The disputes over church patrimony in barbarian Gaul and Hispania (6th-8th centuries)

• Grant number: 23/17486-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Cândido da Silva
• Grantee: Isabela Alves Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/02912-3 - A connected history of the Middle Ages: communication and circulation from the Mediterranean Sea, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/06477-0 - The memory of political crises and attacks on Church property in Merovingian Gaul and Visigothic Hispania, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

In this project, I intend to analyze the relationship between reports of improper treatment of diocesan property and conflicts over ecclesial patrimony. My focus will be on Gaul and Hispania in the 6th- 8th centuries. Episcopal churches became richer from the 6th century onwards. According to royal laws, episcopal council acts, histories, hagiographies and chronicles, the purpose of ecclesial patrimony was to help those most in need. The same sources point, however, to improper practices with regard to the goods, which could involve their destruction or their circulation (when control of the patrimony was taken by someone else). I intend to analyze the relationship between these accounts and the conflicts over ecclesial goods, which could occur within an ecclesial community, between dioceses or between ecclesial communities and secular agents. The disputes can be analyzed at different scales, at the local, regional or supra-regional level. I also aim to understand how political crises have impacted the phenomenon of the circulation of ecclesial goods. In Gaul, I will analyze 4 royal legal texts (507-614); 12 conciliar acts (511-627), the Glory of the Martyrs (590) and the Histories (594) of Gregory of Tours; the IV Book of the Chronicle of "Fredegar" (660s); the Passion of Leodegar of Autun (c. 690); the Life of Audoin of Rouen (c. 710) and the Book of the History of the Franks (727). In Hispania, I will analyze 11 conciliar acts (516-675); the History of Isidore of Seville (c. 624); the Life of Aemilian (c. 640) by Braulio of Zaragoza; the Book of the Judgments (702); the History of Julian of Toledo (675); the Life of Frutuosus of Braga (end of the 7th century) and The Lives of the Fathers of Merida (680). This project is linked to the FAPESP Thematic Project: "Uma História Conectada da Idade Média: comunicação e circulação a partir do Mediterrâneo" (HisCoMM), process n. 21/02912-3.