Monastic Reform as Process: Realities and Representations in Medieval Flanders, 900–1100 - Hardcover

Vanderputten, Steven

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080145171X ISBN 13: 9780801451713

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2017

Synopsis

The history of monastic institutions in the Middle Ages may at first appear remarkably uniform and predictable. Medieval commentators and modern scholars have observed how monasteries of the tenth to early twelfth centuries experienced long periods of stasis alternating with bursts of rapid development known as reforms. Charismatic leaders by sheer force of will, and by assiduously recruiting the support of the ecclesiastical and lay elites, pushed monasticism forward toward reform, remediating the inevitable decline of discipline and government in these institutions. A lack of concrete information on what happened at individual monasteries is not regarded as a significant problem, as long as there is the possibility to reconstruct the reformers’ ‘‘program.’’ While this general picture makes for a compelling narrative, it doesn’t necessarily hold up when one looks closely at the history of specific institutions.

In Monastic Reform as Process, Steven Vanderputten puts the history of monastic reform to the test by examining the evidence from seven monasteries in Flanders, one of the wealthiest principalities of northwestern Europe, between 900 and 1100. He finds that the reform of a monastery should be studied not as an "exogenous shock" but as an intentional blending of reformist ideals with existing structures and traditions. He also shows that reformist government was cumulative in nature, and many of the individual achievements and initiatives of reformist abbots were only possible because they built upon previous achievements. Rather than looking at reforms as "flashpoint events," we need to view them as processes worthy of study in their own right. Deeply researched and carefully argued, Monastic Reform as Process will be essential reading for scholars working on the history of monasteries more broadly as well as those studying the phenomenon of reform throughout history.

About this title

About the Author

Steven Vanderputten is Professor of Medieval History at Ghent University. He is editor of Understanding Monastic Practices of Oral Communication and coeditor of Ecclesia in medio nationis.

Review

"In the impressive Monastic Reform as Process, Steven Vanderputten provides a detailed exploration of reformist monastic groups in Flanders. He also links the study of ecclesiastical change to memory dynamics, particularly a selective recourse to past institutional ideals and experiences."

(Lutz Kaelber, University of Vermont, author of Schools of Asceticism: Ideology and Organization in Medieval Religious Communities)

"In this work, Steven Vanderputten brings fresh insight to the question of monastic reform. As a result, we now know that if all politics is local, so is all reform. Indeed, at bottom, Vanderputten teaches that monastic reform is politics. How easy it used to be to speak of monastic reform! We had only to evoke the name of Cluny―or, at most, Cluny, Gorze, and Lotharingia―and all seemed clear. How difficult―how impossible―this will be henceforth!"

(Barbara H. Rosenwein, Loyola University Chicago, author of Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages)

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 080145171X
• ISBN 13: 9780801451713
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 264