Manchester University Press Freedom and Protection: Monastic Exemption in France, c. 590–c. 1100

This book explores the history of monastic exemption in medieval France. Crossing geopolitical boundaries and fields of historical specialisation, it evaluates the nature and extent of papal involvement in French monasteries between the sixth and eleventh centuries. The social and political significance of monastic exemption privileges offers valuable insight into the changing world in which they were created. Charting the progress of exemption from a marginal to a centralised practice, the book demonstrates how the papacy’s commitment, cooperation, and intervention transformed existing ecclesiastical and political structures. It asks several key questions: why did so many French monasteries seek exemption privileges directly from Rome? What significance did exemptions have for monks, bishops, secular rulers, and popes? How and why did this practice develop throughout the early Middle Ages, and what impact did it have on the emerging identity of papal authority, the growth of early monasticism, Frankish politics and governance, church reform, and canon law? Synthesising and re-interpreting French and German historiographical traditions, the book reveals an institutional story deeply rooted in the religious, political, social, and legal culture of the early Middle Ages. It poses one final question: how and why did the papacy emerge as the preeminent guarantor of monastic freedom and protection?