IMC 2024: Sessions

This session has been grouped by the IMC Programming Committee from individually submitted paper proposals.

Paper a: While not used as commonly as the Psalter or the Canticle in the medieval monastery, the book of Lamentations and similar biblical texts were popular fodder for monastic exegetes during the high Middle Ages. This paper explores the reasons for this focus. It argues that monks’ and nuns’ acquaintance with crisis through their engagement with history and sometimes through their own experience made the setting and content of Lamentations relatable. Using Lamentations to think about crisis led monastic authors to criticize secular authorities whose actions threatened the monasteries’ fragile hold on legal privilege. It also impacted monastic opinions about other groups in the surrounding society, including women and Jews. Monastic exegesis on Lamentations thus offers a window into both monastic identity and the practical politics of the period.

Paper b: Founded at the beginning of the 10th century, the Benedictine abbey of Cluny quickly became an important center for the reform of the Church and social life in Europe, mainly due to its great abbots. Nevertheless, having reached the apogee of splendor, Cluny started to enter a deep internal crisis in the 12th century. This was exactly the time when Bernard of Clairvaux accused the monks of Cluny of having departed far from the Rule of Saint Benedict, also in terms of the consumption of wine. His treatise, as well as the answers of the Cluniacs, are among the most valuable sources showing the significance of wine for the monastic communities - perceived not only as a medicine, allowed only for the sick, but rather an indispensable component of the daily life of the community.