Creating Cistercian Nuns

E. Lester Anne

Description

In Creating Cistercian Nuns, Anne E. Lester addresses a central issue in the history of the medieval church: the role of women in the rise of the religious reform movement of the thirteenth century. Focusing on the county of Champagne in France, Lester reconstructs the history of the women's religious movement and its institutionalization within the Cistercian order.The common picture of the early Cistercian order is that it was unreceptive to religious women. Male Cistercian leaders often avoided institutional oversight of communities of nuns, preferring instead to cultivate informal relationships of spiritual advice and guidance with religious women. As a result, scholars believed that women who wished to live a life of service and poverty were more likely to join one of the other reforming orders rather than the Cistercians. As Lester shows, however, this picture is deeply flawed. Between 1220 and 1240 the Cistercian order incorporated small independent communities of religious women in unprecedented numbers. Moreover, the order not only accommodated women but also responded to their interpretations of apostolic piety, even as it defined and determined what constituted Cistercian nuns in terms of dress, privileges, and liturgical practice. Lester reconstructs the lived experiences of these women, integrating their ideals and practices into the broader religious and social developments of the thirteenth century-including the crusade movement, penitential piety, the care of lepers, and the reform agenda of the Fourth Lateran Council. The book closes by addressing the reasons for the subsequent decline of Cistercian convents in the fourteenth century. Based on extensive analysis of unpublished archives, Creating Cistercian Nuns will force scholars to revise their understanding of the women's religious movement as it unfolded during the thirteenth century.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Christian Church
• Middle Ages
• History of religions
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 22 novembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801462955
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

q  CREATING CISTERCIAN NUNS

CREATING CISTERCIAN NUNS n T h e Wome n  s R e l i g i ou s mov e me n T a n d i Ts R e f oR m i n T h i RT e e n T h - Ce n T u R y C h a mpa g n e

A n n e E . L e s te r

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2011 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the pub lisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2011 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Lester, Anne Elisabeth, 1974–  Creating Cistercian nuns : the women’s religious movement and its reform in thirteenthcentury Champagne / Anne E. Lester.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801449895 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Cistercian nuns—France—ChampagneArdenne— History—To 1500. 2. Monastic and religious life of women—France—ChampagneArdenne—History—To 1500. 3. ChampagneArdenne (France)—Religious life and customs. I. Title.  BX4328.Z5F75 2011  271'.97—dc23 2011022953

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Cloth printing

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In memory of my grandparents Maurine Powell Lester and Thomas William Lester storytellers in their own right

The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space. —Italo Calvino,Invisible Cities

The order was founded for anyone, lettered or unlettered, who needed a city of refuge. —The Chronicle of Villers

q  Co nt e nt s

List of Illustrations ix Prefacexi Acknowledgments xv On Currencies, Names, and Transcriptions xix List of Abbreviations and Short Titles xxi

Introduction: Written Fragments and Living Parts 1 1. Concerning Certain Women: The Women’s Religious Movement in Champagne 15 2. Cities of Refuge: The Social World of Religious Women 45 3. Under the Religious Life: Reform and the Cistercian Order 78 4. The Bonds of Charity: The Special Cares of Cistercian Nuns 117 5. One and the Same Passion: Convents and Crusaders 147 6. A Space Apart: Gender and Administration in a New Social Landscape 171  Epilogue: A Deplorable and Dangerous State: Crisis, Consolidation, and Collapse 201

Appendix: Cistercian Convents and DomusDei211of Champagne Bibliography 217 Index 251

q  I l lu s t r at i o n s

 1. Playing card, jack of diamonds (undated, ca. late seventeenthcentury)  2. Donation charter from Beatrix of St.Rémy for the nuns of Clairmarais outside Reims, October 1224  3. Detail, plan of NotreDamedesPrés, Troyes, 1772  4. L’AmourDieu, exterior of abbey church, east end of nave  5. La Cour NotreDamedeMichery, exterior of the abbey church, east end of nave  6. Charter from Abbess Isabelle of NotreDamedesPrés, granting permission to theconversus John to swear to an agreement in her place, 1251  7. Detail, rental list (censive) from Clairmarais for properties in Reims, undated, ca. thirteenth century  8. Charter officiated by the dean of Christianity of BarsurAube, 1242  9. Charter displaying seals of Alice of Jaucourt, the dean of Christianity, and theprévôtof BarsurAube, 1272 10. Amortization for ValdesVignes from Thibaut V, count of Champagne, king of Navarre, 1269 11. Charter from the abbot of Clairvaux to the nuns of ValdesVignes concerning Boniface VIII’sPericuloso,1298

Map 1. Sites of Cistercian convents in Champagne and the neighboring provinces during the thirteenth century

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