I. 3
ABBOT GOZBERT, ORDERER &
RECEIVER OF THE PLAN
I.3.1
GOZBERT'S IDENTITY
There is general agreement that the "Gozbertus" to whom
the dedicatory legend is addressed is the abbot of this
name who presided over the monastery of St. Gall from
816 to 836, and who around 830 initiated a building program
whose aim was totally to reconstruct this old and
venerable settlement.[54]
That the Plan was made for St. Gall
is suggested not only by the fact that it has been in the
possession of the library of this monastery ever since the
ninth century, but also by the more explicit evidence that
the high altar of the church of the Plan is dedicated jointly
to St. Mary and St. Gall (altare scaē mariae & sc̄ī galli).[55]
I.3.2
ST. GALL AT THE TIME OF
GOZBERT'S ACCESSION
In 816, when Gozbert became abbot, the Monastery of
St. Gall must have consisted of an aggregation of unimpressive
and superannuated buildings. The houses of the original
cell, erected in the Irish tradition[56]
had been substantially
remodelled by Abbot Otmar (719-759)[57]
who in
compliance with an order issued in 747 by King Carloman
and his brother Pippin[58]
converted the abbey from the
Irish to the Benedictine rule. This change in custom undoubtedly
necessitated the replacement of the loosely scattered
houses of the original settlement[59]
by a more ordered
claustral complex where the monks slept in a single dormitory
and took their meals in a common eating hall. Just
precisely how this was done, remains obscure. The sources
make it fairly clear, however, that Otmar replaced the
modest timbered oratory of St. Gall with a masonry church,
the nave of which rose to a height of 40 feet.[60]
This building
had beneath its presbytery a crypt sufficiently large to
accommodate not only the sarcophagus of St. Gall, but
also an altar and whatever additional space was needed for
the attendant monks and priests to celebrate religious
services at and around this altar.[61]
As far as the rest of the
monastery is concerned, the sources simply tell us that
Otmar "adapted the layout of the monastery to the diverse
needs by erecting all around dwellings that were suited for
the use by the monks" (undique versum habitacula monachorum
usibus congrua disposite construens eiusdem sancti statum
loci utilitatibus diversis aptavit)[62]
and that this program
included a hospice for pilgrims and paupers as well as a
special infirmary for lepers.[63]
There is no evidence that
Otmar's successors continued this work or improved upon
it. But the history of succeeding decades shows that much
of the property of the abbey was unrightfully seized by the
Counts Warin and Ruthard, who imprisoned Otmar and
put him into exile, and that similar infractions were committed
by the Bishop of Constance, in whose diocese the
abbey was located.
[64]
Economically St. Gall entered into a
period of stagnation, if not actual decline.
I.3.3
ADMINISTRATIVE ACCOMPLISHMENTS,
DECISION to REBUILD THE MONASTERY
Abbot Gozbert not only stopped, but reversed this trend
and thus led the monastery into an age of unprecedented
prosperity. Even in the first year of his abbacy he scored a
brilliant success by obtaining territorial independence from
the see of Constance.[65]
Two years later, in 818, the monastery
was granted the formal immunity of a royal abbey.[66]
In
the years that followed, Gozbert not only retrieved, through
vigorous litigation, the rights and properties that the abbey
had lost through fraud and lawless alienation, but augmented
its wealth beyond all previous standards by his skill
in soliciting additional gifts.[67]
By 830 the monastic economy
had gathered sufficient strength to enable him to launch his
most ambitious project, the monastery's architectural reconstruction.
We are well informed about this project by reliable
contemporary sources that tell us that Gozbert started the
work by destroying the old church, and that he progressed
with the new church so rapidly that it could be dedicated in
837 (one year after his resignation) in the presence of the
bishops of Constance and Basel, and the abbot of the
nearby monastery of Reichenau.[68]
It was Gozbert's need
for proper guidance in the execution of this building project
that had prompted him to request, from a churchman of
higher rank, the copy of a master plan for a monastic
settlement, which we now know as the Plan of St. Gall. To
what extent he used the Plan in pursuing this task will be
discussed in a later chapter.
