A social history of the cloister : daily life in the teaching monasteries of the Old Regime / Elizabeth Rapley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rapley, Elizabeth.

Series:

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion. Series two ; 17.

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion. Series two ; 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Monasticism and religious orders for women--France--History.

Monasticism and religious orders for women.

Women in Christianity--France--History.

Women in Christianity.

Physical Description:

viii, 379 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2001.

Summary:

In The Social History of the Cloister Elizabeth Rapley goes beyond the monastic rulebooks, legal and notarial records, and memoirs of famous women who passed through monastery doors to the chronicles, letters, and other little-known writings produced by nuns for and about themselves. Working from these accounts, Rapley is able to provide a far more complex picture of women who, as a whole, were much less otherworldly than the older convent literature would have us believe, much less thwarted and unhappy than their detractors have long maintained, and much less irrelevant than some historians have assumed. She chips away at the dehumanizing stereotypes that have often been used to describe these nuns to show the essential humanity of these women.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Nuns and Their World

For Richer, for Poorer: The Monastic System and the Economy

The Dilemmas of Obedience

“Personae Non Gratae”: Jansenist Nuns in the Wake of Unigenitus

The Decline of the Monasteries

Aftermath

Clausura and Community

The Three Pillars of Monasticism: Poverty, Chastity, Obedience

Prehistories

Novices

“The Servants of the Brides of Christ”

Of Death and Dying

The Institut

The Pensionnat

Conclusion

Demographics of the Cloister

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [349]-369) and index.

ISBN:

9780773584006

0773584005

9780773569416

0773569413

OCLC:

923232011