Notitia de servitio monasteriorum


The Notitia de servitio monasteriorum is a list of monasteries in the Frankish Empire and the services they owed the crown. It was compiled under Emperor Louis the Pious in 819, probably as a summation of the royal reform of the monasteries carried out following the councils of 816 and 817. It is not a complete list of the reformed monasteries: only 82 of the 104 monasteries known to have adopted the reforms are listed in the Notitia.
There three basic services monasteries could owe to the sovereign. Militia was military service. Dona was an annual gift, tax or service "donated" to the king. Orationes was the obligation to pray for the royal family and the state of the realm. Collectively, these were known by the technical term servitium regis, hence the servitio of the Notitia's title. The service of prayer, although specified in the Notitia, appears to have been considered a general obligation of all ecclesiastical institutions in the empire. The burden of these services seem to have been more severe in west Francia than in east Francia. Only four monasteries east of the Rhine owed all three services: Lorsch, Schuttern, Mondsee and Tegernsee.
The monastic reforms undertaken in the years preceding the Notitia's compilation were led by the monk Benedict of Aniane. One of his chief concerns was to secure an income for the exclusive use of the monks. This was because at the time monasteries frequently granted revenue-generating lands as benefices to laymen in return for the laymen's service, a process known as enfeoffment. Since monasteries could be governed by a secular abbot, that is, by an abbot who was not under the rule of the monastery, property and thus revenue could be alienated without regard for the needs of the monks. To prevent this, Benedict frequently designated some land as belonging exclusively to the prebend of the monks. According to the Vita sancti Benedicti Anianensis, a biography of Benedict written by his disciple Ardo, the emperor Louis determined which monasteries in the realm were required to have a regular abbot, in order to prevent the abuse of monks by laymen. Although this list was probably a companion of the Notitia, it has not come down to us.

Manuscripts

In 1629, Jacques Sirmond published the Notitia based on a codex he found in the abbey of Saint-Gilles, but he did not edit it. This had to await André Duchesne in 1636, who was apparently unaware of Sirmond's earlier publication. This manuscript is now lost and since both Sirmond and Duchesne only published the Notitia it is impossible to ascertain whether the codex also contained the chronicle found in a different manuscript from the same abbey. The age of this manuscript is also unknown.
In 1750, Léon Ménard published a text of the Notitia based on a 13th-century manuscript from Saint-Gilles. The manuscript contains a chronicle written by the same hand as the Notitia, and which covers the years 813–18. The brief, perhaps fragmentary, chronicle appears to depend entirely upon the Chronicon Moissiacense for its information, and the author only cared to include information on the major ecclesiastical assemblies of the period. A related work is the Chronicon Anianense. Both are associated with the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll: the Anianense was found there, but is named for Benedict's monastery at Aniane, with which the chronicler showed an acute interest; and the Moissiacense was probably written there, although it was discovered at Saint-Pierre de Moissac. According to Wilhelm Pückert, the chronicle was probably composed by the scribe who wrote the manuscript and also copied in the Notitia.

List of monasteries

''Dona et militia''

The first grouping of monasteries is "those which must make a gift and a militia". The monasteries of East Francia and Bavaria are listed separately:
  1. Saint-Benoît de Fleury
  2. Ferrière
  5. Corbie
  6. Notre-Dame de Soissons
  7. Stavelot
  8. an unidentified monastery called Monasterium Prub... Mediolano, which may be two monasteries or more probably a single house
  9. Moutier-Saint-Jean de Réôme
  11. Saint-Oyend
  12. Novalesa
  13. Lorsch
  14. Schuttern
  15. Mondsee
  16. Tegernsee

''Dona sine militia''

The second grouping of monasteries is "those which must give a donation without a militia". Once again, the monasteries of East Francia and Bavaria, as well as Alemannia, are listed separately:
  1. Saint-Mihiel
  3. Saint-Seine
  5. Schwarzach
  6. Fulda
  7. Hersfeld
  8. Ellwangen
  11. Kempten
  12. Weltenburg
  13. Altaich
  14. Kremsmünster
  16. Benediktbeuern

''Orationes''

The third grouping of monasteries is "those which neither a gift nor militia must they give, but only prayers for the health of the emperor, as well as his children, and the stability of the empire". This section of the list is the longest and most comprehensive. It separates out those monasteries of East Francia, Bavaria, Aquitaine, Septimania, Toulouse and Gascony:
  1. Moutiers-en-Puisaye
  2. Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
  3. Lure
  5. Marmoutier
  6. Ebersheim
  7. Klingen
  8. Savigny
  10. Donzère
  11. possibly Lérins
  12. Stettwang
  15. Metten
  16. Schönau
  18. Wessobrunn
  19. Noirmoutier-en-l'Île
  21. Charroux
  23. Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe
  24. Sainte-Croix de Poitiers
  27. Menat
  29. Conques
  30. Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val
  31. Moissac
  32. Saint-Gilles
  33. Psalmodi
  34. Aniane
  36. Villemagne-l'Argentière
  39. Montolieu
  40. Cabrières
  41. La Grasse
  42. Saint-Chignan
  43. Sainte-Eugénie
  45. Arles-du-Vallespir
  46. Saint-Papoul
  48. Le Mas-d'Azil
  49. Venerque
  50. Serres
  52. Saint-Michel de Pessan
  53. Saint-Sixte de Fagito
  54. Saint-Savin
;Notes on names
The names below are variations found in the manuscripts.