Appeals to Distant Authority in the Merovingian Conciliar Acts

Although episcopal participants at Gallo-Frankish councils regularly claimed to be reliant on canonical tradition in crafting their own decrees, direct citations and quotations in published acts are relatively rare. This scarcity has made it difficult for modern scholars to evaluate the nature and extent of this ostensible reliance. This paper addresses this problem by looking specifically at the use of non-Gallic canonical materials by Merovingian-era synods, with a particular focus on Eastern and African canons. Special attention is paid to Nicaea (325) as a venerable, albeit selectively-utilized, reference point. It will be suggested through an examination of these exempla that Gallo-Frankish bishops recognized and sought to navigate an inherent tension between localism on the one hand and a canonical orthodoxy not limited by political borders.