In the second half of the 11th century, Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) initiated a radical reform of the Church. His so-called Gregorian reform aimed to do away with a series of errors and abuses that occurred during the period of intense church feudalization. At the same time, Western Europe was in the grip of the movement for evangelization and apostolic life, which eventually led to the formation of the three so-called older monastic orders: the Premonstratenians (Ordo Praemonstratensis), the Cistercians (Ordo Cisterciensis), and the Carthusians (Ordo Cartusiensis). All three of the orders strove to revive the long-forgotten spirituality and viewed physical labour as an important part of monastic life. The Cistercians and Carthusians build their monasteries in the Slovenian territory very early on in their development. The Cistercians eventually settled down in Stična (1136) and Kostanjevica na Krki (1234), while the Carthusians found their home in Žiče (Domus Vallis sancti Joannis Baptistae, around 1160), Jurklošter (Domus Vallis sancti Mauritii, 1170), Bistra (Domus Vallis jocosae, 1255) and Pleterje (Domus sanctissimae Trinitatis, 1403). In fact, the Žiče Charterhouse was the first of its kind in the whole of the Holy Roman Empire and the first outside of France.

The Carthusian order was founded by St. Bruno (1032-1101). Originally from Cologne, he initially worked as a priest and the rector of the college in Reims, where he was much respected in his role as a lecturer. He was also ardently opposed to simony, i. e. the buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices and privileges, which led to him having a number of enemies. Despite being famous and enjoying the support of the Pope, Bruno found himself increasingly yearning for solitude. He entered a Benedictine monastery, but found their life insufficiently strict, which prompted him to make monastic rules more severe. The aim and ideal of such strict monastic life was to achieve continual union with God through pure contemplation, which Carthusians could only attain in personal and collective solitude. Since the latter could only be found in remote and isolated places, St. Bruno and his followers set up their first monastic settlement in the rocky cliffs (chartreuse) not far from Grenoble; the settlement was named Chartreuse after the cliffs and the monastic order itself was named Carthusians.

The Carthusian monastery in Bistra was founded by the Duke of Carinthia and Lord of Carniola Bernhard of Spanheim (1202-1256) in 1255, and completed by his son Ulrich III (1256-1269) with the consent of his wife Agnes. The papal bull of April 4, 1257 makes use of the name of the nearby town of Borovnica to coin the Latin name for the priory, referring to it as »Merry« or »Pleasant valley« in Borovnica (Domus Vallis jocosae); this is where the German name of »Freudenthal« from the mid-14th century derives from. The Slovenian name forms come from 1470 (monasterium de Vistra) and 1481 (monasterium Vallis iocosae siue Bistrae). The monastery was administratively part of the Upper German monastic province. Two years after its foundation, Pope Alexander IV (1254-1261) welcomed the new order under his protection and confirmed the same privileges that he himself or his predecessors had granted to other Carthusian monasteries, such as protection against the arbitrariness of either ecclesiastical or secular authorities, exemption from the paying of taxes for the Church and its legates, exemption from the paying of tithe from the increase in livestock, facilitation in confirming the monastery's priors, confirming of the right to visitations, permission to give rites to their servants, etc. These privileges made the life in the monastery much easier and facilitated its work.

Later rulers continued to be well disposed to the monastery in Bistra. They continued to confirm the order’s earlier privileges, adding new ones and donating estates to the order. The monastery reached its peak in the 14^th century, but after the two great fires in 1364 and 1382, its power was in slow decline. The fires did not only effect monastic buildings, but had a negative impact on the monastic life itself (there were instances of breaking monastic rules, lack of priests) and on economic standing of the monastery as well. Many benefactors, including provincial princes, therefore tried to help the Carthusians of Bistra by offering donations. In 1364, Austrian Duke Rudolf IV (1358-1365) granted them two fishermen, fishing on the Ljubljanica river, and this privilege was three years later confirmed also by the Dukes Albrecht III (1365-1395) and Leopold III (1365-1386). After the fire, even the Patriarch of Aquileia Ludovico della Torre (1359-1365) took pity on the unfortunate monks and incorporated the parish of Cerknica into their monastery to try and improve their financial standing. Despite all attempts to help, by the end of the 16^th century, the monastery was on the brink of closing down. It somehow managed to avoid it, and by the end of the 17^th and the start of the 18^th centuries the order and its economic standing were flourishing again. The Bistra Charterhouse met its end on January 29, 1782, when Emperor Joseph II (1765/1780–1790) closed down a number of monasteries throughout his entire empire. The monks received redundancy pay and pension, monastic estate was partly confiscated and partly sold. The monastery’s church was torn down in 1808. In 1826, the land was bought by the factory owner Franc Galle, who rebuilt what had remained of the old monastery into a mansion. After WW2, the mansion was nationalized and has since 1951 been used to house the Technical Museum of Slovenia.

A proof of the unenviable financial standing of the Bistra monastery is a charter, written on 1400 September 6 in Kranj. It was issued under the instruction of the Provincial Prince by Hermann II, Count of Cilli and Zagorje, the then Carniolan Provincial Governor (1390-1401) and a member of one of Slovenia’s most celebrated medieval families. Counts of Cilli were always very sympathetic to the Carthusians operating in the Slovenian territory. They granted their monasteries various privileges and rights, as well as yearly incomes; Count Hermann I (1359/60–1385) was in 1385 even named the great benefactor of the order (magnus benefactor Ordinis) by the general chapter. The Carthusians never forgot their kindness, so they performed prayers for the family, they made various rituals for the living and the dead members of the family, and even honoured individual members of the family by burying them within the walls of their monasteries (such as Hermann II in the Pleterje Charterhouse).

In the charter, presented here as this month’s archivalia, Hermann II provides his protection to the Bistra Charterhouse, to its prior, convent, and to their subjects (daz closter, den prior vnd den conuent ze Freͣnitz, vnd all desselben gotshaws armen leͣwt). He also grants the monastery the right to patrimonial justice over its subjects, who were otherwise under the jurisdiction of the Carniolan Provincial Prince and his officials. Hermann II entrusted the protection of the Bistra monastery to his provincial administrator (Landesverweser) in Ljubljana and to all his castellans, stewards and subjects. On the very same day, he also renounced a certain income obtained from his two monastic farms (Hube) in Suhadole pri Komendi in favour of the Carthusians in Bistrica “out of special grace and love for the Bistra monastery and the Carthusian order”. Both farms were part of the Smlednik seigniory, which at the time was owned by the Counts of Cilli. In return for his generosity, the prior was obligated to give 20 schilling bonus to his brethren every Ember Sunday, and the monks promised to pray for their benefactor and his spiritual welfare.

Jure Volčjak