Letter 20

From: [Frankish bishops] To: [general Frankish church] Date: ~610 AD Context: A late Merovingian episcopal letter addressing the state of the Frankish church and calling for moral renewal. The bishops of the Frankish church to all the faithful under our pastoral care. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we address you in the seventh year of the current indiction, in a moment when the condition of our kingdom gives us serious reason for concern. The wars of the past decade have produced disorder not only in civil life but in the life of the church. Monasteries have been disrupted; bishops have been displaced or killed; clergy have taken on responsibilities for which they were not prepared; and the ordinary structures of Christian formation — catechesis, regular pastoral visitation, the orderly celebration of the sacraments — have suffered. We call for a period of restoration. Not merely a return to what was, but a genuine renewal of what the church is meant to be. Concretely: every bishop is urged to conduct a full visitation of the monasteries and parishes of his diocese within the next year, to assess what has been lost and what needs to be rebuilt. The acts of these visitations are to be shared at the next provincial synod. Concretely: the care of the poor, which has been neglected during the wars, must be resumed as a priority. Whatever resources are available must first serve those who have nothing. Concretely: the clergy who have been ordained during this period of disorder must be examined, and those who are not qualified for their orders must be corrected. Given by the assembled bishops. God grant his peace to his church.