Fictive Orders and Feminine Religious Identities, 1200-1600

Description

Any visitor to Belgium or the Netherlands is immediately struck by the number of convents and beguinages (begijnhoven) in both major cities and small towns. Their number and location in urban centres suggests that the women who inhabited them once held a prominent role. Despite leaving a visible mark on cities in Europe, much of the story of these women - known variously as beguines, tertiaries, klopjes, recluses, and anchoresses--remains to be told. Instead of aspiring to live as traditional religious, they transcended normative assumptions about religion and gender and had a very real impact on their religious and secular worlds. The sources for their tale are often fragmentary and difficult to interpret. However, careful scrutiny allows their voices to be heard. Drawing on an array of sources including religious rules, sermons, hagiographic vitae, and rapiaria, Fictive Orders and Feminine Religious Identities traces the story of pious laywomen between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. It both emphasizes the innovative roles of women who transcended established forms of institutional religious life and reveals the ways in which historiographical habits have obscured the dynamic and fluid nature of their histories. By highlighting the development of irregular and extraregular communities and tracing the threads of monasticisation that wove their way around pious laywomen, this book draws attention to the vibrant and dynamic culture of feminine lay piety that persisted from the later middle ages onwards. Cover Fictive Orders and Feminine Religious Identities, 1200–1600 Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Contents List of Abbreviations Introduction AIMS AND STRUCTURE 1: Penitents and the Institutionalization of Penitential Life in the Thirteenth Century REGULATION AND REGULARIZATION: THE CREATION OF TERTIARY AND QUASI-RELIGIOUS ORDERS THE CREATION OF NEW ORDERS: THE CLARISSANS REGULARIZATION AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION: THE ‘FOUNDATION’ OF A PENITENTIAL ORDER? CONCLUSION 2: After Supra montem: The ‘Spread’ of an Order? REARRANGING THE CANONICAL LANDSCAPE ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS THE APPEARANCE OF CHANGE ORTHODOXY AND HERESY ECONOMIC INFLUENCES AND DIFFICULTIES CONCLUSION 3: The Western Schism, Observant Reform, and Institutionalization TERTIARIES AND THE WESTERN SCHISM OBSERVANT REFORM MONTEGIOVE FRANCISCAN OBSERVANTS AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE CLARISSAN REFORM OBSERVANT REFORM AND DOMINICAN CURA REGULARIZED DOMINICAN TERTIARIES TERTIARIES, CONTROVERSIES, AND DOMINICAN OBSERVANTS TERTIARIES AND THE AUGUSTINIAN OBSERVANCE TERTIARIES, ORDER, AND IDENTITY 4: Creating a Textual Identity? Pastoralia and Models of Tertiary Life ACTIVE SPIRITUALITY: RHETORIC AND MODELS TERTIARIES, IDENTITY MARKERS, AND ORDERED IDENTITY CONCLUSION 5: Order and Identity in Women’s Communities COLLABORATION AND SPIRITUAL CARE EDUCATION IN WOMEN’S COMMUNITIES AUTHORITY AND MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE ORDER IDENTITY CONCLUSION 6: Unification and Regularization in the Sixteenth-Century Spiritual Climate THE FIFTH LATERAN COUNCIL AND THE RULE OF LEO X NON-FRANCISCAN WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND REGULARIZATION THE COUNCIL OF TRENT AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR FEMALE COMMUNITIES THE URSULINES MARY WARD (1585–1645) NEW OPPORTUNITIES, NEW DIRECTIONS Epilogue TERMINOLOGY AND PLURALITY OF RELIGIOUS LIFE TERTIARIES AND ‘MODERN’ RELIGIOUS LIFE Bibliography MANUSCRIPT SOURCES PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES SECONDARY SOURCES Index