A contrite heart: Prosecution and redemption in the carolingian empire

Financiación

In his poem "The Unwritten," W.S. Merwin wrote, "Inside this pencil/ crouch words that have never been written/ never been spoken/ never been taught/ they're awake in there/ dark in the dark/ hearing us/ but they won't come out/ not for love not for time not for fire ... "The problem indeed is how to extricate the words from the pencil, and this author has relied on a large battalion to assist in their egress. I am profoundly grateful to all its members, many of whom may not even know how their conversations, interest, and smiles contributed to the transfer of words to paper, especially as the passage of time erodes the memories of those moments. I remember them, however, and wish to leave some trace of that history of generosity in this small inscription of thanks which can never be adequate. Many of the initial seeds of thought were sown and nurtured during the two years I enjoyed at the UCLA Humanities Consortium as an Andrew Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow, in the stimulating and gracious company of the faculty and my fellow Fellows, whose task was to study "The Sacred and Profane" under the leadership of Vince Pecora, and where I read and pondered the treatises of Agobard and Amulo. Thereaft er the burden of this book's development was most nobly shouldered by my colleagues in the History Department and Honors Program at the University of Kentucky, who encouraged and pressed me to keep writing and did everything in their power to allow me to do so. Most blessed are the librarians who have assisted me tirelessly and cheerfully at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies Library in Toronto and at the William T. Young Library at the University of Kentucky. Special thanks are owed for the exceptional hospitality extended by the University of St. Michael's College and the folk on the corridor at Clover Hill: especially Jo Godfrey, Mark McGowan, Giulio Silano, Jennifer Harris, Joe Goering, Reid Locklin, Fr. Dan Donovan, and Michael O'Connor, whose company and assistance were invaluable treasures as the pages and footnotes mounted up during several summers. Those accumulated pages received undeservedly attentive, thoughtful, and helpful comments from Barbara Rosenwein and the anonymous, erudite reader for Brill. Despite all its remaining failings, for which I am wholly responsible, this book benefitted greatly from their eff orts. Yet it would have remained in manuscript form only without the efficient and kind attention of Marcella Mulder of Brill and my very favourite copy-editor, Juleen Audrey Eichinger. Through the exceptional graces of Genevra Kornbluth and Richard A. Gilbreath, it has images and a map! Finally, I would like to acknowledge the kind support for my academic ventures given by Charles Donahue (Harvard Law School), John Contreni (Purdue University), and Peter Landau (Stephan Kuttner Institute for Medieval Canon Law/Juristische Fakultät, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich). It would seem remiss of me, however, to neglect mention of the friendship and inspiration upon which I draw outside the academic world, and so I would like to thank the members of the Music Ministry and Women's Choir at the Newman Center in Lexington, Kentucky, who rejoiced at the work's progress and completion and whose singing always kept knowledge of serenity, joy, hope, and beauty present during the oft en grisly phases of prose composition, proofreading, and tearing of pages and hair. Gaudeamus igitur!