Narratives of a new order : Cistercian historical writing in England, 1150-1220 / by Elizabeth Freeman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Freeman, Elizabeth, 1968-

Series:

Medieval church studies ; 2.

Medieval church studies ; 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cistercians.

Historiography--England--History--To 1500.

Historiography.

Literature and history--England--To 1500.

Literature and history.

History.

England--Church history--1066-1485.

England.

Church history.

Great Britain--History--Plantagenets, 1154-1399.

Great Britain.

Cistercians--England--History.

Physical Description:

x, 245 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Turnhout : Brepols, 2002.

Summary:

Here Elizabeth Freeman examines the classic genre for inventing a past and argues that historical narratives of the English Cistercians helped define the characteristics of both the new Cistercian monastic order and also the new political orders of twelfth- and thirteenth-century England. She shows how Aelred of Rievaulx's Relatio de standardo and Genealogia regum Anglorum articulated new senses of Englishness. The Fundacio abbathie de Kyrkestall shifts focus to local history and exploits Cistercian tropes of land-use in order to resolve the communal insecurity that characterised the Cistercians in around 1200. The Narratione de fundatione Fontanis monasterii features another method of reconciling the nostalgic quest for continuity with the intellectual recognition of change. Finally, Ralph of Coggeshall's Chronicon Anglicanum indicates the multiple strategies Cistercian historians employed in order to turn the disparate events of the past into a comprehensible narrative.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-238) and index.

ISBN:

2503510906

OCLC:

49550062