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The Nun Immena and the Foundation of the Abbey of Beaulieu: a Woman’s Prospects in the Carolingian Church1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Jane Martindale
Jane Martindale*
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia
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Extract

To our daughter Immena whom we give to God and to be clothed as a nun (sanctimonialis)… for the fear of God, and so that souls fighting for Christ can receive a remedy for their sins through our intermission …’. An aristocratic couple decide to give two of their children (a boy, as well as this girl) to the religious life, and their intention is recorded in a private charter. Lands which have been set aside for the economic support of Immena and her brother are listed at length; then the document concludes with the statement that the two donors, Count Rodulf and Aiga, his wife, ‘requested this concession to be made in the month of November in the tenth year of the reign of our most serene lord Louis, Emperor Augustus’ (that is, the Emperor Louis the Pious, AD 823). A girl is being given to God. Her entry into this new way of life is solemnized by a ceremony in which she will be dressed in clothes appropriate for her withdrawal from the ‘profane’ world: she will almost certainly be veiled in black or purple—although at this time that was a matter for debate in ecclesiastical legislation. The charter may also be interpreted as recording a ‘rite of passage’ which seems to signal Immena’s ‘aggregation’ into a new sacred community, and her separation from the social world of her kin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 27: Women in the Church , 1990 , pp. 27 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1990

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Footnotes

1

This paper forms part of a more extensive study which is in course of preparation on the family, economic resources, and political activity of Archbishop Rodulfus of Bourges, the brother of Immena. 1 should especially like to thank Janet Nelson for her interest in the fate of this Carolingian nun and for much stimulating discussion while this was being prepared; and Diana Wood, the editor of this volume.

References

2 A free translation of ‘Cedimus… filiae nostrae Emenanae quam Deo ad sanctimonialium habitum tradimus pro tremore et amore Dei ut animae quae militant Christo per nostram intermissionem remedium queant recipere peccatorum suorum… Facta cessio ista in mense novembrio anno x regnante Ludovico domno nostro serenissimo Augusto’. (The phrase per nostrum intermissionem is unexpected, but the entire sentence is rather obscure in its meaning): Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Beaulieu (en Limousin), ed. M. Deloche (Paris, 1859) (hereafter Beaulieu) no CLXXXV. The MS cartulary—only used by Deloche at a late stage of his edition—is now Paris, BN, MS. nouv.acq.lat 493: problems of daring and of variant readings will be discussed elsewhere, in the study already mentioned.

3 Gennep, A Van, Les rites du passage, étude systématique des rites (Paris, 1909), pp. 13’15 Google Scholar and, for brief references to the differing significance attached by earlier anthropologists to ceremonies of’veiling’, pp. 237–41; cf., M. Gluckman, ‘Les rites du passage’, in Gluckman, ed., Essays on the Ritual of Social Relations (Manchester, 1962), pp. 11-14,19. For ceremonies of veiling in early Christian times, R. Metz, ‘Les vierges chrétiennes en Gaule au IVe siècle’, in Saint Martin et son temps, Mémorial du XVIe centenaire des débuts du monachisme en Gaule, 361-1961 (Rome, 1961), pp. 118–19; Wemple, S., Women in Frankish Society, Marriage and the Cloister, 100 to 900 (Philadelphia, 1981), pp. 166’7 Google Scholar. The dress to be worn by sanctimoniales is also discussed by E. Magnou-Nortier, ‘Formes féminines de vie consacrée dans les pays du Midi jusqu’au début du Xlle siècle’, in La femme dans la vie religieuse du Languedoc (XJII-XIVe s.), CAF, 23, (1988), p. 201, nn. 29-34.

4 In general, Lawrence, C. H., Medieval Monasticism, 2nd edn. (London, 1989), pp. 216’17 Google Scholar; Magnou-Nortier, ‘Formes féminines’, pp. 203-5 (citing the case of this Immena) and Lasociété laïque et l’Église dans la province ecclésiastique de Narbonne (zone cispyrénéenne), de la fin du Ville à la fin du Xle siècle (Toulouse, 1974), pp. 411-13 (citing later examples). All aristocratic activity and attitudes were influenced by ‘structures familiales’ according to R. Hennebicque, ‘Structures familiales et politiques au IXe siècle: en groupe familial de l’aristocratie franque’, RH, 265 (1981), pp. 289-333; of. J. Wollasch, ‘Eine adlige Familie des früheren Mittelalters, Ihre Selbstverständnis und ihre Wirklichkeit’, AKuG, 39 (1957), pp. 150-1.

5 Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, present Département de la Corrèze. See DHGE, 7, cols 154-5 for a brief—but not entirely accurate—notice on the abbey of Beaulieu. An important analysis of property transactions in this region does not include the documents of this house, Herlihy, D., ‘Land, Family and Women in Continental Europe, 701-1200’, in The Social History of Italy and Western Europe (London, 1978), pp. 114’20 Google Scholar [first published, Traditio, 18(1962)].

6 Hennebicque, ‘Structures familiales’, p. 293:’Il faut se garder des généralisations abstraites…’.

7 On the onomastic evidence provided by necrological sources, ibia., pp. 292-5; and for a very clear introduction to these sources, see now Lemaitre, J.-L., Répertoire des documents nécrologiques français, 2 vols (Paris, 1980), 1, pp. 12’27 Google Scholar and ‘Les obituaires français. Perspectives nouvelles’, RHEF, 64 (1978), pp. 69-81; O. Oexle, ‘Memoria und Memorialuberlieferung im Mittelalter’, FMSt, 10 (1976), pp. 70-95; K. Schmid and O. Oexle, ‘Voraussetzungen und Wirkung des Gebetsbunde von Attigny’, Francia, z (1974), pp. 77-120; cf. K. Schmid,’The structure of the nobility in the earlier middle ages’, (trans.) in ed. T. Reuter, The Medieval Nobility. Studies on the Ruling Classes of France and Germany from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century (Amsterdam, 1979), pp. 42-50. For a note of caution, Leyser, K., ‘The German aristocracy from the ninth to the early twelfth century’, in Medieval Germany and its Neighbours (London, 1983), pp. 162—8 Google Scholar; and now J. Nelson, ‘Rewriting the History of the Franks’, History, 72 (1987), p. 77.

8 ‘Formes féminines de vie consacrée’, pp. 193-5 and esp. n. 3. Only one community in Aquitaine, the monasterium Sánete Crucis (i.e., Ste-Croix de Poitiers), is specifically described as puellarum in the Notitia de Servitio Monasteriorum, in ed. D. Hallinger, Corpus Consuetudinum Monastkarum (hereafter CoCM), 1 (Siegburg, 1963), p. 497; cf. Wemple, Frankish Women, p. 169, nn. 163–4.

9 Magnou-Nortier, La société laïque, pp. 89-108; P. Schmitz, Histoire de l’ordre de Saint Benoît (Marédsous, 1948), i, pp. 89-117; Paul, J., L’Église et la culture en occident (Paris, 1986), 1, pp. 118’21 Google Scholar; McKitterick, R., The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms (789-895) (London, 1977), pp. 1–114 Google Scholar; Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., The Frankish Church (Oxford, 1983), pp. 229’32, 264’8 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 The name ‘Rodulf was impeccably Germanie and borne by relatives of the Empress Judith: G. Tellenbach, ‘Uber die Ältesten Welfen im West und òstfrankreich’, in ed. G. Tellenbach, Studien und Vorarbeiten zur Geschichte des Grossfrânkischen und Frùhdeutschen Adels (Freiburg, 1957), pp. 335-40; so that it is unlikely that the family belonged to an indigenous aristocratic group already established in Aquitaine before the Carolingian conquest, as was supposed by J. Boussard, ‘Les origines de la vicomte de Turenne’, in Mélanges offerts à René Crozet, 2 vols (Poitiers, 1961), 1, pp. 101-6. On the political office held by Count Rodulf, J. Wollasch, ‘Königtum, Adel und Kloster im Berry’, in ed. G. Tellenbach, Neueforschungen über Cluny und die Cluniacenser (Freiburg, 1959), pp. 20-2; but cf. Deloche, Beaulieu, introd. pp. xvi, cl, ccxix—xx (for the view that he was ‘Count of Turenne’).

11 Deloche, Beaulieu, introd. pp. ccxx-xxii. In 817 it was laid down that a boy should confirm his parents’ oblation tempore inlelligibili, CoCM, 1, p. 477; cf. Riche, P., Education et culture dans l’Occident barbare (6-Se siècle) (Paris, 1962), p. 508 Google Scholar, refers only to the oblation of boys.

12 ‘… in urbe, Caturcino secus castrum Casiliacum … in loco qui dicirar Saraziac, quern Rodulfus comes, qui fuit quondam bonae memoriae, corpus suum ibidem sepeliri erogavit’, Beaulieu, no XXXIV. (For the Count’s children see the accompanying table). For the site of Sarrazac, Magnou-Nortier, ‘Formes féminines de vie consacrée’, pp. 204-5 and n. 38.

13 Beaulieu, no CLXXXIV; cf. below n. 27.

14 Magnou-Nortier writes of ‘quelques puellae’ whose purpose was intended by the Count to be ‘la prière pour lui et son lignage, comme les rois ou empereurs le demandaient aux moines auxquels ils accordaient des bienfaits’: ‘Formes féminines de vie consacrée’, pp. 204-5. The peculiarity of the Sarrazac community is that this task of commemorarion had been entrusted to women, although under the Carolingians there was ecclesiastical opposition to insignificant monasteriola nonnarum, Wemple, Frankish Women, pp. 167-8. Cf. however for the tenth century Leyser, K., Rule and Conflict in an Early Medieval Society: Ottonian Saxony (London, 1979), pp. 64—71 Google Scholar.

15 Capitulare de monasterio S. Crucis Pictavensi, caps 6-7, MGH. Cap, I, p. 302 (dated to the 820s, this refers to the rule of King Pippin—ie., Pippin I, rex Aquitanorum); James, E., The Origins of France: From Clovis to the Capetians, 500-1000 (London, 1982), pp. 107’9 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 The significance of these clauses does not seem previously to have been recognized, Beaulieu, no CLXXXV; and for lex Romana, no CLXXXVI.

17 Both, too, were presumably intended to live a celibate life, but that is not directly mentioned.

18 The monastic legislation of 817 had laid down: Ut scola in monasterio non habeatur nisi eorum qui oblati sunt, CoCM, 1, p. 474; but there is no information as to whether Rodulf did obtain his schooling at Solignac. If he did, his subsequent career does not suggest that he had a strong monastic vocation.

19 J. de Font-Réaulx, ‘Les restaurations de Raoul Archevêque de Bourges: Etudes sur deux diplômes de Charles le Chauve’, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires au Centre, 38 (1917–18), pp. 16-17 includes a revision of the dates associated with Rodulf s career.

20 Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church, p. 279; McKitterick, The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, pp. 59-61;J. Paul, L’Église et la culture en occident, 1, p. 89; 2, pp. 538,602; J. Devisse, Hincmar, archevêque de Reims (845-S2), 3 vols (Geneva, 1975), 1, pp. 154-6; MGH, Ep. Karolini aevi, IV, pp. 633-6.

21 Font-Réaulx, ‘Les restaurations de Raoul’, pp. 16-37 (Dèvre—later called Vierzon—and St-Sulpice de Bourges) and ‘Les diplômes carolingiens de Beaulieu’, MA, 41, (1931), pp. 4ff. Evidence for royal generosity to Rodulf is provided by Recueil des actes de Pépin 1er et de Pépin II, Rois d’Aquitaine (814-48), ed. Levillain, L., (Charles et diplômes relatifs à l’histoire de France) (Paris, 1926)Google Scholar nos L, LVI, LIX; and Tessier, G., ed., Recueil des actes de Charlesllle Chauve, roi de France (Paris, 1943)Google Scholar, nos 42, 89,178, 207 (interpolated), 275. (No 487 is a gross forgery).

22 Rodul Ps shifts of allegiance have never been fully worked out, but see L. Auzias, L’Aquitaine carolingienne (Toulouse, 1937), pp. 127–9,170-2.

23 See nn. 20-1. Rodul Ps political manoeuvres will be discussed elsewhere.

24 The absence of provision for the training of women in the monastic life is noted emphatically by Wemple, Frankish Women, p. 169. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church, pp. 258-303, 403-11.

25 Silence about Immena between the early 820s and c. 847 probably meant that her life was passed under the protection of her kin not far from the city of Cahors, even if nothing is known of the material setting of her existence—e.g., conventual buildings. (I should like to thank Janet and Howard Nelson for visiting Sarrazac on my behalf in the summer of 1988).

26 Magnou-Nortier, ‘Formes féminines’, pp. 209-11; Metz, ‘Les vierges chrétiennes en Gaule’, p. 131. By the early ninth century even ‘regular’ convents seem to have been treated with some reserve by ecclesiastics: Wemple, Frankish Women, pp. 166-9; für ‘ater possibilities open to women, Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism, pp. 220-37.

27 The site where Immena’s community had been established—the villa Saraciacus with its church dedicated to St Genesius—was given by Rodulf in March 859 in slipendiis el usibus monachomm to this newly-founded monastery, Beaulieu, nos XVI, XXXIII; cf. nos I, XXI. (Immena’s death must already have occurred, therefore).

28 A Rollrudisfemina Deo sacrala, donor to Beaulieu in April 860, was the sister-in-law of Archbishop Rodulf (widow of his brother Robert), Beaulieu, nos XIX, CLXXX. On the probable disappearance of the Deo devota living in the world, Frankish Women, p. 105;andcf. Magnou-Nortier, ‘Formes féminines’, p. 208.

29 Above, n. 12.

30 Beaulieu, nos XVI, XXXIII, XXIII, XXIV (exchange with Bishop Stodilo of Limoges), XVIII (exchange with Count Raymond of Toulouse), XIX, XXI, I, XXV-XXV1, CLXXXVI (Gotafredus, brother of the Archbishop), LXVIII (grant apparently by Robert son of the Archbishop’s brother Robert), III (see n. 36 below), XLVI (Gauzfrid son of Count Gotafredus). These charters are here cited chronologically—all antedate the death of Charles the Bald. Nos XLV, LVII, CLXIX, XXIX can be dated between c. 880-98: their donors apparently come from a ‘third generation’ of this same kin. (Table I, above, gives some idea of the range of family benefactors; questions of economic value will be discussed elsewhere).

31 Following the calculation that one freeman holding five mansi might be expected to attend the host, MGH, Cap. 1, p. 134. For some comparisons with aristocratic benefactions for the great Rhineland monasteries of Fulda, Lorsch, and Prüm, Hennebicque, ‘Structures familiales’, pp. 294-6.

32 Beaulieu, no XXIV; nos V, IV = Tessier, Actes de Charles le Chauve, nos 207 (June 859), 275 (Quierzy, 19 Oct. 864); cf. references in n. 30 above. For grants made by Archbishop Frotarius and a confirmation issued by King Odo, ibid., nos IX—XII.

33 The majority of donors mention his/her own soul, those of parentes, wife or husband, and brothers, Beaulieu, nos XXXIV, XVI, XXI, I. For Rotrudis’s own requests, nos XIX, CLXXXX. None of these charters ever refers to sisters: this seems to have some significance for die understanding of contemporary family ‘structures’, but needs further investigation.

34 CoCM, I, pp. 475, 481 (Council of July 817), c. xii: ‘Ut praetermissis partirionibus psalterii psalmi speciales pro elemosinariis et defunctis cantentur’, and cf. c. xli; pp. 528, 561; cf., ‘Supplex libellus monachorum Fuldensium Carolo Imperatori porrectus’, ibid., p. 321. The ‘sacramental’ aspects of this development have been traced by A. Angenendt, ‘Missa specialis. Zugleich ein Betrag zur Entstehung der Privatmessen’, FMSt 17 (1983), pp. 152-221 (esp. pp. 189-203).

35 Dhuoda, Manuel pour mon fils, ed. P. Riché, SC, 225 (1975), pp. 318-22, 354. Nevertheless, Dhuoda also exhorted him to pray pro omnibus…fidelibus defunctis, p. 323. On her husband’s kin (she was the wife of the powerful Bernard of Seprimania), L. Levillain, ‘Les Nibelungen historiques et leurs alliances de famille’, Annales du Midi, 49-50 (1937-8) esp. 50, pp. 361-8; J. Wollasch, ‘Ein adliger Familie’, pp. 152-78. See also on Dhuoda, M. A. Claussen, ‘God and Man in Dhuoda’s Liber manualis’, pp. 43-52 below, and Janet L. Nelson, ‘Women and the Word in the Earlier Middle Ages’, pp. 61,69 below.

36 The requirements were (i) five psalms to be said every day pro anima mea ante horam capituli (ii) after death officium el missa on the anniversary of Godafredus’s obit (iii) On this occasion the Abbot would provide the monks with a refectio: Beaulieu, no III. (dated October 866). Cf. above n. 30 and Arnengendt, ‘Missa specialis’, pp. 204-8.

37 It is virtually impossible to prove such a hypothesis since the surviving information comes almost entirely from documentary sources. For Wemple, the social and disciplinary issues are likely to have been more important to ecclesiastical authorities, Frankish Women, pp. 104—$, 165-70. Other explanations for the dissolution of Sarrazac might have been low levels of female recruitment or the problem of administering the community’s economic resources (both beset houses of women in this region at a later date), J. Verdon, ‘Les moniales dans la France de l’Ouest au Xle et Xlle siècles. Etude d’histoire sociale’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 19 (1976), pp. 251-2, 264.

38 Le Liber Memorialis von Remiremont, ed. E. Hlawitschka, K. Schmid, G. Tellenbach, MGH, Libri Memoriales, i (Zurich/Dublin, 1970), introd. pp. xxxiii-v, pp. 1-4,40-2 and facsimile to fols iv–3v, 19V–20v; Angenendt, ‘Missa specialis’ p. 192.

39 Documentary evidence of a ‘private’ character seems to have been rather neglected by historians of the Carolingian era by comparison with information having an ‘official’ provenance. The early charters of Beaulieu throw light on actual conditions—as opposed to ideals or ‘norms’ which were proposed by religious legislators whose views are often contained in sources which have an entirely prescriptive character.

40 Two famous Carolingian women, the Empress Judith and Dhuoda are featured in this volume: see E. Ward, ‘Agobard of Lyons and Paschasius Radbertus as critics of the Empress Judith’, pp. 15–25 above, and Claussen, ‘Dhuoda’s Liber manualis’.