Regino of Prüm, Libri duo de synodalibus causis et disciplinis ecclesiasticis

From Clavis Canonum


Regino, the abbot of the monastery of Prüm, compiled circa 906 a collection in two books de synodalibus causis et disciplinis ecclesiasticis. In the preface found in one of the copies the collection is dedicated to Hatto I, archbishop of Mainz. This collection of approximately 1000 canons provides instructions for bishops and their ministers on how to conduct visitations and synods within their dioceses, relieving them of the necessity of transporting plurima conciliorum volumina from one Sendgericht to the next. The first book regards ecclesiastical goods, the discipline of the clergy and its functions. The second book begins with the inquisition of the laity and deals with failings to which the laity are subject. The collection deals with both synodal jurisdiction and public penance. Each book has a capitulatio and each is divided into titles. These titles have no effect on the numbering of the canons. Regino refers to the Gallic and Germanic councils [78] and Frankish capitularies (including those of Ansegis and Benedictus Levita) as his „modern“ sources. Wilfried Hartmann maintains that the canons attribuated to the councils of Nantes, Rouen, Tours and Reims could all have been taken from 9th century episcopal capitularies. Over 100 texts were taken from Ansegis alone according to Gerhard Schmitz. Regino also used the Codex Theodosianus and penitentials. He took what Schmitz calls a „sehr selbständige Haltung“ toward his sources and did not hesitate to abbreviate. The capitularies that he used are found in Lotharingian manuscripts. Schmitz has pointed out that it was predominantly in the regions of Metz, Trier and Mainz that collections of capitularies circulated.

F. G. A. Wasserschleben edited the collection. He distinguished between an original version and an interpolated version. The latter is better described as a rearrangement, however. In the original form there are numerous references (require retro …) to other parts of the collection. The second version is rearranged according to those references. The present analysis (RP) is based on the edition of Wasserschleben. The numbering of the rearranged version (RR) is found in the location column. The edition also includes three appendices which are attached to a number of copies of the rearranged version (RPApp1, 2 and 3). The first version of the collection is found in the Mss Arras, BM 723, Gotha, Forschungs- und LB Membr. II.131, Luxemburg, BN 29 and Trier, SB 927/1882. The rearranged version is found in the Mss Düsseldorf, UB E.3, Paris, BnF, lat. 17527, Stuttgart, Württembergische LB HB VI 108 and HB VI 114, Vienna, ÖNB Cod. 694, and in the Mss Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek Aug. 83.21 and Helmstedt 32. There are also a number of fragments. Rudolf Pokorny, who has allowed me to use his description of the Libri duo de synodalibus causis prior to its appearance in print, suggests the use of the Ms Luxemburg, which Wasserschleben had not seen, to anyone intending to make a new edition. There are several appendices most, but not all of which, are edited by Wasserschleben. Only canons 1–20 in Appendix I of the edition, is, according to Pokorny, with any certainty the work of Regino.

The reception is on the one hand Lotharingian and on the other hand Bavarian/Swabian. The collection was apparently not used directly in Italy. Burchard of Worms made extensive use of the collection as did the compilers of the Collectio XII partium. In both cases a version was used which included the third appendix, which is specific to the copy in the Vienna manuscript. The most detailed description [79] of the known manuscripts is that published by Rudolf Pokorny as part of a study undertaken with Max Kerner, Franz Kerff, Karl Georg Schon and Hubert Tills to determine the sources of Burchard. Ten texts from the collection of Regino were added to the rearrangement of the Diversorum patrum sententie (74 Titles) in the Ms Paris, BnF, lat. 13658 from the monastery of Chezal-Benoit to the southwest of Bourges, see below. Excerpts are found in the Ms Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 442, together with excerpts from the Quadripartitus, Sinemuriensis and Atrebatensis. Rudolf Pokorny informs me that the collection of Regino was also used in the material collection in the Ms Munich, StB Clm 12612.

Literature

For the edition see F. G. A. Wasserschleben, Reginonis abbatis Prumiensis Libri duo de synodalibus causis et disciplinis ecclesiasticis (Leipzig 1840, reprinted Graz 1964). On Regino’s use of his souces, see Gerhard Schmitz, Ansegis und Regino. Die Rezeption der Kapitularien in den Libri duo de synodalibus causis, ZRG Kan. 74 (1988), pp. 95–132. – The preface is translated into English by Somerville and Brasington, Prefaces, pp. 92– 94. – On possible forgeries by Regino, see Landau, Gefälschtes Recht, pp. 22– 25. – For the importance of Regino in the circulation of letters of Nicholas I, especially JE 2872, which concerns the marriage of Lothar II, see Jasper, The Beginning of the Decretal Tradition, p. 117. For the use by Burchard see Kerner – Kerff – Pokorny – Schon – Tills, Textidentifikation, pp. 44–63. For the use of De synodalibus causis in the Collectio XII partium see Müller, Untersuchungen zur Collectio Duodecim Partium, pp. 301– 315. For the relationship between penance and the external forum see Ludger Körntgen, Fortschreibung frühmittelalterlicher Bußpraxis, pp. 199–226. Wilfried Hartmann, Die Capita incerta im Sendhandbuch Reginos von Prüm, in: Scientia veritatis: Festschrift für Hubert Mordek zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Oliver by Münsch and Thomas Zotz, Ostfildern 2004, pp. 207–226.

Categories

  • Might need to be split because of multiple keys
  • belongs to: Regino group
  • large (1000 to 2000 canons) collection
  • from Western Germany
  • saec. IX
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