Archbishop Ató of Osona False Metropolitans on the Marca Hispanica

Three, and recently four, candidates have been advanced for the role of first metropolitan of a nascent Catalonia before its final separation from the Carolingian Empire. All but one of these cases have been challenged, but that last, Ató of Osona, has not, due largely to the unquestionably contemporary papal papyri detailing the appointment that still hang in the Arxiu Capitular de Vic. Looking at those papyri and their companion document however reveals disagreement in detail which matches a similar inconsistency in the few other sources for the episode. Using these problems as a place to insert a scholarly wedge, this paper cracks the supposed ecclesiastical self-determination of this proto-national Church open and in doing so raises major questions about the credibility of much of our preserved papal charter material.