Heretics, married priests, sexaholics or imperial enemies: who are the ‘Nicolaitans’ mentioned in Louis the German’s dream?

Abstract

In the Annales Fuldenses entry for 874, there is a cryptic reference to some heretical ‘Nicolaitans’. This has been understood as a reference to married clerics, yet that particular meaning of the word only became widespread much later in a Gregorian context. This article provides a history of the label from its origins. On that basis, it proposes a new interpretation of this micro-narrative, to explain why this term might have been used in the last decades of Louis the German’s reign, in connection with sexual affairs involving queens.