Gertrude's tonsure: an examination of hair as a symbol of gender, family and authority in the seventh-century Vita of Gertrude of Nivelles
2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 39; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/03044181.2013.781534
ISSN1873-1279
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis
ResumoAbstract Using the seventh-century Vita of Gertrude of Nivelles, this paper examines the story of Gertrude's tonsure in connection with Frankish attitudes about hair-cutting, family, gender and authority. The story of Gertrude's tonsure is unique in the hagiography of early medieval Western female saints. Gertrude's tonsure was inspired by many examples of renunciation and hair-cutting including the Bible, Patristic writing, Germanic practices and Frankish myths. However, if Gertrude's tonsure is considered in the light of distinctly Frankish beliefs about the relationship of hair, hair-cutting, and family lineage and inheritance, Gertrude's mother Itta appears to have used the male symbol of monastic tonsure as a method of protecting Gertrude's inheritance for the foundation of the monastery of Nivelles. As Gertrude's tonsure saved the girl from forced marriage, Itta's actions in tonsuring her daughter paradoxically re-emphasised the meaning of the forced tonsure of Frankish royal men and the voluntary tonsure of monks within Frankish society. Keywords: Gertrude of Nivellesfemale tonsureearly medieval women religioushair and hair-cuttingFrankish societyearly medieval monasticism Acknowledgements I am indebted to the American Association of University Women for the generous summer publication grant that helped support my work in finishing this article. I would like to thank Jane Schulenburg, Katherine A. Smith and Jill N. Claster for their carefully considered critiques of the earlier drafts of this paper. I would also like to express my deep gratitude for the on-going support and encouragement that I have received from my mentor and friend, Penelope D. Johnson, whose critical assessments of my work have been, and continue to be, invaluable. Any errors in this text are my own. Notes 1 The following abbreviations are used in this paper: MGH: Monumenta Germaniae Historica; PL: Patrologiae cursus completus series Latina; SRM: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum. ‘Ut non violatores animarum filiam suam ad inlecebras huius mundi voluptates per vim raperent, ferrum tonsoris arripuit et capillos sanctae puellae ad instar coronae abscisit.’ B. Krusch, ed., Vita sanctae Geretrudis virginis, in Fredegarii et aliorum Chronica, Vitae sanctorum, ed. B. Krusch. MGH SRM 2 (Hanover: Hahn, 1888), 453–64. Krusch identified and edited two nearly contemporary versions of Gertrude's earliest Vita, which he titled A and B; unless otherwise indicated, the citations in this paper refer to text A, which is slightly older than B. The Vita was written before 700, possibly around 670. See J.J. Hoebanx, L'abbaye de Nivelles dés origines au XIVe siècle (Brussels: Palais des Académies, 1951), 25–30. 2 As Jane Schulenburg writes, the story of Gertrude's tonsure appears to be singular in the hagiography of Western European female saints: J. Schulenburg, Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society ca.500–1100 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 155–66. 3 According to Edward James, by the seventh century the classic Roman ‘corona’ was the norm in Gaul: E. James, ‘Bede and the Tonsure Question’, Pertitia 3 (1984): 85–98 (96). 4 Palladius, The Lausiac History, trans. Robert T. Meyer. Ancient Christian Writers Series 34 (New York: Paulist Press, 1964), 97. 5 Paul states that it is shameful for men to pray with their heads covered and shameful for women to pray with their heads uncovered. Paul does suggest that women who refuse to wear the veil should shave their heads; however, he immediately insists that shaving the female head is also a shameful act (1 Cor. 11:3–6). 6 In his letter to Eustochium, ‘On the Virgin's Profession’, Jerome discusses young women who try to attract male attention as they walk the streets with the quotation, ‘Thou hast a whore's forehead.’ F.A. Wright, ed. and trans., Letters of Jerome (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933), 81. See also Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, ‘Word, Spirit and Power: Women in Early Christian Communties’, in Women of Spirit: Female Leadership in Jewish and Christian Traditions, ed. Rosemary Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), 44–51. 7 ‘The Acts of Paul’, in The Apocryphal New Testament, trans. Montague Rhodes James (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), 277. 8 Wright, ed., Letters of Jerome, 117. 9 Throughout his Letter to Eustochium, Jerome discusses how ‘false virgins’ might still appear virginal by dress and hairstyle. Additionally, in his letter to Laeta outlining the virgin Paula's education, Jerome relates the story of Praetextata, who altered the dress and waved the hair of Eustochia in order to make her more beautiful for potential suitors. During the night, Praetextata was visited by a vision of Christ, who threatened her with punishment, saying, ‘Have you presumed to lay sacrilegious hands upon the head of God's virgin?’ – again suggesting that the professed virgin could not dress in the same manner as a typical young virginal Roman girl. Wright, ed., Letters of Jerome, 351. 10 Self-tonsure among early Christian women probably marked their transition to ‘eunuchs of God’. Schulenburg, Forgetful of Their Sex, 156. 11 Caesarius of Arles, Regula sanctarum virginum aliaque opuscula ad sanctimoniales directa, ed. Germanus Morin. Florilegium patristicum tam veteris quam medii aevi auctores complectens 34 (Bonn: P. Hanstein, 1933). 12 One example from the Early Middle Ages is found in the life of Ermelinde, who cut off her hair in an effort to forestall a marriage; by cutting her hair, Ermelinde successfully deformed herself by making herself ‘physically unacceptable’ for marriage. See S. Ermelindis virginis, in Acta Sanctorum. Octobris XII, Oct. 29, eds. J. Van Hecke and others (Brussels: Petrum Joannem Vander Plassche, 1867), 849; for Papula, Gregory of Tours, Liber in gloria confessorum, in Gregory of Tours, Miracula et opera minora, ed. B. Krusch. MGH SRM 1, fasc. 2 (Hanover: Hahn, 1885), 756–7. 13 For Eugenia, Vita Sanctae Eugeniae, virginis ac martyris, ed. J.-P. Migne. PL 21 (Paris: Garnier Fratres, Editories et J.-P. Migne Successores, 1878), cols. 1105–22.The phenomenon of holy women dressing as men was more common in the early hagiographic traditions of the Eastern Church and was often associated with the redemption of prostitutes, as in the legends of Pelagia of Antioch and Mary of Egypt. This tradition suggests that loss of the visual attributes that marked women as biologically female was also considered to be a purification of unrestrained female sexuality. For Pelagia, see James the Deacon and others, Vita sanctae Pelagiae, ed. J.-P. Migne. PL 73 (Paris: Migne, 1879), cols. 663–72A; for Mary, see Sophronius, Vita sanctae Mariae Aegypticaie, meretricis, ed. J.-P. Migne. PL 73, cols. 671–90B. See also Evelyne Patalagean, ‘L'histoire de la femme déguisée en moine et l’évolution de la sainteté féminine à Byzance', Studi Medievali 3rd series, 17 (1976): 597–623 (609). 14 As Conrad Leyser suggests, Thecla's story might have been a model for Gertrude's tonsure; however, it also seems likely that Itta's actions in cutting her daughter's hair were influenced by the cultural assumptions about hair that were prevalent in Merovingian society. See Conrad Leyser, ‘Long-Haired Kings and Short-Haired Nuns: Power and Gender in Merovingian Gaul’, Medieval World (March–April 1992): 37–42. 15 Hoebanx considered the life to have been written by an Irish monk living at Nivelles: Hoebanx, L'abbaye de Nivelles, 30–1. The establishment of the double house of Nivelles occurred in several stages; the foundation of the abbey of Nivelles is dated to sometime between 648 and 649, and the male house of Fosses was created as a refuge for St Feuillen around 651. See Additamentum Nivialense de Fuilano, in Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici, ed. B. Krusch. MGH SRM 4 (Hanover: Hahn, 1902), 449–50: ‘Quo non multo post a patricio viros peregrinos despiciente expulsi sunt, sed a religiosissima Dei famula Idobergane cognominae Itane eiusque filia sacra Christi virgine Garetrude honorifice suscepti sunt, ipso etiam Grimaldo praeside eisdem sanctis congratulante viris atque in villa, quae ex nomine fluminis decurrentis nuncupatur Bebrona, ordinate monasterium religiosorum construxit monachorum, predicta Dei famula Itane cuncta necessaria ministrante.’ A. Dierkens, ‘Saint Amand et la fondation de l'abbaye de Nivelles’, Revue du Nord 68 (1986): 325–34 (331). The Additamentum Nivialense describes the foundation of Fosses and is dated by Dierkens to 656–7. 16 Catherine Peyroux, ‘Gertrude's Furor: Reading Anger in an Early Saint's Life’, in Anger's Past: the Social Use of an Emotion in the Middle Ages, ed. Barbara Rosenwein (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 39. 17 Krusch, ed., Vita sanctae Geretrudis. MGH SRM 2, 456. 18 In 614, Clothar II ordered capital punishment for men who abducted and forcibly married women religious; however, the practice of abducting young women from monasteries continued, and the Council of Clichy threatened excommunication for abductors of women religious in 626. By the end of the seventh century, the growth of female monasteries prompted Merovingian kings to ‘take all women religious under their protection’. See Suzanne Fonay Wemple, Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister 500–900 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981), 158. 19 While Gertrude's Vita, which was written after Grimoald's attempted coup and death, makes no references to his involvement in the foundation of Nivelles or decisions regarding the governance of the monastery the Additamentum Nivialiense suggests that he played a major role in Fosses' foundation. As Regine le Jan has suggested, the founding of Nivelles probably also received opposition from wealthy and powerful neighbours who were concerned about the increasing power of Gertrude's family. See Régine le Jan, ‘Convents, Violence, and Competition for Power in Francia’, in Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages, eds. Frans Theuws, Mayke De Jong and Carine van Rhijn (Boston: Brill, 2001): 244–69 (248). 20 ‘[E]t nepotam suam secus pedes eius a cunabulis sub sanctae regulae normam sacris litteris inbutam et nutritam nomine Vulfetrude in vice sua coactam gregem regere Dei, pauperibus ministrare constituit.’ Krusch, ed., Vita sanctae Geretrudis. MGH SRM 2, 460. 21 ‘Sans doute, l'abbaye reste-t-elle fidèle à une règle mixte, colombano-bénédictine jusqu'au VIII siècle’: Hoebanx, L'abbaye de Nivelles, 81. 22 ‘Neben der Vita Columbani sind die Regula Donati und die Regula cuiusdam die wichtigsten inhaltlichen Quellen zum Iro-Frankischen Klosterwesen.’ A. Diem, ‘Das Ende des monastischen Experiments: Liebe, Beichte und Schweigen in der Regula cuiusdam ad virgines’, in Female Vita religiosa Between Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages: Structures, Developments and Spatial Contexts, eds. Gert Melville and Anne Müller (Münster: LIT-Verlag, 2011): 81–136 (87). 23 Donatus, Regula ad virgines, ed. J.-P. Migne. PL 87 (Paris: Migne, 1863), col. 296, Chapter 74: ‘Caveatur omnino ne qualibet occasione praesumat altera aliam defendere sororem in monasteria aut quasi tueri, etiam si qualibet consanguinitatis propinquitate iungatur.’ See also Benedictine Rule, Chapter 69, ‘Ut in monasterio non praesumat alter alterum defendere’, Benedicti Regula, ed. Rudolph Hanslik. Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 27. 2nd edn. (Vienna: Holder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1977), 174. 24 J.-P. Migne, ed., Regula cuiusdam. PL 88 (Paris: Migne, 1850), col. 1070, Chapter 23: ‘Defendere proximam vel consanguineam in monasterio, nullo modo permitti censemus … Et si in veritate crucifixit et non mundo iam sed Christo vivit cur in mundo facinoribus labentes pro qualibet familiaritate defendat?’ 25 A. Diem, ‘Rewriting Benedict: the Regula cuiusdam ad virgines and Intertextuality as a Tool to Construct a Monastic Identity’, Journal of Medieval Latin 17 (2007): 313–28 (320). 26 The anonymous Liber historiae Francorum, ed. B. Krusch. MGH SRM 2, 316, describes Dagobert's tonsure and removal by Grimoald: ‘Decedente vero tempore, defuncto Sighiberto rege, Grimoaldus filium eius parvolum nomine Daygobertum totundit Didonemque Pectavensem urbis episcopum in Socia peregrinandum eum direxit, filium suum in regno constituens.’ The chronologies of Childebert's reign and Grimoald's death are not well established, dating between 656 and 662. Rosamund McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians (New York: Longman, 1983), 25–6. 27 For a discussion of Grimoald's coup, see Ian Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms (Harlow: Longman, 1994), 222. 28 Krusch, ed., Vita sanctae Geretrudis. MGH SRM 2, 460: ‘[E]x odio paterno, ut reges, reginae, etiam sacerdotes per invidiam diabuli illam de suo loco primum per suasionem, postmodum vellent per vim trahere, et res Dei, quibus benedicta puella praeerat, iniquiter possiderent.’ See also Hoebanx, L'abbaye de Nivelles, 63. 29 ‘Sed Domini misericordia et sanctorum orationibus protecta, omnibus suis adversariis Christus, cui se ancillam devovit, miro modo restitit, et ita ei Deus gratiam suam contulit, ut qui antea per cupiditatem raptores atque accusatores fuerunt postea vero largitate et beneficiis extiterunt defensores.’ Gertrude's Vita also describes Wulftrude as being from a noble and ancient Frankish family: ‘[E]x antiquo Franquorum genere claro et ipsa edita fuit’: Krusch, ed., Vita sanctae Geretrudis. MGH SRM 2, 460. 30 Leyser, ‘Long-Haired Kings and Short-Haired Nuns’, 40. 31 Chapter 56: ‘Capita numquam altiori ligent, quam in hoc loco mensura de encausto fecimus.’ Caesarius of Arles, Regula sanctarum virginum, ed. Morin, 19. 32 Donatus, Regula ad virgines, ed. Migne, PL 87, col. 293C: ‘Capita nunquam altiora ligentur, nisi quomodo in hoc loco mensuram de incausto fecimus.’ 33 Based on her reading of the Byzantine author Agathias' observance of the Frankish royalty, Averil Cameron states that ‘while kings never cut their hair at all, their subjects not only had it cut, but were actually forbidden to grow it beyond a certain length.’ A. Cameron, ‘How Did the Merovingian Kings Wear Their Hair?’, Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 43 (1964): 1203–16 (1213). 34 Cameron, ‘Merovingian Kings’, 1214. 35 When referring to the Pactus this paper uses the single text compiled and edited with notations on variations by Karl August Eckhardt, ed., Pactus legis Salicae. MGH, Leges nationum Germanicarum 4, part 1 (Hanover: Hahn, 1962). Eckhardt's edition includes a range of manuscript redactions of the Pactus, titled A–C. Eckhardt identified A1 as the oldest version, dating it to the reign of Clovis. A1 does not include this law; fines for cutting a child's hair without permission do not appear until A3, which was a later redaction of the code, dated to the latter part of the sixth century. 36 Eckhardt, ed., Pactus legis Salicae, 89–90: ‘Si quis vero puerum crinitum ingenuum sine consilio parentum suorum totunderit, cui fuerit adprobatum, mallobergo uuerdade MDCCC denarios qui faciunt solidos XLV culpabilis iudicetur’; ‘Si vero ingenuam puellam sine consilio parentum totunderit cui fuerit adprobatum, mallobergo theuischada sunt, MDCCC denarios qui faciunt solidos XLV culpabilis iudicetur.’ 37 The Pactus is often little more than a list of fines and penalties aimed at controlling feuds. However, as Patrick Geary writes, although the Pactus is a codification of ancient cultural concerns, the laws are not ‘pure Germanic custom’, but the product of a long tradition of Roman influence on the Germanic tribes. P. Geary, Before France and Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 91. 38 Maximilian Diesenberger, ‘Hair, Sacrality and Symbolic Capital in the Frankish Kingdoms’, in The Construction of Communities in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Richard Corradini, Max Diesenberger and Helmut Reimitz (Boston: Brill, 2003), 175–212 (185). 39 Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, eds. L. Bethmann and G. Waitz. MGH Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum, Saec. VI–IX (Hanover: Hahn, 1878), 183: ‘Circa haec tempora Carolus princeps Francorum Pipinum suum filium ad Luidprandum direxit, ut eius iuxta morem capillum suscipere; qui eius caesariem incidens, ei pater effectus est multisque eum ditatum regis muneribus genitori remisit.’ 40 Diesenberger points to the reforms of Louis the Pious aimed at penalising forced tonsure of boys or forced veiling of girls, but suggests that the problem existed much earlier before the ‘relationship between family and spiritual communities were fixed’, particularly the understanding of the rights of oblates to inherit. Diesenberger, ‘Hair, Sacrality and Symbolic Capital’, 186. 41 ‘[Q]uod mater sua filius Chlodomeris, quos supra memoravimus, unico affectu diligeret.’ Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X, eds. B. Krusch and W. Lewison. MGH SRM 1, fasc. 1 (Hanover: Hahn, 1901), 118. See also Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks, ed. and trans. Lewis Thorpe (London: Penguin 1974), 118. 42 Childebert sent Lothar a message warning of Clotild's intentions and suggested two plans of action; either give the boys forced haircuts and reduce them to the status of ordinary citizens or simply kill the boys and take the territory. ‘Mater nostra filius fratris nostri secum retinet et vult eos regno donari; debes velociter adesse Parisius, et habito communi consilio, pertractare oportet, quid de his fieri debeat, utrum incisa caesariae ut reliqua plebs habeantur, an certe his interfectis regnum germani nostri inter nosmet ipsus aequalitate habita dividatur. Ibid.’ Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X, eds. Krusch and Lewison. MGH SRM 1, fasc. 1, 118. 43 Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X, eds. Krusch and Lewison. MGH SRM 1, fasc. 1, 118. ‘Tunc Childeberthus atque Chlothacharius miserunt Archadium, cui supra meminimus, ad reginam cum forcipe evaginatoque gladio. Qui veniens, ostendit reginae utraque, dicens: “Voluntatem tuam, o gloriosissima regina, fili tui domini nostri expetunt, quid de pueris agendum censeas, utrum incisis crinibus eos vivere iubeas, an utrumque iugulare.”’ 44 See Cameron, ‘Merovingian Kings’, 1211. 45 While Gregory noted that Chlodovald had no wish for earthly things, and remained a priest to the end of his days he also understood that the monastic tonsure would save his life. Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X, eds. Krusch and Lewison. MGH SRM 1, fasc. 1, 119: ‘Tertim vero Chlodovaldum conpraehendere non potuerunt, quia per auxilium virorum fortium liberatus est. His postpositum regnum terrenum, ad Dominum transiit, et sibi manu propria capillos incidens clericus factus est, bonisque operibus insistens, presbiter ab hoc mundo migravit.’ 46 Gregory's language in describing this event is emotional and perhaps even hyperbolic. However, in his examination of Gregory's depiction of the murder of Clotilde's grandsons, Maximilian Diesenberger concludes that Gregory's emotional depiction of Clotilde's decision is connected to the importance of family honour: ‘the hairstyle of the Merovingians represented part of the symbolic capital of the family.’ Diesenberger, ‘Hair, Sacrality and Symbolic Capital’, 196. 47 Anon., Liber historiae Francorum, ed. Krusch. MGH SRM 2, 317. ‘Ebroinum totundunt eumque Luxovio monasterio in Burgundia dirigunt.’ 48 Anon., Liber historiae Francorum, ed. Krusch. MGH SRM, 2, 318: ‘Ebroinus capillis crescere sinens, congregates in auxilium sociis, hostiliter a Luxovio caenubio egressus, in Francia revertitur cum armorum apparatus.’ J.M. Wallace Hadrill, ed. and trans., The Chronicle of Fredager (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1960), 81, paints Ebroin as an ‘oppressive’ and ‘deceitful’ leader. 49 See Diesenberger, ‘Hair, Sacrality and Symbolic Capital’, 212. 50 K.A. Eckhardt, ed., Pactus legis Salicae: capitula legi Salicae addita. MGH, Legum nationum Germanicarum 4, part 2 (Hanover: Hahn, 1969), 260, CIV of the code: ‘De muliere caesa vel excapillata, 1. Si quis mulierem excapillaurit, ut ei obbonis ad terram cadat, solidos XV culpabilis iudicetur; 2. Si uero uittam suam soluerit, ut capilli in scapulam suam tangant, XXX solidos culpabilis iudicetur; 3. Si quis servus mulierem ingenuam percusserit aut excapillauerit, aut manum suam perdat aut solidos V reddat; 4. Si quis mulierem ingenuam pregnantem in uentre aut in renis percusserit pugno aut calce et ei pecus non excutiat et illa propter hoc grauata fuerit quasi usque ad mortem, CC solidos culpabilis iudicetur; 5. Si quis uero pecut mortuum excusserit ei et ipsa euaserit, DC solidos culpabilis iudicetur; 6. Si uero ipsa mulier propterea mortua fuerit, DCCCC solidos culpabilis iudicetur; 7. Si uero mulier, qui mortua est, pro aliqua causa in uerbum regis missa est, MCC solidos culpabilis iudicetur; 8. Si uero infans puella est, qui excutetur, MMCCCC solidos conponat.’ While Katherine Fisher Drew translates caesa as having a haircut, considering that the Latin verb caedo also means to kill or to strike down, and that the offences and penalties contained under title CIV do not include forced hair-cutting but do include several penalties for causing a woman's death, this passage appears to refer to women who are injured or killed. See The Laws of the Salian Franks, trans. Katherine Fisher Drew (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991), 147. 51 Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X, eds. Krusch and Lewison. MGH SRM 1, fasc. 1, 501. 52 The abbey of Poitiers followed the rule of Caesarius and thus these women wore their hair tied up under their veils. Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X, eds. Krusch and Lewison. MGH SRM 1, fasc. 1, 507: ‘Spoliato monasterio, denudata et discissa capillis abbatissa, graviter ad ridiculum ducta et tracta per compita et in loco retrusa, etsi non ligata, ne libera.’ 53 See M.E. Moore, A Sacred Kingdom: Bishops and the Rise of Frankish Kingship: 300–800 (Washington: Catholic University Press of America, 2011), 174. 54 Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X, eds. Krusch and Lewison. MGH SRM 1, fasc. 1, 386: ‘Urscinus Cadurcinsis episcopus excommunicatur, pro eo quod Gundovaldum excipisse publice est confessus, accepto huiusmodi placito, ut paenitentiam tribus annis agens, neque capillum neque barbam tonderit, vino et carnibus absteniret, missas celebrare, clericus ordinare aeclesiasque et crisma benedicere, eulogias dare paenitus non auderet, utilitas tamen aeclesiae per eius ordinationem, sicut solita erat, omnino exerceretur.’ 55 Diem identifies the rules of Aurelian, Ferreolus, the Regula Tarnatensis and the Regula patrium tertium of Caesarius as influential in Francia before the common observance of the Regula monachorum of Columban. For the development and use of monastic rules in sixth-century Francia, see Albrecht Diem, Das monastische Experiment. Die Rolle der Keuschheit bei der Entstehung de westlichen Klosterwesens (Münster: Lit, 2005), 203. 56 Bishop of Arles, 545–51, Aurelian founded the monastery of Saints-Apôtres in 547 and, according to Adalbert de Vogüé, Aurelian's rule drew heavily on Caesarius. As in Caesarius's rule, recruits to Aurelian's monastery promised to ‘persevere until death’; however, de Vogüé notes the direction for tonsure as a deviation from Caesarius: A. de Vogüé, Histoire littéraire du movement monastique dans l'antiquité. Part 1, Vol. 9, Le monachisme latin. De Cesaire d'Arles à Gregoire de Tours (525–590) (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2004), 158–60. 57 Aurelian adds the example of Ananias and his wife Sapphira as a warning to monks who might be tempted to retain personal property after they were tonsured. Ananias made an offering to the Apostles but held some of the property back for his own use. Peter confronted Ananias with his deception and Ananias immediately ‘fell down dead’. Acts, 5:1–5. Aurelian, Regula ad monachos, ed. J.-P. Migne. PL 68 (Paris: Migne, 1866), col. 389: IV. ‘Si quis laicus tonsurandus est, de capillis illius in confessione mittatur, ut ei in testimonio sit. Quod si tonsuratus, aut in habitu religioso venerit, non excipiatur, nisi ut superius diximus, chartas de eo quod proprium in saeculo habuerat, faciat; ut nihil sibi reservet quod non a se alienet; et id quod secum exhibuerit, omnia in potestatem tradat abbatis, timens exemplum Ananiae et Saphirae qui partem obtulerunt, partem sibi infideliter reservaverunt.’ 58 Diem, Das monastische Experiment, 212. 59 Aurelian, Regula ad monachos, ed. Migne. PL 68, cols. 385–6: ‘Ut repudiates saeculi voluptatibus ac temporalibus gaudiis contemptis simul vel spretis, eligeretis sanctissimae vitae nirorem, et virginitatis ac castitatis gratiam complectentes amorum Dei tota viscerum et cordis aviditate sectantes.’ 60 Jacqueline Murray argues that hair and beards represented male ‘heat’ and that the tonsure was an ‘outward sign of a man's abandonment of his sex and his gender’: J. Murray, ‘One Flesh, Two Sexes, Three Genders?’, in Gender and Christian Identity in Medieval Europe: New Perspectives, eds. Lisa Bitel and Felice Lifshitz (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2008), 34–51 (44). 61 ‘[A]dhuc operibus servantes saeculo fidem, mentiri Deo per tonsuram noscuntur’: Hanslik, ed., Benedicti Regula, 19 (1: 7–8). 62 Hanslik, ed., Benedicti Regula, 19 (1: 6): ‘Tertium vero monachorum teterrimum genus est sarabaitarum, qui nulla regula adprobati experientia magistra sicut aurum fornacis, sed in plumbi natura molliti.’ 63 Lynda L. Coon, Dark Age Bodies: Gender and Monastic Practice in the Early Medieval West (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 77. 64 The Regula monachorum of Columban appears to have been written for instruction of the houses that he founded in Francia and was heavily influenced by Cassian and the desert fathers, outlining mainly ascetic devotion. Chapter 4 of the Columbanian Rule states that ‘Monachis, quibus pro Christo mundus cruxifixus est, et ipsi mundo cupiditas cavenda est, nimirum dum non solum superflua eos habere damnabile est, sed etiam velle. Quorum non census sed voluntas quaeritur; qui relinquentes omnia, et Christum dominum cum timoris cruce cottidiani sequentes, in caelis habent thesauros.’ Concerning the monk's self-determination, Chapter 9 records ‘Mortificationis igitur triplex est ratio: non animo discordare, non lingua libita loqui, non ire quoquam absolute.’ Columbanus, Regula coenobialis, in Sancti Columbani Opera, ed. G.S.M. Walker (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1970), 127 and 140. For information on the intent and use of Columban's rules, see also J.B. Stevenson, ‘The Monastic Rules of Columbanus’, in Columbanus: Studies on the Latin Writings, ed. Michael Lapidge (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1997), 203–16; and Albrecht Diem, ‘Monks, Kings, and the Transformation of Sanctity: Jonas of Bobbio and the End of the Holy Man’, Speculum 82 (2007): 521–59 (528). 65 Columbanus, Regula coenobialis, ed. Walker, 142: ‘Si parentum quempiam vel amicorum saecularium viderit vel conlocutus ei fuerit sine iussione, si epistolam cuiuscumque susceperit, si tribuere presumpserit sine suo abate, superpositione.’ 66 ‘[N]ihil sibi reservans ex omnibus, quippe qui ex illo die nec proprii corporis potestatem se habiturum scit’: Hanslik, ed., Benedicti Regula, 150–1 (58: 24–5). 67 M. de Jong, In Samuel's Image: Child Oblation in the Early Medieval West (New York: Brill, 1996), 26. 68 Most early rules state that women should not own personal property. Donatus, Regula ad virgines, ed. Migne. PL 87, col. 278, Chapter 8, states that no one should own personal property, prohibiting ownership of pens, and further dictates that a woman religious cannot ‘command’ even her own body. Additionally, Chapter 17 of the Regula cuiusdam dictates that no ‘monacha’ can ‘claim’ personal property: Migne, ed., Regula cuiusdam. PL 88, col. 1066. 69 Wulftrude died in 669 and was succeeded by Agnes, who was chosen by the monastic community but, like Wulftrude, was also described as a girl of noble family who had a similar upbringing to Gertrude. Agnes was one of Gertrude's first companions and may have been related to her, although Hoebanx states that nothing in the text of the Vita suggests Agnes was Gertrude's niece. See B. Krusch, ed., De virtutibus sanctae Geretrudis, in Fredegarii et aliorum Chronica, Vitae sanctorum, ed. Krusch. MGH SRM, 2, 464–74: ‘Tunc cuncta familia unianimiter omnes unam puellam ex nobile genere ortam sibi elegerunt abbatissam, cui nomen erat Agnes, qui et ipsa similiter nutrita fuerat a beata Geretrude’ (467). See also Hoebanx, L'abbaye de Nivelles, 63. 70 Although Gertrude's earliest Vita suggests that the saint, or her hagiographer, sought a disconnection from her blood family, the subsequent redactions of Gertrude's life composed at Nivelles attest to the great importance that the monastery later placed on Gertrude's family connection to the Carolingians. In an eleventh-century narrative, now found in a thirteenth-century manuscript held at Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, MSS 7487–91, Gertrude's life follows a long and complex narrative of her family history, starting with her father Pippin and ending with Charlemagne. The great focus on Gertrude's connection to the Carolingian dynasty found in this redaction prompted Sylvie Balau to write that the text is ‘étranger à sainte Gertrude et consacré tout entièrement à la glorification des membres de sa royale famille’. See S. Balau, Les sources de l'histoire de Liège (Brussels: Éditions culture et civilisation, 1982), 240–1. 71 J.M.H. Smith, ‘Gender and Ideology’, in Gender and Christian Religion, ed. R.N. Swanson (London: Boydell, 1998), 58. See also Fonay Wemple, Women in Frankish Society, Chapter 3. 72 Simon Coates, ‘Regendering Radegund? Fortunatus, Baudonivia and the Problem of Female Sanctity in Merovingian Gaul’, Church History 34 (1998): 37–50 (49), argues that both Radegund's male and female hagiographers, Venantius Fortunatus and Baudonivia, depict Radegund as ‘physically a woman’, but both authors also ‘sought to replace the aristocratic social ideal of gender which viewed women as devoted wives and child bearers with a religious ideal based upon the rejection of sexuality and the desire to appear as angels’. Gertrude's hagiographer may have had a similar intent with the dramatic scene of the tonsure.
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