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Monastic Reform and Autobiographical Dialogue: the Senatorium of Abbot Martin of Leibitz

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Monastic Reform and Autobiographical Dialogue: the Senatorium of Abbot Martin of Leibitz MONASTIC REFORM AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL DIALOGUE: THE SENATORIUM OF ABBOT MARTIN OF LEIBITZ Harald Tersch Universität Wien [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-1800-8679 Recepción: 08-01-2016 / Aceptación: 22-11-2016 Abstract T e autobiographical dialogue is based upon the principle of questioning the fundamentals of one’s own life script and off ered itself in particular during times of reform movements, when role models and values within communities were open to debate. T e monastic reforms of the 14th and 15th centuries created a new authority with the category of Visitors who frequently did not advance accord- ing to the hierarchy of the monastery visited, but instead entered them laterally, in order to ensure the long-term success of the arrangements. T is authority to exert power increased the need for justifi cation. In his Senatorium the Benedic- tine reform abbot and Visitor Martin of Leibitz/L’ubica (1400-1464) legitimized his self-refl ection with the claim to a didactic conversation in the tradition of the Gregorian Dialogues, the Bohemian Malogranatum and the Formicarius of Johannes Nider. T e dialogue relates the conversation between a youth and an old man. T e elderly man (senex) is Martin’s “alter ego” who wishes to speak of his experience according to the classical stages of life, the young man represents an inquisitive cue-giver who challenges his partner by agreement or contradic- tion. T e autobiography suggests the atmosphere of a chapter hall. It is drawn on the modus of an inquisitio and fi lled with contemporary possibilities for mo- nastic self-thematization in interviews, visitiation reports or letters. In contrast to Petrarch’s Secretum, the Senatorium does not have the character of a private examen conscientiae, because Martin publicly acknowledges transgressions against the rules and their local adaptions, as with the peccata hominis exterioris, which should be laid bare communally. MEDIEVALIA 20/1 (2017), 41-59 ISSN: 2014-8410 (digital) 42 HARALD TERSCH Keywords Autobiography, Dialogue, Benedictine reform, Cusanian visitation, Monastic historiography. Resumen El diálogo autobiográfi co se basa en el principio de cuestionar los fundamentos del propio guión de la vida y, partitcularmente, se desarrolló en durante en las épocas de los movimientos de reforma, cuando los modelos y los valores dentro de las comunidades estaban abiertos al debate. Las reformas monásticas de los siglos XIV y XV crearon una nueva autoridad con la categoría de ‘visitantes’ que con frecuencia no avanzaba en consonancia con la jerarquía del monasterio vi- sitado, sino paralelamente, para garantizar el éxito a largo plazo de los cambios. Esta autoridad para ejercer poder aumentó la necesidad de justifi cación. En su Senatorium, el abad de la reforma benedictina y el visitador Martín de Leibitz / L’ubica (1400-1464) legitimaron su autorrefl exión con la llamada de una conver- sación didáctica en la tradición de los Diálogos gregorianos, el bohemio Malogra- natum y el Formicarius de Johannes Nider. El diálogo relata la conversación entre un joven y un anciano. El hombre mayor (senex) es el “alter ego” de Martin que desea hablar de su experiencia de acuerdo con las etapas clásicas de la vida, el joven representa un hombre inquisitivo que asiente o disiente. La autobiografía sugiere la atmósfera de una sala capitular. Se basa en el modo de inquisitio y se llena de posibilidades coetáneas para la tematización monástica en entrevistas, informes de visita o cartas. A diferencia del Secretum de Petrarca, el Senatorium no tiene el carácter de un examen conscientiae privado, porque Martin reconoce públicamente las transgresiones contra las reglas y sus adaptaciones locales, como con los peccata hominis exterioris, que debe revelarse ante la comunidad. Palabras clave Autobiografía, Diálogo, Reforma benedictina, ‘Visita cusana’, Historiografía monástica. 1. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL DIALOGUE Late Medieval writing culture reveals itself to be eager to experiment in the area of self-expression. In the emergent vernacular tradition, visionary literature, love poetry or domestic conduct books could serve as conduits for individualized life stories. In the Latin academic culture, moreover, the genre of the dialogue MONASTIC REFORM AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL DIALOGUE 43 expanded the existing possibilities of self-representation and self-refl ection. In comparison with the closed narrative retrospective of a Vita, the autobiographi- cal dialogue was based upon the principle of questioning, confi rming or rejecting the fundamentals of one’s own life script by means of a counterpart in the form of a conversation partner. T e fi ctive form off ered itself in particular during times of social reform movements, when ways of living and values within communities were open to debate. Petrarch’s Secretum (ca. 1350) represents a key text in medie- val studies; in this work, Francis as “fi gura auctoris” converses with his discussion partner Augustine regarding the conduct of his life and his moral condition. T e fi gures represent two diff erent meta-positions, which allow the autobiographer to confront controversial opinions about himself and to scrutinise social role models.1 T e Secretum is based on diff ering genre traditions. It stands primarily in the line of succession of the Augustinian Confessions and Soliloquies, “in which a person and his rational spirit entered into debate in the interior of the soul on the preconditions and limitations of self-knowledge”.2 An additional model for Petrarch was provided by T e Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius, whose dialogue with “Lady Philosophy” could be understood as self-representation. An investigation into autobiographical prison writing of the 14th and 15th century has revealed that authors frequently stylised themselves as Boethian fi gures.3 In pseudo-Boethian conversations, abstract female personifi cations did not always confront the authors, but sometimes fi gures of authority, appropriate to the auto- biographical situation, were invoked. T e English poet-counselor T omas Hoc- cleve, for example, in the opening dialogue of his poem Regement of Princes (1410- 11) replaced consolatory philosophy with an unnamed Old Man.4 Besides the tradition of Soliloquia and Consolatio, in the late Middle Ages additional points of contact for the development of autobiographical dialogue off ered themselves. T e following remarks about a Benedictine example from the mid-15th century are intended to draw attention to the monastic tradition following Gregory the Great whose Dialogi between Gregory and the deacon Peter begin with a fi rst- person narrative and equally were read literally as autobiographical document. T e consideration of the autobiographical dialogue alone from the perspective of classical early Christian prototypes is not suitable for the literary phenomeon. Interpretative approaches, which work out the intertextuality of the dialogue 1 More current examples, see Hermans / Hermans-Konopka, 2010, p. 151. 2 Stock, 2001, pp. 11, 17; also McLaughlin, 2004, p. 56; Lee, 2012, p. 78. 3 Summers, 2004, p. 12-18. 4 See Knapp, 2009, p. 197. 44 HARALD TERSCH with contemporary functional texts, are worthy of attention. T e innovative the- sis, according to which the Secretum is connected directly or indirectly to 13th and 14th century confessional practice, led in this direction. Vernacular handbooks of penance, with their interrogatory, accordingly defi ned a dialogue situation in which Augustine as confessor directed the self-awareness of the penitent Francis.5 Procedural manuals which determined judicial or inquisitorial interrogations were equally infl uential for late Medieval and early Modern autobiography. T ey represent an important link between voluntary and forced “ego-documents”, which can overlap each other in the conditions of their composition and forma- tion.6 In the autobiographical prison writing of the late Middle Ages the dialogue found an entry not only through references to Boethius but also through the dramatics of the conversation between the interrogator and the accused author. Trials for heresy and Visitations made the interview in the late Middle Ages into a signifi cant technique of self-stylisation, which confronted the offi cial perspective of acts and protocols with the personal authority of the narrator.7 In his autobio- graphical dialogue, Senatorium, the Benedictine monk Martin of Leibitz (or “of Vienna”) drew on the modus of an inquisitio. 2. MONASTIC REFORM AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY T e autobiography of the high Middle Ages moved in the realm of biography and Gesta. T e authors originated predominantly from the monastic environment and followed, like Augustine, the concept of an imitatio of pious paragons, which they discovered according to the Regula Benedicti in the conversion stories contained in the lives of saints.8 Although the monastic autobiography of the late Middle Ages indeed oriented itself on the same patterns of behaviour, nevertheless the scribal class had altered. In the 12th century it was primarily the powerful abbots and prelates of aristocratic background who conveyed the tense relationship be- tween leadership, contemplation and temptation in their respective environments. T e monastic reforms of the 14th and 15th centuries created a new authority with the category of academically trained Visitors. Visitors travelled on papal and ducal orders to monasteries, swore them to programmes of reform, imposed limits on the 5 See Zimmermann, 1971, pp. 124-134. 6 See Amelung, 2011, pp. 33-40. 7 See Summers, 2004, pp. 108-119. 8 See Fleming, 2014, pp. 36-39; Rubinstein, 2005, pp. 25-26. MONASTIC REFORM AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL DIALOGUE 45 infl uence of offi cials, and when necessary deposed abbots. T ey frequently did not advance according to the hierarchy of the monastery visited, but instead entered them laterally, in order to ensure the long-term success of the reforms. T is unfa- miliar authority to exert power increased the need for justifi cation, which expressed itself in the form of personal testimonials. T e Visitors thereby seized on their own inquisitorial means, with which they controlled the monastic way of life.
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