A saint, an abbot, his documents and her property: power, reform and landholding in the monastery of Homblières under Abbot Berner (949–82) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Early Medieval Europe, 2018
Monastic immunities have been much studied in recent years, but the royal protection (tuitio) that was often associated with them in the documents has been comparatively neglected. This article examines King Lothar's diplomas for Flemish monasteries in the years 962–6, texts in which royal protection played a major role. It argues that the issuing of these documents reflected a conjunctural political alliance between the king and the Flemish count Arnulf I, but also that their juridical content in general, and the bestowal of protection in particular, was valued by the recipient institutions. In this way the article makes the case for a more rounded understanding of tuitio in the tenth‐century West Frankish kingdom.
Abstract The paper gives an overview on the development and morphological characteristics of privately founded Benedictine monastic complexes in medieval Hungary between 1000- 1300. More closely, the essay focuses on the affiliation and topography of the monastic sites in the Great Plain Region, drawing conclusions on the role of the monasteries in the contemporary settlement and road network, and their relations to noble residences. The discussion is supplemented with the case study of Pétermonostora, which is interpreted as a representative development model in the context of privately founded monasteries of this region. Zusammenfassung Die Studie gibt einen Überblick über die Bildung und den morphologischen Charakter der Benediktiner Eigenkirchen zwischen 1000-1300. Bei näherer Betrachtung fokussiert die Untersuchung auf die Verbindung und die Topographie der Klöster der Großen Ungarischen Tiefebene und zieht Rückschlüsse über die Rolle der Klöster in dem zeitgenössischen Netzwerk der Siedlungen und Wege und ihre Beziehungen mit Residenzen. Die Diskussion ist mit der Fallstudie des Klosters Pétermonostora erweitert, welches Beispiel für ein typisches Entwicklungsmodell im Rahmen der regionalen Eigenklöster erklärt ist.
Tenth-Century Monastic Reform as a Historiographical Problem
Revue Bénédictine, 2020
This article discusses the state of the art on monastic reforms in the long tenth-century Frankish kingdoms and the analytic problems inherent to reform terminology. It argues that the emendatory undertone, the idea of renewal and the institutional connotation of the term ‘reform’ seem to be at odds with the tenth-century sources on the variegated interventions in religious communities. Furthermore, the difficulties scholars encounter in pinpointing the chronology and ideology of this ‘reform movement’ indicates another flaw of this paradigm. The author therefore proposes three major adjustments to render the term ‘reform’ a meaning that is both well-defined and applicable. First, the concept of reform is only practical when used in an active sense, to denote a sweeping intervention which profoundly altered a monastery’s network, observance, temporalities or internal organization. Second, the paradigm can only be meaningful on the micro-level of an individual institution. Third, the study of ‘reforms’ should always be part of a comprehensive analysis of interactions and patronship between an abbey and its noble and ecclesiastical connections. Lastly, this article offers a new approach to tenth-century monasticism, which focuses more on agency of both the community and the regional powerbrokers involved in monastic patronage.
Lost possessions and rights of the monastic community on the Hohorst near Amersfoort, later (since 1050) the abbey of Saint Paul's in Utrecht, located in and near Vught (North Brabant), 2022
This article is an adapted paragraph from my dissertation, Uniek in de stad. De oudste geschiedenis van de kloostergemeenschap op de Hohorst bij Amersfoort, sinds 1050 de Sint-Paulusabdij in Utrecht: haar plaats binnen de Utrechtse kerk en de ontwikkeling van haar goederenbezit (ca. 1000-ca. 1200) (Utrecht 2000), p. 250-259, on a subject on which I hope something more specific and new will be brought forward from either side, and thus, if possible, there will become more clear about such by no means unimportant old rights. Almost the same extract in Dutch (with references) is also published on our website: www.broerendebruijn.nl/Vught.html.
“Concealed Donation or a Sale: The Acquisition of Monastic Property (15th – 17th C.)”
Having adapted themselves to the new, Sharia, terms and Ottoman institutions, the Christians resumed the earlier tradition of making donations to monasteries. Although Christian bequests and donations were registered by the kadi, only few such documents have survived. That the practice was not that infrequent is indirectly evidenced by other documents. That fact raises the question of the possible concealment of donations under unmistakable sales contracts. It is obvious why the assets classified as the state-owned land were not donated – it was forbidden to turn the latter into a vakıf. Tapunāme had to be issued, but there is no answer to the question as to why the hüccet covered the sale of the entire mülk part of the property. The “purchase-and-sale” action seems to have been generally accepted as a form of expressing a donation. Such form was considered, with or without reason, as being legally safer, both from the authorities and from subsequent claims by the donor’s heirs. When studying monastic archives, we must always bear in mind that many Shariah contracts for realty transactions actually conceal donations.
Accounting History, 2006
This article firstly presents the sophisticated bookkeeping system used by the Benedictine monks of the Monastery of Silos (Spain) during the eighteenth century, the procedures for which were set down in the Constitutions of 1701 of the Congregation of Saint Benedict of Valladolid. In the light of these regulations and the bookkeeping records that are still preserved to this day at the monastery, the activities that sustained the economic life of the monastery and led to the accumulation of its patrimony are examined. The study includes an itemized breakdown of the different types of income: capital rents, rents from land and livestock, ecclesiastical dues, and retributions for religious services. Similarly, the use made of the financial flows arising from the income is also analysed and a summary of the results is presented for the period under analysis (1694–1801), which sheds light on the role of the monastery as an administrator of its assets and its rights. Both sections lead t...