 2 vols (Hannover, 1998-1999).
Benjamin Savill
22/02/2023
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Sthephanus | Certain | S00033 | Mary, Mother of Christ | Maria | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Benjamin Savill, Cult of Saints, E08405 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08405