Description
Book SynopsisShe declares, so the bishops will write in their report on the council, that she is unworthy to continue as a married woman. ''Before God and his angels'' she bares her heart and confesses to them ''every secret relating to the rumor that had arisen.'' The ''rumor''as will become apparentconcerns her sexual relations with her brother. True, the ''inner wound'' which she ''confesses'' to God and the bishops was not dealt her of her own volition but under duress, but it is in any event so terrible that she no longer feels herself worthy to share a royal or a marital bed or to marry anyone at all. The bishops and abbots allow her, as she had supposedly requested, to enter a convent.from The Divorce of Lothar II
The Divorce of Lothar II illuminates the origin and development of Western notions of marriage and divorce and the separation of church and state in the context of a notorious royal divorce in late Carolingian Europe. In 857, Lothar II, king of Lotharingia, decided to divo
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Heidecker argues that Lothar's divorce action was a critical episode in the development of the medieval matrimonial doctrines that defined marriage as monogamous and indissoluble, His judgment is borne out by the dozen or so reference to the case in the Decretum Gratiani.... His narrative flows smoothly and his analysis of the whole affair is cogent. Heidecker's work represents a welcome and important contribution to the history of medieval marriage doctrine, as well as to the history of the later Carolingian monarchy.
-- James A. Brundage * Journal of Ecclesiastical History *
Heidecker provides an accessible, lucid, and well-researched account of this notorious affair.... Now that Heidecker's valuable contribution to the history of politics, marriage, and law in the Carolingian world is available in English, it should gain the wider audience it deserves. The inclusion of some relatively long source selections, with original Latin passages in footnotes, makes the book ideal for graduate seminars. The book’s genealogical charts are indispensible for understanding the text, especially for anyone not well versed in this period of Carolingian history.
-- Valerie L. Garver * Early Medieval Europe *
