[In Search of Spiritual Perfection from Suzanne Wemple's Women in Frankish
Society .]
Historians have singled out celibacy as the source of misogyny, which led to the isolation of women and the curtailment of their activity in the church. At the other end of the spectrum, some surveys either make short shrift of women's contributions to monasticism or treat women religious and their communities as imitators of and parasites upon monks.'.
The purpose of this chapter is to present a more balanced analysis of feminine monasticism in the Frankish Kingdom from the sixth to the ninth century. It will not attempt to trace systematically the history of feminine institutions, which would require a separate monograph. Rather, it will examine the social circumstances and the psychological attitudes that prompted women to eschew marriage and seek a contemplative life. The extension of legal rights to married women in the Carolingian period, which was paralleled by restrictions not only on opportunities for women to engage in God's service but also on their activities in the monasteries, is particularly relevant. One must inquire whether this policy was inspired by organizational concerns or by the ideal of asceticism. A comparison with the attitudes of the Irish and Anglo Saxon missionaries toward women religious should clarify the Frankish bishops' motives. Finally, this chapter will address the question of whether or not convents lost their appeal when feminine monasticism became closely supervised and strictly regimented by the Carolingian hierarchy.
The pursuit
of spiritual perfection through monasticism was the one area of religious life
open to women after the female diaconate was abolished and the status of
priest's wife degraded in the sixth century. Feminine monasticism originated in
early Christianity and, like its masculine counterpart, developed into a
movement with the official recognition of the church. Monasticism (from the
Greek verb monazein "to be
alone") was not an option that women could pursue in antiquity. Except for
a few prophetesses or priestesses, women in ancient societies were expected to
marry, bear and raise children, and look after the household. Contemplation, a
reflective mode of existence, was an essential aspect of monasticism and the
direct opposite of the active life, the life of service required of women as
wives and mothers.
Christianity
initiated a new era not only in the history of monasticism but also in the
history of feminism. Accepted as fully equal to men in their spiritual
potential, Christian women could transcend biological and sexual roles and seek
fulfillment in religious life. The description of Jesus' visit to the house of
the two sisters, Martha and Mary, proclaimed this revolutionary doctrine (Luke
10:38‑42). While Martha busied herself with serving the guests, Mary
"sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching." Annoyed with
her sister and also with Jesus, Martha spoke up: "Lord, do you not care
that my sister left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the
Lord answered her: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about
many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which
shall not be taken from her."
Women were
among the hermits who appeared in the desert beginning in the second century.
The earliest monasteries included communities of women engaged in prayer and
contemplation. In the fourth century, the women in Jerome's circle took the
initiative in establishing the first monastic communities in the West. As the
church developed a male‑dominated hierarchy, monasticism offered a
special appeal to women, for it permitted them to retain a degree of influence
in the church and participate actively in the service and worship of God. That
monasticism served as a liberating force in the lives of women has not been
adequately understood or sufficiently emphasized. From Andreas Capellanus' Art of Courtly Love to Diderot's Nun, men have written about the
fraudulent and pathological aspects of women's monastic experience. Historians
have singled out celibacy as the source of misogyny, which led to the isolation
of women and the curtailment of their activity in the church. At the other end
of the spectrum, some surveys either make short shrift of women's contributions
to monasticism or treat women religious and their communities as imitators of
and parasites upon monks.'
The purpose
of this chapter is to present a more balanced analysis of feminine monasticism
in the FrankishKingdom from the sixth to the ninth
century. It will not attempt to trace systematically the history of feminine
institutions, which would require a separate monograph.2 Rather, it
will examine the social circumstances and the psychological attitudes that
prompted women to eschew marriage and seek a contemplative life. The extension
of legal rights to married women in the Carolingian period, which was
paralleled by restrictions not only on opportunities for women to engage in
God's service but also on their activities in the monasteries, is particularly
relevant. One must inquire whether this policy was inspired by organizational
concerns or by the ideal of asceticism. A comparison with the attitudes of the
Irish and Anglo‑Saxon missionaries toward women religious should clarify
the Frankish bishops' motives. Finally, this chapter will address the question
of whether or not convents lost their appeal when feminine monasticism became
closely supervised and strictly regimented by the Carolingian hierarchy.
REBELLION AND OBEDIENCE
Lacking autobiographies, we must turn to eulogies of
feminine chastity, biographies, and chronicles to gain an understanding of the
motives that led Merovingian and Carolingian women to embrace the religious
life. Although hagiographies often distort facts about the lives of their
protagonists by copying indiscriminately from earlier sources, even the most
unreliable ones reflect ideals and, to some extent, the prevalent behavior at
the time of their composition.
The most
eloquent and perhaps the most sensitive expression of sixth‑century
perceptions of the advantages of virginity and sexual continence for women was formulated by Venantius Fortunatus. His long poem
dedicated to Agnes, abbess of the monastery of Holy Cross at Poitiers, not only spoke of the heavenly rewards
awaiting the virgins who chose Christ as their bridegroom but also depicted in
vivid metaphors the tribulations of married women. Fortunatus did not shrink
from describing the temptations of sexual intercourse, stressing that salvation
hangs on a thin thread when, with the panting of the breath and the heaving of
the body, the womb swells with excitement and the serpent of voluptuousness
grows. Nor did he mince words in enumerating the pains of childbirth, the
mother's sorrow when her child is born dead, or when she sees her infant die on
her breast, and, finally, the insecurity and desolation of widowhood.3
Fortunatus
had a better understanding of feminine psychology than the Western fathers.
Although he used Ambrose for his description of the discomforts of women in
intercourse, childbearing, breast‑feeding, and nurturing,4 he also probed beyond the mere physical
aspects of women's experience. Writing at a time when the wishes of women were
of little consequence, Fortunatus took pains to describe the feelings of women.
His insight into a woman's inner life undoubtedly came from his close
friendship with Saint Radegund and her nuns at Poitiers. In explaining what prompted women
to wrench themselves free from sex roles and to embrace monastic life, he pointed
with great sensitivity to the traumas of marriage and childbirth, and of a
child's or a husband's death.
Merovingian
chronicles and saints' lives confirm Fortunatus' observations. They tell us
about women such as Saint Monegund, who took a religious vow after the death of
her children,5 or Saint Rictrud, who renounced secular life when her
brothers murdered the man whom she had married against their wishes.6 They
provide case histories of widows who, like Itta, acquiesced to their daughters'
request to build convents to which they withdrew with their daughters.7
"Freed of the law of her husband," the wealthy widow Eustadiola
constructed a nunnery for herself and her maidservants, according to her
biographer.8 Another seventh‑century matron, Sigolena of Albi,
offered her husband all her worldly goods in order to "gain the freedom of
her body," and would have lived with him happily ever after in chaste
marriage. When his unexpected death ended this convenient arrangement, the
young widow, only twenty‑four years old, had considerable difficulty in
convincing her parents that she did not wish to remarry, but she ultimately
persuaded her elderly father to build a convent for her.9
The sexual
double standard to which married women were subjected and the fear of
childbearing probably influenced the decision of widows to avoid remarriage,
and prompted the attempts of married women to seek release from the marriage.
Saint Radegund (ca. 5I8-587) had an even more dramatic motivation. First
captured as war booty and then won in a judicial contest by her polygamous
husband, Radegund decided to leave Clothar I when she learned that he had
ordered the murder of her own brother:
From the king she went directly to blessed
Medard of Noyon, earnestly beseeching him to consecrate her to God once she
changed her habit. Royal officials, however, embarrassed the blessed man to the
extent of dragging him violently from the altar in the basilica so that he
would not veil the king's wife . . . . When the saint perceived this, she
entered the sacristy, put on the habit of a nun, and proceeded
to the altar, where she addressed the blessed Medard, saying: "If you
refuse to consecrate me, fearing more a man than God, you will be held
responsible for the soul of one of your sheep, O Pastor!" Shaken by her
entreaty, as if he were struck by thunder, he laid his hands on her and
consecrated her deaconess. 10
When Clothar persisted in his efforts to reclaim her, she
appealed to Saint Germain. A shrewd observer of human nature and a clever
diplomat, Saint Germain obtained from the king not only Radegund's freedom but
also material assistance for her to build a nunnery at Poitiers.11
Young
virgins of prominent families, often not more than twelve or fourteen years of
age, were equally resolute in their spiritual purpose and defied their parents
in order to avoid wedlock. The father of Saint Burgundofara dragged her from a
basilica where she had hidden when he wanted to betroth her.12The legend surrounding Saint Austroberta follows the same
pattern: apprehensive that her father would force her to marry, Austroberta
fled, taking her younger brother with her. 13 With courage and
initiative, these young girls and others like them earned the sympathy and
respect of churchmen. When an influential bishop or abbot interceded on the
aspiring contemplative's behalf, her parents usually relented and founded a
nunnery for her.
Not every
Frankish saint had to assert her religious calling against antagonistic forces.
In hagiographies written in the eighth century, the tension between parents and
daughters was frequently resolved by a relative or a friend. Afraid to announce
her spiritual vow to her parents, Saint Bertila of Chelles had the good fortune
of gaining as her champion Audoen (Dado), bishop of Rouen (6i4‑684), a
promoter of monasticism and one of the most powerful men in the Merovingian
kingdom.14 Monastic life had become so popular among the young by
this time that it was not unusual for several children in a family to take
vows, reinforcing each other's intention. Although married, Waldtrud,
recognizing that the celestial visions of her younger sister Aldegund were a
manifest sign of her vocation, persuaded their parents to send Aldegund to a
convent. Later, Waldtrud herself embraced monastic life by founding Mons.15
In the
ninth century, a new pattern of behavior emerged in hagiography. Beside the
stereotype of the virgin or widow who had to rebel against the authority of her
family, or request the intercession of an influential churchman, a third type
of consecrated woman appeared: the obedient daughter of pious parents who took
a vow of chastity at their request. Or she married and bore and raised
children, postponing her religious calling until her children were grown.
The
legendary story of the sisters Herlinda and Renilda illustrates this new ideal
of feminine behavior. The two girls, offered to God for the remission of their
parents' sins, were sent to a convent at an early age to receive a religious
education. Obedient and virtuous, they did not fail to live up to parental
expectations. In the monastery their mother and father eventually built at
Eyck, the sisters provided an inspiration in piety and religious service to
young women throughout the region. 16 The life of Saint Hathumoda, more
reliable as a factual account, illustrates the tendency of parents of many
children to encourage the younger ones to remain celibate.l7
A different
kind of obedience was exacted from an only daughter. To provide a role model
for this kind of filial behavior, the biographer of Salaberga, writing in the
early ninth century, some 150 years after her death, deprived the saint of her
virginity, inventing two husbands and five children for her. Salaberga's
purported marriages were arranged by her father "against her wishes,"
the biographer was careful to say. Her first union ended abruptly with the
death of her husband two months after the nuptials. For two years she remained
a widow, contemplating entrance to Remiremont, only to be thwarted in her objective
by a new suitor, Baldwin (surnamed Baso). Although this young man also had a
religious vocation, he was as conscious of his social obligations as was
Salaberga. Pressured by his parents and ordered by the king, Baldwin
married Salaberga for the sake of procreating children. The union, fruitless at
first, was eventually blessed by five children, each dedicated to God by the
parents. When her obligation to bear and raise children had been finally met,
Salaberga was able to fulfill her wish of founding and leading a convent.18
These three patterns of behavior‑rebellion against parents or
husbands, tension and accommodation through the intercession of an influential
man, and dutiful obedience‑correspond roughly to three different phases
in the history of feminine monasticism. In the sixth century, when
nunneries were few in number, women wishing to devote themselves to the service
of God had to be steadfast in their purpose to escape sex roles. During the
seventh and eighth centuries, when nunneries were being built throughout the
kingdom, women attracted to religious life could find support in their own
families, even though some had to rely on outside mediation. Finally, the
Carolingian reforms, which, on the one hand, urged the strict cloistering of
women and, on the other hand, enhanced the dignity of married women, made
religious life a less attractive alternative to marriage than it had appeared
to women in previous centuries.I9
THE HEROIC AGE OF FEMALE ASCETICISM
Feminine monasticism in sixth-century Gaul
was a spontaneous movement, growing against great odds, primarily through the
initiative of women.In central and
northern Frankland, where there were no monasteries to serve as models, feminie
asceticism was a grass-roots movement.Single, married, and widowed women of all ages, ranging from mere
children to elderly matorns, offered their services to God.They shared one characteristic - a vow of
chastity, often taken in opposition to their family.Some formed communities around churches and
oratories, while the majority continued to live at home, placing themselves
underthe protection of a local church and wearing a veil as the mark of their
vocation.
In the
south, where Christianity had deeper roots and a network of monasteries had
developed, a few nunneries established in pre-Merovingian times, anot all
survived the Germanic invasions.20 The convent founded by Cassian at
Marseilles,21 Baume-les-Dames (Balma) established by Romanus in the
Jura Mountains,22 and the community of more than sixty nuns organized
by Leonian at Vienne continued.23 More influential than these older
convents was Saint Jean of Arles, while Caesarius built for his sister at the
beginning of the century24.
The need to
guard the autonomy, privacy, and freedom of female contemplatives was well
understood by Caesarius.He not only
insisted on the communty’s exemption from episcopal governance and its economic
self-sufficiency, but also prohibited the nuns from associating with and
providing services, such as weaving, sewing , and cooking, for people in the
outside world.25These proved
to be sufficiently attractive features to prompt the adoption and adaptation of
Caesarius” Rule by later foundation father notrh.26 Popular as this
rule proved to be, the convent founded by Caesarius did not become the center
of female monasteries.Although his
successor, Aurelian, sponsored a a second community of nuns at Arles, new
convents were slow to appear in the south.27 In 543, Duke Anesmund
and his wife, Ansleutana, established proprietary monastery for their daughter
Remilia in the suburbs of Vienne.28 A similar community was
organized at Toulouse only toward the end of the sixth century, when the widow
Beretrud attached a convent to Saint Saturnin.29 Other southern
cities, such as Narbonne, had nofemale convents.
In central
and northern Frankland, feminine monasticism exhibited realer vigor, although
the first communities were formed only toward the middle of the sixth century.
Gregory of Tours reports that, in the absence of a nunnery, Saint Papula,
disguising herself as a man, joined male institution.30 Other women
remained at home, but dedicated Heir lives to the service of God.31
This ancient form of asceticism had been practiced by both men and women in
Gaul at least since the fourth century.32 Women appear to have been
more numerous than men in the inks of lay religious, probably because they
could not enter the clergy.33 Gregory of Tours did not fail to
mention the scandalous behavior of two lay women religious,34 but
spoke with respect of those who persisted in their vows. For example, in leis Life of the Fathers, he celebrated a
certain Georgia, who persisted in fasting and praying and died virgin at the
age of sixty.35
The
childhood pastimes of Saint Radegund are a good example of the daily life of
professed virgins and widows. Odd as Radegund's activities may seem today, they
represented an attempt to imitate the services omen religious rendered in
churches and oratories. Educated at Athies, a royal villa, until she reached
the appropriate age to be taken by Clothar I as one of his wives, Radegund was
taught to read and write. She was impressed by the lives of martyrs and decided
to follow their example. With the help of a young clerk, Samuel, she gathered
poor children, fed them from her own table, and honored them by washing their
hands and hair. Then, with Samuel carrying a wooden cross and Radegund marching
behind him chanting psalms, the clerk and the virgin led the ragged procession
to the oratory. There, Radegund proceeded to act as "the good
housekeeper," polishing the floor with her own robe and collecting the
dust around the altar in her own kerchief.36The
widowed queen Clotild engaged in similar pursuits. After her husband's death,
she went to Tours, where she devoted the rest of
her days to service at the basilica of Saint Martin,
according to Gregory of Tours.37
The first
feminine communities in central Gaul came into
existence by around oratories and basilicas, the gathering place of women
religious. Ingitrud established a cloister in the courtyard of Saint Martin of
Tours.38 Saint Martin‑de‑Jumellos, originally an oratory
in the suburb of Amiens, was a nunnery in the days of Gregory of Tours.39
Néris near Montlucon developed in a similar manner.40 Saint Pierre‑le‑Vif
of Sens was also connected with a basilica.41 Unlike the nunneries
in the south, these communities either burgeoned spontaneously through feminine
initiative or were sponsored by women. Bishop Aunacharius' (561‑605)
foundation in Saint Martin's basilica at Auxerre probably also represented an
attempt to build a convent for women religious already working at the basilica.42
Nunneries occasionally evolved around the cell of a recluse. At Chartres, Saint Monegund's
retreat became the nucleus for a female community. When Monegund left the city
because she could no longer endure the crowds that her fame as a healer
attracted, she went to Tours
and founded another nunnery there. The latter, Gregory of Tours was careful to
say, had only a few members and better suited Monegund's wish to spend the rest
of her days in "integral faith and prayer."43
Sixth‑century
monastic foundations for women were, as a rule, built in places where the nuns
were safe from attack, or at least could be readily defended. Caesarius had originally
established the convent for his sister, Caesaria, in the suburb of Arles,
but he moved it within the walls after the city was attacked by the Franks and
Burgundians in 508.44 In addition, nuns
could be readily supervised if their nunneries were located in cities. Even in
this heroic age of monasticism, convents served as prisons. For example,
Gregory of Tours reports that King Gunthram had his widowed sister‑in‑law
incarcerated at Arles,
in the monastery founded by Caesarius.45 Regarded as helpless and
defenseless creatures whose virtue and lives had to be protected by men,
Merovingian women were not allowed to lead a solitary life in uninhabited
places. Gregory of Tours mentioned with astonishment the rumor of two virgins
withdrawing to an impenetrable forest on a hill near Tours.46 Yet,
at the same time, male communities were developing around the retreats of
saintly hermits in the wilderness of Frankland with such rapidity that, by the
end of the sixth century, there was a tight network of Christian culture in the
area bordered by the rivers Garonne, Rhone, and Somme. Because feminine
communities were not organized in the countryside, their number remained
relatively low in comparison to male communities.47
By the end
of the sixth century, feminine abbeys existed in all the urban centers of
central Gaul. In addition to those already
mentioned at Amiens, Auxerre, Chartres, Poitiers, Sens, and Tours,48
there was also one at Autun,49 another at Lyons,50 and
probably one at Le Mans.51 As at Arles and Vienne, two female
communities were functioning at Tours.52 Convents for women in
smaller villages, such as Néris,53 were exceptions. Some probably
had only a brief existence. A small convent established by Queen Clotild at
Chelles, according to Gregory of Tours, was abandoned by the mid‑seventh
century and had to be rebuilt by Queen Balthild. Yet another rural convent, Les
Andelys, near Rouen,
also reported to be Clotild's foundation, was resuscitated by Audoen,
Columban's disciple, in the seventh century.54
The
vitality of feminine asceticism should not be measured merely in terms of the
number of nunneries. The concern expressed by sixth century councils over the
status of professed virgins and widows living in the world indicates that many
women were practicing asceticism outside the walls of convents.55 Undoubtedly some chose this form of life in order to escape
from an unwanted union, while others undertook a true religious vocation.
The rewards
of this alternate way of life included a degree of dignity and autonomy
unavailable to married women, but the risks were also great. A woman faced the
danger of rape and abduction, often sanctioned by kings, as well as the
possibility of excommunication and exile if she failed to make a heroic effort
to resist her abductor. The same bishops who, in 567 at the Council of Tours,
put the final seal on the abolition of the diaconate of women, made every
effort to protect women religious from rape and abduction, and to prevent them
from abandoning their religious commitment. Legislating
strict sanctions against men who deflected women from their purpose of serving
God rather than a husband, the council recalled that Roman law punished with
death those who had raped and subsequently married consecrated virgins and
vowed widows. Noting that vestal virgins were buried alive if they lost the
grace of virginity, the council admonished women who had changed their dress in
honor of the Redeemer to expect an equally grave sentence if they failed to
persevere in their resolution.56
The
severity of this council was not without precedent. In 538, the Council of
Orléans had used Innocent I's image of a vowed virgin as Christ's betrothed and
of a veiled virgin as Christ's bride to excommunicate as adulteresses those who
had consented to live with their ravishers. If the culprit had not been veiled,
she was in a somewhat better position: she was required to perform penance only
for a limited time and not until death.57 A widow's vow was equally
binding for life, even though it could not be solemnized by a priestly
blessing.58 The notion that a religious habit was the symbol of the
vow of chastity was stressed not only by Tours but also by later sixth‑century
councils.59
The bishops
needed royal support to enforce these declarations, but only Clothar I went so
far as to declare that "no one should dare to marry a nun."60
A few years earlier, when one of his wives, Radegund, had been consecrated a
deaconess, Clothar had not professed the same respect for a woman's religious
vow.61 Moreover, Clothar's brothel and descendants continued to
sanction the abduction of professed virgins and widows. The Frankish bishops'
efforts succeeded only in the following century. At the Council of Paris held
in 614, Clothar II not only pledged to relinquish the practice of his
predecessors but also ordered capital punishment for the abductors of women
religious. Eve] 1 if such a nefarious union was concluded in a church, the
couple was to be separated, both parties were to be exiled, and their property
was to be distributed among the nearest kin.62
ClotharIl's
edict heralded a new epoch when women no longer needed steadfast courage and
stubborn determination, as in the sixth century, to lead an ascetic life.
During the course of the seventh century .enough female monasteries came into being to offer refuge
and shelter for women seeking to escape from abductors and irate parents. The
abbess of Saint Jean of Arles did not hesitate to rescue the orphaned
Rusticula, kidnapped by an eager suitor when she was only five.63
Saint Burgundofara's father ultimately acquiesced to her religious calling when
she entered a monastery.64 Although men occasionally snatched their
brides from convents, it was more difficult to abduct a woman from a community
than from a private home; public opinion and the laws censured this conduct
more severely. The Bavarian Code, issued in the early eighth century, ordered
those who had abducted women front monasteries not only to return them but also
to pay double indemnity to the institution if they did not wish to be exiled.65
The Council
of Clichy, meeting in 626, still found it necessary to reiterate the threat of
excommunication against those abducting women religious with royal permission.66By the end of the seventh century. kings
no longer authorized these actions. The growth of monasteries increased respect
for self‑abnegating women, prompting kings to take all women religious
under their protection. Entrance into a convent by this time was routinely
offered as a choice to widows seeking an equal status with virgins and as a
form of penance to lapsed women religious.67
THE FLOWERING OF FEMALE MONASTICISM
At that time, throughout the provinces of Gaul,
the troops of monks
and crowds of virgins under the
rule of the blessed fathers Benedict
and Columban began to multiply not
only in the fields, towns,
villages, and castles but also in
the desert of the hermits, whereas
only a few monasteries were found
in these places before this
time.68
These observations, although written by Saint Salaberga's
biographer in the early ninth century, present an accurate picture of the
religious rival in the FrankishKingdom generated by the
arrival of Saint ç Columban in the late sixth century.69
In keeping
with the spirit of Irish Christianity, dominated both morally and
administratively by monasticism rather than by clericalism, Saint Columban did
not harbor prejudices against women. Instead of shunning their company, he
sought their friendship. Instead of emphasizing their impurity, he recognized their
spiritual equality. He accepted the hospitality of Theudemada, a lady of great
wealth who led a religious life.70Acting
as the spiritual adviser to married women, he baptized and Blessed their
children. The women thus honored proved to be enthusiastic supporters of
monasticism, encouraging the religious vocation of their children and embracing
the ascetic life themselves.71 A case in Point is Flavia, whose
husband, Waldelen, was duke of Upper Burgundy. Approached by the young couple
to pray for them so that their marriage might be blessed by children, Columban
made them promise that they wouldoffer their firstborn to God's
service. Her wishes granted, Flavia not only sent her oldest son, Donatus, to
Columban's foundation at Luxeuil, but when widowed she built Jussanum at
Besançon. "Surrounding the convent with fortifications, she established
many nuns there," wrote Ionas, Saint Columban's biographer.72
Saint
Columban's example inspired a new attitude toward women among his Frankish
collaborators and disciples, many of whom were trained at Luxeuil, the center
of the Irish movement. Influential because of high birth and their positions as
abbots and bishops, these men cultivated spiritual friendships with women and
sought feminine co‑operation in building a network of monasteries
throughout the king‑ As a result of their efforts, men and women began to
work together in partnership, promoting the contemplative life and discovering
would practical solution to the problem of instituting female communities outside
the cities. To protect nuns, help them run their vast establishments, and
provide sacerdotal services, these enterprising men and women attached a
contingent of monks to some of the newly founded communities. They created thus
a new institution, the double monastery, which had some precedents in the East
and in Ireland.
They also set upseparate, affiliated communities for men and women in close
proximity to each other.
In these
new monasteries women were not overshadowed by higher ranking men. Rather, they
collaborated with men and acted as spiritual leaders. The double monasteries,
as Mary Bateson has aptly expressed it, provided the female element of the
ruling class with something to rule.73Usually
double monasteries were governed by an abbess, and the affiliated institutions
by an abbot and an abbess. In keeping with the penitential practices the Irish
introduced to continental monasteries, abbesses heard confession three times a
day and gave absolution and benediction to members of their community. They
performed, therefore, quasi‑sacerdotal functions in addition to the
normal administrative, disciplinary, and spiritual duties of their office.
Under female leadership, some of the double houses became famous centers of
learning and devotion; they attracted members from as far as England and served as models for
the double monasteries of that island. Neither total
segregation of the sexes nor strict cloistering was practiced in these
communities. Nuns and monks occupied separate living quarters, but, in the
scriptoria and the schools, and during the divine service, the two sexes shared
common functions.
The rule
compiled for nuns, probably by Waldebert of Luxeuil (629‑670), indicates
that women did not live as parasites on men in the double monasteries. Nuns
were required to perform manual labor. In addition to cooking, cleaning,
serving, spinning, and sewing, activities traditionally associated with women,
fishing, brewing, and building the fire were among the daily assignments of
nuns. Work outside the monastery was always undertaken by teams of three or
four, and special liturgical rites were prescribed for those going off to work
in the morning and coming home in the evening.74
Faremoutiers‑en‑Brie
(Evoracium) was probably the first double monastery. It was established around
617 by Burgundofara under the guidance of Eustachrus, abbot of Luxeuil. At an
impressionable age, when she was not more than ten, Burgundofara had met Saint
Columban and received his blessing. This experience left such a deep mark on
her that she resisted her parents' attempts to force her to marry a few years
later. Probably through her brother Chagnoald, a monk at Luxeuil, she appealed
to Eustachrus. Coming in person to her rescue, Eustachrus took her to Meaux,
where she was veiled and consecrated. The abbot then assigned two of his monks,
Chagnoald and Waldabert, to help her build a nunnery and to instruct the new
community in the principles of religious life. Eventually a second house was
added for the monks, and Burgundofara presided over both.75
Habendum‑Remiremont,
founded around 62o by the Austrasian magnate Romarich with the help of Amatus,
one of Eustachius' pupils, had a different form of organization, at least
initially. Established on the property of Romarich in the MeuselleValley,
it was planned as a joint community of monks and nuns rather than as a nunnery
with monks attached to it.Amatus’
authority as the first abbot may have been superior to that of his coabbess,
Metchtafled.On the other hand, the size
of the feminine community was not only substantial from the very beginning,
with eighty-four nuns serving under Mechtafled, but remained so.Although similar data on the size of the male
community are missing, the number of monks decliend
sufficiently by the time the fourth abbot died for the abbess to assume sole
governance.Eventually the community of
monks was completely dissolved.76
Joint
supervision by an abbot and abbess did not become the prevalent form of
government in the Frankish double monasteries.It remained in use only at affiliated institutions, such as Pavilly and
Jumieges.Founded by Saint Filibert,
Jumieges at first housed both monks and nuns.When the community grew in size, Filibert built Pavilly for the women
and installed an abbess.Although the
two houses retained a close relationship, they were too far apart to constitute
a single institution.77
The
government of a double monastery by an abot was an exception.Dom Schmitz’s characterization of double
monasteries as usually falling into this pattern needs correction.78Jumieges was a real double monastery only for
a brief period, as a fledgling institution, before the foundation of the sister
house.The other outstadnding example,
Beze was not planned as a double institution but became one in 657 when Abbot
Waldelen admitted his sister Adalsind and her nuns from neighboring
Dorniaticum.Citing injuries and threats
by men as her reason for wishing to join her brother’s commun ity, Adalsind
accepted Beze’s rule, turning Dorniaticum with all its possessions and
subjecting herself and her nuns to Waldelen’s authority as abbot.79
Frankish
double monasteries normally were governed by abbesses.Laon, one ofthe largest convents, with three
hundred nuns, was establishedaround 641 on the model of Remiremont and had a single superior,
Saint Salaberga.80 Jouarre, originally a male convent built by the
monk Ado around
630, was put under the authority of an abbess when it was transformed into a
double monastery by Bishop Faro of Meaux. From his sister's convent at
Faremoutiers, Faro brought the nun Fheudechild to run the enlarged community.81
Around 658 or 659, when Queen Balthild reconstructed the ruins of a convent at
Chelles as a monastery, she requested from Jouarre a nun capable of assuming
command. Initially only a few priests were attached to Chelles to provide for
the sacramental needs of the sisters, but, as the fame of the abbey grew under
the capable leadership of Bertila, an increasing number of men sought
admission. By the time Bertila died around 704, Chelles was a true double
monastery, characterized by her biographer as a Christian community
"fratrum sive sororum."82
The double
monasteries developing farther north, between the Somme and the Meuse, fall into the same pattern; they were either
governed by an abbess or were under joint female and male guidance. Gertrud
ruled Nivelles, which was founded by her mother, Itta, with the help of Saint
Amand around 640.83 Aldegund single‑handedly directed
Maubeuge, which she had organized in 661.84 On the other hand, at Marchiennes,
established around 647, the nuns were supervised by Rictrud, and the monks had
their own abbot, Ionas.85 By the ninth century, the abbess exercised authority
over both sexes at Marchiennes. At Hasnon, built around 670, the founder, John,
governed the men, and his sister, Eulalia, presided over the women.86
Some of the
double monasteries began as nunneries, with the community of monks being added
at a later date. Notre‑Dame of Soissons was instituted as a feminine
convent in 666. A few years later, when Sigrada, Leodegar of Autun's mother,
was living there, the community also included brothers.87 Hamaye,
probably the oldest nunnery north of the Somme,88 and Avenay at
Reims followed a similar pattern.89 We also know that Saint Jean of
Arles and Holy Cross of Poitiers invited monks to live in their burial
churches.90
Although
double monasteries were popular, their number remained relatively small.91
Only the wealthiest foundations could support a community of nuns and monks.92
Feminine convents affiliated with masculine houses were also not very numerous.93
On the other hand, nunneries mushroomed in the cities and suburbs.
Without a
systematic study of Merovingian nunneries to yield statistics, it is not possible
to ascertain whether or not the imbalance between male and female institutions
was redressed by the seventh century. That this may have been the case in the
cities is suggested by the monastic history of Metz. Only male communities existed in that
city in the sixth century. But two of the three convents that developed there
in the seventh century were nunneries, namely Sainte Glossindis and Saint
Pierre‑aux‑Nonnaines.94 In other towns as well‑at
Noyon,95 Clermont,96 Bourges 97 ‑more
than one female community sprang up during this period of religious enthusiasm.
Various
factors prompted the development of several nunneries in the same town. Often
one house was within the walls and the other in the suburb.98The size of the endowment undoubtedly limited the number of
members an established community was willing to accept. Laon, with three
hundred nuns, a figure stated in the life of Saint Salaberga, was an exception.
Remiremont had eighty‑four nuns and Pavilly only twenty‑five.99Many convents were probably even more modest in size.
In
addition, the proprietary church system encouraged the proliferation of small
nunneries. Under this arrangement, the founder retained control over the
convent's administration and landed property. 100 Many of the
seventh‑century female houses, established by wealthy widows, doting
parents, and bishops devoted to their mothers and sisters, fall into this
pattern. For instance, Flavia's Jussanum and the female communities at Bourges
were proprietary nunneries.101 This type of institution usually
remained quite small, representing no more than an extended household, that is,
an aristocratic house turned into a family cult center.102 As
opposed to the prestige of the greater houses, a proprietary convent offered
the comfort of familiar faces and surroundings. Members did not suffer from
homesickness, an emotion Leodegar of Autun thought his mother, Sigrada,
experienced at Soissons.
Writing to her from prison, Leodegar tried to console her with the suggestion
that the brothers and sisters of the monastery had replaced her family and
servants.103 The presence of close blood relations, sisters and
aunts, in a larger community undoubtedly eased the adjustment to the new
surroundings, and was often the determining factor in an aristocratic woman's
choice of a convent. To discourage the formation of kinship circles in double
monasteries, Waldebert's Rule stressed spiritual sisterhood as the essence of
communal life.104
Many
opportunities were available to women who wished to embrace celibate life in
the seventh century. The call to asceticism, sounded throughout Frankland by
the Irish missionaries, found an enthusiastic response among both sexes. In all
walks of life, men and women renounced marriage, devoting their energies to the
service of God. As in previous centuries, some professed virgins and widows
continued to live in the world, looking after the poor and acting as
housekeepers in churches, but the chance to communicate and live with other
women holding the same interests and beliefs held an even greater attraction.
Religious communities provided a supportive environment and an atmosphere of
calm where women could live, work, and pray. By serving God and each other in
humility, actively participating in the liturgy, and exercising their
intelligence and administrative tale "Its, they could achieve a level of
accomplishment in their lives not available to them in the outside world.
Life in
small proprietary nunneries, which observed rules of varying laxity, or may not
have observed any at all, was not very different from that in the great
aristocratic households. Relatively free to come and go as they pleased,
members could leave the community at will. The effort of the Council of Paris
in 611 to impose stability on monks and nuns alike was not sustained. Even
Waldebert, although intending his compilation for larger institutions,
envisioned the readmission of a female monastic to the same community. 105
In the
double monasteries and larger communities, discipline was strict and the nuns
were kept busy. Under rules combining Caesarian, Columban, and Benedictine
elements, daily activities were carefully regulated.106 In addition
to assigned chores, everyone had to engage in prayer, liturgical services, and
devotional readings at certain times of' the day. Not only communal affairs
such as meals but also private and personal matters were subject to rules. For
example, places in the dormitory were assigned according to age, with younger
sisters alternating with older ones to avoid the possibility of frivolity and
carnal temptation.107 Even washing hair was
a communal activity to be undertaken every Saturday.
Some
members served in administrative offices as dean, wardrobe mistress, cellarer,
and portress. Others acted as librarians, scribes, and teachers.108
Seventh‑century foundations functioned also as boarding schools for both
sexes, accepting as pupils even "infantes," children below the age of
six.109A purely contemplative existence
was pursued only by those choosing to endure the rigors of solitude as
recluses. Although Gregory of Tours spoke of special cells being set aside for
recluses in monasteries, seventh‑century sources do not mention anyone
leading this type of life.110
Lesser
women, the protégés and servants of the founders and abbesses, were admitted to
both the double monasteries and smaller convents. Eustadiola, her biographer
relates, built her nunnery for herself and her slaves ("suisque
puellis").111 Queen Balthild instructed the Saxon slaves
("viros et puellas") whom she had redeemed and kept in her own
household to join monasteries.112 The rules did not limit membership
to women of the upper classes. Both Caesarius' Rule and Aurelian's adaptation
of it envisioned poor as well as wealthy women among the sisters of a community.
Aurelian's Rule clearly stated that freedwomen could be accepted as postulants
if they had their master's permission. Caesarius' Rule stressed that noble
origin or wealth was not to be taken into consideration in the selection of an
abbess. The royal princesses at Holy Cross of Poitiers challenged in vain the
leadership of the abbess Leubovera, who was not of royal blood.113Only in the late eighth century did the
requirement of an entrance fee become customary both in female and male
communities.114
Nevertheless, social distinctions were not altogether obliterated it the
convents. Saint Radegund's hagiographer made a point of mentioning the
punishment the queen inflicted from heaven upon Vinoberga her maidservant
("famula"), who dared to sit upon the throne after she had died. For
three days and nights smoke and flame billowed from the girl's body. Only after
she had confessed her sin and prayed with the congregation for forgiveness did
the saint relent and relieve the girl's agony. 115
MONASTICISM UNDER THE CAROLINGIANS
When the Anglo‑Saxon missionaries arrived on the
continent in the early eighth century, they found in the FrankishKingdom a network of monasteries,
which they then extended to the lands east of the Rhine.
They introduced the Benedictine Rule into these new foundations, subjecting
abbots and abbesses to strict episcopal control. Although some bishops
jealously guarded their prerogatives of supervising female communities,116 the convents under Caesarius' Rule, the
communities established in the wake of the Irish revival, and the houses to
which Balthild granted immunity were free from episcopal control.
When Saint
Boniface turned his attention to the state of the Frankish church, he first
proposed the reform of all monasteries according to the Benedictine norm.117As the reforms progressed, all forms of religious life
were brought under episcopal control. Although Boniface's intent was to apply
the same rules to both male and female communities,118
later synods tended to interpret the rules more strictly for women than for
men. The extension of episcopal jurisdiction over the monasteries was carried
out with the help of the new dynasty. In fact, increased episcopal authority
was the bishops' reward for cooperating in the creation of the Carolingian
"Reichskirche." In this new structure, the monasteries lost their
former independence, and their resources became subject to royal exploitation.119As advisers of kings and close associates of bishops,
abbots were able to mitigate the constraints placed upon their communities. But
female communities, caught between the highhanded treatment of bishops and the
financial exactions of kings, declined in power and influence.
It was not
the intention of the Anglo‑Saxon missionaries to slight women religious
or diminish the prestige of their institutions. Like
their Irish predecessors, the Anglo‑Saxons held nuns in high regard. They
maintained correspondence with abbesses in England,
requesting material assistance, books, and helpers.120The women who responded to their call founded and led
feminine communities east of the Rhine. Even
though Boniface and his companions appreciated the contributions of their
female coworkers, they were careful to guard the prerogatives of the male
clergy. Boniface spoke of both monks and nuns as "the knights of
Christ,"121 but he also questioned Pope Zachary on whether or
not it was proper for nuns to engage in the liturgical rite of washing each
others' feet.122 It did not bother Boniface that monks performed the
same ceremony; monks were eligible to participate in the clerical hierarchy and
many indeed were priests. As bishops, the Anglo‑Saxons supervised
feminine communities more closely and interpreted the Benedictine Rule more
rigorously for female than for male monastics. For example, Bishop Lull
excommunicated Abbess Sitha for allowing two nuns to take a voyage without
asking his permission. Yet the Council of Verneuil held in 755 acknowledged
that monks may travel when ordered by their abbot.123
In 742,
when Boniface initiated reforms in the Frankish areas, he called for the
observation of Benedictine Rule by monks and nuns alike.124 Thirteen
years later, in 755, when the Council of Verneuil convened,
it became evident that the imposition of the Rule was not an easy matter. The
precise instructions for bishops, if a monastery failed to accept the rule,
included excommunication of the recalcitrant community; individual nuns were to
be imprisoned and subjected to forced labor if they failed to conform. That
uncooperative monks might be coerced in this manner was not considered.125
The Council
of Verneuil also declared that women who had veiled themselves and men who had
tonsured themselves were either to join a monastery "sub ordine regulari," or to live under the supervision of bishops
"sub ordine canonica."126 Around the same time, between
751 and 766, Chrodegang of Metz undertook the compilation of a set of
regulations for canons attached to the basilicas of Metz.127 Rules
for canonesses were assembled for the first time in 813,128 even
though, beginning with the Council of Frankfurt in 796, abbesses had been
routinely offered the choice between Benedictine profession or a canonical
life.129 If an abbess chose the latter, both she and the nuns in her
charge were to observe the regulations of the councils. That these regulations
were not altogether consistent, or that their texts were not readily available,
did not bother the reforming councils.
As the
reorganization of monasteries under episcopal authority progressed, women who
wished to lead a religious life came under increasing pressure to join a
community. By the late seventh century, widows and virgins who wished to be
veiled were ordered into convents,130
Probably in an attempt to protect these women from hasty veiling, Charlemagne
ruled that the ceremony could be performed only
when a woman reached age twenty‑five.131
This did not mean that a private vow of chastity ceased to be binding. Although
the symbol of a private vow, the black dress, was now designated as only quasi
religious, .1 woman wearing this dress could be ordered by the bishop to a
nunnery if' she came under suspicion of having broken the vow.132
During the
second phase of the Carolingian reforms, when the emphasis was shifting to the
unique sacramental and juridical powers of the priesthood, the church became
even less tolerant of women religious outside convents. In 829, the Council of
Paris declared that omen who had veiled themselves
were evil; they tempted and trapped priests and were to be barred from
churches. A widow had to wait thirty days after her husband's death to be
veiled, and then had to join a convent. Priests could veil widows only with the
consent of bishops.133 The Council of Paris also put the final seal
on earlier legislation limiting the function of women religious to the lighting
of candles and the ringing of church bells. The status of these women, the
council declared, was not different from that of ordinary laymen.
It is
against divine law and canonical instruction for women to intrude on the other
side of holy altars, to touch impudently the consecrated vessels, administer
for priests sacerdotal vestments, and, what is even worse, more indecent and
more inappropriate, to distribute the body and blood of the Lord to the people.
. . . It is certainly amazing that women, whose sex by no means makes them
competent, despite the laws, were able to gain license to do things that are
prohibited even to secular men. 145
The
foundation of a small proprietary nunnery no longer provided a viable
alternative to those who did not wish to give up their independence while
leading a religious life.New foundation
were not encouraged,135 except in recently
conquered lands.Moreover, the
Carolingian policy of transforming monasteries into royal abbeys in order to
gain access to their resources, a policy closely linked with the program of
bringing all monasteries under episcopal governance, called for the
consolidation of communities with only a few members.136Many of these were nunneries.In 789, Charlemange ordered that “the very
small monasteries where nuns reside without rule be combined into one regular
congregation at a place designated by the bishop.”137The execution of this project
apparently took several decades.Acapitulary
issued in 829 expressed continued concern about the existence of small
monasteries,138 and Hrabanus Maurus
encouraged a fellow bishop to dissolve a “monasteriola nonarum” and transfer to
another convent the nuns who did not live according to the rule.139
As small
nunneries were gradually eliminated and the status of women religious living in
the world degraded, the only choice available to women who did not wish to
marry was to join either a Benedictine convent or an institute of canonesses.But the institutes of canonesses came to
resemble Benedictine houses when specific guidelines for the life of the
canonesses were finally issued in 813 by the Council of Chalons.Although the council declared that women who
lived according to the canons and called themselves canonesses constituted a
separate order - presumably the feminine counterpart of the order of canons -
canonesses were to lead a more austere life than canons.140Three years later, in 816, when the
council of Aix expanded these guidelines into a rile, the Institutio sanctimonialium, little difference between the
obligations of Benedictine nuns and canonesses remained.
Because of
the alleged weakness of their sex, female members of the canoical order were to
be stricly cloistered.141Whereas
canons were allowed to manage both ecclesiastical and personal property,142
canonesses had to delegate this task to an outsider.143Canonesses were required to cover their faces
in public and to wear a veil in church,144 and they were to be
careully guarded from all contact with men.145Even abbesses could meet men only in the
presence of other sisters.146Conversations with relatives and servants had to be monistored by three
or four reliable members of the community.147
The
cloistering of religious women was an issue that had weighed heavily on the
minds of earlier Carolingian churchmen as well. Abbesses, and certainly other
members of the community, were allowed to leave the monastery only if they were
summoned by the king, according to the Council of Verneml held in 755.148
The reiteration of similar and even greater restrictions by practically every
reforming synod indicates that the cloistering of nuns was not as strictly
enforced as the hierarchy may have wished.149 Like their Anglo‑Saxon
sisters, Frankish women religious were apparently accustomed to going on
pilgrimages, at least until 796 or 797,when
the Council of Friuli ordered them not to.150 In so doing, the
council may have had in mind the Anglo‑Saxon nuns who never reached Rome
but ended up, according to Saint Boniface, in one of the many brothels that
lined the roads to Italy.151 Similar considerations‑the desire
to prevent sisters from leaving the convent and to guard them against
temptation‑prompted council after council to inveigh against nuns wearing
male attire,152 and to caution against unnecessary visits by men,
including bishops, canons, and monks.153 In imposing on canonesses
the strict cloistering required by the Benedictine Rule, the Carolingian
churchmen were undoubtedly motivated by a desire to protect the safety and
chastity of women, but they ultimately restricted the ascetic life sought by
women.
An
extension of the effort to avoid the danger of close association of the sexes
within the convents was to prohibit nuns and canonesses from educating boys.154
Even hospices for the poor and pilgrims had to be located outside the convent,
adjacent to the church where the clergy attached to the monastery officiated.155
Abbesses of both types of monasteries, for Benedictines and canonesses, lost
not only their freedom of movement but also their former influence. Although
emperors and kings periodically summoned them, undoubtedly to discuss the
disposition of monastic resources,156
abbesses, unlike abbots, did not participate in reforming assemblies. Moreover,
they were denied participation in functions that could be construed as quasi
sacerdotal. Forbidden to give benediction to the opposite sex, they could not
consecrate members of their own community.157 Although the belief that
canonesses were members of the clergy lingered,158
the councils abolished all functional distinctions between canonesses and nuns.
Apart from ringing church bells and lighting candles, 159 nuns and
canonesses could participate in the work of the church only by praying,
singing, reciting psalms, celebrating the canonical hours,160
tending the sick and poor women,161 and educating girls.162
Once the
councils had established that all women religious were to be cloistered, with
their activities supervised by bishops, and that nuns and canonesses were to
perform similar functions, the reformers stopped pressing for the imposition of
the Benedictine Rule in feminine houses. In 816, a year after the Council of
Aix issued the Institutio sanctimonialium,
another Aachen
assembly was held to formulate detailed rules for Benedictine monks.163
No attempt was made to adapt the Benedictine Rule for use by nunneries. Whereas
monks were sent to Inde to be trained in Benedictine observances, Louis the
Pious did not designate a model Benedictine abbey for the training of women.
Although Louis did offer the same economic incentive to both feminine and
masculine houses to adopt the Benedictine Rule, a list of forty‑eight
Benedictine royal abbeys compiled in 819, the Notitia de servitio monasterionum, included only five nunneries. 164
Yet, two years earlier, an important royal monastery not listed in the Notitia, Remiremont, had opted for the
Benedictine Rule. 165 We can only conclude that the reformers did
not bother to list all feminine Benedictine abbeys because they were not
pressing the imposition of the Benedictine Rule on female communities.
To
determine the relative proportion of Benedictine nunneries and institutes of
canonesses, more research on the history of individual houses is needed. The
terminology of donations and grants of immunityfrom royal exactions is not sufficiently precise to warrant Schafer's
hypothesis that institutes of canonesses dominated in the ninth century.166The restriction imposed by the Institutio and the economic advantages
that abbesses could obtain under Benedictine Rule may have prompted abbesses to
choose the latter course. The fact that the Institutio
sanctimonialium is extant in only four ninth‑century manuscripts
suggests that it was not widely followed.l67 The testimony of Bishop
Alderic, that he consecrated 103 "monachas" and 17 "canonicas"
in the diocese of Le Mans between 832 and 857, 168 indicates that,
as at least in that region, more women joined Benedictine convents than institutes
of canonesses.
The
immediate effect of Carolingian policies on double monasteries is clearer.
Double monasteries did not disappear, but the community of monks was
transformed into a community of canons. This development did not necessarily
parallel the transformation of the female community into an institute of
canonesses. The Translatio S.
Baltechildis, in 833, described Chelles as having a "clergy of men and
women," which probably meant that both houses had relinquished the
Benedictine Rule.l69 On the other hand, the nuns of Holy Cross of
Poitiers observed the Benedictine Rule and had canons living at Sainte
Radegonde, their affiliated institution.170 Notre‑Dame of
Soissons under Benedictine observance had a chapter of canons by 872.171
Royal appropriations of the property of female communities made the presence of
monks as supervisors of agricultural labor superfluous. It was far less
expensive to support a few canons than a community of monks. The canons were
priests and administered to the sacramental needs of the sisters. The new
arrangement had disadvantages as well. Canons were less likely than monks to
share with the sisters a sense of common endeavor. They were not cloistered and
enjoyed a greater freedom of movement than the sisters. Although they were
economically dependent on the abbess, they did not come under her jurisdiction.
Their clerical status, moreover, gave them the magisterial authority that
abbesses had formerly exercised.
The
transformation of a double monastery into a community of nuns or canonesses
with a chapter of canons attached, ended a period in the history of Western
monasticism when feminine and masculine communities had been considered fully
equal and coordinate institutions. Henceforth it became more difficult for male
and female ascetics to draw inspiration from each other for their parallel,
albeit autonomous, pursuit of spiritual perfection. Nuns and canonesses had to
depend for religious guidance on men in the "sacred orders," whereas
monks could rely solely on members of their own community.
The strict cloistering of nuns and canonesses on the one hand the
shrinking economic resources of monasteries on the other considerably tempered
women's enthusiasm for monastic life in the ninth century. Undoubtedly,
the improved legal position of married women contributed to the waning of
women's interest in an ascetic life. In highest echelons of society, fewer
ladies preferred the convent to marriage. We do not hear of ninth‑century
princesses running away for eager suitors or ardent husbands and clamoring for
admittance convents.
In
comparison to the numerous female saints among the Merovingians, there were
only a few under the Carolingians. The tight cont placed by ninth‑century
bishops on all forms of female asceticism seem to have inhibited women's
aspirations for heroic sanctity. Women who were sanctified by the Carolingians
either were connected with monastic foundations in newly conquered lands or
were associated with dome virtues, like Saint Liutberga.172 This
suggests that the Carolingian bishops may have considered elevation to
sainthood a reward for socially constructive behavior.
Although
the wives and daughters of Carolingian kings held lands of the great feminine
abbeys as part of their dowry or inheritance,173they chose the convent as a place of dwelling
only when they needed shelter in old age or adversity. Charlemagne's daughters
withdrew to monasteries when, after their father's death, their brother Louis
the Pious forced them to leave the court.174 Louis the Pious
appointed his widowed mother‑in‑law as abbess of Chelles,175
and the dowager empress Engelberga joined before her death the nunnery she had
founded at Piacenza. l76 Judith of Bavaria
found refuge at Notre‑Da of Laon until her husband could clear her name. 177
Nunneries were a used as places of refuge by women with estranged or irate
husbands.Avenay sheltered Theutberga
until Lothar II was forced to drop
charges of incest and reclaimed
her.178 Andelau provided protection Queen Richardis when Charles the
Fat accused her of adultery. 179 Conversely, princes used nunneries
as prisons for troublesome women When Tassilo, duke of Bavaria, was exiled and
forced to enter a monasteryhis daughters were sent to nunneries.180 The stepsons
of Judith Bavaria imprisoned her at Holy Cross of Poitiers,181 and
Charles the Bald confined his own daughter, named Judith after her grandmother
to Notre‑Dame of Senlis.182 Both male and female communities
functioned as asylums for the handicapped, retarded, and mentally disturbed.
Ninth‑century accounts of miracles abound with cures of blind nuns or
nuns possessed by demons.183The cloister
was thus used be to shield female ascetics and to segregate women considered
undesirable, socially dangerous, or unproductive, whether priests' wives,
lapsed "sanctimoniales," or other women.
Increasingly
used as a shelter, a prison, an old‑age home, and exploited as a source
of income for princesses and queens, nunneries lost their aura of heroic
sanctity during the ninth century. The criteria for admission increasingly
emphasized wealth rather than religious calling. Only in exceptional cases
would a woman of humble background be admitted. The Miracles of Austroberta, composed in the ninth century, reports
that the saint interceded on behalf of a poor girl. Refused admission to
Pavilly on the ground that she was an unfree dependant of the monastery, the
girl maintained a vigil at the saint's tomb, only to be forcibly removed by the
abbess. This might have sealed the fate of the girl had not the abbess been
suddenly struck by an illness, which was interpreted by the community as the
saint's punishment for her haughtiness. Duly repentant, the abbess sent for the
girl and accepted her as a postulant.184
The
outstanding characteristic of ninth‑century abbesses was, not their
holiness, but their business acumen. Ermentrud, abbess of Jouarre, exemplified
the aggressive economic policy that abbesses had to pursue, despite the strict
cloistering imposed on them. Through her family connections she obtained
important relics for Jouarre. Once her monastery became a place of pilgrimage,
she secured through the empress, her namesake and the proprietress of Jouarre,
a grant of immunity from Charles the Bald with attendant rights of a
marketplace and coinage.185 Not only Benedictine abbeys, such as
Jouarre, but also institutes of canonesses were granted privileges of this kind
by Charles the Bald and his successors. In 877, for example, Nivelles obtained
by royal grant a piece of land, the income from which was to be reserved
exclusively for members of the convent.186 Under Louis the Pious,
this grant would have been issued only to a Benedictine monastery.
Once the
economic incentive to observe the Benedictine Rule ceased, more and more
Benedictine nunneries, such as Remiremont, were transformed into institutes of
canonesses. By the end of the ninth century, the attempt to cloister canonesses
had been abandoned. As royal control disintegrated and power devolved into the
hands of the great aristocratic families, the episcopate could not enforce its
legislation. What the Carolingians had sown, the late ninth‑century
aristocracy reaped. Local families took over the exploitation of monastic
revenues, with their daughters administering convents as lay abbesses. Under
their leadership, rules were eased; Benedictine abbeys were transformed into
institutes of canonesses, and strict cloistering was no longer required.187
The freer
life led by canonesses and their abbesses better suited the function of
political leadership that all monasteries had to undertake by the end of the
ninth century, in addition to the traditional economic, cultural, and social
roles they had played earlier. Providing a more desirable alternative to
married life, these communities attracted powerful women as members. In the
tenth century, abbesses once again arrogated for themselves the title
"diaconis and at one was addressed as "metropolitana."189
Despite their titles, the superiors of tenth‑century feminine communities
did not attempt to play clerical and quasi‑clerical roles. Nor did they
attempt to assert spiritual leadership over men. Although abbesses led a much
freer life than their ninth century predecessors, their power was based on the
control they exercised over the monastery's extensive holdings rather than on
their religious authority.
Resistance to women religious living in the world diminished by the
end of the ninth century. While cautioning against the hasty veiling of
widows, the Council of Mainz in 888 offered veiled widows the choice of joining
a monastery or remaining in their own homes. l90
Nor were veiled virgins forced to enter a convent. Thus, nuns appeared once
again as the helpers of priests, although their activities remained strictly
limited to housekeeping tasks, such as maintaining order in the church, keeping
the lights burning, and producing altar clothes and priestly vestments. They
were also encouraged to contribute their own wealth to the church. 191
The
Carolingian effort to cloister women religious proved to be premature. It
represented an ideal ill‑suited to the political and social realities of
the next two centuries, and was revived only in the late eleventh century by
the Gregorian reformers. Nevertheless, women religious never recovered the
clerical functions they had exercised as deaconesses in the sixth century and
as abbesses in the seventh century.
Even though
the Carolingian bishops had managed to eliminate female leadership roles in the
church, restricting women to the domestic and private spheres and subjecting
them to male authority, they could not prevent women from making their presence
felt as contemplatives. One of these contemplatives was Saint Liutberga. The
widowed Countess Gisla chose Liutberga from a convent, attracted by her
intelligence and sweet disposition, as a companion. After her patroness's
death, Liutberga was entrusted with the management of the vast estates of the
descendants of Count Hessi ofSaxony. Although the family prospered
under her care, her long vigils and visits to churches after nightfall
annoyed the reigning count. When, as a result of his outbursts, she announced
her intention to become a recluse, he influenced the bishop against her.
Eventually she was permitted to attach herself as a recluse to the convent of Wendhausen,
where she supported herself by giving instruction in the art of wool dyeing.
Her influence soon expanded beyond this. Great men and women and even prelates
from distant places visited her, seeking her counsel and listening to her
elevated discourse. 192
Others,
like Hathumoda, asserted feminine presence in the church by insisting on
asceticism as the essence of monastic life. As the first abbess of Gandersheim,
founded between 852 and 853 by her parents, Hathumoda could have organized the
community as an institute of canonesses. She chose instead the more rigorous
Benedictine observance, cloistering the sisters and forbidding them to have
private cells, keep servants, and eat apart from the
community.193 At the same time, Hathumoda took pains to establish a
tradition of scholarship that was to nourish the talents of the dramatist and
poet Hroswitha in the next century.
Different
as their backgrounds, experiences, and accomplishments were, Liutberga and
Hathumoda represented the same feminine type, the self-reliant female
contemplative of the Middle Ages.In comparison with women religious of late
antiquity, even the women in Jerome’s circle, Liutberga and Hathumoda were far
more independent.They did not labor in
the shadow of great men .In an age of waning spirituality and
asceticism, each in her own way acted as a religious
reformer.Liutberga demonstrated that
recluses could be both spiritually and socially useful, whereas Hathumoda
provided an example of feminine initiative in the pursuit of monastic
perfection.Making te most of the roles
to which women religious were restricted by the second half of the ninth
century, Liutberga and Hathumoda and others like them transcended these roles.Reaching out beyond themselves, they
demonstrated that women could excel at spiritual leadership.
NOTES
CHAPTER 7
1. As Elise Boulding remarked: "One of the many frustrations in
trying to write the underside of history is that the rise of the monastic movement is written almost
entirely in terms of men" (The
Underside of History [Boulder, Colo.,
1978],p. 368). Lina Eckenstein's Woman
under Monasticism and her The Women
of Early Christianity (London,
1935) may be supplemented by Eleanor Shipley Duckett, The Gateway to the Middle Ages: Monasticism
(Ann Arbor, Mich., 1938), Sister M. Rosamond Nugent, Portrait of the Consecrated Woman in Greek
Christian Literature of the First Four Centuries (Washington, D.C., 1941),
and George H. Tavard, Woman in Christian Tradition. A more
narrow focus is provided by René Metz, La
Consecration des vièrges dans
L'Eglise romaine (Paris,
1954). I was unable to consult the latest work on Carolingian monasteries by
jean Décarreaux, Moines et monastères à l'epoque de Charlemagne
(Paris,
1980). In his earlier work, Décarreaux dealt
only with Radegund in some detail. See Monks
and Civilization from the Barbarian Invasions to the Reign of Charlemagne, trans. C. Haldane (London, 1962).
2. See Introduction, notes 8‑14, for relevant literature on the
subject. Jean Verdon listed the nunneries that were still in existence in the ninth century. See
"Recherches," pp. 1 17‑138. He also noted that he is preparing
a similar study on the
nunneries of northern France
(ibid., p. 118. n. 3).
3. Venantius Fortunatus, "De virginitate," Opera poetica 8.3, lines 327‑38 (NIGH Auct. ant. 4/ 1, 189‑191).
4. Ambrose, De virginibus 1.6.25‑27
(PL 16, 206‑207) "plures generaverit, plus laborat. Numeret solatia
filiorum, sed numeret pariter et molestias. Nubit et plorat . . .
Concepit et, gravescit . . . quid recenseam nutriendi molestias, instituendi et copulandi." On
the glories of virginity, see also Cyprian, De
habilu virg. 22 (CSEL
3, 202‑203); Jerome, Adversus Helvidium 20 (PL 23, 214A‑B);
Epistolae 22.2.1 (CSEL 54, 146); Augustine, De
sancta virginitate 13 (CSEL 41, 245); Epistulae 150 (CSEL 44,
381). On the praises lavished on virgins in the high and later Middle Ages, see Matthäus Bernards, Speculum virginum: Geistlichkeit and
Seelenleben der Frau im Hochmittelalter
(Forschungen zur Volkskunde, 36, 38; Cologne, 1955) and John Bugge, Virginitas: An Essay in the History of a .'Medieval Ideal (International
Archives of the History of Ideas, Ser. Min., 17; The Hague, 1975).
5. Gregory of Tours,
Liber vitae patrum 19.1 (MGH Script. rer. met. 1, 736) Gregory
made it clear that she had married "parentum
ad votum."
6. Hucbald, Vita s. Rictrudis
(HIGH Script. rer. met. 6, 94). She died in 668, but her life was composed
in 907; see Van der Essen, Etude critique. pp.
260‑265.
7. Vita s. Geretrudis 2 (MGH Script. rer. met. 2, 455‑456)
Gertrud was born "I 626 and died in 658; when her father, Pepin, died in 640, she was fourteen
years old, that is, of marriageable age.
8. Vita s. Eustadiola (AS 8
Iunii; 2, 132). She was a contemporary of Sulpicius,
who
died in 647; Vita Sulpilii (MGH Scnpt.
rer. met. 4, 371‑38o). See also Dekkers, Clavis patrum latinorum 298.
9. Vita s. Sigolenae (AS 24
Iulii; 5, 63o‑637). See also above, chapter 6, note 81.
10. Fortunatus, De vita sanclae
Radegundis 1.12 (MGH Script. rer.
met. 2, 368). Gregory of Tours, Hist.
franc. 3.7 (MGH Script. rer. met. 1, 115), also
mentioned the murder of her brother.
11. On the history of Radegund's nunnery, first dedicated to Noire‑Dame,
and then named Sainte‑Croix when Radegund
obtained from the Emperor Justin a piece of the Cross, see, in addition to the
sources cited in the previous
note, her testament (Pardessus 192 [Vol. 1, 151 ]) and
the letter addressed to her by the Council of Tours
held in 567 (CCL 148A, 195‑199). Among secondary sources, see René
Aigrain, Sainte Radegonde (Paris,
1 g 18) and "Une abbesse mat connue de Sainte‑Croix de Poitiers," Bulletin philologique et
historique (1946‑47),
197‑202; Dom Pierre Monsabert, "Le testament de Sainte
Radegonde," Bulletin philologique et
historique (1926‑27),
129‑134; and Verdon, "Recherches," p. 120. Several articles
deal with her in Etudes mérovingiennes.‑ Actes des
Journees de Poitiers, 1952 (Paris, 1953): René Aigrain, "Un ancien
poème anglais, sur la vie de
sainte Radegonde," pp. 1‑12; L. Coudanne, "Baudonivie, moniale
de Sainte‑Croix et biographe de sainte
Radegonde," pp. 45‑51; E. Delaruelle, "Sainte Radegonde, son
type de sainteté et la chrétienté de son temps,"
pp. 65‑74; Georges Marié, "Sainte Radegonde et le milieu monastique
contemporain, " pp. 219‑225.
12. Ionas, Vitae sanctorum:
Columbani 2.7 (MGH Script. rer. met. 4/1,
122; MGH Script. rer. germ. in usu schol.
241‑242).
J. O'Carrol, "Sainte Fare et les origines," in Sainte Fare et Faremoutiers (L'Abbeye de
Faremoutiers, 1956), pp. 4--35.
13. Vita s. Austrebertae 7 (AS 1o Feb.; 2, 420): "parentes
ejus . . . arrhabone pro amore seculi recepto, tempus praefinitum et diem statuissent
nuptiarium . . . illa in angustiis posita, cogitate coepit quid ageret. Moesta vero iter
furtim arripuit, germano secum fratre, licet parvulo.assumpto."
She was veiled around 656 and died between
681 and 704, according to the editor of her Vita.‑
Pref. 1 (ibid., 418). Although her biographer
claims to have been her contemporary, the
vita was composed in the late eighth
century; cf. Dekkers, Clavis patrum latinorum 2089.
14. Vila Bertilae 1 (MGH Script. rer. met. 6, 1o1).
According to the editor, W. Levison, the life
was composed after the mid‑eighth
century, probably in the late eighth or ninth century (ibid. 6, 99).
15. Vita Aldegundis 2 (MGH Script. rer. met. 6, 86). The
prevailing opinion among scholars is that the first version of her life was composed before 850, in
the late eighth century; for a summary of the literature, see E. de Moreau, Histoire
de l'Eglise en Belgique, Vol. 1, 2d ed. rev. (Brussels, 1945) 137‑138.
She died in 684, according to Van der
Essen. Etude critique, pp.
219.
16. Vita ss. Herlindis et Renildae 3, 6 (AS 22 Martii; 3, 384‑385) "quoadusque filiae suae ad intelligibile
tempus perductae fuissent,
votis voverunt absque ulla dilatione illas se tradituros divinis litteris
imbuendas . . . 11 propria
haereditate monasterium aedificarent, in quo electae filiae ip ipsorum pro
peccatis suis immortali Domino
funderent preces." Com posed in the ninth century, according to Van der
Essen, it contain. legendarydetails about the life of the two sisters, who lived in the
early part of the eighth century. Etudes
critique, pp.109-111.
17. Agius, Agii Vita et obitus Hathumodae 3 (MGH Script. 4, 167). She died in
871 Besides the monk Agius, her brother, she had two sisters,
Gerberga an(; Christina, who also entered Gandersheim.
Her older brother, Duke Otto,
and her older sister, Liutgard, were married; see Heineken, Dr. Anfänge, and L. Zoepf, Lioba, Hathumot, Wiborada: Drei Heilige des deutschen Mittelalters (Munich,
1915; see also note 192, below.
18. Vita Sadalbergae 6, to (MGH
Script. rer. mer. 5, 53, 55). She died shortly after the death of Waldabert
of Luxeuil in 670. Her vita was probably composed in the first half of the ninth century,
according to the editor. B. Krusch (ibid.,45). We
know that she had dedicated herself to the service of God quite early in life,
as soon as Eustachius cured her
blindness: Ionas, Vitae sanctorum:
Columbani 2.8 (MGH Script rer. mer. 4/2, 122). See also
chapter 5, note 29.
19. Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg's conclusions indicate a similar pattern:
"In the sixth century, women comprised slightly over eight per cent of the total number of saints . . . .
With the seventh century there is a substantial increase in the number of women saints. Approximately
15% . . . werewomen.
. . . For the first half of the [eighth] century the percentage reached 23.5%. . . . [In the ninth century] . . . only 15.7% are women." "Sexism and Celestial Gynaeceum, 500‑1200,"Journal
of Medieval History, 3 (1978), 120, 122, 123.
20. The community at Riez, which Sidomus Apollinaris mentioned in his Carmina 16.84 (MGH Auct. ant. 8, 241), may
have been among those that did not
survive the invasions. On Riez, see also E. Griffe, La Gaulr chrétienne à l'époque
romaine, Vol. 2(Paris, 1966), 260-65, with an explanation of the
Sidonius reference in note 5, p. 263.
21. Before the foundation of Saint Jean,
Caesaria lived at Marseilles,
in a nunnery established by Cassian; see Vitae
Caesarii35
(MGH Script. rer. mer. 3, 470).
22. Vila
Romani 1.15 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 3, 140). Romanus died at the end of the
fourth century; see F. Prinz, Fruhes Mdnchtum, pp. 23‑24. His
life was composed in the sixth century; on its value as a source, sec K. Weber,
"Kulturgeschichtliche Probleme der Merowingerzeit im Spiegel
frühmittelalterlicher Heiligenleben," Sludien und Mitteilungen des
Benediktinerordens and seiner Zweige, 48 (1930), 366‑375.
23. Vita Eugendi 5 (MGH Script.
rer. mer. 3, 156): "monachas vero procul intra urbem monasterioque
conseptas ultra sexagenario
numero admirabile ordinatione rexit et aluit." It later became a
Benedictine abbey; see
Cartulaire de l fl bb aye de Saint‑André‑le‑Bas de
Vienne, ordre de Saint Benoit, ed. U. Chevalier (Vienne,
1869). A donation issued in 543 to another nun nery outside the city
refers to this convent as the
one where the donor'! sister, Eubonia, is abbess. See
Pardessus 140 (vol. 1, 107), and note 28, below.
24. Vitae Caesarii 1, 35 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 3, 470)_For further literature, see F. Benoit,
"Topographie monastique d'Arles
au vie siècle," Etudes
mérovingiennes: Actes des Journees de Poitiers, 1952 (Paris, 1953),
pp. 13‑17; idem, "Le
premier baptistère d'Arles et l'Abbaye Saint‑Césaire," Cahiers archéologiques, 5 (1951), 3,_59; F.
Prim, Frühes Mönchtum, p. 77, nn. 179‑181; and L. Ueding, Geschichte
der Klostergrundungen des frühen Merowingerzeit
(Historische Studien, 261; Berlin,
1935), PP‑ 56‑‑64.
25. Caesarius of Arles,
Regula sanctarum virginum 39, 46, 64, in
opera omnia, ed. G. Morin, Vol. 2 (Maredsous, 1942), 112, 114,
119.
26. Saint Radegund adopted
Caesarius's Rule for the convent Clothar built for her; Gregory of Tours, Hist. franc. 9.39 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 395),
and Epistolae aevi mer. 11 (MGH Epist. 3, Mer. kar. aevi 1, 450‑453); also René Aigrain, "Le voyage de
sainte Radegonde à Arles,"
Bulletin philologique et
historique (1926‑27), 119‑127,
Hope Mayo discusses various rules used in Frankish convents. See her
"Three Merovingian Rules for Nuns"
(Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1974).
See also F. Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum,
pp. 8o‑82, and note 106, below.
27. Aurelian founded Saint Mary of Arles around 548, incorporating
many of
Caesarius's
points into its rule. A combination of the two rules was adopted by
Bishop Ferreolus of Uzès for Ferreolac.
For further literature, see Ueding, Klöstergrundungen,
p. 75; F. Prinz, Frühes Monchtum, p. 8o,
n. 196; and
Mayo "Three Merovingian Rules."
28. Pardessus 140 (vol. 1, 107). It was intended to serve as a burial
convent with their daughter Remilia serving as abbess.
According to Ado,
Chronicon (MGH Script. 2, 317), the
monastery was founded in 575 outside the walls.
In the city there was another convent established by Leonian; Remilia was
raised there. See also Gallia Christiana, vol. 16, 172, and
note 23, above.
3o. Gregory of Tours, Liber in
gloria confessorum 16 (MGH Script.
rer mer. 1,
(756‑757)
31. René Metz, "Les vièrges chrétiennes en Gaul
au ive siècle," in Saint
Martin
et son temps (Studia Anselmiana, 46; Rome, 1961), pp. 109‑132; idem, "La
consécration des vièrges en Gaul des origines
à l'apparition des livres liturgiques," Revue de droit canonique, 6 (1956), 321‑339; idem, "La
consécration des vièrges dans l'Église franque d'après la plus ancienne vie de
Sainte Pusinne (VIII‑IXe siècle)," Revue des sciences religieuses, 35 (1961), 32‑48. For studies
on professed widows, see below, note 58.
32. Nora Chadwick, in her Poetry
and Letters in Early Christian Gaul, gives examples of married couples in
fourth-centuryGaul renouncing sexual relations and
dedicating their lives to divine service. Concerning virgins, see Metz's articles in the previous note.
33. Henry Neff Waldron, treated this form of
religious life as the most common expression of lay conuersio. On the basis
of conciliar admonitions addressed to women converts, Waldron concludes that
"avowed widows and professed
virgins living in their own homes were the most common of all forms of conversio" ("Expressions of Religious Conversion among Laymen
Remaining within Secular Society in Gaul: 400‑800 A.D." [Ph.D.dissertation, OhioStateUniversity,
19761, p. 338). He also notes that during the course of the eighth century male conversi abandoned tonsure, the outward mark of their conversio, and were
no longer mentioned in ninth‑century
sources. This was not the case for virgins and widows dedicated to the service
of God.
34. One was a washerwoman, "quae sub specie religionis veste
mutata, concepit et peperit." The other, Marcoveifa, "religiosa veste habens,"
became a queen. Hist.
franc.2.1; 4.26 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 37, 157),
35. Gregory of Tours,
Liber in gloria confessorum 33 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 768).
36. Fortunatus, De vita sanctae
Radegundis 1.2 (MGH Script. rer. mer.
2, 365‑366).
37. Gregory of Tours,
Hist. franc. 2.43 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 106):
"Chrodechildis autem regina post mortem viri sui Turonus venit, ibique ad
basilica Martini deserviens."
38. Gregory of Tours,
Hist. franc. 9.33 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 387): "in
atrio sancti Martini."
39. Gregory of Tours,
De virtutibus s. Martini. 1.17 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 598): "In
portam Ambiensi, in qua . . . oratorium
a fidelibus est aedificatum, in quo nunc puellae
religiosae deserviunt." See also Ueding, Klostergründungen, p. 129.
40. Gregory of Tours,
Liber vitae patrum 9.2 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 703). This
nunnery grew up around the oratory built
by Saint Patroclus. When he decided to withdraw to the woods, he left his cell
to the virgins who had congregated
there. See C. A. Bernouilli, Die Heiligen
der Merowinger (Tübingen, 1900), pp. 99‑loo; Ueding, Klostergrundungen,
pp. 16, 126.
41. Two donations, forged in the eleventh century, claim that it was
founded by Clovis
and Clotild for their daughter Theodechild:
see Pardessus 64 (vol. 1, 34), 335 (Vol. 2, 112). See also M. Prou, Étude sur les chartes de fondation de lAbbaye de Saint‑Pierre‑le‑l'if
(Paris,
1894), and H. Bouvier, "Histoire de Saint‑Pierre‑le‑Vif
à Sens," Bulletin des sciences hist. et nat. de l'Yonne, 45 (1892), 1‑212. Ueding has argued
that the cloister was founded
by a Theudechild, the daughter of Queen Suavegotha, the wife of Theuderic I, Klostergründungen, pp.
198‑204.
This Theudechild was the sister of Theudebert I (534‑548), rather than
the daughter of Charibert, for whom
Venantius Fortunatus composed an epitaph: Opera
poetica (MGH Auct. ant. 4/1, 94). On the document listed in Pardessus as number 335, see Ewig, "Das
Privileg," p. 92, nn. 48‑50.
42.Prinz identifies it with
Saint Martin‑les‑Marien. See Frühes
Monchtum, pp.
65‑66.
See also J. Wollasch, "Das Patrimonium beati Germani in Auxerre," Studien and Vorarbeiten zur Geschichte des grossfrankischen‑
and frühdeutschen Adels, ed. G. Tellenbach (Freiburg,
1957), p. 188. According to
René Louis, it was affiliated with Saint Cosmas‑Saint Damien, a male
community, and the two formed
a double monastery. See Autessiodurum
christianum: les eglises d Auxerre des origines au XIme siècle (Paris,
1952), p. 16.
43. Gregory of Tours,
Liber vitae patrum 19.2 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 738):
"Ibique paucas collegens monachas, cum
fide integra et oratione degebat." According to Ueding, she died around
579 (Klostergrundungen, pp. 25‑26).
F. Prinz has suggested that the Chartres
community was organized according to the model of Saint Martin convents (Frühes Mönchtum, P‑ 37).
44.According to tradition, the
first convent was at Aliscamps; see A. Malnory,
Saint Césaire, évêque d Arles
503 q3) (Bibl. de l'École
des Hautes Études, Sciences Philol. et Hist., 103; Paris, 1894), pp. 257‑26o; L. A. Constans, Arles antique (Paris, 1941), pp. 357‑358; and the
articles by F. Benoit, cited
above, in note 24.
46.Gregory of Tours, Liber
in gloria confessorum 18 (MGH Script.
rer. mer. 1,
757‑758) the two virgins were
Maura and Britta.
47.Further research is needed
on the proportion of male and female communities in the sixth century. Ueding (Klostergrundungen)
listed fifty‑nine monasteries for men and seventeen for women. See
also Ch. Higounet, "Le
problème économique: L'Église et la vie rurale pendant
le très haut moyen age," Le Chiese
nei regni dell'Europa
occidentale (Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo: Settimana di
studio, 7, 2; Spoleto, 196o), pp. 775‑804
Higounet noted that three‑fourths of the Merovingian monasteries were
built in the country and one‑fourth
in the cities. Ibid., p. 785. Jean Hubert argues
against the prevailing view that monasteries grew around hermitages. On the contrary, hermitages were
attached to monasteries to permit members to engage periodically in complete solitude. "L'Érémitisme
et archéologie," in L 'Eremetismo in
occidente nei secoli XI e XII
(Milan, Univ. Catt. del Sacro Cuore, Contributi, Ser. 3, Var. 4; Studi
medioevali: Misc. 4; Milan, 1965), pp.469‑475
48.See notes 11, 38‑39,
41‑43, above.
49.Gregory I, Registrum epistularum 13.7, 12 (MGH Epist. 2, 371‑372, 378-380).
The second letter specified that the abbess
was to be chosen by the king, with the consent of the nuns. Even though Autun
did not emulate Arles
in the election of the abbess, it
had close relations with that convent. See F. Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum, p. 78.
50.Gregory of Tours, in his Hist. franc. 1o.8 (MGH
Script. rer. mer. 1, 415), mentioned a convent at Lyons from
which
Eulalius, count of Auvergne,
had abducted a nun. Dedicated to Saint Peter, it was known as Sancti
Petri‑Puellaris
(Saint Pierre‑aux‑Nonnaines). Two donations that claim it was
founded by King Gaudesil and his wife
Teudelind are tenth and
twelfth
century forgeries. See A. Coville, "La prétendue charte mérovingienne de
Saint‑Pierre de Lyon," and "L'Eveque
Aunemundus et son testament," in his Recherches
sur l'histoire de Lyon du Ve au IXe siècle (450‑(Paris, 1928), pp. 251‑266, and 366‑416.
For the two donations, see Pardessus 196 (vol. 1, 156) and 324 (Vol. 2, 101‑102). The nunnery was in
existence in the early ninth century: Bishop Leidradus of Lyons, in a letter to Charles the Great, dated 813, mentioned thirty‑two
nuns living there under the Benedictine Rule, Epist. variorum
Carolo Magno regnante scriptae 30 (MGH
Epist. 4, Mer. kar. aevi 2, 543).
According to Vita s.Boniti
37 (.SIGH Script. rer. mer. 6,
137), a woman called Dida was the abbess in 705.
51. The sixth‑century donations to Sancta Maria ` juxta
muros" are all forgeries dating from the ninth century, according to Julien Havet,
"Questions mérovingiennes VII: Les actes des évêques du Mans." Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 55 (1894), 5‑6o.
See Pardessus, 108, 117, 128 (vol. 1, 72‑74; 80, 94‑95). Ueding (Klostergrundungen,
p. 158) includes the convent among sixth‑century foundations.
52. On Arles, see
above, notes 24 and 27; on Vienne, notes 23 and 27; on Tours,
notes 38 and 43.
53. See above, note 40.
54‑ On Chelles, see below, note 82. On Notre‑Dame les Andelys, see Vita s. Chrothildis 1 1 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 2, 346). Bede mentioned Les Andelys among
the Frankish convents to which English kings sent their daughters to be educated. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum 3.8,
ed. C. Plummer, vol. i (Oxford,
1896), 142. As F. Prinz has
pointed out, Les Andelys was probably reorganized by Audoen of Rouen. See Frühes Monchtum, pp. 296‑297.
See also Ph. Schmitz, Histoire, vol. 7,
19.
55.See chapter 6, notes 73‑75
56.Conc. Turonense 21 (20) (CCL 148A,
186), citing Codex Theod. 9.25.1 interpret. and 9.25.2 (Mommsen,
vol. 1, 478‑479). added the comparison to the vestal virgins.
57.Conc. Aurelianense (538), 19 (16) (CCL 148A, 121). The Council of Orleans (549) • 19 (CCL 148A, 155) was somewhat more lenient, allowing
absolution after suitable penance. Conc.
Turonense 21 (2) (CCL í48A, 185) quoted directly from Innocent I, Epistola ad Victricium (Feb. 15, 404;
PL 20, 475‑477; JK 286). The idea that a virgin's
vow of chastity was a marriage pact with Christ was developed by Origen on the
basis of the Cantica Canticorum and then popularized
by Jerome in his Interpretatio Homil
Origenis in Cant. Cant. 5‑6 (PL 23, 1180‑1
182). Waldemar Molinski traces primary and secondary sources in
"Virginity," Sacramentum Mundi,
ed. Karl Rahner S. J., vol. 6 (London,
1970), 333‑336 See also jean Gaudemet, "Saint Augustin et le
manquement au voeu de virginité," Annales de la Faculté de Droit d Aix‑en‑Provence,
Nouv. ser., 43 (1950), 135‑145
'vidua,
quae benedicata non fuit, quare non debet maritum accipere?' "
We need further research on the status of widows who had been received into the religious life. André
Rosambert's La veuve en droit canonique needs
to be corrected and brought up to
date; see the scathing criticism of it by G. Le Bras in Revue des sciences religieuses,
6 (1926), 281‑288. René Metz emphasized that the "ordo
viduarum" initially consisted of elderly widows
who had been married only once and needed material assistance; it was slowly
transformed into a group of women
aspiring to lead a life of perfection. "La femme en droit canonique
médiéval," p. 93. R. Gryson traced the
process of assimilation between the order of widows and the order of virgins,
which began with the imposition
of the same habit by the first Council of Toledo, g (Bruns 1, 205). Le ministère, pp. 164‑169.
Despite the assimilation of the
juridical status and function of professed virgins and widows, widows were not
eligible for the solemn liturgical
rite of consecration; the Council of Orange in 441 deprived widows of the right
to receive benediction at the
time of their profession. It specified that the bishop was to hand a widow
"vestis vidualis," not before
the altar, but in the "secretarium," the room where bishops received
the faithful and arbitrated
conflicts. Conc.
Arausicanum 26 (CCL 148, 85). The so‑called Sacramentarium Gelasianum, copied at Chelles shortly before 750, made
a distinction between the "Consecratio sacrae virginis" and
"Benedictio viduae." God
accepted the former as a bride, but granted only consolation to the latter (Liber sacramentorum, pp. 123‑125, 213). On the
basis of a twelfthcentury ordo for
the veiling of widows, which was derived from an eighth century ordo, Ann
E. Mather concluded that "the veiling of a virgin was the marriage of a
woman to Christ, whereas a
widow, whether or not her husband was dead, offered herself to religious life
in the church within the contract
that bound her to her husband" ("A Twelfth Century Ordo for the
Veiling of Widows," paper read
at the Third Berkshire Conference on the History of Women; June, 1976). On the
consecration of virgins, see the
articles by René Metz cited in note 31.
63.Florentius, Vita s. Rusticulae 3 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 4, 341). On the
value of her biography, see Riche, "Note d'hagiographie
mérovingienne: La Vita s. Rusticulae," pp. 369‑377.
64.See note 12, above.
65.Lex Bai. 1.11 (,SIGH Legum Sectio I, 5/2, 283‑284).
66.Conc. Clippiacense (626‑627), 26 (CCL 148A, 296): "neque per auctoritatem regiam neque per
quacumque potestate
suffultus."
68. Vita Sadalbergae 8 (MGH Script. rer. mer‑
5, 54)
69.For a bibliography of secondary sources
and for the controversy whether Colomban arrived around 570 or 590, see F. Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum, p. 121, nn. 1‑3.
70.Ionas, Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 1.20 (SIGH Script rer. germ. in usu schol.
197)
71.For example,
Ionas, in his Vitae sanctorum: Columbani
1.26 (MGH Script. rer. germ. in usu schol. 209), mentioned that the matron Aiga brought her children
"ad benedicendum viro Dei." He consecrated them with his benediction, "videns . . . matris
fidem." Her oldest son, Ado,
and her second son, Iotrus, built Jouarre; her third
son, Dado, built Rebais.
72.Ionas, Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 1.14 (NIGH Script. rer. germ. in usu schol.
176).
73.Mary Bateson's Origin and Early History of Double Monasteries needs to be revised
in view of modern scholarship.
In particular, her thesis that there were double monasteries in Ireland
must be reexamined. Ferdinand
Hilpisch's study, Die Doppelklöster,
Entstehung and Organization, suffers from the author's reluctance to admit that some of the
Frankish double monasteries developed around nunneries, with the female community serving as the spiritually
and economically sustaining element. He rejects the possibility of any insular influence and argues that Frankish
double monasteries were modeled on Eastern institutions, where nuns lived as parasites upon the monks. M.
Heinrich summarized the scholarly controversy about double monasteries in Ireland,
pointing out that: "The Irish were favorable to it on the continent, but
in Ireland
only Kildare existed without
question." Canonesses and Education,
p. 62. On double monasteries in seventhcentury England, see Joan Nicholson, "Feminae gloriosae: Women
in the Age of Bede," in Medieval
Women, ed. in honor of Rosalind
M. T. Hill (Studies in Church History; Subsidia 1; Oxford, 1978), pp. 15‑2g.
74.Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines 12 (PL 88, 1o64; Holstenius 1, 400). For a bibliography on Waldebert's authorship, see F.
Prinz, Fruhes Monchtum, pp. 81, n. 205, 286, n. 97.
75. Ionas, Vitae
sanctorum: Columbani 1.26; 2.7 (NIGH Script. rer. germ. in usu schol. 204,
243). Her father, Chagneric,
was one of the great officials under Theudebert of Austrasia: "vir sapiens
et consiliis regiis gratus." Her
mother, Leudegunda, was a noble woman. See F. Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum, p. 81. O'Carrol claims Burgundofara was twelve or thirteen when Columban visited her
parents ("Sainte Fare et les origmes," p. 5). Ionas refers
to her as "infra infantiae annis," which means that she had not
reached twelve or thirteen, the age of adolescence.
The so‑called privilege of Saint Faro (Burgundofaro), Burgundofara's
brother, is a later forgery, probably
drawn up in the twelfth century. See Pardessus 226 (vol. 1, 193). It is
contained in two manuscripts: Paris,
Bibl. Nat. 928, fols. 56‑58; Paris, Bibl. Sainte
Genevieve 358, fols. 2 1‑22; see Gougaud, Les chrétientés celtiques, p. 146. The authenticity of Burgundofara's
testament, on the other hand, has been vindicated by its latest editor: Jean Guerout, "Le
testament de Sainte‑Fare," Revue
d'histoire ecclesiastique, 6o (1965), 761‑821. See Pardessus 257
(vol. 2, pp. 15‑17). On the two manuscript collections containing
these and other documents, see
Jacqueline Le Bras‑Tremenbert, "Les cartulaires de
Faremoutiers," Sainte Fare et Faremoutiers (L'Abbaye de Faremoutiers, 1956),
pp. 175213. Faremoutiers became a famous center of learning under Queen Balthild's
patronage: ['ita s. Balthildis 8 (MGH Script. rer. mer.
2, 493). It was praised by the Venerable Bede, in Historia ecclesiastica 3.8.
76.Hlawitschka, Studien, p. 38, and Liber
memorialis yon Remiremont (MGH Libri mem. 1, ix).
77.Vita Filiberti 22 (.'SIGH Script. rer. mer. 5, 595).See also Vacandard, fie de Saint Ouen, p. tog. Hilpisch classified Pavilly ‑Jumièges as neighboring
convents, not as a double monastery (Die
Doppelklöster, p. 34). A similar type
of affiliation existed between Pellemontier‑Montiérender and Fécamp‑Saint
Wandrille, according to Hilpisch
(ibid., pp. 33‑34)F.
Prinz argued that Logium, rather than Fécamp, constituted the female
counterpart of Saint Wandrille Fruhes Monchtum, p. 128).
78. "Tantôt et le plus souvent, les moniales sont sujettes à la
jurisdiction de l'abbaye des hommes." Schmitz, Histoire, vol. 1, p. 322.
79.On the transfer of Dorniaticum to
Waldelen, see Pardessus 328 (Vol. 2, toy‑lo6). Subsequently, in 666, even Bèze was devastated, perhaps by the same group that threatened
Dorniaticum; on this, see Pardessus 348, 356
(Vol. 2, 131, 141). For
secondary literature, see F. Prinz, Fruhes
Monchtum, p. 281.
80.Vita Sadalbergae 17 (MGH
Script. rer. mer. 5, 5g): "in eodem loco sunt vel monasterio adunatae
plus minusve trecentae famulae
Christi; illisque dispositis per turmas, ad instar Agaunensium monachorum
Habendique normam disposuit;
die ac nocte praecepit psallendi canonem omnipotenti." The "laus
perennis" was introduced to
Remiremont by Amatus, who was a monk at Agaunum before he was invited by
Eustachius to join Remiremont.
According to Hilpisch, Salaberga was educated at Remiremont (Die Doppelklöster, p. 38). Salaberga was in contact with
Eustachius, who cured her of blindness, according to Vita Sadalbergae 4 (NIGH Script. rer. mer. 5, 53). The
passage was excerpted from Ionas, Vitae
sanctorum: Columbani 2.8 (MGH Script.
rer. germ. in usu schol. 244‑245) On Laon, see A. Malnory, Quid Luxovienses monachi, discipuli s. Columbani, ad regulam monasteriorum atque ad communem
ecclesiae profectum contulerunt (Paris,
1894), p. 29.
81.Dom Y. Chaussy et al., eds.,
L Abbaye royale Notre‑Dame de
Jouarre (Paris, 1961); Marquise Aliette de Rohan‑Chabot Maillé, Les cryptes de Jouarre (Paris, 1971).
82.Gregory of Tours, in his Hist. franc. 5.39; 6.46; 8.4; lo.19 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1,
231, 286, 293, 433).
mentioned
the existence of a royal vilaa at Cala, with a "coenobiolum virginum"
established there by Queen Clotild,
wife of Clovis.
On its reconstruction by Balthild, see Fita
s. Balthildis A 7, 18 (.NIGH Script.
rer. mer. 2, 489,
5o6).On Balthild's monastic foundations, see Ewig, "Das
Privileg," pp. rob‑i i r. As Henri I.évy‑Bruhl, has pointed out, in the Merovingian period
the founder chose the constitution of the monastery and nominated the superior as well. Etude sur les élections abbatiales en France jusqu'à la fin du règne de Charles de
Chauve (Paris, 1913),
p. 42.Thus, at Corbie,
her other foundation for males, Balthild installed Theudefrid, a monk from Luxeuil. There are no modern studies on
Chelles. Mare Bloch has listed and criticized earlier studies in his "Notes sur les sources d'histoire de
l'Ile‑de‑France au Moyen Age I: Les archives et
cartulaires de l'Abbaye de Chelles,"
Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de l'lle‑de‑France,
40 (1913), 145‑164. The Vita s.Balthildis 15 (MGH Script. rer. mer.
2, 502) mentioned the presence of "sacerdotes" only at the time
of Balthild's death. The Vita Bertilae, composed in the late
eighth century, more than once refers to the presence of monks. For a summary of this issue, see
the introduction by Levison (.NIGH
Script. rer. mer. 6, g7‑98), and chapter
8, notes 51‑55.
83.Hoebanx, L'Abbaye de Nivelles, pp. 45‑53
84.The two charters by Aldegund in Pardessus
(338‑339 ßs'01. 2, 116‑118]) are
forgeries; see Paul Bonenfant, "Note critique
sur le prétendu testament de sainte Aldegonde," Académie Royale de Belgique: Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, 98 (1934), 219‑238. On
the other hand, the value of her life, Vita
.‑lldegundis (MGH
Script. rer. mer. 6, 79‑90), has been vindicated by Van der Essen, Etude critique, pp. 219‑231, and Moreau, Histoire de l"Eglise, Vol. 1, 121. Moreau suggests that Saint Amand may have helped with the foundation of Maubeuge (ibid., p. 381). See also J. Becquet,
"Nouveau dépouillement du `Monasticon Benedictinum,'
" Revue Benedictine, 73 (1963), 332.
85.According to Vita s. Rictrudis 2.16 (Acta sanctorurn Belgii selecta 4, 496), written
by Hucbald of Saint Amand in 907, Rictrud built Marchiennes with
Amand's help and had Ionas as her coabbot; the latter is not to be confused with Ionas of Bobbio, according to F.
Prinz (Frühes Monchtum, P. 273• n‑
30). See also Hucbald, Vita s. Jonati (,,ISr. Aug.; 1, 75). On the value of Saint Rictrud's vita as a historical source, see Van der Essen, Etude critique,
pp. 260‑268; Moreau, Histoire
de l'Église, vol. 1, 245, and his
Saint Amand, apôtre de la Belgique et du Nord de la France (Louvain, 1927), pp. 224‑227; and Hilpisch, Die Doppelklöster, p. 40.
86.Jules
Dewez, Histoire de lAbbaye de St. Pierre d'Hasnon (Lille, r 89o);
Becquet, "Monasticon Benedictinum," p.331.
87.Pardessus 355 (Vol. 2, 138‑141), issued
by Drauscius, Bishop of Soissons, granted free election of the abbess and referred to "Ebroinus majordomus,
ejusque inlustris matrona Leutrudis, et eorum unicus
dilectissimus filius Bovo"
as the founders and to Etheria as the abbess. A letter of Bishop Leodegar to
Sigrada, written in 688,
Epist. Aevi crier. 17 (.11(;H Epist. 3, Mer. kar. aevi 1, 466),
referred to "omnes fratres sanctos, qui cuotidie pro to orant," and "sorores sanctas
quarum consortium frueris." See also J. Fischer, Das Hausmeier Ebroin, p. 109.
88.Moreau, Histoire de l'Eglise, vol. 1 , 1 77. According to Hucbald, ['ita s. Rictrudis
9 (Acta sanctorum: Belgii selecta
4, 492), it was founded by Gertrud, whose grandson Adalbald married Saint
Rictrud. It was a double monastery
by the ninth century and closely associated with Marchiennes, as the
instruction of Charles the Bald, namely, that the monks and nuns of Hamaye were to receive a share
of the wine produced by the villa of Vregny
belonging to the Abbey of Marchiennes, indicates. Georges Tessier, Recued des Actes de Charles II, le Chauve, roi de France 435, Vol. 2, (Chartes et
diplornes relatifs A l'histoire de France, 8,
no. 2, 9‑1o; Paris, 1943‑45)
473‑474
89. Becquet, "Monasticon
Benedictinum," p. 327. It was
founded around 660 by Bertha, wife of
Gendebert, mayor of the palace and
the brother of Nivard of Reims. On the latter, see Fita Nivardi (MGH Script. rer. mer. 5, 157‑171).
By the ninth century it had as members forty nuns and twenty clerks; see
Flodoard, Historia ecclesiae Remensis 3.27 (.NIGH Script. 13, 549) . See also jean Verdon, "Notes sur le rôle
économique des monasteres féminins en
France
dans la second moitié du IXe et au &but du Xe
siècle," Revue Mabillon, 58 (1975),
332.
go. F. Prinz, Frühes
Monchtum, p. 158.
91. Remiremont and Bèze in the area around Luxeuil; Faremoutiers,
Jouarre, Chelles, Soissons, and Laon between the
Seine and the Somme; Maubeuge,
Marchiennes, Nivelles, Hasnon, and Hamaye between the Somme and the Meuse.
Among double monasteries it is possible to include Saint
Jean and Saint Mary of Arles,
and Holy Cross and Saint Radegonde of Poitiers.
92.Higounet, "Le problème
économique," pp. 775‑804. Jean Hubert estimated the number of
seventh‑century monastic
foundations in Gaul at about two hundred (see
"L'Eremitisme et archéologie," p. 473). In comparison to this figure,
the number of double monasteries is very small.
93. Pavilly ‑Jumièges and Fécamp‑St. Wandrille; see note
77, above.
94. Hans‑Walter Hermann, "Zum Stande der Erforschung der
früh‑ and hochmittelalterlichen Geschichte des Bistums Metz,"
Rheinische Vierte ljahrsblàtter, 28
(1963), 164.
95. Eligius, bishop of Noyon, founded one, according to Vita s. Eligii 2.5 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 4, 697); his goddaughter, Godeberta, built
another: Fita s. Godeberthae (.4S 11
Aprilii; 2, 33).
96. Passio s. Praeiecti episcopi 15
(.11611 Script. rer. mer. 5, 235),
See also Verdon, "Recherches," p. 125.
97. Berthoara built one under the episcopate of Austregisil; see Ionas,
Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 2.10 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 4/1,
128); Vita Austrigisili 1 o (MGH Script. rer. mer. 4, 1 g7); 1
Mellot, "Les fondations colom
baniennes
clans le diocèse de Bourges,"
.'Mélanges Columbaniens: Actes du Congrès International de Luxeuil, a0‑a3 juillet 1950 (Paris, 1951), 1T 208‑Zit.
Later, Saint Eustadiola founded another community women, according to Vita s. Eustadiolae 3 (AS 8
Iunii; 2, 132).
98.See Ewig, "Kirche and Civitas in der
Merowingerzeit," in Le Chiese nei
regne i dell'Europa occidentale (Centro Italiano
di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo; Scitimana di Studio, 7, t; Spoleto, 1960), pp. 45‑71.
99.On the number of nuns at Laon, see Vita Sadalbergae 17 (MGH Script. rer mer. 5, 5g), quoted above note 8o. On Remiremont, see note 76. ‑I'hc
number of inhabitants at Pavilly is mentioned in Vita s. Austrebertae i;~ (AS 10 Feb.; 2, 422).
100.See, for example, the exemption granted by
Bishop Drauscius for Soissons
in 666: Pardessus 355 (Vol. 2, 138‑141). Ewig has pointed out that the
same wording appears in the privilege issued for Saint Pierre‑le‑Vif
of Sens ("Das Privileg," p. g3). See Pardessus 335 (Vol. 2, t t 2). Moreover.theSoissons privilege is related to those issued for Saint Denis, Sithiu (Saint
Omer), Corbie, and Rebais. For a bibliography of secondan works on proprietary
rights exercised over monasteries, see Ph. Schmitz, Histoire, vol. i, p. 89, n. 1.
101.See
above, notes 72 and 97.
102.Even the
larger houses were aristocratic homes adapted to communal living. Jean Hubert, refers to
several studies that demonstrate that the first monasteries constructed for the
specific purpose of communal living
with a chapter house, refectory, dormitory, and outbuildings, appeared only in
the eighth century. "L'Erémitisme et archèologie," p. 474, in
particular, n. 32‑34.
103.Epist.
aevi mer. coll. 17 (.SIGH Epist. 3,
Mer. et kar.
aevi 1, 466).
104.Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines
23 (PL 88, 1070).
105.Ibid. 21 (PL
88, 1068C).
106.On the rules observed, see H. Mayo,
"Three Merovingian Rules for
Nuns"; F. Prinz, Frühes Monchtum,
pp. 121‑151;
Ph. Schmitz, Histoire, vol. 7, pp. 13‑18;
L. Gougaud, "Inventaires des règles monastiques irlandaises," Revue
Bénédictine, 25 (1908), 329‑331; T.P. McLaughlin. Le très
ancien droit monastique de l'Occident;
J. Heineken, Die Anfänge, p. 103.
107.Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines 17 (PL 88, ío65).
108.See chapter 8, notes 20‑21, 23, 35‑39;
Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad
virgines t‑4 (PL 88, 1054‑1057).
109.Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines 24 (PL 88, 1070).
110.For example, Gregory
of Tours, in Hist. franc. 6.29 (MIGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 268), related
that a nun at Holy Cross of Poitiers decided to become a recluse. She was assigned a special
cell, which was walled up. Before she entered the cell, she said farewell to all, kissing each one of her sisters.
111.Vita s.
Eustadiolae 3 (AS 8 Iunii; 2,
132).
112.Vita s.
Balthildis 9 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 2,
494).
113.Caesarius, Regula sanctarum virginum 61, ed. G. Morin (Florilegium patristicum,
34; Bonn, 1933), p, 20 (PL 67, 1
105); Aurelian, Regula ad virgines 13
(PL 68, 40 t; Holstenius t, 371). The Benedictine Rule assumed that
both nobles and poor people would offer their sons to monastic life;
Regula Benedict 59 Holstenius 1, 132).
On Leubovera, see Gregory of Tours, Hist.
franc. to. t 5‑t 7 (MGH Script.
rer. mer, t, 423‑430) .
114.The
Council of Herstal, held in 779, ordered that ‑sancti moniales" and
the men with whom they committed fornication
or adultery were to be placed in monasteries and their property used as an
entrance fee. If they were paupers and
did not have property "qualiter in monasterio vivant," they were to
be turned over to the care and supervision
of their nearest relative; Conc. Harist Capit.
18 (MGH Capit. t,
46).Collectio Sangallensis (ca.
870), 6 (MGH Form. 400) is a donation to a monastery for the explicit
purpose "ut filius vel filia . . . in congregatione suscipiatur." See
also Cartae Senonicae 31 (MGH Form. t 99).
115.Baudonivia, De vita s. Radegundis 12 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 2, 385‑386).
116.De vita s. Radegundis 16 (load‑, 388‑389). Baudonivia
recounted the difficulties Radegund encountered with the local bishop when she adopted Caesarius's
Rule, exempting the convent from episcopal jurisdiction.
117.Conc. Germ. (742), 6 (MGH Cone. 2, 4).
118.On Saint Boniface, see
Theodor Schieffer, Winfrid‑Bonifatius
and die christiche Grundlegung Europas (Freiburgi.
B., 1954), and Angelsachsen and Franken (Akademie
der Wissenschaften and der Literature, Mainz; Abhandlungen
der geistes‑ and sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse, 20; Wiesbaden, 1950). On the Anglo‑Saxon missionaries
in general, Wilhelm Levison, England and
the Continent in the Eighth Century, 2d ed. (Oxford, 1950),
and Aus rheinischer and fränkischer
Frühzeit (Düsseldorf, 1948). See also C. Wampach, Sankt Willibrord:
Sein Leben and Lebenswerk (Luxembourg,
1953),
119.See Brühl, Fodrum, pp. 26‑30, 50‑52,
102‑105 and notes 173 and 185 below.
120.For example, St. Boniface
asked Begga to send him works on the lives of martyrs and thanked her for money
and vestments. Die Brièfe, 15 ed. Tangl, p. 27. From Eadburga he requested an
illuminated copy of
Peter's Epistles and
thanked her for some unidentified books. Ibid. 30, 35, PP‑
54, 6o.
121.For example, in his letter
to Begga, Saint Boniface referred to monks and nuns as "omnes milites
Christi utriusque sexus." Die Bnefe 94, ed. Tangl, p. 2 t 5.
122.Only Pope Zachary's reply
is extant (Nov. 4, 751); "Nam
et hoc inquisivit fraternitas tua, si liceat sanctimoniales feminas quemadmodum viri sibi
invicem pedes abluere tam in cena Domini quamque in aliis diebus. Hoc dominicum perceptum est
....Etenim viri et mulieres unum Dominum
habemus." Boniface, Die
Briefe 87, ed. Tangl, p. 198.
123. Boniface, Die Briefe 128,
ed. Tangl, pp. 265‑266. Conc. Ver. (755) 5 (MGH Cap. 2,
34).
124. Conc. Germ. 7 (MGH Conc. 2, 4): "Et ut monachi et
ancille Dei monasteriales iuxta regulam sancti Benedicti ordinare et vivere,
vitam propriam gubernare, studeant." On Boniface's presence at this
council, see de Clercq La législation,
vol. 1, 1 17. The same provision was made for monks alone in 743 by the Conc. Liftinense 1 (MGH Conc. 2, 7); in
744 the Synod of Soissons required "stability according to the holy
rule" on the part of both monks and nuns: Conc. Suess‑ 3 (MGH
Conc. 2, 34). The observance of the Rule was extended to Bavarian
monasteries by the Conc. Asch. (756) 8 (MGH Conc. 2,
58).
125.Conc. Vernense 6 (MGH Cap. 1, 34).
126.Conc. Vernense 11 (ibid., 35).
127.Eugen Emig, "Beobachtungen zur Entwicklung der fränkischen
Reichskirche unter Chrodegang von Metz," Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 2 (1968),
67‑77. On the date
of the Rule's composition (after 751 and before 766), see de Clercq, La
législation, vol. 1, 146‑155, in particular, 146, n. 3, for editions
and bibliography.
130.See above, notes 67 and
125. Waldron surveyed the external signs of conversion, concluding that vows,
change of habits, and veiling took
many forms and were often privately administered without the presence of a
priest or bishop. But, in the
eighth century, the councils began to regulate these ceremonies, insisting upon
veiling as the outward form of conversio. "Expressions
of Religious Conversion," pp. 196‑207, 2t8‑225, 235‑246.
131.Capit. missorum(ca. 802) 19 (.'SIGH Capit. 1, 103). This did
not mean that parents could not offer their children as oblates; see Capit. eccl. ad
Salz (804), 6 (MGH Capii. 1, 119).
132.Conc. Foroiuliense (796‑797), 11 (NIGH Conc. 2, 193): "ob continentiae signum nigram vestem
quasi religiosam ..
. licet non sint a sacerdote sacratae, in hoc tamen
proposito eas perpetim perseverare mandamus." See also, Capit.
Francicum (779), 18 (MGH
Capit. 2, 38). See Catherine
Capelle, Le voeu d'obéissance des
origines au XIIe siècle (Bibliothèque d'histoire du droit et du droit
romaine, 2; Paris, 1959). Capelle discussed the usage of the term vow in
patristic and early medieval sources, arguing that the promise of chastity by
monks, nuns, and consecrated virgins did not constitute a vow in the strict,
juridical sense of the word until the end of the eighth century. Until that
time it resembled the promise of chastity given by candidates for ordination to
the subdiaconate and higher offices. On the latter, see L. Hertling, "Die
Professio der Kleriker and die Entstehung der drei Gelübde," Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, 56
(1932), 148‑174
134.Conc. Parisiense (829), 45 (ibid. 2,
639). For its precedent,
see Syn. Dioc. Autiss.(561‑605), 36‑37,
42 (CCL 148A, 269‑270).Conc. Laodicense 44
(Mansi 2, 581) and Gelasius, Epist. g,
Decr.26 (PL 59, 48; JK
636) served as the sources for
this misogynist legislation.
135.On new foundations in the Carolingian period,
see Heineken, Die Anfange.
136.For a quick summary of this
policy, see Karl Siepen, Vermogensrecht
der klosterlichen Verbdnde (Paderborn,
1963), pp. 16‑21. Dom
Schmitz advanced the view that the concept of the "abbatia" was born
during the reign of Charlemagne. This
meant that the monastery was held as a benefice from the king, with a certain
part of the domain set aside for the
support of the community and the rest distributed as fiefs. Histoire, vol. 1, p. 98.
140.Conc. Cabil 43‑56 (MGH
Conc. 2, 284‑285); see in particular article 53, which referred to
"sanctimoniales quae se
canonicas vocant."
141.Inst. sand. 18 (MGH Conc. 2,
449): "quanto enim idem sexus fragilior esse dinoscitur, tanto necesse est maiorem erga
eum custodiam adhiberi."
142.Conc. Aquis. 1 15 (MGH Conc.
2, 397).
143.Inst. sanct. 8 (.SIGH Conc. 2,
444): "committat eas . . . aut propinquo aut alio . . . amico, qui eas
iure fori defendat."
144.Inst. sand. 27 (ibid.,
455): "Sanctimoniales namque velo ante posito
.
. . horas canonicas et missarum sollemnia
celebrent."
145.Even their contact with
priests was to be limited‑they could make confession only within sight of
their sisters: Inst. sand. 27 (ibid.,
455).
146.Inst. sand. 18 (ibid.,
451).
147.Inst. sand. 20 (ibid., 451).
148.Conc. Vernense (755), 6 (MGH
Capii. 1, 34).
149.Duplex legationis edictum (789), 19 (MGH
Capit. 1, 63); Cone. Risp. Fris. Solis. (8oo), 27 (MGH Conc. 2, 210); Conc.
Cab.(813), 57, 62 (MGH Conc. 2, 284, 285); Cone.Mog.(813), 13 (MGH Conc. 2, 264); Conc.Turonense
(813), 30 (MGH Conc. 2, 290); Conc. Mog.(847), 16
(HIGH Capit. 2, 180).These documents specified that an abbess could leave her monastery only
with her bishop's permission, or if summoned by the king. One of the difficulties in keeping women religious
cloistered was the lack of suitable buildings. Recent archaeological excavations have shown that, prior to the
mid‑eighth century, female communities were housed in structures that did not differ in
any way from private homes and therefore lacked enclosed areas. On this, see Hubert, "L'Eremitisme et
archeologie," p. 474. Charlemagne, in his Capit.miss. spec. (ca
802), 35 (MGH Capit. 1, 103), ordered
abbesses to house members of their community in "claustra . . .
ordinabiliter composita." In a similar vein, Conc. Mog. (847), 16 (MGH Capit. 2, 18o) charged
the abbesses with the duty of "aedificando ea, quae ad santimomalium necessitatem pertinent et in restaurando."
150.Conc. Foroiuliense 12 (MGH Conc. 2, 194).
151.See number 78 in Die Bnefe, ed.
Tangl, p. 16g. See also numbers 8, 14, and 27.
152.Conc. Risp. Fris. Salis. (800), 28 (MGH Conc.
2, 21 1): "ut sanctae moniales non induantur virilia indumenta. .
." Conc. Aquis. (816), 130 (MGH Conc. 2, 405): "sicut enim turpe
est virum vestem muliebrem et mulierem vestem
virilem induere."
154.Capitula eccl. ad Salz data (803‑804),
7 (MGH Capit. 1, 1 19 "nullus
masculum filium ant nepotem vet parentem suum
in monasterio puellarum ant nutriendum commendare praesumat, nec quisquam illum
suscipere audeat."
155.Inst. sanct. 18 (MGH Conc. 2, 455): "iuxta
ecclesiam . . . sit hospitale pauperum . . ."
156.See the legislation cited in note 149, above.
157.Admonitio generalis (789), 76 (MGH Capit. 1,
6o): "abbatissas contra morem
sanctae Dei ecclesiae benedictionis cum
matins impositione et signaculo sanctae crucis super capita virorum dare, necnon
et velare virgines cum benedictione
sacerdotali quod omnino vobis . . . interdicendum esse scitote." Repeated verbatim in Ansegesi
capit.1.71 (.SIGH Capit. 1, 404).See also the prohibition
against veiling virgins and widows without a bishop's sanction, pronounced by the Council of Paris (829), cited in note 133.
158.Translatio s. Baltechildis (MGH Script. 15/1,
285), composed in 833, refers to the "clerus tam
virorum quam feminarum"
at Chelles.
159.
Conc. Risp. Fris. Salis. 22 (.NIGH Conc. 2, 210): "Ut liceat sanctimonialem signum
ecclesiae pulsate et lumen accendere."
160.Conc. Alog. (847), 16 (MGH Capit. 2, 180):
"Sanctimoniales vero in monasterio constitutae habeant studium in legendo et
in cantando, in psallmorum caelebratione sive oratione. Et
horas canonicas . . . pariter celebrent."
161.Inst. sand. 28 (MGH Conc.
2, 455).Although the hospice for the poor had to be located outside
the convent (see above n. 155), there was to be a room within the
monastery for receiving and feeding widows and poor women.
162.Inst. sand. 22 (ibid.,452): "puellae, quae in
monasteriis erudiuntur, cum omni pietatis affectu et vigilantissimae curae studio nutriantur . . ."
163.The best accounts of monastic reforms
carried out under Louis the Pious and led by Benedict Aniam are J. Koscheck, Die Klosterreform Ludwigs des Fr. im Verhaltnis zur Regel Benedikts von Nursia (Greifswald, 1908); J.
Semmler, "Reichsidee and kirchliche Gesetzgebung bei Ludwig dem
Frommen," Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, 71 1960), 37‑65;
and idem, "Zur Uberlieferung der monastischen Gesetzgebung Ludwigs des Frommen," Deutsches Archiv, 16 (1960), 309‑388. See
also J. Narberhaus,Benedikt von Aniane, Werk and Persönlichkeit (Munster, 1930); Suzanne
Dulcy, La Règle de Saint Benoit d Aniane
et la réforme monastique à l époque
carolingienne (Nimes, 1935); and J. Semmler, Benedikt
von Aniane (Mannheim,
1971).
164.Emile Lesne, "Les ordonnances de
Louis de Pieux," Revue d'histoire de
l'Eglise de France, 6 (1920), 490‑493; Kassius
Hallinger, ed., Corpus consuetudinum
monasticarum, vol. 1 (Siegburg, 1963),
pp. 493‑499.The five nunneries
were Notre‑Dame at Soissons, Baume‑les‑Dames
in the diocese of Besançon, Swarzach at Würzburg, Holy Cross at Poitiers, and
Notre‑Dame at Limoges.
This list did not mention Benedictine monasteries that were in the hands of bishops and lay proprietors.
165.E. Hlawitschka, "Zur
Klosterverlegung and zur Annahme der Benediktsregel in Remiremont," Zeitschrift fur die Geschichte des Oberrheins, 1 09 (1961), 249‑269.
166.W. Levison ("Recension:
Schäfer," p. 491), demonstrated
that "monasterium, coenobium, claustrum, ancillae Dei, Deo sacratae, sanctimoniales, sorores,
virgines" were generic terms used to designate both types of houses and their inhabitants. For criticism of
Schäfer's thesis with respect to Germany, see Heineken, Die Anfänge, p. 1 13.
167.A. Werminghoff, "Die Beschlüsse des
Aachener Conzils im jahre 816," News
Archiv, 27 (l go l), 634, n. 7.
168.Gesta Alderici 44 (MGH Script. 15, 324).
167. See note 158, above.
170. Capit. de
monasterio s. Crucis Pictavensi (822‑824), 6‑7 (MGH Capit. 1, 302).
171.Bouquet (Recueil, vol. 8, 641‑642) lists a donation by Charles the
Bald dated 872, that refers to nuns
and priests and deacons. See also
Tessier, Recueil 197, vol. 1, 509; 494, 499. Vol. 2, 655, 656.These documents are classified
as forgeries from the early eleventh century. Cf. Verdon, "Notes," p.
331.
172.On female saints in ninth‑century
Saxony, see Stoeckle, Studien. PP. 56‑87.
On Saint Liutberga in particular, see chapter
5, note 13, and note 192, below.
173.For a list of Carolingian
princesses and queens holding abbeys, see Emile Lesne, Histoire de la propriété ecclésiastique
en France, Vol. 2, pt. 2 (Fac. Cath. de Lille, Mémoires et travaux, 3o;
Lille, 1926), 168; and Karl Voigt, Die karolingische Klosterpolitik and der
Niedergang des westfränkischen Konigtums, Laienäbte and Klosterinhaber (Kirchenrechtliche Abhandlungen, go‑91;
Stuttgart, 1917), pp. 39‑43
174.Einhard, Vita Caroli 19 (.'NIGH Script. 2,
454). Nithard, in Historiarum
1.2 (MGH Script. 2, 651), wrote
that Louis the Pious
"sorores suas . . . instanter a palatio ad sua monasteria abire
praecepit."
175.Translatio s. Baltechildis 1 (HIGH
Script. 15/1, 284).
176.On May 12, 889, she was
addressed as "famula Christi." See J. F. Bohmer, Die Regesten des Katserreichs unter der
Karolingern, 751‑8, new ed. Mühlbacher (Regesta imperii, 1;
Innsbruck, 1889), document 1816 (1767).
177.Vita Hludowici 44 (MGH Script. 2, 633).
178.Flodoard, Historia ecclesiae Remensis 3.27 (MGH Script. 13, 549).
179.Regino, Chronicon (887) (MGH Script. 1, 597).
180.Fragmentum Ann. Chesnii (.'NIGH
Script. 1, 33)
181.Vita Hludowici 44 (.'NIGH Script. 2, 633); Annales
Bertiniani. (830) (MGH Script. 1, 423‑424); Agobard, Libri
duo pro filiis et contra Judith uxorem Ludovici Piz 1.3 (MGH
Script. 15, 275).
184.Vita s. Austrebertae to (AS to Feb.; 2, 421). On the entrance fee, see note 114.
185. Jean
Guerout, "Le monastère à l'époque carolingienne," in L Abbaye royale Notre‑Dame de Jouarre,
ed. Y.Chaussy et al.,
vol. 1 (Paris, 1g61), 75‑78.We also know that Thiathilda, the
abbess of Remiremont (ca. 818‑863),pleaded for the
protection of her kinsman, the seneschal Adalard, and asked the proprietress,
Empress Judith, not to divert
other manors from the nuns' use; see Indicularius
Thiathildis 3‑4 (.SIGH Form. 526‑527). As Heineken has noted, the property of both male and
female cloisters was theoretically under royal management, but since "die
Frauenkloster and ihrer Gutsverwaltung weniger selbständig waren, mussten dadurch die konigliche Ansprüche auf
die Verfügung gestärkt werden." Die
Anfänge, P. 73
186. Bouquet, Recued, vol. 8, 666; Hoebanx, L
Abbaye de Nivelles, p. 107. See, also, the grant of immunity Charles issued for Hasnon in Tessier, Recueil, Vol. 2, 475
187.Jacques Choux described the
transformation of Benedictine houses into chapters of canons by lay proprietors
in "Décadence et réforme monastiques dans la province de Trèves, 855‑959," Revue Bénédictine, 70 (1
960), 204‑233.
Despite this tendency and the Viking raids, the author assures us that
"quant aux monastères de femmes
. . . its valaient mieux que leur réputation." Ibid.,
p. 216. He cites from Vita lohannis Gorziensis (MGH Script.4,349): "Sanctimonalium
habitacula . . . etsi non re, fama tamen obscurari . . ."
188.The twenty‑second
abbess of Remiremont, who lived in the early tenth century, was referred to in
a thirteenth‑century
necrology as "abbatissa atque diachonissa." See Hlawitschka, Studien, p. 42. Atto of Vercelli(ca. 924‑96o) explained in one of his letters that the title deaconess
was given to abbesses (Epist. 8; PL 134, 114‑115).
189.Mathilda of Quedlinburg held this title
according to the Annales Quedlinburgenses
(MGH Script. 3, 75). See also Karl
Horger, "Die reichsrechtliche Stellung der Fürstäbtissinnen," Archiv fur Urkundenforschung, 9 (1926), 198; and Heineken, Die Anfänge, pp. 125‑126.
190. Conc. Mog. (888), 26 (Mansi 18, 71‑72).
191. See above, chapter 6, note 107.
192.She died between 86o and 865 at
Wendhausen; see Vita s. Liutbirgae (MGH
Script. 4, 158‑164).See also Grosse, "Das Kloster
Wendhausen, sein Stiftergeschlecht and seine Klausnerin."
193.Agius, Agii Vita et obitus Hathumodae 5‑6, 9
(MGH Script. 4, 168‑16g). Hathumoda died in 874, at age thirty‑four,
according to her biographer, who was her brother. On Hathumoda, see note 17, above, and Paul Lehmann, Corveyer Studien, (Abh. d. bayerischen Akademie der Wiss., philos.‑philol.
and hist. Klasse, 33/5; Munich, 1919).
[In Search of Spiritual Perfection from Suzanne Wemple's Women in Frankish Society .]
The pursuit of spiritual perfection through monasticism was the one area of religious life open to women after the female diaconate was abolished and the status of priest's wife degraded in the sixth century. Feminine monasticism originated in early Christianity and, like its masculine counterpart, developed into a movement with the official recognition of the church. Monasticism (from the Greek verb monazein "to be alone") was not an option that women could pursue in antiquity. Except for a few prophetesses or priestesses, women in ancient societies were expected to marry, bear and raise children, and look after the household. Contemplation, a reflective mode of existence, was an essential aspect of monasticism and the direct opposite of the active life, the life of service required of women as wives and mothers.
Christianity initiated a new era not only in the history of monasticism but also in the history of feminism. Accepted as fully equal to men in their spiritual potential, Christian women could transcend biological and sexual roles and seek fulfillment in religious life. The description of Jesus' visit to the house of the two sisters, Martha and Mary, proclaimed this revolutionary doctrine (Luke 10:38‑42). While Martha busied herself with serving the guests, Mary "sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching." Annoyed with her sister and also with Jesus, Martha spoke up: "Lord, do you not care that my sister left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken from her."
Women were among the hermits who appeared in the desert beginning in the second century. The earliest monasteries included communities of women engaged in prayer and contemplation. In the fourth century, the women in Jerome's circle took the initiative in establishing the first monastic communities in the West. As the church developed a male‑dominated hierarchy, monasticism offered a special appeal to women, for it permitted them to retain a degree of influence in the church and participate actively in the service and worship of God. That monasticism served as a liberating force in the lives of women has not been adequately understood or sufficiently emphasized. From Andreas Capellanus' Art of Courtly Love to Diderot's Nun, men have written about the fraudulent and pathological aspects of women's monastic experience. Historians have singled out celibacy as the source of misogyny, which led to the isolation of women and the curtailment of their activity in the church. At the other end of the spectrum, some surveys either make short shrift of women's contributions to monasticism or treat women religious and their communities as imitators of and parasites upon monks.'
The purpose of this chapter is to present a more balanced analysis of feminine monasticism in theFrankish Kingdom from the sixth to the ninth
century. It will not attempt to trace systematically the history of feminine
institutions, which would require a separate monograph.2 Rather, it
will examine the social circumstances and the psychological attitudes that
prompted women to eschew marriage and seek a contemplative life. The extension
of legal rights to married women in the Carolingian period, which was
paralleled by restrictions not only on opportunities for women to engage in
God's service but also on their activities in the monasteries, is particularly
relevant. One must inquire whether this policy was inspired by organizational
concerns or by the ideal of asceticism. A comparison with the attitudes of the
Irish and Anglo‑Saxon missionaries toward women religious should clarify
the Frankish bishops' motives. Finally, this chapter will address the question
of whether or not convents lost their appeal when feminine monasticism became
closely supervised and strictly regimented by the Carolingian hierarchy.
REBELLION AND OBEDIENCE
Lacking autobiographies, we must turn to eulogies of feminine chastity, biographies, and chronicles to gain an understanding of the motives that led Merovingian and Carolingian women to embrace the religious life. Although hagiographies often distort facts about the lives of their protagonists by copying indiscriminately from earlier sources, even the most unreliable ones reflect ideals and, to some extent, the prevalent behavior at the time of their composition.
The most eloquent and perhaps the most sensitive expression of sixth‑century perceptions of the advantages of virginity and sexual continence for women was formulated by Venantius Fortunatus. His long poem dedicated to Agnes, abbess of the monastery of Holy Cross atPoitiers , not only spoke of the heavenly rewards
awaiting the virgins who chose Christ as their bridegroom but also depicted in
vivid metaphors the tribulations of married women. Fortunatus did not shrink
from describing the temptations of sexual intercourse, stressing that salvation
hangs on a thin thread when, with the panting of the breath and the heaving of
the body, the womb swells with excitement and the serpent of voluptuousness
grows. Nor did he mince words in enumerating the pains of childbirth, the
mother's sorrow when her child is born dead, or when she sees her infant die on
her breast, and, finally, the insecurity and desolation of widowhood.3
Fortunatus had a better understanding of feminine psychology than the Western fathers. Although he used Ambrose for his description of the discomforts of women in intercourse, childbearing, breast‑feeding, and nurturing,4 he also probed beyond the mere physical aspects of women's experience. Writing at a time when the wishes of women were of little consequence, Fortunatus took pains to describe the feelings of women. His insight into a woman's inner life undoubtedly came from his close friendship with Saint Radegund and her nuns atPoitiers . In explaining what prompted women
to wrench themselves free from sex roles and to embrace monastic life, he pointed
with great sensitivity to the traumas of marriage and childbirth, and of a
child's or a husband's death.
Merovingian chronicles and saints' lives confirm Fortunatus' observations. They tell us about women such as Saint Monegund, who took a religious vow after the death of her children,5 or Saint Rictrud, who renounced secular life when her brothers murdered the man whom she had married against their wishes.6 They provide case histories of widows who, like Itta, acquiesced to their daughters' request to build convents to which they withdrew with their daughters.7 "Freed of the law of her husband," the wealthy widow Eustadiola constructed a nunnery for herself and her maidservants, according to her biographer.8 Another seventh‑century matron, Sigolena of Albi, offered her husband all her worldly goods in order to "gain the freedom of her body," and would have lived with him happily ever after in chaste marriage. When his unexpected death ended this convenient arrangement, the young widow, only twenty‑four years old, had considerable difficulty in convincing her parents that she did not wish to remarry, but she ultimately persuaded her elderly father to build a convent for her.9
The sexual double standard to which married women were subjected and the fear of childbearing probably influenced the decision of widows to avoid remarriage, and prompted the attempts of married women to seek release from the marriage. Saint Radegund (ca. 5I8-587) had an even more dramatic motivation. First captured as war booty and then won in a judicial contest by her polygamous husband, Radegund decided to leave Clothar I when she learned that he had ordered the murder of her own brother:
From the king she went directly to blessed Medard of Noyon, earnestly beseeching him to consecrate her to God once she changed her habit. Royal officials, however, embarrassed the blessed man to the extent of dragging him violently from the altar in the basilica so that he would not veil the king's wife . . . . When the saint perceived this, she entered the sacristy, put on the habit of a nun, and proceeded to the altar, where she addressed the blessed Medard, saying: "If you refuse to consecrate me, fearing more a man than God, you will be held responsible for the soul of one of your sheep, O Pastor!" Shaken by her entreaty, as if he were struck by thunder, he laid his hands on her and consecrated her deaconess. 10
When Clothar persisted in his efforts to reclaim her, she appealed to Saint Germain. A shrewd observer of human nature and a clever diplomat, Saint Germain obtained from the king not only Radegund's freedom but also material assistance for her to build a nunnery at Poitiers.11
Young virgins of prominent families, often not more than twelve or fourteen years of age, were equally resolute in their spiritual purpose and defied their parents in order to avoid wedlock. The father of Saint Burgundofara dragged her from a basilica where she had hidden when he wanted to betroth her.12 The legend surrounding Saint Austroberta follows the same pattern: apprehensive that her father would force her to marry, Austroberta fled, taking her younger brother with her. 13 With courage and initiative, these young girls and others like them earned the sympathy and respect of churchmen. When an influential bishop or abbot interceded on the aspiring contemplative's behalf, her parents usually relented and founded a nunnery for her.
Not every Frankish saint had to assert her religious calling against antagonistic forces. In hagiographies written in the eighth century, the tension between parents and daughters was frequently resolved by a relative or a friend. Afraid to announce her spiritual vow to her parents, Saint Bertila of Chelles had the good fortune of gaining as her champion Audoen (Dado), bishop of Rouen (6i4‑684), a promoter of monasticism and one of the most powerful men in the Merovingian kingdom.14 Monastic life had become so popular among the young by this time that it was not unusual for several children in a family to take vows, reinforcing each other's intention. Although married, Waldtrud, recognizing that the celestial visions of her younger sister Aldegund were a manifest sign of her vocation, persuaded their parents to send Aldegund to a convent. Later, Waldtrud herself embraced monastic life by founding Mons.15
In the ninth century, a new pattern of behavior emerged in hagiography. Beside the stereotype of the virgin or widow who had to rebel against the authority of her family, or request the intercession of an influential churchman, a third type of consecrated woman appeared: the obedient daughter of pious parents who took a vow of chastity at their request. Or she married and bore and raised children, postponing her religious calling until her children were grown.
The legendary story of the sisters Herlinda and Renilda illustrates this new ideal of feminine behavior. The two girls, offered to God for the remission of their parents' sins, were sent to a convent at an early age to receive a religious education. Obedient and virtuous, they did not fail to live up to parental expectations. In the monastery their mother and father eventually built at Eyck, the sisters provided an inspiration in piety and religious service to young women throughout the region. 16 The life of Saint Hathumoda, more reliable as a factual account, illustrates the tendency of parents of many children to encourage the younger ones to remain celibate.l7
A different kind of obedience was exacted from an only daughter. To provide a role model for this kind of filial behavior, the biographer of Salaberga, writing in the early ninth century, some 150 years after her death, deprived the saint of her virginity, inventing two husbands and five children for her. Salaberga's purported marriages were arranged by her father "against her wishes," the biographer was careful to say. Her first union ended abruptly with the death of her husband two months after the nuptials. For two years she remained a widow, contemplating entrance to Remiremont, only to be thwarted in her objective by a new suitor, Baldwin (surnamed Baso). Although this young man also had a religious vocation, he was as conscious of his social obligations as was Salaberga. Pressured by his parents and ordered by the king,Baldwin
married Salaberga for the sake of procreating children. The union, fruitless at
first, was eventually blessed by five children, each dedicated to God by the
parents. When her obligation to bear and raise children had been finally met,
Salaberga was able to fulfill her wish of founding and leading a convent.18
These three patterns of behavior‑rebellion against parents or husbands, tension and accommodation through the intercession of an influential man, and dutiful obedience‑correspond roughly to three different phases in the history of feminine monasticism. In the sixth century, when nunneries were few in number, women wishing to devote themselves to the service of God had to be steadfast in their purpose to escape sex roles. During the seventh and eighth centuries, when nunneries were being built throughout the kingdom, women attracted to religious life could find support in their own families, even though some had to rely on outside mediation. Finally, the Carolingian reforms, which, on the one hand, urged the strict cloistering of women and, on the other hand, enhanced the dignity of married women, made religious life a less attractive alternative to marriage than it had appeared to women in previous centuries.I9
THE HEROIC AGE OF FEMALE ASCETICISM
Feminine monasticism in sixth-centuryGaul
was a spontaneous movement, growing against great odds, primarily through the
initiative of women. In central and
northern Frankland, where there were no monasteries to serve as models, feminie
asceticism was a grass-roots movement.
Single, married, and widowed women of all ages, ranging from mere
children to elderly matorns, offered their services to God. They shared one characteristic - a vow of
chastity, often taken in opposition to their family. Some formed communities around churches and
oratories, while the majority continued to live at home, placing themselves
underthe protection of a local church and wearing a veil as the mark of their
vocation.
In the south, where Christianity had deeper roots and a network of monasteries had developed, a few nunneries established in pre-Merovingian times, anot all survived the Germanic invasions.20 The convent founded by Cassian at Marseilles,21 Baume-les-Dames (Balma) established by Romanus in the Jura Mountains,22 and the community of more than sixty nuns organized by Leonian at Vienne continued.23 More influential than these older convents was Saint Jean of Arles, while Caesarius built for his sister at the beginning of the century24.
The need to guard the autonomy, privacy, and freedom of female contemplatives was well understood by Caesarius. He not only insisted on the communty’s exemption from episcopal governance and its economic self-sufficiency, but also prohibited the nuns from associating with and providing services, such as weaving, sewing , and cooking, for people in the outside world.25 These proved to be sufficiently attractive features to prompt the adoption and adaptation of Caesarius” Rule by later foundation father notrh.26 Popular as this rule proved to be, the convent founded by Caesarius did not become the center of female monasteries. Although his successor, Aurelian, sponsored a a second community of nuns at Arles, new convents were slow to appear in the south.27 In 543, Duke Anesmund and his wife, Ansleutana, established proprietary monastery for their daughter Remilia in the suburbs of Vienne.28 A similar community was organized at Toulouse only toward the end of the sixth century, when the widow Beretrud attached a convent to Saint Saturnin.29 Other southern cities, such as Narbonne, had no female convents.
In central and northern Frankland, feminine monasticism exhibited realer vigor, although the first communities were formed only toward the middle of the sixth century. Gregory of Tours reports that, in the absence of a nunnery, Saint Papula, disguising herself as a man, joined male institution.30 Other women remained at home, but dedicated Heir lives to the service of God.31 This ancient form of asceticism had been practiced by both men and women in Gaul at least since the fourth century.32 Women appear to have been more numerous than men in the inks of lay religious, probably because they could not enter the clergy.33 Gregory of Tours did not fail to mention the scandalous behavior of two lay women religious,34 but spoke with respect of those who persisted in their vows. For example, in leis Life of the Fathers, he celebrated a certain Georgia, who persisted in fasting and praying and died virgin at the age of sixty.35
The childhood pastimes of Saint Radegund are a good example of the daily life of professed virgins and widows. Odd as Radegund's activities may seem today, they represented an attempt to imitate the services omen religious rendered in churches and oratories. Educated at Athies, a royal villa, until she reached the appropriate age to be taken by Clothar I as one of his wives, Radegund was taught to read and write. She was impressed by the lives of martyrs and decided to follow their example. With the help of a young clerk, Samuel, she gathered poor children, fed them from her own table, and honored them by washing their hands and hair. Then, with Samuel carrying a wooden cross and Radegund marching behind him chanting psalms, the clerk and the virgin led the ragged procession to the oratory. There, Radegund proceeded to act as "the good housekeeper," polishing the floor with her own robe and collecting the dust around the altar in her own kerchief.36 The widowed queen Clotild engaged in similar pursuits. After her husband's death, she went toTours , where she devoted the rest of
her days to service at the basilica of Saint Martin ,
according to Gregory of Tours.37
The first feminine communities in centralGaul came into
existence by around oratories and basilicas, the gathering place of women
religious. Ingitrud established a cloister in the courtyard of Saint Martin of
Tours.38 Saint Martin‑de‑Jumellos, originally an oratory
in the suburb of Amiens, was a nunnery in the days of Gregory of Tours.39
Néris near Montlucon developed in a similar manner.40 Saint Pierre‑le‑Vif
of Sens was also connected with a basilica.41 Unlike the nunneries
in the south, these communities either burgeoned spontaneously through feminine
initiative or were sponsored by women. Bishop Aunacharius' (561‑605)
foundation in Saint Martin's basilica at Auxerre probably also represented an
attempt to build a convent for women religious already working at the basilica.42
Nunneries occasionally evolved around the cell of a recluse. At Chartres , Saint Monegund's
retreat became the nucleus for a female community. When Monegund left the city
because she could no longer endure the crowds that her fame as a healer
attracted, she went to Tours
and founded another nunnery there. The latter, Gregory of Tours was careful to
say, had only a few members and better suited Monegund's wish to spend the rest
of her days in "integral faith and prayer."43
Sixth‑century monastic foundations for women were, as a rule, built in places where the nuns were safe from attack, or at least could be readily defended. Caesarius had originally established the convent for his sister, Caesaria, in the suburb ofArles ,
but he moved it within the walls after the city was attacked by the Franks and
Burgundians in 508.44 In addition, nuns
could be readily supervised if their nunneries were located in cities. Even in
this heroic age of monasticism, convents served as prisons. For example,
Gregory of Tours reports that King Gunthram had his widowed sister‑in‑law
incarcerated at Arles ,
in the monastery founded by Caesarius.45 Regarded as helpless and
defenseless creatures whose virtue and lives had to be protected by men,
Merovingian women were not allowed to lead a solitary life in uninhabited
places. Gregory of Tours mentioned with astonishment the rumor of two virgins
withdrawing to an impenetrable forest on a hill near Tours.46 Yet,
at the same time, male communities were developing around the retreats of
saintly hermits in the wilderness of Frankland with such rapidity that, by the
end of the sixth century, there was a tight network of Christian culture in the
area bordered by the rivers Garonne, Rhone, and Somme. Because feminine
communities were not organized in the countryside, their number remained
relatively low in comparison to male communities.47
By the end of the sixth century, feminine abbeys existed in all the urban centers of centralGaul . In addition to those already
mentioned at Amiens, Auxerre, Chartres, Poitiers, Sens, and Tours,48
there was also one at Autun,49 another at Lyons,50 and
probably one at Le Mans.51 As at Arles and Vienne, two female
communities were functioning at Tours.52 Convents for women in
smaller villages, such as Néris,53 were exceptions. Some probably
had only a brief existence. A small convent established by Queen Clotild at
Chelles, according to Gregory of Tours, was abandoned by the mid‑seventh
century and had to be rebuilt by Queen Balthild. Yet another rural convent, Les
Andelys, near Rouen ,
also reported to be Clotild's foundation, was resuscitated by Audoen,
Columban's disciple, in the seventh century.54
The vitality of feminine asceticism should not be measured merely in terms of the number of nunneries. The concern expressed by sixth century councils over the status of professed virgins and widows living in the world indicates that many women were practicing asceticism outside the walls of convents.55 Undoubtedly some chose this form of life in order to escape from an unwanted union, while others undertook a true religious vocation.
The rewards of this alternate way of life included a degree of dignity and autonomy unavailable to married women, but the risks were also great. A woman faced the danger of rape and abduction, often sanctioned by kings, as well as the possibility of excommunication and exile if she failed to make a heroic effort to resist her abductor. The same bishops who, in 567 at the Council of Tours, put the final seal on the abolition of the diaconate of women, made every effort to protect women religious from rape and abduction, and to prevent them from abandoning their religious commitment. Legislating strict sanctions against men who deflected women from their purpose of serving God rather than a husband, the council recalled that Roman law punished with death those who had raped and subsequently married consecrated virgins and vowed widows. Noting that vestal virgins were buried alive if they lost the grace of virginity, the council admonished women who had changed their dress in honor of the Redeemer to expect an equally grave sentence if they failed to persevere in their resolution.56
The severity of this council was not without precedent. In 538, the Council of Orléans had used Innocent I's image of a vowed virgin as Christ's betrothed and of a veiled virgin as Christ's bride to excommunicate as adulteresses those who had consented to live with their ravishers. If the culprit had not been veiled, she was in a somewhat better position: she was required to perform penance only for a limited time and not until death.57 A widow's vow was equally binding for life, even though it could not be solemnized by a priestly blessing.58 The notion that a religious habit was the symbol of the vow of chastity was stressed not only by Tours but also by later sixth‑century councils.59
The bishops needed royal support to enforce these declarations, but only Clothar I went so far as to declare that "no one should dare to marry a nun."60 A few years earlier, when one of his wives, Radegund, had been consecrated a deaconess, Clothar had not professed the same respect for a woman's religious vow.61 Moreover, Clothar's brothel and descendants continued to sanction the abduction of professed virgins and widows. The Frankish bishops' efforts succeeded only in the following century. At the Council of Paris held in 614, Clothar II not only pledged to relinquish the practice of his predecessors but also ordered capital punishment for the abductors of women religious. Eve] 1 if such a nefarious union was concluded in a church, the couple was to be separated, both parties were to be exiled, and their property was to be distributed among the nearest kin.62
The Council of Clichy, meeting in 626, still found it necessary to reiterate the threat of excommunication against those abducting women religious with royal permission.66 By the end of the seventh century. kings no longer authorized these actions. The growth of monasteries increased respect for self‑abnegating women, prompting kings to take all women religious under their protection. Entrance into a convent by this time was routinely offered as a choice to widows seeking an equal status with virgins and as a form of penance to lapsed women religious.67
THE FLOWERING OF FEMALE MONASTICISM
At that time, throughout the provinces ofGaul ,
the troops of monks
and crowds of virgins under the rule of the blessed fathers Benedict
and Columban began to multiply not only in the fields, towns,
villages, and castles but also in the desert of the hermits, whereas
only a few monasteries were found in these places before this
time.68
These observations, although written by Saint Salaberga's biographer in the early ninth century, present an accurate picture of the religious rival in theFrankish
Kingdom generated by the
arrival of Saint ç Columban in the late sixth century.69
In keeping with the spirit of Irish Christianity, dominated both morally and administratively by monasticism rather than by clericalism, Saint Columban did not harbor prejudices against women. Instead of shunning their company, he sought their friendship. Instead of emphasizing their impurity, he recognized their spiritual equality. He accepted the hospitality of Theudemada, a lady of great wealth who led a religious life.70 Acting as the spiritual adviser to married women, he baptized and Blessed their children. The women thus honored proved to be enthusiastic supporters of monasticism, encouraging the religious vocation of their children and embracing the ascetic life themselves.71 A case in Point is Flavia, whose husband, Waldelen, was duke of Upper Burgundy. Approached by the young couple to pray for them so that their marriage might be blessed by children, Columban made them promise that they would offer their firstborn to God's service. Her wishes granted, Flavia not only sent her oldest son, Donatus, to Columban's foundation at Luxeuil, but when widowed she built Jussanum at Besançon. "Surrounding the convent with fortifications, she established many nuns there," wrote Ionas, Saint Columban's biographer.72
Saint Columban's example inspired a new attitude toward women among his Frankish collaborators and disciples, many of whom were trained at Luxeuil, the center of the Irish movement. Influential because of high birth and their positions as abbots and bishops, these men cultivated spiritual friendships with women and sought feminine co‑operation in building a network of monasteries throughout the king‑ As a result of their efforts, men and women began to work together in partnership, promoting the contemplative life and discovering would practical solution to the problem of instituting female communities outside the cities. To protect nuns, help them run their vast establishments, and provide sacerdotal services, these enterprising men and women attached a contingent of monks to some of the newly founded communities. They created thus a new institution, the double monastery, which had some precedents in the East and inIreland .
They also set up
separate, affiliated communities for men and women in close
proximity to each other.
In these new monasteries women were not overshadowed by higher ranking men. Rather, they collaborated with men and acted as spiritual leaders. The double monasteries, as Mary Bateson has aptly expressed it, provided the female element of the ruling class with something to rule.73 Usually double monasteries were governed by an abbess, and the affiliated institutions by an abbot and an abbess. In keeping with the penitential practices the Irish introduced to continental monasteries, abbesses heard confession three times a day and gave absolution and benediction to members of their community. They performed, therefore, quasi‑sacerdotal functions in addition to the normal administrative, disciplinary, and spiritual duties of their office. Under female leadership, some of the double houses became famous centers of learning and devotion; they attracted members from as far asEngland and served as models for
the double monasteries of that island. Neither total
segregation of the sexes nor strict cloistering was practiced in these
communities. Nuns and monks occupied separate living quarters, but, in the
scriptoria and the schools, and during the divine service, the two sexes shared
common functions.
The rule compiled for nuns, probably by Waldebert of Luxeuil (629‑670), indicates that women did not live as parasites on men in the double monasteries. Nuns were required to perform manual labor. In addition to cooking, cleaning, serving, spinning, and sewing, activities traditionally associated with women, fishing, brewing, and building the fire were among the daily assignments of nuns. Work outside the monastery was always undertaken by teams of three or four, and special liturgical rites were prescribed for those going off to work in the morning and coming home in the evening.74
Faremoutiers‑en‑Brie (Evoracium) was probably the first double monastery. It was established around 617 by Burgundofara under the guidance of Eustachrus, abbot of Luxeuil. At an impressionable age, when she was not more than ten, Burgundofara had met Saint Columban and received his blessing. This experience left such a deep mark on her that she resisted her parents' attempts to force her to marry a few years later. Probably through her brother Chagnoald, a monk at Luxeuil, she appealed to Eustachrus. Coming in person to her rescue, Eustachrus took her to Meaux, where she was veiled and consecrated. The abbot then assigned two of his monks, Chagnoald and Waldabert, to help her build a nunnery and to instruct the new community in the principles of religious life. Eventually a second house was added for the monks, and Burgundofara presided over both.75
Habendum‑Remiremont, founded around 62o by the Austrasian magnate Romarich with the help of Amatus, one of Eustachius' pupils, had a different form of organization, at least initially. Established on the property of Romarich in theMeuselle Valley ,
it was planned as a joint community of monks and nuns rather than as a nunnery
with monks attached to it. Amatus’
authority as the first abbot may have been superior to that of his coabbess,
Metchtafled. On the other hand, the size
of the feminine community was not only substantial from the very beginning,
with eighty-four nuns serving under Mechtafled, but remained so. Although similar data on the size of the male
community are missing, the number of monks decliend
sufficiently by the time the fourth abbot died for the abbess to assume sole
governance. Eventually the community of
monks was completely dissolved.76
Joint supervision by an abbot and abbess did not become the prevalent form of government in the Frankish double monasteries. It remained in use only at affiliated institutions, such as Pavilly and Jumieges. Founded by Saint Filibert, Jumieges at first housed both monks and nuns. When the community grew in size, Filibert built Pavilly for the women and installed an abbess. Although the two houses retained a close relationship, they were too far apart to constitute a single institution.77
The government of a double monastery by an abot was an exception. Dom Schmitz’s characterization of double monasteries as usually falling into this pattern needs correction.78 Jumieges was a real double monastery only for a brief period, as a fledgling institution, before the foundation of the sister house. The other outstadnding example, Beze was not planned as a double institution but became one in 657 when Abbot Waldelen admitted his sister Adalsind and her nuns from neighboring Dorniaticum. Citing injuries and threats by men as her reason for wishing to join her brother’s commun ity, Adalsind accepted Beze’s rule, turning Dorniaticum with all its possessions and subjecting herself and her nuns to Waldelen’s authority as abbot.79
Frankish double monasteries normally were governed by abbesses. Laon, one ofthe largest convents, with three hundred nuns, was established around 641 on the model of Remiremont and had a single superior, Saint Salaberga.80 Jouarre, originally a male convent built by the monkAdo around
630, was put under the authority of an abbess when it was transformed into a
double monastery by Bishop Faro of Meaux. From his sister's convent at
Faremoutiers, Faro brought the nun Fheudechild to run the enlarged community.81
Around 658 or 659, when Queen Balthild reconstructed the ruins of a convent at
Chelles as a monastery, she requested from Jouarre a nun capable of assuming
command. Initially only a few priests were attached to Chelles to provide for
the sacramental needs of the sisters, but, as the fame of the abbey grew under
the capable leadership of Bertila, an increasing number of men sought
admission. By the time Bertila died around 704, Chelles was a true double
monastery, characterized by her biographer as a Christian community
"fratrum sive sororum."82
The double monasteries developing farther north, between the Somme and theMeuse , fall into the same pattern; they were either
governed by an abbess or were under joint female and male guidance. Gertrud
ruled Nivelles, which was founded by her mother, Itta, with the help of Saint
Amand around 640.83 Aldegund single‑handedly directed
Maubeuge, which she had organized in 661.84 On the other hand, at Marchiennes,
established around 647, the nuns were supervised by Rictrud, and the monks had
their own abbot, Ionas.85 By the ninth century, the abbess exercised authority
over both sexes at Marchiennes. At Hasnon, built around 670, the founder, John,
governed the men, and his sister, Eulalia, presided over the women.86
Some of the double monasteries began as nunneries, with the community of monks being added at a later date. Notre‑Dame of Soissons was instituted as a feminine convent in 666. A few years later, when Sigrada, Leodegar of Autun's mother, was living there, the community also included brothers.87 Hamaye, probably the oldest nunnery north of the Somme,88 and Avenay at Reims followed a similar pattern.89 We also know that Saint Jean of Arles and Holy Cross of Poitiers invited monks to live in their burial churches.90
Although double monasteries were popular, their number remained relatively small.91 Only the wealthiest foundations could support a community of nuns and monks.92 Feminine convents affiliated with masculine houses were also not very numerous.93 On the other hand, nunneries mushroomed in the cities and suburbs.
Without a systematic study of Merovingian nunneries to yield statistics, it is not possible to ascertain whether or not the imbalance between male and female institutions was redressed by the seventh century. That this may have been the case in the cities is suggested by the monastic history ofMetz . Only male communities existed in that
city in the sixth century. But two of the three convents that developed there
in the seventh century were nunneries, namely Sainte Glossindis and Saint
Pierre‑aux‑Nonnaines.94 In other towns as well‑at
Noyon,95 Clermont,96 Bourges 97 ‑more
than one female community sprang up during this period of religious enthusiasm.
Various factors prompted the development of several nunneries in the same town. Often one house was within the walls and the other in the suburb.98 The size of the endowment undoubtedly limited the number of members an established community was willing to accept. Laon, with three hundred nuns, a figure stated in the life of Saint Salaberga, was an exception. Remiremont had eighty‑four nuns and Pavilly only twenty‑five.99 Many convents were probably even more modest in size.
In addition, the proprietary church system encouraged the proliferation of small nunneries. Under this arrangement, the founder retained control over the convent's administration and landed property. 100 Many of the seventh‑century female houses, established by wealthy widows, doting parents, and bishops devoted to their mothers and sisters, fall into this pattern. For instance, Flavia's Jussanum and the female communities at Bourges were proprietary nunneries.101 This type of institution usually remained quite small, representing no more than an extended household, that is, an aristocratic house turned into a family cult center.102 As opposed to the prestige of the greater houses, a proprietary convent offered the comfort of familiar faces and surroundings. Members did not suffer from homesickness, an emotion Leodegar of Autun thought his mother, Sigrada, experienced atSoissons .
Writing to her from prison, Leodegar tried to console her with the suggestion
that the brothers and sisters of the monastery had replaced her family and
servants.103 The presence of close blood relations, sisters and
aunts, in a larger community undoubtedly eased the adjustment to the new
surroundings, and was often the determining factor in an aristocratic woman's
choice of a convent. To discourage the formation of kinship circles in double
monasteries, Waldebert's Rule stressed spiritual sisterhood as the essence of
communal life.104
Many opportunities were available to women who wished to embrace celibate life in the seventh century. The call to asceticism, sounded throughout Frankland by the Irish missionaries, found an enthusiastic response among both sexes. In all walks of life, men and women renounced marriage, devoting their energies to the service of God. As in previous centuries, some professed virgins and widows continued to live in the world, looking after the poor and acting as housekeepers in churches, but the chance to communicate and live with other women holding the same interests and beliefs held an even greater attraction. Religious communities provided a supportive environment and an atmosphere of calm where women could live, work, and pray. By serving God and each other in humility, actively participating in the liturgy, and exercising their intelligence and administrative tale "Its, they could achieve a level of accomplishment in their lives not available to them in the outside world.
Life in small proprietary nunneries, which observed rules of varying laxity, or may not have observed any at all, was not very different from that in the great aristocratic households. Relatively free to come and go as they pleased, members could leave the community at will. The effort of the Council of Paris in 611 to impose stability on monks and nuns alike was not sustained. Even Waldebert, although intending his compilation for larger institutions, envisioned the readmission of a female monastic to the same community. 105
In the double monasteries and larger communities, discipline was strict and the nuns were kept busy. Under rules combining Caesarian, Columban, and Benedictine elements, daily activities were carefully regulated.106 In addition to assigned chores, everyone had to engage in prayer, liturgical services, and devotional readings at certain times of' the day. Not only communal affairs such as meals but also private and personal matters were subject to rules. For example, places in the dormitory were assigned according to age, with younger sisters alternating with older ones to avoid the possibility of frivolity and carnal temptation.107 Even washing hair was a communal activity to be undertaken every Saturday.
Some members served in administrative offices as dean, wardrobe mistress, cellarer, and portress. Others acted as librarians, scribes, and teachers.108 Seventh‑century foundations functioned also as boarding schools for both sexes, accepting as pupils even "infantes," children below the age of six.109 A purely contemplative existence was pursued only by those choosing to endure the rigors of solitude as recluses. Although Gregory of Tours spoke of special cells being set aside for recluses in monasteries, seventh‑century sources do not mention anyone leading this type of life.110
Lesser women, the protégés and servants of the founders and abbesses, were admitted to both the double monasteries and smaller convents. Eustadiola, her biographer relates, built her nunnery for herself and her slaves ("suisque puellis").111 Queen Balthild instructed the Saxon slaves ("viros et puellas") whom she had redeemed and kept in her own household to join monasteries.112 The rules did not limit membership to women of the upper classes. Both Caesarius' Rule and Aurelian's adaptation of it envisioned poor as well as wealthy women among the sisters of a community. Aurelian's Rule clearly stated that freedwomen could be accepted as postulants if they had their master's permission. Caesarius' Rule stressed that noble origin or wealth was not to be taken into consideration in the selection of an abbess. The royal princesses at Holy Cross of Poitiers challenged in vain the leadership of the abbess Leubovera, who was not of royal blood.113 Only in the late eighth century did the requirement of an entrance fee become customary both in female and male communities.114
Nevertheless, social distinctions were not altogether obliterated it the convents. Saint Radegund's hagiographer made a point of mentioning the punishment the queen inflicted from heaven upon Vinoberga her maidservant ("famula"), who dared to sit upon the throne after she had died. For three days and nights smoke and flame billowed from the girl's body. Only after she had confessed her sin and prayed with the congregation for forgiveness did the saint relent and relieve the girl's agony. 115
MONASTICISM UNDER THE CAROLINGIANS
When the Anglo‑Saxon missionaries arrived on the continent in the early eighth century, they found in theFrankish
Kingdom a network of monasteries,
which they then extended to the lands east of the Rhine .
They introduced the Benedictine Rule into these new foundations, subjecting
abbots and abbesses to strict episcopal control. Although some bishops
jealously guarded their prerogatives of supervising female communities,116 the convents under Caesarius' Rule, the
communities established in the wake of the Irish revival, and the houses to
which Balthild granted immunity were free from episcopal control.
When Saint Boniface turned his attention to the state of the Frankish church, he first proposed the reform of all monasteries according to the Benedictine norm.117 As the reforms progressed, all forms of religious life were brought under episcopal control. Although Boniface's intent was to apply the same rules to both male and female communities,118 later synods tended to interpret the rules more strictly for women than for men. The extension of episcopal jurisdiction over the monasteries was carried out with the help of the new dynasty. In fact, increased episcopal authority was the bishops' reward for cooperating in the creation of the Carolingian "Reichskirche." In this new structure, the monasteries lost their former independence, and their resources became subject to royal exploitation.119 As advisers of kings and close associates of bishops, abbots were able to mitigate the constraints placed upon their communities. But female communities, caught between the highhanded treatment of bishops and the financial exactions of kings, declined in power and influence.
It was not the intention of the Anglo‑Saxon missionaries to slight women religious or diminish the prestige of their institutions. Like their Irish predecessors, the Anglo‑Saxons held nuns in high regard. They maintained correspondence with abbesses inEngland ,
requesting material assistance, books, and helpers.120 The women who responded to their call founded and led
feminine communities east of the Rhine . Even
though Boniface and his companions appreciated the contributions of their
female coworkers, they were careful to guard the prerogatives of the male
clergy. Boniface spoke of both monks and nuns as "the knights of
Christ,"121 but he also questioned Pope Zachary on whether or
not it was proper for nuns to engage in the liturgical rite of washing each
others' feet.122 It did not bother Boniface that monks performed the
same ceremony; monks were eligible to participate in the clerical hierarchy and
many indeed were priests. As bishops, the Anglo‑Saxons supervised
feminine communities more closely and interpreted the Benedictine Rule more
rigorously for female than for male monastics. For example, Bishop Lull
excommunicated Abbess Sitha for allowing two nuns to take a voyage without
asking his permission. Yet the Council of Verneuil held in 755 acknowledged
that monks may travel when ordered by their abbot.123
In 742, when Boniface initiated reforms in the Frankish areas, he called for the observation of Benedictine Rule by monks and nuns alike.124 Thirteen years later, in 755, when the Council of Verneuil convened, it became evident that the imposition of the Rule was not an easy matter. The precise instructions for bishops, if a monastery failed to accept the rule, included excommunication of the recalcitrant community; individual nuns were to be imprisoned and subjected to forced labor if they failed to conform. That uncooperative monks might be coerced in this manner was not considered.125
The Council of Verneuil also declared that women who had veiled themselves and men who had tonsured themselves were either to join a monastery "sub ordine regulari," or to live under the supervision of bishops "sub ordine canonica."126 Around the same time, between 751 and 766, Chrodegang of Metz undertook the compilation of a set of regulations for canons attached to the basilicas of Metz.127 Rules for canonesses were assembled for the first time in 813,128 even though, beginning with the Council of Frankfurt in 796, abbesses had been routinely offered the choice between Benedictine profession or a canonical life.129 If an abbess chose the latter, both she and the nuns in her charge were to observe the regulations of the councils. That these regulations were not altogether consistent, or that their texts were not readily available, did not bother the reforming councils.
As the reorganization of monasteries under episcopal authority progressed, women who wished to lead a religious life came under increasing pressure to join a community. By the late seventh century, widows and virgins who wished to be veiled were ordered into convents,130 Probably in an attempt to protect these women from hasty veiling, Charlemagne ruled that the ceremony could be performed only
when a woman reached age twenty‑five.131 This did not mean that a private vow of chastity ceased to be binding. Although the symbol of a private vow, the black dress, was now designated as only quasi religious, .1 woman wearing this dress could be ordered by the bishop to a nunnery if' she came under suspicion of having broken the vow.132
During the second phase of the Carolingian reforms, when the emphasis was shifting to the unique sacramental and juridical powers of the priesthood, the church became even less tolerant of women religious outside convents. In 829, the Council of Paris declared that omen who had veiled themselves were evil; they tempted and trapped priests and were to be barred from churches. A widow had to wait thirty days after her husband's death to be veiled, and then had to join a convent. Priests could veil widows only with the consent of bishops.133 The Council of Paris also put the final seal on earlier legislation limiting the function of women religious to the lighting of candles and the ringing of church bells. The status of these women, the council declared, was not different from that of ordinary laymen.
It is against divine law and canonical instruction for women to intrude on the other side of holy altars, to touch impudently the consecrated vessels, administer for priests sacerdotal vestments, and, what is even worse, more indecent and more inappropriate, to distribute the body and blood of the Lord to the people. . . . It is certainly amazing that women, whose sex by no means makes them competent, despite the laws, were able to gain license to do things that are prohibited even to secular men. 145
The foundation of a small proprietary nunnery no longer provided a viable alternative to those who did not wish to give up their independence while leading a religious life. New foundation were not encouraged,135 except in recently conquered lands. Moreover, the Carolingian policy of transforming monasteries into royal abbeys in order to gain access to their resources, a policy closely linked with the program of bringing all monasteries under episcopal governance, called for the consolidation of communities with only a few members.136 Many of these were nunneries. In 789, Charlemange ordered that “the very small monasteries where nuns reside without rule be combined into one regular congregation at a place designated by the bishop.”137 The execution of this project apparently took several decades. Acapitulary issued in 829 expressed continued concern about the existence of small monasteries,138 and Hrabanus Maurus encouraged a fellow bishop to dissolve a “monasteriola nonarum” and transfer to another convent the nuns who did not live according to the rule.139
As small nunneries were gradually eliminated and the status of women religious living in the world degraded, the only choice available to women who did not wish to marry was to join either a Benedictine convent or an institute of canonesses. But the institutes of canonesses came to resemble Benedictine houses when specific guidelines for the life of the canonesses were finally issued in 813 by the Council of Chalons. Although the council declared that women who lived according to the canons and called themselves canonesses constituted a separate order - presumably the feminine counterpart of the order of canons - canonesses were to lead a more austere life than canons.140 Three years later, in 816, when the council of Aix expanded these guidelines into a rile, the Institutio sanctimonialium, little difference between the obligations of Benedictine nuns and canonesses remained.
Because of the alleged weakness of their sex, female members of the canoical order were to be stricly cloistered.141 Whereas canons were allowed to manage both ecclesiastical and personal property,142 canonesses had to delegate this task to an outsider.143 Canonesses were required to cover their faces in public and to wear a veil in church,144 and they were to be careully guarded from all contact with men.145 Even abbesses could meet men only in the presence of other sisters.146 Conversations with relatives and servants had to be monistored by three or four reliable members of the community.147
The cloistering of religious women was an issue that had weighed heavily on the minds of earlier Carolingian churchmen as well. Abbesses, and certainly other members of the community, were allowed to leave the monastery only if they were summoned by the king, according to the Council of Verneml held in 755.148 The reiteration of similar and even greater restrictions by practically every reforming synod indicates that the cloistering of nuns was not as strictly enforced as the hierarchy may have wished.149 Like their Anglo‑Saxon sisters, Frankish women religious were apparently accustomed to going on pilgrimages, at least until 796 or 797, when the Council of Friuli ordered them not to.150 In so doing, the council may have had in mind the Anglo‑Saxon nuns who never reached Rome but ended up, according to Saint Boniface, in one of the many brothels that lined the roads to Italy.151 Similar considerations‑the desire to prevent sisters from leaving the convent and to guard them against temptation‑prompted council after council to inveigh against nuns wearing male attire,152 and to caution against unnecessary visits by men, including bishops, canons, and monks.153 In imposing on canonesses the strict cloistering required by the Benedictine Rule, the Carolingian churchmen were undoubtedly motivated by a desire to protect the safety and chastity of women, but they ultimately restricted the ascetic life sought by women.
An extension of the effort to avoid the danger of close association of the sexes within the convents was to prohibit nuns and canonesses from educating boys.154 Even hospices for the poor and pilgrims had to be located outside the convent, adjacent to the church where the clergy attached to the monastery officiated.155 Abbesses of both types of monasteries, for Benedictines and canonesses, lost not only their freedom of movement but also their former influence. Although emperors and kings periodically summoned them, undoubtedly to discuss the disposition of monastic resources,156 abbesses, unlike abbots, did not participate in reforming assemblies. Moreover, they were denied participation in functions that could be construed as quasi sacerdotal. Forbidden to give benediction to the opposite sex, they could not consecrate members of their own community.157 Although the belief that canonesses were members of the clergy lingered,158 the councils abolished all functional distinctions between canonesses and nuns. Apart from ringing church bells and lighting candles, 159 nuns and canonesses could participate in the work of the church only by praying, singing, reciting psalms, celebrating the canonical hours,160 tending the sick and poor women,161 and educating girls.162
Once the councils had established that all women religious were to be cloistered, with their activities supervised by bishops, and that nuns and canonesses were to perform similar functions, the reformers stopped pressing for the imposition of the Benedictine Rule in feminine houses. In 816, a year after the Council of Aix issued the Institutio sanctimonialium, anotherAachen
assembly was held to formulate detailed rules for Benedictine monks.163
No attempt was made to adapt the Benedictine Rule for use by nunneries. Whereas
monks were sent to Inde to be trained in Benedictine observances, Louis the
Pious did not designate a model Benedictine abbey for the training of women.
Although Louis did offer the same economic incentive to both feminine and
masculine houses to adopt the Benedictine Rule, a list of forty‑eight
Benedictine royal abbeys compiled in 819, the Notitia de servitio monasterionum, included only five nunneries. 164
Yet, two years earlier, an important royal monastery not listed in the Notitia, Remiremont, had opted for the
Benedictine Rule. 165 We can only conclude that the reformers did
not bother to list all feminine Benedictine abbeys because they were not
pressing the imposition of the Benedictine Rule on female communities.
To determine the relative proportion of Benedictine nunneries and institutes of canonesses, more research on the history of individual houses is needed. The terminology of donations and grants of immunity from royal exactions is not sufficiently precise to warrant Schafer's hypothesis that institutes of canonesses dominated in the ninth century.166 The restriction imposed by the Institutio and the economic advantages that abbesses could obtain under Benedictine Rule may have prompted abbesses to choose the latter course. The fact that the Institutio sanctimonialium is extant in only four ninth‑century manuscripts suggests that it was not widely followed.l67 The testimony of Bishop Alderic, that he consecrated 103 "monachas" and 17 "canonicas" in the diocese of Le Mans between 832 and 857, 168 indicates that, as at least in that region, more women joined Benedictine convents than institutes of canonesses.
The immediate effect of Carolingian policies on double monasteries is clearer. Double monasteries did not disappear, but the community of monks was transformed into a community of canons. This development did not necessarily parallel the transformation of the female community into an institute of canonesses. The Translatio S. Baltechildis, in 833, described Chelles as having a "clergy of men and women," which probably meant that both houses had relinquished the Benedictine Rule.l69 On the other hand, the nuns of Holy Cross of Poitiers observed the Benedictine Rule and had canons living at Sainte Radegonde, their affiliated institution.170 Notre‑Dame of Soissons under Benedictine observance had a chapter of canons by 872.171 Royal appropriations of the property of female communities made the presence of monks as supervisors of agricultural labor superfluous. It was far less expensive to support a few canons than a community of monks. The canons were priests and administered to the sacramental needs of the sisters. The new arrangement had disadvantages as well. Canons were less likely than monks to share with the sisters a sense of common endeavor. They were not cloistered and enjoyed a greater freedom of movement than the sisters. Although they were economically dependent on the abbess, they did not come under her jurisdiction. Their clerical status, moreover, gave them the magisterial authority that abbesses had formerly exercised.
The transformation of a double monastery into a community of nuns or canonesses with a chapter of canons attached, ended a period in the history of Western monasticism when feminine and masculine communities had been considered fully equal and coordinate institutions. Henceforth it became more difficult for male and female ascetics to draw inspiration from each other for their parallel, albeit autonomous, pursuit of spiritual perfection. Nuns and canonesses had to depend for religious guidance on men in the "sacred orders," whereas monks could rely solely on members of their own community.
The strict cloistering of nuns and canonesses on the one hand the shrinking economic resources of monasteries on the other considerably tempered women's enthusiasm for monastic life in the ninth century. Undoubtedly, the improved legal position of married women contributed to the waning of women's interest in an ascetic life. In highest echelons of society, fewer ladies preferred the convent to marriage. We do not hear of ninth‑century princesses running away for eager suitors or ardent husbands and clamoring for admittance convents.
In comparison to the numerous female saints among the Merovingians, there were only a few under the Carolingians. The tight cont placed by ninth‑century bishops on all forms of female asceticism seem to have inhibited women's aspirations for heroic sanctity. Women who were sanctified by the Carolingians either were connected with monastic foundations in newly conquered lands or were associated with dome virtues, like Saint Liutberga.172 This suggests that the Carolingian bishops may have considered elevation to sainthood a reward for socially constructive behavior.
Although the wives and daughters of Carolingian kings held lands of the great feminine abbeys as part of their dowry or inheritance,173 they chose the convent as a place of dwelling only when they needed shelter in old age or adversity. Charlemagne's daughters withdrew to monasteries when, after their father's death, their brother Louis the Pious forced them to leave the court.174 Louis the Pious appointed his widowed mother‑in‑law as abbess of Chelles,175 and the dowager empress Engelberga joined before her death the nunnery she had founded at Piacenza. l76 Judith of Bavaria found refuge at Notre‑Da of Laon until her husband could clear her name. 177 Nunneries were a used as places of refuge by women with estranged or irate husbands. Avenay sheltered Theutberga until Lothar II was forced to drop
charges of incest and reclaimed her.178 Andelau provided protection Queen Richardis when Charles the Fat accused her of adultery. 179 Conversely, princes used nunneries as prisons for troublesome women When Tassilo, duke of Bavaria, was exiled and forced to enter a monastery his daughters were sent to nunneries.180 The stepsons of Judith Bavaria imprisoned her at Holy Cross of Poitiers,181 and Charles the Bald confined his own daughter, named Judith after her grandmother to Notre‑Dame of Senlis.182 Both male and female communities functioned as asylums for the handicapped, retarded, and mentally disturbed. Ninth‑century accounts of miracles abound with cures of blind nuns or nuns possessed by demons.183 The cloister was thus used be to shield female ascetics and to segregate women considered undesirable, socially dangerous, or unproductive, whether priests' wives, lapsed "sanctimoniales," or other women.
Increasingly used as a shelter, a prison, an old‑age home, and exploited as a source of income for princesses and queens, nunneries lost their aura of heroic sanctity during the ninth century. The criteria for admission increasingly emphasized wealth rather than religious calling. Only in exceptional cases would a woman of humble background be admitted. The Miracles of Austroberta, composed in the ninth century, reports that the saint interceded on behalf of a poor girl. Refused admission to Pavilly on the ground that she was an unfree dependant of the monastery, the girl maintained a vigil at the saint's tomb, only to be forcibly removed by the abbess. This might have sealed the fate of the girl had not the abbess been suddenly struck by an illness, which was interpreted by the community as the saint's punishment for her haughtiness. Duly repentant, the abbess sent for the girl and accepted her as a postulant.184
The outstanding characteristic of ninth‑century abbesses was, not their holiness, but their business acumen. Ermentrud, abbess of Jouarre, exemplified the aggressive economic policy that abbesses had to pursue, despite the strict cloistering imposed on them. Through her family connections she obtained important relics for Jouarre. Once her monastery became a place of pilgrimage, she secured through the empress, her namesake and the proprietress of Jouarre, a grant of immunity from Charles the Bald with attendant rights of a marketplace and coinage.185 Not only Benedictine abbeys, such as Jouarre, but also institutes of canonesses were granted privileges of this kind by Charles the Bald and his successors. In 877, for example, Nivelles obtained by royal grant a piece of land, the income from which was to be reserved exclusively for members of the convent.186 Under Louis the Pious, this grant would have been issued only to a Benedictine monastery.
Once the economic incentive to observe the Benedictine Rule ceased, more and more Benedictine nunneries, such as Remiremont, were transformed into institutes of canonesses. By the end of the ninth century, the attempt to cloister canonesses had been abandoned. As royal control disintegrated and power devolved into the hands of the great aristocratic families, the episcopate could not enforce its legislation. What the Carolingians had sown, the late ninth‑century aristocracy reaped. Local families took over the exploitation of monastic revenues, with their daughters administering convents as lay abbesses. Under their leadership, rules were eased; Benedictine abbeys were transformed into institutes of canonesses, and strict cloistering was no longer required.187
The freer life led by canonesses and their abbesses better suited the function of political leadership that all monasteries had to undertake by the end of the ninth century, in addition to the traditional economic, cultural, and social roles they had played earlier. Providing a more desirable alternative to married life, these communities attracted powerful women as members. In the tenth century, abbesses once again arrogated for themselves the title "diaconis and at one was addressed as "metropolitana."189 Despite their titles, the superiors of tenth‑century feminine communities did not attempt to play clerical and quasi‑clerical roles. Nor did they attempt to assert spiritual leadership over men. Although abbesses led a much freer life than their ninth century predecessors, their power was based on the control they exercised over the monastery's extensive holdings rather than on their religious authority.
Resistance to women religious living in the world diminished by the end of the ninth century. While cautioning against the hasty veiling of widows, the Council of Mainz in 888 offered veiled widows the choice of joining a monastery or remaining in their own homes. l90 Nor were veiled virgins forced to enter a convent. Thus, nuns appeared once again as the helpers of priests, although their activities remained strictly limited to housekeeping tasks, such as maintaining order in the church, keeping the lights burning, and producing altar clothes and priestly vestments. They were also encouraged to contribute their own wealth to the church. 191
The Carolingian effort to cloister women religious proved to be premature. It represented an ideal ill‑suited to the political and social realities of the next two centuries, and was revived only in the late eleventh century by the Gregorian reformers. Nevertheless, women religious never recovered the clerical functions they had exercised as deaconesses in the sixth century and as abbesses in the seventh century.
Even though the Carolingian bishops had managed to eliminate female leadership roles in the church, restricting women to the domestic and private spheres and subjecting them to male authority, they could not prevent women from making their presence felt as contemplatives. One of these contemplatives was Saint Liutberga. The widowed Countess Gisla chose Liutberga from a convent, attracted by her intelligence and sweet disposition, as a companion. After her patroness's death, Liutberga was entrusted with the management of the vast estates of the descendants of Count Hessi ofSaxony . Although the family prospered
under her care, her long vigils and visits to churches after nightfall
annoyed the reigning count. When, as a result of his outbursts, she announced
her intention to become a recluse, he influenced the bishop against her.
Eventually she was permitted to attach herself as a recluse to the convent of Wendhausen,
where she supported herself by giving instruction in the art of wool dyeing.
Her influence soon expanded beyond this. Great men and women and even prelates
from distant places visited her, seeking her counsel and listening to her
elevated discourse. 192
Others, like Hathumoda, asserted feminine presence in the church by insisting on asceticism as the essence of monastic life. As the first abbess of Gandersheim, founded between 852 and 853 by her parents, Hathumoda could have organized the community as an institute of canonesses. She chose instead the more rigorous Benedictine observance, cloistering the sisters and forbidding them to have private cells, keep servants, and eat apart from the community.193 At the same time, Hathumoda took pains to establish a tradition of scholarship that was to nourish the talents of the dramatist and poet Hroswitha in the next century.
Different as their backgrounds, experiences, and accomplishments were, Liutberga and Hathumoda represented the same feminine type, the self-reliant female contemplative of the Middle Ages. In comparison with women religious of late antiquity, even the women in Jerome’s circle, Liutberga and Hathumoda were far more independent. They did not labor in the shadow of great men . In an age of waning spirituality and asceticism, each in her own way acted as a religious reformer. Liutberga demonstrated that recluses could be both spiritually and socially useful, whereas Hathumoda provided an example of feminine initiative in the pursuit of monastic perfection. Making te most of the roles to which women religious were restricted by the second half of the ninth century, Liutberga and Hathumoda and others like them transcended these roles. Reaching out beyond themselves, they demonstrated that women could excel at spiritual leadership.
NOTES CHAPTER 7
1. As Elise Boulding remarked: "One of the many frustrations in trying to write the underside of history is that the rise of the monastic movement is written almost entirely in terms of men" (The Underside of History [Boulder, Colo., 1978], p. 368). Lina Eckenstein's Woman under Monasticism and her The Women of Early Christianity (London, 1935) may be supplemented by Eleanor Shipley Duckett, The Gateway to the Middle Ages: Monasticism (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1938), Sister M. Rosamond Nugent, Portrait of the Consecrated Woman in Greek Christian Literature of the First Four Centuries (Washington, D.C., 1941), and George H. Tavard, Woman in Christian Tradition. A more narrow focus is provided by René Metz, La Consecration des vièrges dans L'Eglise romaine (Paris ,
1954). I was unable to consult the latest work on Carolingian monasteries by
jean Décarreaux, Moines et monastères à l'epoque de Charlemagne
(Paris ,
1980). In his earlier work, Décarreaux dealt
only with Radegund in some detail. See Monks
and Civilization from the Barbarian Invasions to the Reign of Charlemagne, trans. C. Haldane (London , 1962).
2. See Introduction, notes 8‑14, for relevant literature on the subject. Jean Verdon listed the nunneries that were still in existence in the ninth century. See "Recherches," pp. 1 17‑138. He also noted that he is preparing a similar study on the nunneries of northernFrance
(ibid., p. 118. n. 3).
3. Venantius Fortunatus, "De virginitate," Opera poetica 8.3, lines 327‑38 (NIGH Auct. ant. 4/ 1, 189‑191).
4. Ambrose, De virginibus 1.6.25‑27 (PL 16, 206‑207) "plures generaverit, plus laborat. Numeret solatia filiorum, sed numeret pariter et molestias. Nubit et plorat . . . Concepit et, gravescit . . . quid recenseam nutriendi molestias, instituendi et copulandi." On the glories of virginity, see also Cyprian, De habilu virg. 22 (CSEL 3, 202‑203); Jerome, Adversus Helvidium 20 (PL 23, 214A‑B); Epistolae 22.2.1 (CSEL 54, 146); Augustine, De sancta virginitate 13 (CSEL 41, 245); Epistulae 150 (CSEL 44, 381). On the praises lavished on virgins in the high and later Middle Ages, see Matthäus Bernards, Speculum virginum: Geistlichkeit and Seelenleben der Frau im Hochmittelalter (Forschungen zur Volkskunde, 36, 38; Cologne, 1955) and John Bugge, Virginitas: An Essay in the History of a .'Medieval Ideal (International Archives of the History of Ideas, Ser. Min., 17; The Hague, 1975).
5. Gregory ofTours ,
Liber vitae patrum 19.1 (MGH Script. rer. met. 1, 736) Gregory
made it clear that she had married "parentum
ad votum."
6. Hucbald, Vita s. Rictrudis (HIGH Script. rer. met. 6, 94). She died in 668, but her life was composed in 907; see Van der Essen, Etude critique. pp. 260‑265.
7. Vita s. Geretrudis 2 (MGH Script. rer. met. 2, 455‑456) Gertrud was born "I 626 and died in 658; when her father, Pepin, died in 640, she was fourteen years old, that is, of marriageable age.
8. Vita s. Eustadiola (AS 8 Iunii; 2, 132). She was a contemporary of Sulpicius,
who died in 647; Vita Sulpilii (MGH Scnpt. rer. met. 4, 371‑38o). See also Dekkers, Clavis patrum latinorum 298.
9. Vita s. Sigolenae (AS 24 Iulii; 5, 63o‑637). See also above, chapter 6, note 81.
10. Fortunatus, De vita sanclae Radegundis 1.12 (MGH Script. rer. met. 2, 368). Gregory of Tours, Hist. franc. 3.7 (MGH Script. rer. met. 1, 115), also mentioned the murder of her brother.
11. On the history of Radegund's nunnery, first dedicated to Noire‑Dame, and then named Sainte‑Croix when Radegund obtained from the Emperor Justin a piece of the Cross, see, in addition to the sources cited in the previous note, her testament (Pardessus 192 [Vol. 1, 151 ]) and the letter addressed to her by the Council of Tours held in 567 (CCL 148A, 195‑199). Among secondary sources, see René Aigrain, Sainte Radegonde (Paris ,
1 g 18) and "Une abbesse mat connue de Sainte‑Croix de Poitiers ," Bulletin philologique et
historique (1946‑47),
197‑202; Dom Pierre Monsabert, "Le testament de Sainte
Radegonde," Bulletin philologique et
historique (1926‑27),
129‑134; and Verdon, "Recherches," p. 120. Several articles
deal with her in Etudes mérovingiennes.‑ Actes des
Journees de Poitiers, 1952 (Paris, 1953): René Aigrain, "Un ancien
poème anglais, sur la vie de
sainte Radegonde," pp. 1‑12; L. Coudanne, "Baudonivie, moniale
de Sainte‑Croix et biographe de sainte
Radegonde," pp. 45‑51; E. Delaruelle, "Sainte Radegonde, son
type de sainteté et la chrétienté de son temps,"
pp. 65‑74; Georges Marié, "Sainte Radegonde et le milieu monastique
contemporain, " pp. 219‑225.
12. Ionas, Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 2.7 (MGH Script. rer. met. 4/1, 122; MGH Script. rer. germ. in usu schol. 241‑242). J. O'Carrol, "Sainte Fare et les origines," in Sainte Fare et Faremoutiers (L'Abbeye de Faremoutiers, 1956), pp. 4--35.
13. Vita s. Austrebertae 7 (AS 1o Feb.; 2, 420): "parentes ejus . . . arrhabone pro amore seculi recepto, tempus praefinitum et diem statuissent nuptiarium . . . illa in angustiis posita, cogitate coepit quid ageret. Moesta vero iter furtim arripuit, germano secum fratre, licet parvulo. assumpto." She was veiled around 656 and died between 681 and 704, according to the editor of her Vita.‑ Pref. 1 (ibid., 418). Although her biographer claims to have been her contemporary, the vita was composed in the late eighth century; cf. Dekkers, Clavis patrum latinorum 2089.
14. Vila Bertilae 1 (MGH Script. rer. met. 6, 1o1). According to the editor,W. Levison , the life
was composed after the mid‑eighth
century, probably in the late eighth or ninth century (ibid. 6, 99).
15. Vita Aldegundis 2 (MGH Script. rer. met. 6, 86). The prevailing opinion among scholars is that the first version of her life was composed before 850, in the late eighth century; for a summary of the literature, see E. de Moreau, Histoire de l'Eglise en Belgique, Vol. 1, 2d ed. rev. (Brussels, 1945) 137‑138. She died in 684, according to Van der Essen. Etude critique, pp. 219.
16. Vita ss. Herlindis et Renildae 3, 6 (AS 22 Martii; 3, 384‑385) "quoadusque filiae suae ad intelligibile tempus perductae fuissent, votis voverunt absque ulla dilatione illas se tradituros divinis litteris imbuendas . . . 11 propria haereditate monasterium aedificarent, in quo electae filiae ip ipsorum pro peccatis suis immortali Domino funderent preces." Com posed in the ninth century, according to Van der Essen, it contain. legendary details about the life of the two sisters, who lived in the early part of the eighth century. Etudes critique, pp.109- 111.
17. Agius, Agii Vita et obitus Hathumodae 3 (MGH Script. 4, 167). She died in 871 Besides the monk Agius, her brother, she had two sisters, Gerberga an(; Christina, who also entered Gandersheim. Her older brother, Duke Otto, and her older sister, Liutgard, were married; see Heineken, Dr. Anfänge, and L. Zoepf, Lioba, Hathumot, Wiborada: Drei Heilige des deutschen Mittelalters (Munich, 1915; see also note 192, below.
18. Vita Sadalbergae 6, to (MGH Script. rer. mer. 5, 53, 55). She died shortly after the death of Waldabert of Luxeuil in 670. Her vita was probably composed in the first half of the ninth century, according to the editor. B. Krusch (ibid., 45). We know that she had dedicated herself to the service of God quite early in life, as soon as Eustachius cured her blindness: Ionas, Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 2.8 (MGH Script rer. mer. 4/2, 122). See also chapter 5, note 29.
19. Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg's conclusions indicate a similar pattern: "In the sixth century, women comprised slightly over eight per cent of the total number of saints . . . . With the seventh century there is a substantial increase in the number of women saints. Approximately 15% . . . were women. . . . For the first half of the [eighth] century the percentage reached 23.5%. . . . [In the ninth century] . . . only 15.7% are women." "Sexism and Celestial Gynaeceum, 500‑1200,"Journal of Medieval History, 3 (1978), 120, 122, 123.
20. The community at Riez, which Sidomus Apollinaris mentioned in his Carmina 16.84 (MGH Auct. ant. 8, 241), may have been among those that did not survive the invasions. On Riez, see also E. Griffe, La Gaulr chrétienne à l'époque romaine, Vol. 2 (Paris , 1966), 260-65, with an explanation of the
Sidonius reference in note 5, p. 263.
21. Before the foundation ofSaint Jean ,
Caesaria lived at Marseilles ,
in a nunnery established by Cassian; see Vitae
Caesarii 35
(MGH Script. rer. mer. 3, 470).
22.Vila
Romani 1.15 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 3, 140). Romanus died at the end of the
fourth century; see F. Prinz, Fruhes Mdnchtum, pp. 23‑24. His
life was composed in the sixth century; on its value as a source, sec K. Weber,
"Kulturgeschichtliche Probleme der Merowingerzeit im Spiegel
frühmittelalterlicher Heiligenleben," Sludien und Mitteilungen des
Benediktinerordens and seiner Zweige, 48 (1930), 366‑375.
23. Vita Eugendi 5 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 3, 156): "monachas vero procul intra urbem monasterioque conseptas ultra sexagenario numero admirabile ordinatione rexit et aluit." It later became a Benedictine abbey; see
Cartulaire de l fl bb aye de Saint‑André‑le‑Bas de Vienne, ordre de Saint Benoit, ed. U. Chevalier (Vienne ,
1869). A donation issued in 543 to another nun nery outside the city
refers to this convent as the
one where the donor'! sister, Eubonia, is abbess. See
Pardessus 140 (vol. 1, 107), and note 28, below.
24. Vitae Caesarii 1, 35 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 3, 470)_ For further literature, see F. Benoit, "Topographie monastique d'Arles au vie siècle," Etudes mérovingiennes: Actes des Journees de Poitiers, 1952 (Paris , 1953),
pp. 13‑17; idem, "Le
premier baptistère d'Arles et l'Abbaye Saint‑Césaire," Cahiers archéologiques, 5 (1951), 3,_59; F.
Prim, Frühes Mönchtum, p. 77, nn. 179‑181; and L. Ueding, Geschichte
der Klostergrundungen des frühen Merowingerzeit
(Historische Studien, 261; Berlin,
1935), PP‑ 56‑‑64.
25. Caesarius ofArles ,
Regula sanctarum virginum 39, 46, 64, in
opera omnia, ed. G. Morin, Vol. 2 (Maredsous, 1942), 112, 114,
119.
26. Saint Radegund adopted Caesarius's Rule for the convent Clothar built for her; Gregory of Tours, Hist. franc. 9.39 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 395), and Epistolae aevi mer. 11 (MGH Epist. 3, Mer. kar. aevi 1, 450‑453); also René Aigrain, "Le voyage de sainte Radegonde àArles ,"
Bulletin philologique et
historique (1926‑27), 119‑127,
Hope Mayo discusses various rules used in Frankish convents. See her
"Three Merovingian Rules for Nuns"
(Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1974).
See also F. Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum,
pp. 8o‑82, and note 106, below.
27. Aurelian founded Saint Mary ofArles around 548, incorporating
many of
Caesarius's points into its rule. A combination of the two rules was adopted by Bishop Ferreolus of Uzès for Ferreolac. For further literature, see Ueding, Klöstergrundungen, p. 75; F. Prinz, Frühes Monchtum, p. 8o, n. 196; and Mayo "Three Merovingian Rules."
28. Pardessus 140 (vol. 1, 107). It was intended to serve as a burial convent with their daughter Remilia serving as abbess. According toAdo ,
Chronicon (MGH Script. 2, 317), the
monastery was founded in 575 outside the walls.
In the city there was another convent established by Leonian; Remilia was
raised there. See also Gallia Christiana, vol. 16, 172, and
note 23, above.
29. Gregory ofTours ,
Hist. franc. 9.35 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 390).
3o. Gregory of Tours, Liber in gloria confessorum 16 (MGH Script. rer mer. 1,
(756‑757)
31. René Metz, "Les vièrges chrétiennes enGaul
au ive siècle," in Saint
Martin et son temps (Studia Anselmiana, 46; Rome, 1961), pp. 109‑132; idem, "La consécration des vièrges enGaul des origines
à l'apparition des livres liturgiques," Revue de droit canonique, 6 (1956), 321‑339; idem, "La
consécration des vièrges dans l'Église franque d'après la plus ancienne vie de
Sainte Pusinne (VIII‑IXe siècle)," Revue des sciences religieuses, 35 (1961), 32‑48. For studies
on professed widows, see below, note 58.
32. Nora Chadwick, in her Poetry and Letters in Early Christian Gaul, gives examples of married couples in
fourth-centuryGaul renouncing sexual relations and
dedicating their lives to divine service. Concerning virgins, see Metz 's articles in the previous note.
33. Henry Neff Waldron, treated this form of religious life as the most common expression of lay conuersio. On the basis of conciliar admonitions addressed to women converts, Waldron concludes that "avowed widows and professed virgins living in their own homes were the most common of all forms of conversio" ("Expressions of Religious Conversion among Laymen Remaining within Secular Society in Gaul: 400‑800 A.D." [Ph.D. dissertation,Ohio
State University ,
19761, p. 338). He also notes that during the course of the eighth century male conversi abandoned tonsure, the outward mark of their conversio, and were
no longer mentioned in ninth‑century
sources. This was not the case for virgins and widows dedicated to the service
of God.
34. One was a washerwoman, "quae sub specie religionis veste mutata, concepit et peperit." The other, Marcoveifa, "religiosa veste habens," became a queen. Hist. franc. 2.1; 4.26 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 37, 157),
35. Gregory ofTours ,
Liber in gloria confessorum 33 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 768).
36. Fortunatus, De vita sanctae Radegundis 1.2 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 2, 365‑366).
37. Gregory ofTours ,
Hist. franc. 2.43 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 106):
"Chrodechildis autem regina post mortem viri sui Turonus venit, ibique ad
basilica Martini deserviens."
38. Gregory ofTours ,
Hist. franc. 9.33 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 387): "in
atrio sancti Martini."
39. Gregory ofTours ,
De virtutibus s. Martini. 1.17 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 598): "In
portam Ambiensi, in qua . . . oratorium
a fidelibus est aedificatum, in quo nunc puellae
religiosae deserviunt." See also Ueding, Klostergründungen, p. 129.
40. Gregory ofTours ,
Liber vitae patrum 9.2 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 703). This
nunnery grew up around the oratory built
by Saint Patroclus. When he decided to withdraw to the woods, he left his cell
to the virgins who had congregated
there. See C. A. Bernouilli, Die Heiligen
der Merowinger (Tübingen, 1900), pp. 99‑loo; Ueding, Klostergrundungen,
pp. 16, 126.
41. Two donations, forged in the eleventh century, claim that it was founded byClovis
and Clotild for their daughter Theodechild:
see Pardessus 64 (vol. 1, 34), 335 (Vol. 2, 112). See also M. Prou, Étude sur les chartes de fondation de lAbbaye de Saint‑Pierre‑le‑l'if
(Paris ,
1894), and H. Bouvier, "Histoire de Saint‑Pierre‑le‑Vif
à Sens," Bulletin des sciences hist. et nat. de l'Yonne, 45 (1892), 1‑212. Ueding has argued
that the cloister was founded
by a Theudechild, the daughter of Queen Suavegotha, the wife of Theuderic I, Klostergründungen, pp.
198‑204.
This Theudechild was the sister of Theudebert I (534‑548), rather than
the daughter of Charibert, for whom
Venantius Fortunatus composed an epitaph: Opera
poetica (MGH Auct. ant. 4/1, 94). On the document listed in Pardessus as number 335, see Ewig, "Das
Privileg," p. 92, nn. 48‑50.
42. Prinz identifies it with Saint Martin‑les‑Marien. See Frühes Monchtum, pp.
65‑66. See also J. Wollasch, "Das Patrimonium beati Germani in Auxerre," Studien and Vorarbeiten zur Geschichte des grossfrankischen‑ and frühdeutschen Adels, ed. G. Tellenbach (Freiburg ,
1957), p. 188. According to
René Louis, it was affiliated with Saint Cosmas‑Saint Damien, a male
community, and the two formed
a double monastery. See Autessiodurum
christianum: les eglises d Auxerre des origines au XIme siècle (Paris ,
1952), p. 16.
43. Gregory ofTours ,
Liber vitae patrum 19.2 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 738):
"Ibique paucas collegens monachas, cum
fide integra et oratione degebat." According to Ueding, she died around
579 (Klostergrundungen, pp. 25‑26).
F. Prinz has suggested that the Chartres
community was organized according to the model of Saint Martin convents (Frühes Mönchtum, P‑ 37).
44. According to tradition, the first convent was at Aliscamps; see A. Malnory,
Saint Césaire, évêque dArles
503 q3) (Bibl. de l'École
des Hautes Études, Sciences Philol. et Hist., 103; Paris, 1894), pp. 257‑26o; L. A. Constans , Arles antique (Paris , 1941), pp. 357‑358; and the
articles by F. Benoit, cited
above, in note 24.
45. Gregory ofTours , Hist.
franc. 4.26 (MGH
Script. rer. mer. 1, 162).
46. Gregory ofTours , Liber
in gloria confessorum 18 (MGH Script.
rer. mer. 1,
757‑758) the two virgins were Maura and Britta.
47. Further research is needed on the proportion of male and female communities in the sixth century. Ueding (Klostergrundungen) listed fifty‑nine monasteries for men and seventeen for women. See also Ch. Higounet, "Le problème économique: L'Église et la vie rurale pendant le très haut moyen age," Le Chiese nei regni dell'Europa occidentale (Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo: Settimana di studio, 7, 2; Spoleto, 196o), pp. 775‑804 Higounet noted that three‑fourths of the Merovingian monasteries were built in the country and one‑fourth in the cities. Ibid., p. 785. Jean Hubert argues against the prevailing view that monasteries grew around hermitages. On the contrary, hermitages were attached to monasteries to permit members to engage periodically in complete solitude. "L'Érémitisme et archéologie," in L 'Eremetismo in occidente nei secoli XI e XII (Milan, Univ. Catt. del Sacro Cuore, Contributi, Ser. 3, Var. 4; Studi medioevali: Misc. 4; Milan, 1965), pp. 469‑475
48. See notes 11, 38‑39, 41‑43, above.
49. Gregory I, Registrum epistularum 13.7, 12 (MGH Epist. 2, 371‑372, 378-380). The second letter specified that the abbess was to be chosen by the king, with the consent of the nuns. Even though Autun did not emulateArles
in the election of the abbess, it
had close relations with that convent. See F. Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum, p. 78.
50. Gregory ofTours , in his Hist. franc. 1o.8 (MGH
Script. rer. mer. 1, 415), mentioned a convent at Lyons from
which Eulalius, count ofAuvergne ,
had abducted a nun. Dedicated to Saint Peter, it was known as Sancti
Petri‑Puellaris (Saint Pierre‑aux‑Nonnaines). Two donations that claim it was founded by King Gaudesil and his wife Teudelind are tenth and
twelfth century forgeries. See A. Coville, "La prétendue charte mérovingienne de Saint‑Pierre de Lyon," and "L'Eveque Aunemundus et son testament," in his Recherches sur l'histoire de Lyon du Ve au IXe siècle (450‑ (Paris , 1928), pp. 251‑266, and 366‑416.
For the two donations, see Pardessus 196 (vol. 1, 156) and 324 (Vol. 2, 101‑102). The nunnery was in
existence in the early ninth century: Bishop Leidradus of Lyons , in a letter to Charles the Great, dated 813, mentioned thirty‑two
nuns living there under the Benedictine Rule, Epist. variorum
Carolo Magno regnante scriptae 30 (MGH
Epist. 4, Mer. kar. aevi 2, 543).
According to Vita s. Boniti
37 (.SIGH Script. rer. mer. 6,
137), a woman called Dida was the abbess in 705.
51. The sixth‑century donations to Sancta Maria ` juxta muros" are all forgeries dating from the ninth century, according to Julien Havet, "Questions mérovingiennes VII: Les actes des évêques du Mans." Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 55 (1894), 5‑6o. See Pardessus, 108, 117, 128 (vol. 1, 72‑74; 80, 94‑95). Ueding (Klostergrundungen, p. 158) includes the convent among sixth‑century foundations.
52. OnArles , see
above, notes 24 and 27; on Vienne, notes 23 and 27; on Tours ,
notes 38 and 43.
53. See above, note 40.
54‑ On Chelles, see below, note 82. On Notre‑Dame les Andelys, see Vita s. Chrothildis 1 1 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 2, 346). Bede mentioned Les Andelys among the Frankish convents to which English kings sent their daughters to be educated. Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum 3.8, ed. C. Plummer, vol. i (Oxford ,
1896), 142. As F. Prinz has
pointed out, Les Andelys was probably reorganized by Audoen of Rouen. See Frühes Monchtum, pp. 296‑297.
See also Ph. Schmitz, Histoire, vol. 7,
19.
55. See chapter 6, notes 73‑75
56. Conc. Turonense 21 (20) (CCL 148A, 186), citing Codex Theod. 9.25.1 interpret. and 9.25.2 (Mommsen, vol. 1, 478‑479). added the comparison to the vestal virgins.
57. Conc. Aurelianense (538), 19 (16) (CCL 148A, 121). The Council of Orleans (549) • 19 (CCL 148A, 155) was somewhat more lenient, allowing absolution after suitable penance. Conc. Turonense 21 (2) (CCL í48A, 185) quoted directly from Innocent I, Epistola ad Victricium (Feb. 15, 404; PL 20, 475‑477; JK 286). The idea that a virgin's vow of chastity was a marriage pact with Christ was developed by Origen on the basis of the Cantica Canticorum and then popularized by Jerome in his Interpretatio Homil Origenis in Cant. Cant. 5‑6 (PL 23, 1180‑1 182). Waldemar Molinski traces primary and secondary sources in "Virginity," Sacramentum Mundi, ed. Karl Rahner S. J., vol. 6 (London ,
1970), 333‑336 See also jean Gaudemet, "Saint Augustin et le
manquement au voeu de virginité," Annales de la Faculté de Droit d Aix‑en‑Provence ,
Nouv. ser., 43 (1950), 135‑145
58. Conc. Turenense 21 (20) (CCL 148A, 187): "Illud vero, quod aliqui dicunt:
'vidua, quae benedicata non fuit, quare non debet maritum accipere?' " We need further research on the status of widows who had been received into the religious life. André Rosambert's La veuve en droit canonique needs to be corrected and brought up to date; see the scathing criticism of it by G. Le Bras in Revue des sciences religieuses, 6 (1926), 281‑288. René Metz emphasized that the "ordo viduarum" initially consisted of elderly widows who had been married only once and needed material assistance; it was slowly transformed into a group of women aspiring to lead a life of perfection. "La femme en droit canonique médiéval," p. 93. R. Gryson traced the process of assimilation between the order of widows and the order of virgins, which began with the imposition of the same habit by the first Council of Toledo, g (Bruns 1, 205). Le ministère, pp. 164‑169. Despite the assimilation of the juridical status and function of professed virgins and widows, widows were not eligible for the solemn liturgical rite of consecration; the Council of Orange in 441 deprived widows of the right to receive benediction at the time of their profession. It specified that the bishop was to hand a widow "vestis vidualis," not before the altar, but in the "secretarium," the room where bishops received the faithful and arbitrated conflicts. Conc. Arausicanum 26 (CCL 148, 85). The so‑called Sacramentarium Gelasianum, copied at Chelles shortly before 750, made a distinction between the "Consecratio sacrae virginis" and "Benedictio viduae." God accepted the former as a bride, but granted only consolation to the latter (Liber sacramentorum, pp. 123‑125, 213). On the basis of a twelfthcentury ordo for the veiling of widows, which was derived from an eighth century ordo, Ann E. Mather concluded that "the veiling of a virgin was the marriage of a woman to Christ, whereas a widow, whether or not her husband was dead, offered herself to religious life in the church within the contract that bound her to her husband" ("A Twelfth Century Ordo for the Veiling of Widows," paper read at the Third Berkshire Conference on the History of Women; June, 1976). On the consecration of virgins, see the articles by René Metz cited in note 31.
59. Conc. Parisiense (556‑573), 5 (CCL 148A, 187); Cone. Matisconense (581583), 12 (CCL 148A, 226).
60. Chlotharii I regis constitutio 7 (MGH Leg. 1, 2).
61. Baudonivia, De vita s. Radegundis 6‑7 (NIGH Script. rer. mer. 2, 382).
62. Conc. Parisiense (614): Edictum Clotarii H, 18 (CCL 148A, 285).
63. Florentius, Vita s. Rusticulae 3 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 4, 341). On the value of her biography, see Riche, "Note d'hagiographie mérovingienne: La Vita s. Rusticulae," pp. 369‑377.
64. See note 12, above.
65. Lex Bai. 1.11 (,SIGH Legum Sectio I, 5/2, 283‑284).
66. Conc. Clippiacense (626‑627), 26 (CCL 148A, 296): "neque per auctoritatem regiam neque per quacumque potestate suffultus."
67. Conc. Latunense (673‑675), 12‑13 (CCL 148A, 316).
68. Vita Sadalbergae 8 (MGH Script. rer. mer‑ 5, 54)
69. For a bibliography of secondary sources and for the controversy whether Colomban arrived around 570 or 590, see F. Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum, p. 121, nn. 1‑3.
70. Ionas, Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 1.20 (SIGH Script rer. germ. in usu schol. 197)
71. For example, Ionas, in his Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 1.26 (MGH Script. rer. germ. in usu schol. 209), mentioned that the matron Aiga brought her children "ad benedicendum viro Dei." He consecrated them with his benediction, "videns . . . matris fidem." Her oldest son,Ado ,
and her second son, Iotrus, built Jouarre; her third
son, Dado, built Rebais.
72. Ionas, Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 1.14 (NIGH Script. rer. germ. in usu schol. 176).
73. Mary Bateson's Origin and Early History of Double Monasteries needs to be revised in view of modern scholarship. In particular, her thesis that there were double monasteries inIreland
must be reexamined. Ferdinand
Hilpisch's study, Die Doppelklöster,
Entstehung and Organization, suffers from the author's reluctance to admit that some of the
Frankish double monasteries developed around nunneries, with the female community serving as the spiritually
and economically sustaining element. He rejects the possibility of any insular influence and argues that Frankish
double monasteries were modeled on Eastern institutions, where nuns lived as parasites upon the monks. M.
Heinrich summarized the scholarly controversy about double monasteries in Ireland ,
pointing out that: "The Irish were favorable to it on the continent, but
in Ireland
only Kildare existed without
question." Canonesses and Education,
p. 62. On double monasteries in seventhcentury England , see Joan Nicholson, "Feminae gloriosae: Women
in the Age of Bede," in Medieval
Women, ed. in honor of Rosalind
M. T. Hill (Studies in Church History; Subsidia 1; Oxford, 1978), pp. 15‑2g.
74. Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines 12 (PL 88, 1o64; Holstenius 1, 400). For a bibliography on Waldebert's authorship, see F. Prinz, Fruhes Monchtum, pp. 81, n. 205, 286, n. 97.
75. Ionas, Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 1.26; 2.7 (NIGH Script. rer. germ. in usu schol. 204, 243). Her father, Chagneric, was one of the great officials under Theudebert of Austrasia: "vir sapiens et consiliis regiis gratus." Her mother, Leudegunda, was a noble woman. See F. Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum, p. 81. O'Carrol claims Burgundofara was twelve or thirteen when Columban visited her parents ("Sainte Fare et les origmes," p. 5). Ionas refers to her as "infra infantiae annis," which means that she had not reached twelve or thirteen, the age of adolescence. The so‑called privilege of Saint Faro (Burgundofaro), Burgundofara's brother, is a later forgery, probably drawn up in the twelfth century. See Pardessus 226 (vol. 1, 193). It is contained in two manuscripts: Paris, Bibl. Nat. 928, fols. 56‑58; Paris, Bibl. Sainte Genevieve 358, fols. 2 1‑22; see Gougaud, Les chrétientés celtiques, p. 146. The authenticity of Burgundofara's testament, on the other hand, has been vindicated by its latest editor: Jean Guerout, "Le testament de Sainte‑Fare," Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique, 6o (1965), 761‑821. See Pardessus 257 (vol. 2, pp. 15‑17). On the two manuscript collections containing these and other documents, see Jacqueline Le Bras‑Tremenbert, "Les cartulaires de Faremoutiers," Sainte Fare et Faremoutiers (L'Abbaye de Faremoutiers, 1956), pp. 175213. Faremoutiers became a famous center of learning under Queen Balthild's patronage: ['ita s. Balthildis 8 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 2, 493). It was praised by the Venerable Bede, in Historia ecclesiastica 3.8.
76. Hlawitschka, Studien, p. 38, and Liber memorialis yon Remiremont (MGH Libri mem. 1, ix).
77. Vita Filiberti 22 (.'SIGH Script. rer. mer. 5, 595). See also Vacandard, fie de Saint Ouen, p. tog. Hilpisch classified Pavilly ‑Jumièges as neighboring convents, not as a double monastery (Die Doppelklöster, p. 34). A similar type of affiliation existed between Pellemontier‑Montiérender and Fécamp‑Saint Wandrille, according to Hilpisch (ibid., pp. 33‑34)F. Prinz argued that Logium, rather than Fécamp, constituted the female counterpart of Saint Wandrille Fruhes Monchtum, p. 128).
78. "Tantôt et le plus souvent, les moniales sont sujettes à la jurisdiction de l'abbaye des hommes." Schmitz, Histoire, vol. 1, p. 322.
79. On the transfer of Dorniaticum to Waldelen, see Pardessus 328 (Vol. 2, toy‑lo6). Subsequently, in 666, even Bèze was devastated, perhaps by the same group that threatened Dorniaticum; on this, see Pardessus 348, 356 (Vol. 2, 131, 141). For secondary literature, see F. Prinz, Fruhes Monchtum, p. 281.
80. Vita Sadalbergae 17 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 5, 5g): "in eodem loco sunt vel monasterio adunatae plus minusve trecentae famulae Christi; illisque dispositis per turmas, ad instar Agaunensium monachorum Habendique normam disposuit; die ac nocte praecepit psallendi canonem omnipotenti." The "laus perennis" was introduced to Remiremont by Amatus, who was a monk at Agaunum before he was invited by Eustachius to join Remiremont. According to Hilpisch, Salaberga was educated at Remiremont (Die Doppelklöster, p. 38). Salaberga was in contact with Eustachius, who cured her of blindness, according to Vita Sadalbergae 4 (NIGH Script. rer. mer. 5, 53). The passage was excerpted from Ionas, Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 2.8 (MGH Script. rer. germ. in usu schol. 244‑245) On Laon, see A. Malnory, Quid Luxovienses monachi, discipuli s. Columbani, ad regulam monasteriorum atque ad communem ecclesiae profectum contulerunt (Paris ,
1894), p. 29.
81. Dom Y. Chaussy et al., eds., L Abbaye royale Notre‑Dame de Jouarre (Paris , 1961); Marquise Aliette de Rohan‑Chabot Maillé, Les cryptes de Jouarre (Paris , 1971).
82. Gregory ofTours , in his Hist. franc. 5.39; 6.46; 8.4; lo. 19 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 1,
231, 286, 293, 433).
mentioned the existence of a royal vilaa at Cala, with a "coenobiolum virginum" established there by Queen Clotild, wife ofClovis .
On its reconstruction by Balthild, see Fita
s. Balthildis A 7, 18 (.NIGH Script.
rer. mer. 2, 489,
5o6). On Balthild's monastic foundations, see Ewig, "Das
Privileg," pp. rob‑i i r. As Henri I.évy‑Bruhl, has pointed out, in the Merovingian period
the founder chose the constitution of the monastery and nominated the superior as well. Etude sur les élections abbatiales en France jusqu'à la fin du règne de Charles de
Chauve (Paris , 1913),
p. 42. Thus, at Corbie,
her other foundation for males, Balthild installed Theudefrid, a monk from Luxeuil. There are no modern studies on
Chelles. Mare Bloch has listed and criticized earlier studies in his "Notes sur les sources d'histoire de
l'Ile‑de‑France au Moyen Age I: Les archives et
cartulaires de l'Abbaye de Chelles,"
Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de Paris et de l'lle‑de‑France,
40 (1913), 145‑164. The Vita s. Balthildis 15 (MGH Script. rer. mer.
2, 502) mentioned the presence of "sacerdotes" only at the time
of Balthild's death. The Vita Bertilae, composed in the late
eighth century, more than once refers to the presence of monks. For a summary of this issue, see
the introduction by Levison (.NIGH
Script. rer. mer. 6, g7‑98), and chapter
8, notes 51‑55.
83. Hoebanx, L'Abbaye de Nivelles, pp. 45‑53
84. The two charters by Aldegund in Pardessus (338‑339 ßs'01. 2, 116‑118]) are forgeries; see Paul Bonenfant, "Note critique sur le prétendu testament de sainte Aldegonde," Académie Royale de Belgique: Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, 98 (1934), 219‑238. On the other hand, the value of her life, Vita .‑lldegundis (MGH Script. rer. mer. 6, 79‑90), has been vindicated by Van der Essen, Etude critique, pp. 219‑231, and Moreau, Histoire de l"Eglise, Vol. 1, 121. Moreau suggests that Saint Amand may have helped with the foundation of Maubeuge (ibid., p. 381). See also J. Becquet, "Nouveau dépouillement du `Monasticon Benedictinum,' " Revue Benedictine, 73 (1963), 332.
85. According to Vita s. Rictrudis 2.16 (Acta sanctorurn Belgii selecta 4, 496), written by Hucbald of Saint Amand in 907, Rictrud built Marchiennes with Amand's help and had Ionas as her coabbot; the latter is not to be confused with Ionas of Bobbio, according to F. Prinz (Frühes Monchtum, P. 273• n‑ 30). See also Hucbald, Vita s. Jonati (,,IS r. Aug.; 1, 75). On the value of Saint Rictrud's vita as a historical source, see Van der Essen, Etude critique, pp. 260‑268; Moreau, Histoire de l'Église, vol. 1, 245, and his Saint Amand, apôtre de la Belgique et du Nord de la France (Louvain, 1927), pp. 224‑227; and Hilpisch, Die Doppelklöster, p. 40.
86. Jules Dewez, Histoire de lAbbaye deSt. Pierre d'Hasnon (Lille , r 89o);
Becquet, "Monasticon Benedictinum," p. 331.
87. Pardessus 355 (Vol. 2, 138‑141), issued by Drauscius, Bishop of Soissons, granted free election of the abbess and referred to "Ebroinus majordomus, ejusque inlustris matrona Leutrudis, et eorum unicus dilectissimus filius Bovo" as the founders and to Etheria as the abbess. A letter of Bishop Leodegar to Sigrada, written in 688,
Epist. Aevi crier. 17 (.11(;H Epist. 3, Mer. kar. aevi 1, 466), referred to "omnes fratres sanctos, qui cuotidie pro to orant," and "sorores sanctas quarum consortium frueris." See also J. Fischer, Das Hausmeier Ebroin, p. 109.
88. Moreau, Histoire de l'Eglise, vol. 1 , 1 77. According to Hucbald, ['ita s. Rictrudis 9 (Acta sanctorum: Belgii selecta 4, 492), it was founded by Gertrud, whose grandson Adalbald married Saint Rictrud. It was a double monastery by the ninth century and closely associated with Marchiennes, as the instruction of Charles the Bald, namely, that the monks and nuns of Hamaye were to receive a share of the wine produced by the villa of Vregny belonging to the Abbey of Marchiennes, indicates. Georges Tessier, Recued des Actes de Charles II, le Chauve, roi de France 435, Vol. 2, (Chartes et diplornes relatifs A l'histoire de France, 8, no. 2, 9‑1o; Paris, 1943‑45) 473‑474
89. Becquet, "Monasticon Benedictinum," p. 327. It was founded around 660 by Bertha, wife of Gendebert, mayor of the palace and the brother of Nivard of Reims. On the latter, see Fita Nivardi (MGH Script. rer. mer. 5, 157‑171). By the ninth century it had as members forty nuns and twenty clerks; see Flodoard, Historia ecclesiae Remensis 3.27 (.NIGH Script. 13, 549) . See also jean Verdon, "Notes sur le rôle économique des monasteres féminins enFrance
dans la second moitié du IXe et au &but du Xe
siècle," Revue Mabillon, 58 (1975),
332.
go. F. Prinz, Frühes Monchtum, p. 158.
91. Remiremont and Bèze in the area around Luxeuil; Faremoutiers, Jouarre, Chelles,Soissons , and Laon between the
Seine and the Somme; Maubeuge,
Marchiennes, Nivelles, Hasnon, and Hamaye between the Somme and the Meuse .
Among double monasteries it is possible to include Saint
Jean and Saint Mary of Arles ,
and Holy Cross and Saint Radegonde of Poitiers .
92. Higounet, "Le problème économique," pp. 775‑804. Jean Hubert estimated the number of seventh‑century monastic foundations inGaul at about two hundred (see
"L'Eremitisme et archéologie," p. 473). In comparison to this figure,
the number of double monasteries is very small.
93. Pavilly ‑Jumièges and Fécamp‑St. Wandrille; see note 77, above.
94. Hans‑Walter Hermann, "Zum Stande der Erforschung der früh‑ and hochmittelalterlichen Geschichte des BistumsMetz ,"
Rheinische Vierte ljahrsblàtter, 28
(1963), 164.
95. Eligius, bishop of Noyon, founded one, according to Vita s. Eligii 2.5 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 4, 697); his goddaughter, Godeberta, built another: Fita s. Godeberthae (.4S 11 Aprilii; 2, 33).
96. Passio s. Praeiecti episcopi 15 (.11611 Script. rer. mer. 5, 235), See also Verdon, "Recherches," p. 125.
97. Berthoara built one under the episcopate of Austregisil; see Ionas, Vitae sanctorum: Columbani 2.10 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 4/1, 128); Vita Austrigisili 1 o (MGH Script. rer. mer. 4, 1 g7); 1 Mellot, "Les fondations colom
baniennes clans le diocèse deBourges ,"
.'Mélanges Columbaniens: Actes du Congrès International de Luxeuil, a0‑a3 juillet 1950 (Paris , 1951), 1T 208‑Zit.
Later, Saint Eustadiola founded another community women, according to Vita s. Eustadiolae 3 (AS 8
Iunii; 2, 132).
98. See Ewig, "Kirche and Civitas in der Merowingerzeit," in Le Chiese nei regne i dell'Europa occidentale (Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo; Scitimana di Studio, 7, t; Spoleto, 1960), pp. 45‑71.
99. On the number of nuns at Laon, see Vita Sadalbergae 17 (MGH Script. rer mer. 5, 5g), quoted above note 8o. On Remiremont, see note 76. ‑I'hc number of inhabitants at Pavilly is mentioned in Vita s. Austrebertae i;~ (AS 10 Feb.; 2, 422).
100. See, for example, the exemption granted by Bishop Drauscius forSoissons
in 666: Pardessus 355 (Vol. 2, 138‑141). Ewig has pointed out that the
same wording appears in the privilege issued for Saint Pierre‑le‑Vif
of Sens ("Das Privileg," p. g3). See Pardessus 335 (Vol. 2, t t 2). Moreover. the Soissons privilege is related to those issued for Saint Denis, Sithiu (Saint
Omer), Corbie, and Rebais. For a bibliography of secondan works on proprietary
rights exercised over monasteries, see Ph. Schmitz, Histoire, vol. i, p. 89, n. 1.
101. See above, notes 72 and 97.
102. Even the larger houses were aristocratic homes adapted to communal living. Jean Hubert, refers to several studies that demonstrate that the first monasteries constructed for the specific purpose of communal living with a chapter house, refectory, dormitory, and outbuildings, appeared only in the eighth century. "L'Erémitisme et archèologie," p. 474, in particular, n. 32‑34.
103. Epist. aevi mer. coll. 17 (.SIGH Epist. 3, Mer. et kar. aevi 1, 466).
104. Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines 23 (PL 88, 1070).
105. Ibid. 21 (PL 88, 1068C).
106. On the rules observed, see H. Mayo, "Three Merovingian Rules for Nuns"; F. Prinz, Frühes Monchtum, pp. 121‑151; Ph. Schmitz, Histoire, vol. 7, pp. 13‑18; L. Gougaud, "Inventaires des règles monastiques irlandaises," Revue Bénédictine, 25 (1908), 329‑331; T. P. McLaughlin. Le très ancien droit monastique de l'Occident; J. Heineken, Die Anfänge, p. 103.
107. Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines 17 (PL 88, ío65).
108. See chapter 8, notes 20‑21, 23, 35‑39; Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines t‑4 (PL 88, 1054‑1057). 109. Waldebert, Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines 24 (PL 88, 1070).
110. For example, Gregory of Tours, in Hist. franc. 6.29 (MIGH Script. rer. mer. 1, 268), related that a nun at Holy Cross of Poitiers decided to become a recluse. She was assigned a special cell, which was walled up. Before she entered the cell, she said farewell to all, kissing each one of her sisters.
111. Vita s. Eustadiolae 3 (AS 8 Iunii; 2, 132).
112. Vita s. Balthildis 9 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 2, 494).
113. Caesarius, Regula sanctarum virginum 61, ed. G. Morin (Florilegium patristicum, 34; Bonn, 1933), p, 20 (PL 67, 1 105); Aurelian, Regula ad virgines 13 (PL 68, 40 t; Holstenius t, 371). The Benedictine Rule assumed that both nobles and poor people would offer their sons to monastic life;
Regula Benedict 59 Holstenius 1, 132). On Leubovera, see Gregory of Tours, Hist. franc. to. t 5‑t 7 (MGH Script. rer. mer, t, 423‑430) .
114. The Council of Herstal, held in 779, ordered that ‑sancti moniales" and the men with whom they committed fornication or adultery were to be placed in monasteries and their property used as an entrance fee. If they were paupers and did not have property "qualiter in monasterio vivant," they were to be turned over to the care and supervision of their nearest relative; Conc. Harist Capit. 18 (MGH Capit. t, 46). Collectio Sangallensis (ca. 870), 6 (MGH Form. 400) is a donation to a monastery for the explicit purpose "ut filius vel filia . . . in congregatione suscipiatur." See also Cartae Senonicae 31 (MGH Form. t 99).
115. Baudonivia, De vita s. Radegundis 12 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 2, 385‑386).
116. De vita s. Radegundis 16 (load‑, 388‑389). Baudonivia recounted the difficulties Radegund encountered with the local bishop when she adopted Caesarius's Rule, exempting the convent from episcopal jurisdiction.
117. Conc. Germ. (742), 6 (MGH Cone. 2, 4).
118. On Saint Boniface, see Theodor Schieffer, Winfrid‑Bonifatius and die christiche Grundlegung Europas (Freiburg i. B., 1954), and Angelsachsen and Franken (Akademie der Wissenschaften and der Literature, Mainz; Abhandlungen der geistes‑ and sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse, 20; Wiesbaden, 1950). On the Anglo‑Saxon missionaries in general, Wilhelm Levison, England and the Continent in the Eighth Century, 2d ed. (Oxford , 1950),
and Aus rheinischer and fränkischer
Frühzeit (Düsseldorf, 1948). See also C. Wampach, Sankt Willibrord:
Sein Leben and Lebenswerk (Luxembourg ,
1953),
119. See Brühl, Fodrum, pp. 26‑30, 50‑52, 102‑105 and notes 173 and 185 below.
120. For example, St. Boniface asked Begga to send him works on the lives of martyrs and thanked her for money and vestments. Die Brièfe, 15 ed. Tangl, p. 27. From Eadburga he requested an illuminated copy of
Peter's Epistles and thanked her for some unidentified books. Ibid. 30, 35, PP‑ 54, 6o.
121. For example, in his letter to Begga, Saint Boniface referred to monks and nuns as "omnes milites Christi utriusque sexus." Die Bnefe 94, ed. Tangl, p. 2 t 5.
122. Only Pope Zachary's reply is extant (Nov. 4, 751); "Nam
et hoc inquisivit fraternitas tua, si liceat sanctimoniales feminas quemadmodum viri sibi
invicem pedes abluere tam in cena Domini quamque in aliis diebus. Hoc dominicum perceptum est
.... Etenim viri et mulieres unum Dominum
habemus." Boniface, Die
Briefe 87, ed. Tangl, p. 198.
123. Boniface, Die Briefe 128, ed. Tangl, pp. 265‑266. Conc. Ver. (755) 5 (MGH Cap. 2, 34).
124. Conc. Germ. 7 (MGH Conc. 2, 4): "Et ut monachi et ancille Dei monasteriales iuxta regulam sancti Benedicti ordinare et vivere, vitam propriam gubernare, studeant." On Boniface's presence at this council, see de Clercq La législation, vol. 1, 1 17. The same provision was made for monks alone in 743 by the Conc. Liftinense 1 (MGH Conc. 2, 7); in 744 the Synod of Soissons required "stability according to the holy rule" on the part of both monks and nuns: Conc. Suess‑ 3 (MGH Conc. 2, 34). The observance of the Rule was extended to Bavarian monasteries by the Conc. Asch. (756) 8 (MGH Conc. 2, 58).
125. Conc. Vernense 6 (MGH Cap. 1, 34).
126. Conc. Vernense 11 (ibid., 35).
127. Eugen Emig, "Beobachtungen zur Entwicklung der fränkischen Reichskirche unter Chrodegang von Metz," Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 2 (1968), 67‑77. On the date of the Rule's composition (after 751 and before 766), see de Clercq, La législation, vol. 1, 146‑155, in particular, 146, n. 3, for editions and bibliography.
128. Conc. Cabil. 43‑56 (MGH Conc. 2, 284‑285).
129. Conc. Franc. 17 (MGH Conc. 2, 171); see also Conc. Risp. Fris. Salis. (8oo), 2 (MGH Conc. 2, 207); Conc. Mog. 13 (MGH Conc. 2, 264); Capit. missorum spec. (ca. 802), 34‑35 (MGH Capit. 1, 103).
130. See above, notes 67 and 125. Waldron surveyed the external signs of conversion, concluding that vows, change of habits, and veiling took many forms and were often privately administered without the presence of a priest or bishop. But, in the eighth century, the councils began to regulate these ceremonies, insisting upon veiling as the outward form of conversio. "Expressions of Religious Conversion," pp. 196‑207, 2t8‑225, 235‑246.
131. Capit. missorum (ca. 802) 19 (.'SIGH Capit. 1, 103). This did not mean that parents could not offer their children as oblates; see Capit. eccl. ad Salz (804), 6 (MGH Capii. 1, 119).
132. Conc. Foroiuliense (796‑797), 11 (NIGH Conc. 2, 193): "ob continentiae signum nigram vestem quasi religiosam . . . licet non sint a sacerdote sacratae, in hoc tamen proposito eas perpetim perseverare mandamus." See also, Capit. Francicum (779), 18 (MGH Capit. 2, 38). See Catherine Capelle, Le voeu d'obéissance des origines au XIIe siècle (Bibliothèque d'histoire du droit et du droit romaine, 2; Paris, 1959). Capelle discussed the usage of the term vow in patristic and early medieval sources, arguing that the promise of chastity by monks, nuns, and consecrated virgins did not constitute a vow in the strict, juridical sense of the word until the end of the eighth century. Until that time it resembled the promise of chastity given by candidates for ordination to the subdiaconate and higher offices. On the latter, see L. Hertling, "Die Professio der Kleriker and die Entstehung der drei Gelübde," Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, 56 (1932), 148‑174
133. Conc. Parisiense (829), 40‑43 (NIGH Conc. 2, 637‑638).
134. Conc. Parisiense (829), 45 (ibid. 2, 639). For its precedent, see Syn. Dioc. Autiss. (561‑605), 36‑37, 42 (CCL 148A, 269‑270). Conc. Laodicense 44 (Mansi 2, 581) and Gelasius, Epist. g, Decr. 26 (PL 59, 48; JK 636) served as the sources for this misogynist legislation.
135. On new foundations in the Carolingian period, see Heineken, Die Anfange.
136. For a quick summary of this policy, see Karl Siepen, Vermogensrecht der klosterlichen Verbdnde (Paderborn ,
1963), pp. 16‑21. Dom
Schmitz advanced the view that the concept of the "abbatia" was born
during the reign of Charlemagne. This
meant that the monastery was held as a benefice from the king, with a certain
part of the domain set aside for the
support of the community and the rest distributed as fiefs. Histoire, vol. 1, p. 98.
137. Duplex legationis edictum 19 (MGH Capit. 1, 6g).
138. Capit. ab episcopis in placito tractanda (829) 4 (MHG Capit. 2, 7).
139. Epist. Fuldensium fragmenta 6 (MGH Epist. 5, Kar. aevi 3, 518).
140. Conc. Cabil 43‑56 (MGH Conc. 2, 284‑285); see in particular article 53, which referred to "sanctimoniales quae se canonicas vocant."
141. Inst. sand. 18 (MGH Conc. 2, 449): "quanto enim idem sexus fragilior esse dinoscitur, tanto necesse est maiorem erga eum custodiam adhiberi."
142. Conc. Aquis. 1 15 (MGH Conc. 2, 397).
143. Inst. sanct. 8 (.SIGH Conc. 2, 444): "committat eas . . . aut propinquo aut alio . . . amico, qui eas iure fori defendat."
144. Inst. sand. 27 (ibid., 455): "Sanctimoniales namque velo ante posito
. . . horas canonicas et missarum sollemnia celebrent."
145. Even their contact with priests was to be limited‑they could make confession only within sight of their sisters: Inst. sand. 27 (ibid., 455).
146. Inst. sand. 18 (ibid., 451).
147. Inst. sand. 20 (ibid., 451).
148. Conc. Vernense (755), 6 (MGH Capii. 1, 34).
149. Duplex legationis edictum (789), 19 (MGH Capit. 1, 63); Cone. Risp. Fris. Solis. (8oo), 27 (MGH Conc. 2, 210); Conc. Cab. (813), 57, 62 (MGH Conc. 2, 284, 285); Cone. Mog. (813), 13 (MGH Conc. 2, 264); Conc. Turonense (813), 30 (MGH Conc. 2, 290); Conc. Mog. (847), 16 (HIGH Capit. 2, 180). These documents specified that an abbess could leave her monastery only with her bishop's permission, or if summoned by the king. One of the difficulties in keeping women religious cloistered was the lack of suitable buildings. Recent archaeological excavations have shown that, prior to the mid‑eighth century, female communities were housed in structures that did not differ in any way from private homes and therefore lacked enclosed areas. On this, see Hubert, "L'Eremitisme et archeologie," p. 474. Charlemagne, in his Capit. miss. spec. (ca 802), 35 (MGH Capit. 1, 103), ordered abbesses to house members of their community in "claustra . . . ordinabiliter composita." In a similar vein, Conc. Mog. (847), 16 (MGH Capit. 2, 18o) charged the abbesses with the duty of "aedificando ea, quae ad santimomalium necessitatem pertinent et in restaurando."
150. Conc. Foroiuliense 12 (MGH Conc. 2, 194).
151. See number 78 in Die Bnefe, ed. Tangl, p. 16g. See also numbers 8, 14, and 27.
152. Conc. Risp. Fris. Salis. (800), 28 (MGH Conc. 2, 21 1): "ut sanctae moniales non induantur virilia indumenta. . ." Conc. Aquis. (816), 130 (MGH Conc. 2, 405): "sicut enim turpe est virum vestem muliebrem et mulierem vestem virilem induere."
153. Conc. Foroiuliense (796‑797), 12 (MGH Conc. 2, 194); Cone. Cab. (813), 60 (MGH Conc. 2, 285); Conc. Parisiense (820), 46 (MGH Conc. 2, 640).
154. Capitula eccl. ad Salz data (803‑804), 7 (MGH Capit. 1, 1 19 "nullus masculum filium ant nepotem vet parentem suum in monasterio puellarum ant nutriendum commendare praesumat, nec quisquam illum suscipere audeat."
155. Inst. sanct. 18 (MGH Conc. 2, 455): "iuxta ecclesiam . . . sit hospitale pauperum . . ."
156. See the legislation cited in note 149, above.
157. Admonitio generalis (789), 76 (MGH Capit. 1, 6o): "abbatissas contra morem sanctae Dei ecclesiae benedictionis cum matins impositione et signaculo sanctae crucis super capita virorum dare, necnon et velare virgines cum benedictione sacerdotali quod omnino vobis . . . interdicendum esse scitote." Repeated verbatim in Ansegesi capit. 1.71 (.SIGH Capit. 1, 404). See also the prohibition against veiling virgins and widows without a bishop's sanction, pronounced by the Council of Paris (829), cited in note 133.
158. Translatio s. Baltechildis (MGH Script. 15/1, 285), composed in 833, refers to the "clerus tam virorum quam feminarum" at Chelles.
159. Conc. Risp. Fris. Salis. 22 (.NIGH Conc. 2, 210): "Ut liceat sanctimonialem signum ecclesiae pulsate et lumen accendere."
160. Conc. Alog. (847), 16 (MGH Capit. 2, 180): "Sanctimoniales vero in monasterio constitutae habeant studium in legendo et in cantando, in psallmorum caelebratione sive oratione. Et horas canonicas . . . pariter celebrent."
161. Inst. sand. 28 (MGH Conc. 2, 455). Although the hospice for the poor had to be located outside the convent (see above n. 155), there was to be a room within the monastery for receiving and feeding widows and poor women.
162. Inst. sand. 22 (ibid., 452): "puellae, quae in monasteriis erudiuntur, cum omni pietatis affectu et vigilantissimae curae studio nutriantur . . ."
163. The best accounts of monastic reforms carried out under Louis the Pious and led by Benedict Aniam are J. Koscheck, Die Klosterreform Ludwigs des Fr. im Verhaltnis zur Regel Benedikts von Nursia (Greifswald , 1908); J.
Semmler, "Reichsidee and kirchliche Gesetzgebung bei Ludwig dem
Frommen," Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, 71 1960), 37‑65;
and idem, "Zur Uberlieferung der monastischen Gesetzgebung Ludwigs des Frommen," Deutsches Archiv, 16 (1960), 309‑388. See
also J. Narberhaus,Benedikt von Aniane, Werk and Persönlichkeit (Munster , 1930); Suzanne
Dulcy, La Règle de Saint Benoit d Aniane
et la réforme monastique à l époque
carolingienne (Nimes , 1935); and J. Semmler, Benedikt
von Aniane (Mannheim ,
1971).
164. Emile Lesne, "Les ordonnances de Louis de Pieux," Revue d'histoire de l'Eglise de France, 6 (1920), 490‑493; Kassius Hallinger, ed., Corpus consuetudinum monasticarum, vol. 1 (Siegburg, 1963), pp. 493‑499. The five nunneries were Notre‑Dame atSoissons , Baume‑les‑Dames
in the diocese of Besançon, Swarzach at Würzburg, Holy Cross at Poitiers , and
Notre‑Dame at Limoges .
This list did not mention Benedictine monasteries that were in the hands of bishops and lay proprietors.
165. E. Hlawitschka, "Zur Klosterverlegung and zur Annahme der Benediktsregel in Remiremont," Zeitschrift fur die Geschichte des Oberrheins, 1 09 (1961), 249‑269.
166. W. Levison ("Recension: Schäfer," p. 491), demonstrated that "monasterium, coenobium, claustrum, ancillae Dei, Deo sacratae, sanctimoniales, sorores, virgines" were generic terms used to designate both types of houses and their inhabitants. For criticism of Schäfer's thesis with respect toGermany , see Heineken, Die Anfänge, p. 1 13.
167. A. Werminghoff, "Die Beschlüsse des Aachener Conzils im jahre 816," News Archiv, 27 (l go l), 634, n. 7.
168. Gesta Alderici 44 (MGH Script. 15, 324).
167. See note 158, above.
170. Capit. de monasterio s. Crucis Pictavensi (822‑824), 6‑7 (MGH Capit. 1, 302).
171. Bouquet (Recueil, vol. 8, 641‑642) lists a donation by Charles the Bald dated 872, that refers to nuns and priests and deacons. See also Tessier, Recueil 197, vol. 1, 509; 494, 499. Vol. 2, 655, 656. These documents are classified as forgeries from the early eleventh century. Cf. Verdon, "Notes," p. 331.
172. On female saints in ninth‑centurySaxony , see Stoeckle, Studien. PP. 56‑87.
On Saint Liutberga in particular, see chapter
5, note 13, and note 192, below.
173. For a list of Carolingian princesses and queens holding abbeys, see Emile Lesne, Histoire de la propriété ecclésiastique en France, Vol. 2, pt. 2 (Fac. Cath. de Lille, Mémoires et travaux, 3o; Lille, 1926), 168; and Karl Voigt, Die karolingische Klosterpolitik and der Niedergang des westfränkischen Konigtums, Laienäbte and Klosterinhaber (Kirchenrechtliche Abhandlungen, go‑91; Stuttgart, 1917), pp. 39‑43
174. Einhard, Vita Caroli 19 (.'NIGH Script. 2, 454). Nithard, in Historiarum 1.2 (MGH Script. 2, 651), wrote that Louis the Pious "sorores suas . . . instanter a palatio ad sua monasteria abire praecepit."
175. Translatio s. Baltechildis 1 (HIGH Script. 15/1, 284).
176. On May 12, 889, she was addressed as "famula Christi." See J. F. Bohmer, Die Regesten des Katserreichs unter der Karolingern, 751‑8, new ed. Mühlbacher (Regesta imperii, 1; Innsbruck, 1889), document 1816 (1767).
177. Vita Hludowici 44 (MGH Script. 2, 633).
178. Flodoard, Historia ecclesiae Remensis 3.27 (MGH Script. 13, 549).
179. Regino, Chronicon (887) (MGH Script. 1, 597).
180. Fragmentum Ann. Chesnii (.'NIGH Script. 1, 33)
181. Vita Hludowici 44 (.'NIGH Script. 2, 633); Annales Bertiniani. (830) (MGH Script. 1, 423‑424); Agobard, Libri duo pro filiis et contra Judith uxorem Ludovici Piz 1.3 (MGH Script. 15, 275).
182. Annales Bertiniani (862) (MGH Script. 1, 456).
183. Vita Anstrudis 28, 37 (MGH Script. rer. mer. 6, 75‑77)
184. Vita s. Austrebertae to (AS to Feb.; 2, 421). On the entrance fee, see note 114.
185. Jean Guerout, "Le monastère à l'époque carolingienne," in L Abbaye royale Notre‑Dame de Jouarre, ed. Y. Chaussy et al., vol. 1 (Paris , 1g61), 75‑78. We also know that Thiathilda, the
abbess of Remiremont (ca. 818‑863),pleaded for the
protection of her kinsman, the seneschal Adalard, and asked the proprietress,
Empress Judith, not to divert
other manors from the nuns' use; see Indicularius
Thiathildis 3‑4 (.SIGH Form. 526‑527). As Heineken has noted, the property of both male and
female cloisters was theoretically under royal management, but since "die
Frauenkloster and ihrer Gutsverwaltung weniger selbständig waren, mussten dadurch die konigliche Ansprüche auf
die Verfügung gestärkt werden." Die
Anfänge, P. 73
186. Bouquet, Recued, vol. 8, 666; Hoebanx, L Abbaye de Nivelles, p. 107. See, also, the grant of immunity Charles issued for Hasnon in Tessier, Recueil, Vol. 2, 475
187. Jacques Choux described the transformation of Benedictine houses into chapters of canons by lay proprietors in "Décadence et réforme monastiques dans la province de Trèves, 855‑959," Revue Bénédictine, 70 (1 960), 204‑233. Despite this tendency and the Viking raids, the author assures us that "quant aux monastères de femmes . . . its valaient mieux que leur réputation." Ibid., p. 216. He cites from Vita lohannis Gorziensis (MGH Script.4,349): "Sanctimonalium habitacula . . . etsi non re, fama tamen obscurari . . ."
188. The twenty‑second abbess of Remiremont, who lived in the early tenth century, was referred to in a thirteenth‑century necrology as "abbatissa atque diachonissa." See Hlawitschka, Studien, p. 42. Atto ofVercelli (ca. 924‑96o) explained in one of his letters that the title deaconess
was given to abbesses (Epist. 8; PL 134, 114‑115).
189. Mathilda of Quedlinburg held this title according to the Annales Quedlinburgenses (MGH Script. 3, 75). See also Karl Horger, "Die reichsrechtliche Stellung der Fürstäbtissinnen," Archiv fur Urkundenforschung, 9 (1926), 198; and Heineken, Die Anfänge, pp. 125‑126.
190. Conc. Mog. (888), 26 (Mansi 18, 71‑72).
191. See above, chapter 6, note 107.
192. She died between 86o and 865 at Wendhausen; see Vita s. Liutbirgae (MGH
Script. 4, 158‑164). See also Grosse, "Das Kloster Wendhausen, sein Stiftergeschlecht and seine Klausnerin."
193. Agius, Agii Vita et obitus Hathumodae 5‑6, 9 (MGH Script. 4, 168‑16g). Hathumoda died in 874, at age thirty‑four, according to her biographer, who was her brother. On Hathumoda, see note 17, above, and Paul Lehmann, Corveyer Studien, (Abh. d. bayerischen Akademie der Wiss., philos.‑philol. and hist. Klasse, 33/5; Munich, 1919).