QUIERCY (QUIERZY), COUNCILS OF

Several notable assemblies held at the Frankish royal residence of Quiercy (Kiersy, Carisiacum, or Quiercysur-Oise), near Noyon, France. (1) When Pope stephen ii went to pepin iii in 754, the king met at Quiercy (or at nearby Braine) with his magnates and concluded an alliance with the pope against the lombards. Moreover, according to the liber pontificalis, it was on this occasion that the promise or so-called donation of Pepin (see states of the church) was made: lands in central Italy then held by the Lombards were to be restored to the papacy when conquered by the Franks. In 774 charlemagne confirmed this grant, which is a landmark in the growth of the temporal power of the papacy. Although some have doubted that such a grant was ever made, most modern controversy has focused on the interpretation of its terms (see donation of constantine). (2) In 838 a council of Frankish bishops was held at Quiercy in conjunction with an imperial diet. Supporters of agobard, exiled archbishop of Lyons, led by florus, sought to discredit the administrator of the diocese, amalarius of metz, by obtaining the council's condemnation of certain errors in his writings. (3) After German bishops had condemned gottschalk of orbais's doctrine of predestination at Mainz 848, he was sent to hincmar of reims to be disciplined. At Quiercy 849, in the presence of Charles II the Bald, the prelates of Reims province, assisted by the archbishops of Sens, Tours, and Lyons, sentenced him to a life of silence and prison after deposing him from the priesthood and having him whipped. (4) Against the teaching of Gottschalk, Hincmar himself advanced four propositions—that God's predestination is only single, that man's free will is restored through grace, that God wishes all men to be saved, and that Christ suffered for all men—all of which a council of his province approved at Quiercy in 853. His propositions were in their turn attacked at valence in 855 and at langres and Savonnières in 859. Councils were also held at Quiercy in 857 and 858.

Bibliography: c. j. von hefele, Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux (Paris 1907–38) 3.2:923–924 (754); 4.1:101–103 (838), 150–155; 4.2:1308–10 (849);4.1:197–199; 4.2:1324 (853); 4.1:212; 4.2:1333–34 (857); 4.1:214; 4.2:1335 (858). a. werminghoff, ed., Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Concilia 2.2:768–782, 835–853 (838). b. gebhardt, Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte (Stuttgart 1954–60) 1:128–131, with bibliog.

[r. kay]