Supplex Libellus

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The Supplex Libellus (Bittbüchlein) is a letter of complaint from the convent of the Fulda monastery against its abbot Ratgar , which was presented to Emperor Charlemagne in 812 and, in an expanded version, to Emperor Ludwig the Pious in 817 . It is an important source text on the history of the monastic reform movement of Benedict von Aniane in the age of the Carolingian Renaissance .

The aim of the authors of the Supplex Libellus was to get the emperor to intervene in the serious conflict between the abbot and the convent, which had been handed down from Ratgar's authoritarian leadership style, from the burdens of his ambitious building program and the associated administrative measures and interventions in the traditional Liturgy and the Consuetudines (supplementary implementation provisions to the rule) of the Fulda monastery resulted and after several unsuccessful attempts at mediation ( visitations under the direction of Archbishop of Mainz Richulf are attested for 809 and 812 ) finally culminated in the flight of some of the monks from the monastery. Although Ratgar had invoked the resolutions of the reform synods convened by the emperor to justify himself, his position was no longer tenable. Louis the Pious ordered his deposition and banishment. The monastery was placed under temporary management by imperial missi (emissaries) for about a year . During this time, these monks from the area around Benedict von Aniane introduced the Anian reform in Fulda. On the initiative of his successor, Abbot Eigil , who, as a relative of the founding abbot Sturmi, was probably one of the authors of the Supplex Libellus, Ratgar was pardoned and spent the rest of his life († 835) as a monk in the Frauenberg side monastery in Fulda .

Edition

Supplex Libellus monachorum Fuldensium Carolo imperatori porrectus, ed. Josef Semmler, in: Corpus Consuetudinum Monasticarum , Vol. 1, Siegburg 1963, pp. 319–327

literature

  • Josef Semmler: Instituta sancti Bonifatii. Fulda in the conflict of observances . In: Gangolf Schrimpf (Hrsg.): Fulda monastery in the world of the Carolingians and Ottonians (Fuldaer Studien 7). Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1996, pp. 79-103. ISBN 3-7820-0707-7
  • Josef Semmler. Studies on the Supplex Libellus and the Anian reform in Fulda . In: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 69, 1958, pp. 268–298.
  • Gereon Becht-Jördens: The Vita Aegil of Brun Candidus as a source for questions from history in the age of the Anian reform . In: Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 42, 1992, pp. 19–48.
  • Wolfgang Hessler: Petitionis copy. Original version and additions to the Fuldaer Supplex Libellus from 812/17 . In: Archiv für Diplomatik 8, 1962, pp. 1–11.