IV.1.12
THE KEEPER OF THE CHARTERS
(CUSTOS CARTARUM)
As the monastery grew from the relatively simple economic
organization of the time of St. Benedict into the complex
manorial enterprise of the Middle Ages, there arose a need
for a genre of scribes distinct from those who devoted their
time to copying books—the writers of charters.[67]
This
activity was placed into the hands of a new official, The
Keeper of the Charters who, Wala tells us, "should take
care of all the monastery's records."[68]
Besides all these major officials there were a number of
minor functionaries. There were junior deans (decani
iuniores) to whom the senior dean could delegate any particular
function of his office of maintaining monastic discipline.[69]
The masters of the children (magistri infantum)
were the constant companions of the youngsters, as is made
abundantly clear by Hildemar in his commentary on the
Rule of St. Benedict.[70]
The roundsmen (circatores), mentioned
by both Wala and Adalhard,[71]
consist of an indefinite
number of seniors charged with supervision in the
cloister and dormitory. Hildemar stresses that these seniors
must be "highly qualified" (valde boni) because "it is
through men of this type that the orderly conduct of
monastic life is maintained" (quia per istos ordo monachorum
consistit). They have "the power," should the need arise,
"to correct the deans, the provosts, and even the abbot"
(potestatem debent habere corrigendi decanos et praepositos,
etiam abbatem).[72]
The synod of 816 stipulates that their
custody over the monks extends to work performed both
within and without the monastic enclosure.[73]
Wala's brief
also makes mention of a caretaker of the lamps (lucernarius)
and a keeper of the orchard (custos pomorum).[74]
Thus, in a monastery of the time of Louis the Pious,
some twenty to thirty monks were engaged in important
administrative functions, and since each of these officials
had, in addition, an indefinite number of assistants, it was
possible for about half of the entire community, as Dom
Knowles has pointed out, to have been engaged in one way
or another in administrative responsibilities.[75]
