Birgittenkloster Uden - The world of medieval monasticism: its history and forms of life

This is the best of guides to the world of medieval monasticism: a fresh, novel, exciting, detailed, reliable account of how monastic life developed over twelve centuries and of the many paths to perfection and salvation it created for both women and men. Medieval monasticism had its failures, but it also never ceased to surprise by its capacity to adjust to complex, changing circumstances, to establish itself as a fundamental element of medieval economy and society, and to cater for the whole spectrum of religious life from eremitical withdrawal to firebrand preaching. Here is an exceptionally rich mine of materials drawn from all kinds of historical sources and thoughtfully presented in the light of an exceptional understanding of structures and ideals by a wonderful scholar.

David Luscombe

Fellow of the British Academy

Emeritus Professor

The University of Sheffield

The fruit of long study of medieval monks, ascetics, mystics, and the rules that they lived by, The World of Medieval Monasticism is a lively and erudite companion for any reader interested in exploring the many astonishing forms of Western religious life.

Barbara H. Rosenwein

Loyola University

The World of Medieval Monasticism is the crowning achievement of the decades Professor Melville has devoted to the relentless study of medieval religious life in the West. Marked by a wealth of sources and shaped by the influential Research Center for the Comparative History of Religious Life at the University of Dresden, The World of Medieval Monasticism is an essential source in its own right for all those interested in the cultural history and spiritual inheritance of medieval religious life.

Timothy J. Johnson

Flagler College

With this splendid translation, English readers have access to a lifetime of scholarly thought and reflection on medieval monastic and mendicant life offered as a coherent narrative. Gert Melville has long been one of the leading interpreters of monastic life in Germany and, at present, perhaps the foremost sponsor of probing new scholarship. This book shows him at his best as a sympathetic student of medieval religious life set, as a good historian would, in its social and material contexts.

John VanEngen

University of Notre Dame

The doyen of monastic history has poured learning hitherto scattered among innumerable papers into the form of an elegant synthesisa path-breaking sociological analysis of one of the most interesting medieval forms of life. Decades of scholarships and accumulated insights have been distilled into this volume.

David dAvray

University College London

Fellow of the British Academy

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This work was originally published in German as Die Welt der Mittelalterlichen Klster. Geschichte und Lebensformen Verlag C.H. Beck oHG, Mnchen 2012.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from the Rule of St. Benedict are taken from RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in English, copyright 1981 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota.

2016 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint Johns Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Melville, Gert.

Title: The world of medieval monasticism : its history and forms of life / Gert Melville ; translated by James Mixson.

Other titles: Welt der mittelalterlichen Kloster. English

Description: Collegeville, Minnesota : Cistercian Publications, 2016. | Series: Cisterican studies series ; no. 263 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015034630 | ISBN 9780879072636 | ISBN 9780879074999 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Monasticism and religious ordersEuropeHistoryMiddle Ages, 6001500. | Monastic and religious lifeEuropeHistoryMiddle Ages, 6001500. | MonksEuropeSocial conditions. | EuropeChurch history6001500.

Classification: LCC BX2590 .M45813 2016 | DDC 271.009/02dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015034630

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