Collectio Dacheriana

The two major systematic collections compiled in Gaul before the year 1000 are the Vetus Gallica, which has been described above, and the early 9th century Collectio Dacheriana. The compiler of the former made use of the Dionysiana and the compiler of the latter used the Hispana systematica. Both were compiled at Lyon. Hubert Mordek suggests Agobard of Lyon as author of the latter.

The Dacheriana was named after Luc D’Achery, who edited the collection in 1672. It is divided into three books and begins with a preface intended for the first book. Each book has its own title and its own capitulation. The titles: 1.) De penitentia et penitentibus, criminibus atque iudicibus; 2.) De accusatis et accusatoribus, iudicibus et testibus, cum ceteris ad hec pertinentibus ecclesiasticis regulis; 3.) De sacris ordinibus … et de regulis ac privilegiis clericorum et presulum.

The Dacheriana is not polemic and has nothing on metropolitan bishops or monks. The penitential canons, which form a major part of the collection, apply to the laity. Consistent with the reform concept of the Carolingian period it is intended to help bishops run their dioceses. Like the forgers of northern France, however, the compiler devotes considerable attention to judicial procedure, and the administration of penance is described in juridical rather than pastoral terms. In the words of Abigail Firey – „the Dacheriana is evidence for the existence of a well-developed legal culture supported by the Frankish episcopate and anchored in the expectation that considerable judicial authority would be exercised over both lay and clerical populations by bishops.“

Attempts have been made to divide the manuscripts into an „A“ version and a „B“ version, the latter augmented with pseudoisidorian decretals. Mordek confirms the findings of Gabriel Le Bras that the copies of such additions can be traced to northern France. Firey, who is preparing a new edition of the Dacheriana, points specifically to [S. 56] the province of Reims. Copies with pseudoisidorian additions are by no means identical, however, and Mordek warns against treating the enrichment of the original versions as a unique and limited action. Firey describes the situation as follows: „there was apparently considerable variation in manuscripts of the same supposed recension, readings from one recension might agree with those of a witness from the other recension and the quality and significance of the readings remains indeterminate and undetermined“. The present analysis (DC) is based on copies of the version in the Mss Ivrea, BC XXXVII bis (9th century, Rhône valley?) and Paris, BN lat. 3839A.

The Dacheriana was used for a number of collections in the region of Reims from the early 9th through the 11th century. Its penitential texts influenced Halitgar of Cambrai, the compiler of the 4th book of the Quadripartitus and Hrabanus Maurus. Firey: „The northward journey of the Dacheriana retraces the trails of earlier collections from Lyon up the Rhône to Autun, Corbie, Rheims, a route whose repetition increases the plausibility of the suggestion that before the midninth century, Frankish canon law collections were often composed in the southern centres, where Roman traditions were the foundation of a strong and developed legal culture, whence they then migrated northward to the newer centres of political power.“

Literature:

The Dacheriana was edited by Luc d’Achery († 1685), Spicilegium veterum aliquot scriptorum qui in Galliae Bibliothecis, maxime Benedictinorum latuerant 11, Paris 1672, pp. 1–200 (second edition by Louis-F.-J. de la Barre, Spicilegium 1, Paris 1723, pp. 509–564). Gabriel Le Bras, Les deux formes de la Dacheriana, in: Mélanges Paul Fournier, Paris 1929, pp. 395–414, identified the manuscript used by d’Achery for his edition as Paris, BN lat. 4287 and the manuscript used for the capitulation as Paris, BN lat. 3839A. See Hubert Mordek, Zur handschriftlichen Überlieferung der Dacheriana, QFIAB 47 (1967), pp. 574–595. Idem, Kirchenrecht und Reform, pp. 250–263. Friedrich Maassen, Pseudoisidor-Studien II, SB Vienna 108 (1885), pp. 1089–1096, identified pseudoisidorian elements in the edition. This lead to belief in an original version and a recension influenced by the pseudoisidorian circle. See most recently Abigail Firey, Ghostly Recensions in Early Medieval Law Law: The Problem of the Collectio Dacheriana and its Shades, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 68 (2000), pp. 63–82. I am very grateful for the permission to use the doctoral thesis that she submitted to the University of Toronto in 1995: Toward a History of Carolingian Legal Culture: Canon Law Collections of Early Medieval Southern Gaul (not all parts of which have yet been published). – Kéry, Canonical Collections, pp. 87–92. [S. 57]