Freculf

{{Short description|Frankish ecclesiastic, diplomat and historian (d. 850/852)}}

'''Freculf''' ({{langx|la|Freculphus Lexoviensis}}, "Freculf of Lisieux"; died 8 October 850 or 852), a Frankish ecclesiastic, diplomat and historian, was a pupil of the palace school of Aachen during the reign of Charlemagne and Bishop of Lisieux from about 824 until his death. He is now best remembered for his universal chronicle, the ''Twelve Books of Histories'' (''Historiarum libri XII''), which is a source of information about the conversion of Gaul and the history of the Franks. Chronicles such as that of Freculf attempted to show world history from Creation to the present, while most history writing in the eighth and ninth centuries was considerably more local and specific.<ref>{{cite book|last=Contreni|first=John|title=The Carolingian Renaissance: Education and Literary Culture Volume 2: c.700- c.900|pages=709–757|year=1995|publisher=Cambridge UP|doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521362924.030|chapter=The Carolingian renaissance: Education and literary culture|isbn=9781139055710}}</ref>

==Early life== Freculf's origins are unknown, but it is known that he became a bishop in either 823 or 825 until his death on 8 October 850 or 852.<ref>{{cite book|last=Noble|first=Thomas|title=Middle Ages Series : Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=352}}</ref> He was a pupil of Louis the Pious' chancellor Helisachar and was involved in various issues of the time, including the question of image veneration. Tom Noble described him as a 'busy, well-connected man'.<ref>{{cite book|last=Noble|first=Thomas|title=Middle Ages Series : Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=352}}</ref>

==Envoy to the Pope== Freculf was sent by Louis to Rome to negotiate with Pope Eugene II about the veneration of images in 824. This issue was one of the main points of contention in the Church at the time. The East Roman Emperor at the time, Michael II, was initially tolerant towards those who venerated images (see Iconoclasm). However, later on in his reign he started persecuting all those who worshiped these images. However, the Franks allowed for veneration, although not adoration, of images. He asked Louis the Pious to persuade Pope Eugene II to ban veneration. Louis complied and one of the envoys he sent was Freculf. However, this Frankish embassy failed as Eugene II stated that the second Council of Nicaea had already decided that images can be venerated but should not be adored.<ref>{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Raymond|title=The Lives of the Ninth-century Popes (Liber Pontificalis) 16:37|year=1995|publisher=Liverpool UP|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q7EuWhDYxM4C&q=image+veneration+freculf&pg=PA37|isbn=9780853234791}}</ref>

==Twelve Histories== One of Freculf's most important works was his ''Twelve Books of Histories'' in two volumes. When he wrote the second part around 830, 'he dedicated it to Empress Judith as a gift for her son Charles [the Bald]'.<ref>{{cite book|last=Noble|first=Thomas|title=Middle Ages Series : Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=352}}</ref> He hoped that this book would 'enable princes to take precautions against disadvantages to themselves and to their subjects'.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lozovsky |first=Natalia |author-link=Natalia Lozovsky |year=2006 |title=Roman Geography and Ethnography in the Carolingian Empire 81:359 |journal=Speculum |volume=81 |issue=2 |pages=325–364 |doi=10.1017/S003871340000261X |jstor=20463714 |s2cid=162507685}}</ref> In a letter to Empress Judith of Bavaria, Freculf flatters the empress while at the same time claiming that her son Charles was so like Charlemagne that 'his grandfather seems not to have died, but rather with the fog of sleep wiped away, to illumine the world anew, indeed his immortal wit, elegance and virtue shine in the grandson together with the name.'<ref>{{cite book|last=Freculf|title=Epistolæ: Letter sent by Freculf, bishop of Lisieux to Empress Judith of Bavaria|first=(Circa 829)|url=http://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/letter/987.html|access-date=2013-11-13|archive-date=2014-11-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106132214/http://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/letter/987.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Empress Judith encouraged this comparison of Charles to Charlemagne, something that he would be reminded of throughout his reign. However, the influence of Charlemagne was to go way beyond the reign of Charles the Bald.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dutton|first=Paul|title=The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire|year=1994|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|page=14|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UHQEP3oJDsoC&q=freculf&pg=PA14|isbn=9780803216532}}</ref> Freculf also mentioned in his book that he hoped Charles would be 'our king of a new age'.<ref>{{cite book|last=McKitterick|first=Rosamund|title=Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge UP|page=213|isbn=9780521405867|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ri3xYGoIYWYC&q=freculf&pg=PA213}}</ref> Freculf also sent Charles the Bald a copy of the military treatise ''De re militari'' by Vegetius.<ref>J. L. Nelson, ''Charles the Bald'' (Longman, 1992), p. 84.</ref>

Freculf's work, along with Ado of Vienne's chronicle, are the only examples of chronicles encompassing world history until the late twelfth century.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/1789379|last=Saurette|first=Marc|work=Academia.edu|date=2005–2006|title=Tracing the Twelfth-Century Chronica of Richard of Cluny (Draft)|accessdate=21 October 2013}}</ref> Part One of the book narrates the history from the creation of the world to the birth of Jesus Christ.<ref>{{cite book|last=Noble|first=Thomas|title=Middle Ages Series : Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=352}}</ref> The second part consisted of the history from incarnation of Jesus up until around 600AD.<ref>{{cite book|last=Noble|first=Thomas|title=Middle Ages Series : Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=352}}</ref> Freculf did not use the customary ages-of-the-world or chronological models for organizing his material.<ref>{{cite book|last=Noble|first=Thomas|title=Middle Ages Series : Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=353}}</ref> Instead he traced history through the fall and rise of potentates, realms, and cults through pagan, pre-Roman antiquity, and then through Israel.<ref>{{cite book|last=Noble|first=Thomas|title=Middle Ages Series : Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=353}}</ref> His work was centered mainly on religious aspects, such as the Visigothic conversion to Catholicism, admiration of Pope Gregory I as a 'defender of the faith', all the martyrs, and all six ecumenical councils up until that point.<ref>{{cite book|last=Noble|first=Thomas|title=Middle Ages Series : Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=352}}</ref> According to Michael Allen, Freculf's work, 'often neglected due to its lack of new factual information of contemporary events...crafted a history meant to address present concerns through the 'mirror' of the past".<ref>{{cite book|last=Allen|first=Michael|title=History in the Carolingian renewal: Frechulf of Lisieux (fl. 830), his work and influence|year=1994|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Canada|page=ii|id={{ProQuest|304181172}}}}</ref>

Freculf's decision to end his history in the seventh century, rather than bringing it to his time, has been interpreted as evidence for a new sense of historical consciousness, and that the Franks saw themselves as post-Roman. According to Tom Noble, Freculf's view was that:{{Blockquote|The Romans had been expelled from Italy and the last great monument to Rome's state cults had been transformed. It was Roman, however, but Roman ecclesiastical. Gregory I marked the way and even the Greeks acknowledged that Rome was the head of all churches. It was Catholic. The future of the West was safely in the hands of Catholic Franks and Lombards, the Visigoths had rejected heresy, and the English were on the way to conversion, What is more, the faith itself had been definitively defined.<ref>{{cite book|last=Noble|first=Thomas|title=Middle Ages Series : Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=353}}</ref>}}

However, Graeme Ward has argued that Freculf simply ended his work at the point when the victory of Christianity was assured, rather than making any point about historical epochs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kramer |first=Rutger |title=Historiography and identity |last2=Reimitz |first2=Helmut |last3=Ward |first3=Graeme |date=2021 |publisher=Brepols |isbn=978-2-503-58655-7 |series=Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (CELAMA) |location=Turnhout}}</ref>

== Manuscripts == Manuscripts of his chronicle include: * "Auxerre - BM - ms. 0091". Origin (Pontigny Abbey Notre-Dame) * "Avranches - BM - ms. 0160". Origin (Mont-Saint-Michel) <ref>[http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/public/mistral/enlumine_fr?ACTION=RETROUVER&FIELD_98=CONTXT&VALUE_98=Initiale&NUMBER=74&GRP=194&REQ=%28%28Initiale%29%20%3aCONTXT%20%29&USRNAME=nobody&USRPWD=4%24%2534P&SPEC=1&SYN=1&IMLY=&MAX1=1&MAX2=100&MAX3=100&DOM=All Ministère de la culture - Enluminures]</ref> <gallery> File:IRHT 075187-p.jpg File:IRHT 075185-p.jpg File:IRHT 075184-pA.jpg File:IRHT 075186-pC.jpg </gallery>

== Literature == * Natumewicz, C. F. "Freculphus of Lisieux, His Chronicle and a Mont Saint-Michel Manuscript." Horae Eruditae et Codices sancti Michaelis de periculo maris, 90–134. Steenbrugge: 1966. HS 90-1800 Multiple authors: MICHAUD-QUANTIN P., CORDOLIANI A., MATHIEU M., JEAUNEAU E., NATUNEWICZ Ch.-F., PREAUX J. & SCHNEYER J.B. [http://www.abebooks.fr/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=62945074&searchurl=tn%3DConfessions%26sortby%3D3%26an%3DB.B%26ph%3D2]

* ''Frechulfi Lexouiensis episcopi Opera omnia''. Ed. Michael I. Allen. 2 vols. (1. Prolegomena – Indices; 2. Textus). Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis 169–169A. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002.

== References == <references/>

== External links == * [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/30_10_0780-0853-_Freculphus_Lexoviensis_Episcopus.html Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes]

Category:Bishops in the Carolingian Empire Category:Bishops of Lisieux Category:French chroniclers Category:Historians from the Carolingian Empire Category:9th-century writers in Latin