An interesting mention regarding the religious practices of Slavs in Oberfranken from (probably) 1025 – 1032 was noted already by Ketrzynski, Boguslawski and Brueckner but has somehow failed to make its way to the list of Slavic religious literature compendia (it does not appear in Meyer). It was discovered and published by Heinrich Amann and later republished by Richard Dove (in his work regarding synodal courts that is the so-called “Sendgerichte”). The relevant manuscripts are from the collection of Burchard of Worms and contain, principally, his Decreta but also this pagan rite description as an attachment. The “Slavic” text appears, for certain, in the Freiburg and also in the Eistaedt version. There may be other versions of this as well. Apparently, the Slavs were being upbraided for making idolatrous food offerings (the so-called trebo) or eating those same offerings – presumably as part of some sort of ritual. They or “other folk” (et ceteræ nationes), meaning, presumably, the Saxons, were also reprimanded for burying their dead in pagan hillocks called hougir rather than in Christian cemeteries. (Incidentally, Trebbia is also a river in the Emilia Romagna province in northern Italy south of Piacenza). These Saxon burial customs were already mentioned in the Paderborn (Paderbrunn) Capitulary from 785 (?) so the persistence of such practices (assuming this report was not already out of date) over two centuries later seems quite impressive. The below is courtesy of the Freiburg Universitätsbibliothek (Hs 7). The text typically appears as part of the Lex Baiuwaiorum – for example, in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica.
„Statutum est, qualiter Sclavi et ceteræ nationes, qui nec pacto nec lege salica utuntur, post perceptam baptismi gratiam constringendi sint, ut divinis sacerdotumque suorum obtemperent præceptis. Quia secundum canonicam diffinitionem ecclesiasticis jusjurationibus inplicitis cura accusandi proclamandique scelera committitur, quæ infra omnem parochiam illam, cujus diocesani sunt, perpetrantur; summa diligentia observandum est, ut nullus divinæ legis transgressor, licet alterius conditionis vel parochiæ sit, in synodica stipulatione reticeatur. Quodsi qnis, cujuscunque sit gentis, nationis vel linguæ, contemto dei omnipotentis timore , ita irreverens deprehensus fuerit post hujusmodi sacramentum, ut jurata per quodcunque ingenium sive excusationem aut dissimulationem notitiæ violare præsumat; a cujuscunque nationis vel linguæ viris, nobilibus tantum et numero testimonio congruentibus, perjurii vel alicujus criminls inpetitus fuerit noxa, penitus, quia unius legis et gentis non sunt, objectione remota, aut vindictæ perjurii subjaceat, aut se impetita suspicione igniti ferri judicio expurget. Quodsi temeritatis obstinatia in neutro sanctæ dei ecclesiæ satisfacere voluerit, a liminibus et communione ejusdem sanctæ dei ecclesiæ habeatur disclusus et exlex, quousque resipiscendo canonicis obtemperaverit institutis. Præterea festivitates dominicas ceterasque anni solemnitates observandas, in parochiali ecclesia a sacerdote indictas quicunque aliquo opere temerare praesumpserit, vel quicquid tunc laborare praeter id, quod ad domesticum apparatum ejusdem diei indiget; vel qui legltlma jejunia, hoc est quadragesimam et IV. tempora et vigilias esu carnium contaminaverit; aut qui idolothita, quod trebo dicitur, vel obtulerit aut manducaverit; aut qui mortuos non in atrio ecclesiae sed ad tumulos, quod dicimus more gentilium hougir, sepelierit; aut decimas dare noluerit; aut qui a sacerdote in ecclesia bannitus fuerit ad placitum episcopi sive archipresbyteri, et venire contempserit; canonicis induciis sacerdos eum pro hujusmodi praavaricatione et negligentia ad poenitudinem invitet. Quod si contempserit, exactor publicus id. (id est) centurio aut suus vicarius cum sacerdote pergat ad domum hujusmodi praesumptoris, et de sua facultate tanti aliquid precii, bovem sive aliud aliquid tollat, propter quod protervus constringatur, ut humiliatus a sua pravitate resipiscat. Quod ipsum in ecclesiastica sacerdotis potestate locatum maneat, donec transgresor ab inconcultato (inculpato?) crimine aut expurgando aut pænitendo satisfaciat. Quodsi infra spacium unius septimanae ita resipuerit, sibi sublatam recipiat suppellectilem. Si vero ad finitas inducias contumax venire distulerit, etiam si postmodum pœnitentiae se subdiderit, propter neglectas autem inducias sit in arbitrio sacerdotis, depositum in ecclesiasticos usus servare aut repetenti condonare. Quod si quispiam tam male pertinax invenitur, ut nec omnipotentis dei territus timore, nec jactura vel opum damno attenuatus ab hujusmodi sceleris obstinatia ad resipiscendum coerceri possit, decretum est ab ecclesia , exclusum humana privari communione, et tunc demum si sit fiscalinus colonus, omnia, quæcunque possidet, a rei puplicæ ministro infiscentur, et in dominicam redigantur potestatem. Siquis autem in suo vel in alterius prædio ita scelerosus exstiterit, simili modo cum centurione dominus ejusdem prædii, quæcunque habuerit, ab illo auferat, suæque vendicet potestati. Si vero ipse centurio aut dominus hoc agere neglexerit, sit ipse, quod est, quem rebus fovet et tuetur, excommunicatus, et tamen nihilominus per ducem aut comitem expulsus, illius infiscentur substantiæ.“
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