Shepherds of the Lord: Priests and Episcopal Statutes in the Carolingian Period. By Carine van Rhijn. Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 6. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007. viii + 246 pp. $87.00.

摘要

Nearly three dozen documents were issued between the end of the eighthncentury and the beginning of the tenth to which the name “EpiscopalnStatutes” has been applied. Although much of this material has been knownnfor a long time, its proper study has only recently become possible with thenpublication of the Capitula (or Statuta) episcoporum by the MonumentanGermaniae Historica in four volumes between 1984 and 2005. Van Rhijn’s isnthe first book to tackle this material and to try to make sense of it as andistinct corpus. She notes that Capitula episcoporum is not a coherent genrenbecause the various capitula differ significantly among themselves andnbecause the capitula bear close similarities to the acts of church councils andnalso to the capitularies of the Frankish kings. The items in the MGH editionnhave two things in common: they were all written by bishops, and they arenprimarily addressed to priests.