Forging Papal Authority: Charters from the Monastery of Montier-en-Der
“We confirm with all our authority, to the abbot of that house, everything that our predecessors as popes granted them in writing, as well as everything in the letters of our beloved son Charlemagne … that all the possessions of the monastery be under the protection and defense of inviolable apostolic privilege, that is everything that has been or will be given to that church.” Thus read a papal privilege created in the second half of the eleventh century at the Benedictine monastery of Montier-en-Der, a privilege that purported to have been given to the monks three centuries earlier. By forging papal documents in a time of difficulties, the monks sought to demonstrate that they had powerful allies, who would help them even if the local counts and bishops did not.
