The history of monastic institutions in the Middle Ages may at first appear remarkably uniform and predictable. Medieval commentators and modern scholars have observed how monasteries of the tenth to early twelfth centuries experienced long periods of stasis alternating with bursts of rapid development known as reforms. Charismatic leaders by sheer force of will, and by assiduously recruiting the support of the ecclesiastical and lay elites, pushed monasticism forward toward reform, remediating the inevitable decline of discipline and government in these institutions. A lack of concrete information on what happened at individual monasteries is not regarded as a significant problem, as long as there is the possibility to reconstruct the reformers’ ‘‘program.’’ While this general picture makes for a compelling narrative, it doesn’t necessarily hold up when one looks closely at the history of specific institutions. In Monastic Reform as Process, Steven Vanderputten puts the history of monastic reform to the test by examining the evidence from seven monasteries in Flanders, one of the wealthiest principalities of northwestern Europe, between 900 and 1100. He finds that the reform of a monastery should be studied not as an "exogenous shock" but as an intentional blending of reformist ideals with existing structures and traditions. He also shows that reformist government was cumulative in nature, and many of the individual achievements and initiatives of reformist abbots were only possible because they built upon previous achievements. Rather than looking at reforms as "flashpoint events," we need to view them as processes worthy of study in their own right. Deeply researched and carefully argued, Monastic Reform as Process will be essential reading for scholars working on the history of monasteries more broadly as well as those studying the phenomenon of reform throughout history.

This book opens a window on the lived experience of monastic reform in the twelfth century. Drawing on a variety of textual and material sources from the south German monastery of Petershausen, it begins with the local process of reform and moves out into intertwined regional social, political, and ecclesiastical landscapes. Beach reveals how the shock of reform initiated decades of anxiety at Petershausen and raised doubts about the community's communal identity, its shifting internal contours and boundaries, and its place within the broader spiritual and social landscapes of Constance and Swabia. The Trauma of Monastic Reform goes beyond reading monastic narratives of reform as retrospective expressions of support for the deeds and ideals of a past generation of reformers to explore the real human impact that the process could have, both on the individuals who comprised the target community and on those who lived for generations in its aftermath.

Monasticism, in all of its variations, was a feature of almost every landscape in the medieval West. So ubiquitous were religious women and men throughout the Middle Ages that all medievalists encounter monasticism in their intellectual worlds. While there is enormous interest in medieval monasticism among Anglophone scholars, language is often a barrier to accessing some of the most important and groundbreaking research emerging from Europe. The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West offers a comprehensive treatment of medieval monasticism, from Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. The essays, specially commissioned for this volume and written by an international team of scholars, with contributors from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States, cover a range of topics and themes and represent the most up-to-date discoveries on this topic.

Excerpt from French Monasticism in 1503: An Abstract of the Plea for Reform Published in That Year by Guy Foueuneaur, Abbot of St. Sulpice De Bourges, Mainly in His Own Words, With an Introduction, and Supplementary Documents The Councils of Constance and Bale had cried loudly for monastic reform, and had done much to further it. The last three quarters of the fifteenth century, therefore, saw the formation of several new "congregations" called after great monasteries which first reformed themselves and then drew others into the new movement. St. Justina at Padua, and the great monasteries of Bursfeld, Castel and Melk within the German Empire, became the heads of reformed congregations, each with its own General Chapter. How much was done in this direction, and how much still needed doing, may be read in the illuminating Liber de Reformatione of Johann Busch, the friend of Thomas a Kempis. But the shortlived nature even of this great movement is emphasized by Johann Trittenheim (Trithemius), himself one of the most distinguished Abbots of the Bursfeld Congregation. He speaks very plainly on the subject in many places; most plainly, perhaps, in a sermon preached before his fellow-Abbots at a General Chapter (Declamatio ad Abbates, chap. 5, ed. 1604, p. 875). What effects do we now see, (he asks), from all the famous monastic reforms of the past? "All have fallen from their first estate, and are come either wholly, or for the greater part, to nothing." Even in our own Congregation of Bursfeld, less than eighty years old, some houses have fallen again, and we have reason to fear the fall of others. "In short, so many Religious, of so many different Orders, almost in our own day, have fallen from regular observance, and do daily fall, that even the more recent reforms now seem most time-worn and utterly decayed" - antiquissimae et abolitae prorsus. Although this pessimistic judgment receives strong general corroboration from independent evidence, yet we must not forget that several of these monasteries retained a more lasting spirit of reform. When Dean Colet talked of finding some truly reformed monastery wherein to end his days, it was in Italy or Germany that he proposed to seek such a house; and Chezal-Benoit in France, the latest-born of the pre-Reformation Congregations, took its inspiration directly from St. Justina, if not from the German reforms also. The different French movements for monastic reform are well told from the point of view of a learned and moderate Roman Catholic in the second volume of Imbart de la Tour's Origines de la Reforme (1909). About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Forges innovative connections between monastic archaeology and heritage studies, revealing new perspectives on sacred heritage, identity, medieval healing, magic and memory. This title is available as Open Access.

A study of the changes in religious thought and institutions c. 1180-c. 1280.