The Annales Rodenses, the anonymous monastic chronicle of the twelfth century

The 12th-century chronicle, which recounts the founding of Kloosterrade Abbey in 1104 by Ailbertus, a priest from Flanders, and the first decades of the abbey’s history through 1157, is anonymous in two respects. Not only are the names of the medieval authors unknown, but the surviving manuscript—which originally consisted of 22 parchment leaves divided into four separate quires—is also unnamed; it has no title.

The title *Annales Rodenses* (= *Chronicle of Kloosterrade*) that the manuscript bears today dates from a later period. In the seventeenth century, the manuscript was in poor condition, and—likely to prevent further deterioration—Canon Nicolaas Heyendal made a copy of it in or shortly before 1690, to which he gave the title *Annales Rodenses*. Around 1750, parchment leaves 3 and 6 were found to be so badly damaged that the text was barely legible, if at all. To replace them, using the copy made by Heyendal, the text was transcribed onto paper leaves that were glued into the old manuscript. The watermark on these paper leaves dates from 1728.

Shortly after Heyendal produced his copy, he went on to record the history of Kloosterrade Abbey from the moment the chronicler made his last entry in 1157. He turned his copy of the *Annales Rodenses* into a prequel, now titled *Historia fundationis monasterii Rodensis*. His history, however, is more than just an account of the foundation of Kloosterrade Abbey, as it recounts the abbey’s history up to and including events from the year 1700, when he himself resided there as choirmaster. In print, the title Annales Rodenses was first used in 1852 by the Liège philologist Edouard Lavalleye, who published Simon Pieter Ernst’s Histoire du Limbourg that year. The final volume of this seven-volume history of the Duchy of Limburg included the Annales Rodenses in their entirety. To this, he added Heyendal’s 1700 continuation. At the beginning of this continuation of the history of Kloosterrade, Lavalleye referred to Heyendal as the “Auctor Continuationis Annalium” (=author of the Continuation of the Annales Rodenses). Since the publication of the text in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in 1859 by G. H. Pertz and W. Wattenbach, the term Annales Rodenses has been used only for the twelfth-century codex.

The manuscript reveals the handwriting of three different chroniclers. The vast majority, that is, the period from 1104 to 1152, must have been written before 1160. From the narrative style and the commentary on the events mentioned, it can be inferred that the chronicler who described these years was certainly a member of the monastic community and must have belonged to the second or third generation of monks. The accounts for the years 1153 and 1154 were probably written around 1160 or shortly thereafter. The brief supplementary entries for the years 1154 through 1157 were written around 1180. It is noteworthy that each of the annalists marked the beginning of a year in their own way. In the period from the beginning to the year 1152, the annalist uses the phrase “Anno Domini Incarnationis” (=in the year of the Lord’s incarnation). The years 1153 through 1156 open with only the entry “Anno” followed by the year in Roman numerals. The final year, 1157, opens with the words “Anno Domini.” Other ways in which time is indicated in the chronicle include the use of the formula “His diebus” (=in those days) or “Eodem anno” (=in that same year). However, no particular pattern in its use can be discerned.

The first chronicler calls his work a "narratio," a story, which can be characterized as a "historia fundationis" in terms of content and structure. Chronicles of this genre are widely known. They recount the founding of a city, monastery, or abbey—often in an edifying manner—and go on to discuss subsequent events and notable occurrences in chronological order. Such chronicles typically follow a set pattern and usually begin with a vita, the description of the life of the patron saint or founder venerated as a saint. Such an opening contributes to the hagiographic content of these narrationes. At the time, they also served as a record of acquired rights and property or to honor the memory of benefactors. The Annales Rodenses exhibit a similar structure. Although no overt veneration of the founder Ailbertus is known and he was never beatified, the chronicle opens with a detailed description of the life of the priest Ailbertus. In some finely crafted sentences, the writer seems to want to emphasize that Ailbertus was chosen by God. Loved “above all others” as a child, he vowed to devote his life to God at an early age. Guided by supernatural dream visions, he subjected his body to constant fasting and generously distributed alms to the needy. The chronicler characterizes him as a man “in universis actibus fidelis et honestus,” faithful and honest in all his deeds. By placing the founder prominently at the beginning of the chronicle, the annalist transfers, as it were, the aura of his supposed holiness to the abbey.

When Ailbertus left the monastery in 1111, the chronicle also changed; the remainder of it now consists largely of annual records of the abbey’s expanding landholdings. The descriptions focus heavily on the abbey’s benefactors. Up to the year 1153, the monastery received about a hundred donations. With a few exceptions, all of these donations consisted of estates and the rights associated with them. One notable exception is the donation of a fragment of the Holy Cross, listed under the year 1129 and made by Canon Heriman, son of Embrico of Mayschoss, who had received it from the pope during a visit to Rome. Heriman had put himself forward in 1128 as a candidate to succeed Superior Borno, who had resigned his post at the insistence of Pope Honorius II. However, when the monks chose another person as their superior, Heriman left Kloosterrade “filled with shame.” After wandering, he ended up in Denmark, where he entered the service of a bishop who sent him to Rome. There, he received the precious relic from the pope, which he donated to Kloosterrade “in memory of himself.”

When recording donations, the chronicler always follows the same pattern. He first mentions the name of the donor and then describes the property, indicating precisely where it is located and what rights and duties are attached to it. In many cases, he also mentions the person who finalized the transfer. Such a transfer was not made to the abbot, but it was always a traditio altari, at the altar. Thus the abbey could dispose of it freely, and none of the monks were personally bound to the transferred property. Finally, in cases where the donor’s date of death is known, it is recorded. For new monks and nuns, the date of their entry is noted. An important criterion for determining the manuscript’s date is whether or not the day of death is mentioned. In the period from 1141 to 1153, the monastic community had 15 monks and nuns. A date of death prior to 1152 is mentioned for three of them. When the chronicle changes manuscripts in that year, most of the monks and nuns are still alive. They would have been contemporaries of the chronicler.

Parents often combined their son or daughter’s entry into the monastery with a donation to the abbey. Others donated goods or rights in order to secure the canons’ prayers for their own salvation or that of their relatives. Donations were also made to secure a burial place in the abbey church. This appears to have been a privilege reserved for nobles, as in the case of Duchess Jutta, widow of Duke Walram I of Limburg. The chronicler mentions her donation in 1151. She took the monastic vows that year and on that occasion donated the property rights of the church of Lommersum to the monastery. When she died a short time later, she was buried “in the middle of the church in front of the altar of the Cross,” right next to Mathilde, who had been the wife of her son Hendrik.

The abbey's property did not grow solely through donations. The Annales Rodenses also record the purchase of property. This is already mentioned under Ailbertus in the year 1109. Most purchases took place from 1141, the year in which Abbot Erpo began his reign. During his abbacy, which lasted at least until 1178, the abbey flourished in many respects.

In addition to recording acquisitions and transfers, the chronicler mentions the deaths of popes, dukes, and emperors on several occasions. At times he mentions events of an unusual nature, such as an earthquake in 1117 and the total solar eclipse on August 2, 1133, which is not explained as an astronomical phenomenon but attributed to a direct intervention by “God the Lord and His own,” who, with a sudden burst of darkness, prevented the Christian army in Jerusalem from being completely slaughtered by the Turks. In 1146 these regions were ravaged by an unprecedented famine that drove up the price of grain. In the same year, the writer reports Pope Eugene III’s call to participate in the Second Crusade. Two years later, he reports the return of the Crusaders, “without spiritual salvation and without victory.”

For local and regional historiography, the Annales Rodenses are an extremely important source. As Nicolaas Heyendal’s Continuatio demonstrates on several occasions, the sources from which Heyendal can draw for his account of the abbey after 1157—the last year described in the codex—are scarce, and further knowledge of medieval Kloosterrade is limited to information derived from the few surviving charters.

When the abbey was dissolved during the French era, Simon Pieter Ernst was the administrator of the monastic archives. He managed to keep numerous archival items, including the manuscript of the Annales Rodenses, out of the hands of the French soldiers by safely storing them in the presbytery of Afden. After Canon Ernst’s death in 1817, the Aachen archivist Christiaan Quix kept the manuscript in his care for some time. After his death, the records, including the Annales Rodenses, were publicly offered for sale. A bid made by Rolduc director Henri Peters was rejected, and for a considerably higher sum, the Royal Library in Berlin acquired all the records. In 1949, the manuscript was returned, and since then the Annales Rodenses have been kept at the Historical Centre Limburg.