IV. 3
LAYMEN
IV.3.1
THE MONASTERY'S INDUSTRIAL
& AGRICULTURAL FORCE OF LABOR
The bulk of the labor for the monastery's industrial and
agricultural domain was done by laymen. The Plan of St.
Gall refers to these people as famuli,[111]
famulantes,[112]
servitores,[113]
custodes,[114]
custodientes,[115]
and uernae;[116]
or by the craft
they performed, as shoemakers (sutores), saddlers (sellarii),
trenchermakers and furbishers (emundatores uel politores
gladiorum) shieldmakers (scutarii), turners (tornatores),
tanners (coriarii), goldsmiths (aurifices), blacksmiths (fabri
ferramentorum), fullers (fullones),[117]
coopers (tunnariores) and
wheelwrights (ternarii),[118]
or named by livestock for which they
cared, as ostlers (equos seruantes, custodes equaritiae), oxherds
(bubulci),[119]
cowherds (armentarii), swineherds (porcarii),
shepherds (opilji), goatherds (pastores),[120]
and fowlkeepers
(pullorum custodes, aucarum custodes).[121]
The collective name
for this monastic family of laymen was familia. Those who
lived within the monastery were called familia intus; those
who lived on the outlying estates familia foris.[122]
FAMILIA INTUS
Depending on the terms of their registration, the "inner"
monastic family was divided into "prebendaries" (praebendarii
or prouendarii) and "odd-jobbers" (matricularii).
The term "prebendary" was in its narrow sense applied
to adult oblates who received their daily sustenance from the
monastery in return for the performance of a craft or service.
In the broader sense the term was applied to anyone
sustained for life by the community, including priests,
clerics, and other pensioners. Some of the prebendaries relinquished
all personal property upon entering the monastery;
others renounced ownership but retained the income;
still others kept both income and ownership.[123]
The prebendaries of the inner family were always unmarried.
The odd-jobbers were selected from among the poor
entered on the matricula or "poor list" of the monastery.[124]
The 150 prebendaries listed by Abbot Adalhard include
twelve referred to by the term matricularii.[125]
They appear
to have been entrusted with such duties as ringing bells and
general housekeeping in the guest-houses.[126]
FAMILIA FORIS
The position of the seculars who formed the monastery's
"outer family" was preferable in many respects to those of
the domestics who lived within the monastic enceinte,
since they could marry, raise children, and work the land
assigned to them with the help of their entire family, in
exchange for the payment of a tribute (tributum) or the
rendering of a service (servitium). Depending on the degree
of servitude or freedom they enjoyed, they were classified
as liberi, coloni, lides, and servi. The homo liber, "free man,"
had the right to go wherever he wanted, and was not claimed
by any master. The colonus enjoyed freedom as a person,
but was inseparable from the land he cultivated. The lidus
was dependent both on the lord and the land, and thus held
a position midway between the colonus and the servus. The
serf had no freedom whatsoever and could be sold, given
away, or traded with the land on which he lived.[127]
From these seculars who lived in villages (villae) under
the supervision of a mayor (maior or villicus) or rural junior
deans (decani iuniores),[128]
the monastery recruited its rural
personnel of foremen and artisans, the keepers of the rural
food stores (cellerarii, not to be confused with the monastic
official of this name), the foresters (forestarii), the keepers
of the livestock (pastores) and their master (magister gregum),
the millers (mulinarii), as well as an indefinite number of
craftsmen.[129]
A more fundamental view of the operation of
these villages, their population and the services they
rendered to the monastery, can be gleaned from the
Administrative Directives of Abbot Adalahard of Corbie[130]
and the Constitution of Abbot Ansegis of St. Wandrille.[131]
The Plan of St. Gall does not reflect much of the life of
this outer family, except for the presence within the monastic
enclosure of buildings that serve as storage spaces for the
harvest and for the staples produced by the labor of these
people (Granary, Cellar, and Larder) and the presence of a
house in which the men were put up who brought this produce
from places too distant to return to within the same day
(House for Servants of Outlying Estates).[132]
END PART IV.3
