A book of moral and religious reflections written by a Carolingian noblewoman for her teenage son in the middle of the 9th century. Intended as a guide to right conduct, the book was to be shared in time with William's younger brother. Dhuoda's situation was poignant. Her husband, Bernard, the count of Septimania, was away and she was separated from her children. William was being held by Charles the Bald as a guarantee of his father's loyalty, and the younger son's whereabouts were unknown. As war raged in the crumbling Carolingian Empire, the grieving mother, fearing for the spiritual and...

Agnellus' Book of Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna, written in the ninth century, is a source for the study of Italian history from the fourth to the ninth centuries. Agnellus seems to have been a well-born priest in the church of Ravenna, and his work is strongly coloured by his personal experiences. He wrote the book to demonstrate two strongly-held opinions. One was the apostolicity and independence of the Ravennate archbishopric; the other was the moral decline of recent bishops and their erosion of clerical rights. Using the framework of a series of biographies of the bishops of his...

The six sermons presented here cast light on Pope Innocent III's concept of what his duties. They include: the inaugural sermon of Innocent's consecration, the opening sermon of Lateran Council IV, two Roman Synod sermons, and another on the constitution of the priesthood.