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

The 12th-century chronicle recounting the foundation in 1104 by Ailbertus, a priest from Flanders, and the first decades of Kloosterrade Abbey through 1157, is an anonymous work in two respects. Not only have the names of the medieval writers remained unknown, the surviving manuscript, which originally comprised 22 parchment sheets divided into four separate quires, is equally nameless; it has no title.

The name Annales Rodenses (=Chronicle of Kloosterrade) that the manuscript bears today dates from later times. In the seventeenth century the manuscript was in poor condition and, probably to prevent worse decay, Canon Nicolaas Heyendal made a copy of it in or shortly before 1690 to which he gave the title Annales Rodenses. Around 1750 the parchment sheets 3 and 6 turned out to be so badly damaged that the text was not or barely legible. To replace them, using the copy made by Heyendal, the text was transcribed onto paper sheets glued into the old manuscript. The watermark on these paper sheets 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 made his copy of the Annales Rodenses  a prequel, now under the title Historia fundationis monasterii Rodensis. His history, however, is more than just the account of the foundation of Kloosterrade Abbey, because it tells the history of the abbey 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 Liege philologist Edouard Lavalleye, who published Simon Pieter Ernst's Histoire du Limbourg in that year. The last of these seven-volume histories 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 called Heyendal 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 recognises the hand of three different annalists. The vast majority, i.e. the period 1104 through 1152, must have been written before 1160. From the narrative style and the commentary on the events mentioned, it can be inferred that the annalist who described these years was certainly part of the monastic community and must have belonged to the second or third generation of monks. The accounts of the years 1153 and 1154 were probably written about 1160 or shortly thereafter. The summary business supplements to the years 1154 through 1157 were written around 1180. It is notable that each of the annalists represented the beginning of a year in his or her 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 is the use of the formula "His diebus" (=in those days) or "Eodem anno" (=In that same year). However, no particular line in its use can be discerned.

The first annalist calls his work a  "narratio", a story, which can be characterized as a  "historia fundationis" in content and structure. Chronicles of this genre are widely known. They report the founding of a city, monastery or abbey, often also told in an edifying manner, and in which subsequent fates and memorabilia are then discussed in chronological order. Such chronicles usually 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 adds to the hagiographic content of these narrationes. At the time they also served as a record of acquired rights and goods or to honour the memory of benefactors. The Annales Rodenses show a similar structure. Although no overt veneration is known of the founder Ailbertus and he was never beatified, the chronicle opens with a detailed description of the life of the priest Ailbertus. In some fine 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 characterises 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 leaves the monastery in 1111, the chronicle also changes, the remainder of which now largely amounts to the annual record of the growing property holdings. The descriptions focus very much 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 that came with them. One notable exception is the donation of a piece 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 take the place of 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. From the pope there he received the precious relic, which he donated to Kloosterrade "in memory of himself".

In recording donations, the annalist always follows the same pattern. He first mentions the name of the donor and then he describes the property, indicating precisely where it is located and then what rights and duties are attached to it. In many cases he also mentions the person by whom the transfer is settled. 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 bound in person to the transferred property. Finally, in cases where it is known when the donor died, his death date is mentioned. In the case of new monks and nuns, this day is mentioned on the day and month of their entry.  An important criterion for determining the dating of the manuscript is checking whether or not the day of death is mentioned. In the period 1141 to 1153, the monastic community had fifteen monks and nuns. A day of death before 1152 is mentioned of three of them. When in that year the chronicle changes manuscript, most of the monks and nuns are still alive. They will have been contemporaries of the chronicler.

Parents often combined the entry of their son or daughter with a donation to the abbey. Others donated goods or rights in order to secure the prayers of the canons for their own salvation or that of their relatives. Donations were also made to use them to acquire a burial place in the abbey church. This seems to have been a privilege for noblemen, e.g.  in the case of Duchess Jutta, widow of Duke Walram I of Limburg. The annalist mentions her donation in 1151. She adopts the monastic habit that year and on that occasion she donates the property rights of the church of Lommersum to the monastery. When she dies a short time later, she is 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 just thanks to donations. The Annales Rodenses also report the purchase of property. This is already mentioned under Ailbertus in the year 1109. Most purchases took place from 1141, the year in which the reign of Abbot Erpo began. During his abbacy, which lasted at least until 1178, the abbey flourished in many respects.

Between recording acquisitions and transfers, the annalist mentions the death of popes, dukes and emperors several times. Sometimes he mentions events of an unusual nature, such as an earthquake in 1117, the total solar eclipse on 2 August 1133, which is not explained as an astronomical phenomenon but attributed to a direct intervention of "God the Lord and His own," who, with a sudden burst of darkness, prevented the Christians' 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. Under the same year the writer reports Pope Eugenius 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 the Continuatio of Nicolaas Heyendal shows several times, the sources from which Heyendal can draw for his historiography of the abbey after 1157, the last described year in the codex, are scarce and further knowledge of medieval Kloosterrade is limited to data obtained from the few remaining charters.

When the abbey was dissolved in the French era, Simon Pieter Ernst was 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 the death of Canon Ernst in 1817, the Aachen archivist Christiaan Quix kept the manuscript under 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 came into possession of all the records. In 1949 the manuscript returned, and since then the Annales Rodenses have been kept in the Historical Centre Limburg.