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Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages
Hugh Lawrence traces the Western monastic tradition from its fourth-century origins in the deserts of Egypt and Syria, through the many and varied forms of religious life it assumed during the Middle Ages. As well as reconstructing the internal life, experience and aims of the medieval cloister, he also explores the many-sided relationships between the monasteries and the secular world around them.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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April 29, 2019
Excellent work of high academic quality, well researched, concise but quite comprehensive, especially considering its very ambitious scope. The list of primary and secondary sources used by the author is quite impressive, as it is the balance and nuance of the analysis.
This is a well-written, highly informative and engaging overview tracing the birth of the Western monastic tradition, and its many developments during the Middle Ages up to the eve of the Reformation.
Highly recommended to all readers interested in gaining a better understanding of the evolution of the intellectual and spiritual life during the Western European Middle Ages: it is impossible to reach a deeper understanding of this period without some good knowledge of this significant phenomenon, whose significance transcends the strict confines of the ascetic religious experience of a spiritual elite, assuming a general social, political and cultural relevance of critical importance that can't be ignored by the serious historian.
Just as an example, the important role played by the great abbeys on the frontiers of the Carolingian Empire in colonizing newly conquered territories, as vital agents of the imperialistic Carolingian "Ostpolitik", is an important element that all too often tends to be disregarded in favor of more military aspects.
We should also bear in mind that, while the monastic movement was initially regarded with wariness and suspicion by the traditional ecclesiastical hierarchy, and considered by many a fringe phenomenon originated in the East, a process of gradual assimilation into the ecclesiastical organism started with the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and culminated with the elections of Bishops and Popes with a monastic background, starting with Gregory the Great in the 6th century, and then becoming quite noticeable in the High Middle Ages (Urban II was a former grand priory of Cluny, for example), when official Church policy was at times deeply influenced, directly or indirectly, by the monastic orders.
The monastic orders also played an important secular political and economic role, as supporters of the imperial or monarchical institutions, and as significant land-owners and employers: Charlemagne and his successors constantly used abbots as imperial "missi", and in some cases some monasteries even discharged the role of an insurance company.
And we should not forget the works of sheer architectural beauty that probably represent the most visible legacy of these monastic orders, as anybody who has ever visited the beautiful abbeys of Vezelay, Moissac, Bobbio, Conques, Flavigny, The Certosa of Pavia and Fontenay (just to name a few places I had the pleasure to visit) can easily confirm.
The ambivalent attitude of the monastic movement (and of the Christian Church in general) towards the traditions of classical secular culture is also well represented in this book: while we have an anti-intellectual, anti-secular attitude streak represented by the likes of Jerome (with his open hostility to the tradition of the "pagan" classics), on the other hand we must not forget that the monastic writing-office was the factory that reproduced and created the great majority of the literary works, secular as well as sacred, that filled the libraries of the Middle Ages.
Particularly insightful is also the analysis of the close correspondence between the economic and social developments transforming the landscape of Western European societies in the period, and the corresponding reshaping of the monastic movement.
In particular, the analysis of the so-called "Mendicant Orders", of their success as an expression of the more individualistic form of religiosity of the urban patriciate developing in the more advanced areas of Europe, and of their complex relationship with the centralizing tendency of the Papacy, is extremely compelling and well argued.
A good background knowledge of the period is definitely recommended, as the author assumes that the reader is already familiar with its main political and cultural developments.
This is a well-written, highly informative and engaging overview tracing the birth of the Western monastic tradition, and its many developments during the Middle Ages up to the eve of the Reformation.
Highly recommended to all readers interested in gaining a better understanding of the evolution of the intellectual and spiritual life during the Western European Middle Ages: it is impossible to reach a deeper understanding of this period without some good knowledge of this significant phenomenon, whose significance transcends the strict confines of the ascetic religious experience of a spiritual elite, assuming a general social, political and cultural relevance of critical importance that can't be ignored by the serious historian.
Just as an example, the important role played by the great abbeys on the frontiers of the Carolingian Empire in colonizing newly conquered territories, as vital agents of the imperialistic Carolingian "Ostpolitik", is an important element that all too often tends to be disregarded in favor of more military aspects.
We should also bear in mind that, while the monastic movement was initially regarded with wariness and suspicion by the traditional ecclesiastical hierarchy, and considered by many a fringe phenomenon originated in the East, a process of gradual assimilation into the ecclesiastical organism started with the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and culminated with the elections of Bishops and Popes with a monastic background, starting with Gregory the Great in the 6th century, and then becoming quite noticeable in the High Middle Ages (Urban II was a former grand priory of Cluny, for example), when official Church policy was at times deeply influenced, directly or indirectly, by the monastic orders.
The monastic orders also played an important secular political and economic role, as supporters of the imperial or monarchical institutions, and as significant land-owners and employers: Charlemagne and his successors constantly used abbots as imperial "missi", and in some cases some monasteries even discharged the role of an insurance company.
And we should not forget the works of sheer architectural beauty that probably represent the most visible legacy of these monastic orders, as anybody who has ever visited the beautiful abbeys of Vezelay, Moissac, Bobbio, Conques, Flavigny, The Certosa of Pavia and Fontenay (just to name a few places I had the pleasure to visit) can easily confirm.
The ambivalent attitude of the monastic movement (and of the Christian Church in general) towards the traditions of classical secular culture is also well represented in this book: while we have an anti-intellectual, anti-secular attitude streak represented by the likes of Jerome (with his open hostility to the tradition of the "pagan" classics), on the other hand we must not forget that the monastic writing-office was the factory that reproduced and created the great majority of the literary works, secular as well as sacred, that filled the libraries of the Middle Ages.
Particularly insightful is also the analysis of the close correspondence between the economic and social developments transforming the landscape of Western European societies in the period, and the corresponding reshaping of the monastic movement.
In particular, the analysis of the so-called "Mendicant Orders", of their success as an expression of the more individualistic form of religiosity of the urban patriciate developing in the more advanced areas of Europe, and of their complex relationship with the centralizing tendency of the Papacy, is extremely compelling and well argued.
A good background knowledge of the period is definitely recommended, as the author assumes that the reader is already familiar with its main political and cultural developments.
October 15, 2011
Really great overview of the forms of medieval monasticism. The book flies by, going from the Desert Fathers of the third and fourth centuries up through the 15th century and the Brethren of the Common Life, all in about 230 pages. The wonderful thing is that it's never patronizing and it resists over-simplification, always tying back the rise and fall of different orders to their social/political/economic contexts.
There's obviously not going to be a load of details about any particular order, but Lawrence does a nice job supplying good anecdotes here or there, and he's admirably inclusive of the less-famous (but no less interesting) orders that are often skipped over in general histories. It's a great springboard if you're at all interested in the history of monasticism.
There's obviously not going to be a load of details about any particular order, but Lawrence does a nice job supplying good anecdotes here or there, and he's admirably inclusive of the less-famous (but no less interesting) orders that are often skipped over in general histories. It's a great springboard if you're at all interested in the history of monasticism.
September 9, 2016
A concise, but not short, history of monasticism from the Desert Fathers to the eve of the Reformation. I found the information about the prevailing religious thought of each century particularly interesting.
March 20, 2023
De middeleeuwen waren, in tegenstelling tot wat vaak gedacht wordt, ook op spiritueel vlak een turbulente periode. Ook de kloosters waren meer dan de bakens van rust en meditatie voor wie wij ze nu houden. Machtspolitiek, inmenging van leken, concurrentie tussen ordes, spontaan religieus enthousiasme en het regelmatig opduiken van nieuwe kloosterordes buiten de kerkelijke autoriteit om; het zijn allen interessante middeleeuwse fenomenen die een reflectie waren van de opmerkelijke complexiteit en diversiteit van de samenlevingen waarin zij bestonden.
March 19, 2023
A USEFUL HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD AND ITS IDEALS
History professor C. H. Lawrence wrote in the Preface to the First Edition (1984) of this book: “This book has grown out of the experience of many years spent endeavoring to explain to students the presence and function of monasteries in the medieval world… it seemed to me that there was use for a short study that traced the Growth of the Western monastic tradition as a whole in its social context, from its origins in late antiquity do to the later Middle Ages. This unifying purpose is my justification for the title. For although I have included the friars, they were not, properly speaking, monks, nor were the Brethren of the Common Life of the members of other fringe groups that figure in the later chapters. But the Mendicant Orders and the other religious movements of the later Middle Ages were nevertheless offshoots of the same monastic tradition and would be unintelligible without reference to it.”
He adds in the Preface to the Second [1989] Edition, “In this edition I have tried to incorporate… some of the new work that was not available to me when the first edition went to press. Besides this, retirement from the frenetic distractions that afflict all universities in these times has given me the chance to deal at length with some themes in which I have long had a special interest, such as the relationship of the monasteries to the world of the schoolmen.”
He begins, “Christian monasticism made its earliest appearance in Egypt and Palestine towards the end of the third century. In its primitive form it was a way of life adopted by solitaries, or anchorites, living in the desert. The word ‘monk’ itself derives from the Greek word ‘monos’ meaning alone: monks were people who had withdrawn from society to pursue the spiritual life in solitude… Some monks, the greater number in fact, lived in organized communities of their own kind; but the first in time were the hermits… For the most part these people were not clergy but lay Christians, who had migrated into the solitude from the urban society of late antiquity. Writers on the subject… have claimed that the first Christian anchorites were refugees who sought safety in the desert from the persecution launched against the Church by the imperial government under Decius and Diocletian. Others have argued that the movement resulted from the softening of the moral fiber of the Christian community after Constantine had given peace to the Church in 313. Seen from this angle, the asceticism of the desert solitaries represented a reaction by choicer spirits against the laxer standards and the careerism that crept into the Church once imperial approval had given it respectability and brought it endowments; the advent or large numbers of merely nominal Christians … drove those who were more deeply committed to the religious life to separate themselves from their congregations.” (Pg. 1-2)
He summarizes, “by the fifth century… the ascetical tradition of the Eastern desert had been transmitted to the West… The writings of Cassian ha provided the Western ascetical movement with a theology. But it was not until the sixth century that the first treatises appeared which offered a coherent plan for a monastic community. The earliest of these were the Rules composed by St. Benedict…? (Pg. 17)
He explains, “As with all monastic benefaction, the primary motive was that of safeguarding the soul of the benefactor and the souls of his relatives. Medieval rulers shared with their people current doctrinal assumptions about the economy of salvation. And these assumptions included the ideas of vicarious merit and the need to make satisfaction or reparation for sin. The merit that accrued to an individual through prayer and good works could be applied to other people, and not only to living people, but also to the dead. This concept plays a crucial role in medieval religious practice. To found and endow a community of monks was to ensure a donor an unceasing fund of intercession and sacrifice which would avail hi and his relatives both in lie and after death.” (Pg. 69)
He notes, “It was to Cluny that men looked for spiritual leadership and religious inspiration… Cluny stands in the tenth century for the restoration of Benedictine monastic life, largely as it had been understood… a century earlier. As a house that waw dedicated to reviving strict observance of the Rule, Cluny was not unique… it also had important contemporaries.” (Pg. 86)
He states, “If the monastic library was stocked with scholastic treatises and copies of the ‘Sentences’ [of Peter Lombard] for private study, in public reading at least, the emphasis is upon edification rather than intellectual nourishment. In a sense, the new learning of the schools, by clarifying the distinction between the natural and the supernatural, between nature and grace, had sharpened the line of demarcation between the cloister and the world.” (Pg. 146)
He recounts, “The appeal … to the remote pat was central to the strategy of the Gregorian Reform. It was the avowed aim of the Gregorian party to restore what they conceived to be the discipline and order of the primitive Church. To this end the papal Curia set scholars to work to search libraries and archives for early sources of canon law, and new collections were produced containing ‘the ancient law’---the law that governed the Church of the early centuries.” (Pg. 149-150)
He reports, “Citeaux, and the order that sprang from it, was the outcome of the same restless search for a simpler and more secluded form of ascetical life that found expression in other new orders in the eleventh century. Like similar movements, it began as a reaction against the corporate wealth, worldly involvements, and surfeited liturgical ritualism of the Carolingian monastic tradition. The founders of Citeaux set out to create a monastery in which the pristine observance of the Benedictine Rule would be restored. As they conceived it, poverty and isolation were integral features of this observance… the order that evolved out of their effort eclipsed all its rivals in the vigor of its growth, the number of it recruits, and the brilliance of its reputation.” (Pg. 174)
He adds, “Before the end of the thirteenth century, much that was distinctive in the Cistercian vocation had been lost. In its heyday it had summoned the aristocracy and the intellectual elite of Europe to a new spiritual adventure. But the compromises that followed in the train of wealth and influence made the voice less compelling. A new European intelligentsia was emerging, and it looked to other forms of religious life for the fulfillment of its ideals.” (Pg. 202)
He explains, “Of all new forms of monastic lire that emerged from the religious ferment of the twelfth century none was more paradoxical than that of the Military Orders. These were orders of knights, dedicated to fighting the infidel, who were also fully professed monks. They looked like a contradiction in terms… How could fighting and killing with carnal weapons be reconciled with the Gospel of peace and love?... The reconciliation of these incomparable occupations in the orders of fighting monks can only be understood in the context of the crusading movement from which they sprang.” (Pg. 206)
He acknowledges, “The nunneries of the early Middle Ages not only offered women the chance to pursue the ascetical life; they attracted endowments because they performed an important social role in providing a haven for the daughters and widows of the aristocracy for whom no suitable marriage could be found. The women who entered them, and the families that placed them there, expected them to enjoy the society of their own kind. They were thus aristocratic and socially exclusive communities.” (Pg. 216)
He notes, “The orders of mendicant friars which appeared early in the thirteenth century represented a new departure, a radical breakaway of the past… their rejection of property and reliance upon begging to support themselves were only the outward signs of a more fundamental change of spirit…. Preachng and ministering to the people was their raison d’etre… Assurance of salvation need no longer be sought by flight from the human hive… [One] cold fulfill the demands of the Christian life by sanctifying the humdrum duties and tasks of their estate…” (Pg. 238)
He concludes, “The crisis of the fifteenth century was not a terminal disease… monasticism survived by undergoing an exterior and interior transformation… a Rule designed for monks in late antiquity or in the twelfth century would not be applicable in very detail to recruits of a later age, whose intellectual and psychological formation was very different.” (Pg. 288)
This is a fine history that will be of keen interest to those studying this period.
History professor C. H. Lawrence wrote in the Preface to the First Edition (1984) of this book: “This book has grown out of the experience of many years spent endeavoring to explain to students the presence and function of monasteries in the medieval world… it seemed to me that there was use for a short study that traced the Growth of the Western monastic tradition as a whole in its social context, from its origins in late antiquity do to the later Middle Ages. This unifying purpose is my justification for the title. For although I have included the friars, they were not, properly speaking, monks, nor were the Brethren of the Common Life of the members of other fringe groups that figure in the later chapters. But the Mendicant Orders and the other religious movements of the later Middle Ages were nevertheless offshoots of the same monastic tradition and would be unintelligible without reference to it.”
He adds in the Preface to the Second [1989] Edition, “In this edition I have tried to incorporate… some of the new work that was not available to me when the first edition went to press. Besides this, retirement from the frenetic distractions that afflict all universities in these times has given me the chance to deal at length with some themes in which I have long had a special interest, such as the relationship of the monasteries to the world of the schoolmen.”
He begins, “Christian monasticism made its earliest appearance in Egypt and Palestine towards the end of the third century. In its primitive form it was a way of life adopted by solitaries, or anchorites, living in the desert. The word ‘monk’ itself derives from the Greek word ‘monos’ meaning alone: monks were people who had withdrawn from society to pursue the spiritual life in solitude… Some monks, the greater number in fact, lived in organized communities of their own kind; but the first in time were the hermits… For the most part these people were not clergy but lay Christians, who had migrated into the solitude from the urban society of late antiquity. Writers on the subject… have claimed that the first Christian anchorites were refugees who sought safety in the desert from the persecution launched against the Church by the imperial government under Decius and Diocletian. Others have argued that the movement resulted from the softening of the moral fiber of the Christian community after Constantine had given peace to the Church in 313. Seen from this angle, the asceticism of the desert solitaries represented a reaction by choicer spirits against the laxer standards and the careerism that crept into the Church once imperial approval had given it respectability and brought it endowments; the advent or large numbers of merely nominal Christians … drove those who were more deeply committed to the religious life to separate themselves from their congregations.” (Pg. 1-2)
He summarizes, “by the fifth century… the ascetical tradition of the Eastern desert had been transmitted to the West… The writings of Cassian ha provided the Western ascetical movement with a theology. But it was not until the sixth century that the first treatises appeared which offered a coherent plan for a monastic community. The earliest of these were the Rules composed by St. Benedict…? (Pg. 17)
He explains, “As with all monastic benefaction, the primary motive was that of safeguarding the soul of the benefactor and the souls of his relatives. Medieval rulers shared with their people current doctrinal assumptions about the economy of salvation. And these assumptions included the ideas of vicarious merit and the need to make satisfaction or reparation for sin. The merit that accrued to an individual through prayer and good works could be applied to other people, and not only to living people, but also to the dead. This concept plays a crucial role in medieval religious practice. To found and endow a community of monks was to ensure a donor an unceasing fund of intercession and sacrifice which would avail hi and his relatives both in lie and after death.” (Pg. 69)
He notes, “It was to Cluny that men looked for spiritual leadership and religious inspiration… Cluny stands in the tenth century for the restoration of Benedictine monastic life, largely as it had been understood… a century earlier. As a house that waw dedicated to reviving strict observance of the Rule, Cluny was not unique… it also had important contemporaries.” (Pg. 86)
He states, “If the monastic library was stocked with scholastic treatises and copies of the ‘Sentences’ [of Peter Lombard] for private study, in public reading at least, the emphasis is upon edification rather than intellectual nourishment. In a sense, the new learning of the schools, by clarifying the distinction between the natural and the supernatural, between nature and grace, had sharpened the line of demarcation between the cloister and the world.” (Pg. 146)
He recounts, “The appeal … to the remote pat was central to the strategy of the Gregorian Reform. It was the avowed aim of the Gregorian party to restore what they conceived to be the discipline and order of the primitive Church. To this end the papal Curia set scholars to work to search libraries and archives for early sources of canon law, and new collections were produced containing ‘the ancient law’---the law that governed the Church of the early centuries.” (Pg. 149-150)
He reports, “Citeaux, and the order that sprang from it, was the outcome of the same restless search for a simpler and more secluded form of ascetical life that found expression in other new orders in the eleventh century. Like similar movements, it began as a reaction against the corporate wealth, worldly involvements, and surfeited liturgical ritualism of the Carolingian monastic tradition. The founders of Citeaux set out to create a monastery in which the pristine observance of the Benedictine Rule would be restored. As they conceived it, poverty and isolation were integral features of this observance… the order that evolved out of their effort eclipsed all its rivals in the vigor of its growth, the number of it recruits, and the brilliance of its reputation.” (Pg. 174)
He adds, “Before the end of the thirteenth century, much that was distinctive in the Cistercian vocation had been lost. In its heyday it had summoned the aristocracy and the intellectual elite of Europe to a new spiritual adventure. But the compromises that followed in the train of wealth and influence made the voice less compelling. A new European intelligentsia was emerging, and it looked to other forms of religious life for the fulfillment of its ideals.” (Pg. 202)
He explains, “Of all new forms of monastic lire that emerged from the religious ferment of the twelfth century none was more paradoxical than that of the Military Orders. These were orders of knights, dedicated to fighting the infidel, who were also fully professed monks. They looked like a contradiction in terms… How could fighting and killing with carnal weapons be reconciled with the Gospel of peace and love?... The reconciliation of these incomparable occupations in the orders of fighting monks can only be understood in the context of the crusading movement from which they sprang.” (Pg. 206)
He acknowledges, “The nunneries of the early Middle Ages not only offered women the chance to pursue the ascetical life; they attracted endowments because they performed an important social role in providing a haven for the daughters and widows of the aristocracy for whom no suitable marriage could be found. The women who entered them, and the families that placed them there, expected them to enjoy the society of their own kind. They were thus aristocratic and socially exclusive communities.” (Pg. 216)
He notes, “The orders of mendicant friars which appeared early in the thirteenth century represented a new departure, a radical breakaway of the past… their rejection of property and reliance upon begging to support themselves were only the outward signs of a more fundamental change of spirit…. Preachng and ministering to the people was their raison d’etre… Assurance of salvation need no longer be sought by flight from the human hive… [One] cold fulfill the demands of the Christian life by sanctifying the humdrum duties and tasks of their estate…” (Pg. 238)
He concludes, “The crisis of the fifteenth century was not a terminal disease… monasticism survived by undergoing an exterior and interior transformation… a Rule designed for monks in late antiquity or in the twelfth century would not be applicable in very detail to recruits of a later age, whose intellectual and psychological formation was very different.” (Pg. 288)
This is a fine history that will be of keen interest to those studying this period.
February 21, 2017
NB: 4th ed., 2015
A textbook survey that covers monasticism from its antique origins in the desert to the mendicant orders. Of relevance here is the course charted by Lawrence for the high middle ages: Cluniac reform of the Benedictine rule in the tenth and eleventh centuries introduced structural changes in western monasticism but also made Cluny very powerful and wealthy. This response to this came in the twelfth century with ascetic reforms pushed by the Cistercians and then by the mendicants in the thirteenth, which Lawrence argues were born out of the context of challenges presented by the new urban centres. Although Lawrence includes material on the military orders and talks about the rule of Augustine, the book remains very Benedictine.
A textbook survey that covers monasticism from its antique origins in the desert to the mendicant orders. Of relevance here is the course charted by Lawrence for the high middle ages: Cluniac reform of the Benedictine rule in the tenth and eleventh centuries introduced structural changes in western monasticism but also made Cluny very powerful and wealthy. This response to this came in the twelfth century with ascetic reforms pushed by the Cistercians and then by the mendicants in the thirteenth, which Lawrence argues were born out of the context of challenges presented by the new urban centres. Although Lawrence includes material on the military orders and talks about the rule of Augustine, the book remains very Benedictine.
February 14, 2026
Oh for [Benedicts] sake just read the rule, a depth without height. Introductory.
Read
July 14, 2026when i said it was monkmaxxing summer i meant it btw.
really approachable and comprehensive introduction to medieval european christian monasticism! most of it was extraordinarily readable and accessible, though i admit—through no fault of lawrence's own—my attention and comprehension dropped off at the flurry of reform-driven orders that emerged 11-12th century (please don't ask me what the difference between the carthusians and the cistercians are i do NOT remember). there were a couple moments that were. eyebrow-raising i guess? including but not limited to:
- some outdated historical conclusions like following tradition in suggesting bathild of chelles came from a background of enslavement, or taking alfredian sources at face value when lamenting the poor status of learning in england before the monastic revival
- the fact that the sacking of monasteries by 'heathen vikings and the saracens' are described with far more detail and affective provocation than the colonisation and forced conversion (carried out by monastic outposts) imposed on the newly conquered subjects of the carolingian empire, or the violence of the crusades. the eurocentrism (to put it nicely..) that underscores such description also leaks through uh. odd matter-of-fact statements like lawrence's comparison of canons regulars' impact to 'that of the discovery of america on the people of a later age: it had been there all the time, and though it was not precisely what they had been looking for, the world never looked quite the same afterwards.' like uhh. that seems. like kind of an inappropriate analogy i don't know.
- also the repeated emphasis of and the blanket generalisations about the 'uncomplicated' psychology of 'lay christians' in comparison to trained and literate monks, albeit given a more positive spin ('simple piety,' 'new religious experience') as lawrence moved into describing the late-medieval lay orders like the beguines and the mendicants, still seemed disconcertingly elitist
nevertheless i had a good time for most of the book and it is definitely An Achievement to have narrowed down such a rich and increasingly diverse history of christian monasticism over the course of more than a millenium into three hundred pages AND make it still relatively fun. i also think having a vague grasp of christian monastic history also gave me a vague sense of the development of christian spirituality of a whole—the whole trend of growing individualism (itself a result of growing societal affluence, urban development and increase in privacy) giving way to proto-protestantism is soo interesting and definitely throws some light on how different the concept and practice of religion actually was in the early medieval period, which in turn defamiliarises the default assumption (at least that i have held as someone growing up protestant) of religion as primarily an experience of interiority.
ending the review now on my favourite anecdote from the book...<3
really approachable and comprehensive introduction to medieval european christian monasticism! most of it was extraordinarily readable and accessible, though i admit—through no fault of lawrence's own—my attention and comprehension dropped off at the flurry of reform-driven orders that emerged 11-12th century (please don't ask me what the difference between the carthusians and the cistercians are i do NOT remember). there were a couple moments that were. eyebrow-raising i guess? including but not limited to:
- some outdated historical conclusions like following tradition in suggesting bathild of chelles came from a background of enslavement, or taking alfredian sources at face value when lamenting the poor status of learning in england before the monastic revival
- the fact that the sacking of monasteries by 'heathen vikings and the saracens' are described with far more detail and affective provocation than the colonisation and forced conversion (carried out by monastic outposts) imposed on the newly conquered subjects of the carolingian empire, or the violence of the crusades. the eurocentrism (to put it nicely..) that underscores such description also leaks through uh. odd matter-of-fact statements like lawrence's comparison of canons regulars' impact to 'that of the discovery of america on the people of a later age: it had been there all the time, and though it was not precisely what they had been looking for, the world never looked quite the same afterwards.' like uhh. that seems. like kind of an inappropriate analogy i don't know.
- also the repeated emphasis of and the blanket generalisations about the 'uncomplicated' psychology of 'lay christians' in comparison to trained and literate monks, albeit given a more positive spin ('simple piety,' 'new religious experience') as lawrence moved into describing the late-medieval lay orders like the beguines and the mendicants, still seemed disconcertingly elitist
nevertheless i had a good time for most of the book and it is definitely An Achievement to have narrowed down such a rich and increasingly diverse history of christian monasticism over the course of more than a millenium into three hundred pages AND make it still relatively fun. i also think having a vague grasp of christian monastic history also gave me a vague sense of the development of christian spirituality of a whole—the whole trend of growing individualism (itself a result of growing societal affluence, urban development and increase in privacy) giving way to proto-protestantism is soo interesting and definitely throws some light on how different the concept and practice of religion actually was in the early medieval period, which in turn defamiliarises the default assumption (at least that i have held as someone growing up protestant) of religion as primarily an experience of interiority.
ending the review now on my favourite anecdote from the book...<3
copying, illumination, and binding of books was an important service the carthusians rendered to the ecclesiastical community. we get a glimpse of the process from the letters of peter the venerable, who supplied them with codices to copy from the library of cluny: 'i have sent you the little book or epistle of the blessed ambrose against the proposition of symmachus. the treatise of st hilary on the psalms i have not sent, because i found that our copy has the same textual corruption as yours. the letter you sent,' he grumbles, 'talked only about books and was silent about those to whom the books are to be sent.' but the literary traffic was not all one way. 'send us, if you please, the larger volume of st augustine's letters, for a large part of ours has been accidentally eaten by a bear.'
August 23, 2017
For an interesting topic, this is a dry and somewhat dull book. It gets a lot of useful information out on the origins and development of the various cenobitic and eremitic traditions, but lacks verve and makes very little attempt to investigate the life within the monasteries. It also, astonishingly to me, seems totally disinterested in the relationships between the various orders, the theologies they adhered to, and power. One could read the entire volume and barely be aware of the struggle for terrestrial supremacy between the Holy Roman Emperors and the popes, yet the monastic orders were crucial players in this battle. The devastation of the 14th century Black Death outbreaks, and the effect this had upon population, agriculture, and popular religiosity is similarly barely mentioned. The focus is almost exclusively upon the structural development of the institutions, largely shorn of social and religious context. A disappointing, though doubtless workmanlike, coverage of the topic.
May 12, 2020
Status quo overview of western medieval monasticism. Good, sometimes great, clear, competent.
Takeaway:
"Richly endowed, and sometimes exploited, by lay rulers, the great Benedictine abbeys came to hold a prominent position in the social landscape of Europe as landowning corporations, ecclesiastical patrons, and centres of learning."
Takeaway:
"Richly endowed, and sometimes exploited, by lay rulers, the great Benedictine abbeys came to hold a prominent position in the social landscape of Europe as landowning corporations, ecclesiastical patrons, and centres of learning."
November 1, 2018
This is a paperback copy
January 17, 2022
Surprisingly refreshing and interesting
November 12, 2022
Pominięcie Europy Wschodniej trochę na minus, ale ogólnie bardzo dobra pozycja. 5/5 (październik 2022)
December 10, 2023
I had to read it for a class and it is super in depth and comprehensive. Love it
December 15, 2023
Great for a general overview, does what it sets out to well.
April 14, 2024
Engaging writing.
August 24, 2014
Prof Lawrence's 3rd edition of Medieval Monasticism is an insightful and interesting introduction to western Monasticism from it inception to the 13th century. It penetrates the major monastic movements and why new versions of ancient rules emerged. The arrival of the Cistercian reform is especially interesting, including the feud between the white monks and the Cluniac Benedictines. The introduction of the Mendicant orders and why they were so appealing is discussed.
More than just an examination of monastic life, this book delves into the broader sociological and historical determinants that underlie the success or failure of the religious orders of the medieval period. Most of successes are, of course, still with us.
I enjoyed this as much as Rapley's The Lord Is Their Portion.
More than just an examination of monastic life, this book delves into the broader sociological and historical determinants that underlie the success or failure of the religious orders of the medieval period. Most of successes are, of course, still with us.
I enjoyed this as much as Rapley's The Lord Is Their Portion.
April 10, 2009
This excellent book offers an accessible introduction to the history of monasticism. It really isn't possible to understand the Middle Ages without understanding its monks and nuns, and I highly recommend this book if you're at all curious about the monastic life.
July 15, 2012
this was a cool book and i want to read more about hermits and anchorites and stuff cause there isn't much other than the chapters on desert fathers and hermit orders, but i forgot to check the bibliography before returning it to the lieberry. arse
November 17, 2013
Another fascinating book (if a little difficult to read) for my History of Christianity class. I don't think I've learned anything about the medieval period since world civ(??) class in high school. One cool fact, monks were all supposed to be vegetarian (unless they were sick)!
March 3, 2015
This book is a much better history of monasticism than Dunn's.
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November 21, 2009None
May 11, 2013
Great historical overview. Now a little dated and in need of a fourth edition to take into account some recent scholarship, this remains a great introductory work.
June 2, 2023
A detailed and enjoyable survey of western monasticism from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries.
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