Monastic Institutions Research Articles

Le pergamene dell’ Archivio Capitolare Lateranense (review)

Reviewed by: Le pergamene dell’ Archivio Capitolare Lateranense Uta-Renate Blumenthal Le pergamene dell’ Archivio Capitolare Lateranense. By Louis Duval-Arnould. [Tabularium Lateranense 1, a cura del Capitolo di San Giovanni in Laterano.] (Vatican City: Archivio Capitolare Lateranense. 2010. Pp. 427. €40,00 paperback. ISBN 978-8-890-50470-1.) It is hard to believe that until very recently anyone who wished to consult the documentary archives of the chapter of the Lateran Basilica—built by Emperor Constantine and long the seat of the papacy—had to rely exclusively on two handwritten inventories dating to the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, preserved today as manuscript A.75 and A.31 (pp. 189–220). Paul F. Kehr, his recent successors, and Philippe Lauer had indeed used the archives for their publications in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, but Andreas Rehberg urged as late as 1999 to create at least an inventory for the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century parchments that were kept rolled up in an armario.1 It is very fortunate, therefore, that Louis Duval-Arnould—the former Latin scriptor of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (1969–2003), head of the papal library’s division of manuscripts from 1998 to 2003, and since 1995 a canon of San Giovanni in Laterano as well as prefect of the chapter’s archive—has taken on the arduous task of publishing an inventory of the fond of parchment documents of the Lateran Chapter. The introduction (pp. 7–17) very briefly explains the historical vicissitudes of the Lateran over many centuries. They resulted on the one hand in [End Page 521] enormous losses, one assumes—the earliest document preserved is a copy of a privilege for the chapter of Pope Leo IX—and on the other hand caused a wide dispersal of documents. To complicate matters further, the Lateran Chapter archive also incorporated over the centuries records pertaining to several monasteries that were annexed by San Giovanni in Laterano (Sant’ Andrea in Selci or de Castellis, San Pietro di Ferentillo, Santa Maria della Gloria at Anagni, and Saint-Pierre de Clairac). Also incorporated by the Lateran was a priory of regular canons, San Tommaso in Ascoli. In addition, documents belonging to San Lorenzo ad Sancta Sanctorum in the papal palace were added to the chapter archive (p. 8). It should be noted in the case of Santa Maria della Gloria, absorbed by the Lateran in 1477, that this monastery had earlier annexed in its turn a monastery, Bagnara Calabra. Similarly, Bagnara Calabra had taken over the monastery of Santa Lucia della Montagna in Sicily with its records. Records from all of these monastic institutions are preserved among the documentary materials for San Giovanni in Laterano itself. Yet another illustration of the difficulties that Duval-Arnould encountered is the fact that today one section of the Lateran archive is preserved at the Casa generalizia of the Regular Canons of the Lateran at San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. The other section of the Lateran archive is housed at the Archivio di Stato in Florence. These latter materials had originally been transferred to the monastery of San Bartolomeo dei Rochettini at Fiesole and were moved to Florence after San Bartolomeo was closed. The inventory is divided into three parts—I: Serie Q, pergamene; II: Le raccolte medievali (Codici A. 75 and A.31); and III: Bollario della Chiesa Lateranense, where all papal privileges and other correspondence are inventoried, beginning with the privilege of Pope Leo IX of 1049 or 1050 (no. 1, p. 223) already mentioned and ending with a breve of Pope Paul VI of 1969 (no. 558, p. 340). The author modestly acknowledged the value of the inventory compiled in 1763 by the Benedictine Pier Luigi Galletti, whose classification he praised and maintained (p. 9). This means that all parchments are described in a single series, labeled as ”Q” and divided into subsections by subject matter. The exceptions are papal documents, as previously noted. These are found arranged by date and numbered in part III of the volume called the Bollario (pp. 223–340). Parts I and III will probably be most useful for the modern period, but of particular interest are two medieval inventories published by...

Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence (review)

Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence. By Sharon T. Strocchia. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2009. Pp- xviii, 261. $50.00. ISBN 978-0-801-89292-9.) This book can be considered the mature fruit of an intense literary production on nuns and Italian and European nunneries in the medieval and early-modern periods. For more than twenty years, under the aegis of social history and women's studies, research on female monasteries has emerged from the exclusive circle of studies of ecclesiastical and religious history to become the relevant object of the history of the Ancien Regime.The fortunate encounters between the prevailing socio-anthropological directions of English-speaking historians and Italian, political-institutional historians whose work is concentrated on the history of the city has brought into focus the importance of the monastic institution under the various headings of the history of the family, society, and culture. The book of Sharon T. Strocchia fills a lacuna, focusing on a problem that up to now has been scarcely investigated, such as the work of the nuns and the social relevance exercised by the nunneries in the urban economy. The research, which utilized numerous unedited sources, investigated the Florentine monastic institutions of the fifteenth century. The chronological limits fixed by the author (1348, the year of the Black Death, and 1529-30, the siege of Florence) indicate clearly the intent to examine the proper object of study in the ambit of social and political urban history, considering the importance and role carried out by the nuns in the context of the repopulation and of the economic recovery in the Renaissance period preceding the return of the Medici to the city and the setting up of the Grand Duchy. The volume is divided into five chapters that analyze the following topics in depth: (1) the demographic aspect and the institutional development of female monasteries in the chronological time span indicated; (2) the occupation and redefinition of the urban space through the neighborhood, the extent of the property, and the competition among rival convents; (3) the economy and financial structure of the convents, the rapport between the private and communal property of the nuns, the relation between public finance and monastic property; (4) the role of the labor of the nuns in the ambit of conventual finance and the urban economy, the destination of the production for the market, and the level of professionalization attained by the nuns in silk production, culture, and education; and (5) the discipline of the convents, the open monasteries, and reactions to the obligation of cloister. The picture traced by this articulate volume shows an unedited aspect of the development of female ecclesiastical institutions of the Quattrocento that should necessarily be considered by those who study the religious movements of the Observance and seek to interpret the proliferation of the small groups of tertiaries who lived in community supporting themselves by their own labor. …

Writing Friendship, Mourning the Friend in Late Anglo-Saxon Rules of Confraternity

Mourning the death of a friend posed a problem for late Anglo-Saxon monasticism. Newly reformed under the authority of the Benedictine Rule and the Regularis Concordia, religious were precluded from developing personal friendships so as to protect a world in which all things—including friends—must be held in common. Within this context, two Old English documents, so-called Rules of Confraternity, were inscribed in the early eleventh century into two manuscripts at New Minster, Winchester and Sherborne, establishing provisions for a reciprocal exchange of prayers following a death at a neighboring monastery. However, through scribal amendments and emendations, the Sherborne Rules subtly break apart and reformulate the sense of community upheld in contemporary monastic codes: by liturgically imagining the confraternity as a bond of friendship between two monastic institutions, the Sherborne Rules clear ground for the possibility that one friend might singularly mourn the death of another.

Monks, dinars and date palms: hagiographical production and the expansion of monastic institutions in the early Islamic Persian Gulf

Recent archaeological studies have documented an expansion of monastic institutions in the Persian Gulf after the Islamic conquest, between the middle of the seventh and the end of the eighth centuries. Although the literary sources have often been invoked to support an earlier dating for the diffusion of coenobitic monasticism in the region, our principal source for the phenomenon — the History of Mar Yonan, hitherto misdated to the fourth century — confirms recent archaeologically informed interpretations. The narrative, moreover, provides an insight into the social and economic structures of monasticism in the seventh- and eighth-century Persian Gulf as well as the ideological conflicts that attended the emergence of those structures.

Economic Reconstruction or Corporate Raiding?: The Borisoglebskii Monastery in Torzhok and the Ascription of Monasteries in the 17th Century

In spite of a recent revival of interest in medieval Russian monastic life, the administrative regime of Muscovite monasteries and hermitages and their political and economic aspirations are still incompletely understood. In seeking to counter the negative bias of Soviet-era studies of Russian monasteries, which focus primarily on monastic houses as landholding institutions that exploited their peasants, the Western and newer Russian scholarship has concentrated on the intellectual and cultural life of medieval Russian monasticism and rightfully stressed its spiritual aspects. (1) Due to the paucity of 17th-century sources, however, we still have only a vague understanding of how medieval Russian monasteries interpreted their various economic, political, and spiritual functions and resolved possible tensions among them. While scholars have investigated the rote and function of some of Russia's largest monasteries, such as the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery, the Volokolamsk Monastery, and the Solovetskii Monastery, we lack studies for smaller regional monastic institutions. (2) Our understanding of medieval Russian monastic life is particularly murky for the 17th century, since the Time of Troubles left many of Russia's monastic institutions with their physical infrastructure destroyed or damaged, their servant population killed or dispersed, and even the number of monks severely reduced. Soviet statistical studies testify to the gradual recuperation of Muscovite monasteries in the century following the Troubles in spite of efforts by the tsarist government to curtail the acquisition of new properties by these institutions. (3) Scholars, however, have as yet gained little insight into the day-to-day struggle of individual monastic leaders to rebuild their institutions and the methods they employed to promote the economic expansion of their monasteries. In this context, one of the glaring gaps in our knowledge relates to the economic interactions of medium-sized monastic houses and their even less wealthy counterparts. The following study of the economic activities of the Borisoglebskii Monastery in the provincial town of Torzhok, as evident in property deeds, donation charters, petitions, and royal and ecclesiastical decrees, suggests that after the Time of Troubles the head of this medium-sized Russian monastery employed all traditional means available to place his institution once again on a sound economic footing. In the later 17th century, the Borisoglebskii leaders often functioned as shrewd entrepreneurs who manipulated property deeds to receive sanction for their takeover of smaller monasteries and hermitages. Confronted with resistance from the inhabitants and sponsors of these institutions, at least one Borisoglebskii archimandrite, in his campaign to build a successful spiritual house, was not above twisting the truth and using his influence at the Muscovite court to silence complaints about his ruthless exploitation of newly acquired territories. The Borisoglebskii Monastery and the Time of Troubles The first documentary evidence of the Torzhok Borisoglebskii Monastery, which seemingly dates back to the 12th century, appears in a charter by Ivan III from 6 April 1476, which assigns some of the Borisoglebskii lands to the archbishop of Novgorod. The monastery rose to prominence in the early 16th century when the Muscovite ruler granted it jurisdiction, except in matters of high crime, over the monastery's villages in the Torzhok region (uezd) and over a district in the Torzhok suburb (posad). (4) According to a royal charter dating from 30 January 1535, the grand prince's agents and soldiers were not allowed to enter the monastery's lands or take dues from it, and the monks were exempted from all obligations to provide hospitality or transport for them. (5) The monastery's proximity to the town of Torzhok drew it into the town's politics and made the monks unintended targets during the raids the town experienced during the Time of Troubles. …

‘A monastic ark against the current flood’: the manuscripts of Peter Damian at the Abbey of Montecassino

This article examines the relationship between the erudite hermit Peter Damian (c.1007–1072) and the abbey of Montecassino through a study of the manuscripts of his works housed in the abbey's scriptorium. Damian was a prolific writer and reformer whose ideas on spiritual perfection helped to shape the ideals of the ‘Gregorian Reform’ movement in the eleventh century. Through nurturing important relationships with monasteries such as Montecassino, Damian was able to articulate his ideas on monastic behaviour and how they translated into practice. Damian's correspondence with Montecassino revealed his thoughts on the connection between the eremitic and coenobitic vocations and how monks might ascend the spiritual hierarchy. A study of the manuscripts of Damian's letters reveals how the monks at Montecassino read and responded to those texts which were not only addressed to their community but also to other institutions. Whilst recent studies have informed historians about the nature of the spiritual life at Montecassino in the Middle Ages, and also of certain aspects of Damian's connection with the institution, to date there has been no study of the Damian manuscripts for what they can reveal of this complex spiritual relationship. This article therefore aims to contribute to recent scholarship on this issue whilst also seeking to shed light on the manuscript culture of eleventh-century monastic reform institutions.

The influence of Christianity on medicine from Graeco-Roman times up to the Renaissance

In this overview of the effect of early Christianity on empirical medicine in Graeco-Roman times, it is shown that the first two centuries represented peaceful cooperation, since the Christians saw secular medicine as a legitimate form of supernatural cure and not as magic. Christianity brought caring communities with indiscriminate personalised care for the ill and aged. This ultimately led to the creation of hospitals as we know them today. Monastic institutions appeared which often had hospitals, and provided a degree of medical scholarship. When Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century, the Church Fathers became increasingly authoritarian regarding the practice of medicine which was to be based on their interpretation of Galen. Progressive stagnation of scientific development and medicine specifically, set in. However, during the 5th century Nestorian Christians, fleeing from persecution by the Church, settled in Persia where they initiated a blossoming of medical science during the Golden Age of Islam (8th to 13th centuries), coexisting with the Dark Ages of Medieval Europe. After this period Jewish and Christian doctors reintroduced Arabic versions of the works of the Greek masters from the teaching hospitals of Islam to the young European medical schools at Palermo and Montpellier. The Church which had in the mean time persisted with antiquated dogmas, resented the new teachings from heathen Islam, and responded with reactionary measures against supposed heretics, inter alia by instituting the Inquisition. But after the Reformation and Henry VIII of England’s break with the Vatican, the hegemony of the Church had come apart and Christianity and medicine gradually became realigned according to the realities of the Age of Enlightenment.

The Market Approach to the Rise of the Geluk School, 1419–1642

Religious pluralism characterized Tibetan Buddhism by the eleventh or twelfth century, allowing for the development of many schools and sects with little differentiation in religious products. The early Ming dynasty (1368–1424) saw a significant shift in policy on Tibetan affairs compared to the Mongolian Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). Relative disengagement from Tibet translated into a liberalization of local politics, resulting in a shift from secular politics and clan wealth to ecclesiastical monastic institutions. The Geluk sect formed during this period, introducing superior technology in its organizational characteristics—celibacy, ordained abbots, casuistical adherence, scholastic training, and doctrinal orthodoxy—that distinguished it from other schools and sects. With the loss of its major Tibetan patron, the Gelukpa faced a serious challenge from its fiercest competitor, the Karmapa, and raised the stakes by introducing the incarnate position of the Dalai Lama and his labrang (financial estate). This allowed the Gelukpa to directly compete with the Karmapa for wealthy patrons. By forming an alliance with the Mongols, the Gelukpa were willing to counter violence with violence to become the monopoly religion.

Spiritual Authority: A Buddhist Perspective

Spiritual AuthorityA Buddhist Perspective Shenpen Hookham Whom Do Buddhists Look to for Spiritual Authority? I am taking spiritual authority in this context to refer to those to whom the tradition looks for authoritative guidance in regard to following the spiritual path. They constitute a category of people about whom, other than to recount their life stories and teachings, little has been written, even in traditional sources. Whether we call them saints, enlightened or realized people, yogins, practitioners, or gurus, who they are, exactly, is difficult to define, and yet without them the tradition is spiritually dead. Reginald A. Ray, in his groundbreaking work Buddhist Saints in India (1999),1 points out how such people are and have always been important, both in the early tradition and in the developed tradition, even though their place has never been well defined. As we shall see in the course of this paper, it is perhaps impossible to define. Ray chooses to talk in terms of “saints” when referring to enlightened people, since their spiritual authority stems from their exemplary lives and extraordinary spiritual knowledge and powers. There are, however, degrees of enlightenment and realization, so I am choosing to refer to the whole range as yogins, with Mahāsiddhas at the top end in terms of experience and spiritual authority and “practitioners” at the bottom. The term yogin presupposes a yogic process with a body of knowledge and experience in regard to it. “Enlightenment” or “realization,” the fruit of the yogic process, refers to insight into the true nature of reality, which those with realization embody, giving them their spiritual authority. In this paper I shall be writing in general terms for the whole Buddhist tradition on the basis of many personal and in-depth encounters with yogins in all the main traditions. This is an area in need of much further research, and what I propose to do in this paper is to flag the issues and raise pertinent questions. My particular interest is how spiritual authority is going to work in the future, especially in the West now that the Buddhist tradition is establishing itself here. [End Page 121] The tendency in modern scholarship has been to assume that spiritual authority in Buddhism lies with monastics (especially male monastics), who teach and are supported by laypeople who look to them for spiritual guidance. Ray challenges this assumption, pointing out that, throughout history, the most genuine spiritual authority within the tradition is found in the Buddhist saints. These are the yogins, male or female, possibly living within or outside monastic institutions, following any number of lifestyles, be it as wandering renunciates, hermits, householders, or kings. Ray, therefore, in place of the twofold model of monks and lay supporters, speaks of a need for a threefold model, which includes the saints /yogins. This puts into a broader historical perspective, the modern trend for Western Buddhists to not automatically think of themselves as a laity dependent on the spiritual authority of monks. At the time of the Buddha, spiritual authority rested in him and his enlightened disciples. Ray refers to their lifestyle as that of wandering forest renunciates. Over time, Buddhism followed the same pattern as emerged in Brahmanic society with the forest renunciates settling near towns and villages so that a symbiotic relationship could develop between the monks and their lay supporters. As the Buddhist tradition moved from an oral to a written tradition, the monastery became the place of learning, where the texts were kept and a highly organized and ordered lifestyle could develop within and around the monastery, contrasting markedly with the freer, and presumably more diverse and spontaneous, lifestyles of the forest renunciates. Ray argues that, as the writers of texts and commentaries, the learned monks systematically rewrote the values and orientation of early Buddhism in favor of the settled, ordered, lifestyle of the monasteries, regarding the renunciate lifestyle as an exceptional, if not inferior, option. His point is that, in this way, spiritual authority moved from the enlightened wandering, renunciate teacher, such as the person of the Buddha, to scholar monks within the monastic organizational hierarchy. He argues that, in this way, the...

Zongmi on Chan by Jeffrey Lyle Broughton (review)

78 Journal of Chinese Religions Buddhist monasticism, for the most part, has implied group practice and social interaction, in contradistinction to the sometimes solitary and socially secluded European varieties. As Robson’s introduction points out, monasticism derives from the Greek root “mono” or alone, yet Buddhist monasticism has from the start been an assembly or congregation (Sangha), or as metaphorically defined in the Commentary Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra (Dazhidu lun 大智度 論, T 25.1509.83a7-10) as a “cluster of trees” (in Chinese conglin 叢林). Equally, the Buddhist monastic rules vinayas were formulated in and through the interaction of monks and nuns with lay society, regulating the appropriate types of interactions, not limiting or forbidding them altogether. Misplaced assumptions have strongly influenced the study of Buddhist monasticism and need to be reassessed in light of specific cultural and historical differences. By complicating the traditional views of monks as world-renouncing figures as well as blurring the hard and fast lines between lay and monastic practitioners, the essays compiled here ask us to reevaluate the manner in which we view Buddhist monasticism and monasticism in general. The broad range of essay topics may well illuminate a variety of areas in need of better elucidation, yet at times the lack of a strong and precise thematic thread throughout makes it difficult to discern a clear goal for the volume as a whole. Regardless, by casting a broad net, the editors have brought together a variety of essays that should generate further questions in this area. While this work is relevant for Buddhist Studies, it is also valuable for anyone interested in East Asian culture or in the cross-cultural study of monastic institutions. YIFA, University of the West Zongmi on Chan JEFFREY LYLE BROUGHTON. Translations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. xv, 348 pages. ISBN 978-0-231-14392-9. US$45.00, £26.50 hardcover. In this important new contribution to the field of Chinese Buddhism, Jeffrey Broughton presents translations of two key texts on Chan authored by Guifeng Zongmi 圭峰宗密 (780841 ), one of the most eminent scholar-monks of the Tang 唐 dynasty. The translations are preceded by an introduction providing both context for the works and a summary of their contents. Book Reviews 79 The first text, known both as Zhonghua chuanxindi Chanmen shizi chengxi tu 中華傳心 地禪門師資承襲圖 and Pei Xiu shiyi wen 裴休拾遺問, is here titled the Chan Letter. The text began as an epistolary exchange between Zongmi and his closest lay disciple, the eminent official Pei Xiu (791-864), which accounts for the different versions of the title. Pei Xiu’s initial query stems from his observation that there are several different lineages of Chan, and his desire to understand “which are shallow and which profound” (p. 70). He asks Zongmi to write him a guide to four Chan lineages: the Northern, the Niutou 牛頭, and within the Southern lineage, the Hongzhou 洪州 and Heze 荷澤 sub-lines. In his response, Zongmi provides an historical summary of each line, and then evaluates their profundity. Zongmi himself was a member of the Heze lineage, and therefore presents its teachings as the pinnacle of Chan, characterized by an emphasis on “Knowing” (zhi 知). To clarify the distinctions between these approaches, Zongmi employs the simile of a clear jewel that reflects its surroundings, explaining how each lineage misunderstands the relationship between the jewel and the reflected colors. Only the Heze lineage correctly perceives the reflectivity of the jewel, and that colors are the manifestations of its innate brightness (p. 92). As it becomes clear in subsequent sections of the text, Zongmi knew that Pei Xiu was drawn to Hongzhou teachings and wanted to promote his own lineage in its stead. While in part this may have been a sectarian struggle over a prominent lay supporter, Broughton argues in his introduction that Zongmi likely saw Hongzhou as tending too far toward the “rhetoric of the original nature” with not enough emphasis on gradual practice (p. 20). The second text, the Chan Prolegomenon (Chanyuan zhuquanji duxu 禪源諸詮集都序) also concerns the classification of different Chan lineages, but because Zongmi is addressing a wider audience here his tone is less polemical. He also evaluates a greater number of Chan lineages. His...

Évêché et monastères dans le Gévaudan du haut Moyen Âge

Bishopric and Monasteries in Gévaudan during the Early Middle Ages. A reexamination of available sources for the early Middle Ages in Gévaudan allows us to question the territorial consequences of the implantation of Christianism in the city of the Gabales. The first one was the transfer from the capital of Javols, the ancient city, to Mende. Thanks to hagiographical sources in particular, the transfer can be dated to the period between the end of the 6th Century and the 8th Century, and it is possible to reject several hypotheses including that of the temporary seat of the bishopric at Banassac. The change in the center of the city of the Gabales was in large part due to the cult of the martyr Saint Privat which was concentrated in the vicus of Mende. On the scale of the rest of the diocese, the foundation of monastic establishments is the clearest sign of the new organization of space. Analysis of hagiographical sources permits the identification of these monasteries such as that of Saint Hilaire, in the gorges of the Tarn River as well the rejection of the origins of others such as that of Saint Enimie which is probably to be linked to the Peace of God. These sources thus show us the process of reorganization of space around new political and religious centers which gave birth to medieval Gévaudan.

Animating Objects: Tsukumogami ki and the Medieval Illustration of Shingon Truth

Tsukumogami are animate household objects. An otogizoshi (companion tale) titled Tsukumogami ki of specters; Muromachi period) explains that after a service life of nearly one hundred years, utsuwamono or kibutsu (containers, tools, and instruments) receive souls. While many references are made to this work as a major source for the definition of tsukumogami, insufficient attention has been paid to the actual text of Tsukumogami ki. The work is entertaining, and I believe that the principal motivation of the author(s) in writing it was to spread the doctrines of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism to a variety of audiences, ranging from the educated to the relatively unsophisticated, by capitalizing upon pre-existing spiritual beliefs in tsukumogami. In this article I examine Tsukumogami ki and the popular practices and beliefs that are reflected in its text and illustrations. A complete translation of the work is included as an online supplement to this issue of the JJRS, at www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/jjrsMain.htm. KEYWORDS: tsukumogami-otogizoshi-discarded objects-parodies-Shingon Buddhism-sokushin jobutsu (ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) THE RECENT pop culture boom in yokai ... (monsters) in Japan has brought about renewed interest in various native supernatural creatures, among which are tsukumogami ..., or tool Although animate tools appear sporadically in the literature of the late Heian period (794- 1185), the application of the name tsukumogami to animate objects is largely a medieval phenomenon, and portrayals and descriptions of tsukumogami increase notably in works of the medieval and Edo periods.1 According to a text entitled Tsukumogami ki ... (Record of specters) dated to the Muromachi period (1336-1573), after a span of one hundred years utsuwamono or kibutsu ... (containers, tools, and instruments) receive souls, and, like all things with individual souls, develop independent spirits and thus became prone to tricking people. These spirits are called tsukumogami. Resentful after having been abandoned by the human masters whom they so loyally served, the tools and utensils in Tsukumogami ki become vengeful and murderous specters. With imperial and Buddhist support, however, the wayward spirits learn to repent their malevolent ways, enter lives of religious service, and, in the end, attain Buddhahood through the Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism. The text emphasizes that the Shingon teachings enable even such nonsentient beings as tools and containers to attain enlightenment. While many references are made to this text as a major source for the definition of tsukumogami, due attention has not been paid to the actual text of Tsukumogami ki. The tsukumogami story belongs to a genre called otogizoshi ..., or companion tales-short stories written from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century for the purpose of both entertainment and moral or religious edification.2 Befitting the otogizoshi genre, the story, while quite amusing, is markedly religious in tone. The Shingon tradition developed a sophisticated materialist cosmology, but outside the monastic institutions and the highly trained and educated few, the philosophy of objects was probably not so easily accessible or understandable to even the elite, let alone the majority of the medieval population. Komatsu Kazuhiko (1994, 338) writes that the text could have been employed to enhance Shingon Buddhist power. Indeed, I argue that the text was more than likely created to (re)claim Shingon's influence by highlighting the notion of sokushin jobutsu ... (realizing buddhahood in this very body), as exemplified in the case of Kukai ... (774-835), and asserting that the Shingon teachings enable even such nonsentient beings (hijo ..., mujo ...) as tools and containers to attain enlightenment. Texts and Summary of Tsukumogami ki The Tsukumogami ki3 story appears in a number of extant manuscripts with titles such as Hijo jobutsu emaki . …

Saints and Animals in the Middle Ages (review)

Reviewed by: Saints and Animals in the Middle Ages Joyce E. Salisbury Saints and Animals in the Middle Ages. By Dominic Alexander. (Rochester, NY: Boydell Press. 2008. Pp. x, 200. $95.00. ISBN 978-1-843-83394-9.) What do accounts of miraculous interactions between holy people and animals mean? This question has engaged generations of scholars, and Dominic Alexander enters this discussion with a work that retells many stories of wonders involving saints, animals, and the society that surrounds them. The originality of this book lies in its use of primarily Irish works to develop a thesis (not clearly stated at the beginning) that argues that Irish society produced a "hybrid tradition" that added folk stories involving animals to standard Christian motifs. Most previous scholars have argued that saint/animal tales portray one of two themes: either they demonstrate Christian dominance over nature or they show empathy with animals. Alexander claims that identifying folktales that were incorporated into saints' lives allows a more nuanced interpretation that replaces the two previous ones. It is not clear that the thesis is fully proven, but the journey through the analysis is fascinating. To be convinced, a reader would have to accept the identification of some themes as emerging from an ancient oral folk culture, a claim that is hard to prove. Two examples of such folk motifs are resurrecting dead geese and the importance of sacred space. Maybe these do derive from ancient folktales, but even if they do not, the discussion of their use in saints' lives offers interesting insights. In the first two chapters the author describes the earliest accounts of the interaction between saints and animals from the patristic age and the desert traditions. Chapter 3 tells how the stories of saint-animal interaction were expressed in northern Europe, in wildernesses that became dominated by [End Page 790]monastic institutions. These chapters skillfully re-create the state of knowledge on the subject. With chapter 4, "The Irish Variant," the author begins the original contribution to the field that continues through the rest of the book. This chapter establishes the Irish tradition that Alexander argues shows the strongest penetration of folk motifs into the dominant tradition. Alexander follows up with another excellent chapter on the tradition of resurrected geese in the sources. This chapter is less an analysis of animals and saints than a model of how to do a close reading of texts. Chapter 6, "The Hermit and the Hunter," continues the description of folk themes begun in the previous chapter showing how stories of animals saved from hunters also reveal the social concerns of peasant folk. Chapter 7, "The Holy Wilderness," is a skillful essay on the sacred space of Farne Island, and it serves as a fine introduction to chapter 8, which ties together the themes explored in the previous four chapters, making the case for the blend of folklore and patristic tradition. The book concludes with the thirteenth-century accounts of St. Francis and his animals. The last chapter is the weakest since it introduces material and arguments not developed fully earlier in the work. The book's strengths lie in the author's grasp of the texts and his detailed analysis. It would have been stronger with a tighter—and bolder—statement of thesis. Indeed, many of the best insights are left in the footnotes (for example, 4n12 and 37n80). However, Alexander has presented a work that should stimulate further thinking on the ever-fascinating study of the relationship between humans and animals. Joyce E. Salisbury University of Wisconsin, Green Bay Copyright © 2009 The Catholic University of America Press

VIII. Godefridus cognomento alemannus. Die Kollegiatkirche Saint-Quiriace und der Grafenhof zu Provins im Spiegel fingierter Privilegien eines katharischen Kanzleinotars und Juristen

Article VIII. Godefridus cognomento alemannus. Die Kollegiatkirche Saint-Quiriace und der Grafenhof zu Provins im Spiegel fingierter Privilegien eines katharischen Kanzleinotars und Juristen was published on August 1, 2009 in the journal Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung (volume 95, issue 1).

The Unintended Consequences of a Surge in Orthodox Pilgrimages in Late Imperial Russia

AbstractBased on archival materials, this article explores the ways in which the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Monastery and Solovetskii monasteries at the turn of the twentieth century dealt with the challenges of serving increasing numbers of pilgrims, which ranged from security to public relations. Intent upon maintaining the strict regimens of their communities and raising the spiritual and national identities of worshipers, the abbots unsuccessfully tried to control pilgrims and pilgrimages. Individuals continued to flock to monastic institutions to satisfy their own spiritual and physical needs, bringing with them their human flaws and frailties.

Orden und Klöster im Zeitalter von Reformation und katholischer Reform, 1500–1700 (review)

Reviewed by: Orden und Klöster im Zeitalter von Reformation und katholischer Reform, 1500–1700 Dennis Martin Orden und Klöster im Zeitalter von Reformation und katholischer Reform, 1500–1700, Band 3. Edited by Friedhelm Jürgensmeier and Regina Elisabeth Schwerdtfeger. [Katholisches Leben und Kirchenreform im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung, Heft 67.] (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag. 2007. Pp. 240. €22,80. ISBN 978-3-402-11085-0.) This final volume of a well-conceived and skillfully executed overview of religious orders within German lands during the Reformation era covers the Praemonstratensians (men and women), Augustinian Canons, Augustinian Canonesses, Williamite Hermits, Celestines, Antonite Hospitalers, Conventual Franciscans, Observant Franciscans, and Capuchins. Sadly, an article on Dominican nuns failed to materialize (Dominican friars were covered in volume 2). Volume 1 was reviewed in ante, XCII (July 2006), 315–17, and volume 2 in XCIV (January 2008), 216–17. The longest chapters are given over to the Franciscan Observants and Capuchins. The former represent the only order that came out of the Reformation period larger and more widespread than it was in 1500 (c. 163 houses in 1500, c. 132 in 1555, c. 201 in 1648, and c. 260 in 1700). The chapter on the Observants underscores the strength of their role in resisting the attacks on monasticism in the 1520s and resisting Protestantism in general (p. 188ff.), whereas many other orders saw wholesale defections. The Capuchins, founded in the 1520s and 1530s in Italy, also experienced remarkable growth in German-speaking regions from the later sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Strikingly, the Observant upswing especially gained momentum late in the Thirty Years' War as the Observants moved into areas retaken by the Catholic armies, most significantly in the Saxon province (pp. 200–01). [End Page 815] The editors' foreword looks back over the three volumes and draws a balance sheet: in 1500, approximately 2550 houses of men and women religious existed in the German regions. By the mid-1600s, c. 1350 houses remained, to which may be added ninety-three Protestant women's houses (Damenstifte). In other words, about 1200 houses were dissolved during the Reformation era (a few of these were victims of the Turkish advance in the East and other vicissitudes). The valuable maps, one after the other, illustrate graphically the primary source of the losses, as in map after map, white space replaces a landscape once dotted with monastic establishments in the heartland of the Protestant movement in the area from Saxony north to the Baltic and in the northern Netherlands, contrasting with the ongoing, thickly populated religious order landscape along the Rhine Valley and in Westphalia and the more mixed picture in Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia, the Main River basin, and Switzerland. The "clean sweep" phenomenon is seen most clearly in the maps of the Cistercian nuns (vol. 1), the Augustinian Canons, and the Augustinian Canonesses (including Windesheim Congregation, vol. 3). But the story told in these volumes does not deal merely with losses. Approximately 700–800 new foundations were made in the Catholic regions of the Empire from the mid-1500s to about 1700. Here the new orders (Ursulines, vol. 1; Congregatio Jesu or Mary Ward Sisters, vol. 2; Jesuits, vol. 2; Discalced Carmelites, vol. 2; Poor Clares, vol. 2; Capuchins, vol. 3) are most prominent but also appearing are Franciscan Observants (vol. 3), which had an "astonishing development" (p. 8). The Capuchins made so many new foundations that a separate map was required to chart them all. Surprisingly, as the editors note, a survey of the valuable bibliographies appended to each chapter throughout the three volumes indicates that the relationship of the religious orders to the Council of Trent remains inadequately studied. Not every chapter follows the set roster of topics more characteristic of the earlier volumes, but nonetheless, most chapters contain some information about spirituality and educational levels alongside the external fortunes of the various orders. The very interesting Williamites were given space disproportionate to the order's minuscule size. Human interest tidbits abound, such as the early-seventeenth-century Praemonstratensian abbot who was a "theologian, mathematician, organ-builder, and technician" (p. 12). The book concludes with an alphabetical listing of the chapters of all three volumes...

The Governance of Benedictine Abbeys from an Economic Perspective

Compared to other institutions, Benedictine monasteries show an extraordinary stability. We use a dataset of all Benedictine abbeys that ever existed in Bavaria, Baden-W?rttemberg and German-speaking Switzerland to determine their lifespan and the reasons that led to their closures. The studied monasteries show an average lifetime of almost 500 years and only a quarter of them dissolved as a result of agency problems. Governance mechanisms are then analyzed in detail. We argue that the success of Benedictine monasteries is due to an appropriate governance structure that strongly relies on internal control mechanisms. By analyzing monasteries from an economic perspective, a new approach is offered to understand these monastic institutions and their role as pioneers of governance. The theoretical foundations are based upon principal agency theory, psychological economics, as well as embeddedness theory.

The development of financial management and control in monastic houses and estates in England c. 1200–1540

This paper traces developments in the financial management and control of monastic houses and their estates in England in the later Middle Ages, and seeks to identify the factors which lay behind these developments. It draws upon ecclesiastical, economic and accounting history literature. It finds first that this period of monastic history is not as uneventful as sometimes depicted; and second that previous accounting history studies have focused largely on the agency relationship between the lord and the steward responsible for the management of agricultural properties, whereas the network of accountability and information flows in monastic establishments was more complex. Furthermore, the impetus for accounting change was more diverse than is often portrayed. A large variety of possible factors existed: these were not mutually exclusive and may have acted to reinforce each other. This paper concludes that there is a need for more detailed research at the micro-level on individual monastic houses to reconstruct and explain the evolution of their accounting and management techniques and processes.

Tradition and imagination in the creation of a new monastic model in contemporary Hispanic America

From an anthropological and historical perspective, and focusing mainly on the Argentinean situation, this article analyses Catholic male monasticism in Hispanic America, with the particular objective of evaluating the crisis, religious change and monastic imagination identified in contemporary Benedictine communities. It is argued that imagination, as a process of symbol production, has been intrinsically related to the practice of a new monastic spirituality; it has in fact been the force behind the appearance of religious experiences ideologically anchored in early Christian traditions. Empirical data on the Benedictine Order in Argentina suggests that at least three models of consecrated life can be identified in twentieth century Hispanic America, namely, the ministerial model, the social model and the patristic model. Research leads to the conclusion that these paradigms emerged through processes of imagination applied to the reinvention of tradition – creatively but, also, conservatively – in a global context in which both the monastic institution and society face changing demands.

Trade and handicrafts in the urban areas in the political circumstances of the 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract : Moldavia’s economy during the 17th and the 18th centuries it’s more and more affected by the needs of the suzerain power which consolidates its position as a primordial pole in the orientation of the productive activities. The requests of The Ottoman Porte (concerning grain, cattle and other animal products) which are growing as they try to keep the integrity of the empire, impose a more important role for the grain and cattle forming economy in the area between the Carpathians and the Danube. A consequence of this reality is the birth of the great boyard’s and monastic estates, a process which began a century before, having many consequences on the economy in general and especially on the limitation of the processing degree of some raw materials. The importance of the Romanian Countries for the Ottoman Empire in this context, the underestimation of the Romanian products sold on the Ottoman market, paying in nature (grain and cattle) some debts of some voivodes, or for the annual tribute paid to the Porte, plus the needs of the Ottoman army hired in different military missions, all these made the court and the suzerain power to be both interested in expanding the feudal estates that will produce for satisfying the Empire. This situation will become permanent during the 17th century, manifesting itself more significantly during the following century.