local churches and communities. The emperor’s powers and responsi-
bilities were proclaimed in the arengae(‘harangues’) at the beginning of
charters, which could be ‘expounded in church like sermons’ in the
beneficiaries’ home districts.^46 The Saxon and Salian emperors thus
made grants or confirmed their predecessors’ grants to churches, and
occasionally lay vassals, expressing the conviction that it would advance
the ‘stability’ and ‘peace’ of the empire, or the ‘state’, ‘prosperity’, or
‘quiet’ of kingdom and church, and also bring spiritual rewards to the
emperor and his family ‘in the state of this present life’ and the state ‘of
future glory’.^47 Prayers might be asked for the status regni, the salvation
of the souls of the king and his family, and ‘the peace and concord of
the whole world’, in return for a grant of immunity, or bannusin a
market or forest, or friedeor paxwhich could be protection for traders
going to a market, or the beneficiary’s right to exact the freduspenalty
when the market-peace was broken.^48 An abbess was given a market
with ‘every public function except minting, and with the stability of
every right’ (cum totius stabilitate iuris), so that there would not be a
more stable market granted by kings or emperors in all Alsace; and
whoever came to this ‘public market’ was assured of the king’s ban and
protection for a mile around.^49 Many cathedral churches and abbeys
The peace of the land 83(^46) H. Fichtenau, Arenga(Graz and Cologne, 1957); K. J. Leyser, Rule and Conflict in an
Early Medieval Society: Ottonian Saxony(London, 1979), 103; Arengenverzeichnis zu den
Konigs- und Kaiserurkunden von den Merowingern bis Heinrich VI, compiled by F. Haus-
mann und A. Gawlik (MGH Hilfsmittel 9, Munich 1987).
(^47) Examples in: Conradi I, Heinrici I et Ottonis I Diplomata, ed. T. Sickel, MGH Diplo-
mata RIG 1 (Hanover, 1879–84), 316. 5 , 490. 19 , 580. 26 ; Ottonis II et Ottonis III Diplomata,
- 15 , 55. 27 , 58. 3 , 104. 15 ; Heinrici II et Arduini Diplomata, ed. H. Bresslau, MGH Diplo-
mata RIG 3 (Hanover, 1900–3), 1. 16 , 42. 33 , 78–80, 98–9, 112 (no. 89), 274 (no. 237), 308,
320–1, 408–9, 449–51, 551–2; Conradi II Diplomata, ed. H. Bresslau, MGH Diplomatum
RIG 4 (Hanover, 1909), 206, 269–71; Heinrici III Diplomata, ed. H. Bresslau and P. Kehr,
MGH Diplomatum RIG 5 (Berlin, 1931), 10. 21 , 30. 22 , 34. 16 , 36, 38, 53–4, 451. 24 ; Heinrici
IV Diplomata,ed. D. von Gladiss and A. Gawlik, MGH Diplomata RIG 6 (Berlin–Hanover,
1941–78), 14. 13 (‘regni nostri stabilitatem’), 35. 40 , 124. 17 (‘ad quietum temporalis regni
statum et perpetue beatitudinis augmentum tam nobis quam parentibus nobis’), 221. 12
(‘statum rei publice’), 538. 19 , 633. 36 ; Conradi III et filii eius Heinrici Diplomata, ed. F. Haus-
mann, MGH Diplomata RIG 9 (Vienna, Cologne, and Graz, 1969), 50. 2 , 59. 14 , 151. 23 , - 20 , 250. 26 , 348. 10 ; Friderici I Diplomata, 1158–1167, ed. H. Appelt, MGH Diplomata
RIG 10, part ii (Hanover, 1979), 263.15, 28 (‘perpetuali libertate sit stabilitus et confirmatus’),
(^48) Conradi I... et Ottonis I Diplomata, 157; Ottonis II [etc.] Diplomata, 55. 3 ; Heinrici II
et Arduini Diplomata, 309. 22 ; Conradi II Diplomata, 70. 36 (‘pro totius mundi pacis et con-
cordie... deprecentur’), 271. 13 ;Heinrici IV Diplomata, 2. 41 , 33. 37 , 247. 30 (‘pro genitore
nostro et pro nobis et pro coniuge nostra et stabilitate totius imperii nostri... exorare’);
Conradi III Diplomata, 59. 31 , 459. 32 (‘pro salute nostra et pro statu imperii nostri assidue
deum orent et pro remedio anime nostre apud ipsum orationibus interveniant’); Friderici I
Diplomata,1158–1167, 263. 35.
(^49) Heinrici II et Arduini Diplomata, 15. 30 , 60. 5 , 98. 40 (‘mercatum sive emprium... cum
theloneo sive vectigali regioque banno et omni publica functione, excepta moneta’) etc.; cf.
Conradi I... et Ottonis I Diplomata, 583–4, where minting is included in the grant; for other
grants of bannum mercati:and bannum villae: HeinriciIV Diplomata, 92. 21 , 536.8.