In this study of the manner in which medieval nuns lived, Penelope Johnson challenges facile stereotypes of nuns living passively under monastic rule, finding instead that collectively they were empowered by their communal privileges and status to think and act without many of the subordinate attitudes of secular women. In the words of one abbess comparing nuns with monks, they were "different as to their sex but equal in their monastic profession." Johnson researched more than two dozen nunneries in northern France from the eleventh century through the thirteenth century, balancing a qualitative reading of medieval monastic documents with a quantitative analysis of a lengthy thirteenth-century visitation record which allows an important comparison of nuns and monks. A fascinating look at the world of medieval spirituality, this work enriches our understanding of women's role in premodern Europe and in church history.

The rites of religious profession mark the initiation of women and men into the various religious communities of the church. These public liturgies of the church manifest and shape the relation of these women and men to the church and to the world. How are the rites of religious profession to be understood, prepared, and celebrated? Edward Foley offers an overview of their history and a reflection on the theology of these rites. He then shows how to approach these liturgies and bring them to life as celebrations of the church. We learn how much the rites themselves tell us about the formation of religious women and men, and how and the place these communities have in the church. This volume also contains the entire official text of the Rite of Religious Profession. This includes all revisions to this text made through 1988.

The abbey of Bec was founded in the eleventh century and was one of the best-known and most influential monasteries in Normandy. Celebrated for its high standard of religious life and its intellectual activity, Bec also had an exceptional degree of institutional independence. The three treatises collected and translated in this volume - Tractatus de professionibus monachorum ('The Profession of Monks'), De professionibus abbatum ('The Profession of Abbots'), and De libertate Beccensis monasterii ('On the Liberty of the Monastery of Bec') - are a striking statement of the position of Bec in relation to episcopal and ducal (later royal) authorities. Little is known about the anonymous author of these works except that he was a twelfth-century monk with an attachment to Augustine and Gregory the Great, and that he had considerable knowledge of canon law. His purpose in writing these treatises was to assert and justify the privileges of Bec at a time when many bishops were reacting against monastic freedom, especially with regard to profession. This volume is an important contribution to understanding not only monasticism in Normandy, but also the conflict between church and state in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Available for the first time in a comprehensive English translation, this thoroughly annotated but easy-to-use presentation of the classic 1917 Code of Canon Law by canon and civil lawyer Dr. Edward Peters is destined to become the standard reference work on this milestone of Church law. More than just of historical interest, the 1917 Code is an indispensable tool for understanding the current 1983 Code under which the Roman Catholic Church governs itself. Dr. Peters' faithful translation of the original Latin text of 1917, along with his detailed references to such key canonical works as Canon Law Digest and hundreds of English language doctoral dissertations on canon law produced at the world's great Catholic universities, now allows researchers to access directly this great fountain of ecclesiastical legal science. No student of canon law, and indeed, no one with a need to understand modern Church administration, can afford to be without this important volume.

The studies in the present selection of Giles Constable's work concentrate on culture and spirituality in the 11th and 12th centuries, though they also touch on the early and late Middle Ages. The cultural articles are concerned respectively with perceptions of time and the past, forgery (seen as a reflection of social and religious concerns), entry to religious life, preaching, and letters and letter-writing. The articles on spirituality deal with the themes of suffering and attitudes towards the self, especially the growing concentration on the individual in the religious life of the 12th century.

The Rule of St. Benedict illuminated by the texts and traditions of Hindu and Buddhist monasticism, as well as by the Desert Fathers and the spiritual giants of the western and oriental Christian traditions.