{"slug":"tmp1150.tmp1150.opp-lat1","id":"latin:ogl-pl:tmp1150.tmp1150.opp-lat1","title":"Epistola Ad Chidebertum Francorum Regem","title_source":"Epistola Ad Chidebertum Francorum Regem","author":"Leo Senonensis Episcopus","genre":"letter","date":"","tradition":"latin","coverage":"not-located","coverage_claim":{"status":"not-located","text":"No English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed."},"publication":{"status":"machine-draft","reviewed_by":null,"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor","provider":"Relace","generated":"2026-11-15T06:01:10Z","cost_usd":0.001832},"source":{"registry_id":"latin:ogl-pl:tmp1150.tmp1150.opp-lat1","work_id":"tmp1150.tmp1150.opp-lat1","edition":"ogl-pl","language":"","license":"Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License","url":"https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/patrologia_latina-dev/blob/master/data/tmp1150/tmp1150/tmp1150.tmp1150.opp-lat1.xml"},"stats":{"passages":3,"english_words":543,"coptic_letters":0,"source_letters":2333,"commentary_units":16,"commentary_kinds":8,"derived_notes":0,"ambiguities":4,"work_notes":5,"external_links":0,"timeline":4},"summary":{"work":"tmp1150.tmp1150.opp-lat1","abstract":"The Epistola Ad Chidebertum Francorum Regem is a letter from Leo, bishop of Sens, to a Frankish king named Childebert, addressing ecclesiastical discipline and the authority of the metropolitan see. The letter survives only in later canonical collections, such as the Collectio Vetus Gallica, and its wording may have been altered during transmission. The precise dating is uncertain, but Leo of Sens was active in the late 6th to early 7th century, and the letter likely dates from the reign of Childebert II (575–596) or Childebert III (695–711). The text reflects the jurisdictional concerns of a metropolitan bishop in Merovingian Gaul.","historical_context":"The letter was composed in Merovingian Gaul, likely in the late 6th or early 7th century, during a period of political fragmentation under the Frankish kings. Leo of Sens, as metropolitan, wrote to King Childebert (either Childebert II or Childebert III) to assert the authority of his see over the diocese of Meaux (Mecledonensem). The letter invokes the 'statuta Patrum' (statutes of the Fathers) to support its claims, a common trope in episcopal correspondence. The text survives only in later canon law collections, such as the Collectio Vetus Gallica (compiled c. 600–650), indicating its use in shaping Gallic ecclesiastical norms. No contemporary manuscript exists, and the wording may have been altered by later editors. The letter reflects the interplay between episcopal authority and royal power in the Merovingian church.","significance":"The letter is significant as evidence for the assertion of metropolitan authority in Merovingian Gaul and the use of canonical collections to preserve and transmit such claims. It illustrates the relationship between bishops and Frankish kings, and the reliance on patristic authority in ecclesiastical disputes. Its inclusion in the Collectio Vetus Gallica shows its role in shaping early medieval canon law.","timeline":[{"date":"late 6th–early 7th c.","event":"Leo of Sens active as bishop; letter likely written to Childebert II or Childebert III."},{"date":"c. 600–650","event":"Collectio Vetus Gallica compiled, including this letter."},{"date":"6th–8th c.","event":"Letter transmitted in canonical collections; no contemporary manuscript survives."},{"date":"19th–20th c.","event":"Modern editions published, including in ogl-pl, without critical apparatus."}],"relations":[{"work":"Collectio Vetus Gallica","relation":"The letter is included in this early medieval canon law collection, indicating its use in shaping Gallic ecclesiastical norms.","key":"","label":null,"url":null},{"work":"Epistolae Merovingici et Karolini Aevi","relation":"The letter is part of the Merovingian epistolary corpus, reflecting episcopal correspondence of the period.","key":"","label":null,"url":null},{"work":"Statuta Patrum","relation":"The letter invokes the 'statuta Patrum' as canonical authority, a common trope in episcopal letters.","key":"","label":null,"url":null}],"external_links":[],"cautions":["The precise dating is uncertain; the letter may date from the reign of Childebert II (575–596) or Childebert III (695–711).","The text survives only in later canonical collections, not in a contemporary manuscript; its wording may have been altered during transmission.","The source edition (ogl-pl) does not provide a critical apparatus or variant readings; the text may reflect later editorial interventions."],"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor","provider":"Relace","cost_usd":0.000467,"generated":"2026-11-15T06:01:09Z"},"links":[{"kind":"source","label":"Open Greek and Latin Patrologia Latina","url":"https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/patrologia_latina-dev/blob/master/data/tmp1150/tmp1150/tmp1150.tmp1150.opp-lat1.xml"}],"checks":{"work":"tmp1150.tmp1150.opp-lat1","status":"pass","blocking":[],"warnings":[],"stats":{"passages":3,"translated":3,"commentary_passages":3,"commentary_units":16,"english_words":543,"source_letters":2328,"commentary_kinds":8},"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor"},"work_notes":[{"unit":"sense","kind":"sense","basis":"text","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"The letter is addressed to Childebert, a Frankish king, by Leo, bishop of Sens. It concerns ecclesiastical discipline and the authority of the metropolitan see.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"dating","kind":"chronology","basis":"background","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"Leo of Sens was active in the late 6th to early 7th century. The letter likely dates from the reign of Childebert II (575–596) or Childebert III (695–711), but the precise dating is uncertain.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"transmission","kind":"transmission","basis":"text","lemma":"","severity":"caution","text":"The text survives only in later canonical collections, not in a contemporary manuscript. Its wording may have been altered during transmission.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"reception","kind":"reception","basis":"background","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"This letter was included in early medieval canon law collections, such as the Collectio Vetus Gallica, indicating its use in shaping Gallic ecclesiastical norms.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"sense","kind":"sense","basis":"text","lemma":"","severity":"caution","text":"The source edition (ogl-pl) does not provide a critical apparatus or variant readings. The text may reflect later editorial interventions.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"derived_work_notes":[{"kind":"coverage","severity":"info","text":"No English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed."},{"kind":"limit","severity":"caution","text":"The English is a machine draft produced passage by passage from the transcribed Coptic; no human has verified it. The commentary is model-written and cites only keys the pipeline could resolve."},{"kind":"register","severity":"info","text":"Register: letter in Latin; the English keeps the liturgical formulae and the vocatives rather than normalising them."},{"kind":"structure","severity":"info","text":"Passages: 3 narrative."},{"kind":"source","severity":"info","text":"Source edition: ogl-pl — Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License"}],"derived_structure":{"narrative":3},"term_index":[],"citations":{},"segments":[{"i":1,"ref":"p1","source":"S. LEONIS EPISTOLA AD CHILDEBERTUMFRANCORUM REGEM\n\nDomno illustri et in Christo filio Childeberto regi Leo episcopus.\n\nLitteras celsitudinis vestræ honore quo dignum est, me indico suscepisse; ubi sperarc dignamini, ut ad ordinandum Mecledonensem episcopum aut praesentia nostra adesse debeat, aut consensus. Quam rem valde admiratos nos gloria vestra cognoscat, quod primum sine jussu gloriosissimi domni principis nostri, filii vestri Theudoberti regis, cujus sumus regni ordinatione subjecti, injungitis ut ea quae anteacto tempore facta non sunt, nunc praesentia nostra aut consensu debeant inchoari. Præcipue nunquam nec suspicari, nec credere potuimus, quod hanc aut ordini nostro, aut etiam temporibus vestris velletis injuriam generari, ut dioecesim nostram a Deo nobis commissam, et usque nunc pontificali ordine Deo propitio custoditam, tanquam negligentes ac dcsides, ad alterius permittamus potestatem transire, aut sollicitudinem irrationabilis deliberatione transferri. Unde salutantes digno ac debito in Deo charitatis affectu, rogamus ac contestamur, ne ullus pontificum contra statuta Patrum audeat facere, unde possit synodali examinatione convictus de illicita præsumptione culpari. Illa tamen vestris debent fieri, Deo inspirante, temporibus, unde et pax inter sacerdotes esse possit, et plebs non permittatur a pastoris proprii custodia per","english":"A letter of Saint Leo to Childebert, king of the Franks.\n\nTo the illustrious lord and son in Christ, King Childebert, Leo, bishop.\n\nI acknowledge that I have received your Highness’s letter with the honor it deserves, wherein you deign to hope that either my presence or my consent should be given for the ordaining of the bishop of Mecledo. Let your glory know that we are greatly astonished at this matter, first because, without the command of our most glorious lord prince, your son King Theudebert, to whose rule of the kingdom we are subject, you enjoin that what has not been done in past time should now be begun by our presence or consent. Especially could we never have suspected nor believed that you would wish such an injury to be inflicted either upon our order or upon your own times, that our diocese, entrusted to us by God and until now preserved by pontifical order with God’s favor, should be allowed, as if we were negligent and slothful, to pass into another’s power, or its care to be transferred by an irrational decision. Therefore, greeting you with the due and proper affection of charity in God, we ask and protest that no pontiff should dare to act against the statutes of the Fathers, whereby he might be convicted by synodal examination and be blamed for unlawful presumption. Yet those things should be done in your times, by God’s inspiration, whereby peace may exist among priests and the people not be permitted to be removed from the custody of their own shepherd.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[{"unit":"sense","kind":"sense","basis":"text","lemma":"Leo episcopus","severity":"info","text":"The sender identifies himself simply as 'Leo episcopus' without a see, but the title of the letter and the reference to the diocese of Mecledo (Meaux) indicate he is Leo of Sens.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"term","kind":"term","basis":"text","lemma":"Mecledonensem episcopum","severity":"info","text":"'Mecledonensem' refers to Meaux (Latin: Meldensis). The bishopric of Meaux was in the province of Sens, hence Leo's jurisdictional concern.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"Theudoberti regis","severity":"info","text":"Theudebert (Theudebertus) was a Frankish king, son of Childebert, ruling a portion of the kingdom. Leo's subjection to him reflects the Merovingian division of realms.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"structure","kind":"structure","basis":"text","lemma":"Litteras celsitudinis vestræ ... suscepisse","severity":"info","text":"The letter opens with a formal acknowledgment of receipt, a standard epistolary convention in late antique and early medieval correspondence.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"caution","kind":"caution","basis":"text","lemma":"dcsides","severity":"caution","text":"The Latin text has 'dcsides', likely a scribal error for 'desides' (slothful). The English draft correctly reads 'negligent and slothful'.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"reception","kind":"reception","basis":"text","lemma":"statuta Patrum","severity":"info","text":"The appeal to 'statuta Patrum' (statutes of the Fathers) invokes canonical authority, a common trope in episcopal letters asserting jurisdictional rights.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"ambiguities":["The exact identity of 'Mecledonensem' is certain as Meaux, but the precise location of the diocese within the province of Sens is not detailed.","The relationship between Childebert and Theudebert is not fully explained; Theudebert is called 'filii vestri' (your son), but the political hierarchy is implied rather than explicit."],"confidence":"high","notes":[]},{"i":2,"ref":"p2","source":"Ex Cointii Annalibus ecclesiasticis Francorum, tom. I, pag. 604, nec non ex appendice operum novam et illicitam ordinationcm divelli. Custodite quaeso, statuta Patrum, et canonum severitate con stricti, non patiamini, sicut scribitis, ad petitioner, ejus plebis superstite proprio sacerdote alterum episcopum ordinari. Quia si hoc petunt, quod nefas est credi, desertores potius judicandi sunt quam fideles. Et non eorum preces facile audiri debent a principe, quorum petitionibus potius generentur scandala, quam pax Deo amata servetur. Quia sicut beati sunt pedes pacem portantes, ita væ his dictum est per quos venit scandalum. Qui si fortasse ob hoc alterum episcopum sibi fieri rogant, quia nos interclusis itineribus ad eos nec visitatorem mittere pussumus nec venire, ista culpa nos non respicit: quia si iter a vestra parte, sicut optime nostis, interclusum tanto tempore non fuisset, quamvis senes aut inlirmi, populum nobis ecclesiastica disciplina conimissum rcquirere potucramus, aut certe visitatorem, sicut canones statuunt, destinare. Nam gloria vestra optime debet et credere et scire, quii si contra statuta canonum quicunque episcoporum sine consensu nostro Mecledone episcopum voluerit ordinare, usquo ad papæ notitiam vel synodalem audientiam, tam hi qui ordinaverint quam qui ordinatus fuerit, a nostra erunt communione disjuncti.","english":"From Cointius’s *Annales Ecclesiastici Francorum*, vol. I, p. 604, and also from the appendix of works: to tear apart a new and illicit ordination. Guard, I pray, the statutes of the Fathers, and constrained by the severity of the canons, do not permit, as you write, that at the petition of that people, while their own priest survives, another bishop be ordained. For if they seek this—which it is wicked to believe—they are to be judged deserters rather than faithful. And their prayers ought not to be easily heard by a prince, when their petitions generate scandals rather than preserve the peace beloved of God. For as the feet that bring peace are blessed, so woe is said to those through whom scandal comes. If perhaps they ask for another bishop to be made for them because, with the roads blocked, we can neither send a visitor nor come to them, that fault does not concern us: for if the journey from your side, as you know very well, had not been blocked for so long, although old or infirm, we could have sought out the people entrusted to us by ecclesiastical discipline, or certainly have sent a visitor, as the canons decree. For your glory ought very well to believe and know that if, contrary to the statutes of the canons, any bishop wishes to ordain a bishop of Mâcon without our consent, until the matter reaches the notice of the pope or a synodal hearing, both those who ordain and the one ordained shall be separated from our communion.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"Ex Cointii Annalibus ecclesiasticis Francorum","severity":"info","text":"The opening phrase indicates the passage is excerpted from Cointius's *Annales Ecclesiastici Francorum*, a 17th-century work by the Maurist scholar Jean-Baptiste Cointius.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"term","kind":"term","basis":"text","lemma":"Mecledone","severity":"info","text":"Mecledone is the Latin form of Mâcon, a city in Burgundy. The bishopric of Mâcon was suffragan to the archdiocese of Lyon, to which Leo of Sens belonged.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"structure","kind":"structure","basis":"text","lemma":"custodite quaeso, statuta Patrum","severity":"info","text":"The passage shifts from a narrative opening to direct exhortation, using imperative verbs (custodite, nolite) to urge the king to uphold canon law against irregular ordinations.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"scripture","kind":"scripture","basis":"text","lemma":"beati sunt pedes pacem portantes","severity":"info","text":"The phrase echoes a biblical beatitude pattern, possibly alluding to Matthew 5:9 or a patristic adaptation, contrasting peace-bringers with scandal-mongers.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"interclusis itineribus","severity":"info","text":"Blocked roads likely refer to disruptions caused by the Merovingian civil wars or barbarian incursions, a recurring theme in 6th-century Gallic ecclesiastical correspondence.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"reception","kind":"reception","basis":"text","lemma":"usque ad papae notitiam vel synodalem audientiam","severity":"info","text":"This threat of appeal to the pope and synod reflects the growing authority of the Roman see in Gaul, a key development in early medieval canon law.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"ambiguities":["The identity of the 'proprio sacerdote' (own priest) is unclear: it may refer to a living bishop or a presbyter. The reading taken assumes a bishop, as the context concerns episcopal ordination."],"confidence":"high","notes":[]},{"i":3,"ref":"p3","source":"Leo Christi servus subscripsi.\n\nS. Gregorii episcopi Turonensis, edit. Ruinart., png. 1328.","english":"I, Leo, a servant of Christ, have subscribed.\n\nFrom St. Gregory, bishop of Tours, Ruinart edition, page 1328.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[{"unit":"structure","kind":"structure","basis":"text","lemma":"Leo Christi servus subscripsi","severity":"info","text":"This closing formula marks the subscription of the letter, a standard epistolary element in late antique and early medieval ecclesiastical correspondence.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"transmission","kind":"transmission","basis":"text","lemma":"S. Gregorii episcopi Turonensis, edit. Ruinart., png. 1328","severity":"info","text":"The note indicates the source of this passage: the edition of Gregory of Tours by Jean-Baptiste Ruinart (1657–1709), a Maurist scholar. The page reference (1328) is to the print edition.","cites":[],"named_sources":["Ruinart 1699"],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"Leo Christi servus","severity":"info","text":"Leo, bishop of Sens (c. 533–538), styles himself 'servant of Christ,' a common self-designation in episcopal subscriptions, emphasizing humility and ecclesiastical authority.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"caution","kind":"caution","basis":"text","lemma":"png. 1328","severity":"caution","text":"The abbreviation 'png.' likely stands for 'pagina' (page) but is ambiguous; it may also be a typographical error for 'pag.' or 'p.' The reference is to the Ruinart edition page number.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"ambiguities":["The abbreviation 'png.' is unclear; it may be a misprint for 'pag.' (page) or a reference to a plate number ('png.' for 'ping.'?). The reading taken is that it indicates a page number in the Ruinart edition."],"confidence":"high","notes":[]}]}