In the Footsteps of the Ancient Fathers

Josh Timmermann, Ph.D. (2021), University of British Columbia, teaches courses in History at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His publications include studies of the early medieval reception of Augustine of Hippo and Julianus Pomerius.

• AcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsAbbreviationsEditorial NoteIntroduction: The Carolingians and the Christian Past(s)1 Constructing Christian ‘Tradition’ and ‘Orthodoxy’2 Carolingian Reform and Renewal3 The Uses of the Resources of the Past1 Verba, Vitae, Vestigia: On ‘Illustrious Men’, Their Books, and Their Lives1 Introduction: doctor mundi2 Teacher(s) of the World3 In veterum vestigia patrum4 Toward ‘Christian literature’: Jerome’s De viris illustribus and Its Continuations by Gennadius of Marseille and Isidore of Seville5 Alcuin of York, Versus de patribus regibus et sanctis Euboricensis6 Reading, Writing, and the Poetic Past7 Notker Balbulus, Notatio de illustribus viris8 Exemplary vitae, Eloquent verba9 Possidius’s Vita Augustini and Other Textual Lives of the Fathers10 Carolingian Lives: Boniface of Mainz and Adalhard of Corbie11 Radbertus as Jerome? The Cogitis me12 Conclusion2 Redeeming the Time: Exegetical Strategies from Tyconius and Augustine to The Carolingians1 Introduction: How Soon is ‘Now’?2 The ‘Messianic’ Eschatology of the Pauline Letters3 Christianity and the pax Romana4 Tyconius: Rules, ‘Keys’, Possibilities5 Tyconian Influences on Augustine’s Thought and Work6 A More Proximate Influence for Carolingian Exegesis: The ‘Venerable’ Bede7 Alcuin of York on Paul and the Apocalypse8 Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel, Liber comitis9 Claudius of Turin’s Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles10 Hrabanus Maurus’s Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles11 Haimo of Auxerre on Paul and the Apocalypse12 Sedulius Scottus’s Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles13 Florus of Lyon, Expositio in epistolas Beati Pauli ex operibus Sancti Augustini14 Conclusion3 In Search of Lost Time(s): Augustine’s De Civitate Dei as a Source for Knowledge of Ancient History in the Carolingian Era1 Introduction: Historia and tempora Christiana2 Reading and Writing about the Past in the Early Middle Ages3 Studying and Using the De civitate Dei: The Evidence of Carolingian Manuscripts4 On the Borders of the City of God: Ninth-century Annotations on the De civitate Dei5 Capitula libri XVIII6 Fashioning Useable Augustines7 Harmonious historiae: Frechulf’s Universal History and Its Late Antique Sources8 Frechulf of Lisieux, the De civitate Dei, and the veritas historiae9 Conclusion: Everything is Uncertain?4 Progress Toward the Past? Antiquity, Orthodoxy, and Consensus among Authorities in the Carolingian Reformatio1 Introduction: ‘Everywhere, always, and by everybody’?2 ‘Maintaining a position about halfway between the ancient and the modern’3 In Search of Ancient, Roman Tradition: Amalarius of Metz’s Liber officialis4 Historicising Difference: Walafrid Strabo’s De exordiis et incrementis5 Two Senses of Carolingian ‘Reform’6 Shaping and Using ‘The Fathers’ as a Unified Source of Authority: Evidence from Church CouncilsConclusion: Reformatio, Renovatio…nonne tertium quid?BibliographyIndex of Names