MovieChat Forums > Der Name der Rose (1986) Discussion > would the son of a baron be franscician?

would the son of a baron be franscician?


if adso was the son of the baron of melk, would it have been unusual that someone from means and titled would be a franscician? would his father have allowed it? was this unusual or not unusual for someone titled to join an order that loved poverty?

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i think in that period was a privilege for rich families having a son in that ambient, the church had power (franciscian too)

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A Baron is not that noble of a noble. There are Kings over countries, Dukes, Barons, and then Lords. A Baron would have approximately the power of a town mayor today.

Adso is the youngest son of the Baron of Melk. When the father dies, the eldest son is of course heir to the throne. Therefore, in royal families, the father usually spends most of his wealth on educating, and preparing his oldest son for the kingdom. The other sons... they get less and less attention.

Younger sons pose another issue: If they don't like their older brother, they could kill him, and claim the throne for themselves. To ensure a peaceful, and productive transition of power, the father and the eldest son must develop a way to deal with the younger brother.

A preferred solution is to have the younger sons join a holy order. With their vows of poverty and chastity, they renounce their right to the throne should their elder brothers die, and they agree not to have children, who might try to claim the throne. Once you have taken yourself out of the running for baron, you may even receive a monastic education, return to your castle, and teach your nephews, for the good of the whole family. Also, while you are in the order, your family does not need to support you.

let us assume for a moment that the baron had either a poorer castle, or a bigger family. in either case, Adso's best bet is to join a holy order. Now while the holy orders supposedly took all applicants, that might not really be true. Many holy orders today subtly show preference towards their bigger donors. In that case, the Franciscans, being the third order, were well suited to Adso. After all, his other options were to get married off, die somehow, or run away and pretend to be a peasant. You'll probably agree that the Franciscans we saw were better off than the peasants we saw.

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This, exactly. It was very common for the younger sons of nobles to join the church as an alternative since they couldn't hope to inherit their family's lands and titles under the system of primogeniture. Usually it was for that reason, a necessity. Of course, some might do it out of pure devotion as well.

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