Medieval Monasticism

Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages

C.H. Lawrence, Janet Burton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780367767914
• eBook ISBN: 9781000955880
• Edition: 5
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Medieval Monasticism 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. It explores the relationship between monasteries and the secular world around them.

For a thousand years, the great monastic houses and religious orders were a prominent feature of the social landscape of the West, and their leaders figured as much in the political as on the spiritual map of the medieval world. In this book many of them, together with their supporters and critics, are presented to us and speak their minds to us. We are shown, for instance, the controversy between the Benedictines and the reformed monasticism of the twelfth century and the problems that confronted women in religious life. A detailed glossary offers readers a helpful vocabulary of the subject.

This fifth edition has been revised by Janet Burton to include an updated bibliography and an introduction which discusses recent trends in monastic studies, including reinterpretations of issues of reform and renewal, new scholarship on religious women, and interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. This book is essential reading for both students and scholars of the medieval world.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of images
• Preface to the First Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Preface to the Fourth Edition
• Introduction to the Fifth Edition
• Preface to the Fifth Edition
• Abbreviations used in the Notes
• 1 The Call of the Desert
• 2 The Rule of St Benedict
• 3 Wandering Saints and Princely Patrons
• 4 England and the Continent
• 5 The Emperor and the Rule
• 6 The Age of Cluny
• 7 The Cloister and the World
• 8 Monastic Reform: The Quest for the Primitive
• 9 The Cistercian Model
• 10 The New Monasticism Versus the Old
• 11 A New Kind of Knighthood
• 12 Sisters or Handmaids
• 13 The Friars
• 14 Epilogue: The Individual and the Community
• Glossary
• A Cistercian abbey ground plan
• Revised Bibliography
• Index