1 - Working for Reform: Acedia, Benedict of Aniane and the Transformation of Working Culture in Carolingian Monasticism

Summary

An increase in wealth and aristocratic oblates in monasteries of the Carolingian period led to a number of conflicts over the nature of monasticism and the obligations of monks. Integral to this debate was the perception that monks suffered from too much leisure time or the vice known as acedia. As a result, reformers, including most prominently Benedict of Aniane, sought to address the problem through administrative and legislative measures concerned with monastic work and labor. Although these reformers met stiff resistance from some brothers, evidence suggests that the culture of work in Carolingian monasteries changed. This essay argues that an examination of Carolingian monastic reforms in the context of the vices provides a new framework for understanding a problematic period in monastic history.

In the late eighth century, many came to the brook called Aniane in southern France, seeking to join in a new monastic life filled with hard work, physically, spiritually and mentally. The Goth named Witiza, who had adopted the name of Benedict, served as their mentor and guide. In the end, though, most lacked the work ethic and temperament for discipline that Benedict expected of them. They were ‘weak in spirit’. Why? According to his biographer, Ardo, Benedict’s measures to curtail gluttony, such as measuring portions of wine and bread before distribution to the brothers at mealtimes, alienated these novices. Eventually, those lacking conviction abandoned Aniane and embraced their secular comforts once again. In the disdainful words of Ardo, they returned, as in the biblical proverb, ‘ut sues ad coenum canisque ad vomitum’, as pigs to their filth and a dog to its vomit. The demands placed on Benedict’s monastic aspirants represented a new approach to monasticism, providing them with ‘an unknown path to salvation’ (‘ignotamque viam salutis’), but the sacrifice for such a reward was clearly high. This friction between the monastic hopefuls and Benedict of Aniane represents one of many such moments of conflict in the eighth and ninth centuries as reformers sought to instill a new culture of work in monasteries.

Historians have examined many aspects of the attitude to and application of working culture in the medieval monastery, but the Carolingian period has received less attention than others. Generally, early monks, especially in the East, placed a high value on work.