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IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 517: 'Forms of Life': Rules and Other Normative Texts in Late Medieval Female Religious Communities, 1200-1500, I

Tuesday 10 July 2012, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Research Project 'Religious Orders & Religious Identity Formation', Radboud University Nijmegen
Organiser:Bert Roest, Afdeling Geschiedenis, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Moderator/Chair:Bert Roest, Afdeling Geschiedenis, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Paper 517-aRegularizing the Irregular: Imposing Rules on Tertiaries
(Language: English)
Alison More, Afdeling Geschiedenis, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Religious Life, Women's Studies
Paper 517-bRegula et Gubernatio: Governance in the Clarissan forma vitae (1212-63)
(Language: English)
Julie Ann Smith, Department of History, University of Sydney
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Religious Life, Women's Studies
Paper 517-cRegulating Beguine Life in the Late Medieval Low Countries
(Language: English)
Jennifer de Vries, Department of History, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Religious Life, Women's Studies
Abstract

This session sheds light on the way in which 'forms of life', religious rules, house constitutions and other normative texts (such as exemplary hagiographic dossiers) were used to shape the life of a large variety of late medieval female religious communities, both those considered to be fully monastic (such as Damianite/Poor Clare and female Dominican houses) and those that had a much more indeterminate status, such as communities of female beguines and 'Franciscan' and non-Franciscan tertiaries. Participants are asked to approach this issue from four different angles, namely: authority; content (the way of life is proposed in these normative texts); Sitz im Leben; diachrony.