IMC 2014: Sessions
Session 826: Monastic Imperialism?: Monastic Use and Categorisation of Urban Space
Tuesday 8 July 2014, 16.30-18.00
| Sponsor: | Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading |
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| Organiser: | Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading |
| Moderator/Chair: | Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading |
| Paper 826-a | Angels and the Empire of Heaven (Language: English) |
| Paper 826-b | Investment Portfolio or Place of Safety?: Creating Colettine Convents in the Hundred Years War (Language: English) Index terms: Economics - Urban, Gender Studies, Monasticism |
| Paper 826-c | Paradise in the City?: The Concept of the Cloister and the Reality of Urban Life in England in the High Middle Ages (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Mentalities, Monasticism |
| Abstract | Satirists in medieval England and Wales made the 'malice of monks' notorious, and placed special emphasis on their supposed greed for lucrative properties. St Colette of Corbie was accused of taking wrongful possession of urban properties under the cover of her reform movement. Monastic writers themselves continued to describe the monastic enclosure, and the cloister at its heart, as sacred sapce evoking ideas of Eden and of paradise. Chroniclers such as those of St Albans reflected their belief in the importance of their own houses, even when government records took a different view. This session seeks to understand why urban property was especially complex for monastic groups. |