Project Description
With this project, the Academy participates in the source editions on German history of the Middle Ages within the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. The research centre has taken over the edition of the council texts of Germany and Imperial Italy for the period from 920 to 1022/23. One focus of the commentary is the proof of the canonical authorities consulted by the councils. The councils up to the death of Emperor Otto III are covered.
For the years before Otto the Great's coronation as emperor (962), it is shown that the archbishop of Mainz exerted great influence on the formulation of the canons and thus demonstrated his claim to the top position in the German episcopate. It is also recognisable what a turning point Otto's coronation as emperor brought to the history of the German councils. Now the focus was on questions regarding church organisation.
The idea that the papacy was at an intellectual low in the 10th century, the „dark“ century, needs to be revised. The canon law of the time proves to be an important structural element of the Ottonian imperial church, which the rulers both respected and used. The rulers' room for manoeuvre, the significance of Roman traditions for the Ottonian emperorship: the edition project can contribute to these questions of medieval research, but also to the problems of demarcation and independence of ecclesiastical and political spaces.