Caring for Churches, Orphans, and Widows in Late Merovingian Francia. Contemporary and Carolingian Perspectives

Abstract

This study examines the brief reference in the early 9th - century Annales Mettenses priores to an ecclesiastical synod ostensibly convoked in the last decade of the 7th century by Pippin II. The annals suggest that the council's agenda was devoted to the protection of churches, orphans, and widows. While this council is not attested by any contemporary sources, Pippin's collaborations with the episcopate are well documented, and his involvement in conciliar convocation is possible if not demonstrable. Nevertheless, the annalist's description of the council's agenda is more suggestive of the era in which the annals were written-the first decade of the 9th century-than late Merovingian Francia, by closely echoing both the phrasing and ideology of Charlemagne's imperial capitularies, which stressed Charlemagne's own responsibility for the care of the vulnerable, a responsibility that superseded traditional episcopal prerogatives. While the council's existence cannot be definitively proven or disproven, the description of its agenda should be read in the context of the annalist's efforts to rewrite Merovingian history from a triumphalist Carolingian perspective.