Raban Maur’s Sermon Collections and their Sources: A Study of the Manuscripts from the Monastery in Fulda

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the ninth and tenth centuries, the Frankish territory almost doubled in size within three generations. When he was crowned as emperor in AD 800, Charlemagne was Europe’s most powerful ruler. But his position could only be secure, if he could bring about unification within his multiracial state. In the context of the large-scale programme of reforms, Charlemagne as well as his son Louis the Pious and his grandson Lothar I particularly trusted in the power of religion. The rank of the Frankish ruler would be relatively inviolable if the same ideas of good and bad as well as right and wrong defined the people’s working and living together. To achieve that goal, five extensive sermon collections were ordered; two of them were prepared by Raban Maur (c. 780–856), the abbot from Fulda, and later archbishop of Mainz. This article identifies the sources from which Raban made his selections. Subsequently, the texts that he used will be compared to manuscripts connected to the monastery in Fulda. By so doing, it is possible to identify the templates for his sermon collections.