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IMC 2007: Sessions

Session 827: City and Monastery, I: Urban Deserts? - Monasteries in Medieval Cities, i

Tuesday 10 July 2007, 16.30-18.00

Organisers:Hildo van Engen, Streekarchief Land van Heusden en Altena
Gerrit Verhoeven, Independent Scholar, Delft
Moderator/Chair:Frances Andrews, Department of Mediaeval History, University of St Andrews
Paper 827-aSilence and the City: The Carthusians of Roermond
(Language: English)
Krijn Pansters, Faculteit Letteren, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Index terms: Monasticism, Religious Life
Paper 827-bTo Overcome Boundaries: Communication between Monasteries and Civic Communities in Late Medieval Worms
(Language: English)
Christine Kleinjung, Historisches Seminar II, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz
Index terms: Monasticism, Religious Life, Social History
Paper 827-cCistercians in the City: The Case of Marienkroon Priory in Heusden
(Language: English)
Hildo van Engen, Streekarchief Land van Heusden en Altena
Index terms: Monasticism, Religious Life
Abstract

Nowhere was the relationship between religion and society more intense than in the medieval town. Some towns originated as a kind of 'suburb' of an early, renowned monastery. Others invited religious orders to found a settlement within or near their walls. Town councils met in monasteries or received and lodged their most important guests there. Almost every citizen had a son, a sister, an uncle, or a niece in a religious house. Many bequeathed sums of money to one or more monasteries and religious orders in their wills. Friars and sisters were common in the streets, as were the long, uninterrupted walls of enclosed communities. Monasteries owned vast estates in the heart of cities and were economically active on a scale that did not go uncriticised. These intense relations led to strains between towns and monasteries, with their corresponding and conflicting interests. It is these tensions which will be studied in this session.