The world of medieval monasticism : its history and forms of life / Gert Melville ; translated by James Mixson ; foreword by Giles Constable.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Melville, Gert, author.

Contributor:

Constable, Giles, writer of foreword.

Series:

Cistercian studies series ; no. 263.

Cistercian studies series

Standardized Title:

Welt der mittelalterlichen Klöster. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Monasticism and religious orders--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Monasticism and religious orders.

History.

Monasticism and religious orders--Middle Ages.

Monasticism and religious orders--Europe--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Monastic and religious life--Europe--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Monastic and religious life.

Monks--Europe--Social conditions.

Monks.

Social conditions.

Europe--Church history--600-1500.

Europe.

Church history.

Physical Description:

xvii, 444 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ohio : Cistercian Publications ; Collegeville, Minnesota : Liturgical Press, [2016]

Summary:

Surveying the full panorama of ten centuries of Christian monastic life, this translation form the original German is a comprehensive volume. It moves from the deserts of Egypt and the Frankish monasteries of early medieval Europe to the religious ruptures of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the reforms of the later Middle Ages, all while balancing a balancing a rich sense of detail with a broader synthetic view. The history of religious life and its orders as a complex braid woven from multiple strands: individual and community, spirit and institution, rule and custom, church and world. The result is a synthesis that places religious life at the center of European history and presents its institutions as key catalysts of Europe's move toward modernity. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Beginnings 1

Retreat from the World 1

The Establishment of Monastic Communities 7

The First Monasteries in Europe 13

2 The Benedictine Rule and Its Longevity 24

Benedict as "Textual Trace" 24

The Rule of Saint Benedict 29

The Career of Benedict and His Rule 34

The Second Benedict and the Reform of the Frankish Monasteries 38

3 The Flowering of the Benedictines 50

A New Beginning in Lotharingia 50

Cluny: The Establishment of Monastic Liberty 54

The "Cluniac Church": A Congregation of Monasteries 63

Ordo Cluniacensis 67

Church for the World 72

Monastic Life in Service of King and Nobility, Pope and Bishop 80

4 Return to the Desert 89

The New Hermits 89

To Live by One's Own Law 94

Charismatic Preaching and Religious Movements 109

A Return to the Institutions of the Church 120

5 The Regular Canons: The Clergy's New Self-Understanding 125

6 The Cistercians: Collegiality Instead of Hierarchy 136

Robert's Path from Molesme to Cîteaux and Back 136

The Measure of the Pure Rule 141

The Charter of Charity and the Invention of the "Order" 146

7 The Success of the Cistercian Model 158

From the Premonstratensians to the Gilbertines and the Carthusians 158

Cluny, Knights, and Hospitals: The Reform of Older Congregations and the Creation of New "Functional" Orders 166

8 Diversity and Competition 180

9 New Concepts of Belief 186

The Search for Religious Identity 186

Beguines and Humiliati: A New Lay Piety 193

"Holy Preachers" and "Lesser Brothers" 200

10 The Franciscans: A Mendicant Order with the Whole World as Its Monastery 206

Francis of Assisi and His Community 206

The Legacy of Francis 216

Clare of Assisi 225

11 The Dominicans: Holy Preaching and Pastoral Care 232

Dominic and the Building of a New Order 232

Rationality and Constitution in the Service of the Salvation of Souls 239

12 Transformations of Eremitical Life 249

The Carmelites: From the Mountain into the Cities 250

The Augustinian Hermits 256

13 A New Chapter in the Story of the Vita Religiosa 263

The Three Ages of Salvation History 263

Eremitical Congregations and the Work of Peter of Morrone 267

Devotio Moderna 276

The Revelations of Birgitta 280

14 Mendicant Orders in Conflict: Struggles over Poverty and Observance 286

15 Reformers and Reforms at the End of the Middle Ages 298

Reform from Above: Pope Benedict XII 298

Reform from Below: The Rise of the Observants 306

16 A Look Back 313

17 Fundamental Structures of the Vita Religiosa in the Middle Ages 316

The Individual and the Community 318

The Monastery and the Law 332

Institutional Forms: Establishment and Preservation 342

Constructing Particular Pasts 349

Cloister and World 353

Temporalia 359

On the Search for God toward Knowledge of the World 364.

Notes:

Translation of: Die Welt der mittelalterlichen Klöster.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 384-431) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780879072636

0879072636

OCLC:

919104422