IMC 2012: Sessions
Session 1112: 'Regula et mensura aliarum religionum': Ideas of Reform in Late Medieval Carthusian Theology and Spirituality
Wednesday 11 July 2012, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Cartusiana vzw |
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| Organisers: | Tom Gaens, Cartusiana vzw, Zelem 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 1112-a | Eternal Food for the Soul: Carthusian Contributions to the Passion Devotion (Language: English) Index terms: Lay Piety, Monasticism, Religious Life |
| Paper 1112-b | 'Non sunt monachi sed monstra in ecclesia': The Influence of Henry of Coesfeld's Tracts against Proprietarism at the Council of Constance (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Economics - General, Monasticism |
| Abstract | During the Later Middle Ages, the Carthusian Order had increased interest in ideas of reform and spiritual renewal. Such interest is sometimes belied by over-attention to medieval images of the Order embodied by early modern slogans such as 'never reformed, since never deformed'. This session's papers explore Carthusian involvement in circulation of reformist ideas in a later medieval context, ranging from discussion of proprietarism by Henry of Coesfeld to diffusion of Johannes de Indagine's treatises among reformed-minded monastic circles - Carthusian or not. Also discussed will be Carthusian interest in late medieval devotion to Christ's passion, part of a larger trend for imagining a more perfect Church - the suffering Body of Christ. In short, Carthusians understood themselves as exemplars of a Christian life approaching its ideal, even if sometimes they fell short. Such tensions between the perfect and the actual led later medieval Carthusians to ponder notions of reform, both spiritually and practically. |