Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

with Neustrian and Austrasian-based interests of the Arnulfings must suggest that
decisions taken by church councils in the north-east of Francia would have little bearing
on territories further south. In fact, no synods would be held in the southern Frankish
regions until the five simultaneous regional councils of Charlemagne in 813. An essential
point to bear in mind when considering the evidence of such ‘reforming’ councils, not
only for those of Boniface but also for the subsequent councils of the early ninth century,
is this geographical dissonance.
Reform Endeavours: Chrodegang
At around the same time as Boniface directed attempts at reform at the Concilium
Germanicum in 742 and at Soissons in 743, another star was rising in the episcopal
firmament: Chrodegang of Metz. 137 Chrodegang’s name is not recorded at these councils,
which suggests that he had not in fact been consecrated at that stage, despite the
traditional date of 30 th September 742. 138 Martin Claussen suggests that Carloman and
Boniface may have seen in Chrodegang an example of a Frankish aristocrat appointed to
the episcopate by his father, just the type of man about whom Boniface complained in his
letters. If that were the case, Chrodegang might have found his role in the Church
circumscribed until Carloman retired. 139
Chrodegang’s reforms extended over two main areas. The first of these was the
new set of guidelines he drew up for the canons of the cathedral of Metz. These were
based on the Benedictine rule, but also drew on Gregory the Great, Caesarius, and
Julianus Pomerius (under the name Prosper of Aquitaine). 140 Chrodegang intended this
new Regula canonicorum to be of use only to the Metz community, and it was not until
the beginning of the ninth century that the text was applied explicitly to female
communities. Chrodegang set forth his own purposes in the rule’s prologue, where he
137 On Chrodegang, see M.A. Claussen, The Reform of the Frankish Church: Chrodegang of Metz and the
Regula Canonicorum in the Eighth Century (Cambridge, 2004).
138 Claussen, Reform, 26.
139 Claussen, Reform, 27
140 Claussen, Reform, 166
206