from PART III - CHURCH AND SOCIETY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
monasteria
when Folcuin, abbot of Lobbes (d. 990) wrote the Gesta of his predecessors, he did so in a nostalgic vein. His Deeds of the Abbots of Lobbes sang the praises of the lost glory of Carolingian times. His Lotharingian abbey had been founded on royal soil, it had enjoyed royal protection, and from time to time had been governed by abbots of royal blood. Folcuin himself was very much part of this past, for he could trace his ancestry to Charles Martel. He looked hopefully towards the German emperor: from him, Folcuin expected the restoration of direct royal protection (tuition) and immunity for the abbey in his charge.
The lost world for which Folcuin yearned came into being after 700. It rose and flourished in the Carolingian age; towards the end of the ninth century it went into decline in the West Frankish kingdom as well as in Lotharingia. The old order remained best preserved in the German empire. There, the traditional close interdependence between cloister and royal power still existed; hence, Folcuin hoped that Emperor Otto II might restore Lotharingian abbeys such as Lobbes to their former glory. Carolingian monasteries had been at the very centre of social and political life, while royal service had deeply affected the internal life of these religious communities.
This chapter is about the impact of the powerful – kings and aristocrats - on the inner world of the cloister. Monastic life was lived in close contact with the world outside, and responded to its needs.
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