DOI Artikel:
Vanderputten, Steven: The Mind as Cell and the Body as Cloister: Abbatial Leadership and the Issue of Stability in the Early Eleventh Century
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31468#0106
- Startseite des Bandes
- Alle zugehörigen Werke
- Bibliographische Information
- Videoclip: Das Projekt "Klöster im Hochmittelalter" stellt sich vor
The Mind as Cell and
the Body as Cloister
Abbatial Leadership and the Issue of Stability
in the Early Eleventh Century
Steven Vanderputten
Around the turn of the first millennium AD, there emerged in the former Carolingian
empire a generation of abbots that came to be remembered as one the most
influential in the history of Western monasticism. In his universal chronicle, written
towards the end of the eleventh century, Sigebert of Gembloux sang their praises:
“at that time [c. 1027] the monastic observance flourished through [the action
of] notable abbots: in France and Burgundy Odilo of Cluny, notable for
his piety, and William of Dijon, honorable for his severity; in Lotharingia
Richard of Verdun, notable for his pious gravity and grave piety, Poppo of
Stavelot, Heliand of Cologne, Olbert [of Gembloux] and Stephen of Liège,
and Berno of Reichenau.” ¹
Demonstrating a model of monastic leadership that combined personal devotion
to prayer and asceticism, successful institutional government, and a keen interest in
promoting monastic virtues to secular society, these and other abbots subsequently
gained a reputation for excellence and virtue that was unparrallelled among most
of their early medieval predecessors. Some came to be venerated as saints, and their
Research for this paper was carried out with the generous support of the Humboldt-Foundation and the Research
Foundation-Flanders. I intend to publish a more extensive version as part of a monograph tentatively
entitled Imagining religious leadership in the early eleventh century; my thanks to the participants of the
Mainz conference for their comments on the oral presentation and Melissa Provijn for reviewing the final
version.
1 Sigebert of Gembloux, Chronicon, ed. Ludwig Conrad Bethmann, in: MGH Scriptores 6, Hannover
1844, pp. 300 –374, here p. 356: Florebat hoc tempore aecclesiastica religio per abbates nominabiles; in
Francia quidem et Burgundia per Odilonem Cluniacensem pietate insignem, per Guilelmum Divionensem
severitate reverendum; in Lotharingia per Richardum Virdunensem, pia gravitate et gravi pietate
discretum, per Poponem Stabulensem, per Heliam Coloniensem, per Olbertum et Stephanum Leodicenses,
per Bernonem Augiensem.
the Body as Cloister
Abbatial Leadership and the Issue of Stability
in the Early Eleventh Century
Steven Vanderputten
Around the turn of the first millennium AD, there emerged in the former Carolingian
empire a generation of abbots that came to be remembered as one the most
influential in the history of Western monasticism. In his universal chronicle, written
towards the end of the eleventh century, Sigebert of Gembloux sang their praises:
“at that time [c. 1027] the monastic observance flourished through [the action
of] notable abbots: in France and Burgundy Odilo of Cluny, notable for
his piety, and William of Dijon, honorable for his severity; in Lotharingia
Richard of Verdun, notable for his pious gravity and grave piety, Poppo of
Stavelot, Heliand of Cologne, Olbert [of Gembloux] and Stephen of Liège,
and Berno of Reichenau.” ¹
Demonstrating a model of monastic leadership that combined personal devotion
to prayer and asceticism, successful institutional government, and a keen interest in
promoting monastic virtues to secular society, these and other abbots subsequently
gained a reputation for excellence and virtue that was unparrallelled among most
of their early medieval predecessors. Some came to be venerated as saints, and their
Research for this paper was carried out with the generous support of the Humboldt-Foundation and the Research
Foundation-Flanders. I intend to publish a more extensive version as part of a monograph tentatively
entitled Imagining religious leadership in the early eleventh century; my thanks to the participants of the
Mainz conference for their comments on the oral presentation and Melissa Provijn for reviewing the final
version.
1 Sigebert of Gembloux, Chronicon, ed. Ludwig Conrad Bethmann, in: MGH Scriptores 6, Hannover
1844, pp. 300 –374, here p. 356: Florebat hoc tempore aecclesiastica religio per abbates nominabiles; in
Francia quidem et Burgundia per Odilonem Cluniacensem pietate insignem, per Guilelmum Divionensem
severitate reverendum; in Lotharingia per Richardum Virdunensem, pia gravitate et gravi pietate
discretum, per Poponem Stabulensem, per Heliam Coloniensem, per Olbertum et Stephanum Leodicenses,
per Bernonem Augiensem.