Queens Princesses And Mendicants

The decades between ca 1280 and ca 1380 were marked by a striking affinity to the Mendicant orders on the part of many female members of royal and princely courts. And yet, "Queens, Princesses and Mendicants" is both an innovative and comparatively neglected juxtaposition in medieval studies, for historical research has generally tended to neglect the relationship between Mendicants and aristocratic women. This volume unites twelve articles written by experts from seven European countries. The contributions cover a wide array of medieval European kingdoms in order to facilitate direct comparisons. Was affinity towards the Mendicants a prevalent phenomenon in the late Middle Ages? Can one even term "philomendicantism" a late medieval European movement? The collection of essays provides answers to these and other questions within the field of gender, religious and cultural history.

"The Council of Constance and the conclusion of the Papal Schism released long pent-up energies of reform throughout the Church and in the religious Orders in particular. The Austrian Visitation of 1418/19 which propelled Georg Muestinger to the highest position in Stift Klosterneuburg and introduced the Raudnitz Reform of canons regular into his ancient monastery, illustrates how these energies both cooperated and competed with each other to achieve a reform of religious life. The centerpiece of this work is the introduction of the Raudnitz Statutes into the monastery and Muestinger's adaptation of that legislation." --provided by publisher

The fact that certain cultures and religions produced a way of life which, for the sake of self-perfection, expected its adherents to withdraw from various obligations to the world and to enter into the organisational structure of a monastic community obviously represents a constant anthropological foundation. The spectrum of monastic life within these various cultures was extremely diverse in its manifestations. It was the result of a high degree of flexibility in the face of constantly changing ideas about piety, social needs and concepts of community and individuality. However, an interreligious study with the aim of a scholarly analysis of comparable key elements across different monastic cultures does not exist yet. The editors as well as the authors of this volume are particularly interested in how monastic life was realised communally in many ways according to fixed norms and rules, how it shaped the understanding of community and civilisation and therefore made a decisive contribution to the formation of our cultural identity.

Die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Kartäusern und Mystik wird im vorliegenden Band auf der Basis der Überlieferung jener ‚mystischen‘ Bücher behandelt, die in einzelnen Kartausen faktisch vorhanden waren. Was dabei interessiert, ist der Umgang mit diesen Büchern im Kontext der für den Orden bzw. für einzelne Kartausen spezifischen Wissensdiskurse, Schreibpraktiken und Überlieferungskonstellationen. Die Beiträge decken mit theologia mystica, revelationes und meditationes gerade jene Bereiche ab, die auch für die moderne Diskussion um die Definition eines ‚mystischen‘ Textcorpus relevant sind.

For over a thousand years, monks, nuns, canons, friars, and others under religious vows stood at the pinnacle of Western European society. For their ascetic sacrifices, their learning, piety, and expertise, they were accorded positions of power and influence, and a wide range of legal, financial and social privileges. As such they present an important opportunity to consider the nature and dynamics of an "elite" in medieval culture. Using medieval religious life as their interpretive lens, the essays of this volume seek to uncover the essential markers of elite status. They explore how those under vows claimed and manifested elite status in complex spiritual, temporal, and social combinations. They explore the workings of elite status from day to day, across region and locale - who earned recognition and how, whether through specific achievements or the deployment of specific capacities; who recognized, conferred, or helped maintain elite status, how and why; how elite status could be redefined, contested or rejected. The essays also seek to understand how medieval European religious elites compared to those found in other cultures and settings, from Syria and South Asia to the early modern transatlantic world.

The Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Medieval Iberia: Unity in Diversity draws together the innovative work of renowned scholars as well as several thought-provoking essays from emergent academics, in order to provide broad-range, in-depth coverage of the major aspects of the Iberian medieval world. Exploring the social, political, cultural, religious, and economic history of the Iberian Peninsula, the volume includes 37 original essays grouped around fundamental themes such as Languages and Literatures, Spiritualities, and Visual Culture. This interdisciplinary volume is an excellent introduction and reference work for students and scholars in Iberian Studies and Medieval Studies. SERIES EDITOR: BRAD EPPS SPANISH LIST ADVISOR: JAVIER MUÑOZ-BASOLS

The latest title in the Central European Medieval Texts series contains the lives of saints who were canonized in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries in the newly Christianized countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and Dalmatia). A rejoinder to the earlier volume in the series, the Saints of the Christianization Age of Central Europe (CEMT, Vol. 6), containing hermits, missionaries, and martyrs, this second volume of hagiography is dominated by political or ecclesiastical leaders who became saintly patrons of their region and were highly venerated throughout the Middle Ages. The legends in the volume present the two Hungarian holy kings Stephen and Ladislas, the holy duke Emeric, the Czech holy abbot Prokop of Sázava, three bishops, the Venetian-Hungarian Gellért of Csanád, the Polish Stanislas of Cracow (both martyrs), and the Dalmatian holy bishop Saint John of Trogir. Each “vita” is published in Latin original with an English translation and with prefaces discussing the textual tradition. Saints’ lives have been recognized as an invaluable source of information on social and economic history, the history of mentalities and everyday life, cultural history, and, above all, as a special genre with crucial importance and prevalence in medieval literature.

The impetus of religious reform between ca. 1380-1520, which expressed itself in a variety of Observant initiatives in many religious orders all over Europe, and also brought forth the Devotio moderna movement in the late medieval Low Countries, had considerable repercussions for the production of a wide range of religious texts, and the embrace of other forms of cultural production (scribal activities, liturgical innovations, art, music, religious architecture). At the same time, the very impetus of reform within late medieval religious orders and the wish to return to a more modest religious lifestyle in accordance with monastic and mendicant rules, and ultimately with the commands of Christ in the Gospel, made it difficult to wholeheartedly embrace the material consequences of learning, literary and artistic prowess, as the very pursuit of such pursuits ran against basic demands of evangelical poverty and humility. This volume explores how this tension was negotiated in various Observant and Devotio moderna contexts, and how communities connected with these movements instrumentalized various types of writing, learning, and other forms of cultural expression to further the cause of religious reform, defend it against order-internal and external criticism, to shape recognizable reform identities for themselves, and to transform religious life in society as a whole.