Parliaments, Estates & Representation 15. [antikvár]

Early Germanic Experience and the Origins of RepresentationALLEN M. BASSSUMMARYIn this article, Allen Bass offers a reinterpretation of an account of an assembly of the Saxon tribes, contained in the ninth-century Vita Lebuini antiqua. It is argued that the evidence of this text, taken together with the corroborative evidence of other texts from Tacitus onwards, suggests that the concept of a central, representative assembly, incorporating a tripartite composition based on social class, with wide decision-making powers and chosen at periodic elections was already well established among the Saxons at this early date. This in turn suggests new perspectives on the origins of representative institutions in medieval Europe.It is the purpose of this article to show that the growth of a consensus on the evidential value of an eariy Saxon text, the ninth-century Vita Lebuini andqua (VLa), should lead historians to view the development of medieval representative insdtudons from a significantly altered perspective'. In the past, most historians (exceptMr Allen Bass, Department of History, University College Cork, Ireland.' The VLa was first published by M. J. A. Moltzer in Nederlandsch Archiefvoor Kerkgesckiedenis, n.s., 6 (1909), pp. 221-235; it was edited on the basis of a wider range of manuscripts by A. Wofmáslcx inMonumenta Gennaniae Histórica [MGH], Scriptores XXX, pt. 2 (Leipzig, 1934; unaltered reprint, Stuttgart, 1976), pp. 789-795. For the provenance and historicity of the text, see A. Hofmeister, 'Uber die älteste Vita Lebuini und die Stammesverfassung der Sachsen', in Geschichtliche Studien Albert Hauck zum 70. Geburtstage dargebracht1916), pp. 85-107, reprinted in W. Lammers (ed.), Entstehung und Verfassung des Sach-senstammes (Darmstadt, 1967), pp. 1-32; A. Hofmeister, 'Die Jahresversammlung der alten Sachsen zu Marklo', Historische Zeitschrift 118 (1917), pp. 189-221; M. Lintzel, 'Die Vita Lebuini antiqua', Sachsen und Anhalt 1 (1931), 76-108, reprinted in M. Lintzel, Ausgewählte Schriften (Berlin, 1961), I, pp. 235-262; M. Lintzel, 'Der sächsische Stammesstaat und seine Eroberung durch die Franken', in W. Lammers (ed.), Entstehung, pp. 149-206; K. Hauck, 'Die Herkunft der Liudger-, Lebuin- und Marklo-Überlieferung', in W. Foerste and K. H. Borck (eds), Festschrift für Jost Trierzum 70. Geburtstag(Co\ogne:, 1964), pp. 221-239; K. Hauck, 'Ein Utrechter Missionar auf der altsächsischen Stammesversammlung', in V. H. Elbern (ed.). Das Erste Jahrtausend, Textband II (Dusseldorf, 1964), pp. 734-745; W. Kronshage, 'Die Entstehung der Vita Lebuini', Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 36 (1964), pp. 1-27 (a hypersceptical assaultParliaments, Estates and Representation 15, November 1995. Published for the International Commission for the History of Representative & Padiamentary Institutions by Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Cower House, Croft Road, Aldershot, Hampshire GUll 3HR, Great Britain. Variorum 1995.