n 1893, the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) began to publish a new subseries devoted to the councils of early medieval Germany (broadly understood). Friedrich Maassen edited the first volume, which was devoted to the councils of the Merovingian kingdoms from the 511 council in Orleans. The series was put on the proverbial back burner at the beginning of the twentieth century, after reaching the year 842, but the recently deceased and much lamented Horst Fuhrmann, president of the MGH for more than two decades, injected new life into the series, which has now reached its chronological endpoint. The present volume covers the councils of Germany and Northern Italy 1023- 1059, although this will not be the last volume published since two chronologically earlier volumes are still outstanding (volumes 5 and 7). The preparatory work for those volumes has advanced far, so they are to be expected in the not too distant future. Volume 8 was produced by Detlev Jasper, mostly after he retired from active duty in the editorial offices of the MGH.
None of the volumes in the series spells out why it should end exactly in 1059, with Pope Nicholas II's famous Lateran synod. It is hard to avoid the impression that the decisions about the method for electing popes that were determined there (the "Papal Election Decree" of 1059), which left very little influence to the German emperor, has been understood as a symbolic watershed moment, when the history of the church and the empire separated from each other. The current President of the MGH, Rudolf Schieffer hinted at such a rationale in a lecture he gave at the Twelfth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law in 2004, when he said that leadership in the church passed from the emperor to the pope with the 1059 council. [1] One could say that the edition of conciliar acts after 1059 no longer is the concern of a single country, but for the international community of church historians. While one sympathizes with the wish not to allow the editorial program of the MGH to grow out of bounds, a reviewer cannot help but wonder about whether not at least the councils of the imperial anti-popes of the eleventh and twelfth century might suitably fit into the program of a national undertaking, not to mention the many local councils of Germany. Of course, the unspoken basis for such reflections is the realization that no other editorial outfit in the world can rival the MGH for the excellence of its editions, so it is tempting to wish for as much as possible.
Jasper's volume contains 43 councils. They vary in importance from the world-famous, such as the already mentioned 1059 Lateran council, to purely local affairs, such as the several provincial councils celebrated by Archbishop Aribo of Mainz (Mainz June 1023, Seligenstadt August 1023, Hchst May 1024, Seligenstadt September 1026, etc.). Aribo, who had recently become archbishop, had the intention, as he spells out in at least two letters to suffragans, of following the old canonical injunction of the Council of Nicea (325) that each archbishop should celebrate provincial councils twice a year. The sources are not complete enough to allow us to determine whether he really did so, but the archbishop certainly comes across in the new volume as very active, so he may well have followed the letter of the law. He did, however, not observe strictly the rule from the same council that the provincial councils should be celebrated at the metropolitan see, as may be seen from the locations of the councils mentioned above, only one of which took place in Mainz itself. What is preserved in the sources about each council edited in the new volume varies greatly. Some have a very narrow source basis, such as the 1029 council in Geisleden, celebrated by Archbishop Aribo. It is only mentioned briefly in the Annals of Hildesheim and in the Life of Bishop Godehard of Hildesheim. At this council, Aribo attempted to reach a positive settlement of a property issue, but a modern reader, at least if he is a legal historian, may perhaps be more interested in the note (in the Annals) that a freeborn man at this council successfully defended himself of the charge that he had murdered Count Sigfrid. The man underwent and passed the ordeal of hot iron. Any reader researching judicial procedure will, however, have to skim through the volume to find this interesting example of the ordeal, for I cannot see that the index helps one to locate it (it does not appear under any of several possible index entries, such as "expurgatio," "ferrum," "candens," "probare," "ordalia," etc.). Other councils are richly attested, both indirectly and through the preservation of some of the acts of the council. For each council, the editor prints all the relevant texts, with detailed and very full commentary. As one has learnt to expect from the editions of the MGH, the breadth of the manuscript research (about 140 different codices have been used), the learning of the commentary, and the care with which the edition has been put together impress. Often, Jasper has had to contend with complicated source-critical issues, as in the case of the councils of 1046 in Sutri and Rome, in which Emperor Henry III had three popes deposed (Gregory VI and Silvester III in Sutri and Benedict IX in Rome). No conciliar canons or other direct testimony to the events are preserved, but many medieval chroniclers and annalists mention these important events. The edition prints nineteen texts (passing over further texts that simply mention the three papal depositions without any further details) about the councils, which do not always give the same information. Some writers, such as Herman of Reichenau and Bonizo of Sutri, claim that all three popes were deposed in Sutri, while others, such as Adam of Bremen and Frutolf of Michelsberg, state that it all happened in Rome. Jasper's conclusions about what happened where must be correct, but future researchers do in any case have all the relevant texts collected here in exemplary editions, if they want to revisit the issue.
The volume ends with a concordance listing where the councils were treated in Mansi's Amplissima collectio and in other relevant works. There are several useful indices: Utilized manuscripts, Initia, Quotations, Persons and Places, and Words and Things. These indices are voluminous and appear carefully made (notwithstanding the omission pointed out above, which appears to be an atypical oversight).
Detlev Jasper and the MGH are to be congratulated on the publication of this handsome volume, which is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the history of the German Empire and the church (the papacy as well as the local churches in the Empire) during the years covered. The scholarly world now awaits the two outstanding volumes of the series as well as further conciliar editions. It does not matter much if they be published by the MGH or elsewhere as long as they hold the same high quality as volume under review.
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Notes:
1. Rudolf Schieffer, "Die Monumenta Germaniae Historica und das Kirchenrecht," in Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law: Washington, D.C. 1-7 August 2004, ed. by Uta-Renate Blumenthal, Kenneth Pennington, and Atria A. Larson, Monumenta iuris canonici C:13 (Vatican City, 2008), pp. 1097-1107.