Crown and Veil: Female Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries 978-0231139809

Table of contents :
List of Illustrations vii
Foreword
Caroline Walker Bynum xiii
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction: Histories of Female Monasticism
Jeffrey F. Hamburger i
Early Monasteries and Foundations (500— 1200): An Introduction
Jan Gerchow with Katrinette Bodarwe, Susan Marti,
and Hedwig Rockelein 13
11 The Time of the Orders, 1200—1500: An Introduction
Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Petra Marx, and Susan Marti 41
hi Between This World and the Next:
The Art of Religious Women in the Middle Ages
Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Robert Suckale 76
iv Church and Cloister:
The Architecture of Female Monasticism in the Middle Ages
Carola Jaggi and Uwe Lobbedey 109
v “Nuns’Work,’’“Caretaker Institutions,” and “Women’s Movements”:
Some Thoughts About a Modern Historiography
of Medieval Monasticism
Jan Gerchow and Susan Marti 132
vi The Visionary Texts and Visual Worlds of Religious Women
Barbara Newman 15
1
v 1 1 Patterns of Female Piety in the Later Middle Ages
Caroline Walker Bynum 172
viii Time and Space:
Liturgy and Rite in Female Monasteries of the Middle Ages
Gisela Muschiol 191
ix Founders, Donors, and Saints: Patrons of Nuns’ Convents
Hedwig Rockelein 207
x Pastoral Care in Female Monasteries:
Sacramental Services, Spiritual Edification, Ethical Discipline
Klaus Schreiner 225
xi Household and Prayer: Medieval Convents as Economic Entities
Werner Rosener 245
xii Wanderers Between Worlds: Visitors, Letters, Wills, and Gifts
as Means of Communication in Exchanges Between Cloister
and the World
Gabriela Signori 259
Works Cited 275
Picture Credits 317

Citation preview

CROWN AND VEIL

Crown and Veil FEMALE MONASTICISM FROM THE FIFTH

TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURIES

EDITED BY Jeffrey

F.

Hamburger and Susan Marti

Translated by Dietlinde

Hamburger

Foreword by Caroline Walker

Columbia University

New

York

Press

Bynum

Columbia University

Press

Publishers Since 1893

New York

Chit hester, West Sussex

English text and translation copyright

©

Original copyright Frauenklostern; hrsg.

© 2008

2005 Krone und

Columbia University Kunst aus

Schleier.

Press

mittelalterlichen

von der Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik

Deutschland, Bonn, und

dem Ruhrlandmuseum

Munich: Hirmer, 2005.

Essen.

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Krone und

Crown1. and

veil

2.

edited by Jeffrey

F.

:

Schleier. English.

female monasticism from the

Hamburger and Susan Marti

commissioned

the fifteenth centuries /

translated

by Dietlinde Hamburger.

cm.

p.

Essays originally

;

fifth to

Krone und

for the exhibition

Schleier:

Kunst aus mittelalterlichen Frauenklostern. Includes bibliographical references

(p.

isbn 978-0-231-13980-9 (cloth Christian art and symbolism

:

and index.

)

alk.

paper)

— Germany—Medieval, 500—1500. women— Germany— Medieval— Germany.

Monasticism and religious orders for 3

Convents 5. II.

—

Germany— History.

Nuns

in art.

Marti, Susan. V.

VII. KunstVIII.

III.

Gerchow,

I.

History.

4. Art,

Hamburger, Jeffrey

Hamburger, Dietlinde. VI.

Jan.

F.,

1957-

IV. Frings,Jutta.

Ruhrlandmuseum

Essen.

und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

NRW-Forum

Kultur und Wirtschaft Dusseldorf.

N7850.K76213 704'. O882719OO43

Columbia University

Press

books

IX. Title.

2008

dc22

are printed

2OO7O44186

on permanent and durable

acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America c 10

Jacket Illustration:

987654321

Coronation of

St.

Clare, part

of a winged

probably from the Poor Clares of Nuremburg, Nuremburg, Private collection, Great Britain.

altarpiece,

ca.

1350/ 1360.

Contents

List

of Illustrations

vii

Foreword Caroline Walker

Bynum

Acknowledgments

xiii

xix

Introduction: Histories of Female Monasticism Jeffrey F.

Hamburger

i

Early Monasteries and Foundations (500— 1200): An Introduction

Jan Gerchow with Katrinette Bodarwe, Susan Marti, and Hedwig Rockelein

11

The Time of the Jeffrey F.

hi

13

Orders, 1200— 1500: An Introduction

Hamburger, Petra Marx, and Susan Marti

Between This World and

The Art of Religious Women Jeffrey F.

the Next:

Middle Ages

in the

Hamburger and Robert Suckale

iv

Church and

Uwe

76

Cloister:

The Architecture of Female Monasticism Carola Jaggi and

41

in the

Lobbedey

109

Middle Ages

“Nuns ’Work,’’“Caretaker

v

and “Women’s Movements”:

Institutions,”

Some Thoughts About

a

Modern

Historiography

of Medieval Monasticism Jan Gerchow and Susan Marti

132

The Visionary Texts and Visual Worlds of Religious Women Barbara Newman 15

vi

v

1 1

Patterns of Female Piety in the Later Caroline Walker

Bynum

Time and

viii

Middle Ages

172

Space:

Liturgy and Rite in Female Monasteries of the Middle Ages Gisela Muschiol

ix

191

Founders, Donors, and Saints: Patrons of Nuns’ Convents

Hedwig Rockelein

x

Pastoral

207

Care in Female Monasteries:

Sacramental Services, Spiritual Edification, Ethical Discipline Klaus Schreiner

Household and

xi

Prayer: Medieval

Convents

Werner Rosener

xii as

Wanderers Between Worlds:

Means of Communication

in

225

Economic

Entities

245

Visitors, Letters, Wills,

and

Gifts

Exchanges Between Cloister

and the World Gabriela Signori

Works Cited Picture Credits

[Vi]

as

259

275

317

CONTENTS

Illustrations

Figure

i.i.

Fragment of ambo with peacock from the abbey of San vatore/Santa Giulia, Brescia, northern tury

Figure

1.2.

Italy,

Donor image with Abbess Mathilda 982

1.3.

II

and Duke Otto of

1.4.

Germany, 1.5.

Stift

ca.

Radegunde

1.6.

Figure

1.7.

1.8.

1.9.

of the

Stift

Stift

Radegunde

century

31

Gandersheim, Gander-

35

Nottuln,

Roman,

ca.

50—30

36

Rune

Dome dle

Figure 2.1.

seal

mid-thirteenth century

casket

eighth century

Figure

Poitiers, late eleventh

Onyx-Alabastron from B.C.

Figure

(?),

the glossed Carolingian Gospel

30

Matrix of the great

sheim

23

author, miniature in the Vita of St.

from Sainte-Croix, Figure

in

century

Essen, northeastern France or northwestern

800

as

the Hortus deliciannn of the abbess

late twelfth

Beginning of Genesis

Book from Figure

Essen, after

Stift

20

The nuns of Hohenburg in Herrad of Hohenburg,

Figure

mid-eighth cen-

18

Swabia from the Otto-Mathilda Cross from

Figure

Sal-

from

Stift

Gandersheim, Anglo-Saxon,

36

reliquary from Stift Elten, Cologne, ca. 1185 and

of the nineteenth century

Female

sacristan at a

liturgical

late

mid-

37

mass for the dead, single leaf from

manuscript, south Germany,

ca.

1420/1430

47

a

Figure 2.2.

Middle section of the Marian

altarpiece

from the Cistercian

convent of Frondenberg, Master of the Frondenberg Altarpiece, ca. 1410/1420

Figure 2.3.

48

group from the Dominican convent of

Visitation

nenthal, Constance, ca. 1320

Figure 2.4.

Group of Christ and of

St.

St.

Kathari-

49

John from the Dominican convent

Katharinenthal, Master Heinrich of Constance, ca.

1280/ 1290

30

Figure 2.5.

St.John the Baptist from

Figure 2.6.

Dominican nuns

of Constance,

ca.

Katharinenthal, Master Heinrich

St.

1280/ 1290 at a

loom,

30

from the Passion

detail

Dominican convent of Heilig Grab Figure 2.7.

St.

The Marian icon

in

Bamberg,

ca.

tapestry,

52

1495

convent of Unterlinden, tinted pen

in the

drawing from the Liber miraculorum (Book of miracles) of the

Dominican convent of Unterlinden quarter of the fifteenth century

in Colmar, Colmar, third

54

Figure 2.8.

Mary Magdalene from

Figure 2.9.

Passion of Christ, detail from the antependium with the

1250

Freiburg, Freiburg or Strasbourg, ca.

36

of Christ from the convent of Poor Clares Vienna,

ca.

1340/1350

Figure 2.10. Paradise garden with Ebstorf, before 1487

Figure 2.11. “Guidonian

at

life

Konigsfelden,

57 relics

from the Benedictine convent of

60

Hand” from

a

manuscript for musical instruc-

tion at the convent of Ebstorf, late fifteenth century

63

Figure 2.12. Abbess’s crosier from the Cistercian convent of Medingen,

HermenWorm

66

(Liineburg), 1494

Figure 2.13. Ebstorf world map, original Ebstorf or Liineburg, (destroyed in

WWI

Figure 2.14. Coronation of ably

68

I)

winged

St. Clare, part of a

3.1.

altarpiece,

probca.

71

The martyrdom of

St.

Bartholomew and

the veneration of

Bartholomew

the patron by the nuns; detail of the

Figure

1300

from the Poor Clares of Nuremberg, Nuremberg,

1350/1360 Figure 2.15.

ca.

choirstall

hanging from Kloster Lime, 1492

73

Abbess Hitda giving the codex to

St.

page in the Hitda-Codex from

Meschede, Cologne, sec-

Stift

ond quarter of eleventh century

[

VIII

]

79

ILLUSTRATIONS

Walburga, dedication

Figure

3.2.

Crown from century

Stift

Essen, western Germany, tenth-eleventh

80

Figure

3.3.

Sword from

Stift

Figure

3.4.

The Herod

scenes from the

Essen, sheath,

Lower Saxony,

3.5.

The

Stift

3.6.

Opening from in

3.7.

3.8.

3.9.

83

a list

of the names of the living

Campo

di

Marzo, Rome, probably 1061—1071

Cmcifixus dolorosus (plague cross) from

St.

Maria im Kapitol,

go

(

imperium

sacerdotium)

et

detail

from the tapestry of

Agnes of Meissen, abbess of Quedlinburg,

Count Leodegar presenting to St. Walburga, dedication

of Benedictine Figure 3.11.

88

Personifications of the Virtues and of secular and sacred rulership

Figure 3.10.

sisters,

86

Cologne, 1304 Figure

quarter of

Judgment, panel painting from the Frauenstift Santa

Last

Maria Figure

first

the necrology of the Frauenstift Obermiinster

Regensburg with

1177-1183 Figure

Book of Abbess

Niedermiinster in Regensburg,

the eleventh century

Figure

81

82

Crucifixion miniature in the Gospel

Uta from

1000

wooden doors of St. Maria im

Kapitol, Cologne, ca. 1049 or 1065

Figure

ca.

ca.

image in the Salbuch of the abbey

TheViheli family celebrating Mass, Swabia,

Figure 3.12. Altarpiece from the monastery of

ond opening, Cologne,

to the

bed of his

Flanders, ca. 1300

(

ca.

gi

the monastery he has reformed

nuns,, St. Walburg, Eichstatt,

Figure 3.13. Mystical marriage

1205

1360

connubium

St.

1360 ca.

92

1410

94

Clara in Cologne, sec-

95 spirituale):

Christ descending

bride, miniature in the Rothschild Canticles, 101

Figure 3.14. Crucifixion of Christ by the Virtues, full-page miniature

from the lectionary of the Dominican convent of Heilig

Kreuz Figure 3.15.

Regensburg, Regensburg, 1270—1276

in

102

Presentation of book and coronation of Kunigunde, dedication

the

image

Stift

in the Passionale

of the abbess Kunigunde from

of St. George in Prague,

1310/ 1320

ca.

Cyriacus in Gernrode, south side

Figure 4.1.

St.

Figure 4.2.

The west 1000

103

113

choir of the former Stiftskirche Essen, probably ca.

116

ILLUSTRATIONS

[

IX

]

Figure 4.3.

View toward

the western nuns’ gallery of the former Cister-

nunnery of

cian

St.

consecration 1222 Figure 4.4.

Thomas an

der Kyll (Rhineland Pfalz),

122

Nuns’ choir of the forrher Cistercian nunnery ofWienhausen (Lower Saxony), view toward the

Figure 4.5.

Speaking

grille

east, ca.

1330

from the former monastery of Poor Clares

Pfullingen (Baden- Wurttemberg), ca. 1300

Figure 4.6.

View from

teenth century

5.1.

Mary and

125

half of the four-

first

127

The nave of Vadstena,

the Swedish

Dutch woodcut,

Birgittine order,

Figure

at

the north toward the former monastery of Poor

Clares at Konigsfelden (Canton Aargau),

Figure 4.7.

123

mother monastery of the

early sixteenth century

129

with the signature of the Poor

a saint, miniature

Clare Sibylla von Bondorf, prefacing a Clarissan rule from the Bickenkloster in Villingen, late fifteenth century

Figure

5.2.

Birth of Christ,

Codex

Initial

Gisle, a gradual

near Osnabriick, Figure 6.1.

Pieta ca.

P opening the

ca.

134

Christmas liturgy in the

from the Cistercian nunnery of Rulle

1300

136

from the former Dominican nunnery of Adelhausen,

1360/ 1370

133

Figure 6.2.

Christ in the Trinity, miniature in the Rupertsberg Scivias

Figure 6.3.

Charity and the Trinity, miniature for the

manuscript of Hildegard of Bingen,

ca. 1165

138 first

vision in

Hildegard of Bingen’s Liber divinorum operum, Mainz, 1230 Figure 6.4.

The

ca.

139

Christ Child in the Heart with the five

wounds and

instruments of the Passion, southwest Germany, 1472

the

162

Figure 6.5.

Christ Child with garments and crown from the convent of

Figure 6.6.

Double

Heilig Kreuz in Rostock,

1500

ca.

intercession, initial to

163

Psalm 101 in

a psalter

from the

double monastery of St. Andrew in Engelberg, second quarter

Figure

7.1.

of the fourteenth century

168

Catherine drinking blood from the side

wound of

Christ,

colored drawing in Der geistliche Rosgart (A spiritual rose garden), a St.

German

translation

of

Raymund

of Capua’s

life

of

Catherine of Siena, transcription by Elisabeth Wariissin,

nun

in the Katharinenkloster

[x]

Augsburg, 1466

ILLUSTRATIONS

174

a

Figure

7.2.

Catherine of Siena flagellating geistliche

Rosgart (A spiritual rose garden) a ,

of Raymund of Capua’s

Rhine or Alsace, Figure

7.3.

A

colored drawing in Der

herself,

first

German translation

of St. Catherine of Siena, Upper

life

half of the fifteenth century

180

Dominican nun embracing the blood-covered Christ

in

her arms, miniature from the cover of a book of hours from the convent of St. Margaret and half of the fifteenth century

Figure

7.4.

Adoration of the host in

a

Agnes

in Strasbourg, second

182

monstrance, panel painting from

the former Cistercian nunnery of Wienhausen, ca. 1450—

1460 Figure

7.5.

183

“Throne of Mercy” reliquary from the former Cistercian nunnery of Holy Cross in Rostock,

Figure 8.1.

Procession with nuns and

Figure 8.2.

Ornamental page

Sainte Abbaye,

Maubuisson

abbey of Chelles, Figure 8.3.

Nuns

in a

late thirteenth

clerics, (?)

century

prefatory miniature to La

(France), before 1294

in the Sacramentarium Gelasianum

750

ca.

Corpus

186

194

from the

203

Christi procession, miniature

on

a letter

of indulgence from the Cistercian monastery of Herkenrode, 204

1363

Figure 9.1.

Tunic of tria,

Figure 9.2.

Antependium

from

from the abbey of Chelles, Neus-

monastery

the

of Heiningen,

ca.

1170

217

foundations of female monasteries and foundations of

female monasteries with Marian dedications, 400—1300 Figure 9.5.

A

comparison of the number of dedications to

the Baptist, and John the Evangelist, 400-1300

Figure 9.6.

The percentage of dedications tist,

Peter,

all

218

John

218

to Mary, Peter, John the

and John the Evangelist among

monasteries, 400—1300

Bap-

foundations of female

218

Figure 9.7.

The “Golden Madonna” from

Figure

St.

10.

ca.

the church of the former monastery of

Walpurgis in Soest,

New

2og

214

Antependium from St.

Figure 9.4.

Balthilde

second half of seventh century

1260 Figure 9.3.

Queen

the

Stift

Essen,

980/990

222

Augustine with canons and canonesses from the double

monastery of Marbach-Schwarzenthann in Alsace, colored drawing in the Codex Guta-Sintram, 1154

ILLUSTRATIONS

[

XI

]

236

Figure ii.i.

The Ages

Figure

12. 1.

territorial possessions

of

Stift

Essen in the High Middle

249

Brooches from the treasury of “en ronde bosse.” Pans,

[XII]

ca.

1400

Stift

Essen, gold and enamel

270

ILLUSTRATIONS

Foreword

The

“Krone und Schleier” opened

exhibit

in the spring

of 2005.

Many

I

listened to their

who

of those

the exhibit were an overflow

comments

in

two venues, Bonn and Essen,

attended the

Bonn

portion of

crowd from the Egyptian exhibit next door. they walked from case to case, clutch-

as

ing tickets stamped with the waiting time until they could be admitted to see Egyptian gold.

puzzling:

“Crown and

As

I

listened,

Veil.” Surely

I

it

court and cloister in the Middle Ages ecclesiastical

and

secular,

elry cases to prayer

and on

realized that they

must be an exhibit on the

—

that

womens

books and ivory

found the

is,

art

“Crown” and

by nuns

they espoused Christ.

also

as

triptychs.

As viewers

realized that

it’s

was

a

first

disap-

ornaments taken on

symbol of betrothal but

of enclosure away from the world. The crown had nothing to do with

worldly power; the

veil

of

from aquamaniles and jew-

“veil” were, they learned,

The

art

on female patronage, both

the exhibit concerned female monasticism, they expressed at

pointment.

title

it

was an emblem not only of heavenly glory but

wounding of Christ.

I

overheard more than one viewer

nuns.” But then, as attendees

went from room

to

say:

also

“Oh

of

dear,

room, something hap-

pened. There was increasing excitement in the comments. For the items exhibited there the

way

—many of them gorgeous, many very

strange

—

all

opened

into a fascinating world. Moreover, they raised fundamental ques-

tions about issues as basic as the nature

place of the visual in culture, and the role

we mean by “art,” the of gender in religion. Not only a of what

resounding “yes” to the question whether there were female the Italian Renaissance

asked

—

the exhibits

—

a

question that, oddly enough,

Bonn and

at

many

in

still

on the

cases

call

women

the “visual

especially

arts.”

The

female monasticism (and other forms of organized

such

as

this

book one should not

tions that lie behind.

makes the

It is

some

scholars may, in

The

translation

religious

life

surprising.

earlier twentieth

embedded

of the large theoretical ques-

lose sight

at

religious

Recent work

in

male

all

some com-

that

both English and German on the

beyond the concern of the

women

artists

history of women as a

and

writers;

institutions.

It

as characteristically

also

means

that

it

now

must be in some way

context means that one

women did, painted, commissioned, and wrote

or institutions

may

are not raised. This

life

were structured, but one cannot

their institutions activities

that

on female monasticism means

European

century simply to find

can describe what

—however much posing them—

an early stage in

gender history To take gender

in

in

of this volume into English so important.

focus of the exhibit

seem

be

involves an understanding that

is,

to understand the

womens

“Krone und Schleier .” But

topic of women and religion has progressed far

to

and

visuality

the adumbration of these issues

cases,

parative questions about at first

with

houses of canonesses and beguines) that was the setting for the

objects displayed in both parts of the exhibit

reading

still

essays that follow focus

background necessary

technical

sometimes

Essen also raised the question whether

medieval religious culture associated

hence with what we

is

before

artists

and

how

say anything about these

“female” without comparison

both male and female

roles

—

that

expectations of behavior appropriate to individuals of one or the other

—

biological sex usually

are

employed

is

understood to be imagined and prescribed (the word “constructed”) by both

write, educate others,

which began

to

statements about to

women

emerge

in the 1970s, implies that, for

womens

piety and/or cloistered life

womens

life,

of men, with the

women, and with contemporary

about what

cal

This

is

act,

many

descriptive

lives

of secular (and

writing by both

men and

values and lives ought to be.

in part because the scarcity

comparison in many

are only

they

comparison needs

In most of the essays in this volume, such comparison at.

as

and wield power. This understanding of gender,

be made with the monastic

even dissident)

men and women

is

only hinted

of medieval sources makes

cases impossible.

It is

statisti-

in part because historians

beginning to undertake the complex task of drawing compari-

sons. The wealth

of recent scholarship on

[

XIV

]

womens

FOREWORD

institutions,

such

as (to

two examples)

give only

on nuns,

Felten

has provided us with so

need time to absorb religious

life

draw more

it

much of the

detail

We

class

can restructure our history of organized

to include

women more

given here

centrally in

or 1

and

intrinsically interesting

is

what work they

ate,

how

composition of various houses and is

it

institutions.

learn about the material conditions of

(what they owned, what they

Such information small

we

information that

and so

did,

about regional variations in their architecture, and about the

forth),

and

much new

comparisons between male and female

stands without comparison.

womens lives

we

before

Middle Ages

in the explicit

Furthermore,

ofWalter Simons on the beguines and Franz

that

it

changed over time.

necessary if we are to understand both

number of womens houses

in medieval

social

how a relatively

Germany could produce

such a large number of manuscripts, panel paintings, devotional objects,

and embroideries and

reliquaries, liturgical vessels,

how

so

many of

the

products of this wealth and talent have managed to survive to the present.

Moreover, there

A

tion of gender.

enclosure

made

is

much

in

what follows

that does bear

number of essays point out

in cloistered female lives

on the ques-

the fundamental difference

and the connection of the

radical

separation from the world prescribed by the bull Periculoso (1298) with dieval conceptions

of womens bodies

as

dangerously porous and

spirituality as especially receptive to visual stimulation. The chapters

Gerchow and Susan Signori also

show

Marti, Carola Jaggi and

us that, despite the stress

Uwe on

(or refused to

well to the bustle of surrounding urban

hence to the needs of relatives sisters in

If

monasteries

one reads

enclosure,

so)

;

carefully, there

is

they were connected

cloister

to place their daughters

men and women and

and

comparisons be-

and world.

objects so beautifully set out in the exhibit

“Krone und Schleier”

not only about monasticism and gender but also about

As Jan Gerchow and Susan Marti point often used ambiguously in the in size or in artistic merit.

last

out, the phrase “nun’s

art.

work” was

century to designate works small either

Recent study by

Jeffrey

Flamburger has thor-

oughly banished from our vocabulary such easy judgments about has

as

considerable comparative material in these

tween

it

clois-

supervised

or the splendor of courts and

life

who wanted

both comparisons between

raise questions

women’s

who

as religious specialists to say prayers for their souls.

essays,

The

do

by Jan

Lobbedey, and Gabriela

tered lives were closely connected to those of the clergy

and celebrated mass for them

me-

womens

moreover rendered deeply problematic any implication

FOREWORD

[

XV

]

quality;

that either

devotional objects used in

such

as

as

Christ dolls, or

stylistic

be associated with illuminations from particular

characteristics that can scriptoria,

women’s houses, such

round

and pink cheeks,

faces

be described

are to

unsophisticated and childish or as,^in any simple sense, feminine or ternal. Indeed, this observation participates in

of

sions about the nature era before art .” to feel

2

art itself in

as

ma-

important current discus-

what Hans Belting has

called “the

For the papier-mache prayer cards that enabled the pious

with their fingers embossed images of the instruments of Christ s

torture as they prayed, like the large and beautiful statues rightly valued by

connoisseurs (such

as

the Katharinenthal Christ and St.John group), were

not created for the often dispassionate viewing suggested by our ern

museums with

their

boutique lighting and didactic

labels identifying

primarily the “artist” and the nature of the materials employed.

“Krone und Schleier” exhibit were made

jects in the

dressed and undressed, censed with

was often lodged not in

smoke and

a naturalism

to

or by the

through

fact that

way they enabled

it

spices, kissed.

Their power

or realism that reflected the world or

they actually contained

users to transcend

and

eralization

human

bits

a sacrality

of holy bodies

experience by going

(sometimes in pain and ugliness) to an incarnate God. As Jeffrey

Hamburger and Robert Suckale put religious

The ob-

—handled,

be used

even in a beauty that conjured visions of heaven but rather in

conveyed either by the

mod-

is

it,

works of art do not just document

social relations; they establish

and secure them. Such

a

gen-

true in a special sense of the objects described in this volume.

For they are not so

much “art” in

the

modern

resentation (and even nonrepresentational

sense of decoration or rep-

modern

art explores the issue

of

representation) as they are the very stuff of religious practice.

me to of women and

This brings issue

proportionate

the major theoretical issue raised by these essays: the

amount of both

visual material

visualization can be associated with

number of

number of

the visual. As a

womens

early antependia, altarpieces,

the authors

stress,

a dis-

and material encouraging

houses.

A

surprisingly large

and panel paintings come from

female monasteries. Books of hours and books of revelations are almost female genres

—

that

is,

created either by or for

women.

Figures such as

Angela of Foligno, Julian of Norwich, and Gertrude the Great found in physical crucifixes both doctrinal instruction and devotional inspiration.

The

art

The

they saw fed the content of their prayers and visions. association of women with images

ization was, as

both Barbara

[

Newman XVI

]

and

I

and with techniques of visualpoint out below, owing in part

FOREWORD

to St. Paul’s

woman

warning

against female speech, in part to the association

women

with body often made by both

Whether or not

advisers.

were made by

women

“Krone und Schleier” exhibit

the objects in the

(and indeed

of

themselves and their male

“made by”

in the case of medieval de-

who comwho formed

votional objects often better describes the activity of the patron

missioned the work than that of the sculptor or illuminator it),

many

found in both sermons for nuns and

clearly reflect the emphasis,

books by them, on visualizing the experiences of Christ and saints

and martyrs, heaven and

hell

The nexus between women and and

ration

on the

refining.

It is

one of the

and

and the

alization

visual are not the

men and by

urged by

virtues of this

book

same

women’s

thing.

piety

to put

it

is

Much

textual

squarely

note that these es-

also

important caveats.

implicitly, suggest several

the visual in late medieval

mother,

the visual suggested here needs explo-

But we should

table for further discussion.

says, explicitly

his

3 .

visu-

First,

of the emphasis on

—

that

is,

women

are

each other to go from verbal description to interior

imagining. Such visualization can actually bypass visual objects or even contain implicit criticism of them

Second, and connected to visualization in writing for

as

this,

external or material.

on the

the stress both

and about

women

partly of course because the female bodies

it

often suspicious of

is

and

indicate, the bodily

by some

rejected

women

visual quality

who

themselves,

and imageless approach to

God

of

much

Newman, and

female piety was also

preferred to stress the interior

or even the dangers of visions.

denigrating ambiguity about both the female and the visual lined in recent

how

strates

work by Dyan

preachers and

they also encouraged

Deep and under-

is

that

demon-

inquisitors persecuted exactly the visualizing

4 .

women

Third, the visuality associated with

may indeed be

visual. It

and Nancy Caciola

Elliott

a limitation

was often more

tactile

women

kissed choir seats, drank the

nursed and dressed and cradled Christ tic artistic

Lenten white

—

a

with the

wash water of priests and

dolls.

Among

products of female monasteries were

(or hunger) cloths

medium

in

than

of modern notions of art to separate

sharply touching (even tasting) from seeing. As these essays point out,

gious

it,

was associated with were

themselves suspect in a misogynist culture. As Hamburger, I

and on

visual

reli-

saints,

the most characteris-

textiles,

and some of these

made by nuns and canonesses were white on

which

the art

is

as

much

felt

eyes.

FOREWORD

XVII

with the fingers

as

seen

summer of 2005 who saw the gorgeous illuminated manuscripts and the Golden Madonna at Essen or puzzled over the devotional sculpture and panel paintings at Bonn had an experience that cannot be Visitors in the

reproduced by translating the catalog

But thanks here

made

to

Columbia University

Press, a

ground necessary

many

That audience

from “Krone und

number of these

Schleier.”

objects are

an audience that could not

travel

will find in these articles a rich

back-

available in reproduction to

to the Rhineland.

2005 but

essays

to understand not only the objects displayed in

summer

others as well. Moreover, the essays provide glimpses of the

everyday world of medieval nuns that go well beyond what these particuobjects conjure up, and they raise theoretical questions about visuality,

lar art,

and gender

that medievalists

and

art historians generally will

do well

to explore further.

—

Caroline Walker

Bynum

Notes 1.

Simons 2001b; Felten 1992, 2000a, 2000b, 2001.

2.

Belting 1994.

On

the Belting thesis, see

Thuno and Wolf 2004 and

Schmitt 2002:50-53. 3.

Kessler 2004:45-46.

4. Elliott

2004; Caciola 2003.

[

XVIII

]

FOREWORD

J.-Cl.

Acknowledgments

This collection of

of a

far

medieval monastery, represents the result

essays, like a

more complex

collaboration than a glance at the table of contents

alone could possibly indicate. As in a monastery, behind those roster a

of prominent

whole

series

be

to

be named here.

originated in the catalog prepared to

national loan exhibition

Frauenklostern.* Yet

it

Krone und

Schleier:

accompany the

inter-

Kunst aus mittelalterlichen

does not simply reproduce that catalog. Although

most of the contributions from the here, with

the

or contributor, stands

as editor, translator,

it

fill

of sponsors and donors, not to mention the labor of col-

numerous

laborators too

The book

offices,

who

no more than modest

English-speaking readers, two

essay section of the catalog appear

editorial adjustments to

introductory essays in this

accommodate

—one

volume

by Jan Gerchow, with collaborators, and the other by Jeffrey E HamburgPetra

er,

rial that

*

Die lik

Marx, and Susan Marti originally

Krone und

und

represent revised conflations of mate-

was spread over various sections of the

Schleier:

friihen Kloster

—

catalog.

The

Kunst aus mittelalterlichen Frauenklostern. Ruhrlandmuseum:

Stifte,

500—1200. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepub-

Deutschland: Die Zeit der Orden, 1200—1500. Eine Ausstellung der Kunst- und Aus-

stellungshalle der

Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, in Kooperation mit

landmuseum Essen ermoghcht durch

die Kunststiftung

NRW,

See www.krone-und-schleier.de/and Cat. Bonn/Essen 2005.

19.

Marz

dem Ruhr-

bis 3. Juli 2005.

two

essays originally written in English

and Barbara

—which had

Newman

—by

Caroline Walker

be shortened to

to

this

accompanied them has had

toriography, by Jeffrey

E Hamburger,

with explanatory captions, and tion catalog but

and

free

a

of items that were

needed introduction

sarily

Added

the

to ah

a representative selection

of images

bibliography based on that in the exhibi-

enhanced with references to English-language scholarship specific to entries

are not included here. In short, this

scholars

cut.

of method and his-

a new, general introduction, addressing issues

is

some of

alas,

be

to

in the catalog,

fit

have been restored to their original length, although, pictorial material that

Bynum

from both

book

is

on

designed to serve

as a

which

much-

by an array of international

to a long-neglected topic

sides

individual works,

of the Atlantic, bringing together (without neces-

seeking to harmonize) various disciplines and approaches. As with

any such introduction, the book hardly seeks to say the

hope of ah the contributors

last

word;

like the exhibition

rather,

it

from which

is

the

it

derives, will help galvanize further research, scholarly collaboration, and,

not

least, interest

on

hundred loans

it,

the part of students and the general public alike.

Objects of course are six

that

that

at

Of the approximately

the heart of any exhibition.

were obtained for the exhibition

at

und

the Kunst-

Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Art and Exhibition

Hall of the Federal Republic of

museum

in Essen in

Readers interested

summer

Germany)

in

Bonn and

the Ruhrland-

2005, only a handful can be reproduced here.

in taking in the splendid conspectus provided

color illustrations in the catalog are encouraged to consult

however, serves

a different,

independent function and

ferent audience. Like the essays in the catalog, this

on

the

German Empire

employing

as a

different

but also incorporates,

This book,

addressed to a dif-

volume provides the

attempt to tackle the topic of female monasticism ety of historical perspectives and

is

it.

by the

whole, from

first

a vari-

methods. The focus

at least for

is

the early Middle

Ages, a broader European perspective including Frankish Gaul, Langobard Italy,

and Anglo-Saxon England, which

velopment of

this distinctive

form of

is

required to understand the de-

religious

life

in the Christian West.

In the absence of the catalog entries describing the art objects gathered for

the exhibition, the emphasis in this book, in contrast to the catalog,

longer on works of art, hence the slight change in the

is

no

subtitle.

We wish to express our thanks to our original collaborators and contributors,

without whose cooperation and

efforts

the exhibition and catalog that preceded

[XX]

it,

over

many

years this book, like

would never have seen the

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

light

of day. Together with Jeffrey

Essen,

now

Historisches

Hamburger (Harvard

F.

University), the exhibi-

by Jan Gerchow (formerly Ruhrlandmuseum,

tion was originally conceived

Museum,

Frankfurt) and

Robert Suckale (Tech-

nische Universitat, Berlin). They were joined as curators by Lothar Altringer,

Hedwig Rockelein. Ulrich Bors-

Carola Jaggi, Susan Marti, Petra Marx, and

of the Ruhrlandmuseum in Essen, and Wenzel Jacob, director

dorf, director

of the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle in Bonn, were instrumental in making it

possible for us to realize

Essen,

home

our ambitious

to an early medieval female

important treasury of these

No

less

NRW

among

(Nordrhein-Westfalen),

Ruhr Museum

publish this book. To

our repeated, all

in

monastery and probably the most

the world today preserved in

(the

situ.

all

in turn

who

these sponsors and those

heartfelt thanks.

the libraries,

We

museums, and

A

other foundations and enterprises.

former Ruhrlandmuseum) and the Al-

Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung

fried

was the Domschatz

important was the generous financial support of the Kunststiftung

grant from the

to

artifacts in

plans, as

would

made

direct

possible to

it

them,

also like to express

we

offer

our gratitude

once again

ecclesiastical institutions that

granted us permission to reproduce works in their collections.

We owe

a final

and support is

turning,

much

art

on the

language that unfortunately

The

translations in this

sent

one attempt

subject is

ried out the copyediting in a at

published. Although the tide

available exclusively in

no longer

as

widely taught

communication

as- it

German,

a

once was.

Press,

Wendy

our proposal to publish

Bynum, not only

the passion and scholarly

gap. Sarah St.

Onge

most meticulous manner. Our thanks

Columbia University

Caroline Walker

is

quite simply the fact that

is

volume, provided by Dietlinde Hamburger, repre-

to bridge this

enthusiastically to

without whose help

of the German Middle Ages has for so long

in English-speaking countries

scholarship

our editor

to several others

book could not have been

this

one reason the

been neglected so

word of thanks

this

for her essay

commitment

car-

also to

Lochner, for responding

volume, and, not

least,

and foreword but

also for

that she has

to

brought to the study of

female monasticism, which have repeatedly reminded others of its enduring significance in our world

Note

to

Readers tions.

as

well

as that

of the

past.

Readers will observe that

Books and

we

have employed a short form for

articles are indicated

all

by name of author or editor

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

[

XXI

]

citaor, in

a

few

instances,

title,

followed by the date and,

if necessary,

page numbers.

Catalogs of exhibitions are indicated by the place where they were held,

followed by the date. All are

listed alphabetically in the bibliography,

which

also includes additional references.

German and

Latin terms have been translated systematically, except

where no exact English equivalent

—

provided. One, however

Frauenstift (literally, a

resists felicitous translation,

that there

is

which

exists, in

so

we

have simply

no adequate English equivalent

is

XXII

]

foundation for left it

women) The fact

unaltered.

telling in itself.

Jeffrey F.

[

case definitions are

Hamburger and Susan Marti

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CROWN AND VEIL

Introduction Histories of Female Monasticism

JEFFREY

M

edievalists are

HAMBURGER

F.

accustomed

working with sources

to

scarce as they are intractable.

that are as

The most formidable

obstacles

to furthering knowledge of virtually any aspect of medieval

history and culture, however, are quite simply neglect and lack of interest,

not to mention prejudice. As

far as

historical record, for the early

Middle Ages but

up

to the

Reformation,

female monasticism

is

concerned, the

also for later periods, right

remains thinner than for

male monasticism. The

reasons for this paucity of information are manifold. They extend, er,

beyond the

of Germany, asteries

tered

it

vagaries of survival.

It is

ironic, to say the least, that in parts

was only due to the Reformation

of the Middle

that certain female

mon-

Ages, for example, the so-called Heidekloster clus-

on the Liineburg Heath, survived where Catholicism

In areas

howev-

virtually intact to

prevailed, female monasteries

modern

times.

were sometimes

suppressed, abandoned, or, if they survived, transformed under the pressures

of modernization.

The

sources, however, are not nearly as scarce as

Imagine

a single

book

documentation of the

that, in

Imagine further that

this

often maintained.

addition to providing virtually complete

liturgical life

detailed reconstruction of the

is

of a Benedictine convent, permitted

ways and means by which

book provided

a vivid

it

a

was reformed.

account from the hand

of the prioress recounting her role in the process of reform, her struggles with various

ecclesiastical officials, and,

not

least,

her day-to-day dealings

with craftsmen and

much

artists

of

As

kinds.

all

were not already too

if that

to ask, imagine yet further that this

same book not only docu-

mented the deeds of this enterprising

prioress but, in addition, provided

extensive first-person accounts in her

own hand

she did. For social historians, a

of information about daily

paradisiacal. list

made

For the historian of

of monastic

offices

as this

why

she did

would be

in

life

institutions,

—including

menting the origins of various

would

it

not simply a

offer

of

materials, rates

—

used to renovate the abbess’s apartment

For

art historians,

it

it

would

inventories and accounts docu-

images and the spaces in which they were

of every

cost

most

that in

would provide

and even the

inflation,

names of the craftsmen employed and the number and

of.

to

but a detailed picture of just what the execution of

kind of information

only dream

down

some monasteries anything but

those various duties actually entailed. For economic historians, offer the

what

gold mine

a

in a late medieval convent, right

life

the conflicts and tensions that

book such

as to

nail

cases they could

detailed descriptions of

installed, in short,

much of the

data required to reconstruct a plausible history of their patronage, function, and, to a certain extent, their appearance. The

same book would even

include something for historians of literature and music, be lent

of

a Liber ordinarius, a plan for the

it

the equiva-

performance of chant throughout

the liturgical calendar, material for the history of liturgical drama, or,

remains quite

rare,

even in

medieval sources,

late

a diarylike

what

account of

personal experience, not only an autobiography of sorts but also in this case an autograph written in the

There

is

no need

to

first

person.

imagine such

a source;

it

exists. It is

the Buck im

Chor of Anna von Buchwald (1484— 1508), prioress of the Benedictine convent

at

Preetz in Schleswig-Holstein, and

such sources that have yet to be

book of this kind would have long of reference in the ever-growing

its

riches, apart

to

go back

represents but

fully exploited for a

ranging history of female monasticism.

remains unedited and,

it

effectively,

1

since

become

thorough

a steady, standard point

unknown. The only

article

have thought that a

on female monasticism. Yet

from consulting the manuscript

to a fine,

comprehensive, wide-

One would

literature

real

itself or a

by an economic

rather than taking the

Ho Is tei n ische

book whole,

Geschichte,

for

all

that

monasticism and the manifold ways in which

microfilm of it,

[2]

JEFFREY

F.

it

can

is

historian, Friedrich

an essay

it

it

way of accessing

Berthau, published in 1917 in a relatively obscure journal, the Gesellschaft fur Sch leswig-

one of many

that,

tell

Zeitschrift der

by

its

nature,

us about female

intersected with the sur-

HAMBURGER

rounding

society, focuses to the virtual exclusion

of

all

else

on whatever

information the Buck im Chor can contribute to the economic history of this particular part

of Germany in the mid- to

late fifteenth century.

much more complex

fabric

In

of female monasticism

short, rather than considering the rich material

part of the

2

of medieval history in

as

variety,

all its

the author, in keeping with his expertise, pulled a single thread and fol-

lowed state

Today,

we

he could within the boundaries imposed, in

as far as

it

of the historical

we

art as

it

was practiced

part,

by the

in his day.

or ought to be, in a position to do better, not because

are,

but because

are necessarily better historians

we

are

more

inclined to

collaborate and have vastly greater resources at our disposal. This does not

mean, however,

that

we

should scoff

at

the accomplishments of earlier

generations of scholars. Quite the contrary: they

we

by what

today might regard

prejudices, but they also

had

requisite languages, not to

and, in

some

cases, the sheer

perspective, confronted ship,

as

may

have been hampered

outdated methodologies and outworn

at their

command

mention technical

formidable training in the skills

such

as

paleography

ambition to undertake what, from the present

by the

vast

accumulation of specialized scholar-

seems almost impossible or perhaps even presumptuous, namely,

comprehensive,

at

In this respect,

it is

both instructive and humbling to return to one of

monuments and continuing

the early

classics in

the historiography not

only of female monasticism but also of medieval history

Powers Medieval

A simple pressive,

a

times “universal,” history of their subject.

English Nunneries,

resume of its

table

c.

1273

to 1333, first

tout court

:

Eileen

published in 1922. 3

of contents gives a small suggestion of its im-

almost implausible, range, a coverage and reach that no subsequent

study has ever rivaled. After two introductory chapters in which Power discussed novices and abbesses, including their social characteristic

way of life, her book went on

—one of —but

not in terms of mysticism

most often treated today

background and

their

to discuss female monasticism,

the contexts in

which the

subject

is

rather in terms of its situation in the world:

the property holdings of female monastic institutions, their sources of in-

come and at

expenses, their methods of administration. She then discussed

considerable length the internal administration of such communities,

including the whole hierarchy of officeholders beneath the abbess or prioress,

and

which

their integration into the daily life

these monastic houses

of the towns and

villages in

were embedded. Far from painting an

ized picture of female monasticism,

Power devoted

a

ideal-

subsequent chapter

HISTORIES OF FEMALE MONASTICISM

[3]

to

documenting the

endowments

that plagued

most female communities. Following

of economic

tailed consideration

mismanagement, and inadequate

financial difficulties,

ajid administrative issues, she

this

de-

then turned

her attention to the education of nuns from the Anglo-Saxon period until the late Middle Ages, including their role not only as students but also as teachers of novices and secular children. Subsections of this chapter pro-

vide an agenda for subsequent scholarship, be

womens

or

libraries

in the cloister, including dancing

of private

life

it

on female

literacy

and

contribution to the history of medicine. Daily

and private property to monastic

of enclosure, the conduct of

life

and the keeping of pets, the relationship

visitations, the

enforcement

ideals, the

range of exchanges between

inhabitants and outsiders, attempts at reform, reports of scandal, and, not least,

the representation of nuns in medieval literature, whether sermons or

fabliaux

The

Powers astonishing book.

find their place in

all

present

volume does not attempt

to provide for the history

male monasticism on the Continent what Power,

and refinements

aside, so

all

precociously provided for England.

in an exhibition catalog, the

of fe-

subsequent revisions Its

primary focus of which was the

origins

lie

of female

art

monasticism. As in the exhibition catalog, however, the essays seek to provide an interdisciplinary set of introductions, written by a wide range of

but addressed to students

specialists

as

well as scholars,

on many,

if

not

of the topics that Power touched on in her magisterial book almost century ago,

why

has

many

it

which

ask, has

in

Roman

changed since Power wrote her book, and

one must keep

in

mind

the

between feminist scholarship and the history of women per

its

various forms it

puts

on

first forays,

As noted by Caroline

per

se, is

—

witness

Power s work

traditional scholarship.

others, a synthesis

Bynum in

ative perspective required

women

Empire. 4

taken so long for a study that focuses for the most part on Ger-

the pressures represent

of

Holy

to appear? In contemplating an answer,

distinction

a full

they relate to female monasticism predominantly in

at least as

the German-speaking lands of the

What, one might

all,

—

se,

predates feminism and

Some

essays in this

volume

of work previously accomplished.

her foreword to

this

by the study of gender,

as

volume, the compar-

opposed

sometimes lacking. Nonetheless,

to the study

much of

represented here could not have been undertaken without the

the

work

first

wave

of feminist scholarship on the Middle Ages, which began around 1980 and provided

much of the

impetus for

a revival

male monasticism, lending the topic

[4]

JEFFREY

new F.

of interest in

all

aspects of fe-

legitimacy, even urgency.

HAMBURGER

Feminism

stands in a special relationship to scholarship

man Middle Ages. As

a scholarly

France and the United I,

German

interest in

States,

movement,

where

had

it

its

traditionally, at least since

which

is

in

One mundane

German

German

as a

sources,

quite simply, the steady decline of interest

is,

Another

foreign language.

political,

and

third) place to other

reason for this neglect, despite the rich-

several decades ago, the continuing focus

on economic,

World War

often construed as pan-Euro-

pean in character) consistently taken second (or even

ness of the

origins primarily in

language, culture, and history has (with the excep-

tion of the Carolingian material,

regions of Europe.

on the Ger-

is,

more than

or was, until no

of German medieval scholarship

institutional history, often to the exclusion

female monastic institutions. To

this

of

must be added what certain German

scholars themselves characterize as continuing skepticism concerning the

legitimacy or value of womens history,

have a

much

The

let

alone feminist approaches that

broader purview than the study of women alone.^

relative lack

of interest,

at least until recently, in

the history of fe-

much more unfortunate given not just the extraordinary wealth of the German material but also its extraornot only two dinary interest. Why, despite the ravages of so many wars world wars, but also the Thirty Years’ War in the seventeenth century so much more material survives in German-speaking regions than from any male monasticism in Germany

is

that

—

other region of northern Europe

One

worthy of study.

conservatism that prevailed in

modernism

that,

is

a

complex question

contributing factor

German

because of changing

that

imposing

vented or

title,

at least

known

tastes, in is

that

would

which slowed the

them

is

of

the political fragmentation and

collectively as the empire, that, despite

remained fractious and fragmentary. Regionalism pre-

hindered the imposition of sweeping centralization and institutions

life.

Yet another consideration, cerned,

forces

other regions often brought

encouraged the proud preservation of local traditions and the that lent

itself be

certainly the general cultural

lands,

destruction in their wake. Another factor

regionalism of the regions

is

—

at least as far as

the history of art

is

con-

the irregular impact of iconoclasm, despite the Reformation, in

contrast to the despoiling

and destruction of monastic communities

in, for

example, the Netherlands. Patterns of appropriation and secularization also play a role. Whereas in England the monasteries were dissolved before the

establishment of national,

let

alone local, institutions that might systemati-

cally preserve their property, libraries included, in

Germany, secularization

HISTORIES OF FEMALE MONASTICISM

[5]

only took place in the early nineteenth century, precisely in the context

the

rise.

As

a result,

more evidence

not to the same extent. 6 In some respects,

at least

survives in

Germany

other regions north of the Alps,

comparison to

in part because, in

more was

created in the

first

—foundations no adequate English term—

regard, the distinctive character of Frauenstifte

which

for

there

is

for canonesses

as

widely or deeply entrenched

role within

its

political as well as

monasticism and

7

religious structures. All this, however,

its

compare apples and oranges. Our picture of female

at least in part, to

religiosity in

medieval France would be vastly different

had simply the library of Metz, which housed incalculable

numerous monasteries and beguinages, not been

ated in 1944 by a

fire set

treasures

bourg’s library, destroyed in the Franco-Prussian war,

Herrad of Hohenburg’s Hortus

deliciarum,

among

luminated manuscripts of the entire Middle Ages.

noted that in the Middle Ages, both to the empire’s sphere

from

largely obliter-

off by grenades tossed into the storage chambers

where the manuscripts were housed. 8 The same could be

No

as

of the empire, in part because they played such an important

in the lands

city’s

Although

be found in other parts of Europe, nowhere outside

of German-speaking regions were they

the

place. In this

offer a case apart.

similar institutions can

is,

time when,

monastic collections, although dispersed and displaced,

were not destroyed, or too,

at that

of nascent romanticism, national self-consciousness was on

of influence

cities

as

of Stras-

said

which once housed

the most elaborately

il-

should nonetheless be

It

belonged

as

they did to the

much,

if

not more,

kingdom of France.

consideration of female monasticism in the Middle Ages

would be

complete without some consideration not only of the degree to which female monasticism was in fact distinctive, and in what respects, but also

of

how and

to

what extent

its

study should be integrated into the study

of medieval monasticism in general as a

in

whole. At issue

all its

is

all.

more broadly

still,

medieval culture

not simply the question of how female monasticism

various forms differed from male monasticism (which was

varied) but also the define,

or,

and

ways in which modern scholarship should

discuss such differences, to the extent

it

no

less

structure,

acknowledges them

In schematic terms, one might say that scholarship

on the

at

subject can

have two goals, which are not always easily reconciled: on the one hand, to integrate the history

—

of female monasticism

religiosity, liturgy, art, architecture,

or music

—

its

institutions, literature,

into a larger,

history of medieval society and monasticism and,

more

on the other hand,

emphasize those respects in which female monasticism was in

[6]

JEFFREY

F.

inclusive

HAMBURGER

to

fact distinc-

no need

tive. There is

of

tive readers

One issue

choose between these two

volume

this

different points

to

of difference,

a

is

recall that the

call for a

same holds

to

of research on gender. Those

to pay

much

the

mention

their

of wom-

comparative approach, however, would do well to true,

perhaps with even greater emphasis, for the

of scholarly investigation that long found

attention at

all

why more

one more reason

down on

critics

history of male monasticism, let alone of the medieval church their entirety, fields

choose

delicate subject.

of where one comes

Comparison of categories (not

a precondition

who

en’s history

complex and

proper history of female monasticism can only be writ-

ten in comparative terms. dismantling)

this

clear: regardless

is

and atten-

will notice that different contributors

of emphasis in handling

thing, however,

alternatives,

to the history

research

and society it

in

unnecessary

of female monasticism. This

on female monasteries, which

is

still

but lags

behind that on male monasticism, remains an ongoing desideratum.

how

Just

ing

its

One sity

to integrate the history

of female monasticism without deny-

distinctive character will differ

purpose of a volume such

from one area of research

as this,

however,

is

to insist

to another.

on the neces-

of seeing the subject whole. For example, without understanding the

reasons

why many

smaller

endowments than did many of their male

female monasteries in the later Middle Ages had

understand the character of their

artistic

counterparts, one cannot

patronage. The same holds true of

the liturgical requirements of strict enclosure, a careful plotting

much

which

and reconstruction of architectural

in turn necessitates

settings.

By

the same

measure, without understanding the challenge posed by the efflorescence

of female piety in the High and to write a history

very

much

later

Middle Ages,

it

would be impossible

of the male monastic orders that were entrusted, often

against their will, with the pastoral care of nuns.

Take the example of literacy. Despite the emergence of the history of reading

as

an important area of historical research, until recently,

women

did not figure prominently in accounts of early medieval libraries or ary transmission, in part because

were so

limited.

More

recently,

samond McKitterick and

it

was assumed

their literacy

and learning

however, the work of scholars such

Katrinette Bodarwe, building

be the case

9 .

far

more

literate in Latin

as

Ro-

on contributions

by Bernhard Bischoff, Peter Dronke, and others, has shown

more women were

liter-

that

many

than was previously held to

In this instance, even if female literacy operated within limi-

tations that themselves

form an important

part of this history, the distance

between male and female monasticism has narrowed. The

HISTORIES OF FEMALE MONASTICISM

later

[7]

Middle

Ages

offer a different picture.

Beginning

in the twelfth century, then ac-

celerating in the thirteenth, female literacy increasingly

not Latin, literacy To ferent, insofar as

this extent,

most enclosed

the universities. This

is

vernacular,

female spirituality was, by definition, dif-

women

only indirect access to Latin learning as at

meant

had only limited and, even then, was conducted and disseminated

it

not to say that there were not complex conduits

of interconnection; witness the example of Meister Eckhart (1260—1328),

who

not only preached in the vernacular, for the most part, to

whose theology responded to the spirituality of women it

as

women but

he encountered

in enclosure.

As

this

and other examples make

the Middle Ages as a whole. cific areas

clear,

The same

many of

enormous

spiritual

the spe-

volume. Whereas in

essays in this

numbers of aristocratic

religious houses could wield

about

difficult to generalize

holds true for

of investigation treated by the

the early Middle Ages, small

it is

women

affiliated

with

and temporal powers,

in

the later Middle Ages, their possibilities for action in the world diminished considerably.

Looking

the history of female monasticism within such a

at

longue duree permits reconsideration of other questions

mously posed by Joan Kelly-Gadol sance?”

—

in that

“Did

the world had set in long before the Reformation.

be recognized that the price of separation was history of female monasticism, however,

as that fa-

women have a Renaisof womens scope for action in

in 1977:

much of the diminution

—such

is

10

To

this extent,

it

should

new forms of inequality. The

not simply one of subjugation,

although that aspect should never be ignored. With separation came the need, born out of a combination of compensation and

should be added sheer

acts

creativity, to

which

of will, to develop alternative ways of life, com-

munication, prayer, and devotion. To recognize or even to emphasize aspect of female monasticism

make of medieval nuns

is

not to romanticize the subject,

proto-feminists;

it is

degree female spirituality differed from that of the to

German

much open

emphasize

and

been more reluctant

to admit any distinction. This

do with ize,

different points

may

it is

German

historians tended to focus

whether the history of a

[8]

single monastic

JEFFREY

F.

what

Whereas

on the whole,

in part have to

difficult to general-

and numerous distinguished exceptions could be

quite recently

to

the distinctive char-

scholarship has,

of emphasis. Although

is

laity at large.

acter of female piety

practice,

alone to

simply to give them their due.

In this context, one question that remains very

Anglo-American scholarship has tended

let

this

cited,

on

whereas until

institutional issues,

house or the history of monastic

HAMBURGER

orders,

much, although by no means

on

to focus

haps

at

American scholarship

has tended

individuals or specific bodies of literature, with special, per-

times inordinate, emphasis

mundane

all,

matters.

on mysticism

Although by no means

of more

to the exclusion

book was de-

all-inclusive, this

signed to bring together and, to a certain extent, confront American and

Continental approaches to a subject that in

its

importance and

interest

transcends any one set of approaches or any single historiographic tradi-

For

tion.

host of reasons that extend well beyond linguistic barriers or

a

the impediments posed

travel, there

remains

far

too

little

exchange between German and American medievalists. We hope

scholarly that this

by trans-Atlantic

book

represents a contribution to increasing collaboration.

Whatever the

differences in approach

between various

gation and different scholarly traditions, in

some

areas

it is

areas

of investi-

deny

difficult to

not only that differences between male and female monasticism existed but also that they had

a significant

area quite literally involves the for

women

claustration

impact on women’s

lives.

One

enforcement of enclosure. The

was often so

alone male mendicants, brings in

its

much more wake

strict

a host

such

fact that

than for monks,

let

of defining differences,

the ramifications of which are profound and wide-ranging. These include,

but are by no means limited

to,

such topics and issues

as

the

economic un-

derpinnings of female monastic communities, the character of their gies, their

litur-

patronage, the range of their contacts with outsiders, their view

of the world, their visual culture (which includes but extends well beyond the types of images that were available to

them

to include such matters as

the nature, forms, and function of visionary experience), and, not architecture of their communities,

enforcing enclosure in the

first

which provided the

place. All these topics,

principal

among

least,

the

means of

others, are

discussed in the essays gathered here.

A in

word should be

said

about the origins of

one form or another, were

originally

this

book. All the

commissioned

for the exhibi-

tion Krone und Schleier: Kunst aus mittelalterlichen Frauenklostern Veil:

essays,

(Crown and

Art from Female Monasteries of the Middle Ages), held simultane-

ously at

two venues, the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik

Deutschland in

Bonn and

2005. The exhibition, the

the

first

Ruhrlandmuseum

in Essen, in the spring

the development not simply of female monasticism in Europe, with phasis

of

its

on

the

Holy

visual culture

Roman and

of

of its kind, aimed to provide an overview of

Empire, but, more

character.

particularly,

As indicated by the

on the

title,

HISTORIES OF FEMALE MONASTICISM

em-

history

the emphasis

[9]

of the exhibition was on those works of art that in many respects provide the most complete and most vivid testimony to the legacy and impact of

—almost an

female monasticism over the course of the period

—

lennium

that the exhibition

took

as its span.

entire mil-

In Essen, the focus was

on

the early Middle Ages, from late antiquity until the late twelfth century; in

Bonn, the emphasis was on what we

called the

“Time of the

Orders,”

the period following the establishment of the mendicant orders,

whose

growth and continuing influence dominated developments right up the time of the Reformation.

Over

until

hundred objects from approxi-

six

mately 150 lenders gave the culture and character of female monasticism in

varied forms vivid visual presence.

its

This book

is

not,

and cannot

be, a re-creation

of the irreplaceable and

unrepeatable experience offered by the exhibition. Readers wishing to get

some

sense of the

full

range of objects displayed are encouraged to consult

which

the catalog, in

virtually

all

of them are reproduced, along with

broad range of comparative material. The is,

out of necessity,

to give

some

much more

illustrative

material provided here

although

restricted,

sense of the extraordinary and,

it

a

it

should

still

must be added,

suffice

distinctive

character of the visual culture of female monasticism. Especially in the later

Middle Ages, be observed

this distinctiveness

in the earlier

emerges with

period

as well,

be

special clarity, but

can also

of subject mat-

in the choice

it

it

combination of techniques employed in the creation of these

ter or the

eloquent objects. All but two of the chapters offered here in translation are 2.

essays

their

from the catalog stripped of its

own. The remaining two

Marx and

the other by Jan

essays

entries. They nonetheless

—one by

Jeffrey

Gerchow and Susan Marti

can stand on

Hamburger and

—

Petra

represent reworked

amalgamations of introductory materials

that, in the exhibition catalog,

were employed to open various

They have been

sections.

recast here to

provide an appropriate initiation to the broad range of historical materials

covered by

this

tended, above

book, which,

all,

as a

like the exhibition that stands

stimulus to further and

much needed

behind

it, is

in-

research.

Notes 1.

Faust 1984:498-511;

Buchwald 3

.

Much

Hamburger 1998^67-71.

1897; Bertheau 1917;

Kelm

1974, 1974/1975.

the same could be said of another classic and a milestone in the histori-

ography of the Middle Ages: Eckenstein 1896/1963. For Powers contributions and

[io]

JEFFREY

F.

HAMBURGER

place in medieval studies, see

out that Power remained

Berg 1996 and McCallum Chibnal 2005, which points

first

and foremost an economic and

social historian,

not a

historian of women. 4.

A

comparable,

if less

coordinated, collection of essays that has a pan-European

focus and covers a period extending from late antiquity to the present

is

Les

reli-

gieuses 1994. 5.

A

terliche if

glance

the bibliographies in Goetz 1995 and 1999:318—29 (“Mittelal-

at

Frauen- und Geschlechtergeschichte”), both of which provide excellent,

hardly comprehensive, overviews of scholarship, confirms that, despite

noteworthy contributions from German

scholars, this

American scholarship undoubtedly took the ness” of

German

generally toward

Mediavistik

ist

lead.

womens

bis

remain

an area in which Anglo-

Goetz himself notes the “cool-

medievalists not only toward feminist approaches but also history,

as well: aside

more

observing that “eine solche Skepsis der etablierten

heute keineswegs iiberwunden

established medieval studies has to this day hardly obstacles

is

numerous

from

a

[this

skepticism

on the

been overcome]”

(321).

part of

Other

handful of references under the rubric of

nonverbal forms of communication, the history of medieval art and the scholarship

of historians of medieval

art find

no place whatsoever

in

Goetzs otherwise compre-

hensive survey of all corners of the discipline. 6.

See

7.

See Lorenz and Zotz 2005.

8.

See Louis 2004 and Metz enluminee 1989.

9.

McKitterick 1994/2004:1-35; Bodarwe 2004.

10.

cat.

Schussenried 2003.

Kelly-Gadol 1977/1984. See

also

Herlihy 1985.

HISTORIES OF FEMALE MONASTICISM

[

II

]

I

Early Monasteries and Foundations (500—1200)

An

Introduction

GERCHOWWITH KATRINETTE BODARWE, SUSAN MARTI, AND HEDWIG ROCKELEIN

JAN

rom

F

the beginnings of monastic

have served

Taking the

in the West, veil

and symbols of women leading

as signs

veil

life

veil functions as a bridal veil that

virgin to Christ.

The

was often added to the

act

crowns were employed. From the strips

late

Middle Ages, crowns made of

of cloth decorated with red crosses symbolic of the wounds

documented. Crown and 1

veil thus represent life

titude of church fathers

by nature closer

and theologians toward

to Christ than

Pope Gregory the Great

(in office

of the Middle Ages, basing

of religious

his

is

veil the

religious

possible for

men. At

590—604) maintained

women

dalene. Because of this tradition, throughout the

of women were thought to be especially tury, the

ambivalent at-

women. Women least this at

argument on, among other

that after the Resurrection Christ first appeared to a

larly

both the outer

Middle Ages.

This religious symbolism, however, itself serves to

are

vow of chastity.

symbolizes the betrothal of the

requirements and the spiritual significance of the in the

in the

veiling, also has a bridal connotation. In this ritual,

actual

are

life.

of coronation, which from the tenth century

white

of Christ

a religious

was and remains the most important element

changing of clothes that virgins perform on taking their

The

and crown

is

what

the beginning things, the fact

woman, Mary Mag-

Middle Ages, the prayers

efficacious. In the twelfth

French theologian Peter Abelard (1079— 1142) expressed

cen-

a simi-

high estimation of the dignity and spiritual standing of women in his

— of the Paraclete

letters to Heloise, the abbess

theless,

one can

also find in

opposite extreme:

relics,

time of Dionysius of Alexandria

own

of their

(d.

the sacramental vessels or

them

the altar cloths, even if they were given to

offices. In the

None-

Abelard s writings positions that point to the

No nun may touch “the

cally unclean.” As a result,

(in office 1135—1164).

for cleaning.”

265), women

2

From

were regarded

the

as “culti-

they were considered unable to assume spiritual

few instances religious lives

which

in

—

women were

as in, for

able to define the rules

example, the case of Heloise

s

own

monastic rule or that of the abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098—1179)

one does not find such

restrictions or deprecatory statements regarding

womens

any

capabilities. In

such ambivalence, throughout

case, despite

community remained an

the Middle Ages, participation in a religious

at-

and highly admired way of life.

tractive

For the early Middle Ages,

it

makes sense

to adopt a broad,

European

perspective, not simply because of the relative scarcity of sources terials relating to

and ma-

the later Middle Ages but also because of the close con-

nections and intensive exchanges that took place at this time between the

dominant Frankish culture extended well beyond nation-states.

its

wide-ranging

its

and scholars but

from the time of late

as

women

also

by

sanctimoniales (literally, fe-

pursuing a spiritual

life

of

women

cities

We know

and widows,

sixth centuries

of numerous

in the cities

usually played itself

where they had grown

under the protection and with the support of

the local bishop.

fifth

had been

Overview

out in the houses of their parents, in the

virgins

life

antiquity.

Until the sixth century, the religious

up,

ties that

boundaries without the restrictions imposed by

male servants of the holy),

Historical

the center and

These networks were established and cultivated not only by

missionaries, pilgrims,

called

at

relatives,

women “dedicated

overseen by

to

God,” both

of Italy and Gaul from the fourth to the

and in smaller numbers

century, however, these veiled

at a later date.

women

were placed

Beginning in the in

newly founded

monasteries, in keeping with the rulings of councils such as that held at Saint Jean de

the

first

It is

Losne between 673 and 675. Why was

it

only

at this

time that

female monasteries came into being?

certain that the fundamental transformation of civic culture of late

[14]

JAN

GERCHOW

ET AL.

antiquity into a

new

social structure based

on

gentile dynasties encour-

women

aged the establishment of monasteries. Religious

on protected

as Marseille, Arles,

protection of monasteries in order to pursue a religious

of their parents or husbands. The Poitiers, Austreberta

of

Radegunde

saints

by the seventh century, the Church

ecclesiastical office that

had been open

women,

to

of the deacon. Female deacons had previously helped with the baptism

women

and had taken care of

ing of women leading a religious

their scope

The edge

is

may

were

This downgrad-

ill.

have contributed to the

women new

ecclesiastical roles,

rise

of

even

if

remained limited to the monastic community.

we

female monastery in the West of which

first

the one of John Cassian

followed by female monasteries in little.

women who

life

female monasteries, which offered

very

against the will

and Burgundofara of Faremoutiers-en-

Pavilly,

testify to this trend. In addition,

had abolished the only that

of

have sought the

life

of the Merovingian

lives

cities

Tours, Poitiers, Laon, and Autun)

Many women may

were increasingly unable to provide.

Brie

weakened

spaces and functioning institutions that the

of late antiquity (such

of

were dependent

(ca.

360—430/435)

have any knowl-

in Marseille (ca. 410),

Rome, about which, however, we know

The number of foundations only

increases

from the beginning

of the sixth century, the most important being the monastery of Saint-Jean in Arles,

founded by Bishop Caesarius of Arles

his sister, Caesaria,

around 503. Caesarius

specifically for a female monastery, the

of holy

virgins).

Put to the

test

also

its

by Caesaria

new

time a completely

wrote the

way of life),

make of the

sure

was designed

rity,

located in the middle of the

to

all,

dedication to prayer

were never to disturb

to forsake the protection

Toward the end of the

(rule

and

obedience to the ab-

vita

communis

enclosure.

women

for reasons of secu-

and

outside world.

of their

walls,

(common

Unbroken enclo-

an island of safety.

on behalf of the

them by entering

settled in France,

life,

which was,

guarantee the chastity and virginity of the

rule

notion of what a monastery

strict

cloister, city,

known

Regula sanctarum virginum

of private property, and the

the rule stresses, above

first

in her capacity as abbess

should be. In addition to binding admittance for bess, the renunciation

502—542) and

Regula sanctarum virginum

further elaborated by her and her brother, the

represented for

(in office

It

also served to

their undisturbed

The holy women

and neither was anyone

the monastery.

sixth century,

Columban, the

Irish

abbot of Iona,

where, by virtue of having founded the monastery of

Luxeuil in the Vosges, he exercised considerable influence on subsequent

EARLY MONASTERIES AND FOUNDATIONS

[

15

]

developments.

cultivated contacts with

women

of the ruling

class, as a

of which the number of monastic foundations increased consider-

result ably.

He

From then

on, monasteries were

no longer

mediate vicinity of old Gallo-Roman rules that far

period

(ca.

cities

established only in the

im-

but also in rural regions.

The

and away were the most widely followed

new

500—750) derive from the

more common than

its

reworking by Aure-

by Abbot Waldeberts of Luxeuil

student of Columban Donatus, the bishop of Besan^on

The Benedictine

(d.

(ca.

670) and the

625/626—660).

rule appears only to have acquired increased influence in

the eighth century. This development

lumban only prescribed entering the

Merovingian

monasticism of Columban. Far

the older rule of Caesarius and

lian are the rules written

in the

cloister),

is

important insofar

as

the rule of Co-

passive enclosure (the prohibition against outsiders

whereas Caesarius and Aurelian added to

this strict

active enclosure (the absolute prohibition against leaving the cloister).

The

3

preference for passive enclosure might possibly be attributed to the

fact that

only after the arrival of Irish itinerant

mention made of double monasteries,

monks does one

institutions in

find any

which monks and

nuns lived together or near one another, for the most part ruled by abbesses. at

Among

other places, paired institutions of this kind existed in Gaul

Faremoutiers, Jouarre, Remiremont, Nivelles, Laon, and Chelles. Given

that Irish monasteries

of enclosed precincts,

were known

were characterized by it

as peregrini ,

seems

likely that the

wandering

strict separation.

monasteries permitted the

(ca.

455—525),

women.

vows

monks and nuns

monks

who

lived to-

to carry out the spiritual care (the peralso, to a

In the early period, however, clerics or

as priests

monks,

In addition, at least in rural areas, double

formance of Mass and parish functions) and the

Irish

and lack

introduced their native customs to France. At the

monastery of St. Brigit of Kildare gether without

their great openness

were not required

degree, to protect

monks who had

taken

to carry out such functions as the daily

performance of the Office or the taking of confession and the absolution of

sins, as

abbesses were able to perform these duties themselves, as were

their fellow nuns.

In the Frankish

kingdom of

the Merovingians, that

is,

from 500

until

the middle of the eighth century, a total of around 115 female or double

monasteries were founded. at

the hands of the

and eighth centuries; these institutions can

Many

Normans

of them, however, suffered destruction

or Saracens in the course of the seventh

in the following Carolingian period, only sixteen still

l6]

be documented.

JAN

4

GERCHOW

ET AL.

of

Given

that, in the British Isles, the

and Whitby were only founded

Anglo-Saxon

girls

went

female monasteries of Hartlepool

middle of the seventh century,

in the

to Faremoutiers, Chelles,

to receive a religious education

and lead

and Andelys-sur-Seine

a religious

life.

The

following

no fewer than

two

centuries, however, witnessed the founding of

five

female monasteries in Britain of which nineteen are attested with

certainty as double monasteries. As a rule, they

sixty-

were governed by abbesses,

often from royal households. Important imperial synods were held at the

Northumbrian

which kings

bishops, to burial.

on

monastery ofWhitby, whose monastic school trained

royal

Aldhelm

(ca.

virginity for the

England.

and which

of

also served as their place

640—709), the bishop of Sherborne, wrote his

treatise

nuns of Barking, which, by praising the cloistered

as a better alternative to

larity in

retired

marriage or widowhood, contributed to

its

life

popu-

5

Anglo-Saxon missionaries and church reformers introduced the period of Franco-Irish dominance in the Frankish kingdom. They were in

dependent on the support of the female and double monasteries in homeland. tius

It

was above

all

(672/675—754) and Lul

and nuns

them

the

their

two archbishops of Mainz, Winfrid-Bonifa710— 786), who corresponded with abbesses

(ca.

in their native land, requested

for the

fact

books from them, and recruited

development of monasteries

in the Frankish

female companions (among them, Tecla and

St.

kingdom. Their

Lioba) founded the

first

female monasteries to the east of the Rhine (including Tauberbischofsheim, Kitzingen, Schornsheim, and Wurzburg). St.Walburga, the the

sister

of

two missionaries Willibald and Wunnibald, led the double monastery

of Heidenheim near Eichstatt. Like that of the Anglo-Saxons, the influence of the Irish can be traced all

the

way

to

Italy.

In

Rome

as in

the Langobard kingdom, there had

been numerous female monasteries from the

early fifth century.

Among

the wealthiest and largest of these convents was that of San Salvatore/

Santa Giulia, founded in Brescia around 754 by the royal Langobard couple Desiderius

period, royal

and Ansa

women

(fig.

i.i).As in England and the early Frankish

played a notable role

as

founders and abbesses, dedi-

cating a significant part of their lives and their wealth to the foundation

of female houses. 6

From ish

the middle of the eighth century (Synod ofVer, 755), the Frank-

common life women living

church underwent reforms that repeatedly addressed the

of monks and canons and, in

this context, that

of nuns and

EARLY MONASTERIES AND FOUNDATIONS

[

17

]

1

Figure lia,

1

Fragment of ambo with peacock from the abbey of San Salvatore/Santa Giu-

.

Brescia, northern

Italy,

mid-eighth century, marble,

Storia, Santa Giulia, Brescia, inv.

a canonical life

(

the Pious. For the

first

communities

Aachen under

the direction of Emperor Louis

time, binding forms of in the

Benedict for monks and

St.

clergy.

For women, the

were prescribed

life

empire of the Franks, that

Germany, France, Switzerland, and northern of

e

canonicae) as well. This process culminated in 816 at the

imperial synod convened in

religious

cm. (Musei Civici d’Arte

h. 73

MR5829.)

a

Italy.

newly written

is,

for

all

modern-day

These included the rule rule for canons for the

Institutio sanctimonialium, for

which the authors

had frequent recourse to the rule of Caesarius, was compiled. 7 Contrary to

what

is

sometimes maintained, however,

a conceptual or a It

normative distinction between

would be more accurate

established

came

this rule

no more than

to the formation

a

stricter

a

monastery and

a

Stift.

to say that the text’s twenty-eight chapters

“framework of possibilities

for acting”

when

it

of ways of life for female religious communities. 8

Although the regulations governing enclosure terms

did not establish either

are in fact formulated in

than those found in the rule of Benedict, in other decisive

matters, for example, the election of the abbess, the opposite obtains. Thus, for example, contrary to the Benedictine rule, a

no provision

binding vow. At the same time, however, no provision

8]

JAN

GERCHOW

ET AL.

is

is

made

made

for

for the

of returning to the world. In the highly important matter of

possibility

whether private property would be permitted, the visages three alternatives:

the right to enjoy

nity,

its

its

Institutio actually

renunciation or consignment to the

use

as

long

as

one remained

alive,

and

en-

commu-

its

free use

through the intermediary of a worldly administrator. The basic provision

of equality contradicts the possibility of maintaining ones

and

own

dwellings

servants.

In the

wake of the synod, the

Institutio,

along with the rules for can-

ons and the Benedictine rule, was widely disseminated. Yet

know of or put

a single

them

community

into practice.

very vague. Only rarely

women who cae).

are

is

9

that expressly

Rather, they are generally referred to

in the sources remains

drawn between those

nuns ( monachae) and those

not

adopted these institutions

The terminology

the distinction

we do

who

religious

are canonesses

(

canoni -

as sanctimoniales. In like fashion,

known to have adopted the Benedictine rule: the monastery of Remiremont in the Vosges, founded in 817, and even there only one

hardly

community

years had

fifty

previous

is

way of life.

gone by before the convent had returned

to

its

In light of the unsettled course of developments in

the ninth and tenth centuries, there

is little

point in insisting on a set of

oppositional terms.

The

eastern

Rhine and

kingdom of the Franks which was

the Elbe,

first

in the region

conquered

in the

between the Lower

Saxon wars shortly

before 800, witnessed a regular groundswell of foundations of religious institutions for

women.

mented between

only other regions with a significant

with

new

In this region, over sixty

convents can be docu-

the ninth and the middle of the eleventh century.

fifteen; Alsace,

number of Frauenstifte

10

are Lothringen,

with seven; and the area around the Bodensee,

with seven. 11 As their

rules,

we

can assume that

all

The

these convents

also

modeled

themselves on the wide range of possibilities represented by the Institutio.

Among these new foundations institutions as Essen

could be found such rich and long-lived

and Gandersheim (both founded

in 852)

and Quedlin-

burg (founded in 936), which enjoyed very close relationships with the ruling Liudolfing-Ottonian family

(fig. 1.2).

burg were named eleven times and Essen female communities, suggesting

that,

six

Gandersheim and Quedlintimes as the

model

for other

by the end of the eleventh century,

conditions had developed that were accepted and adopted elsewhere

as

normative. The circumstances in Saxony, however, are deceptive, insofar

as

these three female convents

were both unusually well endowed and

EARLY MONASTERIES AND FOUNDATIONS

[

19

]

close

Figure 1.2

Donor image with Abbess Mathilda

Otto-Mathilda Cross from

could not be taken

as

dersheim and Essen

was in

a

and Duke Otto of Swabia from the

at least in these respects,

exemplary In 987 an abbess such

(in office

1001/1012— 1039),

3.)

a sister

as

Sophia of Gan-

of Emperor Otto

powerful enough position to refuse to receive the

local bishop,

Osdag of Hildesheim, and

of Mainz, serve in conflict over

was only

II

Essen, after 982. (Domschatz Essen, inv.

house and therefore by definition,

to the royal

III,

Stift

who

his place.

was in

settled after

insist that

veil

from the

the archbishop, Willigis

She thereby trigged the so-called Gandersheim

fact responsible for

armed

conflict.

12

It is

Gandersheim,

striking to

a struggle that

what extent abbesses

in this period felt free to act independently, just as their predecessors in

the Merovingian period, such as

documentary record

reveals

Radegunde and

them

acting

Balthilde,

less as religious

had done. The leaders than as

powerful female rulers conscious of their dominion within the boundaries

of their monasteries.

[20]

JAN

GERCHOW

ET AL.

In the ninth

and tenth centuries, only one monastery besides Remire -

mont can be shown of

St.

to have followed the Benedictine rule: the

Margaret in Waldkirch, founded around 910. In typical fashion, the

document of Emperor Otto names two male monasteries

III

as

that touches

on

the matter, dated 994,

models. Only toward the end of the tenth

and in the course of the eleventh centuries did there emerge nition and differentiation of the basic forms of nities,

monastery

which

monastery or

a clear defi-

commu-

for female

life

in their aims presented a clear choice: female Benedictine Frauenstift.

The forged foundation document

for the

Stift in

Essen, attributed to Bishop Altfrid of Hildesheim but in fact dated around 1090, testifies to this process: in anticipation of the curia (houses of the ca-

nonesses) that

would

later

benefices and households. that, already in the

divided

among

be in possession of the 13

From

sanctimoniales,

other documents,

it

can also be deduced

tenth century, the property of the

community was

the abbess, the prioress, and the convent, to

were added canons. Essen was on the way to becoming was

in 1246, however,

its

new

Asnida,” the secular (female)

status

Stift

made

speaks of

it

which now

a Frauenstift.

Only

explicit: “secularis ecclesia

de

of Essen. everyday

Frauenstifte are generally referred to, in scholarship as well in

speech, as foundations of canonesses, female foundations, or even as “in-

dependent, secular, and high aristocratic” (“freiweltlich-hochadelig“). All these terms, however, characterize a

way of life

that could

be found only

from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries onward and then only in small

number of

foundations, such

as

Essen, Quedlinburg, and

sheim, to which could be added Herford, Freckenhorst,Vreden,

im Kapitol and ster in

am

Federsee.

were in

Nivelles in

From

this

Maria

St.

Stephan in Strasbourg,

modern-day Belgium,

as

well

Buchau

as

time until the secularization, these foundations

fact reserved for the

shown, the same cannot be

high aristocracy. Yet,

said

as

has recently

been

of the early and High Middle Ages. 14

Early evidence of entry payments (from 779 onward) makes

dependents or those without means hardly ever found stitutions.

St.

Ursula in Cologne, Niedermiinster and Obermiin-

St.

Regensburg, the Fraumiinster in Zurich,

Remiremont, and

a

Gander-

it

clear that

a place in

Rather, until the middle of the twelfth century,

it

such in-

was the

entire

spectrum of the “free” that both disposed over landed property and could afford a monastic

The

life.

aristocracy

and royalty were, however, the indispensable

pillars

of

female religious institutions, without whose enormous endowments for

EARLY MONASTERIES AND FOUNDATIONS

[

21

]

the establishing and outfitting of monasteries and

been

none could have

Stifte

The practice of commemorative become the focal point of a family

created, let alone have survived.

prayer permitted a female convent to

and contributed

to the formation

and manors. Over and above the

of rulership,

as did, at a later date, castles,

of families in whatever

interest

spiritual

women

services “their”

nuns could perform, the motivation of the

a religious life

and

cetic exercises

should not be underestimated. Moreover, female monastic

own

to contribute to their

communities were the only places where, Ages, ploy

women

it,

be

could acquire

makers of textiles,

as authors, scribes, painters,

it

as-

and High Middle

thorough education and, what

a

through

sanctification

in the early

to lead

is

or,

more, emnot

least, as

patrons and directors of building projects. In the world, as opposed to the cloister, all these activities

ly

were matters

for

men. Female monasteries hard-

represented dead ends off the beaten track and leading nowhere. Until

— —monasteries remained

the twelfth and thirteenth centuries tion of cities

the period witnessing the founda-

focal points in western

and central

Europe, surrounded by large territorial holdings and endowed with nu-

merous nearly living.

rights.

all

Thus

The

life

alone for most

From the increasingly

tence that

material

households;

lay

in a

endowment of a monastery exceeded

as a result, it offered a

lasted longer than a life in the world.

tenth century onward, the growing

compromised the

relative

had enjoyed

in

in the ecclesiastical

transformation.

by popes

as

priests.

Reforms of

(canons)

of compe-

in the face

so highly prized

of private masses,

The development culminated

economic,

the church that

late

eleventh and twelfth

intellectual,

and

religious

were vehemently supported

well as by various monastic congregations also had a dramatic

impact on previously accepted ways of

New

which had been

and monastic reforms of the

centuries, a period of great social,

areas

monastic services in the Merovingian

Middle Ages, was diminished

which could only be celebrated by

number of priests

independence and

period. The value of the prayer of virgins, in the early

of

monastery was certainly healthier and for that reason

women

women

that

very attractive standard of

life

within female monasticism.

concepts of reform were tried out, alternative ways of life proposed,

and stronger

sets

of norms enforced, a process that ultimately led to the

formation of various different orders. As always, criticism of received traditions provided the reformers tion.

with their point of departure and legitima-

At the Lateran Synod of

Pope Gregory VII,

1059, the

in office 1073-1085)

[22]

JAN

Roman

cleric

condemned

GERCHOW

the

ET AL.

Hildebrand

Aachen

(later

Institutio

as

uncanonical because

eral councils,

violated the principle of apostolic poverty. Sev-

it

culminating in the council ofVienna in 1311, repeated the

prohibition of this rule and required the adoption of either the Benedictine rule or the

still

were

In this, they

stricter

Augustinian rule for canons and canonesses.

Saxony

successful. In greater

alone, twenty-three such

convents were converted into Benedictine communities, foundations of

Augustinian canonesses (Chorfrauenstifte) or male monasteries. In France ,

and England, not one monastery of the early medieval period became an aristocratic Damenstift

during the

later

Middle Ages. Those sources

that

accuse canonesses of immorality and lack of discipline requiring reform

were, for the most part, written from a clerical perspective that often masks the political motivations of male reformers.

15

To

ship often uncritically repeats such prejudiced

modern

this day,

judgments of this

scholarreligious

way of life.

From

the twelfth century onward, however,

set the tone.

it

who

was the reformers

Benedictine reform congregations, such

as

Hirsau and Sieg-

among others, reformed canons (both male and female Augustinians), and new orders such as the Cistercians and Premonstratensians were henceforth responsible for the majority of new monastic foundations. Although no numbers are available for the German Empire, those for burg,

France and England give

a

good impression of the dynamic of religious

change: between 1080 and 1170 the

by

these regions increased

a factor

number of female monasteries

in

of four, from around one hundred to

four hundred. 16

Double monasteries of the Benedictine or Augustinian of a convent of

forming

a legal

women

and another of

men

order, consisting

in close physical proximity

and organizational unity under the direction of the abbot

of the male community, constitute part of the transformation. These double

which spread from the reform center of Hirsau

monasteries,

into the south-

western region of the Empire and modern-day Austria, took the apostolic ideal of women and

Many left

ful

men

of them, however, survived for only

behind

ground

substantial material traces.

for the

lar literature.

ate in Latin,

17

a short period,

Double monasteries

model

of Christ.

and only

a

few

offered a fruit-

development and transmission of early forms of vernacu-

Rules were translated for women,

18

as their

living together in service

prayers

who

were not always

liter-

were glossed and elaborated with instructions in the

vernacular, and original religious poetry

was composed. 19

the author of the Speculum virginum (Mirror of virgins),

It is

possible that

whose name

EARLY MONASTERIES AND FOUNDATIONS

[23]

is

not

known, came from

ated around 1140 to serve in the pastoral care of the

female communities.

with numerous virtues

20

cre-

many newly founded

was castdn the form of a dialogue and embellished

It

of which served an ideal founded on the

illustrations, all

of humility,

work was

the reform circle of Hirsau. His unusual

and obedience,

love,

Closely related to the Speculum virginum in

its

use of text and image

as

didactic media, although very different in terms of its content and conception,

is

a

work written about

forty years later, the encyclopedic Hortus

ciarum (Garden of delights) of the abbess

Herrad of Hohenburg

deli-

in Alsace

1176—after 1196). Studying the most modern theological texts

(in office ca.

from contemporary

circles at the university

of Paris, Herrad wrote

a

book

covering the entire history of Christian salvation and held that theological

and encyclopedic knowledge of this kind, which was otherwise hardly

women, was

available to

tary piece

appropriate for her nuns.

of manuscript evidence

of the Hortus

deliciarum,

which was destroyed by

only from drawings after the original

No

salvation.

a single

fragmen-

fire in

1870 and

is

known

21

from the Speculum virginum

less different

are the ideas

of the char-

Bingen (1098—1179) concerning the best

ismatic visionary Hildegard of

way of achieving

(fig. 1.3).

Only

the style of the miniatures

testifies to

Her

distinctive point

of view emerges in ex-

emplary fashion from the celebrated controversy in which she engaged

withTenxwind of Andernach

(d. after 1152),

community of

the head of a

Augustinian canonesses.Tenxwind, in conformity with the content of the Speculum virginum bitterly opposed the manner in which Hildegard s nuns ,

conducted themselves during the celebration of the Divine Office, with

unbound

hair,

white

garments, and crowns embroidered with gold. In

silk

contrast, Hildegard regarded this festive

kind of foretaste of heavenly glory.

The way of life

way of celebrating

the liturgy

as a

22

represented by Frauenstifte, without binding vows and

many women

enforced enclosure, appears to have remained attractive to

well into the later Middle Ages. In the fourteenth and early fifteenth

members, and

centuries, private households, close relations with family a relaxed tic

approach to enclosure could frequently be observed in monas-

communities

become

so

that previously

once again

in the

were

strictly

enclosed and that would

second half of the fifteenth century. For

example, Elsa von Reichenstein

(ca.

1408—1486), abbess of

Cologne, patron of Stefan Lochner s famous Madonna of ocesan

Museum, Cologne) and [24]

JAN

the initiator of a

GERCHOW

St.

Caecilia in

the Violets

(Di-

new program of stained

ET AL.

Tub. XII

Cmg*$ao4> rdtgwa tewponb} BrittflKS ^errn&itaj^ co

V>»«d

Wmmjm J«feo#ri ctoclljetr

o’a’rinlr

fc«5>«adwtgen oegwatwmgen

ftseUweddlwt

V