Examining a central change in European religious thought, this study investigates the changing roles of monks in society to help understand the reform of Christian ideology. It is based on extant monastic writings, including hagiography and polemics. The book explains the diversification of monasticism in this period as an outgrowth of a shift toward greater interest in lay religious life. Focusing on the German Empire, it examines monastic values in such areas as missionary work, public preaching, pilgrimage, and the polemics of the gregorian reform. The sections on the role of polemic as a catalyst and reflection of monastic change and on missionary activities as part of ecclesiastical reform are especially important for the historian of religion. The book fills an important gap in the study of central European monasticism.
Author(s): Phyllis G. Jestice
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 76
Publisher: Brill
Year: 1997
Language: English
Pages: 320
City: Leiden
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
INTRODUCTION
i. The problem: the monk versus the world
ii. The state of the question
iii. The "monastic crisis"
iv. Dissolution versus definition
v. The principles of this book
CHAPTER ONE. TENTH-CENTURY MONKS AND SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS
i. The tenth-century monastery as public servant
ii. Withdrawal from a tainted world
iii. Infiltration of the cloister
iv. A foretaste of heaven
CHAPTER TWO. MISSIONARIES AND NEW MONASTIC DREAMS
i. The imperial mission
ii. Wenceslas of Bohemia and changing monastic ideals
iii. The new language of mission
iv. The problem of 'stability'
v. Monks and Christian responsibility
vi. A Romualdian missionary movement
CHAPTER THREE. STABILITY AND CARE: THE RECLUSES
i. The growing popularity of reclusion
ii. Separation and liminality
iii. The recluse as caregiver
iv. The holiness of recluses
CHAPTER FOUR. THE GODLY SOCIETY: MONKS AND REFORM IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY
i. From missionary to wandering preacher
ii. The monk as spiritual adept
iii. Entanglement with ecclesiastical reform
iv. The revival of eremitism
v. Romuald of Ravenna and the Camaldolesi
vi. Monks and 'caritas'
CHAPTER FIVE. THE "NEW MONASTICISM" OF LOTHARINGIA IN THE EARLY ELEVENTH CENTURY
i. Lotharingian monasticism and the turn to the world
ii. Hypocrisy and schism
iii. Gregory the Great and the active life
iv. Invasion of the monastery
v. Is monasticism enough?
CHAPTER SIX. MONKS AND THE ROMAN REFORM
i. Monks, the reformed papacy, and ecclesiastical reform
ii. Peter Damian vs. the Tuscan hermit
iii. The quandary of ecclesiastical reform
iv. The evidence of Vallombrosa
v. A community of reformers
vi. Servants of the papacy?
CHAPTER SEVEN. ANTI-GREGORIAN PROPAGANDA AND THE MONASTIC CRISIS
i. Hirsau as model for world-reforming monasticism
ii. The polemic against Hirsau
iii. The disavowal of a radical past
iv. Hildebrand the false monk
v. The case for Gregory
vi. The monastic 'ordo' and Christianity
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
