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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Gert Melville ,  James D Mixson ,  Giles Constable
Publisher:   Liturgical Press
Imprint:   Liturgical Press
Volume:   263
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 3.20cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.536kg
ISBN:  

9780879072636

ISBN 10:   0879072636
Pages:   464
Publication Date:   04 March 2016
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Adult education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Contents  Foreword by 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 5   4      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

Reviews

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 ""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 ""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 ""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"

Author Information

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).

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