Notitia de servitio monasteriorum

Four monasteries in the Notitia. Clockwise from upper left: Ferrières (which owed tribute, military service and prayers), Saint-Savin (prayers), Ellwangen (tribute and prayers), Saint-Michel de Nantua (tribute and prayers).

The Notitia de servitio monasteriorum ("Notice of the Service of Monasteries")[1] is a list of monasteries in the Frankish Empire and the services they owed the crown. It was compiled under Emperor Louis the Pious in 819, probably as a summation of the royal reform of the monasteries carried out following the councils of 816 and 817.[2][3] It is not a complete list of the reformed monasteries: only 82 of the 104 monasteries known to have adopted the reforms are listed in the Notitia.[4]

There three basic services monasteries could owe to the sovereign. Militia was military service. Dona was an annual gift, tax or service "donated" to the king. Orationes was the obligation to pray for the royal family and the state of the realm. Collectively, these were known by the technical term servitium regis ("king's service"), hence the servitio of the Notitia's title.[5] The service of prayer, although specified in the Notitia, appears to have been considered a general obligation of all ecclesiastical institutions in the empire.[6] The burden of these services seem to have been more severe in west Francia than in east Francia. Only four monasteries east of the Rhine owed all three services: Lorsch, Schuttern, Mondsee and Tegernsee.[7]

The monastic reforms undertaken in the years preceding the Notitia's compilation were led by the monk Benedict of Aniane. One of his chief concerns was to secure an income for the exclusive use of the monks. This was because at the time monasteries frequently granted revenue-generating lands as benefices to laymen in return for the laymen's service, a process known as enfeoffment.[8] Since monasteries could be governed by a secular abbot, that is, by an abbot who was not under the rule (regula) of the monastery, property and thus revenue could be alienated without regard for the needs of the monks. To prevent this, Benedict frequently designated some land as belonging exclusively to the prebend (endowment) of the monks. According to the Vita sancti Benedicti Anianensis, a biography of Benedict written by his disciple Ardo, the emperor Louis determined which monasteries in the realm were required to have a regular abbot, in order to prevent the abuse of monks by laymen. Although this list was probably a companion of the Notitia, it has not come down to us.[8]

  1. ^ Also called the Constitutio [Hludovici Pii] de servitio monasteriorum ("[Louis the Pious's] Constitution of the Service of Monasteries").
  2. ^ Bernhardt (1993), 77 and n. 150.
  3. ^ Reuter (1991), 44.
  4. ^ Zola (2008), 128–29.
  5. ^ Bernhardt (1993), 77.
  6. ^ Bernhardt (1993), 75–76 and n. 143.
  7. ^ Bernhardt (1993), 112 and n. 116.
  8. ^ a b Bernhardt (1993), 92–93.