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RésuméL’abbaye du Bec est considérée comme une des abbayes bénédictines les plus célèbres du Moyen Âge. L’image véhiculée par les sources narratives du xiie siècle, ainsi que les hypothèses des érudits de l’époque moderne donnent en effet à penser qu’un monastère bien constitué est fondé en 1034 par le chevalier Herluin. Toutefois, un examen attentif des sources oblige à distinguer entre la réalité historique où prévaut un goût nettement prononcé du fondateur pour la vie érémitique et un processus postérieur de réécriture des débuts de la fondation. Au xiie siècle, les moines du Bec entendirent occulter ces origines érémitiques, devenues suspectes dans le contexte de concurrence avec le nouveau monachisme, et exalter le primat d’une vie cénobitique. Dans ce cadre, il a été nécessaire de réviser la chronologie des événements traditionnellement admise. L’enquête aboutit à majorer l’importance de l’étape érémitique dans la vie d’Herluin, à travers un refus précoce d’embrasser le cadre normatif bénédictin, mais éclaire aussi l’adolescence du Conquérant. Le projet d’Herluin d’une vie more Patrum ne put déboucher sur une forme institutionnelle viable. Dans un contexte de sédition des lignées richardides, la confirmation des biens par le duc Guillaume, lors de la seconde dédicace en février 1046 ou 1047, traduit une volonté de fidélisation de l’abbaye. L’arrivée contemporaine du savant Lanfranc et la nouvelle protection ducale assurèrent la prospérité du Bec, remédiant aux difficultés de son gouvernement abbatial, mais suscitèrent sa régularisation bénédictine.

Le Bec Abbey is considered as one of the most renowned Benedictine abbey in the Middle Ages. The image conveyed by the 12th century narrative sources as well as the hypothesis of the 18th and 19th century scholars, make one believe in the foundation by the humble knight Herluin, of a soundly constituted monastery. A close examination of the sources, however, compels to make a distinction between a historical reality in which the founder’s deep liking for eremitical life is prevailing and a later re-writing process of the beginnings of the foundation. In the 12th century, the monks from Le Bec Abbey intended to conceal these eremitical origins become suspect in a context of rivalry with the new monachism, and to uphold the primacy of a coenobitical and Benedictine life, actually established later. Therefore, the traditionally admitted events chronology had to be revised, contributing, as a result, to throw light on the Conqueror’s adolescence. In 1034, in a prevailing tone of penitential expiation, Herluin decided to embrace a hermit’s life on lands of his own. Met up with a few brothers and despite his lack of learning and religious life background, he organized a first “more Patrum” community, which rejected the Benedictine monastic rule. This first experiment, however, could not lead to an enduring institutional form. So under the joint influence of Count Gilbert de Brionne and of the episcopacy, he was brought to accept a progressive regularization of his way of life. The Count probably hoped he could reap the glory of this foundation, partly built on others’ fortune, and thus take advantage of the mediation and merits of his former vassal. But he was murdered. Nevertheless the change of site led to the building of a second church, dedicated in February 1046 or 1047, precisely at the time when William the Bastard was facing the uprising of his aristocracy’s most powerful members. The revolt of the new owner of Brionne castle, a strategic stronghold close to the foundation, offered the Duke the opportunity to interest himself in this obscure institution by confirming its estates. In a context of subduing his kinsmen –the descendants of Duke Richard I–, the control of both castle and abbey was relevant and coherent politics in the years 1047x1055. Le Bec had to be loyal to the Duke. The contemporary arrival of the scholar Lanfranc (1046x1047 not 1042) together with the ducal protection enabled to make up for Herluin’s difficulties in ruling the abbey, as the knight was failing in organizing a genuine conventual life. As a consequence, Le Bec prosperity was strengthened. The close association of the Duke with Lanfranc, his intellectually beaming school after 1055, the incessant influx of donations and the increasing number of brothers led to a third change of site around 1060, in spite the Abbot’s strong reluctance. If Herluin’s foundation, under this combined pressure, resulted in an abbey under Benedictine rule (symbolized by the latest dedication in 1077), it maintained original customs offering a via media between former and new monachism, which accounts for its success. Herluin’s inventive itinerary shows the precocious seduction exerted by eremitical life in Normandy and a first reappraisal of the Benedictine normative framework wished by the Carolingians.