What did it mean to be a Frankish nobleman in an age of reform? How could Carolingian lay nobles maintain their masculinity and their social position, while adhering to new and stricter moral demands by reformers concerning behaviour in war, sexual conduct and the correct use of power? This book explores the complex interaction between Christian moral ideals and social realities, and between religious reformers and the lay political elite they addressed. It uses the numerous texts addressed to a lay audience (including lay mirrors, secular poetry, political polemic, historical writings and legislation) to examine how Biblical and patristic moral ideas were reshaped to become compatible with the realities of noble life in the Carolingian empire. This innovative analysis of Carolingian moral norms demonstrates how gender interacted with political and religious thought to create a distinctive Frankish elite culture, presenting a new picture of early medieval masculinity.
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Author(s): Rachel Stone
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 418
List of illustrationspage viii
Acknowledgements ix
A note on translation xi
List of abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction 1
The way to heaven 1
Studying morality 3
Morality and reality 8
Studying masculinity 14
Masculinity and ‘crisis’ 19
Dei ning lay nobles 21
2 Moral texts and lay audiences 27
Genres and the layman 28
Lay mirrors 36
Moral advice for rulers 42
History and biography 47
Poetry 53
Regulatory texts 58
Letters 63
Conclusion 65
3 Warfare 69
Christian traditions 71
Justifying warfare 72
The rise of peacefulness? 77
Images of the warrior 82
Norms of warfare 100
Conclusion 111
4 Imagining power 116
The morality of social hierarchy 120
Moral hierarchy 123
Pride 124
Nobility and virtue 126
Noble self-sanctii cation 128
The Carolingian nobilis 130
Conclusion 133
5 Central power 135
Courtiers 136
Counts and morality 146
Justice and the legal system 159
Conclusion 170
6 Personal power 174
Carolingian households 175
The unfree 177
Lordship 188
Kinship 199
Conclusion 212
7 Power and wealth 214
The image of the rich 216
The means to wealth 220
The morality of land 221
Moral ways to wealth? 229
The use of wealth 232
Conclusion 245
8 Marriage 247
Studying marriage 248
Raptus 249
Incest 255
Polygamy 267
Divorce and remarriage 268
Conclusion 274
9 Sex 279
Studying sexuality 279
Unmarried men 282
Marital sex 285
Adultery 289
‘Unnatural’ sex 292
Carolingian sexual discourses 298
Masculinity and sex 304
Sex and the social order 306
Conclusion 309
10 Men and morality 311
Rel ections in the lay mirrors 311
How can men be moral? 312
How can moral men be manly? 317
Theories of Carolingian masculinity 321
Towards early medieval masculinity 326
Carolingian reform and gender 330
The end of the Carolingian consensus 334
Bibliography 339
Index 387
