In Samuel's Image: Child Oblation in the Early Medieval West

Description

Early medieval religious communities were filled with monks and nuns who spent almost their entire lives within the monastic confines. Many had arrived in childhood, through an irrevocable act of parental sacrifice (oblatio). According to Benedict's Rule, parents were to donate their sons “to God in the monastery”, following the biblical example of Hannah offering her son Samuel at the Temple. From the twelfth century onwards, this once widespread practice became increasingly controversial. Why did parents give away their children? Were they driven by economic necessity? This book argues that child oblation was anything but a religious disguise for abandoning superfluous offspring. Instead, it was a sacrifice, and should be viewed within the context of gift-giving, religious and otherwise, which assumed such a central importance in early medieval societies. PREFACE ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE. CHILD OBLATION: ITS EARLY HISTORY 1. EARLY MONASTICISM 2. CHILD OBLATION IN BENEDICT'S RULE 3. THE RULE AND OTHER RULES 4. OBLATION IN THE VISIGOTHIC REALM 5. MISSIONARIES AND CHILD OBLATES CHAPTER TWO. CAROLINGIAN LAW AND CHILD OBLATION 1. 'GOD'S PRECEPT AND OUR DECREE' 2. LEGISLATION ON CHILD OBLATION 3. THE COMMENTATORS: SMARAGDUS AND HILDEMAR 4.CHILD OBLATION AS A SOURCE OF CONFLICT A. Hrabanus Maurus B.Gottschalk C. Lambert of Schienen CHAPTER THREE. REGISTRATION AND COMMEMORATION 1. THE 'PETITIO' OF 817 2. THE PROFESSION BOOK OF ST. GALL 3. THE REGISTER OF RHEIMS 4. THE 'NOTICIA' OF SAN SALVATORE/SANTA GIULIA 5. OBLATES AND NOVICES IN CORVEY 6. CHILD OBLATION AND COMMEMORATION CHAPTER FOUR. MONASTICISM AND CHILD RECRUITMENT 1. 'NUTRITI' AND 'CONVERSI' 2. OBLATES, PURITY AND PRIESTHOOD 3. 'CLAUSTRUM' VERSUS 'SAECULUM': HILDEMAR ON CHILD REARING CHAPTER FIVE. MODELS AND RITUALS OF CHILD OBLATION 1. BIBLICAL MODELS 2. 'VOTUM' 3. OBLATION AND MASS 4. RITUALS OF OBLATION 5. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE OBLATION RITUAL CHAPTER SIX. 'COMMENDATIO' AND 'ΟΒLATIΟ' 1. RITUALISING CHILD OBLATION 2. COMMENDATION, CONVERSION AND THE COURT 3. EDUCATING FOR GOD: PARENTS, GOD PARENTS AND FOSTER-PARENTS 4. 'FAMILIARITAS' 5. SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL KINSHIP 6. KEEPING WHILE GIVING CHAPTER SEVEN. CHILD OBLATION AND THE STATE 1. THE SCHOOL OF THE LORD'S SERVICE 2. THE FORMATION OF AN ELITE: SCHOLASTICI 3. MONASTIC STABILITY AND THE STATE 4. 'INVITUS ET COACTUS': MONASTIC PRISONERS CHAPTER EIGHT. CHILDREN AS GIFTS: A CONCLUSION 1. GIFTS AND 'PURE GIFTS' 2. WHO CONTROLLED THE GIFTS? 3. CHILDREN AS 'HOLOCAUSTA' EPILOGUE BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX