Order in the church: understanding councils and performing ordines in the Carolingian world

Abstract

This article takes a fresh look at Carolingian councils through the prism of Ordines de Celebrando Concilio. Presenting themselves as instructions on how to hold councils, such ordines in part act as prescriptive texts aimed at ensuring that the liturgical framework around these meetings would guarantee the credibility of their conclusions – thus creating an image of ecclesiastical unity reflected both in the councils themselves and in their written records. By probing beyond these liturgical directions, it is here argued that the Carolingian ordines also aimed at maintaining an open, safe climate for holding debates that could actually push the agenda and effectuate useful correctio. The prescriptive nature of these texts not only enlarged the scale at which participants in individual councils saw themselves operate, but also served to ensure that the purity and pastoral authority of the discussants remained inviolate.