Gregory I. Halfond, Bishops and the Politics of Patronage in Merovingian Gaul, Ithaca 2019. (original) (raw)
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This paper examines a short canonical compilation from Merovingian Gaul, which has almost been completely neglected by modern scholarship. Aside a thorough analysis of the canonistic sources and their arrangement within the collection, the present study provides the first critical edition alongside a German translation. The compilation, figuring as 'Scintillae de canonibus uel ordinationibus episcoporum' in the extant manuscripts, combines five fourth-century conciliar decrees with a Frankish canon from the sixth century. The selected canons deal with conditions for episcopal ordinations and demand the deposition of bishops whose ordinations were deemed uncanonical. The author also laid special emphasis on the rights of metropolitans. The deliberate selection of canonistic material and the reworking of the original texts make it quite obvious that this canonical collection was not the product of scholarly pastime, but was assembled to serve a specific purpose. It will be argued that the 'Scintillae de canonibus' were written with regard to a contested episcopal ordination in the 560s, having taken place town of Saintes, nowadays southern France. This, in turn, illustrates that the author skillfully made use of late antique canonistic sources in order to create a novel compilation that perfectly fit his needs.