Aquileian Patriarch and Istrian Margrave Wolfger confirms the temporal jurisdictions that the Church of Poreč enjoys by way of donations issued by previous patriarchs of Aquileia (13th-century forgery).
In nomine Domini, amen.
Anno Domini MoCCoXIo, V idus decenbrisa, indictione XIIIIb.
Nos quidem Volfkerusc sancte Aquilegiensisd sedis patriarcha et marchio Istriee notum fieri volumus omnibus, quocirca omnium sancte Dei Ecclesie fidelium nostrorumque, presentium * et futurorum, noverit universitas qualiter interventu ac petitione dile[c]tif fratris nostri Fulceriig Parentini episcopi * nostram adiisse clementiam, postulans quatinush nos, pro Dei amore et beatorum martirumi Hermacore et Fortunati nostreque anime remedio, nostra * auctoritate omnia predia sue ecclesie que antea ab * antecessoribus nostris patriarchis * pro suarum animarum remedio prefate ecclesie donaverunt, qua in basilica sancti beatum corpus Mauri martiris requiescit, * confirmare et corroborare dignaremur.
Cuius dignis postulationibus aures nostre pietatis inclinantes pretaxate ecclesie predia nominativej:
[1] Castrum Parentinum situm in contrata que dicitur Duo Castella;
[2] et Montem Castellum situm in eadem contrata super ripamk Lemi ex parte australi;
[3] et ecclesiam sancti Martini iuxta Medilanum;
[4] totum territorium sancti Mauri in contrata civitatis Pole iuxta Medelinuml,
cum omnibus pertinentiis suis iuste et legaliter ad predictum Episcopatum Parentinum pertinentibus, necnon * terris, canpism, vineis, pratis, aquis, * piscationibus, * venationibus, nemoribus, montibus, planiciebusn *, et cum omnibus aliis rebus * que dici vel nominari possunt, * confirmamus eidem episcopo * suisque successoribus in perpetuum.
Precipientes * ut nullus * Patriarchatus nostri magna parvaque Persona pretaxatum episcopum suosque successores de omnibus supradictis rebus molestare temptet *, sed liceat eidem episcopo suisque successoribus quiete [et] pacifice predicta predia tenere et firmiter possidere, omnium hominum contradictione penitus remota.
Si quis igitur huius nostre pagine violator fuerit, quod minime credimus, sciat se compositurum auri boni libras viginti, medietatem ecclesie Aquilegensi, et aliam medietatem prefato episcopo et suis successoribus.
Quod, ut verius credatur dilengentiusque ab omnibus observetur, hanc paginam propria manu corroborantes et sigilli nostri impresioneo inferius eandem iussimus asignarip.
Actum apud Austriam Civitatem in ecclesia sancti Paulini subq palatium patriarche.
Interfuerunt ad hoc testes rogati: Henricus archidiaconus Aquilegensis, Stefanusr eiusdem ecclesie decanus, Ottos Civitatensis decanus, Utit sancti Oldorigiu prepositus, Gernotus capellanus patriarche, Pirus etv Martinus Civitatenses canonici, Polontusw et Bonaventurax et alii quamplures clerici et laici.
Ego quidem Leonardus serenissimi Romanorum Inperatorisy Ottonis notarius interfui et, ut superius continetur, rogatus a predictis dominis patriarcha Volf[kero]z et F[ulcerio] episcopo bona fide scripsi.aa
Nos quidem Volfkerus sancte sedis Aquilegensis patriarcha et marchio Ist[r]ie scripsi.
a) sic C; decembris ed. Kandler. b) XIV ed. Kandler. c) Volcherus ed. Kandler. d) Aquilejensis ed. Kandler et saepe sic. e) Istriae ed. Kandler et saepe -ae loco -e ed. f) dileti C; dilecti ed. Kandler. g) Fulkerii ed. Kandler. h) sic C; quatenus ed. Kandler. i) martyrum ed. Kandler et saepe sic. j) nominatim ed. Kandler. k) ripa ed. Kandler. l) Medilinum ed. Kandler. m) sic C; campis ed. Kandler. n) sic C; planitiebus ed. Kandler. o) sic C; impressione ed. Kandler. p) sic C; om. Kandler. q) super ed. Kandler. r) Stephanus ed. Kandler. s) Otho ed. Kandler et saepe sic. t) sic C: pro Wigandus u) sic C; Oldorici ed. Kandler. v) om. Kandler. w) Palottus ed. Kandler. x) Bonavenetia ed. Kandler. y) sic C; imperatoris ed. Kandler. z) Volf C; Volkerio ed. Kandler. aa) des. ed. Kandler.
The charter in question is indubitably a forgery, made sometime in the mid-/second half of the 13th century on the basis of two charters: an authentic charter issued by Patriarch Wolfger and composed in the form of an "impure" sealed charter (sealed charter with datatio chronica in the protocol) by notary Leonard (the document is still unpublished; Poreč, Biskupijski arhiv, Iurium Episcopalium Liber I, fols. 49r-50v), and the donation charter of Otto II issued in 983 to the Church of Poreč (edited here as doc. 983_OP).
Here are the documents issued by Patriarch Wolfger that were used in the following diplomatic analysis:
- Vincenzo Joppi (ed.), Aggiunte inedite al codice diplomatico istro-tergestino del secolo XIII (Udine 1878), docs. 2–4, pp. 13–18;
- Vincenzo Joppi, “Documenti goriziani del secolo XII e XIII,” Archeografo triestino 11/3–4 (1885): doc. 12, pp. 393–94;
- Reinhard Härtel and Cesare Scalon (eds.), Urkunden und Memorialquellen zur älteren Geschichte des Klosters Rosazzo (Vienna 2017), docs. 72–74, pp. 157–61;
- Cesare Scalon (ed.), Diplomi patriarcali: I documenti dei patriarchi Aquileiesi anteriori alla metà del XIII secolo nell'Archivio capitolare di Udine (Udine 1983), doc. 9, pp. 37–38;
- Laura Pani (ed.), I quaderni di Gualtiero da Cividale (1274–1275, 1291–1294) (Rome 2009), doc. 34, p. 136 (insert).
The diplomatic analysis shows that the forger mixed the two documents very awkwardly:
- the protocol stems from Wolfger's charter (invocatio, datatio chronica) as does the intitulatio, written in the subjective form ("Nos quidem Volfkerus") regularly used in the sealed charters of the patriarchs of Aquileia in this period. The intitulatio features a small problem: when patriarch Wolfger indeed titled himself "marchio Istrie", he used the full title: "marchio Istrie atque Carniole" (cf. Joppi (ed.), Aggiunte inedite, doc. 2, pp. 13–15 cited above), but this omission can be explained as an error of the 16th-century copyist;
- the arenga is missing;
- from the promulgatio ("quocirca omnium—universitas qualiter") onwards, the charter is a verbatim copy of Otto II's donation to the Church of Poreč from 983; some parts were left out, the names were changed, and, of course, the enumeratio bonorum ("Castrum Parentinum—iuxta Medelinum") is changed.
- the pertinence formula ("cum omnibus pertinentiis...") is again copied directly from Otto II's charter, just as the final clauses and the sanctio, although the original fine of a thousand pounds of gold was changed to mere twenty, to be divided between the Church of Aquileia and the bishop;
- the corroboratio demonstrates that the charter in question is a blatant forgery as such corroboration, again copied verbatim from Otto II's charter, could not have been used by Wolfger;
- after the corroboratio, the text returns to Wolfger's authentic act and copies the datatio topica, the list of witnesses (all of them indeed appearing in other Wolfger's authentic charters), and the first part of notary Leonard's completio.
- the last line, "Nos quidem Volfkerus sancte sedis Aquilegensis patriarcha et marchio Istrie scripsi", clearly illustrates that the forger was out of his depth when he was compiling the charter; such a line, especially after the notarial completio, makes no sense at all.
While the text of the charter makes it easy to recognize the document as a blatant forgery, it is much more difficult to answer the questions arising from dubbing a primary source an actum spurium: what was the character of the forgery, when was it forged, and what were the forger's motives?
Otto II's confirmation charter of 983, upon which this forgery was modeled, and this Wolfger's charter contradict one another: according to Otto II's donation, the "loco qui dicitur Duo Castella", that is Dvigrad, had been given to the Bishopric of Poreč by royal donations; according to Wolfger's charter, however, the territory of Dvigrad was a temporal possession that the Bishopric of Poreč enjoyed by way of donations issued by the patriarchs of Aquileia.
This discrepancy was surely noted by Bishop Boniface who already in 1291 managed to procure a confirmation of Otto II's charter from the incumbent Roman King Rudolph of Habsburg (edited here as doc. 1291_RP).
If Bishop Boniface preferred to "prove" that Dvigrad belonged to Poreč by way of imperial donations, then the 1211 forgery had to have been made before his time, which leaves the ages of bishops Adalpert, Pagano, John or Otto, the period between c. 1220 and 1280, as the period in which the 1211 donation was forged.
Also, it is clear that the forgery was made as an attempt to "prove" the jurisdictions of the Bishopric of Poreč over Dvigrad, which was, at least from 1209 onwards, under the temporal dominion of the Patriarchate of Aquileia who were granted the jurisdiction over the entire Margraviate of Istria (see the charter here). The 1211 charter may, in fact, be a compromise disguised as an (in)authentic charter; a compromise between the bishops of Poreč and the patriarchs of Aquileia regarding the jurisdictions over Dvigrad: the bishops would recognize that their authority stems from the patriarchs of Aquileia and in exchange they would receive some lands in its "contrata", but not the full temporal jurisdictions.
Bishop Boniface was, it would seem, not content with such a state and thus endeavored to affirm full temporal dominion over Dvigrad by way of ancient, interpolated charters. He failed and ended up excommunicated by the incumbent patriarch of Aquileia Ottobono (cf. Kandler (ed.), Codice diplomatico istriano, vol. 3, doc. 519, p. 917).
In any case, the 1211 forgery presents an episode in the long story arc of the struggle between the Bishopric of Poreč and the Patriarchate of Aquileia over Dvigrad, a conflict that began in the late 10th century (see the editor's comments section in doc. 983_OP) and ended, it would seem, with Boniface's ignominious defeat.