Regular Canons Research Articles

A Learned-SVD Approach to the Electromagnetic Inverse Source Problem.

We propose an artificial intelligence approach based on deep neural networks to tackle a canonical 2D scalar inverse source problem. The learned singular value decomposition (L-SVD) based on hybrid autoencoding is considered. We compare the reconstruction performance of L-SVD to the Truncated SVD (TSVD) regularized inversion, which is a canonical regularization scheme, to solve an ill-posed linear inverse problem. Numerical tests referring to far-field acquisitions show that L-SVD provides, with proper training on a well-organized dataset, superior performance in terms of reconstruction errors as compared to TSVD, allowing for the retrieval of faster spatial variations of the source. Indeed, L-SVD accommodates a priori information on the set of relevant unknown current distributions. Different from TSVD, which performs linear processing on a linear problem, L-SVD operates non-linearly on the data. A numerical analysis also underlines how the performance of the L-SVD degrades when the unknown source does not match the training dataset.

Lekarze i chirurdzy w Szpitalu Świętego Ducha w Rzymie w XVII–XVIII wieku

Doctors and surgeons at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Rome in the 17th – 18th centuries Founded in 1198 by Pope Innocent III, Europe’s largest Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Rome, run by the Order of Regular Canons of Saint Duicha, became a model for other such institutions. It performed two functions: an asylum for foundlings (brefotrophium) and a hospital-clinic for the sick, the so-called the infirmary, in which there were about a thousand in certain periods, especially during epidemics, the sick inmates specialized in the treatment of people with fever, especially those with malaria, as well as injured and requiring surgical operations. The rank and size of the hospital was evidenced by the number of outstanding doctors and surgeons, unprecedented in other European hospitals. In some periods of the eighteenth century, there were nearly twenty of them in the hospital in total, but as a rule, there were always at least four chief physicians and two chief surgeons, as well as four assistant physicians and two deputy surgeons. Moreover, when the number of patients increased, additional doctors and surgeons were hired, often working for free in the hope of obtaining full employment. Among doctors, it was possible to meet specialists of the highest class, not only combining medical practice with teaching, but also authors of outstanding works and scientific treatises in the field of medicine, philosophy and law, written on the basis of observations and experiences as well as conducted scientific research. Many doctors and surgeons working in the hospital were also papal doctors. Engagement to work in the hospital took place through public competitions. It is interesting that most of the medical and surgical staff came from very distant places and even foreign countries. All doctors and chief surgeons were hired to work at the Holy Spirit Hospital as graduates of universities and other institutes or academies. As for the six surgeons, especially their deputies, nearly all were educated and practiced in the Holy Spirit Hospital. Chief doctors, called professors and sometimes lecturers, had a hierarchical priority and supervisory position among the medical community. The latter term mainly referred to doctors and surgeons teaching at the Hospital’s Academy of Surgery, later the School of Surgery, where the nurses working in the hospital learned the art of surgery. The most important duty of the doctors and chief surgeons was to carry out twice a day (morning and after lunch) visits to patients in their departments. The visits ended at least half an hour before lunch or dinner so that the patients could be given medicines and treatments before eating. During the morning visit, the physician and the chief surgeon were accompanied by their assistants or deputies, who were on duty around the clock in the hospital, while their superiors lived outside the hospital. The fame enjoyed by doctors and surgeons has not always translated into the reliability and effectiveness of the medical services they provide in the hospital. Many of them did not pay much attention to their work. They did not fulfill the duties entrusted to them, did not come or were late to work, handed over their tasks to doctors and lower-ranking personnel, kept employment and salaries despite reaching old age and poor physical condition, preventing them from properly performing their professional duties.

Households of God: the regular canons and canonesses of St Augustine and of Prémontré in medieval Ireland. Edited by Martin Browne and Colmán Ó Clabaigh. Pp xix, 316, illus. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2019. €50.

Households of God: the regular canons and canonesses of St Augustine and of Prémontré in medieval Ireland. Edited by Martin Browne and Colmán Ó Clabaigh. Pp xix, 316, illus. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2019. €50. - Volume 46 Issue 169

La résignation des abbés et prieurs : vieillesse, infirmité et indiscipline chez les chanoines réguliers et les bénédictins anglais (xiie-xive siècle)

During the Middle Ages old or infirm abbots and priors, whether regular canons or Benedictines, could ask their bishop to relieve them of their charge. This procedure, which is part of the arsenal of measures foreseen by the Church in cases of incapacity to fulfil the duties of one’s office or as a means of rewarding deserving elderly prelates, could also serve to remove from office those who were condemned for a grievous fault. In England, if resignation is already well known in the 11th and 12th century, we have more detailed knowledge in the 13th century due to increased documentation. Old age, sickness, infirmity, and even merit were legitimate reasons for abandoning a charge; undisciplined behaviour, for the deposition of a prelate. These procedures were soon abused: early departures without a true motive, forced resignations. The attribution of pensions and provisions for the maintenance of old abbots and priors weighed on the finances of communities when departures were too closely spaced. The old prelates were provided with special living conditions, including their own apartments, servants and various provisions. The pension, systematic with the regular canons, becomes widespread with the Benedictines in the 14th century. Some remain in their institution, others change communities and even orders; delinquent prelates are often sent far away, and sometimes remain the source of grave disorders for years to come.

La reconstruction économique des prieurés victorins après les crises de la fin du Moyen Âge (mi xve-mi xvie siècles)

Saint Victor, the abbey of regular canons founded in 1113 in Paris, created sixteen priories in the Paris basin in the 12th and 13th centuries in order to minister to its parishes and administrate its temporal holdings. Starting in 1340, the crises that mark the end of the Middle Ages did not spare these small dependencies, maintained by a handful of brethren burdened with many responsibilities. Beginning in 1460 a full renovation was undertaken in all domains, thanks to the particularly active priors who refurbished their establishments and adapted life in the priory to the new context of the late 15th and early 16th century. This article intends, with the help of a very well preserved corpus of documents, to analyse how regular canons in the rural milieu adapted during the crises and activated networks of solidarity in response to pressing needs. Furthermore, the period of renovation was also a moment of transition, giving birth to new methods of management that were perpetuated thereafter.

Średniowieczne pieczęcie wystawców kościelnych w zasobie archiwum klasztoru Bożego Ciała w Krakowie. Przyczynek do polskich badań sfragistycznych

The article presents the medieval seals of Polish and foreign church exhibitors kept in the archives of the Corpus Christi Monastery of regular canons in Krakow. These seals are a small part of the collection but are nevertheless valuable for many reasons

Monasticism in the British Isles: A Comparative Overview

The medieval British Isles were marked by a lively monastic presence throughout the entire period. Groups of monks, nuns, regular canons and canonesses, and friars established communities even in the furthermost reaches of the territory, and by doing so they came to play an important part in the life, culture, economy, and politics of the region. This paper will provide an overview of the arrival and spread of the different religious orders in England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, and by doing so, it will provide some comparative study of the different parts of the British Isles and examine how and when the spread and settlement of the various religious groups manifested itself across the islands, and what their impact was upon their localities and the society around them.

Influence of a Nonstationary Surface Load on an Elastic Porous Half-Space

In this paper, we develop a method for solving planar nonstationary problems on the influence of surface pressure on an elastic-porous half-space. Using surface influence functions, we obtain an integral relation, which expresses the desired displacements with the surface pressure. A numericalanalytical algorithm is constructed. For calculating singular integrals, we derive special quadrature formulas based on the canonical regularization of integrands.

L’œuvre hospitalière et charitable des chanoines augustins en Normandie au XIIIe siècle

In Normandy, the canonical movement and the hospitaller developed in parallel. The Augustinian regular canons counted for the majority of houses in the archdiocese of Rouen, with some fifty houses, of which about a dozen were hospitals and leper houses. We have some very detailed information about six of these houses, thanks to the entries in the register of Archbishop Eudes Riguad, based on his pastoral visitation undertaken between 1248 and 1269. In his entries, the bishop listed members of staff, described the material condition, and even worried about the prevailing discipline in these houses. Despite occasional deficiencies, the picture arising suggests that the Augustinian canons participated fully in the ‘charity revolution’ of the twelfth and thirteenth century, in that region as elsewhere.

Retour sur la ‘crise du cénobitisme’: Émergence et expansion des Cisterciens et des chanoines réguliers en Normandie (xiie siècle-début xiiie siècle)

In the twelfth century, the religious Reformed Orders, Cistercians, and Regular Canons, settled in Normandy. The result, after two decades, is surprising: by 1146, there were seventeen communities of Regular Canons but only four Cistercian abbeys. In this essay the reasons for the discrepancy are investigated, including the role of the Archbishop of Rouen, Hugh of Amiens († 1164). The development of both Orders is then examined. Starting in the mid-twelfth century, the Cistercians began incorporating abbeys which were already in existence, as a way to foster growth, while for Regular Canons, the main question is that of choice between the orders of Saint-Victor and Prémontré.

Cisterciens et Chanoines Réguliers ou la réforme de l’Église par le retour aux origines

The theme of ‘origins’ is vital for an understanding of the roots of the Orders of Cistercians and Regular Canons, exemplified here as Premonstratensians. Bernard of Clairvaux and Norbert of Xanten conceived of Reform as a return to the origins of Christianity, not as a change. The common yearnings of the two Orders for purity is stressed while their contrasting approaches are illustrated by the metaphor of Jerusalem. For the monks of Cîteaux who focused mainly on spiritual matters - without completely excluding the outside world - it was heavenly while the followers of Norbert aimed to recreate an earthly Jerusalem at Prémontré.

Locus, Sanctus, et Virtus: Monastic Surnaming in Late Medieval and Early Tudor England Reviewed

This article examines the apparent practice among monks and regular canons in England before the Dissolution of dropping their family surnames on admission/profession, and adopting instead a new ‘monastic byname’, derived from a place name (toponym) or, by the late fifteenth century onwards, from a saint’s name (hagionym) or a virtue. The article begins by reviewing evidence that this onomastic practice existed and determining how widespread it was. The nature and distribution of the toponymic, hagionymic, and virtue bynames are then examined in turn. The article concludes by considering the underlying reason for the adoption of monastic bynames and argues that this practice served as a means of reflecting symbolically the new monk’s or canon’s separation from lay society, and from his family in particular, and his incorporation into the monastic community.

La construction et l’évolution des prieurés victorins (xiie–xvie siècles, Bassin parisien): Bilan et perspectives de recherche

Saint-Victor of Paris is an abbey of Regular Canons established in 1113 in the vicinity of Sainte-Geneviève mountain. This abbey was soon endowed with a number of small priories so as to facilitate the supervision of a scattered patrimony and/or the organization of worship in parish churches in the area between Senlis and Orléans. The sixteen priories of Saint-Victor were under the supervision of the Abbey and are located within the royal domain. Regular Canons lived in priories which were either built ex nihilo, which is unusual, or more commonly restored. In fact, the community was granted several churches built in the eleventh century. This article aims to take stock of the remains of the Victorine priories in order to gain a better understanding of religious settlements and of the evolution of their buildings. The sources are both historical and archaeological. Is the architecture of the priories inspired by that of the mother abbey? What phases of construction and development of priories can be distinguished? Further investigations are needed to solve these questions.

Book Review: Households of God: The Regular Canons and Canonesses of Saint Augustine and of Premontré in Medieval Ireland

Book Review: Households of God: The Regular Canons and Canonesses of Saint Augustine and of Premontré in Medieval Ireland

Martin Browne OSB and Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB, eds, Households of God: the Regular Canons and Canonesses of St Augustine and Prémontré in Medieval Ireland

"Martin Browne OSB and Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB, eds, Households of God: the Regular Canons and Canonesses of St Augustine and Prémontré in Medieval Ireland ." Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies, 9(), pp. 197–198

Rethinking Scholastic Communities in Latin Europe: Competition and Theological Method in the Twelfth Century

This paper explores the role of competition between masters and their communities in shaping the dynamism of theological debate in twelfth-century Europe. Whereas scholastic debate in the thirteenth century was heavily influenced by the structures and curriculum of the University of Paris, this was not the case in the twelfth century. While there were celebrated confrontations between individual monks and schoolmen (such as St Anselm against Roscelin of Compiegne, and Bernard of Clairvaux against Peter Abelard), it is inadequate to interpret these episodes in terms of simple opposition between monastic and scholastic theological traditions. Rather, we see the evolution of a range of educational communities, of monks, of regular canons, and of secular clergy, each with their own interpretation of Christian teaching, and with their own attitudes to the use of reason and the learning of classical antiquity. After 1150, there was an increasing tendency to professionalization in the teaching of theology, epitomized by the growing influence of Peter Lombard’s Sentences, but there was no consensus about the extent to which it should also engage in philosophical reflection. There was also competition between the cathedral school at Notre-Dame and the canons of Saint-Victor, who preferred to emphasize the role of experience in the spiritual life. The case of Richard of Saint-Victor’s writing on the Trinity shows how he sought to combine an experiential dimension to religious insight, with presentation of Christian teaching in terms of reason, rather like St Anselm, rather than through debating patristic authority, as followed by disciples of Peter Lombard. The label of scholasticism should not conceal the enduring diversity of approaches adopted by different communities.

Quam ecclesiam in honore sancta Marie Virginis intitulari volumus: Study on the Kłodzko Monastery of Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the Pre-Hussite Period by Pavel Otmar Krafl

Reviewed by: Quam ecclesiam in honore sancta Marie Virginis intitulari volumus: Study on the Kłodzko Monastery of Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the Pre-Hussite Period by Pavel Otmar Krafl Thomas A. Fudge Krafl, Pavel Otmar, Quam ecclesiam in honore sancta Marie Virginis intitulari volumus: Study on the Kłodzko Monastery of Canons Regular of St. Augustine in the Pre-Hussite Period, trans. by Miroslav Košek (Canonici regulares sancti Augustini, 1), Brno, Středoevropské centrum slovanských studií, 2018; hardback; pp. 93; ISBN 9788086735191. Since the Potsdam conference at the end of World War Two, Kłodzko has been part of Poland. In the Middle Ages, it belonged to the Kingdom of Bohemia (as Kladsko), though there were bitter conflicts because Poland also claimed the town. Modern Kłodzko lies ninety kilometres south of Wrocław, 150 kilometres north [End Page 265] of Brno (the capital of Moravia), and 200 kilometres east and slightly north of Prague. These relevant details are absent from the book and the author takes for granted that Western readers are au fait with Central European geography. The volume could benefit from the inclusion of a map. Established formally on 25 March 1349, the Augustinian cloister emerged as a key font of culture in late medieval Central Europe and played a significant religious and political role in the history of Bohemia. Between the 1330s and the outbreak of the Hussite Revolution, the Canons Regular of St Augustine were a major influence in the Czech territories. These religious houses were centres of education and artistic achievement. For scholars of religious renewal it is worth noting that the Devotio moderna found receptive soil amongst the Augustinians. Czech bishops seemed to favour the order and many of the monasteries established in the Kingdom of Bohemia owe their foundations to episcopal influence. This slim volume seeks to emphasize the role of the Kłodzko canonry in the period leading up to the Hussite movement. Pavel Krafl is among the very best scholars equipped to deal with the topic, having established himself over the past twenty years as a leading scholar of Czech religious history, publishing numerous papers, essays, monographs, and editions in areas related to the present study. The bibliography lists no fewer than twenty-seven items from his pen. In late medieval Czech history, the Hussite uprising forms a dividing line in the historiography. This is true of this book and its author adheres to that demarcation. The entire district of Kłodzko plays a role in the history of Hussites but that is not part of the present study. In the period between its foundation and the Hussite movement (c. 1350 to c. 1415) numerous conflicts involving the religious house and the community can be observed. Beyond these, extant records reveal numerous internal disputes that convulsed the Kłodzko canonry. The book comprises a brief introduction, a substantial survey of sources, and relevant historiography including editions of monastic records, encyclopaedias, synthetic studies, monographs, and essays. This enables the reader to situate the present volume within the larger body of scholarship. This introduction is followed by chapters dealing with the foundation of the Augustinian house at Kłodzko, especially the role of Ernest of Pardubice, archbishop of Prague, an elaboration of the canonry and its sphere of operations, an explanation of the law of patronage and its relation to incorporated churches, a discussion of the important dispute with the Hospitaller commandery (Order of Saint John), and a delineation of the election of provosts in the pre-Hussite period, complemented with brief treatments addressing the jurisdiction of the provost and prior over members of the convent, and disputes between the Augustinian provost and the convent. One of the longer chapters deals with the confraternities of the convent followed by a prosopographical survey up to the Hussite period. Krafl presents the reader with brief allusions to a number of particularly interesting and piquant notes from the sources. These include an archiepiscopal mandate against anyone wishing to attack the monastery or rob the Augustinians, [End Page 266] and a decree issued by King Charles IV enlarging the judicial immunities enjoyed by the Kłodzko canonry. The most interesting element...

Friars, Friaries and the Reformation: The Dissolution of the Midlands Friaries in 1538-39

ABSTRACTThe article examines the history and archaeology of the Dissolution of the mendicant friaries in the Midlands, against the background of changing attitudes to both friary communities and their buildings in the 1530s. There is a range of surviving sources for the process, which record details of friary properties and household contents. As the suppressions progressed, there was some limited discourse about the possible fate of these properties, but the outcome for the majority was the creation of derelict spaces within towns, echoing the redundancy of the former members, who, unlike regular choir monks or Austin canons, had no pensions to support them. There is a very low survival rate of friary buildings, largely because their urban locations made them particularly vulnerable to quarrying for local rebuilding projects. Even the friars, the most visible and popular of the religious orders, at least in towns, raised little support once their fate was decided.

From Care for the Hereafter to Care in the Here and Now. Ceiling Painting for South German Confraternities in the Age of Catholic Enlightenment

This essay demonstrates how the representatives of the Catholic Enlightenment knew to use the existing social structures of contemporary confraternities for their own intentions of reform. This analysis focuses on the eminent role played by the Diocese of Augsburg. The theologians most responsible for this endeavor were Joseph, Landgrave of Hesse in Darmstadt, elected Prince-Bishop of Augsburg in 1740, and two of his closest counsellors, his private secretary Giovanni Battista de Bassi and the Canon Regular Eusebius Amort from Polling. Quite remarkably, their aims accord with the subject matter of new ceiling decoration in the brotherhoods’ churches, commissioned around the mid-18th century. Serving as evidence for this fact are the frescoes (1749–1754) by Johann Baptist Zimmermann in the pilgrimage church Zum Gegeißelten Heiland in the Wies church, which concentrate entirely on Christological devotion, as do the frescoes (1774) by Johann Joseph Anton Huber in the parochial church of St. Nicolas in Unterdiessen. Another goal of the reformers—to help the needy by means of the brotherhoods—is significantly reflected in the frescoes (1764/65 and 1783) by Christian Thomas Wink in the parochial church of Haag on the Amper.

Klasztory rewindykowane i nowe zakonów męskich okresu staropolskiego w diecezji łódzkiej

The activities of orders in Poland are closely connected with the functioning of the Catholic Church and the history of our homeland. The aim of this article is to present the history of old orders in the diocese of Łodź. Initially, it focuses on those orders which after the period of dissolutions not only returned to some of their monasteries but also organised new monastic communities. Before the collapse of the First Polish Republic, in the territory of the future diocese of Łodź, there were 8 male orders which altogether owned 13 monasteries: Dominicans (Łeczyca, Piotrkow Trybunalski), Conventual Franciscans (Łagiewniki, Piotrkow Trybunalski), Bernardines (Piotrkow Trybunalski, Łeczyca), Franciscans of the Strict Observance (Brzeziny, Lutomiersk), Canons Regular of the Lateran (Klodawa), Carmelites of the Ancient Observance (Klodawa), Jesuits (Piotrkow Trybunalski, Łeczyca), and Piarists (Piotrkow Trybunalski). However, in 1918, when Poland regained its independence, none of the male monastic communities were still in existence. The orders which did not return to their monasteries in the period of the Second Polish Republic were Canons Regular of the Lateran, Carmelites of the Ancient Observance, Piarists and Dominicans.