Ecclesiastical Servi in the Frankish and Visigothic Kingdoms

• Autores: Mary E. Sommar
• Localización: Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte.: Kanonistische Abteilung, ISSN 0323-4142, Vol. 127, 2010, págs. 57-79
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article is an examination of the laws of the Germanic kingdoms, both ecclesiastical and secular laws, concerning servi ecclesiarum, or unfree persons under ecclesiastical dominion. On the whole, concerning this issue there were two main concerns of the canon law that was produced in the areas of Visigothic and Merovingian hegemony. The first concern was the preservation of church property, including its servi. Indeed, even after manumission, former servi ecclesiarum and their progeny retained a high level of obligation to their former owners. An equally important concern of these texts was the need to maintain ecclesiastical dignity through regulating the treatment of church dependents by the society as a whole and by the clergy, who were not to have inappropriate relationships with, especially, their serving women. While the concerns were, in general, the same in both the Gothic and the Frankish spheres of influence, the Frankish texts reveal a greater preoccupation with the social hierarchy and order and the Visigothic laws, both canon and secular, stressed the need for harsh enforcement of the regulations for a few particularly offensive infractions.