| Paper 526-c | Impressions and Expenses for Attending the General Chapter from Bavaria in the Late Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Klaus Wollenberg, Department of Business & Economic Studies, University of Applied Sciences, München
Index terms: Administration, Archives and Sources, Monasticism, Religious Life |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
Stephen Sagar or (as he called himself) Stephen Whalley has sometimes been condemned simply as a duplicitous and ambitious cleric intent only on ensuring financial and social security for himself and his family. Although there is some truth in this, the actual state of affairs is rather more complicated. There is no doubt that he was a religious conservative, but, being a man who was well aware of the way the winds of change were blowing, he showed a chameleon-like capacity to adapt himself with remarkable success to changing times and circumstances. But there is other evidence that reveals a competent abbatial administrator who was doing his best to govern his house wisely and well at a time when his world was collapsing about him. He was a man who enjoyed the exercise of power and he had no qualms about amassing the proceeds of that pluralism which was so common in the 16th-century English Church, but he took care to look after his family and his friends. In this paper, therefore, I shall endeavour to provide a new assessment of the last abbot of Hailes, and present a more balanced view of a competent and complex Tudor abbot.
Paper -b:
In theory, each abbot of the Order was expected to attend this annual gathering of Cistercian superiors at the mother-house of Citeaux in mid-September each year. In time, attendance became representative on a regional basis, and rules were laid down regarding the number of attendants an abbot might bring with him. The journey to and from Burgundy could be time-consuming and expensive, it required accommodation en route, and was not always without danger.
Paper -c:
There are few references in the archives and literature about the participation of Bavarian monasteries in the General Chapter of the Cistercian Order held at Cîteaux Abbey in Burgundy. There are, however, five travel reports from 1501, 1601, 1605, 1609, and 1613, the last four written by Conrad Tachler, cellarer of the Bavarian abbey of Raitenhaslach. They make lively reading. This paper will discuss the problems of fluctuating currency, lice, routes travelled, and meals, bevras, and accommodation along the way, as well as table manners at the General Chapter. Back home was the financial burden that fell to the abbeys whose abbots attended, and the impressions described by the Bavarian monks after their return.
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