Forced monasticism

Monasticism usually entails people separating themselves from the world in a spiritual sense, by foregoing marriage, property and some personal freedom, in order to more greatly pursue religious devotion and service. Monks and nuns may feel a calling that inspires them to pursue this kind of spiritual life. Usually this choice is made freely without compulsion, however, this has not always been the case in practice.

Among the Merovingians, long hair was a sign of royalty, while in contrast, clerics were tonsured and wore their hair short. In medieval Gaul, if one removed the long hair of a king, you removed his claims to kingship as well.[1] Tonsuring was seen as a more humane method of dealing with rivals or rebels than the death penalty, the decision being left to the clemency or political judgment of the monarch.

During the time of the early Frankish kingdoms, the Merovingian dynasty employed forced monasticism against their enemies, including members of their own family.[2]

• Chararic, a king, and his son were both forcibly tonsured by Clovis I after they failed to help Clovis in a war. Both were also forcibly ordained to holy orders. When they tried to resist this and return to secular life, Clovis had them both killed.[3]
• Merovech, son of King Chilperic I of Neustria was forced to accept tonsure and ordination to the priesthood by his father after he tried to marry his late uncle's wife and his father suspected him of betrayal.[4]
• King Theuderic III was tonsured but grew his hair again and regained power.[2]
• Ebroin, Frankish mayor of the palace, was deposed by the Burgundian nobles, but his life was spared at the intervention of a number of bishops; he was tonsured and confined to Luxeuil Abbey.[5]

• In Anglo-Saxon England, Ceolwulf of Northumbria was deposed, forcibly tonsured by his enemies and placed in a monastery, but was quickly restored.[6]

• Theudechild, wife of king Charibert I, was forced into a nunnery after her husband's death.[7]

After the death of Chlodomer, King of Orleans, his brothers Chlothar and Childebert coveted his kingdom and determined to kill Chlodomer's three young sons. The two eldest were murdered, but loyal members of the household were able to bring the youngest, Clodoald to safety. He came to prefer the solitude of life as a hermit rather than the hazards of life at court. When he was twenty he had his hair cut in a public ceremony by the Bishop of Paris, thus demonstrating to his uncles that he sought no part of his father's kingdom and posed no threat.[8]

Forced monachization was a phenomenon of the early modern period in which elite families would consign a younger sibling to a monastery. This was generally done for economic purposes in order to keep the family estate intact for a primary heir. The individual confined could appeal to church authorities to be released from their vows. [9] The idea of a women being forced into monastic life has become a trope in nunsploitation films.[10]

Children vowed and given by their parents to the monastic life, in houses under the Rule of St. Benedict, were commonly known by the name "oblate" during the century and a half when the custom was in vogue. Often the offering was made in completion of a vow, along with a donation towards the child's support. In many cases the family may have already had a connection to the monastery chosen, with a family member serving as abbot or prioress. There the child would be educated. Not professed monks or friars, the Council of Toledo (656) forbade their acceptance before the age of ten and granted them free permission to leave the monastery, if they wished, when they reached the age of puberty. [11] The term puer oblatus (used after that Council) labels an oblate who had not yet reached puberty and thus had a future opportunity to leave the monastery,[12]