Baugulf (died 8 July 815) was a prominent Benedictine abbot in the Carolingian church. He was the second abbot of the Abbey of Fulda in present-day Germany. He served from 779 to 802 CE and was succeeded by Ratgar.
Despite his contemporary prominence, the twenty-three years of his abbacy can now only be understood through letters - including the famous Epistola de litteris colendis ('Letter on the cultivation of learning') or through the use of charters recording exchange of property that can aid our understand of the monastery's relations with the outside world under his abbacy. Baugulf also commissioned a list of monks (the so-called 'Baugulf list') that help us understand life within the Abbacy. Additionally a list exists of books held in their abbey library and its dependent cellae, these along with the few remains of the church that began construction while he was abbot can give us clues into the course of his abbacy.
Life
Baugulf was part of the royal aristocratic elite being a member of a noble family that owned property south of the Main in east Francia. It is likely that he was raised and trained in Fulda. There are claims that he may be Count Baugulf of the Speyergau, a trusted follower of first Pippin and later his son Charlemagne, who had been active in the court since the 750s. However It is more likely that they were different members of the same significant aristocratic family. Baugulf's brother also joined the church becoming the Bishop Erkanbert von Minden.
Abbacy of Fulda
Baugulf was elected by the monks of Fulda to be the new abbot after the death of the previous abbot Sturmi in 779. Baugulf used his aristocratic and political connections to further strengthen the abby's social and economic position. Under his abbacy the area from which the monastery drew its property and recruits extended from the Middle Rhine valley to the Frankish region north of the Middle and Upper Main. In 781, the king granted the monastery the campus of Hünfeld and its surrounding woods 30 km to the north-east of Fulda. Charlemagne furthermore confirmed the conveyance of the mark Rasdorfand the neighboring mark Soisdorf near Hünfeld to Fulda, both former royal properties. The king also granted the monastery two important royal estates in the Middle Rhine valley and the region just to its north, one in Dienheim to the south of Mainz, and one in Echzell
Shortly after taking office as the Abbot Baugulf ordered the creation of a list of all monks living in Fulda and its dependent cellae beginning between November 781 and the beginning of January 782 and totaling 364 in all.
These lists (with anyalasis of the names and origins of the monks alongside a incomplete record of books the abbey had access to) suggest that Baugulf busied himself to position Fulda firmly in the outside world, as a royal abbey with strong ties with local landowners, and as a center of holy learning and prayer. These ambitions were also reflected in the new abbey church that was built under his supervision.
In 791 Baugulf commissioned Ratgar (a highly skilled architect who would go on to replace Baugulf in his role as abbot after he resigned from the position in 802) to build a new abbey church. Baugulf resigned as abbot before the church was finished and moved to Wolfsmünster, a cella which he had founded 50 km south of Fulda. The monks then chose Ratgar, the architect, to run their convent. Ratger added a transept to the west of the church. The Gesta abbatum, written in the early tenth century, recounts the order of events as follows: "With honour he [Baugulf] built a sanctuary in the east that admirably was constructed through the efforts of the very energetic man Ratger … Shortly after having accepted the position [of abbot] the third abbot, Ratger, the wise architect, has connected the western sanctuary with the other and has made one church [that was] of miraculous artistry and immense magnitude."