Carolingian Monastic Reform and the Plan of St. Gall: Part I, The Reform


primarily responsible for the external affairs of the community while the monks themselves (ideally) focused on the Opus Dei and praying for the king's salvation. These policies lead to a certain degree of regularity in monastic political, financial and legal life, and, as a corollary (since the Carolingians and Ottonians tended to promote the Roman rite) resulted in greater liturgical uniformity. It is also helpful to note that the Carolingian and Ottonian court ceremonial was increasingly dependent on the Roman liturgical rite. Itinerant kingship, which celebrated the major feasts at different locations through the year, would have facilitated the introduction and spread of this rite through the kingdom.

5 - This maneuver was increasingly common from the eighth century forward. Not only did it release the house from frequent interference from feuding local nobility and increase imperial holdings and prestige, it also served to return a degree of autonomy to the monastery. Implementation of a reformist vision was easier and more complete in such an environment. The most famous example of this policy, of course, was the Burgundian house of Cluny. Fry, RB 1980, 125-130, Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism, ch.6.

6 - Lawrence, p. 77-82, Fry, 119-122.

7 - These were, respectively, a collection and systemization of the Rule and current customaries, book of monastic rules, and a comparison with earlier monastic leaders. John J. Delaney, Dictionary of Saints, (Garden City, New York : Doubleday, 1980), p. 97.

8 - Walter Horn, The Plan of St. Gall, (Berkeley : U. of California Press, 1979), p. 20-21. Horn provides an excellent, yet succinct, presentation of these synods and their results. For the canons of these synods see Joseph Semmler, "Synodi primae aquisgranensis decreta authentica" and "Synodi secundae aquisgranensis decreta authentica" Corpus Consuetudinum Monasticarum, Kassius Hallinger, OSB, general editor, (Siegburg : Pontifical Institute of Sant Anselm, 1963-68). A general discussion and comparison of the various versions of the synod canons can be found in Semmler's extensive article, "Zur Ueberlieferung der monastischen Gesetzgebung Ludwigs des Frommen," Deutsches Archiv fuer die Erforschung des Mittelalters, XVI (1960), 309-88.

9 - The Statuta Murbacensis are technically a text with commentary on the canons by Bishop Haito of Basel. The original Decreta authentica were discovered by Semmler in the late 1970's. Horn, p.21.

10 - The Capitulare monasticum survives in a short and long version. Joseph Semmler, "Zur Ueberlieferung der monastischen Gesetzgebung Ludwigs des Frommen," Deutsches Archiv fuer die Erforschung des Mittelalters, XVI

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