Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

indicators of a loss of the abbess’ former influence may be reading too far into canons
composed with a subtly different purpose in mind. 18
Subsequent capitularies continued to reflect older concerns with female religious
life. The capitulary of Frankfurt (794) stated this explicitly with its note that older canons
should be consulted for directives on the appropriate age for veiling a nun. 19 The so-
called programmatic capitulary of 802 went so far as to outline the basic tenets of female
dedicated life, noting the importance of an unbroken cloister, obedience, stability in one
foundation and the rejection of women who were unwilling to follow the rule. 20 Yet these
requirements were not merely cited because of their relative antiquity, or because they
provided solutions to problems then besetting female monastic life. Rather, they reflect
Charlemagne’s concern that members of religious communities should be able to fulfill
adequately the role he had allotted them, that of praying for the safety and stability of his
kingdom and empire.
However, capitularies did express concern at some aspects of female religious
life. It appears that female communities were seen as particularly prone to existing
without recourse to any rule: the Frankfurt capitulary decreed that abbesses who lived
without either the rule of canons (presumably Chrodegang’s) or a monastic rule
(Benedict’s?), (quae canonice aut regulariter non vivunt) were to be deprived of their
honor. 21 This may suggest the existence of smaller communities or family foundations,
which did not actually follow a written rule. In essence this repeated Charlemagne’s edict
of commission of 789, promulgated at the same time as the Admonitio Generalis, which
attempted to combine very small communities of women into one larger one, based on a
rule, under the authority of the bishop. It also states that no abbess or nun was to leave
her enclosure without the bishop’s permission, that the writing or singing of vulgar songs
was forbidden, and care should be taken over excessive bloodletting.
been blessed by bishop Amand, the action and final decision are Rictrude’s. This further suggests that the
legislation here is concerned with the authority of bishops, not of abbesses.
18 S.F. Wemple Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister 500-900 (Philadelphia, 1985), 169.
19 Frankfurt (794), can. XLVI. MGH Capit. I, 77.
20 Capitulare missorum generale (802), can. XVIII. MGH Capit. I, 95.
21 Frankfurt (794), can. XLVII. MGH Capit. I, 77.
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