IMC 2009: Sessions

The Carolingian rulers, especially Charlemagne, invested a lot of energy and resources in developing the Carolingian Reform within the territories of their realm. After 773-774, the Lombard Kingdom was also officially invested with this process; bishops, deacons and priests were actively asked to promote the Reform in the dioceses where they operated. Local priests, in particular, played a very special role, since they were implementing the general issues in specific contexts, as, for example, in the case of baptismal churches. Early medieval Tuscan private documents, most of them produced by ecclesiastical institutions, allow us to consider how some of the aspects of the Carolingian Reform regulated society, and how society itself was influenced by these decisions. Furthermore, it is possible to analyse who was promoted as a local priest soon after the downfall of the Lombard Kingdom in Tuscany. The first paper in this session thus describes how these priests were expected to behave towards the local population - towards the small landowners as well as the aristocrats – and how they implemented the Reform in the territories of their baptismal churches. (Marco Stoffella) Early medieval charters provide relatively rich and interesting documentary evidence concerning local priests. Primarily on the basis of the St Gall charter material (but also in comparison with other collections), the second paper tries to give a new glimpse into the world of the local clergy in Carolingian Alemannia. (Bernhard Zeller)