Unauthorised miracles in mid-ninth-century Dijon and the Carolingian church reforms

Abstract

In the early 840s, Archbishop Amolo of Lyons wrote to one of his suffragan bishops about extraordinary miracles reportedly taking place at Dijon in the wake of the arrival of mysterious new relics. Re-examining the complex interaction of these relics with preexisting social and political processes in the region and locally, this article also explores other aspects of Amolo's letter which have been less discussed, notably its manuscript transmission and the insights it offers into structures of religious organisation. Finally, it argues that the way issues treated together in the letter tend to be separated or even opposed in the historiography points to the need for renewed, critically reflexive attention to the specificities of the Carolingian church reforms. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved