Women and Monastic Reform in the Medieval West, C. 1000 - 1500

Women and Monastic Reform in the Medieval West, C. 1000 - 1500 PDF Author: Julie Hotchin
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1837650497
Category : Monastic and religious life of women
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
New approaches to understanding religious women's involvement in monastic reform, demonstrating how women's experiences were more ambiguous and multi-layered than previously assumed. Over the last two decades, scholarship has presented a more nuanced view of women's attitude to and agency in medieval monastic reform, challenging the idea that they were, by and large, unwilling to accept or were necessarily hostile towards reform initiatives. Rather, it has shown that they actively participated in debates about the ideas and structures that shaped their religious lives, whether rejecting, embracing, or adapting to calls for "reform" contingent on their circumstances. Nevertheless, fundamental questions regarding the gendered nature of religious reform are ripe for further examination. This book brings together innovative research from a range of disciplines to re-evaluate and enlarge our knowledge of women's involvement in spiritual and institutional change in female monastic communities over the period c. 1000 - c. 1500. Contributors revise conventional narratives about women and monastic reform, and earlier assumptions of reform as negative or irrelevant for women. Drawing on a diverse array of visual, material and textual sources, it presents "snapshots" of reform from western Europe, stretching from Ireland to Iberia. Case-studies focussing on a number of different topics, from tenth-century female saints' lives to fifteenth-century liturgical books, from the tenth-century Leominster prayerbook to archaeological remains in Ireland, from embroideries and tapestries to the rebellious nuns of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers, offer a critical reappraisal of how monastic women (and their male associates) reflected, individually and collectively, on their spiritual ideals and institutional forms.

Women and Monastic Reform in the Medieval West, C. 1000 - 1500

Women and Monastic Reform in the Medieval West, C. 1000 - 1500 PDF Author: Julie Hotchin
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1837650497
Category : Monastic and religious life of women
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book

Book Description
New approaches to understanding religious women's involvement in monastic reform, demonstrating how women's experiences were more ambiguous and multi-layered than previously assumed. Over the last two decades, scholarship has presented a more nuanced view of women's attitude to and agency in medieval monastic reform, challenging the idea that they were, by and large, unwilling to accept or were necessarily hostile towards reform initiatives. Rather, it has shown that they actively participated in debates about the ideas and structures that shaped their religious lives, whether rejecting, embracing, or adapting to calls for "reform" contingent on their circumstances. Nevertheless, fundamental questions regarding the gendered nature of religious reform are ripe for further examination. This book brings together innovative research from a range of disciplines to re-evaluate and enlarge our knowledge of women's involvement in spiritual and institutional change in female monastic communities over the period c. 1000 - c. 1500. Contributors revise conventional narratives about women and monastic reform, and earlier assumptions of reform as negative or irrelevant for women. Drawing on a diverse array of visual, material and textual sources, it presents "snapshots" of reform from western Europe, stretching from Ireland to Iberia. Case-studies focussing on a number of different topics, from tenth-century female saints' lives to fifteenth-century liturgical books, from the tenth-century Leominster prayerbook to archaeological remains in Ireland, from embroideries and tapestries to the rebellious nuns of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers, offer a critical reappraisal of how monastic women (and their male associates) reflected, individually and collectively, on their spiritual ideals and institutional forms.

Medieval Women Religious, C. 800-C. 1500

Medieval Women Religious, C. 800-C. 1500 PDF Author: Kimm Curran
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1837650292
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
A multi-disciplinary re-evaluation of the role of women religious in the Middle Ages, both inside and outside the cloister. Medieval women found diverse ways of expressing their religious aspirations: within the cloister as members of monastic and religious orders, within the world as vowesses, or between the two as anchorites. Via a range of disciplinary approaches, from history, archaeology, literature, and the visual arts, the essays in this volume challenge received scholarly narratives and re-examine the roles of women religious: their authority and agency within their own communities and the wider world; their learning and literacy; place in the landscape; and visual culture. Overall, they highlight the impact of women on the world around them, the significance of their presence in communities, and the experiences and legacies they left behind.

Women and Monasticism in Medieval Europe

Women and Monasticism in Medieval Europe PDF Author: Constance H Berman
Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications
ISBN: 1580445179
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
A selection of documents, translated primarily from medieval Latin but occasionally from Old French, that shows how religious women and their patrons managed resources to make monastic communities - particularly a variety of Cistercian communities - work. The records help us reconstruct how nuns and abbesses of Cistercian communities in the thirteenth century organized and kept records, managed their properties, responded to attempts at usurpation, and balanced their lives between devotional practices, which were part of their cloistered world, and family and social responsibilities beyond the convent walls.

Women's Monasticism and Medieval Society

Women's Monasticism and Medieval Society PDF Author: Bruce L. Venarde
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501717243
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
In this engaging work, Bruce L. Venarde uncovers a largely unknown story of women's religious lives and puts female monasticism back in the mainstream of medieval ecclesiastical history. To chart the expansion of nunneries in France and England during the central Middle Ages, he presents statistics and narratives to describe growth in broad historical contexts, with special attention to social and economic change. Venarde explains that in the years 1000–1300 the number of nunneries within Europe grew tenfold. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, religious institutions for women developed in a variety of ways, mostly outside the self-conscious reform movements that have been the traditional focus of monastic history. Not reforming monks but wandering preachers, bishops, and the women and men of local petty aristocracies made possible the foundation of new nunneries. In times of increased agrarian wealth, decentralization of power, and a shortage of potential spouses, many women decided to become nuns and proved especially adept at combining spiritual search with practical acumen. This era of expansion came to an end in the thirteenth century when forces of regulation and new economic realities reduced radically the number of new nunneries. Venarde argues that the factors encouraging and inhibiting monastic foundations for men and women were much more similar than scholars have previously assumed.

Convent Chronicles

Convent Chronicles PDF Author: Anne Winston-Allen
Publisher: Penn State University Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
The fifteenth century was a time of intense religious ferment in Europe marked by countless calls for reform of the Church.

Ordering Women’s Lives

Ordering Women’s Lives PDF Author: Julie Ann Smith
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351913549
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This book takes an innovative approach to the study of the penitentials and nunnery rules and the ways in which these texts impinged upon the lives of female audiences. The study emphasises the importance of the texts for the promotion of Christian values and of the expectations of churchmen in the construction of appropriate Christian behaviour for women in the early medieval West. These texts constitute the only written works which would have had direct influence upon the lives of lay and religious women. The work focuses upon the elements of the penitentials which provided female-specific expectations, and these fall largely into two categories of sexuality and pre-Christian practices. The nunnery rules seldom provided comprehensive sets of behavioural expectations. Rather, rules emphasised expectations relating to issues of enclosure, work and abstinence which came to be perceived as the defining characteristics of religious women.

Woman Under Monasticism

Woman Under Monasticism PDF Author: Lina Eckenstein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
Ch. 1 Introduction\Section 1: The Borderland Heathendom and Christianity\Section 2: The Tribal goddess as a Christian Saint\Section 3: Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint\Ch. 2 Covents Among the Franks, A.D. 550-650\Section 1: At the Franish Invasion\Section 2: St. Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers\Section 3: The Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers, Covent Life in the North\Ch. 3 Convents Among the Anglo-Saxon, A.D. 630-730\Section 1: Early Houses of Kent\Section 2: The Monastery at Whitby\Section 3: Ely and the Influence of Bishop Wilfrith\Section 4: Houses in Mercia and in the South\Ch. 4 Anglo-Saxon Nuns in Connection with Boniface\Section 1 : The Women Corresponding with Boniface\Section 2: Anglo-Saxon Nuns Abroad\Ch. 5 Convents in Saxon Lands Between A.D. 800-1000\Section 1: Women's Convents in Saxony\Section 2: Early History of Gandersheim\Section 3: The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings.\Ch. 6 The Monastic Revival of the Middle Ages\Section 1: The New Monastic Orders\Section 2: Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century\Section 3: The Order of St. Gilbert of Sempringham\Ch. 7 Art Industries in the Nunery\Section 1: Art industires Generaly\Section 2: Herrad and the Garden of Delights\Ch. 8 Prophecy and Philanthropy\Section 1. St. Hildegard of Bingen and St. Elisabeth of Schonau\Section 2: Charity and Philanthropy\Ch. 9 Early Mystic Literature\Section 1: Mystic Writings for Women in England\Section 2: The convent of Helfta and its Literay Nuns.\Ch. 10 Some Aspects of the Convent in England During the Later Middle Ages\Section 1: The External Relations of the Convent\Section 2: The Internal Arrangements of the Convent\Section 3: the Foundation and Internal Arrangements of Sion\Ch. 11 Monastic Reform Previous to the Reformation\Section 1: Visitations of Nunneries in England\Section 2: Reforms in Germany\Ch. 12 The dissolution\Section 1: The Dissolution in England\Section 2: The Memoir of Charitas Pirckheimer\Conclusion.

Thomas of Eccleston's de Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam

Thomas of Eccleston's de Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam PDF Author: Michael J. P. Robson
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1837650624
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
An indispensable guide to the earliest contemporary account of the Franciscan Order in England.Known as Friars Minor, Franciscans or Greyfriars, the followers of St Francis of Assisi pioneered a new type of religious life, moving beyond the monastic cloister. Their ministry was to bring the Gospel to life through example, preaching, gesture, drama, music and poetry. Founded in 1209, the movement became rapidly popular and spread widely across Europe.By around 1257 there were 49 communities In England, housing some 1,242 friars. The story of the Franciscans' arrival, and the growth of the Order up until c.1257/1258, is related by the chronicler Thomas of Eccleston In his De Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam. The story is not untroubled: for example, Eccleston does not shy away from the painful controversies of the later 1230s, when there were deep divisions about the exercise of authority in the Order. He was disturbed by some developments in the Order and showed his support for caution in the schools and in relation to building, at a time when friars were exposed to searching criticisms. The chronological account is accompanied by exemplum materials which illuminate the friars' preaching and teaching, and by a gallery of virtuous individual friars.This book is the first full-length study of the text, examining it in detail, and providing a careful elucidation.relation to building, at a time when friars were exposed to searching criticisms. The chronological account is accompanied by exemplum materials which illuminate the friars' preaching and teaching, and by a gallery of virtuous individual friars.This book is the first full-length study of the text, examining it in detail, and providing a careful elucidation.relation to building, at a time when friars were exposed to searching criticisms. The chronological account is accompanied by exemplum materials which illuminate the friars' preaching and teaching, and by a gallery of virtuous individual friars.This book is the first full-length study of the text, examining it in detail, and providing a careful elucidation.relation to building, at a time when friars were exposed to searching criticisms. The chronological account is accompanied by exemplum materials which illuminate the friars' preaching and teaching, and by a gallery of virtuous individual friars.This book is the first full-length study of the text, examining it in detail, and providing a careful elucidation.

Medieval Monasticism

Medieval Monasticism PDF Author: C.H. Lawrence
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000955885
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
Medieval Monasticism traces the Western Monastic tradition from its fourth-century origins in the deserts of Egypt and Syria through the many and varied forms of religious life it assumed during the Middle Ages. It explores the relationship between monasteries and the secular world around them. For a thousand years, the great monastic houses and religious orders were a prominent feature of the social landscape of the West, and their leaders figured as much in the political as on the spiritual map of the medieval world. In this book many of them, together with their supporters and critics, are presented to us and speak their minds to us. We are shown, for instance, the controversy between the Benedictines and the reformed monasticism of the twelfth century and the problems that confronted women in religious life. A detailed glossary offers readers a helpful vocabulary of the subject. This fifth edition has been revised by Janet Burton to include an updated bibliography and an introduction which discusses recent trends in monastic studies, including reinterpretations of issues of reform and renewal, new scholarship on religious women, and interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. This book is essential reading for both students and scholars of the medieval world.

Religious Conflict at Canterbury Cathedral in the Late Twelfth Century

Religious Conflict at Canterbury Cathedral in the Late Twelfth Century PDF Author: James Barnaby
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1783277661
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
The first comprehensive study of a bitter dispute which occupied the archbishops and monks of Canterbury throughout the 1180s and 1190s. For fifteen years the monks of Christ Church Canterbury waged a war against their archbishop, over a plan to build a church to provide funds for their administration, dedicated to Thomas Becket. Fearing the loss of their most beloved (and lucrative) saint to this new institution, the monks embarked on a course of action which saw rioting in the streets of Canterbury, their excommunication, and the cathedral placed under siege by the archbishop. Although at first glance an internal dispute between the archbishop and his cathedral chapter, it had a wide-ranging impact. The monks travelled thousands of miles in support of their cause, enlisting the backing of popes, cardinals, and the elites of Europe. In England, the kings during the period took a personal interest in the dispute, sometimes attempting to resolve it and sometimes hindering any chance of peace. This book, the first full account of the conflict, draws on the huge collection of letters it provoked (one of the largest compiled in the twelfth century), alongside other sources such as monastic culture, to offer a detailed narrative of this complicated feud between Archbishops Baldwin of Forde, Hubert Walter and their cathedral monks; it also considers the continuations of the dispute in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In addition, it analyses the key themes of the conflict: the role of royalty, travel, and the deployment of Thomas Becket.