Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Although Jonas sought to present Columbanus’ foundation of Luxeuil as being
made in an untapped wilderness (‘The place was only frequented by animals and wild
beasts, a multitude of bears, buffalo and wolves’), it is likely that the site was in royal
hands before this point. 201 Certainly the reworked seventh-century vita of Sadalberga, a
later founder of a house following Columbanian practices, portrayed Luxueil as being
founded ex munificentia Chilberti regis. 202 Even if the evidence of this vita were
unreliable, the monastery would later be used by the king as ‘a high-status prison’, as in
the crisis of 675 when Leodegar of Autun and Ebroin were imprisoned there. 203 As
Wood further points out, Jonas himself suggests that the monastery was dependent on
royal favour, in the dialogue he gives to Columbanus and the king Theudebert: ‘To this
the king said: “If you want the gifts of our generosity and the support of our supplies, you
will allow everyone access everywhere.” The man of God replied: “If you attempt to
violate what has up to now been regulated by the reins of regular discipline, I will not be
supported by your gifts and subsidies from now on… your kingdom will soon fall to its
foundations and will be overwhelmed with the whole royal race”.’ 204 The very fact of
Jonas’ belittling of royal involvement with the foundation only serves to underline its
importance. 205
Columbanus represented something of a departure for monasticism in Gaul, as he
made royally sponsored foundations that were not tied into any episcopal network of
christianisation or aristocratic family piety. Now, the essential landed property for the
foundations was coming from royal and aristocratic rural holdings (Jonas’ ‘wilderness’
may not have been near urban civilization, but was not without ownership) and not from
201
VCD I, 10.
202
Vita Sadalbergae 1 ed. B. Krusch, MGH SSRM V (Hanover, 1910). For discussion of the vita’s date,
see C. Rohr, ‘Hagiographie als historische Quelle: Ereignisgeschichte und Wunderberichte in der Vita
Columbani des Ionas von Bobbio’ MIÖG 103 (1995) 229-264, at 253. See also Wood, ‘Jonas, the
Merovingians’, 6-110.
203
Passio Leodegarii I, 12-14, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SSRM V (Hanover, 1910). See also Wood, ‘Jonas, the
Merovingians’, 107.
204
VCD I 19: ‘Ad haec rex: “Si,” inquid, “largitatis nostrae munera et solaminis supplimentum capere
cupis, omnibus in locis omnium patebit introitus.” Vir Dei respondit : « Si, quod nunc usque sub regularis
disciplinae abenis constrictum fuit violare conaris, nec tuis muneribus nec quibusque subsidiis me fore a te
sustentaturum…. Cito tuum regnum funditus ruiturum et cum omni propagine regia dimersurum. »’
Translation from Wood, ‘Jonas, the Merovingians’, 107-8.
205
Wood, ‘Jonas, the Merovingians’, 110.
116