Lupus Servatus - Military Service

Military Service

In these days it was common for abbots to serve as military commanders who supplied their own forces, if the king decided to go to war. Ferrières was one of these monasteries that had to provide soldiers and accommodate them. Lupus was not fond of leading soldiers into battle. He wrote a letter to the Bishop of Pordalus, begging him to use his authority to influence the king so that he could carry on as an abbot, not as a military leader.

During the war between Charles the Bald and Pepin I of Aquitaine, Lupus was captured at the Battle of Toulouse and held prisoner. Shortly after his capture he was ransomed with several other high ranking men.

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