The chronicle of hired weavers forced to pull a false ship in the Deeds of the Abbots of Sint Truiden (1135)

Grammars of coercion
Data story
Author
Affiliation

Colin Arnaud

WWU Münster

Published

August 3, 2022

The Gesta abbatum Trudonensium records the history of the Benedictine monastery of Sint Truiden in Brabant (Belgium). The abbot Rodolf wrote the first seven books from the foundation of the abbey until 1107. The younger monk Gislebert redacted the first continuation up to 1138. In book 12 of this first continuation, whose author witnessed the events he relates, we learn about a group of hired weavers from Villa Inda (the villa of the abbey of Kornelimünster near Aachen) who were forced to pull a false ship to Aachen as a joke. The people are so excited by the joke that the ship continues its journey to Sint Truiden. 

The last edition of the text by Paul Tombeur in the Corpus Christianorum (2013) is the reference for the present data story. The lines numbers correspond to the numbers in this edition. References to chapter and line number are separated by a simple point (e.g., 11.5 for chapter 11, line 5).

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35
 Chapter 11.
Est genus hominum mercennariorum, quorum officium est ex
lino et lana texere telas, hoc procax et superbum super alios
mercennarios vulgo reputatur. Ad quorum procacitatem et super-
biam humiliandam et propriam injuriam de eis ulciscendam pau-
per quidam rusticusex villa nomine Inda hanc diabolicam ex-
cogitavit tegnam [AP1].
Accepta a judicibus fiducia et a levibus hominibus auxilio [AP2], qui
gaudent jocis et novitatibus, in proxima silva navim composuit [AP3],
et eam rotis suppositis affigens vehibilem super terram effecit.
Obtinuit quoque a potestatibus [AP4], ut injectis funibus textorum hu-
meris de Inda Aquisgrani traheretur [AP5]. Aquis suscepta cum grandi
hominum utriusque sexus processione, nichilominus a textoribus
Trajectum est pervecta, ibi emendata et malo veloque insignita,
Tungris est inducta, de Tungris Los [AP6].
Audiens abbas Rodulfusnavim illam infausto compactam
omine, maloque solutam alite cum hujusmodi gentilitatis studio
nostro oppido adventare, presago spiritu hominibus predicabat [AP7],
ut ejus susceptione abstinerent, quia maligni spiritus sub hac lu-
dificatione in ea traherentur, in proximoque seditio per eam
moveretur, unde cedes, incendia rapinaeque fierent, et humanus
sanguis multus funderetur. Quem ista declamantem omnibus die-
bus, quibus malignorum spirituum illud simulachrum Los moraba-
tur, oppidani nostri audire noluerunt [AP8], sed eo studio et gaudio ex-
cipientes, quo perituri Trojani fatalem equum in medio fori sui
dedicaverunt [AP9].
Statim proscriptionis sententiam accipiunt villae textores [AP10], qui ad
profanas hujus simulachri excubias venirent tardiores. Papé! Quis
hominum vidit unquam tantam, ut ita liceat latinizar, in rationa-
bilibus animalibus brutuitatem? quis tantam in renatis in Christo
gentilitatem? Cogebant [AP11] sententia proscriptionis textores nocte et
die navim stipare omni armaturae genere, sollicitasque ei excu-
bias nocte et die continuare. Mirumque fuit, quod non cogebant
eos ante navim Neptuno hostias immolare, de cujus naves esse
solent regione; sed Neptunus eas Marti reservabat, cui de huma-
nis carnibus fieri volebat. Quod postea multipliciter factum est.
 Chapter 11.
There is a type of hired persons whose occupation is to weave
cloth from linen and wool. They are generally regarded as
more impudent and haughtier than other hired persons. To
diminish their haughtiness and pride and to avenge a personal
injury, a certain poor rustic from the villa named Inda
[Kornelimünster near Aachen] thought up this diabolical trick
[AP1].
As he received the complicity of the judges (judices) and the
help of frivolous men who enjoy games and novelty [AP2], he
built a ship in the next forest and attached wheels to it so that
it could move overland [AP3]. He effected from the potentates
(potestates) [AP4] that it would be pulled by the rods of the
weavers from Villa Inda to Aachen [AP5]. In Aachen the ship
is welcomed with a great procession of men and women, so
it is carried by the weavers to Maastricht. There it receives a
sail and a mast, and it is led to Tongeren, and from Tongeren
to Borgloon [AP6].
As Abbot Rodolf heard of this unrestrained ship full of
inauspicious omen that came up with such an enthusiastic
mob to our town, urged by a hunch, he warned the people not
to let the ship come in [AP7], because it would bring in it under
its mockery the evil spirit, and would drive soon to discord, so
that malarky, conflagrations and plunders would happen and
much human blood would be spilled. In all the days in which
this idol of the evil spirits staid in Borgloon, the town
inhabitants (oppidani) did not want to hear the speech of the
abbot [AP8]. On the contrary, they received the ship with the
same eagerness and delight with which the Trojans in the
past had taken the deadly horse into their central market
[AP9].
The weavers of the villa hear soon the sentence of a ban that
they should come for the impious later watch of this idol
[AP10]. By God! Who has ever seen so much brutishness in
rational animals – if it is permitted to latinise? Who has ever
seen so much paganism in the successors of the Christ?
Through the sentence of the ban, they obliged the weavers to
crowd day and night around the ship with arms of every kind
and to watch strictly and continuously over the ship, day and
night [AP11]. It is a wonder that they did not convene to offer
sacrifices before the ship to Neptune, who usually holds
dominion over ships; but Neptune let the precedence to Mars,
who asked for sacrifice of human flesh – that was made later
in manifold.
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15




20
 Chapter 12.
Textores interim occulto sed precordiali gemitu Deum justum
judicem super eos vindicem invocabant [AP12], qui ad hanc ignominiam
eos detrudebant, cum juxta rectam vitam antiquorum christiano-
rum et apostolicorum virorum manuum suarum laboribus vive-
rent, nocte ac die operantes unde alerentur et vestirentur liberis-
que suis id ipsum providerent. Querebant etiam et conquereban-
tur ad invicem lacrimabiliter [AP13], unde illis magis quam aliis mercen-
nariis haec ignominia et vis contumeliosa, cum inter christianos
plura alia essent officia suo multum aspernabiliora, cum tamen
nullum ducerent aspernabile, de quo christianus posset se sine
peccato conducere, illudque solum esset vitabile et ignobile,
quod immundiciam peccati contraheret animae, meliorque sit rus-
ticus textor et pauper, quam exactor orphanorum et spoliator
viduarum urbanus et nobilis judex. Cumque haec et horum similia
secum, ut dixi, lacrimabiliter conquererentur, concrepabant ante
illud, nescio cujus potius dicam, Bacchi an Veneris, Neptuni sive
Martis, sed ut verius dicam, ante omnium malignorum spirituum
execrabile domicilium genera diversorum musicorum, turpia
cantica et religioni christianae indigna concinentium [AP14]. Sancitum
quoque erat a judicibus [AP15], ut preter textores quicunque usque ad
tactum navi appropinquarent, pignus de collo eorum ereptum
textoribus relinquerent, nisi se ad libitum redimerent.

 Chapter 12.
Meanwhile, in a secret complaint coming from the bottom of
their heart, the weavers invoked God [AP12], the fair and
almighty judge, that they were humiliated by such ignominy,
although they lived according to the right way of the ancient
Christians and of the Apostles, who worked day and night
with their own hands so that they might be fed and clothed
and could provide for their children. They asked themselves
and complained wailfully [AP13] why they were touched by
this ignominy and opprobrious energy more than other hired
men (mercennarii), since among Christians there were many
offices more despicable than theirs, for they did nothing
despicable, no activity that implied a sin to Christians. It is
better to be simply lowly and out-of-favour than to enter into
contact with the impurity of sin. A rustic and poor weaver is
better than an urban (or polite) and noble judge, who robs
orphans and despoils widows. As they tearfully complained
this and other similar things, as I said, diverse types of music
sounded [AP14] such as shameful songs unworthy of the
continency of the Christian religion before this domicile of I do
not know whom, Bacchus or Venus, Neptune or Mars, but
probably for all the evil spirits together. It had been also
stipulated by the judges [AP15] that anyone who got past the
weavers and came so near to the ship to be able to touch it,
would leave their neck as a pledge for the weavers, if they
would not pay the ransom.

Gisleberti Trudonensis Gesta Abbatum Trudonensivm VIII - XIII: liber IX opus intextum Rodvufi Trudonensis, ed. by Paul Tombeur, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio mediaevalis 257,A (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), p. 77–8, chapter 11-12, Translation by the author following David Herlihy, Opera Muliebria: Women and Work in Medieval Europe, Philadelphia 1990, p. 92–3.

Actors

Action phrases


The text begins with a definition of a general “type” (genus) of worker, as if this type would be known everywhere in the region: “hired” (mercennariorum) professional (officium) wool weavers (11.1) weaving cloths from line wool (11.2) and with the reputation of being haughtier and more impudent than other hired people. It is actually surprising to observe a society full of hired people in the first half of the 12th century. This general type of weavers is broken down in the story in two distinct groups: weavers of Villa Inda belonging to the Kornelimünster abbey near Aachen, and weavers of the town of Sint-Truiden, which is also named villa (11.26). The weavers of Villa Inda are forced by the judices of their villa to pull the ship to Aachen, and after various stations to Sint-Truiden. The weavers of the villa of Sint-Truiden are forced by the judices of their villa to come to keep watch of the ship. The group of weavers is not well defined: We do not know whether the weavers of Inda stay with the weavers of Sint-Truiden, or if the local weavers of each locality are required to pull the ship to the next station. The author probably does not know those details and does not care about it. He rather points out that the weavers in those places all belong to the same general type.

The ones who force the weavers to execute those non-sense actions and to submit themselves to the derision of the people are the judices. In Sint Truiden, the judices “prescribe” (sancitum, 12.19, AP15) the obligation through the sentence of a ban (sententia proscriptionis, 11.30, AP11). In villa Inda, only the authority of the judices/potestates can compel the weavers to pull the ship (AP2, AP4). The potestates (11.10) are probably the judices (11.7) themselves, whose confidence the peasant has won. The judices were the judges, the administrators of the villa, and the representatives of the lord, but they were also independent from him. The villa is to be understood in the sense of demesne, but in the case of Sint-Truiden it had gained an urban character: its inhabitants are named oppidani and already have representatives that are named judices in the text, or scabini in other sources up to 1107. Villa Inda had a more rural character, here evidenced by the peasants and the nearby forest (11.8).

It is difficult to understand whether the judices were economic administrators of the demesne, with a cloth workshop operated by hired weavers. It is probable that the hired weavers were working for people in the villa and were linked to the demesne, but that does not mean that the judices were their direct employers. The production structure was probably more complex and less centralised than in a domanial workshop, particularly in Sint-Truiden. However, it is also probable that employers and judices agreed to send the weavers to the ship as part of the same local community. Some scholars hypothesise that the weavers were hired by merchants from neighbouring cities like Aachen. This hypothesis is acceptable, but this interpretation derives from putting-out relations that are more typical of later periods. Fact is that the extortioners of the weavers are not merchants or particular employers, but the judices: By complaining, they oppose the poor but honest weavers to the noble but corrupt judices (12.12-14). In this opposition, the judices become rich, not by exploiting the work of the weavers, but by taxing and racketing defenceless persons like orphans and widows (exactor orphanorum et spoliator viduarum, 12.13-14). That means that the legal authority, linked to the fiscal one, is a bigger threat to the poor hired people than the employers’ power to underpay. It is a sign that the political, legal, fiscal and economic levels were embedded in the eyes of the weavers and of the author of the Gesta.

The judices act on behalf of the local community: Those who decide the ban in Sint-Truiden in AP11 are the town inhabitants themselves (oppidani, actor 7). Their judices are only the legal medium of the ban, not the decision makers. Also, in villa Inda, the poor peasant (actor 2) with the help of other members of the local community (actors 4) obtains from the judices that they use their legal authority to oblige the weavers to pull the ship. Here, the local community is basically presented as an indistinct mob acting rather spontaneously in this carnivalesque situation: actor 4 in villa Inda (11.6-7), actor 5 in Aachen (11.12) and actor 7 in Sint-Truiden (11.23, also 12.29-30: mille hominum animas sexus utriusque). However, they seem to have more influence on the judices than the lords themselves: The abbot of Sint-Truiden can only warn the inhabitants of his town to refuse the ship (AP7), he cannot oblige them (AP8-9). The abbot of Kornelimünster is not even mentioned. The freedom status seems to play a less important role than the integration in the local community: The status of the people involved is never mentioned. The pauper rusticus of villa Inda (actor 1) may be a bondsman of the demesne, but he has more influence on the authorities than the hired weavers, who probably have a free status since they work as wage workers. Since the weavers probably move from employer to employer according to demand, they are not integrated in the local community, which partly explains their bad reputation.

To conclude, the episode of the weavers’ ship unveils that hired workers and particularly hired weavers were a common category of workers in Brabant and the Rhine-Meuse region. They are still included in the organisation of the villa, which was no longer a classic demesne but still represented a political unit with a local community and local legal authorities, the judices. The latter appear to rely more on the local community than on the lord and to have a greater power of compulsion on the hired weavers. Perhaps the judices were involved directly or indirectly in the engagement of the hired weavers. However, it is striking that the power of compulsion is not linked to the extraction phase of the weaving process but to the juridical and fiscal power of the judices, who could reduce the freedom of the hired workers, despite their free status. This power of coercion is presented as arbitrary and can only be applied because the local community decides to cheat the weavers.