Ragambald
Encyclopedia
Ragambald was the Abbot of Farfa from 781 until his death. According to the abbey's twelfth-century historian Gregory of Catino
Gregory of Catino
Gregory of Catino was a monk of the Abbey of Farfa and "one of the most accomplished monastic historians of his age." Gregory died shortly after 1130, possibly in 1133....

, Ragambald was born in a city in Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

 (Gallia), that is, Francia, but he does not explicitly call him a Frank
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

. Succeeding Probatus
Probatus
Probatus was the Abbot of Farfa from 770 until 781, and the first abbot native to the Sabina. He steered the abbey through the fall of the Kingdom of the Lombards, trying to prevent the disastrous aggression of its last king, and kept it from falling under the jurisdiction of either the Papacy or...

, a local-born abbot, Ragambald was the first of a line of abbots from Francia, including Altpert
Altpert
Altpert was the Abbot of Farfa from the death of Ragambald in 786 until his own death a few years later. He was described by Gregory of Catino, writing some three centuries later, as having been born in Paris "of the Gauls" , presumably meaning that he was a Romance-speaking subject of the...

 (786–90) and Mauroald
Mauroald
Mauroald was a Frankish monk from Worms and the Abbot of Farfa from 790. Farfa, at less than a century old, was still interested in accruing territories through grants and donations in order to support its building projects and the expansion of its site.According to Gregory of Catino, the late...

 (790–802). The significance of the Frankish presence at Farfa and of Ragambald's abbacy is summed up:

. . . the ‘new’ abbeys of the time not only arose under Frankish influence but also infiltrated the religious life of Lombard Italy
Kingdom of the Lombards
The Kingdom of the Lombards or Lombard Kingdom was an early medieval state, with its capital in Pavia, established by the Lombards on the Italian Peninsula between 568-569 and 774 .Effective control by the rulers of both the major areas that constituted the...

 with ‘Frankish’ ideas and attitudes, providing a kind of ‘fifth column’
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...

 that prepared the way for Frankish military victory and a more ready acceptance of Frankish political domination.

Under Ragamblad the abbey's patronage may have declined as compared with that under his predecessor. He is recorded to have received a single grant from Duke Hildeprand of Spoleto
Hildeprand of Spoleto
Hildeprand was the Duke of Spoleto from 774 to 789.When Theodicius of Spoleto died fighting at the Siege of Pavia in 774, the Lombards of the Duchy of Spoleto elected Hildeprand their duke and quickly submitted to the Franks. Hildeprand fled to Rome before the Frankish host and did homage to Pope...

 during his tenure. This may have been related to Papal encroachments. By the reign of Pope Leo III
Pope Leo III
Pope Saint Leo III was Pope from 795 to his death in 816. Protected by Charlemagne from his enemies in Rome, he subsequently strengthened Charlemagne's position by crowning him as Roman Emperor....

, Farfa was losing land to the Papacy.
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