The World of Medieval Monasticism: Its History and Forms of Life

by Gert Melville, James D Mixson (Translator), Giles Constable (Foreword by)

Overview

This book surveys the full panorama of ten centuries of Christian monastic life. 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. Throughout that story the book balances a rich sense of detail with a broader synthetic view. It presents 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780879074999
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	03/04/2016
Series:	Cistercian Studies Series , #263
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

James D. Mixson is an associate professor of history at the University of Alabama. His recent publications include Poverty’s Proprietors: Ownership and Mortal Sin at the Origins of the Observant Movement (Brill, 2009) and several essays on the history of late-medieval religious reform. He is also the editor (with Bert Roest) of A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond (Brill, 2015).

Table of Contents

Foreword Giles Constable xi

Preface xiii

List of Abbreviations xv

Translator's Note xvii

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

Chronology 373

Map 382

Bibliography 384

Image Credits 432

Index of People and Places 433

Index of Monasteries, Congregations, and Orders 440

Editorial Reviews

"With this splendid translation, English readers have access to a lifetime of scholarly thought and reflection on medieval monastic and mendicant life offered as a coherent narrative. Gert Melville has long been one of the leading interpreters of monastic life in Germany and, at present, perhaps the foremost sponsor of probing new scholarship. This book shows him at his best as a sympathetic student of medieval religious life set, as a good historian would, in its social and material contexts."
John VanEngen, University of Notre Dame

EBOOK COMMENTARY

"The World of Medieval Monasticism is the crowning achievement of the decades Professor Melville has devoted to the relentless study of medieval religious life in the West. Marked by a wealth of sources and shaped by the influential Research Center for the Comparative History of Religious Life at the University of Dresden, The World of Medieval Monasticism is an essential source in its own right for all those interested in the cultural history and spiritual inheritance of medieval religious life."
Timothy J. Johnson, Flagler College

"An indispensable reference work, which should certainly find a place in every university and monastic library, as well as in the personal collection of anyone with even a passing interest in the topic."Jean A. Truax, Cistercian Studies Quarterly

"It is with unrestrained and enthusiastic delight that one can welcome the translation into English of Gert Melville's superb study. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Cistercian Publications and all those who helped to make available in splendid English this magnificent contribution to monastic studies. I cannot recommend it too highly, whether to the most advanced scholar or to anyone looking for an introduction to the field."American Benedictine Review, James Flint, OSB, St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, IL

"Melville's book is a wonderful addition to medieval monastic history."B.S. Exton, St. Gregory's University, CHOICE

"The doyen of monastic history has poured learning hitherto scattered among innumerable papers into the form of an elegant synthesis-a path-breaking sociological analysis of one of the most interesting medieval forms of life. Decades of scholarships and accumulated insights have been distilled into this volume."
David d'Avray, University College London, Fellow of the British Academy

"The fruit of long study of medieval monks, ascetics, mystics, and the rules that they lived by, The World of Medieval Monasticism is a lively and erudite companion for any reader interested in exploring the many astonishing forms of Western religious life."
Barbara H. Rosenwein, Loyola University Chicago

"This is the best of guides to the world of medieval monasticism: a fresh, novel, exciting, detailed, reliable account of how monastic life developed over twelve centuries and of the many paths to perfection and salvation it created for both women and men. Medieval monasticism had its failures, but it also never ceased to surprise by its capacity to adjust to complex, changing circumstances, to establish itself as a fundamental element of medieval economy and society, and to cater for the whole spectrum of religious life from eremitical withdrawal to firebrand preaching. Here is an exceptionally rich mine of materials drawn from all kinds of historical sources and thoughtfully presented in the light of an exceptional understanding of structures and ideals by a wonderful scholar."
David Luscombe, Fellow of the British Academy, Emeritus Professor, The University of Sheffield

"With this splendid translation, English readers have access to a lifetime of scholarly thought and reflection on medieval monastic and mendicant life offered as a coherent narrative. Gert Melville has long been one of the leading interpreters of monastic life in Germany and, at present, perhaps the foremost sponsor of probing new scholarship. This book shows him at his best as a sympathetic student of medieval religious life set, as a good historian would, in its social and material contexts."
John VanEngen, University of Notre Dame

From the Publisher