IMC 2015: Sessions
Session 1332: Learning and Monastic Reform, II: Intellectual Culture and Institutional Change
Wednesday 8 July 2015, 16.30-18.00
| Sponsor: | Religion & Society in the Early & Central Middle Ages (ReSoMA) / Henri Pirenne Institute for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Gent |
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| Organiser: | Micol Long, Vakgroep Geschiedenis, Universiteit Gent |
| Moderator/Chair: | Steven Vanderputten, Vakgroep Geschiedenis, Universiteit Gent |
| Respondent: | Sigbjørn Olsen Sønnesyn, Independent Scholar, Voss |
| Paper 1332-a | Re-Reforming Knowledge in the Monastic Culture of Liège: The Case of St Laurent (Language: English) Index terms: Education, Monasticism, Religious Life |
| Paper 1332-b | The Mystical Tibbert: Allegory, Faction, and Reform at St Albans, c. 1200 (Language: English) Index terms: Education, Language and Literature - Latin, Monasticism |
| Paper 1332-c | Reformed Cloister and Rarefied Culture: Warner of Rouen's Satirical Depiction of a Monk of Mont Saint-Michel (Language: English) Index terms: Education, Monasticism, Religious Life |
| Abstract | The study of monastic culture, and of monastic intellectual culture in particular, has often been hindered by the notion of a trans-spatial and trans-historical monastic culture, a timeless matrix of ideas and practices that determine the mental universe of monastic communities. Any deviation from this idealized culture has been treated as decay, usually brought about by secular influence, while returns to it have been characterized as 'reform' or 'renewal'. This session will adopt a different approach, proposing that monastic intellectual culture was dynamic of its own accord and the subject of continuous change and innovation that was pursued and embraced by monastic communities. Such changes were often tied up in broader institutional changes, either as a mechanism for achieving them or as the product of them, making monastic intellectual life a key site for understanding monastic reform processes. |