Privileging Fontanelle in the Vita Ansberti: A Reevaluation of the Historicity of the Council of Rouen, Annales Historia Conciliorum, 51 (2021), 173-194

The Carolingian Vita S. Ansberti includes in its account of Bishop Ansbert of Rouen’s episcopate
a summary of a privilege charter granted by the bishop to the monastery of Fontanelle.
This summary is followed in the text by a list of the subscribing bishops, who ostensibly
agreed to the privilege while attending an ecclesiastical council in Rouen. The substantial
number of anachronisms found in the description of this council and the privilege
promulgated there understandably has inspired skepticism of the vita narrative. A reevaluation
of this narrative suggests that while it is not possible to verify the historicity of
Ansbert’s episcopal exemption to Fontanelle, the subscription list reproduced in the vita
nevertheless is strongly suggestive of an actual council held in 690/1.