Robert of Arbrissel

Robert of Arbrissel
Author: Bruce L. Venarde
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2003
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780813213545

Robert of Arbrissel (c.1045-1116) had humble origins, but went on to become an important reformer, hermit, preacher, rebel and, controversially, a heretic in some eyes.

Spiritual Marriage

Spiritual Marriage
Author: Dyan Elliott
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400844347

The early Christian and medieval practice of spiritual marriage, in which husband and wife mutually and voluntarily relinquish sexual activity for reasons of piety, plays an important role in the development of the institution of marriage and in the understanding of female religiosity. Drawing on hagiography, chronicles, theology, canon law, and pastoral sources, Dyan Elliott traces the history of spiritual marriage in the West from apostolic times to the beginning of the sixteenth century.

From the Cloister to the State

From the Cloister to the State
Author: Annalena Müller
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021-09-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000436292

From the Cloister to the State examines the French order of Fontevraud, one of the largest monastic networks under female leadership in medieval and early modern Europe. Founded in 1100 and comprised of both monks and nuns, the order had grown to consist of at least seventy-eight priories by the late Middle Ages. Endowed with vast territorial possessions throughout western France, Fontevraud became one of the most powerful religious institutions in the country. However, unaware of its institutional might and economic wealth, scholars have tended to focus on Fontevraud’s seemingly unusual gender hierarchy, while bypassing inquiries on practices of abbatial authority in Fontevraud and beyond. This book reveals medieval Fontevraud as an aristocratic cloister where noble women governed. It also discusses the value of Fontevraud’s extensive network for the geopolitical ambitions of the dukes of Brittany, the counts of Bourbon-Vendôme, and, during the Wars of Religion, the kings of France. In addition to Fontevraud’s political role during the Wars of Religion, the book also examines the order’s reforms implemented by Marie de Bretagne and her successors Renée and Louise de Bourbon-Vendôme. These Bourbon abbesses centralized the order’s administration, cut the ties between priories and local aristocratic families, and successfully established the Bourbon-Vendômes as the only patrons of the vast and wealthy network. This book is essential reading for scholars and students of medieval and early modern history, as well as those interested in political history and the history of religion.

The Monks of Tiron

The Monks of Tiron
Author: Kathleen Thompson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2014-09-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107021243

Reinterpreting key twelfth-century sources, this book provides the first comprehensive history of the monastic Order of Tiron in France.

Robert of Arbrissel

Robert of Arbrissel
Author: Jacques Dalarun
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2006
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0813214394

The author tells the story of Robert of Arbrissel (ca 1045-1116). Robert was a parish priest, longtime student, reformer, hermit, wandering preacher, and founder of the abbey of Fontevraud. This book narrates the course of Robert's life and his relationships with others along the way.

Abbot Vitalis of Savigny, Abbot Godfrey of Savigny, Peter of Avranches, and Blessed Hamo

Abbot Vitalis of Savigny, Abbot Godfrey of Savigny, Peter of Avranches, and Blessed Hamo
Author: Hugh Feiss
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2014
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 087907230X

This volume offers translations of the twelfth-century Latin vitae of four monks of the Monastery of Savigny: Abbot Vitalis, Abbot Godfrey, Peter of Avranches, and Blessed Hamo. Founded in 1113 by Vitalis of Mortain, an influential hermit-preacher, Savigny expanded to a congregation of thirty monasteries under his successor Godfrey (1122-1138). In 1147, the entire congregation joined the Cistercian Order. Around 1172, two monks of Savigny, Peter of Avranches and Hamo, friends but very different personalities, died. Their stories were told in two further vitae. The vitae of these four men exemplify the variety of people and movements found in the monastic ferment of the twelfth century.

Images of Sainthood in Medieval Europe

Images of Sainthood in Medieval Europe
Author: Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2019-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501745506

This handsomely illustrated book suggests new ways of understanding a cultural institution central to the spiritual and artistic imagination of the Middle Ages. Bringing together fourteen essays by contributors representing a number of disciplines, it illuminates issues including the place of sanctity in society, the role of gender in the representation of sainthood, and the use of hagiographic conventions in other genres.

Historical Dictionary of the Crusades

Historical Dictionary of the Crusades
Author: Corliss Konwiser Slack
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780810848559

At least seven traditional crusades, aimed at wresting control of Jerusalem from Islam, were fought in the Middle Ages. This historical dictionary covers major events in these and related conflicts, with supporting bibliography, maps, and chronology.

Inventing Sempringham

Inventing Sempringham
Author: Katharine Sykes
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 3643901224

This book explores the origins of the role of the Master or head of the order of Sempringham, the only monastic order to be founded in medieval England, from the foundation of the order to the final drafting of its legislation in the 1230s. The book demonstrates that many previous assumptions about the early development of this important role are flawed, most notably the standard portrait of Gilbert of Sempringham, founder of the order, as a stereotypical charismatic leader, big on ideas but short on the capacity to provide his followers with effective leadership. (Series: Vita regularis - Ordnungen und Deutungen religiosen Lebens im Mittelalter. Abhandlungen - Vol. 46)