Realities of Reformist Leadership in Early Eleventh-century Flanders: The Case of Leduin, Abbot of Saint-Vaast

REALITIES OF REFORMIST LEADERSHIP IN EARLY ELEVENTH-CENTURY FLANDERS: THE CASE OF LEDUIN, ABROT OF SAINT-VAAST By STEVEN VANDERPUTTEN and BRIGITTE MEIJNS The reform movement of the later tenth and early eleventh centuries distinguishes itself from other such episodes in monastic history not so much by its impact on the existence of ecclesiastical communities throughout western Europe as by its diversity. Whereas Cluny, Gorze, and the movements initiated or inspired by William of Volpiano, Romuald of Camaldoli, Johannes of Vallombrosa, and Peter Damián have rightly attracted the most interest from scholars, there existed a number of regional movements led by individuals with a reformist agenda, carried out with as much determination , and with results as significant as their international counterparts. One such example is that of the so-called Lotharingian reforms initiated by Richard, abbot of Saint-Vanne (d. 1046), which, over the course of the first half of the eleventh century, spread across large parts of the archbishoprics of Reims, Metz, and Cologne.1 The exact nature of the movement has long been a subject of debate, with Kassius Hallinger proposing controversially to designate it as a Mischobservanz, or mixed observance, based primarily on the customs observed at Cluny and Gorze.2 The current consensus, how1 E. De Moreau, Histoire de l'Église en Belgique des origines aux débuts du XIIe siècle, 6 vols. (Brussels, 1945-51), 2:73-88; H. Dauphin, Le Bienheureux Richard, abbé de SaintVanne de Verdun f 1046, Bibliothèque de la Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 24 (Louvain, 1946); K. Hallinger, Gorze-Cluny: Studien zu den monastischen Lebensformen und Gegensätzen im Hochmittelalter, 2 vols. (Rome, 1950-51; repr., Graz, 1971), 1:282-316; A. Dierkens, Abbayes et chapitres entre Sambre et Meuse (VlF-Xl' siècles): Contribution d l'histoire religieuse des campagnes du haut Moyen Age (Sigmaringen, 1985), 340-41; P. G. Jestice, Wayward Monks and the Religious Revolution of the Eleventh Century (Leiden, 1997), 170-209; and F. G. Hirschmann, "Klosterreform und Grundherrschaft: Richard von St. Vanne," in Grundherrschaft -Kirche -Stadt: zwischen Maas und Rhein während des hohen Mittelalters, ed. A. Haverkamp and F. G. Hirschmann (Mainz, 1997), 125-70. On Poppo, see P. George, "Un réformateur lotharingien de choc: L'abbé Poppon de Stavelot (978-1048)," Revue Mabillon, n.s., 10 (1999): 89-111. The research for this article was made possible by the support of the international research community "Conventus," which is sponsored by the Research FoundationFlanders (FWO-Vlaanderen); Steven Vanderputten also benefited from a VNC fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in the Fall of 2009. Our thanks to Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld, Diane Reilly, and Melissa Provijn for commenting on the draft of this paper. 2 Hallinger, Gorze-Cluny, 2:495-516; for an overview of the criticism of Hallinger's hypothesis, see Hirschmann, "Klosterreform," 135-36 and P. Healy, The Chronicle of Hugh 48TRADITIO ever, seems to be that the "Richardian" understanding of monastic life was indeed original and that, like other movements of its time, it originated in a genuine reflection on ways to return to a more authentic experience of the vita regularis. To achieve this goal, Richard and his principal collaborator Poppo, abbot of Stavelot (d. 1048), introduced groups of monks and former canons to their interpretation of the Rule of Saint Benedict, fostered the creation of collective identities around the figure of patron saints, intervened in the production of scriptoria and the creation of libraries, rationalized the monastic economy, and generally attempted to create a more favorable legal and political situation for the communities coming under their care. While Richard and Poppo occupied the abbacy of several houses they had reformed, in some cases doing so at different places simultaneously, they also relied on a number of collaborators to replace them locally, either as prior or abbot, and thus guarantee the long-term implementation of their objectives.4 Such hand-overs of power frequently took place after a limited number of years, and, once elected abbot or designated prior, men from the latter group often carried out their functions for the rest of their active lives. A logical...