Four monasteries in the Notitia. Clockwise from upper left: Ferrières (which owed tribute, military service and prayers), Saint-Savin (prayers), Ellwangen (tribute and prayers), Saint-Michel de Nantua (tribute and prayers).
The Notitia de servitio monasteriorum ("Notice of the Service of Monasteries")[1] is a list of monasteries in the Frankish Empire and the services they owned the crown. It was compiled under Emperor Louis the Pious in 819, probably as a summation of the royal reform of the monasteries carried out following the councils of 816 and 817.[2][3] It is not a complete list of the reformed monasteries: only 82 of the 104 monasteries known to have adopted the reforms are listed in the Notitia.[4]
There three basic services monasteries could owe to the sovereign. Militia was military service. Dona was an annual gift, tax or service "donated" to the king. Orationes was the obligation to pray for the royal family and the state of the realm. Collectively, these were known by the technical term servitium regis ("king's service"), hence the servitio of the Notitia's title.[5] The service of prayer, although specified in the Notitia, appears to have been considered a general obligation of all ecclesiastical institutions in the empire.[6] The burden of these services seem to have been more severe in west Francia than in east Francia. Only four monasteries east of the Rhine owed all three services: Lorsch, Schuttern, Mondsee and Tegernsee.[7]
The monastic reforms undertaken in the years preceding the Notitia's compilation were led by the monk Benedict of Aniane. One of his chief concerns was to secure an income for the exclusive use of the monks. This was because at the time monasteries frequently granted revenue-generating lands as benefices to laymen in return for the laymen's service, a process known as enfeoffment.[8] Since monasteries could be governed by a secular abbot, that is, by an abbot who was not under the rule (regula) of the monastery, property and thus revenue could be alienated without regard for the needs of the monks. To prevent this, Benedict frequently designated some land as belonging exclusively to the prebend (endowment) of the monks. According to the Vita sancti Benedicti Anianensis, a biography of Benedict written by his disciple Ardo, the emperor Louis determined which monasteries in the realm were required to have a regular abbot, in order to prevent the abuse of monks by laymen. Although this list was probably a companion of the Notitia, it has not come down to us.[8]
Manuscripts
In 1629, Jacques Sirmond published the Notitia based on a codex he found in the abbey of Saint-Gilles, but he did not edit it.[9] This had to await André Duchesne in 1636, who was apparently unaware of Sirmond's earlier publication. This manuscript is now lost and since both Sirmond and Duchesne only published the Notitia it is impossible to ascertain whether the codex also contained the chronicle found in a different manuscript from the same abbey. The age of this manuscript is also unknown.[9]
In 1750, Léon Ménard published a text of the Notitia based on a 13th-century manuscript from Saint-Gilles. The manuscript contains a chronicle written by the same hand as the Notitia, and which covers the years 813–18.[10] The brief, perhaps fragmentary, chronicle appears to depend entirely upon the Chronicon Moissiacense for its information, and the author only cared to include information on the major ecclesiastical assemblies of the period. A related work is the Chronicon Anianense. Both are associated with the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll: the Anianense was found there, but is named for Benedict's monastery at Aniane, with which the chronicler showed an acute interest; and the Moissiacense was probably written there, although it was discovered at Saint-Pierre de Moissac. According to Wilhelm Pückert, the chronicle was probably composed by the scribe who wrote the manuscript and also copied in the Notitia.[10]
List of monasteries
Dona et militia
The first grouping of monasteries is "those which must make a gift and a militia" (haec sunt quae dona et militiam facere debent).[11] The monasteries of East Francia and Bavaria are listed separately:
The second grouping of monasteries is "those which must give a donation without a militia" (haec sunt quae tantum dona dare debent sine militia).[11] Once again, the monasteries of East Francia and Bavaria, as well as Alemannia, are listed separately:
The third grouping of monasteries is "those which neither a gift nor militia must they give, but only prayers for the health of the emperor, as well as his children, and the stability of the empire" (haec sunt quae nec dona, nec militiam dare debent, sed solas orationes pro salute imperatoris vel filiorum ejus et stabilitate imperii).[11] This section of the list is the longest and most comprehensive. It separates out those monasteries of East Francia, Bavaria, Aquitaine, Septimania, Toulouse and Gascony:
Bernhardt, John W. "Servitium regis and Monastic Property in Early Medieval Germany". Viator18 (1987): 53–87.
Bernhardt, John W. Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c. 936–1075. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN0521394899
Zola, Alan G. Radbertus's Monastic Voice: Ideas about Monasticism at Ninth-century Corbie. Ph.D. dissertation. Loyola University Chicago, 2008.
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