The ''Clausula de Unctione Pippini'' is a brief account of the election, coronation and consecration of

Pippin the Short the Short (french: Pépin le Bref; – 24 September 768), also called the Younger (german: Pippin der Jüngere), was King of the Franks from 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian to become king. The younger was the son of ...

King of the Franks The Franks, Germanic-speaking peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, were first led by individuals called dukes and reguli. The earliest group of Franks that rose to prominence was the Salian Merovingians, who con ...

and

Roman patrician The patricians (from la, Wikt:patricius, patricius, Greek language, Greek: πατρίκιος) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom, and the early Roman Rep ...

in 751–54. It was probably written at Saint-Denis in 767, shortly before Pippin's death. Although its authenticity was doubted early, and doubts are still occasionally raised, it has been generally received as authentic since the nineteenth century. It is the earliest source for the events it narrates, pre-dating the account of

Einhard Einhard (also Eginhard or Einhart; la, E(g)inhardus; 775 – 14 March 840) was a Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the ''Vita ...

, who probably made use of it, by several decades. The coronation ceremony of Pippin included his two young sons,

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

and Carloman, and his queen, Bertrada. According to the ''Clausula'', Pope Stephen II:

. . . blessed the Queen Bertrada and the nobles of the Frankish nation, and while confirming them in the grace of the Holy Spirit, he bound them under penalty of interdict and excommunication never to presume to elect a king who should come forth from the loins of any other than these persons whom Divine Providence had raised to the throne, and who through the intercession of the holy Apostles had been consecrated and confirmed by the hands of their vicar, the pope.
Thomas Hodgkin Thomas Hodgkin RMS (17 August 1798 – 5 April 1866) was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, ...
, ''Life of Charles the Great'' (London, 1897): 71–71.

Editions

* Krusch, Bruno, ed. “Clausula de Pippino rege”. ''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' (''MGH'') is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of Northwestern and Central European history from the end of the Roman Empire ...

'', Scriptores rerum merovingicarum, 1/2 (Hanover, 1885): 465–66. * Waitz, Georg, ed. “De unctione Pippini regis nota monachi sancti Dionysii”. ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'', Scriptores, 15/1 (Hanover, 1887): 1.

Notes

{{Reflist, 2 8th-century Latin books