IV. 5
THE MONASTERY'S
MILITARY OBLIGATIONS
IV.5.1
MEN & HORSES FOR BATTLE & OTHER
SUPPORTIVE SERVICES
Like all the other landed corporations of the empire, the
estates of the monks were bound to render their share in
the defense of the country (ad hostem). The men of the
church were forbidden to render military service in person,[169]
but they were obliged to furnish to the army an appropriate
contingent from among their vassals.[170]
Thus the Abbey of
St.-Germain-des-Prés at the time of Abbot Irminon placed
at the emperor's disposal not only men whom it held in
tenure, but also furnished the army with carts, oxen, beef,
mutton, pork, and wine.[171]
In an order issued to him by
Charlemagne between 804 and 811, Fulrad, the Abbot of
St.-Quentin, was directed to join the army at its assembly
place at Stassfurt, in Saxony, on June 17, with his men fully
equipped and armed. The men were to be fitted out in such
a way as to be able to proceed to whatever point in the
country the emperor wished to dispatch them. The order
itemized the type of weapons each man was to carry and the
tools with which each wagon was to be stocked: straight
axes, broadaxes, augers, hatchets, hoes, shovels. The troop
was to be provisioned with rations for a period of three
months, and with arms and clothing for a period of six.[172]
Some of these services were exacted only in times of war;
others were rendered in the form of periodic "gifts" or
"donations" (dona or munera) which had acquired an obligatory
character.[173]
The annual "gift" required of each abbey
at the time of Louis the German consisted of two horses,
two shields, and two lances.[174]
In addition to the men the monasteries had to furnish for
the service of the king, they maintained others for the protection
of their own land, and it is on permanent resources
of this kind that the king may have drawn in times of war.
The Chronicle of Hariulf furnishes us with the names of
100 armed men whom the Abbey of St.-Riquier maintained
on its various manors.[175]
An inventory of 831 lists the total
number of men then in the service of the Abbey as 110 and
informs us that "each man always has ready for inspection
a horse, a shield, a sword, a lance, and other armaments."[176]
Hariulf defines their duties very clearly: "They served the
abbot and the other officials of the church on land and sea
or wherever else the brothers needed their concourse . . .
accompanied the abbot and the priors on their journeys . . .
They always gathered dutifully at the monastery on the
days of the feast of St. Richarius, Christmas, Easter, and
Pentecost, as thoroughly equipped as each could and by
his presence lending to our church almost the appearance
of a royal court."[177]
It is the maintenance of a military retinue of this kind
which explains the presence in the House for Workmen, on
the Plan of St. Gall of "shieldmakers" (scutarii) and
"grinders and polishers of swords" (emundatores et
politores gladiorum).[178]
In addition to their direct share in the military defense
of the country, the annual presentations to the king (servitium
regis)—and especially those made by the royal abbeys—
might include a considerable amount of eatable livestock
and other agricultural products. Thus the servitium regis of
the Abbey of Werden around 1050 amounted to 8 cows, 83
pigs of various size, 8 peacocks, 195 chickens, more than 95
cheeses, 870 eggs, 47½ malters of bread, 95 sheffels of oat,
172 pitchers of beer, 485 bowls, and 147 beakers.[179]
The
volume of services that the monastery rendered to the state
in time of war of course exceeded by many times the revenues
it was required to furnish in time of peace.
Admittedly this imposition of military obligations upon
the abbey, as Dom Ursmer Berlière has pointed out, "is in
formal opposition to the constitutive principle of the Benedictine
order," and, further, it is understandable that this
"intrusion of the world into the cloister" should become
one of the primary targets of the reformists in the centuries
that followed.[180]
At the time of Charlemagne and Louis the
Pious, the interdependence of church and state was not yet
questioned. In their search for peace and Christian unity
and their common concern to see the will of God embodied
on each, the administration of church and state worked
hand in hand.[181]
