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
