Libellus responsionum

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Libellus responsionum

The beginning of the Libellus responsionum in an eighth-century canon law manuscript (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, HB VI 113, fol. 166r)
Full title Libellus responsionum
Also known as Responsiones; Responsa; JE 1843; "Per dilectissimos filios meos"
Author(s) Pope Gregory I
Language Latin
Date ca 600
Authenticity presumed authentic
Manuscript(s) over 150
Principal manuscript(s) Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. Sam. 1595 (4°); Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, S.33 sup.; Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, HB.VI.113

The Libellus responsionum (Latin for 'booklet of answers') is a papal letter (also known as a papal decretal) purporting to have been written by Pope Gregory I to Augustine of Canterbury in response to several of the Augustine's questions regarding the nascent church in Anglo-Saxon England. The Libellus was famously reproduced by Bede in his popular Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, whence it was transmitted widely in the Middle Ages, and where it is still most often encountered by students and historians today. Before it was ever transmitted in Bede's Historia, however, the Libellus circulated as part of several different early medieval canon law collections, often in the company of texts of a penitential nature.

The authenticity of the Libellus (notwithstanding Boniface's suspicions, on which see below) was not called into question until the early twentieth century, when several historians forwarded the hypothesis that the document had been concocted in England in the early eighth century. It has since been shown, however, that these hypotheses were misguided and based on incomplete evidence. While Gregory I's authorship of the Libellus has still not been proven beyond a doubt, no historian has yet forwarded a convincing reason for doubting Gregory's authorship. Whether fake or not, textual evidence indicates that the document was in England by the end of the seventh century, and in Italy perhaps by as early as the beginning of that century (i.e. shortly after Gregory I's death in 604).

The Libellus is sometime designated as JE 1843, and/or by its incipit "Per dilectissimos filios meos" (= no. 1843 in P. Jaffé, Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII, 2 vols, second edition, eds F. Kaltenbrunner (to a. 590), P. Ewald (to a. 882), S. Löwenfeld (to a. 1198) (Leipzig, 1885–1888)). It is edited by P. Ewald and L.M. Hartmann in Gregorii I papae Registrum epistolarum, 2 vols, MGH Epp. 1–2 (Berlin, 1891–1899), vol. II, pp. 332–43 (no. 11.56a).

Title

"Libellus responsionum" is the name given the letter by Bede (Bede, HE 2.1, ed. Plummer, I, p. 76). In the same chapter (ed. Plummer, p. 77), Bede says Gregory also wrote a "Libellus synodicus", by which he means the small corpus of canons from the council of Rome in 595, over which Gregory I presided and whose canons were published in his first-person voice (P. Meyvaert, "Bede and the Libellus synodicus of Gregory the Great", Journal of theological studies (ns) 12 (1961), 298–302). Bede’s use of "libellus" in these instances might therefore best be translated as "document" or perhaps "dossier", rather than ‘booklet’. While the Libellus synodicus itself circulated widely in the seventh century in collections of canons and homilies (Meyvaert, "Libellus Synodicus", p.302; Maassen, Geschichte, p. 302), it was not until the eighth century that the Libellus synodicus and Libellus responsionum began to circulate together in the same medieval canon law collections, beginning with the Collectio Dionysiana Bobiensis, the Collectio vetus Gallica (northern French class) and the Collectio Sancti Amandi (Mordek, ed., Kirchenrecht, pp. 219, 221 and 228–29 nn. 63–4). The importance of the Collectio Dionysiana Bobiensis and the Collectio vetus Gallica to the questions of how and in what version Boniface and Bede became acquainted with the Libellus responsionum is discussed below.

Creation

The Libellus is a reply by Pope Gregory I to questions posed by Augustine of Canterbury about specifics of the Gregorian mission.[1] The original questions were sent by Augustine to Rome around 598, but the replies were not composed until the summer of 601.[2] The Libellus, along with letters to the king of Kent and his wife and other items for the mission, were brought back to Augustine by Laurence and Peter.[3]

Bede inserted a text of the Libellus into book I of the Historia, where it makes the bulk of chapter 27.[1] Bede claimed that it was the full text of a letter sent by Gregory back to Augustine in response to a number of questions that Augustine had asked about his missionary efforts and other concerns connected with conversion to Christianity.[4] Bede appears to have included almost all of the letter from Gregory in chapter 27, although it is possible that some references to a local martyr were excluded.[5] Bede appears to have known of two differing versions of the letter, and did not choose to correct the text he used from the other version available to him.[1] He used one version of the Libellus in his prose Vita Sancti Cuthberti, which was composed about 720, although it was not quoted in that work.[6]

History

The Libellus was transmitted in the Middle Ages not just as part of the Historia, but also as an independent manuscript. Over 150 different manuscripts of the stand-alone Libellus still survive.[7] However, while Bede felt that the letter was authentic, others in the Middle Ages were not so sure. Boniface, an Anglo-Saxon missionary to the Germanic peoples of Europe, wrote to Nothhelm, the Archbishop of Canterbury in 735 requesting a copy of the Libellus. He also requested information on whether the work was authentic, as his inquiries at the papal archives had failed to turn up a copy of the letter there. Nor was the letter found in a further search of the archives in 743. Both searches were prompted by Gregory's response on who might marry whom, which contradicted later church teachings.[8] The Libellus was never entered into Gregory's register of letters that was kept at Rome,[9] at least in any surviving manuscripts of the Gregory's register.[10]

Later in the Middle Ages, the text of the Libellus was used to support the claims of the monks of the Canterbury Cathedral cathedral chapter that the chapter had always been monks, back to the founding of the cathedral by Augustine. This was somewhat of a stretch, as the actual reply by Gregory did not explicitly say that the cathedral chapter should be composed of monks, merely that they should live in common and have some other aspects of monastic life.[11] Modern historians, including Ian Wood, have seen the Libellus as indicating that Augustine had more contact with native British Christians than that related by Bede in the Historia Ecclesia.[12]

Modern historians have also questioned the authenticity of the work. In 1941 Suso Brechter wrote a book titled Die Quellen zur Angelsachesenmission Gregors des Grossen (roughly The Sources for the Anglo-Saxon Mission of Gregory the Great) which, among a number of other topics, attempted to prove that the Libellus was an 8th-century forgery by Nothhelm. Brechter felt that the Libellus contained too much that was only relevant in terms of 8th century theological concerns. He argued that the forgery was completed in 731 and was foisted on Bede by Nothhelm in that year, and was a late insertion into the Historia. Brechter's work did not attract much scholarly interest until 1959, when Margaret Deanesly and Paul Grosjean wrote a joint journal article refuting most of Brechter's arguments. Deanesly and Grossjean felt that Nothhelm had taken genuine Gregorian letters, added information on theological questions current at Canterbury. They further felt that Nothhelm did this in two stages, a first stage that they named the capitula version, which they felt was best exemplified by a manuscript now in Copenhagen, and a second version, which was rearranged in the form of questions paired with answers. In their view, this second version was the work sent to Bede.[13]

Most current historical thinking is that the Libellus is a genuine letter of Gregory, and was written to Augustine for the reasons that Bede gave.[1][14][9][15]

Contents

The Libellus consists of a series of questions posed by Augustine and answered by Gregory. There are nine different questions that are asked, usually numbered one through nine, although most of the responses address more than one question from Augustine.[16] Gregory's first response addresses questions on the relationship of a bishop to his clergy and vice versa, how gifts from the laymen to the church should be divided amongst the clergy, and what the tasks of a bishop were.[17] The second set of questions covered why the various regional churches had differing customs and liturgies. The third reply was in answer to questions about the proper punishment of church robbers.[18] The fifth and sixth sets of responses dealt with who might marry whom, including whether it was allowed for two brothers to marry two sisters, or for a man to marry his step-sister or step-mother. The sixth request concerned whether it was acceptable for a bishop to be consecrated without other bishops present, if the distances involved prevented other bishops attending.[19] The next question from Augustine dealt with the relations between the church in Britain and the church in Gaul.[20] The eighth set of questions and responses concerned what a pregnant or a newly delivered mother might do or not do, including when they might re-enter a church.[21] The last response dealt with questions about whether men might have communion after a sexual dream or if priests might celebrate mass after similar dreams.[22]

Besides the edition contained in the Historia, there also exists a manuscript tradition that contains some information not included in Bede's version. One omission is a section usually known as the Obsecratio Augustini, which contains a reply by Gregory to Augustine's request for relics of the local martyr Sixtus. Gregory's reply says that he is sending relics of Pope Sixtus II to replace the local saint's remains, as Gregory has doubts about the actual saintly status of the local saint. Although the authenticity of the Obsecratio has occasionally be questioned, most modern historians accept that its genuine.[23]

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Wallace-Hadrill Bede's Ecclesiastical History pp. 37–38
  2. ↑ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England pp. 106–107
  3. ↑ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 109
  4. ↑ Bede History of the English Church pp. 71–72
  5. ↑ Higham (Re-)Reading Bede p. 112
  6. ↑ Blair World of Bede p. 70
  7. ↑ Meyvaert "Bede's Text" Benedict, Gregory, Bede and Others p. X23
  8. ↑ Meyvaert "Bede's Text" Benedict, Gregory, Bede and Others p. X15
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Blair World of Bede p. 64
  10. ↑ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 88
  11. ↑ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 90
  12. ↑ Wood "Augustine and Aidan" L'Église et la Mission p. 170
  13. ↑ Meyvaert "Bede's Text" Benedict, Gregory, Bede and Others pp. X16-X17
  14. ↑ Wright Companion to Bede p. 31
  15. ↑ Mayr-Harting Coming of Christianity p. 62
  16. ↑ Bede History of the English Church pp. 71–83
  17. ↑ Bede History of the English Church p. 72
  18. ↑ Bede History of the English Church p. 73
  19. ↑ Bede History of the English Church pp. 74–75
  20. ↑ Bede History of the English Church p. 76
  21. ↑ Bede History of the English Church pp. 76–81
  22. ↑ Bede History of the English Church pp. 81–83
  23. ↑ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 20

References

  • Bede; translated by Leo Sherley-Price (1988). A History of the English Church and People. New York: Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-044042-9. 
  • Blair, Peter Hunter (1990). The World of Bede (Reprint of 1970 ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39819-3. 
  • Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5. 
  • Higham, N. J. (2006). (Re-)Reading Bede: The Ecclesiastical History in Context. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-35368-8. 
  • Mayr-Harting, Henry (1991). The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-00769-9. 
  • Meyvaert, Paul (1977). "Bede's Text of the Libellus Responsionum of Gregory the Great to Augustine of Canterbury". Benedict, Gregory, Bede and Others. London: Variorum Reprints. pp. X15–X33. 
  • Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5. 
  • Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. (1988). Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical Commentary. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822269-6. 
  • Wood, Ian (2000). "Augustine and Aidan: Bureaucrat and Charismatic?". L'Église et la Mission au VIe Siècle: La Mission d'Augustin de Cantorbéry et les Églises de Gaule sous L'Impulsion de Grégoire le Grand Actes du Colloque d'Arles de 1998. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf. ISBN 2-204-06412-2. 
  • Wright, J. Robert (2008). A Companion to Bede: A Reader's Commentary on The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-6309-6. 

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