Bouchard, Constance Brittain/ the Cartulary of Flavigny, 717–1113

The Cartulary of Flavigny Medieval Academy Books, No. 99 The Cartulary of Flavigny 717-1113 edited by Constance Brittain Bouchard The Medieval Academy of America Cambridge, Massachusetts 1991 Copyright © 1991 By the Medieval Academy of America Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 90-062436 ISBN: 0-915651-05-X Printed in the United States of America This book is printed on acid-free paper Contents Preface vii List of Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 Chronological List of the Documents 17 The Cartulary 19 Appendix: The Abbots of Flavigny 145 Bibliography 149 Index 153 Maps 1. The Region around Flavigny 3 2. Distribution of Property in the Testament of Wideradus 18 Preface Flavigny, founded in the early eighth century, was one of the most important Burgundian monasteries of the early Middle Ages. Its cartulary includes documents from the first four centuries of its existence. Yet this cartulary is very little known, even though it includes the only previously unpublished documents of which I am aware from the heartland of Francia in the Merovingian and Carolingian periods. It is here published for the first time. From the documents emerges the history of a monastery very richly endowed at its foundation, which received gifts and privileges from kings yet still had to fight recurring battles against domination by laymen, domination by the bishops of Autun, loss of property, and loss of religious fervor. The cartulary records not only the monks' painstaking acquisition or reacquisition of property but also <quarrels with laymen and ecclesiastics, a confraternity of prayers, participation in the reforms of the eleventh century by a monastery not associated with the much better known Cluniac or Cistercian orders, and two cases of murder. I would like to thank Professor Stanley Chodorow of the University of California, San Diego, for first involving me in the editing of medieval documents and for providing a congenial working place where I collated the manuscripts. The librarians of the Bibliotheque municipale of Chatillon-sur-Seine were very helpful in providing me with a photocopy of their manuscript of the cartulary. A trip to France in 1986 was funded in part by an NEH Travel to Collections grant. Publication of the cartulary was assisted by a grant from the provost's office of Kenyon College. VII Abbreviations B Brussels, Bibliotheque royale, MS 7827-74 C Chatillon-sur-Seine, Bibliotheque municipale, MS 6 Collenot M. Collenot, "Cartulaire du monastere de Flavigny," Bul- letin de la Societe des sciences historiques et naturelles de Semurn.s. 3(1886), 33-109 D Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, Collection Baluze 40 GC Gal Ha Christiana Grignard Dijon, Archives departementales de la Cote-d'Or, 1 F 213 MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica DD Diplomata SS Scriptores P Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, MS lat. 17720 PL J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus. Series La- tina RHGF Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France ix Introduction This is the first complete printed edition of the cartulary of the Benedictine monastery of Flavigny. The medieval cartulary was lost at the time of the French Revolution, but copies made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries make it possible to reconstruct that cartulary. Flavigny, originally a basilica dedicated to St. Prix (Sanctus Preiectus), became a Benedictine monastery in 719. Its cartulary was drawn up in the first part of the eleventh century and took its final form in the early twelfth century. The cartulary con- tains approximately sixty documents, depending on how one counts,1 dating from between the early eighth and the early twelfth centuries. The majority of the documents of this Burgundian monastery have never been edited or are edited in seventeenth-century volumes which are scarcely more available now than the manuscripts.2 The publication of this cartulary, then, makes available for the first time a large number of documents from the early Middle Ages, perhaps the largest single previously unpublished group of documents from this period from the heartland of Merovingian and Carolin- gian rule. FLAVIGNY Flavigny is perched on a hilltop in the center of Burgundy, overlooking the Ozerain. (See the map on page 3.) Its hill has over the millennia been used as a settlement by a succession of peoples. Stone Age and Bronze Age 'I have numbered the documents consecutively, 1 through 58, but they were not numbered in the original cartulary. Numbers were added in the margin of manuscript C, probably by M. Rossignol when he was planning to publish an edition of the cartulary using this manuscript as a base (see below). These numbers were used by M. Collenot when he published a sum- mary of Rossignol's manuscript. However, Rossignol numbered the third document 2 bis rather than 3, so his numbers and mine do not correspond. Numbering must be arbitrary, because of such questions as whether one puts the second version of document no. 2 at the end, as I have done, following C; both B and P abbreviate this document to an incipit and a list of witnesses and insert it immediately after document no. 2. Documents nos. 26 and 41 could each be treated as two documents rather than one (as in B and P). 2Only the charter of Pippin the Short, the two charters of Charlemagne, the charter of Charles the Bald, and the charter of Philip II have received modern critical editions, and for four of these five charters the editors did not use C, the manuscript which I feel is the best, for reasons given below. 2 Introduction artifacts have been found there. The next hill north from Flavigny is Alesia (today the hill is Mt.-Auxois and the village Alise-Ste.-Reine), where Vercin- getorix, the leader of the Gauls, made his last stand against the Romans. At the beginning of the eighth century, Flavigny became the site of a Benedic- tine monastery, which it remained until the French Revolution. Although one cannot date the arrival of monks there precisely, it was probably around 717. It was in January of that year that Wideradus, their founder, endowed the basilica of St.-Prix of Flavigny with a large amount of property, at the same time as he gave smaller amounts to the basilicas of St.-Andoche of Saulieu and of Ste.-Reine of Alise, and a single villa to St.-Ferreol of Besanc.on. In 719 he specified the monastic discipline which the monks of Flavigny should follow. (For a discussion of these dates, see below.) The first abbot was named Magoald, about whom nothing is known beyond his name.3 No more is known of Wideradus than can be deduced from his charters for Flavigny. He was the son of a man named Corbo, who received the favorable attention of and some property from Theoderic III (673-90/91). Wideradus himself was certainly very wealthy, for in his testament he gave away land located in dozens of villae spread across central Burgundy, especially in the Morvan. This high and still wild area is the watershed of central France, from which divide rivers destined for the Atlantic, the English Channel, and the Mediterranean. Wideradus called himself abba, which was probably why the later necrology of Flavigny called him the first abbot of the house, but this was more an honorary title than an indication of ecclesiastical office. The year of his death is not known, although the monks commemorated it on 5 October.4 Flavigny was the last of the great Merovingian foundations in Burgundy. It seems to have flourished for the first century and a half after its foundation, even though the eighth century was a low point for many other Frankish monasteries. As well as the substantial endowment they received from Wi- deradus, the monks began in the 740s to receive gifts from other laymen, in- cluding Pippin the Short and several counts. By this time the monastery was referred to as dedicated both to St. Prix and to St. Peter, a dual designation •'It is however tempting to see Magoald as connected to—or perhaps even identical with—the Magnoald who was abbot of Tusey or Tussonval in 696/97; MGH DD regum Francorum e stirpe Merowingica. pp. 61-63, nos. 69, 70. "MGH SS 8:287. Map 1 The Region Around Flavigny • Mombenhault • Biemi POUILLAIS • Saulieu • Pouilly 8 Kms EMcC '91 4 Introduction which lasted until the eleventh century, after which time St. Prix was no lon- ger mentioned. In the middle of the ninth century, however, Flavigny began to fall under the influence of outsiders. First, around 850, Count Warin became abbot of the house. Then, some twenty-five years later, Bishop Adalgar of Autun took over the office and revenues of Flavigny. Even after Adalgar's death—his rec- tor at Flavigny was accused of poisoning him, but was acquitted—bishops of Autun continued to act as abbots of Flavigny until the end of the tenth century. Although rectors (sometimes known as prelates) saw to the day-to-day functioning of the monastery, it gradually lost its regularity of life; the final decay of the monastic life was attributed at the beginning of the eleventh century to the reign of Bishop Rotmund of Autun (935-68), who was said to be incapable of resisting lay influence in the monastery's affairs. At the end of the. tenth century Flavigny was reformed to the Benedictine Rule by Bishop Walter of Autun (977-1018). He restored a large number of churches to the monks in 992 and named Heldric, the Cluniac monk who had become abbot of St.-Germain of Auxerre in 986, abbot of Flavigny as well.

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