Monastic Reform Research Articles

Women and Monastic Reform in the Medieval West, c. 1000–1500: Debating Identities, Creating Communities ed. by Julie Hotchin and Jirki Thibaut (review)

Women and Monastic Reform in the Medieval West, c. 1000–1500: Debating Identities, Creating Communities ed. by Julie Hotchin and Jirki Thibaut (review)

The Sacrifice of Isaac Capitals at Sainte-Foy at Conques and Saint-Seurin at Bordeaux

The period between 1080 and 1160 saw an explosion in monastic construction throughout Western Europe. The textual sources from this period document this building boom and explicitly tie construction and refurbishment to monastic reform and the creation of spaces for spiritual renewal. Newly built or remodeled monasteries and churches were richly decorated with wall paintings and monumental sculpture and inscriptions. A new form of sculpture emerged during this period of increased construction—the historiated capital. Despite their small size, capitals in the eleventh and twelfth centuries were frequently decorated with figures of humans or animals, and these images usually referred to a narrative, with lapidary inscriptions serving as commentary to the images. This article will compare two capitals depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac to consider how location and movement around the capitals direct the interpretation and understanding of the narrative scenes and accompanying epigraphy. One capital is in the narthex of Saint-Seurin at Bordeaux, while the other is in the choir of Sainte-Foy at Conques. My analysis involves making connections between the location of the capital within the architectural space and its relationship to other sculpted imagery, monastic interpretations of their spaces, and the liturgical events that took place within those spaces.

Die nie in Druck erschienene Hannover Apokalypse

Abstract Of the rhyming Apocalypse, which may have been written in Westphalia at the end of the thirteenth century, two abbreviated versions were made in North German monasteries in the fifteenth century, which were regularly used in the context of monastic reforms. A text edition of the second abridged version is presented here, as it appears in the manuscript Hannover Ms I 84a.

<i>Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 1157-1270</i>, by Alastair Gornall

Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 1157-1270, by Alastair Gornall. UCL Press, 2020. XIII-269pp. Hb £40, ISBN 9781787355156.

From Canonry to Monastery: Changing Observances and the Agency of the Foundation’s Community at Eleventh-Century Hasungen

Abstract Interreligious endowments in the strict sense were beyond the imagination of medieval founders and churchmen alike. Among similar phenomena, however, Latin Christendom did experience changes of monastic observances, which were often shaped as refoundations. In the late eleventh century, when monastic reform movements became increasingly important, a number of canonries (communities of secular clerics) were reorganized as monasteries. Hasungen in Hesse is an interesting case, founded and refounded by the same bishop for spiritual, political and personal reasons. This paper looks at the reaction of the former canons. By analysing charters and narrative evidence, it asks about their agency in adapting to the change of observance. Although monastic “reform” had the potential to marginalize the former canons, they not only accepted the refoundation: during the eventful first decades of the new monastery, they managed to keep alive the memory of, and connections to, the social environment which their pre-monastic community had been rooted in.

The Odbert Psalter (Boulogne-sur-Mer, BM, ms. 20); or, the Image as a Medium for Contemplative Practice

The monastic reforms of the 10th century greatly increased the role of the psalter, a biblical book that became the main tool of a monk in personal and collective prayer. The Odbert Psalter, produced in Saint-Bertin around 999, opens with a scene of Pentecost in which we see Christ represented as a king who is static and in a space distinct from the apostles, exhibiting an attitude of meditation. This is not a narrative image: this scene is an indication for the reader of the Psalms. If he follows the example of the apostles, he will arrive at the vision of God, which can only be attained through continuous meditation on the Psalms as it was defined by the reforms. This image serves as a medium for the act of contemplation itself: according to the three modes of vision defined by Saint Augustine, the image of Christ constitutes a pathway from corporeal vision to intellectual vision. By constituting the support of divine contemplation, the psalter and its images are set up here as perfect mediators of the power of the intellect.

Pali and Monastic Reform

Abstract This response acknowledges Ananda Abeysekara's review of Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 1157–1270, and expresses openness to reflecting on the analytical vocabulary Abeysekara found problematic. It also expands and clarifies the book's criticisms of prevailing views on medieval monastic reform in Sri Lanka and their relationship with monastic literary production.

El conservadurismo de la reforma tardomedieval del Císter. Cartae visitationis para abadías femeninas en la península ibérica

In order to contribute to this collective discussion on late medieval monastic reform, the charter collections of the 67 convents of Cistercian nuns in Castile, Aragon, and Navarre have been explored in order to find preserved copies of visitation letters. This material was meant to highlight the problems specific to the Cistercian Order and/or to religious women. As a result of this research, I found fourteen texts, most of them from the 15th century, six of them by Cistercian abbots of Burgundy from Cîteaux, Clairvaux, or Morimond. The visitators fought first and foremost against the relaxation of the observance. As in the 13th century, they were obsessed with liturgical conformity, silence, and common life. Only later did they emphasize new problems, not specific to the Cistercians, such as the strict observance of the enclosure, the sound administration of the properties, and the abusive uses of clothing.

When the ‘Buddha’s Tree Itself Becomes a Rhizome’: The Religious Itinerant, Nomad Science and the Buddhist State

This paper considers the political, geo-philosophical musings of Deleuze and Guattari on spatialisation, place and movement in relation to the religious nomad (wandering ascetics and reclusive forest monks) inhabiting the borderlands of Thailand. A nomadic science involves improvised ascetic practices between the molar lines striated by modern state apparatuses. The wandering ascetics, inhabiting a frontier political ecology, stand in contrast to the appropriating, sedentary metaphysics and sanctifying arborescence of statism and its corollary place-making, embedded in rootedness and territorialisation. It is argued that the religious nomads, residing on the endo-exteriorities of the state, came to represent a rhizomatic and politico-ontological threat to centre-nation and its apparatus of capture. The paper also theorises transitions and movement at the borderlands in the context of the state’s monastic reforms. These reforms, and its pervasive royal science, problematised the interstitial zones of the early ascetic wanderers in their radical cross-cutting networks and lines, moving within and across demarcated frontiers. Indeed, the ascetic wanderers and their allegorical war machine were seen as a source of wild, free-floating charisma and mystical power, eventually appropriated by the centre-nation in it’s becoming unitary and fixed.

Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair and the politics of church reform in Connacht

The scholarship on twelfth-century Ireland often repeats that Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair, king of Connacht and high-king of Ireland with opposition, was a stalwart supporter of Augustinian monastic reform, though not of the Cistercians. By studying the evidence of several disciplines including architectural history, art history and some literary testimony, this essay instead argues that while Toirrdelbach accepted episcopal reform, he opposed monastic reform in Connacht, both Augustinian and Cistercian alike, fearing it would devolve power away from him and the Uí Dubthaig, his hereditary clerics. A possible inauguration ode suggests he travelled as a youth to France and England, where exposure to the European investiture controversy may have influenced his subsequent relationship with reformers. Toirrdelbach’s acquisition at the 1152 synod of Kells of an archdiocese at Tuam for Connacht was not an unqualified success, as the largely Cistercian-controlled synod took pains to reduce his grip on the Connacht church.

Реформы Иосифа Вельямина Рутского как фактор укрепления униатской церкви на белорусско-украинских землях в первой половине ХVII в.

Introduction. This article discusses the impact of the reforms of Joseph Velyamin Rutsky, who headed the Kyiv Uniate Metropolis in 1613-1637, on the further development of the Uniate Church in the Belarusian-Ukrainian lands.Materials and methods. The article was prepared on the basis of a critical analysis of the historiography of the history of the Uniate Church and published historical sources, including the works of Joseph Velyamin Rutsky. The principles of objectivity and historicism served as the methodological basis. The author of the article used general scientific (analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization) and special historical research methods (comparative historical, historical genetic).Results. The main achievements of Metropolitan Rut-sky were the monastic reform and the formation of the congregation of the Holy Trinity, the creation of a network of Uniate schools, raising the educational level of the clergy, and reforming the administrative-territorial structure of the Kyiv Uniate Metropolis. He defended the interests of the Uniates at meetings of the diets, opposed the proselytism of the Latin clergy and the conversion of believers to the Latin rite. On this path, he was accompanied by both successes and failures.Conclusion. The activities of Joseph Velyamin Rutsky contributed to the exit from the crisis state of the Uniate Church, its internal strengthening and the formation of sufficiently strong foundations for its further existence. At the same time, this became a serious challenge for the Orthodox, complicating their position in the Commonwealth.

Hildegard as Hagiographer : Two Saints’ Lives and Monastic Reform in Twelfh-century Germany

Hildegard as Hagiographer : Two Saints’ Lives and Monastic Reform in Twelfh-century Germany

Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair and the politics of church reform in Connacht

Abstract: The scholarship on twelfth-century Ireland often repeats that Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair, king of Connacht and high-king of Ireland with opposition, was a stalwart supporter of Augustinian monastic reform, though not of the Cistercians. By studying the evidence of several disciplines including architectural history, art history and some literary testimony, this essay instead argues that while Toirrdelbach accepted episcopal reform, he opposed monastic reform in Connacht, both Augustinian and Cistercian alike, fearing it would devolve power away from him and the Uí Dubthaig, his hereditary clerics. A possible inauguration ode suggests he travelled as a youth to France and England, where exposure to the European investiture controversy may have influenced his subsequent relationship with reformers. Toirrdelbach's acquisition at the 1152 synod of Kells of an archdiocese at Tuam for Connacht was not an unqualified success, as the largely Cistercian-controlled synod took pains to reduce his grip on the Connacht church.

Pretiosa est in conspectu Domini mors sanctorum eius. The Chapter Book Necrologies of Mont Saint-Michel, Avranches, Bibl. patrimoniale, ms 214

Examination of Avranches, Bibl. patrimoniale, ms 214 shows that it contains the Chapter Book used for memorialization of the dead in the office of Chapter from c. 1212 to c. 1450, with obits going back well into the tenth century; names were added throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, continuing sporadically into the late 16th century. Additional texts, a customary and a ceremonial, were added under Abbot Pierre Le Roy (d. 1411). Analysis of the texts links the monks to the major monastic reforms of the tenth and early eleventh century as key players, and suggests they had links with some of the finest intellectuals of their time. A selection of illustrative texts is given in an appendix.

William of Volpiano’s Monastic Reform and the Response in Fécamp

본 연구는 볼피아노의 기욤이 페캉에서 추진한 수도원 개혁의 과정과 특징들 을 살펴본다. 11세기 초 기욤은 노르망디 공작 리샤르 2세의 초청을 받고 페캉 으로 가서 그곳의 수도원 개혁을 추진했다. 그는 페캉의 수도원에서 성 베네딕 트 규칙서의 철저한 엄수를 강조하였으며, 이는 페캉으로 오기 전 클루니 수도 원에서 교육을 받고 다른 수도원들의 개혁에 참가한 그의 경험과 깊은 연관이 있다. 그러나 기존의 클루니 개혁 운동과 달리 기욤은 사제 뿐 아니라 평신도들 을 위한 학교를 세웠으며, 이는 그의 개혁이 단지 페캉의 수도원 개혁에서 그치 는 것이 아니라, 더 나아가서 노르망디의 교회 전반의 개혁을 다루고 있음을 보 여준다. 이와 비슷한 시기에 몽생미셸의 수도원에서 벌어진 갈등들과 비교해 볼 때, 페캉에서의 그의 개혁은 수사나 다른 사제들의 그리 큰 저항 없이 이루어진 것 으로 보인다. 이는 이미 다른 수도원들의 개혁을 성공적으로 이끈 기욤의 명성 과 당시 많은 관심을 받고 있던 클루니 운동의 영향력, 그리고 노르망디의 공작 들의 정치적, 종교적 의도가 반영된 것으로 보인다. 특히 노르만 공작들은 기욤 과 그의 제자들을 초청하고 그들의 개혁을 지지하면서 노르망디의 종교적 상황 을 개선하고자 했다. 동시에 신실한 기독교 군주라는 이미지를 만들어내면서, 공작들은 노르망디에서의 정치적 권위 또한 강화하고자 했다. 이를 볼 때, 기욤 의 수도원 개혁은 노르만 공작들과 수도원 개혁자들 간의 적극적인 협력 관계 를 보여준다고 할 수 있다. 이런 상황 속에서 페캉 수도원의 수사나 사제들은 비록 기욤의 수도원 개혁에 불만이 있더라도 이를 드러내기가 어려웠을 것이다.

Rebel Angels: Space and Sovereignty in Anglo-Saxon England

Rebel Angels: Space and Sovereignty in Anglo-Saxon England

The Monks of Saint-Thierry in a Property Dispute with the Archbishop of Reims

On the wave of religious enthusiasm and monastic reform under Cluny’s influence, monasteries focused their particular attention on the memory of the institution. Collective memory recorded and structured interactions of the brethren with the society, preserving the names of benefactors, patrons, and other emblematic figures. It helped communities shape their identities, demarcating their monastic networks and protecting and reclaiming their property from any exterior intervention or usurpation. This article considers three documents that have almost entirely escaped scholarly attention. This small dossier is a significant of example of how the brethren of Saint-Thierry in Reims disputed their property rights to the small demesne of Villers-Franqueux against powerful, local noblement and the Archbishops of Reims in the third quarter of the 11th century. Engaged in this property dispute, the community deployed different legal measures and appealed to exterior royal authority. The monks did not hesitate to forge the material and mention an influential person of the moment, Queen Anna, who ruled as regent around that time, in order to solidify their position. This manifold and detailed ‘protective narrative’ constructed by the monks of Saint-Thierry was also supplemented by hagiographical texts intended to provide the community’s claims to Villers-Franqueux with a sacred, transcendent legitimacy, which had to present the deeds of the monastery’s adversaries as not only illegal but also as going against God’s will. All of this, as the subsequent history of Saint-Thierry suggests, allowed the community to overcome in the struggle and retain Villers-Franqueux, which became one of the core elements of its demesne.

Monastic Reform and Romanesque Figurative Capitals at Saint-Bénigne in Dijon

THE CRYPT CAPITALS OF Saint-Bénigne in Dijon (1001–1018) are often considered among the most inventive of early Romanesque figurative capitals. This article demonstrates that the Benedictine reform undertaken at the monastery by Abbot William of Volpiano in the last decade of the tenth century provides a context not only for a new interpretation of the iconography of two capitals facing St. Bénigne’s tomb, but also for the genesis of the contorted monstrous imagery characteristic of the Romanesque style. The iconography of the capitals resembles John of Fécamp’s description of hell in the Confessio theologica. The stylistic complexity of the carved forms sustains the emotional engagement that John deemed necessary for repentance and recalls Odo of Cluny’s prescription in the Occupatio of using devices to maintain engagement. Similarities with Abbot William’s reform in Dijon and the related texts of these Benedictine reformers suggest that the capitals were designed to kindle fear as the first step of repentance in a monastic program of spiritual perfection.

St. Paul's outside the Walls: A Roman Basilica, from Antiquity to the Modern Era

St. Paul's outside the Walls: A Roman Basilica, from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Monastic Reform and State-Building: Fontevraud and Origins of Bourbon France (1491–1589)

Monastic Reform and State-Building: Fontevraud and Origins of Bourbon France (1491–1589)