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Religious Life between Jerusalem, the Desert, and the World

Studies in the History of Christian


Traditions

General Editor

Robert J. Bast (Knoxville, Tennessee)

Editorial Board

Paul C.H. Lim (Nashville, Tennessee)


Brad C. Pardue (Point Lookout, Missouri)
Eric Saak (Indianapolis)
Christine Shepardson (Knoxville, Tennessee)
Brian Tierney (Ithaca, New York)
John Van Engen (Notre Dame, Indiana)

Founding Editor

Heiko A. Oberman

VOLUME 180

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/shct


Religious Life between Jerusalem,
the Desert, and the World
Selected Essays by Kaspar Elm

Translated by

James D. Mixson

LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Detail from Andrea di Bonaiuto (fl. 1346-1379). The Militant Church (Via Veritatis). Fresco
from north wall (post-restoration 2003-2004), Spanish Chapel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy.
Photo Credit: Scala/Art Resource, NY.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Elm, Kaspar, 1929-


[Essays. Selections. English]
Religious life between Jerusalem, the desert, and the world : selected essays by Kaspar Elm / translated by
James D. Mixson.
pages cm. -- (Studies in the history of Christian traditions, ISSN 1573-5664 ; VOLUME 180)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-30777-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Europe--Religious life and customs. 2. Europe--Church
history--600-1500. 3. Monastic and religious life--Europe--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500. I. Title.

BR735.E3813 2015
270.5--dc23

2015036686

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Contents

Translators Prefacevii

Introduction1

1 Francis and Dominic: The Impact and Impetus of Two Founders


of Religious Orders28

2 Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri: Reflections on Fraternitas,


Familia and Womens Religious Life in the Circle of the Chapter
of the Holy Sepulcher55

3 Mendicants and Humanists in Florence in the Fourteenth and


Fifteenth Centuries: The Problem of Justifying Humanistic
Studies in the Mendicant Orders111

4 Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders in the Late Middle


Ages: Current Research and Research Agendas138

5 Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher: A Contribution to the


Origins and Early History of the Military Orders of Palestine189

6 The Status of Women in Religious Life, Semi-Religious Life


and Heresy in the Era of St. Elizabeth220

7 John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps (14511456)255

8 Vita regularis sine regula. The Meaning, Legal Status and Self-
Understanding of Late-Medieval and Early-Modern Semi-Religious
Life277

9 The Devotio Moderna and the New Piety between the Later
Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era317

Index333
Translators Preface

The essays translated here are but one attempt to draw together the richness of
Kaspar Elms decades of scholarly publication. They are chosen with an eye
to capturing something of his tastes and interests, and the recurring themes
that characterized his research. They are arranged chronologically, and they
attempt to strike a balance across earlier and later work. Those who know that
work best will recognize many crucial omissions, and will perhaps have made
different choices. Such criticism is fair enough. These essays are by no means
fully representative of the full range of Professor Elms work. They are only one
collection that hopes to speak to some of the interests of the Anglophone audi-
ence for which this volume is primarily intended. The translations themselves
are based on the original publications of Professor Elms essays, and preserve
the notes and bibliography largely in their original form, with only slight modi-
fications to suit the conventions of Brill Academic Publishers.
I am grateful to the Department of History and the College of Arts and
Sciences of the University of Alabama for their support of my work on this
translation, as well as to Robert Bast, Ivo Romein and the editorial staff at Brill
for their patience and assistance in helping bring the project to conclusion. My
thanks as well to John Van Engen, Robert Lerner and Michael Bailey for their
careful reading and criticism as I struggled with the many challenges of crafting
a proper introduction, as well as to Valerie Roberts for her diligence and care in
proofing the full manuscript. As ever, I am grateful to my wife for her faithful
patience and companionship. And I am grateful above all to Veit and Susanna
Elm for their support, insight, encouragement, and hospitality. I offer the fruits
of these labors to their family and to their father, in honor of his inspiring
scholarship.
Introduction

For most of the twentieth century, the story of medieval religious life was writ-
ten by and for those who lived it. Monks, canons, friars and nuns wrote about
their own orders, as part of a larger church history focused on institutions and
dogma. But that story, as even those with a passing interest in medieval
religious history are aware, has long since been transformed. Medieval reli-
gious life is now unthinkable apart from the context of the world beyond the
cloisterthe world of the nobility, kings and princes, of commerce, merchants,
and cities, of lay piety and heresy. The story is also unthinkable apart from a
comparative view that considers religious life across the boundaries of indi-
vidual orders and institutions. And few medievalists of the later twentieth cen-
tury have contributed more to these scholarly transformations than Kaspar
Elm. Over the last half century his reflections, now a monumental corpus of
books, essays and other publications, have explored how the life of the cloister,
canonry and convent intersected with the world beyond, and how that story
reflected the broader sweep of European history. Elms work was among
the earliest to explore topics and themes that have been commonplace in
Anglophone scholarship on medieval religious life over the last generation: the
eremitical tradition that shaped what became the order of Augustinian
Hermits; the piety and institutional traditions of religious life nurtured by the
crusades; the connections between mendicant religious life and the cities; the
history of lay women and men who were drawn to religious lifes ideals, and
who appropriated its practices; the story of the reforms of the later middle ages
that became known as the Observant movement.
Until now, however, relatively few Anglophone scholars and students have
had access to Elms work. The reasons are many, but four stand out. First, across
Europe itself, a certain scholarly parochialism tended to fragment the broad
vision Elm advocated. He drew from the work of religious life in England,
France, Italy, and Germany alike, and authored both synthetic accounts and
local studies that moved gracefully from Spain to Germany and the Low
Countries to Italy. Yet most of his colleagues remained content, naturally
enough, to work within their own national, local, or regional traditions, or
within the traditions of particular orders or congregations. Second, the particu-
lar status of Germany and German scholarship after 1945 worked against any
broader influence. Few in France, England or Italy read or worked extensively
with German scholarship, and among Anglo-American scholars in particular,
the neglect of medieval Germany was even more pronounced. Anglophone
scholars looked instead to England, France and Italy. And whether in Europe or

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_002


2 Introduction

North America, to note a third reason, for almost everyone the story of medi-
eval religious life simply ended around 1300. The later middle ages, still a youth-
ful field of serious inquiry as late as the 1970s, remained a period of darkness
and confusion. For most, the supposed golden age of the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries remained at the center. Finally, Elms own rigorous standards
of thoroughness and nuance, and the complexity of the landscape he surveyed
in his work, made any attempt at a single broad synthesis seem at best unwise,
at worst impossible. As a result, apart from two volumes of collected essays,
there is still no single major book that captures his five decades of scholarship.
The present translation of several of Professor Elms most important essays
offers itself as a modest remedy to this circumstance. Here for the first time
in English is a collection of essays that presents his contributions to an
Anglophone scholarly audience. The purpose of this introduction is not
merely to offer a detailed summary of what the essays themselves make quite
clear. Rather, it is to recover the originality of Elms scholarship in the context
of his life and career, and to draw attention to the particular strengths of his
contributions. These considerations will then allow some concluding remarks
on the reception of Elms work, the critical issues these essays have engaged,
and their c ontinuing resonance for modern scholarship.

1 From Xanten to Berlin: Toward a Biographical Sketch

In the late nineteenth century the city of Xanten, nestled on the left bank of
the Lower Rhine, welcomed an immigrant Catholic convert from the village of
Elm in northern Hessia. His son, Kaspar-Josef, fought in the First World War in
both France and Russia and then returned to Xanten to work as an apprentice
in the local enamel industry. He would have five children from two marriages.1
The youngest son, grandson of the first immigrant, was another Kaspar. He was
born on September 23, 1929.
Xanten was old as Europe itself, its foundations reaching back to the earliest
Roman colonies in the region.2 By the later nineteenth century it remained a

1 Elms first wife, the daughter of a socialist member of the Norwegian Reichstag, died in the
Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. I am grateful to the members of the Elm family for sharing
family stories such as these for inclusion in this introduction.
2 The Roman settlement of Colonia Ulpia Traiana had emerged from the Roman garrisons
established in the region after Caesars conquests. Along with its siblings Colonia Claudia Ara
Agrippinensium (Colonge) and Augusta Treverorum (Trier) it soon numbered among the
Introduction 3

proud, intimate, and learned community whose citizens were mostly rugged
Catholic centrists. They lived in the shadow of the cathedral of St. Victor, often
holding Prussians and Communists alike at a distance.3 One of their most
prominent sons had been the Catholic priest and historian Johannes Jannsen
(1891). Born in 1829, Janssen earned his doctorate in 1853, and by the 1870s he
had become one of the most widely read yet controversial figures of his gen-
eration in Germany.4 Janssen was best known for his History of the German
People from the End of the Middle Ages,5 a work that challenged, from a
staunchly Catholic position, a powerful tradition of Prussian nationalist histo-
riography. The end of the middle ages and the Reformation, so Jannsen, wit-
nessed not the beginning of modernity, but the final destruction of Germanys
religious and cultural unity. Just as controversial was the works method.
Jannsen argued his case not from high politics or church history, but rather
from all that he could recover of the daily lives of ordinary folkfarmers, mer-
chants, women and children, their customs of dress and dining, their religious
belief and practice. Jannsens History became sensationally popular for a time,
especially in Catholic circles. But Protestants attacked him fiercely as a Catholic
apologist, and even later Catholic historians critiqued him on several fronts.
Kaspar Elm himself eventually developed the most balanced assessment.6 As a
Catholic apologist, Jannsen often strongly misread the religious complexity
of the later middle ages. But he is still profitably seen as a product of the
intellectual currents of the later nineteenth century, as a devout native of
Xanten, and a scholar whose life and inspirations were deeply shaped by and

most important Roman colonies in the northwestern reaches of the Empire. The name of the
city itself (ad Sanctos, Xanten) also bears witness to the traditions of it patron saint, Victor,
and the Roman martyrs of the Theban Legion. For an accessible overview of Xanten see
Studien zur Geschichte der Stadt Xanten: Festschrift zum 750jhrigen Stadtiubilum (Cologne:
Rheinland-Verlag, 1978). For the longer history noted here see especially the essays of Precht,
Hneborn and Kastner.
3 For these contexts see Jrgen Rosen, Xanten zwischen 1928 und dem Untergang der mittel-
alterlich geprgten Stadt, Anfang 1945, in Studien, 129154, here 132.
4 The best access to Jannsen and his work, and the foundation of this account, is the work of
Kaspar Elm himself: Johannes Janssen der Geschichtsschreiber des deutschen Volkes (1829
1891), Xantener Vortrge zur Geschichte des Niederrheins 1 (1991), 189209. The essay is also
reprinted in Franz-Josef Heyen (ed.), Rheinische Lebensbilder 17 (1997), 121140.
5 Johannes Janssen, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters (Freiburg
im Breisgau: Herder, 1893). For the brief overview here (citing from the reprint edition) see
Elm, Johannes Janssen, 124126.
6 Elm, Johannes Janssen, especially 126128.
4 Introduction

reflected the cultural sensibilities of the urban commoners and Catholics of


the Rhineland.
The young Kaspar Elms early years in Xanten were steeped in those same
sensibilities. But they also witnessed the rise of the ndsap.7 German Catholics
and their bishops and priests were drawn to the Nazis for a variety of rea-
sonsanxiety over moral decline during the Weimar years, nationalist and
antisemitic resentments, careerism and expediency, as well as the older
romanticism and localism that had inspired figures like Jannsen.8 In the com-
ing years their positions became increasingly complex and ambivalent. All
too many remained silent, or in various ways either fully embraced or became
implicated in the horrors of Hitlers regime. A small but courageous minority
became vocal and visible critics. In between were many who could be at least
passively skeptical, if not deeply suspicious of the fascists. Kaspar-Josef Elm,
for his part, seems to have been among their number, and remained quietly
resistant of what he saw as an unsustainable regime. He is said once to have
quipped that the war Hitler sparked was over the moment it started.
That war affected life in Xanten itself only indirectly, at least in the early
years.9 It came first with the regular cadence of bomber missions that passed
overhead on the way from England to the Ruhrgebiet, and as air combat over
the steel yards of nearby Rheinhausen (with its many wayward bomber pay-
loads) drove citizens into their basements by night. City administrators
worked to support the war effort, helping especially to accommodate exiles
from nearby towns laid low by allied bombs. But the realities of war crept
closer day to day.10 By September of 1944 allied troops pressed on Neijmegen

7 To explore the complexity of the relationships between German Catholicism and National
Socialism is beyond both my expertise and the scope of this introduction. But for some
basic oritenation, among many other works, see Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and
Nazi Germany, 2nd ed. (Boulder, co: Da Capo, 2001); Kevin Spicer, Resisting the Third
Reich: The Catholic Clergy in Hitlers Berlin (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press,
2004) and Hitlers Priests (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2008); Michael Phayer,
The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 19301965 (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2000).
8 For a brief but nuanced account of these complexities see Spicer, Hitlers Priests, 57.
9 Rosen, Xanten, 130131 and 134135.
10 For a brief overview of the war years see Heinz Bosch, Xanten in der Strategie der
Kriegfhrenden Mchte 1945, in Studien (above n. 1), 187192. My thanks to Dr. Charles
Clark for orientation to the material, here drawn from P. Stacey, The Official History of the
Canadian Army in the Second World War, Volume iii, The Victory Campaign: The Operations
in North-West Europe, 19441945 (Ottawa: E. Cloutier, 1966), 516520.
Introduction 5

and Arnhem. Schooling in Xanten was soon suspended, and most able-bodied
youth were sent awaysome to childrens camps in the countryside (klv
camps), others to civil engineering details (Schanzdienst) in Holland.11 By the
early months of 1945 the thunder of allied warplanes drew closer still, and
from the first days of March the gods of war were at the doorstep of Xanten
itself. As a part of Operation Blockbuster, sixty medium bombers attacked the
city on March 1. Early on the morning of March 5, artillery fire rained down on
the town as elements of the Canadian 2nd and 43rd Wessex divisions began
their advance. The 2nd Fallschirmjger Corps and the 116 Panzer division
offered up a tenacious defense, inflicting hundreds of Allied casualties. But by
March 8 the city was taken, and its population of a few thousand (by one
count hardly half of what it had been before the war) evacuated. Within two
weeks the Allies had mounted a massive airlift across the region. Churchill
looked on as they crossed the Rhine, and later did so himself at Wesel on
March 25, in theatrical style.
As a family the Elms narrowly escaped the worst tragedies of the war. The
two eldest sons were captured and imprisoned, one held in Siberia until
1953. The young Kaspar, for his part, worked hard and kept up a good spirit.
Always first in his class and a dedicated altar boy, he was also something of a
class clown. And though he was called to combat himself at age 15, it was the
last hour; mother and son narrowly escaped to the east bank of the Rhine
just as the city was being levelled. A scholars nascent talent with languages
did prove useful enough for the occupying forces, however, and for a time
Elm found himself working as a translator for a Canadian logistics regiment
that employed German labor. With nothing left of Xanten, he was sent to a
guest family in his mothers home city of Rheine. There he attended the
Gymnasium Dionysianum, and prepared for a university career. For a gifted
young scholar from Xanten, Mnsteranother modest city, nurtured by the
same Catholic culture of the German-Dutch borderlands that had shaped
Janssenmust have seemed a natural choice. He enrolled at the Willhelms-
Univeristy in 1950 (and while doing so first met his future wife, while they
waited in the line for matriculation). He began a typical course of study in
Latin, German and history, and completed the state examinations and period
of internship required of aspiring professionals. But Elm had higher aca-
demic ambitions, and soon began his doctoral work under the tutelage of
Herbert Grundmann.

11 Rosen, Xanten, 153.


6 Introduction

For a scholar with Elms background and interests, it was an excellent choice.
In Grundmann Elm encountered a scholar nearing the peak of his career.12 A
student of Walter Goetz at Leipzig, Grundmann had labored in scholarly obscu-
rity through the 1930s. With the advent of war he was eventually pressed into
military service, wounded and taken prisoner by the British in 1944. The post-
war years at Mnster then finally brought a long period of stability and schol-
arly productivity. By the time of Elms matriculation Grundmann had been
there over ten years, as the leader of both his own department and the wider
university community (especially the interdisciplinary group known as the
Mondkreis, the Moon Circle). He was also finally receiving proper recognition
for his Leipzig Habilitation, a series of interrelated essays on heresy, the mendi-
cant orders, and womens religious life. Published in 1935 as Religious Movements
in the Middle Ages, the book at first attracted little attention. But in ways that
will be outlined below, it soon resonated anew with a post-war generation of
scholars and students, and it remains today a work whose arguments have
become standard: the power of the Apostolic ideal and mendicancy in the
twelfth century to inspire in ways that cut across institutional and social bound-
aries; the power of the papacy to channel its forces, to legitimize, to polarize;
the power of women to appropriate, shape and express apostolic ideals for
themselves.13
Elms dissertation, a study of The Origins of the Order of Augustinian
Hermits in the Thirteenth Century, was completed in 1957. It was never
published, but a series of later articles made available its core contributions.
They reveal how much Elms doctoral work reflected Grundmanns interest in
apostolic poverty, and in the role of the papacy in shaping it: through exhaustive

12 Robert Lerners introduction to Steven Rowans translation of Grundmanns Religious


Movements (n. 13) offers the best overview of Grundmanns career, his work and its recep-
tion. For the contexts touched on here see especially xxii. Other accessible biographies
of Grundmann by Kaspar Elm himself in Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopdie 4: 220 and
by Arno Borst in Deutsches Archiv fr Erforschung des Mittelalters 26 (1970) 327353. For
the difficult and controversial issues surrounding Grundmanns career in the Nazi era see
also Anne Christine Nagel, Mit dem Herzen, dem Willen und dem Verstand dabei:
Herbert Grundmann und der Nationalsozialismus, in Hartmut Lehmann and Otto
Gerhard Oexle (eds.), Nationalsozialismus in den Kulturwissenschaften. Bd. 1: Fcher,
Milieus, Karrieren (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2004), 593618.
13 Herbert Grundmann, Religise Bewegungen im Mittelalter. Untersuchungen ber die
geschichtlichen Zusammenhnge zwischen der Ketzerei, den Bettelorden und der religisen
Frauenbewegung im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert und ber die geschichtlichen Grundlagen der
deutschen Mystik, 2nd ed. (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1961). English
translation by Steven Rowan, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages (Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1995).
Introduction 7

study of the archives, Elm showed how what later became the order of
Augustinian Hermits had been at its origins a confederation of independent
eremitical groups, each of themhere the parallel with Grundmanns
insightschanneled by the papacy to meet the needs of preaching and pasto-
ral care. In 1959 Grundmann departed for Munich to become the President of
the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Elm remained in Mnster, and over the
next years served as a scholarly research associate (Wissenschaftlicher
Mitarbeiter). In 1962 he then gained a position as an Assistant in Freiburg, work-
ing under the direction of Otto Herding. By 1964 Elm had attained the rank of
Privatdozent and had begun to publish a series of strong articles based on the
source work and themes addressed in his dissertation. He had also begun work
on his Habilitation, a study of the history and self-understanding of the Order
of the Holy Sepulcher. That project was complete by 1967.
The timing was fortunate. The 1960s were a decade of remarkable growth and
expansion for the German university system.14 They had seen the founding of an
unprecedented number of new institutes, chairs, and mid-level positions, many
of them at new reform universities dedicated to moving post-war Germany
into a modern era.15 In this dynamic environment, Elm enjoyed the privilege of
choosing between several calls to his first professorial position. He chose the
University of Bielefeld, not least because of its cultural position. Bielefeld was an
institution at the heart of all the changes that were to consume the historical
profession in postwar Germany in the coming decades. And though Elm himself
was not a party to the debates inspired by the Bielefeld School, he applied a simi-
lar intellectual breadth and energy, and the universitys resources, to build
momentum for his own field. He continued his record of strong publications
(among them his inaugural lecture, discussed below) and worked hard to build
up a substantial library collection on the middle ages and the medieval religious
orders. The momentum he enjoyed at Bielefeld then positioned him for further
advancement. By 1974 he had received the call to a position at the Free University
of Berlin, where he remained until his retirement in 1998.
Over those twenty five years Elm continued the hard work of a successful
Ordinarius in the German university system. He established a research project

14 For the contexts discussed here see Hartmut Lehmann and James Van Horn Melton, Paths
of Continuity: Central European Historiography from the 1930s to the 1950s (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1994), especially the introduction by James Van Horn Melton
(118) and the essay by Winfred Schulze, German Historiography from the 1930s to the
1950s, (1942) as well as the comment by Georg Iggers, (4347).
15 Paths of Continuity, 3 n. 4. According to one count, between 1960 and 1975 chairs in history
increased from 80 to 210, Dozent positions from 90 to 230 and positions for Assistenten
from 50 to 380.
8 Introduction

and a press series dedicated to the comparative study of religious life and
religious orders in the middle ages; hosted conferences and built a massive
library collection; lectured and led seminars and excursions; attracted and
trained a generation of students who worked on a variety of topics within the
field (Ordens-Elm, as insiders often called it) he had helped define. All of it
was fuelled by Elms prodigious energy, graced by his collegial charm and sup-
ported by the strength of the Free Universityto say nothing of the Deutsche
Mark, especially early on, in Cold-War Europe.16 Elm had no ambition to forge
anything like a distinct school. But the end of his career he had trained two
decades of students, and enjoyed the esteem of an international field of schol-
ars from Europe and North America. Even in retirement, he continued to teach,
to travel, to research and write.
The result is a body of scholarship that is as remarkable as it is difficult to
summarize. By one count Elm is the author (to include reprints and transla-
tions) of some 255 publications, including 27 books.17 Many of these works
became standard treatments on religious life, and many remain central to our
discussions of medieval religion in both Europe and North America. Collectively
they form a corpus worthy of careful reading and reflection. They also merit
careful orientation into the scholarly lineage that shaped them, and the histo-
riographical moment that made them possible.

2 Historiographical Legacies and Frames: Religious


Life between Leipzig and Adenauer

The decades after 1945 were a time of innovation and expansion in the
Germanacademy. The work of Hans-Ulrich Wehler and others of the Bielefeld
School had embraced social history and social science in ways that sought a

16 For a brief sketch of these years see the introductory remarks in Elms last Festscrhift:
Franz J. Felten and Nikolas Jaspert (eds.), Vita Religiosa im Mittelalter: Festschrift fr
Kaspar Elm zum 70. Geburtstag (Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1999), here xiiixiv. For
an early overview of the vision and nature of Elms research program, see his summary
Vergleichende Ordensforschung. Ein Forschungsprojektschwerpunkt am Friedrich-
Meinecke-Institut der Freien Universitt Berlin, Jahrbuch der historischen Forschung,
(1979) 4749.
17 See the lists of publications provided in the two Festschriften dedicated to Elm: Dieter Berg
(ed.), Vitasfratrum, Saxonia Franciscana 5 (Werl: 1994) and Franz Felten and Nicholas
Jaspert (eds.), Vita Religiosa im Mittelalter: Festschrift fr Kaspar Elm Zum 70. Geburtstag
(Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1999). See also the comprehensive list provided by the web-
site Regesta imperii (http://opac.regesta-imperii.de/lang_de).
Introduction 9

s elf-conscious break with inherited traditions focused on politics and diplomacy.


But an older generation of teachers had survived the war, and mostwhatever
their alignments or sympathies with National Socialismhad returned to their
positions, to teaching and to training students. The older approaches and fields
thus lived on, stubbornly mired, so one scholar has put it, in a new-Rankean
perspective.18 Well into the 1950s and 60s history in Germany was still the story
ofnations, of politics and diplomacy. The one area of innovation that might have
offered an alternative, the tradition of Volkgeschichte pioneered by Hermann
Aubin and others, had become deeply compromised because of its complicity in
Nazi aims. So too with the complex legacy of Otto Brunner, whose Land und
Herrschaft drew on conservative, anti-liberal thought in the Weimar years to
level a still powerful critique against conceptual anachronisms of the medieval
state and society inherited from the nineteenth century.19
Herberts Grundmanns brand of religious history, described as the religious-
historical branch of cultural history, spoke at best indirectly, if at all, to these
wider debates. But his scholarship represented another way in which much
older historiographical traditions had survived. Grundmanns lineage reached
back to Karl Lamprecht, who had founded the Institute for Cultural and
Universal History at Leipzig in 1909. Long before and quite independently of
the celebrated Annales school in France, Lamprecht had embraced the study
of food and clothing, of religion and everyday life. His aim was to integrate the
social and the material with the spiritual and intellectual, to capture a kind of
total history (Gesamtgeschichte).20 That kind of vision was contested from

18 Lehmann and Melton (eds.), Paths of Continuity, 67.


19 On the one hand Brunners approachhis emphasis on restoring the conceptual frame-
works of a lost era, on working locally and regionally, toward a total history that inte-
grated society, economy, politics, cultureresonated powerfully with (and perhaps in
part inspired) what became the postwar tradition of the Annalistes. But his own interpre-
tative model, with its language of Volk and Herrschaft, was all too resonant (even for
Brunner himself, as he soon recognized) with Nazi slogans and ideology. The many subse-
quent revisions and editions of his masterpiece have exorcised those demons only with
difficulty. For these matters in more detail see the fine introduction to the English transla-
tion of Brunners Land und Herrschaft by Howard Kaminsky: Land and Lordship: Structures
of Governance in Medieval Austria (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992).
See also the essay by James Van Horn Melton in Paths of Continuity (n. 14).
20 Jerry Z. Muller, Historical Social Science and Political Myth: Hans Freyer (18871969)
and the Genealogy of Social History in West Germany, with a comment by Roger
Chickering, in Paths of Continuity, 197237, especially 232235. For a more detailed analy-
sis of Freyer see Mullers The Other God That Failed: Hans Freyer and the Deradicalization
of German Conservatism (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987).
10 Introduction

the start, and not only because it cut so decidedly against the grain of the
minutiae of political and diplomatic history then dominant. Lamprecht also
vigorously defended the idea that he could discern in the historical record uni-
versal laws and stages of development. All of it was soon discredited, Lamprecht
pushed aside. But the institute he founded in Leipzig lived on, and under the
leadership of his heir Walter Goetz, it stood through the end of the Second
World War (when allied bombs abruptly ended its existence) as the only aca-
demic institute in Germany dedicated to a broad, culturally oriented view of
the human past.21
Goetz eventually trained Herbert Grundmann in that spirit. Like his teacher,
Grundmann embraced both rigorous source criticism and an instinct for
broader synthesisa combination in evidence across all of his work, from his
study of Joachim of Fiores thought to the broad panorama of Religise
Bewegungen im Mittelalter and beyond.22 And like his teacher, he embraced
cultural history as the kind of total history that Lamprecht and Goetz had
envisioned. But Grundmann also placed a distinct emphasis on the tradition
he inherited. He was one of the few scholars of his generation open to taking
religion seriously as a subject of inquiry. Nominally Protestant, Grundmann
had no strong religious convictions himself. But he was convinced of the power
of religious movements as a force in cultural history, one that cut across insti-
tutional boundaries, and across the borders between church and society. His
scholarship and leadership thus created a crucial space in the academy for
secular scholars, those beyond the ranks of the orders themselves, to under-
take serious work on medieval religious life.
Kaspar Elm was one of a generation of post-war students who had begun to
respond to that opportunity. But he did so in his own way, as one who remained
rooted in the Catholic culture of his native Xanten, and of Germanys Western
borders with the Netherlands. His training in the Catholic Gymnasium in
Rheine, and especially his stay in Pavia as a fellow of the Collegio Borromeo
while working on his dissertation, remained foundational. Elms was an enlight-
ened, self-consciously Catholic stance, one that embraced the richness of the
long history of the church, but that avoided dogma or polemic. His was also a
progressive view, one that sought to find its way to a middle ages that was
something other than what figures like Jannsen had envisioned. In previous
generations he might have been marginalized. But by the 1950s, the time had
come when a scholar of Elms heritage and talents could begin to carve out a

21 Lerner, Introduction, xvxvi and nn. 2430.


22 Ibid.
Introduction 11

place in the traditional academy. In the age of Adenauer and the cdu,Catholic
centrists were not only taking their place in politics.23 In the shadow of the
Soviet Union, the 1950s saw an outpouring of Catholic scholarship that began
to make its way into the mainstream of medieval history. Two examples can
serve to illustrate the trend. In 1954 Theodore Schieffer, another Rhineland
Catholic who had left Mainz for the University of Cologne, published what
remains the authoritative biography of Boniface, a study that cast its prota
gonist as the architect of the Christian foundations of Europe.24 Here, as in
so many similar works, the story turns on how the institutional church in
themiddle ages served as the lattice-work that sustained Western Civilization.
Two years later, in the same spirit, series of articles focused on the other end of
the middle ages celebrated the life and death of the Italian Franciscan John
of Capistrano. Friar John had preached to tens of thousands across central
Europe, and rallied an army of crusaders to drive the Ottomans from the walls
of Belgrade in 1456. Five centuries later, Soviet tanks rolled in to Hungary to
crush an uprising that had begun on Friar Johns feast day (October 23).
Franciscan scholars, especially, but many others besides, now embraced John
anew as the Apostle of Europe.25 More powerful still in shaping the historio-
graphical moment was the early energy of all that would culminate in the
Second Vatican Council. In the same years that Elm had begun his doctoral
work, Chenu had begun both to involve himself, controversially, in the worker-
priest movement in France, and to publish the early articles that explored the
power of religious movements that cut across the boundaries between religious
life, secular clergy and laity. Grundmanns work too, had begun to receive
renewed attention in the same years, and has never lost its appeal.26 In a time
of unprecedented social and religious turmoil centered on reform, the ground

23 Key for context here, among many possibilities, are Maria D. Mitchell, The Origins of
Christian Democracy: Politics and Confession in Modern Germany (Ann Arbor: University
of Michigan Press, 2012) and Mark Edward Ruff, Strukturen und Mentalitten des
katholischen Milieus in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland der fnfziger und frhen
sechziger Jahre des 20. Jahrhunderts, in Wilhelm Damberg and Antonius Liedhegener
(eds.), Katholiken in den usa und Deutschland: Kirche, Gesellschaft und Politik (Mnster:
Aschendorff Verlag, 2006), 3448.
24 Theodor Schieffer, Winfrid-Bonifatius und die christliche Grundlegung Europas (Freiburg:
Herder, 1954).
25 See the collection of essays that appeared in Studi Francescani 53 (1956). See also the biog-
raphy by Johannes Hofer, Johannes Capistran. Ein Leben im Kampf um die Reform der
Kirche, 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Rome-Heidelberg: Kerle, 1964).
26 See here the reflections of Lerner, Introduction, xxii and especially n. 42. See also Marie-
Dominique Chenu, Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century. Essays on New
12 Introduction

had been well prepared for new work on the vita religiosa in ways that spoke to
a new generation.
Elms early work not only reflected this distinct historiographical moment.
It also reflected his training as a disciple of Grundmann. Just as Grundmann
had done in Religise Bewegungen, Elm explored how a seemingly stable his-
tory of origins was in fact the result of a complex and uncertain processin
this case the competition, contest and coalescence of the many groups that
eventually came together as the order of Augustinian Hermits.27 Here was
another powerful example of how hindsight and institutional historio
graphies had created the illusion of a stable institutional tradition where
there had been none. The origins of the Augustinian Hermits, as Elm
exhaustively showed, had been the product of a long and tortured process,
of uncertainty, contest and failure. In the words of Hans Freyer (whose
words from the Festschrift for Walter Goetz had provided the epigraph for
Grundmanns masterpiece) Elm returned the story of another religious
movement to the complex situation which prevailed when it was still in the
course of being decided. Elm helped make the story of the Augustinian
Hermits happen again.28
Yet Elms particular topic, and the way he shaped it, also revealed the dis-
tinctiveness of his own approach. In ways his teacher had not been, Elm was
sympathetic to the institutionalized forms of religious life that the twelfth cen-
turys apostolic movements eventually inspired. His was to be the study of the
dynamism, of the failures and vulnerabilities, but also of the successes of reli-
gious lifes institutions, and of the power of rule and order, house and congre-
gation to both reflect and change later medieval society.
Elms early publications reflect the further refinement of his talents and
scholarly sensibility. His first essay, on the historiography surrounding the
Augustinian Hermits, revealed a keen historiographical awareness and a talent
for synthesis.29 Two years later, his book-length study (based on many of the
core findings of his dissertation) told the story of the Williamites, an order that
emerged from the legends surrounding the retired crusader and Tuscan hermit

Theological Perspectives in the Latin West, tr. Jerome Taylor and L.K. Little (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1968).
27 Kaspar Elm, Die Anfnge des Ordens der Augustiner-Eremiten im 13. Jahrhundert (Ph.D.
dissertation, Mnster, 1957). The thesis was unfortunately never published in its entirety.
28 Here the words are those of Rowans translation Religious Movements, p. 1. See also Lerner,
Introduction, xviii.
29 Elm, Neue Beitrge zur Geschichte des Augustiner-Eremitenordens im 13. und 14.
Jahrhundert, Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 42 (1960): 357387.
Introduction 13

William of Malavalle.30 The work displayed not only the impressive grounding
in the sources that had been the hallmark of Grundmann and Goetz. It also
embraced the broad chronological framework of Old Europe that was to char-
acterize so much of Elms later vision of the history of the orders: here the story
of the Williamites moves far beyond its thirteenth century origins, into the fif-
teenth century and ultimately all the way into the nineteenth.31 A series of
essays in the journal Augustiniana then demonstrated Elms commitment to
constructing a proper Bullarium and monasticon for the neglected histories he
had uncovered, as well as his talent for unwinding the complex documentary
problems such a project presented.32 Another series of articles in the journal
Cteaux addressed the misconceptions and myths that had long confused the
Williamites institutional story with that of the Cistercians.33 Again Elms dis-
tinct combination of talents and sensibilities were on displayabove all careful
documentary spade work, combined with a sense of the histoire totale of the
daily life of an order (allowing the inquiry to extend to questions of liturgy and
dress) and an appreciation of the longer legacies of Catholic Europe. A final
article then rounded out the early contributions drawn from the dissertation.34
In these early essays Elm had rescued a distinct Williamite story, an order
shaped by a papacys need for mendicant orders that embraced the vita activa
of preaching and pastoral care, and an order that preserved its distinct cus-
toms, constitutions, dress and other traditions. The Williamites only failure
was historiographical: They developed no tradition of their own to compete
with the Cistercians and Augustinian Hermits, their origins became obscured,
and their order largely forgotten. But even as these publications appeared, Elm
had already moved on to Freiburg, and to the project that would result in his

30 Elm, Beitrge zur Geschichte des Wilhelmitenordens (Cologne: Bhlau, 1962).


31 Ibid., especially chapter seven.
32 Elm, Die Bulle Ea Quae Iudicio Clemens iv. 30.viii.1266: Vorgeschichte, berlieferung,
Text und Bedeutung, Augustiniana 14 (1964): 500522; 15 (1965): 5467 and 493520;
16 (1966): 95145. The essays were published as a single volume (Louvain, 1966), and
drew the attention of at least one Anglophone reviewer (E.C. Hall) in Speculum 42 (1967),
728730. See also Wilhelmiten in Brandenburg und Pommern, Augustiniana 16 (1966):
8894.
33 Elm, Zisterzienser und Wilhelmiten. Ein Beitrag zur Wirkungsgeschichte der
Zisterzienserkonstitutionen, Cteaux 15 (1964): 97124, 177202, 273311.
34 Elm, Italienische Eremitengemeinschaften des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts. Studien zur
Vorgeschichte des Augustiner-Eremitenordens, in LEremitismo in Occidente nei secoli xi
e xii. Atti della seconda Settimana Internazionale di Studio, Mendola, 30 Agosto -6 Settembre
1962 (Milan: 1965), 491559. Reprinted in Vitasfratrum (above n. 17).
14 Introduction

Habilitation: a study of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher.35 The work itself was
never published. But glimpses of its contribution and significance can be gath-
ered from the series of many later publications that arose from the early work.
By all accounts, the Habilitation was grounded in both a prodigious energy and
an almost obsessive archival thoroughness, and in 1976 Elm published one
small part of the fruit of those labors: an edition of several hundred of the most
important documents for the history of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher from
its Western European archives.36
The early publications noted here provided the foundations for a lifetime of
rich and diverse scholarship. Much of it remained resonant with Grundmanns
vision and trainingan emphasis on womens piety and lay piety, and the
dynamism of what Elm came to call the semi-religious life of beguines, tertia-
ries and others, grounded in exhaustive and careful treatment of the sources
and balanced with comparative and synthetic vision. Other publications cap-
tured various aspects of Elms evolving scholarly interests: his interest in
Francis and the Franciscans,37 as well as the Augustinian Hermits, is signal in
this regard. It was a line of inquiry that reflected not only Grundmanns lin-
eage, but Elms life-long love attraction to Italy, nurtured ever since his days at
the Collegio Borromeo. Similarly distinct was Elms emphasis on recovering
the past of neglected orders (the Williamites only one among them), as was his
interest in the institutional legacy of the religious life of crusaders. More prom-
inent still was his emphasis on the Observant reformers, the New Devout and
other pious figures in the landscape of the later middle ages, as well as Elms
abiding interest in the power of the historiography of the orders to shape, to
distort and to reinforce institutional life.38 Elm also remained true to his

35 Elm, Der Ordo SS. Sepulcri Dominici Hierosolimitani. Untersuchungen zu Geschichte und
Selbstverstndnis des Kapitels vom Hlg. Grab (Freiburg i. Br, 1967).
36 Elm, Quellen zur Geschichte des Ordens vom Hlg. Grab in Nordwesteuropa aus deutschen
und Niederlndischen Archiven (11911603), (Brusssels: Palais des Acadmies, 1976).
37 See especially in this regard Von Joseph Grres bis Walter Goetz: Franziskus in der
deutschen Geschichtsschreibung des 19. Jahrhunderts, in Limmagine di Francesco nella
Storiografia dallUmanesimo allOttocento (Assisi: 1983), 34383 (also reprinted in
Vitasfratrum, n. 17). The essay is also a fine tribute to Elms own academic lineage.
38 Kaspar Elm, Elias, Paulus von Theben und Augustinus als Ordensgrnder: Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichtsschreibung und der Geschichtsdeutung des Eremiten- und Bettelordens des 13.
Jahrhunderts, in Hans Patze (ed.), Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichtsbewusstsein im spten
Mittelalter (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1987), 371399. For an English translation seeElijah, Paul
of Thebes, and Augustine. Fundatores Ordinum. A Contribution to the Historical Self-
understanding of Medieval Religious Orders, Augustinian Heritage 36 (1990): 163182. See also
Elms Augustinus CanonicusAugustinus Eremita. AQuattrocento Cause Clbre, in Timothy
Introduction 15

Rhineland Catholic heritage, as well as to the tradition of Landesgeschichte


exemplified in the work of his mentor Otto Herding. Elms early essay on the
Modern Devotion in the Weser region is exemplary here,39 as is his work on
Norbert of Xanten. His insightful essays on Johannes Jannsen are notable in
this regard, too, not least because of the affinities they reveal between two of
Xantens most famous scholarly sons.40

3 Vita Religiosa: A Thematic Survey

Scholars have no single major treatment, no single volume to pull off the shelf
that captures Kaspar Elms vision of religious life in the middle ages. Elm him-
self might have said and few would disagree that the field he helped
define (to say nothing of the archival landscape that supported it) was so vast
and complex that to submit it to anything like a single-volume synthesis would
be grossly unjust. Scholars are thus confronted instead with a kaleidoscope of
articles, essays and books, none with any purchase on a single interpretation,
but all centered on a series of mutually enriching and overlapping themes. The
following discussion suggests four (among many others) for consideration: an
emphasis on the comparative study of the orders, the study of religious life and
the crusades, the study of religious women and semi-religious life, and the
study of the Observant reforms of the later middle ages.
The first essay translated here is significant not least because it was a young
professors Antrittsvorlesung, or inaugural lecture, at the University of Bielefeld.
It also signaled Elms early commitment to a comparative and contextualized
history of religious life and its institutions.41 In it he offered a refined analysis of
the lives and legacies of both Francis and Dominic. Against the grain of the
deeply-rooted traditions that had separated these two founders and their orders
from both one another and the society around them, Elm grounded their sto-
ries in the specific contexts that shaped each: Francis among the lay penitents
of Umbria and the call of the desert recovered from early monasticism; Dominic

G. Verdon and John Henderson (eds.), Christianity and the Renaissance. Image and Religious
Imagination in the Quattrocento (Syracuse, ny: Syracuse University Press, 1990), 83107.
39 Kaspar Elm, Die Devotio Moderna im Weserraum, in Paul Mikat and Heinz Stoob (eds.),
Kunst und Kultur im Weserraum: 8001600. Ausstellung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen,
Corvey 1966, vol. 1 (Mnster: Aschendorff, 1966), 25156.
40 See above, n. 2.
41 Elm, Franziskus und Dominikus. Wirkungen und Antriebskrfte zweier Ordensstifter,
Saeculum 23 (1972): 12747. Unless otherwise noted, all essays are reproduced here with
the authors permission.
16 Introduction

among the rugged frontier nobility and stern priestly piety of Caleruega. The
dual portrait explored and nuanced traditional polaritiesbetween Francis
the Pazzo and prophet, Dominic the canon and priest; between freedom of
spirit and the bonds of institution; between heart and head. Elm emphasized
how much each founder shared with the other. In fact it was precisely the com-
plementary nature of the two figures and their orders that offered the most
secure guide to the medieval church in a time of great crisis. Grundmann had
emphasized the dynamism of the spirit as it had challenged the church and its
institutions. Elm now began to emphasize the dynamism, across the orders, of
what would become a successful institutional response.
The comparative impulse signaled in Elms inaugural lecture was already
years in the making. One of the first explicit mentions of the approach appears
in the closing lines of an early article on the papal bulls that shaped the consti-
tutional history of the Williamites. That story, he argued, was incomprehensi-
ble without careful attention to how it was shaped within its relationships to
other orders, and to the wider world. His essay was a case study in what he
called the comparative method42 for approaching the orders, and his profes-
sional advancement gave him the proper platform for pursuing that agenda. At
Berlin in 1972/73, Reinhard Elze, Reinhard Scheider and others had already
undertaken comparative projects focused on the Cistercians. Upon his arrival
as Ordinarius in 1974, Elm expanded the enterprise to include every major reli-
gious order, and to encompass the Observant reforms of the later middle
ages.43 By 1980 his team had organized a formal research project, established a
publication series, and sponsored a series of major conferences. Elm himself
authored a number of his own essays that emphasized the comparative
dimension,44 and over the next decades mentored a generation of students
whose studies did the same.45

42 Elm, Die Bulle, (above, n. 31), 104 emphasizing the ordensvergleichende Methode and
nn. 3334.
43 Elm, Vergleichende Ordensforschung. Ein Forschungsprojektschwerpunkt am Friedrich-
Meinecke-Institut der Freien Universitt Berlin, Jahrbuch der Historischen Forschung,
1979, 4749.
44 Representative are Termineien und Hospize der westflischen Augustiner-Eremitenklster
Osnabrck, Herford und Lippstadt, Jahrbuch fr Westflische Kirchengeschichte 70 (1977):
1149 and Die Stellung des Zisterzienserordens in der Geschichte des Ordenswesens, in
Kaspar Elm, Peter Joerissen, and Hermann Josef Roth (eds.), Die Zisterzienser. Ordensleben
zwischen Ideal und Wirklichkeit (Cologne: Rheinland-Verlag, 1980), 3140.
45 To note only a few of the most prominent publications from this cohort: Bernhard
Neidiger, Mendikanten zwischen Ordensideal und stdtischer Realitt: Untersuchungen
zum wirtschaftlichen Verhalten der Bettelorden in Basel (Berlin: Duncker and Humblot,
Introduction 17

A commitment to the comparative study of the orders remained essen-


tial to Elms work to the end of his career. Perhaps its most eloquent articu-
lation appears in a late essay on the Williamites. In its concluding lines, Elm
contrasted the traditional biological metaphors that had shaped the histori-
ography of the orders with his own view. The history of the orders, he sug-
gested was not one of autonomous and autarkic communities that were
founded, grew, flowered and diedcommunities, put another way, that ran
through the course of a life cycle that is characteristic of plants, animals and
people. Rather, Elm suggested, the orders clearly follow another set of gov-
erning principles, something rather closer to metamorphosis. They do not
stand in isolation, but are embedded in the larger contexts of the orders as
a whole, which is itself in turn an integral part of religion and society
generally.46 These insights inform nearly every aspect of each of the essays
translated here.
A second key theme centers on the institutional and spiritual legacies of the
crusades. The focus here was never on the traditional narrative of campaign
and conquest, nor even on the familiar religious institutionsthe Templars,
Hospitalers and othersthat they inspired. Elm sought instead to recover a
lost history: the wider range of communities, broadly defined both socially and
spiritually, whose emergence both intersected with and shaped the Latin
Christian presence in Jerusalem and Palestine. Of the many essays and articles
on this theme,47 two are translated here. The first is a treatment of the net-
works of women and men who became affiliated with the prior and canons of

1981); Gerhard Rehm, Die Schwestern vom Gemeinsamen Leben im nordwestlichen


Deutschland: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Devotio Moderna und des weiblichen
Religiosentums (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1985); Nikolas Jaspert, Stift und Stadt: Das
Heiliggrabpriorat von Santa Anna und das Regularkanonikerstift Santa Eullia del Camp
im mittelalterlichen Barcelona (11451423) (Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1996); Andreas
Rther, Bettelorden in Stadt und Land: Die Strassburger Mendikantenkonvente und das
Elsass im Sptmittelalter (Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1997); Ralf Ltzelschwab, Flectat
cardinales ad velle suum?: Clemens vi. und sein Kardinalskolleg. Ein Beitrag zur kurialen
Politik in der Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2007).
46 Elm, Der Wilhelmitenorden: Eine Geistliche Gemeinschaft Zwischen Eremitenleben,
Mnchtum und Mendikantenarmut, in Elm, Vitasfratrum, 1994, 5566, here 66. See also
Elms essay Cosa significa e a quale scopo si studia la storia degli ordini religiosi?,
Benedictina 49 (2002): 722.
47 All now thankfully collected in a single volume: Umbilicus mundi: Beitrge zur Geschichte
Jerusalems, der Kreuzzge, des Kapitels vom Hlg. Grab in Jerusalem und der Ritterorden
(Sint-Kruis (Brugge), 1998).
18 Introduction

the Holy Sepulcher.48 Elms exhaustive archival search recovered the story not
of a religious order in the narrow sense, but of a broader fraternitas and familia
whose members ranged from patrons and protectors to oblati, donati or traditi,
lay brothers and conversi, as well as wider circle of laity who might live in pre-
cincts or serve community in various capacities. Elm showed how all helped
shape an institution that was a full participant in the ongoing development of
western religious life and its corporations. In Palestine, and in Western Europe
from Spain to Bohemia, the houses of the Holy Sepulcher embodied all of the
spiritual and material dimensions, the social and economic ties, the customs
of prayer and provision, endowments and donations that were characteristic
of so many religious and lay institutions generally. And theirs was an institu-
tion that lived on, as Elm emphasized, long after the fall of Acre, all the way to
the nineteenth century.
A second essay on the Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher49 seeks
a different angle on the military orders of Palestine, and explores another story
of lost possibilities. The essay recovers the history of the Ordo Equestris S.
Sepulcri and the Ordo Canonicorum S. Sepulcri. The former, shrouded in all
manner of myth and misconception, had its most visible manifestation as a lay
knightly association that was founded in the fourteenth century. The latter was
simply the cathedral chapter of the patriarch. Elm clarifies the later-medieval
story of the Ordo Equestris, but also traces its origins back to an extended com-
munity of lay patrons, soldiers, clergy and others long associated with the Holy
Sepulcher. At its origins the Ordo Equestris was nothing like the military order
of the Templars. Rather, its fighting men, the milites S. Sepulcri, were but one
cohort of a much broader community of brothers and sisters with various
ties to the patriarch, the chapter, and one of the most sacred places in Jerusalem.
The story, again, was not merely one of a formal institution, but of the full
range of forms of spiritual association that the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher
had shaped from Western traditions. Elms careful detective work then solved
one important mystery. At a crucial time leading up to the 1120s, the miles who
were associated with the Sepulcher might have been turned into a more formal
military order. But the patriarchs vision and interests, in opposition to the
papacy, were too short-sighted and local. By the 1130s the patriarch had been

48 Fratres et Sorores SS. Sepulcri. Beitrge zu Fraternitas, Familie und Weiblichem


Religiosentum im Umkreis des Kapitels vom Hlg. Grab, Frhmittelalterliche Studien 9
(1975): 287333. Reproduced here with permission from Walter de Gruyter.
49 Kanoniker und Ritter vom Heiligen Grab. Ein Beitrag zur Entstehung und Frhgeschichte
der palstinensischen Ritterorden, in Josef Fleckenstein and Manfred Hellmann (eds.),
Die Geistlichen Ritterorden Europas (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1980), 141169.
Introduction 19

deprived, step-by-step, of the possibility of turning a knightly brotherhood


into a Militia S. Sepulcri. Here again was the best of what Elms Habilitation
had contributed to the field, and a story that was revealing, again, of so much
that was to be characteristic of his work: deep archival work, a comparative
vision, sensitivity to lost histories and failures, and to the distorting power of
both myth and victorious historiographical traditions. Just has Innocent iii
had channeled the energies of the Apostolic movement, the popes of the 1120s
and 30s had harnessed crusading energies in ways that both elevated the
Templars and Hospitalers, and also soon erased the early history of the Ordo
Equestris. Elm had again recovered the complex situation which prevailed as
the earliest moments of the crusading story, when it was still in the course of
being decided. Here was another lost institutional story, the story of an ordo
tam longe lateque dilatus, whose life and afterlife would echo to the end of
early modernity.
These essays on the Holy Sepulcher intersected, to note a third prominent
theme, with Elms focus on womens religious life. The emphasis, as in the early
study of those drawn to the circles of the Holy Sepulcher, was on womens reli-
gious lives and experiences outside the bonds of formal profession, what Elm
often called the semi-religious life (Semireligiosentum). Elm saw the story of
St. Elizabeth of Hungary as exemplary in this regard, and in the essay translated
here he used her story as a point of access.50 Elizabeth, Landgrave of Thuringia
and a princess of Hungary, was married as a teenager and widowed soon after.
Under the guidance of her confessor and spiritual advisor Conrad of Marburg,
she developed an active life of charity and service, as a sister in the world,
who lived between religious life and the life of the laity. Elms essay sought to
place Elizabeth in broader context, to tell a story by now quite familiar:
the story of women who found themselves caught in a tension between a
desire to shape their own lives and the constraints of their organizations, and
of women driven to religious work and to powerful religious expression not
from their own weakness or inconsistency, but from their desire for spiritual
perfection. Among their ranks, Elm traced an astoundingly broad diversity
of life, one whose many concepts and fluid categories (swestriones, susteren,
mulieres devotae, virgines continentes, mulieres poenitentes, sanctae, santarel-
lae, beatae, pinzochere, beginae) suggested the permeable boundaries between
cloister and world, heresy and orthodoxy. The dynamism, growth and relative
equality these many groups represented, so Elm argued, slowly yielded to

50 Die Stellung der Frau im Ordenswesen, Semireligiosentum und Hresie zur Zeit der
Heiligen Elisabeth, in Sankt Elisabeth. Frstin, Dienerin, Heilige (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke,
1981), 728.
20 Introduction

claustration and domesticization, to subordination and limiting of apos-


tolic activity. Yet the semi-religious life remained vital, and that vitality could
be explained not only through external factors like social change and economic
renewal. Those were important, indeed crucial historical forces. But so too
were the words of scripture and the power of the apostolic ideal, the direct
return to the Bible and to the history of early Christianity that characterized
so much of the twelfth century. In the age of Vatican ii, the story of the semi-
religious was one of both great historical weight and contemporary resonance.
In virtually every Christian community, Elm wrote, theologians and believ-
ers today battle through almost all of the same difficulties that 750 years ago
confronted not only a saint like Elisabeth, but so many other men and women,
within and beyond the cloister, on both sides of the boundaries between ortho-
doxy and heresy. Elm allowed his work to speak to both the scholarly legacy of
his teacher Grundmann, and to the wider debates of his own day: Holiness
and perfection, his last line noted tersely, need not be tangled up with rebel-
lion or heresy, still less a monopoly held by men.
A second seminal essay elaborated more fully, almost twenty years later, on
the same set of questions and problems.51 Its starting point was a gesture to
the broad spectrum of connections between the secular and regular clergy, as
well as to connections between both clerical estates and the world of the laity.
Elm emphasized not only the variety and diversity of these forms of life, but
also the growing appreciation for them, and the move to acknowledge their
legitimacy. They were no longer perceived as a marginal form of vita religiosa,
but rather esteemed, among both laity and clergy alike, as the highest end of
the pursuit of perfection. Yet contemporaries faced the conceptual, legal and
cultural challenge of just where and how to fit all of it into their inherited tradi-
tions. From the twelfth century, Elm notes, canon lawyers spoke increasingly of
a status medius, or a status religionis largo modo to describe themany transi-
tory and ambivalent forms of religious association they sawaround them.
Many also found in Roman civil law the concept of societas as a useful frame-
work. Popes, bishops and councils, for their part, engaged in a broad politics
of restriction, demanding of any group that sought approval the demonstra-
tion of honesta vita, an embrace of humilitas, of recta intentio, of devotio, of
simiplicitas and reverentia. Meanwhile the semi-religious themselves, Elm
points out, could draw on an arsenal of possibilities and precedents in their

51 Vita Regularis Sine Regula: Bedeutung, Rechtsstellung und Selbstverstndnis des mit-
telalterlichen und frhneuzeitlichen Semireligiosentums, in Frantiek mahel and
Elisabeth Mller-Luckner (eds.), Hresie und Vorzeitige Reformation im Sptmittelalter
(Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998), 23973. 23973. Reproduced here with permission from
Walter de Gruyter.
Introduction 21

effort to articulate their self-understanding: Elijah, Anthony and Paul of Thebes


for those who embraced the eremitical life;52 Elizabeth of Hungary and Mary
Magdalen for communities of religious women; the ideals and histories of the
vita apostolica and the ecclesia primitiva for any number of groups, most nota-
bly the New Devout. As in so many other essays, but here perhaps more com-
pellingly than elsewhere, there is a rich sense of both historical meaning and
contemporary resonance. Elm showed the importance of the history of semi-
religious life not only for the debates surrounding the (pre-)Reformation, but
also for nineteenth-century historians (especially those in search of republi-
can ideals in the urban communities of the middle ages), for twentieth cen-
tury historians of Christianization, and of the laity and church reform. And
again he argued that the source of so many divergent interpretations of the vita
regularis sine regula was found in scripture and tradition itself, and in a way of
life that had its roots in early Christianity. Varieties of semi-religious life had
forever inspired critique and contradiction, as well as new beginnings and
returns to origins, whenever inherited models and established institutions lost
their power to convince, or lost their authority. And for that reason, he noted,
it earned for itself special meaning not only in the late middle ages and the era
of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, but earlier and later ones as
well, in times of transition and crisis.
A final theme deserving of emphasis, inseparable from each of the others
considered thus far, is Elms frequent chronological focus on the later middle
ages. In sharp contrast to a tradition that still today clings stubbornly to the
golden age of twelfth and thirteenth century religious life, Elms work took
seriously the period after 1300 as one not only of crisis or decline, but also of
dynamism, creativity, reform and renewal. The interest was signaled early on,
in the essay on the Modern Devotion in the Weser region noted above, in
another early essay on the communities of Gro- and Klein-Burlo near
Mnster,53 and in two of the essays translated here: Elms treatment of the
mendicant religious life and humanism in late medieval Florence,54 and what

52 A subject Elm had written on before: See n. 38 above, and the English translation noted
there.
53 Elm, Die Mnsterlndischen Klster Gro-Burlo und Klein-Burlo. Ihre Entstehung,
Observanz und Stellung in der nordwesteuropischen Reformbewegung des 15. Jahrhun
derts, Westflische Forschungen 18 (1965): 2342.
54 Elm, Mendikanten und Humanisten im Florenz des Tre- und Quattrocento. Zum Problem
der Legitimierung Humanistischer Studien in den Bettelorden, in Otto Herding and
Robert Stupperich (eds.), Die Humanisten in Ihrer Politischen und Sozialen Umwelt
(Boppard: Boldt, 1976), 5185. See also Elms Monastische Reformen zwischen
Humanismus und Reformation, in Ernst Bruckmller (ed.), 900 Jahre Benediktiner in
Melk: Jubilumsausstellung 1989 (Melk: Stift Melk, 1989), 59111.
22 Introduction

he called decline and renewal in the late-medieval orders.55 The latter essay,
in many ways still the starting point for all investigations in the field, remains a
masterpiece not least because of its breadth, and the depth of the literature
cited in its notes. The essay is also a compelling example of Elms comparative,
contextualized vision. The history of the orders after 1300, as he saw it, was a
subject not only of Church history but of history generally, a story that involved
and integrated the full range of historical sub-disciplines and national tradi-
tions, and provided an almost unrivalled richness of sources and traditions of
edition and publication. The challenge was how to break the orders histories
free of their often inward-looking institutional historiographies, and how to
integrate them into the broader sweep of late-medieval change. To that end,
Elm proposed a variety of new approaches. With respect to the problem of
decline, he noted, the institutional matrix of the orders (their number and
location, the overall population of women and men in religious life, contempo-
rary understandings of ideals and practices of poverty and more) had to be
more fully integrated into all that had been learned to that time about the mas-
sive changes of an era of commercial contraction, famine, plague, war and
schism. With respect to reform and renewal, Elm confronted a similar range of
complexities. He sought to recover not only the well-known histories of the
Dominicans, Franciscans and Benedictines, but also those of the lesser-known
and forgotten or failed orders, all of them fragments in a wider terra incognita.
He sought to link those fragmented histories to the stories of new foundations
and new orders, and to economic renewal in town and countryside after the
Black Death. And he sought to understand ways in which reform both reflected
and shaped forces that originated beyond the cloisterin circles of laity and
their charismatic leaders, both women and men; in the halls of city councils
and the courts of territorial princes and kings; in the ranks of popes and cardi-
nals, bishops and secular clergy.
Elm and his colleagues and students soon put these insights to the test.
A conference on late-medieval reform and the Observant movement, sponsored
by the institute Elm had founded in Berlin, surveyed the stories and settings
of Observant reform across the ranks of canons and monks and mendicants;
grounded reform in local urban settings; established links between the Observant
movement, the conciliar movement, and the Reformation.56 Thereafter, Elms

55 Elm, Verfall und Erneuerung des Sptmittelalterlichen Ordenswesens, in J. Fleckenstein


(ed.), Untersuchungen zu Kloster und Stift (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1980),
16797.
56 Its proceedings remain another crucial starting point for inquiries in the field: Elm, (ed.),
Reformbemhungen und Observanzbestrebungen im sptmittelalterlichen Ordenswesen
(Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1989).
Introduction 23

interest in the Observants and late-medieval reform produced a series of essays


on late-medieval figures like John of Capistrano and the Franciscan Observants,57
and several essays on the Modern Devotion. Two of these are translated here.
They resonate with all of the overarching themes traced thus far, and offer some
of the best illustrations of Elms scholarly approach and accomplishments.58

4 Scholarly Reception and Critical Issues

Elms early work enjoyed a modest but respectable early reception in Germany.
A brief notice in Deutsches Archiv in 1962 (written by Grundmann himself)
praised Elms study of the Williamites for having essentially rediscovered a
lost order, and noted that Elms resourceful energy had produced a model
study of the paradoxical history of organized eremitic life.59 The volume also
came to the attention of at least one reviewer in America.60 Over time, as
momentum for the comparative study of the orders built around the institute
and publication series Elm founded in Berlin, the field came in to its own. But
its influence remained modest outside Germany, not least because of the fac-
tors noted above: the tendency of scholars to focus their work on one region or
order, and to look somewhere other than Germany and the later middle ages
for their stories of religious life. North American medievalists, in particular,
trained in the tradition of Strayer and Haskins, often remained focused on
France and England before 1300.61

57 Elm, Die Bedeutung Johannes Kapristans und der Franziskanerobservanz fr die Kirche
des 15. Jahrhunderts, in Edith Psztor and Lajos Psztor (eds.), S. Giovanni da Capestrano
nella chiesa e nella societ del suo tempo. Atti del convegno storico internazionale
Capestrano, LAquila 812 ottobre 1986 (LAquila: 1990), 373390. See also Tod,
Todesbewltigung und Endzeit bei Bernhardin von Siena, in Conciliarismo, stati nazion-
ali, inizi dellumanesimo: atti del xxv Convegno storico internazionale, Todi, 912 ottobre
1988 (Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sullalto Medioevo, 1990), 7996.
58 Johannes Kapestrans Predigtreise Diesseits der Alpen, in Hartmut Boockmann, Bernd Moeller,
and Karl Stackmann (eds.), Lebenslehren und Weltentwrfe im bergang vom Mittelalter zur
Neuzeit (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1989), 500519. Also Published in K. Elm,
Vitasfratrum, 321337; Die Devotio Moderna und die Neue Frmmigkeit zwischen
Sptmittelalter und Frher Neuzeit, in Marek Derwich and Martial Staub (eds.), Die Neue
Frmmigkeit in Europa im Sptmittelalter (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2004), 1529.
59 Deutsches Archiv 18:2 (1962): 596597. The review laments only the absence of an index,
maps and other resources that would have made the studys findings more accessible.
60 See the review by E.C. Hall in Speculum 42 (1967): 728730.
61 For an overview of these and other issues see the fine survey by Barbara Rosenwein,
Views from Afar: American Perspectives on Medieval Monasticism, in Giancarlo
Andenna (ed.), Dove va la storiographia monastica in Europa? (Milan: Vita e Pensiero
24 Introduction

Recent years have finally witnessed a discernible turn to Germany and to


the later middle ages, especially in Anglophone circles, and opened the door
for a proper reception of Elms contributions to the field. Robert Lerner and
Caroline Bynum (both authors for whom the work of Elms teacher Grundmann
was influential) led the way in the 1970s and 80s with work that both reflected
and inspired a growing enthusiasm for Grundmanns themesapostolic pov-
erty, Joachim and apocalyptic thought, heresy, womens religious life and mys-
ticism. The 1990s then witnessed an eruption of new work on these topics,
ranging from Jeffrey Hamburgers studies of the intersection of text, image and
object with womens religious life to the flood of studies on vernacular reli-
gious literature produced in womens houses.62 At first the older prejudice
against institutional life remained strongmost scholarship was focused on
the laity, on beguines and tertiaries, on heretics and others who lived suppos-
edly on the margins of traditional religious life. But it helped build a bridge to
Elms pioneering work. Several scholars have now authored a range of recent
studies that have come to engage Elm directly. While maintaining a focus on
women and semi-religious life, their work also suggests renewed interest in
the institutional history of the orders. The Observant movement, in particular,
is not only at the center of a series of monographs, but has become familiar
enough to merit a handful of overviews in English.63

Universit, 2001), 6784. For the problematic status of medieval Germany in postwar
scholarship see Edward Peters, More Trouble With Henry: The Historiography of
Medieval Germany in the Angloliterate World, Central European History 28 (1995): 4772
and Patrick Geary, Medieval Germany in America (Washington, D.C.: German Historical
Institute, 1996).
62 Exemplary among Hamburgers many studies are Crown and Veil: Female Monasticism
from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008); The
Visual and the Visionary. Art and Female Spirituality in Late-Medieval Germany (New York:
Zone Books, 1998) and Nuns as Artists the Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1997). Representative of studies of vernacular religious lit-
erature are Gertrud Jaron Lewis, By Women, for Women, About Women: The Sister-Books of
Fourteenth-Century Germany (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1996)
and, more recently, those of Nancy Bradley Warren: Spiritual Economies. Female
Monasticism in Later Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
2001); Women of God and Arms: Female Spirituality and Political Conflict, 13801600
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005) and now The Embodied Word:
Female Spiritualities, Contested Orthodoxies, and English Religious Cultures, 13501700
(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010).
63 Bert Roest, Observant Reform in Religious Orders, in Miri Rubin and Walter Simons
(eds.), Christianity in Western Europe c. 1100-c. 1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2009), 44657; James D. Mixson, Religious Life and Observant Reform in the
Fifteenth Century, History Compass 11:3 (2013): 201214 and Religious Life and Religious
Introduction 25

As the field Elm pioneered has become more accessible and well known, his
own work has attracted relatively little direct criticism. But scholars have
worked variously with, against or through the vision first articulated in the
essays translated here. In Germany itself, the work of Gert Melville and his
students, particularly through the Research Center for the Comparative
History of Religious Orders and the series Vita regularis, stands out.64 This
work has both built upon and modulated Elms early work. Like Elms, it is vig-
orously comparative, and focused intentionally on the complex matrix (insti-
tutional, social, economic, and cultural) that sustained religious life. But the
work is also different in tone and emphasis. It is often more vigorously theo-
retical, engaging Weber and other social scientists on questions of institution
and charisma, identity, symbolism, self-representation and more.65 Moreover,
the work of Melville and his colleagues does not engage as directly or as often

Orders, in Robert N. Swanson (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Medieval Christianity,


10501500 (New York: Routledge, 2015), 4557. Kathryne Beebe, The Observant Reform in
the Later Middle Ages, in Bernice M. Kaczynski and Thomas Sullivan (eds.), The Oxford
Handbook of Christian Monasticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming). See
also the essays in James Mixson and Bert Roest (eds.), A Companion to Observant Reform
(Leiden: Brill, 2015).
64 See Melvilles overviews of the Research Center for the Comparative History of Religious
Orders (fovog) and the Vita Regularis series in Revue Mabillon 20 (2009): 25258 and 21
(2010): 255265. See also the essay by Franz Felten, Wozu Treiben Wir Vergleichende
Ordensgeschichte?, in Mittelalterliche Orden und Klster im Vergleich. Methodische
Anstze und Perspektiven, 2007, 151.
65 Of the many titles that might be taken as representative in this regard, see Gert Melville,
Institutionen und Geschichte (Cologne: Bhlau, 1992); Gert Melville and Jrg Oberste (eds.),
Die Bettelorden im Aufbau: Beitrge zu Institutionalisierungsprozessen im mittelalterlichen
Religiosentum (Mnster: Lit, 1999); Giancarlo Andenna, Mirko Breitenstein, and Gert
Melville (eds.), Charisma und religise Gemeinschaften im Mittelalter (Mnster: Lit, 2005);
Gert Melville and Anne Mller (eds.), Mittelalterliche Orden und Klster im Vergleich (see n.
61); Franz J. Felten and Werner Rsener (eds.), Norm und Realitt. Kontinuitt und Wandel
der Zisterzienser im Mittelalter (Berlin: Lit, 2009); Anne Mller and Karen Stber (eds.),
Self-Representation of Medieval Religious Communities: The British Isles in Context (Mnster:
Lit, 2010). See also two representative essays by Melville, Knowledge of the Origins:
Constructing Identity and Ordering Monastic Life in the Middle Ages, in D.E. Luscombe
etal. (eds.), Knowledge, Discipline and Power in the Middle Ages. Essays in Honour of David
Luscombe (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 4162 and System Rationality and the Dominican Success
in the Middle Ages, in Michael Robson and Jens Rhrkasten (eds.), Franciscan Organisation
in the Mendicant Context: Formal and Informal Structures of the Friars Lives and Ministry in
the Middle Ages (Berlin: Lit, 2010), 37788. Finally, see Franz J. Felten, Annette Kehnel, and
Stefan Weinfurter (eds.), Institution und Charisma: Festschrift fr Gert Melville (Cologne:
Bhlau, 2009) as well as Melvilles collected essays in Frommer Eifer und Methodischer
Betrieb. Beitrge zum Mittelalterlichen Mnchtum (Cologne: Bhlau, 2014).
26 Introduction

either the world of the semi-religious beyond the cloister, or the history of
Observant reform.
Precisely those themes, however, have been of particular interest of late to
North American scholars, who have offered their own appraisals of Elms posi-
tions. John Van Engen, whose work on the Modern Devotion brought him most
directly into contact with Elms scholarship, has confronted Elms concept of
semi-religious life by pointing out just how sharp the legal and conceptual
boundaries between cloister and world remained into the fifteenth century,
and how hard it was for each new lay religious experiment to carve out a legal
place for its way of life.66 Less directly, in ways that acknowledge yet also chal-
lenge Elms vision of the later middle ages generally, a number of scholars have
begun to expose the limits of crisis and decline as explanatory models for
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Without denying the severity of the
impact of the Black Death, the Great Schism and other calamities, they have
shown the variety, the multiplicity and unpredictability of an age that resists
reduction to a narrative of decline and renewal.67 They have also moved to link
the story of Observant reform with themes that were not always prominent in
Elms accountsthe ties between Dominican Observant reform and witch-
craft, womens mysticism, heresy and inquisition, to note only example, have
received a great deal of attention in recent years.68
For many Anglophone scholars of medieval religion, it must be acknowl-
edged, the study of the religious orders in the later middle ages as Elm first
framed it may have begun to show its age. So much of what interests us has
come to be located outside the cloister, beyond the bounds of orthodoxy, and
in dialogue with Judaism and Islam, in ways not reflected in Elms work. The
move toward alterity, too, has darkened our view of religious life. The appeal

66 John Van Engen, Friar Johannes Nyder on Laypeople Living as Religious in the World, in
Franz J. Felten and Nikolas Jaspert (eds.) Vita Religiosa im Mittelalter: Festschrift fr Kaspar
Elm zum 70. Geburtstag, (Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1999), 583615, especially
614615.
67 Howard Kaminsky, From Lateness to Waning to Crisis. The Burden of the Later Middle
Ages, Journal of Early Modern History 4 (2000): 85125 and The Problematics of Heresy
and the Reformation, in Frantiek mahel (ed.), Hresie und Vorzeitige Reformation im
Sptmittelalter (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998), 122; John Van Engen, Multiple Options: The
World of the Fifteenth-Century Church, Church History 77 (2008): 257284.
68 Michael D. Bailey, Battling Demons. Witchcraft, Heresy and Reform in the Later Middle Ages
(University Park, pa: Penn State University Press, 2003); Michael Tavuzzi, Renaissance
Inquisitors. Dominican Inquisitors and Inquisitorial Districts in Northern Italy, 14741527
(Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007); Tamar Herzig, Savonarolas Women: Visions and Reform in
Renaissance Italy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008).
Introduction 27

of h eresy, of the Dominicans righteous persecution, of questions of gender


andpiety or the predatory nature of church powerthere is less of this in Elms
work than may suit modern tastes. So too with questions of text, theory
and method: there is nothing of the various theoretical turns of the last
generationlinguistic, material, performative, spatialthat have become so
prominent.69
Yet scholars have been increasingly drawn back to institutional settings, to
intellectual history and what has been called the cultural harvesting of the
schools, to the ways in which questions of gender and piety played out in
frameworks of society and economy.70 Thus there remains much in Elms work
that still merits careful attention. The essays presented here need not be merely
admired as scholarly museum pieces. They can be read anew as a source of
inspiration. Elms compulsion for finding the archive, the next charter, the next
hidden gem of modern scholarshipthese still make for model religious his-
tory, relentlessly grounded in the particulars of Europes places, its landscapes
and sources. Exemplary as well is the ability here to cast a broad vision and to
craft a compelling narrative, to engage religious life across all of Old Europe,
all in a way that strikes a certain tempered, humane balance. These qualities
alone merit the inclusion of these essays alongside so many other English
translations of seminal works on medieval religious life. With the translations
presented here, students and scholars now have access to at least one English-
language treatment that explores religious life in a way complementary to the
work of Chenu, Grundmann, Leclercq, LeGoff and Vauchez. These essays are
rooted in a different historiographical tradition. They move through different
times, places and spaces. They sometimes cast a different, more institutional
vision. But they speak in similar ways to the same rich past, and the same pos-
sibilities for future scholarship on medieval religious life.

69 Christine Caldwell Ames, Medieval Religious, Religions, Religion, History Compass 10:4
(2012): 334352; Paul Freedman and Gabrielle M. Spiegel, Medievalisms Old and New:
The Rediscovery of Alterity in North American Medieval Studies, The American Historical
Review 103 (1998): 677704; Caroline Walker Bynum, Wonderful Blood. Theology and
Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2007) and also her essay Perspectives, Connections & Objects: Whats
Happening in History Now?, Daedalus 138, no. 1 (January 2009): 7186.
70 Representative here are the considerations of John Van Engen, The Future of Medieval
Church History, Church History 71 (2002): 492522 and Mutliple Options (above, n. 66),
each with further literature.
chapter 1

Francis and Dominic: The Impact and Impetus


of Two Founders of Religious Orders*

To Otto Herding, with gratitude

In his second Vita, composed between 1244 and 1247, Thomas of Celano (the first
biographer of St. Francis) reports that Francis of Assisi and Dominic of Caleruega
encountered one another in the household of Cardinal Hugolino of Ostia (later
Pope Gregory ix), and that each sought to outdo the other in their expressions of
deference and honor.1 Bartholomew of Trent and Gerard of Fracheto, biographers
of St. Dominic writing in the middle of the thirteenth century, knew from an
older miracle collection of an earlier meeting of the two founders, this one due
not to the hospitality of a Cardinal, but to the Mother of God, who had appeared
to Dominic in a vision.2 Francis and Dominic, united in brotherly love! The image
deeply impressed contemporaries, as it did the fourteenth and fifteenth centu-
ries. Later legends were not content with the two encounters noted here; they
sought to make at least four further meetings seem credible, and four further
adaptations of the themes outlined by Thomas of Celano and Bartholomew of
Trent.3 The art of the Quattrocento (Dominico Ghirlandaio, Fra Angelico, Andrea
della Robia and Benozzo Gozzoli) saw in the dialogue of the two mendicant friars
a welcome occasion to cast the old s ubjects of visitatio and sancta conversatio in
a new light.4 And still today the liturgy calls to mind an image of brotherly union:

* This essay was delivered on February 2, 1968, as an inaugural lecture in Freiburg. It remains
unchanged in style and content. Only the footnote apparatus has been updated with the
most important literature appearing since 1968. Expansion of abbreviations is provided in
the table at the end of the essay.
1 Thomas of Celano, Vita Secunda S. Francisci, in: Analecta Franciscana sive chronica aliaque
varia documenta ad historiam fratrum minorum spectantia X (Quaracchi-Florence 19261941),
215. Cited in what follows as 2. Cel., with corresponding section numbers.
2 Bartholomaeus Tridentinus, Legenda Dominici confessoris, in: B. Altaner, Der hl. Dominikus.
Untersuchungen und Texte. Breslauer Studien zur histor. Theologie 2 (Breslau, 1922), 233;
Gerard of Fracheto, Vitae Fratrum Ordinis Praedicatorum, in: moph i (Rome, 1896ff.), 9ff.
3 B. Altaner, Die Beziehungen des hl. Dominikus zum hl. Franziskus v. Assisi, fs 9 (1922): 128.
4 Along with K. Knstle, Ikonographie der Heiligen (Freiburg i. Br., 1922), 252ff. and L. Rau,
Iconographie de lart chrtien iii (Paris, 1958), 396, 523524 see especially H. Thode, Franz von Assisi
und die Anfnge der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1904), 179181; V. Facchinetti,
Iconografia Francescana (Milan, 1924); M. Villain, St-Franois et les peintres dAssise (Paris, 1941);

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_003


Francis and Dominic 29

in the litany of All Saints, after Anthony, Benedict and Bernard, it asks the heav-
enly twins Francis and Dominic, as representatives of all holy monks and hermits,
for their intercession. And, more impressively still than legend, fine art and lit-
urgy, Dante gives expression to the intimate association between Francis and
Dominic, between ordo minorum and ordo praedicatorum, in the eleventh and
twelfth cantos of his Paradiso. Thomas Aquinas sang the praises of Francis: tutto
seraphico in ardore, while Bonaventure responded in praise of Dominic: de che-
rubica luce.5 Francis and Dominic amid the choir of angels, the one consumed
with seraphic flame, the other shimmering with the light of the Cherubim. The
imagery is not Dantes alone; rather it is an echo of a spiritualist reading of history
that had from the middle of the thirteenth century cast both founders as heralds
of a new era and prophets of a new, more pure and more spiritual church.6 It also
echoes the prophetic scriptural reading of Joachim of Fiore (inspired by the
pseudo-Joachite commentary on Jeremiah), in which Francis and Dominic had
been prefigured in Jacob and Esau, Elijah and Moses, John and Paul.7 If we were
to be pedantic, we could insist that the dramatized meeting of these holy legends,
the melliflua conversatio of the two saints, rests on shaky foundationslittle
more than pious fiction and beautiful imagery. B. Altaner, after all, had by 1922
already proven that of six supposed meetings between Francis and Dominic,
at most one of them (that which took place in the household of Cardinal
Hugolino) could claim a certain credibility. Moreover, at least since the emer-
gence of a modern scholarly tradition of research on the religious orders, it has
been clear that the brotherly unity of the founders was asserted all the more
strongly as the two orders competed with one another to attract the faithful, and
as church politics and the struggles over the two orders various teachings drove
them further and further apart.8 But n evertheless! Through all of the fourteenth

G. Kaftal, Saints in Italian Art. Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting (Florence, 1952), 385ff.;
idem, Iconography of the Saints in Central and South Italian Schools (Florence, 1965), 469ff.
5 Par. xi, 40, 41. E. Auerbach, Franz von Assisi in der Komdie, in: Neue Dantestudien (Istanbul,
1944); H. Needler, Saint Francis and Saint Dominic in the Divine Comedy (Schriften und
Vortrge des Petrarca-Instituts Kln 23, Krefeld, 1969).
6 L. Cicchito, Lescatologia di Dante e il Francescanesimo, in: Miscellanea Franciscana 47
(1947), 217231; Idem, Il canto di Dante a San Domenico, ibid. 48 (1948), 306328.
7 Abbatis Joachim in Jeremiam prophetam interpretatio (Cologne, 1577), 59, 165, 122 et passim; E.
Benz Ecclesia spiritualis. Kirchenidee und Geschichtstheologie der franziskanischen
Reformation (Stuttgart, 1934), 67, 121, 182ff.; B. Topfer, Das kommende Reich des Friedens. Zr
Entwicklung chiliastischer Zukunftshoffnungen im Hochmittelalter, Forschungen zur mittelal-
terlichen Geschichte 11 (1964), 108ff.; M. Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle
Ages. A Study in Joachimism (Oxford, 1969), 145ff.
8 Altaner, op. cit. (n. 3), 8. Less scholarly: M. Faloci-Pullignani, S. Francesco e S. Domenico,
Miscellanea Franciscana 9 (1902), 13ff.
30 chapter 1

and fifteenth centuries, contemporaries captured a certain truth whenever they


brought Francis and Dominic together under one roof, praised them as the two
wheels of the chariot on which the church fought its enemies, or saw them as two
Atlases who held up the crumbling ruins of the Lateran on their shoulders.9
Thomas of Celano, Dante and the artists of the Quattrocento expressed with their
imagery, expressed allegorice, that Francis and Dominic were more than saints in
the ordinary sensethat they, in a much more historically relevant way, shaped
the face of the church and of Christendom, and contributed to their preservation
in a time of most grave danger.
The conclusions of the older historiography essentially remain those of
today.10 The consensus is that the founders of the two orders, guided by popes
Innocent iii and Honorius iii and advised by cardinals like John of St Paul,
Hugolino of Ostia and Steven of Fossanova, came to the aid of the church in
one of its most threatening crises. They took up inherited protests, rooted in
the Gospels and inspired by the reforming Gregorian papacy, against simony
and a church hierarchy entangled in worldly power. They worked against a
total break with the Orthodox church.11 They are also given credit for creating,
through their orders, cadres that could counter the Cathar perfecti (who had
just begun to meet with some success) above all because their way of life and
teachings were better suited than persecution and crusade for putting a dual-
istic counter-church in its place.12 Histories of philosophy and theology, for
their part, confirm that the Dominicans especially, in their confrontation with

9 Par. xii, 36ff.; 2 Cel. 17; Bonaventura, Leg. Maior. iii, 10 and the literature cited in note 7.
10 J. Haller, Das Papstum. Idee und Wirklichkeit (Esslingen, 1962) iv, 49: It is not too much to
say that the papacy survived the storms of the thirteenth century thanks to the mendi-
cants. Similarly H. Grundmann, Religise Bewegungen im Mittelalter, 2nd ed. (Darmstadt,
1961) 156 et passim.
11 L. Zarncke, Der Anteil des Kardinals Ugolino an der Ausbildung der drei Orden des heiligen
Franz, Beitrge zur Kulturgescgichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance 42 (Leipzig
andBerlin, 1930); B. Zllig, Kardinal Ugolino und der hl. Franziskus, in: fs 20 (1933), 133,
21 (1934), 134179; A. Matani, Papa Innocenzo iii di fronte a San Domenico e San
Francesco, Antonianum 35 (1960) 508527; M. Maccarone, Riforma e sviluppo della vita
religiosa con Innozenzo iii, Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia 16 (1962), 29ff.; V.J.
Koudelka, Notes pour servir lhistoire de S. Dominique, afp 35 (1965), 520; K.-V. Selge,
Franz von A. und die rmische Kurie, Zeitschr. f. Theol. u. Kirche 67 (1970), 129161; Idem,
Franz v.A. und Hugolino v.O., San Francesco nella ricerca storica (cf.n. 55), 158222.
12 A. Borst, Die Katharer, Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica 12 (Munich, 1953)
1327, 115119; K. Esser, Franziskus v. Assisi und die Katharer seiner Zeit, afh 51 (1958)
225264; Chr. Thouzellier, La pauvret arme contre lAlbigism en 1206, Revue de
lHistoire des Religions 151 (1957), 7997, also in Hrsie et Hrtiques. Vaudois, cathares,
Patarins, Albigeois, Storia et Letteratura 116 (Rome, 1969), 189203.
Francis and Dominic 31

Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic theology and heretical dualism, helped refor-


mulate the churchs teaching, and put it on a new foundation that would last
for centuries.13 Other stories, too, have often been told: How the mendicants
fought against the considerable resistance of the secular clergy to establish
more adequate pastoral care for the urban populations of the later middle
ages;14 how they helped guard religious women, who demanded full participa-
tion in the religious culture of their day, from eccentric errors;15 how their
missionary efforts pushed forward, already in the thirteenth century, into new

13 Alongisde general overviews like B. Geyer, Die patristische und scholastische Philosophie,
in: Friedrich berweg, Grundri der Geschichte der Philosophie ii, 12th ed. (Tbingen,
1951), 381ff. and Ph. BhnerE. Gilson, Christliche Philosophie von ihren Anfngen bis
Nikolaus von Cues, 3rd ed. (Paderborn, 1954), 401ff., see E. Filthaut, Roland von Cremona
O.P. und die Anfnge der Scholastik im Predigerorden. Ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte der
lteren Dominikaner (Vechta, 1936); H. Felder, Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Studien
im Franziskanerorden bis um die Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts (Freiburg i. Br., 1904); B. Vogt,
Der Ursprung und die Entwicklung der Franziskanerschulen, fs 9 (1922), 137157; L.
Meter, Die Erforschung der mittelalterlichen deutschen Franziskanerschulen, fs 18
(1931), 109150; G. Bonafede, Il pensiero francescano nel secolo xiii (Palermo, 1952); A.M.
Hamelin, Lcole franciscaine de ses dbuts jusq lOccamisme, Analecta Mediaevalia
Namurcensia 12 (Leuven-Montreal-Lille, 1961).
14 See among others P. Glorieux, Prlats franais contre religieux mendiants, rhef 11
(1925), 309331,417495; P. Grafien, Ordres mendiants et clerg sculier la fin du XIIIe
sicle, ef 36 (1924), 499518; H. Lippens, Le droit nouveau des mendiants en conflit avec
le droit coutumier du clerg sculier du concile de Vienne celui de Trente, af 47 (1954),
241292; J. Le Goff, Apostolat mendiant et fait urbain dans la France mdivale:
Limplantation gographique et sociologique des ordres mendiants (XIIIeXVe s.), rhef
54 (1968), 69ff.; idem, Ordres mendiants et urbanisation au Moyen ge dans la France
mdivale, Annales E.S.C. 25 (1970), 924ff.
15 Above all: A. Mens, Oorsprong en betekenis van de Nederlandse begijnen- en begardenbewe-
gung. Vergelijkende studie: XIIdeXIIIde eeuw, Universiteit te Leuven. Publicaties op het
Gebied der Geschiedenis en der Philologie iii, 30 (Leuven, 1947); E.W. McDonnell, The
Beguines and Beghards in Medieval Culture with Special Emphasis on the Belgian Scene
(New Brunswick, N.J., 1954); G. Koch, Frauenfrage und Ketzertum im Mittelalter. Die
Frauenbewegung im Rahmen des Katharismus und des Waldensertums und ihre sozialen
Wurzeln (12.14. Jh.) (Forschungen zur Mittelalterlichen Geschichte 9, Berlin, 1962); M. de
Fontette, Les religieuses lage classique du droit canon. Recherches sur les structures
iuridiques des branches fminines des ordres, Bibliothque de la Socit de lHistoire
Ecclsiastique de la France (Paris, 1967). On the female branches of the two orders see,
among others: O. Decker, Die Stellung des Predigerordens zu den Dominikanerinnen
(Vechta-Leipzig, 1935); J. Vesely, Il secondo Ordine de S. Domenico (Bologna, 1943); E.
Wauer, Entstehung und Ausbreitung des Klarissenordens (Leipzig, 1906); Santa Chiara
dAssisi. Studi e Cronaca del vii. Centenario (Perugia, 1954).
32 chapter 1

realmsto the east into Asia, indeed to the Far East.16 And lastly, scholars of
religion and folklore, of art history and literary studies can show how pro-
foundly the mendicant orders shaped the religious landscape of the West.17
Indeed their spirit and their impact can be registered even in places where
these are no longer discernible as a historical or religious phenomenonin
Manzonie, in Dostojewskii and Rilke, for example, to name only a few of the
witnesses of the widespread impact of Franciscan spirituality alone.18

16 B. Altaner, Die Dominikanermissionen des 13. Jahrhunderts. Forschungen zur Geschichte der
kirchlichen Unionen und der Mohammedaner- und Heidenmission des Mittelalters, Breslauer
Studien zur historischen Theologie 3 (Habelschwerdt, 1924); G. Golubovich, Bibliotheca
bio-bibliographica della Terra Santa e dell Oriente francescano I ff. (Quaracchi-Cairo,
1906ff.); J. Ghellinck, Les Franciscaines en Chine aux XIIIe et XIVe sicles, ambassadeures et
missionaires (Leuven, 1927); L. Oliger, Franciscan Pioneers amongst the Tartars, in: The
Catholic Historical Review 16 (1930); O. van der Vat, Die Anfnge der Franziskanermissionen
und ihre Weiterentwicklung im Nahen Orient und in den mohammedanischen Lndern
whrend des 13. Jh Missionswiss. Studien N.R. 6 (Werl, 1934); R. Loenertz, La Socit des
Frres Prgrinants. Etudes sur LOrient dominicain I. Diss. Hist. Fasc. vii (Rome, 1937); M.
Roncaglia, St. Francis of Assisi and the Middle East, 3rd ed. (Cairo, 1954); C.W. Troll, Die
Chinamission in Mittelalter, in: fs 48 (1966), 109150, 49 (1967), 2279.
17 Cf., among others, G. Orlando, Saint Franois d A. et son influence, religieuse, sociale, lit-
teraire et artistique (Paris, 1885); A. Germain, Linfluence de Saint Franois d A. sur la civili-
sation et les artes (Paris, 1903); A. Goffin, Saint Franois d A. dans larts primitifs italiens
(Brussels, 1909); A. Groeteken, Franz v.A. in der Poesie der Vlker (Mnchengladbach, 1912);
F. Imle, Der Einflu der franziskanischen Religiositt auf das deutsche Volk, in: fs 13
(1926), 96119; F. Van den Borne, De cultuurhistorische betekenis van de H. Franciscus
van A., in: Collectanea Franciscana Neerlandica I (1917), 4585; E. Delaruelle, Linfluence
de S. Franois dA. sur la pit populaire: Comitato Internazionale di Scienze Storiche. X
Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche. Roma 411 Settembre 1955. Relazioni iii: Storia
del Medioevo (Florence, 1955), 449466; Idem, Saint Fr. DA . et la pit populaire, in: San
Francesco nella ricerca storica (cf.n. 55) 127155; L. Di Fonzo, Francesco dA., in: Bibliotheca
Sanctorum V (Rome, 1964), 1145ff.
18 Cf. R. Schneider, Die Stunde des heiligen Franz v.A., 2nd ed. (Heidelberg, 1946), 27: In truth
Francis found his way to the heart of the people, and there prepared the kingdom of his
Lord, where no one expected it. Delaruelle, op. cit. (fn. 17), 466: It is no exaggeration to
say that the Franciscans contributed to giving the orient the shape it has today.
L. Salvatorelli, Movimento Francescano e Gioachimismo. La Storiografia Francescana Con
termpranea. Comitato Internazionale di Scienze Storiche. X Congresso Incernazionale di
Scienze Storiche, Roma, 411 Settembre 1955, Relazione iii: Storia del Medioevo (Florence,
1955), 475: It would be no exaggeration to say that the Christian spirit, to the extent that
it still survives in the world today, draws its strength in large part, after the Gospels, from
the early Franciscans.
Francis and Dominic 33

A more detailed account of the broader impact of the two founders in its
entirety is impossible. It would know no bounds, and our current circumstance
would in any case hardly allow it. Our interest here is thus concentrated on
only one aspect of that broader impact, namely that which Francis and
Dominic had within their own orders, and through them on the religious
orders generally. This indirect route is perhaps the best way to recover the his-
torical force of the two founders, and perhaps the best way to show that
Bartholomew of Trent was not entirely correct when he declared in 1250 that
Francis and Dominic were so similar ut idem velle et idem nolle esset utrique,
that they desired the same things and refused the same things.19

Francis of Assisi in his order: On closer inspection the formulation is impre-


cise, if not wrong. It presupposes that there is or was only one order of St.
Francis. How different things look in reality! Across 700 years not one but many
different communities have claimed to represent, alone and exclusively, the
order of Francis of Assisi.20 When the saint died in 1226 there were already
internal partisan struggles between the lax brothers surrounding Elias of
Cortona and the zealots surrounding Brother Leo and Brother Giles.21 At the
end of the thirteenth century the community22 that had coalesced around
Bonaventure saw itself as distinct from the Caesarines, the Coelestines and the

19 Bartholmaeus Tridentinus, Legenda Dominici confessoris, in: Altaner, op. cit. (n. 2), 2.
20 Summary overviews: H. Holzapfel, Handbuch der Geschichte des Franziskanerordens
(Freiburg i. Br., 1909); J. Pou y Marti, Conspectus trium ordinum religiosorum S. Francisci
(Rome, 1929); Fr. De Sessevalle, Histoire gnrale de lOrdre de S. Franois, 2 vols. (Paris,
19351937); R.M. Huber, A Documented History of the Franciscan Order (Milwaukee, 1944);
A. Lon, Histoire de lordre des frres mineurs (Paris, 1954); Frres mineurs: Fondation et
reformes franciscaines, in: Dictionnaire de Spiritualit asctique et mystique 5 (Paris,
1964), cols. 1304ff.
21 Concerning the early divergences, read through the lens of later disputes and thus often
distorted by sharp exaggerations, see among others: F. van den Borne, Antonius en Elias.
Hun betekenis voor de inwendige geschiedenis van de Minderbroedersorde, in:
Collectanea Franciscana Neerlandica 7 (1949); R.B. Brooke, Early Franciscan Government.
Elias to Bonaventure, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, n.s. vii
(Cambridge, 1959); S. Clasen, Antonius and Elias in ihrer Bedeutung fr die innere
Geschichte des Franziskanerordens, in: fs 12 (1964), 153ff.
22 M. Matani, S. Bonaventura Secondo Fondatore dell Ordine dei Fratri Minori, in: sf 55
(1958) 306317; H. Roggen, Saint Bonaventura comme Le Second Fondateur de lOrdre
des Frres Mineurs, in: fs 49 (1967), 259271.
34 chapter 1

Clares, who contested the claim to legitimate succession.23 At the same time,
just as an elaborate basilica over the grave of the Poverello in Assisi neared its
completion,24 in a fragmented Abruzzo and in a Provence infested with heresy
there lived Spirituals and Fraticelli, who held fast to the belief that they were
the only true sons of poor Francis, and that they, in their persecuted communi-
ties, were the embodiment of the true church, the ecclesia spiritualis.25 And
hardly had such extremism been defeated through the temporal and spiritual
powers, hardly had the dust settled from so many debates over the ideal of
poverty,26 when new eremitical communities began to gather in Umbria,
Aragon and Catalonia, while France and Italy saw the emergence of new
communities of Observants and Discalced Friars, Amadeans and Coletans,
Caperolani and Fratres della Cappuciolaall seeking to guard true Franciscan
observance from falsity and compromise.27 On May 29, 1517, in the Bull Ite et
vos, Leo X recognized the largest of these groups, the Observantsthe follow-
ers of John della Valle, Gentile da Spoleto, Paolo Trinci, the brothers of
Bernardino of Siena and John of Capistranoas the true Ordo fratrum mino-
rum, and unified them with the reform movements associated with Colette
ofCorbie, Amadeus of Silva and John of Guadalupe.28 Yet hardly had he done
so when these groups, along with their longstanding adversaries the Conven
tuals, were faced yet again with division and secession. In 1528 a wandering

23 L. von Aww, Angelo Clareno et les spirituels franiscains (Lausanne, 1952); A Frugoni,
Celestiniana (Rome, 1954).
24 B. Kleinschmidt, Die Basilica San Francesco in Assisi, 3 vols. (Berlin, 19151927).
25 See the following summaries of a rich literature: R. Manselli, Spirituali e beghini in
Provenza, Studi Storici 3134 (Rome, 1959); G. Leff, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages. The
Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent c. 12501450 (Manchester, New York, 1967) I, 51238.
26 See now M.D. Lambert, Franciscan Poverty, The Doctrine of the Absolute Poverty of Christ
and the Apostles in the Franciscan Order 12101323 (London, 1961); Y.M.-J. Congar, Aspects
ecclsiologiques de la querelle entre mendiants et sculiers dans la seconde moti du
XIIIe sicle et le dbut du XIVe, in: Archives dhistoire doctrinale et littraire du moyen ge
36 (1961), 34151.
27 Along with the literature cited in n. 20 above: G. de Paris, Les debuts de rforme des
cordeliers en France, in: ef 31 (1941) 415439; M. Faloci-Pulignani, Il B. Paoluccio Trinci da
Foligno e i minori osservanti (Foligno, 1921); S. Bernardino da Siena. Saggi e ricerche pub-
blicati nel quinto centenario della morte (14441944), Pubbl. etc. dell Universit Cattolica
del S. Cuore N.S. vi (Milan, 1945); V. Aibarro, Introduccin a los origines de la observancia
en Espaa. Las reformas en los siglos XIV y XV (Madrid, 1958); L. Brengio, Losservanza fran-
cescana in Italia nel secolo xiv (Rome, 1963); J. Hofer, Johannes Kapistran. Ein Leben im
Kampf um die Reform der Kirche, Bibiliotheca Franciscana 1 (Rome-Heidelberg, 1964).
28 J. Meseguer Fernndez, La bula Ite et vos, in: Archivo Ibero-Americano 18 (1958), 257361;
P. Sevesi, Lordine dei fratri minori (Milan, 1958) I, 1ff.
Francis and Dominic 35

Franciscan preacher from the Marches, Matteo da Bascio, along with his com-
panions Ludowico and Raffaele, received from Pope Clement vii license to
lead an eremitical life outside the ranks of the Observance. Within a few years
their experiment developed into an independent order, the Cappuchins.29 At
the same time, under the leadership of Francis of Jesi and Bernard of Asti,
Italian houses of the Recollects joined the congregation of the Reformati,
whom Gregory xiii allowed to separate almost entirely from the Franciscan
order that had been united in 1517.30 They soon spread from Italy, even beyond
the Alps, and by the end of the sixteenth century they were joined in France
and Belgium by the Recollects, who had grown from similar roots, from eremit-
ical ritiro.31 At the same time, in Spain and Portugal, under Peter of Alcantara
the old Discalced Friars (first established by John of Guadalupe) flowered anew
and with the help of Gregory xiii. It became a virtually independent congrega-
tion, and one that spread far beyond the Iberian Peninsula.32 There emerged
new reform groups and new institutional wings of the old orders that, for all of
their differences in observance and clothing, were united in one thing: each of
them, pounding away on its own model of observantia strictissima, con-
testedthe claim of the Minorites to being the true Franciscan order. Hardly
had each had won their independence before the old disputes emerged anew
within each reforming group over the right way to live the Franciscan life,
resulting in more schism and secession, and the formation of new groups and
parties. Caught in a bewildering dialectic between unity and division, reform
degenerated to Riformella.33 As the religious orders finally began to recover
from the bloodletting of revolution and secularization in the nineteenth cen-
tury, as the spirit of Romanticism gave religious life new inspiration, the old
Franciscan diversity began to emerge againthis time much more peacefully.
Around the order of Minorites that Leo xiii united in 1897, and around the
still independent Conventuals and Cappuchins, in a way analogous to the
fourteenth century, there gathered a range of third-order communities,

29 F. Cuthbert, The Capuchins. A Contribution to the History of the Counterreformation, 2 Vols.


(London, 1928); Th. Graf, Zr Entstehung des Kapuzinerordens. Quellenkritische Studien
(Olten-Freiburg, 1940); M. de Pobladura, Historia generalis ordinis fratrum minorum
capuccinorum (Rome, 19471951) I, 1ff.
30 In summary: C. Pohlmann, Kanzel und Ritiro (Werl, 1955); on their spread north of the
Alps: B. Lins, Geschichte der bayr. Franziskanerprovinz, 3 vols. (Munich, 19261939).
31 Afiibarro, op. cit, (n. 27).
32 See, among others: P. Valugani, San Pietro dAlcantara (Milan, 1954); Estudios sobre S.
Pedrode Alcntara en el iv centario de su muerte 15621962, in: Archiva Ibero-Americano
22 (1962), 1758.
33 Luigi di Roma, Vita del ven. servo di Dio Fr. Bonaventura da Barcellona (Quaracchi, 1901).
36 chapter 1

c ongregations of men and women who, as they converted the unbeliever, cared
for the sick and raised children, looked to Francis of Assisi as their father.34
Like many before and after him, Erasmus of Rotterdam saw nothing but
folly in the rivalries between Observants and Conventuals, Discalced Friars
and Reformati.35 And he would have been right, were it all only an argument
over the cut and color of a habit, or the length and form of cowl and belt. It
was that, too, but what truly caused so much unrest among the Franciscans
through the centuries, what inspired so much struggle among them, was
much more: the attempt, taken up anew time and again, to realize the intent
of their founder, to realize the Franciscan ideal in all of its fullness. It was a
goal that the Spirituals sought to reach through absolute poverty, the
Amadeans through continual fasting, the Discalced through the habitus pau-
per, the Observants and the first Cappuchins through ascetic renunciation of
the world, the Reformati through stern penitential exercises. This process, in
which one might see an analogy to the formation of confessional divisions
within the worlds religions, is often seen as a process of organic growth. But
it seems to me that it was instead a hard-fought process of selection, a strug-
gle that the three branches of the orderthe Observants, the Conventuals
and the Cappuchinshave survived until the present day. The extremists on
both the left and the right, in contrast, fell victim to the compulsion to sub-
mit to church authority, and to the pressure to adapt to social reality and
human nature.
Set before the dramatic background of the history of the Franciscan order
as it unfolds, the fate of the Dominican order does in fact seem to be a story of
organic growth that runs its course in peace and quiet.36 At the end of the
fourteenth century a reform movement emerged within this order, too. Begun
by Catherine of Siena and Raymond of Capua,37 and advanced by figures like
Conrad of Prussia, John Nider and John Dominici, by the end of the c entury it

34 Probably the most comprehensive overview in: D. Kapsner, Catholic Religious Orders,
2nd ed. (Collegeville, mn, 1957); on spirituality: H. Roggen, De Franciskaanse
Lekenbeweging. Een historisch-pastorale Studie, 2 vols. (Mecheln, 1960).
35 Cf. also J. Beumer, Erasmus von Rotterdam und seine Freunde aus dem Franziskanerorden,
in fs 51 (1969), 117129.
36 A. Walz, Compendium historiae Ordinis Praedicatorum, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1858); W.A.
Hinnebusch, The History of the Dominican Order. Origins and Growth to 1500, I (Staten
Island, ny, 1966).
37 L. Zanini, Bibliografia analitica di S. Caterina da Siena 19011050. Miscellanea del Centro di
Studi Medievali, Pubbl. DellUniversit del Sacro Cuore 58 (Milan, 1956); A.W. van Ree,
Raymond de Capoue, Elments biographiques, in: afp 33 (1963), 159241.
Francis and Dominic 37

led to the emergence of Observant congregations and convents in the Empire,


in the Netherlands, in Venice, Lombardy and Tuscany.38 But unlike the
Franciscans, the Dominicans never called for Observant reform in a way that
seriously called the unity of the order into question, or that would have caused
a true institutional and legal division between Conventuals and Observants.
The Franciscans repeatedly pushed the boundaries of orthodoxy, and along
with with Fraticelli and lay theoreticians of state power increased the number
of the heresies.39 The Dominicans, in contrast, as apologists and inquisitors,
instead concentrated their efforts on containing the doctrinal error and devi-
ance of their day as much as possible.40 While the sons of St. Francis had
again and again to ask themselves what the core of their spirituality might be,
and how one was to understand the rule of their founder,41 the Preachers
could turn to their constitutions, in which preaching and study were laid
outprogrammatically as the main purpose of their community.42 While the
Franciscans struggled under the weight of their fragmentary and demanding
Rule,43 their Dominican brothers had recourse to constitutions that have

38 A. Barthelm, La rforme dominicaine au XVe sicle en Alsace et dans lensemble de la prov-


ince de Teutonie (Strassburg, 1931); V. Bertran de Heredia, Historia de la Reforma de la Prov.
De Espaa 14501550 (Rome, 1939); R. Creytens, Lobligation des constitutions domin-
caines daprs le bienheureux Jean Dominici, in: afo 23 (1953), 195235; A. de Meyer, La
Congrgation de Hollande 14651515 (Lttich, n.d.)
39 Along with the literature cited in n. 25 above, cf. on Ockham and the Franciscans at the
court of Ludwig the Bavarian, among others, F. Hofmann, Der Anteil der minoriten am
Kampf Ludwigs des Bayern gegen Johann xxii. unter besonderer Bercksichtigung des
Wilhelm von Ockham (Diss. Mnster, 1959); W. Klmel, Wilhelm von Ockham und seine
kirchenpolitischen Schriften (Essen, 1962); E.K. Brampton, Ockham, Bonagratia and the
Emperor Lewis iv, in: Medium Aevum 31 (1962); J. Miethke, Ockhams Weg zur Sozia
lphilosophie (Berlin, 1969).
40 Cf. among others A. Dondaine, Le manuel de linquisiteur (12301330) in: afp 17 (1947),
85194; Th. Kaeppeli., Une somme contre les hretiques, in: afp 17 (1947), 320ff.
41 H. Sbaralea (ed.), Bullarium Franciscanum I (Rome, 1759), 68: the consciences of the
brothers are weighed down by difficultatibus quasi inextricabilibus.
42 H. Denifle, Die Constitutionen des Prediger-Ordens vom Jahre 1228, in: alkm: 1 (1885),
165227; L. Creytens, Les Constitutions des freres Precheurs dans la redaction de S.
Raymond de Peafort, in: afp 18 (1948), 568. On the establishment and development of
the oldest Dominican constitutions: H. Thomas, De oudste constituties van de Dominicanen,
Bibliothque de la revue dhistoire ecclsiastique 42 (Leuven, 1965).
43 E. Wagner, Historia Constitutionum Generalium Ordinis Fratrum Minorum (Rome, 1954),12:
Ita in Regula nonobstante iuristarum collaboratione, fundamentalia desuntDisciplina
autem religiosa, in Regula dilineata, quandam amplitudinem et ambiguitatem in interpre-
tatione non excludit.
38 chapter 1

been called the most perfect example of what the middle ages produced in
the way of constitutions for monastic corporations.44 Perfect in one respect,
because they gave the brothers a balanced procedure for representation; per-
fect in another, because they so layered and linked the general obligations of
the orders memberspoverty and obedience, prayer and asceticismthat
they not only did not hinder study and preaching as the ultimate aims of the
order, but advanced them in a most efficient way. This almost perfect func-
tionalism, a maturation of constitutions that brought not secession and strife
over the orders ideals, but rather embodied the best of recent developments
in the laws governing religious ordershelped ensure that the Dominicans
remained the head of a confederation, the head not of a group of religious
orders, but of aconstitutional family. In 1232 the Magdalens, who had been
governed by Cistercian customs, adopted the original Dominican constitu-
tions.45 In 1248, when the Croziers of the diocese of Lttich sought from the
curia a confirmation of their community, Innocent iv prescribed for them the
regula fratrum praedicatorum.46 And when shortly thereafter the Fratres de
Poenitentia Jesu Christi (which had its roots in Franciscan piety) and the
Fratres de Poenitentia B.B. Martyrum (which had its roots above all in Bohemia)
sought for themselves a legal foundation, they too adopted, almost word for
word, theDominican constitutions.47 But the influence did not stop there. In
fact none of the thirteenth-century religious orders to emerge from the pov-
erty movements of the daythe Augustinian Hermits, established in 1256

44 A. Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands iv, 8th ed. (Berlin-Leipzig, 1954), 409; similarly:
L. Moulin, Les formes du gouvernement local et provincial dans les ordres religieux, in:
Revue internationale des sciences administratives 21 (1955), 57; H.P. Tunmore, The
Dominican Order and Parliament. An Unsolved Problem in the Story of Representation,
in: The Catholic Historical Review 26 (1941), 479489.
45 A. Simon, LOrdre des Pnitentes de Ste. Marie-Madeleine en Allemagne au XIIIe sicle
(Freiburg i. , 1918); F. Discry, La rgle des Pnitentes de Ste. Marie-Madeleine daprs le
ms. de St.-Quirin de Huy, in: Bulletin de la commission royale dhistoire 121 (1956), 85145.
46 W. Sangers, De oudste constituties der Kruisherenorde, in: Miscellanea L. Van der Essen
(Brussels, 1947).
47 R.W. Emery, The Friars of the Sack, in: Speculum 18 (1943), 323334; G.M. Giacomozzi,
LOrdine della Penitenza di Ges Cristo. Contributo alla Storia della Spiritualit del Sec.
xiii in: Studi Storici dellOrdine dei Servi di Maria 8 (19571958), 360, 10 (1960), 4299,
separately in: Scrinium Historiale 2 (Rome, 1962). On the Fratres de Poenitentia B.B.
Martyrum, whose constitutions can be found, among others, in Codex IA26 of the
State and University Library (Clementinum) of Prague, there will be a fuller discussion
forthcoming in zsrg.
Francis and Dominic 39

through the unification of a variety of Italian eremitical groups;48 the


Carmelites of Palestine;49 the Servites, formed from an association of seven
Florentine merchants;50 the Pauline Hermits of Hungary51 none of these
groups failed, in the establishment of their own constitutions, to orient them-
selves according to the model provided by the Dominicans. Indeed even in
the circles of monks and canons, and in orders associated with hospitals and
with the freeing of captives, the Dominican constitutions proved founda-
tional whenever one sought to reform or to improve established patterns of
organization.52
To summarize, and to try to capture succinctly over seven hundred years
of history for these two orders, let us allow ourselvesquite unhistorically
to overlook the fact that thousands of Franciscans lived a religious life
grounded in discretio; and let us forget that in Dominicans like Fra Savonarola
burned with a zeal for reform worthy of the Spirituals.53 To do so reveals
something ofan antithesis: here, among the Franciscans, an almost perma-
nent call for reform, the ever-repeated attempt, in the tension between ere-
mos and world, between pastoral care and individual salvation, to achieve an
almost unattainable ideal; there, among the Dominicans, the orderliness of a

48 Constitutiones Ratisponenses o.e.s.a., ed. Gabriel Venetus (Venice, 1508); cf. also: Georgi,
De constitutionibus F.F. Erem. S. Augustini duobus beatis viris Clemente Auximate
et Augustino Novello emendatis, in: Analecta Augustiniana 1 (19051906), 109117;
I.Aramburu Cendoya, Las primitivas Constituciones de los Agustinos (Ratisbonenses de ao
1290). Introduccion, Texto y Adaptacion Romanceada para las Religiosas (Valladolid, 1966).
49 B. Zimmermann, Antiquae Ordinis Constitutiones, in: Monumenta historica Carmelitana
I (Lerin, 1907); Melchior a S. Maria, Carmelitarium regula et ordo decursu xiii saeculi,
in: Ephemerides Carmeliticae 2 (1948), 5164.
50 P.M. Soulier, Constitutiones antiquae F.F. Servorum S. Mariae a S. Philippo Benito anno
circiter 1280 editae, in: Monumenta Ordinis Servorum S. Mariae I (Brussels, 1897), 27ff.;
A.Rossi, Manuale di Storia dell Ordine dei Servi di Maria (Rome, 1956), 355ff.
51 St. widziski, Constitutio Ordinis Sancti Pauli Primi eremitae iuxta textum ante annum
1643 conscriptum. HistoriaTextusSententia (Trier, 1971). On an older version of the
consituttions of the Paulines, unknown until now, see a forthcoming discussion in the
zgo.
52 In summary: P. MandonnetR. Ladner, Lordre rgulier et limitation des Aptres, in:
P.Mandonnet, Saint Dominique. Lidee, lhomme et lvre ii (Paris, 1937), 241ff.; A Thomas,
cited in n. 42 above, xiii.
53 J. Schnitzer, Savonarola im Streite mit seinem Orden und seinem Kloster (Munich, 1914);
R.Ridolfi, Vita di Girolamo Savonarola, 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Rome, 1952); further literature in
M. Ferrara, Bibliografia savonaroliana (Florence, 1958); D. Weinstein, Savonarola and
Florence. Prophecy and Patriotism in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1970), 326.
40 chapter 1

constitution suited to the conditions of this world, the persistent effort to


carry out clearly defined duties in the service of the church and for the salva-
tion of souls. With these we are approaching something like a conclusion
regarding the distinctive nature and the impact of each of these orders. We
must now ask whether the oppositions within which we have sought to frame
the histories of the Franciscans and Dominicansbetween dynamism and
stasis, between constant renewal and intentional development, between uto-
pianism and pragmatismreflect anything at all of the spirit, of the inten-
tions and the original impulses of their founders, of Francis of Assisi and
Dominic of Caleruega.

Who was he? What did he want? Why did others flock to him, of all people, by
the thousands, learned and unlearned, noblemen and bondsmen, the righteous
and the sinners? So Francis was asked, as the Little Flowers54 tell the tale, by one
of his earliest disciples, Fra Masseo da Marignano. And for centuries a richly
diverse crowd of devotees and scholars of Francis have asked themselves what
he actually wanted, and what made him great.55 The answers have been many,
but read alongside one another they make for something of a mirror of European
intellectual history: the prophet, the witness of the true Gospel, the angel
with the mark of the living God,56 the first modern man,57 the Protestant
avantlalettre,58 the Italian genius,59 the advocate of the disenfranchised and

54 I Fioretti di S. Francesco, Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli 1920, 6th ed. (Milan, 1949)
55 Overviews of the interpretations of Francis in broad outline: S. Classen, Franz v.A. im
Lichte der neueren historischen Forschung, in: gwu 3 (1952), 137154; L. Salvatorelli,
Movimento Francescano e Giochamismo. La Storiografia Francescana Contemporanea,
403448; F. van den Borne, Het probleem van de Franciscus-biografie in het licht van de
moderne historische kritiek, in: Sint Franciscus 59 (1957), 163239, 243316; San Francesco
nella ricerca storica degli ultimi ottanta anni, Convegni del Centro di Studi sulla Spiritualit
Medievale ix, 1316 Ottobre 1968 (Todi, 1971).
56 F. Russo, S. Francesco e i Francescani nella letteratura profetica gioachimita, in: Scritti
Storichi Calabresi (Naples, 1957), 203214, as well as the literature cited in n. 7.
57 H. Thode, Franz v.A. und die Anfnge der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien (Berlin, 1885).
58 K. Hase, Franz v.A. Ein Heiligenbild (Leipzig, 1856); on the foundations of this view in the
work of Luther: E. Schfer, Luther als Kirchenhistoriker (Gtersloh, 1897).
59 G. Cerri, Patriottismo di S. Francesco di Assisi (Navara, 1918); G.u.A. FortiniJ. Giordani, Il
Patrono dItalia (Rome, 1955); N. de Monte, Il Santo della Pace. Patrono primario dItalia,
3rd ed. (S. Agata di Puglia, 1954).
Francis and Dominic 41

dispossessed,60 the tragically broken religious genius,61 the light-hearted trou-


badour and divine minstrel,62 the friend of the animals and of peace63an
almost endless litany of all-too emphatic, all-too aphoristic epithets. Like almost
all of our representations of Francis life, they rest on unstable ground: on saints
lives, legends, chronicles and moral treatises, all of which, we have known at
least since Ernst Benz, are more of an evangelical than an historical nature, that
to read them is to read not so much history as Franciscan theology.64 What we
can say after so many decades of debate over the sources for a history of Francis,
and what remains reliable and secure after so many increasingly complex artic-
ulations of the Quaestio Franciscana, is for all the evidence relatively littleso
little that at times the search for the historical Francis seems to mirror the search
for the historical Jesus.65 But if we are to take up Fra Masseos question anew, we

60 Cf. among others F. Glaser, Die franziaskanische Bewegung. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte sozi-
aler Reformideen im Mittelalter, Mnchener volkswirtschaftliche Studien 59 (Stuttgart-
Berlin, 1903); L. Dubois, Saint Francis, Social Reformer (New York, 1906); A. Vitto, La
missione sociale di San Francesco (Lucerne, 1926); F. Somogli, San Francesco dAssisi, il
Rinovatore (Rome, 1928); J. Meyer, Die sozialen Ideale des hl. Franziskus v.A. (Schwyz, 1943);
S. Clasen, Franziskus v.A. und die soziale Frage, in: ww 15 (1952), 109121.
61 P. Sabatier, Vie de St. Franois dAssisi. Edition dfinitive (Paris, 1931); J. Joergensen, Der
heilige Franz v.A. Eine Lebensbeschreibung (from the Danish, 2nd ed., Kempten, 1952);
L.Salvatorelli, Vita di S. Francesco (Bari, 1926).
62 J.v. Grres, Der heilige Franziskus v.A., ein Troubadour, 2nd ed. (Regensburg, 1879);
H. Felder, Der Christusritter aus Assisi (Zrich-Altenstetten, 1941).
63 Cf., among others, V. Bontadini, Il poverello dAssisi apostolo della pace, in: Lapostolato
francescano (Rome, 1919); G. Menge, Der Friedensherold von Assisi (Paderborn, 1926); F.
Bosio, Frate Franceseo Pacificatore (Rome, 1926); J.B. Hillegers, De vrede bij franciscus, in:
Franc. Leven 51 (1968) 178184.
64 Cf. n. 56.
65 An excellent overview of the sources can be found in S. Clasen, Legenda antiqua S. Francisci.
Untersuchungen ber die nachbonaventurianischen Franziskusquellen, Legenda trium socio-
rum, Speculum perfectionis, Actus B. Francisci et sociorum eius und verwandtes Schrifttum,
Studia et documenta Franciscana 5 (Leiden, 1967). The most recent discussion of the
Quaestio Franciscana: J. Cambell, Les crits de saint Franois dAssise davant la critique, in:
fs 36 (1954), 82109, 205264; K. Eer, Wege zur Lsung der Franziskanischen Frage, in: ww
30 (1967), 238244; Th. Desbonnets, Recherches sur la gnalogie des biographies primitives
de Saint Franois, in: afh 60 (1967), 273316; F. Van den Borne, Neues Licht nach 50 Jahren
Quellenforschung, in: ww 31 (1968), 108223; O. Schmucki, A Francisco Legendarum ad
Franciscum Historicum. Questio franciscana et vita S. Francisci duplici opere illustratae, in:
Coll. Franc. 38 (1968), 373392; J. Campbell, Une tentative de rsoudre la Question francis-
caine, in: Misc. Franc. 69 (1969), 187201; S. Clasen, Manipulierte Franziskus-Forschung? in:
ww 32 (1969), 218246; E. Grau, Die neue Bewertung der Schriften des Hl. Franziskus v.A.
seit den letzten 80 Jahren, in: San Francesco nella ricerca storica (cf. n. 55) 3573.
42 chapter 1

must first of all do that which Joseph Lortz seemed to renounce, with his honor-
ific title the incomparable saint.66 We must do what both a strongly source-
critical scholarship on Francis and an enlightening tradition of Franciscan
theology still does not do all that often.67 We must place Francis in the political,
social and economic context of his time, in the Italian Dugento.68
Francis of Assisi renounced the world in 1206, all of twenty years old. Exivi
de seculo, as he said in his Testament.69 Son of the wealthy cloth merchant
Pietro Bernardone and a mother who was probably from Picardy and who may
have been a noblewomanDonna PicaFrancis thereby began his journey
of scornful poverty, of humiliating penance and scandalous peculiarity.70 As a
rich and congenial young man, he was the embodiment of jeunesse dore, and
as trovatore he had sought, with all the impatient zeal of a parvenu, to win for
himself a poverty-inducing but richly prestigious nobilit. It was an astonish-
ing turn away from a life whose beginnings promised such worldly success.
And yet it was nothing unusual in the Dugento, no isolated case in Umbria, in
Tuscany or in the Marches. To note an analogous case of conversion one need
consider not only the merchant Waldo in Lyon.71 Almost unknown local
saintslike the cloth merchants son Galganus of Chiusdino,72 like Albert of
Montalceto, Rainer of Pisa73 and the Florentine founders of the order of the

66 J. Lortz, Der unvergleichliche Heilige. Gedanken um Franziskus v.A. (Dsseldorf, 1952).


67 Cf. the critique of the isolating patterns of inquiry prevalent in Franciscan research
offered by S. Clasen, Kritisches zur neueren Franziskusliteratur, in: ww 23 (1950), 156.
68 So for example L. Hardick, Franziskus, die Wende der Mittelalterlichen Frmmigkeit, in:
ww 13 (1950) 129141; K. Eer, Die religisen Bewegungen des Hochmittelalters und
Franziskus v.A., in: Festgabe J. Lortz (Baden-Baden, 1958) ii, 287315; G. de Paris, Rapports
de S.F. dA. avec le mouvement spirituel du XIIe sicle, in: ef 12 (1961) 129142.
69 E. Boehmer, Analekten zur Geschichte des Francisus von Assisi, Sammlung ausgewhlter
kirchen- und dogmengeschichtlicher Quellenschriften nf 4, 3rd ed. (Tbingen, 1961), 24;
K. Eer, Das Testament des Hl.F.v.A. Eine Untersuchung ber seine Echtheit und seine
Bedeutung, Vorreformationsgeschichtliche Forschungen 15 (Mnster, 1949).
70 L. Bracaloni, Casa, casato e stemma di S. Francesco, in: Coll. Franc. 3 (1933), 82ff.; A.
Fortini, Nova Vita di San Francesco, 2nd ed. (Assisi, 1959) ii: Assisi al tempo del Santo; F. van
den Borne, Voornaamste feiten uit het leven van Franziskus in het licht van de histo-
rische kritiek, in: Sint Franciscus 3 (1959), 174ff. On Francis before his conversion,
S.Clasen, Franziskus, der Gottes Absicht noch nicht erkannte, in: ww 27 (1964), 117128.
71 On him see now K.-V. Selge, Die ersten Waldenser I: Untersuchung und Darstellung, Arbeiten
zur Kirchengeschichte 37/I (Berlin, 1967).
72 R. Arbesmann, The Three Earliest Vitae of St Galganus, in: Didascaliae. Studies in Honor
of Anselm M. Albareda (New York, 1961), 337.
73 K. Elm, Beitrge zur Geschichte des Wilhelmitenordens, Mnstersche Forschungen 14
(Cologne-Graz, 1962).
Francis and Dominic 43

Servites74all of these, too, show at least as clearly that the popolo grasso,
merchants who were sometimes only two or three generations removed from
their arrival in the city from the contado, found themselves facing a crisis of
conscience. After their initial satisfaction with so much profit and commercial
success, caught up in the rhythms of an ever more intensive monetary econ-
omy, the Italian mercatoresas if judged under the laws of balances and cred-
itsbegan to feel their salvation threatened. They saw their way of life in
opposition to a Gospel that condemned their striving for profit as the worship
of Mammon, and that dismissed their money, rights and properties as treasure
consumed by rust and moths. Amid growing wealth, face to face with manifest
poverty, they endured a crise de conscience.75 Compromise and adaptation are
the usual ways to escape. But Francis would have nothing of either. He was
utterly revolted by the sophisticated monetary economy of his day, even by its
very coins.76 Instead of making careful plans, he sought out a way of life that
cared not for the morrowa roof over the head, bread on the table. Instead of
seeking success he embraced boundless suffering, wholehearted charity, and
solidarity with the least of creatures. He shocked the sensibilities of bourgeois
mannershe was called Pazzo, the madmanthrough what seems to have
been grotesque folly.77 As Francis explained in his Testament, none other than
God had showed him this way of life.78 But when he says in the same text:
Dedit michi fratri Francisco incipere faciendi penitentiam, he reveals one of the
larger contexts in which he stoodthe penitential movement whose entire
scope was first made clear by G.G. Meersseman, after Mller and Mandonnet.79

74 A.M. Rossi, Codice mariano: la Legenda de origine Ordinis Servorum Virginis Mariae
(Rome, 1951); idem, Manuale di Storia dellOrdine dei Servi di Maria, 7ff.; R. Taucci, I sette
Santi nella vita religiosa e civile di Firenze, in: Studi Storici o.s.m. 5 (1953), 199ff.
75 The social background is treated by H. Roggen, Die Lebensform des hl. Franziskus in
ihrem Verhltnis zur feudalen und brgerlichen Gesellschaft Italiens, in: fs 46 (1946),
154, 284321, though its interpretation misses the mark.
76 L. Hardick, Pecunia et denarii. Untersuchungen zum Geldverbot in den Regeln der
Minderbrder, in fs 40 (1958), 193217.
77 S. Clasen, Die Armut als Beruf: Franziskus v.A., in: Miscellanea Medievalia 3 (Berlin,
1964), 86ff.
78 Boehmer (cited above, n. 69), 24ff.
79 K. Mller, Die Anfnge des Minoritenordens und der Bubruderschaften (Freiburg i. Br.
1885); P. Mandonnet, Les regles et le gouvernement de lOrdre de Poenitentia au sicle XIIIe
(Paris 1902); idem, M.-H. Vicaire, Les origines de lOrdre de Poenitentia, in: Sainte
Dominique, vol. ii, 295ff.; G.G. Meersseman, Dossier de lordre de la pnitence au XIIIe
s icle, Spicilegium Friburgense 7 (Freiburg i.., 1961). With a more strongly theological
interpretation: A. Senftle, Menschenbildung in franziskanischer Geistigkeit. Die Bedeutung
der franziskanischen Poenitentialehre, Grundfragen der Pdagogik 8 (Freiburg i. Br., 1959);
S. Verhey, Das Leben der Bue nach Franz v.A., in: ww 22 (1959), 161ff.
44 chapter 1

Not only Francis, but thousands more like him began around the turn of the
twelfth to the thirteenth century in Italy willingly to embrace a life of poverty
and prayer, fasting and chastity, a way of life that in the early church had been
imposed only on those who had committed grave sins. Soon after, he sent his
followers into a hostile world without staff and shoes, with only one cloak and
without any money for their journey, commanding them to preach the word of
God in poverty, without a home, calling it vivere secundum formam sancti
evangelii.79a And in doing so he took his place alongside the wandering preach-
ers of France, the Arnoldists, the Humiliati and the Waldensians, who saw in
the imitation of a poor and homeless Christ the realization of the Gospelas
Herbert Grundmann and many after him have shown.80 Where stands the
incomparable Francis in this landscape, in this broad movement that embraced
apostolic poverty? Many answers have been given to that question.81 A simplis-
tic answer might suggest that Francis both led the movement to its extreme
and limited it at the same time. He led it to the extreme in that he and his fol-
lowers were more homeless than even the wandering preachers, more poor
than the Waldensians and more despised than the Arnoldists. Yet he also lim-
ited the movement in that he offered to the hierarchy the obedience82 Waldo
had denied, showed reverence to the same priesthood83 whose sins the reform-
ers had defamed, revered the cross84 that the heretical wandering preacher
Peter of Bruis had burned, praised85 sun and wind, fire and water as the work
of God when Bogomil had taught his followers to denounce it all as the work of
the evil one. To see Francis as penitent, as an orthodox embodiment of the

79a Boehmer, op. cit. (n. 69), 25. Cf. L. Gasutt, Die lteste franziskanische Lebensform (Graz,
1955).
80 H. Grundmann, Religise Bewegungen im Mittelalter (Repr. Hildesheim, 1961); in place of
others: L. Sptling, De Apostolis, Pseudoapostolis, Apostolinis. Dissertatio ad diversos
vitae apostolicae conceptus saeculorum decursu elucidandos (Munich, 1947).
81 See along with the literature cited in n. 68: K. Eer, Anfnge und ursprngliche Zielsetzung
des Ordens der Minderbrder, Studia et documenta Franciscana 4 (Leiden, 1966) 148153.
82 K. Eer, Sancta Mater Ecclesia Romana. Die Kirchenfrmmigkeit des hl. F.v. A, in: ww 24
(1961), 126.
83 S. Clasen, Priesterliche Wrde und Wrdigkeit. Das Verhltnis des hl. Franziskus zum
Priestertum der Kirche, in: ww 20 (1957) 4358.
84 K. Eer, Das Gebet des hl. Franziskus vor dem Kreuzbild in San Damiano, in: fs 34 (1952)
111; O. Schmucki von Rieden, Das Leiden Christi im Leben des hl. F.v. A. Eine
Quellenvergleichende Untersuchung im Lichte der zeitgenssischen Passionsfrmmigkeit
(Rome, 1960).
85 See, among others: G. Getto, F. d.A, e il Cantico di Fratre Sole, Universit di Torino. Pubbl.
della Fac. di Lett. e Fil. viii/2 (Turin, 1956); G. Sabatelli, Studi recenti sul cantico di fratre
Sole, in: afh (1958), 324.
Francis and Dominic 45

evangelical poverty movement, as antagonist of the heretics is indeed to inte-


grate him for the most part within the religious currents of his timebut not
entirely. The Poverello and Pazzo, who abandoned the world by stripping naked
and who died on the naked ground,86 the singing and dancing mystic,87 the
castigating ascetic,88 the hermit who hid in caves and fields,89 the sleepless
and tearful supplicant,90 the spirit-filled denouncer of scholarship,91 the obe-
dient one, sitting in ashes with ashes on his head92one looks in vain for a
figure like this among the crowds of penitents, or among the Humiliati and the
Waldensians. We must look elsewhere for the proper analogies; we must look
for them in early monasticism: not in Pachomius or Basil, not in the Rule
of Benedict and the monasticism it shaped, but in the Historia Lausiaca, in
the Apopthegmata Patrum, among the Gyrovages and Circumcellians, the
Remoboth and Sarabitesthat is to say among the oldest forms of asceticism,
among those not yet grounded in law and obedience, not yet fully integrated
into society.93 Here, in the syncretic blend of early Egyptian and late Jewish,
eastern and Hellenistic forms of piety, sacra nuditas and divine dementia,
ascetic homelessness and prophetic reception of the spirit find a home. Here
too is the home of anapausis and apotaxis, of unorganized adelphia and syn-
edrion. Here emerged the norms and relationships, the practices and institu-
tions that both older Franciscan scholarship and contemporaries alike have
seen as typically Franciscan, as original creations of the Umbrian saint. The
absolute surrender to God, the radical desire for salvation, the renunciation of
conventionin short, the anxiety (characteristic not only of early Christian
but also of other forms of monasticism beyond Christianity) of having to be
pulled back in to the socially integrated, rule-bound vita religiosa of the high

86 2 Cel. 117, 214.


87 1 Cel. 73, 97; 2. Cel. 127.
88 2 Cel. 116117. Boehmer, op. cit. (n. 69), 30. See also in this connection C. Andresen,
Asketische Forderung und Krankheit bei F.v.A., in: Theologische Literaturzeitung 79
(1954) 129140.
89 1 Cel. 15, 71. Cf. O. Schmucki, Secretum Solitudinis. De circumstantiis externis orandi
penes S. Franciscum Assisiensem, in: Coll. Franc. 39 (1969), 358.
90 2 Cel. 95, 115117.
91 Boehmer, op. cit. (n. 69), 29.
92 2 Cel. 207.
93 K. Heussi, Der Ursprung des Mnchtums (Tbingen, 1936); S. Frank, AEIKO BIO.
Begriffsanalytische und begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zum Engelgleichen
Leben im frhen Mnchtum, Beitrge zur Geschichte des alten Mnchtums und des
Benediktinerordens 26 (Mnster, 1964), esp. 18ff.; See also idem, Vita apostolica. Anstze
zur apostolischen Lebensform in der alten Kirche, in: Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. 82 (1971),
145166, esp. 146147.
46 chapter 1

middle ages, is the historical significance of Francis, of one who venerated not
Benedict and Augustine, but the Angelos Michael, the ascetic Martin, and the
spirit-filled prophets Elijah and Enoch.94
Francis as one who renewed the ascetic piety of early Christianitythis is
not a typical framework for Franciscan scholarship. But the observation for-
mulated here is not new. The iconographers of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries95 saw it already, as did Thomas of Celano, whose image of Francis is
only understandable if one recognizes that he shapes the life of Francis,
according to an ancient ascetic typology, as imitatio prophetarum, as a blood-
less martyrdom, as a renewal of paradise, as bios angelicos.96 The incomparable
Francis! Is he rightly seen as such, at least with regard to a renewal of ancient
spirituality? We know of the eccentric mass-movement of the Flagellants and
the Disciplinati, which spread in the thirteenth century from Perugia to all of
Italy and beyond, to Alsace and Bohemia, in whose grim shredding of their
own flesh the old practices of the desert fathers seem to have come to life
again. We know of the Great Hallelujah, which sparked such penitential enthu-
siasm across northern Italy in 1233, and gripped the masses in a frenzy of peace
and fraternity.97 Yet even this does not fully delineate the broader context in
which Francis is to be seen as one who renewed early Christian ascetic life.
Research undertaken in Tuscan and Umbrian archives has shown that around
the time that Francis retreated to S. Damiano, numerous lay groupsin the
Tuscan and Umbrian mountains, in the areas around Siena, Lucca and Pisa,
around Viterbo, Spoleto and Perugiahad for years already begun their own
experiments in living the vita eremitica and in the renewal of the life of the
desert fathers.98 What Romuald and Nilus of Rossana had already sought in the

94 W. Lampen., De S.P. Francisci cultu Angelorum et Sanctorum, in: afh 20 (1927), 323.
95 See n. 4.
96 F. van den Borne, Thomas van Celano als eerste biograaf an Franciscus, in: Sint
Franciscus 2 (1956), 183ff.; Cf. F. de Beer, La conversion de Saint Franois selon Thomas de
Celano. Etude comparative des textes relatifs la conversion en Vita I et Vita ii (Paris, 1963);
S. Clasen, Legenda antiqua S. Francisci, 343347; idem, Vom Franziskus der Legende zum
Franziskus der Geschichte, in: ww 29 (1966), 1529.
97 See here the contributions in: Il Movimento dei Disciplinati nel Settimo Centenario dal suo
inizio (Perugia 1260). Covegno internazionale: Perugia, 2528 Settembre 1960 (Spoleto, 1962).
98 K. Elm, Italienische Eremitengemeinschaften des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts, in:
Leremitismo in Occidente nei Secoli XI e XII. Pubbl. dellUniversit Cattolica del Sacro
Cruore. Miscellanea del Centro di Studi Medioevali IV (Milan, 1965) 491550; C. Bandini,
Monte Luco (Spoleto, 1922); R. Guerini, Una Tebaide medioevale nella mistica in Umbria,
in: Latina gens 19 (1941), 227231; B. van Luijk, Gli Eremiti Neri nel Dugento con particolare
riguardo al territoriao Pisano e Toscano. Origine, Sviluppo ed Unione, Bibl. del Boll. Storico
Pisano. Coll. Stor. 7 (Pisa, 1968).
Francis and Dominic 47

tenth century, what John Gualbert and Peter Damian sought a century later
within the more specific context of monastic life, now William of Malavalle,
Johannes Bonus and Giacomo de Colle Donico sought for themselves at the
end of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth, as part of a
broad lay movement: the attempt, that is, to overcome a crisis ofmonasticism
that threatened to become a crisis for the church and for all of society, by
returning to the older spirit of the monastic and eremitical life of early
Christianity.99

Dominic came from a different world than Francis of Assisi. Caleruega, high
over the Duero Valley, nine months in the winter wind, three months in the
parching sun, has none of Umbrias lyric, knows nothing of the festivals of
wealthy youth, and did not struggle, at least to the degree of the rich commer-
cial cities of Italy, with tensions between the generations. Its history is as rough
and hard as its climate and its soil, and so were its people. In a no-mans land
between Islam and Christendom they settled themselves, under the protection
of the lords of Guzmn, Aza and Villemayor, the conquerors of Toledo and the
warrior companions of the kings of Castile. They lived in the spirit of the bor-
derlands, a bulwark for the faith, whose purity they had seen from the eleventh
century as safeguarded only in Rome and in obedience to the papacy. Lord
Domingo de Guzmn, son of Juana dAza, belonged not to the shepherds and
farmers of Caleruega, but to these circles, to the ricos hombres, the nobility who
safeguarded the Reconquista.100 As the subprior of Osma in 1206, after he had
the hard schooling of clerical formation behind him, Dominic took up confron-
tation with heretics in Montpellier. But that did not mean that he abandoned
his fathers world; it meant moving forward with the age-old struggle, albeit in
a new arena, with different weapons.101 The new arena was Languedoc,102 from

99 J. Leclercq, La crise du monachisme au XIe et XIIe sicles, in: Bullettino dellIstituto Storico
Italiano per il Medio Evo 70 (1958), 1941.
100 A. Pelaez, Cuna y abolengo de S. Domingo de Guzmn (Madrid, 1917); B. KirschS. Roman,
Pelerinages dominicaines (Paris-Lille, 1920); E. Martinez, Coleccin diplomatica del real
convento de Sto Domingo de Caleruega (Vergera, 1931) 813; N.D. Carro, Caleruega. Cuna de
Santo Domingo de Guzmn, 2 Vols. (Madrid, 19521955).
101 The most recent biographies of Dominic: M.-H. Vicaire, Saint Dominique de Calereuga
daprs les documents du XIIIe sicle (Paris, 1955); idem, Histoire de saint Dominique, 2 vols.
(Paris, 1957); in German Geschichte des heiligen Dominikus, 2 vols. (Freiburg i. Br., 1962ff).
102 Chr. Thouzellier, Catharisme et Valdisme en Languedoc la fin du XIIe et du dbut de XIIIe
sicle (Paris, 1966); cf 2: Vaudois languedociens et Pauvres Catholiques (1967); cf 3:
48 chapter 1

the twelfth century the terra repromissionis of the heretical wandering preach-
ers, the Cathars and Waldensians. It was in Toulouse and Bziers, Narbonne
and Carcassonne that the heretics, under the protection of commune and
nobility, were able to attack orthodoxy with impunity and make a mockery of
the catholic clergy.103 The new weapon was preaching, though not the kind
steeped in hierarchical attitudes, as the Cistercian legates had only recently
tried to preach, while surrounded by their enormous entourage.104 The new
style of preaching was that of a barefoot and indigent community of priests,
who wanted to make the purity of their teaching believable through their
exemplary way of life, and to prove the evangelical character of the Ecclesia
Romana through their own poverty and homelessness.105 Their brand of
preaching, animated by the Gospels in both spirit and deed, was nothing
entirely new. Anticipated by the likes of Martin of Len and Joachim of Fiore,
embodied in crusade preaching and in the mendicant rounds of the Templars
and Hospitalers,106 the Sancta Praedicatio of Narbonne was a synthesis of
older, often divergent experiences: the wandering apostolic preaching of a
Vitalis of Savigny and Norbert of Xanten,107 the attacks on the Cathars of a
Durandus of Huesca and Bernardus Primus,108 and not least the apostolic

Cathares en Languedoc (1968); E. Griffe, Les dbuts de laventure Cathare en Languedoc,


11401190 (Paris, 1969).
103 Cf. among others: Y. Dossat, La socit mridonale la veille de la croisade albegoise, in:
Revue historique et littraire de Languedoc 1 (1944), 6882; H. Vidal, Episcopatus et pouvoir
piscopal la veille de la croisade albegoise (Montpellier, 1951); E. Delaruelle, La ville de
Toulouse vers 1200 daprs quelques travaux recents, in cf 1 (1966), 107121, as well as the
literature cited in n. 104.
104 H. Maisonneuve, Etudes sur les origines de linquisition, LEglise et ltat au moyen ge vii,
2nd ed. (Paris, 1960); Y. Dossat, Les dbuts de linquisition Montpellier et en Provence,
in: Bull. phil et hist du Comit des travaux historiques et scientifiques (1961), 561579.
105 H.C. Lammerbond, Der Armutsgedanke des Hl. Dominikus und seines Ordens (Zwolle,
1926), 4445; Chr. Thouzellier, La pauvret, arme contre labigisme, en 1206, in: Revue de
lhistoire des religions 151 (1957), 7992; W.A. Hinnebusch, Poverty in the Order of the
Preachers, in: Catholic Historical Review 45 (1960), 436456.
106 R. Ladner, LOrdo Praedicatorum avant lOrdre des Prcheurs, in: P. Mandonnet, Saint
Dominique (Paris, 1937) ii: 1168, esp. 6068.
107 J.v. Walter, Die ersten Wanderprediger Frankreichs I: Robert von Arbrissel, Studien zur
Geschichte der Theologie und Kirche ix, 3 (Leipzig, 1903); idem, Die ersten Wanderprediger
Frankreichs (Leipzig, 1906); E. Werner, Pauperes Christi. Studien zu sozial-religisen
Bewegungen im Zeitalter des Reformpapstums (Leipzig, 1956); J. Becquet, Lrmitisme clrical
et lac dans louest de at France, in: LEremitismo in Occidente, 182202.
108 A. Dondaine, Durand de Huesca et la polmique anti-cathare, in: afp 29 (1959), 228267;
Chr. Thouzellier, Le Liber Antiheresis de Durand de Huesca et le Contra Hereticos
Francis and Dominic 49

tradition of the clergy, more precisely that of the ordo canonicus, which had
never quite disappeared.109 Yet to have brought these elements into a synthe-
sis, and to have deployed them in the right place at the right time in a struggle
against heresy is, upon closer inspection, not to be credited to Dominic him-
self. It was his bishop Diego of Osma (advised by Innocent iii) who in 1206 first
took off his shoes; and it was he who first sent his entourage over the Pyrenees,
uno comite contentus, to take up the seemingly hopeless struggle against a defi-
ant heresy by embracing the model of those who had once preachedon foot,
poor and without permanent homesin Judea and Galilee.110 In the wake
ofsuch precedents, in light of such predecessors, what remained for Dominic
himself to do? Why are the preachers called Dominicans, and not Inno
centians?111 Why do they venerate Dominic and not, say, Diego of Osma as their
founder? The answer is relatively simple. It was Dominic of Caleruega, not
Diego of Osma, who first truly grafted the new branch onto the old trunk of the
regular canons. It was his tenacity that forged an order from an idea, his solici-
tude that gave it such an exemplary legal shape, his discretion that renewed in
it the bonds between spiritual life and theological knowledge, his circumspec-
tion that led him to travel the roads from Paris and Bologna, to Oxford and
Padua. And it was in the end his Roman universalism that made the Ecumene
as a whole, and not just the Midi, to the mission field of his preachers, who
placed on their heart the cura animarum of all Christians, and not only that of
the heretics.
Francis and Dominic! One, the bourgeois layman, an idiota far removed
from the world of scholars, was carried forward by an anti-hierarchical impulse
of reform that called back to contemporary consciousness the absolute sacri-
fice of the early monks and the radicalism of the churchs Gospel. The other
was a nobleman, a learned canon who established in medio ecclesiae the regen-
erative power of a clergy at the center of a long tradition of lordship. While the

dErmengaud de Bziers, in: rhe 55 (1960), 130141; idem, Controverses Vaudoises


Cathares la fin du XIIe sicle, in: Archives dhistoire doctrinale et littraire du moyen ge
27 (1960), 137227; M.-H. Vicaire, Les Vaudois et Pauvres Catholiques contre les Cathares
(11901223), in: cf 2: Vaudois languedociens et Pauvres Catholiques (Paris, 1967), 244271.
109 M.D. Chenu, Moines, clercs, lacs au carrefour de la vie vangelique (XIIe s.), in: rhe 49
(1954), 5989, and in: La theologie au XIIe s. (Paris, 1957), 225251; M. Puechmaurd, Le
prte ministre de la parole dans la thologie du XIIe s. (Canonistes, moins et chanoines),
in: RthAM 29 (1962), 5276; M. H. Vicaire, LImitation des Aptres. Moines, chanoines et
mendiants IVeXIIIe s. (Paris, 1963); idem, Les deux traditions apostoliques ou lvanglisme
de Saint Dominique, in: cf 1 (1966), 74103.
110 Petrus des Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis, ed. P. Gubin-E. Lyon (Paris, 1926) I, 21.
111 H. Chr. Scheeben, Dominikaner oder Innozenzianer? in: afp 9 (1939), 280297.
50 chapter 1

one took up once again the adventure of a life of all or nothing, the other
showed the direction in which the vita religiosa would soon develop. He
showed with all clarity that the radical, often contradictory demands of the
Gospel and the gifts of the Holy Spirit would no longer be realized in an indi-
vidual order, to say nothing of an individual person, but rather in the function-
ally oriented multiplicity of the new orders.
The question of a Fra Masseo to Francis has still never quite been answered:
Tu non se bello uomo del corpo, tu non se di grande scienza, tu non se nobile:
donde dunque a te, che tutto il mondo ti vegna dietro? The question also remains
open why Dominic became the founder of a new order and not a cathedral
canon from Lttich, who was preaching in Toulouse at the same time,112 or why
the hermit Johannes Bonus, living in apostolic poverty in the Marches only
slightly later, soon fell into oblivion,113 while one today speaks the name of
Francis of Assisi with reverence even beyond the ranks of Christianity. There
are many possible answers. The beginnings of at least one can be found in
what even today remains a powerful historical factor, that of the psyche, the
individuality of the two historical personalities. What then was Francis like?114
Hardly capable of developing a complex train of thought through logic, but
rather one who overflowed in free rhythms, in the Laudes and the Canticle
of Brother Sun.115 Without any profound knowledge of Holy Scripture, but full
of its spirit.116 Without any gift for law or organization, yet a charismatic leader,
as a brother among brothers.117 The son of a worldly father who was not unfa-
miliar with violence, and a mother of sensitive disposition, the one who called

112 H. van Rooijen, Theodorus van Celles. Een tijds- en levensbeeld (Cuyk, 1936).
113 Cf. n. 98.
114 Cf. B. Tilemann, Studien zur Individualitt des F.v.A. (Leipzig-Berlin, 1914). Starting points
for a psychoanalitical interpretation: E. Mariani, Psicologia e mentalitl di S.F. dA., (Naples,
1926); F.P. Calamita, La Persona di S.F. dA. Note dantropologia, 2nd ed. (Assisi, 1927).
115 Cf. n. 85.
116 V. da Bussum, De veneratione S. Francisci Assisi erga S. Scripturam, in: Verbum Domini 21
(1921), 101168, 201208; I. Schlauri, Saint Franois et la Bible. Essai bibliographique de sa
spiritualit evangelique, in: Coll. Fran. 40 (1970), 365437.
117 On this set of problems: W. Hirsch, Werden und Wandel der Autorit in der Frhperiode
des Minderbrderordens (Diss. Mnster, 1966); J.-V. Selge, Rechtsgestalt und Idee der
frhen Gemeinschaft des Franz von Assisi, in: Erneuerung der Einen Kirche. Arbeiten
aus Kirchengeschichte und Konfessionskunde. H. Bornkamm zum 65. Geburtstag gewid-
met, Kirche und Konfession 11 (Gttingen, 1966), 131; Fr. de Beer, La gense de la
fraternit franciscaine selon quelques sources primitives, in: fs 49 (1967), 357372;
K.Eer, Gehorsam und Autoritt in der frhfranziskanischen Gemeinschaft, in: ww
34 (1971), 118.
Francis and Dominic 51

himself the little black hen and wanted to be called brother instead of
father118 was given to an almost feminine, artistic impressionability,119 and had
the power of perception that psychologists of religion have seen as essential
for the experience of holiness.120 Francis experienced the numen personally,
spontaneously and unreflectingly. It dissolved in him any trace of what which
medieval psychology, founded on Augustine, saw as the actual source of all
evilsuperbia.121 It transformed him into one who was pauper et devotus, into
a frater minor, one who could at once push an anti-hierarchical reform move-
ment to the extreme and yet set limits for it, one who changed the world with-
out wanting to change it, one who became powerful only because he and his
wanted nothing other than to be poor and obedient.
Dominic! He left no Laudes, no Cantico di fratre sole. Only charters, legal
texts and their result, his Order.122 What his companions provided in the pro-
tocol123 of the process of canonization that began in the first twelve years after
his death, what the Libellus de initio ordinis of Jordan of Saxony reported
about him,124 is little. But it gives the impression of astonishing austerity. The
aura of the miraculous that later legends built up around this core material is

118 For relationships with father and mother, see the extensive treatment of C. Ortolani, La
madre del Santo. d A. (Tolentino, 1926).
119 Cf. among others: R. Boving, Das aktive Verhltnis des bl. Franz zur Kunst, in: afh 19
(1926), 167ff.; A. von Corstanje, Franciscus de Christusspeler. Tot een nadere karakteibe-
paling van Franciscus, in: Sint Franciscus 58 (1956), 724.
120 J. Mouroux, Sur la nation de lexperience religieuse, in: Recherches de sciences religieuses
34 (1947), 5ff. Cf. among others J. Wach, Types of Religious Experience (Chicago, 1951) 32ff.;
J.B. Lotz, Zur Struktur der religisen Erfahrung, in: Interpretation der Welt. Festschrift R.
Guardini (Wrzburg, 1965), 205ff.
121 H. Grundmann, Der Typus des Ketzers in mittelalterlicher Anschauung, in: Kultur- und
Universalgeschichte, Festschrift fr W. Goetz (Leipzig, 1927), 91107.
122 F. Balme-P. Lelaidier-J. Collomb, Cartulaire ou histoire diplomatique de Saint Dominique,
iiii (Paris, 18931901); M.H. Laurent, Historia diplomatica S. Dominici, moph xxv (Paris,
1933); V.J. Koudelka-R.-J. Loenertz, Monumenta diplomatica S. Dominici, moph xxv
(Rome, 1966); V.J. Koudelka, Notes sur le Cartulaire de S. Dominique, in: afp 28 (1958),
92114; 33 (1963), 89120; 34 (1964), 544; W. von den Steinen, Franziskus und Dominikus.
Leben und Schriften (Breslau, 1926), 11: The image of Francis is constituted exclusively
from within. The image of Dominic is constituted exclusively from without. Only research
into the nature of his order reveals what the spiritual seed of such a tree must have been.
Similarly Altaner, op. cit. (n. 2), 18.
123 A. Walz (ed.), Acta canonizationis S. Dominici, in: moph 16 (Rome, 1935), 89ff.
124 H. Chr. Seheeben (ed.), Jordanus de Saxonia, Libellus de principiis Ordinis Praedicatorum,
in: moph 16 (Rome, 1935), 25ff.
52 chapter 1

in no way comparable to the sprawling growth of the legend of Francis.125


What is praised about Dominic concerns primarily matters of the intellect:
wisdom, insight, power of mind, studiousness, persuasiveness, purpose
fulness.126 These preferences in turn help explain the tendency, discernible
already in the fourteenth century, to make the founder of the order, one who
had denied all earthy honors, into a Cattedratico, into a Master of Theology,
into a professor at the Roman curia.127 The few spontaneous acts they reveal
are certainly not deeds of a wide-ranging power never before experienced,
deeds that moved others immediately to flowing tears and to an enthusiastic
humility, as Erich Auerbach once said of Francis.128 They come less from the
heart and more from the intellect, and they were not capable of captivating the
masses.129 Dominic, with reddish-blonde hair, with a powerful voice and
impressive hands (as the Bolognese sister Caecilia Cesarini remembered
him)130 never shied from interacting with the papal curia, never forgot about
its privileges, never misjudged the importance of juristic formulations.131
Dominic never babbled his prayers in the manner of a troubadour. He so
ordered the prayers of the Officium in the choir, as canons were to do, in the
language of the church.132 Francis, almond-eyed and dark-haired (as Cimabue
represented him)133 died in 1226, singing.134 Ventura of Verona spoke only of
the brief Incipite which the General of the Order of Preachers commanded his

125 Altaner, op. cit. (n. 2), xiv.


126 Jordan of Saxony, Libellus, 25, 28, 3334, 37, 42, 54. Acta Canon. 124, 126, 128, 137.
127 R. Loneritz, Saint Dominique crivain, matre en thologie, professeur Rome et Matre
du Sacr Palais dapres quelques auteurs du XIVe et XVe sicle, in: afp 12 (1942), 8497.
128 E. Auerbach, ber das Persnliche in der Wirkung des hl. F.v.A., in: Deutsche
Vierteljahrschrift fr Literaturwiss. u. Geistesgesch. 5 (1927), 70.
129 B. Altaner, Zur Beurteilung der Persnlichkeit und der Entwicklung der Ordensidee des
hl. Dominikus, in: Zeitschr. f. Kirchengeschichte 46 (1928), 396407.
130 A. Walz, Die Miracula Beati Dominici der Schwester Ccilia, in: afp 37 (1967), 44;
A.DAmato, G.G. Palmieri et al., Le reliquie di San Domenico (Bologna, 1946). On the ico-
nography of S. Dominic Rau, op. cit. (n. 4), iii, 390398; G. Kaftal, St. Dominic in Early
Tuscan Painting (Oxford, 1948); M.Ch. Celletti, Domenico, fondatore dellOrdine dei Frati
Predicatori vii: Iconografia, in: Bibliotheca Sanctorum iv (Rome, 1964), 727734.
131 M.-H. Vicaire, Geschichte des hl. Dominikus ii, 6. Appendix: the confirmation bull of
Honorius iii, 279290; idem, La bulle de confirmation des Prcheurs, ibid., 124141,
586603.
132 I. Taurisano and A. Floris, Come pregava S. Domenico (Rome, 1949).
133 Cf. n. 4.
134 1 Cel, 109111.
Francis and Dominic 53

brothers to sing, the liturgical, the impersonal commendatio animae, as his end
neared in 1221.135

Francis was not merely a gentle soul, not only an ascetic driven by love of God
and a concern for his own salvation. He was also a hard-nosed zealot for pov-
erty, obedience and orthodoxy.136 Dominic combined with his genius and his
lordly pedigree a refined sense of brotherhood, intellectual acumen and reli-
gious richness. He was not only a man of the church but also of the Gospel.137
Already in the lifetime of their founder the Franciscans had erected houses of
study;138 they began very soon after his death to circumvent the stringent
requirements of his Testament;139 in 1260 they gave themselves constitutions
that betray the influence of the Dominicans140 and brought them to bear in the
fight against heresy.141 The Preachers, for their part, had to banish the endless
debates of their schoolmen from the cloister and set their demands for spiri-
tual development in the way of so much hollow careerism.142 In the thirteenth
century the theologians, for their part, turned the order (at least in Germany)
into a home for mysticism. The contrasts begin to dissolve upon closer inspec-
tion, the sharp oppositions lose, in the daily course of history, most of their
contour and clarity. And yet, for all of the assimilation, it is not without reason
that the two founders were, already in the thirteenth century, set in opposition
to one another as John and Paul, Esau and Jacob, Elijah and Moses, their orders

135 Acta Canon. 129, 163.


136 Cf. for example K. Beyschlag, Die Bergpredigt und F.v.A., Beitrge zur Frderung christli-
cher Theologie ii, 57 (Gtersloh, 1955), which reads the Franciscan ethos as a dialectic
between community and isolation, lordship and service, and giving and receiving.
137 M.- H. Vicaire, Geschichte des hl. Dominikus I, 13; H. Chr. Scheeben, Der heilige Dominikus
(Freiburg i. Br., 1927), 407421.
138 Cf. n. 13.
139 Cf. n. 21.
140 R.B. Brooke, Early Franciscan Government, Appendix ii. Relations between the Franciscan
and Dominican Constitutions, 293296; E. Wagner, Historia Constitutionum Generalium
Ordinis Fratrum Minorum (Rome, 1954).
141 M. d Altri, Linquisitione francescana nellItalia centrale nel secolo xiii, in: Coll. Franc.
22 (1952), 225250; 23 (1953), 51165.
142 Humbert de Romans, Tractatus de instructione novitiorum, ed. J.J. Berthier, Opera ii, 525
544; R. Creytens, Linstruction des novices dominicains au XIIIe sicle, in: afp 20 (1950),
147ff.; idem, Linstruction des novices dominicains la fin du XVe sicle, in: afp 22
(1952), 201226.
54 chapter 1

symbolized as ox and ass, raven and dove. And not without reason did Dante
attempt to capture one in the image of a warming but also destroying fire, the
other with the image of a light in the darkness. The differences between Francis
and Dominic remain. In them the modern observer can discern not only the
divergence of two different characters. They also capture the polarity between
prophet and priest, Pneuma and Schema, Dsire de dieu and Amour les Lettres,
liberum charisma and rigidum ius, as well as the dialectic of religiosity as a ten-
sion between piety and knowledge. That they both worked together and helped
the church overcome one of its most serious crises could suggest that both,
Francis and Dominic, flame and light, utopianism and pragmatism, belong
togetherlest the individual, the church and her orders, indeed the whole
of society fall into the trap of either emotionless rationality or irrational
emotionality.

afh  Archivum Franciscanum Historicum (Florence-Quaracchi,


1908ff.)
afp Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum (Rome, 1931ff.)
alkm  Archiv fr Literatur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters
(Berlin-Freiburg i. Br., 18851900).
cf Cahiers de Fanjeaux (Toulouse, 1966ff.).
Coll. Franc. Collectanea Franciscana (Rome, 1931ff.)
ef Etudes franciscaines (Paris, 1909ff.).
fs Franziskanische Studien (Mnster-Werl 1914ff.).
gwu  Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht (Stuttgart, 1949ff.).
moph  Monumenta ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum historica (Rome-
Paris 1896ff.)
rhe Revue dhistoire ecclsiastique (Leuven, 1900ff.)
rhlf Revue dhistoire de lEglise de France (Paris, 1910ff.)
RThAM  Recherches de Thologie ancienne et mdivale (Lowen 1949ff.)
ww Wissenschaft und Weisheit (Dsseldorf 1931ff.)
zgo Zeitschrift fr die Geschichte des Oberrheins (Karlsruhe, 1851ff.)
zsrg  Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fr Rechtsgeschichte (Weimar,
1863ff.)
chapter 2

Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri: Reflections


on Fraternitas, Familia and Womens Religious Life
in the Circle of the Chapter of the Holy Sepulcher

The cartulary of the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem,1 compiled in


the thirteenth century, contains a charter from the year 1212 that was later used
as a formulary. In the charter the prior of the basilica of the Sepulcher grants to
the provost of the chapters settlements (established in the territories of the
Holy Roman Empire after the fall of Constantinople) the potestas faciendi fra-
tres et sorores.2 These and other similar conferrals of power,3 along with refer-
ences to fratres and sorores found throughout the written records of the
chapter, create the impression that from the earliest days of the Holy Sepulcher
(and the order that emerged from it) there had been a culture of equality
among its male and female members. And in that sense it is assumed to be
appropriate, by way of analogy to the mendicant orders, to speak of a first and
second order of the Holy Sepulcher.4 Upon closer consideration, however, this
impression proves as misleading as the claim that the brothers and sisters
mentioned in these documents were members of a military order associated
with the Holy Sepulcher.5 References to fratres and sorores, present already in

1 E. De Rozire, Cartulaire de lglise du Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem (1849), after ms Vat.7241. Cf.


A. Tardif, Cartulaire de lglise du St-Spulcre de Jrusalem (Bibl. col. Chartes iii, 3, 1852), 513ff.
2 Rozire (n .1), 2. On dating: R. Rhricht, Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani mxcviimccxci,
1893, 231, Nr.861. On the recipient: R. Janin, Lglise latine a Thessalonique de 1204 la conqute
turque (Melanges Severien Salaville=Revue des Etudes Byzantines 16, 1958), 212ff.
3 As examples: ad Haute-Savoie, Annecy, sa 215, Nr. 1 (1359); HStA Stuttgart, A 480, Urk. 113 (1461).
4 Cf. for example: M. Hereswitha, De Vrouwenkloosters van het Heilig Graf in het prinsbisdom Luik
vanaf hun ontstaan tot aan de fransche Revolutie 14801789 (Universiteit te Leuven. Publ. op het
gebied der Geschiedenis en der Philologie iii, 4, 1941), 9: Zoals de uitdrukkingfratres op regu-
lieren wijst, bedoelt de gelijkwaardige term sorores echte kloostervrouwen. The following
presume the existence of a female branch of the order founded in the twelfth century:
F. Herve-Bazin, Les grandes ordres et congrgations de femmes, 1889, 52; P.H. Helyot, Histoire des
ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires et des congregationes seculires, 17141716, iii, 122ff.
and M. Heimbucher, Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche, 3rd ed. (1934), i, 458.
5 So for example. E. Persischetti Ugolini, L Ordine del S. Sepolcro nei documenti pontifici e nella
tradizione della chiesa (1938), 16, invoking the charter cited in n. 2 above. To cite only the most
recent of numerous publications in which the canons are seen as adherents of a military
order supposedly founded by Godfrey of Bouillon, or as forerunners of a fourteenth cen-
tury knighthood of the Holy Sepulcher composed mostly of noble pilgrims to Jerusalem:

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_004


56 chapter 2

the twelfth century, refer nowhere to members of a military order, and only
seldom to male or female religious in the strict sense. In the overwhelming
number of cases the references denote, through the almost stereotypical for-
mula fratres et sorores, nothing more than the many different forms of life and
organization through which communities and individuals, men and women,
clergy and laity, noble and non-noble, found a way to associate themselves
with the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem from the twelfth century onwithout
becoming, as canons, full members of the conventus.
It is difficult to capture under one rubric the many and varied patterns of life
that became established between cloister and worldprayer confraternities,
the lives of donats and oblates, the lives of the conversi and of women who
lived on the margins of canonry and monastery. How to come to terms with
that variety has been one of the most hotly debated questions among scholars
of the religious orders in recent decades.6 But the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher
and the forms of confraternity life, semi-religious life and womens religious

I cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro, Tempi e figure22 (1957); G.C. Bascape, Gli ordini cavallereschi in
Italia. Storia e diritto (1972), 365400. The most accessible treatment of the history of the
Order of the Holy Sepulcher: V. Cramer, Der Ritterschlag am Hl. Grabe, Das Hl. Land in
Vergangenheit und Gegenwart 2 (1940), 137199; idem, Das Rittertum vom Hl. Grabe im 14.
und 15. Jahrhundert (ibid. 3, 1941) 111200; idem, Das Rittertum vom Hl. Grabe im 16.
Jahrhundert. Der bergang in einen Ritterorden unter der Schutzherrschaft der Ppste
(ibid. 4, 1949), 81159; idem, Der Ritterorden vom Hl. Grabe vom Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts
bis zur Reform durch Pius x. 16001868 (ibid. 5, 1950), 97174.
6 Cf. for example: U. Berlire, Les fraternits monastiques et leur rle juridique, Mem. Acad. Roy.
Belg., Lettres ii, 11, 3, (1920); K. SchmidJ. Wollasch, Die Gemeinschaft der Lebenden und
Verstorbenen in Zeugnissen des Mittelalters, Frhmittelalterliche Studien 1 (1967), 365405;
J. Duhr, La confrrie dans la vie de lglise, Rev. dhist. eccl. 35 (1939), 437477; U. Berlire, La
Familia dans les monastres bndictins du Moyen ge, Mem. Acad. Roy. Belg., Lettres ii, 29, 2
(1931); J. Marchal, Le Droit doblat. Essai sur une varit de pensionns monastiques, Arch. de
la France monastique 49 (1955); K. Hallinger, Woher kommen die Laienbrder? Anal. S. Ord.
Cist. 12 (1956), 1104; idem, Ausdrucksformen des Umkehrgedankens. Zu den geistigen
Grundlagen und den Entwicklungsphasen der Institutio Conversorum, Stud. u. Mitt. z. Gesch.
des Benediktinerordens u. seiner Zweige 70 (1959), 169181; Ph. Hofmeister, Die Rechtsverhltnisse
der Konversen, sterreich. Arch. f. Kirchenrecht 13 (1962), 347; J. Leclercq, Comment vivaient
les frres convers? in: I laici nella Societas Christiana dei secoli XI e XII. Atti delle terza Settimana
internazionale di Studio, Mendola, 2127 agosto 1965, Miscellanea del Centro di Studi Medioevali
V., Pubbl. dell Univ. Catt. del Sacro Cuore. Contr. iii 5 (1968), 152176; J. Dubois, Linstitution des
convers au XIIe sicle, forme de vie monastique propre aux lacs, ibid., 183ff.; U. Berlire, Les
monastres doubles aux XIIe et XIIIe sicles, Mem. Acad. Roy. Belg., Lettres ii 18 (1924); St.
Hilpisch, Die Doppelklster. Entstehung und Organisation, Beitr. z. Gesch. des alten Mnchtums
u. des Benediktinerordens 15 (1928); J. Orlandis, Los monasterios duplices espaoles en la alta
Edad Media (Estudios sobre instituciones monasticas medievales, 1971), 165, 202.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 57

life that emerged in its circles have remained all but ignored in those debates.7
This is in part due to the fact that the community of the Canons Regular of the
Holy Sepulcher,8 though grounded in the humanae reparationis fons and the
origo totius ecclesiae, and though highly venerated in the middle ages, has in
modern scholarship been the subject of only overviews9 or investigations of
one or another of its many aspects.10 There has still been no attempt at a com-
prehensive history.11
The aim of the contributions presented here is not to engage directly all of
the questions of recent research into the increasingly popular forms of lay or
semi-religious community that emerged alongside monastic and canonical
reform movements from the eleventh centuryquestions of origin, of charac-
ter, of interdependence. The contributions presented here are in fact not even
in a position to offer as clear and as nuanced an account as one might like of
all the institutions of this kind that emerged in association with the Holy
Sepulcher. This is not only because the sources for the history of the Canons of
the Holy Sepulcher (unlike those of the military orders that emerged in

7 See for example C.D. Fonseca, I conversi nelle comunit canonicali, (I laici [see n. 6]
262305) and the indices of the most important conference proceedings in this connec-
tion: La vita comune del clero nei secoli XI e XII, Atti della Settimana di Studio: Mendola,
settembre 1959. Miscellanea del Centro di Studi Medioevali iii., Pubbl. dell Univ. Catt. del
S. Cuore iii, 23 (1962) ii, 333352; I Iaici (see n. 6), 764775.
8 De Rozire, (see n. 1) 287, 301 (1169): Quoniam sacrosancta Dominice Resurrectionis eccle-
sia quadam speciali sanctitatis, prerogativa merito ab omni populo Christiano devotissime
veneratur et pio institutu humane reparationis ac universis deum colentibus fons et origo
universalis ecclesie veraciter praedicatur.
9 H.P.J. Vanderspeeten, Ordres religieux du Saint Spulcre, Prcis historiques 8 (1859),
173180, 206211; J. Ceyssens, LOrdre du Saint Spulcre, Leodium 6 (1923), 6276; A.
Couret, Notice historique sur lOrdre du Saint Spulcre de Jrusalem depuis son origine
jusqu nos jours, 10991905, 2nd ed. (1905); W. Hotzelt, Die Chorherren vom Heiligen
Grabe in Jerusalem, Das Hl. Land in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Gesammelte Beitrge
zur Palstinaforschung 2 (1940), 17ff. Also worthy of mention: J.C. Dickinson, The Origins
of the Austin Canons and their Introduction to England (1950) 8384; Ch. Dereine,
Chanoines DHGE xii (1953), 353405.
10 P. Grech, Les Chanoines du Saint-Spulcre. Institut Catholique de Toulouse, Facult de
Droit Canonique (unprinted Masters thesis, 1958); G. Bautier, Le Saint-Spulcre de
Jrusalem et lOccident au Moyen ge (unprinted Masters thesis of the cole Nationale
des Chartes, 1971); P. Grech desribes the organization of the chapter as it developed in the
twelfth century on the basis of the cartulary (n. 1); G. Bautier approaches the subject
mainly from the point of view of archaeology and art history. See also n. 181.
11 K. Elm, Der Ordo SS. Sepulcri Dominici Hierosolimitani. Untersuchungen zu Geschichte und
Selbstverstndnis des Kapitels vom Hlg. Grab (Habilitationsschrift, Freiburg, 1967) will
soon appear in print.
58 chapter 2

Palestine) have scarcely been made available.12 It is also because of the history
and the unique character of the institution itself. Unlike comparable orders
like Prmontr, Arrouaise or St. Rufus its circumstance denied the chapter of
the Holy Sepulcher the possibility of undisturbed growth, and thus the possi-
bility of forming a relatively uniform constitution and way of life. As will be
shown in the first of the following contributions, its history is much more
strongly shaped by change, by new starts and unique developments. So much
so, in fact, that one can hardly venture to establish genealogical or even system-
atic connections between its many formsthose of an ordo tam longe lateque
dilatus,13 developed and inherited over the course of almost a thousand years.
What can be attempted in the face of these challenges is a presentation, more
additive than analytical, of the evidence concerning the semi-clerical way of
life that emerged under the red patriarchal cross from the twelfth century, and
an effort to situate that presentation, at least provisionally, in the wider context
of the Latin Church in Palestine and the history of the religious orders.14

12 Exceptions are the surviving materials of the foundation of Miechw near Cracow and the
settlements of northwest Europe: S. Nakielski, Miechovia sive promptuarium antiquitatum
monasterii Miechoviensis, 16341646; idem., De sacra antiquitate et statu ordinis canonicorum
custodum S.S. Sepulchri Hierosolymitani, 1625; Z. Pickowski, Nie znane dokumenty
Miechowskie, Malopolskie Studia Historyczne 5 (1962), 3438; idem., Miechw. Studia z
dziejw miasta i ziemi Miechowskiej do roku, 1967, 429436; F. Piekosinski, Codex dipl.
Poloniae Minoris (Mon. Medii Aevi hist. res gestas Poloniae illustrantia=kdm, 1877ff.); J.
Habets, Diplomata Ordinis S. Sepulchri, Publ. soc. hist. archeol. Limbourg 6 (1989), 368382;
idem. [P. Trecpoel], Chronijk der landen van Overmaas en der aangrenzende gewesten door
eenen inwoner van Beek bij Maastricht, 12751507 (1870), here following: Publ. soc. hist archeol.
Limbourg 7 (1870), 5227; M. Willemsen, Oorkonden en bescheiden aangaade de kerk en het
kapittel van St. Odilienberg, Codex diplomaticus Bergensis ii (1889), here following: Publ. soc.
hist. archeol. Limbourg 22 (1885), 412538; 23, (1886), 161291; 26 (1889), 167336; idem, Deux
notices sur lOrdre canoniale du Saint Sepulcre. Appendices, (1891), here following: Publ.
soc. hist archeol. Limbourg 28 (1891), 247405; 29 (1892), 1765; M. Hereswitha, De Heilig-
Graforde in de Nedergermaanse provincie (13661647), Bull. Com. Roy. Belg. 131 (1965), 231360;
idem, Uit de geschiedenis der Heilig Graforde in Belgie en anngrenzende gewesten,
Augustiniana 22 (1972), 398466; idem, Documenten in verband met de geschiedenis der
Heilig-Graforde tussen 1299 en 1762, Augustiniana 23 (1973), 468546; ibid. 24 (1974), 190
208; K. Elm, Quellen zur Geschichte des Ordens vom Hlg. Grab in Nordwesteuropa aus
deutschen und niederlndischen Archiven (11911603) (Publ. Com. Roy. Belg., 1975).
13 This formula, used repeatedly by the archpriors of the order, is found in (among others):
ArchivoDiocesano Barcelona, S. Ana, 01 (1479) and HStA Stuttgart, A 480, bundle 9 (1480).
14 I hope to be able to treat elsewhere the extra-regular coalitions of crusaders without any
direct ties to the chapter. Studies of the formation of corporations in association with
pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the later Middle Ages are being prepared by W. Schneider
(Freiburg/Bielefeld).
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 59

i*

Immediately after the conquest of the Holy City, Godfrey of Bouillon and
other magnates of the crusading army elevated a group of clerics that had
accompanied them to Palestine to the rank of canonici ecclesiae dominici
Sepulcri.15 The newly established canons were placed under the authority of
Arnulf of Chocques, who had been elected patriarch of Jerusalem at the insis-
tence of the Norman and Lotharingian crusaders. The canons were also
entrusted with the liturgical service of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and
provided with houses and incomes from the spoils of war that had fallen to
the conquerors. The chapter was a composite of clerics of many different
backgrounds, and it had a difficult time living up to the will of their founder
as divini cultores officii. It had to steer into appropriate channels all of the
spontaneous worship services that had begun after the fall of Jerusalem.16
Ongoing power struggles among the crusaders, and their conflicts over the
office of patriarch, prevented the canons from carrying out their duties.
Circumstance also demanded of the canons a way of life that, in the words of
Paschal ii, stood in contradiction to the worthiness of the Holy Sepulcher,
and allowed the latine puritatis consuetudo to become stained by heathens
and non-Latins.17
Patriarch Gibelin, with the aid of King Baldwin, sought to improve this state
of affairs, one that his predecessor Ebremar had tolerated, if not in a certain
way institutionalized. But the introduction of the mensa communis (a proposal
Gibelin advanced even on his death bed) remained unrealized.18 Only Arnulf
(elected to the patriarchate again in 1112) and his successor Warmund were
able (with the support of king and pope, and against heavy resistance) to lead
the chapter to a life of obedience, poverty and chastity according to the Rule of
Augustine. The patriarchs thus helped establish a renovatio ecclesie Sancti
Sepulcri that brought the lives of the canons into harmony with the esteemed
rank of their titular church, and that marked the beginning of the history of
the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher as a community of regular canons.19
The chapter took a distinctive place among all of the spiritual institutions
of Jerusalem: in the hierarchy of Latin Palestine, its prior ranked above all

* The following summary rests on the work cited in n. 11. Individual references will be lim-
ited to the citing of specific sources and verbatim citations.
15 William of Tyre, Historia, ix, 9 (rhc, Hist. Occ. i, 1), 376.
16 Albert of Aachen, Historia vi, 40 (ibid. iv), 490.
17 Rozire (n. 1), 9, J.-L. 6175.
18 Ibid., 7880.
19 Ibid., 45.
60 chapter 2

other priors and abbots. Prior and chapter enjoyed their rank by virtue of all of
their important functions as a royal foundation and cathedral chapterin lit-
urgy, administration and the public life of the patriarchate and the kingdom of
Jerusalem. The privileges enjoyed by virtue of this double role were not incon-
siderable. But they paled in comparison to the incomparable prerogative of
being, along with the patriarchs, guardian of the most precious relics in
Christendom: the grave and the cross of the Lord. The task of standing watch
over the grave of the Lord, as successors to the Angel, powerfully shaped the
activity and spirituality of the chapter. To venerate grave and cross according
to a liturgy that had grown out of both Greek and Latin traditions was the high-
est honor and the actual raison dtre of the canons of the Holy Sepulcher. Yet
their unequivocal primacy did not prevent the canons from carrying out the
duties of pastoral care, of caring for the sick and of offering hospitality. Nor
did they shrink from devoting enormous energy to the expansion and
exploitation of their property, not only in order to secure the future exis-
tence of their community, but also in order to contribute, in a not inconsid-
erable way, to the maintenance of the holy sites of the region and to the
protection of the Holy Land generally. And hand in hand with the acquisi-
tion of property went the establishment of a network of settlements on both
sides of the Mediterranean. Their members not only managed property and
offered support to pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. They also served
all among the faithful who could not undertake a visit to the holy sites,
above all by inspiring and maintaining devotion to the Holy Sepulcher. Their
efforts were successful enough that by the end of the twelfth century the
chapter Church of the Holy Sepulcher had grown to a religious order that
had spread throughout all of Europe, the Ordo SS Sepulcri Dominici
Hierosolimitani.
The loss of Jerusalem and the fall of Acre did not mean, as one might have
expected, the end of a chapter whose origins and history had been so inti-
mately tied to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Even in exile its members served
the Holy Sepulcher, first in Acre and later in Perugia, and they continued to
do so even as other Latin Christians took over the duties of guarding the
Sepulcher in Jerusalem. They saw themselves as the only legitimate guard-
ians of the Sanctum Sanctorum. Nevertheless the desire, despite so many
changing circumstances, to advance the work that had begun in 1099 (if not
realiter, then at least spiritualiter) could not prevent the decline of the chap-
ters overall significance. Nor could it prevent the gradual decay of the
organization that from the twelfth century had secured the chapters author-
ity over its obedientiaries in Europe. While the chapter itself was soon
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 61

impoverished through both the loss of its titular church and its Palestinian
and Syrian holdings, the prestige of itsdaughter houses and their prelates
began to grow. In England, on Cyprus and in the successor states of the Latin
Empire in Byzantium, ties between patriarch and prior, weak from the begin-
ning and difficult to maintain, began to dissolve. In Italy, Spain and France,
in Germany, Poland, Hungary and Bohemia, distinct monastic congregations
began to emerge (under the leadership, respectively, of the provosts or priors
of Barletta, Annecy and La Vinadire; Barcelona, Calatayud and Logroo;
Droyssig and Denkendorf; Miechw, Zedras and Glogovinca). These con
gregations, some of which soon branched out in all directions, were in prin-
ciple subject to the directive authority of either the prior or the patriarch
(the distinction was never clearly made), but in fact the histories of their
organizations, their spirituality and possessions were shaped more strongly
through their particular interests and local conditions than through any
common heritage.
The strong independence of their daughter houses and congregations made
it possible for the Canons of the Holy Sepulcher to weather another crisis, one
that threatened their existence just as much as their exile from the Holy Land.
It came at the end of the middle ages, and ushered in a third phase in the his-
tory of their community. In 1489 Pope Innocent viii ordered the dissolution of
the chapter and conferred its holdings onto the Hospitalers. The mother house
in Perugia and a number of Italian, Spanish, French and central German settle-
ments fell victim to the measure, but the congregations in Spain, Poland,
Hungary, Bohemia, Savoy, northern and southern Germany did not. While the
southern German communities and the long-independent English founda-
tions managed to sustain themselves only until the Reformation, the remain-
ing canonries were able to maintain their autonomy (despite the effort of the
foundation of Miechw to claim for itself the role of caput ordinis), as much
as the bishops and the princes would allow, into the nineteenth century.
Thefourth phase of the history of the chapterapart from the story of the
community of the Canonesas del S. Sepulcro de Saragossa in the fourteenth
centurydoes not follow neatly upon the third, which ended in secularization
and confiscation in the nineteenth century. Rather, its beginnings stretch back
to the middle of the fifteenth, to an effort at renewal that emerged in the
Netherlands among the dependent houses of the community of Denkendorf
in Wrttemberg. The most important fruits of that renewal were the communi-
ties of the canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher, who in Belgium, England, south-
west Germany and the Netherlands keep alive still today the tradition of the
chapter founded in 1099.
62 chapter 2

ii

Already in the first years after the establishment of their chapter Patriarch
Arnulf and the Canons of the Holy Sepulcher are said to have accepted the
members of the foundation of Neufmoustier (founded by Petrus Eremita near
Huy) into their community of sacrifice and prayer, and made them confratres
Jherosolimitane ecclesie.20 This claim, made by Maurice of Neufmoustier, has
with good reason come to be seen as an invention of the thirteenth century.21
But other more reliable sources leave no doubt that very early in its history the
chapter established prayer confraternities with other spiritual institutions. It
is known that in 1112 Patriarch Arnulf acknowledged a prayer confraternity
with Fruttuaria;22 that in 1120/21 his successor Warmund established similar
ties with the chapter of Notre Dame in Paris23 and the cathedral clergy of
Santiago de Compostela;24 and that in the third decade of the century there
was established among the canonries of the Holy City a Unio ecclesiarum25
that obligated its members not only to common remembrance of the dead, but
also to provision of funeral services for their dead confratres.26 The loss of older
memorial and anniversary books and calendars makes it impossible to move

20 De reliquiis et privilegio prefate ecclesie Novi Monasterii, in: G. Kurth, Documents sur
labbaye de Neufmoustier prs de Huy, Acad. Roy. Belg. Compte rendu des sances de la
Commission royale dhistoire ou recueil de ses bulletins iv 2 (1892), 5859; S. Gevaert, La
note de lobituaire de labbaye de Neufmoustier, Bull. des muses roy. dart et dhistoire
(1833), 137139.
21 Ch. Dereine, Les chanoines rguliers au diocse de Liege avant Saint Norbert, Acad. Roy.
Belg. Lettres 47 (1952), 139ff.
22 S. Guichenon, Bibliotheca Sebusiana, sive variarum chartarumcenturiae ii, 1660, 116:
Patriarch and chapter to the abbot of Fruttuaria: Mandatum, quod de fraternitate et soci-
etate vestra per fratrem W. nobis direxistis, gaudenter suscepimus.
23 mpl 162, col. 729; R. De Lasteyrie, Cartulaire general de Paris, 1887, i, 1711: Hac ergo dilec-
tione pro vobis sollicitus dominum venerabilem patriarcham et canonicos nostros rogavi, ut
orationibus et beneficiis nostrae congregationis fratres et participes jungeremini, cui peti-
tioni concedentes etidem a vobis rogant et requirunt. On dating: G. Bautier, Lenvoi de la
relique de la Vraie Croix Notre-Dame de Paris en 1120 (Bibl. col. Chartes 129, 1971),
387397.
24 Espaa Sagrada 20, 310: pro vobis et pro statu Ecelesiae vestrae assidue orare decrevimus et
eadem a vobis accipere obsecramus. Cf. also: J. Richard, Quelques textes relatifs aux pre-
miers temps de lglise de Jrusalem, in: Recueil de travaux offerts M. Cl. Brunel (1955) ii,
423426.
25 The term in E. Rey, Chartes de labbaye du Mont Sion, Mem. Soc. Nat. Antiq. de France 48
(1887), 47.
26 Kohler (n. 28) 434435. On the designation confratres cf. also Rozire (n. 1) 136.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 63

beyond isolated reports to describe the nature and scope of the memorial
bonds with other spiritual institutions.27 Nevertheless the prescriptions of the
Liber ordinis28 and the Constitutiones29 regarding the obligations of liturgical
memory, as well as the fact that the military orders30 and the Cistercians31 in

27 In comparison with the more recent surviving anniversary books (cf. n. 43), and in view of
the range of comparable documents of other orders and institutions (Schmid-Wollasch,
n. 6), the calendars ascribed to the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher in H. Buchtal, Miniature
Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1957), 140, 141, 143 and 145 contain so few rel-
evant entries that one can hardly identify them with the memorial books mentioned in
the Liber ordinis and Constitutiones. In view of the current state of research it is unlikely
that alongside those that are known (n. 43) still other libri anniversariorum, old written
memorial books, libri animarum, libri memoriales and necrologies, as they are called in
inventories and charters (U. Durand-E. Martne, Voyage litt. de deux religieux bndictins
de la congr. de Saint Maur, 1711, i, 243; HStA Munich, Allg. Archiv, Wrtt. Extr. Verz. 35,
A 97, A 229; mgh Necr. i, 172; Elm, Quellen [n. 12] no. 71), can be discovered.
28 The two known manuscripts of the Ordo secundum institutionem ecclesiae dominici
Sepulcri (ms Barletta, S. Sepolcro; ms Univ. Bibl. Breslau, i Qu 175) have been only partially
edited, described and evaluated: J.M. Giovene, Kalendaria, vetera manuscripta aliaque
monumenta ecclesiarum Apuliae et Japygiae 1 (1828); Ch. Kohler, Un rituel et un brviaire
du Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem XIIeXIIIe sicle, Revue de lOrient latin 8 (1900), 434435;
C.D. Fonseca, Il ms. gerosolimitano della comunitit canonicale del Santo Sepolcro di
Barletta, Medioevo Canonicale. Pubbl. dell Universitit Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Contr. iii
12, (1970), 193195; A. Schnfelder, Die Prozessionen der Lateiner in Jerusalem zur Zeit
der Kreuzzge, Hist. Jahrbuch 32 (1911), 578ff. ms Barletta, S. Sepolcro, fol. 49; Kohler, 403:
In capitulo annuntiationes lectorum et cantorum leguntur et anniversaria defunctorum.
Ibid. fol. 496b, 433: Si autem patriarche vel alicuius regum fuerit anniversarium, missa
cum tractu.
29 The antiquissimae constitutiones (ad Barcelona, S. Ana, 01) survive in fragments, excerpts
and revisions of the fifteenth century. Cited here is the recension surviving from the
Belgian monastery of Henegouw (Statuta canonicorum regularium Ordinis ss. Sepulchri
monasterii Sanctae Crucis, Lttich, 1742), 25: De capitulo: Deinde pronunciet obitus, qui in
kalendariis notati sunt. 46: De cantore: diem defunctorum computarein kalendario anni-
versaria scribere. 82: Pro poenitentibus vel quibus orationes ordinis conceduntursinguli
sacerdotes cantent 83: Commemorationes quorundam regularium fratrum nobis socie-
tate conjunctorum.
30 A. De Morales, Kalendario de Ucls (Opusculos Castellanos, 1793, iii) 30ff. Cf: D.W. Lomax,
La Orden de Santiago mclxxmcclxxv (1965) 2728, 46, 97, 222; J. Leclercq, La vie et la
prire des chevaliers de Santiago daprs leur rgle primitive, Liturgica 2 (1958), 347357,
though the chapter is here misunderstood as an association of knights of the Holy
Sepulcher.
31 J. Wollasch, Neue Quellen zur Geschichte der Cisterzienser, Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. 84
(1973), 217.
64 chapter 2

Spain accepted the canonici de Sepulcro into their circle of memory and care,
allow us to conclude that the chapters members continued to ally themselves
with spiritual communities well beyond the twelfth century. Along with these
corporate efforts, there was also a tradition of individual participation in the
prayer and sacrifice of the chapter that reached back to the twelfth century. In
September 1211 in Acre, in a ceremony before the main altar of the church of
the canons who had fled there, a Spanish pilgrim was accepted in fratrem and
granted the participatio omnium spiritualium beneficiorum sicut unus ex illis.32
In 1198 Patriarch Monachus and the chapter accepted a number of Polish
nobility and prelates into their fraternitas, so that in this way they omnium
oracionum et beneficiorum, quein Hierosolimitana fiunt ecclesianobiscum
pariter percipiant portionem.33 In doing so the patriarch called not only on the
forma predecessorum nostrorum, but used almost the same words with which
Archbishop Henry of Reims in 1174 had been granted the fraternitas of the
chapter,34 and with which in the 1130s the faithful in Palestine had described
their participation in the prayer and sacrifice of the canons.35 Based on the
available sources, it was Patriarch Ebremar who, by promising the benefits of
prayer and liturgical memory36 to Bishop Lambert of Reims in 1104, opened up
individual membership in the chapter and church of Jerusalems community
of prayer and spiritual merit. The cases witnessed through contract and official

32 Espaa Sagrada 50, 436: Hoc autem donum feci in Acon quando Sepulcrum Domini visitavi
coram Dominio Sancio Priore eiusdem ecclesie et canonicis, qui aderant super altare mag-
num, et fui ibi receptus ab eisdem in fratrem, ut habeam participacionem omnium spiritua-
lium beneficiorum sicut unus ex illis.
33 C. Maleczyski, Codex dipl. nec non epist. Silesiae, 1959, ii, 186; H. Appelt, Schlesisches
Urkundenbuch, 1963ff., i, 43ff.: Nos Monachus Dei gracia sancte Resurrectionis ecclesie
patriarcha una cum eiusdem ecclesie nostre capitulo et fratrum collegio ad formam predec-
cessorum nostrorum patriarcharum. notum facimusuniversos episcopos Polonie, duces,
barones, viros et mulieres, quorum nomina inferius leguntur, ob helemosinarum suarum
beneficia ecclesie dominici sepulcri collata in eiusdem domus nostre fraternitatem et consor-
cium recepisse, ut omnium oracionum et beneficiorum, que hinc et inHierosolimitana fiunt
ecclesiaeandemnobiscum pariter percipiant portionem. This rich source is character-
ized by Nakielski (Miechovia [n. 12], 83) as a fragment of an Album patriarchale, and by
H.R. Zeissberg Kleinere Geschichtsquellen Polens im Mittelalter, Archiv f. sterr. Gesch.
55 (1877), 5 as a Liber fraternitatis. On the basis of the diplomatic analysis of Appelt one
could also see it as an excerpt from the Liber fraternitatis of the Church of the Sepulcher.
34 Prior Peter and the chapter are clear (rhgf xvi, 1878, 200): omnium oracionum et benefi-
ciorum, quae in ecclesia Dominici Sepulcri fient, vos participem constituimus.
35 Rozire (n. 1), 311: nos confratres et orationum ac beneficiorum suorum participes.
36 mpl 162, col. 677: In orationibus et in aliis beneficiisscitote vos esse consortem. Cf. n.
156.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 65

guarantee, however, are only a fraction of the confraternity ties37 established


between the canons and the faithful in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
We can say with great certainty that King Baldwin iii,38 Queen Melisende,39
Count Amalric of Ascalon40 and Hugh of Ibelin,41 who styled themselves as
fratres and sorores of the canons, also belonged to the spiritual fraternity. And
with equal certainty we can assume a similar bond among numerous others
the German emperors, the kings of France and England, the rulers of Aragon
and Castile, Len and Sicilywhose not inconsiderable gifts and privileges
allowed them an early role in the establishment of the chapter.42
Fraternal affiliation with the chapter, that is to say participation in its prayers
and sacrifices acquired through special contributions, was not limited to
Palestine. Nor was it limited to the first centuries of the history of the chapter.
Well in to the modern era, just as the patriarch and the prior had done in
Jerusalem and Acre, provisors and quaestors of the Spanish and Italian, the
Polish and Bohemian, the northern and southern German dependencies all
helped others find acceptance into the fraternitas of the chapter of the Holy
Sepulcher.43 What changed over the course of time was the number and status
of those who were accepted into membership, the nature of their organization
and the manner in which the spiritual work of the chapter was defined. Already
from the twelfth century there was a tendency to establish more precisely what
in meant to participate in the orationes and beneficia of the canons, which
until that time had been formulated only in a general way. In 1196 Celestine iii
secured for the confratres of the chapter the privilege of church burial even in

37 Cf. nn. 2729.


38 Rozire (n. 1), 110: fratres nostros canonicos Sancti Sepulcri. Similarly ibid., 114.
39 Ibid., 92: fratres nostros Dominici Sepulcri canonicos.
40 Ibid., 115: Dominici Sepulcri canonicis et confratribus meis. Similarly ibid., 117, 121 and 124.
41 Ibid., 128: fratribus meis Sancti Sepu!cri canonicis. Similarly ibid., 133.
42 Detailed proof forthcoming in the article cited in n. 11. Mentioned here is only one of the
many usages that suggest a meaning in the sense of a fraternal relationship: (kdm [n. 12]
ii, 50): circa dictum sanctum Sepulcrum deserviencium me comitt[o] orationibus.
43 Entries in lists of Nomina permansura (ra = Rijksarchief Gelderland, Arnheim, Arch.
Heeren en Graven van Culemborg, 8046, 3), memorial books (HStA Stuttgart, A 480, H 51,
fol. 265), calendars (HStA Mnchen, Allg. Arch., Wrtt. Extr. Verz. 35, A 23) and anniver-
sary books (ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sepulcro de Calatayud, Memorias de las fundacio-
nes antiquas, Sec. de Cd. 782 B; ad Barcelona, S. Ana, N-l: Nekrologfragment), pledges of
admission (Besson [n .53] 119), contracts of admission (Stadtarchiv Speyer 1 A, Nr. 401/6),
declarations of admission (Elm, Quellen [n. 12] Nr. 4, 15, 25, 29) und other brief notices
(K.J. Erben among others, Regesta diplomatica nec non epistolaria Bohemiae et Mora
viae=rbm, 1890, iii, 365).
66 chapter 2

the case of interdict, as long as the fratres were not excommunicated or per-
sonally responsible for the issuing of the churchs sentence.44 The privilege was
repeatedly confirmed by subsequent popes,45 and in the fifteenth century it
was combined with another, one that in its substance can also be traced back
to Celestine iii:46 license to be provided last rites and to be buried by the
Canons of the Holy Sepulcher, without regard to the rights of parish clergy.47
Many contracts also expanded these general rights with special stipulations
regarding the funeral services. Alongside individual guidelines for the funeral
itself and for liturgical memory, they usually required burial in the churches or
the cemeteries of the canons, thereby securing proximity to the grave of the
Lord and thus hope for the day of Resurrection.48 Hand in hand with this cen-
tral concern for proper funeral services, so typical for these as for other forms
of Fraternitas, went a concern for liberation from the penalties of sin. Celestine
iii guaranteed a commutation of a seventh or a third of all punishment.49
Gregory xi,50 Alexander v51 and Eugenius iv52 then sponsored a dramatic
expansion by not only granting the confratres a broad array of privileges, but
also by allowing participation in every indulgence ever conferred upon the
order or its individual members. With the attempt in the fifteenth century to
draw together all of the rights and privileges inherited by the confratres into

44 Celestine iii, 13.2.1196, J.-L. 17324; Rozire (n. 1) 236237. Cf. also J.-L. 16708.
45 Urban ii., 27.9.1262, kdm (n. 12) ii, 117.
46 Cf. n. 44.
47 Celestine iii., 26.10.1191, Elm, Quellen (n. 12) n.1. Cf. Espaa Sagrada 49, 411. B. Joh. v.
Lttich, 24. 3. 1496, Willemsen, Oorkonden (n. 12) 215: eucharistie et extreme unctionis sac-
ramenta ecc!esiastica habere et retinere, illaqueinfirmis vestris ac fratribus et sororibus
confraternitatis dicti vestri ordinis ministrare mortuosque id exigentes sepelire ac eorundem
exequias et anniversaria celebrare possitis et valeatis, vobis similiter indulgemus.
48 Cf. for example rbm (n. 43) iii, 365 (1323): Prepositus etconventus me in vita et in morte
patrem meum etmatrem meam in suam confraternitatem receperunt me in suo monaste-
rio sepulturi ac de lapide sepulcrum meum tecturi, clipeum in ecclesia suspensuri, condignas
exsequias modo funeri impensuri tercium septimum ac singulos per annum trecesimos per-
acturi. Similarly revealing: S. Santeramo, Codice diplomatico Barlettano iv, 64, 100, where
the cimiterium of S. Sepolcro in Barletta is described as a locus confraternitatis.
49 Celestine iii, 28. 12. 1191, Besson (n. 53, 433434): Praeterea constituimus ut quicumque
confrater Jerosolomitanae ecclesiae esse voluerit, quod sibi admonitione divina promittere
placuerit, annuatim fratribus reddat, et tertiam partem iniunctae sibi poenitentiae dimis-
sam sibi cognoscat.
50 Gregory xi, 6. 3. 1371, Willemsen, Deux notices (n. 12), 382388.
51 Alexander V, 28. 8. 1409, Willemsen, Deux notices (n. 12), 385. Idem, 25. 5. 1410, Arch. Vat.
R. Lat. 144, fol. 174r-v.
52 Eugenius iv, 23. 4. 1431, R. Arnold, Repertorium Germanicum: Eugen iv. 1, 1892, 878.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 67

brevicula or litterae indulgentiales, it became clear that the original participatio


omnium orationum et beneficiorum had expanded to an almost unimaginably
vast array of special graces and spiritual rights. Alongside the privileges and
indulgences already mentioned, alongside the participation in the merits of
prayer, fasting, vigils and sacrifice in what must have been more than 2,800
monasteries, churches, chapels and hospitals of the order, the confratres and
sorores of the chapter enjoyed the fruits of every merit won in the Roman
church and on the pilgrim roads to the Holy Land.53
In the later middle ages, as in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, accep-
tance into the fraternity of the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher came normally
out of gratitude for some special special service rendered to the chapter. From
the fourteenth century at the latest, however, it became an extension of an
older practice, one used in the first years of the church in Jerusalem: an instru-
ment through which the quaestionarii worked to create a broad clientele who
could support the chapter over the long term.54 Their rounds of begging usu-
ally took place once a year, were undertaken with the permission and support
of Curia55 and bishops,56 and were grounded in the authority of the privileges
that had been granted to them and to their order. Each tour drew numerous

53 The collections of privileges listed here are in need of closer investigation, both with
regard to their mutual interdependence and the authenticity of the papal privileges they
incorporate: StA Breslau, Rep. 103: Kreuzherren Neisse; ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sep. de
Calatayud, Doc. eccl., Carp. 5, Nr. 53; ibid., Carp. 4a, No. 24; ibid., S. Juan (Castilla), Carp.
576, Nr. 3; HStA Stuttgart, A 480, Urk. 2829; HStA Mnchen, Allg. Arch., Wrtt. Extrad.
Verz. 35. A.L. Jegher, La gloire de lordre canonial rgulier du S. Spulcre Hierosolimitain de
N.-S. Jsus-Christ (1626); Nakielski, Miechovia (n. 12) 305308, 520526; Anciens statuts
de lordre duSaint Spulchre de Jrusalem (1776), 91; J.A. Besson, Memoires pour
lhistoireecclesiastique des dioceses de Genve(1759), 443444; rbm (n. 43) vii, 528529;
Willemsen, Deux notices (n. 12), 382ff.; Elm, Quellen (n. 12) Nr. 25, 29. On the accumula-
tion of privileges between the monasteries of Miechw and Speyer see the exchange of
letters in Nakielski, Miechovia (n. 12), 500ff.
54 Cf. for example J. Delaville Le Roulx, Cartulaire gnral de lordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean
de Jrusalem (11001310) (1894) i, 911 (1101): Numerous benefactors who gave to an elemosi-
narius S. Sepulcri a donation ad victum et ad vestitum clericis S. Sepulcri received from
Paschal ii and Patriarch Dagobert absolution ab omni vinculo delictorum suorum. These
indulgences are likely best seen in connection with the general crusading indulgence: A.
Gottlob, Kreuzzugsabla und Almosenabla, Kirchenrechtl. Abhdlg. 30/31 (1906).
55 Urban iv, 24. 2. 1262, Wrtt. Urkundenbuch vi, 1894, 84; Nicholas iv., 1. 4. 1290, ibid., 354.
In both cases the issue of authenticity should be pursued in connection with the investi-
gations suggested in n. 53.
56 A. CartellieriK. Rieder, Regesta Episc. Constant. (= rec) iii, 1913, 92, no. 7522; iv,1941,
232, no. 12005; 305, no. 12709. Elm, Quellen (n. 12) no. 7.
68 chapter 2

followers, who had themselves recorded in the confraternity books as confra-


tres and sorores and who thereby obligated themselves to repeated financial
contributions, as well as to participation in the annual meeting of the chapter.
An example from the community of Culemborg in the Netherlands, founded
in the second half of the fifteenth century, makes clear how great was the num-
ber of the faithful who were accepted into the brotherhood by the receptores
fraternitatis: The confraternity book of this community survives only in frag-
ments, but it lists no fewer than 500 men and women, along with the members
of their immediate family, arranged by parish membership. One can thus
assume that within the area of influence of this one community, nearly every
soul was bound to the order as fratres et sorores.57 The obligation, in return for
acceptance, of regular dues and regular gathering with the brothers and sisters
of the diocese led, with a certain inevitability, to the formation of corporations,
to brotherhood in the narrow sense. Already at the end of the fourteenth and
in the course of the fifteenth century it became common for local chapters to
use their own seals and to adopt special names (tam sancta nostri ordinis con-
fraternitas, que per Gregorium undecimum ac pluros alios summos pontifices
sancta venerande passionis ac gloriose resurrectionis domini nostri Jhesu Christi
confraternitas intitulatur).58 Thereafter, in the seventeenth century, the trans-
formation from the fraternitas to the confratria59 reached its highpoint. Under
the leadership of provosts they themselves elected, under their own statutes,
often with their own chapels and altars, the members of these local confrater-
nities united veneration of the Holy Sepulcher and participation in the merits
and privileges of its order with ideals of mutual support and care in both life
and death.60 The result was a synthesis of spiritual community and self-help

57 ra Gelderland, Arnheim, Arch. Heeren en Graven van Culemborg, 8045. For comparable
numbers among the Franciscans: H. Lippens, De litteris confraternitatis apud fratres
minores ab ordinis initio ad annum usque 1517, Arch. Francisc. Historicum 3132, (1938
39), 276329, 4988; A.G. Little, Franciscan Letters of Fraternity, The Bodleian Library
Record 5, 1, (1954), 16ff.
58 Elm, Quellen (n. 12) no. 15 (1465), no. 29 (1501).
59 ad Haute-Savoie, Annecy, sa 216, no. 1 (1359): potestas statuendi, revocandi et ordinandi
contratrias seu confraternitates nomine Sanctissimi Sepulcri. Similarly Elm, Quellen (n. 12)
no. 15, 29.
60 Cf. for example Sttn Ustedni Archiv (= sua), Prag, Listny esk. zou. klteru, Nr. 1896;
Nakielski, Miechovia (n. 12) 120121, 421, 850851; Officium parvum SS. Sepulchri pro usu
Confraternitatis tituli ejusdem in ecclesia Canonicorum SS. Sepulchri Dominici
Hierosolymitani erectae (1664); E. Olivan Baile, Los Hermanos del Santo Sepulcro de
Jerusaln en Zaragoza, El Noticiero (1964); Dittrich, Beitrge zur Geschichte der
Kreuzherrn mit dem doppelten roten Kreuz in Neisse, Jahresb. d. Neisser Kunst- u.
Altertumver. 18 (1914), 32. Cf. also n. 293.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 69

association thatmore strongly than its own members may have been
awareloosened the bonds between this confraternity and the Holy Sepulcher,
and brought it more fully into line with a range of so many other brotherhoods
of the cross and the grave that were actually independent of the chapter itself.
The Cartularium of the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher, so illuminating for
the circumstance of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, reveals alongside the
fratres and sorores already mentioned another group, whose status differs from
the former by virtue of a stronger material association with the conventus
canonicorum. These are the married and unmarried faithful, whether men and
women, who typically offered an endowment to the chapter or even handed
over all of their property, thereby acquiring for themselves not only participa-
tion in the community of prayer and spiritual merit, but also contractually
established claims to protection and material provision.61 Sometimes these
claims were reduced ob fraternitatis recordationem to symbolic offerings like
wine and bread on specific feast days.62 But most often they secured the provi-
sion of clothing, food and housing in old age, in sickness, or for those unable to
inherit.63 And alongside this form of oblatio or traditio (which is in evidence
above all in Jerusalem) there emerged in Magna Mahumeria (a new commu-
nity64 settled by the chapter between Jerusalem and Nablus) another kind of
fraternal association, one in which ecclesiastical and feudal affairs were tightly
intertwined.65 Alongside numerous inhabitatores,66 bound to the chapter
through a kind of citizens oath, there were also fratres67 (like Robertus
Porcarius, who is so often mentioned in the charters)68 who, we can assume,
handed over all of their property to the chapter, and then received it back for
their own use in a ceremony of investiture presided over by the prior.69 The
extent to which the cases of oblation and subordination to the chapter men-
tioned here (in Magna Mahumeria, subordination to a dispensator, provisor

61 Rozire (n. 1), 201, 207.


62 Ibid., 200. Similarly 242. Total renunciation of reciprocation: ibid., 216.
63 Ibid., 154, 199, 204, 311.
64 J. Prawer, Colonization Activities in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Rev. beige de phil. et
dhist. 29 (1951), 1096ff.; F.M. Abel, Les deux Mahomerie El-Birch, El-Quobeibeh, Rev.
Biblique 35 (1926), 273ff.; G. Beyer, Die Kreuzfahrergebiete von Jerusalem und Hebron,
Zeitschrift d. dtsch. Palstinavereins 65 (1942), 198199.
65 See in this connection the parallelism between feodum, fraternitas and amicitia (Rozire
[n. 1], 214).
66 Rozire (n. 1), 243244.
67 Ibid., 240, 249.
68 Ibid., 240241, 242.
69 Ibid., 240ff.
70 chapter 2

and magister clientium)70 were bound with a spiritual sacrifice, perhaps even
the adoption of a semi-monastic way of life modeled on northern Italian peni-
tential communities,71 cannot be determined on the basis of the reports that
come from the Holy Land.72 The sources are also silent regarding the place of
the milites73 who were, whether temporarily or lastingly, in the service of the
chapter. A rich literature has thought itself able to discern in these figures a
military order of the Holy Sepulcher ostensibly founded by Godfrey of
Bouillon.74 Whether the military contingents actually put into service by the
chapter formed a militia that was also spiritually tied to the canons cannot be
definitively decided. But it is crucial not to dismiss out of hand another possi-
bility: that alongside the militia Templi,75 who prayed more canonicorum regu-
larium, and who have been described in recent research as a kind of third
order of the Holy Sepulcher,76 there was also a militia S. Sepuchri. Admittedly,
of course, its development stagnated so early that at best one seems justified in
making comparisons with the Templars and Hospitalers only with regard to a
common genesis, not with regard to later developments.
Traditio and oblatio, too, like participation in prayer and sacrifice, were in no
way limited to the Holy Land. In almost every overseas foundation of the chap-
ter, from the twelfth century deep into early modernity, there is evidence of
fratres and sorores who bound themselves to the chapter as oblati, donati or
traditi, and who at certain times found their way into close association with
the canons, even sharing the same space as incolae monasterii, commensales or

70 Ibid., 249ff.
71 G.G. MeersemanE. Adda, Pnitents ruraux communitaires en Italie au XIIe sicle,
Revuedhist. eccl. 49 (1954), 232390.
72 Prawer (n. 64) no. 1097 sees in the fratres of Magna Mahumeria a kind of fratres
conversi.
73 Livre des Assises de la Haute Cour (rhc, Lois, i), 426. Also: R.C. Smail, Crusading Warfare
10971193 (1956), 8991. On individual crusaders who stood in servitio Sancti Sepulcri or
who are designated visitors of the Holy Sepulcher: K. Schmid, Graf Rudolf von Pfullendorf
und Kaiser Friedrich i, Forsch. zur oberrh. Landesgesch. 1 (1954), 202; J. Aschbach,
Geschichte der Grafen von Wertheim (1843), 63ff.; J. Hermens, Der Orden vom heil. Grabe
(1870), 25.
74 Cf. n. 5.
75 W.V. Tyrus, Historia xii, 7 (rhc, Hist. occ. i, 1), 520; L. De Mas-Latrie, Le Chronique dErnoul
et de Bernard le Tresorier (1871), 70; G. Schnrer, Die ursprngliche Templerregel, Stud. u.
Darst. aus dem Gebiet d. Gesch. iii 12 (1903), 135; H.E. Mayer, Zum Itinerarium
Peregrinorum, da 20 (1964), 213214.
76 J. Leclercq, Un document sur les dbuts de Templiers, Rev. dhist. eccl. 52 (1957), 85; Ch.
Dereine, Le Moyen ge 59 (1953), 197; idem, dhge xii, col. 370.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 71

praebendarii.77 In these cases, too, as in the Holy Land itself, the range and
variety of the duties the fratres and sorores carried out, and the obligations
embraced by the canons in return, is not inconsiderable. What is more clearly
visible in the surviving sources of the foreign obediences than in the houses of
the Holy Land itself is the degree of spiritual and institutional obligation estab-
lished by oblation. It ranges from the obligation to allow property held as a life
tenancy to be handed over to the chapter after death,78 to material provision79
in return for the promise, in the event of a conversio, of entering the Order of
the Holy Sepulcher,80 to the adoption of the vita religiosa in the full sense of
adopting monastic life. But even these close spiritual ties allowed for a range of
possibilities. In a charter issued in Spain in 1179 a frater of this kind obligated
himself tenere obedienciam et castitatem secundum vestrum ordinem et nos-
trum.81 Similarly, in 1226, the clothing provided for a soror was described as
vestes religiosae bonae et sufficientes.82 In 1277 in Speyer female oblates lived in
the life of beguines in their own curia.83 In Barletta in the fourteenth century,
oblates answered to a pater spiritualis personally assigned to them.84 In 1507 in
Zuid-Beveland, a donatus under the leadership of a commendator obligated
himself to the vita contemplativa in a cloistered community, as long as his wife
agreed to the separation.85

77 Cf. n. 43.
78 E.g. Espaa Sagrada 50, 426: offero et dono me ipsum deo et sancto Sepulcro Jerusalem cum
omni mea hereditatein mea vita vivam ego in illa hereditatequando transiero de hoc
seculototum veniat ad Deo et ad Sancti Sepulcri Jherusalem (sic). Cf. ibid. 50, 142; ibid.
49, 440441.
79 ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sep. de Calatayud, (n. 43) no. iv: the arrangement is for panis et
aqua toto tempore vitae (1293). ahn Madrid, ibid. no. v: mantenere in victu et vestitu como
canonigo (1273). Espaa Sagrada 49, 395 (1177); ibid., 378 (1159). Prebend contracts of the
fifteenth century from Speyer (HStA Mnchen, Allg. Arch., Wrtt. Extrad. Verz. 35, A 43
45, 4749) and Barletta (Santeramo [n. 48] iv, 64).
80 Rozire (n. 1), 162163; Wrtt. Urkundenbuch ii, 18; M. Golobardes, El Sepulcro de Peralada
(1955), 29 (1143).
81 Espaa Sagrada 50, 429.
82 Golobardes (n. 80), 29.
83 HStA Mnchen (n. 79), A 207. Further references to conversae and beginae in the
Necrology (ibid. A 23).
84 Santeramo (n. 48) iii, 126127; iv, 100.
85 Elm, Quellen (n. 12), no. 38: rogavitconsiderans nichil tutius morte et nichil incertius hora
mortis, volens emendare, plangere et deflere peccata sua et ex post in vita contemplativa Deo
servireut ipse commendator eundemrecipere vellet in laicum sui ordinis vel in
familiam.
72 chapter 2

These forms of fraternitas in the circles of the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher
were never sharply distinguished from one another, either in their substance
or their terminology. They were intertwined and grew together cumulatively.
They are also in part characterized by the certain fluid way in which they allow
the periphery to be drawn to the center, to the fraternitas, the conventus, the
congregatio, the coetus or consortium of the canons.86 This kind of movement
was not rare. In fact it was often considered a possibility already at oblation,
and formulated as a legal right. So in 1142 Berthold of Denkendorf, as he offered
up his property to the Holy Sepulcher in the presence of his peers, gave the
assurance, utsi forte mihi in animo venerit, ut omnia relinquens in ecclesia
Sancti Sepulcri Jherusalem, vel in ea, que est in Denkendorf, divine religioni me
subdam, dominus patriarcha et prior Dominici Sepulcriabsque omni contradic-
tione me recipiant.87 Conversely, in 1189 the prior of the Spanish convent of
Peralada obliged the nobleman Ramn de Cervi, upon his donation of prop-
erty, to adopt the habitus religiosus of the order should Ramn ever resolve to
enter religious life.88
Two institutions offered another way (more direct than the paths outlined
here) to make the transition from the ranks of the laity to the status canonico-
rum. One of them allowed access to the chapter only to a limited circle, the
other only in a symbolic way: the royal canonry, and the canonry ad succur-
rendum. The latter form of participation, which was acceptance into the order
upon ones deathbed,89 seems to have been embraced by King Baldwin ii. In
1131, as he faced death, he had himself brought before the patriarch of Jerusalem
to receive (as was customary upon the profession of canons) the robe de reli-
gion and to become chanoine rilez, a regular canon.90 The existence of the
royal canonryconferred by the king himself on solemn feasts, though nor-
mally undertaken by one of his chaplainsis not so easily visible in the

86 Rozire (n. 1).


87 Ibid., 162163. Wrtt. Urkundenbuch ii, 18.
88 Golobardes (n. 80), 30.
89 M. Figueras, Acerca del rito de la profesin monastica medieoval ad succurrendum,
Studia Monastica 1 (1960), 359ff.; J.B. Valvekens, Fratres et sorores ad succurrendum,Anal.
Praem. 37 (1961), 323328; W. Brckner, Sterben im Mnchsgewand. Zum Funktionswandel
einer Totenkleidsitte, Kontakte und Grenzen. Probleme der Volks-, Kultur- und
Sozialforschung. Festschrift fr Gerhard Heilfurth zum 60. Geburtstag (1969), 259277.
90 The translator of William of Tyre (rhc, Hist. Occ., i) 602, puts it this way: Tantost guerpi
abit et toutes choses qui roi apartenoient, et vesti de robe de religion, si devint chanoines
rilez de lordre de leglise del Sepulcre. The translation is even more emphatic than the
original (ibid. 602): ipse vero Christi verus confessor, habitum religionis assumens et vitam
regularem professus, si viveret, ei qui spirituum pater est, tradidit spiritum.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 73

sources. The presence of the king in the chapter,91 which is mentioned in the
constitutions; the liturgical memory provided for him in the Liber ordinis;92 the
place of honor granted to him in worship services;93 the evidence that he
referred to himself94 as confrater or concanonicusnone of this is sufficient to
prove with certainty the existence of an institution. But in light of the willing-
ness of the kings of Jerusalem to embrace western ceremonies and symbols of
rulership (a point made clearly a few years ago),95 one may assume that the
Latin rulers of Palestine availed themselves of the canonry, too, as a means of
representing and securing royal rule.96

iii

In its oldest surviving charters the chapter of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
presents itself as a community of clerics with diverse duties and ranks.97 Only
seldom is there mention of individuals and groups who, as servants with
diminished rights, lived under one roof with the clerics, in the shadows of the
church of the Sepulcher.98 Setting aside the fratres and sorores who enjoyed
provision and shelter from the chapter by virtue of a traditio or oblatio, evi-
dence of laity in the cloister precincts is limited to a few, mostly passing refer-
ences. In 1129 there is mention of a puer nutritus;99 in 1135, mention of a

91 Statuta (see n. 29), 2526: De capitulo: Quod si episcopus vel abbas, vel archidiaconus vel
etiam rex aliquando capitulum introiverit: assurrgentes ei omnes cum ante eos transierit.
Quod si fraternitatem quaesierit assurgentibus omnibus concedatur ei per librum.
92 Kohler (n. 28), 433434.
93 B. De Khitrowo, Itinraires Russes en Orient (1899), 78.
94 See nn. 3839.
95 H.E. Mayer, Das Pontifikale von Tyrus und die Krnung der lateinischen Knige von
Jerusalem. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Forschung ber Herrschaftszeichen und Staatssymbolik,
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 21, 1967, esp. 185186.
96 On the nature and function of the royal canonry: H. Nottarp, Ehrenkanonikat und
Honorarkapitel, Zs. d. Savigny-Stiftung f. Rechtsgesch. Kan. Abt. 14 (1925), 189192; A.
Schulte, Deutsche Knige, Kaiser, Ppste als Kanoniker an deutschen und rmischen
Kirchen, Hist. Jahrbuch 54 (1934), 137177; H.W. Klewitz, Knigtum, Hofkapelle und
Domkapitel im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert, Arch. f. Urkundenforschung 16 (1939), 134139.
97 Rozire (n. 1), 157158, 160, 180, 207.
98 On the building: H. VincentF.M. Abel, Jrusalem. Recherches de topographie,
darchologie et dhistoire ii: Jerusalem nouvelle (1914), 260ff.; M. Clapham, The Latin
Monastic Buildings of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem,Antiquaries Journal
1 (1921), 26ff.
99 Rozire (n. 1), 2, 154.
74 chapter 2

prebendary provision in the refectory of the chapter unius servientis; in the


same connection, the conduct of the superior of the Hungarian hospital is
compared with the provision of a soror ecclesie necessitati fratrum providens;100
and finally, in 1155, a charter issued by Patriarch Fulcher and Prior Amalric dis-
tinguished between clerici and laici among all those sub titulo ac pro honore
Dominici Sepulcrimilitantes.101 These scattered hints in the charters can be
supplemented by the provisions of the constitutions and the Liber ordinis,
which can be assumed to have governed the life and activity of the order from
the twelfth century.102 The information that can be taken from them is uneven
with respect to the groups noted thus far. Fratres, fratres laici, conversi, fratres
simplices and sorores are mentioned so often, however, that the distinction
made by Fulcher and Amalric can be assumed valid not only for the broader
familia, but also for the core community of the chapter.103 The fratres and the
canonici, distinguished more sharply in the Constitutions than in the Liber
ordinis,104 together carried out (as far as the education of the fratres allowed)
the duties of community prayer in the choir;105 participated together in the
meetings of the chapter106 and ate together (albeit at separate tables) in the
refectory.107 Both canonici and fratres had also as novices to endure a proba-
tionary period, to which the canons were admitted by the patriarch and the
prior, the fratres by the prior alone.108 Both groups were to be clothed de com-
muni panno et ab uno vestiario,109 though there were differences in the cut of

100 Ibid., 201.


101 Ibid., 327. Date according to Rhricht (n. 2), 81, no. 315.
102 Cf. nn. 2829.
103 Cf. n. 101. The statutes are a summary of older and newer elements of the constitution. Only
with a critical edition will it be possible to discern the different levels from one another.
The statutes also betray divergent particulars with respect to lay monks and conversi. The
measures cited here clearly register an earlier stage in the traditions development.
104 Statuta (n. 29), 30, 35, 42, 52, 63, 69ff., 73, 85. The claim of M. Hereswitha thus stands cor-
rected: Het verband tussen de wetgeving van de Heilige-Graforde en die van de Orde van
Prmontr in de XIIe eeuw, Anal. Praem. 47 (1971), 16: om de kanunniken to beduiden,
gebruikt SS. de term fratres et canonici.
105 Ibid., 20ff.
106 Ibid., 25ff., 41. Cf. the instructions of the Liber ordinis, according to which the Patriarch,
after Prime on Ash Wednesday fecit sermonem in capitulo ibidem omnibus canonicis et
fratribus congregatis. (Kohler [n. 28], 410).
107 Ibid., 30.
108 Ibid., 35f., 42, 50, 88.
109 Ibid., 78: De eommuni panno nec de alio omnes tam clerici, quam laici vestiantur et ab uno
vestiario.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 75

their clothes,110 just as in cut of their hair and beard.111 Fratres and canonici
alike were placed under the prior as the de facto head of the community,
though the canons confessed only to him, while the fratres could also acknowl-
edge their sins to the sub-prior.112 The penalties imposed on both are essen-
tially identical.113 The subordination of the one group to the other is made
clear, however, in that clergy repeatedly convicted of apostasy were transferred
to the community of the laity.114 Another difference is revealed in how each
group spent its time in between choir, chapter and meal times: the canons
devoted themselves above all to reading, the fratres to manual labor.115
Concerning recruitment, numerous witness lists make clear116 that not only at
the beginning but in the longer course of the twelfth century, fratres and can-
onici came from the ranks of laity and clergy who came to the Holy Land from
overseas. From the middle of the century at the latest, however, they also come
from the ranks of the chapter itself, from its novitiate and its school. This is
made clear from the prescriptions of the Constitutions regarding the accep-
tance and education of novices,117 and the numerous references in the Liber
ordinis to the pueri who took part in the liturgy of the chapter.118
Given the purpose of the constitutions and the Liber ordinis, they do not
speak explicitly of the communitys servants in the narrow sense, of famuli and
ancillae.119 But there can be no doubt that both within and outside of its actual
precincts the community availed itself of laity for the performance of humble
dutiesthe care and nourishment of the poor and the ill as well as the collec-
tion of alms. And though they did not belong to the order, these laity, too, stood

110 Cf. the instructions for funeral services in ms Vat. Barb. lat. 659, fol. 12v: secundum ordi-
nem, suum induantur, hoc est si ipse defunctus fuit sacerdos sacerdotis indumentis, si diaco-
nusdiaconi, si conversus fuerit conversialthough here it must be considered that the
clerical vestments are not comparable with the monastic habit.
111 Ibid., 78, 84, 87ff.
112 Ibid., 42.
113 Ibid., 61ff.
114 Ibid., 69ff.
115 Ibid., 26ff., 28.
116 Rozire (n. 1) 53 and passim. Cf. also: R. Rhricht, Syria Sacra, Zeitschrift des dtsch.
Palstinavereins 10 (1887), 4248.
117 Statuta (n. 29), 35, 42, 50, 88.
118 Kohler (n. 28), 338, 402, 413; Schnfelder (n. 28), 594.
119 The Constitutions (Statuta [n. 29] S.31, 34, 54, 57) speak repeatedly of servitores, though
one must assume that neither they, nor indeed the ministri (ibid., 22, 27ff.) are members
of formal status, but servants of the chapter.
76 chapter 2

alongside it, in the words of Patriarch Fulcher and Prior Amalric, tam vicini
quam longe positi, as militantes sub titulo ac pro honore Dominici Sepulcri.120
The presence of lay women,121 though assumed on the basis of the surviving
charters of the church of the Sepulcher, is not mentioned at all in the liturgical
texts. And in the constitutions the presence of women is mentioned only in
such a general way122 that there is no proof, on that basis alone, of the accep-
tance of religiosae into the community of the canons. But if one wants to
assume that already in the twelfth century there were women in the circles of
the church of the Sepulcher who were bound to the chapter not only through
prayer or traditio, one must turn to the practice of the dependent houses that
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were still closely bound to the mother
house in Palestine. In the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century,
in Acre,123 Huesca,124 Barcelona,125 Perugia126 and Zderas127 near Prague there
is mention of women who are not only described as sorores, cruciferae, fratrisse
or incolae monasterii, but who also, as it was put in 1228 in Huesca and in 1200
in Acre, lived or died intus in domo S. Sepulcri. If in these cases it cannot be
ruled out that these women were traditae, oblatae or donatae in the sense dis-
cussed above, then at least in one case, that of the Spanish woman Abadesa,
such a qualification is not necessary. Her contract with the prior of the domus
SS. Sepulcri in Catalonian Peralada makes clear that in 1226 she donated almost
all of her property to that community.128 In return she received not only the
participatio in omnibus bonis spiritualibus, but also in omnibus bonis temporali-
bus, which found its expression in the provision of victus et vestitus and accep-
tance in domo nostra. Along with these assurances, which bound together the
advantages of spiritual association through prayer and oblation, the new soror
et consocia was given the opportunity to have herself accepted, at the appropri-
ate time, into the status religiosus in the proper sense. This meant that the

120 Statuta (n. 29), 53: Mention here of pellifices, sutores, hospites and infirmi.
121 See n. 101.
122 Statuta (n. 29), 26, 77, 82, 98.
123 Rozire (n. 1), 330: Uxor Petri de Yspania fuit soror nostra et mortua fuit in gardino nostro
in Accon
124 Espaa Sagrada 50, 441: Prior et Fratres Domus Sancti Sepulcri detis mihi omni tempore
victum et vestitum honorifice, sicuti uni Fratrisse intus in Domo Sancti Sepulcri de Osca.
125 ad Barcelona, St. Ana, Carp. 4; Golobardes (n. 80), 30.
126 as Perugia, Corp. relig. soppr., S. Luca, Reg. 2, fol. 17v.
127 rbm (n. 43) iii, 760 (1332): Clara crucifera Sderasiensis. Ibid., vii, 732 (1362): Benedicta,
vidua Wilhelmi quondam de Bor, matrona nostra et nostri monasterii incola, soror et
benefactrix.
128 Golobardes (n. 80), 30.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 77

prior would invest her, like a canon, with crux et habitus ordinis nostri, and
would accept her into the convent proper quasi domina et soror.
The clergy who were bound to the chapter of the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher, like the laity, were not a homogenous group. Along with the canons
who were sacerdotes, diaconi et subdiaconi, there were also capellani, presby-
teri, clerici and sacerdotes129 in the circles of the church who belonged neither
to the chapter nor to the domus or the familia of the patriarch.130 Perhaps they
were vicars or beneficed clergy who carried out long or short term representa-
tive dutiesso for example the 1133 arrangements for the provision of funeral
services for deceased canons,131 in which the priests were not only provided
with the clothing of the deceased, but also honored with the right to enjoy his
prebend for one year.132 And far on the margins of the clergy who were associ-
ated with the chapter (as revealed in an 1171 agreement between the Bishop of
Lydda and the prior of the chapter) were those who, having been presented by
the chapter and ordained by the appropriate bishop, carried out divine ser-
vices in parish churches incorporated by the chapter.133 The nature of the rela-
tionship between the Canons and communities of secular clergy that assisted
in the performance of divine services in places like St. Demetrios in Saloniki134
and at S. Sepolcro in Barletta135 is similarly difficult to establish, as is the case
with the Church of the Sepulcher itselfwhere the Latin canons of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries remained, after all, only one part of a much larger
community of non-Latin Christians who worshiped at the Holy Sepulcher.136
The association of groups of different status and with different duties, so
characteristic of the chapter in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, also
remained decisive for the corporation and its affiliates even after the fall of
Jerusalemallowing of course for a shift in the importance and function of
the various groups as dictated by their temporal and geographic circumstance.
As a consequence of the dissolution of the vita communis137 in many com-
munities from the thirteenth century, for example, the importance of the laity

129 Statuta (n. 29), 23, 42, 46, 52, 82.


130 Rozire (n. 1), 236, 302.
131 Statuta (n. 29), 97; Kohler (n. 28), 434.
132 Mayer (n. 95), 186 sees this funcion as one of the representative duties of a royal canon.
133 Rozire (n. 1), 323.
134 Honorius iii., 28. 3. 1213, 9. 8. 1222, Presutti, no. 1193, 4105. Misunderstood by Janin (n. 2),
213.
135 Santeramo (n. 48) ii, xvii.
136 See now Elm (see n. 11).
137 ad Barcelona, S. Ana, Urk. no. 505 (1306); Espaa Sagrada 50, 455 (1306), 447 (1249),
452(1293); Nakielski, Miechovia (n. 12), 623ff.
78 chapter 2

and clergy who stood in service of the chapter and its membra increased
remarkably. In many dependencies they took on not only the duties associ-
ated with agriculture, manufacture and administration.138 They also took on
(as beneficiarii, presbyteri commensales, vicarii, procuratores, administratores
and magistri) such central tasks as leadership and supervision of churches,
chapels and hospitals,139 the organization of new foundations140 and the visi-
tation of established communities.141 In certain instances the development of
this trend was remarkable: Rhineland communities in Worms and Speyer, for
example, handed over the care of their sick brethren to a community of ser-
vants who dedicated themselves solely to that purpose,142 and in Perugia the
archprior soon allowed his household finances to be taken care of all but
exclusively by laity and clergy who did not themselves belong to the order.143
Changes in the duties of lay brothers and conversi are closely associated
with these developments. One can assume, to the extent that the sources allow
such a conclusion, that there were brothers of this kind in almost every known
community until the thirteenth century.144 Whereas the development of the
womens religious life, as will be shown, moved in the direction of more auton-
omy, the lay brothers and conversi increasingly lost their importance over
thesame period. In the face of the rebelliousness of the conversi,145 so often

138 HStA Mnchen, Allg. Arch., Wrtt. Extrad. Verz. 35, A 229: Statuta per ipsos capitulares
iuranda et servanda; ad Barcelona, S. Ana, 01: documents on the activities of ancillae;
ra Gelderland, Arnheim, Arch. Heeren en Grafen van Culemborg, 805052: account
books; as Perugia, Corp. rel. soppr., S. Luca, Reg. 2.
139 See n. 11 for the numerous hospitals associated with the order and their incorporated
churches.
140 ad Haute-Savoie, Annecy, sa 216 (1359): appointment of a Benedictine as administrator of
a community soon to be founded in Annecy.
141 See also rec iv (n. 56) iv, 440, no. 14057.
142 HStA Mnchen (n. 138).
143 as Perugia (n. 138) fol. 98v.
144 Along with the entries in the anniversary books in n. 43 cf.: Inn. iv., 7. 5. 1243,
Willemsen,Deux notices, (n. 12), 360361; Urban iv, 7. 6. 1262, Wrtt. ub. iv, 67; Idem, 26.
9. 1292, kdm (n.12) ii, 115; ad Barcelona, S. Ana, CO-1, fol. 3636v (1274); HStA Mnchen (n.
138); Nakielski, Miechovia (n. 12), 156, 159, 303; kdm (n. 12) iii, 342; Hereswitha, Documenten
(n. 12), 493; rbm (n. 43) iii, 477, Schlesische Regesten iv, 269; Elm, Quellen (n. 12) no. 5.
145 On May 1, 1261 the papal penitentiary Martin allowed the Prior of Denkendorf to absolve
domus vestre clerici et laici who had been excommunicated for violence, resistance and
disobedience (Wrtt. ub vi, 1718). On May 7, 1281, Martin iv allowed the prior of
Miechow, regardless of potential appeals, to undertake correctio excessum fratrum et con-
versorum ecclesie(kdm [n. 12] ii, 151). Cf. the high number of revolts of conversi that can
be confirmed for the period from 1168 to 1308: J.S. Donelly, The Decline of Medieval
Cistercian Laybrotherhood, Fordham Univers. Studies, Hist. Ser. 3, 1949.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 79

lamented in the second half of the thirteenth century, the chapter was not only
pressured to limit their number146 but also compelled to restrict their rights.
Hence the patriarch and prior, given the evidence of conversi who had
broken the law, commanded that prelates of their congregations no longer
allowlaybrothers to participate in important chapter deliberations, and that
theyexclude lay brothers from all actus legitimi.147 Only in the course of the
reform movements that began in the fifteenth century did there emerge in the
Netherlands a renewal of the decayed institution of the conversi. In the stat-
utes and the resolutions of the chapter, ordinances were established for the lay
brothers148 that clearly looked back to the circumstances of the early days of
the order.149 But the renewal remained limited to the reform circles of the Low
Countries. The sixteenth and seventeenth century constitutions of the Spanish,
Italian and Polish daughter congregations see no reason to concern themselves
with regulating the place of the lay brothers.150 Thus a gradual process of sepa-
ration, already discernible among the confraternities, soon becomes notable
among the core community as well. The original diversity of lay and clerical
elements is reduced to a clerical core, and the religious bonds between clergy
and laity devolve into associations based merely on self-interest.151
The founders, leaders and earliest members of the chapter of the Holy
Sepulcher could take as a model for their organization the Greek clergy who
served the church of the Sepulcher before the fall of Jerusalem. They too secured
the material and spiritual support of Western Christendom with the aid of

146 ad Barcelona, S. Ana, Urk. 744 (1306).


147 rbm (n. 43) iv, 547 (1343): Pervenit ad nos ex veridica relacione, quod in partibus vestris per
conversos sive laicos ordinis eiusdem multa scandala et dissensiones atque lites facte sunt et
frequenter suscitantur Hereswitha, Documenten (n. 12), 487489 (1343): mandamusut de
cetero in capitulo et secretis tractatibus conversos ad capitulum intrare non permittant, quo-
rum voces auctoritate qua fungimur dicimus carere robore alicuius auctoritates. See n. 151.
148 Hereswitha, De priorij (n. 181), 730731; Elm, Quellen (n. 12), no. 27, 45.
149 ra Limburg, Maastricht, Archief Kl. Hoogcruts: Statuten der Begifte off Laibroeders Ordens
des heiligen Graeffs ons Heren (1638); vgl. Hereswitha, De priorij (n. 181), 763767. ra
Gelderland, Arnheim, Arch. Heeren en Graven van Culemborg, 8046: Statuta quaedam
ordinis ff. S. Sepulcri, fol. 25.
150 Constitutiones in generalis capitulis ordinis canonicorum regularium Custodum S. Sepulchri
D. Hierosolymitani Miechoviaeannis 1585 et 1587 et 1598 celebratis sancitae (1598);
Constitutiones primi Capituli generalis Ord. Can. Reg. Custodum S. Sepulchri Domini
Hierosolymitani (1620); Constitutiones secundi generalis Capituli Miechoviensis Ord.
Canon. Hierosolymitani (1627); ad Barcelona, S. Ana, Co-2: Libre del more de la insigne
Iglesia de Sta. Anna.
151 Hereswitha, Documenten (n. 12), 489: Item cum ordo noster sit clericalis et fundatus super
statutis sacrorum canonum, ideo de iure communi dicimus quod layci sive conversi non sunt
ad aliquem actum legitimum admittendi.
80 chapter 2

prayer confraternities,152 and allowed fraternally-organized lay organizations153


access to worship at the Holy Sepulcher. But dependence on older traditions
(which can in fact be observed in matters of inheritance and liturgy, for exam-
ple) was in no way a precondition for the organization of the Church of the
Holy Sepulcher. The first patriarchs, along with the first dignitaries of the chap-
ter, were by virtue of their heritage well acquainted with Western monastic and
canonical traditions,154 and it is this that most easily explains the forms of orga-
nization they chose to adopt. Arnulf of Chocques was, as has been shown,155
shaped by the schools and the monastic life of Normandy; Patriarch Ebremar
felt himself closely bound to the reformer Lambert of Arras;156 Gibelin modeled
his efforts at reform after the churches of Lyon and Reims;157 until hisdeparture
for the Holy Land, Prior Gerhard, who was so important for the chapter, had as

152 mgh Epp. iv, 350351, no. 210: Alcuin to Patriarch George of Jerusalem. Gallia Christiana
xiii, 141: Contract of Patriarch Sergius with Moissac and Cluny. Cf. A. Gieysztor, The
Genesis of the Crusades. The Encyclical of Sergius iv, Med. et Ren. 6 (1950), 25ff.; J.
Bousquet, La fondation de Villeneuve-dAveyron, Annales du Midi 75 (1963), 538539:
Commitment of Patriarch Sophronius to pray for the church of Villeneuve dAveyron, a
dependency of the Holy Sepulcher. For an overview of the relationships between
Jerusalem and the Latin West up to the Crusades: J. Ebersolt, Orient et Occident (1928), i,
89ff.; A. Michel, Der kirchliche Wechselverkehr zwischen West und Ost vor dem ver-
schrften Schisma des Kerullarios (1054), Ostkirchl. Studien 1 (1967), 161ff.
153 T.P. Thelemis, Les Grecs aux Lieux Saint, Nea Sion 15 (1920), 403ff.; S. Ptrides, Spudaei
et Philopones, Echos dOrient 7 (1904), 341ff.; J. Duhr, La confrrie dans la vie de lglise,
Rev. dhist. eccl. 35 (1939), 446ff.
154 On the patriarchs of Jerusalem and the members of the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher: F.
Khn, Geschichte der ersten lateinischen Patriarchen von Jerusalem (1886); R. Rhricht, (n.
116), 4248; L. De Mas Latrie, Les patriarches latins de Jrusalem, Rev. de lOrient latin 1,
(1893), 17ff.; W. Hotzelt, Kirchengeschichte Palstinas im Zeitalter der Kreuzzge 10991291
(1940), 5ff.; R. Hiestand, Chronologisches zur Geschichte des Knigreiches Jerusalem um
1130, da 26 (1970), 226ff.
155 C.W. David, Robert Curthose. Duke of Normandy (1920); R. Foreville, Lcole de Caen au
XIme sicle et les origines normandes de luniversit dOxford, tudes mdivales offertes
M. le Doyen Augustin Fliche (1953), 8191; Idem, Un chef de la prmiere croisade: Arnoul
Malecouronne, Bull. phil. et hist. du comit des travaux hist. et scient. (1953/54), 377390;
Cf. also: R. Musset, Observations sur les collgiales Normandes au XIe sicle, Rev. hist. de
droit (1959), 267ff.
156 On origins: D. Moeller, Les Flamands du Ternois au royaume latin de Jrusalem, Melanges
Paul Fredericq (1904), 194195, and on the meaning of the relationship with Lambert
dArras: L. Duflot, La restauration du sige episcopal dArras (1898); H. Sproemberg, Die
Grndung des Bistums Arras im Jahre 1094 (Album E. Lauss, 1962). Cf. n. 36.
157 Rozire (n. 1), 79. On his activity as bishop of Arles and temporary administrator of the
diocese of Avignon: M. Constantin, La sainte glise dAix et Arles (1898), ii, 251; E. Granget,
Histoire de diocse dAvignon (1862), ii, 369. On canonical reform in Lyon and Reims: Ch.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 81

abbot of Schaffhausen stood at the center of the circles associated with the
Hirsau reform;158 the canon Ansellus maintained close ties to his home in
Paris.159 Ties of this kind explain not only adoption of older monastic institu-
tions like prayer confraternities and oblation,160 but also the monastic and
canonical reforming spirit that allowed the acceptance of laity, whether men or
women, into the claustrum.161 And it should be said, in the interest of being
thorough, that the shaping force of Western models was not limited to the
members of the chapter. The faithful, too, who advanced the cause and associ-
ated themselves with it, allowed themselves to be led by religious practices,162

Dereine, Vie commune, rgle de Saint Augustin et chanoines rguliers au XIe sicle, Rev.
dhist. eccl. 41, (1946), 366, 375.
158 K. Schib, Das Buch der Stifter des Klosters Allerheiligen (1934), 27ff.; F.L. Baumann, Das Kloster
Allerheiligen in Schaffhausen, Quellen zur Schweizer Geschichte 3, (1883), 146ff.; H. Jnichen,
Die schwbische Verwandtschaft des Abtes Adalbert von Schaffhausen 10991124,
Schaffhauser Beitrge zur vaterlndischen Geschichte 35 (1958), 67ff.; A. Mettler, Laienmnche,
Laienbrder, Conversen besonders bei den Hirsauern, Wrtt. Vierteljahreshefte f.
Landesgesch. 41 (1935), 239ff.; H. Jacobs, Die Hirsauer. Ihre Ausbreitung und Rechtsstellung im
Zeitalter des Investiturstreites (Klner Hist. Abh. 4, 1961), 23ff. Cf. also: J. Fechter, Cluny, Adel
und Volk. Studien ber das Verhltnis des Klosters zu den Stnden 9101156 (1966), 16ff.
159 Cf. along with the literature cited in n. 23: G. Birkner, Notre-Dame Cantoren und
Succentoren vom Ende des X. bis zu Beginn des xiv. Jahrhunderts, In memoriam J.
Handschin (1962), 107.
160 Cf. n. 6.
161 In place of further proof it is enough to reference: I laici (n. 6). Especially: G. Tellenbach, Il
monachesimo riformato ed i laici nei secoli XI e XII, 118ff.; C.D. Fonseca, I conversi nelle
comunitit canonicali, 262ff.; N. Huyghebaert, Les femmes laques dans la vie religieuse
des XIe et XIIe sicles dans la province ecclsiastique de Reims, 346ff.; Fechter, (n. 158).
162 J.C. Anderssohn, The Ancestry and Life of Godfrey of Bouillon (1947). In this connection cf.
the memorial service for Godfrey in Lyon and Saint-Nicaise de Meulan: M.-C. Guigue,
Obituarium Lugdunensis Ecclesiae (1867), 73; A. Molinier, Obituaires de la Province de
Sens ii: Dioc. de Chartres (rhgf, Obit. ii 1906), 240; C. Blanc, Les pratiques de pit des
lacs dans les pays du Bas-Rhne aux XIe et XIIe sicles, Annales du Midi 72, (1960)
137147; E. Pasztor, Sulle origini della vita comune del clero in Ungheria, (La vita
comune del clero, n. 7) ii, 7179; J. Kloczowski, Les chanoines en Pologne aux XIeXIIe
sicles, ibid., 6670; J. Szymanski, Problemes de la vita canonica dans la Pologne des
XIIe et XIIIe sicles, Aevum 38, (1964), 468478. Here it is interesting to note that Jaksa
von Miechw was not only the founder of the cloister of the same name, but also
founder and patron of the Praemonstratensian canonry of Zwierzyniec and of the
Benedictine abbey of Sieciechowie: Polski Stownik Biograficzny 10 (196264), 340341.
For the close ties of the founder of Denkendorf to All Saints in Schaffhausen and the
reforming circles of Hirsau: Jnichen (n. 158), 67ff. For early ties in Perugia to the Abbey
of S. Pietro there: M. Belucci, Rapporti nel xii secolo fra lAbbazia di S. Pietro in Perugia
e lOspedale di S. Pietro del S. Sepolcro, Boll. Dep. St. Patria Umbria 44, (1967), 6973.On
82 chapter 2

legal norms163 and forms of organization164 that had been known in their
homeland for ages, or that they had come to know in the wake of the ecclesiasti-
cal renewal of their era.
The ties with western monastic and canonical life that emerged organically
at the beginning of the twelfth century remained strong through the rest of the
century. And their broader developmentthe celebration of the liturgy, the
ordering of cloister life and the communitys methods of household manage-
mentcannot be understood apart from the influence of the western churches
and monastic congregations, to which patriarchs, priors and canons remained
bound through ties of heritage165 and geographical proximity.166 The case of
Patriarch Fulcher provides the most revealing evidence of this dependence: in
the middle of the twelfth century, as he undertook a reordering of not only the
liturgy but also of monastic life, he took as his model (as had been done before
him) the Western European canonical congregations167 in this case the stat-
utes of the Premonstratensians.168

the crusaders of southern France and their relations with Cluny, among others, A. Fliche,
Urbain ii. et la croisade, Rev. dhist. egl. de France 13 (1927), 295ff.; Fechter (n. 161), 102ff.;
H.E.J. Cowdrey, The Cluniacs and the Gregorian Reform (1970), 67 and especially J.H.
HillL.C. Hill, Raymond de Saint-Gilles, comte de Toulouse, Bibl. Mridionale. Fac.
Lettres Toulouse ii, 35 (1959).
163 J. Orlandis, Traditio corporis et animae. Laicos y monasterios en la Alta Edad Media espa-
iola (Estudios sobre instituciones monasticas medievales, 1971), 219378; F.-L. Ganshof,
tude sur les ministeriales en Flandre et en Lotharingie (1926), 167ff.
164 Along with n. 43 cf. for example: A. Eckhof, De questierders van den aflaat in de noordelijke
Nederlanden (1909); P. HliotM.L. Chastany, Qutes et voyages de reliques au profit des
glises franaises du Moyen ge, Rev. dhist. eccl. 59 (1964), 60 (1965) 789822 and 532.
165 Cf. along with Rhricht (n. 116), 4248, the names of patriarchs and priors in the obituar-
ies of Franciscan churches and cloisters: A. Molinier, Obituaires de la Province de Sens i,1:
Dioc. de Sens et de Paris (rhgf, Obit. i, 1902) 164, 472; Idem., ibid. ii, 71, 230, 232; Boutillier
du RetailPitresson de Saint-Aubin, Obit. Provo Sens iv (ibid. iv, 1923), 292; G.
GuigueJ. Laurent, Obituaires de la Province de Lyon i (ibid. v, 1951), 345; J. LaurentP.
Gras, Obit. Provo Lyon ii (ibid. vi, 1965), 470.
166 M. Geudens, LOrdre de Prmontr en Palestine et en Chypre, Rev. de lOrdre de Prmontr
et de ses missions 16 (1914), 35ff.; N. Backmund, Monasticon Praemonstratense i (1949), 397,
404405. On Cteaux, among others: E. Pfeiffer, Beziehungen deutscher Cistercienser
und ihrer Klster zu Kreuz- und Pilgerfahrten nach dem Hlg. Land, 11001300, Cistercien
serchronik 47 (1935), 269ff.
167 Influences from St. Rufus are assumed, though not demonstrated, in A. Carier De Belleuse,
Abbayes et prieures de lordre de Saint Ruf, Etudes et doc. sur lordre de Saint Ruf i (1933),
and Ch. Dereine, Saint Ruf et ses coutumes aux XIe et XIIe sicles, Rev. Bened. 59 (1949), 163.
168 Discussion of the connections between the constitutions of the Holy Sepulcher and the
statutes of the Praemonstratensians found in: P. Lefvre, Prmontr, ses origines, sa
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 83

The chapter of the Holy Sepulcher was not the only institution of the Latin
Church in Palestine that looked to and in a certain way developed in harmony
with Western models. From the beginning of the twelfth century, all of the
institutions characteristic of that interdependence (prayer confraternities and
other fraternal associations, oblates, conversi) were adopted (and modified
according to circumstance and tradition) by other canonries in Jerusalem and
the Holy Land,169 by Benedictines on Mount Tabor170 and in the valley of
Jehoshaphat,171 by the Templars172 and Hospitalers,173 the Lazarites174 and the

permire liturgie, les relations de son code lgislatif avec Citeaux et les chanoines du
Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem, Anal. Praem. 25 (1949), 96103; M. Hereswitha, Het ver-
band tussen de wetgeving van de Heilig-Graforde en die van de Orde van Premontre in
de XIIe eeuw, ibid. 47 (1971), 523.
169 Rhricht (n. 116), 41ff.; J. Soyer, Les actes des souverains antrieurs au XIVe sicle
conservs dans les archives dpartementales du Loiret, Le bibliographe moderne 18 (1916
17), 63, No. ix, 69, 7475, No. xii; A. Bruel, Chartes dAdam, Abb de N.-D. du Mont-Sion,
concernant Gerard, vque de Valanea et le prieure de Saint-Samson dOrleans, Rev. de
lOrient latin 10 (190304), 910 (1289); J. Ramackers, Papsturkunden in Frankreich nf 6,
Abh. Akad. Wiss. Gttingen, Phil.-hist. Kl. iii, 41 (1958), 213217, No. 149; J. Delaville le
Roulx, Les archives, la bibliothque et le trsor de lOrdre de Saint-Jean de Jrusalem (1883),
76, 118.
170 Comte Riant, Quatre pices relatives lOrdre Teutonique en Orient, Archives de lOrient
latin 1 (1884), 165; Prawer (n. 64), 1111, n. 4.
171 H.-F. Delaborde, Chartes de Terre Sainte provenant de labbaye de N.-D. de Josaphat, Bibl.
Des coles fran. dAthenes et de Rome 19 (1880) 23, 2627, 4749, 8485, 9294; Idem,
Chartes de labbaye de Notre-Dame de la valle de Josaphat en Terre-Sainte (11081291),
Revue de lOrient latin 7 (1900), 138.
172 Marquis DAlbon, Cartulaire gnral de lordre du Temple 1119?-1150 (1913), 97, 105, 131,
144ff.; A.J. Forey, The Templars in the Corona de Aragn (University of Durham
Publications, 1973), 3637, 376377; E. Magnau, Oblature, dasse chevaleresque et ser-
vage dans les maisons mridionales du Temple au XIIme sicle, Annales du Midi 73
(1961), 377397.
173 J. Delaville Le Roulx, Cartulaire general de lordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jerusalem
11001310 (18941906), i: 22, 29, 39, 82, 102ff.; C.H.C. Flugi Yan Aspermont, De Johanniter-
Orde in het Heilige Land 11001292, Van Gorcums Historische Bibliotheek 54 (1957), 87ff.; J.
Riley-Smith, The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus c. 10501310, A History of the
Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem i (1967), 229ff.; B. Waldstein-Wartenberg,
Donaten-Confratres-Pfrndner. Die Bruderschaften des Ordens, Annales de lOSM de
Malte 31 (1973), 919.
174 A. De Marsy, Fragment dun cartulaire de lordre de Saint Lazare en Terre Sainte, Archives
de lOrient latin 2 (1884): 131, 139, 147. On the character of the Order: E. Visnay, Les lpreux
et les chevaliers de Saint-Lazare de Jrusalem et de Notre-Dame de Mont Carmel (1884);
84 chapter 2

Teutonic Knights,175 by chapters like those in Bethlehem,176 Nazareth177 and


Sidon.178 This openness, characteristic not only of ecclesiastical affairs but of
political, economic and social matters as well,179 did not wane in the thirteenth
century. The chapter of the Holy Sepulcher, like the church of Palestine and
Syria as a whole, remained a full participant in the ongoing development of
western religious life and its corporations,180 such that even upon the loss of
the Holy Land its members did not find themselves foreigners forced into a
European exile.

P.Bertrand, Histoire des chevaliers hospitaliers de St.-Lazare (1932); R. Petiet, Contributions


lhistoire de lordre de St.-Lazare en France, 1914.
175 E. Strehlke, Tabulae Ordinis Theutonici (1869), 7374ff.; M. Tumler, Der Deutsche Orden im
Werden, Wachsen und Wirken bis 1400 (1955), 383ff.
176 P. Riant, tudes sur lhistoire de lglise de Bethlem (1889), 96ff.; Idem, claircissements
sur quelques points de lhistoire de lglise de Bethlem-Ascalon, Revue de lOrient latin 1
(1893), 400.
177 Santeramo (n. 48) iv, 120: Prior, capitulum, clerici offerti et confratres ipsius eccl. Nazarene.
193: habitus confratrie de Nazaret. Idem, Canne-Nazareth-Barletta. Vescovi e archivescovi
(1940).
178 Delaborde (n. 171), 8485, 9294.
179 Cf. for example J.L. La Monte, Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 11001291,
Medieval Acad. of America 34 (1932); J. Richard, Le royaume latin de Jerusalem (1953); J.
Prawer, Histoire du royaume latin de Jrusalem, (19691970), iii; H.G. Preston, Rural
Conditions in the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1903); Prawer, Colonization Activities (n. 64);
Idem, tude de quelques problemes agraires et sociaux dune seigneurie croise au XIIIe
sicle, Byzantion 2223 (19521953), 561, 143170; Idem, Les premiers temps de la fo-
dalit du royaume latin de Jrusalem, Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis 22 (1954), 402
424; Idem, La noblesse et le rgime fodal du royaume latin de Jrusalem, Le Moyen ge
65 (1959).
180 L. Lemmens, Die Franziskaner im hl. Lande i, Franzisk. Studien, Beih. 4, 2nd ed. (1925); M.
Roncaglia, Storia della provincia di Terra Santa i (1954); Idem, Saint Francis in the Middle
East, 3rd ed. (1957); B. Altaner, Die Dominikanermission des 13. Jahrhunderts, Breslauer
Stud. zur hist. Theologie 3 (1922); B. v. Luijk, Le monde Augustinien du XIIIe au XIXe sicle
(1972), 43; C. Cicconetti, La regola del Carmelo. Origine-natura-significato, Textus et Studia
Historica Carmelitana xii (1973); G.M. Giacomozzi, LOrdine della Penitenza di Gesu Cristo.
Contributo alla storia della spiritualit del sec. xiii, Scrinium historiale 2 (1962), 46; J.
Richard, La confrrie des Mosserins d Acre et les marchands de Mossul au XIIIe sicle,
LOrient Syrien 11 (1966), 451; J. Riley-Smith, A Note on Confraternities in the Latin
Kingdom of Jerusalem, Bull. of the Inst. of Hist. Research 44 (1971), 301308. On the politi-
cal role of the confraternities: J. Prawer, Estates, Communities and the Constitution of the
Latin Kingdom, Proc. of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities ii, 6 (1966) Cf.
also: H.E. Mayer da 27 (1971), 615616.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 85

iv

The emergence of independent communities of canonesses of the Holy


Sepulcher was a result neither of developments in the Holy Land nor of any
particular brand of crusading sentiment. As we understand it thus far, the
development instead belongs to the history of the European continent. And it
unfolded within two different episodes, each of them in an era when interest
in crusading and the Holy Land had long since faded in comparison to the
excitement surrounding the crusades in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.181
In early 1306, as the prior of the Holy Sepulcher undertook a round of visita-
tions through Aragon, he learned of a novus locus sororum seu fratrissarum in
Saragossa182 that, according to his own statements, had been founded by the

181 The contributions of Herve-Bazin, Helyot und Heimbucher to the history of the female
branch (n.4) are outdated. Hereswitha, De Vrouwenkloosters (n. 4) and the studies that
followed this work are foundational for the womens settlements established in the wake
of the reform of the orders in the fifteenth century: Idem, De Orde van het H. Graf in onze
streken tot aan de hervorming van Jan van Abroek (Miscellanea Historica in honorem
Alberti de Meyer, 1946) 457ff.; Idem, De Orde van het Heilig Graf in de Nederlanden tot
aan de Franse revolutie, Taxandria 3 (1951), 120ff.; Idem, De Sint-Martinuskapel te
Bierbeek, Eigen Schoonen-de Brabander 51 (1968), 122141; Idem, De priorij van de reguli-
ere kanunniken van het Heilig-Graf te Sint-Odilienberg 14671639, Augustiniana 21 (1971),
267320, 725769. E. Pleissner, Die Entwicklung des weiblichen Zweiges des Heilig
Grabordens bis zur Grndung des Hauses in Baden-Baden, 1670, (manuscript, 1933), passes
over the medieval phase of the history of the order. A.-M. Sevene, Les Chanoinesses et les
Dames de lOrdre du Saint-Sepulcre de Jrusalem (Les Chevaliers du Saint-Sepulcre par
S.A.R. Le Prince Xavier de Bourbon-Parme, 1957), 85ff. makes no distinction between the
chapter and the later knighthood of the Holy Sepulcher. K. Elm, Die Frauen vom Hlg. Grab
und das Kapitel der Grabbasilika von Jerusalem in Mittelalter und Neuzeit, offers a sum-
mary contribution for the celebration of the 300-year anniversary of the establishment of
the community of the Holy Sepulcher in Baden-Baden (1970). We still do not have a his-
tory of the older female settlements. This is especially the case for Spanish houses, whose
not-inconsiderable archival records (ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sepulcro de Calatayud, de
Zaragoza; Archivo Col. de Calatayud; Archivo S. Sepulcro de Zaragoza) are cited only
occasionally, if at all, in the surveys: Establecimientos de la Sagrada Orden Militar y
Pontificia del S. Sepulcro. Memorias de la misma Orden desde su fundacin hasta al pre-
sente, 1893, 277315; C. De Odrizola y Grimaud, Monasterio del S. Sepulcro de N.S. Jesucristo
de Zaragoza. Memorias histricas referentes al mismo monasterio (1908); L. De La Figuera,
El convento del santo Sepulcro (El Noticiero 1924); R. Del Arco, Zaragoza histrica.
Evocaciones y noticias (1928).
182 Espaa Sagrada 50, 455.
86 chapter 2

high noblewoman Marquise Gil de Rada, a daughter of Teobaldos ii of Navarre,


after the death of her spouse Petro Fernndez de Hijar, a natural son of James
I of Aragon.183 A week later, on May 20, 1306, he had occasion to approve the
foundation of a novum monasterium near the church of St. Mark in Calatayud.
There the noblewoman Doa Guillerma Gil de Tarin, widow of Don Guillermo
Ramn de Lian, lord of Sestrica, had resolved to live a life with other sorores
according to the regularis observantia of the order.184 Yet these womens com-
munities in Saragossa and Calatayud were not as recently founded as they
might seem given the turns of phrase used by the prior and chapter, novus
locus and novum monasterium. The Marquise de Rada, who had died before the
visit of the prior, had until her death held the powers of gubernatio ac praela-
tura over the congregation, which had established itself in one of her fathers
territories. The foundation of the womens community in Saragossa must have
been settled, if not (as some authors claim)185 in 1276, then at least two or three
years before the visitation by the prior of the Holy Sepulcher. And this assump-
tion of a founding between 1300 and 1303 is in fact confirmed in the sources.
The datum quo ante is revealed in a testament of the Marquise (issued on
February 28, 1304) in which she makes a number of generous donations to the
congregation in Saragossa, to which belonged a number of fratrissae, some of
them from her own family.186 The datum post quem, on the other hand, can be
discerned in light of a charter of oblation from November 13, 1300, in which the
noblewoman offered herself con el cuerpo e con la anima, and donated to it the
church of S. Mara de la Villa Viella in Hjar (which belonged to an allod of her
husband), with the intention of founding a community for sisters and brothers

183 On the family of the founder and her spouse: J. De Blancas, Comentarios de las casas de
Aragn, (1878), 150; Vilar y Pascual, Diccionario histrico, genealgico y herldico iv (1900),
264ff.; A.-A. Garcia Carraffa, Diccionario herldico de apellidos Espaioles y Americanos
xli (1932), 250ff., 264; lxxiv (1955), 150ff.; M.D. Quiroga, Filiacin genealgica y curiosos
permenores de la casa de Rada, Principe de Viana 16 (1955), 411460.
184 Espaa Sagrada 40, 454455; V. De la Fuente, Historia de la siempre augusta y fidelissima
Ciudad de Calatayud (1880) ii, 444; M. Martnez del Villar, Tratado del patronato y antige-
dades de Calatayud (1598); J. Gonzalez Ayala, Cannigos del Santo Sepulcro en Jrusalen y
Calatayud (1970), 107ff. On the history of the building, erected on the Roman city walls: G.
De Gotor, Zaragoza artistica y monumental (1890); A. Navarro, Zaragoza, aportacon a su
geografa urbana (1957); R. del Arco (n. 181), 24ff.; F. Abbad-Rios, Catalogo monumental de
Espaa: Zaragoza (1957), 108ff.; F.B. Torralba, Gua artistica de Aragn (1960), 100.
185 J. Zurita, Annales de la Corona de Aragn (1669ff.), iii, 101. The date has become virtually
commonplace in the literature, albeit without any evidence being provided.
186 Odrizola y Grimaud (n. 181) 13ff.; M. De Bofaruell y de Sartorio, El Registro del Merino de
Zaragoza, el Caballero Don Gil Tarin 12911312 (1889), 287.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 87

of the Holy Sepulcher, in which she herself intended also to enter as freira et
sierva.187 The 1304 testament also reveals that this plan did not come to frui-
tion, but was instead given up in favor of another foundation, namely that of
the community in Saragossawhose establishment may thus be estimated to
have been only after 1300. In the case of the womens cloister in Calatayud,
there is no doubt about the official founding in the year 1306. Just as certain,
however, is that the community of women who settled in the new cloister was
of older origins. On May 20, 1306, Doa Guillerma declared herself ready to
endow the ecclesia, ortus et domus Sancti Marchi that belonged to the chapter
of the Holy Sepulcher in Calatayud so strongly that a community could be
established there, and she herself was a novice there at the time. In fact she
had already begun to wear the habitus ordinis, but had not yet offered up her
solemn profession. Nor had she passed the time of her novitiate alone, but
rather cum sororibus secum degentibus, hoping that with the foundation of a
community they would be able to follow the regularis observantia in a more
fruitful and salutary way than before. Moreover, given the fact that from 1144 in
Calatayud there was a house of the Holy Sepulcher, its main foundation in
Aragon, it seems reasonable to assume that the noble novice and her sorores
had, until the establishment of their own community, lived their religious life,
if not in community with those canons, then at least in very close contact with
them. Thus the foundation charter of May 20, 1306 appears with a certain prob-
ability to have been an act of dividing an established community of canon-
esses and canons.188
The convents of Saragossa and Calatayud are the oldest womens communi-
ties of the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher.189 Decades before their foundation,
however, women in Bohemia had begun to live according to the observance of
the chapter: The canonesses of Svetec, or Schwaz,190 whose community was
established northwest of Bilin in the region of Telpitz-Schnau.191 The date and
the circumstance of the founding of the community is not as clearly discern-
ible as is the case with the Spanish houses noted above. It is not from the

187 Odrizola y Grimaud, 121.


188 ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sero de Calatayud, Doc. Eccl., Carp. 4, Nr. 26.
189 Cf. n. 181.
190 J. Svtek, Z djin konventu du svatho hrobu ve Svtci u Bliny (Zprvy studie o blastniho
valstivdnho muzea y Teplicich, 1969), 918 was not available to me. J. Hart, Deutsche
Ordensfrauen in den bhmischen Lndern,Arch. fr Kirchengeschichte von Bhmen-
Mhren-Schlesien 2 (1971), 88113 is, in light of Svtek, in need of correction.
191 On the location: A. ProfousV. Svoboda, Mstn jmna v echch. Jejich vznik, pvodn
vznam a zmny (1957), iv, 246.
88 chapter 2

s urviving documents of the cloister Svetec itself, but rather from an entry made
in the thirteenth century in the necrology of the Premonstratensian commu-
nity of Doxan, that we learn of a Bohemian noblewoman named Wratislava,
who can be taken as its founder.192 Already in the middle of the last century it
was seen as probable that the fundatrix cenobii Swetensis in the necrology of
Doxan was Wratislava, the spouse of the richly-endowed Kojata von Brx in
northwest Bohemia.193 In 1227 this childless nobleman, closely related to the
lords of Hasenburg and Schwabenitz,194 had willed his spouse life tenancy of
certain lands near Teplitz and Brx, under the condition that upon her death
they were to be given over to the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher.195 From this
evidence it was concluded that the foundation, witnessed for certain by 1257,196
had been founded shortly after 1227.197 One thing may have proved decisive in
motivating Wratislava to found a womens community of the chapter Holy
Sepulcher after her husbands death (and, possibly, to have adopted its way of
life as a soror): Already before 1227, Kojata and his brother Vsebor had donated
to the chapter (along with large estates in Bohemia and Moravia)198 the church
of St. Peter at Zderas near Prague199 and so became the founders of the most
important settlement of the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher in Bohemia.200
Quite independently of modern research on the religious orders, local histo-
rians of Speyer have since the seventeenth century told of a community of
cloistered virgins in their city, founded in the second half of the twelfth cen-
tury, that had maintained close ties to the Holy Sepulcher. And according to a
few witnesses, it was in fact a community of canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher.201

192 J. Emler, Necrologium Doxanense (sb. Bhm. Ges. d. Wiss., Phil.-hist. Kl. 1884, 1885), 89.
193 F. Palack, Djiny nrodu eskho v echch i v Morav (1894), i, 422423. Also: V. Novotn,
esk djiny (1928), i, 3, 613; J.V. imk, esk djiny (1938), i, 5, 617.
194 On the familial relationships: rbm (n. 43) ii, 95, 761, 914, 929, iii, 7, 920, 334 etc.
195 G. Friedrich et al., Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris regni Bohemiae et Moraviae (= cdb),
1904ff., ii, 300302.
196 rbm (n. 43) ii, 60.
197 Cf. n. 193.
198 cdb (n. 195) ii, 239242, 269271, 300302.
199 V.E. Mourek, Kronika Dalimilova, 2nd ed. (1910), 99; V. Chaloupecky, in: Praha romansk
(1948) 41, 96.
200 Still provisionally on the history of Zderas: W. Tomek, Geschichte der Stadt Prag (1855), i:
490497, 438439; M. Lssner, O pozustich kltera a kostela Zderazskho na Novm
Meste Prazskm, Method 12 (1925), 61ff.
201 Ch. Lehmann, Chronica der Freyen Reichs-Statt Speyr (1612), 570. See also, among others:
F.X. Rhiling, Urkundliche Geschichte der ehem. Abteien und Klster im jetzigen Rheinbayern
(1836) ii, 168169; G.J.W. Wagner, Die vormaligen Stifte im Groherzogtum Hessen (1878) ii,
4748; L. Stamer, Pflzische Kirchengeschichte (1949) ii, 13.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 89

According to ancient writings, their community was said to have been


founded by two citizens of Speyer in the time of Conrad iii near a church in a
suburb of the old town. They had the church built upon their return from a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in the same form and model as the church of
Jerusalem and the memorial site of the burial of the Lord Christ. The report,
which if accurate would be of greatest significance for the history of the canon-
esses of the Holy Sepulcher, is not lacking in historical foundation. Until its
total destruction in 1689 there had in fact existed a most interesting and
important Romanesque building that, according to surviving representations
of the city can be seen as an imitation of the Anastasis.202 A charter issued in
1207 by bishop Conrad of Speyer, moreover, provides proof that in this church
(which Frederick ii in 1214 described explicitly as ecclesia Sancti Sepulcri apud
Spiram) there was in fact a conventiculum of mulieres, that is, a womens con-
vent.203 The claim that these women were sisters of the chapter of the Holy
Sepulcher cannot be made with equal certainty. An act of Bishop Conrad
speaks against this: in 1207, when he handed the church over to the Canons of
the Sepulcher in Denkendorf for the establishment of a filial foundation, the
bishop made the stipulation that before establishing their own community the
brothers were to take care of the women, or transfer them ad alia conventicula
eiusdem professionis cum earum voluntatewhich would suggest that the
women followed an observance other than that of the Holy Sepulcher.204 A
necrology produced for the Speyer foundation in the fourteenth century con-
tains a series of entries that may provide clues as to the relationships between
the younger male community and the older womens community.205 The
entries provide the names of almost twenty women described explicitly as
sorores nostrae. For a few of them, additional commentary and other docu-
mentary evidence make clear that they belonged to the confraternity of the
chapter, or had associated with it as oblatae, conversae or beguinae.206 Apart
from these instances there remain eight women, of which seven are described
tersely as soror nostra, one as custos ecclesie nostre. Since there have until now
been no discoveries of further documents that would establish the relation-
ships of these women to the chapter more precisely, it seems reasonable to
assume that they were members of the older convent, whose names (along
with those of the other thirteenth-century faithful) were taken up into the

202 B.H. Rttger, Die Kunstdenkmler der Pfalz iii (1934), 521ff.; A. Becker, Die Prozession zum
Hlg. Grab in Speyer, Pflzisches Museum 20 (1903), 155156.
203 Wrtt. Urkundenbuch ii, 356357; iii, 1112.
204 Ibid. iii, 1112.
205 HStA Mnchen, Allg. Archiv, Wrtt. Extr. Verz. 35, A 23, fol. 6, 6v, 8, 10v, 12, 17, 19, 20, 20v.
206 HStA Stuttgart, A 480, H 1415, 51, fol. 31 (1277), fol. 55 (1306), fol. 63 (1313) etc.
90 chapter 2

necrology. The assumption can be grounded in a stipulation of Bishop Conrad,


according to which women not to be accommodated in alia conventicula eius-
dem religionis were to be cared for in necessariis tam corporis quam anime
amanter et diligenter. The simplest way to fulfill that demand would have been
to leave the nuns in the church and to accept them into the established com-
munity, even into the actual order. Such an interpretation might solve some of
the problems of the early history of a Speyer convent of Sepulchrians, but it
is insufficient to prove the local historians thesis that the convent founded in
the middle of the twelfth century by the ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri apud Spiram
was a community of Canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher.
The independent convents of canonesses of the Sepulcher discussed thus
far were directly subject, just as the male communities of the order, to the juris-
diction and administrative authority of the prior of the Holy Sepulcher.207
Their superiors, in Spain called priorissae, in Bohemia magistrae,208 were
invested by the prior per anulum,209 and obligated by an oath (in form identi-
cal to that rendered by the canons in Jerusalem in the twelfth century) to be
faithful and obedient to the church and chapter of Jerusalem.210 The sorores,
too, indeed even the conversae and oblatae that we know were in the womens
convents, were directly subject to the archprior by oaths of fidelity and obedi-
ence. The sorores swore the oath of obedience that was constitutive of their
estate (based on a twelfth-century formula for profession) to him (and not, for
example, their local superior).211 The conversi and oblates, for their part, were
bound to prior and chapter in the sense that only he possessed the right

207 Cf. among others Espaa Sagrada 50, 456457 (1306): Nos prioris praedicti et successorum
eius et capituli Jerosolimitani jurisdictioni vel eorum focum vices gerentibtus subjicientes et
eorum mandatis licitis et honestis humiliter promittimus obedire.
208 rbm (n. 43) iii, 32, 62, 79ff., which reveals that in Svetec, alongside the office of Magistra
there was also the priorissa subject to her.
209 Monasterio del Santo Sepulcro, Zaragoza, Archivo, Secco C., Nt. 1, fol. 42ff.: Officium
quando confertur primatus alicui sorori electe in priorissam (before 1348). For S. Marco in
Calatayud cf. Arch. Col. del S. Sep., Calatayud, Urk. 1. 10 (1312).
210 Ibid., fol. 4747v: Ego priorissa N. ab hac hora in antea fidelis ero sancte ieherosolimitane
ecclesie domnoque nostro priori eiusque successoribus canonice intrantibus. Non ero in con-
silio necque in facto, ut vitam perdat aut membrum vel capiatur mala captione consilium.
Quod mihi aut per se aut per litteras aut per nuncium manifestabit, ad eius dampnum nulli
pendam et patriarche ierosolimitane ecclesie et regulis sanctorum patrum adiutrix ero ad
deffendendum et retinendum salvo ordine meo contra omnes personas. For comparison,
Rozire (n. 1), 12.
211 Ibid., fol. 1ff.: LOrden, que se deve tener para dar el abito a una religiosa del sco. Sepulcro.
Ibid., fol. 36vf.: Ordo ad canonicum val sororem benedicendum vel professionem faciendum.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 91

(repeatedly and emphatically reclaimed in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-


turies) to accept conversi and to provide victus et vestitus to oblates.212 In fact,
however, this right was exercised through vicars who carried out the duties of
the prior in ultramarinis partibus.213 Since the power of the vicar was normally
in the hands of the superiors of the larger filial congregations, the women of
Saragossa, Calatayud and Svetec, apart from their official subordination to the
archprior, were in fact subject to the governance of those superiors. In accor-
dance with that custom, during his visit to Aragon the prior of the Holy
Sepulcher conferred upon the prior of Calatayud the right to appoint and
install the prioresses of the womens communities, to shroud the nuns with
their veils and to accept their profession, and to reform the communities tam
in capite quam in membris.214 Subordination to the local canonries was only
intensified through the associated duties of pastoral supervision. In Calatayud
those duties were assumed directly by members of the chapter.215 From the
beginning of the fourteenth century there is evidence in Svetec of canons
installed as priors or procurators by the provost in Zderas.216 In Saragossa the
spiritual leadership of the women was undertaken by canons from Calatayud.
At first the canons lived together with the women, but from the 1360s they
claimed their own monasterium near St. Nicholas in Saragossa, a church that
had been incorporated into the womens community.217
Among women who hailed from the circles of the high nobility and who
enjoyed royal protection, such strict subordination to the superiors of the can-
onries, including renunciation of the right to administer their own monastic
property, was not accepted without resistance.218 That resistance emerged
most forcefully in Bohemia, where at the beginning of the fourteenth century
fierce confrontations flared up between the canons of Zderas and the sisters of
Svetec super terris, possessionibus et rebus aliisconfrontations so fierce, in
fact, that early in the year 1310 the prior and Convent of Zderas thought it nec-
essary to bring their accusations against the Mistress and sisters before the
curia in Avignon. Clement V subsequently transferred the investigation of the

212 ad Barcelona, S. Ana, Carp. 4 (1274 and 1296).


213 Cf, Elm, Quellen (n. 12), 1922.
214 Espaa Sagrada 50, 455 (1306).
215 Ibid., 50, 454 (1306).
216 rbm (n. 43) iii, 476477 (1326); iv, 547548 (1343); iv, 584 (1344).
217 ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sep. de Calatayud: Cd. 872 B: Calage de las Escrituras de la
Iglesia de San Nicolas de Zaragoza y del Convento de las religiosas dc Sepulcro, fol. 61vff.
218 rbm (n. 43) ii, 614 (1287); 806 (1301). Establicimientos (n. 181) 278; H.A. Sedlek, pln
mstopisn slovnk krlovstv eskho (1895), ii, 852853.
92 chapter 2

dispute to the abbot of Knigsaal with the proviso that the case was to be heard
appelatione remota.219 Two years later the prior of Zderas had yet again to turn
to the pope and request support in his fight against the women, who (accord-
ing to his version of events) not only refused to render him honor and obedi-
ence, but in their spirited resistance had afflicted him so greatly that he could
not even dare to meet together with them in the city or in the diocese of
Prague.220 The complaints moved the pope (on July 7, 1313) to empower the
provost of the cathedral chapter of Passau to compel the recalcitrant women,
under threat of ecclesiastical punishment, to render obedience to the prior of
Zderas.221 Six months after this coercive measure the mistress and the convent
declared themselves ready to accept the decision super obediencia, possessioni-
bus, villis, terris, debitis et rebus aliis, which was to be handed down by arbi
trators that had been appointed by both sides.222 It is not known how the
arbitration turned out. But it is certain that the established relationships
between the two communities remained essentially unchanged. In Calatayud
and Saragossa from the middle of the fourteenth century the nuns were able to
acquire from their superiors, the canons of Calatayud, certain concessions
regarding the election of the prioress as well as the administration and use of
their incomes.223 But even here there was no question of releasing the women
from their strict subordination to the priors of Calatayud and their official
power as vicars. The priors also reserved for themselves the right, confirmed by
pope Clement vii in 1378,224 of investiture and visitation; they maintained as
before the last word regarding any alienation of property; and deep in to the
modern era they were able, through the promulgation or revision of constitu-
tions, to determine the daily life and spirituality of the women.225
The daily life and spirituality of the canonesses, who described themselves
as filiae Jerusalem,226 were also powerfully shaped by the example of their
spiritual brethren, the canons of the Holy Sepulcher. Through investiture and

219 rbm (n. 43) ii, 961.


220 Ibid., iii, 32.
221 Ibid., iii, 62.
222 Ibid., iii, 7980.
223 Mon. S. Sepulcro, Zaragoza, Arch. Sec. B, 13b: Constitutiones hechas y ordinadas en visitas
(1641ff.) fol. 11ff. On the attempts of the fratrissae to liberate themselves from their subor-
dination to the prior of Calatayud see V. De La Fuente (Espaa Sagrada 50, 162).
224 ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sep. Calatayud.
225 Cf. n. 229, 243.
226 Espaa Sagrada 50, 456 (1306): promittimussicut filiae Jerusalem Matri Jerosolimitanae
Ecclesiae obtemperare.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 93

profession they obligated themselves, with the same words as their brethren,
to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience according to the Rule of St. Augustine
and the constitutiones ordinis Sepulcri Dominici.227 Therewith they obligated
themselves to a life of prayer lived out day and night in choroa life made
possible only because other women, serving as conversi, took over the menial
duties of daily life for their dominae or Religiosas de Coro, set apart by their
black choral habits.228 The liturgy celebrated in the womens communities was
carried out, as in the mens, secundum consuetudinem Jerosolimitanae eccle-
siaewhich was to say that the honor of the suffering and resurrected savior
was at its center.229 And like their brethren the sisters sought to keep the heart
of their spirituality alive and effective by erecting models of the Holy Sepulcher
in their churches, by founding confraternities of the Sepulcher and the Passion,
by outfitting their churches with indulgences, by working in support of the
Holy Land, and by directing the whole of their spiritual life, through the fulfill-
ment of the liturgy, but also beyond, extending it to the mysteries of the Passion
and the Resurrection.230
The three womens communities of the Holy Sepulcher treated thus far had
different lifespans. The convent of St. Mark in Calatayud, whose incomes were
so meagre that according to one report from 1343 they were barely sufficient for
basic necessities,231 had by 1435 been dissolved for quite some time, iam longe
tempore. In September of the same year, pope Eugenius iv gave permission to
the chapter of Calatayud to occupy the places abandoned by the women.232
Around the same time, the womens cloister in Bohemia seems to have met its
end. In 1421 the Hussites plundered and burned it so badly that the inhabitants
were compelled to seek refuge either among their families or among the
Magdalenes in Brx.233 But the canonesses again returned to Svetec, as they
did after the destruction of their community in the wake of the 1278 invasion

227 See n. 211.


228 See nn. 211, 223, 243.
229 Espaa Sagrada 50, 456457 (1306): Officium ecclesiasticum secundum consuetudinem
jierosolimitanae ecclesiae tenere et servare promittimus, si commode illud poterimus
habere. Liturg. ms in: Mon. S. Sep. Zaragoza, Arch. Sec. Cb, no. 11. Liturgical guidelines for
fratres et sorores in: ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sep. de Calatayud, Doc. eccl., Carp.5, Nr. 58
(1504). Cf. also nn. 2729.
230 Ordizola y Grimaud (n. 181) 20ff.; Establicimientos (n. 181), 296ff.; Olivian Baile, Los
Hermanos (n. 60).
231 hn Madrid, Ord. Mil. S. Sep. de Calatayud, Doc. eccl., Carp. 4, Nr. 26.
232 ahn Madrid, Ordines Mil., S. Sep. de Calatayud, Doc. eccl., Carp. 5, Nr. 41. The last clear
evidence, 1386: Espaa Sagrada 50, 149.
233 V.O. Hloina, esk duchovni ad za rozmachu husitsk boue (1924), 247, 276277.
94 chapter 2

of Bohemia by Margrave Otto iii of Brandenburg.234 They reconstructed their


convent in the coming decades, intent on bringing it to bloom once more and
on enlarging its estates more still.235 The ultimate demise of the community
did not come for another century. In 1571, in the wake of intense religious strife,
the women retreated to Zderas in Prague, left to them after the canons them-
selves had fled in 1531 to the foundation of Neisse. When the men were at last
able in 1573 to reconstitute their chapter, there was no longer any place for the
women. They thus resolved to refuse to accept any more novices, and their
community, whose ancestral home Emperor Rudolf ii handed over to the
Archbishop of Prague in 1580, had ceased to exist by the end of the sixteenth
century.236 Only the monastery of the Holy Sepulcher in Saragossa, the Real
Monasterio de las Seoras Canonesas Comendadoras de la Orden Sagrada del
Santo Sepulcro de Jerusaln (so it was called from the seventeenth century)
was able to survive the vicissitudes of some six centuries, and to continue to
this day its vigil for the Holy Sepulcher. Its inhabitants, unlike the sisters of
Calatayud, had been well provided for materially from the outset. Already
richly endowed by the daughter of Theobald ii of Navarra,237 in 1306 the prior
of the Holy Sepulcher had also promised the first sorores properties that the
church had possessed in Saragossa from the twelfth century.238 In the course of
the centuries this foundation was further enriched through the dowries of the
women, who hailed from so many wealthy families, as well as the donations,
bequests and anniversary foundations of numerous benefactors239most
notably among them Martn de Aplartil, canon of the Holy Sepulcher and

234 J. Emler, Cosmae Chronicon Bohemorum cum continuatoribus (Fontes rerum Bohemicarum
ii, 2, 1874), 332.
235 A. Sedlek, pln mstopisn ii, 852853. On property and taxes: F. Tadra, Acta judiciaria
consistorii Pragensis (1893), i, 182; iii, 312313; F. Palack, Archiv esky vi, (Prague, 1872),
370, 590; W.W. Tomek, Registra decimarum papalium (Abh. der Kgl. Bhm. Gesell. der
Wiss. vi, 6, 1874), 32, 78; A. Schubert, Urkunden-Regesten aus den ehemaligen Archiven der
von Kaiser Joseph ii. aufgehobenen Klster Bhmens (1901), 4748.
236 J. Svtek, Organisace eholnch instituc v eskch zemch a pe o jejich archivy (1966), 133;
Z. Wirth, Umleck pamtky ech (1957), 748749.
237 Cf. nn. 181, 184.
238 Odrizola y Grimaud (n. 181) 12ff.; Establicimientos (n. 181), 304: fragmentary list of prior-
esses to 1891.
239 ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sep. de Calatayud, Cod. 872 B: Calage de las Escriturosdel
Conv. de las rel. de Sep., fol. 61v62. On the archive and its destruction: Establicemientos
(n. 181), 304. Information on property and incomes in the visitation records: nn. 242, 243.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 95

treasurer of the Archbishop of Saragossa, who died in 1384.240 Eventually the


endowments became so rich that the sisters enjoyed a religious life free of eco-
nomic cares. The womens outward security and their close ties with the nobil-
ity of Aragon were not, however, always to their advantage. They brought with
them the perpetual danger that the chapter might become merely a pen
sioners home for noble women, and thereby lose its original character as a
community of regular canonesses. Hence the reforms that emerged from
Calatayud,241 the visitation protocols that survive from the sixteenth and sev-
enteenth centuries,242 and the constitutions newly revised by priors Antonio
Muoz, Mateo Castelln and Jos Espaol in the fifteenth and the seventeenth
centuries,243 all of which emphatically sharpened the observance of claustra-
tion, the regular and punctual exercise of choral prayer and the observance of
vows, above all vows of chastity and personal poverty. From the seventeenth
century, even these measures were no longer upheld with any strictness, and
even in Calatayud religious life grew somnolentin fact, already from the
middle of the fifteenth century the community had succumbed to commen
dation, and the archprior had been stripped of his leadership.244 As late as
1574Archbishop Ferdinand of Saragossa, in accordance with the demands of
the Council of Trent, had sharpened key statutes concerning claustration.
But in 1604 the prior Doa Ana de Cuevas secured from Clement viii a
brief that ameliorated those same statutes, to the extent that it allowed the
Comendadoras to leave the cloister and to receive their relatives as guests.
Only in 1880, with the approval of the Archbishop of Saragossa (to whom juris-
diction over the womens convent in Saragossa had been transferred, after the
dissolution of the regular canonry of Calatayud in 1856) was the prioress Doa

240 Ibid., fol. 75ff.; Establicemientos (n. 181), 290.


241 AHN Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sep. de Calatayud, Doc. eccl., Carp.5, Nr.46: (1437) Eugene
iv;ibid., no. 66: (1522) Alexander vi.
242 Mon. S. Sep., Zaragoza, Arch., Sec. Ba, Nr. Ba; Visitation records for 1515, 1538, 1565, 1641,
1644, 1652, 1655.
243 ahn Madrid, Ord. Mil., S. Sep. de Calatayud, Doc. eccl., Carp. 5, no. 46 (1437); ibid., no. 58
(1504); Mon. S. Sep., Zaragoza, Arch., Sec. Ba, no. 13: Constitutiones hechas y ordinadas
(1641ff.); Constituciones hechas y ordenadas en visita para la rev. Priora y Religiosas del Real
Monasterio del Santo Sepulcro de Zaragoza por el Muy Ill. y Rev. Senor Doctor Don Pedro
Miguel de Valsorga, Prior de la Iglesia Collegial de Cannigos Regolares del S. Sep. de
Calatayud (1626); Mandatos que han resulta dode las Visitas hechas en el convento de
Monjas Comendadoras del Santo Sepulcro de Zaragoza por et muy ill. y rev. Prior el Doctor
D. Joseph Espanol y Serra(1655). Cf. also Gonzales Ayala (n. 184), 117.
244 De La Fuente (n. 184) ii, 100ff.
96 chapter 2

Felipa Labarrera able to reintroduce strict observance of claustration and thus


to restore the original character of the household.245
Even if we assume (as we must, given the fact that the discovery and evalu-
ation of new sources is hardly underway) that there were other womens com-
munities of the Holy Sepulcher alongside those already known,246 their overall
number is in no way comparable to the myriad of womens communities that
had emerged from the twelfth century, whether of Premonstratensians,
Cistercians, or even those of the second orders of the mendicants. As a key
cause for the stagnation that prevented any of their communities from estab-
lishing daughter houses, one can point to a waning interest in the Holy Land
from the thirteenth century, and the powerful draw of the mendicant orders,
which exerted its influence especially in the world of women. Given this over-
all state of affairs it is tempting to assume that the founding of the Spanish and
Bohemian houses was merely the beginning of a process of expansion that was
doomed from the outset. But to do so would be unjustified. It is better to see
that founding as the end of a long tradition of shared community among fra-
tres and sorores, one demonstrable in the Order of the Holy Sepulcher as well
as in other orders, and one that survived well into the thirteenth century. Two
facts, both grounded in the circumstances of the founding of the communities
under discussion, speak for this view:247 not only the distancing between the
canons and their sisters248 that is noticeable from the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries, but also their relationship with the hospitaler and military

245 Cf. also Odrizola y Grimaud (n. 181), 15ff. Establicimientos (n. 181), 282ff. On the contempo-
rary circumstance: M. Hereswitha, Geschiedenis van het kloosterwezen in het algemeen
en van de Heilig-Graforde in het bijzonder, (Manuscript s. d.) iii, 203ff.; A. Beltran
Martinez, Notas sobre la restauracion del Monastero de Canonesas del S. Sep. de
Zaragoza (Libro Homenage a D. Juan Manuel Pardo de Santayana y Suarez, 1963);
Gonzalez Ayala (n. 184), 117118.
246 The monasterio de la misma Orden situado cerco de Wiltstock mentioned in
Establicimientos (n. 181), 280, n. 6 is Heiligengrabe bei Techow in Prignitz, a Cistercian
womens house founded in 1287 by the Cistercian nuns of Neuendorf in the Altmark. I.
Simon, Kloster Heiligengrabe. Von der Grndung bis zur Einfhrung der Reformation
12871549, Jahrbuch fr Brand. Kirchengesch. 24 (1929) 1ff.; G. Wentz, Das Bistum Havelberg
(Germania Sacra i, 2; 1933), 320ff.
247 On November 18, 1230 a Polish nobleman cupiens una cum uxore Sepulchro dominico ab
omnibus venerando, reverenciam et honorem exhibere, imo habitu et signo ordinis illius
insigniri et muniri offered many rich donations to the cloister Miechw (kdm [n. 12] ii,
46), thereby revealing the observance of a common vita religiosa in that foundation as
well.
248 Hereswitha, Documenten (n. 12), 280, 290; Nakielski, Miechovia (n. 12), 310, 315.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 97

orders, both of which were closely tied to the chapter through common heri-
tage and aims. From the thirteenth century the Order of St. John249 and the
Teutonic Knights,250 as well as the Spanish military orders251 increasingly loos-
ened their ties to the sisters and conversi who lived in their immediate vicinity.
This promoted the formation of independent, spatially segregated convents, in
which (as the examples of the female cloister of the Hospitalers in Sigena and
Sant-Antoine-en-Dauphin reveal) the work of service took a back seat to a life
of prayer ordered to the model of the vita canonica.252
This transition from an early era of commonality to a later one character-
ized by growing independence is not limited only to those orders associated
with crusade and holy war. From the beginning of the twelfth century at the
latest, monastic congregations such as those of Cluny253 and Cteaux254 as well
as the canons of Prmontr,255 Arrouaise256 and St. Victor257 all embraced a
conscious politics of ending the practice of community among man and

249 J. Delaville Le Roulx, Hospitalires de S. Jean de Jrusalem, Comptes rendus des sances
delAcad. des Inscr. et Belles Lettres iv, 22 (1894), 137146; Idem, Cartulaire gnral (n. 173),
ccxxiff.
250 Along with n. 175: B. Dudik, ber die Deutsch-Ordens-Schwestern, sb Kaiserl. Akd. d. Wiss.
Wien, Phil.-hist. ki. 16 (1855), 307326. K.H. Lampe, Beitrge zur Geschichte der
Deutschordensschwestern, Zeitschrift fr Ostforschung 16 (1967), 4578; E. Gruber,
Deutschordensschwestern im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Wiederbelebung, Ausbreitung und
Ttigkeit 18371971, Quellen u. Stud. zur Gesch. d. Dtsch. Ordens 14 (1971), 16.
251 D.W. Lomax (n. 30), 80ff., 90ff.; F. Gutton, LOrdre de Santiago (Saint Jacques de lEpee,
1972), 222ff.; Idem, LOrdre de Calatrava (1955), 220ff.
252 A. Ubieto Arteta, El Real Monasterio de Sigena 11881300 (1966); Idem, La documentacin
de Sigena 11881300 (Saitabi 15, 1966); J. Chetail, Les chanoinesses de Malte de Saint-
Antoineen- Dauphine, Annales de lOSM de Malte 27 (1962), 4249. Other forms of female
vita religiosa among the Hospitalers are mentioned in W.G. Rdel, Das Gropriorat
Deutschland des Johanniter- Ordens im bergang vom Mittelalter zur Reformation anhand
der Generalvisitationsberichte von 1494/95 und 1540/41, 2nd ed. (1972), 17ff.; E. Schningh,
Der Johanniterorden in Ostfriesland, Vortr. u. Abh. zur Gesch. Ostfrieslands liv (1973), 24ff.
253 G. Charvin, Statuts, chapitres generaux et visites de lordre de Cluny (1965), i, 43.
254 E.G. Krenig, Mittelalterliche Frauenklster nach den Konstitutionen von Cteaux, Anal.
S. Ord. Cist. 10 (1954), 13ff.
255 A. Erens, Les soeurs dans lordre de Prmontr, Anal. Praem. 5 (1929), 526.
256 L. Millis, LOrdre des chanoines rguliers d Arrouaise. Son histoire et son organisation de la
fondation de labbaye-mre (vers 1090) la fin des chapitres annuels 1471 (1969), i, 515ff.
257 P. Coenegracht, De kloosterwetgeving van de Victorinen, Ons Geestelijk Erf 37 (1963),
318328; Idem, Ontstaan van de Brabantse witte vrouwen en hun overgang naar de orde
von Saint Victor, Ibid. 34 (1960), 5390.
98 chapter 2

woman258 shaped by the vita apostolica and of releasing the women to a greater
autonomy. The womens newfound independence did not, however, mark the
beginning of a new ascendance. Rather, it helped assure that the womens
orders that emerged from the monastic and canonical movements of the elev-
enth and twelfth centuries soon fell behind the increasingly powerful second
and third orders of the mendicants.259
The religious women who still today describe themselves as Canonesses of
the Holy Sepulcher cannot trace their lineage directly back to the Bohemian
and Spanish communities that were established in the thirteenth century.
Their origins are rather to be sought in the prince-bishopric of Lttich, the
duchy of Brabant and the county of Loon. Here, from the twelfth century, a
number of smaller convents were founded, and several churches and chapels
acquired, all of which were subject to the prior of the cloister of Denkendorf in
Wrttemberg. When Denkendorf, (after a brief time of full independence) fell
victim to the Reformation, the Dutch confederation of communities enjoyed a
renaissance. That too soon came to an end, but it was significant for the history
of the order in that it inspired a revival of religious life for the women of the
order.260 The actual instigator of the reform movement that began in the mid-
dle of the fifteenth century was Jan van Abroek, who was born around 1440 in
Beek near Bree. After a time of study, perhaps in Cologne, he came to know
the Canons of the Holy Sepulcher and in 1465 made the decision to ask for
acceptance into their order in the community of Henegouw near Hasselt.261

258 Cf. along with the literature cited in nn. 67: F. Petit, La spiritualit des Prmontrs aux
XIIe et XIIIe sicles, tudes de thologie et dhist. de la Spiritualit 10 (1947), 44ff.; Ch.
Dereine, Les origines de Prmontr, Rev. dhist. eccl. 42 (1947), 342ff.; P. Classen, G. v.
Reichersberg und die Regularkanoniker in Bayern und sterreich, La vita comune del
Clero nei secoli XI e XII [n. 7] i, 312.On double-cloister communities and orders founded in
the wake of the wandering apostolic preachers see J. Von Walter, Die ersten Wanderprediger
Frankreichs. Studien zur Geschichte des Mnchtums (1903/06); J. Becquet, Lrmitisme
clerical et laque dans louest de la France, LEremitismo in oceidente nei sec. XI et XII. Atti
della seconda Settimana internazionale di studio, Mendola 30 agosto-6 settembre 1962,
Misc. del Centro di studi Medioevali iv (1965), 182ff.
259 M. De Fontette, Les religieuses lge classique du Droit Canon. Recherches sur les structures
juridiques des branches fminines des ordres (Bibl. de la Soc. dhist. eccl. de la France, 1967).
260 Cf. nn. 12 and 181.
261 J. Ceyssens, Jan van Abroek. Rervormer van de kloosters der kanunniken van het H. Graf
en stichter der Sepulcrienen in het bisdom Luik, Limburg 4 (192223), 107110; M.
Hereswitha, Jan van Abroek en de gedenkdag van het 450e verjaring van zijn zalig overli-
jden, Limburg 39 (1960), 258272; idem, article: Abroek, Jan in Nationaal Biografisch
Woordenboek 3 (1968), 25.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 99

The prevailing circumstances there were less than inspiring.262 In the first half
of the fourteenth century the convent, which had played a leading role in the
confederation of Dutch communities, had reached the nadir of both its inter-
nal and external affairs. Perugia and Denkendorf were long unable to stop the
decline. But under the Denkendorf canon Cornelius Oeslinger from Eupen,
who had served as rector of the house of St. Leonard in Aachen from 1436 to
1456 and as prior of Henegouw to 1484, the most scandalous abuses were finally
curtailed. The energetic prior was also able, after two centuries of stagnation,
to increase the number of communities of the Holy Sepulcher in northwest
Europe. Between 1435 and 1442 he worked for the foundation of a community
for the order near the chapel of St. Leonard (in the parish of Gustorf in the
deanery of Grevenbroich) and in 1437 (after negotiations with duke Arnold of
Geldern, the Holy Spirit hospital in Roermond and the Roman curia) he
secured the transfer to the Order of the Holy Sepulcher the abandoned com-
munity of St. Peter and Paul at Sint-Odilinberg near Roermond. Despite these
successes, however, we cannot speak of a genuine improvement in the overall
circumstance. The prior, like many of his brethren and contemporaries, was
too heavily burdened with concubinage and nepotism to have led a true reform
effort. John of Abroek deemed it impossible to erect the reforms he envisioned
on the old, recalcitrant foundations of the convent of Henegouw. He thus
abandoned the idea of winning Oeslinger and his brethren for the cause of
reform. Instead he turned to the community of St. Peter and Paul on Sint-
Odilinberg, established in the Merovingian era and acquired for the order in
1437, and made that community the foundation of his reforms.263 Despite
numerous difficulties, he was able to find like-minded companions, and with
the help of the faithful in the region to acquire sufficient property to secure the
temporal existence of his reforming chapter. After the resistance against
reform mounted by the prior of Denkendorf had been overcome, and after the
support of the prior general in Perugia had been won, Abroek directed his
efforts to the remaining settlements of the order. He ensured that the convent

262 On the circumstance of the cloister of Henegouw and the activity of C. Oeslinger:
Hereswitha, De Heilig-Graforde (n.12), 259263, 272279, 282284, 289294; idem,
Documenten (n. 12) 520521; Elm, Quellen (n. 12), 7ff.
263 On the reform established by Abroek and its expansion, see the literature cited in n. 181.
On the pre-history at Sint-Odilienberg; along with Oorkonden en bescheiden (n. 12): idem,
Kroniekje van de Kerk van Sint Odilinberg (Maastricht, 1880); J. Linssen, Een onderzoek
naar Odilienberg, Publ. soc. hist. archeol. Limbourg 9495 (195859), 121ff.; P. Glazema,
Oudheidkundige onderzoekingen in en bij de kerk te Sint-Odilinberg, Bull. Kon. Nederl.
Oudheidkundige Bond VI/5 (1953), 8ff.
100 chapter 2

of Henegouw would take on the reforms, and sent to Aachen and Bierbeek
brothers who were to work in the churches there for a more disciplined obser-
vance of the liturgy and for a more intensive cura animarum. When in 1478 the
four year experiment had failed to establish reform at Kinrooi in Limburg, a
wave of expansion nevertheless followed in the coming years. It led to new
foundations not only in the immediate vicinity of the center of reform in
Limburg, but also in the county of Zeeland, the duchy of Kleve, the lordships
of Culemborg, Kessenich and Dyck as well as the Landgraviate of Hesse.
Despite the freedom (after 1489) to pursue their own reform agenda without
interference from superiors, the Dutch canons of the Holy Sepulcher were not
able to establish their congregation with such permanence and breadth
of influence as the Windesheim congregation, which had established itself
undersimilar conditions. Under the followers of Jan van Abroek (1510) the
expansion stagnated, and discipline began to wane even in places where the
reform had initially been a success. Step by step, decline slowly set in once
again. External pressures and internal dissolution eventually ensured that by
September 1, 1796, when the Belgian republic ordered the dissolution of the
monasteries in its territory, only one housethe little community of Hoogcruts,
the last survivor of the Dutch provincewas affected by the decree.264
More lasting than the male branch of the reform group were the womens
communities that emerged from Abroeks initiatives. They surpassed the male
foundations not only in longevity but also in significance and impact. Already
in 1442 Oeslinger (with the support of the prior of Denkendorf and the Bishop
of Lttich) had established a community of virgines cum decenti familia on
Sint-Odilinbergthough the community had to be disbanded only a few
years later because of its supposed vita dissoluta.265 Abroek again took up the
business of the prior of Hegenouw. But he began differently, this time with the
renewal of womens religious life not on the Odilienberg, but in the neighbor-
ing cloister of Kinrooi, where the recent attempt to establish a foundation of
canons had failed. After the future canonesses had been introduced to strict
observance by the canons at Odilienberg, on October 8, 1480 their own convent
was established and placed under the leadership of Clementia van Abroek, a

264 W. Goosens, Het klooster van het H. Graf te Hoogcruts, Publ. soc. hist. arch. Limbourg 55
(1919), 94ff.; M. Hereswitha, Het Klooster van Hoogcruts en Jan van Abroek, De Maasgouw
73 (1954), 34ff.
265 Willemsen, Oorkonden en bescheiden (n. 12), 288289; M. Hereswitha, Het eerste vrou-
wenklooster van de Heilig-Graforde in de Nederlanden, Taxandria 4446 (197274),
129141.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 101

sister of the reformer.266 Only a few years after its foundation, in 1486 or 1490,
the first prioress of Kinrooi (who until her entry into the Order of the Holy
Sepulcher had belonged to the Augustinian convent of Den Bogart in
Roermond) was able to send forth fellow sisters to establish new convents in
Niewstadt267 near Sittard and in Gartzen268 near Euskirchen. This first, rather
modest beginning, was not to last. In 1495 the mother-convent of St. Mary in
Jerusalem in Kinrooi, flattened in the struggles between Jan van Hoorn, Prince-
Bishop of Lttich, and Karl von Egmont, had to be abandoned. Its sisters were
relocated to Maaseik, where they left the order of the Holy Sepulcher in 1520
and allied themselves with Windesheim. After the community in Gartzen had
also to be abandoned in 1507, only the convent of Bethlehem in Nieuwstadt
remained of the foundations established in the early years of reform. In 1496,
before the dissolution of the other two convents, that community had relo-
cated from Nieuwstadt to Lttich (to the community of St. Elisabeth des Bons-
Enfants, which had been abandoned by the Alexians).269 And through the
acceptance of both the convent of Gartzen and the determined nuns of
Kinrooi, it was so strengthened in numbers that it became the point of depar-
ture for a new expansion, and in fact became the mother convent of a newly
revived life for canonesses in the region. After a daughter house had been
founded in Sint-Truiden270 in 1539, some 40 years after the relocation from
Niewstadt to Lttich, the actual expansion began at the opening of the seven-
teenth century. Alongside Jerusalem in Sint-Truiden, which continued in the
tradition of an older community of Franciscan tertiaries, houses emerged in

266 S. Drost, Geschiedkundig overzicht van het O.L. Vr. Kloosterder Orde van het H. Graf te
Kinroy (1931); H. Janssen-Aerts, Aantekeningen over het vededen van Kinrooi (1953), 5359.
On close ties to the canons: Hereswitha, De Heilig-Graforde (n. 12), 358.
267 Trecpoel (n. 12), 171172; M.J. Wolters, Recherches sur lancienne avouerie de la ville de
Ruremonde et sur les familles de Vlodorp et de Cortenbach (1855), 2229; idem, Notice histo-
rique sur la ville de Maaseyck, 1855, 6768.
268 Th. Paas, Das Kloster Gartzem, Annalen des Hist. Vereins fr den Niederrhein 99 (1916),
142ff.; F.W. Oediger, Das Hauptstaatsarchiv Dsseldorf und seine Bestnde iv: Stifts- und
Klosterarchive. Bestandsbersichten (1964), 156ff.
269 L. Halkin, La maison des Bons-Enfants de Lige, Bull. de linstitute Arch. Ligeois 64
(1940), 914; M. Hereswitha, De Franciscanessen (1493) en de Sepulcrinessen (1496) in
het klooster der Bons Enfants te Luik, Franciscana 21 (1966), 3946.
270 F. Straven, Les Chanoinesses de lordre du Saint-Sepulcre du couvent dit de Jrusalem
Saint-Trond, Bull. scient. et litt. de Hasselt 38 (1904), 83; J. Paquay, Het Klooster van St.
Truiden, 1933.
102 chapter 2

1616 and 1622 in Vis and in Lttich.271 Almost at the same time, in 1619, the
convent in Sint-Truiden founded a new community in Huy.272 Soon after its
foundation, this priory, although it had from 1630 to contend with the competi-
tion of the Ursulines, became the mother house of settlements in Buillon,
Malmedy, Marienbourg, Marchienne-au-Pont and Waremme.273 Two of these
communities, the houses in Malmedy and Marienbourg, were able to establish
new foundations in Verviers and attempted to establish the order in Chimay
and Donchery as well.274 Only one of the daughter-houses, Verviers, was able
to establish a third generation of affiliates: a foundation in Mainz in 1652 that
survived until 1678 and in 1677 a short-lived settlement in Kalkar.275 The third
daughter-house, St. Walburge in Lttich,276 established only one settlement in

271 F. Henaux, Histoire de la bonne ville de Vis, 1853, 37ff.; J. Ceyssens, Histoire de la paroisse de
Vis (1891), 18ff.
272 J. Freson, Notice historique sur les anciens monastres des Ursulines, des Annonciades
clestes, des Carmlites dechauses et des Spulcrines de Huy, 1887.
273 Leroux-Delogne, Le couvent des Spulcrines Bouillon, Le Semois 6 (1876); P. Pellot, Les
Spulcrines de Bouillon de 1626 a 1794, Annuaire du conseil heraldique de France 10 (1897),
240264; M. Hereswitha, Le monastre des chanoinesses rgulires du Saint Spulcre
Malmedy, Bull. soc. dart et dhist. du dioc. de Lige 41 (1959), 97163; A. Robaulx de Soumoy,
Recherches sur lhistoire de la ville de Mariembourg, Annales de la soc. archol. de Namur
8 (1864), 159220, 233326; Chronique du couvent de Notre Dame Marchienne-au-
Pont, Documents de la soc. palontologique de Charleroi 7 (1875), 342ff.; P.A. Masset,
Histoire de Marchienne-au Pont (1893), 30ff.; A. De Ryckel, Histoire de la bonne ville de
Waremme, Bull. Soc. dart et dhist. du dioc. de Lige 5 (1889), 5ff.
274 H. Hans, Notice sur le couvent des Spulcrines de Verviers (1934); H. Angenot, Les
Spulcrines de Verviers, La Presse (1934), 10ff. On the foundations at Chimay und
Doncherry, which failed after a short time: Hereswitha, De Vrouwenkloosters (n. 4), 99ff.
275 There are no investigations of the short-lived settlements in Mainz and Kalkar. Cf.
Archives piscopales, Lige, G. ix. 11 (Visites et DocumentsSpulcrines de Verviers) and
ad Ardennes, Mzieres-Charleville, H 453.
276 J. Papuay, Tongeren vorheen, 1934; Idem, Aperu sur la ville de Tongres, Bull. de la soc.
scient. et litt. du Limbourg 29 (1911), 75ff.; S. Hawley, A Brief Relation of the Order and
Institute of the English Religious Women at Lige (1652); A.F. Trappes-Lomax, Records of
the English Canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher at Lige, Publications of the Catholic Record
Society 17 (1915); M. Simon, Sepultus est. A Study of the Holy Sepulcher in the Spirituality
of the Canonical Order of the Holy Sepulcher, With Special Reference to the English
Sources (Typescript, ma Thesis at the Pontifical Institute Regina Mundi, Rome [1959]),
28ff.; A. Henry, Le couvent des Spulcrines de Bouvignes, Annal. Soc. Archeol. de Namur
26 (1905), 267ff.; Idem, Notes sur lhistoire de Bouvignes (1888), 219ff.; M. Hereswitha, Le
monastre du chanoinesses reguliers du Saint Spulcre Bouvignes, Annal. Soc. archeol.
Namur 55 (1970), 233ff.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 103

Tongeren in 1640, which in turn founded two daughter houses: a third cloister
in Lttich, St. Helena in Avroy, established in 1642 for English emigrants, and
the 1666 foundation of Bouvignes. But it was the convent in Vis, established in
1616, that became head of a widespread congregation. Its oldest daughter, the
convent of Charleville, became the mother-house of three French communi-
ties: in Vierzon and in Belle-Chase near Paris, established in 1635, as well as the
convent of Luynes, established in 1662 from Belle-Chase, which enjoyed the
special favor of the French aristocrats associated with the royal confraternity
of the Sepulcher.277 In 1626 canonesses from Vis came to Aachen. Here they
inherited the old settlement at St. Leonard, which had been transferred to
the community of the canons in Hoogcruts near Slenaken.278 In 1644, the
Aachen canonesses then founded a daughter-house in Jlich, and from there,
a decade later, nuns were sent to Neuss.279 Another daughter-house of Vis, a
cloister founded in 1627 in Maastricht, became the mother-house of settle-
ments inHasselt and Lttich.280 The former was able to establish a foundation
in Turnhout in 1662,281 the latter, St. Agatha in Lttich, a settlement in

277 M.F. Tausserat, Vierzon. Hospitalires et chanoinesses du Saint-Spulcre, Mmoires de la


soc.des antiquaires du Centre 23 (18991900), 127173; M. Dumolin, Les chanoinesses du
Saint Spulcre ou dames de Belle-Chasse, Bull. de la soc. de lhist. de Paris et de lIle de
France 63 (1936), 1028.
278 300 Jahre hhere Mdchenbildung an St. Leonhard in Aachen (Aachen, 1926); K. Neuefeind,
Die Neugrndung klsterlicher Erziehungsanstalten in Aachen im Zeitalter der
Gegenreformation, Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsvereins 56 (1935), 61104, 58 (1937),
57103; A. Brecher, Die kirchliche Reform in Stadt und Reich Aachen von der Mitte des 16. bis
zum Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts, Reformationsgeschichtliche Studien und Texte 8081
(1967), 376.
279 G. Bers, Die Geschichte des ehemaligen Sepulchrinerinnenklosters St. Josef zu Jlich,
Heimatkalender des Kreises Jlich (1959), 47ff. On the foundation of the daugher house at
Neuss: K. Tcking, Geschichte der kirchlichen Einrichtungen der Stadt Neuss i (1886), 180ff.;
J. Lange, Neuss. Eine kirchliche Heimatkunde (1961), 130ff.
280 N. LequarreE. JacquemotteJ. Lejeune, Histoire de la commune de Jupille (Vieux
Jupille i, 1909), 8ff.; N.J. Bosnard, Couvent des chanoinesses regulires du Saint-Spulcre a
Jupille, 1864; F. Dazert, Geschiedenis van het voormalige klooster van het H. Graf thans
Bonnenfantenkazerne te Maastricht, voorafgegaan doof en overzicht van de geschiede-
nis der orde van het H. Graf in het algemeen en van hare wederwaardigheden in deze
streken in het bijzonder, Bull. soc. dart et dhist. du dioc. de Liege 38 (1902), 251375; O.
Robijns, De zusters van het klooster van het H. Graf te Hasselt, Limburg 14 (193233),
83ff.
281 M. Hereswitha, Den oorspronck ende opkomste van ons clooster binnen der stadt ende vri-
jheijt van Tournhout (1962); Idem., De Heilig-Grafpriorij te Turnhout 16621963 (1962).
104 chapter 2

Baden-Baden282 in 1670two houses which, although they established no fur-


ther daughter-houses in the seventeenth century, nevertheless were to prove
crucial in sustaining the order in the following centuries.
The second impressive flowering of womens religious life, which had led
canonesses from the diocese of Lttich to new settlements in Germany and
France, endured heavy setbacks in the wake of the French Revolution and its
consequences. All but three houses of the orderthe priory of Turnhout in
the Netherlands, the German house in Baden-Baden and the community of
canonesses of St. Helena of Avroy near Lttich (whose members emigrated to
Chelmsford in England in 1794)fell victim to Josephinism or to the French
Revolution. Neither the resistance of the women nor their efforts to continue
their traditions without official sanctions could change their fate.283 Yet even
after the bloodbath the canonesses, unlike their male counterparts, refused to
abandon their enterprise. The priories of Baden-Baden284 and Chelmsford,285
which had survived the caesuras brought by revolution and secularization, but
especially the newly founded priories of Holy Sepulcher and Jerusalem
(established in 1826 and 1837, respectively, from a few canonesses scattered in
Turnhout and Bilzen) then established a new, third phase of expansion.286 The
canonesses of Turnhout were able to return to Lttich in 1917, and also in 1912

282 K. Nrber, Geschichte des Klosters vom Hlg. Grab zu Jerusalem in Baden-Baden (ms Bibl.
Kloster und Institut vom Hlg. Grab, Baden-Baden); M. Dominika, Aus der Chronik des
Klosters vom Hlg. Grab in Baden-Baden, Institutsbltter der Frauen vom Hlg. Grab 2
(193038, 1936); E. Pleissner, Chronik des Klosters vom Heiligen Grab in Baden-Baden (n.
181).
283 F.X. Georges, Le diocse de Lige sous la domination franaise de 1795 1814 (1904), 30ff.; J.
Daris, tat des tablissements religieux en 1809, Publ. soc. hist. archeol. Limbourg 17
(1899), 311323; P. Clerx, Liste gnerale des glises et couvents de la province actuelle de
Ligevendus comme proprits nationales du 1r. Ventse an V, Bull. inst. archeol.
Ligeois 16 (1881), 485523. On the Josephinist educational politics of William I, hostile to
the orders: S. Stokman, De religieuzen en de onderwijspolitiek der regering in het vereenigd
koninkrijk der Nederlanden 18141830 (1935).
284 M. Dominika, Wie das Kloster vom Hlg. Grab in Baden-Baden die franzsische
Revolution, die Skularisation und das Regulativ berstand, (ms Bibl. Kloster und
Institut vom Hlg. Grab, Baden-Baden).
285 History of the New Hall Community of Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulcher, 1899;
Canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher of our Lord in Jerusalem, 1952; Simons, (n. 276), 25ff.
286 On the foundation and expansion of both houses M. Hereswitha, De Orde van het H.
Graf in de Nederlanden na de Franse Revolutie, Taxandria 26 (1954), 3ff.; Idem, De Heilig-
Grafpriorij te Turnhout 16621692 (1962); A. Habets, Het klooster van het H. Graf te Bilzen
met eene geschiedkundige schets van de Orde van het H. Graf (1909).
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 105

(after they had already established a good dozen new foundations in the
Netherlands) to found a community at the wellsprings of reform, on Sint-
Odilienberg. The push for expansion did not falter, even during the First World
War. But it began to stagnate in the interwar period, which saw the foundation
of only one new settlement, in Nijmegen. But the causes had little to do with a
lack of zeal or flagging spirit. They had rather to do with the orders decision, in
1926, to devote its energies to mission in the Belgian Congo. After the Second
World War followed a new phase of expansion.287 It led canonesses to South
America and left the women in possession of the Abbey of St. Trond in Brugge,
founded in Merovingian times. Its inhabitants, Augustinian canonesses, trans-
ferred to the Order of the Holy Sepulcher. Alongside so many daughter houses
founded from Lttich, the number of those founded by other priories appears
quite modest. The nuns of Bilzen were able to establish a community in Alken
in 1835, which itself was able to found two more (in 1881 and 1886, respectively)
in Sint-Truiden and in Kinrooi, which had been so important for the history of
the canonesses. The nuns who had fled to Essex from Lttich sent from their
convent (New Hall near Chelmsford, founded in 1779) sisters who established a
new house in Berkshire, while the German daughters of the Holy Sepulcher in
Baden-Baden founded or took over daughter houses in Bruchsal and Neijmegen.
For political reasons, however, they were repeatedly hindered from advancing
in a way that would have been comparable to the expansion led by their sisters
in Turnhout.288
In both their relationships to their male counterparts and in their spiritual-
ity, these modern womens communities conform to their older Bohemian and
Spanish counterparts. Until the dissolution of the province of the Netherlands
in 1606, they held fast to their subordination to the male branch of the order.289
Thereafter they lost not only the support the canons had long offered, but also
their solidarity with the men. Both the cloisters of the seventeenth century as
well as the houses founded anew after the French Revolution were indepen-
dent of one another. And still today they survive as individual, autonomous

287 Along with the literature cited in n. 181: Hereswitha, Geschiedenis van het kloosterwezen (n.
245) iii, 226ff.
288 M. Dominka, Das Filialkloster vom Hlg. Grab in Bruchsal (ms. Bibl. Kloster und Institut
vom Hlg. Grab, Baden-Baden); Idem, Aus der Chronik des Klosters vom Hlg. Grab xv:
Neugrndung der Klosterfiliale in Bruchsal (Institutsbltter der Frauen vom Hlg. Grab,
1937), 5ff.; M. Hereswitha, De Orde van het Heilig Graf in Nederland (Hou-en-Trou, 1957)
13ff.; N. Albot, Les religieuses chanoinesses du Saint Sepulcre de Charleville (1893).
289 Cf. among others ra Gelderland, Arnheim, Arch. Heeren en Graven van Culemborg, 8046,
16, fol. 31. Elm, Quellen (n. 12), no. 41.
106 chapter 2

priories or filial congregations, in which (similar to the circumstance in the


male branch before 1489) the prioress of the mother-house enjoyed far-reaching
rights over the daughter foundations. Such fragmentation, along with the
encroachments (despite privileges of exemption) after 1606 of respective local
bishops had as its consequence a certain differentiation in the constitutions290
and the liturgy291 of the individual priories. Nevertheless, in the constitutions

290 The oldest statutes, modeled on the constitutions of male foundations (see n. 29), survive
in a fifteenth-century recension (ms Bibl. Roy., Brssel ii, 5265). They were later revised
according to the decrees of the Council of Trent: Les Constitutions de lOrdre du S. Spulcre,
qui est de Chanoines et Chanoinesses rgulires (Lttich, 1631). The revision, first intended
for the cloister in Vis, was adopted by the canonesses in Aachen (Stadtarchiv Aachen Hs.
380: Statutes of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher) and Charleville as well as their daughter
houses (Rgles et constitutions des Chanoinesses rgulires de lOrdre du St. Spulchre en
Jrusalem, 1637), although in the case of the Constutions of Charleville there is a notable
emphasis on personal piety. Through the use of the mystical Constitutions of Charleville
emerged the 1651 Constitutions established in the womens communities of Lttich, which
remained in force in Belgian and Dutch communities into the nineteenth century. (ms
Bibl. Roy., Brussels 4136, 2122122). The older recension, printed in 1631, was also adopted by
German canonesses (Rules and Statutes of the Regular Canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher,
ms Bibl. Kloster und Institut vom Hlg. Grab, Baden-Baden) and later still replaced by the
Constitutions of Charleville (Neue ehrwrdige Haushistorie dieses Klosters zum Hlg. Joseph
genannt im Markgraff. Baaden Orden des Hlg. Grabs zu Jerusalem von anno 1670, ms BibI.
Kloster und Institut vom Hlg. Grab, Baden-Baden). The constitutions of the seventeenth
century retained their force until 1918. Only then were they modified in keeping with the
cic. Three closely related constitutionsfor Bilzen (1926), Baden-Baden (1937) and
Turnhout (1942)were woven together. They described as the spirit and the goal of the
order God te loven en te danken voorde weldaad der Verlossing, het lijden, de dood en
de begraffenis van de Zaligmaker voortdurend te gedenken en vooral de glorie van Zijn
Verreijzenis te bezingen. They require Ter herinnering aan de oude statieplaatsen van het
Heilig Land zullen deze plaatsen voorgesteld worden in de panden of in en ander deel van
het huis. They provide for processions; describe the Easter festival as het grootste feest der
Orde, one that should be celebrated met den grootsten luister en in de diepste ingetogen-
heid; prescribe for the canonesses daily meditation on one of the stations of the cross;
establish as the intention of their prayers de noodwendigheden van het Heilig Land and
took on the liturgical commemoration of the benefactors of all of the orders dissolved
cloisters (Regel van de H. Augustinus en Constituties van de Reguliere Kanunnikessen van het
H. Graf van Jerusalem te Turnhout, 1942; The Rule of our Holy Father Saint Augustine and the
Constitutions of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of our Lord in Jerusalem at New Hall, 1948).
291 La dvotion des prdestinez ou les stations de Jrusalem et du Calvaire (1710, 1720, 1737);
Stations de la crche, passion, croix et rsurrection de notre Seigneur s. d. Stations de crche,
passion, croix et resurrection de N.S. Jsus-Christ, qui se font journellement dans lordre
canonial du S. Spulcre (1753); Stations of the Crib, Passion, Cross and Resurrection of our
Saviour (1932).
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 107

as well as in the liturgies of the canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher, the sub-
stance of their way of life as it was established in the twelfth century has sur-
vived intact. Their worship remains patterned after the Stations of the Cross:
cyclically, in the course of the day, the week and the year they commemorate,
in particular loca sancta, the birth, suffering, death and resurrection of Christ.
And the same pattern of worship remains characteristic of both the public and
the private devotions of the canonesses, who despite numerous other obliga-
tions continue to see proper observance of the liturgy as their primary con-
cern.292 Like the canons and canonesses who were their predecessors, they
have continued not only the tradition of confraternities,293 but also the tra
ditions of the Imitatio S. Sepulcri, of relics and patronage that allowed them
to turn their churches and chapels into representations of the Sanctum
Sanctorum, and so into centers of their tomb- and passion-centered piety.
From the fifteenth century to the present they have erected chapels, churches
and crypts conceptualized as realizations of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,
and brought into association with those lost shrines through preservation of
fragments of the Holy Cross or of the Holy Sepulcher. And just as the men, who
from the fifteenth century named their communities in such a way as to recover
the Holy LandNazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives and
Calvaryso too the women tried in their churches to bring back to life the
terra repromissionis as the setting for their obligation, reaching back to 1099,
toward the Custodia SS. Sepulcri.294

292 Cf. for example M. Hereswitha, Order of the Holy Sepulcher: Distinctive Traits of its
Spirituality and historical Survey of its devotional Practices Simul in Unum (1952), 4ff.;
M.M. Josefa, Liturgy as a Helpful Source for the Spirituality of the Order of the Holy
Sepulcher, Simul in Unum (1953), 20ff.; Simon (n. 276) 50ff.
293 Advis de ltablissement dune confrairie rige perpetuit en lglise ou chapelle des
Chanoinesses Angloises du S. Spulchre au Faubourg dAvroy les Lige(Lttich, 1663);
Abrg de lorigine, motifs et exercises de la dvote et importante association ou confrairie au
Saint Spulchre do Notre Sauveur Jsus Christ est sorti triomphant (Lttich, 1718 and 1779);
Rgles, Statuts et indulgences de la confrrie de la trs Sainte Agonie de N.S. Jsus-Christ
(Lttich, 1718).
294 Imitation of the Holy Sepulcher, of which L. Jegher (La Gloire de lOrdre Canonial Regulier
du S. Spulchre Hierosolymitain, 1726), 75, says La sonst noz Portiquez, noz Loures, nos
Escurials, noz Serrai, la est gisante toute nostre gloire, la abutissent nos meditations et
contemplations, can be found in keeping with the prescriptions of the Constitutions in
every church of the canonesses. In a few cases, such as the Church of the Holy Infant in
Lttich, the church itself was established ad instar S. Sepulcri: P. Clerc, Notices sur les
monuments religieux et civiles de Lige, Bull. de linst. archeol. Liegeois 7 (1865), 297ff.; Cf.
also in this connection: J. Eyckeler, De Heilig-Landstichting Goesbeek (1930).
108 chapter 2

Despite the conformity shaped through their common tradition, both the
women and the men of these reforming communities developed a style of
piety different from that which had been common in the older filial congrega-
tions and their female dependencies. The difference becomes most clear, for
example, when we consider that Jan van Abroek and his successors speak of
themselves only rarely as vicarii generales or as priores generales, but instead
remain content with the formula humilis priora turn of phrase that was
held in tension with written correspondence addressed to the reverendus et
gratiosus dominus praepositus generalis of Denkendorf.295 The strong accen-
tuation of humilitas and the almost synonymous use of paupertas is discern-
ible only within the order itself. And for contemporary observers beyond
itsranks, too, sympelheit and armoede were the essential hallmarks of the
reform Abroek began.296
One could easily read the emphasis on humilitas and paupertas as a reflec-
tion of the actual poverty and need that shaped the life of the reformed houses
in the Low Countries, which in fact belonged to the poorest in the entire order.
They were also doubtless easily distinguished from other houses of canon-
esses, the oldest ones especially, by virtue of the social status of their mem-
berswho came not from the nobility but (as far as we are able to tell) above
all from rural and bourgeois circles. And yet the concrete economic and social
circumstances were not decisive for their emphasis on poverty, humility and
other-worldly piety. They were much more an expression of the spiritual ideal
to which the canons and canonesses of the Holy Sepulcher in the Netherlands
felt themselves obliged. And in the pursuit of that ideal they did not stand
alone. They shared it with the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life, the
canons and canonesses of Windesheim and Diepenveen, who had begun the
renewal of the vita religiosa in the spirit of the Devotio Moderna.297
The second expansion of womens communities, which began in the early
seventeenth century, was shaped not by the Modern Devotion, but by the
Counter-Reformation. Urban and ecclesiastical authorities, above all the
prince-bishops of Lttich, hastened to create the most favorable conditions
possible for the canonesses and their new foundations, because they expected
that the canonesses (like the Ursulines and the English Ladies) would provide
for young girls the same orthodox education and moral formation that the

295 Hereswitha, De Heilig-Graforde (n. 12) 340ff. Elm, Quellen (n. 12), no. 41.
296 Trecpoel (n. 12), 166.
297 Cf. the summary account of R.R. Post, The Modern Devotion. Confrontation with
Reformation and Humanism, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought iii (1968),
259ff., 493ff.
Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri 109

Jesuits had begun to provide for young boys.298 After decades of quiet a third
wave of expansion emerged, explosively, in the second half of the nineteenth
century. And like the second it, too, was driven by measures centered on the
politics of education. It was provoked by the anti-clerical educational policies
of the Belgian government, which reached their sharpest expression between
1837 and 1844, and which drove Catholics to develop more fully their own
forms of private confessional schooling.299 Since the Canonesses of the Holy
Sepulcher had already played a considerable role in that regard from the seven-
teenth century, so too in the nineteenth they came again to be of special
importance in matters of education. Their second intensive engagement in the
education of youth differed from the first, however (apart from questions of
motive) especially with regard to its particular orientation. In the seventeenth
century the canonesses concerned themselves with training in the French lan-
guage and with the education of the daughters of the nobility and from the
higher ranks of the bourgeoisie, not only in the Low Countries but also in
Germany and England. In the nineteenth century, however, they engaged
themselves deliberately in the service of the general population. In fact the
weight of their pedagogical efforts began to outweigh their charitable work, so
much so that it sometimes became difficult for outsiders to distinguish the
women of the order, despite their red patriarchal crosses, from so many other
nineteenth-century congregations of sisters devoted to education, and to see
them as followers of those who had come before, the Canonesses of the Holy
Sepulcher, the filiae Jerusalem who had turned from the world and devoted
themselves to liturgical duties alone.

In hindsight, the range of groups and institutions that have been associated with
the Ordo SS. Sepulcri Dominici Hierosolymitani since its founding can be seen as
a conglomeration that brings together many of the elements, though not all, of
the history of the religious orders and their corporations as it had developed

298 L.E. Halkin, Le cardinal de la Marck, prince vque de Lige (15051538). Rforme protestante
et rforme catholique au diocse de Lige (Universit de Lige. Facult de philosophie-
lettres, Bibliothque 43, 1930); A. Pasture, La restauration religieuse aux Pays-Bas
catholiques sous les archiducs Albert et Isabella 15961633, Univ. de Louvain. Rec. de travaux
dhistoire et de philologie ii, 3 (1925); Brecher (n. 278), 376ff.
299 A. Simon, Le Cardinal Sterck et son temps 17921867 (1950), ii, 230ff.; J.L. Broeck, Flandria
Nostra, (1958), v, 25ff.; R. Van Roosbroeck, Geschiedenis van Vlaanderen (1946ff.), v, 520ff.
110 chapter 2

from the high middle ages. But a closer look also reveals that the formation and
reception of the way of life and the forms of organization noted here were some-
thing other than a normal phenomenon that simply corresponded to so many
other comparable orders. Rather, that formation and reception represent what
was, to a certain degree, a consequence of the decisive principles enshrined in
the constitution of the chapter and the order it sustained. From the fall of
Jerusalem in 1187 to the dissolution of the foundation in Perugia in 1489, and
indeed until the secularization of the last foundation in the nineteenth century,
the order continued to claim to be the chapter of the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and to represent the cathedral clergy of Jerusalem. This
meant, concretely, that only the canons in residence with the archprior (along
with a few priors of filial foundations who were named on a case-by-case basis)
could claim the status of a Canonicus Hierosolymitanus. To preserve this archaic
and exclusive principle of organization while still holding together the wide-
spread network of membra founded or incorporated in the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries was a challenge. Wholesale adoption of the egalitarian
constitutional spirit of the newer religious orders was not possible. Instead there
had to be crafted a system of graduated and partial participation, as well as a
mechanism for delegation, assignment and representation a system that left
the substance of the orders structure unchanged and yet held together a broad
confederation of monasteria, praepositurae, prioratus, domus, ecclesiae, capellae,
altaria, hospitia et alia loca.300
Despite such challenges of organization and structure, and despite the com-
petition between archprior and patriarch that threatened the unity of the order,
so many prepositi, priores, priorisse, magistri, preceptores, plebani, rectores, com-
mendatores et alii administratores, economi et officiales, fratres, confratres, con-
versi, donati, oblati, sorores et alii personae cuiuscumque conditionis et sexus,301
though scattered across all of Europe and shaped by so many particular regional
circumstances, still managed to become integrated into a unique community.
And yet this was not merely the result of a more or less consciously developed
constitutional system. What held so many people of different gender, social sta-
tus and language together across so many centuries within the Order of the Holy
Sepulcher was a self-understanding, defended against all competing claims,
whose most important elements can only be hinted at here: the duty, as Custodes
SS. Sepulcri, and in imitation of the Marys, to spread the good news of the
Resurrection, and the conviction that they were able to lead their community
back to the ecclesia primitiva, back to the beginnings of the church of Jerusalem.

300 Following Elm, Quellen (n. 12) no. 8, 12, 23; Nakielski, Miechovia (n. 12), 303.
301 Following Hereswitha, Documenten (n. 12), 493 und kdm (n. 12) iii, 347.
chapter 3

Mendicants and Humanists in Florence in


the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: The
Problem of Justifying Humanistic Studies in
the Mendicant Orders

As the Observant movement in the mendicant orders reached its height in the
fifteenth century,1 its impact on the older orders was diverse: Here the enthu-
siasm of the turbulent masses stirred by the sermons of a Bernardino of
Siena,2 John of Capistrano3 or Albert of Sarteano,4 there the critical distance
of an educated laity whose confidence had been heightened through the
studia humanitatis. The literary caricatures of a Masuccio Salernitano,5 or
the sarcasm with which Leonardo Bruni,6 Francesco Filelfo7 and Poggio

1 On the Observant movement among the mendicants generally: J. Moorman, A History of


the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford, 1968), 368ff., 437ff.; William
A.Hinnebusch, The History of the Dominican Order I: Origins and Growth to 1500 (New York,
1966), 229ff.; idem., The History of the Dominican Order ii: Intellectual and Cultural Life to 1500
(New York, 1973), 341ff.; A.M. Rossi, Manuale di storia dellordine dei servi di maria mccxxxiii
mcmliv (Rome, 1956), 57ff.; K. Walsh, The Observant Congregations of the Augustinian
Friars in Italy c. 1385c. 1465 (Ph.D., Oxford, 1972).
2 S. Bernardino da Siena. Saggi e richerche pubblicati nel quinto centenario della morte (1444
1944) (Pubbl. dellUniv. Catolica del S. Cuore, ns vi, Milan, 1945). On the problematic noted
here: K. Hefele, Der hl. Bernhardin von Siena und die franziskanische Wanderpredigt in Italien
whrend des xv Jahrhunderts (Freiburg, 1912).
3 J. Hofer, Johannes Kapistran. Ein Leben im Kampf um die Reform der Kirche, vols. 12, Bibliotheca
Franciscana (Heidelberg, 19645), I, 97ff.
4 B. Neri, La vita ed i tempi di Alberto da Saretano (Quaracchi, 1902); F. Biccellari, Un frances-
cano umanista, il B. Alberto da Saretano 13851450, Studi francescani 35, 36 (1938, 1939), 22
48; 4795; R. Pratesi, Nuovi documenti sul B. Alberto da Saretano (1450), Archivum
Franciscanum Historicum 53 (1960), 78110.
5 G. Petrocci, ed., Masuccio Salernitano. Il Novellino (Florence, 1957), 52ff. Cf. A. Capasso, I frati
in Masuccio Salernitano, Biblioteca delle scuole italiane 10 (1904).
6 E. Brown, ed., Oratio in hypocritas. Fasciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum ab
Orthuiono Gratio, editus Colonaie mdxxxv (London, 1690). See also H. Baron, Leonardi Bruni
Aretino: Humanistisch-philosophische Schriften mit einer Chronologie seiner Werke und Briefe
(Leipzig-Berlin, 1928), 164.
7 C. DeRosmini, Vita di Francesco Filelfo da Toletino (Milan, 1808), iii, 74.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_005


112 chapter 3

Bracciolini8 described the wandering Franciscan preachers powers of per-


suasion were hardly original inventions. Rather, they were an integral part of
a long traditionfrom the satires of Rutebeuf 9 and Chaucer10 through
the principled critique of Wyclif11 or Valla12 to the radical rejection of the
reformers13that had made the mendicant friar the subject of ridicule and
contempt.14 Nevertheless the humanist critics of the Observants were quite
different from both their predecessors and successors, as were the feuds that
an Albertino Mussato, Coluccio Salutati or a Guarino of Verona fought out
with members of the religious orders.15 In the fourteenth century Italys lay

8 Contra Hypocritas (see n. 6) and G. Vallese, Contro lipocrisia (Naples, 1946). See also
E.Garin, De avaricia, in Prosatori Latini del Quattrocento. Storia e testi 13 (Milan-Naples,
1952), 248301; R. Fubini (ed.), Unorazione di Poggio Bracciolini sui vizi del clero scritta
al tempo del concilio di Costanza, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 142 (1965).
2433; G. Vallese, P. Bracciolini e il Contra hypocritas, Italica 23 (1946), 14751.
9 E. Faral and J. Bastin, Oevres compltes de Rutebeuf (Paris, 1959). T. Denkinger, Die
Bettelorden in der franzischen didaktischen Literatur des 13. Jahrhunderts, im beson-
deren bei Rutebeuf und im Roman de la Rose, Franziskanische Studien 2 (1915), 63109;
286313; A. Serper, Rutebeuf, pote satirique, (1969), 75ff.
10 Manley-Rickert, ed., Canterbury Tales (Chicago, 1948); A. Williams, Chaucer and his
Friars, Speculum 28 (1953), 499513.
11 See, among others, Th. Arnold, Fifty heresies and Errors of the Friars, in Select English
Works of John Wyclif (London, 186971), 367ff.; A. Dakin, Die Beziehung John Wiclifs und der
Lollarden zu den Bettelmnchen (London, 1911).
12 De professione Religiosorum, in E. Garin, Prosatori (above, n. 8), 566631; R. Radetti, La
religione di Lorenzo Valla, Medioevo e Rinascimento 2 (1955), 595620; Charles Trinkaus,
Humanist Treatises on the Status of Religious, Studies in the Renaissance 11 (1964), 745,
now in Ibid., In Our Image and Likeness. Humanity and Divinity in Italian Humanist
Thought (Chicago, 1970).
13 See, for example, V. Sarenac, Luthers Kritik an den Mnchsgelbden bis zum Albassstreit
(Jena, 1940); B. Lhse, Mnchtum und Reformation. Luthers Auseinandersetzung mit den
Mnchsideal des Mittelalters (Gttingen, 1963), 267ff.
14 On the mendicant friar as an object of satire see, among others, P. Lehmann, Die Parodie
im Mittelalter, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart, 1963), 68ff, 188ff., 192ff.
15 J.G. Graevius, ed., Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae (Leiden, 1722) vi, 2, 5962;
A. Zardo, Albertino Mussato (Padua, 1884), 30210; F. Novati, ed., Epistolario, Fonti per la
Storia dItalia 1518 (Rome, 18911911), iii, 53943, iv, 170205; F. Cinquino, Coluccio
Salutati. Defender of Poetry, Italica (1949), 13135; J. Reginald ODonnell, Coluccio
Salutati on the Poet-Teacher, Medieval Studies (1960). C. Trinkaus (above, n. 12), 662;
T.F. Rich, Giovanni da Sanminiato and Coluccio Salutati, Speculum (1936), 38690;
R.Sabbadini, ed., Epistolario de Guarino Veronese, Miscellanea di Storia Veneta iii, 11 (Venice,
1916); 51934. On the feud of the Franciscan Antonius of Rho with Antonio Beccadelli
see: D. Ronzoni, Leloquenzia di S. Bernadino da Siena e della sua scuola (Siena, 1899),
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 113

culture16 had moved from merely handing down cultura Latina to a conscious
reception of an ancient legacy. Consequently the mendicantswith their
concern for schooling and a culture of preaching oriented toward the needs
of the masseshad come to be seen as cultural competitors. Their norms,
institutions and customs were not only rejected, but came to be seen as a
threat to a way of life oriented toward the model of antiquity.17 When Poggio
denounced the mendicants as rudes atque incultu aselli bipedales18 it was not
only a bonmot in search of applause, not only an element of style of an invec-
tive subtly deployed by the humanists.19 It was the precise formulation of an
opposition between new and old, between education and ignorance, between
artistry and banality, between Renaissance and the Middle Ages, which the
humanists saw personified in themselves and their mendicant antagonists.20

15, 103 and 114. On the feud of the Observant Antonius von Bitonto with Lorenzo Valla:
A.Gaeta, Antonio da Bitonto ofm, oratore e teologo del secolo xv (Baronissi-Salerno, 1952),
3557. See also in this connection: M.L. Plaisant, Un oposculo inedito di Francesco da
Fiano in difesa della poesia, Rinascimento ii, 1 (1961), 119ff. V.R. Giustiniani, Alamanno
Rinuccini 14261499. Materialieun und Forschungen zur Geschichte des florentinischen
Humanismus, vol. 5, Studi Italiani (Cologne-Graz, 1965), 7679. On the literary confronta-
tions between humanists and mendicants generally: V. Rossi and A. Valone, Il Quatrocento,
4th ed. (Milan, 1949), 549; E. Garin, Il pensiero pedagogico dellumanesimo, I classici della
pedagogia italiana 2 (Florence, 1958), 189; F. Tateo, I centri culturali dellumanesimo,
Letteratura Italiana Laterza 10 (Bari, 1971), 39ff.
16 See, among others P.O. Kristeller, Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian
Renaissance, Byzantion (194445), also in ibid., Studies in Renaissance Thought and
Letters, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1969), 553583; R. Weiss, The Dawn of Humanism in Italy (London,
1947); ibid., Lineamenti per una storia del primo umanesimo Fiorentino, Rivista storica
italiana 60 (1948), 349ff. H. Wieruszowski, Rhetoric and the Classics in Italian Education
of the Thirteenth Century, Studia Gratiana 11 (1967), 169208, also in Politics and Culture
in Medieval Spain and Italy, Storia e Letteratura 121 (Rome, 1971), 589627.
17 Novati (above, n. 15), 327 n. 8 and B. Smalley, English Friars and Antiquity in the Early
Fourteenth Century (Oxford, 1960), 27879 note forcefully the avversione prefrati and
the ideas of the educated laymen about the role of the friars.
18 T. Tonelli, ed., Pogii Florentini epistolae (Florence, 183261) I, 261.
19 F. Vismara, Linvetiva, arma preferita degli umanisti (Milan, 1900).
20 On the historical self-understanding of the Italian humanists, among others: W.K.
Ferguson, Humanist Views of the Renaissance, American Historical Review 45 (1939), 128;
F. Simone, La conscienza della rinascita negli umanisti, La Rinascita 2, 3 (1939, 1940),
83871, 16385; T.E. Mommsen, Petrarchs Conception of the Dark Ages, Speculum 17
(1942), 22642; H. Weisinger, The Renaissance Theory of the Reaction against the Middle
Ages as a Cause of the Renaissance, Speculum 20 (1945); A. Buck, Das Geschichtsdenken der
Renaissance, Schriften und Vortrge des Petrarca-Instituts Kln 9 (Krefeld, 1957); P. Burke,
The Renaissance Sense of the Past (London, 1969). Further literature: J. Voss, Das Mittelalter
114 chapter 3

Such distancing from the mendicants was no one-sided affair, driven only
by the concerns of the humanists. Jerome and Augustine had long ago begun
to hash out between them the opposition between lamour des letters and dsir
du Dieu, the difference between the codices sacri and the libri gentilium,
between sacra Sophia and philosophia pagana. But that difference had perhaps
never been more fully treated than in the treatises in which Giovanni da
Mantua and John of Prato, and above all John Dominici, turned against the
overestimation of the ancient poets and their reckless use in education.21 Here
was the verdict of the mendicant polemics, officially approved by the
Franciscan Observants:22 utilius est Christianis terram arare quam gentilium
intendere libros.23 But it was nothing new.24 Warnings against the study of hea-
then philosophers and the all-too intimate familiarity with the poets had
echoed through the mendicant orders again and again from the thirteenth
century. It happened not only among marginal groups, like the Spirituals or
Carmelites, driven to uphold the vita eremitica,25 but also at the pinnacle of the

im historischen Denken Frankreichs, Verffentlichungen des Historischen Instituts der


Universitt Mannheim 3 (1972), 2239; F.J. Worstbrock, ber das geschichtliche Selbst
verstndnis des deutschen Humanismus, in Historizitt in Sprach- und Literaturwissen
schaft. Vortrge und Berichte der Stuttgarter Germanistentagung 1972, ed. W. Mller-Seidel
(1974). Also informative: D.A. Barbagli, Lideale delleleganzia agli albori del movimento
humanistico, Rinascimento ii, 1 (1961), 6394; C. Vasoli, Lestetica dellUmanesimo e del
Rinascimento, in Problemi ed orientamenti critici di lingua e letteratura italiana. Momenti e
problemi di storia dellestetica (Milan, 1959), 332ff.
21 Leclercq, Lamour des lettres et le dsir de Dieu. Initiation aux auteurs monastiques du
moyen ge (Paris, 1957).
22 F. Novati (see above, n. 15) iii, 22129, 539ff.; Duffner, Die Moralia Gregors des Groen in
ihren italienischen Volgarizzamenti (Padua, 1958), 3180; F.A. Zaccaria, Iter litterarium per
Italiam (Venice, 1762), 325356; J.G. Graevius (above, n. 15) vi, 2, c. 5457; Edmund Hunt,
ed., Iohannis Dominici Lucula Noctis, Publications in Medeival Studies (Notre Dame, in,
1940); B.L. Ullman, The Dedication Copy of Giovanni Dominicis Lucula Nocits. A
Landmark in the History of the Italian Renaissance, Medievalia et Humanistica 1 (1943),
109123; Ibid., Studies in the Italian Renaissance, Storia e Letteratura 51 (Rome, 1955), 258ff.
23 L. Lemmens, Beati Bernardini Aquilani Chronica Fratrum Minorum Observantiae,
Fragmenta Franciscana ii (Rome, 1902), 43ff.
24 E. Hunt (above, n. 22).
25 See, for example F.M. Delorme, Fr. Petri Joannis Olivi tractatus De perlegendis
Philosophorum libris, Antonianum (1941), 3144; A. Staring, Nicolai Prioris Generalis
Ordinis Carmelitarum Ignea saggita, Carmelus 9 (1962), 237307; C. Cicconetti, La regola
del Carmelo. Origine, natura, significato, Textus et Studia Historica Carmelitana 12 (Rome,
1973); B. Smalley, John Baconthorpes Postill on St Matthew, Medieval and Renaissance
Studies 4 (1958), 12139.
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 115

orders. For all of their differences Bonaventure26 (Minister General of the


Franciscans) and Humbert of Romans27 (fifth successor to St. Dominic) agreed
that the study of ancient philosophers was to be undertaken only with care,
and could make no claim to speak to matters of salvation: Qui ergo vult discere,
quaeret scientiam in suo fonte scilicet in sacra scriptura, quia apud philosophos
non est scientia ad dandam remissionem peccatorum. The assessment of the
ancients and of Aristotelian philosophy28 from Bonaventuras Collationes in
Hexameron found a parallel in the oft-cited measure of the Dominican
Constitutions from 1220, which prohibited the study of the libri gentilium et
philosophorum and any engagement with seculares scientie and the artes quam
liberales vocantor allowed such study only with the permission of the minis-
ter general or the general chapter.29 This disassociation from ancient philoso-
phy and poetry, first formulated in the thirteenth century30 and taken up anew,
under different conditions, in the fifteenth, is misunderstood if it is cast merely
as a negation of the humanistic spirit or indeed as a consequence of a
competition in the palestra letteraria that had first been a monopoly of the
religious orders.31 In the fifteenth century as in the thirteenth, it was above all
an expression of the fear of novelty, of new ways of teaching and viewing the
world, through which individual salvation and praise of Godin short,
religious life and monastic spiritualityseemed to be threatened.32

26 See fn. 28.


27 Expositio Magistri Humberti super Constitutiones Fratrum Praedicatorum, in B.
Humberti de Romanis Opera de vita regulari, ed. J.J. Berthier (Turin, 1956).
28 Coll. in Hex. xix, 7. Opera Omnia V (Quaracchi, 1891), 421. On the connection: H. van der
Laan, The Idea of Christian Philosophy in Bonaventures Collationes in Hexameron, in
S. Bonaventura 12741974 iii. Philosophica (Rome, 1973), 3956.
29 H. Denifle, Die Constitutionen des Predigerordens vom Jahre 1228, Archiv fr Literatur-
und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters 2 (1885); R. Creytens, Les Constitutions des frres
Prcheurs dans la rdaction de S. Raymond de Peafort, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum
18 (1948), 2968; G.G. Meerseman, In libris gentilium non studeant. Ltude des classiques
interdite auz clercs au moyen ge? Italia medioevale e umanistica 1 (1958), 113.
30 On the prohibition of the libri pertinentes ad aliquas sciencias seculares preter logicales et
ea que pertinent ad moralem philosophiam (moph xx, 2); K.W. Humphreys, The Book
Provisions of the Medieval Friars 12151400, Studies in the History of Libraries and
Librarianship 1 (Amsterdam, 1964), 42ff.
31 O. Bacci, Della prosa volgare del Quattrocento (Florence, 1897), 16; F. Biccerlari, Un
Francescano umanista, il B. Alberto Saretano 13851450, Studi Francescani 35 (1938).
32 G.M. Sicacca, La visione della vita nellumanesimo e Coluccio Salutati (Palermo, 1954), 25ff.;
J.W. Frank, Die Spannung zwischen Ordensleben und wissenschaftlicher Arbeit im
frhen Dominikanerorden, Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 49 (1967), 164201.
116 chapter 3

For the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the antithesis between sophia
sacra and philosophia gentilum, the sharp contrast of the world of the human-
ists with the world of the mendicants, can be seen as a kind of rhetorical
commonplace, a schoolmans tortured literary topos.33 For us, too, it is little
more than a hermeneutic device helpful for capturing a reality in which sharp
lines of division between mendicants and humanists were often blurred, and
in which permeable boundaries were more common than sharp confronta-
tions. The Florentine chancellor Coluccio Salutati not only defended the writ-
ings of the ancients against the suspicions of a John of S. Miniato and a John
Dominici. In his treatise De seculo et religione Salutati emerged as such an
advocate for religious life that he not only encouraged the addressee of the
work, Niccol di Lapo da Uzzano, to uphold his propositum, but also led his
Florentine contemporary Filippo Villani to enter the cloister.34 Moreover,
Salutatis adversary, the Dominican cardinal Giovanni Dominici, has been seen
not only as a fighter against poetae impudici. At least since Sadoleto, Dominici
has also been honored as the incarnation of a verus humanista.35 Giovanni
Dominici, moreover, was not the only figure who embodied a synthesis of vita
religiosa and studia humanitatis. The biographies of the orders provide many
further examples of fratres sanctitate, doctrina et litteris illustres.36 Indeed,
according to P.O. Kristeller, of some 200 members of the religious orders who
became well-known humanists beyond the walls of the cloister in Italy and
Germany between 1400 and 1530, well more than half came from the mendi-
cant orders.37 Among these the Dominicans were slightly ahead of both the

33 See, for example, Giustiniani (above, n. 15), 7677; Novati (above, n. 15).
34 B.L. Ullman, Coluccio Salutati de seculo et religione, Nuova Colleczione di testi umanistici
inediti o rari 12 (Florence, 1957). See also G. Toffanin, Per Coluccio Salutati, Rinascimento
9 (1956), 410; P. Oliver, Review, Speculum 34 (1959), 13135; B.L. Ullman, The Humanism
of Coluccio Salutati, Medioevo e Umanesimo 4 (1963), 26ff.
35 J. Sadoleto, Phaedrus, in: Opera (Mainz, 1607); Pironti, ed., Elogia della Sapienza (Naples,
1950). See also P. Stella, Saggio bio-bibliographico, in Giovanni Dominici (1419). Saggi e
inediti, Memorie Dominicane ns 1 (Pistoia, 1970), 20335.
36 J. Qutif and J. Echard, Scriptores ordinis Praedicatorum (Paris, 171923); T. Kppeli,
Scriptores ordinis Praedicatorum medii aevi I (Rome, 1970); B. Xiberta, De scriptoribus scho-
lasticis saeculi xiv ex Ordine Carmelitarum (Louvain, 1931); J.F. Ossinger, Bibliotheca
Augustiniana Historica (Ingolstadt-Augsburg, 1768 [Repr. Turin, 1963]); D.A. Perini,
Bibliographia Augustiniana (Florence, 192937). See also G.M. Besutti, Repertori e sussidi
generali, in Bibliografia dellOrdine dei Servi, Bibliotheca Servorum Romandiolae 4
(Bologna, 1971), 19ff.
37 P.O. Kristeller, The Contribution of the Religious Orders to Renaissance Thought and
Learning, The American Benedictine Review 21 (1970), 154.
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 117

Augustinian Hermits and the Franciscans, while the Carmelites, Servites and
the members of other smaller mendicant congregations trailed far behind. In
the context of the overall numbers of their settlements and members, how-
ever, the proportions shift decidedly toward the Augustinian Hermits, the
humanist mendicant order par excellence. In light of these various numbers
and relationshipsall of which can be reinforced through an analysis of
surviving library catalogues38one could challenge the pointed thesis,
inspired by the polemical literature of the Quattrocento, that there was some
great distance between the mendicants and the humanists. One could instead
argue with Kristeller (the thesis no less sharply formulated) that from the
middle of the fifteenth century the mendicants had given up all opposition
against the study of ancient authors, and had taken over an active role in the
reception and cultivation of the legacy of antiquity.39
Concrete historical investigations of the relationships between mendicants
and humanists can proceed from neither of these extremes.40 The study of the
ancients took shape differently in the thirteenth century than in the fifteenth.
It took on forms in Italy that differed from those north of the Alps. It was evalu-
ated differently among the Dominicans and Franciscans than among the
Augustinian Hermits and the Carmelites, and in fact met with both approval
and resistance in the same order at the same time. It was influenced by so
many particular social and political circumstances that one can hardly speak
of either widespread approval or general condemnation. Indeed it is probably

38 P. Kibre, The Intellectual Interests Reflected in Libraries of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Centuries, Journal of the History of Ideas 7 (1946), 25797. For an analysis of mendicant
libraries see K.W. Humphreys (above, n. 30). G. Abate, Manoscritti e biblioteche frances-
cane del medio evo, in Il libro e le biblioteche. Atti del primo congresso bibliologico frances-
cano internazaionale (Rome, 1950); D. Gutirrez, De antiquis Ordinis Eremitarum Sancti
Augustini bibliothecis, Analecta Augustiniana 23 (1954), 164372; T. Kppeli, Antiche
biblioteche Domenicane in Italia, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 36 (1966).
39 Kristeller (above, n. 37).
40 Apart from the work of B. Smalley (above, n. 17) and the research focused on individual
orders and figures (see n. 62), the assertion encountered in H. Maschek, Zur Geschichte
des Humanismus im Franziskanerorden, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 28 (1935)
remains valid: The relation of the religious orders to humanism, and especially the
Franciscans, remains in need of foundational research. Several other scholars have made
brief reference to the need for such research: Maschek, Zur Geschichte des Humanismus
im Franziskanerorden; K. Arnold, Johannes Trithemius (14621516), Quellen und
Forschungen zur Geschichte des Bistums und Hochstifts Wrzburg vii (Wrzburg, 1971),
vii; H.A. Oberman in W. Eckermann, Der Physikkommentar Hugolins von Orvieto o.e.s.a.
Ein Beitrag zur Erkenntnislehre des sptmittelalterlichen Augustinismus., Sptmittelalter
und Reformation. Texte und Untersuchungen 4 (Berlin-New York, 1972), xix.
118 chapter 3

dangerous to speak even of the legitimation of humanistic studies in the


mendicant orders at all. Armed with these caveats, the following investigation
will limit itself to Florence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In this
relatively uniform setting, in one place across one period, the following hopes
to show from one example how not official pronunciation, but rather the
power of the facts on the groundsocial conditions and dynamics, similar
ideas and modelsallowed mendicants and humanists to overcome the
barriers between their different worlds, and find their way to intellectual
community.
Even a first glance suggests that relationships valid for Italy and Germany
appear, in a general way, to be accurate for Florence as well. The smaller men-
dicant ordersthe order of the Servites, which emerged from a confraternity
of Florentine merchants, along with the Carmelites,41 who had settled in
Florence already before the fall of Acreclearly provided, according to time
and place, a rearguard in the field of humanist study. In S. Maria del Carmine
the identification with the studia humanitatis was so weak that it cannot be
compared to the literary energy42 that developed in the Congregation of
Mantua in the fifteenth century. And Paolo Attavanti, a conventual of the
Florentine Servite cloister at S. Maria Annunziata, produced sermons and
psalm commentaries shaped by the spirit of the unica et divina sapientia
Platonicorum only in the second half of the fifteenth century.43 Earlier and far
more intense, in contrast, was the contact of the Dominicans, Franciscans and
Augustinian Hermits with the culture of antiquity that came to life anew in the
thirteenth century, and that flowered so remarkably in the fourteenth. Already
in the first decades of the fourteenth century, under the leadership of the

41 The relatively limited interest referenced in R. Davidsohn, Forschungen zur Geschichte von
Florenz (Berlin, 18961908), iv, 81 has been confirmed through an analysis of the cloister
library: K.W. Humphreys, The Library of the Carmelites of Florence at the End of the
Fourteenth Century (Amsterdam, 1964).
42 L. Saggi, La Congregazione Mantovana dei Carmelitani sino all morte de B. Battista Spagnoli
(1516), Textus et Studia Historica Carmelitana 1 (Rome, 1954). On the work of Battista
Mantovano: E. Coccia, Le edizioni delle opere del Mantovano (Rome, 1960). See also B.M. de
la Croix, Les Carmes Humanistes (Environ 1465 jusque 1525), Etudes Carmelitaines 20
(1935), 1923.
43 Expositio in psalmos paenitentiales (Milan, 1479); Quadragesimale de reditu peccatoris ad
Deum seu thesaurus praedicatorum (Milan, 1479). See A.M. Serra, Memoria di Fra Paola
Attavanti, in Bibliografia dellOrgine dei Servi I, Bibliotheca Servorum Romadiolae 4
(Bologna, 1971), 21354. On the spiritual life in ss Annunziata: E. Casalini, La ss. Anunziata.
Studi e documenti sulla chiesa e il convento, Collana di contributi per la storia e per larte a
cura della provincia Toscana dei Servi di Maria (Florence, 1971).
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 119

lector Remigio Girolami, S. Maria Novella began to reach back strongly to


Cicero, Seneca, Virgil and Horace and to turn more sharply to the models of
Alexander, Cicero and Octavian than had been the case in a culture of notaries
shaped by the ars dictaminis.44 The recovery of further elements of antiquity
continued in the course of the fourteenth century, and indeed into the
fifteenth in Santa Maria Novella from the beginnings Remigio had made
there.45 Around the core of a Thomist-influenced scholasticism emerged a
homiletic literature whose authors, Jacobo Passavanti,46 Taddeo Dini,47 Luca
de Manetti48 and Dominico da Corella,49 with reference to Seneca, cited the
virtutes antiquorum principum et philosophorum and clothed the life of Mary in
the language of a Virgilian epicall in the hope that their pastoral efforts
would make a more dramatic impression among the faithful, many of whom
now seemed less than convinced by traditional legends and pious stories of
miracles. On the periphery of this intellectual system, so to speak, were
brothers like Vicenzo Bandello,50 Nicolaus de Mirabilibus,51 Simone da
Cascina52 and Giovanni Caroli,53 who carried on conversations with the
Humanists, who corresponded with Pico della Mirandola and disputed in the
household of Lorenzo de Medici.

44 Sermoni doccasione, le sequenze e i ritmi di Remigio Girolami Fiorentino, in Scritti vari


di Filologia (Rome, 1901); L. Minio-Paluello, Remigio Girolamis De bono communi, Italian
Studies 11 (1956), 5671; C.T. Davis, An Early Florentine Political Theorist: Fra Remigio
deGirolami, Proceedings of the American Philological Society 104 (1960), 665ff.; Ibid.,
Education in Dantes Florence, Speculum 40 (1965), 41535.
45 Foundational: S. Ordlandi, Necrologio di S. Maria Novella (Florence, 1955); Ibid., La
Bibliotheca di S. Maria Novella in Firenze dal Sec. xiv al Sec. xix (Florence, 1952).
46 Orlandi (see above, n. 45) I, 8889, 45071; Monteverdi, Studi e saggi sulla letteratura itali-
ana dei primi secoli (Milan, 1954), 167ff.; T. Kppeli, Opere latine attribute a Jacopo
Passavanti, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 32 (1962), 153ff.; C. Getto, Umanit e stile di
J. Passavanti (Milan, 1943).
47 Orlandi (above, n. 45) I, 498.
48 Orlandi (above, n. 45) i, 568ff.; T. Kppeli, Luca Manetti (1362) e la sua Tabulatio et
expositio Senecae, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 18 (1948), 237264.
49 Orlandi (above, n. 45) ii, 18790, 30515; J.B.M. Contarenus, Nuova raccolta dopuscoli sci-
entifici e filologici, vol. 17 (1768); 19 (1770), 10ff.
50 P.O. Kristeller, A Thomist Critique of Marsilio Ficinos Theory of Will and Intellect, in
Harry Austryn Wolfson Jubilee Volume. Engl. Section, Jerusalem (1965), 463494. See also
the references to him in the investigations of the biography of his nephew: C. Godi, Per
la biografia di Matteo Bandello, Italia medioevale e umanistica 11 (1968), 25792.
51 Kristeller (above, n. 37), 46.
52 Hinnebusch ii (above, n. 1), 369.
53 Orlandi (above, n. 45) I, 898900; ii, 35380. Kristeller (above, n. 37), 43.
120 chapter 3

In S. Croce, as in S. Maria Novella, a notable embrace of the ancients is visi-


ble already at the end of the thirteenth century. The library of the Franciscan
convent received in that era not only the grammars and dictionaries of Priscian,
Isidor and Papias, but also works of Virgil, Servius, Solinus, Eutripius, Suetonius,
Horace and Ovid. It is also known that one of the conventuals, a Fra Anastasio,
used the manuscripts of the library for a Latin commentary on Virgils Aeneid.54
The openness to the ancient tradition that these examples suggestan open-
ness that, as with the Dominicans, was probably shaped above all by the needs
of preachers, and one that included Dante himselfdid not become the defin-
itive style for the spirituality of the brothers of S. Croce. That had already been
shaped in the 1280s by the lectors Peter John Olivi and Ubertino da Casale, who
saw in the cultivation of ancient philosophy more danger than desire for
salvation,55 and who obligated the convent to a certain notable and lasting
distance over against the citys political, social and cultural leadership.56 That
distance did not prevent brothers like Fra Illuminato and Fra Tedaldo della
Casa from maintaining ties to the humanists in the fourteenth century,57
however. And here, as E. Garin has pointed out,58 there emerged conditions
that nurtured the platonic spirituality of Marsilio Ficino and the Florentine
Academy.

54 C.T. Davis, The Early Collection of Books of S. Croce in Florence, Proceedings of the
American Philosophical Society 107 (1963). Ibid., Education (above, n. 44), 418.
55 Along with n. 25 see also F. Sarri, Piero di Giovanni Olivi e Ubertino da Casale Maestri di
Teologia a Firenze, Studi Francescani 22 (1925). On the role of the Fraticelli in Florence: L.
Oliger, Beitrge zur Geschichte der Spiritualen, Fratizellen und Clarener, Zeitschrift fr
Kirchengeschichte 44 (1926), 215ff.
56 F. Tocco, Studi francescani (Naples, 1909), 406ff.; M. DAlatri, Linquisizione francescana
nellItalia centrale nel secolo xiii, Collactanea franciscana 23 (1953), 77ff.; Ibid., Nuove
notizie sullinquisizione toscana del duecento, Collactenea Franciscana 31 (1960), 63744;
M.B. Becker, Florentine Politics and the Diffusion of Heresy in the Trecento: A Socio-
Economic Inquiry, Speculum 34 (1959), 6075.
57 Davis (above, n. 54), 477ff.; F. Mattesini, La biblioteca di S. Croce e Fra Tedaldo della
Casa, Studi Francescani 57 (1960), 254316; F. Sarri, Fratre Tedaldo della Casa e le sue
transcrizioni petrarchesche, Annali della cattedra petrarchesca 4 (1933); C. Mazzi,
Linventario quattrocentesco della biblioteca di S. Croce in Firenze, Rivista delle biblio-
teche e degli archive 8 (1897), 1631; 99113; 12947.
58 E. Garin, Il francescanesimo e le origini del rinascimento, in Filosofia e cultura in Umbria
fra medioevo e rinascimento Atti del iv Convegno di studi Umbri, Gubbio 2226 Maggio 1966
(Perugia, 1967), 113132; P.O. Kristeller, Florentine Platonism and its Relation with
Humanism and Scholasticism, Church History 8 (1939), 202ff.; ibid., The Scholastic
Background of Marsilio Ficino, Traditio 2 (1944), 257318 (now ibid., in Studies in
Renaissance Thought and Letters, Storia e Letteratura 54 (Rome, 1969), 3555).
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 121

The study of ancient authors at S. Maria Novella and S. Croce was never so
intensive, the bonds between the religious orders and humanists never so
strong, that one could speak of a convergence between the mendicant orders
and humanism. But if ever there were a symbiosis of religious life and studium
litterarum in a Florentine mendicant house an almost institutional bond
between the two cultural worlds, then it was to be found in the convent of the
Augustinian Hermits of S. Spirito. Founded in 1250 on the left bank of the
Arno,59 from 1287 tied to a studium generale60 and distinguished for its many
important theologians and preachers,61 in the last half of the fourteenth cen-
tury the friary found itself home to a circle of religious and educated laity gath-
ered under the leadership of its prior, Luigi Marsigli.62 Scholars from Voigt63 to
Tateo64 have praised that moment as a milestone on the journey from the
medieval schools and universities to the more open forms of modern lay edu-
cation. Decades after the dissolution of a circle whose members found them-
selves both within and beyond the walls of S. Spirito, John of Prato in the
Paradiso degli Alberti portrayed its composition, concerns and sociability65 in
colors that, in Barons view,66 belong more to the fifteenth century than to the

59 S. Bellandi, La chiesa di S. Spirito di Firenze (Florence, 1921); see also Bolletino storico agos-
tiniano 25 and 26 (1949), 3140; (1950), 19.
60 Analecta Augutsiniana 2 (1908), 271, 275. On the organization of the schools of the
Augustinian Hermits: E. Ypma, La formation des professeurs chez les Ermites de Saint-
Augustin de 1256 1354 (Paris, 1956); D. Gutirrez, Los estudios en la Orden Augustiniana
desde la Edad Media hasta la contemprnea, Analecta Augustiniana 33 (1970), 75149.
61 See, among others, Ossinger (above, n. 36) 53, 223, 346, 413, 592. A. Zumkeller, Die
Augustinerschule des Mittelalters: Vertreter und philosophisch-theologische Lehre (ber-
sicht nach dem heutigen Stand der Forschung), Analecta Augustiniana 27 (1964), 17476.
62 F. del Secolo, Un teologo dell ultimo trecento: Luigi Marsigli (Trani, 1898); C. Cesari, Notizie
intorno a Luigi Marsili (Lovere, 1900); S. Bellandi, Luigi Marsali degli Augustiniani, apos-
tolo ed anima del rinascimento letterario in Firenze, an. 13421394 (Florence, 1911). In sum-
mary: R. Arbesmann, Der Augustiner-Eremitenorden und der Beginn der humanistischen
Bewegung, Cassiciacum 19 (Wrzburg, 1965), 73119.
63 G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Altherthums oder das erste Jahrhundert des
Humanismus, 4th ed. (Berlin, 1960), I, 184ff.
64 Tateo, I centri culturali dellumanesimo, 39.
65 A. Wesselofsky, Il Paradiso degli Alberti, ritrovi e ragionamenti del 1389: Romanzo di
Giovanni da Prato dal codice autografo e anonimo della Riccardiana, Scelta di curiosit
letterarie inedite or rare 8688 (Bologna, 1867).
66 H. Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance. Civic Humanism and Republican
Liberty in the Age of Classicism and Tyranny (Princeton, 1955), 298ff.; ibid., Humanistic and
Political Literature in Florence and Venice at the Beginning of the Quattrocento, Studies in
Criticism and Chronology (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), 1824.
122 chapter 3

lifetime of Luigi Marsili. What can be drawn from sources more proximate to
the events is sufficient, however, to reveal that the circleshaped by the prior
of S. Spirito as through a divinum quoddam oraculum67in fact brought reli-
gious energy and worldly scholarship together in a way quite unusual for its
day. Unfettered by an institution shaped by and bound to tradition, Marsili was
able to teach and to influence his egregii adolescentes and his optimi ac praes-
tantissimi viri civitatis68men like Coluccio Salutati, Niccol Niccoli and
Roberto de Rossiso powerfully that (as Coluccio confessed to his friends in
1401) they owed him the greatest part of their intellectual formation.69
Scholarship suggests that Luigi deployed a method of teaching70 that combined
scholastic disputation with free conversation, and in doing so he aimedas all
of the sources suggestat not only ea, quae ad religionem spectant, sed etiam
ista, quae appellamus gentilia.71 He sought both studium doctrinae as well as
morum institutio,72 and thus bound religious and intellectual formation to one
of the many variants of an oft-cited Christian Humanism.72a According to the
judgment of many contemporaries73 and the witness of his surviving works,74

67 Poggio Florentini oratio in funere Nicolai Nicoli civis Florentini, in: Poggii Florentini ora-
toris et philosophi opera (Basel, 1538), 27.
68 Poggio (above, n. 87), 27.
69 L. Bruni, Ad Petrum Paulum Histrum dialogus, in: E. Garin (above, n. 8), 50. On the figures
mentioned here, with extensive further literature: L. Martines, The Social World of the
Florentine Humanists 13901480 (Princeton, 1963), 108110, 110112, 30910. J.E. Siegel,
Rhetoric and Philosophy in Renaissance Humanism. The Union of Eloquence and Wisdom,
Petrarch to Valla (Princeton, 1968), 22633.
70 Arbesmann (above, n. 62), 6081; N.W. Gilbert, The Early Italian Humanists and
Disputation, in Renaissance Studies in Honor of Hans Baron (Florence), 203ff.
71 Bruni (above n. 69), 50.
72 Poggio (above, n. 67), 27.
72a A. Buck, Das Problem des christlichen Humanismus in der italienischen Renaissance,
Sodalitas Erasmiana I (Naples, 1950), 18192. See also the thorough survey of literature in
C. Angeleri, Il problema religioso del renascimento (Florence, 1952).
73 Along with the witnesses cited in notes 65, 67 and 69, see Leonardo Bruni, Dialogus de
tribus vatibus florentinis, ed. K. Wotke (Viena, 1889), 1213; ibid., De militia, ed. C.C. Bayley,
War and Society in Renaissance Florence (Toronto, 1961), 381; Giannozzo Manetti, De illus-
tribus longaevis, here following L. Mehus, ed., Vita Ambrosii Traversarii (Florence, 1759),
lxxxvi; Cino Rinuccini, Risponsiva alla invettiva di Messer Antonio Lusco, ed. D. Moreni,
Invectiva Colluci Salutati reip. Flor. a secretis in Antonium Luschum Vicentinun (Florence,
1826), 226ff.; F. Petrarca, Epistolae seniles, in: Opera (Basel, 1581), ii, 732; Lapo Mazzei,
Lettere di un notaio a un mercante del secolo xiv, ed. Guasti (Florence, 1880), i, 69.
74 On the works: Cesari (above, n. 62), 102ff. and Arbesmann (above, n. 62), 8788. Important
here are the letters to Guido del Pelagio, cited by Arbesmann from the inaccessible
edition of B. Sorio, Biblioteca Classica Sacra (1845) and C. Vasoli, La Regola per ben
confessarsi di Luigi Marsili, Rinascimento (1953), 3944.
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 123

the prior brought the best of qualifications to the task before him. So
Coluccio Salutati in a letter of 1405 to Poggio Bracciolini: Quis hystoriarum
etiam gentilium compositor, promptior atque tenacior? Quis theologie illumi-
nator, quis atrium et philosophiae subtilior, quis eruditior antiquitatis vel
eorum peritior, que callere creditor ista modernitas?75 To honor the prior
properly would require, to speak with John of Prato, the eloquence of
Demosthenes and Cicero.76 But his reputation rested not merely on his way
of life and his knowledge. It also drew from the heritage of a renowned
Florentine family.77 His mother had brought him to Petrarch already as a
child, and thereafter he remained in the presence of the princeps humanista-
rum. One can therefore include him in that oft-noted circle of Paduan,
Florentine and Neapolitan Augustinian Hermits (including Michele da
Massa, Dionigi da Borgo S. Sepolcro, Bartolomeo da Urbino, Bonaventura da
Peraga and Bonsembiante Badoer). Along with Petrarch these figures formed
such a closely knit intellectual, scholarly and religious community that it is
rightly seen as one of the earliest and closest collaborations between the
mendicant orders and humanism.78
The concord between humanists and religious that reached its height under
Luigi Marsili (and that was in a certain way preserved in the library of S.
Spirito)79 remained alive through the fifteenth century into the early years of
the sixteenth. Naldo Naldi and Vespasiano da Bisticci tell of lectures and dispu-
tations held in S. Spirito a few decades after Luigis death by the masters
Vangelista da Pisa and Girolao da Napoli. Open to both clergy and laity, the

75 Epistolario (above, n. 15) iv, i, 138.


76 Wesselofsky (above, n. 65) iii, 3.
77 Casari (above, n. 62), 20ff.
78 E. van Me, Les Ermites de Saint-Augustin amis de Ptrarque, Mlanges darchologie et
dhistoire 46 (1929), 26067; U. Mariani, Il Petrarca e gli Agostiniani, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1959);
P. Courcelle, Ptrarque entre Saint-Augstin et les Augustins du XIVe sicle, Studi
Petrarcheschi 7 (1961), 5171. Arbesmann (above, n. 62) 1573.
79 On the library of S. Spirito, in which were to be found the libraries or books of Boccaccio,
Luigi Marsili, Nicolas di Michele Bonaiuti, Simone Tornaquinci, Antonio da Marcialla,
Francesco d Nerei, Agostino Zenobi and William Becchi: D. Gutirrez, La biblioteca di
Santo Spirito in Firenze nella met del secolo xv, Analecta Augustiniana 25 (1962), 588;
A. Mazza, Linvenrario della parva libraria di Santo Spirito et la biblioteca del Boccaccio,
Italia meioevale et umanistica 9 (1966), 174. On the intention of Antonio Corbinelli and
Giannozzo Manneti to donate their libraries to S. Spirito see R. Blum, La biblioteca della
Badia fiorentina e i codici di Antonio Corbinelli, Studi e Testi (Vatican City, 1951); L. Martines,
Addenda to the Life of Antonio Corbinelli, Rinascimento 8 (1967), 319; R. Arbesmann,
Andrea Biglia. Augustinian Friar and Humanist (1435), Analecta Augustiniana (1965),
154185.
124 chapter 3

gatherings were so popular that they drove Gianozzo Manetti to allow a door
to be broken open from his garden to the cloister, so that he could take part
directly in the intellectual and liturgical life of the brothers.80 In 1419 Andrea
Biglia, the son of a Milanese patrician professed to the Augustinians of S.
Marco, took up his teaching position in the Florentine studium generale. There
the intellectual climate allowed him to come into close contact with Niccol
Niccoli, Leonardo Bruni and Ambrogio Traversarijust as he had done before
in Padua with Sicco Polenton, and just as he would in 1423 in Bologna with
Leon Battista Alberti, Antonio Beccadelli Panormita, Giovanni Aurispa and
Filelfo.81 During his stay in Florence in 149495 Giles of Viterbo, another figure
with numerous ties to the humanists of his day, took up contact with Marsilio
Ficino with the same intellectual ease.82 It was an encounter that was admit-
tedly more fruitful than that of Biglia with Niccoli, Bruni and Traversari. But
the spirit of Marsilio and his academy strongly influenced the ways in which
the later General of the order and cardinal allowed himself to be led in the
reform of the religious orders and the church.83
Considered from the point of view of social history, the points of contact
between mendicants and humanists surveyed here (by no means compre-
hensively) shared a common ground in the close social interconnections
between cloister and city, between those who were members of the religious
orders and the wider urban population.84 In their earliest days the Florentine
mendicant convents were composed only partially of inhabitants of the city
itself, and even in later decades they took in conventuals of foreign origin.

80 Naldo Naldi, Vita Jannotti Manetti, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores 20 (1731), 53132; P.
dAnconaE. Aeschlimann, eds., Vespaisiano da Bisticci, Vite di uomini illustri del secolo
xv (Milan, 1951), 261, 527.
81 Arbesmann, Andrea Biglia. Augustinian Friar and Humanist (1435); Ibid. (above, n. 62).
82 Cf. G. Signorelli, Il Cardinale Egidio da Viterbo, umanista e riformatore 14691532 (Florence,
1929); F.X. Martin, The Problem of Giles of Viterbo: A Historical Survey, Augustiniana 9
(1959), 35779; 10 (1960), 4360; F. Secret, Notes sur Egidio da Viterbo, Augustiniana 9
(1968), 13450. On the humanistic circle surrounding Giles, with extensive literature, see
J.W.OMalley, Giles of Viterbo on Church and Reform. A Study in Renaissance Thought,
Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 5 (Leiden, 1968), 811.
83 J.W. OMalley (above, n. 82); N.H. Minnich, Concepts of Reform Proposed at the Fifth
Lateran Council, Archivum historiae pontificae 7 (1969), 16873; J.W. OMalley, Fulfillment
of the Christian Golden Age under Pope Julius ii: Text of a Discourse of Giles of Viterbo,
1507, Traditio 25 (1969), 265338.
84 On these close relationships see G.A. Brucker, Renaissance Florence (New York, 1969),
172ff.; G. Holmes, The Emergence of an Urban Ideology at Florence, Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society (1973), 11134.
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 125

But taken together with both the houses of the second order and the range of
semi-religious associations that came to be under their care, the mendicant
convents may rightly be viewed as an integral part of Florentine society.85
There are no focused studies of the regional and social composition of
Florentine mendicant convents.86 But substantial archival material sur-
vivesabove all such sources as the necrology of S. Maria Novella, kept from
the 1280s,87 as well as the Totenbuch of S. Maria del Carmine,88 compiled in
1593 but drawn from older material. These sources allow access to a more
precise sense of the social makeup of the mendicant houses, to the extent
that the cloisters of S. Croce, S. Maria Novella, S. Spirito, S. Maria Annunziata
and S. Maria del Carminedespite occasional ties to the populo minuto89
closely mirrored the political, social and cultural elites of their immediate
environment. The Strozzi, Medici, Bardi, Tornaquinci, Corbinelli, Rinuccini,
and all the other leading families of Florence were not only benefactors who
promoted the building of monumental houses and who secured their burial
plots within them.90 They also provided a deep social reservoir for the broth-
ers and priors recruitment effortsso much so that one can with a clear
conscience echo the assessment offered in 1414 by Simone da Cascina at the

85 The best overview of the religious houses of Florence remains R. Davidsohn (above, n. 4).
On semi-religious congregations, among others: G. Monti, La confraternite medievali
dellalta e media Italia (Venice, 1927), I, 25365; C. Plana, La posizione giuridica del
terzOrdine della penitenza a Firenze nel secolo xiv, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum
50 (1957), 20050; G.G. Meerseman, Etude sur les anciennes confrries Dominicaines,
Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 21 (1951), 6266.
86 G.A. Brucker (above, n. 84, 180) has recently complained of the lack of systematic study
devoted to this subject. For statistical data concerning the number of houses and reli-
gious in Florence: E. Fiumi, La demografia fiorentina nelle pagine di Giovanni Villani,
Archivo Storico Italiano 108 (1959), 78158; R.B. Lichfild, Demographic Characteristics of
Florentine Patrician Families, Journal of Economic History 29 (1969), 191205; R.C. Trexler,
Le clibat la fin du Moyen ge: Les religieuses de Florence, Annales e.s.c. 27 (1972),
132950.
87 Orlandi (above, n. 45).
88 Necrologium hoc est codex mortuorum in quo nomina partum ac fratrum in hoc conventu
defunctorum per singulos anni menses describuntur, bn Florence C V 786.
89 Cf. above, n. 56.
90 W. and E. Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz. Ein Kunstgeschichtliches Handbuch (Darmstadt,
1955), i: 62196, 497701, ii: 188303, 663845, v, 117208. Also, among others, E. Borea, Il
ciostrino dellAnnunziata a Firenze (Milan, 1965); R. Taucci, La chiesa e il convento della ss.
Annunziata di Firenze e i loro ampliamenti fino alla met del secolo xv (Florence, 1942);
E.M. Casalini, Note darte e storia alla ss. Annunziata di Firenze, Studi Storici dellOrdine
dei Servi di Maria 19 (1961); M. Bucci, La Basilica di Santa Croce (Florence, 1965).
126 chapter 3

opening of the Dominican general chapter: Non est domus aliqua famosa in
civitate de qua non habuerimus aliquem nostrum fratrem.91
The personal interconnections between the members of the religious orders
and the civic population found expression in numerous quasi-institutional
bonds between convent and commune. The Signoria resolved in 1397to
name only one examplethat a renovated S. Spirito should give a votive
offering for the victory over the Duke of Milan on 28 August, St. Augustines
day, in the same year.92 It lodged guests of the state in the convents of the
mendicant brothers,93 saw their libraries as quasi-public facilities, and pro-
moted their studies as such.94 In the sons of leading families who professed
religious life it saw natural candidates for the citys episcopal office, and for
those metropolitan positions that lay within its sphere of influence.95 Though
not always with success, it promoted careers in the church, in the orders and
the schools; sent brothers as ambassadors both to the curia and to secular
courts;96 entrusted them with the education of the youth,97 conferred upon
them teaching chairs at the citys studium. When it came to representing the
city, they called on members of the ordersfigures like Remigio Girolami98 or
Dominico da Corella99to serve as rhetoricians. For these figures the renown

91 T. Kppeli, La raccolta dei discorse e di atti scolastici di Simone da Cascina O.P. ( ca.
1420), Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 12 (1942).
92 Botto, Ledificazione della Chiesa di S. Spirito in Firenze, Rivista dArte 13 (1931); M. Salmi,
Nota sulla Chiesa di Santo Spirito a Firenze, in Atti del I Congresso Nazionale di Storio
dellArchitettura, 2531 Ottobre (Florence, 1935); Paatz (above, n. 90) v, 117ff.
93 Orlandi (above, n. 45) i, 349.
94 Along with notes 41, 45, 54 and 57, see B.L. Ullman and A. Stadter, The Public Library of
Renaisance Florence. Niccol Niccoli, Cosimo de Medici and the Library of San Marco
(Padua, 1972).
95 In this connection cf. the list of the bishops of Florence provided by L.G. Cerrrachini,
Chronologia sacra devescovi e archivescovi (Florence, 1716), 102ff.
96 Orlandi (above, n. 45) I: 499, 577.
97 Davis, Education (above, n. 44), 430ff.; F. Novati, Sul riordinamento del studio fiorentino
nel 1385, Rassegna bibliografica della letteratura italiana 4 (1896); A. della Tore, Storia
dellacademia fiorentina (Florence, 1902); G.A. Brucker, Florence and its University 1343
1434, in Action and Conviction in Early Modern Europe (Princeton, 1969).
98 Orlandi (above, n. 45) I, 276ff.; SalvadoreFederici (above, n. 44). See also Davis, An Early
Florentine Political Theorist (above, n. 44); O. Capitani, Lincompiuto Tractatus de iustitia
di fraRemigio deGirolami (1319), Bulletino dellInstituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo
72 (1961), 95108; Davis (above, n. 54), 43233.
99 Orlandi (above, n. 45) ii: 31015. Bibl. Laurenziana, Florence, Cod. Plut lxxxxi sup. L: De
illustratione urbis florentinae.
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 127

and the influence of the city was to be found not only in the wealth of its
citizens, but also in the splendor of the cloisters that lay within its walls.
The familial, social and institutional bonds noted here (as can be shown not
only through the example of the prior of S. Spirito, who came from an aristo-
cratic Florentine family)100 provide foundational preconditions for the close-
ness between vita religiosa and studia humanitatis. The lay elites of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centurieswho fashioned a kind of spiritual physiog-
nomy not least by turning to antiquity as a modeldrove this process (to put
it sharply) both within and beyond the cloister walls.101 The development of
such a symbiosis, the emergence of an intellectual community that cut across
the boundaries of two worlds so near to one another spatially and socially, yet
so different in purpose and styleall of this required a range of catalysts and
intellectual commonalities that are difficult to pin down. To name only a few:
a certain affinity to the models of reform and Renaissance that Thode, Burdach
and Ladner have pointed to in different ways;102 the resonance between mod-
els of Franciscan poverty and a Humanist contempt of the world inspired by
the Stoics;103 a return to the history and philosophy of the ancients shaped
by the needs of preaching and scholarship, business and statecraft;104 or (to
note the most important catalyst for the synthesis that emerged at S. Spirito) a
shared sense of the true vita perfecta, as well as a shared commitment to a
historical personality who provided a model, a norma vitae. All of these ele-
ments, as will be shown in what follows, can be seen at work among Florentine
humanists and Augustinian Hermits in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
There is hardly an order in which the question of the proper shape of the
vita regularis has more often been posed, and the image of a founder more
heatedly contested, than in the Augustinian order. Established in 1256 with

100 Martines (above, n. 69), 306308.


101 Along with Baron (above, n. 66) see also Martines (above, n. 69); L. Martines, Lawyers and
Statecraft in Renaissance Florence (Princeton, 1968); C. Bec, Les marchands crivains.
Affaires et humanisme Florence 13751434, Civilisations et socits 9 (Paris, 1967).
102 H. Thode, Franz von Assisi und Anfnge der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien (Berlin, 1885);
K. Burdach, Vom Mittelalter zur Reformation (192139); Ibid., Sinn und Ursprung der
Worte Renaissance und Reformation, in Reformation, Renaissance, Humanismus (Berlin-
Leipzig, 1926); G.B. Ladner, The Idea of Reform. Its Impact on Christian Thought and Action
in the Age of the Fathers (Cambridge, ma, 1959); Ibid., Die mittelalterliche reformidee und
ihr Verhltnis zur Idee der Renaissance, mig 60 (1952), 3159.
103 H. Baron, Franciscan Poverty and Civic Wealth as Factors in the Rise of Humanistic
Thought, Speculum 13 (1938), 137.
104 Smalley (above, n. 17). D. Trapp, Augustinian Theology of the 14th Century. Notes on Editions,
Marginalia, Opinions and Book-Lore, Augustiniana 6 (1956), 146274. See also note 60, 112.
128 chapter 3

the unification of what had been independent communities of hermits across


Tuscany, the curia drew the order into the service of urban pastoral care. But
without the prestige of a distinguished founding personality, it was at the
mercy of fierce competition from the Franciscans and the Dominicans.105 To
decide on a binding forma vitae and on a true caput and fundator were thus
matters of fundamental importance. The first systematic account of the his-
tory of the Augustinian Hermits, Henry of Freimars Tractatus de origine et pro-
gressu ordinis fratrum heremitarum et cero ac proprio titulo eiusdem of 1320,
cast the history of the order as one of an eremitical life that reached back to the
earliest days of the church, indeed back further still into the days of the Old
Testament.106 As heirs of the tradition of Elijah and John, of Anthony and Paul
of Thebes, who were themselves the primarii nostrae religionis fundatores,
Simplicianus of Milan and his companions won the newly baptized rhetori-
cian Augustine for the vita solitaria et heremitica in 387. Upon taking up the
ascetic and contemplative life, Augustine was not content with reviving an
inherited way of life in Tuscany and Africa. Instead he fashioned a new order
and rule, a regula et forma vitae. When in 1256 it then came to the formation of
an order through the unification of the various groups of Tuscan hermits, it
was thus not the foundation of a new order, but rather the gathering of an
Augustinian eremitical way of life that, though long-forgotten, had never been
abandoned, and that owed its existence not to the actions of the curia but to
the authority of its rule-giver, Augustine himself. Indeed it was Augustine who
in a vision had admonished Alexander iv to unite the sons with the father, the
soldiers with their general, the members with the head. Despite the fact that
the members of the new orderwho were idonei ad fructificandum in populo
per doctrinam verbi divinihad been placed in the service of pastoral care in
the cities, in the view of the Thuringian historian the Order of Augustinian

105 On the early history of the Augustinian Hermits: K. Elm, Italienische Eremitenge
meinschaften des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts, in Leremitismo in Occidente nei secoli XI et XII.
Atti della seconda settimana internazionale di studio, Mendola, 30 aogosto6 settembre
1962 (Milan, 1965), 497559; B. van Luijk, Gli Eremiti Neri nel Dugento con particolare
riguardo al territori Pisano e Toscano. Origine, sviluppo ed unione, Biblioteca del Bollettino
Storico Pisano, Coll. Storico 7 (1968); K. Elm, Gli Eremiti Neri nel Dugento. Ein neuer
Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte des Augustiner-Eremitenordens, Quellen und Forschungen
aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken 50 (1971), 5879. In summary, see B. Rano,
Agostiniani, in: Dizionario degli institute di perfezione I (Rome, 1973), 278381.
106 R. Arbesmann, Henry of Freimars Treatise on the origin and the development of the
Order of the Hermit Friars and its true and real title, Augustiniana 6 (1956), 37145. On
the author: C. Stroick, Heinrich von Freimar. Leben, Werke, philosophisch-theologische
Stellung in der Scholastik (Freiburg, 1954).
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 129

Hermits remained in its essence an ordo eremiticus. Moreover, its members led
the vita artissima et sanctissima of the status eremiticus that for both the order
and its contemporaries still counted as the fulfillment of the vita monastica, as
the vita perfectissima.
Recalling Pauls admonition Unusquisque in qua vocatione vocatus est, in ea
permaneat (1 Cor 7:20), not only enemies of the new mendicant orderfigures
like the canon Durandus of Aln107but even its allies and members recalled
its inherited traditions and warned against too vigorous an engagement in
scholarship and pastoral care. In 1380 Master William Flete108 fled university
life and retreated to Lecceto, an isolated community near Siena that was
reported to have been home to the vita eremitica of St. Augustine. Flete, an
amator vitae solitariae, took up the Pauline formulation and admonished his
brothers in the ordo fratrum eremitarum to think on the name of their order,
and to view neither the market nor the school, but rather the cella as the proper
locus of their way of life. He also admonished them not to strive after magna
scientia, but rather to seek the sancta stultitia cherished not only by Christ and
his fishermen, but also their own forerunners, the grandevi of the order.109
Others had made similar gestures long before Fletes death (1380). In his De
Gestis Domini Salvatoris, composed between 1338 and 1347, the Augustinian
Hermit Simon Fidati of Cascia pointed to Christ, his Apostles and disciples in
arguing for the eremus as the true home and calling of the order.110 For him the
model vita eremitica was to be found not only in the lineage of the desert
fathers that had been known since Jerome, but in the life of Christ himself, who
embodied the eremitical life during his forty-day fast and showed that the des-
ert was its proper home. Both authors took up a stance against scholarship that
was clearly a protest against a wider trend111underway by 1256 at the latest,

107 Correctorium tractatus de origine et progressu Ordinis Eremitarum S. Augustini et vero ac


proprio titulo eiusdem, Cod. Vat. Reg. 565.
108 On Flete see A. Gwynn, English Austin Friars at the Time of Wyclif (London, 1941); B.
Hackett, William Flete and the De remediis contra temptaciones, in Medieval Studies
Presented to A. Gwynn S.J. (Dublin, 1961), 33048.
109 M.H. Laurent, De litteris ineditis Fr. Wilhelmi de Flete, Augustiniana 18 (1942), 30824.
110 B. Simonis Fidati de Cassia o.e.s.a. Gesta Salvatoris Domini nostri Jesu Christi, (Regensburg,
1734); N. Mattioli, Il beato Simone da Cascia dellOrdine Eremitano di S. Agostino e suoi
scritti editi ed inediti, Antologia Agostiniana 3 (Rome, 1898); M.G. McNeil, Simone Fidati
and his De Gestis Domini Salvatoris, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Latin Language
and Literature 21 (Washington, 1950).
111 On Simones critique of philosophy: A. Zumkeller, Die Augustinertheologen Simon Fidati
von Cascia und Hugolin von Orvieto und Martin Luthers Kritik an Aristoteles, Archiv fr
Reformationsgeschichte 54 (1963), 1537.
130 chapter 3

then reaching its height under the Prior General Giles of Romethat not only
placed the study of theology at the center of the life of the order, but in fact saw
that study as the orders overall purpose.112 Yet the order was not uninfluenced
by the ideals of the Spirituals and Joachimites, disseminated through the circle
of students around Angelo Clareno and through the spiritual familia of
Catherine of Siena.113
Recourse to the eremitical tradition and the obligation of the order to the
vita contemplativa that it implied was not the only, and indeed not the most
binding of the concepts that emerged from all of the discussions surrounding
the aims of the order. For the historian Jordan of Quedlinburg114the impor-
tance of whose work remains insufficiently acknowledgedthe history of the
orders eremitical life did not unfold linearly from the ancient world. In his
Liber Vitasfratrum of 1357 he cast that history as a succession of two large
epochs and estates: the status antiquus and the status modernus. At the begin-
ning of the status antiquus or the tempus partum stood the scattered commu-
nities of hermits founded by Augustine. At the beginning of the status
modernus, the tempus fratrum, stood the unification of the long-forgotten
communities through a Church guided by the Holy Spirit. Thus the Augustinian
Hermits could celebrate, more than any other order, two founders: Augustine
as their father, and mater ecclesia as their mother.115 The twofold founding of
the Augustinian way of life, the formation from a scattered eremitism of a con-
gregation of cenobitic communities, in turn, is taken up into the larger rhythm
of decline and reform, fragmentation and renewal that shaped the overall his-
tory of the church. Because of the central place that Jordan affords the idea of
communio, of union and synthesis, he must expand the ancestry of the order

112 A. Trap, Scuola teologica e spiritualit nellOrdine Agostiniano, in S. Augustinus vitae


spiritualis magister ii (Rome, 1959); Zumkeller (above, n. 61).
113 Mattioli (above, n. 110), 413, 336, 446467; M. Reeves, Joachimist Expectations in the
Order of Augustinian Hermits, Recherches thologie ancienne et mdivale 25 (1958), 110
141; Ibid., The Influence of Prophecy in the Late Middle Ages. A Study in Joachimism (Oxford,
1969). See also A. Zumkeller, Joachim von Fiore und sein angeblicher Einflu auf den
Augustiner-Eremitenorden, Augustinianum 3 (1963); A.C. Romanis, Sancta Caterina da
Siena e gli Eremitani di SantAgostino, Bollettino Storico Agostiniano 24 (1948); A. Giron,
Sancta Caterina da Siena (Brescia, 1953).
114 On this figure and the spread of his works in the Netherlands: R. Lievens, Jordanus van
Quedlinburg in de Nederlanden. Een onderzoek van de handschriften, Kon. Vlaamse
Scademie voor Taal en Letterkunde vi, 82 (Gent, 1958).
115 R. Arbesmann and W. Hmfner, eds., Jordani de Saxonia Ordinis Eremitarum S. Augustini
Liber Vitasfratrum, Cassiciacum. Studies in S. Augustine and the Augustinian Order i
(American Series) (New York, 1943).
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 131

and interweave the genealogies of eremitic and cenobitic life. The school of
the prophets and the community of the early Apostles emerge alongside Elijah
and John the Baptist, Anthony and Paul of Thebes; Augustine the teacher
appears alongside Augustine the hermit, with the vita communis at the center.
The ultimate reason for the shift is clear: Jordan can no longer see the order, in
light of its actual development, as only an eremitical one. Rather, he must
explain the blend of both eremitical and cenobitic life, the synthesis of vita
contemplativa with vita activa that allowed the order to find the vita perfectis-
sima in a vita mixtain both activity and contemplation, in both the desert
and in the city, in both the pursuit of personal salvation and in service of
neighbor. To see the order as the embodiment of eremitical life or as the union
of vita contemplativa and vita activa, and to call on Augustine as a hermit and
as a founder of the orderthese were themes and claims that concerned not
only those whose provinces were in the Empire. They were debated with at
least as much intensity in Florence as well. Around the same time that Henry
of Freimar wrote his treatise on the name and the establishment of his order, a
still unknown prior of S. Spirito produced a compilation of legends that cele-
brated Augustine as a hermit and as father of the eremitical life in Tuscany. The
compilation in turn was taken up into the widely read pseudo-Augustinian
Sermones ad fratres in eremo.116 Augustine as founder, the order as ordo eremiti-
cus or as a realization of the vita mixtathese were commonplaces for the
Florentine Augustinian Hermits from the beginning of the fourteenth century.
They found expression in iconography.117 They were broadcast among the
faithful and communicated to the members of the studium generale through
teaching.118 They were defended against the resistance of other orders119 and, as

116 R. Arbesmann, The Vita Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi in Cod. Laurent, Plut 90
Sup. 48, Traditio 18 (1962), 31925; idem., A Legendary of Early Augustinian Saints,
Analecta Augustiniana 29 (1966), 558; idem., Mnchslegenden in mittelalterlichen
Augustinus-viten, in Perennitas. P. Thomas Michels osb zum 70. Geburtstag (Mnster,
1965), 91104. On the sermons noted here, with which the author will concern himself in
a study (now in preparation for some time) of the historical self-understanding of the
Order, see M. de Kroon, Pseudo-Augustin im Mittelalter. Entwurf eines Forschungsb
erichtes, Augustiniana 22 (1972).
117 G. Kaftal, Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting (Florence, 1952), 84ff. See especially
G.H. Hoogewerf, Benozzo Gozzoli (Paris, 1934), 3444. On Augustinian iconography in gen-
eral: P. Courcelle, Iconographie de Saint Augustin, 2 vols. (Paris, 196569).
118 Tractatus de vita et habitu S. Augustini, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 8340,
fol. 141ff.
119 D. Cresi, Lopusculo Defensorio della verit di Mariano da Firenze, Studi Francescani 61
(1964). The Apologia pro ordine Augustiniano of the Florentine Augustinian Hermit and
132 chapter 3

the remarks of Marsili and his patron Petrarch suggest,120 they were constitu-
tive of the orders self-image. What had its origins in the thirteenth century
remained alive in the fourteenth. In 1430, while teaching in Florence, the
Milanese humanist and Augustinian Hermit Andrea Biglia took up the old dis-
cussion as he sought to instruct a young brother regarding the actual forma of
his order.121 The order offered the perfect synthesis of asceticism and scholar-
ship, monasticism and learning, a synthesis nourished by a tradition of an
ancient eremitism that reached back to the early days of the church, shaped by
Augustine and brought to unity by the church, whose end and purpose was
both the ascetic pursuit of holiness and the studium litterarum. Its members
were at once religionis filii and sapientiae et doctrinae discipuli, so that for the
scholar who begins in its ranks, as Biglia explained to the novice, nothing could
be more fruitful or more inspiring than to choose from among the orders of the
church the one whose rule-giver, in his reorganization, had before his eyes not
only ancient eremitism but also the ancient school of philosophers surround-
ing Socrates and Pythagoras. To see the Order of Augustinian Hermits as the
synthesis of ancient academy and early Christian eremitism, as the realization
of the way of life most suited to the perfection of the spiritual man is a theme
that was soon commonplace. It was taken up by Maffeo Vegio,122 and it deeply
influenced the reforms led by Giles of Viterbo, the famous eulogist of the vita
eremitica and the life of the convent of Lecceto.123 The theme also remained
decisive for the approach to the history of the order into our own time.124
Our considerations must place the self-understanding of the Augustinian
Hermits of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries over against the views of

General of the order William Becchi has not been available to me. The treatise, according
to G. Negri, was printed in Florence in 1491: Istoria deglie Scrittori Fiorentini (Ferrara, 1732),
31617.
120 Seniles xiii, 8 Opera (Basel, 1581), 820. Sorio (above, n. 74) 200210.
121 R. Arbesmann, Ad Fratrem Ludovicum de Ordinis nostri forma et propagatione, Analecta
Augustiniana 28 (1965), 186218.
122 S.A. Consonni, Un umanista agiografo: M. Vegio da Lodi (Ravenna, 1909).
123 Rome, General Archive of the o.e.s.a.: Cod. Cc 37, fol. 112r116r: Aegidius de Viterbo,
Eremitarum vita. F.X. Martin, Giles of Viterbo and the Monastery of Lecceto: the Making
of a Reformer, Analecta Augustiniana 25 (1962), 22553. See also OMalley (above, n. 82),
59ff.
124 On the disputes (reaching well into recent times) over the character and founder of the
Order of Augustinian Hermits, see provisionally the references in B. Rano (above, n. 105)
and C.D. Fonseca, Il formarsi di una coscienza storica canonicale attraverso polemiche
giurisdizionali e storiographiche, Pubbl. dellUniversit Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
Contributi iii, Science storiche 12 (Milan, 1970), 556.
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 133

others in conversation with themPetrarch, Coluccio, Niccol Niccoli,


Roberto de Rossi or Marsilio Ficinoabout the norma vivendi optima, and
especially of the true vita monastica. That the matter was no superfluous
one, that the old question of the precedence of the vita activa or the vita
contemplativa125 and the related question of the essence and justification of
the orders way of life126 were matters that inspired the humanists of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, need not be proven at length here. It
would be more important to follow the course of the discussion in detail
and to establish precisely the values that inspired a given form of life in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Since this requires a greater effort than is
possible here, we must limit ourselves to mentioning Petrarch and Coluccio,
the most distinguished participants in the two most important phases of the
conversation between Italian humanists and Augustinian Hermits. Petrarch
raised the question of the proper form of religious life in the De vita solitaria,
in De otio religioso and in the Secretum. For him, the command of the
Psalmist (Vacate et videte) is the principle, the quietas animae won through
contemplation, prayer and reading the goal of true religious life. Through
them the tria substantialia of chastity, poverty and obedience find meaning
as the most effective means of combating the discord of the world.127 This
conception of the religious life as the realization of a primarily contempla-
tive existence corresponds to the tradition of the vita solitaria128 that was
grounded in the Old Testament as well as in Greek and Latin Antiquity.
Among the orders of his own day, those that came closest to Petrarchs
ideal were the Carthusians (whom Petrarch esteemed as the order that had
nurtured his own brother) and above all the Order of Augustinian Hermits,

125 See, for example E.F. Rice, The Renaissance Idea of Wisdom (Cambridge, ma, 1953); E.
Kessler, Das Problem des frhen Humanismus. Seine philosophische Bedeutung bei Coluccio
Salutati, Humanistische Bibliothek. Abhandlungen und Texte i, 1 (Munich, 1968), 91103;
R.A. Borrell, An Early Humanistic View of the Active and Contemplative Life, Italica 43
(1966), 22539.
126 Trinkaus, Humanist Treatises on the Status of Religious. Now also in Ibid., In Our Image
and Likeness. Humanity and Divinity in Italian Humanist Thought, ii, 65182.
127 H. Cochin, La frre de Ptrarque et le livre du repos des religieux, Bibl. lit. de Renaissance 4
(1903). See also G. Rotondi, Le due redazioni dell De otio religioso del Petrarca, Aevum
9 (1935), 27ff. Foundational: Charles Trinkaus, Petrarchs Views on the Individual and His
Society, Osiris 11 (1954), 16898.
128 See G. Rotondi, Intorno alla Vita Solitaria, in Rendiconti R. Ist. Lomb. Science e Lettere
lxix (Milan, 1936), 84598; B.L. Ullman, The Composition of Petrarchs De vita solitaria
and the History of the Vatican Manuscript, in Miscellanea G. Mercati 4. Studi e Testi 124
(Vatican City, 1946).
134 chapter 3

honestissimus ordo supra sacras heremitice vitae delicias devotione humili


fundatus. Admittedly, its members earned the highest esteem of the human-
ist not because of their rejection of the world through asceticism (which the
Carthusians accomplished much more impressively). What made the order
so attractive for the great literary scholar was their connection to monastic
contemplation and otium litterarum, which allowed to emerge from their
order a school of piety as well as scholarship, and which brought not only
praise for the fulfillment of monastic duties, but also acclaim as a signifier in
the acies philosophantium.129 Coluccio Salutati, the author of De seculo et
religione, held fast in principle to the ladder of monastic Perfectio, on which
the eremita ranked above the claustralis et professus monachus.130 Coluccio
also shared with Petrarch a higher estimation, in principle, of the contem-
plative life. But he was more strongly conscious than his predecessor, as
recent scholars have recognized almost with unanimity,131 of the need to
combine contemplative life with a sense of public duty and practical action,
the vita associabilis et operativa.132 And so, in a certain way, here in the pro-
fane sphere there emerged an equilibrium that was approved by figures like
Gianozzo Manetti, Niccol Niccoli, Roberto de Rossi133 and indeed Marsilio

129 Seniles xi, 14, viii, 6, Opera (Basel, 1581), 840, 890. Similar formulations in Fam. viii, 6,
Rossi ii, 17374; xix, 18, Rossi iii, 34950, 359.
130 Epistolario (above, n. 35) iii, 577. See also n. 131.
131 A.v. Martin, Mittelalterliche Welt- und Lebensanschauung im Spiegel der Schriften Coluccio
Salutatis, Historische Bibliothek 33 (Munich-Berlin, 1913), 31ff.; ibid., Coluccio Salutati und
das humanistische Lebensideal. Ein Kapitel aus der Genesis der Renaissance (Leipzig-
Berlin, 1916); L. Borghi, La dottrina morale di Coluccio Salutati, Annali della R. Scuola
Normale Superiore di Pisa ii/3 (1934), 74ff.; W. Regg, Entstehung, Quellen und Ziel von
Salutatis De fato et fortuna, Rinascimento 5 (1954), 143ff.; G.M. Sciacca, La visione della
vite nellumanesimo e Coluccio Salutati (Palermo, 1954); B.L. Ullman, The Humanism of
Coluccio Salutati, Medioevo e Umanesimo 4 (Padua, 1963), 21718. See also n. 125.
132 So, according to Baron, Crisis (above, n. 66) the title of a work planned by Coluccio.
133 On Petrarchs relationship to Augustine and the Augustinian order see, along with the
literature in n. 78 above: P. de Nolhac, Ptrarque et lumanesimo agostiniano del Petrarca,
Didaskaleion ns 3 (1925), 1329; 4 (1926), 10737; 5 (1927), 69127; 6 (1928), 10137; C. Segr,
Il Secretum del Petrarca e le confessioni di Sant Agostino, Studi Petrarcheschi (Florence,
1903), 3126; C. Calcaterra, S. Agostino nelle opere di Dante e del Petrarca, S. Agostino.
Suppl. 23 (1931), 42299; A.v. Martin, Petrarca und Augustin, Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte
18 (1927), 5796; E. Razzoli, Agostinismo e religiosit del Petrarca (Milan, 1937);
P.O. Kristeller, Augustine and the Early Renaissance, Review of Religion 1 (1941), 714. Now
also in Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, Storia e letteratura 54, 2nd ed. (Rome,
1969), 355ff.; K. Heitmann, Linsegnamento Agostiniano nel Secretum del Petrarca,
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 135

Ficino,134 and that found an analogue in the theories of a vita mixta that
Jordan of Quedlinburg had developed and that figures like Luigi Marsili,
Andrea Biglia and Giles of Viterbo had taken up for themselves. Humanists
and members of the religious orders alike were united in the tendency to see
the synthesis between action and contemplation as the optimal starting
point for an ascetic-literary existence, and so to tear down the walls between
cloister and world. For them the vita religiosa was no longer a primarily
religious way of life. Rather, it was for a small circle whose heritage, educa-
tion and character marked them out as an elite, a circle whose members
creatednow by abandoning the world, now through a careful balance of
vita activa and vita contemplativatheir own literary and aesthetic Elysium.
It was of course not only the convergence of conceptions of the vita beata
outlined here that brought humanists and Augustinian Hermits together in
Florence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As for Petrarch, for the
circle of S. Spirito, and indeed for the Platonic Academy, the Fratres Ordinis
Eremitarum Sancti Augustini were more than merely representatives of the
eremitical life. What separated them from other orders of hermitsfrom the
Carmelites,135 whose tradition supposedly went all the way back to Elijah; from
the Servites, who were also deeply rooted in the eremitical tradition;136 from
the Camaldolese of S. Maria degli Angeli,137 representatives in Florence of an
older form of eremitical lifewas their special relationship to Augustine. For
the Florentine humanists the conventuals of S. Spirito were filii of a pater,
milites of a dux, and discipuli of a magister, one whom they honored not only
as the perfect embodiment of the vita beata,138 but also as the one who led

Studi Petrarcheschi 7 (1961), 18793; P.P. Gerosa, Umanesimo Cristiano del Petrarca.
Influenza AgostinianaAttinenze Medievali (Turin, 1966), esp. 137ff.
134 M. Heitzmann, tudes sur lAcadmie Patonicienne de Florence, Bulletin international
de lAcademie Polonaise des sciences et lettres. Classe de philologie, dhistoire et de philoso-
phie (1932, 33), 18ff., 35ff.; P.O. Kristeller, Il pensiero filosofico di Marsilio Ficino, Biblioteca
storica del Rinascimento ns 3 (Florence, 1953); Ibid., The Scholastic Background of
Marsilio Ficino, Traditio 2 (1944), 257ff. Also in Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters,
Storia e letteratura 54, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1969), 3553.
135 See here: R. Hendricks, La succession hrditaire (12801451), in Elie le prophte ii: Au
Carmel, dans le judasme et lislam. Etudes Carmlitaines (1956), 3481.
136 A.M. dal Pino and O.J. Dias, Vera e certa origine del principio delleremo di Monte Senario
(15931604), Documenta I (Rome, 1967). See also n. 43.
137 Literature on S. Maria degli Angeli and the Camaldolese order: Paatz (above, n. 90) iii,
10747; G. Penco, Storia del monachesimo in Italia: Dalle origine alla fine del Medio Evo,
Collana Universale Storica. Tempi e Figure31 (Rome, 1963), 211ff.
138 Epistolario (above, n. 35) iii, 307.
136 chapter 3

them to the Classics, as the crowning witness for the justification of their
studia humanitatis. In the convent of the Augustinians the humanists were
guests, so to speak, in the domus Augustini, commensales at his table, brothers
of his sons.139
For the Augustinian Hermits the appeal to Augustine was more than a mere
recommendation, more than a passport to the circles of the humanists. From
the end of the thirteenth century the order asserted Augustine as their founder,
and the tradition was then confirmed in 1327 when John xxii approved the
order as guardian of the tomb of the Doctor of the Church.140 In the person of
the Bishop of Hippo a congregation that had grown together from such diverse
origins thus found a lex animata, a personified norm for living, so to speak, that
over time proved stronger and more influential than Rule or constitution. As
the Augustinians who gathered in Tuscan hermitages like Lecceto worked to
realize the true vita eremitica, they could call on Augustine, the supposed
author of the Sermones ad fratres in eremo.141 When they came forward, as suc-
cessors to figures like Giles of Rome, to take over chairs of theology, the great
Doctor of the Church stood behind them.142 When they raised their voices
against Wyclif or Hus in Oxford or Constance,143 they fulfilled a command that
the enemy of the Manichees and Donatists had given them. And when they
collected and interpreted the writings of ancient authors in places like
Florence, Milan, Padua or Naples,144 there stood behind them a rhetor who had
been educated in Carthage, Rome and Milan, who had read Ciceros Hortensius
and who had praised Plato above all other philosophers. Among the Franciscans
and Dominicans, and indeed among the Servites and Carmelites, the needs
of preaching, the development of theology, the social interdependence of

139 See along with n. 78, 120, 133 also Epistolario (above, n. 35) iv, 225; Naldo Naldi (above, n.
80), 532; E. Garin, De nobilitate legum et medicinae (Florence, 1947), 22. On the circulation
of the writings of St. Augustine see G.M. Cagni, I codici Vaticani Palatino-Latini apperte-
nuti alla biblioteca di Giannozzo Manetti, La Bibliofilia 62 (1960); Ullman (above, n. 131),
21718. See also n. 79 and in general: J.B. Reeves, St. Augustine and Humanism, in A
Monument to St. Augustine (London, 1930), 12151; N. Abercrombie, Saint Augustine and
French Classical Thought (Oxford, 1938), 117.
140 See along with n. 105: R. Maiocchi and N. Casacca, Codex Diplomaticus Ord. E.S. Augustini
Papiae (Pavia, 1905), I, 13ff. A. Addeo, Pavia e S. Agostino. Gli splendori di S. Pietro in Ciel
dOro, (1951).
141 See n. 116.
142 See n. 112
143 Cf. Gwynn (above, n. 108) and A. Zumkeller, Die Augustinereremiten in der
Auseinandersetzung mit Wyclif und Hus, Analecta Augustiniana 28 (1965), 556.
144 See n. 62.
Mendicants and Humanists in Florence 137

humanists and religious all suggested the importance of the cultivation of


litterae. Among the Augustinian Hermits that cultivation was the commission
of one man, Augustine. In 1425 the novus Augustinus145 Andrea Biglia preached
at the general chapter of Bologna (an official occasion). In the sermon he
declared that in Augustine, head and preceptor of the order, all of the virtues
of a man of religious life united with all of the talents and abilities of an
ancient teacher and schoolmaster: the keen mind of Aristotle, the eloquence
of Plato, the renown of Pythagoras, the wisdom of Varro, and lastly the dignified
sincerity of Socrates.146
An analysis of monastic legislation and of the writings of the orders (espe-
cially the polemical literature surrounding the studia humanitatis) could
doubtless have explored the justification of humanistic studies in the mendi-
cant orders more extensively and in more detail than has been the case here.
The foregoing discussion has also been grounded less in an explicit permis-
sion, articulated expressis verbis and justified theologically, philosophically
or indeed pedagogically, to study the ancient authors. Rather, the focus here
has been on one setting, and on a limited consideration of the social condi-
tions and intellectual energies that led to the interaction, and occasionally to
the convergences between two more or less independent groups. But the
theme of this conference has justified these choices. Stratification, social
climbing and social declinethese themes, to be sure, are not the only ones
appropriate to social history. Just as crucial are matters of self-understanding,
of the images, ideas and conceptualizations that establish groups, hold
them together, distinguish them from one another and occasionally bind
them together across the boundaries of status.

145 A. Coriolanus, Chronica S. Ordinis Fratrum Eremitarum S. Augustini (Rome, 1481), 30.
146 A. Biglia, De disciplina ordinis admonitio habita in capitulo Bononensi, Bibl. Ambrosiana,
Milan, H 117 Inf. Fol. 44. See also De concessione et translatione b. Monicae Matris S. Patris
Augustini sermo, ibid., fol. 112125.
chapter 4

Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders in the


Late Middle Ages: Current Research and Research
Agendas

Not long ago the late middle ages in Germany was read as an age of steady
decline, uncontrollable conflict and frustrated efforts at reform. The interpre-
tation was rooted in the criticisms of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
and it reflected a long historiographical tradition, but it found its sharpest
expression in the nineteenth century. This model, of an age once judged nega-
tively against the early and high middle ages, has recently undergone profound
revision. Regional history has now shown the importance of late-medieval ter-
ritories for the development of the modern state in Germanyso strongly, in
fact, that older laments over the growth of petty states at the expense of a
weak Empire have now lost their force. Both the history of the estates (often
neglected in a tradition drawn to the ideal of a unified monarchical state) and
indeed the place and function of German kingship itself have now enjoy such
renewed appreciation that it is difficult to see only decline and dissolution in
Germanys later medieval history. Moreover, just as the history of territories,
constitutions, society and economy have seen thorough revision, so too have
the histories of the church, theology and intellectual life. Invigorated by the
Second Vatican Council, recent research into the reform councils of the fif-
teenth century now stresses (much more than an older tradition of ecclesiasti-
cal history shaped by ideals of papal universalism) the importance of
conciliarism, both in the Empire and in Christendom generally. Inspired by
Neo-Thomism, Reformation research and an increasing interest in the history
of natural science, historians of philosophy and theology are now positioned
to abandon older misrepresentations of late scholasticism and its academic
disputes as debased monks quarrels. Similarly, current research has come to
reshape an older dualistic model of theology and Humanism into one that pos-
its a close, symbiotic relationship between those two educational worlds.
Scholars have not researched with the same intensity the theme with which
we are concerned here, the decline and renewal of the later-medieval religious
orders. Nor have they subjected the late-medieval history of the orders to such
thoroughgoing revision as the fields of secular and ecclesiastical history noted
above. As it stands, a number of basic problems still await their solution. The
phenomenon itselfan almost incomprehensible variety of local reform

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_006


Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 139

movements, trans-regional reform circles, varieties of observancehas not


been confronted or described, nor its mechanics analyzed, in anywhere near
the same measure as the reforms of the monks and canons of the early and
high middle ages. Aggravating this circumstance is the fact that there is still no
synthetic survey of the reform efforts that began in the fourteenth century and
culminated in the fifteenth. To embed their histories in the overall narrative of
the later middle ages and of the early modern era remains an unfulfilled schol-
arly desideratum. Far less than one would have expected given the ubiquitous
intensity of recent late-medieval research, there remain unanswered questions
concerning the causes, driving forces and effects of reform, and perhaps above
all the relationship between the reform of the orders and the Reformation.
That this is so may be because the history of the orders is still not yet recog-
nized, in proportion to its true importance, as part of the broader sweep of
history, and the late-medieval orders here and there remain under the verdict
that humanists, Reformation and Enlightenment thinkers first articulated
about the uneducated, unchristian and superstitious religious of the later
middle ages. The actual cause of the inadequacy of our research, however, is of
a scholarly nature. As a subject not only of church history but of history
generally, the history of the religious orders cuts across all historical sub-
disciplinesintellectual history, art history, cultural history; finds expression
in so many languages; is shaped by variety of scholarly traditions; and makes
use of a worldwide, if heterogeneous, system of publication. As with hardly
any other discipline the history of the orders is known not only to a cadre of
professional experts, but also to those men and women who themselves live
religious life. That many of them understand the histories of their orders or
their communities as an internal matter, as a kind of family history, is not
always favorable for a better understanding of the history of decline and
renewal, to say nothing of an attempt at broad synthesis. Personal commit-
ments have also led scholars to focus on origins and on the era of their great
founders, as well their own diverse legacies. The overall result is a certain lack
of coordination. But that should not prohibit a broad interest in histories that
cut across individual traditions. The history of the religious orders has accom-
plished so much in recent years, and published so many heretofore unknown
sources, that one can now consider attempting a synthetic account of the
reforms that began in the fourteenth century, placing those reforms in their
broader historical contexts, investigating their causes and impacts. Clearly the
many questions that would arise in such an attempt can hardly be formulated,
let alone answered in a brief essayquestions concerning the course of
decline and renewal, the reasons for ruin and revival; the agents, goals and
methods of renewal; their importance for the politics of secular rulers; the
140 chapter 4

importance of opposition both within and outside the church; finally ques-
tions concerning the relationship between reform of the orders and the
Reformation. The following can only begin to indicate the overall direction of
current research, and how that research begins to provide an outline for an
overall picture of the decline and renewal of the religious orders in the later
middle ages.1

For an account of decline, to which we turn first, there are no certain catego-
ries in the sources, and still fewer reliable starting points in current research.
Precisely those sources most capable of providing insight are, with respect to
what can be called decline, mostly subjective, indeed often colored with
propaganda. Moreover, there is no scholarly consensus about how one should
measure the flowering and decline of the religious ordersaccording
to the norms appropriate to their estate, according to the requirements set
out by their founders, according to their accomplishments (by no means
compatible with a purely regular life) in economic, civic and cultural prog-
ress, or quite simply according to the measure of the orders own contempo-
rary moral horizons? Before we begin even superficially to enter in to this
discussion (one begun long ago in scholarly discussions surrounding the

1 Given the purpose of the current contribution it is not appropriate to survey or to cite in full
the extensive literature on late-medieval reform and the Observant movement. Overviews of
the current state of research can be found in E. DelaruelleE.R. LabandeP. Ourliac,
LEglise au temps du Grand Schisme et de la crise conciliaire 1378-1449, Histoire de lglise 14, 2
(Paris, 1964); B. Moeller, Sptmittelalter (Die Kirche in ihrer Geschichte, Lfg. H1, 1966);
R. Garca Villoslada, Historia de la Iglesia Catlica (Madrid, 1967), 1.519545. H.-G. BeckK.A.
FinkJ. GlazikE. IserlohH. Wolter, Die Mittelalterliche Kirche: Von kirchlichen
Hochmittelalter bis zum Vorabend der Reformation, Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte 3, 2
(1968), 516538, 693697. For supplemental references see also Dizionario degli instituti di
perfezione 15 (Rome, 197378) as well as the bibliographies, journals and handbooks of the
individual orders. In two colloquia (in 1978 and 1979) the working-group for the comparative
history of the religious orders at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut of the Freie Universitt
Berlin has also recently begun to work toward a synthesis of late-medieval reform and
Observant movements. That work will hopefully be concluded in the near future and brought
to print. In England and France, too, scholars have recently undertaken more intensive
research into the late-medieval reform of the Orders: Renaissance and Renewal in Christian
History, StudChurchHistory 14 (Edinburgh, 1978); La rforme des rguliers en France de la fin
du XVe sicle la fin des guerres de religion, RevHistEglFr 65 (1979).
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 141

Reformation)2 perhaps one criterion can be tested for its potential usefulness:
a purely quantitative comparison of the number of orders and religious
households founded in the high and later middle ages. Here perhaps is a
criterion independent from the attitude of the sources, and one that there-
fore frees us from the necessity of making moral evaluations.
A wave of new foundations began in the twelfth century with the new
orders of monks and canons, approached its peak with the Cistercians and the
Premonstratensians, continued with the expansion of the military orders and
the Hospitalers and reached its highpoint with the expansion of the mendi-
cant orders in the thirteenth. That same wave had spent most of its energy by
the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The number of new orders began to
wane. Moreover, and more importantly, the established orders, with few
exceptions, no longer founded new houses. The Dominicans and Franciscans,
Augustinian Hermits and Carmelitesonly the four most notable representa-
tives of a host of mendicant ordersfounded thousands of convents down to
the first decades of the fourteenth century. Yet through the remainder of that
century new foundations reached only into the hundreds. The older orders
seem to have stagnated already by the last quarter of the thirteenth century
a process that (with certain delays that varied across time and place) is in evi-
dence among the Hospitalers and Templars as well. In the case of the older
orders, the evidence for this astounding attenuation rests on the sure founda-
tions of what is in some ways a remarkably early scholarly interest.3 A survey
of the regression of Benedictine foundations from their peak has not yet
appeared, but there are preliminary studies for individual lands, regions,

2 H. Finke, Die Kirchenpolitischen und kirchlichen Verhltnisse zu Ende des Mittelalters nach der
Darstellung K. Lamprechts, RmQuartschrChristlAlktKde Suppl 4 (1896); J. Lhr, Methodisch-
kritische Beitrge zur Geschichte der Sittlichkeit des Klerus, besonders der Erzdizese Kln, am
Ausgang des Mittelalters, RefGeschichtlStud 17 (1910); J. Lortz, Zur Problematik kirchlicher
Mistnde im Sptmittelalter, TrierTheolZ 58 (1949), 126; 212227; 277279; 347357; H.
Jedin, Zur Aufgabe des Kirchengeschichtsschreibers, TrierTheolZ 6 (1952), 6578. For these
matters in general see also E. Saurer, Kirchengeschichte als historische Disziplin, in Denken
ber Geschichte (Vienna, 1974), 157169.
3 Recent examples of this kind of research include: Germania Benedictina, edited by the
Academia Benedictina in association with the Abt-Herwegen Institute 2 (1971) and 5 (1975);
G. Cacciamani, Atlante storio-geografico Camaldolese secoli xxx (Camaldoli, 1963); Fr. Van
der Meer, Atlas de lOrdre Cistercien (Paris-Brussels, 1955). Here see also F. Vougrey and
F. Hervay, Kritische Bemerkungen zum Atlas de lordre cistercien von Frdric van der
Meer, AnalCist 23 (1967), 115152; M. Cocheril, Dictionnaire des monastres cisterciens I: Cartes
gographiques (Rochefort, 1976); N. Backmund, Monasticon Praemonstratense 13 (194956).
142 chapter 4

orders and provinces.4 To take stock of the trends comprehensively, with care-
ful attention to the proper methodology, would provide more complete and
reliable data, and thereby allow the slowing of the orders growth (that is, their
so-called decline) to appear in a far more differentiated way. While the explo-
sive expansion of the mendicant orders in south, west and central Europe
slowed by the first decades of the fourteenth century (and indeed was con-
sciously hindered by courts and councils, princes and city authorities thereaf-
ter), in north, east and southeastern Europe, especially in Poland, Lithuania,
Bohemia, Hungary and Dalmatia (where the mendicant orders were inter-
twined, early and deeply, in a general eastward expansion) the growth of
mendicant foundations continued well into the fourteenth century. One
should therefore speak of a slowdown that unfolded regionally, and in several
phases.5 As with the foundation and growth of cities in the thirteenth and

4 See, among others, R.W. Emery, The Friars in Medieval France. A Catalogue of French
Mendicant Convents 12001550 (New York-London, 1962); D. Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock,
Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales, 2nd ed. (London, 1971); A. Gwynn and R.
Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses. Ireland (London, 1970); D. Easson, Medieval
Religious Houses. Scotland (London, 1957); M. Schoengen, Monasticon Batavum, iiii
(Amsterdam, 194142); D. De Kok, Monasticon Batavum I. Supplementum (Amsterdam, 1942);
B.A.L. Van Luijk, Le Monde Augustinien du XIIIe au XIXe sicle (Assen, 1972); Ambrosius a S.
Theresa, Monasticon Carmelitanum seu lexicon geographicumhistoricum ordinum fun-
dationum universi ordinis Carmelitarum, AnalCarmelDiscal 2223 (195051); F.A. Dal Pino, I
fratri Servi di s. Maria dalle origini allapprovazione (1223c. 1304), 2 vols. (Louvain, 1972);
A.G. Little, List of Custodies and Houses in the Franciscan Province of England,
FranciscPapersListDoc (1943), 217229; W.A. Hinnebusch, The Early English Friars Preachers
(Rome, 1951); F. Roth, The Early English Austin Friars (12491538), 2 vols. (New York, 1966); K.J.
Egan, Medieval Carmelite Houses, Scotland, Carmelus (1972), 107112; idem., Medieval
Carmelite Houses, England and Wales, Carmelus 16 (1969), 142226; P. ODwyer, The
Carmelite Order in Pre-Reformation Ireland, Carmelus 16 (1969), 264278; A. Staring, Notes
on a List of Carmelite Houses in Medieval France, Carmelus 11 (1964), 150160. To extend this
list of particularly accessible data one may consult the relevant articles and maps in the
Dizionario degli instituti di perfezione and the Atlas zur Kirchengeschichte edited by H. Jedin,
K.S. Latourette and J. Martin (1970).
5 K. Kantak, Die Entestehung der polnischen Konvente der bhmisch-polnischen
Franziskaner-Provinz, FranziskStud 16 (1929), 8184, 9496; idem., Franciskanie polscy
(Crakow, 1932); J. Koczowski, Dominikanie polscy na lsku w xiiixiv wieku (Lublin, 1956);
idem., Dominikanie polzcy nad Batykiem u xiii wieku, Nasza Przezo (1975), 83124.
Ibid., Studia nad historia dominikanw w Polsce 12221972, 2 vols. (Warsaw, 1975); G. Uth, Szkic
historyczno-biograficzny zakonu Augustjakiego w Polsce (Krakw, 1930); A. Kunzelmann,
Geschichte der deutscher Augustiner-Eremiten 3: Die bayerische Provinz bis zum Ende des
Mittelalters, Cassiciacum 26 (1972), 6380; W. Roth, Die Dominikaner und Franiskaner im
Deutsch-Ordensland Preuen bis zum Jahre 1466 (1918); L. Lemmens, Annales Minorum
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 143

fourteenth centuries, the disruption of expansion in central, southern and


western Europe was in fact not so sudden as it may seem at first glance. Rather,
it was a reflection of qualitative differences in the size and importance of the
cities that nurtured them. By the beginning of the fourteenth century fully
endowed mendicant foundations were well-established in major urban cen-
ters. But there followed soon after a whole series of foundations in smaller
cities and towns, foundations that one may describe (adapting a concept from
urban history), as meagre convents (Kmmerkonvente), since they only par-
tially fulfill the criteria for an ideal mendicant convent of the thirteenth
centurynamely the close relationship with city life, noted above for the
mendicant orders generally. Indeed, even a phenomenon so important for
agrarian history as abandoned property (Wstung) finds an analogy at the end
of the mendicant expansion in the above-named regions. Concerning those
smaller mendicant orders established following the expansions of the larger,
for example, research shows how strikingly high was the number fourteenth-
century settlements that had either to be abandoned shortly after their foun-
dation, that retained merely the status of a preaching-station, or that remained
only in the planning stages.6
It remains an open question how much a waning of outward expansion cor-
responded to a stagnation or decline in the overall population of the orders. To
approach an answer would require a demographical survey of the regular
population of Europe (a project equally as desirable for intellectual and social
historians as it would be for historians of the orders). The prospects for such a

Prussicorum, ArchFrancisHist 6 (1913), 702704; V. Gidunas, De missionibus Fratrum


Minorum in Lituania (saec. xiii et xiv), ArchFrancisHist 42 (1949), 336; idem., The
Lithuanian Franciscans (Boston, 1972); G. von Walther-Willenheim, Die Dominikaner in
Livland im Mittelalter. Die Natio Livoniae (Rome, 1938); F. Hbl, Poatky minorit v echch
a na m Morave, eskyasHist (1896), 335345; V.J. Koudelka, Zur Geschichte der bhmischen
Dominikanerprovinz im Mittelalter, afp 25 (1955), 26 (1956), 27 (1957); P. Sladek, Die
Augustiner in Bhmen, S. Augustinus 4301930 (1930), 219224; A. Kunzelmann, Geschichte
der deutschen Augustiner-Eremiten, 3: 348; J. Karcsonyi, Szt. Ferenc rendjnek trtnete
Magyarorszgon 1711-ig. (Budapest, 1923); N. Pfeiffer, Die Ungarische Dominikanerprovinz von
ihrer Grndung 1221 bis zur Tartarenverwstung 124142 (Zurich, 1913); idem., A Domonkos
rend Magyar zrdinak vzlatos trnete (Koice, 1917); F. Fallenbchl and G. Ring, Die
Augustiner in Ungarn vor der Niderlage von Mohcs, Augustiniana (1965), 171174; G.
Adriny, Die Augustiner-Eremiten in Ungarn, Cassiciacum 30 (1975), 714732; E. Fgedi, La
formation des viles et les ordres mendiants en Hongrie, Annales esc (1970), 966987.
6 Jacques LeGoff, Apostolat mendiant et fait urbain dans la France mdivale: Limplantation
des ordres mendiants, Annales E.S.C. 23 (1968), 335352. On the last point see also Kaspar
Elm, Termineien und Hospize der westflischen Augustiner-Eremitenklster Osnabrck,
Lippstadt und Herford, Jahrbuch fr Westflische Kirchengeschichte 70 (1977), 1140.
144 chapter 4

project, as for late-medieval demography in general, are admittedly not favor-


able. And in fact their particular circumstance makes the prospects for the
religious orders even worse. In the case of the mendicant orders, the mobility
of individual conventuals restricts the possibility of evaluating numbers over
the long-term. And with regard to canonries and monasteries, which often
fixed their numbers by statute, one must ask whether the number of conventu-
als can be taken as an indicator of growth, stagnation or decline at all.7 In light
of these and other reservations, scholars are able, in a certain number of favor-
ably disposed circumstances, for narrowly circumscribed time-frames and spe-
cific regions, to arrive at more or less reliable numbers. Only with such caveats
in mind can one approach the results of available research. According to that
research, in the fourteenth century a certain stagnation in the number of foun-
dations was accompanied by an unmistakable reduction in the overall regular
population. The number of Franciscans between 1325 and 1400 is supposed to
have fallen from 35,000 to 20,000; that of the Dominicans from 12,000 to 8,000;
the Augustinian Hermits from 8,000 to 6,000, the Carmelites from 12,000 to
8,000.8 The data, compiled here from studies of the mendicant orders, could
lead to the conclusion that monastic piety had reached its nadir in the course
of the fourteenth century, and that the recruitment of the religious orders
suffered accordingly. In reality however, the data reveal nothing more than
a retreat of institutionalized religious life. From the end of the thirteenth
century down through the fourteenth, the papal curia, councils and the episco-
pate managed to rechannel piety long directed at the religious orders toward
semi-religious life. It is difficult to say how many took up the variety of options
that emergedtertiaries, beguines and begards, hermits and recluses, and
not least the members of secular foundations whose numbers grew in the

7 Cf., for example, U. Berlire, Le recrutement dans les monastres bndictines aux XIIIe et XIVe
sicles (Brussels, 1924); idem., Le nombre des moines dans les anciens monastres, Revue
Bndictine 41 (1929), 231261; 42 (1930), 1942 (192930); J.C. Russell, The Clerical Population
of Medieval England, Traditio 11 (1944), 177212. On the issue of statistical inquiry: B.
Guillemain, Chiffres et statistiques pour lhistoire ecclsiastique du Moyen ge, Moyen ge
40 (1955); J. Heers, Les Limites des mthodes statistiques pour les recherches de dmographie
mdivale, AnnDemographHist (1968), 4272.
8 Numbers according to R. Hostie, Vie et mort des ordres religieux. Approches psychoso-
ciologiques (Paris, 1972), 348. Cf. the somewhat divergent evidence in H. Holzapfel, Handbuch
des Franziskanerordens (1909), 163; A. Walz, Compendium Historiae Ordinis Praedicatorum 2
(Rome, 1948), 174177; D. Gutirrez, De vulgatis Ordinis Augustiniani censibus seu statisticis,
AnalAug 30 (1967), 322334; D. Cresi, Statistica dellOrdine Minoritico allano 1282, afh 56
(1963), 157162. See also relevant material in the Dizionario degli instituti di perfezione and in
the Atlas zur Kirchengeschichte.
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 145

fourteenth century. Yet these are but one factor in explaining the numerical
retreat of the vita religiosa, and although it is almost certain that there was in
fact a shrinking of regular institutions over the same time, there was no reduc-
tion in the overall religious and semi-religious population.9
Turning from considerations of the necessity, status and the limits of a
quantitative evaluation of decline, we turn to matters of definition. Here it is
important to refrain from reliance on categories derived from subjective or col-
lective value judgments. Rather, it is important to observe the compromise or

9 Numbers for individual regions and cities in: M. Bihl, Elenchi Bononiensis Fratrum de
Poenitentia, afh 7 (1914), 229214; idem., De Tertio Ordine S. Francisci in Provincia
Germaniae Superioris sive Argentinensi syntagma, afh (1921), 138198; F. Calley, Le Tiers
Ordre de Saint Franois dAssise, EtFrancisc 24 (1922), 372; A. Fantozzi and B. Bughetti, Il
TerzOrdine Francescano in Perugia, afh (1940), 334339; D.W. Whitfield, The Third Order
of St. Francis in Medieval England, Franciscan Studies 13 (1953), 334339; R. Pazelli, Il
TerzOrdine Regolare di S. Francesco attraverso i secoli (Rome, 1958); B. Deger-Spengler, Die
regulierten Terziarinnen in der Schweiz, Helvetia Sacra V, 1 (1978); J. Asen, Die Beginen in
Kln, AnnHistVNdRh 111, 112, 113 (1927-29); K. Zuhorn, Die Beginen in Mnster. Anfnge,
Frhzeit und Ausgang des mnsterischen Beginentums, WestfZ 91 (1935), 1149; D. Philips,
Beguines in Medieval Strasburg. A Study of the Social Aspect of Beguine Life (Stanford, 1941); A.
Patschovsky, Strassburger Beginenverfolgungen im 14. Jahrhundert, da 80 (1974), 85ff. and
107ff.; E.G. Neumann, Rheinisches Beginen- und Begardenwesen. Ein Beitrag zur religisen
Bewegung am Rhein (1960); W.H. Struck, Von Beginen und Begarden in Mittelrheingebiet,
NassAnn 72 (1961), 184198; E. Gruber, Beginen und Eremiten der Innerschweiz. Festschrift
Oskar Vasella (Freiburg/Schweiz, 1964); G. Peters, Norddeutsches Beginen- und
Begardenwesen im Mittelalter, NdSchsJbLdG 41/2 (1969/70), 50118; E.P. Wermter, Die
Beginen im mittelalterlichen Preuenland, ZGErml 33 (1969), 4145; D. Lapis, Beginski w
polsce w xiixv wieku, KwartHist 79 (1972); B. Deger-Spengler, Die Beginen in Basel, Basler
zg (196970); A. Winter, Studien zur sozialen Situation der Frauen in der Stadt Trier nach
der Steuerliste von 1364. Die Untersicht, Kurtrier Jb 15 (1975), 20. Overviews of the eremitical
life in individual territories available in, among others: H. Grundmann, Deutsche Eremiten,
Einsiedler und Klausner im Hochmittelalter, ArchKulturg 45 (1963), 6090; Ph. Hofmeister,
Eremiten in Deutschland, Warheit und Verkndigung, in Festschrift Michael Schmaus
(1967); R.M. Clay, The Hermits and Anchorites of England (London, 1914); S. Darwin, The
English Medieval Recluse (London, 1944); L. Gougaud, Ermites et rclus (Ligug, 1928); J.
Sainsaulieu, Les ermites franais (Paris, 1974). References to hermitages and eremitical groups
in other regions: L. Gougaud, Essai de bibliographie rmitique, Revue Bndictine 45 (1933),
281291; P. Doyre, Lrmitisme, RevAscMyst 23 (1956), 351359; J. Sainsaulieu, rmitisme,
in dghe (1963). See also Ph. Rouillard, F. Ferrero and others, Eremitismo DizIstPerf 3 (1976)
c. 124143, 1258. On new foundations in individual regions see, among others, L. Mezey, Die
Devotio Moderna der Donaulnder Bhmen, sterreich, Ungarn, MediaevBohem 70 (1971),
177192; N. Backmund, Die Kollegiat- und Kanonissenstifte in Bayern (1973); P. Moraw, ber
Typologie, Chronolgie und Geographie der Stiftskirche im deutschen Mittelalter, here 937.
146 chapter 4

the abandonment of tasks and behaviors that contemporaries saw as norma-


tive. These are the only criteria suitable for a properly historical evaluation. To
invoke them is to recognize the emergence (alongside the tria substantialia
that were binding for every order) of a number of particular measures of evalu-
ation: For the monastic orders, care in fulfilling liturgical duties and strictness
in the ascetical pursuit of salvation; for orders devoted to pastoral care, eager-
ness in fulfilling the obligations of the cura animarum; for orders of hermits, an
appropriate degree of withdrawal from the world; for the Hospitalers, the
intensity of the service of pilgrims, the poor and the sick. It is not necessary
here to give an overview of the symptoms of late-medieval religious decline,
still less a systematic account of patterns of degeneration specific to each
order.10 Our intention is rather to explore the process of departure from origi-
nal ideas and actual intentions through the example of one way of lifehere
through the example of the mendicants. This will allow us to at least outline
the causes of decline in general, and so come to terms with the difficulty of
offering an appropriate historical judgment of the mendicant way of life.
To describe decline among the mendicants, and especially among the
Franciscans, as a loss of original ideals and purpose, our attention turns first to
the observance of voluntary, corporate poverty. Upon consideration of so many
sources, and of a literature now so vast that it is almost impossible to review
properly, it soon becomes clear that the orders more or less sharp divergences
from absolute poverty do not fit neatly in any chronological scheme grounded
in an organic process of flowering and decline.11 In his own lifetime Francis

10 A. Bruel, Visites des monastres de lordre de Cluny de la province dAuvergne aux XIIIe
et XIVe sicles, BiblEcoleChartres 38 (1891); U. Robert, Etat des monastres Espagnols de
lOrdre de Cluny aux XIIIe sicle daprs des actes de visites et des chapitres gnreaux,
BolAcadHistMadrid 20 (1872), 321375; P. Caillet, La dcadence de lordre de Cluny aux
XVe sicle et la tentative de rforme de labb Jean de Bourbon (14651485),
BiblEcoleChartres 89 (1928), 183234; F. Vandenbroucke, La morale monastique du XIe
sicle, AnalMedievNamurcensia (1966), 117180; E.N. Gorsuch, Mismanagement and
Ecclesiastical Visitation of English Monasteries in the Early Fourteenth Century, Traditio
28 (1972), 473482; D. Knowles, Grandeur et dcadence de Cluny, Concilium (1974), 3142;
C. Conway, Decline and attempted Reform of the Irish Cistercians 14451531,
CollectCistRef 10 (1956), 11 (1957); G. Heinrich, Klosterflucht und Klosterzucht im 15.
Jahrhundert. Zur Geschichte Chorins, JbGDtOsten 12 (1963), 195206; A. Dimier,
Violences, rixes et homicides chez les Cisterciens, RevScienceRelUnivStrasbourg 46
(1972), 3852; H. Grger, Die monastische Disziplin der slesischen Zisterzienser vor
Anbruch der Reformation, Citeaux 24 (1973), 209249.
11 See especially K. Esser, Anfnge und ursprngliche Zielsetzung des Ordens der Minderbrder
(Leiden, 1966); idem., Die Armutsauffassung des hl. Franziskus, in Poverty in the Middle
Ages, ed. D. Flood (1975), 6070; R. Manselli, La povert nella vita di Francesco dAssisi,
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 147

command to abandon common ownership was judged unrealistic by men like


cardinals John of St. Paul and Hugolino of Ostiaand indeed it was never real-
ized fully, even with Francis himself and his earliest followers.12 No surprise,
then, that soon after the death of the founder his intentions were no longer
taken officially as the guiding principle of the practice of poverty in his order.
Rather, quite contrary to their claim to realize the full imitation of Christ
through mendicant poverty, the orders convents, grounded in legal construc-
tions that dated from the pontificate of Gregory ix, were soon able to accumu-
late considerable corporate wealth.13 Zeal for absolute poverty can therefore
no longer be taken as an indicator of flowering or decline even for the thir-
teenth century, and for a variety of reasons this is even more the case for the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As with the other mendicant orders who
demanded an observance of poverty less rigorous than the Minorites,14 in
many Franciscan convents not even the precept of traditional monastic
povertythe abandonment of personal propertywas observed. Precepts
and admonitions articulated in the acts of general chapters, in visitation proto-
cols and circulars15 make clear not only how much individual property could be

in La povert del secolo XII e Francesco dAssisi. Societ Internazionale di Studi Francescani.
Atti del Il Convegno Internazionale Assisi, 1719 ottobre 1974 (Assisi, 1975), 257282.
12 K.-V. Selge, Franz von Assisi und die rmische Kurie, ZTheolK 67 (1970), 129161; idem.,
Franz von Assisi und Hugolin von Ostia, in San Francesco nella ricerca storica degli ultimi
ottanta anni, 1316 ottobre 1968 (Todi, 1971), 159222.
13 Malcom Lambert, Franciscan Poverty: The Doctrine of the Absolute Poverty of Christ and the
Apostles in the Franciscan Order, 12101323, 2nd ed. (New York, 1998).
14 B. Altaner, Der Armutsgedanke beim Hl. Dominikus, TheolGlaube 11 (1919), 404417; C.
Lammerbond, Der Armutsgedanke des hl. Dominikus und seines Ordens (Zwolle, 1926);
G.M. Lhr, Die Mendikantenarmut im Dominikanerorden im 14. Jahrhundert. Nach den
Schriften von Johannes Dambach, O.P. und Johannes Dominici, O.P., Divus Thomas
(1940), 257299; W.A. Hinnebusch, Poverty in the Order of Preachers, CathHistRev 45
(1960), 436453; F.A. Mathes, The Poverty Movement and the Augustinian Hermits,
AnalAugust 3132 (196969); S. Zuk, De Capacitate possidendi in communi in Ordine
Carmelitano saec. xiii, AnalCarmel 10 (1938), 1223, 155164; O. Steggink, Fraternit e
possesso in commune, linspirazione presso i mendicanti, Carmelus 15 (1968), 535.
15 To give some sense of the nature and range of available printed material: E. Wagner,
Historia Constitutionum Generalium Ordinis Fratrum Minorum (Rome, 1954); B.M.
Reichert, Acta Capitulorum Generalium Ordinis Praedicatorum, 9 vols. (Rome, 18971904);
G.M. Lhr, Registrum litterarum pro provincia Saxoniae 14741551, QForschGDomin
Deutschland 37, 40 (1939, 1952); R. Creytens, Les actes capitulaires de la Congrgation
Toscano-romaine O.P. (14961530), afp 40 (1970), 125230; R.F. Madura, Acta Capitulorum
Provinciae Poloniae Ordinis Praedicatorum I: 12251600 (1972); N. Teeuwen and A. de Meijer,
Documents pour servir lhistoire mdivale de la province augustinienne de Cologne.
148 chapter 4

amassed, but also the ways and means through which individual conventuals
could become proprietarii: endowment of offices; lease of preaching revenues,
payment for work outside of the order, transfer of rents and legacies to those
within. It is easy to recognize how severely these practicescommon not only
among the mendicants, but especially dangerous for themthreatened the
foundations of the religious life. When the well-endowed son of a burgher, the
industrious limitor, the privileged honorary papal chaplain and the beneficed
suffragan bishop all lived together in one convent with their fellow brothers
who were not as wealthy or who did not have as much business sense, each in
their individual dwellings, it was rather difficult to realize the Augustinian
Rules ideal, foundational to every form of religious life, of living according to
one heart and one soul in God. As a consequence, the moral trustworthiness
of a spiritual elite came widely in question, since its membersaccording to
the intention of their founderswere supposed to advance the Gospel more
through example than through words.16

Extraits des registres des prieurs gnreaux (13571506) (Hverl-Louvain, 1961); idem.,
Documents pour servir lhistoire mdivale de la province augustinienne de Cologne (1507
1551) (Hverl-Louvain, 1970); A. De Meijer, Gregorii de Arimino o.s.a. Registrum
Generalatus 13571358 (Rome, 1976); K. Walsh, The Observance: Sources for a History of
the Observant Reform Movement in the Order of Augustinian Friars in the Fourteenth
and Fifteenth Centuries, RivStorChiesaItalia 31 (1977), 4067; G. Wessels, Acta capitulorum
generalium ordinis Fratrun B.V. Mariae de Monte Carmelo, 12 (Rome, 191234); idem.,
Acta capitulorum provincialum Lombardiae 13281398, AnalCarmel 3 (191415), 152ff.; P.
Cacioli, Acta capitulorum provincialium provinciae Carmelitarum Thusciae ab anno
1375 ad annum 1408, RivStorCarmel 13 (192932); G. Couto, Acta antiquorum capitulo-
rum provincialium di Toscana dei Carmalitani 14521461, AnalCarmel 11 (194045), 5659;
A. Sabatini, Atti dei capitoli provinciali di Toscana dei Carmelitani 13751491, ArchHistCarmel
4 (Rome, 1975); A. Van de Pasch, Definities der generale kapittels van de Ordre van het H.
Kruis 14101786 (Brussels, 1969); F. Pelster, Admonitiones des Provinzialpriors der Teutonia
an die Brder des Straburger Konvents (1307?), afp 12 (1942), 307312; R. Creytens,
Ordonnances du matre gnral Jean de Puinoix, O.P., pour le couvent de Viero en Galice
1413, afp 29 (1959), 148152; W. Hecht, Ein Brief des Provinzials Johannes Cusin an die
Dominikaner in Rottweil, afp 43 (1973), 8390.
16 Here, among others, cf. R. Schmitz, Der Zustand der sddeutschen Franziskaner
Konventualen am Ausgang des Mittelalters (1914); C. Erickson, The Fourteenth Century
Franciscans and their Critics I: The Orders Growth and Character, Franciscan Studies 35
(1975), 107135; 36 (1976), 108147; H. Finke, Zur Geschichte der deutschen Dominikaner
im xiii. and xiv. Jahrhundert, RmQuartChristAltKde 8 (1894), 367392; B.M. Reichert,
Zur Geschichte der deutschen Dominikaner und ihrer Reform, RmQuartChristAltKde
10 (1896), 299311; idem., Zur Geschichte der deutschen Dominikaner am Ausgang des xiv.
Jahrhunderts, RmQuartChristAltKde 14 (1900), 15 (1901); A. Deckert, Die oberdeutsche
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 149

Not only corporate and individual property, of course, threatened the unity
of the convent. Other circumstances, if judged according to the orders original
conception, must be evaluated as symptoms of decline. The Franciscan claim
to realization of paupertas angelica; the Dominican return to the vita vera
apostolica; the call of the especially commendable vita eremitica, so clearly
expressed in the names given to the orders of the Augustinian Hermits and the
Carmelitesthese became turns of phrase in the mouths of masters and
lectors, of princely counselors and urban officials, papal chaplains and curial
penitentiaries, suffragan bishops and cardinals, who cared little for any vow of
obedience or the vita communis, and who indeed granted numerous privileges
with the explicit intention of dispensing with the common life.17 The fragmen-
tation of community through individual property and privileges found their
outward expression in an ever-increasing mobility, a process that culminated
in the integration of countless religious into the spiritual and secular hierarchy.
The trend went back, in the first instance, to students and teachers who went
back and forth from one university to another, from this studium generale to
that one. This form of legitimate mobility, visible in general registers and
capitular legislation, consecration lists and obituaries, has not yet been inves-
tigated nearly enough for all it could reveal about intellectual history, social
history and the history of education. It found its obverse in numerous wanderers,
apostates and rebels, spoken of so often in the same sources. Their motives
and influences, however, are harder to get to than those of the masters and
students.18 Along with symptoms of decline that can be traced back to the

Provinz der Karmeliten nach den Akten ihrer Kapitel von 1421 bis 1529, ArchHistCarmel
1 (1961).
17 R. Ritzler, I Cardinali e i Papi dei Frati Minori Conventuali, MiscFrancesc 71 (1971), 3270;
W.R. Thompson, Friars in the Cathedral. The First Franciscan Bishops 12261261 (Toronto,
1975); P. Taurisano, Hierarchia ordinis Praedicatorum (Rome, 1916); B. Wild, Augustiner als
Bischfe im Dienste der Kirche, Cor Unum 7 (1949), 9 (1951); E. Gller, Die ppstliche
Pnitentiarie von ihrem Ursprung bis zu ihrer Umgestaltung unter Pius V (Rome, 1907);
C. ODonnell, The Friars Minor Conventual Penitentiaries in the Basilica of St. Peter in the
Vatican (Albany, 1975).
18 Individual studies on this kind of mobility include: G.M. Lhr, Breslauer Dominikaner
des 15. Jahrhundert auf auswrtigen Hochschulen, afp 13 (1943), 162180; idem., Die
Dominikaner an den ostdeutschen Universitten Wittenberg, Frankfurt/Oder, Rostock
und Greifswald, afp (1952), 294316; idem., Die Dominikaner an den Universitten
Erfurt und Mainz, afp 1953 (1953), 236274; J.R.H. Moorman, The Foreign Element
among the English Franciscans, EnglHistRev 62 (1947), 289303; A.M. Bogaerts,
Dominicanen der Nederlanden in de registers der magisters-generaal, BouwstG
DominNederl 1216 (197377).
150 chapter 4

centrifugal forces that fragmented the vita communis, other symptoms can be
observed that one can interpret as a consequence of a certain petrification of
an early mobility and dynamism. I mean here those phenomena, noted so
often in the latest research, that appear wherever the boundaries between
the worlds of the cloister and profane society, between convent and city,
between monastery and nascent territorial principalities were no longer
properly maintained; where convents mirrored the social stratification of
their environments; where family networks dominated spiritual communi-
ties; where monastic wealth and corporate property became integral parts of
the urban economy; where the decisions of chapters were drawn up in the
committees of burghers or at the courts of territorial princes, where not
only spiritual but also worldly authorities were instances of appeal; where
to put it drastically and in an overly sharp wayfamilies held private feasts
in the refectory and convents held their gatherings in the chambers of the
city council.19
Let us turn from a depiction of the abuses typical among the mendicants to
a consideration of their causes and to the standards for their evaluation. One
explanation mentioned frequently in the scholarly literature, though with little
reflection, is that in the fourteenth century, according to an almost biological
law, originally zealous orders somehow became somnolent; that their piety,
after a period of flowering, with a certain necessity grew cold, and that the
willingness of the faithful, after an all-too strong desire to support the orders,
disappeared during the thirteenth century. Not as vague, and to a certain
degree more historical, are attempts to explain the circumstance of the orders
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with reference to the challenges of
the era: plague and famine, the weakness of a papacy held in Babylonian cap-
tivity in Avignon and then divided by schism; the Hundred Years War between
England and France; the wars, local feuds and rebellions in other lands that,
though more brief, were just as destructive. We can test the arguments, listed
only briefly here, according to their merits. The theory of an almost foreor-
dained decline of piety, so sharply formulated at the end of the thirteenth
century in the Determinationes quaestionum circa regulam fratrum minorum

19 J. LeGoff, Apostolat mendiant et fait urbain dans la France mdivale: Limplantation des
ordres mendiants; idem., Ordres mendiants et urbanisation dans la France mdievale.
tat de lenqute, Annales esc 25 (1970), 924987; B.E.J. Stdeli, Minoritenniederlassungen
und mittelalterliche Stadt, FranziskStud 21 (1969); Freed, Friars; L. Pellegrini, Lordine
francescano e la societ cittadina in epoca bonaventuriana, Laurentianum 15 (1974),
154200.
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 151

attributed to Bonaventure, is of course in its generality not very serviceable.20


But if one grounds it more precisely in anthropology or social psychology it
provides a quite practical explanatory model. The traditional rules of the
orders, their ordines and constitutiones, but above all the intentions of found-
ers like those of the Servites, the little-known Tuscan and Palestinian forerun-
ners of the Augustinian Hermits and the Carmelites, or indeed of a Francis or
Dominic, were directed at a way of life that required a high degree of individual
and collective energy. As a sociology of religions, organizations and groups
shaped by Weber and Troeltsch teaches, even with the best of intentions it is
almost impossible to avoid certain tendencies to fall away from the ideals of a
given order, tendencies that, as they unfold, appear almost predictable in
advance.21 To focus these considerations concretely on the example of the
mendicant orders, and especially on the Franciscans, it is impossible to be at
one and the same time a charismatic brotherhood and an international order.
One cannot at once reshape the foundations of urban pastoral care, undertake
the spiritual leadership of women and other pastorally neglected groups, and
transfer legal titles of ownership to communes and urban institutions, and yet
somehow avoid all of the consequencesconflicts of interest with secular
clergy, the influences of daily urban life, the pressures to conform with pat-
terns of urban thought and feminine emotionality. To make the university the
focus of ones activity and to develop a highly efficient system of study focused
on intellectual progress, as was the case with the Dominicans, had the darker
side of scholarship as its unavoidable consequence. The vanity of scholars,
strife among students and tensions between teachers and students found a
home in cloister, refectory and dormitory, and the rationality and industry of
scholarship thus endangered the heart of spiritual life. And when the two great
mendicant orders no longer felt in principle bound to the ancient monastic
stabilitas loci, but rather made mobility in an ever-changing world into a foun-
dational principle of their form of life, there is little wonder that complaints
and laments about wandering friars came to the foreas was the case already
in the early days of the Franciscans, and indeed while the founder himself still

20 Doctoris seraphici S. Bonaventurae opera omnia 8 (Quaracchi, 1898); Cf. A. Borst,


Lebensformen im Mittelalter (1973), 531538; I. Brady, The Writings of Saint Bonaventure
Regarding the Franciscan Order, MiscFrancesc 75 (1975); Th. Crowly, Saint Bonaventure
and Reform, MiscFrancesc 75 (1975), 129135.
21 K. Elm, Die Entwicklung des Franziskanerordens zwischen dem ersten und letzten
Zeugnis des Jakob von Vitry, in Francesco dAssisi e Francescanesimo dal 1216 al 1226.
Societ Internazionale di Studi Francescani. Atti del iv Convegno Internazionale Assisi, 1517
ottobre 1976 (Assisi, 1977), 195233.
152 chapter 4

lived. Given their pursuit of earthly perfection, their view that the true realiza-
tion of Christianity was the realization of certain patterns of life, it is not
surprising that strife soon broke out within the Franciscan ranks over true
teaching, proper practice and an absolutely binding conception of poverty.
Moreover, as both participants and partisans in a widespread movement, the
Franciscans were spared neither disputes over their origins nor envious com-
petition. And as their voluntary begging came gradually to be seen as a burden
on society, they had soon to reckon with the waning material support of the
faithful.22
Observations and considerations of this nature force us, if not to entirely
abandon the traditional chronological scheme of an earlier flowering followed
by decline, then at least to set it aside, and to proceed more carefully than before
with evaluations measured by original intentions. Without reviving a move
toward history accentuated by anthropological theory, it seems nevertheless nec-
essary to evaluate the norms and models of monastic life according to their con-
temporary horizons, and only then to judge the failures that emerge in the
struggle for their realization. That means, concretely, to evaluate the appearances
of decline no longer simply as the failures of particular individuals or groups, but
rather to accept them as both consequences of a necessary process of develop-
ment, and as social and psychological deviations integral to religious life.
No less important is an awareness of the fact that any proper interpretation
of these matters requires a spectrum, a system, so to speak, of standards for
evaluation. So, from this perspective, consider the collective and individual
observance of poverty as indicator of the rise and fall of the Franciscan order.

22 From a rich literature can be noted: L. Hdl, Zum Streit um Buprivilegien der
Mendikantenorden in Wien im 14. Jahrhundert und beginnenden 15. Jahrhundert,
ZKathTheol 79 (1951), 170189; H. Lippens, Le droit nouveaux des mendiants en conflit
avec le droit coutumier du clerg sculier du concile de Vienne celui de Trente, afh 47
(1954), 241292; D.W. Whitfield, Conflicts of Personality and Principle. The Political and
Religious Crisis in the English Franciscan Province 14001408, FrancStud 17 (1957), 321
362; A. Williams, Relations Between the Mendicant Friars and the Secular Clergy in
England in the Later Fourteenth Century, DuqesneStudAnnMediev 1 (1960), 2295; Y.
Congar, Aspects ecclsiologiques de la querelle entre mendiants et sculiers dans la sec-
onde moiti du XIIIe sicle et le dbut du XIVe, ArchHistDoctLittMA 36 (1961), 35151; I.W.
Frank, Die Spannung zwischen Ordensleben und wissenschaftlicher Arbeit im frhen
Dominikanerorden, ArchKultGesch 49 (1967), 164201; M.-M. Fuful, Guillaume de Saint-
Amour et la polmique universitaire Parisienne 125059 (Paris, 1972); A. Zimmerman, ed.,
Die Auseinandersetzungen an der Pariser Universitt im xiii. Jh. (Berlin-NewYork, 1976). A
good summary can be found in D. Berg, Armut und Wissenschaft. Beitrge zur Geschichte
des Studienwesens der Bettelorden im 13. Jahrhundert (1977).
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 153

Here the questions to ask might concern what place poverty and idleness,
work and property might have had in a particular time, within a precisely out-
lined social context, and what work, idleness, and poverty actually looked like
within that context. This is a question that has been asked in Germany and
Italy and especially in France in recent years, where it has become the subject
of systematic research.23 The results of this work require that we investigate,
from case to case, how a spectrum of wealth, poverty and sufficient income
might have appeared within a particular social settingin a specific city, for
example.23a Only then would it be possible to evaluate the observance of
monastic poverty and the renunciation of property, and thereby the degree of
ascetical accomplishment. As difficult as these investigations might be, with as
good a source foundation as can be found in the late-medieval city, a kind of
structured system could emerge from a systematic investigation and compari-
son of monastic, civic and private households. From such investigations
monastic economies, and thereby monastic poverty in practice, could be
characterized more fairly than is possible based on contemporary polemical
literature and a historiography that is occasionally all-too rigorous, if not
confessional or ideological.23b
Claims of property and privilege; accommodation to the laws and condi-
tions of the economy and its institutions; too intimate a bond with society; a
mobility no longer controllable; the abandonment not only of once lofty
ideals, but of even the foundational requirements of monasticismall are
manifestations of decline according to the point of view adopted above, a

23 K. Bosl, Potens und Pauper. Begriffsgeschichtliche Studien zur gesellschaftlichen


Differenzierung im frhen Mittelalter und zum Pauperismus des Hochmittelalters, in
Alteuropa und die moderne Gesellschaft. Festschrrift fr Otto Brunner (1963), 6087; idem.,
Armut, Arbeit, Emanzipation (Zu den Hintergrunden der geistigen und literarischen
Bewegung vom 11.13. Jh), in Beitrge zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte des Mittelalters.
Festschrift fr Herbert Helbig zum 65. Geburtstag (1975), 128146; M. Mollat, La notion de
la pauvret au moyen ge. Position de problmes, RevHistEglFr 52 (1966), 523; idem., Les
pauvres dans la socit mdievale (Paris, 1974); idem., ed., Etudes sur lhistoire de la pau-
vret, 2 vols. (Paris, 1974); Cf. Also the contributions in D. Flood, ed., La povert del secolo
XII e Francesco dAssisi. Poverty in the Middle Ages (1975) and Povert e ricchezza nella spiri-
tualit dei scoli XI e XII (Todi, 1969).
23a See for example U. Dirlmeier, Untersuchungen zu Einkommensverhltnissen und
Lebenshaltungskosten in oberdeutschen Stdten des Sptmittelalters (Mitte 14. bis Anfang
16. Jahrhundert) (Heidelberg, 1978).
23b One such attempt has now been made: Bernard Neidiger, Mendikanten zwischen
Ordensideal und stdtischer Realitt: Untersuchungen zum wirtschaftlichen Verhalten der
Bettelorden in Basel (Berlin, 1981).
154 chapter 4

perspective that in a certain sense arises from anthropological constants and


the compulsions of social pressure. How quickly and to what degree these pro-
cesses are set in motion is of course no longer to be described as a function of
either individual or collective psychology. Far more relevant are the particulars
of a given historical situation, the political, social and economic circumstances
that accelerate or attenuate these processes. Doubtless to be included among
the catalysts are the phenomena usually noted as crucial for the decline of the
religious orders in the later middle agesthe fiscalization and juridification of
the papacy through the Avignonese captivity and Schism; the consolidation of
the modern state and territorial lordship that went hand in hand with both;
insurrections and feuds; biological forces like plague and famine. The deform-
ing effects of the structural changes that the papacy and the church endured
during the Avignonese captivity, and the consequences of the internal tensions
in the era of Schism and councils for the religious orders are known, if not in
every detail, at least in general outline. The efforts of popes and councils, in
competition with one another, to establish or to expand their respective obedi-
ences through every available means brought fleeting profit to the orders
through the awarding and confirmation of privileges, as well as more relaxed
practices of dispensation. More serious, however, were the negative conse-
quences, which are very well known. The formation of obediences affected the
older, relatively loosely organized congregations and orders like those of the
Cluniacs, Cistercians, Premonstratensians and Carthusians sharply enough.
But the same process had an even sharper impact on the more strictly orga-
nized, younger mendicant orders. In some instances the orders were so torn
asunder that general master stood against general master, chapter against
chapter, indeed provinces and individual convents fell out with one another
over the question of which pope should be recognized.24 Yet already before the

24 J. Leclercq, Cluny pendant le Grand Schisme dOccident, RevMabillon 32 (1942), 119132;


Fr. Bliemetzrieder, Der Zisterzienser-Orden im groen abendlndischen Schisma,
StudMittGBened 25 (1904), 6282; R. Graham, The Great Schism and the English
Monasteries of the Cistercian Order, EngHistRev 44 (1929), 373382; Fr. Bliemetzrieder,
Der Kartuser-Orden und das abendlndische Schisma, zugleich zur Geschichte der
Kartause Mariengarten bei Prag, MittVGDBhmen 47 (1909), 4761; G. Mollat, Ladhesion
des Chartreux Clement vii, 13781380, RevMALat 5 (1949), 3542; J. Gomez, Les
Chartreux espagnols et le Grand Schisme, SemEtudMonast 5 (1962); K. Eubel, Die avigno-
nesische Obdienz der Mendikanten-Orden sowie der Orden der Mercedarier und Trinitarier
zur Zeit des groen Schismas (1900); O. Htterbruker, Der Minoritenorden zur Zeit des
groen Schismas (1893); K. Eubel, Die avignonesische Obdienz im Franziskaner-Orden,
FranziskStudien 1 (1914), 170180; C. Schmitt, Le parti clmentiste dans la province fran-
ciscaine de Strasbourg. Notes et documents, afh 55 (1962), 82102; G.G. Meersseman,
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 155

schism the same process of decomposition was underway, inspired by conflicts


between the Empire and papacy. Of no less consequence was the attempt of
the curia to win political power and financial advantage through the prolifera-
tion of provisions originally intended only for those who had been placed
directly under papal protection. Such provisions first had an impact on the
great and economically powerful abbeys and foundations, and above all
exposed those communities that had been centers of the monastic reform
movements in the early and high middle ages to the cancer of the commen-
da.25 Fiscal impositions, limitations of autonomy and economic interference
were of course not only a consequence of both internal and external changes
of the church. The development of the modern state, a contemporary process
that occasionally in fact played out in dialogue with those same changes,
worked in the same direction, as did the growing consolidation of a more urban
economy with urban political power. The financial needs of princes and cities,
heightened for economic, political and military reasons, along with the ten-
dency to extend rights of lordship and to secure inherited freedomsthese
weighed on and interfered with spiritual institutions no less than the interests of
the papacy, the episcopacy and local clergy. The same two forces worked in the
same way to influence the inner organization of the orders and monastic con-
gregations. Like the forces that worked to consolidate the papal obediences,
these too worked against the orders claim to universality. In England, France
and Spain, as well as in the Empire, the formation of congregations, provinces
and vicariates, indeed of entire orders, during the orders decline as well as
their renewal, were a consequence less of the pressing needs and inherited
demands of the orders themselves, much more a consequence of the rule of
law and the demands of politics.26

Etudes sur lordre des Frres Prcheurs au dbut du Grand Schisme, afp 25 (1955), 213
257; F. Roth, The Great Schism and the Augustinian Order, Augustiniana 8 (1958), 281
298; C.L. Tipton, The English Hospitallers during the Great Schism, StudMedieavRenHist
4 (1967), 91123.
25 C. Samaran and G. Mollat, La fiscalit pontificale en France au XIVe sicle (Paris, 1905); J.
Favier, Les finances pontificales lpoque du Grand Schisme dOccident 13781409 (1966); K.
Eubel, Die Besetzung deutscher Abteien mittels ppstlicher Provision in den Jahren
14311503, StudMittGBened 20 (1899), 234246; C. OCoubhiude, Taxation of Irish
Cistercian Houses 13291479, Cteaux 15 (1964), 144160; W.J. Telesca, Papal Reservations
and Provisions of Cistercian Abbeys at the End of the Middle Ages, Cteaux (1975),
145192.
26 L.A. Desmond, The Statute of Carlisle and the Cistercians, 12891369, in Studies in
Medieval Cistercian History Presented to Jeremiah F. OSullivan (Shannon, 1971), 138162;
W.J. Telesca, The Cistercian Dilemma at the Close of the Middle Ages. Gallicanism or
156 chapter 4

The visitations of the plague in the fourteenth centuryalong with war,27


perhaps most often made responsible for the decline of religious life in the
fourteenth centuryare as difficult to summarize, or even to quantify pre-
cisely, as the changes in secular and ecclesiastical affairs. On the basis of
current research, and where the sources provide relatively reliable data, one
can assume that the plague (beginning in the first decades of the fourteenth
century, culminating in the forties and reemerging once again around the end
of the century) resulted in around a 3040% mortality in the ranks of the
religious orders. Along with countless unknown men and women, the plague
carried away such prominent professed religious as the founder of the congre-
gation of the Olivetans, Bernard Tolomei, the Minister General of the
Franciscans, Gerard Odonis, and the renowned Augustinian preacher Simone
Fidati da Cascia. Such losses not only devastated once flowering communities
in the short term. Surviving evidence suggests a further conclusion, one already
evident to contemporaries: the severe challenge of filling houses with new
recruits (aggravated by the general reduction in the population) led to a drastic
relaxation of the standards of acceptance, and thereby to a considerable
reduction in the spiritual quality of new recruits.28 A further consequence is
more hypothetical: it seems possible, in a general way, that by the middle of the
fourteenth century, as a result of high mortality, there was a considerable
increase in gifts, bequests and endowments. As a consequence, much like the
abandonment of traditional criteria for acceptance, there was a worsening of
discipline and, accordingly, a decline in the prestige of those in the religious
orders.29

Rome, in ibid., 163185. A.K. McHardy, The Alien Priories and the Expulsion of Aliens from
England in 1378 (Oxford, 1975), 133145; P. Feige, Filiation und Landeshoheit. Die
Entstehung der Zisterzienserkongregationen auf der Iberischen Halbinsel, ZistStud 1
(1975), 3776.
27 H. Denifle, La dsolation des glises, monastres et hospitaux en France pendant la guerre
de cent ans (189799); N. Coulet, La dsolaiton des glises de Provence, ProvenceHist 6
(1956), 3452, 123141; A. Lesort, La reconstitution des glises aprs la guerre de cent ans,
RevHistEglFr 20 (1934), 177215.
28 J.-N. Biraben, Les hommes et la peste en France et dans les pays europens et mditerranens,
2 vols. (Paris, 1975); P.-G. Mode, The Influence of the Black Death on the English Monasteries
(Menasha, Wisc., 1916); A. Biglmair, Zur Statistik der groen Pestepidemien des 14.
Jahrhunderts: Die Zahl der Opfer im Franziskanerorden, ArchHyg 130 (1943), 196210. J.C.
Russel, The Clerical Population of Medieval England, Traditio 2 (1944); B. Zaddach, Die
Folgen des Schwarzen Todes (134751) fr den Klerus Mitteleuropas (Stuttgart, 1971).
29 An account of the donations of particular groups over the long term: R. Boutruche, Aux
origines dune crise nobiliaire. Donations pieuses et pratiques successorales en
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 157

The outward causes for the decline of religious life in the fourteenth century
surveyed here are more or less uncontested, and have in a few cases in fact
been the subject of systematic investigation. A number of questions, however,
remain unanswered: those, for example, concerning various configurations of
causes and their divergent regional consequences; how individual orders
negotiated the challenges; even more fundamentally, how various causes
and consequences differed for landed or mendicant houses for those that
bought annuities or managed their own economies, for rural and urban
communities.
Despite uncertainty conditioned by both the nature of the surviving sources
and the current state of research, it is appropriate here to discuss in detail a
model of the later middle ages that has recently come into the mainstream of
historical scholarship, a model that reads decline (and to a certain extent
renewal as well) not as a function of individual responsibility, but as a function
of long-term economic development. At issue are the theories of crisis that
social and economic historians have developed in recent years, theories that
render all of the manifestations of decline surveyed herefalling revenues,
declining population, political, social and ecclesiastical tensionsas epiphe-
nomena of more deeply rooted change, described variously as stagnation,
depression or contraction.30 Presuming their chronological and regional diver-
sity, and limiting the analysis to generally accepted symptoms of crisis (a
regional decline in population, some restriction of production, the opening up
of the wage- and price-scissors, the differentiation, of special consequence
for agriculture, between agrarian and urban economies)in all this the ques-
tion arises how far the decline of religious life can be understood as a symptom
of crisis. To move toward a preliminary answer, it must be said that in recent
discussions of crisis the connections between monastic decline and economic
circumstance have not yet even been formulated as a problem. Prior to those
discussions, or without any reference to them, others have made economic
circumstance responsible, alongside political and moral causes, for a retreat in
both the numeric strength and quality of religious life. This is the case for

Bordrelais du XIIIe au XVIe sicle, AnnSocHist 1 (1939), 160177; 257272; J.T. Rosenthal,
The Purchase of Paradise. Gift Giving and the Aristocracy, 13071485, in StudSocHist,
ed. H. Perkin (1972).
30 Surveys of current research found in Frantiek Graus, Das Sptmittelalter als Krisenzeit.
Ein Literaturbericht als Zwischenbilanz (1969); H. Aubin and W. Zorn, Handbuch der
deutschen Wirtschafts und Sozialgeschichte (1971), 300357. In summary: Frantiek Graus,
Vom Schwarzen Tod zur Reformation. Der krisenhafte Character des europischen
Sptmittelalters, Revolte und Revolution in Europa (1975), 1030.
158 chapter 4

research into the economy of individual households in England, France,


Belgium and the Netherlands,31 and in Germany it has been provento note
only a few more or less randomly chosen examplesfor the Benedictine
houses of the lower Rhine, for the Westphalian Benedictine houses that were
later taken up in to the Bursfeld congregation, for the womens communities at
Essen and Mllenbeck, for the Cistercian households Langheim, Ebrach,
Rottenmnster, Marienstatt, Salem and Bronnbach, and for abbeys once so
famous as Hirsau, St. Blaise and Gorze.32
With explicit reference to the theories that have been developed in these
discussions, economic historians have virtually exemplified economic decline
through studies of the Bavarian monastic economy33 and proven, for individual

31 D. van Derveeghe, Le domaine de labbaye du Val-Saint-Lambert de 1207 1387 (Brussells,


1935); J.A. Raftis, The Estates of Ramsey Abbey. A Study in Economic Growth and Organization
(Toronto, 1957); P.J. Jones, Le finanze della badia cistercense di Settimo nel xiv secolo,
RicStorChiesaItal 10 (1956), 90122; A. dHaenens, La crise des abbayes bndictines au
bas Moyen ge: Saint Martin de Tournai de 1290 1350, Moyen ge 65 (1959), 7595;
idem., Labbaye Saint-Martin de Tournai de 12901350. Origines, volution et dnouement
dune crise (Louvian, 1961); R.B. Dobson, Durham Priory, 14001450 (Cambridge, 1973).
32 J. Linneborn, Der Zustand der westflischen Benediktinerklster in den lezten 50 Jahren
vor ihrem Anschlusse an die Bursfelder Kongregation, Westflische Zeitschrift 56 (1898),
164; E. Wisplinghoff, Die Benediktinerklster des Niederrheins im 13. und 14.
Jahrhundert, in Festschrift fr Herman Heimpel (Gttingen, 1972), 277291. H. Weigel,
Studien zur Verfassung und Verwaltung des Grundbesitzes des Frauenstiftes Essen 8521803
(1960); N. Heutger, Das Stift Mllenbeck a.d. Weser (1962); F. EngelH. Lathwesen, Das
Gterverzeichnis des Klosters Mllenbeck bei Rinten von 1465 (1963); H. Weiss, Die
Zisterzienserabei Ebrach (1962); M. Reichenmiller, Das ehemalige Reichsstift und
Cistercienserinnenkloster Rottenmnster (1964); W.-H. Struck, Die Cistercienserabtei
Marienstatt im Mittelalter. Urkundenregesten, Gterverzeichnisse, Nekrologe (1956); W.
Rsener, Reichsabtei Salem. Verfassungs- und Wirtschafsgeschichte des Zisterzienserklosters
von der Grndung bis zur Mitte des xiv Jahrhunderts (1974); Leonhard Scherg, Die
Zisterzienserabtei Bronnbach im Mittelalter: Studien zur Geschichte der Abtei von der
Grndung bis zur Mitte des xiv. Jahrhunderts (Wrzburg, 1976); A. Schfer, Zur
Besitzgeschichte des Klosters Hirsau vom 11. bis 16. Jahrhundert, ZWrttLdG (1960), 150.
H. Ott, Studien zur Geschichte des Klosters St. Blasien im hohen und spten Mittelalter
(1963); G. Reimann, Beitrag zur Geschichte des Klosters Gorze im Sptmittelalter,
Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens 81 (1970), 348389.
33 G. Kirchner, Probleme der sptmittelalterlichen Klostergrundherrschaft in Bayern.
Landflucht und buerliches Erbrecht, Zeitschrift fr bayerische Landesgeschichte 19
(1956), 194; Ingomar Bog, Geistliche Herrschaft und Bauer in Bayern und die sptmit-
telalterliche Agrarkrise, Vierteljahrschrift fr Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 45 (1958),
6275; Heinrich Rubner, Die Landwirtschaft der Mnchener Ebene und ihre Notlage
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 159

regions, the relationship between economic crisis and decline of the orders.34
Signs of exhaustion are becoming discernible in recent discussions, and indi-
vidual studies have occasionally qualified the trends described here so much
that they are almost entirely deprived of their substance.35 Even so, historians
of the orders should nevertheless keep this interdependence in view as
especially relevant for future research. For the history of the orders has the
possibilityone that hardly any other discipline can matchof evaluating
from its solid source base (think of undertakings like the Germania Sacra, now
so broad in scope and so systematically compiled) the data and theories of
recent research in social and economic history, whose importance reaches far
beyond the narrow field of the orders themselves.
To summarize our considerations, to summarize the mechanics of the
decline of the late-medieval religious orders, it is perhaps useful to think of the
image of a system of coordinates. One coordinate, the religious orders, is a col-
lection of institutions at different points in their development, each with inde-
pendent histories and divergent functions, norms and structures. And despite
their universal claims each is shaped strongly by regional factors. A second
coordinate is the bundle of political and social forces that can indeed be
interpreted as symptoms of a general crisis, symptoms that shaped the entire
middle ages, but which realized themselves in numerous variants that were
strongly divergent across time and place. It would be foolish to assume that
any model of the decline of the orders, represented as a result of endogenous
and exogenous factors, could essentially advance our knowledge of these phe-
nomena beyond their current status, since they are already so important for
late-medieval ecclesiastical and intellectual history. As all who know the
material agree, to capture some sense of the late-medieval orders in the state
of their most advanced decomposition, and to do so systematically, with
attention to all of the particularitiesthe various states of development and

im 14. Jahrhundert, Vierteljahrschrift fr Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 51 (1964),


433453.
34 C.M. Cipolla, Une crise ignore. Comment sest perdue la proprit ecclsiastique dans
lItalie du nord entre le XIIe et le XVIe sicle, Annales E.S.C. 3 (1947), 248280; A. Verhulst,
Lconomie rurale de la Flandre et la dpression conomique du bas Moyen ge,
EtRurales 68 (1963), 6880; L. GenicotM.-S. Bouchat-DupontB. Delvaux, La crise agri-
cole du bas Moyen-ge dans le Namurois (Louvain, 1970); Cl. Rotelli, Una campagna medi-
evale. Storia agraria del Piemonte (nord-occidentale) fra il 1250 e il 1450 (Torino, 1973);
M.-Th. Lorcin, Les Campagnes de la rgion lyonnaise aux XIVe et XVe sicles (Lyon, 1974); R.
Pastor Tongeri, Conflictos sociales y estancamiento econmico en la Espaa Medieval
(Barcelona, 1974).
35 Graus, Das Sptmittelalter als Krisenzeit (above, n. 30).
160 chapter 4

the spiritual uniqueness of each institution, as well as regional variations of


the long-term changesis something we are at best able only to postulate, but
will hardly realize. Nevertheless we have a hermeneutical model for individual
investigations, so that it will be possible for us to see both decline and renewal
of the orders no longer as merely a juxtaposition of individual phenomena, but
rather as a broader pattern of historical change. We will be able, as one remotely
placed essay has recently suggested, to place both renewal and the crisis of
religious life at the end of the middle ages in the context of the intellectual,
political and economic changes of era.36

ii

The genesis and course of movements for reform and strict observance, each a
reaction to the symptoms of decline surveyed above, seem essentially well
understood. As the example of the congregation centered on Montoliveto
shows, the Benedictines had planted the seeds of renewal already at the
moments of their deepest decline. By the end of the fourteenth and the begin-
ning of the fifteenth century, many other communities had been established:
in the Empire the reform congregations of Kastl, Melk and Bursfeld; in the
Netherlands, France and Hungary those of St. James in Lttich, Chezal-Benot
and Pannonhalma. Beyond the Alps and the Pyrenees several other commu-
nities had become leading sponsors of monastic renewal: houses reformed
from the communities of Subiaco and Farfa; the congregation centered on
S. Giustina in Padua; the abbeys allied with S. Benito in Valladolid and with
the Catalan community of Montserrat.37 Among the regular canons, north
of the Alps the Bohemian reformers of Raudnitz and soon after the canons of

36 L.A. Gutirrez, Crisis en la vida religiosa a finale de la Edad Media, RevAgustEspiritualidad


15 (1974), 3782.
37 Ph. Schmitz, Geschichte des Benediktinerordens 3 (Einsiedeln-Zurich, 1954); G. Penco,
Storia del monachesimo in Italia dalle origini alla fine del Medio Evo (Rome, 1961); D.M.
Lunn, Benedictine Reform Movements in the Later Middle Ages, DownsideRev 91 (1973),
275289; P. Becker, Benediktinische Reformbewegungen im Sptmittelalter. Anstze,
Entwicklungen, Auswirkungen, in Untersuchungen zu Kloster und Stift, ed. J. Fleckenstein
(Gttingen, 1980), 167187. On the Olivetans especially: P. Lugano, Inizi e primi sviluppi
dellinstituzione di Monte Oliveto (13131348), BenedMschr 1 (1947), 4381; M.P. Dickson,
La congrgation bndictine de Mont-Olivet au premier sicle de sa fondation e sa place
dans lhistoire de lordre (Monte Oliveto Maggiore, 1976); P. Lugano, I monaci olivetani a S.
Giustina di Padova nel 1408 e le origini della congregazione benedettina De unitate,
RivStorBened 4 (1909), 560570.
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 161

Windesheim became a dominant force.38 To the south the Lateran congrega-


tion that emerged from S. Maria di Fregionaia competed with those from
S. Giorgio in Alga, S. Maria di Reno and S. Salvatore in Bologna.39 The picture is
not as clear, or at least more difficult to survey, for the Cistercians40 and
Premonstratensians41 as well as for the lesser-known branches of the ordo
canonicus and ordo monasticus, for the Camaldolese and the Williamites,42

38 The reform of the regular canons in the later Middle Ages has not yet received synthetic
treatment. Provisionally one may consult: H. Vissers, Vie canoniale (Bruges, 1953); E. van
Ette, Les chanoines rguliers de Saint-Augustin. Aperu historique (Cholet, 1953); C. Giroud,
LOrdre des chanoines rguliers de Saint Augustin et ses diverses formes de rgime interne.
Essai de synthse historicojuridique (Martigny, 1961); Ignaz Zibermayer, Zur Geschichte
der Raudnitzer Reform, Mitteilungen des Instituts fr sterreichische Geschichtsforschung.
11. Ergnzungsband (1929), 323353; C.D. Fonseca, Roudnice e Mortara, ArchStorLomb 90
(1963), 273286; A. Angerpointer, Das Kloster Indersdorf und die Raudnitzer Reform im
15. Jahrhundert, Amperland 5 (1969), 1116; J.N.A. Zeschick, Das Augustinerchorherrenstift
Rohr und die Reformen in bairischen Stiften vom 15. bis 17. Jahrhundert (1969); N. Backmund,
Die Stifte der Chorherren in Bayern (1972); F. Machilek, Reformorden und Ordensreform in
den bmischen Lndern vom 10. bis 18. Jahrhundert (1974); J.C.R. Acquoy, Het klooster te
Windesheim en zijn invloed 12. Utrecht 18751880 (1976). A survey of current literature is
available in W. Kohl, E. Persoons, and A.G. Weiler, Monasticon Windeshemense (Brussels,
1976).
39 A.C. Trombelli, Memorie storiche concernenti le due canoniche di S. Maria in Reno e di S.
Salvatore (Bologna, 1752); N. Widloecher, La Congregazione dei Canonici Regolari
Lateranensi. Periodo di formazione (14021483) (Bologna, 1929); J.C. Lpez Giminez, San
Jorge in AlgaSan Juan Evangelista. Orden de canonigos Veneto-Portugesa,
RevUnivCathSPaulo 7 (1955), 315; G. Gracco, La fondazione dei canonici secolari di S.
Girgio in Alga, RivStorChiesaItal 13 (1959), 7081; S. Tramontin, S. Lorenzo Giustiniani
nella penisola iberica: i canonici portoghesi di S. Giovanni Evangelista e le suore giustini-
anee spagnole, in Saggi Laurentiani (Venice, 1963),7799; G. Musolino, I canonici regolari
de S. Lorenzo Giustiniani in Sicilia, in idem., 101118.
40 See, among others, U. Berlire, Benedictiner- und Cistercienser-Reformen in Belgien vor
dem Trienter Concil, StudMittBenedCist 8 (1882), 317327; 532540; A. Nyssen, ber
einige Cistercienserklster in den Niederlanden vor der Reform, CisterChron (1914), 147
157; I. Eichler, Die Kongregationen des Zisterzienserordens. Ursprung der Zister
zienserkongregation und ihr Verhltnis zur Verfassung und zum Generalkapitel des
Ordens, StudMittBenedCist 49 (1931), 5591; 188227; 308340; L.J. Lekai, The Cistercians.
Ideals and Reality (Kent, 1978); K. Elm, Westflisches Zisterziensertum und sptmittelal-
terliche Reformbewegung, Westflische Zeitschrift 128 (1978), 932.
41 F. Petit, LOrdre de Prmontr (Paris, 1927); B. Grassl, Der Praemonstratenserorden, seine
Geschichte und seine Ausbreitung bis zur Gegenwart, AnalPraem 10 (1934).
42 D.A. Pagni, Storia dei Benedittini Camaldolesi (1949); K. Elm, Beitrge zur Geschichte des
Wilhelmitenordens (1964).
162 chapter 4

and for the once famous congregations of Arrouaise, St. Rufus and St. Victor.43
Also poorly understood is the place of the Hospitalers and the Teutonic Order
in the reform movements of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This is not
least because their histories unfolded in different chronological rhythms, and
because reform, in their case, must be understood more as a search for new
challenges rather than a return to origins.44 In the case of the mendicant
orders there seems to be greater clarity. For years the Franciscan Observant
movement centered on the Umbrian hermitage of Brogliano has remained a
focal point for research. After early reversals of fortune in the first half of
the fourteenth century, the effort spread through the motherland of the
order under the leadership of Paoluccio dei Trinci. In the first decades of
the fifteenth century it was then able to find a foothold beyond Italy, and

43 F. Gosse, Histoire de labbaye et de lancienne congrgation dArrouaise (Lille, 1786); J.


Becquet, Abbayes et prieurs xiv: Diocse dArras, RevMabillon 245 (1971); F. Bonnard,
Histoire de labbaye royale et de lordre des chanoines reguliers de Saint-Victor de Paris
(Paris, 1907); P. Coenegracht, Ontstaan van de Brabantse Witte Vrouwen en hun Overgang
naar de Orden van St. Victor, OnsGeestErf 34 (1960), 5290; ibid., De Kloosterwetgeving
van de Victorinen, OnsGeestErf 37 (1963), 291328.
44 A first attempt at an overview: F. Hammerschmidt, Die Blte und Verfall der mittelalterli-
chen Ritterorden, Stimmen der Zeit 136 (1939), 291328. Particular studies of decline and
reform in the military orders, among others: B. Waldstein-Wartenberg, Rechtsgeschichte
des Malteserordens, (1969), 91130; W.G. Rdel, Das Gropriorat Deutschland des
Johanniter-Ordens im bergang vom Mittelalter zur Reformation, 2nd ed. (1972); W. Engel,
Die Krise der Ballei Franken des Johanniterordens zur Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts,
ZBayerLdG 18 (1955), 279290; A.T. Lutrell, Juan Fernndez de Heredia, Castellan of
Amposta, Master of the Knights of St. John at Rhodes (13771396) (Diss. Oxford University,
1959); ibid., Intrigue, Schism and Violence among the Hospitallers of Rhodes 13771384,
Speculum 41 (1966), 3048; C.L. Tipton, The 1330 General Chapter of the Knights
Hospitallers at Montpellier, Traditio 24 (1968), 293308; J. Glenisson, Lenqute pontifi-
cale de 1373 sur les possessions des Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jrusalem, BiblEcoleChart
129 (1971), 83111; B. Waldstein-Wartenberg, Die drei groen historischen Krisen und ihre
berwindung, AnnOSMMalte 34 (1976), 6168. Of the rich literature on the history of the
Teutonic Order should be mentioned R. ten Haaf, Deutschordensstaat und
Deutschordensballeien. Untersuchungen ber Leistung und Sonderung der
Deutschordensprovinzen in Deutschland vom 13. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert (1954); H.
Gersdorff, Der Deutsche Orden im Zeitalter der polnisch-litauischen Union (1957); W. Nbel,
Michael Kchmeister. Hochmeister des Deutschen Ordens 1414 bis 1422, (1969). As an
overview: E. Maschke, Die inneren Wandlungen des Deutschen Ritterordens, in Domus
Hospitalis Theutonicorum. Europische Verbindungslinien der Deutschordensgeschichte.
Gesammelte Aufstze aus den Jahren 193163 (1970), 3559. An example for the Hospitalers:
A. Mischlewski, Grundzge der Geschichte des Antoniterordens bis zum Ausgang des 15.
Jahrhunderts (1976).
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 163

found its greatest representatives and champions in the figures of Bernardino


of Siena, Albert of Sarteano and James of the Marches.45 Of equal significance
was the Dominican Observant movement, an effort made famous on both
sides of the Alps by the efforts of Raymond of Capua, John Dominici and
Bartholomew of Siena.46 Thanks to research on Luther the genesis and impact
of the reform efforts among the Augustinian Hermits are especially familiar,
at least with respect to the reform congregation of Saxony-Thuringia.47
Among the Carmelites the notable figure Battista Spagnoli, the Christian
Virgil, has directed attention to the congregation of Mantua, which he led for
a time as vicar-general.48
Closer consideration makes clear that these histories, though well known in
many scholarly circles, are themselves only fragments in a wider terra incog-
nita that has only in recent decades begun to be explored and developed in
earnest. So for example the reform efforts of the congregations of Neuss and
Sion, later in part taken over by the Windesheim congregation49 along with the

45 Along with H. Holzapfel, Handbuch des Franziskanerordens (1909) and John R.H.
Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford, 1968)
see for the early history of the Franciscan Observants and their ancestors: L Brengio,
Losservanza francescana in Italie nel secolo xiv (Rome, 1956); Nimmo, The Franciscan
Regular Observance 13861447 and the Division of the Order 12941524 (Diss. Edinburgh
University, 1974); M. Sensi, Brogliano e lopera di fra Paoluccio Trinci, Picenum Seraphicum
12 (1976), 762; J. Milano, San Bernardino da Siena e lOsservanza Minoritica (Milan, 1945);
B. Neri, La via e i tempi di Alberto da Saretano (Quaracchi, 1902); R. Pratesi, Nuovi docu-
menti sul B. Alberto da Saretano (1450), afh (1960), 78110; U. Picciafuoco, S. Giacomo
della Marca (13931476): Uomo di cultura, apostolo, operatore sociale, taumaturgo del sec.
xv (Monteprandone, 1976); S. Candela, S. Giacomo della Marca nel v. centenario della
morte (Naples, 19645); J. Hofer, Johannes Kapistran. Ein Leben im Kampf um die Reform
der Kirche (19645).
46 Along with Walz, Compendium Historiae Ordinis Praedicatorum, 2nd ed. (1948) and
William A. Hinnebusch, The History of the Dominican Order 2: Intellectual and Cultural
Life to 1500 (New York, 1966) see, among others, H.-M. Cormier, Le bienheureux Raymond
de Capoue (Rome, 1899); P. Stella, Saggio bio-bibliografico su Giovanni Dominici (1419).
Saggi e inediti, Memoire Dominicane ns 1 (1970), 203235.
47 Th. Kolde, Die deutsche Augustiner-Congregation und Johann von Staupitz (1879); A.
Kunzelmann, Geschichte der deutschen Augustiner-Eremiten 5: Die schsische-thringische
Provinz und die schsische Reformkongregation bis zum Untergang der beiden (1974).
48 L. Saggi, La Congregazione Mantovana dei Carmelitani sino alla morte del B. Battista
Spagnoli (1516) (Rome, 1954).
49 The history of the Congregation of Neuss has not yet been researched. On Sion, see E.
Ypma, Het Generaal Kapitel van Sion. Zijn oorsprong, ontwikkeling en inrichting (Nijmegen-
Utrecht, 1949).
164 chapter 4

reform efforts they inspired (together with the Fraterherren) among the
Cistercians, the Croziers, Canons of the Holy Sepulcher,50 and indeed among
the Franciscans and Dominicansall have received relatively little attention.
Meanwhile in Italy the declining fortunes of the reforms of ss. Annunziata di
Sturla in Genoa, of S. Pietro in Ciel dOro and S. Maria di Reno fell behind the
reform centers of S. Giustina, S. Girogio in Alga and S. Maria di Fregionaia. And
even this is to note only a few representative examples of reform movements
among monks and canons that are everywhere visible at the end of the four-
teenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century.51 Greater still was the
breadth and intensity of the Observant movement among the mendicant
orders. The Saxon reform congregation was only one among more than ten
Augustinian Observant groups who grew from Italy to have an impact across
all of Europe.52 Among the Franciscans and Dominicans, as has become quite
clear in recent years, the intensity of the reforming efforts of the French,
Spanish, Portuguese, German and Polish provinces and congregations in no
way took second place behind those of the Italian houses.53 In the case of the

50 See along with n. 40 above, among others: K. Elm, Die mnsterlndischen Klster Gro-
Burlo und Klein-Burlo. Ihre Entstehung, Observanz und Stellung in der nordwesteu-
ropischen Reformbewegung des 15. Jahrhunderts, WestForsch 8 (1965), 2342; ibid.,
Entstehung und Reform des belgisch-niederlndischen Kreuzherrenordens, zkg 82
(1971), 292313; M. Hereswitha, De Priorij van de Reguliere Kanunniken van het Heilig
Graf te Sint-Odilienberg 14671639, Augustiniana 22 (1972), 398466; ibid. Het eerste
vrouwenklooster van de Heilig-Grafordre in de Nederlanden, Taxandria 4446 (197274),
129141; K. Elm, Quellen zur Geschichte des Ordens vom Hlg. Grab in Nordwesteuropa aus
deutschen und niederlndischen Archiven 11911603 (Brussells, 1976).
51 Cf. notes 3839.
52 An overview: K. Walsh, The Observant Congregations of the Augustinian Friars in Italy c.
1385c. 1465 (Diss. Oxford University, 1972). See also B.A.L. van Luijk, Lordine Agostiniano
e la riforma monastica dal cinquecento alla vigilia della rivoluzione Francese. Un sommario
cronologico-storico (Hverl-Louvain, 1973); R. Gavotto, The General and the Congre
gations in the Order of St. Augustine, AnalAugust 35 (1972), 303372.
53 G.M. Lhr, Die Teutonia im 15. Jahrhundert. Studien und Texte vornehmlich zur Geschichte
ihrer Reform (1924); A. Barthelm, La rforme dominicaine au XVe sicle en Alsace et dans
lensemble de la province de Teutonie (Strasbourg, 1931); A. de Meijer, La Congrgation de
Hollande ou la rforme dominicaine en territoire Bourguignon 14651515 (Lige, 1946);
Beltrn de Heredia, Historia de la reforma de la provincia de Espaa (14501550) (Rome,
1939); Beltrn de Heredia, Los comienzos de la reforma dominicana en Castilla, particu-
larmente en el Convento de San Estaban de Salamanca y su irradiacin a la provincia de
Portugal, afp 28 (1958), 221262; Isidoro Villapadierna, Il ritorno allideale primitivo
nelle riforme francescane di Spagna nei sec. xivxv, Picenum Seraphicum 12 (1975),
273289; St Krasi, Congregatio Ragusina Ord. Praed. (14811550) (Rome, 1973); A.DAmato,
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 165

Carmelites the congregation of Mantua must be considered, along with both


the older congregations of S. Maria delle Selve and Girond im Wallis, the more
recent congregations of Albi and Monte Oliveto, as well as the reform intro-
duced by Prior General Nicholas Audet.54 Among the Servites in Florence
there were, one can assume, at least five centers of reform.55 This overall
impression of diversity is strengthened still more given all of the reforming

Sullintroduzione della riforma domenicana nel Napoletano per opera della con-
gregazione Lombarda (14891501), afp 26 (1956), 249275; J. Koczowski, Reforma pol-
skiej prowincji dominikaskiej w xvxvi w, RocznikiHumanistyczne 4 (1957), 277286;
V.J. Koudelka, Heinrich von Bitterfeld (1405), AFP 23 (1953), 185; ibid., Raymond von
Capua und Bhmen, afp 30 (1960), 206226; F. Doelle, Die Observanzbewegung in der
schsichen Franziskanerprovinz (Mittel- und Ostdeutschland) bis zum Generalkapitel von
Parma 1529 (1928); ibid., Die Martinianische Reformbewegung in der schischen
Franziskanerprovinz (Mittel- und Nordostdeutschland) im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert,
(1921); F. Van den Borne, De observantiebeweging en het onstaan der provincie Germania
inferior, CollFranciscNeerlandica 2 (1931), 137152; L. Teichmann, Schlesiens Observan
tenklster vor der Reformation, ArchSchlesKG 3 (1938); Paul Nyhus, The Franciscans in
South Germany 14001530: Reform and Revolution, Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society 65 (1975), 147; ibid., The Observant Reform Movement in Southern
Germany, FrancStud 32 (1972), 154162; K. Minarik, Die Provinzvikare der sterreich-
bmisch-plnischen Observantenprovinz von 1451 bis 1567, FrancStud 1 (1914), 328336;
L. Teichmann, Der deutsche Charakter der bmischen Observantenprovinz im
Mittelalter, FranziskStud 34 (1952), 6187; K. Kantak, Die Ostmission der polnischen
Observanten und die litauische Observantenprovinz (14531570), FranziskStud 14 (1927),
135168; V. Giudinas, De vita et apostolatu Fratrum Minorum Observantium in
Litauania saec. xv et xvi, afh 68/69 (1975/76), 298345; 23106; ibid., Les dones histo-
riques sur les bienheureux Bernardins (Observants) polonais du xve sicle, afh 22
(1929), 433461; J. Koczowski, Les ordres mendiants la fin du moyen ge, ActaPolHist
115 (1967), 538; A.G. Little, Introduction of the Observant Friars into England,
ProcBritAcad 10 (1923), 455471; F.X. Martin, The Irish Friars and the Observant Movement
in the Fifteenth Century, ProcIrishCathHistComm (1961), 1016; P. Gratien de Paris, La
fondation des Clarisses de lAve Maria et ltablissement des Frres Mineurs de
lObservance Paris, EtFracisc 27 (1912), 605621; idem., Les dbuts de la rforme des
Cordreliers en France et Guillaume Josseaume (13901436), EtFracisc (1914), 415439; R.
Pratesi, Lintroduzione della Regolare Osservanza nella Francia meridionale, afh (1957),
178194; P. Pano, Documents sur les Observants de Provence 14351527, afh 63 (1970),
319351; idem., Les chroniques et les dbuts de la rforme des Recollets dans la province
de Provence, afh 65 (1972), 157224.
54 B. Zimmerman, Les rformes dans lOrdre de N.D. du Mont Carmel, EtCarmel 19 (1934),
155195; L. Van Wijmen, La Congrgation dAlbi 14991602 (Rome, 1971).
55 A.M. Rossi, Manuale di storia dellordine dei Servi di Maria (mccxxxiiimcmliv) (Rome,
1956); D.M. Montagna, I conventi di Brescia, Vicenza e Cremona e il decennio decisivo per la
fondazione dellOsservanza dei Servi (14301440) (Vicenza, 1963).
166 chapter 4

efforts in smaller orders such as the Williamites, the Croziers and Canons of
the Holy Sepulcher.56
Even these many considerations, however, fail to capture the full extent of
the changes and renewals that unfolded in the fourteenth and fifteenth centu-
ries. To allow the rubrics of reform and observance to encompass only the
spiritual and temporal renewal of older convents and monasteries is to forget
that this age of reform movements was also an epoch of new foundations, a
wave that spread and that shaped religious life in a way not seen since the
expansions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. To note only one example,
in Westphalia the Franciscan Observants founded, alongside the friaries of
Soest, Dortmund, Hxter, Osnabrck, Mnster and Paderborn (founded
already in the thirteenth century) the new communities of Lemgo, Siegen,
Korback, Dorsten and Bielefeld.57 A similar dynamic is visible among the
Franciscans in southern Germany, in the Netherlands, in Bohemia, Poland and
Lithuania, in Hungary and in the Balkans, as well as in many other ordersthe
Dominicans, the Augustinian Hermits and Carmelites. Various soundings sug-
gest that the number of convents increased by at least a quarter if not a third
a number that is in fact probably higher given that the number of womens
communities in these orders either sharply increased, or were first established
(as in the case of the Carmelites).58 At least as notable as these patterns of
expansion is this: though a number of orders already established in the thir-
teenth century enjoyed only a modest growth thereafter, in the fifteenth cen-
tury they enjoyed so many new foundations that one can in fact see them as
products of the later era. Consider for example the Belgian and Dutch order of
the Croziers. Though founded in the diocese of Lttich, in southern France and
England, the order only established the greater part of its foundations in the
fifteenth century, and thereby came to be seen as a proper order in the eyes of
the faithful.59 In Westphalia, where deep into the fifteenth century the Croziers
were almost unknown, the order was able within a few decades not only to

56 Along with n. 50 see P. Van den Bosch, Studin over de observantie der Kruisbroeders in de
vijftiende eeuw (Diest, 1968).
57 P. Schlager, Beitrge zur Geschichte der klnischen Franziskanerprovinz im Mittelalter
(1904); K. Eubel, Geschichte der klnischen Minoriten-Ordinsprovinz (1906); L. Schmitz-
Kallenberg, Monasticon Westfaliae (1909); A. Schrer, Die Kirche in Westfalen vor der
Reformation, (1967), 188210.
58 Cl. Catena, Le Carmelitane. Storia e spiritualit (Rome, 1969).
59 E. De Moreau, Lorigine des Croisiers belges, Clair-Lieu 3 (1945), 712; H. Van Rooijen, De
Oorsprong van de Ordre der Kruisbroeders of Kruisheren. De Geschiedbronnen (Diest, 1961);
idem., Les origines des Croisiers, BullSocArtHistLige 42 (1961), 87113. J.M. Hayden, The
Crosiers in England and France, Clair-lieu 22 (1964), 91109.
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 167

take over three derelict settlements of older orders but also to establish an
equal number of new foundations.60 Similarly for the Hospitalers of St. Agnes,
the brothers De poenitentia Martyrium and the Canons of the Holy Sepulcher
all orders of Croziers who were marked, respectively, with the red star, the red
heart and the red double cross. After a century of stagnation, indeed of bare
survival, these orders came first to a dramatic expansion in Bohemia, Silesia,
Poland and Hungary in the fourteenth century.61 The Pauline order, estab-
lished in Hungary at the end of the thirteenth century through the unification
of what had been independent eremitical congregations, flowered first in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Its success was such in fact that it could
establish numerous communities not only in neighboring Poland but also in
Germany, in the dioceses of Constance, Speyer, Basel and Strasbourg.62 As a
further example for the late flowering of older orders, one could mention
Italys Apostolic Brethren and the Alexians of north-west Europeboth of
which had their origins in the poverty movement of the high middle ages, but
which found their true institutionalization and expansion only in the wake of
the Observant movement.63 Above all, however, the Carthusian order offers
perhaps the most well known and most impressive example of this kind of late

60 H.U. Weiss, Die Kreuzherren in Westfalen (Diest, 1963).


61 K.J. von Bienenberg, Analekten zur Geschichte des Militrkreuzherrenordens mit dem Roten
Stern (Prague-Vienna, 1787); Fr. Jacksch, Geschichte des ritterlichen Ordens der Kreuzherren
mit dem Roten Stern (Prague, 1909); Djiny eskych Kiovinik s ervenou hvzdou, 2 vols.
(Prague, 1930); W. Lorenz, Die Kreuzherren mit dem Roten Stern (1964). On the history of
the Crosiers of the Red Heart, about which the author will write more extensively else-
where, there is at present only the history of J.C. Rohn, Historia Sacri Canonici Ordinis
Crucigerorum cum Rubeo Cordre (1768). On the Jerusalem Crosiers, see along with the
literature of n. 50: M. Hereswitha, Uit de geschiedenis der Helig-Grafordre in Belgie en
aangrezende gewesten, Augustiniana 22 (1972), 398466; K. Elm, St. Pelagius in
Denkendorf. Die lteste deutsche Propstei des Kapitels vom Hlg. Grab in Geschichte und
Geschichtschreibung, in Landesgeschichte und Geistesgeschichte. Otto Herding zum 65.
Geburtstag (1977), 80130.
62 Recent surveys: A. Gyenis, A plosrend multjybl (Kalosca, 1936); E. Kisbn, A magyar
Plosrend trtnte (Budapest, 1938); St Nowak, I monaci di San Paolo primo eremita, in
Ordini e congregazioni religiose a cura di Mario Escobar (Turin, 1931), 427432; J. Fijalek,
Zibr dokumentw Zakonu OO. Pulinw w Polsce 1.: 13281464 (Krakw, 1938); A. Maurer,
Die Paulinerklster der Dizese Konstanz, Konradsblatt 24 (1966), 1011; K. Elm, Quellen
zur Geschichte des Paulinerordens aus Kloster Grnwald im Hochschwarzwald in der
Stiftsbibliothek von St. Paul in Lavanttal, ZGORh 120 (1972), 91124.
63 On the Societas fratrum apostolorum pauperis vitae (not that of the apostolic brethren of
Fra Dolcino, joined to the Ambrosians in 1589) see R. Sassi, Per la storia di un ordine
religioso scomparso. Gli Apostoletti a Fabriano, Studia Picena 13 (1938), 139154. For a
168 chapter 4

growth. By 1300 the way of life founded in 1084 by Bruno of Cologne in the
Grand Chartreuse had established itself in only 71 Charterhouses, largely in an
area limited to its homeland in Burgundy and its immediate environs. In the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, after a century of stagnation, the number
climbed to no fewer than 221 new foundations, in effect first establishing the
presence of the order in the Netherlands, in England and Germany.64 As fur-
ther proof of the strength of the expansion of the orders that took place in the
course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, mention should be made of
those orders that were first founded in the era, and that until now have only in
part been the subject of scholarly research: in Italy the brotherhood of the
Jesuati,65 founded in Siena around 1360 by Giovanni Columbini; the order of
the Ambrosians,66 established in a Milanese community in the second half
ofthe fourteenth century, and from 1375 governed by the Rule of St. Augustine;
the Minims established in 1454 in Calabria, most often designated (after
founder Franz of Paola) as Paulines, but in fact an independent order;67 and
finally the Jeronimites,68 whose tradition reached back to Thomas Succio of
Siena, and who after their confirmation in 1373 soon established themselves as
an order in Spain and Italyand whose influence remained, like the Poor
Hermits of St. Jerome,69 founded in 1435 by Pietro Gambacorti, limited to the
Mediterranean region. In northern Europe, the Order of the Holy Savior or of

history of the Alexians see Chr. J. Kauffman, Tamers of Death I. The History of the Alexian
Brothers from 1300 to 1789 (New York, 1976).
64 F.-A. Lefbre, Saint Bruno et lOrdre des Chartreux, 2 vols. (Paris, 1883); B. Bligny, LEglise et
les ordres religieux dans le royaume de Bourgogne aux XIe et XIIe sicles (Paris, 1960); idem.,
Les fondations cartusiennes dItalie, in Monasteri in alta Italia dopo le invasioni saracene
e magiare: Sec. xxii (Turin, 1966), 3551; Maisons de lOrdre des Chartreux. Vues et notices
14 (Montreuil-Tournai-Parkminster, 191319). Most recent maps and lists of houses
available in Atlas zur Kirchengeschichte and Dizionario degli instituti di perfezione.
65 Cl. Gennaro, Giovanni Colombini e la sua brigata, BollInstitStorItalMedEv 81 (1966),
237271; M. Tangheroni, La spiritualit del B. Giovanni Colombini, RivAscMist 25 (1974),
291320; G. Dufner, Geschichte der Jesuaten (Rome, 1975).
66 M. Cremosano, Memorie storiche milanese, ArchStorLomb 7 (1880), 277300. G. Turazza,
SantAmbrogio ad nemus in Milano. Chiesa e monastero dal 367 al 1895 (Milan, 1960).
67 C.B. Roberti, Disegno storico dellordine dei Minimi 13 (Rome, 19021922); A. Galuzzi,
Origini dellOrdine dei Minimi (Rome, 1967). Ongoing bibliography in: Bollettino Ufficiale
dellOrdine dei Minimi (Rome, 1955ff).
68 J. de Sigenza, Historia de la Orden de S. Jernimo, 2nd ed. (19071909); E. Tomo, Los
Gernimos (Madrid, 1919). Numerous contributions also in the journal Yermo 1ff. (1963ff).
69 G. Barbaro, Compendio della vita del G. Pietro da Pisa (Vicenza, 1929); P. Ferrara, Luci ed
ombre nella christianti del secolo xiv. Il b. Pietro Gambatorta de Pisa e la sua con-
gregazione (Rome, 1964).
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 169

St. Birgitta established in Vadstena in 1370, established itself in Scandinavia


but saw its influence limited almost exclusively in the Netherlands and the
Baltic.70 Meanwhile the Brothers of the Common Life made their way from the
northwest to northern Germany and the Baltic coast, and shaped the religious
life of later-medieval northern Europe like no other new foundation.71
For all of the successful expansion of the orders in the thirteenth and early
fourteenth centuries, there is regrettably no reliable survey of the actual num-
ber of new foundations or of the increase in the European religious popula-
tion. The same is all the more true for the wave of expansion surveyed here,
which was rivaled only by the comparable expansions of the Counter-
Reformation and in the great renewal of the religious orders in the nineteenth
century. Only a full survey, along with its appropriate mapping geographically,
would provide the foundations needed for a proper synthesis. It would reveal
more clearly not only the notable chronological correspondence between the
emergence of reform efforts in Italy, Bohemia and the Netherlands in the mid-
dle and the second half of the fourteenth centuryalready at the time, that is,
of the greatest declineand the general movement that spread to all of
Europe from the beginning of the fifteenth century. It would also make clear,
quite concretely, the centers of gravity and vectors of this movement, as well as
a geography of all of the regions it first claimed for religious life. Admittedly all
of this would of course only place on a new footing the basis from which new
scholarship could investigate leading figures of reform, the religious and polit-
ical motives of its protagonists and supporters as well as its social and economic
contexts. Only then will new scholarship begin to tackle questions that in
the case of early and high-medieval monastic and canonical reform have
been pursued continually for years, and that have long produced important
scholarly results.
Even a preliminary survey reveals, however, that to see the reform of the orders
as somehow overwhelmingly a matter of self-reform, or as advanced through

70 T. Nyberg, Birgittinische Klostergrndungen des Mittelalters (Leiden, 1965); T. Harjunp,


Birgittinera i England intill 1539, TeolTidskrift 73 (1968), 369383. H. Cnattingius,
Brigittinerorden i Polen, KunglVetenskapUppsalaAarsb 1516 (197172), 2183; T.
Lindgren, Birgittinordens utbredning, Credo 54 (1973), 123128; T. Nyberg, Dokumente
und Untersuchungen zur inneren Geschichte der drei Birgittenklster Bayerns 14201570
(197274).
71 C. van der Wansem, Het ontstaan en de geschiedenis der Broederschap van het Gemene
Leven tot 1400 (Leuven, 1958); N.M. Landeen, The Beginnings of the Devotio Moderna in
Germany (19511954); R.R. Post, The Modern Devotion. Confrontation with Reformation and
Humanism (Leiden, 1968); W. Leesch, E. Persoons, and A.G. Weiler, Monasticon Fratrum
Vitae Communis i (Brussells, 1977) and ii (1979).
170 chapter 4

enclaves within the orders, only partially captures the historical reality.72 Far
more often the strongest stimulus for reform came from heterogeneous circles
of figures beyond the ranks of the orderscircles of laity and clergy, women
and men, secular and spiritual lords, royal and princely counselors, city coun-
cils, and not least from the ranks of an increasing number of late-medieval
universities. They directed their efforts not toward a single order or even particu-
lar religious institutions, but toward the renewal of the entire church or the
improvement of its affairs generally. What is here formulated in the abstract is
especially well illustrated for Italy, through the examples of the Venetian
reform circles of Ludovico Barbo, Lorenzo Giustiniani, Bartholomew of Rome
and John Dominici, as well as the bella brigata of Catherine of Siena, which
had earlier worked for the unity and renewal of the church. These reform
movements, rooted in the leading circles of Venice, inspired by older examples
of a perfect vita monastica and vita canonica, led not only to the formation of
the two well-known and more widely influential reform congregations of S.
Giorgio and S. Giustina. They also influenced and animated the renewal of
mendicant houses, and to no small degree they shaped, through their influ-
ence on popes and bishops, the reform politics of curia and church.73 Still
more impressive is the diversity and breadth of the initiative with which
theDominican Tertiary Catherine of Siena influenced the intellectual life and
the self-consciousness of almost every order, and through which she influ-
enced every estate of the church.74 A similarly diverse constellation, one with

72 H. Jedin, Geschichte des Konzils von Trient 1: Der Kampf um das Konzil (1949), 111.
73 Cf. along with n. 82 B. Trifone, Ludovico Barbo e i primordi della congregazione benedet-
tina di Santa Giustina, RivStorBened 5/6 (1910/11), 269280; 364394; I. Tassi, Ludovico
Barbo (13811443) (Rome, 1952); L. Pesce, Ludovico Barbo vescovo di Treviso (14371443);
Cura Pastorale, riforma della Chiesa, spiritualit (Rome, 1969); F.G.B. Trolese, Ludovico
Barbo (13811443) e la congregazione monastica riformata di S. Giustina. Un settantennio di
studi (Padua, 1976); P. Sambin, Labbate Giovanni Michiel e la riforma di S. Giorgio di Venezia
(Padua, 1970); S. Lpez, Notitiae circa observantiam in genere contentae in regestis
Ordinis, AnalAugust 19 (1943/44), 169179; G. Cracco, Riforma e decadenza a S. Agostino
da Vicenza, RivStorChiesaItal 14 (1960), 203234; P. Da Prati, Giovanni Dominici e
lumanesimo (Naples, 1967); R. Creytens, Un Consilium de Franois Zabarella et de
Jacques de Pidmont relatif aux observances dominicaines, afp 22 (1952), 346380;
idem., Lobligation des constitutions dominicaines daprs le B. Jean Dominici O.P., afp
23 (1953), 195235; L. Gargan, Lo studio teologico e la biblioteca dei Dominicani a Padova nei
Tre- e Quattrocento (Padua, 1971).
74 A. Giron, Santa Caterina da Siena. Dottrini e Fonti (Brescia, 1953); P. Lugano, Santa
Caterina e i monaci Olivetani, RivsStorBened 7 (1912), 168172; B. Dedel, Dominicani e
Vallombrosani. Giovanni delle Celle e Caterina da Siena, MemDom 49 (1932), 2946; E.
Lucchesi, Santa Caterina e i monaci di Vallombrosa (Florence, 1948); B. Borghini, Caterina
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 171

no less widespread an influence, is discernible beyond the Alps. From the


middle of the fourteenth century Bohemian and Dutch centers of reform also
provided important initiatives for the renewal of not a single order, but of reli-
gious communities of almost every kind.75 One comes to such a conclusion not
only by considering the primary centers of reform, but also by considering
reform circles less well known to history: that of S. Salvatore in Lecceto in
Siena, for example; S. Maria of Monte Senario, the Paradiso degli Alberti in
Florence; S. Giovanni della Carbonaria in Naples as well as in the capital city of
Christendom itself, whose function as a center of reform has until now hardly
been noticed, to say nothing of becoming the subject of scholarly analysis.76
Investigation of these individual reform circles shows that they were intercon-
nected through many personal networks, as has been emphasized in the case
of Subiaco, S. Giustina, Kastl, Melk, Bursfeld and for the Bohemian as well as
the Dutch centers of reform.77 Even where one might not expect it, in the

scrive ai monaci, RassAscMist 21 (1970), 401416; I. Taurisano, S. Francesco e i Francescani


nella vita di S. Caterina da Siena, Antonianum 2 (1927), 91134. A.C. de Romanis, Santa
Caterina da Siena e gli Eremitani di SantAgostino, BollStorAgostiniano 24 (1948), 312,
4855; 25 (1949), 1015; 26 (1950), 1719; B. Hackett, Simone Fidati da Cascia and the
Doctrine of St. Catherina of Siena, Augustiniana 19 (1966), 381414; R. Balbo, El monaste-
rio de Santa Maria del Santo Sepulcro en Campora (Florencia) y la fundacin de la Orden de
san Jernimo (Madrid, 1973).
75 In summary: Machilek, Reformorden und Ordensreform in den bmischen Lndern vom 10.
bis 18. Jahrhundert; Post, The Modern Devotion.
76 A. Landucci, Sacra Ilicetana Selva sive origo et chronicon breve coenobii et congregationis de
Iliceto in Hetruria o.e.s.a. in Tuscia (Siena, 1653); F.X. Martin, Giles of Viterbo and the
Monastery of Lecceto. The Making of a Reformer, AnalAugust 25 (1962), 225253; L.
Bertoni, Il declino di unosservanza. S. Martino in Siena della congregazione Leccetana
15221620, AnalAugust 29 (1966), 316339; R. Filangieri di Candida, La chiesa e il monas-
terio di S. Giovanni a Carbonara, ArchStorProvNapoletana ns 9 (1923); S. Lopez, Notizie
sulle origini della congregazione di S. Giovanni a Carbonara dellOrdine degli Eremitani
di S. Agostino, ArchAugust 56 (1963), 327342; D. Gutirrez, La biblioteca di S. Giovani a
Carbonara di Napoli, AnalAugust 29 (1966), 59212; G.G. Meersseman, Gli amici spiritu-
ali di S. Caterina a Roma nel 1378 alla luce del primo manifesto urbanista, BullSenStorPatria
59 (1962), 99ff.; O. Montenovesi, Roma agli inizi del sec. xv (14001408) e il monastero di
S. Maria Nova al Foro, RivsStorBened 17 (1926), 234240; P.T. Lugano, Linstituzione delle
Oblate di Tor de Specchi secondo i documenti, RivStorBened 14 (1923), 272308; A. Esch,
Die Zeugenaussagen im Heiligsprechungsverfahren fr S. Francesca Romana als Quelle
zur Sozialgeschichte Roms im frhen Quattrocento, QForschItalArchBibl 53 (1973), 93
151; S. Sibilia, La Casa di S. Brigida in Piazza Farnese a Roma (Rome, 1960).
77 B. Frank, Subiaco. Ein Reform-Konvent des spten Mittelalters. Zur Verfassung und
Zusammensetzung der Sublacenser Mnchsgemeinschaft in der Zeit von 1362 bis 1514,
QForschItalArchBibl 52 (1972), 526651; T. Leccisotti, La congregazione benedettina di S.
172 chapter 4

smaller orders, even in the mendicant orders, networks of relationships and


personal connections are quite discernible. To investigate these should allow
us to establish prosopographically how, from the end of the fourteenth cen-
tury, on both sides of the Alps and the Pyrenees, tightly bound circles of
reformers became both initiators and cultivators of renewal in the late-
medieval orders.78 Such a project, to which literary history and all of its

Giustina e al riforma della chiesa al sec. xv., ArchDeputazRomStorPatr 57 (1944), 451569;


P. Sambin, Richerche di storia monastica medioevale (1959); W. Witters, La rdaction
primitive des dclarations et constitutions de la congrgation de Sainte Justine de Padoue
(XVe s.), StudMonast 7 (1965), 127146; B. Whrmller, Beitrge zur Geschichte der
Kastler Reform, StudMittGBened 42 (1924), 1040; K. Bosl, Das Nordgaukloster Kastl
(1939); P. Weissenberger, Zur Geschichte des Benediktinerklosters Kastl im 14. und 15.
Jahrhundert, ZBayerKG 19 (1950), 101106; J. Hemmerle, Germania Benedictina 2: Bayern,
(1972); J. Zeller, Beitrge zur Melker Reform im Bistum Augsburg, ArchGHochstiftAugsburg
5 (1916); G. Spahr, Die Reform im Kloster St. Gallen, SchrVGBodensee 75/76 (1957/58); J.
Angerer, Die Bruche der Abtei Tegernsee unter Abt Kaspar Ayndorffer (14261461) (1968); P.
Becker, Das monastische Reformprogramm des Abtes Johannes Rode von St. Matthias in
Trier (Mnster, 1970); H. Herbst, Die Anfnge der Bursfelder Reform, ZNiedSchsKG 36
(1931), 1330; J. Linneborn, Die Bursfelder Kongregation whrend der ersten hundert
Jahre ihres Bestehens, DtGBll 14 (1912), 930, 3353; P. Volk, Die Generalkapitel der
Bursfelder Benediktiner-Kongregation, BeitrGAltMnchBened 14 (1928); idem., Die
Generalkapitels-Rezesse der Bursfelder Kongregation 14 (195772).
78 Several works on individual members of this circle have appeared in recent years, among
others: R. Ohlbaum, Johann Rode aus Hamburg. Vom deutschem Geistesleben in Bhmen
um 1400 (Prague, 1943); J. Meyer, Johannes Busch und die Klosterreform im 15.
Jahrhundert, JbGesNdschsKG 47 (1949), 4353; H. Lippens, Jean Glapion, dfenseur de
la rforme de lobservance, conseiller de lempereur Charles Quint, afh 44 (1951), 370; A.
Stoelen, Recherches rcentes sur Denys le Chartreus, RevAscMyst 29 (1953), 250258; P.
Wilpert, Bernhard von Waging, Reformer vor der Reformation, in Festgabe fr Kronprinz
Ruprecht von Bayern (1953), 260276; J. Hemmerle, Nikolaus von Laun. Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte der Prager Universitt und des Augustinerordens in Bhmen,
StudGKarlsUnivPrag (1954), 80129; F. Wintermayr, Andreas Plank, ein sterreichischer
Kanzler, JbLdKdeNdster 31 (1954), 84ff.; J. Klapper, Der Erfurter Kartuser Johannes
Hagen. Ein Reformtheologe des 15. Jahrhunderts (196061); F.X. Thoma, Petrus von
Rosenheim, o.s.b. (1380c. 1433): Eine Zusamenfassung der bisherigen Ergebnisse, Das
Bayerische Oberland 32 (1962); J. Klapper, Johann von Neumarkt, Bischof und Hofkanzler.
Religise Frhrenaissance (1964); Alois Madre, Nikolaus von Dinkelsbhl. Leben und
Schriften. Ein Beitrag zur theologischen Literaturgeschichte (Mnster, 1965); I.W. Frank,
Leonhard Huntpichler, O.P. (1478), Theologieprofessor und Ordensreformer in Wien,
afp 36 (1966), 313388; F. Machilek, Ludolf von Sagan und seine Stellung in der
Auseinandersetzung um Konziliarismus und Hussitismus (1967); H. Heimpel, Der
Benediktiner und Kanonist Nikolaus Vener aus Gmnd. Vorbericht zur Geschichte einer
deutschen Juristenfamilie des 14. und 15. Jarhhunderts, ZSRGKan 53 (1967), 4676;
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 173

research on reception could make an important contribution,79 would estab-


lish without doubt the spiritual currents, the religious energy, and the intel-
lectual interests, the political and economic motives that predominated in the
aforementioned reforms. Together these no longer allow us to view reform as
an event merely internal to the orders themselves, or as an affair that was lim-
ited to individual orders. Rather, we are now compelled to place reform in
much larger contexts. In Italy, for example, though not only for this mother-
land of the Observant movement, there is an unmistakably close connection
between renewed observance and the still vibrant influence of original
Franciscanism (or more precisely, the influence of the Joachite Spiritual tradi-
tion and of the Fraticelli outlawed in the wake of the poverty controversies)
even if the Observants themselves were more likely to deny and to fight rather
than to embrace gratefully what was sometimes a directly traceable lineage of
radical Franciscanism.80 Both north and south of the Alps there was also a
tight bond between a reform of the orders that looked back to the origins of

H. Rthing, Der Kartuser Heinrich Egher von Kalkar 13291408 (1967); J. Sudbrack, Die
geistliche Theologie des Johannes von Kastl. Studien zur Frmmigkeitsgeschichte des
Sptmittelalters, 2 vols. (196779); R.E. Weltsch, Archbishop John of Jenstein (13481400);
Papalism, Humanism and Reform in Pre-Hussite Prague (Paris, 1968); L.B. Pascoe, Jean
Gerson, Mysticism, Conciliarism and Reform, AnnHistConc 6 (1974), 135153; E. Spielvogel,
Georg Falder-Pistoris. Reformator sterreichischer und sddeutscher Dominikanerklster
des 15. Jahrhunderts, mig 83 (1975), 325351.
79 See for example W. Schmidt, Die vierundzwanzig Alten Ottos von Passau (Palaestra 218)
(1938); U. Montag, Das Werk der heiligen Birgitta von Schweden in oberdeutscher
berlieferung (1968); R. Goy, Die berlieferung der Werke Hugos von St. Viktor. Ein Beitrag
zur Kommunikationsgeschichte des Mittelalters (1976); D. Mertens, Jacobus Carthusiensis.
Untersuchungen zur Rezeption der Werke des Kartusers Jakob von Paradies 13811465
(1976).
80 F. Ehrle, Das Verhltnis der Spiritualen zu den Anhngern der Observanz, ArchLitKGMA
4 (1888), 181190; L. Oliger, De Dialogo contra Fraticellos S. Jacobi de Marchia, afh 4
(1911), 8094; idem., De relatione inter observantium querimonias Constantinenses
(1415) et Ubertini Casalensis quoddam scriptum, afh 9 (1916), 341; idem., Acta inquisi-
toris Umbriae Fr. Angeli de Assisio contra stigmata S. Francisci negantem contra
Fraticellos aliosque, afh 24 (1931), 6390; E. Blondeel, Linfluence dUbertin de Casale
sur les crits de Saint Bernardin de Sienne, CollFrancisc 5 (1935), 544; A. Frugoni,
Subiaco Francescana, BullIstStorItalMedioEvo 65 (1953), 107119; A. Saccheti Sassetti,
Giovanni da Capistrano inquisitore a Rieti, afh 49 (1956), 336ff.; E. Dupr Theseider, Sul
dialogo contro i Fraticelli di San Giacomo della Marca (1970); A.M. Ini, Nuovi documenti
sugli Spirituali di Toscana, afh 66 (1973), 331942; M. dAlatri, Fraticellismo e inqui-
sizione nellItalia centrale, Picenm Seraphicum 11 (1974), 289314. See also: Chi erano gli
Spirituali (Atti del iii Convegno Internazionale Assisi 1618 Ottobre 1975).
174 chapter 4

monasticism and the new humanist scholarship, which sought new begin-
nings in a return to ancient education. Humanism also shared, along with the
reform of the orders, a certain ambivalent relationship to the traditional con-
tent and form of teaching in the universities, a relationship that must itself
become the subject of more specialized research.81
To raise questions about those who advanced reform, and about the intel-
lectual currents that began it, fostered it or died with it is also to raise questions
about political and social context. Which spiritual and secular institutions
encouraged the first reformers? Whose power enforced the reformers efforts?
Who supported reforms representatives in the full-blown fifteenth-century
struggle between conventualism and Observantism, between centralization
and particularization? In answering these questions it is possible at least to
mention the initiatives and measures through which popes, papal legates,
bishops and (often with continual interest) the reform councils of the fifteenth
century all influenced the reform of the orders. Clearly these matters open up
a range of unsolved problems, and to make reference to the reform efforts of
individual popes, leading reformers from the college of Cardinals and the epis-
copate82 does as little to solve them as does the citation of so many studies

81 On this set of problems see, among others: H. Maschek, Zur Geschichte des Humanismus
im Franziskanerorden, afh 28 (1935), 575590; A. Porzi, Umanesimo e francescanesimo nel
Quattrocento (Rome, 1975); R. Arbesmann, Der Augustiner-Eremitenorden und der Beginn
der humanistischen Bewegung, Cassiciacum 19 (1965); P.O. Kristeller, The Contribution of
the Religious Orders to Renaissance Thought and Learning, The American Benedictine
Review 21 (1970), 154; V. Fiala, Humanistische Frmmigkeit in der Abtei Neresheim,
StudMittBened 86 (1975), 112; K. Elm, Mendikanten und Humanisten im Florenz des
Tre- und Quattrocento. Zum Problem der Legitimierung humanistischer Studien in den
Bettelorden, in Die Humanisten in ihrer politischen und sozialen Umwelt, ed. R. Stupperich
and O. Herding (Bonn, 1976), 5185. On the relationship between reform of the orders and
the university see also P. Becker, Benediktinische Reformbewegungen, 170ff. and 186ff.
82 J.-B. Mahn, Le pape Benot xii et les Cisterciens (Paris, 1949); J. Lger, Benot xii et la
rforme de lordre bndictin, RevHistEglFr 40 (1954), 187ff.; C. Schmitt, Un pape rforma-
teur et un dfenseur de lunit de lglise. Benot xii et lordre des Frres Mineurs (13341342)
(Quaracchi, 1959); B. Schimmelpfennig, Zisterzienserideal und Kirchenreform. Benedikt
xii. (13341342) als Reformpapst, ZistStud 3 (1976), 143; L. Boehm, Papst Benedikt xii.
(13341342) als Frderer der Ordensstudien. Restaurator-Reformator-oder Deformator
regularer Lebensform? in Secundum regulam vivere. Festschrift fr P. Norbert Backmund
O. Praem. (1978), 281310; P. Partner, The Papal State under Martin V (London, 1958); Ignaz
Zibermayr, Die Legation des Kardinals Nikolaus Cusanus und die Ordensreform in der
Kirchenporvinz Salzburg, RefGeschtStud 29 (1914), 1128; H. Hallauer, Eine Visitation des
Nikolaus von Kues im Benediktinerinnenkloster Sonnenburg, MittCusanusGes 4 (1964),
104125; A. Schrer, Die Legation des Kardinals Nikolaus von Cues in Deutschland und
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 175

concerned with the influence of the orders on the reform councils, or of the
councils on reform of the orders.83 Here, instead, only a few words about the
role of secular powera subject that has hardly been overlooked until now,
but that remains in need of more thorough evaluation. In Venice it was the
Doges, the leading families of the Morosini, Correr, Condulmer, Giustiniani
and Barbo,84 in Florence and Siena communes and leading families, in Milan
the Sforza, in Mantua the Gonzaga, in Naples the Anjou and Caraccioli, in the

ihre Bedeutung fr Westfalen, SchrHistKommWest 4 (1965), 304321; J. Garca Oro,


Cisneros y la reforma del clero espagnol en tiempo de los Reyos Calicos (Madrid, 1971); L.
GlnissonG. Mollat, Gil Albornoz et Androin de la Roche (13531369) (Paris, 1964); C.
Piana, Il cardinale Albornoz e gli ordini religiosi, Studia Albornatiana 11 (1972), 481519;
S. Samaritani, Il cardinale E. Albornoz e labbazia di Pomposa (13531366), Studia
Albornatiana 3, 1924; A. Linage Conde, Snchez Albornoz y el monacato hispano,
StudMonast 15 (1973), 103117; S. von Plnitz, Die bischfliche Reformarbeit im Hochstift
Wrzburg, WrzbDizGBll 8 (1941), 9 (1942); B. Kochan, Kirchliche Reformbestrebungen
der Erzbischfe (Diss. Gttingen, 1965); B. Eichholz, Bemhungen um die Reform des
Speyrer Klerus besonders unter Bischof Ludwig von Helmstedt (Diss. Mnster, 1967); J.
Leinweber, Das Hochstift Fulda vor der Reformation, AbhGAbteiDizFulda 22 (1972); L.
Binz, Vie rligieuse et rforme ecclsiastique dans le diocse de Genve pendant le Grand
Schisme et la crise conciliaire (13781450) (Geneva, 1973); F. Rapp, Rformes et rformation
Strasbourg. Eglise et socit dans le diocse de Strasbourg 14501525 (Paris, 1974); P. Becker,
Dokumente zur Klosterreform des Trierer Erzbischofs Otto von Ziegenhain 14181430,
RevBnd 84 (1974), 126166.
83 Josef Zeller, Das Provinzialkapitel im Stift Petershausen im Jahre 1417. Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte der Reformen im Benediktinerorden zur Zeit des Konstanzer Konzils,
StudMittBened 41 (1921/22), 173; T. Silnicki, Die Idee der Reform polnischer
Benediktinerklster und das Konstanzer Konzil, in La Pologne au VIIe Congrs
International des Sciences Hist (Warsaw, 1933), 374389; J. Leclercq, Cluny et le concile de
Ble, RevHistEglFr 28 (1942), 181195; L. Sptling, Der Anteil der Franziskaner an den
Generalkapiteln des Sptmittelalter, Antonianum 36 (1961), 326328; D. Nimmo, Reform
at the Council of Constance: The Franciscan Case, StudChurchHist 14 (1977), 159173; A.
Zumkeller, Die Beteilung der Augustiner-Eremiten an den Konzilien von Konstanz und
Basel, AnalAugust 28 (1965), 556; idem, Unbekannte Konstanzer Konzilspredigten der
Augustinertheologen Gottfried Schale und Dietrich Vrie, AnalAugust 33 (1970), 574; K.A.
Fink, Zum Streit zwischen Deutschem Orden und Polen auf den Konzilien von Konstanz
und Basel, in Reformata Reformanda. Festgabe fr Hubert Jedin (1965), 7486; W.
Brandmller, Ein Nachspiel zur Auflsung des Konzils von Siena innerhalb des
Augustinerordens, RmQuartSchrChristlAltKde 60 (1965), 186202; K. Forstreuter, Der
Deutsche Orden und die Kirchenunion whrend des Basler Konzils, ArchHistConc 1
(1969), 114130.
84 Along with note 73 see C. Cenci, Senato Veneto, Probae ai benefizi ecclesiastici (Quaracchi,
1968); O. Logan, Studies in the Religious Life of Venice in the Sixteenth and Early
Seventeenth Centuries: The Venetian Clergy and the Religious Orders (Diss. Cambridge
176 chapter 4

papal states the popes and their legates85 who often supported the Observants
through political means, or who intervened on their behalf. In England and
Ireland Edward iv and Henry vi opened the way, in Spain reform found sup-
port in the Reyes Catlicos, especially Juan I of Castile and Len.86 In Bohemia
and other crown lands of the Luxembourg princes a renewal that encompassed
the regions entire landscape of religious orders is quite inexplicable86a with-
out the involvement of Charles iv, and those of the upper nobility and theepis-
copacy who were allied with him. The renewed life of the Croziers in the
Netherlands and Belgium, the flowering of the first and second branches of the
Carmelites, the introduction of the Observants among the Dominicans and
theCanons of the Holy Sepulcher, the establishment of the Birgittine order,
and not least the establishment of the Windesheim congregation and the
Brothers of the Common Life in northwest Europe were supported in no small
measure by the dukes of Burgundy, along with allied territorial princes such as
the Counts of Cleve and the lords of Culemborg.87 Conversely it was their rivals
in the Hundred Years War, the Dukes of Orlans, who supported the reform of
the Franciscans with particular zealand thereby make quite unambiguously
clear the political implications of the reform of the orders in the late middle
ages.88 The same can be said of the German territorial princes, the dukes of

University, 1964); ibid., Culture and Society in Venice 14701790. The Renaissance and its
Heritage (London, 1972).
85 D. Nimmo, Poverty and Politics: The Motivation of Fourteenth Century Franciscan
Reform in Italy, StudChurchHist.
86 See along with n. 53, among others: A. Lpez, Confessores de la Familia Real de Castila,
ArchIberoAmer 31 (1929), 6983; J.E. Martinez Fernando, San Vincente Ferrer y al casa real
de Aragon, AnalSacrTerragon 26 (1953), 1143; L. Alvarez, Contribucin al estudio de la
reforma en el reinade de los Reyes Catlicos, RevAugustEspirid 5 (1964), 145212; J. Garca
Oro, La reforma de los religiosos espaoles en tiempo de los Reyes Catlicos (Valladolid,
1969); M. de Castro, Confessores franciscanos en la corte de los Reyes Catlicos,
ArchIberoAmer (1974), 55126.
86a See notes 75 and 80.
87 See along with notes 50, 56, 58, 59, 60 and 70, among others: A.G. Jongkees, Staat en Kerk
in Holland en Zeeland onder de Bourgondische hertogen 14251477 (Groningen, 1942);
L.Ceyssens, Les Ducs de Bourgogne et lintroduction de lobservance Malines (1443
1469), afp 30 (1937), 391419; A. Heysse, Trois couvents des observants Bruges et envi-
rons (1461, 1462, 1468), afp 41 (1949), 217239; S.P. Wolfs, De invoering van de observantie
in het Dominicanenklooster te Zutphen (14641465), in Postillen over kerk en maatschap-
pij in de vijftiende en zestiende eeuw. Aangeboden aan Prof. Dr R.R. Post (Utrecht-Nijmegen,
1964), 154180; idem., Het Nijmeegse Dominicanenklooster en de middeleeuwse
Observantie-beweging, ArcGKathkerkNederland 10 (1978), 95113.
88 See for example: M.-D. Chapotin, La Guerre de Cent Ans. Jeanne dArc et les dominicains.
Etude historique sur la province de France (Paris, 1900).
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 177

Brunswick and Saxony, the electoral princes of the Palatinate, the Wittelsbachs
and the Habsburgs. The latter (to make our reflections more concrete) emphat-
ically supported not only the reform of individual institutions but also the for-
mation of reform congregations that spread from their territoriesand so,
through their help they gave the Pauline order, for example, the chance to
spread out and establish itself in Further Austria, just as they had done with
the help of the Anjous in Poland at the end of the fourteenth century.89 What
is true for Europes leading dynasties is no less true for lesser spiritual and ter-
ritorial princes, for the nobility, for the patriciate and the cities. A view of the
limits of reform congregations, and of the topography of the orders spread as
they flowered anew (or were first established) in the fourteenth and fifteenth
century makes clear how important secular powers were as catalysts for
reform. The same view also makes clear how the orders increasingly took on,
under the influence of their political supporters, a certain national and regional
character. The influence of secular lords on the spiritual institutions in their
territories; the introduction of Observant reform or even the foundation of
new houses and ordersclearly all this was largely a function of the consoli-
dation of the territorial state, the rise of territorial princes, of lords and power-
ful city councils who imposed their will. The motives for their commitment
can only be established precisely from case to case. One cannot deny that the
idea of the house-cloister, a belief in the meritoriousness of good works, the
personal piety of lords and of course their spouses all played a role in the sup-
port and the renewal of religious life. Nevertheless, one cannot overlook the
fact that, in general, political considerations often played a crucial role. In what
was in a sense a repeat of an earlier inner colonization, religious reform
brought renewal to landed abbeys and foundations in areas that had lost value
in the wake of the economic crisis of the fourteenth centurythereby making
them once again fruitful as sources of income for certain dynasties. At the
same time, the re-establishment of a conventual life lived according to rules
brought about a further weakening of the power of the nobility, which had
been enriched through the fragmentation of ecclesiastical institutionsabove
all by appropriating for itself rights and properties and viewing the monaster-
ies themselves as little more than hospices for their offspring. Lastly, reform
served as an alibi, one that gave territorial lords, standing on the right of advo-
cacy and the right of reform, the possibility of drawing the properties and
rights of landed houses into the building up of their territories, and so to force
the development of the modern state. The trends and actions can only be

89 H. Reller, Vorreformatorische und reformatorische Kirchenverfassung im Frstentum


Braunschweig-Wolfenbttel, (1959).
178 chapter 4

noted in passing here, but they could be easily traced more precisely and tested
when grounded in the considerable literature on the ecclesiastical politics of
territorial princes in the later middle ages.90
The political motives of the cities are more difficult to judge and less easy
summarize. Without doubt religious motives were to be found among the
bourgeois circles interested in the renewal of urban communities. A concern
to safeguard religious life, to promote education and welfare and to curtail
the frustrations spawned by unregulated orders made it easier for urban
authorities to support measures that reformed their houses. And as with
the territorial princes, when it became a matter of either supporting or (as
often happened) of resisting the Observant movement, reform offered an
important chance for city councils and burghers to extend their influence
over spiritual institutions.91 If one might venture a general assessment, the
politics of religious life, and the support of reform and of the Observant
movement in particular, fit well within those fifteenth-century trends that
led, at the expense of the church, to a consolidation of secular power and to
the formation of bourgeois society.
It is difficult, then, to answer the question of motives and methods among
those secular powers that supported reform. A still more difficult challenge,

90 See, for example, F. Priebatsch, Staat und Kirche am Ende des Mittelalters, zkg 21 (1901),
4390; B. Hennig, Die Kirchenpolitik der lteren Hohenzollern und die ppstlichen
Privilegien des Jahres 1442 (1906); O. Redlich, Jlich-Bergische Kirchenpolitik am Ausgang
des Mittelalters und in der Reformation (1907); J. Weissbach, Staat und Kirche in
Mecklenburg in den letzten Jahrzehnten vor der Reformation, JbVMecklenbbG 75 (1910),
29130; E. Btow, Staat und Kirche in Pommern im ausgehenden Mittelalter bis zur
Einfhrung der Reformation, BaltStud nf 14 (1910), 85184; (1911), 77142; W. Wintruff,
Landesherrliche Kirchenpolitik in Thringen am Ausgang des Mittelalters (1914); J. Wulk
and J. Funk, Die Kirchenpolitik des Grafen von Wrttemberg bis zur Erhebung Wrttembergs
zum Herzogtum 1495, DarstWrttG 10 (1912); G. Steinhauser, Die Klosterpolitik der Grafen
vom Wrttemberg bis Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts, StudMittBened 34 (1913), 162, 201242;
F. Korte, Kirchenpolitik oder Kirchenreform. Zur Frage des Einflusses des bergischen
Herzoghauses im Osten Westfalens zu Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts, JberrHist
VGrafschRavensberg 68 (1972), 6687; K. Schreiner, Altwrttembergische Klster im
Spannungsfeld landesherrlicher Territorialpolitik, BllDtLdG 109 (1973), 196245; W. Ribbe,
Zur Ordenspolitik der Askanier. Zisterzienser und Landesherrschaft im Elbe-Oder-
Raum, ZistStud 1 (1975), 7796.
91 J. Kist, Klosterreform im sptmittelalterlichen Nrnberg, ZBayerKG 32 (1963), 3145; G.
Geiger, Die Reichstadt Ulm vor der Reformation. Stdtisches und kirchliches Leben am
Ausgang des Mittelalters, ForschGUlm 11 (1971); R. Kiessling, Brgerliche Gesellschaft und
Kirche in Augsburg im Sptmittelalter. Ein Beitrag zur Strukturanalyse der oberdeutschen
Reichstadt, AbhGAugsburg 19 (1971).
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 179

recently issued in an Oxford dissertation, is to clarify the economic and social


conditions under which the renewals of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
came to fruition.92 Of course the matter cannot be addressed in only a few
sentences, but as with the consideration of decline, here too a series of com-
monalities and developments emerge from an initial (and naturally only a
partial) evaluation of the available literature. These commonalities allow an
assessment of the renewal of the orders, considered socially and economically,
as a general phenomenonand one that is again in turn closely intertwined
with demographic growth and a revived economy in the fifteenth century. As
a first indicator of that connection, it is notable that the communities estab-
lished in the course of the fourteenth and the early fifteenth centuries, both in
central and in southern Europe, were founded in agrarian environments or in
small towns, if not in wasteland. The great wave of new foundations at the end
of the middle ages seems thus quite clearly to reflect an overall reclaiming of
land, a general model that Italian economic historians, especially, have out-
lined.93 In view of the agrarian depression brought on by the crises of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries this is no surprise. Circumstance demanded
precisely that reformers capture and exploit land that had lost its value, as well
as villages and monasteries that had become wasteland.94 Nevertheless,
already at the end of the thirteenth century both cities and territories had
developed a wide range of measures against the founding of new houses, and
they only reluctantly allowed new communities within their walls.95 In such
environments reforming efforts oriented toward the cities were likely to be

92 Walsh, The Observant Congregations of the Augustinian Friars in Italy c. 1385c. 1465, 120.
93 Cf. for France, for example, LeGoff, Ordres mendiants et urbanisation dans la France
mdievale.
94 Cf. along with the literature of n. 10 above, Linneborn, Der Zustand der westflischen
Benediktinerklster in den lezten 50 Jahren vor ihrem Anschlusse and die Bursfelder
Kongregation; F. Beste, Beitrge zur Geschichte der Grundherrschaft des Klosters Dalheim
(1909); L. Schmitz-Kallenberg, Monumenta Budicensia. Quellen zur Geschichte des
Augustiner-Chorherrenstifts Bddeken i.W. (1915); E. Schatten, Kloster Bddeken und seine
Reformttigkeit im 15. Jahrhundert (1912); G. Luntowski, Zur Verfassungs- und
Wirtschaftsgeschichte der ehemaligen Benediktinerabtei Bursfeld (Diss. Berlin, 1954); W.
Vahrenhold, Kloster Marienfeld. Besitz- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Zisterzienserklosters
Marienfeld in Westfalen (1966); B. Frank, Das Erfurter Peterskloster im 15. Jahrhundert.
Studien zur Geschichte der Klosterreform und der Bursfelder Union (1973).
95 See, for example, C. Gross, Mortmain in Medieval Boroughs, AmHistRev 12 (1907), 733
742; D. de Man, Maatregelen door de middeleeuwsche overheden genomen ten opzichte van
het oeconomisch leven der kloosterlingen en leden van congregaties (1921); R. Koerperich,
Les lois sur la mainmorte dans le Pays-Bas catholiques (1922); E. De Moreau, La lgislation
des ducs de Bourgogne sur laccroissement des biens ecclsiastiques tudi spcialment
180 chapter 4

realized only in those settlements that found themselves on the rise for the
first time, or in places that had been prevented, in the wake of the stagnation
that had set in at the beginning of the fourteenth century, from first establish-
ing houses within city walls. This propositionthat by the later middle ages
most new foundations preferred the countryside and smaller citiescould be
illustrated by countless examples from all across Europe. We limit ourselves
here to those from the German region, more precisely to those from Westphalia
and the German southwest. The monastery of Falkenhagen in the county of
Lippe, which owed its genesis to the flowering of womens Cistercian founda-
tions in the middle of the thirteenth century, was all but ruined through war-
ring nobility and economic decline. It was reformed first by the Williamites,
who abandoned the house because of its meagre endowment. The community
then fell to the Dutch Croziers, who were clearly more modest in their aims,
but who brought it to new life through arduous manual labor and who held
their own until the Reformation.96 In the southwest the expansion of the oft-
noted Pauline order concentrated itself in areas which were, one can say with
full justification, lands of marginal worth, lands that had either never been
used or that had been abandoned in the course of the fourteenth century.
Under these same conditions settlements had been foundedfor example
those at Donnersberg in the Palatinate and at Kaiserstuhl in Breisgauthat
could draw the attention of hermits. But as soon became clear, they remained
insufficient even for their modest ambitions, and so had once again soon to be
abandoned.97
As should be almost self-evident, newly established convents no longer had
a monopoly on the higher social ranks. On the contrary, it is clear that in new
foundations, in reformed abbeys, in foundations with richer endowments and
longer traditions, sons of burghers and farmers were taken in to the ranks of
the orders. At least in the early stages of reform, leadership was taken over
from outsiders in a way that allowed a certain horizontal mobility. Moreover,
apart from that, a certain upward mobility is evident from the lists of priors

en Belgique, RevHistEccl 41 (1946), 4460; S. Raban, Mortmain in Medieval England,


PastPresent 62 (1974), 326.
96 E. Kittel, Das Kreuzherrenkloster Falkenhagen, 137166.
97 A. Hoffmann, Kloster St. Jakob auf dem Donnersberg (1959); ibid., Die letzten Jahre des
Klosters St. Jakob auf dem Donnersberg, NordPflzGV 40 (1960), 437; A. Hanle, Das
Kloster St. Jakobus und das Donnersberger Hofgut, PflzHeimat 12 (1961), 4547; A.
Poinsignon, Das verschollene Klsterlein St. Peter auf dem Kaiserstuhl, Shcau-ins-Land
14 (1873), 1317; idem., dungen und Wustungen im Breisgau, ZGORh NF 2 (1887), 456; A.
Keller, Vom Paulinerkloster St. Peter und Paul auf dem Kaiserstuhl, FreibDizArch 80
(1960), 292295.
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 181

and abbots.98 In general, the number of members in new foundations was


smaller than in the older communities. Convents with around 100 brothers and
more, as in the landed foundations of Bddeken and Windesheim, were the
exception. Normally the communities were so small that one can rightly speak
(as has happened occasionally) of mini-monasteries.99 Most members of the
new communities were no longer monks and canons, that is to say full partici-
pants in the strict sense. In fact, the majority were often conversi who together
with religious themselves were obligated to manual labor. New foundations
reaped the benefits of that cheap labor in their high degree of autonomy:
freed from having to pay wages to outsiders, their communities were allowed
to prosper economically.100 Along with social restructuring, this kind of
enterprisewith its more intense cultivation, its improvement of agricul-
tural technology and its more careful household managementrestored to
many houses all that had been lost in the wake of the circumstances outlined
above. It thereby provided an important set of conditions for advancing the
work of reform. Many key aspects of this new agrarian economy of the
reformed orders might be noted briefly: their meticulous way of acquiring
property and keeping accountssomething clearly evident from an evalua-
tion of the archives of reformed or Observant houses; their modern agrarian
technologies, such as drainage among the Dutch reformers from Windesheim;
their almost puritanical zeal for work; their zeal for saving and self-denial,
through which even in nearly hopeless cases they often shaped the economic
conditions that allowed renewal.101

98 P. Becker, Die stndische Zusammensetzung der Abteien St. Matthias und St. Maximin in
Trier zu Beginn der Reform des Abtes Johannes Rode (1439), ArchMittelrhKG 18 (1966),
313320; Klaus Schreiner, Sozial und standesgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu den
Benediktinerkonventen im stlichen Schwarzwald (Stuttgart, 1964); G. Kaller, Amtszeiten
und Herkunft der bte des Zisterzienserklosters Otterberg, ArchMittelrhKG 18 (1960),
6583; C. Jaritz, Die Konventualen der Zisterzen Rein, Sittich und Neuburg im Mittelalter.
rtliche Herkunft und stndische Stellung (Diss. Graz, 1973); idem., Cteaux 29 (1978),
6092.
99 See, in this connection: F. Flaskamp, Einstige Kleinklster zu Wiedenbrck, JbWestflKG
67 (1974), 207217. On the size of late-medieval monasteries see, along with n. 7:
E. Persoons, De bewoners van de kloosters Bethlehem te Herent en Ten Troon te
Grobbendonk, Arca Lovaniensis 5 (1976), 221240 and the literature provided there.
100 As an overview: J. Leclercq, La vie conomique des monastres au moyen ge, in
Inspiration religieuse et structures temporelles (Paris, 1948), 211259; K. Hallinger, Woher
kommen die Laienbrder?, AnalCist 12 (1956), 1104.
101 Along with n. 102 cf., among others: J. Wild, Beitrge zur Registerfhrung der bayerischen
Klster und Hochstifte im Mittelalter (1973); B.M. von Scarpatetti, Die Kirche und das
182 chapter 4

It is more difficult to evaluate social and economic changes and conditions


with respect to the reform of mendicant convents in the cities. In light of the
resistance of so many conventuals and their allies, most houses were led to
observance only with the help of outside reformers. And for the overwhelming
number of those communities it can be said that reform was bound up with
not only the desire to curb widespread abuses, but also with at least an attempt
to return to original practices of poverty. Concretely that meant not only indi-
vidual conventuals had to give up their personal property, but also that con-
vents had to renounce their corporate property, or to have it managed by
others.102 Tied to these were the revival of the mendicants systems of begging
and preaching stations, the acquisition of anniversary foundations, indeed in
certain cases also the intensification of trade. These transformations not only
changed the place of the convents in urban society and economy. They were
also in turn bound upat least in Italywith increasing criticism of particu-
lar aspects of the urban economy, such as its widespread dependence on inter-
est and pensions. Here the demands of Observant preachers that centered on
economic ethics are as significant103 as their special promotion of social assis-
tance through the Monti di Piet.104

Augustiner-Chorherrenstift St. Leonhard in Basel (11./12/ Jh 1525). Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte
der Stadt Basel und der spten Devotio Moderna (Basel, 1974).
102 H. Amman, Klster in der stdtischen Wirtschaft des ausgehenden Mittelalters, Argovia
72 (1960), 102134; Th. Rensing, Die Reformbewegung in den westflischen
Dominikanerklstern, Westfalen 17 (1932), 9197; G.M. Lhr, Die zweite Reform des
Magdeburger Dominikanerklosters (1468); Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Congr.
Hollandiae, afp 8 (1938), 215230; idem, Das Nrnberger Predigerkloster im 15.
Jahrhundert, MittVGNrnb 39 (1944), 223232; idem., Die zweite Bltezeit des Klner
Dominikanerklosters 14641525, afp 29 (1949), 208254; R. Weis-Mller, Die Reform des
Klosters Klingenthal und ihr Personenkreis (Basel, 1956); Th.v. Kern, Die Reformation des
Katharinenklosters zu Nrnberg im Jahre 1428, JberrHistVMittelfrank Beih. 1 (1963); V.
Gerz von Bren, Geschichte des Clarissenklosters St. Clara in Kleinbasel 12661529 (Basel,
1969); B. Deger-Spengler, Das Klarissenkloster Gnadental in Basel 12891529 (Basel, 1969).
103 See, among others: F.J. Hnermann, Die Wirtschaftsethischen Predigten des hlg.
Bernhardin von Siena, (1939); R. de Roover, San Bernardino of Siena and SantAntonino of
Florence. Two Great Economic Thinkers of the Middle Ages (Boston, 1967); A. Spicciani,
SantAntonino, San Bernardino e Piero di Giovanni Olivi nel pensiero economico medio-
evale, Economica e storia 19 (1972), 315341; G. Todeschini, Oeconomia franciscana.
Proposte di una nuova lettura delle fonti delletica economica medioevale, RivStorLettRel
12 (1976), 1577.
104 A survey of literature and an overview: A. Ghinato, I Monti di Piet istituzione frances-
cana, Picenum Seraphicum 9 (1972), 762.
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 183

To emphasize the economic and social dimensions of the reform of the


orders is to fall into the danger that, as Linneborn puts it, the impact of reform
on the wealth of the cloister and its economic affairs come so sharply to the
fore that one could see the success, indeed the essence of reform, in this
alone.105 Of course even contemporaries themselves saw the close connection
between spiritual reform and economic recovery. For the stern cellarer of the
Cistercian abbey of Marienfeld, John Lamberti, who led the renewal of the
Premonstratensian community of Carholz, the most important requirement
for renewal next to auditorium Dei was naturalis industria.106 The first prior of
the foundation of Bddeken saw the amount of labor associated with the
reform of this and of other Westphalian cloisters as similarly crucialso much
so that he warned his brothers against seeing the essence of reform in the
opera agriculturae.107
It is no longer possible to present, even in outline, the counterweight to
these considerationsnamely to trace the intellectual forces that drove
reform, the nature of the consciousness of the orders original ideals, the spe-
cific spiritual currents that were bound up with or indeed advanced by reform.
To do so would require an essay of its own. One thing, however, should be
made clear here: In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, for all of the con-
scious and programmatic efforts to return to beginnings, for all of the pedantic
precision with which the observance of rule, constitutions and liturgical
ordines were renewed or promoted, all the same a new spiritual landscape
developed across the orders, one that was not simply identical with that of the
high or the early middle ages. The Franciscans and Dominicans, the Augustinian
Hermits and the Carmelites, the Benedictines and the Augustinian Canons, to
say nothing of the smaller orders, developed a distinct spirituality. Their
piety of crisis, as it has occasionally been called (and it is a frustrating over-
simplification) was characterized by a desire for interiority; by a reconsidera-
tion of the relationship between theology and learning; by a strong turn to
history; by a preference for individual prayer; by a turning away from the
solemnity of the common cult. All of this describes a style of piety108 that has

105 Linneborn, Der Zustand der westflischen Benediktinerklster in den lezten 50 Jahren
vor ihrem Anschlusse and die Bursfelder Kongregation. [n. 32]
106 R. Schulze, Beitrge zur Geschichte des Prmonstratenserklosters Klarholz (Kreis
Wiedenbrck) 11331803, Westflische Zeitschrift 78 (1920), 51.
107 J. Probus, Chronicon monasterii Boedecensis scriptum saeculo xv (1731), 4.
108 Mezey, Die Devotio moderna der Donaulnder; F. Machilek, Die Frmmigkeit und die
Krise des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, MediaevBohem 70, 3 (1971), 209227; H. Heimpel, Das
Wesen des deutschen Sptmittelalters, ArchKulturg 35 (1953), 2951; B. Moeller,
Frmmigkeit in Deutschland um 1500, ArchRefG 56 (1965), 531. Apart from general
184 chapter 4

long been claimed for the Netherlands Devotio Moderna. But it was much
more than a piety shaped only by one region or its people. It was the tonus
rectus of a late-medieval monastic piety that had been renewed through a
broad movement for reform.109
Let us close our reflections with this resolution, to note at least in passing
two further areas of inquiry: the relationship of reform to wider religious
movements, and to the Reformation. Of these fields of inquiry, the relation-
ship of the late-medieval reform of the religious orders to the reform of
non-institutionalized and extra-ecclesiastical religious movements is the one
that typically only comes into question when there is a concern to describe
the divergence between orthodox reform and heterodox religious move-
ments, for example the mendicant orders resistance against Hussitism and
Wyclifism. Links between reform of the orders and wider social and religious
movements; the role of those in the orders in articulating and enforcing the
churchs political aims; and above all the links between the will to reform and
social and political protest (visible, for example in the Florentine tre- and
quattrocento)a tradition of research still overwhelmingly advanced by
members of the religious orders has hardly taken notice of these matters, let
alone undertaken any focused investigation of them.110 The same can be said,

surveysfor example those offered in Axters and Knowlesthere is no special investiga-


tion of changes in piety in the orders. For changes in liturgy and practices of prayer cf., e.g.
S. Hilpisch, Chorgebet und Frmmigkeit im Spttmittelalter (Heilige berlieferung.
Festgabe Dom Herwegen) (1938), 263284; O. Van Veghel, De oefening van het inwendig
gebed in de Minderbroedersorde gedurende de vijftiende en zestiende eeuw, OnsGeestlErf
21 (1947), 113116; E. Iserloh, Die Kirchenfrmmigkeit in der Imitatio Christi, Sentire
Ecclesiam. Festschrift fr Hugo Rahner (1961), 251262; J. Leclercq, Culte liturgique et
prire intime dans le monachisme au moyen ge, La Maison-Dieu 69 (1962), 3955; G.M.
Picasso, La preghiera nel movimento spirituale di S. Giustina. Preghiera nella bibbia e
nella tradizione patristica e monastica, BiblCultRelig 78 (1964), 735769.
109 J. Huijben, De verspreiding der nederlandsche spiritualiteit in he buitenland in de XIVe
em XVe eeuw, OnsGeeslErf 4 (1930), 168182; R. Pittigliani, Il ven. Ludovico Barbo e la dif-
fusione dellImitatione di Cristo per opera della Congregazione di S. Giustina. Studio storica-
bibliografico-critica (Padua, 1947); A. Blaschka, Zur Devotio Moderna, in Deutsch-slavische
Wechselbeziehungen in sieben Jahrhunderten. Festschrift E. Winter (1956), 8892; C.
Rodriguez-Granit, La Devotio Moderna en Espagne et linfluence franaise (Geneva, 1957);
E. Mlyusz, Zukon paulinw i devotio moderna (Warsaw, 1960); H.F. Rosenfeld, Zu den
Anfngen der Devotio Moderna, in Festgabe fr Ulrich Pretzel zum 65. Geburtstag (1962),
239; J. Schreiber, Devotio Moderna in Bhmen, Bohemia 6 (1965), 93121; idem., Die
bhmische Devotio moderna, Bohemia Sacra, 8191.
110 F. Sarri, Pietro di Giovanni Olivi e Ubertino da Casale Maestri di Teologia a Firenze,
StudFrancesc 22 (1925), 7596; L. Oliger, Beitrge zur Geschichte der Spiritualen,
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 185

though with considerable qualifications, for the relationship between the


reform of the orders and the Reformation. The connections between these
phenomena were already apparent to sixteenth-century contemporaries,
who discerned connections that scholarly research discerns and evaluates
still today.111 Struggles over prestige both among Observants and conventuals
as well as between divergent reform partiesmet among the learned of the
day with dismay, irony and contemptcreated a climate that was not only
detrimental to religious life as such. It also created, both within and beyond
the cloister walls, the predisposition toward a fundamental rejection of clois-
ter and monastic life that was to be exploited by the leaders of the Reformation.
It would be wrong, of course, to see as the only connection between Reform
and Reformation the monks eagerness for strife, their pedantry and the
accusations of hypocrisy it inspired, the mutual defamation that was so dam-
aging to their entire estate. Given the frequent observation (though one still
not sufficiently demonstrated) that it was in fact the members of the religious
orders who often helped the new faith establish itself, and who gave the
churches of the Reformation their institutional and intellectual shape, it must
be asked whether there were positive links between the Observant movement
and the Reformation. In answering this question one need not go so far as to
see Luther as a product of the theology and spirituality of the Augustinian
Observants. Nor is it necessary to assume that the openness to the studia
humanitatis cultivated among the Franciscans and Dominicans (themselves
parodied in the sixteenth century) was a precondition for adopting the new
theology. The theological and spiritual breadth of the Observant movement
among the mendicants, the Hussite-inspired extremism of a Nicholas Serruier
or Thomas Connecte, the conciliarism of a Kaspar Schatzgeyer and the
curialism of the Augustinian schoolto note all of these is to see clearly how
many other theological relationships there could be between reform and
Reformation than those captured under the rubrics of Humanism or
Augustinianism.112

Fratizellen und Clarener, zkg 45 (1927), 215242; M.B. Becker, Florentine Politics and the
Diffusion of Heresy in the Trecento. A Socioeconomic Inquiry, Speculum 34 (1959), 6075;
R. Ridolfi, Vita di Girolamo Savonarola, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1952); Donald Weinstein,
Savonarola and Florence; Prophecy and Patriotism in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1970).
111 See, among others, B. Lohse, Mnchtum und Reformation. Luthers Auseinandersetzung mit
dem Mnchsideal des Mittelalters (1963).
112 A. Lauche, Nicole Serruier, hrtique du XVe sicle, AnalServHistEcclBelg 24 (1893),
280297; P. Beuzart, Les hrsies pendant le moyen ge et al rforme jusq la mort de
Phillipe ii (1598) dans la rgion de Douais (Paris, 1912); B. Zimmerman, De Fratre Thoma
Connecte de Francia, AnalCarmDisc 3 (1929), 262280; J. Schevers, Thomas Connecte,
186 chapter 4

The fact that only the connections between late-medieval Augustinian the-
ology and the Reformation have become the subject of specialized research
reveals what kind of field awaits work in this regard. The preconditions for the
Reformation are, of course, to be found not only in the areas of spirituality and
theology. Economic renewal, the reorganization of monastic property, and
especially the return to a more rigorous practice of poverty in the cities in the
fifteenth centuryall led to confrontations between nobility and burghers
over matters of privilege, influence and to some degree over the wealth that
the nobility and their children brought to the cloister. Here was a further con-
sequence of the renewal of landed settlements: a once relatively free rural
population was bound by stronger ties of dependence (at times a kind of sec-
ond serfdom) and became more heavily burdened than they had been during
the era of decline. To put it in an exaggerated way: It was not parasitic monks,
but rather reforming zealots concerned with the economic interests of their
foundations, the mendicants who sought to return to the practices of poverty
of the thirteenth century, who awoke such animosity among the nobility,
urban burghers and the rural population, all of which exploded so spectacu-
larly in the Reformation and the peasant wars that followed.113 In the wake of
reform, the many bonds with territorial princeswhether established will-
ingly or compelled through forcestrengthened these tensions, and in the
end they led monasteries long accustomed to the patronage and protection of

Carmelite Savonarola, The Sword 15 (1952), 140147; H. Holms, Kirche, Freiheit und
Gesetz bei dem Franziskanertheologen Kaspar Schatzgeyer, RefGeschtStud 84 (1959);
idem., Konzilsgedanken bei dem Franziskanertheologen Kaspar Schatzgeyer, in Die
Kirche und ihre mter und Stnde. Festgabe Kardinal Frings (1960), 453461; Paul Nyhus,
Caspar Schatzgeyer and Conrad Pellican: The Triumph of Dissension in the Early
Sixteenth Century, ArchRefG 65 (1970), 179204; F.X. Duijnstee, s Pausen Primaat in de
latere Middeleeuwen en de Aegidiaansche School (Amsterdam, 1939); M. Wilks, The
Problem of Sovreignty in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1963); A.J. Black, Monarchy and
Community. Political Ideas in the Later Conciliar Controversy 14301450 (Cambridge, 1970).
113 See, along with notes 87, 91, 95 and 102, B. Moeller, Reichstadt und Reformation (1962); F.G.
Heymann, The Hussite Revolution and the German Peasants War. A Historical
Comparison, MedievaliaHumanistica ns 1 (1970), 141159. G. Strauss, Manifestations of
Discontent in Germany on the Eve of the Reformaiton (Bloomington, 1971); H.A. Oberman,
Tumultus rusticorum. Vom Klosterkrieg zum Frstenkrieg. Beobachtungen zum
Bauernkrieg unter besonderer Bercksichtigung zeitgenssischer Beurteilung, zkg 85
(1974), 301316. The literature on the German Peasants War and its course (recently, S.
Hoyer, Zu den Ursachen des deutschen Bauernkriegs und zu Problemen seines Verlaufs,
ZfG 20 (1976), 622680; E. Wolgast, Neue Literatur ber den Bauernkrieg, BllDtLdG 112
(1976), 424440) has hardly noticed this topic. See now H. Cohn, Anticlericalism in the
German Peasants War 1525, PastPresent 83 (1979), 331.
Decline and Renewal of the Religious Orders 187

princes to see in the Reformation, at first glance, if not a means to their well-
being, then at least the mere continuation of the already customary politics of
their territorial lords. And so it is no accident that numerous members of the
religious orders either enlisted in a Reformation led by their territorial and
urban authorities or tried to desert, arguing that they had only recently been
reformed, and did not need to be reformed again.114

We conclude our discussion of the status and challenges facing research on the
late-medieval Observant movement and the reform of the orders with this
thought, one that juxtaposes Reformation and reform, even though it is insuf-
ficient for capturing the entire problematic of the relationships of the two
phenomena. Let us then return once again to our introductory line of thinking.
We began with a reflection on the fact that the histories of territory and con-
stitution, society and economy as well as church and intellectual history no
longer judge the later middle ages only as an era of decline, but increasingly as
an age of new beginnings. Once can also now ask whether a similar judgment
is appropriate for the history of the religious orders, and for the history of late-
medieval reform and the Observant movement in particular. Certainly there is
no absence of numerous signs of decline that met with strong criticism among
the faithful, even after the height of the movement for reform. There can also
be no doubt that the renewal of the orders, for all of its original energy, was in
many cases brought to nothing by the Reformation. When one broadens the
field of vision, howeverlooking beyond Saxony and Thuringia, Brandenburg
and Brunswick, Pomerania and Mecklenburg, where the religious orders met
their end along with the rest of the inherited church traditionsthis impres-
sion loses its force. In fact it must be thoroughly rethought when one considers
reform and its impact in the southern Netherlands and in a few south-German

114 See, for example, W. Ziegler, Die Bursfelder Kongregation in der Reformationszeit.
Dargestellt an Hand der Generalkapitalsrezesse der Bursfelder Kongregation (1968); E.G.
Franz, Die hessischen Klster und ihre Konvente in der Reformation, HessJbLdg (1969),
147223; H. Wiemann, Die ostfriesischen Klster in vorreformatorischer und reformato-
rischer Zeit, JbGesNdschsKG 68 (1970), 2538; F. Schrader, Reformation und katholische
Klster. Beitrge zur Reformation und zur Geschichte der klsterlichen Restbestnde in den
ehemaligen Bistmern Magdeburg und Halberstadt (1973); M. Schaab, Pflzische Klster
vor und nach der Reformation, BllDtLdG 99 (1973), 753758; F. Schrader, Ringen,
Untergang und berleben der katholischen Klster in den Hochstiften Magdeburg und
Halberstadt von der Reformation bis zum Westflischen Frieden (1977); B. Jaspert,
Reformation und Mnchtum in Hessen, CisterChron 84 (1977), 3050.
188 chapter 4

territories, but especially in Italy and Spain. The Augustinian Hermits (first
renewed in Italy by the efforts of Giles of Viterbo and Hieronymus Seripando)
had a dramatic impact on the Counter-Reformaiton in Europe, and on the
exploration and Christianization of lands overseasso dramatic that they
restored the damage to their prestige once fostered by their association with
Luther. In Italy, at the heart of the Observant movement, the original Franciscan
way of life found renewal in the Capuchin order, which became independent
in 1528. In the same years, Italy saw priests and laity join the communities of
the Oratorians, Theatines and Barnabiteshere, in an altered form, a realiza-
tion of what the Fraterherren in the north and the reformers of S. Giorgio in
Alga in the south had begun, and that the Jesuits brought to fruition in Spain
and beyond. This much can be said in conclusion: Led by the charisma of
saintly personalities, with the help of popes and councils, supported by secular
powers and institutions and in ways that reflected wider social and economic
development, the religious orders reformed themselves from the fourteenth
century, and especially in the fifteenth, in ways that created preconditions for
renewal and that fostered the remarkable achievements of the coming era. The
religious orders soon played roles that without hesitation can be can compared
to those they played in the early and high middle ages. As leaders of the
Catholic reforms of the early modern era, of the Counter-Reformation and
of overseas missions, the orders were once again agents of mission, defenders of
the faith, teachers and patrons of the people.
chapter 5

Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher:


A Contribution to the Origins and Early History
of the Military Orders of Palestine

Scholarly interest in the military orders of the middle ages most often concen-
trates on the most important of them: on the Templars, the Hospitalers and the
Teutonic Order, on the Spanish military orders and (to a more limited extent)
on the Lazarites, the Sword-Brothers of Livonia, and the Order of Mountjoy.
Usually ignored are the smaller militias and orders of hospitalers founded in
the crusading era, and especially those knightly orders founded after the fall of
Acre, or those that evolved from the transformation of older orders, or quasi-
regular knightly societies. Even specialists are so ill-informed about these
groups that they describe them by turns as amalgamations of monks and
canons, Hospitalers or other military orders, as mendicants or semi-religious
if in fact they do not dismiss them all as merely orders of merit, even ordines
falsi. This uncertainty is often attributable to our lack of both authentic sources
and accessible preliminary scholarship. But more often it is due to a body of
literature that has hidden the history of these orders in such a cloud of assump-
tions, legends and historical fabrication that their actual shape is hardly dis-
cernible any more. If one were to select an example from this fielda field not
unimportant in shaping our judgments of the overall phenomenon of the
military ordersone could select none better than the Militia, the Ordo
Militaris or the Ordo Equestris S. Sepulcri Hierosolymitani. In the ranks of the
Catholic Church its adherents, their white cloaks adorned with the red cross of
Jerusalem, still today represent crusade piety and honor for the Holy Land.
What has been published about the military order of the Holy Sepulcher
since the fourteenth century, especially since the advent of print, is often so
unreliable and contradictory that prima vista one can hardly find in it any
common ground.1 To note only a few of the claims most often encountered
regarding its age and traditions: the orders foundation has been attributed to
a brother Jacobus Minor, to Charlemagne, to Godfrey of Bouillon, King Louis

1 Characteristic are: A. Couret, Notice historique sur lordre du Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem


depuis son origine jusqu nos jours 10991905 (Paris, 1905); M.E. Persichetti Ugolini, LOrdine
del S. Sepolcro nei documenti pontifici e nella tradizione della Chiesa (Milan, 1938); G.A. Quarti,
I Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme (Milan, [1951]).

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_007


190 chapter 5

vii of France, even to Pope Alexander vi. For some, the story is of the first and
oldest military order; for others, of a military order with its origins in a com-
munity of regular canons. Still others move in a third direction: they assume
the order to have been divided into knightly and canonical branches, with the
patriarch of Jerusalem assuming the duties of Grand Master from the begin-
ning of the twelfth century. For all of the uncertainties, however, nearly all
representations of the orders history are in agreement that with respect to its
overall character the Ordo Equestris S. Sepulchri may be ranked alongside the
other well-known military ordersand that it indeed surpasses them in age
and honor. Today these interpretations of the origins and nature of the military
order of the Holy Sepulcher, offered here only in outline, need no longer be
accepted as unconditionally as they have beennot only by the knights of the
Holy Sepulcher themselves,2 but also by respected scholars, in highly esteemed
handbooks and in dissertations undertaken in faculties of canon law.3 Already
a quarter of a century ago V. Cramer,4 himself a Knight of the Holy Sepulcher,
began (with the aid of the preparatory scholarship of his brother J. Hermens5)
to prune back the wildly overgrown thicket of literature and to allow the Ordo
Equestris S. Sepulcri to take an important place, as its history deserves, along-
side the other religious communities associated with the Holy Sepulcher.
It can be counted as certain that the Militia or the Ordo Equestris S. Sepulcri
was a lay association that, while certainly subject to many changes in organi-
zation and aims over the course of its history, never emerged as an order

2 So for example J. Meile, Die Ritterschaft vom Heiligen Grabe in der Geschichte (Au, St. Gallen,
1951); X. De Bourbon-Parme (ed.), Les Chevaliers du Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem (Paris, 1957),
Ital. I Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro, Tempi e figure 22 (Milan, 1957); J.M. Ortega Costa De
Ballestero, Breve Historial de la Orden de Caballeros del Santo Sepulcro de Jerusalm (Barcelona,
1961); B. De Meester De Ravenstein, LOrdre du Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem, Revue gnrale
10 (1976), 1731.
3 J.G. Avala, Cannigos del Santo Sepulcro en Jerusaln y Calatayud. Pontificia Universitas
Comillensis (Madrid, 1970); G.C. Bascap, Gli ordini cavallereschi in Italia, Storca e diritto
(Milan, 1972), 365400. J. Hourlier, Histoire du droit et des institutions de glise en occident X:
Lge classique (11401378): Les religieux (Paris, 1974), 102.
4 V. Cramer, Der Ritterschlag am Hl. Grabe, in: Das Hl. Land in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart
2 (Cologne, 1940), 137199; idem, Das Rittertum vom Hl. Grabe im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert
(ibid., 3, 1941), 111200; idem, Das Rittertum vom Hl. Grabe im 16. Jahrhundert. Der bergang
in einen Ritterorden unter der Schutzherrschaft der Ppste (ibid., 4, 1949), 81159; idem, Der
Ritterorden vom Hl. Grabe vom Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts bis zur Reform durch Pius X.
16001868 (ibid., 5, 1950), 97174; idem, Der Ritterorden vom Hl. Grabe von den Kreuzzgen bis
zur Gegenwart, Palstinahefte des Deutschen Vereins vom Heiligen Lande 4648 (Cologne,
1952), a summary of the studies cited here, without references.
5 J. Hermens, Der Orden vom heil. Grabe, 2nd ed. (Cologne-Neu, 1870).
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 191

comparable to the Templars and Hospitalers.6 Its origins reach back not to the
twelfth century but to the fourteenth, to a time after the fall of Acre, when the
recuperatio terrae sanctae had taken on a new urgency, and when pilgrimage to
the holy sites had come to life once more. The occasion for its founding, accord-
ing to Cramer, was a custom among noble pilgrims first reported in 1333/6 and
attested many times thereafter through many accessible sources: to be knighted
at the Holy Sepulcher, or to request the renewal of a knighting already received.
In no way did this ceremony involve, as the older literature would have it, the
profession of religious vows. It was rather a variation on ceremonies of knight-
ing that had begun to spread from the beginning of the fourteenth century
(also in Germany), through which (building on older ceremonies of conferral
of arms and dubbing) soldiers were accepted into knighthood.7 The knighting
of the Holy Sepulcher differed from the more common form of knighting (nor-
mally conferred by the hand of a layman, in celebration of outstanding deeds)
by virtue of the special holiness of the place in which the ceremony was car-
ried out. This meant that the one knighted after a long journey and an expen-
sive voyage overseas to the Holy Sepulcher could lay claim to a higher rank
than that of his contemporaries (Felix Fabri attributed to it no less than forty
characteristics). He also declared himself prepared to take up the cross should
a new crusade be called.8 Beyond these obligations, all of them within the

6 The essentials of the history of the knights of the Holy Sepulcher (which the author treats
at more length and with full documentation in the forthcoming book Der Ordo ss. Sepulcri
Dominici Hierosolymitani. Untersuchungen zu Geschichte und Selbstverstndnis des Kapitels
vom Heiligen Grab) are covered in, among other studies, the journals published by the
Grand Magisterium, and the Italian and German governing bodies: Commentarium
Equestris Ordinis Sancti Sepulcri Hierosolymitani 1 ff. (Vatican City, 1953ff.); Crociata 1ff.
(Milan, 1933 ff.). Deus Lo Vult. Ordensbrief des Ritterordens vom Heiligen Grabe 1ff. (Cologne-
Freiburg, 1952ff.).
7 Only the most recent works from the rich literature on conferral of arms and dubbing need
be cited here: J.M. Van Winter, Cingulum Militiae. Schwertleite en milesTerminologie als
Spiegel van veranderend menselijk Gedrag, Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis 44 (1976),
192; J. Flori, Chevalerie et liturgie. Remise des armes et vocabulaire chevaleresque dans les
sources liturgiques du IXe au XIVe sicle, Le Moyen ge 84 (1978), 247278 ( suivre). On the
social and political background of ennobling and knightly orders in the later middle ages see
among others: B. Heydenreich, Ritterorden und Rittergesellschaften. Ihre Entwicklung vom
spten Mittelalter zur Neuzeit (Wrzburg, 1960); M. Keen, Brotherhood in Arms, History 47
(1962), 117; Ph. Contamine, Points de vue sur la chevalerie en France la fin du Moyen ge,
Francia 4 (1976), 255285; R.H. Lucas, Ennoblement in Late Medieval France, Mediaeval
Studies 39 (1977), 239260.
8 C.D. Hassler (ed.), Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti
peregrinationem, Bibl. d. Litt. Vereins Stuttgart 24 (Stuttgart, 184349).
192 chapter 5

established tradition of knighthood and crusade, knights of the Holy Sepulcher


obligated themselves to no further responsibilities. Thus we cannot speak here
even of an association, let alone a religious order. From the end of the fifteenth
century, when the ritual of knighting that had been in the hands of a layman
became, auctoritate apostolica et imperiali, a privilege exercised by the
Franciscans on Mt. Sion, the knights of the Holy Sepulcher witnessed a modi-
fication of their status.8a The stroke of dubbing, now conferred in a ceremony
that approached something like monastic profession, was no longer merely
one of many forms of being accepted into that knighthly status to which all
noble-born men (and in certain circumstances non-noble as well) might lay
claim. It retained the character of an initiation ritual, but it was no longer open
(as it had been before) only to all noble pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem. Rather
it was open only to those whom the Guardian saw as acceptableand nobility,
though originally the decisive criterion, increasingly lost its importance. The
knights, their entry confirmed by letter and entered into a register, thereby no
longer entered only into a new status. They also bound themselves to a com-
munity that demanded of them, alongside the fulfillment of the usual duties of
knighthood, the observation of such religious prescriptions as were found in
the statutes of the confraternities associated with the mendicant orders. And
yet the knights of the Holy Sepulcherdespite the statutes, the matriculation
and the conferral of the Jerusalem crosswere still far from a true corpora-
tion. They were somewhere in between the secular orders of knights that Jan
Huizinga described in his inimitable way and the brotherhoods that had spread
so dramatically since the high middle ages. They were different from each of
these in that the knights, after their elevation to knightly status, were bound by
no organizational ties, and neither gathered in regular chapter meetings, nor
were subject to the leadership of any religious order. Already in the early fif-
teenth century in Flanders, Brabant and Holland, the renunciation of such a
comprehensive organization led to the formation of local confederations
brotherhoods in the old style, aimed at helping the knights fulfill the religious
obligations of their estate, and at supporting the Holy Sepulcher.9 Only in the
sixteenth century did there emerge any sustained attempts to draw all of the
knights of the Holy Sepulcher together and to organize them. And the concern
then was not so much for the religious life of the knights as it was for mobiliz-
ing them to reconquer the Holy Land. The Jerusalem brotherhood of Antwerp,
which had among its number nobles of Brabant as well as Spanish elites,

8a Cf. among others n. 53.


9 Here see now the Berlin dissertation of W. Schneider, Peregrinatio Hiersolymitana. Studien
zum sptmittelalterlichen Jerusalembrauchtum und zu den aus der Heiliglandfahrt her-
vorgegangenen nordwesteuropischen Jerusalembruderschaften.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 193

took the lead in these efforts. In 1553 it issued a memorandum calling knights
together from across the world to be organized according to the model of the
old knightly orders, placed under the secular authority of the king of Spain and
the spiritual authority of the pope. In conscious imitation of crusading tradi-
tion, and influenced by a series of previous crusading plans, the order was
given the task of driving back the heathen and reconquering the Holy Land.
Philip ii took up the plan, and allowed himself to be elected head of the order
on March 26, 1558 in the church of St. Catherine in Hoogstraaten. But the plan
soon failed in the face of resistance from the curia, the king of France and the
Hospitalersnone were prepared to give Spain access to an instrument of
power that would have certainly helped further establish its political and mili-
tary hegemony.10 Half a century later, in 1615, a new effort at integration was
undertaken by Carl of Gonzaga, duke of Nevers. But like the Spanish undertak-
ing, this one, too, failed in the face of the resistance of the Hospitalers, whose
Grand Master Adolf von Vignacourt registered his protest before both crown
and curia.11 In France the effort to bind an older tradition of confraternities to
the knighthood of the Holy Sepulcher had met with success already two centu-
ries before: from the middle of the fourteenth century, and far into modernity,
the Militia S. Sepulcri had found an organizational form.12 Its frame was the
Confrrie du Saint Sepulcre, founded in 1326 by Count Louis of Clermont with
the support and approval of Charles iv, Philip vi and John xxii. The inspira-
tion grew from the crusading plans of the French crown, which by the begin-
ning of the fourteenth century had grown beyond mere theoretical statements
to encompass the recruitment of a crusading army and the deployment of a
vanguard. Accordingly, the membership of the brotherhood consisted not of
former crusaders but of future ones, who had become crucesignati in strict
accordance with canon law, and who stood ready to undertake a crusade. What
bound the French confraternity with the Militia S. Sepulcri, however, was not
only the readiness to take the field for the Holy Sepulcher, but also the effort to

10 Here cf. N.J. Cinnamond, Contribucin al estudio de la Orden del Santo Sepulcro (Vich,
1933).
11 A. De Kerseve, LOrdre du Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem de 1291 nos jours, in: De Borbon-
Parme (n. 2), 5784.
12 General overviews in: E. Molinier, Inventaire du trsor de lglise du Saint-Spulcre de
Paris (1379), Mmoires de la Socit de IHistoire de Paris et de lIle-de-France 9 (Paris, 1883),
3986; M. Du Pierredon, LOrdre questre du Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem (Paris, 1928); X.
du Boisrouvray, Lglise collegiale et la confrrie du Saint-Sepulcre Paris (13251791), in:
Positions de thses (Paris, 1953), 3335. x. du Boisrouvray is not prepared to allow his thesis
to be tested in other locales. The author explores the institutional circumstance in Paris
in greater detail in the work cited in n. 6.
194 chapter 5

establish a link to its legendary traditions. The cooperation of canons,


Hospitalers and knights, along with the recovery of older liturgical and archi-
tectural models, was meant to renew a tradition of veneration at the Holy
Sepulcher in Jerusalem, one that supposedly reached back to the earliest days
of Christianity. Only when the effort to realize the crusade in practice was
abandoned did the confraternity find itself reduced to one centered merely on
devotion and commemorationand one that after the loss of its original
duties struggled so mightily amid the tensions between knights, canons and
devotees that by the seventeenth century it had all but dissolved. Yet its decline
gave new life to another Confrrie du Saint-Spulcre, this one with its home,
again from the fourteenth century, among the Cordeliers of Paris.13 Officially
recognized as a royal archconfraternity in 1693, it drew its membership from
both the high nobility and the royal familywhich not only secured its exis-
tence until the dissolution decree of 1792, but also allowed its restoration in
1824 (however short-lived) as the Ordre Royal militaire et hospitalier du Saint
Spulcre de Jrusalem. After the formation of such half-legitimate cadet lines,
the establishment of regional associations and the failed attempts to found the
order anew, a lasting unification of all of the knights of the Holy Sepulcher
came only in 1868, twenty years after the re-foundation of the Latin Patriarchate
of Jerusalem. It came at the instigation of the patriarch, through Pius ix, and
gave the long-disorganized brotherhood of knights the formal shape of a
papally approved military order. It was placed under the authority of the pope
as its ultimate sovereign, taking the patriarch of Jerusalem as its administrator
and its de facto leader and organizing itself into three classes and national bal-
liwicks. Expected of its members were Catholic confession, good works for the
church and the Holy Land as well as noble birth, or a social rank sufficient to
allow one to live more nobilium. This organizational foundation was in turn
subject to many modifications under Pius xi, Pius xii and Paul vi. Its exclu-
sively noble character, as well as its character as an order of service, were
downplayed, its religious and fraternal dimensions emphasized.14

13 L. Beaumont-Maillet, Le Grand Couvent des Cordeliers de Paris. tude historique et


archologique du XIIIe sicle nos jours, Bibliothque de lcole des Hautes tudes. IVe
Section: Sciences historiques et philologiques 325 (Paris, 1975) hardly treats this brother-
hood at all. See n. 6.
14 On the contemporary circumstance of the order, along with the literature cited in n. 6, see
K.M. Stephan, Ordo Equestris Sacri Sepulcri Hierosolymitani. Der Ritterorden vom
Heiligen Grab zu Jerusalem, in: Predigten und Ansprachen von Erzbischof Dr L. Jaeger
(Paderborn, 1957); A Cohausz, Zur Spiritualitt des Ritterordens vom Heiligen Grab. Aus
Investituransprachen Kardinal Jaegers zusammengestellt, Deus Lo Vult nf 15 (1975).
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 195

Our image of the knights of the Holy Sepulcher is one that quite resists firm
definition, and one that is quite subject to change. Thus one would hardly be
able to claim that it was founded before even the great military orders, that its
members fought on the battlefields of Palestine, Spain and even Poland, or
that they counted among their number so many crusading princes and rulers
of the high middle ages, without some other institution providing a matrix for
such claims. That institution is the canonical order of the Holy Sepulcher.
Their existence, amid the flood of publications on the knights of the Holy
Sepulcher, has fallen into oblivion almost as much as the canons of the Temple,
about whom (as a consequence of the dominant tradition of the Templars)
one hears hardly a word. The memory of the canons has lived on even into our
day only in the intimate circles of the canons and canonesses themselves, and
has found its expression only in histories of the order that for the most part
remain in manuscripts written by Spanish, Polish, French and Dutch members
whose names it would be pointless to survey here. Only in recent years have we
come to know enough about them to place alongside an overview of the his-
tory and the nature of the Ordo Equestris S. Sepulcri Hierosolymitani a similar
one for the Ordo Canonicorum regularium S. Sepulcri Dominici.15
Unlike the Ordo Equestris, the Ordo Canonicorum S. Sepulcri was, from the
beginning, a clearly definable institution. It was nothing other than the cathe-
dral chapter of Jerusalem, established in 1099 by Godfrey of Bouillon and other
crusaders at the basilica of the Holy Sepulcher.16 It was subject to the patriarch
of Jerusalem, and in the pattern of western cathedrals supported him both in
the administration of his diocese and in the performance of a liturgy that took

15 Up to the appearance of the works cited in n. 6: W. Hotzelt, Die Chorherren vom Heiligen
Grab in Jerusalem, in: Das Hl. Land in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart 2 (Cologne, 1940),
107; P. Grech, Les Chanoines du Saint-Spulchre. Institut Catholique de Toulouse, Facult
de Droit Canonique (unprinted thesis, 1958); G. Bautier, Le Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem et
lOccident au Moyen ge (unprinted thesis of the cole Nationale des Chartes, 1971);
K. Elm, Fratres et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri. Beitrge zu fraternitas, familia und weibli-
chem Religiosentum im Umkreis des Kapitels vom Hlg. Grab, Frhmittelalterliche Studien
9 (1975), 287333; M. Hereswitha, Inleiding tot de Geschiedenis van het Kloosterwezen in de
Nederlanden A ii, 1 f.: Orde van het Heilig-Graf, Archief- en Bib!iotheekwezen in Belgie,
Extranummer 15 (Brussels, 1975); K. Elm, Quellen zur Geschichte des Ordens vom Hlg. Grab
in Nordwesteuropa aus deutschen und niederlndischen Archiven (11911603), Acadmie
Royale de Belgique. Commission Royale dHistoire (Brussels, 1976).
16 William of Tyre, Historia rerum in transmarinis gestarum, ix, 9, rhc Hist. oec. i (Paris, 1864),
376377. Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana i, 30, ed. H. Hagenmeyer (Heidelberg,
1913), 308; Albert of Aachen, Historia Hierosolymitana vi, 40, rhc Hist. oec. iv (Paris, 1879),
490. E. de Rozire, Cartulaire de lglise du Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem (Paris, 1849).
196 chapter 5

shape as a composite of Greek and Latin elements.17 Conflicts among the cru-
sading princes and the struggle between Daimbert of Pisa and Arnulf of
Chocques over the patriarchal officeand therefore over the future place of
the church in the kingdom of Jerusalemrepeatedly drew the canons into
partisan conflict18 and allowed them to forget their actual duties, to such a
degree that Paschal ii could characterize the circumstance of their community
as an outrage that brought shame to Christians and gave occasion for insult
among the heathen.19 After the failed attempts of his predecessor Gibelin, and
in the face of heavy resistance that lasted into the 20s, the energetic patriarch
Arnulf was able only in 1114 to turn the canons from praebendarii and propri-
etarii to a life lived in common. But the canons now could lay claim more
strongly than before to the vita communis and the paupertas evangelica of the
early church in Jerusalem.20 From that time the spiritual life and liturgical
work of the community of the chapter was grounded in the Regula, more pre-
cisely the Praeceptum S. Augustini, and to Consuetudines or Ordines that had
been influenced by French models, more precisely those of the reform-centers
of Reims, St. Quentin and St. Rufus.21 And that influence was strong enough that
this transmutatio canonicorum secularium in regulares (which Arnulf celebrated

17 References to the liturgical manuscripts of the canons in H. Buchtal, Miniature Painting in


the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford, 1957), 140ff. and M. Hereswitha, Inleiding (n. 15),
2024. Also: Ch. Koehler, Un rituel et un brviaire du Saint-Spulcre de Jrusalem (XIIe
XIIIe sicle), Revue de l Orient latin 8 (1900), 383499; A. Schnfelder, Die Prozessionen
der Lateiner in Jerusalem zur Zeit der Kreuzzge, Hist. Jahrbuch 32 (1911), 578597;
C.D. Fonseca, Il ms. gerosolimitano della communit canonicale del Santo Sepolcro di
Barletta, in: Medioevo Canonicale, Pubbl. dell Universit Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Contr.
iii, 12 (Milan, 1970), 193195; H. Piwoski, Antyfonarz Boogrobcw z Miechowa, in:
Polska Akademia Nauk-Instytut Sztuki. Musica Medii Aevi vi (Warsaw, 1977), 88140.
18 Most recently: H.E. Mayer, Die Entwicklung des Besitzes des Hl. Grabes in der Frhzeit,
der erste Versuch zur Grndung eines Bistums in Jaffa und das Verhltnis von Kirche und
Staat im Knigreich Jerusalem, in: Bistmer, Klster und Stifte im Knigreich Jerusalem,
Schriften der mgh 26 (Stuttgart, 1977), 143.
19 Rozire (n. 16), 911.
20 Ibid., 7880, 4447.
21 On the particular problems (which in any case do not pertain to the oldest recension of
the Constitutions): P. Lefvre, Prmontr, ses origines, sa premire, liturgie, les relations
de son code lgislatif avec Cteaux et les chanoines du Saint Spulcre de Jrusalem,
Analectica Praemonstratensia 25 (1949), 96103; M. Hereswitha, Het verband tussen de
wetgeving van de Heilige Graforde en die van de Orde van Prmontr in de XIIe eeuw,
ibid., 47 (1971), 523; A.H. Thomas, Les statuts des Chanoines du Saint-Spulcre et leurs
rapports avec les constitutions des Dominicains, Arch. Frat. Praed. 48 (1978), 522.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 197

not without justification as renovatio ecclesie Sancti Sepulcri)22 can be seen, at


least with regard to spirituality and statutes, as an extension of the canonical
reform movements of the end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth
centuries.23 A number of factorsthe high ranking of their titular church;
their guardianship and veneration of the most holy relics of Christendom;
their eminent place in the religious and political life of the kingdomensured
for the canons not only the place of highest honor among the monastic and
canonical institutions of the Holy Land,24 but garnered for them in the
crusaders homeland an esteem that was not inconsiderable. It was thus not
difficult for them to acquire property, to take over churches and to found new
settlements in ultramarinis partibus just as they did in Palestine and Syria.
Already in the first years of the twelfth century they can be seen at work in the
same places where Hospitalers and Templars had begun to seek their support:
in southern France and southern Italy, but above all in Spain.25 At the same
time, and in fact on occasion earlier than the two famous military orders, they
branched out into western, central and eastern Europe, and became active in
the newly founded Latin Empire of Constantinople.26 Already by the end of
the twelfth century they had reached the goal they had articulated to the king
of France27to establish settlements in omnibus regnis, ubi nomen crucifixi

22 Rozire (n. 16), 4445.


23 Cf. most recently on this: L. Milis, The Regular Canons and Some Socioreligious Aspects
About the Year 1000, in tudes de civilisation mdievale (IXeXIIe sicles), Mlanges
offerts E.R. Labande (Poitiers, n.d.), 553561; C.W. Bynum, The Spirituality of Regular
Canons in the Twelfth Century: A New Approach, Medievalia et Humanistica ns 4 (1973),
323; St. Weinfurter, Neuere Forschungen zu den Regularkanonikern im deutschen Reich
des 11. und 12. Jahrhunderts, hz 214 (1978), 379397.
24 Rozire (n. 16), 56.
25 Provisionally: F. Allemand, Les prieurs du Saint Spulcre, Bull. Soc. dtudes des Hautes
Alpes 3 (1884), 122; P. Vidal, tudes historiques sur le prieur de Marcevol de lOrdre du
Saint Spulcre, Bull. Soc. Agricole, Scient. et Litt. des Pyrnes Orientales 29 (1888), 165;
L.T. White, Latin Monasticism in Norman Sicily, The Medieval Academy of America Publ.
31 (Cambridge, ma, 1938); G. Tessier, Les dbuts de lOrdre du Saint Spulcre en Espagne,
Bibl. de lcol. des Chartres 116 (1956), 528.
26 For an overview of the expansion in central and eastern Europe: Z. Pckowski,
Miechw. Studia z dziejw miasta I ziemi Miechowskiej do roku 1914 (Miechw, 1965);
K. Elm, St. Pelagius in Denkendorf. Die lteste deutsche Propstei des Kapitels vom
Hlg. Grab in Geschichte und Geschichtsschreibung, in: Landesgeschichte und
Geistesgeschichte. Festschrift fr Otto Herding zum 65. Geburtstag, Verff. D. Komm.
F.Geschichtl. Landeskunde in Baden-Wrttemberg B 92 (Stuttgart, 1977), 80130.
27 rhfg xvi, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1978)
198 chapter 5

accipitur. It should also be mentioned that in the Empire the canons enjoyed
the special favor of the Hohenstaufen. And neither the loss of Jerusalem nor
the fall of Acre meant, as one might expect, the end of a chapter thereby
deprived of its core duties. Its members remained in the service of the Holy
Sepulcher while in exile, first Acre, then later in Perugia. And even as the
Franciscans took over the guardianship of the grave in Jerusalem, the canons
continued to style themselves keepers of the Sanctum Sanctorum and as the
only legitimate clergy of Jerusalem.27a That they maintained this strong sense
of identity unfailingly into the nineteenth century did nothing to keep the real-
ity at bay: the chapter slowly lost its significance, and the streamlined organi-
zation that had been crafted in the thirteenth century with the help of Urban
iv (himself a former patriarch of Jerusalem) soon began to crumble.28 While
the actual chapter at S. Lucia in Perugia never recovered from the loss of its
titular church and its overseas possessions, its daughter houses were in a posi-
tion to shore up their position and to expand their holdings. In Italy, France,
Spain, England, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia they orga-
nized themselvesunder the leadership, respectively, of the provosts or priors
of Barletta and Messina, Annecy and La Viniadre, Barcelona, Catalayud and
Logroo, Warwick and Thetford, Denkendorf and Droyig, Miechw, Prague
and Glogovnicainto congregations that stood at least nominally under the
direction (often difficult to distinguish) of either the prior or the patriarch. But
in reality, at least with regard to matters of organization, spirituality and prop-
erty, their own interests and local conditions shaped developments more
strongly than any common heritage. This sharp independence was thus also
the precondition that allowed the canons once more at the end of the middle
ages to endure another crisis that, like being driven from the Holy Land itself,
threatened their existence, and to enter into a third phase of the history of
their community. In 1489 Pope Innocent vii ordered the dissolution of the
chapter and transferred its holdings to the Knights of St. John, who were war-
ring with the Turks. The decision brought an end to the mother house in
Perugia and to a few other houses in Italy, Spain, France and central Germany.
But the larger, better-organized congregations in the south and the West of the
Empire, in Spain, France and Poland survivednot least because so many
secular princes engaged so forcefully for their survival that Alexander vi was
forced to renounce the decree of dissolution issued by his predecessor.29 And
while long-since independent houses in England and most German houses

27a Cf. n. 53.


28 G. Bresc-Bautier, Bulles dUrbain iv en faveur de lOrdre du Saint-Sepulcre (12611264),
in: Mlanges de lcole fran. de Rome 85,1 (1973), 283310.
29 Elm, St. Pelagius in Denkendorf (n. 26), 8082.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 199

(with the exception of their daughter houses in the lower-Rhine and the Low
Countries) fell victim to the Reformation, the remaining communities were in
a positionalong with the female branch of the order, which had begun to
flower anew in the fifteenth centuryto maintain their existence. Under the
leadership of the Polish foundation at Miechw as the new caput ordinis, they
were then able to continue the tradition of the Latin Ecclesia Hierosolymitana
founded in 1099 into the nineteenth centuryand the womens communities
continue that tradition still today.30
This brief history of the canonical order explains aspects of the confused
story of the military order of the Holy Sepulcher that would be hardly under-
standable otherwise. The notion of a founding by Godfrey of Bouillon, of dis-
solution under Innocent vii and a renewal under Alexander vi find their
historical foundations here. The same is also true for the tracing of a tradition
back to the Apostle Jacobus Minor. The patriarch and the chapter of the Holy
Sepulcher did in fact work from their earliest days to claim for themselves
standing in an unbroken tradition of the clergy of Jerusalem, and to represent
like no other spiritual community in Christianity the ecclesia primitiva, the
early church in Jerusalem. It is all the more astonishing that such a tightly
interwoven tapestry of history and tradition is almost entirely divorced from
reality. Apart from occasional interventions, such as the missives that knights
of the Holy Sepulcher such as Frederick iii and Maximilian I sent to Alexander
vi (aimed at annulling the decree of dissolution issued by his predecessor),31
there were never any close personal connectionsto say nothing of institu-
tional connectionsbetween the knights and the canons of the Holy
Sepulcher. The former did virtually nothing for pilgrimage to Jerusalem and
the recuperatio terrae sanctae. The latter saw themselves as obligated to the
holy sites of Palestine, but not to the communities of canons that had taken
root in their own countries. In 1486, after his return from the Holy Land, Count
Eberhard im Bart of Wrttemberg was elevated to the rank of miles S. Sepulcri
and honored with gifts from the prelates of the male houses of the territory.
But one prelate was absent: the prior of the canonry of the Holy Sepulcher in
Denkendorf.32 With the fall of Acre, clearly not only the Latin lordship of
Outremer had come to an end. There had been such a profound shift in

30 M. Hereswitha, De vrouwenkloosters van het Heilig-Graf in het prinsbisdom Luik vanaf


hun ontstaan tot aan de Fransche Revolutie (14801789), Universiteit te Leuven. Publ. op
het gebied der Geschiedenis en der Philologie iii, 4 (Antwerp-Leuven, 1941); Elm, Fratres
et Sorores (n. 15), 312333.
31 Elm, St. Pelagius in Denkendorf, (n. 26), 8082.
32 J.U. Steinhofer, Neue Wirtembergische Chronik (Stuttgart, 1752), 158162; Elm, St. Pelagius
in Denkendorf (n. 26), 113.
200 chapter 5

crusading and in veneration of the Holy Sepulcher that the knights and can-
ons of the same Sepulcher confronted one another as representatives of two
different worlds.
Having thus juxtaposed the histories of the canons and the knights of the
Holy Sepulcher, one could consider the theme more or less exhausted. But one
would then be exposed to the accusation of having offered a contribution not
to the history of a knightly order during the crusades, but at best to the afterlife
of the Latin church of Jerusalem and to the (occasionally odd) transformations
of crusading thought. It must therefore be asked whether already during the
crusading era there are discernible at least the beginnings of something one
could describe as knighthood, or even a knightly order of the Holy Sepulcher.
Such an inquiry is promising, because it speaks to something other than the
arguments one typically encounters in the literature on the knights of the Holy
Sepulcherthat from the twelfth century they enjoyed privileges similar to
the other military orders; that they were endowed by King Alfonso I of Aragon
with a third of his kingdom; that they participated in military engagements in
Palestine and Spain and like the Hospitalers and Templars could shed blood for
the defense of the Holy Land. These arguments, and others quite overlooked
by the knights advocates (in the high and late middle ages the papal chancel-
lery repeatedly nudged the canons in the direction of the knightly order and
gave them a military mission in the Holy Land)33 need not be rehearsed here.
Insofar as they have any historical foundation at all, they can be quite well
reconciled with the canonical character of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher
(which not need be proven in detail here). Much more relevant to an affirma-
tive answer to our question are those concepts and rubrics that historians of
the knights adduce in a certain way as the last and most definitive proof of
their thesis. I mean here the formulations found already in the twelfth century
in chronicles, charters, letters and legal sources: dedicatus, frater, custos, famu-
lus, magister, even miles S. Sepulcri. From these the historians noted here think
themselves able to say that all are markers of one and the same circle of people,
that is to say the members of the knights of the Holy Sepulcher.
Knights in service of the Holy Sepulcher, in servitute S. Sepulcri, appear in
both historical as well as literary texts. Four crusaders and Jerusalem pilgrims
of the twelfth century emerge from the historical sources as crowning wit-
nesses for early service to the Holy Sepulcher: Counts Poppo of Wertheim,

33 Cf. for example: Inn. iii, 8. 3. 1210, Pott. 3929. Inn. iv, 1. 3. 1249, Reg. Vat. an. vi, fol. 32.
Clement V., 5. 11. 1313; S. Nakielski, Miechovia sive Promptuarium Antiquitatum Monasterii
Miechoviensis (Cracow, 1634), 306307.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 201

Adolf iii of Schauenburg, Rudolf of Pfullendorf and Berthold of Neuenburg.34


Upon closer inspection, for the first two nobles there is little more than evi-
dence for their participation in a crusade.35 But contemporary sources reveal
that the count of Pfullendorf, who set out for the Holy Land in 1180, perpetuali-
ter sancti sepulcri servitio dicavit. And the lord of Neuenburg, who became a
crusader in 1200, led many nobles by his example perpetuo servicio sancti sep-
ulcri se devovere.36 There is at the moment no proof, however, for the tempting
conclusion: that the perpetuum servicium of two crusaders who died in the
Holy Land was part of a lasting institutional tie to the church or the chapter of
the Holy Sepulcher.37 A recent new edition of a letter from the Count of
Pfullendorf to the procurator of San Marco in Venice, on the contrary, gives the
impression that he felt himself more strongly bound to the Hospital than to the
Holy Sepulcher.38 In the literary realm the results are somewhat more favor-
able. Here we have two Middle High German poems, the knightly lais Orendel
and Peter of Staufenberg, whose heroes (Master Ise and the knight Egenolf)
are made knights or herzogen zuo dem heiligen grab in Jerusalem.39 The textual
transmission of the two works, which have recently been dated to somewhere
between the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century, is
not well enough researched40 to be able to say with certainty whether we have

34 Hermens, Orden (n. 5), 21.


35 J. Aschbach, Geschichte der Grafen von Wertheim von den ltesten Zeiten bis zu ihrem
Erlschen im Mannesstamme im Jahre 1556 (Frankfurt, 1843) I, 6369; ii, 1718;
D. Rdebusch, Der Anteil Niedersachsens an den Kreuzzgen und Heidenfahrten, Quellen
und Darstellungen zur Geschichte Niedersachsens 80 (Hildesheim, 1972), 20.
36 C. Henking (ed.), Die annalistischen Aufzeichnungen des Klosters St Gallen, Mitt. z.
Vaterlnd. Gesch. St. Gallen 19 (1884), 323324; H. Bloch (ed.), Annales Marbacenses, ss rer.
germ. (Hannover-Leipzig, 1907), 7576.
37 On Rudolf von Pfullendorf: K. Schmid, Graf Rudolf von Pfullendorf und Kaiser Friedrich I,
Forschungen z. Oberrhein. Landesgesch. I (Freiburg, 1954). On Bertholdus comes de
Nuwenpurch (according to the information of Dr Tfl. Zotz, Gttingen, Nimburg in the
Kaiserstuhl rather than the Zhringer foundation at Neuenburg, as Bloch, 76, assumes): L.
Werkmann, Die Grafen von Nimburg im Breisgau. Mit einem Nachtrag von Dr J. Bader,
fda 10 (1876), 7196. H. Ott, Das Urbar als Quelle fr die Wstungsforschung. Dargestellt
an Beispielen aus dem Oberrheingebiet, zgo 116 (1968), 1319.
38 M.-L. Favreau, Zur Pilgerfahrt des Grafen Rudolf von Pfullendorf. Ein unbeachteter
Originalbrief aus dem Jahre 1180, zgo 123 (1975), 3145.
39 H. Steinger (ed.), Orendel, Altdeutsche Textbibliothek 36 (Halle 1935), verses 22772280;
A. EbenbauerE. Schreder, Zwei Altdeutsche Rittermaeren: Moriz von Craon, Peter von
Staufenberg, 4th ed. (Berlin, 1929), verses 346350.
40 E. Teubner, Die Datierungsfrage des mittelhochdeutschen Orendelepos, (Diss.
Gttingen, 1954); O. Dinges, Peter von Staufenberg (Diss. Mnster, 1948); M. Curschmann,
202 chapter 5

here early witnesses for the custom of knighting at the Holy Sepulcher, or
whether the passages must be taken as an anticipation of a later custom, one
firmly established only in the fourteenth century.41 But when one recalls that
in the twelfth century dubbing occurred in the Holy Land as much as in France
and Germany,42 it is not difficult to imagine such ceremonies taking place in
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, perhaps even in the Monumentum itself.
Even for the associations of crusaders and pilgrims under the patronage of the
Holy Sepulcher that Cramer first dated to the later middle ages there can be
found precursors dating to the time of the crusades. There was in Jerusalem
probably already before 1187a Fraternitas whose seal is so consciously
adorned with the patriarchs cross that one can hardly rule out a tie to the Holy
Sepulcher and its clergy.43 In the fourth decade of the twelfth century William
iii, Earl of Warren marked the occasion of the founding of the priory of the
Holy Sepulcher in Thetford, Norfolk. He did so with reference to his fratres
palmiferi,44 who had ties to the Holy Sepulcher. And in Cambridge two decades

Spielmannsepik. Wege und Ergebnisse der Forschung von 19071965. Mit Ergnzungen und
Nachtrgen bis 1967 (Stuttgart, 1968). Cf. also: V. Meves, Das Gedicht vom Grauen Rock
(Orendel) und die Trierer Reliquientradition, Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch 15 (1975), 519.
41 So Cramer, Ritterschlag (n. 4), 148154.
42 Fulcher of Chartres, iii, 31, 726727. Cf. also 409, n. 4, 495, n. 9; Van Winter (n. 7), 66.
Further examples of elevation to knighthood in Palestine during the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries: J. Riley-Smith, The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1174
1277 (London, 1973), 11. For the various ways of knighting cf. along with the literature cited
in n. 7: W. Erben, Schwertleite und Ritterschlag, Zeitschrift fr historische Waffenkunde
8 (191820), 105176; F. Pietzner, Schwertleite und Ritterschlag (Heidelberg, 1934);
E.H. Massmann, Schwertleite und Ritterschlag aufgrund der mittelhochdeutschen liter-
arischen Quellen (Hamburg, 1932); R.W. Ackerman, The Knighting Ceremonies in the
Middle English Romances, Speculum 29 (1944), 285313.
43 S. De Sandoli, Corpus Inscriptionum Crucesignatorum Terrae Sanctae (10991291). Testo,
traduzione e annotazioni. Pubbl. dello Studium Biblicum Franciscanum 21 (Jerusalem,
1974), 331. Not treated in the discussion of the confraternities of Palestine in the crusading
era: J. Richard, La Confrrie des Mosserins d Acre et les marchands de Mossul au xiiie
sicle, LOrient Syrien 11 (1966), 451460; J. Prawer, Estates, Communities and the
Constitution of the Latin Kingdom, The Israel Acad. of Sciences and Humanities. Proc. ii, 6
(Jerusalem, 1969); H.E. Mayer, Zwei Kommunen in Akkon?, da 26 (1970), 434453;
J. Riley-Smith, A Note on Confraternities in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Bull. of the
Inst. of Hist. Research 44 (1971), 301308; J. Richard, La confrrie de la croisade: propos
dun pisode de la premire croisade, in: tudes de Civilisation Mdivale (IXeXIIe si-
cles). Mlanges E.-R. Labande (Poitiers, n.d.), 617622.
44 British Library, London, ms Add. Ch. 17,245. On this matter; F. Blomfield, The History of the
Ancient City and Burgh of Thetford (Farsfield, 1739), 120128; W. Page (ed.), The Victoria
History of the County of Norfolk ii (London, 1906), 391393.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 203

before, a Fraternitas S. Sepulcripossibly also an association of Jerusalem


pilgrimstook part in the founding of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher there.44a
The designation fratres appears frequently in the surviving documentation
of the chapter, along with related formulations like confratres or confratrisse S.
sepulcri.45 In the juxtapositions canonici et fratres as well as fratres et sorores
such formulations appear almost stereotypical.46 But upon closer investigation
it becomes clear that they designate a full range of forms of spiritual asso-
ciation that the chapter of the Holy Sepulcher (along with so many other
monastic and canonical institutions in Palestine and Syria) had shaped from
Western traditions and made at home in Outremer.47 Fratres S. Sepulcri are the
conversi, who were more or less fully integrated into the community of full-
fledged canons.48 Fratres S. Sepulcri are also the oblates, male and female, who
in return for certain advance payments received provision from the canons,
intus et extra monasterium, with victus et vestitus.49 King Baldwin ii was also a
frater, who as perhaps the most distinguished frater ad succurendum took the
habit of a canon shortly before his death, and thereby gained access to all of
the spiritual graces and intercession that were available to the professed
canons.50 But above all the designation fratres encompassed the many faithful
Christianscrusading princes, European rulers, nobles from both sides of the
Mediterranean, individual clerics and clerical institutions, as well as men and
women of non-noble statusall of whom were taken up as confratres or

44a W.H. Hart and P.A. Lyons, Cartularium Monasterii de Rameseia I, Rolls Series 79 (London,
1884), 145146.
45 Discussed thoroughly in Elm, Fratres et Sorores (n. 15).
46 Rozire (n. 16), 2.
47 Cf. for example: H.F. Delaborde (ed.), Chartes de Terre Sainte provenant de labbaye de N.-D.
de Josaphat, Bibl. des coles fran. dAthenes et de Rome 19 (Paris, 1889), 23, 2627,
4749, 8485, 9294; A. de Marsy, Fragment dun Cartulaire de lOrdre de Saint Lazare en
Terre Sainte, Archives de lOrient latin 2 (1884), 131, 39, 47; E. Magnou, Oblature, classe
chevaleresque et servage dans les maisons mridionales du Temple au XIIe sicle,
Annales du Midi 73 (1961), 377397; B. Waldstein-Wartenberg, DonatenConfratres
Pfrndner. Die Bruderschaften des Ordens, Annales de losm de Malte 31 (1973), 919.
48 Regulations for conversi, among others, in: ms vat. Barb. Lat. 659, fol. 12v; Kohler (n. 17),
338, 402, 413 and a collection based on an earlier recension, the Statuta canonicorum regu-
larium Ordinis ss. Sepulcri monasterii Sanctae Crucis (Lttich, 1742).
49 Among others, Rozire (n. 16), 162163; Espaa Sagrada 49 (Madrid, 1865), 378, 395; Ibid.,
50 (Madrid, 1886), 142, 426, 429.
50 William of Tyre, xiii, 28, 602. Cf. also: H.E. Mayer, Das Pontifikale von Tyrus und die
Krnung der lateinischen Knige von Jerusalem. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Forschung ber
Herrschaftzeichen und Staatssymbolik, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 21 (1967), 185186; Elm,
Fratres et Sorores (n. 15), 301302.
204 chapter 5

concanonici into the canons community of prayer and spiritual merit, and
who as such enjoyed a range of precisely defined spiritual privileges, but who
were also bound to certain obligations to the chapter.51 These kinds of spiritual
confraternities, in the West and in the Holy Land alike, were not intended from
the outset to facilitate the formation of sharply defined communities. But in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries we can discern in the West organized
confraternities or confratrias of the Holy Sepulcher that were closely tied to
the chapter, and in fact in a few cases were under the direct leadership of one
of its members. Their core duty was to work for the support of the canons.52
Along with the designation fratres, one also finds very early on the formulation
custodes S. Sepulcri. As in the case of the fratres, here the overwhelming number of
these references can easily be traced back to their original meaning. They are ref-
erences to none other than the patriarch and canons, who were given the title
custos or custodes S. Sepulcri, and who were thereby clothed in language found in
both the Psalms and the New Testament. The designation in fact so strongly
reflected the self-understanding of the canons as custodians and guardians of the
Holy Sepulcher that they articulated it again and again, and in fact no later than
the end of the middle ages they let it become a kind of name for their order.53 But
evidence from the first half of the twelfth century also reveals a much more spe-
cific meaning for this concept. Custodes, according to John of Wrzburg and the
report of Theodoricus, are also those guardians and caretakers who reside in the
antechamber of the Monumentum, who open and close the doors of the church
day after day, and who keep order firmlyperhaps even with weapon in hand, but
in any case acerrimeamid the throng of pilgrims.54 We do not know how these
custodes were organized; we do not know whether they carried weapons; nor do

51 For example Rozire (n. 16), 92, 110, 115, 128, 311; Espaa Sagrada 20 (Madrid, 1765), 309, 50,
436; H. Appelt (ed.), Schlesisches Urkundenbuch I (Cologne-Vienna, 1963), 43ff.
52 E. Dittrich, Beitrge zur Geschichte der Kreuzherren mit dem doppelten roten Kreuz in
Neie, Jahresber. d. Neier Kunst- u. Altertumsvereins 18 (1914), 32; E.O. Baile, Los Hermanos
del Santo Sepulcro de Jerusalen en Zaragoza (Saragosa, 1964).
53 Cf. for example Rozire (n. 16), 4447 and the numerous witnesses in S. Nakielski, De
sacra antiquitate et statu Ordinis Canonicorum Custodum Sacrosancti Sepulcri
Hierosolymitani (Cracow, 1625). On the adoption of the designation by the Franciscans in
the Holy Land see now among others C. Brelek, De Custode Terrae Sanctae in legislatione
Ordinis Fratrum Minorum (Jerusalem, 1958); A. Arce, De Origine Custodiae Terrae
Sanctae, in: Miscelanea de Terra Santa iii, Ex Archivis Custodiae Terrae Sanctae 9
(Jerusalem, 1974), 75139.
54 R. Rhricht, Beitrge zur Geschichte der Kreuzzge (Berlin, 1874), 193; T. Tobler (ed.),
Descriptiones Terrae Sanctae ex saeculo viii., ix., xii. et xv. (Leipzig, 1874), 147148; M.-L.
and W. Bulst (ed.), Theodoricus: Libellus de Locis Sanctis, Editiones Heiclelbergenses 18
(Heidelberg, 1976), 1213.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 205

we know whether it is they who appear in the chronicles of the First Crusade,
where there is occasional discussion of how the holy sites of Jerusalem were left in
tuitio and defensio.55 We know only that they had predecessors in their office, vis-
ible as far back as the sixth century: the fragelites of Cyrill of Scythopolis and the
custodes of the Commemoratorium,56 who according to recent Greek Orthodox
scholarship may have been organized as spudaei in their own fraternitates.57
We now turn to a third cluster of relationships, to the clientes or famuli S.
Sepulcri and the magister who was placed over them.58 Here we come closer
than with the custodes to the concept of an active laity in service to the
patriarch and the chapter.59 They were burgenses, non-nobles of Frankish
descent who held propertyby whatever rightof the chapter.60 Over them
was a magister clientium, a figure who was not a master in the mold of the mili-
tary orders, but rather a canon of the Church of the Sepulcher who in certain
cases allowed himself to be represented through a dispensator.61 The clientes, at
least those of Magna Mahumeria62 (located between Jerusalem and Nablus
and tied to the chapter), swore a kind of oath of fidelity through which they obli-
gated themselves explicitly to the canons ad custodiendum et manutenendum
vitam et membra eorum.62a The oath suggests that this circle may have been the

55 Albert of Aachen, vi, 41, 491, xi, 28, 676; Ekkehard of Aura, Hierosolymita, xvii, 3 (ed.
H. Hagenmeyer, Tbingen, 1877), 175; Quarti (n. 1), 551555. These and other comparable
passages refer to the Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro.
56 J.B. Cotelier, (ed.), Ecclesiae graecae monumenta iii (Paris, 1686), 278; E. Schwartz, Kyrillos
von Skythopolis (Leipzig, 1939), 48. Similar formulations also in Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., mpg
20, c. 542) and John Moschus (Pratrum Spirituale, mpg 87, c. 2903); T. ToblerA. Moliner,
Itinera Hierosolymitana et descriptiones Terrae Sanctae I, Publ. de la Soc. de lOrient Latin.
Sr. gogr. I (Paris, 1879), 301.
57 T.P. Themelis, Les Grecs aux Lieux Saints, Nea Sion 15 (1920), 403; S. Petrides, Spudaei et
Philopones, Echos dOrient 7 (1904), 341.
58 Rozire (n. 16), 238244, 249250.
59 J. Prawer, Colonization Activities in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Revue belge de
philologie et dhistoire 29 (1951), 10631118; Elm, Fratres et Sorores, (n. 15), 298300.
60 J. Prawer, tude preliminaire sur les sources et la composition du Livre des Assises de
Bourgeois, Revue hist. de droit fran. et tranger 32 (1954), 218227; Riley-Smith, The
Feudal Nobility (n. 42), 49.
61 Rozire, ibid., 249. Riley-Smith, ibid., 49.
62 Cf. along with Prawer, Colonization Activities, 1090ff. Also F.M. Abel, Les deux Mahomerie
El-Bireh, El-Quobeibeh, Revue Biblique 35 (1926), 272283; G. Beyer, Die Kreuzfahrergebiete
von Jerusalem und Hebron, Zeitsch. d. Dtsch. Palstinavereins 65 (1942), 165211.
62a Rozire, 243: juro fidelitatem Deo et Sanctissimo Sepulcro et Conventui eiusdem Sanctissimi
Sepulcri ad custodiendum et manutenendum vitam et membra eorum et honorem eorum et
omnia, que ad Sanctum Sepulcrum et ad praedictum conventum pertinent, salva fidelitate
regis Jerusalem.
206 chapter 5

population from which were recruited at least a part of the strong contingent
of 500 sergenz63 that the chapter and the patriarch were able to offer to the
king in the 1180s, when a grand besoin, a great emergency, compelled the force
to be called together.64 The summons calls to mind so many militiae eccle-
siarum, with which German and French prelates rendered military service to
their lords in the early and high middle ages.65 And if the clientes S. Sepulcri
who had become foot soldiers were suchas was occasionally the case in
Mahumeriathat they had transferred their property to the chapter and had,
as oblates, become confratres of the canons, then for a moment our thoughts
are turned to that connection between military service and spiritual obligation
that was so characteristic of the military orders.
Thanks to the Livre of Jean dIbelin we can speak with a certain degree of
precision about the role of the patriarch and the chapter in the defense of the
land in the decade before the capture of Jerusalem. The years immediately
after the capture of the city, however, remain somewhat in the dark.66 Yet for

63 J. Prawer, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. European Colonialism in the Middle Ages
(London, 1972), 163.
64 M. Le Comte Beugnot (ed.), Assises de Jerusalem I: Assises de la Haute Cour, rhc Lois I
(Paris 1841), 416. On the dating of the lists of aides que les yglises et les borgeis deivent,
quant le gran besoin est en la terre dou reiaume de Jerusalem, according to which the
patriarch and the chapter had to provide five hundred sergenz each: J.L. La Monte, Three
Questions Concerning the Assises de Jerusalem, Byzantia Metabyzantina 1 (1946), 207
208; J. Richard, Les listes de seigneuries dans Le Livre de Jean dIbelin, Revue hist. de
droit fran. et tranger (1954), 565577.
65 E.N. Johnson, The Secular Activities of the German Episcopate (Lincoln, 1932); L. Auer, Der
Kriegsdienst des Klerus unter den schsischen Kaisern, mig 79 (1971), 316407; 80
(1972), 4870; F. Prinz, Klerus und Krieg im frheren Mittelalter. Untersuchungen zur Rolle
der Kirche beim Aufbau der Knigsherrschaft, Monographien zur Geschichte des
Mittelalters 2 (Stuttgart, 1971); P. Van Luyn, Les milites dans la France du XIe sicle, Le
Moyen ge 77 (1971), 552, 193238; J. Johrendt, Milites und Militia im 11. Jahrhundert.
Untersuchungen zur Frhgeschichte des Rittertums in Frankreich und Deutschland
(Diss. ErlangenNuremberg, 1971); idem, Milites und Militia im 11. Jahrhundert in
Deutschland, in: Das Rittertum im Mittelalter, Wege der Forschung 349 (Darmstadt, 1976),
419436. On a particular form of the militia ecclesiae see: R. Schneider, Garciones oder
pueri abbatum. Zum Problem bewaffneter Dienstleute bei den Zisterziensern, in:
Zisterzienser-Studien 1 (1975), 1135.
66 On the difficulty of recruiting knights, and the often unclear legal foundations for the
patriarchs summons, see along with the literature cited in n. 64, among others: R.C.
Smail, Crusading Warfare (10971193) (Cambridge, 1956), 23, 88, 9495; C. Cahen, La
fodalit et les institutions politiques de lOrient latin, in: Accademia Nazionale dei
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 207

all of the difficulty in assessing a circumstance that was at that time still very
much in flux, we can be certain that the patriarch and chapter were never more
fully engaged in the armed defense of the kingdom than under Godfrey and
Baldwin I. If one can believe Albert of Aachen it was not only the milites et
pedites67 who were supportednolens volenswith stipendia and donativa
from offerings to the Holy Sepulcher, but also clerici fortiores and clerici cum
equis, who in emergencies like the battle of Ramla closed the faltering ranks of
the crusaders (and thereby expanded the number of combinations of military
and spiritual duties).68 When one then considers that the patriarch or the
prior, in this and in other battles, surrounded by milites loricati, carried before
the army the True Cross as the banner of the kingdom,69 it is easy to recognize
that such images not only confirmed young knights in their vision of their
community as a military order, but also served them as an argument for rank-
ing it above even the Templars and the Hospitalers.70
A fresh look at the sources has yielded essentially no new insightsvarious
forms of military service for the Holy Sepulcher here, a variety of religious ties
to patriarch and chapter there, but in any case only the beginnings of what
makes for the essence of a military order, and nothing that would compel us to
retreat from the claim made at the outset: That there was never a military order
of the Holy Sepulcher comparable to the Templars, the Hospitalers or the
Teutonic Knights. Yet the analysis of the range of meanings associated with the
phrase milites S. Sepulcri, though founded on only a few examples, has not
been entirely in vain. Of a certain necessity it raises the question of why the

Lincei. Fondazione Alessandro Volta. Atti dei convegni 12 (1957), 173174; J. Prawer, La
noblesse et le regime fodal du royaume latin de Jrusalem, Le Moyen ge 65 (1969),
2035; P.W. Edbury, Feudal Obligation in the Latin East, Byzantion 47 (1977),
3553.
67 Albert of Aachen, V, 53, vii, 5863, 499548. Cf. also die Epistula Dagoberti Patriarchae
Hierosolymitani ad omnes Teutonicae regionis Catholicos, in: H. Hagenmeyer, Die
Kreuzzugs briefe aus den Jahren 10881100 (Innsbruck, 1901), 177.
68 Albert of Aachen, vii, 57, 545; Gesta Francorum (ed. R. Hul), 93; Balderic of Dol, Historia
Jerosolimitana, xviii, rhc Hist. oc. iv, 107 (Note 8). Similarly also Mayer, Bistumer, Klster
und Stifte (n. 18), 10. Cf. the critique of William of Tyre against the military actions of the
canons (xxii, 16, 1095).
69 Albert of Aachen, vi, 44; vii, 6670, 493, 550552; Petrus Tudebodus, Historia
Herosolimitana, rhc Hist. occ. iii, 113. The Gerhardus mentioned by Albert of Aachen
(550) may be a reference to the prior of the chapter and the former abbot of Schaffhausen.
See Elm, St. Pelagius in Denkendorf (n. 26), 8990.
70 Quarti (n. 1), 306ff.
208 chapter 5

patriarch and the chapter did not avail themselves of the available and indeed
compelling possibilities before them, and still more why they left to other insti-
tutions those functions that were so crucial in the Holy Land: the work of
thehospitals that was such a part of the tradition of the canonical orders; the
armed protection of pilgrims that had become necessary in the face of
theMuslim threat; the outfitting of their own militia as a contribution to the
defense of the kingdom. The question becomes all the more pressing when
one recalls that contemporaries demanded that the patriarch and his church
take over all or certain parts of these various dutiesnot only at the court of
King Roger of Sicily or in Puysubran (Pexiora) in southern France, but in
Jerusalem itself.71 According to Albert of Aachen, in 1101 Baldwin I emphati-
cally made the case that the patriarch could not dispose of the lavish donations
of the faithful only for himself and the clergy of the Church of the Sepulcher;
rather, he had the duty ut ex oblationibus Fidelium milites procuraret ac reti-
neret in conventione solidorum qui Paganorum viribus repugnantes, Peregrinos
et universam Ecclesiam ab eorum insidiis et assultibus protegerent.72 Indeed one
would not err in the assumption that the king wanted more from the patriarch
than merely temporary support or the armed protection of pilgrims. Some evi-
dence also speaks for the possibility that he expected from the spiritual head
of Jerusalem (who governed at least a quarter of the city as something like a
civic overlord)73 the provision of a military contingentjust as he did from
the other signeurs of his kingdom, among them the spiritual lordships of
Ramla and Nazareth. Why the patriarch and chapter did not comply, whether
they even considered it a possibility, or even had the chance to field a kind of
militia ecclesiae and to take charge of both the work of the hospital and the
protection of pilgrims, thereby moving along the path toward an ordo hospi-
talis or militaris S. Sepulcrithese are questions one can only approach if one
inquires into their relationships with those institutions that actually took up
the tasks enumerated here: the Templars and Hospitalers.
With regard to the Templars and their relationship to the Holy Sepulcher,
J. Leclercq has formulated the notion that they were nothing other than a
sort of third order attached to the canons regular of the Holy Sepulcher in

71 Albert of Aachen, vii, 62, 548; J. Delaville le Roulx, Cartulaire genral de lOrdre des
Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jrusalem (Paris, 189499) I, 10.
72 Albert of Aachen, vii, 58, 545.
73 On the Christian quarter in Jerusalem and its legal status cf. among others J. Prawer,
The Settlement of the Latins in Jerusalem, Speculum 27 (1952), 490550; idem, The Latin
Kingdom (n. 63), 161; Mayer, Bistmer, Klster und Stifte (n. 18), 811.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 209

Jerusalem.74 The concept of a third order is certainly not entirely fitting here,
but it does serve like no other to make clear the close bonds that existed
between the Templars, the patriarch and the canons. The legal character of
these designations, their obligation to obedience to the patriarch (later abol-
ished through the exemptions of Innocent ii) and the nature of their spiritual
orientation (an adaptation of the mos canonicorum regularium)75 have been
explored repeatedly in the literature of the Templars. But they have not yet
been as carefully researched as the circumstance requires.76 The legal relation-
ships can be more fully appreciated when one considers how far-reaching the
authority of the patriarch as bishop was over non-exempt orders and houses,
and especially over a new foundation seeking adequate organization and legal
approval.77 The nature of their spiritual formation becomes more clear when

74 J. Leclerq, Un document sur les dbuts des Templiers, rhr 52 (1957), 85. Similar formula-
tions in C.H. Dereine (Le Moyen ge 59, 1953, 197 and dhge, xii, c. 370).
75 William of Tyre, xii, 7, 520; James of Vitry, Historia Orientalis (Douai, 1557) 115120; L. De
mas Latrie, (ed.), Chronique dErnoul et de Bernard le Trsorier (Paris, 1871), 7: Et estoient
obissant au prieus dou Sepucre (!)le prieus dou Sepucre qu il les quita de lobedience.
76 From the rich literature on the history of the Templars (H. Neu, Bibliographie des
Templerordens 192765, Bonn, 1965) can be mentioned in this connection: F. Wilcke,
Geschichte des Ordens der Tempelherren, 2nd ed. (Halle, 1860); H. Prutz, Entwicklung und
Untergang des Tempelherrenordens (Berlin, 1888); G. Schnrer, Zur ersten Organisation
der Templer, Historisches Jahrbuch 32 (1911), 298314, 1146; V. Carrire, Les dbuts de
lOrdre du Temple en France, Le Moyen ge 17 (1914), 308335; F. Lundgreen, Zur
Geschichte des Templerordens, mig 35 (1914), 670687. M. Melville, La vie des Templiers,
La Suite des Temps 24, 8th ed. (Paris, 1951), l23; G. De Valous, Quelques observations
sour la toute primitive observance des Templiers et la Regula pauperum Commilitionum
Christi Templi Salomonici, rdige par saint Bernard au conci!e de Troyes (1128), in:
Mlanges Saint Bernard. XXIVe Congrs de lAssociation Bourguignonne des Socits
Savantes Dijon 1953 (Dijon, n.d.), 3240; P. Cousin, Les dbuts delOrdre des Templiers et
Saint Bernard, ibid., 4152; H.E. Mayer, Zum Itinerarium Peregrinorum. Eine Erwiderung,
da (1964), 210221; M. Barber, The Origins of the Order of the Temple, Studia Monastica
12 (1970), 219240. M.-L. Bulst-Thiele, Sacrae Domus Militiae Templi Hierosolymitani
Magistri. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Templerordens 1118/191314, Abh. d. Akad. d.
Wissenschaften in Gttingen. Phil. hist. Kl. iii, 86 (Gttingen, 1974).
77 On the terminology and the process of approval in broad outline: L. Prosdocimi, A
proposito della terminologia e della natura giuridica delle norme monastiche e canoni-
cale nei secoli xi e xii, in: Raccolta di Scritti in onore di Arturo Carlo Jemolo (Milan, 1970)
I, 2, 10671076; M. Maccarone, Le approvazioni di nuove congregazioni religiose, in:
Studi su Innocenzo iii, Italia Sacra 17 (Padua, 1972), 278300. The approval of the
Carmelites and their rule allow inferences regarding the process typical for the end of
the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century in the Holy Land: Ambrosius a
210 chapter 5

one reads the most important text, the Regula pauperum commilitionum
Christi, not only in light of the elements of the Benedictine and Augustinian
rules that appear there, but also in light of the degree to which it reflects the
mos canonicorum regularium, that is the Consuetudines of the Canons of the
Holy Sepulcher and the Canons of the Temple, who were closely associated
with them. Such readings reveal that the uniqueness of their liturgy, the nature
of their memorials for the dead, rules for prayer and fasting, their profession
ritual, their clothing and possibly even the cross of the order are understand-
able if one sees them not exclusively as the creation of Hugh of Payns, Bernard
of Clairvaux or the council fathers of Troyes, but rather as recommendations or
prescriptions of those prelates and canons78 who in 1099 played a decisive role
in shaping the life of the church in Palestine, and who by 1114 at the latest, in
the wake of the reform of the chapter and Church of the Holy Sepulcher, gave
the church of Jerusalem a constitution appropriate to its rank and worth.79 Not
only William of Tyre and the Chronique dEnroul,80 but also the patriarch and
the chapter make clear that they were not content merely to be occasional
supporters of the societas pauperum commilitonum Christi but rather played a
considerable role in their actual foundation. In 1137/38, in the presence of the
patriarch, the Grand Master of the Templars, the prior of Church of the
Holy Sepulcher and other prelates of the holy city, it was made clear that
the charging of the milites Templi with the defensio terre Jerusalem and the cus-
todia peregrinorum had been done divina providentia patriarche, Warmundi,

S. Teresia, Untersuchungen ber die Karmeliter-Regel. Verfasser. Abfassungszeit, Quellen


und Besttigung, Ephemerides Carmeliticae 2 (1948), 1745; C. Cicconetti, La Regola del
Carmelo. OrigineNaturaSignificato, Textus et Studia Historica Carmelitana xii
(Rome, 1973). The author hopes to explore the problem noted here at greater length at
another time.
78 The works cited in n. 76 stress the influence of the Rule of Benedict (Prutz, 2, 7; Schnrer,
311 (modified); Lundgreen, 678.; Bulst-Thiele, 22; J. Leclercq, La spiritualit des chanoines
rguliers, (Discussion), in: La vita comune del clero nei secoli XI e XII, Pubbl. dellUniversit
Catt. del S. Cuore iii, Sc. Stor. 2, 1 = Miscellanea del Centro di Studi Medioevali iii (Milan,
1962 I, 137) or the Rule of Augustine (Wilke, 342, 353; Melville, 20; Mahr, Zum Itinerarium,
215; Barber, 224), while De Valous relates the original form of life of the Templars in a
general way with the fonds commun dans lequel ont puis tous les fondateurs dordre (28).
The author hopes soon to be able to undertake an investigation of the relationship of the
modus et observantia equestris ordinis of Hugh of Payns established in 1128 in Troyes and
the Consuetudines followed by the Canons of the Holy Sepulcher in the first quarter of the
twelfth century (cf. n. 17, 21).
79 See n. 16.
80 William of Tyre, xii, 7, 520; Bulst-Thiele, Sacrae Domus (n. 76) 5.21. Cf. n. 75.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 211

baronumque consilio.81 The Templars themselves, but especially Innocent ii


(the pope who had charged them with the service of the church as a whole)
saw the matter otherwise. For them the establishment of the order went back
to Hugh of Payns, the Lord and his earthly representatives.82 But the patriarchs
claim still does not seem hard to believe. In the immediate aftermath of the
conquest of the city, the patriarch and the canons had much to do with caring
for the crusaders and regulating pilgrim traffic, and the complaints of their
contemporaries regarding the dangers to unarmed pilgrims must have been
known to them.83 The idea of deploying knights who were ready to serve the
Holy Sepulcher to protect the unarmed thus need not be attributed to them
aloneespecially since the same kind of thing had already been practiced in
their homeland.84 In other words, the mission of sending so many unoccupied,
loitering foreign knightsso the Chronique dEnroul and Bernard le Trsorier
described the situation85lay right at hand. One thing, admittedly, is also for
certain: if patriarch and chapter took on a stronger role than before in the
formation of the Templar community, that does not mean that the military
order necessarily developed in a way that corresponded to the outsiders
original vision. In a Sermo ad milites Templi (attributed by J. Leclercq to the first

81 DAlbon (ed.), Cartulaire gnral de lOrdre du Temple 1119?1150 (Paris, 1913) I, 99. Similarly
William of Tyre, xii, 7, 521.
82 Innocent ii (March 29, 1139), Omne datum optimum, R. Hiestand (ed.), Papsturkunden fr
Templer und Johanniter. Archivberichte und Texte. Vorarbeiten zum Oriens Pontificius 1.,
Abh. d. Akad. d. Wissenschaften in Gttingen. Phil. Hist. ki. iii, 77 (Gttingen, 1972),
205210, 212.
83 Albert of Aachen, xii, 24, 33, 595596, 712713; Vie et plerinage de Daniel Hegoumene
Russe (11061107), in: Itinraires Russes en Orient traduits pour la Socit de lOrient Latin
par Mme. B. de Hirowo I, 1 (Paris, 1889) 5, 10, 26. Espaa Sagrada 20: 309312; J. Richard,
Quelques textes sur les premiers temps de l glise latine de Jrusalem, in: Recueil de
travaux offert M. Clovis Brunel (Paris, 1955) ii, 427428. In this sense also: Barber
(n. 76), 225.
84 According to the Chronicon Affligemense (ed. V. CoosemansC. Coosens, De eerste kro-
niek van Afflighem, Affligmensia 4 (1947), 1326) the Brabantine abbey of Afflighem had
its origins in a group of knights who, probably at the suggestion of Archbishop Sigewin
of Cologne (107889), did penance in a locus solis latronum conventiculum et conspira-
tionibus aptus and who then took charge of security and hospitality for pilgrims on a
nearby highway: Ch. Dereine, La spiritualit apostolique des premiers fondateurs
dAfflighem (10831100), rhe 54 (1959), 4165; H. Grundmann, Adelsbekehrungen im
Mittelalter. Conversi et nutriti im Kloster, in: Adel und Kirche. Gerd Tellenbach zum 65.
Geburtstag (FreiburgBaselVienna, 1968); Here: H. Grundmann, Gesammelte Aufstze
1, Schriften der mgh 25, 1 (Stuttgart, 1978), 136141.
85 Cf. n. 75.
212 chapter 5

Grand Master of the Temple)86 there is talk of the difficulties and the trials that
threatened the unity and the existence of the young community: doubt about
the legitimacy of their profession (propositum) and their community (socie-
tas); wondering aloud whether it might be better to join a more worthy order,
an ordo alcior; and finally the desire to be equal to those who took them into
service, but who had denied them partitio fraternitatis and participation in the
solutiones and orationes that the faithful had offered from around the world.87
Leclercq left open who the temptatores might have been, those who sought to
win doubters of the new profession over to traditional religious life and accep-
tance into their fraternitas. One would certainly not go wrong in assuming that
the patriarch and the Canons of the holy city were among their number. To
resist following a new and unproven propositum, to resist grounding what
canon law viewed as an ill-defined societas, and to enter instead one of the old
ordines instead88 can be found at the beginning of the twelfth century at the
latest among the repertory of arguments of the popes and bishops. In was in a
certain sense their lead argument, in fact, when faced with the task of approv-
ing new religious communities or of integrating groups that walked the border
between orthodoxy and heresy89for which the best example, of course, is the
recognition of the Franciscan order.90 Nor was it unusual in the twelfth century
to try to contain brotherhoods striving for independence within restricted
spheres of influence by offering them the opportunity to incorporatean
illustration here might be the decades-long conflict between the spiritual

86 On the date of composition and authorship cf. along with Leclercq (n. 74): C. Schaffert,
Lettre indite de Hughes de Saint-Victor aux chevaliers du Templre, Revue dasctique et
de mystique 34 (1958), 275299.
87 Similar reflections in: Guigo Carthusiensis, Epistola ad Hugonem s. militiae priorem, mpl
153, c. 598599; Ivo of Chartres, Epistola ccxlv, mpl 162, c. 251253; Anselm v. Havelberg,
Dial., mpl 188, c. 1156.
88 Astonishment and wonder at the Novitas of the Templars are discernible in, among other
places, the Policraticus of John of Salisbury (ed. C.C.I. Webb, Oxford, 1909, ii, 190199), in
the letters of Peter the Venerable (ed. G. Constable, Cambridge, ma 1967, I, 407409) and
in De nugis curialium of Walter Map (ed. Th. Wright, London, 1850, 2931).
89 H. Grundmann, Religise Bewegungen im Mittelalter (3rd ed. Darmstadt, 1970). For consid-
erations from canon law: G. Schreiber, Kurie und Kloster im 12. Jahrhundert,Kirchenrechtl.
Abh. 6568 (Stuttgart, 1910), which unfortunately does not consider the military orders.
90 Most recently K.-V. Selge, Franz von Assisi und die rmische Kurie, Zeitschrift f. Theologie
u. Kirche 67 (1970), 129161; M. Maccarone, Lapprovizazione di S. Francesco (n. 77),
300306; K. Elm, Die Entwicklung des Franziskanerordens zwischen dem ersten und
letzten Zeugnis des Jakob von Vitry, in: Francesco dAssisi e Francescanesimo dal 1216
al 1226. Soc. Int. di Studi Franc. Atti. del iv Convegno Int. Assisi, 1517 Ottobre, 1976 (Assisi,
1977), 195233.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 213

confraternity of the Antonines and the Benedictine priory of Saint-Antoine of


La-Motte-aux-Bois.91 In Jerusalem the patriarch and canons would thus have
been the exception, in fact, had they not responded with these or similar
means to the Nova militia striving for independence in their midst!
What is difficult to discern in the Sermo ad milites Templi emerges forcefully
in the revision, in 1128, of the modus et observantia equestris ordinis: the effort
of the patriarch to shape the order according to his vision, or at least to play a
role in its future development. The changes that Patriarch Steven made to the
regula pauperum commilitionum as it was presented to him by the Council in
Troyes in 1128 make this clear. They allow us to see that Steven certainly had an
idea of what the order should be:92 He was persuaded less by a universally
oriented order than by an ecclesiastical and political conception (itself shaped
by the vision of Daimbert of Pisa) of a community limited to his diocese, and
subject to him as the appropriate Ordinariuswho along with his clerics
would be responsible for their spiritual guidance, and who would have direct
influence on their discipline. And indeed one can go further. The strong
emphasis on foreign knights allows the conclusion that the patriarch envi-
sioned not a closed military contingent, but rather a small cadr whose func-
tion it would be to organize so many crusaders ready for service in the Holy
Land as milites ad terminum, and to deploy them effectively for defense of the
church and the kingdom.93
The patriarchs plan had thus been to deploy his own militia in order to sat-
isfy his service obligations to the king94 in a financially responsible way, and so
to carve out his own space in the kingdom. But by the beginning of the 1130s
the time for such plans, still less any attempt to put them into action, or to
advance them as far as Daimbert of Pisa envisioned during his short time as
patriarch,95 had long passed. By the 1120s, with the help and perhaps even at

91 A. Mischlewski, Grundzge der Geschichte des Antoniterordens bis zum Ausgang des 15.
Jahrhunderts, Bonner Beitrge zur Kirchengeschichte 8 (CologneVienna, 1976),
1736.
92 On Stevens position within church politics see now Mayer, Bistmer, Klster und Stifte
(n. 18), 43.
93 G. Schnrer, Die ursprngliche Templerregel, Studien und Darstellungen aus dem Gebiet
der Geschichte iii, 12 (Freiburg i. Br., 1903), 136137, 142145, 149151.
94 H.E. Mayer brought attention to this possibility (Protocol, no. 221, 68).
95 In this sense already Schnrer, Die ursprngliche Templerregel (n. 93), 118 and H. Prutz, Die
Autonomie des Templer-Ordens, sb der phil.-philolog. u. hist. Kl. d. Bayer. Akad. d. Wiss.
(Munich, 1905), 7ff.; similarly also Prawer, The Latin Kingdom (n. 63), 259. Schnrer, Zur
ersten Organisation, (n. 76), 514515 is of the opinion that Baldwin ii directed his request
for a recommendation for a new version of the rule through Steven to Bernard of
214 chapter 5

the instigation of the king,96 a community newly settled near the Temple97
had not only displaced98 the commilitiones Christi from the immediate circles
of influence around the patriarch and the canons. It had also reshaped its self-
understanding in a way now more oriented toward the kingship of the lord
David and Temple-builder Solomon than toward the Holy Sepulcher99which
according to Bernards In Praise of the New Knighthood was the actual signum

Clairvaux, not before the Council of Troyes, but after the revision of a draft of the Rule, in
order to prohibit the order, by virtue of the intervention of the patriarch, from falling
almost entirely into his hands.
96 Cf. n. 75. In his Chronicle (ed. J.-B. Chabot, Paris, 1905, iii, 201), Michael the Syrian depicts
the communaut des frres as an institution shaped decidedly by the interests of the king.
97 On the site of the Templum Salomonis, the Templum Domini and the Domus Templi see the
useful source compilation by D. Balidi, Enchiridion Locorum Sanctorum 2nd ed. (Jerusalem,
1955), 444454 as well as the foundational work of L.H. VincentF.M. Abel, Jrusalem.
Recherches de topographie, darchologie et dhistoire 1, 13 (Paris, 191422), 225ff. For a sum-
mary of the most recent literature: E. Vogt, Vom Tempel zum Felsendorn, Biblica 55 (1974),
2364. J. Guttman (ed.), The Temple of Solomon. Archeological Fact and Medieval Tradition
in Christian, lslamic and Jewish Art, American Academy of Religion. Society of Biblical
Literature, Religion and the Arts 3 (Missoula, Montana, 1976); H.W. Hazard, The Art and
Architecture of the Crusader States, A History of the Crusades 4 (Madison, 1977), 8489.
98 On royal property in the Temple precincts and the early history of the foundation at the
Templum Domini cf. along with the works cited in n. 97: F. Chalandon, Un diplome indit
d Amaury Ier roi de Jrusalem en faveur de labbaye du Temple-Notre-Seigneur, Revue de
lOrient latin 8 (190001), 311317. S. Clermont-Ganneau, Les possessions de labbaye du
Templum Domini en Terre Sainte au XIIe sicle, Recueil dArchologie Orientale 5 (1902),
7078 and H.E. Mayer, Zur Frhgeschichte des Templum Domini in Jerusalem, in:
Bistmer, Klster und Stifte (n. 18), 222229, who suggests proprietary church claims on
the foundation by the King on the basis of Albert of Aachen (xi, 12, 668) and Bartolf of
Nangis (c. 46, 523). Proximity to the royal party is suggested by fact that after his displace-
ment by Daimbert of Pisa, Arnulf of Chocques was praelatus of the Templum Domini.
99 On the two temples in the surviving evidence of the middle ages see now C.H. Krinksy,
Representations of the Temple of Jerusalem before 1500, Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes 33 (1970), 119; S. Ferber, The Temple of Solomon in Early Christian
and Byzantine Art, in: Gutiman (n. 97), 2141; W. Cahn, Solomic Elements in Romanesque
Art, ibid., 4258 (thorough bibliography 147149). For a thorough treatment of the recep-
tion of the Temple tradition among the canons of the Templum Domini: P. Lehmann, Die
mittelalterlichen Dichtungen der Prioren des Tempels Acardus und Gaufridus, in: Corona
Quernea. Festgabe Karl Strecker, Schriften des Reichsinstitutes fr ltere deutsche
Geschichtskunde (mgh) 6 (Leipzig, 1941), 296330. For the liturgical relationships
between canons and knights of the Temple: bn Paris, ms lat. 10478 (13th cent.), which, as
Leroquais established (Les brviaires manuscrits des bibliothques publiques de France iii,
189), is a Brviaire des chanoines du Temple de Jrusalem. ms Barberini lat. 659, which
Bulst-Thiele (n.76), 380 claims for the Templars, is a liturgical manuscript of the chapter
of the Holy Sepulcher, which clearly came later into the possession of the Templars. The
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 215

populorum.100 Such a reorientation took on its full meaning within the context
of the political constellations that had shaped the relationships of the church
in the Holy Land101 in the 1120s and 1130s. They gave the militiaone closely
tied to the king, the French high nobility, Bernard of Clairvaux and the
Cistercians, with pope and cardinalsa strong counterweight against a
patriarch who found himself in the political doldrums, and initially on the side
of an antipope amid a schism.102 Hugh and his companions, with the support
of the king, could advocate for the revision and approval of their rule directly
in the curia,103 and at the Council of Pisa they enjoyed the active support of the
pope and numerous cardinals and bishops;104 finally, with the promulgation of
the bull Omne datum optimum on March 23, 1139, they not only attained their
recognition as Catholice ecclesie defensores et inimicorum Christi impugnatores.
They also enjoyed a full range of privileges that barred the patriarch from any
voice or influence,105 privileges that patriarch Fulcher (who in the middle of
the twelfth century, like his predecessor Steven, strove for the strengthening of
the church of Jerusalem) could himself no longer ignore.

author investigates these and other liturgical manuscripts at greater length in the work
cited in note 6.
100 J. LeclercqH.M. Rochais (ed.), Liber ad milites Templi de Laude Novae Militiae, in:
Tractatus et Opuscula. S. Bernardi Opera iii (Rome, 1963), 229237, similarly, 221.
101 W. Hotzelt, Kirchengeschichte Palstinas im Zeitalter der Kreuzzge, Kirchengeschichte
Palstinas von der Urkirche bis zur Gegenwart iii (Cologne, 1940), 93106.
102 P.F. Palumbo, Lo scisma del mcxxx. I precedenti, la vicenda Romana e le ripercussioni
europee della lotta tra Anacleto ed Innocenzo ii col regesto degli atti di Anacleto ii,
Miscellanea della R. Deputazione di Storia Patria (Rome, 1942); Idem, Nuovi studi (1942
62) sullo Scisma di Anacleto ii, Bull. dell Inst. Stor. per il Medio Evo 75 (1963), 71103; Mario
da Bergamo, Osservazioni sulle fonti per la duplice elezione papale dell 1130, Aevum 39
(1965), 4565. I prefer not to follow the reasoning of Fr.-J. Schmale, Studien zum Schisma
des Jahres 1130, Forschungen zur kirchlichen Rechtsgeschichte und zum Kirchenrecht 3
(CologneGraz, 1961), 249250, that the shared interest of pope and patriarch in canoni-
cal reform had pushed the church of Jerusalem to embrace the party of Innocent.
103 Cf. n. 75. Most of the authors cited in n. 76 assume a direct attempt at the curia (Schnrer,
Die ursprngliche Templerregel, 13, Carrire, 311312, Cousin, 42, De Valous, 83, Bulst-
Thiele, 21, Barber, 226), without considering what could have caused the loyalties of the
patriarch to shift. The request of Baldwin ii cited in n. 95, for example, Bulst-Theiele, 22
and Barber, 226 regard as true or as based on a core of truth. Barber, 230, in contrast to
Prutz and Schnrer, is of the view that it was before the Council of Troyes.
104 E. Bernheim, Ein bisher unbekannter Bericht vom Concil zu Pisa im Jahre 1135, Zeitschrift
fr Kirchenrecht 16 (1881), 147154; R. Somerville, The Council of Pisa, 1135: A
Re-examination of the Evidence for the Canons, Speculum 45 (1970), 98114. On other
measures of the pope: Schnrer, Zur ersten Organisation (n. 76), 521ff.
105 Hiestand (n. 82), 204210.
216 chapter 5

The thesis that in the twenties and thirties the patriarch was deprived, step-
by-step, of the possibility of turning a knightly brotherhood (one that had
emerged under obedience to him and dependent on his chapter) not into a
Militia Templi but into a Militia S. Sepulcri, is supported in certain ways through
a comparison to analogous developments in the early history of the
Hospitalers.106 In the wake of the capture of Jerusalem, the relationship
between the new Latin patriarchate and an older hospital (with its origins
most likely in the Benedictine monastery of S. Maria Latina, the cradle of the
Hospitalers) is as difficult to summarize as is the Templars circumstance. All
that is certain is that the two institutions were closely associated not only by
virtue of their close proximity107 in the city, and certain similarities in their
rules108 and iconography.109 It is also quite probable that they held property as
a corporation, one that lasted until the ascension of Patriarch Arnulf and
which displaced (if not replaced) older ties to S. Maria Latina inherited from
before the crusade.110 What can only be presumed from the oldest surviving
sources in Jerusalemnamely a direct dependence of the Hospital on the
Church of the Holy Sepulcherwas for contemporaries an established fact.
Already for the first benefactors of the church in JerusalemKing Robert of
Sicily and the faithful from Pexiora noted abovethe work of a hospital was
assumed to be one of the duties of the patriarch and the c hapter.111 From that

106 J. Riley-Smith, The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus c. 10501310, A History of the
Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem I (London, 1967). On the general back-
ground: T.S. Miller, The Knights of Saint John and the Hospitals of the Latin West,
Speculum 58 (1978), 709733.
107 Alongside the literature cited in n. 97 especially: C. Schick, The Ancient Churches in the
Muristan, Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1902), 5053.
108 M. Ambraziejt, Studien ber die Johanniter-Regel (Freibourg, 1929), 6; E. Nasalu Rocca,
Origine et volution de la Rgle et des Statuts de lOrdre Hirosolomitain des
Hospitaliers de St. Jean, Annales de losm de Malte 19 (1961), 4142.
109 G. SchlumbergerF. ChalandonA. Blanchet, Sigillographie de l Orient Latin, Haut
Commissariat de ltat Franais en Syrie et au Liban. Service des Antiquits. Bibliothque
archologique et historique 37 (Paris, 1943), 232; S. De Sandoli (n. 43), 93104; H.E. Mayer, Das
Siegelwesen in den Kreuzfahrerstaaten, Bayer. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Klasse, Abh. np 83
(Munich, 1978), 3537.
110 Delaville (n. 71) I, 25; H.E. Mayer, Zur Geschichte des Klosters S. Maria im Tal Josaphat,
in: Bistmer, Klster und Stifte (n. 18), 267, concludes from this charter that the canons of
the Holy Sepulcher at that time still saw the properties of the hospital as a possession of
the Sepulcher church, although distinct from the actual property of the church.
111 Cf. n. 71. On Pexiora most recently: E. Delaruelle, Templiers et Hospitaliers en Languedoc
pendant la croisade des Albigeois, in: Paix de Dieu et guerre sainte en Languedoc au xiii e
sicle, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 4 (Toulouse, 1969), 317.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 217

time on, down to the middle of the twelfth century, donations were made Deo
et S. Sepulcro et Hospitali, and the hospital appears without comment as ospi-
tale S. Sepulcri.112 It cannot be ruled out that in a few cases the designation
S. Sepulcrum meant not the institutions charged with guarding the Holy
Sepulcher, but rather the holy city in general or even the entire holy land.
But the fact that in 1148 and 1155 one had to divide property that had been left
to the two communities in common (or that that the hospital had inherited for
the chapter, or the chapter for the hospital)113 suggests that at the beginning
of the twelfth century both chapter and hospital in fact formed a kind of con-
sortium, or mutually represented one another in matters of law and property
as was actually the case in the collections established at beginning of the
twelfth century in southern France,114 and in the solution of the problems that
emerged from the will of King Alfonso I of Aragon.115 The close relationship
between Sepulcher and hospital, we can say with more certainty, lasted only to
1112/13. At that time there began, with support of the king, approval of the
patriarch and bishops as well as the support of the curia, a process of dissolu-
tion116 that shifted the Hospital more and more in the direction of the Templars,
putting it into position to leave behind the prestige of the Holy Sepulcher and
its guardians it had so usefully deployed at the beginning of the twelfth century,
turning117 instead to the faithful on the merits of their own accomplishments.
In 1957 Daniel-Rops, in a treatment of The Ideal of Chivalry and the Defense
of the Tomb, came to the conclusion that the unity of the knightly ideal and
the veneration of the Sepulcher quite naturally, by the very logic of events

112 M.A. du Bourg, Histoire du grand prieur de Toulouse et des diverses possessions de lordre
de S. Jean de Jrusalem dans le Sud-Ouest de la France, 2nd ed. (Toulouse, 1883), 100, 210.
Delaville (n. 71) I, 23, 910, 14, 26, 4044, 50, 5759, 68, 80, 83. F. Galabert, Donation du
lieu dOrgueil lordre de Saint Jean, Bull. de la Soc. archol. de Tarn et Garonne 29 (1901),
380. C. Brunel, Les plus anciennes chartes en langue provenale (Paris, 1926), 24, 3132.
113 Delaville (n. 71) I, 137139; Rozire (n. 16), 325326. Whether to read the conflicts between
the Canons of the Sepulcher and the Hospitalers over Manetin in Bohemia (mediated by
Celestine iii on 12 November 1191) in light of this connection must be set aside: Delaville,
I, 580; G. Friedrich (ed.), Codex dipl. et. epist. Regni Bohemiae I (Prague, 1907), 302303.
114 Cf. n. 71, 111112.
115 S.A. Garcia Larragueta, El Gran Priorado de Navarra de la Orden de San Juan de Jerusalm,
Siglos xiixiii 2: Coleccin Diplomatica (Pamplona, 1957), 1518, 21. On the will of Alfonso
I, see now: E. Lourie, The Will of Alfonso I, El Batallador, King of Aragon and Navarra: A
Reassessment, Speculum 50 (1975), 635650.
116 Delaville (n. 71), I, 7, 2532; Hiestand (n. 82), 203, 210211.
117 H. Prutz, Die exemte Stellung des Hospitaliter-Ordens. Ihre Entwicklung, ihr Wesen und
ihre Wirkung, in: Sitzungsberichte der philosoph.-philologischen u. d. hist. Klasse d. K.B.
Akad. d. Wiss. z. Mnchen 1904 (Munich, 1905), 111114.
218 chapter 5

resulted in the knightly order of the Holy Sepulcher and its institutionaliza-
tion.118 There can be no doubt about the truth of that statement, at least as far
as the knightly ideal and its bond with the piety surrounding the Sepulcher is
concerned. After the sermons of Urban ii it belonged to the repertoire of cru-
sade propaganda that sought to motivate the nobility, by appealing to the
obligations of their estate, to protect the Holy Sepulcher, the haereditas
Christi.119 The First Crusade was, for the majority of its chroniclers, nothing
other than the via or the iter S. Sepulcri, one that the crusaders undertook in
nomine Dei et S. Sepulcri, and on which, Deo et S. Sepulcro adiuvante they would
break the resistance of the heathen.120 Their taking up of the cross, like the
ritual of the cingulum militare, had made them into knights, and as such they
stood, as Petrus Tudebodus put it, in fidelitate Dei et S. Sepulcri, seniorum et
imperatoris. The conquest of Jerusalem culminated in the veneration of the
Holy Sepulcher; it became the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah: Et erit
Sepulcrum eius gloriosum (10:10). In view of this vision of the Holy Sepulcher,
shaped by popes and pilgrims already before the crusade, as Sanctum
Sanctorum, as navel of the world and the mystery of the faith, it is self-evident
that the phrase miles S. Sepulcri was not used first in the fourteenth century,
but that it served much earlier and more generally, together with the phrase
miles Christi, to designate a knightly crusader. For the author of the Gesta
Francorum, for Albert of Aachen, Petrus Monachus and Petrus Tudebodus, the
crusader army is an exercitus S. Sepulcri. Crusaders are not merely peregrini or
domestici, but also bellatores and milites S. Sepulcri.121 If the miles Christi, the
best model of the knightly crusader, found in the military orders a centuries-
long institutional form, and if the militia S. Sepulcri, on the other hand, was
never what Daniel-Rops claimed it to be, namely the institutionalization of

118 F.X. De Bourbon-Parme (n. 2), 24.


119 Guibert of Nogent, Gesta Dei per Francos, ii, 5, rhc Hist. occ. iv, 140: et veluti cingulum
militeCrucis figuramassui mandavit. On the sermons of Urban ii see now: H.E.J.
Cowdrey, Pope Urban iis Preaching of the First Crusade, History 55 (1970), 177188.
120 P. AlphandryA. Dupront, La chrtient et lide de Croisade, Bibliothque de Synthse
historique. Lvolution de lHumanit xxxviii, 12 (Paris, 1954) I, 1042; P. Rousset, Lide
de croisade chez les chroniqueurs dOccident, in: Relazioni del X Congresso internazionale
di scienze storiche (Rome, 1955) iii, 547563; J. Richard, Lsprit de la croisade (Paris, 1969);
A. Dupront, Guerre Sainte et Chrtient, in: Paix de Dieu et guerre sainte en Languedoc
au XIIIe sicle (n. 111), 1750.
121 Gesta Francorum, 1, 7, 11, 21, 26. Robertus Monachus, Hist. Hierosolymitana, rhc Hist. oec.
iii, 746747, 768, 869; Petrus Tudebodus, 910, 15, 18, 32, 4048, 8384, 87, 9094, 114;
Balderic of Dol, 207, 307. Cf. also: G. Spreckelmeyer, Das Kreuzzugslied des lateinischen
Mittelalters, Mnstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 21 (Munich, 1974), 20.
Canons and Knights of the Holy Sepulcher 219

two of the most high spiritual flights of the middle ages: the ideal of chivalry
and the veneration of the Holy Sepulcher, none of this contradicts the logic of
the events.122 On the contrary, those concrete historical eventsthe weakness
of patriarch and chapter, their confrontations with the king, and not least
the discrepancy between their local interests and the universal outlook of the
papacyprevented the head of the church of Jerusalem and his chapter,
the Custodes S. Sepulcri, from shaping according to their vision the brotherly
circles of hospital workers and knights that emerged so nearby and under
their auspices. They thus failed to see established, instead of what would
become the Hospitalers and Templars, a fraternitas, sodalitas, societas or milita
S. Sepulcri. The opportunity was there to be taken, but for only a few years. By
the third and fourth decades of the twelfth century it had already passed. By
that time the military orders had put patriarch and chapter in their shadow on
both sides of the Mediterranean, and could in fact provoke them in defiant
ways, thereby making clear a fact that contemporaries noted in the words of
the Bible: Filios enutrivi et exaltavi, illi autem spreverunt me.123

122 See n. 118.


123 William of Tyre, xviii, 4, 820822; De prima institutione Hospitalariorum, rhc Hist. occ.
v, 2, 403.
chapter 6

The Status of Women in Religious Life,


Semi-Religious Life and Heresy in the Era of
St. Elizabeth

The biographer of Gilbert of Sempringham, the twelfth-century English


founder of an order for both men and women, compared his order to a wagon
whose four wheels represented the participation of both genders in religious
life: two wheels signified the men, canons and conversi, two the women, the
canonesses and lay sisters. The orders litany for All Saints, which at its core
reached back to late antiquity and the early middle ages, maintained a simi-
larly strict parallel in its listing of men and women. After monks and hermits,
it called on the virgins and widows, and its later versions placed female part-
ners alongside the great founders of the orders. Already in the thirteenth cen-
tury, St. Elizabeth had been taken up into the tradition of men and women
who, in harmonious accord, strove together toward monastic perfection. An
unknown French Franciscan placed her in the most intimate proximity to St.
Francis imaginable. He saw both, the Poverello from Assisi and the Landgravine
of Thringia, as protectors and nurturers, as father and mother of the Minorites:
He was the father of the Minorites, she their mother. He protected them like a
father; she nurtured them like a mother.1
That men and women found common ground in their pursuit of holiness
and perfection was in no way unusual for the middle ages. Both the corre-
spondence between Jerome and the Roman women entrusted to his pastoral
care and the letters of Boniface to his female relatives and friends left behind
in England are eloquent witnesses here, as are the bonds between Benedict
and Scholastica, Francis and Clare or even between Theresa of Avila and John
of the Cross, the two great Spanish mystics of the Carmelite order. Such com-
mon ground, to be sure, was never as stable and self-evident, as free of
tensions and problems as the liturgies, saints lives and art might suggest
(think for example of Jan van Eycks representation of the spiritual estates

1 The following notes provide only basic citations. More detailed literature is found in the
select bibliography. A. Huyskens, Quellenstudien zur Geschichte der hl. Elisabeth, Landgrfin
von Thringen, 1908, 70, n. 3. Also: S. Gieben, I patroni dellordine della Penitenza, in:
Collectanea franciscana 43 (1973), 238239: fratrum minorum pater erat, ista mater eorum.
Ille custodiebat eos ut pater, ista nutriebat eos ut mater.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_008


The Status of Women in Religious Life 221

coming to the adoration of the Lamb). And it certainly cannot be said that the
middle ages witnessed the formation of institutions, orders and cloisters in
which women had the opportunity to shape their spiritual lives without dif-
ficulty or resistance, or in the same measure as men, or even in cooperation
with them, such that the image of harmonious and equitable cooperation
fashioned among the Gilbertines could take across the whole of religious life.
That such qualifications are justified is clear from the life and the piety of
St. Elizabeth. We have long since given up trying to portray her as a member of
the Second Order of St. Francis, or merely a Franciscan Tertiary. When it comes
to the influence of the great twelfth and thirteenth century saints of the reli-
gious orders, we no longer dare say for certain whether the Landgravine was
influenced by the life of her Umbrian contemporary St. Francis more strongly
than by the older ideal of poverty and flight from the world first formulated by
Bernard of Clairvaux and Norbert of Xanten. In fact we are inclined to note the
influence of the orders spirituality somewhat less than before, and instead to
link her spiritual formation to the spirit and convictions of the crusades, which
so deeply influenced the high middle ages. All of these matters of categorization
find their expression in concrete questions: whether one should see her con-
fessor and spiritual advisor Conrad of Marburg as the member of an order or as
a member of the secular clergy, and whether it was first through him or through
the Franciscan Rdiger and his brothers in Eisenach that the most decisive
influence came to bear on the young woman. No less great is the uncertainty
surrounding the institutional status of the saint. Was she a religious, or did she
remain in the ranks of the laity? Can one describe her as a penitent, a hospital
sister or a beguine? These doubts are not new, nor have they merely been
imposed on her from without. In the wake of her renunciation of parents, chil-
dren and her own will, Elizabeth and those around her had to ask whether she
could best lead her life in a cloister or in an anchoresss enclosure, or by follow-
ing the poor and naked Christ as a beggar. She herself ultimately compared her
way of life with the lives of sisters in the world, the vita sororum in seculo.2
To do so was to find a formulation that was (at least at first glance) paradoxical,
to establish a place for herself between cloister and world, between religious
life and the life of the laity.
We can blame neither a lack of sources nor a lack of acumen among histori-
ans for the difficulties of trying to find a place for Elizabeth in the hierarchy of
the orders saints, or of finding even a well-defined place for her in the ranks of
the medieval religious orders. She was successful neither in finding a truly

2 The so-called Libellus de dictis quatuor ancillarum S. Elisabeth confectus, ed. A. Huyskens,
1911, 69.
222 chapter 6

adequate form of life for herself, nor of living out her way of life in a permanent
religious order of her own founding. But this can be attributed only in the
slightest degree to her own indecisiveness, her erratic character or uncer-
tainty. Nor can it be due to the independence attributed to her by Conrad of
Marburg, who said that she was without precedent in the history of the
Christian womens movement.3 In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries she
must have experienced, as many others did, how difficult it could be to bring
ones own ideas of an authentic Christian life into harmony with the tradi-
tional vita religiosanot least because the era itself, like few others in
European history, was marked by profound ruptures, by great change and
widespread uncertainty. This was true for men like Norbert of Xanten and
Francis of Assisi, but above all for women like Elisabeth of Thuringia. In her
search for the proper form of religious life she had to fight against not only the
usual difficulties of her day. Again and again she ran up against the boundaries
that circumscribed her gender and that hindered her in pursuing, like the men,
or even alongside them, what she perceived to be the most direct way to salva-
tion. When we grapple with the place of women in religious life, in semi-
religious life and heresy in the era of St. Elisabeth, we must think not only of
the majority of holy women who managed to balance individual piety and
institutional circumstance without issue. We must also keep in mind a minor-
ity (however little or much we may know of them), who found themselves
caught in a tension between a desire to shape their own lives and the con-
straints of their organizations. It was a circumstance arising not from their
own weakness or inconsistency, but from their desire for spiritual perfection. It
was also a tension they could escape only with much more difficulty than their
male contemporaries.

Across Europe from the tenth century a variety of efforts emerged that sought
to reform a monastic life first lived by desert ascetics and monastic fathers and
grounded in the Benedictine rule, as well as to restore the observance of rules
the church fathers had established for the common life of clerics. Great
congregations and religious orders emerged from these effortsthe Cluniac
and Cistercian orders from the renewal of the ordo monasticus, the Premonstra
tensians among the regular canons. But the their centuries-long stability makes

3 W. Maurer, Zum Verstndnis der heiligen Elisabeth von Thringen, in: Zeitschrift fr
Kirchengesch. 65 (195354), 17, 601 (reprint in: Kirche und Geschichte, Gesammelte Aufstze,
1970, vol. 2).
The Status of Women in Religious Life 223

it easy to forget that their founders had sought out and experimented with
forms of the vita religiosa in ways that caused astonishment and wonder
among their contemporaries. The historiography of these orders casts their
origins in a mild light, and smoothes over much that is visible only to the
trained eye. But a sharply different picture emerges elsewhere: in Italy with
Nilus of Rossano, Romuald of Ravenna and John Gualbert, to the north with
the founder of the Carthusians Bruno of Cologne, but above all with the wan-
dering apostolic preachers of France. Their way of lifegrounded in ancient
Christianitys ideals of the eremitical life and of apostolic communityallows
us to recognize, with all the clarity we might wish for, the dynamism and spon-
taneity of the movements for renewal that were reaching their first high points
in the eleventh and twelfth century. Those imitators of Christ who first emerged
at the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the Limousin, in Brittany
and above all in the forest of Craon (Bas-Maine) are important for us not only
because they sought an appropriate form of Christian life for themselves and
their fellow men. In a way that until that time had been unheard of in the
middle ages, they also allowed women to take part in the search. Robert of
Arbrissel, Vitalis of Savigny, Gerald of Salles, Bernard of Tiron and Norbert of
Xantenlike other contemporary preachers, orthodox and heretical alike
drew to themselves hundreds, indeed thousands of women from every estate.
Virgins, widows, divorced women and prostitutes weary of their way of life not
only followed the men on their preaching tours, but sought to join them
permanently. Many of the women shared with the preachers a life of strict
asceticism and seclusion. Robert of Arbrissel and a few of his disciples, at
least, seem to have sought an intimate association with womenthe practice
of syneisaktism described as mulierum consortiain order to win the crown of
white martyrdom. Others, especially the repentant women, ran away, or if they
did not want to renounce their way of life for the cloister, remained married to
honorable men. The result was a number of religious communities in which
the women as a rule submitted themselves to the leadership and care of a small
number of men who served as their pastors, taking care of the sacraments and
other necessary business. A similar relationship between men and women also
emerged in the houses founded by Vitalis of Savigny and Gerald of Salles,
communities that soon came together to form their own congregation. In 1120,
when Norbert of Xanten founded a house in Prmontr, he also sheltered
within its walls some of those women whom he had attracted through his
preaching. They lived separately from the brothers, but participated together
with them in worship and did their part for the welfare of the community.
A prioress served as their superior, though the actual leadership of the
community remained in the hand of the abbot or priora pattern that was
224 chapter 6

i ntroduced beyond Prmontr in the double houses of the Premonstratensians


between 1120 and 1140.
Robert of Arbrissel (who said of himself: What I have done in this world has
served only the needs of spiritual women, for whom I have engaged all of my
strength, in whose service I and my followers have entered)4 found another
way. The community of Fontevrault, which had emerged from an older
thatched hut colony of women and men founded in 1109, by 1115 had come to
shelter two communities, each further divided within itself. Legally they were
one, though not, as in the aforementioned cases, under the leadership of a
man. According to Roberts will the men had instead declared themselves
ready to render obedience to an abbessfirst Hersende of Champagne and
then Petronilla de Chemillthereby recognizing her plenaria potestas, the
fullness of her power. The womens superiority inspired wonder and mistrust
among contemporaries, but their position was not unusual for the religious
orders of the twelfth century. Influenced by Roberts model (though it was cer-
tainly not the immediate cause), in 1131 in Lincolnshire Gilbert of Sempringham,
mentioned above, founded a convent for young women that itself soon became
the foundation of an orderone that, like Fontevrault, made more room for
women than was customary in double houses subject to male leadership.
Theologically more deeply grounded than Robert of Arbrissel, whom he
described as Christs herald, the renowned Abelard made the superiority of
women of paramount importance for religious life in the convent he founded:
the Paraclete in Quincey near Nogent-sur-Seine. Led by his personal bond with
his lover Heloise, who had become its abbess, and surely also through true
humanity,5 he attempted to outline a way of life that required men and women
to live together. It placed the abbess and her sisters at the center of the life of
the community and charged the men with guarding and protecting the natura
fragilior of the female gender with caritas and diligentia, with charity and dili-
gence. The men were to serve the women like those servants in a royal house-
hold who were responsible for the needs of the spouse of the lord, the sponsa
Christi.6
The way of life Abelard outlined remained ephemeral. Even in the Paraclete
it was never realized. The convent of Fontevrault and its numerous daughter
houses had fallen into crisis already by the end of the twelfth century. The
resistance of the bishops, the revolt of men against the lordship of women

4 Vita altera B. Roberti de Arbrissello, Migne pl 162, col. 1059.


5 E. Werner, Stadt und Geistesleben im Hochmittelalter, Forschungen zur mittelalterlichen und
neueren Geschichte 30 (1980), 118.
6 T.P. McLaughlin, Abelards Rule (see bibliography), 250.
The Status of Women in Religious Life 225

and the progressive estrangement between mens and womens communities


living according to various rules could not (even with the help of the pope) be
wished away. In the end those houses that had been founded for women of the
lowest and most contemptible origins became hostels for the ladies of the
French and English nobility. The Premonstratensians put an end to living in
common with women already around 1140. Because of the danger of the times
and the burdens imposed upon the churchas one put it at the end of the
twelfth centurytheir general chapter resolved to give up the double houses,
or more precisely to drive women from them.7 In the course of the twelfth
century those women thus moved from Prmontr to Fontenelle, from
Tongerloo to Aiwen, from Knechtstedten to Flaesheim, to found convents that
were physically separated from and for the most part administratively inde-
pendent of any male community. The canons thereby began to divest them-
selves of a duty that the founder of their order had taken upon himself, when
he had resolved non solum autem virorum, sed et feminarum cohortesad Deum
convertere8to turn to God not only crowds of men, but also women. What
the Premonstratensians did reflected a trend that became more widely dis-
cernible from the middle of the twelfth century. A tradition of female and male
communities, and of the cohabitation of the two sexes in one monastic com-
munity, reached back to late antiquity and the early middle ages. Yet after its
flowering in the wake of the wandering preachers, this symbiosis fell into dis-
credit. Both individual houses like Affligem or St. Martin of Tournai, as well as
entire monastic and canonical congregations like those of Arrouaise, St. Victor
in Paris and the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and indeed the Templars and the
Hospitalers (who in fact relied in great measure on the aid of women) began to
find their way to a physical and institutional division of the sexes. There
remained womens houses that were only loosely bound to those of the men,
and that gave up an inherited tradition shaped by duties and aims shared with
men in favor of an enclosed, contemplative life.
That women and men no longer lived together in community in no way
weakened female piety. There was no decline in the number of new monastic
foundations: In the high middle ages more were founded than in every century
before. And women did not shy away from seeking the spiritual encourage-
ment, organizational support and material aid that they could not find else-
where (from the secular clergy, for example)even if certain orders sharply
withdrew (officially, at least) from the cura monialium, the care for nuns. So it
happened that many orders took part in the pastoral care and supervision of

7 E. Martne, De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus, 2nd ed. (1788) iii, 330.


8 Hermannus Monachus, De Miraculis S. Mariae Laudunensis, Migne pl 156, col. 994.
226 chapter 6

religious women, even though they had abandoned the close community they
had once shared.
Even if one cannot say for certain today just how many womens convents
the individual orders came to oversee or incorporate, it remains clear that in
the twelfth and even in the first half of the thirteenth centuries the Premon
stratensians and Cistercians, at least in western and central Europe, were the
orders with which the womens communities preferred to associate them-
selves. From the days of James of Vitry there had been no question that the
Premonstratensians (after ordering the dissolution of double cloisters around
1140) had also abandoned the tradition of the cura monialium, the care of clois-
tered women. A half century later this is supposed to have led to the General
chapters decision to refuse to accept any more women into the order at all.
But this hesitation then inspired the Cistercians to revisit their longstanding
resistance to womens affairs, and so made possible the efflorescence of
Cistercian women that inspired contemporaries to say, with wonder, that their
communities seemed as numerous as the stars in heaven.9
Recent research has called this kind of interpretation into question. Its
authors are now able to show that there were new double houses founded in
the Rhineland and in Westphalia even after 1140, and that despite the prohibi-
tions of c. 1190 numerous womens convents were founded or accepted into the
order even in the thirteenth century. Recent research also reminds us that both
Molesme and Cteaux were in the beginning associated with womens com-
munities (the priories of Jully and Tart, where the relatives of monks and
abbots lived a spiritual life according to the customs of the two mens houses);
that in the middle of the twelfth century, when the abbey of Obazine was
accepted into the Cistercian order, the womens community of Coiroux was
accepted as well; that when the mens houses of Savigny were accepted, the
womens convents of that congregation were accepted as well; and that there
were numerous twelfth-century female Cistercian communities in the territo-
ries of the Empire. Yet however justified these corrections, they do not change
the fact most relevant to our current considerations: The two great orders of
the high middle ages were never able to adopt a clear and constant position in
favor of accepting the women who wanted to be bound to them, or who were
in any way bound to their order. Although there were far more female
Cistercians than male, and the number of womens cloisters among the
Premonstratensians was not far behind those of the men, this was above all the
result of compromises and concessions. The general chapters both allowed
and prohibited womenquite emphatically in 1228. Local decision makers

9 S. Roisin (see bibliography), 342.


The Status of Women in Religious Life 227

sometimes looked to their superiorsand sometimes not. Many made excep-


tions and yielded to the interventions of bishops and secular magnates, and
some even officially recognized a kind of mediating role for the papacy.
Moreover, as numerous as the ways into the orders were the ways to settle in
them, or in their vicinity. These ranged from houses incorporated iure pleno (in
full power) to those that, with an orders tacit tolerance, followed its rule, cus-
toms and statutes. This diversity of responses doubtless arose from the fact
that the orders and their houses had to make their position dependent upon
the money and manpower available to them when addressing the womens
question. But ultimately it was a consequence of a degree of uncertainty, and
an expression of the orders fear that fulfilling all of the womens wishes regard-
ing care and leadership would mean losing themselves, or having to give up
their ideals. As one Carthusian put it, his order struggled with the womens
houses bound to his order as Christ suffered from his five wounds. How vexed
must his own order have seemed to a similarly-engaged Cistercian, an order to
which incomparably more womens convents had been entrusted than to the
Carthusians.10
The wandering apostolic preachers had inspired a desire to imitate Christ
and to seek a renewal inspired by the early church. In the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, in the richly urban regions of Italy and southern France, that
same desire came to life with renewed strength, under new social and political
circumstances. It inspired the establishment of numerous communities whose
members cast doubt on the legitimacy of the church, and within the church it
inspired the formation of numerous mendicant orders. With their emergence
the question of womens participation in the life of the orders acquired a new
urgency, and began to resonate in much wider circles than before.
When Clare of Assisi looked back on her life, she called St. Francis the
founder, sower and helper, the one who nourished and cared for her like a
small plant. To her and to her community Francis became a pillar of strength,
and next to God their special consolation. Her heirs were to follow him in sim-
plicity, humility and poverty just as she did.11 Here Clare recalled her personal
closeness to Francis. It had begun in 1211/12, when the newly penitent son of
the merchant Pietro Bernadone encountered the young girl, and stole her
away from the harsh world like a precious treasure.12 It had ended in 1225,
when the ailing founder had taken leave of the abbess of S. Damiano to seek
healing for his diseased eyes in Rieti. Their closeness was a result not only of

10 W.A. Hinnebusch (see bibliography), 2, 389.


11 E. Grau (see bibliography), 109119.
12 Ibid., 38.
228 chapter 6

their common heritage and their personal bond. It was also grounded in Clares
desire to follow the Lord, like Francis, as a beggar in complete poverty, ever
ready for mission and martyrdom. Of course we know that she and her sisters
were never able to shape their lives as Francis and his brothers had, despite so
much resistance. And there was never the harmony between religious life
and organization that James of Vitry thought he had seen in 1216, when he
reported with wonder of the Fratres Minores and the Sorores Minores, who
preached their way through the cities and villages of Umbria by day, and at
night devoted themselves to contemplation and prayer in separate hermitages
and isolated houses.13
On August 9, 1253, just three days before her death, Pope Innocent iv granted
Clare a privilege that accorded with her original intention: to live with her sis-
ters at S. Damiano in total poverty, and to follow a rule that in large part fol-
lowed that of St. Francis. The pious gesture was the culmination of a process
that had begun only a few years after the conversion of the young woman. It
ended, for all of their mutual love and understanding, with a division between
those the bishop of Acre called Fratres Minores and Sorores Minores. In 1218/19
the women of S. Damiano and their sisters living elsewhere were in need of a
rule. Cardinal Hugolino, friend and patron of St. Francis, prescribed for them
not the observance of the Franciscan formula vitae, but rather the Rule of
Benedict and other observantiae regulares of his own design. This meant strict
claustration, common property and the establishment in the convent of domi-
nae (ladies) and servientes (servants)a division that Francis and Clare had
originally not wanted. The women of S. Damiano did not adopt the divisions
without resistance. The fact that the pope and the cardinal protectors had to
review and approve no less than six rules between 1219 and 1263 is the best
proof of this. Yet Clare and her allies could do little about the fact that with the
passage of time their way of life developed in such a way as to make it ulti-
mately hard to distinguish from the one that religious women had come to live
long before thema life that renounced the world and turned to contempla-
tion. This was the result not only of a papal politics that believed its decisions
to be appropriate for womens nature and their needs. The Franciscans, and
Francis himself, allowed themselves to be guided by similar arguments.
Although mutual sympathy and concern between Francis and Clare never
waned, without question there was a certain distancing from Clare and her
sisters already in the lifetime of the saint, one grounded more in calculated
thought than in matters of the heart. It finds its strongest expression in two

13 B.B.C. Huygens, Lettres de Jacques de Vitry (1160/11701240), vque de Saint-Jean-dAcre.


Edition critique (Leiden, 1960), 7178.
The Status of Women in Religious Life 229

resolutions that are difficult to reconcile. Francis promised the poor women of
S. Damiano that he would always care for them with cura diligens (loving care)
and sollicitudo specialis (special care). He made it the obligation of his entire
order to do the same. Yet the Regula Bullata of 1223 includes a chapter in which
the brothers, so that they not have suspect interaction or counsel with women
(ne habeant suspecta consortia vel consilia mulierum), are allowed to enter the
womens cloisters only with papal permission. Without question this was a
measure that placed almost insurmountable obstacles in the way of proper
pastoral care. From that point forward the relationship between Franciscans
and Clares moved between these two poles, with an instability similar to that
which we have already noted in the older orders.
The relationship of the Dominicans with the women of their time was not
as personal as that between Francis and Clare, even though women like Cecilia
Cesarini and Diana dAndalo had a greater significance for the first followers of
Dominic than the orders historiographical tradition allows. For the praedica-
tores, engaged before the citadels of heresy in a fight over orthodoxy, the wom-
ens question posed itself in a way that recalls the circumstance of the
wandering apostolic preachers, figures like Robert of Arbrissel or Norbert of
Xanten, more than Francis and his followers. They had to accommodate
women brought back in to the orthodox fold, and to make it possible for them
to make progress in a life of religious community begun in the ranks of the
heretics. Prouille near Toulouse was founded for this purpose around 1206 by
Dominic of Caleruega and Diego of Osma. But the first Dominican convent
was not only a hospice for converted heretics. It was also a place of support and
a point of origin for sancta praedicatio. Its women took care of Dominic
and his preachers, and indeed themselves became teachers (educatrici) and
preachers (praedicatrici) in the fight against heresy and the proclamation of
the faith.14 Yet as with Francis, so with Dominic: from very early on one can
discern a certain suspicion, if not active resistance, against the cooperation of
the women. Like Francis, Dominic also clearly feared that too much concern
over the needs of women would distract his disciples from their primary duty.
How much this fear beset Dominic is clear from the fact that even on his death-
bed he felt the need to warn against associating with them too closely and
maintaining contact with them too intimately. Even the remaining convents
that he himself founded (S. Domingo in Madrid, S. Sisto in Rome, S. Agnese in
Bologna and a house in Toulouse first intended as a shelter for converted pros-
titutes) and especially womens houses founded after his death or incorporated

14 L.A. Redigonda, Dominicane, in: Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione, iii (Rome, 1976),
col. 781.
230 chapter 6

within the orderthese had a much more conventional character than the
community of Prouille. The constitutions they followed combined elements
of Dominican prescriptions with those of the Gilbertines and the Rule of
St. Benedict. The result was a religious life for women shaped by renunciation
of the world and contemplation, and one that had little to do with the study
and pastoral care that were the main concerns of their male counterparts. The
Dominican women shared not only these restrictions with the Clares. The
Dominican women too, like the Clares, had to accept that their desire for more
intense mentoring and closer bonds with the men, especially after the expan-
sion of their branch of the order, would not only often fall on deaf ears, but also
become the cause of intense conflicts among their brethren. And this circum-
stance, or something similar to it, can also be observed in the other mendicant
orders, large and smallthe Carmelites and Augustinian Hermits, the Servites,
the Sack Brothers and the Croziers.
No one expects that the result of these drives for greater participation of
women in religious lifeefforts that took the work of so many decades, that
were conditioned by so many circumstances and undertaken in conjunction
with so many new impulsescould be described accurately in only a few
words. We can only offer a general outline of the direction in which this pro-
cess unfolded: The intimacy and broad consensus that characterized its origins
gave way first to a certain distancing (whether voluntary or forced), and then
to a coexistence of men and women that was not always free of problems, ten-
sions, mistrust and oppression. Whether in houses that remained autonomous
or that were incorporated into established orders, the process unfolded in
similar ways and with almost identical results. Often in the first generation, but
almost always by the second, the vision fostered by the spirit of the founding
era became increasingly distant. In the place of a way of life shaped by the
demands of the Gospels emerged a style, common across the boundaries of
the orders, characterized by claustration; institutionalized renunciation of the
world; focus on contemplation and prayer; a restriction of the active life to car-
ing for the sick, education and general care; and a general jurisdictional and
spiritual subordination to the men and the powers of their office. Today we
tend to read this process as a regrettable systematization and domesticiza-
tion, and to interpret its end result as an exceptionally well-integrated and
well-buttressed organization for exercising power over women, and for put-
ting them to well-regulated use.15
As well as such judgments might reflect our modern outlook, they are ill
suited to do justice to the reality of womens religious life in the middle ages.

15 E. Carroll, Frauen im Ordensleben, in: Concilium 12 (1976), 521.


The Status of Women in Religious Life 231

For all of the various convergences in principle, an astoundingly broad diver-


sity remained characteristic for womens religious life in the high middle ages.
That diversity, grounded in the orders spirituality, history, local horizons and
social circumstances, allowed women considerable freedom in shaping their
way of life. One need not for that reason push them in the direction of Chaucers
masterful portrait of women who saw the religious habit as no hindrance to a
life of liberty. Alongside the hard-working sister of the hospital and the strictly
enclosed Clare stood the abbess widely travelled in the world and the prioress
wise to the ways of businessboth of the latter fully legitimate in their way of
life, and both of whom, with manly energy and sharpness of spirit, defended
the rights and guarded the economic interests of their communities. When
turning an accusing eye toward the spiritual domesticity of medieval religious
women, one must not forget how many women found in the cloister support,
security and freedom from the domination of a father or a husband. The clois-
ter was also surely more than a place in which women were forced into subor-
dination, if not oppression. Hildegard of Bingen, Mechtild of Hackeborn and
many other religious women, known and unknown, came into their own not in
the world but in the cloister; not alone, but in the company of religious men.
There, as one prudent champion of womens emancipation has put it, they
developed a spirituality that affirmed a feminine language and symbolism
about God, and that reflected the psychological and religious experience of
women and men.16
The spiritual diversity of the convent in turn corresponded to the range of
purposes and patterns of association offered to women who sought in it a
higher form of religious life. As one can infer from the foregoing discussion, the
life of women in the cloisterwhether of those who were members of the
secular affiliates, or those who lived in autonomous foundations and houses
was not limited to being a religious woman in the fullest sense (to nuns, canon-
esses and other cloistered sisters). As in the houses and foundations of the
men, in the womens abbey, in the canonry and the mendicant convent, there
gathered around the convent and the community in the strict sense a range of
people of divergent spiritual status. Whether as servants, or in some other jus-
tifiable way, they participated in the life of the community, or were bound to it
at least through loose ties of affiliation. We speak here of the conversae and lay
sisters, who not only counted legally as religious, as members of the religious
orders in the strict sense, but who also in fact shared meaningfully with the
men (the conversi monialium) in the life of the cloister and its material security.

16 E. McLaughlin, Die Frau und die mittelalterliche Hresie. Ein Problem der Geschichte
der Spiritualitt, in: ibid., 41.
232 chapter 6

Ranked beneath them were not only the wage workers, the famulae and ancil-
lae, but also those women often described as familiares, oblatae or donatae,
who by virtue of donations had inherited the right to enjoy from the religious
women and their administrators not only victus et vestitus, food and clothing,
but also spiritual care and supervision. Lastly, there were the consorores or
confratrissae, who remained in the world but who had been accepted into a
community of prayer and spiritual merit through their sisters who had entered
religious life.

When she compared her way of life with the life of sisters in the world, the
vita sororum in seculo, Elizabeth made clear that she did not want it to be
thought of in terms of the communities of religious women of which we have
spoken so far. In speaking of sisters living in the world but (to expand the idea
through St. Paul) not of the world, Elizabeth meant neither women in religious
orders, nor conversae, oblatae, ancillae or confratrissae. If through her turn of
phrase Elizabeth had in mind (so one may assume) some concrete association,
she can only have meant those sorores, swestriones, susteren, mulieres devotae,
virgines continentes, mulieres poenitentes, sanctae, santarellae, beatae, pinzo-
chere or beginae of which there was so much discussion (using these and many
other names) from the end of the twelfth century. They were neither laity nor
religious, but pious women. For the canonists of the twelfth century they
formed their own estate, a status medius or a status tertius, between the laity
and the religious orders, such that they could be counted as religious only in
the broadest sense. The significance of this so-called semi-religious way of life
has become the subject of serious research only in the last few decades. For
Germany its unique character is most visible in the example of the beguines,
who from the thirteenth century came to play an unmistakably important role
in religious life across all of north-west, central and east-central Europe, as well
as in Thuringia. Their presence is in evidence from the first decades of the thir-
teenth century in the large German cities, in Cologne, Mainz, Strasbourg and
Basel. Along with settlements in these larger cities, from the thirteenth century
beguines came to live in a number of middling and smaller cities in the
Rhineland and Westphalia, in Thuringia and Saxony, in the upper-Rhine region
and in German-speaking Switzerland. One can even find them in villages and
hamlets, even in the open countryside and in barren wasteland. But there is no
question that the rise of the beguines was a phenomenon closely associated
with the life of the city. Though often only a few beguine houses emerged in
small or middling towns, in Basel and Mainz in the fourteenth century there
The Status of Women in Religious Life 233

were no fewer than 22 and 28, respectivelythat is to say these cities were
home to some 350 to 400 women living as beguines. And that was relatively few
in comparison to Strasbourg and Cologne: Strasbourg counted 85 beguine
communities, and within its walls Cologne was home to no fewer than 169
houses with around a thousand inhabitants. Small wonder that in the middle
ages contemporaries likened the number of beguines in Cologne to drops of
water in the ocean.
With respect to the economic foundations of their way of life most of these
women, who came mostly from the cities themselves but also often from the
surrounding territory, were dependent on the city and the possibilities for
employment that it afforded. To the extent that they lived together (and in
general that was the case) they could only in part support themselves from
sufficient property. Apart from occasional begging and the acceptance here
and there of various donations, their incomes rested for the most part on their
own industry. They cared for the invalid and the ill, accompanied the dead to
their eternal rest and took care of both gravesites and liturgical memory. They
also occasionally passed on their practical knowledge and abilities to the
young. But their true source of income was the work of their own hands, their
work with needle and thread, with spinning wheel and weaving chair, with
cooking and washing in cloisters and private houses.
The life of a woman striving for spiritual perfection outside of the convent
and the canonry, as we have already suggested, had its legal foundation neither
in the classical rules of the orders nor in binding constitutions. It was oriented
much more toward statutes and house rules that were non-binding in the eyes
of church law, and shaped according to the will of the founders, the needs of
the women and the special circumstances of each individual household. Yet
there was also much common ground: the women, whether in beguinages that
became customary in the Netherlands, or the individual houses most often
found in Germany, were subject to the authority of a leader who was often
described as Martha. For as long as they remained beguines, they obligated
themselves to poverty, chastity and obedience, and to the extent that their
work allowed them the time and the opportunity, they devoted themselves to
prayer and contemplation. Their spiritual exercises are only distantly related to
the prayers of the choir, the meditations and collations of nuns and canon-
esses. These drew very much more strongly than the beguines from the tradi-
tional culture of monastic life. Yet for all of their distancing from the religious
orders and the clergy, these women in no way wanted to renounce the support
of the church in the establishment of their way of life. Occasionally they
entrusted themselves to secular clergy, sometimes members of monastic, men-
dicant or military orderswhosse convents, not only spiritually but spatially
234 chapter 6

also, were central to the beguines and their communities. Many pious women
lived in the shadows of the orders churches, and took part in their divine ser-
vices as often as they were ableso much so that it is fair to speak of beguine
colonies in the neighborhoods of the Dominicans and Franciscans. And by
the later middle ages such proximity was often the cause of sharp conflict
between the religious orders and the secular clergy, as well as conflicts among
the mendicant orders themselves. Here and there the conflicts had to be given
up, when the pious women (rightly or wrongly) were accused of heresy, perse-
cuted or forced to renounce their way of life.
The impressionistic portrait offered here might create the sense that beguine
life was somehow nothing more than an impoverished, inadequate substitute
for genuine religious life. Such an impression is, at least for the later middle
ages, not unjustified. By that time the beguines drew their recruits primarily
from the lower ranks of the population. Their work was often such that it could
be associated with ostracized professions. Their overwhelmingly vernacular
manuscripts normally espouse commonplace theological truths, common
meditational exercises and commonly read texts, suggesting that the intellec-
tual level of their owners had long been not nearly as high as that of Dominican
and Franciscan women. The beguines, too, counted themselves least among
the spiritual corporations that served God and the church. Of course that did
not prevent them from being proud of their estate and expressing their own
distinct confidence. They moved their half-official status in the direction of the
community of disciples that surrounded Christ, and saw in the poverty and
humility of their circumstance not a mark of shame, but a sign of distinction,
granted to them by the one who left behind the glory of heaven to take on the
form of a servant.
This modeling of the life of Christ and his disciples is a legacy of the early
days of the beguine way of life, one that can be traced back to the turn from the
twelfth to the thirteenth century, and to the time of St. Elizabeth. If one wishes
to understand properly the life and the aims of the earliest beguines, one must
forget much of what became characteristic of the lives of pious women, of
mulieres religiosae, in the later middle ages. The earliest beguines certainly did
not come only from the ranks of the lowest orders of society. Their poverty and
their renunciation of marriage were not shaped only through external circum-
stances, as was often the case in the later middle ages. Their way of life was
instead based on voluntary decisions. Nor can there be any suggestion of intel-
lectual parochialism or quietistic conspiracy. The women from Brabant,
Flanders, the lower Rhine and the bishopric of Lttich, of whom Mary dOignies
and Ivette of Huy are the most well-known, were all from noble and patrician
families that did not accept without resistance their daughters and wives
The Status of Women in Religious Life 235

decisionsto turn radically from the world, to live in poverty, to sustain them-
selves from begging or manual labor, to feed the hungry, to care for the leprous,
to accompany the dying, to bury the dead, and to relive the suffering of Christ
on their own flesh through stern bodily asceticism. Mary dOignies, who hailed
from an esteemed family in Nivelles, had been given to a man in marriage
already at age fourteen. She eventually persuaded him to live with her in chas-
tity and to work in common with her to care for the poor and the leprous, and
eventually she made her way into a circle of like-minded women at St. Nicholas
in Oignies. Ivette of Huy, who was also from a wealthy family, was already a
widow and mother of three sons at eighteen, after a forced marriage of five
years. She refused, despite the pressure that the Bishop of Lttich placed on
her, to enter into a new marriage. Five years after the death of her husband she
instead left her small children in the care of her father in order, as she put it, to
take on higher duties than those of a mother. She founded a hospital for sick
and for pilgrims, and soon established a leper colony there in which she
served the lowest of the low with such model diligence that she was able not
only to win many companions, but also to persuade her father and two of her
sons to enter Cistercian monasteries.
The prerequisite for this way of life was a spiritual fullness oriented toward
both the model of Christ and his followers and toward the strict penitential
practices of the monastic and desert fathers. The women drew strength (as can
be seen so well in the lives of Christina of St. Trond and Margarita of Ypres)
from the Eucharist they held in such reverence, and their lives took shape
through the influence (itself not always without problems) of spiritual instruc-
tors. Human strength and spiritual fire put these first beguines (who need not
be ashamed before a comparison with Elizabeth of Thuringia) unquestionably
at the center of their circles, and inspired wonder not least among their biog-
raphers and mentorsfigures like James of Vitry, Fulk of Toulouse, Thomas of
Cantimpr, Hugh of Floreffe, Siger of Lille and John of Lierwho were more
led and shaped by the women than they led and shaped the women
themselves.
The beguine way of life was, as has been said, no isolated phenomenon.
Similar developments can be seen across Europe at the turn from the twelfth
to the thirteenth century. In Catalonia, Castile and Aragon from that time there
is word of the beatae who lived without religious rule or order. In Provence the
beguine Douceline, sister of Hugh of Die, found herself at the center of the
Ladies of Roubaud, who like many similarly directed womens communities
led a life of chastity, poverty and prayer without associating with any religious
order. At the same time, in the densely urban areas of Italy, many faithful men
and women resolved to live more consciously in imitation of Christ, without
236 chapter 6

entering a convent or an order. Instead they began, voluntarily, to lead the


penitential life, the vita poenitentialis, which required prayer, fasting and an
exemplary turn from the world, including the renunciation of ill-gotten gains,
made it obligatory to serve the weak, the poor and the ill, and required a readi-
ness to thoroughgoing sexual abstinence: Women vowed perpetual chastity,
married couples periodically embraced abstinence, and wives promised,
should they become widows, to forego future marriage. The penitential life
began with an expression of obligation, more private than public, before a
spiritual authoritywhether a member of the secular clergy or of a religious
order. It then found outward expression through the mutatio habitum, the
adoption of an undyed, grey penitential garment. It was then fulfilled in ones
own house, in domo propria, but also led in many cases to the formation of
wider confraternities. In general the penitentsin Italy one most often called
them pinzocheri or bizzochisought close association with the orders and
their members. In certain cases it was the members of older orders, even the
Templars and the Hospitalers, that stood ready to serve as their mentors.
Normally, however, the mendicants took on the spiritual leadership of the
penitential communities. It was thus no accident that at the end of the thir-
teenth century many communities adopted rules for tertiaries crafted by the
Franciscans and Dominicans, and so bound themselves institutionally with
the larger mendicant orders as well. But it should not be forgotten that the
penitential way of life was a phenomenon older than the mendicant orders,
and a way of life and that from its origins aimed for a certain kind of Christian
perfection, one that had not been shaped by religious life.
To speak of the status tertius or a via media in the thirteenth century, how-
ever, was not only to speak of the beguines and penitents that were encoun-
tered in such great numbers on both sides of the Alps. Hermits and recluses
and brothers and sisters serving in hospitals, too, were to be numbered among
the ranks of semi-religious life. Concerning the first group, there is no need to
think of proven members of established religious ordersthose who in the
spirit of the Benedictine Rule were allowed to spend some part of their life in
separate hermitages without giving up their membership in the cloister com-
munity. Rather, the discussion here should center on the significant number of
men and women who, with the blessing and approval of their parish priest and
bishop, left the world to live the vita eremitica without approved rule or consti-
tution, personally free and responsible only to themselves. Their way of life
offered many opportunities. It reached from the almost total renunciation of
the world among walled-in recluses to the work of the cloistered in the world,
who offered aid to pilgrims and travelers in the streets and on the waterways.
The same can be said for the brothers and sisters of the hospitals. In speaking
The Status of Women in Religious Life 237

of them as semi-religious, they should not be confused with the members of


the hospital-orders that emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuriesthe
Johannites and Antonites, for example. Rather, the brothers and sisters of the
status tertius were those who offered their services to the needy in so many
autonomous hospitals, founded by clergy and laity, cloisters and bishops, cities
and confraternities, who wore their own kind of spiritual garb, who lived like
members of the religious orders, but who were not professed religious in the
strict sense. As broad as this spectrum of semi-regulated institutions could be,
however, and as smoothly as it met the religious needs and social circum-
stances of women faced with suspicion among ecclesiastical authorities, it still
did not represent a solution that could satisfy every model of religious life.

In the reports of the heretics discovered in France and Italy at the opening of
the eleventh century, there is mention again and again of the participation of
women. The French chronicler Ralph Glaber suggested that the spread of her-
esy in Gaul was to be traced back to a woman who had come from Italy. She is
said to have been able to win over to her errors not only uneducated and simple
folk, but many learned clerics. Ademar of Chabannes says of the heretics dis-
covered around 1022 in Toulouse that they caused not only many men but
many women to depart from the faith. According to the report of Landulf of
Milan, near Turin around 1028 Archbishop Aribert convicted a group of false
teachers that included both women and men. They lived with one another as
brothers and sisters, under the leadership of a woman, the Countess of
Monteforte. Over the course of the following century, as the dualistic heresy of
the Cathars found its way into Latin Christendom, what had been in the elev-
enth century merely an astonishing curiosity came to disturb laity and clergy
alike. To careful observers like Eberwin of Steinfeld, Egbert of Schnau, Hilde
gard of Bingen and Bernard of Clairvaux it became clear that women not only
flew to the heretics in Scharen, but that they also persuaded their husbands to
join them. They were, as the figures we have noted make clear,17 not only
accepted into the circles of the Cathar sympathizers, the credentes, but also
numbered among the ranks of the consecrated, the perfecti. Hildegard strug-
gled to find an explanation. As she saw it, the women found among the heretics
that guidance from true teachers, recti doctores, that they sought in vain among

17 Eberwin of Steinfeld, Epistola ad S. Bernardum, Migne pl 182, col. 679; Egbert of Schnau,
Sermones contra Catharos, Migne pl 195, col. 1314, 19, 90.
238 chapter 6

the orthodox clergy.18 Bernard did not even bother with an explanation. That
men and women should live together was for him a symptom of their error.
With disgust he claimed that women left their husbands and men left their
wives so that they could live together in the circles of the heretics as chaste
men and women, viri et feminae continentes, and eat and work together. If one
wants to keep the church pure, so he says, one must break up such conventi-
cles, drive away the women and keep the men out of the church.19
According to the protocols of the inquisitors active across Southern France
in the thirteenth century, the threat that had loomed a century before had
become reality, and it could no longer be contained by the measures Bernard
had suggested. The Albigensians, so they were named after one of their fortifi-
cations, had been able to win over many women to their cause. They either
remained in the world as amicae orin a way reminiscent of religious life
committed (as indutae or vestitae) to strive after spiritual perfection. In order
to reach it, they seem (unlike the Bosnian dualists who were the forerunners of
the western Cathars) not to have been allowed to live in community with the
male members of the sect. Rather they gathered themselves in communities of
women that have been compared, with justification, to womens convents and
beguinages. Prayer, fasting and contemplation shaped their lives; they cared
for the sick and raised children; and it was not unusual for them to sustain
themselves through manual labor and begging. The women, who entered the
sect as girls (and often very young ones), as widows, as women divorced or
abandoned, came from every social rankhigh and low nobility, bourgeois
circles and the underclasses. Perhaps the most distinguished and well known
among them was Esclarmonde of Foix, who in the nineteenth century was
dubbed the inspiratrice visible du mysticism Cathare and assumed, in her
position as Lady of Montsgur, to have been at the heart of the resistance
against the inquisition.20 There is no evidence of that in the sources. What we
do know of her, however, is enough to place the countess of Foix alongside her
countrywoman Douceline of Digne and her social peer Elizabeth of Thuringia.
After the death of her spouse Jordan ii of Isle-Jourdain, who had left to her and
her daughters only a modest sum, Esclarmonde resolved around 1200 to associ-
ate herself with the heretic Guillabert de Castres and make him her spiritual
guide. In 1204 he administered to her and to other pious women a spiritual
baptism, the consolamentum, and accepted them in to the circles of the

18 S. Hildegardis, Epistolae, Migne pl 197, col. 251.


19 S. Bernardus, Sermones in Cantica, Migne pl 183, col. 1092.
20 S. Coinca-Saint-Palais, Esclarmonde de Foix dans lhistoire et le roman, in: Revue de la
Gascogne 52, (1911), 60.
The Status of Women in Religious Life 239

p erfecti. The noblewoman, now the leader of a community of women, appears


for the last time in the historical record in 1207. In that year, in the presence of
numerous secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries, she intervened in a dispute
that pitted Waldensians and Cathars against Dominic and the bishops of
Toulouse and Couseran. And in doing so she incurred the wrath of one monk
who had sharp words for her: Go back to your spinning wheel, my lady. It is
not your place to speak in an assembly such as ours.21
What the Cathars allowed was all the more possible among the Waldensians,
who as the Poor of Lyon claimed for the laity the authority to preach and who
led, against a priestly church that had grown too wealthy, a life of apostolic
poverty and missionary zeal. After his conversion in 1177 their founder, the
rich Lyonese banker Waldes, left his wife behind in the world and put his two
daughters away in the order of Fontevrault. But he had no reservations whatso-
ever about allowing those women who wished to follow him to take part in the
often dangerous and tumultuous life of a wandering preacher. The sources,
whether Waldensian or orthodox, thus speak quite clearly of his followers as
brothers and sisters. In the early days the relationships between the sexes was
in fact so close that there is no evidence of independent womens communi-
ties; men and women clearly lived in community with one another. It is thus
no wonder that Innocent iii and other critics accused the Waldensian men
and women of not only travelling the land together, but of sharing the same
houses and hospices, even the same beds.22
The women who chose to join the ranks of these two great heresies instead
of entering the cloister had reasons that differed from case to case and from
place to place. One motive that must have prevailed generally, however, can be
gauged from the evidence of two heretical women who at the end of the twelfth
century were asked by Bishop Ponce of Clermont for the reason behind their
departure from the faith: In the sect they were free, subject to no one, and in
fact they were allowed to preach. But under the burdens of monastic life they
had lived only in misery and suffering.23 Their remarks captured a critical
point: In their early years both heresies had in fact offered women the possibil-
ity of an unconventional life in community of action, side by side with men
who were moving across the countryside, working both openly and covertly.
More important still was the fact that the women were granted in principle

21 J. Beyssier, Guillaume de Puylaurens et sa chronique, in: Bibliothque de la Facult des


Lettres. Universit de Paris 18 (1904), 127.
22 Die Chronik des Propstes Burchard von Ursberg, mgh ss rer. Germ. ed. O. Holder-Egger
and B.V. Simson, 2nd ed. (1916), 107.
23 G. Gonnet, Enchiridion Fontium Valdensium i (Torre Pellice, 1958), 46.
240 chapter 6

what the church had withheld from the laity, and especially from women, from
time immemorial: open preaching and the administration of the sacraments.
Among the Waldensians from 1182/83 at the latest there is evidence of sisters
who preached and disputed quite openly in public, after they had been pre-
pared through an intensive course of study in Holy Scripture. Day and night
they never ceased from teaching and learning, so David of Augsburg said of
the Waldensians in Germany, both women and men.24 Such equality prevailed
not only in preaching, but also in divine services and in the sharing of the sac-
raments. The Dominican Stephen of Bourbon notes that it was allowed to
Waldensian women, if they lived an upright life, to exercise the officium sacer-
dotis, the priestly office.25 In fact we know that women played an active role in
the Waldensian ritual of initiation, that they baptized and occasionally dis-
pensed the sacrament of the altar. Among the Cathars, after the perfectae had
received the consolamentum they had the right to give the sacrament to others
as well, at least in exceptional cases or in cases of emergency. They could also
hear the confessions of the credentes, and break the bread during the liturgy. If
they only seldom preached in public, one can nevertheless assume that they
continually sought a deeper understanding of their teaching. How else could
they, like Esclarmonde, actively intervene in the debates between heretics and
orthodox believers?
The willingness of medieval heretics to make a place for women in ecclesi-
astical duties of pastoral care and worship that had been exclusively preserved
for men is occasionally taken as proof for a close bond between womens strug-
gle for emancipation and social and religious protest, and described as the
ideological foundation of a mass movement. More recent investigations have
shown, however, that among the heretics, too, any openness toward women
lasted only through the early period of their history, and that only relatively
few women were able to climb their way to the higher ranks of the hierarchy.
Soon their participation was unanimously approved neither among the Wald
ensians nor the Cathars. And in fact that participation was driven back to such
a degree that the sects began to form new institutions. The formation of a hier-
archy of offices, a decline in mobility and the waning intensity of religious life
led within heterodoxy to phenomena similar to those that can be observed
among the orthodox. Once generous possibilities for growth and development,
as well as relatively broad equality, yielded to claustration, domesticization,

24 David of Augsburg, De inquisitione hereticorum, ed. W. Preger, Abhandlungen der histo-


rischen Classe der k. bayr. Akademie der Wissenschaft 19 (1891), 209, 213, 218.
25 Steven of Bourbon, De septem donis spiritus sancti, ed. A. Lecoy de la Marche (Anecdotes
historiques, lgendes et apologues, Milan, 176680), i, 296.
The Status of Women in Religious Life 241

subordination and limiting of apostolic activitythe same constrictions


thought to be characteristic of the development of womens religious orders.
What took place in a certain inherent way within heretical circles was, for
groups that had loosed themselves from heresy and returned to the bosom of
the church, imposed from without. When at the beginning of the thirteenth
century French Waldensians under the leadership of Durandus of Huesca and
Bernardus Primus were reconciled with the church, they were made to prom-
ise to avoid association with women, never again to sleep with sorores in a
house or to eat with them at the same table. In places like Elne in southern
France this led concretely to the formation of a papally-licensed community of
clergy and laity that enforced a strict division of the sexes (the women lived on
one side of the house, men on the other), yet allowed men and women to inter-
act in the community guest house, in which the tired and poor were to be
refreshed; the sick cared for; children abandoned by their mothers nourished;
poor, pregnant women cared for; and at the beginning of the winter, the poor
provided with clothing.26 A short time before, the Humiliati of northern Italy
(who in 1184 had been condemned as heretics along with the Waldensians) had
gone a similar way. When they decided to return to the church in 1198/99, pope
Innocent iii had the foresight to allow them to maintain the cohabitation of
clergy and laity, men and women that was characteristic of their organization,
as long as they agreed to certain modifications. As is clear from the propositum
approved for them by the curia, communities of Humiliati organized them-
selves into three groups or orders. The first two, headed by praepositi and
praelati, consisted of unmarried men and women who lived separately and
adopted the status of those in religious orders. To the third order belonged laity
who continued to live their normal lives in the company of their families, but
who ate and prayed together in common, clothed themselves humbly and who
sought to observe Gods commandments with special zeal. As a concession to
their original intentions they were also allowed to gather in a suitable place
every Sunday to hear the sermons of those laity whose faith and knowledge
were deemed suitable for the task of preaching.
The reconciliation of the Waldensians and the Humiliati, whose propositum
anticipated the trina milita that would later be realized by St. Francis and his
followers, was an exception. Normally the proximity of heresy to orthodoxy did
not lead to such compromises or transitions, but to confusion, uncertainty and
persecution. The sheer number of new religious communities that emerged in
the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries made it difficult
for pope and bishops to oversee what had until that time been relatively

26 K.-V. Selge (see bibliography), 217.


242 chapter 6

manageable religious orders. When it came to matters of obedience and ortho-


doxy, faced with so many groups of pious men and women with similar ways
of dress, ways of life and intentions, it was almost impossible to judge properly,
to separate the sheep from the goats. Moreover, within the new communities
themselves, the rank and file surely did not understand the nature of true faith
or the necessity of obedience in as sophisticated a way as could be found in the
cloister, in the schools or among the inquisitors. And yet in these pious con-
venticles one tended toward dispute over theological subtleties and to inter-
pretation of scripture without the requisite trainingwhich frequently led
many to fall into dangerous errors. This helped cultivate an environment that
not only favored deviance and disobedience, but also attracted heretics who,
through the strength of their arguments, and often through their exemplary
way of life, won for themselves sympathizers whom they led into error. For
that reason, as is well known, by the later middle ages semi-religious life had
come under suspicion, and the name of beguine became synonymous with
heresy and error, if not with the shameful rabble beyond the ranks of the
church or on the margins of societyand this despite the fact that the majority
of the women lived a pious and godly life.
The fear that a religionum diversitas, a multiplicity of orders and religious
communities, could throw the church into great confusion, into a gravis confu-
sio, inspired the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 to prohibit not only the founda-
tion of new religious orders but also of individual houses, domus religiosae,
unless they agreed to adopt one of the established religious rulesin other
words to attach themselves to an existing religious order.27 This measure,
renewed and refined at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, did not make it
easy for those who wanted to go their own way, or a way other than those that
had been established. If they wanted neither to drift into heresy nor to bind
themselves to an established order, they found themselves at the opening of
the thirteenth century on a narrow and dangerous path. What until then had
been seen by the clergy and the bishops as tolerable now seemed to learned
theologians and inquisitorsfaced with the general spread of heresyas
dangerous error and disobedience worthy of punishment. Only in the later
middle ages, above all in circles shaped by the Modern Devotion, did one begin
to find legal ideas and arguments that not only helped establish a secure foun-
dation for those who chose semi-religious life, but also strengthened their
resolve to live a life that need not take second place behind life in a religious
order, that indeed was of equal in importance, in the eyes of the church, with
the vita regularis.

27 Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta 3rd ed. (Bologna 1973), 242.


The Status of Women in Religious Life 243

In the prologue of his Vita Mariae Oigniacensis James of Vitry made an attempt
to classify the new forms of womens religious life that had emerged in his day.
He differentiated among three groups: the virgins, who according to the com-
mands of their heavenly spouse lived by the work of their hands in poverty and
modesty; widows, who renounced future marriage and who offered compas-
sionate care to the poor and the sick; and lastly married women, who with the
approval of their husbands lived in chastity. This scheme makes clear that with
his categorization came certain judgments. At the pinnacle of his order stood
the virgins; widows followed, and only at the end did he mention married
women. It is rightly said of James that he followed the changes and innovations
of his day with a keen eye. But in this case his observations reveal no original
insight. The scheme he invoked had become commonplace by the high middle
ages. It can be found already in Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome. Its
foundation in the New Testament can be found in the parable of the seeds that
bring forth great fruit: The life of the virgins, so it is explained, brings a hun-
dred-fold, that of the widows and married women, however, only sixty and
thirty. And it was not only in the Vita of Mary dOignies that there were attempts
to understand new phenomena within old categories, and to judge according
to outdated norms. Theologians and historians, too, in the same years, tried to
interpret the emergence of new social classes and groups, the growing diver-
sity of religious orders and the growth of doctrinal error and heresy within the
framework of inherited social models, and to interpret all of the changes as
either the evolution of an existing order, or even as a return of an ancient one.
Today some historians take this as evidence of how difficult it could be for
medieval people to recognize and evaluate new trends. Others, however, see
therein proof of an unbroken continuity between antiquity and the medieval
era of church history. That continuity is postulated not only for the traditional
vita religiosa of the womenwhich found its literary expression in works like
the Speculum virginum and its institutional form in traditional cloister life
but also for marginal or unique forms of womens religious life that have been
spoken of here. Whenever women and men lived a spiritual life together both
within and beyond the church; when they preached the word of God; carried
out liturgical functions, or strove to test their chastity through intimate cohabi-
tationall of this can be linked to a tradition of double houses that reached
back to antiquity, or perhaps to a tradition of canonesses that reached back to
the early Christian diaconate, even to a tradition of syneisaktism that lived on
in the Celtic world into the high middle ages. Similarly for penitential brother-
hoods, communities of beguines and women living in chastity: their modus
244 chapter 6

vivendi can be understood as a contemporary adaptation, respectively, of the


ancient ordo viduarum, a vita poenitentialis outlined in the early Christian
penitential tradition, and a vita eremitica that could be traced back to Anthony
and Paul of Thebes.
These links to enduring traditions are not unjustified. A careful observer can
in fact discern here and there in the early middle ages forms of womens piety
and practices of religious life that can be interpreted as antecedents or fore-
runners of what came to fruition in the high middle ages. But such observa-
tions cannot avoid the fact that womens spiritual life experienced a flowering
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that was, in terms of both quantity and
quality, out of all proportion to what had come before. It was no longer only
noble and high-ranking women who entered the cloister. Thousands upon
thousands of women, from the ranks of burghers, farmers and even the under-
classes, now flooded into so many cloisters newly established in both city and
countryside. Whereas before only a few had lived a life between laity and reli-
gious orders in scattered hermitages, cloisters or hospitals, in the high middle
ages countless numbers of women on the margins, between vita regularis and
vita laicorum, explored the possibilities of living a more free spiritual life
including, in extreme cases, taking on tasks that had until then been reserved
only for men.
The intensification of womens piety and the growing importance of women
in religious life were closely tied to womens growing independence generally,
in society, economy, law and culture. And that independence was closely asso-
ciated with a general elevation of the status of women that found expression in
many ways, but especially in the cult of the Virgin Mary and of the duties of
courtly love. Historians are quick to see in these developments, along with the
valorization of labor and of poverty, the most important characteristics of the
high middle ages as an era of European awakening. They speak, often with
conscious exaggeration, of the emergence of strong matriarchal undercur-
rents, that led to a turning away from sexual oppression, to emancipation
from ecclesiastical domination, to equality and stronger social engagement
for women.28 Many factors are brought forth to explain this new state of affairs.
Some have described it as a consequence of the Gregorian reforms; as a conse-
quence of increasing urbanization; as a consequence of a surplus of women in
the wake of the crusades and the increase of celibacy. Others believe to have

28 K. Bosl, Armut, Arbeit, Emanzipation. Zu den Hintergrnden der geistigen und liter-
arischen Bewegung vom 11. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert, in: Beitrge zur Wirtschafts- und
Sozialgeschichte des Mittelalters. Festschrift fr Herbert Helbig zum 65. Geburtstag, ed.
K. Schulz (1976), 134135.
The Status of Women in Religious Life 245

established the importance of outside influences, or see in the entire process


an overall step in the direction of both outward and inner emancipation not
only for women, but for mankind in general. Such terms and interpretations,
however, tend to foster misunderstanding about female piety, womens reli-
gious life and heresy in the high middle ages: they cannot be understood solely
through established social processes and group formations, through the struc-
tures of a given economic context, still less as ways of life assumed to be typi-
cally female, comprehended by men only with difficulty, if at all. Careful
scrutiny of the matter makes it clear that the spiritual life of women as well as
men took its orientation above all from Holy Scripture, and more precisely
from the New Testament. Both sexes turned to it in a new way, in that they took
its words literally and sought to live up to the radical nature of its claims. The
women who strove together with the men to live a more intense spiritual life,
who made their way begging, indeed preaching across the landscape, did so
above all because they sought to follow in the footsteps of Christ and the
Apostleswho had made their own way, surrounded by disciples male and
female, through Judea and Galilee. When women entrusted themselves to the
leadership of men, when men accepted the power and responsibility of lead-
ing women, and when both lived together in a religious community, they did so
not without the sanction of the New Testament itself: Jesus himself had
entrusted Mary to the care of John and left behind a community that was at
first nothing other than a community of men and women who, gathered
around Mary, received the Holy Spirit. And when the men of the religious
orders, theologians and canonists were finally prepared to allow women to
participate more fully than before in the spiritual life, that too had its founda-
tion not least in their return to the Bibleand more precisely to the Lord, who
drew to himself divorced women and prostitutes, who allowed his foot to be
washed by women and who made them to be the first witnesses of his
resurrection.
The model of the Gospels, which was both known universally and embod-
ied in countless particulars, was also taken as normative among those who
moved beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy or who renounced their obedi-
ence to the church hierarchy. This was so for the Waldensians, whose pursuit of
a life more strictly in accord with the word of the Gospel led them to separate
from the church. It was true as well as for the Cathars. Their dualistic world
view actually prohibited them from affording women equal rank with men
(since it was woman who guaranteed the propagation of a humanity deemed
to be the manifestation of evil). But they too used the New Testament when-
ever they accepted women into their circle and allowed them to dispense the
sacraments. To summarize these reflections, it was not an appropriation of
246 chapter 6

outdated traditions but rather a direct return to the Bible and to the history of
early Christianity that established the direction of these efforts and shaped the
style of their piety.
The attempt to come to a revision of the status of women in the church and
religious life by recourse to the Gospels and the early church led in the high
middle ages, as we have shown, to only slight changes in inherited circum-
stance. One might adduce any number of reasons for this: the fact of the differ-
ences in the sexes, and their differing patterns of life; social structures based on
male dominance, whether real or merely asserted; even the sociological laws
that seem to govern groups in transition from spiritual movements to orga-
nized institutions. For those clerics and members of religious orders who
found themselves on the front lines of these changes, however, what mattered
mostas with questions of participation or of retreating from engagement
with womenwere the theological arguments. And it was no accident that
these were formulated based on the authority of patristic and scholastic texts,
on canon law and tradition. The Gospels, the pastoral letters and the Acts of
the Apostles make clear that already in the second half of the first century,
within the church itself, there had begun a process of crystallization and insti-
tutionalization. As it unfolded the leadership of the early communities shifted
from wandering missionaries to holders of hierarchical offices, from apostles
and prophets to bishops and priests. And closely tied to this process of institu-
tional formation was the emergence of a patriarchyone that afforded a spe-
cial place in the church and its community only to virgins and widows, because
only they were free from the judgment of ancient and later Jewish tradition
concerning women, who with Eve had brought evil into the world and who
sought always to lead men into temptation. And if one were not in a position
to argue from church law, a glance at Holy Scripture could suffice. That Christ
had chosen men, not women, to be his Apostles, and so to be his priests, and
still more that St. Paul (despite his recognition in principle of the fundamental
equality of man and wife) had spoken so sharply of the natural and legal infe-
riority of womenthese made it possible to legitimize hardening and resis-
tance with the same authority that had made possible such openness and
readiness for womens participation. It was thus Scripture itself, in the end, that
gave rise to the irrationality, to the contradiction and inconsistency that
shaped so many centuries of the relationship between women and the church,
and thereby womens status in religious life.29 Given that foundation, it would
be a mistake to see the phenomenon addressed here as one limited merely to
the high middle ages. The question of the appropriate place of women in the

29 Metz, Le statut (see bibliography), 112.


The Status of Women in Religious Life 247

church and in religious life had emerged already in late antiquity and the early
middle ages, and lost none of its importance from the later middle ages into
modernity. How unlikely that question is to have resolved itself merely through
the course of further social and historical change becomes more clear in light
of the rapidly growing number of so many recent publications on this inflec-
tion of the womens question. In virtually every Christian community, theolo-
gians and believers today battle through almost all of the same difficulties that
750years ago confronted not only a saint like Elisabeth, but so many other men
and women, within and beyond the cloister, on both sides of the boundaries
between orthodoxy and heresy.

It is certain that Elisabeth of Thuringia knew very early on of Francis of Assisi.


Whether Francis ever heard of her can neither be confirmed nor denied. There
is no doubt, however, that neither of them met during their lifetimes. And yet
the seraphic saint was as near to the Thuringian countess from Hungary as he
was to St. Clare, his Umbrian countrywoman, with whom he was bound his
whole life long. Elisabeth and Francis shared so strongly their way of life and
sensibility, and reflected so clearly the highest religious yearnings of their time
that the unknown Franciscan cited at the opening of this essay erred only in
fact, not in essence, when he assumed a spiritual bond between the two saints,
one that could not be more intimate. Francis and Elisabeth shared the same
restless search for the proper way of life. They both had to ask themselves
whether it were better to enter a cloister or to live as an anchoress or a hermit,
to devote themselves to the care of the sick or to wander as a beggar and preach
the word of God. In the end both chose a vita poenitentialis between cloister
and world. It became the ultimate solution for Elisabeth, while for Francis it
was but one stop along the path to his own forma vivendi. Driving both was a
desire to follow Christ, not in the way of what had become traditional piety,
but in an adoption of the life of the Lord that could hardly have been more
immediate and tangible: to renounce household and children, to turn to the
bodily care of the most horrific sufferings of the ill, to resolutely return ill-got-
ten money and goods, to embrace poverty and nakedness for the sake of Christ,
to deny the flesh ruthlessly, and to participate in the sufferings of Christ even
to the point of desiring or receiving the stigmata. Like Francis, who was ready
in all things to render honor and obedience to the priesthood and the church,
Elisabeth, too, in all things obedient and eager (in omnibus obediens et paratis-
sima) saw in her subordination to Conrad of Marburg no dishonorable renun-
ciation of her own will, but rather the crowning of her effort to become like the
248 chapter 6

one who had been obedient to his father even unto death on a cross. Both,
Francis and Elisabeth, enjoyed in their lifetimes the blessing of experiencing
true happiness and cheer, vera laetitia, hilaritas et iocunditas, through humilia-
tion, renunciation and obedience. Through it they came so near the magnifi-
cence of heaven that at the end both could meet their death cantantes,
singing.
At least one contemporary was able immediately to perceive and to appreci-
ate what a later observer can see only with a close reading of the sources:
Cardinal Hugolino of Ostia, who knew Elisabeth from her writings, and who
had led and advised Francis both with counsel and instruction from the begin-
ning of his public ministry. That the Cardinal had seen how close the two saints
were, and that he was prepared to afford them similar honor, is clear from the
process of their canonization. On July 16, 1228 the Cardinal, after his election as
Pope Gregory ix, officially canonized the Poverello in S. Giorgio in Assisi. Only
a relatively short time later, on May 27, 1235, he then helped the Countess to the
honor of the altars in Perugia. In both instances the interests of the clergy and
the religious orders, rulers and communes, but also the will of the ordinary
faithful all played a considerable role. But when Gregory insisted on presiding
personally over the canonizations, and on praising in his own words one as
Vas admirabile, the other as Stella matutina (as marvelous vessel and as
morning star), he did so with a specific intention. Through these canoniza-
tions he surely wanted not only to encourage men and women, nobility and
commoners, rich and poor, in a timeless way, to embrace the Christian life. In
a world coming apart at the seams, in the struggle with the emperor and his
powerful allies, beset on all sides by critics of the church, by heresy and unbe-
lief, Francis and Elisabeth helped make clear that the pursuit of holiness and
perfection found their proper place in a church whose origins reached back to
the community of men and women gathered around Mary. Holiness and per-
fection, that is to say, need not be tangled up with rebellion or heresy, still less
a monopoly held by men.

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The Status of Women in Religious Life 249

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chapter 7

John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the


Alps (14511456)

Dietrich Kurze sexegenario

In late autumn of 1450 Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini invited his countryman John
of Capistrano to cross the Alps to Austria to preach. The letter of invitation,
from the secretary of Frederick iii, no longer survives. It becomes clear, how-
ever, from a later letter from Aeneas to John of 5 July 1451, and even more from
the Historia Frederici iii Imperatoris, that the invitation was not merely a per-
sonal one. It had found the support of King Frederick iii and Archduke Albert,
and it was accompanied by a letter of Nicholas v (also lost), in which the pope
ordered the Franciscan Observant to accept the invitation as soon as possible.
In the History of Frederick iii Aeneas hints at the task John of Capistrano was
supposed to fulfill in the Habsburg territories. The hope was that John could
reform dilapidated Franciscan cloisters; preach peace to the people and bring
before them the truth of the faith.1 The stakes of those hopes become more
discernible when set against the political context of the Jubilee year of 1450:
After the official dissolution of the Council of Basel on April 7, 1449 and the
final recognition of Nicholas v, the normalization of the relationship between
empire and papacy that had begun in 1448 with the Concordat of Vienna was
brought to a close, sealed with the crowning of Frederick iii as emperor. The
creation of the right climate was crucial amid these eventswinning over
those in the University of Viennas circle who were still sympathetic to the con-
ciliar cause; the easing of tensions arising from the long-drawn out succession
to the throne of King Ladislaus; but above all the strengthening of the ties

1 R. Wolkan (ed.), Der Briefwechsel des Eneas Silvius Piccolomini, iii, 1, Fontes rerum austriac-
arum 68 (Vienna, 1918), 1920; J.C. Kulpis (ed.), Aeneas Silvius, Historia rerum Friderici iii.
imperatoris (Strassborg, 1685), 4142. Similarly the two biographers of Capistrano, Nicholas
of Fara and Christopher of Varese, in their lives of the saintcomposed in 1462/63, cited here
from the edition of J. Van Hecke in the Acta Sanctorum (=aass) Octobris x, (Paris-Rome,
1869). On these texts and the various recensions of the vitae: F. Banfi, Le fonti per la storia di
S. Giovanni da Capestrano, Studi Francescani (= sf) 53 (1956), 299343; E. Hocedez, Nicolai
de Fara Praefatio in Vitam S.Johannis a Capistrano, Analecta Bollandiana 23 (1904), 320324;
J. Hofer, Die Legenda Johannis de Capistrano des Christophorus von Varese im Codex 2606
der Breslauer Stadtbibliothek, Franziskanische Studien (= fs) 24 (1937), 175182.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_009


256 chapter 7

between the German church and her faithful to the Roman church and the
papacy.2

John of Capistrano was suited for these tasks like no other.3 He was personally
acquainted with Frederick iii, enjoyed the good will of Aeneas Silvius
Piccolomini and stood on solid ground with Nicholas v, whom he had come to
know already as bishop of Bologna. John knew virtually anyone who enjoyed
any rank or recognition in Italy and at the papal court, and he was counted
among his admirers as well as his detractors as a person of significance and
influence. In a poetic letter of 1451, the Paduan humanist Donato da Cittadella
praised him as a light of the faith and the adornment of Italy.4 Minister
General of the Franciscan order Giacomo Bussolini, who was not exactly
friendly to the Observants, said of him in 1453 that he not only enjoyed a repu-
tation of holiness, but also that he had, with Gods help and the blessing of
the Holy See, accomplished much for the reform of the Franciscan order and
the welfare of the church.5 That these judgments were no exaggeration would
be proven through Johns decision to leave Italy in May, 1451forever, as it

2 J.W. Stieber, Pope Eugenius iv, The Council of Basel and the Secular and Ecclesiastical
Authorities in the Empire. The Conflict over Supreme Authority and Power in the Church,
Studies in the History of Christian Thought xiii (Leiden, 1978), 276330. For Imperial his-
tory, B. Tpfer et al., Die entfaltete Feudalgesellschaft von der Mitte des 11. bis zu den siebziger
Jahren des 15. Jahrhunderts, Deutsche Geschichte 2 (Cologne, 1983), 420432; P. Moraw: Von
offener Verfassung zu gestalteter Verdichtung. Das Reich im spten Mittelalter 12501490,
Propylen Geschichte Deutschlands 2 (Berlin, 1985), 362385; H. Boockmann, Stauferzeit und
sptes Mittelalter, Deutsche Geschichte in zehn Bnden. Das Reich und die Deutschen 2
(Berlin, 1987), 326335. On Frederick iii and his politics: B. Rill, Friedrich iii. Habsburgs
europischer Durchbruch (Graz-Vienna-Cologne, 1987).
3 Foundational: J. Hofer, Johannes Kapistran. Ein Leben im Kampf um die Reform der Kirche, i
ii, new, revised ed., Bibliotheca Franciscana 12 (Rome-Heidelberg, 196465). Also: O.
Bonmann, Jean de Capestrano (Saint), in: Dictionnaire de Spiritualit 8 (1974) c. 316324;
idem, Giovanni da Capestrano, in: Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione 4 (1977) c. 12121223.
Forthcoming: S. Giovanni da Capestrano nella Chiesa e nella societa del suo tempo. Atti del
convegno storico internazionale. vi Centenario della nascita del Santo 13861986. Capestrano
LAquila, 812 ottobre 1986.
4 F.M. Delorme (ed.), Une lettre potique de Donato de Cittadella S.Jean de Capistran,
Archivum Franciscanum Historicum (= afh) 4 (1911), 178.
5 L. Wadding, Annales Minorum seu trium ordinum a S. Francisco institutorum xii (Quaracchi,
3rd ed., 1932), 203.
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 257

would turn out, and much to the regret of his countrymenfor the foreign
lands on the far side of the Alps.6
John was born in 1386 in Capestrano, at the foot of the Gran Sasso, the son of
a barone oltremontano who had come to Italy with Louis of Anjou. John
renounced the world in 1415 and entered the Observant convent of Monteripido
in Perugia. At that time the number of brothers from Umbria and the Rieti val-
ley who had embraced the strict observance of the Franciscan rule was still
relatively small.7 The number of their hermitages and convents remained
around thirty. When John died in Hungary on 23 October 1456 the number of
Observant convents in his homeland had reached over 600, and nearly as many
were to be found in west-central and southeastern Europe.8 Moreover, by the
middle of the fifteenth century there had not only been an expansion of the
circle of convents that were eager to embrace a stricter observance, whether
through reform or through new foundations. Franciscan Observant reform had
also established itself institutionally, over against both the order as a whole
and against the papal curia, such that it enjoyedofficially from 1517, but in
reality from the promulgation of the bull Ut sacra ordinis in 1446the status
of an autonomous order. These accomplishments owed much in the first
instance to the efforts of John of Capistrano, whom Eugenius iv had named
General Vicar of all cismontane Observant cloisters in 1443, and who therefore
could lay claim not only de facto but de jure to being the leader, promoter and
organizer of the Franciscan Observants in Italy.9

6 J. Hofer, Die Predigtttigkeit des hl. Johannes Kapistran in deutschen Stdten, fs 13 (1926),
120158; C. Othmer, S.Giovanni da Capestrano ed i suoi viaggi fuori dltalia, sf 26 (1929),
180212. A provisional chronology of his journey in: A. Chiappini, Prospetto cronologico
della vita di S. Giovanni da Capestrano, sf 53 (1956), 203224.
7 L. Brengio, LOsservanza francescana in Italia nel secolo xiv, Studi e testi francescani 24
(Rome, 1963); M. Sensi, Le Osservanze Francescane nelIItalia Centrale. Secoli xivxv,
Bibliotheca Seraphico-Capuccina 30 (Rome, 1985); D. Nimmo, The Genesis of the
Observance, in: Il rinnovamento del Francescanesimo: Losservanza. Atti dellxi Convegno
internazionale, Assisi, 20-21-22 ottobre 1983 (Assisi, 1985), 109147.
8 The statistical data in Wadding, Annales Minorum xv, 367420; L. Di Fonzo, Francescani iv,
10: La statistica dell Ordine, in: Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione 4 (1977) c. 491, 495498;
J.R.H. Moorman, Medieval Franciscan Houses, Franciscan Institute Publications, Hist. Ser.4
(New York, 1985). Cf. also G. Bove: Conventi minoritici medievali (12091517) in un recente
dizionario di J.R.H. Moorman, Miscellanea Francescana (= mf) 84 (1984), 744753.
9 H. Holzapfel, Handbuch der Geschichte des Franziskanerordens (Freiburg i. Brsg., 1909); J.R.H.
Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford, 1967);
C. Schmiti, Franois (Ordre de Saint): les Franciscains, in: Dictionnaire dHistoire et de
Gographie Ecclsiastique xviii (1977) cols. 824911; D. Nimmo, Reform and Division in the
258 chapter 7

John began to preach immediately after his priestly ordination in 1417, and
continued to do so in his native Aquila after a brief stay at the papal court in
Mantua. From 1422 his preaching led him through several cities in central Italy,
where the common folk soon esteemed him as a teacher, prophet and healer.10
The series of his surviving sermons and sermon cycles begins with the Lenten
sermons he preached in 1424 in Sienaa body of preaching and missionary
work that proves John to be justly numbered, along with Albert of Sarteano,
James of the Marches and Bernardino of Siena (whom John himself held in
high esteem), as one of the Four Pillars of the Observance.11 As a former judge
of both the Tribunale della Vicaria, the highest judicial court in Naples, and of
the Giudice delle cause civile in Perugia, John also revealed, earlier and more
strongly than his fellow friars, his inclination for political activity. He sought
out the inner circles of the popes and cardinals, and placed himself uncondi-
tionally in their service.12 Even before his preaching tour, in the service of
Martin v he had turned himself against the Fraticelli. In 1422 in Rome he had
proclaimed the same popes Jubilee indulgence. In 1425, along with Bernardino
of Siena, he helped win back a Perugia that had been alienated from the papacy
under Braccio di Montone. In 1431 and 1433, commissioned by Eugene iv and
with the popes favor, John continued the persecution of the Fraticelli and the
advancement of Observant reform. Two years later, again in the service of the
pope, he intervened in the struggle over royal succession in Naples. And in 1439
he took up an invitation of Eugene iv to come to Florence, where the union of
the Greek and Latin churches was ratified in July. Yet all of this says nothing of
the life of a jurist trained in Perugia by teachers like Matteo Feliziani and
Alessandro di Angelo, nephew of the renowned Baldushis attempts at nego-
tiation and mediation, and all of his legal treatises, through which he sought to

Franciscan Order from Saint Francis to the Foundation of the Capuchins, Bibliotheca
Seraphico-Capuccina 33 (Rome, 1987).
10 L. uszcki, De Sermonibus S. Joannis a Capistrano. Studium historico-criticum, Studia
Antoniana 16 (Rome, 1961). Cf. also idem, Notae critico-historicae de manuscriptis ser-
monum S.Joannis de Capistrano, sf 53 (1956), 345363. On prophecy: O.Bonmann, Zum
Prophetismus des Johannes Kapistran (13861456), Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 44 (1962),
193198. On miracles see the literature cited in n. 28.
11 uszcki, De Sermonibus (n. 10), 3031; idem, De quibusdam sermonibus S. Bernardini a S.
Joanne Capistranensi reportatis, afh 49 (1956), 345351.
12 For the relationships to the popes see the thorough treatment of A. Matani, San Giovanni
da Capestrano oratore pontificio, apostolo e difensore della Republica Cristiana, sf 58
(1956), 22551; M. Fois, I papi e losservanza minoritica, in: Il rinnovamento del Frances
canesimo (n. 7), 31105.
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 259

end legal strife and political quarrels, and to establish peace in Aquila, Sulmona,
Ortona and Lanciano.13
How then would Capistrano, so much a product of Italy, fare north of the
Alps? Would a way of reforming the orders, of popular preaching and church
politics that had taken shape in the communal world of Umbria and Tuscany,
in Naples and the Papal States allow itself to take hold there without issue? It
was a question asked not only at the court in Wiener Neustadt. John and his
companions themselves asked it at the end of April and the beginning of May,
1451, before they departed from Venice over Portogruaro and St. Vitus to
Austria. But with the first steps north of the Alps it became clear that the plans
of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, at least with regard to popular preaching and
reform of the orders, would work out well, and that the brothers self-doubt
was unjustified.14

In Villach, where John was received on May 18, 1451 as if it were the advent of
the pope himself, great masses of the faithful crowded around him.15 After his
sermon many who had been stricken ill with pestilence were carried to him on
biers, among them the vicar of the main church in Villach. He healed them all
in nomine Jesu Christi et sancti Bernardini. Thereafter the press of the masses
was so powerful that John and his entourage left the city secretly in the middle
of the night. But the rumor of events moved more quickly. The citizens of
Gurk, Neumarkt and Judenburg, as well as many smaller cities and villages,
took to the road to see the preacher on his way, to hear him and to touch
him. Frederick iii, his ward Ladislaus and the court received him in Wiener

13 His juristic tracts and consilia, although until now almost completely neglected, were
taken up into the Tractatus universi juris (Venice, 1584), i, 5. 323371; ix, 7784; xiii, 32
66; xiv, 386400; the Repetitiones in iure canonico (Vencie, 1587), iv, 392402; 5663; and
the Perillustrium doctorumin libros Decretalium aurei commentarii (Venice, 1580) i,
320382. See now a first investigation by R. Naz, Jean de Capestrano, in: Dictionnaire de
Droit Canonique vi (1957) c. 9798; O. Bonmann, Jean de Capestrano (saint), in:
Dictionnaire de Spiritualit viii (1974) c. 316323, esp. 321. On the Studium in Perugia: U.
Nicolini, San Giovanni da Capestrano studente e giudice a Perugia (14111414), afh 53
(1960), 3977, which modifies Hofers account on essential points.
14 N. Lickl, Das Wirken des heiligen Johannes Kapistran in und fr sterreich, fs 14 (1927),
91121; F. Popelka, Johannes Capistran in der Steiermark, Bltter fr Heimatkunde 31
(1957), 26; P. Csendes, Johann von Capestrano und sein Zug nach sterreich, Carinthia
155 (1965), 406422.
15 Nicholas of Fara (n. 1), 456457.
260 chapter 7

Neustadt.16 Under the influence of his preaching and his miracle working they
praised God, so the chronicler Nicholas Glassberger told the story, that He had
revealed himself so fully in his servant John.17 The reception in Vienna then
surpassed all that had come before. Already before the walls of the city reli-
gious and secular clergy, magistrates, university schoolmen and an innumera-
ble crowd welcomed the preacher with banners, torches, candles, music and
the pealing of bellsas if the Messiah himself had come. In the Franciscan
church and in St. Stephen, but also in the open air, John preached before great
masses of peoplethe king, the queen, Ladislaus and duke Albert, the city
council and university scholars often among themfor some seven weeks,
from June 7 to July 27, treating both subtle and profound matters so impres-
sively and pleasantly that both learned and unlearned understood the preacher
equally well. And as in Villach and Vienna Neustadt, in Vienna miracles
followed the words and gestures: the lame walked, the deaf heard and the
blind saw. Indeed as Johns secretary and biographer Nicholas of Fara told the
story, the dead were brought back to life. Impressed by the preachers word
and deeds, and with his encouragement hearers then threw masks, dice, cards,
jewelry, fashionable shoes and clothes into a great pile, and set their excesses
afire. Many young people then went one step further, resolving to enter the
religious life. Some fifty in Vienna alone embraced the Observant life.18 Under
the leadership of one of Johns companions, Michael of Sicily, and with the
help of Frederick iii, they built on the site of the dilapidated tertiary commu-
nity of St. Theobald in Laimgrube, a convent that soon numbered some three
hundred members, and that became the point of origin for Franciscan Obser
vant reform throughout the southeastern Empire.19
What had begun in Villach and Vienna Neustadt and reached its first high
point in Vienna continued between 1451 and 1455 in Bavaria and Franconia,
Thuringia and Saxony, Poland and Moravia, in southern and western Bohemia,

16 G. Gerhartl, Wiener Neustadt als Residenz, in: Friedrich iii., Kaiserresidenz Wiener
Neustadt (Vienna, 1966), 112113.
17 Chronica Fratris Nicolai Glassberger Ord. Min. Observ., Analecta Franciscana ii (Quaracchi,
1887), 334339.
18 J. Hofer, Die Wien der Predigten des hl. Johannes Kapistran im Jahre 1451, Jahrbuch der
sterreichischen Leo-Gesellschaft 1 (1927), 122-46.
19 E. Englisch, Zur Geschichte der fanziskanischen Ordensfamilie in sterreich von den
Anfngen bis zum Einsetzen der Observanz, in: 800 Jahre Franz von Assisi. Franziskanische
Kunst und Kultur des Mittelalters. Niedersterreichische Landesausstellung. Krems-Stein,
Minoritenkirche 15. Mai17. Oktober 1982, (Vienna, 1982), 289306, esp. 306. Forthcoming:
H. Hagenofer, I Francescani in Austria al tempo di S. Giovanni da Capestrano, in:
S.Giovanni da Capestrano nella Chiesa e nella societa del suo tempo.
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 261

in smaller cities like Amberg, Arnstadt and Halle, in larger cities and university
towns like Augsburg, Nuremberg and Breslau, like Erfurt, Leipzig and Krakow.
The reports of eyewitnesses, biographers and chroniclers, the charters, confra-
ternity letters, epistolary collections and city account books, as well as the ser-
mons of the saint that the Redemptorist J. Hofer evaluated carefully for his 1936
biography, wherever they may come from and whatever they may reference,
begin to seem suspiciously like the image of an Observant sermon that in a
certain way transcends place and time. It seems not unlike what the artist of
the well-known image in the Bamberg state gallery had in mind around 1470/75,
when he decided to paint the sermon that Capistrano preached in August 1452
on the Bamberg cathedral plaza: a gaunt mendicant friar with an almost bald
head, one hand lifted imploringly to heaven. He holds Bernardino of Sienas
image of the Name of Jesus of in the other. He is surrounded by men and
women, sharply divided by gender. On the edge of the scene is a crowd of indi-
vidual onlookers, clearly also representatives of the Jews among them. The
wider public can be seen in the background, leaning out of the windows. And
at the base of a pulpit draped with red tapestries is a fire, into which an audi-
ence spurred to repentance by his words casts its jewelry, clothing and games.20
Our sources give an impression of improvisation and spontaneity, of occasions
laden with emotion and driven by demanding, indeed hysterical masses, and
for all of the restraint of its sensibility, the Bamberger image gives traces of the
same. The impression is not unjustified when speaking of Franciscan preach-
ing tours of the Quattrocento, and of John of Capistranos preaching tour in
particular. Upon closer consideration, however, it becomes clear that such
characterizations offer only a one-dimensional and impoverished account of
the reality of observant missionary preaching on both sides of the Alps. A few
points can easily confirm this.

To what extent were Capistranos preaching tours and his preaching a matter
of improvisation? Certainly neither the duration nor the route of the trip had
been established in 1451, when John accepted Aeneas invitation. One can in

20 A. Stange, Die deutschen Tafelbilder vor Drer (Munich, 1978), iii, 110. H. Hundsbichler,
Predigt des Johannes Kapistran in Bamberg, in: 800 Jahre Franz von Assisi (n. 19), 589. Cf.
also the contributions in L. Hennig (ed.), Der Buprediger Capestrano auf dem Domplatz
in Bamberg. Eine Bamberger Tafel um 1470/75. Begleitschrift zur didaktischen Ausstellung im
Historischen Museum Bamberg, Schriften des Historischen Museums Bamberg 12
(Bamberg, 1989).
262 chapter 7

fact assume that he had at first envisioned only an affair of a few months dura-
tion, and one limited to Austria. Yet he took care in the winter of 145051 to
make careful preparations.21 He recruited twelve brothers who because of their
heritage and training were well-suited to the challenge. He settled unfinished
business within his order; took books, charters and documents with him on the
trip and drew up for his daily use a collection of Italian-German phrases in
translation.22 Once the trip had begun, its course became in a certain sense
predetermined. Invitations, inquiries and offers from princes, prelates, urban
authorities, members of the orders, clergy and laity became ever more frequent.
Yet John knew always which ones to choose, which to turn down and to accept.23
In the case of Nuremberg it took three attempts24 and in Jena, Halle and
Magdeburg the intervention of territorial princes, Duke William of Saxony and
the Archbishop of Magdeburg, persuaded the preacher to include these
and other cities in central Germany in his itinerary.25 Even this happened only
with preparation and under specific conditions. Months before his arrival John
made arrangements for travel and for his entourage, for accommodation and

21 Nicholas of Fara (n. 1) 5:464465; Christopher of Varese (ibid.) 5:498499. On the com-
panions and their later fate: Lickl, Das Wirken des heiligen Johannes Kapistran in und fr
sterreich (n. 14), 94.
22 On Capistranos archive and library: V. De Bartholomeis, I codici di San Giovanni, mf 5
(1890), 521; S. Gaddoni, Descriptio duorum codicum Bibliothecae S. Cataldi (Mutina),
afh 1 (1908), 623626; A. Chiappini, Reliquie letterarie Capestranesi. Storiacodici
cartedocumenti, Bullettino della R. Deputazione Abruzzese di storia patria 10 (1921),
27185; 1113 (1922), 171; O. Bonmann, Um das Opus epistolarum des H. Johannes
Kapistran, sf 53 (1956), 275286; uszczki, Notae critico-historicae de manuscriptis ser-
monum S. Joannis de Capistrano, sf 53 (1956), 348350; A. Chiappini, De quodam bre-
viario O.F.M. perperam S. Joanni Capistranensi adiudicato, Collectanea Franciscana 26
(1956), 278.
23 See here the literature cited in n. 6.
24 J. Kist, Der hl. Johannes Kapistran und die Reichsstadt Nrnberg, fs 16 (1929), 206208.
25 W. Nissen, Der Aufenthalt Johann Kapistrans in Halle im Jahre 1452, Thringisch-
Schsische Zeitschrift fr Geschichte und Kunst 26 (1938), 8593; O. Richter, Der Buprediger
Johannes von Capistrano in Dresden und den Nachbarstdten, 1452, Mitteilungen des
Vereins fr Geschichte und Topographie Dresdens und seiner Umgebung 4 (1883), 18;
J. Bhring, Johannes von Capistrano, des andchtigen Vaters Aufenthalt in Arnstadt 1452,
Alt-Arnstadt. Beitrge zur Heimatkunde von Arnstadt und Umgebung 3 (1906), 8395;
R. Beumann, Johannes Capistrano und Mhlhausen, Mhlhuser Geschichtsbltter 10
(1909/10), 120121; J. Neubner, Die Sachsenfahrt des hl. Johannes Capistrano, St.-Benno
Kalender. Die katholische Volkskalender fr das Bistum Meien 81 (1931), 4956; J. Hofer,
Ein zeitgenssischer Bericht ber das Wirken des hl. Johannes Kapistran in Leipzig im
Jahre 1452, fs 22 (1935), 364366.
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 263

for a suitable place to hold the sermon. Everything, from his reception to his
departure, was well governed according to guidelines set down by John and his
companions, so that his limited time could be put to good use and his sermon
could have an optimal impact on his audience.26 Moreover, those who invited
John had to take measures to accommodate, over the course of a few days, thou-
sands of people, most of them old, weak and ill, and to allow them to partici-
pate in the event in an appropriate way. But the work did not end even with the
preparation and completion of the sermon. The preacher and his companions
prepared for their supporters and friends confraternity letters that offered full
participation in the prayers and merits of the order.27 Moreover, even before
the preachers departure they took meticulous care to publicize word of Johns
miraculous healings, and to register and classify them according to category.
Apart from healings described and confirmed by local notaries, north of the
Alps no fewer than 1,500 cases were taken up in the Liber miraculorum of
Conrad of Freystadt, the main record of healings now kept in the Bibliothque
Nationale in Paris.28 Capistrano left Nuremberg, after some three weeks of
preaching, on August 13, 1452. But affairs there continued to occupy him for
months. At the request of the city council he designated one of his fellow
Franciscans as a preacher in the city; worked through problems that had arisen
from the reform of St. Clare; and sought from the city two carriages to bring to
Nuremberg or Vienna some novices that he had won in Leipzig.29 The city

26 The ceremonies of reception, described thoroughly in the sources and secondary litera-
ture, were in accordance with those customary for rulers and prelates: A.M. Drabek, Reisen
und Reisezeremoniell der rmisch-deutschen Knige im Sptmittelalter (Vienna, 1984);
K. Militzer, Die feierlichen Einritte der Klner Erzbischfe in die Stadt Kln im Sptmittel
alter, Jahrbuch des Klnischen Geschichtsvereins 55 (1984), 77116; H. Boockmann, Der
Einzug des Erzbischofs Sylvester Stodewescher von Riga in sein Erzbistum im Jahre 1449,
Zeitschrift fr Ostforschung 35 (1986), 117.
27 W. Dersch, Ein Brderschaftsbrief des heiligen Johannes von Capistrano, fs 7 (1920),
7578; J. Hofer, Brderschaftsbriefe des heil. Johannes Kapistran, fs 22 (1935), 326337.
F. Machilek, Zwei Brderschaftsbriefe des Johannes von Capestrano im Staatsarchiv
Bamberg, in: Der Buprediger Capestrano auf dem Domplatz in Bamberg (n. 20), 111114.
28 F. Delorme, Ex libro miraculorum ss. Bernardi Senensis et Joannis a Capistrano auctore
Conrado de Freyenstat, afh 11 (1918), 399441;. P. Jansen, Un exemple de saintet
thaumaturgique la fin du Moyen ge: les miracles de Saint Bernardin de Sienne,
Mlanges de lcole Franaise de Rome. Moyen ge-Temps Modernes 96 (1984), 129150. Cf.
as an example of local notification: J. Baader, Der hl. Johannes Capistranus in Nrnberg
und seine wunderbaren Krankenheilungen, Mnchener Sonntagsblatt (1865), 254256,
259260.
29 J. Kist, Klosterreform im sptmittelalterlichen Nrnberg, Zeitschrift fr bayerische
Kirchengeschichte 32 (1963), 3145; F. Machilek, Anschlu des Klaraklosters an die
264 chapter 7

council, in turn, approached him in its struggle with Margrave Albrecht Achilles
and the treatment of two citizens, convicted of a crime, who wanted to pay for
their misdeeds in a cloister instead of a prison.30 Similarly after his visit to
Magdeburg: there John took up a position, as Nicholas of Cusa had done a year
before, on the long-running dispute over the blood cult at Wilsnack. As late as
1452 John continued to exchange letters with the Magdeburg Premonstratensian
prior Eberhard Woltmann, whom he advised to refer the dispute to the papacy
for a decision.31 Though he was laden with requests, and despite his ever-
increasing burdens, in these and in other cases the friar never lost patience,
but instead responded all the more punctually, carefully and competently.

As with the logistical matters briefly outlined here, so with the style and con-
tent of the sermons themselves: They, too, are anything but products of spon-
taneity and improvisation. From the learned humanist Aeneas Silvius
Piccolomini to the Leipzig chaplain Stephan Naumann, all were of the same
view: that in Capistrano the grace of the word of God showed forth wonder-
fully, and that he knew, in a masterful way, how to expound upon the Scriptures
in a way appropriate to time, place and audience.32
The means and methods of Observant preaching have in recent times been
the subject of thorough description and unbiased evaluation: the power of
facial expression; the tempo of speech; the strength and modulation of the

Straburger Observantenprovinz, in: Caritas Pirckheimer 14671532. Eine Ausstellung der


Katholischen Stadtkirche Nrnberg, Kaiserburg Nrnberg, 26. Juni8. August 1982
(Nuremberg, 1982), 76; idem, Armut und Reform. Die franziskanische Obersvanzbewegung
des 14. Jahrhunderts und ihre Verbreitung in Franken, in: Der Buprediger Capestrano auf
dem Domplatz in Bamberg (see n. 20), 115125.
30 Cf. Kist, (n. 24), 193215, 208.
31 E. Breest, Das Wunderblut von Wilsnack, 13831552, Mrkische Forschungen 16 (1881), 133
301, here 256ff.; L. Meier, Wilsnack als Spiegel deutscher Vorreformation, Zeitschrift fr
Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 3 (1951), 5369. More recently: F. Escher, Brandenburgische
Wallfahrten und Wallfahrtsorte im Mittelalter, Jahrbuch fr die Geschichte Mittel- und
Ostdeutschlands 27 (1978), 116137; H. Boockmann, Der Streit um das Wilsnacker Blut.
Zur Situation des deutschen Klerus in der Mitte des 15.Jahrhunderts, Zeitschrift fr histo-
rische Forschung 9 (1982), 385408, esp. 405408. Ch. Zika, Hosts, Processions and
Pilgrimages: Controlling the Sacred in Fifteenth-Century Germany, Past and Present 118
(1988), 2564, esp. 4959.
32 Wolkan, (ed.), Der Briefwechsel (n. 1), 1920; Hofer, Ein zeitgenssischer Bericht (n. 25),
364365.
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 265

voice; the depth of gesture; the effectiveness of a surprising act, and especially
the willingness and the ability actively to engage the audience through direct
address, spontaneous dialogue and invitation to prayer, invocation and inter-
cession.33 Even better than the reports of eye-witnesses and hearers for dis-
cerning the impact of these techniques is the report of Nicholas of Fara, who
reported that the faithful could listen for three hours and more to the Latin
sermon of the devout father (as they called him), but then began to lose interest
when the translators (between 1451 and 1453 John worked with no fewer than
44 of them) began to translate the sermon into German.34
Thanks to the research of Chiappini, Hofer, Bonmann and uszcki, the tran-
scriptions or reports of the sermons preached between 1451 and 1456 are now
(as far as the surviving texts are concerned) more or less completely known.35
A few survive in older editions.36 In them we have before us only a dim reflec-
tion, the mere shells, the burned-out embers of the actual delivery. But they
confirm impressions arising from descriptions of Capistranos rhetorical strat-
egies. The range of biblical allusions; the references to history and nature;

33 C. Delcorno, La predicazione nell et comunale (Florence, 1974); R. Rusconi, Predicazione


e vita religiosa nella societ italiana da Carlo Magno a la Controriforma (Turin, 1981),
63200; idem, La predicazione minoritica in Europa nei secoli xiiixv, in: Francesco, il
Francescanesimo e la cultura della nuova Europa a cura di I. BaldelliA.M. Romanini,
Acta Encyclopaedica 4 (Rome, 1986), 141165; A. Martin, La prdication et les masses au
XVe sicle. Facteurs et limites dune russite, in: Histoire vcue du peuple chrtien (Paris,
1979) ii, 941; V. Coletti, Parole dal pulpito. Chiesa e movimenti religiosi tra latino e volgare
nell Italia del Medioevo e del Rinascimento (Casale Monteferrato, 1983).
34 Cf. for example the striking portrait of Jerome of Udine in his Epistola prooemialis, in:
aass Oct. x (n. 1), 486488 and the Vita S. Johannis de Capistrano (n. 1), 479. On the trans-
lators, among others: A. Neumann, Ein mhrischer Dolmetsch des hl. Kapistran, fs 6
(1919), 175176.
35 Cf. the literature cited in nn. 3, 10, 11 and 22. There is still no definitive edition of
Capistranos treatises and sermons. In the Nota illustrative introducing the Opera Omnia
Sancti Joannis a Capistrano (LAquila, 1985)a reproduction in facsimile of the Collectio
Aracoelitana of P. Antonio Sessa da Palermo (1700)provide an overview of the older
surviving prints and editions, which are often inacessible.
36 E. Jacob, Johannes von Capistrano iii (Breslau, 1905/07/11); G. Buchwald, Johannes
Capistranos Predigten in Leipzig 1452, Beitrge zur schsischen Kirchengeschichte 26
(1923), 125180; L. Meier, De sermonibus quos S. Joannes a Capistrano fecit Erfordiae,
Collectanea Franeiscana 21 (1951), 8994; idem, De praedicatione dominicana sermoni-
bus Capestranensibus Erfordiae parallela, Antonianum 29 (1954), 143148. On surviving
vernacular texts, which have thus far received no systematic treatment: K. Ruh, Johannes
von Capestrano (J. Capistranus, Kapistran), in: Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters.
Verfasserlexikon iv (1983) cols. 561565.
266 chapter 7

the continuous references to the experiences of his own life; the characteriza-
tions of virtue and vice, sharpened through anecdote and exaggeration; the
direct reference to the hearers own world of circumstances and events, serving
as a complement to that direct preaching style aimed at the ideal and the effect
that we have already characterized. Both made Capistranos sermons into not
only an attraction for the faithful, but also a model for the clergy, who dili-
gently wrote them out and used them as models for their own sermons, indeed
as the basis for a distinct theory of preachingas the Ars praedicandi of
Nicholas Eyfeler makes clear.37
Surviving copies provide not only confirmation of the liveliness and timeli-
ness of Capistranos sermons. They also force a reconsideration of a view often
encountered in older scholarship, and occasionally in recent scholarship as
well: that these homilies, works that turned on sin, guilt, forgiveness and con-
fession, were nothing more than sermons of accusation and punishment.
Capistrano speaks of sin, confession and damnationwhat preacher would
not do that? But he does so relatively rarely, hardly in the aforementioned
expressive manner, and certainly not in the insulated form of a homily.
Capistrano preferred, wherever he could (over the course of his long stays in
Vienna, Nuremberg, Leipzig and Breslau, for example) to preach the extended
sermon cycleon upright living, prayer, penance, fasting, faith, the end of the
world and the last judgment, on the glory of heaven, the religious life, the
saints and the mother of God. He adhered to a broadly-based model arranged,
according to the customs of his day, according to distinctionseven when
saints feasts or local events might dictate changes or deviations. He was clearly
not concerned to preach ad hoc, but rather to do that which his teacher and
model Bernardino of Siena had advocated a few decades before, in the face of
the desolate circumstance of the medieval cities: to mount a systematic
attack against a widespread ignorance that, in his view, was the real reason for
the moral decline of the individual, for inequality in society, social misery, the
hopelessness of debt, political strife and schism in the church.38

37 Here see now: F.J. Worstbrock: Eyfeler, Nikolaus, in: Verfasserlexikon (n. 36) ii (1980) col.
668669.
38 M. Agosti, La pedagogia di S. Bernardino, in: S. Bernardino da Siena. Saggi e ricerche pub-
blicati nel quinte centenario della morte (14441944), Pubblicazioni dellUniversit
Cattolica del S. Cruore, ns 6 (Milan, 1945). Cf. also the numerous contributions to
Bernardino of Sienas intentions in: Bernardino predicatore nella societa del suo tempo. 9-12
ottobre 1975, Convegni del Centro di Studi sulla spiritualit medievale xv (Todi, 1976);
Atti del Convegno storico Bernardiniano in occasione del sesto centenario della nascit di S.
Bernardino da Siena, LAquila, 7-8-9 maggio 1980 (LAquila, 1982); Atti del Simposio
Internazionale Cateriniano-Bernardiniano, Siena, 1720 aprile 1980. Accademia Senese degli
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 267

When Stephan Naumann (in the audience, as noted above, for the Leipzig
sermons) wrote that Capistrano knew how to expound on scripture according
the needs of the various estates, it was no general or tentative claim.39 In fact
while on his tour it was not Johns only concern, indeed not even his primary
concern, to appeal to the masses. In Vienna, Nuremberg, Erfurt and Bamberg,
as in Italy, he preached before secular clergy and members of the religious
orders. Reaching back to his Speculum clericorum, first delivered at a synod in
Trent in 1439, John reminded priests and prelates of the rights and duties of
their estate and the worthiness of their office.40 In communities of religious
both male and female, but also among students and masters in the universi-
ties, John celebrated in a long sermon cycle the superiority of the religious
estate, to whose exempla praeclara, Francis, Clare, Bernard and Dominic, he
devoted individual sermons.41
More direct and concrete was the influence that John sought to exercise
over temporal and spiritual authorities, both in Italy and in Germany, whether
by invitation or otherwise. In summer 1451, while he was still preaching in
Vienna, the city council of Nuremberg asked him to intervene as mediator in a
conflict with Margrave Albrecht Achilles of Brandenburg.42 In Pillenreuth at
the end of July, 1452, only a few days after his arrival in the imperial city, John
sat down at the table with the scholar Gregor Heimburg, representative of
Nuremberg, and (one less experienced in legal affairs), the procurator of the
Margrave Peter Knorr of Ansbach. A crafty jurist, John soon discerned that
neither party was in any way seriously prepared to discuss a compromise.43

Intronati (Siena, 1982); San Bernardino. Storia, cultura, spiritualit, Esperienze dello
spirito. Quaderni a cura dello Studio Teologico S. Bernardino, Verona 6 (Vicenza, 1982).
39 Hofer, Ein zeitgenssischer Bericht, (n. 25), 64.
40 For editions of the Speculum cf. nn. 13 and 35 as well as E. Jacob (ed.), Speculum Clericorum,
in: idem, Johannes von Capistrano, ii, i, (Breslau, 1905), 12174. Forthcoming: P. Vian, Lo
Speculum Clericorum di Giovanni da Capestrano, in: S. Giovanni da Capestrano nella
Chiesa e nella societ del suo tempo.
41 Cf. here uszczki, De sermonibus (n.10) as well as the literature cited in n. 18, 25 and 36.
42 Kist, Der hl. Johannes Kapistran und die Reichsstadt Nrnberg, (n. 24), 206208. Cf. also
A. Bauch, Zur Kapistranforschung in Franken, Jb. f. frnk. Landesforschung 26 (1966), 15.
43 P. Joachimson, Gregor Heimburg, Historische Abhandlungen aus dem Mnchener
Historischen Seminar 1 (Bamberg, 1891, new imprint Aalen, 1983), 133. More recently on G.
Heimburg, with thorough bibliography: R. Kemper, G. Heimburgs Manifest in der
Auseinandersetzung mit Pius ii., Sodalitas litteraria Rhenana. Denk-Schriften 1
(Mannheim, 1984); Kist, Peter Knorr, in: G. Pfeiffer (ed.): Frnkische Lebensbilder ii,
Verffentlichungen der Gesellschaft fr frnkische Geschichte vii/A (Wurzburg, 1968),
159176.
268 chapter 7

How thankless and dangerous the business of a mediator could be became


clear to John (if he had not already known it before) in June, 1453. In that
month Ludwig von Erlichshausen, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, invited
John to come to Prussia in order to teach his subjects that they should have a
better attitude toward the order, and (no less importantly) in order to mediate
between the order and the Prussian League.44 Capistrano, who doubtless
quickly recognized the full scope of the conflict,45 declined the invitation. He
expected no success from any effort at mediation, as long he had received nei-
ther an official mission nor the corresponding authority from the pope and the
emperor. Thereafter John had to contend with the accusation that he had con-
spired with Hans von Baysen (a trusted follower of the Grand Master who had
gone over to the Polish side), spoken quite harshly against the order, and
indeed encouraged the Poles to attack the orders territory.46
As always, whenever John of Capistrano spoke before princes and city coun-
cils about public affairs, he encouraged them to fight against cupiditas, i.e.
against interest, usury and fraud.47 Soon after his arrival in Austria John did not
shy away from challenging Frederick iii (whose subjects were complaining
loudly) to free himself from his bondage to moneylenders.48 It is true enough

44 J. Hofer, Johannes von Capestrano und der Deutsche Ritterorden, fs 26 (1939), 201212.
45 On the conflict of the Teutonic Order with the Prussian League between December 1452
and August 1454: H. WeigelH. Groneisen: Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Friedrich
iii., vi, 1, 14531454, Deutsche Reichstagsakten xix, 1 (Gttingen, 1969), 416507;
E. Lodicke, Der Rechtskampf des Deutschen Ordens gegen den Bund der preuischen Stnde
144055, Altpreuische Forschungen 12 (Knigsberg, 1935); H. Boockmann, Laurentius
Blumenau. Frstlicher RatJuristHumanist (ca. 14151484), Gttinger Bausteine zur
Geschichtswissenschaft 37 (Gttingen, 1965), 6585; M. Bliskup, Der preuische Bund
14401454. Genesis, Struktur, Ttigkeit und Bedeutung in der Geschichte Preuens und
Polens, in: K. Fritze et al. (eds.), Hansische Studien iii (Weimar, 1975), 217218.
46 R. Greiser, Hans von Baysen, ein Staatsmann aus der Zeit des Niedergangs der Ordensherrs
chaft in Preuen, Deutschland und der Osten. Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte
ihrer Beziehungen 4 (Leipzig, 1936), 8090.
47 The Tractatus de cupiditate venerabilis patris fr. Joannis de Capistrano ordinis minorum et
utriusque juris doctoris. In quo de variis criminibus per que aliena usurpantur. Nec non de
usura plenissime societateque mercatorum licita et illicita. De comparatione redituum per-
petuorum et vitalium in pecunia aut in rebus aliis, cum pactis reemptionis et sine materia
etiam monete et complura utilia et quotidie occurentia continentur (first printed in Cologne
in 1480 by Johannes Koelhof) and similar articulations in his sermons (uszczki, De ser-
monibus, n. 10) are in need of more careful investigation. On the current state of research
see the literature cited in n. 50.
48 Hofer, Die Wiener Predigten des hl. Johannes (n. 18), 136137; B. Haller, Kaiser Friedrich
iii. im Urteil der Zeitgenossen, Wiener Dissertationen aus dem Gebiete der Geschichte 5
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 269

that John of Capistrano was active in many cities without inspiring any action
against the Jews.49 But tightly interwoven into his economic ethics and his
social and political world viewand these were consistent with the views of
his fellow Observant friars50was an anti-Jewish hostility, one augmented in
Italy51 by theological arguments that had been advanced especially by the
mendicants,52 and one that John had made use of in the communes of central
Italy, in the face of such a broadly-based monopoly of Jewish money-lenders
and bankers.53 The consequences of such interventions and appeals became
clear in 1453 in Breslau, where John not only instructed the clergy and the faith-
ful and worked for the foundation of an Observant cloister.54 In the wake of an
alleged host-desecration John also took part in a trial against the Jewish com-
munity there.55 As his biographer Cristopher of Varese reports, the trial led to

(Vienna, 1965), esp. 70, 94, 108113. Cf. also: F. Tremel, Studien zur Wirtschaftspolitik
Friedrichs iii. 14351453, Carinthia 146 (1956), 546557.
49 F. Backhaus, Judenfeindlichkeit und Judenvertreibungen im Mittelalter. Zur Ausweisung
der Juden aus dem Mittelelberaum im 15.Jahrhundert, Jahrbuch fr die Geschichte Mittel-
und Ostdeutschlands 36 (1987), 275332, esp. 298.
50 W. Forster, Der heilige Johannes von Capestrano und die soziale Frage, fs 35 (1953), 121;
Cf. in this connection also: O. Capitani, S. Bernardino e letica economica, in: Atti del
Convegno storico Bernardiniano (wie Annm. 38), 4668 with a thorough bibliography on
the economic ethics of the Observants.
51 D. Kaufmann, Correspondance change entre les communauts juives de Recanati et
dAncone en 1448, Revue des tudes Juives 23 (1891), 249253.
52 Cf. most recently and thoroughly on this theme: J. Cohen, The Friars and the Jews. The
Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism (Ithaca-London, 1982).
53 G. Todeschini, Teorie economiche francescane e presenza ebraica in Italia (13801462
c.), in: Il rinnovamento del Francescanesimo (n. 7), 195227; idem, La ricchezza degli
Ebrei. Merci e denaro nella riflessione ebraica e nella definizione cristiana deli usura alla
fine del Medioevo, Studi medievali 27 (1986), 671730.
54 W. Urban, Studia nad dziejami Wroclawskiej diecezji w perwszej polowie xv wieku, (Breslau,
1959), 246251; L. Teichmann, Die Franziskaner-Observanten in Schlesien vor der
Reformation (Breslau, 1934), 2031.
55 L. Oelsner, Schlesische Urkunden zur Geschichte der Juden im Mittelalter, Archiv fr
Kunde sterreichischer Geschichtsquellen 31 (1864), 45, 5759, 116118; M. Brann, Geschichte
der Juden in Schlesien (Breslau, 18961910), i, 115149. Cf. also: O. Bonmann, Zur
Judenfrage, in: Hofer, Johannes Kapistran (n. 3) i, 416424. Cf. also: V. Colorni: Shmuel da
Spira contra fra Giovanni da Capestrano. Un curioso episodo del Quattrocento, La
Rassegna Mensile di Israel 38 (1972), 6986. On the history of the Jewish community in
Breslau: F. Rosenthal, Najstarsze osiedla ydowskie na Slsku, Biuletyn ydowskiego
Instytutu Historycznego 34 (1960), 327; A. Maimon (ed.): Germania Judaica iii/i
(Tbingen, 1987), 156168.
270 chapter 7

the burning of Jews and brought John himself the dubious distinction that
universi Judaei solo eius nomine audito, vehementer pavebant.56
Although John increasingly turned down invitations and requests to preach,
to mediate disputes, and even to reform religious houses, it was not merely
because he was overwhelmed or because of any sense his efforts would be in
vain. The trip he had undertaken in 1451, a trip with a limited goal and modest
mission, found itself drawn ever more into the undertow of the great political
events of the era: the confrontation with the Hussites and Utraquists, and the
threat to Europe of the Turks, who were advancing through the Balkans. From
month to month, the fight against the Hussites and the call to defend
Christendom against the Ottomans increasingly shaped the course of Johns
tour, and indeed the content of his sermons.57 These were the concerns that
led John to take part in the imperial councils in Regensburg and Frankfurt, and
to preach there against the Hussites and the Turks.58 They were also the con-
cerns that led his preaching tour to take on a different shape. In the confronta-
tion with Hussites and Utraquists, and especially in the struggle against the
Turks, the preacher became a warlord, a new Joshua (as Capistrano described
himself)59 who played a prominent role in the victory over the Turks before
Belgrade.60 The demands of conflict and strife transformed an audience eager
for show and miracle into an army of crusaders, of whom in 1456 an unknown
Nuremberger Crozier said that they came together from cities, villages and
markets, and took the field and fought before Belgrade without lord or
nobleman, alone with the spiritual father John.61

56 Christopher of Varese (n. 1), 499.


57 F.C.R. Weber, Des Franciscaners Johannes von Capistrano Mission unter den Hussiten 1451
1453 (Leipzig, 1867); J. Hofer, Die auf die Hussitenmission des Hl. Johannes von Capistrano
bezglichen Briefe im Codex 598 der Innsbrucker Universittsbibliothek, afh 16 (1923),
113126; R. Rav, Die erste Hussitenmission des heiligen Johannes v. Capestrano in
Mhren (1451), fs 19 (1932), 224249.
58 Wadding xii (n. 5), 131.
59 M. Bihl, Duae epistulae S. Johannis a Capistrano, altera ad Ladislaum Regem, altera de
victoria Belgradensi (An. 1453 et 1456), afh 19 (1929), 6375, here 73.
60 F. Babinger, Mehmed der Eroberer und seine Zeit. Weltenstrmer einer Zeitenwende,
(Munich, 1953); idem, Der Quellenwert der Berichte ber den Entsatz von Belgrad am 21.22.
Juli 1456, Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Phil. hist.- Kl.,
Heft 6 (Munich, 1957).
61 J. Baader, Zur Geschichte des Kreuzzuges vom Jahre 1456, Anzeiger fr Kunde der
deutschen Vorzeit N.F. 10 (1863), 253254. Also a member of this crusading party was the
priest of Pechtal, Johannes Paur, who died on the return journey to Vienna on December
20, 1456. H. Boockmann has brought to my attention that his image survives today in the
Franconian Gallery (Veste Rosenberg-Kronach). Cf. A. Schdler, Die Frnkische Galerie,
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 271

Our brief survey of John Capistranos preaching tour, and its transformation
from 1453 into a crusade, thus comes to a close. We want by way of conclusion,
if not to answer the question of who Capistrano was, then to at least pose it.
What kind of a person was this who came to the Empire in 1451? Sixty-five
years old, small, haggard, harsh, wasted away, a body held together by skin and
bones, so Hartman Schedel described him.62 And Thomas Burgkmaier, who
must have encountered him in 1452 in Augsburg, represented him around 1480
in a painting that survives in the National Gallery in Prague.63 If it was said that
he could get by with a minimum of nourishment and sleep, and yet was still
possessed of so much energy, intellectual presence and powers of memory that
he was able to think through and decide on many matters at once,64 there is no
need to turn to G. Morettis65 analysis of Johns handwriting in order to con-
clude that he was a personality of great dynamism, high intelligence, a strong
ability to adapt and to express himself, as well as a figure with a pronounced
tendency toward polemicin sum, a contentious intellectual.
Should one wish to define Capistranos character as a religious figure, one
would hardly describe him as a profound theologian, still less an inspired mys-
tic. At best he is an ascetic, a preacher and a prophet. In fact, after the learned
jurist and renowned official turned from the world and became a novice in the
wake of his Turmerlebnis in 1415, he began to exercise himself in a program
of suffering, self-denial and obedience to a degree remarkable even for his own
day, in order to become master of his pride and arrogance. There is no mention
of any theological study in the proper sense, or even of a time of contempla-
tion and spiritual training.66 Who doesnt marvel at a preacher who had a

Zweigmuseum des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums (Veste Rosenberg-Kronach, 1983),


5152.
62 H. Schedel, Buch der Croniken und Geschichten (Nuremberg, A. Koberger 1493), fol. 249; E.
Rocker, Die Schedelsche Weltchronik (Munich, 1973), 8081.
63 E. Buchner, Das deutsche Bildnis der Sptgotik und der fruhen Drerzeit (Munich, 1953), 86,
199; E. Vavra, Hl. Johannes Kapistran, in: 800 Jahre Franz von Assisi (n. 19), 589592.
References to further representations: G. Van s-HertogenboschO. Schmucki, Johannes
von Capestrano, in: Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie vii (1974), cols. 9093.
64 Jerome of Udine (n. l), 486488; Cf. also Wadding xii (n. 5), 87.
65 G. Moreiti, I Santi dalla scrittura. Esami grafologici, (Padua, 1952). Cf. also O. Bonmann,
Eine graphologische Betrachtung der Handschrift Kapistrans, in: Hofer, Johannes
Kapistran (n. 3) i, 512515.
66 On conversion, profession and ordination: Nicolini, San Giovanni da Capestrano studente
e giudice a Perugia (n. 13), 3977. C. Tabarelli, Documentazione notarile sul convento di
272 chapter 7

broad knowledge of Holy Scripture, who knew Bonaventure and Peter John
Olivi along with Richard of Mediavilla and Franciscus Marioni, and who
referred to Thomas Aquinas as his specialis patronus, and yet who showed
nosign of theological creativity, indeed betrayed no real interest in the theology
of his time or his order? Moreover, his treatises, most unpublished or available
only in old and inaccessible printed editions, reveal a preference for practical,
homiletical works rather than systematic or speculative theology.67 In Vienna
in 1451 John remarked cum vidi theologiam, ego noluissem corpus iuris pro mille
caruisse mundis, quia bene confert sacre theologiewhich is to say nothing
other than that in church law and ecclesiology he saw matters that were central
to theology.68 The ideas about the nature of the church and its organization
that emerge from his treatises, sermons and letters only strengthen the impres-
sion of his relatively limited interest in theology and theological thought in the
narrow sense. Like his model Bernardino of Siena and his brothers Augustine
of Ferrara, Capistrano stands resolutely on the stark papalism advocated at the
end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries by theolo-
gians like Giles of Rome, William of Cremona and Augustinus Novellus.69 In
1438 in his treatise De auctoritate pape et concilii vel ecclesiae he took to the
field against conciliarism;70 in 1452 he branded as heretics those qui se non vult
conformare ritibus ecclesiae romanae;71 and soon thereafter he fought with bare
fists against the Hussite compacts as a threat to the unity of the church72all

Moteripido nei secoli XIV e XV, Fonti per la storia dell Umbria 12 (Perugia, 1970); U. Nicolini,
Perugia e lorigine dellosservanza Francescana, in: Il rinnovamento del Francescanesimo
(n. 7), 289299; B. Pandzic: De ordinatione sacerdotali S. Johannis a Capistrano, afh 49
(1956), 7782.
67 Cf. n. 35.
68 ms Maria-Saal, Bibl. Cap., Nr. 6, fol. 249r: Certe, qui habent curam animarum, deberent
bene scire decretum et decretales, quia est quasi torcular sacre theologie et succus expres-
suspostea, cum vidi theologiam, ego noluissem corpus iuris pro mille caruisse mundis, quia
bene confert sacre theologie.
69 W. Brandmuller, Lecclesiologia di San Bernardino da Siena, in: Atti del Simposio
Internazionale Cateriniano-Bernardiniano (n. 38), 393406; R. Manselli, S. Bernardino da
Siena e lecclesiologia tra Trecento e Quattrocento, in: Atti del Convegno storico
Bernardiniano (n. 38), 3336; B. Piana, Agostino da Ferrara (1446). Un francescano asser-
tore del potere temporale nel Papa fra le negazioni dell Umanesimo, afh 41 (1946),
240281.
70 De Papae et Concilii sive Ecclesiae auctoritate B. Joannis a Capistrano Minorum Observantiae
familiae concionatoris celeberrimi opus, Venetiis ap. Antonium Ferrarium mdlxxx. Cf. also
nn. 12 and 38.
71 Buchwald, Johannes Capistranos Predigten (n. 36), 135.
72 Cf. n. 57.
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 273

of this done in the spirit and with the arguments of an ecclesiology already
outdated by the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. No one articu-
lated more clearly than Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini how strong was Capistranos
conviction, so often expressed, that the church was necessary for salvation and
the plentitudo potestatis of the popes was the will of God. As he wrote in 1455,
to ease the fears of Cardinal Domenico Capranica that John might mobilize his
supporters against the interests of the curia, Aeneas attested to the fact that he
was a homo Dei, one who had built the Observant movement as a domus firma
super firmam petram, and who would never waver in his support of the
church.73

After all that has been said about Capistrano it is not to be expected that he
and his actions have always been judged in a uniform way. It has already been
noted how Italians judged him in the 1450s. The celebrations in his honor after
his death resonate no differently.74 His biographers celebrated him as the
crown and the renown of his order.75 His fellow Franciscans then worked tire-
lessly to 1690, when after many failed attempts they won his canonization from
Alexander viii. The representations of Capistranos life and work as they
emerge from these affairs are full of praisefor the preacher, the miracle
worker, the reformer of his order, the defender of the faith, the crusader against
the Turks, the Apostle of Europeand they strike a tone that resonates even
today.76 No less sharp and sustained however, were the criticisms. They began
north of the Alps with the voices of reformers like John Busch, who in Halle in
1452 was in fact impressed by Johns powers of persuasion, yet also found the
mos italycus of his preaching foreign, if not vulgar.77 The pattern continued

73 Hofer, Johannes Kapistran (n. 3), 275280.


74 On Capistranos afterlife, cf. J. Van Hecke, De S. Joanne de Capistrano confessore Ordinis
ff. MinorumCommentarius praevius, in: aass Oct. x (n. 1), 269439; Hofer, Johannes
Kapistran (n. 3) ii, 421464, and now: O. Capitani, S. Giovanni da Capestrano nella storio-
grafia, in: S. Giovanni da Capestrano nella Chiesa e nella societa del suo tempo.
75 On the biographers: F. Banfi, Le fonti per la storia di S. Giovanni da Capestrano, sf 53
(1956), 299344; G.B. Festa, Cinque lettere intorno alla vita e alla morte di S. Giovanni da
Capestrano, Bullettino della R. Deputazione Abruzzese di storia patria iii/2 (1901), 1837;
4956; R. Lechat, Lettres de Jean de Tagliacozzo sur le sige de Belgrade et la mort de S.
Jean de Capistran, Analecta Bollandiana 39 (1921), 139151.
76 Cf. n. 74 and 84.
77 K. Grube (ed.), Des Augustinerpropstes Johannes Busch Chronicon Windeshemense and
Liber de reformatione monasteriorum quorumdam Saxonie, Geschichtsquellen der
274 chapter 7

with the principled, theologically well-grounded critiques of his miracle-


working, attributed to James of Paradies.78 It then sharpened with the assess-
ments of the conventual Matthias Dring, who dismissed the preaching and
the works of his Observant brother.79 Criticism of John then reached a certain
high point when Nicholas of Cusa, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Cardinal
Carvajal and Pope Nicholas v put him in his place: the zealot, disturbing their
plans, boldly attacked80 George Podiebrad and John Rokyzana without suffi-
cient authority. He also admonished Nicholas of Cusa, who was prepared to
make concessions in the name of the unity of the faith and the church, si hae-
reticos excusamus, nos ipsos condemnamus.81 And in 1461 Cardinal Carvajal said
of the friar who had died in Ilok in 1456 that he was irascible, ambitious, rash
and vainappropriate observations, here shaped by the wounded pride of the
papal legate eclipsed by Capistrano as the conqueror of the Turks, and a judg-
ment, issued from the highest of places, that would long darken the image of
the Italian preacher.82
Just as Johns character has inspired contradictory judgments, so too have
his works.83 Both within and beyond the Franciscan order a number of
authorsgrounded not least in the positive judgments that lords, prelates,
city councils, clergy and laity offered on both sides of the Alps in the
1460s, in support of Johns canonization.84 They point to his propagation of

Provinz Sachsen und angrenzender Gebiete 19 (Halle, 1886), 240.


78 Jacob, Johannes von Capistrano (n. 36) ii, 407409; D. Mertens, Jacobus Carthusiensis.
Untersuchungen zur Rezeption der Werke des Kartusers Jakob von Paradies 13811465,
Verffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts fr Geschichte 50. Studien zur Germania
Sacra 13 (Gttingen, 1976), 113, 133, 150. On James brother Johannes Hagens critique of the
miracles of Capistrano: J. Klapper, Der Erfurter Kartuser Johannes Hagen. Ein
Reformtheologe des 15. Jahrhunderts, Miscellanea Erffordiana 2. Erfurter theologische
Studien 910 (Leipzig, 1964), ii, 105107.
79 A.F. Riedel (ed.): Mathias Drings Fortsetzung der Chronik von Dieterich Engelhusen,
in: Codex diplomaticus Brandenburgensis iv, 1 (Berlin, 1862), 223, 225, 227228.
80 Wadding xii (n. 5), 106110. Cf. also: 368375; Hofer, Johannes Kapistran (n. 3) ii, 107110,
280283.
81 Wadding xii (n. 5), 145150.
82 Wadding xii (n. 5), 416, 480; Hofer, Johannes Kapistran (n. 3) ii, 435437.
83 Wadding xii (n. 5), 477485; Hofer, Johannes Kapistran (n. 3) ii, 435466.
84 R. Pratesi, I documenti per la canonizzazione di S. Giovanni da Capestrano contenuti nel
Ms. Marciano cl. xiv, n. ccxlvi, sf 53 (1956), 364377; idem, Lettera della Signoriadi
Firenze per la canonizzazione di Giovanni da Capestrano (Giuglio 1453), sf 53 (1956),
378381. A. Liberati, La repubblica di Siena e San Giovanni da Capestrano, Bullettino
Senese di storia patria 44 (1937), 375401. On similar stances in Germany: Wadding xii
(n.5), 414416; Kist, Der hl. Kapistran (n. 24), 214215; Nissen, Der Aufenthalt Kapistrans
John of Capistranos Preaching Tour North of the Alps 275

the Observants, which led to numerous reforms and new foundations in the
Empire and established a home for renewed Franciscan life in the Balkans and
in all of central Europe, all the way to Lithuania and the Rus. In doing so he
gave new life to the piety of the laity and the spiritual life of the clergy and the
religious orders; worked for the purity of the faith, the unity of the church and
peace among Christians. He also urged Christendom, with every means at his
disposal, to take up the fight against the Turks as they came to threaten the
borders of the Empire. And so it is said that John helped prevent the premature
demise of the medieval world, and that in certain places he established a firm-
ness of faith that survived, decades after his death, to resist the Reformation
and its novel beliefs.85
Others have judged, on the contrary, that John should be numbered among
those who only propped up tradition, and who with dubious means contrib-
uted to the establishment of the power of the Roman papacythereby hin-
dering, rather than advancing, the necessary inward reform of the church. And
this is to say nothing of those authors for whom the Observant preacher was
nothing more than an exponent of a medieval obscurantism,86 one who could
lay no claim to the piety that we great and pure men both gladly express in
life, and guard after death.87

in Halle (n. 25), 9293. Buchwald, Johannes Kapistrans Predigten in Leipzig (n. 36),
147180.
85 A. Pozzi, Umanesimo francescano. La personalit di S. Giovanni da Capestrano,
Analecta T. O. R. 18 (1950), 431437; O. Bonmann, Johannes Kapistran, der Apostel
Europas, Stimmen der Zeit 159 (1956/57), 4756; A. Martini, La multiforme vita e la san-
tit di Giovanni da Capestrano, La Civilt Cattolica 107 (1956) V, 116; P. Brezzi, Religione
e civilt in San Giovanni da Capestrano, Frate Francesco 25 (1958), 2765; J.M. Wehner,
Der Kondottiere Gottes (Heidelberg, 1956); O. Bonmann, Johannes Kapistran (13861456).
Ein Leben fr Europa, Der Rufer 29 (1960), 6264; N. Rodolico, La figura storica di S.
Giovanni da Capestrano, sf 53 (1956), 221224; L. Sptling, San Giovanni da Capestrano
campione dell Europa unit, sf 53 (1956), 225235; N. Honermann, Ein Mnch unter den
Wlfen. Johannes von Kapistran, der Apostel Europas (Innsbruck, 1965); R. Zavalloni, San
Giovanni da Capestrano e la Cultura Francescana della Pace, Antonianum 61 (1986),
520539. On the theme of Franciscan Observants and the Reformation, see now
W. Ziegler, Die deutschen Franziskanerobservanten zwischen Reformation und Gegenre
formation, in: I Francescani in Europa tra Riforma e Controriforma. Atti del xiii Convegno
internazionale 17-18-19 ottobre 1985 (Societ Internazionale di Studi Francescani, Assisi
1986), 5294.
86 L . Poliakov, Geschichte des Antisemitismus ii: Das Zeitalter der Verteufelung und des
Ghetto, trans. R. Pfisterer (Worms, 1978), 47, 150.
87 G. Voigt, Johannes von Capistrano, ein Heiliger des fnfzehnten Jahrhunderts, Historische
Zeitschrift 10 (1863), 1996, 96.
276 chapter 7

John of Capistrano, if asked about his historical significance, would not have
been at a loss for words. More than once in his own lifetime he embraced turns
of phrase that recalled the Apostle Paul; that celebrated his accomplishments
in spreading the word of God and the defense of the faith, the church and the
papacy.88 He also claimed that without Observant preaching the Catholic faith
would have all but completely crumbled away, preserved only by a few.89 John
also stressed that his life and mission were not only about himself and his
renown, indeed not even about his order and the legacy of Francis of Assisi. His
only concern was the unity of the church, the superiority of the papacy and
orthodoxy. In late autumn 1452, most likely at the insistence of Aeneas Silvius
Piccolomini, Nicholas v withdrew Johns authority in a Motu proprio, making
clear to the friar that he was to show restraint in matters of high politics. In
response the friar chose for his humble and self-conscious missive words that
capture his intention and his historical role: Tuam vineam colo, Pater sanctis-
sime, tua excutio arva, omnes animae tuae sunt, eius, qui eas creavit et creat,
auctoritate tibi commissae. Aperi fontes vitae perennis, et de tuo, licet inutili, ser-
vulo confide secure, quia citius mortem expeterem, quam sanctae Sedis
Apostolicae culmini detrimentum utcumque pusillum debiti honoris paterer
ignorari.90

88 Bibl. Conv. O.F.M. AracoeIi, Rome, Cod. 19 (olim V-3), fol. 89r: Omnis occupatio postpo-
nenda pro fidei defensione censetur, quod nimis dulce otium ac omni negotio pulcrius exis-
timo, ff. Hofer, Johannes Kapistran (n. 3) i, 96, n. 34.
89 ms Maria Saal, Bibl. Cap., Nr. 6, fo1. 255v, ff. Hofer, Johannes Kapistran (n. 3), ii, 292.
90 Wadding xii (n. 5), 154157, here 155. Forthcoming: K. Elm, S. Giovanni da Capestrano
nella Chiesa del Quattrocento, in: S. Giovanni da Capestrano nella Chiesa e nella societ
del suo tempo.
chapter 8

Vita regularis sine regula. The Meaning, Legal


Status and Self-Understanding of Late-Medieval
and Early-Modern Semi-Religious Life

The Franciscan Hippolyte Hlyot (1716) published his five-volume history of


the religious orders in Paris between 1714 and 1716. After his death his fellow
Franciscan Maximillian Bullot expanded the work by three more volumes,
and the work was thereafter often re-issued and translated into other lan-
guages. But Hlyot did not choose the seemingly obvious Histoire des ordres
religieux as his title. Instead he chose, with care and discernment, Histoire
des ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires et des congrgations sculires
de lun etlautre sexe.1 To take to hand even one volume of this workone
that Marie-Landre Badiche used as the foundation for his Dictionnaire des
ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires published between 1847 and 1859
is to be reminded of the encyclopedias of Jean-Lerond dAlembert and of
Denis Diderot, as well as the work of Martin Gebert, abbot of St. Blaise, who
would undertake the Germania Sacra some fifty years later.2 With their drive

1 H. Hlyot, Histoire des ordres monastique, religieux et militaires et des congrgations sculires
de lun et lautre sexe, qui ont est establis jusqu present (Paris, 171419); German: Ausfhrliche
Geschichte aller geistlichen und weltlichen Kloster- und Ritterorden fr beyderley Geschlecht
(Leipzig, 1756); Dictionnaire des ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires ou Histoire des
ordrespar le P. Hlyot mis en ordre alphabtique par M.-L. Badiche (Encyclopdie Thologique,
I Srie, T. xxxxiii, Paris, 184759). On Helyot, his work and its dissemination see i. Noye,
Pierre Hlyot (en religion Hippolyte), in: Dictionnaire de Spiritualit vii (Paris, 1969), 174ff.
2 J. Lough, The Encyclopdie, (London, 1971); idem, The Contributors to the Encyclopdie
(London 1973); LEncyclopdie (Paris, 1993). On his birth see now: L. Hell, Die eine Theologie
und ihre Teile. Martin Gerberts Beitrag zur Geschichte der Theologischen Enzyklopdie, in:
Freiburger Dizesan-Archiv 114 (1994), 734. On his life and his works: W. Mller, Martin
Gerbert. Frstabt von St. Blasien 17201793, in: Lebensbilder aus Schwaben und Franken 12,
ed. R. Uhland (Stuttgart, 1972), 100120. On Germania Sacra: G. Pfeilschiffer, Die St. Blasiani
sche Germania Sacra, Mnchener Studien zur historischen Theologie I (Kempten, 1921);
L. Hammermayer, Die Forschungszentren der deutschen Benediktiner und ihre Vorhaben,
in: Historische Forschung im 18. Jahrhundert. OrganisationZielsetzungErgebnisse. 12.
Deutsch-Franzsisches Historikerkolloquium des Deutschen Historischen Instituts Paris, ed. K.
Hammer, J. Voss Pariser Historische Studien 13 (Bonn, 1976), 122191.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_010


278 chapter 8

to c lassify and categorize, historians of the religious orders in the eighteenth


century proved themselves to be not only representative of the cosmopolitan
scholarly culture of the late-baroque era, or of the Enlightenments passion
for systematization.3 They were participants in a tradition that reached back
to the early days of Christianity, indeed far back to the ancient world.4 To
organize according to genera and coetus, according to contemplatio and actio,
vita communis or vita solitaria,5 or later according to rule and legal status has
counted, until the present, as the most appropriate way to classify a vita reli-
giosa that, over the course of its history, has grown into an inestimable range
of ways of life and institutions.6 Hlyot, Gerbert and later historians like Max
Heimbucher, but above all historical theologians and theologians of religious
life of the high middle ages, worked from the assumption that the founda-
tional principles of such a system of classification were grounded in the
nature of a church founded by God, in the unfolding of salvation history and

3 E.W. Cochrane, The Settecento Medievalists, in: Journal of the History of Ideas 19 (1958) 36
61; L. Gossman, Medievalism and the Ideologies of Enlightenment (Baitimore, 1968).
4 Cf. here, among others, J. Joly, Le thme philosophique des genres de vie dans lantiquit clas-
sique (Brussels, 1956); U. Ranke-Hememann, Das Motiv der Nachfolge im frhen Mnchtum,
in: Erbe und Auftrag 36 (1960), 335347; G. Penco, Il capitolo De generibus monachorum
nella tradizione medievale, in: Studia monastica 3 (1961), 241251.
5 M.E. Mason, Active Life and Contemplative Life. A Study of the Concepts from Plato to the Present
(Milwaulkee, 1961); G. Turbesi, La solitudine come espressione ideale della vocazione cristi-
ana, in: Benedictina 8 (1954), 4356; G. Lobrichon, Ermitisme et solitude, in: Montelucio e i
Monti Sacri. Atti dellincontro di studio Spoleto, 30 settembre2 ottobre 1993, Centro Italtano di
studi sullAlto Medievo. Miscellanea 8 (Spoleto, 1994) 125148;M.-E. Brunert, Das Ideal der
Wstenaskese und seine Rezeption in Gallien bis zum Ende des 6. Jahrhunderts, Beitrge zur
Geschichte des Alten Mnchtums und des Benediktinertums 42 (Mnster, 1994); H.J. Derda,
Vita communis. Studien zur Geschichte einer Lebensform in Mittelalter und Neuzeit (Cologne,
Weimar, Vienna, 1992); K. Elm, Die Bedeutung historischer Legitimation, Funktion und
Bestand des mittelalterlichen Ordenswesens, in: Herkunft und Ursprung. Historische und
mythische Formen der Legitimation. Akten des Gerda-Henkel-Kolloquiums veranstaltet vom
Forschungsinstitut fr Mittelalter und Renaissance der Heinrich-Heine-Universitt Dsseldorf,
13. bis 15. Oktober 1991, ed. P. Wunderli (Sigmaringen, 1994), 7190.
6 Cf. among others H. Hourlier, Les religieux, Histoire du Droit et des Institutions de lglise en
Occident publi sous la direction de Gabnel Le Bras x: Lge classique 11401378
(Paris, 1974); R. Lemoine, Le monde des religieux, ibid. XV/2: L poque moderne 15631789
(Paris, 1976). Further literature: K. Elm, Orden I: Begriff und Geschichte des Ordenswesens,
in: Theologische Realenzyklopdie xxv (Berlin, 1995), 315330; G. Melville, Diversa sunt
monasteria et diversas habent institutiones. Aspetti delle moltiplici forme organizzative dei
religiosi nel Medioevo, in: Chiesa e societ in Sicilia. I secoli xiixvi, ed. G. Zito (Turin, 1995),
323345.
Vita regularis sine regula 279

not least in the religious disposition of manthat is to say in ecclesiology, in


historical theology and anthropology.7 But there soon emerged a new model,
now widely accepted: to see the establishment of traditions of asceticism and
monasticism, and especially the formation of religious orders, as a historical
process shaped by many factors. This in turn has created the need to see the
history and structure of the orders in a way appropriate to the highly complex
social system we see today.8 The shift has had important consequences for the
history of the religious orders. From the 1920s the dominant view has remained
that religious orders and heresies are no longer to be seen as independent
entities, but rather (at least from a historical point of view) as different mani-
festations of a single phenomenon, each complementary to or dialectically in
tension with the otherin short, as religious movements shaped by
numerous factors.9 Another trend has moved, with increasing sharpness, in a

7 M. Heimbucher, Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche iii, 3rd ed.
(Paderborn, 1934); H. Silvestre, Diversi sed non adversi, in: Recherches de thologie ancienne
et mdivale 31 (1964) 124132; G. Constable, The Diversity of Religious Life and Acceptance
of Social Pluralism in the Twelfth Century, in: History, Society and the Churches. Essays in
Honour of Owen Chadwick, ed. D. Beales, G. Best (Cambridge, 1985), 2947; W. Eberhard,
Anstze zur Bewltigung ideologischer Pluralitt im 12. Jahrhundert, in: Historisches
Jahrbuch 105 (1985) 353387; J. Leclercq, Diversification et identit dans le monachisme au
XIIe sicle, in: Studia Monastica 28 (1986) 5174.
8 Cf. among others, G. Schmelzer, Religise Gruppen und sozialwissenschaftltche Typologie.
Mglichkeiten der soziologischen Analyse religiser Orden, Sozialwissenschaftliche Abhan
dlungen der Grres-Gesellschaft 3 (Berlin, 1979).
9 G. Volpi, Movimenti religiose e sette ereticali nella societ medioevale Italiana (Florence, 1922)
and H. Grundmann, Religise Bewegungen im Mittelalter. Untersuchungen ber die geschich-
tlichen Zusammenhnge zwischen der Ketzerei, den Bettelorden und der religiosen Frauen
bewegung im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert und ber die geschichtlichen Grundlagen der deutschen
Mystik, Historische Studien 267 (Berlin, 1935); idem, Neue Beitrge zur Geschichte der
religisen Bewegungen im Mittelalter, in: Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 37 (1955), 129182, also
in: idem, Ausgewhlte Aufstze. Teil 1: Religise Bewegungen, Schriften der Monumenta
Germaniae Historica 25, 1 (Stuttgart, 1976), 3892. Cf. also: R. Buchner, Religisitt, Spiritua
lismus, geistige Armut, Bildung: Herbert Grundmanns geistesgeschichtliche Studien, in:
Innsbrucker Historische Studien 1 (1978), 239251; M. Wehrli-Johns, Voraussetzungen und
Perspektiven mittelalterlicher Laienfrmmigkeit seit Innozenz iii. Eine Auseinandersetzung
mit Herbert Grundmanns Religisen Bewegungen, in: Mitttellungen des Instituts fr
sterreichische Geschichtsforschung 104 (1996), 286309. On the character of religious move-
ments, J.J. van Moolenbroek, Mouvements populaires, mouvements religieux au Moyen
ge, in: Le Moyen ge 93 (1987), 249253; K. Elm, Francescanesimo e movimenti religiosi del
Duecento e Trecento. Osservazione sulla continuit e il cambiamento di un problema storio-
grafico, in: Gli studi francescani dal dopoguerra ad oggi, ed. F. Santi (Spoleto, 1993), 7389.
280 chapter 8

similar direction. Older definitions of the orders as institutions sharply


divided from one another legally and socially, are now undergoing revision.
The notion that religious life stands alongside the clergy and the laity as one
of the independent pillars of the church has been modified. Scholars now
emphasize the ability of the religious orders to change, to adapt and to reform,
and they point to the broad spectrum of connections between the secular and
regular clergy, as well as to connections between both clerical estates and the
world of the laity.10
That a church and its orders once viewed as rather static and structured is now
viewed as more dynamic in character is doubtless a result of the profound
changes in understandings of the church and its practice that have emerged in
our century11 not least a new appreciation of the laity and its role in the church,
one that was already discernible at the end of the nineteenth century, that grew
in strength between the World Wars, and that culminated at Vatican ii.12
It has led not only to a more intense concern with lay and popular piety in the

10 Cf. for example R. Kottje, Monastische Reform oder Reformen? in: Monastische Reformen
des neunten und zehnten Jahrhunderts, ed. R. Kottje, H. Maurer, Vortrge und Forschungen
38 (Sigmaringen 1989), 913; K. Schreiner, Dauer, Niedergang und Erneuerung klsterli-
cher Observanz im hoch- und sptmittelalterlichen Mnchtum. Krisen, Reform- und
Institutionalisierungsprobleme in der Sicht und Deutung betroffener Zeitgenossen, in:
Institutionen und Geschichte. Theologische Aspekte und hochmittelalterliche Befunde, ed. G.
Melville, Norm und Struktur 1 (Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, 1992), 124. On stasis and
change as paradigmatic for medieval scholarship and interpretation in general: O.G.
Oexle, Die Statik ist ein Grundzug des mittelalterlichen Bewutseins. Die Wahrnehmung
sozialen Wandels im Denken des Mittelalters und das Problem ihrer Deutung, in: Sozialer
Wandel im Mittelalter. Wahrnehmungsformen, Erklrungsmuster, Regelungsmechanismen,
ed. J. Miethke, K. Schreiner (Sigmaringen, 1994), 4570.
11 K. Rahner, Strukturwandel der Kirche als Aufgabe und Chance (Freiburg, 1972); H.U. von
Balthasar, Kirchenerfahrung dieser Zeit, in: Sentire ecclesiam. Das Bewutsein von der
Kirche als gestaltende Kraft der Frmmigkeit. Festschrift fr Hugo Rahner, ed. J. Danielou,
H. Vorgrimler (Freiburg, 1981), 743768; World Catholicism in Transition, ed. T.M. Gannon
(New York, London 1988); W. OMalley, Tradition and Transition. Historical Perspectives on
Vatican ii (Wilmington, 1989).
12 Y.-M. Congar, Jalons pour une thologie du lacat (Paris, 1953), Ger: Der Laie. Entwurf einer
Theologie des Laientums (Stuttgart, 1957); Die Kirche der Laien. Eine Weichenstellung des
Konzils, ed. R. Zerfass (Wrzburg, 1987); G. Spadolini, Coscienza laica e coscienza cattolica
(Florence, 1988); L. Karrer, Aufbruch der Christen. Das Ende der klerikalen Kirche (Munich,
1989). On the shifting accents of recent research and the interpretation of the Christian
Middle Ages, see J. Van Engen, The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical
Problem, in: The American Historical Review 91 (1986), 519552.
Vita regularis sine regula 281

middle ages.13 The modern church knows of the emergence of secular institu-
tions, societies of the apostolic life and other forms of devout life that post-
conciliar church law has placed alongside religious life (designated as the
Institutes of Consecrated Life) as equally justified forms of the vita Deo devota.14
But we have also become far more strongly conscious a longer history, one
of numerous prototypical, analogous or transitional forms of religious life.
These were practiced by individuals as semi-religious, as half-monks, as
lay religious, as irregular and independent religious, as half- spiritual, half-
religious persons. They also led to the formation of informal groups, free religi
ous associations and religious communities of laymen with a way of life similar
to the cloister. All this considerably modifies the older view of religious life
as an acies ordinata, a well-ordered battle line.15 Grado G. Merlo has recently

13 Cf. among others: I laici nella Societas christiana dei secoli XI e XIII. Atti della terza
Settimana internazionale di studio Mendola, 2127 agosto 1965, Pubblicazioni dell
Universit Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Miscellanea del Centro di studi medioevali V (Milan,
1968); R. Manselli, La religion populaire au moyen ge. Problmes de mthode et dhistoire
(Montral, 1975); A. Vauchez, Les lacs au Moyen-Age. Pratiques et exprience religieuse
(Paris 1987), Ger.: Gottes vergessenes Volk. Laien im Mittelalter (Freiburg, Basel, Vienna,
1993); K. Schreiner, LaienfrmmigkeitFrmmigkeit von Eliten oder Frmmigkeit des
Volkes? Zur sozialen Verfatheit laikaler Frmmigkeitspraxis im spten Mittelalter, in:
Laienfrmmigkeit im spten Mittelalter. Formen, Funktionen, politisch-soziale Zusammen
hnge, ed. K. Schreiner and E. Mller-Luckner, Schriften des Historischen Kollegs,
Kolloquien (Munich, 1992), 178; P. Dinzelbacher, Zur Erforschung der Geschichte der
Volksreligion. Einfhrung und Bibliographie, in: Volksreligion im hohen und spten
Mittelalter ed. P. Dinzelbacher, D.R. Bauer, Quellen und Forschungen aus dem Gebiet der
Geschichte nf 13 (Paderborn, Munich, Vienna, Zrich, 1990), 79125; R.W. Scribner,
Volksglaube und Volksfrmmigkeit. Begriffe und Historiographie, in: Volksfrmmigkeit
in der frhen Neuzeit, ed. H. Molitor, H. Smolinski, Katholisches Leben und Kirchenreform
im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung 54 (Mnster, 1994), 121135.
14 Das Konzil und die Orden. Die Lehre des ii. Vatikanischen Konzils ber den Ordensstand mit
einem ausfhrlichen Kommentar, ed. K. Siepen, A. Scheuermann (Cologne, 1966); G. Jelich,
Kirchliches Ordensverstndnis im Wandel. Untersuchungen zum Ordensverstndnis des
Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils, Erlanger Theologische Studien 49, (Erlangen, 1983); A. Boni,
La vita religiosa nella struttura concettuale del nuovo Codice di Diritto Canonico, in:
Antonianum 58 (1983), 523627; G. Pollak, Der Aufbruch der Sakulrinstitute und ihr the-
ologischer Ort (Vallendar, 1986); R. Henseler, Ordensrecht, Mnsterische Kommentare
zum Cle. Sonderausgabe (Essen, 1987); R. Seboll, Ordensrecht. Kommentar zu den Kanones
573746 des Codex Iuris Canonici (Frankfurt, 1995).
15 See now: Les mouvances laques des ordres religieux. Actes du IIIe Colloque International du
c.e.r.c.o.r., ed. N. Bouter (Saint-Etienne, 1996).
282 chapter 8

described this field of semi-religious life as a universe only recently redis-


covered. The following aims to draw out the larger significance of that
universe, at least in broad outline; to characterize its legal standing and self-
perception; and to inquire into the place of vita regularis sine regula in the
transition from the late middle ages to the Reformation and the era of
confessionalization.16

ii

The religious movements of the high and late middle ages did not become
institutionalized only in the traditional forms of the vita religiosain new
abbeys, canonries, convents, congregations, observances, orders and their
affiliates. The monastic and canonical reforms and the apostolic poverty
movement of the twelfth century, the poverty, penance and eremitical move-
ment of the thirteenth and the Observance and reform movements character-
istic of the fourteenth and fifteenth brought forth or revitalized other forms of
life and community. As these took their place alongside newer forms of actual
religious life, they allowed the faithful, and above all the laity, to live a spiritual

16 G.G. Merlo, Eremitismo nel francescanesimo medievale, in: Eremitismo nel francescane-
simomedievale. Atti del xvii Convegno Internazionale Assisi, 12-13-14 ottobre 1989 (Perugia,
1991) 48: Cell dwellers, domestic penitents, hermits, recluses, the repentant, incluses are
the protagonists of a world that research has begun only in the last few years to allow
to emerge. The author of this essay has already sought in several others to describe
the uniqueness, the legal status and the meaning of semi-religious life: Die Stellung
der Frau in Ordenswesen, Semireligiosentum und Hresie zur Zeit der hlg. Elisabeth,
in: Sankt Elisabeth. FrstinDienerinHeilige. Aufstze. Dokumentation. Katalog, ed.
Philipps-Universitt Marburg in cooperation with the Hessischen Landesamt fr
geschichtliche Landeskunde (Sigmaringen, 1981), 738; Die Brderschaft vom gememsa-
men Leben. Eine geistliche Lebensform zwischen Kloster und Welt, Mittelalter und
Neuzeit, in: Geert Grote en Moderne Devotie. Voordrachten gehouden tijdens het Geert
Grote congres, Nijmegen 2729 september 1984, ed. J. Andriessen, B. Bange, A.G. Weiler,
Middeleeuwse Studies 1 (Nijmegen, 1985), 470496 and Die Spiritualitt der geistlichen
Ritterorden des Mittelalters. Forschungsstand und Forschungsprobleme, in: Militia
Christi e Crociata nei secoli xixiii. Atti della undecima Settimana internazionale di studio
Mendola, 28 agosto1 settembre 1989, Pubblicazioni dellUniversira Cattolica del Sacro
Cuore. Miscellanea del Centro di studi medioevali xxx (Milan, 1992), 475578. The cur-
rent contribution is now offered as well, though with the full awareness that a compre-
hensive account of this way of life awaits considerably more preparatory work, above all
in matters of canon law and legal history.
Vita regularis sine regula 283

life (whether permanently or provisionally) that was more intense than they
had lived before, yet did not obligate them, like religious, to renounce the
world entirely, to bind themselves pleno iure to an established order and to live
according to approved rule and constitutions.17
The manifestations of vita semireligiosa were often sharply divergentaccord-
ing to their age and composition, purposes and degrees of organization, prox-
imity to or distance from the established church, self-understanding and

17 From the literature on the history of these religious movements in the high and later
middle ages see, among others: F.A. Dal Pino, Rinnovamento monastico-clericale e
movimenti religiosi evangelici nei secoli xxii (Rome, 1973); K. Bosl, Europa im Aufbruch:
Herrschaft, Gesellschaft, Kultur vom 10. bis zum 14. Jahrhundert (Munich, 1980);
Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, ed. R.L. Benson, G. Constable, C.D.
Lanham (Cambridge, 1982); La Europa dei secoli X e XII tra novit e tradizione. Sviluppi di
una cultura. Atti della decima Settimana internazionale di studio Mendola, 2529 agosto
1986, Pubblicazione dellUniversit Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Miscellanea del Centro di
studi medioevali xii (Milan, 1989); AufbruchWandelErneuerung. Beitrge zur
Renaissance des 12. Jahrhunderts, ed. G. Wieland (Stuttgart, Bad Cannstadt, 1995).
Especially noteworthy there: A. Haverkamp, Leben in GemeinschaftenAlte und neue
Formen im 12. Jahrhundert, 1144; P. Dinzelbacher, Die Bernhardinische Epoche als
Achsenzeit der europischen Geschichte, in: Bernhard von Clairvaux und der Beginn der
Moderne, ed. D.R. Bauer, G. Fuchs (Innsbruck, Vienna, 1996), 946 with literature on the
theme (4753); Machtfulle des Papsttums. 10541274, ed. A. Vauchez, German ed. O.
Engels et al., Die Geschichte des Christentums 5 (Freiburg, Basel, Vienna, 1994); La
conversione alla povert nellItalia dei secoli xiixlv. Atti del xviii Convegno storico
internazionale Todi, 1417 ottobre 1990, Atti dei Convegni dellAcademia Tudertina e del
Centro di studi sulla spiritualit medievale ns 4 (Spoleto, 1991), and there, especially
thorough and with numerous references to literature: F. Dal Pino, Scelte di povert
allorigine dei nuovi ordini religiosi dei secoli xiixiv (53126); Religiones novi,
Quaderni di storia religiosa 2 (Verona, 1995); K. Elm, Verfall und Erneuerung des
Ordenswesens im Sptmittelalter, in: Untersuchungen zu Kloster und Stift, Verffentli
chungen des Max-Planck-Instituts fr Geschichte 68. Studie zur Germania Sacra 14
(Gttingen, 1980), 188238; G. Zarri, Aspetti dello sviluppo degli ordine religiosi in Italia
tra Quattro e Cinquecento. Studi e problemi, in: Strutture ecclesiastiche in Italia e
Germania prima della Riforma, ed. P. Prodi, P. Johanek, Annali del Istituto storico italo-
germanico. Quaderno 16 (Bologna, 1984), 207258; Reformbemhungen und Observanz
bestrebungen im sptmittelalterlichen Ordenswesen, ed. K. Elm, Berliner Historische
Studien 14, Ordensstudien 6 (Berlin, 1989); D. Mertens, Monastische Reformbewegungen
des 15. Jahrhunderts: IdeenZieleResultate, in: Reform von Kirche und Reich zur Zeit
der Konzilien von Konstanz (14141418) und Basel (14311449). KonstanzPrager
Historisches Kolloquium, 11.17. Oktober 1993, ed. H. Hlavek, A. Patschovsky (Constance,
1996), 157181.
284 chapter 8

representations of others. They ranged from hermits,18 conversi19 and oblates20


to confraternities and unregulated, mixed forms of monastic and cano
nical, spiritual and lay life21 to independent communities of laymen and

18 L. Gougard, Ermites et reclus. tudes sur danciennes formes de vie religieuse (Moines et
monastres V, Saint-Martin de Ligug, 1928); idem, Essai de bibliographie rmitique, in:
Revue bndictine 45 (1933), 281290; O. Drr, Das Institut der Inclusen in Sddeutschland,
Beitrge zur Geschichte des Alten Mnchtums und des Benediktinerordens 18 (Mnster,
1934); M. Le Roy Ladurie, Femmes au desert. Tmoignage sur la vie eremitique (Paris,
Fribourg, 1971); J. Leclercq, Solitude and Solidarity. Medieval Women Recluses, in:
Medieval Religious Women ii. Peaceweavers, ed. L. Th. Schank, J.A. Nichols (Kalamazoo,
1987); G. Casagrande, Il fenomeno della reclusione volontaria nei secoli del Basso
Medioevo, in: Benedictina 35 (1988), 504507.
19 Beitrge zur Geschichte der Konversen im Mittelalter, ed. K. Elm, Berliner Historische
Studien 2, Ordensstudien 1 (Berlin, 1980), with select bibliography on the history of con-
versi in the middle ages.
20 J. Orlandis, Traditio corporis et animae. Laicos y monasterios en la alta edad media
espaola, in: Anuario de Historia del Derecho Espaol 24 (1954), 95279; J. Marchel, Le
Droit doblat. Essai sur une varit de pensionns monastiques, Archives de la France
monastique 49 (Saint-Martin de Liguge, 1955); J. Guilmard, Les oblats sculiers dans la
familie de S. Benot (Solesmes, 1975); M.B. de Jong, Kind en klooster in de vroege middeleeu-
wen, Amsterdamsche Reeks 8 (Amsterdam, 1986); M. Lahaye-Geussen, Das Opfer der
Kinder. Ein Beitrag zur Liturgie- und Sozialgeschichte des Mnchtums im Hohen Mittelalter,
Mnsteraner Theologische Abhandlungen 13 (Altenberge, 1991); D.J. Osheim, Conver
sion, Conversi and the Christian Life in Late Medieval Tuscany, in: Speculum 58 (1983)
368390; G.G. Merlo, Uomini e donne in communit estese. Indagini su realt piemon-
tesi tra xii e xiii secolo, in: Uomini e donne in comunit, Quaderni di storia religiosa 1
(Verona, 1994), 931.
21 J. Wollasch, Die mittelalterliche Lebensform der Verbrderung, in: Memoria. Der
geschichtlicheZeugniswert des liturgischen Gedenkens im Mittelalter, ed. K. Schmid, J.
Wollasch, Mnstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 48 (Munich, 1984), 215232; H.E. Cowdrey,
Legal Problems Raised by Agreements of Confraternity, ibid., 233254. Especially note-
worthy in this context is the semi-religious canoness, first noted by K.-H. Schfer, Die
Kanonissenstifter im deutschen Mittelalter. Ihre Entwicklung und innere Einrichtung im
Zusammenhang mit dem altchristlichen Sanktimonialentum, Kirchenrechtliche Abhand
lungen 4344 (Stuttgart, 1907, repr. Amsterdam, 1965), see now among others: G. Despy,
Les chapitres de chanoinesses nobles de Belgique au Moyen ge, in: 36e Congrs de la
Fdration Archologique et Historique de Belgique (Gent, 1955), 169179; I. Gampe, Adelige
Damenstifte. Untersuchungen zur Entstehung adeliger Damenstifte in sterreich unter
besonderer Bercksichtigung der alten Kanonissenstifte Deutschlands und Lothringens,
Wiener Rechtsgeschichtliche Arbeiten (Vienna, Munich, 1960); M. Parisse, Les chanoi-
nesses dans lempire germanique (IXeXIe sicles), in: Francia 6 (1978) 107126; W. Kohl,
Bemerkungen zur Typologie schsischer Frauenklster im westlichen Sachsen, in:
Vita regularis sine regula 285

clerics who sought (without formal obligations or recognized rule) to embrace


salvation in brotherly community, to exercise acts of charity and to embrace a
spiritual apostolate.22 Indeed some have occasionally gone so far as to number
among them not only pilgrims and crusaders under ecclesiastical privilege,
but even those who on their deathbed donned the religious habit, so as to
ensure in the afterlife their participation in the merits of monastic life.23 At
first institutions of this kind were overwhelmingly associated with monaster-
ies and other religious foundations.24 But from the twelfth century, the century

Untersuchungen zu Kloster und Stift, 112139 and E. Ziegler, Secular Canonesses as


Antecedents of the Beguines in the Low Countries. An Introduction to Some Older Views,
in: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History ns 13 (1992), 117135.
22 See nn. 36 and 44.
23 F. Garrison, A propos des plerins et de leur condition juridique, in: tudes dhistoire du
droit canonique ddies a G. Le Bras (Paris, 1965) ii, 11651189; G.B. Ladner, Homo viator.
Medieval Ideas on Alienation and Order, in: Speculum 42 (1967), 233259; L. Schmugge,
Pilgerfahrt macht frei: Eine These zur Bedeutung des mittelalterlichen Pilgerwesens, in:
Rmische Quartalsschrift 74 (1979) 3175; M. Villey, La croisade. Essai sur la formation dune
theorie juridique, Lglise et ltat au Moyen ge 6 (Paris, 1942); J. Brundage, Medieval
Canon Law and the Crusader (Madison, London, 1969); J.B. Valvekens, Fratres et Sorores
ad succurrendum, in: Analecta Praemonstratensia 37 (1961), 323328; U. Brckner,
Sterben im Mnchsgewand. Zum Funktionswandel einer Todkleidsitte, in: Kontakte und
Grenzen. Probleme der Volks-, Kultur- und Sozialforschung. Festschrift fr G. Heilfurth
(Wrzburg, 1969), 259277.
24 U. Berlire, La Familia dans les monasteres bndictins du moyen ge, Memoires de l
Academie Belgique, Classe de Lettres et deo Sciences morales et politiques XIX/2
(Brussells, 1931); On the familia of individual foundations and cloisters: K. Elm Fratres
et Sorores Sanctissimi Sepulcri. Ein Beitrag zu fraternitas, familia und weiblichem
Religiosentum im Umkreis des Kapitels vom Hl. Grab, in: Frhmittelalterliche Studien 9
(1975) 287333; H. Dormeier, Montecassino und die Laien im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert. Mit
einem einleitenden Beitrag: Zur Geschichte Montecassinos im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert von
Hartmut Hoffmann, Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica 27 (Stuttgart, 1979);
M. de Jong, Kloosterlingen en buitenstaanders. Grensoverschrijdingen in Ekkehards
Casus Sancti Galli, in: Bijdragen en mededeiingen betreffende de geschiedenis der
Nederlanden 98 (1983) 337357; J. Fechter, Cluny, Adel und Volk. Studien ber das Verhltnis
des Klosters zu den Stnden (Stuttgart, 1966); G. Constable, Famuli and Conversi at Cluny.
A Note on Statute 24 of Peter the Venerable, in: Revue bndictine 83 (1973), 326350; W.
Teske, Laien, Laienmnche und Laienbrder in der Abtei Cluny. Ein Beitrag zum
Konversenproblem, in: Frhmittelalterliche Studien 10 (1976) 248322; 11 (1977) 288339;
J. Wollasch, ClunyLicht der Welt. Aufstieg und Untergang der klosterlichen Gesells
chaft (Zrich, Dsseldorf, 1996), 101140.
286 chapter 8

of the great awakening, with the increasing foundation of hermitages25 and


hospitals26 there was a notable growth of individuals and communities who
stood between order and world. The trend reached a high point in the thir-
teenth century, with the founding of so many penitential confraternities27 and
tertiary orders.28 And in the later middle ages, with the beguines and

25 L Eremitismo in Occidente nei secoli xixii. Attidella seconda Settimana internazionale di


studi Mendola, 30 agosto-6 settembre 1962, Pubblicazioni dellUniversit Cattolica del
Sacro Cuore, Miscellanea del Centro di studi medioevali IV (Milan, 1965); H. Grundmann,
Deutsche Eremiten. Einsiedler und Klausner im Hochmittelalter (10.12. Jahrhundert),
in: Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 45 (1963), 6090. Also in: idem, Ausgewhlte Aufstze (n. 9)
i, 93124; J. Sainsaulieu, Les ermites franais (Paris, 1974); A.K. Wanen, Anchorites and their
Patrons in Medieval England (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1985); G. Penco, Leremitismo
irregolare in Italia nei secoli xixii, in: Benedictina 32 (1985), 201221; G. Casagrande,
Forme di vita religiosa femminile solitaria in Italia Centrale, in: Eremitismo nel frances-
canesimo (n. 16), 5394; E. Psztor, Ideali delleremitismo femminile in Europa tra i secoli
xiixv, in: ibid. 131164; P. Gehrke, Pious Hermits and Magical Helpers. Alternative
Solutions for Spiritual Problems, in: Saints and Scribes. Medieval Hagiography in its
Manuscript Context, University of California Publications in Modern Philology 126
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1993), 86104.
26 Histoire des hpitaux, ed J. Imbert (Toulouse, 1982); D. Jetter, Das europische Hospital. Von
der Sptantike bis 1880 (Cologne, 1987); G. Castelli, Gli ospedali dItalia (Milan, 1941);
C. Dainton, The Story of the English Hospital (London, 1961); P. Bonenfant, Hpitaux et
bienfaisance dans les anciens Pays-Bas des origines la fin du XVIIIe sicle, in: Annales de
la Socit Belge dHistoire des Hpitaux 3 (1965), 144; G. Marchal, Armenen zieken-
zorg in de zuidelijke Nederlanden, in: Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden ii
(Harlem, 1982), 268280, 541; E. Gilomen-Schenkel, Spitaler und Spitalorden in der
Schweiz. Ein Forschungsbericht, in: Die Antoniter, die Chorherren vom Hlg. Grab in
Jerusalem und die Hospitaliter vom Hlg. Geist in der Schweiz, ed. E. Gilomen-Schenkel,
Helvetia Sacra IV/4 (Basel, Frankfurt a. M., 1996), 1934. On the semi-religious character of
hospital brothers and sisters in particular: D. Rando: Laicus religiosus tra strutture civili
ed ecclesiastiche: Lospedale di Ognisanti in Treviso, in: Studi Medievali 24 (1983),
617656; Ch. de Miramon, Les donnes Lille au Moyen ge. Une forme de vie religieuse
laque, in: Revue du Nord 76 (1994), 231253.
27 G.G. Meersseman, I penitenti nel secoli xi e xii, in: I laici (n. 13), 306309. Also in: idem,
G.P. Pacini, Ordo Fraternitatis. Confraternite e piet dei laici nel medioevo, Italia Sacra
2426 (Rome, 1997), 265304; G. Casagrande, Il movimento penitenziale nel Medioevo,
in: Benedictina 27 (1980), 695709; G. Penco, Tra monachesimo e laicato: Lordine
dei penitenti, in: ibid. 29 (1982), 489494; G. Casagrande, Il movimento penitenziale
nel secoli del Basso Medioevo. Note su alcuni recenti contributi, in: ibid. 30 (1983),
217233.
28 With special emphasis on Franciscan tertiaries, but also with a view to penitents and
third-order members associated with other orders: I Frati Penitenti di San Francesco
nella societ del Due e Trecento. Atti del 2 Convegno di Studi Francescani Roma, 12-13-14
Vita regularis sine regula 287

beghards,29 the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life30 as well as so many
other similar communities, semi-religious life reached such a highpoint that
the number of its communities caught up with (if they did not in fact
overtake)31 those of formal religious life. Their way of life between status

ottobre 1976, ed. M. DAlatri (Rome, 1977); Il movimento Francescano della Penitenza
nella societ medioevale. Atti del 3 Convegno di Studi Francescani. Padova, 25-26-27
settembre 1979, ed. M. DAlatri (Rome, 1980); I Frati Minori e il Terzo Ordine. Probleme e
discussioni storiografiche, Convegno del Centro di studi sulla spiritualit medievale 23
(Todi, 1985); M. DAlatri, Aetas poenitentialis. Lantico Ordine francescano della
Penitenza, Bibliotheca Seraphico-Capuccina 42 (Rome, 1993). For a brief summary of
research on tertiaries to this point see: G. Barone, Tertianer, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters
viii (1996), 556559.
29 A. Mens, Orsprong en betekenis van de Nederlandse Begijnenen Begardenbeweging.
Vergelijkende studie: XIIdeXIIIde eeuw, Verhandlungen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse
Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgi. Klasse
der Letteren ix, 7 (Antwerp, 1947); E.W. McDonell, The Beguines and Begards in
Medieval Culture: With Special Emphasis on the Belgian Scene (New Brunswick n.j.,
1954). On the current state of research and the current assessment of the Beguine
wayof life see, among others, W. Simons, The Beguine Movement in the Southern
Low Countries: A Reassessment, in: Bulletin de lInstitut historique belge de Rome 59
(1989), 63105.
30 Monasticon Fratrum Vitae Communis iii, ed. W Leesch, E. Persoons, A.G. Weiler, Archives
et bibliothques de Belgique. Numro spcial 1819 (Brussels, 1977/79); A.G. Weiler,
Voigens de norm van de vroege kerk. De geschiedenis van de huizen van de broeders van het
Gemene leven in Nederland, Middeleeuwse Studies xxiii (Nijmegen, 1997); G. Rehm, Die
Schwestern vom gemeinsamen Leben im nordwestlichen Deutschland. Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte der Devotio moderna und des weiblichen Religiosentums, Berliner Historische
Studien 11, Ordensstudien 5 (Berlin, 1985).
31 Of the many works on the regional spread of both male and female semi-religious
groups only the following are cited as examples. Despite their seemingly limiting and
in a certain sense misleading titles, they document the diversity especially of female
semi-religious communities, through examples drawn from Baden, Switzerland and
central Italy: A. Wilts, Beginen im Bodenseeraum, Bodensee-Bibliothek 37 (Sigmaringen,
1994); B. Degler-Spengler, Die Beginen im Rahmen der religisen Frauenbewegung des
13. Jahrhundert in der Schweiz, in: Die Beginen und die Begarden in der Schweiz,
Helvetia Sacra ix, 2 (Zrich, 1995) 3191; A. Benvenuti Papi, In castro poenitentiae.
Santit e societ femminile nellIalia medievale, Italia Sacra 45 (Rome, 1990); M. Sensi,
Storie di Bizzoche tra Umbria e Marche, Storia e letteratura. Raccolta di studi e testi 192
(Rome, 1995). For a general view of the quantitative dimensions of womens
religious life and semi-religious life, B. Degler-Spengler, Die religise Frauenbewe
gung des Mittelalters. KonversenNonnenBeginen, in: Rottenburger Jahrbuch fr
Kirchengeschichte 3 (1984), 7588.
288 chapter 8

laicalis and status religiosus32 was no longer perceived as a marginal form of


vita religiosa. It came to be esteemed, among both laity and clergy alike, as the
highest end of the pursuit of perfection, the highest rank that holy
Christendom knows.33

iii

Semi-religious life spread across all of Europe with remarkable speed from the
twelfth century, in the cities above all, but also in rural areas. It did so with a
diversity of forms that is difficult to capture, and in terms that are difficult to
define and to pin down precisely today. But it is difficult to underestimate the
importance of its impact, both spiritually and materially, for church and soci-
ety alike. Its weak sense of obligation, its only loosely organized structures and
its easier requirements for entry offered the faithful of both genders and of
different backgrounds the possibility of realizing their own religious inten-
tions, even when personal conviction, social status or other reasons hindered
them from entering traditional religious orders,34 or when membership in
one of any number of widely available profane confraternities (with their
mild religious and moral obligations) proved insufficient.35 Viewed from the

32 Casagrande, Forme di vita religiosa (n. 25), 60.


33 Des Teufels Netz. Satirisch-didaktisches Gedicht aus der ersten Hlfte des fnfzehnten
Jahrhunderts, ed. K.A. Barack (Stuttgart, 1863), 193199. On a similarly positive estimation
of semi-religious women by Robert Grosseteste, Matthew Paris and Humbert of Romans:
B.M. Bolton, Some Thirteenth Century Women in the Low Countries, in: Nederlands
Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis 61 (1981), 729.
34 E. Koch, De positie van vrouwen op de huwelijksmarkt in de middeleeuwen, in:
Tijdschrift voor sociale geschiedenis 13 (1987), 150172. On the material demands nor-
mally required for entry into the convent: H. Schuller, DosPraebendaPeculium,
in: Festschrift Friedrich Hausmann, ed. H. Ebner (Graz, 1977), 453487; E.M.F. Koch, De
Kloosterpoort als Sluitpost?, Maaslandse Monografien 57 (Limburg, 1994). On the
importance of the Frauenfrage im Mittelalter, first posed by K. Bcher (Tbingen,
1910) for the establishment of semi-religious life for women, see now among others P.
Ketsch, Frauenarbeit im Mittelalter. Quellen und Materialien, ed. A. Kuhn (Dsseldorf,
1983) I, 1224 and W. Simons, Een zeker bestand: de zuid-nederlandse begijnen en de
Frauenfrage, 13de18de eeuw, in: Tijdschrift voor sociale geschiedenis 17 (1991),
126146.
35 For an overview of the widespread phenomenon of confraternities and the research of
their histories: L. Orioli, Per una rassegna bibliografica sulle confraternite medievali, in:
Ricerche di Storia Sociale e Religiosa 1718 (1980), 101130; Le mouvement confraternel au
Moyen ge. France, Italie, Suisse, Universit de Lausanne, Publications de la Facult des
Vita regularis sine regula 289

erspectives of the history of piety, of intellectual history and the history of


p
education, this meant that it became possible for broader circles, especially of
laity, to participate more fully in liturgical and religious life, and to access more
easily the truths of the faith, than might have otherwise been the case, given an
established religious reluctance and social resistance against the education
of the laity.36 The effect was especially pronounced among women, who in this
regard had long been at a strong disadvantage. In this new estate women
who for any number of personal, social or demographic reasons were prohib-
ited from marriage or entry into convents regular canonries or other institutions
of religious life37found what they might otherwise have found only with
great difficulty, or not at all: a higher sense of their own intellectual and spiri-
tual worth, a higher degree of respect, fuller access to a world of church life and
faith still shaped overwhelmingly by men, active participation in the raising of
the social and cultural level in the city as well as in the country, in private as

Lettres xxx. Collection de lcole franaise de Rome 97 (Rome, 1987); A. Czacharowski,


Die Bruderschaften der mittelalterlichen Stdte in der gegenwrtigen polnischen
Forschung, in: Brgerschaft und Kirche, ed. J. Sydow, Stadt in der Geschichte 7
(Sigmaringen, 1980), 2637; E. Rubin, Fraternities and Lay Piety in the Later Middle Ages,
in: Einigungen und Bruderschaften in der sptmittelalterlichen Stadt, ed. P Johanek,
Stdteforschung A 32 (Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, 1993), 185198; Cofradias, gremios y soli-
daridades en la Europa medieval. 19a Semana de Estudios medievales. Estella 24 de julio de
1992 (Pamplona, 1993); T. Frank, Tendenze della recente ricerca tedesca sulle confrater-
mte, in: Confraternit, Chiesa e Societ. Aspetti e problemi dellassociazionismo laicale
europeo in et moderna e contemporanea, ed. L. Bertoldi Lenoci, Biblioteca della ricerca.
Pugha storica 5 (Bari, 1995), 305322.
36 K. Schreiner, Laienbildung als Herausforderung fr Kirche und Gesellschaft. Religise
Vorbehalte und soziale Widerstnde gegen die Verbreitung von Wissen im spten
Mittelalter und in der Reformation, in: Zeitschrift fr Historische Forschung 11 (1984),
257354; A. Lther, Grenzen und Mglichkeiten weiblichen Handelns im 13. Jahrhundert.
Die Auseinandersetzung um die Nonnenseelsorge der Bettelorden, in: Rottenburger
Jahrbuch fr Kirchengeschichte 11 (1992), 223240.
37 K. Bosl, Armut, Arbeit, Emanzipation. Zu den Hintergrnden der geistigen und liter-
arischen Bewegung vom 11. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert, in: Beitrge zur Wirtschafts-
und Sozialgeschichte des Mittelalters. Festschrift fr Herbert Helbig zum 65. Geburtstag,
ed. K. Schulz (Cologne, 1976) 128146; P. Dinzelbacher, Rollenverweigerung, religiser
Aufbruch und mystisches Erleben mittelalterlicher Frauen, in: Religise
Frauenbewegung und mystische Frmmigkeit im Mittelalter, ed. P. Dinzelbacher, D.R.
Bauer, Beihefte zum Archiv fr Kirchengeschichte 28 (Cologne, Vienna, 1988)
158; B.U. Weinmann, Mittelalterliche Frauenbewegungen. Ihre Beziehungen zur
Orthodoxie und Hresie, Frauen in Geschichte und Gesellschaft (Pfaffenweiler, 1990);
cf. also n. 34.
290 chapter 8

well as in public spheres.38 Social security and stability went hand-in-hand


with the possibility of greater religious fulfillment and more intense self-real-
ization. To live as an anchoress, to belong to a congregation of hermits, to a
penitential confraternity, to a hospital, a community of tertiaries, a beguinage
or other devout community improved womens social station and garnered
them prestigesomething especially attractive for women from the lower
classes and from socially marginal groups. To lead a life individually as a mulier
devota, but especially to be taken up into an institution of semi-religious life,
helped them not only achieve a greater degree of social security, but also
protected them from social marginalization, or indeed social disgrace.39 In
many cases they offered even the possibility of social advancement and the
winning of prestigewitness the many incarcerates who lived alone or in
small groups, the anchoresses or hermitesses, who as teachers, counselors and
mediators of divine grace brought high prestige into their respective social
environments.40
For church and society, semi-religious life had both a positive and negative
significance. In those semi-religious who associated with their foundations,

38 E. Ennen, Frauen im Mittelalter, 2nd ed. (Munich, 1984); eadem., Politische, kulturelle
und karitative Wirksamkeit mittelalterlicher Frauen in MissionKlosterStift
Konvent, in: Religise Frauenbewegung (n. 37), 5982; B. Rath, Im Reich der Topoi.
Nonnenleben im mittelalterlichen sterreich zwischen Norm und Praxis, in: LHomme.
Zeitschrift fr feministische Geschichtswissenschaft 9 (1996), 122134.
39 F. Graus, Randgruppen der stdtischen Gesellschaft im Sptmittelalter, in: Zeitschrift fr
Historische Forschung 8 (1981), 385437; V. Bullough, The Prostitute in the Middle Ages,
in: Studies in Medieval Culture 10 (Kalamazoo, 1977), 912 (with further literature); Ch.
Cohen, The Evolution of Womens Asylums. From Refuges for Ex-Prostitutes to Shelters
for Battered Women (New York, Oxford, 1992); P. Schuler, Snde und Vergebung.
Integrationshilfen fr reumtige Prostituierte im Mittelalter, in: Zeitschrift fr Historische
Forschung 21 (1994), 145170; A. Simon, LOrdre des Soeurs Penitentes de Ste-Marie-
Madeleine en Allemagne au XIIIe sicle (Freiburg, 1918); Ph. Hofmeister, Die Exemption des
Magdalenerinnenordens, in: Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fr Rechtsgeschichte, Kan.
Abt. 35 (1948), 305329; F. Discry, La rgle des Pnitentes de Ste-Marie-Madeleine, in:
Acadmie Royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la Commission Royale dhistoire 121 (1956), 85145.
40 Along with the literature cited in nn. 25 and 31: A. Benvenuti Papi, Santit femminile nel
territorio fiorentino e lucchese. Considerazioni intorno al caso di Verdiana da Castel-
fiorentino, in: Religiosit e societ in Valdelsa nel basso medioevo. Atti del Convegno di S.
Vivaldo, 29 settembre, 1979 (Florence, 1980), 113ff.; eadem, Frati mendicanti e pinzochere in
Toscana. Dalla marginalit sociale al modello di santit, in: La mistica femminile del Trecento.
xxx Convegno storico internazionale del Centro di studi sulla spiritualit medievale, Todi 1417
ottobre 1979 (Todi, 1983) 107137; A.B. Mulder-Bakker, Lame Margaret of Magdeburg. The
Social Function of a Medieval Recluse, in: Journal of Medieval History 22 (1996), 155169.
Vita regularis sine regula 291

cloisters and convents, secular and regular clergy found an auxiliary army
that embraced in both cloister and world duties that professed religious them-
selves could or would not do. Those duties were many: provision of material
security and support of fully professed religious, such as they rendered to con-
versi both professed and unprofessed;41 enclosure of previously unenclosed
areas and the securing of streets, bridges and shipping channels through her-
mitages and hermit colonies;42 embrace of public functions and social ser-
vices, for example the fight against disease, the care of the sick, the comfort for
the dying and the burial of the dead that were the business of hospital mem-
bers, bizzoche, beguines and begards, as well as other devout figures, both
men and women alike;43 the pursuit of ecclesiastical interests, such as the par-
ticipation in inquisition and the combating of heresy as well as reinforcement
for those tasked with preaching and pastoral careexamples of which include
the northern-Italian militias, who early on were shaped under the influence of
the mendicant orders, especially the Dominicans.44 Another relevant social
function of semi-religious life centers on both recruitment and formation of
those professed to religious life. Suitable recruits were led to individual monas-
teries, foundations and convents from wider semi-religious circles. Formerly
autonomous semi-religious communities also took on (whether willingly or
under the compulsion of ecclesiastical authorities) the status of regular corpo-
rations, often thereby becoming the foundation of a new order or congrega-
tion. This process of transformation of free communities into ordines lay at
the twelfth-century origins of religious orders associated with knighthood,
with hospitals and with the ransoming of captives,45 as well as with orders

41 Cf. n. 19.
42 Cf. nn. 16 and 18.
43 Cf. nn. 26, 28 and 29.
44 G.G. Meersseman, tudes sur les anciennes confrries dominicaines iiv, in: Archivum
Fratrum Praedicatorum 20 (1950), 5113; 21 (1951), 51196; 22 (1952), 5176; 23 (1953), 275
308; idem, G. P Pacini, Ordo fraternitatis (n. 27), iii, 12331289; N.F. Housley, Politics and
Heresy in Italy. Anti-Heretical Crusades, Orders and Confraternities, in: Journal of
Ecclesiastical History 33 (1982), 193208; A. Thompson, Revival Preachers and Politics in
Thirteenth-Century Italy. The Great Devotion (Oxford, 1992).
45 On the semi-religious origins of the military, hospital and ransom orders, with sources
and further literature: K. Elm, Die Spiritualitt der geistlichen Ritterorden (n. 16), also in:
Die Spiritualitt der Ritterorden im Mittelalter, ed. Z. Nowak, Ordines militares. Colloquia
Torunensia Historica vii (Thorn, 1933), 744; idem, Gli ordini militari. Un ceto de vita
religiosa fra universalismo e particolarismo, in: Militia Sacra. Gli ordini militari tra Europa
e Terra Santa, ed. E. Coli, M. de Marco, F. Tommasz (Perugia, 1994), 928.
292 chapter 8

of hermits, monks and canons.46 This trend continued its advance in the
thirteenth century, as communities associated (rightly or wrongly) with heresy
were reconciled; as communities of penitents and hermits anticipated orders
such as those of the Franciscans, Carmelites, Augustinian Hermits, Servites,
Sack Brothers, Paulines and Croziers.47 The trend then strengthened in the

46 Cf. among others: F. von Walter, Die ersten Wanderprediger Frankreichs. Studien zur
Geschichte des Mnchtums iii (Leipzig, 19031906); E. Werner, Pauperes Christi. Studien
zu sozial-religisen Bewegungen im Zeitalter des Reformpapsttums (Leipzig, 1956); F.M.
Bienvenu, Prhistoire du francescanisme. Aspects prfranciscains de lrmitisme et de
la prdication itinrante dans la France de lOuest, in: Poverty in the Middle Ages, ed.
D. Flood (Werl, 1975), 2736; H. Leyser, Hermits and the New Monasticism. A Study of
Religious Communities in Western Europe 10001150 (London, 1984); G. Vittolo, Eremitismo,
cenobitismo e religiosit laicale nel Mezzogiorno medievale, in: Benedictina 21 (1974),
19129; M. Fuiano, Movimenti religiosi in Italia meridionale nella prima met del secolo
xii, in: Studi storici meridionali 1 (1981), 524; B. Vetere, Nuove forme di spiritualit e di
vita monastica nellItalia meridionale dei secoli xixii, in: S. Piero del MoroneCelestino
V nel Medioevo monastico. Attii del Convegno storico internazionale LAquila, 2627 agosto
1988, Convegni Celestiniani 3 (LAquila 1989), 155184.
47 K. Esser, Anfnge und ursprngliche Zielsetzung des Ordens der Minderbrder, Studia et
documenta Franciscana iv (Leiden, 1966); R. Manselli, San Francesco d Assisi, Biblioteca
di cultura 182, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1980), Ger. trans.: Franziskus. Der solidarische Bruder (Zrich,
Einsiedeln, Cologne, 1984); Th. Debonnets, De lintuition a linstitution. Les Franciscains
(Paris, 1983); E. Friedmann, The Latin Hermits of Mount Carmel. A Study in Carmelite
Origins, Institutum Historicum Teresianum, Studia 1 (Rome, 1979); B.Z. Kedar, Gerard of
Nazareth. A Neglected Twelfth-Century Writer in the Latin East. A Contribution to the
Intellectual and Monastic History of the Crusader States, in: Dumbarton Oaks Papers 37
(1983), 5577; E. Boaga, La storiografia carmelitana nei secoli XIII e XIV, in: The Land of
Carmel. Essays in Honor of Joachim Smet, O.Carm, ed. P. Chandler, K.J. Egan (Rome, 1991),
125154; A. Jotischky, The Perfection of Solitude. Hermits and Monks in the Crusader States
(University Park pa, 1995); A. de Meijer, R. Kuiters, Licet Ecclesiae Catholicae. Text,
Commentary, in: Augustiniana 6 (1956), 936; K. Elm, Italienische Eremitenge
meinschaften des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts. Studien zur Vorgeschichte des Augustiner-
Eremitenordens, in: LEremitismo in Occidente (n. 25), 491559; F. dal Pino, I Servi di S.
Maria dalle origini allapprovazione (1233 ca.1304) iii, Universit de Louvain. Recueil de
travaux dhistoire et de philosophie iv, 4950 (Louvain, 1972); L ordine dei Servi di Maria
nel primo secolo di vita. Atti del convegno storico Firenze, 2324 maggio 1987 (Florence,
1988); I Sette santi nel primo centenario della canonizzazione (18881988). Convegno di stu-
dio Roma 38 ottobre 1988 (Rome, 1990); R.M. Emery, The Friars of the Sack, in: Speculum
18 (1943); 323ff.; G.M. Giacomozzi, LOrdine della Penitenza di Ges Cristo. Contributo alla
storia della spiritualit del sec. xiii, Scrinium historiale 2 (Rome, 1962); A. Amargier, Les
frres de la penitence de Jesus-Christ ou du Sac, in: Provence historique 15 (1965) 158167;
K. Elm, Ausbreitung, Wirksamkeit und Ende der provenalischen Sackbrder (Fratres de
Vita regularis sine regula 293

later middle ages with the regularization of communities of penitents or ter-


tiaries48 living alone or in community, in the wilderness or the city; similarly
with other communities of other semi-religious groups, leading to the forma-
tion ofindependent communities that lived according to a recognized rule
such asthe Alexians and the Cellites,49 or even autonomous orders such as
the Franciscan Observants and Capuchins,50 the Jeronimites, Ambrosians
and Jesuits.51 As individuals, too, the founders of orders and congregations

Poenitentia Jesu Christi) in Deutschland und den Niederlanden. Ein Beitrag zur kurialen
und konziliaren Ordenspolitik des 13. Jahrhunderts, in: Francia 1 (1973), 257324; E. Kisbn,
A magyar Plosrend trtenete I-lI (Budapest, 19381940); J. Horvath, Ursprung, Verbreitung
und Ttigkeit der Pauliner in der Dizese Fnfkirchen von 1225 bis 1526 (Diss. Vienna,
1938); G. Sarbak, Entstehung und Frhgeschichte des Ordens der Pauliner, in: Zeitschrift
fr Kirchengeschichte 99 (1988), 93103. On the various Crozier orders, with sources and
literature, K. Elm, Kreuzherren, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters v (1991), 15001502.
48 R. Pazzelli, Il TerzOrdine Regolare di San Francesco attraverso i secoli. Rielaborazione crit-
ica e sviluppo dellopera storica del Raniero Luconi t.o.r. (Rome, 1958); G. Andreozzi, Il
Terzo Ordine Regolare di San Francesco nella sua storia e nelle sue legge iiii (Rome, 1993
95). Cf. also n. 28.
49 C. Greifenhagen, Die Alexianer und Alexianerinnen Deutschlands. Eine kirchenge-
schichtliche Studie, in: Hannoverland 4 (1910), 914, 2835, 5568; A. Huyskens, Die
Anfnge der Aachener Alexianer im Zusammenhang der Ordens- und Ortsgeschichte,
in: Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsvereins 48/49 (1928), 190256; J. Arsen, Die Begarden
und die Sackbrder in Kln, in: Annalen des Historischen Vereins vom Niederrhein 115
(1929), 167179; J. Wiegers, Die Aachener Alexianerbrder. Ihre Geschichte und ihr
Ordensgeist (Aachen 1956); J.C. Kaufmann, Tamers of Death I: The History of the Alexian
Brothers from 1300 to 1789 (New York, 1976), Ger.: Die Geschichte der Alexianerbruder iii
(Aachen, 197678); H. Heitzenrder, Geschichte der Begarden (Alexianer) in Frankfurt
am Main, in: Archiv fr mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte 31 (1979), 5574; B. Hotz,
Beginen und Willige Arme im sptmittelalterlichen Hildesheim, Schriftenreihe des
Stadtarchivs und der Stadtbibliothek Hildesheim 17 (Hildesheim, 1988); 500 Jahre
Alexianerbruder in Neuss 14901990 (Neuss, 1990). The unprinted 1972 Freiburg thesis of
M. Birken on Die Niederlassungen der Alexianer in Nordwesteuropa provides a monas-
ticon of the begards of northwest Europe who later became Alexians or Cellites.
50 M. Sensi, Le Osservanze francescane nellItalia centrale. Secoli xivxv, Bibliotheca
Seraphico-Capuccina 30 (Rome, 1985); D. Nimmo, Reform and Division in the Medieval
Franciscan Order from Saint Francis to the Foundation of the Cappuchins, Ibid. 33 (Rome,
1987); Merlo, Eremitismo nel francescanesimo (n. 16), 2950; M. Sensi, Dal movimento ere-
mitico alla regolare osservanza francescana. Lopera di Fra Paolucci Trinci (Assisi, 1992).
51 I. de Siguenza, Historia de la Orden de San Jeronimo iii, ed. J. Catalina-Garcia (Madrid,
19071909); J. Revuelta Somato, Los Jernimos I: La fundacin 13731414 (Guadalajara, 1982);
C. Dos Santos, Os Jernimos em Portugal dos origines aos fins do seculo xviii (Oporto, 1980);
294 chapter 8

recognized the status medius as a kind of transitional circumstance, one in


which it was possibleunder the auspices of an estate well-established in tra-
dition and law, and therefore without giving offenseto seek out and to test
new forms of religious life. Norbert of Xanten led the vita eremitica before he
set out to preach across France, to found the Premonstratensian order and to
become archbishop of Magdeburg.52 Francis of Assisi considered along with
his first followers whether they ought to live among men, or retreat to solitary
places, and set out as a lay-penitential hermit, irregular and independent for
Rome, where he received the support of Innocent iii for the founding of an
order.53 The path that led Norbert and Francis to forsake the world was by no
means out of the ordinary. Before and after them, countless men and women,
whether forgotten or brought to the honor of altars, sought to set similarly new
aims for themselves, to give up their former way of life, to establish reforms, or
perhaps sought nothing more than a change of established circumstances
without thereby running the danger of drawing fire as outsiders or even
heretics.54

J.R.L. Highfield, The Jeronimites in Spain, their Patrons and Success 13731516, in: Journal
of Ecclesiastical History 34 (1983), 513553; G. Turazza, S. Ambrogio ad Nemus in Milano.
Chiesa e monastero. Notize storiche dallanno 357 al 1912 (Milan, 1914); C. Gennaro, Giovanni
Colombini e la sua brigata, in: Bullettino dellIstituto storico per il medio evo 81 (1969),
237271; G. Dufner, Geschichte der Jesuaten, Nomine e dottrine 21 (Rome, 1975);
A. Benvenuti Papi, Le donne di Giovanni Colombini, in: idem, In castro poenitentiae,
(n. 31), 415528.
52 W.M. Grauwen, Norbert, Erzbischof von Magdeburg (11261134). Zweite berarbeitete
Auflage, bersetzt und bearbeitet von L. Horstktter (Duisburg, 1986); F.J. Felten, Norbert
von Xanten. Vom Wanderprediger zum Kirchenfrst, in: Norbert von Xanten. Adeliger
OrdensstifterKirchenfrst, ed. K. Elm (Cologne, 1984), 69157; S. Weinfurter, Norbert
von Xanten und die Entstehung des Prmonstratenserordens, in: Barbarossa und die
Pramonstratenser, Schriften zur staufischen Geschichte und Kunst 10 (Gttingen, 1989),
67100; K. Elm, Norbert von Xanten, in: Rheinische Lebensbilder 15, ed. F.J. Heyen
(Cologne, 1995), 721.
53 Thomas von Celano, Vita prima s. Francisci, in: Legendae sancti Francisci Assisiensis sae-
culi xiii et xiv conscriptae, Analecta Franciscana x (QuarracchiFlorence 1926/41), 28; L.
Pellegrini, Lesperienza eremitica di Francesco e dei primi francescani, in: Francesco
dAssisisi e francescanesimo dal 1216 al 1226. Atti del iv Convegno Internazionale Assisi, 1517
ottobre 1976 (Assisi, 1977), 279313.
54 For the twelfth century see, alongside the literature cited in n. 46: J. Bequet, Leremitisme
clerical et lac dans louest de la France, in: LEremitismo in Occidente (n. 25), 182204; G.G.
Meersseman, Eremitismo e predicatione itinerante dei secoli XI e XII, in: ibid. 164179; L.
Milis, Eremites et chanoines reguliers au XIIe sicle, in: Cahiers de civilisation medievale
Vita regularis sine regula 295

Spiritual and temporal powers alike held the accomplishments of semi-


religious life in high regard. Yet the established authorities also had certain
reservations about the semi-religious way of life. In semi-religious groups
church hierarchy and religious orders alike saw a dangerous challenge to their
traditional monopoly. Churchmen and religious complained of disobedience
and lack of discipline and felt themselves provoked in a variety of ways:
through presumptuous behavior, unauthorized engagement with Holy
Scripture, occult practices both real and alleged, and by teachings that diverged
from orthodoxy. Worldly authorities, for their part, looked positively on semi-
religious people and unregulated communities only so long as they remained
loyal subjects, and indeed proved themselves useful to the social order. The
temporal authorities support waned, however, to the extent that semi-religious
groups resisted integration into public life; understood themselves as mem-
bers of the clerical estate or appropriated clerical privilege for themselves;
refused to take oaths; refused to pay taxes or to serve in war; challenged
monopolies of markets and trade or even formed a political opposition.55
And all of this is to say nothing of a public opinion thatfor all of its respect
for piety and for the social engagement of the laici religiosiwas never
sparing of its critique for what was seen as the bigotry or the laxity of devout
men and women who lived in the world, but who seemed not quite fully to
belong to it.56

22 (1979), 3980; L. Donnat, La spiritualit du desert au XIIe sicle, in: Collectanea


Cisterciensia 53 (1991), 146156. For statistical coverage of female religious beyond
monastic space who entered orders, B. Wilms, Amatrices Ecclesiarum. Untersuchung zur
Rolle und Funktion der Frauen in der Kirchenreform des 12. Jahrhunderts, Bochumer
Historische Studien. Mittelalterliche Geschichte 5 (Bochum, 1987), 361369.
55 On the following see the literature cited in n. 16.
56 Leclercq, Le pome de Payen contre les faux ermites, in: Revue bndictine 68 (1958),
5286; J. Howe, The Awesome Hermit. The Symbolic Significance of the Hermit as a
Possible Research Perspective, in: Numen 30 (1983), 106119; J. Batany, Les convers chez
quelques moralistes des XIIe et XIIIe sicles, in: Citeaux 20 (1969), 241259; J. Van Engen,
Late Medieval Anticlericalism. The Case of the New Devout, in: Anticlericalism in Late
Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. P.A. Dykema, H.A. Oberman, Studies in Medieval
and Reformation Thought 51 (Leiden, 1993), 1952; C. Mrtel, Pos verstockt weyber? Der
Streit um die Lebensform der Regensburger Damenstifte im ausgehenden 15. Jahrhun
dert, in: Regensburg, Bayern und Europa. Festschrift fr Kurt Reindel zum 70. Geburtstag,
ed. L. Kolmer, P. Segl (Regensburg, 1995), 365401; U. Andermann, Die unsittlichen und
dis
ziplinlosen Kanonissen. Ein Topos und seine Hintergrnde, aufgezeichnet an
Beispielen schsischer Frauenstifte (11.-13. Jh.), in: Westflische Zeitschrift 146 (1996),
3963.
296 chapter 8

iv

Given many forms of religious life across so many centuries and regions
forms of ascetic life practiced by individuals in Christian antiquity and the
early middle ages; communities of hospitals, hermits, penitents and tertiaries
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; late-medieval beguines and beghards
or the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Lifeit is difficult to discern any-
thing that might unite them all. In the face of so much diversity of so many
interrelated manifestations of religious life, so many shifting relationships, and
so many divergent ways of self-definition, and of being defined by othersin
the face of all of this it is difficult to find some kind of unity in this way of life.
Just as difficult is how to differentiate semi-religious life from other ways of
life that are just as challenging to define: confraternities and other fraternal
associations, as well as so many heretical manifestations of medieval
sociability, many of them with origins, shapes and patterns of life that were
analogous to semi-religious life.57 Nevertheless there are certain discernible
commonalities among so many virgines et viduae, canonicae et canonissae, con-
fratres et confratrissae, inclusi et eremitae, peonitentes et disciplinati, fratres
communis vitae et mulieres devotae. What bound them together, apart from all
of their differences across time and place, was their character as something
intermediary, something ambivalent and transitory. Their way of life obligated
them to more frequent reception of the sacraments; to a more intense prayer
life and to greater ascetical achievements than the laity, without obligating
them to all of the demands associated with the status religiosus. It bound them
by certain social ties, yet did not hinder them from returning to the world;
granted them certain privileges associated with profession in a religious order,
yet did not release them from their established legal status and their depen-
dence on local clergy; promoted a renunciation of the fashionable clothing
of the laity, yet denied them the habitus religiosus; encouraged them to deepen
their faith, yet denied them formal theological training; opened the book
to them, yet never taught them Latin; encouraged frequent prayer, yet denied
them full participation in the liturgy and Divinum officium. All of this thrust its

57 On the problem of terminology and definition, alongside the literature cited in n. 35:
P. Michaud-Quantin, Universitas. Expression du mouvement communitaire dans le Moyen ge
(Paris, 1970); F. Remling, Bruderschaften als Forschungsgegenstand, in: Jahrbuch fr
Volkskunde 3 (1980), 81112; R. Schmidt-Wiegand, Hanse und Gilde. Genossenschaftliche
Organisationsformen im Bereich der Hanse und ihre Bezeichnungen, in: Hansische
Geschichtsbltter 100 (1982), 2140; F. Irsigler, Zur Problematik der Gilde- und Zunftter
minologie, in: Gilden und Znfte. Kaufmnnische Genossenschaften im frhen Mittelalter. Ein
Beitrag zum Problem der sozialgeschichtlichen Kontinuitt zwischen Antike und Mittelalter, ed.
B. Schwinekper, Vortrge und Forschungen 29 (Sigmanngen, 1985), 5370.
Vita regularis sine regula 297

adherents into a place between religious and laity. There emerged from this
ambivalent situation, which many tried to capture in formulations such as vita
regularis sine regula, via media, status tertius, status medius, a certain spiritual-
ity, indeed a culture, that researchers have begun to explore only in recent
decades. In a way similar to other forms of socially-directed formation of spiri-
tual community, both orthodox and heterodox, that culture was characterized
above all by a form of organization rooted in the demands of a wide-reaching
sense of brotherly equality, in conventicle-like gatherings, paraliturgical prayer
and spiritual song, prayer and mutual admonition, reading and the circulation
of vernacular scripture, and ultimately a striving after individual religious
insight and experience that often crossed the boundaries of what was custom-
ary, indeed of what was orthodox.
The phenomenon of semi-religious life, outlined here in a general way, can be
refined by defining more precisely the legal position of the status religionis largo
modoas Henry of Segusio, or Hostiensis, defined the estate in the thirteenth
century.58 Apart from several categories that in part went back to late antiquity
(virgins dedicated to God, virgins and widows,59 hermits,60 hospital brethren61

58 Summa aurea (Venice 1574, repr. Turin, 1963), 1108. For a different interpretation of the
term: P. Biller, Words and the Medieval Notion of Religion, in: Journal of Eccleslastical
History 36 (1985), 351366.
59 H. Koch, Virgines Christi. Das Gelbde der gottgeweihten Jungfrauen in den ersten
Jahrhunderten, Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 31
(Leipzig, 1907); F. de Vizmanos, Las Virgenes cristianas de la Iglesia primitiva (Madrid,
1949); R. Metz, La consecration des vierges dans lglise romaine. tude dhistoire et de la
liturgie, Bibliothque de lInstitut du Droit Canonique de lUniversit de Strasbourg
(Strassburg, 1954); L. Bopp, Das Witwentum als organische Gliedschaft im Gemeinschaft
sleben der alten Kirche (Mannheim, 1965); J. Bugge, Virginitas. An Essay in the History of a
Medieval Ideal, Archives internationales dhistoire des ides. Sries mineur 17 (The
Haague, 1975). On the deaconesses of the early church see, among others, J.G. Davies,
Deacons, Deaconesses and the Minor Orders in the Patristic Period, in: Journal of
Ecclesiastical History 14 (1963), 115.
60 Along with the literature cited in n. 18: C. Lialine, P. Doyre, Eremitisme, in: Dictionnaire
de la spiritualit iv (1960), 936982; Th. Spidlik, J. Sainsaulieu, Ermites, in: Dictionnaire
dhistoire et de gographie ecclsiastique xv (1963), 766787.
61 Alongside the literature cited in n. 26: S. Reicke, Das deutsche Spital und sein Recht
im Mittelalter ii. Das deutsche Spitalrecht, Kirchenrechtliche Abhandlungen 111114
(Stuttgart, 1932); J. Imbar, Les hpitaux en droit canonique (Paris, 1947); E. Nasalli-Rocca,
Il diritto ospitaliero nei suoi fondamenti storici (Milan, 1956); J. Sydow, Spital und Stadt
in Kanonistik und Verfassungsgeschichte des 14. Jahrhunderts, in: Der deutsche
Territorialstaat im 14. Jahrhundert, Vortrge und Forschungen 13 (Sigmaringen, 1970) I,
175195.
298 chapter 8

and penitents,62 associations of laity and clerics63 as well as conversi,64 and


other semi-religious institutions associated with cloisters and other founda-
tions) church law governing the religious orders before Gratian knew no explicit
and comprehensive definition of what we today call semi-religious life.

62 Along with the literature cited in n. 27: B. Poschmann, Die abendlndische Kirchenbe
am Ausgang des christlichen Mittelalters, Mnchener Studien zur historischen Theologie
7 (Munich, 1928); idem, Die abendlndische Kirchenbue im frhen Mittelalter, Breslauer
Studien zur historischen Theologie 16 (Breslau, 1930); J.A. Jungmann, Die lateinischen
Buriten in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, Forschungen zur Geschichte des inner
kirchlichen Lebens 34 (Innsbruck, 1932); F. Kerf, Libri Poenitentiales und kirchliche
Strafgerichtsbarkeit bis zum Decretum Gratiani, in: Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fr
Rechtsgeschichte. Kan. Abt. 75 (1989), 2357; K.-J. Klr, Das kirchliche Buinstitut von den
Anfngen bis zum Konzil von Trient, Europische Hochschulschriften, Reihe xxiii, 413
(Frankfurt, 1991); C. Carpaneta, Lo stato dei penitenti nel Corpus Juris Canonici, in: I Frati
Penitenti di San Francesco (n. 28), 919.
63 G.M. Monti, Le confraternite medievali dellAlta e Media Italia iii (Venice, 1927); J. Duhr,
La confrrie dans la vie de lglise, in: Revue dhistoire ecclsiastique 25 (1939) 437478;
G. Le Bras, Les confrries chrtiennes. Aperus historiques, problmes et propositions,
in: Revue historique de droit franais et tranger 1920 (194041), 310363; J. Sydow, Fragen
zu Gilde, Bruderschaft und Zunft im Lichte von Kirchenrecht und Kanonistik, in: Gilden
und Znfte. Kaufmnnische und gewerbliche Genossenschaften im frhen und hohen
Mittelalter, ed. B. Schwinekper, Vortrge und Forschungen 29 (Sigmaringen, 1985,
113126; W. Astraht, Die Vita communis der Weltpriester, Kanonische Studien und Texte 22
(Amsterdam, 1967); M. Zacherl, Die Vita communis als Lebensform des Klerus in der Zeit
Zwischen Augustinus und Karl dem Groen, in: Zeitschrift fr katholische Theologie 97
(1970), 385425; P. Moraw, ber Typologie, Chronologie und Geographie der Stiftskirche
im deutschen Mittelalter, in: Untersuchungen zu Kloster und Stift, Verffentlichungen
des Max Planck-Instituts fr Geschichte 68. Studien zur Germania Sacra 14 (Gttingen,
1980), 937; C. Cracco La fondazione dei canonici secolari di S. Giorgio in Alga, in:
Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia 13 (1959), 7081; I. Crusius, Gabriel Biel und die ober-
deutschen Stifte der Devotio moderna, in: Studien zum weltlichen Kollegiatsstift in
Deutschland, ed. I. Crusius, Verffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts fr Geschichte
114. Studien zur Germama Sacra 18 (Gttingen, 1995), 298322; G.G. Meersseman, Die
Klerikervereine von Karl dem Groen bis Innozenz iii., in: Zeitschrift fr Schweizer
Kirchengeschichte 46 (1952), 142, 81112; H. Klein, Die Entstehung und Verbreitung der
Kalandsbrderschaften in Deutschland (Diss. Saarbrcken, 1958/1963); Th. Helmert,
Kalendae, Kalenden, Kalende, in: Archiv fr Diplomatik 26 (1980), 155; M. Prietzel, Die
Kalande im sdlichen Niedersachsen. Zur Entstehung und Entwicklung von Priester
bruderschaften im Sptmittelalter, Veroffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts fr
Geschichte 117 (Gttingen, 1995).
64 Along with the literature cited in n. 19: Ph. Hofmeister, Die Rechtsverhltnisse der
Konversen, in: sterreichisches Archiv fr Kirchenrecht 19 (1962), 347.
Vita regularis sine regula 299

The main reason may be above all discerned in this: before the twelfth cen-
turys movements to codify church law and to establish more precisely the
legal status of the secular and regular clergy as well as the laity, popes and
bishops, councils and synods had no reason to define a kind of spiritual life
that had established itself in the interstices of the religious estates, a spiritual
life not even conscious of (and that could not be conscious of) its own way of
life as a distinct forma vitae.65 Only in the course of the twelfth century, and
then especially in the course of the thirteenth, a definition of semi-religious
life was synthesized from earlier designations already crafted for certain forms
of the vita media. This did not happen in one move, however, but step by step,
under a variety of circumstances, as a reaction to needs that emerged over
time. This shaped reflections on semi-religious life in a particular way: On the
one hand, it was distinguished from secular and regular clergy; on the other,
from the vita dissoluta of the laity, especially those suspected of heresy or who
were rightly seen as heretics. From the twelfth century and increasingly in the
thirteenth, popes, councils and bishops were compelled by circumstance (hav-
ing to distinguish so many forms of semi-religious life, on the one hand, from
the laity and from heresies that were both growing in number and increasingly
diverse, and on the other from an equal number of new religious orders) to
craft a concept that made legitimate room for this intermediate status. That
such a distinction was already necessary in connection to the regulation of
the hospital and knightly orders of the twelfth century is clear from the gene-
sis, organization and self-understanding of their most important representa-
tives, the Hospitalers and the Templars.66 The distinction was also required for

65 R.J. Cox, A Study of the Juridic Status of Laymen in the Writings of Medieval Canonists
(Washington d.c., 1959); L. Prosdocimi, Clerici e laici nella societ occidentale, in:
Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, ed. S. Kuttner,
F.J. Ryan, Monumenta Juris Canonici C: Subsidia 1 (Vatican City, 1965), 105122: idem, Lo
stato di vita laicale nel diritto canonico dei secoli XI e XII, in: I laici nella Societas chris-
tiana (n. 13), 5577; L. Hertling, Die Professio der Kleriker und die Entstehung der drei
Gelbde, in: Zeitschrift fr katholische Theologie 56 (1932), 148174; C. Bock, La promesse
dobissance ou la professio regularis (Westmalle, 1955); C. Capelle, Le voeu dobissance
ds origines au XIIe sicle. tude Juridque, Bibliothque du droit canonique et du droit
romain 22 (Paris, 1958); J. Laudage, Priesterbild und Reformpapsttum im 11. Jahrhundert,
Beihefte zum Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 22 (Cologne, Vienna, 1984). Cf. also: H. Jakobs,
Kirchenfreiheit und Priesterbild, in: Historisches Jahrbuch 10 (1988), 448462.
66 G. Schnrer, Die ursprngliche Templerregel, Studien und Darstellungen auf dem Gebiet
der Geschichte iii, 12 (Freiburg, 1903). Among the most recent publications on the estab-
lishment and organization of the order: F. Tommasi, Pauperes commilitones Christi.
Aspetti e problemi delle origini Gerosolimitane, in: ,Militia Christi e crociata (n. 16),
300 chapter 8

the reconciliation, led by Innocent iii, of groups suspected of heresythose


such as the Poor Catholics and the Humiliati67; it was also crucial for the judg-
ment of groups, like the Waldensians, who were not prepared to compromise.68

443476; P. Vial, La papaut, lexemption et lordre du Temple, in: Papaut, monachisme


et thories politiques 1. Le pouvoir et linstitution ecclesiale. tudes dhistoire mdivale
offertes Marcel Pacaut, Collection dhistoire et darcheologie medievale 1 (Lyon, 1994),
173180; M. Barber, The New Knighthood. A History of the Order of the Temple (Cambridge
1994); A. Luttrell, The Earliest Templars, in: Autour de la premire croisade, ed. M. Bastard,
Byzantina Sorbonensia 14 (Paris, 1996), 193202; F. Tommasi, Per i rapporti tra Templari e
Cisterciensi. Orientamenti e indirizzi di ricerca, in: I Templari. Una vita tra riti cavalleres-
chi e fedelt alla Chiesa. Atti del I Convegno I Templari e San Bernardo di Chiaravalle
Certosa di Firenze 2324 ottobre 1992 (Florence, 1995) 227274; J. Leclerq, Un document sur
les dbuts des Templiers, in: Revue dhistoire ecclsiastique 52 (1957), 8191, also in idem,
Recueil des tudes sur saint Bernard et ses crits (Rome, 1966) ii, 8799; Ch. Schaffert,
Lettre indite de Hugues de Saint-Victor aux chevaliers du Temple, in: Revue dasctique
et de mystique 34 (1958), 275299; R. Hiestand, Die Anfnge der Johanniter, in: Die geistli-
chen Ritterorden Europas, ed. J. Fleckenstein, M. Hellmann, Vortrge und Forschungen 26
(Sigmaringen, 1980), 3180; G.T. Lagleder, Die Ordensregeln der Johanniter/Malteser. Die
geistlichen Grundlagen des Johanniter-Malteserordens samt einer Edition und bersetzung
der drei ltesten Regelhandschriften (St. Ottilien, 1983); M. Matzke, De origine Hospi
taliorum Hiersolymitanum. Vom klsterlichen Pilgerhospital zur internationalen Organi
sation, in: Journal of Medieval History 22 (1996), 123; A. Luttrell, The Earliest Hospitallers,
in: Montjoie. Studies in Honour of Hans Eberhard Mayer, ed. B.Z. Kedar, J. Riley-Smith,
R. Hiestand (Aldershot, 1997), 3754. Cf. also: Elm, Die Spiritualitt der geistlichen
Ritterorden, (n. 6), 477518.
67 A. Luchaire, Innocent iii, le concil de Lateran et la rforme de lglise (Paris, 1908);
A. Fliche, Innocent iii et la rforme de lglise, in: Revue dhistoire ecclsiastique 44
(1949), 90152; M. Maccarone, Riforme e innovazioni di Innocenzo iii nella vita religi-
osa, in: idem, Studi su Innocenzo iii, Italia Sacra 17 (Padua, 1972), 223337; J.B. Pierron,
Die katholischen Armen (Freiburg, 1911); K.-V. Selge, Laile droite du mouvement Vaudois
et la naissance des Pauvres Catholiques et des Pauvres Rconcilis, in: Vaudois
Languedociens et Pauvres Catholiques, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 2 (Toulouse, 1967), 227243;
B. Bolton, Innocent iiis Treatment of the Humiliati, in: Popular Beliefs and Practice,
ed. C.J. Cuming, D. Baker, Studies in Church History 8 (Cambridge, 1972), 7382; eadem,
Sources for the Early History of the Humiliati, in: The Material Sources and Methods of
Eccleslastical History, ed. D. Baker, in: ibid. 11 (New York, 1975), 125133; P. Alberzoni, Gli
inizi degli Umiliati: una reconsiderazione, in: La conversione alla povert (n. 17), 187
237. Overview of research and literature: K.-V. Selge, Humiliaten, in: Theologische
Realenzyklopedie xv (Berlin, New York, 1986), 691696; L. Paoloni, Le Umiliate a lavoro.
Appunti fra storiografia e storia, in: Bulletino storico italiano opper il medio evo 97
(1991), 229265.
68 K.-V. Selge, Die ersten Waldenser. Mit Edition des Liber antiheresis des Durandus von Osca,
Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 37 i/ii (Berlin, 1967); M. Schneider, Europisches
Vita regularis sine regula 301

It was used in taking a position on the penitential movement,69 which reached


its high-point in the middle of the thirteenth century; and in crafting official
positions on beguines and beghards in fourteenth century, especially in the
upper-Rhinepositions that wavered threateningly between condemnation
and approval.70 The distinction found expression in decretals, in synodal
decrees, in rules, statutes, proposita, household regulations, Memorialia and
Defensoria. All of these signaled a remarkable consensus71: if they were to be

Waldensertum im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert. GemeinschaftsformenFrmmigkeitSozialer


Hintergrund, idem, 51 (Berlin, New York, 1981).
69 Along with the foundational Dossier de lOrdre de la Pnitence au XIIIe sicle, Spicilegium
Friburgense 7 (Freiburg/Suisse, 1961) by G.G. Meersemann, cf. among others, G. Odoardi,
LOrdine della Penitenza nei documenti papali del secolo xiii, in: i Frati Penitenti di San
Francesco nella societ (n. 28), 2149 and the literature in nn. 27 and 62.
70 J.C. Schmitt, Mort dune hrsie. Lglise et les clercs face aux beguines et aux beghards du
Rhin suprieur du XIVe au XVe sicle, Civilisations et Societes 56 (Paris, 1978); D. Phillips,
Beguines in Medieval Strasbourg. A Study on the Social Aspect of Beguine Life (Stanford,
1941); A. Patschovsky, Straburger Beginenverfolgungen im 14. Jahrhundert, in: Deutsches
Archiv zur Erforschung des Mittelalters 30 (1974), 56198; M. Straganz, Zum Begharden
und Beginenstreit in Basel zu Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts, in: Alemania 27 (1900), 2028;
B. Degler-Spengler, Die Beginen in Basel, in: Basler Zeitschrift fr Geschichte und
Altertumskunde 69 (1969), 583; B. Neidiger, Mendikanten zwischen Ordensideal und
stdtischer Realitt. Untersuchungen zum wirtschaftlichen Verhalten der Bettelorden in Basel,
Berliner Historische Studien 5, Ordensstudien 3 (Berlin, 1981); B. Degler-Spengler,
Der Beginenstreit in Basel, 14001411. Neue Forschungsergebnisse und weitere Fragen,
in: Il movimento francescano della penitenza nella societ medioevale (n. 28), 95105;
A. Patschovsky, Beginen, Begarden und Terziaren im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert. Das Beispiel
des Basler Beginenstreits (1400/41411), in: Festschrift fr Eduard Hlawitschka zum 65.
Geburtstag, ed. K.R. Schnith, R. Pauler, Mnchener Historische Studien, Abt. Mittela
lterliche Geschichte 5 (Kallmnz, 1993) 403418; H.-J. Schiewer, Auditionen und Visionen
einer Begine. Die Selige Schererin Johannes Mulberg und der Basler Beginenstreit. Mit
einem Textabdruck, in: Die Vermittlung geistlicher Inhalte im deutschen Mittelalter, ed.
T.R. Jackson, N.F. Palmer, A. Suerbaum (Tbingen, 1996), 289317. With reference to the
little-researched treatment of Beguines and Begards in north-west Europe: i. Wormgoor,
De vervolging van de Vrijen van Geest, de Begijnen en Begarden, in: Nederlands Archief
voor Kerkgeschiedenis 65 (1985), 120138.
71 J. Tarrant, The Clementine Decrees on the Beguins. Conciliar and Papal Visions, in:
Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 12 (1974), 300308; J. Leclercq, Vienne, Geschichte der
kumenischen Konzilien 8 (Mainz, 1965); L. Veerecke, La rforme de lglise au concile
de Vienne 13111312, in: Studia moralia 14 (1976), 283337; W. Janssen, Unbekannte
Synodalstatuten der Klner Erzbischfe Heinrich von Virneburg (13061332) und Wolfram
von Jlich (13321349), in: Annalen des Historischen Vereins vom Niederrhein 172 (1970),
113154; A. Poloni, Synodale Gesetzgebung in der Kirchenprovinz Mainzdargestellt an
der Beginenfrage, in: Rottenburger Jahrbuch fr Kirchengeschichte 5 (1986) 3351;
302 chapter 8

counted as legitimate, hermits, penitential brothers, beguines, begards and


other semi-religious people and groups had to live and work within certain
limits. The consensus demanded, with one voice, an honesta vita, an embrace
of humilitas, of recta intentio, of devotio, of simplicitas and reverentia. The con-
sensus required a renunciation of theological subtleties, warned against super-
ficial expositions of scripture, and prohibited coniurationes, conventiones and
conspirationes. Toleration also demanded submission to the teaching author-
ity of the church, obedience to the hierarchy as well as integration into local
parish communities. Only with the fulfillment of these requirementsso the
council of Vienne72could those who lived honestly, serving the lord in the
spirit of humility be allowed, whether they vowed chastity or not, to pursue
the vita media. Here the decrees used concepts that marked out not only the
possibilities and the limits of a semi-religious way of life, but that also shaped
central themes of the devout literature of the later middle ages.73
Particularly decisive for the politics of restriction adopted over against
semi-religious life was the concern, which found expression so clearly in the
decrees of the councils, to prohibit the spread not only of new orders, but also

J. Greving, Protokoll ber die Revision der Konvente der Beginen und Begarden zu Kln
im Jahr 1452, in: Annalen des Historischen Vereins fr den Niederrhein 73 (1902), 2587;
J. Asen, Die Beginen in Kln, in: ibid. 111 (1927), 81180; 112 (1928), 71148; 113 (1929), 1396.
Accounts of Beguine history from the Netherlands, Belgium and the Rhineland can be
found the following unprinted Masters Theses: A. van den Eynden, Statuten der begijn-
hoven van Mechelen, Brugge en het bisdom Luik (Leuven, 1960); R.M. Quintijn, Normen
en normering van het begijnenleven. Vergelijkende studie van begijnenregels in de
Nederlanden van de XIIIe tot de XVIIIe eeuw (Gent, 1984); J. Knoppik, Hausordnungen
rheinischer Beginengemeinschaften des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts (fu Berlin, 1992). Cf.
also A. Pil, Een handleiding voor het geestelijk leven der Brusselse Begijnen, in: Sacris
erudiri 16 (1965), 470485; A. Schmidt, Tractatus contra hereticos Beckardos, Lullhardos
et Swestriones des Wasmund von Hornburg, in: Archiv fr mittelrheinische Kirchenge
schichte 14 (1962), 336386; A.G. Weiler, Begijnen en Begharden in de Spiegel van een
universitair disput (Heidelberg 1458), in: Archief voor de Geschiedenis van de Katholieke
Kerk in Nederland 12 (1968), 6394.
72 Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, ed. J. Alberigo et al. (Basel, Barcelona, Freiburg,
Rome, Vienna, 1962), 302ff.
73 Cf. among others: N. Staubach, Pragmatische Schriftlichkeit im Bereich der Devotio
moderna, in: Frhmittelalterliche Studien 25 (1991), 418464; Th. Mertens, Boeken voor de
eeuwigheid. Middelnederlandse geestelijk proza, Nederlandse literattuur en cultuur in
demiddeleeuwen 8 (Amsterdam, 1993); Th. Kock, Theorie und Praxis der Laienlektre
im Einflubereich der Devotio moderna, in: Laienlektre und Buchmarkt im spten
Mittelalter, Gesellschaft, Kultur und Schrift. Medivistische Beitrge 5 (Frankfurt a.M.,
Berlin, 1997), 199220.
Vita regularis sine regula 303

of organizations like them (or to allow them only under certain circumstances).
Such was the intention of the Second Lateran Council, which already in 1139
enjoined on sanctimoniales the observance of either the Rule of Benedict or
Augustine. The measure was advanced again at the Third and Fourth Lateran
councils, which turned against the spread of confraternities and made it oblig-
atory for newly-founded religious orders to adopt the rules and institutions of
religiones approbatae. It was also at the center of the proceedings of the second
council of Lyon.74
In the face of an inestimable number of new orders, the council gathered
there in 1274 prohibited the foundation of new orders and the adoption of
rules other than those already written. In the twenty-third canon, Religionem
diversitatem, later taken up into the Liber sextus of Boniface viii, the council
demanded that all mendicant orders founded after 1214 (in violation of the
decrees of Lateran iv) were to be dismantled. Exceptions were made only for
the Franciscans and Dominicans, and later the Augustinian Hermits and
Carmelites as well. New foundations were only to be allowed if their mem-
bers were prepared to adopt approved rules.75 These measures thus gave a
religious community justification for existence only if they either adapted
themselves to the traditions of established religious orders, or abandoned
the essential markers of the vita religiosaapproved rule, formal vows and
religious habit. In order to negotiate the contradiction between the prescrip-
tions of church law and the undeniable existence of a quasi-monastic life of
religious community, the canonists crafted an ancillary construction designed
to establish unregulated religious communities and similar associations on
firm legal ground. Indoing so they turned not only to the Decretum and the
Decretals but also to Roman law, and more precisely to the laws governing
associations, to designate semi-religious communities as societates omnium
bonorum.76 The societas, described in the forty-seventh book of the Digest,

74 Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta (n. 72) 75, 192ff.


75 Ibid., 218; B. Roberg, Das zweite Konzil von Lyon 1274, Konziliengeschichte A: Darstellungen
(Paderborn, 1990), 89126; St. Kuttner, Conciliar Law in the Making. The Lyonese
Constitutions (1274) of Gregory x in a Manuscript at Washington, in: Miscellanea Pio
Paschini. Studi di Storia Ecclesiastica, Lateranum ns 15 (Rome, 1949) ii, 39; R.M. Emery,
The Second Council of Lyon and the Mendicant Orders, in: Catholic Historical Review
39 (1953), 257271; Elm, Ausbreitung, Wirksamkeit und Ende der provenalischen
Sackbrder (n. 47).
76 Sinibaldus Fliscus, Super libros quinque decretalium (Frankfurt, 1570, repr. 1968) 75ff.;
idem, In primum decretalium librum (Venice, 1589, repr. 1965) 159; Johannes Andreae, In
quintum Decretalium librum novella commentaria (Venice, 1581, repr. 1963) 95ff.; Bernardus
Papiensis, Summa decretalium (Regensburg, 1866), 109ff.; M. Waltzing, tude historique
304 chapter 8

was a community capable of ownership and inheritance that (in contrast to


a collegium or a corpus) required public approval. It did not enjoy the privi-
leges of a legal person, but it was therefore not subject to legal condemnation
(which had allowed Christians before Constantine to secure for their com-
munities, if not legal recognition, then at least toleration). Applied to the
status medius, this meant that the people and the communities who belonged
to it, so long as they abided by the recognized prescriptions for a societas,
established a certain legal character for themselves. That character did not
place them on the same footing as those cloisters and religious orders, which
enjoyed the status of a corpus or collegium. But it did protect semi-religious
communities against being branded as domus illicitae, ordines non approbati
or indeed conventicula haeretica. Reaching back to older categories of canon
law, but above all drawing from the Digest, the canonists developed a power-
ful legal tool: used already in the fourteenth century among defenders of
beguines, beghards and tertiaries as the foundation of their argumentation,77
the apologists of the Fratres vitae communis advocated, developed and
refined78 its essentials in so many juristic treatises that a century later it

sur les corporations professionelles chez les Romains depuis les origines jusqu la chute de
lempire dOccident iii (Leuven, 189496); P. Gillet, La personalit juridique en droit eccl-
siastique specialement chez les dcretistes et les dcretalistes et dans le code de droit cano-
nique (Malies, 1927); F. Wieacker, Societas. Handelsgenossenschaft und Erwerbsgemeinschaft
(Weimar, 1931); F.M. de Robertis, Storia delle corporazioni e del regime associatio nel mondo
romano iii (Bari, 1973); idem, Dai collegia cultorum alle confraternitates religiose: La
normativa Giustiniana sui tenuiores e la sua disapplicazione nella et di mezzo, in:
Confraternite, Chiese e Societ (n. 35) 1129. Cf. in this connection also: H.E. Feine, Vom
Fortleben des rmischen Rechts in der Kirche, in: Zeitschrift der Savigny Stiftung fr
Rechtsgeschichte 73, Kan. Abt. 42 (1956), 124.
77 Along with the literature in n. 28 and n. 48 on the Beguine controversies, see M. DAlatri,
Contrasti tra Penitenti francescani ed autorit ecclesiastica nel Trecento, in: I frati
Penitenti (n. 28), 101110; A.G. Matanic, Il Defensorium Tertii Ordinis beati Francisci di
San Giovanni de Capestrano, in: Il movimenti francescano della penitenza (n. 28), 4757.
78 L. Korth, Die ltesten Gutachten ber die Bruderschaft des gemeinsamen Lebens, in:
Mitteilungen aus dem Stadtarchiv von Kln 5 (1888), 127; H. Keussen, Der Dominikaner
Matthus Grabow und die Brder vom Gemeinsamen Leben, in: ibid. 2947; D. de Man,
Vervolging, welke de broeders en zusters des gemeenen levens te verduren hadden, in:
Bijdragen voor vaderlandse Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde 6 (1926), 283295; C.H.
Lambermond, Geert Grote, zijn stichtingen en zijn bestrijders, in: Studin 73 (1941),
187200; St. Wachter, Matthias Grabow, ein Gegner der Brder vom Gemeinsamen
Leben in: Festschrift zum 50jhrigen Bestandsjubilum des Missionshauses St. Gabriel
Wien-Mdling (Sankt Gabrieler Studien viii, Vienna-Mdling, 1939) 289376; G. van den
Vita regularis sine regula 305

could be taken up by the Societas Jesu and other communities, both of regu-
lar clerics and secular institutions alike.79 The legal peculiarity of the vita
media as an estate between cloister and world as it appears in so many trea-
tises in defense of the Brothers of the Common Life (especially in the
Defensorium of Gerard Zerbolt von Zutphen)80 is best revealed through com-
parison with the legal status of cloisters or the houses of the religious orders

Heuvel, Het bestaansrecht van de Broeders van het Gemene Leven voor de bisschoppeli-
jke goedkeuring van 1401 (Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana Romae, Dissertatio, Tilburg,
1953); G. Biel, Tractatus de communi vita clericorum, ed. W.M. Landeen, in: Research
Studies of the State College of Washington 28 (1960), 7995. Cf. also: i. Crusius, Gabriel Biel
und die oberdeutschen Stifte der Devotio moderna,(n. 63), 298322; G. Faix, Gabriel Biel
und die Brder vom Gemeinsamen Leben. Quellen und Untersuchungen zu Verfassung und
Selbstverstndnis des oberdeutschen Generalkapitels, Sptmittelalter und Reformation 11
(Tbingen, 1998); W. Lourdaux, Dirk of Herxens Tract De utilitate monachorum: A Defence
of the Lifestyle of the Brethren and Sisters of the Common Life, in: Pascua Mediaevalia.
Studies voor Prof. Dr. J.M. De Smet, Mediaevalia Lovaniensia i, 10 (Leuven, 1983), 312336;
idem, De utilitate monachorum van Dirk van Herxen. Een verdediging van de Moderne
Devoten tegenover de burgerlijke overheid, in: Ons geestelijk Erf 59 (1985), 185196;
A. Beriger, Ruotger Sycamber van Venray: Rede zum Lob der Brder vom Gemeinsamen
Leben 1501, in: Ons geestelijk Erf 68 (1994), 129143. On the origins of the brothers cf.
among others: C. van der Wansem, Het ontstaan en de geschiedenis der broedershap van
het gemene leven tot 1400, Universiteit te Leuven. Publicaties op het gebied der geschiede-
nis en der philologie iv, 12 (Leuven, 1958); W. Lourdaux, De Broeders van het gemene
Leven, in: Bijdragen. Tijdschrift voor filosofie en theologie 33 (1972), 373416. Elm, Die
Bruderschaft vom gemeinsamen Leben (n. 16).
79 G. Switek, Die Eigenart der Gesellschaft Jesu im Vergleich zu den anderen Orden in der
Sicht des Ignatius und seiner ersten Gefhrten, in: Ignatianisch. Eigenart und Methode
der Gesellschaft Jesu, ed. M. Sievernich, G. Switek (Freiburg, 1991), 204232; J.W. OMalley,
The First Jesuits (Cambridge, ma, 1993). Cf. also: O. Steggink, De Moderne Devotie in het
Montserrat van Ignatius van Loyola, in: Ons gestelijk Erf 59 (1985), 383392.
80 A. Hyma, Het traktaat Super modo vivendi devotorum hominum simul commorantium
door Gerard Zerbolt van Zutphen, in: Archief voor Geschiedenis van het Aartsbisdom
Utrecht 52 (1926), 1100; idem, Is Gerard Zebolt of Zutphen the Author of the Super modo
Vivendi? in: Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis ns 16 (1921), 107128; J. Deschamps,
Middelnederlandse vertalingen van Super modo vivendi (7de hoofdstuk) en De libris teu-
tonicalibus van Gerard Zerbolt van Zutphen, in: Handellingen. Koninklijke Zuidnederlandse
Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis 14 (1960), 67108; 15 (1961),
175220; N. Staubach, Gerhard Zerbolt von Zutphen und die Apologie der Latenlektre in
der Devotio moderna, in: Theorie und Praxis der Devotio moderna, 221289. Cf. also:
G.H. Gerrits, Inter timorem et spem. A Study of the Theological Thought of Gerard Zerbolt of
Zutphen, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 37 (Leiden, 1986).
306 chapter 8

in the proper sense, the domus religiosa. The official power of priors, abbots
and provostsgrounded in obedience, conferred by the maior et sanior pars
and confirmed through ecclesiastical approbationhas no equivalent in the
societas. The principle that guided the societas, par in parem non habet potes-
tatem, denied any jurisdictional power to the superior who stood at its head.
Similarly for the legal character of the societas itself: Ex definitione incapable
of forming a majority, its members could establish no binding resolutions.
And what counted for the leader and the societas counted also for its consue-
tudines. These were not legally binding rules. They were private ordinances,
statutes and proposita of an individual household, measures that derived
their authority from law in general, from the law of the Gospel and from
canon law valid for all Christians. Whenever laws were issued and majority
decisions were in fact recorded, these were not precepts or measures or stip-
ulations with vis coactiva. Rather they were consilia and correctiones frater-
nae, measures that were to be followed not ex necessitate but only ex caritate
et amicitia. Accordingly, the embrace of the non-regular communis vita
entailed no legally-binding obligation in the form of a professio. At the begin-
ning of community life was merely a receptio, that had as a requirement only
partial willingness to observance of the tria substantialia of the religious
orders, i.e. to the renunciation of ownership, to the limitation of personal
freedom and the preservation of chastity. The contrasts between cloister and
brotherly society are numerous, and they can be illustrated through more
than one example. To move beyond further explanation to a summary of the
legal differences between the two forms of community, we can invoke the
veryconcepts so often used in fourteenth and fifteenth literature for the defi-
nition and defense of the way of life of the beguines, tertiaries, Brothers
andSisters of the Common Lifeconcepts especially appropriate for estab-
lished institutions on the one hand, and for communities of brotherly
association on the other: subordinatio and aequalitas, potestas and caritas,
obedientia and libertas.81

81 J. Ratzinger, Die christliche Brderlichkeit (Munich, 1960); J. Hasenfu, Brderlichkeit in


religionssoziologisch-theologischer Sicht, in: Warheit und und Verkndigung. Michael
Schmaus zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. L. Scheffczyk (Munich, 1967), 265283; W. Schieder,
Brderhchkeit, Brderschaft, Verbrderung, Bruderliebe, in: Geschichtliche Grundbegnffe
1, ed. O. Brunner, W. Conze, R. Kossellek (Tbingen, 1972), 552581; M.D. Chenu,
Fraternitas. vangile et condition socio-culturelle, in: Revue dhistoire de la spiritualit
49 (1973), 385400; H. Tyrell, Die christliche BrderlichkeitSemantische Kontinuitten
und Diskontinuitten, in: Festschrift fr F.X. Kaufmann (forthcoming).
Vita regularis sine regula 307

To describe what one might call the self-understanding of the status tertius
demands careful evaluation of a broad and very diverse body of source
material, ranging from documents and statutes to literary and liturgical
texts to works of fine art and music. The articulations of that self-under-
standing were grounded in the forms of life and the communities that semi-
religious of the high and late middle ages invoked as their predecessors and
models.82 The arsenal of prototypes reached back to the early middle ages,
and indeed into Christian antiquity and to biblical times: Elijah, Anthony
and Paul of Thebes as the archetypes of the vita eremitica; John the Almsgiver
and Nicholas of Myra, helpers of the poor and disadvantaged; Alexius and
Roche, representatives as well as patrons of the ill and the suffering, the
downfallen and the faltering; Elizabeth of Hungary, Landgravine of
Thuringia, and Louis ix, the holy king of France, exponents of Christian
caritas and intensive lay piety; Martha, busy caring for the welfare of the
familia sacra in Bethany; Mary Magdalen, the model and the embodiment of
penance; Mary, the mater dolorosa iuxta crucem, and Christ, the thorn-
crowned man of sorrows.
The semi-religiousespecially the Brothers of the Common Lifesaw
themselves and their community modeled in Benjamin, the youngest son of
Jacob; in Bethlehem, the least of the princely cities of Judea; and in Paul, the

82 For an overview: S. Giehen, Appunti per liconografia dei santi e beati dellOrdine della
Penitenza (secoli xiiixiv), in: I Fratri penitenti di San Francesco (n. 28), 111124. For
elaboration: K. Klein, Frhchristliche Eremiten im Sptmittelalter und in der Reformat
ionszeit, in: Literatur und Laienbildung im Sptmittelalter und in der Reformationszeit, ed.
L. Grenzmann, K. Stackmann (Stuttgart, 1984), 686695; J. Oliver, Gothic Women and
Merovingian Desert Mothers, in: Gesta 32 (1993), 124134; E. Gssmann, Mariologische
Entwicklungen im Mittelalter. Frauenfreundliche und Frauenfeindliche Aspekte, in:
Mariafr alle Frauen oder ber allen Frauen?, ed. E. Gssmann, D.R. Bauer (Freiburg,
1989), 6385; M. Wehrli-Johns, Haushlterinnen Gottes. Zur Mariennachfolge der
Beginen, in: MariaAbbild oder Vorbild? Zur Sozialgeschichte mittelalterlicher
Marienverehrung, ed. H. Rckelein (Tbingen, 1990) 147182; H.M. Garth, Saint Mary
Magdalene in Medieval Literature (Baltimore, 1950); V. Saxer, Le culte de Marie-Madeleine
en occident ds origines la fin du moyen ge (Auxerre, Paris, 1959); S. Haskins, Mary
Magdalen. Myth and Metaphor (London, 1993); K.L. Jansen, Mary Magdalen and the
Mendicants: The Preaching of Penance in the Late Middle Ages, in: Journal of Medieval
History 21 (1995), 125; G. Constable, Three Studies in Medieval Religious and Social
Thought. The Interpretation of Mary and Martha. The Ideal of the Imitation of Christ. The
Orders of Society (Cambridge, 1995); Die Passion Christi in Literatur und Kunst des
Sptmittelahers, ed. W. Haug, B. Wachinger, Fortuna Vitrea 12 (Tbingen, 1993).
308 chapter 8

last Apostle. Such models must be understood surely as expressions of humil-


ity (whether voluntary or compulsory) in a community more or less well-
formed, yet positioned decidedly on the margins of both secular and sacred
society. And yet the same formulations (like those of the popes, who repre-
sented themselves as servants of the servants of God) claimed a privileged
place, and even implied a claim to the highest rank among the Istituti di per-
fezione. They were seldom advanced expressis verbis among the Brothers
themselves, but their traces were felt in every expression, even in the existence
of the semi-religious life, which was in a certain way provocative by its very
nature. The Franciscan Observant John Brugman formulated it word for word
in the middle of the fifteenth century. Inspired by Joachim of Fiore, Brugman
saw in the communities of the Brothers of the Common life the spiritual order
that was to inaugurate the third age of world and salvation history, and a way
of life thereby superior to all others in spiritual substance.83
Brugmans eschatological outlook is of less interest here than the attempt of
the Brothers and their allies to anchor their modus vivendi historically. They
looked back to the early Christian ascetics in Rome, to Aquila and Priscilla, the
helpers of Paul mentioned in his letters to the Corinthians and the Romans.
They saw their own societas anticipated in Augustines circle of friends at
Cassiciacum between Milan and Bergamo, and in the Sacra familia that Jerome
gathered around himself in Bethlehem. The early Christian hermits of Egypt,
Syria and Palestine, Elijah and Elisha, the prophets of the Old Testament and
the pious Essenes were for them not merely the prototypes of monks and
monasticism, but creators of free societates that lived sine regula, sine statutis
obedientialibus, sine habitu approbato aut ceremoniis regularibus. Their actual
model, however, was neither the church fathers nor the prophets and hermits,
but rather the vita apostolica and the ecclesia primitiva. What monks, canons
and mendicants, and indeed the military orders had long claimed for them-
selvesto live according to the model of the Apostles and to return to the early
churchsemi-religious now claimed as well, and with an exclusivity similar to
that of the other orders and their branches.84 Returning to arguments that the

83 J. Brugman, Speculum imperfectionis, ed. F.A.H. van den Homberg (Groningen, 1962).
84 M.-H. Vicaire, Limitation des aptres: Moines, chanoines, mendiants, IVeXIIIe sicles (Paris,
1963); G. Olsen, The Idea of the Ecclesia Primitiva in the Writings of Twelfth-Century
Canonists, in: Traditio 25 (1969), 6186; G. Leff, The Apostolic Ideal in Later Medieval
Ecclesiology, in: Journal of Theological Studies 18 (1967), 5882; S.H. Hendrix, In Quest of
the Vera Ecclesia: the Crisis of Late Medieval Ecclesiology, in: Viator 7 (1976), 347378;
A. Vauchez, La Bible dans les confrries et les mouvements de devotion, in: Le Moyen
ge et la Bible, ed. R. Rich, G. Lobrichen (Paris, 1984), 583595; Constable, Three Studies
(n. 82).
Vita regularis sine regula 309

wandering apostolic preachers of the twelfth century had used and to those
James of Vitry had used in his Vita of Mary dOignies in defense of the
beguines,85 the Brothers now claimed to be a direct continuation (if not in fact
the only legitimate continuation) of the early apostolic community. They, like
the Apostles, followed no rule other than the regula evangelii, and were obli-
gated to no superior other than the abbas Jesus Christ. While monks and can-
ons called on Benedict and Augustine and Franciscans and Dominicans on
Francis and Dominic as their fundatores, they had no other founder than the
lord himself. It was a claim that had as its consequencealready noted by
Geert Groote86that the rules of Augustine, Benedict and Francis seemed
superfluous, and that the orders they founded could be seen as particularitates
et singularitates, that is as obstacles in the way to salvation. What the devout
texts only hinted at became clearly and unmistakably to expression in the texts
that the Devout and their friends authored in defense of their way of life. Under
pressure from clergy, bishops and curia either to conform at least outwardly to
the norms of a monastic or canonical way of life, or to give up entirely their
experiment in semi-religious life, they reacted with a decisiveness that sent an
unmistakable signal: the Devout accorded their way of life, a way of life
grounded in equality, freedom and brotherly love, a higher rank than a life in
religious orders grounded in obligations and obedience. To abandon its worth
and to bind oneself to a religious rule seemed to them to be nothing other
quam vendere libertatem nostram, singulare decus christinae religionis et emere
vincula et carceresso Peter Dieburg, rector of the Devout community of
Lchtenhof in Hildesheim, formulated it in his Annales in 1490.87 For Peter and
his like-minded brothers semi-religious life was no longer what it had been for

85 Along with the literature cited in n. 46: J. Becquet, LInstitution. Premier coutumiers de
lOrdre de Grandmont, in: Revue Mabillon 46 (1956), 1532; Vita b. Mariae Oigniacensis,
in: Acta Sanctorum v (Antwerp, 1867), 547575. Cf. also Lettres de Jacques de Vitry
(1160/11701240) vque de Saint-Jean-dAcre. Edition critique, ed. R.B.C. Huygens (Leiden
1960), 7178.
86 G. Groote, De Simonia ad beguttas, ed. W. de Vreese (The Hague, 1940), 29.
87 Annalen und Akten der Brder des gemeinsamen Leben im Lchtenhof zu Hildesheim, ed.
R. Doebner, Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte Niedersachsens 9 (Hannover,
Leipzig, 1903), 113. On Dieburg: G. Boerner, Die Annalen und Akten der Bruder des gemein-
samen Lebens im Lchtenhof zu Hildesheim. Eine Grundlage der Geschichte der deutschen
Brderhuser und ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte der Reformation (Furstenwalde, 1905);
W. Schltke, Die Brder vom gemeinsamen Leben und Peter Dieburg, 14201494 (Diss.
Rostock, 1969). Cf. also E. Barnikol, Bruder Dieburgs deutsches Christentum und Luthers
Stellung zu den Brdern vom gemeinsamen Leben, in: Das Eisleber Lutherbuch, ed.
H. Etzrod, K. Kronenberg, (Magdeburg, 1933), 1828.
310 chapter 8

the decretists and decretalistsa makeshift arrangementnor what it had


been for the secular clergya negligible quantity. It was of consequence,
indeed the only right way to follow Christ. Formulations like Peter Dieburgs,
however, hint at even greater consequences. To put brotherly love and Christian
freedom on equal footing struck at the foundations of regular life in established
orders as it was understood in the late middle ages. To make volkomen mynne
and volkomen anhangen an god (to invoke the words of Geert Grote) into the
only relevant requirements for the vita perfecta88 not only rendered meaning-
less the outward markers of religious lifethe habitus, the tonsura and the
cappa. It shattered the foundation of monastic life, namely its vows, which late-
medieval theology understood as a second baptism, as an act that guaranteed
eternal salvation.89 Where one could live religious life out of pure conviction,
without the approval of pope or bishop and beyond the cloister, there the vita
perfecta was no longer a matter for legally established institutions; there dis-
tinctions between a vita regularis and a vita media were superfluous; there
emerged the Erasmian formulation already anticipated in Wyclif: purus chris-
tianus verus monachus.90 Such a cogent articulation of the Devout ideal, and
with it an absolute commitment to the status medius, challenged the founda-
tions of medieval monasticism, and indeed put into question the dominant
late-medieval view of the nature of the churchand this is not merely the
interpretation of historians working with the benefit of hindsight. Martin
Luther himself, notwithstanding his strong criticism of secular confraterni-
ties and his principled renunciation of the estate of the religious orders,91

88 See. n. 86.
89 B. Lohse, Mnchtum und Reformation. Luthers Auseinandersetzung mit dem Mnchsideal
des Mittelalters, Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 12 (Gttingen, 1963),
167170.
90 Fifty Heresies and Errors of Friars, in: Selected English Works of John Wycliff, ed. Th. Arnold
(London, 186971), iii, 367372; A. Dakin, Die Beziehung John Wyclifs und der Lollarden zu
den Bettelmnchen (London 1911); Th. Renna, Wyclifs Attacks on the Monks, in: From
Ockham to Wyclif, ed. A. Hudson, M. Wolks, Studies in Church History. Subsidia 5 (New
York, 1987), 267280.
91 H.-Chr. Rublack, Zur Rezeption von Luthers De votis monasticis iudicium in: Reform und
Revolution. Beitrge zum politischen Wandel und den sozialen Krften am Beginn der
Neuzeit. Festschrift R. Wohlfeil zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. R. Postel, F. Kopitzsch (Stuttgart,
1989), 224237; Lohse, Mnchtum und Reformation (n. 89); O.H. Pesch, Luthers Kritik
am Mnchtum in katholischer Sicht, in: Strukturen christlicher Existenz. Beitrge zur
Erneuerung des geisthchen Lebens, ed. H. Schlier et al. (Wrzburg, 1968) 8197;
H.-M. Stamm, Luthers Stellung zum Ordensleben, in: Der Durchbruch der reformato-
rischen Erkenntnis bei Luther. Neuere Untersuchungen, ed. B. Lohse, Verffentlichungen des
Instituts fr Europische Geschichte Mainz. Abt. fr Abendlndische Religionsgeschichte
Vita regularis sine regula 311

recognized an inward relationship between his new teachings and the old
institutions of the Devout. In 1532 the Devout of Herford faced attacks from
former Augustinian Hermits who had embraced the new faith. They asked
Luther for a defense of their way of life, and he responded with praise not only
for their ratio vivendi and their genus vitae. He also confirmed that in viewing
that way of life from the perspective of the new understanding of faith there
was nothing that was unjustified, that they lived a life in the spirit of the Gospel,
without the vows he had judged to be unchristian. It was an argument that
Philip Melanchthon would repeat to Trithemius, and one that representatives
and champions of the status tertius had used already in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries to describe and to characterize the special place of their
estate, between cloister and world, between religious and laity, yet fully in
accordance with the law: hanc societatem esse rem licitam.92

vi

The question of what role the vita regularis sine regula played in the transition
from the late middle ages to the Reformation and the subsequent process of
confessionalization has until now neither been explicitly posed, nor has there
been any attempt to answer it in a systematic way.93 But the problem was as

101 (Wiesbaden, 1980); W. Werbeck, Martin Luthers Widmungsrede zu De votis monasti-


cis, in: Luther 62 (1991), 7889. On Luthers critique of secular brotherhoods, see now
B. Schneider, Wandel und Beharrung. Brderschaften und Frmmigkeit in Sptmittelalter
und Frher Neuzeit, in: Volksfrmmigkeit in der Frhen Neuzeit, ed. H. Molitor,
H. Smolinski, Katholisches Leben und Kirchenreform im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung
54 (Mnster, 1994), 6587.
92 Das Fraterherrenhaus zu Herford ii: Statuten, Bekenntnisse, Briefwechsel, ed. R. Stupperich,
Veroffentlichungen der Histonschen Kommission von Westfalen 35 (Mnster, 1984);
R. Stupperich, Luther und das Fraterhaus in Herford, in: Geist und Geschichte der
Reformation. Festgabe H. Rckert zum 65. Geburtstag, Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 38
(Berlin, 1966) 219238; idem, Das Herforder Fraterherrenhaus und die Reformation, in:
Jahrbuch fr Westflische Kirchengeschichte 64 (1971), 727.
93 As an example of focused studies: F. Merzbacher, Die Aschaffenburger Beginen
um das Jahr 1527, in: Archiv fr mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte 3 (1951), 365368;
J.-Ch. Schmitt, Les Dernires annes dun beguinage colmarien daprs ses comptes (1510
1531), in: Annuaire de la Socit dHistoire et dArcheologie de Colmar (1975/76) 3141; F.
Glauser, Das Schwesternhaus zu St. Anna im Bruch in Luzern 14981625. Religise, soziale und
wirtschaftliche Strukturvernderungen einer Beginengemeinschaft auf dem Weg vom Spt
mittelalter zur Katholischen Reform, Luzerner Historische Verffentlichungen 222 (Lucerne,
Stuttgart 1987).
312 chapter 8

pressing in the nineteenth century as it has been in recent times, albeit for dif-
ferent motives than those driving scholarship today. At the end of the nine-
teenth and the beginning of the twentieth century social scientists and legal
historians turned with a special intensity to the study of medieval forms of
association, and they extended their interests to encompass the study of semi-
religious life. They did so, as the work of Otto von Gierke makes especially
clear, because of semi-religious lifes supposed contribution to the process of
the republicanization of the state and the democratization of societypro-
cesses that the historians of the nineteenth century saw not as a merely histori-
cal phenomenon, but as a burning issue for their own day.94 The same
contemporary concerns influenced still more a church history shaped by the
Kulturkampf, leading to a study of semi-religious life that turned on the ques-
tion of its importance as a precursor to the Reformation. For Carl Ullmann,
who believed he was able to answer with certainty the question (already raised
in the earliest Reformation historiography) of reformers before the Refor
mation, the free religious associations were nothing other than gatherings of
the faithful that, as Flaccus Illyricus and Gottfried Arnold had seen it, had
proven themselves witnesses to the Gospel. And the Modern Devotion, as a
trail-blazer for both Humanism and the Reformation, provided a powerful
argument of that, both to him and to the historians who argued along similar
lines.95 The same modelthat semi-religious life, seen as characteristic of the

94 O. Gierke, Deutsches Genossenschaftsrecht i: Rechtsgeschichte der deutschen Gemeinschaft


(Berlin, 1868); E.W. Bckenfrde, Die deutsche verfassungsgeschichtliche Forschung im 19.
Jahrhundert. Zeitgebundene Fragestellungen und Zeitbilder, Schriften zur Verfassungs
geschichte i (Berlin, 1961); O.G. Oexle, Otto von Gierkes Rechtsgeschichte der deutschen
Genossenschaft. Ein Versuch Wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Rekapitulation, in: Deutsche
Geschichtswissenschaft um 1900, ed. N. Hammerstein (Stuttgart, 1988), 193217; P. Landau,
Otto Gierke und das kanonische Recht, in: Die deutsche Rechtsgeschichte in der ns-Zeit,
ihre Vorgeschichte und Nachwirkungen, ed. J. Rckert, D. Willowett, Beitrge zur
Rechtsgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts 12 (Tbingen, 1995), 9497.
95 C. Ullmann, Reformatoren vor der Reformation ii: Die Positiven Grundlagen der Reformation
auf dem populren und wissenschaftlichen Gebiete, 2nd ed. (Gotha, 1866). On the problem:
H.A. Oberman, Werden und Wertung der Reformation. Vom Wegstreit zum Glaubenskampf,
Sptscholastik und Reformation ii (Tbingen, 1977); idem, Forerunners of the Reformation.
The Shape of Late Medieval Thought (Philadelphia, 1981); Albert Hyma, The Christian
Renaissance. A History of the Devotio Moderna 2nd ed. (Hamden, Conn. 1965); L.E.
Halkin, La Devotio Moderna et les origines de la Rforme aux Pays-Bas, in: Courants
religieux et humanisme la fin du XVe et au dbut du XVIe sicle. Colloque de Strasbourg 911
mai 1957 (Paris, 1959), 4551; J. Roelink, Moderne Devotie en Reformatie, in: Serta
Historica 2 (1970), 543; W. Lourdaux, Dvotion moderne et humanisme chrtien, in: The
Late Middle Ages and the Dawn of Humanism Outside Italy. Proceedings of the International
Vita regularis sine regula 313

late middle ages, was potentially a force for change, for emancipation, for
reform, for pre-reform, for Reformationinspired interpretations that saw
ina lay piety shaped by monasticism one of the preconditions for the spirit
of capitalism that emerged from the Protestant ethic.96 Others, conversely,
thought themselves able to discern in both heresy and in semi-religious life
those forces that turned against the feudal powers, that initiated the early
bourgeois revolution97 and that prepared the way for modern individual-
ismand the emancipation of women.98 Against this interpretative approach
Gennaro M. Monti, Gabriel Le Bras, Giles G. Meersseman, Andr Vauchez and
most other representatives of recent research into confraternities and semi-
religious life have countered with an argument already deployed by Max

Conference, Louvain, May 1113, 1970 (Lueven, The Hague, 1972), 5777; R. Mokrosch,
Devotio moderna ii: Verhltnis zu Humanismus und Reformation, in: Theologische
Realenzyklopadie viii (1981), 609617; N. Staubach, Christianam sectam arripere: Devotio
moderna und Humanismus zwischen Zirkelbildung und gesellschaftlicher Integration,
in: Europische Soziettsbewegung und demokratische Tradition. Brgerlich-gelehrte
Organisationsformen Zwischen Renaissance und Revolution, ed. K. Garber, H. Wismann
(Tbingen, 1996), 112167.
96 M. Weber, Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus 1. Das Problem, in:
Archiv fr Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 20 (1904), 154; idem, Die Berufsidee des
asketischen Protestantismus, in: ibid. 21 (1905), 1110; E. Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der
christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen (Heidelberg, 1912); G. Becker, Neuzeitliche Subjektivitt
und Religiositt. Die religionspsychologische Bedeutung von Herauskunft und Wesen der
Neuzeit im Denken von Ernst Troeltsch (Regensburg, 1982); S. Kalberg, Max Webers Typen
der Rationalitt. Grundsteine fur die Analyse von Rationalisierungsprozessen in der
Geschichte, in: Max Weber und die Rationalisierung sozialen Handeins, ed. W.M. Sprondel,
C. Seyfarth (Stuttgart, 1981) 938; L. Kaelber, Webers Lacuna: Medieval Religion and the
Roots of Rationalization, in: Journal of the History of Ideas 57 (1996), 465485; Ernst
Troeltschs Soziallehren. Studien zu Ihrer Interpretation, ed. F.W. Graf, T. Rendtdorf,
Troeltsch-studien 6 (Gtersloh, 1973); O.G. Oexle, Kulturwissenschaftliche Reflexionen
ber Soziale Gruppen in der mittelalterlichen Gesellschaft: Tnnies, Simmel, Durkheim
und Max Weber, in: Die Okzidentale Stadt nach Max Weber. Zum Problem der Zugehrigkeit
in Antike und Mittelalter, ed. Chr. Meier (Munich, 1994) 115159, especially 133135.
97 Cf. along with the literature cited in n. 37: E. Werner, Stadtluft macht frei. Frhscholastik
und burgerliche Emanzipation in der ersten Hlfte des 12. Jahrhunderts, Sitzungsberichte
der Akademie der Wissenschaften Leipzig 118/5 (Leipzig, 1976).
98 Cf. along with the literature cited in n. 96: C. Morris, The Discovery of the Individual 1050
1200 (London, 1972); H. Bayer, Zur Soziologie des mittelalterlichen Individualisierung
sprozesses, in: Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte 58 (1976), 115153; J.F. Benton, Consciousness
of Self and Perceptions of Individuality, in: Renaissance and Renewal (n. 17), 263295;
G. Penco, Senso delluomo e scoperta dellindividuo nel monachesimo del secoli xi e xii,
in: Benedictina 37 (1990), 285315.
314 chapter 8

Weber: that this estate contributed in essential ways to the growing influence
of the church on the laity and on profane society, and therefore can be seen
as a witness for the increasing sociabilit and christianisation of European
society. It was thus in no way a priori a destructive force, and therefore cannot
so easily be seen as one of those factors that set in motion (or accelerated) the
process that led from pre-reform to Reformation.99 The argument is further
buttressed by the fact that while semi-religious life, like religious life itself, was
forced to endure considerable setbacks during the Reformation, it nevertheless
experienced (with the support of the new orders of the sixteenth century) a
remarkable revival, especially in those regions that came to embrace church
renewal and Counter-Reformation. And it was a revival in which women played
a considerable role, just as they had in the middle ages.100 Apart from these

99 Cf. nn. 1113.


100 M. Benard, La crise des confrries en France au XVIe sicle, in: Population et cultures.
tudes runies en lhoneur de Franois Lebrun (Rennes, 1989), 397404. Cf. also idem,
Volksfrmmigkeit und Konfessionalisierung, in: Die Katholische Konfessionalisierung.
Wissenschaftliches Symposion der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus Catholicorum
und des Vereins fr Refomationsgeschichte 1923, ed. W Remhard, H. Schilling, Schriften des
Vereins fr Reformationsgeschichte 198 (Gtersloh, 1995) 258270; R.R. Harding, The
Mobilization of Confraternities against the Reformation in France, in: Sixteenth Century
Journal 11 (1980), 85107; B. Montages, Huguenots contre pnitents Marseille au XVIe
sicle, in: Les confrries de pnitents: Dauphine-Provence (Valence, 1980), 3554;
K. Norberg, The Counter-Reformation and Women. Religious and Laity, in: Catholicism
in Early Modern History, ed. J.W.OMalley, Reformation Guides to Research 28 (St. Louis,
1988), 133146; E. Theissing, Over Klopjes en Kwelzels (Utrecht, 1935); E. Schulte van Kessel,
Geest en vlees in godsdienst en wetenshap. Vijf opstellen over gezagsconflicten in de 17de
eeuw (The Hague, 1980); F. Koorn, Women without Vows. The Case of the Beguines and
the Sisters of the Common Life in the Northern Netherlands, in: Women and Men in
Spiritual Culture. xivxvii Centuries, ed. E. Schulte van Kessel (The Hague, 1986), 135147;
E. Raply, The Dvotes. Women and Church in Seventeenth Century France, McGill/Queens
Studies in the History of Religion 4 (Montreal, 1990); A. Conrad, Zwischen Kloster und Welt.
Ursulinen und Jesuitinnen in der katholischen Reformbewegung des 16./17. Jahrhunderts,
Veroffentlichungen des Instituts fr Europische Geschichte Mainz. Abt: Religion
sgeschichte 142 (Mainz, 1991); eadem, Ursulinen und Jesuiten. Formen der Symbiose von
weltlichem und mnnlichem Semireligiosentum in der frhen Neuzeit, in: Doppelklster
und andere Formen der Symbiose mnnlicher und weiblicher Religiosen im Mittelalter, ed.
K. Elm, M. Parisse, Berliner Historische Studien 18, Ordensstudien 8 (Berlin, 1992),
213238; M. Monteiro, Den middelen staet. Waarom vrouwen in de vroegmoderne tijd
kozen voor een semireligieus bestaan, in: De dynamiek van religie en cultuur. Geschiedenis
van het Nederlands katholicisme, ed. M. Monteiro et al., (Kempen, 1993) 138161; eadem,
Geestelijke maagden. Leven tussen klooster en wereld in Noord-Nederland gedurende de
zeventiende eeuw (Hilversum, 1996); G. Rocca, Le fondazioni femminili non religiose
Vita regularis sine regula 315

considerations, however, one must in part concur with an earlier scholarly tra-
dition that believed to have established a direct connection between the style
of piety and models of organization of semi-religious life, on the one hand, and
the Reformers models of community and church organization on the other.
The parallels between models of the church among such laici religiosi like
Peter Dieburg and the early-modern Reformers are often unmistakable.
The concentration of scholarship in recent decades on so many extra-regu-
lar spiritual experiments of the middle ages can create the impression that the
whole matter was merely an epiphenomenon of a process of regulation and
institutionalization of the vita religiosa reaching from the asceticism of the
early church to the full formation of religious orders. This in turn seems to
explain why semi-religious life could have been marginalized in the West and
then brought into question (along with the religious orders themselves) by the
Reformation, while it retained greater significance in Orthodox and oriental
churches, where monastic life largely escaped any kind of centralization.101
That such an interpretation fails in large part to correspond to historical cir-
cumstance becomes clear upon careful consideration of the early days of
Christianity. Even if one assumes that the formation of houses and orders in
late antiquity and the middle ages was an outgrowth of concepts of spiritual
life first formed in the Gospels, it cannot be overlooked that the many forms of
unregulated ascetic life belong to a tradition that reaches back to a time before
monasticism, indeed back to the earliest days of the Christian community.102
The defenders of the vita communis of the Devout thus sought to justify the
status medius above all with reference to the apostolic origins of their way of
life.103 With the same arguments the Reformers, despite their principled rejec-
tion of a religious life founded on rules and vows, allowed themselves to be led

dopo Trento, in: Congregazioni laici femminili e promozione della donna in Italia nei secoli
xvi e xvii, ed. C. Paolocci, Quaderni i franzoniani 8, 2 (Genoa, 1995), 5559; A.K. de Meijer,
Augustinian Filiae spirituales in Amsterdam during the Seventeenth Century, in:
Analecta Augustiniana 60 (1997), 5180.
101 Cf. among others T. Miller, The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire (Baltimore,
London 1985); G. Dragon, Ainsi rien nchappera la rglementation. tat, corporation,
confrries, in: Hommes et richesses dans lEmpire byzantin, ed. V. Kravaki, J. Lefort,
C. Morrisson (Paris, 1991) ii, 155182.
102 H. v. Campenhausen, Die Askese im Urchristentum (Tbingen, 1949); P. Brown, The Body
and Society. Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York, 1988);
S. Elm, Virgins of God. The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1996).
103 U. Hinz, Die nordwestdeutschen Brder vom Gemeinsamen Leben in der zweiten Hlfte
des 16. Jahrhunderts. Zur Konfrontation mit der katholischen Konfessionalisierung, in:
Ons geestelijk Erf 69 (1995), 157174; idem, Die Brder vom Gemeinsamen Leben im
316 chapter 8

to tolerate the existence or the founding of unregulated religious communi-


ties.104 Indeed in canon law itself the view has taken hold that semi-religious
life is in no way subordinate to religious life by virtue of the age and impact of
the latter, or that it was of importance only in the middle ages.105 To make clear
that semi-religious life (whatever the derogatory overtones of a composite con-
cept) is a way of life that reaches back to the origins of Christianity and that
can be found in all eras of church history and in most Christian churches can-
not be without consequence for our estimation of its historical significance.
Such a consideration compels us not only to see the relationship between reli-
gious life and unregulated religious spiritual communities in another light, but
also to place the role that vita regularis sine regula played in the late middle
ages and the early modern era in a broader context than before. Semi-religious
life should not be seen in isolation, and it should especially not be seen as only
an aspect of the Reformation, of confessionalization, and of the social and
intellectual forces of modernization that were their consequence. Rather, it
should be judged above all as that which a view to its origins reveals it to be: as
a way of life for individuals and communities that had its roots in early
Christianity, that forever inspired critique and contradiction, as well as new
beginnings and returns to origins, whenever inherited models and established
institutions lost their power to convince or lost their authority. Semi-religious
life thus earned for itself special meaning not only in the late middle ages and
the era of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation but also in earlier and
later ones as well, in times of transition and crisis.

Jahrhundert der Reformation. Das Mnstersche Kolloquium, Sptmittelalter und Refor


mation. Neue Reihe 9 (Tbingen 1997).
104 G. Krause, R. Stupperich, Brderschaften, Schwesternschaften, Kommunitten, in:
Theologische Realenzyklopdie vii (1981), 195212; C. Joest, Spiritualitt evangelischer
Kommunitten. Altkirchlich-monastische Traditionen in evangelischen Kommunitten von
heute (Gttingen, 1995).
105 Along with the literature cited in notes 11 and 14 see also: M. Schlosser, Altaber nicht
veraltet. Die Jungfrauenweihe als Weg der Christusnachfolge, in: Ordenskorrespondenz 33
(1992), 4164, 165178, 289311; eadem, Solus cum soloEremiten gestern und heute. Zu
cic 1983 Titel i, c. 603, in: ibid. 37 (1996), 188212.
chapter 9

The Devotio Moderna and the New Piety between


the Later Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era

Heiko A. Oberman in memoriam

In 1372/73 the son of a Deventer patrician broke with the way of life he had estab-
lished. He had studied the Liberal Arts in Paris and Cologne (and perhaps also in
Prague), as well as canon and civil law. Thereafter he had obtained a canonry in
Aachen, and a little later another in Utrecht. He now renounced his offices and
prebends, offered the use of his parents house in the commercial city on the
Ijssel to pious women, and donated the majority of his wealth to the Charterhouse
of Monnikhuizen in Arnhem. One might think the decision was another of the
many conversions that had taken place since the one that had made Paul from
Saul. But the conversion of Geert Grote, of which we speak here, was different
from most others. Before his conversion he was neither a persecutor of Christians
nor a particularly flagrant sinner. Nor after his conversion did he become an
apostle, monk or priest. Rather, he remained a layman and began, after his turn,
to encourage monks and laymen, in word and writing, in both Latin and vernacu-
lar, to embrace a life of humility, modesty and retreat, and to encourage them to
renounce all that the church and the world had to offer in the way of privileges,
incomes and honors. The decision was not without consequence.
In a few decades a number of brother-houses had been established in the
Netherlands, and by 1409 these had come together to form a loose congrega-
tion. In Germany Henry of Ahaus (illegitimate son of the lords of Ahaus), who
had come into contact with the Devout through his aunt Jutta in Deventer,
advanced the new style of piety from Mnster. He did so with such success
that within a few decades the same story played out in Westphalia and the
lower Rhine, in Hesse and Wrttemberg, in the middle Rhine and the Mosel,
indeed as far as the Baltic coast: the establishment of brother-houses that
inthe course of the first half of the fifteenth century came together to form
loose congregations, so-called colloquia, whose communities sought, as each
deemed fit, to remain true to the way of life of Geert and his followers. Far
greater still were the number of womens houses. They, like the men, shaped
their way of life and spirituality according to Grotes example and, at least for

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/9789004307780_011


318 chapter 9

those in Germany, looked for inspiration (directly or indirectly) to Henry and


the Brothers of Mnster.
Alongside the fratres et sorores, the Broederen ende Susteren, there
emerged already at the origins of the movement that began in the Ijssel valley
a second variant of the devout life, known as the Windesheim congregation. It
took root not only in the Netherlands and in modern Belgium but also in the
north and south of Germany (from Frenswegen in the county of Bentheim and
from its Westphalian daughter foundation at Bdekken), even in Switzerland
and Alsace. As in the case of the Brothers of the Common life, women pre-
sented themselves early on to the Windesheimers as well, and from the foun-
dation of Diepenveen they fostered an expansion that, in terms of its numbers
and geographical scope, long rivaled that of the canons.
For all of their spiritual affinity with the Brothers and Sisters of the Common
Life, the members of these circles were not semi-religious who lived a common
life in poverty without vows. Rather, they were members of a religious order in
a traditional sense, bound by the Rule of Augustine and their own constitu-
tions. Yet in contrast to other congregations of reforming canons they did have
a special duty: to serve as spiritual mentors to the Brothers and Sisters of the
common life, to accept into their company those among the Brothers and
Sisters who felt called to religious life, and not least to offer support and protec-
tion to a way of life that was hard for contemporaries to define, and not always
easy to justify.

ii

It is with good reason that scholars today in Germany and France, England,
Italy and the United States, and especially in the Netherlands and Belgium,
concern themselves so intensely with the Brothers and Sisters of the Common
Life, the Canons of Windesheim and the Canonesses of Diepenveen. They and
the movement they fostered have shaped the self-understanding and historical
consciousness of those who live in north-west Europe, whatever their nation-
ality, until the present day. Their way of life and style of piety are seen as deci-
sive for shaping the heritage and character of not only the Dutch and the
Flemings, but of those from Westphalia, the lower-Rhine and lower Saxony.
The movement has contributed to the formation and spread of vernacular lit-
erature and the development of distinct literary genres. The nature and direc-
tion of the movements spread recalls its close ties to the commercial and
economic networks that in the later middle ages spread from northwest Europe
far to the northeast and southwest. Yet this alone does not explain why the
The Devotio Moderna and the New Piety 319

movement has been studied from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
both among the learned and among the broader public, not only in Holland
and Belgium, in Westphalia and the lower Rhine, but across the world. Scholarly
concern over the Dutch devotio moderna and the institutions it inspired
hasoverflowed the boundaries of the history of religious orders and of piety
(indeed of church history) to become a subject of a field of research that
encompasses every intellectual discipline. From the nineteenth century (even,
if one wishes, from the seventeenth) scholars have seen the Devout as forerun-
ners (if not in fact representatives) of the Reformation and Humanismand
thus as figures that typically signal the end of the middle ages and the begin-
ning of modernity. Much has been seen as an anticipation of the concerns of
the Reformation: the critique the Devout advanced against the clergy, directly
and indirectly, through their very existence; their conscious renunciation of
religious vows, and their decision for a brotherly common life without superi-
ors or subjects. But more significant still were these: their constant reference to
Holy Scripture and the recourse they took, again and again, to the model of the
early apostolic community; their conscious distancing from a mere works
piety; their interiorized spirituality and their effort to establish a personal style
of piety centered on the obligations of the individual, which went hand-in-
hand with their conscious renunciation of scholastic subtlety, and their return
to the fathers of monasticism and the church. Carl Ullmann and Gaston Bonet-
Maury, who in the nineteenth century spoke of Geert Grote and the Devout
(even more explicitly than Gottfried Arnold and Jacobus Revius before them)
as precursors of the Reformation or reformers before the Reformation, but-
tressed the thesis of a close and causal relationship between the devotio mod
erna and the Reformation with reference to Zwingli, Bucer, Calvin, Bullinger,
Oecolampadius, and not least Martin Lutherall of whom, they felt them-
selves able to say with certainty, were, if not raised by the Brothers of the
Common Life, then at least in close contact with them. It was perhaps only
natural, then, that an American of Dutch descent, Albert Hyma, then went a
step further. Alongside the first and second Reformations of Luther and Calvin,
Hyma characterized parallel and later inflectionsAnabaptists, Remonstrants,
Methodists and more or less every other church and denomination on both
sides of the Atlantic that claimed for itself evangelical heritageas having its
roots in the devotio moderna. Others argued in similar ways for the Devout as
precursors and antecedents, if not of Humanism in an Italian mold, then at
least of a northern Christian Renaissance. They worked from the assumption
that the Brothers vigorous culture of writing, and their associated concern for
proper texts and pure speech, their striving after a place for the self in matters
of faith and style of life, and not least their concern for the education and
320 chapter 9

moral formation of young men, all provided the fertile soil that nourished the
later accomplishments of Rudolf Agricola, Conrad Mutianus, Jacob Wimpfeling,
John Murmellius, no less than even Erasmus of Rotterdam himself.
The Devout, then, have been celebrated as pre-humanists, styled in the
manner of Flacius Illyricus as testes veritatis and taken up (along with heretics
and Protestants) into a litany of forerunners of the Reformation that reaches
far back into the middle ages. The more some have celebrated them in that
way, so all the more have an increasing number asserted the opposite. They
claim with Huizinga that the Devout are best understood as reactionary hypo-
crites; with Romein that they are the last representatives of the middle ages.
They even accuse the Devout of being exponents of the servile spirit, opposed
to every kind of progress that one long saw as characteristic of the era. And this
is to say nothing of those who, for whatever political and ideological reasons,
saw the Devout as the incarnation of a specifically Dutch popular spirit, and
revered them as pillars of our peoples strength (Pijlers van onze Volkskracht).
More substantive than all of these interpretations, however, were the counter-
arguments crafted by a Dutch Catholic minority seeking to preserve its spiri-
tual heritage (Geestlijk Erf), arguments that resisted styling the Devout as
forerunners of modernity. Titus Brandsma, a Carmelite and an expert in the
field of mysticism, pointed to the timeless religious character of the move-
ment, albeit in a way that de-historicized it and thereby deprived it of its
ideological force. It then fell to R.R. Post, Professor of medieval History at the
Catholic University of Nijmegen, to refute point-for-point those who linked
the devotio to Reformation and Humanism. According to his line of argument
the Brothers neither represented a distinct pedagogical program, nor were
they interested in the advancement of learning in the humanist sense. Nor
could one speak of any lasting influence on the humanistsa point evidenced
by reference to the distant relationship of a figure like Erasmus to the devotio
moderna. All of the expressions (such as those of the Hildesheim rector Peter
Dieburg) that called for freedom from compulsion and rule, long taken as an
anticipation of the concerns of the Reformation, Post saw instead as interpre-
tations post festum, and as not representative of the movement as a whole. He
repeatedly emphasized the Catholicity of the Devout with reference to their
religious ideals and their relationship to the Roman curia. It was far from their
concernso we can summarize Posts positionto challenge fundamental
matters of faith or to withdraw themselves from the authority of the church.
Their spirituality was also nothing new, as some had claimed through their
misreading of the concept modernus. Rather, it took its place in a long tradition
of monastic and ascetic spirituality that, in the eleventh and the fifteenth
centuries as much as in the high middle ages, had long stood in the field of
The Devotio Moderna and the New Piety 321

tensions between ecclesiastical office and theological schoolingand yet


never broke beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy. And as proof for this last
point one can cite not least the findings of U. Hinz: that the overwhelming
number of the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life did not become fol-
lowers of the Reformation, but rather (insofar as the possibility was left to
them to decide freely) remained true to the old faith.
Closely associated with the antimodernists in the mold of scholars like
Post are those who, while not doubting the modernity of the devotio moderna
as a supposedly world-wide phenomenon, nevertheless saw the movement
neither as unique nor limited in its impact to Protestant circles. They note the
long list of reformers and reform movements within the Orbis catholicus that
were shaped by or helped shape the spirit of the devotio moderna. Among the
many that have been seen as tied to the movement, pride of place has been
accorded to Ludovico Barbo and the Benedictine Congregation of S. Giustina
in Padua, Garcia Ximinz de Cisneros and the Benedictine reforms that spread
from Monserrat, Ignatius of Loyola and the Societas Jesu as well as the later
Cardinal Pierre de Brulle and the Oratorians, to say nothing of Jansenism,
which has with good reason been described as the second great religious
revival that the Dutch spirit (Dietse geest) brought forth, one that managed
not to break with its traditions of faith. In keeping with the dynamics of thesis
and antithesis, the scholarship is now approaching a kind of synthesis, perhaps
better described as a mediation between opposing sides. H.A. Oberman,
W. Lourdeauz, J. Van Engen and N. Staubach have returned, in a general and
less provocative way, to familiar arguments for the proximity between the
Devout and Humanism. Specifically these scholars have noted the undoubt-
edly significant pedagogical contributions of the Devout, their philological
textual criticism, the presence of humanist writings in their libraries as well
as the parallels between their loose brotherhoods and the academies and
learned associations of the humanists. Theologians like R. Mokrosch and B.
Hamm see among the Brothers and the canons of Windesheim (even though
they depart from the core teachings of the Protestants, especially Luthers trust
in faith alone and Calvins emphasis on predestination) many intersections
with the reformers concernsnot least their return to the early church; the
emphasis on practice found in their piety; their distance from the intricate
subtleties of university theologians and the truth claims of philosophers; but
above all in their manner of self-discipline (rather more Calvinist than
Lutheran in its leanings) and their effort to shape and form the individual per-
son through spiritual exercises and methodical meditation.
A concentration on north-west Europe, the Baltics and the Rhine, the geo-
graphical impact of the institutions shaped by the three movements that
322 chapter 9

emerged in the Netherlands, the problematic of an era of transition, all of


the discussions surrounding the historical place of the movement and its
importance for the self-understanding and self-consciousness of the low
countries all of this, as we know, promotes a certain monopolization of the
concept of the devotio moderna, and a view that is limited to northwest Europe.
In recent decades voices have emerged that call for resisting such narrow-
ness of vision, and that point to comparable phenomena in other parts of
Christendom. But we have not yet inquired with sufficient energy into the
deep tradition from which the Devout drew, and we have not yet sufficiently
grounded that inquiry in the historical and geographical context in which it
took shape.
That the devotio moderna discussed here did not of course emerge ex nihilo
raises the stakes of any inquiry into its early history, and into the conversion of
Geert Grote that inspired the movement. Before his conversion Grote was for a
long time a kind of donatus, a guest of the Carthusians of Monnikhuizen. And
they themselves stood in close contact with Jan van Ruusbroec, who in 1343
had retreated with a few like-minded colleagues to Groenendaal near Brussels
to live a life of brotherhood and community. There also need be no extensive
inquiry into the community of pious women associated with his parents
household: theirs was nothing other than a kind of beguine community, of
which there was more than one, and not only in the Netherlands and north-
west Europe. One can also assume that the Devout in no way understood
themselves as modern, as innovators in our sense. In the writings through
which they defended themselves against those who viewed their brotherhood
as a violation of canon law, the Devout turned to the long tradition in which (as
they saw it) they stood. They appealed to the early Christian ascetics in Rome,
to Aquila and Priscilla, the companions of the Apostle Paul, and saw their
brotherhood anticipated above all in the circle of friends around Augustine on
the estate of Cassiciacum between Milan and Bergamo, and in the familia
Sacra that Jerome gathered around himself in Bethlehem. The early Christian
hermits of Egypt, Syria and Palestine, even the prophets of the Old Testament
were for them no longer prototypes of monks and monasticism, but creators of
such free religious associations as theirs. Their actual models, however, were
neither the church fathers nor the hermits, but rather the Ecclesia primitiva,
the apostles and disciples gathered around Maryin a word, the original
Apostolic community. When the Devout spoke of their communities as sodali
tates, and even more frequently as socitates, not of monasteries canonries or
convents, they were describing an institutionthe so-called semi-religious
lifethat although long unrecognized, has drawn increasing attention to itself
since Vatican ii. The term describes those many forms of life and association
The Devotio Moderna and the New Piety 323

that have allowed believers to lead a spiritual life that was more intense than
that of the laity but did not compel its adherents, like those who entered a
religious order, to renounce the world and to abandon their social station. Its
many forms ranged from loose confraternal organizations to brotherhoods to
independent communities in which one could, without formal obligation and
generally recognized rules, pursue personal holiness, perform charitable work
and embrace a spiritual apostolate. It is not necessary to go into all of the forms
and functions of this kind of life, nor to describe in every detail its role over the
course of church history. What is of most interest here is that from the four-
teenth century into the fifteenth, semi-religious life experienced an unprece-
dented flowering. And this in turn meant that informal groups and free
religious associations took shape not only in the northwest, but virtually all
across Europe; and that beguines and beghards, penitential brothers and ter-
tiaries, conversi and donati, hermits and recluses of both sexes emerged in
great numbers. It meant, moreover, that they enjoyed high esteemso much
in fact that in certain circles the inherited scale of perfection could be turned
on its head: the semi-religious believed themselves able to say that they had
achieved the highest degree of perfection known to Christendom.
Let us take these considerations a step further. Much of what we take as
characteristic of the devotio modernathe modesty of its way of life; its con-
centration on the essence of Christian living; its devotion to the suffering and
crucified savior, his mother under the cross, the penitent Mary Magdalen, the
patrons of lepers and the ill, and its preference for the fathers of the early
church and early monasticism over theologians who were formed by and who
taught in the universitiesnone of these things were limited to the ranks of
the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life, the canonesses of Diepenveen
and the Canons of Windesheim, nor to the many other advocates of lay piety
between cloister and world that we have described under the rubric of semi-
religious life. Such models and agendas were also present within the ranks of
religious life itself, where in the fourteenth and especially in the fifteenth cen-
tury reform movements embraced strict observance. In many of these cases we
can prove the direct influence of the Devout in northwest Europe. In others,
conversely, one can assume that the reformers had their own influence on the
Devout. And in still other cases it must be said that there is no relationship at
all between Observant reformers and the devotio moderna in the narrow sense.
Rather, one must posit independent development from autonomous origins.
We turn now to the reform movements influenced most directly from the
devotio. Among the reform congregations of the Benedictines, the Bursfeld
reform in lower Saxony was doubtless most strongly shaped by men who
not only hailed from the heartland of the devotio moderna, but who were
324 chapter 9

influenced by itfigures like Johannes Dederoth and Johannes Hagen. We


have already noted the congregation of S. Giustina in Padua in this connec-
tion, and in the case of Subiaco we can also say for certain that in the four-
teenth century many monks from north of the Alps visited that abbey in
Latium, founded by Benedict himself, and were shaped by the spirit of the
devotio moderna. And even though Cistercian reform was in full bloom only
after the Council of Trent, it must not be thereby assumed that the order
remained untouched by the new spirituality, and the devotio moderna in par-
ticular. When at the beginning of the fifteenth century a union of reform-
minded cloisters began to form, it happened in the borderland between the
Netherlands and what is today lower Saxony, in the county of Bentheim and
in the lower-Saxon province of Drenthe. Consider also the reform congrega-
tion of Warmond, Sibculo and Ijsselstein, which inspired reform as far as
Frisia and the upper Rhine. With respect to its organization, and especially its
spirituality and the intentions of its priories, that congregation is rightly seen
as nothing more and nothing less than a mirror of the devotio moderna, one
that had shaped religious life throughout the region in which the union (col
ligatio) had emerged. Similarly for the Premonstratensians: Like the founda-
tion at Clarholz, the other male and female houses of the Norbertines in
Westphalia and the Rhineland stood either directly or indirectly (as mediated
through the Croziers) under the influence of the devotio moderna of the
Netherlands. It will thus come as no surprise that a similar kind of mutual
influence and congruity can be found among the Franciscans, Augustinian
Hermits and Carmelites, all of which contributed to the formation of new
Observant congregations and new foundationssuch as the first German
Carmelite womens cloister in Geldern on the lower-Rhine, for example. An
emphasis on humilitas as well as paupertas, and the retreat from without to
within, can in these cases be understood as a return to the original intentions
of the Poverello of Assisi and as a renewal of the vita eremitica that had begun
in Tuscany and on Mount Carmel. But it is striking that the same can be
saidof the Dominican order: although some of their number turned emphati-
cally against the Brothers of the Common Life precisely because they had
challenged the prevailing norms of religious life, others in the reforming
Congregatio Hollandiae found their spiritual orientation in the ideals of the
devotio moderna.
Through these discussions of its direct and indirect influence, we have clari-
fied the context in which the devotio moderna took root in the Netherlands.
But that is not the end of the matter. We should also speak of the similar phe-
nomena that emerged elsewhere, before and independently of the pious
movements of the Low Countries. The former had everything in common with
The Devotio Moderna and the New Piety 325

the latter, or at least with regard to the essential characteristics that have been
seen as particular to the devotio moderna in the classic sense. To pursue this
line of inquiry as thoroughly as is possible given the current state of research
would produce a list longer than that of the institutions and movements asso-
ciated with the devotio moderna of the Netherlands and lower Germany. The
discussion must thus be limited to only a few examples. A sense of return com-
parable to the devotio moderna can be found among the ranks of the regular
clergy in the Bohemian canonry of Raudnitz on the Elbe, founded in 1353, as
well as in the Cistercian abbey of Knigsaal, founded already in the thirteenth
centurywhich has inspired some to speak of a devotio moderna Bohemica.
That this is not unjustified is made clear to anyone who has even glanced at the
Malogranatum, a work compiled in Knigsaal already before the middle of the
fourteenth century. The works reflexive-sensitive piety is said to have had
considerable influence on the lay religious movements of the devotio moderna
in the Netherlands. In Venice it was not limited to the influence, noted above,
on the reform of S. Giustina. Apart from what was then happening in the
Netherlands, at S. Giorgio in Alga as well as S. Frediano in Lucca there emerged
alliances of reform-minded canons whose structures, organization and spiri-
tuality are comparable to those of the congregation of Windesheim. Alongside
Venice and Lucca, mention should also be made of Siena, where the Dominican
tertiary Catherine came to be at the center of a Sacra familia of clerics, laity
and regular clergy in nearby Lecceto. At the same time Giovanni Colombini
and his cousin Caterina founded the society of the Jesuati, a company of laity,
men and women who like the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life led a
life devoted to God without the bonds of religious rules. It is unlikely that
Geert Grote had any knowledge of these societies, which were still taking
shape in his lifetime. One can also only speculate as to whether he came into
contact with the Bohemian devotio as a student in Prague, which he may have
been. But there is no doubt, as was noted above, that he had ties to the circle
that surrounded Jan van Ruusbroeck at Groenendaal, and that he had at least
heard of the clergy and laity who had gathered near Goch on the lower Rhine
in the 30s to form a community of Brethren of the Common Life avant la
lettre. There is no doubt that the Windesheimers saw what they were doing as
no more than a pure novitiate. Rather, they saw the similarly organized and
similarly minded communities of canons at Neuss and Sion, which later joined
their congregation, as their brothers. But even this is not enough. In his writ-
ings and in his numerous letters Geert Grote more than once made clear what
had especially inspired his conversion and shaped his new spiritual life: the
time he spent with the Carthusians of Monnikhuizen near Arnhem and the
experience he had there with a spirituality and religious practice that tied
326 chapter 9

itself, like no other form of the vita religiosa in his day, to the origins of monas-
tic and ascetic life. Something further is important to note in this connection:
it was in no way self-evident that Geert Groote had occasion in his hometown
to come to know the Carthusian way of life, or to cultivate friendly relation-
ships with Carthusians like Henry of Coesfeld and Henry Egher of Kalkar.
Monnikhuizen was a young foundation. When Grote made his way there it had
existed for only a few decades, since 1335. The other Carthusian houses of the
Rhineland and the Netherlands with which he was in contact (like their moth-
erhouse in Cologne, S. Barbara) had also only been founded since the 30s of
the fourteenth century. The Orders history reached back to Bruno of Cologne
and the Grand Chartreuse he founded in 1084. But by the late middle ages it
could claim no settlements in northwestern Europe, and merely two in the
Empire. Only in the 20s and 30s of the fourteenth century did it experience
explosive growth. By centurys end, in the very places where the order was vir-
tually unknown at its beginning, it could claim of more than 90 houses of con-
templation, prayer, study and a systematically cultivated pursuit of salvation.
It is not without reason, then, that we can see the Carthusians as the fashion-
able order of the later middle ages, and as the driving force behind the New
Piety.
In order to place what is traditionally called the devotio moderna more fully
in proper context, we would have to expand our circles of inquiry still further.
We would have to show how even the lay piety of the later middle ages, now
coming to occupy historians of virtually every color, took on features of what
we have long recognized to be characteristic of the vita religiosa and the vita
semireligiosa. We would also have to take into account changing models of the
office and function of the priest, which found expression in figures like Jean
Gerson and Pierre dAilly, among the humanists of the upper Rhine and in
(among other things) the renewed appreciation of preaching. One would have
to ask whether that which we take as characteristic of the spirituality of the
religious orders and of semi-religious laity found equivalent expressions in the
theology that many today describe as the theology of piety. Indeed, one would
also have to take into account the theological deviations and heresies like
those of Jan Hus, and even the pre-Reformation anticlericalism of the rural
and urban underclasses. Only in these ways could one begin to describe in an
appropriate way the nature, scope and impact of the many inflections of the
New Piety that began to take on such importance from the fourteenth century.
But description alone is not enough. One would have also to ask why this new
kind of interiority emerged as it did; why there emerged such intensive con-
cern with Holy Scripture and the church fathers, with the Passion, the cross
and the grave of Christ; why there was a retreat from the festivals of a common
The Devotio Moderna and the New Piety 327

cult into individual prayerwhy, in a word, there emerged so much of what


we take to be characteristic of the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life and
the canons of Windesheim and Diepenveen; why the nobility (as a general
rule) lost their monopoly on so many rural and urban religious houses, now
modestly outfitted; why communities of enormous size, so often the rule in the
high middle ages, were now the exception; and why the pattern of their endow-
ments and their economy came to be so different from that of the orders of the
high middle ages. To ask these questions is to open up an enormously complex
field of inquiry. To begin to cultivate it requires us to answer questions that
range far beyond the usual concern over the devotio moderna of the Netherlands
and its relationship to other forms of the New Piety. There are many starting
points to help explain all that we have described: a reaction to an affectivity
shaped by what researchers have described (rightly or wrongly) as the result of
crisis; expression of a dissatisfaction with a papacy driven into exile and torn
by schism, with all of the consequences for church and religious life; renuncia-
tion of a tradition of theology that seemed, no less than the church hierarchy,
to have become an end in itself; disappointment at so many failed attempts at
reform; the uncertainty unleashed by profound social change; the attempt to
overcome the horrors of plague, war and devastation through the cultivation
of the inner life; or, put more generally, the consequences of a social transfor-
mation underway from the fourteenth century, one that witnessed a shift from
a more rural society to an increasingly urban one, and one that afforded the
laity a greater range of options than had been possible in the high middle ages.
To provide a clear answer to these questions would demand a breadth of vision
that historians do not normally possess. As a consequence, the issues are left to
philosophers and theoreticians of history, each of whom has more than one
model for the answers, and we are free to make of it all what we will. Despite
such limitations it is important to return to the problem raised at the outset,
and to seek an answer to the question of whether the new piety, and in particu-
lar the devotio moderna, is in fact best seen as a phenomenon of the transition
from the middle ages to modernity, between scholasticism and humanism, old
and new faith. That we cannot speak of a direct causal connection has already
been noted. But one can still maintain that the devotio moderna, in both its
more narrow and in its broader senses, created a climate that one can describe
as a precondition for both a multifaceted Reformation as well as the move-
ments for Catholic reform that began in the fifteenth century and reached
their highpoint at the Council of Trent. Perhaps no text offers better proof of
these claims than the Imitatio Christi of Thomas of Kempen, a work that
crossed all confessional divides to become a companion for all Christians on
the way to a more interior and thereby deeper engagement with religious life.
328 chapter 9

Yet none of this is to say that the phenomenon we have described here can
only be read as a manifestation of the transition from medieval to modern.
Neither the New Piety, found in virtually every corner of Europe in the later
middle ages, nor the devotio moderna of the northwest, fits seamlessly into the
process of an emerging modernityhowever often that has been tried, and
however often it is tried even today. To do so is to overlook the fact that this
style of piety is in no way relevant only to the era circumscribed by the end of
the middle ages and the beginning of modernity. Rather, it is a phenomenon
that, with a certain regularity, has returned again and again over the long
course of European history. It has appeared, and appears (in whatever kind of
variations) whenever spiritual institutions grow unresponsive, when tradi-
tional ruling classes begin to lose their prestige, when established powers fail
and spiritual traditions lose their attraction. So it happened in the earliest days
of Christianity, in the high and later middle ages, even in the modern era:
monks and ascetics, Waldensians and Humiliati, beguines and begards, the
Pietists opposed to an old Lutheran orthodoxy, the solitaires of Port Royal,
the free churches in revolt from the high church tradition and, in the most
recent past, Secular Institutes and Basic Ecclesial Communitiesall of these
have taken on the role of the Devout. They too have been tolerated and occa-
sionally promoted, but also often suspect and scolded. So too were once the
pious circles of the Netherlands that gathered around Geert Grote, who sought
with him a renewal of the spiritual lifenot, in the first instance, from their
institutions, but among their own.

Bibliographical Note

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Index

Abelard, Peter224 Augustine of Hippo (St. Augustine)46, 51,


Acre18, 60, 64, 65, 76, 118, 189, 191, 114, 128, 243, 309, 322; and Augustinian
198, 228 Hermits, 13537; and Humanism, 129,
Acts of the Apostles246 130, 131, 132
Ademar of Chabannes237 Augustinian Hermits67, 12, 28, 11718, 141,
Adolf III, count of Schauenburg201 188, 230, 292; and humanism, 12137;
Agricola, Rudolf320 and Reformation, 163, 311; estimate of
Albert of Aachen207 numbers, 144, 149; in central Europe, 166
Albert of Montalceto 42 Augustinus Novellus272
Albert of Sarteano111, 163, 258 Avignon91, 150
Albert, archduke of Austria256
Alberti, Leon Battista124 Badore, Bonsembianta123
Albi (congregation)165 Baldwin I, king of Jerusalem59, 207, 208
Albrecht Achilles, margrave of Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem72, 203,
Brandenburg264, 267 213 n. 95, 215 n. 103
Alexander IV, pope128 Baldwin III, king of Jerusalem65
Alexander the Great119 Bandello, Vicenzo119
Alexander V, pope66 Barletta (priory)61
Alexander VI, pope190, 198, 199 Barnabites188
Alexander VIII, pope273 Bartholomew of Trent28, 33
Alexians101, 167, 293 Bartolomeo of Urbino123
Alfonso I, king of Aragon200, 217 Basel, council of255, 256
Amadeans34, 36 Basic Ecclesial Communities328
Amadeus of Silva34 Basil45
Amalric, count of Ascalon65 begards144, 286-7, 291, 293 n. 49, 302, 328
Ambrosians168 beguines221, 232, 23335, 242, 296-7, 322
Anabaptists319 Belgrade11, 270
Andrea della Robia28 Benedict of Nursia (St. Benedict)29, 46,
Annecy (priory)61 220, 309, 324
Anthony, hermit21, 128, 131, 244, 307 Benedictines (Order of St. Benedict)22, 83,
Apopthegmata Patrum45 160, 183, 323
Apostles129, 131, 245, 308, 309 Benz, Ernst49
Apostolic Brethren167 Berkshire (convent)105
apostolic ideal246, 3089, 322 Berlin, Free University of7, 8
Aquila, city258, 259 Bernard of Asti35
Aquila, companion to Paul308 Bernard of Clairvaux210, 215, 221, 237
Aquinas, Thomas29, 272 Bernardino of Siena34, 111, 163, 258, 261,
Arnold, Gottfried312, 319 266, 272
Arnoldists44 Bernardone, Pietro42
Arnulf of Chocques, patriarch of Bernardus Primus48, 241
Jerusalem59, 80, 196 Berthold, count of Neuenburg201
Arrouaise (congregation)58, 97, 162, 225 Bethlehem (convent)101
Attavanti, Paolo118 Bethlehem, city84, 107, 307, 308, 322
Aubin, Hermann9 Bziers48
Audet, Nicholas165 Bielefeld School7, 8
334 Index

Bielefeld, University of7, 15 Carmelites (Order of the Brothers of the


Biglia, Andrea124, 132, 135, 137 Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel)
Bilzen (convent)105 39, 102, 114, 117, 118, 135, 136, 141, 144, 149, 151,
Birgitta of Sweden169 163, 165, 166, 176, 183, 230, 292, 303, 324
Birgittines (Order of the Holy Savior)1689 Caroli, Giovanni119
Black Death22, 26, 150, 154, 156, 327 Carthusians133, 134, 154, 223, 227, 322,
Bogomil44 325, 326
Bohemia18, 38, 46, 61, 87, 88, 90, 91, 93, 142, Carvajal, Juan, cardinal274
166, 167, 169, 176, 198, 260 Cassiciacum308, 322
Bonaventura da Peraga123 Catalayud (priory)198
Bonaventure29, 33, 115, 151, 272 Cathars48, 237, 238, 239, 240, 245
Bonet-Maury, Gaston319 Catherine of Siena36, 130, 170
Bonus, Johannes47, 50 Celestine III, pope65, 66
Bouvignes103 Cellites293
Bracciolini, Poggio111, 113, 123 Celmentia van Abroek100
Brandsma, Titus320 Charles IV, king of Bohemia and
Breslau261, 269 emperor176, 193
Brogliano162 Charleville103, 105, 106
Bronnbach (convent)158 chastity44, 59, 93, 95, 133, 233, 235, 236, 243,
Brother Giles33 302, 306
Brother Leo33 Chaucer, Geoffrey112, 231
Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life Chelmsford (convent)104, 105
108, 287, 296, 306, 318, 321, 323, 325, 327 Chenu, Marie-Dominique11, 27
Bruchsal (convent)105 Chezal-Benoit (monastery)160
Brugman, John308 Chimay (convent)102
Bruni, Leonardo111 Christina of St. Trond235
Brunner, Otto9 and n. 19 Christopher of Varese269
Bruno of Cologne168, 223, 326 Cicero119, 123, 136
Brunswick, duchy of177, 187 Cimabue52
Bucer, Martin319 Circumcellians45
Bullinger, Henry319 Cistercians (Cteaux)13, 16, 63, 96, 141, 154,
Bullot, Maximillian277 161, 164, 215, 226
Burgkmaier, Thomas271 Clare of Assisi221, 227, 228, 229, 231,
Bursfeld (reform congregation)158, 160, 247, 263
171, 323 Clareno, Angelo130
Busch, John273 Clares34, 22930
Bussolini, Giacomo256 Clement V, pope91
Bynum, Caroline Walker24 Clement VII, pope35, 92
Clement VIII, pope95
Caesarines33 Cleve, county of176
Caleruega16, 28, 40, 47 Cluny222
Calvary107 Coelestines33
Calvin, John319, 321 Coletans34
Camaldolese135, 161 Colette of Corbie34
Caperolani34 Collegio Borromeo (Pavia)10, 14
Cappuchins35, 36 Columbini, Giovanni168
Carcasonne48 Commenda163
Carholz (canonry)183 common life (vita communis)77, 131,
Carl of Gonzaga, duke of Nevers193 14950, 196, 278, 315, 222, 318, 319
Index 335

conciliarism139, 193, 272 Dominicans (Order of Preachers)22, 26, 31,


Concordat of Vienna255 3639, 49, 53, 291, 303, 309, 324, 325;
confraternities56, 62, 65, 66 nn. 4749, decline of, 136, 141; estimate of numbers,
6869, 7980, 81, 83, 89, 93, 103, 107, 118, 144; and humanism, 111, 116, 119, 126; and
192, 193, 204, 213, 236, 237, 284, 286, 288, Observant reform, 16366, 166, 170, 176;
290, 296, 303, 311, 313, 323 and religious women, 22930
Confrrie du Saint Sepulcre193, 194 Dominici, John36, 116, 163, 170
Connecte, Thomas185 Dominico da Corella119, 126
Conrad III, king of Germany89 Donato da Cittadella256
Conrad of Freystadt263 Donchery (priory)102
Conrad of Marburg19, 221, 222, 247 Dring, Matthias276
Conrad of Prussia36 Douceline of Digne235, 238
Conrad, bishop of Speyer89 Doxan (canonry)88
Conventuals (Franciscan)34, 35, 36, 37, 185 Droyssig (priory)61
conversi/ae18, 42, 56, 70, 74, 78, 79, 83, 90, 91, Durandus of Aln129
93, 97, 110, 181, 203, 220, 231, 291, 298, 323 Durandus of Huesca48, 241
conversion42, 228, 239, 271 n. 66, 317, 322,
325 Eberhard im Bart, count of Wrttemberg
Counter-Reformation21, 169, 188, 314, 316 199
Craon, forest of223 Eberwin of Steinfeld237
crisis27, 46, 15759 Ebrach (convent)158
Croziers38, 164, 16667, 180, 230, 292, 324 Ebremar, patriarch of Jerusalem59, 80
crusades, crusaders1, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 30, 48, Edward IV, king of England176
59, 85, 97, 189, 200, 212, 221, 244 Egbert of Schonau237
Culembourg68, 100, 176 Egher, Henry326
cura animarum, see pastoral care Elias of Cortona33
Cyprian243 Elijah, prophet29, 46, 53, 128, 131, 135, 308
Elisha, prophet308
DAilly, Pierre326 Elizabeth of Hungary (St. Elizabeth)19,
Daimbert of Pisa, patriarch of 220ff., 307
Jerusalem196, 213 Elm, Kaspar127; family origins and early
Dalmatia142 life, 35; early career and scholarship,
Damian, Peter47 1115; education, 610; themes of
Dante29, 30, 54, 120 research and reception, 1527
David of Augsburg240 Elze, Reinhard16
decretalists310 English Ladies108
decretists310 Enlightenment139, 278
Denkendorf (priory)61, 72, 89, 98, 99, 100, Enoch46
108, 198, 199 Erasmus of Rotterdam36, 320
Devotio Moderna, see Modern Devotion eremitic life (vita eremitica)7, 21, 23, 3435,
Dieburg, Peter309 39, 46, 47, 114, 149, 167, 223, 236, 244,
Diepenveen (convent)108, 318, 323, 327 282, 294, 307, 324; and intersections
Dini, Taddeo119 with humanism, 12836
Diogini da Borgo S. Sepolcro123 Esclarmonde, countess of Foix240, 328
Discalced Friars34, 35, 36 Essen (convent)158
Disciplinati46 Essex105
Domenico Capranica, cardinal273 Eucharist235
Dominic of Caleruega (St. Dominic)1516, Eugenius IV, pope66, 93, 257
4749, 5052, 115, 151, 229, 239, 267, 309 Eyfeler, Nicholas266
336 Index

Fabri, Felix191 Gil, Marquise de Rada86


Falkenhagen180 Gilbert of Sepmringham220, 224
famine22, 150, 154 Gilbertines221, 230
Fara, Nicholas260, 265 Giles of Rome130, 136
Ficino, Marsilio120, 124, 133, 135 Giles of Viterbo124, 132, 135, 188
Fidati, Simon129, 156 Girolami, Remigio119, 126
First World War2, 105 Girolao da Napoli123
Flaccus Illyricus312 Girond im Wallis (congregation)165
Flagellants46 Glassberger, Nicholas260
Flete, William129 Glogovinca (priory)61, 198
Fontevrault224, 239 Godfrey of Bouillon59, 70, 189, 195, 199
Fra Angelico28 Goetz, Walter6, 10, 12, 13
Francesco Filelfo111 Gorze158
Francis of Assisi (St. Francis)1516, 4047, Gospel(s)30, 40, 43, 44, 49, 50, 53, 148, 230,
5052, 52; Little Flowers of, 40; 245, 246, 306, 311, 312, 315
Testament of, 42, 43, 53 Gozzoli, Benozzo28
Francis of Jesi35 Grand Chartreuse168, 326
Franciscan Question41 Gratian298
Franciscans (Order of Friars Minor)3340, Great Hallelujah (1233)46
136, 141, 212, 192, 198, 228, 234, 236, 292, Great Schism22, 26, 150, 154, 327
303, 309, 324; and Humanism, 117, 118, Gregorian reform244
128; estimate of numbers, 144; Gregory IX, pope (Hugolino of Ostia)28,
observance of poverty in the later 147, 248
middle ages, 14649, 15152; Observant Gregory XI, pope66
reforms, 162, 164, 173, 176, 188 Gregory XIII, pope35
Franz of Paola168 Groenendaal322, 325
Fraterherren, see Modern Devotion Groote, Geert309, 326
Fraticelli34, 37, 173, 258 Grundmann, Herbert57, 9ff., 16, 20, 23, 24,
Fratres della Cappuciola34 27, 44
Frederick II, emperor89 Gualbert, John47, 223
Frederick III, emperor199, 255, 256, 259, Guarino of Verona112
260, 268 Guillabert de Castres238
French Revolution104, 105 Gymnasium Dionysianum5
Fruttuaria62 Gyrovagues45
Fulcher, patriarch of Jerusalem74, 76, 82,
215 Habsburgs177
Fulk of Toulouse235 Hamburger, Jeffrey24
Hamm, Bernd321
Galganus of Chiusdino, saint42 Haskins, Charles Homer23
Gambacorti, Pietro168 Heimbucher, Max278
Gartzen (priory)101 Heimburg, Gregor267
Gentile da Spoleto34 Heloise224
Gerald of Salles223 Hlyot, Hippolyte277
Gerard of Fracheto28 Henry of Ahaus317
Gerson, Jean326 Henry of Coesfeld326
Ghirlandaio, Dominico28 Henry of Freimar128,131
Gibelin, patriarch of Jerusalem59, 80, 196 Henry of Segusio (Hostiensis)297
Gierke, Otto von312 Henry VI, king of England176
Gil de Tarin, Guillerma86 Henry, archbishop of Rheims64
Index 337

Herding, Otto7, 15, 28 Jesuits (Society of Jesus)109, 188, 293


Hersende of Champagne224 Jews261, 269, 270
Hieronymites (Hermits of St. Jerome)68, Joachim of Fiore, abbot10, 24, 29, 48, 308
293, 168 Joachimites, Joachimism130, 173, 29
Hildegard of Bingen, 231, 237 John della Valle34
Hofer, Johannes261 John of Capistrano1, 11, 23, 34, 111, 255ff.;
Holy Spirit50, 130, 245 and the crusade of 1456, 270; and the
Honorius III, pope30 Jews, 26970; career, 25659; politics
Hoogcruts (canonry)100, 103 and diplomacy of, 26769; preaching
Horace119, 120 in northern Europe, 25967
Hospitalers (Order of St. John)17, 19, 48, 61, John of Guadalupe34, 35
70, 83, 97, 141, 146, 162, 167, 189, 191, John of Lier235
19394, 197, 200, 207, 208, 216, 219, 225, John of Prato114, 121, 123
236, 299 John of St. Paul, cardinal147
Huesca (priory)76 John the Almsgiver307
Hugh of Die235 John XXII, pope136, 193
Hugh of Floreffe235 Jordan of Quedlinburg130, 135
Hugh of Ibelin65 Josephinism104
Hugh of Payns201, 211 Juan I, king of Castile and Len176
Hugolino of Ostia, cardinal (Pope Gregory IX) Jlich103
28, 29, 30, 147, 228, 248 Jully (convent)226
Huizinga, Jan192, 320
Humanism (Studia humanitatis)21, 12123, Kastl (reform congregation)160, 171
138, 174, 185, 312, 319, 320, 321 Kinrooi (convent)100, 101, 105
Humbert of Romans115 Knights of the Holy Sepucher (Ordo Equestris
Humiliati44, 54, 241, 300, 328 S. Sepulcri)198ff; and Templars, 2089;
Hundred Years War150, 176 customs and liturgy of, 210; historiography
Hungary11, 39, 61, 142, 160, 166, 167, 198, 257 of, 18995; piety of, 218; religious context
Hussites93, 270 of, 203; conceptual frameworks for, 2034;
Huy62, 102, 234 self-understanding of, 204
Hyma, Albert319 Knorr, Peter267
Kojata von Brx88
Innocent II, pope19, 211 Knigsaal (monastery)92, 325
Innocent III, pope30, 49, 209, 239, 241, Kristeller, Paul116, 117
294, 300 Kulturkampf312
Innocent IV, pope38, 228
Innocent VII, pope198, 199 La Vinadire (priory)61
Innocent VIII, pope61 Ladies of Roubaud235
Ivette of Huy234, 235 Ladislaus Posthumus, duke of Austria and
king of Hungary255, 259, 260
Jan van Abroek100 Lambert of Arras80
Jannsen, Johannes34, 10, 15 Lambert of Reims64
Jansenism321 Lamprecht, Karl9, 10
Jena262 Landulf of Milan237
Jerome114, 129, 220, 243, 308, 322 Langehim (convent)158
Jeronimites, see Hieronymites Latin Empire of Constantinople61, 197
Jerusalem17, 5960, 107, 110, 192, 194, 194, Lazarites83, 189
198, 202, 205, 208 Le Bras, Gabriel313
Jesuati168, 325 Lecceto (hermitage)129, 132, 136, 171, 325
338 Index

Leclercq, Jean27, 208, 211, 212 Michael of Sicily260


LeGoff, Jacques27 Michele da Massa123
Leipzig, University of6, 9, 10 Miechw (priory)61, 198, 199
Leo XIII, pope35 Minims168
Len65 Minorites, see Franciscans
Lerner, Robert24 Modern Devotion (Devotio Moderna)15, 17,
Lithuania142, 166, 275 21, 23, 26, 108, 164, 184, 188, 242, 312,
liturgy, liturgical13, 28, 29, 53, 60, 63, 64, 66, 317ff.
73, 75, 76, 80, 82, 93, 100, 106, 107, 109, Mllenbeck (convent)158
124, 146, 183, 194, 195, 196, 210, 214, 220, Monachus, patriarch of Jerusalem64
233, 240, 243, 289, 296, 307 Monnikhuizen317
Lorenzo de Medici119 Monte Oliveto (monastery)156, 165
Louis of Anjou257 Monteripido (friary)257
Louis VII, king of France190 Montserrat (monastery)160
Luca de Manetti119 Monumenta Germaniae Historica7
Ludwig von Erlichshausen268 Mount of Olives107
Lttich38, 50, 98, 100, 101, 108, 160, 166, Mt. Tabor (monastery)83
234, 235 Mnster, Wilhelms-Universitt5
Luynes (convent)103 Murmellius, John320
Lyon II, council242, 303 Mussato, Albertino112
Mutianus, Conrad320
Maaseik (convent)101
Magdalenes38, 93 Nablus69, 205
Magdeburg262, 264, 294 Naldi, Naldo123
Magna Mahumeria69, 205, 206 Name of Jesus261
Mainz11, 102, 232 Narbonne48
Malmedy102 National Socialism (ndsap)4 and n. 7, 9
Malogranatum, treatise325 Naumann, Stephan264, 267
Manetti, Gianozzo124 Nazareth84, 107, 208
Mantua (congregation)163, 165 Neo-Thomism138
Margarita of Ypres235 Neufmousiter62
Marienbourg (convent)102 Neuss (congregation)163, 325
Marienfeld (monastery)183 New Devout, see Modern Devotion
Marienstatt (convent)158 New Testament204, 243, 245
Marioni, Franciscus272 Niccoli, Niccol122, 124, 133, 134
Marsigli, Luigi121, 122, 123, 135 Nicholas of Myra307
Martin of Len48 Nicholas V, pope255, 256, 274, 276
Mary dOignies234, 235, 243, 309 Nicolas de Mirabilibus119
Mary Magdalen21 Nider, John36
Masuccio Salernitano111 Niewstadt (priory)101
Matteo da Bascio35 Nijmegen105
Maximilian I, emperor199 Nilus of Rossana46
Mechtild of Hackeborn231 Norbert of Xanten15, 48, 22123, 229, 294
Melanchthon, Philip311 Norbertines, see Premonstratensians
Melisende, queen of Jerusalem65 Nuremberg261
Melk (monastery, reform congregation)
160, 171 Oberman, Heiko, 317, 321
Melville, Gert25 Oblation, oblates, oblatae/i18, 69, 7073, 76,
Merlo, Grado281 8, 86, 110, 208
Index 339

Observant movement1, 22, 24, 111, 140, Paulines (Pauline Hermits)168, 292
16087, 273 Peralada (convent)72, 76
Octavian119 Perugia64, 60, 61, 76, 78, 99, 110, 198, 198,
Odonis, Gerard156 248, 257, 258
Oecolampadius319 Peter of Alcantara35
Oeslinger, Cornelius99, 100 Peter of Bruis44
Olivetans (congregation), see Monte Oliveto Peter of Staufenberg, lais201
Olivi, Peter John120, 272 Petrarch, Francesco123, 132, 133, 135
Oratorians188, 321 Petronilla of Chemill224
Order of Friars Minor, see Franciscans Petrus Monachus218
Order of Hermits of St. Jerome, see Petrus Tudebodus218
Hieronymites Pexiora (Puysubran)208, 216
Order of Mountjoy189 Philip VI, king of France193
Order of Preachers, see Dominicans Phillip II, king of Spain193
Order of St. Benedict, see Benedictines Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius255, 256, 261,
Order of the Brothers of the Sword, see Sword 264, 273, 274, 276
Brothers Pico della Mirandola119
Order of the Holy Savior, see Birgittines piety14, 16, 27, 38, 45, 46, 10708, 134, 144, 150,
Order of the Holy Sepulcher (Ordo 177, 18384, 218, 221, 222, 225, 24446
Canonicorum S. Sepulcri)14, 18, 55ff., 164, Pisa, council of215
166, 167, 176, 19599, 225; canonesses and Pius IX, pope194
religious women associated with, 85109; Pius XI, pope194
clergy associated with, 7782; daughter Pius XII, pope194
houses and congregations of, 61; fraternal plague, see Black Death
affiliations with (fratres, sorores), 6573; Podiebrad, George274
historiography of religious communities Poland61, 142, 166, 167, 177, 195, 198
surrounding, 5558; origins of chapter of, Ponce, bishop of Clermont239
5960; relations with patriarch of Poor Catholics300
Jerusalem, 6164 Poor Hermits of St. Jerome, see Hieronymites
Orendel, lais201 Poor of Lyon, see Waldensians
Osma47 Poppo, count of Wertheim200
Otto III, margrave of Brandenburg94 poverty (paupertas)6, 24, 34, 36, 38, 42,
Ovid120 4445, 48, 50, 53, 59, 93, 95, 108, 127, 133,
147, 15253, 167, 186, 221, 228, 23335,
Pachomius45 239, 243, 247, 282, 318
Palatinate177, 180 preaching7, 13, 3738, 48, 113, 127, 136, 223,
Pannonhalma (monastery)160 24041, 245, 255ff., 326
Paoluccio (Paolo) de Trinci,34, 162 Premonstratensians (Order of Prmontr)
Paraclete224 82, 88, 96, 141, 154, 151, 183, 222, 224, 225,
Paradiso degli Alberti (Florence)121, 171 226, 264, 294, 324
Paschal II, pope59, 196 Priscian120
Passau92 Priscilla, companion to Paul308
Passavanti, Jacobo119 proprietarii (propertied religious)148
Passion of Christ93, 107, 326 Prouille (convent)229
pastoral care (cura animarum)7, 13, 31, 39, Prussian League268
49, 60, 100, 128, 129, 146, 151, 220, 225,
229, 230, 240, 291 Rainer of Pisa, saint42
Paul of Thebes21, 128, 131, 244 Ralph Glaber237
Paul VI, pope194 Ramla207, 208
340 Index

Raudnitz160, 325 S. Maria del Carmine (Florence)118, 125


Raymond of Capua33, 163 S. Maria delle Selve (congregation)165
Recollects35 S. Maria di Fregionaia (Lucca)161, 164
Reformati35, 36 S. Maria di Reno161, 164
Reformation3, 21, 22, 98, 138, 280, 184, S. Maria Latina216
18586, 187, 199, 275, 282; and S. Maria Novella (Florence)11921, 125
semi-religious life, 31116 S. Maria of Monte Senario171
Regula Bullata229 S. Odilinberg99, 100, 105
Remoboth45 S. Pietro in Ciel dOro164
Remonstrants319 S. Rufus (congregation)196, 58, 162
Research Center for the Comparative History S. Salvatore (Bologna)161
of Religious Orders (fovog), S. Salvatore in Lecceto (Siena)171
Dresden25 S. Sisto (Rome)229
Revius, Jacobus319 S. Trond (Brugge)235
Richard of Mediavilla272 S. Truiden (convent)101
Robert of Arbrissel22324, 229 S. Walburge102
Robert, king of Sicily216 Sack Brothers230, 292
Roberto de Rossi122 Salem (convent)158
Roermond99, 101 Salutati, Coluccio116, 122, 123
Roger, king of Sicily208 Santiago de Compostela62
Rokyzana, John274 Sarabites45
Romuald of Ravenna46, 223 Saragossa (convent)86, 87, 91, 92, 94, 95
Rottenmnster (convent)158 Savonarola, Girolamo39
Rudolf, count of Pfullendorf201 Saxony, duchy of177, 187,232, 260, 318, 322
Rule of Augustine59, 93, 148, 168, 210, 303, Schatzgeyer, Kaspar185
318 Schieffer, Theodore11
Rule of Benedict45, 201, 228, 230, 303 Schneider, Reinhard16
Rutebeuf112 Scholastica, saint220
Ruusbroec, Jan322, 325 Second World War10, 105
Secular Institutes281, 328
S. Agatha (Lttich)103 Semi-religious life (Semireligiosentum, vita
S. Agnese (Bologna)229 semireligiosa)1415, 1920, 21, 24, 26, 125,
S. Annunziata di Sturla (Genoa)164 14445, 277ff.; and circles of the Holy
S. Benito (Valladolid)160 Sepulcher, 5657; and historiography of
S. Blaise277 religious women, 232; and Reformation,
S. Croce (Florence)12021, 125 31115; and womens religious life, 220ff,
S. Damiano46, 22829 29091; conceptual frameworks of,
S. Domingo (Madrid)229 282296; historiography of, 27782; legal
S. Frediano (Lucca)321 frameworks for, 297306; outsiders views
S. Giorgio in Alga (Venice)161, 164, 188, 325 of, 295; self-understanding of, 307311;
S. Giovanni della Carbonaria (Naples)171 variety and functions of, 23637, 28384,
S. Giustina (Padua)160, 164, 170, 171, 321, 29096
324, 325 Seneca119
S. Helena (Avroy)103, 104 Servites39, 43, 11718, 135, 136, 151, 165, 230,
S. James (Lttich)160 297
S. Leonard (Aachen)99 Sidon84
S. Lucia (Perugia)198 Siger of Lille235
S. Marco (Venice)124, 201 Simone da Cascina119, 125
S. Maria Annunziata (Florence)118, 125 Simone Fidati da Cascia129
Index 341

Sion (congregation)103, 325 universities120, 121, 124, 131, 170, 174, 249,
societas20, 212, 303308 267, 323
Soviet Union11 Ursulines102
Spagnoli, Battista163 Ut sacra ordinis, bull (1446)257
Speyer71, 78, 88, 89, 90, 167 Utraquists270
Spirituals34, 36, 39, 114, 130
stabilitas loci151 Valla, Lorenzo112
Stations of the Cross107 Van Engen, John321
Staubach, Nicholas321 Vangelista da Pisa123
Stephen of Bourbon240 Varro137
Strayer, Joseph23 Vatican II, council11, 20, 138, 280, 322
Studia humanitatis, see Humanism Vauchez, Andr27, 313
studium generale, see universities Vegio, Maffeo132
Subiaco160, 171, 324 Verviers (convent)102
Succio, Thomas168 Vespasiano da Bisticci123
Suetonius120 Vienna, University of255
Svetec (convent)87, 88, 81, 93 Vierzon (convent)103
Sword Brothers189 Villach25960
Syneisaktism223, 243 Virgil119, 120
Virgin Mary, saint101, 119, 244, 245, 248, 307,
Tart (convent)226 322
Templars1, 7, 18, 19, 48, 70, 83, 141, 189, 191, Vis (convent)103
195, 197, 200, 207, 211, 216, 217, 219, 225, Vita mixta131, 135
236, 299 Vitalis of Savigny48, 223
tertiaries14, 24, 101, 144, 236, 290, 293, 296,
304, 306, 323 Waldensians44, 45, 48, 239, 240, 241, 245,
Teutonic Knights (Teutonic Order)84, 97, 300, 328
162, 189, 207, 268 Waldo42, 44
Theatines188 Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem59, 62, 210
Theoboald II of Navarra94 Weber, Max25, 151, 31314 and n. 96
Theresa of Avila, saint220 Wiener Neustadt25960
Thomas of Cantimpr235 William III, earl of Warren202
Thomas of Celano28, 30, 46 William of Cremona272
Thomas of Kempen327 William of Malavalle13, 47
Tolomei, Bernard156 William, duke of Saxony262
Tongeren103 Williamites1214, 1617, 161, 166, 180
Toulouse48, 50, 237, 239 Wimpfeling, Jacob320
Traversari, Ambrogio124 Windesheim (congregation)100, 101, 108,
Trent, council of95, 324, 327 161, 176, 181, 318, 321, 323, 325, 327
tria substantialia59, 93, 95, 133, 146, 233, Wittelsbachs177
306 Woltmann, Eberhard264
Trithemius311 Wyclif, John112, 136, 184, 310
Troeltsch, Ernst151 Xanten25, 10, 15
Turnhout103 Ximinz de Cisneros, Garcia, cardinal321

Ubertino da Casale120 Zderas (priory)76, 88, 9192, 94


Ullmann, Cark312 Zwingli, Huldrych319

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