by Bruce L . Venarde (Author)
In this engaging work, Bruce L. Venarde uncovers a largely unknown story of women's religious lives and puts female monasticism back in the mainstream of medieval ecclesiastical history. To chart the expansion of nunneries in France and England during the central Middle Ages, he presents statistics and narratives to describe growth in broad historical contexts, with special attention to social and economic change. Venarde explains that in the years 1000-1300 the number of nunneries within Europe grew tenfold. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, religious institutions for women developed in a variety of ways, mostly outside the self-conscious reform movements that have been the traditional focus of monastic history. Not reforming monks but wandering preachers, bishops, and the women and men of local petty aristocracies made possible the foundation of new nunneries. In times of increased agrarian wealth, decentralization of power, and a shortage of potential spouses, many women decided to become nuns and proved especially adept at combining spiritual search with practical acumen. This era of expansion came to an end in the thirteenth century when forces of regulation and new economic realities reduced radically the number of new nunneries. Venarde argues that the factors encouraging and inhibiting monastic foundations for men and women were much more similar than scholars have previously assumed.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 268
Edition: Revised ed.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 25 Mar 1999
ISBN 10: 0801486157
ISBN 13: 9780801486159
Bruce Venarde's clearly written analysis of both English and continental material for the history of women's monasticism has given us a clearer picture of the complex relationship between monasteries for men and those for women, their institutional development and expansion, and the causes for the decline of new monastic foundations in the thirteenth century.
In this timely contribution to the history of women's monasticism, Bruce L. Venarde has discovered information about the feminine experience previously thought to be unavailable.... A very original book.
-- Constance B. Bouchard, University of AkronThe author's database is a statistical goldmine. The text is also well-researched an provides a very impressive insight into the foundations of many communities.... A different approach.
-- Ann Kessler * American Benedictine Review *Venarde provides a detailed study of the origins and foundation of women's monasteries in fifteen dioceses during the tenth through thirteenth centuries.... Venarde has made an invaluable contribution to the study of medieval women by providing us with fundamental, long-awaited data.
* Speculum *Venarde provides a lucid survey of the mundane motivations of the founders, members, protectors, and critics of nunneries in France and England during the central Middle Ages.... He is the first to chart the volume and pattern of foundation of nunneries over several centuries.... Venarde shows that the noblewomen who made up the majority of nuns during the period of most rapid expansion (1080-1170) often were looking for alternatives to marriage and/or were being protected by their families. Nuns and the founders and patrons of their houses came from the very same petty nobility that benefited most from the contemporary growth of the rural economy and fragmentation of political power.
* Choice *Venarde's 'group portrait' of female religious houses is convincing, with appropriate regional and temporal nuances. At times, the research... produces unexpected conclusions.... An original and informative approach to the development of religious life, not just of women but by implication of men as well.
* Catholic Historical Review *
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