The research project looks at the role played by the early medieval Christian church as a governance actor in ensuring legal certainty and public order. It asks as to what extent the close intertwining of ecclesiastic and secular institutions and sanctions can be understood as a means to safeguard endangered norms and rules by use of metaphysic legitimacy. To achieve this, (1) legitimacy resources provided by the church, especially the double self-commitment through baptism and promissory oath, will be studied in order to (2) analyze the dual, i.e. ecclesiastical and secular, sanctioning of certain offenses and their reappraisal as sin in the Carolingian period; this perspective will (3) shed new light on the role played by baptism and reciprocal oaths and the double sanctioning of crimes in the Peace of God-movement from c. AD 1000 on to provide new legitimacy for social and political order.

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Research Project B10 - Project Poster