I've recently been watching Paul Freedman's "Early Middle Ages" course videos on YouTube and had a question about monastic life during the medieval period. Freedman mentions that a couple of members of Merovingian dynasty were offered "the scissors or the sword", that is, take monastic vows or be put to death. Anecdotally, I've also heard stories of people being sent to a monastery (or more often, women sent to a nunnery). I was wondering if the practice of using monasteries as a quasi-prison was common, and if so, did anyone ever flee or escape from a monastery? What would happen to such an escapee if they were caught? Were there different categories of monks within the monastery, differentiated between the "prisoners" (if one can use the term) and those there of their own accord? Thanks in advance for any responses.
The middle ages are a big place, and what Dr. Freedman describes is definitely true for the Merovingian period. The Vita sancti Germani, for example, emphasizes it's titular character's voluntary entrance into a monastery. Ebroin, a man whose taste for violence would put G.R.R. Martin off his supper, confined many of his enemies at Luxeuil, including Leodegar, bishop of Autun. Such imprisonments didn't last particularly long on the whole. Usually, the pretender stayed at the monastery long enough for his hair to grow back. Ebroin was clearly less than convinced by the idea of monastery-as-prison, and so now Leodegar is a martyr.
However, this use of monasteries is pretty much a Merovingian phenomenon. Monasteries, as I have said, did not make very good prisons, and such members did not make particularly good monks. Even with child oblates, children given to the monastery at a young age (oblatus, "offered"), could not be forced to remain there after their majority. Most did, of course. And it should be noted that if a monk or nun had already freely taken their solemn vows, the last step in becoming a monk, the abbot or abbess had the authority to force them to return.
As an aside, the idea that monks were perpetually cloistered is probably not one which reflects actual praxis. "Wandering monks" are sometimes a concern in our texts, but we have too many examples of monks outside their walls to think of this as a general prohibition. Plus, strict claustration was only required for women under canon law by the 1298 bull Periculoso. It was never required for men, and the frequent repetition of the requirements of Periculoso over the years in other bulls suggests that it was breached more than it was followed.