The Libellus responsionum (Latin for "little book of answers") is a papal letter (also known as a papal rescript or decretal) written in 601 by Pope Gregory I to Augustine of Canterbury in response to several of Augustine's questions regarding the nascent church in Anglo-Saxon England.The Libellus is sometime designated as JE 1843, and/or by its incipit "Per dilectissimos filios meos". See P. Jaffé, Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII, 2 vols, second edition, eds F. Kaltenbrunner (to a. 590), P. Ewald (to a. 882), S. Löwenfeld (to a. 1198) (Leipzig, 1885–1888), no. 1843. It is edited by P. Ewald and L.M. Hartmann in Gregorii I papae Registrum epistolarum, 2 vols, MGH Epp. 1–2 (Berlin, 1891–1899), vol. II, pp. 332–43 (no. 11.56a). The Libellus was reproduced in its entirety by Bede in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, whence it was transmitted widely in the Middle Ages, and where it is still most often encountered by students and historians today.P. Meyvaert, "Bede’s text of the Libellus responsionum of Gregory the Great to Augustine of Canterbury", in England before the Conquest: studies in primary sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, eds P. Clemoes and K. Hughes (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 15–33. Before it was ever transmitted in Bede's Historia, however, the Libellus circulated as part of several different early medieval canon law collections, often in the company of texts of a penitential nature.
The authenticity of the Libellus (notwithstanding Boniface's suspicions, on which see below) was not called into serious question until the mid-twentieth century, when several historians forwarded the hypothesis that the document had been concocted in England in the early eighth century.See, most importantly, S. Brechter, Die Quellen zur Angelsachsenmission Gregors des Großen: Eine historiographische Studie, Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens 22 (Munster, 1941), and M. Deanesly and P. Grosjean, "The Canterbury edition of the answers of Pope Gregory I to Augustine", in The journal of theological studies 10 (1959), 1–49. For a review of scholarship that has challenged Gregory's authorship see M. D. Elliot, "Boniface, Incest, and the Earliest Extant Version of Pope Gregory I’s Libellus responsionum (JE 1843)", in Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung 100 (2014), pp. 62–111, at pp. 62–73. It has since been shown, however, that this hypothesis was based on incomplete evidence and historical misapprehensions. In particular, twentieth-century scholarship focused on the presence in the Libellus of what appeared to be an impossibly lax rule regarding consanguinity and marriage, a rule that (it was thought) Gregory could not possibly have endorsed. It is now known that this rule is not in fact as lax as historians had thought, and moreover that the rule is fully consistent with Gregory's style and mode of thought.K. Ubl, Inzestverbot und Gesetzgebung: die Konstruktion eines Verbrechens (300–1100), Millennium-Studien 20 (Berlin, 2008), pp. 219–51; Elliot, "Boniface, Incest, and the Earliest Extant Version", pp. 73–96. Today, Gregory I's authorship of the Libellus is generally accepted.P. Meyvaert, "Diversity within unity, a Gregorian theme", in The Heythrop journal 4 (1963), pp. 141–62; B. Müller, Führung im Denken und Handeln Gregors des Grossen, Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 57 (Tübingen, 2009), pp. 341–62. The question of authenticity aside, manuscript and textual evidence indicates that the document was being transmitted in Italy by perhaps as early as the beginning of the seventh century (i.e. shortly after Gregory I's death in 604), and in England by the end of the same century.
Creation
The Libellus is a reply by Pope Gregory I to questions posed by Augustine of Canterbury about certain disciplinary, administrative, and sacral problems he was facing as he tried to establish a bishopric amongst the Kentish people following the initial success of the Gregorian mission in 596.J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical Commentary (Oxford, 1988), p. 37. Modern historians, including Ian Wood and Rob Meens, have seen the Libellus as indicating that Augustine had more contact with native British Christians than is indicated by Bede's narrative in the Historia Ecclesiastica.I. Wood, Ian, "Augustine and Aidan: Bureaucrat and Charismatic?", in L'Église et la Mission au VIe Siècle: La Mission d'Augustin de Cantorbéry et les Églises de Gaule sous L'Impulsion de Grégoire le Grand Actes du Colloque d'Arles de 1998 (Paris, 2000), p. 170; R. Meens, "A Background to Augustine's Mission to Anglo-Saxon England", in: Anglo-Saxon England 23 (1994), 5–17, at p. 13. Augustine's original questions (no longer extant) would have been sent to Rome around 598, but Gregory's reply (i.e. the Libellus) was delayed some years due to illness, and was not composed until perhaps the summer of 601.F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd edition (Oxford, 1971), pp. 106–107 The Libellus may have been brought back to Augustine by Laurence and Peter, along with letters to the king of Kent and his wife and other items for the mission.Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 109 However, some scholars have suggested that the Libellus may in fact never have reached its intended recipient (Augustine) in Canterbury.P. Meyvaert, "Le Libellus responsionum à Augustin de Cantorbéry: une oeuvre authentique de Saint Grégoire le Grand", in Grégoire le Grand: actes de le Colloque international du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Chantilly, Centre culturel Les Fontaines, 15– 19 septembre 1982, eds J. Fontaine, R. Gillet, and S. Pellistrandi (Paris, 1986), pp. 543–50; Elliot, "Boniface, Incest, and the Earliest Extant Version", p. 101. Paul Meyvaert, for example, has noted that no early Anglo-Saxon copy of the Libellus survives that is earlier than Bede's Historia ecclesiastica (c. 731), and Bede's copy appears to derive not from a Canterbury file copy but rather from a Continental canon law collection.Meyvaert, "Bede’s Text". This would be strange had the letter arrived in Canterbury in the first place. A document as important to the fledgling mission and to the history of the Canterbury church as the Libellus is likely to have been protected and preserved quite carefully by Canterbury scribes; yet this seems not to have been the case. Meyvaert therefore suggested that the Libellus may have been waylaid on its journey north from Rome in 601, and only later arrived in England, long after Augustine's death.Meyvaert, "Le Libellus responsionum à Augustin de Cantorbéry", pp. 547 and 550. This hypothesis is supported by the surviving manuscript and textual evidence, which strongly suggests that the Libellus circulated widely on the Continent for perhaps nearly a century before finally arriving in England (see below). Still, the exact time, place, and vector by which the Libellus arrived in England and fell into the hands of Bede (and thence his Historia Ecclesiastica) is still far from certain, and scholars continue to explore these questions.For a recent assessment of these questions see Elliot, "Boniface, Incest, and the Earliest Extant Version", pp. 101–04.
Title
Gregory does not appear to have provided the Libellus with a title. This is not unusual since the work is a letter and Gregory was not in the habit of titling his many letters. "Libellus responsionum" is the name given the letter by Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica,Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, Book 2, chapter 1 (ed. Plummer, vol. I, p. 76). and most modern commentators translate Bede's nomenclature as "Little book of answers" or "Little book of responses". "Libellus" can also be translated as "letter";See C.T. Lewis and C. Short, A Latin Dictionary (Oxford, 1879), s.v., sense II.B.6. thus "Letter of answers" is another possible translation.
Contents
The Libellus consists of a series of responses (responsiones) by Gregory to "certain jurisprudential, administrative, jurisdictional, liturgical and ritual questions Augustine was confronted with as leader of the fledgling English church".Elliot, "Boniface, Incest, and the Earliest Extant Version", p. 65. The numbering and order of these responses differ across the various versions of the Libellus (see below). But in the most widely known version (that reproduced in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica) there are nine responses, each of which begins by re-stating or paraphrasing Augustine's original questions.Bede, History of the English Church, pp. 71–83. Gregory's first response addresses questions about the relationship of a bishop to his clergy and vice versa, how gifts from the laity to the church should be divided amongst the clergy, and what the tasks of a bishop were.Bede, History of the English Church, p. 72. The second response addresses why the various northern European churches of which Augustine was aware had differing customs and liturgies, and what Augustine should do when he encounters such differences. The third response was in answer to questions about the proper punishment of church robbers.Bede, History of the English Church, p. 73. The fourth and fifth responses deal with who might marry whom, including whether it was allowed for two brothers to marry two sisters, or for a man to marry his step-sister or step-mother. The sixth response addresses whether or not it was acceptable for a bishop to be consecrated without other bishops present, if the distances involved prevented other bishops from attending the ceremony.Bede, History of the English Church, pp. 74–5. The seventh response deals with relations between the church in England and the church in Gaul.Bede, History of the English Church, p. 76. The eighth response concerns what a pregnant, newly delivered, or menstruating woman might do or not do, including whether or not she is allowed to enjoy sex with her husband and for how long after child-birth she has to wait to re-enter a church.Bede, History of the English Church, pp. 76–81. The last response answers questions about whether or not men might have communion after experiencing a sexual dream, and whether or not priests might celebrate mass after experiencing such dreams.Bede, History of the English Church, pp. 81–3. An additional chapter, not included by Bede in his Historia is known as the "Obsecratio": it contains a response by Gregory to Augustine's request for relics of the local British martyr Sixtus. Gregory responds that he is sending relics of Pope Sixtus II to replace the local saint's remains, as Gregory has doubts about the actual saintly status of the British martyr. Although the authenticity of the "Obsecratio" has occasionally been questioned, most modern historians accept that it is genuine.N. Brooks, The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066 (London, 1984), p. 20.
Later use