High Medieval Monks Contemplate their Merovingian Past

Monks in the eleventh and twelfth centuries looked at the Merovingian age as strange and far away, yet also of vital significance for Benedictine houses that were founded then. Using examples from Burgundy, this article analyses how high medieval monks sought to come to terms with their distant past, sometimes through forging charters that they were surprised to find missing (especially foundation charters). Even when working strictly from available evidence, as they generally did, the monks attempted to embed their houses in royal Frankish history, suggested that their houses were older and more highly-regarded in the past than were other regional monasteries, and underscored the current regularity of their houses by creating a whole history of successive destructions and refoundations.