Carthusians during the Reformation Era: Cartusia nunquam deformata, reformari resistens

Abstract

CARTHUSIANS DURING THE REFORMATION ERA: CARTUSIA NUNQUAM DEFORMATA, REFORMAR! RESISTENS BY Dennis D. Martin* At least since Hubert Jedin and Joseph Lortz,1 based on the work ofJoseph Greven and others,2 gave high marks to die Cardiusians for their role during the Catholic Reformation, this most silent and leastknown of monastic orders has been the subject of occasional and passing attention in literature on the Reformation era.3 Carthusian studies specialists, aware that the cliché "Cartusia nunquam reformata, quoniam nunquam deformata,"4 represents an ideal no human organization could ever live up to, have on occasion tilted in die opposite direction, going out of their way to find instances of laxity within the Order. The present study surveys what happened inside and outside the Cardiusian Order during the sixteenth century. On balance, the present writer can only conclude that the "nunquam deformata" label was well deserved. Carthusians bowed to external political pressure in regions that became Protestant, but, with few exceptions they submitted only under duress. In many instances their loyalty to the "old *Mr. Martin is an assistant professor of theology in Loyola University Chicago. He presented a shorter version of this article at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in October, 1992. A summary of its conclusions, minus the documentation found here, will appear in the Encyclopedia of the Reformation, ed. Hans Hillerbrand (New York, 1995). 'Hubert Jedin, Geschichte des Konzils von Trient, Vol. 1 : Der Kampf um das Konzil (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1 949), pp. 143—1 45;Joseph Lortz, TheReformation in Germany, trans, from the 1949 German edition by Ronald Walls (London, 1968; New York, 1968), esp. vol. 1, pp. 105-106 (where he incorrectly claims the Order had 230 houses on the eve of the Reformation), 412; vol. 1, pp. 150—156. zJoseph Greven, Die kölner Kartause und die Anfänge der katholischen Reform in Deutschland, edited by Wilhelm Neuss ("Katholisches Leben und Kämpfen im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung," Vol. 6 [Münster, 1935]). 'E.g., Erfurt: Robert W. Scribner, "Civic Unity and the Reformation in Erfurt," Past and Present, No. 66 (1975), 29-60. 4For the supposed seventeenth-century origins of this phrase, see the summary by Giovanni Leoncini, "Cartusia nunquam reformata: Spiritualità eremítica fra Trecento e Quattrocento," Studi medievali, 29 (1988), 561-586, at 561, n. 1. 41 42CARTHUSIANS DURING THE REFORMATION ERA faith" was heroic. To be sure, they also produced some outstanding individual "apostates." But these exceptions only confirm the rule. I. The Carthusians in the Late Middle Ages The Carthusian Order5 traces its origins to 1082—1084,6 when Bruno of Cologne,7 a cathedral canon and head of the schools at Reims, left his prestigious positions in the wake of the Gregorian reform party's failed efforts to eliminate ecclesiastical corruption in the diocese. He and six companions eventually found themselves in the Alpine wilderness near Grenoble, where Bishop Hugh of Grenoble welcomed them and helped them establish a monastery that became known as the La Chartreuse (later the "Grande Chartreuse"). Their aim was to live a very simple, primitive monastic life along the lines of that lived by the Desert Fathers but retaining elements of the common life as it had developed in western monasticism. They drew on the statutes of the canons regular of St. Ruf near Avignon, the home community of two of the seven companions, as well as the Rule of St. Benedict and the writings ofJerome. To ensure that their strict regimen (one meal a day from the Ides of September to Easter, with a strict fast on bread, water, and salt three days a week throughout the year; no meat under any circumstances whatsoever; refusal to receive lay guests of any sort and limited hospitality even for monastic guests; weekly rather than 5A general introduction to modern Carthusian life is Robin Bruce Lockhart, Halfway to Heaven (New York, 1985). No single-volume scholarly history of the Order exists; among the best historical introductions are lexicon articles in Dizionario degli fstituti di Perfezioni ("Certosine" and "Certosini") and Dictionnaire de Spiritualité ("Chartreux ") or the first part of E. Margaret Thompson's book, The Carthusian Order in England (London, 1930). For an exposition of...