Forgeries of Lorch
The Forgeries of Lorch, also known as Lorch Forgeries, is a collection of forged papal bulls completed in the second half of the 10th century.
Background
Most specialists agree that the collection of documents, known as the Forgeries of Lorch, was completed for Piligrim, who was made Bishop of Passau in 971.[1][2] After he came into conflict with Frederick I, Archbishop of Salzburg for the ecclesiastic jurisdiction in Pannonia, Piligrim forged papal bulls.[1][2] The earliest of the bulls was attributed to the 4th-century Pope Symmachus.[1]
Piligrim believed that Lauriacum (now Lorch in Enns in Austria) was the metropolitan see of the Diocese of Pannonia in the Roman Empire.[1] He also thought that the see had been moved from Lauriacum to Passau.[1]
Documents
Pilgrim's counterfeits, were to make the diocese of Passau the legal successor to the ancient archbishopric of Lauriacum, thus establishing the rank of an archbishopric. This late antique bishopric Lauriacum (Lorch, Austria) was mentioned in the Vita Sancti Severini. Pilgrim's forgeries include six papal documents falsified or corrupted by Bishop Pilgrim of Passau between 971 and 985 as scribes of the royal firm, a letter from the bishop to Pope Benedict VI. Or Benedict VII, as well as two alleged letters of Archbishop Hatto from Mainz to an unnamed Pope.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Arnold 2003, p. 75.
- 1 2 Bowlus 1994, p. 8.
Sources
- Arnold, Benjamin (2003). "Episcopal Authority Authenticated and Fabricated: Form and Function in Medieval German Bishops' Catalogues". In Reuter, Timothy. Warriors and Churchmen in the High Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Karl Leyser. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 63–78. ISBN 1-85285-063-9.
- Bowlus, Charles R. (1994). Franks, Moravians and Magyars: The Struggle for the Middle Danube, 788–907. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-3276-3.