Defining and shaping the moral self in the ninth century : evidence from baptismal tracts and the reception of Augustine's De Trinitate

This dissertation explores concepts of the self in the ninth century, specifically in the
Carolingian Empire. This work begins with a review of scholarship on the medieval
self. Much scholarship on this concept has tended to focus on the twelfth century. As I
hope to demonstrate, however, ninth-century writers were just as interested in their own
constructions of the self. Ninth-century treatments of the self were unique and thus
offer us a great deal of insight into the mentalities of the time. I also examine the ninthcentury
vocabulary of the self, focusing on the language inherited from patristic and
early medieval writers, especially Gregory the Great, and the way in which this
vocabulary was adapted by Carolingian writers.
Throughout the body of the dissertation, I focus on two main bodies of texts: ninthcentury
uses of Augustine's De Trinitate and the ninth-century baptismal expositions
recently edited by Susan Keefe. Both sets of texts illustrate the ways in which the
moral self was both defined and shaped in the ninth century. The treatments of De
Trinitate were mainly concerned with the monastic self, while the baptismal
expositions allow us a glimpse of the way in which churchmen perceived the lay self.
I conclude by briefly looking ahead to the middle of the ninth century and the
controversies surrounding Gottschalk. The question of the moral self was at the centre
of these debates, and this thus demonstrates the importance of the concept of the self to
the ninth century. I have included as an appendix my translation of sections of the
bapti sma! expositions