IMC 2010: Sessions
Session 226: A Fish Out of Water?: From Contemplative Solitude to a Carthusian Conception of Pastoral, Administrative, and Episcopal Activity
Monday 12 July 2010, 14.15-15.45
Sponsor: | Cartusiana vzw |
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Organiser: | Stephen J. Molvarec, Department of History, University of Notre Dame |
Moderator/Chair: | Emilia Jamroziak, Forschungsstelle für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte (FOVOG), Technische Universität Dresden / Institute for Medieval Studies / School of History, University of Leeds |
Paper 226-a | The Horse and the Bishop: Guigo I within the Ordo Creationis (Language: English) Index terms: Monasticism, Religious Life |
Paper 226-b | Between Two Worlds: Some Reconsiderations on 12th- and 13th-Century Carthusian Bishops in and out of the Cloister (Language: English) Index terms: Administration, Monasticism, Politics and Diplomacy, Religious Life |
Paper 226-c | In the Shadow of Niccolò Albergati: The Carthusian Monk-Bishop Goswin Comhaer as Reformer, Counsellor, and Diplomat (Language: English) Index terms: Administration, Monasticism, Religious Life |
Abstract | The austerely contemplative life of Carthusian hermit-monks would seem at odds with a life of pastoral activity and administration. Nevertheless, from their early days, Carthusians became bishops. Others assumed administrative roles within their own communities, including cura animarum for conversi. The practical or communal necessity to assume such roles (which often included founding, reforming, and visiting non-Carthusian houses and institutions as well as being sent on political and diplomatic mission) may have been compelling to some degree. Yet, the conflict and tensions between those roles and an eremitical life should not be underestimated. Thus, articulating a Carthusian sensibility regarding office-holding is essential if we are to understand the distances (physically, but especially in terms of a persistent corporate culture) that needed to be traversed if such near-solitaries were to function as pastors and administrators both inside and outside of their 'deserts'. |