Concerning Oblation and its Influence on Medieval Society – For Good or Ill

While the Middle Ages were certainly not, on the whole, as grim as the popular culture of the

21st Century seems to suggest, it would also be difficult to argue that life for those who lived during the

millennium or so comprising the medieval era was as secure as it is for the average citizen of developed

nations of the present day. Unsurprisingly, many periods over the course of those centuries were fraught

with trials and suffering in different regions – poverty, famine and plague could, at times, have disastrous

results not just for individual families, but also for entire communities. At other times, whole swathes of

Europe were wracked by war, and while the violence and supposed barbarism of the Middle Ages should

not be overstated, there were certainly turbulent times during that age which caused a great deal of

suffering and ruination. All of these factors, and others besides, led to situations in which desperate

parents found themselves unable to support all of their children, causing them to have to make the

unenviable decision of abandoning their offspring by exposure, or else otherwise negating the

expenditure of resources that raising a child inevitably entails. Of course, there were also those amongst

the wealthy who simply could not be bothered with the expense and effort of raising all their children

and so resorted to exposure as a means of getting around this quandary 1. Whatever the causes that

provoked such a course of action, the abandonment of children was relatively commonplace during the

Middle Ages, so that even if exposure was not considered to be the dire offense that many societies of

the present day would deem it to be, it was also an issue that remained common enough to be relevant

for most of the Middle Ages. Guilds and fellow villagers could often be relied upon to raise the children

of orphans with surprising degree of good faith, but on the other hand, the sort of governmental

infrastructure and social support that allows institutions under the state to look to the care of

abandoned (or orphaned) children simply did not exist in most of medieval Europe.

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1. Boswell, John. "Expositio and Oblatio: The Abandonment of Children and the Ancient and Medieval

Family." The American Historical Review 89, no. 1 (1984): 10-33.

Charitable organizations tended to be of a religious nature and by and large, the kings and princes of

Europe did not concern themselves with supporting those who could not support themselves. Of course,

there were a number of well known exceptions to this trend, for example – Mathilda of Ringelheim,

Queen of East Francia and Louis IX, King of France, but these are, as mentioned, exceptions rather

indicative of the norm. Unfortunately, some parents in particularly dire straits, or otherwise presumably

of an unscrupulous bent, would go a step further even than exposing a child and would sell him or her

into slavery for monetary gain2. Such a practice was apparently sufficiently common to warrant its

inclusion in certain penitentials.

Some compensation for this state of affairs was found in the practice of oblation – that is, the “donation”

of unwanted or unsupportable children to monasteries and convents to be raised as oblates by the

religious community in question, ultimately becoming monks or nuns in their own right. The potential

dangers facing a child abandoned by exposure were manifold, even if death was a relatively unlikely

occurrence. It was certainly possible that the exposed child might be taken in by a stranger as if the

young one was his or her own, but it was also possible that the child might be forced into a life of

indentured servitude by his or her ‘benefactors’, or even worse, sold into slavery for their benefit 3.

Hence, the practice of the oblation of children that developed over the course of the Middle Ages was,

despite a certain number of drawbacks associated with it, far superior to any of the alternatives for the

child from a practical standpoint and for the parents in every respect save the material expense

accompanying offering up a child to the service of the Church.

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2. Ibid., 16

3. Ibid., 19

Moreover, oblation represented an overall positive influence on medieval society by dealing with any

“surplus” of children in a manner far more humane and sensible than any other option parents had at

their disposal during that time period. In essence, exposure was a lottery – it was eminently possible that

an abandoned child might enjoy a very pleasant and comfortable life with his or her new family, but it
was equally conceivable that some darker fate might befall the abandoned child. Even if oblation closed

certain doors in an individual’s life, it removed, for the most part, the chance of any such dire

occurrences as being enslaved simply by its nature. The fate of a child given up to oblation was far more

certain than one exposed and, in fact, oblation had its benefits for the child (and indeed, the parents) as

well as its assortment of difficulties.

To undertake such an argument it is important to examine precisely what negative elements

found their way into the schema of oblation as the practice developed over the course of the Middle

Ages. Immediately, the first drawback of oblation facing parents who were unable, or unwilling, to care

for a child would be that a monetary or material donation must be made to the monastery in question

before they would be willing to take in a child as an oblate 4. Of course, depending on how large a gift

was required, this might cause greater hardship if parents had opted to abandon their child because they

were unable to care for him or her because of poverty. Indeed, it seems that in many cases, if not most,

poverty was the deciding factor that caused the abandonment of children to whatever end and. The

penance required of those who had sold their children out of great need was less severe than for those

who had seen their children enslaved by choice, although of course parents who were desperate but

scrupulous might well simply abandon their child at the doors of a monastery or convent to be later

discovered by the religious within.

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4. Ibid., 22

Presumably this material donation was required to help cover the expense, to whatever degree, of

caring for and raising a child, but it is still very strange to implement it given the frequent circumstances

of oblation, and it certainly might have been seen as a deterrent by those parents were unable or

unwilling to make the requisite donation. This would, of course, drive parents towards either exposing

their children, which again – had serious problems and risks of its own, or else might cause them to sell

their children into slavery for monetary gain rather than loss, which is a far worse fate for the child,

indeed, possibly the most unfortunate of them all, if he should happen to be bought by an unkind
master.

Beyond this, perhaps the greatest shortcoming of oblation was its potential immutability. That is,

depending on which theologian or ecclesiastical authority you asked, oblation was variously considered

to be utterly permanent by some, even if it happened that an oblate did not deem his or her vocation to

be within the cloister. Of course, other theologians, such as the venerable Thomas Aquinas, opposed this

claim 5, but his writings were not always equally well regarded over the decades and centuries after his

death and certain abbots and ecclesiasts deemed oblation to be a permanent state in any case. The

theological justification for either permanence or non-permanence is, for the purposes of this argument,

unimportant. It is enough to take note of the fact that, sometimes, oblates would be forced to live as

monks and nuns against their will, which is perhaps the greatest flaw of medieval oblation, precisely

because it is cruel and unusual. This is the worst fate, without doubt, that might befall an oblate. Stories

even exist of monks and nuns who protested against their confinement in the religious vocation or

participated in illicit romantic relationships and were severely censured by their brethren for their

transgressions.

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5. Van Nieuwenhove, Rik, and Joseph Peter Wawrykow, eds. The Theology of Thomas Aquinas. Notre

Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005.

Gottschalk of Orbais 6 was one such individual forced to become a monk without his consent despite the

ruling of the Council of Mainz. He was later confined for the twenty years prior to his death in the

monastery at Hautvilliers when, having become interested in theology, he was ordained a priest and

began to promulgate a doctrine deemed heretical by the ecclesiastical authorities of his day. Aelred of

Rievaulx tells a story in The Nun of Watton 7 that goes beyond mere confinement to a cell, and into the

savage and grotesque. A certain oblate and nun, upon having relations with a fellow lay brother of her

order, and both bound by a vow of celibacy, is discovered because she becomes pregnant. The elder

nuns of her order see to it that the errant oblate’s lover is castrated by her own hand and she is

imprisoned inside of a cell within the convent and made to subsist on a diet of bread and water while
her pregnancy progresses.

Moreover, it seems that abbots and abbesses were, perhaps unsurprisingly, truly unpleasant individuals.

Besides Rabanus Maurus, the abbot at whose monastery Gottschalk of Orbais had the misfortune of

finding himself, one of Gottschalk’s contemporaries, a seventeen or eighteen year old Walafrid Strabo, in

his Visio Wettini, which is a rendering in verse of the visions of Wetti – one of the monks of his order,

makes mention of the fact that if his poem should fail to ring true to the abbot of Reichenau, he will

receive a severe but “well-deserved” beating 8. That is, if his accounting of the visions of Wetti should fail

to be accurate to what the monk actually claimed to have seen, he would be punished quite rigorously

by the abbot’s will.

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6. Boswell, Expositio and Oblatio, 26

7. Ibid., 26

8. Strabo, Walafrid, and Richard Pollard. "Visio Wettini." HIST 363: Europe in the Early Middle Ages.

August 1, 2013.

Walafrid actually invokes God at the beginning of the poem, asking that he remember everything and

give all the events of Wetti’s visions their due so that he might escape the abbot’s wrath. Clearly the

ideal of pastoral care laid down in the Rule of Saint Benedict, by which virtually all Frankish monasteries

were governed during the rule of Louis the Pious, and the reality of how abbots and superiors behaved

were markedly different at least some of the time.

As an extension of the above issues, the greatest problem with dwelling in a monastery apart

from celibacy is effectively that one’s life is ordered by a third party 9. If one knows this ahead of time and

assents of one’s own free will, this isn’t particularly a problem, but unfortunately for an oblate who finds

this sort of an arrangement untenable, he or she is entrapped, having had no say in the matter and

unable to escape unless his or her abbot (or abbess, as the case may be) is sympathetic. To live as a

monk or nun is to give oneself totally to the service of God and the Church, and while this is not in most
cases as unfortunate as living as a slave or indentured servant, it certainly does require a high degree of

commitment. Essentially the problem is that, for a monk or nun, the course of one’s daily life and

schedule is largely by the norms of the order in question and the rule that it follows, like the Rule of

Saint Benedict, for example. Indeed, it is a very regimented existence that precludes marriage or a

secular career and requires that the monk or nun spend a large part of the day praying and studying

Holy Writ, as well as sometimes involving manual labour for the support of the monastery’s brethren

and any pilgrims or poor who come seeking alms. Vows of poverty, chastity and obedience dominate a

monk or nun’s life – the better to focus all of one’s attention and comprehension on the understanding

and worship of God.

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9. McCann, Justin, ed. The Rule of Saint Benedict. Westminster: Newman Press, 1952.

This is all well and good if one undertakes so great a sacrifice of one’s own accord, but that the sacrifice

is so great is precisely the issue. This is no mean feat to ask of someone who isn’t determined.

Now, with all of this said, oblation had significant benefits for all parties involved as compared to

the simple exposure of children, particularly given the worldview common to those who lived during the

Middle Ages. For the child in particular, exposure was a lottery of the worst order, and while there was

some small chance that the exposed child might be adopted by a wealthy family, thereby enjoying a life

significantly better than if they had remained with their biological parents, it was, as mentioned

previously, also entirely possible that they might be forced into a life of indentured domestic servitude –

or more awful still, of prostitution. They might be sold into slavery, and it does not bear thinking about

the outcome if they found themselves bound to an abusive master. Any horrific fate that an oblate might

meet in a monastery or convent was perfectly conceivable with exposure, and worse besides, no less. It

must be said therefore, that exposure is a much less reliable way to dispose of unwanted or unviable

children than oblation. With oblation, at least, the parents knew, to a significant degree, what manner of

destiny awaited their offspring, whereas with exposure, it was anyone’s guess what manner of individual

might take the child in. Another point worth making is that, while children were very often exposed in
public places where they were likely to be found, death was by no means an inconceivable outcome of

exposure, even if it was hardly the most probable. Therefore, it must be said that exposure provided a

much lesser degree of security for the child and far less psychological surety for scrupulous parents. With

oblation it was virtually certain that the child’s basic needs would be met – they would be fed, sheltered

and clothed by the monastic community with which they dwelt. They would have the support of a

‘family’ of sorts, a company of brothers or sisters, or both, depending upon the cloister in question.

Certainly, given the prevalence of Christianity and the attitudes generally held towards

monasticism and holiness by most of ‘Christendom’, it would have been the case that oblation was held

to provide spiritual benefits both for the oblate himself or herself and for the parents of child. It was

widely thought to be far easier to attain salvation within the cloister, close to the presence of God and

far from the temptations of the world. Additionally, the ‘donation’ of a child through oblation was

generally considered to be a meritorious act, insofar as the parents were commending care of the child’s

soul directly to the Church, a great blessing for the oblate in the life to come. Additionally this was a

boon for the souls of the parents as well, who would receive merit with the divine power for their

virtuous sacrifice, which fortified the Church on earth as well as maintaining the practical benefits

described above10. Given the importance of the afterlife in the medieval European worldview, and the

provisions taken by so many of the wealthy, including kings and princes, to ensure that it would be a

positive rather than negative experience, oblation would have been seen as a great benefit – a way of

ensuring the child’s safety, both of his or her physical body, but also, and perhaps more importantly, of

the sanctity of the child’s immortal soul. Nevertheless, it seems that the parents themselves were unable

or unwilling to make the sacrifices required by monastic oaths, so even if the spiritual benefits were, or

are, significant, it must be said that the demands of living in a cloister are substantial as well, and not to

be undertaken lightly. Even so, if the child developed an interest in theology, or felt drawn to the

priesthood or religious life while growing up in the monastery or convent, then it seems reasonable to

suggest that many also found profound peace and belonging in service to God and the Church, just as

there were presumably many who found themselves unsuited to the religious vocation.
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10. Venarde, Bruce. Women's Monasticism and Medieval Society : Nunneries in France and England,

890-1215. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997.

That in itself was not problematic so long as those who deemed themselves unsuitable were allowed by

their superiors to leave, as many theologians, in the later Middle Ages particularly, argued should be the

case.

It is also worth pointing out that there were other practical benefits to be had for those who

spent their childhoods in monasteries or convents. For example, young oblates would be taught how to

read Latin and possibly how to write it as well, principally because knowledge of the Scriptures was

considered to be critically important for religious. Particularly during the Carolingian period monasteries

were in some sense factories that produced manuscripts in surprising quantity 11. Such institutions also

served as depositories for the writings of the learned covering a wide range of topics, not just theology

or Biblical exegesis, but also history and geography – see, for example, the Etymologies of Isidore of

Seville, which was an immense work that considered a great diversity of material and compiled a great

deal of the knowledge of the ancient world 12. The significance of this benefit is compounded by the fact

that a formal education was typically only afforded to ecclesiasts or the wealthy, and should certainly not

be understated. Consider also that parents who exposed their children forfeited any ability to maintain

contact with them throughout the remainder of their lives – a poor state of affairs for any who

abandoned their children because of desperation or necessity.

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11. "The Carolingian Renaissance of Culture and Learning." In Charlemagne: Empire and Society, edited

by Joanna Story, by Rosamond McKitterick, 151-165. Manchester: Manchester University Press,

2005.
12. Of Seville, Isidore. "The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville." HIST 363: Europe in the Early Middle Ages.

August 1, 2013.

By comparison, parents who gave their children to a monastery or convent as oblates often did maintain

contact with them 13 and wealthy parents of oblates would often ensure that the children were given

over to monasteries where relatives dwelt as religious – occasionally even as abbots or abbesses, who

could see to the child’s day to day well-being. All of the above being said, the awfulness of the plight of

children who found themselves given over to the Church in oblation should not be exaggerated. Even if

oblation was not ideal in many cases, it should also be pointed out that the most extreme cases were

indeed extreme and should by no means be considered normative.

It also bears mentioning that all of the examples of extremism and cruelty, with the exception of

the rather bizarre tale of the nun of Watton, occurred at the height of the Carolingian era, that is, during

the reign of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious. Now, it came to pass that Frankish monasteries

before the rise of Charlemagne grew both more numerous and more prosperous under the auspices of

the Frankish kings, first the Merovingians, and later under Pepin the Younger. The purity of those within

the cloister was, by the time Charlemagne came to the throne, considered to be grossly compromised, as

monks were glutted on the wealth of donations and had taken in many cases to unfortunate practices

not in line with Christian morality. Charlemagne and his son therefore instituted extensive reforms of the

monastic communities within the Frankish realm, and of monasticism generally, insisting on the use of

the Rule of Saint Benedict and very strict rules and regulations for maintain the morality of those living

within the cloister. A number of councils of Frankish bishops were assembled to deal with precisely this

issue during the reign of Charlemagne and Louis, for example the Council of Aachen (789) and Mainz

(813) 14.

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13. Boswell, Expositio and Oblatio, 31-32

14. McKitterick, The Carolingian Renaissance, 152

This is relevant mainly because there was a major push under the aforementioned Carolingian kings to

see to it that the righteousness of monastic communities was, as they saw it, recovered and restored.

Essentially it was widely held within the Carolingian Empire that the prayers of the wicked would be

ignored by God, and since a major part of a Frankish monk’s duty was to pray for the well-being of the

realm and its people, this was considered to be a very serious matter indeed 15. The intercessory prayers

of a corrupt or errant monk (or nun) were of no use to the kingdom and without the assistance of God

and His saints, it was widely feared that the entire realm would fall into ruination. Hence the seemingly

extreme behaviours of those superiors overseeing Gottschalk of Orbais and Walafrid Strabo were likely

born of a desire to ensure that the wholesomeness of their monastic communities remained intact in

accord with the edicts of the Frankish councils, however misplaced this zeal might have been.

The push for reform during the Carolingian period is also interesting for an altogether different

reason – that is, that it illustrates that many monks and nuns did not live as austere a lifestyle as one

might expect and, given widespread concern over corruption and the necessity of reform through law,

they were evidently not punished very severely for it by their superiors, if they were punished at all.

Indeed, the history of monasticism in the Middle Ages is a cycle of gradually encroaching corruption and

reform, so that even during the 15th Century, the likes of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican monk and

popular preacher, was incensed at the impurity and laxity of those who lived within the cloister. It was

noted that many monks enjoyed fine foods, or dressed richly, drank excessively or maintained illicit

relations with concubines 16.

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15. Strabo, Visio Wettini, 10

16. Davidson, Thomas. "Savonarola." International Journal of Ethics 19, no. 1 (1908): 23-44.

Again, these did not suffer too tremendous a censure from their superiors, so it must be concluded that,

as mentioned, the savagery of certain abbots that has passed down through the centuries to the present

age was exceptional enough that it was remembered against a backdrop that was far more slack, even if

it was also far more dissolute. In short, the periodic drive for major reform, coming variously from kings
and princes, or from particular abbots, or Rome, as the case may be depending upon the period and

place in question, illustrates that it was highly unusual for an errant monk or nun to be caused by his or

her superiors to suffer to the degree of Gottschalk or the nun of Watton. If every monk or nun who

carried on in a dissolute fashion was caused to mutilate his or her lover, it seems rather unlikely that

there would be much need for widespread reform, as the grotesquerie of the punishment would

preclude such prevalence of inappropriate behaviour amongst religious communities in the first place.

In summary, oblation is clearly a preferable alternative to simple exposure and, despite its

drawbacks, was on the whole a positive influence in medieval society. It provided an opportunity for

unwanted children to pass safely from the care of the parents into an institution that, by and large, could

be trusted at least to look after the child’s basic needs and provide food, shelter, clothing and the like.

Moreover, oblation went hand in hand with spiritual benefits, from the medieval point of view, both for

the parents and the child even if it required a material sacrifice in the form of the donation required

upon acceptance of the child into the monastery or convent. Moreover, oblation allowed parents to

maintain contact with the oblate even where they would, in the case of exposure, have forfeited any

right to be a part of the child’s life and would like have lost track of him or her in any case. While it

certainly was the case in during certain times and in certain places that oblates who found that they

were unsuited to the monastic life were not allowed to leave the cloister by their superiors, this is by no

means universal. In short, the positive elements of oblation heavily outweighed the negative and

allowed for an institution by which responsibility for unwanted or unviable children could be safely

abdicated by desperate or unwilling parents. This is the more significant because the governmental

infrastructure of the present day was not available as regards transferring care of children from their

parents to another entity and oblation filled this gap in a manner far superior to simple abandonment.